Leonard Maltin's 2010 Movie Guide (Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide)

‘‘I RECOMMEND LEONARD MALTIN’S GUIDE, WHICH HAS BECOME STANDARD.’’ —Roger Ebert’s Video Companion Summer blockbusters and independent sleepers; masterworks of Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Martin Scorsese; the timeless comedy of the Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton; animated classics from Walt Disney and Pixar; the finest foreign films ever made. This 2010 edition is loaded with the films you can’t afford to miss—and those you can— from box-office smashes to cult classics to forgotten gems to forgettable bombs, listed alphabetically, and complete with all the essential information you could ask for.

‘‘INDISPENSABLE.’’ —The New York Post ‘‘INCH FOR INCH, DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR, MALTIN’S BOOK GIVES YOU THE MOST.’’ —Boston Sunday Herald • Date of release, running time, director, stars, MPAA ratings, color or black and white • Concise summary, capsule review, and four-star-to-BOMB rating system • Precise information on films shot in widescreen format • Symbols for DVDs, videos, and laserdiscs • Completely updated indexes of leading actors and directors • Up-to-date list of mail-order and online sources for buying and renting DVDs and videos

LEONARD MALTIN’S MOVIE GUIDE ‘‘THE BEST of the bunch.’’

—San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle

‘‘THE BEST all-purpose video guide.’’ ‘‘THE BEST organized. .. the most complete.’’

—New York Daily News —Newsday

‘‘The mother of all video guides and THE FIRST TO BUY.’’ —Louisville Courier Journal ‘‘The DEFINITIVE source of information.’’—The Cleveland Plain Dealer ‘‘Easily THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE book of its kind anywhere. It belongs next to every TV and VCR in every home.’’ —USA Today

LEONARD MALTIN’S

MOVIE GUIDE 2010 Edition Edited by Leonard Maltin MANAGING EDITOR

Darwyn Carson ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Luke Sader CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Mike Clark Rob Edelman Spencer Green Pete Hammond Joe Leydon Michael Scheinfeld Bill Warren VIDEO EDITOR

Casey St. Charnez CONTRIBUTORS

Jerry Beck Jessie Maltin

A SIGNET BOOK

SIGNET Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright © Leonard Maltin, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 Copyright © JessieFilm, Ltd., 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 Copyright © JessieFilm, Inc., 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 All rights reserved REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

ISBN:1-101-10660-3 Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. PUBLISHER’S NOTE While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

LEONARD MALTIN is one of the country’s most respected film historians and critics. He presides over www.leonardmaltin.com and publishes a quarterly newsletter for old-movie buffs called Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy. After establishing himself with a series of definitive books on topics ranging from cinematographers to the history of animated cartoons, he became known to an even wider audience on television’s Entertainment Tonight, where he has worked since 1982. He also hosts the weekly program Secret’s Out on ReelzChannel and introduces movies on the DirecTV Cinema channels. For three years he cohosted the movie review show Hot Ticket, and for six years served as film critic for Playboy magazine. His books include Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, The Great American Broadcast, Leonard Maltin’s Family Film Guide, Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons, The Great Movie Comedians, The Disney Films, The Art of the Cinematographer, Movie Comedy Teams, Selected Short Subjects (The Great Movie Shorts), The Whole Film Sourcebook, Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia, and (as coauthor) The Little Rascals: The Life and Times of Our Gang. He teaches at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, and served for two years as president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. As a member of the National Film Preservation Board, he votes on the twenty-five films named each year to join the National Film Registry. In 2006 he was named by the Librarian of Congress to join the Board of Directors of the National Film Preservation Foundation. For nine years he was the editor and publisher of Film Fan Monthly; his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Times (of London), Premiere, Smithsonian, TV Guide, Variety, Esquire, Disney Magazine, Film Comment, and Cowboys & Indians. He is also a contributor to Oxford University’s Dictionary of American Biography. He has been a Guest Curator for the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and for nine years was a member of the faculty of the New School for Social Research. He has written a number of television specials, including Added Attractions: The Hollywood Shorts Story, and is both host and coproducer of the popular DVD series Walt Disney Treasures. He has appeared on many other DVDs, and has produced, written, and hosted such cable TV and home-video programs as Cartoon Madness: The Fantastic Max Fleischer Cartoons, Young Duke: The Making of a Movie Star (which debuted on A&E’s Biography), Cliffhangers: Adventures from the Thrill Factory, The Making of ‘‘The Quiet Man,’’ The Making of ‘‘High Noon,’’ The Lost Stooges, and Cartoons for Big Kids. He and his wife, Alice, are the proud parents of Jessica Bennett Maltin, who continues to serve as their on-site interpreter of matters relating to popular culture.

About the Editors DARWYN CARSON has worked in the film industry for over fifteen years, as an actress (the prostitute who kills in True Confessions, the African mom with nothing to wear—literally—when meeting her adopted son in North, and her personal favorite, a conniving Romulan Tal Shiar Captain in a Star Trek: DS9 episode), as an assistant to the justly esteemed Sidney Poitier, and as a professional print and online journalist/essayist (hi there, Zap2It.com readers!). This is her first year as Managing Editor for the Movie Guide. She has no relatives named Charles or Johnny, thank you for asking. Everybody does. LUKE SADER was introduced to old movies by his father. He majored in English at Johns Hopkins University, then went backpacking abroad for a year, catching movies everywhere from Helsinki to Cairo. Since starting his television career at CBS News, he has held various producing positions at Entertainment Tonight, CNN, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, The Wayne Brady Show, and PBS’s Tavis Smiley. He served as coeditor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia, and his film and book reviews appear in The Hollywood Reporter and Quarterly Review of Film and Video. Luke has also headed the jury at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. MIKE CLARK was USA Today’s senior film critic for more than twenty years and currently writes the paper’s Tuesday Mike’s Menu and the Friday home viewing columns, the latter in its twenty-fifth year. He first came to prominence in 1959, as a ten-year-old, when he won $16,000 answering movie questions on the TV quiz show The $64,000 Question. Since then he has attended NYU’s Graduate School of Cinema, been the film critic for the Detroit Free Press, and conceived approximately 150 thematic film series as Director and Program Planner of the American Film Institute Theater of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. He has appeared on HBO, Cinemax, Entertainment Tonight, E! Entertainment, CNN’s Reliable Sources, and Turner Classic Movies. He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics. SPENCER GREEN reminds you that the use of flash photography or any sound recording devices is strictly prohibited during this biography. Mr. Green has written for In Living Color, AAAHH!!! Real Monsters, Duckman, Mad TV, The Fairly Oddparents, and Denis Leary’s Merry F#%$in’ Christmas, and was a coeditor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia; he also edited We’ll Never Be Young Again: Remembering the Last Days of John F. Kennedy. Mr. Green has performed at the Los Angeles comedic writers’ salon Sit ’n Spin and is coauthor/colyricist of BUKOWSICAL! which won Outstanding Musical at the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival. He also writes for The Huffington Post and is creator of the parody movie Web site The Parallel Universe Film Guide at www.parallelfilmguide.com. Mr. Green knows at least four words that rhyme with ‘‘orange’’ and he ain’t telling. ROB EDELMAN is coauthor (with his wife, Audrey Kupferberg) of several books, including Matthau: A Life; Meet the Mertzes, a double biography [ vi ]

of Vivian Vance and William Frawley; and Angela Lansbury: A Life on Stage and Screen. He also has written Great Baseball Films; Baseball on the Web (which Amazon.com cited as a Top 10 Internet book); several children’s books (on such subjects as Watergate and the Vietnam War); and is the editor of Issues on Trial: Freedom of the Press. He offers film commentary on WAMC (Northeast) Public Radio; presents lectures in the Speakers in the Humanities program, sponsored by the New York State Council for the Humanities; and is a Contributing Editor of Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin’s Family Film Guide, and Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia. His byline has appeared in the New Haven Register (where he was film critic); many reference books (including A Political Companion to American Film, Total Baseball, International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, The Total Baseball Catalog, Women Filmmakers and Their Films, Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond, and St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture); and dozens of periodicals (from American Film and Base Ball: A Journal of the Early Game to Variety and The Washington Post). He was director of programming for Home Film Festival and programmed film series at the American Film Institute; he authored an essay on early baseball films for the DVD Reel Baseball: Baseball Films from the Silent Era, 1899– 1926; is an interviewee on the director’s cut DVD of The Natural; and has been a juror at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s annual film festival. He has taught film courses at several universities; his present affiliation is the University at Albany (SUNY). PETE HAMMOND is currently film critic for Hollywood.com and a contributing reviewer to Boxoffice magazine and Boxoffice.com, as well as Backstage.com. He is also a regular columnist for The Los Angeles Times’ popular awards section and site The Envelope. He served as film critic for Maxim magazine and Maxim Online for three years, and has been a frequent contributor to Variety. He is in his eleventh year as host of the KCET Cinema Series in Los Angeles, and has been a moderator for the Variety Screening Series and UCLA Extension’s Sneak Preview. He has hosted panels at AFI Fest, the Santa Barbara Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, CineVegas, San Francisco Film Festival, and Cannes Film Festival, and has interviewed top stars and filmmakers at screenings for such groups as SAG, DGA, BAFTA, and WGA. He has held talent producing positions at Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, The Arsenio Hall Show, The Martin Short Show, and the AMC network. He is the recipient of five Emmy nominations for his TV writing and the winner of the 1996 Publicists Guild of America’s Press Award. He serves on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences representing writers. MICHAEL SCHEINFELD has written the ‘‘Classic Movies’’ column as a Senior Writer for TV Guide, where he also wrote articles and a DVD column, as well as film reviews for tvguide.com. He also served as Contributing Editor of Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide and Leonard Maltin’s Family Film Guide. He contributed essays for the recently published [ vii ]

City Secrets book, Movies: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide, and has written for other books and magazines, including The Motion Picture Guide, The Virgin Film Guide, The 500 Best British and Foreign Films, Films in Review, Laserviews, and Trump World magazine. He has worked for American Movie Classics and MTV Films, and has produced and programmed film series for cable TV channels in Manhattan and Philadelphia. BILL WARREN is the author of the two-volume Keep Watching the Skies: Science Fiction Movies of the 1950s, which has been called ‘‘one of the rare reference works that combines genuine entertainment with impeccable information.’’ He also wrote Set Visits and The Evil Dead Companion. He has written for magazines, including Starlog, Fangoria, American Film, Video Watchdog, and Galaxy Online. He contributed to The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, several books on Stephen King, and the annual Science Fiction Writers of America Nebula Award volumes. Without being able to speak much more French than film noir and pommes frites, for ten years he was the Hollywood correspondent for the French television show Destination Series. He has recently completed a page-one rewrite of Keep Watching the Skies; it’s now bigger and more obsessive than ever. He likes dogs, cats, his wife, and Hawaii, not necessarily in that order. JOE LEYDON is an award-winning film critic for Variety and an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and Houston Community College. He also is a blogger at MovingPictureBlog.blogspot.com, a contributing writer for MovieMaker and Cowboys & Indians magazines, a Q&A host at the Nashville and Denver film festivals, and author of the book Joe Leydon’s Guide to Essential Movies You Must See. From 1982 until 1995, he was film critic for The Houston Post. More recently, he has reviewed films for the Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, MSNBC.com, NBC affiliate KPRC-TV, The Houston Press, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Leydon has also written for the New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, The Boston Globe, The Toronto Star, and Austin American-Statesman. He is the proud father of George Leydon (who is an upstanding young man because he takes after his mother, Anne Leydon) and the reluctant co-owner of two moody cats named Little O and Little Z. In his spare time, he yearns to see DVD releases of Albert Finney’s Charlie Bubbles and Claude Lelouch’s Les Miserables. CASEY ST. CHARNEZ continues to waltz with his strawberry blonde Lisa Suzonne Harris as they celebrate their thirty-second anniversary together. Casey earned a Ph.D. in movie musicals and an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and also holds an M.A. in English literature and comparative mythology. A former publicity associate with Paramount and Fox, he has written for Film Fan Monthly, The Hollywood Reporter, and American Film; is the author of The Complete Films of Steve McQueen; and has contributed an endword on Greer Garson to 100 Years: A Celebration of Filmmaking in New Mexico. Casey often wonders what movies today would be like if there had been no Breen Office, no Will Hays, no Production Code, and no MPAA rating system. Mercy! [ viii ]

Introduction to 2010 Edition We’re surrounded by technology these days—in fact, we’re inundated—but if you’re reading these words, chances are you still believe there is value to an ‘‘old-fashioned’’ reference book. Thank you, and may your tribe increase. In defiance of Marshall McLuhan, I don’t think the medium is the message—at least not when it comes to the dissemination of movie information. As I learned when I worked on the first edition of this book fortyone years ago (!), movie ‘‘facts’’ are not immutable: actors change the spellings of their names, movie credits may contain mistakes, studios sometimes hand out inaccurate information, etc. My colleagues and I spend endless hours researching the tiniest details, trying to get things right, and sometimes that requires judgment calls. Someone has to make decisions based on savvy, not computer skills. I don’t mean to disparage the Internet; I use it every day and it is an amazing resource. Yet over the past year I have repeatedly hit a wall trying to get exact details about the films I’m writing up. All it takes is for one site to make a mistake and the viral effect is immediate and overpowering. Checking cast lists is a nuisance when some sources follow the studio handout material and list the actors alphabetically, or in the order in which they appear on-screen. What good is that when you can’t find the leading lady until you’ve scrolled halfway down a list one hundred names long? And who are the top-billed costars? Our goal is to provide as useful a cast list as possible. I’m certainly not suggesting that we don’t make mistakes. In fact, we’ve corrected some items that have been in print for decades. For instance, Harold and Maude went into national release in January of 1972 but opened in New York in December of 1971—so that’s the year we should have cited all along. As always, we’ve examined the re´sume´s of actors who have come to the forefront during the past year. Did you know Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame was in Vanity Fair in 2004? Or that Michael Shannon, who made such an impression in Revolutionary Road that he earned an Oscar nomination, has been in films since Groundhog Day in 1993? You’ll find Richard Jenkins, Sally Hawkins, Viola Davis, Michael Sheen, James Franco, and Taraji P. Henson newly added to the credits of many films in these pages . . . and you won’t have to scan scores of names to learn that they’re in those casts. Of course, one can drown in details. We’ve always listed Baz Luhrmann’s film as (William Shakespeare’s) Romeo & Juliet, because that’s how it appeared on-screen. A sharp-eyed reader recently said we were wrong and should be using a plus sign. As it turns out, he’s wrong, too. We looked closely at the movie’s official logo and discovered an ampersand inside a large plus sign. Sometimes you just can’t win. Year in and year out, we also grapple with the bugaboo of running times. If you scanned various outlets to determine the length of Will Smith’s Seven Pounds (which, to me, seemed endless) you would find major newspapers and online sources saying 118 minutes. It turns out that [ ix ]

the film was screened for critics before its closing credits were added, so in fact the final film is 123m. The studio confirmed this, and we doublechecked our copy of the DVD just to be safe. The situation isn’t necessarily easier when it comes to older movies. For years we noted that They Might Be Giants (1971), with George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward, ran 88 minutes in theatrical release, but had 10 minutes added for network television. It turns out that the actual original length was 86 minutes, while that extended TV version hasn’t been seen in years. But director Anthony Harvey did get to tinker with the film for DVD release and reinsert 5 minutes of footage for a new total of 91 minutes. Clear? (We won’t even discuss the three different versions of Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity—a roadshow print plus two slightly shorter versions, one with a happy and one with an unhappy ending.) This research goes for naught when someone watches a contemporary movie on basic-cable TV channels, where those films are routinely censored and slashed by as much as a half hour. We trust our readers know that only in uncut showings can you enjoy the movie the way it was intended to be seen. One issue I didn’t have to deal with way back in 1968 was space. The first edition of this book ran 535 pages, which seemed fairly hefty at the time. We were able to expand for the next thirty years; it was only then that binding such a gigantic book became a problem. First we eliminated made-for-TV movies. Then we invented a spinoff volume, Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide, to accommodate a large number of pre-1960 titles that had to go. (Even more old movies had to go this year, but we will be publishing an expanded Classic Movie Guide in the spring of 2010, and expanding our cutoff by five years to 1965.) We’ve also cut a great many outdated and irrelevant nuggets of information: alternate titles that no one uses anymore, alternate versions of films prepared for network and cable TV that haven’t aired since the 1970s and ’80s, etc. This is the one arena in which online databases excel: there are essentially no limits to the space they can fill. Much as I would like to have all the reviews and information for films from the silent era to the present in one volume, it simply isn’t possible anymore. I hope people derive some enjoyment from our reviews and some benefit from the details we try to pack into every entry. Our challenge, every year, is to make sure we don’t get so caught up in minutiae that we forget what matters most: celebrating and recommending good movies, including sleepers that slip through the cracks, like Elegy, King of California, Chop Shop, The Pool, Repo! The Genetic Opera, The Wackness, The Order of Myths, A Christmas Tale, The Deal, I Served the King of England, What Doesn’t Kill You, Nothing But the Truth, In the Electric Mist, and Ghost Town. If you’ve missed any of these underappreciated films I hope you’ll seek them out. And if you’re adventurous you might want to check out newly revised editions of such films as Revolution, Nickelodeon, and Lookin’ to Get Out. How does anyone keep track of all these movies—let alone the facts about them? That’s the job that my hardworking team takes on every year with pluck and good cheer. My deepest thanks go, once again, to Luke [x]

Sader, Spencer Green, Mike Clark, Rob Edelman, Pete Hammond, Joe Leydon, Michael Scheinfeld, Bill Warren, Casey St. Charnez, Jerry Beck, and my daughter, Jessie Maltin. This year my longtime associate Darwyn Carson stepped into the role of Managing Editor and faced a steep and daunting learning curve, bearing it with grace and efficiency. This has been her baptism of fire. Many readers send in useful corrections and suggestions, as do my friends Tom Weaver, Bruce Goldstein, George Feltenstein, Bob O’Neil, and Robert A. Harris. The book would be poorer without their contributions. Physically producing this book is another Herculean task taken on— and conquered—by Hugh Rawson, Bill Harris, Ken May, and Kathy Murray. I hope they know how much I appreciate what they do. The people who share my life also share in the fate of this book—and endure my mood swings whenever the deadline draws near. I am so lucky to have Alice as my wife and Jessie as my daughter. This 2010 edition is the first in many years not to bear the name of the late Cathleen Anderson, who started as a volunteer proofreader and went on to become Managing Editor. I mourn her untimely passing and miss her dry sense of humor. I’m happy to say that working on an all-consuming reference book all these years hasn’t dimmed my passion for movies, not one bit. If anything, it’s whetted my appetite to see films—and then learn all about them. I hope that enthusiasm comes across in these pages and continues to do so for many years. Now, please excuse me: I have a deadline for the next edition of Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide. —LEONARD MALTIN

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Key to This Book Alphabetization: Articles of speech—A, An, The—are eliminated. (The Man Called Flintstone is listed under Man Called Flintstone, The.) Aside from that, film titles are listed in strict letter-by-letter spelling sequence. Separation of words and punctuation are ignored; everything hinges on the letters. So, Pumpkinhead is listed before Pump Up the Volume, because ‘‘k’’ comes before ‘‘u.’’ Titles that begin with Mister or Doctor will come before titles abbreviated Mr. or Dr. Let the alphabet be your guide, letter-by-letter, and you’ll find the title you’re looking for. Each entry lists title and year of theatrical release in a film’s country of origin. (This doesn’t include film festival exposure; a film may languish for one or more years before coming to theaters, by which time it might be trimmed and even bear a different name.) The letter ‘‘C’’ before a running time indicates that the film was made in color. ‘‘D:’’ indicates the name of the director. This is followed by a listing of the principal cast members. Alternate titles (if any) are noted at the end of the entry. Ratings range from ★★★★, for the very best, down to ★1⁄2. There is no ★ rating; instead, for bottom-of-the-barrel movies, we use the citation BOMB. ▼ This symbol indicates the title is available on videocassette;

● indicates laserdisc availability; 쩠 indicates DVD availability. (These symbols indicate that a film has been released at one time; we cannot guarantee current availability.) The MPAA rates with the following symbols: G PG

General Audiences: All ages admitted. Parental Guidance Suggested: Some material may not be suitable for children. PG-13 Parents Strongly Cautioned: Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. R Restricted: Children under 17 require accompanying parent or adult guardian. NC-17 No Children Under 17 Admitted (age may vary in certain areas). The rating symbols GP, M, and X are no longer used to classify films.

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Leonard Maltin’s Movie Lists People love lists, because they provide both a springboard for ideas—and something to argue about. These brief lists aren’t in any way meant to be definitive, just a sampling of ideas on different movie themes. I’ve deliberately left out many obvious titles in the hope of leading you to some good films (both old and recent) you’ve never seen, or haven’t revisited in a while. Back to school movies: Zero for Conduct, Remember the Day, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Back to School, Clueless, Election, Saved! Halloween movies: Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, An American Werewolf in London, Innocent Blood, Mirrormask, Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later Inspiring movies: The Grapes of Wrath, The Miracle Worker, Norma Rae, My Left Foot, Cast Away, The Great Debaters Romantic movies: Enchanted April (1991), Chances Are, Heart and Souls, Before Sunset, Miss Potter, Something New Political movies: Gabriel Over the White House, State of the Union, Advise & Consent, Primary Colors, Bob Roberts, Bulworth Movies for foodies: Babette’s Feast, Big Night, Soul Food, Eat Drink Man Woman, Tortilla Soup Underappreciated Animation: FernGully . . . The Last Rainforest, The Iron Giant, Howl’s Moving Castle, Home on the Range, The Tune Unusual biopics: Backbeat, Antwone Fisher, The Sea Inside, Cobb, The Harmonists, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, Downfall, Topsy-Turvy Unsung musicals: Cannibal! The Musical, The Five Heartbeats, Teacher’s Pet (2004), Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Once, Repo! The Genetic Opera Overlooked Christmas movies: Babes in Toyland (1934), A Muppet Christmas Carol, The Family Man, The Family Stone, Joyeux Noel [ xiii ]

Mail-Order and Online Sources for Home Video Welcome to this twentieth installment of our movie hunters’ guide. Once again, here we address our readers’ desire to find their gotta-haveit movies. For the first time this year, film fans have a new medium, DVDs on demand, at last debuting from a major studio, www.WarnerArchive.com, to wit. We hope other studios will follow suit. Our top shopping suggestion: Even in this age of global Internet shopping, try your own area video stores first. No luck locally? Then move on to mail-order and the computer. The following list is a decent place to start. Remember our bargaining advice: 1. Always be cautious. 2 Look around and compare prices. 3. Wait patiently for sales. 4. Check guarantees and return policies. 5. Investigate shipping options. 6. Make a copy of your order. We continue to notate our movies with a 쩠 for DVD, along with a retro ▼ for tape and ● for laserdisc. Note: Innumerable titles are now out of print; if they were ever available, we symboled them then, and encourage you still to search for them now. And one major heads-up: Though many titles are available exclusively in Canada and abroad, our listings are strictly U.S.A., whether in public domain or under American copyright. So, happy hunting number twenty . . . and counting. Absolute Beta Products, POB 130, Remington, VA 22734-0130 www.absolutebeta.com; [email protected] Betamax repairs, Beta VCRs, Beta accessories, Beta-to-DVD transfers, Betamax repairs. Club dues: $9.95/yr., includes discounts and quarterly catalog. Sales to U.S. consumers only. Established 1987. Catalogs: free sample with SASE. Asymmetrical Entertainment Inc., 110 Remsen St., #3C, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201-4215 info/fax 718-237-6031; [email protected] Film fans tailor personalized purchases for other film fans. All films in circulation available. Est. 1995. Catalog: by mail. BBC America Shop, POB 681, Holmes, PA 19043-0681 800-898-4921, fax 610-532-9001; www.bbcamericashop.com An Anglophile’s cloud nine, full of British Broadcasting Corp. program(me)s, plus movies, music, books, gifts, collectibles, even magazines. Est. 2003. Catalog: paper and online. Best Video, 1842 Whitney Ave., Hamden, CT 06517-1405 800-727-3843, 203-287-9286, fax 203-248-4910; www.bestvideo.com Comprehensive Blu-ray/DVD/VHS collection for sale or rent. Classics, foreign, cult, hits, more. Web site has personality plus. Est. 1985. Catalog: online. BitTorrent, Inc., 612 Howard St., San Francisco, CA 94105-3905 www.bittorrent.com Free (meaning ad-supported) downloads work on Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. They’re speedy, but some movies work only on certain systems, and some are only for U.S. customers. Check Web site for details. Est. 2001. Catalog: online. [ xiv ]

B-Movie, POB 2468, Liverpool, NY 13089-2468 315-652-3868, fax 315-622-2315; www.b-movie.com Once again, the title says it all, with a choosy DVD/VHS catalog and more, including film fests and competitions, cult newsletter. And, hey, it shoots its own indie productions, too. Est. 2007. Catalog: online. Captain Bijou, POB 7307, Houston, TX 77248-7307 713-864-8101, fax 713-837-1463; www.captainbijou.com; [email protected] Monster collection of scary movies, serials, B pics, Westerns, Golden Age TV. Also buys and sells posters, autographs, photos. Updated Web site. Est. 1984. Catalog: online. CinemaNow Inc., 4553 Glencoe Ave. #300, Marina del Rey, CA 90292-7914 310-314-3000; www.cinemanow.com; [email protected] Premium on-demand service offers downloads to buy, rent, burn for home computers, set-top boxes, mobile devices. Month/year memberships. Windows XP/ Vista or Intel-based Mac only, for now. Est. 1999. Catalog: online. Classic Flix, www.classicflix.com 800-592-6149, 916-209-8520 Strictly pre–1970 movie and TV titles, to buy or lease, from a mom-and-pop Internet storefront that’s a little different. Gift certificates. Est. 2007. Catalog: online. Critics’ Choice, POB 1350, Ottawa, IL 61350-6350 800-367-7765, fax 815-431-1252; www.ccvideo.com; [email protected] A treasure trove of DVD/VHS movies, generally in stock, including bargains, exclusives. Daily specials. Est. 1987. Catalog: Big Book of Movies, $7.95; free monthly mailer. Eddie Brandt’s Saturday Matinee, 5006 Vineland Ave., N. Hollywood, CA 91601-3815 818-506-4242, 818-506-7722; www.ebsmvideo.com The shaman of all SoCal video stores is a well-stocked DVD/VHS rental outlet, run by a family that loves movies. Also has bunches of movie stills for sale. Nice homespun Web site. Est. 1969. Catalog: online. Eros Entertainment Inc., 550 County Ave., Secaucus, NJ 07094-2697 201-558-9001, fax 201-558-9026; www.erosentertainment.com; [email protected] Devotees of cinema India may buy DVDs and Blu-Rays, download music, access on-demand entertainment, even sign up for mobile content, here at Bollywood central. Est. 1977. Catalog: online. Facets, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave., Chicago, IL 60614-2096 800-331-6197, 773-281-9075, fax 773-929-5437; www.facets.org; [email protected] DVD/VHS sales and rentals of international, classic, independent, animated and art titles from a Chicago non-profit institution. Many exclusives. Unlimited rental membership plan. Est. 1975. Catalog: $9.95 (searchable online). Film Movement, 109 W. 27th St. #9B, New York, NY 10001-6208 866-937-3456, fax 212-941-7812 www.filmmovement.com; info@filmmovement.com A different kind of subscription plan: Like Book-of-the-Month, customers receive 12 curated DVDs per year, with unique movies and bonus shorts drawn from indie film, international releases, and film fest favorites. Est. 2000. Catalog: online. IArtHouse, 82 Industrial Dr., #3, Northampton, MA 01060-2389 800-811-4515, 413-529-0870; iarthouse.com, [email protected] International cinema ready to stream, burn, buy. EZTakes.com subsidiary is currently compatible with Windows and Mac OS X. Est. 2008. Catalog: online. [ xv ]

International Film & Video Center, POB 1012, Washington Twp., NJ 07676-1012 201-666-6772, fax 201-664-1426; www.IFVC.com; [email protected] Around-the-world sales to individuals, corporations, schools. Accent on Iranian fare, but there’s plenty more for everybody. Also produces its own features and documentaries. Est. 1985. Catalog: none. LaserDisc Database, www.lddb.com Buyers and sellers unite at this exhaustive haven for ’80s platter-heads who are still into large movies and old music. Est. 2002. Catalog: online. A Million and One World-Wide Videos, 1239 Pine Creek Dr., Woodstock, GA 30188-4010 800-849-7309, 770-227-7309; www.wwvideos.com; [email protected] Video detectives buy, sell, trade out-of-print and rare movie and TV titles, series. Free searches. VHSto-DVD transfers from your tapes. Est. 1989. Catalog: none. MovieFlix, POB 480764, Los Angeles, CA 90048-9364 323-939-6260; www.movieflix.com; info@movieflix.com Downloads or streams, Windows Media Player or Real Player, free or pay membership, Family Filter on or off, all your choice. Est. 1998. Catalog: online. Movies Unlimited, 3015 Darnell Rd., Philadelphia, PA 19154-3201 800-466-8437, 215-637-4444, fax 215-637-2350; www.moviesunlimited.com; [email protected] World’s largest video dispenser by volume, including hard-to-finds and exclusives. Colorful Web site. Huge, informative catalog well worth having. Est. 1978. Catalog: $14.95 (832 pages!). NetFlix Inc., www.netflix.com 800-715-2135. Inventor of Internet-only DVD rental. Prepaid subscriptions. Downloads too. Est. 1997. Catalog: on-site. PBS Home Video, POB 609, Melbourne, FL 32902-0609 800-645-4727, fax 866-274-9043; www.shoppbs.com Interesting assortment of exactly what one expects. Sidebar site (http://teacher.shop.pbs.org) targets educators. All proceeds go to funding programs for the Public Broadcasting Service (est. 1969!). Catalog: free. Right Stuf, Inc., POB 680, Grimes, IA 50111-0680 800-338-6827, fax 515-986-1129; www.rightstuf.com; [email protected] Japanese animation DVDs, manga/graphic novels, related merchandise. Est. 1987. Catalog: online; anime print catalog $4 (refundable with first order). Robert’s Videos, 1007 Tucker Crescent, Saskatoon, SK S7H 3H7 CA 800-440-2960 (in North America), 306-955-3763 (outside N.A.) wwww.robertsvideos.com, [email protected] Hard-to-find DVD/VHS search service. Especially good for tapeheads. Est. 2002. Catalog: online. Sinister Cinema, POB 4369, Medford, OR 97501-0168 541-773-6860, fax 541-779-8650; www.sinistercinema.com; [email protected] Offering a terrific selection of nostalgic sci-fi, horror, B Westerns, sword-and-sandal, etc., with offbeat tapes and wayout discs for $11.95–16.95. Est. 1984. Catalog: free. Snag Films, www.snagfilms.com Freebie site streams documentaries only, organized by title and topic. Films may be watched on-site or ‘‘snagged’’ for mobile or Facebook use. Est. 2008. Catalog: online. Something Weird Video, POB 33664, Seattle, WA 98133-0664 888-634-3320, 425-290-5830, fax 425-438-1832; www.somethingweird.com; [email protected] An unparalleled collection of exquisite trash. Est. 1990. Catalog: $5 (over 18 only). [ xvi ]

Video Dimensions/Mondo Movies, 421 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 100012002 646-827-0577, fax 309-214-5719; www.cultvideo.com; [email protected]; [email protected] Classics, world cinema, animation, and nostalgia from the parent label. Pop culture and exploitation titles from Mondo Movies. Both businesses are mail-order only. Est. 1978. Catalogs: both free. Video Discounters, POB 1448, Jensen Beach, FL 34958-1448 772-334-4386, fax 772-334-6296; www.videodiscounters.net; [email protected] Off-market titles, primarily VHS. Est. 1978. Catalog: online (no cart). Video Oyster, POB 1012, New York, NY 10002-1012 917-757-3345; www.videooyster.com; [email protected] A one-man band who sells, rents, and auctions largely unattainable VHS (original tapes—no copies). Tidy Web site. Est. 1990. Catalog: online. Video Search of Miami, POB 492768, Lawrenceville, GA 30049-0047 678-836-5838; www.vsom.com [email protected]; Members-only club imports contemporary and classic European and Asian fare in versions otherwise unavailable in U.S. Companion company deals in domestic cult DVD. Est. 1988. Catalogs: VSoM (free print, online). Video Vault, 113 S. Columbus St., Alexandria, VA 22314-3074 800-828-5866, fax 703-836-5720; www.videovault.com fl[email protected] Sales/rentals of DVD/VHS from extensive alternative store: ‘‘Guaranteed worst movies in town!’’ Free searches. Membership options. Est. 1985. Catalog: online. VideoWest, 1312 Stagecoach Rd. SE, Albuquerque, NM 87123-4321 505292-0049; www.westernclippings.com; [email protected] Provides VHS B Westerns, serials, and TV shows. Also publishes Western Clippings magazine (sample issue $1 ea.). Est. 1977. Catalog: $5. Warner Archive, www.warnerarchive.com The very first on-demand service run by a major studio. Buffs may raid the pre-1986 Warner Bros., MGM, RKO, and Monogram vaults for hundreds of custom DVDs ($19.95) or digital downloads ($14.95). Catalog: online.

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Widescreen Glossary An aspect ratio is the relationship between the width and height of a screen image. Virtually all sound films until 1953 were 1.37 to 1, that is, slightly wider than they were tall—a modest rectangle. Since television screen size is 1.33:1, little is lost when an older movie is shown on TV. (Even films in the later standard 1.66:1 don’t suffer too badly.) In the 1950s, however, Hollywood’s attempt to lure people away from TV and back into theaters led to a battle of screen sizes, beginning with CinemaScope, more than twice as wide as it was high. Today, most films are 1.85:1; since this has become the norm, they are no longer thought of as ‘‘widescreen.’’ Our listings only cite films in special widescreen processes, such as the ones below: Actionscope—2.35:1 (same as Toeiscope) Agascope—2.35:1 (Sweden/Hungary) Arriscope—2.35:1 (Arriflex cameras/lenses) ArriVision—2.35:1 (in 3-D) Cinepanormique—2.35:1 (France) CinemaScope—2.35:1 (some early titles 2.66:1 and 2.55:1) CinemaScope 55—2.35:1 (55mm) Cinerama—2.6:1 to 2.8:1 Cinescope—2.35:1 (Italy) Clairmont-Scope—2.35:1 (Clairmont cameras/lenses) Colorscope—AIP studios’ umbrella name for various ratios Cromoscope—2.35:1 (same as Techniscope) Daieiscope—2.35:1 (Japan) Digital Video Widescreen—2.35:1 (digital video photography) Digital Widescreen—2.35:1 (computer animated films) Dimension 150—2.2:1 (70mm) Dimensionscope—2.35:1 (in 3-D) Duo-Vision—2.35:1 (split-screen) Dyaliscope—2.35:1 (France) Euroscope—2.35:1 Franscope—2.35:1 (France) Grandeur—2:1 approx. (70mm) Grandscope—2.35:1 (Japan) Hammerscope—2.35:1 (England) HD Widescreen (High Definition 24-framesper-second Digital Video) J-D-C Scope—2.35:1 Megascope—2.35:1 (England) Metroscope—1.66:1 to 2:1 (hard-matted prints or negative) MGM Camera 65—2.75:1 (70mm; same as Ultra Panavision) Multi(ple)-Screen—2.35:1 (split screen) Natural Vision—2:1 approx. (63.5mm) Naturama—2.35:1 (Republic studios) Nikkatsu Scope—2.35:1 (Japan) Panascope—2:1 Panavision—2.35:1 (2.4:1 from 1971) Panavision Super 70—2.2:1 (70mm); 2.35:1 (35mm) Panoramic(a)—1.85:1 to 2.35:1 (Italy)

Part Widescreen—some scenes in 2.35:1 format Realife—2:1 approx. (70mm) Regalscope—2.35:1 RKO-Scope—2.35:1 (same as SuperScope 235) Scanoscope—2.35:1 Shawscope—2.35:1 (Hong Kong) Sovscope/Sovscope 70—2.35:1 (U.S.S.R.) Space-Vision—2.35:1 (in 3-D) Spectrascope—2.35:1 StereoScope—2.35:1 (in 3-D) Superama—2.35:1 (same as Super 35) SuperCinescope—2.35:1 (Italy) Superpanorama 70—2.2:1 (70mm) Super Panavision 70—2.2:1 (70mm); 2.35:1 (35mm) SuperScope—2:1 SuperScope 235—2.35:1 (origin of Super 35) Super Technirama 70—2.2:1 (70 mm) Super Techniscope—1.85:1 to 2.35:1 (same as Super 35) Super 35—1.85:1 to 2.35:1 SuperTotalscope—2.35:1 (Italy) System 35—1.85:1 to 2.35:1 (same as Super 35) Technirama—2.35:1 Techniscope—2.35:1 Technovision—2.35:1 (Italy) Todd-AO—2.2:1 (70mm) Todd-AO 35—2.35:1 (35mm) Toeiscope—2.35:1 (Japan) Tohoscope—2.35:1 (Japan) Totalscope—2.35:1 (Italy/France) Totalvision—2.35:1 2.35 Research PLC—2.35:1 Ultra Panavision 70—2.76:1 (70mm) Ultrascope—2.35:1 (Germany) Univision—2:1 (aka Uinivisium) Vistarama—2.35:1 Vistascope—2.35:1 VistaVision—1.66:1 to 2:1 (1.85:1 recommended) Vistascope—2:1 approx. (65mm) WarnerScope—2.35:1 Warwickscope—2.35:1 (England) ‘‘Widescreen’’ means uncredited or undetermined process

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Aaron Loves Angela (1975) C-98m. ★★★ denly in command of lifeboat holding surD: Gordon Parks, Jr. Kevin Hooks, Irene vivors from sunken luxury liner. Tense, Cara, Moses Gunn, Robert Hooks, Ernesexciting study of people fighting to stay alive tine Jackson, Jose´ Feliciano. New Yorkwhile exposed to savage seas and each other. made variation on Romeo and Juliet set in British title: SEVEN WAVES AWAY.▼ Harlem, with black boy (Kevin) in love Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953) with Puerto Rican girl (Cara). OK combi77m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles Lamont. Robert nation of comedy, drama, violence, and Paige, Mari Blanchard, Martha Hyer, Horace McMahon. Unimaginative vehicle has Bud Feliciano’s music. [R] ▼ Aaron Slick From Punkin Crick SEE: and Lou sailing through space with escaped Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide gangsters, landing on Venus, a planet popuAbandon (2002) C-99m. ★★ D: Stephen lated with scantily clad women. Look quickly Gaghan. Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, for Anita Ekberg.▼쩠 Charlie Hunnam, Zooey Deschanel, GabriAbbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945) elle Union, Gabriel Mann, Mark Feuerstein, 83m. ★★ D: S. Sylvan Simon. Frances Melanie Jayne Lynskey, Will McCormack, Rafferty, Robert Stanton, Jean Porter, Philip Bosco, Tony Goldwyn, Fred Ward. Warner Anderson, Dean Stockwell. UnPolice detective with a checkered past is even comedy with A&C as barber and assigned to investigate the disappearance of porter in Tinseltown. A few peeks behind a college boy but finds himself attracted to the scenes at MGM with Rags Ragland, Luthe missing student’s girlfriend. Murky cille Ball, Preston Foster, Butch Jenkins, whodunit with paranormal ingredients that, and director Robert Z. Leonard. Officially annoyingly, don’t pay off. Directing debut titled BUD ABBOTT LOU COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD.▼●쩠 for the Oscar-winning screenwriter of TRAFFIC. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950) 80m. ★★ D: Charles Lamont. Abandoned (1949) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Newman. Dennis O’Keefe, Gale Storm, Jeff Patricia Medina, Walter Slezak, Douglass Chandler, Raymond Burr, Marjorie Rambeau, Dumbrille. Unexceptional vehicle pitting Will Kuluva, Meg Randall, Mike Mazurki, A&C against nasty sergeant Slezak. Best scene involves mirages in the desert. ▼쩠 Jeanette Nolan. Pretty good expose´ about a baby-selling racket; reporter O’Keefe tries to Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) C-70m. ★★ D: Charles Lamont. help Storm find out what happened to her sister. Good L.A. locations, snappy diaCharles Laughton, Hillary Brooke, Fran logue by William Bowers. Warren, Bill Shirley, Leif Erickson. MidAbandoned, The (2007-Spanish-Bulgariandling pirate spoof with too many lousy songs, British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nacho Cerda`. Anworth catching to see Laughton having the astasia Hille, Karel Roden, Valentin Ganev, time of his life in atypical low comedy.▼쩠 Paraskeva Djukelova, Carlos Reig-Plaza. Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll American adoptee gets trapped in an endand Mr. Hyde (1953) 77m. ★★ D: Charles less labyrinth of horror when, after receivLamont. Boris Karloff, Craig Stevens, Reging a mysterious invitation, she returns to inald Denny, Helen Westcott, John Dierkes. Russia to learn more about her roots. In her Disappointing attempt to mix A&C with dank, oppressively creepy childhood home, Jekyll (Karloff) and Hyde (stuntman Eddie she must confront various evil forces, a Parker), with too few funny scenes. Spemurderous clone, and the disturbing secrets cial effects are film’s main asset.▼●쩠 of her past. Anybody looking for a coherent Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein narrative will find this throwback to surreal (1948) 83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Charles Barton. Euro-horror films of the ’70s maddening. Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Lenore Fails to build fear and tension, but Cerda` Aubert, Jane Randolph, Glenn Strange, fills the screen with enough gorgeous, chillFrank Ferguson. Dracula (Lugosi) plans to ing imagery to satisfy fans of nonlinear horput Lou’s brain in Frankenstein’s monster; ror fare. Super 35. [R]쩠 werewolf Larry Talbot (Chaney) has his paws Abandon Ship (1957-British) 100m. ★★★ full convincing the boys they’re in danger. D: Richard Sale. Tyrone Power, Mai ZetAll-time great horror-comedy still works terling, Lloyd Nolan, Stephen Boyd, Moira beautifully, mainly because the monsters Lister, James Hayter. Tyrone is officer sudplay it straight. Yes, that is Vincent Price’s [1]

voice at the end. Officially titled BUD ABmovie in which two addictive personalities—a BOTT LOU COSTELLO MEET FRANKfast-and-loose-living cokehead (Headey) ENSTEIN. ▼●쩠 and her alcoholic wreck of a father (SkarsAbbott and Costello Meet the Invisible ga˚rd), from whom she has been long esMan (1951) 82m. ★★★ D: Charles Lamont. tranged—endure each other’s company as Nancy Guild, Arthur Franz, Adele Jergens, she escorts him from Norway to Scotland. Sheldon Leonard. One of the team’s best Sometimes tough to watch, as the characters vehicles, with Bud and Lou as detectives wallow in their dysfunction, but they are vivhelping boxer (Franz) who’s been framed by idly etched and their multilayered relationship is wholly believable.▼쩠 mobster Leonard, with aid of invisibility formula. The effects are top-notch.▼●쩠 Abigail: Wanted SEE: Stingray (1978) Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Abominable Dr. Phibes, The (1971Kops (1955) 79m. ★★ D: Charles Lamont. British) C-94m. ★★★ D: Robert Fuest. VinFred Clark, Lynn Bari, Mack Sennett, cent Price, Joseph Cotten, Peter Jeffrey, Maxie Rosenbloom, Frank Wilcox, Henry Hugh Griffith, Terry-Thomas, Virginia Kulky, Sam Flint. Low-budget comedy North. Above average camp horror film in could have been better. Clark is fine as which Price, disfigured in a car wreck, seeks conniving producer in this synthetic period revenge on those he believes responsible for piece of silent-slapstick movie days.▼쩠 the death of his wife. Sequel: DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN!▼●쩠 Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles About a Boy (2002) C-101m. ★★★ D: Chris Barton. Lenore Aubert, Gar Moore, Donna Weitz, Paul Weitz. Hugh Grant, Toni ColMartell, Alan Mowbray. Pleasant blend of lette, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Victocomedy and whodunit with bodies hanging ria Smurfit. Self-absorbed bachelor Grant, in closets perplexing hotel dick Abbott, and who happily lives a hedonistic existence, phony mystic Karloff trying to do away comes into the life of an isolated, misfit with klutzy bellboy Costello.▼●쩠 12-year-old boy whose mom is chronically Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy depressed. Out of this unlikely situation a friendship slowly develops in which the boy (1955) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Lamont. Marie Windsor, Michael Ansara, Dan and the man fill voids in each other’s lives. Seymour, Kurt Katch, Richard Deacon. Bright, unpredictable, and refreshingly huAmusing adventure with A&C mixed up manistic comedy-drama doesn’t hew to any with villainess Windsor, a valuable tomb, formula, and though it skirts credibility at and a mummy who’s still alive. ▼●쩠 times it comes up a winner. Based on the Abby (1974) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: William novel by Nick Hornby, coscripted by the directors. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Girdler. Carol Speed, William Marshall, Terry Carter, Austin Stoker, Juanita Moore. About Adam (2001-British-U.S.-Irish) C105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gerard Stembridge. Kate Not-bad black variation on THE EXORCIST. Speed, wife of minister Carter and Hudson, Frances O’Connor, Stuart Towndaughter-in-law of minister Marshall, is send, Charlotte Bradley, Alan Maher, Rosathe possessed Abby. Out of circulation for leen Linehan. Cute romantic comedy about years because of a lawsuit that claimed it a duplicitous charmer who woos all three was a ripoff of THE EXORCIST.쩠 sisters of an eccentric, close-knit Dublin ABC Murders, The SEE: Alphabet Murfamily. Slight but charming fare has a reders, The freshingly hedonistic attitude but never Abdication, The (1974-British) C-103m. ★★ really convinces us why these robust Eves D: Anthony Harvey. Peter Finch, Liv Ullare so smitten by such a cipher of a man. mann, Cyril Cusack, Paul Rogers, Michael Good showcase for its trio of leading ladies Dunn. Plodding historical drama of what hap(Hudson, O’Connor, Bradley). [R]▼쩠 pened to Sweden’s Queen Christina when she About Last Night . . . (1986) C-113m. ★★ abdicated to convert to Catholicism. Finch is D: Edward Zwick. Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, the cardinal who must test her sincerity and James Belushi, Elizabeth Perkins, George with whom she falls in love. [PG]쩠 DiCenzo, Michael Alldredge, Robin Thomas, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) 110m. ★★★★ Catherine Keener. True-to-life look at probD: John Cromwell. Raymond Massey, Gene lems faced by a young couple fleeing the sinLockhart, Ruth Gordon, Mary Howard, Dorogles scene, biggest problem being his inability thy Tree, Minor Watson, Alan Baxter, Howto make genuine emotional commitment to ard da Silva. First-rate Americana; sincere her. True-to-life doesn’t make it terribly interstory of Lincoln’s life and career is beautifully esting, however. Expanded (and diluted) from acted by Massey, with top support from GorDavid Mamet’s one-act play Sexual Perverdon as Mary Todd. Based on Robert Shersity in Chicago. Coscenarist Tim Kazurinsky appears briefly. [R] ▼●쩠 wood’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play.▼쩠 Aberdeen (2000-Norwegian-British) CAbout Mrs. Leslie (1954) 104m. ★★★ D: 106m. ★★★ D: Hans Petter Moland. Stellan Daniel Mann. Shirley Booth, Robert Ryan, Skarsga˚rd, Lena Headey, Ian Hart, Charlotte Marjie Millar, Alex Nicol, Sammy White, Rampling. Raw, extremely well acted road James Bell, Eilene Janssen, Henry (Harry) [2]

Morgan, Gale Page, Ellen Corby, Amanda static biography of Lincoln; can’t match Griffith’s silent masterpieces. ▼●쩠 Blake, Joan Shawlee, Benny Rubin, Jack Abre Los Ojos SEE: Open Your Eyes Larson, Jerry Paris. Flashbacks reveal roAbsence of Malice (1981) C-116m. ★★★ mance between chanteuse (Booth) and mysteD: Sydney Pollack. Paul Newman, Sally rious, lonely magnate (Ryan). Well-acted Field, Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon, Luther soaper; forgivable illogical coupling of stars. Adler, Barry Primus, Josef Sommer, John About Schmidt (2002) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Harkins, Don Hood, Wilford Brimley. A reAlexander Payne. Jack Nicholson, Hope porter (Field) is duped by a scheming governDavis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates, Len ment investigator into printing a story that Cariou, Howard Hesseman, June Squibb. discredits innocent Newman; while she hides Superb human comedy about a newly rebehind the privilege of the press, he detertired insurance actuary in Nebraska who bemines to get even. Absorbing drama by gins—for the first time—to question the former reporter Kurt Luedtke with two choices he has made in life. Subtle, delibercharismatic star performances. Filmed in ately paced, and splendidly acted, with as Miami. [PG] ▼●쩠 many sad moments as funny ones. NicholAbsent Minded Professor, The (1961) son’s magnificently quiet, true performance 97m. ★★★ D: Robert Stevenson. Fred may be the best of his career. Enhanced by MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn, Rolfe Kent’s perfectly nuanced score. Tommy Kirk, Ed Wynn, Leon Ames, ElPayne and Jim Taylor (loosely) adapted liott Reid. MacMurray discovers flubber Louis Begley’s novel. [R] ▼쩠 (flying rubber) in this Disney audienceAbove and Beyond (1952) 122m. ★★★ D: pleaser, but no one will believe him except Melvin Frank, Norman Panama. Robert Keenan Wynn, who tries to steal the Taylor, Eleanor Parker, James Whitmore, substance. Broad comedy and bright speJim Backus. Meaningful account of U.S. cial effects make this a lot of fun. Also pilot who flew over Hiroshima with first shown in computer-colored version. Sequel: atomic bomb; film focuses on his training SON OF FLUBBER. Remade in 1995 (as a and its effect on his personal life. Story also TVM) and in 1997 as FLUBBER.▼●쩠 told in 1980 TV movie ENOLA GAY.▼쩠 Absolute Beginners (1986-British) CAbove Suspicion (1943) 90m. ★★★ D: 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julien Temple. Eddie Richard Thorpe. Joan Crawford, Fred O’Connell, Patsy Kensit, David Bowie, MacMurray, Conrad Veidt, Basil Rathbone, James Fox, Ray Davies, Eve Ferret, Anita Reginald Owen, Richard Ainley. Crawford Morris, Lionel Blair, Steven Berkoff, Mandy and MacMurray asked to do spy mission Rice-Davies, Sade Adu. Energetic, original during European honeymoon on the eve of musical set in London, 1958, when teenagers WW2. Pure escapism, with Joan more first came into their own. Highly stylized than a match for the Nazis.▼ film (directed by music-video veteran TemAbove the Law (1988) C-99m. ★★ D: ple) suffers from two-dimensional characters Andrew Davis. Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, and a misguided attempt to add substance Sharon Stone, Henry Silva, Ron Dean, by dealing with the rise of racism in EngDaniel Faraldo, Thalmus Rasulala. Chicago land . . . but its virtues almost outweigh its cop doesn’t hesitate to use his martial arts shortcomings. Pulsating score supervised skills as he battles police corruption and by jazz great Gil Evans; musical highdrug dealing. Seagal’s film debut reveals the lights from Sade (‘‘Killer Blow’’) and jazz real-life Aikido master to be more of the veteran Slim Gaillard (‘‘Selling Out’’). Chucknorrisian than the Stanislavskian school And don’t miss that incredible opening of acting. Seagal also cowrote and coproshot! Adapted from Colin MacInnes’ 1959 duced; slick but stupid actioner. [R] ▼●쩠 novel. Super Techniscope. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 ★★1 Above the Rim (1994) C-93m. ⁄2 D: Absolute Power (1997) C-120m. ★★ D: Jeff Pollack. Duane Martin, Leon, Tupac Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Gene Shakur, David Bailey, Tonya Pinkins, MarHackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney, Judy lon Wayans, Bernie Mac. By-the-numbers Davis, E. G. Marshall, Scott Glenn, Dennis tale of a promising high school basketball Haysbert, Melora Hardin, Richard Jenkins. player (Martin) and his conflicting relationAging thief pulls off one valedictory jewel ships with two very different brothers: one heist, but along the way accidentally wita drug dealer (Shakur), the other a troubled nesses a sexual assault and murder involvex-scholastic hoop star (Leon) employed as ing none other than the President of the a school security guard. Despite insightful United States (Hackman). Barely credible moments, film wallows in cliche´s and plot (and fatally diluted) adaptation of David contrivances. [R] ▼●쩠 Baldacci’s best-seller by William Goldman. Abraham Lincoln (1930) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eastwood and Harris (as a wily cop) play a D. W. Griffith. Walter Huston, Una Merkel, fun game of cat and mouse, but Hackman is Edgar Dearing, Russell Simpson, Cameron over the top, and the whole thing runs Prud’homme, Oscar Apfel, Henry B. Walaground in the second half. Panavision. thall. Huston is excellent in this sincere but [R]▼●쩠 [3]

Absolution (1981-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 sor who falls in love with a student) as just D: Anthony Page. Richard Burton, Domia foundation for examination of characnic Guard, Dai Bradley, Billy Connolly, ters’ thoughts and actions. A challenging Andrew Keir, Willoughby Gray. Burton film that operates on many levels; entire gives a commanding performance as a cast superb, including York in his first humorless, by-the-book priest who teaches major film role. Based on a novel by at a boys’ school, and falls victim to a Nicholas Mosley, who plays Don. Pinter is amusing as a TV producer.▼쩠 snowballing practical joke played upon him by his pet student. Straightforward Accidental Tourist, The (1988) C-121m. ★★★ melodrama loses credibility toward the end. D: Lawrence Kasdan. William Hurt, Written by Anthony Shaffer. Filmed in Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Amy 1978, unreleased in the U.S. until 1988, Wright, Bill Pullman, Robert Gorman, Dafour years after Burton’s death. [R] ▼●쩠 vid Ogden Stiers, Ed Begley, Jr. Hurt Abyss, The (1989) C-145m. ★★★ D: James gives an exquisite performance as a man Cameron. Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Masshattered by the death of his son, who trantonio, Michael Biehn, Leo Burmester, comes out of his shell when he meets a Todd Graff, John Bedford Lloyd, J.C. kooky, aggressive young woman (Oscar Quinn, Kimberly Scott, Jimmie Ray Weeks, winner Davis) who couldn’t be less his Chris Elliott. Spectacular underwater saga type. Finely wrought, extremely faithful about an oil-rig crew that gets involved in a adaptation of Anne Tyler’s novel dares to perilous mission to rescue a sunken nuclear take its time; may be too slow and quiet for sub. Better as underwater adventure than some viewers, but offers many rewards. Pafuturistic sci-fi, with a couple of crises too navision. [PG] ▼●쩠 many, but still a fascinating, one-of-a-kind Accidents Will Happen (1939) 62m. ★★1⁄2 experience. Great score by Alan Silvestri; D: William Clemens. Ronald Reagan, GloOscar winner for Visual Effects. Special ria Blondell, Sheila Bromley, Dick Puredition includes 27m. of extra footage, some cell, Addison Richards. Good little B picof it all-too-obviously cut from theatrical reture about a young go-getting insurance lease. It fleshes out characters, amplifies plot claims adjuster who tries to blow the whistle points, and includes some spectacular special on a phony-accident racket. effects—but ‘‘literalizes’’ the other-worldly Accompanist, The (1992-French) C-111m. ★★ finale. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 D: Claude Miller. Richard Bohringer, Accatone (1961-Italian) 120m. ★★★ D: Pier Elena Safonova, Romaine Bohringer, SamPaolo Pasolini. Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, uel Labarthe, Bernard Verley. Somber Roberto Scaringella, Adele Cambria, Paolo drama of deceit (toward oneself and one’s Guidi, Silvana Corsini. Pasolini’s first country) set during WW2. An unworldly film is a vivid, unsentimental look at the young woman (Bohringer) is hired as acdesperate (and depressing) existence of companist to a famous Parisian singer who, pimps and petty thieves living in the slums with her husband, has been collaborating with of Rome. Bernardo Bertolucci was one of the enemy. Potentially potent story but the the assistant directors. Released in the U.S. result is too often bland and forgettable.▼ in 1968.▼●쩠 Accused, The (1948) 101m. ★★★ D: WilAccepted (2006) C-93m. ★★ D: Steve Pink. liam Dieterle. Loretta Young, Robert CumJustin Long, Jonah Hill, Adam Herschman, mings, Wendell Corey, Sam Jaffe, Douglas Blake Lively, Columbus Short, Maria Dick. Professor Young is sexually attacked Thayer, Lewis Black, Anthony Heald. A by a student, accidentally kills him in selfgroup of teenagers who’ve been rejected by defense, and then tries to cover it up. Taut various colleges start their own in an abanthriller, with good support from Cummings. doned mental institution. Premise is so farAccused (1957) SEE: Mark of the Hawk, fetched that it keeps you watching just to The find out how it’s going to resolve itself. Its Accused, The (1988) C-110m. ★★★ D: message that a college education kills the Jonathan Kaplan. Kelly McGillis, Jodie creative genius that teenagers would otherFoster, Bernie Coulson, Leo Rossi, Ann wise cultivate on their own is hard to swalHearn, Carmen Argenziano. Public proselow after seeing the ‘‘self-made students’’ cutor McGillis deals with a gang-rape case do nothing but drink and party. Soundtrack in cut-and-dried fashion, until the victim deis full of cover songs paying homage to mands full retribution for what she has sufother, better teen-revolution movies. Super fered. Compelling drama inspired by a 35. [PG-13]쩠 notorious real-life case and propelled by Accident (1967-British) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 Foster’s powerhouse, Oscar-winning perD: Joseph Losey. Dirk Bogarde, Stanley formance as the provocative, foul-mouthed Baker, Jacqueline Sassard, Delphine Seyrig, woman who gets her day in court. Only Alexander Knox, Michael York, Vivien quibble: Was the climactic reenactment really necessary? [R] ▼●쩠 Merchant, Harold Pinter, Freddie Jones. Complex, thought-provoking script by HarAce, The SEE: Great Santini, The old Pinter uses story (about Oxford profesAce Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973) [4]

C-92m. ★★ D: Bill Sampson (John Erman). steam—which Carrey never does. Real-life Cliff Robertson, Pamela Franklin, Eric members of the Miami Dolphins appear. A Shea, Rosemary Murphy, Bernadette Peminute of new footage added for video. Folters, Alice Ghostley. Tepid tale of 1920s lowed by a sequel, an animated TV series, stunt flyer and son who tags along. Mudand a DVD sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 dled film sat on shelf a long time; doctoring Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995) didn’t help. Story by Steven Spielberg. PeC-105m. ★★ D: Steve Oedekerk. Jim Carters’ film debut. Panavision. [PG] rey, Ian McNeice, Simon Callow, Maynard Ace High (1969-Italian) C-123m. ★★ D: Eziashi, Bob Gunton, Sophie Okonedo, Giuseppe Colizzi. Eli Wallach, Terence Hill, Tommy Davidson. Sloppy assemblage of Bud Spencer, Brock Peters, Kevin McCargags (with most of the good ones near the thy, Steffen Zacharias. Awkwardly dubbed beginning) ostensibly about Ace’s anti-p.c. spaghetti Western tries to imitate Clint hijinks with battling African tribes while Eastwood–Sergio Leone epics, but director trying to locate a rare white bat. Clever Colizzi lacks Leone’s style. Hill plays a opening spoof of CLIFFHANGER and a character named Cat Stevens, but there funny sight gag involving asparagus; otherare no rock songs here. Techniscope. [M] ▼쩠 wise, more of the same. Super 35. [PG★★★ Ace in the Hole (1951) 112m. D: 13] ▼●쩠 Billy Wilder. Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Across 110th Street (1972) C-102m. ★★★ Bob Arthur, Porter Hall, Frank Cady, RichD: Barry Shear. Anthony Quinn, Yaphet ard Benedict, Ray Teal, Gene Evans. An Kotto, Anthony Franciosa, Richard Ward, embittered New Mexico reporter looking Paul Benjamin, Ed Bernard, Antonio for the elusive brass ring finds it when he Fargas, Norma Donaldson, Gilbert Lewis. stumbles onto a story of a man trapped in an N.Y.C. police race the mobs to catch three ancient Indian ruin. Unrelentingly cynical (yet blacks who, disguised as cops, stole mostly believable) tale of how the reporter $300,000 from a Mafia-controlled bank; exploits the ‘‘human interest story’’ for his mutual distrust of both black and Italian own benefit—and how the potential tragedy hoods is mirrored by differences between turns into a three-ring circus—has a peculiarly cops Quinn and Kotto. Exciting, well contemporary ring to it. Biting and extremely paced, and extremely violent, with fine well acted. Originally titled THE BIG CARuse of Harlem locations. Quinn was also coexecutive producer. [R] ▼쩠 NIVAL. Inspired by the actual 1925 Floyd Collins case; the real reporter won a Pulitzer Across the Bridge (1957-British) 103m. ★★★ Prize. 쩠 D: Ken Annakin. Rod Steiger, David Aces High (1976-British) C-104m. ★★★ Knight, Maria Landi, Noel Willman, BerD: Jack Gold. Malcolm McDowell, Chrisnard Lee, Bill Nagy, Eric Pohlmann. Smug topher Plummer, Simon Ward, Peter Firth. German business magnate flees his home Strong antiwar statement focusing on inbase in England when Scotland Yard invesdoctrination of WW1 pilot Firth and his tigates his corrupt dealings. His only hope disillusioned squadron leader (McDowell). is to get to Mexico through the U.S., but en Solid cast (with cameos by John Gielgud, route he switches identities with a fellow Ray Milland, Trevor Howard, and Richard train passenger. Engrossing yarn based on Johnson) and exciting aerial dogfights higha Graham Greene novella. Shot mostly in light this remake of R. C. Sherriff’s JOURSpain. Later remade as DOUBLE TAKE. NEY’S END. [PG] ▼쩠 Aces: Iron Eagle III (1992) C-93m. ★1⁄2 Across the Pacific (1942) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: John Glen. Louis Gossett, Jr., Rachel John Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Mary McLish, Christopher Cazenove, Horst Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, Victor Sen Buchholz, Sonny Chiba. This time, mavYung, Keye Luke, Richard Loo. Three erick pilot Gossett and a group of WW2 MALTESE FALCON leads reteamed for veteran pilots stage an air raid on a Peruvian enjoyable WW2 adventure. Bogart trails cocaine factory (having run out of targets in spies to Panama, has running battle of wits the Middle East). Unsatisfying me´lange of with Greenstreet, while romancing enticing flyboy machismo, unintentional slapstick, Astor. Despite title, the movie never gets to and inane action—with novelty of female bothe Pacific, much less across it. Also shown dybuilder McLish in cast. [R]▼●쩠 in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (1994) CAcross the Tracks (1991) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 86m. ★★ D: Tom Shadyac. Jim Carrey, D: Sandy Tung. Rick Schroder, Brad Pitt, Courteney Cox, Sean Young, Tone Lo¯c, Carrie Snodgress, David Anthony MarDan Marino, Noble Willingham, Troy Evans, shall. Reasonably compelling teen sports Randall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb. Miami-based ‘‘pet dedrama with Schroder returning from retective’’ is hired to find the kidnapped mascot form school stint to compete on high school of the Dolphins football team. No-brainer track team and outperforming straight-A comedy/whodunit was the breakout role for track star brother (Pitt). Realistic portrayal Carrey, who mugs nonstop (and we mean of teen problems and aspirations make this nonstop). Some good gags, but runs out of best suited for young people, although the [5]

R rating (for normal raunchy high school Act of the Heart, The (1970-Canadian) Clanguage) may make this film inaccessible 103m. ★★★ D: Paul Almond. Genevieve Buto its key audience. [R]▼●쩠 jold, Donald Sutherland, Bill Mitchell, Across the Universe (2007) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 Monique Leyrac. Fascinating study of reliD: Julie Taymor. Evan Rachel Wood, Jim gious fanaticism manifesting itself in one Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin young woman and her love for a Catholic Luther McCoy, T. V. Carpio, Spencer Liff, priest. Beautifully atmospheric but ending Lisa Hogg, Bill Irwin, James Urbaniak, Dylan deeply hurts film. [PG] Baker, Joe Cocker, Bono, Salma Hayek, Harry Act of Violence (1949) 82m. ★★★ D: Fred J. Lennix, Eddie Izzard. A young Brit comes to Zinnemann. Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, the U.S. in search of his father, and falls in love Janet Leigh, Mary Astor, Phyllis Thaxter, with an all-American girl, just as she (and her Berry Kroeger, Taylor Holmes. Stark, wellentire generation) experience the mindacted drama, with crippled, embittered Ryan bending changes of the Vietnam era. Routine stalking former senior officer Heflin, who story is just an excuse to pictorialize—and betrayed his men while a POW. Fine vignette attempt to contextualize—more than 30 landby Astor as a sympathetic call girl.쩠 mark Beatles songs. Imaginative at times Act One (1963) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dore but increasingly wearying as the song cues Schary. George Hamilton, Jason Robards, line up (yes, there are characters named PruGeorge Segal, Eli Wallach, Sam Levene, dence, Maxwell, Jude, et al.), famous faces Ruth Ford, Jack Klugman. Interesting for appear, and the plotline bogs down. Our oddball cast, this fabrication of writer Moss favorite number: Joe Cocker singing Hart’s autobiography lacks finesse or any ‘‘Come Together.’’ Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 sense of reality, but Robards is ideally cast Across the Wide Missouri (1951) C-78m. as George S. Kaufman. ★★1 ⁄2 D: William Wellman. Clark Gable, Actors and Sin (1952) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ben Ricardo Montalban, John Hodiak, Adolphe Hecht, Lee Garmes. Edward G. Robinson, Menjou, Maria Elena Marques, J. Carrol Eddie Albert, Marsha Hunt, Alan Reed, Naish, Jack Holt, Alan Napier, George Dan O’Herlihy, Tracey Roberts, Rudolph Chandler, Richard Anderson. Location filmAnders, Paul Guilfoyle, Jenny Hecht, John ing helps pedestrian frontier adventure Crawford. Uneven two-part film: the overly about explorer Gable and other pathfinders melodramatic ‘‘Actor’s Blood’’ concerns moving westward in 19th century.▼ has-been thespian Robinson and his hardAction in the North Atlantic (1943) 127m. hearted (and murdered) Broadway star ★★★ D: Lloyd Bacon. Humphrey Bogart, daughter Hunt; the more successful ‘‘WoRaymond Massey, Alan Hale, Julie Bishman of Sin’’ details the plight of agent op, Ruth Gordon, Sam Levene, Dane Clark. Albert, whose newest client is a 9-year-old Rousing tribute to WW2 Merchant Marine, (Hecht, Ben’s daughter), who’s penned a with officers Bogart and Massey, seamen lascivious book.▼ Hale and Levene, usual hothead Clark, and Actress, The (1953) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Gordon as Massey’s wife. Also shown in Cukor. Spencer Tracy, Jean Simmons, computer-colored version.▼쩠 Teresa Wright, Anthony Perkins, Mary Action Jackson (1988) C-95m. ★★ D: Wickes. Flavorful account based on Ruth Craig R. Baxley. Carl Weathers, Craig T. Gordon’s experiences as a teenager in early Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone, Thomas F. 20th-century Massachusetts, determined to Wilson, Bill Duke, Robert Davi, Jack become an acting star; Tracy is the irascible Thibeau. Strictly standard B-movie fare father. Perkins’ film debut.쩠 pitting good guy Weathers (a cop) vs. bad Ada (1961) C-109m. ★★★ D: Daniel Mann. guy Nelson. Plenty of explosions, car Susan Hayward, Dean Martin, Wilfrid Hydechases, corpses and noise. [R] ▼●쩠 White, Martin Balsam. Rags-to-riches Act of Love (1953) 108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anatole soaper of poor Hayward maneuvering easyLitvak. Kirk Douglas, Dany Robin, Bargoing Martin to governor’s mansion, using bara Laage, Robert Strauss, Gabrielle hellbent stamina to overcome political Dorziat, Serge Reggiani, Brigitte Bardot. corruption. Hayward vs. Hyde-White in Entertaining if unremarkable chronicle of state senate is highlight. CinemaScope. the romance between lonely American solAdalen 31 (1969-Swedish) C-115m. ★★★ dier Douglas and down-and-out French D: Bo Widerberg. Peter Schildt, Kerstin girl Robin in Paris. Scripted by Irwin Shaw, Tidelius, Roland Hedlund, Stefan Feierbased on Alfred Hayes’ novel The Girl on bach. Strikers in a Swedish paper mill the Via Flaminia. disagree over whether or not to make their Act of Murder, An (1948) 91m. ★★★ D: case with violence; matters are further comMichael Gordon. Fredric March, Florence plicated when a striker’s son falls in love Eldridge, Edmond O’Brien, Geraldine with—and impregnates—the factory manBrooks. March is excellent as strict jurist ager’s daughter. Generally appealing mix who must judge himself for saving his of romance and history, though no one wife the anguish of illness by killing her; absorbing drama. will ever mistake Widerberg (the director [6]

of ELVIRA MADIGAN) for a gritty ries. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 filmmaker of social realism. Techniscope. [X] Adam at 6 A.M. (1970) C-100m. ★★★ D: Adaptation. (2002) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Spike Robert Scheerer. Michael Douglas, Lee PurJonze. Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris cell, Joe Don Baker, Grayson Hall, Charles Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Cara Seymour, Brian Aidman, Meg Foster. Underrated film about Cox, Judy Greer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ron young college professor from California who Livingston, Stephen Tobolowsky. Superspends summer in Missouri working as a neurotic screenwriter Charlie Kaufman laborer. Authentic location footage and good (BEING JOHN MALKOVICH) is hired to performances by Purcell and Baker give rare, adapt Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief genuine feeling for the Midwest. [PG]▼ as a movie, but finds it a torturous process. Adam Resurrected (2008-U.S.-GermanHis carefree twin brother, Donald, has no such Israeli) C/B&W-106m. ★★ D: Paul Schrader. problems, and even tries his hand at writing. Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Derek JaWe also meet author Orlean (Streep) and her cobi, Ayelet Zurer, Hana Laszlo, Joachim main subject, a colorful Southern character Kro´l. Take a dash of Kirk Douglas in THE who knows everything there is to know about JUGGLER, sprinkle in what you’ve heard plants (Cooper, in an Oscar-winning perforabout Jerry Lewis’ THE DAY THE CLOWN mance). Surreal, dazzling, dizzying, often perCRIED, then imagine what Schrader at his plexing but brilliant film about the creative most left-field-ish could bring to a Holoprocess; Cage (in two distinct performances caust story. Flashback film from Yoram as the twin brothers), Streep, and Cooper are Kaniuk’s eponymous 1968 novel finds a all great. Cameos by John Malkovich, Catheronce-popular prewar Berlin clown (Goldine Keener, John Cusack, David O. Russell, blum) in a postwar Israeli mental facility and Curtis Hanson (as Streep’s husband). recalling concentration camp life—where Screenplay is credited to Charlie and (the late) Donald Kaufman. [R] ▼쩠 he was forced to walk around on all fours like a dog by a commandant (Dafoe) who Addams Family, The (1991) C-101m. ★★★ D: Barry Sonnenfeld. Anjelica Huston, remembered him from his performing days. This merely scratches the weird surfaces of Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Dan Hedaya, a brave, barely released movie (with a GoldElizabeth Wilson, Judith Malina, Carel blum performance tough to fault) that’s at Struycken, Dana Ivey, Paul Benedict, Chrisonce flamboyant yet too chilly to engage tina Ricci, Jimmy Workman. Piquant commany viewers. Super 35. [R] edy based on Charles Addams’ macabre carAdam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights SEE: toon family (later popularized on the sameEight Crazy Nights named TV series), whose greedy lawyer tries Adam’s Apples (2005-German-Danish) Cto plunder their fortune by planting an im91m. ★★ D: Anders Thomas Jensen. Ulrich postor in the household who claims to be Thomsen, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicolas Bro, their long-lost Uncle Fester. Huston and Paprika Steen, Ali Kazim, Ole Thestrup, NiJulia are absolutely perfect as Morticia and kolaj Lie Kaas. Ineffectual black-comedy Gomez, and maintain a light touch while allegory about a clash of wills between Ivan dispensing their gleefully ghoulish black (Mikkelsen), a hard-luck soul who emhumor. Impressive directorial debut for cinbraces religion and is in denial about the ematographer Sonnenfeld. Followed by two sequels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 existence of evil, and Adam (Thomsen), a hardened career criminal and neo-Nazi. Addams Family Values (1993) C-93m. ★★★ Means to be profound, as it deals with the D: Barry Sonnenfeld. Anjelica Huston, nature of good and evil, but it’s merely Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Joan Cusack, overwrought. Super 35. [R] Christina Ricci, Carol Kane, Jimmy WorkAdam’s Rib (1949) 100m. ★★★★ D: George man, Carel Struycken, Dana Ivey, Peter Cukor. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, MacNicol, Christine Baranski, Mercedes Judy Holliday, Tom Ewell, David Wayne, McNab, Nathan Lane, Peter Graves, Tony Jean Hagen, Hope Emerson, Polly Moran, Shalhoub, David Hyde Pierce. Funny folMarvin Kaplan, Paula Raymond, Tommy low-up to the 1991 hit has scheming Cusack Noonan. Smart, sophisticated comedy (by invading the Addams household, plotting to Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin) about marry Fester for his money, then bump him husband and wife lawyers on opposing off. Full of hilarious one-liners (delivered sides of the same attempted-murder case. with gusto by Julia and Lloyd), but the real One of Hollywood’s greatest comedies star is Ricci as the stone-faced Wednesday, about the battle of the sexes, with peerless who finally exacts her revenge for being Tracy and Hepburn supported by movie sent to a summer camp run by a pair of newcomers Holliday, Ewell, Hagen, and giddy grown-ups (MacNicol and Baranski). Wayne. Cole Porter contributed the song Runs out of steam toward the end. Direct-to‘‘Farewell, Amanda.’’ Remade in Bulgaria video sequel: ADDAMS FAMILY REin 1956 (in this version the heroine rebels UNION. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 against tradition as a result of her converAddict SEE: Born to Win sion to Marxism-Leninism!). Later a TV seAddicted to Love (1997) C-100m. ★★ D: [7]

Griffin Dunne. Meg Ryan, Matthew BrodeKhanjian, Maury Chaykin, Gabrielle Rose, rick, Kelly Preston, Tcheky Karyo, MauJennifer Dale, David Hemblen, Don Mcreen Stapleton, Nesbitt Blaisdell, Remak Kellar. Audacious, provocative examination Ramsay. Jilted lover Broderick settles in an of voyeurism and the power of images. abandoned N.Y.C. building across the street Among the characters are an insurance adfrom his ex-girlfriend’s apartment so he can juster (Koteas) who plays peekaboo with watch her and her new lover. Then he’s the lives of those he deals with professionjoined by the lover’s ex-g.f., whose agenda ally and his wife (Khanjian), a censor who is even more extreme: she wants revenge. secretly tapes the pornographic material she’s classifying. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Dark, twisted comedy has its moments, and a likable cast, but Ryan’s seriously disAdmirable Crichton, The (1957-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Lewis Gilbert. Kenneth More, turbed character makes it hard to ‘‘root’’ for her, and renders the inevitable fadeout scene Diane Cilento, Cecil Parker, Sally Ann Howes, less than ideal. Feature directing debut for Martita Hunt. Oft-filmed James Barrie classic actor-producer Dunne; his famous father, wears thin: impeccable servant proves to be author Dominick Dunne, plays a restaurant most resourceful when he and his aristocratic critic. [R]▼●쩠 employers are shipwrecked on an island. RetiAddiction, The (1995) 82m. ★★★ D: Abel tled PARADISE LAGOON; previously made Ferrara. Lili Taylor, Christopher Walken, in 1918 and 1919 (as MALE AND FEMALE). VistaVision.▼ Annabella Sciorra, Edie Falco, Paul Calderon, Kathryn Erbe, Michael Imperioli. Intelligent, Adolescent, The SEE: L’Adolescente allegorical vampire movie, shot in beautiful Adorable Julia (1962-French-Austrian) 94m. ★★★ black-and-white, about an NYU philosophy D: Alfred Weidenmann. Lilli Palmer, student (well played by Taylor), a decent Charles Boyer, Jean Sorel, Thomas Fritsch. human being who is horrified by the atrocities Charming rendering of Somerset Maugham’s of history. Her good intentions do not protect novel Theatre and the play of the same title he her from evil, as she is bitten by a vampiress penned with Guy Bolton. Palmer is an aging and goes on to crave the blood of any- and stage star who becomes the mistress of young everyone she meets. Not nearly as bloody and Sorel (despite being wed to director-producer outrageous as some of Ferrara’s earlier films; Boyer).Bolton also cowrote the script. Remade this one says the only hope for mankind is in as BEING JULIA.▼ spirituality. An interesting companion piece to Adoration (2009-Canadian) C-101m. ★★ D: Ferrara’s KING OF NEW YORK and BAD Atom Egoyan. Arsine´e Khanjian, Scott LIEUTENANT. ▼● Speedman, Rachel Blanchard, Noam Jenkins, Adding Machine, The (1969-U.S.-British) Devon Bostick, Kenneth Welsh, Maury ChayC-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerome Epstein. Milo kin. After hearing his French teacher read an O’Shea, Phyllis Diller, Billie Whitelaw, Sydarticle about a man who sent his pregnant wife ney Chaplin, Julian Glover. Accountant beonto a plane with a bomb, a student writes an comes desperate upon learning he’s to be essay imagining the man and woman as his replaced by a computer. This Elmer Rice comparents (who died some years ago) and presedy-fantasy is flawed but interesting. Diller has ents it as the truth. This initiates a multilevel unusual straight role as harridan. [M/PG] series of conversations, confrontations, and Addio Kira SEE: We the Living revelations about terrorism, personal responsiAdios Amigo (1975) C-87m. ★★ D: Fred bility, and family dynamics. Provocative at Williamson. Fred Williamson, Richard first, Egoyan’s puzzle-like story actually bePryor, Thalmus Rasulala, James Brown, comes less interesting as the pieces fit toRobert Phillips, Mike Henry. Offbeat Westgether. [R] Advance to the Rear (1964) 97m. ★★1⁄2 ern comedy, written, produced, and directed by Williamson, who plays perenD: George Marshall. Glenn Ford, Stella Stenial patsy to con man Pryor. No sex or vens, Melvyn Douglas, Joan Blondell, Jim violence in this innocuous film; too bad it Backus, Andrew Prine. During Civil War, doesn’t pull together. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 Northern soldier rejects are sent to Western terAdios, Sabata (1971-Italian-Spanish) Critory. Stevens as Reb spy and Blondell as 104m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank Kramer (Gianfranco saucy worldly woman add only spice to preParolini). Yul Brynner, Dean Reed, Pedro dictable slapstick comedy. Panavision. Adventure (1945) 125m. ★★ D: Victor Sanchez (Ignazio Spalla), Gerard Herter. Gunslinger gets involved with Mexican Fleming. Clark Gable, Greer Garson, Joan revolutionaries, helping himself to a cache Blondell, Thomas Mitchell, Tom Tully, of gold along the way. Ersatz sequel to John Qualen, Richard Haydn. Gable’s back, SABATA (with Brynner instead of Lee Van Garson’s got him; they both sink in cumCleef) was titled INDIO BLACK until dubbed bersome comedy of seagoing roustabout and retitled for U.S. release. Genuine sequel, and meek librarian. Not even breezy THE RETURN OF SABATA, showed up in Blondell can save it.▼ 1972. Techniscope. [PG]쩠 Adventure, The SEE: L’Avventura Adjuster, The (1991-Canadian) C-102m. Adventure in Baltimore (1949) 89m. ★★★ D: Atom Egoyan. Elias Koteas, Arsinee ★★ D: Richard Wallace. Shirley Temple, [8]

John Agar, Robert Young, Josephine Hutchin(1989) C-126m. ★★★ D: Terry Gilliam. son. Mild (and, some might say, reactionary) John Neville, Eric Idle, Sarah Polley, comedy, set in the horse-and-buggy era. TemOliver Reed, Charles McKeown, Winston ple plays a spunky miss whose independent Dennis, Jack Purvis, Valentina Cortese, Jonaspirit and feminist leanings are depicted as than Pryce, Bill Paterson, Peter Jeffrey, Uma youthful folly. Young, auditioning for Father Thurman, Alison Steadman, Sting, Robin WilKnows Best, plays Shirley’s understanding liams. The legendary tale spinner returns in a pastor-father. new interpretation of his exploits by directorAdventureland (2009) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: cowriter Gilliam. Breathtaking special effects Greg Mottola. Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewgo hand in hand with Gilliam’s outlandishly art, Martin Starr, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, funny and far-out ideas; a visual feast that’s Ryan Reynolds, Margarita Levieva, Matt worth staying with through its occasional lulls. Bush, Jack Gilpin, Wendie Malick, Josh Pais, The Baron’s exploits were previously filmed in Mary Birdsong. In 1987, a brainy (and vir1943 and (as THE FABULOUS BARON ginal) college graduate (Eisenberg) plans a trip MUNCHAUSEN) in 1961. [PG] ▼●쩠 to Europe before attending grad school, but a Adventures of Barry McKenzie, The (1972change in family finances forces him to take a Australian) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. menial summer job at a run-down amusement Barry Crocker, Barry Humphries, Peter Cook, park in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Things Spike Milligan. Melbournian Crocker, not partake an interesting turn when he falls for a ticularly fond of the British, finds himself dispretty coworker (Stewart). Seriocomic placed in England. Broad, gross comedy, coming-of-age tale boasts strong acting and overlong, and a bit much for American audimoments of insight, but covers familiar terriences. Beresford’s first film, from a cartoon tory and drags in several spots. Mottola also strip by Humphries and Nicholas Garland. Sewrote the semiautobiographical script. [R] quel: BARRY MCKENZIE HOLDS HIS Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter OWN. 1 ★★ Brother, The (1975) C-91m. ⁄2 D: Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, the Eighth Dimension, The (1984) CMarty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Leo McKern, 103m. ★★ D: W. D. Richter. Peter Weller, Roy Kinnear, John LeMesurier. Wilder’s John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, first film as writer-director-star is mild Christopher Lloyd. Off-the-wall pulp fiction spoof of Sherlockian adventures, as Sigerson by Earl Mac Rauch about a hero who’s a neuHolmes becomes involved with music-hall rosurgeon, physicist, rocket-car driver, rock songstress Kahn, a damsel in distress. DeLuise, singer, and government troubleshooter. as hammy opera star, adds film’s liveliest moShould be fun, but it’s incoherent, like comments. Listen carefully for vocal cameo by Mel ing in at the second chapter of a Saturday Brooks. Made in England. [PG]▼쩠 matinee serial. Still, it has a fervent followAdventurers, The (1970) C-171m. BOMB ing. Aka BUCKAROO BANZAI. PanaviD: Lewis Gilbert. Bekim Fehmiu, Candice sion. [PG] ▼●쩠 Bergen, Ernest Borgnine, Olivia de HavilAdventures of Bullwhip Griffin, The land, Leigh Taylor-Young, Thommy Berg(1967) C-110m. ★★★ D: James Neilson. gren, Rossano Brazzi, Jaclyn Smith. ThreeRoddy McDowall, Suzanne Pleshette, Karl hour challenge to the kidneys based on Malden, Harry Guardino, Richard Haydn, Harold Robbins’ best-seller about fictional Hermione Baddeley, Bryan Russell. Bright South American republic that has a new Disney spoof of gold-rush sagas, with revolution every two minutes. Incredible McDowall as Bostonian butler who learns mess wastes attractive cast. Panavision. to fend for himself in the wild and woolly [PG—edited from original R rating]▼쩠 West. Clever comic ideas and visual gimAdventures in Babysitting (1987) C-99m. mickry make this fun.▼쩠 ★★ D: Chris Columbus. Elisabeth Shue, Adventures of Don Juan (1948) C-110m. Maia Brewton, Keith Coogan, Anthony ★★★ D: Vincent Sherman. Errol Flynn, Rapp, Calvin Levels, Vincent Phillip Viveca Lindfors, Robert Douglas, Alan D’Onofrio, Penelope Ann Miller, Albert ColHale, Ann Rutherford, Raymond Burr. lins, George Newbern, John Ford Noonan, LoHandsome tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler lita David (Davidovich). Shue, extremely has Errol stringing along countless maidwinning in her first lead role, plays a teenager ens and even enticing the Queen (Lindfors); who takes her two babysitting charges into Oscar winner for Best Costumes.▼●쩠 downtown Chicago to help get a friend out of a Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland, The jam—and winds up in a snowballing series of (1999) C-73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gary Halvorson. wild adventures, a` la FERRIS BUELLER’S Mandy Patinkin, Vanessa L. Williams; voices DAY OFF. Young teens might go for it, but of Kevin Clash, Fran Brill, Stephanie it’s mediocre at best. Screenwriter Columbus’ D’Abruzzo, Jerry Nelson, Caroll Spinney, directing debut. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Frank Oz, Steve Whitmire. TV’s Elmo (the Adventures of a Young Man SEE: Hemred, furry three-year-old monster from Sesingway’s Adventures of a Young Man Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The ame Street) loses his precious blanket and [9]

his search leads him to Grouchland, where Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The he tangles with the villainous Huxley (Patin(1960) C-107m. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. kin). Fine fare for young fans, but little else Tony Randall, Eddie Hodges, Archie Moore, for older viewers. Elmo, Patinkin, and WilPatty McCormack, Neville Brand. Good liams seem to be having fun. [G]▼쩠 version of Twain’s story with an appealing Adventures of Felix (2000-French) CHodges (Huck) and excellent Archie Moore 95m. ★★★ D: Jacques Martineau, Olivier (Jim). Assorted characters played by veterans Ducastel. Sami Bouajila, Patachou, Ariane Buster Keaton, Andy Devine, Judy Canova, Ascaride, Pierre-Loup Rajot, Charly Sergue. John Carradine, Mickey Shaughnessy, and An HIV-positive young man travels to MarSterling Holloway. CinemaScope.▼쩠 seilles to find the father he never knew, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1985) along the way meets a variety of people whom C-105m. ★★★ D: Peter H. Hunt. Patrick he imagines as his ideal family. Tackles hardDay, Jim Dale, Frederic Forrest, Lillian Gish, hitting issues (AIDS, racism, homophobia) in Barnard Hughes, Richard Kiley, Geraldine the guise of a gentle social comedy. Beautifully Page, Sada Thompson, Samm-Art Williams, photographed by Matthieu Poirot-Delpech. Butterfly McQueen. Literate, enjoyable verSoundtrack features sweet jazz vocals from sion of the Twain classic, with Day a smart, Blossom Dearie. Super 35.▼쩠 energetic Huck. Centers mostly on his relaAdventures of Ford Fairlane, The (1990) tionship with Jim, the runaway slave (WilC-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Renny Harlin. Andrew liams); as richly rewarding for adults as for Dice Clay, Wayne Newton, Priscilla Presley, kids. Edited down from 240m. version, broadMorris Day, Lauren Holly, Maddie Corcast on PBS’s American Playhouse.▼ man, Gilbert Gottfried, David Patrick Kelly, Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Brandon Call, Robert Englund, Ed O’Neill, The (1949) C-68m. ★★★ D: Jack Kinney, Tone Loc, Sheila E. Controversial standup Clyde Geronimi, James Algar. Voices of comic Clay’s first starring vehicle is an oldEric Blore, Pat O’Malley, John Ployardt, time private-eye yarn transplanted to the Colin Campbell, Claude Allister, The contemporary world of rock ’n’ roll. Clay’s Rhythmaires. Very entertaining animated got what it takes, but the film is clumsy, crude, doubleheader from Disney: a witty adaptaand immature (just like his character). For tion of Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in rabid Clay fans only. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 the Willows, about the puckish residents of Adventures of Gerard, The (1970-BritishToad Hall centering on Toad’s infatuation Italian-Swiss) C-91m. BOMB D: Jerzy with motorcars, narrated by Basil Rathbone; Skolimowski. Peter McEnery, Claudia and a broad, cartoony version of WashingCardinale, Eli Wallach, Jack Hawkins, John ton Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Neville. Clumsy farce from Arthur Conan with a genuinely scary climax, narrated (and Doyle story about cocky but stupid officer sung) by Bing Crosby.▼●쩠 who becomes fall guy for Napoleon’s (WalAdventures of Marco Polo, The (1938) lach) wartime strategy. Panavision. 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Archie Mayo. Gary CooAdventures of Hercules, The SEE: Herper, Sigrid Gurie, Basil Rathbone, George cules II Barbier, Binnie Barnes, Ernest Truex, Alan Adventures of Huck Finn, The (1993) CHale. Lighthearted approach to famed explor108m. ★★ D: Stephen Sommers. Elijah er’s life doesn’t always work, but Cooper is Wood, Courtney B. Vance, Robbie Colpleasant and Rathbone’s a good villain; trane, Jason Robards, Ron Perlman, Dana sumptuous production. Look for Lana Turner Ivey, Anne Heche, James Gammon, Paxton as one of the handmaidens. ▼쩠 Whitehead, Tom Aldredge, Curtis ArmAdventures of Mark Twain, The (1944) strong, Mary Louise Wilson, Frances Con★★★ D: Irving Rapper. Fredric 130m. roy. Utterly unimaginative rendering of March, Alexis Smith, Donald Crisp, Alan Mark Twain’s perennial, which should reHale, C. Aubrey Smith, John Carradine, main off-limits to Hollywood from this Percy Kilbride. This Hollywoodized story of point on. As Huck, young Wood looks and Samuel Clemens’ colorful life may not be acts too contemporary by decades, while great biography, but it’s consistently enterVance (as Jim) seems too young. Early taining—despite some biopic cliche´s. March scenes involving Huck’s brutal father may is fine in title role. Filmed in 1942. ▼쩠 be too intense for very young children . . . Adventures of Mark Twain, The (1985) and this a Disney release! [PG]▼●쩠 C-90m. ★★ D: Will Vinton. Voices of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The James Whitmore, Chris Ritchie, Gary Krug, (1939) 90m. ★★★ D: Richard Thorpe. Michele Mariana. Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Mickey Rooney, Walter Connolly, William and Becky Thatcher stow away on Mark Frawley, Rex Ingram, Lynne Carver. SubTwain’s amazing flying machine, heading dued Rooney fine, Ingram excellent as Huck for Halley’s Comet in this clay-figure and Jim in classic Mark Twain tale of early animated feature. Strangely disjointed and 19th-century America; Connolly and Frawley ineffectual, incorporating pieces of Twain are amusing as riverboat con artists. Also stories with interesting (but unsettling) look shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 [ 10 ]

at darker side of his personality. Still, imwicked Rathbone. Erich Wolfgang Kornpressive use of Claymation. [G] ▼●쩠 gold’s outstanding score earned an Oscar, as Adventures of Milo and Otis, The (1989did the art direction and editing. Scripted by Japanese) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Masanori Hata. Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller. ArNarrated by Dudley Moore. Cute film for kids guably Flynn’s greatest role. ▼●쩠 about a dog and a cat who venture away from Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1952their farm and experience a variety of adMexican) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. ventures. Not very strong on story but buoyed Dan O’Herlihy, Jaime Fernandez. Colorful, (in the U.S. release version) by Moore’s deentertaining adaptation of Daniel Defoe’s lightful narration. Original version, released classic story about a resourceful shipwreck in 1986, ran 90m. [G] ▼●쩠 victim, with some distinctive Bun˜uel Adventures of Pinocchio, The (1996touches; vivid performance by O’Herlihy. British-French-German) C-96m. ★★★ D: Screenplay by Philip Ansell Roll (Hugo Steve Barron. Martin Landau, Jonathan Butler) and Bun˜uel. Excellent music score Taylor Thomas, Genevieve Bujold, Udo by Anthony Collins. Main title on film is ROBINSON CRUSOE.▼쩠 Kier, Bebe Neuwirth, Rob Schneider, Corey Carrier, John Sessions; voice of David Doyle. Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Appealing live-action rendition of the Collodi The (2000) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Des McAnuff. fable about a wood-carver who creates the Rene Russo, Jason Alexander, Robert De magical, mischievous marionette Pinocchio. . . Niro, Piper Perabo, James Rebhorn, Randy who wants only to be a real boy. Some variaQuaid, Taraji (P.) Henson; voices of Keith tions from the Disney version, but gentle of Scott, June Foray. FBI agent yanks Rocket J. spirit and enjoyable throughout. Only adults Squirrel and Bullwinkle Moose out of cartoon are likely to question the variety of accents reruns in order to foil world-domination plans (American, British, German, Italian) in a story of Fearless Leader (De Niro). Fans of Jay supposedly set in Italy. Followed by a directWard’s cartoons will probably cut this more to-video sequel. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 slack than others, but in trying to please Adventures of Pluto Nash, The (2002) Cboth us and contemporary kids this benign comedy winds up neither fish nor fowl. De 95m. ★1⁄2 D: Ron Underwood. Eddie Murphy, Randy Quaid, Rosario Dawson, Joe Niro (who also coproduced the film) has fun Pantoliano, Jay Mohr, Luis Guzman, James and even spoofs Travis Bickle! A number of stars appear in gag cameos. [PG]▼쩠 Rebhorn, Peter Boyle, Pam Grier, John Cleese, Burt Young, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Adventures of Sebastian Cole, The (1999) C-104m. ★★★ D: Tod Williams. Adrian GrenIlleana Douglas. Murphy sleepwalks through this dumb comedy as a nightclub owner on a ier, Clark Gregg, Aleska Palladino, Margaret moon colony in the year 2087 who tries to Colin, John Shea, Marni Lustig, Joan Copeprevent a Mafia-type kingpin from turning his land, Tom Lacy, Rory Cochrane, Levon Helm, establishment into a gambling casino. ExpenFamke Janssen. Compassionate coming-ofsive misfire became Murphy’s biggest boxage story about an introverted adolescent and office bomb, earning comparisons with the impact on him and his family when his HOWARD THE DUCK and ISHTAR. Alec stepfather (Gregg) announces he is planning Baldwin appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 a sex-change operation. Despite this offbeat Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Depremise, the film is more true to life than many other teen-angst tales. [R]▼쩠 sert, The (1994-Australian) C-102m. ★★★ D: Stephan Elliott. Terence Stamp, Hugo Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl 3D, The (2005) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert RodriWeaving, Guy Pearce, Bill Hunter, Sarah Chadwick, Mark Holmes. Cheerfully outraguez. Taylor Lautner, Taylor Dooley, Cayden geous comedy about three flamboyant lipBoyd, George Lopez, David Arquette, Kristin sync performers—two drag queens and a Davis, Jacob Davich. A daydreaming boy transsexual—who journey to a remote denamed Max is visited by two characters he sert gig on a converted schoolbus named created—Sharkboy and Lavagirl—who need Priscilla. Diverting, if you can get past the his help to keep Planet Drool from being bitchy banter, and anchored by Stamp as the taken over by dark forces, including a nasty transsexual. A must for ABBA fans. Oscar kid named Minus (who resembles Max’s winner for Costume Design. Arriscope (and schoolyard tormentor) and his henchman Mr. Dragarama). [R]▼●쩠 Electric (who looks just like his teacher). InAdventures of Robin Hood, The (1938) spired by the drawings and dreams of his 7C-102m. ★★★★ D: Michael Curtiz, Wilyear-old son Racer, Rodriguez uses computer liam Keighley. Errol Flynn, Olivia de wizardry to create an eye-popping world of Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Claude Rains, wonder for young viewers . . . though his Patric Knowles, Eugene Pallette, Alan Hale, script and dialogue remain strictly earthbound. Herbert Mundin, Una O’Connor, Melville [PG] ▼쩠 Cooper, Ian Hunter, Montagu Love. Dashing Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The (1939) 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Werker. Flynn in the definitive swashbuckler, winning hand of de Havilland (never lovelier as Maid Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Ida Lupino, Marian), foiling evil prince Rains, dueling Alan Marshal, Terry Kilburn, George Zucco, [ 11 ]

E. E. Clive, Mary Gordon. The master nates in his defending a pig—back when sleuth faces one of his greatest challenges animals actually used to stand trial. Very when the nefarious Professor Moriarty offbeat but very accessible drama of court(Zucco) plots to steal the Crown Jewels. The room intrigue with vivid characterizations. second and last of Fox’s excellent RathboneAka HOUR OF THE PIG. [R]▼쩠 Bruce period pieces, which predated UniverAeon Flux (2005) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Karyn Kusama. Charlize Theron, Marton Csokas, sal’s entertaining modern series.▼●쩠 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Jonny Lee Miller, Sophie Okonedo, Frances Brother, The SEE: Adventure of SherMcDormand, Pete Postlethwaite, Amelia lock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, The Warner, Nikolai Kinski. Brainless sci-fi thrilAdventures of the Great Mouse Detective, ler in which a sexy rebel/assassin (Theron) The SEE: Great Mouse Detective, The battles to liberate a walled city from its dictaAdventures of the Wilderness Family, The torial rulers. This nonsensical, sleep-inducing (1975) C-100m. ★★★ D: Stewart Raffill. live-action cartoon is based on Peter Chung’s Robert F. Logan, Susan Damante Shaw, animated MTV series; the material is far betHollye Holmes, Ham Larsen, Buck Flower, ter served in its original format. Super 35. William Cornford. Good human-interest [PG-13] 쩠 drama. Modern couple with two children forAffair in Trinidad (1952) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: sake big city for life in magnificent but someVincent Sherman. Rita Hayworth, Glenn times dangerous Rocky Mountain region. Ford, Alexander Scourby, Torin Thatcher, Followed by two look-alike sequels. [G]▼쩠 Juanita Moore, Steven Geray. Hayworth Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The (1938) and Ford sparkle as cafe singer and brotherC-77m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Tommy in-law seeking her husband’s murderer. Hayworth is most enticing.▼●쩠 Kelly, Jackie Moran, Ann Gillis, May Robson, Walter Brennan, Victor Jory, Spring Affair of Love, An (1999-French-Belgian) C-80m. ★★★ D: Fre´de´ric Fonteyne. Nathalie Byington, Margaret Hamilton. Entertaining David O. Selznick production of Mark Twain Baye, Sergi Lopez. Provocative and interclassic with more slapstick than Twain may esting film about a woman who places an have had in mind. Cave sequence with Injun ad in a magazine to find a man who will Joe is unforgettable. Original running time participate in her sexual fantasy. Soon the 93m. Previously filmed in 1930, and again in couple is meeting on a weekly basis, but she 1973 (twice that year)—all under the title is reluctant to take the next step and get to TOM SAWYER. Refilmed in 1995 as TOM know him as a person. French title is UNE AND HUCK.▼● LIAISON PORNOGRAPHIQUE (A PORAdventuress, The (1946-British) 98m. ★★★ NOGRAPHIC AFFAIR), which refers to D: Frank Launder. Deborah Kerr, Trevor Baye’s definition of their relationship; the Howard, Raymond Huntley, Liam Redmond, film itself is fairly discreet. Super 35. ▼쩠 Harry Webster. A feisty Irish lass is perAffair of the Necklace, The (2001-U.S.suaded to help a German agent during French) C-120m. ★★ D: Charles Shyer. HilWW2—because it will hurt her sworn ary Swank, Jonathan Pryce, Simon Baker, enemies, the British. Well-made, low-key Adrien Brody, Brian Cox, Joely Richardson, film with touches of droll humor. British Christopher Walken, Hayden Panettiere. prints were originally 114m., which explains Handsome but ponderous historical drama— some abruptness in exposition. British title: based on real-life events—in which a young I SEE A DARK STRANGER.▼쩠 woman, seeking to restore her family name and Advise & Consent (1962) 139m. ★★★ D: reclaim her home, dares to scheme against Otto Preminger. Henry Fonda, Don Murray, Marie Antoinette and the power-hungry Charles Laughton, Walter Pidgeon, Peter Cardinal Louis de Rohan. Swank’s perforLawford, Gene Tierney, Franchot Tone, mance lacks fire and charisma, however, and Lew Ayres, Burgess Meredith, Paul Ford, the film itself never ignites. Narration, by King George Grizzard, Betty White. Long but enLouis’ house minister (Cox), is heavy-handed grossing drama of Washington wheeling and often unnecessary. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 and dealing, from Allen Drury novel. Cast Affairs in Versailles SEE: Royal Affairs is fine, with effective underplaying by in Versailles Ayres and Tone standing out among more Affairs of Cellini (1934) 80m. ★★★ D: flamboyant performances by Laughton (his Gregory La Cava. Constance Bennett, Fredlast film) and Grizzard. Also shown in comric March, Frank Morgan, Fay Wray, Jesputer-colored version. Panavision. ▼●쩠 sie Ralph. March is excellent as roguish ★★★ Advocate, The (1994-British) C-101m. Renaissance artist who falls in love with D: Leslie Megahey. Colin Firth, Amina Anduchess. Lavish production, fine cast make nabi, Jim Carter, Donald Pleasence, Ian this most entertaining. Lucille Ball plays Holm, Nicol Williamson, Lysette Anthony. a lady in waiting. Lawyer Firth abandons the bustle of 15thAffairs of Dobie Gillis, The (1953) 74m. ★★★ D: Don Weis. Debbie Reynolds, Bobby century Paris for the supposedly more pastoral pace of rural France, only to get Van, Hans Conried, Lurene Tuttle, Bob involved in a murder cover-up that culmiFosse. Entertaining musicomedy based on [ 12 ]

Max Shulman’s book of college kids. Debbie combating the elements and the Germans, and Van make a cute couple; Conried is and each other. Script by James Agee and their dour professor. Later a TV series.▼ director Huston from C. S. Forester’s novel; Affairs of Susan, The (1945) 110m. ★★1⁄2 gorgeously filmed on location in the BelD: William A. Seiter. Joan Fontaine, George gian Congo by Jack Cardiff.▼●쩠 Brent, Dennis O’Keefe, Don DeFore, Rita African Rage SEE: Target of an Assassin Johnson, Walter Abel. Fairly entertaining Africa Screams (1949) 79m. ★★★ D: Charles comedy of actress Fontaine who does more Barton. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Hillary acting for her beaus than she does onstage. Brooke, Max Baer, Clyde Beatty, Frank Affair to Remember, An (1957) C-115m. Buck, Shemp Howard, Joe Besser. A&C go ★★1 ⁄2 D: Leo McCarey. Cary Grant, Deborah on safari in this funny outing full of wheezy Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathbut often hilarious gags and routines. Also leen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Charles Watts, shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Fortunio Bonanova. Well-remembered but Africa—Texas Style (1967) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 middling remake of McCarey’s 1939 LOVE D: Andrew Marton. Hugh O’Brian, John AFFAIR. Bubbling shipboard comedy in first Mills, Nigel Green, Tom Nardini, Adrienne half is overshadowed by draggy soap-opera Corri. Feature (which later spun off a TV cliche´s and unnecessary musical numbers in series, Cowboy in Africa) doesn’t offer much N.Y.C. finale. Still, Grant and Kerr make a excitement, with O’Brian helping Mills prewonderful couple. Film is a major reference serve wild game in the dark continent. Hayley point in 1993 hit SLEEPLESS IN SEATMills has a cameo.▼ TLE. Remade again as LOVE AFFAIR in After Dark, My Sweet (1990) C-114m. ★★1 1994. Vic Damone croons the title song. ⁄2 D: James Foley. Jason Patric, Rachel CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Ward, Bruce Dern, George Dickerson, ★★ Affliction (1998) C-114m. D: Paul James Cotton, Rocky Giordani, Corey Schrader. Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, James Carrier. Piquant modern-day film noir based Coburn, Willem Dafoe, Mary Beth Hurt, on a Jim Thompson novel, about a drifter Marian Seldes, Jim True. Portrait of a man who becomes involved with a beautiful but whose screwed-up life—and mental imbaltroubled woman and her criminally schemance—can be laid at the feet of his abusive ing friend. Interesting at first, but eventufather; the son (Nolte) tries to stay afloat, as ally you catch on that it’s heading nowhere— traffic cop/jack-of-all-trades (and miserable 10 miles per hour, at that. Both Patric and part-time dad) in a small, wintry New HampDern are excellent. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 shire town. Bleak in the extreme, with no light Afterglow (1997-U.S.-Canadian) C-113m. ★★1 or hope for any of its principal characters, ⁄2 D: Alan Rudolph. Nick Nolte, Julie but extremely well acted; Coburn won a Best Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jonny Lee Supporting Oscar. Schrader adapted Russell Miller, Jay Underwood, Domini Blythe, Banks’ novel. [R]▼●쩠 Yves Corbeil. Typically odd Rudolph fare, Afraid of the Dark (1991-British-French) set in Montreal: longtime marrieds Nolte 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Mark Peploe. James Fox, C-92m. and Christie have hit an emotional roadFanny Ardant, Paul McGann, Clare Holblock; he’s a handyman (named Lucky) man, Robert Stephens, David Thewlis, who cats around while she seeks to relive Susan Wooldridge, Ben Keyworth. Offbeat her days as a movie actress. Meanwhile, psychological thriller, loaded with plot twists, businessman Miller has given his young, about imaginative boy (Keyworth) whose fabeautiful wife the cold shoulder—leaving ther is a cop and whose mother is blind. The her vulnerable to the charms of Nolte. Dense, latter is at risk during a killing spree in which slow, not entirely satisfying, but Christie is the victims are sightless females. Result is impressive as a woman who’s drowning in alternately gripping and ponderous. Feature sorrow. Written by Rudolph, produced by Robert Altman. [R]▼●쩠 directing debut for cowriter Peploe (THE After Hours (1985) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: MarLAST EMPEROR). [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★★ African Lion, The (1955) C-75m. tin Scorsese. Griffin Dunne, Rosanna ⁄2 D: James Algar. Narrated by Winston Hibler. Arquette, Verna Bloom, Thomas Chong, Outstanding True-Life documentary is perLinda Fiorentino, Teri Garr, John Heard, haps Disney’s best. Naturalists Alfred and Cheech Marin, Catherine O’Hara, Dick Elma Milotte filmed the African lion in his Miller, Bronson Pinchot. Ordinary guy goes native habitat through a year’s cycle of through a series of bizarre experiences during seasons. Filled with drama, excitement, one incredible night in N.Y.C. How much color, humor. A gem.쩠 you enjoy this comic nightmare will depend African Queen, The (1951) C-105m. on how closely you identify with Dunne—the ★★★★ D: John Huston. Katharine Hepburn, only normal person in the picture! [R] ▼●쩠 Humphrey Bogart, Robert Morley, Peter After Life (1998-Japanese) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 Bull, Theodore Bikel, Walter Gotell. D: Kore-eda Hirokazu. Aarata, Erika Oda, Superb combination of souse Bogart (who Susuma Terajima, Taketoshi Naito, Kyoko won an Oscar) and spinster Hepburn travelKagawa, Kei Tani, Takashi Naito, Yusuke ing downriver in Africa during WW1, Iseya. Beautifully told story of caseworkers [ 13 ]

at a way station between heaven and earth, Joseph Calleia, Jessie Ralph, Alan Marwho help the recently deceased choose a sinshal, Dorothy McNulty, William Law, Sam gle moment from their pasts to live inside for Levene, George Zucco. Delightful second the rest of eternity. Quiet, poetic examination entry in the series finds the urbane Charleses of life, death, and memory, filled with gentle in San Francisco and, when not inordihumor and blessedly free of any feel-good nately inebriated, investigating murder bromides. A plea to Hollywood: do not recharges brought against Loy’s unstable make this. Written by the director.▼쩠 cousin (Landi). Slightly overlong but first After Midnight (1989) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: rate, with a truly surprising culprit. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Ken Wheat, Jim Wheat. Jillian McWhirter, Pamela Segall, Ramy Zade, Nadine Van After the Wedding (2006-Danish-British) C-124m. ★★★ D: Susanne Bier. Mads MikDer Velde, Marc McClure, Marg Helgenberger, Billy Ray Sharkey. Four coeds kelsen, Rolf Lassga˙rd, Sidse Babett Knudtake turns telling the scariest story they sen, Stine Fischer Christensen, Christian know in this weak and predictable horror Tafdrup, Mona Malm. Dedicated social anthology . . . with a high violence quoworker (Mikkelsen) who runs an orphanage tient. This got limited theatrical release bein rural India is summoned home to Copenfore heading to videoland. [R]▼쩠 hagen to meet a wealthy man who may fund After Office Hours (1935) 75m. ★★ D: his projects. He arrives just as the industrialRobert Z. Leonard. Constance Bennett, ist’s daughter is getting married, and at the Clark Gable, Stuart Erwin, Billie Burke, wedding makes a shocking discovery. Bier Harvey Stephens, Henry Travers, William (who cowrote this with Anders Thomas JenDemarest, Katherine Alexander. Editor Gable sen) explores her characters’ moral dilemtries to manipulate society girl Bennett while mas in ultra close-up. Stern, intense drama investigating shady Stephens. Gable’s charm with superior performances. [R]쩠 cannot overcome forgettable script (written by Afurika Monogatari (1981-Japanese) CHerman J. Mankiewicz). 120m. BOMB D: Susumu Hani. James After the Fox (1966-British-Italian) C-103m. Stewart, Philip Sayer, Kathy, Eleanora ★★1⁄2 D: Vittorio De Sica. Peter Sellers, VicVallone, Heekura Simba. Pilot Sayer crashes tor Mature, Britt Ekland, Martin Balsam. Not plane in wilds of Africa, comes upon game always successful comedy of Italian con man preserve occupied by Stewart and grandSellers, who poses as a movie director. A daughter. Even old Jimmy is boring. Filmed must-see for Mature’s performance as a fadin Kenya. Aka A TALE OF AFRICA and THE GREEN HORIZON. ▼ ing romantic star with tremendous ego. Script by Neil Simon. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Against a Crooked Sky (1975) C-89m. ★★ After the Rehearsal (1984-Swedish) CD: Earl Bellamy. Richard Boone, Stewart ★★★ 72m. D: Ingmar Bergman. Erland Petersen, Geoffrey Land, Jewel Blanch, Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, Lena Olin, Nadja Henry Wilcoxon, Clint Ritchie. A boy Palmstjerna-Weiss, Bertil Guve. While searches for his sister, who’s been kidstaging the production of a Strindberg play napped by Indians; simplistic, old-fashioned a womanizing director is browbeaten by family Western. Todd-AO 35. [G] ▼쩠 the actress daughter of an old lover, then a Against All Flags (1952) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: middle-aged actress/ex-lover who has fallen George Sherman. Errol Flynn, Maureen on tougher times. Short running time or O’Hara, Anthony Quinn, Mildred Natwick. not, you can exhaust yourself trying to Flynn found his forte again as dashing British figure out the relationships here. Smallsoldier who maneuvers way into pirate forscreen viewing should make this original tress, while managing to flirt with O’Hara. telefilm easier to take than it was in theatAlthough not Flynn’s final swashbuckler, rical screenings. Fine acting. [R]▼ this was his last good entry in that genre. After the Sunset (2004) C-93m. ★★ D: Remade as THE KING’S PIRATE.▼●쩠 Brett Ratner. Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Against All Odds (1968) SEE: Blood of Fu Woody Harrelson, Don Cheadle, Naomie Manchu, The Harris, Chris Penn, Mykelti Williamson, Against All Odds (1984) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 Obba Babatunde´. Master thief Brosnan and D: Taylor Hackford. Rachel Ward, Jeff sexy accomplice Hayek escape to a sunBridges, James Woods, Alex Karras, Jane drenched paradise after pulling one final Greer, Richard Widmark, Dorian Harewood, diamond heist, but FBI agent Harrelson Swoosie Kurtz, Saul Rubinek, Pat Corley, (who’s been thwarted by Brosnan before) Bill McKinney, Kid Creole and the Cocotracks them down, seeking retribution—and nuts. Unemployed jock accepts a job from a hoping to prevent another theft. Aspires to be sleazy ex-teammate to find his girlfriend, TO CATCH A THIEF but can’t come close; who’s run off to Mexico. The plot thickens, attractive cast and scenery don’t generate in several directions, in this loose remake of enough heat. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 OUT OF THE PAST (with Greer playing 1 ★★★ After the Thin Man (1936) 113m. the mother of her character in the original). ⁄2 D: W. S. Van Dyke II. William Powell, Good stab at film noir feeling, but script is Myrna Loy, James Stewart, Elissa Landi, plot-heavy and unsatisfying. Best scene—a [ 14 ]

hair-raising race along Sunset Boulevard— buck, Anna Chancellor, Keith Allen, David is completely out of step with the rest of the Kelly, Keith David. That juvenile secret film. An interesting misfire. Haunting title agent is back for a U.K. adventure, with song by Phil Collins. [R] ▼●쩠 Anderson all too obviously shoehorned into Against the Ropes (2004) C-111m. ★★ D: the proceedings for comedy relief as his Charles S. Dutton. Meg Ryan, Omar Epps, watchdog. Muniz and perky Spearritt are Tony Shalhoub, Tim Daly, Charles S. Dutgame, but the characters and plotting are just ton, Kerry Washington, Joe Cortese. Jackie plain dull. P.S. Madonna and Jason Alexander Kallen (Ryan), exposed to boxing since are among the executive producers! Panavichildhood, sets out to make a name for hersion. [PG] ▼쩠 self by promoting street brawler Epps as a Agent 83⁄4 (1964-British) C-98m. ★★★ D: potential champion. To do this, she has to Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, Sylva buck some heavy-duty criminals and a perKoscina, Leo McKern, Robert Morley, vasive prejudice against women in the busiRoger Delgado, John LeMesurier. Reness. Shaky script changes tone from one leased at height of James Bond craze, this round to the next; surely the real-life Kalspoof features Bogarde as a bumbling selen’s story wasn’t this cliche´d. Super 35. cret agent working in Czechoslovakia. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Sometimes witty, bright comedy. OrigiAgainst the Wind (1948-British) 96m. nally released in U.S. at 77m. Original ★★★ D: Charles Crichton. Robert Beatty, British title: HOT ENOUGH FOR JUNE. Simone Signoret, Jack Warner, Gordon Age of Consent (1969-Australian) C-103m. Jackson, Paul Dupuis, James Robertson ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Powell. James Mason, Justice. Taut, engrossing tale of British Helen Mirren, Jack MacGowran, Neva spies trained for mission inside occupied Carr-Glyn, Frank Thring. A put-upon artBelgium during WW2. Documentary-style ist escapes to the quietude of Australia’s training scenes complement the dramatic Great Barrier Reef, where he’s inspired by story of resistance fighters.▼ a feisty young girl whom he persuades to Agatha (1979) C-98m. ★★★ D: Michael pose (often nude) for him. General amiabilApted. Dustin Hoffman, Vanessa Redgrave, ity and pretty scenery help make up for Timothy Dalton, Helen Morse, Celia Gregclumsy comedy relief and gaps in story and ory, Paul Brooke. Fictional speculation on characterization. Based on life of Norman writer Agatha Christie’s famous 11-day disLindsay, later the subject of SIRENS. [R]쩠 appearance in 1926; Redgrave is superb in Age of Innocence, The (1934) 81m. ★★1⁄2 this absorbing yarn, Hoffman oddly miscast D: Philip Moeller. Irene Dunne, John Boles, as smooth American reporter who tracks her Lionel Atwill, Helen Westley, Laura Hope down. [PG] ▼● Crews, Julie Haydon. Modest but effective Agatha Christie’s Endless Night SEE: Endversion of Edith Wharton’s novel about a less Night thwarted romance between an engaged attor1 ★ Agency (1981-Canadian) C-94m. ⁄2 D: ney and a divorce´e, in rigid 1870s Manhattan George Kaczender. Robert Mitchum, Lee society. Starts off with a terrific Jazz Age Majors, Valerie Perrine, Saul Rubinek, montage prologue, then gets bogged down in Alexandra Stewart. Shifty Mitchum plots to static, stagy treatment as elderly Boles regain political clout via information transmitlates the story of his ill-fated affair to his ted subliminally in television ads. Fascinating grandson. Dunne gives a luminous and idea, but result is dull and unconvincing. touching performance. Remade in 1993. Aka MIND GAMES. [R] ▼쩠 Age of Innocence, The (1993) C-133m. Agent Cody Banks (2003) C-102m. ★★★ D: ★★1 ⁄2 D: Martin Scorsese. Daniel DayHarald Zwart. Frankie Muniz, Hilary Duff, Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Angie Harmon, Keith David, Ian McShane, Richard E. Grant, Alec McCowen, GeralArnold Vosloo, Cynthia Stevenson, Daniel dine Chaplin, Mary Beth Hurt, Miriam MarRoebuck, Darrell Hammond, Martin Donogolyes, Sian Phillips, Michael Gough, van. A geeky, girl-shy 15-year-old (Muniz) Alexis Smith, Norman Lloyd, Jonathan who is secretly a junior agent for the CIA is Pryce, Robert Sean Leonard, Carolyn Faassigned to befriend the cute daughter of a rina; narrated by Joanne Woodward. In 1870s scientist developing a secret weapon for a N.Y. society, well-bred young man (Daysinister organization. This good-natured, Lewis), engaged to marry well-bred young broadly comic blend of Bond, SPY KIDS, woman (Ryder), is smitten by notorious and MEN IN BLACK is a teenage boy’s beauty (Pfeiffer) with a somewhat scandalous dream come true, packed with hot babes, background and an independent spirit. Sumpcool cars, extreme sports action, and hightuous adaptation of Edith Wharton’s Pulitzer tech gadgets galore. Followed by a sequel. Prize–winning novel about repressed emoPanavision. [PG] ▼쩠 tions in a convention-bound society, but Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination Lon★★ amidst the meticulous detail and opulent setD: Kevin Allen. don (2004) C-99m. tings, it’s hard to connect with these characFrankie Muniz, Anthony Anderson, Hannah Spearritt, Cynthia Stevenson, Daniel Roeters on an emotional level. Oscar winner for [ 15 ]

Costume Design. Filmed previously in 1924 involving them with gangsters, a troubleand 1934. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 some coffin, and a hokey stage magician. Agnes Browne (1999-U.S.-Irish) C-92m. No magic in this turkey.쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Anjelica Huston. Anjelica Huston, Ah, Wilderness! (1935) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marion O’Dwyer, Ray Winstone, Arno Clarence Brown. Wallace Beery, Lionel Chevrier, Gerard McSorley, Tom Jones. Barrymore, Aline MacMahon, Eric LinGood-natured film about a working-class den, Cecilia Parker, Mickey Rooney, Frank stiff in late 1960s Dublin whose husband Albertson, Bonita Granville. Rich Amerihas just died, leaving her to raise seven chilcana in this adaptation of Eugene O’Neill dren on her own. Fortunately, her best play about turn-of-the-century small-town friend (O’Dwyer) is always there to lend a life, focusing on boy facing problems of adohand. Comedy is rich in atmosphere but pat, lescence. Rooney, playing younger brother, with a subplot involving singer Tom Jones took the lead in musical remake SUMMER pushing things a bit too far. [R]▼쩠 HOLIDAY. Screenplay by Albert Hackett Agnes of God (1985) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: and Frances Goodrich. ▼쩠 Norman Jewison. Jane Fonda, Anne BanAI Artificial Intelligence (2001) C-145m. ★★ croft, Meg Tilly, Anne Pitoniak, Winston D: Steven Spielberg. Haley Joel Osment, Reckert, Gratien Gelinas. A young nun Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Brendan apparently became pregnant, then murdered Gleeson, Sam Robards, William Hurt, Jake the baby in the cloistered atmosphere of a Thomas, Ken Leung, Michael Mantell, convent, but court-appointed psychiatrist Adrian Grenier; narrated by Ben Kingsley. finds no easy explanations. Disturbing, not In the near future, scientist Hurt and his always satisfying, but electrified by three lead team develop a highly sophisticated robot performances, and beautifully photographed child who can experience emotions, includby Sven Nykvist. Screenplay by John Pieling love, but his adoption by a loving couple meier, from his play. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 who have lost a son is fraught with probAgony and the Ecstasy, The (1965) lems. Intriguing story draws us in, thanks in C-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carol Reed. Charlton part to Osment’s exceptional performance, Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry but takes several wrong turns; ultimately, Andrews, Adolfo Celi. Huge spectacle of it just doesn’t work. Spielberg rewrote the Michelangelo’s artistic conflicts with Pope adaptation Stanley Kubrick commissioned Julius II has adequate acting overshadowed of the Brian Aldiss short story ‘‘Super Toys by meticulous production. Short documentary Last All Summer Long’’; result is a curious on artist’s work precedes fragmentary drama and uncomfortable hybrid of Kubrick and based on bits of Irving Stone’s novel. Spielberg sensibilities. Striking music score Todd-AO. ▼●쩠 by John Williams. Robin Williams, Chris Agronomist, The (2004) C-91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rock, and Meryl Streep are unbilled for the use of their voices. [PG-13]▼쩠 Jonathan Demme. Powerful, uncompromising documentary portrait of a fascinating Aime´e & Jaguar (1999-German) C-125m. ★★★ D: Max Farberbock. Maria Schrader, individual: Jean Dominique, a leading Hai¨ ¨ tian radio personality and prominent figure Juliane Ko¨hler, Johanna Wokalek, Heike in the country’s struggle for human rights. Makatsch, Elisabeth Degen, Detlev Buck. FeWhile the film offers insight into the politics lice (Schrader) is a Jewish lesbian who’s emand history of (and U.S. influence in) Haiti ployed, ‘‘underground’’ fashion, by the during the latter 20th century, its primary Germans in 1943 Berlin, while Lilly (Ko¨hler) purpose is to give us a vivid portrait of one has four children by the Nazi husband on man’s fierce determination, deep-seated huwhom she cheats—with other Nazis. The two manism, and passionate love of country. women fall in love, which would seem awThe finale is shattering. [PG-13]쩠 fully contrived if it weren’t based on a true Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972-Gerstory. Production values are surprisingly detailed and lush, and the acting is first-rate. man) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski, Ruy Guerra, Del Negro, Title alludes to the affectionate nicknames the Helena Rojo, Cecilia Rivera, Peter Berling. women have for each other.▼쩠 Powerful, hypnotic tale of deluded conquisAin’t Misbehavin’ (1955) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 tador who leads a group of men away from D: Edward Buzzell. Rory Calhoun, Piper Pizarro’s 1560 South American expedition in Laurie, Jack Carson, Mamie Van Doren, search of seven cities of gold. Dreamlike Reginald Gardiner, Barbara Britton. Pleasfilm was shot on location in remote Amazon ant musical fluff about rowdy Laurie crashjungles; Kinski is perfect as the mad Aguirre. ing high society when wealthy Calhoun Filmed in both German- and English-lanfalls in love with her. guage versions; try to avoid the latter.▼쩠 Air America (1990) C-112m. ★★ D: Roger A-Haunting We Will Go (1942) 68m. Spottiswoode. Mel Gibson, Robert Downey, ★1⁄2 D: Alfred Werker. Stan Laurel, Oliver Jr., Nancy Travis, David Marshall Grant, Hardy, Dante the Magician, Sheila Ryan, Lane Smith, Ken Jenkins, Burt Kwouk, Art La John Shelton, Don Costello, Elisha Cook, Fleur, Tim Thomerson. Pilots Mel and Bob are Jr. One of Stan and Ollie’s poorest films, part of the C.I.A.’s smuggling operation in [ 16 ]

Laos during the Vietnam War. They crate anyback in spades. Thundering score by Jerry Goldsmith. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 thing and anyone anywhere—too bad they couldn’t fly in a script doctor. Alleged actionAirheads (1994) C-91m. ★★ D: Michael comedy has few laughs and makes little Lehmann. Brendan Fraser, Joe Mantegna, sense. Even Gibson’s patented swagger Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler, Chris Farcan’t keep this one airborne. No relation to ley, Michael McKean, Judd Nelson, Ernie the 1998 TV series. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Hudson, Amy Locane, Nina Siemaszko. Airborne (1993) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob BowThree metalheads with toy guns reluctantly man. Shane McDermott, Seth Green, Britttake a rock radio station hostage, hoping to ney Powell, Edie McClurg, Patrick O’Brien, get play for their one existent demo tape. Jack Black. Pedestrian teen film about a Not exactly the toughest subject to satirize, surfer who’s shipped off to Cincinnati, but the script is dull-witted anyway; fairly where, away from the waves, he seeks to energetic direction and compact running time help a bit. [PG-13]▼●쩠 gain respect through his amazing skill on rollerblades. Tough skating for anyone but Air I Breathe, The (2008-U.S.-Mexican) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Jieho Lee. Kevin Bacon, kids; some truly spectacular rollerblading stunts are the film’s sole grace. [PG]▼●쩠 Julie Delpy, Brendan Fraser, Andy Garcia, Air Bud (1997) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Sarah Michelle Gellar, Clark Gregg, Emile Martin Smith. Kevin Zegers, Michael Jeter, Hirsch, Forest Whitaker, Kelly Hu, Evan Wendy Makkena, Bill Cobbs, Eric ChristParke, Taylor Nichols, Victor Rivers, Jon mas. Innocuous Disney kiddie film about a Bernthal. Four overlapping, connect-thenew boy in town who befriends a lovable dots storylines, based on a Chinese proverb stray dog with the uncanny ability to shoot and titled ‘‘Happiness,’’ ‘‘Pleasure,’’ ‘‘Sorhoops. Jeter is malevolent fun as Bud’s forrow,’’ and ‘‘Love,’’ comprise this mess of a mer owner, a terrible children’s party clown movie. Starts out promisingly, as a disgrunwho tries to cash in on the dog’s celebrity. tled office drone (Whitaker) accidentally Mildly entertaining. Director Smith starred learns that a horse race has been fixed, then in NEVER CRY WOLF, a much superior degenerates into a cartoonish train wreck. Disney film about animals. Followed by a Pounding music score, jerky editing, and sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 pretentious narration are no help. Super 35. Air Bud: Golden Receiver (1998) C-90m. [R]쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Martin. Kevin Zegers, Airmail (1932) 83m. ★★★ D: John Ford. Gregory Harrison, Shayn Solberg, Cynthia Pat O’Brien, Ralph Bellamy, Russell Stevenson, Nora Dunn, Robert Costanzo, Tim Hopton, Slim Summerville, Frank AlbertConway, Dick Martin. Title canine catches son, Gloria Stuart. Routine story of piopigskins rather than shoots hoops. He and his neer airmail pilots supercharged by fine young owner (Zegers, the lone cast member aerial scenes and good cast. First-rate. From from the original) join the school football a Frank ‘‘Spig’’ Wead story. team—plus, a pair of Boris and Natasha– Airplane! (1980) C-86m. ★★★ D: Jim like villains plot to abduct the pooch for Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. their traveling circus. Predictable but harmRobert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Robert Stack, less fun. Followed by several direct-toLloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdulvideo sequels. [G]▼●쩠 Jabbar, Leslie Nielsen, Lorna Patterson, SteAir Force (1943) 124m. ★★★ D: Howard phen Stucker. Very funny spoof of AIRHawks. John Garfield, John Ridgely, Gig PORT-type pictures (and Arthur Hailey’s Young, Arthur Kennedy, Charles Drake, ZERO HOUR in particular), with a nonstop Harry Carey, George Tobias, Faye Emerstring of gags that holds up almost to the end son. Archetypal WW2 movie, focusing on (why carp?). Our favorite: the strange plight archetypal bomber crew. Tough to stomach of Lt. Hurwitz. Stay tuned through final credits. Followed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 at times (‘‘Fried Jap going down,’’ chimes Tobias after scoring a hit), but generally Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) C-85m. 1⁄2 D: Ken Finkleman. Robert Hays, ★★ exciting, well done.▼●쩠 Air Force One (1997) C-124m. ★★★ D: Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Wolfgang Petersen. Harrison Ford, Gary William Shatner, Chad Everett, David Oldman, Glenn Close, Dean Stockwell, Paymer. Mildly funny rehash of AIRWendy Crewson, Paul Guilfoyle, William PLANE (by a new writer-director), but H. Macy, Liesel Matthews, Xander Berkecan’t match the quantity, or quality, of ley, Bill Smitrovich, Elya Baskin, Ju¨rgen laughs in the original. Many cameos inProchnow. Supercharged thriller about bruclude Raymond Burr, Chuck Connors, Sonny Bono, Rip Torn. [PG]▼●쩠 tal Kazakhstani terrorists taking over Air Force One and holding the President, his Airport (1970) C-137m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George family, and his entourage hostage in midair. Seaton. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Intense, violent, edge-of-your-seat popcorn George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Jean Seberg, fodder, anchored by Ford as a two-fisted Jacqueline Bisset, Van Heflin, Maureen president who’s not afraid to fight. Requires Stapleton, Barry Nelson, Dana Wynter, the usual suspension of disbelief, but pays Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Hale, Gary Collins. [ 17 ]

GRAND HOTEL plot formula reaches latterously offering three views of each scene. day zenith in ultraslick, old-fashioned movie Technique takes getting used to but ultimately that entertains in spite of itself, detailing hectic the gimmick pays off. A mixed bag, but still winter night at metropolitan airport. Plastic worth checking out. Written by Roy, and performances dominate, with down-to-earth based on his own experiences. ▼쩠 Kennedy, touching Stapleton, and nervous A.K.A. Cassius Clay (1970) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 Heflin standing out. Helen Hayes won Oscar D: Jim Jacobs. Narrated by Richard Kiley. as impish stowaway. Based on the Arthur Interesting documentary about the controHailey bestseller; followed by three sequels— versial heavyweight champion. [PG]▼쩠 so far. Todd-AO. [G]▼●쩠 Akeelah and the Bee (2006) C-112m. ★★★ ★1 Airport 1975 (1974) C-106m. ⁄2 D: Jack D: Doug Atchison. Laurence Fishburne, Smight. Charlton Heston, Karen Black, Angela Bassett, Keke Palmer, Curtis ArmGeorge Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Susan strong, Tzi Ma, Lee Thompson Young, J. R. Clark, Helen Reddy, Gloria Swanson, Linda Villarreal. Irresistible story of an 11-yearBlair, Dana Andrews, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, old black girl from L.A. who’s learned to Nancy Olson, Roy Thinnes, Martha Scott. Yet suppress her intelligence in order to get another jetliner disaster epic, not worth your along at school . . . until a teacher and the time unless you get your kicks watching a principal discover her talent for spelling. Hollywood Squares–type cast that includes They introduce her to a demanding coach Helen Reddy as a (singing) nun. Swanson (Fishburne), who, it turns out, can learn a plays herself in her final film. Look quickly few things from her. A feel-good movie that for Sharon Gless. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 actually makes you feel good, told with ★★1 Airport ’77 (1977) C-113m. ⁄2 D: Jerry heart (and canny precision) by writerJameson. Jack Lemmon, Lee Grant, Brenda director Atchison. Palmer is wonderful as Vaccaro, George Kennedy, James Stewart, Akeelah. Fishburne also coproduced. Panavision. [PG]쩠 Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, Darren McGavin, Christopher Lee, Robert Foxworth, Akira (1988-Japanese) C-124m. ★★★ D: Robert Hooks, Monte Markham, Kathleen Katsuhiro Otomo. Voices of Jimmy FlanQuinlan, Gil Gerard, Pamela Bellwood, Arders, Drew Thomas, Lewis Lemay, Barlene Golonka, M. Emmet Walsh, Chris Lembara Larsen, Stanley Gurd, Jr. Bloody and mon. All the cliche´s and stock characters are violent animated science-fiction feature trucked out for another made-to-order disaster based on Japanese comic-book novel. A epic, not bad as these things go: Stewart’s group of motorcycle-riding teenagers livprivate luxury jet is sabotaged and sinks in the ing in post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo tries to ocean, forcing daring rescue attempt. Lemstop one of the gang who has run amok mon brings conviction to his role as dedicated after becoming empowered with telekipilot. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 netic powers in a government experiment. Airport ’79 SEE: Concorde, The—Airport Technically spectacular, with colorful ani’79 mation somewhat derailed by confusing Air Raid Wardens (1943) 67m. ★★ D: storytelling and a cryptic ending. A mustEdward Sedgwick. Stan Laurel, Oliver see for adult animation buffs. [R]▼●쩠 Hardy, Edgar Kennedy, Jacqueline White, Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams (1990-JapHorace (Stephen) McNally, Donald Meek. anese) C-120m. ★★★ D: Akira Kurosawa. Weak, later Laurel and Hardy comedy. One Akira Terao, Mitsuko Baisho, Mieko potentially good scene with slow-burn expert Harada, Chishu Ryu, Hisashi Igawa, MitKennedy doesn’t meet expectations.▼쩠 sunori Isaki, Toshihiko Nakano, Yoshitaka ★★ Air Up There, The (1994) C-102m. D: Zushi, Toshie Negishi, Martin Scorsese. Paul M. Glaser. Kevin Bacon, Charles GiEight vignettes—increasingly apocalyptic— tonga Maina, Yolanda Vazquez, Winston as ‘‘dreamt’’ by an 80-year-old widely Ntshona, Mabutho ‘‘Kid’’ Sithole, Sean regarded as the greatest living filmmaker McCann, Dennis Patrick. Brash ex-hoopster of the era. Results vary in quality, though with college coaching aspirations journeys to any three viewers are likely to rate the Africa in search of the perfect prospect, leadepisodes in widely shuffled order. At least ing to the standard culture-clashing situations one—mountain climbers caught in an allone might expect. As affably minor as director consuming blizzard—is vintage ‘‘K.’’ Glaser’s previous THE CUTTING EDGE, Scorsese portrays Van Gogh in one segment. (Do you detect any Burt Lancaster but not as deftly put together. [PG]▼● in his speech patterns?) [PG]▼●쩠 AKA (2002-British) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Duncan Roy. Matthew Leitch, Diana Quick, Aladdin (1992) C-90m. ★★★ D: John George Asprey, Lindsey Coulson, Blake RitMusker, Ron Clements. Voices of Scott son, Bill Nighy, Geoff Bell, Peter Youngblood Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Hills. Effective story of a young, gay, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert working-class boy who manages to infiltrate Gottfried, Douglas Seale; singing voices England’s upper crust, posing as a lord and of Brad Kane, Lea Salonga. Disney’s anialmost getting away with it. Shot on digital mated Arabian Nights tale is filtered through video, story is told via a triptych, simultanethe sensibility of an old Warner Bros. [ 18 ]

cartoon, as Aladdin conjures up a Genie who’s bursting with shtick. Williams’ hilarious rapid-fire patter (with equally rapidfire animation by Eric Goldberg) forms the centerpiece of this otherwise conventional story, colorfully (and tunefully) presented. Music and lyrics by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, and Tim Rice; Oscar winner for Best Music Score (Menken) and Best Song (‘‘A Whole New World,’’ by Menken and Rice). Followed by direct-to-video sequels, THE RETURN OF JAFAR, ALADDIN AND THE KING OF THIEVES, and an animated TV series. [G]▼●쩠 Alakazam the Great (1961) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 Voices of Jonathan Winters, Frankie Avalon, Arnold Stang, Sterling Holloway. Japanese-made cartoon is good children’s entertainment; story centers on magical monkey’s ambitious adventures, from bullfight in the pit of a volcano to an epic battle with Hercules. Toeiscope. ▼● Alambrista! (1977) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert M. Young. Domingo Ambriz, Trinidad Silva, Linda Gillin, Ned Beatty, Julius Harris, Paul Berrones, Edward James Olmos. Boyish, naive Ambriz illegally crosses the U.S.-Mexican border and is exploited as he seeks work to support his family. Touching, fresh, insightful; director Young’s first feature. Alamo, The (1960) C-161m. ★★★ D: John Wayne. John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Richard Boone, Carlos Arruza, Frankie Avalon, Pat Wayne, Linda Cristal, Chill Wills, Ken Curtis, Hank Worden, Denver Pyle, Olive Carey, Veda Ann Borg, John Dierkes, Guinn ‘‘Big Boy’’ Williams. Long, and long-winded, saga of the Alamo, with plenty of historical namedropping and speechifying. Worthwhile for final attack, a truly memorable movie spectacle. Fine score by Dimitri Tiomkin includes popular ‘‘The Green Leaves of Summer.’’ Filmed on location in Brackettville, Texas. Cut by 26m. after its L.A. premiere; restored on video. Todd-AO.

Malle. Amy Madigan, Ed Harris, Ho Nguyen, Donald Moffat, Truyer V. Tran, Rudy Young. Well-made but strangely uninvolving film based on real-life conflict between Vietnamese immigrants and American fishermen on the Texas Gulf Coast. [R]▼● ` la Mode (1994-French) C-82m. ★★ D: A Remy Duchemin. Ken Higelin, Jean Yanne, Francois Hautesserre, Florence Darel. Lighthearted French comedy of a teenage orphan who becomes apprentice to a small village’s tailor, only to break into the fashion world of the ’60s. If the rest of the film were as witty as the clothing there might be more to recommend. Harmless fluff. Original French title: FAUSTO. [R]▼쩠 Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, An (1998) C-86m. BOMB D: Alan Smithee. Ryan O’Neal, Eric Idle, Coolio, Chuck D, Richard Jeni, Leslie Stefanson, Sandra Bernhard, Harvey Weinstein, Sylvester Stallone, Whoopi Goldberg, Jackie Chan. Any film with Robert Evans and Billy Barty in its cast can’t be ignored—but this leaden, sophomoric Hollywood satire ought to be. Idle plays a filmmaker named Alan Smithee—but since that’s also the pseudonym directors must use when they don’t want screen credit, he’s stuck when he wants to disown his latest movie. As one character says of the film-within-a-film, ‘‘It’s worse than SHOWGIRLS.’’ The ultimate irony: this film’s director, Arthur Hiller, removed his name after squabbling with writer-producer Joe Eszterhas. [R]▼●쩠 Alarmist, The (1998) C-93m. ★★ D: Evan Dunsky. David Arquette, Stanley Tucci, Kate Capshaw, Mary McCormack, Ryan Reynolds, Tricia Vessey, Michael Learned. Offbeat but uneven black comedy about a novice door-todoor security alarm salesman (Arquette) who discovers that his boss and self-styled mentor (Tucci) actually breaks into people’s homes to stir up business. Then the young man falls in love with his first customer (Capshaw). Never the sharp satire on modern paranoia it strives to be, though Tucci is terrific. Arquette’s father Lewis and brother Richmond ▼●쩠 Alamo, The (2004) C-135m. ★★★ D: John appear as his on-screen family. [R]▼●쩠 Lee Hancock. Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Alaska (1996) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fraser C. Quaid, Jason Patric, Patrick Wilson, Emilio Heston. Thora Birch, Vincent Kartheiser, Echeverrı´a, Jordi Molla´, Leon Rippy, Marc Dirk Benedict, Charlton Heston, Duncan Blucas, Rance Howard. Impassioned reFraser, Gordon Tootoosis. Juvenile adventure creation of events leading up to the legendyarn on a grand scale, as a brother and sister ary 1836 siege in San Antonio, Texas; more take off in search of their father and his accurate than earlier renderings of the story, it downed airplane. Plotted like an old grade-B still struggles to deal with the many facets of melodrama, but carried out with conviction this historical event. Cowriter-director Hanagainst magnificent, snowy scenery . . . and cock stresses the human element and captures featuring an irresistible polar bear who bethe defenders’ nobility in defeat. Thornton is friends the young people. Heston (whose the heart and soul of the film as Davy Crockett, son directed the picture) plays a mean, wily who wasn’t larger than life but became a hero bad guy. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 just the same. Battle scenes are especially well Albino Alligator (1997) C-97m. ★★ D: photographed, staged, and edited—and frightKevin Spacey. Matt Dillon, Faye Dunaway, eningly believable. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Gary Sinise, William Fichtner, Viggo MorAlamo Bay (1985) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Louis tensen, John Spencer, Skeet Ulrich, M. [ 19 ]

Emmet Walsh, Joe Mantegna, Frankie Faison, Faye, Don Ameche, Ethel Merman, Jack Melinda McGraw. Disappointing chamber Haley, Jean Hersholt, Helen Westley, John piece about a trio of dysfunctional criminals Carradine. Corny but entertaining musical who hide out in a basement bar in New Orchronicling the professional and romantic leans, inadvertently initiating a hostage siege. ups and downs of hot-headed aristocrat bandMeanwhile, the Feds gather outside, thinking leader Power, nice-guy pianist-composer a much more dangerous (and wanted) crimiAmeche, and tough-but-vulnerable singer nal is holed up inside. Spacey’s directorial Faye (in one of her best performances). debut presents a good cast and gets off to a Sparked by Irving Berlin songs ‘‘Blue Skies,’’ ‘‘Easter Parade,’’ title tune.▼●쩠 good start, but it sputters to a dramatic halt halfway through. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Alexander the Great (1956) C-141m. ★★★ Al Capone (1959) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard D: Robert Rossen. Richard Burton, Fredric Wilson. Rod Steiger, Fay Spain, James March, Claire Bloom, Danielle Darrieux, Gregory, Martin Balsam, Nehemiah Persoff, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Peter CushMurvyn Vye. Good latter-day gangster biing, Michael Hordern, Helmut Dantine. Reography with Steiger tirading as scarfaced markable cast, intelligent acting, but a static Capone; good supporting cast, bringing epic, lacking essential sweep to make tale of back memories of Cagney-Robinson-Bogart Greek conqueror moving. CinemaScope. films of the ’30s.▼쩠 ▼●쩠 Alex & Emma (2003) C-96m. ★★ D: Rob Alex and the Gypsy (1976) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 Reiner. Kate Hudson, Luke Wilson, Sophie D: John Korty. Jack Lemmon, Genevieve Marceau, David Paymer, Rob Reiner, FranBujold, James Woods, Gino Ardito, Robc¸ois Giroday, Lobo Sebastian, Cloris Leachert Emhardt, Titos Vandis. Meandering man, Rip Taylor. Anemic romantic comedy story of romance between bailbondsman about a novelist who has 30 days to comLemmon and gypsy Bujold who’s accused plete a manuscript and his budding relationof attempted murder. Some interesting ideas ship with the stenographer he hires to help lost in the muddle of an indecisive film. him do the job. She also turns up, in various [PG—originally rated R] guises, as we see his fantasy vision of the Alex in Wonderland (1970) C-109m. ★★ story—set in the 1920s—unfold. The two D: Paul Mazursky. Donald Sutherland, leads are OK, but the big laughs never Ellen Burstyn, Viola Spolin, Federico come. Inspired, believe it or not, by real-life Fellini, Jeanne Moreau. Camera follows experiences of Feodor Dostoyevsky while young film director Sutherland through tehe was writing The Gambler. [PG-13] ▼쩠 dium of his everyday life. Self-indulgent imiAlexander (2004-French-British-Dutch) Ctation of Fellini (who appears briefly) caused some wags to dub this film 11⁄2. Burstyn 175m. ★1⁄2 D: Oliver Stone. Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Christopher stands out as Sutherland’s wife. [R]▼ Plummer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, AnAlexRider:Operation Stormbreaker (2006thony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, British-German) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Geoffrey Brian Blessed, Tim Pigott-Smith. LumberSax. Alex Pettyfer, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen ing historical epic about the life of AlexanFry, Damian Lewis, Bill Nighy, Ewan der the Great, as dictated some years after McGregor, Sophie Okonedo, Mickey Rourke, his demise by Ptolemy. Attempt to explore Andy Serkis, Alicia Silverstone, Ashley Walthe many conflicts—from the moment of his ters, Sarah Bolger, Missi Pyle. When his superbirth onward—that shaped this fabled warrior spy uncle dies under mysterious circumstances, sheds very little light and makes one wish young Alex is thrust into the world of the Britthe elephants who attack in a climactic scene ish Secret Service and must foil a plot to take would do their worst. Only Jolie, as Alexanover the world’s supercomputers. Based on the der’s mother, Olympias, brings any spark to first of Anthony Horowitz’s best-selling books, the film. Perhaps the first Oliver Stone movie this could have been a clever junior James one can honestly describe as boring. DirecBond outing but gets caught up in its own cutetor’s cut runs 167m. Followed a year later by ness. Takes off in unattractive directions and ALEXANDER REVISITED: THE FINAL comes up a big double-zero. Original British CUT at 220m. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 title: STORMBREAKER. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Alexander Nevsky (1938-Russian) 107m. Alfie (1966-British) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ★★★★ Lewis Gilbert. Michael Caine, Shelley WinD: Sergei Eisenstein. Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Alexander ters, Millicent Martin, Julia Foster, Jane Abrikossov, Dmitri Orlov, Vassily Novikov. Asher, Shirley Anne Field, Vivien Merchant, Epic tale of Cherkassov and Russian army Eleanor Bron, Denholm Elliott, Alfie Bass, repelling German invasion during the 13th Graham Stark, Murray Melvin. Well-turned century, a disturbing parallel to world sitversion of Bill Naughton play (he also uation at time of production. Magnificently scripted). Caine is superb as philandering visualized battle sequences, wonderful Cockney playboy who can’t decide if bacheProkofiev score. A masterpiece.▼●쩠 lor life is so bloody marvelous. Cher sings Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938) 105m. title tune. Followed by ALFIE DARLING. ★★★ D: Henry King. Tyrone Power, Alice Remade in 2004. Techniscope. ▼●쩠 [ 20 ]

Alfie (2004) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Shyer. which ought to be triumphant, plays out as just Jude Law, Marisa Tomei, Omar Epps, Nia one more fight, since we’ve seen so many othLong, Jane Krakowski, Sienna Miller, Susan ers reenacted by then. Smith does a good job— Sarandon, Renee Taylor, Dick Latessa, but the real Ali was even more charismatic. DiGedde Watanabe. N.Y.C. limo driver Alfie, rector’s cut runs 165m. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 an ex-Londoner, loves women but only on Alias Betty (2001-French-Canadian) Chis own terms, meaning sex when he feels 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Miller. Sandrine like it without any strings attached . . . but Kiberlain, Nicole Garcia, Mathilde Seigner, lately he’s starting to think there may be Luck Mervil, E´douard Baer, Ste´phane Freiss. something missing in his life. Law is saucy, So-so drama-thriller charting the spiraling the women are well cast, but it doesn’t add events that occur when a little boy dies in an up to much, especially compared to the accident and his emotionally disconnected 1966 original, which was darker and more grandmother kidnaps another child to take misogynistic. [R] ▼쩠 his place. Opening scenes are riveting, but Alfie Darling (1975-British) C-102m. ★★ story bogs down as it gets involved with too D: Ken Hughes. Alan Price, Jill Townsend, many extraneous characters. Based on the Joan Collins, Annie Ross, Sheila White, Ruth Rendell novel The Tree of Hands. ▼쩠 Rula Lenska. Forgettable sequel to ALFIE, Alias Jesse James (1959) C-92m. ★★★ D: with Price a most inadequate replacement Norman McLeod. Bob Hope, Rhonda Flemfor Michael Caine. This time around our ing, Wendell Corey, Jim Davis, Gloria hero falls for a chic magazine editor. Video Talbott. One of Hope’s funniest has him title: OH, ALFIE.▼쩠 an insurance salesman out West, mistaken Alfredo, Alfredo (1972-Italian) C-98m. for sharpshooter. Fleming is a lovely West★1 ern belle; the two do a cute song together. ⁄2 D: Pietro Germi. Dustin Hoffman, Stefania Sandrelli, Carla Gravina, Clara Many guests appear at the climax.▼●쩠 Colosimo, Daniele Patella, Duilio Del Prete. Alias Nick Beal (1949) 93m. ★★★ D: John All-too-typical Italian comedy about a Farrow. Ray Milland, Audrey Totter, milquetoast who wins and weds a sexy Thomas Mitchell, George Macready, Fred woman, only to regret his conquest. Sole Clark. Allegory of Devil (Milland) corinterest is observing Hoffman in this unrupting honest politician Mitchell with help usual setting (with a dubbed voice!). Origof trollop Totter. Interesting drama with inally 110m. [R]▼ unusually sinister Milland. Alfred the Great (1969-British) C-122m. Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944) ★★ C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Lubin. Maria D: Clive Donner. David Hemmings, Michael York, Prunella Ransome, Colin Montez, Jon Hall, Scotty Beckett, Turhan Blakely, Julian Glover, Ian McKellen. Story Bey, Kurt Katch, Andy Devine, Frank Puglia. of young leader of 9th-century England can’t Colorful escapism with rightful prince Hall decide if it’s a serious historical chronicle battling evil man who put him out of the way or broad swashbuckler; succeeds in neither years ago; much footage reused in SWORD department. Only highlight is series of OF ALI BABA. Devine speaking in flowery meticulously filmed battle scenes; other‘‘Arabian Nights’’ dialogue may put off all but his staunchest fans.▼● wise, ambitious script is boring. McKellen’s film debut. Panavision. [M/PG] Alibi Ike (1935) 73m. ★★★ D: Ray Enright. Algiers (1938) 95m. ★★★ D: John Cromwell. Joe E. Brown, Olivia de Havilland, WilCharles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, Hedy Lamarr, liam Frawley, Ruth Donnelly, Roscoe Karns. Joseph Calleia. Alan Hale, Gene Lockhart, Brown is aces as the title character, a brash Johnny Downs, Paul Harvey. Boyer as Pepe Chicago Cubs rookie hurler who’s always Le Moko falls in love with alluring Lamarr ready with excuses for his mistakes. He bevisiting Casbah district of Algiers: Calleia as comes involved with pretty de Havilland, police official, Lockhart as informer, stand out and tangles with gamblers who try to bribe in well-cast romance. Remake of French him. Based on a story by Ring Lardner; the PEPE LE MOKO, remade as CASBAH.▼쩠 last of Brown’s baseball trilogy, following Ali (2001) C-158m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Mann. FIREMAN, SAVE MY CHILD and ELWill Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario MER THE GREAT. Van Peebles, Ron Silver, Jeffrey Wright, MyAlice (1990) C-106m. ★★ D: Woody Alkelti Williamson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nona len. Mia Farrow, Alec Baldwin, Blythe Gaye, Michael Michele, Joe Morton, Paul Danner, Judy Davis, William Hurt, Keye Rodriguez, Bruce McGill, Barry Shabaka HenLuke, Joe Mantegna, Bernadette Peters, Cybley, Giancarlo Esposito, Laurence Mason, ill Shepherd, Gwen Verdon, Patrick O’Neal, LeVar Burton. Disappointing bio of the exJulie Kavner, Caroline Aaron, Holland Taytraordinary prizefighter, born Cassius Clay, lor, Robin Bartlett, Bob Balaban, Elle Maccovering the years 1964 to 1974. Despite its pherson. One of Woody’s ‘‘chamber films’’ length, film is surprisingly sketchy; we learn with Farrow as the mousy, pampered wife very little about the man except his conversion of wealthy Hurt, trying to find herself, and to Islam and his determination to win in the contemplating the unthinkable—an extramariring. The ‘‘Rumble in the Jungle’’ finale, tal affair. With that cast, it’s certainly watch[ 21 ]

able, but the whimsy seems forced, the story disguised as Lewis Carroll characters, in overly familiar. Even Allen’s usually infallithis slow-moving adaptation of the classic ble choice of soundtrack music is heavystory. Fascinating for its casting—Cooper handed. Nice screen farewell for character as White Knight, Fields as Humpty Dumpactor Keye Luke, however. Judith Ivey has ty, Grant as Mock Turtle—but, overall, a an unbilled cameo. [PG-13]▼●쩠 bore. Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Alice Adams (1935) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George and William Cameron Menzies. Alice in Wonderland (1951) C-75m. ★★★ Stevens. Katharine Hepburn, Fred MacMurray, Fred Stone, Evelyn Venable, Ann D: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, WilShoemaker, Frank Albertson, Hattie Mcfred Jackson. Voices of Kathryn BeauDaniel, Charley Grapewin, Grady Sutton, mont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Hedda Hopper. Excellent small-town AmerHolloway, Jerry Colonna, Verna Felton, icana with social-climbing girl finally finding Bill Thompson. Entertaining, if somewhat love in person of unpretentious Macaloof, rendering of Lewis Carroll’s classic, Murray. Booth Tarkington’s Pulitzer Prize– with the Walt Disney animation team at its winning novel becomes fine film, if not best bringing the Cheshire Cat, the Queen altogether credible. The dinner-table scene of Hearts, and the Mad Hatter to life. is unforgettable. Screenplay by Dorothy Episodic film is given major boost by Yost, Mortimer Offner, and Jane Murfin. strong personalities of Wynn, Colonna, Filmed before in 1923.▼●쩠 Holloway, et al., and such tunes as ‘‘I’m Alice and Martin (1998-French-Spanish) Late’’ and ‘‘The Unbirthday Song.’’ ▼●쩠 C-123m. ★★ D: Andre´ Te´chine´. Juliette BiAlice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972noche, Alexis Loret, Mathieu Amalric, CarBritish) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: William Sterling. men Maura, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Marthe Fiona Fullerton, Michael Crawford, Ralph Villalonga. A young man, tormented by his Richardson, Flora Robson, Peter Sellers, childhood, meets his half-brother’s companDudley Moore, Michael Jayston. Tedious ion (Binoche), who is drawn to him in spite British film version of Lewis Carroll’s classic of his severe emotional wounds. His trouproves Americans don’t have a monopoly on bled past is gradually revealed in flashmaking bad children’s musicals. Waste of a good cast. Todd-AO 35. [G]▼쩠 backs, but it’s difficult to care about him or his future in this off-putting film. [R]▼ Alice’s Restaurant (1969) C-111m. ★★★ Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) D: Arthur Penn. Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Martin Scorsese. Ellen James Broderick, Michael McClanathan, Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Billy Green Geoff Outlaw, Tina Chen. Guthrie’s popuBush, Alfred Lutter, Diane Ladd, Jodie lar record inspired this odd blend of satFoster, Harvey Keitel, Vic Tayback, Valire, whimsy, melodrama, and social comerie Curtin. Excellent look at a woman’s mentary. Generally fun, with quizzically odyssey to find herself and some measure downbeat ending, showing freeform lifeof happiness after her husband dies, leavstyle of group of friends headed by Broderick ing her and a young son penniless. Krisand Quinn (as Alice). Also shown in PGtofferson is gentle, well-meaning man who rated version. [R]▼쩠 tries to win her love. Burstyn won wellAlice, Sweet Alice SEE: Holy Terror deserved Oscar for Best Actress. Rich screenAlien (1979) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ridley Scott. play by Robert Getchell. Look very carefully Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, John Hurt, in the final diner scene for Ladd’s daughter Ian Holm, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Laura Dern eating ice cream cone at counter. Veronica Cartwright. Commercial spacecraft Later reworked into a long-running TV situnwittingly takes on an alien being that com called Alice. [PG]▼●쩠 wreaks merciless havoc on the crew. SpaceAlice in the Cities (1974-German) 110m. ★★★ age horror film reverts to 1950s formula, but D: Wim Wenders. Rudiger Vogler, Yella Rottunfolds at a deliberate pace, populates the lander, Lisa Kreuzer, Chuck Berry. After story with interesting, colorful characters, and wandering aimlessly across America, alienated plants its (genuine) shock moments with exjournalist Vogler meets a woman—and finds ceptional skill. Imitated but seldom equaled. himself saddled with her 9-year-old daughter Screenplay by Dan O’Bannon, from his and when she mysteriously disappears. Intelligent, Ronald Shusett’s story; inspired by IT! THE often hypnotic film reflects on the effect of TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE. For American pop culture on postwar Europeans. 2003 reissue, Scott trimmed some material and added 41⁄2m. of new footage, resulting The first in Wenders’ ‘‘road movie’’ trilogy, followed by WRONG MOVE and KINGS in a 115m. movie. Followed by ALIENS. OF THE ROAD.▼ Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Alice in Wonderland (1933) 77m. ★★ D: Alienator (1989) C-92m. ★★ D: Fred Olen Norman Z. McLeod. Charlotte Henry, RichRay. Jan-Michael Vincent, John Phillip ard Arlen, Gary Cooper, W. C. Fields, Law, Ross Hagen, Teagan, Dyann Ortelli, Cary Grant, Edward Everett Horton, Baby Jesse Dabson, Dawn Wildsmith, P. J. Soles, LeRoy, Edna May Oliver, Jack Oakie, Robert Clarke, Richard Wiley, Leo V. many others. Top Paramount stars appear, Gordon, Robert Quarry. Gimlet-eyed Vin[ 22 ]

cent, a cruel alien prison warden, sends planet where (you guessed it) the alien reunstoppable, Amazonian ‘‘hunter unit’’ generates itself and runs amok. Good perTeagan after fugitive Hagen, who’s crashformances, some scares, but a definite landed on Earth. OK sci-fi from the prolific feeling of de´ja` vu hangs over the proceedRay, with a great B movie cast, but looks ings. Special edition runs 144m. Followed like two movies overlapping. [R]▼● by ALIEN RESURRECTION. Panavision. Alien From L.A. (1987) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: [R]▼●쩠 Albert Pyun. Kathy Ireland, Thom MatAlien Thunder (1973-Canadian) C-90m. ★★ thews, William R. Moses, Don Michael D: Claude Fournier. Donald Sutherland, Paul, Richard Haines, Linda Kerridge, Janie Kevin McCarthy, Chief Dan George, Jean du Plessis. California Valley Girl falls down Duceppe, Jack Creely, Francine Racette. hole, finds herself in the lost city of Atlantis. Mountie Sutherland chases Cree Indian acAs silly as it sounds. [PG]▼●쩠 cused of a sergeant’s murder in this handAlien Nation (1988) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Grasome but tedious actioner. Video title: ham Baker. James Caan, Mandy Patinkin, DAN CANDY’S LAW. [PG]▼쩠 Terence Stamp, Kevin Major Howard, LesAlien Trespass (2009-Canadian) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: R. W. Goodwin. Eric McCormack, lie Bevins. In the near future, a race of odd-looking aliens is slowly (and grudgJenni Baird, Robert Patrick, Jody Thompson, ingly) being integrated into society. WorldDan Lauria, Aaron Brooks, Sarah Smyth. weary L.A. cop Caan agrees to take one Amusing straight-faced spoof of 1950s scion as his partner, so he can track down the fi movies has a spacecraft crash-landing just alien who killed his former sidekick. A outside a typical American town; before long great concept that doesn’t quite pay off, an unseen force overtakes many of the residespite many clever touches and terrific dents, including pipe-smoking scientist Mcperformances by Caan and Patinkin. FolCormack. It’s all been parodied before but lowed by a TV series and three made-forthis amiable film gets the look and feel just TV movies. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 right. Opens with a faux newsreel that sets Alien Resurrection (1997) C-108m. ★★ D: up the movie as a long-lost nugget of film Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Sigourney Weaver, Wihistory. [PG] nona Ryder, Dominique Pinon, Ron PerlAlien vs. Predator (2004-Czech-Britishman, Gary Dourdan, Michael Wincott, Kim German-U.S.) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul W. S. Flowers, Dan Hedaya, J. E. Freeman, Brad Anderson. Sanaa Lathan, Raoul Bova, Lance Dourif. Two hundred years after ALIEN 3, Henriksen, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon, Ripley (Weaver) is cloned aboard a spaceTommy Flanagan, Joseph Rye, Agathe de la ship with a touch of alien in her makeup, Boulaye, Carsten Norgaard. Lame attempt to and more aliens to battle with the help of a attract fans of the ALIEN and PREDATOR band of space pirates. Clumsy sequel with films, with the scenario involving an archeocrummy logic, far too many wisecracks; a logical expedition to the ends of the earth, a few good action scenes, but strictly for sebizarre underground world, and the presence ries fans. Special edition runs 116m. Folof the deadly ALIEN and PREDATOR lowed by ALIEN VS. PREDATOR. Super monsters. A waste. ‘‘Extended’’ version on 35. [R]▼●쩠 DVD is one minute longer! Director’s cut Aliens (1986) C-137m. ★★★1⁄2 D: James runs 115m. Aka AVP: ALIEN VS. PREDCameron. Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, ATOR. Followed by a sequel. Super 35. Michael Biehn, Paul Reiser, Lance Hen[PG-13] ▼쩠 riksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein. Aliens vs. Predator—Requiem (2007) CWeaver, the sole human survivor from 94m. ★★ D: The Brothers Strause. Steven ALIEN, returns to planet that spawned the Pasquale, Reiko Aylesworth, John Ortiz, yukky creatures with a Marine squadron Robert Joy. Follow-up to 2004’s monster that’s ready to wipe them out. Intense, matchup brings the iconic extraterrestrials exciting sequel directed by Cameron the together for an earthbound smackdown in same way he did THE TERMINATOR— a small Colorado town. More graphically once it gets going there’s just no letup! violent, yet significantly less atmospheric, Weaver is sensational in compelling lead than ALIEN VS. PREDATOR, sequel ofrole. The special effects won an Oscar. fers undemanding, occasionally exciting B‘‘Director’s cut’’ version runs 154m. Folmovie thrills. Expectant mothers might do lowed by ALIEN 3. [R]▼●쩠 well to avert their eyes during an ingeAlien’s Return, The SEE: Return, The niously creepy maternity-ward sequence. Alien Terror SEE: Sinister Invasion Full significance of the final scene will be Alien 3 (1992) C-115m. ★★ D: David lost on anyone not intimately familiar with Fincher. Sigourney Weaver, Charles S. arcane aspects of the ALIEN movie mythos. Dutton, Charles Dance, Paul McGann, Unrated version runs 101m. Super 35. [R]쩠 Brian Glover, Ralph Brown, Danny Webb, Ali—Fear Eats the Soul (1974-German) Lance Henriksen, Pete Postlethwaite. MoreC-94m. ★★★ D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. of-the-same sequel has Weaver and other survivors of ALIENS on isolated prison Brigitte Mira, El Hedi Ben Salem, Barbara [ 23 ]

Valentin, Irm Hermann, Rainer Werner Fassas an aging star who takes in an adoring binder. Widow Mira, in her 60s, falls in love fan (Baxter) and soon discovers that the with and marries an Arab 30 years her junior. young woman is taking over her life. Witty Interesting, quietly effective Fassbinder dialogue to spare, especially great when film, a remake of Douglas Sirk’s ALL spoken by Sanders and Ritter. Six Oscars THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS.▼쩠 include Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Ali G Indahouse (2002-British) C-88m. and Supporting Actor (Sanders). Later mu★★1⁄2 D: Mark Mylod. Sacha Baron Cohen, sicalized on Broadway as Applause.▼●쩠 Michael Gambon, Charles Dance, Kellie All About My Mother (1999-SpanishFrench) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo´Bright, Martin Freeman, Rhona Mitra, Barbara New, Emilio Rivera. Before he brought var. Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Pene´lope Borat to the big screen, Baron Cohen’s Cruz, Antonia San Juan, Candela Pen˜a, other TV alter ego made his feature debut in Rosa Maria Sarda´, Eloy Azorin. When a this raunchy farce in which the white British woman loses her son, she returns to Barcegangsta-rapper wannabe searches for ‘‘reallona, rekindles a dormant friendship with a ness’’ and ‘‘respek’’ while trying to thwart transvestite pal, and becomes involved with a a plot to overthrow the Prime Minister. stage actress her son admired. Almodo´var’s Silly, scatological, and tasteless, but also most moving film to date—more serious than sometimes sharply satirical and quite funny. most, but not without his trademark And keep an eye out for a quick cameo humor—and distinguished by exceptional by Borat. Released direct to video in the performances all around. A paean to U.S. [R]쩠 women, in real life and on stage and film. Alive (1993) C-125m. ★★★ D: Frank MarOscar winner for Best Foreign Film. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 shall. Ethan Hawke, Vincent Spano, Josh Hamilton, Bruce Ramsay, John Haymes All About the Benjamins (2002) C-98m. ★★ Newton, David Kriegel, Kevin Breznahan, D: Kevin Bray. Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Sam Behrens, Illeana Douglas, Jack NoseEva Mendes, Tommy Flanagan, Carmen worthy. Queasy movie about the rugby Chaplin, Valarie Rae Miller, Roger Guenteam that survived 72 days in the Andes veur Smith, Anthony Michael Hall. Miami Mountains when their plane crashed on its bounty hunter is determined to bring in way from Uruguay to Chile. A half-good petty con man Epps, but they both get movie encumbered by clunky dialogue (or caught in the cross fire of a diamond theft its delivery)—but physically impressive begone haywire. Attempt at an action-comedy yond the astonishing particulars of its story in the 48HRS vein benefits from Epps’ non(which involves cannibalism). Unquestionstop chatter, but doesn’t sustain its thin, ably the most chilling portrayal of a plane worn-out premise. Ice Cube cowrote the crash in movie history. Scripted by John screenplay. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Patrick Shanley, from the book by Piers All American (1953) 83m. ★★ D: Jesse Paul Read. John Malkovich appears unHibbs. Tony Curtis, Lori Nelson, Richard billed. Same story previously filmed as Long, Mamie Van Doren, Gregg Palmer, Stuart Whitman. Ordinary drama in which SURVIVE! [R]▼●쩠 Alive and Kicking (1997-British) C-98m. college football hero Curtis gives up the ★★★ D: Nancy Meckler. Jason Flemyng, Angame after his parents’ death and accepts tony Sher, Dorothy Tutin, Anthony Higan architecture scholarship at a snooty Ivy gins, Bill Nighy, Philip Voss, Diane Parish. League–type school. Of note for appearMartin Sherman (author of the play Bent) ances of several all-Americans (including scripted this touching drama about a selfFrank Gifford). Look fast for football great involved gay dancer (Flemyng) who refuses Tom Harmon in the announcing booth. to let the fact that he is afflicted with AIDS All-American Boy, The (1973) C-118m. ★★ disrupt his career; he also becomes romantiD: Charles Eastman. Jon Voight, E. J. cally involved with a therapist (Sher) who Peaker, Ned Glass, Anne Archer, Carol treats HIV-positive patients. The scenario Androsky. Muddled drama about Olympic may be familiar, but it’s sincere and exhopeful Voight’s attempt to succeed as a tremely well acted, and the world of dance boxer; striking locations of northern Caliis nicely rendered. Original British title: INfornia, but that’s all. Panavision. [R]▼ DIAN SUMMER. [R]▼쩠 All-American Murder (1992) C-93m. ★★ All About Eve (1950) 138m. ★★★★ D: D: Anson Williams. Christopher Walken, Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Bette Davis, Anne Charlie Schlatter, Josie Bissett, Joanna Baxter, George Sanders, Celeste Holm, Cassidy, Richard Kind, Woody Watson, Gary Merrill, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn J. C. Quinn. Rebellious college student Monroe, Hugh Marlowe, Gregory Ratoff. Schlatter is suspected of murdering the Brilliantly sophisticated (and cynical) look virginal girl he loved, but cop Walken’s at life in and around the theater, with a not so sure. Highly guessable plot studded heaven-sent script by director Mankiewicz with slasher-movie murders cheats view(based on the story ‘‘The Wisdom of Eve’’ ers; frequent tilted camera angles may make by Mary Orr). Davis is absolutely perfect you seasick. [R]▼● [ 24 ]

Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of even but imaginative collection of vignettes Gold (1987) C-99m. BOMB D: Gary Nelset to music by Debussy, Dvorak, Vivaldi, son (additional scenes: Newt Arnold). RichStravinsky, and others, framed by heavyard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, James Earl handed live-action slapstick featuring an Jones, Henry Silva, Robert Donner, Doghmi oafish orchestra-conductor. Best sequences: Larbi, Cassandra Peterson. Cheapjack folSibelius’ ‘‘Valse Triste,’’ with a melanlowup to 1985 version of KING SOLOcholy cat, and a chronicle of evolution set to Ravel’s ‘‘Bolero.’’▼●쩠 MON’S MINES with the same stars; Chamberlain returns to Africa in search of his All Fall Down (1962) 110m. ★★★ D: John brother, who’s been tracking a lost white tribe. Frankenheimer. Warren Beatty, Eva Marie Post-production patchups are all too obvious. Saint, Karl Malden, Angela Lansbury, BranRemake of the 1977 KING SOLOMON’S don de Wilde. Improbable but absorbing WilTREASURE. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼쩠 liam Inge script about narcissistic young man All at Sea (1957-British) 87m. ★★★ D: (Beatty), his admiring younger brother (de Charles Frend. Alec Guinness, Irene Browne, Wilde), indulgent parents (Lansbury and MalPercy Herbert, Harold Goodwin. Robust den), and the older woman (Saint) with whom comedy that holds its own throughout. he becomes involved. Fine performances. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Guinness is admirable as seaman who can’t bear sight of water but buys runAll Hands on Deck (1961) C-98m. ★★ D: down house-laden pier, turning it into an Norman Taurog. Pat Boone, Buddy Hackett, amusement palace. Original title: BARNADennis O’Keefe, Barbara Eden. Innocuous CLE BILL. musical comedy of free-wheeling sailors, All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) C-85m. Boone and Hackett, is lightweight entertain★1 ment. CinemaScope. ⁄2 D: Don Bluth. Voices of Burt Reynolds, Loni Anderson, Judith Barsi, Dom All I Desire (1953) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Douglas DeLuise, Vic Tayback, Charles Nelson Sirk. Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Carlson, Reilly, Melba Moore. Bluth’s colorful aniLyle Bettger, Lori Nelson, Maureen O’Sulmation is only saving grace of this downlivan. Family togetherness and home-town beat musical cartoon about an orphan approval is answer to title, in period piece ‘‘adopted’’ by an unlovable mutt (Reyuplifted by Stanwyck’s valiant performance nolds) who has returned from heaven to do as erring mother of three who returns to her husband.▼ a good deed. Misguided film has some good moments (a musical sequence with Alligator (1980) C-94m. ★★★ D: Lewis a Cajun alligator), but hurt by unappealing Teague. Robert Forster, Robin Riker, Micharacters, confused storytelling, and forchael Gazzo, Perry Lang, Jack Carter, gettable songs. Followed by three sequels Henry Silva, Bart Braverman, Dean Jagger, and an animated TV series. [G]▼●쩠 Angel Tompkins, Sue Lyon, Pat Petersen. All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996-U.S.-British) If you’ve got to make a film about a giant C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Sebella, Larry Leker. alligator that’s terrorizing Chicago, this is Voices of Charlie Sheen, Sheena Easton, the way to do it—with a sense of fun to Dom DeLuise, Ernest Borgnine, George balance the expected violence and genuine Hearn, Bebe Neuwirth, Adam Wylie, Dan scares. The knowing screenplay is by John Castellaneta, Wallace Shawn, Pat Corley, Sayles; Silva does a hilarious self-parody Bobby DiCicco, Jim Cummings, Maurice as an egomaniacal Great White Hunter. La Marche. Cartoon canine Charlie Barkin Don’t miss the graffiti in the final scene. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼쩠 (Sheen), bored with life in heaven, volunteers a return to earth in an effort to retrieve Alligator II: The Mutation (1991) C-92m. Gabriel’s horn, which was stolen by evil BOMB D: Jon Hess. Joseph Bologna, Dee dog Carface (Borgnine). Big improvement Wallace Stone, Richard Lynch, Woody over the first picture in terms of story and Brown, Holly Gagnier, Bill Dailey, Steve music, but fails to match the original’s lush Railsback, Brock Peters, Julian Reyes. Ananimation. Followed by two direct-to-video other big alligator menaces another big sequels. [G]▼●쩠 city, with only cops Bologna and Brown, Allegheny Uprising (1939) 81m. ★★★ D: plus Cajun alligator hunter Lynch, to stop William Seiter. John Wayne, Claire Trevor, it from gobbling up the revelers at a lake. Lame-brained and dreary. [PG-13]▼● George Sanders, Brian Donlevy, Robert Barrat, Moroni Olsen, Chill Wills. Wayne All in a Night’s Work (1961) C-94m. ★★1 leads band of brave men against crooked ⁄2 D: Joseph Anthony. Dean Martin, Donlevy, tyrannical British captain SandShirley MacLaine, Charlie Ruggles, Cliff ers in pre-Revolutionary colonies. Fine, Robertson. Featherweight (and often feathunpretentious film; Trevor appealing as erbrained) comedy about innocent office girl who goes after Wayne. Also shown in worker caught in compromising position with big-business exec, leading to a series computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Allegro Non Troppo (1976-Italian) C-75m. of misunderstandings. Filled with familiar ★★★ D: Bruno Bozzetto. Animator Bozzetto’s character actors (Gale Gordon, Jerome Cowan, Jack Weston, et al.). ▼쩠 answer to Disney’s FANTASIA is an un[ 25 ]

All I Wanna Do (1998) C-97m. ★★★ D: and black bandleader, and their Iago, a Sarah Kernochan. Kirsten Dunst, Gaby drummer (amusingly played by McGooHoffmann, Lynn Redgrave, Rachael Leigh han). Guest musicians include Dave BruCook, Thomas Guiry, Vincent Kartheiser, beck, Charlie Mingus, John Dankworth. Monica Keena, Matthew Lawrence, Heather All Night Long (1981) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Matarazzo, Hayden Christensen. Clever, Jean-Claude Tramont. Gene Hackman, funny comedy with serious undertones about Barbra Streisand, Diane Ladd, Dennis a girls’ boarding school in 1963—in the Quaid, Kevin Dobson, William Daniels, years just before women’s lib—where newAnn Doran. Married Hackman takes up comer Hoffmann bonds with a group of with neighbor’s wife Streisand after he’s mischief-makers. Good showcase for its taldemoted to managing a downtown all-night ented young cast, though somehow this drugstore, the clientele of which has tornever got a wide theatrical release. Written ridly high weirdo quotient. Streisand is by the director. Originally screened as badly, if rather endearingly, miscast (she STRIKE! [PG-13]▼쩠 replaced Lisa Eichhorn after film was alAll I Want (2002) C-92m. ★★ D: Jeffrey ready in production), but Hackman is at Porter. Elijah Wood, Franka Potente, Mandy the peak of his charm in this gentle, underMoore, Chris William Martin, Elizabeth Perrated comedy. [R]▼쩠 kins, Deborah Harry, Aaron Pearl, Aloma All of Me (1984) C-93m. ★★★ D: Carl Wright. Strictly derivative coming-of-age Reiner. Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Victocomedy about a quirky teenage boy who ria Tennant, Madolyn Smith, Richard moves into a boardinghouse peopled excluLibertini, Dana Elcar, Jason Bernard, Selma sively by eccentrics—including two women Diamond. The soul and spirit of a crotchwho show more than casual interest in him. ety millionairess (Tomlin) enter the body Attractive cast makes this watchable, but it of a young, idealistic lawyer (Martin) with has too many echoes of other, better movoften hilarious results. Uneven comedyies. Never released theatrically. Aka TRY fantasy actually gets better as it goes along, SEVENTEEN. [R]▼쩠 and characters become more endearing. All I Want for Christmas (1991) C-92m. Martin’s performance is a comic tour-de ★1⁄2 D: Robert Lieberman. Harley Jane force. [PG]▼●쩠 Kozak, Jamey Sheridan, Ethan Randall All or Nothing (2002-British) C-128m. ★★ (Embry), Kevin Nealon, Thora Birch, LesD: Mike Leigh. Timothy Spall, Lesley Manlie Nielsen, Lauren Bacall. Slapdash tale of ville, Alison Garland, James Corden, Ruth kids’ efforts to get their divorced parents Sheen, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Sally back together for the title holiday. A feelHawkins, Helen Coker, Daniel Mays. Dim, good movie whose emotion seems as audrab slice of working-class life, with cabthentic as a plastic Christmas tree. A waste driver Spall barely ekeing out a living, earnof time for all concerned (including Bacall, ing no thanks from his common-law wife as the children’s grandmother). [G]▼●쩠 (who gave up on him years ago), his hostile ★★★ D: Irving All My Sons (1948) 94m. son, or his silent daughter. Neighbors in Reis. Edward G. Robinson, Burt Lancastheir housing project seem to be in similar ter, Mady Christians, Louisa Horton, Howdoldrums, but for one doggedly optimistic ard Duff, Arlene Francis, Lloyd Gough, soul (Sheen). Tough going, without the rich, Henry (Harry) Morgan. Arthur Miller’s rounded characterizations that have marked compelling drama of returning soldier (LanLeigh’s better films. [R] ▼쩠 caster) discovering that his father (RobAll Over Me (1997) C-90m. ★★★ D: Alex inson) cheated on a war mate´riel order, with Sichel. Alison Folland, Tara Subkoff, Wiltragic results. Post-WW2 drama is well son Cruz, Cole Hauser, Ann Dowd, Pat acted, but verbose and preachy.▼ Briggs, Leisha Hailey, Shawn Hatosy. Dark, Allnighter, The (1987) C-108m. BOMB brooding but absorbing coming-of-age D: Tamar Simon Hoffs. Susanna Hoffs, drama about two girls—one gay, one Dedee Pfeiffer, Joan Cusack, Michael straight—whose friendship unravels after a Ontkean, John Terlesky, James Anthony fatal gay-bashing in their Hell’s Kitchen Shanta, Pam Grier, Meshach Taylor. Three neighborhood. The whole cast is excellent, female airheads stumble through assorted but Folland as the shy budding lesbian is sexual hijinks during the final senior weekthe emotional center. Powered by a terrific end at a Pacific party college. Grotesque in soundtrack featuring Patti Smith and Ani the AIDS era, though it would be a stinker DiFranco, among others. Film’s costars are anytime. Director Hoffs is the mother of the also indie rockers: Briggs is the frontman of star, a member of The Bangles rock group. Psychotica, Hailey sings with The Murmurs. Written by director Sichel’s sister, [PG-13]▼쩠 All Night Long (1961-British) 95m. ★★1⁄2 Sylvia. [R]▼●쩠 D: Basil Dearden. Patrick McGoohan, Marti All Over the Guy (2001) C-92m. ★★★ D: Stevens, Betsy Blair, Keith Michell, RichJulie Davis. Dan Bucatinsky, Richard Rucard Attenborough. Fair updating of Othello, colo, Sasha Alexander, Adam Goldberg, about an interracial couple, a white singer Andrea Martin, Doris Roberts, Christina [ 26 ]

Ricci, Lisa Kudrow, Joanna Kerns. Likable comedy about two gay guys who survive a disastrous blind date and settle into friendship, not realizing true love is staring them right in the face. Loaded with smart one-liners and clever potshots at sexless gay studio movies like IN & OUT. Terrific supporting cast includes Martin as a touchy-feely therapist mom and THE OPPOSITE OF SEX costars Ricci and Kudrow. Written by Bucatinsky, based on his stage play. [R] ▼쩠 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) 133m. ★★★★ D: Lewis Milestone. Lewis (Lew) Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Slim Summerville, Russell Gleason, Ben Alexander, Beryl Mercer. Vivid, moving adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s eloquent pacifist novel about German boys’ experiences as soldiers during WW1. Time hasn’t dimmed its power, or its poignancy, one bit. Scripted by Milestone, Maxwell Anderson, Del Andrews, and George Abbott. Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Director. Originally shown at 140m., then cut many times over the years; restored in 1998. It’s 130m. on video. Sequel: THE ROAD BACK. Remade for TV in 1979.

▼●쩠

Taylor, Stewart Granger, Ann Blyth, Keenan Wynn, James Whitmore, Lewis Stone. Waterlogged adventure based on Ben Ames Williams’ novel. Taylor and Granger lack conviction as New Bedford whalers having career and romantic conflicts.▼쩠 All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood, Susan Kohner, George Hamilton, Pearl Bailey, Anne Seymour. Cliche´s abound in this romantic soap opera that was actually inspired by the life of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker (whose role is played here, somewhat improbably, by Wagner). British music group Fine Young Cannibals took its name from this film. CinemaScope. All the King’s Men (1949) 109m. ★★★★ D: Robert Rossen. Broderick Crawford, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, John Derek, Shepperd Strudwick, Anne Seymour. Brilliant adaptation (by director Rossen) of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel about the rise and fall of a Huey Long–like governor, played by Crawford in the performance of his career. He and McCambridge (in her first film) won well-deserved Oscars, as did the film, for Best Picture. Campaign montages directed by Don Siegel. Remade in 2006.

All Screwed Up (1974-Italian) C-105m. ★★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Luigi Diberti, Nino Bignamini, Lina Polito, Sara Rapisarda. ▼●쩠 Appealing tragicomedy of various young All the King’s Men (2006) C-128m. ★★ D: working-class men and women, and what Steven Zaillian. Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate happens when they move into a Milan Winslet, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, apartment. Released in the U.S. in 1976. Patricia Clarkson, Kathy Baker, Jackie Earle [PG]▼ Haley, Anthony Hopkins, Kevin Dunn, All That Heaven Allows (1955) C-89m. Tom McCarthy, Frederic Forrest, Tom Al★★★ dredge, Keb’ Mo’. Remake of the 1949 D: Douglas Sirk. Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Conrad Nagel, classic traces the story of grassroots SouthVirginia Grey, Gloria Talbott, William Reynern politician Willie Stark (inspired by the olds, Charles Drake, Merry Anders. When real-life Louisiana governor Huey Long), middle-class widow Wyman allows gardener his unlikely rise to power, and how it corHudson—a younger man—to romance her, rupts not only him but those around him. she faces the ire of her children, friends, and Penn’s histrionics never ring true, and his society. Typically sleek Sirk soaper. Remade talented costars are wasted in this disapby Rainer Werner Fassbinder as ALI—FEAR pointing production. Clarkson’s role as EATS THE SOUL.▼쩠 Stark’s savvy campaign strategist—and All That Jazz (1979) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: mistress—won Mercedes McCambridge an Bob Fosse. Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Oscar in the original film, but the character Ann Reinking, Leland Palmer, Cliff Goris barely sketched this time around. Zaillian man, Ben Vereen, Erzsebet Foldi, Sandahl wrote the ineffectual screenplay. [PG-13]쩠 Bergman, John Lithgow, Keith Gordon, . . . All the Marbles (1981) C-113m. ★★★ Ben Masters, Nicole Fosse, Theresa MerD: Robert Aldrich. Peter Falk, Vicki ritt, Wallace Shawn. Director-choreographer Frederick, Laurene Landon, Burt Young, Fosse’s own 81⁄2 casts a self-indulgent and Tracy Reed, Ursaline Bryant-King, Claulargely negative look at his life; great show dette Nevins, Richard Jaeckel. There’s no biz moments and wonderful dancing are reason why this sloppily constructed, shaleventually buried in pretensions, and an lowly written movie—about a pair of beauinterminable finale which leaves a bad tiful female wrestlers and their two-bit taste for the whole film. But that opening manager—should be so entertaining, but number (set to George Benson’s recording it is. The climactic championship bout of ‘‘On Broadway’’) is a wow! [R]▼●쩠 is a real audience-rouser. Retitled THE All That Money Can Buy SEE: Devil CALIFORNIA DOLLS. Aldrich’s final film. [R]▼ and Daniel Webster, The All the Brothers Were Valiant (1953) All the Mornings of the World SEE: Tous C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Robert les Matins du Monde [ 27 ]

All the President’s Men (1976) C-138m. ble youth film about a goal-oriented high★★★★ school football player (Cruise) who runs D: Alan J. Pakula. Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Jack Warafoul of his hotheaded—and equally amden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jane bitious—coach (Nelson). Location filming Alexander, Stephen Collins, Meredith in Johnstown, Pa., adds flavor. [R]▼●쩠 Baxter, Ned Beatty, Robert Walden, Polly All These Women (1964-Swedish) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Jarl Kulle, HarHolliday, F. Murray Abraham, Lindsay Ann Crouse. Redford and Hoffman play riet Andersson, Bibi Andersson, Allan real-life Washington Post reporters Bob Edwall. Satirical frolic involving womanWoodward and Carl Bernstein, who persechasing cellist. He bargains with music vered in their investigation of Watergate critic to have biography written by agreebreak-in that led to earthshaking scandal. ing to play writer’s composition. Notable Best elements of newspaper pictures, deonly as Bergman’s first film in color. Writtective stories, and thrillers rolled into one ten by Bergman and Erland Josephson. Aka superb movie. Won Oscars for Supporting NOW ABOUT THESE WOMEN. Actor (Robards), Screenplay (William GoldAll the Vermeers in New York (1990) man), Art Direction, and Sound. [PG] ▼●쩠 C-87m. ★★★ D: Jon Jost. Emmanuelle All the Pretty Horses (2000) C-117m. Chaulet, Stephen Lack, Grace Phillips, ★★1⁄2 D: Billy Bob Thornton. Matt Damon, Laurel Lee Kiefer, Gordon Joseph Weiss, Henry Thomas, Lucas Black, Pene´lope Katherine Bean, Gracie Mansion, Roger Cruz, Ruben Blades, Robert Patrick, Julio Ruffin. Provocative drama with a singular Oscar Mechoso, Miriam Colon, Bruce cinematic sensibility, about a stressed-out Dern, Sam Shepard. Ambitious but uneven Wall Street wheeler-dealer (Lack); while adaptation (by Ted Tally) of Cormac Mcat the Metropolitan Museum, he meets a Carthy’s prize-winning novel. A young man beautiful, mysterious French actress (Chaulet) and his best friend, sensing no future in who resembles a Vermeer portrait. Loaded post-WW2 Texas, drift across the border in with lingering shots, carefully composed search of the cowboy life that’s disapimages, and improvised dialogue; the scepearing around them. Alternately leisurely nario examines the relationship between art and lurching in its storytelling, the film and commerce, and the hypocrisy beneath looks good, but never gels; signs of postthe surface of N.Y.C.’s high-powered art and production cutting are painfully obvious. financial worlds. ‘‘Conceived, photographed, Damon and Thomas are quite good. Panavidirected, and edited’’ by avant-garde filmmaker Jost.▼●쩠 sion. [R]▼쩠 All the Queen’s Men (2002-U.S.-AustrianAll the Way SEE: Joker Is Wild, The All the Way Home (1963) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 German-Hungarian) C-105m. BOMB D: Stefan Ruzowitzky. Matt LeBlanc, Eddie D: Alex Segal. Jean Simmons, Robert Izzard, James Cosmo, Nicolette Krebitz, Preston, Aline MacMahon, Pat Hingle, Udo Kier, David Birkin, Edward Fox. Michael Kearney, John Cullum, Thomas Dreadful comedy, ostensibly based on the Chalmers. Outstanding filmization of the true story of a hotshot American undercover Tad Mosel play, set in 1915 Tennessee, an agent who’s saddled with three ill-prepared adaptation of James Agee’s A Death in the British colleagues behind German lines—in Family. Preston is subdued in the pivotal drag—during WW2. Clunky film never role of a father and husband who is finds the right tone, so it isn’t funny or beaccidentally killed, leaving his loved ones lievable. Even Izzard doing a Dietrich turn to interpret the meaning of their lives beisn’t interesting. Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 fore and after his death. Beautifully done, All the Real Girls (2003) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 with Simmons offering an award-caliber D: David Gordon Green. Paul Schneider, performance as Preston’s wife. Fine script Zooey Deschanel, Patricia Clarkson, Mauby Philip Reisman, Jr. rice Compte, Danny McBride, Benjamin All the Way, Trinity SEE: Trinity Is Mouton, Shea Whigham. Life in a small STILL My Name! southern town is revealed in this slowly All the Young Men (1960) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: paced love story about a young man taking Hall Bartlett. Alan Ladd, Sidney Poitier, baby steps in a quest for his first meaningful James Darren, Glenn Corbett, Mort Sahl. relationship. Story complications disrupt the Hackneyed Korean war story with all the film’s tone, and the film is never as satisfying stereotypes present, mouthing the same old platitudes.▼ as it promises to be. Good performances and evocative atmosphere overcome most obstaAll Things Bright and Beautiful (1979cles, but this is no LAST PICTURE SHOW. British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Till. John Leading actor Schneider cowrote the story Alderton, Lisa Harrow, Colin Blakely, Bill with Green. 2.35 Research PLC. [R] ▼쩠 Maynard, Richard Pearson, Paul Shelley. All the Right Moves (1983) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 Pleasant, inoffensive film for kids who D: Michael Chapman. Tom Cruise, Craig like animals and can appreciate an enterT. Nelson, Lea Thompson, Charles Cioffi, tainment devoid of car crashes. Kind-hearted Paul Carafotes, Christopher Penn. Amiaveterinarian James Herriot (Alderton) tends [ 28 ]

to under-the-weather animals in Yorkshire Almost Famous (2000) C-122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: at the end of the ’30s. Based on two of Cameron Crowe. Billy Crudup, Frances Herriot’s books, Let Sleeping Vets Lie and McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, PatVet in Harness, published in the U.S. as rick Fugit, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk, All Things Bright and Beautiful. A sequel Noah Taylor, Zooey Deschanel, Bijou Philto ALL CREATURES GREAT AND lips, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peter FrampSMALL, made for U.S. TV. Aka IT ton, Jimmy Fallon. Crowe won an Oscar for SHOULDN’T HAPPEN TO A VET. [G] writing this appealing autobiographical story All Things Fair (1995-Swedish-Danish) Cabout a guileless 15-year-old boy who wants 128m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bo Widerberg. Johan Widto write about rock music and goes on the road erberg, Marika Lagercrantz, Tomas Von with a band for Rolling Stone magazine in the Bro¨mssen, Karin Huldt, Nina Gunke, Bjorn 1970s. Newcomer Fugit is perfect as the boy, Kjellman, Kenneth Milldoff. In 1943 SweMcDormand a delight as his overprotective den a recently transferred high school stumother, Hudson adorable as the band foldent falls for his attractive new teacher; lower who wins him over, and Crudup right their subsequent affair is both passionate on target as a charismatic musician. Layered and deceitful on many levels. Extremely with telling details; this one’s from the heart. well made film is exquisitely performed by Alternate version (the so-called ‘‘bootleg the two leads (young Johan Widerberg is cut’’) runs 159m. [R]▼쩠 the director’s son) and Swedish star Von Almost Heroes (1998) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Bro¨mssen is equally adept in the role of Christopher Guest. Chris Farley, Matthew an unorthodox cuckolded husband. Director Perry, Eugene Levy, Kevin Dunn, Lisa BarWiderberg (of ELVIRA MADIGAN fame) buscia, Bokeem Woodbine, Steve M. Poralso wrote the screenplay and edited this, his ter, David Packer, Hamilton Camp, Lewis final film. This can stand alongside the best Arquette; narrated by Harry Shearer. A coming-of-age films.쩠 would-be explorer hires a rowdy tracker in All This, and Heaven Too (1940) 143m. the hope of beating Lewis and Clark to the ★★★ D: Anatole Litvak. Bette Davis, Charles Pacific Ocean in 1804. Farley (in his last Boyer, Jeffrey Lynn, Barbara O’Neil, Virstarring film, shot in 1996 and released six ginia Weidler, Helen Westley, Walter months after his death) is as bombastic as Hampden, Henry Daniell, June Lockhart. ever, but the gags are either flat or nonexisNobleman Boyer falls in love with governtent in this misbegotten comedy. Levy and ess Davis, causing scandal and death; stars Dunn have all the best moments, in colorful supporting roles. [PG-13]▼●쩠 do very well in elaborate filmization of Rachel Field book set in 19th-century Almost Perfect Affair, An (1979) C-93m. ★★1 France.▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Michael Ritchie. Keith Carradine, All Through the Night (1942) 107m. ★★★ Monica Vitti, Raf Vallone, Christian De D: Vincent Sherman. Humphrey Bogart, Sica, Dick Anthony Williams. Romantic Conrad Veidt, Kaaren Verne, Jane Darwell, comedy-drama about affair between naive Frank McHugh, Peter Lorre, Judith AnAmerican filmmaker and worldly wife of derson, William Demarest, Jackie Gleason, film producer; set against backdrop of Phil Silvers, Barton MacLane, Martin Cannes Film Festival, it will appeal mostly Kosleck. Bogart’s gang tracks down Fifth to film buffs and insiders. [PG]▼쩠 Columnists (Veidt, Lorre, Anderson) in WW2 Almost You (1984) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Adam N.Y.C. Interesting blend of spy, gangster, and Brooks. Brooke Adams, Griffin Dunne, comedy genres, with memorable double-talk Karen Young, Marty Watt, Christine and auction scenes.▼●쩠 Estabrook, Josh Mostel, Laura Dean, Dana Almost a Bride SEE: Kiss For Corliss, A Delany, Miguel Pinero, Joe Silver, Joe Almost an Angel (1990) C-95m. ★★ D: Leon, Spalding Gray. Muddled, overlong, John Cornell. Paul Hogan, Elias Koteas, self-satisfied ‘‘romantic comedy’’ about Linda Kozlowski, Charlton Heston, DoDunne’s attempts to break out of his plodreen Lang, Joe Dallesandro, David Alan ding existence with wife Adams in N.Y.C. Grier, Stephanie Hodge. Hokey, paperOriginally shown at 110m, which only thin afterlife fantasy with Hogan a thief made matters worse. [R]▼쩠 who turns do-gooder after an otherworldly aloha, bobby and rose (1975) C-88m. ★★ confrontation with God (Heston, naturally). D: Floyd Mutrux. Paul LeMat, Dianne Hogan’s effortless charisma cannot salHull, Tim McIntire, Leigh French, Martine vage it. He also scripted and executive Bartlett, Robert Carradine, Eddie (Edward produced. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 James) Olmos. OK melodrama follows Almost Angels (1962) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: predictable pattern as auto mechanic LeMat Steve Previn. Peter Weck, Hans Holt, Fritz and girlfriend Hull are inadvertently drawn Eckhardt, Bruni Lobel, Vincent Winter, into crime, causing them to take it on the Sean Scully. Schmaltzy but entertaining lam with the law in pursuit. [PG]▼쩠 Disney film about two youngsters who Aloha Summer (1988) C-98m. ★★ D: become friends in the Vienna Boys Choir. Tommy Lee Wallace. Chris Makepeace, Pleasant story, fine music.▼ Yuji Okumoto, Don Michael Paul, Tia [ 29 ]

Carrere, Andy Bumatai, Lorie Griffin, Sho Poe. Vincent Spano, Kate Vernon, Michael Kosugi. Well-meaning but bland story about Winslow, Zohra Lampert, Jami Gertz, Raysix young American, Japanese, and Hawaiian mond Serra. Slick, arty but shallow and boys coming of age on surfboards in Waikiki almost plotless portrait of teenage hood during the summer of 1959. There’s nothSpano and his life on N.Y.C.’s Lower East Side. All imagery, no content. [R]▼쩠 ing fresh; the waves, however, are outtaAlphabet Killer, The (2008) C-98m. ★★ D: sight. [PG] ▼● Alone in the Dark (2005) C-96m. BOMB Rob Schmidt. Eliza Dushku, Cary Elwes, D: Uwe Boll. Christian Slater, Tara Reid, Timothy Hutton, Tom Malloy, Michael Stephen Dorff, Will Sanderson, Mark AcheIronside, Bill Moseley, Carl Lumbly, Brian son, Frank C. Turner. Paranormal investigator Scannell, Larry Hankin, Jack McGee, MeSlater tangles with a mad scientist in this uninlissa Leo, Tom Noonan, Martin Donovan. telligible time-waster based on an Atari video A young girl is raped and strangled, and game. The opening crawl is dopey and overRochester, N.Y., police detective Dushku, long; what follows is mind-numbingly awful. who has all sorts of psychological issues, Casting Reid as an anthropologist is like becomes obsessed with solving the case. assigning Curly Howard the role of a neuroBy-the-letters thriller poses one burning surgeon. Unrated director’s cut runs 99m. question: Who let this woman on the police Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 force? Loosely based on a series of murders Along Came a Spider (2001) C-104m. ★1⁄2 that took place in Rochester in the 1970s. D: Lee Tamahori. Morgan Freeman, MonScripted by Malloy, who plays Officer Stephen Harper. [R]쩠 ica Potter, Michael Wincott, Mika Boorem, Dylan Baker, Michael Moriarty, Jay O. Alphabet Murders, The (1966-British) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Tashlin. Tony RanSanders, Penelope Ann Miller. As if he were doing us any great favors, Freeman dall, Anita Ekberg, Robert Morley, Guy reprises his role from KISS THE GIRLS as Rolfe, James Villiers. Odd adaptation of Agapsychologist/detective Dr. Alex Cross, from tha Christie’s The ABC Murders (the film’s James Patterson’s novels. Case here inoriginal British title), with Hercule Poirot after volves the day-school abduction of a U.S. a killer who seems to be doing in his victims senator’s young daughter, and Freeman’s in alphabetical order. Strange casting of Ransleuthing with guilt-ridden Secret Service dall as the Belgian sleuth and a little too much agent Potter. Premise is unpleasant, its exeslapstick make this more a curiosity than anycution unspeakably dull, and a ‘‘big’’ plot thing else. Margaret Rutherford makes a gag appearance as Miss Marple.▼ twist just doesn’t cut it. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Along Came Jones (1945) 90m. ★★★ D: StuAlpha Dog (2007) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Nick art Heisler. Gary Cooper, Loretta Young, WilCassavetes. Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, Shawn liam Demarest, Dan Duryea, Frank Sully, Hatosy, Christopher Marquette, Justin TimRussell Simpson. Three stars are most ingratiberlake, Anton Yelchin, Bruce Willis, Sharon ating in very low-key, leisurely Western Stone, Lukas Haas, Alex Kingston, Harry spoof, with Cooper (who also produced) misDean Stanton, Alex Solowitz, Dominique taken for notorious outlaw Duryea.▼쩠 Swain, Alan Thicke, Vincent Kartheiser, FerAlong Came Polly (2003) C-90m. ★★ D: nando Vargas. Two fun-filled hours about the John Hamburg. Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, cretins who orbit around amoral drug dealer Philip Seymour Hoffman, Debra Messing, Hirsch. The nihilistic fun and games turn seriHank Azaria, Bryan Brown, Alec Baldwin, ous when they snatch the kid brother of a Jsu Garcia, Michele Lee, Bob Dishy, Missi ‘‘friend,’’ then realize they’ve actually perpePyle, Judah Friedlander, Cheryl Hines, Cartrated a kidnapping. Cassavetes’ screenplay oline Aaron, Rabbi David Baron. An insuris based on real-life events but the film is ance risk manager gets married, only to have pointless . . . as is the framing device of a his wife cheat on him before their honeymoon documentary about the case (using splitis over. Back home in N.Y.C. he meets a cute screen) which disappears after the opening but flaky woman and decides she’s the right scenes and returns abruptly at the end. J-D-C one for him—but she’s the one who’s scared Scope. [R]쩠 of commitment. Yet another Ben Stiller comAlphaville (1965-French) 95m. ★★ D: edy of embarrassment; if you’re looking for a Jean-Luc Godard. Eddie Constantine, Anna story about a man with irritable bowel synKarina, Akim Tamiroff, Howard Vernon. drome, search no further! Azaria all but steals Constantine, as super private-eye Lemmy the film as a French stud who teaches scuba Caution, is sent to futuristic city run by diving in St. Barts. [PG-13] ▼쩠 electronic brain to rescue scientist trapped Along the Great Divide (1951) 88m. ★★1⁄2 there. Jumbled Godard epic, recommended D: Raoul Walsh. Kirk Douglas, Virginia for New Wave disciples only.▼●쩠 Mayo, John Agar, Walter Brennan. Douglas Alsino and the Condor (1982-Nicaraguanis appropriately tight-lipped as lawman deterMexican-Cuban-Costa Rican) C-89m. ★★★ mined to bring in his man, despite desert D: Miguel Littin. Dean Stockwell, Alan Esquivel, Carmen Bunster, Alejandro Parodi, storm; some spectacular scenery.▼쩠 Alphabet City (1984) C-98m. ★★ D: Amos Delia Casanova. Idealistic young peasant (Es[ 30 ]

quivel) jumps out of a tree in the hope of A GUY NAMED JOE, with Dreyfuss as a flying; he becomes a hunchback, but learns to cocky pilot who specializes in dousing stand tall when he joins guerillas fighting in a forest fires from the air, and Hunter as the Central American country. Certainly unsubtle, dispatcher who loves him—and fears for but far from uninteresting allegory, filmed in his life. When he does in fact die, he Nicaragua. [R]▼● returns in spirit form to guide a young pilot Altered States (1980) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: (Johnson) who wants to pursue the same Ken Russell. William Hurt, Blair Brown, career and the same woman. Certainly enBob Balaban, Charles Haid, Thaao Penghlis, tertaining but suffers from a serious case Dori Brenner, George Gaynes, Drew Barryof The Cutes. Hepburn, in her final film more. A scientist (Hurt, in his film debut) appearance, plays an angel. [PG]▼●쩠 becomes involved with primal research, Always Goodbye (1938) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: using himself as guinea pig with mindSidney Lanfield. Barbara Stanwyck, Herbending results. Talky and cerebral at first, bert Marshall, Ian Hunter, Cesar Romero, then turns into a cross between THE WOLF Lynn Bari, Binnie Barnes. Still another MAN and THE TIME MACHINE, using sacrificing mother tale—specifically, a restate-of-the-art special effects. More sucmake of GALLANT LADY. Stanwyck is cessful as an assault on the senses than as a forced to give up her illicit child. Nicely film, with thoroughly unappealing protagodone, but the same old story. nists and a ludicrous story resolution. Paddy Always Leave Them Laughing (1949) Chayefsky disowned his adaptation of his 116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Del Ruth. Milton novel, and the script is now credited to his Berle, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman, Bert given name, ‘‘Sidney Aaron.’’ Barrymore’s Lahr, Alan Hale. Berle is at home in tale film debut. Look for John Larroquette as an of cocky comedian’s ups and downs. UnX-ray technician. [R]▼●쩠 fortunately, zesty opening leads into soggy Alvarez Kelly (1966) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: drama. Lahr does his classic ‘‘stop in the Edward Dmytryk. William Holden, Richname of the stationhouse’’ routine. ard Widmark, Janice Rule, Victoria Shaw, Amadeus (1984) C-158m. ★★1⁄2 D: Milos Patrick O’Neal. Slow-moving Civil War Forman. F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, tale. Holden is cattle driver who sells herd Elizabeth Berridge, Simon Callow, Roy to Yankees, then is kidnapped by Reb Dotrice, Christine Ebersole, Jeffrey Jones, Widmark who wants him to steal cattle for Cynthia Nixon. Abraham won well-dethe South; incongruous love scenes thrown served Oscar as composer Salieri, whose in. Panavision. ▼●쩠 music never surpasses mediocrity, while a Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) C-91m. hedonistic young boor named Mozart ex★★1 presses musical genius almost without try⁄2 D: Tim Hill. Jason Lee, David Cross, Cameron Richardson, Jane Lynch; voices of ing! Literate, intelligent, exquisitely filmed Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler, Jesse (in Prague, by Miroslav Ondricek) . . . but McCartney. The musical mythos of Ross fatally overlong and missing dramatic fire Bagdasarian’s singing chipmunks (Alvin, that distinguished Peter Shaffer’s play Simon, and Theodore) is amusingly re(Shaffer rethought and rewrote it for the imagined in this kid-friendly mix of cartoonish screen). Worth noting: Jones’ wonderful live-action and impressive CG animation. Lee performance as musical dilettante Emperor is the nominal star, as David Seville (BagdasJoseph II. Winner of seven other Oscars, arian’s stage name), the critters’ surrogate faincluding Best Picture, Director, Screenther, but Cross grabs every scene that isn’t play, Art Direction. Reissued in 2002 with bolted to the floor as a snarky record proan additional 20m. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ducer. [PG]쩠 Amal (2008-Canadian) C-105m. ★★★ D: RiAlways (1985) C-105m. ★★★ D: Henry chie Mehta. Rupinder Nagra, Naseeruddin Jaglom. Henry Jaglom, Patrice Townsend, Shah, Seema Biswas, Koel Purie, Vik Joanna Frank, Alan Rachins, Melissa Leo, Sahay, Roshan Seth, Tanisha Chatterjee, Jonathan Kaufer, Bob Rafelson, Michael Amardeep Jha, Dr. Shiva. Heartwarming Emil, Andre Gregory. Often hilarious, but story of a poor rickshaw driver in New also insightful, comedy about what it means Delhi, India, whose humanity triumphs over to be a couple. A trio of them—one about tragedy and treachery. Amal’s kindness to to get divorced, one about to get married, two strangers—a street beggar and a cantanone solidly married—spend a July 4th weekkerous passenger—has unusual repercusend together. The first is played by the disions. The story may be contrived, but its rector and Townsend, his own ex-wife. Like sincerity and the warmth of its actors make all of Jaglom’s stream-of-consciousness films, it difficult to resist. Debut feature for director Mehta, who expanded it from a 2004 this one’s not for all tastes. [R]▼●쩠 Always (1989) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven short he wrote with his brother Shaun. Spielberg. Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, Amarcord (1974-Italian) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 John Goodman, Brad Johnson, Audrey D: Federico Fellini. Magali Noel, Bruno Hepburn, Roberts Blossom, Keith David, Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, Marg Helgenberger. Slick remake of 1943’s Giuseppe Lanigro, Josiane Tanzilli. Fellini’s [ 31 ]

nostalgia trip to the Italy of his youth in the Las Vegas! Starts well but ends up as your 1930s; warm, funny, poignant, bawdy epstandard monster-on-the-loose flick. Sequel: isodes about love, sex, politics, family WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST.▼ life, and growing up. Academy Award Amazing Dobermans, The (1976) C-94m. ★★1 winner as Best Foreign Film. [R] ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: David and Byron Chudnow. James Amateur, The (1982-Canadian) C-111m. Franciscus, Barbara Eden, Fred Astaire, BOMB D: Charles Jarrott. John Savage, Jack Carter, Billy Barty. Engaging action Christopher Plummer, Marthe Keller, Arcomedy that has Bible-quoting ex-con-man thur Hill, Ed Lauter, Nicholas Campbell, Astaire’s five remarkable Doberman pinGraham Jarvis, John Marley. Savage is schers helping treasury agent Franciscus grossly miscast as a CIA computer whiz thwart a racketeer and his gang. Higherwho hunts down the terrorists who seized budgeted sequel to THE DOBERMAN the American Consulate in Munich and GANG and THE DARING DOBERmurdered his girlfriend. Complex and ulMANS, aided by offbeat casting of Astaire. timately ridiculous spy thriller. [R]▼쩠 [PG—edited from original R rating]▼ Amateur (1994-U.S.-French) C-105m. Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, The (1938) ★★1 ⁄2 D: Hal Hartley. Isabelle Huppert, Mar87m. ★★★ D: Anatole Litvak. Edward G. tin Donovan, Elina Lowensohn, Damian Robinson, Claire Trevor, Humphrey Bogart, Young, Chuck Montgomery, David SiAllen Jenkins, Donald Crisp, Gale Page. monds, Parker Posey. Typically quirky HartAmusing film of ‘‘method doctor’’ Robley tale about an ex-nun (Huppert) who inson trying to discover what makes a crook writes pornographic fiction (!) and hooks up tick; he joins Bogart’s gang and becomes with a seemingly harmless amnesiac (Donaddicted.▼쩠 ovan) with a disturbing past. As in all of the Amazing Grace (1974) C-99m. ★★ D: director’s films, this one is filled with offStan Lathan. Moms Mabley, Slappy White, beat characters who do and say the weirdest Moses Gunn, Rosalind Cash, Dolph Sweet. things; among them are a pair of hit men A few laughs in Philadelphia-made comwho look like Wall Street yuppies. Interestedy about an elderly busybody who dising, but decidedly not for all tastes. An rupts corrupt Baltimore politics. Mabley’s American Playhouse coproduction. [R]▼쩠 only starring film; cameos by Butterfly Amateurs, The (2007) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: McQueen, unrecognizable Stepin Fetchit. [G]▼쩠 Michael Traeger. Jeff Bridges, Tim Blake Nelson, Joe Pantoliano, William Fichtner, Amazing Grace (2007-British) C-116m. ★★1 Ted Danson, Patrick Fugit, John Hawkes, ⁄2 D: Michael Apted. Ioan Gruffudd, RoGlenne Headly, Lauren Graham, Alex D. mola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Linz, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Steven Weber, Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell, Isaiah Washington, Valerie Perrine, Judy Youssou N’Dour, Ciara´n Hinds, Toby Jones, Greer, Eileen Brennan, Brad Garrett, Elden Bill Paterson. Earnest and enlightening hisHenson. Group of small-town losers decides torical drama about William Wilberforce, to turn their lives around and make the world’s who spent 20 exhausting years in the late first community-sponsored porno film. With 1700s trying to convince his fellow members Bridges’ character leading the way they enof Parliament to ban slavery in the British list an unlikely group of participants. HilariEmpire. Impressive roster of actors lends ous, if uneven, comedy delivers on its weight to this well-made film, but somehow it amusing premise with a sterling group of never reaches the dramatic heights it should, actors. Screened on the film festival circuit considering the passionate nature of its proas THE MOGULS. [R]쩠 tagonist and the nobility of his cause. [PG]쩠 Amati Girls, The (2001) C-91m. ★★ D: Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987) CAnne DeSalvo. Cloris Leachman, Mercedes 115m. ★1⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Jamie Lee Ruehl, Paul Sorvino, Sean Young, Dinah Curtis, Alex English, Gregory Peck, WilManoff, Mark Harmon, Jamey Sheridan, liam L. Petersen, Joshua Zuehlke, Dennis Lily Knight, Lee Grant. Schmaltz-fest about Lipscomb, Lee Richardson. A 12-year-old a close-knit Italian-American family, focusLittle League whiz decides to stop playing ing on a death-obsessed matriarch (Leachbaseball until the world agrees to complete man) and her four daughters (Ruehl, Young, nuclear disarmament . . . and soon, other Manoff, Knight). In her directorial debut, athletes around the world follow suit, as actress DeSalvo juggles soapy stories, has a the protest escalates. Producer-writer Dasense of humor and an unabashed reverence vid Field’s Capraesque wish-fufillment fanfor Catholicism, but the results are not quite tasy is one of those films you either swallow MOONSTRUCK. [PG]▼쩠 wholeheartedly, or don’t. It’s dripping with Amator SEE: Camera Buff good intentions. [PG] ▼● Amazing Colossal Man, The (1957) 80m. Amazing Mr. Blunden, The (1972-British) ★★1⁄2 D: Bert I. Gordon. Glenn Langan, C-99m. ★★★ D: Lionel Jeffries. Laurence Cathy Downs, James Seay, Larry Thor. Naismith, Lynne Frederick, Garry Miller, Army officer who survives an atomic exRosalyn Landor, Marc Granger, Diana Dors, plosion starts growing; at 60 feet he attacks James Villiers. Dickensian fantasy about a [ 32 ]

genial ghost who takes two children back murderer. Phillips makes his screenwriting in time to help two mistreated tots. Colordebut here but he’s bitten off more than he ful family film whose only liability is can type. A bust! [R]▼● somewhat muddled storyline. [G]▼ Ambulance, The (1990) C-95m. ★★ D: Amazing Panda Adventure, The (1995Larry Cohen. Eric Roberts, James Earl ★★1 U.S.-China) C-85m. Jones, Megan Gallagher, Richard Bright, ⁄2 D: Christopher Cain. Ryan Slater, Stephen Lang, Yi Ding, Janine Turner, Eric Braeden, Red Buttons. Huang Fei, Zhou Jiugou, Yao Erga. TimeMuddled thriller which tells the story of honored ‘‘boy and his dog’’ story, except in what happens when innocent people begin this case it’s a boy and his panda. Ten-yeardisappearing off the streets of N.Y. Routine old American boy and a Chinese girl trek stuff, but look for an especially fine perforthrough China in order to rescue the cub mance by Buttons. Roberts plays a comic from poachers. Too predictable for adult book artist, and Marvel Comics editor Stan Lee appears as himself. [R]▼● viewers, but the spectacular Chinese scenery makes it worthwhile. Slater is ChrisAmbush Bay (1966) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ron tian’s younger brother. [PG]▼●쩠 Winston. Hugh O’Brian, Mickey Rooney, Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) James Mitchum, Harry Lauter. Lackluster 1 ★ ⁄2 D: Joe Dante, Carl C/B&W-85m. adventures of Marine group on JapaneseGottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis, Robheld island during WW2 trying to help partisans—good cast wasted.쩠 ert K. Weiss. Rosanna Arquette, Ralph Bellamy, Carrie Fisher, Griffin Dunne, Steve Ambushers, The (1968) C-102m. BOMB Guttenberg, Michelle Pfeiffer, Peter Horton, D: Henry Levin. Dean Martin, Senta Berger, Sybil Danning, Ed Begley, Jr., Henny Janice Rule, James Gregory, Albert Salmi, Youngman, Paul Bartel, Lou Jacobi, HowKurt Kasznar, Beverly Adams. Do you really ard Hesseman, B.B. King, Steve Allen, care that the first U.S. flying saucer has been Steve Forrest, Russ Meyer, Arsenio (Hall), stolen right out of space? Third entry in the Phil Hartman, Joe Pantoliano, Rip Taylor, Matt Helm series may be the weakest, but few David Alan Grier, Angel Tompkins, Kelly film scholars will want to take time making Preston, Andrew Dice Clay, Mike Mazurki, certain. Sequel: THE WRECKING CREW. Corinne Wahl. Series of unrelated skits in ▼●쩠 the KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE vein, Ame´lie (2001-French-German) C-121m. ★★★1 most of them astonishingly unfunny. Par⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Audrey Tautou, ody of CAT WOMEN OF THE MOON Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Yolande Moreau, that punctuates the film is so exact that you Artus de Penguern, Urbain Cancelier, Domimight as well watch the original—it’s just nique Pinon, Maurice Benichou. Clever, as funny. Best of all is the 1930s sex-film charming comedy about a sheltered young spoof with Bartel and Fisher, but that woman who, in her first foray into ‘‘real life,’’ comes at the very end. [R]▼●쩠 decides to manipulate the people around her to Ambassador, The (1984) C-90m. ★★★ D: make their lives happier. But when she encounJ. Lee Thompson. Robert Mitchum, Ellen ters a man who is attracted to her, she can’t figBurstyn, Rock Hudson, Fabio Testi, Donureout how to dealwith the situation. Toldwith ald Pleasence, Michal Bat-Adam. Intellivisual flair and originality, with a star-making gent, entertaining thriller of American amperformance by Tautou. Written by thedirector bassador Mitchum, his adulterous wife and Guillaume Laurant. Full title is LE FABUBurstyn, and his attempts to peacefully meLEUX DESTIN D’AME´LIE POULAIN, or diate the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Based AME´LIE FROM MONTMARTRE. Super on Elmore Leonard’s novel 52 Pick-Up, 35. [R]▼쩠 and remade just two years later under that AMEN. (2002-French-German) C-130m. ★★★ name. Hudson’s final theatrical film. [R]▼ D: Costa-Gavras. Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Ambassador’s Daughter, The (1956) Kassovitz, Ulrich Mu¨he, Michel Duchaussoy, Ion Caramitru, Marcel Iures. Compelling tale C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Krasna. Olivia de Havilland, John Forsythe, Myrna Loy, of an SS officer who discovers that the chemiAdolphe Menjou, Edward Arnold, Francis cals he’s using to purify water for troops at Lederer, Tommy Noonan, Minor Watson. the front are being used for Hitler’s Final SoOomph is missing even though stars give lution. He turns to the Vatican for help and all to uplift sagging comedy of de Havilland finds a willing priest but a reluctant hierarchy. out for a fling in Paris, romanced by solSlow going at first, and not the biting indictdier Forsythe. CinemaScope.▼쩠 ment of the Roman Catholic Church you Ambition (1991) C-100m. BOMB D: Scott might expect from the director; instead, a temD. Goldstein. Lou Diamond Phillips, pered examination of self-preservation, sacriClancy Brown, Cecilia Peck, Richard Bradfice, and fear. Adapted by Costa-Gavras and ford, Willard Pugh, Grace Zabriskie, KathJean Claude Grumberg from Rolf Hochhuth’s erine Armstrong, J. D. Cullum, Haing S. play The Deputy.▼쩠 Ngor. Awful thriller about a writer who America (1986) C-83m. BOMB D: Robert becomes totally obsessed with his subject— Downey. Zack Norman, Tammy Grimes, a man who happens to be a convicted Michael J. Pollard, Monroe Arnold, Rich[ 33 ]

ard Belzer, Liz Torres, Howard Thomascript by Alan Ball is perfectly realized by a superb cast and first-time film director. Oscar shefsky, Laura Ashton. Downey lamely winner for Best Picture, Director, Screenattempts to recapture the freewheeling satwriter, Actor (Spacey), and Cinematography ires of the 1960s (such as his classic (Conrad L. Hall). Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 PUTNEY SWOPE) with this amateurish American Buffalo (1996) C-87m. ★★★ D: tale of the loonies at a N.Y. cable TV Michael Corrente. Dustin Hoffman, Dennis station, whose signal is accidentally bounced Franz, Sean Nelson. Arresting film version off the moon, bringing them worldwide fame. of David Mamet’s profane, provocative Hopelessly dated; filmed in 1982. [R]▼ three-character play. Hoffman plays Teach, America, America (1963) 168m. ★★★★ D: a self-enobled world expert who horns in on Elia Kazan. Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, the plans of his friend, junk shop owner Elena Karam, Lou Antonio, John Marley, Don (Franz), to commit a robbery with the Estelle Hemsley. The dream of passage to help of a teenaged prote´ge´ (Nelson). A simAmerica—as it unfolded for late 19thple character study, with perfectly cast century immigrants—is movingly captured actors bringing Mamet’s own screen adapby writer-director Kazan in this long, abtation to life. One of the rare photographed sorbing film, based on his uncle’s experistage plays that works. [R]▼●쩠 ences. Heartfelt and heart-rending, with American Carol, An (2008) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: impressive Oscar-winning art direction/set David Zucker. Kevin Farley, Kelsey Gramdecoration by Gene Callahan.▼● 1 ★★ mer, Trace Adkins, Robert Davi, Jon Voight, Americana (1981) C-91m. ⁄2 D: David Chriss Anglin, Geoffrey Arend, Serdar KalCarradine. David Carradine, Barbara Herssin, Leslie Nielsen, Dennis Hopper, James hey, Michael Greene. Vietnam veteran Woods, Kevin Sorbo, Fred Travalena, Gary Carradine attempts to rebuild a merry-goColeman, David Alan Grier, Gail O’Grady. round in rural Kansas town. Odd, thoughtA slobbering, sarcastic ‘‘liberal’’ filmmaker ful little drama, adequately directed by its (and Michael Moore clone) wants to abolish star. Filmed in 1973. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 the Fourth of July. Several ghosts drop in to American Affair, An (2009) C-92m. ★1⁄2 instill within him the true American spirit. D: William Sten Olsson. Gretchen Mol, Whatever your politics, this simpleminded, Cameron Bright, Noah Wyle, James Rebmean-spirited comedy deals in generalities— horn, Mark Pellegrino, Perrey Reeves. and has very few laughs to offer. Some faLaughably bad drama about a 13-year-old miliar faces make cameo appearances. boy (Bright) who develops a crush on the [PG-13]쩠 glamorous blond woman across the street in American Dream, An (1966) C-103m. Washington, D.C.—little dreaming that she ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Gist. Stuart Whitman, Jais the mistress of President John F. Kennet Leigh, Eleanor Parker, Barry Sullivan, nedy. Mol is sexy but that’s all one can say Lloyd Nolan, Murray Hamilton, J. D. Canfor this absurd mix of conspiracy yarn and non, Les Crane, Paul Mantee, Harold teenage hormonal fantasy, which at one Gould, George Takei. Distorted, wateredtime carried the fanciful title BOY OF down Norman Mailer novel, dealing suPIGS. [R] perficially with TV commentator wanted ★1 American Anthem (1986) C-100m. ⁄2 by underworld and police for murdering D: Albert Magnoli. Mitch Gaylord, Janet his wife; nightmare sequences are sterile. Jones, Michelle Phillips, R.J. Williams, MiAmerican Dream (1989) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: chael Pataki, Patrice Donnelly. Supremely Barbara Kopple. Gripping, Academy Awardcorny, badly written tale of a gymnast with winning documentary about the hows, whats family problems which keep him from fulfilland whys of a labor strike at the Hormel ing his destiny. Inauspicious movie debut for meat plant in the small town of Austin, Olympic gymnast Gaylord is strangely remiMinnesota. It’s the story of a profitable niscent of PURPLE RAIN, with the same company attempting to reduce wages and music video approach to drama; Magnoli dibreak a union just for the sake of doing so. rected them both. [PG-13]▼● This is the stuff of high drama.▼●쩠 American Beauty (1999) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 American Dreamer (1984) C-105m. ★★ D: Sam Mendes. Kevin Spacey, Annette BenD: Rick Rosenthal. JoBeth Williams, Tom ing, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Conti, Giancarlo Giannini, Coral Browne, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, James Staley, Huckleberry Fox, C.B. Barnes. Scott Bakula, Sam Robards, Jaret Winokur. Misguided, miscast comedy-adventure yarn Exceptional and original look at the American about a housewife who wins trip to Paris Dream gone sour. Spacey is having a midlife and (through circumstance) believes herself crisis, and decides to throw caution to the to be the daring heroine of a series of adwinds; his wife, Bening, who’s forsaken him venture thrillers. Cute idea (not dissimilar for her real estate career, seeks sexual fulfillto ROMANCING THE STONE) that an ment elsewhere. And their alienated teenage otherwise able cast can’t pull off. [PG]▼쩠 daughter is attracted to a strange young man American Dreamz (2006) C-107m. ★★★ D: next door. Amusing, bittersweet, and insightful Paul Weitz. Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, [ 34 ]

Mandy Moore, Willem Dafoe, Chris Klein, Gugino, Roger Bart, KaDee Strickland, Jon Jennifer Coolidge, Sam Golzari, Marcia Polito. Two parallel stories begin in the late Gay Harden, Seth Meyers, John Cho, Judy 1960s. Washington is Frank Lucas, who Greer, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Tony Yalda, figures the way to rule Harlem is to import Marley Shelton. Self-loathing host of a heroin directly from Southeast Asia. But hugely popular American Idol–like TV talscrupulously honest cop Crowe can’t bring ent show meets a kindred spirit in decepdown the man who’s spreading pure heroin tively sweet-faced contestant Moore. Then around the streets until he can identify him. he’s offered the President of the U.S. as a Not the visceral gangland movie you might guest judge—little dreaming that the Chief expect, but a methodical saga of two deterExecutive has been going through a near mined men who use their brains—and know breakdown and crisis of confidence. Weitz’s when to bend the rules. Screenplay by Stescript veers between satire and farce but still ven Zaillian, based on Mark Jacobson’s artitreats its key characters as human beings. cle ‘‘The Return of Superfly.’’ Clarence Entertaining and funny, with surprisingly Williams III appears unbilled. Unrated version runs 176m. [R]쩠 dark, even subversive, elements. Contestant who sings ‘‘Rockin’ Man’’ is South Park’s American Gigolo (1980) C-117m. BOMB Trey Parker. [PG-13]쩠 D: Paul Schrader. Richard Gere, Lauren HutAmerican Flyers (1985) C-114m. ★★★ D: ton, Hector Elizondo, Nina Van Pallandt, FranJohn Badham. Kevin Costner, David Grant, ces Bergen, Bill Duke. Schrader presents his Rae Dawn Chong, Alexandra Paul, Janice weakest variation yet on his favorite theme, the Rule, Luca Bercovici, Robert Townsend, seamy side of American life. Feeble morality John Amos, Jennifer Grey. Two brothers— play, posing as a thriller, is further underone of whom is dying—enter a grueling mined by neurasthenic acting and some of the bicycle race marathon. Likable, sweetunsexiest sex scenes ever. [R]▼●쩠 natured, root-for-the-good-guys film, if a American Gothic (1988) C-90m. BOMB bit too pat and manipulative at times. WritD: John Hough. Rod Steiger, Yvonne ten by Steve Tesich, whose cycle theme De Carlo, Michael J. Pollard, Fiona Hutchfared even better in BREAKING AWAY. ison, Sarah Torgov, Mark Lindsay ChapPanavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 man. Three couples off for an island American Friend, The (1977-U.S.-Frenchweekend off the Seattle coast are forced to German) C-127m. ★★★ D: Wim Wenders. land at an unknown island dominated by Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreumurderous Ma and Pa (DeCarlo and Steiger) zer, Gerard Blain, Jean Eustache, Sam and their ‘‘kids’’ (grown-ups who’ve been Fuller, Nicholas Ray. Vague but suspensekept mentally adolescent by their backful statement about American gangster films ward, backwoods parents). Populated exand the Americanization of European cinclusively by obnoxious characters; even Steiger can’t help this one. [R]▼●쩠 ema and lifestyles, centering on a young German picture-framer (Ganz) hired to asAmerican Graffiti (1973) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 sassinate a mobster. Hopper is the title D: George Lucas. Richard Dreyfuss, Ronny character, a mystery man; film directors Howard, Paul LeMat, Charlie Martin Smith, Ray and Fuller appear as heavies. Based Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie on Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley’s Game; rePhillips, Wolfman Jack, Harrison Ford, made under that title in 2003. Hopper’s charBo Hopkins, Kathy Quinlan, Suzanne acter, Tom Ripley, also appears in PURPLE Somers, Joe Spano, Debralee Scott. Highly NOON and its remake, THE TALENTED entertaining, insightful mosaic about youngMR. RIPLEY.▼●쩠 sters ‘‘coming of age’’ after high school American Friends (1991-British) C-95m. graduation in 1962. Often hilarious, al★★1 ⁄2 D: Tristram Powell. Michael Palin, ways on-target, this film made Dreyfuss a Trini Alvarado, Connie Booth, Alfred Molstar and boosted many other careers. Reina, David Calder, Simon Jones, Robert Ededited to 112m. for 1978 reissue to play up dison, Alun Armstrong. A very proper (and latter-day stars. Look fast for Kay Lenz very repressed) senior tutor at Oxford at the dance. Sequel: MORE AMERICAN chances to meet a young American girl durGRAFFITI. Techniscope. [PG]▼●쩠 ing a holiday in the Swiss Alps and finds his American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. Tyoutlook on life undergoing some dramatic changes. Slight, slowly paced, but diverting; rone Power, Micheline Prelle (Presle), Tom Palin coscripted the film, based on journals Ewell, Bob Patten, Tommy Cook, Jack left behind by his great-grandfather. ▼ Elam. Interesting but flawed account of American Gangster (2007) C-157m. ★★★ resistance to Japanese after the fall of the D: Ridley Scott. Denzel Washington, RusPhilippines during WW2, focusing on the sell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Idris Elba, activities of American naval officer Power. Ruby Dee, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Josh Brolin, Marred by cliche´d, jingoistic script, preRZA, John Ortiz, John Hawkes, Ted Levdictable romantic subplot involving Prelle. ine, Yul Vazquez, Armand Assante, Joe On-location filming adds authentic flavor. Morton, Common, Tip Harris (T.I.), Carla Based on Ira Wolfert’s novel. [ 35 ]

American Gun (2005) C-95m. ★★ D: Aric life also is chronicled in MR. ROCK AND Avelino. Donald Sutherland, Forest WhiROLL (in which the DJ plays himself ) and taker, Marcia Gay Harden, Linda Cardellini, the TVM MR. ROCK ’N’ ROLL: THE ALAN FREED STORY. [PG]▼ Tony Goldwyn, Christopher Marquette, Nikki Reed, Arlen Escarpeta, Garcelle BeauvaisAmerican in Paris, An (1951) C-115m. ★★★1 Nilon, Melissa Leo, Schuyler Fisk, Daniel ⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Gene Kelly, Hugh Kelly. Ambitious but unsuccessful film Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges offers multiple storylines about people in Guetary, Nina Foch. Joyous, original mudifferent states coming to grips with the efsical built around Gershwin score; dazfect of gun violence on their lives. Serious and zling in color. Plot of artist Kelly torn well-intentioned treatise eschews melodrama between gamine Caron and wealthy Foch where it can, but adds up to very little. Good is creaky, but the songs, dances, produccast tries hard. Fisk was one of the film’s tion are superb. Oscars include Best Piccomposers. Whitaker coexecutive-produced. ture, Story and Screenplay (Alan Jay [R]▼쩠 Lerner), Cinematography (Alfred Gilks and American Haunting, An (2006-U.S.-BritishJohn Alton), Scoring (Johnny Green and Canadian-Rumanian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: CourtSaul Chaplin), Art Direction, Costume Deney Solomon. Donald Sutherland, Sissy sign, and a special citation to Kelly. Look fast Spacek, Rachel Hurd-Wood, James D’Arcy, for Noel Neill as an art student. ▼●쩠 Matthew Marsh, Thom Fell, Sam Alexander. Americanization of Emily, The (1964) In early 19th-century rural Tennessee, the de117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. James Garvout Bell family is driven increasingly batty ner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Douglas, James by a spirit that takes over their house—and Coburn, Joyce Grenfell, Keenan Wynn, specifically targets their teenaged daughter Judy Carne, Liz Fraser, Edward Binns, in her bedroom. Based on a purportedly real William Windom, Alan Sues. Garner is fall incident, and briefly framed by a contempoguy for U.S. admiral’s master plan to have rary family’s tale, the only real horror here American naval officer first Normandy inis the film’s meager story and one-note vasion victim, with predictable results. screenplay. Alternate version runs 91m. Cynical Garner-Andrews romance blends Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 well with realistic view of life among U.S. American Heart (1993) C-113m. ★★★ D: military brass. Script by Paddy Chayefsky, Martin Bell. Jeff Bridges, Edward Furfrom William Bradford Huie’s novel. Also long, Lucinda Jenney, Tracey Kapisky, shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Don Harvey, Maggie Welsh. Sobering, American Justice SEE: Jackals sometimes brilliant drama of gruff ex-con American Madness (1932) 81m. ★★★ D: who is reunited with his son, an alienated Frank Capra. Walter Huston, Pat O’Brien, teen in desperate need of a dad. Jarring, Kay Johnson, Constance Cummings, Gavin credible portrait of lost souls in urban Gordon. Huston is dynamic as a put-upon America, with riveting performances by bank president in the depths of the Great its stars. First fiction feature for Bell, who Depression; vivid, upbeat film marred only directed the documentary STREETWISE. by idiotic romantic subplot.▼쩠 Bridges also coproduced. [R]▼쩠 American Me (1992) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: American History X (1998) C/B&WEdward James Olmos. Edward James Olmos, 118m. ★★★ D: Tony Kaye. Edward Norton, William Forsythe, Pepe Serna, Danny De La Edward Furlong, Fairuza Balk, Beverly Paz, Evelina Fernandez, Sal Lopez, Daniel D’Angelo, Avery Brooks, Stacy Keach, Villarreal, Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa. Ambitious Jennifer Lien, Elliott Gould, William Russ, look at the so-called ‘‘Mexican Mafia’’ reJoe Cortese. Hard-hitting drama of a young flected through the life of a crime lord (Olmos), man who’s seduced into a white supremacy and the cycle of gang violence which extends movement in Venice, California, goes to from prison to the Southwest’s Hispanic barprison after committing a heinous crime, and rio communities. Attempts to be epic in scope has his head straightened out. When he’s reand subject, but is too unfocused to really leased, his only thought is to steer his younger score, despite many tough, powerful mobrother away from that same existence. ments. Olmos—who made his directorial Frighteningly powerful—and believable— debut here—and Forsythe stand out in the performance by Norton sparks this intense large cast. The prison scenes at Folsom were actually shot there. [R]▼●쩠 drama of a family torn apart. [R] ▼●쩠 American Hot Wax (1978) C-91m. ★★★ D: American Movie (1999) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Floyd Mutrux. Tim McIntire, Fran Drescher, Chris Smith. Thoroughly engaging documenJay Leno, John Lehne, Laraine Newman, Jeff tary about Mark Borchardt, an obsessive indeAltman, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, pendent filmmaker whose aspirations clearly Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Rose-colored story outweigh his talent. Unable to fund his most of controversial 1950s disc jockey Alan recent project, he sets out to complete the Freed. Uneven dramatically, but McIntire is cheesy horror film he started but abandoned excellent, period flavor is strong, and the origyears earlier. Funny and revealing, but diinal rock ’n’ roll acts are fun to see. Freed’s rector Smith is never condescending toward [ 36 ]

his subject’s dreams and desire for acknowlits cast. Jennifer Coolidge appears unbilled. edgment. [R]▼쩠 Unrated version runs 111m. Followed by American Ninja (1986) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam AMERICAN WEDDING. [R]▼쩠 Firstenberg. Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, American Pimp (2000) C-90m. ★★★ D: Judie Aronson, Guich Koock, John Fujioka, The Hughes Brothers. Hard-hitting docuDon Stewart, John LaMotta. Low-grade mentary focuses on 30 real-life black male martial-arts entry series set at U.S. Army ‘‘entrepreneurs’’ and their experiences in base in Philippines, with beefy Dudikoff ‘‘the life.’’ The filmmakers wisely let their as a soldier who finds ample reason to use flashy subjects speak for themselves, and his deadly skills. James comes off well as they do so with amazing candor, stripping Dudikoff’s equally proficient Army pal. away the Hollywood image and revealing Followed by four crummy sequels. [R]▼쩠 them as misogynist capitalists. Makes witty Americano, The (1955) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: use of classic blaxploitation movie images William Castle. Glenn Ford, Cesar Roof pimps to juxtapose fantasy with cold, mero, Frank Lovejoy, Ursula Thiess, Abbe hard reality.▼쩠 Lane. American cowboy Ford delivers a American Pop (1981) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: herd of cattle to Brazil, but stays on when he Ralph Bakshi. Voices of Ron Thompson, gets caught up in a quarrel between rancher Marya Small, Jerry Holland, Lisa Jane PerLovejoy and local peasants. He falls for sky, Roz Kelly. Ambitious animated film, Thiess and becomes friendly with bandit which follows 20th-century American music Romero (fun in a flamboyant role). Stanthrough pivotal characters in four generations. dard Western set in 1955 Brazil benefits Bold graphics and a challenging narrative from South American shooting and colorful keep this interesting, if not always successful; characters.▼ animation buffs may wince at awkward rotoAmerican Outlaws (2001) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: scoping (tracing from live action). Ultimate Les Mayfield. Colin Farrell, Scott Caan, Ali dilemma: the culmination of this heavily draLarter, Gabriel Macht, Gregory Smith, Harmatic, multigenerational saga is the creation ris Yulin, Will McCormack, Ronny Cox, of punk rock! [R]▼●쩠 Terry O’Quinn, Kathy Bates, Timothy DalAmerican President, The (1995) C-113m. ★★★ ton. Awful oater, designed for brainless D: Rob Reiner. Michael Douglas, Anteens, which tells (yet again) the story of nette Bening, Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Jesse James (Farrell), Cole Younger (Caan), Anna Deavere Smith, John Mahoney, Saand their gang, who become Robin Hood– mantha Mathis, Shawna Waldron, David like outlaws while battling a greedy railroad Paymer, Anne Haney, Richard Dreyfuss, tycoon. Plodding and predictable. [PGNina Siemaszko, Wendie Malick, Gail Strick13]▼쩠 land. Slick, entertaining Hollywood concocAmerican Pie (1999) C-95m. ★★★ D: Paul tion about a widowed president who’s Weitz. Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Alyattracted to a lobbyist and decides to pursue son Hannigan, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyonne, her—naively ignoring the political impact this Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Seann Williaison may have during an election year. Apliam Scott, Eugene Levy, Lawrence Presspealing performances and a bright screenplay man, Mena Suvari, Jennifer Coolidge. Good(by Aaron Sorkin) help this likable movie natured teen comedy about four guys who glide along past its considerable gaps in credivow to lose their virginity by the night of the bility. This is the ultimate wish-fulfillment high school prom. Raunchy gags gave this movie, with a president who’s handsome, film its reputation, but they grow honestly out funny, forthright, decisive, and honest. If of its believable characters and situations. In only! Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 fact, its values are old-fashioned, even if its American Psycho (2000) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: sense of humor is not. Casey Affleck appears Mary Harron. Christian Bale, Willem unbilled. Also available in unrated version. Dafoe, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon, SaFollowed by two theatrical sequels and three mantha Mathis, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Justin Therdirect-to-video spin-offs. [R] ▼●쩠 oux, Guinevere Turner, Matt Ross. A 1980s American Pie 2 (2001) C-104m. ★★ D: J.B. Wall Street yuppie has all the trappings of Rogers. Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, success—and the need to fit in—but also has Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Natasha Lyan uncontrollable drive to kill people. Intense onne, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ 1991 novel Seann William Scott, Mena Suvari, Eddie makes its satiric points early on, then has Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy, Chris Owen, nothing to add. Bale gives a dynamic perforDenise Faye, Lisa Arturo, Casey Affleck. mance in this turgid film. Unrated version also Lazy sequel to comedy hit reunites the male available. Followed in 2002 by a direct-tofriends for a summer at the beach after their video sequel. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 first year of college; most of the female coAmerican Rhapsody, An (2001) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: E ´ va Gardos. Nastassja Kinski, stars make only token appearances. Crude and obvious where the first film was clever and Tony Goldwyn, Scarlett Johansson, Kelly ´ gi Ba´nfalvy, Zsuzsa original, this squeezes all it can from echoes Endre´sz Banla´ki, A of the original movie and the likability of Czinko´czi, Mae Whitman, Lisa Jane Per[ 37 ]

sky, Larisa Oleynik. A couple fleeing from Kahn, Phillip Glasser, John Finnegan, Cathianne Blore, Will Ryan. A young Russian Hungary in 1956 is forced to leave an infant mouse is separated from his family as they’re daughter behind. At age six she’s torn from about to arrive at their new homeland, the only mother and father she’s ever known America, in the late 19th century. Handsome, to join her real parents in America. Heartfelt occasionally heart-tugging cartoon feature with film based on writer-director Gardos’ own life a cute main character—but serious story flaws doesn’t really gel until its heroine becomes a (why are there three climaxes?). Producer Steteenager (Johansson) and rebels against her ven Spielberg’s first foray into animation. Foloverprotective mother. Coproducer Colleen lowed by three sequels and an animated TV Camp appears briefly as a friendly neighbor. series, Fievel’s American Tails. [G]▼●쩠 [PG-13]▼쩠 American Tail: Fievel Goes West, An American Romance, An (1944) C-122m. ★★1 (1991) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil Nibbelink, ⁄2 D: King Vidor. Brian Donlevy, Ann Simon Wells. Voices of Philip Glasser, Richards, Walter Abel, John Qualen, SteJames Stewart, Erica Yohn, Cathy Cavadini, phen McNally. Long, flavorful story of Nehemiah Persoff, Dom DeLuise, Amy immigrant steelworker’s rise to wealth and Irving, John Cleese, Jon Lovitz. Pleasant power. Might have been a better film with enough animated feature for small fry folsomeone more magnetic than Donlevy in lows immigrant Fievel the mouse and his the lead. Originally released at 151m. family on a trek to the American West. American Soldier, The (1970-German) 1 ★★ Mediocre songs and uninspired character 80m. ⁄2 D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. animation make it less than memorable— Karl Scheydt, Elga Sorbas, Jan George, Marbut Stewart’s performance as over-the-hill garethe von Trotta, Hark Bohm, Ingrid Caven, sheriff Wylie Burp is a treat. Followed by Kurt Raab. Fassbinder sacrifices believability two direct-to-video sequels. [G]▼●쩠 for mood in this dour film noir about a Vietnam American Teen (2008) C-102m. ★★★ D: vet (Scheydt) who becomes a hired assassin in Nanette Burstein. Enjoyable documentary the Munich underworld. Not so much an ode follows five prototypical teenagers during to the celluloid American gangster or allegory their senior year of high school in Warsaw, about the Vietnam war as a character study, Indiana. Almost too conveniently they fit loaded with in-jokes and absurdist references into pigeonholes (a rich girl who’s also the (such as the duplicitous moll named Rosa von most popular, a basketball star, an artsy girl Praunheim). Fassbinder also scripted.▼쩠 who doesn’t fit in, a hunk, and a total American Splendor (2003) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 dweeb), but it’s impossible to predict how D: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini. they will respond to various pressures that Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Judah Friedarise during this crucial year in their lives. lander, James Urbaniak, Earl Billings, Donal Slickly packaged (and widely criticized for Logue, Molly Shannon. Innovative film that) but undeniably entertaining. [PG-13]쩠 blends real life and dramatization in telling the American Tragedy, An (1931) 95m. ★★ story of Cleveland, Ohio, cynic Harvey Pekar, D: Josef von Sternberg. Phillips Holmes, who becomes an unlikely celebrity by chroniSylvia Sidney, Frances Dee, Irving Pichel, cling his mundane life in a series of comic Frederick Burton, Claire McDowell. Straightbooks. The filmmakers manage to fuse footforward telling of Theodore Dreiser story age of Pekar, his family, and friends with their about weak young man torn between poor movie alter egos in a fresh and constantly girlfriend and beautiful, wealthy girl who falls surprising way. Giamatti is perfect as the unin love with him. Sidney is ideally cast, but repentant curmudgeon. Written by the direcfilm is cold and uninvolving; certainly not tors. [R]▼쩠 as florid as remake, A PLACE IN THE SUN. American Success SEE: American SucAmerican Violet (2009) C-103m. ★★★ D: cess Company, The Tim Disney. Nicole Beharie, Tim Blake NelAmerican Success Company, The (1979) son, Will Patton, Michael O’Keefe, Xzibit, C-94m. ★★ D: William Richert. Jeff Bridges, Charles S. Dutton, Alfre Woodard, Malcolm Belinda Bauer, Ned Beatty, Steven Keats, Barrett, Tim Ware, Paul David Story, David Bianca Jagger, John Glover. A contempoWarshofsky, Lucinda Jenney. Forthright, rary fable about a young loser—in business emotion-packed account of Dee Roberts (Beand marriage—who decides to change harie), an African-American single mother his luck by emulating a macho prince. living in Texas. After being unjustly busted Offbeat in the extreme, often funny, but for drugs, she determinedly fights the system decidedly uneven. Filmed in Germany; rather than accept a plea bargain for a crime based on a story by Larry Cohen. Richert she did not commit. Fact-based story is both has twice reedited and reissued the film: an eye-opener and crowd-pleaser, with the in 1981 as AMERICAN SUCCESS, then 2000 presidential election tellingly playing in 1983 simply as SUCCESS. [PG] out in the background. Beharie is a real find. 1 ★★ American Tail, An (1986) C-80m. ⁄2 D: Super 35. [PG-13] Don Bluth. Voices of Dom DeLuise, ChristoAmerican Way, The SEE: Riders of the pher Plummer, Nehemiah Persoff, Madeline Storm [ 38 ]

American Wedding (2003) C-97m. ★★ D: of romantic comedy and farce, with some Jesse Dylan. Jason Biggs, Alyson Hanniknowing jibes at the ritual of movie publicgan, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Seann William ity. Crystal produced and cowrote with Peter Tolan. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Fred Willard, Eugene Levy, January Jones, Deborah Americathon (1979) C-86m. BOMB D: Rush, Molly Cheek, Angela Paton, Jennifer Neil Israel. Harvey Korman, John Ritter, Coolidge, Nikki Ziering, Lawrence PressNancy Morgan, Peter Riegert, Fred Willard, man. Biggs and Hannigan are getting marZane Buzby, Richard Schaal, Elvis Costello, ried, but things start to go wrong in this Chief Dan George, Tommy Lasorda, Jay Leno, second sequel to AMERICAN PIE . . . espePeter Marshall, Meat Loaf, Howard Hessecially when Scott (as the ever-obnoxious man. Unfunny comedy wastes great premise: Stifler) shows up. Some good farcical moin 1998, America must hold a telethon in order ments are offset by gross-out gags designed to raise money to save itself. Only spark is set to see just how far one can go in search by Buzby as Vietnamese punk-rocker. Narof laughs. Followed by two direct-to-video rated by George Carlin. [PG]▼ sequels. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Amistad (1997) C-152m. ★★★ D: Steven American Werewolf in London, An (1981) Spielberg. Morgan Freeman, Anthony HopC-97m. ★★★ D: John Landis. David Naughkins, Matthew McConaughey, Nigel Hawton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John thorne, Djimon Hounsou, David Paymer, Pete Woodvine, Brian Glover. A young man is Postlethwaite, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Anna Pabitten by a wolf on the British moors, with quin, Tomas Milian, Austin Pendleton, Allan terrifying results. Not a spoof, but a fullRich, Paul Guilfoyle, Peter Firth, Xander blooded horror film that happens to have a Berkeley, Jeremy Northam, Arliss Howard, sharp sense of humor—as well as a reverence Chiwitel Ejiofor. Little-known saga of the for horror films past. Dynamite direction and Spanish slave ship La Amistad, whose script by Landis, startling Oscar-winning ‘‘cargo’’ broke their chains in 1839—and makeup effects by Rick Baker. Followed by wound up in a U.S. courtroom, ultimately atan in-name-only sequel. [R] ▼●쩠 tracting the attention of ex-president John American Werewolf in Paris, An (1997Quincy Adams (Hopkins). A good film that’s British-U.S.-Luxembourgian-Dutch-French) frustratingly uneven: the slave ship scenes are C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony Waller. Tom Everett wrenching (and unavoidably reminiscent of Scott, Julie Delpy, Vince Vieluf, Phil BuckSpielberg’s SCHINDLER’S LIST), and man, Julie Bowen, Pierre Cosso, Tom NoAdams’ final summation is a showcase vembre, Thierry Lhermitte. Thrill-seeking speech. But the film is long, and the draAmerican Scott falls for Parisienne Delpy, but matic gaps too many. Hounsou offers a she’s a werewolf, and soon he’s one, too, powerful presence as Cinque, the leader of pitted against a group of leering lycanthropes the slave revolt. [R]▼●쩠 bent on wiping out the unfit—such as AmeriAmityville Horror, The (1979) C-117m. ★1 can tourists. Begins well, but soon goes awry, ⁄2 D: Stuart Rosenberg. James Brolin, with too much comedy and romance, and too Margot Kidder, Rod Steiger, Don Stroud, much plot; the werewolf effects are plentiful Murray Hamilton, Michael Sacks, Helen but second-rate at best. No plot connections to Shaver, Natasha Ryan, Val Avery, John the superior John Landis original. [R]▼●쩠 Larch, Amy Wright, James Tolkan. FamAmerican Women SEE: Closer You Get, ily moves into supposedly haunted Long The Island home, finds that ‘‘supposedly’’ is America’s Heart & Soul (2004) C-84m. ★★★ inoperative. Based on Jay Anson’s (supD: Louis Schwartzberg. An unsentimental porposedly) nonfiction best-seller, film is yawntrait of America as seen through images, inducing rehash of old schticks; not even sounds, and the stories of some colorful people good for laughs, with Steiger mercilessly who represent individualism at its best—from hamming it up as local priest. Followed by a weaver carrying on a generations-old tradia prequel, AMITYVILLE II: THE POStion to a disabled boy who competes in maraSESSION, a TV movie, and several sothons in tandem with his father. This final story called sequels. Remade in 2005. [R] ▼●쩠 is so moving, nothing could follow it. [PG]쩠 Amityville Horror, The (2005) C-89m. ★★ America’s Sweethearts (2001) C-102m. D: Andrew Douglas. Ryan Reynolds, Me★★1 lissa George, Jesse James, Jimmy Bennett, ⁄2 D: Joe Roth. Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, John Cusack, Chloe¨ Grace Moretz, Rachel Nichols, Philip Hank Azaria, Stanley Tucci, Christopher Baker Hall. Reynolds, his new wife, and Walken, Alan Arkin, Seth Green. Slick if stepchildren move into an old Long Island forgettable comedy about a much-loved house where multiple murders occurred a Hollywood couple—now split—who agree year before. The youngest child is beto come together to promote their final film friended by a ghost, while the husband is at a press junket. Crystal is the can-do publislowly driven into a homicidal rage. Profescist, Roberts is the sister and assistant to a sionally made, well-acted, but uninvolving very spoiled Zeta-Jones. No particular hilartale is both familiar and overdone. Based on ity or insights here, but an easy-to-take mix the same supposedly true story as the 1979 [ 39 ]

movie, but ends up resembling THE SHINAlvaro Guerrero, Vanessa Bauche, Jorge SaliING. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 nas, Marco Perez, Rodrigo Murray. Arresting Amityville II: The Possession (1982) look at divergent lives that intersect in a MexC-104m. BOMB D: Damiano Damiani. ico City car crash. Broken into three secBurt Young, Rutanya Alda, James Olson, tions, film traces several different characters Jack Magner, Diane Franklin, Andrew and their relationships, all connected in one Prine, Ted Ross, Moses Gunn. Officially a way or another by their dogs, raising tough prequel to THE AMITYVILLE HORquestions about the human condition in an ROR, but actually just a ripoff. A loathunforgiving city. Brutally realistic (but judisome lout (Young) moves into notorious ciously edited) depiction of dogfights and Long Island house with his troubled family their outcomes will make this tough for some and all hell breaks loose. Alternately dull viewers; for others there are considerable and disgusting. [R]▼●쩠 rewards here. Feature debut for TV comAmityville: The Demon SEE: Amityville mercial director Inarritu. English title: 3-D LOVE’S A BITCH. [R]▼쩠 Amityville 3-D (1983) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, Richard Fleischer. Tony Roberts, Tess The (1965-British) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: TerHarper, Robert Joy, Candy Clark, John ence Young. Kim Novak, Richard Johnson, Beal, Leora Dana, John Harkins, Lori Angela Lansbury, George Sanders, Vittorio Loughlin, Meg Ryan. Thoroughly familiar De Sica, Lilli Palmer, Leo McKern, Cecil Parretread of spirit-in-the-house formula, with ker. Billed as female Tom Jones, Moll is far Roberts as a Doubting Thomas who buys from thrilling. Fine cast romps through 18ththe dreaded Amityville house (seen in two century England from bedroom to boudoir, otherwise unrelated films). Competence at but film needs more spice than Novak can every level keeps this from being trash; muster. The two leads were married briefly in real life. Panavision. ▼● excellent 3-D effects too. Shown on TV as AMITYVILLE: THE DEMON; followed Amorous Mis-adventures of Casanova, by TV movie AMITYVILLE 4: THE EVIL The SEE: Casanova & Co. ESCAPES and two direct-to-video sequels. Amos & Andrew (1993) C-94m. BOMB ArriVision. [PG]▼●쩠 D: E. Max Frye. Nicolas Cage, Samuel Among Giants (1998-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 L. Jackson, Dabney Coleman, Brad Dourif, D: Sam Miller. Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Michael Lerner, Margaret Colin, Chelcie Griffiths, James Thornton, Lennie James, Ross, I. M. Hobson, Jodi Long, Giancarlo Andy Serkis, Rob Jarvis, Alan Williams. A Esposito, Loretta Devine, Bob Balaban, rough-hewn contractor hires a rowdy lot to Tracey Walter. Agonizing comedy about a paint the huge electric pylons that dot the Britprofessionally distinguished black man who ish countryside. They become a sort of outlaw moves into a new home, only to be hafamily, and are joined by an adventurous rassed by white neighbors who assume he’s Aussie woman who likes heights. Good pera prowler. Intended social satire is as formances and rich atmosphere help, but it’s broadly silly as a ’60s Disney comedy; a less successful dip into working-class life maybe they should have called this THAT DARN AFRO-AMERICAN. [PG-13]▼●쩠 by the writer of THE FULL MONTY, Simon Beaufoy. [R] ▼ Amsterdam Kill, The (1977) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Amongst Friends (1993) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Robert Clouse. Robert Mitchum, BradRob Weiss. Joseph Lindsey, Patrick McGaw, ford Dillman, Richard Egan, Leslie NielSteve Parlavecchio, Mira Sorvino, Brett sen, Keye Luke. Tired drug bust movie Lambson, Michael Artura. Superficial (and, gets a shot from Mitchum’s presence as a by now, all-too-familiar) tale of young male retired narc who’s lured back by a former punks coming of age on America’s mean colleague suspected of being part of an international dope ring. Panavision. [R]▼● streets, only these are suburban rather than urban and the boys are wealthy instead of Amy (1981) C-100m. ★★★ D: Vincent working-class. Well made and not uninterestMcEveety. Jenny Agutter, Barry Newman, ing, but Martin Scorsese did it—and did it Kathleen Nolan, Chris Robinson, Lou Fant, better—20 years earlier. [R]▼쩠 Margaret O’Brien, Nanette Fabray, Lance Amor Bandido (1979-Brazilian) C-95m. LeGault, Lucille Benson. Sincere, entertain★★★ ing Disney tale of Agutter leaving her husD: Bruno Barreto. Paulo Gracindo, Cristina Ache, Paulo Guarnieri, Ligia Diniz, band in the early 1900s, teaching at a school Flavio Sao Thiago. Tough drama of 17-yearfor the handicapped. Though the film is tarold dancer-hooker Ache, estranged from cop geted at kids, parents won’t be bored. Made for TV, released to theaters instead. [G]▼ father Gracindo, who takes up with babyfaced killer Guarnieri. Uncompromising and, Amy (1998-Australian) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: ultimately, sad; based on one of Brazil’s most Nadia Tass. Alana De Roma, Rachel Grifnotorious criminal cases.▼● fiths, Ben Mendelsohn, Nick Barker, Kerry Amores Perros (2000-Mexican) C-153m. Armstrong, Jeremy Trigatti, William Zappa, ★★★ D: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Emilio Torquil Neilson. Unusual film about a little Echevarria, Gael Garcia Bernal, Goya Toledo, girl who’s been traumatized into silence and [ 40 ]

her overprotective mother, the widow of a from West Side Story wears thin fast. Anrock star. Some of the film’s ingredients seem thony LaPaglia appears unbilled. [R] ▼쩠 contrived, others endearing, as it shifts from Analyze This (1999) C-103m. ★★★ D: Harquirky comedy to drama and back again. old Ramis. Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Written and photographed by Tass’ partner Lisa Kudrow, Joe Viterelli, Chazz Palminand husband, David Parker. [PG-13]쩠 teri, Bill Macy, Leo Rossi, Max Casella, Amy’s Orgasm (2001) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julie Molly Shannon, Pat Cooper, Elizabeth Davis. Julie Davis, Nick Chinlund, Caroline Bracco. Amusing comedy about a mob boss Aaron, Jeff Cesario, Mitchell Whitfield, Jenwho’s losing his grip and is persuaded to nifer Bransford, Mark Brown. Writer-director talk to a psychiatrist—which causes him Davis stars as an Ivy League–educated selfgreat embarrassment. A small idea stretched help author who somehow manages to fall out too far but made worthwhile by De for a shock jock with a reputation for dating Niro’s wonderful comic performance as the bimbos. Although the romance between these foulmouthed mobster who feels ‘‘contwo opposites develops a little too quickly, flicted.’’ Followed by ANALYZE THAT. the actors make the budding relationship [R]▼●쩠 fun to watch anyway. Warning for those Anastasia (1956) C-105m. ★★★★ D: Anatole expecting a hot sex romp: the title is as Litvak. Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner, Helen steamy as it gets in this indie comedy. Aka Hayes, Akim Tamiroff, Martita Hunt, AMY’S O. [R] ▼쩠 Felix Aylmer, Natalie Schafer, Ivan Anaconda (1997) C-90m. ★★ D: Luis Desny. Inspired casting makes this film Llosa. Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon exceptional. Bergman won Oscar as amVoight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, Kari nesiac refugee selected by Brynner to Wuhrer, Owen Wilson, Vincent Castellaimpersonate surviving daughter of Russia’s nos. Documentary film crew adrift on the last czar. High point: confrontation scene in Amazon is besieged by a giant killer snake. which Hayes as grand duchess must deterHokey special effects and an expositionless mine if girl is her relative. Screenplay by script detract, but there’s campy fun in the Arthur Laurents based on Marcelle Mauform of Voight’s demonic snake poacher, rette’s play. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 who speaks with a bad Brandoesque drawl Anastasia (1997) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don and strangles human victims between his Bluth, Gary Goldman. Voices of Meg Ryan, knees. Film makes most of beautiful BrazilJohn Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Angela ian rainforest locale, yet the big serpentine Lansbury, Christopher Lloyd, Hank Azaria, climax looks strangely like deepest, darkest Bernadette Peters, Kirsten Dunst, Andrea Arcadia. (In fact, it’s the Arboretum in L.A. Martin, Jim Cummings, Liz Callaway, County.) Followed by ANACONDAS: Lacey Chabert, Jonathan Dokuchitz. ElaboTHE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID rate but uneven cartoon musical about the and two TV sequels. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 daughter of Nicholas and Alexandra, who Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid supposedly survived in Russia in 1917 only (2004) C-96m. ★★ D: Dwight H. Little. Morris to reappear in Paris a decade later—where Chestnut, Johnny Messner, KaDee Strickland, two schemers try to collect part of her Matthew Marsden, Nicholas Gonzalez, Euinheritance from her grandmother, the gene Byrd, Salli Richardson-Whitfield. The Dowager Empress. Innocuous enough for original ANACONDA had Jennifer Lopez tied kids, but adults may question the ’90s up to Ice Cube and a snake-regurgitated Jon American dialogue (and readings). AnimaVoight; in this sequel, we have Chestnut gettion style is also inconsistent—some of it ting woozy after a rare spider gives him a realistic, some of it wildly fanciful. Loosely 151-proof bite. Still, that’s an apparent occubased on the 1956 movie. Followed in 1999 pational hazard for anyone trekking the by a direct-to-video sequel: BARTOK THE Borneo jungle seeking a fountain-of-youth MAGNIFICENT. CinemaScope. [G]▼●쩠 plant right near the spot where snakes conAnatomy of a Murder (1959) 160m. ★★★★ verge for mating season. There’s a jolt or two D: Otto Preminger. James Stewart, Lee to satisfy diehards. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Remick, Ben Gazzara, Arthur O’Connell, Analyze That (2002) C-95m. ★★ D: Harold Eve Arden, Kathryn Grant (Crosby), George Ramis. Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa C. Scott, Orson Bean, Murray Hamilton. Kudrow, Joe Viterelli, Cathy MoriartyLong, exciting courtroom drama; daring Gentile, Reg Rogers, Callie Thorne, Pat when released, tamer now. Sterling cast: Cooper. De Niro is sprung from Sing Sing O’Connell as drunken lawyer inspired by into the custody of psychiatrist Crystal, who Stewart, Scott as prosecuting attorney, Joactually believes the mob boss is going to seph Welch as judge (Welch was the fago straight. Another good argument for outmous Army-McCarthy hearings lawyer lawing sequels; all the novelty and freshness who later became a judge in real life). Stewof ANALYZE THIS is gone, replaced by art towers over all as witty, easygoing, but contrived plotting and just a handful of cagy defense lawyer. Script by Wendell laughs. Even watching De Niro sing tunes Mayes, from novel by Robert Traver (Judge [ 41 ]

John D. Voelker). Duke Ellington composed the score and also appears on-screen.▼●쩠 Anatomy of a Syndicate SEE: Big Operator, The Anatomy of Hell (2004-French) C-80m. BOMB D: Catherine Breillat. Amira Casar, Rocco Siffredi. After attempting suicide in the bathroom of a gay disco, a woman hires the man who rescues her to spend four nights in her company, challenging him to ‘‘watch me where I’m unwatchable.’’ Meant to be provocative and controversial, but mostly it’s pretentious and homophobic. There’s plenty of XXX footage, which is alternately monotonous and unintentionally funny. The title is apt. ▼쩠 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) C-95m. ★★ D: Adam McKay. Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, David Koechner, Fred Willard, Danny Trejo, Missi Pyle, Holmes Osborne, Fred Armisen, Seth Rogen, Laura Kightlinger, Chris Parnell. In the 1970s, TV news anchor Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) ‘‘owns’’ San Diego, until an attractive and ambitious female reporter arrives on the scene. A sketch comedy inflated to feature length, with occasional laughs and a number of gag appearances that try to camouflage a threadbare, onenote script. Ferrell and director McKay coscripted. Unrated version runs 103m. [PG-13]

display in simple tale of man-teaser finding it hard to resist temptation. Great cast clicks in Brigitte’s best-known vehicle. Beware edited prints. Remade (in name only) by Vadim in the U.S. in 1988. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 And God Created Woman (1988) C100m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. Rebecca De Mornay, Vincent Spano, Frank Langella, Donovan Leitch, Judith Chapman, Jaime McEnnan, Benjamin Mouton, David Shelley. Surprisingly tepid ‘‘variation’’ on director Vadim’s one-time scandale international (see above). Luscious De Mornay marries carpenter Spano merely to secure her release from prison, then keeps him panting as she frolics with gubernatorial candidate Langella. Not all that different from Goldie Hawn’s OVERBOARD; beware rock ’n’ roll subplot. [R]▼●쩠 . . . And God Spoke (the making of . . .) (1993) C-83m. ★★★ D: Arthur Borman. Michael Riley, Stephen Rappaport, Lou Ferrigno, Soupy Sales, Eve Plumb, Fred Kaz, Michael Medved. Occasionally clever satire in the THIS IS SPINAL TAP mold, only the subject here is the casting and production of a numbingly awful multi-million-dollar biblical epic. After one day the production is behind schedule. Lou (The Incredible Hulk) Ferrigno plays Cain; Eve (The Brady Bunch) Plumb is Mrs. Noah; and Soupy Sales is Moses! An amusing little sleeper.▼쩠 ▼쩠 Anchors Aweigh (1945) C-140m. ★★1⁄2 And Hope to Die (1972-French) C-99m. ★★★ D: George Sidney. Frank Sinatra, Kathryn D: Rene´ Clement. Robert Ryan, Tisa Grayson, Gene Kelly, Jose Iturbi, Dean Farrow, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Lea MasStockwell, Pamela Britton. Popular ’40s sari, Aldo Ray. Above-average caper with musical of sailors on leave doesn’t hold up offbeat touches; gang hired to kidnap girl storywise, but musical numbers still good: goes through with scheme even though Sinatra’s ‘‘I Fall in Love Too Easily,’’ she’s already dead. [PG]▼ Kelly’s irresistible dance with Jerry the . . . And Justice for All (1979) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Jewison. Al Pacino, Jack cartoon mouse.▼●쩠 Anderson Platoon, The (1967-French) Warden, John Forsythe, Lee Strasberg, 65m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pierre Schoendorffer. SuJeffrey Tambor, Christine Lahti, Sam perior chronicle of soldiers in American Levene, Craig T. Nelson, Joe Morton. Army platoon fighting, living, and dying Lawyer Pacino single-handedly battles Maryin Vietnam. Vivid, striking images, pholand’s judicial system. Outrageous satire tographed at the front line. A Best Documixes uncomfortably with painfully sad mentary Academy Award winner.▼ moments, in attempt to make biting stateAnderson’s Angels SEE: Chesty Anderment on buying and selling of justice. son, USN Strong performances and good location photography cannot overcome weak script. Anderson Tapes, The (1971) C-98m. ★★★ D: Sidney Lumet. Sean Connery, Dyan Written by Barry Levinson and Valerie Cannon, Martin Balsam, Ralph Meeker, Curtin. Lahti’s feature debut. [R] ▼●쩠 Alan King, Margaret Hamilton, ChristoAnd Nothing But the Truth (1982-British) pher Walken, Garrett Morris. Fast-paced C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Karl Francis. Glenda thriller of ex-con’s master holdup plan, Jackson, Jon Finch, Kenneth Colley, James and strange electronic surveillances that Donnelly, Emrys James, Karen Archer. have tracked him since he left prison. An examination of the role and responsibilClimax is particularly exciting. Fine Quincy ity of the media, focusing on documentary Jones score; Walken’s debut. [PG]▼●쩠 filmmaker Jackson and reporter Finch at . . . And God Created Woman (1956work on a TV magazine show. Earnest, French) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. not without merit, but ordinary; originally Brigitte Bardot, Curt Jurgens, Jean-Louis titled GIRO CITY, and released at 102m.▼ Trintignant, Christian Marquand, Georges And Now For Something Completely Poujouly, Jean Tissier. Location shooting Different (1971-British) C-89m. ★★★ D: (at St. Tropez) and famous Bardot figure on Ian McNaughton. Graham Chapman, John [ 42 ]

Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Keith Carradine, Tina Majorino, Chelsea Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland, Connie Booth. Field, Aidan Pendleton, Shane Meier, Keith First feature by the Monty Python troupe is a Szarabajka, Joshua Jackson. Agreeably oldkind of ‘‘Greatest Hits’’ album, with some of fashioned family film, set in a coastal town in the most popular sketches and animated bits Maine in the early 1960s, about an animalfrom their long-running TV series. Fine introloving clan who adopts a baby seal that adopts duction to their peculiar brand of humor inthem in return, and refuses to leave. Aimed at cludes Dead Parrot, The World’s Deadliest children, but amiable enough for parents, with Joke, Upper-Class Twit of the Year, and mema soundtrack full of 1960s pop music. Based orable Lumberjack Song. [PG]▼●쩠 on a true story; watch that vintage homeAnd Now . . . Ladies and Gentlemen . . . movie footage of Andre during the closing credits. Clairmont-Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 (2002-French) C-129m. ★★ D: Claude Lelouch. Jeremy Irons, Patricia Kaas, Thierry Andrei Roublev (1966-Russian) C/B&W185m. ★★★★ D: Andrei Tarkovsky. Anatoli Lhermitte, Alessandra Martines, Claudia Cardinale, Ticky Holgado, Yvan Attal, AmiSolonitzine, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Grinko, dou. Thief Irons suffers from a memory disorNikolai Sergueiev. Brilliantly devised and der that complicates any recollection of directed account of famous 15th-century icon having pulled off a robbery for which he’s painter, focusing on an age-old conflict: should accused. Kaas (in real life a French recording an artist participate in the political and social star) has the same affliction and becomes a upheavals of the time, or should he simply resoul mate. Story seems to start in the middle cord history with his brush? Magnificent film but eventually straightens itself out; still is worthy of comparison with the best of longer than it needs to be. Large cast of charEisenstein’s historical dramas. Scripted by Taracters rushes in and disappears as if they were kovsky and Andrei Milchakov-Konchalovsky; merely showing up to plunk an extra quarter shelved by the Soviet authorities, and unseen in a parking meter. Lelouch hasn’t lost his until 1971. Restored version runs 20m. longer. eye; the photography by Pierre-William Glenn Sovscope.▼●쩠 (DAY FOR NIGHT and other Truffauts) is Androcles and the Lion (1952) 98m. ★★★ luscious. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 D: Chester Erskine. Jean Simmons, Alan ★★★ And Now Miguel (1966) C-95m. Young, Victor Mature, Maurice Evans, D: James Clark. Pat Cardi, Michael Ansara, Guy Elsa Lanchester, Robert Newton. Shaw’s Stockwell, Joe De Santis. Flavorful, leisurely amusing satire of ancient Rome can’t be paced account of young boy who wants to dampened by dull production retelling fable of Christian and lion he befriends. ▼ join his father on his summer mountain trip to graze sheep; set in New Mexico. Produced by Android (1982) C-80m. ★★★ D: Aaron Robert Radnitz. Techniscope. Lipstadt. Klaus Kinski, Don Opper, Brie And Now My Love (1975-French) C-121m. Howard, Norbert Weisser, Crofton Hardester, ★★★1 Kendra Kirchner. Entertaining sci-fi story ⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Marthe Keller, Andre Dussollier, Charles Denner, Carla about an almost-human android who’s been Gravina, Gilbert Becaud, Charles Gerard. working as assistant to mad scientist Kinski A what’ll-he-do-next kind of extravaganon a remote space station and learns he is za, in which Lelouch salutes life, love and about to be put out of commission. Charming, the 20th century, using comedy, drama, quirky ultra-low-budget film made on leftover and music to bring wealthy Keller and sets from Roger Corman’s BATTLE BEne’er-do-well Dussollier together for the YOND THE STARS. Opper, who plays Max 404, also cowrote screenplay. [PG]▼●쩠 fadeout. Opens in b&w. Originally 150m.; restored version runs 143m. [PG]▼쩠 Andromeda Strain, The (1971) C-130m. ★★1 And Now the Screaming Starts! (1973⁄2 D: Robert Wise. Arthur Hill, David British) C-87m. ★★ D: Roy Ward Baker. Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid, Paula Peter Cushing, Stephanie Beacham, HerKelly. Overlong sci-fi thriller in which bert Lom, Patrick Magee, Ian Ogilvy. small team of superscientists tries to isoBeacham weds Ogilvy and finds that she’s late deadly strain of virus from outer space, living in a house that has been under a racing against time and nuclear detonacurse for years; OK horror drama with a tion. From Michael Crichton’s novel. Remade as a TV miniseries in 2008. Panavigood cast. [R]▼쩠 sion. [G] ▼●쩠 And Quiet Flows the Don (1957-Russian) C-107m. ★★★ D: Sergei Gerasimov. Ellina And the Angels Sing (1944) 96m. ★★1⁄2 Bystritskaya, Pyotr Glebov, Zinaida KirD: George Marshall. Dorothy Lamour, Fred ienko, Danilo Ilchenko. Faithful realizaMacMurray, Betty Hutton, Diana Lynn, tion of Mikhail Sholokhov’s novel revolving Raymond Walburn, Eddie Foy, Jr. Agreeable around life of small village family during musical of singing sister act trying to make it WW1 and after. Absorbing study of social big; MacMurray gives them their break. upheavals caused by revolution and war. Brassy Hutton tries to steal the show. Originally a multi-part film; only one segAnd Then There Were None (1945) 98m. ★★★★ D: Rene ´ Clair. Barry Fitzgerald, Walment was released in the West.쩠 Andre (1994) C-94m. ★★★ D: George Miller. ter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, [ 43 ]

June Duprez, C. Aubrey Smith, Judith band Marshall for vacation, falling in love with Douglas. Not worthy of star trio.▼● Anderson, Mischa Auer, Richard Haydn. Highly suspenseful Agatha Christie yarn Angel (1982) SEE: Danny Boy Angel (1984) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Vinof ten people invited to lonely island where one by one they’re murdered. Great script cent O’Neil. Cliff Gorman, Susan Tyrrell, by Dudley Nichols complemented by suDick Shawn, Rory Calhoun, John Diehl, perb visual ideas. Remade three times as Donna Wilkes. Wilkes is a straight-A high TEN LITTLE INDIANS.▼●쩠 school student by day, Hollywood hooker by And the Ship Sails On (1984-Italian) night—but despite ‘‘colorful’’ characters like C-138m. ★★★ D: Federico Fellini. Freddie drag queen Shawn, film goes nowhere, and Jones, Barbara Jefford, Victor Poletti, Peter remains inexplicably tame in terms of what it Cellier, Janet Suzman, Elisa Mai Nardi, shows. Sequel: AVENGING ANGEL. Norma West, Paolo Paoloni. Uniquely Felli[R]▼●쩠 niesque ocean voyage, circa 1914, with an Angela (1984-Canadian) C-100m. ★★ D: earnest journalist (Jones) acting as our ‘‘host’’ Boris Sagal. Sophia Loren, Steve Railsand introducing us to a variety of celebrated back, John Huston, John Vernon. Dreary guests who have gathered for funeral voyage story of the relationship between a woman of great opera star. Flagrantly unrealistic, deliand a younger man who turns out to be her ciously absurd, and somewhat uneven, but full son. Made in 1978.▼ of striking images and those indelible Fellini Angel-A (2005-French) 91m. ★★ D: Luc Besfaces . . . plus an opening sequence that’s son. Rie Rasmussen, Jamel Debbouze, Gilbert absolutely mesmerizing. [PG]▼쩠 Melki, Serge Riaboukine, Akim Chir, Erik Andy Hardy series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s Balliet. Small-time swindler with endless Classic Movie Guide debts and the mob on his tail decides to end it Andy Warhol’s Bad (1977) C-106m. all by jumping off a bridge. A beautiful girl ★★1 has the same idea and beats him to it, so he ⁄2 D: Jed Johnson. Carroll Baker, Perry King, Susan Tyrrell, Stefania Cassini, jumps in to rescue her; she returns the favor Cyrinda Foxe. Queens housewife suppleby turning his luck around. Besson’s first time ments her facial-hair-removal business by behind the camera since 1999 is a love letter running a murder-for-hire concern specialto Paris, filmed in gorgeous widescreen black izing in children and animals. Goes withand white . . . but his foray into romantic out saying that Warhol’s most expensive comedy is a misstep, taking a sledgehammer film is in execrable taste, but it frequently approach to a very slight premise. Besson also wrote the screenplay. Super 35. [R]쩠 succeeds as a sick joke; Baker, at least, seems to be having a good time. [R]▼● Angel and the Badman (1947) 100m. ★★★ Andy Warhol’s Dracula (1974-ItalianD: James Edward Grant. John Wayne, French) C-93m. ★★ D: Paul Morrissey. Gail Russell, Harry Carey, Irene Rich, Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Arno Juerging, Bruce Cabot. First-rate Western with RusVittorio De Sica, Maxime McKendry, Rosell humanizing gunfighter Wayne; predictman Polanski. Dracula (Kier) learns he able plot is extremely well handled. Also must have blood of virgins (pronounced shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 ‘‘where-gins’’) in order to survive. ComAngel, Angel, Down We Go (1969) Cpanion piece to ANDY WARHOL’S 103m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Thom. Jennifer Jones, FRANKENSTEIN is far less bloody and Jordan Christopher, Holly Near, Roddy has some amusing bits . . . but a long way McDowall, Lou Rawls, Charles Aidman. from LOVE AT FIRST BITE. Originally Awesomely dated tale of corruption, sex, released at 106m.; aka BLOOD FOR DRAdrugs, and fame. Overweight teenager CULA and YOUNG DRACULA. [R—ed(Near) is distraught when her rock ’n’ roll ited from original X rating] ▼●쩠 lover (Christopher) begins an affair with her Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein (1974-Italianjewelry-obsessed mother (Jones). Reissued German-French) C-94m. BOMB D: Paul as CULT OF THE DAMNED. [R] Morrissey. Joe Dallesandro, Monique Van Angela’s Ashes (1999) C-146m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vooren, Udo Kier, Srdjan Zelenovic, Dalila Alan Parker. Emily Watson, Robert Carlyle, di Lazzaro. Mad baron Kier clones bodyJoe Breen, Ciaran Owens, Michael Legge, beautiful monsters out of bloody human Ronnie Masterson, Pauline McLynn, Eanna innards. Campy and disgusting, with sevMacliam, Gerard McSorley, Eamonn Owens; ered heads and hands galore. Originally narrated by Andrew Bennett. Competent but shown in 3-D. Aka FLESH FOR FRANuninspired adaptation of Frank McCourt’s KENSTEIN. [R—edited from original X hugely popular, Pulitzer Prize–winning memrating.] Space-Vision. ▼●쩠 oir about growing up in the dire poverty of Andy Warhol Superstar SEE: Superstar Dublin in the 1930s and ’40s, with a large Angel (1937) 91m. ★★ D: Ernst Lubitsch. family, a ne’er-do-well father, and an indomiMarlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall, Melvyn table mother. Has the right look and feel, but lacks resonance and humor. [R]▼쩠 Douglas, Edward Everett Horton, Laura Hope Crews. Disappointing film for DietrichAngel at My Table, An (1990-New ZeaLubitsch team about Marlene leaving husland) C-158m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jane Campion. [ 44 ]

Kerry Fox, Alexia Keogh, Karen Fergusson, chael Higgins, Charles Gordone, Kathleen Iris Churn, K.J. Wilson, Martyn Sanderson. Wilhoite, Pruitt Taylor Vince. Two-bit priStunning, biting autobiography of Janet vate eye Rourke is hired by mysterious De Frame, a roly-poly, repressed little girl who Niro to track down a missing man, which grew up to become New Zealand’s most faleads him into a serpentine investigation— mous novelist/poet—but not before being and a kind of emotional quicksand. An misdiagnosed a schizophrenic, spending eight American Gothic yarn, full of striking, senyears in a mental hospital. Campion beautisual, and frightening images, though after a fully portrays the various stages of Frame’s while it bogs down. Intriguing, if not terrilife, and captures the writer’s inner world. Fox bly appealing. Script by director Parker, is riveting as the adult Janet. Scripted by based on the novel Falling Angel by WilLaura Jones; adapted from a trio of Frame’s liam Hjortsberg. A steamy sex scene was autobiographies. Originally produced as a snipped (by seconds) to avoid an X-rating in the U.S.; it’s restored on video. [R] ▼●쩠 three-part television series.▼●쩠 Angel Baby (1961) 97m. ★★★ D: Paul WendAngel in My Pocket (1969) C-105m. ★★ kos, Hubert Cornfield. George Hamilton, SaD: Alan Rafkin. Andy Griffith, Lee Merilome Jens, Mercedes McCambridge, Joan wether, Jerry Van Dyke, Kay Medford, Blondell, Henry Jones, Burt Reynolds. PeneEdgar Buchanan, Gary Collins. Fans of trating expose´ of evangelistic circuit plying Griffith’s TV series may enjoy homespun backwood country; Jens in title role, Hamilton story of young minister trying to win conthe promoter, McCambridge his shrewish fidence of new small-town parish. Predictwife—marvelous cameos by Blondell and able situations, cliche´ dialogue, with Van Jones. Reynolds’ film debut. ▼쩠 Dyke intolerable as obnoxious brother-inAngel Baby (1995-Australian) C-105m. law. Techniscope. [G] ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Rymer. John Lynch, JacAngel Levine, The (1970) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 queline MacKenzie, Colin Friels, Deborra D: Jan Kadar. Zero Mostel, Harry BelaLee Furness. Lynch and MacKenzie play an fonte, Ida Kaminska, Milo O’Shea, Eli emotionally fragile Melbourne couple who Wallach, Anne Jackson, Gloria Foster. meet and fall in love in a rehabilitation cenTouching, humorous, and sad. Black angel ter, throwing his family for a loop when she named Levine, on the outs in Heaven, tries gets pregnant and can’t subject the fetus to to help poor old Morris Mishkin. A tale her medication. Well-acted but overelaboroften told—seldom this well. Based on a ate treatment of the subject matter; won story by Bernard Malamud; script by Bill Gunn and Ronald Ribman. [PG]▼쩠 Australian Film Institute awards for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, ScreenAngel of Vengeance SEE: Ms. 45 Angelo, My Love (1983) C-115m. ★★★ play, Cinematography, and Editing.▼● Angel Eyes (2001) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luis D: Robert Duvall. Angelo Evans, Michael Mandoki. Jennifer Lopez, Jim Caviezel, Evans, Steve ‘‘Patalay’’ Tsigonoff, Millie Terrence Howard, Sonia Braga, Jeremy Sisto, Tsigonoff, Cathy Kitchen. Fascinating jourMonet Mazur, Shirley Knight, Victor Argo. ney into world of modern-day gypsies, Lopez plays a Chicago cop who’s cut off with ‘‘story’’ loosely wrapped around prefrom her family; then a lost soul comes into cocious Angelo Evans, a remarkable young her life, a man who’s running from his past. street hustler. Surprisingly successful atNeither he nor she realizes that they share a tempt by Duvall to weave fictional story special connection. Sincere performances by into real settings with nonprofessional cast. the two leads make this watchable, though Incidentally, the two men who sing ‘‘Golden the story is predictable and familiar. [R]▼쩠 Days’’ in a restaurant scene are Duvall’s brothers. [R]▼● Angel Face (1952) 91m. ★★ D: Otto Preminger. Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons, Angel on My Shoulder (1946) 101m. ★★★ Herbert Marshall, Mona Freeman, Leon D: Archie Mayo. Paul Muni, Anne BaxAmes, Barbara O’Neil, Kenneth Tobey, Jim ter, Claude Rains, George Cleveland, Backus. Slow-building but engrossing film Onslow Stevens. Entertaining fantasy of noir provides uncharacteristic role for Simmurdered convict Muni sent to earth by mons as wealthy Marshall’s impulsive daughDevil as respected judge, and his efforts to ter, who lures Mitchum away from his job as outwit Satan while still in mortal form. an ambulance driver (and girlfriend Freeman) Remade for TV in 1980 with Peter Strauss and into a job as a chauffeur. But as he falls and Richard Kiley.▼●쩠 for her, he’s initially unaware that she’s nuts Angels SEE: Angels Hard as They Come and has dark plans for her hated stepmother Angels & Demons (2009) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: (O’Neil). Preminger’s best movie in this vein Ron Howard. Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, after LAURA; its reputation has steadily inAyelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsga˙rd, Pierfranccreased over the decades. 쩠 esco Favino, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Armin Angel Heart (1987) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mueller-Stahl, Rance Howard, Gino ConAlan Parker. Mickey Rourke, Robert De forti. In this prequel to THE DA VINCI Niro, Lisa Bonet, Charlotte Rampling, CODE (based on Dan Brown’s best-selling Stocker Fountelieu, Brownie McGhee, Minovel), Harvard symbologist Hanks is re[ 45 ]

cruited by the Vatican to help unravel a mysDanza, Brenda Fricker, Ben Johnson, Joseph tery with a ticking clock: four cardinals have Gordon-Levitt, Milton Davis, Jr., Christopher been kidnapped and will die before midnight Lloyd, Jay O. Sanders, Taylor Negron, Matin ritualistic fashion before a stolen canister thew McConaughey, Dermot Mulroney, Adof powerfully explosive antimatter is detorien Brody. Inoffensive remake, with the lastnated in St. Peter’s Square. Is this the work of place Pittsburgh Pirates of the original now the ancient society known as the Illuminati? the last-place California Angels. Glover is the Or are the real enemies within the Vatican team’s scowling manager; the invisible angels itself? Fast-paced thriller is engaging for a of the original are now depicted with glitzy while, then turns repetitive, ponderous, and special effects; and the prayers of a boy (Gordownright silly. As with THE DA VINCI don-Levitt), rather than a girl, result in the title CODE, this movie diminishes the power of miracle. Okay entertainment for kids, but the the book. Super 35. [PG-13] original was better. Followed by two TV sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 Angels and Insects (1995-U.S.-British) C116m. ★★★ D: Philip Haas. Mark Rylance, Angels Over Broadway (1940) 80m. ★★1⁄2 Kristin Scott Thomas, Patsy Kensit, Jeremy D: Ben Hecht, Lee Garmes. Douglas Kemp, Douglas Henshall, Saskia Wickham, Fairbanks, Jr., Rita Hayworth, Thomas Chris Larkin, Anna Massey. Fascinating, Mitchell, John Qualen, George Watts. mature drama, set in Victorian England, Mordant, ahead-of-its-time black comedy with impoverished naturalist Rylance in which hustler Fairbanks decides to do taken in by Kemp’s wealthy family and ‘‘one good deed’’—rescuing suicidal emfalling for his lovely, soft-spoken daughter bezzler Qualen—aided by chorus girl Hay(Kensit). While the man of science studies worth and boozy Mitchell (who spouts the social order of the insect world, the hureams of sardonic dialogue in a bravura permans around him appear increasingly eccenformance). Hecht buffs will undoubtedly rate tric. Film methodically builds to devastating this higher, but despite impeccable producconclusion; Scott Thomas (playing a poor retion, it’s just too offbeat (and pleased with lation assisting Rylance with his work) delivitself about it) for most viewers.▼●쩠 ers an award-caliber performance. A. S. Angel Street SEE: Gaslight (1940) Byatt’s novella Morpho Eugenia was Angels Wash Their Faces, The (1939) adapted by the director and his wife, Be84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray Enright. Ann Sheridan, linda Haas. A PBS American Playhouse Dead End Kids, Frankie Thomas, Bonita presentation. [R] ▼●쩠 Granville, Ronald Reagan, Margaret HamAngels Die Hard (1970) C-86m. ★★ D: ilton, Marjorie Main, Eduardo Ciannelli. Richard Compton. Tom Baker, William Protective sister Sheridan tries to clear Smith, Connie Nelson, R. G. Armstrong, brother Thomas’ police record, but he joins Beach Dickerson, Rita Murray, Dan HagDead End Kids for more trouble. OK juvegerty, Bambi Allen. Average biker picture nile delinquent drama. has Angels turning out to be good guys for Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) 97m. 1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. James Cagney, Pat ★★★ a change as they save people in a mine disaster. Boasts an impressive cast of reguO’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, lars from this genre. [R]▼ George Bancroft, Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Angels Hard as They Come (1971) C-90m. Huntz Hall, Gabe Dell, Bobby Jordan, Ber★1 nard Punsley. Superior cast in archetypal tale ⁄2 D: Joe Viola. James Iglehart, Gilda Texter, Gary Busey, Charles Dierkop, Gary of two playmates; one (Cagney) becomes a Littlejohn, Larry Tucker, Sharon Peckinpah, gangster, the other (O’Brien) a priest. The Scott Glenn. Loosely structured road movie Dead End Kids idolize Cagney, much to satirizes the format, but can’t escape the cliO’Brien’s chagrin. Rowland Brown’s story che´s. Produced and cowritten by Jonathan was scripted by John Wexley and Warren Demme (who claims it’s a biker version of Duff. Quintessential Warner Bros. melodrama, RASHOMON); Busey’s film debut. Aka a favorite of parodists for decades. Also shown ANGELS. [R]▼쩠 in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Angels in the Outfield (1951) 102m. ★★★ Angel Unchained (1970) C-92m. ★★ D: D: Clarence Brown. Paul Douglas, Janet Lee Madden. Don Stroud, Luke Askew, Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Donna Corcoran, Larry Bishop, Tyne Daly, Aldo Ray, Bill Spring Byington, Ellen Corby, Lewis Stone, McKinney. Biker Stroud joins a hippie Bruce Bennett; voice of James Whitmore. commune. Dune buggy-riding cowboys Cute comedy-fantasy with Douglas ideally don’t like hippies, so it’s Stroud’s ex-budcast as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ hot-tempered, dies to the rescue. Anyway, the cast is interesting. [PG]▼쩠 foul-mouthed manager, whose hard-luck team goes on a winning streak thanks to Angel Wore Red, The (1960) 99m. ★★1⁄2 some heavenly intervention. Amusing camD: Nunnally Johnson. Ava Gardner, Dirk eos from the worlds of baseball and show Bogarde, Joseph Cotten, Vittorio De Sica. business. Remade in 1994. ▼●쩠 Sometimes engrossing tale of clergyman Angels in the Outfield (1994) C-102m. who joins the Spanish loyalist cause and ★★1⁄2 D: William Dear. Danny Glover, Tony his romance with a good-natured entertainer. [ 46 ]

Anger Management (2003) C-106m. ★★ unofficial strike, the repercussions he and D: Peter Segal. Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholhis family endure. son, Marisa Tomei, John Turturro, Luis GuzAnguish (1987-Spanish) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: man, Allen Covert, Lynne Thigpen, Kurt Bigas Luna. Zelda Rubinstein, Michael Fuller, Krista Allen, January Jones, Woody Lerner, Talia Paul, Clara Pastor. ImaginaHarrelson, Kevin Nealon, Harry Dean Stanton. tive but overly violent horror film turns the Sentenced to undergo therapy after an airline action in on itself, as a mad-killer film unaltercation that really wasn’t his fault, Sandler spools inside a theater where another mad is further bewildered when his therapist turns killer is loose in the audience. Theatrical reout to be the loosest cannon in New York lease carried warnings regarding use of sub(Nicholson with a Brillo beard). Comedy ofliminal effects on soundtrack. Well-recorded English dialogue. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 fers a dream cross-generational teaming but delivers nothing beyond it, with Nicholson givAngus (1995) C-89m. ★★ D: Patrick Read ing a surprisingly one-note performance. Even Johnson. Charlie Talbert, George C. Scott, surprise cameo appearances aren’t as funny Kathy Bates, Ariana Richards, Chris Owen, as they ought to be. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 James Van Der Beek, Lawrence Pressman, Angie (1994) C-107m. ★★★ D: Martha CooRita Moreno. Ostensibly well-meaning— lidge. Geena Davis, Stephen Rea, James but obvious and superficial—film about an Gandolfini, Aida Turturro, Philip Bosco, overweight teenager with low self-esteem Jenny O’Hara, Michael Rispoli, Betty and a lifelong crush on a cute blond schoolMiller, Charlaine Woodard, Bibi Osterwald. mate. Amidst its upbeat, self-affirming mesDavis shines in this star vehicle about an sages, however, we get too many crude Italian-American from Brooklyn who’s aljokes and incompetently staged comic ways marched to her own drum, and finds— scenes that deflate film’s impact. Scott’s when she’s on the verge of marriage and chess-playing partner is played by veteran director Irvin Kershner. [PG-13] ▼● motherhood—that something significant is missing from her life. Todd Graff’s script Animal, The (2001) C-84m. BOMB D: runs the gamut from romantic comedy to Luke Greenfield. Rob Schneider, Colleen melodrama, but Davis’ character—both asHaskell, John C. McGinley, Edward Asner, sertive and vulnerable—has the glue to keep Michael Caton, Louis Lombardi, Guy Torry, it all together. She’s surrounded by a fine Adam Sandler, Norm Macdonald. A pasupporting cast. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 thetic nobody awakens after a car accident Angry Harvest (1985-West German) Cto find that his body organs have been re102m. ★★★ D: Agnieszka Holland. Armin placed by those of animals (a dog, a dolMueller-Stahl, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Kathe phin, a horse, etc.). Filled to the brim with Jaenicke, Hans Beerhenke, Isa Haller, bathroom humor, offensive dialogue, gratuMargit Carstensen, Wojtech Pszoniak, Kurt itous nudity . . . everything but genuine Raab. Discerning drama, set during comedy. Schneider cowrote; Sandler coWW2, highlighting the intricacies in the executive produced. [PG-13]▼쩠 relationship between a working-class PolAnimal Behavior (1989) C-88m. BOMB ish farmer (Stahl, who is outstanding) and D: H. Anne Riley. Karen Allen, Armand the upper-class Viennese Jewish refugee Assante, Holly Hunter, Josh Mostel, Rich(Trissenaar) he shelters. Scripted by diard Libertini, Alexa Kenin, Jon Matthews, rector Holland (who later made EUNan Martin. A man, a woman, a chimp, a ROPA, EUROPA).▼쩠 campus—and let us all be thankful that Angry Hills, The (1959) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bonzo didn’t live to see this. Allen, as a Robert Aldrich. Robert Mitchum, Elisamonkey researcher sweating out funding, beth Mueller, Stanley Baker, Gia Scala, delivers a most discomforting lemmeTheodore Bikel, Sebastian Cabot. Mitchum outa-here performance. Director’s name shows vim in WW2 actioner as war correis a pseudonym; Jenny Bowen started the spondent plotting escape from Greece with picture in 1984; producer Kjehl Rasmusvaluable data for Allies. sen finished it. [PG]▼● Angry Red Planet, The (1959) C-83m. Animal Crackers (1930) 98m. ★★★ D: ★★ D: Ib Melchior. Gerald Mohr, Nora Victor Heerman. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Hayden, Les Tremayne, Jack Kruschen, and Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Lillian Paul Hahn. Martians sic incredible monsters Roth, Louis Sorin, Hal Thompson, Robert on first Earth expedition to Mars. Lots of Greig. Marx Brothers’ second movie, adapted wild-eyed effects have given this film cult from Broadway success, suffers from stagistatus. Filmed in odd ‘‘Cinemagic’’ process, ness and musical comedy plotting, but gives which mostly turns everything pink.▼●쩠 the zany foursome plenty of comic elbowAngry Silence, The (1960-British) 95m. room. ‘‘Story’’ has to do with stolen paint★★★ D: Guy Green. Richard Attenborough, ing, but never mind: Groucho performs Pier Angeli, Michael Craig, Bernard Lee, ‘‘Hooray for Captain Spaulding,’’ Chico and Geoffrey Keen, Oliver Reed. Rewarding, Harpo play bridge, Groucho shoots an unheralded film about brave stand by a simple elephant in his pajamas, etc.▼●쩠 British factory worker who refuses to join Animal Factory (2000) C-95m. ★★★ D: [ 47 ]

Steve Buscemi. Willem Dafoe, Edward Furdall Duk Kim, Deanna Yusoff, Geoffrey long, Mickey Rourke, Tom Arnold, Steve Palmer. Lavish remake of the now-familiar Buscemi, John Heard, Danny Trejo, Seystory (memorably musicalized as THE mour Cassel. Compelling drama of prison KING AND I) about a young British widow life, with Furlong, locked up for marijuana who travels to Siam in 1862 to work as dealing, becoming the prote´ge´ of Dafoe, schoolteacher for the King’s 58 children. who virtually runs the place. Dafoe is powPut off at first, she and the imperious monerful, as always, but the film’s distinction is arch soon develop an understanding and an the matter-of-fact way it deals with the horunspoken attraction. Unfortunately, film rors of life behind bars. Based on a novel goes on too long, with at least one subplot by ex-con Edward Bunker, who coscripted. too many and a terribly contrived action U.S. debut on cable TV. [R]▼쩠 climax. Foster and Yun-Fat are fine. PanaviAnimal Farm (1955-British) C-75m. ★★★ sion. [PG-13]▼쩠 D: John Halas, Joy Batchelor. Good straightAnna and the King of Siam (1946) 128m. ★★★1 forward animated-feature version of George ⁄2 D: John Cromwell. Irene Dunne, Orwell’s political satire. Ending changed Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Lee J. Cobb, from original to make it more upbeat, but Gale Sondergaard, Mikhail Rasumny. trenchant views of government still hold Sumptuous production chronicling the exfast. Not a kiddie film. Remade for cable periences of a British governess in 19thTV in 1999. ▼●쩠 century Thailand, and her battle of wits Animal House SEE: National Lampoon’s with strong-willed ruler. Based on MargaAnimal House ret Landon’s book about real-life Anna Animal Kingdom, The (1932) 85m. ★★★ Leonowens (renamed Anna L. Owens in D: Edward H. Griffith. Ann Harding, Lesthe movie). Dunne and Harrison (in his lie Howard, Myrna Loy, William Gargan, Hollywood debut) are superb; won Oscars Neil Hamilton, Ilka Chase, Henry Stephenfor Cinematography (Arthur Miller) and son. Publisher Howard, undergoing a crisis in Art Direction/Set Decoration (then known values, has had a relationship with free-spiras ‘‘Interior Decoration’’). Screenplay by ited artist Harding but marries manipulative, Talbot Jennings and Sally Benson. Later middle-class Loy. Sophisticated entertainmusicalized as THE KING AND I; remade ment, still adult by today’s standards, adapted as ANNA AND THE KING.▼쩠 from the Philip Barry play. Remade as ONE Anna Christie (1930) 90m. ★★★ D: ClarMORE TOMORROW.▼쩠 ence Brown. Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, Animalympics (1979) C-80m. ★★ D: SteMarie Dressler, Lee Phelps, George Mariven Lisberger. Voices of Gilda Radner, on. Garbo is effective in her first talkie as Billy Crystal, Harry Shearer, Michael girl with shady past finding love with Fremer. Animated spoof of Olympics events seaman Bickford. Film itself is rather static. and ubiquitous TV coverage by various From the play by Eugene O’Neill. Beware anthropomorphic characters. Enough clever, of 74m. prints. Filmed simultaneously in a funny material for a good short subject, German-language version, with Garbo and but stretched to feature length. ▼ a different supporting cast. Filmed before in 1923, with Blanche Sweet. ▼●쩠 Anna (1951-Italian) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alberto Lattuada. Silvana Mangano, Raf Vallone, Anna Karenina (1935) 95m. ★★★★ D: Vittorio Gassman, Gaby Morlay. ThoughtClarence Brown. Greta Garbo, Fredric ful study of confused young woman who enMarch, Freddie Bartholomew, Maureen ters convent to avoid deciding which man she O’Sullivan, May Robson, Basil Rathbone. really loves; fate forces her to decide. Look Tolstoy’s tragic love chronicle makes exquick for Sophia Loren.▼ cellent Garbo vehicle, with fine support Anna (1987) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yurek from March as her lover, Rathbone her Bogayevicz. Sally Kirkland, Paulina Porizhusband, and Bartholomew, her adorkova, Robert Fields, Ruth Maleczech, Steing son. Filmed before with Garbo as fan Schnabel, Larry Pine. Middle-aged LOVE; remade three times.▼●쩠 Czech actress, once a star in her native Anna Karenina (1948-British) 123m. ★★1⁄2 country but now struggling to survive in D: Julien Duvivier. Vivien Leigh, Ralph N.Y.C., takes in an impoverished young Richardson, Kieron Moore, Sally Ann immigrant and teaches her the ropes—only Howes, Niall MacGinnis, Martita Hunt, Marie to see her succeed where she has failed. Lohr, Michael Gough. Despite its stellar cast, Intriguing little film misses the bull’s-eye this is a mostly turgid adaptation of the Tolsbut still has much to offer, especially a toy classic about a woman married to stodgy riveting and heart-rending performance by bureaucrat, who falls in love with a dashing Kirkland (who is not Czech). Supermodel army officer. Duvivier and Jean Anouilh were among the scriptwriters. ▼●쩠 Porizkova (who is) makes an impressive screen debut. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Anna Karenina (1997) SEE: Leo TolAnna and the King (1999) C-147m. ★★1⁄2 stoy’s Anna Karenina D: Andy Tennant. Jodie Foster, Chow YunAnna Lucasta (1949) C-86m. ★★ D: Irving Fat, Bai Ling, Tom Felton, Syed Alwi, RanRapper. Paulette Goddard, William Bishop, [ 48 ]

Oscar Homolka, John Ireland, Broderick then she was known as Dawn O’Day). Crawford, Will Geer, Gale Page, Mary Followed by ANNE OF WINDY POPWickes, Whit Bissell. Sluggish, wateredLARS. Remade for TV in 1985.▼쩠 down version of Philip Yordan’s Broadway Anne of the Indies (1951) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 play (which featured an all-black cast, as D: Jacques Tourneur. Jean Peters, Louis does the 1958 remake). Goddard plays the Jourdan, Debra Paget, Herbert Marshall. title role, a woman of the Brooklyn streets Peters isn’t always believable as swaggerwho was tossed out of her home by her ing pirate, but surrounded by professionals alcoholic father; her oppressive brother-inand good production, actioner moves along. law tries to marry her off, in a money-makAnne of the Thousand Days (1969) ing scheme. Scripted by Yordan (who also C-145m. ★★★ D: Charles Jarrott. Richard produced) and Arthur Laurents. Burton, Genevieve Bujold, Irene Papas, ★★ Anna Lucasta (1958) 97m. D: Arnold Anthony Quayle, Peter Jeffrey. Often inLaven. Eartha Kitt, Sammy Davis, Jr., accurate but totally engrossing, well-acted Frederick O’Neal, Henry Scott, Rex Inhistorical drama centering on Anne Boleyn gram. Tepid remake of Philip Yordan’s play and King Henry VIII. Lovely scenery, about a prostitute who tries to leave her past brilliant performance by Bujold, and Oscarbehind. Kitt doesn’t so much act as pose, winning costumes by Margaret Furse. Panabut Ingram is excellent as her father.쩠 vision. [M/PG]▼●쩠 Annapolis (2006) C-103m. ★★ D: Justin Anne of Windy Poplars (1940) 88m. ★★ Lin. James Franco, Tyrese Gibson, Jordana D: Jack Hively. Anne Shirley, James Ellison, Brewster, Donnie Wahlberg, Vicellous Henry Travers, Patric Knowles, Slim Reon Shannon, Chi McBride, Roger Fan, Summerville, Elizabeth Patterson, Marcia McCaleb Burnett, Wilmer Calderon, Charles Mae Jones. Uninspired sequel to ANNE OF Napier. Boilerplate service pic about blueGREEN GABLES. Anne has grown up and collar boxer Franco and his long-shot selecbecome a dedicated, kind-hearted schooltion to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he teacher, but has to contend with local polirooms with a perfect ethnic mix of cohorts, tics and hypocrisy in the small town where who are only occasionally seen in class or she lives and works. Remade for TV. Annie (1982) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: John cracking books. Co-cadet Brewster, seen at ringside during bouts or when Franco is Huston. Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, Aipunching the bag, takes on the equivalent of leen Quinn, Bernadette Peters, Tim Curry, Burgess Meredith’s role in ROCKY, though Ann Reinking, Geoffrey Holder, Edward she looks cuter in khaki. A non-starter. Herrmann. Overblown adaptation of the Super 35. [PG-13] 쩠 Broadway musical hit about the DepresAnnapolis Story, An (1955) C-81m. ★★ sion’s most famous foundling (based on D: Don Siegel. John Derek, Diana Lynn, Harold Gray’s ‘‘Little Orphan Annie’’ Kevin McCarthy, Pat Conway. Uninspired comic strip). Appealing performances by reuse of old service-school formula with Quinn, as Annie, and Finney, as Daddy Derek and McCarthy undergoing rigid trainWarbucks, help buoy an uninspired— ing, both romancing Lynn.▼ and curiously claustrophobic—production. Anne Frank Remembered (1995-British) Followed by made-for-TV sequel, ANNIE: C/B&W-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jon Blair. NarA ROYAL ADVENTURE! Remade for TV in 1999. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 rated by Kenneth Branagh; diary read by Glenn Close. Deeply moving documentary Annie Get Your Gun (1950) C-107m. ★★★ on the young Jewish girl whose diary beD: George Sidney. Betty Hutton, Howcame an international best-seller. The filmard Keel, Louis Calhern, Edward Arnold, makers interview many who knew Anne and Keenan Wynn, Benay Venuta, J. Carrol even turn up a brief home-movie scene of Naish. Lively filming of Irving Berlin’s Wild the girl herself. Perhaps the greatest impresWest show musical about Annie Oakley getsion is made by Miep Gies, the matter-ofting her man—sharpshooter Frank Butler. fact Dutch woman who helped hide the Songs include ‘‘Anything You Can Do,’’ Franks, and who found the diary. Oscar ‘‘Doin’ What Comes Naturally,’’ ‘‘There’s winner for Best Documentary. [PG]▼쩠 No Business Like Show Business.’’▼쩠 Anne of Green Gables (1934) 79m. ★★★ Annie Hall (1977) C-94m. ★★★★ D: Woody D: George Nicholls, Jr. Anne Shirley, Allen. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Tom Brown, O. P. Heggie, Helen Westley, Roberts, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Carol Sara Haden. Utterly charming adaptation Kane, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher of L. M. Montgomery’s book (filmed beWalken, Janet Margolin, John Glover. fore in 1919) about a spirited orphan with Woody’s best film, an autobiographical a vivid imagination who endears herself to love story with incisive Allenisms on rothe older couple who take her in . . . and mance, relationships, fame, N.Y.C. vs. everyone else around her. Only the conL.A., and sundry other topics. Warm, clusion seems hurried and contrived. Anne witty, intelligent Oscar winner for Best Shirley took her professional name from Picture, Actress, Direction, Screenplay (Althe character she played in this film (until len and Marshall Brickman). Look sharp [ 49 ]

and you’ll spot future stars Jeff Goldblum what of a downer, but Bonnaire creates a (at the L.A. party), Shelley Hack (on the full-blooded, memorable character. Winstreet), Beverly D’Angelo (on a TV moniner of France’s Ce´sar. [R]▼쩠 tor), and Sigourney Weaver (as Woody’s Another Country (1984-British) C-90m. ★★1 date seen in extreme long-shot near the ⁄2 D: Marek Kanievska. Rupert Everett, end of the picture). [PG]▼●쩠 Colin Firth, Michael Jenn, Robert Addie, Annie Oakley (1935) 88m. ★★★ D: George Cary Elwes, Anna Massey, Betsy Brantley. Stevens. Barbara Stanwyck, Preston Foster, Faithful adaptation of Julian Mitchell’s hit Melvyn Douglas, Pert Kelton, Andy Clyde. London play that speculates about the 1930s Lively biography of female sharpshooter private-school experiences of Guy Burgess Stanwyck and her on-again off-again roand Donald Maclean, who 20 years later were mance with fellow performer Foster. Tight found to be spying for the Russians. Arguably direction within episodic scenes gives bemore meaningful to British audiences, this exlievable flavor of late 19th-century America. amination of an oppressive existence that Moroni Olsen plays Buffalo Bill. Also shuns any nonconformity makes for a pretty oppressive movie. [PG]▼●쩠 shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Annie’s Coming Out SEE: Test of Love, A Another Dawn (1937) 73m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilAnnihilation of Fish, The (2001) C-108m. liam Dieterle. Kay Francis, Errol Flynn, ★★ D: Charles Burnett. James Earl Jones, Ian Hunter, Frieda Inescort, Mary Forbes. Lynn Redgrave, Margot Kidder. Fish Francis is torn between devotion to hus(Jones), a former mental patient who is harband Hunter and officer Flynn in wellassed by a demon named Hank, moves into paced adventure story set at British army a dingy L.A. boardinghouse and gradually post in African desert. befriends an alcoholic flake (Redgrave), Another Day in Paradise (1998) C-100m. ★★★ who is obsessed by Puccini. Ambitious porD: Larry Clark. James Woods, Melanie trait of two nutty, lonely souls means to be Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser, Natasha Gregpoignant but doesn’t really gel. Kidder— son Wagner, James Otis, Paul Hipp, Brent surprisingly—plays an elderly landlady. Shot Briscoe, Clarence Carter, Peter Sarsgaard. in 1999. [R] Arresting drama about a teenage junkie/ Anniversary, The (1968-British) C-95m. thief who, with his girlfriend, goes on the ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Ward Baker. Bette Davis, road with a slick, experienced criminal and Sheila Hancock, Jack Hedley, James Cosbecomes part of his extended family. sins, Christian Roberts, Elaine Taylor. Woods is dynamite as the frighteningly inHuman monster Davis uses date of wedtense, mood-swinging crime daddy, and ding anniversary as excuse to reunite famiGriffith is equally good as his nurturing girlly, continue her stranglehold on them. friend. Clark invests the film with a sense of Adapted from MacIlwraith stage play, black immediacy and truth, even as its emotional comedy emerges as vehicle for Davis’ peaks grow larger than life. Lou Diamond hammy performance.▼쩠 Phillips appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Anniversary Party, The (2001) C-115m. Another 48HRS. (1990) C-95m. ★★ D: ★★★ D: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Cumming. Walter Hill. Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Cumming, Jane Brion James, Kevin Tighe, Ed O’Ross, David Adams, Mina Badie, Jennifer Beals, Phoebe Anthony Marshall, Bernie Casey. Strictly Cates, John Hickey, Parker Posey, Kevin by-the-numbers rehash of 48HRS., without Kline, Denis O’Hare, Gwyneth Paltrow, Miits spontaneity, pizzazz, or humor: Nolte is chael Panes, John C. Reilly. Cumming and forced to turn to Murphy (who’s just being Leigh conceived, directed and star in this sprung from jail) to help him solve a case seriocomedy about an L.A. couple (he’s a and save his police career. Watchable, but writer about to make his movie directing not terribly invigorating; must set some sort debut, she’s an actress) who have an eventful of record, however, for breaking more and emotional anniversary party. Supporting panes of glass than any movie in history. parts were tailored for the filmmakers’ actor [R]▼●쩠 friends, and they’re all good, but the two Another Gay Movie (2006) C-92m. ★★ D: children of real-life couple Kline and Cates Todd Stephens. Michael Carbonaro, Jonah almost steal the show. Beautifully shot on Blechman, Jonathan Chase, Mitch Morris, digital video by John Bailey. [R]▼쩠 Ashlie Atkinson, Scott Thompson. Four gay ` Nos Amours (1984-French) C-102m. A high school guys embark on a mission to ★★★ lose their virginity before graduation, sendD: Maurice Pialat. Sandrine Bonnaire, Dominique Besnehard, Maurice Pialat, Eving up every gay and teen comedy movie elyne Ker, Anne-Sophie Maille, Christophe cliche´ along the way. Predictably dumb Odent. A 15-year-old’s casual promiscuity genre spoof, somewhat funnier and more runs her family through the ringer, but engaging than many of its ilk. Hilariously they’ve got problems of their own—Pop’s meticulous reenactment of the prom scene moving out, Mom’s a screaming neurotic, from CARRIE makes one wish that the rest and Brother’s embraces are too hearty to of the film were so clever. Features cameos be healthy. Dramatically uneven and someby cult celebrities including Graham Norton, [ 50 ]

Lypsinka, and Survivor’s Richard Hatch is killed during WW2. Filmed in England. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 (who reveals more than most would want to see). Followed by a DVD sequel. [R]쩠 Another Woman (1988) C-84m. ★★★1⁄2 Another Man, Another Chance (1977D: Woody Allen. Gena Rowlands, Mia FarFrench-U.S.) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude row, Ian Holm, Blythe Danner, Gene HackLelouch. James Caan, Genevieve Bujold, man, Betty Buckley, Martha Plimpton, John Francis Huster, Jennifer Warren, Susan Houseman, Sandy Dennis, David Ogden Tyrrell, Richard Farnsworth. Virtual reStiers, Philip Bosco, Harris Yulin, Frances make of Lelouch’s A MAN AND A Conroy. Woody ventures into Bergman terriWOMAN, with late-1800s Western setting; tory again (with Ingmar’s cameraman, Sven Bujold and Caan are widow and widower Nykvist, no less) with tremendous success. who fall in love after losing their spouses. Rowlands plays a woman who has managed to Mild-mannered to the point of distraction, live her life shielding herself from all emotions, and much too long. [PG]▼ until a series of incidents force her to take Another Man’s Poison (1951-British) 89m. stock. Searing, adult drama with a magnifi★★1 cent cast and many memorable moments . . . ⁄2 D: Irving Rapper. Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Emlyn Williams, Anthony Steel, though like Allen’s other dramas, it’s not to Barbara Murray, Reginald Beckwith. Bette everyone’s taste. [PG]▼●쩠 is feisty, man-hungry novelist on isolated Another You (1991) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: MauYorkshire farm who won’t let her criminal rice Phillips. Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, husband, or his crony Merrill, get in her Mercedes Ruehl, Stephen Lang, Vanessa way. Well-paced melodrama can’t hide its Williams, Phil Rubenstein, Peter Michael stage origins, but Davis wrings every drop Goetz, Kevin Pollak, Vincent Schiavelli. out of a showy role. Coproduced by DougCompulsive liar Wilder is released from a las Fairbanks, Jr.▼쩠 sanitarium into the care of parolee Pryor, a Another Part of the Forest (1948) 107m. street hustler who’s got to perform commu★★★ D: Michael Gordon. Fredric March, nity service; together they become emDan Duryea, Edmond O’Brien, Ann Blyth, broiled in an elaborate scam. Anemic Florence Eldridge, John Dall. Lillian Hellcomedy relies entirely on its stars to support man’s story predates THE LITTLE FOXES third-rate material. Sadly, Pryor’s real-life by tracing the Hubbard family’s ruthlesshealth problems are all too apparent. [R] ness; unpleasant but well-acted movie. ▼●쩠 ` Nous la Liberte´ (1931-French) 97m. Another Stakeout (1993) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 A ★★★★ D: John Badham. Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio D: Rene´ Clair. Raymond Cordy, Estevez, Rosie O’Donnell, Dennis Farina, Henri Marchand, Rolla France, Paul OlivMarcia Strassman, Cathy Moriarty, John ier, Jacques Shelly, Andre Michaud. ClasRubinstein, Miguel Ferrer, Dan Lauria, sic satire on machinery and industrializaSharon Maughan. Lots of fun here for fans tion centering on the adventures of escaped of the first STAKEOUT, but little for anyprisoner Cordy, who becomes owner of a one seeking substance or Shavian wit. The phonograph factory, and his former jail inept cop partners return to track down nofriend (Marchand), now a vagrant. Predates good Moriarty, but are saddled with assisand equals MODERN TIMES in poitant D.A. O’Donnell and her dog, who are gnancy, with groundbreaking use of music. both along for the ride. Highlight: dinner Arguably, Clair’s masterpiece. Clair recut party that goes from bad to worse to hysterifilm in 1950 to 83m. ▼쩠 cal. Madeleine Stowe (costar of the original Ant Bully, The (2006) C-89m. ★★ D: John film) briefly re-creates her role but takes no A. Davis. Voices of Julia Roberts, Nicolas billing. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cage, Meryl Streep, Paul Giamatti, Zach Another Thin Man (1939) 105m. ★★★ D: Tyler Eisen, Regina King, Bruce Campbell, W. S. Van Dyke II. William Powell, Myrna Lily Tomlin, Cheri Oteri, Larry Miller, RiLoy, C. Aubrey Smith, Otto Kruger, Nat cardo Montalban, Allison Mack, Rob Pendleton, Virginia Grey, Tom Neal, MarPaulsen. A boy who’s always bullied by the jorie Main, Ruth Hussey, Sheldon Leonneighborhood kids takes out his frustration ard. Murder strikes at a Long Island estate on an ant colony in his front yard—until and the screen’s favorite lush-detective couhe’s shrunk to their size and put to work in ple (along with Asta and newborn son their environment. Here he learns hard-won Nick, Jr.) move in to solve it, although lessons about the value of teamwork and motherhood has slowed down Nora’s drinksacrifice. Uninspired morality tale has the ing a bit. Enjoyable third entry in the novelty of human characters that are deseries and the last to be based on a Dashiell signed to look as grotesque as possible. From the children’s book by John Nickle. Hammett story.▼●쩠 Another Time, Another Place (1958) Coproduced by Tom Hanks. [PG]쩠 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Allen. Lana Turner, Anthony Adverse (1936) 141m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Barry Sullivan, Glynis Johns, Sean ConMervyn LeRoy. Fredric March, Olivia de nery. Unconvincing melodrama; Turner Havilland, Donald Woods, Anita Louise, suffers nervous breakdown when her lover Edmund Gwenn, Claude Rains, Louis Hay[ 51 ]

ward, Gale Sondergaard, Akim Tamiroff, noldo Gooding, Novella Nelson. Newcomer Billy Mauch, Ralph Morgan, Henry Luke is excellent as the hero of this remarkO’Neill, Scotty Beckett, Luis Alberni. able true-life memoir, a quick-tempered seaBlockbuster filmization of Hervey Allen man who reaches a turning point when a bestseller (scripted by Sheridan Gibney) of Navy psychiatrist forces him to examine his young man gaining maturity through advenlife and confront his troubled childhood. A tures in various parts of early 19th-century creditable directing debut for Washington, Europe, Cuba, and Africa. Sondergaard who also delivers a strong, compassionate won Oscar as Best Supporting Actress in performance as a doctor whose own life can her film debut; rousing musical score by use some healing. Cynics may find this senErich Wolfgang Korngold and Tony Gautimental or simplistic, but we bought into it dio’s cinematography also won. ▼● one hundred percent. Screenplay by AnAntichrist, The SEE: Tempter, The twone Fisher, based on his book. James Antitrust (2001) C-108m. ★★★ D: Peter Brolin appears unbilled. Panavision. [PGHowitt. Ryan Phillippe, Rachael Leigh Cook, 13] ▼쩠 Claire Forlani, Tim Robbins, Douglas McFerAntz (1998) C-83m. ★★★ D: Eric Darnell, ran, Richard Roundtree, Tygh Runyan, Yee Tim Johnson. Voices of Woody Allen, Jee Tso, Nate Dushku, Ned Bellamy. Young Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Hackcomputer whiz leaves his idealistic, computerman, Christopher Walken, Anne Bancroft, geek pals to work for the biggest software Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Danny Glover, company in the world, after being recruited Jennifer Lopez, John Mahoney, Paul Maby its charismatic, highly persuasive chief zursky. Entertaining computer-animated (Robbins). He soon discovers that the comfeature about an ant named Z (with the voice pany’s take-no-prisoners approach to busiand personality of Woody Allen) who doesn’t ness hides many nefarious deeds. Cleverly respond well to regimentation—especially plotted, mostly believable conspiracy yarn, after he’s smitten with the queen ant’s daugha bit heavy-handed at times. David Clennon ter, Princess Bala. Meanwhile, the colony is appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 threatened, not only by termites but by a megAntonia & Jane (1991-British) C-77m. alomaniacal general with his own agenda. ★★★ D: Beeban Kidron. Saskia Reeves, Clever and enjoyable (all the more so for Imelda Staunton, Brenda Bruce, Bill Nighy, Woodyphiles), but too sophisticated and violent for young kids. [PG] ▼●쩠 Lila Kaye, Alfred Marks, Richard Hope. Pleasingly quirky, clever chronicle of the relaAny Given Sunday (1999) C-162m. ★★ D: tionship between two friends from school. Oliver Stone. Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Antonia (Reeves) is attractive and arrogant; Dennis Quaid, James Woods, Jamie Foxx, Jane (Staunton) is plump, but adventuresome. LL Cool J, Charlton Heston, Matthew ModThey share mutual envy (as well as the ine, Jim Brown, Ann-Margret, Aaron Eckhart, same therapist) . . . and Antonia’s husband John C. McGinley, Lauren Holly, Lela Rois Jane’s ex-boyfriend. Very funny little chon, Lawrence Taylor, Bill Bellamy, James sleeper made for British television.▼ Karen, Elizabeth Berkley. Strident, one-note Antonia’s Line (1995-Dutch-Belgianconcoction about the world of pro football, on British) C-105m. ★★★ D: Marleen Gorris. and off the field. Pacino is an aging coach Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans, Jan who’s given his all to the game, Diaz a deDecleir, Mil Seghers, Marina de Graaf, Jan manding, mercurial team owner, Foxx an upSteen, Veerle Van Overloop, Elsie de Brauw, and-coming quarterback who gets a big head. Thyrza Ravesteijn, Wimie Wilhelm. Spirited Loud and obvious from the word go. Various woman returns to her provincial Dutch village sports figures play themselves; Stone apafter WW2 and takes up residence there with pears as a booth announcer. Stone comher daughter. Then, over a span of years, she pletely recut 157m. video version. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 raises not only her own child but an extended family which comes under the shelter (and Any Number Can Play (1949) 112m. ★★ aura) of this unusual woman who defies conD: Mervyn LeRoy. Clark Gable, Alexis vention. Disarmingly unpredictable comedySmith, Wendell Corey, Audrey Totter, Mary drama is a treat from start to finish. Oscar Astor, Lewis Stone, Marjorie Rambeau, winner as Best Foreign Film. [R]▼●쩠 Darryl Hickman. Low-key drama of gamAntony and Cleopatra (1973) C-160m. bling-house owner Gable, estranged from ★1 ⁄2 D: Charlton Heston. Charlton Heston, wife Smith and son Hickman. Good character roles breathe life into film.▼ Hildegard Neil, Eric Porter, John Castle, Fernando Rey. Labor-of-love undertaking Any Number Can Win (1963-French) by Heston results in sluggish treatment of 108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henri Verneuil. Jean Gabin, Shakespearean play, hampered by severe Alain Delon, Viviane Romance, Carla budgetary limitations. Todd-AO 35. ▼ Marlier. Aging ex-con Gabin enlists ne’erAntwone Fisher (2002) C-120m. ★★★ D: Dendo-well Delon in a plot to rob the impregnazel Washington. Derek Luke, Denzel Washble vault of a plush Riviera casino. Some ington, Joy Bryant, Salli Richardson, Earl tense climactic moments. Dyaliscope.▼쩠 Billings, Kevin Connolly, Viola Davis, RaiAnyone Can Play (1968-Italian-French) [ 52 ]

C-88m. ★★ D: Luigi Zampa. Ursula Anductions. Fonda is appropriately addled in unstagy sex comedy.▼ dress, Virna Lisi, Claudine Auger, Marisa Anywhere But Here (1999) C-114m. ★★ Mell, Brett Halsey, Jean-Pierre Cassel. D: Wayne Wang. Susan Sarandon, Natalie Aside from obvious good looks of four Portman, Hart Bochner, Shawn Hatosy, leading actresses, tale of adultery in Italy Bonnie Bedelia, John Diehl, Paul Guilfoyle, is not one of that country’s better farces. [R] Caroline Aaron. Optimistic single mom who Anything But Love (2003) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: can still turn heads and a wearily-seen-it-all Robert Cary. Andrew McCarthy, Isabel adolescent daughter leave small-town WisRose, Cameron Bancroft, Alix Korey, Ilana consin to seek a new beginning in Beverly Levine, Sean Arbuckle, Victor Argo, MiHills, commencing a series of episodic adchael J. Burg, Eartha Kitt. Labored attempt ventures that never take emotional hold. to recall the charm of old MGM musicals, Sizzleless adaptation of Mona Simpson’s with a love triangle involving a lawyer, a best-seller pales not only next to ALICE cabaret singer, and a fledgling songwriter. DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE and Clearly a heartfelt, loving salute to those MEN DON’T LEAVE, but to the low’50s films, but some souffle´s just fall flat, budget indie TUMBLEWEEDS. Super 35. despite the presence of Kitt. It shows just [PG-13]▼쩠 how skillful those old moviemakers were in Any Which Way You Can (1980) C-116m. making what they did seem effortless. Cary ★★1 ⁄2 D: Buddy Van Horn. Clint Eastwood, cowrote this with his leading lady. Aka Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, William STANDARD TIME. [PG-13]▼쩠 Smith, Harry Guardino, Ruth Gordon, Glen Anything Else (2003) C-108m. BOMB D: Campbell, Anne Ramsey, Logan Ramsey, Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Jason Biggs, Barry Corbin, James Gammon. This sequel Christina Ricci, Danny DeVito, Stockard to EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE is Channing, KaDee Strickland, Jimmy Falfunnier, if no more intelligent. Clint’s clilon, William Hill, Fisher Stevens, Diana mactic bare-fisted fight with Smith is a Krall. Acerbic schoolteacher and would-be highlight, but the filmmakers wisely gave comedy writer Allen is mentor and advisor most of the laughs to the star’s orangutan to a young man who’s caught in an unfathfriend, Clyde. [PG]▼●쩠 omable relationship with the most obnoxAnzio (1968-French-Italian-Spanish) Cious woman on earth (Ricci). Allen passes ★★ D: Edward Dmytryk. Robert 117m. the torch to Biggs, who plays a younger Mitchum, Peter Falk, Robert Ryan, Earl version of Woody’s archetypal character. Holliman, Mark Damon, Arthur Kennedy, The filmmaker’s all-time worst movie; you Reni Santoni, Patrick Magee. Undistinknow you’re in trouble when it opens with guished retelling of Allied invasion of AnWoody telling a couple of old jokes and zio; all-star cast, large-scale action, but even they aren’t funny. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 nothing memorable. Aka THE BATTLE Anything for Love SEE: 11 HarrowFOR ANZIO. Panavision. [M/PG]▼쩠 house Apache (1954) C-91m. ★★ D: Robert AlAnything Goes (1936) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis drich. Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John Milestone. Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, McIntire, Charles (Bronson) Buchinsky. Charlie Ruggles, Ida Lupino, Grace BradPacifist Indian (Lancaster) learns might ley, Arthur Treacher. Pleasant Crosby makes right from U.S. cavalry; turns to shipboard musical retains Merman from fighting one man crusade for his tribe’s the cast of the Broadway show, but scutrights. Overacted and improbable (though tles much of the plot and most of Cole based on fact).▼●쩠 Porter’s songs (except ‘‘You’re the Top’’ Apache Massacre SEE: Cry for Me, Billy and ‘‘I Get a Kick Out of You’’). Remade Apache Rifles (1964) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: (again with Bing) in 1956. William Witney. Audie Murphy, Michael Anything Goes (1956) C-106m. ★★ D: Dante, Linda Lawson, John Archer, J. Pat Robert Lewis. Bing Crosby, Jeanmaire, O’Malley. Audie is stalwart cavalry capDonald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, Phil Hartain assigned to corral renegading Apaches. ris, Kurt Kasznar. Flat musical involving Stock footage and plot mar potentials of show business partners Crosby and O’Conactioner.▼ nor each signing a performer for the leadApache Uprising (1966) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: ing role in their next show. Sidney ShelR. G. Springsteen. Rory Calhoun, Corinne don’s script bears little resemblance to the Calvet, John Russell, Lon Chaney (Jr.), original Broadway show, though some Cole Gene Evans, Richard Arlen, Arthur HunniPorter songs remain. Crosby fared better cutt, DeForest Kelley, Johnny Mack Brown, in the 1936 film. VistaVision.쩠 Jean Parker, Don ‘‘Red’’ Barry. No producAny Wednesday (1966) C-109m. ★★★ D: tion values, but cast of familiar names may Robert Ellis Miller. Jane Fonda, Jason make it possible for some to sit through Robards, Dean Jones, Rosemary Murphy. standard Western where Rory fights both Bedroom farce of N.Y.C. executive using Indians and outlaws. Techniscope. ▼● his mistress’ apartment for business deAparajito (1956-Indian) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: [ 53 ]

Satyajit Ray. Pinaki Sen Gupta, Smaran Harrison Ford, Scott Glenn, Tom Mason, Ghosal, Karuna Banerji, Kanu Banerji, Colleen Camp. Coppola’s controversial VietRamani Sen Gupta. The second of Ray’s nam war epic, based on Joseph Conrad’s Apu trilogy is a moving, beautifully filmed Heart of Darkness. Special agent Sheen jourstory of life and death in a poor Indian neys upriver into Cambodia with orders to family, with the son, Apu (Ghosal), trekfind and kill errant officer Brando, leading king off to college in Calcutta. Aka THE him (and viewer) on a mesmerizing odyssey UNVANQUISHED.▼쩠 of turbulent, often surreal encounters. UnforApartment, The (1960) 125m. ★★★★ D: tunately, film’s conclusion—when he does Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon, Shirley Macfind Brando—is cerebral and murky. Still, a Laine, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, great movie experience most of the way, with Jack Kruschen, Edie Adams, David Lewis, staggering, Oscar-winning photography by Joan Shawlee. Superb comedy-drama that Vittorio Storaro. Reissued and revised in manages to embrace both sentiment and 2001. The documentary HEARTS OF cynicism. Lemmon attempts to climb corDARKNESS: A FILMMAKER’S APOCAporate ladder by loaning his apartment key LYPSE chronicles the film’s production. to various executives for their extramarital Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 trysts, but it backfires when he falls for Apocalypse Now Redux (2001) C-197m. ★★★1⁄2 Francis Coppola reedited his 1979 his boss’s latest girlfriend. Fine performances all around, including MacMurray film and put back in footage he’d cut at the as an uncharacteristic heel. Oscar winner time, including a major sequence set at a for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay plantation (featuring Christian Marquand). (Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond), Editing This is now the ‘‘official’’ version of his still-powerful film. Technovision. [R] ▼쩠 (Daniel Mandell), Art Direction-Set Decoration (Alexander Trauner, Edward G. Apocalypto (2006) C-139m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mel Boyle). Later a Broadway musical, PromGibson. Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernanises, Promises. Panavision. ▼●쩠 dez, Raoul Trujillo, Jonathan Brewer, MorApartment for Peggy (1948) C-99m. ★★★ ris Birdyellowhead, Carlos Emilio Baez. D: George Seaton. Jeanne Crain, William It’s the early 16th century, Mayan culture is Holden, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart. in decline, and hero Jaguar Paw (a terrific Breezy story of newlyweds trying to live Youngblood) gets it from all directions on college campus; old pros Gwenn and from a rival raiding party. With his family Lockhart steal film from young lovers. imperiled and father assaulted, he’s abApartment Zero (1988-British) C-124m. ducted to the city for intended slave labor. ★★★ D: Martin Donovan. Colin Firth, Hart What follows is a huff-and-puff sprinter’s Bochner, Dora Bryan, Liz Smith, Fabrizio marathon and transparent throwback to CorBentivoglio. Odd, intriguing psychologinel Wilde’s THE NAKED PREY (to say cal drama with political, moral, and sexual nothing of THE MOST DANGEROUS overtones. Fastidious film buff Firth’s life GAME). Bolstered by today’s state-of-theis profoundly altered when he takes in art camerawork and sound technology, it’s freewheeling—and mysterious—Bochner as visceral and exciting despite a tendency to a boarder. Not for all tastes but extremely go over the top. Thanks to cutaways at cruwell acted and definitely worth a look. Set cial times, it’s not always as violent as adin Buenos Aires; scripted by Donovan and vertised or feared—but it’s still pretty David Koepp. Shortened by 8m. for video potent. Gibson coproduced and cowrote with Farhad Safinia. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 by director; the full version is available on DVD. [R]▼●쩠 Apollo 13 (1995) C-139m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ron Ape, The (1940) 62m. ★★ D: William Howard. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Nigh. Boris Karloff, Maris Wrixon, GerBacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen trude W. Hoffman, Henry Hall. LowQuinlan, Miko Hughes, David Andrews, budget shocker with mad doctor Karloff Chris Ellis, Joe Spano, Xander Berkeley, donning pelt of slain circus ape so he can kill Marc McClure, Tracy Reiner, Brett Cullen; his neighbors for their spinal fluid.▼쩠 opening narration by Walter Cronkite. ExApe Man, The (1943) 64m. ★★ D: Wilhilarating story of ill-fated Apollo 13 moon liam Beaudine. Bela Lugosi, Louise Currie, mission, and how the heroic work of astroWallace Ford, Henry Hall, Minerva Urecal. naut Jim Lovell and his crew, combined Minor horror effort with Lugosi and cast with the dogged persistence of the NASA overacting in story of scientist becoming team in Houston, averted tragedy. A rare part ape, embarking on murder spree (acinstance where special effects actually serve companied by an ape). Followed by nonthe story and help make it completely credisequel, RETURN OF THE APE MAN.▼쩠 ble; perfect 1970s period detail is another Apocalypse Now (1979) C-153m. ★★★1⁄2 asset. Screenplay by William Broyles, Jr., D: Francis Coppola. Marlon Brando, Roband Al Reinert, from the book Lost Moon ert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forby Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. Director rest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Howard’s brother Clint has a good role as Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, G. D. Spradlin, one of the Houston eggheads; father, Rance, [ 54 ]

plays a priest; and mother, Jean, is a treat as Jim Lovell’s mom. The real Lovell appears as an officer on the aircraft carrier in the final sequence. Winner of Oscars for Film Editing and Sound. Edited to 116m. for its 2002 release in IMAX. Super 35. [PG]

songwriting contest is sabotaged by devilish Mr. Boogalow. As bad as it sounds—maybe worse—but now celebrated for its awfulness. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Apple Dumpling Gang, The (1975) C100m. ★★ D: Norman Tokar. Bill Bixby, Susan Clark, Don Knotts, Tim Conway, ▼●쩠 ★★★ Apostle, The (1997) C-134m. David Wayne, Slim Pickens, Harry MorD: Robert Duvall. Robert Duvall, Farrah Fawcett, gan. Disney Western comedy with gamMiranda Richardson, Billy Bob Thornton, bler Bixby inheriting three children. PreJune Carter Cash, Todd Allen, John Beasley, dictable doings sparked by Knotts and Conway as bumbling crooks. [G]▼●쩠 Billy Joe Shaver. Duvall—in an obvious labor of love as writer, director, producer, and Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, The (1979) C-88m. ★★ D: Vincent McEveety. star—is superb as a womanizing Pentecostal minister who is forced to leave his Texas Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Tim Matheson, home (and church) after committing a violent Kenneth Mars, Elyssa Davalos, Jack Elam, act. Fascinating study of a wayward man’s Robert Pine, Harry Morgan, Ruth Buzzi. journey to understand his life, and the many More of the same, with Knotts and Conway people who help him find his way. Wonderas bumbling outlaws in the Old West; ful small-town Southern atmosphere. Lags usual Disney slapstick, without much zip a bit, but the performances by Duvall and or originality. [G]▼쩠 his supporting cast make up for it. James Applegates, The SEE: Meet the Applegates Gammon appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Appointment, The (1969) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Appaloosa, The (1966) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Sidney Lumet. Omar Sharif, Anouk Sidney J. Furie. Marlon Brando, Anjanette Aime´e, Lotte Lenya. Brilliant attorney falls Comer, John Saxon, Alex Montoya, Frank in love with a girl who eventually ruins Silvera. Brooding Western set in 1870s him. Soapy and long. [R] with Brando trying to recover horse stolen Appointment for Love (1941) 89m. ★★1⁄2 from him by Mexican bandit; slowly paced, D: William Seiter. Charles Boyer, Margawell photographed by Russell Metty. ret Sullavan, Rita Johnson, Reginald Denny, Techniscope. ▼●쩠 Ruth Terry, Eugene Pallette. Frothy comAppaloosa (2008) C-115m. ★★ D: Ed Haredy showcasing delightful stars: husband ris. Viggo Mortensen, Ed Harris, Rene´e and wife with careers find happy marriage Zellweger, Jeremy Irons, Timothy Spall, almost impossible. Lance Henriksen, James Gammon, Tom Appointment in Berlin (1943) 77m. ★★1⁄2 Bower, Ariadna Gil, Rex Linn. Western D: Alfred E. Green. George Sanders, Martown under the thumb of a despotic ranch guerite Chapman, Onslow Stevens, Gale owner (Irons) brings in a hired gun (Harris) Sondergaard, Alan Napier. Another WW2 and his partner (Mortensen) to straighten intrigue film, better than most, with Sanders things out—which they will only do on their joining Nazi radio staff to learn secret plans. own terms. Fairly simple story (from a Appointment in Honduras (1953) C-75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Ann Sheridan, novel by Robert B. Parker) takes an awfully long time to spin out. Harris and Mortensen Glenn Ford, Zachary Scott, Jack Elam. make a great team, and their friendship is Idealistic American (Ford) out to save Latinthe most interesting aspect of this longAmerican country, corrals villainous comwinded film. Harris coscripted and sings a panions into helping crusade. Sheridan is Western song he cowrote over the closing not focal point, and a pity.▼쩠 credits . . . and that’s his father Bob playing Appointment With Danger (1951) 89m. ★★★ the judge. Panavision. [R]쩠 D: Lewis Allen. Alan Ladd, Phyllis Applause (1929) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D. Rouben Calvert, Paul Stewart, Jan Sterling, Jack Mamoulian. Helen Morgan, Joan Peers, Webb, Harry Morgan. Ladd is a U.S. Fuller Mellish, Jr., Henry Wadsworth, Dorpostal inspector aided by nun Calvert in othy Cumming. Revolutionary early talkie cracking a case. Forget that part of the may seem awfully hokey to modern audistory; Webb and Morgan are the villains ences (Morgan plays a fading burlesque here, and Dragnet fans will be extremely queen with a two-timing boyfriend and an amused. Best bit: Ladd ‘‘dropping’’ Webb innocent young daughter just out of a conon a handball court. vent), but Morgan’s heart-rending perforAppointment With Death (1988) C-108m. ★1 mance, and innovative use of camera and ⁄2 D: Michael Winner. Peter Ustinov, sound by Mamoulian (in his film directing Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, Hayley Mills, Jenny Seagrove, debut), make it a must for buffs.▼쩠 Apple, The (1980) C-90m. BOMB D: David Soul. Ustinov returns yet again as Menahem Golan. Catherine Mary Stewart, Agatha Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot Allan Love, George Gilmour, Grace Kenin this obvious, depressingly unsuspenseful nedy, Joss Ackland. Futuristic musical set mystery. It seems that greedy Laurie wants in 1994, when a young couple’s entry in her late husband’s money all for herself. How [ 55 ]

soon will she be murdered? And how soon will Poirot name her killer? Another loser from Winner; scripted by Anthony Shaffer, Peter Buckman, and the director. [PG]▼● Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, The (1974-Canadian) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ted Kotcheff. Richard Dreyfuss, Micheline Lanctot, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Joseph Wiseman, Denholm Elliott, Joe Silver. Mordecai Richler’s vivid comedy-drama of an ambitious kid from Montreal’s Jewish ghetto in the 1940s, determined to make good no matter how many toes he steps on. Pretentious bar mitzvah movie made by Duddy’s ‘‘client,’’ artsy director Elliott, is just one comic highlight. Panavision. [PG]▼ Apprentice to Murder (1988) C-94m. ★★ D: R. L. Thomas. Donald Sutherland, Chad Lowe, Mia Sara, Knut Husebo, Rutanya Alda. Odd, affected, fact-based account of a practitioner of medieval medicine (Sutherland, in a disappointing performance), and his complex relationship with young Lowe. Filmed in Norway. [PG-13]▼● Apre`s Vous . . . (2003-French) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pierre Salvadori. Daniel Auteuil, Jose´ Garcia, Sandrine Kiberlain, Marilyne Canto, Miche`le Moretti, Garance Clavel, Fabio Zenoni. Agreeable French comedy about a good-hearted maitre d’ who comes across a suicidal man one night and agrees to help him turn his life around by getting him a job as a wine steward in his restaurant. Of course, this act of kindness causes all sorts of complications in the lives of both men, but the farcical nature of the story is never overplayed. Auteuil is the perfect foil to Garcia, who is a total delight to watch. A minor but entertaining comedy. [R]쩠 April Fools, The (1969) C-95m. ★★ D: Stuart Rosenberg. Jack Lemmon, Catherine Deneuve, Peter Lawford, Harvey Korman, Sally Kellerman, Myrna Loy, Charles Boyer, Melinda Dillon, Kenneth Mars, Jack Weston, David Doyle. Attempt at old-fashioned romantic comedy is forced, unbelievable, unfunny. Lemmon is married businessman who decides to chuck it all to run away with Deneuve, who’s wasted, along with Loy and Boyer. Panavision. [M/PG]▼ April Fool’s Day (1986) C-88m. ★★ D: Fred Walton. Deborah Foreman, Griffin O’Neal, Clayton Rohner, Thomas F. Wilson, Deborah Goodrich. Practical joker (Foreman) invites college pals to spend a weekend in her family’s mansion on an off-coast island; one by one they’re threatened and killed. Attempt to bring humor to FRIDAY THE 13TH formula isn’t a total washout but doesn’t quite click, either. Remade for DVD in 2008. Panavision. [R]

David Butler. Doris Day, Ray Bolger, Claude Dauphin, Eve Miller, George Givot, Paul Harvey. Diplomatic corps bureaucrat tries to boost Franco-American relations and falls in love with a showgirl mistakenly chosen to appear in the ‘‘April in Paris’’ show he’s staging. Mediocre Warner Bros. musical buoyed by the personalities of Day and Bolger—who make an unconvincing romantic couple.▼●쩠 April Love (1957) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Levin. Pat Boone, Shirley Jones, Dolores Michaels, Arthur O’Connell, Matt Crowley. Engaging musical with wholesome Boone visiting relatives’ Kentucky farm, falling in love with neighbor Jones. Pat had a hit with the title tune. Previously filmed as HOME IN INDIANA. CinemaScope. April Showers (1948) 94m. ★★ D: James V. Kern. Jack Carson, Ann Sothern, Robert Alda, S. Z. Sakall, Robert Ellis. Hackneyed backstage vaudeville yarn with Carson-Sothern teaming, splitting, reteaming, etc. Apt Pupil (1998) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Bryan Singer. Ian McKellen, Brad Renfro, Bruce Davison, Elias Koteas, Joe Morton, Jan Triska, Michael Byrne, Heather McComb, David Schwimmer, Joshua Jackson, James Karen. A student studying the Holocaust becomes overly absorbed in the subject. When he spots an old man on the bus and realizes that he’s a former Nazi war criminal, he cultivates a curious ‘‘friendship’’ with the unrepentant elder. Fascinating premise, from a Stephen King novella, soon grows untenable—and doesn’t know when to quit. Good performances by McKellen and Renfro can’t save this extremely unpleasant film. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Aquamarine (2006) C-103m. ★★ D: Elizabeth Allen. Emma Roberts, Joanna ‘‘JoJo’’ Levesque, Sara Paxton, Jake McDorman, Arielle Kebbel. A mermaid escapes her overbearing father and arrives on land, where she needs to make a man fall in love with her or succumb to an arranged marriage to a merman back home. Meanwhile, her two new human girlfriends have to figure out how to stay together when one of their parents wants to move to another country. They all face the usual ‘‘fish out of water movie’’ calamities, but the infectiously sweet leads keep this from being a total bore. Based on a book by Alice Hoffman. [PG]쩠 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (2007) C-79m. BOMB D: Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis. Voices of Dana Snyder, Dave Willis, Carey Means, Andy Merrill, C. Martin Croker, Chris Kattan, Bruce Campbell, Fred Armisen. Three fastfood icons, Master Shake (a milk-shake cup), Frylock (a large side of French fries), and Meatwad (a stupid meatball), tackle an immortal piece of exercise equipment, the Insanoflex, which threatens the balance of galactic ▼●쩠 April in Paris (1952) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: peace. Feature version of Adult Swim cable [ 56 ]

TV cartoon series is strictly for stoners . . . lor, Henry Jones, Peter Jason, James Handy. and even they may demand a refund. Artless Fear of spiders is taken to extremes in this and unfunny, with a fart joke every ten minslick comic thriller from Steven Spielberg utes. Hanna Barbera’s Space Ghost makes a and Co. Small-town doctor Daniels (who cameo appearance. A complete waste of hates spiders) and family play host to a time. [R]쩠 wayward tropical arachnid that promptly Arabesque (1966) C-105m. ★★★ D: Stansets up web in the barn out back. Essenley Donen. Sophia Loren, Gregory Peck, tially Grade Z movie fodder is socked Alan Badel, Kieron Moore, George Couacross here by a big budget and spirited louris. Modern secret-agent escapism as performances. Directorial debut of longtime Peck is drawn into espionage with Sophia, Spielberg producer Marshall. Not recomwho was never more beautiful. Exciting, mended for anyone who’s ever covered beautifully photographed, minus any mestheir eyes during a movie. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sage or deep thought. Panavision. ▼쩠 Ararat (2002-Canadian-U.S.) C-126m. ★★1 Arabian Adventure, An (1979-British) C⁄2 D: Atom Egoyan. Bruce Greenwood, 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Connor. Christopher Arsine´e Khanjian, Christopher Plummer, Elias Lee, Milo O’Shea, Puneet Sira, Oliver Tobias, Koteas, Charles Aznavour, Brent Carver, Emma Samms, Peter Cushing, Mickey David Alpay, Marie-Jose´e Croze, Eric BogoRooney, Capucine, John Ratzenberger. Just sian, Simon Abkarian. Movie-within-a-movie what the title says; colorful enough to enterabout Turkey’s 1915 genocide against Armetain kids, with enough effects gimmicks and nia has its moments, and as many subplots. Tocameo performances to intrigue older viewers ronto filmmakers shoot a lame-looking as well. [G] historical epic about the incident, which is conArabian Knight (1995) C-72m. ★★ D: trasted against a modern-day story dealing with Richard Williams. Voices of Vincent Price, sex between step-siblings, a disapproving dad Matthew Broderick, Jennifer Beals, Eric Bogowith a gay son, and a lengthy incident involvsian, Toni Collette, Jonathan Winters, Bobbi ing a customs agent and a member of the film’s Page, Clive Revill, Kevin Dorsey, Kenneth crew. Heavy breathing, pedantic at times, but Williams. Colorful but disappointing (and ulinteresting and obviously heartfelt, given Egoyan’s Armenian background. [R]▼쩠 timately, boring) yarn of a lowly cobbler who falls in love with a princess and does battle Architect, The (2006) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: with a wily wizard named Zig Zag. Some Matt Tauber. Anthony LaPaglia, Viola Davis, engaging and amusing scenes for kids, with Isabella Rossellini, Hayden Panettiere, Seexceptionally interesting graphics and color bastian Stan, Walton Goggins, Paul James. schemes, but the story is too fragmented to Chicago architect is unaware that the urban really take hold; the songs are instantly forgethousing project he designed years ago is table. This film shows the scars of major pronow a hellhole that one aggrieved mother duction woes; it was begun by Williams in (Davis) wants to tear down . . . or even that 1968(!), then taken out of his hands in the his wife and children aren’t at peace in the early 1990s. Retitled THE THIEF AND THE modern-living space that is their home. COBBLER (the film’s original name while in Each character is in crisis here, and the brief production) for video. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 screenplay (adapted by Tauber from David Arabian Nights (1942) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Greig’s play) introduces more dilemmas John Rawlins. Jon Hall, Maria Montez, than it resolves. Still, strong performances Sabu, Leif Erickson, Turhan Bey, Billy make this worth a look. LaPaglia also coexecutive-produced. [R]쩠 Gilbert, Shemp Howard, John Qualen, Thomas Gomez. Colorful, corny escapist Arch of Triumph (1948) 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: stuff—beautifully mounted in Technicolor— Lewis Milestone. Ingrid Bergman, Charles about a dashing hero, an enslaved SheraBoyer, Charles Laughton, Louis Calhern. zade, and an evil caliph. Shemp also memoSluggish drama of refugee Boyer falling in rable as a retired Sinbad the Sailor. First love with Bergman in WW2 France, based teaming of Montez, Hall, and Sabu. ▼●쩠 on Erich Maria Remarque’s novel. ArchiArabian Nights (1974-Italian-French) Cvally restored to 131m. Remade for TV in 130m. ★★★ D: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ninetto 1985 with Anthony Hopkins and LesleyDavoli, Ines Pellegrini, Franco Citti, Tessa Anne Down.▼쩠 Bouche, Margarethe Clementi, Franco archy and mehitabel SEE: shinbone alley Merli. Several Thousand and One Nights Arctic Tale (2007) C-96m. ★★ D: Adam tales are framed by the story of slave-girl Ravetch, Sarah Robertson. Narrated by Pellegrini, who becomes ‘‘king’’ of a great Queen Latifah. Quasi-documentary six years city. Dreamlike, exotic; the last and best of in the making follows the parallel stories of a Pasolini’s medieval trilogy. Running time walrus and her calf ‘‘pup’’ and a group of originally 155m.▼●쩠 polar bears as they try to survive in the frozen Arachnophobia (1990) C-109m. ★★★ D: arctic. While the footage itself is impressive, Frank Marshall. Jeff Daniels, Harley Jane the ‘‘story’’ wrapped around it is strictly for Kozak, John Goodman, Julian Sands, Stuart very young kids. With cloying narration by Pankin, Brian McNamara, Mark L. TayQueen Latifah the film is clearly trying to [ 57 ]

emulate the success of a much more honest Aria (1987-British) C-90m. BOMB D: doc, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. Too Bill Bryden, Nicolas Roeg, Charles Sturbad they didn’t stick to the facts instead of ridge, Jean-Luc Godard, Julien Temple, trying to be BAMBI OF THE NORTH. Bruce Beresford, Robert Altman, Franc [G]쩠 Roddam, Ken Russell, Derek Jarman. John Are Husbands Necessary? (1942) 79m. Hurt, Theresa Russell, Nicola Swain, Jack ★★ D: Norman Taurog. Ray Milland, Betty Kayle, Buck Henry, Anita Morris, Beverly Field, Patricia Morison, Eugene Pallette, D’Angelo, Elizabeth Hurley, Peter Birch, Cecil Kellaway. And what about this film? Julie Hagerty, Genevieve Page, Bridget Arena (1953) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Fonda, Tilda Swinton, Spencer Leigh, Amy Fleischer. Gig Young, Jean Hagen, Polly BerJohnson. Godawful collection of short films, gen, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Barbara Laweach one supposedly inspired by an operatic rence, Lee Aaker, Robert Horton, Lee Van aria. Precious few make sense, or even seem to Cleef. Colorful if utterly predictable story of match the music; some are downright embarrodeo star Young, on the verge of divorce rassing. Roddam’s bittersweet Las Vegas fable from Bergen, falling under the spell of sexy (set to Tristan und Isolde), Beresford’s sweet Lawrence. Morgan is a standout as a onetime and simple rendering of Erich Wolfgang Kornstar reduced to taking a job as rodeo clown. gold’s Die Totestadt are among the better segAction scenes skillfully integrated. Filmed in ments—relatively speaking. A pitiful waste of talent. Fonda’s first film. [R]▼●쩠 Tucson, Arizona. Originally in 3-D. Arena, The (1973) C-83m. ★★ D: Steve Ariel (1988-Finnish) C-74m. ★★★ D: Aki Carver. Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, LuKaurismaki. Turo Pajala, Susanna Haavisto, cretia Love, Paul Muller. Lavish (by Roger Matti Pellonpa¨a¨. Surreal, dryly hilarious Corman standards) spectacle set in an ancient road movie from one of the most talented Rome in which all the gladiators are women. directors to emerge on the international Rather surprisingly pro-feminist point of view, film scene in the late 1980s. The scenario but Grier’s and Markov’s physiques remain chronicles the plight of a mine worker the chief attractions. Retitled NAKED (Pajala) who loses his job and sets out on WARRIORS. Remade in 2001. Technia cross-country odyssey.▼쩠 scope. [R]▼쩠 Arise, My Love (1940) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Are We Done Yet? (2007) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Mitchell Leisen. Claudette Colbert, Ray Steve Carr. Ice Cube, Nia Long, John C. Milland, Walter Abel, Dennis O’Keefe, Dick McGinley, Aleisha Allen, Philip Bolden, JonPurcell. Reporter Colbert rescues flyer Milathan Katz, Linda Kash, Alexander Kalugin, land from a Spanish firing squad in the days Dan Joffre, Pedro Miguel Arce, Tahj Mowry, before WW2 breaks out in Europe. Bright Jacob Vargas. Inevitable sequel to ARE WE stars make Billy Wilder–Charles Brackett THERE YET? is also an official remake of script seem better than it is; Benjamin Glazer the 1948 comedy MR. BLANDINGS and John S. Toldy received Oscars for their BUILDS HIS DREAM HOUSE (complete original story. Aristocats, The (1970) C-78m. ★★★ D: with RKO Radio Pictures logo), but Ice Cube isn’t Cary Grant and this script is Wolfgang Reitherman. Voices of Eva much more bland than BLANDINGS. Gabor, Phil Harris, Sterling Holloway, ScatPremise is basically the same: a man moves man Crothers, Paul Winchell, Lord Tim his growing family out of the crowded city Hudson, Vito Scotti, Thurl Ravenscroft, and into his ‘‘dream house’’ in the suburbs, Nancy Kulp, Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, where everything goes wrong. Endlessly Monica Evans, Carole Shelley. A cat and unfunny slapstick antics may have you her offspring will inherit a fortune from looking at your watch asking the real questheir mistress, which makes them prime tartion: ‘‘Is it over yet?’’ [PG]쩠 gets for her scheming butler, who’ll collect Are We There Yet? (2005) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: the money if they’re out of the picture. Enter Brian Levant. Ice Cube, Nia Long, Jay Thomas O’Malley Cat (voiced by the inimitaMohr, Aleisha Allen, M. C. Gainey, Philip ble Phil Harris) to the rescue. Derivative of Daniel Bolden, Nichelle Nichols. If you earlier Disney animated features but entertainwait long enough, just about anything can ing just the same. [G]▼●쩠 happen, including Ice Cube turning into Aristocrats, The (2005) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred MacMurray. Actor Cube isn’t the probPaul Provenza. Stand-up comic Provenza lem here, but a stale premise is: the childand Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller) set out hating owner of a sports memorabilia store to examine a notorious dirty joke that’s betransports two headstrong kids over a long, come a touchstone for comedians of all disaster-prone trip to Vancouver, all to help ages. Comedy aficionados will find this irrehottie-mama Long out of a scheduling jam sistible, as a formidable parade of more than while getting into her good graces. Before one hundred performers (Robin Williams, turning in this box-office success, director LePhyllis Diller, George Carlin, Gilbert Gottvant did PROBLEM CHILD 2 and SNOW fried, Larry Storch, to name just a few) cuts DOGS. Forewarned is forearmed. Followed loose and dissects the appeal of the gag. Not by ARE WE DONE YET? [PG] ▼쩠 surprisingly, some of the older comics get [ 58 ]

some of the biggest laughs . . . including an ley team to save humanity by flying to an unannounced guest at the end of the credits. asteroid and planting a nuclear bomb. After Not recommended for children or anyone a while it becomes so routine, so predicteasily offended.▼쩠 able, and so redundant that all the fun is Arizona (1940) 127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wesley drained away. Unrated director’s cut runs 153m. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Ruggles. Jean Arthur, William Holden, Warren William, Porter Hall, Paul Harvey. Armed and Dangerous (1986) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Mark L. Lester. John Candy, EuLively story of determined woman battling corruption and plundering while trying to setgene Levy, Robert Loggia, Kenneth Mctle in new Arizona territory. Well done, but Millan, Meg Ryan, Brion James, Jonathan seems to go on forever.▼●쩠 Banks, Don Stroud, Steve Railsback. Lame Arizona Bushwhackers (1968) C-86m. comedy sticks talented costars with unap★1 ⁄2 D: Lesley Selander. Howard Keel, pealing script about two bozos who wind Yvonne De Carlo, John Ireland, Mariup working for an armed security comlyn Maxwell, Scott Brady, Brian Donlevy, pany—and tangling with a gangland boss Roy Rogers, Jr., James Craig; narrated by (Loggia, wasted in a stereotype role). Even James Cagney. Confederate spy Keel takes the chase finale is weak. [PG-13]▼●쩠 job as sheriff in Arizona and routs Brady, Armed Response (1986) C-85m. ★★ D: who has been selling weapons to Apaches. Fred Olen Ray. David Carradine, Lee Van Routine Western. Techniscope.▼● Cleef, Mako, Lois Hamilton, Ross Hagen, Arizona Dream (1993-French-U.S.) CBrent Huff, Laurene Landon, Dick Miller, 119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Emir Kusturica. Johnny Michael Berryman. Modest actioner of Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Lili Carradine and family becoming involved in a Taylor, Paulina Porizkova, Vincent Gallo, Chinatown war over a stolen jade art object. Michael J. Pollard. Odd but intriguing film Cheapie benefits from a solid cast of both new and old B-movie favorites. [R]▼●쩠 about a young dreamer (Depp) who’s shanghaied into a trip to Arizona, where he Armored Attack SEE: North Star, The catches up with a favorite uncle (Lewis) Armored Command (1961) 99m. ★★ D: who wants him to settle down, and falls Byron Haskin. Howard Keel, Tina Louise, madly in love with an emotionally frail, Warner Anderson, Burt Reynolds. Bland childlike woman (Dunaway). Europeanwar film with stars merely going through their paces.▼ styled film (from the Yugoslav director of WHEN FATHER WAS AWAY ON BUSIArmour of God (1986-Hong Kong) C-94m. ★★1 NESS) boasts exceptionally good perfor⁄2 D: Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, Rosamances—one of Dunaway’s best in years, mund Kwan, Alan Tam, Lola Forna, Maria one of Lewis’ most impressive—though the Dolores. Jackie plays an Indiana Jones–often pathetic characters wear out their welstyle adventurer who must find legendary come after a while. Filmed in 1991; 142m. suit of armor to rescue his girlfriend from a European version earned a brief U.S. theatcult. Enjoyable film marred by slow spots and rical release in 1995. [R]▼ obviously cheated final stunt. Fight with four Arizona Raiders (1965) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: leather-clad women is a blast. Watch the outWilliam Witney. Audie Murphy, Michael takes at the end to see the mishap that nearly Dante, Ben Cooper, Buster Crabbe, Gloria killed Chan. Followed by a sequel.▼쩠 Talbott. Murphy is Confederate army officer Armour of God 2: Operation Condor heading Arizona rangers after Civil War, bat(1991-Hong Kong) C-112m. ★★★ D: Jackie tling Quantrill’s raiders. Techniscope. ▼쩠 Chan. Jackie Chan, Carol (Dodo) Cheng, ★★ Arlington Road (1999) C-119m. D: Eva Cobo deGarcia, Ikeda Shoko, Aldo Mark Pellington. Jeff Bridges, Tim RobSanchez, Ken Lo. Lavish adventure epic bins, Joan Cusack, Hope Davis, Robert sends Chan off to Europe and Africa in Gossett, Spencer Treat Clark, Mason Gamsearch of huge Nazi gold cache, with three ble. Labored conspiracy thriller about a hisfemale companions in tow. Crackerjack tory professor (Bridges) haunted by his comedy-adventure filled with great fights, wife’s death, who becomes suspicious of stunts, and slapstick; final battle in a wind his new neighbor (Robbins) and starts intunnel is a knockout. One of Jackie’s best. vestigating his curious past. Obvious and Recut, dubbed, and trimmed to 89m. for overdone. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 1997 U.S. release as OPERATION CONArmageddon (1998) C-151m. ★★ D: MiDOR—which isn’t as good as the original. Technovision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 chael Bay. Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Will Patton, Army of Darkness (1993) C-81m. ★★ D: Peter Stormare, Keith David, Steve BusSam Raimi. Bruce Campbell, Embeth Dacemi, Owen Wilson, William Fichtner, Udo vidtz, Marcus Gilbert, Ian Abercrombie, RichKier, Michael (Clarke) Duncan; narrated by ard Grove, Michael Earl Reid, Timothy Patrick Charlton Heston. Opens with a bang, and Quill, Bridget Fonda, Patricia Tallman, Theosets up an exciting (if improbable) story dore Raimi, Ivan Raimi. Mark Twain’s Conabout NASA and the U.S. government turnnecticut Yankee is crossed here with Bob Vila, ing to a veteran oil-well driller and his motas a hardware store employee is transported [ 59 ]

back (with his ’73 Olds and a chainsaw) to Ce´cile de France, Jim Broadbent, Ewen King Arthur’s 14th-century turf. Chiseled-grin Bremner, Ian McNeice, Karen Joy Morris Campbell’s comic book features serve this (Mok), Mark Addy, Will Forte, John Cleese, movie well, as do a few witty bits and an army Macy Gray, Sammo Hung, Rob Schneider, of skeletons obviously inspired by JASON Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, AND THE ARGONAUTS. Doldrums set in Arnold Schwarzenegger. Absentminded Vicwhen nifty special effects and verbal extorian inventor Phileas Fogg embarks on a changes are out grabbing a smoke. Campbell global journey with a fugitive from justice also coproduced. Third in the EVIL DEAD (Chan) as his valet. Stumblebum remake of series. Director’s cut runs 96m. [R]▼●쩠 the Jules Verne saga is devoid of wit, and Army of Shadows (1969-French-Italian) Cwith so many CG effects shows no evidence 145m. ★★★ D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Lino Venof globetrotting in spite of having used several tura, Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, Jeaninternational locations. The 1956 movie had Pierre Cassel, Claude Mann, Paul Crauchet, cameos by the likes of Sinatra and Dietrich; Christian Barbier, Serge Reggiani. Vivid pethis one gives us Schwarzenegger in a funny wig. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 riod piece about the exploits of French Resistance agent Philippe Gerbier (Ventura) and Around the World in 80 Ways (1986the work he and his cohorts accomplish durAustralian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Macing WW2. Episodic but compelling, all the Lean. Philip Quast, Allan Penney, Diana more so for Melville’s matter-of-fact presenDavidson, Kelly Dingwall, Gosia Dobrotation of extraordinary feats. Signoret is feawolska. Off-center Aussie farce about two tured as an especially ingenious and dedicated brothers who contrive to spring their aging Parisian comrade. Based on Joseph Kessel’s dad from his stultifying rest home and take 1943 book, adapted by the director, who in him on an imaginary trip around the world. real life worked for the Resistance.쩠 Wacky, and more than a bit crude at times, but likable throughout. [R]▼● Arnold (1973) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Georg Fenady. Stella Stevens, Roddy McDowall, Around the World Under the Sea (1966) Elsa Lanchester, Shani Wallis, Farley C-117m. ★★ D: Andrew Marton. Lloyd Granger, Victor Buono, John McGiver, Bridges, Shirley Eaton, David McCallum, Patric Knowles. Bizarre horror comedy Brian Kelly, Keenan Wynn, Marshall Thompfeatures novel deaths and offbeat humor, son. Several TV personalities appear in this centering around luscious Stevens’ marundistinguished underwater tour about testing riage to corpse Norman Stuart. [PG]▼ earthquake warnings. Panavision. ▼ Around the Bend (2004) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arousers, The (1970) C-90m. ★★★ D: Jordan Roberts. Christopher Walken, MiCurtis Hanson. Tab Hunter, Nadyne Turney, chael Caine, Josh Lucas, Glenne Headly, Roberta Collins, Isabel Jewell. Little-known, Jonah Bobo. Amiable-enough film about a case-history B movie with topnotch performman, separated from his wife, who takes ance by Hunter as lonely Venice, California, care of his young son and his aged, eccenpsychopath who can’t make love to women, tric grandfather when suddenly his own dad so he ends up killing them. Unsung thriller (who walked out when the boy was two) packs a wallop; worth searching out. Originshows up on his doorstep. Culminates in a ally released as SWEET KILL; aka A KISS road trip through the Southwest. GeneraFROM EDDIE.▼ tional story of forgiveness covers familiar Arrangement, The (1969) C-120m. BOMB emotional turf, but watching Walken is a D: Elia Kazan. Kirk Douglas, Faye Dunaway, treat. Written by the director. [R] ▼쩠 Deborah Kerr, Richard Boone, Hume CroAround the World in Eighty Days (1956) nyn. Muddled, unpleasant film from Kazan’s C-167m. ★★★ D: Michael Anderson. David own novel about man fed up with Madison Niven, Cantinflas, Shirley MacLaine, RobAvenue rat race who suddenly goes berserk, ert Newton, Buster Keaton, Jose Greco, reevaluates his life, family, surroundings. John Gielgud, Robert Morley, Marlene DieGood cast down the drain; Kerr’s role is partrich, all-star cast. Oscar-winning favorite ticularly demeaning. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 has lost much of its charm over the years, Arrival, The (1996) C-109m. ★★★ D: David but even so, Mike Todd’s version of the Twohy. Charlie Sheen, Ron Silver, Lindsay Jules Verne tale offers plenty of entertainCrouse, Teri Polo, Richard Schiff, Tony T. ment, and more than 40 cameo appearances Johnson, Leon Rippy, Buddy Joe Hooker. offer plenty of star-gazing for buffs. Great Radio astronomer is fired when he tells his Victor Young score was also an Oscar winboss that he’s picked up signals proving ner, as was the screenplay (James Poe, John there’s intelligent life in space. Then he learns Farrow, S. J. Perelman), cinematography (Lithat the aliens are already here and up to no onel Lindon), and editing (Gene Ruggiero, good. Clever, intelligent sci-fi thriller of the Paul Weatherwax). Remade in 1989 (as a TV old school, with many bright ideas; suffers from flaccid pacing in the last third but reminiseries) and in 2004. Todd-AO. ▼●쩠 Around the World in 80 Days (2004mains fun throughout. Written by the director. British-Irish-German) C-119m. ★1⁄2 D: Followed by a video sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Frank Coraci. Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Arrivederci, Baby! (1966) C-105m. ★1⁄2 [ 60 ]

D: Ken Hughes. Tony Curtis, Rosanna aretti, Emmannuelle Devos, Frederic Pierrot, Schiaffino, Lionel Jeffries, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Yahn Tregouet. Biopic of one of the earliest Nancy Kwan. Comic theme about Bluebeard women painters in history, 17th-century Italtype who murders his wives for their money ian Artemisia Gentileschi. Her desire to exhas been handled more successfully by others. press herself is tempered by her relationships Not very funny. Panavision. ▼ with two strong men: her loving but rigid Arrowhead (1953) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: father (Serrault) and her mentor (Manojlovic), Charles Marquis Warren. Charlton Heston, whose seduction and rape of his prote´ge´e Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Brian Keith, leads to a notorious trial. An accomplished Milburn Stone. Well-paced account of cavif uninspired depiction of this historical alry scout Heston, who despises Indians, figure, whose fate is still debated by scholars and feminists. [R]▼●쩠 and his response when Apaches return to their reservation and Apache chief Palance Arthur (1981) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Steve Gorarrives on the scene. Watch this, and you don. Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielwill understand why Native Americans gud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry, have lambasted the manner in which they Stephen Elliott, Ted Ross, Barney Martin. have been depicted by Hollywood. Keith’s Winning 1930s-style comedy, written by firstfirst film appearance since his screen debut timer Gordon, who died the following year. in 1924, at age three.▼●쩠 Spoiled millionaire must choose between conArrowsmith (1931) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: John tinued wealth (in a planned marriage) and true Ford. Ronald Colman, Helen Hayes, Richard love (with working-class waitress Minnelli). Bennett, A. E. Anson, Claude King, Russell More genuine laughs than most recent comeHopton, Myrna Loy, Beulah Bondi, John dies put together, and a memorable, OscarQualen. Seriously flawed and illogical adaptawinning performance by Gielgud as a protection of Sinclair Lewis’ novel about a dedicated tive, acid-tongued valet; title song ‘‘Arthur’s young research doctor who spends most of his Theme (Best That You Can Do)’’ also earned life facing the temptation of selling out. Worth a statuette. Followed by ARTHUR 2: ON THE ROCKS. [PG]▼●쩠 seeing for some fine performances and stirring moments. Screenplay by Sidney Howard Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) C-110m. ★★ (who fared better with Lewis’ Dodsworth). D: Bud Yorkin. Dudley Moore, Liza Originally 110m.; cut to 101m. for reissue, Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzrestored in recent years to 99m.▼●쩠 gerald, Stephen Elliott, Paul Benedict, CynArruza (1972) C-75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Budd thia Sikes, Kathy Bates, Jack Gilford, Ted Boetticher. Narrated by Anthony Quinn. InRoss, Daniel Greene. Arthur goes broke teresting documentary, many years in proand his wife wants to adopt a baby. The duction, about bullfighter Carlos Arruza. cast tries, and there are scattered laughs, but Well made, but the impact is nowhere near this schmaltzy sequel (executive produced that of Boetticher’s own fictional BULLby Moore) is a disappointment. Gielgud FIGHTER AND THE LADY. [M/PG]▼ ‘‘appears’’ briefly as a ghost. That’s Dud★★★ D: Jack Arsene Lupin (1932) 84m. ley’s then-wife, Brogan Lane, as Liza’s Conway. John Barrymore, Lionel Barryhash-slinging colleague. [PG]▼●쩠 more, Karen Morley, John Miljan, Henry Arthur and the Invisibles (2006-French) Armetta, Tully Marshall. Ripe detective C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Luc Besson. Freddie Highyarn set in Paris: John is a gentleman, more, Mia Farrow, Penny Balfour, Doug Lionel a detective, Morley a mystery Rand, Adam LeFevre; voices of Madonna, woman. Which one is the title jewel thief? Jimmy Fallon, Robert De Niro, Harvey KeiJohn and Lionel B. make a marvelous tel, Chazz Palminteri, Emilio Estevez, Snoop team in their first film together. Dogg, Anthony Anderson, Jason Bateman, Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) 118m. ★★★1⁄2 David Bowie. Ten-year-old Arthur (HighD: Frank Capra. Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane, more) enters a fantasy world to find a hidden Raymond Massey, Peter Lorre, Jack Cartreasure. Rambling, confusing blend of liveson, Josephine Hull, Jean Adair, James action and below-par computer-generated aniGleason, Grant Mitchell, John Alexander, mation. All-star cast of English-speaking Edward Everett Horton. Hilarious adaptation actors dubbed the original French dialogue of Joseph Kesselring’s hit play (scripted by in the animated sequences. Besson cothe Epstein Brothers) about two seemingly scripted, based on his children’s book. harmless old ladies who poison lonely genSuper 35. [PG]쩠 tleman callers. Frantic cast is excellent, esArticle 99 (1992) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Howard pecially Lorre and Massey as unsuspecting Deutch. Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, murderers holed up in Brooklyn household. Forest Whitaker, Lea Thompson, John C. Made in 1941. Hull, Adair, and Alexander McGinley, John Mahoney, Keith David, repeat their Broadway roles. Also shown in Kathy Baker, Eli Wallach, Noble Willingham, Julie Bovasso, Troy Evans, Lynne computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Artemisia (1997-French-Italian-German) CThigpen, Jeffrey Tambor, Rutanya Alda. 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Agne`s Merlet. Valentina Cervi, Heartfelt but disappointingly one-dimenMichel Serrault, Miki Manojlovic, Luca Zingsional, ‘‘lighthearted’’ expose´ of Veterans’ [ 61 ]

Administration hospital abuse, focusing on Spano is intent on escaping. Based on a true story. Panavision. [PG]▼ spunky surgeon Liotta and his compatriots, who try to thwart the bureaucracy; As Good As It Gets (1997) C-138m. ★★★1⁄2 Sutherland is the new doc on the block. D: James L. Brooks. Jack Nicholson, Helen Hijinks are more reminiscent of DOCTOR Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding, Jr., IN THE HOUSE than THE HOSPITAL— Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight, Yeardley Smith, Lupe Ontiveros, Bibi Osterwald, and that’s the problem. [R]▼●쩠 Artie Lange’s Beer League SEE: Beer Randall Batinkoff, Brian Doyle-Murray. League Professional malcontent (and full-time phoArtists and Models (1955) C-109m. ★★★ bic) Nicholson is unavoidably drawn into D: Frank Tashlin. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, the lives of his favorite waitress and his gay Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone, Eva next-door neighbor. Gradually, and against Gabor, Anita Ekberg. Cartoonist Martin his own judgment, he begins to show signs uses Lewis’s far-out dreams as inspiration of humanity. Wonderful comedy-drama for his comic strips in this deliciously garish (written by Mark L. Andrus and Brooks) Technicolor outing. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 takes the viewer on an emotional journey, Art of Love, The (1965) C-99m. ★★ D: with laughs and tears along the way. Both Norman Jewison. James Garner, Dick Van Nicholson and Hunt won Oscars for their Dyke, Elke Sommer, Angie Dickinson, Ethel roles. Writer-directors Harold Ramis, LawMerman, Carl Reiner. Ordinary comedy set in rence Kasdan, Shane Black, and Todd SoFrance, with a bemused cast headed by Van londz all have small roles. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dyke as a struggling artist who fakes death to Ashanti (1979) C-117m. ★★ D: Richard increase the value of his work. Sommer is Fleischer. Michael Caine, Peter Ustinov, his virtuous girl, boisterous Merman a local Beverly Johnson, Kabir Bedi, Omar Sharif, madam with a yen for singing. Rex Harrison, William Holden. Beautiful Art of War, The (2000) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: wife Johnson of missionary-doctor Caine is Christian Duguay. Wesley Snipes, Anne Arkidnapped by slave trader Ustinov, prompting cher, Maury Chaykin, Marie Matiko, Caryhot pursuit through the mideast. Tepid advenHiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Biehn, Donald ture yarn, despite great cast and promising Sutherland, James Hong. Unexceptional acstory elements. Aka ASHANTI: LAND OF tion thriller. Snipes is a secret agent for the NO MERCY. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 U.N. who’s framed for an assassination, so he Ashes and Diamonds (1958-Polish) 96m. ★★★1 tries to unsnarl a tangled plot centering on ⁄2 D: Andrzej Wajda. Zbigniew CyChinese trade negotiations. Hong Kong–style bulski, Ewa Krzyzanowska, Adam Pawlifights and good cinematography (by Pierre kowski, Bogumil Kobiela, Waclaw ZastrzGill) help, but you’ve seen it all before. Title ezynski. Stark, intelligent, perceptive acderives from Sun-Tzu’s 2,500-year-old treacount of the Resistance movement in Potise on war. Followed by a DVD sequel. land during the closing days of WW2. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Cybulski, the Polish James Dean, came Art School Confidential (2006) C-102m. into his own with his portrayal of a ★★★ D: Terry Zwigoff. Max Minghella, Soyoung Resistance fighter. The last of phia Myles, John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, Wajda’s War trilogy, following A GENAnjelica Huston, Matt Keeslar, Ethan Suplee, ERATION and KANAL.▼●쩠 Katherine Moennig, Dick Bakalyan. FreshAsh Wednesday (1973) C-99m. BOMB man at an arts college wants desperately to be D: Larry Peerce. Elizabeth Taylor, Henry accepted, if not applauded, but no one will Fonda, Helmut Berger, Keith Baxter, Martake his drawings or paintings seriously— garet Blye. Liz undergoes a facelift to while charlatans and showoffs thrive. More regain her youth, but she still looks older than anything he wants to impress a beautiful than Fonda. Sit through this one and you’ll need surgery on your posterior. [R]▼ girl who models for his class. As darkly comic as GHOST WORLD (from the same director Ash Wednesday (2002) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Edand writer, graphic novelist and comic book ward Burns. Edward Burns, Elijah Wood, Roartist Daniel Clowes) but more human; we sario Dawson, Oliver Platt, Pat McNamara, feel this young man’s pain. Malkovich coproJames Handy, Michael Mulheren, Malachy duced. Steve Buscemi and Michael Lerner apMcCourt, Julie Hale. Writer-director-star pear unbilled. [R]쩠 Burns tackles grimmer material than usual Ascent, The (1994) C-96m. ★★ D: Donald in this story of two brothers who reluctantly Shebib. Vincent Spano, Ben Cross, Tony get mixed up with gangsters in early 1980s Lo Bianco, Rachel Ward, Mark Ingall, John N.Y.C. Burns is good as the older sibling, De Veillers. Beautiful scenery cannot save but Wood fails to convince us that he is this unexceptional WW2 drama, set in a from the same family. Uninvolving story POW camp where Italian prisoners challooks as if it was made on a shoestring. lenge their British captors to a race in which [R] ▼쩠 both sides will scale nearby Mount Kenya. Ask Any Girl (1959) C-101m. ★★★ D: If they win, they will regain a measure of Charles Walters. David Niven, Shirley honor; however, freedom-loving prisoner MacLaine, Gig Young, Rod Taylor, Jim [ 62 ]

Backus, Elisabeth Fraser. Effervescent gloss years (and first theatrical release since of naive MacLaine coming to N.Y., dis1969’s THE ARRANGEMENT), as a covering most men have lecherous designs stuffy, long-repressed, just-widowed woon girls; she wants a husband, however. man. While tending her husband’s garden CinemaScope. ▼ and dealing with his memory, she strikes up ★★ Ask the Dust (2006) C-117m. D: Robert a curious complex friendship with Indian Towne. Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald neighbor Jaffrey. Sutherland, Eileen Atkins, Idina Menzel, Assassin, The (1961-Italian) 105m. ★★1⁄2 Justin Kirk, Jeremy Crutchley, William MaD: Elio Petri. Marcello Mastroianni, Salvo pother; narrated by Richard Schickel. Randone, Micheline Presle, Cristina Gajoni. Would-be novelist Arturo Bandini arrives in Engaging study of scoundrel Mastroianni L.A. in the early 1930s full of ambition, but implicated in a murder, broken by the the reality of day-to-day living smothers his police, proven innocent, with a wry ending. Assassination (1987) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Peinner fire. He can’t even give himself to a woman who might make him happy, a ter Hunt. Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Mexican waitress. Intriguing, handsomely Stephen Elliott, Jan Gan Boyd, Randy made, but unforgivably dreary adaptation of Brooks, Erik Stern, Michael Ansara, James John Fante’s 1939 novel, written by Towne Staley, Kathryn Leigh Scott. Bronson is a as a kind of companion piece to CHISecret Service bodyguard, Ireland the wife NATOWN. [R]쩠 of the President, in this ridiculous, slapdash Aspen Extreme (1993) C-115m. ★1⁄2 D: political thriller with more explosions than Patrick Hasburgh. Paul Gross, Peter Berg, anything else. The First Lady is referred to Finola Hughes, Teri Polo, William Russ, here as One Mama! [PG-13]▼●쩠 Trevor Eve, Martin Kemp, William McNaAssassination Bureau, The (1969-British) mara, Nicolette Scorsese. For two Detroit C-110m. ★★★ D: Basil Dearden. Oliver buddies, the Motown slopes are not enough— Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Curt so it’s off to the Colorado Rockies for sex, Jurgens, Clive Revill. Fun tale based on tragedy, and skiing success amid the lifeJack London story of secret club that elimstyles of the rich and banal. Satisfactory inates unworthy people, until greed more outdoor scenes, but little else beyond jarring than dedication begins to cloud the operalapses in plot continuity. Hollywood Piction. [M]▼●쩠 tures, which opened this a week after Assassination of Jesse James by the CowALIVE, must have gotten a deal on some ard Robert Ford, The (2007) C-160m. ★★1 parkas. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Andrew Dominik. Brad Pitt, Casey ★★★1 Asphalt Jungle, The (1950) 112m. ⁄2 Affleck, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, D: John Huston. Sterling Hayden, Louis Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner, Garret DillaCalhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, hunt, Zooey Deschanel, Michael Parks, Ted Sam Jaffe, John McIntire, Marc Lawrence, Levine, Sam Rockwell, Alison Elliott, James Marilyn Monroe. The plotting of a crime, Carville, Tom Aldredge, Nick Cave. Retelling and the gathering of a gang to pull it off; a of the history leading up to the titular event taut, realistic film full of fine characterizaand the strange relationship between the tions (especially Jaffe, and Monroe in a legendary—and moody—outlaw (Pitt) and memorable bit). A model of its kind, frehis eventual killer (Affleck), who’s consumed quently copied, and remade no less than with hero worship. Well acted, beautifully three times (as THE BADLANDERS, made (with exquisite cinematography by CAIRO, COOL BREEZE). Scripted by Roger Deakins), but crippled by overlength— Ben Maddow and Huston, from a W. R. which is not matched by commensurate charBurnett novel. Also shown in computeracter development or the intended thematic colored version.▼●쩠 insight into the nature (and effects) of myth Asphyx, The (1972-British) C-99m. ★★★ and celebrity. Super 35. [R]쩠 D: Peter Newbrook. Robert Stephens, RobAssassination of Richard Nixon, The (2004-U.S.-Mexican) C-95m. ★★★ D: Niels ert Powell, Jane Lapotaire, Ralph Arliss, Alex Scott. Good fantasy plot has 19thMueller. Sean Penn, Don Cheadle, Jack century scientist Stephens isolating the Thompson, Michael Wincott, Mykelti WilAsphyx, the spirit of death that appears liamson, Naomi Watts, Nick Searcy, Brad around a person’s body at times of immiHenke. Penn is brilliant as Sam Bicke (in nent danger. In so doing, he becomes real life Byck), who channeled his mountimmortal. Lapotaire, who scored internaing frustrations with society into a doomed tionally on stage in Piaf, appears here as attempt to assassinate the President in 1974. Stephens’s daughter. Aka SPIRIT OF THE The saga of a loser, made interesting by DEAD. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼쩠 observational detail in the script (by Mueller Assam Garden, The (1985-British) Cand Kevin Kennedy) and Penn’s incisive 92m. ★★★ D: Mary McMurray. Deborah performance. Thompson is terrific as his Kerr, Madhur Jaffrey, Alec McCowen, Zia bear of a boss; Watts is excellent in a lowMohyeddin, Anton Lesser. Quietly rewardkey turn as Penn’s estranged wife. Coproing drama with Kerr in her best role in duced by Alfonso Cuaro´n, and partly filmed [ 63 ]

in Mexico. Executive producers include AlDarwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin exander Payne and Leonardo DiCaprio. [R] 쩠 West, Tony Burton, Nancy Loomis, Kim Assassination of Trotsky, The (1972Richards, Henry Brandon. A nearly deFrench-Italian-British) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: serted L.A. police station finds itself under Joseph Losey. Richard Burton, Alain Delon, a state of siege by a youth gang in this Romy Schneider, Valentina Cortese. Last riveting thriller, a modern-day paraphrase days of Russian rebel make for uneven of Howard Hawks’ RIO BRAVO. Writermelodrama of hunters and hunted. Burdirector Carpenter also did the eerie music ton’s performance is strong but unconscore for this knockout. Remade in 2005. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 vincing. [R]▼●쩠 Assassination Tango (2003) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) C-109m. ★★ D: Robert Duvall. Robert Duvall, Ruben D: Jean-Franc¸ois Richet. Ethan Hawke, Blades, Kathy Baker, Luciana Pedraza, Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Maria Julio Oscar Mechoso, James Keane, Frank Bello, Jeffrey ‘‘Ja Rule’’ Atkins, Drea de Gio, Frank Cassavetes, Michael Corrente. Matteo, Gabriel Byrne, Brian Dennehy, Matt Hit man from Brooklyn is forced to disrupt Craven, Dorian Harewood, Aisha Hinds, Kim his happy domestic life to travel to ArgenCoates, Currie Graham. On a snowy New tina and carry out an assassination . . . but Year’s Eve an old Detroit police station prewhile he’s waiting for the right moment, pares to shut down, but the storm forces cops he takes up with a sexy tango dancer who to deposit a handful of prisoners there, includintroduces him to her world. Duvall is great ing a local crime boss who just killed an to watch, and so are the tango sequences undercover officer. Violent remake of the (some of them involving real-life masters of lean, mean John Carpenter B movie adds a the art), but the results don’t quite make a variety of plot complications—and with cohesive movie. Pedraza is Duvall’s realeach one, another layer of disbelief. Well life companion. Duvall wrote and coprocrafted but laughable at times. Super 35. duced. [R]▼쩠 [R] ▼쩠 Assassins (1995) C-132m. ★★ D: Richard Assignment, The (1977-Swedish) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mats Arehn. Christopher PlumDonner. Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas, Julianne Moore, Anatoly Davydov. mer, Thomas Hellberg, Carolyn Seymour, World’s number one paid hit man is dogged Fernando Rey, Per Oscarsson, Walter Gotell. at every turn by a young rival. Then he Modest drama of Swedish diplomat sent to (inexplicably) falls in love with a female mediate turbulent political situation in Latin American country.▼ ‘‘mark.’’ Stallone is in good form, but this big-scale action yarn/star vehicle suffers Assignment, The (1997) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: from rampant stupidity. [R]▼●쩠 Christian Duguay. Aidan Quinn, Donald Assault (1971) SEE: In the Devil’s Garden Sutherland, Ben Kingsley, Liliana KomoAssault, The (1986-Dutch) C-149m. ★★★1⁄2 rowska, Ce´line Bonnier, Claudia Ferri, D: Fons Rademakers. Derek de Lint, Marc Vlasta Vrana, Von Flores, Al Waxman. van Uchelen, Monique van de Ven, John Well-directed, violent thriller with Quinn in Kraaykamp, Huub van der Lubbe, Elly a dual role as notorious terrorist Carlos the Weller. A 12-year-old’s family is liquiJackal and a lookalike U.S. naval officer dated in the final days of WW2, and he recruited to participate in an elaborate represses his memories and feelings while scheme to capture the terrorist. Sutherland growing into manhood. Evocative performis the CIA man who is obsessed with nabbing Carlos. [R]▼●쩠 ances and fine direction enhance a story that is both truthful and heartbreaking. Assignment K (1968-British) 97m. ★1⁄2 D: Long, but suspenseful, with many thoughtVal Guest. Stephen Boyd, Camilla Sparv, provoking moments. Screenplay by GeMichael Redgrave, Leo McKern, Jeremy rard Soeteman based on a novel by Harry Kemp, Robert Hoffman. Still another spy Mulisch. Winner of the Best Foreign Landrama—this one a dull story about secret guage Film Oscar. A film not easy to agent’s disillusionment upon discovering forget. [PG]▼ that his girl and seemingly everyone he Assault Force SEE: ffolkes knows is a double agent. Techniscope. Assault of the Rebel Girls SEE: Cuban Assignment: Kill Castro SEE: Cuba Rebel Girls Crossing Assignment Terror (1970-Spanish-GermanAssault on a Queen (1966) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Donohue. Frank Sinatra, Virna Italian) C-86m. BOMB D: Tulio Demicheli. Lisi, Tony Franciosa, Richard Conte, Alf Michael Rennie, Karin Dor, Craig Hill, Kjellin, Errol John, Murray Matheson, RegPaul Naschy, Patty Shepard. Alien invader inald Denny. Sloppy Sinatra vehicle about Rennie revives various earth monsters (inbig heist of H.M.S. Queen Mary’s vault. cluding ersatz Frankenstein, Dracula, and Script by Rod Serling from novel by Jack Mummy) but socially conscious werewolf Finney. Panavision. ▼ (Naschy) helps to combat his evil forces. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) C-90m. Unwatchable stupidity. Aka DRACULA ★★★1⁄2 D: John Carpenter. Austin Stoker, VS. FRANKENSTEIN. Techniscope.▼쩠 [ 64 ]

Assignment to Kill (1968) C-102m. ★★ Carradine, Tom Pace, Joan Patrick, Rafael D: Sheldon Reynolds. Patrick O’Neal, Joan Campos, Tura Satana. Demented Carradine Hackett, John Gielgud, Herbert Lom, Eric creates title monsters in yet another nomiPortman, Peter Van Eyck, Oscar Homolka. nee for worst picture of all time. Script by Private eye checks out shady corporation Mikels and Wayne Rogers (the same). Aka SPACE VAMPIRES. [PG] ▼쩠 in Switzerland in this unrewarding thriller from the writer-director of TV’s Foreign Asylum (1972-British) C-92m. ★★★ D: Intrigue series. Panavision. Roy Ward Baker. Barbara Parkins, Sylvia Assisi Underground, The (1985) C-115m. Syms, Richard Todd, Peter Cushing, Robert ★★ Powell, Barry Morse, Britt Ekland, Herbert D: Alexander Ramati. Ben Cross, James Mason, Irene Papas, Maximilian Schell, Lom, Patrick Magee, Charlotte Rampling. Edmund Purdom, Karl Heinz Hackl, Delia Four fun chillers by Robert Bloch woven Boccardo, Riccardo Cucciolla. Good cast is into puzzle that is solved at the conclusion wasted in this overblown thriller, with a of the fourth tale. Reissued in 1980 as based-on-fact scenario. Cross plays a couraHOUSE OF CRAZIES, trimmed to 86m. [PG]▼●쩠 geous young minister in charge of disguising Jews in Assisi, Italy, during WW2. Mason’s Asylum (2005-British) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: last film. Originally released at 178m. [PG]▼ David Mackenzie. Natasha Richardson, Hugh Associate, The (1996) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bonneville, Marton Csokas, Gus Lewis, Ian Donald Petrie. Whoopi Goldberg, Dianne McKellen, Joss Ackland, Judy Parfitt, Wanda Wiest, Eli Wallach, Tim Daly, Bebe NeuVentham. Psychiatrist’s wife gets involved wirth, Austin Pendleton, Lainie Kazan, Colwith one of her husband’s patients, a prison leen Camp Wilson, Allison Janney. Wall St. inmate who was found guilty of the brutal whiz Whoopi has hit the glass ceiling at her murder of his wife. Uneven melodrama serves company, so she breaks off on her own, but as a fine showcase for Richardson, playing a can’t make it without inventing a white conflicted woman whose emotions begin to male partner. Designed as a comedy, but trump her logic. Csokas, as the object of her laughs are few. Still, it’s an interesting look fatal attraction, does the best he can with a at corporate America and the obstacles and one-dimensional role. The sum of this film’s slights that women and minorities endure. parts don’t add up to a satisfying whole. From Wiest is terrific. Remake of the 1979 French a novel by Patrick McGrath. Arriscope. [R] 쩠 film L’ASSOCIE; based on the novel El As You Desire Me (1932) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Socio. [PG-13]▼●쩠 George Fitzmaurice. Greta Garbo, Melvyn Astronaut Farmer, The (2007) C-104m. Douglas, Erich von Stroheim, Hedda Hop★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Polish. Billy Bob Thornton, per, Owen Moore. OK version of Pirandello Virginia Madsen, Bruce Dern, J. K. Simmons, play about amnesiac (Garbo) returning to husTim Blake Nelson, Max Thieriot, Jon Gries, band she doesn’t really remember. Never as compelling as it should be.▼ Mark Polish, Richard Edson, Sal Lopez. Thornton is ideal as a proud, independentAs You Like It (1936-British) 96m. ★★★ thinking Texas farmer who’s built a rocket D: Paul Czinner. Elisabeth Bergner, Lauin his barn and has convinced himself (and rence Olivier, Sophie Stewart, Henry his loving family) that he’s going to fly into Ainley, Leon Quartermaine, Felix Aylmer. outer space . . . until the U.S. government Olivier is solid (and handsome) as Orlando gets wind of his scheme. Capraesque story in his first attempt at the Bard on celluloid, about a ‘‘little guy’’ who believes in a but Bergner’s Rosalind is more a matter of dream is beautifully rendered; only problem taste. Overall, an enjoyable production of is that the guy in question is nuts! Written this Shakespeare comedy. Kenneth Braby Michael and Mark Polish; the latter plays nagh’s 2006 version debuted in the U.S. on one of the FBI agents on the case, and their cable TV. ▼●쩠 adorable daughters Jasper and Logan play As Young As You Feel (1951) 77m. ★★1⁄2 two of Thornton’s kids. Bruce Willis apD: Harmon Jones. Monty Woolley, Thelma pears unbilled. Panavision. [PG]쩠 Ritter, David Wayne, Jean Peters, ConAstronaut’s Wife, The (1999) C-109m. stance Bennett, Marilyn Monroe, Allyn ★1 ⁄2 D: Rand Ravich. Johnny Depp, CharJoslyn, Albert Dekker. Printing company lize Theron, Joe Morton, Clea DuVall, employee Woolley is ‘‘retired’’ when he Donna Murphy, Nick Cassavetes, Samantha turns 65, and he just won’t sit still for it. Eggar, Gary Grubbs, Blair Brown, Tom Amiable satire of corporate bureaucracy, Noonan. Happily married astronaut has a with a first-rate cast, based on a story by strange experience during a space mission. Paddy Chayefsky.▼쩠 Has he changed somehow, or is it his young Atanarjuat . . . (The Fast Runner) SEE: wife’s imagination? ROSEMARY’S BABY– Fast Runner, The style thriller is just a big tease; sluggish and At Close Range (1986) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: unsatisfying, with an especially stupid fiJames Foley. Sean Penn, Christopher nale. [R]▼●쩠 Walken, Christopher Penn, Mary Stuart Astro-Zombies, The (1967) C-91m. BOMB Masterson, Millie Perkins, Eileen Ryan, D: Ted V. Mikels. Wendell Corey, John Alan Autry, Candy Clark, Tracey Walter, [ 65 ]

David Strathairn, Crispin Glover, Kiefer caster, Susan Sarandon, Kate Reid, Michel Sutherland. Brooding, but curiously unPiccoli, Hollis McLaren, Robert Joy, Al moving, story about teenage half-brothers Waxman, Wally Shawn. Rich character study who first get to know their no-account of a city in transition, focusing on small-time father, and come to realize what a dangerlosers who’ve stayed there too long and bigous person he is. Downbeat drama is marked time dreamers who are just arriving. European by good acting, thoughtful filmmaking, in its ambience and storytelling approach, but emotional impact is muted. Based on a though its setting is an American resort. Lantrue incident. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 caster gives one of his finest performances as At First Sight (1998) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: an aging two-bit hood who’s all style and no Irwin Winkler. Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, substance. Screenplay by John Guare. [R] Kelly McGillis, Steven Weber, Bruce Davi▼●쩠 son, Nathan Lane, Ken Howard, Diana Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: George Pal. Anthony Hall, Krall. Driven N.Y.C. career woman falls in love with a self-reliant blind man. Then she Joyce Taylor, John Dall, Frank de Kova. finds a doctor who can restore his sight— Famed sci-fi producer George Pal’s worst but is this necessarily a good thing? Overtly film is set on the island of Atlantis, in the soapy romantic drama doesn’t pretend to be time of ancient Greece. Heroic young anything but what it is, and the stars are fisherman becomes involved in tedious inlikable . . . but it goes on too long. Based on trigue before, finally, the place sinks. Lots a true story chronicled by Dr. Oliver Sacks of stock footage, poor effects. Occasionally funny—but not on purpose. ▼● (AWAKENINGS). Having a George Shearing cut on the soundtrack is a nice touch. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) C-95m. ★★★ [PG-13]▼●쩠 D: Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale. Voices of Athena (1954) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Michael J. Fox, James Garner, Cree Summer, Thorpe. Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds, Leonard Nimoy, Don Novello, Claudia ChrisEdmund Purdom, Vic Damone, Louis Caltian, Jacqueline Obradors, John Mahoney, hern, Evelyn Varden, Steve Reeves, Linda Corey Burton, David Ogden Stiers, Jim VarChristian. Back Bay lawyer (Purdom) and ney. Good, old-fashioned animated-fantasy/ singer (Damone) romance two sisters livadventure yarn about a young dreamer who ing with eccentric grandparents. Wispy tries to make good his father’s attempts to plot, average tunes.▼● find the lost underwater city of Atlantis and ATL (2006) C-105m. ★★ D: Chris Roblocate the key to its advanced civilization. inson. Tip Harris, Lauren London, Antwan Styled like a comic book, this Disney feaAndre Patton (Big Boi), Mykelti Williamture got a bum rap in theaters; it’s good son, Keith David, Lonette McKee, Evan family entertainment. Followed by a directRoss, Lauren Leah Mitchell. Another film to-video sequel. Digital Widescreen. [PG] about skatin’ in the hood (after ROLL ▼쩠 BOUNCE), featuring Harris, better known Atlas (1961) C-80m. ★★ D: Roger Corman. as recording star T.I. Pretends to be a Michael Forest, Frank Wolff, Barboura coming-of-age story about young people Morris, Walter Maslow, Christos Exartrying to make it out of the ghetto, but takes chos. Praximedes convinces Olympic itself way too seriously. It’s clear the champion Atlas to represent him in battle, screenwriters aren’t channeling Hebut Atlas eventually fights for the common mingway, and when one girl tells a boy, folk. Slightly hilarious low-budget nonsense, filmed in Greece. VistaScope. ▼쩠 ‘‘I’ve seen you skate and that’s all I need to know about a man,’’ we know we’re in for At Long Last Love (1975) C-118m. ★1⁄2 a long sit. From a story by Antwone Fisher D: Peter Bogdanovich. Burt Reynolds, (yes, that Antwone Fisher). Coproduced by Cybill Shepherd, Madeline Kahn, Duilio Will Smith. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Del Prete, Eileen Brennan, John Hillerman, Atlantic City (1944) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray Mildred Natwick. Burt and Cybill are no McCarey. Brad Taylor (Stanley Brown), Fred and Ginger. Bogdanovich’s homage Constance Moore, Charley Grapewin, Jerry to 1930s Hollywood musicals has everyColonna, Adele Mara, Paul Whiteman & thing money can buy—including lavish Orchestra, Louis Armstrong & Orchestra, sets and a Cole Porter score—but lacks the Buck and Bubbles, Belle Baker, Dorothy proper stars to put it over. Reedited (and Dandridge, Joe Frisco. Plethora of good ostensibly improved) for TV by the direcmusical numbers compensates for unoriginal tor; that version runs 115m. [G] plot about promoter who turns the Atlantic Atoll K SEE: Utopia Atomic Cafe, The (1982) 88m. ★★★ D: City pier into ‘‘the playground of America,’’ starting pre-WW1. Taylor, who took his Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader, Pierce name from this (he was Stanley Brown at Rafferty. Consistently chilling, occasionColumbia), and Moore are Republic Pically hilarious, arguably monotonal compitures’ John Payne–Alice Faye counterparts. lation of U.S. government and ‘‘educaAtlantic City (1980-Canadian-French) tional’’ propaganda shows how Americans C-104m. ★★★★ D: Louis Malle. Burt Lanof the 1950s Learned to Stop Worrying [ 66 ]

and Love the Bomb. One-of-a-kind is unBerenger, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Bates, John deniably provocative, to say nothing of Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Tom Waits, Stenio topical, but argues its point a little longer Garcia, Nelson Xavier. Long, at first lumthan necessary.▼쩠 bering, but ultimately powerful rainforest Atomic Submarine, The (1959) 72m. ★★ epic of two Protestant missionaries (one a D: Spencer Bennet. Arthur Franz, Dick charlatan, one sincere) who end up doing Foran, Brett Halsey, Tom Conway, Bob about equal damage to the jungle Indians Steele, Victor Varconi, Joi Lansing. Title they are supposed to serve. Faithful, wellsub investigates mysterious goings-on in the cast film of Peter Matthiessen’s great Arctic Circle. The culprit is an underwater (though admittedly difficult) novel; pace flying saucer piloted by an alien! Typical picks up a lot in the second half, leading to memorable finale. [R]▼● Alex Gordon production, boasting lots of familiar character actors, is appealing and Atragon (1963-Japanese) 96m. ★★ D: atmospheric. Mainly for buffs.▼●쩠 Ishiro Honda. Tadao Takashima, Yoko Atonement (2007-British-U.S.) C-123m. Fujiyama, Yu Fujiki, Horisho Koizumi. ★★ World is threatened by undersea kingdom D: Joe Wright. James McAvoy, Keira Knightley, Romola Garai, Saoirse Ronan, in this juvenile sci-fi adventure, with enVanessa Redgrave, Brenda Blethyn, Juno joyable (if not believable) special effects. Temple, Patrick Kennedy, Benedict CumTitle refers to giant submarine rather than a monster. Tohoscope.쩠 berbatch, Harriet Walter, Gina McKee. In the 1930s, spoiled young woman (Knightley) At Sword’s Point (1952) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: who has grown up in one of England’s stately Lewis Allen. Cornel Wilde, Maureen homes tries to deny her attraction to the O’Hara, Robert Douglas, Dan O’Herlihy, housekeeper’s son (McAvoy); when she fiAlan Hale, Jr., Blanche Yurka. Silly but liknally gives in, it triggers great resentment in able variation on THE THREE MUSKEher younger sister (Ronan), who goes in for TEERS, with Wilde, O’Herlihy, Hale, and theatrics, and alters the course of McAvoy’s O’Hara playing the sons and daughter of the life. Handsome but portentous adaptation of original Musketeers. Energetic cast, vivid Ian McEwan’s novel (by Christopher HampTechnicolor settings.▼● ton) never delivers the emotional impact it Attack (1956) 107m. ★★★ D: Robert Alshould, given its intriguing premise. Oscar drich. Jack Palance, Eddie Albert, Lee winner for Dario Marianelli’s score. The inMarvin, Robert Strauss, Richard Jaeckel, terviewer in the final scene is played by Buddy Ebsen, William Smithers. Reenactfilmmaker Anthony Minghella. [R]쩠 ment of the Battle of the Bulge, emphasizAtonement of Gosta Berling, The (1924ing a group of American soldiers ‘‘led’’ by Swedish) 91m. ★★★ D: Mauritz Stiller. cowardly captain Albert; tightly directed, Lars Hanson, Greta Garbo, Ellen Cederavoids war movie cliche´s. ▼●쩠 strom, Mona Martenson, Jenny Hasselquist, Attack Force Z (1981-Australian-Taiwanese) Gerda Lundequist. Memorable drama, from C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim Burstall. John Phillip the Selma Lagerlof novel, about a defrocked Law, Sam Neill, Mel Gibson, Chris Haypriest (Hanson) and his love for a young wood, John Waters. Taut little war drama: married woman (a pleasingly plump Garbo, commandos set out to rescue survivors of a in the role which brought her to world plane crash on a Japanese-held island during WW2.▼쩠 attention). Stiller was, of course, Garbo’s discoverer and mentor. Several longer verAttack of the Crab Monsters (1957) 63m. ★★ sions run between 105m. and 165m. Aka D: Roger Corman. Richard Garland, GOSTA BERLING’S SAGA, THE SAGA Pamela Duncan, Russell Johnson, Leslie OF GOSTA BERLING, THE LEGEND Bradley, Mel Welles, Ed Nelson. People OF GOSTA BERLING, and THE STORY are trapped on a shrinking island by intelliOF GOSTA BERLING.▼쩠 gent, brain-eating giant crabs. Interesting Ator, the Fighting Eagle (1983) C-100m. early Corman thriller is hampered by a low BOMB D: David Hills. Miles O’Keeffe, budget—and some very silly monsters— Sabrina Siani, Ritza Brown, Edmund but Charles B. Griffith’s script has many ingenious ideas.▼쩠 Purdom, Laura Gemser. Ridiculous Italianmade imitation of CONAN THE BARAttack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) BARIAN has muscular O’Keeffe as the 66m. BOMB D: Nathan Hertz (Juran). Allimythical title warrior, with beautiful blonde son Hayes, William Hudson, Yvette VickSiani along for the ride on his trek against ers, Roy Gordon. A harridan with a evil. Followed by two sequels: THE philandering husband has an alien encounBLADE MASTER and ATOR III: THE ter and grows to mammoth proportions, FIGHTING EAGLE aka QUEST FOR seeks revenge on hubby. Hilariously awful THE MIGHTY SWORD. [PG]▼쩠 sci-fi with some of the funniest special efAtor the Invincible SEE: Blade Master, fects of all time. Remade for TV in 1993 with Daryl Hannah.▼●쩠 The At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991) Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1980) C-187m. ★★★ D: Hector Babenco. Tom C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: John De Bello. David Miller, [ 67 ]

Sharon Taylor, George Wilson, Jack Riley, Rock Peace, The San Diego Chicken. Title and opening credits are the funniestthings in this low-budget spoof of low-budget sciencefiction, which cracks its one joke and then beats it to death for another 85 minutes. A staple at Worst Film Festivals, but nowhere nearly as hilarious as movies that aren’t supposed to be. Followed by RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES!, KILLER TOMATOES STRIKE BACK, KILLER TOMATOES EAT FRANCE!, and an animated TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 Attack of the Puppet People (1958) 78m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Bert I. Gordon. John Agar, John Hoyt, June Kenney, Scott Peters. Lowclass shocker about mad dollmaker who shrinks people; good performance by Hoyt, otherwise predictable and amateurish.▼쩠 Attack of the Rebel Girls SEE: Cuban Rebel Girls Attention Bandits SEE: Bandits (1986) At the Circus (1939) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Buzzell. Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Eve Arden, Nat Pendleton, Kenny Baker, Fritz Feld, Florence Rice. Not top-grade Marx Brothers, but some good scenes as they save circus from bankruptcy. Highlight: Groucho singing ‘‘Lydia the Tattooed Lady.’’▼●쩠 At the Earth’s Core (1976-British) C-90m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Kevin Connor. Doug McClure, Peter Cushing, Caroline Munro, Cy Grant, Godfrey James, Sean Lynch. Colorful fantasy-adventure based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel. Inventor Cushing and prote´ge´ McClure bore their way from Victorian England to the center of the earth and encounter a lost world of prehistoric beasts and subhuman warriors. Competent special effects make this yarn palatable. [PG]▼쩠 Attic, The (1979) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Edwards. Carrie Snodgress, Ray Milland, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth Cox, Francis Bay, Marjorie Eaton. Good cast helps this psychological thriller about a sheltered spinster’s revolt against her tyrannical invalid father. A notch or two above routine. [PG]

Beck are happily married couple until a stranger (Hopkins) tells them that their 12-year-old girl is his dead daughter returned to life. Script by Frank DeFelitta, from his novel. [PG]▼쩠 Auggie Rose (2001) C-108m. ★★ D: Matthew Tabak. Jeff Goldblum, Anne Heche, Nancy Travis, Timothy Olyphant, Joe Santos, Richard T. Jones, Kim Coates. A slick yuppie insurance salesman (Goldblum) drops out of the game and assumes the identity of an ex-con he saw shot to death. He feels so obliged to pay the man tribute that he seeks out and falls in love with his sweet prison pen pal (Heche). Begins like a good short story, but becomes contrived and preachy about the nobility of the working class. Debuted in the U.S. on cable TV. Aka BEYOND SUSPICION. [R] ▼쩠 August (1996-British) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins, Kate Burton, Gawn Grainger, Rhian Morgan, Rhoda Lewis. Uncle Vanya comes to Wales in yet another version of the oft-adapted Chekhov play, with real-life Welshman Hopkins (in his directorial debut) misdirecting himself in the lead. Boring rendition with inaccessible characters about whom we do not care. Incidentally, Hopkins also composed the score. [PG]▼● August Rush (2007) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Kirsten Sheridan. Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Terrence Howard, Robin Williams, William Sadler, Marian Seldes, Leon G. Thomas III, Mykelti Williamson, Alex O’Loughlin. Treacly fable of orphan Highmore’s trek to find out where, and to whom, he may belong. Set mainly in N.Y.C., film is flooded with music of many types, since the boy is a prodigy. (It was a chance meeting between cellist Russell and Irish rocker Meyers that led to his birth—and his gift—in the first place.) The less said about Williams’ new-millennium rendition of Dickens’ Fagin the better. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Au Hasard Balthazar (1966-French-Swedish) 95m. ★★★ D: Robert Bresson. Anne Wiazemsky, Franc¸ois Lafarge, Philippe Asselin, Nathalie Joyaut, Walter Green. The sad, cruel ▼쩠 Attila (1954-Italian-French) C-83m. ★1⁄2 life and death of a donkey that passes from D: Pietro Francisci. Anthony Quinn, Soowner to owner is used as a symbol for all phia Loren, Henri Vidal, Irene Papas. Inthe misery and inhumanity in the world in ept spectacle with ridiculous script of Attila this stark and poetic allegory. Bresson also readying to conquer Rome.▼쩠 explores crime, adolescence, and family life At War with the Army (1950) 93m. ★★1⁄2 with customary sensitivity and subtlety.쩠 D: Hal Walker. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Auntie Mame (1958) C-143m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Polly Bergen, Angela Greene, Mike Kellin. Morton DaCosta. Rosalind Russell, ForIn their first starring feature, Dean and rest Tucker, Coral Browne, Fred Clark, Jerry are in the service, with some funny Roger Smith, Patric Knowles, Peggy Cass, sequences, including memorable soda maJoanna Barnes, Pippa Scott, Lee Patrick, chine gag.▼●쩠 Willard Waterman, Connie Gilchrist, Robin Audrey Rose (1977) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hughes, Jan Handzlik. Colorful film version Robert Wise. Marsha Mason, John Beck, of Patrick Dennis’ novel about his eccentric Anthony Hopkins, Susan Swift, Norman aunt, who believes that ‘‘life is a banquet, Lloyd, John Hillerman. Overlong, underand most poor suckers are starving to played reincarnation thriller. Mason and death.’’ Episodic but highly entertaining, [ 68 ]

sparked by Russell’s tour-de-force perforand Tom Arnold appear in unfunny cameos. mance. Betty Comden–Adolph Green script Coproduced by Demi Moore. Followed by was adapted from the Jerome Lawrence–two sequels. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Robert E. Lee Broadway play. Musicalized Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me as MAME. Technirama. ▼●쩠 (1999) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jay Roach. Mike Au Revoir, Les Enfants (1987-French) Myers, Heather Graham, Rob Lowe, Michael York, Elizabeth Hurley, Robert Wagner, Gia C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejto, Francine Racette, Carides, Seth Green, Verne Troyer, Mindy Stanislas Carre de Malberg, Philippe MorierSterling, Kristen Johnson, Will Ferrell, Fred Genoud, Francois Berleand, Ire`ne Jacob. Willard, Charles Napier. More swingin’ ’60s Deeply felt film based on an incident from lunacy as Dr. Evil returns to Earth with a Malle’s youth, during WW2, when the time-travel machine and goes back to 1969 headmaster of his Catholic boarding school to steal Austin’s mojo. More laughs than the decided to shield several Jewish children original—and more than enough gross-out in the midst of Nazi-occupied France. Filled gags—though it’s still spotty. Several star with telling details, the story unfolds at a cameos, though Troyer, as Mini-Me, steals deliberate pace, leading up to an emotionthe film. Myers cowrote and coproduced. Folally devastating finale. [PG]▼●쩠 lowed by AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDAurora Borealis (2006) C-110m. ★★★ D: MEMBER. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 James Burke. Joshua Jackson, Donald SuthAustralia (2008-Australian-U.S.-British) Cerland, Juliette Lewis, Louise Fletcher, 165m. ★★★ D: Baz Luhrmann. Nicole KidZack Ward, John Kapelos, Steven Pasquale, man, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Jack Tyler Labine. At 25, Jackson is still acting Thompson, Bryan Brown, David Gulpilil, like an adolescent, hanging out with his old Brandon Walters, David Ngoombujarra, Ben pals and screwing up one dead-end job after Mendelsohn, Essie Davis, Barry Otto, Kerry another . . . until his brother nudges him to Walker. Long, sprawling, deliberately oldvisit their grandfather, who’s suffering from fashioned romantic drama is also designed as Parkinson’s disease. His fondness for the a tribute to Australia. Britisher Kidman travold man—and the cute visiting nurse els there in 1939 to settle her husband’s estate (Lewis) who takes care of him—inspires and winds up staying, determined to make him to get his act together, as best he can. something of his barren ranch with the help Sutherland is terrific in a showy part, but of a cattle drover (Jackman) who refuses to Jackson and Lewis are also quite good in settle down. She also adopts an aboriginal this sincere, well-written film set in snowy boy (Walters) to save him from being rounded Minneapolis. Made in 2004. [R]쩠 up by the government. If you’re looking for Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) Csubtlety, look elsewhere—but it is entertain94m. ★★ D: Jay Roach. Mike Myers, Beying. Cast is filled with Aussie icons, including once´ Knowles, Michael Caine, Seth Green, Thompson, Brown, and Gulpilil. Super 35. Michael York, Robert Wagner, Mindy Ster[PG-13]쩠 ling, Verne Troyer, Fred Savage. Third outAuthor! Author! (1982) C-110m. ★★★ ing for the shagadelic spy opens with such a D: Arthur Hiller. Al Pacino, Dyan Cannon, hilarious, surprising sequence that nothing Tuesday Weld, Eric Gurry, Alan King, can top it—and nothing does. No real story Bob Dishy, Bob Elliott, Ray Goulding, follows, as Austin travels to 1975 and hooks Andre Gregory, Ari Meyers. Pacino’s flaky up with Foxxy Cleopatra (pop singer wife walks out on him and their kids Knowles). The novelty of seeing Dr. Evil (most from her previous marriages) just as and Mini-Me is gone, Myers’ new Goldhis play is about to open on Broadway. member character (sporting a Dutch accent) Slight but winning little comedy; likable is more odd than funny; what’s left are a lot performances all around. Written by playwright Israel Horovitz. [PG]▼쩠 of really crude jokes and missed opportunities. Worst of all, Caine is wasted as AusAutobiography of a Princess (1975-British) tin’s dad. Lots of stars appear in cameos. C-60m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Ivory. James MaSuper 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 son, Madhur Jaffrey, Keith Varnier, Diane Austin Powers: International Man of Fletcher, Timothy Bateson. Uneven (but not uninteresting) little film about an exMystery (1997) C-89m. ★★ D: Jay Roach. Mike Myers, Elizabeth Hurley, Michael iled Indian princess (Jaffrey) and an EnglishYork, Mimi Rogers, Robert Wagner, Seth man (Mason), who come together once a Green, Fabiana Udenio, Charles Napier, year to sip tea and watch home movies of Will Ferrell. Swinging ’60s spy is cryogenitheir life in feudal India. Notable as a look cally frozen, then thawed out in the ’90s to at a time and place that no longer exist, but do battle with megalomaniac Dr. Evil—but too often bogged down in talk. Scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.▼●쩠 he can’t quite shake his mod ’60s style or argot (‘‘Groovy, baby!’’). Myers (who also Auto Focus (2002) C-104m. ★★★ D: Paul wrote and coproduced) is fun, especially as Schrader. Greg Kinnear, Willem Dafoe, Dr. Evil, but this one-joke premise is Rita Wilson, Maria Bello, Ron Leibman, stretched far beyond its limits. Carrie Fisher Kurt Fuller, Ed Begley, Jr., Michael Rod[ 69 ]

gers, Michael McKean. Kinnear gives an the paper and ‘‘auditions’’ a proper suitor. excellent performance as clean-cut radioMeanwhile, the younger generation gets inhost-turned-1960s-TV-star Bob Crane, of volved providing comic complications. This Hogan’s Heroes fame, whose life, career, is Rohmer at his best; glorious fun with a and happy marriage fall apart as he becomes most appealing cast. [PG]▼ literally addicted to sex. His pimp/partner in Avalanche (1978) C-91m. ★★ D: Corey these escapades (Dafoe) also contributes to Allen. Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow, Robert his decline by getting him hooked on the Forster, Jeanette Nolan, Rick Moses, Barry new technology of home video, which only Primus. Disaster at the newly opened ski fuels his obsession. A well-told story of one resort where hard-driving tycoon Hudson man’s ruination, although it’s not clear what is determined to double his not insubstanthe moral (if any) may be. [R]▼쩠 tial investment while his ex-wife Mia is makAutumn Afternoon, An (1962-Japanese) ing whoopee with one of the locals champi★★★ C-115m. oning ecology. Stodgy performances almost D: Yasujiro Ozu. Chishu Ryu, Shima Iwashita, Shinichiro Mikami, Keiji outweighed by special effects. [PG]▼쩠 Sada, Mariko Okada. Contemplative study of Avalanche Express (1979) C-88m. BOMB loneliness and the fleeting nature of life, about D: Mark Robson. Lee Marvin, Robert Shaw, a middle-class widower (Ryu) who dutifully Linda Evans, Maximilian Schell, Joe arranges the marriage of his daughter. A series Namath, Mike Connors, Horst Buchholz. of subplots focus on various characters who KGB head Shaw tries to defect on a Dutch are in some way connected to the nuptials. train that’s threatened by lots and lots of Ozu’s final film.▼쩠 falling snow. Cast has enough stiffs in it to Autumn Hearts: A New Beginning SEE: resemble audition time at the Hollywood Emotional Arithmetic Wax Museum. Sadly, final film for both Autumn in New York (2000) C-105m. ★★ Shaw and director Robson; in fact, most of D: Joan Chen. Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Shaw’s dialogue had to be dubbed by a Anthony LaPaglia, Elaine Stritch, Vera Farmimic. Panavision. [PG]▼ miga, Sherry Stringfield, Jill Hennessy, Mary Avalon (1990) C-126m. ★★★ D: Barry LevBeth Hurt, J. K. Simmons. Cornball Mayinson. Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth Perkins, Armin December soaper in which a womanizing, Mueller-Stahl, Joan Plowright, Lou Jacobi, 48-year-old restaurateur (Gere) falls for a Leo Fuchs, Eve Gordon, Kevin Pollak, Israel gravely ill, Emily Dickinson–loving 21Rubinek, Elijah Wood, Grant Gelt, Bernard year-old hat designer (Ryder). Some interHiller. Deeply felt, personal story by writeresting supporting characters liven this up, director Levinson of an immigrant’s life and and the cinematography (by Changwei Gu) times in Baltimore, and the changes the years is lovely, but Gere and Ryder lack chemisbring to his large and boisterous family. Long, try; it’s a wonder they could read some of deliberately paced, and not always successful, their lines with a straight face. [PG-13]▼쩠 but filled with telling moments and loving viAutumn Leaves (1956) 108m. ★★1⁄2 D: sual reminders of a way of life that’s disapRobert Aldrich. Joan Crawford, Cliff Robpeared from our midst. The third of Levinson’s ertson, Vera Miles, Lorne Greene. MiddleBaltimore chronicles, following DINER and aged typist marries younger man (Robertson), TIN MEN. Melancholy and evocative score only to discover he is mentally disturbed and by Randy Newman. [PG]▼●쩠 already married. Stalwart performance by Avalon (2001-Japanese-Polish) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mamoru Oshii. Malgorzata Foremniak, Crawford as troubled woman.▼ Autumn Sonata (1978-Swedish) C-97m. Wladyslaw Kowalski, Jerzy Gudejko, Dariusz ★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Ingrid Bergman, Biskupski, Bartek Swiderski, Katarzyna BarLiv Ullmann, Lena Nyman, Halvar Bjork, gielowska. Video gamers zap between vibrant Gunnar Bjornstrand. Ingrid, a famed conillusion and grim reality as they earn their livcert pianist, locks horns with daughter ings and risk true death to win entrance to a Ullmann when they visit for the first time hallowed heroes’ hall. Made by an Asian crew in seven years. Director Bergman’s drama on the WW2-blasted terrain of Eastern Europe, is full of de´ja` vu, but Ingrid (in her final this bleak techno-blitz—alternately mesmeriztheatrical film) keeps it on the track most ing and boring—unspools like Andrzej of the time. Sven Nykvist’s photography is Wajda directing TRON. [R]▼쩠 peerless. [PG]▼●쩠 Avanti! (1972) C-144m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Billy Autumn Tale (1998-French) C-112m. Wilder. Jack Lemmon, Juliet Mills, Clive ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Marie Rivie ` re, Be´Revill, Edward Andrews, Gianfranco Barra, atrice Romand, Alain Libolt, Didier Sandre, Franco Angrisano. Sadly underrated comAlexia Portal, Ste´phane Darmon. Delicious edy about stuffy Baltimore millionaire who adult comedy dealing with two lifelong fefalls in love with daughter of his late male friends, now in their 40s: one is hapfather’s mistress when he comes to Italy to pily married and would like to see her friend claim the old man’s body. Closer to LOVE (a moody, independent vineyard owner) setIN THE AFTERNOON than Wilder’s satle down, so she places a personals ad in tirical comedies; lovely scenery, wonder[ 70 ]

ful performances by all, especially Revill the middle of some 1928 nowhere with as crafty hotel manager. [R]▼●쩠 whiny adolescent Arquette. Dull Ernest Avengers, The (1998) C-89m. ★★ D: JereGann story barely made it (and understandmiah Chechik. Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurably so) to theaters; director is the MAN man, Sean Connery, Jim Broadbent, Fiona FROM SNOWY RIVER—not MAD MAX—George Miller. [PG]▼쩠 Shaw, Eddie Izzard, Eileen Atkins, John Wood. Retread of the popular British TV Aviator, The (2004) C-170m. ★★★1⁄2 D: show of the ’60s about two saucy secret Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate agents tries in vain to capture its stylishness Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, John C. Reilly, and insouciance—but Fiennes is woefully Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda, Ian Holm, Danny miscast, Connery gives a one-note perforHuston, Gwen Stefani, Jude Law, Adam mance as a bad guy who wants to control Scott, Matt Ross, Kelli Garner, Brent Spiner, the earth’s weather, and a fine supporting Edward Herrmann, Willem Dafoe. Audacious cast is wasted. Thurman is likable enough, screen bio of Howard Hughes, the billionaire but the film is utterly flat. Patrick Macnee, who sets out to conquer Hollywood (and as star of the original series, has an amusing many of its glamorous actresses as possible) voice-only cameo. [PG-13)▼●쩠 but makes his real mark in the world of Avenging Angel (1985) C-93m. BOMB D: aircraft. Along the way he is dogged by Robert Vincent O’Neil. Betsy Russell, Rory deafness, a belief that he’s losing his mind, Calhoun, Susan Tyrrell, Robert F. Lyons, and hounding from a crooked senator. John Ossie Davis, Barry Pearl. Ex–teen prostiLogan’s script wisely focuses on a specific tute, now college material, recruits pal Calperiod of Hughes’ life (the 1920s through houn (still acting like the valedictorian at the 1940s), and doesn’t pretend to be literal. the Gabby Hayes Academy of Dramatic Arts) Scorsese stages it in grand fashion, replicatand takes to the street as an undercover cop. ing two-color, then three-strip, Technicolor, Follow-up to ANGEL proves conclusively and using all forms of movie magic, with that HEAVEN’S GATE is the only ’80s film the help of cinematographer Robert Richthat can’t rate a sequel. Followed by ANGEL ardson, production designer Dante Ferretti, III: THE FINAL CHAPTER. [R]▼●쩠 set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo, cos1 ★★ Avenging Force (1986) C-103m. tume designer Sandy Powell, and editor ⁄2 D: Sam Firstenberg. Michael Dudikoff, Steve Thelma Schoonmaker, who all won Oscars. James, John P. Ryan, James Booth, Bill DiCaprio is remarkably persuasive as the Wallace, Karl Johnson. Dudikoff is retired iron-willed aviator; Blanchett is great fun in secret agent Matt Hunter, who’s forced an Oscar-winning turn as Katharine Hepinto action when his one-time comrade burn. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 (James), a black man running for office, is Aviator’s Wife, The (1981-French) Cthreatened by a right-wing terrorist group 104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Philippe called Pentangle. A cut above the norm Marlaud, Marie Riviere, Anne-Laure Meury, for the action/revenge genre, with exciting Matthieu Carriere. Melancholy but charmclimax, and a truly heinous villain (well ing story of young man’s unhappy involveplayed by Ryan). Screenwriter James Booth ment with title character being interrupted also plays Dudikoff’s former boss. [R]▼● by happy encounter with stranger in the Avenging Spirit SEE: Dominique park. Lovers of MAUD, CLAIRE, and Avenue Montaigne (2006-French) C-106m. CHLOE will be happy to find Rohmer in ★★★ D: Danie`le Thompson. Ce´cile de France, near-peak form after long layoff. [PG]▼쩠 Vale´rie Lemercier, Claude Brasseur, Dani, AVP: Alien vs. Predator SEE: Alien vs. Albert Dupontel, Laura Morante, Sydney PolPredator Awake (2007) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Joby Harold. lack, Suzanne Flon. Sweet, naı¨ve young woman (de France) comes to Paris and lands Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence a job at a popular bar situated near a theater, Howard, Lena Olin, Christopher McDonconcert hall, and auction house. Before long ald, Sam Robards, Arliss Howard, Fisher she finds herself involved with a famous acStevens, Denis O’Hare, Georgina Chapman. tress, a classical pianist, and a wealthy man Real-life condition of ‘‘anesthetic awarewho’s selling off his life’s collection of art. ness’’ is used to concoct a preposterous story These characters face very real crises—but in which a patient becomes alarmed at what somehow you know it’s all going to turn out he hears while undergoing open-heart surfine. Light and charming; Thompson’s son gery and must find a way to wake himself Christopher cowrote the script with her and up. Bigger problem for the filmmakers is costars as the son of the art collector. Original finding a way to keep the audience awake. Super 35. [R]쩠 French title FAUTEUILS D’ORCHESTRE. Awakening, The (1980) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Aviator, The (1985) C-98m. ★★ D: George Mike Newell. Charlton Heston, Susannah Miller. Christopher Reeve, Rosanna ArYork, Jill Townsend, Stephanie Zimbalist. quette, Jack Warden, Sam Wanamaker, Archeologist Heston enters the tomb of Scott Wilson, Tyne Daly, Marcia StrassEgyptian Queen Kara, whose spirit enters man. Pioneer pilot Reeve crash-lands in the body of his newborn daughter. Need [ 71 ]

we continue? From a novel by Bram Charles Wood, who cowrote HELP! for the Stoker, filmed before as BLOOD FROM Beatles. The photography—more stylized THE MUMMY’S TOMB. [R]▼● bleakness from NAKED’s Dick Pope—is a plus. [R]▼●쩠 Awakenings (1990) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Penny Marshall. Robert De Niro, Robin Awful Truth, The (1937) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Williams, Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Leo McCarey. Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, Max von Ralph Bellamy, Cecil Cunningham, Mary Sydow, Alice Drummond, Mary Alice, Forbes, Alex D’Arcy, Joyce Compton, Molly Anne Meara, Richard Libertini, Dexter Lamont. Hilarious screwball comedy; Cary Gordon. Powerfully affecting true-life story and Irene divorce, she to marry hayseed Belof a painfully shy research doctor who lamy, he to wed aristocratic Lamont. Each takes a job at a Bronx hospital’s chronic does his best to spoil the other’s plans. care ward in 1969—and discovers that his McCarey won an Oscar for his inspired direccomatose patients still have life inside them. tion. Screenplay by Vina Delmar. Based on a Williams is superb as the doctor, and De Niro play by Arthur Richman previously filmed in is his match as a patient who awakens from a 1925 and 1929; remade in 1953 as the musi30-year coma to deal with life as an adult for cal LET’S DO IT AGAIN.▼●쩠 the first time. Steven Zaillian’s screenplay is A.W.O.L. SEE: Lionheart (1991) based on the book by (and experiences of) Dr. Ay, Carmela! (1990-Spanish) C-103m. ★★★1 Oliver Sacks. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Carlos Saura. Carmen Maura, Away All Boats (1956) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andres Pajares, Gabino Diego, Maurizio Joseph Pevney. Jeff Chandler, George di Razza, Miguel A. Rellan. Maura shines Nader, Julie Adams, Lex Barker, Keith in this clever, rapier-witted farce as a vaudeAndes, Richard Boone, David Janssen. villian who entertains the partisans during Strict, aloof captain Chandler must ignite the Spanish Civil War. Then she, her husspark of fighting spirit among inexperiband, and their mute assistant find themenced crew aboard WW2 attack transport selves trapped behind enemy lines. Both funny and poignant. ▼● Belinda. Exciting, inspiring story of battle action in Pacific Theater. Look fast for Ayn Rand—A Sense of Life (1998) C/B&W-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Paxton. Clint Eastwood as a medical orderly near film’s end. VistaVision. ▼쩠 Narrated by Sharon Gless. Examination of Away From Her (2007-Canadian) C-110m. the popular author, screenwriter, and philos★★★ D: Sarah Polley. Julie Christie, Gordon opher, tracing her historic roots in the SoPinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Wendy Crewson, viet Union, her years in Hollywood, her talk Michael Murphy, Kristen Thomson, Alberta show appearances expounding her controWatson. After 44 years of marriage, a couple versial theories of Objectivism and individrecognizes that the wife is displaying early ual rights, and her testimony before the signs of Alzheimer’s disease and makes plans House Un-American Activities Committee. to move her to an extended-care facility. As Also incorporates dramatizations of her difficult as this is for her, it’s devastating to works and sequences illustrating her life. him, especially when he sees her developing Too long—and pedantic—for some viewers, but a must for Rand enthusiasts.▼쩠 an attachment to another patient. Intelligent, empathetic film eschews sentimentality as the characters take this difficult journey. RemarkBaadasssss! (2004) C-108m. ★★★ D: Mario able first feature for actress Polley, who Van Peebles. Mario Van Peebles, Joy Bryadapted Alice Munro’s New Yorker short ant, Terry Crews, Ossie Davis, David Alan story ‘‘The Bear Came Over the Mountain.’’ Grier, Nia Long, Saul Rubinek, Rainn WilThe cast couldn’t be better, but Christie is son, T. K. Carter, Paul Rodriguez, Vincent especially good. [PG-13]쩠 Schiavelli, Khleo Thomas, Len Lesser, Awful Dr. Orloff, The (1961-Spanish) Sally Struthers, Adam West, Glenn Plum95m. ★★ D: Jess Franco. Howard Vernon, mer. After his first taste of Hollywood sucConrado Sanmartin, Diana Lorys, Ricardo cess in the early 1970s, Melvin Van Peebles Valle, Perla Cristal. Medium spooker about decides to make an uncompromising film deranged surgeon operating on a series of from a black man’s point of view (SWEET women, trying to find spare parts to reviSWEETBACK’S BAAD ASSSSS SONG) talize his disfigured daughter. A long, disand has to use guerrilla tactics to get the jointed Orloff series followed.▼쩠 job done. He spares no one along the way, Awfully Big Adventure, An (1995-Britishincluding his young son Mario. The younger ★★1 Irish) C-101m. Van Peebles gives a great performance as his ⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Georgina Cates, Rita father and makes us feel as if we’re eyewitTushingham, Peter Firth, Alan Cox, Prunesses to this incredible true story. Filmmaker nella Scales. Unfocused though rarely borJohn Singleton appears as a disc jockey; Troy ing drama about a capriciously cruel stage Garity appears unbilled. [R] ▼쩠 director who browbeats a Liverpool rep Babar The Movie (1989-Canadian-French) company in the late 1940s. The screenplay, C-70m. ★★★ D: Alan Bunce. Voices of from Beryl Bainbridge’s novel, is by Gordon Pinsent, Gavin Magrath, Eliza[ 72 ]

beth Hanna, Sarah Polley, Chris Wiggins. voices of E. G. Daily, Danny Mann, Glenne Entertaining feature-length cartoon based Headly, Steven Wright, Stanley Ralph Ross, on the classic children’s books by Jean Russi Taylor, Hugo Weaving, Naomi Watts; and Laurent de Brunhoff. Strictly servicenarrated by Roscoe Lee Browne. Disappointable (and uninspired) animation is made ing (and superfluous) sequel puts Babe and up for by an engaging storyline that’s sure everyone around him, human and animal, in to appeal to young children. [G]▼●쩠 almost continual peril, as the pig is taken to Babe, The (1992) C-115m. ★★★ D: Arthur America by Mrs. Hoggett. Overblown, with Hiller. John Goodman, Kelly McGillis, Trini unpleasant images unsuitable for the younAlvarado, Bruce Boxleitner, Peter Donat, gest children, but rescued somewhat by the James Cromwell, J. C. Quinn, Joe Ragno, indomitable Babe, who’s as endearing as Bernard Kates, Michael McGrady, Stephen ever, and those three singing mice, whose Caffrey. Agreeably sentimental, old-fashioned choice of material is quite funny. [G] ▼●쩠 bio of the great Babe Ruth is largely a vehicle Babe Ruth Story, The (1948) 106m. for Goodman, who’s terrific in the lead. BOMB D: Roy Del Ruth. William Bendix, Though facts are tampered with and often igClaire Trevor, Charles Bickford, Sam nored, the essence of this larger-than-life charLevene, William Frawley, Mark Koenig, acter (and his genuine love of baseball) still Mel Allen, Harry Wismer, H. V. Kaltenborn. comes through. [PG]▼●쩠 Perfectly dreadful bio of the Sultan of Babe (1995-U.S.-Australian) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 Swat is sugar-coated beyond recognition; D: Chris Noonan. James Cromwell, Magda the Babe is depicted as an overgrown child Szubanski; voices of Christine Cavanaugh, whose behavior is constantly misunderMiriam Margolyes, Danny Mann, Hugo stood. Bendix is badly miscast, and the finale is not to be believed. ▼ Weaving, Miriam Flynn, Russi Taylor, Evelyn Krape; narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne. Babes in Arms (1939) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Busby Delightful, disarming family fodder about Berkeley. Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, an orphaned pig taken in by a quietly eccenCharles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June tric farmer who develops a strong attachment Preisser, Douglas McPhail. Rodgers and to the little fellow. The farmyard animals all Hart’s musical, minus most of their songs, converse with one another in this endearing and one that’s left, ‘‘Where or When,’’ is (and often very funny) tale, based on the book trammeled to death. What remains is enerThe Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith. The getic but standard putting-on-a-show vehiOscar-winning special effects, combining real cle for Mickey and Judy. Dated fun. animals, animatronic doubles, and computer Original ending, ‘‘My Day,’’ was a productechnology, are both seamless and convinction number spoofing Mr. and Mrs. Franklin ing. This is one ‘‘family film’’ that adults can D. Roosevelt, which was removed for a enjoy right along with their kids. Followed by 1948 reissue and later restored. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 a sequel. [G] ▼●쩠 Babel (2006-Mexican-U.S.) C-142m. ★★★1⁄2 Babes in Bagdad (1952-U.S.-BritishD: Alejandro Gonza´lez In˜a´rritu. Brad Pitt, Spanish) C-79m. BOMB D: Edgar G. Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcı´a Bernal, Koˆji Ulmer. Paulette Goddard, Gypsy Rose Lee, Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Rinko Kikuchi, Richard Ney, John Boles, Sebastian Cabot, Said Tarchani, Boubker Ait El Caid, Elle Christopher Lee. Embarrassing, hokey cosFanning, Nathan Gamble, Clifton Collins, tumer made even seedier by miscast vetJr., Michael Pen˜a. Bold, riveting drama eran performers. Babes in Toyland (1934) 73m. ★★★1⁄2 D: combines stories from three continents: an American tourist (Pitt) in Morocco learns Gus Meins, Charles R. Rogers. Stan Lauabout fear and isolation when his wife rel, Oliver Hardy, Charlotte Henry, Henry (Blanchett) is wounded by a stray bullet. Kleinbach (Brandon), Felix Knight, Jean Meanwhile, their children in L.A. are cared Darling, Johnny Downs, Marie Wilson. for by housekeeper Barraza, who brings L&H version of Victor Herbert operetta them along to her son’s wedding in Mexico, looks better all the time, compared to little dreaming of the consequences. In lumbering ‘‘family musicals’’ of recent Tokyo, a mute teenage girl (Kikuchi), traumayears. Stan and Ollie are in fine form, and tized by her mother’s death, reaches out to a fantasy element of Toyland—especially atpolice detective. Maintains an extraordinary tack by Bogeymen—is excellent. Video level of tension while pursuing its central title: MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLtheme about the need to communicate—and DIERS. Originally released at 79m. Also listen—in our post-9/11 world. Third of a trilshown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 ogy written by Guillermo Arriaga, following Babes in Toyland (1961) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 AMORES PERROS and 21 GRAMS. Oscar D: Jack Donohue. Ray Bolger, Tommy winner for Gustavo Santaolalla’s score. Sands, Annette Funicello, Henry Calvin, Gene Sheldon, Tommy Kirk, Ed Wynn, Ann [R]쩠 Babe: Pig in the City (1998-U.S.-Australian) Jillian. Colorful but contrived Disneyfication C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Miller. Magda Szuof Victor Herbert operetta has no substance or banski, James Cromwell, Mickey Rooney; heart; classic songs, visual gimmicks, clown[ 73 ]

ing of Calvin and Sheldon keep it afloat. Rewho lives off his mother and embraces irremade for TV in 1986.▼쩠 sponsibility, even though he has fathered Babes on Broadway (1941) 118m. ★★1⁄2 two children by two different women. D: Busby Berkeley. Mickey Rooney, Judy Opens with a bang, but goes on too long, Garland, Fay Bainter, Virginia Weidler, and offsets some strong characterizations— Richard Quine, Ray McDonald, Donna Gibson’s straight-talking mother (Johnson) Reed. Showcase for Mickey and Judy’s taland her ex-con-gone-straight boyfriend ents, with duo doing everything from imita(Rhames)—with sloppy storytelling. A comtions of Carmen Miranda and Bernhardt to panion piece to writer-director Singleton’s minstrel numbers. Standout is Judy’s ‘‘F.D.R. BOYZ N THE HOOD, also set in South Jones.’’ Film debut of Margaret O’Brien. Central L.A. [R]▼쩠 Look fast for Ava Gardner in the audience Baby Doll (1956) 114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Elia watching the final number. ▼●쩠 Kazan. Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Babette’s Feast (1987-Danish) C-102m. Wallach, Mildred Dunnock, Lonny Chap★★★★ D: Gabriel Axel. Stephane Audran, man, Rip Torn. Starkly photographed on Jean-Philippe Lafont, Gudmar Wivesson, location in Mississippi, story revolves Jarl Kulle, Bibi Andersson, Birgitte Federaround a child bride, her witless and blusspiel, Bodil Kjer. Exquisite, delicately told tery husband, and a smarmy business rival tale of two beautiful young minister’s daughbent on using both of them. Condemned ters who pass up love and fame to remain by Legion of Decency when released, this in their small Danish village. They grow Tennessee Williams story, although tame old, using religion as a substitute for living by today’s standards, still sizzles. Film life . . . and then take in Parisian refugee debuts of Wallach and Torn.▼쩠 Audran, a woman with a very special Baby Face (1933) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred E. secret. Subtle, funny and deeply felt, with Green. Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, several wonderful surprises: an instant masDonald Cook, Margaret Lindsay, Dougterpiece that deservedly earned a Best Forlass Dumbrille, John Wayne. Pre-Produceign Film Academy Award. Axel wrote tion Code item has Stanwyck bartending at the screenplay, from an Isak Dinesen short a speakeasy, then literally sleeping her story. Don’t miss this one. [G] ▼●쩠 way floor by floor to the top of a N.Y.C. Baby, The (1973) C-102m. ★★ D: Ted office building. Great first half gives way Post. Anjanette Comer, Ruth Roman, to sappily moralistic conclusion. Wayne’s Marianna Hill. Social worker who gets in coat-and-tie bit—as one of the office help too deep with a man-child case, has to used by the heroine—is a hoot. Even kill to keep ‘‘baby’’ at home with her. harsher version discovered in 2004 runs about 5m. longer.▼●쩠 [PG] ▼쩠 Baby Blue Marine (1976) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Baby Face Nelson (1957) 85m. ★★ D: D: John Hancock. Jan-Michael Vincent, Don Siegel. Mickey Rooney, Carolyn Jones, Glynnis O’Connor, Katherine Helmond, Cedric Hardwicke, Jack Elam, Ted De Dana Elcar, Bert Remsen, Richard Gere, Corsia. Rooney gives flavorful performance Art Lund. Norman Rockwell’s America in title role of gun-happy gangster in come to life, in bucolic tale of Marine Prohibition-Depression days; low-budget dropout during WW2 who’s mistaken for product, but action-filled. Babyfever (1994) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry hero by residents of small town. Too bland to add up. [PG] Jaglom. Victoria Foyt, Matt Salinger, Dinah Baby Boom (1987) C-110m. ★★★ D: Lenney, Eric Roberts, Frances Fisher, Charles Shyer. Diane Keaton, Harold Elaine Kagan. An array of career-women at Ramis, Sam Shepard, Sam Wanamaker, a Malibu baby shower examine, discuss, James Spader, Pat Hingle, Britt Leach, and discuss some more their own ticking Mary Gross, Victoria Jackson, Paxton biological clocks. Meanwhile, one of the Whitehead, Annie Golden, Dori Brenner, guests (Foyt) is awaiting results of her own Robin Bartlett, Christopher Noth. Keaton pregnancy test! Shot in Jaglom’s usual ve´is in top comic form as a supercharged rite´ style, this is best appreciated by fans business exec whose life changes dramatically of the highly personal filmmaker. With the when she ‘‘inherits’’ a baby. Amiable comedy drubbing that men take here, this is defitakes well-aimed potshots at ’80s yuppie mothnitely not a ‘‘first date’’ film.▼쩠 erdom but remains agreeably sweet-natured Baby Geniuses (1999) C-94m. BOMB D: start to finish, helping it over an occasional Bob Clark. Kathleen Turner, Christopher story lull. Written by Shyer and Nancy MeyLloyd, Peter MacNicol, Kim Cattrall, Dom ers. Followed by a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 DeLuise, Ruby Dee. Unless you want to see Baby Boy (2001) C-129m. ★★★ D: John walking, talking toddlers hypnotizing DeSingleton. Tyrese Gibson, Taraji P. Henson, Luise into picking his nose, steer clear of Omar Gooding, Tamara Bass, A.J. Johnson, this almost history-making comedy clinker Ving Rhames, Snoop Dogg, Candy Ann about power-mad child psychologist Turner, Brown. Ambitious, insightful portrait of an who’s raising these bright babies in her lab. immature 20-year-old African American Technically shoddy and recipient of some [ 74 ]

of the decade’s worst reviews (though people ille, Eddie Bracken. In a ‘‘plot’’ reminiscent did go to see it). If these kids are such geof several Swee Pea cartoons, a Chicago niuses, why can’t they spark even a single baby violently foils kidnappers as he emlaugh? Followed by SUPERBABIES: BABY barks on a parentless Pampers odyssey to GENIUSES 2. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 Marshall Field’s, the zoo, and to the top of ★★1 Baby It’s You (1983) C-105m. a skyscraper building site. A box office flop ⁄2 D: John Sayles. Rosanna Arquette, Vincent despite scripter/coproducer John Hughes’ Spano, Joanna Merlin, Jack Davidson, Nick cynical HOME ALONE cloning; in stanFerrari, Dolores Messina, Leora Dana, dard Hughes fashion, it’s full of kicked-andSam McMurray, Tracy Pollan, Matthew torched gonads jokes, but all sweetness and Modine, Robert Downey, Jr., Caroline light at the end. [PG]▼●쩠 Aaron, Fisher Stevens. A middle-class JewBaby . . . Secret of the Lost Legend ish girl is pursued by a working-class Italian (1985) C-95m. ★★ D: B.W.L. Norton. Catholic boy who calls himself The Sheik William Katt, Sean Young, Patrick Mcin this slice-of-life set in 1960s New JerGoohan, Julian Fellowes, Kyalo Mativo. sey. Writer-director Sayles’ eye for detail Old-fashioned yarn about discovery of a and ear for dialogue give his fine cast a dinosaur family follows basic KING KONG solid foundation—but the script loses mooutline—and the baby dino is sure to charm mentum after the characters graduate from kids—but elements of racism, sexism, and high school. Story by coproducer Amy much-too-casual violence just about kill Robinson; Modine’s film debut. [R]▼●쩠 it. TV title: DINOSAUR . . . SECRET Babylon A.D. (2008-U.S.-French-British) OF THE LOST LEGEND. Super TechniC-90m. BOMB D: Mathieu Kassovitz. Vin scope. [PG]▼●쩠 Diesel, Ge´rard Depardieu, Michelle Yeoh, Babysitter, The (1969) 70m. ★★ D: Don Me´lanie Thierry, Charlotte Rampling, Mark Henderson. Patricia Wymer, George E. Strong, Lambert Wilson, Joel Kirby. FuturCarey, Ann Bellamy, Cathy Williams, Robistic story in which a mercenary (played ert Tessier, James McLarty. Low-budget with one expression by Diesel) is hired to drive-in fare is dated but still mildly enjoyescort a girl from Eastern Europe to N.Y.C. able; young blonde babysitter seduces the With an evil high priestess hot on his tail, district attorney and hilarity ensues. Lots he soon learns the real purpose of his misof double duty on this one: Carey prosion: his charge is carrying either a deadly duced, McLarty wrote the script. Followed disease or an organism that is the new mesby nonsequel, WEEKEND WITH THE siah. Incoherent plotting makes this atBABYSITTER. [R] tempted sci-fi epic a complete fizzle. Based Babysitter, The (1975-Italian-French-Geron the novel Babylon Babies by Maurice G. man) C-111m. BOMB D: Rene´ Clement. Dantec. Unrated version runs 101m. Super Maria Schneider, Sydne Rome, Vic Mor35. [PG-13]쩠 row, Robert Vaughn, Renato Pozzetto, Baby Maker, The (1970) C-109m. ★★ D: Nadja Tiller. In misfired melodrama, SchneiJames Bridges. Barbara Hershey, Colin der is innocently duped into taking part in a Wilcox-Horne, Sam Groom, Scott Glenn, kidnapping by roommate Rome. Schneider’s Jeannie Berlin. Childless couple hires young nonacting is abysmal, as is miscasting of semi-hippie to have a baby by the husband chubby Italian comedian Pozzetto as her boywhen wife discovers she is sterile. Made at friend. Retitled: WANTED: BABYSITTER. a time when the notion of surrogate mothVideo title: THE RAW EDGE.▼쩠 ers was considered bizarre. [R]▼쩠 Babysitter, The (1995) C-90m. ★★ D: Guy ★★1 Baby Mama (2008) C-99m. ⁄2 D: MiFerland. Alicia Silverstone, Jeremy London, chael McCullers. Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, J. T. Walsh, Lee Garlington, Nicky Katt, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Romany Lois Chiles, George Segal, Ryan Slater. A Malco, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Martin, beautiful teenager inspires sexual fantasies Maura Tierney, Holland Taylor, John Hodgin the people around her as she babysits for man, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Denis O’Hare, Walsh and his wife. Unimaginative writing James Rebhorn. Career-minded Fey decides (by the director) and slow pace explain why it’s time to have a baby and signs up with this went straight to video, though it was an agency to match her with a surrogate released in theaters after Silverstone’s great mother: white-trash Poehler, who’s running success in CLUELESS. [R]▼●쩠 a scam. Given the comedic talent involved Baby-Sitters Club, The (1995) C-85m. ★★1 this is pretty bland, though certainly ⁄2 D: Melanie Mayron. Schuyler Fisk, watchable. Martin has fun in a glorified Bre Blair, Rachel Leigh Cook, Zelda Harris, cameo as Fey’s boss, a New Age business Tricia Joe, Larisa Oleynik, Stacey Linn Ramsower, Austin O’Brien, Aaron Metmogul. [PG-13]쩠 Baby’s Day Out (1994) C-98m. BOMB D: chik, Christian Oliver, Brooke Adams, Peter Patrick Read Johnson. Lara Flynn Boyle, Horton, Ellen Burstyn, Bruce Davison, HarJoe Mantegna, Jacob and Adam Worton, ris Yulin. Kristy (Fisk), founder and leader Joe Pantoliano, Brian Haley, Cynthia of the Baby-Sitter’s Club, run by seven girls Nixon, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Nevwho are best friends, proposes starting a [ 75 ]

summer camp. Then her long-absent father grandfather. A mistake from top to bottom. shows up, and wants to spend time with The view of women here might even offend her—but insists she keep his presence a sethe Rat Pack. Also available in PG version. [PG-13]▼●쩠 cret. Good-hearted adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s hugely popular books for preteen Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, The (1947) 95m. ★★★ D: Irving Reis. Cary Grant, girls. Low-key, episodic, but agreeable entertainment. Director Mayron can be spotted Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee, briefly in the opening sequence. Fisk is the Ray Collins, Harry Davenport. Judge Loy orders playboy Grant to wine and dine her daughter of Sissy Spacek. [PG]▼●쩠 Baby Snakes (1979) C-166m. BOMB D: sister Temple, so the teenager will forget Frank Zappa. Frank Zappa, Ron Delsener, her infatuation for him. Breezy entertainJoey Psychotic, Donna U. Wanna, Frenchy ment earned Sidney Sheldon an Oscar for the Poodle, Ms. Pinky’s Larger Sister, his original screenplay. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Angel, Janet the Planet, Diva, John, Chris, Nancy. Excruciatingly overlong ego trip Bachelor Flat (1962) C-91m. ★★ D: Frank for musical maverick Zappa. In every fifth Tashlin. Tuesday Weld, Richard Beymer, shot, it seems, Frankie is in close-up or a Celeste Holm, Terry-Thomas. Weld visits fan rushes up to him, kisses him, and her mother’s beach house and finds scienscreeches for joy. Zappa finally cut it down to tist Thomas at work; she moves in anyway 91m. for 1984 reissue. Bruce Bickford’s clay and creates eventual havoc. Thomas has animation is film’s sole virtue. [R]▼쩠 had better material; film’s entertainment is Baby Take a Bow (1934) 76m. ★★ D: all in his lap. CinemaScope. Harry Lachman. Shirley Temple, James Bachelor in Paradise (1961) C-109m. ★★ Dunn, Claire Trevor, Alan Dinehart, Ray D: Jack Arnold. Bob Hope, Lana Turner, Walker. Shirley’s first starring vehicle Janis Paige, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, seems one of her weakest today, but helped Don Porter, Agnes Moorehead. Hope veboost her career nonetheless; in typical hicle about the only bachelor in a commulittle-miss-fixit fashion, she helps her exnity of married couples. Amusing, but not con father beat a bum rap. Also shown in great. Hope has done better; Paige is fun as always. CinemaScope.▼ computer-colored version.▼쩠 Baby The Rain Must Fall (1965) 100m. Bachelor Mother (1939) 81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ★★★ Garson Kanin. Ginger Rogers, David Niven, D: Robert Mulligan. Lee Remick, Steve McQueen, Don Murray, Paul Fix, Charles Coburn, Frank Albertson, Ernest Josephine Hutchinson, Ruth White. Much Truex. Rogers unwittingly becomes guardunderrated account of ex-convict McQueen, ian for abandoned baby in this delightful returning to his wife and daughter, but comedy by Norman Krasna. Remade as unable to change his restless ways. Murray BUNDLE OF JOY. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼● is sincere sheriff who tries to help. Screenplay by Horton Foote, from his play The Bachelor Party, The (1957) 93m. ★★★ D: Traveling Lady.▼●쩠 Delbert Mann. Don Murray, E. G. MarBachelor, The (1991-Italian-Hungarianshall, Jack Warden, Patricia Smith, CaroBritish) C-105m. ★★★ D: Roberto Faenza. lyn Jones, Larry Blyden, Philip Abbott, Keith Carradine, Miranda Richardson, KrisNancy Marchand. Perceptive Paddy Chaytin Scott Thomas, Sarah-Jane Fenton, Max efsky drama (originally a TV play) about von Sydow, Mario Adorf. Subtle, thoughtbachelor party for groom-to-be Abbott, and ful story of repressed emotion, about a staid, its emotional effect on other married particimiddle-aged, unmarried doctor and self-depants. Jones is exceptional as philosophical nympho.▼ scribed ‘‘nomad’’ (Carradine), and how he responds when his sister and long-time conBachelor Party (1984) C-106m. ★★ D: Neal stant companion commits suicide. RichardIsrael. Tom Hanks, Tawny Kitaen, Adrian son, in a dual role, plays the latter, as well Zmed, George Grizzard, Robert Prescott. as one of a trio of very different women Amiable comedy about preparations for a with whom the doctor becomes involved. raunchy bachelor party has real laughs for Based on a novel by Arthur Schnitzler.▼ a while, then gets increasingly desperate Bachelor, The (1999) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Gary and tasteless. Followed by a direct-to-DVD sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Sinyor. Chris O’Donnell, Rene´e Zellweger, Hal Holbrook, James Cromwell, Peter UstiBackbeat (1993-British) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: nov, Edward Asner, Brooke Shields, Mariah Iain Softley. Stephen Dorff, Sheryl Lee, Ian Carey, Artie Lange, Jennifer Esposito, Sarah Hart, Gary Bakewell, Chris O’Neill, Scot Silverman. Hapless O’Donnell would do better Williams, Kai Weisinger, Paul Humpoletz. aping Buster Brown than taking on the Buster Stuart Sutcliffe (Dorff) goes along with his Keaton role in a woeful update of the still uppal John Lennon when their rock ’n’ roll roarious 1925 classic SEVEN CHANCES, band tries to establish itself in early ’60s playing a misdirected 30-year-old youth who Hamburg—but his ambitions lie elsewhere. must find a wife immediately or forfeit a $100 Initially intriguing true story of the man who million inheritance left him by his crotchety deserted the about-to-be-Beatles grows tired [ 76 ]

after a while, especially when Lennon (as with Raft swept into Nazi intrigue in Turkey; terrific car chase caps fast-moving tale.▼ played by the dynamic Hart) seems so much more interesting. The period and its music Back in the USSR (1991) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: are well captured, however. [R]▼●쩠 Deran Sarafian. Frank Whaley, Natalya Back Door to Hell (1964) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: Negoda, Roman Polanski, Ravil Issyanov, Monte Hellman. Jimmie Rodgers, Jack Dey Young, Andrew Divoff, Brian Blessed, Nicholson, John Hackett, Annabelle HugHarry Ditson. American tourist Whaley gins, Conrad Maga. Mildly interesting film gets involved in ‘‘the case of the disapabout WW2 reconnaissance mission in the pearing icon’’ on a visit to Russia. It’s Philippines; early collaboration of Nicholalmost impossible to follow this loopholeson and Hellman, who filmed FLIGHT laden script where coincidences abound TO FURY back to back with this.쩠 and the importance of the central object of Backdraft (1991) C-135m. ★★★ D: Ron desire—the icon—is never established.▼● Howard. Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Backlash (1956) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Robert De Niro, Donald Sutherland, JenSturges. Richard Widmark, Donna Reed, nifer Jason Leigh, Scott Glenn, Rebecca William Campbell, John McIntire, Barton De Mornay, Jason Gedrick, J. T. Walsh, MacLane, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Edward Tony Mockus, Sr., Clint Howard. Two C. Platt. In the aftermath of an Apache ambrothers whose father died fighting a fire bush, Widmark (who believes his father now spend their time on the force battling was in the doomed party) and Reed (whose each other. A hoary B-movie–type script fired husband was killed in the massacre) become up by square-jawed conviction, and stunning involved in a serpentine search for the lone special effects; also the first film to ever exsurvivor and some missing gold. Plotty plore a sheer fascination with fire. The gifted Western written by Borden Chase. Leigh fails miserably playing a normal young Backlash (1986-Australian) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 woman. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 D: Bill Bennett. David Argue, Gia Carides, ★★ Backfire (1950) 91m. D: Vincent SherLydia Miller, Brian Syron, Anne Smith. man. Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, Well-meaning but muddled account of a Edmond O’Brien, Viveca Lindfors, Dane young aborigine barmaid who’s sodomized, Clark, Ed Begley. OK mystery tale has then charged with the murder of her assailMacRae search for missing friend through ant, and finally treks across the outback in maze of murder and romance. custody of two mindlessly jabbering cops. Backfire (1987-U.S.-Canadian) C-92m. Bits of snappy dialogue and intriguing ★★1 commentary on race relations, but far too ⁄2 D: Gilbert Cates. Karen Allen, Keith Carradine, Jeff Fahey, Bernie Casey, Dean much is left unexplained. [R]▼ Paul Martin, Dinah Manoff, Virginia CaBackroads (1977-Australian) C-61m. ★★★1⁄2 pers, Philip Sterling. Complicated plot with D: Phillip Noyce. Bill Hunter, Gary Foley, several surprises is best not revealed here, Zac Martin, Julie McGregor, Terry Camilbut it does involve wealthy, disturbed Vietleri. Aborigine Foley joins with loutish, nam vet Fahey, his wrong-side-of-the-tracks self-centered white criminal Hunter, with wife Allen, and mysterious drifter Carratragic results. Superior drama is an incidine. Familiar story but well acted; builds sive commentary on racism; in private life up a fair amount of suspense. Good use of Foley is a radical black activist. Noyce’s Canadian locations. [R]▼●쩠 feature directorial debut. Backfire! (1994) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: A. Dean Back Roads (1981) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Martin Bell. Kathy Ireland, Robert Mitchum, Telly Ritt. Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, David Savalas, Shelley Winters, Josh Mosby, Keith, Miriam Colon, Michael V. Gazzo, Mary McCormack, Edie Falco. In the wake M. Emmet Walsh. Attractive leads are of AIRPLANE! and THE NAKED GUN scant consolation for thoroughly unfunny comes this astoundingly unfunny comedy comedy about a hooker and a drifter who about an inept young man attempting to join find love on the road. Not as enjoyable as an all-female fire department. Mitchum (as Hollywood’s 10,000 previous derivations a semi-senile fire marshal) and Winters have of the same script. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 come a long way since THE NIGHT OF THE Backstage (2006-French) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: HUNTER! [PG-13]▼ Emmanuelle Bercot. Emmanuelle Seigner, Back From Eternity (1956) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Isild Le Besco, Noe´mie Lvovsky, Vale´ry John Farrow. Robert Ryan, Anita Ekberg, Zeitoun, Samuel Benchetrit. Teenage girl is Rod Steiger, Phyllis Kirk. Moderately enobsessed with a beautiful pop singer and grossing account of victims of plane crash, manages to work her way into the star’s stranded in South American jungle, and inner circle . . . but their relationship takes their various reactions to the situation. OK many strange turns. Intriguing look at fanremake of FIVE CAME BACK.▼● dom gone amok and a tortured, mercurial, Background to Danger (1943) 80m. ★★★ pampered star rings fairly true but goes on D: Raoul Walsh. George Raft, Brenda Martoo long. Feature debut for writer-director shall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Osa Bercot.쩠 Massen, Kurt Katch. Slam-bang WW2 story Back Street (1932) 89m. ★★★ D: John M. [ 77 ]

Stahl. Irene Dunne, John Boles, George The Del-Tones. Frankie and Annette reMeeker, ZaSu Pitts, Arlette Duncan, June turn to the scene of their youth—older but Clyde, William Bakewell, Doris Lloyd, no wiser—as the parents of teens. The fun Jane Darwell. Dunne shines in oft-filmed wears thin pretty fast in this uninspired Fannie Hurst soaper of spirited young comedy—despite the efforts of six writers woman who becomes the mistress of Boles and the presence of 1950s and 60s TV and must forever remain in the shadows. sitcom stars in cameo roles. The songs are Dated, to be sure, but still entertaining. dull, too, though Annette’s ‘‘Jamaica Ska’’ Remade in 1941 and 1961. has its moments. [PG]▼●쩠 Back Street (1941) 89m. ★★★ D: Robert Back to the Future (1985) C-116m. ★★★ Stevenson. Charles Boyer, Margaret SulD: Robert Zemeckis. Michael J. Fox, Chrislavan, Richard Carlson, Frank McHugh, topher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea ThompTim Holt. Fine team of Boyer and Sullavan son, Wendie Jo Sperber, Marc McClure, breathes life into Fannie Hurst perennial Claudia Wells, Thomas F. Wilson, James soaper of woman whose love for man Tolkan, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, Jadoesn’t die when he marries another. son Hervey. A teenager of the ’80s travels Back Street (1961) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: David back in time to the ’50s, where he must Miller. Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera arrange for his mismatched parents to Miles, Charles Drake, Virginia Grey, Regmeet—or else he won’t exist! Wonderful, inald Gardiner, Natalie Schafer. Lavish, unbewacked-out time-travel comedy takes its lievable third version of Fannie Hurst’s story time to get going, but once it does, it’s a of a woman’s love for married man. Doesn’t lot of fun, building to a frantic climax just play as well as previous versions but a fashion like other Bob Gale–Robert Zemeckis show for Hayward in Jean Louis designs. scripts (USED CARS, I WANNA HOLD Ross Hunter produced.▼ YOUR HAND, 1941). Lloyd is a standout Back to Bataan (1945) 95m. ★★★ D: Edas crazed scientist who sets story in motion. ward Dmytryk. John Wayne, Anthony Huey Lewis, who sings film’s hit song, Quinn, Beulah Bondi, Fely Franquelli, Rich‘‘The Power of Love,’’ has cameo as a ard Loo, Philip Ahn, Lawrence Tierney. high-school teacher. Produced by Steven Good, sturdy WW2 action film with officer Spielberg and company. Followed by two Wayne leading Filipino guerrillas to victory sequels and an animated TV series. [PG] in the South Pacific. Also shown in ▼●쩠 computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Back to the Future Part II (1989) C-107m. ★★ Back to God’s Country (1953) C-78m. D: Robert Zemeckis. Michael J. Fox, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Pevney. Rock Hudson, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas Marcia Henderson, Steve Cochran, Hugh F. Wilson, Harry Waters Jr., Charles O’Brian, Chubby Johnson. Sea captain HudFleischer, Joe Flaherty, Elisabeth Shue, son and wife Henderson face rigors of nature James Tolkan, Casey Siemaszko, Elijah and villainy of Cochran in the Canadian wilds. Wood. Joyless, frenetic follow-up to Part 1 Competent programmer; from James Oliver which sends mad inventor Lloyd and young Curwood’s classic story, filmed before in Fox back into their time-traveling DeLor1919 and 1927. ean. Considerable ingenuity, but hardly any Back to School (1986) C-96m. ★★★ D: laughs, and a surprising amount of unpleasAlan Metter. Rodney Dangerfield, Sally antness. Works best toward the end when it Kellerman, Burt Young, Keith Gordon, creates a parallel existence to the climactic Robert Downey, Jr., Paxton Whitehead, action in Part 1, but then it turns out to be a Terry Farrell, M. Emmet Walsh, Adrienne cliffhanger, advertising the upcoming Part III! Talk about a cheat . . . [PG]▼●쩠 Barbeau, Ned Beatty, Severn Darden, Sam Kinison, Robert Picardo, Kurt Vonnegut, Back to the Future Part III (1990) Jr., Edie McClurg, Jason Hervey. BomC-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Zemeckis. Mibastic, uneducated, self-made millionaire chael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary enrolls in college, in order to encourage Steenburgen, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea his student son. Very entertaining comedy, Thompson, Elisabeth Shue, Matt Clark, full of hilarious Dangerfield one-liners, but Richard Dysart, Pat Buttram, Harry Carey, key to the film’s success is that Rodney’s Jr., Dub Taylor, James Tolkan, ZZ Top. character is so likable. Kellerman shines, Delightful conclusion to this time-travel too, as English professor who becomes the trilogy sends Fox back to the Old West, apple of his eye. [PG-13]▼●쩠 circa 1885, in search of Lloyd—hoping to Back to the Beach (1987) C-92m. ★★ D: change history and keep him from being shot Lyndall Hobbs. Frankie Avalon, Annette in the back by a bad guy. The dormant movie Funicello, Lori Loughlin, Tommy Hinckley, Western gets a major dose of adrenaline from Connie Stevens, Demian Slade; guest this high-tech, high-powered comic advenappearances by Don Adams, Bob Denver, ture, which offers great fun, dazzling special Alan Hale, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, effects, and imagination to spare. There’s real Barbara Billingsley, Edd Byrnes, Pee-wee movie magic at work here. [PG]▼●쩠 Herman (Paul Reubens), Dick Dale and Backtrack (1989) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dennis [ 78 ]

Hopper. Dennis Hopper, Jodie Foster, Dean noche, Denis Lavant, Hans Meyer, Julie Stockwell, Vincent Price, John Turturro, Delpy, Carroll Brooks, Hugo Pratt, Mireille Fred Ward, Charlie Sheen, G. Anthony Perrier, Serge Reggiani. Pretentious film (Tony) Sirico, Julie Adams, Sy Richardson, noir takeoff about two-bit con artist Lavant, Frank Gio, Helena Kallianiotes, Bob Dylan, who finds himself in way over his head as Catherine Keener. Contemporary melohe becomes involved in a plot to pilfer a drama about a hit man hired to rub out murserum that’s an antidote for an AIDS-like der eyewitness Foster—but falling in love disease; along the way, he falls for beautiful and taking it on the lam with her instead. Binoche, the lover of one of his cohorts. Although film isn’t particularly distinHighly regarded by some, but the storytellguished, it is entertaining—especially with ing is fatally muddled and all the close-ups that Who’s Who cast. (Joe Pesci, despite a of faces and legs eventually grow tiresome. substantial role, appears unbilled.) Released Lavant plays the same character in Carax’s first in Europe as CATCHFIRE; Hopper BOY MEETS GIRL and THE LOVERS disowned that version. Restored to his cut ON THE BRIDGE. Released in the U.S. in 2001. [R]▼쩠 (116m.) for U.S. release on cable and video in 1991. [R]▼쩠 Bad Boys (1983) C-123m. ★★★ D: Rick Backwoods Massacre SEE: Midnight (1981) Rosenthal. Sean Penn, Reni Santoni, Esai Bad and the Beautiful, The (1952) 118m. Morales, Eric Gurry, Jim Moody, Ally ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Kirk DougSheedy, Clancy Brown, Alan Ruck. Tough las, Lana Turner, Dick Powell, Gloria urban melodrama about juvenile prison, and a Grahame, Barry Sullivan, Walter Pidgeon, personal vendetta that reaches its peak within Gilbert Roland. Captivating Hollywood story prison walls. Criticized by some as being of ambitious producer (Douglas) told via amoral—and not always credible—but cerrelationships with actress Turner, writer tainly scores on an emotional level. Sheedy’s feature film debut. [R]▼●쩠 Powell, director Sullivan. Solid, insightful, witty, with Lana’s best performance ever. Bad Boys (1995) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Five Oscars include Supporting Actress Bay. Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Te´a (Grahame), Screenplay (Charles Schnee). Leoni, Theresa Randle, Tche´ky Karyo, David Raksin’s wonderful score is another Marg Helgenberger, Anna Thomson, Joe Panasset. Minnelli and Douglas followed this a toliano. Highly formulaic but not altogether decade later with TWO WEEKS IN ANdisposable Miami actioner about two cops— OTHER TOWN. Also shown in computerone married with kids, the other equipped colored version.▼●쩠 with a bachelor apartment—who are forced Bad Bascomb (1946) 110m. ★★ D: S. to switch roles after they’re mistaken for Sylvan Simon. Wallace Beery, Margaret each other during a drug-murder case. A O’Brien, Marjorie Main, J. Carrol Naish, return by producers Don Simpson and Jerry Marshall Thompson. Overlong Western with Bruckheimer to the kind of corpse-littered fine action scenes, overshadowed by inescapism that established them in the ’80s; credibly syrupy ones with Beery and O’Brien. wildly uneven comedy is aided by the spin Bad Behavior (1993-British) C-103m. Leoni puts on her role as a material witness ★★1⁄2 D: Les Blair. Stephen Rea, Sinead Cuwho’s hiding undercover with the heroes. A sack, Philip Jackson, Clare Higgins, Phil Danrobust half hour padded into two hours. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 iels, Mary Jo Randle, Saira Todd, Amanda Boxer. Amusing comedy with Rea and Cusack Bad Boys II (2003) C-146m. ★★ D: Michael as a couple whose marital complacency is chalBay. Martin Lawrence, Will Smith, Jordi lenged by their friends, their jobs, and a bathMolla`, Gabrielle Union, Peter Stormare, Theroom renovation. A quietly quirky slant on resa Randle, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Shannon, domestic life in the Mike Leigh mold (the Jon Seda, Henry Rollins. Noisy, overlong seactors improvised from director Blair’s story quel pits the Miami tactical team against a outline) which rambles along nicely without Cuban drug lord, while Lawrence’s DEA sister ever really catching fire. Rea and Cusack are (Union) goes undercover after the same prey. charming in the lead roles.▼ This film seemingly exists for the sole purpose Bad Blood (1981-New Zealand-British) of blowing things up, which it does well and often, but there’s nothing else to recommend C-104m. ★★★ D: Mike Newell. Jack Thompson, Carol Burns, Denis Lill, Donna it. The plot is shopworn, and the banter beAkersten, Martyn Sanderson, Marshall Natween the two stars is forced and unfunny. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 pier. Set during WW2, this provocative drama is a fact-based account of a backBad Company (1972) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: woods farmer (Thompson) who shoots sevRobert Benton. Jeff Bridges, Barry Brown, eral people and is hunted in the New Jim Davis, David Huddleston, John Savage, Zealand bush. The incident ends up being Jerry Houser. Highly entertaining sleeper exploited by Lord Haw-Haw, the notoriabout two young drifters of wildly differous Nazi propagandist.▼쩠 ing temperaments who rob their way West Bad Blood (1987-French) C-128m. ★★ D: during the Civil War; aided immeasurably Le´os Carax. Michel Piccoli, Juliette Biby Gordon Willis’ subdued photography, [ 79 ]

Harvey Schmidt’s piano score. Written by highly sexual story told in film noir style; Benton and David Newman; Benton’s diclearly meaningful to Almodo´var, but somerectorial debut. [PG]▼쩠 what distancing for the viewer, in spite of Bad Company (1995) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: strong performances. R-rated version also Damian Harris. Ellen Barkin, Laurence available. Panavision. [NC-17]▼쩠 Fishburne, Frank Langella, Michael Beach, Bad For Each Other (1953) 83m. ★★1⁄2 Gia Carides, David Ogden Stiers, Daniel D: Irving Rapper. Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Hugh Kelly, Spalding Gray, James Hong. Scott, Dianne Foster, Mildred Dunnock, Ex-CIA staffer is recruited to join a private Marjorie Rambeau. Idealistic doctor Hesfirm specializing in ‘‘covert operations’’— ton finds Pennsylvania mining town has like blackmail and murder—but there’s more worthy patients than idle social set. more than meets the eye at every twist and Pouty Scott and wise Rambeau are good. turn. Never-ending series of double-crosses Badge 373 (1973) C-116m. ★1⁄2 D: Howleads to a ‘‘who cares?’’ finale. Only some ard W. Koch. Robert Duvall, Verna Bloom, hot-and-heavy sex scenes stand out. MiHenry Darrow, Eddie Egan, Felipe Luciano, chael Murphy appears unbilled as Smitty. Tina Christiana. Very minor follow-up to Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Policeman Bad Company (1999-French) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 Duvall tries to fight crime syndicate singleD: Jean-Pierre Ame´ris. Maud Forget, Lou handedly in N.Y.C. Dull. [R]▼ Doillon, Robinson Ste´venin, Maxime ManBad Girls (1994) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonathan sion, Cyril Cagnat, Delphine Rich, Franc¸ois Kaplan. Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Berle´and, Micheline Presle. Incisive drama Masterson, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barryabout Delphine (Forget), a bored, inexperimore, Dermot Mulroney, James Russo, enced 14-year-old who becomes fast friends Robert Loggia, Jim Beaver, Cooper Huckwith the new girl in school and falls in love abee. Stowe and three other prostitutes go (or so she thinks) with a manipulative young on the lam after a brothel shooting, eventuman. Sobering look at a young person who ally hooking up with a male outlaw from romanticizes everything from love and sex her past. Troubled production is an uneasy to depression and suicide, and who confuses combination of feminist statement, homage sexual desire with emotional need. Not to be to (or rip-off of) THE WILD BUNCH’s missed. Written by Alain Layrac. ▼쩠 finale, and an advertisement for good-look★1 Bad Company (2002) C-116m. ⁄2 D: Joel ing Western duds. A collectible poster in Schumacher. Anthony Hopkins, Chris Rock, search of a movie. Unrated version also Gabriel Macht, Peter Stormare, John Slattery, available. [R]▼●쩠 Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Kerry Washington, Bad Influence (1990) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Matthew Marsh, Brooke Smith, Irma P. Hall. Curtis Hanson. Rob Lowe, James Spader, Artificial hybrid of spy caper and Rock comLisa Zane, Christian Clemenson, Kathleen edy that serves no one well, especially the Wilhoite, Tony Maggio, David Duchovny. audience. Contrived plot has CIA agent Spader befriends Lowe after the latter gets Hopkins training street hustler Rock to imihim out of a tense barroom confrontation, tate his twin brother, who was a smooth then finds this psychopathic leech calling operative on the verge of closing a deal for the shots in his romantic—and profesa nuclear weapon in Europe. Needlessly sional—life. Slick, high-tech variation on overlong, building to a suspense-free cliSTRANGERS ON A TRAIN knows which max. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 buttons to push. Lowe is passable, but he’s Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) C-81m. no Robert Walker. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★1 ⁄2 D: John Sturges. Spencer Tracy, Bad Jim (1990) C-90m. ★★ D: Clyde Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Ware. James Brolin, Richard Roundtree, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest John Clark Gable, Harry Carey, Jr., Rory Borgnine, Lee Marvin. Powerhouse cast in Calhoun, Ty Hardin, Pepe Serna, Bruce yarn of one-armed man (Tracy) uncovering Kirby. Not-bad Western has three good/ skeleton in tiny desert town’s closet. Borgbad men purchasing Billy the Kid’s horse— nine memorable as slimy heavy. Millard and using it to pass themselves off as Kaufman expertly adapted Howard BresBilly’s gang. Nice locations and welcome lin’s story ‘‘Bad Time at Hondo.’’ Excellent cast of veterans help make up for leisurely use of CinemaScope.▼●쩠 pace and lack of real action. Screen debut Bad Education (2004-Spanish) C-109m. ★★1 for Clark Gable’s son, as the youngest of ⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo´var. Gael Garcı´a the bandit trio. [PG]▼● Bernal, Fele Martı´nez, Daniel Gime´nez Badlanders, The (1958) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cacho, Lluı´s Homar, Javier Ca´mara, Petra Delmer Daves. Alan Ladd, Ernest BorgMartı´nez, Nacho Pe´rez, Rau´l Garcı´a Forneiro. nine, Katy Jurado, Claire Kelly, Kent A struggling actor (Bernal) approaches a sucSmith, Nehemiah Persoff, Robert Emhardt. cessful filmmaker (Fele Martı´nez) with an Nicely handled reworking of THE ASidea for a screenplay based on events that PHALT JUNGLE, set in 1898 Arizona, transpired at the Catholic school they both attended as boys. Complex, challenging, with ex-cons Ladd and Borgnine forming [ 80 ]

bond and becoming involved in gold robpeatedly out-smarted by devilish Lollobery. CinemaScope. ▼ brigida in this pallid comedy-Western made Badlands (1973) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terin Spain. Franscope. [PG]▼●쩠 rence Malick. Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek, Badman’s Territory (1946) 97m. ★★★ D: Warren Oates, Ramon Bieri, Alan Vint. Tim Whelan. Randolph Scott, Ann Richards, Stark, moody, moderately successful thriller George ‘‘Gabby’’ Hayes, Ray Collins, James inspired by the Starkweather-Fugate killWarren, Morgan Conway, Virginia Sale, ing spree in the ’50s. Well-cast film has Chief Thundercloud, Lawrence Tierney, cult following. [PG]▼●쩠 Steve Brodie, Isabel Jewell. Solid Western in Bad Lieutenant (1992) C-98m. ★★ D: which a sheriff (Scott, at his stalwart best) is Abel Ferrara. Harvey Keitel, Frankie Thorn, forced to ride into an outlaws’ haven, setting Paul Hipp, Victor Argo, Paul Calderone, off nonstop fireworks. Rich characterizations, Leonard Thomas. Also bad husband, bad with Hayes fun as the Coyote Kid. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 substance abuser, all-around bad dude. Over-the-top Catholic guilt movie about a Bad Medicine (1985) C-96m. BOMB D: cop who starts to pull himself out of the Harvey Miller. Steve Guttenberg, Alan abyss when he investigates the rape of a Arkin, Julie Hagerty, Bill Macy, Curtis nun who refuses to press charges. More preArmstrong, Julie Kavner, Joe Grifasi, Robert tentious than Ferrara’s earlier work, though Romanus, Taylor Negron, Gilbert Gottfried. film has substantial critical and cult followGuttenberg can’t get into any domestic ing. Featured player Zoe Lund (who also medical schools, so he’s forced to attend a coscripted with Ferrara) was formerly Zoe dubious Central American institution run by Tamerlis, star of Ferrara’s MS. 45. At the Arkin. Cheap jokes and ethnic putdowns abound. Our prescription: skip it. [PG-13]▼ very least, this is the first movie that offers full-frontal Keitel and a cameo by Jesus. Bad Moon (1996) C-79m. ★★ D: Eric Red. [NC-17]▼●쩠 Mariel Hemingway, Michael Pare´, Mason Bad Love (1992) C-94m. BOMB D: Jill Gamble, Ken Pogue, Hrothgar Mathews. Goldman. Tom Sizemore, Pamela Gidley, Hemingway is glad when her brother comes Seymour Cassel, Richard Edson, Debi to live with her and her young son Gamble; Mazar, Jennifer O’Neill, Margaux Hemonly the family German shepherd knows ingway, Joe Dallesandro. BAD MOVIE that Pare´ is really the werewolf that has would be a more appropriate title. Perfectly been killing locals in the Northwest woods. dreadful drama about hot-tempered, two-bit Good-looking horror movie with a strong hustler Sizemore and pretty loser Gidley performance from Pare´ is underpopulated who commence a hot-and-heavy, ill-fated and predictable, though the dog’s great. romance. Poor direction and a laughable From the novel Thor by Wayne Smith. script do this one in. [R]▼쩠 Clairmont-Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Bad Man, The (1941) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: RichBad News Bears, The (1976) C-102m. ★★★ ard Thorpe. Wallace Beery, Lionel BarryD: Michael Ritchie. Walter Matthau, more, Laraine Day, Ronald Reagan, Tom Tatum O’Neal, Vic Morrow, Joyce Van Conway, Henry Travers, Chris-Pin Martin, Patten, Jackie Earle Haley, Alfred W. Chill Wills, Nydia Westman. Slight but Lutter. Bright comedy about hopeless Litamusing modern-day Western with Beery tle League baseball team that scores with chewing the scenery as a comically murderan unlikely combination: a beer-guzzling ous Mexican desperado who descends upon coach (Matthau) and a female star pitcher Barrymore and Reagan’s ranch. Filmed be(O’Neal). Some of film’s major appeal— fore in 1923 and 1930 and reworked in 1937 young kids spouting four-letter words—may (as WEST OF SHANGHAI!). be lost on TV. Clever use of Bizet’s music Bad Manners (1998) C-90m. ★★★ D: Jonafrom Carmen. Remade in 2005. Followed than Kaufer. David Strathairn, Bonnie Beby two sequels and a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 delia, Saul Rubinek, Caroleen Feeney, Julie Bad News Bears (2005) C-113m. ★★ D: Harris. An egotistical musicologist and his Richard Linklater. Billy Bob Thornton, companion spend the weekend with his exGreg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden, Sammi lover, who’s now married to a college proKane Kraft, Jeffrey Davies, Timmy Deters, fessor. Sparks fly from the start as the four Brandon Craggs, Tyler Patrick Jones. Indoflinty personalities collide; an exercise in lent, beer-guzzling exterminator (and ex-ball sexual and psychological gamesmanship player) takes the job of coaching a woebegone reminiscent of WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRLittle League baseball team. Lackluster reGINIA WOOLF?, and splendidly acted all make of the 1976 comedy goes through the around. Adapted by David Gilman from his motions, and uses foul language just as the play Ghost in the Machine. [R]▼쩠 first film did, but hasn’t any zest or originalBad Man’s River (1972-Italian-Spanish) ity; even the reuse of themes from Carmen C-89m. ★★ D: Gene (Eugenio) Martin. falls flat. Bill Lancaster’s vintage script was Lee Van Cleef, James Mason, Gina Lolloadapted by the BAD SANTA team, Glenn brigida, Simon Andreu, Diana Lorys. Ficarra and John Requa. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Van Cleef is head of an outlaw gang reBad News Bears Go To Japan, The (1978) [ 81 ]

C-91m. ★★ D: John Berry. Tony Curtis, entrepreneurs, here to harvest humanity, Jackie Earle Haley, Tomisaburo Wakayama, and battling it out with government hit squad. George Wyner, Lonny Chapman. Curtis is Quirky, fragmented direction matches subgood as a small-time hustler who sees moneyject matter and acting styles. Director making opportunity in the now-familiar baseJackson also acted, wrote, edited, produced, ball team. Third film was the kids’ last, and and did the uneven but occasionally exit’s easy to see why. [PG]▼●쩠 cellent makeup. A cult hit worldwide.▼●쩠 Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980The (1977) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael British) C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Nicolas Roeg. Pressman. William Devane, Jackie Earle Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Haley, Jimmy Baio, Clifton James, Chris Keitel, Denholm Elliott, Daniel Massey. Barnes. Sentimental sequel to 1976 hit, Mesmerizing melodrama triumphs over with dirty talk largely absent. Star of the badly miscast male leads and occasional kids’ baseball team, Haley heads for the pretentiousness. Roeg’s kinetic style brings Houston Astrodome and enlists the aid of the necessary passion to oddball story of a estranged father Devane in coaching the psychiatrist sexually engulfed by a selfmisfits. Sporadically funny. [PG]▼●쩠 destructive tramp. Russell is simply great, ★★★ D: Terry Bad Santa (2003) C-91m. as is knockout background music from Zwigoff. Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, The Who, Keith Jarrett, and Billie Holiday. Technovision. [R—originally rated X]쩠 Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham, Lauren Tom, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Ajay Naidu. OutraBagdad Cafe (1988-West German) C-108m. ★★1 geous, flagrantly foulmouthed black comedy ⁄2 D: Percy Adlon. Marianne Sa¨gebrecht, about a self-loathing reprobate who works as CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine a department store Santa with a conniving Kaufmann, Monica Calhoun, Darron Flagg. African-American ‘‘elf’’ who masterminds a Nearly plotless charmer from the director series of robberies. Thornton’s life reaches a and star of SUGARBABY has Sa¨gebrecht crossroads when he encounters a hapless, isostranded in the California desert, making lated kid who truly believes in Santa. Provocfriends with the kooky folks who hang out ative look at the seamiest Santa who ever at Pounder’s roadside cafe. Palance prolived is audaciously funny, but definitely not vides a special treat portraying an exfor all tastes. Dedicated to the late Ritter, Hollywood set decorator who becomes who’s very funny as an uptight store manager. obsessed with painting Sa¨gebrecht’s porCloris Leachman appears unbilled. Unrated trait. German version runs 20m. longer. Later a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 98m. version available on DVD. Also available in R-rated 88m. director’s cut. [R]▼쩠 Bailiff, The SEE: Sansho the Bailiff Bait (1954) 79m. ★1⁄2 D: Hugo Haas. Cleo Bad Seed, The (1956) 129m. ★★★ D: Mervyn LeRoy. Nancy Kelly, Patty McMoore, Hugo Haas, John Agar, Emmett Cormack, Henry Jones, Eileen Heckart, Lynn. A mining-camp me´nage a` trois. Evelyn Varden, William Hopper. Stagy Heavy-handed Haas at his worst, despite but spellbinding account of malicious child intriguing pre-credit prologue with Cedric McCormack whose inherited evil ‘‘causes’’ Hardwicke as the Devil. Bait (2000) C-119m. ★★ D: Antoine Fuqua. deaths of several people. Fine performances; Maxwell Anderson’s Broadway play was Jamie Foxx, David Morse, Kimberly Elise, adapted by John Lee Mahin, with Kelly, Doug Hutchison, Robert Pastorelli, David McCormack, Jones, and Heckart re-creating Paymer, Jamie Kennedy, Mike Epps. Woetheir stage roles. The corny ‘‘Hollywoodized’’ fully overlong boilerplate urban comedy. A postscript is often cut but remains intact on small-time crook is surgically implanted with video. Remade for TV in 1985. McCora tracking device that the Feds think will lead mack later played a bad seed grown up in them to hoods who’ve plundered $42 million MOMMY.▼●쩠 in gold. A real mishmash, despite occasionBad Sleep Well, The (1960-Japanese) ally amusing comic shtick by Foxx, with an ★★★ 135m. ugly climax involving a bomb-threatened D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, Takeshi Kato, Masayuki Mori, baby. Drawing a cinematic-to-culinary corTakashi Shimura, Akira Nishimura. Kurrelation, film’s title is extremely well choosawa effectively captures the spirit of sen. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 1940s Warner Bros. crime dramas in this Baker’s Hawk (1976) C-98m. ★★★ D: engrossing tale of rising executive Mifune Lyman D. Dayton. Clint Walker, Burl and corruption in the corporate world. AcIves, Diane Baker, Lee H. Montgomery, tually, it’s a variation on Hamlet. Original Alan Young, Taylor Lacher. Fine family version runs 151m. Tohoscope. ▼●쩠 drama about young boy (Montgomery) who Bad Taste (1988-New Zealand) C-90m. befriends hermitlike Ives, and comes of age ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Jackson. Peter Jackson, Pete as he participates in parents’ struggle against O’Herne, Mike Minett, Terry Potter, Craig vigilante forces. Beautifully filmed on location in Utah. [G]▼쩠 Smith, Doug Wren, Dean Lawrie. Title is absolutely accurate in describing this Baker’s Wife, The (1938-French) 124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marcel Pagnol. Raimu, Ginette gory comedy about callous alien fast-food [ 82 ]

Leclerc, Charles Moulin, Robert Vattier, such solid actors as Day-Lewis, husband of the film’s writer-director. [R]▼쩠 Robert Brassac, Charpin. Abandoned by his wife for a shepherd, baker Raimu is Ballad of Josie, The (1967) C-102m. ★★1 unable to function; villagers, who love his ⁄2 D: Andrew McLaglen. Doris Day, bread as much as he loves his wife, bring Peter Graves, George Kennedy, Andy back the wayward woman. Hilarious.▼ Devine, William Talman, David Hartman, Balcony, The (1963) 84m. ★★ D: Joseph Don Stroud. Uninspired Western spoof Strick. Shelley Winters, Peter Falk, Lee with widow Day running a ranch and trying Grant, Ruby Dee, Peter Brocco, Kent Smith, to lead the good life. Techniscope. Jeff Corey, Leonard Nimoy. Low-budget, Ballad of Little Jo, The (1993) C-120m. ★★★ none-too-successful attempt to adapt Jean D: Maggie Greenwald. Suzy Amis, Bo Genet play to the screen, with Winters as Hopkins, Ian McKellen, David Chung, Carmadam who maintains her brothel during rie Snodgress, Rene Auberjonois, Heather a revolution. Grant stands out as Winters’ Graham, Sam Robards, Ruth Malaczech, lesbian confidante.▼●쩠 Anthony Heald, Melissa Leo. Fascinating Ballad in Blue SEE: Blues for Lovers tale of a genteel young woman in 1866 who, Ballad of a Soldier (1959-Russian) 89m. disgraced by having a child out of wedlock, ★★★ D: Grigori Chukrai. Vladimir Ivashov, flees to the American West and quickly Shanna Prokhorenko, Antonina Maximova, learns that the only way to survive on her Nikolai Kruchkov. Effectively simple, poown is to pretend that she’s a man. Writeretic love story chronicling the plight of director Greenwald hits all the right notes in Russian soldier who falls in love with country this convincing and well-crafted piece of girl while on leave during WW2. Works both fiction (inspired by a real-life woman), with as a romantic drama and an allegory about the a first-rate cast making the most of every sadness and stupidity of war.▼●쩠 incident. Amis is a revelation in the leading Ballad of Cable Hogue, The (1970) role. Flavorful music score composed and C-121m. ★★★ D: Sam Peckinpah. Jason performed by David Mansfield. [R]▼●쩠 Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, The (2000) C/ Strother Martin, Slim Pickens, L. Q. Jones, B&W-112m. ★★★ D: Aiyana Elliott. Son of R.G. Armstrong. Peckinpah’s lyrical, a Jewish doctor, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott left wholly enjoyable fable of loner who builds home to befriend and follow Woody Guthrie, a life for himself in remote part of the Old eventually becoming a folk music legend West. Stevens has one of her best roles as himself. Engrossing documentary directed whore who joins Cable Hogue in quest for by his somewhat estranged daughter in an the good life. Overlong. [R]▼●쩠 honest, unsentimental style. Ultimately, the Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, The (1982) truth of the chronically footloose Elliott reC-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert M. Young. Edmains elusive. Among those appearing: ward James Olmos, James Gammon, Tom Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson, Pete SeeBower, Bruce McGill, Brion James, Alan ger, Odetta, and Alan Lomax.▼쩠 Vint, Rosana DeSoto, Pepe Serna, WilBallad of Tam Lin, The (1971) C-107m. ★★ D: Roddy McDowall. Ava Gardner, Ian liam Sanderson, Barry Corbin, Tim Scott. True story, told from several points of view, McShane, Stephanie Beacham, Cyril Cuof 1901 incident in which a young Mexican sack, Richard Wattis, Sinead Cusack, Jokilled an American sheriff, then managed to anna Lumley. A wealthy, beautiful woman elude a 600-man posse for nearly two gathers hedonistic young people around weeks! Authentic to the core—almost like her—and seeks to control their destinies. being in a time capsule, in fact—but too Based (believe it or not) on a Robert Burns subdued, especially in its portrayal of Corpoem, reset in England in the Swingin’ Sixtez, whose plight isn’t fully explained until ties. McDowall’s only directorial effort is the end of the film. A PBS American Playambitious and unusual, but unsatisfying. Shot in 1969, recut and released under varihouse presentation. [PG]▼● Ballad of Jack and Rose, The (2005) Cous titles including TAM LIN and THE 111m. ★1⁄2 D: Rebecca Miller. Daniel DayDEVIL’S WIDOW. Panavision. [PG]▼ Lewis, Camilla Belle, Catherine Keener, Ballad of the Sad Cafe, The (1991) CPaul Dano, Ryan McDonald, Jena Malone, 101m. ★1⁄2 D: Simon Callow. Vanessa Jason Lee, Beau Bridges. Pretentious clapRedgrave, Keith Carradine, Rod Steiger, trap about an aging hippie environmentalist Cork Hubbert, Austin Pendleton, Beth Dixon, who lives in isolation on an island off the Lanny Flaherty. Truly odd stab at filming East Coast of the U.S. with his teenage Depression-era tale of Southerner Redgrave, daughter. He’s dying of heart disease and a loner who rules rural hamlet like a despot— she’s about to come of age, having lived a until hunchback Hubbert and ex-con husband sheltered, idyllic life; this prompts him to Carradine appear. Far too theatrical in its ask his current companion (Keener) to look, tone, and pacing; Redgrave’s permove in with them, her two teenage sons in formance may interest drama students, but tow. Attempt at an ethereal fable is clunky nothing in film really works. Based on Carson from the word go, despite the presence of McCullers’ novella (and its stage adaptation [ 83 ]

by Edward Albee). Film directing debut of about a has-been Ping-Pong champ enlisted British actor/stage director Callow.▼쩠 for an undercover FBI mission in which his Ballast (2008) C-94m. ★★★ D: Lance Hamtable-tennis skills are required to capture an mer. Michael J. Smith, Sr., JimMyron Ross, Asian archvillain (Walken, in Fu Manchu Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail, Sam Dobmode). Every bit as stupid as it sounds. bins, Albert Jay Levy, Dr. Sanjib Shrestha, Fogler hams it up, while Hong, as the blind Zachary Coleman, Anita R. Ballard. A Mr. Miyagi–like mentor, steals every scene he’s in, but, alas, it’s petty theft. [PG-13]쩠 man’s sudden suicide numbs his morose twin brother (Smith), his soon-to-be-jobless Baltimore Bullet, The (1980) C-103m. ★★1 widow (Riggs), and particularly his teenage ⁄2 D: Robert Ellis Miller. James Coburn, druggie son (Ross). The bitter survivors reOmar Sharif, Bruce Boxleitner, Ronee luctantly bond as a family to save their rural Blakley, Jack O’Halloran, Calvin Lockconvenience store. Chilly, naturalistic indie hart. Pleasant enough film about majordoesn’t have a single note of music or a league pool hustlers Coburn and Boxleitner, smile in it, but it’s got heart and a faint and their buildup to a high noon showdown with smoothie Sharif. [PG]▼ hope. Written and edited by the director, who shot it in Mississippi with a cast of Balto (1995) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Simon Wells. mostly local non-pros. Super 35. Voices of Kevin Bacon, Bob Hoskins, Bridget Fonda, Jim Cummings, Phil Collins, Ballets Russes (2005) C/B&W-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Dan Geller, Dayna Goldfine. Irresistible Miriam Margolyes, Lola Bates-Campbell. documentary traces the rise and fall of a Loosely based on a true story of the 1920s, Russian-inspired troupe that introduced many Balto is a half-dog, half-wolf who overAmericans to dance in the 1930s, ’40s, and comes his outcast past to guide a sled car’50s and launched a number of great careers. rying urgent medical supplies to a town full It also chronicles the creation of a rival of sick children in Alaska. Wholesome, lovcompany and the economic forces that ingly told, and well animated, this offers eventually brought an end to these colorful humor, romance, villainy, warmth, and enterprises. The dancers who appear on gives its young viewers something to think camera (most of them in their 80s and 90s) about. You could do a lot worse. Followed by two direct-to-video sequels. [G]▼●쩠 to recall their glory days are remarkably colorful and charismatic; a treat even if you Bambi (1942) C-69m. ★★★★ D: David have no particular interest in ballet.쩠 Hand. Walt Disney’s moving and exquiBallistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) C-91m. sitely detailed animated feature about a BOMB D: Kaos (Wych Kaosayananda). Andeer, and how the phases of its life parallel tonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Gregg Henry, Ray the cycle of seasons in the forest. An Park, Talisa Soto, Miguel Sandoval. Idiotic extraordinary achievement, with the memaction film boasts what may be the worst orably endearing character of Thumper stealmovie title ever coined. Banderas plays an exing every scene he’s in. Followed by a FBI agent still mourning the death of his wife direct-to-video sequel.▼●쩠 after seven years; his former boss recruits Bambole! (1965-Italian) 111m. ★★ D: Dino him for a kidnapping case by telling him his Risi. Luigi Comencini, Franco Rossi, Mauro wife is still alive, and the kidnapper can lead Bolognini, Virna Lisi, Nino Manfredi, Elke him to her. But even that sliver of logic Sommer, Monica Vitti, Gina Lollobrigida, dissolves as the story unfolds. Only devoAkim Tamiroff, Jean Sorel. Quartet of tees of cars exploding into fireballs will find stories on Italian life that never sparkles. any value here. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 ‘‘The Phone Call,’’ ‘‘Treatise on Eugenics,’’ ★★★1 Ball of Fire (1941) 111m. ⁄2 D: How‘‘The Soup,’’ ‘‘Monsignor Cupid.’’ Retitled: FOUR KINDS OF LOVE.▼쩠 ard Hawks. Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Oscar Homolka, Dana Andrews, Dan Duryea, Bamboo Saucer, The (1968) C-100m. ★★1 S. Z. Sakall, Richard Haydn, Henry Travers, ⁄2 D: Frank Telford. Dan Duryea, John Tully Marshall, Gene Krupa. Burlesque Ericson, Lois Nettleton, Nan Leslie, Bob dancer moves in with eight prissy proHastings. Better-than-average low-budget fessors (led by Cooper) to explain ‘‘slang’’ sci-fier about American and USSR teams for their new encyclopedia; delightful twist investigating a UFO spotting in mainland on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by China. Nettleton’s tongue-in-cheek portrayal screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles of a Russian scientist aids considerably. Brackett. Remade (by same director) as Duryea’s last film. Aka COLLISION COURSE. [PG]▼ A SONG IS BORN.▼●쩠 Balls of Fury (2007) C-90m. BOMB D: Bamboozled (2000) C-135m. ★★ D: Spike Robert Ben Garant. Dan Fogler, ChristoLee. Damon Wayans, Savion Glover, Jada pher Walken, George Lopez, Maggie Q, Pinkett-Smith, Tommy Davidson, Michael James Hong, Terry Crews, Robert Patrick, Rapaport, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Paul Diedrich Bader, Aisha Tyler, Jason Scott Mooney, Sarah Jones, Mos Def. HeavyLee, Thomas Lennon, Patton Oswalt, Caryhanded satire has eccentric TV producer Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Koechner, Kerri Wayans pitching a deliberately offensive Kenney-Silver. Inane one-joke comedy idea—a minstrel show for the millennium [ 84 ]

starring characters named Mantan and Sleep Raghuvir Yadav, Govind Namdeo. Action’N Eat—hoping to be fired from his netpacked, fact-based adventure/drama/characwork. Instead, the idea takes on a life of ter study of the notorious female Indian outits own. Only the vibrant performances of law Phoolan Devi (Biswas), who emerged Glover and Davidson make this endless pofrom a life of poverty and ritual brutalization lemic endurable. Several celebrities appear to be charged with numerous kidnappings, in cameos. [R]▼쩠 robberies, and killings. Yet she remains beBanana Monster, The SEE: Schlock loved by many of her country’s poor as a Banana Peel (1964-French) 97m. ★★★ D: Robin Hood–like legend. The film was as Marcel Ophuls. Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Paul controversial as its subject; while based in part Belmondo, Gert Frobe. Rogues cheat milon diaries authored by Devi while in jail, she eventually repudiated the material.▼●쩠 lionaire out of a small fortune in this engaging comedy. Franscope.쩠 Bandits, The (1967-Mexican) C-89m. ★★ Bananas (1971) C-82m. ★★★★ D: Woody D: Robert Conrad, Alfredo Zacharias. RobAllen. Woody Allen, Louise Lasser, Carert Conrad, Jan-Michael Vincent, Roy los Montalban, Howard Cosell, Rene Jenson, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Manuel Enriquez, Charlotte Rae, Conrad Bain. Lopez Ochoa. Ordinary Western about three Hilarious; the usual assortment of good cowboys, saved from the hangman’s noose, jokes, bad jokes, bizarre ideas built around who accompany their Mexican rescuer on unlikely premise of Woody becoming invarious adventures south of the border. volved in revolution south of the border. Unreleased here until 1979.▼ Funny score by Marvin Hamlisch; look for Bandits (1986-French) C-98m. ★★ D: Sylvester Stallone as hoodlum, Allen GarClaude Lelouch. Jean Yanne, Marie-Sophie field as man on cross. [PG]▼●쩠 L. (Lelouch), Patrick Bruel, Corinne Bandidas (2006-U.S.-French-Mexican) CMarchand, Charles Gerard. Yanne is a 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joachim Roenning, Espen criminal, just released from prison, who’s Sandberg. Pene´lope Cruz, Salma Hayek, out to revenge his wife’s murder and beSteve Zahn, Dwight Yoakam, Denis Arndt, come reunited with daughter Marie-Sophie Audra Blaser, Sam Shepard. In old Mexico, L. (director Lelouch’s real-life wife). Senfarmhand Cruz and rich girl Hayek join timental drama downplays the thrills in forces as amateur outlaws when evil gringo favor of a nostalgic approach similar to Yoakam shoots their dads and grabs their Lelouch’s superior HAPPY NEW YEAR, lands. Light and full of action but not very in which Gerard played virtually an identifunny; a pratfall-heavy EuroWestern, cocal sidekick role. Striking widescreen phowritten and coproduced by Luc Besson. tography. CinemaScope. ▼ Shepard cameos amusingly as the ladies’ Bandits (2001) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barry mentor in bank-robber protocol. Zahn, as Levinson. Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornthe criminologist tracking the bosomy deston, Cate Blanchett, Troy Garity, Brian F. perados, boasts the only nudity. TechnoviO’Byrne, Bobby Slayton, January Jones, sion. [PG-13]쩠 Stacey Travis, Azura Skye. Film tells in Bandido (1956) C-92m. ★★★ D: Richard flashback the story of two escaped convicts Fleischer. Robert Mitchum, Zachary Scott, who become successful bank robbers, but Ursula Thiess, Gilbert Roland, Rodolfo have their lives complicated when a woman Acosta. Mitchum is gun supplier who tries joins their roving band. Lighthearted comto play both sides during 1916 Mexican edy caper is a great vehicle for its three rebellion; constant action, endless cat-andstars, and a fine showcase for Garity (son mouse twists with rival Scott keep this one of Jane Fonda), but it becomes needlessly humming. CinemaScope. complicated and goes on far too long. WilBandido (2004-Mexican-U.S.) C-99m. ★1⁄2 lis’ real-life daughters play a bank managD: Roger Christian. Carlos Gallardo, Angie er’s kids. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Everhart, Matt Craven, Kim Coates, Ana La Band of Angels (1957) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Salvia, Karyme Lozano. English-language Raoul Walsh. Clark Gable, Yvonne De film made in the spirit of EL MARIACHI Carlo, Sidney Poitier, Efrem Zimbalist, by the coproducer and star of that 1992 film. Jr., Patric Knowles. Flat costume epic from Here, Gallardo plays Maximiliano Cruz Robert Penn Warren’s Civil War novel; Gable (aka Bandido), a master thief coerced by the is Southern gentleman with shady past, in love CIA to retrieve a classified computer disk with high-toned De Carlo who discovers she from the lair of a Mexican underworld czar. has Negro ancestors. Poitier is resolute eduAlso along for the ride is tough ally Evercated slave. ▼●쩠 hart; La Salvia is evil Coates’ stunning wife, Band of Outsiders (1964-French) 97m. ★★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. Anna Karina, and prone to sumptuous milk baths. There’s gunplay, stunts, music, and titillation, but Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur, Louisa Collittle sense. Bandidon’t. [R] peyn. Karina enlists the aid of two male ★★★ Bandit Queen (1994-Indian) C-119m. hoods to swipe her aunt’s stash, but as D: Shekhar Kapur. Seema Biswas, Nirmal usual the supposed plot is only a jumpingPandey, Manoj Bajpai, Rajesh Vivek, off point for Godard’s commentary on [ 85 ]

Hollywood melodramas and other 20thC-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Sharp. Tony Rancentury artifacts. Among the more enterdall, Senta Berger, Terry-Thomas, Hertaining of the director’s output; looks debert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Unsuspectlightfully mellow today.▼쩠 ing Randall gets involved with Moroccan Band of the Hand (1986) C-109m. BOMB gangsters in OK spoof; good location shooting. Shown on TV as BANG BANG!▼ D: Paul Michael Glaser. Stephen Lang, Michael Carmine, Lauren Holly, John Banger Sisters, The (2002) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cameron Mitchell, James Remar, Gerrit Bob Dolman. Goldie Hawn, Susan Sarandon, Graham. Five Miami punks are whipped Geoffrey Rush, Robin Thomas, Erika Chrisinto shape by a Vietnam vet, then form a tensen, Eva Amurri. Onetime rock groupie vigilante unit to wipe out drug dealers. Mowho’s never quite grown up goes to visit ronic, way overlong junk from the creators her friend and partner in crime, whom she of Miami Vice; Bob Dylan (why, Bob?) hasn’t seen in 20 years, only to find her sings the title tune. [R] ▼●쩠 transformed into a model wife, mother, and Bandolero! (1968) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ancivic leader. Entertaining fluff is a good vedrew V. McLaglen. James Stewart, Dean hicle for Hawn and Sarandon, but can’t Martin, Raquel Welch, George Kennedy, stand up to any real scrutiny. Hawn’s charAndrew Prine, Will Geer. Jimmy and Dino acter makes an interesting bookend to play outlaw brothers whose gang flees daughter Kate Hudson’s role in ALMOST across Mexican border with Raquel as hosFAMOUS. Amurri is Sarandon’s real-life tage. Not exactly like real life, but nice daughter. Written by the director. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 outdoor photography makes it passable escapism. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Bangkok Dangerous (2008) C-99m. BOMB Band’s Visit, The (2007-Israeli-FrenchD: The Pang Brothers. Nicolas Cage, ShahU.S.) C-87m. ★★★ D: Eran Kolirin. Sasson krit Yamnarm, Charlie Young, Panward Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz, Saleh Bakri, Khalifa Hemmanee, Nirattisai Kaljaruek, Dom HeNatour, Imad Jabarin, Tarak Kopty. Impetrakul. Unwisely choosing to remake their rial Egyptian police band arrives in Israel own 1999 Hong Kong success, the Pang to perform at an Arab cultural center and Brothers drop the ball in this uninspired, promptly gets lost. Stranded overnight in a incomprehensible rehash about an anonyremote desert town, the band members and mous hit man sent to Thailand, where he even their stiff, formal leader (Gabai) soteams up with an impressionable young cialize with the locals. Disarming miniman and falls for a local deaf girl. Typical malist comedy brings to mind such Czech lowbrow action merges uncomfortably with New Wave films as THE FIREMEN’S awkward romantic subplot. Cage is out of BALL as it explores cultural differences his element in this Pang-ful misfire. Call it with deftness and charm. Feature debut for BANGKOK BORING. [R]쩠 writer-director Kolirin. [PG-13]쩠 Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) C-97m. ★★★1 Band Wagon, The (1953) C-112m. ★★★★ ⁄2 D: John Hancock. Michael Moriarty, D: Vincente Minnelli. Fred Astaire, Cyd Robert De Niro, Vincent Gardenia, Phil Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray, Foster, Ann Wedgeworth, Patrick McVey, Jack Buchanan. Sophisticated backstage Heather MacRae, Selma Diamond, Barmusical improves with each viewing. Astaire bara Babcock, Tom Ligon, Nicolas Surovy, plays a ‘‘washed-up’’ movie star who tries Danny Aiello. Touching study of two prohis luck on Broadway, under the direction fessional baseball players on fictional N.Y. of maniacal genius Buchanan. Musical highteam drawn to each other under unusual cirlights include ‘‘Dancing in the Dark,’’ cumstances. Outstanding performances by ‘‘Shine on Your Shoes,’’ ‘‘That’s Entertaintwo leads (Moriarty as hustling star pitcher, ment,’’ and Astaire’s Mickey Spillane spoof De Niro as simpleton catcher) in slightly ‘‘The Girl Hunt.’’ Written by Betty Comlongish, episodic script. Screenplay by den and Adolph Green, based on the 1931 Mark Harris, based on his 1956 novel; first Broadway musical by Howard Dietz and dramatized on TV, with Paul Newman. Arthur Schwartz, incorporating many of Aiello’s film debut. [PG] ▼●쩠 their songs.▼●쩠 Banjo on My Knee (1936) 96m. ★★★ D: Bang (1997) C-98m. ★★★ D: Ash. Darling John Cromwell. Barbara Stanwyck, Joel Narita, Peter Greene, Michael Newland, Luis McCrea, Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, Guzar, Lucy Liu. A desperate, unemployed Helen Westley, Walter Catlett, Tony Maractress (Narita) finds personal meaning and tin. Stanwyck’s the whole show in riverboat empowerment when she masquerades as a saga, singing with Martin, dancing with policewoman for a day. She also gets much Ebsen, scrapping with Katherine DeMille. more than she bargains for. Provocative Bank, The (2001-Australian-Italian) C99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Connolly. David look at L.A. on the brink. Film’s shoestring budget and handheld camera work to bruWenham, Anthony LaPaglia, Sibylla Budd, tally powerful effect despite uneven perforSteve Rodgers, Mitchell Butel, Kazuhiro mances. ▼●쩠 Muroyama. Brilliant econometrist Wenham Bang, Bang, You’re Dead! (1966-British) believes he’s created a computer program [ 86 ]

that can predict stock-market crashes. Laabout corruption and infidelity in and about Paglia is a ruthless bank executive ready to a swank L.A. golf club. Wagner is the pro capitalize on anything (or anyone) to make with a past, St. John a love-hungry young a buck. Aims to be a slick intellectual fiwoman. Music score by Quincy Jones. nancial thriller but never finds the right tone Techniscope. B*A*P*S (1997) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert or pace, despite an interesting premise and Townsend. Halle Berry, Natalie Desselle, good performances. ▼쩠 ★★★★ Bank Dick, The (1940) 74m. Ian Richardson, Martin Landau, Luigi D: Eddie Cline. W. C. Fields, Cora WitherAmodeo, Jonathan Fried, Bernie Mac. With spoon, Una Merkel, Evelyn Del Rio, Jesa dream of earning $10,000, waitresses sie Ralph, Grady Sutton, Franklin Pangborn, Berry and Desselle (Black American PrinShemp Howard, Russell Hicks, Reed cesses) head for L.A. where, in contrived Hadley. Classic of insane humor loosely movie fashion, they wind up living in the wound about a no-account who becomes a mansion of fabulously wealthy Landau. bank guard; Sutton as nitwit prospective This silly, fairy-tale-ish spin on the fish-outson-in-law, Pangborn as bank examiner of-water comedy formula falls flat on its match the shenanigans of Fields. Screenface. Various sports and music personalities show up in cameos. [PG-13]▼●쩠 play by ‘‘Mahatma Kane Jeeves.’’▼●쩠 Bank Job, The (2008-British) C-111m. Barabbas (1961) C-137m. ★★★ D: Rich★★1 ard Fleischer. Anthony Quinn, Silvana ⁄2 D: Roger Donaldson. Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Richard Lintern, Stephen Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Palance, Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, Peter Bowles, Ernest Borgnine, Katy Jurado. Lavish proKeeley Hawes, Colin Salmon, Peter De Jerduction, coupled with good script (based on sey, James Faulkner, David Suchet. Tired of Lagerkvist’s novel) and generally fine actjust getting by on a series of dodgy schemes, ing by large cast make for engrossing, Statham agrees to participate in a daring literate experience. Overly long. Super bank heist engineered by beautiful Technirama 70. ▼쩠 Burrows—but doesn’t know she’s acting on Baraka (1992) C-96m. ★★★ D: Ron Fricke. behalf of British Intelligence, which needs Strikingly visual, insightful National Geothe contents of a particular safe-deposit box. graphic issue come to life, which tells the Well-plotted caper inspired by a real-life story of the evolution of Earth and Man1971 incident known in London as the kind, and the manner in which man relates ‘‘Walkie-Talkie Robbery,’’ but as it grows to his environment. Shot on location in 24 dark and violent it ceases to be fun. HD countries. There’s no dialogue, only sounds Widescreen. [R]쩠 and images; this will lose much of its effect on the small screen. Todd-AO 70mm. ▼쩠 Bank Robber (1993) C-94m. BOMB D: Nick Mead. Patrick Dempsey, Lisa Bonet, Baran (2001-Iranian) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Olivia d’Abo, Forest Whitaker, Judge ReinMajid Majidi. Hossein Abedini, Zahra Bahhold, Michael Jeter, Joe Alaskey. If you rami. Terminal goof-off on a construction want to kill time, this film beats it to death crew becomes a man when he experiences . . . slowly and painfully. Dempsey plays a love from afar. Abedini is shocked to disrobber who pulls one last job and ends up cover that the Afghanistan refugee he’s hiding out in a seedy hotel where his anobeen mocking is a woman in dire straits— nymity comes at a price. Whitaker and and a pretty one at that. Crowd pleaser with Reinhold are ‘‘sensitive’’ officers looking strong, accessible characters also benefits for him; Bonet plays the good-hearted prosfrom Majidi’s credentials as a visual poet. titute who falls for the robber. Video ver[PG]▼쩠 sion trimmed for R rating. [NC-17]▼● Barbarella (1968-French-Italian) C-98m. ★★1 Bank Shot (1974) C-83m. ★★★ D: Gower ⁄2 D. Roger Vadim. Jane Fonda, John Champion. George C. Scott, Joanna CasPhillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo sidy, Sorrell Booke, G. Wood, Clifton O’Shea, David Hemmings, Marcel MarJames, Bob Balaban, Bibi Osterwald. Fastceau, Claude Dauphin, Ugo Tognazzi. paced, engagingly nutty comedy with crimiMidnight-movie favorite based on popular nal mastermind Scott planning a literal French comic strip about sexy 41st-cenbank robbery—making off with the entire tury space adventuress. Not especially building! Based on the novel by Donald funny, but watchable, with Fonda’s stripWestlake, a sequel to THE HOT ROCK tease during opening credits the principal (with Scott in the role played by Robert reason for its cult status. Trivia footnote: Redford in the film version of that book). rock group Duran Duran took its name Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 from O’Shea’s character. Aka BARBARBanning (1967) C-102m. ★★★ D: Ron ELLA, QUEEN OF THE GALAXY. PaWinston. Robert Wagner, Anjanette Comer, navision. [PG]▼●쩠 Jill St. John, Guy Stockwell, James FarenBarbarian and the Geisha, The (1958) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Huston. John Wayne, tino, Susan Clark, Howard St. John, Mike Kellin, Gene Hackman, Sean Garrison, Eiko Ando, Sam Jaffe, So Yamamura. TwistLogan Ramsey. Entertaining soap opera ing of 19th-century history allows Wayne [ 87 ]

as Ambassador Townsend Harris to roDel Ruth. Wallace Beery, Binnie Barnes, John mance Japanese beauty (Ando). Miscasting Carradine, Noah Beery, Sr., Frances Rafof Wayne is ludicrous, throwing costumer ferty, Chill Wills, Donald Meek. Typical amuck. CinemaScope.▼ Beery vehicle, with good supporting cast, Barbarian Invasions, The (2003-Canadianabout smooth-talking bandit who goes ★★★★ French) C-99m. straight. D: Denys Arcand. Re´my Girard, Ste´phane Rousseau, MarieBarbershop (2002) C-102m. ★★★ D: Tim Jose´e Croze, Marina Hands, Dorothe´e BerStory. Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Cedric ryman, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Domithe Entertainer, Sean Patrick Thomas, Eve, nique Michel, Louise Portal, Yves Jacques, Troy Garity, Michael Ealy, Leonard Earl Pierre Curzi. Arcand reunites the characters Howze, Keith David. Entertaining comedy from his 1986 film THE DECLINE OF about a neighborhood Chicago barbershop, THE AMERICAN EMPIRE as they gather which Ice Cube has inherited from his fato embrace one of their group who is dying. ther; the burden of running this threadbare An estranged son flies to his bedside out of business puts a crimp in his dreams, but he a sense of duty, but winds up using his begins to change his mind after one eventful smarts (and money) to help his father day in the shop, which serves as a commuthrough the last phase of his life as peacenity gathering place. Canny screenplay fully and happily as he can. Arcand’s exmanages to embrace many points of view, traordinary script deals with mortality, which counterbalances its sentimentality— sexuality, dreams and hopes unfulfilled, the and overlength. Followed by a sequel, and a spinoff, BEAUTY SHOP. [PG-13] ▼쩠 power of money, the erosion of intelligence, and much, much more. A rare film that is Barbershop 2: Back in Business (2004) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Rodney Sullivan. both cerebral and emotional; satiric, sophisticated, witty, and profoundly moving. Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Sean PatOriginal Quebec release ran 18m. longer. rick Thomas, Eve, Troy Garity, Michael Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Ealy, Leonard Earl Howze, Harry Lennix, Film. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Robert Wisdom, Jazsmin Lewis, Kenan Barbarians, The (1987) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Thompson, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Queen Ruggero Deodato. David Paul, Peter Paul, Latifah. Neighborhood barbershop owner Richard Lynch, Eva La Rue, Virginia Ice Cube and his staff face the imminent Bryant, Sheeba Alahani, Michael Berryarrival of a flashy, upscale haircutting salon man. Staggeringly silly sword-and-sorcery right across the street. If you liked the first saga starring two awesome-looking bodyfilm, chances are you’ll enjoy revisiting the builders (brothers in real life), whose main characters, even in this contrived sequel. [PG-13]▼쩠 achievement is keeping a straight face while mouthing their dialogue. [R]▼● Barb Wire (1996) C-90m. ★★ D: David Barbaric Beast of Boggy Creek, The, Part Hogan. Pamela Anderson Lee, Temuera II (1985) C-91m. ★★ D: Charles B. Pierce. Morrison, Victoria Rowell, Jack NoseworCharles B. Pierce, Cindy Butler, Serene thy, Steve Railsback. In 2017, the U.S. is Hedin, Chuck Pierce, Jimmy Clem. Slight, run by a fascist dictatorship. Lee is a bounty forgettable story of anthropology professor hunter and nightclub owner living in a city Pierce, who leads an expedition to find the on the fringe of freedom. Her former lover Boggy Creek monster. Although titled ‘‘Part asks her to help him spirit his wife into II,’’ this is the third journey to Boggy Creek, Canada to help the rebellion. Lots of gaudy following THE LEGEND OF . . . and REbut uninvolving action; surly, pneumatic TURN TO . . . Filmed in 1983. Formerly Lee is no actress, just a 15-year-old boy’s titled BOGGY CREEK II. [PG]▼●쩠 fantasy figure. Actually rips off the plot of Barbarosa (1982) C-90m. ★★★ D: Fred CASABLANCA! Also available in unrated Schepisi. Willie Nelson, Gary Busey, Isela video version. [R]▼●쩠 Vega, Gilbert Roland, Danny De La Paz, Barcelona (1994) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Whit George Voskovec. Nelson is fine as legStillman. Taylor Nichols, Chris Eigeman, endary, free-spirited outlaw constantly on Tushka Bergen, Mira Sorvino, Pep Munne, the lam, with able support from Busey as Nuria Badia, Hellena Schmied, Francis country boy who becomes his prote´ge´. Solid Creighton, Thomas Gibson, Jack Gilpin. Western, flavorfully directed by Schepisi. Young, nerdy American businessman Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 (Nichols) living in Spain is joined by his Barbary Coast (1935) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Naval officer cousin (Eigeman); the two Howard Hawks. Miriam Hopkins, Edward woo a variety of women and debate antiG. Robinson, Joel McCrea, Walter Brennan, American attitudes and actions that prevail Frank Craven, Brian Donlevy. Lusty tale among the local populace. Set in the conof San Francisco in the late 19th century cluding months of the Cold War, film’s with dance-hall queen Hopkins running theme is admirably original, and often head-on into big-shot Robinson. David amusing, if not always compelling. Writerdirector Stillman’s second offbeat talkfest Niven can be glimpsed as an extra.▼●쩠 Barbary Coast Gent (1944) 87m. ★★ D: Roy (following METROPOLITAN) isn’t quite [ 88 ]

as focused as the first, though reteaming of male costars is a plus.▼●쩠 Barefoot Contessa, The (1954) C-128m. ★★★ D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Marius Goring, Rossano Brazzi, Valentina Cortesa, Elizabeth Sellars, Warren Stevens. Cynical tale of beautiful Spanish dancer Gardner and how director Bogart makes her a Hollywood star. Mankiewicz’s script is full of juicy dialogue, as usual. O’Brien won an Oscar as the press agent.

Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant, Billie Burke, Gale Robbins. Astaire and Rogers reteamed after ten years in this witty Comden-Green script about show biz couple who split, then make up. Songs include ‘‘You’d Be Hard to Replace,’’ ‘‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me.’’ Ginger reading ‘‘La Marseillaise’’ is a definite low point.▼●쩠 Barnacle Bill (1941) 98m. ★★ D: Richard Thorpe. Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Leo Carrillo, Virginia Weidler, Donald Meek, Barton MacLane. Beery and Main support basically run-of-the-mill material as old salt ▼●쩠 Barefoot Executive, The (1971) C-96m. ★★ and woman trying to snare him into marriage. D: Robert Butler. Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, Barnacle Bill (1957) SEE: All at Sea Harry Morgan, Wally Cox, Heather North, Barney’s Great Adventure (1997) C-75m. ★★ Alan Hewitt, John Ritter. Russell discovers D: Steve Gomer. George Hearn, Shirley chimp with ability to pick top-rated TV Douglas, Trevor Morgan, Kyla Pratt, Diana shows, and becomes vice-president of a netRice, David Joyner, Jeff Ayres. Preschoolwork. Routine Disney slapstick. Remade for ers who cannot get enough of TV’s Big TV in 1995. [G]▼쩠 Purple Dinosaur will take to this, Barney’s Barefoot in the Park (1967) C-105m. ★★★ first feature, in which he mixes with some D: Gene Saks. Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, kids on a farm; together, they set off on Charles Boyer, Mildred Natwick, Herb Edelan adventure in search of a missing egg. man, Mabel Albertson, Fritz Feld, Doris Inoffensive, to be sure, but for anyone over five it’s a real yawn. [G]▼●쩠 Roberts. Plotless, entertaining Neil Simon comedy finds Fonda and Redford newlyBarnyard (2006) C-90m. ★★ D: Steve Oedeweds in five-story walkup apartment. Runkerk. Voices of Kevin James, Courteney ning gag about climbing stairs grows thin, Cox, Sam Elliott, Danny Glover, Wanda but film doesn’t. Redford and Natwick reSykes, Andie MacDowell, David Koechner, create their Broadway roles; Saks’ screen Jeff Garcia, Cam Clarke, Dom Irrera, Lardirecting debut. Later, briefly a TV series aine Newman. Animated zaniness set on a with an all-black cast. ▼●쩠 farm where, after sundown, the animals turn Barfly (1987) C-97m. ★★★ D: Barbet the barn into a raucous nightclub. James is Schroeder. Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, Otis, a cow who won’t mature, much to Alice Krige, Jack Nance, J.C. Quinn, Frank the chagrin of his father, Ben (Elliott), who Stallone. Surprisingly enjoyable portrait of keeps watch for preying coyotes while the L.A. lowlife, and boozy, foolishly macho others party. Unspectacular, though there writer Henry Chinaski, played with comic are commendable messages for kids regardbravado by Rourke. Dunaway is exceping adoption and parenting. Irrera stands out tional as his alcoholic soulmate. Based on as Duke the Dog. Written by the director. [PG]쩠 the autobiographical writings of cult favorite Charles Bukowski, who can be glimpsed Baron Blood (1972-Italian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: on one of the bar stools. Veteran character Mario Bava. Joseph Cotten, Elke Sommer, actor Fritz Feld has a lovely bit as a bum Massimo Girotti, Rada Rassimov, Antonio who gives Dunaway a light. Matt Dillon Cantafora, Alan Collins. Descendant of evil later played Chinaski in FACTOTUM. nobleman attempts ‘‘novel’’ rejuvenation [R]▼●쩠 principles. Standard plot livened by unusual Bar Girls (1994) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marita settings and lighting. Aka THE TORTURE Giovanni. Nancy Allison Wolfe, Liza CHAMBER OF BARON BLOOD. Original D’Agostino, Camila Griggs, Justine Slater, Italian version runs longer. [PG]▼●쩠 Lisa Parker, Pam Raines. Amiable (if Baroness and the Butler, The (1938) flawed) romantic comedy with a twist: all of 75m. ★★ D: Walter Lang. William Powell, its major characters are lesbians who conAnnabella, Helen Westley, Henry Stephengregate at L.A.’s Girl Bar. The main characson, Joseph Schildkraut, J. Edward Bromter is obsessive, wryly funny Loretta berg. Powell leads double life as Annabella’s (Wolfe), a female Woody Allen who is forbutler and member of Parliament. He’s ever seeking a perfect significant other fine as usual but script is rather thin. while not quite understanding what it means Baron Mu¨enchhausen (1943-German) C-110m. ★★★ D: Josef von Baky. Hans to truly and completely love another person. The film’s shortcomings are compensated Albers, Brigitte Horney, Wilhelm Bendow, for by clever dialogue and believable charLeo Slezak, Ferdinand Marian. Lavish, acters. Adapted for the screen by Lauran impressive curio which tells of the legendHoffman from her play. [R]▼●쩠 ary, free-spirited Baron, his exploits in Barkleys of Broadway, The (1949) CRussia, Turkey, Venice, and elsewhere, 109m. ★★★ D: Charles Walters. Fred Astaire, and his quest for beautiful princesses and [ 89 ]

empresses. While ostensibly an escapist enIdiotic follow-up to THE ADVENTURES tertainment, the Baron is an heroic German: OF BARRY MCKENZIE, about oafish noble, shrewd, and ever loyal to the Fatherland. title character, his twin brother (both played Produced on the order of Goebbels, Hitler’s by Crocker), and one Edna Everage (HumMinister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenphries, in drag), who is kidnapped and taken to Transylvania. Panavision. ▼ ment, to mark the 25th anniversary of UFA, the German production studio. This would make Bartleby (1972-British) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 D: a fascinating (if overlong) double bill with Anthony Friedmann. Paul Scofield, John Terry Gilliam’s THE ADVENTURES OF McEnery, Thorley Walters, Colin Jeavons, BARON MUNCHAUSEN.▼쩠 Raymond Mason. Herman Melville’s great Baron of Arizona, The (1950) 96m. ★★1⁄2 short story about 19th-century auditing clerk D: Samuel Fuller. Vincent Price, Ellen who refuses to leave job after he is fired is Drew, Beulah Bondi, Reed Hadley. Price admirably attempted in modern-day update, has field day as landgrabbing scoundrel even though story doesn’t really lend itself who almost gains control of Arizona in the to filming; Scofield is fine as bewildered but sympathetic boss. Remade in 2002.▼●쩠 19th century. Fuller also scripted.▼쩠 Barquero (1970) C-115m. ★1⁄2 D: Gordon Bartleby (2002) C-82m. ★★ D: Jonathan Douglas. Lee Van Cleef, Warren Oates, Parker. Crispin Glover, David Paymer, Forrest Tucker, Kerwin Mathews, Mariette Glenne Headly, Maury Chaykin, Joe PisHartley. Bad guy Oates, on the run after copo, Seymour Cassel, Carrie Snodgress, wiping out a town, has to deal with Van Dick Martin. Quiet Bartleby (Glover) is Cleef, a feisty ferry operator. [PG] hired by Paymer to file public records. At Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (1934) first he’s energetic, but in response to an 110m. ★★★ D: Sidney Franklin. Norma innocuous request he replies, ‘‘I would preShearer, Fredric March, Charles Laughton, fer not to,’’ and soon is saying it in response Maureen O’Sullivan, Katherine Alexander, to all requests. Colorfully acted adaptation Una O’Connor, Ian Wolfe. Handsome, of the Herman Melville story, but cowriterwell-acted, and most entertaining MGM director Parker strains for effect and diminproduction of classic romance between Elizishes the already unfocused satire by making everyone loony. [PG-13] ▼쩠 abeth Barrett and Robert Browning in 19thcentury England. Director Franklin remade Barton Fink (1991) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: this two decades later. Retitled for TV: Joel Coen. John Turturro, John Goodman, FORBIDDEN ALLIANCE.▼● Judy Davis, Michael Lerner, John Mahoney, Barretts of Wimpole Street, The (1957Tony Shalhoub, Jon Polito, Steve Buscemi, U.S.-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney David Warrilow, Richard Portnow, ChrisFranklin. Jennifer Jones, John Gielgud, Bill topher Murney. Self-important N.Y. playTravers, Virginia McKenna. Tame interpretawright Turturro comes to Hollywood in tion of the lilting romance between poets 1941 to write a screenplay, and finds it a Browning and Barrett, with actors bogged living hell—in more ways than one. Barbed down in prettified fluff. Director Franklin fared look at vintage Hollywood, filled with better with this in 1934. CinemaScope. ▼● incredible detail and amazing scenes; told Barrier (1966-Polish) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: in Joel and Ethan Coen’s typically flamJerzy Skolimowski. Joanna Szczerbic, Jan boyant visual style. BUT, at a crucial Nowicki, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Maria Malicka. point the film takes a sharp left turn toward Interesting view of youthful attitudes in Pothe bizarre, and never returns. Great performances all around. [R]▼●쩠 land, combining reportage with fantasy elements. Not a total success, but still intriguing. BASEketball (1998) C-103m. ★★ D: David Barry Lyndon (1975-British) C-183m. Zucker. Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Yasmine ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Stanley Kubrick. Ryan O’Neal, Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Vaughn, Marisa Berenson. Patrick Magee, Hardy Ernest Borgnine, Dian Bachar, Trevor EinKruger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Murhorn, Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Robert Stack. ray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, Andre MoSporadically funny gross-out comedy about rell, Leonard Rossiter, Marie Kean, narrated two goofballs who invent a driveway basketby Michael Hordern. Exquisite, meticulously ball game that soon sweeps the country—and detailed period piece stars O’Neal as Thackerturns them into professional athletes. Some ay’s 18th-century Irish rogue-hero who covets funny gags, but a surprisingly pedestrian stosuccess but lets it go to his head. Long, delibryline makes it sag. Starring (but not written erately paced but never boring. Won Oscars by) the creators of TV’s South Park. Recomfor John Alcott’s photography, Leonard Romended for anyone eager to see Borgnine sing ‘‘I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt.’’ [R]▼●쩠 senman’s adaptation of period music, Art Direction–Set Decoration, and Costume Design. Basic (2003) C-95m. ★★ D: John McTiernan. Screenplay by Kubrick. [PG]▼●쩠 John Travolta, Connie Nielsen, Samuel L. Barry McKenzie Holds His Own (1974Jackson, Giovanni Ribisi, Brian Van Holt, 1 ★ Australian) C-93m. ⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Taye Diggs, Cristia´n De La Fuente, Dash Barry Crocker, Barry Humphries, Donald Mihok, Tim Daly, Roselyn Sanchez, Harry Pleasence, Dick Bentley, Louis Negin. Connick, Jr. When things go awry during [ 90 ]

a military training exercise, base commander Basketball Diaries, The (1995) C-100m. ★★ Daly calls in Travolta, the best interrogator he D: Scott Kalvert. Leonardo DiCaprio, ever had, to question the remaining members Lorraine Bracco, Bruno Kirby, Marilyn of the group, whose stories don’t add up. EsSokol, Mark Wahlberg, James Modio, Ernie sentially a whodunit, this film keeps adding Hudson. Drably downbeat and none-toolayers of confusion so that it becomes less stylish rendering of poet-musician Jim Carinteresting as it goes along! The final ‘‘twist’’ roll’s ’60s recollections of heroin abuse and seems to negate the entire story, like a bad on-court prowess at a N.Y.C. Catholic shaggy-dog joke. Travolta is in great form, school. DiCaprio is well cast in role intended however. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 for River Phoenix, but imprecise updating Basic Instinct (1992) C-127m. ★★★ D: from Carroll’s very specific time frame leads to a fuzzy point of view. [R]▼●쩠 Paul Verhoeven. Michael Douglas, Sharon Stone, George Dzundza, Jeanne TrippleBasket Case (1982) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank horn, Denis Arndt, Leilani Sarelle, Bruce Henenlotter. Kevin Van Hentenryck, Terri A. Young, Chelcie Ross, Dorothy Malone, Susan Smith, Beverly Bonner, Robert Vogel, Wayne Knight, Stephen Tobolowsky. InDiana Browne. Extremely self-conscious but your-face sex thriller, with Douglas as a San intriguing tongue-in-cheek low-budget horror Francisco cop who’s fatally attracted to a key film about a twin who arrives in N.Y.C. from suspect in an ice-pick murder: brazenly sexy a small town carrying his deformed telepathic (and manipulative) Stone. Audacious, erotic, mutant brother in a basket. Some interesting and larger-than-life—with an ending that falls animated sequences in this John Waters-ish short of real satisfaction. Released overseas in film that boasts some effective horror moan unrated version that’s even more sexually ments. Followed by several sequels. [R]▼●쩠 explicit! Both versions are available on video. Basket Case 2 (1990) C-89m. BOMB D: The notorious eight shots of erotic grappling Frank Henenlotter. Kevin Van Hentenryck, totaling 42 seconds were restored to 1993 Annie Ross, Jason Evers, Kathryn Meisle, video editions. Followed by a sequel. PanaHeather Rattray, Ted Sorel. Van Hentenryck vision. [R] ▼●쩠 and his monstrously deformed twin brother Basic Instinct 2 (2006-U.S.-German) Ctake refuge in a house of freaks, but are ★★ 114m. tracked down by tabloid reporter. Arch, D: Michael Caton-Jones. Sharon Stone, David Morrissey, Charlotte Rampling, pseudo-hip film totally lacks the conviction of the first; icy cold. [R]▼●쩠 David Thewlis, Hugh Dancy, Iain Robertson, Stan Collymore. Long-gestating sequel to the Basket Case 3 (1992) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank notorious 1992 hit isn’t the embarrassment you Henenlotter. Kevin Van Hentenryck, Annie might have expected—or hoped for. What Ross, Gil Roper, Tina Louise Hilbert, Dan should have been high camp is instead a rather Biggers, Jim O’Doherty. Van Hentenryck is dull psychological-sexual thriller in which slipseparated from his deformed brother, who fapery novelist Catherine Tramell is up to her old thers a set of duodectuplets when the house of tricks in London when a male companion turns freaks from previous entry moves to Georgia. up dead in her car. Did she or didn’t she? Stone Flatly photographed, with a meandering, uninmakes the best of this and looks sensational volving plot. More serious than previous entry, but still strains for laughs. [R]▼●쩠 while the impressive British cast tries hard to keep it afloat. Super 35. [R]쩠 Basquiat (1996) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julian Basil (1998) C-102m. ★★ D: Radha BharadSchnabel. Jeffrey Wright, David Bowie, Denwaj. Jared Leto, Christian Slater, Claire Fornis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, lani, Derek Jacobi, Rachel Pickup, David Michael Wincott, Benicio Del Toro, Claire Ross. Turn-of-the-20th-century tale about a Forlani, Parker Posey, Christopher Walken, young aristocrat who (with the help of a Courtney Love, Tatum O’Neal, Paul Bartel, mysterious friend) becomes entangled with Sam Rockwell. Meandering though not unina beautiful but selfish temptress. Murky teresting bio of controversial black artist Jeanslice of Gothic suffers from sluggish pacing Michel Basquiat, who went from unknown and lack of passion. Leto struggles with his graffiti practitioner to spent comet between British accent and the lovely Forlani has 1981 and 1987. The movie doesn’t capture one haughty facial expression for every the presumed intensity of a rapid career ascent emotion. Based on a Wilkie Collins novel. before death from heroin at 28. Yet the supNever theatrically released. [R]▼쩠 porting cast is rich, topped by Bowie’s porBasileus Quartet (1982-French-Italian) trayal of Andy Warhol, which is precise even C-118m. ★★★ D: Fabio Carpi. Pierre Malet, down to the pasty skin. Look carefully at the Hector Alterio, Omero Antonutti, Michel chic party guests Basquiat spies through the Vitold, Alain Cuny, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lisa gallery window, and you’ll spot Isabella RosKreuzer. A violinist suddenly dies and his sellini. Directorial debut for artist Schnabel, colleagues, who have lived only for music, who also scripted. [R]▼●쩠 must get on with their lives—which are Bat, The (1959) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Crane Wilprofoundly altered by the young replacebur. Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, ment for the deceased. Stark, quietly Gavin Gordon, John Sutton, Lenita Lane, absorbing, beautifully realized.▼● Elaine Edwards, Darla Hood. Faithful filming [ 91 ]

of the Mary Roberts Rinehart–Avery HopBatman Begins (2005) C-140m. ★★★ D: wood play, with mystery writer Moorehead Christopher Nolan. Christian Bale, Michael renting an eerie mansion for the summer; she Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Morand her maid soon are plagued by the title gan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murfiend. Filmed before in 1915, 1926, and (as phy, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer, Ken THE BAT WHISPERS) in 1930.▼●쩠 Watanabe, Linus Roache, Rade Sherbedgia, Bataan (1943) 114m. ★★★ D: Tay Garnett. Mark Boone Junior. Highly entertaining reRobert Taylor, George Murphy, Thomas invention of the Batman legend traces the Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Bowman, Robert evolution of Bruce Wayne from privileged Walker, Desi Arnaz, Barry Nelson. Realistison of wealthy, generous parents to avengcally made drama of famous WW2 incident ing crime-fighter hoping to save a corrupt on Pacific island; good combat scenes. Also Gotham City. Script (by David S. Goyer shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 and director Nolan) also provides ingenious Bathing Beauty (1944) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: explanations of how the Caped Crusader George Sidney. Red Skelton, Esther Wilcame to adopt his various accoutrements. liams, Basil Rathbone, Ethel Smith, XaImpeccably cast (with the exception of vier Cugat, Lina Romay, Harry James and Holmes, who seems lightweight in such His Orchestra. Esther’s first starring vehicle heady company) and executed. Followed by gives Skelton and musical guest stars the THE DARK KNIGHT. Panavision. [PG13] ▼쩠 spotlight most of the way, but does have a spectacular aquatic finale. Silly script, Batman Forever (1995) C-121m. ★★★ D: thankless role for Rathbone.▼●쩠 Joel Schumacher. Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Batman (1966) C-105m. ★★ D: Leslie Jones, Jim Carrey, Nicole Kidman, Chris Martinson. Adam West, Burt Ward, Burgess O’Donnell, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, Meredith, Cesar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Lee Drew Barrymore, Debi Mazar, Rene AuberMeriwether, Neil Hamilton, Madge Blake, jonois, Joe Grifasi. Kilmer makes the role Reginald Denny. Quickly made feature to of Batman/Bruce Wayne his own in this cash in on then-hot TV series pulls out all stops, well-written sequel in which the Caped Crufeatures the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, and Catsader battles Two-Face (Jones) and The woman trying to undo the caped crusader. Riddler (Carrey) while attempting—at least Really misses the mark; the campy humor for a while—to resist the advances of a sexy worked better in the TV series. ▼●쩠 psychologist (Kidman). He also acquires a Batman (1989) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim partner in O’Donnell (as Robin), and it’s Burton. Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, this aspect of the film—the character relaKim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Pat Hingle, tionships—that give it solidity. The loud, Billy Dee Williams, Michael Gough, Jack razzle-dazzle special effects are overkill. Ed Palance, Jerry Hall, Tracey Walter, Lee Begley, Jr., appears unbilled. Followed by BATMAN & ROBIN. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wallace. There’s razzle-dazzle to spare in this dark, intense variation on Bob Kane’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993) comic book creation—but there’s also someC-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Radomski, Bruce W. thing askew when the villain (a particularly Timm. Voices of Kevin Conroy, Dana Depsychotic villain, played overboard by Nichollany, Hart Bochner, Mark Hamill, Stacy son) is so much more potent than the hero! Keach, Jr., Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Abe ViStill, lots to grab your attention, including goda, Dick Miller, John P. Ryan. Batman Anton Furst’s Oscar-winning production debattles a mysterious figure who’s killing the sign and Danny Elfman’s terrific score. Prince great gangsters of Gotham City, while, as contributes several songs. Followed by Bruce Wayne, he romances his college BATMAN RETURNS. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sweetheart, just returned to town. Then the Batman & Robin (1997) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joker turns up. . . . Excellent design (inJoel Schumacher. Arnold Schwarzenegger, spired by the 1940s Superman cartoons) is George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Uma Thurhampered by mediocre animation, but the man, Alicia Silverstone, Michael Gough, Pat story isn’t bad, and the dialogue is better Hingle, John Glover, Elle Macpherson, Vivica than you’d expect. Spinoff of animated BatA. Fox, Vendela K. Thommessen, Coolio. Batman TV series was intended for video reman #4 spotlights two colorful villains, Schwalease, but went to theaters instead. [PG] rzenegger’s lusty Mr. Freeze and Thurman’s ▼●쩠 deliciously nasty Poison Ivy, who (for different Batman Returns (1992) C-126m. ★★ D: reasons) want to destroy Gotham City, but Tim Burton. Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, even their antics can’t sustain an overlong, epiMichelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Misodic film in which the ‘‘story’’ often makes chael Gough, Michael Murphy, Cristi Conano sense. Clooney is OK but unremarkable as way, Andrew Bryniarski, Pat Hingle, Vincent Bruce Wayne/Batman, ditto for Silverstone as Schiavelli, Jan Hooks, Paul Reubens. Nasty, the new Batgirl. The action and effects are nihilistic nightmare movie about an abanloud, gargantuan, and ultimately numbing. doned freak baby who grows up to be The End of this Batman cycle; followed in 2005 Penguin—a deadly threat to Gotham City, esby BATMAN BEGINS. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 pecially when he teams up with megaloma[ 92 ]

niac Max Shreck (Walken). Meanwhile, Battle Beyond the Sun (1963) C-75m. ★★ Batman finds a more personal enemy in CatD: Thomas Colchart. Edd Perry, Arla Powwoman. Rich performances, dazzling producell, Andy Stewart, Bruce Hunter. Soviet scition design, and occasional cleverness can’t fi film NEBO ZOVYOT (1959) is refashmake up for a dark, mean-spirited (and often ioned into so-so American product by proincoherent) screenplay. Followed by Keatonducer Roger Corman; story deals with rival less BATMAN FOREVER. [PG-13]▼●쩠 space missions to Mars. The names of the Baton Rouge (1988-Spanish) C-98m. ★★ director and actors are all pseudonyms; D: Rafael Moleon. Antonio Banderas, VicFrancis Ford Coppola, credited as Associate toria Abril, Carmen Maura, Andres Lopez, Producer, oversaw the English adaptation. Laura Cepeda. Gigolo Banderas preys on a His father Carmine (billed as ‘‘Carmen’’ Coppola) wrote the music.▼쩠 sexually dysfunctional wealthy woman, and winds up in a scam with her psychiatrist. Battle Circus (1953) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Interesting sex scenes and suspense can’t Brooks. Humphrey Bogart, June Allyson, make up for utterly confusing plot twists. Keenan Wynn, Robert Keith, Philip Ahn. Another Banderas film taken off the shelf OK tale of MASH unit during Korean War after he became known in the U.S. [R]▼ is well acted, and occasionally exciting, but Bats (1999) C-91m. BOMB D: Louis Morhampered by too much emphasis on the roneau. Lou Diamond Phillips, Dina Meyer, Bob mance between surgeon Bogart and nurse Gunton, Leon, Carlos Jacott, David McConAllyson. Surprisingly ordinary, coming nell. Hordes of mutated killer bats attack a from writer-director Brooks.▼ Southwestern community. That’s all the plot Battle Creek Brawl SEE: Big Brawl, The the movie has, but it does feature a top-of-theBattle Cry (1955) C-149m. ★★★ D: Raoul line motivation for its mad scientist (Gunton): Walsh. Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, Mona Freehe creates the bats, he says, because he can. man, Nancy Olson, James Whitmore, RayDeplorable. DVD is rated R. Followed by a mond Massey, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone, made-for-TV sequel. Clairmont-Scope. [PGAnne Francis, William Campbell, John Lup13] ▼쩠 ton, Fess Parker, Rhys Williams, Allyn (Ann) *batteries not included (1987) C-106m. McLerie. Entertaining version of Leon Uris ★★ D: Matthew Robbins. Hume Cronyn, WW2 Marine novel, with much barracks proJessica Tandy, Frank McRae, Elizabeth fanity removed for film, focusing on serPena, Michael Carmine, Dennis Boutsikaris. vicemen in training, wartime romance, and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Productions has frustrating battle assignments—with Heflin gone to the same well once too often. Cloystriving to get his men the tough combat acing sci-fi fantasy has a ‘‘family’’ of small tion they yearn for. Hunter as wholesome alien spacecrafts arrive to assist New soldier and Malone a love-hungry Navy wife Yorkers whose tenement is about to be stand out in episodic actioner. Ray gives good demolished. Cronyn and Tandy do far more performance as rough-hewn gyrene who falls for the film than it does for them. [PG]▼●쩠 in love with ‘‘nice girl’’ Olson. Film debut Battle at Apache Pass, The (1952) C-85m. of Justus McQueen, who thereafter acted ★★1⁄2 D: George Sherman. Jeff Chandler, under the name of his character, L.Q. Jones. John Lund, Beverly Tyler, Richard Egan, Musical score by Max Steiner. Screenplay Hugh O’Brian, Jay Silverheels. Chandler by Uris. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 reprises his BROKEN ARROW role as Battlefield Earth (2000) C-117m. BOMB Cochise, who tries to prevent Indian wars D: Roger Christian. John Travolta, Barry but doesn’t quite succeed. Pepper, Forest Whitaker, Kim Coates, RichBattle Beneath the Earth (1967-Britishard Tyson, Sabine Karsenti, Michael MacU.S.) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Montgomery Tully. Rae, Kelly Preston. Psychlos (businessKerwin Mathews, Viviane Ventura, Robert minded aliens) conquered Earth a century Ayres, Peter Arne, Al Mulock, Martin Benago; what remains of humanity are slaves son. Silly but enjoyable pulp fantasy about or ignorant savages. Gold-greedy Psychlo Chinese plan to invade U.S. through network security chief Travolta educates bright human of tunnels.▼ Pepper, hoping ‘‘man animals’’ can mine Battle Beyond the Stars (1980) C-104m. the metal for him. Big mistake. . . . So is ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jimmy T. Murakami. Richard the movie, based on the novel by L. Ron Thomas, John Saxon, Robert Vaughn, Hubbard. Clumsy plot, misplaced satire, unDarlanne Fleugel, George Peppard, Sybil believable coincidences and a leaden pace Danning, Sam Jaffe, Morgan Woodward, trample Travolta’s weird but amusing perJeff Corey, Julia Duffy. Not-bad space formance. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 saga from Roger Corman, with good speBattle for Anzio, The SEE: Anzio cial effects and a John Sayles script that Battle Force SEE: Great Battle, The uses the reliable SEVEN SAMURAI/ Battle for Terra (2009) C-79m. ★★ D: AriMAGNIFICENT SEVEN formula (with stomenis Tsirbas. Voices of Evan Rachel Vaughn from the SEVEN cast). Sets and Wood, Brian Cox, James Garner, Chris special effects were reused for countless Evans, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, David subsequent Corman cheapies. [PG]▼●쩠 Cross, Justin Long, Dennis Quaid, Luke [ 93 ]

Wilson, Mark Hamill, Ron Perlman, BevStraightforward drama about revolt against erly D’Angelo, Danny Trejo, Rosanna Arthe French by Algerians from 1954–1962. quette, Laraine Newman. The last remains Its impressive pseudo-documentary style of the human race, in their quest to survive, helped earn it many awards, and the searing threaten to annihilate the inhabitants of a imperialism vs. independence struggle it depeaceful planet. When a friendship forms bepicts still resonates today.▼●쩠 tween a downed Earthling invader and a TerBattle of Britain (1969-British) C-132m. ★★ ranian princess, they plot together to drive D: Guy Hamilton. Harry Andrews, Michael the humans away. Environmentally conscious Caine, Trevor Howard, Curt Jurgens, Kenneth animated film with a strong antiwar message More, Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plumis a tolerable sit for adults. There are several mer, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, spectacular aerial action sequences, but charRobert Shaw, Susannah York. Superb wideacter designs are generic and personalities cliscreen aerial sequences, which will suffer on che´d. Digital Widescreen. [PG] TV, hardly redeem yet another ‘‘spot-theBattle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) star’’ WW2 epic, this time about British airC-92m. ★★ D: J. Lee Thompson. Roddy men who prevented threatened Nazi invasion. McDowall, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden, Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Paul Williams, Claude Akins, John Huston. Battle of El Alamein (1968-Italian-French) Substandard; fifth (and last) apes installment C-105m. ★★ D: Calvin Jackson Padget attempts to bring entire series full-cycle. Good (Giorgio Ferroni). Frederick Stafford, Ettore footage from earlier films helps, but not Manni, Robert Hossein, Michael Rennie, much. A TV series followed. Panavision. George Hilton, Ira Furstenberg. Plenty of ac[G]▼●쩠 tion as Italians and Germans, partners in an Battleground (1949) 118m. ★★★ D: Wiluneasy alliance, fight the British in the North liam Wellman. Van Johnson, John Hodiak, African desert in 1942. Hossein plays RomRicardo Montalban, George Murphy, Marmel, and Rennie does an unsympathetic Field shall Thompson, Denise Darcel, Don TayMarshal Montgomery (the British are the villor, Richard Jaeckel, James Whitmore, James lains in this one). Cromoscope. [PG]▼쩠 Arness, Scotty Beckett. Star-studded replay Battle of Mareth, The SEE: Great Battle, of Battle of the Bulge: division of American The troops, their problems and reactions to war. Battle of Neretva, The (1970-YugoslavianRobert Pirosh’s slick script, which was U.S.-Italian-German) C-102m. ★★ D: Veljko awarded an Oscar, lacks genuine insight into Bulajic. Yul Brynner, Sergei Bondarchuk, the characters; Paul C. Vogel also earned a Curt Jurgens, Sylva Koscina, Hardy Krustatuette for his cinematography. Also shown ger, Franco Nero, Orson Welles. Originally in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film, ★★★ D: Battle Hymn (1957) C-108m. but when this $12 million spectacle about Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson, Martha Hyer, Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia was cut down Anna Kashfi, Dan Duryea, Don DeFore. from nearly three hours, it lost most of its Hudson gives convincing performance as coherency. Too bad. Panavision. [G]▼ clergyman who returns to military duty in KoBattle of Shaker Heights, The (2003) Crean War to train fighter pilots; expansive pro79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kyle Rankin, Efram Potelle. duction values. CinemaScope. ▼쩠 Shia LaBeouf, Elden Henson, Amy Smart, ★★★ D: Battle in Seattle (2008) C-98m. Billy Kay, Kathleen Quinlan, Shiri Appleby, Stuart Townsend. Charlize Theron, Woody William Sadler, Ray Wise, Anson Mount. SecHarrelson, Martin Henderson, Andre´ Benjaond of the prize-winning Project Greenlight min, Michelle Rodriguez, Ray Liotta, Connie screenplays executive produced by Matt Nielsen, Channing Tatum, Joshua Jackson, Damon and Ben Affleck is a comedy-drama Jennifer Carpenter, Isaach de Bankole´, Tzi about a high school misfit (winningly played Ma, Ivana Milicevic, Rade Sherbedzija. Comby LaBeouf) who glibly covers the hurt he pelling film about various people affected by feels inside from troubles at home. A weekthe turbulent protests over the World Trade end war reenactor, he teams up with a preppie Organization conference in Seattle in 1999. pal to seek revenge on his high school Organizers Henderson, Rodriguez, and nemesis . . . then develops a serious crush on Benjamin are sincere in their goal of nonvihis new friend’s older sister. Nothing startling olent demonstrations, and mayor Liotta is or new, but entertaining. [PG-13] ▼쩠 counting on that, but nothing goes as Battle of the Aces SEE: Von Richthofen planned. Not all of the personal stories are and Brown equally commanding, but first-time writerBattle of the Bulge (1965) C-163m. ★★ D: director Townsend artfully blends dramatic Ken Annakin. Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, re-creations with actual news footage to creRobert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Dana Andrews, ate visceral, immediate drama. [R]쩠 George Montgomery, Ty Hardin, Pier Angeli, Battle of Algiers, The (1965-ItalianCharles Bronson. Originally presented in CinAlgerian) 125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gillo Ponteerama, this overinflated war drama about an corvo. Yacef Saadi, Jean Martin, Brahim Haggiag, Tommaso Neri, Samia Kerbash. important event cannot triumph over banal [ 94 ]

script. Read a good book on the subject Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, Jerry Reed, instead. Ultra Panavision 70.▼●쩠 David Marshall Grant, Clayton Rohner, Erich Battle of the River Plate, The SEE: PurAnderson, Joe Dorsey. Air Force Colonel and suit of the Graf Spee strategist Hackman has only seen the war Battle of the Sexes, The (1959-British) from 30,000 feet, until he’s shot down behind ★★★ 84m. enemy lines. Now it’s up to Glover to get him D: Charles Crichton. Peter Sellers, Robert Morley, Constance Cummings, out before the Viet Cong get him, and before Jameson Clark. Sparkling British comedy his own forces carpet-bomb the area. Taut, with macabre overtones; Sellers is elderly compelling film, based on a true story, with Scotsman contemplating murder. Supportfine acting all around. Costar Reed was execing cast keeps this moving.▼ utive producer and wrote some of the songs for the soundtrack. [R]▼●쩠 Battle of the Villa Fiorita, The (1965British) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delmer Daves. Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones, The (1976-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Cliff Owen. Maureen O’Hara, Rossano Brazzi, Richard Todd, Phyllis Calvert, Martin Stephens. Nicky Henson, Trevor Howard, Joan ColUnconvincing soaper with O’Hara running lins, Terry-Thomas, Arthur Lowe, Georoff to Italy to carry on with widower gia Brown. Mild doings, based on London Brazzi; predictable interference from each’s stage musical, can’t hold a candle to 1963 children. Panavision. classic (TOM JONES). This time, Tom’s Battle of the Worlds (1961-Italian) C-84m. amorous adventures are pat and predictable, ★1 ⁄2 D: Anthony Dawson (Antonio Marwith Collins, as highwaywoman Black Bess, adding only zing. [R]▼ gheriti). Claude Rains, Maya Brent, Bill Carter, Umberto Orsini, Jacqueline Derval. Rains Baxter (1973) C-100m. ★★★ D: Lionel adds some weight to this English-dubbed Jeffries. Patricia Neal, Scott Jacoby, Jeancheapie about scientists’ frantic efforts to stop Pierre Cassel, Lynn Carlin, Britt Ekland, alien planet from colliding with Earth. Eerie Sally Thomsett. Well-acted drama about atmosphere also helps a little.▼쩠 young Jacoby’s emotional problems and his Battleship Potemkin (1925-Russian) 70m. relationship with speech therapist Neal, who ★★★★ D: Sergei Eisenstein. Alexander Antotries to correct his lisp. [PG] Baxter (1991-French) C-82m. ★★★ D: Jenov, Vladimir Barsky, Grigori Alexandrov, Mikhail Goronorov. Landmark film about rome Boivin. Lise Delamare, Jean Mercure, 1905 Revolution. Unlike many staples of Jacques Spiesser, Catherine Ferran, Jeanfilm history classes, this one has the power Paul Roussillon. Illuminating observation to grip any audience. Odessa Steps seof the human condition as perceived through quence is possibly the most famous movie the unlikeliest of eyes: the title canine, a scene of all time. Aka POTEMKIN.▼●쩠 bull terrier who thinks and feels, and reBattlestar: Galactica (1979) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 veals what’s on his mind. The most disD: Richard A. Colla. Richard Hatch, Dirk turbing of his various masters: a seemingly Benedict, Lorne Greene, Ray Milland, John average young boy who turns out to be a Colicos, Patrick Macnee, Lew Ayres, Jane fascist-in-training. Boivin coscripted.▼● Seymour, Laurette Spang, Terry Carter. Baxter, The (2005) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiFeature adapted from first episode of shortchael Showalter. Michael Showalter, Elizalived TV series; Greene is commander of beth Banks, Justin Theroux, Michelle starship taking survivors of doomed planet Williams, Michael Ian Black, Zak Orth, Peter in search of new home. Belongs on small Dinklage, Catherine Lloyd Burns, Katharine screen, where it’s moderately interesting Powell, Paul Rudd. A Brooklyn CPA (Shoand John Dykstra’s special effects come off walter) is standing at the altar when—boom!— best. Premiere originally telecast at 148m. the ex (Theroux) of his intended (Banks) [PG]▼●쩠 crashes the wedding. This nice schlub is charBattle Stripe SEE: Men, The acterized as a ‘‘Baxter’’ who can’t tell the difBattletruck SEE: Warlords of the 21st ference between contentment and happiness. Century What else to do but turn to the ready advice and Battling Bellhop SEE: Kid Galahad (1937) willing ministrations of his able temp (a cute Battling Butler (1926) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Buster Williams). Mild romantic comedy was written Keaton. Buster Keaton, Sally O’Neil, Snitz by the director, who would have benefited from a less cartoonish leading man. [PG-13]쩠 Edwards, Francis McDonald, Mary O’Brien, Tom Wilson, Eddie Borden. Pampered Bay Boy, The (1984-Canadian-French) C-107m. ★★ D: Daniel Petrie. Liv Ullmann, young millionaire falls in love with a girl during a camping trip, and then has to Kiefer Sutherland, Peter Donat, Mathieu pretend he’s actually a champion prizeCarriere, Isabelle Mejias, Alan Scarfe, fighter. One of Buster’s weaker silent feaChris Wiggins, Leah Pinsent. Well-meantures still has its share of funny moments. ing but hopelessly predictable portrayal of a teenager (Sutherland, son of Donald), Based on a stage play. ▼●쩠 Battling Hoofer SEE: Something to Sing and his coming of age in rural Canadian About community during 1930s. You’ve seen this Bat*21 (1988) C-105m. ★★★ D: Peter Markle. one many times before; Ullmann in partic[ 95 ]

ular is one-dimensional as Sutherland’s originally titled VESSEL OF WRATH. hardworking mother. [R]▼● The sole directorial outing of esteemed Bay of Angels (1963-French) 79m. ★★★ D: German producer (and Laughton partner) Pommer. Remade in 1955.▼ Jacques Demy. Jeanne Moreau, Claude Mann, Paul Guers, Henri Nassiet. LesserBeachcomber, The (1955-British) C-82m. ★★★ known but no less rewarding French New D: Muriel Box. Glynis Johns, Robert Wave drama tells the story of a young man Newton, Donald Sinden, Michael Hordern, whose chronic gambling leads him into a danDonald Pleasence. Remake of Somerset gerous affair with a woman he meets in the Maugham tale of South Sea island bum casino. Their luck at the tables mirrors their entangled with strait-laced sister of misown tumultuous relationship. A vividly blonde sionary is still flavorful.▼ Moreau is sensational in one of her best, leastBeaches (1988) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Garry seen performances. Z master Costa-Gavras is Marshall. Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, credited as Assistant to Director. Shot in John Heard, Spalding Gray, Lainie Kazan, gorgeous b&w in the South of France; reJames Read, Grace Johnston, Mayim Bialik, stored for 2002 U.S. reissue. Score by freMarcie Leeds. Bittersweet saga of a 30quent Demy collaborator Michel Legrand is year friendship that begins when two girls— one of his best. CinemaScope.▼쩠 one rich and pampered, the other poor and Bay of Blood SEE: Twitch of the Death driven to show-biz success—meet on the Nerve beach at Atlantic City. OK as soap opera Beach, The (2000) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: (not much depth to the characters and their Danny Boyle. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda motives, and at least two endings too many) Swinton, Virginie Ledoyen, Guillaume but as a vehicle for Midler it’s dynamite, Canet, Paterson Joseph, Robert Carlyle, and she even gets to sing. Based on a novel Peter Youngblood Hills. Young American by Iris Rainer Dart; Midler coproduced. Dilooking for ‘‘something different’’ goes to rector Marshall features his on-screen ‘‘regBangkok, hooks up with a French couple, ulars’’ in a variety of cameo roles, including and together they follow a map to an elusive Hector Elizondo as a justice of the peace. and secluded island beach . . . but paradise [PG-13]▼●쩠 is not all it’s cracked up to be. Consistently Beachhead (1954) C-89m. ★★★ D: Stuart interesting if sometimes muddled adaptaHeisler. Tony Curtis, Frank Lovejoy, Mary tion of Alex Garland’s novel is naive at Murphy, Eduard Franz, Skip Homeier, John times and leans toward purplish prose in Doucette. Tense WW2 drama in which a DiCaprio’s narration. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 small group of Marines sets out to locate Beach Ball (1965) C-83m. ★★ D: Lennie a French plantation owner, and a critical message, on a Japanese-held island.쩠 Weinrib. Edd Byrnes, Chris Noel, Robert Logan, Gale Gilmore, Aron Kincaid. DifBeach Party (1963) C-101m. ★★ D: Wilferent group tries a beach picture, but it’s liam Asher. Frankie Avalon, Annette essentially the same. Pretty girls, surfing, Funicello, Bob Cummings, Dorothy MalEdd in drag, and performances by The one, Harvey Lembeck, Jody McCrea, John Supremes, Four Seasons, Righteous Bros., Ashley, Morey Amsterdam, Candy JohnHondells, Walker Bros. son, Eva Six. Anthropologist Cummings Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) C-98m. ★★★ studies teenagers’ ‘‘wild’’ behavior, but D: William Asher. Frankie Avalon, Ancomes to learn they aren’t so bad after all. nette Funicello, Paul Lynde, Harvey LemFirst in long-running series is typical blend beck, Don Rickles, Linda Evans, Jody of slapstick and forgettable songs, as well McCrea, Marta Kristen, John Ashley, Deboas introduction of Lembeck’s dopey Brandorah Walley, Buster Keaton, Bobbi Shaw, biker takeoff, Eric Von Zipper. Sequel: Timothy Carey. Fifth BEACH PARTY MUSCLE BEACH PARTY. Panavision. movie is the best; amid various plot entan▼쩠 glements (parachuting, kidnapped singing Beach Red (1967) C-105m. ★★★ D: Cornel idol Evans, mermaid Kristen), Lynde sneers Wilde. Cornel Wilde, Rip Torn, Burr De at everybody, Rickles insults everybody, Benning, Patrick Wolfe, Jean Wallace. and Lembeck gets to sing before being cut Hard look at military life in South Pacific into two halves by Carey’s buzzsaw. The attempts to show ugly side of war. 쩠 ultimate wallow in ’60s surfing nostalgia. Bean (1997-British) C-90m. ★★★ D: Mel Sequel: HOW TO STUFF A WILD BISmith. Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, KINI. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Pamela Reed, Harris Yulin, Burt Reynolds, Beachcomber, The (1938-British) 92m. John Mills, Larry Drake, Johnny Galecki, ★★★ D: Erich Pommer. Charles Laughton, Tom McGowan, Sandra Oh. Mr. Bean, feaElsa Lanchester, Tyrone Guthrie, Robert tured in a series of TV skits and specials, Newton, Dolly Mollinger. Disheveled bum makes his feature-film debut as a guard at Laughton, living on island paradise, is rethe National Gallery of Art in London who’s formed by missionary Lanchester. Two sent to America, posing as a noted art expert, stars (married in real life) delightful in to accompany ‘‘Whistler’s Mother’’ as it is filmization of W. Somerset Maugham story unveiled at a California museum. Never quite [ 96 ]

as wonderful as you’d like it to be, but often from its battalion in Afghan desert, tries to very funny. Bean’s misadventures are remireach safety, while pursued by vengeful Afniscent of silent film comedy and largely deghan rebels. Eventually, a peace-minded pendent on the winning silliness of Atkinson Russian from the tank, left to die by his himself. Followed by MR. BEAN’S HOLIbrutal commander, joins the rebels himself. DAY. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Serviceable (if predictable) plot is underBeans of Egypt, Maine, The (1994) Cmined by ponderous pace and stereotyped characters. Filmed in Israel. [R]▼쩠 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jennifer Warren. Martha Plimpton, Kelly Lynch, Rutger Hauer, PatBeast From Haunted Cave (1960) 64m. ★★ rick McGaw, Richard Sanders, Michael D: Monte Hellman. Michael Forest, MacRae. Episodic, mildly interesting acSheila Carol, Frank Wolff, Richard Sinatra, count of the Beans, a large, rough-andWally Campo. Economically shot (to say tumble backwoods clan, and the most notothe least) by Roger Corman’s company on rious residents of Egypt, Maine (pop. 729). scenic locations near Deadwood, South Film centers on the relationship, sexual and Dakota, this pits fleeing robbers against a otherwise, between Beal Bean (McGaw), a mysterious, spiderlike monster. Charles B. hot, prideful young stud, and the Beans’ Griffith script has some good dialogue, neighbor (Plimpton). Based on the best-selland Sinatra (Frank’s nephew) and Carol ing novel by Carolyn Chute. An American showed promise. Monster created and played Playhouse coproduction. Retitled FORBIDby actor Chris Robinson. Remake of NAKED DEN CHOICES for video. [R]▼● PARADISE, with monster added.▼쩠 Bear, The (1984) C-112m. ★★ D: Richard Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, The (1953) Sarafian. Gary Busey, Cynthia Leake, Harry 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eugene Lourie. Paul ChrisDean Stanton, Jon-Erik Hexum, Carmen tian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, KenThomas, Cary Guffey, D’Urville Martin. neth Tobey, Donald Woods, Lee Van Cleef, Incredibly corny, old-fashioned Hollywood Ross Elliott. Prehistoric rhedosaurus wreaks bio of famed Alabama collegiate football havoc when thawed after an atom-bomb coach Paul ‘‘Bear’’ Bryant. Busey’s sincere, blast. Good Ray Harryhausen special efgravel-voiced portrayal can’t compensate fects, especially in amusement park finfor episodic, repetitive, and undramatic ale. Suggested by the Ray Bradbury short script. [PG] story ‘‘The Fog Horn.’’▼●쩠 Bear, The (1989-French) C-93m. ★★★ D: Beast in the Cellar, The (1971-British) Jean-Jacques Annaud. Bart, Douce, Jack C-87m. ★★ D: James Kelly. Beryl Reid, Wallace, Tche´ky Karyo, Andre Lacombe. Flora Robson, John Hamill, T. P. McCaptivating and unusual film about a bear Kenna, Tessa Wyatt. Two sisters hide their cub who is orphaned and forced to fend maniac brother in the cellar; performances for itself, until it finds a new protector in a of Reid and Robson bring movie to average level. British running time was 101m.▼쩠 giant Kodiak—the tempting target for a pair of hunters. Filmed with utmost reBeastmaster, The (1982) C-118m. ★★ D: spect for animals and a real sense of naDon Coscarelli. Marc Singer, Tanya Robture’s magnificence, though manipulative, erts, Rip Torn, John Amos, Rod Loomis. to be sure. Based on The Grizzly King, a Yet another sword and sandal fantasy with 1917 novel by James Oliver Curwood. PaConan/Tarzan-clone hero who communinavision. [PG]▼●쩠 cates with animals (including, believe it or Bear Island (1979-British-Canadian) Cnot, some comedic ferrets), falls in love 118m. ★1⁄2 D: Don Sharp. Donald Sutherwith slave girl Roberts and seeks revenge land, Vanessa Redgrave, Richard Widagainst evil priest (Torn) who killed his mark, Christopher Lee, Barbara Parkins, father. Cinematography by John Alcott Lloyd Bridges, Lawrence Dane. One of (BARRY LYNDON). Followed by several sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 Alistair MacLean’s best novels became one of his worst films, mixing murder, intrigue Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of and stolen bullion near the top of the world. Time (1991) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Sylvio TaStrong cast, capable director and scenic lobet. Marc Singer, Kari Wuhrer, Sarah cations come to naught. Barely released to Douglas, Wings Hauser, James Avery, Robtheatres. Panavision. [PG]▼ ert Fieldsteel, Arthur Malet, Robert Z’Dar, Bears and I, The (1974) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Berryman, Larry Dobkin. Hero Bernard McEveety. Patrick Wayne, Chief Dar returns (belatedly) to battle another Dan George, Andrew Duggan, Michael evil wizard (Hauser)—this time, thanks to Ansara. Vietnam vet Wayne tries to soothe magician Douglas, in the streets of modernrelations in North Woods between Indians day L.A. Some cleverness, but cheaply and white bigots. Mild Disney film. [G]▼쩠 made and contrived. Nine writers are Beast, The (1971) SEE: Equinox credited. Followed by a TV sequel.▼● Beast, The (1988) C-109m. ★★ D: Kevin Beast Must Die, The (1974-British) C-93m. ★★★ D: Paul Annett. Calvin Lockhart, Peter Reynolds. Jason Patric, Steven Bauer, George Dzundza, Stephen Baldwin, Don Cushing, Charles Gray, Marlene Clark, Harvey, Kabir Bedi. Soviet tank, cut off Anton Diffring. New twists on the old [ 97 ]

werewolf theme make the difference. Milschool dominated by gangs. He brings poetry lionaire sportsman Lockhart invites guests and mystical fantasy into his classmates’ lives. to his electronically bugged mansion, knowEarnest cast but treatment of generation gap issues is old hat. [R]▼● ing one of them is a werewolf. Lockhart is overly mannered, while Cushing gains symBeat Generation, The (1959) 95m. ★1⁄2 pathy in his usual quiet but effective way. D: Charles Haas. Steve Cochran, Mamie Like TEN LITTLE INDIANS, this movie Van Doren, Ray Danton, Fay Spain, Louis gives audience a break to guess killer’s idenArmstrong, Maggie Hayes, Jackie Coogan, tity. From story ‘‘There Shall Be No DarkRay Anthony, Maxie Rosenbloom, Irish ness’’ by James Blish. Video title: BLACK McCalla, Vampira. Exploitation-type story WEREWOLF. [PG]▼●쩠 of detective Cochran tracking down insane Beast of Blood SEE: Beast of the Dead sexual assaulter; vivid sequences marred Beast of the City, The (1932) 87m. ★★★ by hokey script. Retitled THIS REBEL AGE. CinemaScope.● D: Charles Brabin. Walter Huston, Jean Harlow, Wallace Ford, Jean Hersholt, DorBeat Girl SEE: Wild for Kicks Beatrice (1988-French) C-128m. ★★★ D: othy Peterson, Tully Marshall, John Miljan, Mickey Rooney. ‘‘Instead of the glorificaBertrand Tavernier. Bernard Pierre Donnation of gangsters, we need the glorification dieu, Julie Delpy, Nils Tavernier, Monique of policemen,’’ reads President Hoover’s Chaumette, Robert Dhery, Michele Gleizer. opening statement, and this film delivers, Moody and well-mounted, if essentially in W. R. Burnett’s solid, surprisingly gritty ugly saga of the Hundred Years War; a story, a sort of early DIRTY HARRY with father returns home from the front to bully a downbeat ending. Harlow is incredibly his weakling son and engage his tougher sexy as a gang moll.쩠 (and beautiful) daughter in incest. Extremely Beast of the Dead (1970) C-90m. BOMB violent and not for all tastes, but obviously D: Eddie Romero. John Ashley, Eddie Garthe work of an outstanding filmmaker; try cia, Beverly Miller, Celeste Yarnall. Sereconciling this with Tavernier’s A SUNquel to MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISDAY IN THE COUNTRY. Video title: LAND, with that film’s headless monster THE PASSION OF BEATRICE. [R]▼● stalking natives on Pacific island while Beat Street (1984) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stan mad doctor plans new head transplant. Lathan. Rae Dawn Chong, Guy Davis, Filmed in the Philippines. Originally titled Jon Chardiet, Leon W. Grant, Saundra BEAST OF BLOOD. [PG]▼쩠 Santiago, Robert Taylor. Urban ghetto kids Beast of Yucca Flats, The (1961) 60m. find creative outlets in painting graffiti, BOMB D: Coleman Francis. Douglas breakdancing, rapping, and developing new Mellor, Tor Johnson, Barbara Francis. Johndisco d.j. routines. A slicker version of son becomes a disfigured monster as a WILD STYLE that places the old Mickey result of exposure to an A-bomb test. One & Judy ‘‘let’s put on a show’’ formula into of the worst films ever made, presented as a more realistic contemporary setting. Ina virtual silent film with voice-over narranocuous trend piece, coproduced by Harry tion. Subplot of a succession of volupBelafonte. [PG]▼●쩠 tuous women being strangled bears little Beat That My Heart Skipped, The (2005relation to the main story.▼쩠 French) C-108m. ★★★ D: Jacques Audiard. Beasts SEE: Twilight People, The Romain Duris, Niels Arestrup, Jonathan Beast with Five Fingers, The (1946) 88m. Zaccaı¨, Gilles Cohen, Linh-Dan Pham, ★★1 Aure Atika, Emmanuelle Devos. Entertain⁄2 D: Robert Florey. Robert Alda, Andrea King, Peter Lorre, Victor Francen, J. ing reworking of James Toback’s FINCarrol Naish. Intriguing if not entirely GERS, centering on a dour young man successful mood-piece about aging pianist (Duris) who is unable to decide if he will and strange doings in his household. Lorre’s embrace a life of classical music or lawconfrontation with disembodied hand a horbreaking. Not as gripping or provocative as ror highlight.▼● the original, but still worthwhile. 쩠 Beast Within, The (1982) C-90m. BOMB Beat the Devil (1954) 89m. ★★★ D: John D: Philippe Mora. Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Paul Clemens, Don Gordon, R. G. ArmGina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter strong, L. Q. Jones, Meshach Taylor. Besch Lorre, Edward Underdown. Huston and was raped by hairy-legged ‘‘thing’’ while on Truman Capote concocted this offbeat, very honeymoon; her son (Clemens), now a teenfunny satire of MALTESE FALCON-ish ager, commences killing, and killing, and killmovies on location in Italy. Low-key naing. Oh, yes, he changes into a monster at one ture of comedy eluded many people in 1954 and it immediately became a cult point, if you care. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Beat, The (1988) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul favorite, which it remains today.▼●쩠 Mones. John Savage, David Jacobson, Kara Beau Brummell (1954-U.S.-British) C113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis Bernhardt. Stewart Glover, William McNamara, Jeffrey Horowitz. Well-meaning but painfully gauche Granger, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Ustinov, drama of new kid Jacobson at a N.Y.C. high Robert Morley. Handsome cast in lavish [ 98 ]

production from Granger’s rash of cosMaurice Ronet, Nicole Garcia, Nathalie Baye, tume epics. Here, he’s the famous 19thMaurice Risch, Macha Meril. Piano player Decentury British Casanova-fop (played by waere is seduced by his determined stepdaughJohn Barrymore in the 1924 version). ▼ ter, a 14-year-old child-woman (Besse), after Beaufort (2007-Israeli) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: the death of her mother. Thoughtful comedyJoseph Cedar. Oshri Cohen, Itay Tiran, Eli drama is sensitively, not exploitively, hanEltonyo, Ohad Knoller, Itay Turgeman, dled by director Blier. Panavision. ▼쩠 Alon Aboutboul. Beaufort Castle, a 12thBeautician and the Beast, The (1997) Ccentury Crusaders’ fort, was captured by the 105m. ★1⁄2 D: Ken Kwapis. Fran Drescher, Israeli army in 1982 on the first day of its Timothy Dalton, Ian McNeice, Patrick Mawar with Lebanon, though it was of no stralahide, Lisa Jakub, Michael Lerner, Phyllis tegic importance. Israeli soldiers have been Newman. Stuck in the salon with her TV defending it against the bombs of a faceless aspirations going nowhere, a Queens beautienemy for almost two decades, and now cian readily accepts when she’s hired (on a they are ordered to abandon Beaufort as the blunder) to tutor the emotionally deprived Israelis plan their withdrawal from Lebachildren of Slovetzia’s widowed dictator. No non. Subtly compelling drama offers an unnun sings ‘‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain,’’ but this compromising portrait of men in combat comedy can be taken as a warped variation on and the pointlessness of war. Ron Leshem THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Drescher’s beadapted his novel with Cedar. Super 35.쩠 guiling loopiness carries it for a while, but Beau Geste (1939) 114m. ★★★ D: William the already limited chuckles halt with a full half-hour to go. [PG]▼●쩠 Wellman. Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan HayBeauties of the Night (1954-French) 84m. ★★1 ward, J. Carrol Naish, Albert Dekker, ⁄2 D: Rene´ Clair. Ge´rard Philipe, Martine Broderick Crawford, Donald O’Connor. Carol, Gina Lollobrigida, Magali Vendeuil. Scene-for-scene remake of famous 1926 Diverting fantasy involving aspiring composer silent film (with Ronald Colman) isn’t Philipe with penchant for dreams wanderquite as good but faithfully retells story of ing through various eras of history. ▼ three devoted brothers serving in the ForBeautiful (2000) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Sally eign Legion and battling sadistic martinet Field. Minnie Driver, Joey Lauren Adams, commander (Donlevy). Nothing can top Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Kathleen Turner, that opening sequence! Based on the novel Leslie Stefanson, Michael McKean, Colleen by P.C. Wren. Remade in 1966.▼●쩠 Rennison, Bridgette Wilson. A young girl Beau Geste (1966) C-103m. ★★ D: Dougwith the ambition of being a beauty pageant las Heyes. Telly Savalas, Guy Stockwell, Doug queen grows up to be a win-at-all-costs career McClure, Leslie Nielsen. The third version of contestant (Driver). When she accidentally Christopher Wren’s adventure about honor in becomes pregnant, she has her best friend the French Foreign Legion is barely adequate, raise the child. Good cast combats an uneven with brothers battling rampaging Arabs and script filled with one-dimensional characters; sadistic commander Savalas. Techniscope. a distant runner-up to SMILE. Field’s featureBeau James (1957) C-105m. ★★★ D: Melfilm directing debut. [PG-13]▼쩠 ville Shavelson. Bob Hope, Vera Miles, Paul Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend, Douglas, Alexis Smith, Darren McGavin; narThe (1949) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Preston Sturges. rated by Walter Winchell. Flavorful recreation Betty Grable, Cesar Romero, Rudy Vallee, of the political career of Mayor Jimmy Olga San Juan, Porter Hall, Sterling Walker in 1920s N.Y.C., based on Gene Holloway, El Brendel. Film was major Fowler’s book. Hope is fine in basically nonflop in 1949, looks somewhat better today; comic performance. Guest appearances by broad Western farce has Grable a gunJimmy Durante, Jack Benny, George Jessel, toting saloon girl mistaken for schoolmarm Walter Catlett. VistaVision. in hick town. Hugh Herbert hilarious as Beaumarchais the Scoundrel (1996-French) nearsighted doctor.▼● ★★★ C-100m. D: Edouard Molinaro. Fabrice Beautiful but Deadly SEE: Don Is Dead, Luchini, Manuel Blanc, Sandrine Kiberlain, The Jacques Weber, Florence Thomassin, Jean Beautiful Country, The (2005-U.S.Yanne, Michel Piccoli, Michel Serrault, Norwegian) C-125m. ★★★ D: Hans Petter Jean-Claude Brialy. Luchini gives a marvelMoland. Damien Nguyen, Nick Nolte, Bai ous performance as the 18th-century playLing, Tim Roth, Be He, Xuan Phuc Dinh, wright, wit, and defender of human rights in Phat Trieu Hoang, Than Kien Nguyen. Boy this episodic biopic that encompasses everywho was the product of a Vietnamese thing from backstage theatrical drama and mother and American G.I. who fought in royal intrigue to gun-running for the Amerithe war becomes an outcast in his own vilcan Revolution. As light and insubstantial as lage due to his mixed heritage. He sets off a souffle´, but beautifully crafted and always on a journey, eventually heading to Texas entertaining. Panavision.▼ to find the father he never knew. Measured, Beau Pe`re (1981-French) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: well-made tale dramatizes the difficulties Bertrand Blier. Patrick Dewaere, Ariel Besse, children of American servicemen encoun[ 99 ]

tered once the war was over and their bioCentral story twist is a doozy—and comlogical fathers deserted them. Damien pletely unexpected. Crowe is excellent as Nguyen is touching and genuine in his first usual, and the film offers an overdue showmajor role, while Nolte does some of his case for Connelly, as the student who befinest work in what amounts to a cameo comes his wife. Oscar winner for Best Picture, near the film’s end. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Director, Supporting Actress (Connelly), and Beautiful Creatures (2001-British) CAdapted Screenplay (Akiva Goldsman). [PG13]▼쩠 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Eagles. Rachel Weisz, Susan Lynch, Iain Glen, Maurice Roe¨ves, Beautiful People (1999-British) C-109m. ★★★ Alex Norton, Tom Mannion. Two women in D: Jasmin Dizdar. Charlotte Coleman, Glasgow, each with lousy taste in men, unexCharles Kay, Rosalind Ayres, Roger Slopectedly meet and team up in a kidnapping/ man, Heather Tobias, Danny Nussbaum, extortion scheme. Far-fetched variation on a Siobhan Redmond, Gilbert Martin, Edin familiar theme, laced with violence and humor. Dzandzanovic. Sharply observed film about Norton is great as unconventional cop. [R]▼쩠 various people—mostly Brits and BosniBeautiful Dreamers (1990-Canadian) Cans—caught in England’s contemporary 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Kent Harrison. Colm melting pot, but told with a sense of humor Feore, Rip Torn, Wendel Meldrum, Sheila and hope in its heart instead of despair. A McCarthy. Free-spirited American poet striking and believable film from writerWalt Whitman (Torn) befriends Dr. Maudirector Dizdar. [R]▼쩠 rice Bucke (Feore), intrigued by his proBeautiful Thing (1996-British) C-89m. ★★★ gressive treatment of the mentally retarded. D: Hettie Macdonald. Glen Berry, Their combined roguish idealism confounds Linda Henry, Scott Neal, Tameka Empson, their peers and sets Victorian sensibilities Ben Daniels, Martin Walsh. Amiable and askew. Trite handling of interesting story, insightful tale of two working-class adoleswith outstanding performances by Torn cent boys (Berry and Neal), neighbors with and Feore. [PG-13]▼● very different home lives, who become sexBeautiful Girls (1996) C-107m. ★★★ D: ually and romantically involved. Sharp bits Ted Demme. Timothy Hutton, Matt Dillon, of humor and the blue-collar setting add Noah Emmerich, Annabeth Gish, Lauren punch to the proceedings, resulting in a winHolly, Rosie O’Donnell, Max Perlich, Martha ning coming-out/coming-of-age story. Love Plimpton, Natalie Portman, Michael Rapathat Mama Cass sound track! Scripted by Jonport, Mira Sorvino, Uma Thurman, Pruitt athan Harvey, based on his play. [R]▼쩠 Taylor Vince, Anne Bobby, Richard Bright, Beau Travail (2000-French) C-93m. ★★★ Sam Robards, David Arquette. Hutton, on the D: Claire Denis. Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, verge of marrying his girlfriend but unsure Gregoire Colin. Loose adaptation of Melvilof himself, goes back to his Massachusetts le’s Billy Budd is an austere tale of an ex–Forhometown and hangs out with his pals from eign Legion officer (Lavant) who recalls his high school, whose lives—and relationships tenure in a dusty, impoverished East African with women—haven’t changed a bit. Welllocale, and his disdain for a young recruit observed and well-cast slice of life about the (Colin). Denis expertly captures the boring continuity of small-town working-class exisexistence of the legionnaires, and says sometence and the ruts both men and women can thing profound and deeply personal about the politics of male camaraderie.▼쩠 find themselves in. Some great moments for precocious Portman, smart-mouthed O’DonBeauty and the Beast (1946-French) 95m. ★★★★ nell, and others in the ensemble. [R]▼●쩠 D: Jean Cocteau. Jean Marais, Josette ★★ Beautiful Joe (2000) C-98m. D: Stephen Day, Marcel Andre´. Cocteau’s hauntingly Metcalfe. Sharon Stone, Billy Connolly, Gil beautiful, visually dazzling masterpiece, Bellows, Ian Holm, Jurnee Smollett, Dann detailing what happens when, to save her Florek. Good-hearted man, dumped by his father, Beauty (Day) gives herself to the wife, takes to the road in search of advenBeast (Marais). Great fantasy, great filmture, and finds it when he meets up with making—beguiling on any level.▼●쩠 Stone, a woman with a knack for getting Beauty and the Beast (1963) C-77m. ★1⁄2 into trouble. Familiar and predictable. ConD: Edward L. Cahn. Joyce Taylor, Mark nolly deserves a better vehicle. U.S. debut Damon, Eduard Franz, Michael Pate, Merry on cable TV. [R]▼쩠 Anders, Dayton Lummis, Walter Burke. Beautiful Mind, A (2001) C-135m. ★★★ D: Curse turns handsome prince into werewolfRon Howard. Russell Crowe, Jennifer Conlike beast every night; princess defends nelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Christopher him, while a usurper seeks his throne. Plummer, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Colorful but turgid. Makeup by the fabled Lucas, Anthony Rapp, Austin Pendleton. UnJack P. Pierce.▼ usual story ‘‘inspired by incidents’’ in the life Beauty and the Beast (1991) C-85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise. Voices of John Nash, a brilliant West Virginia mathematician who flowers at Princeton in the late of Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Jerry 1940s and then goes to work at M.I.T. But his Orbach, Angela Lansbury, Richard White, marriage and sanity are put to a painful test. David Ogden Stiers, Jesse Corti, Rex Ever[ 100 ]

hart, Bradley Michael Pierce, Jo Anne Worblack audience is lively, often funny—but a bit protracted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ley, Kimmy Robertson. Classic Disney Because I Said So (2007) C-102m. ★★ D: cartoon version of the classic tale, with bookMichael Lehmann. Diane Keaton, Mandy ish Belle and a ferocious Beast learning to Moore, Gabriel Macht, Tom Everett Scott, love one another after he makes her prisoner Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, Stephen Colin his desolate castle (where the only signs of lins, Ty Panitz, Tony Hale. Meddlesome life come from humanized household fixmother has married off two of her girls but tures). Cannily presented in the style of a can’t leave her remaining single daughter Broadway musical, with a fine-tuned script by alone; she even takes out a personals ad in Linda Woolverton, and a rousing, Oscar-winorder to audition prospects, then steers the ning score by Alan Menken (with another likeliest candidate (Scott) her way. But Oscar for Menken and Howard Ashman’s title Moore is more attracted to a freewheeling tune). The first animated feature to earn an musician (Macht) of whom her mom Oscar nomination as Best Picture. Reissued doesn’t approve. Contrived romantic comat 89m. in 2002 with an additional musical edy is torpedoed by Keaton’s character, sequence entitled ‘‘Human Again.’’ Followed who is unbelievably annoying. [PG-13]쩠 by a Broadway musical, a TV series, and two Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) C-106m. ★★ direct-to-video sequels. [G]▼●쩠 D: Wayne Wang. AnnaSophia Robb, Jeff Beauty and the Robot, The SEE: Sex Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Eva Marie Saint, Dave Kittens Go to College ★★1 Matthews, Courtney Jines, Elle Fanning, Har⁄2 D: Beauty Shop (2005) C-105m. land Williams. Tepid adaptation of Kate DiBille Woodruff. Queen Latifah, Alicia SilCamillo’s children’s novel (and an offbeat verstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodchoice for director Wang) about a 10-year-old ard, Mena Suvari, Kevin Bacon, Djimon girl and her minister father, whose wife has Hounsou, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Bryce abandoned him . . . and a dog that changes a Wilson, Golden Brooks, Sherri Shepherd, community. Genial to a fault, but packed with Della Reese, Wilmer Valderrama, Dondre local eccentrics who seem more out of Central Whitfield, Paige Hurd. Latifah is back from Casting than anyone’s real life. Singer MatBARBERSHOP 2 as Gina, now an Atlanta thews probably fares best as an ex-con who single mom/stylist. Fed up with boss Bacon runs a pet shop, though young Robb at least (over-the-top and foreign), she all too prehas a winning smile. [PG]▼쩠 dictably turns an eyesore into a salon of Because of You (1952) 95m. ★★ D: Joher very own, complete with attitude, plus seph Pevney. Loretta Young, Jeff Chanupstairs neighbor Hounsou as a hunky dler, Alex Nicol, Frances Dee, Mae Clarke, handyman. The jokes fly, the tresses fall, Alexander Scourby. Loretta weds Jeff—but and Silverstone plays the token role done by fails to inform him that she’s a parolee; Troy Garity in BARBERSHOP. Panavithen she takes up with her ex-boyfriend, a sion. [PG-13] ▼쩠 drug smuggler. Trite and forgettable.▼ Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996) Because You’re Mine (1952) C-103m. C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Judge. Voices of ★★ D: Alexander Hall. Mario Lanza, James Mike Judge, Robert Stack, Cloris LeachWhitmore, Doretta Morrow, Dean Miller, man, Eric Bogosian, Richard Linklater. The Paula Corday, Jeff Donnell, Spring Byingunabashedly ignorant, flagrantly antisocial, ton, Don Porter, Eduard Franz, Bobby hormonally charged duo from MTV’s aniVan. Opera star Lanza is drafted and falls mated series find themselves on a crossin love with Morrow, the sister of his top country odyssey that begins when someone sergeant (Whitmore). For Lanza fans only.▼ steals their all-important TV set. Alternately Becket (1964) C-148m. ★★★★ D: Peter stupid, gross, and hilarious, this modest carGlenville. Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, toon feature is certainly true to itself and John Gielgud, Donald Wolfit, Martita Hunt, certain to please B&B fans. Bruce Willis, Pamela Brown, Felix Aylmer. Stunning film, Demi Moore, and David Letterman contribadapted by Edward Anhalt (who won an ute unbilled voices, but best of all is the Oscar) from the Jean Anouilh play, centers casting of Stack as a hard-nosed Federal on stormy friendship between Archbishop of agent. Huh-huh-huh. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Canterbury Thomas a` Becket and his English Bebe’s Kids (1992) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce King, Henry II. Superbly acted and magnifiSmith. Voices of Faizon Love, Nell Carcently photographed (by Geoffrey Unsworth) ter, Myra J., Vanessa Bell Calloway, Tone on location in England. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Loc, Wayne Collins, Jonell Green, Marques Becky Sharp (1935) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Houston. Raucous animated feature based Rouben Mamoulian. Miriam Hopkins, Franon a routine by the late comedian Robin ces Dee, Cedric Hardwicke, Billie Burke, Harris (voiced here by Faizon Love) whose Alison Skipworth, Nigel Bruce. Witty but date with an attractive woman turns into a sometimes ponderous adaptation of Thacknightmare when she brings along her son— eray’s Vanity Fair with Hopkins as selfand three brats she’s looking after. The reliant girl whose sole concern is herself. first animated feature aimed squarely at a Historically important as first full-Techni[ 101 ]

color (3-color) feature, designed by Robert ingly directed by Truffaut; Jacques Tati has Edmond Jones (and photographed by Ray an amusing cameo as M. Hulot. Followed Rennahan). Long available only in inferior by LOVE ON THE RUN. [PG]▼쩠 67m. Cinecolor reissue prints; archivally reBed and Breakfast (1992) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 stored in 1985. Previously filmed in 1923 D: Robert Ellis Miller. Roger Moore, Talia and 1932, remade in 2004 (all as VANITY Shire, Colleen Dewhurst, Nina Siemaszko, Ford Rainey, Stephen Root, Jamie WalFAIR). ▼쩠 Becoming Colette (1992-U.S.-German) ters, Victor Slezak. A debonair stranger C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Danny Huston. Klaus Mamakes his impact on a houseful of women, ria Brandauer, Mathilda May, Virginia who span several generations. First-rate Madsen, Paul Rhys, John van Dreelen, performances, and a gorgeous setting on Jean-Pierre Aumont. Ridiculous tale of the the Maine coast, make this modest film famed French writer Colette (May), deworth seeing, especially on the small screen; filmed in 1989. [PG-13]▼● picted as an inexperienced country girl who weds publisher Brandauer. He prints Bedazzled (1967-British) C-107m. ★★★ D: her writing under his name, and sets up a Stanley Donen. Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, threesome with Madsen (but becomes outEleanor Bron, Raquel Welch, Alba, Barry raged when the women fall in love). The Humphries. Cult film updating Faust legend director is the son of John Huston, but may is as sacrilegious as THE SINGING NUN as well be the prote´ge´ of Zalman King. [R]▼ and usually funnier. The laughs aren’t always Becoming Jane (2007-British) C-113m. consistent, but the Cook-Moore team is ter★★★ rific and Donen’s direction stylish. And reD: Julian Jarrold. Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Crommember the magic words: ‘‘Julie Andrews!’’ Remade in 2000. Panavision. ▼●쩠 well, Maggie Smith, Joe Anderson, Lucy Cohu, Laurence Fox, Ian Richardson. FuBedazzled (2000) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold ture novelist Jane Austen (Hathaway) is Ramis. Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley, from humble Hampshire means and should Frances O’Connor, Miriam Shor, Orlando be looking to secure an advantageous marJones, Paul Adelstein, Toby Huss, Gabriele riage. Instead, the headstrong young woman Casseus, Brian Doyle-Murray. Sweet-natured wants life on her own terms . . . but only nerd sells his soul to a sexy Devil (Hurley) in after falling in love with a brash Irishman exchange for seven wishes, but she manages to (McAvoy) does her writing mature and reput a hitch into all of his dreams-come-true. All veal ‘‘life experience.’’ Entertaining film, he really wants is for the coworker he worships based on Austen’s letters, indicates that this from afar to fall in love with him. Funny in episode in her life inspired Pride and Prejuspots, with Fraser and Hurley hitting just the dice. Hathaway fares well in the midst of a right note, but remake of 1967 film never mostly British cast. Super 35. [PG]쩠 catches fire. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Be Cool (2005) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: F. Gary Bedevilled (1955) C-85m. ★★ D: Mitchell Gray. John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Leisen. Anne Baxter, Steve Forrest, Simone Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Andre´ BenRenant, Victor Francen. Bizarre yarn of jamin (Andre´ 3000), Steven Tyler, Christina chanteuse Baxter fleeing from murder scene, Milian, Harvey Keitel, The Rock, Danny protected by Forrest, who’s studying for DeVito, Robert Pastorelli, Debi Mazar, Paul priesthood; filmed in Paris. CinemaScope. Bedford Incident, The (1965) 102m. ★★★ Adelstein. In this sequel to Elmore Leonard’s GET SHORTY, Chili Palmer (TraD: James B. Harris. Richard Widmark, volta) moves into the music business and Sidney Poitier, James MacArthur, Martin chooses a promising young singer (Milian) Balsam, Wally Cox, Eric Portman, Donald as his prote´ge´e, despite the fact that she’s Sutherland. Strong Cold War story of aualready under contract to ruthless Keitel and thoritarian Navy captain (Widmark) scouting his loose-cannon lieutenant, Vaughn. AmiaRussian subs near Greenland and the mental ble, good-looking film retains Leonard’s story conflicts that develop on his ship. Poitier smarts but blunts the impact by allowing its is reporter too good to be true, Balsam a comedic costars (Vaughn, Cedric) to riff to sympathetic doctor disliked by Widmark. their heart’s content. The Rock is especially Cast excels in intriguing battle of wits.▼쩠 funny as a bodyguard/Hollywood wannabe. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) C117m. ★★★ D: Robert Stevenson. Angela James Woods appears unbilled; other music stars make cameo appearances. Super 35. Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy Mc[PG-13]▼쩠 Dowall, Sam Jaffe, Roy Snart, Cindy Bed and Board (1970-French) C-97m. O’Callaghan, Ian Weighill. Elaborate Dis★★★1 ⁄2 D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Jean-Pierre ney musical fantasy about amateur witch Le´aud, Claude Jade, Hiroko Berghauer, who helps British cause in WW2; no MARY Daniel Ceccaldi, Claire Duhamel. Chapter POPPINS, but quite enjoyable, with OscarFour of the Antoine Doinel story. Here, winning special effects and delightful anDoinel (Le´aud) is married to Christine imated cartoon sequences directed by Ward (Jade); he is confused, immature, becomes a Kimball. Reissued at 98m. 141m. archival father, and has an affair with Berghauer. Lovedition assembled in 1996, with more (and [ 102 ]

longer) songs, clearer plot, and more of a part about a professor who treats a chimp as his for McDowall. [G]▼●쩠 child for a heredity experiment. Reagan Bedlam (1946) 79m. ★★★ D: Mark Robson. did not appear in the sequel, BONZO GOES TO COLLEGE.▼쩠 Boris Karloff, Anna Lee, Ian Wolfe, Richard Fraser, Billy House, Jason Robards, Sr. AtmoBedtime Stories (2008) C-99m. ★★ D: spheric chiller of courageous Lee trying to exAdam Shankman. Adam Sandler, Keri Ruspose shameful conditions at notorious 18thsell, Guy Pearce, Courteney Cox, Russell century London insane asylum run by corrupt Brand, Richard Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, head Karloff. Producer Val Lewton also coCarmen Electra, Lucy Lawless, Teresa scripted under pseudonym Carlos Keith. RobPalmer, Aisha Tyler. Story of an underdog ert Clarke appears unbilled.▼●쩠 whose father’s homespun motel has been Bed of Roses (1996) C-87m. ★★ D: Michael transformed into a super-luxury hotel where Goldenberg. Christian Slater, Mary Stuart he now works as a handyman. Then he disMasterson, Pamela Segall, Josh Brolin, Ally covers that telling bedtime tales to his niece Walker, Debra Monk. Business exec Masand nephew has the potential to change his terson is courted by florist Slater (a young fortunes. Disney film had real potential, startwidower), but her past troubled relationships ing out as a fable about the power of prevent her from committing to him. Attempt storytelling . . . but it’s been vulgarized (and at a serious romantic film is emotionally off needlessly cluttered) by Sandler and his writthe mark, though the performers try their ing cohorts. Young kids may still enjoy it but best. [PG]▼●쩠 thoughtful parents will steer them elsewhere. Bedrooms & Hallways (1999-British) CRob Schneider appears unbilled. Super 35. ★★ 95m. D: Rose Troche. Kevin McKidd, [PG]쩠 Hugo Weaving, James Purefoy, Tom HolBedtime Story (1941) 85m. ★★★ D: Alexlander, Christopher Fulford, Julie Graham, ander Hall. Fredric March, Loretta Young, Paul Higgins, Jennifer Ehle, Simon Callow. Robert Benchley, Allyn Joslyn, Eve Arden. Ambitious but flat sex comedy about two gay Fine cast in sparkling comedy of playroommates. One has a hot-and-heavy affair wright March trying to stop wife Young from in which the emphasis is on sex; the other has retiring so she can star in his next play. Bedtime Story (1964) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: a budding romance with a man who has just busted up with his longtime girlfriend. Good Ralph Levy. Marlon Brando, David Niven, when it explores relationships, less successShirley Jones, Dody Goodman, Marie Windful in its silly parodies of men’s groups and sor. Offbeat casting of stars provides Jane Austen novels. ▼쩠 chief interest in lackluster comedy of con Bedroom Window, The (1987) C-112m. men Brando and Niven competing for Jones’ ★★★ affection. Remade as DIRTY ROTTEN D: Curtis Hanson. Steve Guttenberg, Elizabeth McGovern, Isabelle Huppert, Paul SCOUNDRELS.▼ Shenar, Carl Lumbly, Wallace Shawn, Bee Movie (2007) C-90m. ★★★ D: Steve Frederick Coffin, Brad Greenquist. An inHickner, Simon J. Smith. Voices of Jerry nocent man offers to alibi for his boss’ Seinfeld, Rene´e Zellweger, Matthew Brodersexy wife, who witnessed an assault from ick, Patrick Warburton, John Goodman, his bedroom window after they made love. Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Barry Levinson, This apparently simple gesture snowballs Ray Liotta, Sting, Oprah Winfrey, Larry into a web of crime and duplicity, in this Miller, Megan Mullally, Rip Torn, Michael attractive, sexy, and suspenseful HitchRichards. It’s the ABCs of being a bee, as cock homage. Guttenberg is no Cary Grant typified by the experiences of recent college (or James Stewart), but the film is consisgrad Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), who’s disintently enjoyable—if not always absolutely clined to enter the trade of every family membelievable. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 ber and friend: keeping those honey coffers Bed Sitting Room, The (1969-British) going. Brisk animation and a sardonically Seinfeld-ish tone keep this fun, though the relaC-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lester. Rita Tushingham, Ralph Richardson, Peter tionship between the bee-boy protagonist and a Cook, Dudley Moore, Harry Secombe, female human he befriends (Zellweger) never Arthur Lowe, Roy Kinnear, Spike Milligan, really catches fire. More successful around the Michael Hordern, Mona Washbourne. Modedges than down the middle, this gleans suberately successful black-comedy look at stantial chortles from its ragging of real-life distorted, devastated England three years celebrities. [PG]쩠 after nuclear war. A few funny bits, great Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up cast, but film doesn’t click. Marty Feldman to Me (1971) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeffrey Young. makes his film debut in a brief bit. Barry Primus, Linda DeCoff, David Brown★★1⁄2 D: ing, Susan Tyrrell, Philip Shafer, Bruce Bedtime for Bonzo (1951) 83m. Frederick de Cordova. Ronald Reagan, Davison, Raul Julia. Bland, dated film verDiana Lynn, Walter Slezak, Jesse White, sion of Richard Farin˜a’s novel about hip Lucille Barkley. Often cited as the pinna1960s type trying to endure life on a cle of absurdity in Reagan’s career, but in 1958 campus. [R] Been Rich All My Life (2006) C-81m. ★★★ fact it’s a cute, harmless little comedy [ 103 ]

D: Heather Lyn MacDonald. Easy-to-take film about killer bees, you get what you deserve. Filmed in Mexico. [PG]▼ documentary about the Silver Belles, a troupe of indomitable tap-dancing octogenarians Bee Season (2005) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scott (Marion Coles, Elaine Ellis, Cleo Hayes, Fay McGehee, David Siegel. Richard Gere, JuRay, Bertye Lou Wood) formed in the 1980s liette Binoche, Flora Cross, Max Minghella, long after their prime showgirl days working Kate Bosworth. Ambitious but convoluted at the Cotton Club and the Apollo. The movdrama about the power of words, the meanie’s point, though, is to question how ing of religion, and competition. Sixth‘‘prime’’ is defined; every woman here looks grader Cross almost mystically becomes a (and acts) about two decades younger than champion speller, and her success has a proher given age. Racially inspired hardships are found impact on the other members of her somewhat skimmed over, though it’s intrifamily. The filmmakers cleverly visualize guing to learn how just a few of these women the words and letters in the girl’s mind, but shut down the Apollo during a strike for betNaomi Foner Gyllenhaal’s script (adapted ter wages.쩠 from Myla Goldberg’s best-selling novel) lacks cohesion. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Beer (1985) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Patrick Kelly. Loretta Swit, Rip Torn, Kenneth Mars, Beethoven (1992) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian David Alan Grier, William Russ, Saul Levant. Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, Dean Stein, Dick Shawn. Unimaginative, ultiJones, Oliver Platt, Stanley Tucci, Nicholle mately tasteless spoof of Madison Avenue Tom, Christopher Castile, Sarah Rose Karr, hype, with Swit as an ad-agency executive David Duchovny, Patricia Heaton, Laurel who devises a highly successful commerCronin, and Chris. Innocuous family comedy cial campaign to sell beer. Not so far from about an uptight Dad (Grodin) whose famreality—and not terribly funny. [R]▼ ily talks him into keeping a runaway puppy Beerfest (2006) C-110m. ★★ D: Jay Chanthat grows into a big, slobbering St. Berdrasekhar. Jay Chandrasekhar, Steve Lemme, nard. It’s fun to watch all-American, cleanPaul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Kevin Heffernan, cut Jones playing a slimy, raspy-voiced Ju¨rgen Prochnow, M. C. Gainey, Cloris Leachvillain. Followed by BEETHOVEN’S 2ND man, Mo’Nique, Eric Christian Olsen. Two and four DVD sequels. [PG] ▼●쩠 brothers travel to Munich for Oktoberfest and Beethoven’s 2nd (1993) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: discover an underground ‘‘fight club’’ devoted Rod Daniel. Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, to ancient beer-drinking games and other Nicholle Tom, Christopher Castile, Sarah sports. They vow to recruit friends, train, and Rose Karr, Debi Mazar, Chris Penn, Ashley return to compete the next year. Gross-out conHamilton, Maury Chaykin, Jeff Corey, Vircoction from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe ginia Capers, and Beethoven. Painless sequel, goes for the most obvious, juvenile college on par with its predecessor, which charts the humor, hitting an occasional bull’s-eye, espevarious complications when Grodin’s kids cially when Leachman starts in with beer and raise St. Bernard Beethoven’s puppies on the sausage jokes. Waaaaaay over the top, but sly. If you liked the original. . . . Followed by four DVD sequels. [PG] ▼●쩠 harmless enough for the undemanding, possibly inebriated dudes likely to watch it. DonBeetle Juice (1988) C-92m. ★★★ D: Tim ald Sutherland appears unbilled. Unrated Burton. Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, version runs 112m. Super 35. [R]쩠 Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine Beer League (2006) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank O’Hara, Winona Ryder, Sylvia Sidney, Sebastiano. Artie Lange, Ralph Macchio, Robert Goulet, Glenn Shadix, Dick Cavett, Anthony De Sando, Cara Buono, Jimmy Annie McEnroe. Newly deceased couple Palumbo, Joe Lo Truglio, Jerry Minor, Seyin need of help coping with the afterlife, mour Cassel, Michael Deeg, Laurie Metand obnoxious family who’s moved into calf. Motley group of thirtysomething losers their home, get it in the form of renegade on a slow-pitch New Jersey softball team spirit Betelgeuse (Keaton, who pulls out have to shape up and beat their obnoxious all the stops). Fantastic special effects make rivals or get booted out of the league, but this a sort of live-action cartoon. Added they spend most of their time boozing, treat: Sylvia Sidney as harried case worker brawling, and carousing. You don’t have to in the hereafter. Great fun, and surprisbe from Jersey to enjoy this affably lowingly good-natured. Music by Danny Elfbrow, gleefully politically incorrect update man, with a strong assist from Harry Belaof THE BAD NEWS BEARS, although fonte. Oscar winner for makeup. Followed by an animated TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 downing a six-pack will certainly help. Tina Fey makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo. Before and After (1996) C-107m. ★★★ D: Cowritten by Lange. Aka ARTIE LANGE’S Barbet Schroeder. Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Edward Furlong, Alfred Molina, Julia BEER LEAGUE. [R]쩠 Bees, The (1978) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Alfredo Weldon, Daniel von Bargen, John Heard, Zacharias. John Saxon, Angel Tompkins, Ann Magnuson, Larry Pine, Wesley Addy. John Carradine, Claudio Brook, Alicia Sober tale of a New England family torn Encinias. After THE SWARM, if you sinapart—and ostracized—when the son is accerely want to see this low-budget disaster cused of murdering a teenage girl and then [ 104 ]

disappears. The father is willing to cover the drama, told in time-splintered structure, is boy’s tracks, while mother and daughter want well acted and well staged by Lumet, but to tell the truth, in spite of the consequences. the utter unpleasantness of the story and the Absorbing and believable story (written by characters becomes repetitious and weaTed Tally). Look for Paul Giamatti as a courtrying. [R]쩠 room spectator. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Before the Rain (1994-MacedonianBefore I Hang (1940) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nick British-French) C-114m. ★★★ D: Milcho Grinde. Boris Karloff, Evelyn Keyes, Bruce Manchevski. Katrin Cartlidge, Rade SerbedBennett, Pedro de Cordoba, Edward Van zija, Gregoire Colin, Labina Mitevska. FasSloan. Contrived but intriguing tale of cinating look at several intertwining lives prison scientist Karloff having youth sein the newly independent, and strife-torn, rum backfire on him, driving him mad at Republic of Macedonia (formerly Yugoslaodd moments.▼●쩠 via), where rural poverty and violent rage Before Night Falls (2000) C-125m. ★★★ D: are prevalent. Story links a young monk, a Julian Schnabel. Javier Bardem, Olivier globetrotting photojournalist, and a stylish Martinez, Andrea Di Stefano, Sean Penn, young woman in London who is at a crossJohnny Depp, Michael Wincott, Hector roads in her personal life. Film’s structure Babenco, Jerzy Skolimowski. Often compelresembles PULP FICTION, which debuted ling look at the life of Cuban writer Reinaldo almost simultaneously. A strong statement Arenas, spanning several decades as he disthat unfolds slowly; stick with this one. covers his homosexuality, blossoms as a writer, Technovision.▼쩠 then finds that in Castro’s Cuba he’s persecuted Before the Rains (2008-Indian-Britishon both counts. Told in episodic fashion, the U.S.) C-98m. ★★★ D: Santosh Sivan. Linus film has many great scenes, but goes on a bit Roache, Jennifer Ehle, Rahul Bose, Nandita too long. Bardem’s performance is excepDas, Leo Benedict. Set in 1930s India at tional. Penn appears briefly as a Cuban peasant, a time of emerging nationalism, ambitious Depp in two successive scenes as a transvestite young Indian man must choose between the prisoner and a warden. [R]▼쩠 past and his own future when he discovers Before Sunrise (1995) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: an illicit affair is taking place between his Richard Linklater. Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. English spice-baron boss and a village Young American strikes up a conversation woman. First English-language film for Inwith a fellow train passenger and persuades dian director Sivan captures the bustling her to get off in Vienna and share his last soul of a community in transition, even if it night in Europe; they do, in fact, spend the surrenders to some soapy plotting sensibilitentire night talking and falling in love. A ies along the way. Based on Red Roofs, a somewhat daring idea for the ’90s, buoyed by segment in the 2001 film YELLOW AStwo engaging performers; it is (unavoidPHALT: THREE DESERT STORIES. [PG-13]쩠 ably) awfully talky, but it’s also undeniably romantic. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Before the Revolution (1964-Italian) 115m. 1 ★★★ ★★★ Before Sunset (2004) C-80m. ⁄2 D: D: Bernardo Bertolucci. Adriana Asti, Richard Linklater. Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. Francisco Barilli, Alain Midgette, Morando Disarming follow-up to BEFORE SUNMorandini, Domenico Alpi. Bertolucci’s RISE has the two characters meeting up second feature (which he wrote when he nine years later as he passes through Paris was 22 years old) dramatizes the dilemma on a book tour. They catch up in the short of young, middle-class Barilli. Will he time he has before having to head for the embrace a life of social and political radiairport, walking through various neighborcalism, or submit to the bourgeois status hoods, gradually letting down their guards quo? Revealing 1960s time capsule, loaded about their feelings toward one another. A with topical ideas, references, and fervor.▼ beguiling look at chances lost and taken, the Before Winter Comes (1969-British) lasting effect of impulsive decisions, and C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. David how one meaningful encounter can resonate Niven, Topol, Anna Karina, John Hurt, for years to come. Script is credited to the Anthony Quayle, Ori Levy. Topol is instars and director. [R]▼쩠 terpreter for British officer Niven in disBefore the Devil Knows You’re Dead placed persons’ camp following WW2. (2007-U.S.-Irish) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Uneven comedy-drama with many touchLumet. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan ing moments, capturing plight of refugees. Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, Topol’s warmth shines in winning perforRosemary Harris, Aleksa Palladino, Brian mance. [M/PG] F. O’Byrne, Amy Ryan, Michael Shannon, Beggar’s Opera, The (1953-British) CLeonardo Cimino. Pressured payroll manager 94m. ★★★ D: Peter Brook. Laurence Oliv(Hoffman) convinces his ne’er-do-well brother ier, Stanley Holloway, Dorothy Tutin, (Hawke) to rob a jewelry store for some Daphne Anderson, Mary Clare, Hugh Grifquick (and easy) money. Naturally, things fith, Laurence Naismith. Celebrated stage go wrong and the repercussions keep builddirector Brook made his film debut with ing and building. Tense, claustrophobic this vivid, energetic version of John Gay’s [ 105 ]

opera. Coproducer and star Olivier is somein solitary confinement. Aka THE HUMAN GORILLA. ▼쩠 what miscast but more than makes up for it Behind the Door SEE: Man with Nine with his sly portrayal of a jailed highwayLives, The man who exaggerates his exploits into a Behind the Iron Curtain SEE: Iron Curmusical revue.쩠 ★1⁄2 D: tain, The Beginning of the End (1957) 73m. Behind the Lines SEE: Regeneration Bert I. Gordon. Peggie Castle, Peter (1997-British-Canadian) Graves, Morris Ankrum, Thomas Browne Behind the Sun (2001-Brazilian-FrenchHenry. Awful sci-fi outing about giant Swiss) C-93m. ★★★ D: Walter Salles. Jose´ grasshoppers (thanks to radiation) on the Dumont, Rodrigo Santoro, Rita Assemany, rampage; at the climax, they invade ChiLuiz Carlos Vasconcelos, Flavia Marco Ancago—but none too convincingly.▼쩠 tonio, Ravi Ramos Lacerda. Lyrical, quietly Beginning or the End, The (1947) 112m. ★★★ absorbing fable set in rural Brazil in 1910 D: Norman Taurog. Brian Donlevy, about two feuding families whose patriarchs Robert Walker, Beverly Tyler, Audrey Totdispatch their sons to kill each other’s offter, Hume Cronyn. Engrossing account of spring in the name of honor. The unfolding atomic bomb development, depicting both events are seen through the eyes of a 10human and spectacular aspects. year-old (Lacerda) who attempts to free Beguiled, The (1971) C-109m. ★★★ D: himself and his brother from this ritual of Don Siegel. Clint Eastwood, Geraldine violence. Extremely effective. Super 35. Page, Elizabeth Hartman, Jo Ann Harris, [PG-13]▼쩠 Darleen Carr, Pamelyn Ferdin. Offbeat, Behold a Pale Horse (1964) 118m. ★★1⁄2 methodically paced story set in Civil War D: Fred Zinnemann. Gregory Peck, AnSouth. Wounded Eastwood brought to girls’ thony Quinn, Omar Sharif, Mildred Dunschool to recuperate; he becomes catalyst nock, Christian Marquand, Raymond Pellfor flurry of jealousy and hatred. Unusual egrin. Peck and Quinn wage an ideological Eastwood fare, but for patient viewers, a battle in post–Spanish Civil War story of polirich, rewarding film. [R]▼●쩠 tics and violence that loses focus, becoming Behave Yourself! (1951) 81m. ★★ D: confused and talky. Valiant try by all.▼쩠 George Beck. Farley Granger, Shelley WinBeijing Bicycle (2001-Taiwanese-Chinese) ters, William Demarest, Francis L. Sullivan, ★★ D: Wang Xiaoshuai. Cui Lin, C-113m. Margalo Gillmore, Lon Chaney, Jr., Sheldon Li Bin, Zhou Xun, Gao Yuanyuan, Li ShuLeonard, Marvin Kaplan, Glenn Anders, ang, Zhao Yiwei, Pang Yan. Muddled acAllen Jenkins, Elisha Cook, Jr., Hans Conried. count of a shy, naı¨ve country boy (Lin), Loud, limp black comedy with Granger and newly arrived in Beijing, who finds a job as Winters miscast as young marrieds who take a bicycle messenger; then, predictably, his in a dog trained to act as a link between two bike is stolen. Potentially compelling allegangs in a smuggling scheme. Good supportgory of the dreams and hopes of the young ing cast is wasted. The title song was cowritis done in by dullness and endless repetiten by Buddy Ebsen!▼쩠 tion. Obviously inspired by De Sica’s BIBehind Enemy Lines (1986) SEE: P.O.W. CYCLE THIEVES. [PG-13]▼쩠 The Escape Being, The (1983) C-79m. ★1⁄2 D: Jackie Behind Enemy Lines (2001) C-106m. Kong. Martin Landau, Jose Ferrer, Doro★★1⁄2 D: John Moore. Owen Wilson, Gene thy Malone, Ruth Buzzi, Marianne GorHackman, Gabriel Macht, Charles Malik don Rogers, Murray Langston, Kinky Whitfield, Joaquim de Almeida, David Friedman, Johnny Dark. Creature spawned Keith, Olek Krupa, Vladimir Mashkov. A by nuclear waste terrorizes Idaho commucocky naval airman is shot down behind nity. Humor is film’s saving grace, but it enemy lines in Bosnia and his commanding isn’t enough to overcome grade-Z script and officer is unable to rescue him because of production. Producer William Osco (Kong’s political constraints. Action yarn delivers a then-husband) also costars under the name lot of excitement, but a hyperactive camera Rexx Coltrane. Filmed in 1980; briefly shown may produce motion sickness in some viewas EASTER SUNDAY. [R]▼쩠 ers. The corny finale seems to have come Being Human (1994-British-U.S.) Cfrom a lesser-grade Hollywood movie of 122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Forsyth. Robin Wildecades past. Followed by a direct-to-video liams, John Turturro, Anna Galiena, Vinsequel. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 cent D’Onofrio, Hector Elizondo, Lorraine Behind Locked Doors (1948) 62m. ★★1⁄2 Bracco, Lindsay Crouse, Grace Mahlaba, D: Oscar (Budd) Boetticher. Richard Carlson, Dave Jones, Jonathan Hyde, Lizzy McInLucille Bremer, Douglas Fowley, Thomas nerny, William H. Macy; narrated by TheBrowne Henry, Dickie Moore, Tor Johnson. resa Russell. Queer duck of a movie with Pretty good grade-B film noir about a private Williams as five different men—through eye who checks into a sanitarium on a tip that five periods of time (spanning 10,000 a wanted judge is holed up there. Johnson is years)—who are cosmically related. All of put to good use as a former prizefighter kept them are struggling and striving, without [ 106 ]

much success, to find happiness. If you can the help of neighborhood allies. An eccenget past the off-putting narration, it’s intertric ode to innocence, creativity, and committently intriguing, a definite original from munity. Written by the director. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]쩠 writer-director Forsyth. Williams makes this journey worthwhile. [PG-13]▼● Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla Being John Malkovich (1999) C-112m. (1952) 74m. BOMB D: William Beaudine. ★★★1⁄2 D: Spike Jonze. John Cusack, John Bela Lugosi, Duke Mitchell, Sammy Petrillo, Malkovich, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, Charlita, Muriel Landers, Ramona the Chimp. Orson Bean, Mary Kay Place, Charlie Sheen. One of the all-time greats. Mitchell and PeRemarkable, audaciously original black comtrillo (the very poor man’s Martin and Lewis) edy/fantasy about an iconoclastic puppeteer are stranded on a jungle island, where Lugosi (Cusack) who discovers a portal into the is conducting strange experiments. Proceed at mind of actor John Malkovich, and decides your own risk. Aka THE BOYS FROM BROOKLYN. ▼쩠 to exploit its possibilities. A far-out premise (by writer Charlie Kaufman) is ingeniously Believe in Me (1971) C-90m. ★★ D: Stuart developed into a full-blown story and acted Hagmann. Michael Sarrazin, Jacqueline with pizzazz. Malkovich is a marvel in an Bisset, Jon Cypher, Allen Garfield, Kurt especially sly, nuanced performance. Other Dodenhoff. Still another ’70s film about drug stars make gag cameos. Feature debut for addiction, and none too good; clean-cut career commercial and music video director Jonze. girl Bisset becomes addicted to speed in the [R]▼●쩠 East Village. Performers do their best. [R] Believe in Me (2007) C-108m. ★★★ D: RobBeing Julia (2004-Hungarian-CanadianBritish) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Istva´n Szabo´. Anert Collector. Jeffrey Donovan, Samantha nette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Bruce GreenMathis, Bruce Dern, Bob Gunton, Heather wood, Miriam Margolyes, Juliet Stevenson, Matarazzo, Alicia Lagano, Chris Ellis. DonShaun Evans, Lucy Punch, Maury Chaykin, ovan moves to a small Oklahoma town in Sheila McCarthy, Michael Gambon, Leigh 1964 to take a coaching job, but when he Lawson, Rosemary Harris, Rita Tushingarrives he learns he’s been assigned to a ham, Thomas Sturridge. Married, middlegirls’ basketball team. What’s more, the aged stage star in 1930s London is rejuvegirls have no self-esteem and little support nated by a fling with a younger man but has from the community. Sincere heartland story other personal and professional obstacles to rises above its familiar sports-underdog forovercome. Bening is radiant and shines as mula. Donovan and Mathis (as his supporther character blossoms, but the story sags ive wife) are first-rate. Based on the real-life until a deliciously funny finale. Budapest experiences of Jim Keith. Written by the director. HD Widescreen. [PG]쩠 stands in for period London. Ronald Harwood adapted W. Somerset Maugham’s Believer, The (2002) C-98m. ★★★ D: Henry novel Theatre. [R] ▼쩠 Bean. Ryan Gosling, Summer Phoenix, Being There (1979) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hal Billy Zane, Theresa Russell, Glenn FitzgerAshby. Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, Melald, Ronald Guttman, Henry Bean. Ferovyn Douglas, Jack Warden, Richard Dysart, cious examination of a yeshiva-educated Richard Basehart, James Noble, David Clenyoung man in N.Y.C. who chooses to benon, Ruth Attaway, David Morrissey. A childcome a neo-Nazi skinhead. Gosling gives like man (Sellers) chances to meet important, an award-caliber performance as a Jew powerful people who interpret his bewildered (loosely based on fact) whose reasoning is silence as brilliance. Low-keyed black humor, questionable but whose passion is real. For full of savagely witty comments on American mature viewers only. Veteran screenwriter life in the television age, but fatally overlong. Bean’s directorial debut. Released overseas Adapted by Jerzy Kosinski from his own story. in 2001; U.S. debut on cable TV in 2002. [R]▼쩠 Douglas won Oscar as political kingmaker. Believers, The (1987) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ Be Kind Rewind (2008) C-101m. John Schlesinger. Martin Sheen, Helen D: Michel Gondry. Jack Black, Mos Def, Shaver, Harley Cross, Robert Loggia, ElizDanny Glover, Mia Farrow, Melonie Diaz, abeth Wilson, Lee Richardson, Harris Irv Gooch, Marcus Carl Franklin, SigourYulin, Richard Masur, Carla Pinza, Jimmy ney Weaver. Odd but endearing film set in Smits. Gripping, genuinely frightening story Passaic, N.J., where Glover’s dilapidated of widower and son who move to N.Y.C. video-rental store—supposedly the birthand become involved (in more ways than place of Fats Waller—is an anachronism, one) with cultish religion of Santeria, which outside and in. When he leaves Def in believes in the sacrifice of children. Wellcharge, nutty pal Black (who’s become crafted film knows how to manipulate its magnetized) accidentally erases all the tapes audience but shows no mercy, either: a in the store, forcing the duo to reinvent the boy sees his mother electrocuted in the very first scene! [R]▼●쩠 missing films (GHOSTBUSTERS; 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; THE LION KING) Belizaire the Cajun (1986) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 with their old-fashioned video camera and D: Glen Pitre. Armand Assante, Gail [ 107 ]

Youngs, Michael Schoeffling, Stephen Gomez, Jorge Sanz, Maribel Verdu, AriMcHattie, Will Patton, Nancy Barrett. adna Gil, Miriam Diaz-Aroca, Penelope Assante is well cast as a charismatic herbal Cruz, Mary Carmen Ramirez, Michel Galadealer in love with the Cajun wife of a bru, Gabino Diego. Set in 1931, a time of wealthy Anglo in this uneven and somepromise and optimism in pre-Franco Spain, what predictable drama about Anglo prejuthis delightfully earthy, cheerful comedy dice and violence against Cajuns in 19thtells of a hearty young army deserter (Sanz) century Louisiana. Made with obvious enwho’s befriended by an elderly recluse, and thusiasm on a low budget. Robert Duvall, enchanted by his four beautiful daughters. credited as creative consultant, appears A multi-award winner in Spain; won Best briefly as a preacher. [PG]▼쩠 Foreign Film Oscar. Panavision.▼●쩠 Bella (2007-U.S.-Mexican) C-92m. ★★★ D: Belle of New York, The (1952) C-82m. ★★1 Alejandro G. Monteverde. Eduardo Vera´s⁄2 D: Charles Walters. Fred Astaire, tegui, Tammy Blanchard, Manny Perez, Ali Vera-Ellen, Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn, Landry, Ange´lica Arago´n, Jaime Tirelli, Alice Pearce. Uninspired musical set in Ramon Rodriguez. Sweet, disarmingly simple Gay 90s N.Y.C. with Astaire a rich playheart-tugger about a once-promising soccer boy chasing mission worker Vera-Ellen; Pearce adds comic touches. ▼●쩠 player (Vera´stegui), now a chef at a N.Y.C. restaurant, who comes to the emotional rescue of Belle of the Nineties (1934) 73m. ★★★ D: a pregnant waitress (Blanchard) when she’s Leo McCarey. Mae West, Roger Pryor, fired by his brother. First-time director (and coJohnny Mack Brown, Warren Hymer, Duke writer) Monteverde shows admirable restraint Ellington Orchestra. Mae struts, sings ‘‘My in telling this story; a big-hearted film. [PGOld Flame,’’ and heats up a gallery of 13]쩠 admirers in amusing example of Western Bell’ Antonio (1960-Italian-French) 101m. humor.▼●쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Mauro Bolognini. Marcello MasBelle of the Yukon (1944) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 troianni, Claudia Cardinale, Pierre Brasseur, D: William Seiter. Randolph Scott, Gypsy Rina Morelli. OK seriocomedy of what Rose Lee, Bob Burns, Dinah Shore, Charles happens when Mastroianni is unable to Winninger, William Marshall, Guinn ‘‘Big consummate his marriage to Cardinale. Boy’’ Williams, Robert Armstrong, FlorCoscripted by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Video ence Bates. Minor musical of saloon-owner title: IL BELL’ ANTONIO.▼ Scott going straight at insistence of his girl Bell Book and Candle (1958) C-103m. (Lee); fast-moving, forgettable. Techni★★1 color is film’s best feature.▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Richard Quine. James Stewart, Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Janice Rule, Belles of St. Trinians, The (1954-British) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Launder. Alastair Ernie Kovacs, Hermione Gingold, Elsa Lanchester. John Van Druten play becomes Sim, Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Hermione so-so vehicle to showcase Novak as fetching Baddeley, Beryl Reid. Hilarious filmization witch who charms about-to-be-married Manof Ronald Searle’s cartoons about comhattan publisher Stewart. Kovacs and Ginpletely crazy school for girls, run by dotty gold supply their brands of humor.▼●쩠 headmistress whose brother, a bookie, wants Bellboy, The (1960) 72m. ★★★ D: Jerry to use school to his advantage. Sim plays Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Alex Gerry, Bob Claydual role in delightful madcap farce which spawned several sequels.▼ ton, Sonny Sands. Amusing series of blackouts with Jerry as a bellboy at Fontainebleau Belles on Their Toes (1952) C-89m. ★★★ in Miami Beach. No plot but a lot of funny D: Henry Levin. Myrna Loy, Jeanne Crain, gags. Milton Berle and Walter Winchell Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, Edward Arhave guest appearances. Lewis’s directonold, Hoagy Carmichael, Barbara Bates, rial debut.▼●쩠 Robert Arthur, Verna Felton, Martin MilBelle de Jour (1967-French-Italian) C-100m. ner. Pleasing follow-up to CHEAPER BY ★★★★ D: Luis Bunuel. Catherine Deneuve, THE DOZEN, with a potent feminist point ˜ Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli, Genevieve Page, of view. Here, widowed engineer Loy must Francisco Rabal, Pierre Clementi, George struggle to support (as well as raise) her Marchal, Franc¸oise Fabian. Bun˜uel’s wry maturing brood. 20th Century-Fox backlot and disturbing tale of a virginal newlywed seen at its best in recapturing early 1900s who works the day shift in a high-class America. Clifton Webb makes a brief apParisian brothel, unbeknownst to her papearance at the finale. Scripted by Henry and Phoebe Ephron.쩠 tient husband. Bun˜uel’s straight-faced treatment of shocking subject matter belies the Belle Starr (1941) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irving sharp wit of his script (cowritten with JeanCummings. Randolph Scott, Gene Tierney, Claude Carrie`re). Deneuve’s finest, most enigDana Andrews, John Sheppard (Shepperd matic performance. Almost 40 years later, Strudwick), Elizabeth Patterson. SophistiManoel de Oliveira directed a sequel, BELLE cated Tierney miscast as notorious female TOUJOURS. [R]▼●쩠 outlaw in slowly paced account of her Belle Epoque (1992-Spanish) C-108m. ★★★ criminal career. Remade for TV in 1980 D: Fernando Trueba. Fernando Fernan with Elizabeth Montgomery. [ 108 ]

Belle Toujours (2006-Portuguese-French) Broadway musical hit by Betty Comden, C-68m. ★★★ D: Manoel de Oliveira. Michel Adolph Green, and Jule Styne, with HolliPiccoli, Bulle Ogier, Ricardo Trepa, Leonor day recreating her starring role as an Baldaque, Ju´lia Buisel. In this short, sweet answering-service operator who falls in follow-up to BELLE DE JOUR, almost four love with the man she’s known only as a decades have passed and Henri Husson voice on the telephone. Songs include ‘‘Just (Piccoli) spies Se´verine (Ogier, replacing in Time,’’ ‘‘The Party’s Over.’’ Sadly, Catherine Deneuve) in an auditorium during Holliday’s last film. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 a concert. He follows her, with the intention Bells of St. Mary’s, The (1945) 126m. ★★★ of revealing a secret. De Oliveira, who also D: Leo McCarey. Bing Crosby, Ingrid scripted, was 97 years old when he made Bergman, Henry Travers, William Gargan, this thoughtful meditation on aging and the Ruth Donnelly, Joan Carroll, Martha Sleeper, diminishing of erotic desire as an homage to Rhys Williams. Amiable if meandering seLuis Bun˜uel and Jean-Claude Carrie`re, the quel to GOING MY WAY, with Father original’s creators.쩠 O’Malley assigned to a run-down parish Bell for Adano, A (1945) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: where Bergman is the Sister Superior. Bing Henry King. Gene Tierney, John Hodiak, introduces the song ‘‘Aren’t You Glad You’re William Bendix, Glenn Langan, Richard You?’’ Also shown in computer-colored verConte, Stanley Prager, Henry (Harry) Morsion.▼●쩠 gan, Hugo Haas, Fortunio Bonanova, Henry Belly (1998) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Hype Williams. Armetta, Luis Alberni, Eduardo Ciannelli, Nas, DMX, Taral Hicks, Tionne ‘‘T-Boz’’ Grady Sutton. John Hersey’s moving narWatkins, Method Man. Hyper-stylized, pretenrative of American WW2 occupation of tious ‘‘gangsta’’ melodrama about two lifelong small Italian village; Hodiak is sincere buddies (rappers Nas and DMX) whose friendcommander, Bendix his aide, blonde Tierney ship is violently tested when they get involved the local girl he is attracted to. Scripted by in dealing Jamaican heroin. Features some of Lamar Trotti (who also coproduced) and hip-hop’s finest; too bad they can’t act. CliNorman Reilly Raine. che´d script doesn’t help. Followed by a DVD Bellissima (1951-Italian) 112m. ★★ D: sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Luchino Visconti. Anna Magnani, Walter Belly of an Architect, The (1987-BritishChiari, Tina Apicella, Gastone Renzelli, Italian) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Greenaway. Alessandro Blasetti. Obvious drama about Brian Dennehy, Chloe Webb, Lambert Wilpushy, patronizing stage mother Magnani, son, Sergio Fantoni, Stephania Cassini, Vanni obsessed to the point of hysteria with getCorbellini. Highly personalized chronicle of ting her cute, obedient little daughter into an architect (Dennehy) and his wife (Webb), the movies. Loud when it should be tenwho arrive in Rome where he’s to curate der, and ultimately tiresome.▼ an exhibition. It’s about architecture and art, Bell Jar, The (1979) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: obsession and omens, immortality and morLarry Peerce. Marilyn Hassett, Julie Harris, tality; crammed with symbolism, striking viAnne Jackson, Barbara Barrie, Robert Klein, suals and beautiful cinematography by Sacha Donna Mitchell, Jameson Parker, Thaao Vierny. Some will find it pretentious; others Penghlis. Sylvia Plath’s virtually unfilmable will be fascinated. [R]▼●쩠 novel about the crack-up of an overachiever Beloved (1998) C-171m. ★★ D: Jonathan in the ’50s has a few powerful scenes and a Demme. Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, good supporting performance by Barrie, but Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, Beah Richdoesn’t really come off. Hassett is well cast ards, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Irma P. Hall, Albert but fails to deliver the truly bravura perforHall, Tracey Walter, Thelma Houston, Jason mance this film needs. [R]▼쩠 Robards, Wes Bentley. Excruciating (if wellBellman & True (1988-British) C-112m. crafted) adaptation of Toni Morrison’s Pulit★★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Loncraine. Bernard Hill, zer Prize–winning novel about a woman Kieran O’Brien, Richard Hope, Frances Towho’s made her way from slavery to a free melty, Derek Newark, John Kavanagh, Ken life in Ohio in 1873, and will do anything— Bones. Meek computer programmer is anything—to protect her children. Filled with drawn into an elaborate bank heist scheme, mysticism and mumbo jumbo, the story dewithout ever realizing just how dangerous mands a leap of faith but doesn’t reward the the people he’s associating with can be. viewer in kind; its lead character isn’t sympaMore a character study than a caper film, thetic enough to earn our empathy, even very low key and very drawn out, but with though we understand that she has suffered. a number of rewarding moments and viTough going, in more ways than one. Winfrey gnettes. Original running time 122m. [R]▼ also produced with Demme. [R]▼●쩠 Bells SEE: Murder by Phone Beloved Enemy (1936) 86m. ★★★ D: H. Bells Are Ringing (1960) C-127m. ★★★ C. Potter. Merle Oberon, Brian Aherne, D: Vincente Minnelli. Judy Holliday, Dean Karen Morley, Henry Stephenson, Jerome Martin, Fred Clark, Eddie Foy, Jr., Jean Cowan, David Niven, Donald Crisp. HighStapleton, Ruth Storey, Frank Gorshin, Gerry Mulligan. Sprightly adaptation of class love story set during Irish Rebellion [ 109 ]

with Britisher Oberon in love with rebel Little Leaguers. Adam Sandler–produced leader Aherne.▼● mess starring his aging Saturday Night Live Beloved Infidel (1959) C-123m. ★★ D: costars has all the flatulence gags you’d exHenry King. Gregory Peck, Deborah Kerr, pect. Only honest line is saved for last as Eddie Albert, Philip Ober, Herbert Rudley, Lovitz looks into the camera and says, John Sutton, Karin Booth, Ken Scott. Ill‘‘This was a complete waste of time, wasn’t conceived casting of Peck as F. Scott Fitzit?’’ Duh, dudes! [PG-13]쩠 gerald makes romance with Hollywood Bend It Like Beckham (2002-U.S.-Britishcolumnist Sheilah Graham (Kerr) in late German) C-115m. ★★★ D: Gurinder Chadha. 1930s more ludicrous than real; lush phoParminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan tography is only virtue of blunt look at Rhys Meyers, Juliet Stevenson, Anupam cinema capital. CinemaScope.▼ Kher, Archie Panjabi, Shaznay Lewis. WinBeloved Rogue, The (1927) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 ning comedy set in West London about a D: Alan Crosland. John Barrymore, Consoccer-obsessed Anglo-Indian girl whose rad Veidt, Marceline Day, Henry Victor, traditional-minded parents forbid her to play. Lawson Butt, Mack Swain, Slim SummerNo surprises (or subtlety) here, but the story is ville. Rousing, stunningly filmed story of told with verve and filled with warm, amusing poet-adventurer Franc¸ois Villon, his battle characters. A crowd pleaser in the best sense. of wits with Louis XI (Veidt) and his Title refers to British soccer star David Beckham. [PG-13] ▼쩠 swashbuckling romance with a damsel in distress. Not history, just an eye-filling, spirBend of the River (1952) C-91m. ★★★ D: ited, tongue-in-cheek costume tale with BarryAnthony Mann. James Stewart, Arthur Kenmore in great form.▼●쩠 nedy, Julia (Julie) Adams, Rock Hudson, Below (2002) C-105m. ★★ D: David Twohy. Jay C. Flippen, Lori Nelson, Stepin Fetchit, Matt Davis, Bruce Greenwood, Olivia WilHenry (Harry) Morgan, Frances Bavier, liams, Holt McCallany, Scott Foley, Zach Royal Dano. Compelling Western of 1840s Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Oregon, with bristling conflict between Nick Chinlund. Stultifyingly routine WW2 Stewart, outlaw turned wagon-train scout, and submarine movie that tries to incorporate Kennedy, his one-time partner in crime who hijacks settlers’ supplies for profit.▼●쩠 elements of a whodunit, horror movie, and conspiracy thriller. Greenwood has recently Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ted Post. James Frantaken command of his sub and buys trouble when he picks up three survivors from a ciscus, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda torpedoed British hospital ship. One of them Harrison, Charlton Heston, Victor Buono, (Williams) soon discovers that her tempoThomas Gomez. Second APES film still has rary home is awash in secrets and unexgreat sets, makeup and ideas, but somebody plained events. Hard to believe this was let it get away as Apes battle human mucowritten (and coproduced) by cutting-edge tants who survived a nuclear blast many filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. [R]▼쩠 years before. Followed by ESCAPE FROM ★★★ Below the Belt (1980) C-98m. D: Rob. . . Panavision. [G] ▼●쩠 ert Fowler. Regina Baff, Mildred Burke, John Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Webb. Robert Wagner, C. Becher, Annie McGreevey, Jane O’Brien, Shirley Stoler, Dolph Sweet. Waitress Baff Terry Moore, Gilbert Roland, J. Carrol seeks fortune and fame as a lady wrestler. Naish, Richard Boone, Peter Graves. RomeoLow-budget drama, filmed mostly in 1974; a and-Juliet-ish tale of sponge-diving families sometimes fascinating portrait of people on Key West, Florida. Scenery outshines all. eking out existence on the edge of society. One of the first CinemaScope films.▼●쩠 Based on a novel by Rosalyn Drexler. [R]▼ Benefit of the Doubt (1993) C-90m. ★1⁄2 Ben (1972) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Phil Karlson. D: Jonathan Heap. Donald Sutherland, Amy Lee Harcourt Montgomery, Joseph CampIrving, Rider Strong, Christopher McDonanella, Arthur O’Connell, Rosemary Murald, Graham Greene, Theodore Bikel, Giphy, Meredith Baxter. WILLARD sequel sele Kovach. Flat thriller in which ex-con finds sick youth befriended by Ben the rat. Sutherland, jailed for murdering his wife, Title song (sung by young Michael Jackson) disrupts the life of daughter Irving (whose summed up situation but spared gory visuals testimony helped convict him two decades that make this film so bad. [PG]▼ earlier). With a bit of imagination, this Benchwarmers (2006) C-80m. BOMB D: could have been first rate. [R]▼ Dennis Dugan. Rob Schneider, David Bengal Brigade (1954) C-87m. ★★ D: Spade, Jon Heder, Jon Lovitz, Craig KilLaslo Benedek. Rock Hudson, Arlene Dahl, born, Tim Meadows, Molly Sims, Nick Ursula Thiess, Torin Thatcher, Arnold Swardson, Norm MacDonald, Reggie JackMoss, Dan O’Herlihy, Michael Ansara. son, Bill Romanowski, Rachel Hunter; Low-level costumer with Hudson badly voice of James Earl Jones. Leaden comedy miscast as a British army officer working about nerds who try to reverse their grade to thwart a Sepoy rebellion in India. school reputations by forming a three-man Ben-Hur (1925) 141m. ★★★ D: Fred Niblo. baseball team to compete against regular Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May [ 110 ]

McAvoy, Betty Bronson, Claire McDowell, credits reveals how they got these canines to perform so well. [PG]▼쩠 Carmel Myers, Nigel de Brulier. Biggest Benji the Hunted (1987) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: of all silent spectacles holds up quite well Joe Camp. Benji, Red Steagall, Frank Inn. against talkie remake, particularly the excitEvery dog has his day, but this talented ing chariot race and sea battle (both dicanine deserves a better movie vehicle. rected by B. Reeves Eason); Novarro (as Humans are incidental in this story of Judah) and Bushman (as Messala) give the Benji surviving in the mountain wilds, and performances of their careers. Troubleit looks as if they were incidental in makplagued film was years in production, at a ing the film as well. Followed by BENJI then-record cost of $4,000,000, but final OFF THE LEASH! [G]▼●쩠 result, despite a slow second half, is worth Benny & Joon (1993) C-98m. ★★★ D: it. Some sequences filmed in two-color Jeremiah Chechik. Johnny Depp, Mary Technicolor. Filmed once before (in one Stuart Masterson, Aidan Quinn, Julianne reel!) in 1907.▼●쩠 Moore, Oliver Platt, CCH Pounder, Dan Ben-Hur (1959) C-212m. ★★★1⁄2 D: WilHedaya, Joe Grifasi, William H. Macy, liam Wyler. Charlton Heston, Jack HawEileen Ryan. Sweet-natured film about putkins, Stephen Boyd, Haya Harareet, Hugh upon auto mechanic Quinn, who tries to Griffith, Martha Scott, Sam Jaffe, Cathy look after his mentally ill sister. Almost O’Donnell, Finlay Currie. Epic-scale renaccidentally he stumbles onto the perfect dering of Gen. Lew Wallace’s ‘‘tale of the companion for her: a male misfit who sees Christ.’’ Heston and Boyd are well matched himself as a reincarnation of Buster Keaton. as the proud Jew Ben-Hur and his boyhood Endearing performances put over this fafriend Messala, whose blind allegiance to ble, which otherwise would strain all credRome turns him into a bitter enemy. Poky ibility. Depp is impressive as he recreates at times, but redeemed by the strength of silent-comedy routines by Chaplin, Keaton, its convictions. Some of the special effects et al. [PG]▼●쩠 show their age, though the galley-slave Benny Goodman Story, The (1955) Csequence, and climactic chariot race (di★★1⁄2 D: Valentine Davies. Steve 116m. rected by Andrew Marton and staged by Allen, Donna Reed, Herbert Anderson, Hy the legendary stunt expert Yakima Canutt) Averback, Berta Gersten, Robert F. Simon, are still great. Won 11 Oscars for Best PicSammy Davis, Sr., Gene Krupa, Lionel ture, Director, Actor (Heston), Supporting Hampton, Teddy Wilson. Typical HollyActor (Griffith), Cinematography (Robert wood gloss about the bandleader’s rise to L. Surtees), Music Score (Miklos Rozsa), fame and his romance with Reed; not 100% Art Direction, Film Editing, Sound, Cosfactual, with cliche´ dialogue to spare, but tume Design, and Special Effects. MGM the music is great. Additional guest perCamera 65.▼●쩠 formers include Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Benjamin (1968-French) C-100m. BOMB and Martha Tilton. Goodman himself D: Michel Deville. Catherine Deneuve, dubbed Allen’s clarinet playing.▼쩠 Michele Morgan, Pierre Clementi, Michel Benny’s Video (1992-Austrian-Swiss) CPiccoli, Francine Berge, Anna Gael. Beautiful 105m. ★★★ D: Michael Haneke. Arno Deneuve, Morgan, cinematography; otherFrisch, Angela Winkler, Ulrich Mu¨he, Inwise, boring tale of country boy Clementi’s grid Stassner. Teenaged Benny (Frisch) is initiation into upper-class immorality. Also addicted to video, shooting images with his shown at 105m. and 108m. [X] camera and endlessly watching ultra-violent Benji (1974) C-86m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joe Camp. tapes. While his parents are away he brings Peter Breck, Deborah Walley, Edgar Bua young girl into his home and dispassionchanan, Frances Bavier, Patsy Garrett. Inately kills her with a butcher’s gun he stole stant classic of a remarkable dog (played from a farm. Obvious but potent allegory by Higgins) who thwarts the kidnappers of about the way young people can become two small children. Texas-made feature is desensitized. Second in a trilogy by writerideal for family viewing. Sequel: FOR director Haneke, following THE SEVTHE LOVE OF BENJI. [G]▼쩠 ENTH CONTINENT and followed by 71 ★★1⁄2 Benji Off the Leash! (2004) C-99m. FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF D: Joe Camp. Nick Whitaker, Nate Bynum, CHANCE. 쩠 Chris Kendrick, Randall Newsome, Duane Bent (1997-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sean Stephens, Christy Summerhays, Carleton Mathias. Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Bluford, Neal Barth. Minor but enjoyable Brian Webber, Ian McKellen, Mick Jagger, film for kids about a boy who has to hide Nikolaj Waldau, Jude Law, Gresby Nash, his mixed-breed puppy from an abusive Rupert Graves, Charlie Watts, Rachel stepfather who sells pups for a living. WhiWeisz. Raw drama following the plight of taker is appealing, the grown-ups are fine a brash, manipulative gay German (Owen) (with broad comedy relief from a pair of under Hitler, and his eventual internment in bumbling dogcatchers), but it’s the dogs Dachau with fellow prisoner Bluteau. Stagy who steal the show. Footage during closing film, with undeniably powerful scenes, but [ 111 ]

not the formidable depiction of Nazi-era hoder. Gunter Lamprecht, Hanna Schygulla, mosexuals it might have been. Scripted by Barbara Sukowa, Gottfried John, Elisabeth Martin Sherman, from his groundbreaking Trissenaar, Brigitte Mira, Karin Baal, Ivan 1979 play. [NC-17]▼●쩠 Desny. Monumental adaptation of Alfred Beowulf (2007) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Doblin’s novel about German life in the late Zemeckis. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, 1920s, focusing on a simple Everyman (LamAngelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Robin Wright precht), who has just been released from Penn, Brendan Gleeson, Crispin Glover, Aliprison. He yearns for respectability but is led son Lohman, Costas Mandylor. The ancient like a sheep by forces beyond his control into poem about a kingdom in need of a warrior criminality and insanity. An epic if there ever to protect it from a monstrous attacker is was one, with stunning performances, cinereinterpreted by Neil Gaiman and Roger matography (by Xaver Schwarzenberger), and Avary and filmed in Zemeckis’ ‘‘perfordirection. Originally produced for television in 14 episodes. Filmed before in 1931.▼쩠 mance capture’’ medium. Hybrid of a superhero action movie and a graphic novel is Berlin Express (1948) 86m. ★★★ D: Jacques fun to watch on a no-brainer level. The acTourneur. Merle Oberon, Robert Ryan, tion scenes are visceral and effective, but Charles Korvin, Paul Lukas, Robert Coote. the story bogs down and the faces of the Taut, suspenseful spy story set in post female characters (except for Jolie, seen WW2 Europe. Members of several nations sparsely but memorably) are lifeless. Beocombine efforts to save German statesman wulf himself is a great character who looks kidnapped by Nazi underground.▼● nothing like the actor who voiced and acted Bernardine (1957) C-95m. ★★ D: Henry his part (Winstone). A mixed bag, best apLevin. Pat Boone, Terry Moore, Janet preciated in 3-D or IMAX. Also available in Gaynor, Dean Jagger, Walter Abel. Very unrated version. Digital Widescreen. [PGweak look at teen-age life (all different 13] 쩠 now) marked return of Janet Gaynor to Beowulf & Grendel (2005-Canadianfilms after 20 years. Wholesome Pat Boone British-Icelandic) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Sturla (in his film debut) sings and sings and sings. Gunnarsson. Gerard Butler, Stellan SkarsEh! CinemaScope. Berserk (1967-British) C-96m. ★★ D: Jim ga˚rd, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Sarah Polley, Eddie Marsan, Tony Curran, Rory McCann, O’Connolly. Joan Crawford, Ty Hardin, Ronan Vibert. In A.D. 500, a brave warrior Diana Dors, Michael Gough, Judy Geeson. named Beowulf goes into battle against Sadistic shocker with Crawford the shapely Grendel, a barbaric troll who favors decapiowner of a British circus, haunted by setating his victims. Ponderous adaptation of ries of brutal murders. Supporting cast lacks verve.▼● the famed Anglo-Saxon poem, with the 6thcentury characters even getting to employ Bert Rigby, You’re a Fool (1989) C-94m. ★★ 21st-century profanity. Worth a look only D: Carl Reiner. Robert Lindsay, Robbie for those stunning Icelandic panoramas. Coltrane, Anne Bancroft, Corbin Bernsen, Super 35. [R]쩠 Cathryn Bradshaw, Bruno Kirby, Jackie Bequest to the Nation, A SEE: Nelson Gayle. Writer-director Reiner conceived Affair, The this deliberately old-fashioned musical comBerkeley Square (1933) 84m. ★★★ D: edy as a showcase for Lindsay (who scored Frank Lloyd. Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, a smash on stage in Me and My Girl), and Irene Browne, Beryl Mercer, Samuel S. that’s its only value. He’s a delight— Hinds. Intriguing fantasy of young Amerisinging, dancing, and clowning as a jaunty can Howard finding himself in 18th-century British coal miner who wants to break into London, living completely different life. show business—but the well-meaning film Remade as I’LL NEVER FORGET YOU. is silly and contrived. [R]▼● Berlin Affair, The (1985-Italian-West GerBesieged (1998-Italian-British) C-94m. ★★★ man) C-96m. BOMB D: Liliana Cavani. D: Bernardo Bertolucci. Thandie Newton, Gudrun Landgrebe, Kevin McNally, Mio David Thewlis, Claudio Santamaria. ProTakaki, Massimo Girotti, Philippe Leroy, vocative film about an African immigrant Hanns Zischler, William Berger. Englishwho works as housemaid for a reclusive language misfire adapts Junichiro Tanizuki’s English pianist in Rome. She’s intrigued by novel The Buddhist Cross. Director Cavani his mysterious ways, while he is infatuated (of THE NIGHT PORTER) is slumming with her and determines to find a way to in Nazi Germany again for a tale of a prove his love. Sinuous and surprising, with lesbian love affair between Landgrebe and fine performances by the two leads; written ambassador’s daughter Takaki. Lifeless by Bertolucci and Clare Peploe, from a film isn’t even sexy, quite surprising in story by James Lasdun. Originally made for view of the casting of A WOMAN IN Italian TV. [R]▼쩠 FLAMES star Landgrebe. Original EuroBest Boy (1979) C-111m. ★★★★ D: Ira pean running time was 115m. [R]▼ Wohl. Poignant, beautifully filmed docuBerlin Alexanderplatz (1980-German) mentary about Wohl’s 52-year-old menC-931m. ★★★★ D: Rainer Werner Fassbintally retarded cousin Philly and his fami[ 112 ]

ly’s struggle as he learns to relate to the laughs, especially for fans of the filmmakers and cast. [PG-13]▼쩠 outside world. Sequences related to his faBest Intentions, The (1992-Swedish) ther’s death and his visit backstage with Zero C-182m. ★★★ D: Bille August. Samuel Mostel—together they sing ‘‘If I Were a Rich Froler, Pernilla August, Max von Sydow, Man’’—are especially moving. A Best DocuGhita Norby, Lennart Hjulstrom, Mona mentary Academy Award winner. Sequel: Malm, Lena Endre, Anita Bjork. Ingmar BEST MAN: ‘BEST BOY’ AND ALL OF Bergman scripted this ambitious epic tale of US TWENTY YEARS LATER.▼●쩠 ★1 the courtship and subsequent marriage of Best Defense (1984) C-94m. ⁄2 D: Wilhis own parents. Henrik Bergman (Froler) lard Huyck. Dudley Moore, Eddie Murstarts out as a poor theology student, and phy, Kate Capshaw, George Dzundza, wife Anna (August, the director’s wife) Helen Shaver, David Rasche. Unpleasant comes from a wealthy, bourgeois family; and unfunny comedy about defense-industry their fundamental differences—and stormy designer who inadvertently acquires bluerelationship—form the crux of the film. A print sought by the KGB. ‘‘Strategic Guest six-hour version was made for Swedish Star’’ Murphy is no help. [R]▼●쩠 television. A follow-up to FANNY AND Best Foot Forward (1943) C-95m. ★★★ ALEXANDER; followed by SUNDAY’S D: Edward Buzzell. Lucille Ball, William CHILDREN and PRIVATE CONFESGaxton, Virginia Weidler, Tommy Dix, SIONS. ▼ Nancy Walker, Gloria De Haven, June Best Laid Plans (1999) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allyson. Entertaining film of Broadway Mike Barker. Alessandro Nivola, Reese musical about movie star Ball visiting Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, Rocky Carroll, small-town school for a lark; score inMichael G. Hagerty, Terrence Dashon cludes ‘‘Buckle Down Winsockie.’’ Harry Howard. When an old pal comes back to James and his band do definitive ‘‘Two town, a broke local and his girlfriend find O’Clock Jump.’’ Walker, as dynamic plainthemselves caught up in a web of blackmail Jane, and Allyson make their feature film and deceit. Convoluted film noir plays like debuts re-creating their stage roles. Future a Gen-X USUAL SUSPECTS, but the probfilmmaker Stanley Donen can be glimpsed lem is too many twists, and after a while in ‘‘The Three B’s’’ number, holding De this gimmicky thriller runs out of steam. Haven’s legs.▼●쩠 Good acting, especially by Nivola in his ★★ D: NorBest Friends (1982) C-116m. first lead role. [R]▼쩠 man Jewison. Burt Reynolds, Goldie Hawn, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Jessica Tandy, Barnard Hughes, Audra (1982) C-114m. ★★ D: Colin Higgins. Lindley, Keenan Wynn, Ron Silver, Carol Burt Reynolds, Dolly Parton, Dom DeLocatell. Lackluster comedy vehicle for Luise, Charles Durning, Jim Nabors, Robtwo top stars, as screenwriters who funcert Mandan, Lois Nettleton, Theresa Merritt, tion better as lovers than as husband and Noah Beery, Jr., Barry Corbin. Flashy but wife. Some funny vignettes with fine supunsatisfying musical (based on Broadway hit) porting cast (including Richard Libertini as about pressures brought to bear on sheriff Mexican justice-of-the-peace), but the lead (Reynolds) to close a popular establishment characters aren’t terribly interesting. Indulgent called The Chicken Ranch—run by his ladyscript by real-life ‘‘best friends’’ Barry Levinfriend. Dolly’s a delight, Durning has a showson and Valerie Curtin. [PG]▼●쩠 stopping number as the Governor, but Best House in London, The (1969-British) occasionally film actually tries to get serious C-105m. BOMB D: Philip Saville. David and screeches to a halt. Dolly’s hit song ‘‘I Hemmings, Joanna Pettet, George SandWill Always Love You’’ (which she also ers, Dany Robin, Warren Mitchell. Boring wrote) had been #1 in 1974—and would be comedy about group of government officials an even bigger hit for Whitney Houston in in London who sponsor official bawdy house. 1992’s THE BODYGUARD. Panavision. Film didn’t deserve ‘‘X’’ rating it got at the [R]▼●쩠 time. Look for John Cleese in a bit part. [X] Best Man, The (1964) 102m. ★★★ D: Best in Show (2000) C-90m. ★★★ D: ChrisFranklin Schaffner. Henry Fonda, Cliff topher Guest. Christopher Guest, Eugene Robertson, Edie Adams, Margaret LeighLevy, Catherine O’Hara, Michael McKean, ton, Kevin McCarthy, Shelley Berman, Lee Parker Posey, Fred Willard, Larry Miller, Bob Tracy, Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond, RichBalaban, Jennifer Coolidge, John Michael ard Arlen, Mahalia Jackson. Sharp filmizaHiggins, Michael Hitchcock, Jane Lynch, Pattion of Gore Vidal’s play about political rick Cranshaw, Don Lake, Ed Begley, Jr., Jim conventioning with several determined Piddock. Small-scale but entertaining mockupresidential candidates seeking important mentary from the WAITING FOR GUFFendorsement at any cost; brittle, engrossing MAN team about the various characters who drama. Screenplay by Vidal.▼● enter their pets in a prestigious dog show. Best Man, The (1998-Italian) C-106m. ★★★ Largely improvised comedy (officially writD: Pupi Avati. Diego Abatantuono, Ine`s Sasten by Guest and Levy) offers a lot of tre, Dario Cantarelli, Cinzia Mascoli, Valeria [ 113 ]

D’Obici. Warm, wildly romantic comedy of Moeller, Meg Foster, Sonny Landham, Wayne manners set in a small Italian town on DeNewton. Sequel to the original flop bucks the cember 31, 1899, about a young woman odds and actually improves on its lame predewho rebels against her arranged marriage to cessor. Two former U.S. Karate Team mema wealthy businessman and falls in love bers set out to avenge the death of their friend with his best man during the wedding party. who was killed during a shady competition. Slight but charming and evocative allegory, Roberts has actually said he made this film to symbolically set on the eve of the 20th cenmake up for the first one. What a considerate guy! [R]▼●쩠 tury. Written by the director. [PG]▼● Best Man, The (1999) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Best of Times, The (1986) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 Malcolm D. Lee. Taye Diggs, Nia Long, D: Roger Spottiswoode. Robin Williams, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau, TerKurt Russell, Pamela Reed, Holly Palance, rence Howard, Monica Calhoun. Galley Donald Moffat, Margaret Whitton, M. proofs are circulating for a new novel full Emmet Walsh, Donovan Scott, R. G. Armof thinly disguised characters, causing no strong, Kirk Cameron. Williams has never shortage of problems for author Diggs, who lived down the moment he dropped winning has to contend with a slew of offended parpass in a high-school football game—so, 20 ticipants. Overlong feature debut for Spike years later he fires up former teammate (RusLee’s writer/director cousin adds nothing sell), the rival team, and his entire home town new to the wedding-comedy genre, but atfor a rematch. Some quirky, offbeat touches tractive characters carry it for a while. The highlight Ron Shelton’s script, and the wives end-credits sequence, with spiffily dressed (Reed, Palance) are a treat but seemingly dancers, tries to convince you that you’ve had surefire film becomes too strident (and too a better time than you’ve had. [R] ▼●쩠 exaggerated) to really score. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Best of Enemies, The (1961-British-Italian) Best of Youth, The (2003-Italian) C-363m. ★★★★ C-104m. ★★★ D: Guy Hamilton. David D: Marco Tullio Giordana. Luigi Lo Niven, Michael Wilding, Harry Andrews, Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Alberto Sordi, Noel Harrison, Amedeo Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa, Nazzari, David Opatoshu. Nice counterplay Valentina Carnelutti. Majestically epic film, between Niven and Sordi, as British and made for Italian television, deals with the Italian officers who constantly, comically loves, personal tragedies, and contrasting cross each other’s paths during WW2. life choices of two brothers against a backTheir growing relationship serves to mirdrop of social change in Italy from 1966 ror the idiocy of war. Technirama. through the 1990s, involving Mafiosos, Red Best of Everything, The (1959) C-121m. Brigades, and even a famed flood in Flor★★★ D: Jean Negulesco. Hope Lange, Stephen ence. Shown in two parts, this is one of the Boyd, Suzy Parker, Diane Baker, Martha few films of which it can be said, ‘‘The Hyer, Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Robert early going is pretty good, but it really kicks Evans, Louis Jourdan. Multifaceted fabricain during the last three hours.’’ A massive tion about women seeking success and love in investment of time that amply rewards the the publishing jungles of N.Y.C., highlighted viewer. Asti is positively luminous. Written by Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli. [R]쩠 by Crawford’s performance as tough executive with empty heart of gold; from superficial Best Seller (1987) C-110m. ★★ D: John Rona Jaffe novel. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Flynn. James Woods, Brian Dennehy, VicBest of the Badmen (1951) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 toria Tennant, Allison Balson, Paul Shenar, D: William D. Russell. Robert Ryan, Claire George Coe, Anne Pitoniak. Dennehy, a Trevor, Robert Preston, Jack Buetel, Walcop-turned-author (a` la Joseph Wambaugh), ter Brennan, Bruce Cabot. Band of outis approached by Woods to write the story laws (including James and Younger brothers) of his former life as hit man for prominent help former Union colonel Ryan in venbusinessman (Shenar) whose underworld detta against detective Preston. Offbeat tactics have long been covered up. Despite Western has more talk than action.▼ teaming of two terrific actors, film never Best of the Best (1989) C-97m. BOMB quite cuts it, due to many holes in Larry D: Bob Radler. Eric Roberts, James Earl Cohen’s script—and Woods’ largely unapJones, Sally Kirkland, Christopher Penn, pealing character. [R]▼●쩠 Louise Fletcher, Phillip Rhee, John Dye. Best Things in Life Are Free, The (1956) Yet another ROCKY-style rip-off in which C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Gordon five young men must overcome differences MacRae, Dan Dailey, Ernest Borgnine, Sheree before they can unite as the U.S. Karate Team North, Tommy Noonan, Murvyn Vye. Typical and compete in an international match. Topof the antiseptic 1950s musicals, this film ‘‘redrawer cast appallingly wasted. Followed by creates’’ the careers of Tin Pan Alley writers three sequels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson. Highlight: Best of the Best 2 (1993) C-101m. ★★ D: North and Jacques D’Amboise dancing to Robert Radler. Eric Roberts, Phillip Rhee, ‘‘The Birth of the Blues.’’ CinemaScope. Christopher Penn, Edan Gross, Ralph Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) [ 114 ]

168m. ★★★★ D: William Wyler. Myrna Loy, Betrayed (1988) C-127m. ★1⁄2 D: CostaFredric March, Dana Andrews, Teresa Gavras. Debra Winger, Tom Berenger, Wright, Virginia Mayo, Harold Russell, John Heard, Betsy Blair, John Mahoney, Hoagy Carmichael, Gladys George, Roman Ted Levine, Jeffrey DeMunn, Albert Hall, Bohnen, Steve Cochran. American classic David Clennon, Richard Libertini. Appallof three veterans returning home after ing botch of a film about the stupidest FBI WW2, readjusting to civilian life. Robert undercover agent in movie history, who’s Sherwood’s script from MacKinlay Kansent to sniff out white supremacists in tor’s book perfectly captured mood of postAmerica’s heartland—but falls in love with war U.S.; still powerful today. Seven Oscars her target instead. Important and genuinclude Best Picture, Wyler, March, Rusinely upsetting subject matter is dealt with sell, Sherwood, Daniel Mandell’s editing, in pedantic terms. Even the moments of Hugo Friedhofer’s score. Russell, an actual straight suspense are muffed! Winger’s veteran who lost his hands, also took home performance is virtually the only saving a second Oscar, a special award for bringing grace. Timothy Hutton can be seen fleetingly at the fairgrounds. [R]▼●쩠 hope and courage to other veterans. Remade as 1975 TVM, RETURNING HOME, with Betsy, The (1978) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: DanTom Selleck and Dabney Coleman.▼●쩠 iel Petrie. Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Bethune (1977-Canadian) C-88m. ★★★ D: Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones, Jane Eric Till. Donald Sutherland, Kate Nelligan, Alexander, Lesley-Anne Down, Kathleen David Gardner, James Hong. Thoughtful Beller, Edward Herrmann. Moderately enjoybiography with Sutherland fine as Dr. Norable trash, adapted from Harold Robbins’ man Bethune, the controversial, humanisnovel about the multigenerational wheelings tic Canadian doctor who, most intriguingly, and dealings between an auto company patriaided Mao Tse-tung’s army during its faarch and his family. Olivier’s hamminess and mous march. Made for Canadian televiDown’s loveliness are the pluses here. [R] sion; Sutherland also played the character ▼●쩠 in Phillip Borsos’ BETHUNE: THE MAKBetsy’s Wedding (1990) C-94m. ★★★ D: ING OF A HERO, a 1990 feature (which Alan Alda. Alan Alda, Joey Bishop, Madwas released in the U.S. in 1993 as DR. eline Kahn, Anthony LaPaglia, Catherine BETHUNE).▼ O’Hara, Joe Pesci, Molly Ringwald, Ally Betrayal (1983-British) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Sheedy, Burt Young, Julie Bovasso, Nicolas David Jones. Jeremy Irons, Ben Kingsley, Coster, Bibi Besch, Dylan Walsh, Samuel Patricia Hodge. Harold Pinter’s fascinatL. Jackson. Amusing social comedy about ing play about a triangle relationship— the plans, preparations, and events surprogressing backward in time—falls flat rounding Ringwald’s wedding—especially on screen, despite a powerhouse cast. [R]▼ as they affect her father. One of writer-diBetrayal, The (2009) C-96m. ★★★ D: Ellen rector-star Alda’s better outings, a bit clutKuras. Arresting, highly emotional docutered (and occasionally clumsy) but filled mentary about a large Laotian family whose with enough truthful observations to strike a lives are forever changed after the father is great many familiar chords. [R]▼●쩠 conscripted by the C.I.A. to help covert U.S. Better Late Than Never (1982) C-95m. ★1 military operations there in the 1970s. The ⁄2 D: Bryan Forbes. David Niven, Art government’s promises—both implicit and Carney, Maggie Smith, Kimberly Partridge, explicit—are forgotten after the CommuCatherine Hicks, Melissa Prophet. Two nists take over Laos in 1975; the father is ne’er-do-wells vie for acceptance by a 10removed and the family is ostracized. They year-old heiress, who’s a granddaughter to manage to make their way to the U.S., one of them. Nice locations in the South of where they start life anew in a squalid apartFrance can’t compensate for lightheaded script and waste of star talent. [PG]▼ ment in Brooklyn, N.Y. Amazing odyssey is told through footage shot over 23 years’ Better Luck Tomorrow (2003) C-101m. ★★★ time by cinematographer Kuras (in her diD: Justin Lin. Parry Shen, Jason Tobin, recting debut). Her main character, the asSung Kang, Roger Fan, John Cho, Karin tonishingly resilient Thavisouk Phrasavath, Anna Cheung, Jerry Mathers. Provocative, is credited as editor, codirector, and cooften disturbing look at suburban Southern writer. Aka NERAKHOON. California high school overachievers whose Betrayed (1954) C-108m. ★★ D: Gottfried good grades buy them freedom from parenReinhardt. Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Victal supervision . . . and the challenge of tor Mature, Louis Calhern, O.E. Hasse, seeing just how much they can get away Wilfrid Hyde-White, Ian Carmichael. Colwith. A fresh, serious-minded look at teenonel Gable falls for Dutch Resistance memagers that cannily doesn’t stress the fact that ber Turner, who’s suspected of being in they are all Asian American. Flirts with cahoots with the Nazis. Ho-hum WW2 melodrama toward the end, but never loses melodrama, with some nice on-location its focus. Exceptionally well filmed by edifilming in The Netherlands. Clark and tor, director and cowriter Lin. [R]▼쩠 Lana’s fourth and final teaming.▼● Better Off Dead (1985) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 115 ]

Savage Steve Holland. John Cusack, David tino, and one total mess. Wiper also scripted. Released direct to video. [R] ▼쩠 Ogden Stiers, Kim Darby, Demian Slade, Betty (1992-French) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scooter Stevens, Diane Franklin, Curtis Claude Chabrol. Marie Trintignant, StephArmstrong. Off-kilter comedy about teenage ane Audran, Jean-Francois Garreaud, Yves boy who’s just lost the girl of his dreams. Lambrecht, Christiane Minazolli. Boozy Frustrating film starts off with lots of funny, Betty, 28 and long since banished from original gags—it even has a terrific ‘‘hamhome, is taken in by an older widow (who burger video’’ by clay-animation specialist also enjoys the grape) in the posh hotel she Jimmy Picker—then it settles into much-tooowns. So-so character study is not one of conventional story and goes down the drain. Chabrol’s stronger works; juggling of Feature debut for writer-director Holland. flashbacks will either keep you on your toes [PG]▼●쩠 or zone you out into slumber. Adapted from Better Than Chocolate (1999-Canadian) ★★★ a Georges Simenon novel.▼쩠 C-101m. D: Anne Wheeler. Wendy Betty Blue (1986-French) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 Crewson, Karyn Dwyer, Christina Cox, D: Jean-Jacques Beineix. Jean-Hugues AnAnne-Marie MacDonald, Peter Outerbridge, glade, Beatrice Dalle, Gerard Darmon, ConMarya Delver, Kevin Mundy. Engaging suelo de Havilland, Clementine Celarie, adult comedy about the evolving, hot-andJaques Mathou, Vincent Lindon. Handyman heavy relationship between college dropout/ and dangerously schizoid sexpot map-hop wannabe writer Dwyer and artist/drifter France practically waiting for her to crack up; Cox. Loaded with wit, well-drawn characters, when it finally happens, the grisly violence and perceptive commentary on such hot-butdoesn’t quite mesh with the light tone of ton issues as censorship, and more personal what’s come before. Well-photographed and ones, such as self-acceptance. Outerbridge sometimes quite funny, but ultimately much is a standout as a transgendered lesbian. Unado about nothing. If you’re watching this rated version runs 102m. [R]▼쩠 for sex, don’t miss the opening five minutes. Better Than Sex (2000-Australian-French) Director’s cut runs 185m. ▼●쩠 C-84m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Teplitzky. David Between Heaven and Hell (1956) C-94m. Wenham, Susie Porter, Catherine McCle★★ D: Richard Fleischer. Robert Wagner, ments, Kris McQuade, Simon Bossell, ImTerry Moore, Broderick Crawford, Buddy elda Corcoran. A man and woman meet at a Ebsen, Robert Keith, Brad Dexter, Mark party and agree to a one-night stand, since Damon, Harvey Lembeck, Skip Homeier, he’s leaving the country in just a few days L.Q. Jones, Carl Switzer, Frank Gorshin. and there’s no chance of entanglements. Or Disjointed psychological drama about so they think. Eye-opening look at the matthoughtless Southerner Wagner, and how ing game, exploring what men and women he is changed by his experiences in WW2 say and don’t say before, during, and after (especially while under the command of sex. A fresh, frank and very sexy film with psycho Crawford). CinemaScope▼쩠 a delightful sense of humor.▼쩠 Between Strangers (2002-Canadian-ItalianBetter Tomorrow, A (1986-Hong Kong) U.S.) C-98m. ★★ D: Edoardo Ponti. Sophia C-95m. ★★★ D: John Woo. Chow Yun-Fat, Loren, Mira Sorvino, Deborah Kara Unger, Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung, Waise Lee. ExcitPete Postlethwaite, Julian Richings, Klaus ing action thriller about a gangster (Lung) Maria Brandauer, Malcolm McDowell, Ge´who wants to go straight and his brother rard Depardieu, Robert Joy, Wendy Crew(Cheung), a dedicated police inspector who son, John Neville. Stellar cast founders in blames him for their father’s death. Woo’s this stale story of three women, strangers breakthrough film (which became one of deeply in need of liberation from their faHong Kong’s highest grossers ever and thers or husbands. Loren is laughably misgained international attention) is not as ascast as a haggard grocery store clerk sured as his later work, but still has exploweighed down by her obnoxious, disabled sive set pieces and a terrific performance by husband; Sorvino is a rising star photograChow as a mob enforcer. Woo also copher whose life is controlled by her famous scripted. Followed by two sequels. ▼쩠 father; Unger is an embittered cellist whose ★1⁄2 Better Way to Die, A (2000) C-98m. dad has just been released from prison. D: Scott Wiper. Andre Braugher, Joe PanPonti—the son of Loren and Carlo Ponti— toliano, Natasha Henstridge, Lou Diamond also coscripted. [R] ▼쩠 Phillips, Scott Wiper, Mirjana Jokovic, Matt Between the Lines (1977) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 Gallini, Wayne Duvall, Carmen Argenziano, D: Joan Micklin Silver. John Heard, LindJohn Basinger, Jeanine Basinger. Young Chisay Crouse, Jeff Goldblum, Jill Eikenberry, cago cop (Wiper) quits the force, intending to Bruno Kirby, Gwen Welles, Stephen Colmove to a small town to be with the one he lins, Michael J. Pollard, Lane Smith, Marilu loves, but there are predictable, violent comHenner, Joe Morton, Southside Johnny & plications. Not so much a story as a series of The Asbury Jukes. Thoroughly enjoyable vignettes and set pieces that don’t hold tosleeper about the emotional problems of gether. The result is half Eastwood, half Taranthe staff of a Boston underground newspaper [ 116 ]

which is about to be purchased by a print Perabo drags the pup along when she and tycoon. The performances by a then-unknown her friends go on a Mexican vacation—and cast are first rate all the way. Story by Fred that’s when the trouble starts. Sweet, likable Barron and David M. Helpern, Jr.; screenplay family film with irresistible four-legged by Fred Barron. [R]▼ stars and good work by the human cast, too. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Between Two Women (1945) 83m. ★★ D: Willis Goldbeck. Van Johnson, Lionel BarBeverly Hills Cop (1984) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 rymore, Gloria DeHaven, Keenan Wynn, D: Martin Brest. Eddie Murphy, Judge Marilyn Maxwell, Keye Luke, Alma KruReinhold, John Ashton, Lisa Eilbacher, Ronny ger, Walter Kingsford, Marie Blake, Nell Cox, Steven Berkoff, James Russo, Jonathan Craig. Dr. Adams (Johnson) gets more Banks, Stephen Elliott, Paul Reiser, Damon screen time than Gillespie himself (BarryWayans. Smart-mouthed Detroit cop, who more) in this mild triangle tale involving never plays by the rules, goes to L.A. to track Johnson, Maxwell, and DeHaven (who down an old friend’s killers. Sassy, tough, and finds time to sing ‘‘I’m in the Mood for very funny vehicle for Murphy, who’s in peak Love’’). Late Dr. Kildare series entry. form as a guy who’s never caught off guard. Between Two Worlds (1944) 112m. ★★1⁄2 Deft blend of comedy and violent action, exD: Edward A. Blatt. John Garfield, Eleatremely well cast, with terrific song score. nor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet, Faye EmScript by Daniel Petrie, Jr. Bronson Pinchot erson, Paul Henreid, Sara Allgood, Isobel has hilarious scene-stealing role as gay art galElsom, George Tobias, Edmund Gwenn. lery worker. Followed by two sequels. [R] Updated remake of OUTWARD BOUND, ▼●쩠 with various deceased individuals aboard a Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) C-102m. ★★ ship that will take each one to heaven or hell. D: Tony Scott. Eddie Murphy, Judge ReinFlawed, but good acting by Warner Bros. star hold, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Ronny Cox, John stock company makes it worthwhile. Ashton, Brigitte Nielsen, Allen Garfield, Beverly Hillbillies, The (1993) C-93m. Dean Stockwell, Paul Reiser, Gil Hill, Robert ★1⁄2 D: Penelope Spheeris. Jim Varney, DieRidgley, Chris Rock. Contrived, cold-hearted drich Bader, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leach(and misogynistic) sequel has few laughs, man, Lily Tomlin, Dabney Coleman, Lea mediocre music, and a ridiculous story: it Thompson, Rob Schneider, Penny Fuller, manages to coast as far as it does on the Dolly Parton, Buddy Ebsen, Zsa Zsa Gabor. strength of Murphy alone. All credibility goes Big-screen rehash of the corny 1960s TV out the window at the start when B.H. Capseries, with the backwoods Clampett clan tain Cox is seen talking to Murphy about a striking oil and moving to Beverly Hills, fishing trip. Are these the same characters we saw in the first film? Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 where they’re prey for sharpie Schneider and his girlfriend (Thompson). The actors Beverly Hills Cop III (1994) C-100m. ★★1 are earnest and enjoyable, but the script (by ⁄2 D: John Landis. Eddie Murphy, Judge four writers—count ’em—four) is more Reinhold, Hector Elizondo, Theresa Ranlamebrained than the sitcom ever was, with dle, Bronson Pinchot, Timothy Carhart, smarmy sex jokes thrown in for good meaJohn Saxon, Alan Young, Stephen McHatsure. Even worse, director Spheeris doesn’t tie, Al Green. Detroiter Murphy goes back know how to stage a gag. [PG]▼●쩠 to L.A., site of a theme park whose in-house Beverly Hills Brats (1989) C-90m. ★1⁄2 security cops have hatched a counterfeiting D: Dimitri Sotirakis. Peter Billingsley, Marring—right under the nose of the sweet old tin Sheen, Terry Moore, Burt Young, Ramon gramps figure (Young) who’s nominally in Estevez. Annoying, pretentious so-called charge. Fast pace and inspired setting can’t satire, in which a wealthy but lonely boy camouflage the bankruptcy of the concept. arranges his own kidnapping so that parents Gags are subordinate to action here— will give him attention. This one was a famwhich, given the gags, may not have been ily affair: associate producer is Janet such a bad idea. As usual, Landis features a (daughter of Martin) Sheen; Estevez is number of prominent directors (including Sheen’s son. Moore coproduced, and coauGeorge Lucas, Joe Dante, Martha Coolidge, thored the original story. [PG-13]▼● Arthur Hiller, Ray Harryhausen, Peter Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008) C-91m. Medak, George Schaefer, Barbet Schroeder, ★★1 and John Singleton) in cameo roles. Pinchot ⁄2 D: Raja Gosnell. Jamie Lee Curtis, Piper Perabo; voices of Drew Barrymore, makes a welcome return from the original COP movie as Serge. [R]▼●쩠 Andy Garcia, George Lopez, Manolo Cardona, Cheech Marin, Paul Rodriguez, EdBeverly Hills Ninja (1997) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: ward James Olmos, Loretta Devine, Luis Dennis Dugan. Chris Farley, Nicollette Guzma´n, Pla´cido Domingo, Eddie ‘‘Piolin’’ Sheridan, Robin Shou, Nathaniel Parker, Sotelo, Michael Urie, Marguerite Moreau, Soon-Tek Oh, Chris Rock. Baby Farley is Nick Zano. Curtis has no idea what she’s in washed ashore Moses style in Japan, wherefor when she asks her impulsive, irresponsiupon he spends a klutzy lifetime being ble niece (Perabo) to doggysit her beloved schooled in combat (and apparently, object and spoiled Chihuahua, Chloe (Barrymore). breakage). Sheridan then hires him for an [ 117 ]

assignment back in Beverly Hills, where the Turner, Stephen Colbert, David Alan Grier, two become (just as we know they would in Michael Badalucco, Steve Carell, Carole real life) romantically involved. Sub-routine Shelley, Richard Kind, Amy Sedaris. Postcomedy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 modern riff on the popular 1960s TV series, Beverly Hills Vamp (1989) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 with Kidman as a real-life witch who deD: Fred Olen Ray. Eddie Deezen, Britt cides she wants to live a ‘‘normal’’ life. Ekland, Tim Conway, Jr., Jay RichardInstead, egocentric actor Ferrell takes a son, Michelle Bauer, Robert Quarry, Dawn shine to her and insists she be cast opposite Wildsmith, Pat McCormick. Cheerfully him in a new version of . . . Bewitched. cheap little film effectively spoofs itself Inoffensive comedy allows Kidman to be while also being an entertaining vampire cute, but has no genuine emotions or senticomedy. Jerry Lewis-oid Deezen is pitted ments because its premise is so completely against vampire madam Ekland and her artificial. Carell channels the spirit of Paul three bloodsucking hookers. [R]▼ Lynde and Shelley does the same for MarBeware, My Lovely (1952) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: ion Lorne in two of the film’s brighter scenes. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Harry Horner. Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Taylor Holmes, O.Z. Whitehead, Barbara Beyond, The (1981-Italian) C-87m. ★★ D: Whiting. Brooding, atmospheric psychologLucio Fulci. Katherine (Catriona) MacColl, ical thriller with kindly WW1 widow LuDavid Warbeck, Sarah Keller (Cinzia Monpino hiring wanderer Ryan as a handyman reale), Antoine Saint John (Antoine Doand discovering he’s a psychopath.▼● mingo), Veronica Lazar. A woman inherits Beware of a Holy Whore (1970-German) a hotel in Louisiana situated on one of the C-103m. ★★★ D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. seven gates to Hell, where it’s host to an Lou Castel, Hanna Schygulla, Eddie Conarmy of zombies (definitely not good for stantine, Marquard Bohm, Rainer Werner tourism.) Ultra-gory Italian splatter film has Fassbinder, Ulli Lommel, Margarethe von developed a cult, but it’s just one bloody Trotta, Kurt Raab. Fascinating early Fassset-piece after another, with outlandishly binder film about filmmaking, as the cast and gruesome makeup effects (including crucifixcrew of a trouble-ridden German production ions, acid poured onto faces, etc.). Aka spend most of their time drinking, talking, SEVEN DOORS OF DEATH, which runs having sex, and hating each other while holed 82m. Techniscope.▼쩠 up in a Spanish hotel. Brutally funny and honBeyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) 80m. ★★1 est; reportedly based on Fassbinder’s experi⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. Dana Andrews, Joan ences filming WHITY in Spain. ▼쩠 Fontaine, Sidney Blackmer, Philip Bourneuf, Beware of Children (1961-British) 80m. Barbara Nichols. Far-fetched tale of man who ★1 pretends to be guilty of murder to get first⁄2 D: Gerald Thomas. Leslie Phillips, Geraldine McEwan, Julia Lockwood, Noel hand view of justice system, unable to prove Purcell. Young married couple transforms himself innocent later on. Pale production an inheritance of land into summer camp values. Intriguing idea doesn’t hold up.▼ for all sorts of children, focusing on tedious, Beyond Atlantis (1973-U.S.-Filipino) predictable pranks of youngsters. Original C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Eddie Romero. Patrick British title: NO KIDDING.쩠 Wayne, John Ashley, Leigh Christian, LeBeware! The Blob (1972) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: nore Stevens, George Nader, Sid Haig, Larry Hagman. Robert Walker, Richard Eddie Garcia, Vic Diaz. Low-budget fanStahl, Godfrey Cambridge, Carol Lynley, tasy about lost civilization, represented by Larry Hagman, Cindy Williams, Shelley amphibious humanoids; combines feminist Berman, Marlene Clark, Gerrit Graham, subplot with philosophizing about modern extinction of cultures. [PG]▼쩠 Dick Van Patten. They should have left it frozen in the Arctic. Weak comedy-sequel Beyond Borders (2003) C-127m. ★★ D: finds the gooey mess doing its thing once Martin Campbell. Angelina Jolie, Clive again. Aka SON OF BLOB; reissued in Owen, Teri Polo, Linus Roache, Yorick van 1982 with the tag line, ‘‘The Film That J.R. Wageningen, Noah Emmerich, Kate AshShot!’’ [PG]▼쩠 field, Timothy West, Burt Kwouk. A marBewitched (1945) 65m. ★★ D: Arch Oboler. ried woman leaves her husband behind Phyllis Thaxter, Edmund Gwenn, Horace when she learns about rescue efforts in Af(Stephen) McNally, Henry H. Daniels, rica and the dedication of one passionate Jr., Addison Richards, Kathleen Lockhart, doctor; their relationship continues over Minor Watson. Ambitious B film based on many years on several continents. Depiction Oboler’s radio play ‘‘Alter Ego,’’ about a of conditions in various trouble spots woman tormented by a second personality around the world is so vivid, and the urlocked inside her. Interesting idea, espegency of helping victimized people so genucially for its time, but heavy-handed. ine, that it only heightens the absurdity of Bewitched (2005) C-100m. ★★ D: Nora the love story that’s been pasted onto it. Ephron. Nicole Kidman, Will Ferrell, Shirley Owen’s solid presence keeps his character MacLaine, Michael Caine, Jason Schwartzstrong in spite of everything. J-D-C Scope. [R] ▼쩠 man, Kristin Chenoweth, Heather Burns, Jim [ 118 ]

Beyond Evil (1980) C-94m. ★★ D: Herb Beyond the Door (1974-U.S.-Italian) Freed. John Saxon, Lynda Day George, C-94m. BOMB D: Oliver Hellman (Ovidio Michael Dante, Mario Milano, Janice Assonitis). Juliet Mills, Richard Johnson, Lynde, David Opatoshu. Saxon and George Elizabeth Turner, David Colin, Jr. Mills move into an old house occupied by the becomes pregnant with a fetus possessed spirit of a 100-year-old woman, who does by the Devil. Vulgar EXORCIST ripoff, not like this intrusion into her privacy. complete with pea-green regurgitation, head OK of its kind. [R]▼쩠 spins, and Mercedes McCambridge–like Beyond Glory (1948) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: John voice. Warner Bros. even took legal action Farrow. Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, George against the film. Followed by the inevitable Macready, George Coulouris. Predictable BEYOND THE DOOR II. [R]▼ account of West Point captain Ladd, a Beyond the Door II (1979-Italian) C-92m. ★1 WW2 veteran, on trial for misconduct. ⁄2 D: Mario Bava. Daria Nicolodi, John Audie Murphy’s first film. Steiner, David Colin, Jr., Ivan Rassimov. 1 ★ Beyond Justice (1992) C-113m. ⁄2 D: Corpse of dead man possesses his son, Duccio Tessari. Rutger Hauer, Carol Alt, seeks vengeance on his wife. Nice directoOmar Sharif, Elliott Gould, Kabir Bedi, rial touches cannot save confusing, needBrett Halsey, Peter Sands. Preposterous lessly bloody EXORCIST clone; only action-adventure story of Chairman of the resemblances to first film are actor Colin and ‘‘possession’’ plot line. [R]▼쩠 Board Alt, who employs hired-gun Hauer to retrieve her kidnapped son from his Arab Beyond the Door (1982-Italian) C-116m. ★★ grandfather, Emir Omar. Amid the machineD: Liliana Cavani. Marcello Mastrogun fire we often don’t know who is being ianni, Tom Berenger, Eleonora Giorgi, shot at—nor do we care. [R]▼●쩠 Michel Piccoli. Overbaked melodrama cenBeyond Obsession SEE: Beyond the Door tering on complex relationship between (1982) jailed father Mastroianni and daughter Beyond Rangoon (1995) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Giorgi, complicated by arrival of AmeriJohn Boorman. Patricia Arquette, Frances can engineer Berenger. Also known as McDormand, Spalding Gray, U Aung Ko, BEYOND OBSESSION.▼쩠 Adele Lutz, Victor Slezak. Emotionally Beyond the Fog SEE: Horror on Snape troubled American tourist puts herself at Island Beyond the Forest (1949) 96m. ★★ D: risk during a trip to Burma in 1988. She’s soon fleeing from the military and heading King Vidor. Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten, to the Thai border with a former university David Brian, Ruth Roman, Dona Drake, professor who’s now a wanted man. Hollow Regis Toomey. Muddled murder story of at times, and heavy-handed in its effort to grasping Davis, her small-town doctor huspromote awareness of the political situation in band (Cotten), and wealthy neighbor (Brian). Burma (now Myanmar). Biggest problem is Davis’ overly mannered performance doesn’t Arquette, who just doesn’t register. Still, a help. This is the film in which she utters the immortal line, ‘‘What a dump!’’▼ fairly interesting story from an alwayscommitted filmmaker. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Beyond the Gates (2006-British-German) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Caton-Jones. Beyond Reasonable Doubt (1980-New Zealand) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Laing. John Hurt, Hugh Dancy, Dominique HorDavid Hemmings, John Hargreaves, Martyn witz, Louis Mahoney, Clare-Hope Ashitey, Sanderson, Grant Tilly, Diana Rowan. AdeNicola Walker, Steve Toussaint. Middling quate docudrama chronicling the conviction drama, based on the Rwandan experiences on trumped-up charges of innocent farmer of BBC journalist David Belton, takes anArthur Thomas (Hargreaves) for a double other screen look at the 1994 genocide murder. Hemmings is good as the hardagainst the Tutsis by the Hutu government. boiled cop who plants evidence that leads to Unlike HOTEL RWANDA, this film traces Thomas’s downfall. Screenplay by David the reactions of mostly white folks: devoted Yallop, from his book. Panavision. ▼ priest Hurt, teacher Dancy, and Belgian U.N. Beyond Silence (1996-German-Swiss) peacekeepers who remain strictly passive C-105m. ★★★ D: Caroline Link. Sylvie Teseven under utmost provocation. Adequate in tud, Tatjana Trieb, Howie Seago, Emmanuthe day-to-day scenes but rises to the dramatic elle Laborit, Sibylle Canonica. An eightoccasion in its most harrowing confrontations, year-old German girl serves as the speaking which do carry power. Original British title: SHOOTING DOGS. Super 35. [R]쩠 voice (and a sometimes sly interpreter) for her deaf parents. When she matures and beBeyond the Law (1968-Italian) C-91m. ★★ comes a talented clarinetist, she considers D: Giorgio Stegani. Lee Van Cleef, heading for a Berlin conservatory, amid the Antonio Sabato, Lionel Stander, Bud Spenrepercussions of possibly leaving the nest. cer, Gordon Mitchell, Ann Smyrner. Formula Nicely turned emotional tale of familial Western with a whole lot of Van Cleef and love and forgiveness, and a girl’s growing almost as much humor. Bad guy turns good guy, becomes sheriff long enough to get his pains. [PG-13]▼쩠 Beyond Suspicion SEE: Auggie Rose hands on a shipment of silver, and then [ 119 ]

splits. Aka BLOODSILVER, THE GOOD neurotic singles and their psychiatrists. Given DIE FIRST. Techniscope. ▼쩠 the director and cast, it’s hard to believe how Beyond the Law (1992) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: awful this is—until you see for yourself! Filmed in Paris, though set in N.Y.C. [R] ▼쩠 Larry Ferguson. Charlie Sheen, Linda Fiorentino, Michael Madsen, Courtney B. Beyond the Reef (1981) C-91m. ★★ D: Vance, Leon Rippy, Dennis Burkley, Rip Frank C. Clark. Dayton Ka’ne, Maren Torn. Traumatized cop Sheen—he was Jensen, Kathleen Swan, Keahi Farden, Joabused as a child—has just been fired by his seph Ka’ne. In the wake of THE HURRIcorrupt boss. Recruited to work undercover, CANE, Dino De Laurentiis produced this he joins a band of scuzzy, drug-dealing bikinnocuous South Seas romance with two ers. Not bad of its type, with an unusually attractive leads. Old-fashioned, to say the high level of character development, but the least. Completed in 1979. Aka SHARK BOY often illogical scenario eventually does it in. OF BORA BORA and SEA KILLER. [PG] Based on a true story. [R]▼쩠 Beyond the Sea (2004-British-German) CBeyond the Limit (1983) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: 118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Spacey. Kevin Spacey, John Mackenzie. Michael Caine, Richard Kate Bosworth, John Goodman, Bob HosGere, Bob Hoskins, Elpidia Carrillo, kins, Brenda Blethyn, Greta Scacchi, Caroline Joaquim De Almeida, A Martinez. Muddled Aaron, Peter Cincotti, William Ullrich. Biopic adaptation of Graham Greene’s The Honorof singer-performer Bobby Darin covers his ary Consul with Gere miscast as British docrise to success, marriage to movie star Sandra tor who becomes involved with revolutionarDee, and the drive that came from knowing he ies in South American country—and sexually didn’t have long to live, after suffering rheuinvolved with the ex-prostitute wife of boozy matic fever as a child. Takes a fanciful apdiplomat (well played by Caine). Slow, proach, with musical production numbers and murky, completely uninvolving. [R]▼ a self-conscious device that enables grown-up Beyond the Living (1978) C-88m. ★★ D: Bobby to confront himself as a boy . . . all of Al Adamson. Jill Jacobson, Geoffrey Land, which creates distance between the audience Marilyn Joi, Mary Kay Pass. OK horrorpic and the inherent emotion of the story. Spacey in the CARRIE vein. Nurse is possessed does his own singing, quite well, in this laborby the spirit of a patient who died during of-love project, which he also cowrote and surgery and begins killing the doctors coproduced. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 who performed the operation. Best scene Beyond the Stars (1989) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: takes place in a foundry. Released to theDavid Saperstein. Martin Sheen, Christian aters as NURSE SHERRI. Video titles: Slater, Robert Foxworth, Sharon Stone, Olivia HOSPITAL OF TERROR, HANDS OF d’Abo, F. Murray Abraham. Excruciatingly DEATH, KILLER’S CURSE, BLACK slow story of former astronaut Sheen who once VOODOO, THE POSSESSION OF NURSE walked on the moon. Would-be astronaut SHERRI, and TERROR HOSPITAL.▼쩠 Slater idolizes him, to the consternation of his Beyond the Mat (1999) C-102m. ★★★ D: ex-NASA employee dad (Foxworth). Top cast Barry Blaustein. Screenwriter Blaustein (best cannot rise above a poor script. [PG]▼쩠 known for his work with Eddie Murphy) inBeyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) C-109m. ★★★ D: Russ Meyer. Dolly Read, dulges his lifelong passion for professional wrestling in this absorbing documentary, Cynthia Myers, Marcia McBroom, David which tries to put a human face on the often Gurian, John LaZar, Michael Blodgett, circuslike sport. Among his subjects: Mankind Edy Williams, Erica Gavin, Phyllis Davis, (aka Mick Foley), a WWF superstar who’s Charles Napier, Strawberry Alarm Clock. nothing like his ring persona; an aging but Female rock trio attempts to make it (and still potent Terry Funk; and a very troubled make it and make it) in Hollywood. Time Jake the Snake (Jack Roberts). Compelling has been kind to raunchy in-name-only viewing even for non–wrestling fans. [R]▼쩠 sequel to (and spoof of) VALLEY OF THE Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979) DOLLS. Screenplay by Roger Ebert, story C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Irwin Allen. Michael by Meyer and Ebert, and picked by two Caine, Sally Field, Telly Savalas, Peter prominent critics as one of the 10 best U.S. Boyle, Jack Warden, Shirley Knight, Slim films 1968–78. Panavision. [NC-17—origiPickens, Shirley Jones, Karl Malden, Mark nally rated X]▼●쩠 Harmon, Veronica Hamel. Following THE Beyond the Walls (1984-Israeli) C-103m. ★★ SWARM, Caine teamed up with Irwin D: Uri Barbash. Arnon Zadok, Muhamad Allen for another career killer—a needless Bakri, Assi Dayan, Rami Danon, Boaz sequel about attempts to loot the vessel beSharambi. This potentially powerful drama fore it sinks. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 about life in an Israeli prison, centering on Beyond Therapy (1987) C-93m. BOMB D: the explosive relationship between Jewish Robert Altman. Julie Hagerty, Jeff Goldblum, and Arab convicts, is just a standard, preGlenda Jackson, Tom Conti, Christopher dictable, noisy men-in-the-big-house yarn. Guest, Genevieve Page, Cris Campion, SanIncredibly, it earned a Best Foreign Film drine Dumas. Dreadful adaptation of ChristoOscar nomination. [R]▼ pher Durang’s paper-thin comic play about B.F.’s Daughter (1948) 108m. ★1⁄2 D: [ 120 ]

Robert Z. Leonard. Barbara Stanwyck, pulls it off thanks to Hanks’ superb, seemVan Heflin, Charles Coburn, Richard Hart, ingly guileless performance, and Marshall’s Keenan Wynn, Margaret Lindsay. Disassurefooted direction. A real treat. Written by trous film of J. P. Marquand novel, with coproducers Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg. Stanwyck the domineering girl ruining marLater a Broadway musical. [PG]▼●쩠 riage to professor Heflin. Bigamist, The (1953) 80m. ★★★ D: Ida Bhowani Junction (1956-U.S.-British) Lupino. Edmond O‘Brien, Joan Fontaine, 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: George Cukor. Ava C-110m. Ida Lupino, Edmund Gwenn, Jane Darwell, Gardner, Stewart Granger, Bill Travers, Kenneth Tobey. Compassionate look at Abraham Sofaer. Set in post-WW2 India; lonely man who finds himself married to Gardner is half-caste torn between love (and in love with) two different women. of country and love for a British colonel. Extremely well acted; one of Lupino’s best Based on John Masters novel; strikingly shot directorial efforts and the only time she ever directed herself.▼쩠 on location. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Bible, The (1966-Italian) C-174m. BOMB Big Bad John (1990) C-92m. ★★ D: Burt D: John Huston. Michael Parks, Ulla Kennedy. Ned Beatty, Jack Elam, Bo HopBergryd, Richard Harris, John Huston, kins, Jimmy Dean, John Dennis Johnston, Stephen Boyd, George C. Scott, Ava GardJeff Osterhage, Ned Vaughn, Buck Taylor, ner, Peter O’Toole, Franco Nero. Narrated Anne Lockhart. Dumb movie based on the by Huston. Unsuccessful epic dealing with long-ago hit song by costar Dean. Here, he Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah plays a former Southern sheriff driving and the Flood, etc. (first 22 chapters of crosscountry to rescue his daughter—with Genesis). Only Huston himself as Noah the title character on his tail. The record was better. [PG-13]▼●쩠 escapes heavy-handedness. Definitely one time you should read the Book instead. DiBig Bad Love (2002) C-111m. ★★★ D: Armension 150. ▼●쩠 liss Howard. Arliss Howard, Debra Winger, Bicentennial Man (1999) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 Paul LeMat, Rosanna Arquette, Angie D: Chris Columbus. Robin Williams, Sam Dickinson, Michael Parks, Alex Van, Zach Neill, Embeth Davidtz, Wendy Crewson, Moody; voice of Sigourney Weaver. OffHallie Kate Eisenberg, Stephen Root, beat but compelling tale of a frustrated Lynne Thigpen, Kiersten Warren, Oliver writer who’s trying to get his life in order— Platt. In the near future, a family buys an professionally and personally—having squanall-purpose robot, which turns out to have dered his marriage and chance at fatherhood. human emotions. His interactions with the Told in nonlinear spurts, combining reality family and their descendants are followed with dreams and nightmares, the film manover the next 200 years. Sincere, sentimenages to paint a rich picture of its main chartal, but goes for the jokes too often. Wilacter, piece by piece. Not a perfect film, but liams is good as the robot, too familiar when emotionally true. Howard cowrote with his he becomes human. From a short story by brother James, from Larry Brown’s stories; Winger also produced. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Isaac Asimov and a novel by Asimov and Robert Silverberg. [PG]▼쩠 Big Bad Mama (1974) C-83m. ★★★ D: Bicycle Thieves (1947-Italian) 89m. ★★★★ Steve Carver. Angie Dickinson, Tom SkerD: Vittorio De Sica. Lamberto Maggiorani, ritt, William Shatner, Susan Sennett, RobLeanella Carell, Enzo Staiola, Vittorio Anbie Lee, Dick Miller, Joan Prather, Royal tonucci. A man whose livelihood depends Dano, Sally Kirkland. Sexy knock-off of on his bicycle spends a shattering week with BONNIE AND CLYDE has Angie and her his son searching for the men who stole it. two teen daughters spending as much time Stunning in its simplicity, this was one of fooling around with partners Shatner and the cornerstones of the Italian neo-realist Skerritt as they do robbing banks. Angie’s movement, filmed entirely on natural locanude scenes make this a cable-TV favorite tions with nonprofessional actors. It also (and led to a sequel 13 years later!). Flavorvividly captures life in post-WW2 Rome. ful score by David Grisman. [R]▼쩠 Winner of a special Academy Award, given Big Bad Mama II (1987) C-83m. ★1⁄2 before there was a Foreign Language Film D: Jim Wynorski. Angie Dickinson, Robert category. One of the all-time greats. OrigiCulp, Danielle Brisebois, Julie McCullough, nally released in the U.S. as THE BICYBruce Glover. In this loosely linked sequel CLE THIEF.▼●쩠 (more like a remake), Angie and her two Big (1988) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Penny Mardaughters again shoot up rural, Depression-era shall. Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, John America, robbing banks to avenge her husHeard, Jared Rushton, Robert Loggia, Daband’s murder. Culp provides brief love intervid Moscow, Jon Lovitz, Mercedes Ruehl, est. Archie Bunker’s Place alumna Brisebois Josh Clark, Tracy Reiner. A 12-year-old does a surprising topless scene. [R]▼쩠 boy wishes he were ‘‘big’’—and gets his Big Bang, The (1990) C-81m. ★★★ D: wish, waking up the next morning as a 30James Toback. Fascinating documentary year-old man! Charming fantasy tackles a in which Toback poses some basic philorare modern-day subject—innocence—and sophical questions—why were we born? [ 121 ]

who are we? and where are we going?—to Hawaii and George S. Clinton’s evocative a variety of people, from boxer/author music are abetted by plentiful eye-candy Jose´ Torres to astronomer Fred Hess, basshots of shapely Foster, but the movie’s ketball player Darryl Dawkins to film progood vibes drain away as the caper grows ducer Don Simpson. Most amusing are the more convoluted. Sinise, Nelson, Neuwirth, comments of an ex-mobster, and most and Stanton are wasted in throwaway roles. sobering are those of an Auschwitz surviSuper 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 vor. We even see Toback on camera, trying Big Brass Ring, The (1999) C-104m. ★★ to finance the film. [R]▼ D: George Hickenlooper. William Hurt, Mi★★1 Big Bird Cage, The (1972) C-88m. randa Richardson, Nigel Hawthorne, Ire`ne ⁄2 D: Jack Hill. Pam Grier, Anitra Ford, Sid Jacob, Ewan Stewart, Gregg Henry, Ron Haig, Candice Roman, Vic Diaz, Carol Livingston. Independent politician running Speed. Amusing spoof of Filipino prison for governor of Missouri—with his wife’s films has pleasant team of Grier and Haig money—is unnerved when his former menas thieving mercenaries who engineer a tor threatens to unveil a skeleton in his prison break from the outside. A follow-up closet, with an eager investigative reporter to THE BIG DOLL HOUSE. Aka WOMwaiting to pounce. Strong cast and impresEN’S PENITENTIARY II. [R]▼쩠 sive pedigree (based on an unproduced Big Blockade, The (1942-British) 77m. screenplay by Orson Welles and Oja Kodar) ★★ can’t change the fact that the film sinks D: Charles Frend. Michael Redgrave, Leslie Banks, Will Hay, John Mills, Frank under its own weight. After a while the Cellier, Robert Morley, Alfred Drayton, characters are simply boring. Debuted on Bernard Miles, Marius Goring, Michael cable TV. [R]▼쩠 Rennie, Michael Wilding. Dated propaBig Brawl, The (1980) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: ganda chronicling Britain’s economic blockRobert Clouse. Jackie Chan, Jose Ferrer, ade of Nazi Germany. Kristine DeBell, Mako, Ron Max. The Big Blue, The (1988-U.S.-French) C-119m. martial arts are applied to ’30s gangster ★★ D: Luc Besson. Rosanna Arquette, movie set in Chicago. Appealing cast, lots Jean-Marc Barr, Jean Reno, Paul Shenar, of comedy, along with director and some Sergio Castellito, Marc Duret, Griffin of the production staff from ENTER THE Dunne. Waterlogged chronicle of famed DRAGON, make this a moderately sucfree diver Jacques Mayol (Barr), with cessful chop-socky. Aka BATTLE CREEK Arquette redoing her DESPERATELY BRAWL. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 SEEKING SUSAN performance as a ditsy Big Broadcast, The (1932) 87m. ★★★ D: insurance investigator who falls for him. Frank Tuttle. Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, As much a psychological study as a drama George Burns, Gracie Allen, Stuart Erwin, of athletic competition—but who cares? Leila Hyams, Cab Calloway, The Mills Underwater photography is the main atBrothers, Boswell Sisters. Failing radio statraction here. Original French release (now tion owned by Burns is taken over by milon video in U.S.) runs 163m. Cinemalionaire Erwin, who presents an all-star Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 show featuring Bing and many radio stars. Big Boodle, The (1957) 83m. ★1⁄2 D: Many offbeat, bizarre touches in standard Richard Wilson. Errol Flynn, Pedro Armlove-triangle story make this a delight. Bing endariz, Rossana Rory, Jacques Aubuchon. sings ‘‘Please,’’ ‘‘Here Lies Love.’’ Tame caper of gangsters and counterfeit Big Broadcast of 1936, The SEE: Leomoney, set in Havana. Seedy programmer nard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide emphasizing Flynn’s career decline. Big Broadcast of 1937, The SEE: Leonard Big Boss, The SEE: Fists of Fury Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide Big Bounce, The (1969) C-102m. ★★ D: Big Broadcast of 1938, The (1938) 90m. ★★ Alex March. Ryan O’Neal, Leigh TaylorD: Mitchell Leisen. W. C. Fields, MarYoung, James Daly, Robert Webber, Lee tha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, Shirley Ross, Grant, Van Heflin. Muddle-headed tale of Lynne Overman, Bob Hope, Ben Blue, drifter O’Neal becoming involved with vixLeif Erickson. Hodgepodge of bad musienish Taylor-Young, who has strange ideas cal numbers from Tito Guizar to Kirsten of what to do for kicks. Based on a novel by Flagstad, notable only for Fields’ few Elmore Leonard. Remade in 2004. Panaviscenes, Hope and Ross’ rendition of Oscar-winning ‘‘Thanks for the Memsion. [PG—edited from original R rating]쩠 ory.’’ Hope’s first feature.▼쩠 Big Bounce, The (2004) C-89m. ★★ D: George Armitage. Owen Wilson, Morgan Big Brown Eyes (1936) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freeman, Gary Sinise, Sara Foster, Willie Raoul Walsh. Joan Bennett, Cary Grant, Nelson, Vinnie Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Charlie Walter Pidgeon, Isabel Jewell, Lloyd Nolan. Sheen, Harry Dean Stanton. Ne’er-do-well Bennett helps detective Grant trap a gang Wilson takes up with the sexy mistress of a of thieves in pleasing romantic mystery.쩠 wheeler-dealer on the North Shore of Oahu, Big Bully (1996) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve despite friendly warnings from the local disMiner. Rick Moranis, Tom Arnold, Julianne trict judge (Freeman). Postcard views of Phillips, Carol Kane, Jeffrey Tambor, Curtis [ 122 ]

Armstrong, Faith Prince, Tony Pierce, Don Knotts, Stuart Pankin. Having parlayed his newly published book into an offer to teach a course at his old school, author Moranis is horrified to discover that his long unseen childhood tormentor is now the shop instructor. Comedy is so dull in the opening childhood flashbacks that it’s already d.o.a. by the time Moranis and Arnold show up. Phillips disappears abruptly in the film’s second half—lucky for her. [PG]▼●쩠 Big Bus, The (1976) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Frawley. Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, John Beck, Lynn Redgrave, Jose Ferrer, Ruth Gordon, Richard B. Shull, Sally Kellerman, Ned Beatty, Bob Dishy, Stuart Margolin, Richard Mulligan, Larry Hagman, Howard Hesseman, Harold Gould. Funny spoof of disaster films, using a superduper Trailways bus; all expected cliche´s come in for ribbing, but film doesn’t sustain its promising idea. Murphy Dunne hilarious as inane cocktail pianist. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Big Business (1988) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim Abrahams. Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, Fred Ward, Edward Herrmann, Michele Placido, Daniel Gerroll, Barry Primus, Michael Gross, Joe Grifasi, Mary Gross, Seth Green. Two sets of twins are mismatched and separated at birth; years later the girls who’ve grown up in the boonies come to N.Y.C. for a showdown with the conglomerate that’s going to wipe out their little town, hardly dreaming that the corporation is run by their identical twins! Agreeable farce never really catches fire, though Bette is terrific and the effects are remarkable. [PG] ▼●쩠 Big Carnival, The SEE: Ace in the Hole Big Chill, The (1983) C-103m. ★★★ D: Lawrence Kasdan. Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams, Don Galloway. Entertaining, surface-level look at a group of former college-radical friends who’ve dropped back into Society. Wonderful acting ensemble, irresistible soundtrack of ’60s hits help camouflage weaknesses of script—which bears more than passing resemblance to John Sayles’ RETURN OF THE SECAUCUS SEVEN. (Trivia note: the deceased friend was played by Kevin Costner, whose scenes were cut from the finished film. But that’s still him being dressed for his funeral under the main titles!) [R]▼●쩠 Big Circus, The (1959) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph M. Newman. Victor Mature, Red Buttons, Rhonda Fleming, Kathryn Grant, Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, David Nelson, Gilbert Roland, Howard McNear, Steve Allen. Corny and predictable, but still entertaining hokum under the big top, with Lorre as a sardonic clown and Roland tightrope-walking over Niagara Falls. And what a cast! CinemaScope.

Spencer Tracy, Luise Rainer, Eddie Quillan, William Demarest, Regis Toomey, Charley Grapewin, Victor Varconi. Cabdriver Tracy and wife Rainer are pitted against crooked taxi bosses in well-acted but average film. Big City (1948) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Margaret O’Brien, Robert Preston, Danny Thomas, George Murphy, Karin Booth, Edward Arnold, Butch Jenkins, Betty Garrett, Lotte Lehmann. Syrupy Americana in which cantor Thomas, cop Murphy, and reverend Preston collectively adopt abandoned baby, who grows up to be precocious O’Brien. Irving Berlin’s ‘‘God Bless America’’ is featured throughout. Big City, The (1963-Indian) 131m. ★★★ D: Satyajit Ray. Madhabi Mukherjee, Anil Chatterjee, Vicky Redwood, Haren Chatterjee, Jaya Bhaduri, Haradhan Bannerjee. A proud Calcutta man is forced by financial circumstances to let his wife work; soon she is the only one with a job. Warm, humorous, and astutely observed portrait of domestic life and women’s roles in Indian society. Long but rewarding. ▼ Big Clock, The (1948) 95m. ★★★ D: John Farrow. Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson, Dan Tobin, Henry (Harry) Morgan. Tyrannical publisher of crime magazine (Laughton) commits murder; his editor (Milland) tries to solve case and finds all the clues pointing to himself. Vibrant melodrama; taut script by Jonathan Latimer from Kenneth Fearing novel. Elsa Lanchester has hilarious vignette as eccentric artist. Remade as NO WAY OUT (1987).▼쩠 Big Combo, The (1955) 89m. ★★★ D: Joseph (H.) Lewis. Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Brian Donlevy, Richard Conte, Lee Van Cleef, Robert Middleton, Earl Holliman, Helen Walker. Raw, violent film noir about persistent cop Wilde going up against cunning, sadistic racketeer Conte. A cult item, stylishly directed; Donlevy’s demise is a highlight.▼쩠 Big Country, The (1958) C-166m. ★★★ D: William Wyler. Gregory Peck, Burl Ives, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Charlton Heston, Chuck Connors, Charles Bickford. Overblown Western has ex-sea captain Peck arrive to marry Baker, but forced to take sides in battle against Ives and sons over water rights. Heston as quick-tempered ranch foreman and Ives (who won an Oscar) as burly patriarch stand out in energetic cast. Jerome Moross’ score has become a classic. Technirama. ▼●쩠 Big Cube, The (1969) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Tito Davison. Lana Turner, George Chakiris, Richard Egan, Dan O’Herlihy, Karin Mossberg. Absurd drama about relationship between beautiful young girl, her gigolo boyfriend, and her actress-mother at least offers some unintentional laughs. For camp followers only. [M/PG]쩠 ▼쩠 Big City (1937) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Borzage. Big Daddy (1999) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dennis [ 123 ]

Dugan. Adam Sandler, Joey Lauren Adams, Shawn Levy. Frankie Muniz, Paul Giamatti, Rob Schneider, Jon Stewart, Leslie Mann, Josh Amanda Bynes, Amanda Detmer, Donald Mostel, Joseph Bologna, Kristy Swanson, Faison, Lee Majors, Sandra Oh, Russell Steve Buscemi, Cole and Dylan Sprouse. An Hornsby, Dustin Diamond. Perpetual liar overgrown, irresponsible slacker tries to look Muniz can’t get his dad to believe that one of after a young boy who’s been dumped on his his school assignments was ripped off by a doorstep; naturally, he becomes attached to movie producer—so, with a friend (Bynes), the youngster, and vice versa. Sandler vehicle he sets off for Hollywood to prove it’s true. is utterly contrived but delivers expected There, he’s forced to exact revenge on the laughs; the courtroom climax is too silly for mean-spirited, egocentric film exec. Kids may words. That’s director Dugan as the man who enjoy this well-paced slapstick outing; adults won’t cooperate on Halloween. [PG-13] ▼쩠 will find few surprises. Jaleel White appears Big Day, The SEE: Jour de Fete unbilled. [PG]▼쩠 Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958-Italian) Big Fish (2003) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tim 106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mario Monicelli. Vittorio Burton. Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Helena BonSalvatori, Rossana Rory, Carla Gravina, ham Carter, Alison Lohman, Robert GuilToto`. Classic account of misadventures of laume, Steve Buscemi, Danny DeVito, amateurish crooks attempting to rob a store; Missi Pyle, Marion Cotillard. Reporter hilarious satire on all burglary capers. Crudup ends a long estrangement with his Retitled: BIG DEAL; remade as CRACKfather when he learns the old man is dying, ERS and in 2002 as WELCOME TO COLand tries to penetrate his dad’s hearty, taleLINWOOD, and followed by a sequel, BIG spinning fac¸ade. McGregor plays the DEAL ON MADONNA STREET . . . 20 younger Finney, whose life is made up of YEARS LATER, which was actually reone amazing adventure after another. John leased 30 years later! Also adapted for August adapted Daniel Wallace’s novel, Broadway—unsuccessfully. ▼●쩠 which is perfect fodder for director Burton Big Doll House, The (1971) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 and his sense of heightened reality—but inD: Jack Hill. Judy Brown, Roberta Colstead of the bizarre and baroque, we get a lins, Pam Grier, Brooke Mills, Pat Woodell, world of wonder and amazement. Maintains Sid Haig. Fast paced, tongue-in-cheek ada consistent and disarming tone from start venture shot in Philippines mixes sex, comto finish, with pitch-perfect performances. edy, and violence in confrontation between [PG-13] ▼쩠 sadistic warden and female prisoners. One Big Fisherman, The (1959) C-149m. ★★1⁄2 of the earliest, most successful and influenD: Frank Borzage. Howard Keel, John tial of women-in-prison exploitation films. Saxon, Susan Kohner, Herbert Lom, MarFollowed by THE BIG BIRD CAGE. Aka tha Hyer, Ray Stricklyn, Alexander Scourby. WOMEN’S PENITENTIARY I. [R]▼쩠 Sprawling religious epic, from Lloyd DougBig Easy, The (1987) C-108m. ★★★ D: las’ book about the life of St. Peter; selJim McBride. Dennis Quaid, Ellen Barkin, dom dull, but not terribly inspiring. BorNed Beatty, John Goodman, Ebbe Roe Smith, zage’s last film. Originally 184m., then cut Lisa Jane Persky, Charles Ludlam, Tom to 164m. Super Panavision 70. O’Brien, Grace Zabriskie, Marc Lawrence, Big Fix, The (1978) C-108m. ★★★ D: Solomon Burke, Jim Garrison. Highly origiJeremy Paul Kagan. Richard Dreyfuss, nal crime yarn with steamy romance and Susan Anspach, Bonnie Bedelia, John unique New Orleans atmosphere. A stylish Lithgow, F. Murray Abraham, Ofelia Mehomicide detective (Quaid) runs afoul of the dina, Fritz Weaver. Good vehicle for nownew, uptight assistant D.A. (Barkin) while infamiliar Dreyfuss personality as 1960s-camvestigating a local mob murder; soon they’re pus-radical-turned-private-eye Moses Wine, romantically involved, even while they’re at who becomes involved in tangled whodunit odds professionally. Sassy and sexy, with terin which a former hippie cult leader figures rific Cajun music score. Written by Daniel prominently. Screenplay by Roger L. Simon, Petrie, Jr. Later a cable TV series. [R]▼●쩠 based on his novel. Look fast for Mandy Big Empty, The (2003) C-92m. ★★ D: Patinkin as a pool cleaner. Leon Redbone’s Steve Anderson. Jon Favreau, Joey Lauren ‘‘I Want to Be Seduced’’ is not in video version. [PG]▼ Adams, Bud Cort, Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, Rachael Leigh Big Gamble, The (1961) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Cook, Kelsey Grammer, Sean Bean, Patti D: Richard Fleischer. Stephen Boyd, Juliette Smith, Danny Trejo, Melora Walters, Brent Greco, David Wayne, Sybil Thorndike. Briscoe. Favreau plays a loser actor who Not-too-convincing account of Irish advenagrees to courier a suitcase to desert town turer and bride Greco who dally on the peopled by loony hicks with more than a African Ivory Coast seeking to build their passing interest in alien visitors. Quirky, future the easy way. CinemaScope. low-budget melodrama is ambitious but unBigger Stronger Faster* (2008) C-106m. ★★★ D: Christopher Bell. Compelling docusuccessful. The film is aptly titled. [R] ▼쩠 Big Fat Liar (2002) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: mentary investigates performance-enhancing [ 124 ]

drugs, presenting many points of view, which tious lawman Van Cleef is hired by a railroad yield often-surprising results. First-time tycoon to track down Mexican bandito Milian, filmmaker Bell has personal involvement who’s accused of raping and murdering a with the topic (and the film) since he and young white girl, but slowly realizes he’s being his brothers grew up idolizing wrestlers and manipulated for a more sinister purpose. Armovie musclemen who, in most cases, later guably the best non–Sergio Leone spaghetti turned out to be using steroids. An eyeWestern; an exciting, ironic yarn boasting opening look at a subject that usually prostylish widescreen photography, a great Ennio vokes knee-jerk responses. Film’s asterMorricone score, and an incisive political isked subtitle is THE SIDE EFFECTS OF edge that’s even more pronounced in the BEING AMERICAN. [PG-13]쩠 uncut 105m. foreign-release version. FolBigger Than Life (1956) C-95m. ★★★ D: lowed by BIG GUNDOWN 2. Techniscope. Nicholas Ray. James Mason, Barbara Rush, Big Hand for the Little Lady, A (1966) C-95m. ★★★ D: Fielder Cook. Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Robert Simon, Roland Winters. Compelling drama of teacher Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Charles Mason who becomes hooked on drugs, Bickford, Burgess Meredith. Excellent comand its devastating effects on him and edy centering on poker game in old West. his family. Mason also produced the film. Outstanding roster of character actors includes Quite bold for its time. CinemaScope. John Qualen, Paul Ford, and Robert Middleton. There’s a neat surprise ending, too.▼쩠 Biggest Battle, The SEE: Great Battle, The Big Hangover, The (1950) 82m. ★★ D: Biggest Bundle of Them All, The (1968) Norman Krasna. Van Johnson, Elizabeth C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Robert Taylor, Leon Ames, Edgar Buchanan, Wagner, Raquel Welch, Vittorio De Sica, Rosemary DeCamp, Gene Lockhart. AmEdward G. Robinson, Godfrey Cambridge. bitious but noble war veteran Johnson, Supposedly a comedy, film is slapdash whose allergy to alcohol makes him drunk tale of amateur criminals who try to kidnap at inopportune moments, joins a staid law American gangster. Filmed in France and firm. How long will he remain there? And Italy. Panavision.▼ will he hook up with wealthy Taylor? Predictable, as well as silly and boring.▼ Big Girls Don’t Cry . . . They Get Even (1992) C-96m. ★★ D: Joan Micklin Silver. Big Heat, The (1953) 90m. ★★★ D: Fritz Hillary Wolf, David Strathairn, Margaret Lang. Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, JoceWhitton, Griffin Dunne, Patricia Kalember, lyn Brando, Alexander Scourby, Lee MarAdrienne Shelly, Dan Futterman, Ben Savage. vin, Carolyn Jones, Jeanette Nolan. Time The product of a me´lange of multiple divorces has taken the edge off once-searing story and remarriages, teenager Wolf, fed up with of cop determined to bust city crime ring; various stepparents and half-siblings, hightails famous coffee-hurling scene still jolts, and it during her current family’s vacation. BitterGrahame is excellent as bad girl who helps sweet comedy is too superficial (and predictFord.▼●쩠 able) to say anything meaningful on a subject Big Hit, The (1998) C-99m. ★★★ D: Cherelevant to many teens. [PG]▼●쩠 Kirk Wong. Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Biggles: Adventures in Time (1986Phillips, Christina Applegate, China Chow, British) C-108m. ★★ D: John Hough. Avery Brooks, Bokeem Woodbine, Antonio Neil Dickson, Alex Hyde-White, Fiona Sabato, Jr., Lainie Kazan, Elliott Gould, Sab Hutchinson, Peter Cushing, Marcus GilShimono, Lela Rochon. Expert hit man bert. Curious, occasionally entertaining Wahlberg is beset by insecurity, a confusing sci-fi adventure with Hyde-White inexpliromantic life, and a treacherous partner cably traveling through time from 1986 (Phillips). The result is gunfire, car chases, N.Y.C. to WW1 Europe . . . where he assists explosions, and martial arts galore. Unique British flyboy Dickson. Based on characters action comedy with Hong Kong flavors created by Capt. W. E. Johns. Original Britdoesn’t always work, but the cast is lively ish title: BIGGLES. [PG]▼●쩠 and the stunt work awesome, fueled by a Big Green, The (1995) C-100m. ★★ D: blazing pace. [R] ▼●쩠 Holly Goldberg Sloan. Steve Guttenberg, Big House, The (1930) 86m. ★★★ D: Olivia d’Abo, Jay O. Sanders, John Terry, George Hill. Wallace Beery, Chester MorChauncey Leopardi, Patrick Renna, Anris, Robert Montgomery, Lewis Stone, Karl thony Esquivel, Bug Hall. Slight Disney Dane, Leila Hyams. The original prison fare chronicling the plight of the ‘‘Bad drama, this set the pattern for all later News Bears’’ and the ‘‘Mighty Ducks’’ of copies; it’s still good, hard-bitten stuff soccer teams in a depressed Texas town. with one of Beery’s best tough-guy roles. Overly familiar but inoffensive; OK for less Won Oscars for Writing (Frances Marion) and Sound Recording.▼쩠 discriminating children. [PG]▼●쩠 Big Gundown, The (1966-Italian-Spanish) Big Jack (1949) 85m. ★★ D: Richard ★★★ C-90m. Thorpe. Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, D: Sergio Sollima. Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes, Fernando SanEdward Arnold, Richard Conte, Vanessa cho, Nieves Navarro, Luisa Rivelli. AmbiBrown. Beery’s last film, rather flat; he [ 125 ]

and Main are vagabond thieves in colonial America, Conte a moralistic doctor. Big Jake (1971) C-110m. ★★★ D: George Sherman. John Wayne, Richard Boone, Maureen O’Hara, Patrick Wayne, Chris Mitchum, Bobby Vinton, Bruce Cabot. Tough Westerner is called back by estranged wife to rescue their grandson from a gang of kidnappers headed by Boone (who’s especially good). Underrated Western; well paced, handsomely shot. Wayne’s fifth and final pairing with O’Hara; Chris Mitchum and the Duke’s son Patrick play his sons. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Big Jim McLain (1952) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Ludwig. John Wayne, Nancy Olson, James Arness, Alan Napier, Veda Ann Borg, Hans Conried. Wayne and Arness are HUAC investigators who go Commie-hunting in Hawaii. One of the Duke’s few dull films, but fascinating as a relic of its era.▼●쩠 Big Kahuna, The (2000) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Swanbeck. Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, Peter Facinelli. Absorbing adaptation of Roger Rueff’s play Hospitality Suite, essentially a three-character piece about two world-weary salesmen and a naive young colleague at an out-of-town convention. Their criticism clashes with the young man’s religious fervor as they wait for an important customer to show up at their hotel suite. As photographed plays go this one is pretty good, with top-notch performances, but it never quite becomes a movie. Coproduced by Spacey. [R]▼쩠 Big Knife, The (1955) 111m. ★★★ D: Robert Aldrich. Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, Everett Sloane, Wesley Addy, Paul Langton, Nick Dennis. Clifford Odets’ cynical view of Hollywood comes across in this involving (albeit occasionally overheated) drama, chronicling a string of crises in the life of movie star Charlie Castle (Palance). Fine performances almost overcome stereotypes; Steiger chews the scenery as a despotic studio head.

Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Flea, Sam Elliott, John Turturro, David Thewlis, Ben Gazzara, Tara Reid. One big shaggy-dog joke, courtesy of the Coen brothers, about a slacker who’s mistaken for a crime bigwig of the same name—and then gets hired by the guy to pay off a ransom. Mostly an excuse for off-the-wall character vignettes, some of which are amusing, some of which are just . . . strange. Minor Coen concoction with a most agreeable cast. Turturro is a standout as Jesus the bowler, but Bridges’ Dave the Dude has become a pop culture icon. [R]▼●쩠 Big Lift, The (1950) 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Seaton. Montgomery Clift, Paul Douglas, Cornell Borchers, O. E. Hasse. GI flight technicians involved in post-WW2 Berlin airlift and romance with German women. More interesting for on-location photography than uneven storyline.▼쩠 Big Lobby, The SEE: Rosebud Beach Hotel, The Big Man, The SEE: Crossing the Line Big Mo SEE: Maurie Big Momma’s House (2000) C-98m. ★★ D: Raja Gosnell. Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Paul Giamatti, Terrence Dashon Howard, Ella Mitchell, Jascha Washington, Anthony Anderson, Cedric the Entertainer. FBI agent (and disguise expert) Lawrence and partner Giamatti are sent to Georgia to stake out the home of a woman whose granddaughter may lead them to a dangerous criminal. Eventually, Lawrence pretends to be the aptly named Big Momma. Broad comedy is enthusiastically performed but thin as tissue paper. Followed by a sequel. [PG-13]▼쩠 Big Momma’s House 2 (2006) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: John Whitesell. Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Emily Procter, Zachary Levi, Mark Moses, Kat Dennings, Chloe¨ Grace Moretz, Marisol Nichols, Sarah Joy Brown, Dan Lauria. FBI agent Lawrence again dons a fat suit and transforms himself into the title character; here, he poses as a nanny to spy on the alleged designer of a deadly com▼●쩠 Big Land, The (1957) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: puter worm. Gratuitous sequel is an uneasy Gordon Douglas. Alan Ladd, Virginia mixture of stale humor and goopy sentiMayo, Edmond O’Brien, Julie Bishop. ment. [PG-13]쩠 Cattle owners and grain farmers join toBig Mouth, The (1967) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: gether to bring railroad link to Texas; Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Harold Stone, easygoing, familiar. Susan Bay, Buddy Lester, Del Moore, Big Leaguer (1953) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Paul Lambert. Typical Lewis effort, with Aldrich. Edward G. Robinson, Vera-Ellen, Jerry involved in murder and search for Jeff Richards, Richard Jaeckel, William missing treasure in California. ▼ Campbell, Carl Hubbell, Paul Layton, Al Big Night, The (1951) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Campanis. Robinson uplifts this standard Joseph Losey. John Barrymore, Jr., Presbaseball tale as real-life ex-major-leaguer ton Foster, Howland Chamberlain, Joan John B. ‘‘Hans’’ Lobert, who runs a baseLorring, Dorothy Comingore, Howard St. ball tryout camp. The scenario follows a John. Brooding account of rebellious teengroup of hopefuls who dream of profesager Barrymore’s emotional flare-up with sional stardom under his watchful eye. humanity at large; well done. Big Night (1996) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Big Lebowski, The (1998) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Coen. Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Tucci, Campbell Scott. Stanley Tucci, Min[ 126 ]

nie Driver, Tony Shalhoub, Ian Holm, IsaChristopher Guest. Kevin Bacon, Emily bella Rossellini, Campbell Scott, Allison Longstreth, J. T. Walsh, Jennifer Jason Janney, Caroline Aaron, Marc Anthony. Leigh, Michael McKean, Kim Miyori, Teri Endearing story of Italian immigrant brothHatcher, Dan Schneider, Jason Gould, Tracy ers trying to survive as restaurateurs in Brooks Swope. Slight but good-natured com1950s America; one is an artist in the edy about Hollywood wheeling and dealing. kitchen, the other a would-be businessman. Bacon is a naive student filmmaker courted Their bombastic rival (Holm) gives them a by a movie studio exec and swallowed whole shot at the brass ring by inviting Louis into The System. Lots of inside jokes for HolPrima to be their guest one night. Finely lywood audiences. Very funny performance tuned performances, amusing vignettes and by Leigh as an arty dingbat, and many amusobservations make this small endeavor ing cameos, including unbilled Martin Short worthwhile, but it’s too slow and quiet for as an agent. Guest’s first feature directing (he its own good. Tucci also coscripted; codialso scripted with costar McKean and Mirector Scott has a small but funny part as a chael Varhol). [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cadillac salesman. The feast on-screen is Big Red (1962) C-89m. ★★★ D: Norman mouthwatering! [R] ▼●쩠 Tokar. Walter Pidgeon, Gilles Payant, Emile Big Noise, The (1944) 74m. BOMB D: Genest, Janette Bertrand, Doris Lussier. Malcolm St. Clair. Stan Laurel, Oliver Charming, understated Disney drama of Hardy, Arthur Space, Veda Ann Borg, young boy who goes to work for wealthy Bobby (Robert) Blake, Jack Norton. L&H’s dog fancier (Pidgeon) and becomes deworst film, about them delivering a bomb voted to prize Irish setter. Fine family . . . and they do.▼쩠 fare. Filmed in Canada. From popular novel by Jim Kjelgaard.▼쩠 Big One, The (1998-U.S.-British) C-96m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Moore. Puckish pest Big Red One, The (1980) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 Moore chronicles the real-life events that D: Samuel Fuller. Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill, occur (mostly at his own instigation) while Robert Carradine, Bobby Di Cicco, Kelly on a book tour to promote his best-selling Ward, Siegfried Rauch, Stephane Audran. Downsize This! Self-aggrandizing documenFuller returned to filmmaking after a long hiatary is sometimes smarmy, sometimes as intus with this vivid, autobiographical account vasive as anything on Candid Camera . . . of a special infantry squadron and its intrepid but it’s also fast and consistently funny, as sergeant during WW2. Hard to believe one Moore routinely shows up at someone’s corfilm could pack so much into its narrative; a porate headquarters to launch some mischief. rich, moving, realistic, and poetic film. Car[PG-13]▼●쩠 radine narrates and plays Fuller’s alter ego, Big Operator, The (1959) 91m. ★★ D: complete with cigar. Reconstructed in 2004 to Charles Haas. Mickey Rooney, Steve more closely resemble Fuller’s intended cut, at 163m. [PG]▼●쩠 Cochran, Mamie Van Doren, Mel Torme, Ray Danton, Jim Backus. Ray Anthony, Big Scam, The SEE: Nightingale Sang Jackie Coogan. Rooney tries to add vim in Berkeley Square, A and vigor to title role as tough hood who Big Score, The (1983) C-85m. ★★ D: Fred goes on violent rampage when federal agents Williamson. Fred Williamson, John Saxon, investigate his business activities. Paul Richard Roundtree, Nancy Wilson, Ed Gallico story filmed before as JOE SMITH, Lauter, D’Urville Martin, Michael Dante, AMERICAN. Retitled: ANATOMY OF A Joe Spinell. Barely adequate DIRTY HARSYNDICATE. CinemaScope. RY clone with narc Williamson ignoring ★★★★ Big Parade, The (1925) 141m. D: the rules and taking on thug Spinell. (In King Vidor. John Gilbert, Renee Adoree, fact, this script was originally commisHobart Bosworth, Claire McDowell, Claire sioned by Clint Eastwood for a Dirty Harry Adams, Karl Dane, Tom O’Brien. One of vehicle that never got made.) [R]▼쩠 the best war films ever, and a high-water Big Shakedown, The (1934) 64m. ★★ D: mark for silent cinema. Clean-shaven GilJohn Francis Dillon. Bette Davis, Ricardo bert plays an all-American boy who’s Cortez, Glenda Farrell, Charles Farrell, shipped off to France during WW1, where Adrian Morris. Inconsequential tale. Davis he becomes a man in every sense of the rejects husband Farrell when he joins forces word. Adoree is unforgettable as the simple with mobster Cortez in cosmetic fraud. French girl with whom he falls in love. Big Shot, The (1942) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Filled with memorable vignettes and the Seiler. Humphrey Bogart, Irene Manning, most harrowingly realistic battle scenes ever Susan Peters, Minor Watson, Chick Chanput on film (until recent years). A triumph dler, Richard Travis, Stanley Ridges, Howfor Vidor and all concerned. Written by ard da Silva. OK grade-B gangster yarn Harry Behn and Laurence Stallings.▼● with Bogey a three-time loser involved in Big Parade of Comedy SEE: MGM’s The robbery frameup and prison break. Big Shots (1987) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Big Parade of Comedy Big Payoff, The SEE: Win, Place or Steal Mandel. Ricky Busker, Darius McCrary, 1 ★★ Big Picture, The (1989) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Robert Joy, Robert Prosky, Jerzy Skoli[ 127 ]

mowski, Paul Winfield. So-so juvenile adcast Dobson) to get the money. Pretty poor. venture about an inexperienced white boy Video version is 7m. longer, if you care. Aka and streetwise urban black who come toBODY OF A WOMAN. [R]▼●쩠 gether and become involved with dead Big Steal, The (1949) 71m. ★★★ D: Don bodies, hired killers and other mayhem. Siegel. Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Panavision. [PG-13]▼● Bendix, Patric Knowles, Ramon Novarro. Big Show, The (1961) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mitchum is on the trail of Army payroll thief James B. Clark. Esther Williams, Cliff Knowles; he in turn is chased by Bendix, and Robertson, Nehemiah Persoff, Robert becomes involved with enticing Greer. WellVaughn. Drama of family conflict, similar made robbery caper, set in Mexico and shot on to 1949’s HOUSE OF STRANGERS, location, is full of terrific plot twists.▼●쩠 somehow set in a circus with Williams in a Big Store, The (1941) 80m. ★★ D: Charles rare dramatic role. Glug! CinemaScope. Riesner. Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx, Big Sky, The (1952) 122m. ★★★ D: HowTony Martin, Virginia Grey, Margaret Duard Hawks. Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, mont, Douglass Dumbrille, Henry Armetta. Elizabeth Threatt, Arthur Hunnicutt, Buddy Big comedown for Marxes in weak film of Baer, Steven Geray, Hank Worden, Jim detective Groucho investigating crooked Davis. Camaraderie and conflict as furDumbrille’s department store. Low spot is trapper Douglas leads expedition up the Martin’s ‘‘The Tenement Symphony.’’▼●쩠 Missouri River. Eventful, evocative film Big Street, The (1942) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: adapted from A. B. Guthrie, Jr. book by Irving Reis. Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball, BarDudley Nichols; well directed by Hawks. ton MacLane, Eugene Pallette, Agnes MooreOriginally released at 141m. Also shown head, Sam Levene, Ray Collins, Hans in computer-colored version.▼ Conried, Ozzie Nelson and Orchestra. Damon Big Sleep, The (1946) 114m. ★★★★ D: Runyon produced this treacly adaptation of Howard Hawks. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren his own Collier’s magazine story ‘‘Little Bacall, John Ridgely, Martha Vickers, Louis Pinks,’’ about a timid busboy who devotes Jean Heydt, Regis Toomey, Peggy Knudsen, himself to a self-centered nightclub singer. Odd Dorothy Malone, Bob Steele, Elisha Cook, (and oddly watchable), with very unconventional roles for both Fonda and Ball.▼●쩠 Jr. Classic mystery thriller from Raymond Chandler’s first novel; detective Philip MarBig Tease, The (2000) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: lowe (Bogart) becomes involved with Kevin Allen. Craig Ferguson, Frances wealthy Bacall and her uncontrollable litFisher, Mary McCormack, David Rasche, tle sister Vickers. So convoluted even ChanChris Langham, Sara Gilbert, John Pankow, dler didn’t know who committed one murder, Donal Logue, Charles Napier, Larry Miller, but so incredibly entertaining that no one Ted McGinley. Scottish hairdresser mistakhas ever cared. Powerhouse direction, unenly thinks he’s been invited to L.A. to take forgettable dialogue; script by William part in the World Freestyle Hairdressing Faulkner, Jules Furthman and Leigh BrackChampionship, but won’t be deterred from ett. Pre-release version (shown to Armed competing for the Platinum Scissors award. Forces overseas in 1945) runs 116m., with Amusing if lightweight romp through the 18m. of scenes reshot or unused in the offitresses of Tinseltown. Drew Carey (Fergucial release. This version has less of Bogie son’s costar on TV’s The Drew Carey and Bacall and a more linear plot, but is Show) is among a handful of celebrity camsomehow less exotic and interesting. Also eos. Cowritten by Ferguson. [R]▼쩠 shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Big Time (1988) C-87m. ★★★ D: Chris Big Sleep, The (1978-British) C-100m. Blum. Tom Waits. Concert footage filmed ★★ at L.A.’s Wiltern Theater is combined with D: Michael Winner. Robert Mitchum, Sarah Miles, Candy Clark, Oliver Reed, scenes of the chameleonlike Waits as various Richard Boone, James Stewart, Joan Collins, and sundry characters: you’ll see Waits the Edward Fox, John Mills, Harry Andrews, sleazy lounge lizard, Waits the gravel-voiced Richard Todd, Colin Blakely. Follow-up to crooner, and Waits the truly amazing perforFAREWELL, MY LOVELY is less a remake mer. For Tom Waits fans, this is the next best of the Hawks classic than a more faithful renthing to seeing him live. [PG]▼ dering of the Chandler novel, albeit updated Big T.N.T. Show, The (1966) 93m. ★★ and set in London. If you can get by that, it’s D: Larry Peerce. David McCallum, Roger tolerable, with a strong cast, fresh locations, Miller, Joan Baez, Ike and Tina Turner, and thankful lack of camp. [R]▼쩠 Bo Diddley, The Ronettes, Ray Charles, ★1 Big Squeeze, The (1996) C-98m. ⁄2 D: The Lovin’ Spoonful. Follow-up to THE Marcus De Leon. Lara Flynn Boyle, Peter T.A.M.I. SHOW casts a wider musical Dobson, Danny Nucci, Luca Bercovici, Tenet, with lesser results, but Diddley, Tina resa Despina, Michael Chieffo. Boyle works Turner, and Ronnie Spector keep it pumping. in a bar to support her injured ballplayer husShot on tape, transferred to film; footage reband (Bercovici)—then learns he’s neglected used in THAT WAS ROCK. to inform her of a $130,000 settlement he’s Big Top Pee-wee (1988) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: received, so she enlists a drifter-hustler (a misRandal Kleiser. Pee-wee Herman, Penel[ 128 ]

ope Ann Miller, Kris Kristofferson, Valeria Golino, Susan Tyrrell, Albert Henderson, Kevin Peter Hall, Kenneth Tobey, Stephanie Hodge, Benicio Del Toro; voice of Wayne White. Farmer Pee-wee allows a traveling circus to stay on his property, and quickly develops circus fever—as well as a romance with the pretty trapeze artist (Golino). Quirky if overly bland comedy (cowritten and produced by Pee-wee’s alter ego, Paul Reubens) has many clever moments, along with some curious ones. Ought to please kids and family audiences. [PG]

nel, Dwight Meyer (Heavy D), Omar Epps, Jason Lee, Sofı´a Vergara, Andy Richter. Farcical comedy set in Miami, where various characters’ lives collide as two hit men from N.J. (Kehler and a very funny Farina) try to take out a local hotshot (Tucci), while his wife (Russo) falls in love with an exnewspaperman (Allen). Meanwhile, a stolen nuclear device is being peddled by a couple of transplanted Russians. Lots of funny lines and situations, but goes flat somewhere along the way. Based on a novel by humorist Dave Barry. [PG-13]▼쩠 Big Trouble in Little China (1986) ▼●쩠 Big Town, The (1987) C-109m. ★★ D: C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: John Carpenter. Kurt RusBen Bolt. Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, Tommy sell, Kim Cattrall, Dennis Dun, James Lee Jones, Tom Skerritt, Lee Grant, Bruce Hong, Victor Wong, Kate Burton, Suzee Dern, Suzy Amis, David Marshall Grant, LoPai. Blowhard trucker Russell finds himlita David (Davidovich), Cherry Jones, Gary self knee-deep in Chinatown intrigue (and Farmer, Sarah Polley. Small-town crapshooter mumbo-jumbo) when a friend’s fiance´e is with a ‘‘golden arm’’ comes to Chicago in the kidnapped right in front of his eyes. High1950s to become a big-time gambler, but still tech INDIANA JONES–style adventure has has a lot to learn. With that cast (and Lane as heavy tongue-in-cheek attitude, but everya stripper) it’s easy to watch . . . but just as thing else about it is heavy, too . . . ineasy to forget. [R]▼●쩠 cluding Russell’s John Wayne–ish swagger. Big Trail, The (1930) 110m. ★★★ D: Raoul Good electronic music score by director Walsh. John Wayne, Marguerite Churchill, El Carpenter. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Brendel, Tully Marshall, Tyrone Power, Sr., Big Wednesday (1978) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Rollins, Ian Keith. Epic Western may John Milius. Jan-Michael Vincent, Wilseem creaky to some viewers, but remains liam Katt, Gary Busey, Lee Purcell, Patti one of the most impressive early talkies, with D’Arbanville, Sam Melville, Robert Engits grand sweep and naturalistic use of sound. lund, Barbara Hale, Reb Brown, Steve John Wayne was ‘‘discovered’’ for starring Kanaly, Michael Talbott, Charlene Tilton. role, and already shows easygoing charm. Half of a good flick on surfing, Pacific Also filmed in pioneer 70mm widescreen proCoast–style, early ’60s. Up to midway point, cess called Grandeur, at 122m. ▼쩠 a ridiculous comedy about macho Vincent Big Trees, The (1952) C-89m. ★★ D: Felix and his fun-loving, destructive ways. As Feist. Kirk Douglas, Eve Miller, Patrice he and buddies Katt and Busey get older Wymore, Edgar Buchanan, John Archer, and action is brought up to ’70s, dramatic Alan Hale, Jr., Roy Roberts, Ellen Corby. content improves. Hale (who plays Mrs. Brutally ambitious lumberman Douglas runs Barlow) and Katt are real-life mother and afoul of a religious sect—and practically evson. Milius later recut to 104m. Panavision. erybody else around him—in this cornball [PG]▼●쩠 outdoor melodrama. A remake of VALLEY Big Wheel, The (1949) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: OF THE GIANTS with stock footage from Edward Ludwig. Mickey Rooney, Thomas that earlier color movie. ▼●쩠 Mitchell, Spring Byington, Mary Hatcher, Big Trouble (1985) C-93m. ★★ D: John Allen Jenkins, Michael O’Shea. Rooney is Cassavetes. Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Bevdetermined race-car driver following in erly D’Angelo, Charles Durning, Robert father’s footsteps despite dad’s death on Stack, Paul Dooley, Valerie Curtin, Richtrack; familiar plot well done.▼쩠 ard Libertini. Harried insurance salesman Big White, The (2005-U.S.-German-CanaArkin needs money to put his three sons dian-New Zealand) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark through Yale, so he becomes involved with Mylod. Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Gioditsy D’Angelo in a plot to kill her loony vanni Ribisi, Alison Lohman, Tim Blake husband (Falk). Pretty silly stuff, although Nelson, Woody Harrelson, W. Earl Brown. the sardine-flavored liqueur does provide a Minor but amusing black comedy set in couple of chuckles. Reteaming of talents from snowy Alaska, where desperate travel agent THE IN-LAWS (1979) had a troubled proWilliams concocts a scheme to collect induction and barely received theatrical resurance on his supposedly dead brother— lease. Andrew Bergman wrote the script and then stumbles onto a body just right for under the name Warren Bogle. [R]▼●쩠 the purpose at hand. Ribisi is terrific as an Big Trouble (2002) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barry insurance investigator who obsesses over Sonnenfeld. Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Stanley the obvious fraudulence of the case. [R]쩠 Tucci, Tom Sizemore, Johnny Knoxville, DenBiker Boyz (2003) C-110m. ★★ D: Reggie nis Farina, Jack Kehler, Janeane Garofalo, Rock Bythewood. Laurence Fishburne, Patrick Warburton, Ben Foster, Zooey DeschaDerek Luke, Orlando Jones, Djimon Hounsou, [ 129 ]

Lisa Bonet, Brendan Fehr, Larenz Tate, Kid Greer are her perplexed parents, Berlinger Rock, Rick Gonzalez, Meagan Good, Salli her boyfriend. Duke sings, runs, prances. Richardson-Whitfield, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Techniscope. ▼●쩠 Kadeem Hardison, Terrence Dashon Howard, Billion Dollar Brain (1967-British) C-111m. ★★★ Eriq La Salle, Tyson Beckford. By-theD: Ken Russell. Michael Caine, Karl numbers action drama about the subculture of Malden, Ed Begley, Oscar Homolka, California motorcycle clubs, spotlighting Franc¸oise Dorleac. Third in series that began males of various ages who are addicted to with THE IPCRESS FILE finds Harry Palmer fancy bikes and challenge each other in ille(Caine) again up to his neck in exciting espiogal road races. Fishburne is the longtime unnage, this time in Scandinavia. Based on Len defeated champ, Luke the ambitious young Deighton’s novel. Followed 30 years later by a pair of cable TV sequels. Panavision.쩠 challenger. Attempts to focus on characters and relationships instead of just action, but Billion Dollar Hobo, The (1978) C-96m. ★1 the results are uninspired. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Stuart E. McGowan. Tim Conway, Bikini Beach (1964) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Will Geer, Eric Weston, Sydney Lassick, William Asher. Frankie Avalon, Annette John Myhers, Frank Sivero. Dreary comFunicello, Keenan Wynn, Martha Hyer, Haredy about bumbling Conway becoming a vey Lembeck, Don Rickles, John Ashley, hobo to qualify for inheritance. [G]▼쩠 Jody McCrea, Meredith MacRae, Donna Bill of Divorcement, A (1932) 69m. ★★★ Loren, Candy Johnson, Timothy Carey, ‘‘LitD: George Cukor. John Barrymore, Kathtle’’ Stevie Wonder, Michael Nader. Third arine Hepburn, Billie Burke, David Manners, BEACH PARTY movie is second best, with Henry Stephenson. Barrymore gives sensiAvalon in dual role as Frankie and a British tive performance as man released from mental singing rage called ‘‘The Potato Bug’’ (get institution who returns to wife Burke and it?). Relic of bygone era. Followed by PAgets to know his daughter for the first time. JAMA PARTY. Panavision. ▼쩠 Dated but worth seeing; notable as Hepburn’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991) screen debut. Originally released at 75m. C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Hewitt. Keanu Remade in 1940.▼● Reeves, Alex Winter, William Sadler, Joss Bill of Divorcement, A (1940) 74m. ★★1⁄2 Ackland, George Carlin, Hal Landon, Jr., Pam D: John Farrow. Maureen O’Hara, Adolphe Grier, Amy Stock-Poynton, Sarah Trigger. In Menjou, Fay Bainter, Herbert Marshall, this sequel, the dimwitted duo travel to Dame May Whitty, C. Aubrey Smith, Patric Heaven, Hell, and points in between as they Knowles. Adequate remake with Menjou as duel with an evil pair of robots who are posmentally ill man who suddenly regains his ing as Bill and Ted. Along the way they meet sanity and returns home, with resulting dra(among others) Albert Einstein, the Easter matic fireworks. Scripted by Dalton Trumbo. Bunny, and the Grim Reaper! Special effects Retitled NEVER TO LOVE. Billy Bathgate (1991) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: almost take over in this outing, but B&T are even dumber here than in the original film. Robert Benton. Dustin Hoffman, Nicole One more sequel and they qualify as the Hope Kidman, Loren Dean, Bruce Willis, Steven Hill, Steve Buscemi, Billy Jaye, John and Crosby of the ’90s, dudes! [PG]▼●쩠 Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) Costelloe, Tim Jerome, Stanley Tucci, Mike C-90m. ★★ D: Stephen Herek. Keanu Starr, Katharine Houghton, Rachel York, Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Bernie Moira Kelly. Absorbing, exceptionally goodCasey, Amy Stock-Poynton, Terry Camilleri, looking adaptation of E. L. Doctorow’s fanciDan Shor. Inseparable teenage airheads, who ful novel about young man who hooks up with are about to flunk their history course, are gangster Dutch Schultz in the waning days of given the opportunity to go traveling through his crime career in the 1930s. Hoffman’s comtime to meet (and round up) such historical manding performance makes this flawed film figures as Napoleon, Joan of Arc, and Abraworth watching, though the story’s momenham Lincoln. Radical! Reeves and Winter are tum erodes toward the end. Photographed by great fun as Bill and Ted, but this goofy comNestor Almendros, with remarkable producedy never takes off as it should. Followed by tion design by Patrizia von Brandenstein. an animated TV series, a live-action TV seScreenplay by Tom Stoppard. [R]▼●쩠 ries, and BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURBilly Budd (1962-U.S.-British) 122m. ★★★1⁄2 NEY. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 D: Peter Ustinov. Robert Ryan, Peter UstiBill Cosby—‘‘Himself’’ (1982) C-105m. nov, Melvyn Douglas, Terence Stamp, Paul ★★1 Rogers, David McCallum. Melville’s classic ⁄2 D: Bill Cosby. Likable in-concert film, featuring Cosby on the subjects of child good vs. evil novella set in British Navy, rearing, human nature, family life. Pleasant 1797. Naive, incorruptible seaman is courtmartialed for murder of sadistic master-atbut hardly ‘‘an event.’’ [PG]▼●쩠 Billie (1965) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Weis. arms. Film deals simply with heavier issues Patty Duke, Warren Berlinger, Jim Backus, of morality. Sterling performances by all. Jane Greer, Billy DeWolfe, Charles Lane, Ustinov also produced and coscripted with Dick Sargent. Airy comedy of tomboyish DeWitt Bodeen. Stamp’s film debut. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Duke and her athletic aspirations. Backus and [ 130 ]

Billy Elliot (2000-British) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 version). Followed by a TV series and a musical. CinemaScope.▼쩠 D: Stephen Daldry. Julie Walters, Jamie Billy Madison (1995) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Tamra Bell, Jamie Draven, Gary Lewis, Jean HeyDavis. Adam Sandler, Darren McGavin, wood, Stuart Wells, Mike Elliot, Janine Bridgette Wilson, Bradley Whitford, Josh Burkett. Beautifully realized story, set in Mostel, Norm Macdonald, Mark Beltzman, 1984, about an 11-year-old boy (Bell, in a Larry Hankin, Theresa Merritt. Another glorious debut) growing up in a motherless comic celebration of infantilism and cruhousehold in a harsh English mining town dity, as spoiled rich kid Sandler must repeat where most of the workers are on strike. grades 1–12 in order to take over his milAn inadvertent encounter with a dance class lionaire father’s business. A little of this opens a new door in his life. A feel-good goes a long way. Sandler (who can be funny movie in the very best sense; Lee Hall’s script and endearing when he wants to be) also dodges the formulaic ingredients you expect cowrote the script. His Saturday Night Live to find. Impressive film debut for theater dicastmate Chris Farley and Steve Buscemi rector Daldry. Later a Broadway musical. appear unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [R]▼쩠 Billy Rose’s Diamond Horseshoe SEE: Billy Galvin (1986) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Diamond Horseshoe Gray. Karl Malden, Lenny Von Dohlen, Billy Rose’s Jumbo (1962) C-125m. ★★★ D: Joyce Van Patten, Toni Kalem, Keith SzaraCharles Walters. Doris Day, Stephen Boyd, bajka, Alan North, Paul Guilfoyle, Barton Jimmy Durante, Martha Raye, Dean Jagger. Heyman. Well-meaning, fairly effective meatOK circus picture, at best during Rodgers and-potatos drama about title character (Von and Hart songs, well staged by Busby BerDohlen), who wants to be a construction keley. Durante (who had starred in the 1935 worker like his old man (Malden), a tough, Broadway production) and Raye are marobstinate codger who does everything to disvelous. Songs include ‘‘The Most Beautiful courage him. Not without its share of moGirl in the World,’’ ‘‘My Romance,’’ ‘‘This ments, but also a bit too obvious. Good Can’t Be Love.’’ Aka JUMBO. Panavision. performances. An American Playhouse pre▼ ●쩠 sentation. [PG]▼ Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998) Billy Jack (1971) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: T. C. ★★1⁄2 D: Tommy O’Haver. Sean P. C-92m. Frank (Tom Laughlin). Tom Laughlin, DeHayes, Brad Rowe, Richard Ganoung, Merlores Taylor, Clark Howat, Kenneth Tobey, edith Scott Lynn, Paul Bartel, Armando Bert Freed, Julie Webb. Half-breed karate Valdes-Kennedy, Annabelle Gurwitch, Holly expert protects a free school imperiled by reWoodlawn. Unemployed L.A. photographer actionary townspeople in this grass-roots hit. Billy (Hayes) decides to recreate a series of Its politics are highly questionable, and its classic movie kisses from Hollywood’s ‘‘message’’ of peace ridiculous, considering golden age, utilizing drag queens and other the amount of violence in the film. Memoragay pals. He immediately gets sidetracked ble title sequence depicting slaughter of upon meeting gorgeous Gabriel (Rowe). wild mustangs introduced hit song ‘‘One Flashy low-budget effort that manages to Tin Soldier’’ by Coven. Preceded by BORN be both humorous and sensitive, though the LOSERS; followed by THE TRIAL OF writer-director isn’t kidding when he calls BILLY JACK and BILLY JACK GOES it ‘‘A Tom O’Haver Trifle.’’ He says his TO WASHINGTON. [PG]▼●쩠 inspiration came from the ambiguity of the Billy Jack Goes to Washington (1977) Clift–de Havilland romance in THE HEIRC-155m. ★★ D: Tom Laughlin. Tom ESS! Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Sam Wanamaker, Billy the Kid (1930) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: King Lucie Arnaz, E. G. Marshall, Pat O’Brien. Vidor. Johnny Mack Brown, Wallace Beery, Contrived update of MR. SMITH GOES Kay Johnson, Karl Dane, Roscoe Ates. TO WASHINGTON, with writer-directorRealistic early talkie Western with marshal star Laughlin, a supposed ‘‘everyman,’’ Beery trying to capture outlaw Brown; some fighting big-time corruption in the Senate. performances seem badly dated today. ReBasic story is still good, but it goes on fortitled: THE HIGHWAYMAN RIDES. Oriever. Panavision.▼쩠 ginally shown in early Realife 70 mm. Billy Liar (1963-British) 98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: widescreen process. John Schlesinger. Tom Courtenay, Julie Billy the Kid (1941) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Christie, Wilfred Pickles, Mona WashMiller. Robert Taylor, Brian Donlevy, Ian bourne, Ethel Griffies, Finlay Currie, LeonHunter, Mary Howard, Gene Lockhart, Lon ard Rossiter. Cast excels in story of ambiChaney, Jr. Cast looks uncomfortable in retious but lazy young man caught in dull make of 1930 Western, but plot is sturdy job routine who escapes into fantasy world, enough for OK viewing, with Taylor in title offering some poignant vignettes of midrole and Donlevy as marshal.▼쩠 dle-class life. Based on Keith Waterhouse Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966) C-74m. ★★ D: William Beaudine. Chuck Courtney, novel and play; scripted by Waterhouse and Willis Hall (who also cowrote stage John Carradine, Melinda Plowman, Vir[ 131 ]

ginia Christine, Walter Janovitz, Bing RusAnn Wedgeworth, Susan McClung, Brian sell, Olive Carey, Harry Carey, Jr. Famed Part. Eleven-year-old girl, sent to live with outlaw decides it’s time to get married—but relatives in Amish country, finds out about doesn’t realize that his bride’s ‘‘uncle’’ is a life, love, suffering and compassion. Beauvampire. Campy nonsense.▼쩠 tiful, sensitive film. [PG]▼ ★★1 Billy Two Hats (1974) C-99m. ⁄2 D: Bird (1988) C-160m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clint EastTed Kotcheff. Gregory Peck, Desi Arnaz, wood. Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Jr., Jack Warden, Sian Barbara Allen, Michael Zelniker, Samuel E. Wright, Keith David Huddleston. Offbeat Western filmed David, Michael McGuire, James Handy. in Israel, about a middle-aged Scot and a Heartfelt but overlong biography of legendyoung half-Indian pursued by the law for ary saxophonist Charlie Parker, who revolubank robbery. Peck is appealing in unusual tionized jazz music in the 1940s. While character role. Retitled THE LADY AND there’s much music on hand, this is mostly THE OUTLAW. [PG]▼ the story of one man’s drug addiction and Biloxi Blues (1988) C-106m. ★★★ D: Mike self-destructive life. Fails to balance its story Nichols. Matthew Broderick, Christopher with any explanation of Parker’s influence Walken, Matt Mulhern, Corey Parker, Casey in the world of music. Excellent and believSiemaszko, Markus Flanagan, Michael able performances help. Parker plays on the Dolan, Penelope Ann Miller, Park Overall. soundtrack, though all accompanying music The further adventures of Eugene Jerome, was rerecorded in 1988. (The film won an Neil Simon’s youthful alter ego introduced Oscar for sound recording.) [R]▼●쩠 in BRIGHTON BEACH MEMOIRS. Here, birdcage, The (1996) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: WW2 is winding down, and Eugene (BroderMike Nichols. Robin Williams, Gene Hackick) forsakes Brooklyn for Biloxi, Miss., and man, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Hank ten grueling weeks of army basic training, Azaria, Christine Baranski, Dan Futterman, where he comes that much closer to manhood. Calista Flockhart, Tom McGowan, Grant Quite wonderful, in its best moments. FolHeslov, Kirby Mitchell. Polished if obvious lowed by TV movie BROADWAY BOUND. remake of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES will Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 please anyone who hasn’t seen or doesn’t 1 ★ Bingo (1991) C-87m. ⁄2 D: Matthew remember the original: Williams is fairly Robbins. Cindy Williams, David Rasche, subdued as a South Beach, Miami, nightRobert J. Steinmiller, Jr., David French, club owner who’s forced to ask his highKurt Fuller, Joe Guzaldo, Glenn Shadix. strung, drag-queen performer/partner (Lane) Basic update of the ‘‘boy wants a dog, boy to hide away while his son brings his prospeccan’t have a dog, boy finds a dog who has tive in-laws—an ultra-conservative couple— run away from the circus, boy hides the to dinner. Screenplay by Elaine May, who dog from his parents, boy must move out added fresh lines to the foolproof blueprint of the original. [R]▼●쩠 of town and leave the dog behind, boy finds dog again’’ genre. Kids might like it, but it’s a Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) 143m. ★★★ real bow-wow. [PG]▼●쩠 D: John Frankenheimer. Burt Lancaster, Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Betty Field, Kings, The (1976) C-110m. ★★★ D: John Neville Brand, Edmond O’Brien, Hugh Badham. Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Marlowe, Telly Savalas. Pensive study of Jones, Richard Pryor, Ted Ross, DeWayne prisoner Robert Stroud who during his Jessie, Stan Shaw. Bright, original commany years in jail became a world-renowned edy about baseball player Williams trying bird authority. Film becomes static despite to buck owners of Negro National League imaginative sidelights to enlarge scope of in 1939 by starting his own razzle-dazzle action. 148m. version used for overseas team. Williams’ character is modeled release now turning up here.▼●쩠 after Satchel Paige, while Jones’ is based Bird of Paradise (1932) 80m. ★★ D: King Vidor. Joel McCrea, Dolores Del Rio, on Josh Gibson. [PG]▼●쩠 Bio-Dome (1996) C-95m. BOMB D: Jason John Halliday, Skeets Gallagher, Lon Bloom. Pauly Shore, Stephen Baldwin, Chaney, Jr. Exotic but empty South Seas William Atherton, Joey (Lauren) Adams, romance with McCrea as adventurer who Teresa Hill, Henry Gibson, Kevin West, falls in love with native-girl Del Rio. Handsome but unmoving; remade in 1951.▼쩠 Kylie Minogue, Patricia Hearst, Roger Clinton, Rose McGowan, Jack Black. Two layBird of Paradise (1951) C-100m. ★★ D: abouts from Tucson are sealed up for a year Delmer Daves. Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget, inside a Biosphere-like experimental habitat Jeff Chandler, Everett Sloane. Jourdan’s and drive the scientists in charge bonkers. A marriage to South Sea isle chief’s daughter good comedy premise is trashed through causes native uprising in grandly filmed crude writing, inept plotting, and having as but vapid tale. Remake of 1932 film. heroes two worthless jerks we’re supposed to Bird of Prey (1996-U.S.-Bulgarian) C-101m. find lovable. [PG-13]▼●쩠 BOMB D: Temistocles Lopez. Jennifer Tilly, Birch Interval (1977) C-104m. ★★★ D: Boyan Milushev, Richard Chamberlain, Lenny Delbert Mann. Eddie Albert, Rip Torn, Von Dohlen, Robert Carradine, Lesley Ann [ 132 ]

Warren. Preposterous thriller about a Bulgarian Birdy (1984) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan dissenter and an American photojournalist who Parker. Matthew Modine, Nicolas Cage, unite to battle a slimy businessman. Tilly, playJohn Harkins, Sandy Baron, Karen Young, ing Chamberlain’s daughter (and Milushev’s Bruno Kirby. Cage, reunited with schizolove interest), seems to be in another movie. It phrenically silent Modine in an army hostook four writers to concoct this clinker, which pital, flashes back to their adolescence in barely earned a theatrical release. [R]▼쩠 working-class Philadelphia and on Modine’s Bird on a Wire (1990) C-110m. ★★ D: John lifelong desire to be a bird. William WharBadham. Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, David ton’s allegorical novel, updated from WW2 Carradine, Bill Duke, Stephen Tobolowsky, to Vietnam, makes a surprisingly workable Joan Severance, Jeff Corey. Star power is movie despite a weak ‘‘gag’’ ending. Terrific about all this lame action-comedy has going performances, with Modine a standout in a for it, as drug-running murderers force Mel, tricky, physically demanding role. Screenplay by Sandy Kroopf and Jack Behr. [R]▼●쩠 who’s been hiding in the F.B.I. witness relocation program, and Goldie, his onetime Birgit Haas Must Be Killed (1981-French) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Laurent Heynemann. sweetheart, to take it on the lam. Script on a shoestring. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Lisa KreuBirds, The (1963) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alzer, Bernard Le Coq. Unscrupulous police fred Hitchcock. Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, officer Noiret dupes innocent Rochefort into Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, Veronromancing former left-wing terrorist Kreuzer, ica Cartwright, Ethel Griffies, Charles intending to have her assassinated and hang the McGraw, Joe Mantell, Elizabeth Wilson, blame on Rochefort! Intriguing idea never Doodles Weaver, Richard Deacon, Suzanne really catches fire, despite honorable efforts; Cupito (Morgan Brittany). Hitchcock’s might have worked better if the two male stars classic about a woman (Hedren) and mass had switched roles.▼ bird attacks that follow her around isolated Birth (2004) C-100m. ★★★ D: Jonathan coastal California community. Not for the Glazer. Nicole Kidman, Cameron Bright, squeamish; a delight for those who are Danny Huston, Lauren Bacall, Alison Elliott, game. Hold on to something and watch. Arliss Howard, Anne Heche, Peter Stormare, Script by Evan Hunter, loosely based on Ted Levine, Cara Seymour, Zoe Caldwell. A Daphne du Maurier’s story. Followed by a man dies while jogging in Manhattan’s Centerrible TV sequel in 1994. ▼●쩠 tral Park, and a baby is born. Ten years later, Birds and the Bees, The (1956) C-94m. as the man’s widow is about to remarry, she ★★ is confronted by a 10-year-old boy who D: Norman Taurog. George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, David Niven, Reginald Garclaims to be her husband. Eerie, riveting diner, Fred Clark, Hans Conried. Bland redrama is remarkably effective in building make of THE LADY EVE about rich playand sustaining a mood of unease—and unboy who breaks off romance with cardshark certainty. Striking score by Alexandre Desgirlfriend, but later decides he still loves plat and cinematography by Harris Savides. her. Screenplay by Sidney Sheldon (and Kidman is marvelous. Glazer wrote the Preston Sturges). VistaVision. ▼ screenplay with Jean-Claude Carrie`re and Birds Do It (1966) C-95m. ★★ D: Andrew Milo Addica (who appears as a doorman). Marton. Soupy Sales, Tab Hunter, Arthur [R] 쩠 O’Connell, Edward Andrews, Beverly Birthday Girl (2002-British-U.S.) C-93m. ★★ Adams, Frank Nastasi. Soupy’s first starD: Jez Butterworth. Nicole Kidman, Ben ring vehicle has him under the spell of Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz. serum that enables him to fly. Fairly enterNerdy, sexually repressed British bank clerk taining for kids. (Chaplin) orders a Russian bride over the InBirds, The Bees and the Italians, The ternet; when she arrives he discovers (to his (1966-Italian-French) 115m. ★★★ D: Pietro dismay) that she doesn’t speak a word of Germi. Virna Lisi, Gastone Moschin, Nora English . . . but that turns out to be the least Ricci, Alberto Lionello, Franco Fabrizi. of his troubles. The woman’s ‘‘cousin’’ and a Very funny bedroom farce chronicling the friend soon show up and turn Chaplin’s life insexual and romantic exploits of various side out. Amusing at first, then unexpectedly residents in a small Italian town. dark: either way, the story is unbelievable— Bird With the Crystal Plumage, The and unsatisfying. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 (1970-Italian-West German) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Birthday Party, The (1968-British) C127m. ★★★ D: William Friedkin. Robert D: Dario Argento. Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Eva Renzi, Enrico Maria SalerShaw, Patrick Magee, Dandy Nichols, Sydney no, Mario Adorf, Renato Romano, Umberto Tafler, Moultrie Kelsall, Helen Fraser. UncineRano, Werner Peters. American writer livmaticfilm version of Harold Pinter’s play about ing in Rome witnesses attempted murder boarding house and its mysterious tenant in gallery; he and his mistress become (Shaw) is helped by good acting and playinvolved in case. Uneven; best viewed on wright’s usual superior dialogue. [G] large screen. Reissued as THE PHANTOM Birth of a Nation, The (1915) 186m. ★★★★ D: D. W. Griffith. Lillian Gish, Mae OF TERROR. Cromoscope. [PG]▼●쩠 [ 133 ]

Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooracing in attempts to save her failing London per, Robert Harron, Wallace Reid, Joseph disco, but who cares? And, yes, there is a title Henabery. The landmark of American motion song. [R]▼쩠 pictures. Griffith’s epic story of two families Bite the Bullet (1975) C-131m. ★★★★ D: during Civil War and Reconstruction is still Richard Brooks. Gene Hackman, Candice fascinating. Sometimes the drama survives inBergen, James Coburn, Ben Johnson, Ian tact; other times, one must watch in a more hisBannen, Jan-Michael Vincent, Robert torical perspective. Griffith’s portrayal of Ku Donner, Paul Stewart, Dabney Coleman, Klux Klan in heroic role has kept this film a Sally Kirkland. Grand adventure in the center of controversy to the present day. Runclassic tradition. Disparate types compete ning time varies from print to print. ▼●쩠 in a grueling, 700-mile horse race at the turn Birth of the Blues (1941) 85m. ★★★ D: of the 20th century; the finalists develop a Victor Schertzinger. Bing Crosby, Brian grudging—and growing—respect for each Donlevy, Carolyn Lee, Eddie (Rochester) other. Script by director Brooks. Beautifully Anderson, Mary Martin. Fiction about filmed on magnificent locations by Harry Stradling, Jr., in Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Crosby organizing jazz band in New Orleans has great music like ‘‘St. Louis Blues,’’ Bitter Moon (1992-French-British) C‘‘St. James Infirmary,’’ ‘‘Melancholy Baby’’ 139m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roman Polanski. Peter Coyand title tune to uplift fair story.▼쩠 ote, Emmanuelle Seigner, Hugh Grant, ★★★ Biscuit Eater, The (1940) 83m. Kristin Scott Thomas, Victor Banerjee, SoD: Stuart Heisler. Billy Lee, Cordell Hickman, phie Patel. Deliciously trashy tale of wealthy, Helene Millard, Richard Lane, Lester Matwheelchair-bound jerk Coyote, a failed Amerthews. Warm, winning adaptation of James ican writer who’s been living in Paris with Street story about two boys—one white, voluptuous French wife Seigner. Once they one black—who take unwanted dog from were ecstatically in love, but their relationship litter and try to turn him into champion has taken on a bizarre, sadistic bent; they go bird dog. A B picture that was regarded as on an ocean voyage, and beguile a very the sleeper of the year. Remade in 1972. proper British couple (Grant, Scott Thomas). Biscuit Eater, The (1972) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Often overwrought, with laughable diaD: Vincent McEveety. Earl Holliman, Lew logue and not-to-be-believed sex scenes. A Ayres, Godfrey Cambridge, Patricia Crowley, guilty pleasure, to be sure. Polanski also Beah Richards, Johnny Whitaker, George produced and coscripted. Stockard ChanSpell. Wholesome, uninspired Disney rening appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 make with Whitaker and Spell as the young Bitter Rice (1948-Italian) 107m. ★★★ D: friends who devote themselves to training a Giuseppe De Santis. Silvana Mangano, champion bird dog. [G]▼쩠 Vittorio Gassman, Raf Vallone, Doris Bishop Misbehaves, The (1935) 86m. ★★1⁄2 Dowling, Lia Corelli. Effective portrayal D: E. A. Dupont. Edmund Gwenn, Maureen of the dreary, backbreaking existence of O’Sullivan, Norman Foster, Lucile Watson, women toiling in the Po Valley rice fields, Reginald Owen, Dudley Digges, Lilian Bond, exploited by the rice growers and their Melville Cooper. Tongue-in-cheek mystery go-betweens. The seductive Mangano, as with Gwenn (in his first American film) as an a worker who betrays her comrades, English bishop with a taste for detective stories became an international star.▼ who gets mixed up in a real jewel heist. EnjoyBitter Sweet (1940) C-92m. ★★★ D: W.S. able but slow paced. Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Bishop’s Wife, The (1947) 108m. ★★★ Eddy, George Sanders, Felix Bressart, D: Henry Koster. Cary Grant, Loretta Lynne Carver, Ian Hunter, Sig Ruman. Young, David Niven, Monty Woolley, Ignore plot, enjoy Noel Coward’s songs in James Gleason, Gladys Cooper, Elsa lavishly filmed operetta. Wonderful HerLanchester. Christmas fantasy of suave man Bing provides funniest scene as shopangel (Grant) coming to earth to help Bishop keeper who hires Nelson and Jeanette to Niven and wife Young raise money for give his daughter music lessons. Filmed benew church. Engaging performances by fore in England in 1933. ▼ all—and fun to see children from IT’S A Bittersweet Love (1976) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: WONDERFUL LIFE, Karolyn Grimes and David Miller. Lana Turner, Robert LanBobby Anderson, appearing together. Also sing, Celeste Holm, Robert Alda, Scott shown in computer-colored version. Remade Hylands, Meredith Baxter Birney. Excelas THE PREACHER’S WIFE.▼●쩠 lent cast wasted on improbable story of Bitch, The (1979-British) C-93m. BOMB young married couple (expecting a baby) D: Gerry O’Hara. Joan Collins, Kenneth suddenly discovering they are half-brother Haigh, Michael Coby, Ian Hendry, Caroand sister. Termination of pregnancy and lyn Seymour, Sue Lloyd, John Ratzenmarriage are then talked to death. [PG]▼ berger. Weak entry in the Bimbo Chic genre, a Bitter Tea of General Yen, The (1933) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Capra. Barbara Stanfollow-up to THE STUD, based on a book by Joan’s sister, Jackie Collins. Joan gets involved wyck, Nils Asther, Gavin Gordon, Toshia in everything from smuggling to fixed horse Mori, Richard Loo, Lucien Littlefield, Clara [ 134 ]

Blandick, Walter Connolly. May seem anHarlem with an ambitious rap artist, a baskettiquated to modern audiences, but Capra’s ball player (real-life hoop star Houston) who’s sensuous story of American woman’s strange manipulated by his beautiful white girlfriend fascination with a Chinese warlord is still (Schiffer) and a documentary filmmaker dazzling. A moody, beautifully atmospher(Shields) who’s shooting a film on why white ic, sensitively performed film.▼ kids are so fascinated by hip-hop culture. Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, The Crammed with interesting ideas and observations. Toback also scripted. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 (1973-German) C-119m. ★★ D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Margit Carstensen, Hanna Black and White in Color (1977-FrenchAfrican) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Jacques Schygulla, Irm Hermann, Eva Mattes, Katrin Schaake, Gisela Fackeldey. Wealthy lesAnnaud. Jean Carmet, Jacques Dufilho, bian fashion designer Petra Von Kant Catherine Rouvel, Jacques Spiesser, Dora (Carstensen) worries over habits of inconDoll. Unusual and witty story of self-satisfied sistent lover Schygulla and unmercifully Frenchmen at remote African trading post bosses secretary Hermann. The action is who are fired by sudden patriotism at outlimited to Petra’s apartment, and the pace break of WW1 and decide to attack nearby is annoyingly slow. Based on a FassGerman fort. Oscar winner as Best Foreign Film. [PG]▼●쩠 binder play; overrated by some.▼쩠 Bitter Vengeance (1994) C-90m. ★★ D: Black Angel (1946) 80m. ★★★ D: Roy Stuart Cooper. Virginia Madsen, Bruce William Neill. Dan Duryea, June Vincent, Greenwood, Kristen Hocking, Eddie Velez, Peter Lorre, Broderick Crawford, Wallace Gordon Jump, Carlos Gomez, Tim Russ. Ford. First-rate whodunit (by Cornell Disappointing thriller about a self-pitying Woolrich) of Vincent trying to clear husbank security guard (Greenwood) who takes band of charge that he murdered Duryea’s out his anger on his supportive wife (Madwife. Imaginative film will have you glued to the screen all the way.▼쩠 sen). He eventually begins cheating on her, and concocts a robbery scheme in which his Black Arrow, The (1948) 76m. ★★★ D: mate will take the fall. Holds your interest Gordon Douglas. Louis Hayward, Janet for a while, but eventually becomes much Blair, George Macready, Edgar Buchanan, too implausible. [R]▼ Paul Cavanagh. Superior swashbuckler with Bitter Victory (1957-French) 82m. ★★★ dashing knight Hayward, lovely heroine Blair, D: Nicholas Ray. Richard Burton, Curt and villain Macready. Truly exciting finale Jurgens, Ruth Roman, Raymond Pellegrin, with hero vs. villain in jousting tournament. Anthony Bushell, Christopher Lee. Strong Based on a Robert Louis Stevenson novel. WW2 story with Jurgens as unfit comRemade for TV in 1985.▼ mander who receives undeserved citation Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story for mission against Rommel’s desert head(2006) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brant Sersen. Rob quarters; Roman is his wife who’s had Corddry, Paul Scheer, Dannah Feinglass, Rob prior affair with officer Burton. 103m. Riggle, Curtis Gwinn, Seth Morris, Ed Helms. versions now in circulation are from BritDaily Show correspondent Corddry stars as a ish release of this film. CinemaScope.쩠 paintball champion who fell from grace when Bix: An Interpretation of a Legend he was caught cheating. Mockumentary fol(1990-Italian) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pupi Avati. lows his efforts to rescue his reputation by Bryant Weeks, Emile Levisetti, Sally Groth, gathering a team of underdogs and atMark Collver, Ray Edelstein, Julia Ewing, tempting to win an important competition. Barbara Wilder, Romano Luccio Orzari. Uneven but sweet, with a few laugh-outFragmented bio of 1920s jazz legend Bix loud moments and well-improvised characterizations. Made in 2004. 쩠 Beiderbecke, who skyrocketed to fame— and burned out just as fast. Dramatically Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968) C-107m. ★★★ uneven, but enhanced by loving recreation D: Robert Stevenson. Peter Ustinov, Dean of the period (using many authentic locaJones, Suzanne Pleshette, Elsa Lanchester, tions in and around Bix’s home town of Joby Baker, Elliott Reid, Richard Deacon. Davenport, Iowa) and great reproductions Jones conjures up title character (Ustinov) of his music by Bob Wilber and some firstwho helps protect his descendants’ home from being taken over by racketeers who class musicians. Originally 20m. longer.▼ Black and White (2000) C-100m. ★★★ D: want to make it a casino. Engaging slapJames Toback. Bijou Phillips, Brooke Shields, stick comedy from Disney.▼●쩠 Robert Downey, Jr., Allan Houston, Ben Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952) C-99m. ★★ Stiller, Claudia Schiffer, Stacy Edwards, Gaby D: Raoul Walsh. Robert Newton, Linda DarHoffmann, Elijah Wood, Scott Caan, Jared nell, William Bendix, Keith Andes, Richard Leto, Marla Maples, Method Man, Power, Egan, Irene Ryan. Newton is rambunctious as Raekwon, Joe Pantoliano, James Toback, 17th-century buccaneer, with lovely Darnell Mike Tyson. Edgy N.Y.C. slice-of-life about his captive; fun for a while, but Newton’s social and sexual interaction between blacks hamming soon grows tiresome.▼●쩠 and whites of various backgrounds, including a Black Beauty (1971-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 white teen hipster (Phillips) who hangs out in D: James Hill. Mark Lester, Walter Slezak, [ 135 ]

Peter Lee Lawrence, Ursula Glas. The story tance movement during WW2 and has to cozy of a horse who passes from owner to owner; up to a Nazi officer to carry out her most vital fails to capture the qualities that make Anna assignment. Fast-paced film, dotted with acSewell’s novel a classic, but it’s not bad. tion, covers a lot of ground but quickly turns Filmed before in 1946. [G]▼●쩠 heavy-handed, punctuating its engrossing story ★★★ Black Beauty (1994) C-85m. with old-fashioned music cues and close-ups D: Caroline Thompson. Sean Bean, David Thewlis, of sneering SS officers. Buoyed considerably Jim Carter, Peter Davison, Alun Armstrong, by van Houten’s charismatic and sexy perforJohn McEnery, Eleanor Bron, Peter Cook, mance. Verhoeven scripted with his longtime Andrew Knott; voice of Alan Cumming. Dutch colleague Gerard Soeteman. Super 35. Handsome remake of the Anna Sewell family [R]쩠 classic about a horse’s trials and tribulations Black Bounty Killer, The SEE: Boss Nigger as it passes from one owner to another in Black Caesar (1973) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: 19th-century England, experiencing everyLarry Cohen. Fred Williamson, Art Lund, thing from benevolent guardianship to ignoJulius W. Harris, Gloria Hendry, D’Urville rant abuse. Narrated, quite engagingly, by Martin. Better-than-average gangster film the horse itself. Evocative score by Danny follows rise to the top of shrewd, bloodElfman. Screenwriter Thompson’s directing thirsty black baddie. Sequel: HELL UP IN debut. Made in England. [G]▼●쩠 HARLEM. [R]▼●쩠 Black Belly of the Tarantula (1972-Italian) Black Castle, The (1952) 81m. ★★ D: C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Paolo Cavara. Giancarlo Nathan Juran. Richard Greene, Boris Giannini, Stefania Sandrelli, Barbara Karloff, Stephen McNally, Paula Corday, Bouchet. Folks are being murdered in mysLon Chaney, Jr., John Hoyt. Uninspired terious ways at health and beauty salon; gothic melodrama has Greene investigating none too exciting. [R]쩠 disappearance of two friends who were guests Black Belt Jones (1974) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: of sinister Austrian count (McNally). KarlRobert Clouse. Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, off reduced to colorless supporting role.▼쩠 Scatman Crothers, Alan Weeks, Nate EsfBlack Cat, The (1934) 65m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Edgar ormes. Black-oriented kung-fu mayhem from G. Ulmer. Karloff (Boris Karloff), Bela Luthe team that made ENTER THE DRAGON. gosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells (Julie Kelly battles the Mafia to save his school of Bishop), Lucille Lund, Henry Armetta, Harry self-defense in Watts area of L.A. No gore, but Cording. Polished horror film with bizarre lots of action and comedy. [R]▼ sets, even more bizarre plot. Confrontation of Black Bird, The (1975) C-98m. BOMB architect/devil-worshiper Karloff and doctor D: David Giler. George Segal, Stephane Lugosi is still fascinating. The first of Boris Audran, Lionel Stander, Lee Patrick, Elisha and Bela’s many teamings. Look fast for John Cook Jr., Felix Silla, Signe Hasso. HorCarradine as an organist at Satanic Mass. Film rendously bad, unfunny takeoff on THE bears absolutely no resemblance to eponyMALTESE FALCON, with Segal as Sam mous Edgar Allan Poe tale.▼●쩠 Spade, Jr., not saved by the presence of Black Cat, The (1941) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Patrick and Cook from the ’41 cast. [PG]▼ Albert S. Rogell. Basil Rathbone, Hugh Her1 ★★★ Blackboard Jungle (1955) 101m. bert, Broderick Crawford, Bela Lugosi, Gale ⁄2 D: Richard Brooks. Glenn Ford, Anne Sondergaard, Anne Gwynne, Gladys Cooper. Francis, Vic Morrow, Louis Calhern, SidHerbert and Crawford provide laughs, the othney Poitier, Richard Kiley, Warner Anderers provide chills, in lively comedy-mystery son, Margaret Hayes, Emile Meyer, John not to be confused with earlier horror film. Hoyt, Rafael Campos, Paul Mazursky. ExLook for Alan Ladd in a small role. Atmospheric photography by Stanley Cortez.▼쩠 cellent adaptation of Evan Hunter’s novel (scripted by the director) of a teacher’s Black Cat, White Cat (1998-Yugoslavianharrowing experiences in N.Y.C. school French-German) C-129m. ★★★ D: Emir system. Poitier memorable as a troubled Kusturica. Bajram Severdzan (Doctor Kolja), youth. Hard-hitting entertainment. This was Florijan Ajdini, Jas’ar Destani, Adnan Bekir, the first film to feature rock music—Bill Zabit Mehmedovski, Sabri Sulejmani. DizHaley’s ‘‘Rock Around the Clock’’ is played zying farce about gypsy families who live on over the opening credits. Look for a young the Danube and a bitter rivalry between two Jamie Farr (billed as Jameel Farah). Also elders whose offspring cause them no end of headaches. Kusturica (who also coshown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Black Book, The (1949) SEE: Reign of scripted) builds to a crescendo of slapstick Terror action in this exuberant film that reminds us Black Book (2006-Dutch-British-Germanhow much we all have in common, regardless of nationality. [R]▼ Belgian) C-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Verhoeven. Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Black Cauldron, The (1985) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus, D: Ted Berman, Richard Rich. Voices of Derek de Lint, Christian Berkel, Dolf de Vries, Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, Freddie Peter Blok. Expansive saga of beautiful Jewish Jones, John Byner, John Hurt. Disney’s exwoman who goes to work for the Dutch resispensive, ambitious animated feature is a pretty [ 136 ]

good but unmemorable sword-and-sorcery dirty driving. Heavier on crashes than cotale about a young boy who must find powerherency. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ful black cauldron before it falls into the hands Black Dragon SEE: Miracles (1989) of evil Horned King. Good storytelling for Black Eagle (1988) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric kids, with impressive effects animation for Karson. Sho Kosugi, Jean-Claude Van buffs. Supporting characters Gurgi (a good Damme, Vladimir Skontarovsky, Doran guy) and Creeper (a baddie) have all the best Clark, Bruce French, William H. Bassett. moments. Super Technirama 70. [PG]▼●쩠 Standard martial arts adventure. Kosugi’s Black Christmas (1975-Canadian) C-98m. the secret-agent hero, Van Damme’s the ★★1 ⁄2 D: Bob Clark. Olivia Hussey, Keir Russian villain, and there’s plenty of acDullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Art Hintion. Kosugi’s real-life children, Kane and dle, Douglas McGrath, Andrea Martin. BiShane, appear in cameos as his screen zarre horror thriller about warped murderer in character’s kids. [R]▼쩠 sorority house on Christmas Eve and two days Black Evil SEE: Demons of the Mind following. Not bad; Kidder steals it as a nasty, Black Eye (1974) C-98m. ★★ D: Jack foul-mouthed sorority sister. Remade in 2006. Arnold. Fred Williamson, Rosemary ForAka SILENT NIGHT, EVIL NIGHT and syth, Richard Anderson, Teresa Graves, STRANGER IN THE HOUSE. [R]▼●쩠 Cyril Delevanti. Involved action-mystery Black Christmas (2006) C-90m. BOMB has black private detective Williamson inD: Glen Morgan. Katie Cassidy, Michelle vestigating murders connected with a dope Trachtenberg, Kristen Cloke, Crystal Lowe, ring in Venice, Cal. Bret Morrison, raLacey Chabert, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Andio’s ‘‘The Shadow,’’ plays a porno moviedrea Martin, Oliver Hudson. Someone just had maker. Standard fare. [PG]▼ to remake the 1975 frightfest forthe blood-andBlack Fist (1976) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Timogore generation. With no fresh ideas in sight, thy Galfas, Richard Kaye. Richard Lawson, this version setsup a group of celebratingsororPhilip Michael Thomas, Annazette Chase, ity sisters as the next victims of a nutcase who’s Dabney Coleman, Robert Burr. Coleman’s headed for his childhood home fora little merry gritty performance as a crooked cop eleslay time. Might have been bearable if we vates this standard blaxploitation drama about hadn’t seen it all a hundred times before. At tough Lawson, hired by a crime boss as a least the diabolical elf of terror makes clever streetfighter. Aka THE BLACK STREETuse of ornaments. Look for Andrea Martin FIGHTER and HOMEBOY. [R]▼쩠 (who appeared in the 1975 version) as a Black Fox (1962) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis soothing force of sanity for the girls. Unrated Clyde Stoumen. Narrated by Marlene Dieversion runs 94m. Super 35. [R]쩠 trich. Exceedingly taut, grim documentary Black Dahlia, The (2006-U.S.-German) Ctracing the rise and fall of Adolf Hitler, fo★1 cusing on his use of power during Third 121m. ⁄2 D: Brian De Palma. Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Reich. Academy Award winner as Best Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner, Mike Starr, Documentary Feature.▼쩠 Fiona Shaw, Patrick Fischler, James Otis, Black Friday (1940) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur John Kavanagh, Pepe Serna, Rachel Miner, Lubin. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, StanGregg Henry, Rose McGowan, Anthony ley Ridges, Anne Nagel, Anne Gwynne, Russell. Torpid story of two L.A. cops in Virginia Brissac. Well-made little chiller the 1940s whose partnership is strained by with Karloff putting gangster’s brain into a reverberations from the grisly murder of professor’s body. Jekyll-Hyde results are faswould-be starlet Elizabeth Short (Kirshner). cinating; Ridges excellent as victim. Lugosi Ostensibly based on James Ellroy’s novel has small, thankless role as gangster.▼쩠 and the notorious real-life ‘‘Black Dahlia’’ Black Fury (1935) 92m. ★★★ D: Michael killing, this boring, muddled film turns the Curtiz. Paul Muni, Karen Morley, Wilcase into a sidebar for a much duller tale of liam Gargan, Barton MacLane, John Quatwo damaged men and the women in their len, J. Carrol Naish, Vince Barnett. Hardlives. Makes curious use of footage from hitting melodrama about exploitation of the silent film THE MAN WHO LAUGHS. coal miners, with Muni as robust ‘‘bohunk’’ Kevin Dunn and k. d. lang appear unbilled. who gets in over his head. Realistic, strikingly filmed, if a bit uneven dramatically. Super 35. [R]쩠 Black Dog (1998) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Muni’s accent makes it tough to understand Hooks. Patrick Swayze, Randy Travis, him at times. Based on a true story.▼ Meat Loaf, Gabriel Casseus, Brian Vincent, Black Girl (1972) C-97m. ★★★ D: Ossie Brenda Strong, Stephen Tobolowsky, Charles Davis. Brock Peters, Leslie Uggams, ClauS. Dutton. An ex-con trucker with a susdia McNeil, Louise Stubbs, Gloria Edwards, pended license makes one last run to avoid Peggy Pettitt, Ruby Dee. One of the best foreclosure, and his rig turns out to be full black-oriented films of the 1970s spotlights of concealed assault weapons that his corthe complex relationship between the title rupt boss is planning to sell. There’s no character (Pettitt), an aspiring dancer, and her dirty dancing for Swayze here but lots of emotionally clueless mother (Stubbs). Well [ 137 ]

acted by the entire cast; scripted by J. E. her from Detroit to Seattle during the winter; Franklin, and based on her play. [PG] they’re pursued by murderous Ironside. Good Black Gold (1947) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil performances, and handsome wintry landKarlson. Anthony Quinn, Katherine DeMille, scapes, can’t overcome a complicated plot— Elyse Knox, Ducky Louie, Kane Richmond, and its unsatisfactory resolution. Unrated video version runs 92m. [R]▼● Moroni Olsen, Raymond Hatton, Thurston Hall, Darryl Hickman. Effective, if sentimenBlack Jack SEE: Wild in the Sky tal, tale of Indian Quinn who discovers oil on Black Knight (2001) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gil his land and trains a Chinese orphan (Louie) Junger. Martin Lawrence, Marsha Thomto be the jockey for his beloved thoroughbred. ason, Tom Wilkinson, Vincent Regan, Low-budget, but warmly acted, with excellent Daryl Mitchell, Kevin Conway, Michael use of Cinecolor process. Quinn and DeMille Burgess, Isabell Monk. A 21st-century were then husband and wife.▼ homeboy who works at a run-down mediBlack Gunn (1972) C-98m. ★★ D: Robert eval theme park is magically transported Hartford-Davis. Jim Brown, Martin Lanback to 14th-century England, where he dau, Brenda Sykes, Luciana Paluzzi. Black must use his wits to survive, and forms an nightclub owner goes after the Man when alliance with a disgraced knight (Wilkinhis brother is killed. Routine black actioner. son) to help restore a deposed queen to the [R]▼쩠 throne. Comedy vehicle for Lawrence gives Black Hand (1950) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard you pretty much what you expect, though it Thorpe. Gene Kelly, J. Carrol Naish, Teresa would have meant a lot more if a better, Celli, Marc Lawrence, Frank Puglia. If you more famous actress had played the queen. can buy Kelly as an Italian immigrant in Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 N.Y.C. (circa 1908), you’ll probably go Black Legion (1936) 83m. ★★★ D: Archie along with this naive but entertaining story Mayo. Humphrey Bogart, Erin O’Brienabout a young man’s attempt to avenge his Moore, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, Joe Sauers father’s murder by the infamous—and (Sawyer), Helen Flint, Dickie Jones, Henry seemingly unstoppable—Italian crime syndiBrandon. Factory worker Bogart, disapcate known as the Black Hand. ▼ pointed at losing a promotion to a coworker Black Hawk Down (2001) C-143m. ★★★ D: named ‘‘Dombrowski,’’ becomes involved Ridley Scott. Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, with a Ku Klux Klan–ish group. Powerful, Tom Sizemore, Eric Bana, William Fichtner, still-relevant social drama, compactly told. Ewen Bremner, Sam Shepard, Gabriel Cas▼쩠 seus, Kim Coates, Ron Eldard, Thomas Guiry, Black Like Me (1964) 107m. ★★★ D: Carl Danny Hoch, Zˇeljko Ivanek, Jeremy Piven, Lerner. James Whitmore, Roscoe Lee Orlando Bloom, Steven Ford, Hugh Dancy. Browne, Lenka Petersen, Sorrell Booke, Harrowing dramatization of the disastrous Will Geer, Al Freeman, Jr., Dan Priest, 1993 U.S. mission in Somalia, which resulted Raymond St. Jacques. Strong drama based in the deaths of 18 American soldiers. Characon actual history of reporter who took ters and political context take a backseat (intendrugs that allowed him to pass for black so tionally) to the ferocious battle scenes, rehe could experience racial prejudice firstcreated in brutal detail by Scott, cinematograhand. Some aspects of presentation are pher Slawomir Idziak, and a team of technical dated, but themes are still timely.▼●쩠 wizards. Not for the faint of heart. Based on Black Magic (1949) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregthe book by Mark Bowden. Won Oscars for ory Ratoff. Orson Welles, Akim Tamiroff, Film Editing (Pietro Scalia) and Sound. AlterNancy Guild, Raymond Burr, Frank Latnate version runs 151m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 imore. Welles is predictably florid in chronBlack Hole, The (1979) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: icle of famous charlatan Cagliostro who Gary Nelson. Maximilian Schell, Anthony seeks to rise to power in 18th-century Perkins, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Italy. (He codirected this handsome film, Yvette Mimieux, Ernest Borgnine; uncreduncredited.)▼● ited voices of Roddy McDowall, Slim PickBlackmail (1929-British) 86m. ★★★ D: ens. U.S. expedition finds long-lost madman Alfred Hitchcock. Anny Ondra, Sara in space about to explore a ‘‘black hole.’’ Allgood, John Longden, Charles Paton, Disney studios’ ambitious sci-fi effort is a Donald Calthrop, Cyril Ritchard. Young throwback to 1957 Saturday matinee fodwoman kills man who tries to rape her, der, with thin story, cardboard characters. then finds herself caught between investiOK on that level—with great special efgating detective (who happens to be her fects—but should have been much better. boyfriend) and a blackmailer. Hitchcock’s— Technovision. [PG—Disney’s first] ▼●쩠 and England’s—first talking picture is Black Ice (1992-Canadian) C-90m. ★★ D: still exciting, especially for fans and students Neill Fearnley. Michael Nouri, Michael of the director’s work. Originally shot as Ironside, Joanna Pacula, Mickey Jones, Brent a silent; that version, running 75m., also Heale, Arne Olsen, Rick Skene. Following exists (and is significantly better). Leading the accidental death of her politician lover, lady Ondra had a heavy accent, so her voice was dubbed for the talkie.▼●쩠 Pacula has philosophical cabbie Nouri drive [ 138 ]

Blackmail (1939) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: H. C. Potchallenges. One of the most breathtaking ter. Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Hussey, color films ever made (winning Oscars for Gene Lockhart, Bobs Watson, Guinn Wilcinematographer Jack Cardiff and art liams, John Wray, Arthur Hohl. Welldirector Alfred Junge). Scenes in which respected Robinson, an expert at putting out Sister Superior Kerr recalls her former oil fires, has a secret past: he escaped from life, a key plot element, were originally jail after being falsely convicted of robbery. censored from American prints.▼●쩠 Slimy Lockhart shows up and threatens Black Orchid, The (1959) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: blackmail. Taut, clever drama-thriller, Martin Ritt. Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, marred only by a pat finale. Ina Balin, Jimmie Baird, (Peter) Mark RichBlack Mama, White Mama (1972-U.S.man, Naomi Stevens, Frank Puglia. FabriFilipino) C-87m. ★★ D: Eddie Romero. cated soaper of bumbling businessman Pam Grier, Margaret Markov, Sid Haig, (Quinn) romancing criminal’s widow (Loren) Lynn Borden. Cliche´d, violent female reand the problem of convincing their chilhash of THE DEFIANT ONES, as blonde dren that marriage will make all their lives better. VistaVision. ▼쩠 Markov and black Grier escape chained together from a Filipino prison camp. Haig Black Orpheus (1959-French-Brazilian) is hammy in cowboy costume. Story coC-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marcel Camus. Breno written by Jonathan Demme. [R]▼쩠 Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lea Garcia, Ad★★1 Black Marble, The (1980) C-113m. hemar Da Silva, Lourdes De Oliveira. ⁄2 D: Harold Becker. Robert Foxworth, Paula Street-car conductor Mello and countryPrentiss, Harry Dean Stanton, Barbara girl Dawn fall in love in Rio de Janeiro Babcock, John Hancock, Raleigh Bond, during Carnival. Lyrical updating of the Judy Landers, James Woods, Michael Orpheus and Eurydice legend is beautiDudikoff, Anne Ramsey, Christopher Lloyd. fully acted and directed. Oscar winner for Insightful but curiously unmemorable love Best Foreign Film; rhythmic score by Luis story about sexy cop Prentiss and her new Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Remade as ORFEU.▼●쩠 partner (Foxworth), an alcoholic romantic drowning in the reality of his job. Misses Blackout (1978-Canadian-French) C-89m. ★★ D: Eddy Matalon. Jim Mitchum, Robmuch of the humor that marked Joseph Wambaugh’s novel. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 ert Carradine, Belinda Montgomery, June Black Mask (1997-Hong Kong) C-96m. Allyson, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Ray Milland. ★★★ D: Danny Lee. Jet Li, Karen Mok, FranViolent story of criminals who terrorize c¸oise Yip, Lau Ching Wan, Patrick Lung apartment dwellers during N.Y.’s 1977 Kang, Anthony Wong. Biologically engipower blackout. Balanced with black comedy for so-so results. [R]▼쩠 neered super-soldier Li gives up a peaceful life to battle his equally enhanced former comBlack Pirate, The (1926) C-85m. ★★★ D: rades, who are trying to take over the Hong Albert Parker. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., BilKong drug rackets. Smart, stylish, lightninglie Dove, Anders Randolf, Donald Crisp, paced thriller is an ideal showcase for the Tempe Pigott, Sam De Grasse. Robust dazzling skills of Li (who, in his disguise, silent swashbuckler with Fairbanks a noresembles the Green Hornet’s Kato). Recut and bleman who turns pirate after being vicrevised from 106m. Hong Kong version. Foltimized by cutthroats. Filmed in early Technicolor process. ▼●쩠 lowed by a direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Black Moon Rising (1986) C-100m. Black Rain (1989) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: RidBOMB D: Harley Cokliss. Tommy Lee ley Scott. Michael Douglas, Andy Garcia, Jones, Linda Hamilton, Robert Vaughn, Ken Takakura, Kate Capshaw, Yusaku Richard Jaeckel, Bubba Smith, Lee Ving, Matsuda, Shigeru Koyama, John SpenWilliam Sanderson. Vaughn’s hot-car ring cer. Tough, violent, foulmouthed action steals the Black Moon, one of those zoomyarn about street-worn N.Y.C. cop and his across-the-salt-flats dream machines no partner who are supposed to deliver a taller than a munchkin’s shin; high-tech Japanese mobster to cops in Osaka—then thief Jones pursues. Punk-rocker-turnedwind up pursuing him on his own turf. Too actor Ving wears a coat and tie, but that’s long, too predictable at times, but slick and about it for novelty value; this one deentertaining. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 serves to get a Big Moon Rising. From Black Rain (1989-Japanese) 123m. ★★★ a story by John Carpenter. [R]▼●쩠 D: Shohei Imamura. Yoshiko Tanaka, Black Narcissus (1947-British) C-99m. Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, Shoichi ★★★★ D: Michael Powell, Emeric PressOzawa, Norihei Miki, Keisuke Ishida. Somburger. Deborah Kerr, David Farrar, Sabu, ber, restrained, and very moving story Jean Simmons, Kathleen Byron, Flora Robdetailing five years in the life of a family son, Esmond Knight. Visually sumptuous, which survived Hiroshima, and the ways dramatically charged movie, from Rumer their bodies and souls are poisoned by the Godden novel, about nuns trying to estabfallout—or ‘‘black rain.’’ A quietly obserlish a mission in a remote Himalayan outvant character study with a number of post amid formidable physical and emotional haunting black and white images. ▼●쩠 [ 139 ]

Black Rainbow (1991-British) C-100m. ★★★ D: Mike Hodges. Rosanna Arquette, Jason Robards, Tom Hulce, Mark Joy, Ron Rosenthal, John Bennes, Linda Pierce. Offbeat, intriguing psychological dramachiller with Arquette impressive as a medium who offers public exhibitions of her abilities. During one of them, she ‘‘sees’’ a murder and the killer—just before the crime is committed. Robards is her besotted father, a character worthy of Eugene O’Neill. Occasionally loses its way, but there’s more than enough originality and good acting to compensate. Hodges also scripted; filmed in North Carolina. [R]▼쩠 Black Rebels, The SEE: This Rebel Breed Black Rider, The SEE: Joshua (1976) Black Robe (1991-Canadian-Australian) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Lothaire Bluteau, August Schellenberg, Aden Young, Sandrine Holt, Tantoo Cardinal. Epic look at a 17th-century Jesuit priest who goes to Quebec to colonize the ‘‘Indian’’ tribes. Director Beresford travels much the same territory as DANCES WITH WOLVES, but paints a much bleaker picture. Beautifully photographed (by Peter James) but graphically violent, this flawed, fascinating film is for demanding viewers. [R]

nelope Spheeris. Chris Farley, David Spade, Tim Matheson, Christine Ebersole, Gary Busey, Grant Heslov, Timothy Carhart, Bruce McGill. Gubernatorial candidate Matheson needs to keep his bumbling brother (Farley) out of the public eye, and Spade volunteers for the job. Insulting ‘‘comedy’’ reunites the stars of TOMMY BOY for virtually the same movie, which attempts to mine all the humor it can out of Farley’s mugging and endless pratfalls, plus Spade’s sarcasm. Pitiful and shameless. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Black Sheep (2007-New Zealand) C-87m. ★★★ D: Jonathan King. Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Glenis Levestam, Tandi Wright, Oliver Driver, Nick Fenton. Young man (Meister) with a morbid fear of sheep returns to his sprawling family farm (naturally, a sheep ranch) to sell his portion of the estate to his tweedy, greedy older brother (Feeney). Everything and more goes wrong and bloody hell breaks out as ecoterrorists, evil scientists, visiting foreign investors, and our hero are attacked by genetically altered rampaging rams and ewes. Horrifically funny and gruesome Monty Python–esque horror comedy recalls early Peter Jackson. Written by the director. Super 35. 쩠 Black Shield of Falworth, The (1954) ▼●쩠 Black Rodeo (1972) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph Mate´. Tony CurKanew. Archie Wycoff, Clarence Gonzatis, Janet Leigh, David Farrar, Barbara lez, Pete Knight, Marval Rogers, Reuben Rush, Herbert Marshall. Juvenile version Heura. Offbeat, frequently interesting docof Howard Pyle novel, Men of Iron; umentary about a rodeo that takes place Curtis unconvincing as nobility rising largely in Harlem; background music is through ranks to knighthood in medieval performed by such stars as B.B. King, England. Settings, supporting cast bolster production. CinemaScope.▼ Ray Charles, Dee Dee Sharpe. [G] Black Room, The (1935) 67m. ★★★ D: Roy Black Sleep, The (1956) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: William Neill. Boris Karloff, Marian Marsh, Reginald LeBorg. Basil Rathbone, Akim Robert Allen, Katherine DeMille, John Tamiroff, Lon Chaney (Jr.), John Carradine, Buckler, Thurston Hall. Excellent, underBela Lugosi, Tor Johnson, Herbert Rudley. stated thriller of twin brothers (Karloff) Big horror cast cannot save dull, unatmoand the ancient curse that dominates their spheric tale of doctor doing experimental lives in 19th-century Hungary. Features brain surgery in remote English castle. Laughone—no, two—of Karloff’s best perable. Reissued as DR. CADMAN’S SEformances.▼●쩠 CRET. ▼ Black Rose, The (1950) C-120m. ★★ D: Black Snake Moan (2007) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 Henry Hathaway. Tyrone Power, Cecile D: Craig Brewer. Samuel L. Jackson, ChrisAubry, Orson Welles, Jack Hawkins, Mitina Ricci, Justin Timberlake, S. Epatha chael Rennie, Herbert Lom, James RobertMerkerson, John Cothran, David Banner, son Justice, Finlay Currie, Bobby (Robert) Kim Richards. Pent-up farmer and blues Blake, Laurence Harvey. Sweeping pagmusician Jackson finds the town nympho eantry follows Norman-hating Power on (Ricci) beaten and unconscious, takes her Oriental adventures during 1200s; plodding in, and decides to heal her spiritually as well film only somewhat redeemed by dynamic as physically—even if it means chaining her action scenes. Filmed in England and North to his radiator. Honest. Steamy, sexy SouthAfrica by Jack Cardiff.쩠 ern Gothic tale benefits from robust, go-forBlack Sabbath (1963-Italian) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 it performances, but the third act drags and D: Mario Bava. Boris Karloff, Mark Damon, the finale is somewhat ludicrous. Ricci’s Suzy Anderson, Jacqueline Pierreux. Italian mother is played by former child actor three-part film hosted by Karloff, who Richards (ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNappears in final episode about a vampire TAIN). Exceptionally well shot by Amelia controlling an entire family. Other sequences Vincent. Super 35. [R]쩠 Black Spurs (1965) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: R. G. are good, atmospheric.▼●쩠 Black Sheep (1996) C-87m. BOMB D: PeSpringsteen. Rory Calhoun, Terry Moore, [ 140 ]

Linda Darnell, Scott Brady, Lon Chaney Black Tights (1960-French) C-120m. ★★★ (Jr.), Bruce Cabot, Richard Arlen, Patricia D: Terence Young. Cyd Charisse, Moira Owens, James Best, Jerome Courtland, DeShearer, Zizi Jeanmaire, Dirk Sanders, Forest Kelley. Ordinary Western with atRoland Petit. Narrated by Maurice Chevatraction of one-time movie stars including lier. Ballet fans will feast on this quartet of Darnell (her last film). Standard horse stunning performances, featuring some of opera. Techniscope. the era’s top dance talent. Our favorite: the Black Stallion, The (1979) C-118m. ★★★ ballet of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, D: Carroll Ballard. Kelly Reno, Mickey with Shearer a lovely Roxanne. Super Rooney, Teri Garr, Clarence Muse, Hoyt Technirama 70.▼쩠 Axton, Michael Higgins. Exquisitely filmed Black Tuesday (1954) 80m. ★★★ D: Hugo story of a young boy’s adventures with a Fregonese. Edward G. Robinson, Peter magnificent black stallion—from a dramatic Graves, Jean Parker, Milburn Stone. Throwshipwreck to a racing championship. Too back to 1930-ish gangster films, with Robslow at times, but still worthwhile, with many inson and Graves as escaped convicts being precious moments, stunning cinematography hunted by cops. Nice gunplay, with Parker by Caleb Deschanel, Rooney’s lovely perforgood as the moll. mance as veteran horse trainer. Based on clasBlack Voodoo SEE: Beyond the Living sic children’s novel by Walter Farley. Black Werewolf (1974) SEE: Beast Must Followed by 1983 sequel, a TV series (with Die, The Rooney), and a prequel in 2003. [G] ▼●쩠 Black Widow (1954) C-95m. ★★ D: NunBlack Stallion Returns, The (1983) Cnally Johnson. Ginger Rogers, Van Hef93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Dalva. Kelly Reno, lin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Vincent Spano, Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), Ann Garner, Reginald Gardiner, Virginia Woody Strode, Ferdinand Mayne, Jodi Leith, Otto Kruger, Cathleen Nesbitt, Skip Thelen, Teri Garr. Fair action sequel with Homeier. Broadway producer Heflin takes Reno, now a teenager, searching the Sayoung writer Garner under his wing, is hara for his Arabian horse. Those expectnaturally suspected when she turns up dead ing the magic of the original will be in his apartment. Glossy but dull adaptadisappointed. First-time director Dalva edtion of Patrick Quentin mystery, with reited the 1979 film. Followed by THE markably poor performances by Rogers as YOUNG BLACK STALLION. [PG]▼●쩠 bitchy star and Raft as dogged detective. Black Streetfighter, The SEE: Black Fist Johnson also produced and wrote the Black Sunday (1961-Italian) 83m. ★★1⁄2 screenplay. CinemaScope.쩠 D: Mario Bava. Barbara Steele, John RichBlack Widow (1987) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: ardson, Ivo Garrani, Andrea Checchi. IntriBob Rafelson. Debra Winger, Theresa Rusguing story of the one day each century when sell, Sami Frey, Dennis Hopper, Nicol Satan roams the earth. Steele is a witch who Williamson, Terry O’Quinn, D. W. Mofswears vengeance on the descendants of those fett, Lois Smith, Mary Woronov, Rutanya who killed her hundreds of years ago. BeauAlda, James Hong, Diane Ladd. Female tifully atmospheric.▼●쩠 investigator for the Justice Dept. becomes ★★★ Black Sunday (1977) C-143m. D: intrigued—then obsessed—by young woJohn Frankenheimer. Robert Shaw, Bruce man who seduces, marries, and murders Dern, Marthe Keller, Fritz Weaver, Steven wealthy men. Handsome, stylishly crafted Keats, Bekim Fehmiu, Michael V. Gazzo, yarn, loaded with sexual tension, that stops William Daniels. International terrorist just short of hitting the mark. Winger and organization plots to blow up the Super Russell are both terrific. Photographed by Bowl, enlists the aid of former Vietnam Conrad Hall; effective music score by MiPOW Dern, who pilots the TV blimp. chael Small. Amusing cameo by playwright Generally compelling adaptation (by Ernest David Mamet as one of Winger’s pokerLehman, Kenneth Ross, Ivan Moffat) of playing colleagues. [R]▼●쩠 the Thomas Harris best-seller, with Dern Black Windmill, The (1974-British) Cat his unhinged best. Splendid aerial ★★1⁄2 D: Don Siegel. Michael Caine, 106m. photography. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Joseph O’Conor, Donald Pleasence, John Black Swan, The (1942) C-85m. ★★★ D: Vernon, Janet Suzman, Delphine Seyrig. Henry King. Tyrone Power, Maureen Slick, craftsmanlike but generally undistinO’Hara, Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell, guished thriller, as espionage agent Caine tries George Sanders, Anthony Quinn, George to locate his son’s kidnappers. Siegel has done Zucco. Power is at his dashing best in this better. Aka DRABBLE. Panavision. [PG]▼ lively swashbuckler from the Rafael SabatBlack Zoo (1963) 88m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert ini novel about rival pirate gangs in the CaGordon. Michael Gough, Virginia Grey, ribbean. Sanders seems to be having fun Jerome Cowan, Elisha Cook, Jeanne Cooper. cast against type as a scurrilous brigand. Gough, head of private zoo, doubles as Enhanced by Alfred Newman’s music and leader of cult of animal worshipers. Good Leon Shamroy’s Oscar-winning Technicast flounders, but film has a moment or color cinematography. ▼쩠 [ 141 ]

two. From the man who gave you I WAS Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, William A TEEN-AGE WEREWOLF. Panavision. Sanderson, Daryl Hannah, Joe Turkel, Joanna Blacula (1972) C-92m. ★★★ D: William Cassidy, Brion James. In 21st-century L.A., a Crain. William Marshall, Denise Nichoformer cop (Ford) is recruited to track down las, Vonetta McGee, Thalmus Rasulala, androids who have mutinied in space and Ketty Lester, Elisha Cook, Jr., Gordon made their way to Earth. A triumph of proPinsent. Dracula bit a Black Prince and duction design, defeated by a muddled script now black vampire is stalking the streets and main characters with no appeal whatsoof L.A. Some terrific shocks, and some ever. However, the film has a fervent followvery lively dialogue. Sequel: SCREAM, ing. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s novel BLACULA, SCREAM. [PG] ▼●쩠 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? FuturBlade (1973) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ernest Pinistic stylings by Syd Mead and Lawrence G. toff. John Marley, Jon Cypher, Kathryn Paull. At least two alternate versions have Walker, William Prince, John Schuck, Rue been released since the original, followed in McClanahan, Morgan Freeman. N.Y.-made 1993 by the ‘‘director’s cut,’’ which the film’s actioner about female-hating Cypher, who inchampions hail as a vast improvement: Ford’s dulges in violent killings, and tough policevoice-over has been dropped, footage has man Marley, who tracks him down. A bit been added, and the ending has changed. In pretentious and involved; fairly absorbing. 2007 a 117m. ‘‘final cut’’ edition was re[R]▼ leased that clarifies at least one key plot Blade (1998) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen point. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Norrington. Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Blades of Glory (2007) C-93m. ★★★ D: Kris Kristofferson, N’bushe Wright, Donal Josh Gordon, Will Speck. Will Ferrell, Jon Logue, Udo Kier, Arly Jover, Traci Lords, Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, William Tim Guinee. If you think you’ve seen bloody Fichtner, Jenna Fischer, Craig T. Nelson, urban-vigilante pics before . . . well, you Andy Richter, Nick Swardson, Scott Hamilhaven’t. Snipes is part human and part vamton, William Daniels, Rob Corddry, Tom pire, which means he’s the perfect warrior to Virtue, Re´my Girard. Two brawling supercombat a megalomaniacal bloodsucker who’s star figure skaters are banned for life in the plotting world domination. A potentially rousmen’s singles competitions after one fight ing 90m. gorefest bloated by a half hour, film too many. Years later these polar opposites never tops its spectacularly gross opening set reluctantly team up as the first male pairs piece in a vampire disco. Based on the characskating team, much to the chagrin of a ter created for Marvel Comics by Marv Wolftwisted brother-and-sister duo who consider man. Followed by two sequels. Clairmontthem archrivals. Milking every moment on Scope. [R] ▼●쩠 the ice and exhausting every crotch joke in Blade II (2002) C-116m. ★★ D: Guillermo their canon, Ferrell and Heder fill the rink del Toro. Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferwith laughs. Look for a Luke Wilson cameo son, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman and a slew of real-life skating stars. [PGReedus, Thomas Kretschmann, Luke Goss, 13] 쩠 Donnie Yen. Our half-human, half-vampire Blade: Trinity (2004) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: hero makes a highly unlikely move, joining David S. Goyer. Wesley Snipes, Kris Krisforces with his vampiric enemies in order to tofferson, Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel, wipe out a virulent band of mutants. Not Ryan Reynolds, Parker Posey, Mark Berry, much story here, and not much in the way of John Michael Higgins, Callum Keith Rencharacter; that leaves action and special efnie, Triple H (Paul Michael Levesque), fects, which are certainly slick, with lots of James Remar, Natasha Lyonne, Eric Bogovisceral violence, but the movie runs out of sian. Blade (Snipes) and the Night Stalkers, energy surprisingly early. Followed by a band of vampire hunters, strain to save BLADE: TRINITY. [R] ▼쩠 humanity from the grip of bloodsucking vilBlade Master, The (1984-Italian) C-92m. lains and a resurrected Dracula (Purcell). ★1⁄2 D: David Hills. Miles O’Keeffe, Lisa Poorly directed, lackadaisically plotted highFoster (Lisa Raines), Charles Borromel, tech actioner may please BLADE fans, but David Cain Haughton, Chen Wong. Silly it’s pretty lame. Posey is campy fun as a sequel to ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE scheming bloodsucker. Unrated DVD version runs 124m. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 has O’Keeffe as the prehistoric warrior on a quest to protect the Earth from a primiBlair Witch Project, The (1999) C/B&W87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Santive atomic bomb called the ‘‘Geometric Nucleus.’’ As in TARZAN, THE APE chez. Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, MAN, O’Keeffe wrestles with an oversize Joshua Leonard. Young woman hires a film rubber snake, but silliest scene has him crew to accompany her into the Maryland hang-gliding to storm an enemy castle. woods to chronicle local, age-old yarns and Original title: ATOR THE INVINCIBLE. superstitions about witchcraft. Soon the TV title: CAVE DWELLERS. [PG]▼ threesome get lost, and with each day grow Blade Runner (1982) C-118m. ★1⁄2 D: more desperate as spooky goings-on at Ridley Scott. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, night begin to frazzle their nerves. Largely [ 142 ]

ad-libbed, this comes off more as a student Robin Givens, Christopher Lawford, Lynne exercise than a movie, but by the end does Thigpen, Jon Polito, Jason Alexander. create an atmosphere of fear and anxiety. Shrill, witless comedy in which Wayans beFollowed by BOOK OF SHADOWS: comes a crimefighting superman in a crimeBLAIR WITCH 2. [R]▼●쩠 ridden metropolis. He has no super powers; ★★1 Blame It on Rio (1984) C-100m. he’s aided instead by his own homemade ⁄2 D: Stanley Donen. Michael Caine, Joseph Bocontraptions. Might have some appeal to logna, Valerie Harper, Michelle Johnson, less-discriminating five-year-old boys. WayDemi Moore, Jose Lewgoy. Caine has a ans coscripted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 fling with his best friend’s sexy teenage Blast From the Past (1999) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 daughter while vacationing in Rio de JaD: Hugh Wilson. Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silneiro. Caine’s terrific, Johnson is volupverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek, tuous, Demi is obviously intimidated in Dave Foley, Jenifer Lewis, Rex Linn. topless beach scenes, and the script is Young man emerges after spending his enkind of a sniggering TV sitcom, with a tire 35 years in a fallout shelter with his heavy-handed music score of too-familiar loving parents, only to find that contemporecords. Written by Charlie Peters and rary life in L.A. is not the way he pictured it Larry Gelbart. Remake of the French to be. Cute-enough comedy benefits from film ONE WILD MOMENT. [R]▼●쩠 Fraser’s enthusiasm, but Silverstone’s charBlame It on the Bellboy (1991-British) acter is fuzzily defined at best. Spacek and C-78m. ★★ D: Mark Herman. Dudley especially Walken are wonderful as the Moore, Bryan Brown, Richard Griffiths, early ’60s parents who remain in a time Penelope Wilton, Andreas Katsulas, Patsy warp. Also available in PG version. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Kensit, Alison Steadman, Bronson Pinchot, Lindsay Anderson. Behind the dynamic title Blast-Off SEE: Those Fantastic Flying lies an old-fashioned farce: three guys, Fools named Orton, Lawton, and Horton, check Blaze (1989) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ron Shelinto a Venice hotel, leading to the expected ton. Paul Newman, Lolita Davidovich, mix-ups after bellboy Pinchot confuses their Jerry Hardin, Gailard Sartain, Jeffrey messages. Brown (as a hit man) and the DeMunn, Garland Bunting, Richard Jenshort running time keep this sometimes kins, Robert Wuhl. Newman gives a flashy, sleazy comedy from being a complete oruninhibited performance as Earl Long, the deal; even at 78m., though, you can feel the flamboyant governor of Louisiana in the padding. [PG-13]▼●쩠 1950s who fell headlong in love with stripBlame It on the Night (1984) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: per Blaze Starr (Davidovich, in her first Gene Taft. Nick Mancuso, Byron Thames, lead role). Seemingly surefire story, pepLeslie Ackerman, Dick Bakalyan, Merry pered with colorful characters and incidents, Clayton, Billy Preston, Ollie E. Brown. falls alarmingly flat after a while and never Plodding tale of rock star Mancuso, who recovers. Real-life Blaze Starr appears fleetattempts to buy the love of his ultrastraight, ingly as Lily, the stripper whose shoulder illegitimate, military cadet son. Based on a Newman kisses backstage. [R]▼●쩠 story by Taft and Mick Jagger. [PG-13]▼ Blaze of Noon (1947) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Blanche Fury (1948-British) C-95m. ★★★ Farrow. Anne Baxter, William Holden, D: Marc Allegret. Stewart Granger, ValSonny Tufts, William Bendix, Sterling Hayerie Hobson, Walter Fitzgerald, Michael den. Hokey story of Holden torn between Gough, Maurice Denham. Beautifully his wife (Baxter) and his true love, flying. mounted gothic melodrama about a goverBlazing Magnums SEE: Strange Shadness who marries into wealthy family and ows in an Empty Room the headstrong steward (Granger) who asBlazing Saddles (1974) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: pires to run the estate.▼ Mel Brooks. Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Blank Check (1994) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Rupert Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Slim Wainwright. Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, Pickens, David Huddleston, Alex Karras, Miguel Ferrer, Michael Lerner, James RebBurton Gilliam, Mel Brooks, John Hillerman, horn, Jayne Atkinson, Michael Faustino, Liam Dunn, Carol Arthur, Dom DeLuise, Chris Demetral, Tone Loc, Rick DucomRobert Ridgely, George Furth. Brooks’ first mun, Debbie Allen, Lu Leonard. Comedy hit movie is a riotous Western spoof, with for blank minds shamelessly rips off HOME Little an unlikely sheriff, Korman as villainALONE. 11-year-old manages to cash thug ous Hedley Lamarr, and Kahn as a DietrichFerrer’s check for a million dollars, parlaying like chanteuse. None of Brooks’ later films it into such life necessities as a dishy grownup have topped this one for sheer belly laughs. girlfriend and a backyard water slide. Hard to Scripted by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richswallow even on its own slumming-Disney ard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger; level, but likely to hit very young children story by Bergman. Title song sung by Frankie Laine. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 where they live. [PG]▼●쩠 Blankman (1994) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Mike Bleak Moments (1971-British) C-111m. ★★★ D: Mike Leigh. Anne Raitt, Sarah SteBinder. Damon Wayans, David Alan Grier, [ 143 ]

phenson, Eric Allan, Joolia Cappleman, Mike Blind Dating (2007) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Bradwell, Liz Smith. Leigh’s debut feature is Keach. Chris Pine, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Ana potent, deeply human drama, which charts jali Jay, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jane Seymour, the plight of a lonesome officeworker (Raitt) Sendhil Ramamurthy, Frank Gerrish, Pooch who looks after her mentally retarded sister Hall. Self-reliant young man (Pine) who’s and hopes that her relationship with a been blind all his life wants to find a woman schoolteacher will lead to marriage. Leigh to love who won’t pity him. After endless (who also scripted) offers knowing insight dead-end dates he finds himself attracted to into his characters.▼쩠 an Indian-American woman who works for Blessed Event (1932) 81m. ★★★ D: Roy his eye doctor . . . but she brings her own Del Ruth. Lee Tracy, Mary Brian, Dick baggage to the relationship. Comedy-drama Powell, Emma Dunn, Frank McHugh, Allen shifts tone from sweet sincerity to gross-out Jenkins, Ned Sparks, Ruth Donnelly. Tracomedy, with mixed results. (Seymour, as cy’s most famous role has him a Walter Pine’s psychiatrist, is so turned on during Winchell prototype whose spicy column their sessions she feels impelled to shed her clothes!) [PG-13]쩠 makes him famous but also gets him in hot water; Powell makes film debut as croonBlind Faith (1998) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ernest er. Fast-moving, delightful.▼● Dickerson. Courtney B. Vance, Charles S. Bless the Beasts & Children (1972) Dutton, Kadeem Hardison, Lonette McKee, C-109m. ★★★ D: Stanley Kramer. Billy Garland Whitt. Two brothers, one a police Mumy, Barry Robins, Miles Chapin, Ken captain and the other a defense attorney, Swofford, Jesse White, Vanessa Brown. Excitfind their relationship—and their own sense of ing and well-intentioned, if repetitious, story of self-worth as black men in 1950s America— six young misfit boys, campers at a ranch, who turned upside down when the captain’s son attempt to free a captive herd of buffalo schedis accused of murder. Hard-hitting drama, uled for slaughter. The Barry DeVorzon–Perry which opens in the late ’80s, focuses on the Botkin music that later became known as racial divide and unjust justice system. ‘‘Nadia’s Theme’’ and the Young and the Solid performances, especially from the two Restless theme originated here. [PG]▼ leads. Released theatrically (at 118m.) after 1 ★ debut on U.S. cable TV. [R]▼● Bless the Child (2000) C-108m. ⁄2 D: Chuck Russell. Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Blindfold (1966) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip Holliston Coleman, Rufus Sewell, Angela Dunne. Rock Hudson, Claudia Cardinale, Bettis, Christina Ricci, Michael Gaston, Ian Jack Warden, Guy Stockwell, Anne SeyHolm. Basinger has raised her addict sister’s mour. Attractive cast falters in film that daughter (Coleman) to the age of six; when wavers from comedy to mystery. Slapstick she shows signs of spiritual powers, the scenes seem incongruous as Hudson enchild is sought by millionaire Satanist Sewgages in international espionage with a ell, who’s involved in a series of child killnoted scientist. Panavision. ings. Smits is the detective on the case. Blind Fury (1990) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: PhilReligious horror thriller veers wildly from lip Noyce. Rutger Hauer, Terrance (Terry) the promising to the ludicrous, and is never O’Quinn, Brandon Call, Lisa Blount, Ranremotely convincing. Based on the novel by dall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, Noble Willingham, Meg Cathy Cash Spellman. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Foster, Sho Kosugi, Nick Cassavetes, Blind Date (1984) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nico Charles Cooper, Rick Overton. Smiling, Mastorakis. Joseph Bottoms, Kirstie Alsword-wielding, blind Vietnam vet Hauer ley, James Daughton, Lana Clarkson, Keir carves up bad guys, saves a kid, and even Dullea. Dr. Dullea tests a portable maduels with his mentor in this brash, lively chine that stimulates vision on blind Bot(but failed) attempt to Americanize Japanese toms, causing Bottoms to become obsessed ‘‘Zato-ichi’’ movies. Hauer is perfectly cast, with capturing a psycho killer who’s on and the film is amusingly tongue-in-cheek, the loose. Solid cast perks up a contrived but it doesn’t altogether work. [R]▼●쩠 thriller, filmed in Greece. [R]▼쩠 Blindman (1972-Italian) C-105m. ★★ D: Blind Date (1987) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Blake Ferdinando Baldi. Tony Anthony, Ringo Edwards. Kim Basinger, Bruce Willis, John Starr, Agneta Eckemyr, Lloyd Batista. Larroquette, William Daniels, Phil HartBlindman (Anthony) seeks revenge on man man, Stephanie Faracy, Joyce Van Patten, who stole 50 mail-order brides. Mindless Alice Hirson, George Coe, Mark Blum, entertainment, though any movie with Graham Stark. Tiresome retread of all-tooRingo as a slimy Mexican bandit can’t be all familiar farcical material by Blake Edbad. Techniscope. [R] wards. Yuppie Willis takes Basinger out Blind Man’s Bluff SEE: Cauldron of Blood on a blind date, warned that she can’t Blindness (2008-Canadian-Brazilian-Japanese) tolerate alcohol—and immediately gives C-121m. ★★ D: Fernando Meirelles. Juliher champagne. Alternately boring and anne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover, grating. This was Willis’ starring debut; Gael Garcı´a Bernal, Alice Braga, Yusuke guitarist Stanley Jordan makes a musical Iseya, Yoshino Kimura, Maury Chaykin, appearance. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Don McKellar, Mitchell Nye, Sandra Oh. [ 144 ]

Dreary, pointless parable about people sudthe husband, who unwittingly unlocks the denly and randomly going blind including, door to his wife’s forgotten past. Melodraironically enough, an eye doctor (Ruffalo) matic story gets in the way of some genubut not his wife (Moore), who retains her inely interesting and even educational sight. As they and other victims are herded dialogue, though it’s almost too clinical at into captivity by the government, all the times. Actress Taylor-Young is the sister of worst elements of human nature rise to the the writer-director. Filmed in 1995. [R] surface in a bare-knuckle struggle for sur▼●쩠 vival. Off-putting and ugly, to say the least. Bliss of Mrs. Blossom, The (1968-U.S.British) C-93m. ★★★ D: Joe McGrath. Based on a novel by Jose´ Saramago. [R]쩠 Blind Spot: Hitler’s Secretary (2002Shirley MacLaine, Richard Attenborough, Austrian) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Andre´ Heller, James Booth, Freddie Jones, Bob Monkhouse, Othmar Schmiderer. Intense, fascinating John Cleese. Oddball, original comedy with documentary in which 81-year-old Traudl delicious performances. Wife of brassiere Junge recalls her life as Adolf Hitler’s primanufacturer keeps a lover in their attic for vate secretary from 1942 until his death five years. Bogs down toward the end, but (later dramatized in DOWNFALL). There for the most part a delight. [M/PG]▼● is no archival footage; the film consists of Blithe Spirit (1945-British) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 Junge talking, and what she says is so comD: David Lean. Rex Harrison, Constance pelling that one can only watch, and listen, Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Ruthin stunned silence as she contrasts personal erford, Hugh Wakefield, Joyce Carey. Dememories of her boss with the reality of licious adaptation of Noel Coward’s comedywho he was. She also reveals her subsefantasy about a man whose long-dead first quent guilt about working for him. Junge’s wife appears to haunt—and taunt—him in recollections of Hitler’s final days are espehis newly married life. Rutherford is woncially gripping. She died just as the film derful as Madame Arcati, the spiritual meddebuted in Berlin. [PG]▼쩠 ium; this earned an Oscar for its special Blind Swordsman, The SEE: Zatoˆichi, effects. Scripted by the director, the prothe Blind Swordsman ducer (Anthony Havelock-Allan), and the 1 ★★ Blink (1994) C-106m. ⁄2 D: Michael cinematographer (Ronald Neame).▼●쩠 Apted. Madeleine Stowe, Aidan Quinn, Blob, The (1958) C-86m. ★★ D: Irvin S. Laurie Metcalf, James Remar, Peter FriedYeaworth, Jr. Steven McQueen, Aneta man, Bruce A. Young, Matt Roth, Paul DilCorseaut (Corsaut), Earl Rowe, Olin Howlon. Did she or didn’t she see a murderer lin. Endearingly campy classic of cheap leaving the scene of the crime? That’s the ’50s sci-fi has ‘‘Steven’’ (in his first starring central question when beautiful, strongrole) leading teenagers into battle to save willed musician Stowe, blind since childtheir small town from being swallowed up hood, has her sight restored. Story relies on by giant glop of cherry Jell-O from outer viewer’s acceptance of screenwriter’s gimspace. Not really all that good, but how can mick of ‘‘retroactive vision,’’ a post-suryou hate a film like this? (Especially when gery delayed reaction. Best thing in film is Burt Bacharach composed the title song.) Stowe; otherwise this treads on too familiar Later redubbed for comic effect as BLOBblind-woman-in-jeopardy territory. AlternaERMOUTH. Sequel: BEWARE! THE BLOB. Remade 30 years later.▼●쩠 tive Irish-American band The Drovers appear as themselves. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Blob, The (1988) C-95m. ★★ D: Chuck Bliss (1985-Australian) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Russell. Shawnee Smith, Donovan Leitch, Ray Lawrence. Barry Otto, Lynette CurRicky Paull Goldin, Kevin Dillon, Billy ran, Helen Jones, Miles Buchanan, Gia Beck, Candy Clark, Joe Seneca. Needless, if Carides, Tim Robertson. High-powered undeniably gooey, remake about a man-made businessman has a major heart attack, sees what’s-it that wipes out the standard number himself dying, then revives—which changes of vagrants and oversexed teenagers on its way his entire outlook on life. After a dynamic to enveloping a small town. Showstopper finds opening this stylized satire slows to a a restaurant employee getting pulled head first snail’s pace and loses its thrust. Neverthedown a kitchen drain after foolishly atless, it was an Australian Academy Award tempting to ‘‘plunge’’ the Blob. [R] ▼●쩠 winner and an international film festival Blockade (1938) 85m. ★★★ D: William favorite, so judge for yourself. [R]▼● Dieterle. Madeleine Carroll, Henry Fonda, Bliss (1997) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lance Leo Carrillo, John Halliday, Vladimir SokoYoung. Craig Sheffer, Terence Stamp, loff, Reginald Denny. Vivid romance drama Sheryl Lee, Spalding Gray, Casey Siemaszof Spanish Civil War with globe-trotting ko, Ken Camroux, Pamela Perry, Leigh Carroll falling in love with fighting Fonda.쩠 Taylor-Young, Lois Chiles, Theresa Saldana, Block-Heads (1938) 55m. ★★★ D: John G. Molly Parker. Unusual film about a young Blystone. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Pamarried couple’s emotional journey into sextricia Ellis, Minna Gombell, Billy Gilbert, ual awakening with the help of a sex theraJames Finlayson. Stan’s been marching in pist. Stamp excels as teacher and mentor to a trench for 20 years—nobody told him [ 145 ]

WW1 was over! Ollie brings him home to James Gleason fine as Marion’s dad. Best are find he hasn’t changed. Top L&H. Also Davies and Durante spoofing Garbo and Barshown in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 rymore in GRAND HOTEL. Blockhouse, The (1973-British) C-90m. Blood Alley (1955) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wil★1 ⁄2 D: Clive Rees. Peter Sellers, Charles liam Wellman. John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Aznavour, Per Oscarsson, Peter Vaughan, Paul Fix, Mike Mazurki, Anita Ekberg. Jeremy Kemp, Alfred Lynch. Dismal, Enjoyable escapism with Wayne, Bacall, downbeat story of laborers trapped in unand assorted Chinese escaping down river derground bunker when the Allies land at to Hong Kong pursued by Communists. Normandy on D-Day. ▼쩠 CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Blonde Ambition (2007) C-93m. ★★ D: Blood and Black Lace (1964-ItalianScott Marshall. Jessica Simpson, Luke WilFrench-German) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Mario son, Rachael Leigh Cook, Penelope Ann Bava. Cameron Mitchell, Eva Bartok, Mary Miller, Andy Dick, Larry Miller, Willie Arden. Gruesome thriller about a sex Nelson. Lightweight fluff about a smallmurderer doing in fashion models. Wooden town innocent (Simpson) who follows her script and performances don’t help. Fans unfaithful boyfriend to N.Y.C., where she of the genre will at least enjoy Bava’s lucks into a job as secretary for the president imaginative direction.▼●쩠 of a large construction company. Although Blood and Chocolate (2007-British-Germanobviously inspired by WORKING GIRL Romanian-U.S.) C-98m. ★★ D: Katja von and LEGALLY BLONDE, this trifle actuGarnier. Agnes Bruckner, Olivier Martinez, ally plays more like some innocuous Gidget Hugh Dancy, Bryan Dick, Katja Riemann, or Tammy comedy of yore. Simpson isn’t Chris Geere, Tom Harper, John Kerr, Jack half bad, and Larry Miller (as her boss) unWilson. A teenage werewolf Juliet is torn derplays amusingly. Look for a cameo by between loyalty to her pack and love for a Penny Marshall, aunt of the movie’s direchuman Romeo, while clan leaders violently tor. [PG-13]쩠 disapprove. Pallid adaptation of Annette Blonde Bait (1956-British) 70m. ★★ D: Curtis Klause’s 1997 palpably erotic youngElmo Williams. Beverly Michaels, Jim adult novel inexplicably (and pointlessly) Davis, Joan Rice, Richard Travis, Paul moves the drastically altered storyline from Cavanagh, Thora Hird, Avril Angers, GorWest Virginia to Romania! Results are thin don Jackson. Cheap, toothy blond bomband semisweet, albeit scenic. Super 35. shell Michaels excels as a Yank showgirl [PG-13]쩠 breaking out of a sedate British prison for Blood and Concrete (1991) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 women. British film, originally titled D: Jeffrey Reiner. Billy Zane, Jennifer WOMEN WITHOUT MEN, was retitled, Beals, Darren McGavin, James Le Gros, reedited, and reshot (with Davis, Travis, and Nicholas Worth, William Bastiani, Harry Cavanagh added to cast) for U.S. release. Shearer. Offbeat but way overbaked comic Blonde Bombshell SEE: Bombshell thriller about third-rate car thief Zane and 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Roy Blonde Crazy (1931) 79m. troubled singer Beals, who fall in love Del Ruth. James Cagney, Joan Blondell, and become involved in murder and mayLouis Calhern, Ray Milland, Polly Walhem. Tries to be hip and stylish, and ters, Nat Pendleton. Dated fun with Cagney occasionally succeeds, but too self-conas small-time con man who plays cat-andscious for its own good. The full title is mouse with big-time sharpie Calhern. Young BLOOD AND CONCRETE, A LOVE Milland appears as businessman who marries STORY. [R]▼● Jimmy’s girlfriend, Blondell. ▼● Blood & Donuts (1995-Canadian) C-89m. Blonde Venus (1932) 97m. ★★★ D: Josef ★★★ D: Holly Dale. Gordon Currie, Justin von Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Louis, Helene Clarkson, Fiona Reid, Frank Marshall, Cary Grant, Dickie Moore, SidMoore, David Cronenberg. Reluctant vamney Toler. Episodic story of notorious pire Currie crawls into his bag when man Dietrich leading unsavory life to support first walks on the moon, reemerging in conherself and child. A triumph of style over temporary Toronto, where he holes up in a content; this is the film where Marlene 24-hour donut shop. Characterful comedy/ appears in an ape suit to sing ‘‘Hot drama plays colloquially, like DINER, but Voodoo’’! ▼●쩠 at night and with fangs. Cronenberg plays a Blondie series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s gangster. [R]▼● Classic Movie Guide Blood and Roses (1961-Italian) C-74m. Blondie of the Follies (1932) 90m. ★★1⁄2 ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. Mel Ferrer, Elsa D: Edmund Goulding. Marion Davies, RobMartinelli, Annette Vadim, Marc Allegret. ert Montgomery, Billie Dove, Jimmy DuThis story of a jealous girl’s obsession rante, ZaSu Pitts, Sidney Toler, Louise with her family’s history of vampirism Carter. Davies and Dove vie for the affecwas based on Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla. tion of Montgomery, while ascending to Despite effective moments, film does stardom in the Follies. Dramatically wobbly, but the musical numbers are fun. not succeed. Same story refilmed as THE [ 146 ]

VAMPIRE LOVERS and THE BLOODSPATTERED BRIDE. Technirama.▼ Blood and Sand (1922) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred Niblo. Rudolph Valentino, Lila Lee, Nita Naldi, George Field, Walter Long, Leo White. Dated but still absorbing story of bullfighter Valentino torn between goodgirl Lee and vampish Naldi. Scenes of hero being seduced are laughable, but bullfight material holds up well. Remade in 1941 and 1989.▼●쩠 Blood and Sand (1941) C-123m. ★★★ D: Rouben Mamoulian. Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Rita Hayworth, Nazimova, Anthony Quinn, J. Carrol Naish, John Carradine, George Reeves. Pastel remake of Valentino’s silent film about naive bullfighter who ignores true-love (Darnell) for temptress (Hayworth). Slow-paced romance uplifted by Nazimova’s knowing performance as Power’s mother; beautiful color production earned cinematographers Ernest Palmer and Ray Rennahan Oscars.▼쩠 Blood and Sand (1989-Spanish) C-95m. ★★ D: Javier Elorrieta. Chris Rydell, Sharon Stone, Ana Torrent, Guillermo Montesinus, Albert Vidal, Simon Andreu, Antonio Glez Flores. Cocky young bullfighter achieves success in the arena and forsakes his loving wife for a sexy siren. Authentic Spanish locations and good bullfighting footage compensate for predictability of this drama; hot sex scenes are what distinguish it from the earlier versions.▼●쩠 Blood and Wine (1997) C-101m. ★★★ D: Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Judy Davis, Stephen Dorff, Jennifer Lopez, Harold Perrineau, Jr. Juicy film noir about a Florida no-good with an embittered wife, a resentful stepson, and a sexy Cuban mistress, who takes on an unlikely partner (an oily, consumptive Caine) for a highrisk jewel robbery. Delicious detail fills this well-thought-out melodrama; only fault is that it goes on a bit too long. Nicholson and Caine make a marvelous team. [R]▼●쩠 Blood Barrier (1979-British) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Leitch. Telly Savalas, Danny De La Paz, Eddie Albert, Michael Gazzo, Cecilia Camacho. Savalas plays a maverick border-patrolman who hates slimy Gazzo’s exploitation of poor Mexicans, illegally trucked by Gazzo to California to be day laborers. Interesting drama isn’t fully developed and suffers from pointless finale. Exteriors filmed in Mexico. Originally titled THE BORDER. Aka BORDER COP. [R]

but overall a mishmash. Shown on TV as TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE.▼쩠 Blood Beast from Outer Space SEE: Night Caller from Outer Space Bloodbrothers (1978) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Mulligan. Richard Gere, Paul Sorvino, Tony Lo Bianco, Lelia Goldoni, Yvonne Wilder, Kenneth McMillan, Marilu Henner, Danny Aiello. Interesting if somewhat overblown drama about big-city construction workers. Best when actors have opportunity to underplay, e.g., Sorvino’s touching story of baby son’s death, Gere’s interplay with young hospital patients. Gere stands out as son who wants to break away from family tradition. Mulligan later recut this to 98m. [R]▼ Blood Demon, The SEE: Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism, The Blood Diamond (2006) C-143m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Zwick. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Kagiso Kuypers, Arnold Vosloo, Michael Sheen, David Harewood, Basil Wallace, Ntare Mwine, Marius Weyers, Stephen Collins, Jimi Mistry. Loud, intense action drama with an Agenda: mercenary DiCaprio learns that a poor fisherman (Hounsou) who’s been separated from his family in Sierra Leone has hidden a huge pink diamond . . . and he means to find it, by any means necessary. Strong performances and well-staged action scenes would normally equal good entertainment, but extreme carnage and the heavily pounded message about ‘‘conflict diamonds’’ and their human toll make it difficult to take. Hounsou is outstanding as the simple man whose life is made a living hell in civil war–torn Sierra Leone, circa 1999. Hawk-Scope. [R]쩠 Blood Evil SEE: Demons of the Mind Blood Feud (1979-Italian) C-112m. ★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Giancarlo Giannini, Turi Ferro. Lawyer Mastroianni and hood Giannini both love Sicilian widow Loren, and she returns their favors. Loud, overblown, ineffective; set during the Fascist ’20s. Also known as REVENGE, cut to 99m. [R]▼ Blood Fiend SEE: Theatre of Death Blood for Dracula SEE: Andy Warhol’s Dracula Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb (1972British) C-94m. ★★★ D: Seth Holt, Michael Carreras. Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon, James Villiers, Hugh Burden. Surprisingly satisfying chiller dealing with attempt at reincarnating ancient Egyptian high priestess. Based on Bram Stoker’s Jewel of the ▼쩠 Blood Bath (1966) 80m. ★1⁄2 D: Stephanie Seven Stars. Remade as THE AWAKENRothman, Jack Hill. William Campbell, ING. [PG]▼쩠 Jonathan Haze, Sid Haig, Marissa Mathes, Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harmon Jones. Mitzi Gaynor, Scott Lori Saunders, Sandra Knight. Another AIP paste-job, with half an hour from a Brady, Mitzi Green, Marguerite Chapman, Yugoslavian vampire film worked into tale Michael O’Shea, Wally Vernon, Henry Slate, of California artist who murders his models. George E. Stone, Sharon Baird, Charles Eerie atmosphere, some occasional frissons, Buchinski (Bronson). Lightweight musical [ 147 ]

inspired by Damon Runyon stories. Brady is Dracula and his bride ‘‘collecting’’ girls and chaining them up. [M]▼쩠 ‘‘Numbers’’ Foster, a gambler on the lam who takes a shine to backwoods girl Gaynor Blood of Fu Manchu, The (1968) C-91m. ★★ and brings her to Manhattan, where she’s a D: Jesus Franco. Christopher Lee, Tsai fish out of water but catches on fast. Green Chin, Richard Greene, Gotz George, Howhas too little to do, but future Mouseketeer ard Marion Crawford, Shirley Eaton, Maria Rohm. Fourth in Lee’s FU MANCHU seBaird shines in a featured dance number.쩠 Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989) C-93m. ries, several pegs below its predecessors, ★★ D: Howard Brookner. Matt Dillon, finds him in the heart of the Amazon, inMadonna, Jennifer Grey, Rutger Hauer, jecting ten beautiful girls with a deadly poRandy Quaid, Julie Hagerty, Esai Morales, tion and dispatching them to give the kiss of Anita Morris, Madeleine Potter, Ethan Phildeath to his enemies in various capitals. Aka lips, Steve Buscemi, Michael Wincott. Bland KISS AND KILL and AGAINST ALL Damon Runyon tale chronicling the escaODDS (1968). Sequel: THE CASTLE OF pades of a gallery of gangsters, gamblers, and FU MANCHU. Released theatrically in the showgirl types on the Great White Way durU.S. in b&w. Video title: KISS OF DEATH. ing New Year’s Eve, 1928. The cast is game [M/PG]▼쩠 and there are some funny bits, but it’s mostly Blood of Ghastly Horror (1972) C-87m. a snooze. Documentary director Brookner’s BOMB D: Al Adamson. John Carradine, sole fiction feature; he died prior to its reKent Taylor, Tommy Kirk, Regina Carrol. lease. William Burroughs—the subject of one Carradine stars as Dr. Van Ard, whose of his earlier films—appears in a small role brain-transplant experiments lead to muras a butler. A PBS American Playhouse theder and mayhem. Ghastly indeed! Made in atrical production. [PG]▼●쩠 1969; also known as THE FIEND WITH Blood Hunt SEE: Thirsty Dead, The THE ATOMIC BRAIN, PSYCHO A GOBlood In Blood Out SEE: Bound by GO!, THE LOVE MANIAC, THE MAN Honor WITH THE SYNTHETIC BRAIN, and Blood Island SEE: Shuttered Room, The THE FIEND WITH THE ELECTRONIC Blood Legacy (1971) C-90m. ★★ D: Carl BRAIN. Techniscope. ▼쩠 Monson. John Carradine, Faith Domergue, Blood of Heroes, The (1990-AustralianJohn Russell, Merry Anders, Jeff Morrow, U.S.) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: David Peoples. Rutger Richard Davalos. To claim inheritance, heirs to Hauer, Joan Chen, Vincent Phillip D’Onoa fortune must spend a night in a ‘‘haunted’’ frio, Anna Katarina, Delroy Lindo. In the house. Awfully familiar stuff, helped by a few usual desolate post-nuclear war world onegood scenes, and a familiar cast of veterans. eyed Hauer and apprentice Chen are speAka LEGACY OF BLOOD. [R]▼쩠 cialists at ‘‘juggers’’—a kind of futuristic Bloodline (1979) C-116m. BOMB D: Terrugby where the scorer places a dog’s skull ence Young. Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazatop a vertical stick on the opposing team’s zara, James Mason, Michelle Phillips, Omar goal line. Stick to Home Run Derby reruns Sharif, Romy Schneider, Irene Papas, Gert on ESPN instead; this may be the grimiest Frobe, Beatrice Straight, Maurice Ronet. movie since C.H.U.D., which did, after all, Hepburn finds her life endangered after take place in a sewer. Australian title: SAinheriting a Zurich-based pharmaceutical LUTE OF THE JUGGER. [R]▼●쩠 company. Unbearable adaptation of SidBlood on Satan’s Claw, The (1971-British) ney Sheldon’s novel (one of those best-sellC-93m. ★★★ D: Piers Haggard. Patrick ers California blondes read on the beach Wymark, Linda Hayden, Barry Andrews, when no one wants to play volleyball). Michele Dotrice, Tamara Ustinov. In 17thNearly 40m. of footage added for network century Britain a demon is unearthed which showing. Officially released as SIDNEY a group of evil farm children begin worSHELDON’S BLOODLINE. [R]▼ shipping, sacrificing other children to it. Blood Oath SEE: Prisoners of the Sun Richly atmospheric horror film with erotic Blood of a Poet, The (1930-French) 52m. undertones, somewhat gruesome at times. ★★★ D: Jean Cocteau. Lee Miller, Pauline Original title: SATAN’S SKIN, running Carton, Odette Talazac, Enrique Rivero, 100m. Retitled SATAN’S CLAW. [R]▼ Jean Desbordes. Cocteau’s first feature is a Blood on the Arrow (1964) C-91m. ★1⁄2 highly personal, poetic, symbolic fantasy, D: Sidney Salkow. Dale Robertson, Marwhich supposedly transpires in a split sectha Hyer, Wendell Corey, Elisha Cook, ond: the time it takes for a chimney to crumTed de Corsia. Humdrum Western dealing ble and land. Imaginative, dreamlike, and with Apache massacre and survivors’ atstill a visual delight. The commentary is tempt to rescue son who is held captive. spoken by Cocteau.▼쩠 Blood on the Moon (1948) 88m. ★★★ Blood of Dracula’s Castle (1967) C-84m. D: Robert Wise. Robert Mitchum, BarBOMB D: Al Adamson. John Carradine, bara Bel Geddes, Robert Preston, Walter Paula Raymond, Alex D’Arcy, Robert Dix, Brennan, Phyllis Thaxter, Frank Faylen, Barbara Bishop. Tacky low-budget mixTom Tully, Charles McGraw, Tom Tyler. ture of vampirism and kinky sex, with Straightforward Western tale (from a novel [ 148 ]

by Luke Short) about a drifter who’s hired full of show-offy stylistics; just a bit ‘‘cold by his former partner to help him bilk around the heart,’’ to quote an earlier noir some naive landowners. Mitchum sizes up classic. McDormand’s film debut. Recut, rethe situation and decides he doesn’t like it; mixed, restored, and reissued in 2000 with a Preston is an unrepentant villain. Watch for new 5m. introduction. [R]▼●쩠 that great confrontation scene in a darkBloodsport (1987) C-92m. ★★ D: Newt ened barroom. Also shown in computerArnold. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald colored version.▼● Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton, Forest Blood on the Sun (1945) 98m. ★★★ D: Whitaker, Bolo Yeung. Belgian-born Van Frank Lloyd. James Cagney, Sylvia SidDamme joins the movie macho brigade in ney, Wallace Ford, Rosemary DeCamp, this story (based on true events) of AmeriRobert Armstrong. Newspaper editor Cagcan Ninja Frank Dux, the first westerner to ney, in Japan during the 1930s, smells trouwin the Kumite, an international martial arts ble coming but is virtually helpless; good competition that tests its participants to their melodrama. Also shown in computer-collimits. Violent, low-budget action film has its ored version. ▼●쩠 moments. Followed by three direct-to-video Blood Red (1988) C-91m. BOMB D: Pesequels. [R]▼●쩠 ter Masterson. Eric Roberts, Giancarlo Blood Suckers, The (1967) SEE: Return Giannini, Dennis Hopper, Burt Young, from the Past Bloodsuckers (1970-British) C-87m. ★1⁄2 Carlin Glynn, Lara Harris, Joseph Running Fox, Al Ruscio, Michael Madsen, D: Robert Hartford-Davis. Patrick Macnee, Elias Koteas, Marc Lawrence, Frank CamPeter Cushing, Alex Davion, Patrick Mower, panella, Aldo Ray, Susan Anspach, Horton Johnny Sekka, Medeline Hinde, Imogen Foote, Jr., Julia Roberts. Ruthless, IrishHassall, Edward Woodward. Confusing horborn Hopper wants to build his railroad ror yarn about ancient vampire cult on Greek through the land of Sicilian immigrant island of Hydra, somehow linked to sinister Giannini and his fellow wine-growers in Oxford dons. Mishmash includes many nar1890s California. Dreadful film, with lots rated silent sequences and other evidence of of explosions; huge, good cast can’t save considerable post-production tampering. Aka it. Julia Roberts, Eric’s kid sister, makes INCENSE FOR THE DAMNED and DOCher screen debut as his sibling (and Giannini’s TORS WEAR SCARLET. [R]▼쩠 daughter). [R]▼ Blood Tide (1982) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: RichBlood Relatives (1978-French-Canadian) ard Jeffries. James Earl Jones, Jose´ Ferrer, C-100m. ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Donald Lila Kedrova, Mary Louise Weller, MarSutherland, Aude Landry, Lisa Langlois, tin Kove, Deborah Shelton. Lovely Greek Laurent Malet, Micheline Lanctot, Stephscenery is the only distinction of this subane Audran, Donald Pleasence, David Hemstandard programmer in which a monster mings. Barely released thriller about a from the deep is unleashed, causing presecret, incestuous relationship with deadly dictable mayhem. Good cast shamelessly wasted. Aka THE RED TIDE. [R]▼쩠 consequences. Interesting cast and Chabrol’s cold, scientifically masterful direction make Blood Ties (1986-Italian) C-120m. ★★★ this less unpleasant and gory than it might D: Giacomo Battiato. Brad Davis, Tony have been. Not released until 1981 in Lo Bianco, Vincent Spano, Barbara De U.S. [R]▼ Rossi, Delia Boccardo, Ricky Tognazzi, Blood Salvage (1990) C-98m. ★★ D: Tucker Maria Conchita Alonso, Michael Gazzo. Johnston. Danny Nelson, Lori Birdsong, Uncompromising crime actioner about an John Saxon, Ray Walston, Evander Holyinnocent American (Davis), coerced by field. Grisly gorefest (with humorous the mob into assassinating his Sicilian cousin touches splattered throughout) has religious (Lo Bianco), who’s been investigating Manutso Nelson running a body parts junkyard fia activities. Good job all around. Origiand preying on waylaid tourists. Not for nally a four-hour television movie; video the weak-stomached. Coexecutive producer version runs 98m.▼ of film, heavyweight boxer Evander HolyBlood Wedding (1981-U.S.) SEE: He field, challenged his pugilist peers to sit Knows You’re Alone through this one without flinching; he reBlood Wedding (1981-Spanish) C-72m. ★★★ portedly had no takers. [R]▼● D: Carlos Saura. Antonio Gades, Bloodsilver SEE: Beyond the Law (1968) Cristina Hoyos, Juan Antonio Jimenez, Blood Simple (1984) C-96m. ★★★ D: Joel Pilar Cardenas, Carmen Villena. Gades’ adCoen. John Getz, Frances McDormand, aptation for ballet of Federico Garcia LorDan Hedaya, Samm-Art Williams, M. Emca’s classic tragedy, performed in full met Walsh. Flamboyant homage to film costume in a bare rehearsal hall. Saura’s noir made on a shoestring by brothers Joel direction is best described as intimate in this and Ethan Coen in Texas. A cuckolded happy union of dance and film. ▼●쩠 husband hires slimy character to kill his wife Blood Work (2002) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clint and her boyfriend . . . but that’s just the beginEastwood. Clint Eastwood, Jeff Daniels, ning of this serpentine story. A visual delight, Anjelica Huston, Wanda De Jesus, Tina Lif[ 149 ]

ford, Paul Rodriguez, Dylan Walsh. FBI drugs is an easy way to make money, and profiler, who was forced to retire after heart rapidly becomes America’s leading cocaine transplant surgery, is persuaded to take on a dealer—in between prison terms. Wellmurder case by the sister of the woman acted film based on a real-life figure; only whose heart he inherited. Eastwood has problem is finding a reason to care about him. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 never been more relaxed on-screen, and this movie fits him like a glove, but the buildup Blow Dry (2001-British-U.S.) C-90m. ★★ of the story is much better than the payoff, D: Paddy Breathnach. Alan Rickman, Nawith a perfunctory finale and an all-tootasha Richardson, Rachel Griffiths, Josh obvious revelation about the bad guy. Hartnett, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosemary Adapted from the novel by Michael ConHarris, Bill Nighy, Heidi Klum. A small nelly, which has a more satisfactory ending. Yorkshire town hosts the National HairPanavision. [R] ▼쩠 dressing Championship, forcing an exBloody Birthday (1986) C-85m. ★★ D: husband-and-wife team to put aside their Ed Hunt. Susan Strasberg, Jose Ferrer, differences for the big wash and curl. The Lori Lethin, Melinda Cordell, Julie Brown, actors try their best but the material (by Joe Penny, Billy Jacoby, Michael Dudikoff. FULL MONTY writer Simon Beaufoy) is Three 10-year-old killer kids go on a ramtoo contrived and calculated, veering wildly page; they were born during a lunar eclipse. from wacky comedy to tearjerker. [R]▼쩠 Formula horror fare ‘‘boasts’’ very tasteBlowing Wild (1953) 90m. ★★ D: Hugo less premise but lapses into the usual killFregonese. Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, ing spree. Filmed in 1980. [R]▼쩠 Ruth Roman, Anthony Quinn, Ward Bond. Bloody Dead, The SEE: Creature With Tempestuous Stanwyck is married to oil the Blue Hand tycoon Quinn, but sets her sights on wildBloody Judge, The SEE: Night of the catter Cooper, who’s fully recovered from Blood Monster their one-time affair. Heated emotions can’t Bloody Mama (1970) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger warm up this plodding story, filmed in Corman. Shelley Winters, Don Stroud, Pat Mexico.▼● Hingle, Robert De Niro, Clint Kimbrough, Blown Away (1994) C-121m. ★★ D: SteRobert Walden, Diane Varsi, Bruce Dern, Paphen Hopkins. Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee mela Dunlap. Excellent performances cannot Jones, Lloyd Bridges, Forest Whitaker, save sordid story of Ma Barker and her ugly Suzy Amis, John Finn, Stephi Lineburg, brood. Film unsuccessfully mixes action narLoyd Catlett, Caitlin Clarke, Chris De Oni, rative with psychological study. [R]▼●쩠 Ruben Santiago-Hudson. Dreary action Bloody Sunday (2002-British-Irish) C-110m. thriller with Irish wacko Jones targeting ★★★ Boston’s bomb removal squad—and one D: Paul Greengrass. James Nesbitt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nicholas Farrell, Gerard member in particular (Bridges, a former McSorley, Kathy Kiera Clarke. British solIRA crony)—with his insidious explosions. diers and Irish civil rights workers clash in Irish accents come and go, and so does story Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1972, with ramiinterest, which trods on all-too-familiar turf. fications that extend to this day. Painstaking Bridges Sr. is fun to watch as a wily old son re-creation, on the cool side but cumulatively of Eire. Cuba Gooding, Jr., appears unpowerful, covers the preliminary events and billed. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 awful aftermath of what was intended to be a Blow Out (1981) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian peaceful protest. Documentary-like chronicle De Palma. John Travolta, Nancy Allen, is obviously pro-Irish but shows faults on both John Lithgow, Dennis Franz, Peter Boysides of the conflict. U2’s same-named anden. Intriguing variation on Antonioni’s them plays over the final credits. [R] ▼쩠 BLOWUP (with a similar title, no less!) Blossoms in the Dust (1941) C-100m. set in Philadelphia, about a sound-effects ★★★ D: Mervyn LeRoy. Greer Garson, man who records a car accident that turns Walter Pidgeon, Felix Bressart, Marsha out to be a politically motivated murder. Hunt, Fay Holden, Samuel S. Hinds. Slick Absorbing most of the way, but weakened tear-jerker of Texas orphanage founded by by show-off camerawork and logic loopGarson when she loses her own child; holes. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 tastefully acted.▼쩠 Blowup (1966-British-Italian) C-111m. ★★★1 Blow (2001) C-124m. ★★ D: Ted Demme. ⁄2 D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Vanessa Johnny Depp, Pene´lope Cruz, Franka PoRedgrave, David Hemmings, Sarah Miles, tente, Paul Reubens, Ray Liotta, Rachel Jill Kennington, Verushka, Peter Bowles, Griffiths, Jordi Molla, Max Perlich, Cliff Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills, The Yardbirds. Curtis, Ethan Suplee, Emma Roberts, Noah Writer-director Antonioni’s hypnotic popEmmerich, Bobcat Goldthwait. Episodic culture parable of photographer caught in pasflashback saga of a working-class kid who, sive lifestyle during the swinging ’60s. Arhaving seen his father struggle and his resting, provocative film, rich in color mother nag, vows never to be poor. When symbolism, many-layered meanings. Music he moves to Southern California in the by Herbie Hancock.▼●쩠 swingin’ ’60s, he quickly learns that selling Blue (1968) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Silvio Nar[ 150 ]

izzano. Terence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, Karl Malden, Ricardo Montalban, Joe DeSantis, Sally Kirkland. Undistinguished, poorly written Western about Americanborn, Mexican-raised boy who trusts no one until bullet wounds force him to trust a woman. See also: FADE-IN. Panavision.

Karin Schubert. Burton doesn’t make much of an impression as world’s most famous ladykiller. Women are all beautiful, but script gives them little to do. International production. [R]▼쩠 Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife (1938) 80m. ★★ D: Ernst Lubitsch. Claudette Colbert, Gary Cooper, David Niven, Edward Ever▼●쩠 Blue (1993-French) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: ett Horton, Elizabeth Patterson, Herman Krzysztof Kieslowski. Juliette Binoche, BeBing. Contrived comedy about a woman noit Regent, Florence Pernel, Charlotte determined to gain the upper hand over an Very, Helene Vincent, Philippe Volter, oft-married millionaire. One of Lubitsch’s Hugues Quester, Emmanuelle Riva, Julie weakest films, notable mainly for the way Delpy. Binoche loses her family in a tragic its two stars ‘‘meet cute.’’ Script by Billy accident and decides to radically change her Wilder and Charles Brackett. Previously filmed in 1923.▼ world; she leaves behind any memories of her husband, a renowned composer, and Blue Bird, The (1940) C-88m. ★★ D: moves into a Paris flat to contemplate life. Walter Lang. Shirley Temple, Spring Slow-moving drama is borderline interestByington, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, ing but remains more a showcase for its Eddie Collins, Sybil Jason. Released one leading lady than anything else. First year after THE WIZARD OF OZ, this lavish of Polish director Kieslowski’s ‘‘Three Technicolor fantasy (based on the famous Colors’’ trilogy probing life in contemporary play by Maurice Maeterlinck) has everything Europe: BLUE/‘‘Liberty’’; WHITE/‘‘Equalbut charm. Even Shirley seems stiff. Filmed ity’’; RED/‘‘Fraternity.’’▼●쩠 before in 1918, remade in 1976.▼쩠 Blue Angel, The (1930-German) 103m. Blue Bird, The (1976-Russian-U.S.) ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Josef von Sternberg. Marlene C-99m. ★★ D: George Cukor. Todd LookinDietrich, Emil Jannings, Kurt Gerron, Rosa land, Patsy Kensit, Elizabeth Taylor, Valetti, Hans Albers. Ever-fascinating film Jane Fonda, Ava Gardner, Cicely Tyson classic with Jannings as stuffy professor George Cole, Will Geer, Robert Morley, who falls blindly in love with cabaret enHarry Andrews. Posh, star-studded but tertainer Lola-Lola (Dietrich), who ruins heavy-handed fantasy based on Maeterhis life. Dietrich introduces ‘‘Falling in linck’s play about children seeking the Love Again’’; this role made her an interbluebird of happiness. First coproduction national star. Robert Liebman scripted, between U.S. and Russia is unbelievably from Heinrich Mann’s novel Professor draggy. [G] Unrath. Simultaneously shot in German Blue Car (2003) C-96m. ★★★ D: Karen and English versions; the former is obviMoncrieff. David Strathairn, Agnes Bruckously superior. Remade in 1959. Restored ner, Margaret Colin, A. J. Buckley, Regan on video to 106m.▼●쩠 Arnold, Frances Fisher. Well-told story of Blue Angel, The (1959) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: an adolescent girl (Bruckner) who’s never Edward Dmytryk. Curt Jurgens, May Britt, recovered from the blow of her father walkTheodore Bikel, John Banner, Ludwig ing out on the family. She finds an outlet in Stossel, Fabrizio Mioni. Disastrous remake writing poetry, encouraged by her English of Josef von Sternberg–Marlene Dietrich teacher (Strathairn), who also becomes a classic, from Heinrich Mann’s novel of kind of father figure—for a while. Impresprecise professor won over by tawdry nightsive feature debut for writer-director Moncrieff. [R]▼쩠 club singer. CinemaScope. Bluebeard (1944) 73m. ★★★ D: Edgar G. Blue Chips (1994) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilUlmer. Jean Parker, John Carradine, Nils liam Friedkin. Nick Nolte, Mary McDonAsther, Ludwig Stossel, Iris Adrian, Emnell, J. T. Walsh, Ed O’Neill, Alfre mett Lynn. Surprisingly effective story set Woodard, Bob Cousy, Shaquille O’Neal, in 19th-century Paris. Incurable strangler Anfernee ‘‘Penny’’ Hardaway, Matt Nover, Carradine falls for smart girl Parker, who Anthony C. Hall, Robert Wuhl, Jerry Tarkanian, Bobby Knight, Richard Pitino, senses that something is wrong.▼쩠 Bluebeard (1962-French-Italian) C-114m. George Raveling. After his first losing sea★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Charles Denner, son, hard-driving collegiate basketball Michele Morgan, Danielle Darrieux, Hilcoach Nolte agrees to look the other way degarde Neff, Stephane Audran, Catherine while fat-cat recruiters bribe new talent to Rouvel, Franc¸oise Lugagne. Retelling of join his team. Reasonably compelling at life of French wife-killer, far less witty first, then all too obvious and predictable. than Chaplin’s MONSIEUR VERDOUX. Written by Ron Shelton. Towering NBA superstar O’Neal is engaging as one of the Original French title: LANDRU.▼ ★★ Bluebeard (1972) C-125m. recruits; other hoop stars like Larry Bird D: Edward Dmytryk. Richard Burton, Raquel Welch, have small parts, while legendary chamVirna Lisi, Joey Heatherton, Nathalie Delon, pion Cousy plays the college athletic [ 151 ]

director. Louis Gossett, Jr., appears unman, Angela Lansbury, Roland Winters, billed. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Iris Adrian. Agreeable Presley vehicle Blue City (1986) C-83m. BOMB D: Mibolstered by Lansbury’s presence as mother chelle Manning. Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, of ex-G.I. (Presley) returning to islands and David Caruso, Paul Winfield, Scott Wilworking with tourist agency. Elvis performs son, Anita Morris. Perfectly awful film one of his prettiest hits, ‘‘Can’t Help Falling about wiseguy kid who returns to Florida in Love.’’ Panavision. ▼●쩠 hometown after five years, discovers that Blue Ice (1992-British-U.S.) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 his father was killed, and vows to avenge D: Russell Mulcahy. Michael Caine, Sean (and solve) his murder. Senseless and stuYoung, Ian Holm, Alun Armstrong, Sam pid; Nelson’s unappealing character seems Kelly, Jack Shepherd. Retired British agent to possess a one-word vocabulary, and the Caine is dragged out of his beloved jazz word isn’t fudge. Based on a good book by club and back into service to help crack Ross Macdonald. [R]▼●쩠 an illegal arms ring. Cabaret legend Bobby Blue Collar (1978) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Short has an acting role here, and unbilled Paul Schrader. Richard Pryor, Harvey KeiBob Hoskins turns up briefly as Caine’s tel, Yaphet Kotto, Ed Begley, Jr., Harry chum from the old days. U.S. debut on Bellaver, George Memmoli. Punchy, muckcable TV. ▼●쩠 raking expose´ melodrama with Pryor, KeiBlue Iguana, The (1988) C-88m. BOMB tel, and Kotto delivering strong performances D: John Lafia. Dylan McDermott, Jessica as auto workers who find that it isn’t just Harper, James Russo, Pamela Gidley, management ripping them off—it’s their Tovah Feldshuh, Dean Stockwell, Yano own union. Schrader’s directing debut. Anaya, Flea, Michele Seipp. Amateurish [R]▼●쩠 spoof is a hybrid of B Western and film Blue Crush (2002) C-104m. ★★ D: John noir, with a down-and-out bounty hunter Stockwell. Kate Bosworth, Matthew Davis, on a suicide mission to recover $20 million Michelle Rodriguez, Sanoe Lake, Mika in contraband money from a gaggle of bad Boorem, Chris Taloa, Kala Alexander, Faiguys south of the border. This turkey barely zon Love. Young woman dreams of winmade it to theaters; even an amusing cameo by Stockwell can’t save it. [R]▼●쩠 ning a surfing championship in Hawaii—in spite of prejudice against females in the Blue in the Face (1995) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: sport and other obstacles in her path, such Wayne Wang, Paul Auster. Harvey Keitel, as having to make a living and raise her Lou Reed, Michael J. Fox, Roseanne, Mel kid sister. Then Mr. Right comes along (a Gorham, Jim Jarmusch, Lily Tomlin, Jared handsome football star who’s vacationing Harris, Giancarlo Esposito, Jose Zuniga, on the island) just in time to blur her focus. Victor Argo, Madonna, Mira Sorvino, Keith Bosworth is very watchable, but this sappy David, RuPaul. Meandering, overindulgent story never leaves shallow water. Several mess filmed immediately after SMOKE and professional surfers appear as themselves. improvised from sketches developed by [PG-13] ▼쩠 Wang and Auster in collaboration with the Blue Dahlia, The (1946) 99m. ★★★ D: actors. Set mostly in and around the BrookGeorge Marshall. Alan Ladd, Veronica lyn cigar store managed by Keitel. In desLake, William Bendix, Howard da Silva, perate need of a script. [R]▼●쩠 Hugh Beaumont, Doris Dowling. Exciting Blue Juice (1995-British) C-99m. ★★ D: Raymond Chandler–scripted melodrama Carl Prechezer. Sean Pertwee, Catherine has Ladd returning from military service to Zeta-Jones, Steven Mackintosh, Peter Gunn, find wife unfaithful. She’s murdered, he’s Ewan McGregor, Heathcote Williams, Cosuspected in well-turned film. Produced by lette Brown, Jenny Agutter. Low-octane John Houseman. ▼ tale of aging, self-absorbed surfer boy PerBlue Denim (1959) 89m. ★★★ D: Philip twee, who’s constantly putting off practicalDunne. Carol Lynley, Brandon de Wilde, minded (and increasingly flustered) girlMacdonald Carey, Marsha Hunt, Warren Berfriend Zeta-Jones to hang with his mates. linger, Roberta Shore. De Wilde and Lynley Superficial and predictable to an extreme; are striking as teenagers faced with Carol’s of note only for the early-career presence of pregnancy. Dated and naive, but well-acted Zeta-Jones and McGregor (as an obnoxious, adaptation of Broadway play. CinemaScope. pathetic slacker/drug dealer). [R] ▼쩠 Blue Gardenia, The (1953) 90m. ★★★ D: Blue Kite, The (1993-Chinese) C-140m. ★★★ Fritz Lang. Anne Baxter, Richard Conte, D: Tian Zhuangzhuang. Yi Tian, Zhang Ann Sothern, Raymond Burr, Jeff Donnell, Wenyao, Chen Xiaoman, Lu Liping, Pu George Reeves, Nat King Cole. Engaging Quanxin, Li Xuejian. Absorbing, uncommurder caper with 1940s flavor. Baxter is acpromising saga of the life and times of— cused of murdering wolfish Burr, decides to and emotional upheaval within—one Chitake columnist Conte’s offer of help. Solid nese family during the tumultuous 1950s film with twist ending. ▼쩠 and ’60s, told from the point of view of a Blue Hawaii (1961) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: child. An unsubtle condemnation of blind Norman Taurog. Elvis Presley, Joan Blackrevolution and the political system in Com[ 152 ]

munist China. It was (unsurprisingly) highly Jean Peters, Gary Merrill, Jack Kruschen, controversial back home; at one point its Mae Marsh. Whodunit has Peters as prime filming was halted because of the scenario’s suspect of poison killings, with Cotten seeking the truth.쩠 ‘‘political leanings.’’▼●쩠 Blue Lagoon, The (1949-British) C-101m. Blues Brothers, The (1980) C-130m. ★★★ ★★★ D: Frank Launder. Jean Simmons, D: John Landis. John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Donald Houston, Noel Purcell, Cyril The Blues Brothers Band, Cab Calloway, Cusack, Maurice Denham. Idyllic romance John Candy, Henry Gibson, Carrie Fisher, of Simmons and Houston, shipwrecked on Charles Napier, Jeff Morris, Ray Charles, tropic isle, falling in love as they grow to Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Kathleen maturity; slowly paced but refreshing. ReFreeman. Engagingly nutty comedy about made in 1980. the title characters (deadpan musical perBlue Lagoon, The (1980) C-104m. ★1⁄2 formers introduced on TV’s Saturday Night D: Randal Kleiser. Brooke Shields, ChrisLive) trying to raise money to save their topher Atkins, Leo McKern, William Danorphanage by reuniting their old band— iels. Remake of the 1949 film is little more and nearly destroying Chicago in the than softcore cinema for the heavy-petting process. Off the wall from start to finish, set, as two children become sexually aware with some fine music woven in, including of each other after being shipwrecked on an wonderful numbers by Franklin and Calloisland for several years. Nestor Almendros’ way. Numerous cameos include Steven photography can’t save it. Followed over a Spielberg, Frank Oz, Steve Lawrence, John decade later by RETURN TO THE BLUE Lee Hooker, Twiggy, and Paul Reubens (PeeLAGOON. [R]▼●쩠 wee Herman). Special edition runs 147m. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Blue Lamp, The (1950-British) 84m. ★★★ D: Basil Dearden. Jack Warner, Jimmy Blues Brothers 2000 (1998) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 Hanley, Dirk Bogarde, Robert Flemyng, D: John Landis. Dan Aykroyd, John GoodBernard Lee, Peggy Evans, Patric Doonan, man, Joe Morton, Nia Peeples, Kathleen Gladys Henson, Meredith Edwards. CrackFreeman, J. Evan Bonifant, Frank Oz, Steve erjack manhunt thriller about Scotland Lawrence, Darrell Hammond, Erykah Badu. Yard’s search for murderer of policeman. Just sprung from prison, Elwood Blues reUnpretentious and exciting—a key British unites his old band (minus brother Jake—the postwar film. Music hall star Tessie late John Belushi), with a young orphan (BonO’Shea appears as herself.▼ ifant) in tow. Silly ‘‘plot’’ goes on too long, Blue Manhattan SEE: Hi, Mom! but high spirits prevail, especially during ★★1 Blue Max, The (1966) C-156m. ⁄2 D: infectious music numbers like ‘‘634-5789’’ John Guillermin. George Peppard, James and Aretha Franklin’s ‘‘Respect.’’ IncrediMason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp, Carl ble lineup of guest musicians includes B.B. Schell. Fantastic aerial photography and King, James Brown, Junior Wells, Isaac memorable Jerry Goldsmith score are the Hayes, Eric Clapton, Dr. John, Wilson Pickassets of this silly drama, taken from German ett, Bo Diddley, Eddie Floyd, Jonny Lang, point of view, about dogfighting in WW1. Billy Preston, Travis Tritt, and music superSteamy Peppard-Andress love scenes aren’t visor Paul Shaffer. Aykroyd and Landis cobad either. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 produced and scripted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Blue Monkey (1987) C-98m. BOMB D: Blues for Lovers (1966-British) 89m. ★★ William Fruet. Steve Railsback, Gwynyth D: Paul Henreid. Ray Charles, Tom Bell, Walsh, Susan Anspach, John Vernon, Joe Mary Peach, Dawn Addams, Piers BishFlaherty, Robin Duke, Sarah Polley. Silly op, Betty McDowall. Story of Charles monster film set at hospital that’s quaran(playing himself) and blind child is maudtined after a monster escapes. Poorly filmed lin, but fans will like generous footage in semi-darkness. Title is meaningless and devoted to Ray’s song hits, including ‘‘I randomly selected; it was originally called Got a Woman’’ and ‘‘What’d I Say?’’ GREEN MONKEY! Video title: INSECT. Aka BALLAD IN BLUE.▼ [R]▼● Blues in the Night (1941) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blue Murder at St. Trinian’s (1957Anatole Litvak. Priscilla Lane, Richard Whorf, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Jack British) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Launder. Terry-Thomas, George Cole, Joyce GrenCarson, Elia Kazan, Wallace Ford, Billy fell, Lionel Jeffries, Eric Barker, Lisa GasHalop, Peter Whitney. Intriguing musical toni, Ferdy Mayne, Alastair Sim. OK entry drama abandons early promise for soapy, in the series of farces set at the St. Trinian’s silly melodramatics, in story of self-deSchool for Girls. Ever-mischievous students structive musician (Whorf) and his band win a trip to the continent and become im(young Kazan is featured as clarinetist). mersed in various hijinks. Sim appears too Good moments, wonderful Warner Bros. briefly (in drag) as Miss Amelia Fritton, the montages, but the great title song is never played once in its entirety!쩠 school’s headmistress.▼ Blueprint for Murder, A (1953) 76m. Blue Skies (1946) C-104m. ★★★ D: Stuart ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew L. Stone. Joseph Cotten, Heisler. Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Joan [ 153 ]

Caulfield, Billy De Wolfe, Olga San Juan, Frank Faylen. Astaire and Crosby play onetime show-biz partners and rivals in this paper-thin vehicle kept aloft by lots and lots of Irving Berlin songs. Highlights: Astaire’s terrific ‘‘Puttin’ on the Ritz,’’ star duo’s ‘‘A Couple of Song and Dance Men.’’

John Badham. Roy Scheider, Malcolm McDowell, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, Warren Oates, Paul Roebling, Joe Santos. Slick action film built around L.A.’s police helicopter surveillance team. Fun at first, but gets stupider (and crueler) as film goes on—with villainous McDowell character especially ludicrous. Even escapist ▼●쩠 Blue Skies Again (1983) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: fare has to be believable on its own terms. Later a TV series. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Richard Michaels. Harry Hamlin, Robyn Barto, Mimi Rogers, Kenneth McMillan, Blue Veil, The (1951) 113m. ★★★ D: Dana Elcar, Andy Garcia, Marcos GonzaCurtis Bernhardt. Jane Wyman, Charles les. Friendly, well-meaning but ultimately Laughton, Joan Blondell, Richard Carlson, minor-league chronicle of a young woman Agnes Moorehead, Don Taylor, Audrey (Barto) attempting to play professional Totter, Everett Sloane, Cyril Cusack, Natbaseball. [PG]▼ alie Wood, Warner Anderson, Vivian Blue Sky (1994) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony Vance, Philip Ober. Wyman is self-sacrificRichardson. Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee ing nursemaid whose life story is chroniJones, Powers Boothe, Carrie Snodgress, cled with intertwined episodes of her charges Amy Locane, Chris O’Donnell, Mitchell and their families. Well done. Ryan, Dale Dye, Tim Scott, Annie Ross, Blue Velvet (1986) C-120m. ★★ D: David Anna Klemp. A dedicated military man enLynch. Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rosdures continual embarrassment by his teassellini, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope ingly sexy (and emotionally unstable) wife, Lange, Dean Stockwell, Jack Nance, Brad for one simple reason: he loves her. IntelliDourif. Terminally weird, though flamgent and compassionate drama, set in the boyantly original film about a young man’s early 1960s, loses its way as it gets involved involvement in a small-town mystery inin a nuclear cover-up subplot, but rates as a volving a kinky nightclub singer, a sadistic must-see for anyone who admires its stars: kidnapper/drug dealer, and other swell folks. both Jones and Lange (in an Oscar-winning A highly individual look at the bizarre performance) are extraordinarily good. Shot elements just behind the facade of a picturein 1990; director Richardson died the folperfect American town. Too audacious to lowing year. Timothy Bottoms appears unbe easily dismissed, but too strange to be billed. [PG-13]▼●쩠 easily enjoyed . . . yet this was one of the Blue Steel (1990) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Kathmost critically praised movies of 1986! ryn Bigelow. Jamie Lee Curtis, Ron SilThe director also wrote this one. J-D-C ver, Clancy Brown, Elizabeth Pena, Louise Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Fletcher, Philip Bosco, Kevin Dunn, RichBlue Water, White Death (1971) C-99m. ★★★ ard Jenkins. Stupid thriller with Curtis as a D: Peter Gimbel, James Lipscomb. rookie cop stalked by a slick psycho (Silver) Vivid documentary on one of the sea’s in N.Y.C. Laughably ludicrous dialogue is most voracious and feared predators, the matched by preposterous story turns. great white shark; terrifying underwater [R]▼●쩠 scenes but somewhat overstated. Techniscope. [G]쩠 Blue Streak (1999) C-94m. ★★ D: Les Mayfield. Martin Lawrence, Luke Wilson, Blume in Love (1973) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dave Chappelle, William Forsythe, Nicole Paul Mazursky. George Segal, Susan Ari Parker, Peter Greene. Loud boilerplate Anspach, Kris Kristofferson, Marsha Mason, action comedy casts Lawrence as a soShelley Winters, Paul Mazursky. Selfcalled master thief who has socked away a indulgent film about divorce-lawyer Segal stolen jewel in the innards of a construction refusing to accept fact that his wife (Ansite—only to discover, upon his release spach) has walked out on him, determinfrom jail, that the completed structure is a ing to win her back. Good look at modern police precinct. The solution is to become a marriages, but overlong, rambling; Kristcop, just as the solution for Lawrence might offerson delightful as man who moves in be to stay away from moldy scripts like this. with Anspach. [R]▼쩠 [PG-13]▼쩠 B. Monkey (1999-British-U.S.) C-90m. ★★ Blue Sunshine (1976) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff D: Michael Radford. Asia Argento, Jared Lieberman. Zalman King, Deborah WinHarris, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Rupert Everters, Mark Goddard, Robert Walden, Charles ett, Tim Woodward, Ian Hart. Superficial fluff Siebert. Young man accused of murders about a mild-mannered British schoolteacher eludes cops, discovers that apparently ‘‘ranwho falls for a sultry bank robber trying to dom’’ killings derive from delayed drug leave her criminal past behind. Radford’s reactions of 10-year-old college class. Offfirst film since IL POSTINO is a disappointbeat psychological thriller, quite violent at ment, particularly since most of it reportedly ended up on the cutting room floor. times. [R]▼쩠 Blue Thunder (1983) C-108m. ★★ D: Still watchable, with a smoldering central [ 154 ]

performance from Argento, daughter of horGooding is as likable as ever, but the cumurormeister Dario Argento. Completed in lative effect of this unfunny, tasteless, deriv1996. [R]▼쩠 ative film is deadening. Will Ferrell appears unbilled. [R] ▼쩠 BMX Bandits (1983-Australian) C-88m. ★★ D: Brian Trenchard-Smith. David Argue, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) C-104m. ★★★ D: Paul Mazursky. Natalie John Ley, Nicole Kidman, Angelo D’Angelo, James Lugton, Bryan Marshall. Two adolesWood, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould, Dyan cent boys crash their BMX bikes. While tryCannon, Horst Ebersberg, Greg Mullavey, ing to earn money to fix them, they and pal Lee Bergere. Glossy look at modern lifeKidman stumble onto a cache of stolen styles; ultrasophisticated couple (Wood & walkie-talkies. Harmless popcorn fodder, Culp) try to modernize thinking of their fashioned to appeal to young teens and prebest friends (Gould & Cannon) about sexteens. One of Kidman’s first film appearual freedom. Sharp observations, fine perances. Panavision. ▼쩠 formances, marred by silly, pretentious Boarding Gate (2007-French) C-105m. finale. Written by Mazursky and Larry ★1 Tucker; Mazursky’s directorial debut. Later ⁄2 D: Olivier Assayas. Asia Argento, Michael Madsen, Carl Ng, Kelly Lin, Joana a short-lived TV series. [R]▼●쩠 Preiss, Alex Descas, Kim Gordon. Argento Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw (1976) C-89m. ★★ D: Mark L. Lester. Marjoe Gortner, plays an unscrupulous former hooker involved in corporate espionage and internaLynda Carter, Jesse Vint, Merrie Lynn tional drug smuggling in Paris and the Far Ross, Belinda Balaski, Peggy Stewart. East. She has little interest in her ex (shady Competent but excessively violent drive-in businessman Madsen) but has the hots for fare; bored carhop Carter hooks up with her tough boss (Ng). Argento is rarely offMarjoe and his gang for a robbing and killscreen in this Eurotrashy thriller that had ing spree. Noteworthy for a couple of potential, but story of jet-set criminal lowglimpses of Lynda’s left breast and the oclifes isn’t as fascinating or meaningful (or casional film-buff in-joke (e.g., a tobaccocoherent or intelligible) as intended, and chewing deputy named Abel Gance), courthis globe-trotting film goes nowhere. [R]쩠 tesy scripter Vernon Zimmerman. [R]▼ Boarding School (1977-German) C-98m. Bobby (2006) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Emilio Es★1⁄2 D: Andre Farwagi. Nastassja Kinski, tevez. Harry Belafonte, Joy Bryant, Nick Gerry Sundquist, Kurt Raab, Sean ChapCannon, Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishman. Sex comedy with Kinski in one of burne, Brian Geraghty, Heather Graham, Anher first starring roles, as an American girl thony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, in an exclusive Swiss boarding school, David Krumholtz, Ashton Kutcher, Shia Lacirca 1956. She devises a ruse of the girls Beouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, pretending to be prostitutes in order to Svetlana Metkina, Demi Moore, Freddy seduce cute guys at nearby boys’ school. Rodriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Original title: THE PASSION FLOWER Sharon Stone, Jacob Vargas, Mary ElizaHOTEL. ▼쩠 beth Winstead, Elijah Wood. Twenty-two Boardwalk (1979) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stelives are interwoven during the course of phen Verona. Ruth Gordon, Lee Strasberg, one day—June 4, 1968—at L.A.’s fabled Janet Leigh, Joe Silver, Eli Mintz, Eddie Ambassador Hotel, from kitchen workers to Barth. Poignant view of elderly couple affluent guests to idealistic campaigners for struggling to survive in decaying neighSenator Robert F. Kennedy. The story ends borhood missteps into DEATH WISH melotragically with the assassination of RFK, dramatics for its finale. Fine performances, who has just won California’s Democratic including Leigh as duty-bound daughter. primary. Writer-director Estevez skillfully Boat, The SEE: Das Boot captures the period and the atmosphere of Boat People (1983-Hong Kong-Chinese) this grand hotel, but some of his characters’ stories aren’t terribly interesting or relevant. C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ann Hui. Lam ChiAn emotional finale helps. Super 35. [R]쩠 Cheung, Cora Miao, Season Ma, Andy Lau, Paul Ching. Harrowing, heartbreaking, highly Bobby Deerfield (1977) C-124m. BOMB provocative account of Japanese photojourD: Sydney Pollack. Al Pacino, Marthe nalist Chi-Cheung’s experiences in Vietnam Keller, Anny Duperey, Walter McGinn, after Liberation, particularly his friendship Romolo Valli, Stephen Meldegg. Grand with 14-year-old Ma and her family. [R] Prix race-car driver Pacino romances FlorBoat Trip (2003) C-95m. BOMB D: Mort entine aristocrat Keller, who is dying of Nathan. Cuba Gooding, Jr., Horatio Sanz, that unnamed disease that seems disproporRoselyn Sanchez, Vivica A. Fox, Maurice tionately to afflict movie heroines. Her sufferGodin, Roger Moore, Lin Shaye, Victoria ing is nothing compared to the audience’s; Silvstedt, Richard Roundtree, Bob Gunton, even Pacino is deadening. Pollack later recut Thomas Lennon. Appallingly bad comedy this to 99m. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 about two friends who book a cruise in Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004) Corder to meet women—unaware that they’re 126m. ★★ D: Rowdy Herrington. Jim Cavieheading out on a ship full of gay men. zel, Claire Forlani, Jeremy Northam, Mal[ 155 ]

★★1 colm McDowell, Connie Ray, Brett Rice, ⁄2 D: Michael Steinberg. Phoebe Cates, Aidan Quinn. Overlong sports bio about the Bridget Fonda, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, celebrated Southern gentleman golfer who Alicia Witt, Rich Wheeler. Low-key viwas the idol of millions during the 1920s. gnette about four young people trying to Scenario lambastes athletes who dare to exconnect with each other—and with their pect payment for their labors; Jones is deown feelings—in a bleak Arizona town. picted as a deity simply because he chose to Too obviously based on a stage play (by maintain his amateur standing. Northam is Roger Hedden), this laid-back film is often well cast as Walter Hagen, Jones’ links inert, but appealing performances—especially rival. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 by Fonda and Stoltz—give it some spark. Bob Le Flambeur (1955-French) 102m. Amusing cameo by Bridget’s father Peter ★★★ Fonda. Stoltz also coproduced. [R]▼●쩠 D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Roger Duchesne, Isabel Corey, Daniel Cauchy, Guy Body, The (2001) C-100m. ★★ D: Jonas Decomble, Andre Garet, Gerard Buhr, McCord. Antonio Banderas, Olivia WilHoward Vernon. Witty inversion of THE liams, Derek Jacobi, John Wood, John ASPHALT JUNGLE: hard-luck gambler Shrapnel, Jason Flemyng, Muhamed Bakri. Duchesne enlists pals in intricate plan to Vatican priest Banderas and Israeli archeolknock over Deauville casino, but everyogist Williams go head-to-head when they thing is so stacked against them that we discover an ancient skeleton that just might almost hope he’ll call it off. Clever and be the body of Christ. Spiritual thriller isn’t atmospheric, blessed with eerily sexy Corey quite as hokey as it sounds but it isn’t all and a great closing line. Unreleased in the that great either, especially with its cheesy U.S. until 1982. Remade as THE GOOD shoot-out action climax. Shimmering cineTHIEF. [PG]▼●쩠 matography from Vilmos Zsigmond helps. Bobo, The (1967) C-105m. ★★ D: Robert Shot on location in Jerusalem. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Parrish. Peter Sellers, Britt Ekland, Rossano Brazzi, Adolfo Celi, Ferdy Mayne. Misfire Body and Soul (1947) 104m. ★★★★ D: comedy casts Sellers as aspiring singing Robert Rossen. John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, matador who’s promised a booking if he Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere, William Conrad, can seduce Ekland, the most desirable Joseph Pevney, Canada Lee. Most boxing woman in Barcelona, within three days. films pale next to this classic (written by Filmed in Spain and Rome.▼● Abraham Polonsky) of Garfield working his Bob Roberts (1992) C-101m. ★★★ D: Tim way up by devious means, becoming faRobbins. Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, mous champ. Superb photography by James Ray Wise, Rebecca Jenkins, Harry J. Wong Howe, and Oscar-winning editing by Lennix, John Ottavino, Robert Stanton, Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish. Remade Alan Rickman, Gore Vidal, Brian Murray, in 1981 and for TV in 1998.▼●쩠 Anita Gillette, David Strathairn, Jack Black. Body and Soul (1981) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Smart, funny political satire about a rightGeorge Bowers. Leon Isaac Kennedy, Jayne wing, folk-singing Senatorial candidate who Kennedy, Peter Lawford, Michael V. Gazzo, knows how to manipulate an audience—and Perry Lang, Kim Hamilton. Poor remake the media. Turns into a political polemic of the 1947 classic, with welterweight boxer near the end, using speechifying instead of Kennedy shunning corruption and becomincident and dialogue to make its points. ing champion. Leon tries, but is defeated Still, a stimulating ride, and an impressive by his paper-thin screenplay. Muhammad Ali appears briefly as himself. [R]▼쩠 writing-directing debut for Robbins, who also composed the songs with his brother Body Count (1998) C-80m. BOMB D: David. Funny cameos by a variety of faRobert Patton-Spruill. David Caruso, Ving mous actors as air-headed TV news anchors Rhames, Linda Fiorentino, John Leguiand reporters; Bob Balaban and John Cuzamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Forest Whitaker. sack add verisimilitude to a pseudoGood cast in an irredeemably awful film Saturday Night Live sequence. [R]▼●쩠 that (understandably) didn’t make it to theBoccaccio ’70 (1962-Italian) C-165m. ★★★ aters in the U.S. A daring museum heist D: Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, goes bad, leaving the volatile partners to Federico Fellini. Anita Ekberg, Sophia Lodrive to Miami to make their dropoff—if ren, Romy Schneider, Peppino De Filippo, they can avoid killing each other along the Dante Maggio, Tomas Milian. Trio of way. A more despicable bunch of characters would be hard to imagine. [R]▼● episodes: ‘‘The Raffle’’—timid soul wins a liaison with a girl as prize; ‘‘The Job’’ Body Double (1984) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian —aristocrat’s wife takes a job as her husDe Palma. Craig Wasson, Gregg Henry, band’s mistress; ‘‘The Temptation of Dr. Melanie Griffith, Deborah Shelton, Guy Antonio’’—fantasy of puritanical fanatic Boyd, Dennis Franz. Gullible (and brainand a voluptuous poster picture which comes less) actor Wasson becomes obsessed with alive. A fourth episode, directed by Mario beautiful woman he’s been eyeing through telescope and soon finds himself embroiled Monicelli, was dropped for U.S. release.▼쩠 Bodies, Rest & Motion (1993) C-93m. in labyrinthine murder plot. Another sleazy [ 156 ]

fetish film from De Palma, who not only CIA operative DiCaprio, who puts his life rips off Hitchcock (again) but even himself on the line every day in the Middle East. (OBSESSION, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW His cynical, emotionally detached superior OUT). Some clever moments amid the in Langley (Crowe) surveys his every move sleaze, and a good performance by Griffith but keeps valuable information from him as porno actress. [R]▼●쩠 that might affect his actions. Entertaining, Bodyguard (1948) 62m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard but lets down and becomes all too convenFleischer. Lawrence Tierney, Priscilla Lane, tional toward the climax. Strong makes a Philip Reed, June Clayworth, Elisabeth Risvivid impression as DiCaprio’s high-level don, Steve Brodie. Hard-boiled homicide connection in Amman. William Monahan cop Tierney is suspended; he reluctantly adapted David Ignatius’ novel. Super 35. [R]쩠 takes a job as a bodyguard and is promptly framed on a murder rap. Solid little B film, Body Parts (1991) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric strikingly directed. Based on a story coauRed. Jeff Fahey, Lindsay Duncan, Kim thored by 23-year-old Robert Altman! Delaney, Brad Dourif, Zakes Mokae, John Bodyguard, The (1992) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Walsh, Paul Benevictor. Attempt at a Mick Jackson. Kevin Costner, Whitney Houshyperkinetic sci-fi/horror shocker is just ton, Gary Kemp, Bill Cobbs, Ralph Waite, another variation on the same old ‘‘Hands Tomas Arana, Michele Lamar Richards, Mike of Orlac’’ plot: this time, several key body Starr, DeVaughn Nixon, Robert Wuhl, Bert parts of a killer are grafted onto people, with Remsen, Stephen Shellen, Debbie Reynolds. violent results. Escalating plot also escalates viewer’s disbelief. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Cold-as-steel professional bodyguard signs on to protect a music superstar (against his better Body Rock (1984) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Marcelo judgment)—then falls in love with her. OverEpstein. Lorenzo Lamas, Vicki Frederick, blown dual-star vehicle makes no sense, but Cameron Dye, Ray Sharkey, Michelle Nicashas many crowd-pleasing ingredients—as tro. Formula break-dancing movie (shot by the well as moments of high kitsch. Solid film great Robby Muller!) casts beefy Lamas as debut for Houston, who’s most effective singhero/heel who dumps his best friend, his bf’s ing Dolly Parton’s classic tune ‘‘I Will Always quietly voluptuous sis, and other pals when Love You.’’ Lawrence Kasdan’s screenplay he’s hired to emcee a chic uptown club. Watchwas written years earlier—reportedly as a ing L.L. clomp to the beat is like watching Victor Mature boogaloo. [PG-13]▼쩠 Steve McQueen vehicle. Remade in Hong Kong with Jet Li as THE DEFENDER Body Shots (1999) C-105m. BOMB D: (1994). [R]▼●쩠 Michael Cristofer. Sean Patrick Flanery, Body Heat (1981) C-113m. ★★★ D: LawJerry O’Connell, Amanda Peet, Tara Reid, rence Kasdan. William Hurt, Kathleen TurnRon Livingston, Emily Procter, Brad Rowe, er, Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, J.A. Sybil Temchen. Trying to shed light on the Preston, Mickey Rourke. Hurt is a Florida state of sex and dating in the 1990s, film lawyer whose brains work at half speed; follows eight twentysomethings as they exTurner is a married socialite who turns on plore the wild L.A. nightlife. Dark, dreary the heat and inspires him to bump off her and derivative attempt to say something husband. Over-derivative of 1940s melo‘‘important’’ about relationships. If this is dramas at first, then goes off on its own truly where the world is heading, it’s time path and scores. Turner’s first film; Kasto get off! Also available in 108m. unrated dan’s directorial debut. [R]▼●쩠 version. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Body of a Woman SEE: Big Squeeze, The Body Slam (1987) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hal ★★ Body of Evidence (1993) C-99m. D: Needham. Dirk Benedict, Tanya Roberts, Uli Edel. Madonna, Willem Dafoe, Joe Roddy Piper, Capt. Lou Albano, Barry Mantegna, Anne Archer, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Gordon, Charles Nelson Reilly, Billy Barty, Julianne Moore, Frank Langella, Stan John Astin. Barely released comedy, based Shaw, Charles Hallahan, Lillian Lehman. on the successful rock ’n’ roll/wrestling Lawyer Dafoe—the kind of guy you don’t connection of the early 1980s, deserved want handling your case—falls under the better. Benedict is charming as an unscruspell of his client (Madonna), who’s acpulous music promoter who latches onto cused of killing her wealthy lover with too wrestling as his meal ticket; ‘‘Rowdy’’ much rough sex. One-note melodrama with Roddy makes an engaging screen debut. ‘‘hot’’ lovemaking scenes that inspire more Watch for cameos by many grapplers, indiscomfort than titillation. Also released cluding the Wild Samoans, Ric Flair, and in unrated version and an explicit NC-17 Bruno Sammartino. [PG]▼ edition. [R]▼●쩠 Body Snatcher, The (1945) 77m. ★★★1⁄2 Body of Lies (2008) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: RidD: Robert Wise. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, ley Scott. Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Henry Daniell, Edith Atwater, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, Wade, Rita Corday. Fine, atmospheric tale Oscar Isaac, Simon McBurney, Alon Aboutfrom Robert Louis Stevenson short story boul, Ali Suliman, Vince Colosimo. Highof doctor (Daniell) who is forced to deal energy cloak-and-dagger yarn about hotshot with scurrilous character (Karloff) in order [ 157 ]

to get cadavers for experiments in 19thMercier, Andrea Martin, Ute Lemper, Sheryl century Edinburgh. Last film to team KarLee Ralph, Al Waxman, Don Francks, Mo loff and Lugosi, their scenes together are Gaffney. Curious fable about a boy whose sineerie and compelling. Classic Val Lewton gle mom dies in an accident; his closest relathriller. Screenplay by Philip MacDonald and tive, a foster aunt (Goldberg), turns out to be Carlos Keith (Lewton).▼●쩠 an uptight businesswoman with no motherly Body Snatchers (1994) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: instincts whatsoever. So he invents a friend, Abel Ferrara. Gabrielle Anwar, Meg Tilly, Bogus (Depardieu), who cheers him up and Forest Whitaker, Terry Kinney, Billy Wirth, sticks by his side. Odd, melancholy, and Reilly Murphy, Christine Elise, R. Lee vaguely unsatisfying—not to mention long Ermey. Teenage Anwar moves to a military and slow. [PG] ▼●쩠 base with her family and soon discovers that Bogus Bandits SEE: Devil’s Brother, The pods from outer space are duplicating and Bohemian Girl, The (1936) 71m. ★★★ D: replacing everyone there. Third version of James Horne, Charles R. Rogers. Stan Jack Finney’s eerie novel is the least satisLaurel, Oliver Hardy, Thelma Todd, Anfactory; impatience, rather than tension, is tonio Moreno, Darla Hood, Jacqueline Wells aroused, and the horror is diminished be(Julie Bishop), Mae Busch. Nifty comic cause it’s strangers who are being replaced. opera with Stan and Ollie part of gypsy (Setting the story at a military base—where caravan. They adopt abandoned girl who everyone is supposed to act alike—may not turns out to be a princess.▼● have been a good idea, either.) Both earlier Boiler Room (2000) C-117m. ★★★ D: Ben versions titled INVASION OF THE BODY Younger. Giovanni Ribisi, Nia Long, Vin SNATCHERS. Arriscope. [R]▼●쩠 Diesel, Ben Affleck, Ron Rifkin, Tom EverBody Stealers, The SEE: Thin Air ett Scott, Scott Caan, Jamie Kennedy, Boeing Boeing (1965) C-102m. ★★★ D: Nicky Katt, Taylor Nichols. Young man — John Rich. Jerry Lewis, Tony Curtis, Dany like most of his generation, to hear him tell Saval, Christiane Schmidtmer, Suzanna it—wants success without having to work Leigh, Thelma Ritter. A surprisingly subfor it. This puts him at odds with his judgdued Lewis is paired with Curtis in story mental father (who happens to be a judge) of American newspaperman who runs swinguntil he signs on at a maverick brokerage ing pad in Paris, constantly stocked with house where the money flows freely . . . too stewardesses, to the chagrin of housekeeper freely. Naive at times, but entertaining. Ritter. Amusing.▼● Tyro writer-director Younger makes disBoesman & Lena (2000-French-South Afarming reference to WALL STREET and rican) C/B&W-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Berry. GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, which this Danny Glover, Angela Bassett, Willie Jonah. movie echoes in certain ways. [R]▼쩠 A once-happy, now-embittered couple is Boiling Point (1993) C-92m. ★★ D: James forced to survive on the road after the destrucB. Harris. Wesley Snipes, Dennis Hopper, tion of their shanty home. Rich performances Lolita Davidovich, Viggo Mortensen, Dan (especially by Bassett) distinguish this faithful Hedaya, Seymour Cassel, Jonathan Banks, adaptation of Athol Fugard’s play, filmed in Christine Elise, Tony LoBianco, Valerie South Africa, but it’s all dialogue. Final film Perrine, James Tolkan, Paul Gleason. for director Berry, who died during postproSnipes plays a federal agent determined to duction. Super 35.▼쩠 nail the man responsible for killing his Bofors Gun, The (1968) C-106m. ★★★ D: colleague and friend during a sting operaJack Gold. Nicol Williamson, Ian Holm, tion. Misnamed crime yarn is tepid at David Warner, Peter Vaughn, John Thaw, best, but well shot on L.A. locations, and Richard O’Callaghan, Barry Jackson, Donfilled with familiar faces. [R]▼●쩠 ald Gee, Barbara Jefford. British soldier, Bolero (1934) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wesley on the eve of his return home in 1950s, Ruggles. George Raft, Carole Lombard, comes tragically face-to-face with a rebelSally Rand, Gertrude Michael, William lious Irish gunner. Engrossing, well acted. Frawley, Ray Milland. Silly, protracted story Bog (1984) C-87m. BOMB D: Don Keeslar. of cocky dancer’s rise to fame is made fun Gloria De Haven, Aldo Ray, Marshall by good stars and production values; dance Thompson, Leo Gordon, Glen Voros, Rojay sequences are first-rate, although much of Raft North, Ed Clark. Man in monster suit rises and Lombard’s footwork is ‘‘doubled’’ by from bottom of lake and goes on rampage, professionals. Rand, in a rare film appearance, sucking the blood from his victims. Ultraperforms her famous fan dance. Raft and cheap, ultra-bad time-killer. Filmed in WisLombard reteamed for RUMBA. consin in 1978. De Haven displays her Bolero (1981-French) C-173m. ★1⁄2 D: versatility by appearing in a dual role.▼쩠 Claude Lelouch. James Caan, Geraldine Boggy Creek II SEE: Barbaric Beast Chaplin, Robert Hossein, Nicole Garcia, Danof Boggy Creek, The, Part II iel Olbrychski, Evelyne Bouix. Boring tale of Bogus (1996) C-111m. ★★ D: Norman Jewvarious characters of different nationalities ison. Whoopi Goldberg, Ge´rard Depardieu, Haley Joel Osment, Nancy Travis, Denis and their love of music, set during a 50-year [ 158 ]

time span. The actors play more than one (Jolie) to be his eyes and ears in tracking down character, and the result is confusion.▼쩠 a games-playing serial killer. First-rate susBolero (1984) C-104m. BOMB D: John pense thriller/whodunit, based on a novel by Derek. Bo Derek, George Kennedy, Andrea Jeffery Deaver. Not for the squeamish. Super Occipiniti, Ana Obregon, Olivia d’Abo. Co35. [R] ▼●쩠 lossally boring sexual drama, for Bo-peepers Bones (2001) C-96m. ★★ D: Ernest Dickonly . . . though even voyeurs will be yawning erson. Snoop Dogg, Pam Grier, Clifton during long stretches between nude scenes. Powell, Bianca Lawson, Michael T. Weiss, Khalil Kain, Merwin Mondesir. Two young Bo also produced the picture. [R]▼●쩠 Bolt (2008) C-96m. ★★★ D: Chris Williams, suburban brothers (in both senses) buy a Byron Howard. Voices of John Travolta, dilapidated ghetto brownstone in hopes of Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman, Mark Walton, turning it into a trendy nightspot . . . but their Malcolm McDowell, Diedrich Bader, Nick entrepreneur father is panicked about the Swardson, Chloe Moretz, Greg Germann, house’s sinister history and his own particiJames Lipton. The canine star of a hit TV pation in the 1979 slaying of its original series knows no other world than the makeowner (Dogg), who’s now a ghost. If grossbelieve environment in which he plays a ness makes you giggle, this speedy junk has doggie superhero. Then he’s accidentally a few grotesque jolts, plus the sight of stillshipped in a crate to N.Y.C. and gets his shapely Grier to keep your own dad’s heart beating adequately. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 first taste of reality. At first the film threatens to choke on show-biz talk, but it develBonfire of the Vanities, The (1990) Cops a heart as it takes to the road. The 125m. BOMB D: Brian De Palma. Tom character of Rhino, a hamster in a plastic Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Kim ball (voiced by Disney artist Walton), is one Cattrall, Saul Rubinek, Morgan Freeman, John of the all-time great Disney sidekicks. Hancock, Kevin Dunn, Clifton James, Louis [PG]쩠 Giambalvo, Barton Heyman, Donald Moffat, Bomba the Jungle Boy series SEE: LeoAlan King, Mary Alice, Andre Gregory, Richnard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide ard Libertini, Robert Stephens, Kirsten Dunst, Bombay Talkie (1970-Indian) C-105m. Rita Wilson,Malachy McCourt, CamrynMan★★1⁄2 D: James Ivory. Shashi Kapoor, Jenheim, Richard Belzer. Appallingly heavynifer Kendal, Zia Mohyeddin, Aparna Sen, handed ‘‘comedy’’ about a cocky Wall Street Utpal Dutt. A bored, pleasure-seeking Britwheeler-dealer whose well-insulated life beish writer (Kendal) becomes romantically gins to crumble when his wife learns he’s foolinvolved with an Indian movie actor ing around, and he and his paramour are (Kapoor). The subject—the interaction beinvolved in a hit-and-run accident. With all the tween different cultures—has been a staple power—and nuance—of Tom Wolfe’s novel in Ivory’s films, but the presentation here removed, and all the characters turned into cariis less than memorable. Scripted by Ivory catures (racist and otherwise), what’s left is a and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. [PG]▼쩠 pointless charade, and a pitiful waste of money 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Bombers B-52 (1957) C-106m. and talent. F. Murray Abraham appears unGordon Douglas. Natalie Wood, Karl Malbilled as the Bronx D.A. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 den, Marsha Hunt, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Bonjour Tristesse (1958) C/B&W-94m. ★★★ Dean Jagger. Ordinary love story between D: Otto Preminger. Deborah Kerr, David army pilot Zimbalist and Wood, with latNiven, Jean Seberg, Geoffrey Horne, Mylene ter’s sergeant father objecting, intertwined Demongeot. Teenager does her best to break with good aerial footage of jet plane up romance between playboy widowed father maneuvers. CinemaScope.▼쩠 and his mistress, with tragic results. Francoise Bombshell (1933) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Victor Sagan’s philosophy seeps through glossy proFleming. Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank duction; Kerr exceptionally fine in soaper set Morgan, Franchot Tone, Una Merkel, Pat on French Riviera. CinemaScope. ▼쩠 O’Brien, C. Aubrey Smith, Ted Healy, Bonneville (2008) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: ChristoIsabel Jewell. Devastating satire of 1930s pher N. Rowley. Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Hollywood, with Harlow a much-abused Joan Allen, Tom Skerritt, Christine Baranski, star, Tracy an incredibly unscrupulous pubVictor Rasuk, Tom Amandes, Tom Wopat. licity director making her life hell. No Recently widowed Lange finds herself at holds barred. Scripted by John Lee Mahin odds with her resentful stepdaughter over and Jules Furthman, from a play by Caroher husband’s ashes. Feeling lost and conline Francke and Mack Crane. Retitled fused, she winds up taking a road trip in his BLONDE BOMBSHELL.▼● vintage convertible with two close friends. Bone Collector, The (1999) C-117m. ★★★ D: The presence of three skilled actresses elePhillip Noyce. Denzel Washington, Angelina vates this pleasant but minor femaleJolie, Queen Latifah, Michael Rooker, Mike bonding tale. Panavision. [PG]쩠 McGlone, Luis Guzman, Leland Orser, John Bonnie and Clyde (1967) C-111m. ★★★★ Benjamin Hickey, Ed O’Neill. The NYPD’s D: Arthur Penn. Warren Beatty, Faye leading forensics expert, now a bedridden Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackquadriplegic, enlists the help of a reluctant cop man, Estelle Parsons, Denver Pyle, Gene [ 159 ]

Wilder, Dub Taylor. Trend-setting film college football team to victory; good cast about unlikely heroes of 1930s bank-robbing takes back seat to monkey-shines. team has spawned many imitators but still Boogeyman, The (1980) C-86m. ★★★ D: leads the pack. Veering from comedy to Ulli Lommel. Suzanna Love, Ron James, melodrama and social commentary, it reMichael Love, John Carradine, Raymond mains vivid, stylish throughout. When Boyden. Shards of mirror that ‘‘witnessed’’ released, violent conclusion was extremely horrible murder cause gruesome deaths. controversial. Screenplay by David NewGerman art film actor-director Lommel man and Robert Benton. Parsons and cinelends unconventional angle to this combimatographer Burnett Guffey were Oscar nation of THE EXORCIST and HALLOwinners. Wilder’s first film.▼●쩠 WEEN. Effects are quite colorful, if someBonnie Parker Story, The (1958) 81m. what hokey. Followed by BOOGEYMAN ★★1 ⁄2 D: William Witney. Dorothy ProII. [R]▼●쩠 vine, Jack Hogan, Richard Bakalyan, JoBoogeyman II (1983) C-79m. BOMB D: seph Turkel. With the success of BONNIE Bruce Starr. Suzanna Love, Shana Hall, AND CLYDE, this film takes on added Ulli Lommel. Survivor of BOOGEYMAN luster, recounting the lurid criminal life of goes to Hollywood to live with producer the female crook (Provine)—though Clyde who is going to turn her life story into a Barrow isn’t even mentioned in this lowmovie. Moronic slasher film depends mostly budget saga. Superama. on footage from BOOGEYMAN, amply Bonnie Scotland (1935) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: used in flashbacks. Almost laughable.▼쩠 James Horne. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Boogeyman (2005-U.S.-New Zealand) CJune Lang, William Janney, Anne Grey, 89m. ★★ D: Stephen T. Kay. Barry Watson, Vernon Steele, James Finlayson. Plot someEmily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, times gets in the way of L&H, but their Lucy Lawless, Tory Mussett. You already material is well up to par; Stan and Ollie know the story: a young man returns to his inadvertently join a Scottish military regichildhood home, the setting of a traumatic ment stationed in the desert.▼●쩠 experience where as a kid he either saw— Bon Voyage! (1962) C-130m. ★1⁄2 D: James or didn’t see—a creepy guy/thing suck his Neilson. Fred MacMurray, Jane Wyman, loving father into eternal oblivion by way of Michael Callan, Deborah Walley, Tommy the closet in his room. Now, years later, he Kirk, Kevin Corcoran. Slow, drawn-out must confront his fears alone . . . and you Disney comedy about ‘‘typical’’ American can guess the rest. Despite its predictable family’s misadventures on trip to Europe. blueprint there are a couple of pretty decent Aimed more at adults than kids, but too scares to be had here. You might consider draggy and simple-minded for anyone.▼쩠 chapter-skipping on your DVD to get to the Bon Voyage (2003-French) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 good stuff. Followed by two DVD sequels. [PG-13] ▼쩠 D: Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Isabelle Adjani, Ge´rard Depardieu, Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Boogie Man Will Get You, The (1942) Attal, Gre´gori De´range`re, Peter Coyote, 66m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lew Landers. Boris Karloff, Jean-Marc Stehle´. A self-centered film star Peter Lorre, Jeff Donnell, Larry Parks, (Adjani), a government minister (DeparSlapsie Maxie Rosenbloom, Maude Eburne, dieu), and a frail scientist and his deterDon Beddoe, Frank Puglia. Good cast in mined prote´ge´e (Stehle´ and Ledoyen) are a lightweight cash-in on ARSENIC AND few of the disparate people who converge OLD LACE. Karloff is dotty scientist aton Bordeaux on the eve of WW2. Film’s tempting to make supermen out of travelreal lead is the actress’s bourgeois former ing salesmen while Donnell tries to turn lover (De´range`re), who is drawn into the his home into Colonial tourist trap; Lorre story and finds himself playing the hero. is screwy doctor/sheriff/notary/loan shark. No great shakes, but pleasant.쩠 Unusual blend of CASABLANCA-esque intrigue with farce doesn’t quite come off as Boogie Nights (1997) C-152m. ★★★1⁄2 D: well as intended, but it’s fast-paced, fairly Paul Thomas Anderson. Mark Wahlberg, broad fun. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore, John C. Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (and Don’t Reilly, Don Cheadle, Heather Graham, Luis Guzman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, WilCome Back!) (1980) C-75m. ★★★ D: Bill Melendez. Voices of Daniel Anderson, liam H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Philip Baker Casey Carlson, Patricia Patts, Arrin Skelley. Hall, Robert Ridgely, Ricky Jay, Jack Riley, Charlie Brown and company travel to France Joanna Gleason. Extraordinary, intense reas exchange students. Cute animated entercreation of life among a ‘‘family’’ of portainment for Peanuts devotees. [G]▼● nographers in the San Fernando Valley, Bonzo Goes to College (1952) 80m. ★★ from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. D: Frederick de Cordova. Maureen O’SulWahlberg plays a disaffected 17-year-old with livan, Charles Drake, Edmund Gwenn, no brains but a formidable sex organ who Gigi Perreau, Gene Lockhart, Irene Ryan, becomes a porn-movie sensation; Reynolds is David Janssen. Follow-up to BEDTIME perfect as the director/paterfamilias who FOR BONZO has brainy chimp lead makes him a star. Writer-director Anderson [ 160 ]

doesn’t judge his characters, but makes ert Keith, Taylor Holmes, Ed Begley, Karl them—and their actions—seem utterly real. Malden, Cara Williams, Barry Kelley; narTough going at times, but gripping and rated by Reed Hadley. Minister’s murder funny as well. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 brings rapid arrest of an innocent man; prosBook of Love (1990) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Robecuting attorney determines to hunt out real ert Shaye. Chris Young, Keith Coogan, facts. Brilliant drama in all respects. RichAeryk Egan, Josie Bissett, Tricia Leigh ard Murphy’s taut screenplay, from AnFisher, Michael McKean, Danny Nucci, thony Abbott’s article ‘‘The Perfect Case,’’ John Cameron Mitchell. Offensively inis based on a factual incident. Playwright consequential ’50s teen romance about the Arthur Miller appears as one of the lineusual cliche´s: James Dean, dilapidated up suspects.▼쩠 cars, and greasy hair dressings. Standard Boomerang (1992) C-118m. ★★ D: Regianachronisms abound, starting with the nald Hudlin. Eddie Murphy, Halle Berry, use of the title oldie (a 1958 hit) in a film Robin Givens, David Alan Grier, Martin set in 1956. Inauspicious directorial debut Lawrence, Grace Jones, Geoffrey Holder, for New Line Cinema’s founder/CEO. Eartha Kitt, Chris Rock, Tisha Campbell, Fisher (daughter of Connie Stevens and John Witherspoon, Melvin Van Peebles. Eddie Fisher) is the sole standout as a tough Murphy makes a lumpy transition from girl with a soft heart. [PG-13]▼●쩠 comic to leading man, as a lifelong womBook of Numbers (1973) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: anizer who finally meets his counterpart in Raymond St. Jacques. Raymond St. Jacques, his new boss (Givens). The women are fun Phillip Thomas, Freda Payne, Hope Clarke, to watch, but the humor is surprisingly D’Urville Martin, Gilbert Green. Uneven crude at times, and the story is virtually but sometimes enjoyable story of a black nonexistent. A mixed bag at best, ridicunumbers-racket operation in a rural town lously padded out to two hours. [R]▼●쩠 during the Depression. [R]▼쩠 Boom Town (1940) 118m. ★★★ D: Jack Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) Conway. Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, ClauC-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe Berlinger. Stephen dette Colbert, Hedy Lamarr, Frank MorBarker Turner, Tristen Skyler, Erica Leerhgan, Lionel Atwill, Chill Wills. No sursen, Kim Director, Jeffrey Donovan. Some prises in tale of get-rich-quick drilling for student filmmakers visit Burkittsville, Maryoil, but star-studded cast gives it life. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 land, hoping to find out what happened to the documentarians who made THE BLAIR Boondock Saints, The (1999) C-110m. ★★ WITCH PROJECT. A straight melodrama, D: Troy Duffy. Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick not a faux documentary like the first; clever Flanery, Norman Reedus, David Della Rocco, at times, but plodding, gabby and highly Billy Connolly, Ron Jeremy Hyatt, David uninvolving, with all the spooky stuff conFerry. Ultra-violent, low-budget Tarantino fined to the last couple of reels. Fictional wannabe focuses on two Irish-American filmmaking debut of documentarian Berbrothers who decide to rub out what they linger. [R]▼쩠 perceive to be evil forces in Boston. With Book of Stars, The (2000) C-98m. ★★★ D: off-the-wall humor and Dafoe’s loony, gay Michael Miner. Mary Stuart Masterson, FBI agent thrown in for good measure, this Jena Malone, Karl Geary, D. B. Sweeney, ain’t no Tea Party. A hit-or-miss affair. DufDelroy Lindo. Beautifully acted and dify’s trials in making this film were chronirected drama about two parentless sisters, a cled in the documentary OVERNIGHT. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 sweet 15-year-old who is dying of cystic fibrosis and a vulnerable cynic who once Boost, The (1988) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Harold published a book of poetry but now pops Becker. James Woods, Sean Young, John pills and toils as a hooker. This is no Kapelos, Steven Hill, Kelle Kerr, John disease-of-the-week tearjerker, but a multiRothman, Amanda Blake, Grace Zabriskie. leveled exploration of sisterly love and An anti-drug movie that’s on the screen guilt.▼쩠 nearly an hour before you even realize it is Boom (1968-U.S.-British) C-113m. ★★ D: an anti-drug movie. Woods is the hotshot Joseph Losey. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard salesman who goes to hell (and bankBurton, Noel Coward, Joanna Shimkus, ruptcy) via cocaine, with Young the sometime Michael Dunn. Thud: Only film buffs who user who tries to stand by him. As with Jack admire Losey’s very original directorial Nicholson in THE SHINING, it’s difficult to style are likely to appreciate fuzzy adaptadistinguish the ‘‘before’’ Woods from the tion of Tennessee Williams’ The Milk ‘‘after’’ in this misfire. [R]▼●쩠 Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore. Fine Boot Hill (1969-Italian) C-87m. ★★ D: location photography in Sardinia and Giuseppe Colizzi. Terence Hill, Bud SpenRome; good performance by Shimkus can’t cer, Woody Strode, Victor Buono, Lionel Stander, Eduardo Ciannelli. Western ravisave this. Panavision. [M/PG]▼ 1 ★★★ Boomerang! (1947) 88m. oli representing another of the traditional ⁄2 D: Elia Kazan. Dana Andrews, Jane Wyatt, Lee J. teamings of blue-eyed, rock-jawed Hill Cobb, Arthur Kennedy, Sam Levene, Roband his bear of a sidekick Spencer. Un[ 161 ]

even pasta of violence and comedy. Aka well-meaning but clueless Kazakhstani televiTRINITY RIDES AGAIN. Techniscope. sion reporter who travels across the U.S. to [PG]▼쩠 learn about our country in this mockumenBootleggers (1974) C-101m. ★★ D: Charles tary. His bull-in-a-china-shop approach gets B. Pierce. Paul Koslo, Dennis Fimple, him into all kinds of trouble as he encounSlim Pickens, Jaclyn Smith, Chuck Pierce, ters a wide variety of Americans. Baron Jr. Typical yahoo action comedy set in Cohen and company reveal elements of rac1930s Arkansas with Koslo and Fimple ism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia trying to outsmart and outdo rival moonbut envelop them in the context of an audashining family while running their supplies ciously funny, gross-out, one-of-a-kind to Memphis. Retitled BOOTLEGGERS’ comedy. [R]쩠 ANGEL to capitalize on Smith’s later Bordello of Blood (1996) C-87m. ★★ D: TV stardom. Todd-AO 35. [PG]쩠 Gilbert Adler. Dennis Miller, Erika Eleniak, Bootmen (2000-Australian) C-93m. ★★ D: Angie Everhart, Chris Sarandon, Corey Dein Perry. Adam Garcia, Sam WorthingFeldman, William Sadler, Aubrey Morris. ton, Sophie Lee, Christopher Horsey, Lee Private eye Miller tries to locate Eleniak’s McDonald, William Zappa, Richard Carter. brother, who’s wound up at a mortuary Novice director Perry (of the dance group brothel staffed by gorgeous vampires and Tap Dogs) used his own steelworking backrun by Everhart. Fitfully amusing juvenile ground to create this toe-tapping look at a horror comedy with a heavy t &a quotient; young man’s escape into big-time show Miller created much of his wise-guy diabusiness—and then back again—as he rallogue. Whoopi Goldberg has a cameo. Onlies his blue-collar tap-dancing cronies to screen title: TALES FROM THE CRYPT create his own contemporary dance show. PRESENTS BORDELLO OF BLOOD. Sort of a male FLASHDANCE, with just as [R] ▼●쩠 lame a script but impressive footwork. Border, The (1982) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: [R]▼쩠 Tony Richardson. Jack Nicholson, Harvey Boots Malone (1952) 103m. ★★★ D: WilKeitel, Valerie Perrine, Warren Oates, liam Dieterle. William Holden, Johnny Elpidia Carrillo. Border patrolman NicholStewart, Ed Begley, Harry Morgan, Whit son, spurred on by money-hungry spouse Bissell. Holden comes alive in role of Perrine, begins taking payoffs from illegal shady character who reforms when he trains Mexican aliens he’s supposed to be arrestStewart to become a jockey.▼ ing, eventually becomes emotionally inBooty Call (1997) C-77m. ★★ D: Jeff Polvolved with young mother Carrillo. Cast lack. Jamie Foxx, Tommy Davidson, Vivica and storyline beg for Sam Peckinpah in A. Fox, Tamala Jones, Scott LaRose, Kam his prime; mildly interesting, but never Ray Chan, Ric Young, Bernie Mac. Or, really takes off. Nice music by Ry Cooder. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Two Guys in Search of Condoms. Raunchy comedy is definitely PC (politically correct Border Cop SEE: Blood Barrier and pro-condom) as these two hapless souls Border Incident (1949) 92m. ★★★ D: Anjust can’t seem to please their hot-to-trot girlthony Mann. Ricardo Montalban, George friends until they find the perfect latex helper. Murphy, Howard da Silva, Teresa Celli, Just a couple of genuinely funny scenes in this Charles McGraw. Tension-packed story of broad, lowbrow comedy. [R]▼●쩠 U.S. agents cracking down on smuggling of Bopha! (1993) C-120m. ★★★ D: Morgan immigrants across Texas-Mexico border. Freeman. Danny Glover, Malcolm McDowWell directed, and uncompromisingly violent. ell, Alfre Woodard, Marius Weyers, May쩠 nard Eziashi, Malick Bowens, Grace Borderline (1950) 88m. ★★ D: William A. Mahlaba. Tense, involving drama with Seiter. Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor, Glover and Woodard (who played Nelson Raymond Burr, Jose Torvay, Morris Ankand Winnie Mandela in the TV movie rum, Roy Roberts. Odd thriller-comedy in MANDELA) starring as a married couple which L.A. cop Trevor attempts to gather residing in a peaceful South African townevidence against wily drug smuggler Burr ship. He’s a police officer who upholds the while mixing with tough guy MacMurray in status quo; their world is sure to crumble Mexico. Starts out promisingly, but soon when their son (Eziashi) takes part in a rebelbogs down in silliness. Burr makes a vivid lion against the discipline and curriculum of villain.▼●쩠 the local white-run school. Freeman’s direcBorderline (1980) C-105m. ★★ D: Jerrold torial debut; Arsenio Hall executive proFreedman. Charles Bronson, Bruno Kirby, duced. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Bert Remsen, Michael Lerner, Kenneth Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for McMillan, Ed Harris, Wilford Brimley. Make Benefit Glorious Nation of KazakhsBronson, minus Jill Ireland this time, tan (2006) C-82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Larry Charles. is a Border Patrol officer searching for Sacha Baron Cohen, Ken Davitian, Pamela a killer. Undistinguished formula vehicle Anderson. Writer-producer-performer Baron for Old Stone Face. [PG]▼ Cohen adopts the alter ego of Borat Sagdiyev, Border Shootout (1990) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: [ 162 ]

C. J. McIntyre. Cody Glenn, Jeff Kaake, St. Jacques, George Brent. If one is inGlenn Ford, Lizabeth Rohovit, Michael spired by the religious rebirth of Pres. Horse, Russell Todd, Michael Ansara, MiNixon’s Special Counsel (Charles Colson) chael Forrest. Naive rancher is made depafter his Washington skullduggery, one uty in Arizona border town that’s fed up might be absorbed by this one-dimensional film account. Others beware! [PG]▼ with aging sheriff Ford, but the townspeople’s lynching of alleged rustlers brings Born American (1986-U.S.-Finnish) about immediate conflict. Good Western C-95m. ★★ D: Renny Harlin. Mike Norris, plot (from Elmore Leonard novel) ruined Steve Durham, David Coburn, Thalmus by amateurish production. Ford seems to be Rasulala, Albert Salmi. The Cold War walking through his role.▼ lives on as three young Americans vacaBordertown (1935) 90m. ★★★ D: Archie tioning in Finland accidentally cross the Mayo. Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Eugene Palborder into Russia, where they fight it out lette, Margaret Lindsay. Fine drama of unwith the local troops. OK action scenes usual triangle in bordertown cafe, with Davis and personable young cast sugarcoat the heavy-handed political overtones. [R]▼쩠 as flirtatious wife of Pallette with designs on lawyer Muni; her overwrought scene on Born Free (1966-British) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 the witness stand is not easily forgotten. D: James Hill. Virginia McKenna, Bill Used as basis for later THEY DRIVE BY Travers, Geoffrey Keen, Peter Lukoye. NIGHT, but more serious in tone. Also Exceptional adaptation of Joy Adamson’s shown in computer-colored version. book about Elsa the lioness, who was raised Bordertown (2006) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Gregas a pet by two Kenya game wardens ory Nava. Jennifer Lopez, Martin Sheen, (played by real-life couple McKenna and Maya Zapata, Juan Diego Botto, Sonia Travers). Sincere, engrossing film, a must Braga, Antonio Banderas. In contemporary for family viewing. Oscars for Best Original Ciudad Jua´rez, ambitious Chicago reporter Score (John Barry) and Title Song (Barry Lopez tries to find out why thousands of feand Don Black). Screenplay by Gerald L.C. male factory workers have disappeared over Copley (Lester Cole). Followed by a sequel time. Befriending a survivor who crawled out (LIVING FREE) and a brief TV series. Reof the grave places her in the gun sights of made for TV in 1996. Story is continued in smarmy rich villains who casually rape and TO WALK WITH LIONS (1999). Panavision. ▼●쩠 coldly murder. Director’s script wants to be a bleak bilingual thriller, but is only brutal Born in East L.A. (1987) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: exploitation. Shot in Old and New Mexico. Cheech Marin. Cheech Marin, Daniel Stern, Released direct to DVD in the U.S. [R]쩠 Paul Rodriguez, Jan-Michael Vincent, KamBoris and Natasha: The Movie (1992) Cala Lopez, Alma Martinez, Tony Plana. 88m. ★★ D: Charles Martin Smith. Sally Third-generation American Hispanic gets Kellerman, David Thomas, Paxton Whitecaught in an immigration raid minus I.D. head, Andrea Martin, Alex Rocco, Larry and is deported to Tijuana; it takes a tireCedar, Arye Gross, Christopher Neame, some hour and a half of screen time to get Anthony Newley. Silly live-action version back. Nothing offensive but also nothing of the fondly remembered ‘‘Rocky and Bulspecial; Rodriguez’s dim-witted comedy relwinkle’’ cartoon series with our dastardly lief is a particular drag. Based on Marin’s (but dated) Russian spies up to no good as popular Bruce Springsteen parody record. usual. Spirited, but not enough. John Candy, Alternate version runs 93m. [R]▼●쩠 John Travolta, and director Smith pop up in Born Into Brothels (2004-Indian-U.S.) Ccameos. Made as a theatrical feature in 1988 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zana Briski, Ross Kauff(when the Cold War was still topical). It man. Photographer Briski, wanting to docudebuted on cable TV instead. [PG]▼●쩠 ment Calcutta’s red light district, gets the cold B.O.R.N. (1989) C-92m. ★★ D: Ross Hashoulder until she makes friends with the chilgen. Ross Hagen, Hoke Howell, P. J. dren of the prostitutes. Then inspiration strikes: Soles, William Smith, Russ Tamblyn, she teaches these often-abused kids to take picAmanda Blake, Rance Howard, Clint Howtures. Oscar-winning documentary built on the ard, Claire Hagen, Dawn Wildsmith. Somefoundation of a great idea; the results are unexone is kidnapping young people from the pected and genuinely inspiring. [R]▼쩠 streets of L.A. to cut up as involuntary Born Losers, The (1967) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: organ donors, but they didn’t reckon with T. C. Frank (Tom Laughlin). Tom Laughero Hagen and his ex-cop pal Howell. hlin, Elizabeth James, Jeremy Slate, WilWild-eyed, bizarre action thriller has too liam Wellman, Jr., Robert Tessier. What many characters and too much gunfire but seemed at the time just another biker film has its moments too. Title refers to ‘‘Body gained new interest in the ’70s as the introOrgan Replacement Network.’’ Aka MERduction of Billy Jack; he helps free young CHANTS OF DEATH. [R]▼쩠 dropout James from the clutches of Slate’s 1 ★ Born Again (1978) C-110m. ⁄2 D: Irgang. Good action scenes, but Laughlin’s ving Rapper. Dean Jones, Anne Francis, use of violence as an indictment of violence Jay Robinson, Dana Andrews, Raymond is already present. Jane Russell makes a [ 163 ]

guest appearance as a mother. Followed by BILLY JACK. [PG]▼쩠 Born on the Fourth of July (1989) C-144m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Oliver Stone. Tom Cruise, Willem Dafoe, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Kyra Sedgwick, Bryan Larkin, Jerry Levine, Josh Evans, Frank Whaley, Stephen Baldwin, John Getz, Lili Taylor, Tom Berenger, Abbie Hoffman, Jason Gedrick, Ed Lauter, Michael Wincott, Tom Sizemore, Mike Starr, James Le Gros, John C. McGinley, Wayne Knight, Bob Gunton, Vivica A. Fox. Relentlessly realistic and powerful saga of real-life Vietnam vet Ron Kovic, who joined the Marines as a gung-ho recruit in the 1960s and came home paralyzed from the chest down—only to endure an even greater ordeal of physical and mental rehabilitation before emerging as an antiwar activist. Stone cowrote the screenplay with Kovic, and spares us nothing in recreating some of America’s most painful years. Stone’s finest film to date. Cruise delivers a top-notch performance; enhanced by a great John Williams score. Kovic can be seen in opening parade scene; Stone plays a TV reporter. Oscar winner for Best Director and Film Editing. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Born Reckless (1959) 79m. ★1⁄2 D: Howard W. Koch. Mamie Van Doren, Jeff Richards, Arthur Hunnicutt, Carol Ohmart, Tom Duggan, Jeanne Carmen. Rodeo star Richards divides his time between busting broncos and busting heads of lecherous old cowpokes trying to paw Mamie. Not bad enough to be really funny, but it has its moments; Mamie sings five of film’s eight songs, including unforgettable ‘‘I’m Just a Nice, Sweet, Home-Type of Girl.’’ Born Romantic (2001-U.S.-British) C96m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Kane. Craig Ferguson, Olivia Williams, David Morrissey, Jane Horrocks, Jimi Mistry, Catherine McCormack, Adrian Lester, Ian Hart. Three lovelorn Londoner couples meet up at a local salsa dance club, but they’re all left feet when it comes to matters of the heart. Enter Cupid-playing cabbie Lester. Slight, predictable romantic comedy works because of its terrific cast. It’s especially fun to see the usually brazen McCormack and meek Horrocks playing against type. [R]▼쩠 Born to Be Bad (1950) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nicholas Ray. Joan Fontaine, Robert Ryan, Zachary Scott, Joan Leslie, Mel Ferrer, Harold Vermilyea. ‘‘Little fake’’ Fontaine, despite attraction to writer Ryan, schemes to win wealthy Scott away from fiance´e Leslie. And that’s just for openers. Good cast in somewhat overwrought, predictable drama.

formula: a teenage boy forms a bond with an ape on the lam in Seattle, helping her in quest for freedom. Kids might go for it, even if they figure out that the lead ‘‘actor’’ is just an animatronic thespian passing for the real thing. [PG]▼●쩠 Born to Dance (1936) 105m. ★★★ D: Roy Del Ruth. Eleanor Powell, James Stewart, Virginia Bruce, Una Merkel, Sid Silvers, Frances Langford, Raymond Walburn, Buddy Ebsen, Reginald Gardiner. Powell bears out title in good Cole Porter musical with sensational footwork and fine songs: ‘‘Easy To Love,’’ ‘‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin.’’▼●쩠 Born to Kill (1947) 92m. ★★★ D: Robert Wise. Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak, Audrey Long, Elisha Cook, Jr., Phillip Terry. Murderer Tierney marries insecure Long, but can’t stay away from her divorced sister Trevor. Supertough film noir is uncharacteristically meanspirited for director Wise, but is well put together nonetheless. A cult item.▼쩠 Born to Kill (1974) SEE: Cockfighter Born to Rock: The T.A.M.I. Show SEE: That Was Rock Born to Win (1971) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ivan Passer. George Segal, Karen Black, Paula Prentiss, Jay Fletcher, Hector Elizondo, Robert De Niro. Unjustly neglected, but not altogether successful comedy-drama about ex-hairdresser in N.Y.C. and his $100-aday heroin habit. Very well acted, particularly by Segal. Aka ADDICT. [R]▼쩠 Born Wild (1994) C-98m. ★★ D: Duncan McLachlan. Brooke Shields, John Varty, Martin Sheen, David Keith, Elmon Mhlongo, Norman Ansty, Thembe Ndaba, Renee Estevez. The story of real-life conservationist Varty, who plays himself, and his multiyear relationship with a family of leopards. When documentarian Shields wants to make a film of his experiences, her efforts are predictably sabotaged by jealous colleagues and corrupt game wardens. Set in South Africa, Kenya, and Zambia; extraordinary footage of animals in the wild is trivialized by the Hollywoodization of the movie within the movie. [PG]▼● Born Yesterday (1950) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Cukor. Judy Holliday, William Holden, Broderick Crawford, Howard St. John. Junk-dealer-made-good Crawford wants girlfriend (Holliday) culturefied, hires Holden to teach her in hilarious Garson Kanin comedy set in Washington, D.C. Priceless Judy repeated Broadway triumph and won Oscar for playing quintessential dumb blonde. Remade in 1993. ▼●쩠 Born Yesterday (1993) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: ▼● Born to Be Wild (1995) C-100m. ★★ D: Luis Mandoki. Melanie Griffith, John John Gray. Will Horneff, Helen Shaver, Goodman, Don Johnson, Edward Herrmann, Peter Boyle, Jean Marie Barnwell, John C. Max Perlich, Michael Ensign, Benjamin McGinley, Marvin J. McIntyre. OK family C. Bradlee, Sally Quinn, William Frankfilm grafts a gorilla onto the FREE WILLY father, Fred Dalton Thompson, Celeste [ 164 ]

Yarnall, Nora Dunn. Amiable remake of he is the brother of Jim Sheridan, who coexecutive produced.▼쩠 Garson Kanin comedy, set in Washington, Boss SEE: Boss Nigger D.C., about boorish tycoon who hires bookBoss, The (1956) 89m. ★★★ D: Byron ish reporter to give his mistress some educaHaskin. John Payne, William Bishop, Glotion and couth. The three leads are well cast, ria McGhee, Doe Avedon, Joe Flynn. Saga but the movie sags after a while, losing its of urban politico has WW1 veteran Payne comic punch. [PG]▼●쩠 building a corrupt municipal fief. Perhaps Borrower, The (1991) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Payne’s best performance; scripted by a John McNaughton. Rae Dawn Chong, blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. Don Gordon, Tom Towles, Antonio Bossa Nova (1999-Brazilian-U.S.) C-95m. Fargas, Neil Giuntoli, Larry Pennell, ★★ D: Bruno Barreto. Amy Irving, Antonio Tony Amendola, Pam Gordon, Ma¨dchen Fagundes, Alexandre Borges, De´bora Bloch, Amick, Stuart Cornfeld. An alien crimiDrica Moraes, Giovanna Antonelli, Alberto nal is ‘‘devolved’’ to human shape and de Mendoza, Stephen Tobolowsky. Airy roexiled on Earth; when his head explodes, mantic comedy-of-errors involving Brazilhe starts ripping the heads off human ian-based widow and English tutor (Irving), beings (and others) and donning them the successful older businessman who falls until they go bad, too. Understandably in love with her (Fagundes), and a variety confused cops Chong and Gordon are on of friends and family members whose love his trail. Gleefully outrageous horror lives crisscross around them. Pleasant premise supported by strong, stylish dienough, with attractive scenery, but resorection and a well-written script. [R]▼● lutely ordinary. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Borrowers, The (1997-British) C-83m. Boss Nigger (1975) C-92m. ★★ D: Jack ★★1 ⁄2 D: Peter Hewitt. John Goodman, Jim Arnold. Fred Williamson, D’Urville MarBroadbent, Mark Williams, Hugh Laurie, tin, R. G. Armstrong, William Smith, Bradley Pierce, Flora Newbigin, Tom FelBarbara Leigh, Carmen Hayworth. Cliche´d ton, Celia Imrie, Ruby Wax. Just OK renblaxploitation Western with Williamson as dering of Mary Norton’s children’s novels a bounty hunter who predictably outhustles about a household of tiny human pilferers every white man in sight. In spite of its who reduce baddie Goodman to rubble after title, not as offensive as others of the genre he cheats a nice family out of their inherited (mainly because there’s no graphic viohouse. Actors acting against oversized sets lence). Williamson scripted; also known remains an irresistible concept, but the as BOSS and THE BLACK BOUNTY movie won’t make anyone forget THE INKILLER. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼ CREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN or the Boss Of It All, The (2006-Danish-Swedishwonderful fantasy scenes in Nicolas Roeg’s Italian-French) C-99m. ★★★ D: Lars von THE WITCHES. A bit too much HOME Trier. Jens Albinus, Peter Gantzler, Fridrik ALONE–style slapstick violence, but the Thor Fridriksson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Iben short running time helps. Filmed before as a Hjejle, Henrik Prip, Mia Lyhne, Casper TVM in 1973 and as a British miniseries in Christensen, Louise Mieritz, Jean-Marc 1993. [PG]▼●쩠 Barr, Lars von Trier. Out-of-work actor (Al★★★ D: Borsalino (1970-French) C-125m. binus) signs on to impersonate a company Jacques Deray. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain CEO and becomes involved in a contentious Delon, Michel Bouquet, Catherine Rouvel, negotiation. Insightful satire of corporate Francoise Christophe. PUBLIC ENEMY, chicanery, employer-employee relations, and French-style; delightful seriocomic film the psychology/egomania of actors. One of of two likable hoods who become gangvon Trier’s more accessible films, but some land chieftains in 1930s Marseilles. Stars may find his excessive use of jump cuts disin top form; Claude Bolling’s infectious concerting. Filmed in Automavision, which music helps. Sequel: BORSALINO & allows a computer to determine camera CO. [PG]▼ angles and movement.쩠 Borstal Boy (2000-Irish-British) C-91m. Boss’s Son, The (1978) C-97m. ★★★ D: ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Sheridan. Shawn Hatosy, Bobby Roth. Asher Brauner, Rudy Solari, Danny Dyer, Lee Ingleby, Robin Laing, Eva Rita Moreno, Henry G. Sanders, James Birthistle, Michael York. Nostalgia-soaked, Darren, Richie Havens, Piper Laurie, Elena revisionist coming-of-age portrait of an artVerdugo. Good little independent feature ist as a young man. Loosely based on the by writer-director Roth about a young man memoir of the same name by Brendan reluctantly going into his father’s carpet facBehan, the fabled Irish writer-drunkard, the tory business. Credible, engaging.▼ scenario depicts Behan (American actor HaBoss’ Wife, The (1986) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: tosy) as an idealistic 16-year-old I.R.A. Ziggy Steinberg. Daniel Stern, Arielle member who lands in a British borstal (reDombasle, Fisher Stevens, Melanie Mayron, form school). York has his best role in years Lou Jacobi, Martin Mull, Christopher Plumas the borstal’s warden. Debut feature for mer, Thalmus Rasulala, Robert Costanzo. theater director Sheridan, who coscripted; Interesting cast falters in this tepid will[ 165 ]

he-or-won’t-he comedy about an ambitious Bottom of the Bottle, The (1956) C-88m. ★★1 young stockbroker (Stern) and the title lady ⁄2 D: Henry Hathaway. Van Johnson, (Dombasle), who’s out to seduce him. [R]▼ Joseph Cotten, Ruth Roman, Jack Carson, Boston Blackie series SEE: Leonard MalMargaret Hayes, Bruce Bennett, Brad Dextin’s Classic Movie Guide ter, Jim Davis, Margaret Lindsay, Henry Bostonians, The (1984) C-120m. ★★ D: (Harry) Morgan. Hot-and-heavy soaper deJames Ivory. Christopher Reeve, Vanessa tailing fireworks after alcoholic fugitive JohnRedgrave, Madeleine Potter, Jessica Tandy, son appears on the doorstep of his respectable Nancy Marchand, Wesley Addy, Linda Hunt, lawyer-rancher brother (Cotten). Based on a Wallace Shawn. Redgrave is perfectly cast as novel by Georges Simenon. CinemaScope. Henry James’ 19th-century feminist heroine Boudu Saved From Drowning (1932French) 87m. ★★★ D: Jean Renoir. Michel in this careful adaptation of his novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala . . . but the film itSimon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hania, self, for all its period detail, is deadly slow Severine Lerczynska. Title tramp is resand uninvolving. Reeve is in over his head as cued from the Seine and taken home by Redgrave’s contrary cousin. ▼●쩠 well-meaning book dealer; he eventually Boston Strangler, The (1968) C-116m. takes over household, then seduces both ★★★ D: Richard Fleischer. Tony Curtis, the wife and maid. Classic attack on comHenry Fonda, George Kennedy, Mike placency still holds up, with ratty-bearded Kellin, Hurd Hatfield, Murray Hamilton, Simon giving the performance of a lifeJeff Corey, Sally Kellerman, William Martime. U.S. remake: DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS.▼●쩠 shall, George Voskovec, William Hickey, James Brolin. Absorbing drama, semiBoulevard Nights (1979) C-102m. ★★ D: documentary-style, detailing rise, manhunt, Michael Pressman. Richard Yniguez, Marta capture, prosecution of notorious criminal. Du Bois, Danny De La Paz, Betty Carvalho, Curtis gives startling performance as killer. Carmen Zapata, James Victor, Victor Impact of complex multi-image technique Millan. Sincere but uninspiring story of may be lost on TV screen. Panavision. Chicano youth who yearns to move away [R]▼쩠 from street-gang life, but drawn back be1 ★★ Botany Bay (1953) C-94m. cause of hot-blooded young brother. Filmed ⁄2 D: John Farrow. Alan Ladd, James Mason, Patriin the barrios of L.A. [R]▼ cia Medina, Cedric Hardwicke. Based on Bounce (2000) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Charles Nordhoff novel set in 1790s, picRoos. Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, Joe turesque yarn tells of convict ship bound Morton, Natasha Henstridge, Tony Goldfor Australia, focusing on conflict between wyn, Johnny Galecki, Alex D. Linz, Jenniprisoner Ladd and sadistic skipper Mason, fer Grey, Caroline Aaron, Sam Robards. with Medina as Ladd’s love interest.▼ Hotshot ad exec gives his coveted airline Bottle Rocket (1996) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wes ticket to a chance airport acquaintance Anderson. Owen C. Wilson, Luke Wilson, who’s eager to get home to his family . . . Robert Musgrave, Andrew Wilson, Lumi then the plane crashes. A year later, the Cavazos, James Caan, Teddy Wilson, Jim guilt-ridden adman looks up the man’s Ponds. Original, low-key comedy about two widow, and quickly finds himself attracted young friends—and chronic screw-ups— to her. So-so soap opera has appealing stars who attempt to embark on a life of crime. but suffers from a heavy air of contrivance, Engaging performances by Owen C. Wilson which is especially surprising from writer(who cowrote the film), as Dignan, and his director Roos. David Paymer appears unreal-life brother Luke, as Anthony, stand billed. [PG-13]▼쩠 out. (A third brother, Andrew, plays their Bound (1996) C-109m. ★★★ D: The Wafriend’s bullying older sibling.) Expanded chowski Brothers (Larry, Andy). Jennifer from a 13m. short subject. [R]▼●쩠 Tilly, Gina Gershon, Joe Pantoliano, John Bottle Shock (2008) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: RanRyan, Christopher Meloni, Richard C. Saradall Miller. Bill Pullman, Alan Rickman, fian. Sexy, stylishly violent noir with a SapChris Pine, Freddy Rodriguez, Rachael Tayphic twist, about a handywoman (Gershon) lor, Dennis Farina, Miguel Sandoval, Eliza and a gangster’s moll (Tilly) who conspire Dushku, Bradley Whitford. In 1976, Paris to run off together with a suitcase conwine-shop owner Rickman travels to Napa taining two million bucks. The women have Valley, California, to see if there is anything chemistry to burn, but Pantoliano steals the worth importing for a blind taste test he movie as the mobster caught in the middle. is planning. Meanwhile, struggling vineyard Impressive directorial debut from the screenowner Pullman and his footloose son (Pine) writing-brother duo. Lesbian-erotica author may be on the verge of making their first Susie Bright appears in the film, and served as technical adviser. [R]▼●쩠 really good wine. Great real-life story should have yielded a better film; there are Bound and Gagged: A Love Story (1993) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Daniel Appleby. Ginger good vignettes, and Rickman is a treat to watch, but subplot involving Pine’s love life Lynn Allen, Karen Black, Chris Denton, is a distraction. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Elizabeth Saltarrelli, Mary Ella Ross, Chris [ 166 ]

Mulkey. Yet another road movie; this one happy ending. Interesting on all three counts. Techniscope. ▼ explores the sexual trials and tribulations of two bisexual women and a rather confused Bourne Identity, The (2002) C-121m. ★★★1 straight guy who’s despondent over the ⁄2 D: Doug Liman. Matt Damon, breakup of his marriage. Quirky, rather than Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, interesting. Was supposed to usher ex–porn Clive Owen, Julia Stiles. Crackling spy queen Allen into a mainstream movie cathriller, from the Robert Ludlum novel, reer. Better luck next time. [R]▼●쩠 about a CIA operative who’s fished out of Bound by Honor (1993) C-180m. ★★ D: the ocean and has no memory of his identity Taylor Hackford. Damian Chapa, Jesse or his mission. Soon, circumstances force Borrego, Benjamin Bratt, Enrique Castillo, him to take it on the lam, alongside a Victor Rivers, Delroy Lindo, Tom Towles, woman he chances to meet who happens to Carlos Carrasco, Teddy Wilson, Raymond have a car. Kudos to Liman for keeping the Cruz, Lanny Flaherty, Billy Bob Thornaction taut, the characters believable, and ton, Natalija Nogulich, Ving Rhames. Amthe excitement at a high pitch throughout. bitious look at Chicano gang life concerns Filmed before as a TV miniseries in 1988. two half-brothers and a half-white cousin Alternate edition runs 119m. Followed by who evolve into a drug-addicted artist, a THE BOURNE SUPREMACY. Super 35. narcotics detective, and a repeat-offender [PG-13]▼쩠 prisoner. Despite lots of screen time (and a Bourne Supremacy, The (2004) C-108m. ★★1 passable beginning), this violent film gives ⁄2 D: Paul Greengrass. Matt Damon, top-heavy emphasis to the cellblock portion Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Joan Allen, of the saga. Script was predominantly writJulia Stiles, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann, ten, with shared credit, by acclaimed poet Marton Csokas, Tom Gallop, John Bedford Jimmy Santiago Baca. Video title: BLOOD Lloyd, Michelle Monaghan, Karel Roden. IN BLOOD OUT. [R]▼●쩠 When an assassin tracks down Jason Bound for Glory (1976) C-147m. ★★★1⁄2 Bourne and his girlfriend, who are living in D: Hal Ashby. David Carradine, Ronny exile in India, the CIA-trained killer is Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John forced back into action to find out why he’s Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Randy Quaid, being hunted. Filled with nail-biting car M. Emmet Walsh. Life of folk singerchases and fight scenes, edited in a rat-tatcomposer Woody Guthrie, superbly played tat manner, but lacks the humor and sexual by Carradine, with great feeling for 1936–40 spark that made THE BOURNE IDENperiod as Guthrie travels the country fightTITY so good. Brutal and cold-blooded, ing and singing for the underdogs, victims like its leading character; we’re rooting for of the Great Depression. Haskell Wexler’s Bourne not because he’s a hero but simply Oscar-winning photography is tops throughby default. Chris Cooper appears unbilled, out, as is Leonard Rosenman’s score adapbriefly reprising his role from the earlier tation (also an Oscar winner). Beware of film. Followed by THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 shorter prints. [PG]▼●쩠 Bounty, The (1984) C-130m. ★★★ D: Roger Bourne Ultimatum, The (2007) C-115m. ★★★ D: Paul Greengrass. Matt Damon, Julia Donaldson. Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel DayStiles, David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Scott Lewis, Bernard Hill, Liam Neeson. HandGlenn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez, some, well made retelling of history’s most Albert Finney, Joey Ansah, Daniel Bru¨hl. famous mutiny (not based on the NordhoffThird chapter in Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Hall book) paints Bligh as repressed and series has the CIA-trained operative traversstubborn, not mad, and Christian as a ing the world as he continues to search for dilettante with no real substance. Interesthis identity and decide how to settle old ing all the way, but emotionally aloof. scores. All you could ask from an action Great use of widescreen. J-D-C Scope. film, with well-chosen international locales, [PG]▼●쩠 an intelligently wrought cat-and-mouse narBounty Hunter, The (1954) C-79m. ★★1⁄2 rative, and one breathless action set piece D: Andre de Toth. Randolph Scott, Doloafter another. Damon, again, is right on tarres Dorn, Marie Windsor, Howard Petrie. get as Bourne, but his character’s virtual Scott is on his horse again, this time trackindestructibility drains some of the humaning down three murderers. Originally filmed ity from the proceedings. Oscar winner for in 3-D. Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Film EdBounty Killer, The (1965) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 iting (Christopher Rouse). Super 35. [PGD: Spencer G. Bennet. Dan Duryea, Rod 13]쩠 Cameron, Audrey Dalton, Richard Arlen, Bowery, The (1933) 90m. ★★★ D: Raoul Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy Knight, Johnny Mack Walsh. Wallace Beery, George Raft, Jackie Brown, Bob Steele, Bronco Billy Anderson. Cooper, Fay Wray, Pert Kelton, Herman Chief interest is cast of old-timers from HolBing. Raft is Steve Brodie, Beery a notolywood Westerns. Unlike their previous verious saloon owner, Cooper his young nemhicles, this is adult, low key, and minus esis in rowdy story of N.Y.C.’s Bowery [ 167 ]

during the Gay ’90s. Kelton is marvelous as Beery’s saloon soubrette. Bowery at Midnight (1942) 63m. ★★ D: Wallace Fox. Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay, Tom Neal, Dave O’Brien. Lugosi is kindly psychiatrist who leads double life as criminal mastermind in the Bowery. An inexplicable subplot involves reviving the dead. Mild but atmospheric.

LEFT FOOT and IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, but is still compelling human drama, anchored by Day-Lewis and the luminous Watson. Stunningly filmed by Chris Menges in Dublin. [R]▼●쩠 Boxing Helena (1993) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Jennifer Chambers Lynch. Julian Sands, Sherilyn Fenn, Bill Paxton, Art Garfunkel, Kurtwood Smith, Betsy Clark, Nicolette Scorsese. Dreadful debut feature from the ▼쩠 The Bowery Boys series SEE: Leonard 24-year-old daughter of David Lynch, about Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide an esteemed surgeon (Sands) whose obsesBowfinger (1999) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Oz. sion with sexpot Fenn leads to a bizarre set Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Heather Graof circumstances. Tries to be provocative ham, Christine Baranski, Jamie Kennedy, and shocking, but the result is unintentional Robert Downey, Jr., Terence Stamp, Adam laughter (when it’s not boring). Originally Alexi-Malle, Barry Newman. Desperate, NC-17, rerated after appeal. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 down-and-out filmmaker Bobby Bowfinger (Martin) schemes to make a movie with the Box of MoonLight (1997) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 top action star in Hollywood (Murphy)— D: Tom DiCillo. John Turturro, Sam Rockwithout bothering to tell him that he’s in the well, Catherine Keener, Lisa Blount, Annie picture! Likable costars carry this comedy Corley, Dermot Mulroney. A very slight a long way; there are some good laughs slice of whimsy about an uptight engineer, throughout, but it’s never as satisfying as supervising a construction project out of you’d like it to be. Murphy has fun playing town, who quite by chance falls in with a a doofus look-alike for the action hero. free spirit who lives in the woods . . . and Written by Martin. [PG-13]▼●쩠 finds that he feels liberated as he spends Bowling for Columbine (2002) C-123m. time away from the precision of his normal ★★★ D: Michael Moore. Onetime sharpshootlife. Turturro is excellent, as always, and so ing champion and lifelong NRA member is Rockwell as Kid, but the story has few Moore uses his confrontational, highly persurprises, and its charms are stretched pretty thin. DiCillo also scripted. [R] ▼●쩠 sonal filmmaking style to examine America’s love affair with guns. Depending on your Boy A (2007-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: point of view, you will find this wide-ranging John Crowley. Andrew Garfield, Peter Mulfilm to be illuminating or infuriating. Our falan, Katie Lyons, Shaun Evans, Jeremy vorite segment is a condemnation of fearSwift, Alfie Owen, Taylor Doherty, Anmongering on TV newscasts . . . but a climacthony Lewis. In northern England, a taciturn tic interview with NRA president Charlton young man (Garfield) has been released Heston isn’t the showdown it should have from penitentiary and is starting life anew, been. Oscar winner for Best Documentary. guided by a dedicated, fatherly social worker [R] ▼쩠 (Mullan). While he attempts to build new Boxcar Bertha (1972) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: personal and professional relationships we Martin Scorsese. Barbara Hershey, David learn—via small flashback bits—how the Carradine, Barry Primus, Bernie Casey, former schoolboy got into trouble. IntenJohn Carradine. Scorsese’s first studio film tionally bleak and a bit contrived, grim film is yet another BONNIE AND CLYDE is still quite involving and well acted. Based cash-in, with small-town girl Hershey fallon a novel by Jonathan Trigell. Debuted on British TV prior to theatrical release. [R]쩠 ing in with Carradine and his band of train robbers. Good of its kind, but buffs lookBoy and His Dog, A (1975) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 ing for embryonic Scorsese stylistics may D: L. Q. Jones. Don Johnson, Susanne be a little let down . . . although there are Benton, Jason Robards, Alvy Moore, Hetwo minor characters named Michael Powlene Winston, Charles McGraw, Tiger, ell and Emeric Pressburger! [R]▼●쩠 voice of Tim McIntire. Cult black comedy Boxer, The (1971) SEE: Ripped Off is definitely not a kiddie movie, despite its title. In the post-holocaust future, young Boxer, The (1997-U.S.-Irish) C-113m. ★★★ D: Jim Sheridan. Daniel Day-Lewis, Emily punk Johnson, aided by his telepathic (and Watson, Brian Cox, Ken Stott, Gerard McSormuch smarter) dog, forages for food and ley, Eleanor Methven, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Kenwomen, then is lured into bizarre underground neth Cranham. Powerful, straightforward civilization. Faithful adaptation of Harlan Elstory of a boxer and former IRA member lison’s novella. Revised in 1982 to include a released from prison after 14 years, trying to 1m. prologue. Techniscope. [R] ▼●쩠 rebuild his life in troubled Belfast and becomBoy Cried Murder, The (1966-British) ing involved with his old sweetheart, who’s C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Breakston. Vemarried to a political prisoner. Third teaming ronica Hurst, Phil Brown, Beba Loncar, of Day-Lewis and director/cowriter Sheridan Frazer MacIntosh, Tim Barrett. A reworklacks the complexity and resonance of MY ing of THE WINDOW set in Adriatic [ 168 ]

resort town. Youngster noted for his fabriLloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, cations witnesses a murder; no one but the Marie Wilson, Ralph Bellamy, Frank killer believes him. McHugh, Dick Foran, Penny Singleton, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) Ronald Reagan. Screwball spoof of HolC-99m. BOMB D: George Marshall. Bob lywood sometimes pushes too hard, but Hope, Elke Sommer, Phyllis Diller, Cesare has enough sharp dialogue, good satire in Danova, Marjorie Lord. They sure did; tale of two sharpster screenwriters to make result is worthless film that should be it worthwhile. Script by Samuel and Bella avoided. Absolutely painful.▼쩠 Spewack, from their Broadway play.▼ Boy Friend, The (1971-British) C-135m. Boy Named Charlie Brown, A (1969) C★★★ D: Ken Russell. Twiggy, Christopher 85m. ★★★ D: Bill Melendez. Voices of Peter Gable, Moyra Fraser, Max Adrian, Vladek Robbins, Pamelyn Ferdin, Glenn Gilger, Andy Sheybal, Georgina Hale, Tommy Tune; Pforsich. Peanuts gang makes surprisingly cameo by Glenda Jackson. Director Russell’s successful feature-film debut, with ingenious homage to Hollywood musicals works on visual ideas adding to usual fun. Only debit: Rod McKuen’s absurd songs. [G]▼●쩠 several levels, from tacky matinee performance of a show to fantasy-world concepBoynton Beach Club (2006) C-105m. ★★★ tion of same material, all loosely tied to D: Susan Seidelman. Dyan Cannon, Brenda Sandy Wilson’s cunning spoof of 1920s Vaccaro, Sally Kellerman, Joseph Bologna, musical shows. Busby Berkeley-ish numLen Cariou, Michael Nouri, Renee Taylor, bers (choreographed by Gable) come amazMal Z. Lawrence. Affecting, funny look at ingly close to spirit and execution of the love among senior citizens in a Florida reMaster himself. Originally released in U.S. tirement community. Vaccaro is the newest at 110m. Panavision. [G]▼● (reluctant) recruit for the Boynton Beach Boyfriends and Girlfriends (1987-French) Bereavement Club after her husband’s sudC-102m. ★★★ D: Eric Rohmer. Emmanuden demise; in addition to companionship elle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir, Anne-Laure she needs to vent her anger over his needMeury, Eric Viellard, Francois-Eric Gendless death. Appealing performances by all ron. The sixth of Rohmer’s ‘‘Comedies the leading actors propel this minor but and Proverbs’’ is a typically witty, percepgood-hearted film, one of the few to deal tive, ironic account of two very different with older people without being coy or conyoung women who strike up a friendship . . . descending. Inspired by Seidelman’s mother and commence playing romantic musical Florence’s experiences in one such community. [R]쩠 chairs with a couple of men. Nobody can direct characters who are forever falling in Boy on a Dolphin (1957) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: and out of love quite like Eric Rohmer. Jean Negulesco. Alan Ladd, Clifton Webb, Originally shown as MY GIRLFRIEND’S Sophia Loren, Laurence Naismith, Alex MiBOYFRIEND. [PG]▼●쩠 notis, Jorge Mistral. Loren’s Hollywood debut Boyfriend School, The SEE: Don’t Tell understandably caused a sensation for her iniHer It’s Me tial appearance in a wet, clingy blouse; thereBoy in Blue, The (1986-Canadian) C-98m. after, it’s an OK adventure about rival teams ★★ D: Charles Jarrott. Nicolas Cage, Cynof divers racing to locate the titular statue, thia Dale, Christopher Plummer, David sunk centuries ago off the island of Hydra. Naughton, Sean Sullivan, Melody AnderSpectacular Greek locations are the real son. Humdrum tale of real-life 19th-century stars; Webb’s droll villainy is another asset. CinemaScope.▼ Canadian rowing champ Ned Hanlan; filled with stock characters, from faithful manager Boys, The (1961-British) 123m. ★★★ D: to ‘‘unattainable’’ love interest. Barely Sidney J. Furie. Richard Todd, Robert stays afloat. [R]▼쩠 Morley, Felix Aylmer, Wilfred Brambell. Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The (2008Engrossing study of attorney who tries to uncover motives for crimes allegedly comU.S.-British) C-94m. ★★★ D: Mark Herman. David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Rupert Friend, mitted by four teenagers. CinemaScope. David Hayman, Asa Butterfield, Jack ScanBoys (1996) C-88m. ★★ D: Stacy Cochran. lon, Amber Beattie, Sheila Hancock, Richard Winona Ryder, Lukas Haas, John C. Reilly, Johnson, Jim Norton. Unique Holocaust James LeGros, Skeet Ulrich, Wiley Wigfable (from John Boyne’s novel for young gins, Russell Young, Chris Cooper, Jessica readers) about the 8-year-old son of an SS Harper, Catherine Keener. Moody but mudofficer who moves with his family to a new dled coming-of-age story about a prep home in the country. He can’t help being school boy (Haas) who helps a woman curious about the ‘‘farm’’ nearby with a (Ryder) after an accident and then becomes barbed-wire fence—and a boy about his age entangled in her mysterious past. Frustraton the other side. Quietly powerful drama ing plot takes time getting started, but has personalizes the qualms and contradictions no real story to tell. Attractive New England facing German families during the Nazi era. locations and good performance by Haas can’t make up for lapses in logic . . . and a Screenplay by the director. [PG-13]쩠 tacked-on happy ending. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Boy Meets Girl (1938) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 169 ]

Boys and Girl From County Clare, The Greece. Songs: ‘‘This Can’t Be Love,’’ (2005-Irish) C-90m. ★★★ D: John Irvin. ‘‘Falling in Love With Love.’’ Colm Meaney, Bernard Hill, Andrea Corr, Boys in Company C, The (1978) C-127m. ★★★ Philip Barantini, Charlotte Bradley, Shaun D: Sidney J. Furie. Stan Shaw, AnEvans, Patrick Bergin. Two brothers (Meaney, drew Stevens, James Canning, Michael Hill) who haven’t seen each other in years Lembeck, Craig Wasson, Scott Hylands, revive a longtime rivalry when their bands James Whitmore, Jr., Lee Ermey. Shaw compete in a traditional Ceili music festival. (in a standout performance) whips a bunch Entertaining comedy set in the 1960s stops of green Marine recruits into shape for just short of being too cute; sentimental, combat in Vietnam; good, tough film foundemanding entertainment with canny percuses on stupidity of military brass and formances by the leading actors. Corr, of demoralization of the soldiers. Panavision. the Irish pop group The Corrs, is an engag[R]▼●쩠 ing love interest for Evans. Made in 2003. Boys in the Band, The (1970) C-119m. ★★★1 Panavision.▼쩠 ⁄2 D: William Friedkin. Kenneth NelBoys and Girls (2000) C-94m. BOMB D: son, Peter White, Leonard Frey, Cliff GorRobert Iscove. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Claire man, Frederick Combs, Laurence LuckinForlani, Jason Biggs, Amanda Detmer, Alybill, Keith Prentice, Robert LaTourneaux, son Hannigan, Heather Donahue, Lisa Reuben Greene. Excellent filmization of Eichhorn. Two students (Prinze and ForMart Crowley’s landmark play about nine lani) find their paths constantly crossing; men at a birthday party: eight are gay, the then a friendship develops. Tiresome rehash ninth insists he’s not. Often hilarious, freof WHEN HARRY MET SALLY among quently sad, but always thought provokthe college set, with grating characters you ing, and sensationally acted by the original just want to slap silly. [PG-13]▼쩠 stage cast; a rare case where a single, Boys Don’t Cry (1999) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: claustrophobic set is actually an asset. [R] Kimberly Peirce. Hilary Swank, Chloe¨ Sev▼●쩠 igny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, AlBoys Next Door, The (1985) C-88m. ★★ ison Folland, Alicia Goranson, Jeannetta D: Penelope Spheeris. Maxwell Caulfield, Arnette. Searing drama based on the 1993 Charlie Sheen, Christopher McDonald, case of Brandon Teena (Swank, in an Hank Garrett, Patti D’Arbanville, Moon Oscar-winning performance), a girl who Zappa. Alienated teens Caulfield and Sheen, passes herself off as a boy in rural Nejust about to graduate high school, go on a braska. Moving to a new town, she/he finds murder spree. A not-uninteresting portrait a soul mate who deliberately doesn’t ask of desperation and hopelessness that ultitoo many questions . . . but infuriates the mately fails because there’s no real insight girl’s trailer-trash friends and family. Well into the boys’ behavior. [R]▼●쩠 made in every respect, but fails to get inside Boys’ Night Out (1962) C-115m. ★★★ D: the characters’ heads; the violent conclusion Michael Gordon. Kim Novak, James Garis almost unbearable to watch. Same material ner, Tony Randall, Howard Duff, Janet explored in the documentary THE BRANBlair, Patti Page, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Howard DON TEENA STORY. [R]▼쩠 Morris. Trio of married men and bachelor Boys From Brazil, The (1978) C-123m. Garner decide to set up an apartment ★★1 equipped with Novak. Some interesting in⁄2 D: Franklin J. Schaffner. Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palnuendos, with comic relief from Blair, Page, and Gabor. CinemaScope.▼ mer, Uta Hagen, John Dehner, Rosemary Harris, Anne Meara, John Rubinstein, Boys of Paul Street, The (1969-HungarianU.S.) C-108m. ★★★ D: Zoltan Fabri. AnDenholm Elliott, Steven Guttenberg, David Hurst, Jeremy Black, Bruno Ganz, thony Kemp, Robert Efford, Gary O’BriWalter Gotell, Michael Gough, Prunella en, Mark Colleano, John Moulder Brown. Scales. Former Nazi chieftain Dr. Josef Allegory of children’s battle for control of Mengele (Peck) has insidious plan to breed vacant lot in Budapest, from Ferenc Molnew race of Hitlers. Interesting but ultinar’s novel; eloquent statement on war. mately silly and unbelievable; worth watchFilmed before in Hollywood as NO ing, though, for Olivier’s brilliant, credible GREATER GLORY. Agascope. [G] performance as aging Jewish Nazi-hunter. Boys on the Side (1995) C-117m. ★★★ D: Based on Ira Levin novel. [R]▼●쩠 Herbert Ross. Whoopi Goldberg, MaryBoys From Brooklyn, The SEE: Bela Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore, Matthew Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla McConaughey, James Remar, Billy Wirth, Boys From Syracuse, The (1940) 73m. Anita Gillette, Estelle Parsons, Dennis ★★1⁄2 D: A. Edward Sutherland. Allan Jones, Boutsikaris, Gedde Watanabe. Extremely likJoe Penner, Martha Raye, Rosemary Lane, able film about three disparate women who Irene Hervey, Eric Blore. Disappointingly travel cross-country and become involved in ordinary adaptation of Rodgers & Hart’s each other’s lives. Any film incorporating Broadway musical based on Shakespeare’s physical abuse, premarital pregnancy, AIDS, The Comedy of Errors, set in ancient and lesbianism has got its work cut out for it; [ 170 ]

three strong, appealing performances make up Uneven, inconsequential account of sensifor story contrivances (and credibility gaps). tive first-year university student Connery, Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 his relationships with his mother and Boys Town (1938) 96m. ★★★ D: Norman girlfriend, and his growing pains. Jason is Taurog. Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney, the son of Sean Connery and Diane Cilento Henry Hull, Gene Reynolds, Leslie Fenton, (who plays his mom here). [R] Addison Richards, Edward Norris, Sidney Boy With Green Hair, The (1948) C-82m. ★★★ D: Joseph Losey. Pat O’Brien, Robert Miller, Bobs Watson, Frankie Thomas. Tracy won Oscar as Father Flanagan, who Ryan, Barbara Hale, Dean Stockwell, Dwayne develops school for juvenile delinquents; Hickman. Thought-provoking allegory of war Rooney is his toughest enrolee. Syrupy orphan Stockwell, who becomes a social but well done; Eleanore Griffin and Dore outcast when his hair changes color. ConSchary also earned Oscars for their original troversial on its release because of its pacistory. Sequel: MEN OF BOYS TOWN. Alfistic point of view. Dale Robertson and most 60 years later, Rooney played Father Russ Tamblyn appear uncredited.▼●쩠 Flanagan in the direct-to-video feature THE Boyz N the Hood (1991) C-107m. ★★★ D: ROAD HOME. Also shown in computerJohn Singleton. Larry Fishburne, Ice Cube, colored version. ▼●쩠 Cuba Gooding, Jr., Nia Long, Morris ChestBoy Ten Feet Tall, A (1963-British) nut, Tyra Ferrell, Angela Bassett, WhitC-118m. ★★★ D: Alexander Mackendrick. man Mayo. Sober, thoughtful look at life Edward G. Robinson, Fergus McClelland, in the black section of South Central L.A. Constance Cummings, Harry H. Corbett. A divorced father strives to raise his son Colorful, charming film about orphaned with values—and steer him away from the boy traveling through Africa alone to reach ignorance and aimlessness that has led to his aunt, who lives in Durban. Cut to 88m. an epidemic of senseless violence in the for American release. Originally titled neighborhood. Impressive debut for 23SAMMY GOING SOUTH. CinemaScope. year-old writer-director Singleton; longBoy Who Could Fly, The (1986) Cish, and not always on-the-money, but 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nick Castle. Lucy Deakins, overall quite potent and effective. Singleton has a bit part as a mailman. [R]▼●쩠 Jay Underwood, Bonnie Bedelia, Fred Savage, Colleen Dewhurst, Fred Gwynne, LouBraddock: Missing in Action III (1988) ise Fletcher, Jason Priestley. Sensitive girl C-101m. BOMB D: Aaron Norris. Chuck moves to a new neighborhood and beNorris, Aki Aleong, Roland Harrah III, friends an autistic (and mysterious) boy Miki King. Dreary comic book sequel with next door. Warm, well-intentioned film Colonel Norris returning to Vietnam yet moves very slowly and makes uncomfortagain, this time to look for his wife. Chuck able turn from believable drama to fantasy— even coscripted, with brother Aaron serving as director. [R]▼●쩠 undermining much of its effectiveness. Good feelings and good performances (esBrady Bunch Movie, The (1995) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Betty Thomas. Shelley Long, Gary pecially Bedelia and newcomer Deakins) help keep it aloft. Written by director Cole, Michael McKean, Jean Smart, HenCastle. [PG]▼●쩠 riette Mantel, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Boy Who Cried Bitch, The (1991) CChristine Taylor, Paul Sutera, Jennifer Elise 101m. ★★★ D: Juan Jose Campanella. HarCox, Jesse Lee, Olivia Hack, Reni Santoni. ley Cross, Karen Young, Dennis Boutsikaris, Dead-on parody of the enduringly popular Adrien Brody, Gene Canfield, Moira Kelly, early ’70s TV sitcom, with America’s faJesse Bradford, J. D. Daniels, Kario Salem, vorite white-bread family unaware that valSamuel Wright. Thoughtful, unsettling drama ues and mores have changed all around about violent, psychotic 12-year-old Cross, them. Long and Cole are a hoot as the parwhose mother hasn’t given him proper parenents, but if you’re not a series devotee, tal attention, and whose psychiatric care is many of the gags and story references will inadequate at best. Well made, extremely have no meaning whatsoever. Predictably, well acted, but be forewarned: it’s unrelentthere are cameos by veterans of the original ingly grim and sad. show. Followed by A VERY BRADY SEBoy Who Cried Werewolf, The (1973) QUEL. [PG-13]▼●쩠 C-93m. ★★ D: Nathan Juran. Kerwin Brain, The (1962-British-German) 85m. ★★★ Mathews, Elaine Devry, Scott Sealey, RobD: Freddie Francis. Anne Heywood, ert J. Wilke, Susan Foster. Boy discovers Peter Van Eyck, Cecil Parker, Bernard Lee, his own father has become a werewolf and is Maxine Audley, Jeremy Spenser, Jack Macon the prowl. More like an adventure thriller Gowran. Good remake of DONOVAN’S than a horror movie, but not much good as BRAIN, about scientist overtaken by the anything. Odd werewolf makeup. [PG] brain of a vengeance-seeking dead man that Boy Who Had Everything, The (1984is being kept ‘‘alive’’ in his laboratory. ★★ Australian) C-94m. D: Stephen WalOriginal British title: VENGEANCE.▼ lace. Jason Connery, Diane Cilento, Laura Brain, The (1969-French) C-100m. ★★ D: Williams, Lewis Fitz-Gerald, Ian Gilmour. Gerard Oury. David Niven, Jean-Paul [ 171 ]

Belmondo, Bourvil, Eli Wallach, Silvia Van Valkenburgh, Brion James, Tim Monti, Fernand Valois. Fine international cast Thomerson, Charles Rocket, Nicholas in OK caper comedy about a train heist masGuest. One night in Portland, Oregon, terminded by Niven. Franscope. [G]▼ nightclub bouncer Clay helps model Brain Candy (1996) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kelly Hatcher combat a mob of evil Chinese Makin. David Foley, Bruce McCulloch, monks who are after the Red Lotus of UltiKevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, Scott mate Power. Failed attempt to turn Clay into Thompson, Kathryn Greenwood, Janeane a Stallone-like action star is a slow, foggy Garofalo. New wonder drug that cures debore. Hatcher is cute in hot pants, though. [PG-13]▼● pression has devastating side effect on the population now addicted to the product. Brainstorm (1965) 114m. ★★ D: William This premise intertwines the lives of over Conrad. Jeff Hunter, Anne Francis, Dana 30 characters played by Kids in the Hall, the Andrews, Viveca Lindfors, Stacy Harris, Canadian TV sketch troupe in their featureKathie Brown. Fair thriller about a deterfilm debut. Funny sequences and bizarre mined man (Hunter) who attempts the percharacters don’t add up to a satisfying fect crime in order to eliminate Andrews whole, but the cast is energetic in many and marry Francis. Contrived. Panavision.쩠 original and unusual guises, often in drag. Brainstorm (1983) C-106m. ★★★ D: DougStandout moment has Thompson ‘‘coming las Trumbull. Christopher Walken, Nataout’’ in splashy Hollywood musical produclie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson, tion number. Brendan Fraser appears unJoe Dorsey, Jordan Christopher. Research billed. On-screen title is KIDS IN THE scientists Walken and Fletcher perfect a HALL BRAIN CANDY. [R]▼●쩠 sensory experience device—in the form of Brain Damage (1988) C-94m. ★★★ D: a headset—with explosive potential. EnterFrank Henenlotter. Rick Herbst, Gordon tainingly old-fashioned ‘‘mad scientist’’ MacDonald, Jennifer Lowry, Theo Barnes, type tale brought up to date, though it’s Lucille Saint-Peter, Vicki Darnell. Exbest not to examine story too closely. tremely strange, oddly effective horror Fletcher gives film’s standout performance, film about Herbst and a monster parasite but Wood, in her last film (she died during that gives him psychedelic ‘‘highs’’ by production in 1981) has a basically thankinjecting fluid into his brain. And that’s less role. Sure to lose most of its impact on not the half of it! Clever parable about TV screens since Trumbull’s state-of-thedrug addiction features a funny cameo by art visual effects were designed for 70mm Super Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 the star of Henenlotter’s first film, BASKET CASE. [R]▼쩠 Brain That Wouldn’t Die, The (1963) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: Joseph Green. Herb (Jason) Brain Donors (1992) C-80m. ★★ D: Dennis Dugan. John Turturro, Bob Nelson, Evers, Virginia Leith, Adele Lamont, LesMel Smith, Nancy Marchand, John Savident, lie Daniel, Paula Maurice. Poorly produced George De La Pena, Juli Donald, Spike tale of surgeon trying to find body to Alexander, Teri Copley. Three social misattach to fiance´e’s head (she was decapitated fits team up to bilk a wealthy matron who but still lives). Beware of shorter version, which eliminates most of the gore.▼쩠 wants to establish her own ballet company. Full-bore attempt to re-create an oldBrainwash SEE: Circle of Power Brainwashed (1961-German) 102m. ★★ D: time movie comedy, officially ‘‘suggested’’ by A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, with Gerd Oswald. Curt Jurgens, Claire Bloom, Turturro as Groucho, Nelson as Harpo, Hansjorg Felmy, Albert Lieven. Austrian Smith as Chico, and Marchand as MargaJurgens’ struggle to retain sanity while ret Dumont. Scores high marks for good undergoing intense Nazi interrogation is intentions but pretty much falls flat. Great basis of this psychological drama. Strong Claymation title sequence by Will Vinton’s performances but weak story mars film. BrainWaves (1982) C-80m. ★★ D: Ulli studio. Written by Pat Proft. [PG]▼●쩠 Brainscan (1994-U.S.-Canadian) C-95m. Lommel. Keir Dullea, Suzanna Love, Tony ★★ D: John Flynn. Edward Furlong, Frank Curtis, Vera Miles, Percy Rodrigues, Paul Langella, T Rider-Smith, Amy Hargreaves, Willson. Young woman, injured in an Jamie Marsh, David Hemblen. Teenaged accident, receives the brain (and brainFurlong has few friends, still grieves over waves) of a murdered girl and then is the accident that killed his mother, and is stalked by her killer. A glum-looking Tony obsessed by horror movies and computer Curtis is the modern-day Dr. Frankenstein games. All of which makes him ripe for the in this pedestrian thriller. [PG—edited from original R rating]▼쩠 new game, Brainscan—which seems to be turning him into an unwitting murderer. A Bramble Bush, The (1960) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 good cast and director do what they can D: Daniel Petrie. Richard Burton, Barbara with mediocre material. [R]▼●쩠 Rush, Jack Carson, Angie Dickinson. Charles Brain Smasher . . . A Love Story (1993) Mergendahl’s potboiler becomes superficial C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Albert Pyun. Andrew Dice gloss with Burton, totally ill at ease, playing Clay, Teri Hatcher, Yuji Okumoto, Deborah New England doctor returning to Cape Cod, [ 172 ]

★★★ where he falls in love with his dying D: Mark Herman. Pete Postlethwaite, friend’s wife.▼ Tara Fitzgerald, Ewan McGregor, Stephen Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) C-123m. Tompkinson, Jim Carter, Philip Jackson, ★★★1 Peter Martin, Sonue Johnston. Yorkshire mine ⁄2 D: Francis Ford Coppola. Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopworkers eke out a living but find solace as kins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, members of an amateur, all-male brass band. Cary Elwes, Bill Campbell, Sadie Frost, They are threatened by the not unrelated facTom Waits, Jay Robinson, Monica Beltors of (a) the mining pit’s possible closure lucci. Sumptuous retelling of the Dracula and (b) a young woman invading their terrilegend. Avenging the death of his beloved tory. Seriocomic drama provides an emotional wife, a 15th-century Romanian warrior lives tour de force for Postlethwaite as dogged on through the ages . . . and sets his sights bandleader, and also for Tompkinson as his on Victorian London. Sexual, sinuous, exbeleaguered son. Those are the real-life muquisitely realized (using every movie artisicians—members of the Grimethorpe Colfice imaginable); occasionally let down by liery Band—on the soundtrack. [R]▼●쩠 story lags . . . but always has one more gooBrass Target (1978) C-111m. ★★ D: John die up its sleeve. Written by James Victor Hough. John Cassavetes, Sophia Loren, Hart. Kudos to Thomas Sanders’ production George Kennedy, Max von Sydow, Robdesign, Michael Ballhaus’ cinematography, ert Vaughn, Bruce Davison, Patrick Mcand Wojciech Kilar’s powerful music. Won Goohan. Rambling thriller speculates that Oscars for makeup, sound effects editing, and Gen. Patton (Kennedy) was assassinated just costume design. [R]▼●쩠 after WW2 because of major gold heist perpeBranded (1950) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph trated by his subordinates. Unfocused stoMate´. Alan Ladd, Mona Freeman, Charles ryline is major liability; von Sydow is major Bickford, Joseph Calleia, Milburn Stone. asset as the killer. Panavision. [PG] ▼● Outlaws use carefree Ladd to impersonate Bratz (2007) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Sean McNarancher Bickford’s long-missing son, leadmara. Nathalia Ramos, Janel Parrish, Logan ing to much different outcome than anticBrowning, Skyler Shaye, Chelsea Staub, ipated; action and love scenes balanced Lainie Kazan, Jon Voight, Kadeem HardiOK.▼●쩠 son. Silly live-action trifle, based on a popuBranded to Kill (1967-Japanese) 91m. ★★★ lar line of fashion dolls, about four pretty, D: Seijun Suzuki. Jo Shishido, Koji Namperky high schoolers whose friendships are bara, Annu Mari, Mariko Ogawa. Stylish strained by allegiances to rival cliques. and surreal deconstruction of the Yakuza May—repeat, may—appeal to preteen girls genre, chronicling the bizarre exploits of who treasure their Bratz collections. Super 35. [PG]쩠 ‘‘Number Three Killer,’’ a hit man with a fetish for smelling boiled rice who finds himBravados, The (1958) C-98m. ★★★ D: self being stalked by ‘‘Number One Killer’’ Henry King. Gregory Peck, Joan Collins, after he botches an assignment. Typically irStephen Boyd, Albert Salmi. Compelling reverent and subversive film from cult direcWestern starring Peck, seeking four men tor Suzuki is also fairly incoherent but who raped and killed his wife, discovering technically dazzling. Nikkatsu Scope. ▼쩠 that he has become no better than those he Brannigan (1975-British) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 hunts. Joe De Rita (later Curly Joe of D: Douglas Hickox. John Wayne, Richard The Three Stooges) plays the hangman. Attenborough, Judy Geeson, John VerCinemaScope. ▼쩠 non, Mel Ferrer, Ralph Meeker, LesleyBrave Bulls, The (1951) 108m. ★★★ D: Anne Down. A criminal flees to London to Robert Rossen. Mel Ferrer, Miroslava, avoid extradition, and Chicago cop Wayne Anthony Quinn, Eugene Iglesias. Flavorpursues him. Overlong, but change of loful account of public and private life of a cale serves Duke well; highlight is amusmatador, based on Tom Lea book. Film admirably captures atmosphere of bullfighting brawl in pub. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★ Brasher Doubloon, The (1947) 72m. ing. Some prints now available run 114m., D: John Brahm. George Montgomery, with bullfight footage originally deemed Nancy Guild, Conrad Janis, Roy Roberts, too gruesome for U.S. audiences. Fritz Kortner. Rare coin seems to be object Braveheart (1995) C-177m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mel of several murders in very uneven version Gibson. Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patof Philip Marlowe detective mystery. rick McGoohan, Catherine McCormack, Filmed before as TIME TO KILL. Brendan Gleeson, James Cosmo, David Brass Bottle, The (1964) C-89m. ★★ D: O’Hara, Angus Macfadyen, Peter Henly, Harry Keller. Tony Randall, Burl Ives, James Robinson, Alun Armstrong, Ian BanBarbara Eden, Edward Andrews, Ann nen, Brian Cox. Big, booming, epic tale of Doran. Juvenile comedy-fantasy about genie 13th-century Scottish rebel warrior William Ives coming out of magic bottle to serve Wallace, who builds a grass-roots resistance Randall. Eden fared better when she went to the tyranny of English King Edward I (McGoohan). Manages to tell a gripping into a lamp herself on TV. ▼ Brassed Off (1996-British-U.S.) C-109m. personal story that grows in scale through a [ 173 ]

series of eye-popping (and bloody) battle Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillippe, Laura Linscenes. Only the denouement starts to drag. ney, Dennis Haysbert, Caroline Dhavernas, A powerful, passionate film about a powerGary Cole, Bruce Davison, Kathleen Quinful, passionate man. Winner of Academy lan. Real-life espionage tale seen through Awards for Best Picture, Director, Cinemathe eyes of ambitious FBI man Eric O’Neill tography (John Toll), Makeup, and Sound (Phillippe), who’s given a thankless assignEffects Editing. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 ment. He must earn the confidence of Brave Little Toaster, The (1987) C-90m. agency veteran Robert Hanssen (Cooper), a ★★★ D: Jerry Rees. Voices of Jon Lovitz, devout Catholic and family man who’s been Tim Stack, Timothy E. Day, Thurl Ravensselling high-level secrets to the Russians. croft, Deanna Oliver, Phil Hartman. EnSolid, straightforward drama with a superior tertaining animated feature about a group of performance by Cooper that reflects the humanized household appliances who embark many facets of Hanssen’s personality . . . on a perilous journey to find their young masalthough we never really understand what ter. A welcome throwback to the cartoons of makes him tick. [PG-13]쩠 yore, with equal doses of heart and hip humor Bread and Chocolate (1973-Italian) Cto please both kids and their parents. Some 107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Franco Brusati. Nino nice songs by Van Dyke Parks, too. Based on Manfredi, Anna Karina, Johnny Dorelli, the novel by Thomas M. Disch. Followed by Paolo Turco, Max Delys. Manfredi is marveltwo direct-to-video sequels. ▼●쩠 ous as a Chaplinesque everyman, an optimistic Brave One, The (1956) C-100m. ★★★ D: lower-class worker who treks to Switzerland Irving Rapper. Michel Ray, Rodolfo Hoyos, to make his fortune yet remains the eternal Fermin Rivera, Elsa Cardenas, Carlos Naoutsider. Memorable sequence in a chicken varro, Joi Lansing. Predictable but charming coop. Original running time: 111m.▼쩠 tale of peasant-boy Ray and his love for GiBread and Roses (2001-British-Germantano, a valiant bull destined to meet his fate in Spanish) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ken Loach. the arena. Filmed in Mexico. ‘‘Robert Rich’’ Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody, Elpidia Car(a pseudonym for blacklisted Dalton Trumbo) rillo, George Lopez, Jack McGee, Alonso received a Best Original Story Academy Chavez, Monica Rivas, Frank Davila. GripAward, which went unclaimed until 1975. ping fictionalized account of the 2000 L.A. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 janitors’ strike focuses on a Latina illegal ★★1 ⁄2 D: Brave One, The (2007) C-122m. immigrant (Padilla) who stands up to her Neil Jordan. Jodie Foster, Terrence Howard, corrupt employers and struggles to convince Naveen Andrews, Carmen Ejogo, Nicky her coworkers to join the union. Plays a bit Katt, Mary Steenburgen, Jane Adams, Zoe¨ like an indie NORMA RAE (with Brody in Kravitz, Larry Fessenden. N.Y.C. radio host the Ron Leibman role) but even more realisFoster turns troubled, gun-toting vigilante tic. Loach’s first American-based film stands after she is attacked and her fiance´ killed by among his best at capturing the plight of hardhoods in Central Park. As the body count working, disenfranchised people. Written by rises, she forms an unusual bond with the Paul Laverty. Features cameos from real-life detective (Howard) who is investigating her Latino activists; actors William Atherton, Behandiwork. Serious attempt to examine a nicio Del Toro, Tim Roth, and Ron Perlman post-9/11 world of violence and paranoia beappear briefly as themselves. [R]▼쩠 comes more unhinged (and more improbable) Bread and Tulips (2000-Italian-Swiss) Cas it goes along and stubbornly remains a ★★★ D: Silvio Soldini. Licia Mag114m. high-toned DEATH WISH, for better and lietta, Bruno Ganz, Marina Massironi, Giuworse. Typically strong work from Foster seppe Battiston, Felice Andreasi, Antonio and Howard helps. Panavision. [R]쩠 Catania. Lighthearted drama of a woman’s Brazil (1985) C-131m. ★★★ D: Terry liberation, as a suburban housewife-mother, Gilliam. Jonathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robstranded while on vacation, finds a new, ert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, rewarding life in exotic Venice. SweetBob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Ian Richardnatured wish-fulfillment fantasy manages to son, Peter Vaughan. Dazzlingly different convince thanks to the story’s attention to look at bleak future society (kind of a cross detail and assured lead performance by between 1984 and A CLOCKWORK ORMaglietta. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ANGE) where one hapless clerk (Pryce) Break, The (1998-British-Irish-Germanclings to his ideals and dreams, including his Japanese) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert DornDream Girl (Greist). A triumph of imaginahelm. Stephen Rea, Alfred Molina, Rosana tion and production design, full of incredible Pastor, Brendan Gleeson, Jorge Sanz, Pruitt black comedy . . . but also a relentless film Taylor Vince. Rea is excellent, as usual, as that doesn’t know when to quit: second half an IRA terrorist who unexpectedly becomes is often redundant and ineffectual. Gilliam part of a Belfast prison break. Before long cut film from 142m. for American release. he’s living in N.Y.C., where his long-ago Screenplay by Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and training finds a new outlet as he becomes Charles McKeown. [R]▼●쩠 Breach (2007) C-110m. ★★★ D: Billy Ray. involved with Guatemalan immigrants. En[ 174 ]

grossing if not terribly inspired film based is a secret transvestite, and obscure sci-fi on an idea by Rea. [R] writer Kilgore Trout (Finney) is hitching Breakdown (1997) C-93m. ★★★ D: Jonacross-country to be honored for the first than Mostow. Kurt Russell, J.T. Walsh, time. Rudolph’s go-for-broke, in-your-face Kathleen Quinlan, M. C. Gainey, Jack style does no favors to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s Noseworthy, Rex Linn, Ritch Brinkley. already bizarre novel, which Rudolph Married couple moving west have car trouadapted and Willis self-financed as a labor ble in the midst of the wide open spaces; a of love. Haas and Hershey are excellent. trucker picks up the wife so she can phone Vonnegut briefly appears. [R]▼쩠 for help, but that’s the last her husband sees Breakfast on Pluto (2005-Irish-British) Cof her . . . and no one seems willing or able 135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Neil Jordan. Cillian Murto help. Superior thriller delivers the goods phy, Liam Neeson, Stephen Rea, Brendan with airtight plot and all-too-believable situGleeson, Ruth Negga, Laurence Kinlan, ations. Hang on! Cowritten by director Conor McEvoy, Gavin Friday, Ian Hart, Mostow. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Ruth McCabe, Steven Waddington, EaBreaker! Breaker! (1977) C-86m. BOMB monn Owens, Bryan Ferry. Episodic acD: Don Hulette. Chuck Norris, George count of Murphy, who was abandoned as a Murdock, Terry O’Connor, Don Gentry. baby in Ireland and taken in by a Catholic Cheap, stupid actioner with some (occasional) priest (Neeson). He grows up to be a flaintentional comedy. Little made of the CB grantly gay cross-dresser who calls himself craze as trucker Norris searches for kid Kitten, and sets off in search of his real brother Michael Augenstein in corrupt judge mother. Jordan revisits themes he explored Murdock’s speedtrap town. [PG]▼쩠 in THE CRYING GAME, including sexual ‘Breaker’ Morant (1979-Australian) Cidentity and British-Irish politics, but the 107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Edward film is meandering and memorable only for Woodward, Jack Thompson, John Waters, Murphy’s performance. Jordan scripted Bryan Brown, Charles Tingwell, Vincent from Patrick McCabe’s novel. [R]쩠 Ball, Lewis Fitz-Gerald. Potent drama Breakheart Pass (1976) C-95m. ★★★ D: based on the true story of three soldiers Tom Gries. Charles Bronson, Ben Johnwhose actions during the Boer War are son, Richard Crenna, Jill Ireland, Charles used as fodder for a trumped-up court Durning, Ed Lauter, Roy Jenson, Bill Mcmartial—in order to satisfy the political Kinney, Sally Kirkland, Casey Tibbs. Slamplans of the British Empire. Based on a play bang action Western, with second unit work by Kenneth G. Ross. Winner of several by Yakima Canutt. Based on Alistair MacAustralian Academy Awards. [PG]▼●쩠 Lean novel and set mainly on a train, it Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) C-115m. has Bronson as an undercover agent seeking ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. Audrey Hepgun runners and confronting a false epiburn, George Peppard, Patricia Neal, Buddy demic. Highlight: incredible fight between Ebsen, Mickey Rooney, Martin Balsam, John Bronson and former boxing champ Archie McGiver. Charming film from Truman CaMoore. [PG]▼●쩠 pote’s story, with Hepburn as Holly Golightly, Break In SEE: Loophole Breakin’ (1984) C-90m. ★★ D: Joel Silberg. backwoods girl who goes mod in N.Y.C. Dated trappings don’t detract from high comLucinda Dickey, Adolfo (Shabba-Doo) edy and winning romance. Screenplay by Quinones, Michael (Boogaloo Shrimp) George Axelrod. Oscar winner for Score Chambers, Ben Lokey, Christopher Mc(Henry Mancini) and Song, ‘‘Moon River’’ Donald, Phineas Newborn 3rd, Ice-T. (Mancini and Johnny Mercer).▼●쩠 Harmless FLASHDANCE clone, but with Breakfast Club, The (1985) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 the emphasis on break dancing. Here, herD: John Hughes. Emilio Estevez, Judd oine Dickey waitresses rather than welds. Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony MiLook for Jean-Claude Van Damme and chael Hall, Ally Sheedy, Paul Gleason. A Lela Rochon as extras in the opening bold experiment in the era of teen raunch scenes. A sequel followed before the year movies (written and directed by a man was out. [PG] ▼●쩠 who’s made more than his share): five kids Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984) sit and talk about themselves, during dayC-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam Firstenberg. Lucinda long detention. Alternately poignant, preDickey, Adolfo (Shabba-Doo) Quinones, dictable, and self-important, but filled with Michael (Boogaloo Shrimp) Chambers, Sumoments of truth and perception. [R]▼●쩠 sie Bono, Lela Rochon (Quinones). Two Breakfast of Champions (1999) C-110m. worthy adversaries—a toothy WASP devel★1 ⁄2 D: Alan Rudolph. Bruce Willis, Albert oper who could rate a centerfold in Forbes Finney, Nick Nolte, Barbara Hershey, and a young urban black whose earring is Glenne Headly, Lukas Haas, Omar Epps, longer than a bola—clash when the former Buck Henry, Vicki Lewis, Jake Johannsen, tries to bulldoze a community rec center. The Will Patton, Owen Wilson, Chip Zien, Ali18 break dancing standards include ‘‘Do Your son Eastwood. Lives in confusion: Car Thang’’ and ‘‘Oye Mamacita.’’ [PG] ▼●쩠 dealer Willis is suicidal, his salesman Nolte Breakin’ All the Rules (2004) C-85m. ★★ [ 175 ]

D: Daniel Taplitz. Jamie Foxx, Morris enough to keep this wispy film afloat. Chestnut, Gabrielle Union, Jennifer EspoReynolds is extremely good in his first sito, Peter MacNicol, Bianca Lawson. Magcharacter role. [R]▼●쩠 azine editor gets dumped by his fiance´e and Breaking Point, The (1950) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: writes a survival guide on the subject. Then Michael Curtiz. John Garfield, Patricia Neal, his cousin, a self-styled player (Chestnut), Phyllis Thaxter, Wallace Ford, Sherry Jackasks for his help in losing a girlfriend (Union) son. High-voltage refilming of Hemingway’s who’s getting too serious—and things start TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, with Gargetting complicated. Slick comedy of errors field as skipper so desperate for money he has a lively, likable cast, but plays flat; the takes on illegal cargo. Garfield and mate story is better told in the coming attractions Juano Hernandez give superb interpretations. trailer. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Screenplay by Ranald MacDougall. ReBreaking and Entering (2006-U.S.-British) made again as THE GUN RUNNERS. C-116m. ★★★ D: Anthony Minghella. Jude Breaking Point (1976-Canadian) C-92m. Law, Juliette Binoche, Robin Wright Penn, BOMB D: Bob Clark. Bo Svenson, Robert Martin Freeman, Ray Winstone, Vera FarCulp, John Colicos, Belinda J. Montgommiga, Rafi Gavron, Poppy Rogers, Juliet Steery, Stephen Young, Linda Sorenson. venson. Architect Law opens a new high-tech Svenson is pursued by Mafiosos after he office with his partner in a dodgy London testifies against them in court. Nothing new here. [R]▼쩠 neighborhood, where they are repeatedly burglarized. He follows a teenage thief home one Breaking Point (1993-Canadian) C-96m. ★★ night, then finds an excuse to talk to his mother, D: Paul Ziller. Gary Busey, Kim Cattrall, an Eastern European immigrant (Binoche). Darlanne Fluegel, Jeff Griggs. After a serial This blossoms into a surprising relationship killer known as ‘‘The Surgeon’’ strikes that reflects on the malaise of his marriage to close to home, haunted cop Busey is asked Wright Penn. Writer-director Minghella exto capture him. This grisly and erotic thriller plores issues of morality in a world where abis titillating, mildly surprising at first, but solutes don’t stand up anymore. Provocative ultimately predictable. [R]▼● and original. Super 35. [R]쩠 Breaking the Rules (1992) C-100m. ★1⁄2 1 ★★★ Breaking Away (1979) C-100m. ⁄2 D: D: Neal Israel. Jason Bateman, C. Thomas Peter Yates. Dennis Christopher, Dennis Howell, Jonathan Silverman, Annie Potts, Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley, Kent Bateman, Shawn Phelan. Yet another Barbara Barrie, Paul Dooley, Robyn Dougroad movie in which two friends take their lass, Hart Bochner, Amy Wright, John Ashdying buddy on one last ‘‘journey of life.’’ ton, Pamela Jayne (P.J.) Soles. Winning, The story is meant to make you laugh and cry, unpretentious film about four college-age but it’s so manipulative it only induces yawns. friends in Bloomington, Indiana, who don’t Potts is the single standout, as a free-spirited waitress. Filmed in 1989. [PG-13]▼● know what to do with their lives; one of them (Christopher) has become obsessed Breaking the Sound Barrier (1952-British) with bicycle racing. Dooley stands out in 116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Lean. Ralph Richfirst-rate cast as Christopher’s bewildered ardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick, John father. This sleeper hit really comes to life Justin, Dinah Sheridan, Denholm Elliott. with an audience. Steve Tesich’s original Grade-A documentary-style story of early screenplay won well-deserved Oscar; later days of jet planes, and men who tested spawned a brief TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 them; Richardson particularly good. OrigiBreaking Glass (1980-British) C-104m. nally shown in England as THE SOUND ★★1 ⁄2 D: Brian Gibson. Phil Daniels, Hazel BARRIER at 118m.쩠 O’Connor, Jon Finch, Jonathan Pryce, PeterBreaking the Waves (1996-Danish) CHugo Daly, Mark Wingett. Rocker O’Con156m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lars von Trier. Emily Watnor rises from playing small London clubs son, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Adrian Rawlins, Kato superstardom, finds success isn’t everytrin Cartlidge, Jean-Marc Barr, Jonathan thing. Good performances by O’Connor, Hackett, Sandra Voe, Udo Kier. ExtraordiDaniels (as her youthful manager), Pryce nary story of a young, simple-minded, God(as a junkie saxophone player) offset prefearing Scottish woman who willingly takes lovers in the belief that it will cure dictable storyline. Panavision. [PG]▼ Breaking In (1989) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: her paralyzed husband. A bold, often unBill Forsyth. Burt Reynolds, Casey Siesettling examination of love and faith, maszko, Sheila Kelley, Lorraine Toussaint, given immediacy and power by von Trier’s Albert Salmi, Harry Carey, Maury Chaykin, documentarylike approach and cinematograSteve Tobolowsky, David Frishberg. Lowpher Robby Mu¨ller’s faded visual scheme, key, off-center comedy about an aging which root the miraculous in the everyday safecracker who takes on a young prote´ge´ world. Watson, in her film debut, is absowho’s got a lot to learn about life, as well lutely unforgettable in the lead role. Von as his new profession. John Sayles’ script, Trier also wrote the screenplay. Super 35. as interpreted by director Forsyth, is in[R] ▼●쩠 ventive and often quite funny . . . but not Breaking Up (1997) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert [ 176 ]

Greenwald. Salma Hayek, Russell Crowe. end credits. Vaughn cowrote the story and Tiresome treatise on love in the ’90s, showcoproduced. [PG-13]쩠 ing how many times two self-centered Breathing Room (1996) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: adults can break up, reunite, and break up Jon Sherman. Susan Floyd, Dan Futterman, again. They can’t stand each other, and we Nadia Dajani, Edie Falco, Saverio Guerra, can’t stand them! Screenplay by Michael David Thornton, Paul Giamatti. Sweet film of Cristofer, from his play. Filmed in 1995. contemporary N.Y.C. couple deciding on their [R]▼●쩠 future together by separating between ThanksBreak of Hearts (1935) 80m. ★★ D: giving and Christmas. The issue of commitPhilip Moeller. Katharine Hepburn, Charles ment is honestly explored and feels Boyer, John Beal, Jean Hersholt, Sam universal. A ‘‘date’’ movie with more food Hardy, Susan Fleming, Jean Howard. Temfor thought than might be comfortable for peramental orchestra conductor Boyer, who unmarried couples.▼ has been spoiled by success, weds unknown Breathless (1959-French) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: composer Hepburn . . . then there are comJean-Luc Godard. Jean Seberg, Jean-Paul plications. Stars try hard but can do nothing Belmondo, Daniel Boulanger, Liliane David. Belmondo is ideally cast as a Parisian with sappy, sub-par material. ▼●쩠 Breakout (1959-British) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: hood who, accompanied by American girl Don Chaffey. Richard Todd, Richard (Seberg), is chased by police after stealing a Attenborough, Michael Wilding, Dennis car and killing a cop. Groundbreaking, influPrice, Bernard Lee, Donald Houston, Miential New Wave tale with a classic romantichael Caine. Although format is now facized gangster-hero and great candid shots of miliar, this remains an exciting story of Paris life. Dedicated to Monogram Pictures, British POWs attempting escapes from with a story by Franc˛ois Truffaut. Remade in Axis prison camp during WW2. Fine per1983. ▼●쩠 formances all around. Original title: DANBreathless (1983) C-100m. ★★ D: Jim GER WITHIN. McBride. Richard Gere, Valerie Kaprisky, Breakout (1975) C-96m. ★★★ D: Tom Art Metrano, John P. Ryan, William Gries. Charles Bronson, Robert Duvall, Tepper, Gary Goodrow. Remake of landJill Ireland, John Huston, Sheree North, mark 1959 Godard film follows basic outRandy Quaid. Crisp action film generously line of the original—an amoral punk on laced with comedy touches has devil-maythe lam from police—but lacks its sociocare bush pilot Bronson taking on the job logical potency. Gere’s kinetic perforof spiriting Duvall, framed for murder, mance is something to see, but his from a seedy Mexican prison. Awfully character, hooked on Jerry Lee Lewis violent, though. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 music and ‘‘Silver Surfer’’ comics, soon Breakthrough (1978-West German) Cgrows tiresome. [R]▼●쩠 115m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrew V. McLaglen. RichBreath of Life (1992-Italian) C-96m. ★★ ard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Rod Steiger, D: Beppe Cino. Franco Nero, Vanessa Curt Jurgens, Klaus Loewitsch, Helmut Redgrave, Fernando Rey, Lucrezia Rovere, Griem, Michael Parks. Superficial sequel to Salvatore Cascio. Grim, episodic psychoCROSS OF IRON, with the focus on the logical study of the wounded lives of a western front during WW2. German sergroup of Italians in a post-WW2 sanitargeant Burton becomes entangled in antiium. Nero gives a solid performance as a Hitler conspiracy, saves the life of U.S. coltubercular professor in love with a menonel Mitchum. Particularly disappointing, tally troubled ballerina (Rovere). Unfortuconsidering cast. Also known as SERnately he has little to do with Redgrave GEANT STEINER. [PG]▼ here—his former CAMELOT costar and Break-Up, The (2006) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: one-time real-life lover. Peyton Reed. Vince Vaughn, Jennifer AnisBreath of Scandal, A (1960) C-98m. ★★ ton, Joey Lauren Adams, Jon Favreau, D: Michael Curtiz. Sophia Loren, John Jason Bateman, Judy Davis, Justin Long, Gavin, Maurice Chevalier, Isabel Jeans, Ivan Sergei, John Michael Higgins, Cole Angela Lansbury. Molnar’s play Olympia Hauser, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ann-Margret, is limp costume vehicle for Loren, playPeter Billingsley. Typical of what passes for ing a princess romanced by American romantic comedy these days: neither Vince Gavin. Chevalier and Lansbury vainly try nor Jen wants the other to end up with the to pump some life into proceedings.▼쩠 condo they shared during happier times. Not Breed Apart, A (1984) C-101m. ★★ D: without laughs, but this odd, unsatisfying Philippe Mora. Rutger Hauer, Powers film is mainly for viewers who find carping Boothe, Kathleen Turner, Donald Pleasand bickering entertaining. That’s Vince’s ence, John Dennis Johnston, Brion James. real-life dad, Vernon Vaughn, playing AnisPicturesque but illogical, uninvolving tale ton’s father. Stay for a rendition of ‘‘The of famed mountain climber Boothe, hired Rainbow Connection’’ by Higgins’ a capto pilfer specimens of a new bald-eagle pella group, The Tone Rangers, during the breed, and his entanglement with conser[ 177 ]

vationist Hauer and fishing-supply store Brian White, Richard Roundtree. Teenaged owner Turner. [R]▼ Gordon-Levitt discovers the dead body of his Breezy (1973) C-108m. ★★ D: Clint ex-girlfriend and makes it his business to Eastwood. William Holden, Kay Lenz, learn what happened to her. Clever, stylized Roger C. Carmel, Marj Dusay, Shelley film noir involving high school kids who Morrison, Joan Hotchkis. Jaded middlespeak in a hard-boiled 1930s argot (hard to ager finds Truth with a teenaged hippie in understand at times though appealing just sappy romance. Fine performances by the the same). A bit protracted but still an audaleads only help up to a point. [R]▼쩠 cious, original piece of work. Haas turns up Brenda Starr (1992) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Robwell into the story as a flamboyant drug ert Ellis Miller. Brooke Shields, Tony Peck, kingpin and steals the show. Neat music Timothy Dalton, Diana Scarwid, Jeffrey score by Nathan Johnson is as offbeat as Tambor, June Gable, Nestor Serrano, Kaththe film itself. Written by first-time director Rian Johnson. [R]쩠 leen Wilhoite, Charles Durning, Eddie Albert, Henry Gibson, Ed Nelson. This fiasco, Brick Lane (2007-British) C-101m. ★★★ D: based on Dale Messick’s comic strip, sat Sarah Gavron. Tannishtha Chatterjee, Saton the shelf for years, and no wonder. ish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson, Naeema Artist Peck enters the strip to talk Brenda Begum, Lana Rahman, Zafeen. Compasout of quitting the paper, is drawn into her sionate portrait of a Bangladeshi girl whose adventuresome life. Aimless and uninvolvcarefree life with her sister is curtailed after ing. The creators have contempt for their her mother dies and she is sent to London to source, always deadly in films like this. enter into an arranged marriage. Now she’s Filmed in 1986. [PG]▼쩠 got a surly teenage daughter and suffers a Brewster McCloud (1970) C-101m. ★★★ D: daily existence with a pompous, ne’er-doRobert Altman. Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, well husband. Then she chances to meet a Michael Murphy, William Windom, Shelley young man who inspires her to assert herDuvall, Rene Auberjonois, Stacy Keach, self for the first time in her life. Poignant John Schuck, Margaret Hamilton. Patently and believable at every turn; even the husindescribable movie following exploits of band is portrayed as a three-dimensional owlish boy (Cort) whose ambition is to character. Abi Morgan and Laura Jones take wing and fly inside Houston Astroadapted Monica Ali’s novel. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 dome. Extremely bizarre; for certain tastes, extremely funny. Altman fans have head Bridal Path, The (1959-Scottish) C-95m. ★★★1 start. Panavision. [R]▼● ⁄2 D: Frank Launder. Bill Travers, Brewster’s Millions (1945) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bernadette O’Farrell, Alex MacKenzie, Eric Allan Dwan. Dennis O’Keefe, Helen Woodburn, Jack Lambert, John Rae. CharmWalker, Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ Anderson, June ing film of young islander who goes to Havoc, Gail Patrick, Mischa Auer, Joe Scottish mainland in search of a wife. Sawyer, Herbert Rudley. Bright, energetic Enhanced by beautiful scenery in color. Bride, The (1985) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Franc filming of venerable George Barr McCutcheon comedy about ordinary guy (this Roddam. Sting, Jennifer Beals, Clancy time, a returning GI) who must spend $1 Brown, David Rappaport, Geraldine Page, million in a month’s time in order to reAnthony Higgins, Veruschka, Quentin ceive major inheritance. First filmed in Crisp, Cary Elwes. Revisionist remake of 1914; remade in 1985.▼ BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN brilliantly Brewster’s Millions (1985) C-97m. ★★ captures look and feel of a great gothic horD: Walter Hill. Richard Pryor, John Candy, ror film—but fails to deliver on its promise Lonette McKee, Stephen Collins, Jerry Orof enlightened psychological approach to bach, Pat Hingle, Tovah Feldshuh, Joe Grithe story. Both Sting and Beals give onefasi, Hume Cronyn. Seventh film version note performances. Film is easily stolen by of venerable novel and play; here baseball Rappaport, as dwarf who befriends Dr. player Pryor has one month to spend $30 Frankenstein’s male monster (Brown); their million. Surefire premise squelched by unsequences make film worth watching. [PGfunny script and wooden direction. When 13]▼●쩠 Pryor and Candy can’t make it work, you Bride & Prejudice (2004-U.S.-British) C111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gurinder Chadha. Aishwarya know there’s something wrong. [PG] ▼●쩠 Bribe, The (1949) 98m. ★★ D: Robert Z. Rai, Martin Henderson, Daniel Gillies, Naveen Leonard. Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Andrews, Alexis Bledel, Namrata Shirodkar, Charles Laughton, Vincent Price, John Nitin Chandra Ganatra, Marsha Mason, Hodiak. Taylor looks uncomfortable playing Ashanti. Jane Austen goes ethnic in this cliche´federal man who almost sacrifices all for laden but lightly entertaining update of Pride sultry singer Gardner. and Prejudice involving a desperate Indian mother’s attempts to find husbands for her four Brick (2006) C-117m. ★★★ D: Rian Johnson. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, daughters. Rai is a stunning presence as Lalita, Nora Zehetner, Noah Fleiss, Matt O’Leary, the Elizabeth Bennet character, who becomes Noah Segan, Meagan Good, Emilie de Ravin, involved with an American hotel magnate [ 178 ]

named Darcy (Henderson). Interesting attempt final, riotous creation scene are highlights to produce a Bollywood musical for Western of this truly classic movie. Scripted by John audiences. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 L. Balderston and William Hurlbut. MarvelBride Came C.O.D., The (1941) 92m. ous Franz Waxman score, reused for many ★★1 ⁄2 D: William Keighley. James Cagney, subsequent films. Followed by SON OF Bette Davis, Stuart Erwin, Eugene PalFRANKENSTEIN; reworked in 1985 as lette, Jack Carson, George Tobias. UnTHE BRIDE. ▼●쩠 likely comedy team in vehicle made enBride of Re-Animator (1990) C-99m. ★★ joyable only by their terrific personalities; D: Brian Yuzna. Jeffrey Combs, Bruce he’s a flier, she’s an abducted bride.▼●쩠 Abbott, Claude Earl Jones, Fabiana Udenio, Bride Comes Home, The (1935) 82m. David Gale, Kathleen Kinmont. Follow-up ★★1 to RE-ANIMATOR with more gory fun ⁄2 D: Wesley Ruggles. Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Robert Young, Wilfrom that wacky pair of Dr. Frankenstein liam Collier, Sr., Edgar Kennedy. Breezy wannabes, Combs and Abbott. Strong fluff with wealthy Young competing against stuff, with much splicing of bloodied body roughneck MacMurray for Claudette’s afparts; wait till you see the crawling eyeball! fections in vintage comedy. This sort-of homage to BRIDE OF FRAN1 ★★ Bride for Sale (1949) 87m. KENSTEIN isn’t nearly as successful as ⁄2 D: William D. Russell. Claudette Colbert, Robert original RE-ANIMATOR. Nominally based Young, George Brent, Max Baer. Veteran on H. P. Lovecraft’s Herbert West—Restar trio carries on despite thin story of Animator. Unrated director’s cut also availfemale tax expert seeking wealthy spouse. able. Followed in 2003 by BEYOND RE★★ Bride Goes Wild, The (1948) 98m. D: ANIMATOR. [R]▼●쩠 Norman Taurog. Van Johnson, June AllyBride of the Gorilla (1951) 76m. ★★ D: son, Butch Jenkins, Hume Cronyn, Una Curt Siodmak. Raymond Burr, Barbara Merkel, Arlene Dahl, Richard Derr. Silly, Payton, Lon Chaney, Jr., Tom Conway, predictable farce in which irresponsible Paul Cavanagh. Surprisingly watchable children’s book author Johnson pretends to trash set on a South American jungle plantabe Jenkins’ widowed father in order to keep tion, where hulking Burr marries sexy illustrator Allyson from exposing his Payton—only to find himself the victim of a shenanigans. voodoo curse. Terrible but fun.▼쩠 Bride Is Much Too Beautiful, The (1956Bride of the Monster (1955) 69m. BOMB French) 85m. ★★ D: Pierre Gaspard-Huit. D: Edward D. Wood, Jr. Bela Lugosi, Tor Louis Jourdan, Brigitte Bardot, Micheline Johnson, Tony McCoy, Loretta King, HarPresle, Marcel Amont, Jean-Francois Calve. vey B. Dunn, George Becwar, Don Nagel, Paper-thin sex farce with Bardot a country Bud Osborne. A dissipated Lugosi creates girl who becomes a famous model, finds giant rubber octopus that terrorizes woodland herself the ‘‘bride’’ in a fake marriage. Aka stream. Huge Swedish wrestler Johnson proHER BRIDAL NIGHT.▼ vides added laughs as hulking manservant Bride of Chucky (1998) C-89m. ★★ D: Lobo. Another hilariously inept Grade Z Ronny Yu. Jennifer Tilly, Katherine Heigl, movie from the king of bad cinema. Sequel: Nick Stabile, John Ritter, Alexis Arquette, REVENGE OF THE DEAD (aka NIGHT Gordon Michael Woolvett, Kathy Najimy, OF THE GHOULS).▼●쩠 voice of Brad Dourif. Wicked trailer trash Bride of the Wind (2001) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Tilly works voodoo to revive Chucky (the Bruce Beresford. Sarah Wynter, Jonathan killer doll from three earlier CHILD’S Pryce, Vincent Perez, Simon Verhoeven, PLAY movies), and ends up a literal living Gregor Seberg. Passions run low in this doll herself. Better than you’d expect, with drab period drama set in fin-de-sie`cle Vigood lines and an impressively raunchy perenna about Alma Schindler, the real-life formance by Tilly, but it’s let down by muse for many celebrated men, including clumsy plotting. Followed by SEED OF composer Gustav Mahler (played as a CHUCKY. [R] ▼●쩠 milquetoast by Pryce). Slow as a funeral Bride of Frankenstein (1935) 75m. ★★★★ dirge, the movie features a blur of a central D: James Whale. Karloff (Boris Karloff), performance from Wynter. All talk about Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesart and obsession without anything to show iger, Elsa Lanchester, Una O’Connor, E. E. for it. [R] ▼쩠 Clive, Gavin Gordon, Douglas Walton, Bride of Vengeance (1949) 91m. ★★ D: O. P. Heggie, Dwight Frye, John Carradine. Mitchell Leisen. Paulette Goddard, John Eye-filling sequel to FRANKENSTEIN is Lund, Macdonald Carey, Raymond Burr, even better, with rich vein of dry wit runAlbert Dekker, Rose Hobart. Medium-warm ning through the chills. Inimitable Thesiger costumer of medieval Italy with Goddard plays weird doctor who compels Frankenas a Borgia sent to do mischief but instead stein into helping him make a mate for the falling in love. Monster; Lanchester plays both the ‘‘bride’’ Brideshead Revisited (2008-British) Cand, in amusing prologue, Mary Shelley. 133m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julian Jarrold. Matthew Goode, Pastoral interlude with blind hermit and Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thomp[ 179 ]

son, Michael Gambon, Greta Scacchi, JonaBride Wars (2009) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Gary than Cake, Patrick Malahide, Ed Stoppard, Winick. Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Felicity Jones, Joseph Beattie. Rethinking of Bryan Greenberg, Chris Pratt, Steve Howey, Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel, dramatized so Candice Bergen, Kristen Johnston, Michael memorably in a 1981 British TV miniseries. Arden, Victor Slezak. Dreadful comedy pits An unworldly working-class boy (Goode) arlifelong best friends against each other when rives at Oxford and is befriended by flamtheir dream weddings at N.Y.C.’s Plaza Hotel boyant Sebastian Flyte (Whishaw), who are inadvertently double-booked for the same reluctantly introduces him to his sister (Atwell) day and neither will budge. Both women and their imperious mother, who rules over scheme to destroy the other’s golden day as their massive estate—and their lives. Ragged they blame each other for the not-so-merry at times as it tries to compress many compleximix-up and act like 8-year-olds. Witless, conties into two hours’ length, but impeccably pertrived, and unfunny tale sets the women’s formed. Thompson is subtly brilliant as Lady movement back about four decades. It’s a Marchmain. Screenplay by Andrew Davies shame to see such attractive talents as Hudand Jeremy Brock. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 son and particularly Hathaway doing this Bridesmaid, The (2004-French) C-111m. kind of juvenile slapstick (and Hudson was ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Benoit Magimel, one of the producers). Only Johnston manLaura Smet, Aurore Clement, Bernard Le ages to mine any laughs as Hathaway’s desperate choice for her maid of honor. [PG]쩠 Coq, Sole`ne Bouton, Anna Mihalcea, Michel Duchaussoy, Suzanne Flon, Thomas ChaBride With White Hair, The (1993-Hong Kong) C-89m. ★★★ D: Ronny Yu. Brigitte brol. It’s happened to almost everyone, and it happens to upwardly mobile career man Lin, Leslie Cheung, Ng Chun-yu, Elaine Magimel: instant attraction to a stranger Lui, Nam Kit-ying. Beautifully made tale while attending a wedding. Premise is served based on a famous Chinese fable about rival with a typical Chabrol twist when the woman Ming Dynasty clans and a forbidden love he meets turns out to be a sociopath . . . or affair between a swordsman and a ‘‘wolf even worse. The extent to which she (Smet) girl’’ who possesses supernatural powers. cajoles him to ‘‘prove his love’’ by commitHighly effective blend of myth, romance and ting a fateful act ratchets up suspense little by super-stylized violence, plus elegant use of little. May not be up to the director’s mastercolor and widescreen, puts this a cut above pieces of the ’60s but it’s engrossing all the the usual Hong Kong actioner. Followed by a way. Based on a novel by Ruth Rendell. 쩠 sequel the same year. Panavision.▼●쩠 Brides of Dracula, The (1960-British) CBride Wore Black, The (1968-French) 85m. ★★★ D: Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Martita Hunt, Yvonne Monlaur, Freda JackJeanne Moreau, Claude Rich, Jean-Claude son, David Peel, Miles Malleson, Andree Brialy, Michel Bouquet, Michel Lonsdale, Melly. In the Carpathian Mountains, a young Charles Denner. Hitchcockian suspenser teacher (Monlaur) is attracted to a nobleman about Moreau tracking down and killing (Peel) held captive by his own mother (Hunt). the quintet of men who accidentally killed When the young woman sets him free, he’s her husband on their wedding day. Exciting, revealed as a vampire—and a disciple of entertaining homage to The Master, right Count Dracula. Vampire hunter Van Helsing down to the Bernard Herrmann score (al(Cushing) energetically comes to her aid. Exthough Truffaut omitted the twist ending of citing, colorful period horror, this first sequel the novel by William Irish, aka Cornell Woolrich).▼●쩠 to HORROR OF DRACULA is one of Hammer’s best thrillers. Dracula never turns up— Bride Wore Boots, The (1946) 86m. ★★ but you won’t miss him.▼●쩠 D: Irving Pichel. Barbara Stanwyck, RobBrides of Fu Manchu, The (1966-British) ert Cummings, Diana Lynn, Peggy Wood, C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Sharp. Christopher Robert Benchley, Natalie Wood, Willie Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Marie Versini, Tsai Best. Witless comedy of horse-loving Chin. Fu doesn’t give up easily, still bent Stanwyck saddled by Cummings, who on conquering the world by forcing sciendoes his best to win her total affection; tists to develop powerful ray gun. Sequel they all try but script is weak. to FACE OF FU MANCHU, not as good, Bride Wore Red, The (1937) 103m. ★★1⁄2 still diverting; followed by VENGEANCE D: Dorothy Arzner. Joan Crawford, Franchot OF FU MANCHU.▼쩠 Tone, Robert Young, Billie Burke, Reginald Bride Walks Out, The (1936) 81m. ★★ Owen, Lynne Carver, George Zucco, Dickie D: Leigh Jason. Barbara Stanwyck, Gene Moore. Lowly Crawford is thrust into sociRaymond, Robert Young, Ned Sparks, ety on the whim of a count and becomes the Helen Broderick, Hattie McDaniel. Flat romantic object of aristocrat-playboy Young comedy of model Stanwyck who, against and soulful peasant Tone. Glossy soaper her better instincts, goes domestic and based on a play by Ferenc Molna´r. ▼ weds brash, struggling engineer Raymond. Bridge, The (1960-German) 100m. ★★★ Buffs will enjoy spotting Ward Bond as a D: Bernhard Wicki. Folker Bohnet, Fritz taxi cab–driving extra.▼ Wepper, Michael Hinz, Frank Glaubrecht. [ 180 ]

Unrelenting account of teenage boys drafted quences make this a blockbuster. Seven Oscars into the German Army in 1945, as lastinclude Picture, Director, Actor (Guinness), resort effort to stem Allied invasion.▼쩠 Cinematography (Jack Hildyard), Editing Bridge, The (1999-French) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 (Peter Taylor), Scoring (Malcolm Arnold— D: Ge´rard Depardieu, Frederic Auburtin. who used the famous WW1 whistling tune Ge´rard Depardieu, Carole Bouquet, Charles ‘‘Colonel Bogey March’’), and Screenplay Berling, Stanislas Crevillen, Dominique Rey(by Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, based mond. Normandy, 1962. A housewife/ on Pierre Boulle’s novel). The writers were mother (Bouquet, never lovelier) finds reblacklisted, so Boulle—who spoke no Enlease from her working-class existence in glish—was credited with the script! Filmed in the arms of a handsome engineer (Berling). Ceylon. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Adultery is not exactly new subject material Bridges at Toko-Ri, The (1954) C-103m. ★★★1 for French cinema, but this is a subtle treat⁄2 D: Mark Robson. William Holden, ment of the dissolution of a marriage. CoGrace Kelly, Fredric March, Mickey director Depardieu shows a sure hand with Rooney, Robert Strauss, Earl Holliman. his actors and acquits himself well as the Powerful, thoughtful drama, based on the meek husband. Film’s biggest flaw is its James Michener best-seller, focusing on lack of resolution. Original title: UN PONT the conflicts and exploits of lawyer Holden ENTRE DEUX RIVES. ▼쩠 after he is recalled by the Navy to fly jets Bridge at Remagen, The (1969) C-115m. in Korea. While the flying sequences are ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Guillermin. George Segal, exciting—the special effects earned an Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Oscar—the ultimate futility of the Korean Dillman, E.G. Marshall, Peter Van Eyck. War is in no way deemphasized.▼●쩠 Well-acted film about group of Allies deBridges of Madison County, The (1995) fending bridge toward the end of WW2 C-135m. ★★★ D: Clint Eastwood. Clint can’t quite overcome familiar plot line; Eastwood, Meryl Streep, Annie Corley, lots of good explosions for those who Victor Slezak, Jim Haynie. In the 1960s, an care. Panavision. [M/PG]▼쩠 itinerant National Geographic photographer Bridge of San Luis Rey, The (1944) comes to Iowa to shoot covered bridges and 89m. ★★ D: Rowland V. Lee. Lynn Bari, chances to meet a woman who’s vaguely Nazimova, Louis Calhern, Akim Tamiroff, dissatisfied with life as farm-bound wife and Francis Lederer, Blanche Yurka, Donald mother. Modern spin on BRIEF ENCOUNWoods. Thornton Wilder’s moody, unusual TER (based on Robert James Waller’s hugely story of five people meeting doom on popular book) features a winning and vulneraa rickety bridge makes a slow-moving ble Eastwood and a wondrous Streep as an film. Previously filmed in 1929 and remade unlikely but convincing couple. A satisfying in 2004. ▼●쩠 and romantic film, if a bit long and slow at Bridge of San Luis Rey, The (2004-Britishtimes. That bass player in the blues band French-Spanish) C-120m. ★★ D: Mary Mcwho gets a closeup is Eastwood’s son, Kyle. Guckian. F. Murray Abraham, Kathy Bates, [PG-13]▼●쩠 Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001-U.S.-BritishFrench) C-94m. ★★★ D: Sharon Maguire. De Niro, E`milie Dequenne, Adriana Domı´nguez, Harvey Keitel, Samuel Le Bihan, Rene´e Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Pilar Lo´pez de Ayala, John Lynch, DominGemma Jones, Jim Broadbent, Sally Phillips, ique Pinon, Mark Polish, Michael Polish. Shirley Henderson, James Callis, Embeth DaFive people die when a rickety bridge colvidtz, Celia Imrie, Honor Blackman. Enterlapses in 18th-century Peru; a priest investitaining, often hilarious adaptation of Helen gates their lives to find out what brought Fielding’s book about a 32-year-old single them all together on that tragic day. Prewoman and her misadventures with a pair viously filmed in 1929 and 1944, this visuof men—her scoundrel of a boss and a tightally plush version of Thornton Wilder’s lipped barrister who seems to be a snob. Pulitzer Prize–winning novel exploring fate, Zellweger, sporting a perfect British accent reason, and religion is emotionally inert and and extra pounds, is delightful as the selfoverlong, with most of its illustrious cast givdeprecating title character. Followed by a sequel. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 ing surprisingly lifeless performances. [PG] 쩠 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004British) C-161m. ★★★★ D: David Lean. U.S.-British-French-German-Irish) C-108m. ★★ William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack HawD: Beeban Kidron. Rene´e Zellweger, Hugh kins, Sessue Hayakawa, Geoffrey Horne, Grant, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Gemma James Donald, Andre Morell, Ann Sears. Jones, Jacinda Barrett, Sally Phillips, James British soldiers in Japanese prison camp Callis, Shirley Henderson, James Faulkner, build a bridge as a morale exercise—under Celia Imrie. Pointless sequel to the hit romansingle-minded leadership of British colonel tic comedy, centering on the title character’s Guinness—as Holden and Hawkins plot to involvement with boyfriend Firth and exdestroy it. Psychological battle of wills suitor Grant, and her endless mishaps. Appeal combined with high-powered action seof the original has largely evaporated, with [ 181 ]

likable, pleasingly chunky Bridget transformed into a charmless dunce. Only comes alive when Grant is on-screen, which isn’t often enough. Coscripted by Helen Fielding, based on her published sequel to BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Bridge to Nowhere (1986-New Zealand) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Ian Mune. Bruno Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Philip Gordon, Margaret Umbers, Stephen Judd, Shelley Luxford, Matthew Hunter. Kiwi variation on a familiar theme: backpacking kids raise the ire of hermit Lawrence, causing a war for survival. Well made but trite; features a solid role for Lawrence, the ubiquitous star of New Zealand films.▼ Bridge Too Far, A (1977-British) C-175m. ★★ D: Richard Attenborough. Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Kruger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, Liv Ullmann, Arthur Hill, John Ratzenberger. Lifeless, overproduced version of the fine Cornelius Ryan book about disastrous 1944 Allied airdrop behind German lines in Holland. Some prints run 158m. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Bridge to Terabithia (2007) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gabor Csupo. Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Robert Patrick, Zooey Deschanel, Bailey Madison, Lauren Clinton. Faithful adaptation of Katherine Paterson’s much-admired juvenile novel depicts a young loner (Hutcherson) who finds a soul mate in a free-spirited girl who moves in next door (Robb). Her generous nature has a profound effect on Jess; together they fashion a hideaway in the nearby woods and imagine it to be a magic kingdom. Then reality intrudes. Nicely captures the heightened emotions of sensitive young people, and boasts fine performances, but by literally showing the world they envision, the film undermines the book’s celebration of imagination. [PG]쩠 Bridge to the Sun (1961-U.S.-French) 113m. ★★★ D: Etienne Perier. Carroll Baker, James Shigeta, James Yagi. Well-intentioned telling of Southern girl Baker who marries Japanese diplomat Shigeta and moves to Japan at outbreak of WW2. Based on Gwen Terasaki’s autobiography. Brief Crossing (2003-French) C-80m. ★★ D: Catherine Breillat. Sarah Pratt, Gilles Guillain. A thirtysomething Englishwoman and a 16-year-old French boy meet, converse, and engage in a one-night stand while on board a ferry crossing the English Channel. Another of Breillat’s cynical forays into malefemale expectation and manipulation, this one offering her usual generalizations about male sexuality. Leaves a bitter aftertaste.

D: David Lean. Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Cyril Raymond, Joyce Carey. Two ordinary strangers, both married, meet at a train station and find themselves drawn into a short but poignant romance. Intense and unforgettable, underscored by perfect use of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. Adapted by Noel Coward from his one-act play ‘‘Still Life’’ (from Tonight at Eight-thirty); screenplay by director Lean and Ronald Neame. A truly wonderful film. Remade as a TV movie in 1974 with Richard Burton and Sophia Loren. Later a stage musical. ▼●쩠 Brief History of Time, A (1992-U.S.British) C-84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Errol Morris. Another outstanding documentary from Morris (GATES OF HEAVEN, THE THIN BLUE LINE), this one a portrait of cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who’s afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and communicates verbally with a voice synthesizer. In Hawking’s best-selling book, for which the film is named, he explains the nature of the universe in layman’s terms; even those who are bored or perplexed by science will enjoy this unique film.▼ Brief Vacation, A (1973-Italian) C-106m. ★★★ D: Vittorio De Sica. Florinda Bolkan, Renato Salvatori, Daniel Quenaud, Jose Maria Prada, Teresa Gimpera. Poorly educated woman leaves terrible job, despicable in-laws, and callous husband for a comparatively pleasant stay in a TB sanitorium. De Sica’s sure-handed direction and Bolkan’s knowing performance make this worth watching. [PG]쩠 Brigadoon (1954) C-108m. ★★★ D: Vincente Minnelli. Gene Kelly, Van Johnson, Cyd Charisse, Elaine Stewart, Barry Jones, Hugh Laing. Americans Kelly and Johnson discover magical Scottish village in this entertaining filmization of Lerner & Loewe Broadway hit. Overlooked among 1950s musicals, it may lack innovations but has its own quiet charm, and lovely score, including ‘‘The Heather on the Hill.’’ CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Brigham Young (1940) 114m. ★★ D: Henry Hathaway. Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Dean Jagger, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Jane Darwell, Jean Rogers, Mary Astor, Vincent Price. Well-intentioned but ludicrous depiction of Mormon leader with Jagger nominally in the lead, focus shifting to tepid romance between Power and Darnell; Astor all wrong as homespun wife. ▼쩠 Bright Angel (1991) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Fields. Dermot Mulroney, Lili Taylor, Sam Shepard, Burt Young, Valerie Perrine, Bill Pullman, Mary Kay Place, Kevin Tighe, Sheila McCarthy, Delroy Lindo, Benjamin Bratt. Teenaged Montana boy, shaken by events at home, agrees to take a runaway girl to Wyoming so she ▼쩠 Brief Encounter (1945-British) 85m. ★★★★ can bail her brother out of jail. Uneven, [ 182 ]

sometimes affecting slice of life, with a Bright Road (1953) 69m. ★★ D: Gerald very stylized script by novelist Richard Mayer. Dorothy Dandridge, Harry BelaFord and a cast full of familiar faces. fonte, Robert Horton, Philip Hepburn. WellMulroney is first-rate in the lead. [R]▼ intentioned but labored tale of black teacher in Bright Eyes (1934) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: David small Southern town trying to solve her young Butler. Shirley Temple, James Dunn, Judith pupils’ problems. Belafonte’s film debut. Allen, Jane Withers, Lois Wilson, Charles SelBright Victory (1951) 97m. ★★★ D: Mark lon. Early Shirley, and pretty good, with juveRobson. Arthur Kennedy, Peggy Dow, nile villainy from Withers in tale of custody Julia (Julie) Adams, James Edwards, Will battle over recently orphaned Temple. Includes Geer, Nana Bryant, Jim Backus, Murray ‘‘On the Good Ship Lollipop.’’ Also shown in Hamilton, Richard Egan. Touching accomputer-colored version.▼쩠 count of blinded ex-soldier who slowly Bright Leaf (1950) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael readjusts to civilian life, even finding love. Curtiz. Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, PaPotentially sticky subject handled well, tricia Neal, Jack Carson, Donald Crisp. with Kennedy excellent in lead role. Rock Loose chronicle of 19th-century tobacco Hudson can be glimpsed as a soldier. farmer (Cooper) building successful cigaBrighty of the Grand Canyon (1967) C89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Foster. Joseph Cotten, rette empire, seeking revenge on old enemies and finding romance.쩠 Pat Conway, Karl Swenson, Dick Foran, Bright Leaves (2004-U.S.-British) C-107m. Jason Clark. Harmless tale of a burro in ★★★ D: Ross McElwee. Another filmic essay the title locale; best for the kids.▼쩠 by McElwee, this one about investigating his Bright Young Things (2004-British) Cfamily’s roots in North Carolina. On the one 105m. ★★ D: Stephen Fry. Emily Mortimer, hand, there is the intriguing discovery that his Stephen Campbell Moore, James McAvoy, great-grandfather (supposedly portrayed, in Michael Sheen, David Tennant, Fenella fictional guise, by Gary Cooper in the 1950 Woolgar, Dan Aykroyd, Jim Broadbent, movie BRIGHT LEAF) may have been an Simon Callow, Jim Carter, Stockard Chanunsung hero of the tobacco industry. Then ning, Richard E. Grant, Julia McKenzie, Peter again, there is terrible guilt in pondering the O’Toole, Imelda Staunton, Margaret Tyzack, damage that tobacco has wrought on the Bill Paterson, John Mills. Fry’s adaptation of human race. Amusing, ironic, thoughtful, Evelyn Waugh’s novel Vile Bodies tries to and highly personal. Patricia Neal, costar of draw parallels between contemporary society BRIGHT LEAF, appears briefly. 쩠 and its obsession with celebrity and the hedoBright Lights, Big City (1988) C-110m. nism of the 1930s. These ‘‘bright young ★★1 ⁄2 D: James Bridges. Michael J. Fox, things’’ live in a nonstop party atmosphere Kiefer Sutherland, Phoebe Cates, Swoosie even while flames are igniting throughout Kurtz, Frances Sternhagen, Tracy Pollan, Europe. Curiously annoying, despite a John Houseman, Charlie Schlatter, Jason strong cast (including 94-year-old Mills, in Robards, Dianne Wiest, William Hickey, a silent cameo). Fry, making his directorial debut, appears briefly as a chauffeur. [R]쩠 Kelly Lynch, David Hyde Pierce. Everyone gets an A for effort on this adaptation of Brilliant Lies (1996-Australian) C-93m. ★★★ D: Richard Franklin. Anthony LaPagJay McInerney’s popular novel. Fox gives a good performance as the young Midwestlia, Gia Carides, Zoe Carides, Ray Barrett, erner whose life has started coming apart at Michael Veitch, Catherine Wilkin, Neil the seams in N.Y.C., where he gets caught Melville, Grant Tilly. As testimony is given up in an endless cycle of drugs and in a woman’s sexual harassment suit, her nightlife. But the more cerebral aspects of boss is shown to be a chauvinist pig . . . but the book (and some of its purple prose) she’s revealed as promiscuous gold digger don’t translate to film . . . and it takes a long whose own sister doubts her. The ultimate time to develop any real sympathy for Fox truth proves to be more complicated than it and his plight. Sutherland is convincingly appears. Absorbing, well-acted adaptation smarmy as his druggie pal. [R] ▼●쩠 of David Williamson’s play about the subBrighton Beach Memoirs (1986) C-110m. jective nature of truth, which unfolds in ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gene Saks. Blythe Danner, Bob fragmented flashbacks as each party gives Dishy, Jonathan Silverman, Brian Drilltheir side of the story. LaPaglia and Gia Carides are a couple in real life. ▼ inger, Stacey Glick, Judith Ivey, Lisa Waltz, Jason Alexander, Steven Hill, Fyvush Finkel. Brimstone & Treacle (1982-British) C85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Loncraine. Sting, Pleasant, if mostly undistinguished, adaptation of Neil Simon’s celebrated autobiographical Denholm Elliott, Joan Plowright, Suzanna play about two families living under the same Hamilton. Strange, intriguing (but often unroof in 1937 Brooklyn. Oddly cast—Danner pleasant) film about a young man who worms and Ivey play Jewish sisters—with attractive his way into the lives of a vulnerable middleproduction design; Dishy underplays nicely as class couple, whose daughter lies in a coma. narrator Silverman’s father. Followed by BIGood performance by Sting. [R]▼쩠 LOXI BLUES and (on TV) BROADWAY Bringing Down the House (2003) C-105m. ★★ D: Adam Shankman. Steve Martin, Queen BOUND. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [ 183 ]

Latifah, Eugene Levy, Joan Plowright, Jean a smorgasbord of psychos; sub-par bloodSmart, Kimberly J. Brown, Angus T. Jones, bath doesn’t even have the usual Peckinpah Missi Pyle, Michael Rosenbaum, Betty White, fast pace. [R]▼●쩠 Steve Harris. Martin is wasted in this crude colBring On the Night (1985-British) C-97m. ★★★ D: Michael Apted. Sting, Omar Hakim, lection of racial and sexual comic stereotypes as an uptight WASP tax attorney whose InDarryl Jones, Kenny Kirkland, Branford ternet chat-room mate turns out to be a black Marsalis, Dolette McDonald, Janice Penconvict (Latifah) who wants him to clear her darvis, Trudie Styler, Miles Copeland. Firstname. Naturally she loosens him up while rate musical documentary about the formastraightening out his kids and helping him land tion of Sting’s rock-jazz band, culminating a big deal at work. Strictly a routine big-screen in their first concert performance (persitcom, unless you find the prospect of Martin forming the serious, often politically oritalking jive and bustin’ a groove in hip-hop ented material on the Dream of the Blue garb to be the height of hilarity. Latifah Turtles album). More than just a concert movie, thanks in large part to director coexecutive-produced. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Bringing Out the Dead (1999) C-121m. Apted. Handsomely photographed by Ralf ★★★ D: Martin Scorsese. Nicolas Cage, PaBode. [PG-13]▼●쩠 tricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Brink of Life (1958-Swedish) 84m. ★★1⁄2 Rhames, Tom Sizemore, Marc Anthony, D: Ingmar Bergman. Eva Dahlbeck, InMary Beth Hurt, Cliff Curtis, Aida Turturro. grid Thulin, Bibi Andersson, Barbro Hiort Life on the N.Y.C. streets from the point of af Ornas, Erland Josephson, Max von view of a paramedic: a surreal, episodic film Sydow, Gunnar Sjoberg. Realistic, almost about a burntout case whose only hope for documentary-like chronicle of the lives of sanity and salvation is to save someone’s three women in a maternity ward. Meticulife. Based on the book by former EMS lously filmed, but also gloomy and static; driver Joe Connelly, told in harrowing and one of Bergman’s lesser efforts.▼ visually arresting fashion. Script by Paul Brink’s Job, The (1978) C-103m. ★★★ D: Schrader; remarkable cinematography by William Friedkin. Peter Falk, Peter Boyle, Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), Warren Oates, Robert Richardson. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Bringing Up Baby (1938) 102m. ★★★★ D: Gena Rowlands, Paul Sorvino, Sheldon Howard Hawks. Cary Grant, Katharine Leonard. Entertaining, comically oriented Hepburn, Charlie Ruggles, May Robson, account of the infamous 1950 Boston heist, Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Catlett, Fritz Feld, masterminded by Falk and motley gang of Ward Bond. In her sole venture into accomplices. Excellent period and locaslapstick, Hepburn plays a madcap heiress— tion flavor. [PG]▼ ‘‘Baby’’ is her pet leopard—who sets her Britannia Hospital (1982-British) C-115m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Lindsay Anderson. Leonard Rossights on absentminded zoologist Grant and inadvertently (?) proceeds to make a shambles siter, Graham Crowden, Malcolm Mcof his life. Not a hit when first released, Dowell, Joan Plowright, Jill Bennett, Marthis is now considered the definitive screwsha Hunt, Frank Grimes, Roland Culver, ball comedy and one of the fastest, funniest Fulton Mackay, Vivian Pickles, Mark films ever made; grand performances by all. Hamill, Liz Smith, Alan Bates, Arthur Screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Lowe. Absurdist comedy about a hospital Wilde, from Wilde’s original story. More or beleaguered by labor woes, protest groups, less remade as WHAT’S UP, DOC? Also impatient patients, a resident mad doctor, shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 and an impending visit by the Queen Bring It On (2000) C-99m. ★★★ D: Peyton Mother. Heavy-handed satire, but entertainReed. Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse ing nonetheless, with some actors in continBradford, Gabrielle Union, Clare Kramer, Niuing roles from Anderson’s IF . . . and O cole Bilderback, Rini Bell, Lindsay Sloane, LUCKY MAN! Written by David Sherwin. Richard Hillman, Ian Roberts, Holmes Ran[R]▼쩠 dolph. High-spirited, high-energy movie about Britannia Mews SEE: Forbidden Street, a championship high school cheerleading The squad and its new captain (Dunst), who learns Broadcast News (1987) C-131m. ★★★ D: that their routines were stolen from a black, James L. Brooks. William Hurt, Albert inner-city school. Sharp writing (by Jessica Brooks, Holly Hunter, Robert Prosky, Lois Bendinger), driving direction, and likable perChiles, Joan Cusack, Peter Hackes, Jack formances make this a winner. Followed by Nicholson. Appealing and intelligent comfour DVD sequels. [PG-13]▼쩠 edy about a highly charged, neurotic woman Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia who’s a successful TV news producer, and her attraction to a pretty-boy anchorman (1974) C-112m. ★★ D: Sam Peckinpah. Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Gig Young, who joins her network—and represents Robert Webber, Helmut Dantine, Emilio everything she hates about TV news. All Fernandez, Kris Kristofferson. American three stars are fine, but Brooks is a special piano player in Mexico gets involved with standout as an ace reporter, and Hunter’s [ 184 ]

★★1 best friend, who’s really in love with her. ⁄2 D: Roy Del Ruth. Robert Taylor, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Binnie Barnes, Nicholson contributes a funny unbilled perBuddy Ebsen, Judy Garland, Sophie formance as the network’s star anchorman. Tucker, Charles Igor Gorin, Raymond Written by the director; set and filmed in Walburn, Robert Benchley, Willie Howard, Washington, D.C. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ Billy Gilbert. Not up to 1936 MELODY, D: Frank Broadway Bill (1934) 102m. with tuneful but forgettable songs, overbearCapra. Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, Waling Tucker, and elephantine finale. Powell’s ter Connolly, Helen Vinson, Lynne Overdancing is great and Garland sings ‘‘Dear man, Raymond Walburn, Clarence Muse, Mr. Gable.’’ ▼●쩠 Douglass Dumbrille, Charles Lane, Ward Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) 102m. Bond, Margaret Hamilton, Clara Blandick, ★★★ D: Norman Taurog. Fred Astaire, Frankie Darro, Jason Robards (Sr.), and Eleanor Powell, George Murphy, Frank Broadway Bill. Baxter, who’s ‘‘sold out’’ Morgan, Ian Hunter, Florence Rice, Lynne and married money, risks his marriage and Carver, Ann Morriss. Friendship and rivalry his future on a racehorse; Loy, his wife’s between dance partners Astaire and Murphy sister, seems to be the only one who bespark delightful, underrated MGM musical, lieves in him. The unremitting good cheer with hilarious vignettes, fine performance of this Capra concoction overcomes its flaws. from Astaire, outstanding Cole Porter Script by Robert Riskin, from the Mark songs, and matchless Astaire-Powell numHellinger story ‘‘On the Nose.’’ Remade bers like ‘‘Begin the Beguine’’ (danced (by Capra) in 1950 as RIDING HIGH— twice in the finale). If only they’d tie up the using some of the same actors, and even plot a bit sooner. Douglas McPhail (unsome of the same footage. Look fast for a billed) introduces the Porter standard ‘‘I young, blonde Lucille Ball as a telephone Concentrate On You.’’ ▼●쩠 operator.▼●쩠 Broadway Musketeers (1938) 62m. ★★1⁄2 Broadway Danny Rose (1984) 86m. ★★★ D: John Farrow. Margaret Lindsay, Ann D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Mia Sheridan, Marie Wilson, John Litel, Janet Farrow, Nick Apollo Forte, Sandy Baron, Chapman, Richard Bond. Three women Corbett Monica, Morty Gunty, Will Jordan, who grew up together in an orphanage meet Milton Berle, Joe Franklin. Allen is wonup again as adults, having taken very differderful as pathetic small-time manager who ent paths in life. Snappy remake of the tries to boost career of over-the-hill singer melodramatic THREE ON A MATCH, Forte. Terrific casting, funny show-biz jokes with some interesting plot variations and a but eventually wears a bit thin; a slight but couple of songs from Sheridan. amusing film. [PG]▼●쩠 Broadway Rhythm (1944) C-114m. ★★ Broadway Melody, The (1929) 100m. D: Roy Del Ruth. George Murphy, Ginny ★★1 Simms, Charles Winninger, Gloria De ⁄2 D: Harry Beaumont. Bessie Love, Haven, Nancy Walker, Ben Blue, Tommy Anita Page, Charles King, Jed Prouty, KenGargan, Katharine Alexander. Mediocre neth Thomson, Edward Dillon, Mary musical of songwriter Ayres and wife, Doran. Early talkie musical curio about a singer MacDonald, having careers split up pair of stage-struck sisters who seek fame their marriage.▼쩠 on the Great White Way and fall for a Broadway: The Golden Age (2004) Ccharming song-and-dance man. This was ★★★1 109m. ⁄2 D: Rick McKay. Combining the first musical to win a Best Picture Acadinterviews with more than one hundred veteremy Award. Awfully dated today, but ans of Broadway during its heyday (roughly there’s still a good score by Arthur Freed the 1930s through the 1960s), archival footage and Nacio Herb Brown: Title tune, ‘‘You of N.Y.C., and rarely seen performance exWere Meant for Me,’’ and ‘‘The Wedding cerpts, this simple, straightforward film sucof the Painted Doll.’’ Some sequences origiceeds in capturing both an era and a way of nally in Technicolor; remade as TWO life for a generation of performers and theaterGIRLS ON BROADWAY.▼●쩠 goers. Highlights include a tribute to the reBroadway Melody of 1936 (1935) 101m. vered Laurette Taylor and a television ★★★ D: Roy Del Ruth. Jack Benny, Eleaperformance of John Raitt singing the ‘‘Solilnor Powell, Robert Taylor, Una Merkel, oquy’’ from Carousel. A rich, deeply moving Sid Silvers, Buddy Ebsen. Pleasant musiexperience for anyone who loves Broadway comedy with Winchell-like columnist Benny theater or wants to introduce its wonders to a trying to frame producer Taylor via dancer new generation. 쩠 Powell, whose solo spots are pure delight. Brokeback Mountain (2005) C-134m. ★★★ Arthur Freed–Nacio Herb Brown songs: D: Ang Lee. Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllen‘‘You Are My Lucky Star,’’ ‘‘Broadway haal, Randy Quaid, Michelle Williams, Rhythm,’’ ‘‘I’ve Got a Feelin’ You’re Anne Hathaway, Graham Beckel, Anna Foolin’ ’’ (which earned an Oscar for Faris, Linda Cardellini, Roberta Maxwell, Dave Gould’s dance direction).▼●쩠 Peter McRobbie. In 1963, two young cowBroadway Melody of 1938 (1937) 110m. boys meet while sheepherding in Wyoming [ 185 ]

and unexpectedly fall in love. Despite each formances. One of Griffith’s more modsubsequently marrying and raising a family, est, and more successful, films. Remade they continue their relationship through the in England in 1936.▼●쩠 years, always aware of the external limits Broken Bridges (2006) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: placed on their true feelings. Bold subject Steven Goldmann. Toby Keith, Kelly Presmatter (for mainstream audiences) is given ton, Lindsey Haun, Tess Harper, Anna sensitive if traditional treatment by director Maria Horsford, Katie Finneran, Josh HenLee; slow, stately, and often moving, but derson, Willie Nelson, BeBe Winans, Burt also a bit distant. Ledger is excellent in a Reynolds. The deaths in a training accident complex, brooding role, and the whole cast of five GIs from the same small Tennessee matches him. Oscar winner for Director, town set in motion a series of events involvAdapted Screenplay (by Larry McMurtry ing two of the town’s natives: Miami TV and Diana Ossana, from Annie Proulx’s reporter Preston, who is long estranged from short story), and Original Score (Gustavo her family, and troubled, fading countrySantaolalla). [R]쩠 western singer Keith, the father of her adolesBrokedown Palace (1999) C-100m. ★★ D: cent daughter. Languid tale of regret and recJonathan Kaplan. Claire Danes, Kate Beckonciliation offers a rose-colored view of insale, Bill Pullman, Jacqueline Kim, Lou small-town America. Country singer Keith’s Diamond Phillips, Daniel Lapaine, Tom film debut; produced by Country Music Television. [PG-13]쩠 Amandes, Aimee Graham, John Doe. Bythe-numbers cautionary melodrama in which Broken English (1996-New Zealand) C92m. ★★★ D: Gregor Nicholas. Aleksandra naive best pals Danes and Beckinsale, on a trip to Thailand to celebrate their high school Vujcic, Julian Arahanga, Rade Serbedzija, graduation, are set up by a drug smuggler Marton Csokas, Madeline McNamara. A and tossed into prison. Done in by its sheer Croatian tyrant living in New Zealand goes predictability—and lack of chemistry beballistic when his daughter becomes romantween the stars. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 tically involved with a hunkish Maori cook. Broken Arrow (1950) C-93m. ★★★ D: Consistently absorbing drama—and an inDelmer Daves. James Stewart, Jeff Chanteresting thematic companion piece to dler, Debra Paget, Will Geer, Jay SilverONCE WERE WARRIORS—gets its surheels. Authentic study of 1870s Apache prising NC-17 rating from an exuberant Chief Cochise (Chandler) and ex-Army bed-breaking scene of young lovers in love. man (Stewart) trying to seek accord beSeconds were shaved for R version available on video. [NC-17]▼ tween feuding Indians and settlers. Flavorful and effective; good action sequences. Broken English (2007-U.S.-French) C97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zoe Cassavetes. Parker Screenplay, credited to Michael Blankfort, was actually written by Albert Maltz, Posey, Melvil Poupaud, Drea de Matteo, then a blacklistee. Chandler played CochJustin Theroux, Gena Rowlands, Peter Bogise again in THE BATTLE AT APACHE danovich, Tim Guinee, James McCaffrey, PASS. Later a TV series.▼쩠 Josh Hamilton, Phyllis Somerville, Dana Broken Arrow (1996) C-108m. ★★ D: John Ivey, Bernadette Lafont, Roy Thinnes. N.Y.C. Woo. John Travolta, Christian Slater, Sacareer woman Posey makes consistently bad mantha Mathis, Delroy Lindo, Bob Gunton, choices in men, so when a genuinely nice, Frank Whaley, Howie Long, Vondie Curtis freewheeling Frenchman (Poupaud) is atHall, Jack Thompson, Kurtwood Smith, tracted to her she doesn’t know how to reDaniel von Bargen. Extraordinarily stupid spond. Uneven romantic comedy is salvaged action movie about a high-security, highby Posey’s empathetic performance, in a tech Air Force pilot who deliberately rounded portrait of a woman who keeps crashes a U.S. plane in the midst of Utah screwing up her life because she has no selfand plans to hold its nuclear weapons for esteem. Feature writing-directing debut for ransom. He doesn’t reckon with his younger Cassavetes, whose mother (Rowlands) plays copilot (Slater) or the U.S. park ranger Posey’s mom. [PG-13]쩠 (Mathis) who join in a determined pursuit Broken Flowers (2005) C-106m. ★★ D: to thwart him. Packed with director Woo’s Jim Jarmusch. Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, expected action set pieces and stunts, but Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Tilda SwinTravolta’s over-the-top bad guy is fairly ton, Frances Conroy, Christopher McDonmonotonous, and story continuity/credibilald, Julie Delpy, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Heather ity is almost nonexistent. Did it have to be Alicia Simms, Alexis Dziena, Mark Webthis dumb? Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 ber, Larry Fessenden. Deadpan Don Juan Broken Blossoms (1919) 95m. ★★★ D: (Murray) receives an unsigned letter from a D. W. Griffith. Lillian Gish, Richard former lover telling him he has a 19-yearBarthelmess, Donald Crisp, Arthur Howold son. His neighbor (Wright), an amateur ard, Edward Piel. Dated but lovely film of sleuth, convinces him that he should look Chinaman Barthelmess protecting frail Gish up all his old girlfriends to learn who sent from clutches of brutal father Crisp; still the note, and, reluctantly, he does. Writercreates a mood sustained by sensitive perdirector Jarmusch, the ultimate movie mini[ 186 ]

malist, is as inscrutable as ever, even with spoiled heiress who joins his entourage of an A-list cast. Intriguing but not really satisescapees from reality. Locke’s rich-bitch fying. That’s Murray’s real-life son Homer character is a bit hard to take, but neither near the end of the film. [R]▼쩠 she nor some superfluous subplots can sour Broken Hearts Club—A Romantic Comthe charm of this film. Look fast for Hank ★★1 Worden! [PG]▼●쩠 edy, The (2000) C-94m. ⁄2 D: Greg Berlanti. Zach Braff, Dean Cain, Andrew Bronco Buster (1952) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Keegan, Nia Long, John Mahoney, Mary Budd Boetticher. John Lund, Scott Brady, McCormack, Matt McGrath, Timothy OlyJoyce Holden, Chill Wills, Casey Tibbs. phant, Billy Porter, Justin Theroux, Jennifer Minor story of rodeo star Lund helping Coolidge, Chris Weitz. Comedy-drama about Brady learn the ropes, forced to fight him gay friends in West Hollywood who harass for Holden’s love. Good rodeo action. each other as much as they support one Bronte¨ (1983-Irish-U.S.) C-88m. ★★★ D: another . . . and seemingly spend every wakDelbert Mann. Julie Harris. Engrossing ing moment talking about their troubled relaperformance by Harris portraying Chartionships. Veers from empathic and well lotte Bronte¨ in one-woman show recountobserved to self-consciously clever and tireing her life and family troubles via intimate, some. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 first-person monologues. Unusual, literate Broken Lance (1954) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: film benefits from all-location filming in Edward Dmytryk. Spencer Tracy, Robert Ireland. Script by William Luce from his Wagner, Jean Peters, Richard Widmark, radio play based on Bronte¨’s own writings. Katy Jurado, Hugh O’Brian, Eduard Franz, Bronte¨ Sisters, The (1979-French) CEarl Holliman, E. G. Marshall. Tracy is 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andre´ Te´chine´. Isabelle superlative in tight-knit script (by RichAdjani, Marie-France Pisier, Isabelle ard Murphy, from an Oscar-winning Philip Huppert, Pascal Gregory, Patrick Magee. Yordan story) about patriarchal rancher Well-mounted but slightly sluggish porwho finds he’s losing control of his cattle trait of the famous literary sisters and their empire and his family is fragmenting into repressed lives. Worth a look mainly to see warring factions. Remake of HOUSE OF three of France’s most appealing actresses STRANGERS (although it owes more to in one film. Also shot in English-language King Lear!). CinemaScope.▼●쩠 version, which doesn’t play as well. Bronx Tale, A (1993) C-122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Broken Lizard’s Club Dread SEE: Club Dread Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro, Chazz PalBroken Lullaby (1932) 77m. ★★★ D: Ernst minteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra, Lubitsch. Lionel Barrymore, Nancy CarTaral Hicks, Kathrine Narducci, Clem Casroll, Phillips Holmes, ZaSu Pitts, Lucien erta, Alfred Sauchelli, Jr., Frank PietrangoLittlefield, Emma Dunn. Excellent drama lare, Joe Pesci. Longish but well-observed of French soldier who feels guilty for killslice of life, as a boy grows up with two ing German during war, then falls in love heroes of conflicting nature and beliefs—his with dead man’s sweetheart. Retitled: THE loving, hard-working father, and the neighMAN I KILLED. borhood capo, who takes him as a personal Broken Rainbow (1985) C/B&W-70m. prote´ge´. Written by Palminteri, and based ★★★ D: Maria Florio, Victoria Mudd. Naron his play; an impressive directorial debut rator: Martin Sheen. Historical voices: Burfor De Niro, who brings a keen eye and gess Meredith. Translator: Buffy Sainteequally strong sensibility to this potent (but Marie. Touching, biting, appropriately ultimately upbeat) material. Incidentally, to one-sided, yet sometimes unnecessarily re-create the Bronx of the 1960s, De Niro romanticized documentary about the relohad to shoot this in Brooklyn and Queens! cation—and resistance—of Navajo Indi[R]▼●쩠 ans in Arizona. A Best Documentary Bronx War, The (1990) C-91m. ★★ D: Joseph B. Vasquez. Joseph, Fabio Urena, Academy Award winner.▼쩠 Broken Sky (1982-Swedish) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Charmaine Cruz, Andre Brown, Marlene D: Ingrid Thulin. Susanna Kall, Thommy Forte, Frances Colon, Miguel Sierra, Kim Berggren, Agneta Eckemyr, Margaretha West. Ambitious, gritty but annoyingly Krook. Ambitious but uneven account of uneven actioner chronicling the plight of 13-year-old Kall, in the process of breakTito Sunshine (Joseph), a product of the ing free from her childhood, and her relamean streets of The Bronx, whose good tionships with various family members. intentions are obscured by the fact that Thulin also wrote the script. he’s a crack dealer. Dramatically overBronco Billy (1980) C-119m. ★★★ D: Clint wrought, unrelentingly violent and proEastwood. Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, fane, but not without its moments. Available Geoffrey Lewis, Scatman Crothers, Bill on video in R and unrated versions.▼쩠 McKinney, Sam Bottoms, Dan Vadis, SiBrood, The (1979-Canadian) C-90m. erra Pecheur, Juliette Lewis. Enjoyable yarn BOMB D: David Cronenberg. Oliver Reed, about self-styled cowboy hero who runs a Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, Cindy Hinds, fly-by-night Wild West show and the Nuala Fitzgerald, Susan Hogan. Eggar eats [ 187 ]

her own afterbirth while midget clones beat genious contemporary fantasy, filmed on a grandparents and lovely young schoolteachers shoestring, about a black visitor from anto death with mallets. It’s a big, wide, wonderother planet who (like Chance in BEING ful world we live in! [R]▼●쩠 THERE) impresses most of the people he Brooklyn Rules (2007) C-99m. ★★ D: Mimeets because he doesn’t say a word—and chael Corrente. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Alec Ballets them do all the talking! Falls apart dwin, Scott Caan, Jerry Ferrara, Mena Suvari, toward the end with a subplot about drug Robert Turano, Phyllis Kay, Monica Keena. dealers, but still worthwhile. Fine dialogue Coming-of-age story set in Brooklyn of 1985 by writer-director Sayles, who, as usual, about three friends and their relationship with gives himself a funny role (as one of the the local Mafia figures who dominate their Brother’s outer-space pursuers). ▼쩠 neighborhood. When tragedy strikes, their Brotherhood, The (1968) C-98m. ★★★ D: lives are irreversibly changed. Screenplay by Martin Ritt. Kirk Douglas, Alex Cord, Irene Terence Winter, a key creative force of The Papas, Luther Adler, Susan Strasberg, Murray Sopranos, but the movie is Sopranos-lite at Hamilton. Excellent story of Mafia in changbest. Baldwin could play the local mob boss in ing times; tradition-bound Douglas clashes his sleep; only Ferrara (of Entourage) stands with younger brother Cord who feels no ties out in the young cast. Panavision. [R]쩠 to old-fashioned dictates. Pre-GODFATHER, Brother (2000-U.S.-Japanese-French-British) but in the same league. [M]▼●쩠 C-107m. ★★★ D: Takeshi Kitano. Beat Takeshi Brotherhood of Satan (1971) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 (Kitano), Omar Epps, Kuroudo Maki, MaD: Bernard McEveety. Strother Martin, L. saya Kato, Ren Osugi, Susumu Terajima, Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Ahna Capri, Ryo Ishibashi, James Shigeta. Stoic Japanese Charles Robinson. Satanists take over town gangster Takeshi becomes the Fastest Gun in in this horrifying little terror tale. Technithe West as he arrives in L.A. and becomes scope. [PG]▼쩠 immersed in gang rivalries while bonding Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001-French) with a young African American (Epps). UlC-142m. ★★ D: Christophe Gans. Samuel Le traviolent, to be sure, but this is no mindless Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Vincent Cassel, Monactioner; rather, it is a meditation on the meanicaBellucci, E`milie Dequenne, Je´re´mie Renier. ing of loyalty, and deftly contrasts the tough, Based on a famous legend, this very strange anarchic urban-American subculture and the film chronicles the attempt to track down a rituals of Japanese Yakuza. Signature bits of mysterious wolflike creature that is terrorizing Kitano’s wry humor are added to the mix; he the French countryside in 1765. A scientist and also scripted and edited. [R]▼쩠 his Iroquois ‘‘blood brother’’ take on the job ★★★ Brother Bear (2003) C-81m. D: Aaron for King Louis XV, but they meet resistance Blaise, Bob Walker. Voices of Joaquin Phoeat every turn. Bizarre, unsatisfying me´lange of nix, Jeremy Suarez, Jason Raize, Rick Morcostume piece, occult drama, sexual fantasy, and horror film! Super 35. [R]▼쩠 anis, Dave Thomas, D.B. Sweeney, Michael Clarke Duncan, Harold Gould, Estelle Harris. Brotherhood of the Yakuza SEE: Yakuza, The life of a Native American boy takes an The unexpected turn when the Great Spirits transBrother John (1972) C-94m. ★★★ D: James form him into the creature he hates the most: Goldstone. Sidney Poitier, Will Geer, Brada bear. As he sets out to regain his human ford Dillman, Beverly Todd, Ramon Bieri, form, he sees things from a different perspecWarren J. Kemmerling, Lincoln Kilpatrick, tive (even befriending a bear cub) while tryPaul Winfield. Highly entertaining tale of the ing to evade his brother, who’s pursuing him Messiah’s return—only no one knows that on a mission of revenge. Absorbing, beautihe’s come, and that he’s black. [PG]▼쩠 fully executed animated feature infuses a Brotherly Love (1970-British) C-112m. ★★★ highly unusual tale with ingredients of tradiD: J. Lee Thompson. Peter O’Toole, tional Disney storytelling. It’s fun to have Susannah York, Michael Craig, Harry AnMoranis and Thomas do a variation on their drews, Cyril Cusack, Judy Cornwell, Brian McKenzie Brothers characters—as moose! Blessed. Very funny study of relationships Digital Widescreen. [G] ▼쩠 in upper-class British household. O’Toole Brother Can You Spare a Dime (1975) and York are delightful. Original British title: COUNTRY DANCE. [R] 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philippe Mora. DocumenBrother Orchid (1940) 91m. ★★★ D: Lloyd tary on 1930s has fuzzy point of view, and no narration to tie footage together; it also Bacon. Edward G. Robinson, Ann Sothern, mixes newsreels and Hollywood clips. If Humphrey Bogart, Ralph Bellamy, Donyou know and like the period, the footage ald Crisp, Allen Jenkins. Farfetched but will speak for itself and provide a certain entertaining yarn of racketeer Robinson measure of entertainment. [PG]▼쩠 who seeks ‘‘the real class’’ in life. DoubleBrother From Another Planet, The (1984) crossed by his old mob, he winds up in a C-104m. ★★★ D: John Sayles. Joe Morton, monastery, of all places. Sothern delightful as his ever-faithful girlfriend.▼●쩠 Darryl Edwards, Steve James, Leonard Jackson, Maggie Renzi, Rosetta Le Noire, Brother Rat (1938) 90m. ★★★ D: William David Strathairn, Bill Cobbs. Amiable, inKeighley. Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris, [ 188 ]

Johnnie Davis, Jane Bryan, Eddie Albert, Weisz is delightful as a madcap. Enjoyably Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman, William Tracy. eclectic score by Nathan Johnson. Look fast Comedy of three pals at Virginia Military Infor Joseph Gordon-Levitt (star of Johnson’s stitute isn’t as fresh as it was in the 1930s, debut film, BRICK). Super 35. [PG-13] but still remains entertaining, with enthusiastic Brothers Grimm, The (2005-U.S.-Czech) C-118m. ★★ D: Terry Gilliam. Matt Damon, performances by all. Albert stands out in his screen debut, in a role he played on the stage. Heath Ledger, Peter Stormare, Lena Headey, Sequel: BROTHER RAT AND A BABY. Jonathan Pryce, Monica Bellucci, Petr RatiRemade as ABOUT FACE. mec, Barbara Lukeˆsova, Anna Rust, Jeremy Brothers (1977) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Robson. Fictionalized (and bloated) account Barron. Bernie Casey, Vonetta McGee, of the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Ron O’Neal, Renny Roker, Stu Gilliam, here called Will and Jake, depicted as con John Lehne. Well-intentioned story based men who travel from village to village in on relationship between militant professor Napoleonic-era Germany and exploit the Angela Davis and literate black convict superstitions of the townspeople. Eventually George Jackson during 1960s. Sloppy filmthey are recruited to determine why the chilmaking and awkward scripting diminish imdren of one hamlet are mysteriously disappact of film’s better moments. [R] pearing. Extravagant sets, costumes, and Brothers, The (2001) C-106m. ★★ D: Gary imagery are pure Gilliam, but the film is Hardwick. Morris Chestnut, Shemar Moore, hollow and disappointing. This had a long D.L. Hughley, Bill Bellamy, Gabrielle Union, and troubled production history, and it shows. Grimm indeed. [PG-13] 쩠 Susan Dalian, Tamala Jones, Marla Gibbs, Jenifer Lewis, Clifton Powell, Tatyana Ali, Brother’s Justice, A SEE: Gleaming the Vanessa Bell Calloway. Four childhood Cube friends are now successful doctors, lawyers, Brothers Karamazov, The (1958) C146m. ★★★ D: Richard Brooks. Yul etc., all nearing 30, with three of the four still single. Film examines the tumultuous perBrynner, Maria Schell, Claire Bloom, Lee sonal lives of these guys, who under the threeJ. Cobb, Richard Basehart, William Shatner, piece suits are just hoop-shooting overgrown Albert Salmi. Set in 19th-century Russia, film kids. Overly melodramatic, though comedians version of Dostoyevsky’s tragedy revolving Bellamy and Hughley spout some awfully about death of a dominating father (Cobb) funny, racy lines. Hardwick scripted and apand effect on his sons: fun-seeking Brynner, pears as T-Boy. [R] ▼쩠 scholarly Basehart, religious Shatner, and epiBrothers (2004-Danish) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: leptic Salmi. Exceptionally well scripted by Susanne Bier. Connie Nielsen, Ulrich ThomBrooks. William Shatner’s first film. ▼ sen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Bent Mejding, Solbørg Brother’s Keeper (1992) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 Højfeldt, Paw Henriksen. A man leaves his D: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky. Excepwife and two daughters to fight in Afghanitional documentary/slice-of-life which ofstan, just as his chronic screwup brother is fers a portrait of backwoods America rarely released from prison. The family does its seen in mainstream movies. It’s the story of best, feeling the pain of the ‘‘good’’ brothDelbert Ward, a reserved, uneducated upstate er’s absence and the tension of the ‘‘bad’’ New York farmer who was thrown into jail brother’s presence. Subsequent events reafter being accused of murdering his sickly veal the true nature of the leading characbrother. When he goes on trial, his neighbors, ters. Searing, intense, adult drama; Nielsen who barely know him, rally to his defense. (in her Danish feature debut) heads a superb An intriguing treatise on human nature and a cast. Intimately photographed by Morten telling look at how the media plays a role in a controversial case like this.▼●쩠 Søborg on digital video. Screenplay by Anders Thomas Jensen from a story he coBrother’s Kiss, A (1997) C-92m. ★★★ D: wrote with director Bier. [R]쩠 Seth Zvi Rosenfeld. Nick Chinlund, MiBrothers Bloom, The (2009) C-109m. chael Raynor, Talent Harris, John Legui★★1⁄2 D: Rian Johnson. Rachel Weisz, Mark zamo, Cathy Moriarty, Adrian Pasdar, Rosie Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rinko Kikuchi, Perez, Justin Pierce, Marisa Tomei, Michael Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell; narRapaport, Joshua Danowsky. Raw, riveting rated by Ricky Jay. Picaresque fable of two drama depicting the complex relationship beorphaned brothers who find their way in tween brothers, Lex (Chinlund) and Mick the world as con artists, following scenarios (Raynor), who came of age on the mean devised by the inventive younger sibling. streets of N.Y.’s East Harlem. Mick, the But during what is planned as their final younger, has become a cop, while Lex, who’s caper, the older brother (Brody) falls in love never been able to catch a break, is a drug with their mark (Weisz), a beautiful recluse addict. Flashbacks to the brothers’ childhood who treats the experience as a glorious adare especially effective—and heartbreaking. venture. Self-consciously clever, to be sure, Based on Rosenfeld’s stage play. [R]▼●쩠 but it’s fun for a while until the air deflates Brothers McMullen, The (1995) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Burns. Jack Mulcahy, from the balloon at a certain point. The Eastern European settings are colorful, and Mike McGlone, Edward Burns, Shari Al[ 189 ]

bert, Maxine Bahns, Connie Britton, Jennilovely scenes, but other ideas don’t always come across. Songs by Donovan. [PG]▼쩠 fer Jostyn, Elizabeth P. McKay, Catherine Brown Bunny, The (2004) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Bolz. Three brothers are temporarily living Vincent Gallo. Vincent Gallo, Chloe¨ Sevtogether under one roof; the married one is igny, Cheryl Tiegs, Elizabeth Blake, Anna tempted to stray, the one who’s involved Vareschi. Auteur antics from producer/writer/ with a woman has Catholic guilt about sindirector/cinematographer/production designer/ ning, and the third wears his cynicism about editor/actor Gallo about a ponderous New relationships on his sleeve—even after he Hampshire-to-California road odyssey taken falls in love. Made on a minuscule budget, by a motorcycle racer whose secret (divulged this modest film grows more compelling as in the movie’s final quarter) motivates his it goes along, with two assets missing from every move. Cut by almost a half hour from slicker Hollywood movies: The actors are the version that played the 2003 Cannes Film appealing and their conversations are totally Festival to wide derision and disbelief. A workbelievable. First-time director Burns also able idea sunk by too many moments where wrote the script and costars. [R]▼●쩠 the camera does little but grind . . . and a prediBrothers of the Head (2006-British) Clection toward the grotesquely weird (Tiegs’ 93m. ★★ D: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe. Harry scene is mind-bending nonsense). Without the Treadaway, Luke Treadaway, Bryan Dick, notorious finale, an on-the-level fellatio scene Sean Harris, Tania Emery, Diana Kent, between Sevigny and Gallo, it’s tough to Tom Bower, David Kennedy, Elizabeth imagine that the film would have ever been Rider, Jane Horrocks, Jonathan Pryce, John shown.쩠 Simm, Ken Russell, Ray Davies. Various Browning Version, The (1951-British) talking heads look back on the lives and 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Asquith. Michael careers of conjoined twins who, in the midRedgrave, Jean Kent, Nigel Patrick, Brian 1970s, shined brightly but briefly as protoSmith, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Ronald Howard, punk rockers in this faux documentary. Bill Travers. Redgrave is superb as middleFlashy, potentially intriguing portrait of exaged boarding school teacher who realizes cess is longwinded and predictable; there’s he’s a failure, with an unfaithful wife and a about a half hour’s worth of material here. new teaching position he doesn’t want. Cast Based on a novel by Brian Aldiss. [R]쩠 does full justice to the play by Terence RattiBrothers O’Toole, The (1973) C-90m. gan; he also scripted. Remade in 1994.▼쩠 ★★ D: Richard Erdman. John Astin, Steve Browning Version, The (1994-U.S.-British) Carlson, Pat Carroll, Hans Conried, Lee MeriC-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Figgis. Albert Finwether, Allyn Joslyn, Jesse White. Strictly for ney, Greta Scacchi, Matthew Modine, Julian the kids is this comedy Western. Actor turned Sands, Michael Gambon, Ben Silverstone, director Erdman has a bit. [G]▼쩠 Maryam D’Abo, David Lever. Well-mounted, ★★1 Brothers Rico, The (1957) 92m. ⁄2 D: though stodgy, remake of Terence Rattigan’s Phil Karlson. Richard Conte, Dianne Foster, play of retiring schoolmaster whose dedicaKathryn Grant (Crosby), Larry Gates, James tion is unappreciated and whose marriage is Darren. Incisive gangster yarn; Conte comes unraveling. Finney is good as man out of step to N.Y.C. to counteract nationwide criminal with the times, Scacchi is fine (if oddly cast). gang’s plot to eliminate his two brothers. Touching and tragic, but it’s hard to beat MiBased on Georges Simenon novel; remade for chael Redgrave’s performance in 1951 verTV as THE FAMILY RICO in 1972.쩠 sion. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Brothers Solomon, The (2007) C-93m. Brown’s Requiem (1998) C-104m. ★★ D: BOMB D: Bob Odenkirk. Will Arnett, Will Jason Freeland. Michael Rooker, Tobin Bell, Forte, Chi McBride, Kristen Wiig, Malin Selma Blair, Jack Conley, Kevin Corrigan, Akerman, Lee Majors, Michael Ormsby, Bill Brad Dourif, Harold Gould, Brion James, Hader, Jenna Fischer, Bob Odenkirk. Distant Barry Newman, William Newman, Valerie cousin of DUMB AND DUMBER in which Perrine, William Sasso, Jack Wallace. SlugArnett and Forte play brothers who hatch a gish crime yarn, based on a James Ellroy scheme to revive their comatose father by denovel, with alcoholic cop-turned-repo-man/ livering him the grandchild he always wanted. P.I. Rooker hired by a corpulent caddie to Setting out to find a girl to do the deed, the watch over his sultry kid sister (Blair). Where two dopey siblings each try to impregnate are Bogie and Bacall when you really need her . . . with predictable complications. Forte them? 2.35 Research PLC. [R] ▼쩠 wrote this comatose script, which he and Brown Sugar (2002) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rick Arnett try to bring to life. [R]쩠 Famuyiwa. Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Mos Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973-ItalianDef, Nicole Ari Parker, Queen Latifah, Boris British) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Franco Zeffirelli. Kodjoe. Pleasant romantic comedy about two Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, Leigh lifelong friends who love hip-hop music but Lawson, Alec Guinness, Valentina Cortese, can’t admit they love each other. He’s a reKenneth Cranham. Zeffirelli’s wide-eyed cord exec who marries the wrong woman; youth-oriented slant on Francis of Assisi she’s an eloquent and impassioned music story runs hot and cold; some delicate, journalist. A likable cast brightens this film, [ 190 ]

which goes on a bit longer than it has to, given WW2, shot down over Ireland, are astonthe obvious conclusion of the story. Many ished to learn that they are to be held in a recording artists appear as themselves. [PGPOW camp, right alongside German prison13]▼쩠 ers—a quintessentially curious way for IreBrubaker (1980) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart land to maintain and enforce its official Rosenberg. Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, neutrality during the war. Intriguing premJane Alexander, Murray Hamilton, David ise gets mediocre treatment in this superfiKeith, Morgan Freeman, Matt Clark, Tim cial and disappointing film.▼●쩠 McIntire, Linda Haynes, M. Emmet Walsh, Bubba Ho-Tep (2003) C-92m. ★★★ D: Don Richard Ward, Albert Salmi, John McCoscarelli. Bruce Campbell, Ossie Davis, Martin, Wilford Brimley, Joe Spinell, Lee Ella Joyce, Bob Ivy, Heidi Marnhout. EnRichardson, Harry Groener, John Glover. gagingly silly film takes place in East Earnest but predictable prison drama based Texas, where an elderly Elvis Presley shares on true story of reform-minded warden the same nursing home as a man who claims who dares to uncover skeletons in corrupt to be JFK (even though he’s black). When Southern prison system. [R]▼●쩠 they discover that an ancient mummy is Bruce Almighty (2003) C-101m. ★★★ D: prowling their hallways at night, sucking Tom Shadyac. Jim Carrey, Morgan Freethe life out of fellow patients, they team up man, Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall, to save the day. Campbell and Davis play Catherine Bell, Lisa Ann Walter, Steven this so well that they manage to draw you (Steve) Carell, Nora Dunn, Sally Kirkland, in, in spite of yourself! Based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale. [R]▼쩠 Eddie Jemison, Tony Bennett. TV reporter who feels he keeps getting the short end of Bubble, The (1966) SEE: Fantastic Invathe stick winds up cursing God. As a result, sion of Planet Earth he’s summoned by the Almighty and given Bubble (2006) C-73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven His powers, to do with as he pleases . . . but Soderbergh. Debbie Doebereiner, Dustin before long, the gift seems more like a James Ashley, Misty Dawn Wilkins, Kyle curse. Entertaining fantasy-comedy stays Smith, Decker Moody. In a drab Midwestrooted enough in reality to pull you in. Carern town, coworkers in a doll factory (a rey is at his best, and Freeman is perfect as middle-aged woman and a younger man) a down-to-earth Deity. Followed by EVAN have a pleasant-enough carpool relationship ALMIGHTY. [PG-13] ▼쩠 until a younger, prettier woman is hired. Bruce Lee’s Game of Death SEE: Game Everything about this film is muted, includof Death ing the colors and the emotions, but SoderBruno (2000) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Shirley bergh creates a tangible and completely MacLaine. Alex D. Linz, Shirley MacLaine, believable world with nonprofessional actors. Gary Sinise, Joey Lauren Adams, Kathy More an experiment than an entertainment, Bates, Kiami Davael, Stacey Halprin, Gwen and awfully dry, but well done. HD 24P Verdon, Jennifer Tilly, Brett Butler, Lainie Widescreen. [R]쩠 Kazan. MacLaine made her feature directoBubble Boy (2001) C-84m. BOMB D: rial debut with this fable about a precocious Blair Hayes. Jake Gyllenhaal, Swoosie 8-year-old Catholic schoolboy (and spellingKurtz, Marley Shelton, Danny Trejo, John bee whiz) who likes to wear dresses. Quirky Carroll Lynch, Verne Troyer, Stephen Spicomedy-drama has poignant moments, and a nella, Dave Sheridan, Patrick Cranshaw, gallery of stereotyped characters who are Fabio. An infant, born without immunities, somewhat strident, but funny. Made for theis raised in a plastic bubble by his overly aters, debuted on cable TV. Aka THE cautious mother and passive father. As a DRESS CODE. [PG-13]▼쩠 young man he falls for the girl next door; Brute, The SEE: El Bruto when she moves away to marry another guy Brute Force (1947) 98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jules he creates a special suit so he can chase her Dassin. Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, across the country. An insipid attempt at a Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann comedy; even the upbeat attitude of the lead Blyth, Ella Raines, Howard Duff, Whit character can’t save this panoply of stupid Bissell, Jeff Corey, Sam Levene, Roman stereotypes, gross-out gags, and inane situaBohnen, John Hoyt, Anita Colby. Tintions. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 gling, hard-bitten prison film with its few Buccaneer, The (1938) 124m. ★★★ D: cliche´s punched across solidly. Brutal capCecil B. DeMille. Fredric March, Franciska tain Cronyn is utterly despicable, but you Gaal, Margot Grahame, Akim Tamiroff, know he’s going to get it in the end. Walter Brennan, Anthony Quinn. Typically Scripted by Richard Brooks, from Robert entertaining epic-scale saga from DeMille, Patterson’s story. Duff’s film debut. ▼●쩠 with florid performance by March as pirateBrylcreem Boys, The (1996-British) Chero Jean Lafitte, who aids American cause 105m. ★★ D: Terence Ryan. Bill Campbell, during Battle of New Orleans. Good storyWilliam McNamara, Angus Macfadyen, telling and good fun. Remade in 1958. Gabriel Byrne, Jean Butler, John Gordon Buccaneer, The (1958) C-121m. ★★★ D: Sinclair, Oliver Tobias. Allied airmen of Anthony Quinn. Yul Brynner, Charlton Hes[ 191 ]

ton, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stecluding Andrews Sisters’ ‘‘Boogie Woogie vens, Henry Hull, E. G. Marshall, Lorne Bugle Boy’’) and subplots get in the way, but Greene, Fran Jeffries, Woodrow (Woody) A&C’s routines are among their best; their first starring film.▼●쩠 Strode. Starchy swashbuckler retelling events during Battle of New Orleans when Andrew Buck Privates Come Home (1947) 77m. ★★★ Jackson (Heston) is forced to rely on buccaD: Charles Barton. Bud Abbott, Lou neer Lafitte (Brynner) to stem the British inCostello, Tom Brown, Joan Fulton (Shawvasion; action is spotty but splashy. Quinn’s lee), Nat Pendleton, Beverly Simmons, only film as director; executive-produced by Don Beddoe. One of A&C’s most enjoyahis then-father-in-law Cecil B. DeMille, ble romps has boys returning to civilian who directed the 1938 original, and whose life and trying to smuggle a young Eurolast film this was. VistaVision. ▼● pean orphan into this country. Climactic Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) C-78m. chase a highlight.▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Budd Boetticher. Randolph Scott, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979) Craig Stevens, Barry Kelley, Tol Avery, C-89m. ★★ D: Daniel Haller. Gil Gerard, Peter Whitney, Manuel Rojas. Scott runs Pamela Hensley, Erin Gray, Tim O’Conafoul of corrupt family in control of border nor, Henry Silva, Joseph Wiseman, Felix town; taut B Western written by Burt KenSilla, voice of Mel Blanc. The legendary nedy never runs out of plot twists.쩠 space hero returns, decked out in contemBuck and the Preacher (1972) C-102m. porary glibness, trying to prove he’s not in ★★1 ⁄2 D: Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier, league with intergalactic pirates. Much of Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron the hardware and gadgetry (along with Mitchell, Nita Talbot. Black-oriented Westsome footage) is from TV’s expensive dud, ern of ‘‘hustler’’ preacher is long on getting BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, turned out to the action and short on staying with it. by the same producers. Pilot for the TV series; released theatrically first. [PG]▼쩠 Good characterizations are major point of interest. Music by Benny Carter. Poitier’s Buckskin (1968) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael directorial debut. [PG]▼쩠 Moore. Barry Sullivan, Joan Caulfield, WenBuckaroo Banzai SEE: Adventures of dell Corey, Lon Chaney, John Russell, Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Barbara Hale, Barton MacLane, Leo Gordon. Dimension, The Land-baron Corey tries to force homesteaders Bucket List, The (2007) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: out of territory, but Marshal Sullivan is Rob Reiner. Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freethere to stop him. [G]▼● man, Sean Hayes, Beverly Todd, Rob MorBucktown (1975) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur row, Alfonso Freeman, Rowena King. Marks. Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Philosophical garage mechanic who’s diagThalmus Rasulala, Tony King, Bernie Hamnosed with terminal cancer winds up sharilton, Art Lund. Repellent blaxploitation ing a hospital room with a self-centered picture about war between whites and tycoon who gets the same bill of health. blacks in corruption-filled Southern town, They decide to escape and live out their which intensifies when blacks get into ofremaining days pursuing Freeman’s list of fice and make things even worse. [R]▼쩠 things he’s always wanted to do before Bud Abbott Lou Costello in Hollywood kicking the bucket. Contrived, borderlineSEE: Abbott and Costello in Hollywood cute screenplay is validated by the presence Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenof two great actors, though Nicholson restein SEE: Abbott and Costello Meet sorts to mugging. [PG-13]쩠 Frankenstein ★★★ Bucket of Blood, A (1959) 66m. D: Buddy (1997) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Caroline Roger Corman. Dick Miller, Barboura Thompson. Rene Russo, Robbie Coltrane, Morris, Antony Carbone, Julian Burton, Alan Cumming, Irma P. Hall, Paul Reubens, Ed Nelson, Bert Convy. Wimpy busboy John Aylward, Mimi Kennedy. Sweet-naimpresses his coffeehouse betters with amaztured film about a most unusual woman, realingly lifelike ‘‘sculptures.’’ Writer Charles life Gertrude Lintz, who in the 1920s kept an Griffith’s predecessor to THE LITTLE SHOP incredible menagerie of animals on her Long OF HORRORS is nifty semi-spoof of deadIsland estate. Her greatest challenge: raising a bodies-in-the-wax-museum genre. Nicely gorilla from infancy and treating him almost captures spirit of beatnik era; cult actor like a human child. Russo is excellent, and the Miller’s finest hour (he’s reused his charfilm has much charm, but it’s too leisurely acter’s name, Walter Paisley, several times and likely to make kids squirm in their seats. since). Remade for TV as THE DEATH Based on William Joyce’s book. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ARTIST in 1996. ▼쩠 Buck Privates (1941) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: ArBuddy Buddy (1981) C-96m. ★★★ D: Billy thur Lubin. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Lee Wilder. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Bowman, Alan Curtis, The Andrews Sisters, Paula Prentiss, Klaus Kinski, Dana Elcar, Jane Frazee, Nat Pendleton, Shemp Howard. Miles Chapin, Joan Shawlee. Modest black Dated but engaging Army opus with Bud and comedy about a hit man whose current job Lou accidentally enlisting. Brassy songs (inis mucked up by an intrusive stranger. A [ 192 ]

simple farce, played to perfection by Lemwho kidnaps a teenage girl (Ricci) and demon and Matthau, adapted by Wilder and mands that she pose as his wife to impress I.A.L. Diamond from the French film A his parents. Their evolving relationship PAIN IN THE A—. Wilder’s final film as makes up the bulk of this sincere, rambling director. Panavision. [R]▼ film, which has its moments but confuses Buddy Holly Story, The (1978) C-113m. grittiness and endless repetition with integ★★★1⁄2 D: Steve Rash. Gary Busey, Charles rity and truth, and fails to create much interMartin Smith, Don Stroud, Maria Richwine, est in the characters. Gallo, whose directing Amy Johnston, Conrad Janis, Dick O’Neill, debut this is, also cowrote the screenplay and composed the music. ▼●쩠 William Jordan, Will Jordan (they’re different actors), Fred Travalena, ‘‘Stymie’’ Buffalo Soldiers (2003-British-GermanU.S.) C-98m. ★★ D: Gregor Jordan. Joaquin Beard. Busey gives an electrifying performance as the rock ’n’ roll legend in this Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Palong but very satisfying musical drama, quin, Elizabeth McGovern, Michael Pen˜a, not quite the usual glossy Hollywood Leon Robinson, Gabriel Mann, Dean Stockbiography. Busey, Smith and Stroud sing and well. In 1989, the peacetime U.S. Army staplay ‘‘live,’’ giving an extra dimension to tioned in Germany is largely manned by Holly’s hit songs; Joe Renzetti won an Oscar guys who had a choice of prison or time in for Score Adaptation. [PG]▼●쩠 the service. One of them (Phoenix) is a clerk Buddy System, The (1984) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 who wheels and deals, Bilko-like, under the D: Glenn Jordan. Richard Dreyfuss, Susan nose of his ignorant CO (Harris) until a new Sarandon, Nancy Allen, Jean Stapleton, Wil top sergeant shows up (Glenn) who’s deterWheaton, Edward Winter, Keene Curtis. mined to make a clean sweep. Not-bad Lonely kid tries to play matchmaker between black comedy grows increasingly unpleashis single mom and a grown-up friend, ant as its story develops. Based on a novel would-be novelist and gadget inventor Dreyby Robert O’Connor. Completed in 2001. fuss, but there are emotional complicaSuper 35. [R]▼쩠 tions. Nicely played but overly familiar Buffet Froid (1979-French) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 (and overlong) romantic comedy. [PG]▼ D: Bertrand Blier. Ge´rard Depardieu, BerBuena Vista Social Club (1999-U.S.nard Blier, Jean Carmet, Genevieve Page, German-French-Cuban) C-105m. ★★★ D: Denise Gence, Carole Bouquet, Jean BenWim Wenders. Seductive documentary about guigui, Michel Serrault. Strange, surreal, the title group, composed of veteran Havana outrageously funny black comedy detailmusicians and singers brought together by ing the misadventures of hapless murderAmerican guitarist Ry Cooder after years in ers Depardieu, Carmet, and Blier (the obscurity. Two years after cutting a topdirector’s father). Brilliantly acted and diselling, award-winning record, they are rected; a treat.▼●쩠 filmed by Wenders at a recording session, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) C-86m. ★★1 in concert, and reminiscing about their ⁄2 D: Fran Rubel Kuzui. Kristy Swanson, music and their lives. Some are in their 80s Donald Sutherland, Paul Reubens, Rutger (and even 90s), but their music is timeless Hauer, Luke Perry, Michele Abrams, Hiland musicianship invigorating. [G]▼쩠 ary Swank, Paris Vaughan, David Arquette, Buffalo Bill (1944) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilRandall Batinkoff, Candy Clark, Natasha liam Wellman. Joel McCrea, Maureen Gregson Wagner. Cute variation on vampire O’Hara, Linda Darnell, Thomas Mitchell, sagas, with high school Valley Girl Swanson Anthony Quinn, Edgar Buchanan, Chief turning out to be ‘‘the chosen one’’ of her Thundercloud, Sidney Blackmer. Colorful generation to kill roaming vampires. Sutherbiography of legendary Westerner should land is ideal as her mentor and guide, and have been much better, but still provides Reubens (the former Pee-wee Herman) is fun some fun and has good cast.▼쩠 as one of the fanged menaces . . . but Hauer Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting is an utter disappointment as vampire Uno. Bull’s History Lesson (1976) C-120m. Look for Ben Affleck as a basketball player. ★★ D: Robert Altman. Paul Newman, Joel Ricki Lake appears unbilled. Later a TV seGrey, Kevin McCarthy, Burt Lancaster, ries. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Geraldine Chaplin, Harvey Keitel, Frank Bug (1975) C-100m. ★★ D: Jeannot Szwarc. Kaquitts, Will Sampson. Altman makes the Bradford Dillman, Joanna Miles, Richard point that Buffalo Bill was a flamboyant Gilliland, Jamie Smith Jackson, Alan fraud, then belabors it for two hours. Not Fudge, Patty McCormack, Jesse Vint. without interest, but still one of the director’s Earthquake releases a disgusting variety of duller movies. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 beetle from the earth, capable of setting peoBuffalo 66 (1998) C-112m. ★★ D: Vincent ple, animals, and objects on fire. Spray your Gallo. Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Anset with Raid after watching this one. Projelica Huston, Ben Gazzara, Kevin Corriduced and cowritten by William Castle, whose last film this was. [PG]▼쩠 gan, Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Jan-Michael Vincent. Director-star Gallo Bug (2007) C-101m. ★★★ D: William plays a convict just released from prison Friedkin. Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, [ 193 ]

Harry Connick, Jr., Lynn Collins, Brian F. O’Byrne. Film version of Tracy Letts’ play is a challenge to take seriously but not without twisted dazzle if you can accept it as a stunt. Barmaid Judd’s motel digs scream ‘‘flea-trap,’’ but it’s the title critters that are taking it over: the ones imagined by the bugged-out head case who becomes her latest live-in (Shannon, repeating his stage role). As Judd’s hunky ex-con husband, Connick rounds out what is predominantly a three-character drama, with Judd giving it her all once her character finds herself too open to Shannon’s power of suggestion. Claustrophobic setting is suited for home screens, but Friedkin gives it cinematic flair. Wild finale. [R]쩠 Bugles in the Afternoon (1952) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Rowland. Ray Milland, Forrest Tucker, George Reeves, Helena Carter, Gertrude Michael. Standard tale of man branded coward (Milland) during Civil War, with Little Bighorn finale.▼ Bugle Sounds, The (1941) 101m. ★★ D: S. Sylvan Simon. Wallace Beery, Marjorie Main, Lewis Stone, George Bancroft, Henry O’Neill, Donna Reed. Old-time sergeant Beery objects to progress in the army, bails cavalry out of trouble in finale. Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The (1979) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chuck Jones, Phil Monroe. New footage of Bugs Bunny surrounds this compilation of some of Chuck Jones’ best Warner Bros. cartoon shorts. Not the best way to see these wonderful films, as the repetition grows tiresome, but still worthwhile. First shown in theaters as THE GREAT AMERICAN CHASE. Followed by THE LOONEY, LOONEY, LOONEY BUGS BUNNY MOVIE. [G]

GREY HARE, MY FAVORITE DUCK, and WHAT’S COOKIN’ DOC?▼●쩠 bug’s life, a (1998) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton. Voices of Dave Foley, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kevin Spacey, Phyllis Diller, David Hyde Pierce, Denis Leary, Richard Kind, John Ratzenberger, Roddy McDowall, Madeline Kahn, Bonnie Hunt, Edie McClurg, Alex Rocco. Terrific computer-animated feature from Pixar studio (of TOY STORY fame), about a wellmeaning ant named Flik who tries to help his beleaguered colony from the plundering of Hopper and his grasshopper cronies. Meaning to hire tough insects to fight them off, he unwittingly recruits a circus troupe instead! Consistently clever and funny; in fact, overflowing with gags and visual ideas. A treat for young and old alike. Screenplay by Stanton, Donald McEnery, and Bob Shaw, from a story by Lasseter, Stanton, and Joe Ranft. Music by Randy Newman. Digital Widescreen. [G] ▼●쩠 Bugsy (1991) C-135m. ★★★ D: Barry Levinson. Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Harvey Keitel, Ben Kingsley, Elliott Gould, Joe Mantegna, Richard Sarafian, Bebe Neuwirth, Wendy Phillips, Robert Beltran, Bill Graham, Lewis Van Bergen, Debrah Farentino. Beatty gives the most forceful performance of his career as Benjamin ‘‘Bugsy’’ Siegel, the fabled crackpot gangster who helped build Las Vegas. Long but well-told tale manages to dodge gangster cliche´s. Beatty and Bening set off sparks together ( just as they did in real life), and a strong supporting cast fleshes out James Toback’s intelligent script (though Mantegna, as George Raft, is wasted). Keitel, cast as Mickey Cohen, played Siegel in the TV movie THE VIRGINIA HILL STORY. ▼●쩠 Bugs Bunny’s 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Oscar winner for Art Direction–Set DecoraTales (1982) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Detion and Costume Design. Extended version runs 149m. [R]▼●쩠 tiege, Art Davis, Bill Perez. Yet another compilation of Warner Bros. cartoons, with Bugsy Malone (1976-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 better-than-average linking material. Some D: Alan Parker. Scott Baio, Florrie Dugger, good episodes with Daffy Duck, Tweety Jodie Foster, John Cassisi, Martin Lev. and Sylvester, et al., plus Chuck Jones’ Unique musical spoof of Prohibition-era classic ‘‘One Froggy Evening’’ (minus the gangster films with all-kiddie cast; script punchline), but these are still better seen as cliche´s are intact, but the machine-guns individual shorts, and not as an ersatz shoot whipped cream instead of bullets. feature film. Produced by Friz Freleng. Beautiful production cannot escape coyFollowed by DAFFY DUCK’S MOVIE: ness and doesn’t hold up; plastic renFANTASTIC ISLAND. [G]▼쩠 dition of Paul Williams’ score doesn’t Bugs Bunny Superstar (1975) C-91m. help. [G]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Larry Jackson. Narrated by Orson Bugville SEE: Hoppity Goes to Town Welles. Modestly produced compilation of Bulldog Drummond series SEE: Leonard 1940’s Warner Bros. cartoons features inMaltin’s Classic Movie Guide terviews with the men who created some Bulldog Drummond (1929) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 of the greatest animated films ever made— D: F. Richard Jones. Ronald Colman, Joan Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and Tex Bennett, Lilyan Tashman, Montagu Love, Avery—along with priceless home movies Lawrence Grant, Claud Allister. Colman and behind-the-scenes material, as well as is a delight (in his first talking picture) as nine complete shorts, including A WILD the bored ex-British Army officer who HARE (the first real Bugs Bunny carcomes to the rescue of a wealthy American toon), CORNY CONCERTO, THE OLD (Bennett) whose uncle is being held cap[ 194 ]

tive in an asylum by a sadistic doctor. Sidney Howard’s polished script, Gregg Toland and George Barnes’ stylish photography, and William Cameron Menzies’ stylish sets help make this a classy and sophisticated romp.▼● Bull Durham (1988) C-108m. ★★★ D: Ron Shelton. Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Trey Wilson, Robert Wuhl, Jenny Robertson, Max Patkin. Smart, sassy film about minor-league North Carolina baseball team and its attentive, intelligent groupie (Sarandon) who feels it is her mission to live with one young player per season and help him mature. Costner is a hardened young veteran of the game whose job is to help one particular player—cocky, undisciplined, but talented pitcher Robbins. Literate and funny, if a bit sluggish at times, with some seriously sexy scenes near the end. [R]▼●쩠 Bullet for a Badman (1964) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: R. G. Springsteen. Audie Murphy, Darren McGavin, Ruta Lee, Skip Homeier, George Tobias, Bob Steele. Another revenge tale involving outlaw, his ex-wife, and a friend who married her. Bullet for Joey, A (1955) 85m. ★★ D: Lewis Allen. Edward G. Robinson, George Raft, Audrey Totter, George Dolenz, Peter Hanson, Peter Van Eyck. Drab crime drama, set in Montreal, involving a Communist agent who hires thug Raft to mastermind the kidnapping of a nuclear scientist. Robinson, playing a police inspector, gives one of his most uninspired performances.

cowrote the screenplay and also edited. Running time is the full-length director’s cut; most American prints run 100m.▼●쩠 Bullet Is Waiting, A (1954) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Farrow. Jean Simmons, Rory Calhoun, Stephen McNally, Brian Aherne. Interesting human nature study hinging on sheriff’s discovery that his prisoner is really innocent; nice desert locale.▼ Bulletproof (1988) C-94m. BOMB D: Steve Carver. Gary Busey, Darlanne Fluegel, Henry Silva, L.Q. Jones, R.G. Armstrong, Juan Fernandez, Rene Enriquez. L.A. cop Busey, who keeps the 39 bullets his body has taken in a bathroom mason jar, kamikazes across the Mexican border to rescue kidnapped army personnel (ex-love Fluegel included) from Silva’s Soviet stooge. Preposterous, but you have to admire Silva for having kept the same act going for so many years; peroxided hair is simply not to Busey’s advantage. [R]▼● Bulletproof (1996) C-85m. BOMB D: Ernest Dickerson. Adam Sandler, Damon Wayans, James Caan, Kristen Wilson, James Farentino, Bill Nunn, Jeep Swenson. A racial inversion of 48HRS. without the redeeming craft. Undercover cop Wayans teams up with Sandler, the crook he’s trying to bust. Their fortunes and ambitions are unified—often acrimoniously—by a vindictive drug kingpin/car dealer played by a pitifully hammy Caan. Once great cinematographer Dickerson squanders his talent here directing a sociopathic mix of graphic violence and slapstick. A catastrophe of ▼쩠 continuity to boot. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Bullet for Sandoval, A (1970-ItalianBulletproof Heart (1994) C-100m. ★★ D: ★★ D: Julio Buchs. ErSpanish) C-91m. Mark Malone. Anthony LaPaglia, Mimi nest Borgnine, George Hilton, Alberto De Rogers, Peter Boyle, Matt Craven, Joseph Mendoza, Gustavo Rojo, Leo Anchoriz, Maher. Prosperous hit man LaPaglia gets a Annabella Incontrera. Average foreign oater, gig he’s not quite prepared for: rub out a with lots of action. Ex-Confederate Hilton well-connected knockout who actually plots revenge on don Borgnine, grandfawants to die. Four well-shaped, well-played ther of Hilton’s illegitimate son, for indicharacters—including Boyle’s shady mobrectly causing the baby’s death. Cromoster and Craven’s dimwit sidekick—don’t scope. [PG]▼쩠 add up to a satisfying whole. The slim story Bullet for the General, A (1967-Italian) could have used some serious fleshing out. ★★ C-115m. D: Damiano Damiani. GianTwo pluses: an intriguingly steamy sex Maria Volonte´, Lou Castel, Klaus Kinski, scene, and another incisive performance Martine Beswick. Blond gringo joins mafrom Rogers. Played the film festival circuit rauding guerrillas and contributes to gory as KILLER. [R]▼● bloodletting. Not bad for the genre. TechniBulletproof Monk (2003) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 scope.▼쩠 D: Paul Hunter. Chow Yun-Fat, Seann WilBullet in the Head (1990-Hong Kong) C★★★ liam Scott, Jaime (James) King, Karel Roden, D: John Woo. Tony Leung, 136m. Victoria Smurfit, Mako. Chow plays a monk Jacky Cheung, Waise Lee, Simon Yam, who never ages while he guards an ancient Fennie Yeun, Yolinda Yan. Intense, highly scroll that possesses the secret of infinite charged story of three friends who leave power . . . but now it’s time to find a succesHong Kong to reap profits in war-torn 1967 sor, and he thinks it may be young pickSaigon and get caught up in a whirlwind of pocket Scott, of all people. Lively and troubles that tests their loyalty. An epic film, amusing when it doesn’t get too silly; alas, emotional and overwrought, with action special effects take the place of genuine footage and confrontations (particularly a long martial-arts action most of the time. Coprosequence in a POW camp) that are as bold as anything Woo has attempted onscreen. Woo duced by John Woo, and based on a comic [ 195 ]

book of the same name. Super 35. [PG13] ▼쩠 Bullets or Ballots (1936) 81m. ★★★ D: William Keighley. Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, Humphrey Bogart, Frank McHugh. Cop Robinson pretends to leave police force to crack citywide mob ring run by MacLane. Good, tough gangster film.▼●쩠 Bullets Over Broadway (1994) C-99m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Chazz Palminteri, Mary-Louise Parker, Jack Warden, Joe Viterelli, Rob Reiner, Tracey Ullman, Jim Broadbent, Harvey Fierstein, Stacey Nelkin, Edie Falco, Tony Sirico. Delightful Woody Allen bauble about a self-serious 1920s playwright who quickly sells out when he’s offered a chance to direct his latest work on Broadway—with a gangster’s moll in a key role and an intoxicatingly seductive star in the lead. An actors’ field day, with particularly juicy parts for Wiest (who won an Oscar) as the flamboyant actress, Palminteri, as a thug with an unexpected gift, and Tilly as the ditsy moll. The period detail is so rich and right it all seems stunningly real. Allen coscripted with Douglas McGrath. [R]

Bullseye! (1989) C-89m. BOMB D: Michael Winner. Michael Caine, Roger Moore, Sally Kirkland, Lee Patterson, Deborah Barrymore, Mark Burns, Debra Lang, Lynn Nesbitt, Steffanie Pitt, Patsy Kensit, Alexandra Pigg, Jenny Seagrove. Deadly nonsense which completely wastes Caine and Moore as criminals who are dead ringers for a couple of nuclear scientists (up to no good themselves). Confusing story complications and heavyhanded humor make this a dog. Barrymore is Moore’s real-life daughter; John Cleese has an unbilled cameo near the end. Released direct to video. [PG-13]▼ Bullshot (1983-British) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dick Clement. Alan Shearman, Diz White, Ron House, Frances Tomelty, Michael Aldridge, Ron Pember, Billy Connolly. Occasionally funny Monty Python–ish parody, with Shearman cast as one Captain Hugh ‘‘Bullshot’’ Crummond, a Bulldog Drummond caricature. Plenty of one-liners and slapstick, some humorous and some silly. The screenplay was adapted by Shearman, White, and House, from their stage play. [PG]▼ Bully (2001) C-106m. ★★ D: Larry Clark. Brad Renfro, Nick Stahl, Rachel Miner, Bijou Phillips, Daniel Franzese, Michael Pitt, Kelli Garner, Leo Fitzpatrick. Scuzzy ▼●쩠 Bullfighter and the Lady (1951) 87m. cinema verite´ dramatization of a true story. ★★★1⁄2 D: Budd Boetticher. Robert Stack, Impressionable teen (Renfro) is convinced Joy Page, Gilbert Roland, Katy Jurado, by his girlfriend (Miner) to kill his best Virginia Grey, John Hubbard. Cocky Amerfriend, a sadistic rapist (Stahl) who, ironiican visiting Mexico decides that he wants cally, is the golden boy of the group, the to tackle bullfighting and enlists the aid of only one bound for college. Undeniably the country’s leading matador with tragic powerful at times but Clark mashes your results. The movies’ best treatment of this face in so much bruised, sweaty pubescent flesh that the film feels exploitative.▼쩠 subject, a fine, mature drama with unforgettable bullfighting scenes and an appealBulworth (1998) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Waring love story as well. Roland has never ren Beatty. Warren Beatty, Halle Berry, Don been better; only the second leads (Grey, Cheadle, Oliver Platt, Paul Sorvino, Jack Hubbard) are a detriment. Produced by Warden, Isaiah Washington, Joshua Malina, John Wayne. Boetticher’s version, running Christine Baranski, Amiri Baraka, Sean Astin, 124m., has been restored, and it’s even betLaurie Metcalf, Richard Sarafian, Nora Dunn, ter than the shorter print. ▼● Jackie Gayle, Michael Clarke Duncan, Debra Bullfighters, The (1945) 61m. ★★ D: Monk, Sarah Silverman, Barry Shabaka HenMal St. Clair. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, ley, Chris Mulkey. Audacious political satire Margo Woode, Richard Lane, Carol Anabout a California senator, running for reelecdrews, Diosa Costello. One of better L&H tion in 1996, who solves his crisis of conlater works, involving mistaken identity science by telling the truth—and embracing (Stan is lookalike for famous matador), the black community. Unsettling at times—as subsequent nonsense in bull ring.▼쩠 it’s meant to be—with trenchant observations Bullitt (1968) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter on the political process and the plight of the Yates. Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughn, poor. One of Beatty’s best films—as actor, Jacqueline Bisset, Don Gordon, Robert director, cowriter (with Jeremy Pikser). WilDuvall, Simon Oakland, Norman Fell, Victor liam Baldwin and Paul Mazursky appear (Vic) Tayback. Definitive McQueen antihero: unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 police detective who senses something fishy Bundle of Joy (1956) C-98m. ★★ D: Norbehind assignment to guard criminal witness. man Taurog. Eddie Fisher, Debbie ReynTaut action-film makes great use of San Franolds, Adolphe Menjou, Tommy Noonan. cisco locations, especially in now-classic car Labored musical remake of BACHELOR chase, one of the screen’s all-time best; OscarMOTHER has Reynolds as salesgirl who winning editing by Frank Keller. Scripted by takes custody of a baby, causing scandal Alan R. Trustman and Harry Kleiner, from that boyfriend Fisher (in starring debut) is Robert L. Pike’s novel Mute Witness. [M/ child’s father. Made when Debbie and PG] ▼●쩠 Eddie were America’s favorite couple. ▼ [ 196 ]

Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965) 107m. ★★★ doesn’t. Davis is a mystery woman with D: Otto Preminger. Laurence Olivier, Carol whom he gets involved.▼ Lynley, Keir Dullea, Noel Coward, Martita Burglar (1987) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Hugh Hunt, Finlay Currie, The Zombies. AmeriWilson. Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Goldthwait, can Lynley, newly arrived in London, reG.W. Bailey, Lesley Ann Warren, James ports the disappearance of her preschool Handy, Anne DeSalvo, John Goodman. daughter—but police detective Olivier can’t Whoopi plays a cat burglar who accidenhelp but notice that Lynley has no proof that tally witnesses a murder—and then tries to the child ever existed at all. Well paced, solve the crime, in order to clear herself. expertly acted, with some interestingly offUnfunny, unsuspenseful, and completely beat characters in the margins. Made in unappealing comedy/mystery, with a superEngland. Panavision. 쩠 fluous, built-up secondary role for Goldthwait Bunny O’Hare (1972) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: (who has a few good moments). Another Gerd Oswald. Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, waste of Whoopi’s talent. [R]▼●쩠 Jack Cassidy, Joan Delaney, Reva Rose, Burglars, The (1972-French) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 John Astin. Bizarre, totally inept tale of D: Henri Verneuil. Jean-Paul Belmondo, bank robbers who look like hippies but are Omar Sharif, Dyan Cannon, Robert Hossein. actually Davis and Borgnine. Don’t bother Routine crime film set against lush Greek watching. [PG] backdrop, with good cast. One good chase Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1969) and it’s all over. Remake of THE BURC-113m. ★★★ D: Melvin Frank. Gina GLAR. Panavision. [PG] Lollobrigida, Peter Lawford, Shelley WinBuried Alive (1990) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Geters, Phil Silvers, Telly Savalas, Lee Grant, rard Kikoine. Robert Vaughn, Donald Janet Margolin. Bright comedy about Italian Pleasence, Karen Witter, John Carradine, woman who’s accepted money from three Nia Long, Ginger Lynn Allen. Murky American men who all think they fathered thriller about a mansion where ‘‘doctor’’ her child during WW2. Now they’re all Vaughn imprisons young women. Story coming back to Italy for Army reunion and uses elements from several Edgar Allan ‘‘Mrs. Campbell’’ is in a state of panic. Poe stories, but juices them up with sex Good fun with top cast. [M/PG]▼● and gore. Filmed in South Africa. Carra’burbs, The (1989) C-103m. ★★ D: Joe dine’s last feature film. [R]▼● Dante. Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Burke and Wills (1986-Australian) CFisher, Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, 140m. ★★★ D: Graeme Clifford. Jack Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, Brother TheThompson, Nigel Havers, Greta Scacchi, odore, Courtney Gains, Gale Gordon, Dick Matthew Fargher, Ralph Cotterill, Drew Miller. Strange new neighbors set a neighForsythe, Chris Haywood. Impressive, borhood abuzz, and lead several slightly larger-than-life historical drama chronicling cracked compadres to extreme measures so the title characters’ expedition through 1860 they can learn just what’s going on behind Australia, the first two men to cross the closed doors. Comically warped view of continent. Thompson is especially fine as suburban life takes far too much time to Burke; another version of the saga was play out its paper-thin premise, and leads to made the same year, titled WILLS AND (mostly) predictable results. [PG] ▼●쩠 BURKE. Panavision. [PG-13]▼● ★★★1 Burden of Dreams (1982) C-94m. ⁄2 Burmese Harp, The (1956-Japanese) D: Les Blank. Werner Herzog, Klaus ★★★1⁄2 D: Kon Ichikawa. Rentaro 116m. Kinski, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Mikuni, Shoji Yasui, Tatsuya Mihashi, Mick Jagger. Extraordinary documentary Tanie Kitabayashi, Yunosuke Ito. Priof the filming of Herzog’s FITZCARvate Yasui volunteers to persuade a group RALDO in the Peruvian Amazon. Despite of mountain fighters to surrender at the end the filmmaker’s high technology, his dream of WW2 and undergoes a religious experiof completing the film is constantly thwarted ence, becoming obsessed with desire to by nature and clashing cultures. Some find bury war casualties. Extraordinary antiwar this more compelling than FITZCARRALdrama is affecting and memorable if a bit DO itself.▼쩠 overlong. Also known as HARP OF BURBureau of Missing Persons (1933) 75m. ★★1 MA; remade by Ichikawa in 1985.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Roy Del Ruth. Bette Davis, Lewis Burn! (1969-Italian-French) C-132m. ★★★ S. Stone, Pat O’Brien, Allen Jenkins, Ruth D: Gillo Pontecorvo. Marlon Brando, Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell, Evaristo Marquez, Renato Salvatori, Tom Alan Dinehart, George Chandler. TypiLyons, Norman Hill. Egomaniacal Sir Wilcally fast-paced—but strange—Warner Bros. liam Walker (Brando) is sent by the British programmer about big-city bureau of missto instigate a slave revolt on a Portugueseing persons, where benevolent Stone plays controlled sugar-producing Caribbean isGod with the losers and hard-luck cases that land. This political drama is visually striking come before him. Hip-shooting cop O’Brien but muddled, with a strong Brando peris transferred there in hopes he’ll mellow out, and we’ll bet you a dollar six bits he formance. Ed Harris plays the same role in [ 197 ]

WALKER. Originally released in the U.S. of Josef Stalin. All of this is about to change at 112m. Aka QUEMADA! [PG]▼●쩠 upon the arrival of his wife’s ex-lover, who Burn After Reading (2008) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 is employed by Stalin’s governmental poD: Joel and Ethan Coen. George Clooney, lice. Provocative, moving meditation on the Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malpolitical and social realities of life in Stalinkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, ist Russia deservedly earned a Best Foreign Dermot Mulroney, Elizabeth Marvel, David Film Oscar. Sergei’s daughter, Nadia, who has Rasche, J. K. Simmons, Jeffrey DeMunn. a key role in the story, is played by MikhalBlack comedy of errors set in Washington, kov’s real-life daughter, Nadia. ▼●쩠 D.C., takes off when CIA analyst MalkovBurnt Offerings (1976) C-115m. ★★ D: ich is fired; he then learns that his wife Dan Curtis. Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bur(Swinton) is sleeping with treasury marshal gess Meredith, Eileen Heckart, Lee MontClooney. Meanwhile, health club employee gomery, Dub Taylor, Bette Davis, Anthony McDormand has set her sights on some exJames. Ordinary couple, with young son and pensive plastic surgery. Mixing ingredients of aunt in tow, rent an old mansion as summer a political thriller with satiric jibes at Amerihome, unaware that it’s haunted. Strange occans’ obsession with self-improvement, this currences lead to totally predictable ‘‘surnever quite jells, though it’s fun to watch prise’’ ending. A big buildup to nothing. From these talented stars playing morons. Pitt is Robert Marasco’s novel. [PG]▼●쩠 especially entertaining as a goofball who Burn, Witch, Burn! (1962-British) 90m. ★★★ works at a gym. [R]쩠 D: Sidney Hayers. Janet Blair, Peter Burning, The (1981) C-90m. BOMB D: Wyngarde, Margaret Johnston, Anthony Tony Maylam. Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Nicholls. Story of witchcraft entering lives Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Lou David, of schoolteacher and his wife builds to Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens. Awful shattering suspense, genuinely frightening FRIDAY THE 13TH ripoff (with Tom Saclimax. Fritz Leiber’s novel Conjure Wife vini’s bloody makeup effects) about an old was filmed before as WEIRD WOMAN; caretaker at a summer camp who takes his this version scripted by Charles Beaumont revenge in the usual way. Holly Hunter’s and Richard Matheson. Later spoofed in screen debut. [R]▼쩠 WITCHES’ BREW. Original British title: Burning Cross, The SEE: Klansman, The NIGHT OF THE EAGLE. ▼● Burning Hills, The (1956) C-94m ★★ D: Bush Christmas (1983-Australian) C-91m. ★★1 Stuart Heisler. Tab Hunter, Natalie Wood, ⁄2 D: Henri Safran. John Ewart, John Skip Homeier, Eduard Franz, Earl HolliHoward, Mark Spain, James Wingrove, man, Claude Akins. Passive Hunter can’t Peter Summer, Nicole Kidman, Manalpuy, spark life into tired script based on a Louis Vineta O’Malley. Agreeable updating of the L’Amour novel. Man on run from cattle 1947 Australian classic in which a trio of thieves is sheltered by Wood, miscast as a kids (including Kidman, in her feature half-breed Mexican girl. CinemaScope.▼ debut) head off into the bush—in the comBurning Man, The SEE: Dangerous Sumpany of an Aborigine—to find the thieves mer, A who stole their horse. Aka PRINCE AND Burning Secret (1988-U.S.-British-GerTHE GREAT RACE.▼ man) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew Birkin. Bushido Blade, The (1979-Japanese) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Kotani. Richard Faye Dunaway, Klaus Maria Brandauer, David Eberts, Ian Richardson. Brandauer Boone, Frank Converse, James Earl Jones, offers a splendid performance (as usual) as Toshiro Mifune, Mako, Sonny Chiba, Laura a charming, amoral baron, a WW1 vet Gemser. 19th-century Kung Fu action in who’s nursing a bayonet wound at a saniJapan as Cmdr. Matthew Perry (Boone) tarium. In order to get to Dunaway, he leads a band of his men in the recovery of initiates a friendship with her impressiona treasured sword. Of note: Boone’s last able, asthmatic 12-year-old son (Eberts). Genrole; Mifune plays the Shogun, as he did in erally compelling, and lushly filmed in Prague later TV miniseries. Aka THE BLOODY and Marienbad; however, Dunaway is misBUSHIDO BLADE. [R]▼쩠 cast, and there are several key moments that Bushwhacked (1995) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Greg simply don’t work. Based on a Stefan Zweig Beeman. Daniel Stern, Jon Polito, Brad Sulshort story; originally made in Germany in livan, Ann Dowd, Anthony Heald, Tom 1933 by Robert Siodmak, as BRENNENDES Wood, Blake Bashoff, Corey Carrier, MiGEHEIMNIS. [PG]▼● chael Galeota, Max Goldblatt. On the lam Burnt by the Sun (1994-Russian-French) for a murder he didn’t commit, a delivery C-135m. ★★★ D: Nikita Mikhalkov. Nikita man ‘‘hides out’’ by posing as the leader of Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkounaite, Oleg a Ranger Scout troop that embarks on a Menchikov, Nadia Mikhalkov, Andre Ouwilderness adventure neither he nor they will mansky. The year is 1936, and Sergei Kotov ever forget. Unfortunately, all of us will. (played by director Mikhalkov) is an aging Stern is way over the top in this familiar hero of the Bolshevik Revolution whose fish-out-of-water premise that draws on two eyes are closed to the present-day tyranny of his past triumphs, CITY SLICKERS and [ 198 ]

HOME ALONE. For younger kids only. Clairmont-Scope. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Business As Usual (1987-British) C-89m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Lezli-An Barrett. Glenda Jackson, John Thaw, Cathy Tyson, Mark McGann, Eamon Boland, James Hazeldine, Buki Armstrong, Stephen McGann. Passionate but didactic pro-labor drama with Jackson as a Liverpool boutique manager whose arbitrary firing (after she’s lodged a complaint about sexual harassment on behalf of an employee) escalates into a national cause celebre. One of the angry anti-Thatcher films of the late ’80s; written by first-time feature director Barrett. Excellent performances help a one-sided script. [PG]▼ Business of Strangers, The (2001) C-83m. ★★★ D: Patrick Stettner. Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Frederick Weller. Interesting chamber piece about a female executive who, at the end of a tumultuous, careerchanging day, takes up with a young woman at an airport hotel. The younger woman is an expert at playing mind games, and the exec finds herself drawn in, almost to the point of madness. A tour de force for Channing and Stiles, who are terrific, though the story’s credibility is debatable. Written by the director. [R] ▼쩠 Busman’s Honeymoon SEE: Haunted Honeymoon (1940) Bus Riley’s Back in Town (1965) C-93m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Harvey Hart. Ann-Margret, Michael Parks, Janet Margolin, Brad Dexter, Kim Darby, Jocelyn Brando, Larry Storch, David Carradine. Muddled William Inge script of folksy people in the Midwest. Parks, ex-sailor, returns home, torn by faltering ambitions and taunted by wealthy ex-girlfriend Ann-Margret. Character cameos make the film worthwhile.▼ Bus Stop (1956) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joshua Logan. Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O’Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Hope Lange, Hans Conried, Casey Adams. The film that finally proved Monroe really could act; excellent comedy-drama about innocent cowboy (Murray) who falls for saloon singer and decides to marry her— without bothering to ask. Fine performances by all, with MM’s famed rendition of ‘‘(That Old) Black Magic’’ a highlight; adapted by George Axelrod from the William Inge play. Film debuts of Murray and Lange (who subsequently married). Later a brief TV series. CinemaScope.

dreams and a bad track record of success, who wanted the good life for his wife and child. Singer Collins’ starring film debut is a diverting (if forgettable) yarn, with Walters a good match as his loving, long-suffering spouse. Great soundtrack includes Collins’ performances of ‘‘Two Hearts (One Mind)’’ and ‘‘Groovy Kind of Love.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Buster and Billie (1974) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Daniel Petrie. Jan-Michael Vincent, Joan Goodfellow, Pamela Sue Martin, Clifton James, Robert Englund. Blubbery account of high school romance in 1948 rural Georgia (the loosest girl in class is redeemed by love) can’t overcome cliche´d premise. [R]▼ Buster Keaton Story, The (1957) 91m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Sidney Sheldon. Donald O’Connor, Ann Blyth, Rhonda Fleming, Peter Lorre, Larry Keating. Weak fiction ignores the facts about silent-star Keaton, making up its own. More private life than onscreen moments are detailed with Blyth as his true love and Fleming as a siren. Little comedy in this tale of a great comedian. VistaVision. Busting (1974) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Hyams. Elliott Gould, Robert Blake, Allen Garfield, Antonio Fargas, Michael Lerner, Sid Haig, Cornelia Sharpe. Realistic if empty comedy-action-drama with Gould and Blake as unorthodox L.A. vice cops. Gay activists complained about film’s few minutes of homosexual caricatures. Hyams, once a CBSTV newsman, also did script. [R]▼ Bustin’ Loose (1981) C-94m ★★★ D: Oz Scott. Richard Pryor, Cicely Tyson, Robert Christian, Alphonso Alexander, Janet Wong. Despite the (expected) street language, this is at heart a family picture about an ex-convict who shepherds teacher Tyson and a busload of emotionally and physically handicapped youngsters to a new life. Best scene: a KKK band becomes putty in Pryor’s hands. Filmed mostly in 1979, but not completed until 1981 because of Pryor’s near fatal accident. Pryor coproduced and wrote the story. Later a TV series. [R]▼●쩠 Busy Body, The (1967) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Castle. Sid Caesar, Robert Ryan, Anne Baxter, Kay Medford, Jan Murray, Richard Pryor, Dom DeLuise, Godfrey Cambridge, Marty Ingels, Bill Dana, George Jessel. Broad, forced comedy involving gangsters and corpses, with Caesar as the patsy for Ryan’s underworld gang. Supporting comics give film its funniest ▼●쩠 moments. Pryor’s film debut. Techniscope.쩠 Buster (1988-British) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Green. Phil Collins, Julie Walters, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days Larry Lamb, Stephanie Lawrence, Ellen (1979) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lester. Beaven, Michael Atwell, Ralph Brown, William Katt, Tom Berenger, Jeff Corey, Christopher Ellison, Sheila Hancock, MarJohn Schuck, Michael C. Gwynne, Brian tin Jarvis, Anthony Quayle. Buster EdDennehy, Christopher Lloyd, Jill Eikenwards, one of the men behind Britain’s berry, Peter Weller, Arthur Hill. Prequel to all-time biggest robbery, turns out to have BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNbeen just a working-class stiff with big DANCE KID has everything going for it— [ 199 ]

engaging performances, beautiful atmoMoll, Julie Delpy. The parents of high sphere and location photography—except a school cheerleader Lyonne think she’s a lesstory. Pleasant enough but ultimately disapbian, and send her off to True Directions, a pointing. [PG]▼쩠 rehab camp that deprograms gay teens. This Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid satire is a one-note John Waters wannabe, ★★★★ (1969) C-112m. occasionally amusing but more often silly D: George Roy Hill. Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Kathaand contrived. [R]▼쩠 rine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones, Jeff Butley (1974-British) C-127m. ★★★★ D: Corey, George Furth, Cloris Leachman, Ted Harold Pinter. Alan Bates, Jessica Tandy, Cassidy, Kenneth Mars. Delightful seriocomic Richard O’Callaghan, Susan Engel, Georgina character study masquerading as a Western; Hale. Bates is superb in American Film outlaws Newman and Redford are pursued by Theatre presentation, re-creating his 1971 relentless but remote sheriff’s posse. Many London stage role as a teacher with sexual memorable vignettes. Won Oscars for Cineand other problems. Playwright Pinter made matography (Conrad Hall), Original Score his film directing debut with this outrageous comedy by Simon Gray. [R]▼쩠 (Burt Bacharach), Song, ‘‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head’’ (Bacharach and Hal But Not for Me (1959) 105m. ★★★ D: David), and William Goldman’s original Walter Lang. Clark Gable, Carroll Baker, screenplay, which brims over with sharp diaLilli Palmer, Barry Coe, Lee J. Cobb, logue. Look for Sam Elliott as a card player. Thomas Gomez, Charles Lane. Chic reFollowed a decade later by a prequel, make of Samson Raphaelson’s ACCENT BUTCH AND SUNDANCE: THE EARLY ON YOUTH. 22-year-old secretary/aspiring DAYS. Then in 1976 Ross returned as Etta actress Baker falls for her has-been theatricalPlace in TVM WANTED: THE SUNproducer boss (Gable), who won’t admit DANCE WOMAN (aka MRS. SUNDANCE he’s on the dark side of 50. Palmer is his RIDES AGAIN). Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 wily ex-wife, Cobb a faded playwright. Butcher, The SEE: Le Boucher VistaVision.▼ Butcher Baker Nightmare Maker SEE: BUtterfield 8 (1960) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Night Warning Daniel Mann. Elizabeth Taylor, Laurence Butcher Boy, The (1997-U.S.-Irish) CHarvey, Eddie Fisher, Dina Merrill, Mil106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Neil Jordan. Stephen Rea, dred Dunnock, Susan Oliver, Betty Field, Fiona Shaw, Eamonn Owens, Alan Boyle, Jeffrey Lynn, Kay Medford. Adaptation of Andrew Fullerton, Aisling O’Sullivan, Ian O’Hara novel substitutes cliche´d ending in Hart, Sine´ad O’Connor, Milo O’Shea, tale of high-class prostitute wanting to go Brendan Gleeson. Arresting film about an straight, convincing herself she’s found Mr. Irish boy who doesn’t have a chance in life: Right. Film’s major assets: great supporting his father is a perpetual drunk, his mother a cast and old-style performance by Taylor, who won Oscar. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 mentally fragile soul. Yet he greets the world with bravado and the gift of gab; the Butterflies Are Free (1972) C-109m. ★★★ only problem is, he’s deranged. Bold, D: Milton Katselas. Goldie Hawn, Edward darkly (even absurdly) comic, hallucinatory Albert, Eileen Heckart, Mike Warren, Paul at times, hiding its heartrending truths beMichael Glaser. Filmization of Leonard hind a glib facade—just like its hero. A true Gershe’s Broadway play detailing blind original. Written by Jordan and Patrick boy’s romance with kookie next-door McCabe, from the latter’s novel; McCabe neighbor (Hawn) and inevitable showdown also appears as the town drunk, Jimmy the with his overpossessive mother. Good light Skite. [R]▼●쩠 entertainment; Heckart won Best Supporting Actress Oscar. [PG] ▼●쩠 Butcher’s Wife, The (1991) C-105m. ★★ D: Terry Hughes. Demi Moore, Jeff DanButterfly (1981-U.S.-Canadian) C-107m. ★★ iels, George Dzundza, Mary Steenburgen, D: Matt Cimber. Stacy Keach, Pia Frances McDormand, Margaret Colin, Max Zadora, Orson Welles, Lois Nettleton, EdPerlich, Miriam Margolyes, Christopher ward Albert, James Franciscus, Stuart Durang, Diane Salinger. North Carolina Whitman, Ed McMahon, June Lockhart, clairvoyant marries a Greenwich Village Paul Hampton. Trashy soap opera, based butcher, then begins dispensing advice: to on James M. Cain’s novel, with gold-digging a lesbian boutique owner, a spinsterish sex-kitten Zadora seducing Keach, who is choir director, a soap opera actress and supposed to be her dad. Welles steals the film—not difficult—as a judge. [R]▼●쩠 more. So strange that it almost compels a glance. Only Steenburgen, though, seems Butterfly (1999-Spanish) C-95m. ★★★ D: thoroughly in the swing of this comedy’s Jose´ Luis Cuerda. Fernando Ferna´n Go´mez, Manuel Lozano, Uxı´a Blanco, Gonzalo M. intended whimsy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 But I’m a Cheerleader (2000) C-84m. ★★ Uriarte, Alexis de los Santos, Jesu´s Castejo´n. D: Jamie Babbit. Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuCompelling coming-of-age story depicts the Vall, Cathy Moriarty, Bud Cort, Mink impact of the Spanish Civil War on a Galician Stole, RuPaul Charles, Eddie Cibrian, Melavillage, spotlighting the evolving friendship nie Lynskey, Michelle Williams, Richard between a sensitive young boy (Lozano) and [ 200 ]

his nurturing, humanistic teacher (beautifully idol coming to small town to give ‘‘one last played by Ferna´n Go´mez). Delicately rendered kiss’’ to one of his adoring fans. Lynde stands tale of a nation and its people at a historic crossout as Ann-Margret’s father. Remade for TV roads is based on several short stories by in 1995 with Jason Alexander and Vanessa Manuel Rivas. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Williams. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Butterfly Affair, The (1970-French-Italian) Bye Bye Blues (1989-Canadian) C-116m. ★★★ D: Anne Wheeler. Rebecca Jenkins, C-100m. ★★ D: Jean Herman. Claudia Cardinale, Stanley Baker, Henri Charriere, Luke Reilly, Stuart Margolin, Kate Reid, Georges Arminel, Leroy Haynes, Joannin Michael Ontkean, Wayne Robson, Robyn Hansen. Charriere (PAPILLON) wrote this Stevan. Affectionate WW2 drama of Jendiamond heist double cross story; he also cokins, proper, protected, and pregnant, who’s stars as the mastermind, but his performance, stationed with her doctor-husband in Inlike the picture, is routine. Claudia, at her sexidia. Intensely moving story of how war est, adds some bright moments. Original title: affects the lives of those on the home POPSY POP. [PG]▼ front; if this doesn’t give your tear ducts a Butterfly Effect, The (2004) C-113m. ★★ workout, nothing will. Loosely based on D: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber. Ashton the life of Wheeler’s mother and a nice Kutcher, Amy Smart, Eric Stoltz, William companion piece to her short documentaryLee Scott, Elden Henson, Ethan Suplee, drama, A WAR STORY. [PG]▼ Melora Walters. A boy suffers from reBye Bye Braverman (1968) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 peated blackouts, during which bad things D: Sidney Lumet. George Segal, Jack Warhappen around him. As a young man he den, Joseph Wiseman, Sorrell Booke, Jessica tries to summon up these repressed memoWalter, Phyllis Newman, Zohra Lampert, ries, go back in time, and change things for Godfrey Cambridge, Alan King. To parathe better. Interesting premise takes much phrase one of the characters, in the sum of too long to develop; in the meantime the its many parts this yields pleasure of a kind; film wallows in unpleasantness. Kutcher but fuzzy, unresolved story of four Jewish also coproduced. Followed by two DVD seintellectuals on their way to a friend’s fuquels. [R] ▼쩠 neral is ultimately disappointing.쩠 1 ★ Buy & Cell (1989) C-95m. ⁄2 D: Robert Bye Bye Brazil (1980-Brazil) C-110m. ★★★ Boris. Robert Carradine, Michael WinsD: Carlos Diegues. Jose Wilker, Betty Faria, low, Malcolm McDowell, Lise Cutter, RanFabio Junior, Zaira Zambelli. Bawdy comedydall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, Roddy Piper, Ben drama about a troupe of traveling entertainers Vereen, Fred Travalena, Tony Plana, Miis really a travelogue of the country, from chael Goodwin. Uninteresting would-be jungles to honky-tonk port towns. Not quite comedy set in prison, where a framed stockthe total sensual pleasure of DONA FLOR broker secretly sets up a multi-millionAND HER TWO HUSBANDS, but still one of the best Brazilian imports. [R]▼●쩠 dollar business with the help of stereotyped inmates. Shot in Italy, set in U.S. [R]▼● Bye Bye, Love (1995) C-106m. ★★ D: Sam 1 ★ Bwana Devil (1952) C-79m. ⁄2 D: Arch Weisman. Matthew Modine, Randy Quaid, Oboler. Robert Stack, Barbara Britton, Paul Reiser, Janeane Garofalo, Rob Reiner, Nigel Bruce, Paul McVey. Stack is deterAmy Brenneman, Eliza Dushku, Ed Flanmined to protect his railroad workers in ders, Maria Pitillo, Lindsay Crouse, Johnny Kenya (not to mention his wife) from being Whitworth, Ross Malinger, Pamela Dillattacked by man-eating lions. Cardboard man, Brad Hall, Jack Black. Mediocre seridrama, with lame lion attacks, was the first ocomedy about three dads, devoted to their commercial 3-D feature, but it’s laughably kids, trying to make their way through diclumsy. In some shots actors are clearly vorcehood. Some sincere moments and ocstanding in front of rear-projection footage! casional comic insights are washed away Complete prints include b&w introduction in a sea of sappiness. Garofalo, as Quaid’s to 3-D by Lloyd Nolan and puppets Beany hilarious date from hell, almost makes the and Cecil. Same true-life story later inspired film worth watching. [PG-13]▼●쩠 THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS. Bye Bye Monkey (1978-French-Italian) By Design (1981-Canadian) C-88m ★★ D: C-114m. BOMB D: Marco Ferreri. Ge´rard Claude Jutra. Patty Duke Astin, Sara Depardieu, Marcello Mastroianni, Gail Botsford, Saul Rubinek, Sonia Zimmer. Lawrence (Abigail Clayton), James Coco, Lesbian fashion designer Astin decides she Geraldine Fitzgerald, Mimsy Farmer, wants to be a mother. Potentially interestClarence Muse. Sardonic, bleak comedy ing subject matter is awkwardly handled; about a group of misfits in a decrepit one of Astin’s few bad performances.▼ area of Manhattan where rats seem about Bye Bye Birdie (1963) C-112m. ★★★ D: to displace humanity in all the buildings. George Sidney. Janet Leigh, Dick Van Depardieu, irresistible to women as always, Dyke, Ann-Margret, Maureen Stapleton, prefers the company of a chimpanzee he finds Paul Lynde, Jesse Pearson, Bobby Rydell, near the carcass of a giant ape, presumably Ed Sullivan. Entertaining version of Broadleft over from the remake of KING KONG. way musical about drafted rock ’n’ roll Good cast is wasted, including Fitzgerald, [ 201 ]

who also has a love scene with Depardieu. Filmed in English in N.Y.C.▼●쩠 By Love Possessed (1961) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Sturges. Lana Turner, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Jason Robards, Jr., George Hamilton, Thomas Mitchell, Susan Kohner, Barbara Bel Geddes, Everett Sloane, Carroll O’Connor. Ultraglossy, well-cast but empty soaper, in which neurotic Turner commences an affair with Zimbalist, the law partner of her impotent husband (Robards). Based on—but not true to—the James Gould Cozzens novel.▼● By the Book SEE: Renaissance Man By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Butler. Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp, Mary Wickes, Billy Gray. Set in post WW1, this Booth Tarkington story finds returning soldier MacRae and fiance´e Day readjusting to life. Ames wonderful as father thought to be romancing French actress, and Wickes delightful as family maid. Merv Griffin pops up in the closing scene. This old-fashioned musical was a sequel to ON MOONLIGHT BAY.▼●쩠 By the Sword (1993) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeremy Kagan, John McDonald. F. Murray Abraham, Eric Roberts, Mia Sara, Chris Rydell, Elaine Kagan, Brett Cullen, Doug Wert, Stoney Jackson. By-the-numbers revenge story set in the world of competitive fencing. Roberts is intense as usual, but the story isn’t. If it’s fencing you want, rent an Errol Flynn movie. Super 35. [R]▼

after it’s made its point. Originally shown in Europe as THE POWDER KEG.▼ Cabin Boy (1994) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adam Resnick. Chris Elliott, Ritch Brinkley, James Gammon, Brian Doyle-Murray, Brion James, Melora Walters, Ann Magnuson, Russ Tamblyn, Ricki Lake, Andy Richter. Strange, fitfully amusing comedy of snobby ‘‘Fancy Lad’’ Elliott who accidentally boards a fishing boat with hardnosed seamen . . . and becomes a man. Film’s success depends largely on your tolerance for Elliott’s obnoxious comic persona, but there are many clever jokes and an endearingly (and intentionally) tacky visual approach. Several good cameos, particularly one from Elliott’s former boss David Letterman—billed as Earl Hofert. Elliott cowrote the film’s story. Produced by Tim Burton. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cabinet of Caligari, The (1962) 104m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Roger Kay. Dan O’Herlihy, Glynis Johns, Richard Davalos, Lawrence Dobkin, Estelle Winwood, J. Pat O’Malley. Unimaginative remake of the 1919 German classic, removing all the mystery-exotic appeal; Johns tries hard as lady in ornate modern home confronted by O’Herlihy’s sinister Caligari; many bizarre scenes. Written by Robert Bloch. CinemaScope.쩠 Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The (1919German) 69m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Wiene. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover. Somewhat stiff but still fascinating German Expressionist film about ‘‘magician’’ Caligari and hypnotic victim who carries out his evil bidding. Landmark film still ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Bob Cabaret (1972) C-124m. impresses audiences today. Remade in Fosse. Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Hel1962. ▼●쩠 mut Griem, Joel Grey, Fritz Wepper, Marisa Cabin Fever (2003) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Eli Berenson. Stylish film based on Fred EbbRoth. Rider Strong, Jordan Ladd, James DeJohn Kander Broadway musical, from John Bello, Cerina Vincent, Joey Kern, Giuseppe van Druten’s play I Am a Camera (filmed Andrews, Robert Harris, Hal Courtney. A before in 1955), now more a vehicle for group of friends celebrate college graduation Minnelli in her Oscar-winning performance by going to a mountain cabin together, but as Sally Bowles, American girl caught up in things go very bad very fast. Did someone say phony glitter of pre-war Berlin. Song num‘‘flesh-eating virus’’? Blood-drenched hombers counterpoint dramatic narrative, inage to slasher movies lacks wit or originality, cluding newly written ‘‘The Money Song,’’ but seems to have pleased some fans of the great duet for Minnelli and Oscar-winner genre. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Grey. Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen; the Cabin in the Cotton, The (1932) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Richard Barthelstory’s genesis was Christopher Isherwood’s book Goodbye to Berlin. Won eight Acadmess, Dorothy Jordan, Bette Davis, Haremy Awards in all, including Director, Cinedie Albright, David Landau, Berton Churmatography (Geoffrey Unsworth) and Score chill, Henry B. Walthall, Tully Marshall. Adaptation (Ralph Burns). [PG]▼●쩠 Dated melodrama of sharecroppers, with Cabaret Balkan (1998-Yugoslavian-French) earnest Barthelmess almost led to ruin by C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Goran Paskaljevic. Miki Southern belle Davis; exaggerated, but inManojlovic, Sergei Trifunovic, Mirjana Joteresting. Bette’s immortal line: ‘‘Ah’d kovic, Lazar Ristovski. In the strife-torn city like to kiss ya, but Ah jes’ washed mah of Belgrade, all sense of logic and order has hair.’’▼ evaporated, leaving a society so desperate and Cabin in the Sky (1943) 100m. ★★★ D: stressed-out that even a casual encounter may Vincente Minnelli. Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ Anlead to violence. Powerful series of viderson, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters, Louis gnettes—sometimes grim, sometimes abArmstrong, Rex Ingram, Duke Ellington surdly funny—but the film goes on a while and His Orchestra, The Hall Johnson Choir. [ 202 ]

Stellar black cast in winning (if somewhat prim nurse to dentist Matthau who blossoms racist) musical fable about forces of good when she realizes she’s in love with him. and evil vying for the soul of Little Joe Best moments belong to Hawn, who won Oscar for her first big role. [M/PG]▼●쩠 (Anderson). John Bubbles’ dancing, Waters singing ‘‘Happiness Is a Thing Called Caddie (1976-Australian) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 Joe’’ (written for the film) among musical D: Donald Crombie. Helen Morse, Takis highlights. First feature for Minnelli (who, Emmanuel, Jack Thompson, Jacki Weavwith Waters and Ingram, came from the er, Melissa Jaffer. Adaptation of a popular Australian autobiography set in the Broadway production). ▼●쩠 Cable Guy, The (1996) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: late ’20s and early ’30s, telling story of an Ben Stiller. Jim Carrey, Matthew Broderick, independent-minded young woman deterLeslie Mann, George Segal, Diane Baker, mined to succeed on her own, despite the Jack Black, Eric Roberts, Janeane Garofalo, pressure of having two children to raise. Andy Dick, Charles Napier, Owen Wilson, Moments of insight and originality give Kathy Griffin. Black comedy about a cable way too often to cliche´ and overriding blandness. Morse is fine in lead. ▼ TV installer who forces his friendship onto a vulnerable customer who’s just moved out Caddy, The (1953) 95m. ★1⁄2 D: Norman of his girlfriend’s apartment. Many clever, Taurog. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Donna funny scenes, but film wavers between Reed, Fred Clark, Barbara Bates, Joseph comedy and a darker, more serious tone, Calleia. Weak Martin & Lewis vehicle about which—while also interesting—keeps us golf-nut Jerry coaching Dean to be a chamoff-balance. Repeated digs at TV are among pion player. Dean introduces ‘‘That’s the brightest moments; director Stiller has a Amore.’’ ▼쩠 funny recurring cameo. Super 35. [PGCaddyShack (1980) C-98m. ★★ D: Harold 13]▼●쩠 Ramis. Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield, Caboblanco (1980) C-87m. ★★ D: J. Lee Ted Knight, Michael O’Keefe, Bill MurThompson. Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, ray, Cindy Morgan, Sarah Holcomb, Scott Dominique Sanda, Fernando Rey, Simon Colomby, Brian Doyle-Murray, Chuck E. MacCorkindale, Camilla Sparv, Gilbert Rodent. ANIMAL HOUSE–type hijinks at Roland, Denny Miller. Murky ripoff of a posh country club; another comedy where CASABLANCA, with Bronson a barkeeper irreverence and destruction are a substitute in Peru. Robards plays a Nazi, Rey a for humor. Saving grace is Dangerfield, police captain, Sanda a Frenchwoman whose opening scenes are sidesplittingly funny. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 searching for her lover. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Cache´ (2005-French-Austrian-German-Italian) CaddyShack II (1988) C-99m. ★★ D: AlC-118m. ★★★ D: Michael Haneke. Daniel lan Arkush. Jackie Mason, Dyan Cannon, Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Annie Girardot, Robert Stack, Dina Merrill, Chevy Chase, Lester Makedonsky, Maurice Be´nichou, Dan Aykroyd, Randy Quaid, Jessica Lundy, Bernard Le Coq, Daniel Duval, Nathalie Jonathan Silverman, Chynna Phillips, Brian Richard, Walid Afkir. Parisian host of a bookMcNamara. In-name-only sequel to 1980 hit chat TV show and his wife are baffled by a gets a big boost from Mason, extremely winsuccession of surveillance videotapes of their ning in the role of a plain-talking, self-made home’s exterior, each anonymously left on millionaire whose daughter wants acceptance the doorstep. Eventually, other cryptic mesby the snooty crowd at a local country club. sages appear, sketches that may have some Unfortunately, film runs out of script (and laughs) after a half hour. [PG]▼●쩠 hidden meaning. Writer-director Haneke (THE PIANO TEACHER) has constructed Cadence (1991) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Martin another icily meticulous, if protracted, Sheen. Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Larry drama, framed by a realistic portrait of a Fishburne, Michael Beach, Ramon Estevez, marriage and augmented with references to John Toles-Bey, Blu Mankuma, Harry Stewart, James Marshall. U.S. soldier Charrecent French history. [R]쩠 1 ★★ Cactus (1986-Australian) C-93m. lie lands in a West German brig, the lone ⁄2 D: Paul Cox. Isabelle Huppert, Robert Menwhite among a group of black prisoners; zies, Norman Kaye, Monica Maughan, conflict, however, centers on warden MarBanduk Marika. Slow, deliberately paced tin, who’s slowly coming apart at the seams. story of Huppert’s agony when her sight is Sheen family enterprise is overwrought impaired in an auto mishap and her growand insignificant, with just one compelling ing relationship with blind Menzies. Of scene: the brigmates march in jivey cainterest only when it sticks to the story, dence to their own rendition of Sam Cooke’s which isn’t often enough.▼쩠 ‘‘Chain Gang.’’ Would Ernie Borgnine’s Cactus Flower (1969) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fatso Judson have allowed this in FROM Gene Saks. Walter Matthau, Ingrid BergHERE TO ETERNITY? [PG-13]▼●쩠 man, Goldie Hawn, Jack Weston, Rick Cadillac Man (1990) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lenz, Vito Scotti, Irene Hervey. Glossy Roger Donaldson. Robin Williams, Tim comedy was pretty thin for Broadway, Robbins, Pamela Reed, Fran Drescher, even thinner on film, with Bergman as Zack Norman, Annabella Sciorra, Lori [ 203 ]

Petty, Paul Guilfoyle, Bill Nelson, Eddie ing his characterization in BREAD AND Jones, Judith Hoag. Williams is terrific, as CHOCOLATE, is a Neapolitan working usual, playing an aggressive car salesman man illegally selling coffee on the Milan to who may lose his job, his mistress, his Naples train. Sometimes funny and proother girlfriend, his Mafioso protector, and found, more often trite. Manfredi, as usual, is fine. Originally ran 105m.▼쩠 his daughter all during one eventful weekend. Wildly uneven film swings from comCafe Metropole (1937) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: edy to melodrama, dragging and then pickEdward H. Griffith. Loretta Young, Tying up again. Elaine Stritch appears unbilled rone Power, Adolphe Menjou, Gregory as a grieving widow. [R]▼●쩠 Ratoff, Charles Winninger, Helen Westley. Cadillac Ranch (1996) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Young is courted by penniless playboy Lisa Gottlieb. Suzy Amis, Renee Humphrey, Power, who’s passing bad checks and posCaroleen Feeney, Linden Ashby, Christopher ing as a Russian prince. OK comedy, from a story by Ratoff.쩠 Lloyd, Jim Metzler. Amiable tale of three sisters who, despite some long-time friction, Cafe Society (1995) C/B&W-107m. ★★★ band together to find a cache of money left D: Raymond De Felitta. Frank Whaley, behind by their Daddy when they were just Peter Gallagher, Lara Flynn Boyle, John kids . . . tracked, all the while, by bad guy Spencer, Anna Thomson, David Patrick Lloyd. Likable performances by the female Kelly, Christopher Murney, Richard B. trio boost this modest Texas-made producShull, Paul Guilfoyle, Alan North, Kelly tion. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Bishop, Zach Grenier. Atmospheric, factCadillac Records (2008) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: based account, set in 1952, about Mickey Darnell Martin. Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Jelke (Whaley), a poor little rich boy set to Wright, Beyonce´ Knowles, Gabrielle Union, inherit $5 million. Jelke hobnobs with Cedric the Entertainer, Columbus Short, EaN.Y.C. cafe society, and thinks nothing of monn Walker, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mos pimping, just for the fun of it. Gallagher is Def, Tammy Blanchard, Jay O. Sanders, Northe vice cop who’s determined to nail him; man Reedus, Eric Bogosian. Colorful look at Boyle (who makes a great noir heroine) is the birth and flowering of Chicago’s Chess the woman with whom Jelke becomes inRecords label in the 1940s and ’50s, where volved, on several levels. De Felitta, workPolish immigrant Leonard Chess (Brody) ing with a low budget, creates an impressive and authentic period feel. [R]▼ brought blues artists like Muddy Waters (Wright), Little Walter (Short), Howlin’ Wolf Cage, The (1978) SEE: Mafu Cage, The (Walker), and Etta James (Knowles) to promiCage (1989) C-101m. BOMB D: Lang nence, amidst much personal turmoil. Bites off Elliott. Lou Ferrigno, Reb Brown, Michael more than one film can chew but still offers a Dante, Mike Moroff, Marilyn Tokuda, rich tapestry; each of these personalities deJames Shigeta, Al Ruscio. Pointless, violent serves a separate film. The actors mostly perfilm provides viewers with the human form their own songs, quite credibly, and Mos equivalent of a cockfight as Ferrigno and Def is a hoot as Chuck Berry. Vincent D’OBrown go at it in the Asian ‘‘sport’’ of cage nofrio appears unbilled. Super 35. [R]쩠 fighting. A better title might have been THE INCREDIBLE HOKUM. [R]▼●쩠 Caesar and Cleopatra (1946-British) C134m. ★★ D: Gabriel Pascal. Claude Rains, Caged (1950) 96m. ★★★ D: John CromVivien Leigh, Stewart Granger, Flora Robson, well. Eleanor Parker, Agnes Moorehead, Francis L. Sullivan, Cecil Parker. Two fine Ellen Corby, Hope Emerson, Jan Sterling, stars suffer through static, boring rendition of Jane Darwell, Gertrude Michael. RemarkGeorge Bernard Shaw’s play, which seems to able performances in stark record of Parker go on forever. Occasional wit and intrigue going to prison and becoming hardened can’t keep this afloat.▼ criminal after exposure to brutal jail life. Cafe au Lait (1994-French) C-94m. ★★★ D: Remade as HOUSE OF WOMEN.쩠 Mathieu Kassovitz. Julie Mauduech, Hubert Caged Heat (1974) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: JonaKounde, Mathieu Kassovitz. Kassovitz’ than Demme. Juanita Brown, Erica Gavin, first feature is the SHE’S GOTTA HAVE Roberta Collins, Rainbeaux Smith, BarIT/JULES AND JIM-like story of a young, bara Steele, Toby Carr-Rafelson. Demme’s pregnant Parisian (Mauduech) who is unfirst feature is tongue-in-cheek but othercertain which of her boyfriends is the father. wise typical women’s prison flick, chiefly Is it the African Muslim law student novel for being set in the U.S. instead of (Kounde)? Or the Jewish bicycle messenger some banana republic, plus neat turn by (played by the director)? Sweetly funny, Steele as wheelchair-bound warden. Has a and a heartening look at contemporary relasizable cult following. Aka RENEGADE tions between the races. Kassovitz also GIRLS. [R]▼쩠 scripted.▼쩠 Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973) C-103m. ★★ Cafe Express (1981-Italian) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew V. McLaglen. John Wayne, D: Nanni Loy. Nino Manfredi, Adolfo Celi, George Kennedy, Gary Grimes, Neville Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Luigi Basagaluppi, Brand, Marie Windsor, Harry Carey, Jr. Silvio Spaccesi. Manfredi, virtually repeatMarshal Wayne’s law enforcement duties [ 204 ]

are complicated as one of his sons threatens is irresistible as the bombastic, rootin’-tooto enter a life of crime; routine, violent tin’ title character in this lively musical, Western suffers from the same kind of serwith Keel as Wild Bill Hickok, who only monizing that plagued most of the Duke’s begins to realize his feelings for her when later films. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 she makes a stab at becoming more ‘‘femi★★ Cain and Mabel (1936) 90m. nine.’’ Sammy Fain–Paul Francis Webster D: Lloyd Bacon. Marion Davies, Clark Gable, Dascore includes the Oscar-winning ‘‘Secret vid Carlyle (Robert Paige), Allen Jenkins, Love.’’ Jane Alexander later played CalamRoscoe Karns, Walter Catlett, Hobart Cavity in a 1984 TV movie. ▼●쩠 anaugh, Ruth Donnelly, Pert Kelton. PubliCalamity Jane and Sam Bass (1949) cist concocts phony romance between C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: George Sherman. Yvonne De Broadway star Davies (who’s miscast) and Carlo, Howard Duff, Dorothy Hart, Lloyd heavyweight champ Gable—who happen to Bridges, Milburn Stone. Tattered retelling of despise one another. Gargantuan production 19th-century cowgirl and Texas outlaw, with numbers add nothing to stale plot. Rescued De Carlo and Duff a disinterested duo. Calcutta (1947) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Farsomewhat by the snappy one-liners delivered by the supporting cast.쩠 row. Alan Ladd, Gail Russell, William ★★★★ Caine Mutiny, The (1954) C-125m. Bendix, June Duprez, Lowell Gilmore. D: Edward Dmytryk. Humphrey Bogart, Jose Standard actioner with pilot Ladd avengFerrer, Van Johnson, Robert Francis, May ing friend’s murder. Wynn, Fred MacMurray, E. G. Marshall, Lee Calendar (1993-Canadian-Armenian) C75m. ★★ D: Atom Egoyan. Arsine´e KhanMarvin, Tom Tully, Claude Akins. WW2 Naval officers Johnson and Francis mutiny jian, Ashot Adamian, Atom Egoyan. A phoagainst paranoid, unpopular Capt. Queeg (Botographer (Egoyan) and his wife (Khanjian) gart) and are court-martialed in this exciting travel from Canada to Armenia to shoot adaptation (by Stanley Roberts) of Herman photos of historical churches for inclusion Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize novel. Wartime mutiny on a wall calendar; as he looks through his scene during typhoon still packs a wallop. lens, his marriage falls apart before his eyes Followed by a TVM in 1988.▼●쩠 as his mate comes in touch with her roots ★★ Cairo (1942) 101m. and falls for their guide. Some intriguing D: W.S. Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Young, ideas are at work here, but the film is much Ethel Waters, Reginald Owen, Lionel Atwill, like an out-of-focus snapshot and too Dooley Wilson. Musi-comedy spoof of loosely structured to be effective. Egoyan and Khanjian are married off screen.▼쩠 WW2 spy films is strained, although stars are pleasant and production is well mounted.▼ Calendar Girl (1993) C-90m. ★★ D: John Cake Eaters, The (2009) C-86m. ★★ D: Whitesell. Jason Priestley, Gabriel Olds, Mary Stuart Masterson. Elizabeth Ashley, Jerry O’Connell, Joe Pantoliano, Steve Jayce Bartok, Bruce Dern, Miriam Shor, Railsback, Kurt Fuller, Stephen TobolowAaron Stanford, Kristen Stewart, Talia Balsky, Emily Warfield, Maxwell Caulfield, sam, Melissa Leo, Jesse L. Martin. In a quiet Stephanie Anderson, Chubby Checker. Pat, upstate N.Y. town, teen Stewart (who’s afoverly familiar coming-of-age tale of three flicted with a neuromuscular disease) is obhigh school grads who head off to L.A. in sessed with losing her virginity to Stanford. 1962 to seek out their idol, Marilyn MonHis older brother (Bartok), a failed musician, roe. Ultimately harmless, but you’ve seen it wants to rekindle a romance, and their justa million times before. One of the executive producers was Penny Marshall. [PG-13] ▼● widowed father (Dern) is in a long-term relationship with Ashley, Stewart’s grandmother. Calendar Girls (2003-British) C-107m. ★★1 Potentially powerful kitchen-sink drama is ⁄2 D: Nigel Cole. Helen Mirren, Julie surprisingly mild and inconsequential, but Walters, John Alderton, Linda Bassett, AnAshley and especially Dern are a pleasure to nette Crosbie, Ciara´n Hinds, Celia Imrie, watch. Bartok also scripted; feature directing Penelope Wilton, Graham Crowden, Geraldebut for Masterson. [R]쩠 dine James. Amiable comedy based on the Cal (1984-British) C-102m. ★★★ D: Pat true story of middle-aged women in a small O’Connor. Helen Mirren, John Lynch, English town who pose nude for a fundDonal McCann, John Kavanagh, Ray raising calendar. Mirren and Walters are so McAnally, Stevan Rimkus, Kitty Gibson. delightful, and abetted by such an engaging Intelligent drama of modern-day Northern cast, that it’s a shame the script isn’t more Ireland, with Lynch, 19, falling for older inspired. Later a stage play. Super 35. [PGwidow Mirren—despite his IRA involve13] ▼쩠 ment with her husband’s murder. Strong California (1946) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: John performances, especially by Mirren; proFarrow. Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland, duced by David Puttnam. [R]▼ Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Dekker, Anthony Calamity Jane (1953) C-101m. ★★★ D: Quinn, Julia Faye, George Coulouris. Ray David Butler. Doris Day, Howard Keel, is a wagonmaster with a past, Stanwyck a Allyn (Ann) McLerie, Philip Carey, Gale shady gal who makes good in this elaborately ordinary Western.쩠 Robbins, Dick Wesson, Paul Harvey. Doris [ 205 ]

California Dolls, The SEE: . . . All the had previously played same role on British Marbles TV. Video title: THE NEUTRALIZER.▼ California Dreaming (1979) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Callas Forever (2002-Italian-French-SpanishBritish-Romanian) C-111m. ★★★ D: Franco D: John Hancock. Dennis Christopher, Glynnis O’Connor, Seymour Cassel, DoroZeffirelli. Fanny Ardant, Jeremy Irons, Joan thy Tristan, John Calvin, Tanya Roberts, Plowright, Jay Rodan, Gabriel Garko, ManTodd Susman, Alice Playten, Ned Wynn, uel de Blas, Justino Dı´az. Fictional imaginJimmy Van Patten, Stacey Nelkin, Maring of the great opera diva Maria Callas at shall Efron. Revisionist beach party movie the end of her storied career. Her former finds nerd Christopher trying desperately manager comes back into her life and conto fit in with the surfing crowd, blind to vinces her to regain her passion by doing a the fact that their lives are even emptier film of Carmen in which she would lip-sync than his. Strong drama sometimes bites off to her great recordings of the past. Sumptumore than it can chew, but overall fairly ous production values and fine acting make compelling and surprisingly erotic; Wynn this worth seeing if you are a fan of opera, also wrote the screenplay. [R]▼ Callas, or Zeffirelli (who actually directed California Split (1974) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Callas onstage several times). Barely reRobert Altman. George Segal, Elliott Gould, leased theatrically in the U.S. 쩠 Ann Prentiss, Gwen Welles, Joseph Walsh, Callaway Went Thataway (1951) 81m. ★★1 Bert Remsen, Jeff Goldblum. Realistic but ⁄2 D: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank. rambling look at two compulsive gamblers, Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, Howtheir strange lifestyles, and the emptiness of ard Keel, Jesse White, Fay Roope, Natalie winning. Altman’s multi-channel soundtrack Schafer, Stan Freberg. Gentle spoof of only adds to the muddle. DVD version is 3m. early-TV ‘‘Hopalong Cassidy’’ craze, with shorter, due to music rights issues. PanaKeel as lookalike who impersonates veteran vision. [R]쩠 cowboy star for promotional purposes; good California Suite (1978) C-103m. ★★★ D: fun until it starts getting serious. Several Herbert Ross. Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, MGM stars make cameo appearances. Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Calle 54 (2000-French-Spanish) C-105m. ★★★ Matthau, Elaine May, Richard Pryor, Bill D: Fernando Trueba. Chucho Valdes, Cosby, Gloria Gifford, Sheila Frazier, Herb Gato Barbieri, Jerry Gonzalez, Tito Puente, Edelman, Denise Galik. Four Neil Simon Eliane Elias, Chico O’Farrill, Bebo Valdes. skits set at the Beverly Hills Hotel (and Fans of Latin jazz will want to catch Oscaradapted from his Broadway hit). Oscarwinning director Trueba’s valentine to the winning Smith and husband Caine as gently music he grew up loving. With cameras ready bickering Britishers in town for Academy to catch every moment, the filmmaker invited Awards come off best; Pryor and Cosby as several Latin musicians into an N.Y.C. reunfunnily combative ‘‘friends’’ are the cording studio, then traveled to their homeworst. Pleasant time-filler, with nice jazz towns to provide glimpses into their lives. score by Claude Bolling. [PG] ▼●쩠 Particularly gratifying to see Tito Puente still Caligula (1980) C-156m. ★1⁄2 D: Tinto cookin’ toward the end of his life. [G]▼쩠 Brass. Malcolm McDowell, Peter O’Toole, Caller, The (1989) C-97m. ★★ D: Arthur Teresa Ann Savoy, Helen Mirren, John Allan Seidelman. Malcolm McDowell, MaGielgud, Guido Mannari. Filmdom’s first dolyn Smith. Strange two-character mystery $15 million porno (to say nothing of home) set mostly in an isolated cabin in the woods; movie, produced by Penthouse and set in the verbal sparring partners are not what they seem to be. Partly effective, but goes on much Rome in the 1st century A.G. (After Guccione), follows ruthless ruler through endless series too long; might have worked as a Twilight of decapitations and disembowelings. ChutzZone episode. Shot in Italy in 1987. [R]▼ pah and 6m. of not-bad hard-core footage Call Him Mr. Shatter (1974-British) earn this half a star for the faithful, but most C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Carreras. Stuart viewers will be rightfully repelled. And beWhitman, Ti Lung, Lily Li, Peter Cushsides, Jay Robinson does much better by the ing, Anton Diffring. Hammer’s entry into title character in THE ROBE and DEMEthe Kung Fu market, begun by Monte TRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS. ReisHellman, stars Whitman as a burned-out sued in 105m., R-rated version—which is hit man on assignment in Hong Kong. considerably changed. [R—edited from origiPlenty of action, but nothing to hold it nal unrated version] ▼●쩠 together; presence of three cinematograCallan (1974-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: phers is a tip-off to extensive production woes. Aka SHATTER. [R]▼●쩠 Don Sharp. Edward Woodward, Eric Porter, Carl Mohner, Catherine Schell, Peter Egan. Calling Northside 777 SEE: Call Northside Adequate drama of aging secret agent 777 Woodward, demoted because he cares too Call Me (1988) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Solmuch about his adversaries, assigned to lace Mitchell. Patricia Charbonneau, Patti kill a German businessman. Woodward D’Arbanville, Sam Freed, Boyd Gaines, [ 206 ]

Stephen McHattie, Steve Buscemi, John Jeffries. Appalling film version of LernerSeitz, David Strathairn. Horny reporter Loewe musical has only good orchestrations saddled with a lackluster boyfriend begins and sporadically good acting to recomreceiving obscene phone calls and almost mend it; no one can sing and production finds herself enjoying the experience. Very looks cheap, in spite of big budget. This well acted by Charbonneau, but too many did, however, win Oscars for Costumes, of the supporting roles are weakly cast; Scoring, and Art Direction/Set Decoraexcessive melodrama detracts from what tion. Film’s nonstop use of close-ups may could have been a more compelling psyhelp it on TV screens. Panavision. ▼●쩠 chological study. [R]▼● Camera Buff (1979-Polish) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 Call Me Bwana (1963) C-103m. ★★ D: D: Krzysztof Kieslowski. Jerzy Stuhr, MalGordon Douglas. Bob Hope, Anita Ekberg, gorzata Zabkowska, Ewa Pokas, Stefan CzyEdie Adams, Lionel Jeffries, Arnold Palmzewski, Jerzy Nowak. Kieslowski’s first er. Hope and Adams on jungle safari eninternational success is a compelling story counter Ekberg and Jeffries and nothing about an ordinary workingman who buys an much happens. The ladies are lovely.▼● 8mm camera so he can shoot home movies Call Me Madam (1953) C-114m. ★★★ as soon as his wife gives birth. Instead, he D: Walter Lang. Ethel Merman, Donald becomes galvanized by the power and fasciO’Connor, George Sanders, Vera-Ellen, Billy nation of the camera and ignores his wife DeWolfe, Walter Slezak, Lilia Skala. Often and daughter in the process. A somewhat stagy musical from Irving Berlin tuner based autobiographical story of a man’s artistic on Perle Mesta’s life as Washington, D.C., and political awakening, this is just as powhostess and Liechtenstein ambassadress. Mererful as the day it was made. Aka AMATOR. ▼쩠 man is blowsy delight. Songs include ‘‘The Best Thing for You,’’ ‘‘It’s a Lovely Day Cameraman, The (1928) 69m. ★★★ D: EdToday,’’ ‘‘You’re Just in Love.’’ 쩠 ward Sedgwick. Buster Keaton, Marceline Call Me Mister (1951) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Day, Harold Goodwin, Sidney Bracy, Harry Lloyd Bacon. Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, Gribbon, Edward Brophy. Buster plays a Danny Thomas, Dale Robertson, Benay Venlovesick would-be newsreel cameraman in uta, Richard Boone, Frank Fontaine, Jeffrey this entertaining silent comedy, a cut beHunter. Acceptable plot line helps buoy this low his masterpieces but still brimming musical. Soldier Dailey, based in Japan, goes with invention, ingenious set pieces, and AWOL to patch up marriage with Grable big laughs. Remade with Red Skelton as WATCH THE BIRDIE.▼●쩠 traveling with USO troupe. Bears little resemblance to the Broadway revue on which it’s Camila (1984-Argentine) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 supposedly based. An unbilled Bobby Short D: Maria Luisa Bemberg. Susu Pecoraro, sings ‘‘Going Home Train.’’ Imanol Arias, Hector Alterio. Shades of Call Northside 777 (1948) 111m. ★★★1⁄2 ELVIRA MADIGAN, in a story based on D: Henry Hathaway. James Stewart, Rich19th-century Argentine fact, about a Jesuit ard Conte, Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker, Mopriest and a young Catholic socialite who roni Olsen, E. G. Marshall. Absorbing drama commit love on the lam as the authorities of reporter Stewart convinced that convicted stalk them for 500 miles. Interesting, but killer is innocent, trying to prove it; handled in never altogether compelling.▼쩠 semi-documentary style. Retitled: CALLING Camilla (1994-Canadian-British) C-95m. ★★1 NORTHSIDE 777.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Deepa Mehta. Jessica Tandy, Call of the Wild, The (1935) 81m. ★★★ Bridget Fonda, Hume Cronyn, Elias Koteas, D: William Wellman. Clark Gable, Loretta Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene, Ranjit Young, Jack Oakie, Reginald Owen, Frank Chowdhry, Atom Egoyan, Don McKellar. Conroy. More Hollywood than Jack London, Tandy, in her final film, is the sole reason to this Yukon adventure/romance is lots of fun, see this otherwise so-so road movie about and Owen a fine snarling villain. Original rethe budding friendship between a young lease was 95m. Remade in 1972 and as a TV would-be singer-songwriter (Fonda) and an movie in 1976, 1993, and 1997.쩠 elderly, eccentric (and high-spirited) former Call of the Wild (1972-British-Frenchconcert violinist. Cronyn plays Tandy’s former lover, and their on-screen time together German-Italian-Spanish) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: is something special. [PG-13]▼쩠 Ken Annakin. Charlton Heston, Michele Mercier, Maria Rohm, Rik Battaglia. LackCamille (1937) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George luster version of the Jack London adventure Cukor. Greta Garbo, Robert Taylor, Lionel classic, produced by a multinational film Barrymore, Elizabeth Allan, Laura Hope combine and wasting the talents of a diverse Crews, Henry Daniell, Joan Brodel (Leslie). cast. One redeeming quality: the striking Beautiful MGM production; in one of her most Finnish scenery. [PG]▼쩠 famous roles, Garbo is Dumas’ tragic heroine Call the Cops! SEE: Find the Lady who must sacrifice her own happiness in order 1 ★ Camelot (1967) C-178m. ⁄2 D: Joshua to prove her love. Taylor is a bit stiff as ArLogan. Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave, mand, but Daniell is a superb villain. Filmed Franco Nero, David Hemmings, Lionel before in 1915 (with Clara Kimball Young), [ 207 ]

1917 (Theda Bara), and 1921 (Nazimova, convince parents he’s a responsible authority with Rudolph Valentino as Armand). Remade figure. Assembly-line, end-of-summer release for TV in 1984 with Greta Scacchi. Also occasionally has a wittier gag than expected. [PG]▼●쩠 shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Camille Claudel (1988-French) C-149m. Campus Man (1987) C-94m. ★★ D: Ron ★★ Casden. John Dye, Steve Lyon, Morgan D: Bruno Nuytten. Isabelle Adjani, Ge´rard Depardieu, Laurent Grevill, Alain Fairchild, Kim Delaney, Kathleen Wilhoite, Cuny, Madeleine Robinson, Katrine BoorMiles O’Keeffe. Glossy but vacuous teen man. Overblown biography of the French comedy of collegiate entrepreneur (i.e. hussculptress (Adjani), who has a ‘‘madness tler) who publishes a male beefcake calendar of mud’’ and who single-mindedly pursues featuring his roommate, a hunky diver, and her art; Depardieu plays Auguste Rodin, spawning all kinds of complications. Based with whom she has a complex, turbulent on story of Arizona State University alumnus relationship. Potentially provocative story Todd Headlee (the film’s associate producer), is emotionally uninvolving, with an astonwhose ASU calendar launched the nationwide craze. [PG]▼●쩠 ishing lack of depth. Wonderful production values and period detail, but all for Canadian Bacon (1995) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: naught. Cinematographer Nuytten’s diMichael Moore. Alan Alda, John Candy, rectorial debut. Original French running Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollak, Rip Torn, time 173m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Kevin J. O’Connor, Bill Nunn, G. D. SpradCamorra (1986-Italian) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: lin, Steven Wright, James Belushi, Brad Lina Wertmuller. Angela Molina, Harvey Sullivan. In order to gain a strong platform Keitel, Daniel Ezralow, Francisco Rabal, for re-election, the president of the United Paolo Bonacelli, Isa Danieli, Lorraine States does the unthinkable and declares Bracco. Complex tale of drug traffic, murder, war on our neighbor to the north, Canada. and mayhem, focusing on the trials of exMoore stumbles with his second film after prostitute Molina; well-meaning in its depicthe terrific ROGER & ME. A top cast is tion of how preteens are used and abused wasted in this one-joke premise which lacks by drug kingpins. Generally better than the the satiric edge it needs. [PG] ▼●쩠 director’s later work, but miles below her Canadian Pacific (1949) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: gems of the 1970s. [R]▼ Edwin L. Marin. Randolph Scott, Jane ★★★1 Camouflage (1977-Polish) C-106m. Wyatt, J. Carrol Naish, Victor Jory, Nancy ⁄2 D: Krzysztof Zanussi. Piotr Garlicki, Olson. Scott is railroad surveyor helping Zbignieu Zapasiewicz, Christine Paul, with construction of train link, fighting Mariusz Dmochowski. Arrogant tenured Indians while romancing Wyatt and Olson. Canadians, The (1961) C-85m. ★★ D: professor Zapasiewicz challenges the independence of idealistic teaching assistant Burt Kennedy. Robert Ryan, John Dehner, Garlicki at a summer school-camp for linTorin Thatcher, John Sutton, Teresa Straguists. Pungently funny satire about contas. Cornball nonsense about Mounties who formity, the Communist hierarchy. pacify war-happy Sioux. Film features MetCamp (2003) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd Graff. ropolitan Opera singer Stratas to no advanDaniel Letterle, Joanna Chilcoat, Robin De tage. Filmed in Canada; Kennedy’s first Jesus, Tiffany Taylor, Sasha Allen, Anna Kenfeature as director. CinemaScope. Can-Can (1960) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 D: Walter drick, Don Dixon. A straight skater boy at a performing arts camp gets caught in a love triLang. Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine, angle with a lovelorn ingenue and a gay Puerto Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Juliet Rican drag queen. Cliche´d scripting hampers Prowse. Lackluster version of Cole Porter entertaining, easy-to-like backstage teen mumusical of 1890s Paris involving lawyer sical, but there’s no denying the talented Sinatra defending MacLaine’s right to peryoung cast. Divas-in-training Allen and form ‘‘daring’’ dance in her nightclub. Taylor are standouts. Writer and first-time Chevalier and Jourdan try to inject charm, director Graff, a former theater camper himbut Sinatra is blase´ and MacLaine shrill. self, knows his milieu; there’s even a funny Songs: ‘‘C’est Magnifique,’’ ‘‘I Love cameo from Broadway god Stephen SondParis,’’ ‘‘Let’s Do It,’’ ‘‘Just One of Those Things.’’ Todd-AO. ▼●쩠 heim. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Camp Nowhere (1994) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Cancel My Reservation (1972) C-99m. Jonathan Prince. Jonathan Jackson, Andrew BOMB D: Paul Bogart. Bob Hope, Eva Keegan, Marne Patterson, Melody Kay, Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, Forrest Tucker, Christopher Lloyd, M. Emmet Walsh, Anne Archer, Keenan Wynn, Ned Beatty, Wendy Makkena, Kate Mulgrew, Burgess Chief Dan George. Hope should have canMeredith, Peter Scolari, Jessica Marie Alba. celed this movie, a time-wasting turkey about Computer geeks, show biz wannabes, kid a troubled talk-show host who gets involved commandos, and other neighborhood castin a murder case in Arizona. Based on a Louis L’Amour novel! [G]▼ offs band together to form their own communal summer camp, supervised by token Candidate, The (1972) C-109m. ★★★ D: adult Lloyd, who has somehow managed to Michael Ritchie. Robert Redford, Peter [ 208 ]

Boyle, Don Porter, Allen Garfield, Karen descript supporting cast. Bland but for the Carlson, Melvyn Douglas, Quinn Redeker, menacing Todd in the title role. Followed Michael Lerner, Kenneth Tobey. Keenby a direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼●쩠 eyed political satire doesn’t stray far from Candy Mountain (1987-Canadian-Frenchreality. Redford is idealist talked into runSwiss) C-91m. ★★ D: Robert Frank, Rudy ning for Senate with promise of absolute Wurlitzer. Kevin J. O’Connor, Harris integrity in campaign, since he’s bound to Yulin, Tom Waits, Bulle Ogier, Roberts lose—or is he? Oscar-winning screenplay Blossom, Leon Redbone, Dr. John, Joe by Jeremy Larner. [PG]▼●쩠 Strummer, David Johansen (Buster PoinCandleshoe (1978) C-101m. ★★★ D: Nordexter). Uneven account of has-been rocker man Tokar. David Niven, Jodie Foster, O’Connor and his trip through America Helen Hayes, Leo McKern, Veronica and Canada in search of elusive guitarmaker Quilligan, Ian Sharrock, Vivian Pickles. Yulin. Intriguing collaboration between Con man McKern tries to pass off orphan photographer/filmmaker Frank, screenwriter Foster as Hayes’ heiress in order to locate Wurlitzer, and an eclectic cast . . . but the results are too often dull. [R]▼ hidden family treasure. Entertaining Disney comedy filmed in England, with Niven Candy Stripe Nurses (1974) C-80m. ★1⁄2 as disguise-laden butler. [G]▼●쩠 D: Allan Holleb. Candice Rialson, Robin Candy (1968-U.S.-Italian-French) C-124m. Mattson, Maria Rojo, Kimberly Hyde, Dick ★★ Miller, Stanley Ralph Ross, Monte Landis, D: Christian Marquand. Ewa Aulin, Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Charles Tom Baker. Last of Roger Corman’s five Aznavour, James Coburn, John Huston, Wal‘‘nurse’’ pictures is tired sex comedy, focuster Matthau, Ringo Starr, John Astin. Strained ing on antics of pretty volunteers; kept afloat sexual satire about a nubile blonde who is by cast full of old hands at this sort of thing. attacked by every man she meets. Fair share Aka SWEET CANDY. [R]▼쩠 of funny moments and bright performances Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget (particularly by Burton and Astin), but not Mercy Humppe and Find True Happienough to sustain 124m. Adapted from Terry ness? (1969-British) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: AnSouthern and Mason Hoffenberg’s book by thony Newley. Anthony Newley, Joan ColBuck Henry. [R]▼쩠 lins, Milton Berle, Connie Kreski, George Candy (2006-Australian) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jessel, Stubby Kaye. Fellini-influenced mess Neil Armfield. Abbie Cornish, Heath Ledabout song-and-dance man who reviews ger, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Budge, Roberto his debauched past. Low-grade in all deMeza Mont, Tony Martin, Noni Hazlehurst. partments, though Connie reveals why she Murky account of the evolving relationship was ‘‘Playmate of the Year.’’ Newley and between two attractive young people, a poet Collins were then real-life husband and (Ledger) and a painter (Cornish), both of wife. [R—edited from original X rating] whom are hooked on heroin. Well acted, Can I Do It . . . Til I Need Glasses? but the scenario is overly familiar. Armfield (1977) C-72m. BOMB D: I. Robert Levy. and Luke Davies scripted, based on Davies’ Victor Dunlap, Moose Carlson, Walter novel. [R]쩠 Olkewicz, Joey Camen, Ann Kellogg, Candyman (1992) C-93m. ★★★ D: BerRobin Williams. Sophomoric series of sexnard Rose. Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, related skits, most of which would bore Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa immature 11-year-olds. Williams appears Williams, DeJuan Guy, Michael Culkin. very briefly, in footage tacked on after the Effectively eerie psychological chiller, filled film’s premiere (and after his Mork and with clever, unusual touches, about an Mindy stardom). [R]▼쩠 academic (Madsen) who begins researchCannery Row (1982) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing the legend of a mysterious serial killer David S. Ward. Nick Nolte, Debra Wingnamed Candyman (Todd); this leads her to er, Audra Lindley, Frank McRae, M. Emmet Chicago’s crime-infested Cabrini-Green Walsh, Sunshine Parker, Santos Morales, public housing project. Rose (who plays narrated by John Huston. Entertaining tugthe role of ‘‘Archie Walsh’’) also scripted, of-war romance between baseball-playerfrom Clive Barker’s novel The Forbidden turned-marine-biologist Nolte and drifter(which is set in Liverpool). Followed by turned-floozie Winger is hampered by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 sloppy, self-conscious direction, awkward Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh (1995) continuity. Attractive performances by Nolte C-94m. ★★ D: Bill Condon. Tony Todd, and Winger; great set design by Richard Kelly Rowan, Timothy Carhart, Veronica MacDonald. Based on John Steinbeck’s Cartwright, William O’Leary, Fay Hauser, Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. Ward’s Bill Nunn, Matt Clark. Title avenger is resdirectorial debut. [PG]▼●쩠 urrected in mediocre sequel to terrorize an Cannibal Girls (1973-Canadian) C-84m. ★★ D: Ivan Reitman. Eugene Levy, Anaristocratic New Orleans family just in time for Mardi Gras. Good production values, drea Martin, Ronald Ulrich, Randall Carincluding some convincing local color, are penter, Bonnie Neison. Confused, conundermined by obvious plotting and nonvoluted low-budget Canadian import, an [ 209 ]

early effort by young talents Reitman, Levy, just left her, takes up with Emil, who and Martin, has funny first half about a never seems to stop talking. A couple of couple stranded in eerie town where there’s chuckles, but all the rest is rambling, superficial. [R]▼쩠 a rather strange restaurant. Second half falls apart. Warning buzzer precedes gore Can’t Buy Me Love (1987) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 scenes (which aren’t much), and doorbellD: Steve Rash. Patrick Dempsey, Amanda like sound announces they’re over. [R] Peterson, Courtney Gains, Tina Caspary, Cannibal! The Musical (1998) C-92m. Seth Green, Sharon Farrell. Known as ★★1 ⁄2 D: Trey Parker. Juan Schwartz (Trey BOY RENTS GIRL during production, Parker), Dian Bachar, Ian Hardin, John story has nerdy Dempsey paying senior Hegel, Matt Stone, Toddy Walters. Wacky, heartthrob Peterson a hard-earned grand to low-budget musical based on real-life story pose as his girlfriend, correctly surmising of Alferd Packer, who led an expedition that his own stock will rise. Sentimental rendegenerated into cannibalism in the Colodering of a terrific high school comedy rado Rockies, circa 1874. Gross-out gags premise. Peterson is excellent, Dempsey alternate for screen time with some pretty just adequate. Remade as LOVE DON’T good songs; our favorite is ‘‘Shpadoinkle.’’ COST A THING. [PG-13]▼●쩠 First feature for the SOUTH PARK team of Canterbury Tale, A (1944-British) 124m. ★★★ D: Michael Powell, Emeric PressParker and Stone. Made in 1993. [R]▼쩠 Cannonball (1976) C-93m. ★★ D: Paul Barburger. Eric Portman, Sheila Sim, John tel. David Carradine, Veronica Hamel, Sweet, Dennis Price, Esmond Knight, Bill McKinney, Gerrit Graham, Robert Charles Hawtrey, Hay Petrie. Curious and Carradine, Belinda Balaski, Judy Canova, disarming film from the Powell-Pressburger Carl Gottlieb. Comic account of crosswriting-and-directing team draws on Britcountry road race first depicted in THE ish eccentricities—and provincial flavor—to GUMBALL RALLY. Funny moments are flesh out its simple story about three peomuted by unpleasant characters and inept ple whose lives cross in a small English stuntwork. As usual, many of Bartel’s pals village during the war. There’s only the and coworkers appear in bits, including slightest tangent with the Chaucer work Sylvester Stallone, Roger Corman, and from which it draws its title. American directors Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Kaplan, version with added footage of Kim Hunter and Joe Dante. [PG]▼쩠 runs 95m. and doesn’t retain the charm of Cannonball Run, The (1981) C-95m. the original.▼쩠 BOMB D: Hal Needham. Burt Reynolds, Canterbury Tales, The (1971-ItalianRoger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Dom DeFrench) C-121m. BOMB D: Pier Paolo Luise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Pasolini. Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli, Pier Terry Bradshaw, Jackie Chan, Bert Convy, Paolo Pasolini, Hugh Griffith, Josephine Jamie Farr, Peter Fonda, Bianca Jagger, Chaplin, Michael Balfour, Jenny Runacre. Molly Picon, Jimmy ‘‘The Greek’’ SnyTravelers recount a number of Chaucer der, Mel Tillis. Just what civilization stories—which, unfortunately, are enacted needs—more Reynolds car-chase silliness, for the viewer. Tiresome, offensive, graphiinspired by the same cross-country road cally sadistic, with Pasolini appearing as race depicted in THE GUMBALL RALLY Chaucer. Italian-English cast; the second of and CANNONBALL. Pretty unendurable, the director’s medieval trilogy. Also shown despite unusual cast; rumor has it that the in 109m. English-language version. ▼●쩠 one responsible for casting Dino and Canterville Ghost, The (1944) 96m. ★★★ Sammy as priests is still doing his Hail D: Jules Dassin. Charles Laughton, Robert Marys. Followed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 Young, Margaret O’Brien, William Gargan, Cannonball Run II (1984) C-108m. Reginald Owen, ‘‘Rags’’ Ragland, Una BOMB D: Hal Needham. Burt Reynolds, O’Connor, Mike Mazurki, Peter Lawford. Dom DeLuise, Shirley MacLaine, Marilu Enjoyable fantasy, loosely adapted from Henner, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Oscar Wilde’s short story, of 17th-century Susan Anton, Catherine Bach, Ricardo ghost Laughton, spellbound until descenMontalban, Jim Nabors, Charles Nelson dant, WW2 soldier Young, helps him perReilly, Telly Savalas, Jamie Farr, Jack Elam, form heroic deed. Remade for TV in 1986 Frank Sinatra, Sid Caesar, and many others. (with John Gielgud) and 1996 (with Patrick Sequel to 1981 box-office hit looks like someStewart). ▼● one’s bad home movies. Amateurish action Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) C-98m. ★★ D: comedy with tons of tacky guest-star cameos. Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont. Jennifer What a waste! Final film roles for Martin and Love Hewitt, Ethan Embry, Charlie Korsmo, Lauren Ambrose, Peter Facinelli, Seth Sinatra. [PG] ▼●쩠 Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983) Green, Michelle Brookhurst. On high C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Henry Jaglom. Karen Black, school graduation night, Embry tries to Michael Emil, Michael Margotta, Frances work up the nerve to express his long-pentFisher, Martin Harvey Friedberg. Neurotic, up feelings for Hewitt—who’s just broken unpredictable Black, whose husband has up with the class jock. Set in and around a [ 210 ]

wild house party, this cheerful but predictmann’s original score). Major asset: excepable teen comedy comes off as a poor relationally good performances (including tion to AMERICAN GRAFFITI aimed at amusingly cast cameos by Mitchum, Peck, teens of the 1990s. Jenna Elfman, Melissa and Balsam, who starred in the ’62 movie). Joan Hart, Breckin Meyer, and Jerry Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 O’Connell appear unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Caper of the Golden Bulls, The (1967) Can’t Help Singing (1944) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 C-104m. BOMB D: Russell Rouse. SteD: Frank Ryan. Deanna Durbin, Robert Paige, phen Boyd, Yvette Mimieux, Giovanna Akim Tamiroff, Ray Collins, Thomas Gomez. Ralli, Walter Slezak, Vito Scotti. Lots of Durbin goes West to find her roaming lover; bull but not much gold in this unendurable despite good cast and Jerome Kern songs, it’s ‘‘thriller’’ about bank heist in Pamplona.▼ nothing much. ▼●쩠 Cape Town Affair, The (1967) C-103m. ★★ Can’t Stop the Music (1980) C-118m. ★★ D: Robert D. Webb. Claire Trevor, D: Nancy Walker. The Village People, James Brolin, Jacqueline Bisset, Bob Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner, Steve GutCourtney, Jon Whiteley, Gordon Milholtenberg, Paul Sand, Tammy Grimes, June land. Pedestrian remake of PICKUP ON Havoc, Barbara Rush, Jack Weston, Leigh SOUTH STREET, made in South Africa. Taylor-Young. One or two catchy producInterest here is seeing Bisset and Brolin at tion numbers aren’t enough to salvage oththe beginnings of their careers and Trevor erwise stiff comedy about the music-pubmaking something different of the old lishing biz, though some will feel they Thelma Ritter role. Story deals with a have to see what V. People and Jenner are Communist spy ring in Cape Town and an doing in same film. Gay subtext abounds, elusive envelope containing top secret microfilm.▼쩠 despite eye-boggling profile shots of Perrine. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Capitaine Conan (1996-French) C-132m. ★★★ Canyon Passage (1946) C-92m. ★★★ D: D: Bertrand Tavernier. Philippe TorJacques Tourneur. Dana Andrews, Brian reton, Samuel Le Bihan, Bernard Le Coq, Donlevy, Susan Hayward, Ward Bond, Catherine Rich, Franc¸ois Berleand, Pierre Andy Devine, Lloyd Bridges. Plotty, colVal. Powerful indictment of militarism and orful Western mixing action, beautiful scefalse heroism, centering on reckless title nery, heated love relationships, and Hoagy character, who leads French troops in a seCarmichael singing ‘‘Ole Buttermilk Sky.’’ cret war in the Balkans following the end of Well made and entertaining.▼쩠 WW1, but pays a heavy price for his valor. Cape Fear (1962) 105m. ★★★ D: J. Lee Torreton won a French Ce´sar award for his Thompson. Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, forceful performance, as did Tavernier for his virtuoso direction. Super 35.▼쩠 Polly Bergen, Martin Balsam, Lori Martin, Jack Kruschen, Telly Savalas, Barrie Capone (1975) C-101m. BOMB D: Steve Chase, Edward Platt. Mitchum is memoraCarver. Ben Gazzara, Susan Blakely, Harry bly (and believably) creepy as a wily SouthGuardino, John Cassavetes, Sylvester Stalern ex-con who blames lawyer Peck for his lone, Frank Campanella. Gazzara has cotincarceration and plots an insidious reton in his jowls and a cigar in his mouth, venge on his family. Dated only in its lack making most of the dialogue in this gangof explicitness, but still daring for its time. ster saga incomprehensible—but that’s OK, Based on John D. MacDonald’s novel The you’ve heard it all before. One big shootExecutioners. Musical score by Bernard out is stock footage from THE ST. VALHerrmann is reminiscent of his best work ENTINE’S DAY MASSACRE. [R] with Hitchcock. Remade in 1991.▼●쩠 Capote (2005) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bennett Cape Fear (1991) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: MarMiller. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine tin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Keener, Clifton Collins, Jr., Chris Cooper, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban, Amy Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Ryan, Mark Pellegrino. First-rate film about Martin Balsam, Illeana Douglas, Fred Dalauthor Truman Capote concentrates on his ton Thompson. Released from prison after relentless (and often ruthless) efforts to re14 years, a self-educated wacko vows to search and write the seminal book In Cold make a living hell for the lawyer who sent Blood—and what it cost him. Hoffman won him up. Remake of the 1962 thriller fleshes a Best Actor Oscar for his brilliantly nuout its characters and adds fascinating anced performance, but entire cast is excelpsychological layers—but turns a gripping, lent, and director Miller and screenwriter realistic story into an overblown, unbeDan Futterman incisively convey the ambilievable horror film: CAPE FEAR for the guity in Capote’s motives and methods. Freddy Krueger generation. Scorsese’s brilBased on Gerald Clarke’s book. Miller’s liant command of the medium is squanfirst fiction feature. Same story is recounted dered on severely unpleasant material (with in INFAMOUS. Super 35. [R]쩠 an A-list of collaborators, including cineCaprice (1967) C-98m. BOMB D: Frank matographer Freddie Francis and composer Tashlin. Doris Day, Richard Harris, Ray Elmer Bernstein, adapting Bernard HerrWalston, Jack Kruschen, Edward Mulhare, [ 211 ]

Lilia Skala, Irene Tsu, Michael J. Pollard. Terrible vehicle for Doris as industrial spy plunged into international intrigue with fellow agent Harris. Muddled, unfunny, straining to be ‘‘mod.’’ CinemaScope.쩠 Capricorn One (1978) C-124m. ★★★ D: Peter Hyams. Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Hal Holbrook, Sam Waterston, Karen Black, O. J. Simpson, Telly Savalas, Brenda Vaccaro, Denise Nicholas, David Huddleston, Robert Walden, David Doyle. Whirlwind contemporary adventure plays like a condensed Republic serial. First manned flight to Mars turns out to be a hoax, and when capsule supposedly burns up in re-entry, the astronauts suddenly realize they’re expendable. Lots of great chases punctuated by Hyams’ witty dialogue; not always plausible, but who cares? Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Captain America (1990) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Albert Pyun. Matt Salinger, Ronny Cox, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Scott Paulin, Michael Nouri, Kim Gillingham, Melinda Dillon, Billy Mumy. Dismayingly awful adaptation of the great Joe Simon–Jack Kirby comic book. Cap (Salinger) barely gets in one failed WW2 adventure pitted against Red Skull (Paulin), before being frozen in Alaska ice. Thawed out 50 years later, he spends too long in civvies before facing the Skull again. Clumsy, synthetic direction, actionless plot, boring opponents overwhelm the sincerity of Salinger’s performance. Never released theatrically in the U.S.▼ Captain Apache (1971) C-94m. ★★ D: Alexander Singer. Lee Van Cleef, Carroll Baker, Stuart Whitman, Percy Herbert. Violence in Old West laid on with a trowel. Filled with stereotypes. Franscope. [PG]▼쩠 Captain Blood (1935) 119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee, Henry Stephenson, Robert Barrat, Donald Meek, J. Carrol Naish. Flynn’s first swashbuckler, based on Rafael Sabatini’s novel, scores a broadside. He plays Irish physician Peter Blood who is forced to become a pirate, teaming for short spell with French cutthroat Rathbone, but paying more attention to proper young lady de Havilland. Vivid combination of exciting sea battles, fencing duels, and tempestuous romance provides Flynn with a literally star-making vehicle. First original film score for Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Beware of 99m. reissue version. Also shown in computer-colored version.

Donat appears briefly as Charles Parnell; Parker has title role.▼ Captain Carey, U.S.A. (1950) 83m. ★★★ D: Mitchell Leisen. Alan Ladd, Wanda Hendrix, Francis Lederer, Russ Tamblyn. Nicely turned account of ex-military officer Ladd returning to Italy to uncover informer who cost lives of villagers. Theme song ‘‘Mona Lisa’’ won an Oscar. Captain Clegg SEE: Night Creatures Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001-U.S.British) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Madden. Nicolas Cage, Pene´lope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale, David Morrissey, Irene Papas, Piero Maggio, Patrick Malahide. A peaceful, tradition-bound Greek island is invaded by Italian troops during WW2, but they are no more warlike than the residents. Madden beautifully captures a sense of time and place, but the pace lags, the characterizations are inconsistent, and the love story between fun-loving Italian Cage and serious-minded Cruz (Spanish accent intact) is never as gripping as it’s meant to be. Based on the novel by Louis de Bernieres. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Captain Eddie (1945) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lloyd Bacon. Fred MacMurray, Lynn Bari, Charles Bickford, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Nolan, James Gleason. Routine aviation film doesn’t do justice to exciting life of Eddie Rickenbacker; it’s standard stuff. Captain From Castile (1947) C-140m. ★★★ D: Henry King. Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero, Lee J. Cobb, John Sutton, Antonio Moreno, Thomas Gomez, Alan Mowbray, Barbara Lawrence, George Zucco, Ray Roberts, Marc Lawrence, Reed Hadley, Jay Silverheels. Power, driven to avenge the cruel treatment of his family by Spanish Inquisitor (Sutton), eventually serves with Cortez (Romero) during his conquest of Mexico. Color and romance; magnificent location photography by Charles Clarke and Arthur E. Arling; Alfred Newman’s majestic score ranks with Hollywood’s very best. Peters’ film debut.▼●쩠 Captain Fury (1939) 91m. ★★★ D: Hal Roach. Brian Aherne, Victor McLaglen, Paul Lukas, June Lang, John Carradine, George Zucco, Douglass Dumbrille, Charles Middleton. Australia serves as background in story of illustrious adventurer fighting evil land baron. Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951-British) C-117m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, Denis O’Dea, Christopher Lee, Stanley Baker, James Robertson Justice. Exciting, ▼●쩠 Captain Boycott (1947-British) 92m. ★★1⁄2 well-produced sea epic based on C. S. ForD: Frank Launder. Stewart Granger, Kathester’s British naval hero of the Napoleonic leen Ryan, Cecil Parker, Mervyn Johns, wars. ▼●쩠 Alastair Sim. Poor Irish farmers band toCaptain January (1936) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: gether to combat the abuses of their landDavid Butler. Shirley Temple, Guy Kibbee, lords in early 19th century; interesting but Slim Summerville, Buddy Ebsen, June dramatically uneven, with misplaced comLang, Sara Haden. Straightforward, sentiponents of humor and romance. Robert mental tale of orphaned Shirley, and the [ 212 ]

new truant officer who tries to separate her Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn from her adoptive father, lighthouse keeper Douglas, Charley Grapewin, John Carradine, Kibbee. Short and sweet. Shirley and Ebsen Mickey Rooney, Walter Kingsford. Spoiled sing and dance ‘‘At the Codfish Ball.’’ Also rich-boy Bartholomew falls off cruise ship, shown in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 rescued by Portuguese fisherman Tracy (who Captain Kidd (1945) 89m. ★★ D: Rowwon Oscar for role). Boy learns to love seafarland V. Lee. Charles Laughton, Randolph ing on crusty Barrymore’s fishing vessel. EnScott, Barbara Britton, Reginald Owen, thusiastic cast in this splendid production of John Carradine, Gilbert Roland, Sheldon Kipling’s story. Scripted by John Lee Leonard. Even with Laughton, this is slowMahin, Marc Connelly, and Dale Van going low-budget stuff.▼쩠 Every. Remade as a TV movie in 1977 Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974(with Karl Malden and Ricardo Montalban) British) C-91m. ★★★ D: Brian Clemens. and 1996 (with Robert Urich). Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Horst Janson, John Carson, Caroline Munro, Shane Briant, John Cater, Lois Diane, Captain Sindbad (1963-U.S.-West German) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Byron Haskin. Guy Ian Hendry. Unique blend of horror and swashbuckler genres follows sword-wieldWilliams, Heidi Bruhl, Pedro Armendariz, ing stranger as he stalks new breed of Abraham Sofaer, Bernie Hamilton. Guy Wilvampire across European countryside. liams is an energetic Sindbad in this elaborate, effects-filled but ponderous fantasy.▼쩠 Artsy, exciting, almost intoxicatingly atmospheric chiller has developed considerCaptains of the Clouds (1942) C-113m. ★★★ able following; one of the best (and least D: Michael Curtiz. James Cagney, typical) Hammer productions. Released in Dennis Morgan, Brenda Marshall, Alan Britain as simply KRONOS. [R]▼쩠 Hale, George Tobias, Reginald Gardiner. Captain Lightfoot (1955) C-91m. ★★★ D: Atmospheric wartime drama charting the Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson, Barbara Rush, shenanigans of cocky bush pilot Cagney, Jeff Morrow, Finlay Currie, Kathleen Ryan. who joins the Canadian air force but refuses Fine, flavorful costume adventure about to follow regulations.▼●쩠 19th-century Irish rebellion and one of its Captain’s Paradise, The (1953-British) 77m. ★★★ D: Anthony Kimmins. Alec dashing heroes. Beautifully filmed on location in Ireland in CinemaScope. Guinness, Yvonne De Carlo, Celia JohnCaptain Nemo and the Underwater City son, Bill Fraser. Guinness has field day as (1970) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Hill. Robcarefree skipper who shuttles back and ert Ryan, Chuck Connors, Nanette Newman, forth between wives in opposite ports. De Luciana Paluzzi. Average undersea fanCarlo and Johnson make a good contrast as tasy centered on Captain Nemo who lives in the two women. Original British running an underwater fortress. Panavision. [G]쩠 time: 86m. Later a Broadway musical, Oh, Captain!▼●쩠 Captain Newman, M.D. (1963) C-126m. ★★★ D: David Miller. Gregory Peck, Angie Captain’s Table, The (1960-British) Dickinson, Tony Curtis, Eddie Albert, Jane C-90m. ★★ D: Jack Lee. John Gregson, Withers, Bobby Darin, Larry Storch, Bethel Peggy Cummins, Donald Sinden, Nadia Leslie, Robert Duvall. Provocative, wellGray. Satisfactory comedy involving skipacted comedy-drama about dedicated Army per of cargo vessel (Gregson) who is given psychiatrist Peck, battling bureaucracy trial command of luxury liner, and the and the macho military mentality on a chaos ensuing trying to keep order among crew and passengers.▼ stateside air base during WW2. Darin is particularly good as a troubled, ill-fated Captive City, The (1952) 90m. ★★★ D: corporal. Based on Leo Rosten’s bestRobert Wise. John Forsythe, Joan Camselling novel.▼쩠 den, Harold J. Kennedy, Marjorie Crosland, Captain Ron (1992) C-100m. BOMB D: Victor Sutherland, Ray Teal, Martin MilThom Eberhardt. Kurt Russell, Martin ner. Small-city newspaper editor Forsythe Short, Mary Kay Place, Benjamin Salisgradually learns that the Mafia has taken bury, Meadow Sisto, Emannuel Logrono, over bookie operations formerly run by corJorge Luis Ramos, J. A. Preston, Tanya rupt local businessmen. Based-on-fact drama Soler, John Scott Clough. Yuppies Get is earnest and intelligent, with fine noir-style Away From It All by taking an inherited photography by Lee Garmes. Sen. Estes sailboat into the Caribbean, with eyeKefauver provides an afterword. patched Russell (the very poor man’s Captive Heart, The (1946-British) 108m. ★★★1 Robert Newton) at the helm. Dreadful time⁄2 D: Basil Dearden. Michael Redgrave, waster establishes its comic credentials by Mervyn Johns, Basil Radford, Jack Wargiving Russell the funny role and Short the ner, Jimmy Hanley, Gordon Jackson, Ralph straight one; pirates and multiple falls into the Michael, Rachel Kempson. Compelling exdrink are a given. Paul Anka (you tell us why) amination of British POWs during WW2 plays a boat salesman. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and their German captors with controlled, Captains Courageous (1937) 116m. ★★★★ flawless performance by Redgrave and exD: Victor Fleming. Freddie Bartholomew, cellent supporting cast. Patrick Kirwan’s [ 213 ]

★★1 story was scripted by Angus MacPhail and ⁄2 D: Nadine Labaki. Nadine Labaki, Guy Morgan. Original British running time: Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gi98m.▼쩠 se`le Aouad, Adel Karam, Aziza Semaan, Captive Hearts (1987) C-97m. ★★ D: Siham Haddad. Lightly likable comedyPaul Almond. Noriyuki (Pat) Morita, Chris drama, reminiscent of such American fare Makepeace, Mari Sato, Michael Sarrazin, as STEEL MAGNOLIAS and BEAUTY Seth Sakai. American soldier shot down SHOP, about life, love, and leg waxing in and taken prisoner in Japan during WW2 and around a Lebanese beauty salon. Direcfalls in love with a Japanese woman. If tor Labaki is first among equals in fine enthat sounds familiar, or simplistic, wait till semble cast as Layale, owner of the Si Belle you see the film! Easy to see why this beauty shop in downtown Beirut, who’s so barely made it to theaters. [PG]▼ caught up in a humiliating affair with an Captives (1995-U.S.-British) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 inattentive married man that she’s slow to D: Angela Pope. Tim Roth, Julia Ormond, note the handsome traffic cop who pines for Colin Salmon, Keith Allen, Siobhan Redher. Interesting look at lives of women in a mond, Peter Capaldi. Unusual drama set in society where men make most of the decia contemporary London prison where a sions and almost all of the rules. [PG]쩠 lonely female dentist ends up in a deadly Carandiru (2003-Brazilian) C-148m. ★★1⁄2 game of blackmail when she falls for one of D: Hector Babenco. Luiz Carlos Vasconcelos, her convict patients. Some melodramatic silMilhem Cortaz, Milton Gonc¸alves, Ivan de liness aside (including scenes of dental foreAlmeida, Ailton Grac¸a, Maria Luisa Menplay), this is a showcase for two highly donc¸a, Rodrigo Santoro. Master filmmaker skilled actors, Roth and Ormond. [R]▼●쩠 Babenco came back from serious illness to Captivity (2007-U.S.-Russian) C-85m. direct this story of real-life doctor Dra´uzio BOMB D: Roland Joffe´. Elisha Cuthbert, Varella, who took his cause for AIDS prevenDaniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Michael tion inside the horrifying Brazilian state peniHarney, Laz Alonso, Maggie Damon, tentiary Carandiru, becoming an eyewitness Chrysta Olson. A supermodel is stalked, to degrading conditions that led to a deadly drugged, kidnapped, and imprisoned by a riot in 1992. Surprisingly conventional prison mysterious, unseen assailant. Vulgar, repulpicture with standard-issue characters is ressive thriller earned notoriety for its lurid cued by the true nature of the tale and Baadvertising campaign. It’s a long way from benco’s smarts behind the camera. Based on Joffe´’s THE KILLING FIELDS. Also Varella’s book Carandiru Station. [R]▼쩠 available in unrated version. Super 35. [R]쩠 Caravans (1978-U.S.-Iranian) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 ★★1 Capture, The (1950) 91m. ⁄2 D: John D: James Fargo. Anthony Quinn, Jennifer Sturges. Lew Ayres, Teresa Wright, Victor O’Neill, Michael Sarrazin, Christopher Lee, Jory, Jacqueline White, Jimmy Hunt, Barry Joseph Cotten, Barry Sullivan. ExpensiveKelley, Duncan Renaldo. Oil field supervilooking version of James Michener’s contemsor Ayres begins to ponder whether the payporary desert epic about a search through the roll robber he shot was really an innocent Middle East for the daughter (O’Neill) of a man. Straightforward, well acted, but slow U.S. senator. Won’t fool those who recognize at times.▼쩠 it as just another updated version of THE Capturing the Friedmans (2003) C-107m. SEARCHERS. Panavision. [PG]쩠 ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Andrew Jarecki. Fascinating and Carbine Williams (1952) 91m. ★★★ D: Richdeeply disturbing documentary about a noard Thorpe. James Stewart, Jean Hagen, Wentorious 1980s child molestation case that dell Corey, Paul Stewart, James Arness. Sturdy rocks a seemingly normal, happy, middlehistory of the inventor of famed rifle, his probclass family on Long Island, N.Y. Thought– lems with the law, and his simple family life. provoking examination of the relativity of Stewart is most convincing in title role. Also shown in computer-colored version.쩠 truth seen through the prism of a domestic breakdown and the surrounding media Carbon Copy (1981) C-92m. ★★ D: Mifrenzy. Anchored by amazing home-movie chael Schultz. George Segal, Susan Saint footage the Friedmans shot themselves, alJames, Denzel Washington, Jack Warden, most obsessively, throughout the years, Paul Winfield, Dick Martin, Tom Poston. which charts the family’s disintegration. Segal has hidden his identity as a Jew and What to make of all this is (wisely) left to become a successful corporate executive— the viewer. ▼쩠 until the arrival of his illegitimate 17-yearCar, The (1977) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Elliot old son (Washington, in film debut), who is Silverstein. James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, black. Silly, uneven, but not uninteresting John Marley, Ronny Cox, R.G. Armstrong, blend of comedy and social drama. Written John Rubinstein. Hokey thriller about a by Stanley Shapiro. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 killer car demonically running down most Card, The SEE: Promoter, The of the cast. Twilight Zone once did a tidier, Cardinal, The (1963) C-175m. ★★1⁄2 D: Otto quite similar job in one third the time. PaPreminger. Tom Tryon, John Huston, Romy navision. [PG]▼●쩠 Schneider, Carol Lynley, Jill Haworth, Raf Caramel (2007-Lebanese-French) C-95m. Vallone, Joseph Meinrad, Burgess Meredith, [ 214 ]

Ossie Davis, John Saxon, Robert Morse, DoroD: Bryan Gordon. Frank Whaley, Jennifer thy Gish, Tullio Carminati, Maggie McNaConnelly, Dermot Mulroney, Kieran Mulromara, Bill Hayes, Cecil Kellaway, Murray ney, John M. Jackson, Jenny O’Hara, Noble Hamilton, Patrick O’Neal, Chill Wills, Arthur Willingham, Barry Corbin, Denise Galik, Hunnicutt. Long, long story of an IrishWilliam Forsythe. Otherwise unemployable American’s rise from priesthood to the College teen gets the night watchman job at an allof Cardinals. Has some outstanding vignettes purpose department store; his first night is an by old pros like Meredith, but emerges as an idyllic round-the-clocker with a girl who’s uneven, occasionally worthwhile film. Panahiding out inside, and who just happens to be vision. ▼●쩠 the town’s no. 1 rich dish. Typical ode to Cardinal Richelieu (1935) 83m. ★★1⁄2 arrested development from writer-producer D: Rowland V. Lee. George Arliss, Maureen John Hughes, a 10m. idea stretched into a O’Sullivan, Edward Arnold, Cesar Romefeature. Tolerable only for John Candy’s unro. Arliss etches another historical porbilled cameo, and as a showcase for gorgeous trayal of France’s unscrupulous cardinal Connelly. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 who controlled Louis XIII (Arnold). Good Carefree (1938) 83m. ★★★ D: Mark Sandcast supports star. rich. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ralph Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland!, Bellamy, Luella Gear, Jack Carson, Franklin Pangborn, Hattie McDaniel. Madcap Rogers The (1987-Canadian) C-75m. ★★ D: Raymond Jafelice. Voices of Bob Dermer, is sent to psychiatrist Astaire, and romance Eva Almos, Dan Hennessy, Jim Henshaw, naturally blossoms; Fred and Ginger’s most Colin Fox. The Care Bears follow Alice comic outing, wacky and offbeat, with good through the looking glass in this typically Irving Berlin score including ‘‘Change Partners,’’ ‘‘I Used to Be Color Blind.’’▼●쩠 bland kiddie outing, with music by John Sebastian. [G]▼● Careful, He Might Hear You (1983Australian) C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Carl Schultz. Care Bears Movie, The (1985-Canadian) C-75m. ★★ D: Arna Selznick. Voices of Wendy Hughes, Robyn Nevin, Nicholas Mickey Rooney, Georgia Engel. Songs by Gledhill, John Hargreaves, Geraldine Turner. Carole King, John Sebastian. Animated Involving drama about Depression-era custody feature based on heavily merchandised charbattle between wealthy Hughes and workingacters is strictly for toddlers, tough sledclass sister Nevin for their nephew, whose ding for anyone older. Produced by Canadian mother is dead and father has abandoned him. Nelvana animation studio. Followed by Manages to be credible yet larger-than-life at two sequels and a TV series. [G]▼쩠 the same time, with wonderful shadings and Care Bears Movie II, A New Generation, observations. Makes exceptional use of wideThe (1986-Canadian-U.S.) C-77m. BOMB screen. Michael Jenkins scripted, from a novel D: Dale Schott. Voices of Maxine Miller, by Sumner Locke Elliott. Panavision. [PG] Pam Hyatt, Hadley Kay. Your kids deserve ▼쩠 better entertainment than this treacly stuff Caretaker, The SEE: Guest, The about the Kingdom of Caring. Prefab animaCaretakers, The (1963) 97m. ★★★ D: tion from the era of toy merchandising tieHall Bartlett. Robert Stack, Joan Crawford, ins. [G]▼쩠 Polly Bergen, Susan Oliver, Janis Paige, Career (1959) 105m. ★★★ D: Joseph AnConstance Ford, Barbara Barrie, Herbert thony. Dean Martin, Anthony Franciosa, ShirMarshall. At times incisive view of a West ley MacLaine, Carolyn Jones, Joan BlackCoast mental hospital, marred by flimsy man, Robert Middleton, Donna Douglas. script and poor editing. Good characterizaOccasionally shrill, generally forceful presentions by Crawford and Ford as nurses, Bergen and Paige as patients.▼ tation of an actor’s (Franciosa’s) tribulations in seeking Broadway fame; Jones is excellent Carey Treatment, The (1972) C-101m. ★★★ as lonely talent agent.▼● D: Blake Edwards. James Coburn, Career Girls (1997-British) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle, Skye Aubrey, D: Mike Leigh. Katrin Cartlidge, Lynda Elizabeth Allen, Alex Dreier. Good solid Steadman, Kate Byers, Mark Benton, Joe whodunit set in hospital, where doctor Coburn Tucker, Andy Serkis. Another satisfying (and is determined to clear colleague of murder unpredictable) slice of life from writer-direccharge. O’Neill provides love interest in comtor Leigh, about two former roommates replicated but satisfying mystery, shot in Bosunited after six years. Flashbacks reveal how ton. Based on the novel A Case of Need by much they’ve changed and matured from Michael Crichton. Panavision. [PG] their uncertain college years, when Cartlidge Car 54, Where Are You? (1994) C-89m. ★1 was a mass of tics and Steadman was, in her ⁄2 D: Bill Fishman. David Johansen, John friend’s words, ‘‘a walking open wound.’’ C. McGinley, Al Lewis, Fran Drescher, NipRemarkable performances from both acsey Russell, Rosie O’Donnell, Daniel Baldtresses. Music by Tony Remy and Marianne win, Jeremy Piven, Penn & Teller, Tone Loc. Jean-Baptiste (costar of Leigh’s previous This retread of the hilarious 1960s TV show about N.Y.C. cops with a hefty Keystone quofilm, SECRETS & LIES). [R]▼●쩠 Career Opportunities (1991) C-84m. ★1⁄2 tient is a woefully embarrassing assemblage [ 215 ]

of gags that would bring up the rear in POLICE ACADEMY. O’Donnell (her screen debut), Drescher, and Piven acquit themselves well, under the circumstances. Despite presence of Al Lewis—reprising his Schnauzer role from the original Nat Hiken series—this turkey sat on the shelf after completion in 1991. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Caribbean (1952) C-97m. ★★ D: Edward Ludwig. John Payne, Arlene Dahl, Cedric Hardwicke, Francis L. Sullivan, Woody Strode. 18th-century costume vehicle allows Payne to battle pirates and flirt with Dahl. Cariboo Trail (1950) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edwin L. Marin. Randolph Scott, George ‘‘Gabby’’ Hayes, Bill Williams, Karin Booth, Victor Jory, Douglas Kennedy, Jim Davis, Dale Robertson, Mary Stuart, Lee Tung Foo. Sturdy Scott vehicle about a cattleman who brings his herd to the Canadian wilderness, where he takes on corrupt Jory.

scripted). Well-intentioned, moralistic tale with a now-predictable pumped-up boxing finale. [PG-13]▼쩠 Carmen (1983-Spanish) C-102m. ★★★ D: Carlos Saura. Antonio Gades, Laura Del Sol, Paco de Lucia, Cristina Hoyos, Juan Antonio Jimenez, Sebastian Moreno. Choreographer prepares dance production of Bizet’s opera, but falls under spell of real-life Carmen he casts in leading role. Choreographer/star Gades and sensual Del Sol are superb, though dramatic impact dissipates somewhat during second half. A must for dance buffs. [R]▼●쩠 Carmen (1984-French-Italian) C-152m. ★★ D: Francesco Rosi. Julia Migenes-Johnson, Placido Domingo, Ruggero Raimondi, Faith Esham, Jean-Philippe Lafont, Gerard Garino. Disappointing filmization of the Bizet opera is overbaked and unbelievably inept. Still, opera buffs will enjoy the music—if they close their eyes. [PG]▼●쩠 ▼● Carla’s Song (1996-British-Spanish) CCarmen Jones (1954) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: 125m. ★★★ D: Ken Loach. Robert Carlyle, Otto Preminger. Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Oyanka Cabezas, Scott Glenn, Salvador EsBelafonte, Pearl Bailey, Roy Glenn, Diahann pinoza, Louise Goodall. Unusual political Carroll, Brock Peters. Powerful melodrama drama/love story set in 1987 with Glasgow adapted from Bizet’s opera by Oscar Hambus driver Carlyle becoming involved with merstein II, with exciting music and equally beautiful but deeply troubled Nicaraguan exciting Dandridge as the ultimate femme farefugee Cabezas. It’s difficult to navigate tale. Stars’ singing voices are all dubbed— the Scottish accents at first, but the final part Dandridge’s by opera star Marilyn Horne. of the story, set in the Nicaraguan war zone, Film debuts of Carroll and Peters. Cinemais poignant and heartbreaking.▼●쩠 Scope. ▼●쩠 Carlito’s Way (1993) C-144m. ★★★ D: Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My BusiBrian De Palma. Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Peness (1994-U.S.-Brazilian) C/B&W-91m. ★★★ nelope Ann Miller, Luis Guzman, John D: Helena Solberg. Savvy exploration Leguizamo, Ingrid Rogers, James Rebhorn, of the Brazilian Bombshell’s life and times, Joseph Siravo, Viggo Mortensen, Richard chronicling the sad transition from revered Foronjy, Jorge Porcel, Adrian Pasdar. musical artist in her homeland to caricatured Street-wise Puerto Rican Pacino winds up a cliche´ in Hollywood. Filmmaker Solberg’s five-year jail term and tries to go straight, lifelong fascination with Miranda is expressed but loyalty to his sleazy lawyer (Penn), and through film clips, revealing interviews with his inability to accept the fact that ‘‘the Brazilian and American colleagues and famstreet’’ has changed, seal his doom. Flawed ily, and strikingly, re-creations of moments in but still compelling; based on two Edwin her life using a female impersonator! ▼쩠 Torres novels about a man with an outCarnage SEE: Twitch of the Death Nerve moded code of honor. Pacino is arresting as Carnal Knowledge (1971) C-96m. ★★★ always; so is an almost unrecognizable D: Mike Nichols. Jack Nicholson, Candice Penn. Director Paul Mazursky has a terrific Bergen, Arthur Garfunkel, Ann-Margret, cameo as a judge at the beginning of the Rita Moreno, Cynthia O’Neal, Carol Kane. story. Followed by a direct-to-video ‘‘preThought-provoking (if depressing) look at quel’’ in 2005. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 the sexual attitudes and obsessions of two Carlton-Browne of the F.O. SEE: Man male friends, from college through middle in a Cocked Hat age. Ann-Margret won acclaim for performCarman: The Champion (2001) C-90m. ance as Nicholson’s kittenish mistress. ★★ D: Lee Stanley. Carman, Michael Nouri, Jules Feiffer originally wrote this as a Patricia Manterola, Jeremy Williams, Jed play, then adapted it as a screenplay inAllan, Romeo Fabian, Betty Carvalho. Restead; in 1990 it was staged off-Broadway. tired professional-fighter-turned-preacher reKane’s film debut. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 enters the ring to raise money to expand his Carnegie Hall (1947) 134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edgar and his late father’s dream project: an innerG. Ulmer. Marsha Hunt, William Prince, city youth ministry. Along the way to the Frank McHugh, Martha O’Driscoll. Lame championship match he battles local gangs, story about a pushy mother and her pianist becomes a surrogate father, saves some son links magnificent concert performances souls and falls in love. Feature film debut by the cream of the classical music world: for recording artist Carman (who also coArtur Rubinstein, Leopold Stokowski, [ 216 ]

Jascha Heifetz, Rise Stevens, Lily Pons, nifer Beals, Alexandre Rockwell. Witty, Ezio Pinza, Jan Peerce, Gregor Piatigorsky, thoughtful, three-part feature from Moretti, Bruno Walter and The New York Philharone of the most acclaimed contemporary monic. Some mediocre pop tunes are Italian film director–comedians. He appears shoehorned into the proceedings, along in each as himself. First he romps around with Vaughn Monroe and Harry James.▼쩠 Rome on a Vespa. Next he goes islandCarnet de Bal SEE: Un Carnet de Bal hopping in southern Italy, where he wryly Carnival in Costa Rica (1947) C-95m. examines Europeans’ obsession with Amer★★ D: Gregory Ratoff. Dick Haymes, Veraican pop culture. Lastly, and most soberly, he recounts his own cancer treatment.▼● Ellen, Cesar Romero, Celeste Holm, Anne Revere, J. Carrol Naish. Despite fair cast, Carolina (2005-U.S.-Dutch) C-98m. ★★ D: boring musical of trip to Costa Rica and Marleen Gorris. Julia Stiles, Shirley Macthe shenanigans of newlyweds and their Laine, Alessandro Nivola, Mika Boorem, quarreling parents. Azura Skye, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Coolidge, Carnival of Souls (1962) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Thicke, Barbara Eden. Good cast does Herk Harvey. Candace Hilligoss, Sidney its best with a pedestrian (and predictable) Berger, Frances Feist, Herk Harvey, Stan script about a young woman who keeps Levitt, Art Ellison. Eerie little film of looking for Mr. Right even though her best ‘‘phantom figure’’ pursuing Hilligoss after friend—and next-door neighbor—is the she has seemingly drowned. Imaginative perfect man for her. Did we mention that low-budget effort. Filmed mostly in Lawshe was raised by a wacky, eccentric grandrence, Kansas. Has developed a strong mother? Disappointing Hollywood debut cult reputation in recent years. Original for Dutch filmmaker Gorris (ANTONIA’S running time: 91m. Computer-colored verLINE). Opened in Europe in 2003; released sion also available. Remade in 1998 and direct to video in the U.S. [PG-13] 쩠 2008 (as YELLA). ▼●쩠 Carousel (1956) C-128m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Carnival Story (1954) C-95m. ★★ D: Kurt King. Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, CamNeumann. Anne Baxter, Steve Cochran, Lyle eron Mitchell, Barbara Ruick, Claramae Bettger, George Nader, Jay C. Flippen. HardTurner, Robert Rounseville, Gene Lockened Baxter is involved with sleazy Cochran. hart. Excellent filmization of Rodgers & ‘‘Nice guy’’ high diver Bettger takes her on Hammerstein’s memorable adaptation of as a prote´ge´e, and there are complications. Ferenc Molna´r’s Liliom, with MacRae as When this romantic melodrama is not trashy, rowdy carousel barker Billy Bigelow, who it’s sluggish. Set in Germany, and not unlike tries to change for the better when he falls E.A. Dupont’s classic, VARIETY. A German in love with Jones. Excitement of wideversion was also filmed, with Eva Bartok, screen location filming will be minimized Bernhard Wicki, and Curt Jurgens.▼쩠 on TV screen, but moving characters, timeCarnosaur (1993) C-82m. ★★ D: Adam less songs remain. Script by Phoebe and Simon. Diane Ladd, Raphael Sbarge, JenniHenry Ephron. Filmed before as LILIOM in fer Runyon, Harrison Page, Ned Bellamy, 1930 and 1934. CinemaScope 55.▼●쩠 Clint Howard. Brilliant geneticist Ladd Carpetbaggers, The (1964) C-150m. ★★1⁄2 hatches man-eating dinosaurs from virusD: Edward Dmytryk. George Peppard, Carinfected chicken eggs and lets them run roll Baker, Alan Ladd, Bob Cummings, amok in an unsuspecting Midwestern city. Martha Hyer, Elizabeth Ashley, Lew Ayres, Roger Corman produced this forgettable Martin Balsam, Ralph Taeger, Archie film, whose only notoriety will be its legacy Moore, Leif Erickson, Tom Tully, Audrey as 1993’s ‘‘other’’ dinosaur movie (which Totter. Blowsy claptrap based on Harold starred Ladd’s daughter, Laura Dern). FolRobbins novel of millionaire plane manulowed by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 facturer (Peppard) dabbling in movies and Carny (1980) C-107m. ★★★ D: Robert lovemaking a` la Howard Hughes. Set in Kaylor. Gary Busey, Jodie Foster, Robbie 1920s–30s; sexploitational values are tame. Robertson, Meg Foster, Bert Remsen, KenLadd’s last film; followed by prequel, NEneth McMillan, John Lehne, Elisha Cook, VADA SMITH. Panavision.▼●쩠 Craig Wasson. Striking, atmospheric film Carpool (1996) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur about a symbiotic pair of carnival hustlers Hiller. Tom Arnold, David Paymer, Rhea and the teenage runaway who joins them Perlman, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rod Steiger, on the road. Candid, intimate (and someKim Coates, Micah Gardener, Mikey what voyeuristic) look at seamy midway Kovar, Colleen Rennison, Jordan Warkov. life, hurt by unsatisfying and abrupt conA desperate down-on-his-luck carnival clusion. Rock star Robertson also proowner (Arnold) botches his first holdup atduced and cowrote the film. Wonderful tempt and takes a harried carpool dad (Payscore by Alex North. [R]▼ mer) and his young passengers hostage. Caro Diario (1994-Italian-French) CSome laughs in this likable but uneven com★★★ edy. Perlman is wasted. [PG]▼●쩠 100m. D: Nanni Moretti. Nanni Moretti, Renato Carpentieri, Antonio Neiwiller, Carrie (1952) 118m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Carlo Mazzacurati, Claudia Della Seta, JenWyler. Jennifer Jones, Laurence Olivier, [ 217 ]

Miriam Hopkins, Eddie Albert, Mary MurKenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey. Divertphy, William Reynolds. Jones passively ing reworking of ancient history to serve plays the title role in this uneven turn-ofas amusing satire on CLEOPATRA epic, the-century soaper of poor farm girl who sufficiently laced with hijinks by perennial comes to Chicago, eventually links up with misfits. Aka CALIGULA’S FUNNIEST unhappily married restaurant manager Olivier HOME VIDEOS. ▼쩠 (who is excellent). David Raksin’s score is a Carry On Doctor (1968-British) C-95m. ★★ plus. Based on Theodore Dreiser’s Sister CarD: Gerald Thomas. Frankie Howerd, Kenneth rie. DVD includes restored ‘‘flop house’’ Williams, Jim Dale, Barbara Windsor. Madscene, which runs almost 3m.▼●쩠 cap group takes on medical profession. As Carrie (1976) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian usual, interest wanes after an hour and the De Palma. Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Wilamount of laughter varies quite a bit. [PG]▼쩠 liam Katt, John Travolta, Amy Irving, Nancy Carry On Henry VIII (1972-British) CAllen, Betty Buckley, P.J. Soles, Priscilla 90m. ★★ D: Gerald Thomas. Sidney James, Pointer. Evocative story of high school misfit Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, Charles Hawdegenerates into cheap, gory melodrama trey, Barbara Windsor. Lecherous king, ribald when Spacek unleashes telekinetic powers in times perfect milieu for ‘‘Carry On’’ gang’s revenge against those who have mocked her. brand of farce; for fans only. [PG]▼ De Palma borrows much from Hitchcock, but Carry On Nurse (1959-British) 90m. ★★1⁄2 has little of The Master’s wit or subtlety. D: Gerald Thomas. Kenneth Connor, ShirScreenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen, from Steley Eaton, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, phen King’s novel. Debut film for Irving, Terence Longdon, Leslie Phillips, Joan Buckley and Soles. Later a stage musical. ReSims, Kenneth Williams, Wilfrid Hydemade for TV in 2002. Followed by THE White, Joan Hickson, Jill Ireland, Michael RAGE: CARRIE 2. [R]▼●쩠 Medwin. Occasionally funny but too often Carried Away (1996) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: silly farce detailing the various hijinks in a Bruno Barreto. Dennis Hopper, Amy Irhospital ward. Typical entry in the series is ving, Amy Locane, Julie Harris, Gary crammed with lowbrow humor.▼쩠 Busey, Hal Holbrook, Priscilla Pointer. Carry On Sergeant (1959-British) 88m. ★★ Hopper gives a thoughtful performance in D: Gerald Thomas. William Hartnell, Bob an unusual role: a small-town Midwestern Monkhouse, Shirley Eaton, Eric Barker, Dora farmer/teacher who keeps putting off marBryan, Bill Owen, Kenneth Connor. This time rying his fiance´e (Irving), and then is not around prankish misfits are the bane of Army unwillingly seduced by teen vamp Locane. officer’s existence, who swears he’ll make Abundant nudity may grab attention. Based these recruits spiffy soldiers or bust.쩠 on a novel by Jim Harrison. Barreto is IrCarry On Spying (1965-British) 88m. ★★1⁄2 ving’s husband, and Pointer is her mother. D: Gerald Thomas. Kenneth Williams, Bar[R]▼●쩠 bara Windsor, Bernard Cribbins, Charles Carrington (1995-British-French) C-122m. Hawtrey, Eric Barker, Victor Maddern. ★★★ D: Christopher Hampton. Emma Acceptable James Bond spoof with daffy Thompson, Jonathan Pryce, Steven Wadnovice spy-catchers on the hunt for enemy dington, Rufus Sewell, Samuel West, Penelagents who stole secret formula.쩠 ope Wilton, Janet McTeer, Peter Blythe, Cars (2006) C-116m. ★★★ D: John Lasseter. Jeremy Northam. Gifted English painter Voices of Paul Newman, Owen Wilson, Dora Carrington is afraid of her own sexualBonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Cheech ity, until she meets eccentric (and homosexMarin, George Carlin, Richard Petty, Michael ual) writer Lytton Strachey and experiences Keaton, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, love for the first time. What’s more, he feels Michael Wallis, Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, the same way . . . except they’re never able Bob Costas. Hotshot race car gets stuck in a to resolve their hesitancy about a full comtown out West that time (and interstate highmitment. Compelling character study is ways) forgot. He begins to see that there’s slowly paced and perhaps redundant at more to life than hogging the spotlight and times, but made fascinating by the leads’ winning big-money races. Evoking America’s superb portrayals. Playwright/screenwriter car culture of the 1950s and ’60s, this cleverly Hampton’s directing debut. [R]▼●쩠 conceived and designed CG-animated film Carrington, V. C. SEE: Court Martial from Pixar is more wistful and less laughCarry On Camping (1972-British) C-89m. ★★ oriented than some, but still a winner. It may D: Gerald Thomas. Sidney James, Kenspeak most eloquently to adults of a certain neth Williams, Joan Sims, Barbara Windage. Digital Widescreen. [G]쩠 sor, Bernard Bresslaw, Terry Scott. The Carson City (1952) C-87m. ★★ D: Andre gang encounters hippie types at weekend De Toth. Randolph Scott, Lucille Norman, campsite; usual double-entendre jokes in Raymond Massey, Don Beddoe, Richard entry from never-ending series. [R]▼쩠 ★★1⁄2 Webb, James Millican, Larry Keating, George Carry On Cleo (1965-British) C-92m. Cleveland. Opposing forces clash when D: Gerald Thomas. Amanda Barrie, Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, construction engineer Scott commences [ 218 ]

building a railroad through Nevada in the club owner Rick (Bogart) finding old flame 1870s. OK of its type.쩠 (Bergman) and her husband, underground Cars That Ate Paris, The (1974-Ausleader Henreid, among skeletons in his tralian) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Weir. Terry closet. Rains is marvelous as dapper police Camilleri, John Meillon, Melissa Jaffa, Kevin chief, and nobody sings ‘‘As Time Goes Miles. The poor people of Paris (Paris, AusBy’’ like Dooley Wilson. Three Oscars intralia, that is) keep the economy going by clude Picture, Director, and Screenplay (Juinducing traffic accidents and selling the spare lius & Philip Epstein and Howard Koch). parts/scrap metal. Iffy black comedy has its Our candidate for the best Hollywood moments; must viewing for those who’ve folmovie of all time. Spawned short-lived TV lowed Weir’s directorial career step-by-step series in the 1950s and the 1980s. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 into the big leagues. Originally released in the U.S. at 74m, retitled THE CARS THAT EAT Casa de los Babys (2003) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 PEOPLE; full-length version finally made it D: John Sayles. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marcia here in 1984. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Gay Harden, Daryl Hannah, Susan Lynch, Cars That Eat People, The SEE: Cars Mary Steenburgen, Lili Taylor, Rita MorThat Ate Paris, The eno, Vanessa Martinez, Pedro Armenda´riz. Cartouche (1964-French-Italian) C-115m. A group of American women spend time ★★★1⁄2 D: Philippe De Broca. Jean-Paul together in a South American town as they Belmondo, Claudia Cardinale, Odile Verwait for their adoptions to come through. sois, Jess Hahn, Jean Rochefort, Philippe Sayles’ script explores many characters and Lemaire, Marcel Dalio, Noel Roquevert. points of view, including the locals who reColorful, exciting exploits of 18th-century sent the ‘‘yanquis’’ taking their babies away French Robin Hood who takes over a Pariand the young women who give up their sian crime syndicate. Belmondo is dashing children because they have no choice. Deas Cartouche and Cardinale is ravishing as spite a fine cast, and many good scenes, the Venus, his gypsy-mistress, in this rousing film feels like a draft for a screenplay that still needs fleshing out. [R]▼쩠 action-comedy. Dyaliscope.▼쩠 Car Trouble (1985-British) C-93m. ★★★ D: Casanova (2005) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lasse David Green. Julie Walters, Ian Charleson, Hallstro¨m. Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, Vincenzo Ricotta, Stratford Johns, Hazel Jeremy Irons, Oliver Platt, Lena Olin, Omid O’Connor, Dave Hill. Low-key farce about Djalili, Stephen Greif, Ken Stott, Charlie a hilariously hideous couple whose BickerCox, Natalie Dormer, Tim McInnerny, son-like marriage is put to the ultimate test Leigh Lawson. The amorous bed-hopping when he buys his dream car, and she goes lover of 18th-century Venice meets his for a fateful spin. Walters and Charleson match in a beautiful, headstrong woman, a are ideal, and the film offers some genuine protofeminist who is determined to resist belly laughs. [R]▼ his advances. This is a rare bird known as a Carve Her Name With Pride (1958-Britromp, and Hallstro¨m and company pull it ★★★ D: Lewis Gilbert. Virginia ish) 119m. off, maintaining a light touch from start to McKenna, Paul Scofield, Jack Warner, finish. Location filming in Venice doesn’t Maurice Ronet, Bill Owen, Denise Grey, hurt, either. Fresh, funny, sexy, and smart; Billie Whitelaw, Michael Caine. McKenna, everyone is good, but Miller is a standout widowed during WW2, becomes a courain a showcase role. Screenplay by Jeffrey geous British secret agent. Solid and inspirHatcher and Kimberly Simi from a story by Simi and Michael Cristofer. Super 35. [R]쩠 ing; based on a true story.▼쩠 Car Wash (1976) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Casanova & Co. (1976-Austrian-ItalianFrench-German) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Franz Schultz. Richard Pryor, Franklin Ajaye, Sully Boyar, Ivan Dixon, George Carlin, Irwin Antel. Tony Curtis, Marisa Berenson, Sylva Corey, Melanie Mayron, The Pointer Sisters, Koscina, Hugh Griffith, Britt Ekland, Garrett Morris, Antonio Fargas, Brooke Marisa Mell, Umberto Orsini, Andrea Adams. Boisterous look at L.A. car wash is Ferreol, Victor Spinetti, Lillian Muller. light excuse for barely connected comedy set Misfired slapstick romp debunks the legend pieces, involving various and sundry characwith Curtis playing dual roles of Casanova ters, and pulsating soul music performed by and a lookalike commoner. Diverse female Rose Royce. Often very funny, but no awards cast (including former Playboy Playmates) for good taste; written by Joel Schumacher. disrobes at will, while Tony in drag explic[PG]▼●쩠 itly mocks his classic SOME LIKE IT HOT ★★★★ Casablanca (1942) 102m. D: Mirole. Video titles: SEX ON THE RUN, chael Curtiz. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid SOME LIKE IT COOL, and THE AMOBergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, ROUS MIS-ADVENTURES OF CASAConrad Veidt, Peter Lorre, Sydney GreenNOVA. ▼쩠 street, Dooley Wilson, Marcel Dalio, S. Z. Casanova Brown (1944) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sakall, Joy Page, Helmut Dantine, Curt Sam Wood. Gary Cooper, Teresa Wright, Bois. Everything is right in this WW2 clasFrank Morgan, Anita Louise, Isobel Elsom. sic of war-torn Morocco with elusive nightCooper has divorced Wright, but now she’s [ 219 ]

pregnant; entertaining little comedy with who scored big with GOODFELLAS; this stars outshining material. Filmed in 1930 time, their story is overlong, repetitive, and and 1939 as LITTLE ACCIDENT. ▼쩠 aloof. Stone makes her mark amidst a Casanova’s Big Night (1954) C-86m. ★★★ heavyweight cast with a full-blown draD: Norman Z. McLeod. Bob Hope, Joan matic performance. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Fontaine, Audrey Dalton, Basil Rathbone, Casino Royale (1967-British) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Huston, Ken Hughes, Robert Raymond Burr. Lavish costumed fun with Bob masquerading as Casanova (Vincent Parrish, Joe McGrath, Val Guest. Peter Price in an unbilled cameo role) in Venice Sellers, Ursula Andress, David Niven, Orson and wooing lovely Dalton.▼●쩠 Welles, Joanna Pettet, Woody Allen, DebCasanova ’70 (1965-French-Italian) C-113m. orah Kerr, William Holden, Charles Boyer, ★★1 John Huston, George Raft, Jean-Paul ⁄2 D: Mario Monicelli. Marcello Mastroianni,Virna Lisi,Michele Mercier, Marisa Mell, Belmondo, Jacky (Jacqueline) Bisset. GiganMarco Ferreri, Enrico Maria Salerno. Dashing tic, overdone spoof of James Bond films Major Mastroianni is only interested in seducwith Niven as the aging secret agent who ing women when there is an element of danger relinquishes his position to nephew Allen involved. Modest, though amusing.▼ and host of others. Money, money everyCasbah (1948) 94m. ★★★ D: John Berry. where, but film is terribly uneven—someTony Martin, Yvonne De Carlo, Peter times funny, often not. Good score by Burt Lorre, Marta Toren, Hugo Haas, Thomas Bacharach, including hit song ‘‘The Look Gomez, Douglas Dick, Katherine Dunham, of Love.’’ Remade in 2006. Panavision. Herbert Rudley, Virginia Gregg. If you can ▼●쩠 accept singer Martin as slippery thief Pepe Casino Royale (2006-U.S.-British-CzechGerman) C-144m. ★★★ D: Martin Campbell. Le Moko (he’s actually quite good) you’ll enjoy this musical remake of ALGIERS. Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, It’s stylishly directed and designed, and feaJudi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, Giancarlo Giantures Lorre in one of his best performances nini, Caterina Murino, Simon Abkarian, as the crafty inspector determined to nail Le Isaach De Bankole´. The James Bond franMoko. Fine score by Harold Arlen and Leo chise goes back to its roots with this installRobin includes ‘‘For Every Man There’s a ment, which shows how the secret agent got Woman’’ and ‘‘Hooray for Love.’’ Look his license to kill and pits him against a fast and you’ll spot Eartha Kitt, then one of banker funding worldwide terrorist groups. the Katherine Dunham dance troupe. ▼ A bit overextended, but also refreshingly Case of Jonathan Drew, The SEE: Lodgtough-minded, with some terrific set pieces er, The (1926) (including an adrenaline-pumping opening Casey’s Shadow (1978) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: sequence) and a worthy love interest in Martin Ritt. Walter Matthau, Alexis Smith, Green. Best of all, Craig (in his debut as Robert Webber, Murray Hamilton, Andrew 007) makes for a lean, mean, surprisingly A. Rubin, Stephan Burns, Michael Hershewe. human Bond, so good as to rival even our Generally satisfactory drama about a ne’ermemories of Sean Connery. Filmed before do-well Louisiana horse trainer (Matthau) and (as a spoof) in 1967. Followed by QUANTUM OF SOLACE. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 his three sons, as he raises a fleet but fragile quarterhorse that just may allow him his one Casper (1995) C-100m. BOMB D: Brad shot at glory. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Silberling. Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cash McCall (1959) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, Amy BrenneJoseph Pevney. James Garner, Natalie man, Ben Stein, Don Novello, voices of Wood, Nina Foch, Dean Jagger, E.G. Malachi Pearson, Joe Nipote, Joe Alaskey, Marshall, Henry Jones, Otto Kruger, RoBrad Garrett. High-tech Hollywood ‘‘prodland Winters. Garner is just right as busiuct’’ takes the vintage cartoon character—a ness tycoon who adopts new set of values friendly ghost—and literalizes him in this as he romances daughter (Wood) of failing story of a dead boy whose haunted house is businessman Jagger. Superficial film from invaded by a widowed paranormalist (and Cameron Hawley novel.▼쩠 daughter) seeking the spirit of his dead wife. Casino (1995) C-182m. ★★ D: Martin Talk about family fun! Absolutely dreadful, Scorsese. Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe wrong-headed movie is strictly for families Pesci, James Woods, Don Rickles, Alan King, who are already dead from the neck up. A Kevin Pollak, L. Q. Jones, Dick Smothers, handful of surprise Hollywood cameos add Frank Vincent, Melissa Prophet, John Bloom a few fleeting laughs. Followed by two (Joe Bob Briggs). Long, tedious tale of a numDVD sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 bers-obsessed gambler sent to Las Vegas by Cassandra Crossing, The (1977-British) the mob to run a casino in the 1970s. ProbC-127m. ★★★ D: George Pan Cosmatos. lem is, neither he nor his loose-cannon pal, Richard Harris, Sophia Loren, Burt Lanwho follows him, nor the hustler he decides caster, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, Lee to marry has any idea how to hold on to Strasberg, O.J. Simpson, John Phillip Law, what they’ve got. Disappointing reteaming Ingrid Thulin, Alida Valli, Lionel Stander. of Scorsese and writer Nicholas Pileggi, Entertaining disaster epic as train carrying [ 220 ]

plague approaches a weakened bridge. on a deserted Pacific island. Only an actor Filmed in France and Italy. [R]▼쩠 with Hanks’ good will (and acting chops) Cassandra’s Dream (2008-U.S.-Britishcould make us care as much as we do about French) C-108m. ★★ D: Woody Allen. Ewan this survivor, who battles the elements and McGregor, Colin Farrell, Hayley Atwell, Sally struggles to retain his sanity. No narration, Hawkins, Tom Wilkinson, John Benfield, little music, just great moviemaking. ScreenClare Higgins, Phil Davis, Jim Carter. Wellplay by William F. Broyles, Jr. [PG-13]▼쩠 intentioned but flawed—and far too Castaway Cowboy, The (1974) C-91m. ★★ predictable—morality tale about British D: Vincent McEveety. James Garner, working-class brothers. Trouble simmers Vera Miles, Robert Culp, Eric Shea, Elizwhen Farrell’s gambling gets him into debt abeth Smith, Gregory Sierra. Cowboy Garand McGregor becomes smitten with a beautiner is shipwrecked on Hawaiian island, ful actress who is the definition of highruns into pretty widow and bad-guy Culp maintenance. Allen deals with issues similar who wants her land. Old B-Western plot, to those he explored more successfully in Disney-fied on Hawaiian locations. [G]▼쩠 CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS. ReCastle, The (1968-German-Swiss) C-93m. ★★★ leased overseas in 2007. [PG-13]쩠 D: Rudolf Noelte. Maximilian Schell, Cass Timberlane (1947) 119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cordula Trantow, Trudik Daniel, Helmut George Sidney. Spencer Tracy, Lana TurnQualtinger. Appropriately vague filmization er, Zachary Scott, Tom Drake, Mary Astor, of Kafka’s novel: ‘‘K’’ (Schell), a land Albert Dekker, Margaret Lindsay, John surveyor, is called to a castle for work but is unable to gain admittance.▼ Litel, Mona Barrie, Josephine Hutchinson, Rose Hobart, Selena Royle, Cameron Castle, The (1997-Australian) C-84m. ★★★ Mitchell. Ordinary adaptation of Sinclair D: Rob Sitch. Michael Caton, Anne Tenney, Lewis novel of an upright, upper-crust MinStephen Curry, Anthony Simcoe, Sophie Lee, nesota judge (Tracy) whose friends are eiWayne Hope, Tiriel Mora, Eric Bana, Charles ther corrupt or elitist and his marriage to (Bud) Tingwell. Winning low-budget comedy bright, working-class Turner (in one of her of the unsophisticated Kerrigan family, whose best performances). Walter Pidgeon appears home sits atop a toxic landfill—adjacent to an as himself in a cocktail party scene.▼ airport runway! When Dad (Caton) decides to Cast a Dark Shadow (1955-British) 84m. fight the government to keep their ramshackle ★★★ abode, watch out. Equal parts Capraesque, D: Lewis Gilbert. Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Lockwood, Kathleen Harrison, Kay goofy, and heartfelt. Conceived by several Walsh, Robert Flemyng, Mona WashAustralian radio and TV comedy hands; a bourne. Tense suspenser with Bogarde in smash in its native country. [R]▼쩠 fine form as a psychotic Bluebeard who Castle in the Sky SEE: Laputa: Castle in murders rich, aging mate Washbourne. the Sky Castle Keep (1969) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: SydLockwood and Walsh won’t be such easy prey, however.▼ ney Pollack. Burt Lancaster, Peter Falk, ★★ Cast a Giant Shadow (1966) C-142m. Patrick O’Neal, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Scott D: Melville Shavelson. Kirk Douglas, John Wilson, Al Freeman, Jr., Tony Bill, Bruce Wayne, Frank Sinatra, Yul Brynner, Senta Dern, Astrid Heeren, Michael Conrad. PreBerger, Angie Dickinson, James Donald, tentious adaptation of William Eastlake’s Luther Adler, (Chaim) Topol. Hokey bio of novel about eight soldiers on French borArab-Israeli war hero Mickey Marcus has der in WW2. Good cast, but film has no coherency. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Kirk leaving Angie’s bed to join Senta and several other less sexy freedom fighters. Castle of Blood SEE: Castle of Terror, Guest roles by big names make film seem The even sillier. Panavision.▼●쩠 Castle of Fu Manchu, The (1970-BritishCastaway (1987) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nicolas Spanish-Italian-German) 92m. BOMB D: Roeg. Oliver Reed, Amanda Donohoe, Tony Jess Franco. Christopher Lee, Richard Rickards, Todd Rippon, Georgina Hale, FranGreene, Maria Perschy, Gunther Stoll, ces Barber. Scruffy Reed advertises for a Howard Marion Crawford. Lee buries Fu ‘‘wife’’ to join him for a year on a desert island; Manchu with this one—the pits— Donohoe is the incongruously vavavoomish experimenting with more deadly potions in adventure seeker who answers it. Visually his castle near Istanbul and parrying with splendid adaptation of Lucy Irvine’s best-seller his perennial adversary, Nayland Smith seems unlikely as told, though it remains a vis(Greene) of Britain’s Home Office. Origiceral experience, particularly for Roeg fans. nally released in the U.S. as ASSIGNMENT ISTANBUL. [PG]▼쩠 Eventually overplays its hand. [R]▼ Cast Away (2000) C-143m. ★★★1⁄2 D: RobCastle of Terror, The (1964-Italianert Zemeckis. Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, French) 85m. ★★ D: Anthony Dawson (AnNick Searcy, Lari White, Chris Noth, Jentonio Margheriti). Barbara Steele, George ifer Lewis, Wilson. A man whose job deRiviere, Margrete Robsahm, Henry Kruger, pends on organizational skills and awareness Montgomery Glenn, Sylvia Sorente. On a of time survives a plane crash and winds up wager, poet spends the night in haunted castle. [ 221 ]

Atmospheric chiller. Remade by the same gan, Serge Reggiani, Philippe Leotard, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Valerie Lagrange. director as WEB OF THE SPIDER. Aka Anyone could’ve killed wealthy Aumont, CASTLE OF BLOOD. ▼쩠 philandering husband of Morgan, and InCastle of the Living Dead (1963-Italianspector Reggiani finds out who and why. French) 90m. ★★ D: Herbert Wise (Luciano Denouement is only letdown in this deRicci). Christopher Lee, Gala Germani, lightful comedy mystery, written, directPhilippe Leroy, Jacques Stanislawski, Doned, and produced by master Lelouch. ald Sutherland. Lee is suitably cast as sinister Dazzling views of Paris and the countryCount Drago, who mummifies visitors to his side. Released here in 1978. [PG]▼ gothic castle. Unexceptional horror fare, notaCat and the Canary, The (1927) 74m. ble mainly as Sutherland’s film debut in two ★★★ D: Paul Leni. Laura LaPlante, Tully roles—one an old lady. ▼쩠 Marshall, Flora Finch, Creighton Hale, Castle of the Walking Dead SEE: TorGertrude Astor, Lucien Littlefield. Delightture Chamber of Dr. Sadism, The ful silent classic, the forerunner of all ‘‘old Castle on the Hudson (1940) 77m. ★★★ dark house’’ mysteries, with nice touch of D: Anatole Litvak. John Garfield, Pat O’Brihumor throughout as heiress LaPlante and en, Ann Sheridan, Burgess Meredith, Jenervous group spend night in haunted house. rome Cowan, Henry O’Neill, Guinn ‘‘Big Remade several times.▼●쩠 Boy’’ Williams, John Litel. Faithful but Cat and the Canary, The (1939) 74m. familiar remake of 20,000 YEARS IN SING ★★★ D: Elliott Nugent. Bob Hope, Paulette SING, with tough, stubborn hood Garfield Goddard, Gale Sondergaard, John Beal, going up against dedicated, reform-minded Douglass Montgomery, Nydia Westman, warden O’Brien.쩠 Elizabeth Patterson, George Zucco. EnterCastles in the Sky SEE: Yidl Mitn Fidl taining remake of the venerable ‘‘old dark Casual Sex? (1988) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Genhouse’’ chiller, spiced with Hope’s brand evieve Robert. Lea Thompson, Victoria Jackof humor. This film cemented his movie son, Stephen Shellen, Jerry Levine, Andrew stardom and led to the even more successful (Dice) Clay, Mary Gross. Lightweight look at scare comedy THE GHOST BREAKERS. two young women who are looking for someRemade again in 1978. thing more than a one-night stand—especially Cat and the Canary, The (1978-British) in these cautious times—and try their luck at a C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Radley Metzger. Honor health and fitness spa. Slight but engaging Blackman, Michael Callan, Edward Fox, contemporary comedy from young women’s Wendy Hiller, Olivia Hussey, Carol Lynley, point of view, adapted from the play by Peter McEnery, Wilfrid Hyde-White. EnWendy Goldman and Judy Toll. [R]▼●쩠 tertaining remake of the old-dark-house Casualties of War (1989) C-113m. ★★ D: staple, with a likable cast; reasonably faithBrian De Palma. Michael J. Fox, Sean ful to the original, with the nicest twist Penn, Don Harvey, John C. Reilly, John being Hyde-White’s method of communiLeguizamo, Thuy Thu Le, Erik King, Sam cating with his heirs. [PG]▼●쩠 Robards, Ving Rhames. Vietnam War picCat and the Fiddle, The (1934) 90m. ★★★ ture focusing on one patrol, led by off-theD: William K. Howard. Jeanette Macwall Penn, and its inhumane treatment of an Donald, Ramon Novarro, Frank Morgan, innocent Vietnamese girl. As the Voice of Charles Butterworth, Jean Hersholt. DeReason, Fox is well cast, but his clean-cut lightful Jerome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein decency gets to be a bit much; Penn and operetta, filled with sly comedy and clever Thu Le (the victim) are more effective. For ideas. Novarro is a struggling composer all its good intentions, film has a jumbled, who forces his attentions on MacDonald; detached feel to it (though it’s scripted by Morgan is ‘‘benefactor’’ who comes beplaywright David Rabe, a Vietnam veteran tween them. Songs include ‘‘The Night and author of Sticks and Bones and StreamWas Made for Love,’’ ‘‘She Didn’t Say ers). Based on a real incident detailed in Yes.’’ Final sequence is in color.▼ Daniel Lang’s New Yorker article, later pubCat Ballou (1965) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Elliot lished as a book. Extended edition also Silverstein. Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael available. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Callan, Dwayne Hickman, Tom Nardini, John Catamount Killing, The (1974-German) Marley, Reginald Denny, Jay C. Flippen, ArC-93m. ★★ D: Krzysztof Zanussi. Horst thur Hunnicutt, Bruce Cabot. Funny Western Buchholz, Ann Wedgeworth, Chip Taycomedy, with Fonda as Cat Ballou, notorious lor, Louise Clark, Patricia Joyce, Polly school-teacher-turned-outlaw. Marvin copped Holliday. German film made in Vermont an Oscar for his dual role as a drunken gunwith Polish director. Passably interesting man and his twin, a desperado with an artifistory of two small-town people who try to cial nose. Nat King Cole and Stubby Kaye pull off bank heist and then come to grips appear as strolling minstrels. Roy Chanslor’s with themselves as criminals.▼ novel was adapted by Walter Newman and Cat and Mouse (1975-French) C-107m. Frank R. Pierson.▼●쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Michele MorCatch a Fire (2006-British-South African[ 222 ]

U.S.) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phillip Noyce. Tim a wonderful jazzy score by John Williams. Based on Abagnale’s book. [PG-13]▼쩠 Robbins, Derek Luke, Bonnie Henna, Catch My Soul (1974) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: PatMncedisi Shabangu, Tumisho K. Masha, rick McGoohan. Richie Havens, Lance LeSithembiso Khumalo, Terry Pheto, Marius Gault, Season Hubley, Tony Joe White, Susan Weyers. A hardworking, happily married Tyrrell, Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. Jack man in South Africa (still under apartheid Good’s rock-opera adaptation of Shakerule in the early 1980s) is wrongly accused speare’s Othello, with Havens as sanctimoof terrorist activities and tortured by a nious preacher and LeGault as his Iago, is single-minded government agent (Robbins). uninvolving, heavy-handed stuff. Some good This pushes him over the edge and causes music, but if the play’s the thing, this one him to join the freedom fighters who want doesn’t make it. Retitled: SANTA FE to overturn their government. Somewhat SATAN. [PG] simplistic story benefits from an exceptionCatch That Kid (2004) C-91m. ★★ D: Bart ally strong performance by Luke as Patrick Freundlich. Kristen Stewart, Corbin Bleu, Chamusso; Robbins’ character isn’t nearly Max Thieriot, Jennifer Beals, Sam Robards, as fleshed out. Chamusso himself appears in James Le Gros, John Carroll Lynch, Mithe film’s closing moments. Screenplay by chael Des Barres. Twelve-year-old climbing Shawn Slovo, who also wrote A WORLD enthusiast Stewart and her two male best APART. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 friends (and preteen romantic rivals) break Catch and Release (2007) C-112m. ★★ D: into a bank’s high-security vault, 100 feet off Susannah Grant. Jennifer Garner, Timothy the ground, hoping to steal enough money to Olyphant, Kevin Smith, Sam Jaeger, Juliette pay for experimental surgery for her father. Lewis, Joshua Friesen, Fiona Shaw, Tina LifKids will enjoy the story and visual effects, ford, Georgia Craig. Generally uninvolving though result is more video game than feadrama about a young woman whose fiance´ ture film—and parents may question its dudies suddenly, leaving behind a boatload of bious ethics. Remake of a 2002 Danish film secrets. As each revelation makes her anhit, KLATRETØSEN. [PG] ▼쩠 grier, she begins to loosen up and accept Catch-22 (1970) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike new possibilities in her life, including roNichols. Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, Richard mance. Garner valiantly tries to lift this lifeBenjamin, Arthur (Art) Garfunkel, Jack Gilless material above the TV-movie level but ford, Buck Henry, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perthe endless banter sinks it. Smith’s character kins, Paula Prentiss, Martin Sheen, Jon Voight, has a sitcom-style retort for any situation. Orson Welles, Bob Balaban, Marcel Dalio, Feature directing debut for writer Grant Norman Fell, Charles Grodin, Austin Pendle(ERIN BROCKOVICH, IN HER SHOES). ton, Peter Bonerz, Elizabeth Wilson. Long, laSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 bored, expensive film of Joseph Heller’s book ★★1 Cat Chaser (1989) C-90m. ⁄2 D: Abel halfway succeeds in capturing surrealist inFerrara. Kelly McGillis, Peter Weller, Fredsanity of WW2 Army life. Heavy-handedness eric Forrest, Charles Durning, Tomas spoils potential; good cast tries its best. Script Milian, Juan Fernandez. Wordy political by costar Henry. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 thriller based on Elmore Leonard’s novel Catch Us If You Can SEE: Having a about an ex-soldier reuniting with old flame Wild Weekend whose husband happens to be the head of the Catered Affair, The (1956) 93m. ★★★ D: secret police in Santo Domingo. Some decent Richard Brooks. Bette Davis, Ernest Borgperformances, but film is often confusing and nine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald, dull. Never released theatrically. Alternate, Rod Taylor. Davis sheds all glamour as unrated version runs 92m. [R]▼쩠 Bronx taxi driver’s wife wanting to give Catch Me a Spy SEE: To Catch a Spy daughter ritzy wedding. Gore Vidal’s script Catch Me If You Can (2002) C-141m. based on Paddy Chayefsky TV play. Also ★★★ D: Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio, shown in computer-colored version. Later a Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Broadway musical. ▼ Sheen, Nathalie Baye, Amy Adams, James Cat From Outer Space, The (1978) Brolin, Brian Howe, Jennifer Garner, Ellen C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Tokar. Ken Pompeo, Elizabeth Banks. In the 1960s, Frank Berry, Sandy Duncan, McLean Stevenson, Abagnale, Jr., not unlike Ferdinand Demara Harry Morgan, Roddy McDowall, Ronnie in THE GREAT IMPOSTOR, manages to Schell. Kids will probably like this Discon his way into a variety of jobs (airline ney fantasy-comedy, though it holds few pilot, surgeon, lawyer) using glibness, smarts, surprises: cat from another world seeks help and knowledge of forgery . . . while FBI agent from U.S. scientists to repair his spaceship, Hanks spends years tracking him. Brightly but military protocol and enemy spying get told for a story with so many dark undertones, in the way. Coincidentally, plot has many with charismatic star performances and a movsimilarities to later E.T.! [G] ▼●쩠 ing turn by Walken as DiCaprio’s ne’er-doCatherine & Co. (1975-French-Italian) well father. Yet when the long tale is over, it C-99m. ★★ D: Michel Boisrond. Jane Birkin, has no resonance. Striking animated titles and Patrick Dewaere, Jean-Pierre Aumont, [ 223 ]

Vittorio Caprioli, Jean-Claude Brialy. Slight Ruby Dee, Ed Begley, Jr., Scott Paulin, sexual comedy about young girl who beJohn Larroquette. Virginal Kinski moves comes prostitute and decides to incorpoin with brother McDowell, a ‘‘cat man,’’ rate herself. TV prints run 84m. [R]▼ and falls in love with zoo curator Heard as Cathy Tippel SEE: Keetje Tippel a black panther rampages through commu★1 Cat in the Hat, The (2003) C-82m. ⁄2 D: nity. Sexy, bloody, technically well crafted, Bo Welch. Mike Myers, Kelly Preston, Alec but uneven and ultimately unsatisfying; Baldwin, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin, Schrader seems more concerned with camera Sean Hayes, Amy Hill, Clint Howard, Paris angles and nudity than coherent storyline. Loosely based on the 1942 film. [R]▼●쩠 Hilton. A brother and sister spend an eventful day in the company of a magical cat while Cats & Dogs (2001) C-87m. ★★ D: Lawtheir single mom is off at work. Brightly rence Guterman. Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth colored adaptation of the beloved rhyming Perkins, Alexander Pollock, Miriam Margobook for young children is a betrayal of lyes; voices of Tobey Maguire, Alec Baldwin, everything Dr. Seuss ever stood for, inSean Hayes, Susan Sarandon, Joe Pantoliano, jecting potty humor and adult (wink-wink) Michael Clarke Duncan, Jon Lovitz, Charlton jokes into its mixture of heavy-handed slapHeston, Salome Jens. Beagle puppy is stick and silliness. Hayes also provides the adopted by the family of a scientist trying to voice of The Fish. Officially known as DR. invent something that will end humankind’s SEUSS’ THE CAT IN THE HAT, which is allergies to dogs. The cats (led by Blofeld-like an official insult. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 Mr. Tinkles) are out to stop this, opposed by a Catlow (1971) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam spy network of dogs. Good premise (executed Wanamaker. Yul Brynner, Richard Crenna, with a variety of special effects) is undone Leonard Nimoy, Daliah Lavi, Jo Ann Pflug, by an uneven blend of silliness and heavyJeff Corey. Outlaw tries to avoid interferhandedness. Cat lovers be warned: top billing isn’t everything. [PG] ▼쩠 ence on his way to $2 million gold robbery. Basically a comedy, with a surprisingly Cats Don’t Dance (1997) C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: ebullient Brynner. Based on a Louis Mark Dindal. Voices of Scott Bakula, Jasmine Guy, Natalie Cole, Ashley Peldon, Kathy NajL’Amour novel. [PG]▼쩠 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) C-108m. imy, John Rhys-Davies, George Kennedy, ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Brooks. Elizabeth Taylor, Rene Auberjonois, Hal Holbrook, Don Knotts, Paul Newman, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Betty Lou Gerson. Fairly dreary cartoon feaJudith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood, ture about a wide-eyed cat from Kokomo who Larry Gates. Southern patriarch Ives learns goes to Hollywood to star in musical movies, he is dying; his greedy family, except for circa 1939. What he finds instead is a town son Newman, falls all over itself sucking full of cynics and broken dreams. The villain up to him. Tennessee Williams’ classic is a hyper-bratty child star who hates animals. study of ‘‘mendacity’’ comes to the screen That’s entertainment? Unmemorable songs by somewhat laundered but still packing a Randy Newman. Gene Kelly served as a choreography consultant. [G]▼●쩠 wallop; entire cast is sensational. Adaptation by Brooks and James Poe. Remade in Cat’s Eye (1985) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Lewis 1983 for TV. ▼●쩠 Teague. Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Cat o’ Nine Tails, The (1971-ItalianAlan King, Kenneth McMillan, Robert German-French) C-112m. ★★ D: Dario ArHays, Candy Clark, James Naughton, Pagento. Karl Malden, James Franciscus, tricia Kalember, Charles Dutton. Trio of Catherine Spaak, Cinzia De Carolis, Carlo heavy-handed Stephen King stories, short on Alighiero. Early Argento horror hit has irony, long on mean-spiritedness. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Malden as ex-reporter, now blind, who persuades newsman Franciscus to join him in Cat’s Meow, The (2001-German-British) hunt for a crazed killer. Good atmosphere C/B&W-112m. ★★★ D: Peter Bogdanovich. in uneven story, hurt by terrible dubbing. Kirsten Dunst, Edward Herrmann, Cary Techniscope. [PG] ▼쩠 Elwes, Eddie Izzard, Joanna Lumley, Victor Cat People (1942) 73m. ★★★ D: Jacques Slezak, Jennifer Tilly, James Laurenson, Tourneur. Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Claudia Harrison. Entertaining speculation Tom Conway, Jack Holt, Jane Randolph. about the doings on William Randolph Storyline and plot elements don’t hold up, but Hearst’s yacht in November of 1924, inmoments of shock and terror are undimincluding an unrequited love by Charlie ished in the first of producer Val Lewton’s Chaplin (Izzard) for Marion Davies (Dunst) famous horror films. Smith falls in love with and the murder of down-and-out producer strange, shy woman (Simon) who fears anThomas Ince (Elwes). Well shot and well cient curse of the panther inside her. Folcast; Herrmann is an ideal Hearst, and Izlowed by THE CURSE OF THE CAT zard is persuasive as Chaplin. Steven Peros’ script (based on his play) captures the spirit PEOPLE. Remade in 1982.▼●쩠 ★★ Cat People (1982) C-118m. of the time, but the events portrayed are D: Paul Schrader. Nastassia Kinski, Malcolm Mcstrictly from his imagination. [R]▼쩠 Dowell, John Heard, Annette O’Toole, Cat’s-Paw, The (1934) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam [ 224 ]

Taylor. Harold Lloyd, Una Merkel, George las Fowley, Susan Morrow. All-star cast Barbier, Alan Dinehart, Grace Bradley, in tacky sci-fi entry about a moon expedition Nat Pendleton. Harold is a missionary’s that discovers female civilization and its unson, raised in China; he comes to U.S. a derground empire. Originally shown in 3-D; babe in the woods, is duped into running aka ROCKET TO THE MOON. Remade as MISSILE TO THE MOON.▼쩠 for mayor in big city by corrupt politicos who regard him as perfect patsy. Odd Caught (1949) 88m. ★★★ D: Max Ophuls. Capraesque comedy ends with strange deJames Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, Robert nouement where Lloyd takes law into his Ryan, Frank Ferguson, Curt Bois, Natalie own hands. A real curio. 쩠 Schafer. Compelling, intelligent story of Cattle Annie and Little Britches (1980) young girl who marries powerful millionC-95m. ★★★ D: Lamont Johnson. Burt aire, tries to escape her shallow existence Lancaster, Rod Steiger, Amanda Plummer, with him. Fine performances, skilled direction by Ophuls.▼ Diane Lane, John Savage, Scott Glenn, Michael Conrad. Very pleasant little WestCaught (1996) C-109m. ★★★ D: Robert M. ern, which was thrown away by its distribYoung. Edward James Olmos, Maria Conutor, Universal. In 1893, Eastern girls chita Alonso, Arie Verveen, Bitty Schram, Plummer (Annie) and Lane (Britches) join Steven Schub. Tension-packed, if somewhat remnants of the Doolin-Dalton gang and infamiliar, film noir about long-married couple spire them to pull a few more jobs. Winning whose relationship is disrupted when a drifter cast, including Plummer in film debut. (Verveen) comes to live with the couple and Based on Robert Ward’s novel. [PG] work in their fish store; then their married son Cattle Drive (1951) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kurt (Schub) arrives on the scene. This POSTNeumann. Joel McCrea, Dean Stockwell, MAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE variation Leon Ames, Chill Wills. Stockwell does has atmosphere to spare; sharply acted and well in role of bratty teenager who learns scripted (by Edward Pomerantz, based on his a sense of values from veteran cowhand novel Into It). [R]▼●쩠 McCrea on arduous cow drive. Caught in the Draft (1941) 82m. ★★★ D: Cattle King (1963) C-88m. ★★ D: Tay David Butler. Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Garnett. Robert Taylor, Joan Caulfield, Lynne Overman, Eddie Bracken. The last Robert Loggia, Robert Middleton, Larry thing movie star Hope wants is to get Gates, Malcolm Atterbury. Control of grazdrafted, but he accidentally enlists himing land subject of standard Western conself. Very funny service comedy.▼쩠 frontation saga, Taylor and Middleton squarCaught Up (1998) C-95m. BOMB D: ing off in forgettable drama. Metroscope. Darin Scott. Bokeem Woodbine, Cynda Cattle Queen of Montana (1954) C-88m. Williams, Jeffrey Combs, Tony Todd, Snoop ★★1 ⁄2 D: Allan Dwan. Barbara Stanwyck, Doggy Dogg, LL Cool J, Michael (Clarke) Ronald Reagan, Gene Evans, Lance FullDuncan. Witless blaxploitation/film noir about er, Anthony Caruso, Jack Elam. Stanwyck an ex-con (Woodbine) who falls back into battles to protect her livestock and propL.A.’s underworld when he gets involved with erty from plundering by Indians—and a a sexy psychic (Williams) who’s a dead ringer ruthless villain (Evans). Reagan plays secfor his ex-wife (also Williams). Marked by ond fiddle to feisty Stanwyck here—but convoluted plotting, gross stereotypes, and they’re both done in by mediocre script. cameos by star rappers (Snoop plays a drug Beautiful scenery helps.▼●쩠 courier named Cool Kitty Kat—get it?). That’s Catwoman (2004) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Pitof. CANDYMAN’s Tony Todd as a malevolent Halle Berry, Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone, parole officer and RE-ANIMATOR’s Jeffrey Lambert Wilson, Frances Conroy, Alex Combs as a Shakespeare-quoting eunuch seBorstein, Michael Massee, Byron Mann. curity guard. [R] ▼●쩠 Meek employee of a big cosmetics firm is Cauldron of Blood (1967-Spanish-U.S.) Cmurdered when she overhears incriminating 95m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward Mann (Santos Alcocer). evidence about a new face cream with grueBoris Karloff, Viveca Lindfors, Jean-Pierre some side effects . . . but instead of dying Aumont, Jacqui Speed, Rosenda Monteros. she’s resurrected as Catwoman and tries to Sordid, sleep-inducing tale of blind sculptor bring the guilty parties to justice. Nonsensi(Karloff) whose skeletal models are actually cal story concept, illogical in the extreme, victims of his murdering wife. Also known sets up impossible relationships and gives as BLIND MAN’S BLUFF. Filmed in widescreen Panoramica. [PG]▼ us a ‘‘heroine’’ who’s scarcely worth rooting for. Berry does her best; Stone manages Cause for Alarm! (1951) 74m. ★★★ D: to be dull even while parodying herself as Tay Garnett. Loretta Young, Barry Sullivan, the lethal wife of the cosmetics manufacBruce Cowling, Margalo Gillmore, Carl turer. Based on the D.C. comic book. Super Switzer, Richard Anderson. Simple, effective thriller with Young registering as the panic35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Cat-Women of the Moon (1954) 64m. stricken wife of psychotic Sullivan. Tension ★1⁄2 D: Arthur Hilton. Sonny Tufts, Victor builds, and there’s a neat plot twist.▼●쩠 Jory, Marie Windsor, Bill Phipps, DougCavalcade (1933) 110m. ★★★★ D: Frank [ 225 ]

Lloyd. Diana Wynyard, Clive Brook, Herbert ple, satisfying tale not unlike LITTLE Mundin, Ursula Jeans, Margaret Lindsay, HOUSE ON THE STEPPES. Written by Beryl Mercer, Una O’Connor, Billy Bevan, the director. Cute pooch. [G]쩠 Frank Lawton. Lavish Hollywood adaptation Cavern, The (1966) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edgar of Noel Coward’s London stage success G. Ulmer. Rosanna Schiaffino, John Saxon, (which may remind many of TV’s Upstairs, Brian Aherne, Peter L. Marshall, Larry Downstairs) chronicling two English families Hagman, Hans Von Borsody. Six soldiers from eve of the 20th century to early 1930s. are trapped for over a year in a cavern with Nostalgic, richly atmospheric, but also sharply Schiaffino, but plot contrivance isn’t hancritical of war and the aftershocks that brought dled badly in above-average programmer. an end to a wonderful way of life. Oscar winThe prolific director’s swan song. CB4 (1993) C-88m. ★★ D: Tamra Davis. ner for Best Picture, Best Director, and ‘‘Interior Decoration’’ (it is handsome).▼ Chris Rock, Allen Payne, Deezer D, Chris Cavalry Charge SEE: Last Outpost, The Elliott, Phil Hartman, Charlie Murphy, (1951) Khandi Alexander, Arthur Evans, Theresa Cave, The (2005-U.S.-German) C-97m. Randle, Willard E. Pugh, Stoney Jackson, ★1 ⁄2 D: Bruce Hunt. Cole Hauser, Morris La Wanda Page. Group of middle-class Chestnut, Lena Headey, Piper Perabo, Eddie guys, led by Rock (who also cowrote the Cibrian, Rick Ravanello, Marcel Iures, film), takes on a tough, prisonlike persona Kieran Darcy-Smith, Daniel Dae Kim. Someto form a rap group called Cell Block 4— where below Romania, a team of professional which leads to complications when they get cave divers gets trapped underground, often mistaken for the real thing. Mildly amusing underwater, stalked by a CGI band of flying satirical look at the world of Gangsta Rap— is no THIS IS SPINAL TAP. [R]▼●쩠 people-eaters. Good-looking production tries to float a fully foreseeable plot and to buoy C.C. and Company (1970) C-88m. ★1⁄2 its endlessly bickering characters, but it’s a D: Seymour Robbie. Joe Namath, Annpretty underwhelming cross between JAWS Margret, William Smith, Jennifer Billingand ALIEN. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 sley, Teda Bracci, Greg Mullavey, Sid Cave Dwellers SEE: Blade Master, The Haig, Bruce Glover, Wayne Cochran & 1 ★★ Caveman (1981) C-92m. The C.C. Riders. Broadway Joe gets sacked ⁄2 D: Carl Gottlieb. Ringo Starr, Barbara Bach, John in his first starring role as a motorcyclist Matuszak, Shelley Long, Dennis Quaid, who tangles with Smith’s biker gang while Avery Schreiber, Jack Gilford. Stoned-age trying (not very hard) to fight off Annspoof follows prehistoric Starr’s adventures Margret’s advances. Bracci’s comedy rein One Zillion B.C. as a misfit who forms his lief is principal virtue, but the big laughs own tribe, which is composed of outcasts are unintentional. Produced by Roger Smith from other caves. Dum-dum comedy saved (who also wrote the screenplay) and Allan by fantastic (and funny) special-effects diCarr. Aka CHROME HEARTS. [PG— nosaurs created by Jim Danforth and David edited from original R rating] ▼쩠 Allen. [PG]▼●쩠 Cease Fire (1985) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Caveman’s Valentine, The (2001) C-105m. Nutter. Don Johnson, Lisa Blount, Robert ★1⁄2 D: Kasi Lemmons. Samuel L. Jackson, F. Lyons, Richard Chaves, Rick Richards, Colm Feore, Ann Magnuson, Aunjanue Chris Noel. Earnest drama about Vietnam Ellis, Rodney Eastman, Tamara Tunie, Jay vet who’s still haunted by his experiences Rodan, Anthony Michael Hall. A once15 years later and unwilling to acknowledge brilliant piano student now lives as a deluthat he has a problem. Sincere, poignant sional hermit in an N.Y.C. cave, but turns at times, but dramatically uneven. George detective to help solve a murder that takes Fernandez adapted script from his one-act place in the park outside his dwelling. play. [R]▼ Strange, unappealing film has almost nothCecil B. Demented (2000-U.S.-French) Cing to recommend it. Screenplay by George 88m. ★1⁄2 D: John Waters. Stephen Dorff, Dawes Green, based on his well-regarded Melanie Griffith, Adrian Grenier, Alicia novel. [R]▼쩠 Witt, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cave of the Yellow Dog, The (2006Jack Noseworthy, Mike (Michael) Shannon, Harriet Dodge, Mink Stole, Patricia Hearst, German-Mongolian) C-89m. ★★★ D: Byambasuren Davaa. Urjindorj Batchuluun, BuyanRicki Lake, Roseanne, Kevin Nealon, Eric dulam D. Batchuluun, Nansal Batchuluun, Roberts. Dorff is a guerrilla film director Nansalmaa Batchuluun, Batbayar Batchuwho masterminds the kidnapping of a prima luun. Poignant family drama about a little donna movie star and uses her to conduct a girl and her puppy who live in a yurt in the war on the blandness of mainstream movMongolian valleys, where cowpies are her ies. Noisy, frenetic, unfunny effort from the usually amusing Waters. [R]▼쩠 toys, wolves kill livestock, vultures circle, and the anonymous big city beckons. NonCeiling Zero (1936) 95m. ★★★ D: Howard professionals sincerely enact the ethnoHawks. James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, June graphic details of daily life—child care, Travis, Stuart Erwin, Barton MacLane, making cheese, sheep skinning—in a simIsabel Jewell. Irresponsible mail flier [ 226 ]

Cagney causes no end of grief for old pal (if a bit overlong) comedy-drama-fantasy. (and boss) O’Brien, especially when he Scripted by Berto, Labourier, Ogier, Pisier, sets his sights on young pilot Travis. TypiRivette, and Eduardo de Gregorio, based on short stories by Henry James.▼ cally machine-gun-paced Hawks drama belies its stage origins; one of the best Cell, The (2000) C-107m. ★★★ D: Tarsem Cagney-O’Brien vehicles. Based on the play Singh. Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vinby Frank ‘‘Spig’’ Wead; remade as INcent D’Onofrio, Jake Weber, Dylan Baker, TERNATIONAL SQUADRON.▼ Marianne Jean-Baptiste, James Gammon, Celebration, The (1998-Danish) C-101m. Patrick Bauchau. Genuinely creepy film ★★★1 about an experimental program in which ⁄2 D: Thomas Vinterberg. Ulrich Thomsen, Henning Moritzen, Thomas Bo Larsen, psychologist Lopez is able to enter the Paprika Steen, Birthe Neumann, Trine Dyrminds of her catatonic patients. FBI agent holm. A prodigal son’s return for his prosVaughn prevails upon her to help him catch perous father’s sixtieth birthday party sets the sick serial killer D’Onofrio. Full of arstage for a dysfunctional family reunion in the resting—but often distressing—images; not Danish countryside. Harsh, sardonically hufor the squeamish. Followed by a direct-tomorous look at the dark side of relationships— DVD sequel. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 and hidden skeletons. Strongly scripted by the Cellular (2004) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: David R. director (who also has a bit as a cab driver) Ellis. Kim Basinger, Chris Evans, William and Mogens Rukov, under the ‘‘pure cinH. Macy, Eric Christian Olsen, Jessica Biel, ema’’ rules of Dogma 95. [R]▼쩠 Jason Statham, Richard Burgi, Eddie DrisCelebration at Big Sur (1971) C-82m. ★★ coll, Adam Taylor Gordon, Noah EmmerD: Baird Bryant, Johanna Demetrakas. Joan ich. Not-bad thriller in which science Baez, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, teacher Basinger is kidnapped and imprisJoni Mitchell, John Sebastian, Mimi Farioned in an attic. A cell phone is her only n˜a. Lesser folk-rock documentary, filmed link to the outside world, and when a at 1969 Big Sur Festival, suffers from stranger answers her call, she tries to conpoor production values. Baez is highlighted, vince the young surfer-slacker (Evans) to singing ‘‘I Shall Be Released,’’ ‘‘Song for help her. Entertaining enough, as long as David,’’ etc. [PG] you ignore the many plot holes; Macy is a Celebrity (1998) 114m. ★★ D: Woody Allen. big plus as a cop. Based on a story by Larry Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Joe Mantegna, Cohen, who also wrote PHONE BOOTH. Leonardo DiCaprio, Winona Ryder, Charlize Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Theron, Hank Azaria, Melanie Griffith, Famke Celluloid Closet, The (1995) C-102m. ★★★ Janssen, Michael Lerner, Bebe Neuwirth, D: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman. Narrated Larry Pine, Marian Seldes, Andre Gregory, by Lily Tomlin. Entertaining, insightful Gretchen Mol, Dylan Baker, Sam Rockwell, look at homosexuality as reflected in movAllison Janney, Celia Weston, Aida Turturro, ies. Well-chosen clips are sandwiched by Kate Burton, Patti D’Arbanville, Debra Messinterviews with many actors and filmmakers ing, Donna Hanover, Karen Duffy, Isaac Miz(Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Curtis, Harvey rahi, Jeffrey Wright. Branagh becomes Woody Fierstein, Arthur Laurents, Shirley MacLaine, Allen in this rambling look at a neurotic N.Y. Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Mart Crowley, magazine writer, his messed-up love life and John Schlesinger). One highlight: Gore Vidal career. Allen is coasting here, with an attractive revealing the gay subtext in his screenplay cast, some amusing moments, but nothing for BEN-HUR. Tomlin coexecutive-produced. [R]▼●쩠 much to say. Davis is, as always, incredibly good. Shot in black-and-white by Sven NykCeltic Pride (1996) C-91m. BOMB D: Tom vist. [R] ▼●쩠 De Cerchio. Damon Wayans, Daniel Stern, Celeste (1981-German) C-107m. ★★★ D: Dan Aykroyd, Gail O’Grady, Adam HenderPercy Adlon. Eva Mattes, Jurgen Arndt, shott, Paul Guilfoyle, Deion Sanders, ChristoNorbert Wartha, Wolf Euba, Leo Barpher McDonald. Two obsessed Boston Celtics dischewski. Slow-moving but stunningly fans drunkenly kidnap the arrogant star of the photographed and detailed account of the rival basketball team to ensure that theirs wins relationship between Marcel Proust (Arndt) the championship. Might have worked as a and his devoted housekeeper (Mattes). wild farce, but in this ‘‘realistic’’ comic mode, Based on the real Celeste’s memoirs.▼ it’s a disaster, with repellent characters, leaden Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974 pacing, and no laughs. [PG-13]▼●쩠 French) C-193m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Rivette. Cement Garden, The (1992-GermanJuliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle British-French) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, Barbet Schroeder, Birkin. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrew RobNathalie Ansar. Librarian Julie (Labourier) ertson, Sinead Cusack, Hanns Zischler, Alice strikes up a friendship with magician Celine Coulthard, Ned Birkin, Jochen Horst. Strange, (Berto), who tells her of a mythical haunted complex account of the way four young sibhouse, which the two visit; they eventually lings react to the death of their parents (and become involved in the ‘‘lives’’ of the ghosts go about hiding the demise of their mom)— who reside there. Eerie, thoroughly entrancing with youthful bewilderment, erotic anxiety, [ 227 ]

and clandestine yearning. Vivid, but also terriincluding no sex. But his fantasy vision of bly affected. The director (who scripted, from her, and her illusion of having control, colIan McEwan’s novel) is Gainsbourg’s uncle, lide with reality as they begin to have genuand Ned Birkin’s father.▼쩠 ine feelings for each other. Intense and Cemetery Club, The (1992) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 intimate drama about sexual relationships, D: Bill Duke. Ellen Burstyn, Olympia Duwith compelling performances by the two kakis, Diane Ladd, Danny Aiello, Lainie leads. Unrated version runs 88m. ▼쩠 Kazan, Jeff Howell, Christina Ricci, Bernie Center Stage (2000) C-113m. ★★ D: NichCasey, Robert Costanzo, Wallace Shawn, olas Hytner. Amanda Schull, Zoe¨ Saldana, Louis Guss. The friendship of three women (all Susan May Pratt, Peter Gallagher, Donna Jewish, all played—none too persuasively— Murphy, Debra Monk, Ethan Stiefel, Sascha by Gentiles) is underscored by the loss of Radetsky, Shakiem Evans. Routine backstage their husbands, until one of them enters into a soaper about young students at a prestigious tentative relationship with a man. Burstyn is a N.Y.C. ballet company, focusing on a plucky joy to watch, but Dukakis’ and Ladd’s caricastarlet’s infatuation with the company’s tured performances throw modestly entertaincocky male lead (American Ballet Theater ing film off-balance. Ivan Menchell adapted star Stiefel). Lots of Broadway pedigree behis own play, though comic writer Marshall hind the scenes, including choreography by Brickman has ‘‘production consultant’’ credit. Tony Award–winner Susan Stroman, but Jerry Orbach and Lee Richardson appear unthis plays like Dawson’s Creek in Capezios. billed as husbands. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Only a couple of the dance set pieces really Cemetery Girls SEE: Velvet Vampire, The fly. Fun cameo from ex-Chorus Line hoofer Cemetery Man (1995-U.S.-Italian) CPriscilla Lopez. Followed by a sequel. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 100m. ★★ D: Michele Soavi. Rupert Everett, Francois Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi, SteCentral Park Drifter SEE: Graveyard fano Masciarelli, Mickey Knox. Zombies Shift (1989) rise from the dead a week after their demise, Central Station (1998-Brazilian-French) and it’s ‘‘Cemetery Man’s’’ job to kill them C-107m. ★★★ D: Walter Salles. Fernanda again, with the assistance of a grotesque Montenegro, Vinicius de Oliveira, Marilia mute companion. Based on an Italian comic Peˆra, Soˆia Lira, Othon Bastos, Ota´vio Aubook series, Dylan Dog, a promising congusto, Stela Freitas. A woman who writes letcept becomes overwhelming and repetitive. ters for the illiterate at Rio de Janeiro’s central At times outrageous, funny, sexy, and distrain station feels obliged to help a 9-year-old gusting, with a startlingly enigmatic and fasboy whose mother has just been killed. The cinating ending. [R]▼●쩠 two form an unlikely bond and journey to a Centennial Summer (1946) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 remote area of Brazil to try to find his father. D: Otto Preminger. Jeanne Crain, Cornel Predictable on one level, but extremely well Wilde, Linda Darnell, William Eythe, Waldone, with a shining performance by Monteter Brennan, Constance Bennett, Dorothy negro (one of Brazil’s leading actresses) and Gish. Leisurely, plush musical of Philanewcomer de Oliveira. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 delphia Exposition of 1876, with sisters Century (1994-British) C-112m. ★★ D: SteCrain and Darnell both after handsome phen Poliakoff. Charles Dance, Miranda Wilde; nice Jerome Kern score helps. Richardson, Clive Owen, Robert Stephens, Centerfold Girls, The (1974) C-93m. Lena Headey, Neil Stuke, Joan Hickson, ★1 ⁄2 D: John Peyser. Andrew Prine, TifFiona Walker. Romantic drama set in turn-offany Bolling, Aldo Ray, Ray Danton, Franthe-century London examines the relationcine York, Jeremy Slate, Mike Mazurki, ships of three very different people as the VicDan Seymour. Fine cast of familiar faces torian era dissolves into the 20th century and helps routine tale of psycho Prine killing the world becomes a different place. Mildly pinup girls. [R]▼ involving period piece, but top-notch cast Center of the Web (1992) C-88m. ★★ D: can’t breathe life into a premise that doesn’t quite come off.▼ David A. Prior. Robert Davi, Charlene Tilton, Ted Prior, Tony Curtis, Bo HopCeremony, The (1963) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: kins, William Zipp, Graham Timbes, Eric Laurence Harvey. Laurence Harvey, Sarah Stenson, Charles Napier. Hired killer is Miles, Robert Walker, Jr., John Ireland, murdered, and government agents force a Ross Martin, Lee Patterson, Noel Purcell. man who looks just like him to pose as the Mishmash about convicted killer rescued dead bad-guy. Or is that what’s really by brother who demands liaison with sistergoing on? Complicated plot, smoothly diin-law as reward. rected, but of no real distinction. [R]▼●쩠 Certain Fury (1985) C-87m. BOMB D: Center of the World, The (2001) C-86m. Stephen Gyllenhaal. Tatum O’Neal, Irene ★★★ D: Wayne Wang. Peter Sarsgaard, Molly Cara, Nicholas Campbell, George Murdock, Parker, Carla Gugino, Balthazar Getty, Alisha Moses Gunn, Peter Fonda. Atrocious film Klass. Millionaire computer nerd hires a stripabout two girls on the lam, featuring a pair of per to accompany him to Las Vegas for a Academy Award winners (as the ads proweekend—after she sets strict ground rules, claimed) giving two of the worst perfor[ 228 ]

mances in recent memory. Made in Canada. Brown. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Otto [R]▼● Kruger, Stuart Erwin, Una O’Connor, Akim Certain Smile, A (1958) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 Tamiroff. Chic formula MGM love trianD: Jean Negulesco. Rossano Brazzi, Joan gle with Crawford torn between love for Fontaine, Bradford Dillman, Christine Carere. Gable and married lover Kruger. Watch Franc¸oise Sagan’s novella becomes overblown for Mickey Rooney splashing in a swimsoap opera. Romance between Parisian stuming pool.▼쩠 dents Dillman (in film debut) and Carere interChained Heat (1983-U.S.-German) Crupted when she is beguiled by roue´ Brazzi; 95m. BOMB D: Paul Nicolas. Linda Blair, chic Fontaine is wasted. CinemaScope. John Vernon, Sybil Danning, Tamara Cervantes SEE: Young Rebel Dobson, Stella Stevens, Louisa Moritz, Cesar (1936-French) 117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: MarNita Talbot, Michael Callan, Henry Silva, cel Pagnol. Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Edy Williams. Innocent Blair finds herself Demazis, Charpin, Andre Fouche, Alida in a prison where the warden has a hot tub Rouffe. Fanny’s son (Fouche), now grown, in his office. Strictly for the grind-house learns that his father is Marius (Fresnay), crowd on 42nd Street. Followed by not Panisse (Charpin). Raimu steals the CHAINED HEAT 2. [R]▼● film in the title role, particularly when he Chain Lightning (1950) 94m. ★★ D: Stuart gives a poignant discourse on death. Third Heisler. Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, of Pagnol’s trilogy, preceded by MARIUS Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf. After and FANNY. All three were the basis of WW2, bomber pilot Bogart becomes a test the play and movie FANNY (1961).▼●쩠 pilot for jet manufacturer Massey. Some roCe´sar and Rosalie (1972-French-Italianmantic rivalry over Parker with inventor German) C-104m. ★★★ D: Claude Sautet. Whorf is as low-key as the rest of this bland, Yves Montand, Romy Schneider, Sami uninvolving movie.▼● Frey, Umberto Orsini, Eva Marie Meineke, Chain of Desire (1992) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Isabelle Huppert. Appealing stars in typically Temistocles Lopez. Malcolm McDowell, French story of a menage a` trois relationship Linda Fiorentino, Kevin Conroy, Seymour (a woman and her two lovers) and how it Cassel, Assumpta Serna, Elias Koteas, changes over the years. [R]▼●쩠 Angel Aviles, Patrick Bauchau, Grace ZaC’est la Vie (1990-French) C-97m. ★★★ briskie, Tim Guinee, Jamie Harrold. PompD: Diane Kurys. Nathalie Baye, Julie ous reworking of LA RONDE, set in the era Bataille, Candice Lefranc, Richard Berry, of AIDS and chronicling various out-of-theJean-Pierre Bacri, Zabou. Autobiographiordinary sexual encounters among a group cal coming-of-age chronicle, strikingly simof shallow, jaded Manhattanites. Almost unbearably bad at times.▼ ilar to Kurys’ PEPPERMINT SODA, about a 13-year-old girl (Bataille) and her expeChain of Fools (2000) C-96m. BOMB D: riences one long-ago summer at a beach Traktor. Steve Zahn, Salma Hayek, Jeff resort. Despite the familiarity of theme, Goldblum, Elijah Wood, David Cross, Tom the film is provocative and charming. A Wilkinson, Orlando Jones, Kevin Corrigan, sequel—or, more precisely, companion David Hyde Pierce, Lara Flynn Boyle, piece—to ENTRE NOUS, which must be Craig Ferguson, Michael Rapaport. Wimpy seen to fully appreciate the character of the barber accidentally kills a hoodlum, then girl’s mother (here Nathalie Baye, in ENTRE decides to purloin the valuable coins the NOUS, Isabelle Huppert). Panavision.쩠 guy has just stolen. Woeful, would-be farce Cet Amour-la` (2002-French) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 might be better described as CHAIN OF D: Jose´e Dayan. Jeanne Moreau, Aymeric OBNOXIOUS IDIOTS. At one point WilDemarigny, Christiane Rorato, Sophie Millkinson moans, ‘‘How did I ever get into this eron, Justine Le´vy, Stanislas Sauphanor, Dimess?’’ Indeed. Traktor is the name of a dier Lesour, Tanya Lopert. Ambitious but Swedish collective, so no one person can be uneven depiction of the multilayered relablamed for this. Released direct to video in tionship between writer-filmmaker Marguethe U.S. [R] 쩠 rite Duras (Moreau) and Yann Andre´a Chain Reaction (1980-Australian) C-87m. ★★1 (Demarigny), a student almost four decades ⁄2 D: Ian Barry. Steve Bisley, Arnaher junior who becomes her assistant and Maria Winchester, Ross Thompson, Ralph lover. Moreau (who appeared in a number Cotterill, Patrick Ward. OK thriller of Duras films in her career) is well cast and chronicling the repercussions of a nuas fascinating as ever, but the film itself is clear plant accident on a contaminated disappointing. Based on Andre´a’s autobioemployee (Thompson) and an innocent graphical novel. Panavision.▼쩠 couple (Bisley, Winchester) forced to conChad Hanna (1940) C-86m. ★★ D: Henry tend with Big Brother. Look quickly for King. Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, Linda Mel Gibson as a bearded car mechanic. Darnell, Guy Kibbee, Jane Darwell, John Video title: NUCLEAR RUN. ▼● Carradine. Rather flat circus drama set in Chain Reaction (1996) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: 19th-century New York; colorful but empty. Andrew Davis. Keanu Reeves, Morgan 1 ★★ Chained (1934) 76m. ⁄2 D: Clarence Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Kevin [ 229 ]

Dunn, Brian Cox, Joanna Cassidy, Nicholas tin Beck. Earl Owensby, William Hicks, Rudall, Michael Shannon. Machinist workKatheryn Thompson, Johnny Popwell. North ing on hydrogen-energy project is blamed Carolina-based Owensby’s first film (which for a devastating explosion and takes it on he also produced) amateurishly goes through the lam along with a female physicist on the the usual vengeance-for-killing-my-family project. What’s really behind all this skulpaces. Opening printed crawl celebrates this duggery? Uninspired, ultimately ludicrous as return of ‘‘clean, decent entertainment,’’ blend of action, chase, and political thriller followed by Owensby causing the deaths of genres has barely a believable moment. various badguys. But don’t worry—none of [PG-13]▼●쩠 his victims is naked. Dreadful. [PG]▼ Chains of Gold (1991) C-95m. ★★ D: Rod Challenge, The (1982) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Holcomb. John Travolta, Marilu Henner, John Frankenheimer. Scott Glenn, Toshiro MiJoey Lawrence, Bernie Casey, Ramon fune, Donna Kei Benz, Atsuo Nakamura, CalFranco, Hector Elizondo, Benjamin Bratt, vin Young. Entertaining but sometimes Conchata Ferrell, Tammy Lauren. A dedipretentious actioner, with American boxer cated social worker (Travolta) transforms Glenn becoming involved in conflict between himself into a Stallone clone as he sets out brothers Mifune and Nakamura over rights to to rescue a young friend caught up with a family swords. Scripted by John Sayles and gang of crack dealers. Ludicrous actioner is Richard Maxwell. Exteriors shot mostly in yet another of Travolta’s grade-D pre– Kyoto. Completely recut for TV release as PULP FICTION efforts (although he coSWORD OF THE NINJA, running 97m. wrote this one!). Made for theatrical release [R]▼ in 1989, but debuted on cable TV. [R]▼쩠 Challenge for Robin Hood, A (1968Chairman, The (1969) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: British) C-85m. ★★ D: C. M. PenningtonJ. Lee Thompson. Gregory Peck, Anne Richards. Barrie Ingham, James Hayter, Heywood, Arthur Hill, Alan Dobie, ConLeon Greene, Peter Blythe, Gay Hamilrad Yama. Lots of talk but little action in ton, Alfie Bass. Hammer Films produced story of American scientist sent to Comthis inoffensive but undistinguished advenmunist China on super-secret espionage ture yarn, which is of little interest except mission. Panavision. [M/PG]쩠 to children. Originally 96m. [G]▼ Chairman of the Board (1998) C-95m. Challenge To Be Free (1976) C-88m. BOMB D: Alex Zamm. Carrot Top, Courtney ★★1 ⁄2 D: Tay Garnett. Mike Mazurki, Vic Thorne-Smith, Larry Miller, Raquel Welch, Christy, Jimmy Kane, Fritz Ford. Fur trapper Jack Warden, M. Emmet Walsh, Estelle Haris pursued by the law in Arctic surroundings; ris, Bill Erwin, Little Richard, Taylor Negron, simple and simple-minded, best for younger Butterbean. Excruciatingly stupid story of inviewers. Made in 1972 as MAD TRAPPER ventor/beach bum Carrot Top, who inherits a OF THE YUKON, this marked last film for major corporation from a complete stranger, veteran director Garnett, who appears briefly to the vexation of sleazy corporate nephew as Marshal McGee. [G]▼ Miller. Harris hits the film’s low point as his Challenge to Lassie (1949) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 landlady, a woman with a laryngectomy who D: Richard Thorpe. Edmund Gwenn, Donald ceaselessly curses. Someone thought this was Crisp, Geraldine Brooks, Reginald Owen, funny? [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Alan Webb, Ross Ford, Henry Stephenson, Chalk (2007) C-84m. ★★ D: Mike Akel. Alan Napier, Sara Allgood, Arthur Shields. Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, Based-on-fact story, set in 19th-century EdinShannon Haragan, Chris Mass, Jeff Guerburgh, about a dog (actually a Skye terrier but rero, Jerry Jarmon. Low-budget mockumenplayed here by Lassie) who keeps returning to tary about malcontent teachers with a cause a churchyard where its master (Crisp) is burlacks structure and comedic drive, getting ied. Pleasant film, with a fine character-actor by (a little) on goodwill. The two Schremcast. Remade as GREYFRIARS BOBBY, mers are married in real life; he’s the movwhich also features Crisp (as the cemetery ie’s focus (a history-teaching newcomer caretaker). ▼ named Troy), and she’s the default standout Chamber, The (1996) C-110m. ★★ D: as a gym teacher who would like to make James Foley. Chris O’Donnell, Gene HackTroy her boy. Affectionate enough and man, Faye Dunaway, Robert Prosky, Rayprobably even true enough, but just passmond Barry, Lela Rochon, Harve Presnell, able. [PG-13]쩠 Bo Jackson. Young lawyer feels impelled Chalk Garden, The (1964-British) C-106m. ★★★ to defend a Mississippi death row inmate, D: Ronald Neame. Deborah Kerr, convicted of a racist/terrorist bombing years Hayley Mills, John Mills, Edith Evans, ago, because the man is his grandfather. ReFelix Aylmer, Elizabeth Sellars. Very-highopening this volatile case causes pain and class soap opera with good cast supporting hardship for all involved. Curiously unmovstory of teenager set on right path by ing (and talky) adaptation of the John Grigoverness Kerr; colorful production, quite sham best-seller. O’Donnell is earnest but entertaining. From Enid Bagnold play.▼ Challenge (1974) C-84m. BOMB D: Marunconvincing; Hackman never successfully [ 230 ]

disappears into the role of a racist pig. Pacialite Balfour whose father pretends he’s navision. [R]▼●쩠 broke to teach her a lesson. Overlong Chambermaid on the Titanic, The (1997silent Hitch is moderately entertaining with the usual quota of striking visuals.▼쩠 French-Spanish-Italian) C-96m. ★★★ D: Bigas Luna. Olivier Martinez, Romane BohChampagne for Caesar (1950) 99m. ★★★ ringer, Aitana Sa´nchez Gijo´n, Didier BeD: Richard Whorf. Ronald Colman, Cezace, Aldo Maccione. Utterly original and leste Holm, Vincent Price, Barbara Britton, beautifully filmed fable about fantasy, deArt Linkletter. Genius Colman becomes sire and storytelling, centering on a French national celebrity on TV quiz show; sponfoundry worker who wins a trip to watch the sor Price sends temptress Holm to distract launch of the Titanic in England and becomes big winner. Enjoyable spoof; Price hilarious as neurotic soap manufacturer. ▼●쩠 obsessed with a woman he meets there. When he returns home, he becomes famous for spinChampagne Murders, The (1967-French) C-98m. ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Anthony ning fantastical tales—which may or may not be true—about his wild night of passion with Perkins, Maurice Ronet, Stephane Audran, the woman. Unpredictable, unexpectedly Yvonne Furneaux, Suzanne Lloyd, Cathmoving film from the usually outrageous erine Sola. Sale of champagne company to ´ ´ Luna (JAMON JAMON). Aka THE CHAMU.S. conglomerate manipulated by variBERMAID. Cinecam-Scope.▼ ous weird, competing types, complicated Chamber of Horrors (1966) C-99m. ★1⁄2 by murders which point to playboy (Ronet). D: Hy Averback. Patrick O’Neal, Cesare DaMurder-mystery narrative backdrop for odd nova, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Patrice Wymore, psychological drama; one-of-a-kind film Suzy Parker, Marie Windsor, Tony Curtis, was shot in both English and FrenchWayne Rogers. Wax museum provides setlanguage versions. Techniscope. ting for uneven mystery about mad killer on Champion (1949) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mark the loose. Intended for TV, it has mark of Robson. Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell, low-budget film plus two gimmicks: the Arthur Kennedy, Ruth Roman, Paul Stew‘‘Horror Horn’’ and the ‘‘Fear Flasher.’’쩠 art, Lola Albright. Unscrupulous boxer Chameleon Street (1991) C-95m. ★★★ D: punches his way to the top, thrusting aside Wendell B. Harris, Jr. Wendell B. Harris, everybody and everything. Douglas perJr., Angela Leslie, Amina Fakir. Knowing fectly cast in title role; gripping film, with sleeper based on true story of William Harry Gerstad’s Oscar-winning editing. Also Douglas Street, Jr. (played by Harris), a shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 black man whose uncanny ability to intuit Champions (1983-British) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 other people’s needs enables him to sucD: John Irvin. John Hurt, Edward Woodcessfully impersonate a reporter, a surgeon, ward, Jan Francis, Ben Johnson, Kirstie an exchange student, and an attorney. IngraAlley, Peter Barkworth, Ann Bell, Judy tiating film with a biting comic edge, and Parfitt. Formula drama of determined something to say. [R]▼쩠 jockey Hurt battling cancer and hoping to 1 ★★★ ⁄2 D: King Champ, The (1931) 87m. make a comeback in the Grand National Vidor. Wallace Beery, Jackie Cooper, Irene Steeplechase. The opening is reminiscent Rich, Roscoe Ates, Edward Brophy, Hale of CHARIOTS OF FIRE, the finale of Hamilton. Superb tearjerker about a washedROCKY; however, the scenes with Hurt up prizefighter and his adoring son, played and his niece, and Hurt among children to perfection by Beery and Cooper (in the undergoing cancer treatment, are quite moving. Based on a true story. [PG]▼● first of their several teamings). Simple, sentimental in the extreme, but very effecChampions Forever (1989) C-87m. ★★★ tive. Beery won an Oscar for his perforD: Dimitri Logothetis. Fascinating, insightmance, as did Frances Marion for her ful look back at the careers of five modern original story. Remade in 1953 (as THE heavyweight boxing legends: Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry CLOWN) and 1979.▼●쩠 1 ★ Champ, The (1979) C-121m. ⁄2 D: Franco Holmes, and Ken Norton. Interviews with Zeffirelli. Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway, Ricky each fighter are juxtaposed with classic footSchroder, Jack Warden, Arthur Hill, Strother age of their ring battles with Ali the dominant Martin, Joan Blondell, Elisha Cook. Voight presence throughout. Candor and a subtle pais too intelligent to convince as a dumb thos make the interviews as poignant as the pug, and Dunaway, as a loving mother, boxing scenes are exciting. ▼●쩠 looks as if she wants to bed down with her Chances Are (1989) C-108m. ★★★ D: kid in hopeless remake of the 1931 sudser. Emile Ardolino. Cybill Shepherd, Robert Young Schroder cries (and cries) conDowney, Jr., Ryan O’Neal, Mary Stuart Masterson, Christopher McDonald, Josef vincingly. [PG]▼●쩠 Champagne (1928-British) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sommer, Joe Grifasi, Susan Ruttan, Fran Alfred Hitchcock. Betty Balfour, Jean Ryan, James Noble. A woman remains Bradin, Gordon Harker, Ferdinand von devoted to her husband years after his Alten, Clifford Heatherley, Jack Trevor. death . . . and then, one day, his spirit Romantic escapades of irresponsible soreturns in the body of a much younger [ 231 ]

man. Surprisingly skillful blend of fantasy Anthony Hopkins, Bo Derek, Michael Branand romantic comedy manages to maintain don, Mary Beth Hurt, Ed Winter. College its sweet-natured tone from start to finish. professor Hopkins, drowning in male menoAppealing stars are supported by a gallery pause, has an affair with student Derek, so of top character actors. Written by Perry wife MacLaine decides to take a lover of Howze and Randy Howze. [PG]▼●쩠 her own. One of the better midlife crisis Chandler (1972) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul films of this period, though many thought Magwood. Warren Oates, Leslie Caron, its major asset was opening sequence of Alex Dreier, Gloria Grahame, Mitchell Bo bouncing in a hot tub. Cowritten by Erich Segal. [R]▼쩠 Ryan. Private eye falls in love with exmistress of racketeer. Substandard yarn. Changing Lanes (2002) C-99m. ★★★ D: Panavision. [PG] Roger Michell. Ben Affleck, Samuel L. JackChanel Solitaire (1981-U.S.-French) Cson, Toni Collette, Sydney Pollack, William 120m. ★★ D: George Kaczender. MarieHurt, Amanda Peet, Richard Jenkins, Kim France Pisier, Timothy Dalton, Rutger Staunton, John Benjamin Hickey, Dylan Hauer, Karen Black, Brigitte Fossey. Stylish Baker. Yuppie N.Y.C. lawyer Affleck, who’s but cliche´-ridden biography of designer married to the boss’s daughter, crashes into Coco Chanel, covering her first 38 years pent-up working-class Jackson’s car one rainy and focusing on her love life. [R]▼● morning as the latter is on his way to a cusChangeling, The (1979-Canadian) C-109m. tody hearing over his son. When Affleck ★★★ D: Peter Medak. George C. Scott, blithely zips off, Jackson fumes, but the escaTrish Van Devere, Melvyn Douglas, John lating battle of wits between the two only Colicos, Jean Marsh, Madeleine Thorntonexposes their mutual vulnerability. A rare and Sherwood. Good, scary ghost story with Scott compelling Hollywood movie about ethics as recently widowed musician who moves and human nature. Written by Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 into old house inhabited by spirit of a child who died there 70 years ago. [R]▼●쩠 Changing Times (2004-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: Andre ´ Te´chine´. Catherine Deneuve, Changeling (2008) C-141m. ★★★ D: Clint Eastwood. Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Ge´rard Depardieu, Gilbert Melki, Malik Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Colm Zidi, Lubna Azabal, Tanya Lopert, Nabila Feore, Jason Butler Harner, Amy Ryan, Baraka, Nadem Rachati. Single, middleGeoff Pierson, Denis O’Hare, Frank Wood, aged man (Depardieu) convinces himself Peter Gerety, Reed Birney, Eddie Alderson. that he must win the love of his long-ago The disappearance of a 9-year-old boy in girlfriend (Deneuve), who is unhappily mar1928 L.A. pits his distraught mother (Jolie) ried and is mired in family issues. This against the crushingly corrupt police force, Tangier, Morocco–set drama is a provocawhich can’t afford more bad publicity. Her tive exploration of life’s missed opportunirefusal to be hushed comes at a shocking ties and the failure of individuals to connect price to her safety and sanity—but ultiand commit in meaningful ways; it also mately she finds powerful friends. Then the serves to mirror the differences in European case expands with the discovery of a serial and Muslim lifestyles. 쩠 killer. Incredible story is all true, as docuChan Is Missing (1982) 80m. ★★★ D: mented by screenwriter J. Michael StracWayne Wang. Wood Moy, Marc Hayashi, zynski. Jolie is superb as the long-suffering Laureen Chew, Judy Mihei, Peter Wang, heroine of this remarkable tale. Intense, Presco Tabios. Wry, low-key comedy of often tough to stomach, but scrupulously cabdrivers Moy and Hayashi tracking down filmed by Eastwood. Panavision. [R]쩠 the mysterious Mr. Chan Hung, who abChange of Habit (1969) C-93m. ★★ D: sconded with their $4,000. Independently William Graham. Elvis Presley, Mary Tyler produced on shoestring budget and shot in Moore, Barbara McNair, Jane Elliot, Leora San Francisco’s Chinatown.▼쩠 Dana, Edward Asner, Doro Merande, Regis Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, The (1978Toomey. Moore, a nun, is forced to choose Australian) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fred Schebetween Dr. Presley and the church in pisi. Tommy Lewis, Freddy Reynolds, Ansubstandard drama that at least represents gela Punch, Ray Barrett, Jack Thompson, slight change from typical Elvis fare. Peter Carroll, Bryan Brown. Half-white abPresley’s last screen role. [G]▼쩠 origine Lewis, brought up by Methodist Change of Mind (1969) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 pastor, is caught between two cultures and D: Robert Stevens. Raymond St. Jacques, exploited, with tragic results. Harrowing inSusan Oliver, Janet MacLachlan, Leslie Nieldictment of racism, a problem certainly not sen, Donnelly Rhodes, David Bailey. In an unique to U.S. Based on fact. Director emergency operation, the brain of a white disSchepisi’s screenplay was adapted from a trict attorney is successfully transplanted into Thomas Keneally novel (Keneally also the body of a black man. Racial-protest sci-fi plays the role of Cook). Most U.S. prints thriller is contrived, to say the least. [R] run 108m. Panavision.쩠 Change of Seasons, A (1980) C-102m. Chaos Theory (2007) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Mar★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lang. Shirley MacLaine, cos Siega. Ryan Reynolds, Emily Mortimer, [ 232 ]

Stuart Townsend, Sarah Chalke, Mike Erwin, Chapman in the days leading up to his Constance Zimmer, Matreya Fedor. Lashooting of John Lennon outside his home bored comedy about an efficiency expert at the Dakota apartment building in N.Y.C. whose whole life starts to fall apart when a in 1980. Leto is eerily convincing as the woman tries to seduce him, triggering a overweight loner who fancies himself to be tidal wave of misunderstandings and revelaHolden Caulfield, but when the film is over tions that threaten his once-happy marriage. we don’t know much more about Chapman Quietly dumped into a handful of theaters than we did at the start. [R] on its journey to the DVD bargain bin. PaChapter Two (1979) C-124m. ★★ D: Robnavision. [PG-13]쩠 ert Moore. James Caan, Marsha Mason, ★★1 Chaplin (1992-British-U.S.) C-144m. ⁄2 Valerie Harper, Joseph Bologna. Neil SiD: Richard Attenborough. Robert Dowmon’s autobiographical comedy-drama—one ney, Jr., Dan Aykroyd, Geraldine Chaplin, of his best Broadway plays—gets lost in Kevin Dunn, Anthony Hopkins, Milla screen translation. Caan is miscast as sharpJovovich, Moira Kelly, Kevin Kline, Diane minded writer who’s drawn into new roLane, Penelope Ann Miller, Paul Rhys, John mance (with Mason) before he’s really Thaw, Marisa Tomei, Nancy Travis, James recovered from death of his wife. Long, plastic, and unmoving. [PG]▼● Woods, David Duchovny, Deborah Maria Moore, Bill Paterson, John Standing, Robert Character (1997-Dutch) C-125m. ★★★ D: Stephens. Reverent, lovingly detailed bio of Mike van Diem. Fedja van Huet, Jan DeCharlie Chaplin—from his squalid childhood cleir, Betty Schuurman, Victor Low, Tamar in London to early moviemaking days with van den Dop, Hans Kesting, Lou Landre, Mack Sennett, to international stardom, celebBernhard Droog. Oscar-winning, powerful rity, and scandal. Downey is astonishingly story of a virtuous young man (van Huet), good as Charlie and the film starts out great, in 1920s Rotterdam, caught in a web of but flattens midway through and tries to cover financial entanglements with his estranged, too much ground. Geraldine Chaplin plays malevolent father (Decleir). Assured feature her own grandmother, Charlie’s severely neudirectorial debut by van Diem feels Dickenrotic mom. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sian, but moves like wildfire. Strong perfor1 ★★★ Chaplin Revue, The (1958) 119m. mances by a cast of stage actors, save ⁄2 D: Charles Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin, Edna Belgian film stalwart Decleir; young lead Purviance, Sydney Chaplin, Mack Swain. van Huet is a dead ringer for Robert DowThree of Chaplin’s best shorts strung toney, Jr. [R]▼쩠 gether with his own music, narration, and Charade (1963) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stanbehind-the-scenes footage: A DOG’S LIFE ley Donen. Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, (1918), one of his loveliest films; SHOULWalter Matthau, James Coburn, George DER ARMS (1918), a classic WW1 comeKennedy, Ned Glass, Jacques Marin. Suave dy; and THE PILGRIM (1923), his undercomedy-mystery in Hitchcock vein, with rated gem about a convict who disguises Grant aiding widow Hepburn to recover himself as a minister.▼쩠 fortune secreted by husband, being sought Chapman Report, The (1962) C-125m. by trio of sinister crooks; set in Paris. ★★1⁄2 D: George Cukor. Efrem Zimbalist, Excellent screenplay by Peter Stone, score Jr., Shelley Winters, Jane Fonda, Claire by Henry Mancini. Remade in 2002 as THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE.▼쩠 Bloom, Glynis Johns, Ray Danton, Ty Hardin, Andrew Duggan, John Dehner, Harold J. Charge at Feather River, The (1953) C96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. Guy MadiStone, Corey Allen, Cloris Leachman, Chad Everett, Henry Daniell, Jack Cassidy. Slick, son, Vera Miles, Frank Lovejoy, Dick Wesempty yarn about Kinsey-like sex researchers son, Helen Westcott, Onslow Stevens, Steve coming to suburban community to get statistiBrodie, Neville Brand, Henry Kulky. Pretty cal survey, with repercussions on assorted fegood saga of Madison leading ragtag ‘‘guardmales. Potboiler material elevated by good house brigade’’ toward an inevitable clash performances and direction. with the Cheyenne at title location. Subplots Chappaqua (1966) C/B&W-92m. ★★ D: involve a SEARCHERS-like rescue of two Conrad Rooks. Jean-Louis Barrault, Conwhite girls raised by Indians and a bit too rad Rooks, William S. Burroughs, Allen much comedy relief from Wesson and Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Paula Pritchett, Kulky. Listen for Lt. Wilhelm! Originally Ornette Coleman. Rooks, an alcoholic herin 3-D; Lovejoy even spits at the camera. oin addict, travels to Paris for a sleep cure Charge of the Light Brigade, The (1936) and hallucinates while withdrawing. Auto116m. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, biographical—and vague, surreal, phony. Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, Henry Stephenson, Nigel Bruce, Donald Crisp, Prints of 82m. and 75m. also exist.▼쩠 Chapter 27 (2008-U.S.-Canadian) C-84m. David Niven, C. Henry Gordon, Robert ★★ D: J. P. Schaefer. Jared Leto, Lindsay Barrat, Spring Byington, J. Carrol Naish. Lohan, Judah Friedlander, Ursula Abbott, Thundering action based on Tennyson’s Jeane Fournier, Brian O’Neill. Creepy but poem, with immortal charge into the valultimately pointless portrait of Mark David ley of death by British 27th Lancers cav[ 233 ]

alry. Lavish production values accent chie Mayo. Jack Benny, Kay Francis, James romantic tale of Flynn and de Havilland at Ellison, Anne Baxter, Edmund Gwenn, army post in India. Max Steiner’s first Reginald Owen. Broad but surefire filmmusical score for Warner Brothers is suing of Brandon Thomas play about Oxford perb. Balaklava Heights charge directed student posing as maiden aunt, joke getby action specialist B. Reeves Eason. Also ting out of hand. Previously filmed six shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 other times! Remade as musical WHERE’S CHARLEY?쩠 Charge of the Light Brigade, The (1968-British) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony RichCharley Varrick (1973) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ardson. David Hemmings, Vanessa RedDon Siegel. Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, grave, John Gielgud, Harry Andrews, Trevor Felicia Farr, John Vernon, Andy Robinson, Howard, Jill Bennett, Mark Burns. ExquiJacqueline Scott, Sheree North, Norman Fell, sitely made, but ultimately disappointing Woodrow Parfrey. Neatly contrived thriller drama of events leading up to British involvewith Matthau as a bank robber who discovers ment in Crimean War. Stunning battle sethat his small-town take is actually laundered quence cannot make up for dramatic Mafia money. On target all the way, with a loopholes in this story of military minds gone particularly satisfying wrap-up. [PG]▼●쩠 mad. Clever animated segments by Richard Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Williams. Redgrave and Richardson’s young C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim Burton. Johnny daughters Natasha and Joely are members of Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helthe wedding party. Panavision. [M/PG]▼●쩠 ena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Missi Chariots of Fire (1981-British) C-123m. Pyle, James Fox, Deep Roy, Christopher Lee, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Hugh Hudson. Ben Cross, Ian Julia Winter, AnnaSophia Robb, Jordon Fry, Charleson, Nigel Havers, Nick Farrell, Philip Wiegratz; narrated by Geoffrey Holder. Alice Krige, Cheryl Campbell, Ian Holm, Roald Dahl’s classic story (previously filmed John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson, Patrick as WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOMagee, Nigel Davenport, Dennis ChristoLATE FACTORY) about five children—one pher, Brad Davis. Absorbing and unusual good, four rotten—invited to tour a strange, drama based on true story of two men— reclusive inventor’s candy empire. Dazzling devout Scottish missionary Eric Liddell, production is everything you’d expect from driven Jewish Cambridge student Harold director Burton, but the scenes at the factory Abrahams—who run in the 1924 Olympics. are less compelling than those dealing with Fascinating probe of their motives, chalCharlie and his family. And Depp, though lenges, and problems, and a case study of amusing, is no Gene Wilder. Music by Danny repressed emotions even in the midst of exulElfman with lyrics from Dahl’s text. Roy, tation. Feature debut for director Hudson. through digital technology, plays all the Oscars for Best Picture, Colin Welland’s Oompa-Loompas. [PG] ▼쩠 script, Vangelis’ excellent score, and MiCharlie Bartlett (2008) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: lena Canonero’s costumes. [PG]▼●쩠 Jon Poll. Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey, Chariots of the Gods? (1974) C-98m. ★★★ Jr., Hope Davis, Kat Dennings, Tyler HilD: Harald Reinl. First of too many speculative ton, Mark Rendall. Charismatic Charlie has documentaries about ancient visitors from been kicked out of various educational instiouter space who helped advance mankind’s tutions, when all he really wants is to be the knowledge centuries ago. Well made and most popular kid in school; he finally gets filled with many natural beauties. Based on his wish by becoming an all-purpose shrink Erich Von Daniken’s book. [G] ▼●쩠 to his fellow students. He also falls in love Charley and the Angel (1973) C-93m. with the daughter of the school principal ★★1 (Downey), who’s got plenty of problems of ⁄2 D: Vincent McEveety. Fred MacMurray, Cloris Leachman, Harry Morgan, his own. Offbeat comedy with serious underKurt Russell, Vincent Van Patten, Kathtones wanders all over the map but benefits leen Cody. MacMurray learns he has only from Downey’s offbeat characterization and a short time left on earth from helpful Yelchin’s appealing performance. [R]쩠 angel (Morgan) and changes his hard ways Charlie Bubbles (1968-British) C-91m. ★★1 with family. Lightly amusing Disney film, ⁄2 D: Albert Finney. Albert Finney, Colin but the warmth and nostalgia seem artifiBlakely, Billie Whitelaw, Liza Minnelli. Fincial this time around. [G]▼ ney’s first directing attempt concerns itself Charley One-Eye (1973) C-107m. ★★ D: with married writer who begins affair with Don Chaffey. Richard Roundtree, Roy his secretary. Not especially moving, but Thinnes, Nigel Davenport, Jill Pearson. Minnelli’s screen debut adds quite a bit of Basically two-man show. Black Union Army sparkle to film. deserter (Roundtree) and outcast Indian Charlie Chan series SEE: Leonard Mal(Thinnes) thrown together in desert wastetin’s Classic Movie Guide land; gradual tragic relationship develops Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon when outside forces interfere. Far too long; Queen (1981) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Clive Donshould’ve been a TV movie. [R] ner. Peter Ustinov, Lee Grant, Angie Dick1 ★★ Charley’s Aunt (1941) 81m. ⁄2 D: Arinson, Richard Hatch, Brian Keith, Michelle [ 234 ]

Pfeiffer, Roddy McDowall, Rachel Roberts, Adams, Ned Beatty, Emily Blunt, Om Puri, Paul Ryan, Johnny Sekka. Boring comedy Ken Stott, John Slattery, Denis O’Hare, Jud wastes its talented cast. Ustinov is badly Tylor. Womanizer and high-living Texas miscast, gives one of the worst performances Congressman Wilson (Hanks) is the least of his career. Hatch is his clumsy halflikely man in Washington, D.C., to chamJewish, half-Oriental grandson. Paging pion the cause of the Afghan people versus Warner Oland. [PG]▼쩠 the Soviet Army in the 1980s. But using Charlie’s Angels (2000) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: the same bravado with which he lives his McG (Joseph McGinty Nicol). Cameron reckless life, he cobbles together an amazDiaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, Bill Muring alliance sub rosa. Geopolitics has never ray, Tim Curry, Matt LeBlanc, Sam Rockbeen so entertaining, thanks to Nichols’ well, Kelly Lynch, Crispin Glover, LL Cool breezy pacing, Aaron Sorkin’s witty script, J, Luke Wilson, Tom Green; voice of John and pearly performances. Hoffman is perForsythe. Frothy, high-energy popcorn movie fect as a scruffy but dedicated CIA op. The based on the popular 1970s TV series about inevitable conclusion, however, is far from three smart, beautiful operatives who work for funny. Based on a true story and the bestan unseen boss at a detective agency. Great selling book by George Crile. [R]쩠 showcase for the sexy stars, but with nothing Charlotte Gray (2001-British-Australian) at its core, the fun starts to pall halfway C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gillian Armstrong. Cate through. Followed by a sequel. Super 35. Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, [PG-13]▼쩠 Rupert Penry-Jones, Anton Lesser, Ron Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle (2003) CCook, James Fleet. During WW2, a Scottish 111m. ★★ D: McG. Drew Barrymore, Camwoman volunteers to work undercover in eron Diaz, Lucy Liu, Demi Moore, Bernie France—in part, so she can locate her lover, an Mac, Crispin Glover, Justin Theroux, Robairman who was shot down. Once situated, she ert Patrick, Rodrigo Santoro, Shia LaBeouf, begins to understand the Resistance fighters’ Matt LeBlanc, Luke Wilson, John Cleese, feelings, especially after growing close to one Ja’net DuBois, Robert Forster, Eric Bogosian, fiery young man. Interesting, handsomely Carrie Fisher. The girls are back in action, made film never finds its true focus—and asks trying to track down a pair of informationus to accept English-speaking actors of all laden rings that could spell disaster in the nationalities as French. Blanchett is as comwrong hands. So much for story! The rest of pulsively watchable as ever. Based on a novel the movie consists of high-decibel but fragby Sebastian Faulks. [PG-13] ▼쩠 mented sequences of video-game–style action, Charlotte’s Web (1973) C-93m. ★★★ D: music, and eye candy, with a couple of extra Charles A. Nichols, Iwao Takamoto. Voices plot threads—one involving an Angel gone of Debbie Reynolds, Henry Gibson, Paul bad (Moore). Much ado about much ado, Lynde, Agnes Moorehead, Charles Nelson minus the freshness and martial-arts fun that Reilly; narrated by Rex Allen. Charming animade the first film entertaining. Many star mated feature based on E. B. White classic cameos dot the already busy landscape. Super of barnyard spider who befriends shy piglet. 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Above average for Hanna-Barbera cartoon Charlie’s Ghost Story (1994) C-88m. ★★ studio. Songs by Richard M. and Robert B. D: Anthony Edwards. Cheech Marin, AnSherman. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel in 2003. Remade in 2006. [G]▼●쩠 thony Edwards, Linda Fiorentino, Trenton Knight, Charles Rocket, J. T. Walsh, Daphne Charlotte’s Web (2006) C-97m. ★★★ D: Zuniga. Occasionally funny story of the ghost Gary Winick. Dakota Fanning, Kevin Anof explorer Coronado haunting people to get derson, Beau Bridges, Gary Basaraba, Siohis bones properly buried so he can finally bhan Fallon; voices of Julia Roberts, rest in peace. Actually, it’s a rather sad story Dominic Scott Kay, Robert Redford, Steve of child neglect. Archeologist/dad Edwards is Buscemi, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Ceso enthralled with his discovery of Coronadric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates, Reba do’s cave, he completely ignores his son, who McEntire, Thomas Haden Church, Andre´ is the target of the ‘‘haunting.’’ Fiorentino is Benjamin; narrated by Sam Shepard. Likable wasted in the thankless role of the family adaptation of E. B. White’s novel, blending maid. Based on a story by Mark Twain. Aka live actors with computer-animated creatures, CHARLIE’S GHOST: THE SECRET OF about a runt pig and the animals he meets in a barn. Charlotte, a spider, sets out to save him CORONADO. [PG]▼쩠 Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar (1968) Cfrom the butcher’s block by weaving words 75m. ★★1⁄2 No director credited. Narrated by into her web. Entertaining and well made, Rex Allen. Ron Brown, Brian Russell, Linda but it falls short when compared to the wellWallace, Jim Wilson. Average Disney animal loved book. [G]쩠 adventure-comedy about a friendly cougar Charly (1968) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ralph who lives in a lumber camp.▼쩠 Nelson. Cliff Robertson, Claire Bloom, Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) C-97m. Lilia Skala, Leon Janney, Dick Van Pat★★★1⁄2 D: Mike Nichols. Tom Hanks, Julia ten. Robertson won Oscar for fine work as Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy retarded man turned into super-brain in [ 235 ]

scientific experiment (a role he first tackcomedy is no LAST DETAIL, and has little led on TV’s U.S. Steel Hour in 1961). to recommend it, even for fans of t&a. Many Bloom is sympathetic caseworker who beof Hopper’s acting cronies appear in small comes attached to Charly. Based on Daniel roles, and Hopper himself turns up as a perKeyes’ Flowers for Algernon (and remade verted underwear salesman. [R]▼●쩠 for TV in 2000 under that title). First rate. Chasing Amy (1997) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Smith. Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Techniscope. [M/PG]▼●쩠 Charro! (1969) C-98m. BOMB D: Charles Adams, Jason Lee, Dwight Ewell, Jason Marquis Warren. Elvis Presley, Ina Balin, Mewes, Kevin Smith, Matt Damon, Casey Victor French, Lynn Kellogg, Barbara Affleck. Winning, original comedy-drama Werle, Paul Brinegar. Attempt to change about a comic book artist who lives with his Presley’s image by casting him in straight dour work partner—until he meets an attracWestern is total failure. Elvis sings only tive up-and-coming female artist with a dynaone song. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 mite personality. He’s seriously smitten—and Chase, The (1946) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur D. stays that way even after learning that she’s Ripley. Robert Cummings, Michele Morgan, gay. Writer-director Smith hits all the right Steve Cochran, Peter Lorre, Lloyd Corrigan, notes in this honest and appealing film, which Jack Holt, Don Wilson, James Westerfield. refuses to take the easy way out ( just like its Mildly diverting melodrama with luckless vet lead character) right to the end. Affleck and Cummings becoming involved with a ruthless Adams are perfect. Smith and Mewes reprise racketeer (well played by Cochran) and his their Silent Bob and Jay characters from CLERKS and MALLRATS. [R] ▼●쩠 melancholy wife (Morgan). Scripted by Philip Yordan, based on a book by Cornell WoolChasing Dreams (1982) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: rich. ▼쩠 Sean Roche, Therese Conte. David G. Chase, The (1966) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Brown, John Fife, Jim Shane, Matthew Penn. Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Clark, Lisa Kingston, Claudia Carroll, Redford, Angie Dickinson, Janice Rule, Kevin Costner. Hopelessly hokey soaper James Fox, Robert Duvall, E. G. Marshall, of insecure, self-conscious farmboy Brown, Miriam Hopkins, Martha Hyer. Intriguing, who ‘‘finds’’ himself by playing college unsubtle drama of how prison escape by local baseball. Of interest solely for early, brief boy (Redford) affects worthless Texas town appearance of Costner as Brown’s older, medical-student brother. [PG]▼ and its sheriff (Brando). Based on a novel by Horton Foote. Notorious for behind-theChasing Liberty (2004-U.S.-British) C110m. ★★ D: Andy Cadiff. Mandy Moore, scenes conflicts with director Penn, screenwriter Lillian Hellman, and producer Sam Matthew Goode, Jeremy Piven, Annabella Spiegel, it’s not surprising that finished prodSciorra, Caroline Goodall, Mark Harmon. uct misses the mark. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Teenage daughter of the President of the Chase, The (1994) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Adam United States yearns to break loose, and Rifkin. Charlie Sheen, Kristy Swanson, does just that during a trip to Europe. Little Henry Rollins, Josh Mostel, Wayne Grace, does she know that the guy who helps her Rocky Carroll, Miles Dougal, Ray Wise, escape from the Secret Service is in fact an Claudia Christian, Natalija Nogulich, Flea, agent himself. Starts out as what it should Anthony Kiedis, Cary Elwes, Cassian Elwes. have been, a cute romantic-comedy vehicle Falsely accused prison escapee is forced to for Moore in the ROMAN HOLIDAY kidnap the daughter of California’s version mode, but descends into tiresome predictof Donald Trump, setting off a movieability. Even location filming in Europe length pursuit by police and a TV news helidoesn’t add much. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 copter. Why bother? [PG-13]▼●쩠 Chasing Papi (2003) C-80m. ★★ D: Linda Chase a Crooked Shadow (1958-British) Mendoza. Roselyn Sanchez, Sofı´a Vergara, 87m. ★★★ D: Michael Anderson. Richard Jaci Velasquez, Eduardo Vera´stegui, Lisa Todd, Anne Baxter, Herbert Lom, AlexVidal, D. L. Hughley, Freddy Rodriguez, ander Knox. Heiress Baxter doubts her Maria Conchita Alonso, Pete Escovedo, Peter sanity when allegedly dead brother Todd Michael Escovedo, Sheila E. Innocuous appears to claim inheritance; exciting, Latin-flavored comedy about a handsome Hitchcock-like melodrama. advertising exec who has three women—in Chase for the Golden Needles, The SEE: three different cities—convinced they are his Golden Needles one and only. Then they all decide to drop in Chasers (1994) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Dennis on him unannounced. Silly storyline is played Hopper. Tom Berenger, Erika Eleniak, Wilwith gusto, but there’s scarcely a laugh in liam McNamara, Crispin Glover, Matthew sight. Paul Rodriguez appears unbilled. CoGlave, Dean Stockwell, Gary Busey, Seyproduced by Forest Whitaker. [PG]▼쩠 mour Cassel, Frederic Forrest, Marilu HenChastity (1969) C-83m. ★★ D: Alessio de ner. Two Navy men are assigned to Paola. Cher, Barbara London, Tom Nolan, prisoner-escort duty only to discover that Stephen Whittaker. Interesting story of girl the dangerous criminal they are escorting who takes to the highway to find life of her is—gulp!—a beautiful sexpot. Lowbrow own. Cher in solo acting debut is surpris[ 236 ]

ingly good. Sonny Bono wrote, produced, lips, Mark Umbers, Jsu Garcı´a, Matt Damon. and composed the music. [PG—originally Impressively shot but dramatically inert epic rated R]쩠 is the most elaborate of Soderbergh’s indie Chastity Belt, The SEE: On My Way to ‘‘experiments’’ (interspersed between his the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who . . . OCEANS movies). This dramatizes the sig1 ★ Chaˆteau, The (2002) C-92m. ⁄2 D: Jesse nificant contribution that Argentine Ernesto Peretz. Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Sylvie ‘‘Che’’ Guevara made to the late-’50s revoluTestud, Philippe Nahon, Donal Logue, Didier tion in Cuba, and his participation in a failed Flamand. Threadbare comedy, shot on digital Bolivian replication during the mid-1960s, video, about two American brothers—one culminating in his death. Part One of this white, one black—who bumble their way to two-parter has a narrative advantage because France to inspect a castle they’ve inherited. It it at least deals with political victory. turns out a household staff comes along with Throughout, the smaller moments of camarathe residence, and they don’t greet the new derie while battling outdoor elements ring owners with open arms, for a variety of reatruest, which isn’t a whole lot to say for a sons. Rudd’s obnoxious character goes a long movie running more than four hours. Despite way toward sinking this. [R]▼쩠 Del Toro’s apt casting in the lead, it’s the Chato’s Land (1972-Spanish-British) Ckind of grinder where, when the words ‘‘Day 302’’ are flashed onscreen, you turn to your 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Winner. Charles Bronson, Jack Palance, Richard Basehart, viewing companion and say, ‘‘That’s for Ralph Waite, Richard Jordan, Victor French. damned sure.’’ Part One (CHE: THE ARPosse seeks Indian Bronson in connection GENTINE) runs 134m.; Part Two (CHE: with marshal’s murder; usual quota of blood THE GUERRILLA), 135m. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 in lengthy film. [PG]▼쩠 Chattahoochee (1990) C-98m. ★★ D: Mick Cheap Detective, The (1978) C-92m. ★★★ Jackson. Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, D: Robert Moore. Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Frances McDormand, Pamela Reed, Ned Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard ChanBeatty, M. Emmet Walsh, William De Acutis, ning, James Coco, Dom DeLuise, Louise Lee Wilkof, Matt Craven, Gary Klar. EnerFletcher, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, vatingly straightforward account of man Fernando Lamas, Marsha Mason, Phil Sil(Oldman) whose mental breakdown (actually vers, Vic Tayback, Abe Vigoda, Paul Wilpost-Korea combat stress) wrongfully landed liams, Nicol Williamson, David Ogden him in a Karloff-caliber Florida institution. Stiers. For Neil Simon and Peter Falk to parStandard ‘‘reform’’ drama—though based on ody Bogart movies like MALTESE FALfact—with Hopper’s role (as a fellow patient) CON is an easy task, but it’s still pretty funny a glorified cameo; McDormand and Reed do when not resorting to the obvious. Panaviall right as, respectively, Oldman’s wife and sion. [PG]▼●쩠 crusading sister. [R] ▼●쩠 Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) C-85m. ★★★ Chattanooga Choo Choo (1984) C-102m. D: Walter Lang. Clifton Webb, Myrna ★★ D: Bruce Bilson. Barbara Eden, George Loy, Jeanne Crain, Mildred Natwick, Edgar Kennedy, Melissa Sue Anderson, Joe NaBuchanan. Charming turn-of-the-century story math, Bridget Hanley, Clu Gulager, Christoof the Gilbreth children, 12 strong, their exactpher McDonald, Davis Roberts, Tony Azito, ing father (well played by Webb) and mother Parley Baer. In order to collect inheritance, (Loy). From the Gilbreth-Carey novel. Loosely goofball Kennedy must restore the famous remade in 2003. Sequel: BELLES ON THEIR TOES. ▼쩠 train and make one final 24-hour run from Pennsylvania Station. Spirited cast in a sitcomCheaper by the Dozen (2003) C-98m. ★★★ level script. Rubber-limbed Azito is amazing D: Shawn Levy. Steve Martin, Bonnie as waiter who’s never dropped a tray. [PG]▼ Hunt, Piper Perabo, Hilary Duff, Tom WelChavez: Inside the Coup SEE: Revolution ling, Richard Jenkins, Kevin G. Schmidt, Will Not Be Televised, The Alyson Stoner, Jacob Smith, Liliana Mumy, Che! (1969) C-96m. BOMB D: Richard Morgan York, Forrest Landis, Alan Ruck, Fleischer. Omar Sharif, Jack Palance, Cesare Vanessa Bell Calloway. Martin and Hunt Danova, Robert Loggia, Woody Strode. are happy, harried parents of 12 kids until a Comic-book treatment of famed revolutionmajor move and career changes (a football ary became one of the biggest film jokes of coaching job at his alma mater for him, an 1960s. However, you haven’t lived until you extended book-promotion tour for her) see Palance play Fidel Castro. Panavision. throw the family asunder. Cute family com[PG]▼ edy, with predictable slapstick moments, is Che (2008-U.S.-Spanish-French) C-269m. strengthened by Martin and Hunt’s perfor★★ D: Steven Soderbergh. Benicio Del Toro, mances as genuinely loving parents. AlDemia´n Bichir, Elvira Mı´nguez, Rodrigo though officially a remake, it has nothing to Santoro, Santiago Cabrera, Jorge Perugorrı´a, do with the 1950 film or the book that inJulia Ormond, Yul Va´zquez, Catalina Sanspired it. Ashton Kutcher appears unbilled. dino Moreno, Joaquim de Almeida, Franka Followed by a sequel. [PG] ▼쩠 Potente, Sam Robards, Lou Diamond PhilCheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005) C-93m. [ 237 ]

★1

⁄2 D: Adam Shankman. Steve Martin, which offers only sporadic laughs. Look for Bonnie Hunt, Tom Welling, Eugene Levy, Phil Hartman and Rita Wilson in bits. Carmen Electra, Piper Perabo, Jaime King, [R]▼●쩠 Hilary Duff, Taylor Lautner, Alyson Stoner. Cheech & Chong’s Nice Dreams (1981) Depressing sequel to the box-office hit finds C-89m. ★★ D: Thomas Chong. Cheech the Bakers returning to the vacation spot of Marin, Thomas Chong, Evelyn Guerrero, their youth, where dad Martin gets into a Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman), Stacy competitive spat with wealthy Levy. Once Keach, Dr. Timothy Leary, Sandra Bernagain, a comic known for his rapier wit is hard. Episodic, generally below par C&C reduced to Z-list slapstick (e.g., taking falls comedy finds them as owners of an icechasing rodents). A far more compelling if cream truck that fronts for more lucrative unexplored movie was right under the filmgrass trade. Some hilarity involving a sexumakers’ eyes: Levy’s courtship of wife ally jealous biker; Guerrero once again an apt comic foil. [R] ▼●쩠 Electra (surprisingly, a leveling influence here). Panavision. [PG]쩠 Cheech & Chong’s The Corsican Brothers Cheaper to Keep Her (1980) C-92m. (1984) C-90m. BOMB D: Thomas Chong. BOMB D: Ken Annakin. Mac Davis, Tovah Cheech Marin, Thomas Chong, Roy Dotrice, Feldshuh, Art Metrano, Ian McShane, PrisShelby Fiddis, Rikki Marin, Edie McClurg, cilla Lopez, Rose Marie, Jack Gilford, J. Rae Dawn Chong, Robbi Chong. The boys Pat O’Malley. Detective Davis is hired by (in three roles each) and their families (in one lawyer Feldshuh to check out McShane role each) star in their first non-drug (but still and Gilford, who have been lax in their tasteless) comedy, an inept parody which alimony checks. Sexist, racist, and obseems all the more empty because of its magnoxious. [R]▼ nificent French locations. Staggeringly unCheatin’ Hearts (1993) C-90m. ★★ D: Rod funny even by C&C standards; the previews McCall. Sally Kirkland, James Brolin, Kris for START THE REVOLUTION WITHKristofferson, Pamela Gidley, Laura JohnOUT ME have more laughs. [PG]▼●쩠 son, Michael Moore, Renee Estevez. Very Cheetah (1989) C-84m. ★★★ D: Jeff Blyth. ordinary love story set in New Mexico, inKeith Coogan, Lucy Deakins, Collin Mothvolving romantic relationships in a sleepy litupi, Timothy Landfield, Breon Gorman, tle town. Stars are all attractive, but story is Ka Vundia, Kuldeep Bhakoo. Two Southern just too thin to hold much interest. Kirkland California kids join their parents for several and Brolin executive produced. [R]▼쩠 months in Kenya, make friends with a young Checkered Flag or Crash (1977) C-95m. Masai, and adopt an orphaned cheetah, which ★★ D: Alan Gibson. Joe Don Baker, Susan they raise as a pet. Simple storyline is aimed Sarandon, Larry Hagman, Alan Vint, squarely at kids, but it’s believable and enterParnelli Jones, Logan Clark. A 1,000 mile offtaining and teaches good lessons about tolerroad race in the Philippines is the focal point ance and respect for the wild. A Disney of this unmemorable programmer; for car-acrelease. [G]▼●쩠 tion fans only. Panavision. [PG] Chef in Love, A (1996-French-Russian) Checking Out (1989-U.S.-British) C-96m. C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nana Djordjadze. Pierre ★1⁄2 D: David Leland. Jeff Daniels, Melanie Richard, Nino Kirtadze, Micheline Presle, Mayron, Michael Tucker, Kathleen York, Timur Kamkhadze, Jean-Yves Gautier, Ann Magnuson, Allan Havey, Jo Harvey Ramaz Chkhikvadze, Danielle Darrieux. Allen, Felton Perry, Alan Wolfe. When DanYet another film which equates food with iels’ best friend dies of a heart attack he sudlove and sex. Richard, a fabled French chef, denly turns into a raging hypochondriac, comes to live in Georgia just before the convinced the same thing will happen to him. Russian Revolution, where he romances a After 90m. of this overblown black comedy princess (Kirtadze) and opens a restaurant; you pray that it will. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 his life is irrevocably altered upon the arCheck Is in the Mail, The (1986) C-91m. rival of the Red Army. Despite some ★★ D: Joan Darling. Brian Dennehy, Anne mouth-watering scenery (and food), the reArcher, Hallie Todd, Chris Herbert, Misult is annoyingly uneven. [PG-13]▼ chael Bowen, Nita Talbot, Dick Shawn. Chelsea Walls (2002) C-112m. ★★ D: Ethan Ineffectual comedy about a beleaguered Hawke. Kevin Corrigan, Rosario Dawson, family man who decides to beat the system Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Sean Leonard, by making his home self-sufficient. EpiKris Kristofferson, Natasha Richardson, Little sodic, slow-paced film wears out its someJimmy Scott, John Seitz, Uma Thurman, Mark times likable ingredients. [R]▼ Weber, Tuesday Weld, Steve Zahn, Harris Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie (1980) Yulin, Guillermo Diaz, Frank Whaley, Marisa Tomei, Christopher Walken. Impressionistic C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Thomas Chong. Cheech Marin, Thomas Chong, Evelyn Guerrero, ode to N.Y.C.’s fabled Chelsea Hotel and the Betty Kennedy, Sy Kramer, Rikki Marin. ghosts of tortured artistic souls like Dylan After an auspicious debut in UP IN SMOKE, Thomas who affect the current inhabitants— the pothead, put-on comic duo go serifrom a newly arrived Midwestern folksinger ously awry in this crude, incoherent film, to a booze-ridden novelist who can’t get his [ 238 ]

act together. Not uninteresting as a mood Baker, Karl Malden, Dolores Del Rio, Sal piece, with some good performances, but Mineo, Edward G. Robinson, James Stewart, unenlightening and fatally slow moving. Ricardo Montalban, Gilbert Roland, Arthur Hawke’s feature directing debut. [R]▼쩠 Kennedy, Patrick Wayne, Elizabeth Allen, Cherish (2002) C-102m. ★★★ D: Finn TayVictor Jory, John Carradine, Mike Mazurki, lor. Robin Tunney, Tim Blake Nelson, Nora John Qualen, George O’Brien. Sprawling, Dunn, Brad Hunt, Lindsay Crouse, Liz uneven, but entertaining John Ford Western Phair, Jason Priestley. Offbeat story of a (his last) about Cheyenne Indian tribe and its misfit who’s victimized by a stalker and eventful journey back to original settlement then involved in an accident that lands her after being relocated by the government. Diin jail—but her ‘‘prison’’ is an apartment, rector Ford’s last film in Monument Valley. where an electronic device chained to her Dodge City sequence (with Stewart as Wyatt ankle restricts her movement. In time, the Earp) was cut after premiere engagements; deputy who maintains the device becomes restored to 154m. on video. Super Panavision her only friend. Fresh, original thriller set in 70. ▼●쩠 San Francisco from writer-director Taylor, Cheyenne Social Club, The (1970) Canchored by Tunney’s strong, appealing 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gene Kelly. Henry Fonda, performance. [R] ▼쩠 James Stewart, Shirley Jones, Sue Ane Cherry Orchard, The (1999-Greek-French) Langdon, Elaine Devry. Jimmy inherits C-141m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Cacoyannis. Charand runs a bawdy house in the Old West. lotte Rampling, Alan Bates, Katrin Cartlidge, Lots of laughs, but cliche´s run throughout. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Owen Teale, Tushka Bergen, Xander Berkeley, Gerald Butler, Andrew Howard, MelaCheyenne Warrior (1994) C-86m. ★★★ D: nie Lynskey, Ian McNeice, Frances De La Mark Griffiths. Kelly Preston, Pato HoffTour, Michael Gough. Melancholy, muted mann, Bo Hopkins, Rick Dean, Clint Howard, adaptation of Chekhov classic about a onceCharles Powell, Dan Clark, Winterhawk, Dan prosperous Russian family’s struggle to Haggerty. Modest but engrossing Western cope with the imminent sale of their estate character study about the growing bond beand the beloved title orchard. Made with tween a proud Indian warrior and a naive care and well acted, but not quite effective white woman who loses her husband while as either a film or as an ‘‘opened-up’’ play. heading west in the 1800s. Well cast and Adapted by the director. Released in the well written (by Michael B. Druxman). U.S. in 2002.▼쩠 [PG]▼쩠 Cherry 2000 (1988) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve Chicago (2002) C-113m. ★★★ D: Rob MarDeJarnatt. Melanie Griffith, Ben Johnson, shall. Rene´e Zellweger, Catherine ZetaHarry Carey, Jr., David Andrews, Tim Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, John Thomerson, Pamela Gidley, Jennifer Mayo. C. Reilly, Christine Baranski, Lucy Liu, Post-MAD MAX adventure about a feTaye Diggs, Colm Feore, Dominic West. male mercenary hired to bust into a 21stDitzy Roxie Hart (Zellweger) shoots a man, century robot warehouse operated by psychos then hires the slickest lawyer in Chicago to in what used to be the American Southrepresent her so she’ll become a media star west. Derivative, but a bit more fun than like her idol, nightclub performer Velma its limited theatrical release might lead you Kelly. Entertaining film version of the Bob to believe; Johnson and Carey are worth Fosse–John Kander–Fred Ebb Broadway their combined weights in audience goodshow treats the musical moments as figwill. Filmed in 1986. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ments of Roxie’s imagination, contrasted Chesty Anderson, USN (1976) C-88m. ★★ D: against the dark reality of her life. Some Ed Forsyth. Shari Eubank, Rosanne Katon, quibbles: director Marshall hammers across Dorri Thomson, Marcie Barkin, Timothy every song as if it’s the closing number and Carey, Scatman Crothers, Frank Campanella, uses music-video–style cutting to the point Fred Willard, Betty Thomas. Sexploitation of distraction. The stars are good, but Zetacomedy about female naval recruits is so Jones reveals her experience as a musical timid that it keeps its lovely cast clothed even performer and provides the knockout punch. during physical exams! Retitled ANDERStory filmed before in 1927 and as ROXIE HART. Chita Rivera, of the original BroadSON’S ANGELS for TV. [R]▼쩠 Chevy Van SEE: Van, The (1976) way cast, has a cameo. Oscar winner for Cheyenne (1947) 100m. ★★ D: Raoul Best Picture, Supporting Actress (ZetaWalsh. Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, Janis Jones), Costume Design (Colleen Atwood), Paige, Bruce Bennett, Alan Hale, Arthur Art Direction, Film Editing, and Sound. [PG-13]▼쩠 Kennedy, Barton MacLane. Standard Western as gambler attempts to capture outlaw— Chicago Deadline (1949) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: instead spends time with outlaw’s wife. Lewis Allen. Alan Ladd, Donna Reed, Later a TV series. Retitled THE WYOMJune Havoc, Irene Hervey, Arthur KenneING KID. dy, Shepperd Strudwick. Potentially topCheyenne Autumn (1964) C-145m. ★★★ notch actioner bogs down in cliche´s, with D: John Ford. Richard Widmark, Carroll Ladd as crusading reporter in corruption[ 239 ]

filled city. Remade as FAME IS THE Chicken Run (2000-British-U.S.) C-84m. ★★★ NAME OF THE GAME. D: Peter Lord, Nick Park. Voices of Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990Mel Gibson, Julia Sawalha, Miranda RichBritish) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bernard Rose. ardson, Jane Horrocks, Lynn Ferguson, ImKiefer Sutherland, Emily Lloyd, Patsy Kenelda Staunton, Timothy Spall. Endearingly sit, Keith Allen, Liz Fraser, Alexandra Pigg, loopy stop-motion animated feature from Ralph Nossek, Colin Bruce, John Lahr. Yank the Oscar-winning creators of Wallace and soldier-hood Sutherland, stationed in London Gromit. The setting is a British barnyard during WW2, joins a self-deluded British tart where the chickens are determined to escape (Lloyd) in committing petty crimes that escatheir fate and literally fly the coop. Amusing late into murder. Famed British tabloid fodfor adults on one level (with a number of der gets the low-budget ‘‘period’’ treatment. savvy references to old POW movies) and Mildly interesting account never quite gels, just plain fun for kids. [G]▼쩠 though some of the violence offers surprisChief Crazy Horse (1955) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 ingly stylized jolts. Lloyd is a lot more interD: George Sherman. Victor Mature, Suzan esting than her costar here. [R]▼●쩠 Ball, John Lund, Ray Danton, Keith Larsen, Chicago 10 (2008) C-110m. ★★★ D: Brett Paul Guilfoyle, David Janssen, Dennis Morgen. Voices of Hank Azaria, Dylan Weaver. Intelligent if slow-moving Western Baker, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Nick with Mature perfectly cast as the proud, ideNolte, Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright, alistic Sioux chief who unites the Indian James Urbaniak. Unique documentary aptribes (and defeats Custer at Little Big proach to the tumultuous events of 1968 Horn). CinemaScope. when radical groups amassed in Chicago to Chikamatsu Monogatari SEE: Crucified protest the status quo, and the war in VietLovers, The nam, during the Democratic National Child, The SEE: L’Enfant Convention . . . contrasted with animated Childish Things SEE: Confessions of Tom renderings of the trial and its instigators Harris (taken verbatim from court transcripts), which Child Is Born, A (1939) 79m. ★★★ D: became theater of the absurd. Without narraLloyd Bacon. Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jeffrey tion, talking-head interviews, period music, or Lynn, Gladys George, Gale Page, Spring very much contextual material, this narrowly Byington, Eve Arden. Smooth, touching refocused film provides an emotional, empamake of LIFE BEGINS about everyday life thetic, and immediate portrait of a seminal in maternity ward, involving prisoner Fitzevent in American history. [R]쩠 gerald sent to hospital to have her child. Chicken Chronicles, The (1977) C-95m. Child Is Waiting, A (1963) 102m. ★★★ D: ★1 John Cassavetes. Burt Lancaster, Judy Gar⁄2 D: Francis Simon. Steven Guttenberg, Ed Lauter, Lisa Reeves, Meridith Baer, land, Gena Rowlands, Steven Hill, Bruce Branscombe Richmond, Gino Baffa, Phil Ritchey. Poignant story of Lancaster’s atSilvers. Lowjinks of a high school senior, tempts to treat retarded children with the help circa 1969, whose principal preoccupation of overly sympathetic Garland. Sensitive subis bedding the girl of his dreams. Guttenject handled with honesty and candor.▼● berg’s film debut. [PG]▼ Child of Satan SEE: To The Devil— Chicken Every Sunday (1948) 91m. ★★1⁄2 A Daughter D: George Seaton. Dan Dailey, Celeste Children, The (1990-British-West GerHolm, Colleen Townsend, Alan Young, man) C-115m. ★★ D: Tony Palmer. Ben Natalie Wood. Easygoing turn-of-theKingsley, Kim Novak, Siri Neal, Geralcentury Americana about get-rich-quick dine Chaplin, Joe Don Baker, Britt Ekland, schemer Dailey and understanding wife Holm. Donald Sinden, Karen Black, Robert SteChicken Little (2005) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: phens, Rupert Graves. Kingsley’s plans to Mark Dindal. Voices of Zach Braff, Garry marry recently widowed Novak are thrown Marshall, Joan Cusack, Steve Zahn, Amy askew by his involvement with the illSedaris, Don Knotts, Harry Shearer, Patrick cared-for children of an old college friend Stewart, Wallace Shawn, Fred Willard, . . . and his gradual infatuation with the Catherine O’Hara, Adam West, Patrick Wareldest teenage daughter. Based on an Edith burton. No one in the idyllic suburban town Wharton novel filmed in 1929 as THE of Oakey Oaks will let plucky young Chicken MARRIAGE PLAYGROUND. Kingsley Little forget the time he said the sky was and Novak are excellent, but film is irritatfalling; they’re certainly not going to believe ing and slow, with tiresome use of steadihim when he sees it happening again. Irresistcam. Filmed in Venice and Switzerland.▼ ible underdog hero and an amusing ensemble Children of a Lesser God (1986) C-110m. ★★★ D: Randa Haines. William Hurt, Marlee (our favorite: Fish Out of Water) draw you in, but the story goes askew. Likely to please Matlin, Piper Laurie, Philip Bosco, Alison younger kids. This is the Disney studio’s first Gompf, John F. Cleary, John Basinger. New completely computer-generated cartoon feateacher at school for the deaf is intrigued by ture. 3-D theatrical version contains one addian obviously intelligent but isolated young tional scene after closing credits. [G]쩠 woman who works there as a janitor. The [ 240 ]

warmth of Hurt’s performance, and the creditumble theatrical troupe in 19th-century bility of Matlin’s, shine through this moving France. Barrault plays the mime whose unfuland unusual love story . . . though it lacks the filled passion for free-spirited Arletty domiedge and bite of Mark Medoff’s play, on nates his life, even as he achieves great fame which it’s based. An impressive feature-film on stage. Wise, witty, and completely captidirecting debut for Haines. Matlin, also makvating. Written by Jacques Pre´vert. Filming ing her film debut, won an Oscar. Filmed in began in 1943 in Nazi-occupied France, but wasn’t completed until 1945.▼●쩠 New Brunswick. [R]▼●쩠 Children of Heaven (1997-Iranian) CChildren of Sanchez, The (1978-U.S.Mexican) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Hall Bartlett. 88m. ★★★ D: Majid Majidi. Amir Naji, Mir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahareh Seddigi, NafiAnthony Quinn, Dolores Del Rio, Melanie seh Jafar Mohammadi, Fereshteh Sarabandi. Farrar, Katy Jurado, Stathis Giallelis, LuPoignant story of a young boy trying to recia Mendez, Duncan Quinn. Quinn is a widplace his sister’s newly repaired pink shoes. owed Mexico City worker who has several This became Iran’s first Oscar contender for common-law wives, and refuses to show Best Foreign Language Film, and deservedly affection for his children. Well-meaning so. Simple tale shows the importance of look at the folly of machismo, but it’s family, perseverance and honor, as we folleaden-paced and often excruciating. Chuck low an eight-year-old’s seemingly impossiMangione’s popular pop-jazz score too often seems to belong to another film. [R]▼쩠 ble quest to make up for his single misdeed. Well worth watching for children and adults Children of Theatre Street, The (1977) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Dornhelm, Earle alike. [PG]▼쩠 Children of Huang Shi, The (2008-U.S.Mack. Narrated by Princess Grace (Grace Chinese-Australian-German) C-125m. ★★ D: Kelly). Outstanding documentary about Roger Spottiswoode. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Leningrad’s famed Kirov Ballet School, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat, David Wenamong whose graduates are Baryshnikov, Nuham, Michelle Yeoh, Guang Li. Situated in reyev, Balanchine, and Nijinsky. The focus is Shanghai during Japan’s invasion of China, a on a trio of students, and the rigorous training young Oxford-educated journalist (Rhys they undergo. A must for balletomanes, and Meyers) manages to coerce his way into the especially recommended as an introduction to forbidden area, the strife-ridden city of Nanjthe art of ballet for children. [G]▼쩠 ing, where he experiences the war up close. Children of the Corn (1984) C-93m. ★1⁄2 Reluctantly seeking refuge in an all-butD: Fritz Kiersch. Peter Horton, Linda forgotten, dilapidated children’s orphanage Hamilton, R. G. Armstrong, John Franklin, moves his life in an unexpected direction. Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger. Laughable Spotty recounting of British journalist George adaptation of Stephen King short-short story Hogg’s true experiences. Even a good cast about young couple who stumble onto Iowa can’t raise the temperature of what should town that’s been taken over by sinister have been a heartwarming tale. Super 35. juvenile cultists—and then, like all stupid [R]쩠 couples in movies like this, fail to get out Children of Men (2006-U.S.-British) Cwhile the getting is good. Pretty tacky. Followed by six sequels. [R]▼●쩠 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alfonso Cuaro´n. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Children of the Corn II—The Final Sacrifice (1993) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: David F. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, ClareHope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, Danny Huston, Price. Terence Knox, Paul Scherrer, RoPeter Mullan. Riveting look at the year salind Allen, Christie Clark, Ned Romero. 2027: women are sterile, and England is a Barely based on the Stephen King story. Once bleak, Fascistic society. Onetime political again, the kids of an isolated Nebraska farmactivist Owen finds himself involved in a ing community are killing the adults and noresistance movement again because of a girl body knows why. Nobody knows the reason who has miraculously become pregnant. for this movie’s existence either. Followed by Visceral action and chase scenes (incredibly five more ‘‘sequels’’! [R]▼● shot by Emmanuel Lubezki) give us a real Children of the Damned (1964-British) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anton Leader. Ian Hendry, sense of being hunted, as Owen becomes an Everyman hero on the run. Caine adds some Alan Badel, Barbara Ferris, Patrick White, light moments as an aging hippie who’s manBessie Love. Follow-up to VILLAGE OF aged to survive in his own hideaway comTHE DAMNED suffers from unimaginapound. Based on a novel by P. D. James, tive account of precocious deadly children adapted by Cuaro´n, Timothy J. Sexton, David and their quest for power.▼●쩠 Arata, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby. [R]쩠 Children of the Night (1992) C-92m. ★1⁄2 Children of Paradise (1945-French) 195m. D: Tony Randel. Karen Black, Peter DeLu★★★★ D: Marcel Carne ´. Jean-Louis Barrault, ise, Ami Dolenz, Evan MacKenzie, Maya Arletty, Pierre Brasseur, Albert Remy, Maria McLaughlin, Josette DiCarlo, David SawCasare´s, Leon Larive, Marcel Herrand, Pierre yer, Garrett Morris. Vampires take over a Renoir. Timeless masterpiece of filmmaking small town in this low-rent variation on SA(and storytelling), focusing on a rough-andLEM’S LOT. Peculiar deviation from vam[ 241 ]

pire mythology—they sleep underwater 1988 antics, affected youngster begins with their lungs floating on the surface—is boarding with foster parents. Agutter and the only novelty, unless you count the Graham ought to be anyone’s couple-ofhighly variable acting. [R]▼쩠 the-month, but the film is utterly worthless Children of the Revolution (1996-Austrauntil the finale: 15 minutes of doll-factory ★★1 lian) C-101m. yuck (with a particular nod to conveyor ⁄2 D: Peter Duncan. Judy Davis, Sam Neill, F. Murray Abraham, belts); its unexpected stylishness saves this Geoffrey Rush, Richard Roxburgh, Rachel d.o.a. from a BOMB rating. [R]▼●쩠 Griffiths, Russell Kiefel, John Gaden. FerChild’s Play 3 (1991) C-90m. BOMB D: vent Stalinist (Davis) ends up secretly pregJack Bender. Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves, nant with the famed leader’s son, then Jeremy Sylvers, Peter Haskell, Dakin Matwatches as he grows up mirroring his fathews, Andrew Robinson, voice of Brad ther’s revolutionary behavior. Australian Dourif. It’s been eight years since Chucky black comedy tackles the collapse of commufirst terrorized young Andy Barclay (Whalin), nism blending humor and tragedy, fact and and now the kid is a screwed-up loner of fiction, but the pacing is uneven and the satire 16 in a military school; to make things often heavy-handed. Worth seeing for two worse, the prez of the Play Pals Toy Comknockout performances, from the always relipany is about to put the ‘‘C’’ doll back into able Davis and from Griffiths, as her policeproduction. An amusement park finale is woman daughter-in-law. [R] ▼●쩠 desperately contrived, even by the stanChildren Shouldn’t Play With Dead dards of this junk. Followed by BRIDE OF CHUCKY. [R]▼●쩠 Things (1972) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Benjamin (Bob) Clark. Alan Ormsby, Anya Ormsby, Chill Factor (1999) C-101m. ★★ D: Hugh Valerie Mauches, Jane Daly, Jeffrey Gillen. Johnson. Cuba Gooding, Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Young, kinky movie-makers take over a Peter Firth, David Paymer, Hudson Leick, rural graveyard and unwittingly resurrect Daniel Hugh Kelly, Kevin J. O’Connor. the evil dead. Weird. [PG]▼●쩠 Convenience store clerk Ulrich and ice Children’s Hour, The (1961) 107m. ★★1⁄2 cream truck driver Gooding reluctantly D: William Wyler. Audrey Hepburn, Shirteam up to keep an explosive, safe as long ley MacLaine, James Garner, Miriam Hopas it’s cold, from falling into the hands of kins, Fay Bainter, Karen Balkin, Veronica terrorist Firth. Routine, predictable action Cartwright. Updated version of Lillian Hellmovie helped by the likable (if miscast) man’s play is more explicit in its various leads. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 themes, including lesbianism, than origiChilly Scenes of Winter SEE: Head Over nal THESE THREE (also made by Wyler), Heels (1979) but not half as good. Impact is missing, Chimes at Midnight (1966-Spanish-Swiss) despite MacLaine and Hepburn as two 115m. ★★★ D: Orson Welles. Orson Welles, teachers, Hopkins as meddling aunt, Bainter Jeanne Moreau, Margaret Rutherford, John as questioning grandmother.▼●쩠 Gielgud, Marina Vlady, Keith Baxter; nar1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Child’s Play (1972) C-100m. rated by Ralph Richardson. Welles comSidney Lumet. James Mason, Robert Presbined parts of five Shakespeare plays with ton, Beau Bridges, Ronald Weyand, Charles mixed results, with his own portrayal of White, David Rounds, Kate Harrington, Falstaff the most interesting aspect. Well Jamie Alexander. Well-acted but somber cast, but limited budget hurt the effort. and confusing account of rivalry between Aka FALSTAFF.▼ Catholic school professors Mason and PresChina (1943) 79m. ★★ D: John Farrow. ton, and the seemingly senseless acts of Loretta Young, Alan Ladd, William Bendix, violence perpetrated by some of their stuPhilip Ahn, Iris Wong, Sen Yung. Pat dents. From the Robert Marasco play. [PG] wartime tale of mercenary Ladd who sudChild’s Play (1988) C-87m. ★★★ D: Tom denly realizes his true allegiance while Holland. Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, helping enemy.▼ Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Dinah Manoff, China Doll (1958) 88m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank Tommy Swerdlow, Jack Colvin. Scary and Borzage. Victor Mature, Li Li Hua, Bob clever horror thriller in which only young VinMathias, Stuart Whitman. Bizarre storycent knows his new Chucky doll is really a line can’t boost dull film of Air Force pilot monster, possessed with the spirit of dead murMature accidentally buying Asian wife derer Dourif. His mom (Hicks) and the cop on whom he grows to love. Romantic story the case (Sarandon) finally believe him but not with WW2 backdrop from John Wayne’s before two deaths. Sleeper hit packs a wallop, Batjac unit.쩠 with excellent special effects bringing the doll China Gate (1957) 97m. ★★★ D: Samuel Fuller. Gene Barry, Angie Dickinson, Nat to life. Followed by four sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Child’s Play 2 (1990) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: King Cole, Paul Dubov, Lee Van Cleef, John Lafia. Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, George Givot, Marcel Dalio. International Gerrit Graham, Christine Elise, Grace soldiers under French command attack Zabriskie, Peter Haskell, Beth Grant, voice Communist munitions dumps in Indochiof Brad Dourif. Traumatized by Chucky’s na. Interesting subplots flesh out Fuller’s [ 242 ]

dynamic action story, with early view of dedicated plant exec. Screenplay by Mike Gray, T.S. Cook, and Bridges. [PG]▼●쩠 Vietnam’s internal strife. CinemaScope.▼ Chinatown (1974) C-131m. ★★★★ D: RoChina Girl (1942) 95m. ★★ D: Henry man Polanski. Jack Nicholson, Faye DunHathaway. Gene Tierney, George Montaway, John Huston, Perry Lopez, John gomery, Lynn Bari, Victor McLaglen, Sig Hillerman, Roy Jenson, Dick Bakalyan, Joe Ruman, Bobby (Robert) Blake, Ann PenMantell, Bruce Glover, James Hong, Noble nington, Philip Ahn. American photograWillingham, Burt Young. Bizarre, fascinatpher in mysterious Orient during WW2 is ing mystery in the Hammett-Chandler tradibackground for unbelievable adventure yarn; tion (and set in the 1930s) with Nicholson Bari best item in film. 1 ★★ as L.A. private eye led into a complex, volaChina Girl (1987) C-88m. ⁄2 D: Abel Fertile case by femme fatale Dunaway. Direcrara. James Russo, Richard Panebianco, Sari tor Polanski appears briefly as the hood who Chang, David Caruso, Russell Wong. Atmoknifes Nicholson. Oscar for Best Original spheric romantic thriller about warring ChiScreenplay (Robert Towne). Sequel: THE nese and Italian youth gangs in N.Y.C., with TWO JAKES. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Panebianco and Chang as star-crossed lovers. Chinchero SEE: Last Movie, The Director Ferrara provides tremendous energy Chinese Box (1997-Japanese-French-U.S.) and some over-the-top violence. [R]▼● C-100m. ★★ D: Wayne Wang. Jeremy China Moon (1994) C-99m. ★★ D: John Irons, Gong Li, Maggie Cheung, Michael Bailey. Ed Harris, Madeleine Stowe, Hui, Ruben Blades. Murky drama set in the Charles Dance, Benicio Del Toro, Pruitt final six months of Great Britain’s rule over Taylor Vince, Roger Aaron Brown, Patricia Hong Kong, with the smell of change in the Healy. Small-town cop Harris lusts after unair as China prepares to take over. Irons happily married Stowe in this moody film plays a jaded journalist whose own life is at noir. A couple of neat twists, but production a crossroads. Li is not well showcased in is more than a bit reminiscent of (the supeher first English-language film, as a woman rior) BODY HEAT—down to the Florida ‘‘with a past’’ whom Irons adores but canlocale. Directorial debut for Bailey, better not have. Heavy-handed allegory was conknown as a top cinematographer (ORDIceived by Wang, Paul Theroux, and JeanNARY PEOPLE, IN THE LINE OF FIRE). Claude Carrie`re. [R]▼●쩠 Filmed in 1991. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Chinese Coffee (2001) C-99m. ★★ D: Al ★★1 ⁄2 China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) C-102m. Pacino. Al Pacino, Jerry Orbach, Susan D: Monte Hellman. Warren Oates, Fabio Floyd, Ellen McElduff. Chamber piece, Testi, Jenny Agutter, Sam Peckinpah. Slugclearly based on a play (by Ira Lewis) about gish, mythicized Western in which raila pair of N.Y.C. artists, losers with a symbiroad barons save a man from gallows in otic relationship who spend a long night exchange for killing former gunfighter; talking over their failures and resentments. gunfighter’s wife falls for killer and helps If you’re a fan of the two actors, you’ll do his dirty work. Title refers to signpost savor their performances, but as a film it giving distance to two nearby towns. Video never takes off. Lewis adapted his play. title: GUNFIRE. Technovision. [R]▼쩠 Shot in 1997. [R]쩠 ★★★ China Seas (1935) 90m. D: Tay Chinese Connection, The (1972-Hong Garnett. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, WalKong) C-107m. ★★★ D: Lo Wei. Bruce lace Beery, Lewis Stone, Rosalind RusLee, Miao Ker Hsiu, James Tien, Robert sell, Dudley Digges, Robert Benchley, C. Baker. Violent Kung Fu film has Lee in Aubrey Smith, Hattie McDaniel. ImpossiShanghai in early 1900s seeking vengeance ble to dislike film with that cast, even if on the murderers of his teacher. Graceful, the story—about mysterious goings-on and powerful, humorous, and charismatic; Lee at relationships on Gable’s Singapore-bound his best. Original title: FIST OF FURY. Aka ship—is ludicrous. Also shown in computerTHE IRON HAND. Shawscope. [R] ▼●쩠 colored version.▼●쩠 Chinese Roulette (1976-German) C-86m. ★★★ China Syndrome, The (1979) C-123m. D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Margit ★★★★ D: James Bridges. Jane Fonda, Jack Carstensen, Ulli Lommel, Anna Karina, Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, Macha Meril, Brigitte Mira, Andrea Schober, James Hampton, Peter Donat, Wilford Volker Spengler. Intense, biting comedy Brimley, James Karen. Heartpounding about a disabled girl (Schober), who plots to drama about attempted cover-up of accihave her parents and their lovers visit a coundent at California nuclear plant is as much try house on the same weekend. Perceptive— a probe of television news as it is a story of but potentially off-putting—film is recomnuclear power— and it scores bullseye on mended mainly for Fassbinder fans.▼●쩠 both fronts. There is no music score; story Chino (1973-Italian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: John tension propels film by itself, along with Sturges. Charles Bronson, Jill Ireland, Vinsolid performances by Fonda as TV reporter, cent Van Patten, Marcel Bozzuffi, Fausto Douglas (who also produced film) as radiTozzi, Melissa Chimenti. Offbeat Western cal cameraman, and especially Lemmon as that barely received theatrical release here [ 243 ]

in 1976; Bronson plays halfbreed whose THE GUARDSMAN. Eddy and Stevens are attempts to maintain his horse ranch in husband-wife opera stars; to test her fidelity, peace are short-lived. Aka THE VALDEZ he disguises himself as a Cossack and woos HORSES. [PG]▼쩠 her. Much too talky, and not enough music; Chisum (1970) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew remade as LILY IN LOVE.▼ V. McLaglen. John Wayne, Geoffrey Chocolate War, The (1988) C-103m. ★★★ Deuel, Forrest Tucker, Christopher George, D: Keith Gordon. John Glover, Ilan MitBen Johnson, Glenn Corbett, Bruce Cabot, chell-Smith, Wally Ward, Bud Cort, Adam Patric Knowles, Lynda Day, Richard Jaeckel. Baldwin, Jenny Wright, Doug Hutchinson. Wayne is the real-life cattle baron of the title, A Catholic boys school is divided by a but takes a back seat to Billy the Kid (Deuel) power struggle between an idealistic stuin this routine but handsome Western. It’s dent and a dictatorial acting headmaster, about the efforts of good ranchers like as each tries to deal with The Vigils, a Wayne and Knowles to prevent the takeover secret society of schoolboys out for conof Lincoln County, New Mexico, by corrupt trol. Chilling and impressive, well directed Tucker. One of very few Wayne Westerns on a low budget by actor Gordon, who based on historical events. Panavision. also adapted Robert Cormier’s novel. Glover is wonderfully wicked. [R]▼●쩠 [G]▼●쩠 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) C-142m. Choice of Arms (1981-French) C-117m. ★1 ★★★ ⁄2 D: Ken Hughes. Dick Van Dyke, Sally D: Alain Corneau. Yves Montand, CathAnn Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Frobe, erine Deneuve, Ge´rard Depardieu, Michel Anna Quayle, Benny Hill. Children’s muGalabru, Gerard Lanvin. Well-directed drama sical about flying car is one big Edsel about retired gangster Montand forced into itself, with totally forgettable score and antagonistic relationship with young punk Desome of the shoddiest special effects ever. pardieu, leading to reciprocal violence. DeLoosely based on book by Ian Fleming. spite hostility, both men come to understand Later adapted for the stage. Super Panahow similar they are. Good performances by vision 70. [G]▼●쩠 excellent cast, especially Depardieu. Original Chloe in the Afternoon (1972-French) French running time 135m. Panavision.▼ C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Bernard Choice of Weapons SEE: Dirty Knight’s Verley, Zouzou, Francoise Verley, Daniel Work Choices (1981) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Silvio Ceccaldi. No. 6 of Rohmer’s ‘‘Six Moral Tales’’ depicts married man’s fascination Narizzano. Paul Carafotes, Victor French, with kooky girl during daylight hours. As Lelia Goldoni, Val Avery, Dennis Patrick, Chloe, Zouzou becomes more alluring as Demi Moore, Billy Moses, Pat Buttram. film unwinds. Remade in the U.S. in 2007 Partially deaf teenager Carafotes becomes as I THINK I LOVE MY WIFE. [R]▼●쩠 alienated when prevented from playing footChocolat (1988-French-German-Camaroon) ball because of his handicap. Well-inC-105m. ★★★ D: Claire Denis. Isaach de tentioned but obvious drama is helped by Bankole´, Giulia Boschi, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Ce´fine performances. Moore’s film debut.▼쩠 cile Ducasse, Jean-Claude Adelin, Jacques Choirboys, The (1977) C-119m. BOMB Denis, Mireille Perrier. Subtle, slowly paced D: Robert Aldrich. Charles Durning, Louis slice-of-life about a young woman’s memoGossett, Jr., Perry King, Clyde Kusatsu, Steries of her childhood in French West Africa, phen Macht, Tim McIntire, Randy Quaid, where whites are masters and most blacks are Chuck Sacci, Don Stroud, James Woods, Burt servants. This very personal, autobiographical Young, Robert Webber, Jeanie Bell, Blair film (which first-time director Denis coBrown, Michele Carey, Charles Haid, Joe scripted) is quietly rewarding. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Kapp, Barbara Rhoades, Jim Davis, Phyllis Chocolat (2000) C-121m. ★★ D: Lasse Davis, Jack DeLeon, David Spielberg, Vic Hallstro¨m. Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Tayback, Michael Wills, George DiCenzo. Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Supposedly comic escapades of L.A. cops Peter Stormare, Carrie-Anne Moss, Leslie who relieve work pressures by raunchy doCaron, John Wood, Hugh O’Conor, Victoire ings. Foul-mouthed, foul-minded, heavyThivisol. A French village is virtually frozen handed film from book by Joseph Wamin time and kept that way by its conservative baugh, who disavowed this turkey. [R]▼ leading citizen (Molina). Into this rigid comChoke (2008) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clark Gregg. munity come a chocolatier (Binoche) and her Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly Macdaughter, whose free-spirited ways and temptdonald, Brad William Henke, Clark Gregg, ing delicacies turn the town on its ear. Meant Bijou Phillips, Gillian Jacobs, Jonah Bobo, to be charming but hopelessly contrived, in Paz de la Huerta, Viola Harris, Joel Grey. spite of a fine cast. [PG-13]▼쩠 Rockwell is perfect as the protagonist of Chocolate Soldier, The (1941) 102m. ★★ D: Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, a lifelong con Roy Del Ruth. Nelson Eddy, Rise Stevens, man trying to deal with sex addiction while Nigel Bruce, Florence Bates, Dorothy Gilcaring for his mother, who’s in a mental more, Nydia Westman. Not the Oscar Straus hospital. Disconnected from society, he desoperetta, but rather a remake of Molnar’s perately needs to know who his father was. [ 244 ]

Darkly funny, extreme but inconsistent, this Chop Shop (2008) C-84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: may appeal most to Palahniuk’s faithful readRamin Bahrani. Alejandro Polanco, Isamar ers. First-time director Gregg also adapted Gonzales, Carlos Zapata, Ahmad Razvi, the book and appears as Rockwell’s priggish Rob Sowulski. Remarkably naturalistic boss. [R]쩠 look at Alejandro (or ‘‘Ale’’), a self-reliant, ★★1 Choke Canyon (1986) C-94m. street-smart Latino boy who works at (and ⁄2 D: Chuck Bail. Stephen Collins, Janet Julian, lives in) an auto-body repair shop in Lance Henriksen, Bo Svenson, Victoria RacQueens, N.Y. He persuades his older sister imo, Nicholas Pryor. Fun sci-fi about stubborn to join him there, hoping to pry her away cowboy physicist (!) who fights off corrupt from the bad influence of her friends and industrialist’s henchmen, trying to protect the give her a goal to reach for: the purchase of environment against nuclear waste dumping a food van they can operate together. Bahon the eve of Halley’s Comet’s visit near rani (MAN PUSH CART), cowriter BaEarth. Terrific aerial stuntwork. Widescreen. hareh Azimi, and cinematographer Michael [PG]▼ Simmonds create a modern-day equivalent C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Don of 1940s neorealist gems like OPEN CITY Chaffey. Wesley Eure, Valerie Bertinelli, Conand BICYCLE THIEVES in this striking— rad Bain, Chuck McCann, Red Buttons, Larry and heartbreaking—film.쩠 Bishop, Hermione Baddeley, Jim Backus. CarChorus, The SEE: Les Choristes Chorus Line, A (1985) C-113m. ★★ D: toon-makers Hanna & Barbera struck out with this Disneyesque comedy about a young inRichard Attenborough. Michael Douglas, Terventor (Eure) and his mechanical dog. Origirence Mann, Alyson Reed, Cameron English, nally rated PG for mild profanities voiced by Vicki Frederick, Audrey Landers, Gregg another dog in the film—then redubbed for Burge, Nicole Fosse, Janet Jones. Auditionees kids’ sake. Title is acronym for Canine for Broadway chorus line reveal their innerHOMe Protection System. [G]▼쩠 most thoughts and emotions in song and Choose Me (1984) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan dance before a hard-boiled director (Douglas). Rudolph. Genevieve Bujold, Keith Carradine, Thoroughly uninspired, unmemorable filming Lesley Ann Warren, Rae Dawn Chong, Patof the landmark Broadway musical; watchrick Bauchau, John Larroquette, John Considable, especially if you never saw the play, but ine. Outrageously inventive tale of the various what can you say about a musical in which all relationships, truths, and lies that link radio the singing and all the dancing is mediocre? sex-talk-show hostess Bujold, bar owner WarAnd the show’s biggest number, ‘‘What I Did ren, and mental hospital escapee Carradine, for Love,’’ is treated as a throwaway! Super among others. This comedy-drama about the 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 different roles that people play in life is a real Chorus of Disapproval, A (1988-British) kick, with a wonderful from-midnight-tillC-100m. ★★ D: Michael Winner. Jeremy dawn feel and good performances by all. Irons, Anthony Hopkins, Prunella Scales, Evocative use of L.A. locations and Teddy Sylvia Syms, Lionel Jeffries, Gareth Hunt, Pendergrass songs. A companion piece to Patsy Kensit, Alexandra Pigg, Jenny SeaRudolph’s WELCOME TO L.A. and REgrove. Shy, simple-minded widower moves MEMBER MY NAME. [R]▼●쩠 to a seaside town and joins an amateur Chopper (2000-Australian) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 theatrical troupe, in which romantic intrigues D: Andrew Dominik. Eric Bana, Simon abound. Some pearly performances (especiLyndon, Kenny Graham, Kate Beahan. Fically Hopkins, as the director, and Scales, as tionalized bio of Australian criminal Mark his wife) can’t overcome the slightness of ‘‘Chopper’’ Read, who kills at the slightest the material and its faltering execution. provocation and mutilates himself, yet someAdapted from Alan Ayckbourn’s play by how becomes a cult hero. Stomach-churning the author and Winner. [PG]▼● violence might make you steer clear, but Chosen, The (1978-Italian-British) C-105m. there’s no denying the chilling lead perforBOMB D: Alberto De Martino. Kirk Dougmance by Bana. Features the nastiest earlas, Agostina Belli, Simon Ward, Anthony slicing since RESERVOIR DOGS.▼쩠 Quayle, Virginia McKenna, Alexander Chopping Mall (1986) C-76m. ★1⁄2 D: Knox. Nuclear power exec Douglas slowly Jim Wynorski. Kelli Maroney, Tony realizes that his son (Ward) is the AntiO’Dell, John Terlesky, Russell Todd, Paul christ, who plans to use nuclear power to Bartel, Mary Woronov, Dick Miller, Karrie bring on world destruction. There! We just Emerson, Barbara Crampton, Suzee Slater, saved you 105 minutes. Originally titled Gerrit Graham, Mel Welles. Eight teenagers HOLOCAUST 2000. Technovision. [PG]▼ are trapped overnight in a shopping mall Chosen, The (1981) C-108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: where three malfunctioning guard robots go Jeremy Paul Kagan. Maximilian Schell, on a killing spree. Endless injokes and Rod Steiger, Robby Benson, Barry Miller, cameo roles (including Bartel and Woronov Hildy Brooks, Ron Rifkin, Val Avery. in their EATING RAOUL characters) fail Excellent adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel, to save a story that lapses into cliche´s. Origcentering on friendship between Americaninally titled: KILLBOTS. [R]▼쩠 ized Jew Miller and Hassidic Benson. [ 245 ]

Steiger, as Benson’s rabbi father, gives his Lockhart makes her screen debut. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 best performance in years, and even Robby isn’t bad. Set in 1940s Brooklyn; later Christmas Carol, A (1951-British) 86m. ★★★★ made into a Broadway musical. [PG]▼쩠 D: Brian Desmond-Hurst. Alastair Chosen Survivors (1974) C-99m. ★★ D: Sim, Jack Warner, Kathleen Harrison, Sutton Roley. Jackie Cooper, Alex Cord, Mervyn Johns, Hermione Baddeley, ClifRichard Jaeckel, Bradford Dillman, Pedro ford Mollison, Michael Hordern, George Armendariz, Jr., Diana Muldaur, Barbara Cole, Carol Marsh, Miles Malleson, ErBabcock. Good cast in formula nonsense nest Thesiger, Hattie Jacques, Peter Bull, about group of people ‘‘selected’’ to survive Hugh Dempster. Superb film is too good future holocaust in underground shelter. Just to be shown only at Christmastime; always one hitch: the shelter is invaded by vampire delightful Sim makes Scrooge a threebats. Dialogue and characterizations from dimensional character in this faithful, heartgrade-Z movies of the past. [PG]쩠 warming rendition of the Dickens classic. Christiane F. (1981-German) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 Screenplay by Noel Langley. Patrick D: Ulrich Edel. Nadja Brunkhorst, Thomas Macnee plays young Marley. Original BritHaustein, Jens Kuphal, Reiner Wolk. Grim, ish title: SCROOGE. Also shown in comgruesome account of bored teenager Brunkputer-colored version. ▼●쩠 horst falling in with crowd of junkie-hustler Christmas Eve (1947) 90m. ★1⁄2 D: Edwin Haustein. Well meaning but uneven; based L. Marin. George Brent, George Raft, on a true story. Features unmemorable Randolph Scott, Joan Blondell, Virginia David Bowie concert sequence. [R]▼쩠 Field, Ann Harding, Reginald Denny. SlowChristian Licorice Store, The (1971) moving mixture of comedy and drama as C-90m. ★★ D: James Frawley. Beau Bridges, foster sons discover evil intentions of relaMaud Adams, Gilbert Roland, Anne Rantions to victimize Harding. Retitled: SINdall, Allen Arbus, McLean Stevenson. NER’S HOLIDAY. Quirky, dated comic study of tennis player Christmas Evil SEE: You Better Watch Out Bridges looking for meaning in life. Loads Christmas Holiday (1944) 92m. ★★★ D: of cameos, including directors Jean Renoir, Robert Siodmak. Deanna Durbin, Gene Monte Hellman, Theodore J. Flicker, and Kelly, Gale Sondergaard, Gladys George, James B. Harris. Filmed in 1969. [PG] Richard Whorf. Somerset Maugham novel Christian the Lion (1976-British) C-89m. reset in America. Crime story with Durbin ★★1 ⁄2 D: Bill Travers, James Hill. Bill gone wrong to help killer-hubby Kelly; Travers, Virginia McKenna, George Adamsongs include ‘‘Spring Will Be a Little son, Anthony Bourke. Pleasant docudrama Late This Year.’’ about the efforts of BORN FREE stars—and Christmas in Connecticut (1945) 101m. ★★1 real-life wildlife expert George Adamson, ⁄2 D: Peter Godfrey. Barbara Stanwyck, whom Travers portrayed in earlier film—to Dennis Morgan, Sydney Greenstreet, Regireturn a lion born in London Zoo to its native nald Gardiner, S. Z. Sakall, Robert Shayne, habitat in Kenya. Expanded from 1971’s Una O’Connor. Airy fluff with Stanwyck, a THE LION AT WORLD’S END. [G]▼ chic magazine writer who’s supposed to be an Christine (1983) C-111m. ★★ D: John expert homemaker, forced to entertain a war Carpenter. Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, veteran (Morgan) and her boss (Greenstreet) Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean for the holidays. Standard studio corn it may Stanton, Christine Belford, Roberts Blossom, be, but a wonderful treat for late-night viewKelly Preston. Stephen King bestseller ing on Christmas Eve. Remade for cable TV about a ’58 Plymouth with demonic powers in 1992. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 never hits bull’s-eye, despite a promising start that captures teenage life quite nicely. Christmas in July (1940) 67m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Preston Sturges. Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, Christine Jorgensen Story, The (1970) Raymond Walburn, William Demarest, ErC-89m. BOMB D: Irving Rapper. John Hannest Truex, Franklin Pangborn. Top Sturges sen, Joan Tompkins, Quinn Redeker, John comedy about Powell going on shopping W. Hines, Ellen Clark. Ludicrous biograspree after mistakenly believing he has phy of famed 50s phenomenon is not exwon big contest. Walburn and Demarest are at their best.▼●쩠 actly an in-depth study; one problem is that actor Hansen looks more masculine as Christmas Story, A (1983) C-93m. ★★★★ female Christine and vice versa. [R] D: Bob Clark. Peter Billingsley, Darren McChristmas Carol, A (1938) 69m. ★★★ D: Gavin, Melinda Dillon, Ian Petrella, Scott Edwin L. Marin. Reginald Owen, Gene Schwartz, Tedde Moore. Humorist Jean ShepLockhart, Kathleen Lockhart, Terry Kilburn, herd’s delightful memoir of growing up in the Barry MacKay, Lynne Carver, Leo G. Car1940s and wanting nothing so much as a Red roll, Ann Rutherford. Nicely done adaptation Ryder BB gun for Christmas. Shepherd narof Dickens’ classic with Owen a well-modrates in the first person, and Billingsley portrays ulated Scrooge, surrounded by good MGM him (delightfully) as a boy. Truly funny for players and period settings. Young June kids and grown-ups alike; wonderful period [ 246 ]

flavor. Based on a portion of In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. Shepherd appears unbilled as a department store customer. Followed by IT RUNS IN MY FAMILY. [PG]

Sofaer. Stark, slowly paced biography of explorer, with earnest portrayal by March in title role; good period setting.▼● Christopher Columbus—the Discovery (1992-U.S.-Spanish) C-120m. BOMB D: ▼●쩠 Christmas Tale, A (2008-French) CJohn Glen. Marlon Brando, Tom Selleck, George Corraface, Rachel Ward, Robert 152m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Arnaud Desplechin. Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon, MaDavi, Benicio Del Toro, Catherine Zeta thieu Amalric, Anne Consigny, Melvil Jones, Oliver Cotton, Mathieu Carriere, Poupaud, Hippolyte Girardot, Emmanuelle Nigel Terry. ‘‘In nineteen-hundred-andDevos, Chiara Mastroianni. The matriarch ninety-two, Columbus sailed two screen of a large, rambunctious family has conboo-boos.’’ Corraface plays the explorer in tracted a rare disease and needs a bonethis one, which beat 1492: CONQUEST OF marrow transplant; this lies heavily over the PARADISE to the big screen, bringing an clan’s Christmas reunion, the first one that infectious smile and notably heavy beard folliblack sheep Amalric has been permitted to cles to an extremely complex historical charattend in a long time, because he may be the acter. Brando has a cameo as Spanish likeliest donor. A celebration of our contraInquisitor Tomas de Torquemada (his dullest dictions and complexities as human beings, performance since DESIREE), while Selleck and how they affect the family dynamic. dresses up as King Ferdinand—the guy with Deneuve’s real-life daughter Mastroianni three ships and a lady. Not ripe for rediscovery. Panavision. [PG-13]▼● plays her unwelcome daughter-in-law. Eclectic music score ranges from MendelsChristopher Strong (1933) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: sohn to Mingus; it shouldn’t work but Dorothy Arzner. Katharine Hepburn, Colin somehow (like everything else in this film) Clive, Billie Burke, Helen Chandler, Jack it does. Written by Desplechin and EmmanLaRue. Hepburn’s an aviatrix in love with uel Bourdieu. Super 35.쩠 married Clive. Dated film intriguing for star’s Christmas That Almost Wasn’t, The performance as headstrong, individualistic woman—and dig that silver lame´ costume. (1966-Italian-U.S.) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Rossano Margaret Lindsay appears unbilled. ▼●쩠 Brazzi. Rossano Brazzi, Paul Tripp, Lidia Brazzi, Sonny Fox, Mischa Auer. Santa Christ Stopped at Eboli SEE: Eboli is threatened with eviction from the North Chrome Hearts SEE: C.C. and Company Pole in this substandard kiddie film. [G]▼쩠 Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The (2008) C-140m. ★★★ D: Andrew AdChristmas Tree, The (1969) 110m. ★1⁄2 D: Terence Young. William Holden, Virna amson. Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Lisi, Bourvil, Brook Fuller, Madeleine Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Ben Damien. Sappy tearjerker about relationBarnes, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis, Sership between young boy and his wealthy gio Castellitto, Vincent Grass, Alicia Borrachfather when the latter learns his son’s death ero, Tilda Swinton; voices of Liam Neeson, is imminent. Cast is divided between those Eddie Izzard. In the second installment of who overact and those who don’t seem to C. S. Lewis’ series, the Pevensie children— care one way or the other. Aka WHEN uncomfortable at home in England—are WOLVES CRY. [G]▼ transported once again to Narnia, but hunChristmas with the Kranks (2004) Cdreds of years have passed there, and the 98m. BOMB D: Joe Roth. Tim Allen, Jamie kingdom has suffered. They readily assume Lee Curtis, Dan Aykroyd, M. Emmet their roles as saviors and strike an uneasy Walsh, Elizabeth Franz, Erik Per Sullivan, alliance with Prince Caspian (newcomer Cheech Marin, Jake Busey, Austin PendleBarnes) of the Telmarines, whose uncle—a ton, Tom Poston, Julie Gonzalo, Felicity ruthless ruler—has tried to kill him. Solid Huffman. Noxious holiday movie in which storytelling, strong performances, and breathsuburbanites Luther and Nora Krank, whose taking scenery put this across, though it’s a daughter has joined the Peace Corps, decide dark tale, and the climactic battle scenes go to forgo celebrating Christmas and take a Caon at length. Super 35. [PG]쩠 ribbean cruise—which, according to their outChronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The raged neighbors, is positively un-American. Witch and The Wardrobe, The (2005) C139m. ★★★ D: Andrew Adamson. Georgie Alleged comedy pays homage to mediocrity, crass consumerism, and love-it-or-leave-it Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, conformity. Screenplay by Chris Columbus, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James based on John Grisham’s novel Skipping McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Kiran Shah, James Christmas. Panavision. [PG]쩠 Cosmo; voices of Liam Neeson, Ray WinChristopher Columbus (1949-British) stone, Dawn French, Rupert Everett. Faithful C-104m. ★★★ D: David Macdonald. Fredrendering of C. S. Lewis’ beloved book with ric March, Florence Eldridge, Francis L. a newly invented prologue: four children are Sullivan, Linden Travers, Kathleen Ryan, sent from London to a professor’s home in the Derek Bond, James Robertson Justice, Fecountry during WW2. The youngest, Lucy, lix Aylmer, Nora Swinburne, Abraham discovers a magic wardrobe that leads to a [ 247 ]

mystical land called Narnia. When she learns Ontiveros, Beth Colt, Paul Weitz, Maya Ruit has been taken over by a devious witch dolph, Mary Wigmore, Paul Sand. Buck (Swinton), she recruits her siblings to help (White), a 27-year-old who’s never matured, win the battle of good vs. evil. Much of this is is reunited with boyhood friend Chuck (Chris truly wondrous, though it does go on a bit and Weitz), and decides that they’re still best pals. the special effects are extremely variable. Still, But Chuck feels uneasy, especially with his an impressive and worthwhile family film. onetime friend’s near-stalker tactics. ExOscar winner for Best Makeup (Howard Bertremely offbeat but fascinating portrait of a ger, Tami Lane). Alternate version runs pest who simply won’t be ignored . . . and the 150m. Followed by a sequel. Super 35. [PG]쩠 reasons for his attachment. White also wrote Chronicles of Riddick, The (2004) Cthis perceptive film; costar Weitz and support119m. ★1⁄2 D: David Twohy. Vin Diesel, ing actor Paul Weitz are better known as Colm Feore, Thandie Newton, Judi Dench, screenwriters (AMERICAN PIE). [R]▼쩠 Karl Urban, Alexa Davalos, Linus Roache, Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll Yorick van Wageningen, Nick Chinlund, (1987) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Taylor Hackford. Keith David. Follow-up to the lean, mean Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, PITCH BLACK is a densely plotted, overRobert Cray, Etta James, Julian Lennon, produced action/sci-fi extravaganza, with DieLinda Ronstadt. Two delights in one: an sel as the escaped convict who attempts to overview of rock legend Chuck Berry’s ward off an invasion of planet Helion Prime career—sparked by interviews with Richby the Necromongers, led by the evil Lord ards, Clapton, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Marshal (Feore). Laden with a self-serious Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, Willie storyline and enormous computer-generated Dixon, Bruce Springsteen, and the subject settings and effects, it sinks under its own himself—and a climactic 60th birthday Berry weight. Unrated director’s cut runs 134m. Anconcert held in his hometown of St. Louis. imated DVD feature THE CHRONICLES Whitewashes Berry’s womanizing and early OF RIDDICK: DARK FURY bridges story 1960s jail term, but his hot temper is much between PITCH BLACK and this film. Super in evidence during some amusing skirmishes 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 with concert producer Richards. Worthy 1 ★ of its title . . . if slightly overlong. [PG]▼쩠 Chrystal (2004) C-107m. ⁄2 D: Ray McKinnon. Billy Bob Thornton, Lisa Blount, Chuck Norris Vs. The Karate Cop SEE: Ray McKinnon, Harry Lennix, Walton GogSlaughter in San Francisco gins, Grace Zabriskie, Johnny Galecki, Colin C.H.U.D. (1984) C-90m. BOMB D: DougFickes, Max Kasch, Harry Dean Stanton. A las Cheek. John Heard, Daniel Stern, Kim car crash left a little boy dead and his Greist, Brenda Currin, Justin Hall, Christomother physically and psychologically impher Curry, Michael O’Hare, Sam McMurray, paired. The father, who was responsible for Patricia Richardson, Raymond Baker, Peter the accident, returns home seeking salvation Michael Goetz, John Bedford Lloyd, John after many years in prison. Muddled, slowGoodman, Jay Thomas. That’s Cannibalistic as-molasses hogwash set in the Arkansas Humanoid Underground Dwellers, folks—a Ozarks; means to be insightful but more band of ragtag derelicts who come up to street often is dramatically incoherent. Written by level at night to munch on human flesh. Greist the director. [R]쩠 made this before BRAZIL—but what are Chubasco (1968) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allen Heard and Stern doing in this film? Grimy on H. Miner. Richard Egan, Christopher Jones, all levels. Followed by a sequel. [R] ▼●쩠 Susan Strasberg, Ann Sothern, Simon OakC.H.U.D. II—Bud the Chud (1989) C-84m. land, Audrey Totter, Preston Foster. Young BOMB D: David Irving. Brian Robbins, Bill man working on tuna boat gets along with Calvert, Gerrit Graham, Tricia Leigh Fisher, the skipper until he learns the boy has Robert Vaughn, Larry Cedar, Bianca Jagger, married his daughter; overlong but likLarry Linville, Jack Riley, Norman Fell, June able programmer. Jones and Strasberg were Lockhart. Teenagers swipe a corpse (Grathen married in real life. Panavision. ham), unaware that it is a cannibalistic CHUD Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981) that passes on its tendencies to anyone it bites. C-100m. BOMB D: David Lowell Rich. Comedy sequel to straight original is far Alan Arkin, Carol Burnett, Jack Warden, worse, but Graham is genuinely funny as the Danny Aiello, Adam Arkin, Danny Glovmonster. Script credited to ‘‘M. Kane er, Sid Haig, Ruth Buzzi, Vito Scotti, Lou Jeeves.’’ [R]▼● Jacobi. Maddeningly moronic comedy reChuka (1967) C-105m. ★★ D: Gordon volving around bum Arkin, show-biz failDouglas. Rod Taylor, John Mills, Ernest ure Burnett, and a briefcase filled with Borgnine, Luciana Paluzzi, James Whitsecret government papers. A low point in more, Angela Dorian, Louis Hayward. Good the careers of its stars; Burnett isn’t even cast is wasted in routine Western about funny in Carmen Miranda getup. Scripted grizzled gunfighter who tries to promote by Barbara Dana (Mrs. Arkin). [PG]▼ peace between Indians and some undisciChuck & Buck (2000) C-96m. ★★★ D: Miplined soldiers guarding nearby fort.▼쩠 guel Arteta. Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Chump at Oxford, A (1940) 63m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 248 ]

Alfred Goulding. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, leased in Japan in two parts, running 204m. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 Wilfred Lucas, Forrester Harvey, James Finlayson, Anita Garvin. So-called feature is more Ciao! Manhattan (1972) C/B&W-84m. ★★1 like a series of barely related shorts; film is ⁄2 D: John Palmer, David Weisman. Edie nearly half over before L&H even get to OxSedgwick, Wesley Hayes, Isabel Jewell, ford. Still quite funny, especially when they Jeff Briggs, Viva, Paul America, Brigid settle down in the Dean’s quarters. Peter CushBerlin, Baby Jane Holzer, Roger Vadim, ing plays one of the boys’ tormentors. Also Christian Marquand, Allen Ginsberg. Eerie, shown in computer-colored version. ▼● fascinating, muddled, and boring mishmash in Chumscrubber, The (2005) C-106m. ★★ D: which Sedgwick essentially plays herself, a Arie Posin. Jamie Bell, Camilla Belle, Justin strung-out ex-superstar model. Filming started Chatwin, Glenn Close, William Fichtner, and stopped in 1967, and resumed four years Ralph Fiennes, Allison Janney, Carrie-Anne later; Sedgwick died of a drug overdose Moss, Rita Wilson, Lou Taylor Pucci, Rory months after its completion. Aka EDIE IN Culkin, Caroline Goodall, John Heard, Jason CIAO! MANHATTAN. [R] ▼●쩠 Isaacs, Lauren Holly. Bell is excellent as a misCiao, Professore! (1992-Italian) C-91m. ★★ fit who goes even further into his shell when D: Lina Wertmuller. Paolo Villaggio, Isa his best friend commits suicide. One-note obDanieli, Gigio Morra, Sergio Solli, Esterina servation of life in the affluent suburban develCarloni, Paolo Bonacelli. A middle-aged elopment from hell, where teens are alienated ementary school teacher from an upperand overmedicated, parents self-absorbed and class section of Italy is mistakenly transclueless. Fine work from the adult cast, with ferred to a run-down school in a decaying Fiennes a standout as Wilson’s fiance´, who extown near Naples. Naturally, both he and periences an epiphany that no one can share or his students wind up learning a lot from comprehend. Super 35. [R]쩠 each other. Wertmuller’s attempt to comChungking Express (1994-Hong Kong) ment on her country’s educational system, C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wong Kar-Wai. Brigitte this Italian TO SIR, WITH LOVE is a Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung, Faye mostly labored lesson. [R]▼●쩠 Wang, Valerie Chow, ‘‘Piggy’’ Chan. Two Cider House Rules, The (1999) C-125m. ★★★★ D: Lasse Hallstrom. Tobey Maguire, tangentially related stories of lovesickness, ¨ obsession, and the peccadilloes of relationCharlize Theron, Michael Caine, Delroy ships in a modern world. The catalyst for Lindo, Paul Rudd, Kathy Baker, Jane Alexboth liaisons, involving young Hong Kong ander, Kieran Culkin, Erykah Badu, Kate policemen, is the proprietor of a fast-food Nelligan, Heavy D., K. Todd Freeman. Lovestablishment. Light, funny, and offbeat, ing adaptation of John Irving’s novel (by the though the second tale goes on far too long. author), telescoped from the sprawling story Quentin Tarantino’s Rolling Thunder comabout a boy raised in a Maine orphanage (and pany acquired this for U.S. release, and abortion clinic) by an eccentric doctor who many critics applauded its postmodern aptreats him like his own son—and begrudges proach and stylistics. [PG-13]▼●쩠 the boy’s decision to go out and see the world Chunhyang (2000-Korean) C-122m. ★★ D: once he comes of age in the 1940s. Well cast, Im Kwon Taek. Lee Hae Eun, Lee Hae beautifully crafted; filmed on perfect locations Ryong, Kim Hak Yong, Lee Hyo Jung, Cho throughout New England. Beautiful score by Seung Woo, Choi Jin Young. Grandly oldRachel Portman and cinematography by Olifashioned romantic epic about the son of a ver Stapleton. Oscar winner for Best Adapted wealthy governor who falls head over heels Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Caine). for the daughter of a courtesan and the reSuper 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 verberations of their secret marriage. Lush Cimarron (1931) 124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wesley cinematography distracts from the soggy Ruggles. Richard Dix, Irene Dunne, Esmelodrama. Film also uses a traditional telle Taylor, Nance O’Neil, William Colpansori (Korean opera singer) as narrator, lier, Jr., Roscoe Ates. Edna Ferber’s saga which can grate heavily on Western ears. about an American family and the effect of Proudly wears its heart on its sleeve but empire building on the American West, never engages our emotions. [R]▼쩠 1889–1929. Oscar winner for Best Picture Chushingura (1962-Japanese) C-108m. and Best Screenplay (Howard Estabrook), ★★★1 it dates badly, particularly Dix’s overripe ⁄2 D: Hiroshi Inagaki. Koshiro Matsumoto, Yuzo Kayama, Chusha Ichikawa, performance—but it’s still worth seeing. Remade in 1960.▼쩠 Toshiro Mifune, Yoko Tsukasa. Young lord Kayama is forced to commit hara kiri by Cimarron (1960) C-147m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ancorrupt feudal lord Ichikawa, and his 47 thony Mann. Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, samurai retainers (or ronin) seek vengeance. Anne Baxter, Arthur O’Connell, Russ TamA version of an oft-filmed story, based on a blyn, Mercedes McCambridge, Vic Morrow, real-life event: sprawling, episodic, exquiCharles McGraw, Henry (Harry) Morgan, sitely beautiful, if a bit slow. Sometimes Edgar Buchanan, Robert Keith, Aline Macreferred to as the GONE WITH THE Mahon, David Opatoshu, Mary Wickes. Edna WIND of Japanese cinema. Originally reFerber’s chronicle of frontier life in Oklahoma [ 249 ]

between 1889 and 1929 becomes an indiffergina King, Julie Gonzalo, Lin Shaye, ent sprawling soap opera unsalvaged by a few Madeline Zima, Andrea Avery, Mary Pat spectacular scenes. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Gleason, Paul Rodriguez, Whip Hubley, Cimarron Kid, The (1951) C-84m. ★★ D: Kevin Kilner, Art Le Fleur. Modern-day Budd Boetticher. Audie Murphy, Beverly Cinderella story set in the San Fernando ValTyler, James Best, Yvette Dugay, Hugh ley. An orphaned girl who acts as slavey to O’Brian, Rand Brooks. Uninspired forher oafish stepmother finds a soul mate onmula Western with Murphy in title role, line but doesn’t know his identity until the persuaded to give up his criminal life by night of a high school dance. Unfortunately, his sweetheart. 쩠 the story goes on from there. Duff and MurCincinnati Kid, The (1965) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 ray are likable, but the built-in predictability D: Norman Jewison. Steve McQueen, Annmakes this piece of puff a bore. Followed Margret, Edward G. Robinson, Karl Malby a direct-to-DVD sequel. [PG] ▼쩠 den, Tuesday Weld, Joan Blondell, Rip Cinderfella (1960) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Torn, Jack Weston, Cab Calloway. RovTashlin. Jerry Lewis, Ed Wynn, Judith ing card-sharks get together in New OrAnderson, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Henry leans for big poker game; side episodes of Silva, Count Basie. Jerry is the poor stepmeaningless romance. Robinson, Blondell, son turned into a handsome prince for a and Malden come off best as vivid members night by fairy godfather Wynn. Fairy tale of the playing profession. Script by Ring classic revamped as a pretentious Lewis Lardner, Jr., and Terry Southern; Jewison vehicle, with talky interludes and ineffectual musical sequences.▼쩠 replaced Sam Peckinpah as director.▼●쩠 Cinderella (1950) C-74m. ★★★1⁄2 D: WilCinema Paradiso (1988-Italian-French) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Giuseppe Tornatore. fred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi. Voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Salvatore Audley, Rhoda Williams, Lucille Bliss, Cascio, Mario Leonardi, Agnese Nano, LeoVerna Felton, Mike Douglas. One of Walt poldo Trieste. A young boy is mesmerized Disney’s best animated fairy tales spins the by the movie theater in his small Italian traditional story with some delightful comic town (in the years following WW2), and embellishments, including a couple of mice pursues a friendship with its crusty but warmnamed Gus and Jaq who befriend the puthearted projectionist. Captivating, bittersweet upon heroine. Tuneful score includes ‘‘A film, with a perfect finale; Noiret and the Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes’’ and boy (Cascio) are wonderful. Written by the ‘‘Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo.’’ Followed by two director. After abortive Italian release in 1988, DVD sequels. ▼●쩠 film was shortened and awarded a Special Cinderella Liberty (1973) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival; D: Mark Rydell. James Caan, Marsha it went on to win the Best Foreign Film Mason, Eli Wallach, Kirk Calloway, Burt Oscar. Reissued in 2002 at 174m. [PG] Young, Bruce Kirby, Jr. (Bruno Kirby), ▼●쩠 Allyn Ann McLerie, Dabney Coleman, Circle of Danger (1951-British) 86m. ★★1⁄2 Sally Kirkland. Sensitive, original story by D: Jacques Tourneur. Ray Milland, PatriDarryl Ponicsan (based on his novel) about cia Roc, Marius Goring, Hugh Sinclair. romance between simple, good-hearted Straightforward account of Milland returnsailor and a hooker with an illegitimate ing to England to ferret out brother’s killblack son. Artfully mixes romance and realers. ▼쩠 ism, with sterling performances by Caan Circle of Deceit (1981-French-German) and Mason. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 C-108m. ★★★★ D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Cinderella Man (2005) C-144m. ★★★ D: Bruno Ganz, Hanna Schygulla, Jean Carmet, Ron Howard. Russell Crowe, Rene´e ZellJerzy Skolimowski, Gila von Weitershausen. weger, Paul Giamatti, Craig Bierko, Paddy Thoughtful, chilling, unrelentingly sober Considine, Bruce McGill, Ron Canada, account of German journalist Ganz coverRosemarie DeWitt. Rousing true-life story ing a Lebanese civil war, focusing on how of boxer James J. Braddock, reduced to he is affected by his experiences and his working on loading docks to support his relationship with widow Schygulla. Actufamily during the Depression, then given a ally filmed in Beirut against a backdrop of second shot in the ring. Familiar underdog political turmoil; a superior film in every material pushes all the expected buttons, but respect. Originally shown as FALSE WITNESS. [R]▼쩠 is handled with skill and compassion. Colorful period detail and dynamic handling of Circle of Friends (1995-U.S.-Irish) Cboxing scenes, crowned by fine work from 96m. ★★★ D: Pat O’Connor. Chris O’DonCrowe as Braddock and, especially, Gianell, Minnie Driver, Geraldine O’Rawe, matti as his loyal trainer and manager. Saffron Burrows, Alan Cumming, Colin Firth, Aidan Gillen. Spirited and individualSuper 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ★★ Cinderella Story, A (2004) C-95m. istic young woman leaves her Irish village D: Mark Rosman. Hilary Duff, Jennifer Cooto attend university in Dublin and falls lidge, Chad Michael Murray, Dan Byrd, Remadly in love with a handsome lad. He [ 250 ]

loves her, too, but their relationship is imCircus World (1964) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: peded by chance and circumstance. Perhaps Henry Hathaway. John Wayne, Rita Haywmore ado than necessary for such a simple orth, Claudia Cardinale, John Smith, Lloyd tale, but still satisfying; anchored by DrivNolan, Richard Conte. Made in Spain, film er’s irresistible performance as Benny. has nothing new to offer, but rehashes usual Adapted from Maeve Binchy’s novel and circus formula quite nicely with the Duke as set in the 1950s. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Big Top boss trying to pull his three-ring wild Circle of Iron (1979) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: west show through various perils during EuroRichard Moore. David Carradine, Jeff Coopean tour. Climactic fire sequence is truly spectacular. Super Technirama 70.▼● per, Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach, Erica Creer, Christopher Lee. Strange, sometimes Cisco Pike (1972) C-94m. ★★★ D: B. L. silly, but watchable blend of martial arts Norton. Kris Kristofferson, Karen Black, action and Zen philosophy; from an idea conGene Hackman, Viva!, Roscoe Lee Browne, cocted by James Coburn and Bruce Lee. CooHarry Dean Stanton. Surprisingly good drama per (looking like a California surfer) must pass about crooked cop Hackman getting mixed rites of trial to find secret book of knowledge. up with drug dealing, and blackmailing Carradine plays four roles in this Stirling Silliex-rock star Kristofferson (among Kris’s songs is ‘‘Lovin’ Her Was Easier’’). [R]쩠 phant-scripted fantasy, filmed in Israel as THE SILENT FLUTE.[R]▼쩠 Citadel, The (1938-U.S.-British) 112m. ★★★1 Circle of Love (1964-French-Italian) C⁄2 D: King Vidor. Robert Donat, Ro105m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. Jane Fonda, salind Russell, Ralph Richardson, Rex Jean-Claude Brialy, Maurice Ronet, Jean Harrison, Emlyn Williams, Penelope DudSorel, Catherine Spaak, Anna Karina, Marie ley-Ward, Francis L. Sullivan. Superb adDubois, Claude Giraud, Franc¸oise Dorle´ac. aptation of A. J. Cronin novel of impoverUndistinguished remake of Ophuls’ classic ished doctor Donat eschewing ideals for LA RONDE: A seduces B, B makes love to wealthy life of treating rich hypochondriC, C has an affair with D—circling all the acs, neglecting wife and friends in the way back to A. Screenplay by Jean Anouilh; process; tragedy opens his eyes. Weak original running time: 110m. Franscope.▼쩠 ending, but fine acting makes up for it. 1 ★★ Circle of Power (1983) C-103m. Frank ‘‘Spig’’ Wead, Emlyn Williams, ⁄2 D: Bobby Roth. Yvette Mimieux, ChristoIan Dalrymple, Elizabeth Hill, and John pher Allport, Cindy Pickett, John Considine, Van Druten all contributed to the script. Julius Harris, Scott Marlowe, Fran Ryan, Remade in Britain as a TV miniseries.▼쩠 Walter Olkewicz, Danny Dayton, Denny Citizen Kane (1941) 119m. ★★★★ D: Orson Miller, Terence Knox. Intriguing—and Welles. Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Evdisquieting—tale of businessmen and their erett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead, Dorothy wives who undergo EDT (Executive DeComingore, Ray Collins, George Coulouris, velopment Training), which, as adminisRuth Warrick, William Alland, Paul Stewtered by Mimieux, turns out to be a art, Erskine Sanford. Welles’ first and horrifying and humiliating series of ritubest, a film that broke all the rules and als. Based on actual events, believe it or invented some new ones, with fascinating not. Originally released as MYSTIQUE; story of Hearst-like publisher’s rise to also known as BRAINWASH and THE power. The cinematography (by Gregg NAKED WEEKEND. [R]▼ Toland), music score (by Bernard HerrCircle of Two (1980-Canadian) C-105m. mann), and Oscar-winning screenplay (by ★★ Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz) are all D: Jules Dassin. Richard Burton, Tatum O’Neal, Nuala FitzGerald, Robin Gammell, first-rate. A stunning film in every way Patricia Collins, Kate Reid. Sixty-year. . . and Welles was only 25 when he old artist has romantic but platonic remade it! Incidentally, the reporter with a lationship with 16-year-old student. Burton pipe is Alan Ladd; Arthur O’Connell is is OK, and Dassin does not go for the another one of the reporters.▼●쩠 cheap thrill, but the result is slight and Citizen Ruth (1996) C-109m. ★★★ D: Alexforgettable. [PG]▼쩠 ander Payne. Laura Dern, Swoosie Kurtz, Circuit, The SEE: Pulse (2001) Mary Kay Place, Kurtwood Smith, Kelly Preston, M. C. Gainey, Kenneth Mars, Burt Circus, The (1928) 72m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Charles Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin, Merna Kennedy, Reynolds, Alicia Witt, Tippi Hedren, KathAllan Garcia, Betty Morrissey, Harry Crocleen Noone. Dern is a pregnant chemicalker. Not the ‘‘masterpiece’’ of THE GOLD inhaling homeless woman who inadverRUSH or CITY LIGHTS, but still a gem; tently becomes the center of a pro-life vs. story has Charlie accidentally joining travelpro-choice struggle over her unborn child. ing circus, falling in love with bareback A stinging satire of fanaticism, with many rider. Hilarious comedy, with memorable funny scenes, though it peters out a bit finale. Chaplin won a special Academy Award toward the end; well played by a devoted for ‘‘versatility and genius in writing, acting, cast. Diane Ladd has a raunchy unbilled directing and producing’’ this.▼●쩠 cameo. [R]▼●쩠 Circus of Fear SEE: Psycho-Circus Citizens Band SEE: Handle With Care [ 251 ]

City, The (1999) 88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Riker. Fernando Reyes, Marcos Martinez Garcia, Moises Garcia, Anthony Rivera, Cipriano Garcia. Striking neorealist-style film offers four vignettes about Latino immigrants and their struggle for survival in N.Y.C. Alternately poignant, amusing, and heartbreaking, these living portraits are enacted with a keen eye for detail and an overwhelming amount of empathy. Writerdirector Riker and cinematographer Harlan Bosmajian shot their film (in black & white) with non-professional actors over six years’ time. Aka LA CIUDAD.▼쩠 City Across the River (1949) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Maxwell Shane. Stephen McNally, Thelma Ritter, Luis Van Rooten, Jeff Corey, Anthony (Tony) Curtis, Richard Jaeckel. Watered-down version of Irving Shulman’s novel The Amboy Dukes, involving tough life in Brooklyn slums, with predictable hoods et al. City Beneath the Sea (1953) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Budd Boetticher. Robert Ryan, Mala Powers, Anthony Quinn, Suzan Ball, Woody Strode. Inconsequential underwater yarn invigorated by Ryan and Quinn as deep-sea divers hunting treasure off Jamaican coast. City by the Sea (2002) C-108m. ★★ D: Michael Caton-Jones. Robert De Niro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe, Patti LuPone, George Dzundza, Anson Mount, Drena De Niro, Leo Burmester. Dreary, derivative saga of a N.Y.C. cop who returns to his hometown, the once thriving, now desolate beachfront community of Long Beach, Long Island, where his long-estranged son may have committed murder. Tries to paint a tragic saga of fathers, sons, and lost opportunities, but too often rings hollow. Inspired by a true story. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 City for Conquest (1940) 101m. ★★★ D: Anatole Litvak. James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Frank Craven, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh, George Tobias, Elia Kazan, Anthony Quinn. Cagney makes this a must as boxer devoted to younger brother Kennedy. Beautiful production overshadows film’s pretentious faults. A rare chance to see young Kazan in an acting role, as a neighborhood pal turned gangster. Long-missing prologue was restored in 2006, bringing running time to 104m.

freshingly realistic, and even funny; a winner. City Hall (1996) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold Becker. Al Pacino, John Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Danny Aiello, Martin Landau, David Paymer, Anthony Franciosa, Richard Schiff, Lindsay Duncan, Nestor Serrano, Mel Winkler, Roberta Peters. N.Y.C. deputy mayor Cusack selflessly serves his mayor, a superb politician who really cares about his constituents. When a shootout involving a cop, a drug dealer, and an innocent child escalates into a citywide scandal, however, Cusack finds that the pathway to the truth is a political minefield. Snappy behind-the-scenes-of-urban-politics story pulls you in, then veers toward melodrama, with a finale that’s pretty hard to swallow. This was the work of a real-life deputy mayor, Ken Lipper, and no fewer than three top screenwriters (Bo Goldman, Paul Schrader, Nicholas Pileggi)! [R]▼●쩠 City Heat (1984) C-97m. ★★ D: Richard Benjamin. Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Jane Alexander, Madeline Kahn, Rip Torn, Irene Cara, Richard Roundtree, Tony Lo Bianco, William Sanderson, Robert Davi. Two macho stars do caricatures of themselves in this 1930s gangster/detective yarn that takes turns trying to be funny and serious (when they pour gasoline on a guy and set him on fire we’re apparently supposed to find it funny). For diehard fans of Clint and Burt only. [PG]▼●쩠 City Lights (1931) 86m. ★★★★ D: Charles Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin, Virginia Cherrill, Harry Myers, Hank Mann. Chaplin’s masterpiece tells story of his love for blind flower girl and his hot-and-cold friendship with a drunken millionaire. Eloquent, moving, and funny. One of the all-time greats.▼●쩠 City Limits (1985) C-85m. BOMB D: Aaron Lipstadt. Darrell Larson, John Stockwell, Kim Cattrall, Rae Dawn Chong, John Diehl, Don Opper, James Earl Jones, Robby Benson, Danny De La Paz, Norbert Weisser. Disastrous sci-fi followup by the team that made ANDROID, an incoherent mess set 15 years in the future after a plague has devastated the planet, leaving roving youth gangs warring in MAD MAX fashion. Even a strong cast can’t save this one, with most of the plot expressed in tacked-on narration by Jones. [PG-13]▼ City of Angels (1998) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brad Silberling. Nicolas Cage, Meg Ryan, ▼●쩠 Andre Braugher, Dennis Franz, Colm Feore, City Girl, The (1984-U.S.-Canadian) CRobin Bartlett, Joanna Merlin, Sarah Dampf. 85m. ★★★ D: Martha Coolidge. Laura HarAn angel, who longs to know more about rington, Joe Mastroianni, Carole McGill, human beings and finds himself attracted to a Peter Riegert, Colleen Camp, Jim Carringhard-working female doctor, decides to sacriton, Geraldine Baron. Solid, uncompromisfice his heavenly status and fall to earth so he ing tale of a young woman (expertly played can experience love. Americanization of Wim by Harrington) attempting to advance her Wenders’ haunting WINGS OF DESIRE is— career as a photographer, and her various, by the very nature of American movie convenunsatisfactory relationships with men. Retions—less ethereal than the original film, but [ 252 ]

still intriguing and in its own way romantic. ison, Kevin Tighe, Barbara Williams, Chris Only the climax seems routine and therefore Cooper, Jace Alexander, Todd Graff, Frankie disappointing. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Faison, Gloria Foster, Tom Wright, Michael City of Ember (2008) C-94m. ★★ D: Gil Mantell, Josh Mostel, Joe Grifasi, Louis ZorKenan. Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, ich, Gina Gershon, Rose Gregorio, Bill RayTim Robbins, Bill Murray, Martin Landau, mond, Lawrence Tierney, Maeve Kinkead, Mary Kay Place, Toby Jones, Marianne Ray Aranha. Ambitious multi-character drama Jean-Baptiste, Mackenzie Crook. Citizens about a strife-torn inner city and the people of an isolated underground city that’s falling whose lives intersect within it. Writer-directorapart are afraid to venture beyond its boundeditor Sayles (who wrote himself a good part, aries, unaware that instructions were left beas the slimy Carl) brings vivid and believhind by a group of wise men who sought to able characters to life, and makes some protect them from the demise of civilization pungent comments about contemporary soaboveground. A plucky girl (Ronan) and her ciety, but loses his momentum somewhere friend (Treadaway), not intimidated by their along the way. Might have been more effective if trimmed a bit. Panavision. [R] ▼● do-nothing mayor (Murray), start poking around and making interesting discoveries City of Industry (1997) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: in the dilapidated city of Ember. Adaptation John Irvin. Harvey Keitel, Stephen Dorff, of Jeanne Duprau’s novel never fires the Famke Janssen, Timothy Hutton, Wade emotional response it needs so badly. The Dominguez, Michael Jai White, Reno Wilreal star of the film is production designer son, Lucy Alexis Liu. Depressing story of Martin Laing. Super 35. [PG]쩠 robbery, deceit, murder, and revenge, set in City of Fear (1959) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: Irving current-day L.A. Keitel seems like a caricaLerner. Vince Edwards, Lyle Talbot, John ture of himself and Hutton is unconvincing Archer, Steven Ritch, Patricia Blair. Proas a sleaze, even with that scruffy beard. Elliott Gould appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 grammer involving escaped convict Edwards sought by police and health officials; conCity of Joy (1992-British-French) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roland Joffe ´ . Patrick Swayze, tainer he stole is filled with radioactive material, not money.쩠 Pauline Collins, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, ★★ City of Ghosts (2003) C-116m. Ayesha Dharker, Santu Chowdury, Imran D: Matt Dillon. Matt Dillon, James Caan, Stellan SkarsBadsah Khan, Art Malik, Shyamanand ga˚rd, Natascha McElhone, Ge´rard Depardieu, Jalan. Aimless, cynical American surgeon Sereyvuth Kem. Dillon plays an American Swayze, living in Calcutta, ‘‘finds’’ himrogue—a con man with a conscience—inself after becoming involved with a health volved in murky business dealings and general clinic for the poor, taking on the local mafia, intrigue in present-day Phnom Penh. Joseph and befriending hardworking but povertyConrad and Graham Greene can rest easy: stricken Puri. Well-intentioned but pretentious this lightweight drama is never as credible film scripted by Mark Medoff from Domior compelling as intended. However, it does nique Lapierre’s book. Swayze tries his best, get points for atmosphere, having been filmed but is outshone by supporting cast; similar throughout Cambodia. Dillon’s feature directterritory is covered better in SALAAM BOMing debut; he also cowrote. [R]▼쩠 BAY! Sam Wanamaker appears unbilled as City of God (2002-Brazilian) C-131m. Swayze’s father. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Fernando Meirelles. Matheus City of Lost Children, The (1995-FrenchNachtergaele, Seu Jorge, Alexandre RoSpanish-German) C-112m. ★★★ D: Jeandrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Phelipe Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro. Ron Perlman, JoHaagensen, Jonathan Haagensen, Douglas seph Lucien, Daniel Emilfork, Mireille Silva. Extraordinary portrait of life in the Mosse, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon. slums of Rio de Janeiro, where young— Provocative fantasy about a wicked scientist often incredibly young—hoodlums rule, (Emilfork) who is unable to dream, and who violence is commonplace, and a rivalry goes about purloining children—with the turns the district into a war zone. One boy help of remarkable ‘‘cloned’’ henchmen— finds a way out of this existence by learning and invading their dreams. Although drato use a camera. An arresting, and brutal, matically uneven, this mix of Oliver Twist mosaic of stories spanning three decades, and BRAZIL is a marvel of production detold with tremendous skill and creativity by sign, with sumptuous visuals and painstakdirector Meirelles, who also adapted Paulo ing invention. The voice of Irvin, the Lins’ book, and cast of mostly nonprofesdisembodied brain, is provided by Jeansional actors. Ka´tia Lund is credited as codiLouis Trintignant. From the directors of DELICATESSEN. [R]▼●쩠 rector. Followed by Brazilian TV series City of Men and a same-named feature in 2007. City of Men (2007-Brazilian) C-110m. ★★★ [R]▼쩠 D: Paulo Morelli. Douglas Silva, Darlan City of Hope (1991) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Cunha, Jonathan Haagensen, Rodrigo dos Sayles. Vincent Spano, Tony Lo Bianco, Joe Santos, Camila Monteiro, Naima Silva, EduMorton, John Sayles, Angela Bassett, David ardo BR, Luciano Vidigal. Companion piece Strathairn, Maggie Renzi, Anthony John Dento CITY OF GOD focuses on two young [ 253 ]

friends who are about to turn 18—one who’s countant loses his job and begins spying on never known his father, the other who’s alhis new neighbor, an Islamic college student ready a reluctant father of a baby boy—and he suspects of being a terrorist. When no how their friendship is put to the test as gang one else buys into his obsession, he takes war breaks out in their mountainside commumatters into his own hands. Krause (of Six nity (or favela). More intimate than its predeFeet Under fame) delivers a powerful porcessor; immediate and powerful, about young trait of a man caught in the grip of mediamen dealing with responsibility—and the fueled fear and paranoia. Independently need to make choices—for the first time in produced nail-biter has echoes of REAR their lives. Sprinkled with flashbacks of the WINDOW but is clearly born out of the boys from CITY OF GOD and the TV series events of 9/11. Krause coproduced. [R]쩠 it spawned. [R]쩠 Civil Action, A (1998) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: City of Women (1980-Italian) C-139m. ★★★ Steven Zaillian. John Travolta, Robert DuD: Federico Fellini. Marcello Mastroianni, vall, Tony Shalhoub, William H. Macy, Anna Prucnal, Bernice Stegers, Iole Silvani, Zˇeljko Ivanek, Bruce Norris, John Lithgow, Donatella Damiani. Marcello falls asleep on Kathleen Quinlan, Peter Jacobson, Sydney a train, dreams he has stumbled into an allPollack, Dan Hedaya, James Gandolfini. female society. Lavish fantasy could only Slick Boston injury lawyer gets in over his have been made by one filmmaker; a Fellini head when he takes a case against two infeast or de´ja` vu o.d., depending on your dustrial giants whose alleged pollution of a mood and stamina. [R]▼쩠 river caused the deaths of children in WoCity on Fire (1979-Canadian) C-101m. burn, Mass. Engrossing, literate, well-ob★1 ⁄2 D: Alvin Rakoff. Barry Newman, served film (adapted by the director from Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Shelley WinJonathan Harr’s best-seller) explores the ters, Susan Clark, Leslie Nielsen, James foibles of American justice—and how Franciscus, Jonathan Welsh. Dull, fill-inpride, human frailty, and emotions can afthe-blanks disaster film about citywide fire fect a case. Based on a true story. Kathy Bates appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 torched by a disgruntled ex-employee of local oil refinery. Good cast wasted. For Civil Brand (2003) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Neema pyromaniacs only. [R]▼ Barnette. LisaRaye, N’Bushe Wright, Mos City Slickers (1991) C-112m. ★★★ D: Ron Def, Da Brat, Monica Calhoun, Clifton PowUnderwood. Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, ell, Reed R. McCants, Tachina Arnold, Lark Bruno Kirby, Patricia Wettig, Helen Slater, Voorhies, MC Lyte, Robert Lynn. Forceful Jack Palance, Noble Willingham, Tracey story of women who are mistreated in Walter, Josh Mostel, David Paymer, Bill Henprison by an abusive supervisor and by a derson, Jeffrey Tambor, Phill Lewis, Kyle corrupt system that turns them into sweatSecor, Jayne Meadows, Jake Gyllenhaal. shop laborers. Eye-opening subject matter Three friends who are going through various alternates with melodramatic prison fodder, degrees of mid-life crisis sign up for a twowhile some contrived, underscripted characweek cattle drive, to clear their minds and ters weaken the overall film. Even with its set them back on-course. Enjoyable comedy, faults, it’s still potent stuff. [R]▼쩠 whose generous array of funny lines and good CJ7 (2008-Hong Kong) C-88m. ★★ D: Stemoments makes up for its ‘‘serious’’ pretenphen Chow. Stephen Chow, Jiao Xu, Chi sions and flaws. Palance won Best Supporting Chung Lam, Kitty Zhang Yuqi, ShingActor Oscar for his role as the leathery trail Cheung Lee, Min Hun Fung. Chow works boss. Followed by a sequel. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 overtime to send his son (Xu) to an impresCity Slickers: The Legend of Curly’s Gold sive private school, hoping that he can grow (1994) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Weiland. Billy up and make something of himself. But Crystal, Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz, Jack Pawhen he gives his son a toy he finds at lance, Patricia Wettig, Pruitt Taylor Vince, the dump, both of their lives are changed Bill McKinney, Noble Willingham, David forever. Like Chow’s other films, the movPaymer, Josh Mostel. A contrived sequel if ie’s manic zigzagging from wacky to sinthere ever was one, with Crystal and Stern cere makes it almost impossible to enjoy going back West (with Billy’s screw-up the story and genuinely care about anyone. brother Lovitz) to locate gold from a treasure Although it has some redeeming moments map Palance (from the first film) left behind. (due to the animated toy that comes to life), Lack of plot and purpose are balanced by they are few and far between. Super 35. [PG]쩠 magnificent Moab, Utah, scenery—and a lot of genuine laughs, in the script by Crystal, Claim, The (2000-British-Canadian) CLowell Ganz, and Babaloo Mandel. [PG120m. ★★ D: Michael Winterbottom. Wes Bentley, Peter Mullan, Milla Jovovich, Sarah 13]▼●쩠 City Under the Sea, The SEE: War Gods Polley, Nastassja Kinski, Sean McGinley. of the Deep Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Caster★★★ Civic Duty (2007) C-98m. bridge reset in snowy northern California in D: Jeff Renfroe. Peter Krause, Richard Schiff, Khaled the aftermath of the gold rush, in 1867. MulAbol Naga, Kari Matchett, Ian Tracey. Aclan runs the town of Kingdom Come with [ 254 ]

an iron fist, but melts somewhat when his played by Harris). The kind of movie best ex-wife and daughter (whom he sold in exdescribed as ‘‘nice’’ by undiscriminating change for a gold claim years ago) turn up. viewers in search of blandness—and seemingly edited with a chainsaw. [PG-13]▼● Vivid and well acted, but emotionally hollow. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Clarence and Angel (1980) C-75m. ★★★ Clair de Femme (1979-French) C-103m. D: Robert Gardner. Darren Brown, Mark ★★ D: Costa-Gavras. Yves Montand, Romy Cardova, Cynthia McPherson, Louis Mike, Schneider, Romolo Valli, Lila Kedrova, Leroy Smith, Lola Langley, Lolita Lewis. Heinz Bennent, Roberto Benigni, Jean Aggressive, kung-fu-mad Angel (Cardova) Reno. Slow-moving chronicle of the relabefriends his new schoolmate, shy, illitertionship between traumatized widower ate Clarence (Brown), who has recently Montand and Schneider, who has been arrived in Harlem from South Carolina, scarred by the death of her young daughter and teaches him to read. Technically crude, in an auto accident. Characters are one-dibut funny and touching; sequence in prinmensional, and film is gloomy, gloomy, cipal’s office, in which Clarence’s mother fakes reading a test score, is a gem.▼ gloomy. Based on novel by Romain Gary. Claire Dolan (1998-U.S.-French) C-95m. Clarence the Cross-Eyed Lion (1965) ★★★ D: Lodge Kerrigan. Katrin Cartlidge, C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew Marton. MarVincent D’Onofrio, Colm Meaney, Patrick shall Thompson, Betsy Drake, Cheryl MillHusted, Muriel Maida. Intriguing portrait of er, Richard Haydn, Alan Caillou. Basis for an Irish-American woman who works as a Daktari TV show is good family enterprostitute, caught in a viselike grip by her tainment set in Africa with adventure and menacing and manipulative pimp (Meaney), wholesome comedy well blended.▼ until she decides to break free—if she can. Clash by Night (1952) 105m. ★★★ D: Quiet, well-observed film that doesn’t spell Fritz Lang. Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Dougeverything out about its characters, forcing las, Robert Ryan, Marilyn Monroe, Keith us to fill in the blanks. Strong performances Andes, J. Carrol Naish. Moody, well-acted by all three leads.▼쩠 Clifford Odets story of drifter Stanwyck Claire’s Knee (1971-French) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 settling down, marrying good-natured fishD: Eric Rohmer. Jean-Claude Brialy, Aurora erman Douglas. Cynical friend Ryan senses Cornu, Beatrice Romand, Laurence De Monthat she’s not happy, tries to take advanaghan, Michele Montel. No. 5 of Rohmer’s tage. Andes and Monroe provide second‘‘Six Moral Tales’’ has widest appeal. A man ary love interest.▼●쩠 about to be married is obsessed with a girl he Clash of the Titans (1981-British) C-118m. ★★1 doesn’t even like, his attention focusing on ⁄2 D: Desmond Davis. Laurence Olivier, her knee. Full of delicious relationships, but Harry Hamlin, Judi Bowker, Burgess Mertoo talky for some viewers. [PG]▼●쩠 edith, Sian Phillips, Maggie Smith, Claire Clambake (1967) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur Bloom, Ursula Andress, Tim Pigott-Smith. Nadel. Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Will Juvenile fantasy-adventure based on Greek Hutchins, Bill Bixby, Gary Merrill, James mythology. Olivier is Zeus, and Hamlin is Gregory. Elvis is a millionaire’s son who his mortal son Perseus, who must face a wants to make it on his own, so he trades variety of awesome challenges in pursuit of places with water-skiing instructor Hutchhis destiny. Long and episodic, with some ins in Miami. One of Presley’s weakest. fine elements (the taming of Pegasus, the Techniscope.▼쩠 threat of Medusa—who can turn men into Clan of the Cave Bear, The (1986) C-98m. stone with one glance), but not enough guts ★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Chapman. Daryl Hannah, Paor vigor. As is, mainly for kids. Special effects by Ray Harryhausen. [PG]▼●쩠 mela Reed, James Remar, Thomas G. Waites, John Doolittle, Curtis Armstrong. World’s Class (1983) C-98m. ★★ D: Lewis John first feminist caveman movie, minus the anCarlino. Rob Lowe, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthropological detail of Jean Auel’s popular drew McCarthy, Stuart Margolin, Cliff book. Hannah is perfectly cast as outsider Robertson, John Cusack, Alan Ruck, who joins band of nomadic Neanderthals, but Remak Ramsay, Virginia Madsen, Casey the story (such as it is) is alternately boring Siemaszko, Anna Maria Horsford, Joan and unintentionally funny. Subtitles translate Cusack. Naive prep-school boy stumbles cave people’s primitive tongue. Screenplay by (almost literally) into affair with beautiful older woman, unaware of her identity. John Sayles. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 Clara’s Heart (1988) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Slick but uneven mix of romance, comRobert Mulligan. Whoopi Goldberg, Miedy, and drama with one-dimensional charchael Ontkean, Kathleen Quinlan, Neil acters and a lack of credibility. Some good Patrick Harris, Spalding Gray, Beverly moments lost in the shuffle. [R]▼●쩠 Todd. Whoopi plays a Jamaican domestic Class, The (2008-French) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 (think of Shirley Booth’s Hazel with a D: Laurent Cantet. Franc¸ois Be´gaudeau, reggae bias), a soft-spoken know-it-all who Nassim Amrabt, Laura Baquela, Cherif works for insufferable Maryland yuppies Bounaı¨dja Rachedi, Juliette Demaille, Esand their young, impressionable son (well me´ralda Ouertani, Rachel Re´gulier, Franck [ 255 ]

Keı¨ta, Wei Haung. Dedicated teacher in a Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed, Michael Murphy, Rosalind Cash, John Standing, Riba working-class Parisian school tries to instill Akabusi, Phil Daniels. Echoes of TO SIR, a passion for learning in his multicultural WITH LOVE don’t flatter this shrill comedyclassroom but the freedom of expression he drama of a dedicated teacher with a class encourages makes every day a challenge. full of social misfits. [R]▼ Invigorating drama has the spark of spontaClass of 1984 (1982) C-93m. ★★ D: Mark L. neity from start to finish. The leading actor Lester. Perry King, Merrie Lynn Ross, is in fact a teacher who wrote a novel about Roddy McDowall, Timothy Van Patten, his experiences and coauthored this screenStefan Arngrim, Al Waxman, Michael J. play with Cantet and Robin Campillo— Fox, Lisa Langlois. Unpleasant, calculatwith input from the nonprofessional actors edly campy melodrama about the harassplaying the students. Original French title: ment of high school teacher King by ENTRE LES MURS. Super 35. [PG-13] 1 ★★ psychotic student Van Patten—with more Class Act (1992) C-98m. ⁄2 D: Randall than a few echoes of BLACKBOARD Miller. Christopher Reid, Christopher MarJUNGLE. As revenge movies go, the buzztin, Meshach Taylor, Karyn Parsons, Doug saw finale is not bad. Followed by CLASS E. Doug, Rick Ducommun, Lamont JohnOF 1999. [R]▼●쩠 son, Rhea Perlman. Straight-A student Class of 1999 (1990) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Mark (Reid) and street-wise juvenile delinquent L. Lester. Bradley Gregg, Traci Lind, (Martin) switch identities when they both Malcolm McDowell, Stacy Keach, Patrick transfer to a new high school; complicaKilpatrick, Pam Grier, John P. Ryan, tions ensue when they find it tough sledDarren E. Burrows, Joshua Miller. Folding in their new environs. Broad, cartoony lowup to CLASS OF 1984 pictures high comedy is nothing special; neither is the school of the near-future as Hell on Earth, obligatory anti-drug rap song at the end of with ultraviolent gang members meeting the film. [PG-13]▼● their match in a trio of robots recruited as Class Action (1991) C-109m. ★★★ D: Miteachers. Heavy-handed film wavers bechael Apted. Gene Hackman, Mary Elizatween high camp and taking itself seriously beth Mastrantonio, Colin Friels, Joanna as a message movie! Keach goes overboard Merlin, Larry Fishburne, Donald Moffat, as a maniacal robot operator. Unrated video Jan Rubes, Matt Clark, Fred Dalton Thompversion also available. 1993 sequel: CLASS son, Jonathan Silverman, Dan Hicks. CruOF 1999 II: THE SUBSTITUTE. [R]▼쩠 sading lawyer takes on a class-action suit Class of Nuke ’Em High (1986) C-81m. against a negligent auto company—while BOMB D: Richard Haines, Samuel Weil. his feisty daughter represents the other Janelle Brady, Gilbert Brenton, Robert side. Crackling performances by the two Prichard, R. L. Ryan. Obnoxious horror comstars, as the long-embattled father and edy about a New Jersey high school near a daughter, make this well worth seeing, nuclear waste spill that creates monsters and even though the story becomes obvious at disgustingly transforms model teens Brady the climactic turn. [R]▼●쩠 and Brenton. Dehumanizing, sadistic gags Classe Tous Risques (1960-French) 103m. masquerade as lowbrow entertainment. Fol★★★ D: Claude Sautet. Lino Ventura, Jeanlowed by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Paul Belmondo, Sandra Milo, Marcel Dalio, Claudelle Inglish (1961) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stan Krol. Solid crime drama with Ventura Gordon Douglas. Diane McBain, Arthur as a murderer who’s been living in exile in Kennedy, Will Hutchins, Constance Ford, Milan but decides to return to Paris after Claude Akins, Chad Everett, Robert Logan. pulling one last heist. His plans go awry, Trite soaper derived from Erskine Caldwell and while he expects his criminal pals to tale of Southern farm gal who gives all to find help him when he arrives in Nice, they send excitement, with predictable consequences. a young guy instead (Belmondo) to pick Claudia (1943) 91m. ★★★ D: Edmund him up. Tough, ironic tale filled with interGoulding. Dorothy McGuire, Robert Young, esting characters and vivid location work. Ina Claire, Reginald Gardiner, Olga BacGreat showcase for the young Belmondo, lanova, Jean Howard. Warm comedy of made around the same time as BREATHyoung Claudia suddenly marrying, facing LESS.쩠 adult problems, learning a lot about life in Class of ’44 (1973) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul short period; beautifully acted. McGuire, Bogart. Gary Grimes, Jerry Houser, Oliin film debut, re-creates her Broadway role. ver Conant, Deborah Winters, William Sequel: CLAUDIA AND DAVID. Atherton, Sam Bottoms, John Candy. SeClaudia and David (1946) 78m. ★★★ D: quel to SUMMER OF ’42 is less ambitious, Walter Lang. Dorothy McGuire, Robert lightly entertaining story, with Grimes going Young, Mary Astor, John Sutton, Gail to college, falling in love, growing up. Good Patrick, Florence Bates. Enjoyable followperiod atmosphere. Panavision. [PG]▼ up to CLAUDIA with McGuire and Young Class of Miss MacMichael, The (1978having a baby, adjusting to suburban life; British) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Silvio Narizzano. engaging, well acted. [ 256 ]

Claudine (1974) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Berry. he’s an addict, too. Powerful drama showDiahann Carroll, James Earl Jones, Lawcases Keaton in an utterly believable perrence Hilton-Jacobs, Tamu, David Kruformance, though the film’s relentlessness makes it tough to watch. [R]▼●쩠 ger, Adam Wade. Slice-of-life comedy with a serious edge: Romance between garbageCleaner (2007) C-89m. ★★ D: Renny Harman Jones and young ghetto mother Carroll is lin. Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Ed charming and credible, but the problems of Harris, Luis Guzma´n, Keke Palmer, Robert dealing with her six kids, and their collective Forster. Former cop (Jackson) runs a hazpoverty, can’t be treated so lightly. ‘‘Upardous waste containment enterprise, which beat’’ finale just doesn’t ring true. [PG]▼쩠 includes cleaning up gruesome crime scenes. Clay Pigeon, The (1949) 63m. ★★1⁄2 D: All is well until he sanitizes a murder scene Richard O. Fleischer. Bill Williams, Barbara before the police are notified of the homiHale, Richard Loo, Richard Quine, Frank cide. Jackson and Harris are fine, but there’s Fenton, Martha Hyer. Neat little actioner little surprise beyond the intriguing setup. with Williams, a seaman accused of treason Humdrum film released direct to DVD in the U.S. Super 35. [R]쩠 and of responsibility in the death of his friend, on the trail of the real culprit, a Clean, Shaven (1993) C-80m. ★★★ D: Japanese prison guard. Written by Carl Lodge Kerrigan. Peter Greene, Robert Albert, Jennifer MacDonald, Megan Owen. Foreman, based on a true incident. ▼ Clay Pigeon (1971) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom Unusual, subtly chilling psychological Stern, Lane Slate. Tom Stern, Telly Savalas, drama about Peter (Greene), a schizoRobert Vaughn, John Marley, Burgess Merphrenic released from an institution who is edith, Ivan Dixon. Good cast in dull crime grasping for a human connection. Meanmelodrama of Vietnam vet settling into while, his young daughter has been put up drug scene who experiences change of for adoption by her mother, a cop, who’s heart and goes after big-league pusher. [R] investigating the brutal murder of another Clay Pigeons (1998) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: child and becomes convinced Peter is the David Dobkin. Joaquin Phoenix, Vince culprit. A meditation on deep feelings of Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo, Georgina Cates, loss and alienation; not always easy to folScott Wilson, Vince Vieluf, Phil Morris. low, but challenging, even haunting.▼쩠 Clever film noir set in a small town out west. A Clean Slate (1981) SEE: Coup de Torchon Clean Slate (1994) C-107m. ★★ D: Mick patsy falls prey first to his best friend, then the friend’s slatternly wife, and finally to a Jackson. Dana Carvey, Valeria Golino, James mysterious stranger just passing through, Earl Jones, Kevin Pollak, Michael Gambon, whose actions bring a cynical big-city FBI Michael Murphy, Olivia d’Abo, Tim Scott, agent (Garofalo) to town. Twisty black comAngela Paton, Jayne Brook, Gailard Sartain, edy has much to enjoy but leaves the viewer Phil Leeds. Carvey plays a detective who less than completely satisfied. Overemphatic awakens each morning with no memory whatuse of source music is a debit, but the opening soever. Did somebody say GROUNDHOG is a grabber. [R]▼●쩠 DAY? It’s D.O.A. all the way, though there are Clean (2004-Canadian-French-British) Csome mildly amusing gags involving a klutzy terrier named Barkley. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Olivier Assayas. Maggie Cheung, Nick Nolte, Be´atrice Dalle, Jeanne Clear and Present Danger (1994) C-141m. ★★1 Balibar, Don McKellar, Martha Henry, ⁄2 D: Phillip Noyce. Harrison Ford, Willem James Johnston, James Dennis, Re´mi MarDafoe, Anne Archer, Joaquim de Almeida, tin. Unremarkable account of Cheung, the James Earl Jones, Henry Czerny, Harris spouse of a second-tier rocker, who goes Yulin, Donald Moffat, Miguel Sandoval, through hell after he dies of an overdose. Benjamin Bratt, Raymond Cruz, Dean Jones, She, too, is a junkie, and struggles to get her Thora Birch, Ann Magnuson, Hope Lange. life in order. It’s difficult to invest emotion CIA whiz Jack Ryan finds himself waist-deep in such an unlikable character, though her in highest-level Washington politics when his story becomes more involving as it goes ailing mentor (Jones) names him as his realong. Nolte is the best thing in the film, placement. Soon he’s caught in the middle of offering a touching performance as the dedouble-dealing with a Colombian druglord. ceased rocker’s emotionally generous faThe always watchable Ford plays more a ther. Written by the director. Super 35. symbol than a character here, and the action climax seems somehow pat. Still, it’s an intel[R]▼쩠 Clean and Sober (1988) C-125m. ★★★ D: ligent and entertaining sequel to PATRIOT Glenn Gordon Caron. Michael Keaton, GAMES. Followed by THE SUM OF ALL Kathy Baker, Morgan Freeman, M. EmFEARS. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 met Walsh, Tate Donovan, Henry Judd Clearcut (1991-Canadian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Baker, Luca Bercovici, Claudia ChrisD: Richard Bugajski. Ron Lea, Graham tian, Pat Quinn, Ben Piazza. A young Greene, Michael Hogan, Floyd (Red Crow) hustler enrolls in a drug rehabilitation proWesterman, Rebecca Jenkins. Multilevgram in order to duck out of sight for a eled drama about Indian activist Greene while—refusing to admit to himself that (who kidnaps the boss of a sawmill com[ 257 ]

pany responsible for cutting down forests) Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chuck Bail. Taand naively liberal laywer Lea (who’s failed to halt the destruction in the courts). Presmara Dobson, Stella Stevens, Tanny, Norence of graphic violence in the midst of a man Fell, Albert Popwell, Caro Kenyatta, thought-provoking drama is jarring, to say Christopher Hunt. Wild, woolly, sexy, vithe least, but the subject, and Greene’s olent sequel to CLEOPATRA JONES. Steperformance, make it worthwhile. [R]▼ vens plays ‘‘The Dragon Lady,’’ a tip-off on what to expect. Panavision. [R]▼ Clearing, The (2004) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pieter Jan Brugge. Robert Redford, Helen Clerks (1994) 89m. ★★★ D: Kevin Smith. Mirren, Willem Dafoe, Alessandro Nivola, Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Marilyn Matt Craven, Melissa Sagemiller, Wendy Ghigliotti, Lisa Spoonauer, Jason Mewes, Crewson, Larry Pine, Diana Scarwid, ElizaKevin Smith. Black and white, $27,000 beth Ruscio. A successful, married busiwonder by first-time filmmaker Smith is a nessman is kidnapped one morning. As his brash, foul-mouthed, often very funny look wife and children go through the ordeal of at a day in the lives of a New Jersey convehaving their lives invaded by the FBI, while nience-store clerk and his abrasive pal, who waiting for further word, the victim gets to mans the video place next door—when he know his captor as they make their way in feels like it. Well written and well acted; the woods. More a character study than a more provocative and entertaining than conventional story, this interesting, ellipmany glossy Hollywood movies of the ’90s. tical film plays with chronology in challengUnrated director’s cut runs 92m. Later an ing ways but doesn’t lead to a satisfying animated series. Followed by a sequel in conclusion. The three stars are excellent. 2006. [R]▼●쩠 [R] ▼쩠 Clerks II (2006) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962-French) C/B&WSmith. Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, 90m. ★★★ D: Agne´s Varda. Corinne MarRosario Dawson, Kevin Smith, Jason chand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dorothe´e Blanck, Mewes, Trevor Fehrman, Ethan Suplee, Ben Michel Legrand, Anna Karina, Eddie ConAffleck, Jason Lee, Wanda Sykes. After the stantine, Jean-Luc Godard. Intelligent, fluid Quick Stop burns down, Dante and Randal account of Parisian songstress forced to rego to work for a local fast-food joint, but evaluate her life while awaiting vital medical Dante (O’Halloran) has found an escape: a report on her physical condition. First scene is good-looking girl has fallen in love with in color. ▼●쩠 him, and they’re going to move to Florida Cleopatra (1934) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cecil B. and get married. His last day at Mooby’s DeMille. Claudette Colbert, Warren William, is unexpectedly eventful, however. WriterHenry Wilcoxon, Gertrude Michael, Jodirector Smith is still in touch with his inner seph Schildkraut, C. Aubrey Smith, Claudia imbecile, but this CLERKS has little of the Dell, Robert Warwick. Opulent DeMille verintelligence that made his breakout film so sion of Cleopatra doesn’t date badly, stands special in 1994 . . . but no shortage of pottymouthed humor. [R]쩠 out as one of his most intelligent films, thanks in large part to fine performances by Click (2006) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank Coraci. all. Top entertainment, with Oscar-winAdam Sandler, Kate Beckinsale, Christoning cinematography by Victor Milner.▼●쩠 pher Walken, David Hasselhoff, Henry Cleopatra (1963) C-243m. ★★ D: Joseph Winkler, Julie Kavner, Jennifer Coolidge, L. Mankiewicz. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Sean Astin, Rachel Dratch. Stressed-out, Burton, Rex Harrison, Pamela Brown, workaholic architect who never seems to George Cole, Hume Cronyn, Cesare Danova, have enough time for his family comes upon Kenneth Haigh, Andrew Keir, Martin Lana crazy inventor who gives him a remote dau, Roddy McDowall, Robert Stephens, control that can manipulate his life—and Francesca Annis, Herbert Berghof, Mieven help him skip the boring parts. Good chael Hordern, John Hoyt, Carroll O’Connor. comedy premise unexpectedly morphs into Saga of the Nile goes on and on and on. a self-serious examination of a life gone Definitely a curiosity item, but you’ll be wrong (as if this was IT’S A WONDERsatisfied after an hour. Good acting, especially FUL REMOTE) . . . yet Sandler doesn’t by Harrison and McDowall, but it’s lost in want to sacrifice any of his trademark cruthis flat, four-hour misfire. Nevertheless dity. An odd, unsatisfying mishmash. Rob earned Oscars for cinematography, art direcSchneider appears uncredited. [PG-13]쩠 tion–set decoration, costumes, special effects. Client, The (1994) C-122m. ★★★ D: Joel Released to TV at 194m. Todd-AO.▼●쩠 Schumacher. Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Cleopatra Jones (1973) C-89m. ★★ D: Jack Jones, Brad Renfro, Mary-Louise Parker, AnStarrett. Tamara Dobson, Bernie Casey, Shelthony LaPaglia, Ossie Davis, Bradley Whitley Winters, Brenda Sykes, Antonio Fargas, ford, Anthony Edwards, J.T. Walsh, Walter Bill McKinney, Esther Rolle. Black bubbleOlkewicz, Will Patton, Anthony Heald, Wilgum stuff with Dobson as karate-chopping liam H. Macy. Top-flight adaptation of John government agent chasing drug kingpins. Lots Grisham’s best-seller about an 11-year-old of action and violence. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 boy who finds himself in hot water with [ 258 ]

both the Feds (led by Jones) and the Mob who takes an unnatural interest in their newwhen he learns too much from a Mafia lawest soprano (Foster)—just as he did another yer who’s about to kill himself. Sarandon is singer who disappeared ten years ago. No surprises here, but slickly done. ▼●쩠 the lawyer who takes the kid’s case. Suspense is neatly woven with character develClinic, The (1982-Australian) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 opment; satisfying entertainment. Later a D: David Stevens. Chris Haywood, Simon Burke, Rona McLeod, Gerda Nicolson, SuzTV series. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cliffhanger (1993-U.S.-French) C-118m. anne Roylance, Veronica Lang, Pat Evison. ★★★ D: Renny Harlin. Sylvester Stallone, Straightforward but much too obvious John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turcomedy-drama about the goings-on in a VD ner, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, Rex Linn, clinic operated by doctor Haywood.▼ Caroline Goodall, Leon, Craig Fairbrass, Cloak and Dagger (1946) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michelle Joyner, Max Perlich. Self-doubting Fritz Lang. Gary Cooper, Lilli Palmer, Robert mountain rescue expert Sly is pitted against Alda, Vladimir Sokoloff, Ludwig Stossel. really rotten Lithgow and his gang, who are Professor Cooper becomes a secret agent on after $100 million lost in the Rockies. Eyehis trip to Germany; Lang intrigue is not popping photography (by Alex Thomson), among his best, but still slick.▼●쩠 white-knuckle stunts, a swift pace, and enCloak & Dagger (1984) C-101m. ★★★ D: tertaining characters add up to what a wellRichard Franklin. Henry Thomas, Dabney made action film should be: tons of fun. Coleman, Michael Murphy, John McIntire, Story is thin, though. Italy’s Dolomites stand Jeanette Nolan, Christine Nigra. Young in for the Rockies. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Thomas gets involved with murderous espion★1 Clifford (1994) C-89m. ⁄2 D: Paul Flaage—but no one will believe him. Flawed herty. Martin Short, Charles Grodin, Mary but enjoyable reworking of THE WINDOW. Steenburgen, Dabney Coleman, G. D. Coleman’s a delight in dual role as his father and his make-believe hero. [PG]▼●쩠 Spradlin, Anne Jeffreys, Richard Kind, Jennifer Savidge, Ben Savage. Moronic comedy Clock, The (1945) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Vincente in the (unfortunate) mold of PROBLEM Minnelli. Judy Garland, Robert Walker, CHILD, with Short uninspiringly cast as a James Gleason, Keenan Wynn, Marshall cloyingly obnoxious ten-year-old who makes Thompson, Lucille Gleason. Soldier Walker life pure hell for his uncle (Grodin). Short’s has two-day leave in N.Y.C., meets office playing a child is a gimmick which quickly worker Judy; they spend the day falling in proves tiresome. Completed in 1991, this love, encountering friendly milkman Gleacould have stayed on the shelf. [PG]▼●쩠 son, drunk Wynn; charming little love Clifford’s Really Big Movie (2004) C-73m. story with beguiling Garland. Also shown ★★1 in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Robert C. Ramirez. Voices of John Ritter, Grey DeLisle, Cree Summer, Kel Clockers (1995) C-129m. ★★★ D: Spike Mitchell, Wayne Brady, Jenna Elfman, Judge Lee. Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Reinhold, John Goodman, Wilmer ValderLindo, Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, rama, Ernie Hudson, Teresa Ganzel, Jess HarKeith David, Pee Wee Love, Regina Taylor, nell, Kath Soucie. Norman Bridwell’s Big Tom Byrd, Sticky Fingaz, Mike Starr, Spike Red Dog gets the feature film treatment in this Lee. The night manager of a fast-food resbenign cartoon aimed at the preschool set. taurant is murdered, but a no-nonsense Clifford, concerned about being a financial Brooklyn cop doesn’t believe that the young burden to his owners, joins a carnival in hopes man who confessed to the crime is really of entering a contest where the prize is a lifeguilty. He’s got his eye on the suspect’s time supply of his favorite doggy treats. Pleasbrother (Phifer), who works for the neighant, undemanding fare for tots. [G] ▼쩠 borhood drug czar. A penetrating, multilayClimate for Killing, A (1990) C-103m. ered look at the reality of life on the street ★★★ D: J. S. Cardone. John Beck, Steven and in ‘‘the projects,’’ and a challenging Bauer, Mia Sara, Katharine Ross, John treatise on personal responsibility. It’s Diehl, Phil Brock, Dedee Pfeiffer, Lu Leontough to decipher the street lingo and dialect ard, Jack Dodson, Eloy Casados. A grisly in the opening scenes, but once the story murder confronts, and confounds, smallkicks in, it’s dynamite. Richard Price time Arizona cop Beck; he’s joined by adapted his novel with Lee; a fortuitous big city evaluator Bauer, who questions merging of two distinctive talents. [R] his approach to law enforcement while ▼●쩠 becoming involved with his daughter (Sara). Clockmaker, The (1973-French) C-100m. ★★★1 Solid, engrossing mystery-drama. [R]▼● ⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Philippe Climax, The (1944) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jacques Denis, George Waggner. Boris Karloff, Susanna Julien Bertheau. Noiret is superb as a Foster, Turhan Bey, Gale Sondergaard, watchmaker who is forced to reevaluate Thomas Gomez, Scotty Beckett, George his life after his son is arrested for murder. Dolenz, Jane Farrar, June Vincent, Ludwig Meticulously directed; based on a novel by Stossel. Technicolor tale of suave but sinisGeorges Simenon. Tavernier’s feature diter physician to the Vienna Opera House recting debut. ▼쩠 [ 259 ]

Clockstoppers (2002) C-94m. ★★ D: Jonathrilling, but the characters are as wooden than Frakes. Jesse Bradford, French Stewart, and stiff as they look. Much more juvenile Paula Garces, Michael Biehn, Robin Thomas, than the original movies, which means that Garikayi Mutambirwa, Julia Sweeney, Lindze kids may enjoy it more than diehard fans. Letherman. Teenage boy acquires an experAka STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS. imental watch that can stop time, more or Followed by a TV series. Digital wideless. This scores big points with his new screen. [PG]쩠 girlfriend, but gets him into a mess of trouClonus Horror, The SEE: Parts: The ble with bad guys who have threatened the Clonus Horror watch’s inventor—and the boy’s scientist Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) dad. Starts as a high-energy, good-time film C-135m. ★★★★ D: Steven Spielberg. Richfor young viewers (from Nickelodeon Movard Dreyfuss, Franc˛ois Truffaut, Teri Garr, ies), but begins to drag halfway through its Melinda Dillon, Cary Guffey, Bob Balaban. needlessly complicated script. [PG] ▼쩠 Superb, intelligent sci-fi (written by SpielClockwatchers (1997) C-105m. ★★ D: Jill berg) about UFO mystery that leads to first Sprecher. Toni Collette, Parker Posey, Lisa contact with alien beings. Dreyfuss is perfect Kudrow, Alanna Ubach, Helen Fitzgerald, Everyman struggling with frustrating enigma Stanley DeSantis, Jamie Kennedy, Kevin that finally becomes clear. Powerhouse speCooney, Paul Dooley, Bob Balaban. Four cial effects throughout, plus John Williams’ office temps in corporate hell form a fast evocative score. Vilmos Zsigmond’s impresfriendship that ultimately jeopardizes their sive cinematography won an Oscar. Reedited attempts at careers. Indie spin on NINE TO by Spielberg to tighten midsection and add FIVE captures working-week tedium hilarialien-encounter material to finale and reissued ously for a while, then gets bogged down in 1980 at 132m. as THE SPECIAL EDIin tedious Kafkaesque second half. Posey’s TION. (Then, for network showings, all exbitchy comic flair throughout gives the film isting footage was used!) Reedited yet again its only real juice. [PG-13]▼●쩠 by Spielberg in 1998 to 137m. for a CollecClockwise (1986-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: tor’s Edition. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Christopher Morahan. John Cleese, PenelClosely Watched Trains (1966-Czech) 89m. ★★★ D: Jiri Menzel. Vaclav Neckar, Jitka Benope Wilton, Alison Steadman, Stephen Moore, Sharon Maiden, Joan Hickson. dova, Vladimir Valenta, Libuse Havelkova, Cleese is a school headmaster, obsessed Josef Somr. Enjoyable but slightly overrated with punctuality, en route to make a speech tragicomedy about naive apprentice trainat a convention and constantly getting into dispatcher Neckar’s attempts at sexual initiatrouble. A tour de force role that is a must tion during the German Occupation. Academy Award winner as Best Foreign Film.▼●쩠 for Cleese fans; others will be disappointed with the thinness of playwright Michael Close My Eyes (1991-British) C-109m. ★★★ Frayn’s script. [PG] ▼●쩠 D: Stephen Poliakoff. Alan Rickman, Clockwork Orange, A (1971) C-137m. Clive Owen, Saskia Reeves, Karl John★★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Kubrick. Malcolm Mcson, Lesley Sharp, Kate Gartside. Vaguely Dowell, Patrick Magee, Michael Bates, unhappy woman makes sexual overtures to Adrienne Corri, Aubrey Morris, James Marher brother, which explode into full-fledged cus, Steven Berkoff, David Prowse. A scathincest five years later when she’s married ing satire on a society in the not so distant and living in a mansion by the Thames. future, with an excellent performance by McFilm is a bit haphazard setting up the basic Dowell as a prime misfit. Kubrick’s vivid adsituation, but soon becomes a riveting view. aptation of Anthony Burgess’ novel was too Extremely well acted, with confident perstrong for some to stomach in 1971, and it formances by Owen and Reeves (as the remains potent today. [R—edited from origitaboo-flaunting siblings) and Rickman, in a supporting role as the husband. [R]▼쩠 nal X rating] ▼●쩠 Clone Wars, The (2008) C-98m. ★★ D: Closer (2004) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike NichDave Filoni. Voices of Matt Lanter, James ols. Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Arnold Taylor, Ashley Eckstein, Tom Kane, Clive Owen. Four people fall in and out of Ian Abercrombie, Corey Burton, Samuel L. love as they fall in and out of bed. Extremely Jackson, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee. well acted and intimately staged for the camFirst entirely computer-animated STAR era (though it’s still obvious this derived from WARS feature takes place between Epia stage work); the question is whether we care sodes II and III in George Lucas’ epic space enough about the characters to endure their fantasy. Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenendless and brutal playing of mind games. obi, and a young female apprentice fight the Super-charged performances, especially by Republic to rescue Jabba the Hutt’s infant Owen and Portman, help a lot. More sexuson from a kidnapping plot. Created as the ally explicit dialogue than any mainstream first three episodes of The Clone Wars TV Hollywood movie we can remember! Patrick Marber adapted his play. [R] ▼쩠 series—and feels like it. Special effects, alien landscapes, and spaceships are visuCloser, The (1990) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Dimitri ally dazzling, and the battle sequences are Logothetis. Danny Aiello, Michael Pare´, [ 260 ]

★★★ Joe Cortese, Justine Bateman, Diane Baker, D: Nick Willing. Goran Visnjic, Shirley James Karen, Michael Lerner. Highly sucHenderson, Miranda Otto, Paddy Considine, cessful businessman is forced to retire and Claire Rushbrook, Fiona Shaw, Corin Redcreates a tension-filled night of competigrave, Sophie Stuckey. Scotland Yard detection in order to pick his successor. Aiello tive Henderson draws hypnotherapist Visnjic is compelling as always, but this would-be into a troubling case involving a serial killer Death of a Salesman never gets out of the and a little girl who’s been traumatized since gate. Aiello originated the role on Broadway she was held captive by him. Mixing occult in 1976; Louis La Russo II’s play was elements with a whodunit, this original, titled Wheelbarrow Closers. [R]▼● genuinely creepy thriller stays on track right Closer You Get, The (2000-Irish-British) to the end. Based on the novel Doctor Sleep by Madison Smartt Bell. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Aileen Ritchie. Ian Hart, Sean McGinley, Niamh Cusack, Ruth Cloud Dancer (1980) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: McCabe, Ewan Stewart, Pat Shortt, Cathleen Barry Brown. David Carradine, Jennifer Bradley, Sean McDonagh. Flyweight comedy O’Neill, Joseph Bottoms, Colleen Camp, about a remote Irish island village where the Albert Salmi, Salome Jens, Nina Van young men decide to do something about Pallandt. Uneven tale of aerobatic-obsessed the lack of eligible, attractive females: they Carradine and his relationship with O’Neill. take a want ad in a Miami newspaper, invitNice—if too many—flying sequences, hokey melodramatics. Filmed in 1978. [PG]▼ ing sexy, athletic, marriage-minded American women to come on over. SelfClouded Yellow, The (1950-British) 85m. ★★1 consciously cute and padded out, but still ⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Jean Simmons, amusing. Aka AMERICAN WOMEN. Trevor Howard, Sonia Dresdel, Barry [PG-13]▼쩠 Jones, Kenneth More, Geoffrey Keen, Closet, The (2001-French) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andre Morell, Maxwell Reed. Moderately Francis Veber. Daniel Auteuil, Ge´rard Deparentertaining psychological drama/mystery/ dieu, Thierry Lhermitte, Miche`le Laroque, chase film in which ex-secret serviceman Jean Rochefort, Alexandra Vandernoot, MiHoward takes a job cataloguing butterflies, chel Aumont. Slight but amusing social comand becomes involved with a strange, fragile young girl (Simmons)—and murder.▼ edy from writer-director Veber concerning a nonentity who’s about to be fired from his Cloverfield (2008) C-85m. ★★★ D: Matt company after 20 years. His new neighbor Reeves. Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T. J. hatches a plan to save the job: pretend he’s Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, gay so the firm won’t risk the accusation of Odette Yustman, Chris Mulkey. A monster sexual prejudice. Naturally the ruse snowinvades N.Y.C. and creates incredible havoc. balls, in more directions than one. Likable, if This 1950s B-movie premise is executed a bit low key. Technovision. [R] ▼쩠 2008-style through the lens of a video camera Closet Land (1991) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Radha held by a guy who starts out shooting a Bharadwaj. Madeleine Stowe, Alan Rickfriend’s farewell party and then gets caught man. Among the oddest of early ’90s films: up in ‘‘documenting’’ everything that hapa two-character drama about the political pens. Runs on pure adrenaline and never interrogation of an allegedly subversive lets up, with some good shocks and a formichildren’s author by one of a totalitarian dable creature. Some people find the shaky society’s finest. Like a bad play that never handheld camerawork difficult to stomach. went beyond workshop status, though no one Coproduced by J. J. Abrams. [PG-13]쩠 can accuse the filmmakers of taking the easy Clown, The (1953) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert way out. Well performed, under the circumZ. Leonard. Red Skelton, Tim Considine, stances. Coproduced by Ron Howard! [R]▼ Jane Greer, Loring Smith, Philip Ober. Close to Eden (1992-Russian) C-106m. Sentimental remake of THE CHAMP about ★★★ D: Nikita Mikhalkov. Badema, Byaertu, a washed-up, self-destructive comic with a Vladimir Gostukhin, Babushka, Larissa Kuzdevoted son who looks out for him. Skelnetsova, Jon Bochinski, Bao Yongyan. Ruston’s not bad in rare dramatic role; Considine sian truckdriver accidentally comes into the is so good he overcomes some of the lives of a Mongol family, adroitly raising the hokiness of script. Charles Bronson has a question of who’s ‘‘civilized’’ and who isn’t. bit role in dice game scene.▼ Beautifully filmed in the Mongolian steppe Clowns, The (1971-Italian) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 region of inner China by the acclaimed direcD: Federico Fellini. Fellini’s homage to circus tor of DARK EYES. Worth seeing.▼ clowns is itself a clownish spoof of documenClose to My Heart (1951) 90m. ★★★ D: taries, a funny, fully entertaining piece of William Keighley. Ray Milland, Gene fluff from this great director, even making Tierney, Fay Bainter, Howard St. John. fun of himself. Made for Italian TV. [G]▼ Superior soaper; Tierney attaches herself Club, The (1980-Australian) C-99m. ★★★ to waif in Bainter’s orphanage, but husD: Bruce Beresford. Jack Thompson, Graband Milland won’t allow adoption until ham Kennedy, Frank Wilson, Harold Hopchild’s background is traced.쩠 kins, John Howard. Thompson is excellent Close Your Eyes (2003-British) C-103m. as a football coach in this searing drama about [ 261 ]

off-the-field politics in a football club. anna Cassidy, Andrea Martin, Robin Script by David Williamson, based on his Duke, Mary Gross, Simon Jones, Carey play. Aka PLAYERS. Panavision. ▼ Lowell. Pleasant cast in pleasant surroundClub Dead SEE: Terror House ings, lacking only a script and a few more Club Dread (2004) C-104m. BOMB D: laughs. Williams plays Chicago fireman Jay Chandrasekhar. Bill Paxton, Jay Chanwho retires to West Indian island, goes drasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, halfies with native Cliff on turning ramPaul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Jordan Ladd, shackle beachfront property into vacation Brittany Daniel, M.C. Gainey, Lindsay Price. resort. Writers even try to shoehorn a ‘‘seriYes, dreadful comedy/horror film about an ous’’ subplot about exploitation of the naisland resort populated by college-age partytives into the proceedings! Best of all is ers and a serial murderer who’s offing the Cliff’s almost nonstop music; his perforstaff. Written by and starring members of mance isn’t bad, either. [PG-13]▼●쩠 the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It’s not a Clue (1985) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan good sign when the audience is rooting for Lynn. Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline the killer. Unrated version also available. Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, On-screen title: BROKEN LIZARD’S Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen CLUB DREAD. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Camp, Lee Ving, Bill Henderson, Howard Club Extinction (1990-German-ItalianHesseman. Silly comic whodunit based on the French) C-112m. ★★ D: Claude Chabrol. popular board game of the same name with Alan Bates, Jennifer Beals, Jan Niklas, all the familiar characters (Mrs. Peacock, Hans Zischler, Benoit Regent, Peter Fitz, Colonel Mustard, Miss Scarlet, et al.) gathered Andrew McCarthy, Wolfgang Preiss, Isolde for a murderous night in a Victorian mansion. Barth. A wave of suicides shocks nearEveryone tries very hard—too hard, since future Berlin; police investigator Niklas the script, by first-time feature director Lynn, begins to suspect involvement of Beals, is so slim; addle-brained Brennan and puckspokesperson for an Edenlike resort, who’s ish butler Curry come off best. When this linked to media baron Dr. Marsfeldt (Bates). played theatrically, audiences saw one of Chabrol’s attempt at updating Dr. Mabuse three alternate endings. Video has all three in a row to total 96m. [PG]▼●쩠 (film credits Norbert Jacques’ original novel, Mabuse der Spieler) misfires; Bates Clueless (1995) C-97m. ★★★ D: Amy Heckis miscast, and film lacks any thematic resoerling. Alicia Silverstone, Stacey Dash, nances. Still, an interesting curiosity. EuroBrittany Murphy, Paul Rudd, Donald Faipean title: DR. M. Shot in English. [R]▼● son, Breckin Meyer, Jeremy Sisto, Justin ★★ Clubland (1999) C-94m. D: Mary LamWalker, Elisa Donovan, Dan Hedaya, Walbert. Jimmy Tuckett, Lori Petty, Brad Hunt, lace Shawn, Twink Caplan, Julie Brown. Heather Stephens, Rodney Eastman, Buddy Sharp, funny, original take on Beverly Hills Quaid, Terence Trent D’Arby, Alexis Arhigh school teens of the ’90s, by the director quette, Steven Tyler. Young man and his of FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH buddies are determined to make it big in the (and based—believe it or not—on Jane music world by performing at a trendy club Austen’s Emma). Silverstone is perfect as on L .A.’s Sunset Strip, but they have to Cher, who with her best friend Dionne— deal with sleazy promoters and personality they’re both named after famous pop singproblems within the band. Contemporary ers—knows everything about being gormusic and trappings can’t disguise, or overgeous, popular, and always in vogue. This come, a soggy story that might have been made laugh-out-loud satire is never mean, which as a 1930s B movie. Written by successful is a big part of its charm; it also introduces music producer Glen Ballard. [R]▼쩠 wonderfully funny vernacular, which we Clubland SEE: Introducing the Dwights won’t spoil by reciting here. As if! HeckerClub Life (1985) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman ling also scripted. Later a TV series. [PGThaddeus Vane. Tony Curtis, Tom Par13] ▼●쩠 sekian, Dee Wallace, Michael Parks, Jamie Cluny Brown (1946) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Barrett, Ron Kuhlman, Yana Nirvana, Pat Ernst Lubitsch. Charles Boyer, Jennifer Ast. Hunk Parsekian arrives in Hollywood Jones, Peter Lawford, Helen Walker, Regiwith stars in his eyes, hoping for a movie nald Gardiner, C. Aubrey Smith, Reginald career; instead, he finds himself toiling as a Owen, Richard Haydn, Sara Allgood, Erbouncer in Curtis’ bar. Nicely stylized and nest Cossart, Una O’Connor, Florence acted (if all-too-familiar) tale of Tinseltown Bates, Christopher Severn. Delightful comdecadence. How could you not like a film in edy which charts the evolving relationship which Ast appears as a lesbian bar owner between orphan Jones and penniless Czech named Butch? Vane also produced and refugee professor Boyer in pre–WW2 Enscripted.▼ gland. Takes hilarious pot-shots at the BritClub Paradise (1986) C-104m. ★★ ish class system, with the help of a sterling D: Harold Ramis. Robin Williams, Peter cast of character actors. Screenplay by SamO’Toole, Rick Moranis, Jimmy Cliff, uel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt, Twiggy, Adolph Caesar, Eugene Levy, Jofrom Margery Sharp’s novel. [ 262 ]

C’mon, Let’s Live a Little (1967) C-85m. Strained road comedy, often abrasive, with occasional laughs. [PG]▼● BOMB D: David Butler. Bobby Vee, Jackie De Shannon, Eddie Hodges, John Ireland, Jr., Cobb (1994) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ron ShelSuzie Kaye, Bo Belinsky, Patsy Kelly, Kim ton. Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Wuhl, Lolita Carnes. Folk singer Vee enrolls in college, Davidovich, Lou Myers, Stephen Mendillo, romances De Shannon, is manipulated by William Utay, J. Kenneth Campbell. Porstudent radical Ireland. Perfectly awful. trait of Ty Cobb—widely regarded as the Techniscope. greatest baseball player of all time—as an Coach (1978) C-100m. ★★ D: Bud Townold, eccentric, embittered man, determined send. Cathy Lee Crosby, Michael Biehn, to tell his sanitized life story to sportswriter Keenan Wynn, Steve Nevil, Channing Al Stump (Wuhl). Perhaps a Hollywood Clarkson, Sydney Wicks. Olympic gold first: a biopic that reveals its subject as the medal winner Crosby is accidentally hired meanest sonofabitch who ever lived, with as a high school basketball coach for boys. no redeeming qualities whatever. FascinatExploitation film that turns out disappointing for a while, but gets redundant. Worth ingly tame and predictable. [PG]▼쩠 seeing for Jones’ commanding perforCoach Carter (2005) C-137m. ★★1⁄2 D: mance. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Thomas Carter. Samuel L. Jackson, Rob Cobra (1986) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: George P. Brown, Robert Ri’chard, Rick Gonzalez, Cosmatos. Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte NielNana Gbewonyo, Antwon Tanner, Chansen, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson, Lee ning Tatum, Ashanti, Texas Battle, Denise Garlington, John Herzfeld, Art Le Fleur, Dowse, Vincent Laresca, Sidney Faison, Brian Thompson, David Rasche, Val Debbi Morgan, Ray Baker, Marc McClure. Avery. Once more, Stallone wraps himself New high school basketball coach in a in the American flag and fights for the working-class California town is detergreater glory of mankind by going after mined to teach his rowdy players discipline criminal vermin; this time, he’s a cop. and respect. Even when they start winning, Typical low-grade action fare, where all he pushes them further, insisting that they the other cops are stubborn dummies, and improve their grades to earn the title ‘‘stuall the bad guys are repellent creeps. Some good action sequences. [R]▼●쩠 dent athletes’’ and win a chance of going on to college. A few climaxes too many are the Cobra Woman (1944) C-70m. ★★★ D: main debit in this inspirational saga, with Robert Siodmak. Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Jackson a perfect choice to play the real-life Sabu, Lon Chaney (Jr.), Edgar Barrier, Lois Ken Carter. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Collier, Mary Nash. Camp classic, with isCoal Miner’s Daughter (1980) C-125m. land beauty Montez, set to wed Hall, finding ★★★1 herself kidnapped and discovering she has ⁄2 D: Michael Apted. Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Beverly D’Angelo, an evil twin sister. Sabu plays Hall’s faithful Levon Helm, Phyllis Boyens, Ernest Tubb. (and ever-so-goofy) companion Kado. CoRags-to-riches story of country singer Loscripted by Richard Brooks! Cobweb, The (1955) C-124m. ★★ D: retta Lynn is among the best musical bios ever made, though final quarter does slide Vincente Minnelli. Richard Widmark, over some ‘‘down side’’ details. Spacek won Lauren Bacall, Gloria Grahame, Charles well-deserved Oscar (and did her own singBoyer, Lillian Gish, John Kerr, Susan ing), but Jones, D’Angelo, and Helm (drumStrasberg, Oscar Levant, Tommy Rettig, mer for The Band) are just as good. Paul Stewart, Adele Jergens. Good cast in Screenplay by Tom Rickman. [PG]▼●쩠 static soaper detailing the goings-on in Coast of Skeletons (1964-British) C-91m. psychiatric clinic headed by Dr. Widmark; ★★ of course, some of the personnel are more D: Robert Lynn. Richard Todd, Dale Robertson, Heinz Drache, Marianne Koch, unbalanced than the patients. Scripted by Elga Andersen, Derek Nimmo. Edgar John Paxton, produced by John HouseWallace’s Sanders of the River is basis for man. Film debuts of Strasberg and Kerr. largely rewritten tale of ex-officer hired to CinemaScope.● investigate scuttling of American tycoon’s Coca-Cola Kid, The (1985-Australian) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dusan Makavejev. Eric African diamond operation. Todd repeats role he played in SANDERS (DEATH Roberts, Greta Scacchi, Bill Kerr, Chris DRUMS ALONG THE RIVER). TechniHaywood, Kris McQuade, Max Gillies, scope. Rebecca Smart. Droll, sometimes wacky Coast of Terror SEE: Summer City comedy about a hotshot Coca-Cola sales Coast to Coast (1980) C-95m. ★★ D: exec sent on mission to Australia, leading Joseph Sargent. Dyan Cannon, Robert to various misadventures. Roberts’ perforBlake, Quinn Redeker, Michael Lerner, mance strictly a matter of taste, as is this offMaxine Stuart, Bill Lucking. A nutty woman beat, mildly satiric film. Sexy Scacchi is the (who’s been institutionalized by her divorcebest thing in the picture. [R]▼●쩠 seeking husband) escapes from a sanitarCocaine Cowboys (1979) C-87m. BOMB ium and travels cross-country with trucker D: Ulli Lommel. Jack Palance, Tom SulliBlake, who’s got problems of his own. van, Andy Warhol, Suzanna Love, Pete [ 263 ]

Huckabee. Dreadful film about rock group Harpo, Chico, Zeppo Marx, Kay Francis, that supports itself ‘‘between engagements’’ Oscar Shaw, Mary Eaton, Margaret Duby dope smuggling; filmed at Warhol’s Monmont. The Marxes’ first film suffers from tauk home, where this film should have stagy filming and stale musical subplot, but remained. [R]▼쩠 when the brothers have scenes to themselves ★★★ Cocaine Cowboys (2006) C-118m. it’s a riot; highlights include hilarious aucD: Billy Corben. Pumped-up, gruesome docution, classic ‘‘viaduct’’ routine.▼●쩠 mentary expose´ about the Colombian drug Cocoon (1985) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ron lords’ invasion of Miami in the 1970s–’80s, Howard. Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, and how they turned it into the blood money Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy, Jack Gilcapital of the U.S., or so the movie asserts. ford, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, Like a prequel to SCARFACE (1983), but Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon, Herta Ware, built of chilling, often contradictory interTahnee Welch, Barret Oliver, Linda Harviews with charismatic criminals and deterrison, Tyrone Power, Jr., Clint Howard. mined police, it details the smugglers’ Florida senior citizens discover an actual elaborate strategies as they try to outsmart fountain of youth in this warm, humanistic the DEA and outshoot rival Cuban gangs. fantasy-drama, marred only by derivative and Too flashy and too long, but graphically too literal science-fiction finale. What a pleapersuasive. Followed by a DVD sequel. sure to watch this cast at work! (Ameche Digital Video/Super 35. [R]쩠 won Best Supporting Actor Oscar.) ScreenCockeyed Cavaliers (1934) 72m. ★★★ D: play by Tom Benedek, from David SaperMark Sandrich. Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolstein’s novel; another impressive directing sey, Thelma Todd, Dorothy Lee, Noah Beery, job by Howard. Followed by a sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Franklin Pangborn. Colorful costume comedy with Wheeler & Woolsey trying to crash into Cocoon: The Return (1988) C-116m. ★★ society by posing as the King’s physicians; D: Daniel Petrie. Don Ameche, Jack Gilford, lively mix of slapstick, puns, and music.▼ Gwen Verdon, Maureen Stapleton, Steve GutCockfighter (1974) C-83m. ★★★ D: Monte tenberg, Hume Cronyn, Jessica tTandy, WilHellman. Warren Oates, Richard B. Shull, ford Brimley, Elaine Stritch, Tahnee Welch, Harry Dean Stanton, Troy Donahue, MilCourteney Cox. Disappointing follow-up in lie Perkins. Offbeat, violent but interesting which the elderly earthlings return for a visit drama of a man who trains fighting cocks in to their home planet. Most of the magic and Georgia. Oates is silent until the very end, warmth of the original are missing; while it’s his thoughts serving as narration. Filmed always a joy to see Ameche and company onin Georgia. Aka BORN TO KILL, WILD screen, the actors are unable to transcend their material. [PG]▼●쩠 DRIFTER, GAMBLIN’ MAN. [R]▼쩠 Cockleshell Heroes, The (1955-British) Code, The (1968) SEE: Farewell, Friend Code, The (2002-French) C-106m. ★★ D: C-97m. ★★ D: Jose Ferrer. Jose Ferrer, Trevor Howard, Dora Bryan, Anthony Manuel Boursinhac. Samuel Le Bihan, Samy Newley, Victor Maddern, Christopher Lee. Naceri, Clotilde Courau, Marie Guillard, MiSpecial task force is trained in the use of chel Duchaussoy, Philippe Nahon, Francis kayaks for WW2 mission. Film never gels. Renaud. Routine, brutal gangster drama in CinemaScope. which an ex-con who wants to leave his crimiCocktail (1988) C-100m. ★★ D: Roger nal life behind is sucked back in one more time. Donaldson. Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, All the usual cliche´s of this film genre are trotElisabeth Shue, Lisa Banes, Laurence ted out with a French accent. Film never finds Luckinbill, Kelly Lynch, Gina Gershon, a tone that makes it any different from dozens Ron Dean, Paul Benedict. Young hotshot of other GODFATHER wannabes. Aka LE comes to N.Y.C. to make his fortune, MENTALE. Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 but winds up becoming a ‘‘hot’’ bartenCode 46 (2003-British) C-92m. ★★ D: Mider instead, under the tutelage of selfchael Winterbottom. Tim Robbins, Samanstyled barman/philosopher Brown. Cruise tha Morton, Jeanne Balibar, Om Puri, Essie flashes his smile, Shue is cute, but that Davis, Shelley King, David Fahm, Togo can’t redeem the junior-high-school–level Igawa. In the near future, government investigator Robbins is sent to Shanghai to undramatics. [R]▼●쩠 Cocktail Molotov (1980-French) C-100m. cover the source of forged identity passes, ★★★ D: Diane Kurys. Elise Caron, Philippe without which people of the world are Lebas, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Genevieve Fontalocked outside the gates of major cities to nel, Henri Garcin, Michel Puterflam. Pleasfend for themselves amidst the mob. But the ant follow-up to PEPPERMINT SODA, with normally businesslike agent becomes emoa trio of teenagers wandering through Europe tionally entangled with the woman who is at the time of the ’68 student rebellion. his chief suspect. Intriguing idea is termiCaron, Lebas, and Cluzet are attractive as nally aloof and gives us no one to care the youngsters testing their wings. [R]▼ about. Super 35. [R]쩠 Cocoanuts, The (1929) 96m. ★★★ D: JoCode Name: Emerald (1985) C-95m. ★★ seph Santley, Robert Florey. Groucho, D: Jonathan Sanger. Ed Harris, Max von [ 264 ]

Sydow, Horst Buchholz, Helmut Berger, Coeurs (2006-French-Italian) C-123m. ★★★ Cyrielle Claire, Eric Stoltz, Patrick StewD: Alain Resnais. Sabine Aze´ma, Lambert art, Graham Crowden. Old-fashioned WW2 Wilson, Andre´ Dussollier, Pierre Arditi, espionage tale has Harris as a double agent Laura Morante, Isabelle Carre´. In snowy in plot to capture an Overlord (person with Paris, various characters who are loosely information on the plans for the D-Day inconnected go about their lives and look for vasion). Credibility is undermined by mislove in all the wrong places. Meditative excasting of Stoltz, who looks way too young ploration of the human condition astutely to be an intelligence lieutenant and the target scrutinizes the way people present themOverlord. [PG]▼● selves to others. What are they looking for? Code Name: The Cleaner (2007) C-84m. What will they settle for? How well do they ★1 know the people around them, the people ⁄2 D: Les Mayfield. Cedric the Entertainer, Nicollette Sheridan, Lucy Liu, Mark Dawho pass through their lives? Aka PRIcascos, Will Patton, Callum Keith Rennie, VATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES, the Niecy Nash, DeRay Davis. Call it THE title of the Alan Ayckbourn play on which this is based. Panavision.쩠 BORED IDENTITY. Flat, witless enterprise casts Cedric as a janitor who is sudCoffee and Cigarettes (2004) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: denly swept up into the world of spies and Jim Jarmusch. Roberto Benigni, Steven murder after he is hit in the head and Wright, Joie Lee, Cinque´ Lee, Steve Buscemi, thought to be an undercover agent caught Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, Meg up in a big government conspiracy. Given White, Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coothe kind of lame script Allen and Rossi gan, Bill Murray, GZA, RZA, Taylor Mead. might have made in the ’60s, Cedric walks Seriocomic anthology of vignettes, filmed as a through the film like a guy lost in an old TV series of short films beginning in 1986, about variety show. Liu and Sheridan provide eye actors and musicians partaking in the titular adcandy. [PG-13]쩠 dictive substances. Quintessentially JarmuschCode Name: Trixie SEE: Crazies, The esque in its slow pacing and seemingly random Codename: Wildgeese (1986-Germanchitchat about everything from tea to Tesla coils. Borderline boring at first, but improves Italian) C-101m. ★★ D: Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). Lewis Collins, Lee greatly in its second half with amusing sketches Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Klaus Kinski, involving Blanchett (as herself and her jealous Mimsy Farmer. Action footage redeems this cousin), and Murray meeting up with rappers cornball commando film of Collins and merGZA and RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. Funcenary troops sent to wipe out a Far East niest bit: Brit thesps Molina and Coogan taking drug stronghold. No relation to THE WILD a very Hollywood meeting. [R]▼쩠 GEESE or its sequel. Widescreen. [R]▼ Coffy (1973) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Hill. Code of Silence (1985) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert Andy Davis. Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, Bert DoQui, William Elliott, Allan Arbus, Sid Remsen, Molly Hagan, Joseph Guzaldo, Haig. Fast-moving, generally agreeable trash Mike Genovese, Dennis Farina. Norris plays about nurse who goes after junkies who a loner on Chicago police force who makes turned her young sister into an addict; lots of nudity in Grier’s biggest hit. [R]▼●쩠 his own rules in dealing with violent gang war. In other words, it’s ‘‘Dirty Chuckie.’’ Cohen & Tate (1989) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric Formula action film, and not bad. [R]▼●쩠 Red. Roy Scheider, Adam Baldwin, Harley Code of the Secret Service (1939) 58m. ★1⁄2 Cross, Cooper Huckabee. In this grim variaD: Noel Smith. Ronald Reagan, Rosella tion on O. Henry’s ‘‘Ransom of Red Chief,’’ Towne, Eddie Foy, Jr., Moroni Olsen, Edgar Scheider and Baldwin, the hit men of the Edwards, Jack Mower. Limp actioner with title, murderously kidnap young Cross, sole Lt. Brass Bancroft (Reagan) tangling with witness to a gang killing; story takes place counterfeiters in Mexico. Second of a series, almost entirely in their car. Clumsy irony, following SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR. theatrical style, leaden illogic sink the film Code Unknown (2000-French-Germanearly. Scheider tries hard. [R]▼● Roumanian) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Cold Around the Heart (1997) C-96m. ★★ Haneke. Juliette Binoche, Thierry Neuvic, D: John Ridley. David Caruso, Kelly Lynch, Alexandre Hamidi, Luminita Gheorghiu, Stacey Dash, Chris Noth, John Spencer, Pruitt Ona Lu Yenke, Josef Bierbichler. ChallengTaylor-Vince, Richard Kind. Barely released ing, fascinating tale involving several charand highly derivative thieves-fall-out crime acters, most of them strangers, whose lives drama. Grungy-looking Caruso is out for rebecome briefly intertwined on a Paris street venge against ruthless femme fatale Lynch corner. They include an actress (Binoche), when she double-crosses him after a jewel the discontented brother of her photojourheist. Decent cast helps, but it’s nothing you nalist lover, a young teacher of African dehaven’t seen done better about a million scent, and a Roumanian illegal immigrant. times before. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 This trenchant look at racism and emotional Coldblooded (1995) C-91m. ★★ D: M. disconnection also offers food for thought Wallace Wolodarsky. Jason Priestley, Peter about the nature of cinematic reality. ▼쩠 Riegert, Kimberly Williams, Janeane Garo[ 265 ]

falo, Robert Loggia, Josh Charles. Black to go to Iceland and trek to the site where comedy about a nerdy young bookkeeper his parents died, so their souls can rest in for the mob who finally gets a chance to peace. In Iceland, there is plenty of snow, become a full-fledged hit man—and adapts ice, and cold, and Atsushi is most definitely to the job better than he ever dreamed. Love a stranger in a strange land. Coscripted by soon complicates the picture, and also bogs the director and Jim Stark, the producer of down what could have been a clever, if several Jim Jarmusch films. Panavision.▼ twisted, story. This ‘‘hit’’ is a miss. Look Cold Heaven (1992) C-105m. ★★ D: Nicfor Michael J. Fox (who coproduced the olas Roeg. Theresa Russell, Mark Harfilm) in a cameo. [R]▼ mon, James Russo, Talia Shire, Will Patton, Cold Comfort Farm (1995-British) CRichard Bradford. Adulterous wife (Rus95m. ★★★ D: John Schlesinger. Eileen Atsell) is on the verge of telling her husband kins, Kate Beckinsale, Sheila Burrell, Ste(Harmon) that she is dumping him when phen Fry, Freddie Jones, Joanna Lumley, he is killed in a gruesome vacation boating Ian McKellen, Miriam Margolyes, Rufus accident—or is he? Russell’s guilt and Sewell. Deliciously eccentric comedy about paranoia bring on a host of ponderous a well-bred young woman who goes to live sturm und drang encounters and experiences. Lifeless and confusing. [R]▼● with distant relatives at their spooky old farm, which is dominated by a dotty grandColditz Story, The (1957-British) 97m. ★★★1 mother living in the attic. Our heroine then ⁄2 D: Guy Hamilton. John Mills, Eric implacably sets about reordering their lives! Portman, Christopher Rhodes, Lionel Jeffries, Good fun, based on a 1932 novel by Stella Bryan Forbes, Ian Carmichael, Richard Gibbons. Made for British TV. [PG]▼●쩠 Wattis, Anton Diffring, Theodore Bikel. Cold Creek Manor (2003) C-119m. ★★ D: Super-solid POW saga set in Germany’s ColMike Figgis. Dennis Quaid, Sharon Stone, ditz Castle, supposedly ‘‘escape-proof’’ but Stephen Dorff, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Stewchallenged by various European prisoners, art, Ryan Wilson, Dana Eskelson, Christoand a hardy British group in particular.▼쩠 pher Plummer. Something new in thrillers: Cold Mountain (2003-British-Romaniana story devoid of suspense. Manhattanites Italian-U.S.) C-155m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Quaid and Stone decide to move out of the Minghella. Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Rene´e city and give their kids a better life. They Zellweger, Eileen Atkins, Brendan Gleeson, buy a run-down mansion in a rural, insular Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, community and soon encounter the resentGiovanni Ribisi, Donald Sutherland, Ray ful former owner (Dorff), who lost the Winstone, Kathy Baker, James Gammon, house in a foreclosure just before he went to Charlie Hunnam, Jack White, Ethan Suplee, jail for manslaughter. Obvious at every turn, Jena Malone, Melora Walters, Lucas Black, and overlong to boot; the supposed scare Taryn Manning, Tom Aldredge, James moments are pallid at best. [R] ▼쩠 Rebhorn, Cillian Murphy. A shy young man Cold Feet (1984) C-96m. ★★ D: Bruce and a minister’s daughter make a brief but van Dusen. Griffin Dunne, Marissa Chibas, passionate connection before he marches Blanche Baker, Mark Cronogue, Joseph Leon, off to fight for the Confederacy in the Civil Marcia Jean Kurtz. A couple of chuckles are War . . . and the thought of each other susnot enough to save this sluggish comedy about tains them through the hell they both enthe courtship of Dunne and Chibas, who’ve dure. Minghella’s adaptation of the Charles been unlucky in love before. Baker steals the Frazier best-seller captures both the grimfilm as Dunne’s flaky ex-wife. [PG]▼ ness of battle and the starkness of life on ★1 Cold Feet (1989) C-94m. ⁄2 D: Robert the home front in the South. Meticulously Dornhelm. Keith Carradine, Sally Kirkland, crafted by such outstanding talents as cineTom Waits, Rip Torn, Bill Pullman, Kathmatographer John Seale, film editor Walter leen York, Vincent Schiavelli. Carradine Murch, production designer Dante Ferretti, and Waits (the latter near-psychotic) costume designer Ann Roth (with Carlo squabble for hundreds of miles over a horse; Poggioli), and composer Gabriel Yared, marriage-hungry Kirkland is the flake who among others, with first-rate performances rounds out the threesome. Reminiscent in all around. Oscar winner for Best Supporttone of coscripter Thomas McGuane’s ing Actress (Zellweger). Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 RANCHO DELUXE (which pops up on a Cold Steel (1987) C-90m. ★★ D: Dorothy theater marquee here)—but without the Ann Puzo. Brad Davis, Sharon Stone, Jonlaughs; RANCHO’S Jeff Bridges is unathan Banks, Jay Acovone, Adam Ant, Eddie billed as a smalltown bartender. [R]▼●쩠 Egan. Standard actioner about cop Davis, Cold Fever (1995-U.S.-Iceland) C-82m. his father murdered by disfigured psychotic ★★★ D: Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. Masatoshi Banks; he seeks revenge, natch. [R]▼쩠 Nagase, Lili Taylor, Fisher Stevens, Gisli Cold Sweat (1971-French-Italian) C-94m. ★★ D: Terence Young. Charles Bronson, Halldorsson, Laura Hughes, Seijun Suzuki. Amiable, Jarmusch-like comic road movie Liv Ullmann, James Mason, Jill Ireland, that charts the adventures of Atsushi (NaMichel Constantin, Gabriele Ferzetti. Richgase), a Japanese businessman who decides ard Matheson’s thriller Ride the Nightmare [ 266 ]

has been converted into a predictable acCollege (1927) 65m. ★★★ D: James W. tion movie with Bronson as American exHorne. Buster Keaton, Anne Cornwall, patriate in France forced into the drug Flora Bramley, Harold Goodwin, Grant trade by crime czar Mason. [PG]▼●쩠 Withers, Snitz Edwards. Highbrow student Cold Turkey (1971) C-99m. ★★★ D: NorBuster has to become an all-star athlete to man Lear. Dick Van Dyke, Pippa Scott, Tom please his girlfriend; episodic gag structure Poston, Bob Newhart, Vincent Gardenia, makes this less impressive than other Keaton Barnard Hughes, Edward Everett Horton, features, but it’s awfully funny.▼●쩠 Jean Stapleton, Graham Jarvis. Bittersweet College (2008) C-94m. BOMB D: Deb satire of contemporary America; minister Hagan. Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell, AnVan Dyke leads township crusade to stop dree Moss, Carolyn Moss, Kevin Covais, smoking, in order to win mammoth conRyan Pinkston, Haley Bennett, Nick Zano. test. Trenchant finale doesn’t entirely gibe Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: with rest of film; still worthwhile, with three high school seniors (a fat one, a geeky Bob & Ray hilarious as newscasters. Fine one, a hunky one) take a weekend trip to score by Randy Newman; Horton’s last check out a university campus and get infilm. Made in 1969. [PG]▼● doctrinated by a bunch of mean fraternity Cold Wind in August, A (1961) 80m. brothers. Chock-full of typical adolescent ★★1⁄2 D: Alexander Singer. Lola Albright, behavior, gross-out gags, sex, and nudity; Scott Marlowe, Herschel Bernardi, Joe De you won’t need a college degree to smell Santis. Offbeat account of tenement boy this turkey a mile away. Barely released to theaters. [R]쩠 Marlowe having affair with stripper Albright; frank, flavorful tale. College Confidential (1960) 91m. ★1⁄2 D: Colin Nutley’s House of Angels SEE: Albert Zugsmith. Steve Allen, Jayne MeadHouse of Angels ows, Mamie Van Doren, Walter Winchell, Collateral (2004) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiHerbert Marshall, Cathy Crosby, Conway chael Mann. Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Twitty, Ziva Rodann, Mickey Shaughnessy. Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Berg, Idiocy involving sociology professor Allen Bruce McGill, Javier Bardem, Irma P. Hall, and what happens when he surveys the Barry Shabaka Henley, Bodhi Elfman, Debi sexual activities of his students. ‘‘Special Mazar, Richard T. Jones, Jason Statham. Guests’’ include Rocky Marciano, Sheilah L.A. cab driver Foxx, who dreams of runGraham, Pamela Mason, and Earl Wilson. ning his own business, picks up the wrong College Road Trip (2008) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: passenger (visiting hit man Cruise) and beRoger Kumble. Martin Lawrence, Ravencomes embroiled in a long night of maySymone´, Donny Osmond, Brenda Song, hem. Crisp action thriller, well shot in a Margo Harshman, Lucas Grabeel, Will digital format on L.A. locations, builds inSasso, Josh Meyers, Molly Ephraim, Kym teresting characterizations, then tosses credE. Whitley, Eshaya Draper, Arnetia Walker. ibility down the drain during the climax. Officer Porter (Lawrence) has planned out Still quite watchable, with a strong supportevery single part of his daughter’s life, even ing cast backing up the stars. Panavision/ deciding what college she’ll attend close to HD 24P Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 home. When she informs him that she’d like Collateral Damage (2002) C-109m. ★★ D: to apply to schools that are farther away, he Andrew Davis. Arnold Schwarzenegger, organizes a road trip in hopes of changing Elias Koteas, Francesca Neri, Cliff Curtis, her mind. Intertwining remarkable amounts Miguel Sandoval, Harry Lennix, John Legof cheesiness with good-natured comedy, uizamo, John Turturro, Lindsay Frost. L.A. this film goes for all the obvious gags but fireman sees his wife and son killed in a suits the family audience for whom it was bombing—and vows revenge on the terrormade. Super 35. [G]쩠 ist who made it happen, even if it means Collision Course (1968) SEE: Bamboo stalking him in the jungles of Colombia. No Saucer, The worse than any number of other SchwarzenCollision Course (1987) C-96m. ★★ D: egger action vehicles, with a high body Lewis Teague. Jay Leno, Pat Morita, Chris count, a superhuman hero, and a couple of Sarandon, Ernie Hudson, John Hancock, Al villains who simply refuse to die . . . but Waxman, Randall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, Soonwe’ve seen it all before, done better. AnachTeck Oh. Cops Morita (from Japan) and ronistic (to say the least) in the wake of the Leno (from Detroit) link up on a case. Sept. 11, 2001, attack on America. [R]▼쩠 Harmless, occasionally funny, instantly forCollector, The (1965) C-119m. ★★★ D: gettable buddy movie. Leno’s only starring William Wyler. Terence Stamp, Samantha role to date. [PG]▼●쩠 Eggar, Maurice Dallimore, Mona WashColonel Blimp SEE: Life and Death of bourne. Disturbing story of man who colColonel Blimp, The lects more than just butterflies, which is Colonel Chabert (1994-French) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yves Angelou. Ge ´ rard Depardieu, where Eggar fits in. Chilling, if not altogether believable. Based on the novel by Fanny Ardant, Andre Dussollier, Fabrice John Fowles.▼●쩠 Luchini, Daniel Prevost, Olivier Saladin, [ 267 ]

Claude Rich, Albert Delpy, Romane Bohcoexecutive produced. Full title is COLOR ME KUBRICK: A TRUE . . . ISH STORY.쩠 ringer, Julie Depardieu. Respectable costumer, adapted from a Balzac novel, about the Color of Money, The (1986) C-119m. ★★★ belated return of an officer supposedly killed D: Martin Scorsese. Paul Newman, in the Napoleonic wars and the effect it has Tom Cruise, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, on his so-called widow (who’s using his inHelen Shaver, John Turturro, Bill Cobbs, heritance to boost husband no. 2’s career). Robert Agins, Forest Whitaker. Sharply Well acted and well mounted, but the laundry made, nicely textured sequel to THE HUSput in extra starch; debuting director Angelou TLER, with Newman’s Fast Eddie Felson is the esteemed cinematographer of TOUT finding a younger, greener version of himself LES MATINS DU MONDE and UN in small-time pool hotshot Cruise, whom he COEUR EN HIVER. Julie Depardieu is the decides to promote for another shot at the actor’s daughter. ▼ big time. Hardboiled script by Richard Price, Colonel Redl (1985-German-Hungarianflashy direction by Scorsese, flamboyant camAustrian) C-149m. ★★★ D: Istvan Szabo. erawork by Michael Ballhaus, and top-notch Klaus Maria Brandauer, Armin Mullerperformances by Cruise and especially NewStahl, Gudrun Landgrebe, Jan Niklas, Hansman make this a must-see . . . though film’s Christian Blech, Laszlo Mensaros, Andras second half is protracted and disappointing, Balint. Complex, fascinating account— with a hoped-for climax that never occurs. inspired by John Osborne’s A Patriot for Me Newman finally picked up an Academy as well as by actual historical evidence—of an Award for his fine work here. [R]▼●쩠 ambitious, homosexual career soldier, whose Color of Night (1994) C-125m. BOMB D: ordinary family background does not hinder Richard Rush. Bruce Willis, Jane March, his rise to a position of high military rank in Ruben Blades, Lesley Ann Warren, Scott the Austro-Hungarian Empire prior to WW1. Bakula, Brad Dourif, Lance Henriksen, An incisive examination of the politics of Kevin J. O’Connor, Andrew Lowery, Eriq power, highlighted by a superb Brandauer La Salle, Jeff Corey, Kathleen Wilhoite, performance. Second in a trilogy, after Shirley Knight. Ludicrous thriller in which MEPHISTO and followed by HANUSSEN. weirded-out therapist Willis (whose patient [R]▼●쩠 has just committed suicide before his eyes) Colorado Territory (1949) 94m. ★★★ D: heads to L.A. for a breather; he immediately Raoul Walsh. Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, finds himself immersed in a murder mysDorothy Malone, Henry Hull, John Archtery, and involved with mysterious March. er, Frank Puglia. Strong, fast-moving WestMuch-publicized sex scenes aren’t very sexy; ern with McCrea an outlaw on the lam; this garnered hype for the editing of Willis’ remake of director Walsh’s HIGH SIERfull frontal nudity to earn an R rating. Also on RA, later remade as I DIED A THOUvideo in an ‘‘R-rated director’s cut,’’ with SAND TIMES. Also shown in computer17m. of extra footage, including more of colored version. Bruce-in-the-buff and some sexy scenes with Color Me Dead (1969-U.S.-Australian) Warren and March. Rush’s first feature since C-97m. ★★ D: Eddie Davis. Tom Tryon, THE STUNT MAN (1980). [R]▼●쩠 Carolyn Jones, Rick Jason, Patricia Connolly, Color of Paradise, The (1999-Iranian) CTony Ward. Story of a slowly poisoned 88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Majid Majidi. Hossein Mahman spending his last days tracking down jub, Salime Feizi, Mohsen Ramezani, Elham his own murderer was done better as Sharim, Farahnaz Safari, Mohammad RahmaD.O.A. in 1950. Aka D.O.A. II. [R]▼ ney. A blind eight-year-old Iranian student, Color Me Kubrick (2007-French-British) who is deeply sensitive to nature, returns to C-86m. ★★★ D: Brian Cook. John Malkovhis home in the heights of Northern Iran, ich, Jim Davidson, Richard E. Grant, Luke where he must cope with a father who considMably, Marc Warren, Terence Rigby, James ers him a burden. Simple story, beautifully Dreyfus, Peter Bowles, Ayesha Dharker, told, with writer-director Majidi eloquently Robert Powell, Leslie Phillips, Honor Blackconveying the young boy’s harmony with the man, William Hootkins, Marisa Berenson, world around him. [PG]▼쩠 Peter Sallis, Ken Russell. Sardonically witty, Color Purple, The (1985) C-152m. ★★★1⁄2 fact-based account of Alan Conway (MalkovD: Steven Spielberg. Danny Glover, Whooich, in a richly textured performance), a pi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Oprah Winflamboyantly gay con artist who convinces frey, Willard Pugh, Akosua Busia, Desreta ambitious wannabes in London that he is Jackson, Adolph Caesar, Rae Dawn Chong, Stanley Kubrick, squeezing them for money, Dana Ivey, Larry Fishburne. A black girl’s life sex, and other favors. A lucid portrait of a and hard times in the South, spanning some 40 deeply troubled personality and a rumination years: a sprawling saga of characters both fruson the power of fame. Soundtrack effectively trated and fulfilled, and at the center a Survivor. borrows from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Spielberg’s controversial interpretation of and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE; the direcAlice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book tor and screenwriter (Anthony Frewin) are will either grab you emotionally (in which case former Kubrick associates. Luc Besson you’ll overlook its flaws) or leave you cold. [ 268 ]

Masterfully filmed from Menno Meyjes’s matched adversaries in original suspenser script, with striking cinematography by Allen that combines best of hospital pictures and Daviau, moving music score by Quincy Jones mystery thrillers; scripted by director (who also coproduced). Rich performances Crichton from Robin Cook’s novel. Look include screen debut for Winfrey. (Avery’s for Tom Selleck as Murphy, Ed Harris as a pathology resident. [PG]▼●쩠 singing was dubbed, by the way.) Later a Comancheros, The (1961) C-107m. ★★★ D: Broadway musical. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Colors (1988) C-120m. ★★★ D: Dennis Michael Curtiz. John Wayne, Stuart WhitHopper. Sean Penn, Robert Duvall, Maria man, Lee Marvin, Ina Balin, Bruce Cabot, Conchita Alonso, Randy Brooks, Grand Nehemiah Persoff. Well-paced actioner with Bush, Don Cheadle, Rudy Ramos, TriniDuke a Texas Ranger out to bring in gang dad Silva, Damon Wayans, Glenn Plummer. supplying liquor and firearms to the ComanPenn and Duvall are well matched as street ches. Curtiz’ last film. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 cops assigned to gang detail in L.A. Their Comanche Station (1960) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 conflicts and experiences play out against the D: Budd Boetticher. Randolph Scott, backdrop of nihilistic gang life in this realisNancy Gates, Claude Akins, Skip Homeier, tic if unexceptional slice of life. Only seriRichard Rust, Rand Brooks. Scott rescues a ous flaw: unbelievable and unnecessary woman from Indian capture, then runs into subplot with female lead Alonso. Hopper’s an old nemesis who wants to turn her in 127m. version, altered by the theatrical dishimself—for a fat reward. Typically intertributor, is available on video. [R]▼●쩠 esting Boetticher/Scott Western, with a Burt Kennedy script. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Colors Straight Up (1998) C-95m. ★★★ D: Michele Ohayon. Heartfelt, powerful docuComanche Territory (1950) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 mentary about an L.A. inner-city afterD: George Sherman. Maureen O’Hara, Macschool drama program that gives at-risk Black donald Carey, Will Geer, Charles Drake, and Latino teens a chance to strut their stuff Pedro de Cordoba, James Best. So-so Westonstage. Simply and beautifully done, with ern in which Jim Bowie (Carey) tangles some truly amazing young subjects at its cenwith fiery bar owner O’Hara as he aids the ter. One teacher tells the group they must Comanches, whose treaty with the U.S. government is about to expire.▼ learn to ‘‘function in disaster and finish with style,’’ and they do exactly that. Guaranteed Combination Platter (1993) C-84m. ★★★ to move you to tears.▼ D: Tony Chan. Jeff Lau, Colleen O’Brien, Colossus of Rhodes, The (1960-Italian) Lester (Chit-Man) Chan, Colin Mitchell, C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sergio Leone. Rory CalKenneth Lu. A young illegal immigrant houn, Lea Massari, Georges Marchal, from Hong Kong (Lau) toils in a Queens, Conrado Sanmartin, Angel Aranda, Mabel N.Y., Chinese restaurant, and covets U.S. Karr. Big-budget sword-and-sandal speccitizenship—but learns that this may mean tacular about a slave revolt against the having to marry an American, the thought corrupt leaders of ancient Rhodes. Though of which staggers him. Hong Kong–born Calhoun looks mighty uncomfortable in a director-cowriter Chan, himself an immitoga and the dubbing is poor, Leone’s grant, knowingly captures the experience of directorial debut is notable for some wellthe foreigner in America. This marks the staged battle scenes and impressive sets, 23-year-old’s directing debut.▼쩠 including the title edifice. SuperTotalscope.쩠 Come and Get It (1936) 99m. ★★★ D: Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970) Howard Hawks, William Wyler. Edward C-100m. ★★★ D: Joseph Sargent. Eric Arnold, Joel McCrea, Frances Farmer, WalBraeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent, ter Brennan, Andrea Leeds, Frank Shields, William Schallert. Well-directed suspense Mady Christians, Mary Nash. Arnold plays thriller. Computer runs amok and uses its sua self-made empire-builder who fights his perior intelligence to sabotage man at every way to the top in Wisconsin lumber busiturn. Chilling and believable. Aka THE FORness, sacrificing the one love of his life. BIN PROJECT. Panavision.▼●쩠 Farmer has best screen showcase of her caColt .45 (1950) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edwin L. reer, in dual role, as a saloon entertainer and Marin. Randolph Scott, Zachary Scott, (years later) her own daughter; Brennan won Ruth Roman, Lloyd Bridges, Chief Thunhis first Best Supporting Actor Oscar playdercloud. The renowned title gun is star of ing Arnold’s simple Swedish pal. Typically this sometimes action-filled Western. Retiplotty, two-generation Edna Ferber saga. Reissued as ROARING TIMBER. ▼●쩠 tled: THUNDERCLOUD.쩠 Coma (1978) C-113m. ★★★ D: Michael Come and See (1985-Russian) C-142m. ★★★1 Crichton. Genevieve Bujold, Michael ⁄2 D: Elem Klimov. Alexei Kravchenko, Douglas, Elizabeth Ashley, Rip Torn, RichOlga Mironova, Lubomiras Lauciavicus. ard Widmark, Lance LeGault, Lois Chiles. Thoroughly mesmerizing chronicle of the Someone is killing and stealing patients initiation of a young teen (impressively from a big-city hospital, and a woman played by Kravchenko) into the horror and doctor bucks male superiors to pursue her insanity of war, as the Nazis maraud through suspicions. Bujold and Widmark are wellnorthwestern Russia in 1943. An extraor[ 269 ]

dinary film about the need to maintain Cobb, Molly Picon, Barbara Rush, Jill St. one’s humanity and dignity no matter what John, Tony Bill. Sinatra is good as a the situation. Don’t miss this one.▼쩠 free-swinging bachelor with wall-to-wall Come Back, Charleston Blue (1972) girls and a nagging father (Cobb). He also C-100m. ★★ D: Mark Warren. Raymond sings the title song, and teaches kid brother St. Jacques, Godfrey Cambridge, Jonelle (Bill) the ropes. From Neil Simon play. Allen, Adam Wade, Peter DeAnda. FurPanavision.▼ ther adventures of Gravedigger and Coffin Come Dance With Me! (1959-French) Con their Harlem police beat. Loads of 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michel Boisrond. Brigitte Barviolence, no comedy; not nearly as good as dot, Henri Vidal, Dawn Addams, Noel Rooriginal, COTTON COMES TO HARLEM. quevert, Dario Moreno, Philippe Nicaud, Fine Donny Hathaway score. [PG]▼ Serge Gainsbourg. Sometimes amusing mysCome Back, Little Sheba (1952) 99m. tery-comedy with Bardot a pert dentist’s wife ★★★1 who plays detective when her husband is sus⁄2 D: Daniel Mann. Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, Terry Moore, Richard pected of murder. Video title: DO YOU WANT TO DANCE WITH ME?▼쩠 Jaeckel, Philip Ober. William Inge play is emotional tour de force for Booth (who won Comedian (2002) C-81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Chrisan Oscar recreating her Tony Award–winning tian Charles. Jerry Seinfeld has a camera stage role) as slovenly housewife coping with crew follow him during his return to comdrunken ex-chiropractor husband (Lancasedy clubs as he tries to build an all-new ter) and boarder Moore, whose curiosity act. His craftsmanship and confidence are about her landlords sets drama in motion. contrasted with the desperation of an upScreenplay by Ketti Frings. ▼●쩠 and-comer named Orny Adams. Seinfeld Comebacks, The (2007) C-88m. BOMB talks shop with Chris Rock, Ray Romano, D: Tom Brady. David Koechner, Carl Colin Quinn, Jay Leno, Garry Shandling, Weathers, Melora Hardin, Matthew Lawand Bill Cosby in this revealing look at the rence, Brooke Nevin. Lame genre satire world of stand-up comedy. [R] ▼쩠 takes aim at an easy target—inspirational Comedians, The (1967) C-148m. ★★1⁄2 sports dramas such as RUDY, REMEMD: Peter Glenville. Elizabeth Taylor, RichBER THE TITANS, etc.—and repeatedly ard Burton, Alec Guinness, Peter Ustinov, shoots itself in the foot. Slight plot involving Paul Ford, Lillian Gish, Raymond St. a chronically unsuccessful coach (Koechner) Jacques, Zakes Mokae, Roscoe Lee Browne, and his hapless college football team exists Gloria Foster, Georg Stanford Brown, only as an excuse for a fusillade of James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson. Excellent AIRPLANE!-style allusions to other movcast in uninspired adaptation of Graham ies. Really, there’s no excuse for this fiasco. Greene’s novel about political intrigue in Various comics and sports figures appear in Haiti, although film is more interesting cameos. Unrated version runs 107m. [PGtoday, since the departure of Duvalier. Be13]쩠 ware 130m. prints. Panavision.▼쩠 Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Comedy of Innocence, The (2001-French) Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raoul Ruiz. Isabelle HupD: Robert Altman. Sandy Dennis, Cher, pert, Jeanne Balibar, Charles Berling, Edith Karen Black, Sudie Bond, Kathy Bates, Marta Scob, Nils Hugon, Laure de ClermontHeflin. Girlfriends hold 20-year reunion of a Tonnerre. How will Huppert respond when, James Dean fan club they formed when he on his birthday, her young son informs her was filming GIANT in a nearby Texas town; that his mother is actually someone else, a the get-together becomes an occasion for perwoman whose little boy died two years earsonal and painful revelations. Strong perforlier? Eerie psychological drama draws you mances, and Altman’s lively approach to in and keeps you guessing, but leaves too many questions unanswered.▼쩠 filming Ed Graczyk’s Broadway play, can’t completely hide the fact that this is secondComedy of Power (2006-German-French) rate material. Cher’s first film since CHASC-110m. ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Isabelle TITY in 1969. [PG]▼● Huppert, Franc¸ois Berle´and, Patrick Bruel, ★1 Comeback Trail, The (1974) C-80m. ⁄2 Maryline Canto, Thomas Chabrol, JeanD: Harry Hurwitz. Chuck McCann, Buster Franc¸ois Balmer, Pierre Vernier. Huppert Crabbe, Robert Staats, Ina Balin, Jara shines as an obsessive, highly principled inKahout. Two-bit movie czar McCann stars vestigative magistrate (whose surname, apfaded cowboy hero Crabbe in a film, hoppropriately, is ‘‘Killman’’) who is determined ing the resulting disaster will salvage his to topple a gaggle of crooked, high-living studio. Dismal comedy, with occasional politicians and corporate executives. At film buff in-jokes, and guest appearances once a subtle, incisive character study, and by Henny Youngman, Irwin Corey, Hugh an exploration of women, men, and power Hefner, Joe Franklin, and Monte Rock III. and the pervasiveness of corruption in high Never released theatrically. places. Loosely based on one such magisCome Blow Your Horn (1963) C-112m. trate’s real-life investigation of a scandal★★★ D: Bud Yorkin. Frank Sinatra, Lee J. ridden French gas company in the 1990s.쩠 [ 270 ]

Comedy of Terrors, The (1963) C-84m. whose roots are in the land. Low-key to ★★1 the point of catatonia, but offers some ⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Basil Rathbone, beautiful tableaux and moving scenes. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Joe E. Brown, Joyce Jameson. Medium horror spoof with undertaker Price trying to hasten Come See The Paradise (1990) C-138m. ★★ customers’ demise, ‘‘helped’’ by bumbling asD: Alan Parker. Dennis Quaid, Tamlyn sistant Lorre. Great cast; Richard Matheson Tomita, Sab Shimono, Shizuko Hoshi, Stan wrote the screenplay. Panavision.▼●쩠 Egi, Ronald Yamamoto, Akemi Nishino, Come Early Morning (2006) C-97m. ★★★ Naomi Nakano, Brady Tsurutani, Pruitt D: Joey Lauren Adams. Ashley Judd, JefTaylor Vince. Hotheaded union organizer frey Donovan, Laura Prepon, Diane Ladd, Quaid falls in love with Tomita in L.A.’s Scott Wilson, Stacy Keach, Pat Corley, Ray Little Tokyo in the late 1930s; after the McKinnon, Tim Blake Nelson. Judd shines bombing of Pearl Harbor, he is separated as an established contractor who boozes it from his wife and family when they are sent up and parties at night until she finally to a Japanese internment camp. Curiously hooks up with a down-home Arkansas guy aloof and unmoving story fashioned around who sees her as more than a one-night one of the bleaker chapters of American stand. Perfectly cast star knowingly embodhistory; should have been much stronger. ies this lost Southern woman. First feature Written by director Parker. [R]▼●쩠 written and directed by actress Adams is Come September (1961) C-112m. ★★★ D: independent to its core and filled with charRobert Mulligan. Rock Hudson, Gina acter insight. [R]쩠 Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, WalCome Fill the Cup (1951) 113m. ★★1⁄2 D: ter Slezak, Joel Grey. Frothy comedy about Gordon Douglas. James Cagney, Phyllis the younger generation (Darin and Dee) vs. Thaxter, Raymond Massey, James Gleason, the ‘‘older’’ folks (Hudson and Lollobrigida) Gig Young. Cagney is quite restrained as at an Italian villa. Good fun, with some dated ex-newspaperman seeking to conquer alDarin vocals. CinemaScope.▼쩠 coholism. Fine performance by Gleason as Come Spy With Me (1967) C-85m. ★1⁄2 helpful ex-drunk and by Young as drunken D: Marshall Stone. Troy Donahue, Andrea playboy. Dromm, Albert Dekker, Mart Hulswit, Come Fly With Me (1963) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Valerie Allen, Dan Ferrone. Except for Henry Levin. Hugh O’Brian, Pamela Tiffin, those who want to tell their friends they Dolores Hart, Karl Boehm, Lois Nettleton, actually saw a film called COME SPY Karl Malden. Flighty fluff of three stewardWITH ME starring Troy Donahue, this seesses trying to catch husbands, becoming incret-agent film about blond Dromm’s atvolved with three men on a trans-Atlantic tempts to solve murders of two Americans flight. Glossy, easy to take. Panavision. in the Caribbean isn’t worth anyone’s time. Come Live With Me (1941) 86m. ★★★ D: Smokey Robinson sings the title song! Clarence Brown. James Stewart, Hedy Come to the Stable (1949) 94m. ★★★ D: Lamarr, Ian Hunter, Verree Teasdale, DonHenry Koster. Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, ald Meek, Barton MacLane, Adeline de Hugh Marlowe, Elsa Lanchester, Regis Walt Reynolds. Charming romantic comToomey, Mike Mazurki. Young and Holm edy with starving writer Stewart marrying register well as French nuns living in New Lamarr so she won’t be deported. Strong England, seeking aid from a variety of supporting cast, with Reynolds fine as local characters in building a children’s Stewart’s grandmother. dispensary. Warm, sentimental comedyCome Next Spring (1956) C-92m. ★★★ D: drama. Story by Clare Boothe Luce. ▼ R. G. Springsteen. Ann Sheridan, Steve Comet Over Broadway (1938) 69m. ★1⁄2 Cochran, Walter Brennan, Sherry Jackson, D: Busby Berkeley. Kay Francis, Ian Richard Eyer, Edgar Buchanan, Sonny Hunter, John Litel, Donald Crisp, Minna Tufts, Mae Clarke, Roscoe Ates, James Gombell, Melville Cooper. Sappy, dated Best. Charming slice of Americana, set in soap opera tells risible story of stage star 1920s Arkansas. Cochran walked out on his Francis and the tragedy caused by her burnwife and kids nine years ago; now he reing ambition. Not even a musical number to turns, cold sober and determined to make save it. good (and try to make up for his past transComfort and Joy (1984-British) C-105m. ★★★ D: Bill Forsyth. Bill Paterson, Eleanor gressions). Appealing performances and a nice feel for the material distinguish this David, C. P. Grogan, Alex Norton, Patrick modest film, which Cochran also produced. Malahide, Rikki Fulton, Roberto Bernardi. Come ’n’ Get It SEE: Lunch Wagon Another quirky comedy from writer-director Forsyth (GREGORY’S GIRL, LOCAL Comes a Horseman (1978) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan J. Pakula. Jane Fonda, James HERO), though this one isn’t as potent or Caan, Jason Robards, George Grizzard, consistent. Paterson plays a popular Scottish Richard Farnsworth, Jim Davis, Mark disc jockey who’s going through some diffiHarmon. Starkly simple Western story cult changes in his personal life, then finds (set in 1940s) about rival ranch owners himself caught between two underworld fami[ 271 ]

lies fighting for territorial rights to ice-cream into melodrama. Academy Awards went to vans! Entertaining and offbeat, though never Fonda, Voight, and writers Waldo Salt, Robas on-target as one might like it to be; Paterert C. Jones, and Nancy Dowd. [R]▼●쩠 son is a delight. [PG]▼ Coming-Out Party (1961-British) 100m. ★★1 Comfort of Strangers, The (1991-Italian⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. James Robertson ★1 U.S.) C-105m. ⁄2 D: Paul Schrader. ChrisJustice, Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, topher Walken, Natasha Richardson, RuEric Sykes, Richard Wattis. P.O.W. compert Everett, Helen Mirren. Unmarried edy with prisoner Baxter impersonating couple is befriended by a mysterious local lookalike Nazi commandant to help peewhile vacationing in Venice. Shaggy-dog vish scientist Justice escape camp. Origilead-up to an ‘‘oh, come on’’ finale. As nal title: VERY IMPORTANT PERSON. murky as canal sewage, offering sharply conComing Out Under Fire (1994) C/B&Wtrasting male acting styles: Everett is a postur71m. ★★★ D: Arthur Dong. Narrated by Saing male mannequin, while Walken is a titan lome Jens. A tough ex-Marine, a WAC, a of twitch. Screenplay by Harold Pinter, black, a heavily Dixie-toned Southerner, and from Ian McEwan’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 a N.Y. Jew are among those who recall what Comic, The (1969) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carl it was like to be very, very quietly gay during Reiner. Dick Van Dyke, Michele Lee, Mickey WW2 and, in the most abjectly humiliating Rooney, Cornel Wilde, Nina Wayne, Pert cases, to be mustered out of the service upon Kelton, Steve Allen, Carl Reiner, Jeannine detection. A fresh and contemporary docuRiley. Sincere seriocomedy about a silentmentary despite recalling events that took movie clown with a destructive ego. Artifiplace half a century earlier; in a clip from one cial trappings surround truthful portrait (a of the era’s official army sex education films, composite of several real comics) by Van 1950s song-and-dance man Keefe Brasselle Dyke. Best of all: vivid re-creations of silent plays a G.I. with condoms on his mind.▼쩠 comedies. Uneven; of interest mainly to Coming Soon (2000) C-91m. BOMB D: film buffs. [M/PG]▼● Colette Burson. Tricia Vessey, Gaby HoffComic Book Confidential (1989-U.S.mann, Mia Farrow, Ryan O’Neal, Yasmine Bleeth, Spalding Gray, Peter Bogdanovich, Canadian) C-90m. ★★★ D: Ron Mann. R. Crumb, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, William Ashton Kutcher. Seniors in an exclusive M. Gaines, Harvey Kurtzman, Stan Lee, N.Y.C. high school go to extremes to achieve Harvey Pekar, Lynda Barry, Frank Miller. orgasms from their less-than-adequate boyGood introduction to the genuine art to be friends. Touted as a female version of found in comic books, featuring interviews AMERICAN PIE; only differences are that with many of the top talents of yesterday and this film isn’t funny, its characters are despicable, and its script is pointless. [R]▼쩠 today. Marred by too much effort to be ‘‘cinematic’’; also demonstrates a bias against Coming Through (1985-British) C-80m. ★★ standard commercial comics.▼●쩠 D: Peter Barber-Fleming. Kenneth Comin At Ya! (1981-Italian) C-91m. Branagh, Helen Mirren, Alison Steadman, BOMB D: Ferdinando Baldi. Tony AnPhilip Martin Brown, Norman Rodway. thony, Gene Quintano, Victoria Abril, RiStatic tale of young D. H. Lawrence cardo Palacios, Gordon Lewis. 3-D spaghetti (Branagh), and his relationship with Frieda Western take-off features rats, bats, and von Richthofen (Mirren), awkwardly parblood, all hugged to death by the camera alleled with present-day story of young (and often in slow motion!). No redeeming man who completely misses the point of sense of humor, either. It’s films like this Lawrence’s writing. Sorely lacking the authat killed 3-D the first time around. thor’s own fire and intensity.▼쩠 Dimensionscope. [R]▼쩠 Coming to America (1988) C-116m. ★★★ Coming Apart (1969) 110m. ★1⁄2 D: MilD: John Landis. Eddie Murphy, Arsenio ton Moses Ginsberg. Rip Torn, Viveca Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Madge Lindfors, Megan McCormick, Lois Markle, Sinclair, Shari Headley, Paul Bates, AlliSally Kirkland. Fascinatingly bad drama son Dean, Eriq La Salle, Louie Anderson, about psychiatrist who sets up concealed Calvin Lockhart, Samuel L. Jackson, Cuba movie camera in his apartment to record the Gooding, Jr., Vanessa Bell (Calloway), messed-up lives of himself and women who Frankie Faison, Vondie Curtis Hall. Cute visit him. Kirkland’s most substantial change-of-pace film for Murphy, as the genteel prince of an African royal family who screen role prior to ANNA in 1987.▼쩠 Coming Attractions SEE: Loose Shoes wants to choose his own wife, and decides 1 ★★★ Coming Home (1978) C-127m. ⁄2 D: that he will find her in America. Old-fashHal Ashby. Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce ioned romantic comedy peppered with direcDern, Robert Carradine, Robert Ginty, Peneltor Landis’ in-jokes (including an update of ope Milford, David Clennon. Powerful look TRADING PLACES, in which Murphy at the effect of Vietnam war on people at starred) and some surprise cameos. Subsehome. Fonda falls in love with paraplegic quent litigation awarded columnist Art BuchVoight while her husband (Dern) is overseas. wald with original story credit. [R]▼●쩠 Mature, gripping film, marred only by lapses Coming Up Roses (1986-British) C-93m. [ 272 ]

★★

D: Stephen Bayly. Dafydd Hywel, Iola Kathy Shower, William Smith, Sid Haig, Gregory, Olive Michael, Mari Emlyn. Ross Hagen, Robert Quarry, Mel Welles. Whimsical Welsh-language comedy conThompson and Shower (former Playboy cerns a group of townsfolk who band toPlaymate of the Year) are government gether to save a local cinema by growing agents sent to Mexico to wipe out Smith’s mushrooms in the darkness of the empty cocaine factory. Tiresome film features theatre. Cute, but lacks the wit and sharp numerous screen veterans, including Marie Windsor and Russ Tamblyn. [R]▼ ensemble acting of the hilarious British comedies of the 1940s and 1950s. [PG]▼ Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942) 96m. ★★1 Comin’ Round the Mountain (1951) 77m. ⁄2 D: John Farrow. Paul Muni, Anna Lee, ★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Lamont. Bud Abbott, Lou Lillian Gish, Cedric Hardwicke, Robert Costello, Dorothy Shay, Kirby Grant, Joe Coote, Ray Collins, Rosemary DeCamp, Sawyer, Glenn Strange. Bud and Lou inAlexander Knox. Well-intentioned drama vade hillbilly country in this substandard of Norwegian Muni aiding British commancomedy, with far too much footage of dos in attack on Nazis who have invaded singing Shay.▼쩠 Norway. Dated propaganda angle lessens Command Decision (1948) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 impact today.▼쩠 D: Sam Wood. Clark Gable, Walter PidCommitments, The (1991-British-Irish) Cgeon, Van Johnson, Brian Donlevy, Charles 117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan Parker. Robert ArBickford, John Hodiak, Edward Arnold, kins, Michael Aherne, Angeline Ball, Maria Marshall Thompson, Richard Quine, CamDoyle, Dave Finnegan, Bronagh Gallagher, eron Mitchell, John McIntire. Taut, enFe´lim Gormley, Glen Hansard, Dick Masgrossing adaptation of the William Wister sey, Johnny Murphy, Kenneth McCluskey, Haines stage hit, with Gable a flight comAndrew Strong, Colm Meaney. Enormander who knows that, to win the war, mously satisfying tale of an ambitious he must send his men on suicide missions young Dubliner who takes on the challenge over Germany. Intriguing look at behindof assembling and managing a band made the-scenes politics of the U.S. war effort. up of other working-class Dubliners who Screenplay by William Laidlaw and George sing ’60s-style soul music! Disarmingly enFroeschel. Also shown in computer-colored gaging from the word go, with charismatic version.▼●쩠 cast of unknowns; filled with irresistible Commandments (1997) C-86m. ★★ D: music. A real treat. Written by Dick Clement, Daniel Taplitz. Aidan Quinn, Courteney Ian La Frenais, and Roddy Doyle; the first of Cox, Anthony LaPaglia, Louis Zorich, PaDoyle’s Barrytown trilogy, followed by THE mela Gray, Pat McNamara, Tom Aldredge, SNAPPER and THE VAN. [R] ▼●쩠 Alice Drummond, Jack Gilpin. When a Committed (2000) C-98m. ★★ D: Lisa man’s life hits rock bottom he decides to Krueger. Heather Graham, Casey Affleck, test the whole concept of spirituality by Luke Wilson, Goran Visnjic, Alfonso Arau, breaking each of the Ten Commandments. Patricia Velazquez, Mark Ruffalo, Clea DuUneven black comedy shifts in tone from Vall, Summer Phoenix, Mary Kay Place, Art light to dark, losing its meaning along the Alexakis, Jon Stewart, Dylan Baker, Carlin way. Quinn is effective, but this must have Glynn. Young N.Y.C. club manager believes looked a lot better on paper. [R]▼쩠 in commitment at work and in her marriage Commando (1985) C-88m. ★★ D: Mark (though she’s surrounded by slacker friends), L. Lester. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rae Dawn so she’s thrown for a loop when her husChong, Dan Hedaya, Vernon Wells, David band (Wilson) bolts to ‘‘find himself.’’ GraPatrick Kelly, Alyssa Milano, James Olson, ham is the whole show here, but she’s stuck Bill Duke, Bill Paxton. Exceptionally noisy in a lightweight road-movie/culture-clash comic-book yarn about retired special agent tale. If this is screwball romance for the new millennium, we’re in trouble. [R]▼쩠 Schwarzenegger, who’s forced to go back into action when vengeful goons kidnap his Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt daughter. Film’s sense of humor (courtesy (1989) C/B&W-79m. ★★★ D: Robert Epscripter Steven E. de Souza) is largely oblitstein, Jeffrey Friedman. Narrated by Dustin erated by all the noise and mindless vioHoffman. Compassionate documentary folence. Director’s cut runs 90m. [R]▼●쩠 cusing on five individuals afflicted with Commandos (1968-Italian-German) C-89m. AIDS: a former Olympic athlete, a retired ★★ D: Armando Crispino. Lee Van Cleef, U.S. Navy commander, an 11-year-old Jack Kelly, Giampiero Albertini, Marino hemophiliac, a N.Y. writer and gay activMase´, Pierre Paulo Capponi, Duilio Del Prete. ist, and an I.V. drug user. Title refers to AIDS Cliche´-filled war drama with familiar plot; Memorial Quilt, consisting of thousands of Italian commandos, led by a couple of stalpanels, each dedicated to an AIDS victim. wart Americans, must secure an important Produced by HBO; a worthy Best Documenoasis in North African desert in advance of tary Academy Award winner.▼●쩠 Allied landings. Cromoscope. [PG]▼쩠 Communion (1977) SEE: Holy Terror Commando Squad (1987) C-89m. BOMB Communion (1989) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Fred Olen Ray. Brian Thompson, Philippe Mora. Christopher Walken, Lind[ 273 ]

say Crouse, Frances Sternhagen, Andreas John Saxon, Brian Kelly, Fritz Weaver, Katsulas, Terri Hanauer, Joel Carlson, BaClu Gulager, Susan Oliver, Diana Lynn, sil Hoffman. Psychological thriller with Robert Middleton. Gunman (Saxon) workWalken well cast as writer Whitley Strieber, ing for Murder, Inc. becomes target for his who finds himself visited by strange creaemployers and big city police department tures. Does he need a psychiatrist or an after patrolman is shot down. Bites off exorcist? A bit overlong, and the dramatic more than it can chew. Video title: THE HIT TEAM. [G]▼ scenes between Walken and wife Crouse don’t quite work, but still effectively scary Company of Wolves, The (1984-British) C-95m. ★★ D: Neil Jordan. Angela Lanswhile never gratuitously gory. Strieber adapted his own best-selling book, which bury, David Warner, Stephen Rea, Tusse he claims is true. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Silberg, Sarah Patterson, Graham Crowden. Companeros! (1971-Italian-Spanish-GerFreudian, adult version of ‘‘Little Red man) C-105m. ★★ D: Sergio Corbucci. Riding Hood,’’ based on the premise that a Franco Nero, Tomas Milian, Jack Palance, wolf may not be what he seems. Intriguing Fernando Rey, Iris Berben, Karin Schuidea mired in murky presentation, encombert. Swedish mercenary (Nero) seeks his passing several different stories; strange, slow, and unsatisfying. [R]▼●쩠 fortune by running guns in revolution-racked Mexico at the turn of the century. Violent Company She Keeps, The (1950) 83m. ★★1 western fare. Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: John Cromwell. Lizabeth Scott, Company, The (2003) C-112m. ★★★ D: Jane Greer, Dennis O’Keefe, Fay Baker, Robert Altman. Neve Campbell, Malcolm John Hoyt, Don Beddoe. Satisfactory tale of McDowell, James Franco, Barbara Robertex-con Greer, who’s determined to go son, William Dick, Susie Cusack. Life bestraight. She yearns for companionship and hind the scenes during a season with the makes a play for O’Keefe, the boyfriend of Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, focusing on one her parole officer (Scott). Produced by John dedicated dancer (Campbell). Not so much Houseman. Jeff Bridges’ screen debut; he’s a story as a low-key series of vignettes the baby in Greer’s arms. about the innumerable factors that go into Competition, The (1980) C-129m. ★★★ maintaining a company, salving bruised D: Joel Oliansky. Richard Dreyfuss, Amy egos, and surviving both on and offstage. Irving, Lee Remick, Sam Wanamaker, The dance numbers are exhilarating and Joseph Cali, Ty Henderson, Priscilla Poinbeautifully filmed; Campbell shines in a pas ter, James B. Sikking. Two young piade deux set to ‘‘My Funny Valentine.’’ nists, competing for the same prize, fall in Campbell coproduced and cowrote the love. Nothing much more than that, but story. HD 24P Widescreen. [PG-13]▼쩠 smoothly done, with some excellent piano Company Business (1991) C-98m. ★1⁄2 ‘‘faking.’’ Screenwriter Oliansky’s directing debut. [PG]▼● D: Nicholas Meyer. Gene Hackman, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kurtwood Smith, Terry Compromising Positions (1985) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Perry. Susan Sarandon, O’Quinn, Daniel Von Bargen, Oleg Rudnick, Geraldine Danon. When a planned spy swap Raul Julia, Edward Herrmann, Judith Ivey, comes unglued, two aging agents (one CIA, Mary Beth Hurt, Joe Mantegna, Josh one KGB) become unlikely allies as the old Mostel, Anne De Salvo, Joan Allen. Long cold-war espionage rules they once lived by Island housewife becomes fascinated with melt away. Interesting premise goes awry in the murder of a local dentist who (it turns this dumb spy comedy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 out) was also an incredible womanizer. When Company Man (2001) C-81m. ★★ D: Peter it sticks to black comedy, the film is sharp and Askin, Douglas McGrath. Sigourney Weaver, funny, but its other elements (male chauvinSteven Banks, Douglas McGrath, John Turism, mystery, romance) don’t pan out. Ivey turro, Anthony LaPaglia, Ryan Phillippe, Alan has scene-stealing role as Sarandon’s acidCumming, Denis Leary, Heather Matarazzo, tongued best friend. Screenplay by Susan Jeffrey Jones. With wife Weaver hungering Isaacs, from her novel. [R]▼● for social prestige, 1950s high school English Compulsion (1959) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richteacher/driving instructor McGrath bogusly ard Fleischer. Orson Welles, Diane Varsi, tells her he’s working for the CIA. One thing Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, E.G. leads to another, and he actually is recruited by Marshall, Martin Milner. Hard-hitting verthe Agency, eventually landing in themiddle of sion of Leopold-Loeb thrill murder case of the Bay of Pigs and Castro assassination at1920s Chicago. Good characterizations, tempts. Too smart for multiplex dunderheads, period decor, and well-edited courtroom but also too silly and mild for savvier folks; afscenes. Story also told in earlier ROPE and fability and good-sport performances are later SWOON. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 about all it offers. Woody Allen (with whom Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The (1970) McGrath wrote BULLETS OVER BROADC-91m. ★★ D: Robert Butler. Kurt RusWAY) appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 sell, Cesar Romero, Joe Flynn, William Company of Killers (1970) C-88m. ★★ D: Schallert, Alan Hewitt, Richard Bakalyan. Jerry Thorpe. Van Johnson, Ray Milland, The first of Disney’s carbon-copy comedies [ 274 ]

with young Russell as the college whiz Ada’s life and determines to communicate injected with a computer-brain, which poses with her. Premise is intriguing, but result is threat to local gangster Romero. Standard obvious and far too preachy.▼쩠 slapstick. Followed by NOW YOU SEE Concorde—Airport ’79, The (1979) CHIM, NOW YOU DON’T. Remade as a 123m. BOMB D: David Lowell Rich. Alain TVM in 1995. [G]▼쩠 Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, Comrade X (1940) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: King Sylvia Kristel, George Kennedy, Eddie AlVidor. Clark Gable, Hedy Lamarr, Felix bert, Bibi Andersson, John Davidson, Andrea Bressart, Oscar Homolka, Eve Arden, Sig Marcovicci, Martha Raye, Cicely Tyson, JimRuman. NINOTCHKA-esque plot with mie Walker, David Warner, Mercedes American Gable warming up icy Russian McCambridge. Wagner is a brilliant scientist, Lamarr (a streetcar conductor). Synthetic Kennedy and Andersson make love by the romance tale never convinces; Bressart has fire, Davidson’s hair stays in place when the great closing line, though.▼ plane turns upside down, and McCambridge Con Air (1997) C-115m. ★★ D: Simon West. is a Russian gymnastics coach. Thank goodNicolas Cage, John Cusack, John Malkovich, ness Charo is around for credibility. Aka Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames, Colm Meaney, AIRPORT ’79. [PG]▼쩠 Mykelti Williamson, Rachel Ticotin, Nick Concrete Jungle, The (1960-British) 86m. ★★★ Chinlund, M. C. Gainey, Brendan Kelly, D: Joseph Losey. Stanley Baker, Margit Danny Trejo, Dave Chappelle. Megastupid Saad, Sam Wanamaker, Gregoire Aslan, Jill megamovie about a federal marshals’ plane Bennett, Laurence Naismith, Edward Judd, carrying a cargo of heinous criminals—and a Patrick Magee. Baker shines in this intense, handful of parolees, including Cage, who was stunningly directed account of a criminal who unfairly imprisoned in the first place. Once the must contend with jailer Magee and, most plane is aloft, the bad guys quickly foil security tellingly, hood Wanamaker (with whom he andtakeover. Good actors can only do so much robs a racetrack). More than just a crime with a script this dumb, and dozens of explodrama, it’s a story of how greed and lust for sions and stunts don’t make enough of a differmoney can result in alienation and the deence. Unrated version runs 122m. Panavision. struction of the spirit. Original title: THE [R]▼●쩠 CRIMINAL, released at 97m.쩠 Conan the Barbarian (1982) C-129m. Concrete Jungle, The (1982) C-99m. ★1⁄2 ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Milius. Arnold SchwarzenegD: Tom DeSimone. Jill St. John, Tracy ger, Sandahl Bergman, James Earl Jones, Bregman, Barbara Luna, Peter Brown, Aimee Gerry Lopez, Mako, Ben Davidson, Sven Ole Eccles, Nita Talbot, Sondra Currie. BregThorsen, Max von Sydow, Valerie Quennesman’s heel boyfriend gets her wrongly busted sen, Cassandra Gaviola, William Smith. The for drugs, leading to standard women’s prison sword-wielding warrior seeks vengeance on melodrama with St. John the kind of movie the cult leader who enslaved him and massawarden who is given glasses to show how cred his village in this full-blooded (and uptight she is. Luna’s performance as a hardbloody) adventure epic based on Robert E. bitten prison vet is a cut above the others’. Howard’s pulp tales. Ron Cobb’s spectacular Followed by CHAINED HEAT. [R]▼ production design and Basil Poledouris’ viCondemned, The (2007) C-113m. BOMB brant score help make this superior to the D: Scott Wiper. Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones, many low-grade imitations it spawned. WritRobert Mammone, Victoria Mussett, Rick ten by Milius and Oliver Stone. Also shown Hoffman. Wealthy, ruthless producer creat 115m. and 123m. Sequel: CONAN THE ates an illegal Internet reality show in which DESTROYER. Todd-AO 35. [R]▼●쩠 ten death-row convicts are attached to Conan the Destroyer (1984) C-103m. ★1⁄2 bombs, put on an island, and ordered to kill D: Richard Fleischer. Arnold Schwarzenegeach other. Reprehensible exploitation film ger, Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Mako, disguised as a morality tale, it titillates its Tracey Walter, Sarah Douglas, Olivia D’Abo. audience with a constant stream of brutal Lumbering attempt to pit Robert E. Howviolence, then attacks people who find vioard’s Hyborian Age hero against very derivlence entertaining and turn it into a comative special effects—leading to ridiculous modity. Sanctimonious moralizing is ironic climax. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★ coming from World Wrestling EntertainD: Conceiving Ada (1999) C-85m. ment, which produced the film as a vehicle Lynn Hershman Leeson. Tilda Swinton, Timfor its star, Stone Cold Steve Austin. [R]쩠 othy Leary, Karen Black, Francesca Faridany, Condemned of Altona, The (1962-Italian) John O’Keefe, J. D. Wolfe. Cliche´d fantasy 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vittorio De Sica. Sophia that contrasts the lives of Emmy (Faridany), a Loren, Fredric March, Robert Wagner, contemporary computer genius, and Ada Maximilian Schell, Francoise Prevost. SlugByron King (Swinton), the daughter of Lord gish pseudo-intellectual version of JeanByron, who in the mid-19th century helped Paul Sartre play about post-WW2 Germany conceive the Analytic Engine, the forerunner involving dying magnate (March), his two of the computer. Using some digital instruments she has invented, Emmy reconstructs sons—one a playboy (Wagner) with an ac[ 275 ]

tress wife (Loren); the other an insane Nazi Donald Crisp, Jane Bryan, Dorothy Peterson, war criminal (Schell). CinemaScope. Laura Hope Crews, Veda Ann Borg, Robert Condition Red (1995-U.S.-Finnish) CBarrat. Extremely stylish, well-acted soap 86m. ★★ D: Mika Kaurismaki. James Russo, opera in the MADAME X vein, with singer Cynda Williams, Paul Calderon, Victor Francis recounting events leading up to her Argo, Dierdre Lewis. Grittily realistic but murder of oily Rathbone. Visually arresting, ever-so-obvious thriller in which alienated, this looks more like a 1920s German film deeply troubled prison guard Russo bethan a late 1930s Hollywood product; in fact, comes involved in a volatile sexual relationdirector May was a German e´migre´. Based ship with tough convict Williams, a singer very closely on the 1935 German film MAdoing jail time to protect her slimy boyZURKA (which starred Pola Negri). Confession, The (1970) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: friend. Too many lapses in logic, though the performances are fine. [R]▼ Costa-Gavras. Yves Montand, Simone Condorman (1981-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Signoret, Gabriele Ferzetti, Michel Vitold, Charles Jarrott. Michael Crawford, Oliver Jean Bouise. True story of CzechoslovaReed, James Hampton, Barbara Carrera, kian Communist Arthur London and his Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Dana Elcar. Cartoonunjustified 1951 purge trial for treason; ist Crawford is transformed into Condorman, interesting tale well acted by Montand, a comic book superhero who assists Soviet but film is as talky and overrated as many spy Carrera in her efforts to defect. Silly of Costa-Gavras’ other efforts. [PG] Disney film for only the most undiscrimiConfessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) C-113m. ★★★ D: George Clooney. Sam Rocknating children. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Conductor, The SEE: Orchestra Conducwell, Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Julia tor, The Roberts, Rutger Hauer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Conduct Unbecoming (1975-British) CKristen Wilson, Jennifer Hall. Odd but enter107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. Mitaining adaptation of game-show maven chael York, Richard Attenborough, Trevor Chuck Barris’ believe-it-or-don’t autobiograHoward, Stacy Keach, Susannah York, phy in which he claims he was a CIA assasChristopher Plummer. Quaintly old-fashsin. Bold mix of love story, period piece, ioned drama of honor and outrage among black comedy, psychological drama, and thrilthe Bengal Lancers, where an officer’s ler (by writer Charlie Kaufman) is not seamwidow (York) is sexually attacked. Too less, nor does it necessarily add up to anything stuffy to be fun, yet too modern in other of substance, but first-time helmer Clooney ways to be an antique; star performances handles it with style, and Rockwell is terrific are saving grace. [PG]▼쩠 as Barris. Real-life Barris colleagues like Dick Coneheads (1993) C-88m. ★★★ D: Steve BarClark and Gene Gene the Dancing Machine ron. Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Michelle appear, as do a couple of movie stars in funny cameos. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Burke, Michael McKean, Jason Alexander, Lisa Jane Persky, Chris Farley, David Spade, Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anatole Litvak. Edward G. RobinPhil Hartman, Dave Thomas, Sinbad, Jan Hooks, Michael Richards, Jon Lovitz, Kevin son, Francis Lederer, George Sanders, Paul Nealon, Adam Sandler, Garrett Morris, LaraLukas, Henry O’Neill, James Stephenson, Sig ine Newman, Tim Meadows, Julia Sweeney, Rumann, Dorothy Tree, Lya Lys, Joe Sawyer. Ellen DeGeneres, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Fast-paced but obvious drama of FBI agent Adams. Unexpectedly benign (and good-naRobinson investigating vast Nazi spy ring optured) comedy based on the 1970s Saturday erating in the U.S. Of interest mainly as a Night Live skits. The Coneheads (from the reflection of its era; Lukas, as a Germanplanet Remulak) land on earth in a botched American Bund leader, clearly patterns his mission and, to their own surprise, adapt to mannerisms and speeches on those of Hitler. middle-class suburban life. A most enjoyable Confessions of an Opium Eater (1962) family film that combines silliness with some 85m. ★1⁄2 D: Albert Zugsmith. Vincent Price, sly and unexpected gags. Amusing cameos Linda Ho, Richard Loo, June Kim, Philip by a gaggle of past and present SNL cast Ahn, Victor Sen Yung. Bizarre low-budgeter. members. Watch for Drew Carey in a taxi. Price is hammy in tale of slave girls brought Aykroyd also cowrote the film. [PG]▼●쩠 to San Francisco and the adventurer who aids them. Retitled: SOULS FOR SALE.▼ Coney Island (1943) C-96m. ★★★ D: Walter Lang. Betty Grable, George MontgomConfessions of a Peeping John SEE: ery, Cesar Romero, Charles Winninger, Hi, Mom! Phil Silvers, Matt Briggs. Breezy, enjoyConfessions of a Shopaholic (2009) C104m. ★★ D: P. J. Hogan. Isla Fisher, Hugh able turn-of-the-century musical of saloon entertainer Grable turned into famous muDancy, Krysten Ritter, Joan Cusack, John sical star by hustling Montgomery. ReGoodman, John Lithgow, Kristin Scott made with Grable seven years later as Thomas, Fred Armisen, Leslie Bibb, Lynn WABASH AVENUE. Redgrave, Robert Stanton, Julie Hagerty, Nick Cornish, Clea Lewis, Wendie Malick, Confession (1937) 86m. ★★★ D: Joe May. Kay Francis, Basil Rathbone, Ian Hunter, John Salley, Christine Ebersole. Manhattan[ 276 ]

ite Fisher is addicted to shopping in spite of ing as husband and wife to elude the Gerher meager income, fending off creditors mans during WW2. Striking, involving with a nonstop series of lies. Then she stumtale of trust and survival. Confidence (2003) C-98m. ★★ D: James bles into a job working for—of all things— a financial magazine, edited by dishy Foley. Edward Burns, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dancy. Fisher is cute but this frantic, poorly Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, Luis written film makes her such a scatterbrain Guzman, Donal Logue, Morris Chestnut, that it’s difficult to root for her. Based on Robert Forster, Brian Van Holt. A cocky con two of the best-selling novels by Sophie man and his team are obliged to work for Kinsella. Fleeting appearance by Redgrave slimy crime lord Hoffman, while federal implies that there was yet another subplot agent Garcia tails them at every turn. Strong trimmed from the film. Panavision. [PG]쩠 cast in a disappointing yarn that’s never as Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen suspenseful, surprising, or satisfying as it (2004) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sara Sugarman. Lindought to be. What’s more, Burns’ character is say Lohan, Adam Garcia, Glenne Headly, Alutterly unlikable. Foley uses every visual trick he can to maintain interest. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ison Pill, Carol Kane, Eli Marienthal, Megan Fox, Sheila McCarthy. Self-styled drama Confidential Agent (1945) 118m. ★★★ D: queen Lohan suffers the ignominy of moving Herman Shumlin. Charles Boyer, Lauren Bawith her mom and two sisters from Manhatcall, Katina Paxinou, Peter Lorre, Victor tan to New Jersey, where she immediately Francen, George Coulouris, Wanda Hendrix, finds a soul mate (Pill) and also runs afoul John Warburton. Boyer is Graham Greene’s of the class snob. The promise of seeing her hero in engrossing spy yarn of Spanish Civil rock idol in his farewell concert propels the War; he meets Bacall along the way; they rest of the story, based on Dyan Sheldon’s battle enemy agents Lorre and Paxinou. popular book. Innocuous Disney teen comConfidentially Connie (1953) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: edy; parents will enjoy Kane’s funny perforEdward Buzzell. Van Johnson, Janet Leigh, mance as a schoolteacher. [PG]▼쩠 Louis Calhern, Walter Slezak, Gene LockConfessions of a Window Cleaner (1974hart. Mild chuckles as pregnant wife Leigh schemes to get underpaid professor hubby British) C-90m. ★★ D: Val Guest. Robin Askwith, Anthony Booth, Linda Hayden, (Johnson) to leave academic circles. Calhern Bill Maynard, Dandy Nichols. British sex as Van’s rich Texan father is amusing. farce about voyeuristic window cleaner was Confidentially Yours (1982-French) 111m. ★★★ dated when it came out; too obvious to be D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Fanny Ardant, terribly funny. Followed by other CONJean-Louis Trintignant, Philippe LaudenFESSIONS films. [R] bach, Caroline Sihol, Philippe MorierConfessions of Tom Harris (1972) C-98m. Genoud, Xavier Saint Macary. Businessman ★★ D: John Derek, David Nelson. Don Muris wanted for murder, and his secretary ray, Linda Evans, David Brian, Gary Clarke, takes on job of finding real killer while he Logan Ramsey. Offbeat, gritty study of a corhides out from the cops. Truffaut’s final rupt, amoral prizefighter, played by Murray, feature is airy mystery-comedy in the Hitchwho also produced and wrote the story. cock mold, based on an American novel Derek also photographed it. Filmed in 1966. (The Long Saturday Night by Charles WilFirst released in 1969 as CHILDISH liams); beautifully shot in black & white THINGS. [PG]▼ by Nestor Almendros. No depth whatsoConfetti (2006-British) C-100m. ★★ D: ever, but lightly entertaining; Ardant is Debbie Isitt. Jimmy Carr, Olivia Colman, delightful. French title: VIVEMENT DIVincent Franklin, Martin Freeman, Felicity MANCHE! [PG]▼●쩠 Montagu, Jessica Stevenson, Robert Webb, Confidential Report SEE: Mr. Arkadin Jason Watkins, Sarah Hadland, Julia Davis. Conflagration SEE: Enjo Reality TV morphs into a big-screen affair Conflict (1945) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis Bernwhen three couples compete in a magazine hardt. Humphrey Bogart, Alexis Smith, Sydcontest for the wedding of the year. Mockuney Greenstreet, Rose Hobart, Charles Drake, mentary follows all three scenarios as pairs Grant Mitchell. Far-fetched story of husband of nudists, tennis players, and musical(Bogart) plotting to murder wife (Hobart) to comedy enthusiasts express themselves just marry her sister (Smith). Unconvincing plot as you’d expect on their big day. Wants to not salvaged by good cast.▼ be another BEST IN SHOW but doesn’t Conflict (1966) SEE: Judith have the comic chops, just elaborate setups Conformist, The (1971-Italian-French-West and a few funny bits. Despite a talented German) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bernardo cast it’s as disposable as the product that Bertolucci. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Cleinspired its title. [R]쩠 Confidence (1979-Hungarian) C-117m. menti, Pasquale Fortunato, Gastone Moschin. ★★★1⁄2 D: Istvan Szabo. Ildiko Bansagi, Disturbing blend of character study and hisPeter Andorai, O. Gombik, Karoly Csaki, torical context of 1930s. Repressing homosexIldiko Kishonti. Bansagi and Andorai, each ual drives, Marcello Clerici strives for separately married, fall in love while pos‘‘acceptable’’ life as member of Italian Fascist [ 277 ]

secret service, and middle-class would-be wife chaser, until odd series of events make him a willing murderer. Film’s overall mood uniquely tense. Cut by 5m. for American release; the missing ‘‘Dance of the Blind’’ sequence was restored for 1994 reissue. [R]

of their ‘‘connection’’ with heroin, and a documentary filmmaker (Redfield) filming them. Independently produced, based on Jack Gelber’s stage play. Original running time 110m.; some prints run 93m.▼ Connie and Carla (2004) C-98m. ★★★ D: Michael Lembeck. Nia Vardalos, Toni Col▼●쩠 ★★ Congo (1995) C-108m. D: Frank Marshall. lette, David Duchovny, Stephen Spinella, Dash Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Mihok, Alec Mapa, Debbie Reynolds. Brassy, Heslov, Dylan Walsh, Joe Don Baker, Stuart sometimes silly crowd-pleaser puts a new spin Pankin, Mary Ellen Trainor, James Karen. on SOME LIKE IT HOT: lounge entertainers Clumsily written Saturday-matinee nonsense Vardalos and Collette witness a murder and about a gorilla expert who goes on a troubletake it on the lam. They find refuge in West laden expedition to Africa with a Roumanian Hollywood, where they perform as drag fortune hunter and a high-tech communications queens and acquire a new circle of gay male expert who’s searching for her ex-fiance´. Sort friends. Duchovny is charming as Vardalos’ of watchable, but poky pacing, unappealing love interest, but the spotlight is on the two characters, and senseless script sink it. The big stars, who perform show tunes ranging from special-effects climax is as unconvincing as ‘‘Oklahoma’’ to ‘‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.’’ Written by Vardalos. [PG-13]▼쩠 Amy, the costarring gorilla.Michael Crichton’s novel was adapted by—of all people—John Conqueror, The (1956) C-111m. ★★ D: Dick Patrick Shanley (MOONSTRUCK). Joe PanPowell. John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Pedro toliano appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Armendariz, Agnes Moorehead, Thomas Conjugal Bed, The (1963-French-Italian) Gomez, John Hoyt, William Conrad. Mon90m. ★★★ D: Marco Ferreri. Ugo Tognazzi, gols vs. Tartars, and John Wayne vs. the silliMarina Vlady, Walter Giller, Linda Sini. est role of his career, Genghis Khan. Tognazzi is admirably suited to the role of Expensive epic has camp dialogue to spare. a middle-aged bachelor who weds beautiThe film had a sobering real-life aftermath, ful young Vlady and must cope with her however: it was shot on location in Utah near sexual demands as she desires to become an atomic test site, and an alarming number of pregnant. A funny, entertaining sex comedy. its cast and crew (including the stars) were later stricken by cancer. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Connecticut Yankee, A (1931) 78m. ★★★ D: David Butler. Will Rogers, Maureen Conqueror Worm (1968-British) C-98m. ★★★ O’Sullivan, Myrna Loy, Frank Albertson, D: Michael Reeves. Vincent Price, Ian William Farnum. Mark Twain’s classic Ogilvy, Hilary Dwyer, Rupert Davies, Robstory of a man who travels back in time to ert Russell, Patrick Wymark, Wilfred BramKing Arthur’s court, rewritten to suit Rogbell. As Matthew Hopkins, real-life witchers’ genial personality. Full of contempohunter during era of Cromwell, Price gives rary wisecracks and funny ideas, though excellent nonhammy performance in underthe script gets a bit silly.▼ rated low-budget (and bloody) period thrilConnecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s ler. Literate, balanced script pits him against Court, A (1949) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tay young sympathetic lovers Ogilvy and Garnett. Bing Crosby, Rhonda Fleming, Dwyer. Original British title: THE WITCHFINDER GENERAL.▼●쩠 William Bendix, Cedric Hardwicke, Henry Wilcoxon, Murvyn Vye, Virginia Field. Conquest (1937) 112m. ★★★ D: Clarence Mark Twain’s story becomes carefree CrosBrown. Greta Garbo, Charles Boyer, Regby musical, with Bing transported into past, inald Owen, Alan Marshal, Henry Stephenbranded a wizard. No great songs, but colson, Leif Erickson, Dame May Whitty, Maria orful production. Previously filmed in 1921 Ouspenskaya, Vladimir Sokoloff, Scotty and 1931 (with Will Rogers); remade in Beckett. Boyer as Napoleon and Garbo as 1979 (as UNIDENTIFIED FLYING ODDPolish countess Walewska in fairly interesting BALL); TVMs in 1989 and 1995. ▼●쩠 costumer with fine performances making up Connecting Rooms (1969-British) C-103m. for not-always-thrilling script.▼ ★★ D: Franklin Gollings. Bette Davis, MiConquest of Space (1955) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 chael Redgrave, Alexis Kanner, Kay Walsh, D: Byron Haskin. Eric Fleming, William Olga Georges-Picot, Leo Genn. Muddled Hopper, Ross Martin, Walter Brooke, Joan melodrama of relationships in a rooming Shawlee. Despite some good special effects, house. Davis is a street musician, Redgrave a this George Pal production about the first former schoolmaster, and Kanner the rebeltrip to Mars is hampered by a pedestrian lious youth who disrupts their equilibrium. script and an inappropriate emphasis on reConnection, The (1961) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ligion. A disappointment.▼쩠 Shirley Clarke. William Redfield, Warren Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) Finnerty, Garry Goodrow, Jerome Raphael, C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. Roddy James Anderson, Carl Lee, Roscoe Lee McDowall, Don Murray, Ricardo MontalBrowne, Jackie McLean. Searing, admiraban, Natalie Trundy, Severn Darden. Fourth bly acted drama of junkies awaiting arrival APES feature shows how apes came to rebel [ 278 ]

and subsequently vanquish man. Loosely acted Constans SEE: Constant Factor, The and often trite, but still interesting. Followed by Constant Factor, The (1980-Polish) C-96m. ★★★ BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE D: Krzysztof Zanussi. Tadeusz BraAPES. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼●쩠 decki, Zofia Mrozowska, Malgorzata ZajaczConrack (1974) C-107m. ★★★ D: Martin kowska, Cezary Morawska. Idealistic mounRitt. Jon Voight, Paul Winfield, Hume tain climber Bradecki refuses to kowtow to Cronyn, Madge Sinclair, Tina Andrews, a hypocritical bureaucracy and winds up a Antonio Fargas, Ruth Attaway. Pleasant window cleaner. Incisive, but not top-drawer film based on Pat Conroy’s The Water Is Zanussi; filmed simultaneously with the director’s CONTRACT.▼ Wide, about his attempts to bring commonsense education to backward black school Constant Gardener, The (2005-BritishGerman) C-128m. ★★★ D: Fernando Meirelon island off South Carolina. Subplot with hermitlike Winfield doesn’t work, unfortules. Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny nately. Panavision. [PG]▼ Huston, Bill Nighy, Pete Postlethwaite, HuConseil de Famille SEE: Family Business bert Kounde´, Juliet Aubrey, Gerard McSor(1986-French) ley. When his young, idealistic wife is Consenting Adults (1992) C-100m. ★1⁄2 murdered in Kenya, a low-level British dipD: Alan J. Pakula. Kevin Kline, Mary lomat investigates, for the first time, the Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Kevin Spacey, Recause she was fighting for. He also learns becca Miller, Forest Whitaker, E. G. Marhow his own government tried to quash a shall, Kimberly McCullough, Billie Neal. scandal involving a large pharmaceutical There’s Hell in Suburbia when Kline becompany, while abusing Africans desperate comes morally polluted by a leechy neighfor medical care. Impassioned filming of bor who proposes a wife-swapping pact. John le Carre´’s fact-based novel (adapted Incredible lapses in logic for a director of by Jeffrey Caine) manages to balance Pakula’s caliber, though Spacey is creepily muckraking drama and a love story; Fiennes credible as the murderer-next-door. Uninand Weisz (Oscar winner as Best Supporttentional laughs help. [R]▼●쩠 ing Actress) have great chemistry. [R]▼쩠 Conspiracy of Hearts (1960-British) 116m. Constant Husband, The (1955-British) ★★★ D: Ralph Thomas. Lilli Palmer, SylC-88m. ★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Rex Harrivia Syms, Yvonne Mitchell, Ronald Lewis. son, Margaret Leighton, Kay Kendall, CeDespite familiar situation of nuns sheltering cil Parker, Nicole Maurey, George Cole, refugee Jewish youths in Northern Italy, this Raymond Huntley, Michael Hordern, Robfilm is both suspenseful and moving.▼ ert Coote, Eric Pohlmann. Harrison, reConspiracy Theory (1997) C-135m. ★★★ covering from amnesia, realizes he’s wed D: Richard Donner. Mel Gibson, Julia Robto more than one woman. Entertaining erts, Patrick Stewart, Cylk Cozart, Stephen comedy, with sexy Rexy ideally cast (opKahan, Terry Alexander, Troy Garity. Lumpy posite real-life wife Kendall). but entertaining story about a half-crazed Constantine (2005) C-120m. BOMB D: N.Y.C. cabdriver who lives a life of paraFrancis Lawrence. Keanu Reeves, Rachel noia, obsessed with a woman who works Weisz, Tilda Swinton, Shia LaBeouf, Djifor the Justice Department. One day, howmon Hounsou, Max Baker, Pruitt Taylor ever, he comes to her with a story that Vince, Gavin Rossdale, Peter Stormare. seems to make sense about a conspiracy and When demons from hell wreak havoc on cover-up; soon, they’re both embroiled in a earth, who ya gonna call? John Constantine, situation bigger than they ever imagined. an exorcist who’s actually been to hell. After The script isn’t airtight, but it’s enjoyable, two hours of this laborious twaddle, we know with Gibson’s edgy performance right on how he must feel. Dreary, to put it mildly; target. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 elaborate special effects are no compensation. Conspirator (1949-British) 85m. ★★ D: Based on the D.C. Comics/Vertigo HellVictor Saville. Robert Taylor, Elizabeth blazer graphic novels. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Taylor, Robert Flemyng, Harold WarConstantine and the Cross (1962-Italian) render, Honor Blackman, Wilfrid HydeC-120m. ★★★ D: Lionello de Felice. CorWhite. Innocent Elizabeth is unaware that nel Wilde, Christine Kaufmann, Belinda the dashing soldier (Taylor) with whom Lee, Elisa Cegani, Massimo Serato. Intelshe’s fallen in love is a Communist spy. ligent interpretation of 4th century A.D. Emperor (Wilde) battling Romans for ChrisStale melodrama. ▼ tianity. Good action. Totalscope.▼쩠 Conspirators, The (1944) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Negulesco. Hedy Lamarr, Paul HenConstant Nymph, The (1943) 112m. ★★★1 reid, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Vic⁄2 D: Edmund Goulding. Charles Boyer, tor Francen, Vladimir Sokoloff, George Joan Fontaine, Alexis Smith, Brenda MarMacready, Monte Blue, Joseph Calleia. shall, Charles Coburn, Dame May Whitty, WW2 intrigue in Lisbon, with echoes of Peter Lorre, Joyce Reynolds, Jean Muir, CASABLANCA; this one’s no classic, but Montague Love, Edward (Eduardo) Cianwith that cast (and Hedy at her most beaunelli. Intensely romantic story of a Belgian tiful) how bad can it be? gamine (Fontaine) who’s madly in love [ 279 ]

with a self-serious and self-absorbed comdrama written by the director, with strong poser (Boyer). He marries a socialite performances. Oldman, a particular stand(Smith) without ever realizing the depth of out, also coexecutive-produced. [R]▼쩠 his own feelings for the younger girl. TouchContest Girl (1966-British) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 ing, intelligent, and beautifully realized, D: Val Guest. Ian Hendry, Janette Scott, with sweeping music by Erich Wolfgang Ronald Fraser, Edmund Purdom, Linda Korngold. Margaret Kennedy’s novel and Christian. Film well conveys glamorous and play were adapted by Kathryn Scola. Filmed seamy sides of beauty-contest world. Purdom before in 1928 and 1934. gives effective performance. CinemaScope. Continental Divide (1981) C-103m. ★★ Consuming Passions (1988-U.S.-British) ★1 C-98m. ⁄2 D: Giles Foster. Vanessa D: Michael Apted. John Belushi, Blair Redgrave, Jonathan Pryce, Tyler ButterBrown, Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), Carlin worth, Freddie Jones, Sammi Davis, PruGlynn, Tony Ganios, Val Avery, Tim Kazurinnella Scales, Thora Hird. Dumb dud of a sky. One of those ‘‘concept’’ movies that’s all satire about what happens when three men premise, no payoff: Belushi’s a hard-hitting are accidentally shoved into a vat of chocChicago newspaper columnist, Brown’s a selfolate in a candy factory . . . and chocolate reliant naturalist at home observing eagles in lovers favor the resulting confections. the Rockies. Can this romance survive? InterSounds a lot more promising than it plays; esting mainly to see Belushi playing such a based on a play by Michael Palin and ‘‘normal’’ and likable character. Written by Terry Jones. [R]▼● Lawrence Kasdan, who obviously couldn’t Contact (1997) C-150m. ★★★ D: Robert come up with a finish. Steven Spielberg was Zemeckis. Jodie Foster, Matthew Mcexecutive producer. [PG]▼●쩠 Conaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Continental Twist, The SEE: Twist All Skerritt, William Fichtner, David Morse, Night Contraband (1940-British) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 Angela Bassett, Geoffrey Blake, Rob Lowe, Jake Busey. A woman who has devoted her D: Michael Powell. Conrad Veidt, Valerie life to studying the stars—believing there’s Hobson, Hay Petrie, Joss Ambler, Raylife Out There—is ostracized by her supemond Lovell, Esmond Knight, Peter Bull, rior at the National Science Foundation, and Leo Genn. Superior spy yarn from Michael eventually cut off, until she actually rePowell and Emeric Pressburger, very much ceives a message from space. Intensely inin the Hitchcock vein. Veidt is a Danish volving story in which we’re drawn into merchant sea captain, Hobson an enigmatic Foster’s obsession and share her odyssey passenger—both get caught up with London into the unknown. Passionate and intellispy ring. Though set in 1939, film hardly gent, this film manages to inspire a feeling seems dated at all! That’s Bernard Miles of awe and wonder, which makes up for as a disgruntled smoker. Powell and Brock its overlength and false endings. Foster is Williams adapted Pressburger’s story. P&P simply sensational. Based on the novel by had teamed up with Veidt and Hobson the Carl Sagan. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 previous year for THE SPY IN BLACK. Contempt (1963-French-Italian) C-103m. Original U.S. title: BLACKOUT.▼쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Brigitte Bardot, Contract (1980-Polish) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Giorgia Moll, D: Krzysztof Zanussi. Leslie Caron, Maja Fritz Lang. Perversely funny look at interKomorowska, Tadeusz Lomnicki, Magda national moviemaking with Piccoli as a Jaroszowna. Superb laced-in-acid comedydramatist of integrity who gets mixed up satire centering on a wedding between the with a vulgar producer (Palance) and direccareer-oriented son of a wealthy doctor tor (Lang—playing himself) in a film verand his none-too-eager bride. Zanussi insion of The Odyssey. Producer Joseph E. cisively chides corrupt politicians and busiLevine didn’t seem to understand that Gonessmen; Caron is memorable as a klepdard, who appears here as Lang’s assistant, tomaniacal ballerina. Filmed simultaneously held him in contempt, making this film a with the director’s CONSTANS (THE highly amusing ‘‘in’’ joke. Bardot’s appearCONSTANT FACTOR).▼ ance only adds to the fun. Franscope.▼●쩠 Contract, The (2006-German-U.S.) CContender, The (2000-German-U.S.) C96m. ★★ D: Bruce Beresford. Morgan Free127m. ★★★ D: Rod Lurie. Joan Allen, Jeff man, John Cusack, Jamie Anderson, Alice Bridges, Gary Oldman, Christian Slater, Krige, Megan Dodds, Corey Johnson, JonaSam Elliott, William Petersen, Saul Rubithan Hyde, Bill Smitrovich, Anthony Warnek, Philip Baker Hall, Mariel Hemingway. ren, Thomas Lockyer, Ned Bellamy. Does The death of the vice president enables U.S. high school gym teacher Cusack possess the president Bridges to appoint a female Ohio stamina and smarts to thwart renegade consenator as his successor. But a smalltract killer Freeman? Untidy actioner leaves minded congressman (Oldman) with an axe plenty of questions unanswered while offerto grind decides to humiliate her during ing the barest minimum of thrills. Released public hearings—and she refuses to stoop to direct to DVD in the U.S. Super 35. [R]쩠 his level. Timely, engrossing political Control (2007-British-Japanese-Australian) [ 280 ]

121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Anton Corbijn. Sam Riley, visual flair to a heavily conversational script. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 Samantha Morton, Alexandra Maria Lara, Joe Anderson, James Anthony Pearson, Convicts (1991) C-95m. ★★★ D: Peter Harry Treadaway, Craig Parkinson, Toby Masterson. Robert Duvall, Lukas Haas, Kebbell. Darkly fascinating character study James Earl Jones, Starletta DuPois. A of Manchester rocker Ian Curtis, the moody young boy (Haas) comes of age observing Joy Division lead singer who committed the violent scenes on a Texas Gulf Coast suicide at age 23 in 1980, just as his band canefield in 1902—even as life seems to be was on the cusp of international success. cycling to an end for imposing plantation Effectively filmed in often noir-like b&w, boss (Duvall) who survives by using convict biopic unromantically renders Curtis— labor to work in his fields. A towering perforplayed with the perfect balance of vulneramance by Duvall and stark, authentic dialogue bility and volatility by Riley—as an artist by Horton Foote (based on his nine-play undone by the inner demons that informed cycle The Orphan’s Home) are the strengths his art. Based on a memoir by Curtis’ wife in this poignant elegy. ▼●쩠 (played here by Morton). Super 35. [R]쩠 Convicts 4 (1962) 105m. ★★★ D: Millard Convent, The (1995-Portuguese-French) Kaufman. Ben Gazzara, Stuart Whitman, C-90m. ★★ D: Manoel de Oliveira. CatherRay Walston, Vincent Price, Rod Steiger, ine Deneuve, John Malkovich, Duarte Broderick Crawford, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jack D’Almeida, Luis Miguel Cintra, Heloisa Kruschen. Gazzara gives sincere portrayal as Miranda, Leonor Silveira. A professor long-term prisoner who becomes profes(Malkovich) is attempting to prove that sional artist. Oddball supporting cast. RetiShakespeare is of Spanish descent. To furtled: REPRIEVE. ▼쩠 ther his research, he and his wife (Deneuve) Convoy (1978) C-110m. ★★ D: Sam Pecktravel to an ancient convent, where there are inpah. Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, eerie and mysterious goings-on. Languid Ernest Borgnine, Burt Young, Madge Sintale made by the well-respected Portuguese clair, Franklyn Ajaye, Cassie Yates. Amiawriter-director de Oliveira (who was 86 ble comic-book movie based on the hit years old when this was released!).▼쩠 song about an independent trucker who ★★★★ Conversation, The (1974) C-113m. leads protesting colleagues on a trek through D: Francis Ford Coppola. Gene Hackman, the Southwest. Stupid script and blah acting John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forredeemed somewhat by Peckinpah’s punchy rest, Cindy Williams, Michael Higgins, directorial style. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Elizabeth MacRae, Teri Garr, Harrison Coogan’s Bluff (1968) C-95m. ★★★ D: Don Ford, Robert Shields. Brilliant film about Siegel. Clint Eastwood, Lee J. Cobb, Susan obsessive surveillance expert (Hackman) Clark, Tisha Sterling, Don Stroud, Betty who makes professional mistake of becomField, Tom Tully. Arizona lawman Eastwood ing involved in a case, and finds himself comes to N.Y.C. to show city cops a thing entangled in murder and high-level power or two about tracking down a wanted man. plays. Coppola’s top-notch, disturbing Stylish action film, good location work. script makes larger statements about priSterling enjoyable as hippie. Later evolved into the McCloud TV series. [R]▼●쩠 vacy and personal responsibility. An unbilled Robert Duvall has a cameo. One of Cookie (1989) C-93m. ★★★ D: Susan the best films of the 1970s. [PG]▼●쩠 Seidelman. Peter Falk, Dianne Wiest, EmConversation Piece (1975-Italian) C-122m. ily Lloyd, Michael V. Gazzo, Brenda ★★ Vaccaro, Adrian Pasdar, Lionel Stander, D: Luchino Visconti. Burt Lancaster, Silvana Mangano, Helmut Berger, ClauJerry Lewis, Bob Gunton, Ricki Lake. dia Marsani, Claudia Cardinale. PonderDroll comedy about a sassy teenager who ous story of aging, aloof professor Lancaster gets to meet her mobster dad for the first who becomes involved with matron Mantime when he’s sprung from prison after a gano’s hedonistic children and her young long stretch. No fireworks here, but the lover, Berger. All talk. Filmed in both performances are great fun to watch, espeEnglish and Italian-language versions. cially Wiest as Falk’s breathless mistress Todd-AO 35. [R]▼ (and Lloyd’s mother). Written by Nora Conversations With Other Women (2005) Ephron and Alice Arlen. [R]▼● C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hans Canosa. Aaron EckCookie’s Fortune (1999) C-118m. ★★★ D: hart, Helena Bonham Carter, Nora Zehetner, Robert Altman. Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Erik Eidem, Olivia Wilde, Tom Lennon, CerLiv Tyler, Chris O’Donnell, Charles S. Dutina Vincent, Brianna Brown, Brian Gerton, Patricia Neal, Ned Beatty, Courtney B. aghty. Two people hook up at a wedding Vance, Donald Moffat, Lyle Lovett, Danny reception: His sis is getting married; she’s a Durst, Matt Malloy. Picaresque yarn spun in a bridesmaid. They may have met before. In small Southern town where an eccentric fact, they might have been married and had woman’s death sets in motion a series of a daughter. Determinedly ambiguous twoevents revealing the true nature—both goodcharacter drama is a one-trick pony in splithearted and greedy—of various relatives and screen, a cinematic trope that tries to add friends. Colorful characters abound in this [ 281 ]

easygoing, fanciful film, sparked by Dutton’s Wayne Kramer. William H. Macy, Alec wonderful performance. [PG-13]▼쩠 Baldwin, Maria Bello, Shawn Hatosy, Ron Cookout, The (2004) C-97m. ★★ D: Lance Livingston, Estella Warren, Paul Sorvino, Rivera. Ja Rule, Tim Meadows, Jenifer Lewis, Joey Fatone, M.C. Gainey, Ellen Greene. A Meagan Good, Storm P (Quran Pender), Jonlifelong loser makes his living spreading athan Silverman, Farrah Fawcett, Frankie Faibad luck around an old-style Vegas casino. son, Vincent Pastore, Queen Latifah, Danny Then a beautiful cocktail waitress falls in love Glover, Eve. Hot basketball star signs a $30 with him and his luck begins to change. million deal and moves from his parents’ Clever story is perfectly cast; Baldwin is tertraditional neighborhood to an exclusive rific as the hard-edged casino boss who degated community, where he decides to have cries the transformation of Vegas into a cookout for his friends and family, just as Disneyland. Everything clicks—until the he did in his old ’hood. Latifah coproduced final scene. Evocative jazz score by Mark Isham. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 and helped cook up what story there is in this frantic, stereotyped, and only sporadiCooley High (1975) C-107m. ★★★ D: Mically amusing comedy that looks like it was chael Schultz. Glynn Turman, Lawrence made up as the cameras rolled. [PG-13] 쩠 Hilton-Jacobs, Garrett Morris, Cynthia Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, Davis, Corin Rogers, Maurice Leon Havis. Inner-city rip-off of AMERICAN GRAFThe (1989-French-Dutch) C-124m. ★★★ D: Peter Greenaway. Helen Mirren, MiFITI (set in Chicago, 1964) is nonetheless chael Gambon, Tim Roth, Richard Bohpleasing on its own terms, though only on ringer, Alan Howard. Another stylish, chalthe level of a good TV show. Lots of lenging piece of cinema from Greenaway laughs. Look fast for Robert Townsend. that’s set in a plush gourmet restaurant and Later evolved into the What’s Happening!! details the various relationships between TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 the title characters. This parable about Cool Hand Luke (1967) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 love, revenge, and, most of all, greed is D: Stuart Rosenberg. Paul Newman, George both funny and horrifying—and right on Kennedy, J.D. Cannon, Lou Antonio, Robtarget. However, those who do not appreert Drivas, Strother Martin, Jo Van Fleet, ciate Greenaway’s cinematic sensibility may Wayne Rogers, Anthony Zerbe, Ralph be put off. Sacha Vierny’s cinematograWaite, Harry Dean Stanton, Dennis Hopphy is an asset. Technovision. [NC-17 and per, Richard Davalos, Warren Finnerty, R-rated versions are available]▼●쩠 Morgan Woodward, Clifton James, Joe Don Cool as Ice (1991) C-100m. BOMB D: Baker. Modern slant on prison camps shows David Kellogg. Vanilla Ice, Kristin Minter, little change since Paul Muni; more irreveMichael Gross, Candy Clark, Sydney rent, however, with memorably funny eggLassick, Dody Goodman, Naomi Campeating contest. Top-notch film with Kennedy’s bell, Bobby Brown. The Sealtest man’s Oscar-winning supporting performance as rap numbers frame seemingly unreleasable prisoner. Panavision.▼●쩠 ‘‘wandering cyclist’’ yarn about a numbCool Ones, The (1967) C-95m. BOMB D: skull who manages to romance the town’s Gene Nelson. Roddy McDowall, Debbie WatSAT standard-bearer. Oh, did we mention son, Gil Peterson, Phil Harris, Robert Coote, that her father is in the government’s witGlen Campbell, Mrs. Miller. Inane ‘‘musness relocation program? Ice’s parlance ical’’ comedy spoofing trendy music busi(‘‘Drop that zero/get with the hero’’) in his ness. Embarrassing on all counts, with broad first starring film does not rekindle fond performances. If you turn up your volume, memories of Ronald Colman. [PG]▼● you might hear a faint laugh track. Panavision. Cool Runnings (1993) C-97m. ★★★ D: Jon Cool Breeze (1972) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Barry Pollack. Thalmus Rasulala, Judy Pace, Turteltaub. Leon, Doug E. Doug, John Jim Watkins, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Sam Laws, Candy, Rawle D. Lewis, Malik Yoba, RayMargaret Avery, Raymond St. Jacques. mond J. Barry. Family-oriented feel-good Routine remake of THE ASPHALT JUNmovie from Disney—based on a true story— GLE with plot line updated so that diaabout the unlikely formation of a Jamaican mond robbery proceeds will go to set up a bobsled team to compete in the 1988 Winter black people’s bank.[R] Olympics. (The participants have never even Cool, Dry Place, A (1999) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: seen snow, let alone a bobsled!) Candy is John N. Smith. Vince Vaughn, Joey Lauren well cast as a disgraced former Olympian who redeems himself. [PG]▼●쩠 Adams, Monica Potter, Devon Sawa, Bobby Moat, Todd Louiso. Hotshot lawyer is raising Cool World, The (1964) 105m. ★★★ D: his five-year-old son since his wife walked Shirley Clarke. Hampton Clanton, Yolanda out on them. Having lost his job, he tries to Rodrı´guez, Bostic Felton, Gary Bolling, build a new life in Texas and meets a woman Carl Lee, Clarence Williams (III), Gloria he likes . . . then the plot thickens. Believable Foster, Georgia Burke, Antonio Fargas. The story, if predictable at times; benefits from streets, rhythms, and populace of Harlem are the stars of this justifiably celebrated good performances. [PG-13]▼쩠 Cooler, The (2003) C-102m. ★★★ D: cine´ma ve´rite´ film. While primarily a mood [ 282 ]

piece, it does feature a gritty, realistic—and point: a urination bonding scene with Reynvery un-Hollywood—storyline, which inolds in which the youngster wants to ‘‘make volves a young black teen gang member swords.’’ [PG]▼●쩠 (Clanton, in his only screen appearance). Cop au Vin (1984-French) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 Based on a novel by Warren Miller and play D: Claude Chabrol. Jean Poiret, Stephane by Miller and Robert Rossen. Clarke also Audran, Michel Bouquet, Jean Topart, Lucoscripted (with Lee) and edited. Produced cas Belvaux, Pauline Lafont. Chabrol is in by Frederick Wiseman. fine form in this diverting, neatly paced Cool World (1992) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph thriller about a young mail boy, his Bakshi. Gabriel Byrne, Kim Basinger, Brad widowed, invalid mother, and a greedy Pitt, Frank Sinatra, Jr. Pointless live-action/ trio who attempt to evict them from their animation feature from Bakshi, who’s covhome. Murder brings a shrewd cop on the ered this ground before, much more sucscene to investigate. Followed by a sequel, INSPECTEUR LAVARDIN.쩠 cessfully. Ex-con comic-book artist Byrne discovers his cartoon creations are real, and Cop Killers SEE: Corrupt Cop Land (1997) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: James live in a parallel universe called Cool World. After sexy ‘‘doodle’’ Holli (Basinger) has sex Mangold. Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, with Byrne, she becomes human and escapes Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Peter Berg, to real world, with detective Pitt in tow. Too Janeane Garofalo, Robert Patrick, Michael serious to be fun, too goofy to take serRapaport, Annabella Sciorra, Noah Emmeriously; lead characters unlikable and unapich, Cathy Moriarty, John Spencer, Frank pealing. Looks like a Roger Corman version Vincent, Malik Yoba, Bruce Altman, Edie of ROGER RABBIT. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Falco, Tony Sirico, Deborah Harry. Stallone Coonskin (1975) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph plays a sheriff who’s eaten a few too many Bakshi. Barry White, Charles Gordone, donuts and is responsible for looking the Scatman Crothers, Philip (Michael) Thomas. other way in a New Jersey town inhabited Outrageous, original film about the status almost exclusively by N.Y.C. cops who of blacks in America is told with liveexist, it seems, above the law. Keitel is their action and animation vignettes, the best of ringleader, De Niro an Internal Affairs ofwhich are sly parodies of the stories from ficer on his trail. A solid premise, and a Disney and Uncle Remus’ SONG OF THE riveting start, give way to increasingly conSOUTH. Very much in the Bakshi vein; ventional (and predictable) plotting by uneven but worth a look. Video title: writer-director Mangold. [R]▼●쩠 STREET FIGHT. [R]▼ Cop-Out (1967-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cop (1987) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: James B. Pierre Rouve. James Mason, Geraldine Harris. James Woods, Lesley Ann Warren, Chaplin, Bobby Darin, Paul Bertoya, Ian Charles Durning, Charles Haid, Raymond J. Ogilvy, Bryan Stanton. OK murder mystery Barry, Randi Brooks, Annie McEnroe, Vicki with dated generation-gap overtones. RecluWauchope. Woods is excellent as usual in this sive lawyer Mason comes out of retirement otherwise familiar drama about a dedicated to defend his daughter’s boyfriend on cop, his troubled marriage, and the difficulties trumped-up murder charge. Remake of 1942 he encounters while on a murder case. Woods French film STRANGER IN THE HOUSE. and Harris coproduced. [R]▼●쩠 Copper Canyon (1950) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Copacabana (1947) 92m. ★★ D: Alfred E. John Farrow. Ray Milland, Hedy Lamarr, Green. Groucho Marx, Carmen Miranda, Macdonald Carey, Mona Freeman, Harry Andy Russell, Steve Cochran, Gloria Jean, Carey, Jr., Frank Faylen, Hope Emerson, Louis Sobol, Abel Green, Earl Wilson. Percy Helton. OK Western of post-Civil Potentially intriguing Marx-Miranda castWar days, with Confederate vet Milland ing can’t save this unengrossing musical faced with decision to assist fellow Southcomedy. Groucho is a Broadway agent aterners who are being harassed as they attempting to promote Carmen, his only clitempt to mine copper. Lamarr plays the ent, resulting in her being hired for two jobs femme fatale.▼●쩠 (in two different guises) at the same nightCops and Robbers (1973) C-89m. ★★★ D: club. This was Groucho’s first film without Aram Avakian. Cliff Gorman, Joseph Bohis brothers. Also shown in computer-collogna, Dick Ward, Shepperd Strudwick, ored version. ▼●쩠 John P. Ryan, Ellen Holly, Dolph Sweet, Cop & 1⁄2 (1993) C-93m. BOMB D: Henry Joe Spinell. Enjoyable Donald Westlake Winkler. Burt Reynolds, Norman D. tale about two policemen who pull a millionGolden II, Ruby Dee, Holland Taylor, Ray dollar caper on Wall Street. Funny and Sharkey, Sammy Hernandez, Frank Sivero. exciting, with good location photography And a hemorrhoid-and-a-half to anyone by David L. Quaid. [PG]▼쩠 who sits all the way through it. Circumstances Cops and Robbersons (1994) C-93m. ★★ (read: scriptwriter’s contrivance) dictate that a D: Michael Ritchie. Chevy Chase, Jack Pacop-addicted black kid become the new partlance, Dianne Wiest, Robert Davi, David ner of a white detective who’s trying to crack Barry Gray, Jason James Richter, Fay Masa drug punk. Abjectly painful comedy. Low terson, Mike Hughes, Richard Romanus. [ 283 ]

Veteran cop Palance and a young cohort a motley band of scientific specialists. Excitneed to borrow Chase’s house to stake out a ing, old-fashioned Saturday-matinee film, lowlife who’s living next door; this, it turns packed with vivid special effects sequences; out, is a dream come true for Chevy, who’s transcends its obvious formula with ample addicted to TV cop shows and fancies himhumor, colorfully written characters, and a first-rate cast. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 self a hero. Premise of a baby boomer living out his pop-culture fantasies echoes CITY Corky (1972) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leonard SLICKERS (Palance included) but isn’t Horn. Robert Blake, Charlotte Rampling, nearly as good. [PG]▼●쩠 Patrick O’Neal, Christopher Connelly, Ben Copycat (1995) C-125m. ★★★ D: Jon Johnson, Laurence Luckinbill. Blake’s obAmiel. Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, session for stock-car racing shuts out evDermot Mulroney, Harry Connick, Jr., Wilerything else in his life, including wife and liam McNamara, Will Patton, John Rothfriends. Good racing sequences, fairly abman, J. E. Freeman. Psychiatrist (Weaver) sorbing character study. Originally titled who’s an expert on serial killers—and now LOOKIN’ GOOD. Panavision. [PG] traumatized into an agoraphobic exisCorky Romano (2001) C-85m. BOMB D: tence—joins forces with dedicated cops Rob Pritts. Chris Kattan, Vinessa Shaw, Hunter and Mulroney to track down the latPeter Falk, Peter Berg, Chris Penn, Fred est (and smartest) murderer in San FranWard, Richard Roundtree. Dreadful comcisco. Slickly made, tense and entertaining, edy from the ‘‘idiot as hero’’ genre. Hyperalthough it, like the concurrent SE7EN, kinetic Kattan (funny only in small doses) forces us to get to know a sick mind better plays the wayward son of a Mob family than we might care to. And like many viswho’s forced to infiltrate the FBI to destroy ceral thrillers, it will not stand up to intense evidence that would convict his father, Pops scrutiny. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Romano (Falk). Clumsy in every department. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Copying Beethoven (2006-British-Hungarian) C-103m. ★★ D: Agnieszka Holland. Ed HarCornbread, Earl and Me (1975) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Manduke. Moses Gunn, Berris, Diane Kruger, Matthew Goode, Phyllida Law, Joe Anderson, Ralph Riach, Karl nie Casey, Rosalind Cash, Madge Sinclair, Johnson, Nicholas Jones. Fictionalized deKeith Wilkes, Tierre Turner, Larry Fishpiction of an aged, maniacal Ludwig van burne. Well-intentioned but overly meloBeethoven and the female (!) copyist trying dramatic account of a black youth, on his to transcribe his Ninth Symphony while sufway out of the ghetto on a basketball fering his tirades. Harris, in his third teamscholarship, who is mistakenly gunned down ing with director Holland, manages to be at by police bullets. Fine performances and once solid and hammy as the deaf maestro; warm sense of black life evaporate in TV Kruger is fine. Best to forget the histrionic cliche´s. Fishburne’s film debut. [PG] ▼쩠 subplots and enjoy the climax: the 1824 preCornered (1945) 102m. ★★★ D: Edward miere of the ‘‘Ode to Joy’’ as conducted by Dmytryk. Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, Micheits composer. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 line Cheirel, Nina Vale, Morris Carnovsky, Coraline (2009) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Luther Adler. High-tension drama with deterSelick. Voices of Dakota Fanning, Teri mined Canadian flyer Powell in Buenos Aires, Hatcher, John Hodgman, Jennifer Saunders, tracking down the man responsible for the Dawn French, Keith David, Ian McShane, death of his French bride during WW2. Robert Bailey, Jr. Deliciously original stopPowell is in peak form. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼● motion animated feature about a girl who’s just moved into a rambling old house with Corn Is Green, The (1945) 114m. ★★★1⁄2 her parents and is feeling neglected. She D: Irving Rapper. Bette Davis, Nigel Bruce, discovers a doorway to an alternate world, John Dall, Joan Lorring, Rhys Williams, Rowhere her Other Mother offers everything salind Ivan, Mildred Dunnock. Thoughtful she’s missing in real life—but, as she learns, acting in this story of devoted middle-aged it all comes at a terrible price. Intriguingly teacher Davis in Welsh mining town coming creepy and constantly surprising. Director to terms with her prize pupil. Emlyn WilSelick adapted Neil Gaiman’s best-selling liams’ play was adapted by Casey Robinson book and also did the amazing production and Frank Cavett. Remade, beautifully, for design, which looks especially striking in 3TV with Katharine Hepburn in 1979.▼ D. [PG] Corporate Affairs (1990) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Core, The (2003) C-136m. ★★★ D: Jon Amiel. Terence Winkless. Peter Scolari, Mary Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Delroy Lindo, Crosby, Chris Lemmon, Ken Kercheval, Stanley Tucci, DJ Qualls, Richard Jenkins, Richard Herd, Lisa Moncure, Kim GillingTche´ky Karyo, Bruce Greenwood, Alfre ham. Doomed attempt to cross-pollinate Woodard. Strange, seemingly isolated events WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S with WORKaround theworld portend a largerdisaster as the ING GIRL. Scolari takes advantage of forearth’s electromagnetic field is deteriorating. mer lover Crosby when she gives CEO The only solution involves a perilous journey to Kercheval a heart attack during a tryst. But is the earth’s core, which requires the efforts of he really dead? Somehow enormous amounts [ 284 ]

of t&a are shown to advantage in a concurrent office orgy. [R]▼쩠 Corporation, The (2004-Canada) C-145m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jennifer Abbott, Mark Achbar. Fascinating documentary presents a history of corporations, from the time courts granted them great power during the industrial revolution up to the present day, when private industry seems to have more influence on the workings of the world than governments. Hardly unbiased, but well researched and persuasive, including interviews with everyone from Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky to a CEO who underwent a major change of heart and now tries to convince his fellow executives that they cannot destroy the environment in the name of profit. Ambitious, eye-opening film based on the book by Joel Bakan; written by Bakan and Achbar. 쩠 Corpse Bride SEE: Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride Corpse Vanishes, The (1942) 64m. ★★ D: Wallace Fox. Bela Lugosi, Luana Walters, Tristram Coffin, Elizabeth Russell, Vince Barnett, Joan Barclay, Angelo Rossitto. A cut above the average low-grade thrillers Lugosi made for producer Sam Katzman. Bela is a scientist who kidnaps brides for the purpose of using their body fluids to rejuvenate wife Russell, an elderly countess.▼쩠 Corridor of Mirrors (1948-British) 105m. ★★★ D: Terence Young. Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Hugh Sinclair, Joan Maude, Lois Maxwell, Christopher Lee. Underrated ‘‘art’’ film, similar to Jean Cocteau’s work of this period, has Portman well cast as an artist who lives in the past, surrounding himself with Renaissance-era objects. Beauteous Romney (whose acting is not so hot) is the woman he falls in love with. Stunning sets, photography, and musical score.▼ Corridors of Blood (1963-British) 86m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Day. Boris Karloff, Betta St. John, Finlay Currie, Christopher Lee, Francis Matthews, Adrienne Corri, Nigel Green. Middling account of 19th-century British doctor who experiments with anesthetics, becomes addicted to the narcotics, and winds up consorting with grave-robbers to continue his experiments. Filmed in 1958.

make it good entertainment. Written by the director. [PG]▼●쩠 Corrupt (1983-Italian) C-99m. ★★★ D: Roberto Faenza. Harvey Keitel, Nicole Garcia, Leonard Mann, John Lydon, Sylvia Sidney. Intriguing, entertaining psychological thriller about N.Y.C. policeman Keitel, his victimization by mysterious Lydon, and a hunt for a cop killer. Lydon used to be known as Johnny Rotten (of the punk rock group, The Sex Pistols). Fine performances; originally titled ORDER OF DEATH, with a 113m. running time, and also known as COP KILLERS and CORRUPT LIEUTENANT. [R]▼쩠 Corruption (1968-British) C-91m. ★★ D: Robert Hartford-Davis. Peter Cushing, Sue Lloyd, Noel Trevarthen, David Lodge, Kate O’Mara. Famed surgeon Cushing slowly becomes insane as he stops at nothing, including murder, to restore the disfigured face of his fashion model fiance´e (Lloyd). Predictable, formulaic horror opus. [R] Corrupt Lieutenant SEE: Corrupt Corrupt Ones, The (1966-French-ItalianWest German) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Hill. Robert Stack, Elke Sommer, Nancy Kwan, Christian Marquand, Werner Peters. Knock-about photographer Stack is befriended by stranger who gives him key (literally!) to ancient Chinese emperor’s treasure. With better dialogue for its many grotesque characters, film could’ve been a knockout. Techniscope.▼ Corruptor, The (1999) C-110m. ★★ D: James Foley. Chow Yun-Fat, Mark Wahlberg, Ric Young, Paul Ben-Victor, Jon Kit Lee, Andrew Pang, Brian Cox, Elizabeth Lindsey, Byron Mann, Kim Chan, Tovah Feldshuh. Wahlberg is assigned to the otherwise all-Chinese NYPD Asian gang unit and gradually wins the trust of Yun-Fat, leader of the task force. However, not everyone is as honest as they seem. Routine cop action film enlivened—but not enough— by Yun-Fat’s sizzling star performance and Wahlberg’s solid work. Lee is both silky and slimy in the title role. Super 35. [R]

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Corsican Brothers, The (1941) 112m. ★★★ D: Gregory Ratoff. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Ruth Warrick, Akim Tamiroff, J. Carrol ▼●쩠 ★★★ Naish, H. B. Warner, Henry Wilcoxon. D: Corrina, Corrina (1994) C-114m. Entertaining swashbuckler from Dumas story Jessie Nelson. Whoopi Goldberg, Ray Liof twins who are separated, but remain otta, Tina Majorino, Don Ameche, Wendy spiritually tied. Fairbanks excellent in the Crewson, Larry Miller, Erica Yohn, Jenifer dual lead, with strong support, ingenious Lewis, Joan Cusack, Harold Sylvester, Stephotographic effects. Remade for TV in ven Williams, Patrika Darbo, Lucy Webb. 1985.▼ Sweet-natured film about a young widower Corvette K-225 (1943) 99m. ★★★ D: Richwho hires a housekeeper to help take care ard Rosson. Randolph Scott, James Brown, of his daughter—little dreaming how imElla Raines, Barry Fitzgerald, Andy Devine, portant she’ll become to both of them. As a Walter Sande, Richard Lane. First-rate war document of social mores in the late 1950s film with Canadian officer Scott fighting to this has its ups and downs, but endearing performances and upbeat point of view save prominent navy destroyer from enemy [ 285 ]

attack; realistic actioner produced by Howard Charles ‘‘Honi’’ Coles, Larry Fishburne, Hawks. Look quickly for Robert Mitchum. James Russo, Giancarlo Esposito. Homage Corvette Summer (1978) C-105m. ★★ D: to the days of colorful gangsters and Harlem Matthew Robbins. Mark Hamill, Annie nightlife has style to spare and a wonderful Potts, Eugene Roche, Kim Milford, Richsoundtrack full of Duke Ellington music ard McKenzie, William Bryant. High (Gere plays his own cornet solos); all it schooler Hamill falls for aspiring hooker needs is a story and characters whose relaPotts while in Vegas tracking down the tionships make some sense. Visually strikperson who stole the sports car restored by ing with good scenes scattered about. Not his shop class. Bland comedy drama offers nearly as interesting as the published stories Potts’ disarmingly off-the-wall performance about its tumultuous production! [R]▼●쩠 to keep your attention. [PG]▼쩠 Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) C-97m. ★★★ Cosı` (1996-Australian) C-100m. ★★ D: D: Ossie Davis. Godfrey Cambridge, Mark Joffe. Ben Mendelsohn, Barry Otto, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths, Aden Judy Pace, Redd Foxx, Emily Yancy, Young, Colin Friels, Greta Scacchi, Paul Cleavon Little. St. Jacques is Coffin Ed Mercurio. Professionally unfulfilled drifter Johnson, Cambridge is Gravedigger Jones, with a stable law school girlfriend makes a black cops who suspect preacher Lockdesperate career move when he agrees to hart’s back-to-Africa campaign is a swinstage Mozart’s Cosı` Fan Tutte as part of a dle. Neatly combines action and comedy, therapy session for Sydney mental inmates. with fine use of Harlem locales; from Unusual but eventually tiresome comedy, Chester Himes’ novel. Sequel: COME from Louis Nowra’s play, features lots of BACK, CHARLESTON BLUE. [R]▼쩠 familiar faces (to fans of Australian cinema) Cotton Mary (1999-French-British-U.S.) in supporting roles. [R]▼●쩠 C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Ismail Merchant. Greta Cosmic Eye, The (1985) C-76m. ★★★ D: Scacchi, Madhur Jaffrey, James Wilby, SakFaith Hubley. Voices of Maureen Stapleton, ina Jaffrey, Neena Gupta, Prayag Raaj, Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Hubley, Linda AtLaura Lumley, Gemma Jones, Sarah Badel. kinson. Wonderfully imaginative, lifeStultifying drama, set in India in 1954, in affirming animated feature about the needs, which the Anglo-Indian title character marights, and struggles of mankind, most nipulates her way into a British household especially children, around the world. A and causes all sorts of tumult. Potentially tapestry that includes pieces of earlier aniinteresting story of the clash between Britmated shorts by John and Faith Hubley, with ish and Indian cultures is full of obvious music by such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, symbolism; a real snooze. Madhur Jaffrey Benny Carter, and Elizabeth Swados.▼●쩠 (who plays Cotton Mary) is listed in the Cote d’Azur (2005-French) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: credits as ‘‘co-director.’’ [R]▼쩠 Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau. Vale´ria Couch in New York, A (1996-BelgianBruni-Tedeschi, Gilbert Melki, Jean-Marc French-German) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Chantal Barr, Jacques Bonnaffe´, Edouard Collin, RoAkerman. Juliette Binoche, William Hurt, main Torres, Sabrina Seyvecou. One randy Stephanie Buttle, Barbara Garrick, Paul Guilsummer in an old family house on the Riviera, foyle, Richard Jenkins, Kent Broadhurst. where vacationing parents, progeny, tagN.Y.C. therapist Hurt, in desperate need of a alongs, and old flames all collide in a simchange of scenery, switches apartments mering stew of middle-age lust and teenage with Parisian dancer Binoche. Flat, uninspired romantic comedy. [R]▼●쩠 hormones. Several overheated characters plus a lot of bedrooms and a shower stall . . . you Couch Trip, The (1988) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: do le math. Breezy but insubstantial scenario Michael Ritchie. Dan Aykroyd, Walter is wistfully unreal, a demi-musical (!) with Matthau, Charles Grodin, Donna Dixon, singing, dancing, and experimental romancing. Richard Romanus, Arye Gross, David Clennon, Mary Gross. Amusing, if somewhat Written by the directors.쩠 1 ★★ Cotter (1973) C-94m. lackluster, comedy about a mental institution ⁄2 D: Paul Stanley. Don Murray, Carol Lynley, Rip Torn, escapee who masquerades as a successful BevSherry Jackson. After tragic rodeo incierly Hills psychiatrist and radio adviser. Some dent, unhappy Indian clown (Murray) struggood laughs, served by a solid cast, but the story is pretty thin. [R]▼●쩠 gles to reestablish himself in home town. Good cast in fair script that fares best in Counsellor at Law (1933) 82m. ★★★★ D: creating small-town atmosphere.▼쩠 William Wyler. John Barrymore, Bebe Cotton Club, The (1984) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 Daniels, Doris Kenyon, Onslow Stevens, D: Francis Coppola. Richard Gere, GregIsabel Jewell, Melvyn Douglas, Thelma ory Hines, Diane Lane, Lonette McKee, Todd, John Qualen, Mayo Methot. Vivid Bob Hoskins, James Remar, Nicolas Cage, adaptation of Elmer Rice play about ragsAllen Garfield, Fred Gwynne, Gwen Verto-riches Jewish lawyer who can’t escape don, Maurice Hines, Joe Dallesandro, Juhis background—and begins to question his lian Beck, Jennifer Grey, Lisa Jane Persky, success when he learns his wife has been unTom Waits, Diane Venora, Woody Strode, faithful. Barrymore gives one of his greatest [ 286 ]

performances in meaty, colorful role; Wyler keeps this comedy-drama moving at breakneck pace. Scripted by Rice. Cast also includes future directors Vincent Sherman, Richard Quine, and Robert Gordon.▼쩠 Countdown (1968) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Altman. James Caan, Joanna Moore, Robert Duvall, Barbara Baxley, Charles Aidman, Steve Ihnat, Michael Murphy, Ted Knight. Near-flawless depiction of real-life trials and concerns of American astronauts, their wives, co-workers, leading to first flight to moon. Excellent ensemble performances, intelligent script by Loring Mandel, based on Hank Searls’ novel. Dated technology only liability. An early gem from Altman. Look fast for Mike Farrell. Panavision.▼쩠 Countdown at Kusini (1976-Nigerian) C-101m. ★★ D: Ossie Davis. Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Greg Morris, Tom Aldredge, Michael Ebert, Thomas Baptiste. Wellmeaning treatment of liberation of fictional African country, ‘‘Fahari.’’ Action and ideas are constantly swallowed up by romantic subplot. Financed by DST Telecommunications, subsidiary of Delta Sigma Theta, world’s largest black sorority. [PG]▼ Count Dracula (1970-Italian-SpanishGerman) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jess Franco. Christopher Lee, Herbert Lom, Klaus Kinski, Frederick Williams, Maria Rohm, Soledad Miranda. Flawed but interesting low-budget adaptation of Bram Stoker novel which sticks close to its source; Lee turns in remarkably low-key performance. [PG]

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nist’s fellow prisoners (played here by Diehl). Oscar winner as Best Foreign Language Film. [R]쩠 Counterfeit Killer, The (1968) C-95m. ★★ D: Josef Leytes. Jack Lord, Shirley Knight, Jack Weston, Charles Drake, Joseph Wiseman, Don Hanmer. Adapted from TV film THE FACELESS MAN, meandering actioner has Lord a secret service man infiltrating a counterfeit syndicate, with predictable results. Video title: CRACKSHOT.▼ Counterfeit Traitor, The (1962) C-140m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: George Seaton. William Holden, Lilli Palmer, Hugh Griffith, Erica Beer, Werner Peters, Eva Dahlbeck. Holden is a double agent during WW2, falls in love with Palmer between various dangerous missions. Authentic backgrounds and fine cast. Based on true story.▼●쩠 Counterpoint (1968) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph Nelson. Charlton Heston, Maximilian Schell, Kathryn Hays, Leslie Nielsen, Anton Diffring. Absurd WW2 melodrama about symphony conductor captured by Nazi general, forced to put on private concert; Heston looks comfortable because he doesn’t have to change facial expressions while conducting. Techniscope. Counter Punch SEE: Ripped Off Counter Tenors, The SEE: White Voices Countess Dracula (1972-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Peter Sasdy. Ingrid Pitt, Nigel Green, Peter Jeffrey, Lesley-Anne Down. Countess masquerades as her own daughter, needs blood to maintain facade of youth. OK shocker. Based on historical figure Elisabeth Bathory; has nothing to do with Dracula.

Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride ▼●쩠 (1973-British) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan GibCountess From Hong Kong, A (1967son. Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, MiBritish) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles Chaplin. chael Coles, William Franklyn, Freddie Marlon Brando, Sophia Loren, Sydney Jones, Joanna Lumley. Last of the HamChaplin, Tippi Hedren, Patrick Cargill, Margamer Films Dracula series is awfully tired, ret Rutherford. Director-writer-composer (and despite modern-day setting; the Count gets bit-part actor) Chaplin’s attempt to make oldhold of a plague virus that can destroy fashioned romantic comedy sinks fast, though mankind. Cut for U.S. release from origieverybody tries hard. Sophia stows away in nal 88m. version called SATANIC RITES shipboard stateroom of diplomat Brando. OF DRACULA. Video title: THE RITES Badly shot, badly timed, badly scored. A pity, OF DRACULA. [R]▼●쩠 particularly because this is Chaplin’s cineCounterfeit Commandos SEE: Inglorious matic swan song.▼쩠 Bastards Count of Monte Cristo, The (1934) 119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rowland V. Lee. Robert Donat, Counterfeiters, The (2007-Austrian-German) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stefan Ruzowitzky. Karl Elissa Landi, Louis Calhern, Sidney BlackMarkovics, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, mer, Raymond Walburn, O.P. Heggie, Martin Brambach, August Zirner, Veit Stu¨bLuis Alberni, Irene Hervey. Superb filmner. Cocky and talented Russian-Jewish ization of classic story of Edmond Dantes, counterfeiter is sent to the Sachsenhausen who spends years in prison unjustly but concentration camp to participate in Operaescapes to seek revenge on enemies who tion Bernhard, to help the Third Reich bring framed him. Donat leads excellent cast in rousing classic from Dumas’ story.▼ down the British and American economies by printing millions of phony pound notes Count of Monte Cristo, The (1954-French) and dollars. Chilling portrait of a man who C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Vernay. Jean pretends to care only about himself and the Marais, Lia Amanda, Roger Piguat. Serprice he pays for survival. Based on an inviceable rendition of Alexandre Dumas credible true story; Ruzowitzky adapted the costume classic. book by Adolf Burger, one of the protagoCount of Monte Cristo, The (1961-French) [ 287 ]

C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Autant-Lara. Louis Jourdan, Yvonne Furneaux, Pierre Mondy, Bernard Dheran. Faithful adaptation of Dumas novel, but Jourdan hasn’t the zest that Robert Donat gave the role in 1934. Originally 120m. Dyaliscope. Count of Monte Cristo, The (2002British-Irish-U.S.) C-131m. ★★★ D: Kevin Reynolds. Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris, Dagmara Dominczyk, Michael Wincott, Luis Guzman, James Frain, Alex Norton. Surprisingly good version of the Dumas evergreen, with Caviezel an impressive Edmond Dantes, who is unjustly imprisoned and vows revenge against those who wronged him. Final section of the story succumbs to the obvious, but overall a nice job. Harris is a standout as Dantes’ fellow prisoner. Debut screenplay for veteran TV producer Jay Wolpert. Super 35. [PG-13]

Fields, Robyn Cruze, Ron Blanchard. Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya is transposed to an Australian sheep farm, circa WW1, and the result is absolutely delightful. Colonial Aussies simultaneously crave and clash with European sensibilities, especially when the enigmatic paterfamilias Alexander (a wickedly fun role, played by writer-director Blakemore) returns from London with the stunning Scacchi in tow. Subtle comedy, high drama, and a great deal of aroused passions ensue. And, yes, that’s Britain’s Googie Withers (longtime resident of Australia) as Hannah the maid— stealing every scene she’s in. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Count the Hours (1953) 76m. ★★ D: Don Siegel. Teresa Wright, Macdonald Carey, Dolores Moran, Adele Mara, Jack Elam. Lawyer Carey takes case of migrant worker falsely accused of a double murder. Trim, well-directed (if implausible) story; Elam is at his slimiest as an alcoholic psycho. ▼쩠 Country (1984) C-109m. ★★★ D: Richard Count Three and Pray (1955) C-102m. ★★1 Pearce. Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, Wil⁄2 D: George Sherman. Van Heflin, ford Brimley, Matt Clark, Therese GraJoanne Woodward, Raymond Burr, Nancy ham, Levi L. Knebel. Penetrating, believKulp. Atmospheric rural Americana in postable look at modern farming family torn Civil War days, with Heflin exerting influapart when government threatens to foreence on townfolk as new pastor with reckclose on loan and take their land away. It’s less past. Woodward (making film debut) the woman whose strength holds things as strong-willed orphan lass and Burr, the together (and it’s Lange who coproduced perennial villain, are fine. CinemaScope. the film); all performances are first rate, Count Yorga, Vampire (1970) C-91m. ★★★ and William D. Wittliff’s script neatly D: Bob Kelljan. Robert Quarry, Roger avoids cliche´s. [PG]▼●쩠 Perry, Donna Anders, Michael Murphy, Country Bears, The (2002) C-88m. ★★ D: Michael Macready. Sophisticated, clever Peter Hastings. Christopher Walken, Stevampire (Quarry) establishes coven in phen Tobolowsky, Daryl ‘‘Chill’’ Mitchell, modern-day Southern California. Fast-paced M. C. Gainey, Diedrich Bader, Alex Rocco, and convincing. Alternate version, THE Meagen Fay, Queen Latifah, Eli MarienLOVES OF COUNT IORGA, VAMPIRE thal; voices of Haley Joel Osment, James is rated PG-13. Sequel: THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA. [PG]▼●쩠 Gammon, Brad Garrett, Kevin Michael Richardson, Toby Huss, Stephen Root, DieCount Your Blessings (1959) C-102m. ★★ drich Bader. ‘‘Inspired by’’ a Disneyland D: Jean Negulesco. Deborah Kerr, Rossano attraction, this lazy excuse for a kid film Brazzi, Maurice Chevalier, Martin Stephens, has a young bear (who’s been adopted by a Tom Helmore, Patricia Medina. Unfunny human family) going back to his roots, and comedy that even Chevalier’s smile can’t helping a legendary music group to stage a help. Kerr marries French playboy Brazzi reunion and rescue their performance hall. during WW2; he goes off philandering for If they spent more time on the script and years. Their child conspires to bring them less time setting up cameo appearances together again. CinemaScope. (Willie Nelson, Bonnie Raitt, Elton John, Count Your Bullets SEE: Cry For Me, Billy etc.) it might have been better. [G] ▼쩠 Country Dance SEE: Brotherly Love Coup de Foudre SEE: Entre Nous Country Girl, The (1954) 104m. ★★★1⁄2 Coup de Grace (1976-French-German) D: George Seaton. Bing Crosby, Grace C-96m. ★★ D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. MarKelly, William Holden, Anthony Ross. garethe von Trotta, Matthias Habich, Kelly won an Oscar as wife of alcoholic Rudiger Kirschstein, Valeska Gert. Disapsinger (Crosby) trying for comeback via pointing tale of a self-destructive countess help of director (Holden). Crosby excels in (von Trotta, wife of the director), who one of his finest roles. Writer-director Seaton wastes her life because the officer she loves also won Academy Award for adaptation does not reciprocate her feelings. Bleak, of Clifford Odets play. Remade for cable sometimes confusing film, not as emotional or involving as it should be.▼쩠 TV in 1982. ▼쩠 Country Life (1995-Australian) C-107m. Coup de Torchon (1981-French) C-128m. ★★★ D: Michael Blakemore. Sam Neill, ★★★1⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Philippe Greta Scacchi, John Hargreaves, Kerry Fox, Noiret, Isabelle Huppert, Stephane Audran, Michael Blakemore, Googie Withers, Maurie Irene Skobline, Eddy Mitchell, Jean-Pierre [ 288 ]

Marielle, Guy Marchand. Strong, disturbgela Lansbury, Cecil Parker, Mildred ing black comedy, based on a novel by Natwick, Robert Middleton, John CarraAmerican Jim Thompson but reset in 1936 dine. One of the best comedies ever Equatorial Africa. Easygoing police chief made has Danny as phony jester who finds (Noiret) of small colonial town is a doorhimself involved in romance, court inmat for everyone in sight, especially his trigue, and a deadly joust. Delightfully wife; he gradually realizes he can use his complicated comic situations (scripted by the position to gain vengeance with impunity. directors), superbly performed. And reFascinating film eventually overplays its member: the pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle. VistaVision.▼●쩠 hand, but enthralling most of the way, with marvelously shaded performance by Court Martial (1955-British) 105m. ★★★ Noiret. Aka CLEAN SLATE. ▼●쩠 D: Anthony Asquith. David Niven, MarCoupe de Ville (1990) C-99m. ★★ D: Joe garet Leighton, Victor Maddern, Maurice Roth. Patrick Dempsey, Arye Gross, DanDenham. Tense courtroom story of officer iel Stern, Alan Arkin, Annabeth Gish, Niven accused of stealing military funds. Rita Taggart, Joseph Bologna, James GamThe trial reveals provocations of grasping mon. Obvious, forgettable formula tale of wife. A solid drama. Originally released as CARRINGTON, V.C.▼ three warring brothers forced to deal with their feelings as they drive dad Arkin’s car Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell, The (1955) C-100m. ★★★ D: Otto Preminger. from Detroit to Florida. Set in 1963 and— guess what?—there are oldies on the Gary Cooper, Charles Bickford, Ralph Belsoundtrack. Still, the sequence in which lamy, Rod Steiger, Elizabeth Montgomthe boys debate the origin of, and words ery, Fred Clark, James Daly, Jack Lord, to, ‘‘Louie, Louie’’ is almost worth the Peter Graves, Darren McGavin. Low-key price of admission. Super 35. [PG-13]▼● drama about trial of military pioneer who Courage Mountain (1989-U.S.-French) in 1925 predicted Japanese attack on U.S. C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Leitch. Juliette Steiger adds spark to slowly paced film as Caton, Charlie Sheen, Leslie Caron, Jowily attorney; Montgomery made her movie anna Clarke, Nicola Stapleton, Jade Magri, debut here. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Kathryn Ludlow, Jan Rubes, Yorgo VoyCourtship of Eddie’s Father, The (1963) agis. Implausible though inoffensive updatC-117m. ★★★ D: Vincente Minnelli. Glenn ing of Johanna Spyri’s Heidi, detailing what Ford, Ronny Howard, Shirley Jones, Stella happens when the teenage girl is sent off to Stevens, Dina Merrill, Roberta Sherwood, boarding school at the outset of WW1. Jerry Van Dyke. Cute family comedy with Sheen is sorely miscast as Peter, her everHoward trying to find wife for widower loyal beau. [PG]▼●쩠 father Ford. Look sharp for Lee Meriwether Courage of Lassie (1946) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 as Glenn’s assistant. Later a TV series. Panavision. ▼●쩠 D: Fred Wilcox. Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Morgan, Tom Drake, Selena Royle, George Cousin Bette (1998) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Des Cleveland, Carl (Alfalfa) Switzer. Third of McAnuff. Jessica Lange, Bob Hoskins, the MGM Lassie movies has a radiant TayElisabeth Shue, Hugh Laurie, Aden Young, lor trying to rehabilitate the collie after his Geraldine Chaplin, Laura Fraser, Toby Stecombat experiences during WW2. Despite phens, Kelly Macdonald, Janie Hargreaves, title, the dog in question is called Bill, not John Sessions, John Benfield. Lange sees Lassie, though played by the same collie her chance for revenge after a lifetime of who starred in the other studio films. Filmed mistreatment when her beautiful, pampered on beautiful locations in Canada.▼쩠 cousin dies and Lange becomes part of the Courage Under Fire (1996) C-115m. cousin’s household. But her plans go awry ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Edward Zwick. Denzel Washingas each person in her scheme pursues his or ton, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips, Miher own selfish agenda. Venomously witty chael Moriarty, Sean Astin, Matt Damon, black comedy from the Balzac novel, set in Seth Gilliam, Tim Guinee, Scott Glenn, Bron1840s Paris, dulls its impact by taking a few son Pinchot, Kathleen Widdoes, Diane Baker. turns too many. Shue is ideal as a sexy, selfCompelling tale of a career Army officer, trouabsorbed soubrette. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 bled by Persian Gulf War incident in which he Cousin Bobby (1991) C-70m. ★★★1⁄2 D: was involved in an accidental death. Now he’s Jonathan Demme. Highly personal, intelliassigned to investigate the death of a female gent documentary about director Demme Captain (Ryan) nominated for the Medal of looking up his cousin after many years, Honor. In RASHOMON-like flashbacks, we and learning about his work. The Reverend learn that there’s more to her story than meets Robert Castle is a Harlem priest who is the eye. Intelligent, multilayered story (by steadfastly devoted to his parishioners, and Patrick Sheane Duncan) about integrity, perlong committed to radical political activsonal honor, and public hypocrisy. [R]▼●쩠 ism. A fascinating portrait of a complex ★★★★ Court Jester, The (1956) C-101m. individual, and of his evolving relationD: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank. Danny ship with his filmmaker cousin.▼ Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, AnCousin, Cousine (1975-French) C-95m. [ 289 ]

★★★

D: Jean-Charles Tacchella. MarieLouis Negin, Mike Bell. Delirious b&w silent Christine Barrault, Victor Lanoux, Mariemelodrama that takes place in the catwalk France Pisier, Guy Marchand, Ginette Garcin, of a hockey rink and at a seamy beauty Sybil Maas. Barrault and Lanoux, married to parlor. Our hero abandons his girlfriend for others, become cousins by marriage and dea siren who insists that he cut off his hands cide to go way beyond the kissing stage. Mild, and replace them with those of her dead easy-to-take comedy that became a surprise father. If you’re still reading this you may box-office sensation in U.S.—where it was be ready to sample Maddin’s unique semilater remade as COUSINS. [R]▼● autobiographical journey, originally preCousins, The (1959-French) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 sented as a series of ten Mutoscope shorts in D: Claude Chabrol. Jean-Claude Brialy, an art installation. Plays like a hallucinatory Gerard Blain, Juliette Mayniel, Claude silent film—a bad, splicy print with jumpCerval, Genevieve Cluny. Complex, decuts during titles that send them out of pressing, ultimately haunting tale of youthfocus. Twisted, bizarre, and absolutely mesful disillusion, with decadent city boy Brialy merizing. 쩠 and provincial cousin Blain competing for Cowboy (1958) C-92m. ★★★ D: Delmer the affection of beauty Mayniel. Superbly Daves. Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, Anna directed by Chabrol.▼ Kashfi, Brian Donlevy, Dick York. IntelCousins (1989) C-110m. ★★★ D: Joel Schuligent, atmospheric Western based on Frank macher. Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, Harris’ reminiscences as a tenderfoot. Sean Young, William Petersen, Lloyd BridgLemmon is Harris, with Ford as his stern boss on eventful cattle roundup.▼쩠 es, Norma Aleandro, Keith Coogan. A big family wedding sets the stage for romantic Cowboy and the Lady, The (1938) 91m. ★★1 intrigues within two colorful clans. Highly ⁄2 D: H. C. Potter. Gary Cooper, Merle enjoyable Americanization of the French hit Oberon, Patsy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Fuzzy COUSIN, COUSINE with charming perforKnight, Harry Davenport, Henry Kolker. mances by Danson, as a free-spirited soul, Bored, aristocratic Oberon, whose father and Rossellini, as the married cousin to is a presidential aspirant, goes slumming whom he’s attracted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 at a rodeo and falls for reluctant cowCovenant, The (2006-U.S.-Canadian) Cpuncher Cooper. Slight (if sometimes overly 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Renny Harlin. Steven Strait, cute) comedy. Leo McCarey cowrote the Sebastian Stan, Laura Ramsey, Taylor Kitsch, story; the script had contributions from Toby Hemingway, Jessica Lucas, Chace Anita Loos and Dorothy Parker!▼●쩠 Crawford, Wendy Crewson, Kyle Schmid, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2002-Japanese) Kenneth Welsh. A quartet of teen-boy warC-114m. ★★★ D: Shinichiroˆ Watanabe. locks, descended from powerful Salem Voices of Beau Billingslea, Melissa Fahn, witches, admits a mysterious fifth member Nicholas Guest, Jennifer Hale. Delightfully into their enchanted group, with the exstylish, refreshingly humorous animated tale pected blast of repercussions. The dudes’ about an eclectic team of space bounty huntmisuse of debilitating magical powers is a ers tracking down a bio-terrorist on Mars. heavy-handed allegory of drug addiction, Certain details will be lost on those unfamiliar but the theme still resonates. Something of with the TV show on which it’s based, and a guys-in-Speedos movie, but darkly atmothere are a few of the plodding, pretentious mospheric. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ments that plague most anime, but the exCover Girl (1944) C-107m. ★★★ D: Charles tremely dynamic action sequences and oddball Vidor. Rita Hayworth, Gene Kelly, Lee charm of the characters make for an enjoyBowman, Phil Silvers, Jinx Falkenburg, able romp. Original Japanese subtitle transEve Arden, Otto Kruger, Anita Colby. lates to COWBOY BEBOP: KNOCKIN’ Incredibly cliche´d plot is overcome by ON HEAVEN’S DOOR. [R]▼쩠 loveliness of Rita, fine Jerome Kern–Ira Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) 77m. ★★1⁄2 Gershwin musical score (including ‘‘Long D: Lloyd Bacon. Dick Powell, Pat O’Brien, Ago and Far Away’’), and especially KelPriscilla Lane, Dick Foran, Ann Sheridan, ly’s solo numbers. Silvers adds some Johnnie Davis, Ronald Reagan, Emma laughs, but Eve Arden steals the film as Dunn. Singing tenderfoot Powell, who has a phobia about animals, hires on at a WyoKruger’s wisecracking assistant.▼●쩠 Cover Me Babe (1970) C-89m. BOMB ming dude ranch, then is mistaken for a D: Noel Black. Robert Forster, Sondra cowboy crooner by fast-talking N.Y. agent Locke, Susanne Benton, Robert S. Fields, O’Brien. Silly but enjoyable musicomedy Ken Kercheval, Sam Waterston, Regis includes songs ‘‘Ride, Tenderfoot Ride’’ Toomey. Depressingly bad movie about and the title tune. Remade as TWO GUYS student filmmaker who lets nothing stand FROM TEXAS. Cowboys, The (1972) C-128m. ★★ D: Mark in the way of gaining a contract. [PG—edited from original R rating] Rydell. John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, Cowards Bend the Knee (2003-Canadian) Bruce Dern, Colleen Dewhurst, Slim Pick64m. ★★★ D: Guy Maddin. Darcy Fehr, Meens, Lonny Chapman, A Martinez, Robert lissa Dionisio, Amy Stewart, Tara Birtwhistle, Carradine, Allyn Ann McLerie, Richard Farns[ 290 ]

worth. Well-produced but sluggish Western Sammy Davis, Jr., Foster Brooks, Buddy about aging rancher forced to take 11 youngLester. Jerry plays various characters in visters with him on cattle drive; disappointing gnettes loosely tied to suicidal klutz seeking film whose message seems to be that violent help from shrink Edelman. There are funny revenge is good. Carradine’s first film. Later a moments (some mildly risque´), but Jerry reshort-lived TV series. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 fuses to believe that Less Is More. OrigiCowboy Way, The (1994) C-102m. ★★ D: nally titled SMORGASBORD; shelved Gregg Champion. Woody Harrelson, Kiefer after test engagements. [PG]▼ Sutherland, Ernie Hudson, Dylan McDerCrack in the Mirror (1960) 97m. ★★★ D: mott, Tomas Milian, Marg Helgenberger, Richard Fleischer. Orson Welles, Juliette Luis Guzman, Travis Tritt, Allison Janney, Greco, Bradford Dillman, Alexander Knox. Christopher Durang. Two rodeo pals from Welles, Greco, and Dillman enact conNew Mexico come to N.Y.C. to see what’s trasting dual roles in intertwining love trihappened to a Cuban friend who disappeared angles set in contemporary Paris, involving there—and soon find themselves caught in murder, courtroom trial, and illicit love; underworld crossfire. Needlessly ugly, unrealnovelty eventually wears thin, marring istic; only the good-natured performances of Grade-A effort. CinemaScope. the two leads carry it. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Crack in the World (1965) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Coyote Ugly (2000) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Andrew Marton. Dana Andrews, JanDavid McNally. Piper Perabo, Adam Garcia, ette Scott, Kieron Moore, Alexander Knox, Maria Bello, John Goodman, Melanie LynPeter Damon. Believable sci-fi about sciskey, Isabella Miko, Bridget Moynahan, Tyra entists trying to harness earth’s inner enBanks, Del Pentacost, Ellen Cleghorne, Bud ergy but almost causing destruction of the Cort, LeAnn Rimes. Fairly innocuous fanworld; realistic special effects. tasy/fluff about young woman who leaves Crackshot SEE: Counterfeit Killer, The New Jersey to make it as a songwriter in Crack-Up (1946) 93m. ★★★ D: Irving Reis. N.Y.C.—and winds up strutting alongside Pat O’Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marsome hot-looking babes at a wild all-night bar. shall, Wallace Ford, Ray Collins. Art critic Elements of formula films (including proO’Brien remembers surviving a train wreck ducer Jerry Bruckheimer’s FLASHDANCE) that never took place; it’s just the first inciare cobbled together in routine but likable dent in a growing web of intrigue and murfashion. Director Michael Bay has a cameo as der. Tense, fast-paced Hitchcockian thriller a photographer. Unrated version runs 107m. with many imaginative touches. ▼● Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Cradle 2 the Grave (2003) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: ★★1 ⁄2 D: Roman CopCQ (2002) C-91m. Andrzej Bartkowiak. Jet Li, DMX, Gabrielle pola. Jeremy Davies, Angela Lindvall, E´loUnion, Anthony Anderson, Kelly Hu, Tom die Bouchez, Giancarlo Giannini, Ge´rard Arnold, Mark Dacascos, Michael Jace, Chi Depardieu, Billy Zane, Massimo Ghini, Jason McBride. As an array of baddies and rival Schwartzman, John Phillip Law, Dean Stockhalf-baddies pursue coveted black diamonds well. Emotionally repressed film editor living that look like oversized Chiclets, most of the in Paris in 1969 works on a BARBARELLAactors playing these parts pursue their dramatilike sci-fi film and becomes infatuated with its cally diverse audience demographics. Union is beautiful leading lady—while allowing a realaround for the demographic that enjoys seeing life relationship with a woman who loves him semi-unclad lookers, but even those viewers to evaporate. Nearly a good movie, but its may have trouble with a script about diamonds scattershot ideas have no dramatic momenwith nuclear capabilities. DMX’s neckwear tum. Debut for writer-director Coppola (Franlooks as if it could pick up sandlot baseball cis’ son), with a cameo by sister Sofia and a games from Radio Havana. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 juicy role for cousin Schwartzman. Giannini Cradle Will Rock (1999) C-134m. ★★★1⁄2 is a standout as a bombastic Italian producer, D: Tim Robbins. Hank Azaria, Ruben Blades, and the movie within a movie is fun—with Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Cary Elwes, Law (from the real BARBARELLA) a welPhilip Baker Hall, Cherry Jones, Angus Maccome presence. [R]▼쩠 ★★ fadyen, Bill Murray, Vanessa Redgrave, D: Louis Crackers (1984) C-92m. Susan Sarandon, Jamey Sheridan, John TurtMalle. Donald Sutherland, Jack Warden, urro, Emily Watson, Bob Balaban, Paul GiaSean Penn, Wallace Shawn, Trinidad Silva, matti, Harris Yulin, Barnard Hughes, John Larry Riley, Christine Baranski, Charlaine Carpenter, Gretchen Mol, Audra McDonald, Woodard, Irwin Corey. Remake of the Stephen Spinella, Jack Black. Sprawling, inclassic caper comedy BIG DEAL ON vigorating concoction uses Orson Welles and MADONNA STREET, set in San FranJohn Houseman’s legendary stage production cisco, strives for the offbeat (in its motley of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock as collection of misfit characters) but forgets a springboard for looking at 1930s art, culture, to go for the laughs, too. [PG]▼● ★★ D: Jerry politics, and big business. Writer-director Cracking Up (1983) C-83m. Robbins takes liberties with the facts but creLewis. Jerry (Who Else?), Herb Edelman, Zane Buzby, Dick Butkus, Milton Berle, ates a fascinating patchwork of personalities, [ 291 ]

ideas, and ideals. Aims high and succeeds Jealous invalid husband Ferrer tries to kill amazingly well. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 wife Lyon, who uses demonic device to Craft, The (1996) C-100m. ★★★ D: Andrew cause mayhem on her own. Panavision. [PG] Crash (1996-Canadian) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Fleming. Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, Rachel True, Christine David Cronenberg. James Spader, Holly Taylor, Skeet Ulrich, Assumpta Serna, Cliff Hunter, Elias Koteas, Rosanna Arquette, DebDe Young, Helen Shaver. Four teenage girls, orah Kara Unger, Peter MacNeil. Steely-cold students at a private L.A. school, dabble in look at alienated people who find sexual exwitchcraft. At first, they’re gleeful about their citement in automobile crashes. Filled with powers, but eventually things get out of hand. explicit sex as well as fetishistic scenes inSurprisingly witty, intelligent movie handles volving car accidents. Curiosity seekers may this goofy premise better than you’d think but find it intriguing for a while, but it’s awfully goes too far at the end. [R]▼●쩠 hard to take. Cronenberg adapted this fatally Craig’s Wife (1936) 75m. ★★★ D: Dorounpleasant film from J. G. Ballard’s novel. thy Arzner. Rosalind Russell, John Boles, Creeps along at the pace of a Yugo. R-rated version cut by 10m. [NC-17]▼●쩠 Billie Burke, Jane Darwell, Dorothy Wilson, Alma Kruger, Thomas Mitchell. Russell Crash (2005-U.S.-German) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 scored first big success as domineering wife D: Paul Haggis. Don Cheadle, Sandra Bulwho thinks more of material objects than of lock, Matt Dillon, Thandie Newton, Brendan her husband. Based on George Kelly play, Fraser, Ryan Phillippe, Jennifer Esposito, remade as HARRIET CRAIG. ▼ Chris ‘‘Ludacris’’ Bridges, Terrence Howard, Cranes Are Flying, The (1957-Russian) William Fichtner, Larenz Tate, Nona Gaye, 1 ★★★ 94m. ⁄2 D: Mikhail Kalatozov. Tatyana Loretta Devine, Michael Pena, Shaun Toub, Samoilova, Alexei Batalov, Vasili MerkurBeverly Todd, Keith David. Meditation on the iev, A. Shvorin. Lilting love story set in clash of ethnic and racial cultures in L.A. as WW2 Russia. Doctor’s son (Batalov) leaves disparate lives intersect and ignite various his sweetheart (Samoilova) to join the army. characters’ simmering anger. Provocative She is seduced by his cousin, marries him, drama has powerful vignettes and perforand from subsequent tragedies tries to remances, offering consistently disturbing (and build her life.▼●쩠 believable) scenes of anger and bigotry, with Crank (2006) C-87m. ★★ D: Mark Neveltiny glimmers of hope in metaphoric moments. dine, Brian Taylor. Jason Statham, Amy Directing debut for Haggis, who cowrote the Smart, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Efren Ramirez, screenplay with Bobby Moresco. Oscar winner Dwight Yoakam, Carlos Sanz, Reno Wilfor Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Film Edson. Professional assassin is injected with a iting (Hughes Winborne). Later a TV series. [R]▼쩠 dose of lethal poison that will become fatal the moment his heart rate drops. Knowing Crash and Burn (1990) C-85m. ★★ D: this, he embarks on a nonstop race against Charles Band. Paul Ganus, Megan Ward, time in which he tries to foil the plot against Ralph Waite, Bill Moseley, Eva LaRue, him and find an antidote. Silly premise may Jack McGee, Elizabeth MacLellan. In the entertain fans with the attention span of a year 2030, a group isolated in a desert instalbeagle. The action doesn’t let up, but forget lation is menaced by one of them, secretly a about logic, good acting, and smart diakiller android. A mix of ideas from THE logue. It took two directors to make this THING, THE TERMINATOR, and ALIEN non–thinking man’s thriller. Try the original is occasionally effective, but too slow and D.O.A. instead. Followed by a sequel. [R]쩠 familiar. Some good if brief David Allen Crank: High Voltage (2009) C-96m. ★1⁄2 effects involving a giant robot turn up at the end. From Full Moon. [R]▼쩠 D: Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor. Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Clifton Collins, Jr., Crash Dive (1943) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: ArEfren Ramirez, Bai Ling, David Carradine, chie Mayo. Tyrone Power, Anne Baxter, Reno Wilson, Joseph Julian Soria, Dwight Dana Andrews, James Gleason, Dame May Yoakam, Corey Haim. Brainless, tasteless Whitty, Henry (Harry) Morgan. Submasequel picks up right where its predecessor rine battleground just backdrop for love ended. Thugs rob hit man Statham of his story; Power and Andrews both love young heart, which is implanted in the chest of Baxter. Oscar winner for special effects, an aged Chinese mobster (Carradine). The film’s main asset.▼쩠 replacement is electrically powered and must Crawling Hand, The (1963) 89m. ★1⁄2 D: be recharged on a regular basis. Ridiculous Herbert L. Strock. Peter Breck, Kent Taylor, action thriller has no decipherable storyline Rod Lauren, Arline Judge, Richard Arlen, Aland is crammed with gratuitous violence and lison Hayes, Alan Hale, Jr. Astronaut’s disemsex. Strains to be hip, but comes off cheap bodied hand instigates rash of stranglings in and vulgar. HD Widescreen. [R] this amateurish rehash of THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS. Good for a few (unCrash! (1977) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles intended) laughs, anyway.▼●쩠 Band. Jose Ferrer, Sue Lyon, John Ericson, Leslie Parrish, John Carradine. Strange, Crawlspace (1986) C-82m. BOMB D: unbelievable mixture of occult and car chase. David Schmoeller. Klaus Kinski, Talia [ 292 ]

Balsam, Sally Brown, Barbara Whinnery. an inheritance. U.S. title: NIGHT OF THE Shameless imitation of PEEPING TOM, as LAUGHING DEAD. Video title: HOUSE IN Kinski spies on young women from his NIGHTMARE PARK. [PG]▼ apartment’s hidden crawlspace area and Crazy in Alabama (1999) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 then kills them, the legacy of his father havD: Antonio Banderas. Melanie Griffith, David ing been a Nazi war criminal. [R]▼쩠 Morse, Lucas Black, Cathy Moriarty, Meat Craze (1974-British) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: FredLoaf Aday, Rod Steiger, Richard Schiff, John die Francis. Jack Palance, Diana Dors, Julie Beasley, Robert Wagner, Paul Mazursky, Ege, Trevor Howard, Suzy Kendall, Michael Elizabeth Perkins, Noah Emmerich, Fannie Jayston, Dame Edith Evans. More laughs Flagg. Picaresque tale of the mid-1960s than horror as antique dealer Palance makes South: abused Griffith chops off her hushuman sacrifices to African idol. Hugh Grifband’s head, leaves her seven kids, and goes fith and Howard wisely kid the material. to Hollywood seeking fame and fortune, totBritish title: THE INFERNAL IDOL; aka ing hubby’s head in a hatbox. Meanwhile, THE DEMON MASTER. [R]▼쩠 her nephew comes face-to-face with racism. Crazies, The (1973) C-103m. ★★ D: George Doesn’t succeed in tying its parallel stories toRomero. Lane Carroll, W.G. McMillan, Hargether but holds your interest. Creditable diold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar, Lynn Lowry. recting debut for Banderas, whose wife is Biological plague hits small Pennsylvania well cast. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 town. The Army is called in to contain it; Crazy Jack and the Boy SEE: Silence townspeople rebel, defy soldiers. Gory but exCrazy Joe (1974-Italian-U.S.) C-100m. ★★1 citing. Aka CODE NAME: TRIXIE. [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Carlo Lizzani. Peter Boyle, Rip ★★★1 C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005-Canadian) C-129m. ⁄2 Torn, Fred Williamson, Eli Wallach, Paula D: Jean-Marc Valle´e. Michel Coˆte´, MarcPrentiss, Luther Adler. Crime drama based Andre´ Grondin, Danielle Proulx, E´mile on the bloody career of New York rackeValle´e, Pierre-Luc Brillant, Maxime Tremteer Crazy Joe Gallo is tolerable, due to its blay, Alex Gravel, Johanne Lebrun. From cast. Henry Winkler can be seen as a mustached hoodlum. [R]▼ childhood, Zach is told he possesses a gift of healing granted to him by Jesus . . . but Crazy Love (2007) C-92m. ★★★ D: Dan he’s equally troubled by a suspicion that Klores, Fisher Stevens. Absorbing docuhe’s gay. Already alienated from his older mentary about a woman who made headbrothers, this puts him at risk of infuriating lines in 1959 when her suitor had acid his proud, domineering (and homophobic) thrown in her face. Today, the two of them father. Absorbing comedy-drama covers are married! A wild, stranger-than-fiction, many years in the life of a family, from 1960 only-in-New-York yarn that reveals its story to 1980, as it charts a young man’s journey one layer at a time, through vintage news of self-awareness. Runs the emotional gamut accounts and intimate new interviews. Fascinating and well told. [PG-13]쩠 but never strikes a false note. Written by Valle´e and Franc¸ois Boulay. Winner of ten Crazy Mama (1975) C-82m. ★★★ D: JonGenie awards, including Best Picture.쩠 athan Demme. Cloris Leachman, Stuart Crazy/Beautiful (2001) C-99m. ★★ D: John Whitman, Ann Sothern, Jim Backus, Donny Stockwell. Kirsten Dunst, Jay Hernandez, Most, Linda Purl, Bryan Englund, Merie Bruce Davison, Lucinda Jenney, Taryn ManEarle, Sally Kirkland. Joyous, unrelentning, Rolando Molina. A wealthy white high ingly kitschy celebration of ’50s America school girl, whose hell-raising ways mask a (opportunity, rock ’n’ roll, and the road), troubled soul, falls in love with a Latino boy made during Demme’s exploitation days, from the other side of the tracks. Story makes follows three generations of women (Sothern, all the right moves at first, then ducks too many Leachman, Purl) and the men they pick issues and whitewashes too many details to up, on an absurdist crime spree from Calimake sense, logically or emotionally. Too bad; fornia to family homestead in Arkansas. Rough in places; overall a gem. Dennis this one had some potential. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Quaid has bit part in film debut. [PG] ▼쩠 Crazy House (1943) 80m. ★★★ D: Edward F. Cline. Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Crazy Moon (1986-Canadian) C-87m. ★★★ Martha O’Driscoll, Patric Knowles, Cass D: Allan Eastman. Kiefer Sutherland, Peter Daley, Percy Kilbride. Olsen & Johnson take Spence, Vanessa Vaughan, Ken Pogue, Eve over film studio to make epic in frantic muNapier. Occasionally cliche´d, but still warm, sicomedy with guests galore: Basil Rathbone, winning little story of wealthy, alienated teen Count Basie, Allan Jones, Edgar Kennedy, Sutherland and his romance with bright, Billy Gilbert, Andy Devine, etc. independent—and deaf—salesgirl Vaughan. Originally titled HUGGERS. [PG-13]▼● Crazy House (1973-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Peter Sykes. Ray Milland, Frankie Howerd, Crazy People (1990) C-90m. ★★ D: Tony Rosalie Crutchley, Kenneth Griffith, Elizabeth Bill. Dudley Moore, Daryl Hannah, Paul McClennan. Horror spoof that fails as comedy Reiser, Mercedes Ruehl, J.T. Walsh, Bill but succeeds with the chills. Overage enterSmitrovich, Alan North, David Paymer, tainer Howerd finds he’s related to Milland’s Dick Cusack, Ben Hammer. Stressed-out greedy family, which is being killed off for ad exec Moore devises a series of brutally [ 293 ]

honest (and very funny) advertisements, ’50s monster movie has been copied so often which prompt his partner to place him in a that some of the edge is gone, but story of mental institution. Then, to everyone’s Amazon expedition encountering deadly Gill amazement, the ads are a sensational sucMan is still entertaining, with juicy atmocess. Though the mock ads are quite funny, sphere, luminous underwater photography sefilm is bland, even dull. Ever likable Dudley quences directed by James C. Havens and chalks up a few extra points. [R]▼●쩠 Scotty Welbourne. Originally in 3-D, but just Crazy-Quilt, The (1966) 75m. ★★★ D: John as good without it. Two sequels: REVENGE Korty. Ina Mela, Tom Rosqui, David WinOF THE CREATURE and THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US. ▼●쩠 ters, Ellen Frye. Korty’s first feature is almost a home movie, featuring arresting Creature From the Haunted Sea (1961) 74m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Corman. Antony images but diffuse, whimsical (ultimately pompous) story of girl’s various romantic Carbone, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Edward liaisons while her exterminator husband sits Wain, E. R. Alvarez, Robert Bean. Gangaround and mopes. Filmed silent, with awkster tries to cover crime wave by creating ward post-synched dialogue; relies heavily panic with story of sea monster . . . then upon Burgess Meredith’s narration, unusual real sea monster shows up. Roger Corman score by Peter Schickele. quickie comedy is not as freakish as his Crazy Stranger SEE: Gadjo Dilo others. Costar Wain is actually OscarCrazy Streets SEE: Forever, Lulu winning screenwriter Robert Towne. ReCrazy World of Julius Vrooder, The make of NAKED PARADISE.▼쩠 (1974) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. Creatures SEE: From Beyond the Grave Timothy Bottoms, Barbara Hershey, George Creatures of the Prehistoric Planet SEE: Marshall, Albert Salmi, Lawrence Pressman. Vampire Men of the Lost Planet Nobody likes this offbeat comedy of a conCreatures the World Forgot (1971-British) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Don Chaffey. Julie Ege, fused Vietnam vet who acts insane to cope with a crazy world, but it has a certain charm. Tony Bonner, Robert John, Sue Wilson, Veteran director Marshall returned to acting Rosalie Crutchley. Hammer Films gives here shortly before his death. [PG] us another prehistoric movie with no dinosaurs and little credibility. [PG]▼ Created to Kill SEE: Embryo Creation of the Humanoids (1962) C-75m. Creature Walks Among Us, The (1956) 78m. ★★ D: John Sherwood. Jeff Morrow, BOMB D: Wesley E. Barry. Don Megowan, Frances McCann, Erica Elliott, Don DooRex Reason, Leigh Snowden, Gregg Palmlittle. Years after an atomic war, human beer. Sequel to REVENGE OF THE CREAings are about to be outnumbered by their TURE has Gill Man (Ricou Browning in subservient robots; anti-robot Megowan diswater, Don Megowan on land) captured by covers a plot to replace people with robot humans, subjected to surgery in hopes of duplicates. Andy Warhol loved this slow, humanizing him, returning to the ocean stagy cheapie.▼쩠 after a few mild tantrums.▼●쩠 ★★ Creator (1985) C-107m. D: Ivan Passer. Creature Wasn’t Nice, The (1981) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Bruce Kimmel. Cindy Williams, Peter O’Toole, Mariel Hemingway, Vincent Spano, Virginia Madsen, David Ogden Stiers, Bruce Kimmel, Leslie Nielsen, Gerrit John Dehner, Jeff Corey. O’Toole once again Graham, Patrick Macnee, Ron Kurowski. plays a Lovable Eccentric (which he does to Silly monster-loose-in-spaceship parody: perfection), this time a university-based scienNielsen is the firm but obtuse commander, tist who’s trying to revive his long-dead wife Macnee the loony scientist, Williams the and who serves as mentor for impressionable only woman on board, etc. Believe it or student Spano. Amiable but aimless adaptanot, this is a musical (one song is titled tion of Jeremy Leven’s novel, redeemed only ‘‘I Want to Eat Your Face’’). Aka SPACESHIP and NAKED SPACE. [PG]▼쩠 by O’Toole’s magnetism. [R]▼●쩠 Creature (1985) C-97m. ★★ D: William Creature With the Blue Hand (1970-German) C-74m. ★★ D: Alfred Vohrer. Klaus Malone. Stan Ivar, Wendy Schaal, Lyman Ward, Robert Jaffe, Diane Salinger, AnKinski, Diana Kerner, Carl Lang, Ilse Page, nette McCarthy, Klaus Kinski. Imitation Harold Leopold. OK Edgar Wallace story of ALIEN set on Saturn’s moon Titan has has innocent man accused of murders pernondescript cast investigating life forms petrated by title creature. Aka THE BLOODY discovered (fatally) by a previous mission. DEAD. [PG]▼쩠 Guest star Kinski is funny, whether spouting Creeper, The SEE: Rituals gibberish or munching nonchalantly on a Creepers, The (1971) SEE: In the Devil’s sandwich during otherwise tense scenes. OrigGarden Creepers (1984-Italian) C-110m. ★★★ D: inally titled TITAN FIND. [R]▼●쩠 Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) Dario Argento. Jennifer Connelly, Donald 79m. ★★★ D: Jack Arnold. Richard CarlPleasence, Daria Nicolodi, Dalila Di Lazzaro, son, Julia (Julie) Adams, Richard Denning, Patrick Bauchau, Fiore Argento. Typically Antonio Moreno, Whit Bissell, Nestor Paiva, stylish, bizarre Argento horror opus whose Ricou Browning, Ben Chapman. Archetypal premise—a mad killer running amok at a [ 294 ]

Swiss girls’ school—serves as a framework Andersson, Liv Ullmann, Ingrid Thulin, for some cleverly weird goings-on. For openKari Sylwan, Erland Josephson, George ers, Connelly plays a girl who has a most Arlin, Henning Moritzen. Beautifully phounusual relationship with insects. Don’t say tographed and acted drama about lives of a you weren’t warned! Aka PHENOMENA. dying woman, her sisters and a servant girl Also shown in 82m. version. [R]▼●쩠 was tremendous critical success, but may Creeping Flesh, The (1973-British) C-94m. be too talky for some. Cinematographer ★★★ D: Freddie Francis. Peter Cushing, Sven Nykvist won an Oscar. [R]▼●쩠 Christopher Lee, Lorna Heilbron, George Cries in the Night SEE: Funeral Home Crime and Passion (1976) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Benson. Well-intentioned, old-fashioned monster film on reincarnation of ancient Ivan Passer. Omar Sharif, Karen Black, evil spirit. Cushing and Lee play rival Joseph Bottoms, Bernhard Wicki. Bizarre brothers competing over ancient skeleton comedy-thriller set in Austrian Alps. Sharif that slowly returns to life. Numerous subis international financier who persuades secplots add to the fun. [PG]▼●쩠 retary-mistress Black to wed industrialist Creeping Unknown, The SEE: QuaterWicki for his money, then finds they are both mass Xperiment, The marked for death by the husband. [R]▼ Creepshow (1982) C-120m. ★★ D: George Crime and Punishment (1935) 88m. ★★1⁄2 Romero. Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, D: Josef von Sternberg. Edward Arnold, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, Peter Lorre, Marian Marsh, Tala Birell, E. G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ed Harris, Elisabeth Risdon. Fascinating HollywoodTed Danson, Gaylen Ross. Romero nicely ization of Dostoyevsky’s novel about man captures the look of a comic book in this haunted by murder he committed. Lowhomage to 1950s E.C. Comics, but Stephen budget but full of inventive ideas by von King’s five ‘‘fantastic tales’’ of revenge and Sternberg.▼● just desserts are transparent and heavyCrime and Punishment (1958-French) handed (King himself stars in the second 108m. ★★★ D: Georges Lampin. Jean Gabin, episode, as an ill-fated rube). Finale has Marina Vlady, Ulla Jacobsson, Bernard hundreds of cockroaches bursting through Blier. Perceptive updating of Dostoyevsky the stomach of a man with an insect phobia novel set in Paris. Retitled: THE MOST (Marshall). If that’s your cup of tea, tune in. DANGEROUS SIN. Followed by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Crime & Punishment, USA (1959) 78m. ★★1 Creepshow 2 (1987) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Mi⁄2 D: Denis Sanders. George Hamilton, chael Gornick. Lois Chiles, George KenMary Murphy, Frank Silvera, Marian Seldes, nedy, Dorothy Lamour, Tom Savini, DomeJohn Harding, Wayne Heffley. Trim, upnick John, Frank S. Salsedo, Holt McCalldated version of Dostoyevsky novel has any, David Holbrook, Page Hannah. George Hamilton (film debut) a law student who becomes involved in robbery and murder.쩠 A. Romero scripted this trio of Stephen King short stories, but their combined repCrime Busters (1980-Italian) C-98m. ★1⁄2 utations can’t lift this cheap-looking movie D: E. B. Clucher (Enzo Barboni). Terence out of the muck. As in the much slicker Hill, Bud Spencer, Laura Gemser, Luciana CREEPSHOW, all the stories are juvenile Catenacci. Filmed in Miami, this copand heavy-handed (a wooden Indian comes movie parody is a hair better than other to life, a hitchhiker run over by a motorist Hill-Spencer efforts, but not a patch on the lives on to terrorize her, etc.). King apTrinity films; chief novelty derives from pears briefly as a truck driver. Followed by watching them go through their paces in a a direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼●쩠 contemporary American setting. Bad dubCrest of the Wave (1954-British) 90m. bing doesn’t help. Filmed in 1976 as TWO ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Boulting, Roy Boulting. Gene SUPERCOPS. Originally 115m. [PG]▼쩠 Kelly, John Justin, Bernard Lee, Jeff RichCrime Doctor series SEE: Leonard Malards. Static account of Navy officer Kelly tin’s Classic Movie Guide joining British research group to supervise Crime in the Streets (1956) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: demolition experiments. Donald Siegel. James Whitmore, John 1 ★★ Crew, The (2000) C-87m. Cassavetes, Sal Mineo, Mark Rydell, Virginia ⁄2 D: Michael Dinner. Richard Dreyfuss, Burt Reynolds, Gregg, Denise Alexander, Will Kuluva, Peter Seymour Cassel, Dan Hedaya, Jennifer Tilly, Votrian, Malcolm Atterbury. Incisive if overCarrie-Anne Moss, Lainie Kazan, Jeremy long drama of angry, alienated teen CassaPiven, Miguel Sandoval, Fyvush Finkel, Casey vetes, who conspires to commit murder. Good Siemaszko. Silly comedy about four Miami performance by Cassavetes, also Mineo and senior citizens who yearn to relive their glory future director Rydell as his cronies and Whitdays as mobsters . . . and unexpectedly get more as an idealistic social worker. Adapted their chance when they run afoul of a Latino by Reginald Rose from his 1955 teleplay; drug lord. Featherweight movie coasts on Cassavetes, Rydell, and Kuluva repeat their TV performances.▼ the good will of its cast. [PG-13]▼쩠 Cries and Whispers (1972-Swedish) CCrime of Father Amaro, The (2002106m. ★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Harriet Mexican-Argentinean-Spanish-French) C[ 295 ]

120m. ★★★ D: Carlos Carrera. Gael Garcı´a Bernal, Sancho Gracia, Ana Claudia Talanco´n, Damia´n Alca´zar, Ange´lica Arago´n, Pedro Armenda´riz, Jr. Pointed melodrama about hypocrisy and corruption in the Catholic Church, centering on a handsome, newly ordained priest (Bernal) who becomes sexually involved with a beautiful 16-year-old parishioner. Controversial, to be sure, for its portrayal of desire and temptation (not to mention corruption) within the clergy. Based on a 19th-century Portuguese novel; a major box-office hit in Mexico. [R] ▼쩠 Crime of Monsieur Lange, The (1936French) 90m. ★★★ D: Jean Renoir. Rene Lefevre, Jules Berry, Florelle, Nadia Sibirskaia, Sylvia Bataille, Jean Daste. Clever (if a bit too talky) tale of an exploited publishing house clerk (Lefevre), who pens stories in his spare time, his evil, lecherous boss (Berry), and a host of complications. Scripted by Jacques Pre´vert, with a pointed anticapitalist message.▼● Crime of Passion (1957) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gerd Oswald. Barbara Stanwyck, Sterling Hayden, Raymond Burr, Fay Wray, Royal Dano, Virginia Grey. Stanwyck is rough and tough as grasping wife who’ll do anything to forward police lieutenant husband’s career.

▼쩠

kins, John Laughlin, Annie Potts, BruceDavison. Laughlin, trapped in a stale marriage, takes up with mysterious Turner—fashion designer by day, hooker by night. Watchable mess is, given the subject matter, less out of control than other Russell movies. Turner actually gives a performance; Perkins amuses in one of his standard nutso roles. One of the two homevideo versions has several minutes of kinky footage originally seen only in Europe. [R] ▼●쩠 Crimes of the Heart (1986) C-105m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, Tess Harper, David Carpenter, Hurd Hatfield. Three Southern sisters, who are equally offcenter, share their various woes and idiosyncrasies (along with pent-up jealousies and resentments) during a fateful reunion. Superior performances can’t make a really good film out of Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, even though Henley wrote the screenplay herself. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Crime Spree (2003-U.S.-French-BritishCanadian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brad Mirman. Harvey Keitel, Ge´rard Depardieu, Johnny Hallyday, Renaud, Saı¨d Taghmaoui, Ste´phane Freiss, Albert Dray, Abe Vigoda. Disparate group of thieves treks from Paris to Chicago to pull off a heist, but things don’t go as planned. Tarantino-influenced comedy-crime film strives to be clever; innocuous fun, with some unnecessary flights into silliness. Depardieu is slumming here but Keitel, playing the underboss of the Chicago Mafia, deftly parodies his tough-guy image. [R]

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) C104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Woody Allen. Caroline Aaron, Alan Alda, Woody Allen, Claire Bloom, Mia Farrow, Joanna Gleason, Anjelica Huston, Martin Landau, Jenny Nichols, Jerry Orbach, Sam Waterston. Film’s title indicates the themes of two separate stories, which are ▼쩠 neatly tied up in the final scene. Landau plays Crime Wave (1954) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andre a married man who is desperate to cut off an De Toth. Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson, adulterous relationship in this somberly tragic Phyllis Kirk, Ted de Corsia, Charles tale. Allen is an unhappy documentary filmBuchinsky (Bronson), Jay Novello, James maker who’s wooing attractive Farrow while Bell, Dub Taylor, Timothy Carey. Neat litmaking a film about insufferably self-centered tle B picture about some escaped cons who TV producer Alda, in a hilariously bittersweet try to involve a former prisonmate (who’s story. Arguably Woody’s most ambitious now gone straight) in their latest heist. film, playing heavy drama against often upActuality-style filming on L.A. locations roarious comedy, and certainly one of his gives this an extra boost.쩠 most passionately debated; a one-of-a-kind efCrimewave (1985) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam fort that only he could pull off. Daryl Hannah Raimi. Louise Lasser, Paul L. Smith, Brion has an unbilled cameo as one of Alda’s chipJames, Sheree J. Wilson, Bruce Campbell, Reed Birney, Edward R. Pressman, pies. [PG-13]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Crime School (1938) 86m. Julius Harris. After a successful debut with ⁄2 D: Lewis Seiler. Dead End Kids (Billy Halop, Bobby EVIL DEAD, director Raimi pays tribute Jordan, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bernard to slapstick comedy with this weird, alPunsley, Gabriel Dell), Humphrey Bogart, most incoherent crime story set in Detroit. Gale Page. Bogart sets out to improve a Smith and James are well cast as grotesque reform school, but meets his match in the goons on a robbery/killing spree. This exDead End Kids. OK reworking of THE ercise in style was cowritten by Raimi’s MAYOR OF HELL, weakened by the pals, Joel and Ethan Coen. [PG-13]▼ Kids’ disreputable personalities and Bogart’s Crime Without Passion (1934) 72m. ★★★ unlikely casting as a do-gooder. Story D: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur. Claude rehashed again as HELL’S KITCHEN. Rains, Margo, Whitney Bourne, Stanley Crimes of Dr. Mabuse, The SEE: TestaRidges, Esther Dale, Leslie Adams. Bizarre, ment of Dr. Mabuse, The fascinating melodrama of callous lawyer Rains, jealous of Margo’s escorts, who Crimes of Passion (1984) C-101m. ★★ D: Ken Russell. Kathleen Turner, Anthony Permust establish false alibi after shooting her [ 296 ]

in lovers’ quarrel. Helen Hayes (Mrs. Crimson Altar, The SEE: Crimson Cult, The Charles MacArthur) and Fanny Brice have Crimson Blade, The (1963-British) C-82m. brief cameos in hotel lobby scene, and ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Gilling. Lionel Jeffries, Olidirectors Hecht and MacArthur play rever Reed, Jack Hedley, June Thorburn, porters! Slavko Vorkapich contributed Duncan Lamont. OK swashbuckler features that incredible opening montage depictromance between two young people on ing The Furies in night flight over N.Y.C. opposite side of Cromwell’s struggle for Crime Zone (1988) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luis power in 17th century; good-looking HamLlosa. David Carradine, Peter Nelson, mer production. Originally titled THE Sherilyn Fenn, Michael Shaner, Orlando SCARLET BLADE. Megascope. Sacha. Moody sci-fi set in repressive, stratCrimson Cult, The (1968-British) C-87m. ified future society. Upper-caste Carradine ★★ D: Vernon Sewell. Mark Eden, Virrecruits young lovers to commit crimes for a ginia Wetherell, Christopher Lee, Boris surprising reason. Profane, satiric, well-crafted Karloff, Michael Gough, Barbara Steele. low-budgeter, but loses its way before the finLackluster script and pacing major flaws ish. Shot in Peru! [R]▼ in standard witchcraft thriller featuring aging Criminal, The SEE: Concrete Jungle, Karloff as expert on black magic, Steele (in The (1960) green makeup) as 300-year-old witch. OrigiCriminal (2004) C-87m. ★★★ D: Gregory nal British titles: CURSE OF THE CRIMJacobs. John C. Reilly, Diego Luna, Maggie SON ALTAR and THE CRIMSON ALGyllenhaal, Peter Mullan, Jonathan Tucker, TAR. [M/PG]▼● Enrico Colantoni, Zitto Kazann, Michael Crimson Gold (2003-Iranian) C-92m. ★★★ Shannon, Malik Yoba, Ellen Geer, Jack D: Jafar Panahi. Hossain Emadeddin, KaConley. Cocky, small-time L.A. con artist myar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri, (Reilly) takes on a prote´ge´ (Luna) who Ehsan Amani, Pourang Nakhaei, Kaveh Najknows a trick or two himself. During the mabadi, Saber Safaei. A pizza delivery man course of one eventful day they become inin Tehran quietly endures a series of social volved in what could be the biggest deal indignities that eventually drive him to take of their lives. Entertaining yarn keeps you desperate action. A subtle, pointed critique guessing to the very last minute. A remake of class conflicts, told in slow, naturalistic of the Argentinean film NINE QUEENS. style. Leading man Emadeddin was, in real Jacobs’ directing debut; he also cowrote the life, a pizza delivery man. Written by (anscript with Sam Lowry (a pen name for other) famed Iranian filmmaker, Abbas Kicoproducer Steven Soderbergh). [R]▼쩠 arostami. This was banned in Iran.▼쩠 Criminal Code, The (1931) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Crimson Kimono, The (1959) 82m. ★★ Howard Hawks. Walter Huston, Phillips D: Samuel Fuller. Victoria Shaw, Glenn Holmes, Constance Cummings, Mary DorCorbett, James Shigeta, Anna Lee, Paul an, Boris Karloff, De Witt Jennings. WarDubov, Jaclynne Greene, Gloria Pall. Two den Huston—tough but essentially fair—faces L.A. detectives investigate a stripper’s mura dilemma when his daughter falls in love der in this offbeat little film; more interestwith prisoner Holmes. Creaky in parts, lively ing for Sam Fuller buffs than general in others, but cast and director make this a viewers, who may find story and treatment must for buffs. Remade as PENITENTIARY too low-key and meandering. in 1938 and CONVICTED in 1950.▼ Crimson Pirate, The (1952) C-104m. Criminal Law (1989) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Martin ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Siodmak. Burt Lancaster, Campbell. Gary Oldman, Kevin Bacon, Karen Nick Cravat, Eva Bartok, Torin Thatcher, Young, Joe Don Baker, Tess Harper, Elizabeth Christopher Lee, James Hayter. Lancaster and Sheppard. Weak suspense film, done in by an Cravat swashbuckle their way across the unsatisfying script and unbelievable story. Mediterranean in one of the great genre clasSlick attorney Oldman (playing an Amerisics of all time. Cult film offers loads of thrills can—and quite well) matches wits with and laughs to both children and adults. wealthy psychopath Bacon in tale of serial ▼●쩠 murders in Boston. Unnecessarily pretentious, Crimson Rivers, The (2000-French) Cunintentionally funny, and, unfortunately, 110m. ★★★ D: Mathieu Kassovitz. Jean filmed nowhere near Boston. [R]▼●쩠 Reno, Vincent Cassel, Nadia Fare`s, DomiCriminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz, nique Sanda, Karim Belkhadra, Jean-Pierre The (1955-Mexican) 91m. ★★ D: Luis Bun˜uel. Cassel. Compelling mystery-thriller about a Ernesto Alonso, Miroslava Stern, Rita Macedo, police investigator called to a remote French Ariadna Welter, Rodolfo Landa, Andrea valley where a grisly murder has occurred— Palma. Very minor psychological drama from the work of a deranged mind. Meanwhile, a Bun˜uel. As a boy, Archibaldo witnesses his detective from a small town miles away looks governess’ death and is fascinated by what he into the desecration of a young girl’s feels; as a man, he’s obsessed with murder and tomb—which leads him onto the same path dying. Much too talky; it sounds far more interas his older, more famous colleague. Excitesting than it plays.▼ ing, unpredictable film, adapted by Kassov[ 297 ]

itz and Jean-Christophe Grange´ from the latter’s novel. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Crimson Tide (1995) C-115m. ★★★ D: Tony Scott. Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, Matt Craven, George Dzundza, Viggo Mortensen, James Gandolfini, Rocky Carroll, Jaime P. Gomez, Michael Milhoan, Scott Burkholder, Danny Nucci, Lillo Brancato, Jr., Rick Schroder, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Steve Zahn, Ryan Phillippe. The producer-director team that brought you TOP GUN fashioned this macho power-play saga aboard a Navy nuclear submarine. Tensions run high when the U.S. is pushed to the brink of war with Russia, especially when veteran sub commander Hackman starts showing Capt. Queeg tendencies and his new lieutenant (Washington) tries to assert himself. Obvious, to be sure, with a foregone conclusion, but highly entertaining just the same. Jason Robards appears unbilled. Hip dialogue added (without credit) by Quentin Tarantino. Alternate unrated version is 123m. Panavision. [R]

his career, is drawn into a controversy over a patient who’s on a life support system, and whose two daughters disagree about his future. Satire of modern medicine (from the director of NETWORK) is heavy-handed and obvious at times, but redeems itself with a satisfying conclusion. Brooks is fun as the aged, once-brilliant doctor whose memory is now shot. And it’s hard to dislike any film that begins with the Delta Rhythm Boys singing ‘‘Dry Bones.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Critical Condition (1987) C-107m. BOMB D: Michael Apted. Richard Pryor, Rachel Ticotin, Ruben Blades, Joe Mantegna, Bob Dishy, Sylvia Miles, Joe Dallesandro, Bob Saget, Randall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, Garrett Morris. Pryor is a con artist who takes charge at a prison hospital, with predictable results. He’s in good form, but the material just isn’t there; its semiserious and sentimental threads don’t work at all, and the comedy is pretty anemic. [R]▼●쩠 Critic’s Choice (1963) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Weis. Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Maxwell, Rip Torn, Jessie Royce Lan▼●쩠 Crisis (1950) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Brooks. dis, Marie Windsor, John Dehner. An inCary Grant, Jose Ferrer, Paula Raymond, joke Broadway play diluted for movie Signe Hasso, Ramon Novarro, Antonio audience consumption. Lucy as a novice Moreno, Leon Ames, Gilbert Roland. Meloplaywright outshines Hope who plays her drama of American doctor (Grant) held in drama critic hubby. Film emerges as tired, South American country to treat ailing predictable comedy, with best moments dictator (Ferrer); intriguing but slow. contributed by supporting players. Based Brooks’s first film as director. Also shown on a play by Ira Levin. Panavision.▼쩠 in computer-colored version.쩠 Critters (1986) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: SteCriss Cross (1949) 87m. ★★★ D: Robert phen Herek. Dee Wallace Stone, M. EmSiodmak. Burt Lancaster, Yvonne De Carlo, met Walsh, Billy Green Bush, Scott Grimes, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally. Lancaster reNadine Van Der Velde, Terrence Mann, turns to hometown, where he crosses path of Billy Zane. GREMLINS-inspired aliens ex-wife De Carlo, who’s taken up with gangroll along like tumbleweeds, gobbling ster Duryea. Potent film noir look (by cinemaeverything in sight while chuckling to tographer Franz Planer) and music (by Miklos themselves—until they’re menaced by Rozsa) help compensate for Lancaster’s miscritter-hunters from space. Pretty good litcasting as an easily manipulated husband. tle thriller with comic overtones. Followed by three sequels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Tony Curtis’ screen debut; he’s briefly seen as De Carlo’s dance partner. Remade in 1995 Critters 2: The Main Course (1988) C-87m. ★★ D: Mick Garris. Scott Grimes, as UNDERNEATH. ▼●쩠 CrissCross (1992) C-100m. ★★ D: Chris Liane Curtis, Don Opper, Barry Corbin, Tom Menges. Goldie Hawn, Arliss Howard, Hodges, Sam Anderson, Lindsay Parker, James Gammon, David Arnott, Keith CarraHerta Ware, Terrence Mann, Roxanne Kernodine, J. C. Quinn, Steve Buscemi, Paul han. The big-mouthed, quill-shooting nasties Calderon. Good intentions abound in this lowtake on an entire town. Nothing special. Folkey drama set in Key West, Florida, in 1969. lowed by two video sequels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 A 12-year-old boy lives with his mom, trying ‘‘Crocodile’’ Dundee (1986-Australian) C-97m. ★★★ D: Peter Faiman. Paul Hogan, to survive since his Dad (a messed-up Vietnam vet) deserted them three years ago. The Linda Kozlowski, John Meillon, David boy’s rootlessness and (eventual) moral diGulpilil, Mark Blum, Michael Lombard, lemma are delineated in credible but much Irving Metzman. Amiable, laid-back Aussie too leisurely fashion, making this potential comedy (that became an enormous worldsleeper a yawner instead. [R]▼●쩠 wide hit) about an adventurer who shows a Critical Care (1997) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidpretty American reporter around the bush ney Lumet. James Spader, Helen Mirren, country, then accompanies her to the equally Kyra Sedgwick, Albert Brooks, Anne Banstrange terrain of N.Y.C. Irresistibly simple croft, Wallace Shawn, Philip Bosco, Jeffrey and old-fashioned, with a sweetness that’s Wright, Margo Martindale, Colm Feore, rare in modern comedies. Hogan, making Edward Herrmann. A young resident, alhis movie debut, also cowrote the screenready cynical about the medical system and play (reportedly inspired by TARZAN’S [ 298 ]

NEW YORK ADVENTURE). For Amerinot the idea. Great battle scenes, great cinemacan release quotation marks were added tography and Oscar-winning costume design, around CROCODILE—lest anyone think it hampered by Harris and amateurish music score. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 was about a reptile! Followed by two sequels. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cro´nicas (2004-Mexican-Ecuadorian) C98m. ★★ D: Sebastia´n Cordero. John Legui‘‘Crocodile’’ Dundee II (1988-U.S.zamo, Leonor Watling, Damia´n Alcaza´r, Australian) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Cornell. Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, John Jose´ Marı´a Yazpik, Alfred Molina. UnderMeillon, Ernie Dingo, Hechter Ubarry, developed, repetitive story about a hotshot Juan Fernandez, Charles Dutton, Kenneth TV reporter who fancies himself a hero of the Welsh, Luis Guzman, Stephen Root, Colin people. He intervenes in a lynching but learns Quinn. Pleasant followup to the runaway hit that the man whose life he saved may have a reverses the original by opening in N.Y.C. connection to a serial killer. He keeps probing and winding up in the bush country of Ausdeeper, trying to get the elusive story while tralia. This time the unflappable tracker runs fending off his boss (Molina)—and carrying afoul of an international drug kingpin. So on an affair with the man’s wife, who is also leisurely that after a while you wish they’d his producer. Leguizamo is good as usual, but the story doesn’t add up. [R] 쩠 get on with it—especially when all suspense about the outcome is eliminated. Hogan’s Cronos (1992-Mexican) C-92m. ★★★ D: charisma carries this almost singlehandedly. Guillermo del Toro. Federico Luppi, Ron Written by Hogan and his son Brett. PanaviPerlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, sion. [PG]▼●쩠 Tamara Shanath, Daniel Cacho, Mario MarCrocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001tinez, Juan Colombo, Farnesio DeBernal. U.S.-Australian) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Simon An elderly, kindly antique dealer accidenWincer. Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski, Serge tally activates the Cronos Device, an instruCockburn, Jere Burns, Jonathan Banks, Paul ment that grants eternal life—but at a great Rodriguez, Aida Turturro. Mick Dundee acprice: it turns the person who uses it into a companies his ’80s squeeze Sue (Kozlowski) (nontraditional) vampire. Howard Hughes– to L.A. when she travels there to run the like billionaire Brook sends his chuckling family newspaper and checks out the sights nephew Perlman after the gadget. Inventive, with their 9-year-old son. First Croco-pic in entertaining film blends wit, horror, tragedy, 13 years is as tired as it sounds, despite and suspense in about equal doses, adding cameos by Mike Tyson and George Hamillots of oddball character details.▼쩠 ton (touting coffee enemas. Decaf or reguCrook, The (1971-French) C-120m. ★★★ lar?). Sue’s investigative reporting attempts D: Claude Lelouch. Jean-Louis Trintignant, to discover why a Hollywood studio keeps Daniele Delorme, Charles Denner, Christine producing unwanted sequels, which is more Lelouch. An elaborate kidnapping scheme irony than this picture can handle. [PG]▼쩠 takes surprising twists in this stylish and clever Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, The caper. [G]쩠 1 ★ (2002-Australian-U.S.) C-90m. ⁄2 D: John Crooked Hearts (1991) C-112m. ★★★ D: Stainton. Steve Irwin, Terri Irwin, Magda Michael Bortman. Vincent D’Onofrio, JenSzubanski, David Wenham, Lachy Hulme, nifer Jason Leigh, Pete Berg, Cindy PickAden Young, Kenneth Ransom, Kate Beaett, Peter Coyote, Juliette Lewis, Noah han. Contrived movie vehicle for the popuWyle, Marg Helgenberger, Wendy Galar Aussie TV host and animal lover Irwin zelle. Engaging, multileveled domestic features nail-biting footage of him confrontdrama showing how husband/father Coying snakes, spiders, and crocodiles, but it’s ote’s indiscretion affects the various memsurrounded by a storyline so lame (enacted bers of his family. A thoughtful, well-acted by an equally lame cast) that it hardly seems sleeper. Bortman also scripted, from Robert Boswell’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 worth the trouble. For the record, a croc has swallowed a satellite capsule that the CIA Crooked Road, The (1965-British) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Chaffey. Robert Ryan, Stewneeds to recover. Youthful fans are better off watching a rerun of the TV show inart Granger, Nadia Gray, Marius Goring, stead. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 George Coulouris. OK battle of wits beCromwell (1970-British) C-145m. ★★ D: tween dictator Granger and newspaperman Ken Hughes. Richard Harris, Alec Guinness, Ryan, who’s got the goods on him. Robert Morley, Dorothy Tutin, Frank FinCrooklyn (1994) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Spike lay, Timothy Dalton, Patrick Wymark, Lee. Alfre Woodard, Delroy Lindo, David Patrick Magee, Nigel Stock, Charles Gray, Patrick Kelly, Zelda Harris, Carlton WilMichael Jayston, Geoffrey Keen. Turgid liams, Sharif Rashed, Tse-Mach Washinghistorical epic has everything money can ton, Christopher Knowings, Jose Zuniga, buy, but no human feeling underneath. Spike Lee, Frances Foster, Norman MatHarris is coldly unsympathetic as 17thlock, Joie Susannah Lee, Vondie Curtis century Briton determined to rid England Hall, RuPaul. At times abrasive, at times of tyrannical rule; one feels more sympaembracing comedy-drama about a family’s thy for King Charles I (Guinness), which is life and times in 1970s Brooklyn, focusing [ 299 ]

on young Troy (Harris), who has a special Crossfire (1947) 86m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Edward relationship with her fiery mother and Dmytryk. Robert Young, Robert Mitchum, warmhearted father—and little use for her Robert Ryan, Gloria Grahame, Paul Kelly, four raucous brothers. Vivid, semi-autobioRichard Benedict, Sam Levene, Jacquegraphical film, written by Lee with his line White, Steve Brodie, Lex Barker. brother and sister, has strong performances Engrossing film of insane ex-soldier leading and many fine moments, but it seems aimcity police in murderous chase. Anti-Semitic less at first and goes on for quite some time. issue handled with taste, intelligence. Script One long sequence is shot in a deliberately by John Paxton, from Richard Brooks’ distorted format. [PG-13]▼●쩠 novel The Brick Foxhole. Also shown in Crooks and Coronets (1969-British) Ccomputer-colored version.▼●쩠 106m. ★★ D: Jim O’Connolly. Telly Savalas, Crossing Delancey (1988) C-97m. ★★★ Edith Evans, Warren Oates, Cesar RomeD: Joan Micklin Silver. Amy Irving, Reizl ro, Harry H. Corbett. Crooks Savalas and Bozyk, Peter Riegert, Jeroen Krabbe´, SylOates are hired to rob Evans’ estate, but via Miles, Suzzy Roche, George Martin, can’t bring themselves to do it once they John Bedford Lloyd, Claudia Silver, Roseget to know her. Amiable but ordinary mary Harris, Amy Wright, David (Hyde) heist comedy. Aka SOPHIE’S PLACE. [M/ Pierce. Charming comedy about a self-reliPG] ▼ ant young N.Y.C. woman whose Jewish Crooks Anonymous (1962-British) 87m. grandmother arranges for her to meet an eligi★1 ⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Leslie Phillips, Stanble bachelor through the services of a marley Baxter, Wilfrid Hyde-White, James riage broker . . . much to her chagrin. Robertson Justice, Julie Christie. Cornball Amusing, sometimes wistful look at the clash comedy with thief Phillips enrolling in between old-world traditions and our modern Alcoholics Anonymous-type organization way of life. Adapted by Susan Sandler, from her play. [PG]▼●쩠 for hoods. Christie, in her film debut, plays Babette La Vern, a stripper. Crossing Guard, The (1995) C-114m. ★★ Cross and the Switchblade, The (1972) D: Sean Penn. Jack Nicholson, David Morse, C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Don Murray. Pat Boone, Anjelica Huston, Robin Wright, Piper Laurie, Erik Estrada, Jackie Giroux, Jo-Ann RobRichard Bradford, Robbie Robertson, John inson. Crusading minister Boone winds up Savage, Priscilla Barnes, Kari Wuhrer, Richin New York street-gang rumbles. Uneven, ard Sarafian, Joe Viterelli. Introspective mood uninteresting, though sincere attempt at piece about a man’s inability to deal with the uplifting, moralistic filmmaking. [PG]▼쩠 drunk-driving death of his young daughter ★★★ Cross Creek (1983) C-122m. D: Martin six years earlier, and his pursuit of the killer, Ritt. Mary Steenburgen, Rip Torn, Peter who’s just been released from prison. Sober Coyote, Dana Hill, Alfre Woodard, Joand somber, but heavy-handed and never terrianna Miles, Ike Eisenmann, Cary Guffey, bly moving. Penn wrote the original screenJay O. Sanders. Leisurely paced but replay; his mother, Eileen Ryan, plays a jewelry warding drama of writer Marjorie Kinnan store customer, and his father, Leo Penn, plays Rawlings’ endeavor to ‘‘find herself’’ by the skipper of a fishing boat. [R] ▼●쩠 moving to remote Florida backwoods home— Crossing Over (2009) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: and dealing with the simple people around Wayne Kramer. Harrison Ford, Ray Liotta, her. Wonderful performances and regional Ashley Judd, Jim Sturgess, Cliff Curtis, Sumflavor—though Dalene Young’s script takes mer Bishil, Alice Braga, Alice Eve, Jacquemore than a few liberties with the facts. line Obradors, Justin Chon, Melody Khazae, Steenburgen’s then real-life husband Malcolm Lizzy Caplan. Police and border officials are McDowell has cameo as famed editor Maxconfronted daily with the human drama of well Perkins. [PG]▼쩠 ethnic strife, urban violence, and fraud. CrossCrossed Swords (1954-Italian) C-86m. section of L.A. intersects (a` la CRASH) with ★1⁄2 D: Milton Krims. Errol Flynn, Gina the thread being illegal immigration and culLollobrigida, Cesare Danova, Nadia Gray. tural assimilation. Ford and Curtis are fine as Unsuccessful attempt to recapture flavor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of swashbucklers of 1930s; set in 16thagent-partners but, like the other leads, they are century Italy with Flynn out to save Gina stranded in a jumbled film that oversimplifies and her father’s kingdom. everything. Exploitative hodgepodge involvCrossed Swords (1978) C-113m. ★★ D: ing multiple races and religions—as well as sleaze—just doesn’t jell. Super 35. [R]쩠 Richard Fleischer. Mark Lester, Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Ernest Borgnine, George C. Crossing the Bridge (1992) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 Scott, Rex Harrison, Charlton Heston. Lester is D: Mike Binder. Josh Charles, Jason Gedtoo old for his dual role in well-acted but flat rick, Stephen Baldwin, Cheryl Pollak, Jefversion of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the frey Tambor, Rita Taggart, Hy Anzell, RichPauper. Lavish sets, costumes, and Jack Carard Edson, Ken Jenkins, David Schwimmer. diff’s photography are main assets. Aka THE Modest memory movie, set in the 1960s, PRINCE AND THE PAUPER. Panavision. about Detroit teens tempted to cross the bridge [PG]▼쩠 into Windsor, Canada—to transport hashish [ 300 ]

back into the States. Nothing special, but cerTom Signorelli, Elizabeth Pena, Frank Rotainly nothing disgraceful, either. Stephen bles, Joel Diamond. Salsa performer Blades Baldwin gets a good showcase here. [R]▼쩠 starts shafting his pals, enjoying the good Crossing the Line (1991-U.S.-Englishlife, when he thinks his upcoming album is Scottish) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Leland. going to make him a smash with mainstream Liam Neeson, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Ian audiences . . . then the record flops. StanBannen, Billy Connolly, Hugh Grant, Maudard backstage drama offers nothing beyond rice Roeves, Rab Affleck. Two-fisted mine novel ethnicity, though Blades has real worker who’s been blackballed out of work presence on camera.▼쩠 accepts an offer from a mysterious milCrossroads (1942) 82m. ★★★ D: Jack Conlionaire to fight bare-knuckled, but begins way. William Powell, Hedy Lamarr, Claire to worry that he’s abandoned his principles Trevor, Basil Rathbone, Margaret Wychfor some quick cash. Serious-minded film erly, Felix Bressart, Reginald Owen, Sig has pretensions of eloquence and import, Ruman, H. B. Warner. Smooth, clever tale but doesn’t really deliver; solid performof respected diplomat Powell, who was ances and canny filmmaking help. Connolly once a victim of amnesia; he is accused by is a standout as Neeson’s cheerfully sleazy an extortionist of having a previous identity friend. Based on William McIlvanney’s novel as a sly petty crook, causing much grief for The Big Man (also its video title). [R]▼쩠 him and his new wife (Lamarr). Crossroads (1986) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: WalCross My Heart (1987) C-90m. ★★ D: Armyan Bernstein. Martin Short, Annette ter Hill. Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jami O’Toole, Paul Reiser, Joanna Kerns. The story Gertz, Joe Morton, Robert Judd, Harry of a date where everything goes wrong, mainly Carey, Jr. Cocky young musician tracks down because both the man and the woman refuse to legendary bluesman in a Harlem hospital and act natural and be themselves. Winning costars agrees to bring him back to his Mississippi bring out the truthful observations in this comic home in return for some long-lost songs. script (by director Bernstein and Gail Parent), Promising idea turns into contrived formula but it’s just too slight, and too slow. [R]▼ film (with undeveloped subplot about the oldCross of Iron (1977-British-West German) timer having sold his soul to the devil). Gets a ★★★ C-119m. shot in the arm from Ry Cooder’s music score D: Sam Peckinpah. James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, James Mason, and Seneca’s flavorful performance as the cranky old bluesman. [R]▼●쩠 David Warner, Senta Berger, Klaus Lowitsch. Peckinpah’s only war film, told Crossroads (2002) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tamra from the viewpoint of Germans on the Davis. Britney Spears, Anson Mount, Zoe¨ Russian front in 1943, is compelling withSaldan˜a, Taryn Manning, Kim Cattrall, Dan out being particularly distinguished. The Aykroyd, Justin Long, Beverly Johnson. standard Peckinpah action scenes are exTeenage girl who’s always followed Dadcitingly done. European version runs 130m. dy’s wishes finally cuts loose by taking a Sequel: BREAKTHROUGH. [R]▼쩠 cross-country road trip with two girlhood 1 ★★★ ⁄2 Cross of Lorraine, The (1943) 90m. friends and a guy with a 1973 Buick conD: Tay Garnett. Jean-Pierre Aumont, Gene vertible. Her goal: to meet the mother who Kelly, Cedric Hardwicke, Richard Whorf, abandoned her when she was three. Debut Joseph Calleia, Peter Lorre, Hume Cronyn. vehicle for pop star Spears doesn’t waste High-grade propaganda of WW2 POW camp time showing her in her underwear—and with hero Aumont rousing defeated Kelly to also gives her a couple of songs. Innocuous, battle; Whorf is dedicated doctor, Lorre a depredictable teen fare with a few serious mospicable Nazi, Cronyn a fickle informer. ments. [PG-13]▼쩠 Crossover (1980) SEE: Mr. Patman Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000Crossover (2006) C-95m. ★★ D: Preston Hong Kong-Taiwanese-U.S.) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 A. Whitmore II. Anthony Mackie, Wesley D: Ang Lee. Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Jonathan, Wayne Brady, Kristen Wilson, Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen, Lung SiLil’ JJ, Phillip ‘‘Hot Sauce’’ Champion, hung, Cheng Pei-Pei. Unusual hybrid of Eva Pigford, Alecia Fears. Onetime sports epic, romance, and martial arts, which folagent (Brady), now a hotshot gambler, lows the secret passions that a retiring wartempts hoopster friends with an offer to esrior (Yun-Fat) and his longtime comrade cape Detroit and become L.A. superstars. (Yeoh) have for each other, and the dangerMackie hopes his underground streetballer ous young noblewoman (Ziyi) who affects skills can shoot him to the big time, while their destiny. Beautifully filmed, with specJonathan aims to become a doctor on an tacular, gravity-defying fight sequences . . . athletic scholarship. So what’s it gonna be: but the characters and the (very protracted) no go or go pro, M.D. or MVP? Faustian story are never as compelling as one would morality play has visual zip and the hop like. Adapted from the novel by Wand Du that’s hip, but the director’s script is less Lu. The action was choreographed by Yuen than a pip. [PG-13]쩠 Wo Ping, who performed similar chores on Crossover Dreams (1985) C-86m. ★★ D: THE MATRIX. Oscar winner for Best ForLeon Ichaso. Ruben Blades, Shawn Elliot, eign Film, Cinematography (Peter Pau), Art [ 301 ]

Direction (Tim Yip), and Original Score role, familiar plot devices, but well done (Tan Dun). Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 by Warner Bros. stock company. Remade Croupier (1999-British-German) C-91m. as INDIANAPOLIS SPEEDWAY. ★★★1 Crucible, The (1956-French-East German) ⁄2 D: Mike Hodges. Clive Owen, Gina McKee, Alex Kingston, Alexander Morton, 140m. ★★★ D: Raymond Rouleau. Simone Kate Hardie, Paul Reynolds, Nick Reding, Signoret, Yves Montand, Mylene DemonNicholas Ball. Highly original film about a geot, Jean Debucourt, Raymond Rouleau. young man who, while pursuing his goal to Successful French translation of Arthur become a published author, takes a job as Miller’s stirring play about the Salem croupier in a London casino—but never witchcraft trials of the 17th century. Signostops observing those around him, or reret and Montand are excellent, recreating marking on his own behavior. Tough, smart their stage performances in the leading roles. script by Paul Mayersberg.▼쩠 Adaptation by Jean-Paul Sartre. Originally tiCrow, The (1994) C-100m. ★★★ D: Alex tled THE WITCHES OF SALEM. Remade Proyas. Brandon Lee, Ernie Hudson, Michael in 1996.▼ Wincott, David Patrick Kelly, Angel David, Crucible, The (1996) C-123m. ★★★ D: Rochelle Davis, Bai Ling, Tony Todd, Jon Nicholas Hytner. Daniel Day-Lewis, WiPolito. A year after his murder and that of his nona Ryder, Joan Allen, Paul Scofield, fiance´e by inner-city hoodlums, a young rock Bruce Davison, Rob Campbell, Jeffrey musician rises from the grave, seeking venJones, George Gaynes. Caught performing geance; he’s guided by a spectral crow. Dark, a ‘‘sinful’’ dance, a group of New England rainy, and violent, the film’s familiar revenge girls, led by Ryder, claim they were overplot is offset by a strong style and an aura of taken by the Devil; soon their village is tragic melancholy. Great urban-hell produccaught in a frenzy of accusations, naming tion design, good performances. Lee died various citizens as witches without so much shortly before filming was complete; digital as a shred of evidence. First American film movie magic enabled him to appear in the rest rendering of Arthur Miller’s classic 1953 of the picture. From James O’Barr’s black and play about parallels between Salem witchwhite comic book. Followed by a sequel, a hunts of the 1600s and Communist witchTV movie, and TV series. [R]▼●쩠 hunts of the 1940s and ’50s. Gets off to a Crow: City of Angels, The (1996) C-84m. shaky start, but finds its voice as the story BOMB D: Tim Pope. Vincent Perez, Mia deepens, and hits its stride with the arrival Kirshner, Richard Brooks, Iggy Pop, of Scofield, who’s brilliant as the judge and Thomas Jane, Vincent Castellanos, Thuy inquisitor. Miller himself wrote the screenTrang. Anemic follow-up to THE CROW, play. [PG-13]▼●쩠 concerning a murdered man who returns to Crucible of Horror (1971-British) C-91m. ★★ life in order to seek revenge on those who D: Viktors Ritelis. Michael Gough, killed him and his cute young son. If you Sharon Gurney, Yvonne Mitchell. Murlast to the end of the film, you’ll be wishing dered man returns to haunt the living. he stayed six feet under. Perez is as grating Nothing new here. [PG]▼쩠 as the nonstop soundtrack. [R] ▼●쩠 Crucified Lovers, The (1954-Japanese) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Kazuo Crowd, The (1928) 104m. ★★★★ D: King Vidor. Eleanor Boardman, James Murray, Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa, Yoko Minamida, Bert Roach, Daniel G. Tomlinson, Dell Eitaro Shindo, Sakae Ozawa. Timid scrollHenderson, Lucy Beaumont. Classic drama maker Hasegawa loves his master’s wife about a few happy and many not-so-happy (Kagawa), with tragic results. Superior days in the marriage of hard-luck couple. performances, stunning direction; originally One of the greatest silent films; holds up a marionette play written in 1715. Better beautifully. Written by Harry Behn, John known by its original Japanese title, CHIKAMATSU MONOGATARI.▼ V.A. Weaver, and director Vidor, from Cruel Intentions (1999) C-97m. ★★ D: the latter’s original story.▼● 1 ★★ Crowded Sky, The (1960) C-105m. Roger Kumble. Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Mi⁄2 D: Joseph Pevney. Dana Andrews, Anne chelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Francis, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist, Blair, Joshua Jackson, Eric Mabius, ChrisJr., John Kerr, Troy Donahue, Keenan tine Baranski, Swoosie Kurtz, Louise Wynn, Joe Mantell, Donald May, Louis Fletcher, Tara Reid. Contemporary telling Quinn, Edward Kemmer, Jean Willes, Patsy of Choderlos de Laclos’ 18th-century novel Kelly. Slick film focusing on emotional Les Liaisons Dangereuses . . . with teenagproblems aboard jet liner and Navy plane ers! Wealthy, jaded stepsiblings Phillippe bound for fateful collision; superficial but and Gellar bet on whether he can seduce virgin Witherspoon. The cast is good, story diverting.쩠 Crowd Roars, The (1932) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: is interesting, but sexual decadence among Howard Hawks. James Cagney, Joan the young is sometimes hard to watch. FolBlondell, Ann Dvorak, Eric Linden, Guy lowed by video prequel (a failed TV pilot) Kibbee, Frank McHugh. Exciting racingand sequel. [R]▼●쩠 driver tale with Cagney in typically cocky Cruel Sea, The (1953-British) 121m. ★★★1⁄2 [ 302 ]

D: Charles Frend. Jack Hawkins, Donald SinFEMALE clone; for a perceptive, nonden, Denholm Elliott, Stanley Baker, John exploitive look at the same subject, see the Stratton, Virginia McKenna, Alec McCowen. 1981 French film BEAU PE`RE. [R]▼●쩠 Well-conceived documentary-style account of Crush (2002-British) C-115m. ★★★ D: John British warship during WW2 and its crew. McKay. Andie MacDowell, Imelda StaunOriginal British running time 126m.▼쩠 ton, Anna Chancellor, Kenny Doughty, Bill Cruel Swamp SEE: Swamp Women Paterson, Caroline Holdaway. Headmistress Cruising (1980) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: William of a British prep school shares secrets and Friedkin. Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, Karen gossip with two close female friends, but Allen, Richard Cox, Don Scardino, Ed when she plunges into a passionate affair O’Neil, voice of James Sutorius. Cop Pacwith a much younger man, they disapprove ino goes underground to ferret out bloody strongly and begin to meddle. Starts out killer of homosexuals in this distasteful, light and funny and turns unexpectedly badly scripted film. Gay world presented as dark; not always believable, but consistently sick, degrading, and ritualistic. Filmed on entertaining. Writer-director McKay wins authentic N.Y.C. locations. [R]▼쩠 us over on an emotional level in his debut Crumb (1994) C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Terry feature. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Zwigoff. Extraordinarily intimate portrait of Crusoe (1988) C-91m. ★★★ D: Caleb underground comic artist (and cult hero) Deschanel. Aidan Quinn, Ade Sapara, Robert Crumb, creator of ‘‘Keep on Warren Clark, Hepburn Grahame, Jimmy Truckin’ ’’ and Fritz the Cat. Zwigoff traces Nail, Tim Spall, Michael Higgins, Shane his career and celebrates his works while exRimmer, Oliver Platt. Solid version of the ploring the cultural influences that shaped oft-filmed Defoe classic, with Quinn cast him. By the time we meet Crumb’s dysfuncas the title character, a slave trader who’s tional brothers, we realize that he survived a shipwrecked on a deserted isle, where he horrific upbringing and found a way to chanmust deal with loneliness, isolation, surnel his own demons through his art. Perhaps vival; most intriguing of all is his evolving this documentary’s greatest achievement is relationship with black warrior Sapara. enabling almost any viewer to feel better Strikingly photographed by Tom Pinter, mostly in the Seychelles. [PG-13]▼ about his own family! [R] ▼●쩠 Crusades, The (1935) 123m. ★★★ D: Cecil Cry-Baby (1990) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: John B. DeMille. Loretta Young, Henry WilWaters. Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Sucoxon, Ian Keith, C. Aubrey Smith, Kathersan Tyrrell, Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Ricki ine DeMille, Joseph Schildkraut, Alan Hale, Lake, Traci Lords, Kim McGuire, Troy C. Henry Gordon, J. Carrol Naish. Love, Donahue, Mink Stole, Joe Dallesandro, action, and great big siege machines in DeJoey Heatherton, David Nelson, Patricia Mille version of medieval era Holy CruHearst, Willem Dafoe. Baltimore, 1954, sades spectacle that’s good for fun, with and good-girl Locane is torn between her Young a luminous queen who’s kidnapped pristine roots and kids in black leather— by infidels; Wilcoxon as Richard the Lionespecially the Elvis type (Depp) who’d Hearted must rescue her. Look fast for Ann love her to mount his cycle. More polished Sheridan as a Christian girl.▼쩠 than Waters’ previous HAIRSPRAY, but Crush (1992-New Zealand) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 not as well focused, though performed with D: Alison Maclean. Marcia Gay Harden, gusto. Uneven and exhausting; a few set Donough Rees, Caitlin Bossley, William pieces really deliver. Director’s cut runs Zappa. Intriguing, multi-layered (if occa95m. Later turned into a Broadway musical. sionally overbaked) tale of seduction, be[PG-13]▼●쩠 trayal, jealousy and revenge, in which Harden Cry Baby Killer, The (1958) 62m. ★1⁄2 D: impersonates her friend, literary critic Rees Jus Addiss. Harry Lauter, Jack Nicholson, (who’s just been injured in a car crash), and Carolyn Mitchell, Brett Halsey, Lynn becomes involved in the lives of a writer and Cartwright, Ed Nelson. Nicholson’s film his teen daughter. Director-coscripter Madebut is a Roger Corman quickie about clean’s feature debut is crammed with offbeat juvenile delinquent who panics when he touches, hidden meanings, and agendas; at its thinks he’s committed murder. A curio at best, best when exploring the complex relationship with coscripter Leo Gordon and Corman himof the three female characters.▼쩠 self in bit parts. 쩠 Crush, The (1993) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan Cry Danger (1951) 79m. ★★★ D: Robert Shapiro. Cary Elwes, Alicia Silverstone, Parrish. Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Jennifer Rubin, Amber Benson, Kurtwood Richard Erdman, Regis Toomey, William Smith, Gwynyth Walsh. Ridiculous thriller Conrad. Effective revenge yarn; ex-con about a thick-witted, twentysomething jourPowell hunts down those responsible for nalist (Elwes) who becomes the target of a framing him.▼ pretty, obsessive fourteen-year-old Lolita Cry for Happy (1961) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: (Silverstone). A completely unnecessary George Marshall. Glenn Ford, Donald FATAL ATTRACTION/HAND THAT O’Connor, Miiko Taka, Myoshi Umeki. ROCKS THE CRADLE/SINGLE WHITE Poor man’s TEAHOUSE OF THE AU[ 303 ]

GUST MOON, involving Navy photograwoman accused of murdering her baby, dephy team in Tokyo using a geisha house spite her claims that the child was carried off for their home. CinemaScope. by a dingo (wild dog). Writer-director SchepCry for Me, Billy (1972) C-93m. ★★ D: isi tells his story with almost documentaryWilliam A. Graham. Cliff Potts, Xochitl, like reality, eloquently attacking the process Harry Dean Stanton, Don Wilbanks. Drifter of trial by rumor that made Chamberlain and falls in love with Indian girl, with tragic her husband the most maligned couple in consequences, in this violent Western. Its Australia. Streep and Neill are heartbreakingly title (and alleged year of release) keeps good. Australian title: EVIL ANGELS. Pachanging, but the film doesn’t get any navision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 better. Aka FACE TO THE WIND, COUNT Cry in the Night, A (1956) 75m. ★★ D: YOUR BULLETS, APACHE MASSAFrank Tuttle. Edmond O’Brien, Brian CRE, and THE LONG TOMORROW. PaDonlevy, Natalie Wood, Raymond Burr, navision. [R]▼ Richard Anderson. Why is mysterious, Cry Freedom (1987-British) C-157m. ★★★ psychotic Burr spying on Wood and her D: Richard Attenborough. Kevin Kline, boyfriend? And what happens after he kidPenelope Wilton, Denzel Washington, naps her? Overwrought drama, but fasciKevin McNally, John Thaw, Timothy West, nating as a time capsule of its era, and then Juanita Waterman, John Hargreaves, Alec prevalent attitudes toward cops and vicMcCowen, Zakes Mokae, Ian Richardson. tims. Burr is quite good. Sweeping and compassionate film about Cry of Battle (1963) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irving South African activist Steve Biko (well Lerner. Van Heflin, Rita Moreno, James played by Washington) and his friendship MacArthur, Leopoldo Salcedo. Uneven with crusading newspaper editor Donald actioner set in Philippines with MacArthur Woods (Kline). Unfortunately second half as son of wealthy businessman who joins of film, minus the Biko character, loses mopartisan cause, finding romance and sense mentum as it spends too much time on of maturity.▼쩠 Kline and his family’s escape from South Cry of the Banshee (1970-British) C-87m. Africa, but cannily injects flashbacks of Biko ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gordon Hessler. Vincent Price, to steer it back on course. Screenplay by John Elisabeth Bergner, Essy Persson, Hugh Briley. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 Griffith, Hilary Dwyer, Sally Geeson, Pat★★★ D: Richard Cry ‘‘Havoc’’ (1943) 97m. rick Mower. Witch Oona (Bergner) sumThorpe. Margaret Sullavan, Joan Blondell, mons servant of Satan to avenge nobleman Ann Sothern, Fay Bainter, Marsha Hunt, (Price)’s bloody reign of witch-hunting. Ella Raines, Frances Gifford, Diana Confusion sets in midway. [PG]▼●쩠 Lewis, Heather Angel. Female volunteers Cry of the City (1948) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert join some overworked American nurses Siodmak. Victor Mature, Richard Conte, Fred on beleaguered island of Bataan during Clark, Shelley Winters, Betty Garde, Debra WW2. Reveals its stage origins and incorPaget, Hope Emerson. Rehash of MANHATporates expected cliche´s, but also presents TAN MELODRAMA about childhood pals, pretty honest picture of war. Robert Mitone who becomes a cop, the other a crimichum has a bit part as a dying soldier. nal—slick but predictable. Crying Game, The (1992-British) CCry of the Penguins (1971-British) C★★★1 ⁄2 D: Neil Jordan. Stephen Rea, 112m. 101m. ★★ D: Al Viola. John Hurt, Hayley Miranda Richardson, Forest Whitaker, Jim Mills, Dudley Sutton, Tony Britton, Thorley Broadbent, Ralph Brown, Adrian Dunbar, Walters, Judy Campbell. Can a womanizing Jaye Davidson. Strikingly original and adult young biologist find true happiness and story with Rea as an IRA volunteer who redemption among an Antarctic colony of helps capture a British soldier (Whitaker) penguins? Do you care? Similar to later only to befriend him and later become NEVER CRY WOLF—except in interest. involved with his lover. What begins as a Famed documentary filmmaker Arne Sucksthriller unexpectedly turns into a poignant dorff shot the fascinating but horrifying and ironic love story, with plot twists that scenes of life and death among a penguin deepen the film’s almost dreamlike power. colony; an uncredited Roy Boulting reStunningly acted by Rea, Richardson, and portedly directed the scenes with Hayley Whitaker, with an amazing debut by DaMills. Original British title: MR. FORBUSH vidson, as Dil. A unique, seductive film AND THE PENGUINS.쩠 that writer/director Jordan pulls off with Crystal Heart (1987) C-102m. ★★ D: Gil poetic ease; he earned an Oscar for his Bettman. Tawny Kitaen, Lee Curreri, Lloyd screenplay. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Bochner, Simon Andreu, May Heatherly, Cry in the Dark, A (1988-U.S.-Australian) Marina Saura. Young man who must live C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fred Schepisi. Meryl his life like the ‘‘boy in a bubble,’’ conStreep, Sam Neill, Bruce Myles, Charles fined to a controlled environment, develTingwell, Nick Tate, Neil Fitzpatrick, Maurie ops a relationship with a sexy rock singer Fields, Lewis Fitzgerald. Astonishing true story of Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian with whom he’s fallen in love long-distance. [ 304 ]

Mild, predictable outing with music video of the clique one by one. First-time director segments from Kitaen. [R]▼ won a contest that awarded him one million Cry Terror! (1958) 96m. ★★★ D: Andrew dollars to make a film; he wasted a great L. Stone. James Mason, Rod Steiger, Inger opportunity. Unrated version also available. Stevens, Neville Brand, Angie Dickinson, Super 35. [PG-13] 쩠 Jack Klugman. Tight pacing conceals Cuba (1979) C-121m. ★★★ D: Richard implausibilities in caper of psychopath Lester. Sean Connery, Brooke Adams, Jack Steiger forcing Mason to aid him in master Weston, Hector Elizondo, Denholm Elliott, extortion plot, filmed on N.Y.C. locations. Chris Sarandon, Lonette McKee. EntertainStevens good as Mason’s frightened but ing adventure film/love story has mercenary resourceful wife. Also shown in computerConnery renewing an old affair with factory colored version. manager Adams, set against the fall of Batista Cry, the Beloved Country (1951-British) in late ’59. Director Lester is in pretty good 111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zoltan Korda. Canada form, with most scenes punctuated by memoLee, Charles Carson, Sidney Poitier, Geofrable throwaway bits. [R]▼쩠 frey Keen, Reginald Ngeabo, Joyce Carey. Cuba Crossing (1980) C-90m. BOMB Simple back-country minister journeys to D: Chuck Workman. Stuart Whitman, RobJohannesburg in search of his son, while ert Vaughn, Caren Kaye, Raymond St. fate links his path with that of a wealthy, Jacques, Woody Strode, Sybil Danning, bigoted white landowner. Heart-rending Albert Salmi, Michael Gazzo. Tough Whitstory chronicles racial divisiveness (and its man becomes embroiled in a plot to kill roots) in South Africa without resorting to Fidel Castro. Filmed in Key West, Florida, preachiness. Alan Paton’s book was also and at least the scenery is pretty. Rebasis for stage and film musical LOST IN titled KILL CASTRO and ASSIGNMENT: THE STARS. Some prints run 96m. ReKILL CASTRO. Video titles: THE MERmade in 1995.▼● CENARIES and SWEET VIOLENT Cry, the Beloved Country (1995-U.S.TONY. [R]▼쩠 British-South African) C-106m. ★★★ D: Cuban Rebel Girls (1959) 68m. BOMB Darrell James Roodt. Richard Harris, James D: Barry Mahon. Errol Flynn, Beverly Earl Jones, Charles S. Dutton, Vusi Kunene, Aadland, John McKay, Marie Edmund, Leleti Khumalo, Ian Roberts, Dambisa Jackie Jackler. Flynn’s last film is an emKente, Eric Miyeni. Moving remake of the barrassment: playing himself, he aids Fidel 1951 film based on Alan Paton’s celebrated Castro in his overthrow of Batista. Shot on novel, about a backwoods minister (Jones) location during the Castro revolution. Of who, in 1946, makes his first-ever trip to the interest only to see Flynn teamed with his city of Johannesburg in search of his errant final girlfriend, 16-year-old Aadland. Aka son, while wealthy landowner Harris travels ASSAULT OF THE REBEL GIRLS and ATTACK OF THE REBEL GIRLS.▼ there to claim the body of his son, who has just been killed. Excellent performances by Cube (1998-Canadian) C-90m. ★★ D: Jones, Harris, and a largely unfamiliar supVincenzo Natali. Maurice Dean Wint, Niporting cast. Not as understated as the origicole deBoer, Nicky Guadagni, David Hewnal, but effective in its own way. Screenplay lett, Andrew Miller, Julian Richings, Wayne by Ronald Harwood. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Robson. Or, six characters in search of an Cry Uncle! (1971) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: John exit, from a giant cube with countless comG. Avildsen. Allen Garfield, Madeleine de la partments—many of them booby-trapped. Roux, Devin Goldenberg, David Kirk, Sean How and why are they there—and how can Walsh, Nancy Salmon. Private detective they escape? Nerves start to wear thin, which gets involved with murder, sex and blackmay also apply to the audience, as this intrimail in spoof of questionable taste; frequently guing film becomes highly unpleasant . . . hilarious, however. [R]▼쩠 with an unsatisfying conclusion. Cowritten Cry Wolf (1947) 83m. ★★ D: Peter Godby the director. Followed by two direct-tovideo sequels. [R]▼●쩠 frey. Barbara Stanwyck, Errol Flynn, Geraldine Brooks, Richard Basehart, Jerome Cujo (1983) C-91m. ★★★ D: Lewis Teague. Cowan. Static adventure-mystery of StanDee Wallace, Danny Pintauro, Daniel wyck attempting to untangle family secrets Hugh-Kelly, Christopher Stone, Ed Lauter, at late husband’s estate.▼ Mills Watson. Genuinely frightening adapCry Wolf (2005) C-90m. BOMB D: Jeff tation of Stephen King thriller about a Wadlow. Lindy Booth, Julian Morris, Jared woman and her son terrorized by a rabid Padalecki, Kristy Wu, Sandra McCoy, Paul St. Bernard dog. Builds slowly but surely James, Jon Bon Jovi, Jesse Janzen, Gary to terrifying (but not gory) climax. Not for Cole, Anna Deavere Smith. A group of atchildren. [R]▼●쩠 tractive, unlikable prep school students play Cul-De-Sac (1966-British) 111m. ★★★ a prank on their classmates by e-mailing a D: Roman Polanski. Donald Pleasence, chain letter claiming that there’s a masked Franc¸oise Dorle´ac, Lionel Stander, Jack Macmurderer on the loose. Not surprisingly, a Gowran, Iain Quarrier, Jacqueline Bisset. Mareal killer shows up to murder the members cabre comedy about two wounded gangsters [ 305 ]

who terrorize middle-aged milquetoast and his his soul mate (Blanchett) lies on her deathbeautiful young wife. Not a total success, but bed, just as Hurricane Katrina is heading to good cast and stylish direction make it a wintown. Exceptional, epic storytelling in a rare ner. Some prints cut to 103m.▼ movie that’s long but doesn’t feel that way. Culpepper Cattle Company, The (1972) Even more amazing: director Fincher and ★★1 C-92m. his writers (Eric Roth, who collaborated on ⁄2 D: Dick Richards. Gary Grimes, Billy ‘‘Green’’ Bush, Luke Askew, the screen story with Robin Swicord) avoid Bo Hopkins, Geoffrey Lewis, Wayne sentimentalizing their saga. Kudos to the Sutherlin. A 16-year-old persuades trail stars, Alexandre Desplat’s beautiful score, and boss to take him along on cattle drive, Oscar-winning visual effects, makeup (Greg becomes a man in the process. Fair but Cannom), and production design (Donald excessively violent Western. [R]▼쩠 Graham Burt and Victor J. Zolfo). HD WideCult of the Damned SEE: Angel, Angel, screen. [PG-13]쩠 Down We Go Curious George (2006) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cult of the Dead SEE: Snake People Matthew O’Callaghan. Voices of Will Ferrell, Cup, The (1999-Bhutanese) C-93m. ★★★ D: Drew Barrymore, David Cross, Eugene Levy, Khyentse Norbu. Jamyang Lodro, Orgyen Dick Van Dyke, Joan Plowright, Alexander Tobgyal, Neten Chokling, Lama Chonjor, Gould, Frank Welker. A mischievous monkey Godu Lama, Thinley Nudi. Sweet, funny from the jungle stows away with a friendly comedy in which an adolescent, soccer-obman in a yellow hat when he returns to the Big sessed Tibetan monk-in-training (Lodro) City. Basic, straightforward—if uninspired— schemes to win permission to watch the cartoon feature for kids. Thankfully this 1998 World Cup final between France and expansion of the beloved books by H. A. and Brazil on television. Slowly paced but still Margret Rey doesn’t sacrifice their simple winning, with an insightful subtext examinsweetness. A dialogue-free opening sequence ing spirituality, modernity, consumerism, works best of all. Original songs by Jack and Tibet’s endless political struggle against Johnson. [G]쩠 China. Writer-director Norbu is himself a Curly Sue (1991) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: John Bhutanese high lama. [G]▼쩠 Hughes. James Belushi, Kelly Lynch, Curdled (1996) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Reb BradAlisan Porter, John Getz, Fred Dalton dock. William Baldwin, Angela Jones, Bruce Thompson, Cameron Thor, Steven (Steve) Ramsay, Lois Chiles, Barry Corbin, Mel GorCarell, Edie McClurg. Homeless con artist ham, Daisy Fuentes, Kelly Preston, Carmen and his adopted waif leech onto a tightly Lopez. Grisly black comedy about young wound dish of an attorney. She, in turn, woman obsessed with the how’s and why’s of determines that this four-flushing twosome violent crimes, who gets a job scrubbing up is just what she needs to enrich her life. after them on the Post-Forensic Cleaning SerA John Hughes formula movie where the vice. Only for viewers with the darkest sense formula doesn’t work, though if there’s of humor. Executive-produced by none other such a thing as ‘‘quintessential James Bethan Quentin Tarantino. [R]▼●쩠 lushi’’ this is it. Lynch’s obvious discomfort Cure, The (1995) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter suggests she may have seen the rushes. [PG]▼●쩠 Horton. Joseph Mazzello, Brad Renfro, Annabella Sciorra, Diana Scarwid, Bruce Curly Top (1935) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irving Davison, Nicky Katt, Aeryk Egan, Renee Cummings. Shirley Temple, John Boles, Humphrey. Imperfect but often moving story Rochelle Hudson, Jane Darwell, Rafaela about two small-town, pre-teen outsiders who Ottiano, Arthur Treacher. Shirley sings become fast friends: new-kid-in-town Renfro ‘‘Animal Crackers in My Soup’’ as she and AIDS-stricken Mazzello, who conplays Cupid again, this time for sister tracted the HIV virus during a blood transHudson and handsome Boles. Based on Jean fusion. At its best when focusing on the Webster’s Daddy Long Legs. Also shown in boys’ evolving relationship; the title refers computer-colored version.▼쩠 to a miracle AIDS cure which plays a key Curse, The (1987) C-90m. BOMB D: role in the story. [PG-13]▼●쩠 David Keith. Wil Wheaton, Claude Akins, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Cooper Huckabee, John Schneider, Amy Wheaton. Actor Keith steps behind the cam(2008) C-166m. ★★★★ D: David Fincher. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, era to direct this down-home horror movie: Julia Ormond, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flea deadly meteorite lands on a Tennessee farm, myng, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Jared Harris, literally driving the folks crazy after contamiElias Koteas, Phyllis Somerville, Rampai nating their food. Loosely based on H. P. Mohadi, Elle Fanning. Fascinating premise, Lovecraft’s novella The Color Out of Space, from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story previously filmed as DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (which in turn was inspired by a remark by Aka THE FARM. Followed by three unreMark Twain): a baby is born in 1918 New lated ‘‘sequels.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Orleans with all the qualities of a shriveled Cursed (2005) C-97m. ★★ D: Wes Craven. old man and grows younger with each passChristina Ricci, Portia de Rossi, Mya, Shaning year. The story is told in flashback as non Elizabeth, Solar, Daniel Edward Mora, [ 306 ]

Jesse Eisenberg, Joshua Jackson. ContemYimou. Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, porary werewolf-on-the-loose story is a rare Liu Ye, Ni Dahong, Qin Junjie, Li Man, miss in the thrills department from the Chen Jin. During the Tang dynasty, Chinese SCREAM team of Craven and writer Kevin emperor Ping (Yun-Fat) and his ailing emWilliamson. Film starts out amusing but press (Li) try to outmaneuver one another dursoon becomes ludicrous as the nubile young ing a festival of golden chrysanthemums. victims must fight back to become human Palace intrigue, a mysterious invading army, again. Already dated picture is set at the and Shakespearean-style relationships play now-defunct Craig Kilborn talk show, where out amidst breathtakingly gorgeous sets and Ricci is a producer spending what seems like costumes. Not quite up to Yimou’s other days prepping an interview with Scott Baio. historical epics (HERO, HOUSE OF FLYIt’s that kind of movie, folks. Unrated version ING DAGGERS), this is still heady stuff, runs 105m. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 with ripe histrionics occasionally interCurse of Frankenstein, The (1957-British) rupted by martial arts scenes. From a 1930s C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terence Fisher. Peter play by Cao Yu, previously filmed in 1957 Cushing, Christopher Lee, Hazel Court, (with Bruce Lee!) and 1961 as LEI YU. Robert Urquhart, Valerie Gaunt, Noel Hood. Super 35. [R]쩠 OK retelling of original Shelley tale, with Curse of the Jade Scorpion, The (2001) Cushing as Baron von Frankenstein, whose C-102m. ★★ D: Woody Allen. Woody experimentation with creation of life beAllen, Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd, Charlize comes an obsession. First of Hammer Films’ Theron, David Ogden Stiers, Elizabeth long-running horror series, and itself folBerkley, Wallace Shawn, Brian Markinson, lowed by six sequels, starting with THE Irwin Corey, John Schuck. Sexist insurance REVENGE OF FRANKENSTEIN.▼●쩠 investigator in 1940s N.Y.C. can’t abide the Curse of the Cat People, The (1944) fact that his new superior is a woman. The 70m. ★★★ D: Gunther von Fritsch, Robert plot thickens when both of them are ‘‘put Wise. Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane under’’ by a nightclub hypnotist. Great peRandolph, Elizabeth Russell, Ann Carter, riod flavor, as usual, in this Allen comedy, Julia Dean. Follow-up to CAT PEOPLE creand Woody is in great form, but many of ates wonderful atmosphere in story of lonely his one-liners fall surprisingly flat, and Hunt little girl who conjures up vision of Simon, seems too contemporary for her Rosalind Russell–type role. [PG-13] ▼쩠 her father’s mysterious first wife. Despite title, not a horror film but a fine, moody fantasy. Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) 84m. ★★ Produced by Val Lewton, written by DeWitt D: Del Tenney. Helen Warren, Roy R. Bodeen. Wise’s directing debut. Also availSheider (Scheider), Margo Hartman, Hugh able in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Franklin, Candace Hilligoss. Tepid old-darkCurse of the Crimson Altar SEE: Crimhouse murder mystery with dead man supposson Cult, The edly returning to ‘‘life’’ and committing series Curse of the Demon (1958-British) 95m. of killings. Scheider’s film debut.▼쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Dana Andrews, Curse of the Living Dead SEE: Kill, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Athene Baby, Kill Seyler, Liam Redmond, Reginald Beckwith, Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, The Maurice Denham. Andrews is a stuffily cyni(1964-British) C-81m. ★★ D: Michael cal psychologist who doesn’t believe that seCarreras. Terence Morgan, Ronald Howries of deaths have been caused by ancient ard, Fred Clark, Jeanne Roland, George curse, but film convinces audience right off Pastell, Jack Gwillim, Dickie Owen (as the bat and never lets up. Charles Bennett and the Mummy). Handsomely photographed producer Hal E. Chester adapted Montague R. but routine Hammer thriller featuring vengeJames’ story ‘‘Casting the Runes.’’ Excepful mummy at large in Victorian London, tional shocker, originally called NIGHT OF killing the usual profaners of the tomb in THE DEMON. 83m. American version circufoggy surroundings. Most unusual twist: lated for many years. ▼●쩠 The (human) villain is in fact the MumCurse of the Fly (1965-British) 86m. ★1⁄2 my’s brother. Follow-up, not sequel, to D: Don Sharp. Brian Donlevy, Carole Gray, THE MUMMY (1959). Techniscope.쩠 George Baker, Michael Graham, Jeremy Curse of the Pink Panther (1983) C109m. ★1⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. Ted Wass, Wilkins, Charles Carson, Burt Kwouk. In the third and last of original THE FLY seDavid Niven, Robert Wagner, Herbert Lom, ries, young escapee (Gray) from a mental Joanna Lumley, Capucine, Robert Loggia, institution winds up involved with the DeHarvey Korman, Burt Kwouk, Leslie Ash, lambre family, still doggedly trying to make Andre Maranne. Writer-director Edwards’ their teleportation machine work. Highly inpointless attempt to keep the Pink Panther adequate makeup, weak script, but very atseries alive despite Peter Sellers’ death— mospheric direction produce oddly mixed by putting Wass through Sellers’ sightresults. CinemaScope.쩠 gag paces, and surrounding him with costars Curse of the Golden Flower, The (2006of earlier Panther films, who (all too Hong Kong-Chinese) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zhang obviously) shot their cameos at the same [ 307 ]

time as TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER. always satisfying film about a boozy, belligWhat a waste! Niven’s final film (with his erent Vietnam vet (Heard) who prods his voice dubbed by Rich Little). Panavision. aimless friend (Bridges) into action after he’s [PG]▼쩠 seen a man who may be a murderer. LowCurse of the Swamp Creature (1966) key, sometimes enervating adaptation of C-80m. BOMB D: Larry Buchanan. John Newton Thornburg’s novel Cutter and Bone Agar, Francine York, Shirley McLine, Bill (this film’s original title), enhanced by direcThurman, Jeff Alexander. A geological tor Passer’s eye for interesting detail. [R] expedition stumbles onto a mad doctor ▼●쩠 who’s trying to evolve a man-monster. Cutthroat Island (1995-U.S.-French) CLow-budget junk.▼쩠 123m. ★★ D: Renny Harlin. Geena Davis, Curse of the Werewolf, The (1961-British) Matthew Modine, Frank Langella, Maury 1 ★★ C-91m. ⁄2 D: Terence Fisher. Clifford Chaykin, Patrick Malahide, Stan Shaw, HarEvans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Anris Yulin, Rex Linn, Paul Dillon, Chris Masthony Dawson. Reed has wolf’s blood and terson, Jimmie F. Skaggs. Pirate Davis must struggles to control the monster within join forces with roguish Modine to avenge him; it finally erupts when he is denied his her father’s death, find a treasure map and girl’s love. Eerie atmosphere pervades this battle her ferocious pirate uncle, Dawg good chiller. Loosely based on novel The (Langella). Or something like that. Hapless Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore.▼●쩠 movie has special effects and stunts to spare, Curse III: Blood Sacrifice (1990) C-91m. but nothing to get you involved. The actors ★1 do their best in cardboard roles. Where’s ⁄2 D: Sean Barton. Christopher Lee, Jennilee Harrison, Henry Cole, Andre JaRobert Newton when you really need him? cobs, Zoe Randall, Olivia Dyer. 1950, Arrrr! Panavision and Technovision. [PGEast Africa. Tribal magic produces murder13] ▼●쩠 ous demonlike monster (unseen until the Cutting Class (1989) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: end) slaughtering mostly whites. Drearily Rospo Pallenberg. Donovan Leitch, Jill routine; one would-be ‘‘tense’’ scene (with Schoelen, Roddy McDowall, Brad Pitt, no payoff) after another. Lee looks very seMartin Mull. A slasher is running amok at rious. Original title: PANGA. [R]▼● a high school. This one’s only if your Curtain Call (1998) C-94m. ★★ D: Peter idea of a four-star movie is FRIDAY THE 13TH. [R]▼●쩠 Yates. James Spader, Polly Walker, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Buck Henry, Sam ShepCutting Edge, The (1992) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 ard, Marcia Gay Harden, Frances Sternhagen, D: Paul M. Glaser. D. B. Sweeney, Moira FrankWhaley. Fine cast in fluffy fantasy about Kelly, Roy Dotrice, Terry O’Quinn, Dwier marriage-phobic book publisher Spader, Brown. Bitchy ice skater Kelly is paired who moves into a Manhattan brownstone with banged-up hockey player Sweeney in that’s haunted by the ghosts of a famous old a last-ditch attempt to score an Olympic theatrical couple who teach him about love gold medal in paired figure skating. Cute, and commitment. Curious, slowly paced if predictable, comedy with Sweeney and blend of supernatural whimsy, romantic Kelly building believable sexual tension as comedy and relationship drama never really they’re forced to work together, sniping all gels. Made for theaters, this debuted on the way. Followed in 2006 by a direct-tovideo sequel. [PG]▼쩠 cable. Valerie Perrine appears unbilled. [PG13]▼쩠 Cyborg (1989) C-86m. BOMB D: Albert Curucu, Beast of the Amazon (1956) Pyun. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Deborah ★1 C-76m. ⁄2 D: Curt Siodmak. John BromRichter, Vincent Klyn, Alex Daniels, Dayle field, Beverly Garland, Tom Payne, HarHaddon, Blaise Loong, Rolf Muller. Van vey Chalk. One of the most infamous Damme plays a savior battling evil gangs who disappointments (for monster-loving kids seem to enjoy various plagues and finding of the 1950s) as Bromfield and Garland go gruesome ways to murder people. Even for after title monster in South American jungle. a post-apocalyptic trash movie, this plumbs Custer of the West (1968-U.S.-Spanish) new depths. Repulsive. Followed by two unC-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Siodmak. Robert related sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Shaw, Mary Ure, Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Cyborg 2087 (1966) C-86m. ★★ D: FrankRyan, Ty Hardin, Charles Stalnaker, Roblin Adreon. Michael Rennie, Wendell Corey, ert Hall, Lawrence Tierney. Fairly ambiEduard Franz, Karen Steele, Warren Stetious bio of famed general suffers from script vens. Future Earth civilization sends cythat doesn’t quite know how to characterize borg—part machine, part human—back him. Some prints run 120m. Super Techniin time to 1960s so future can be changed. rama 70. [G]▼쩠 Good idea all but ruined due to unconvincCutter and Bone SEE: Cutter’s Way ing script and TV-style production. Cutter’s Way (1981) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ivan Cycle Savages, The (1969) C-82m. BOMB Passer. Jeff Bridges, John Heard, Lisa EichD: Bill Brame. Bruce Dern, Melody horn, Ann Dusenberry, Stephen Elliott, Nina Patterson, Chris Robinson, Maray Ayres, Van Pallandt, Julia Duffy. Intriguing if not Scott Brady. Psychotic biker/white slaver [ 308 ]

Dern is displeased when artist Robinson opens his sketch pad, so he plans to crush the budding Rembrandt’s hands. Sadism and torture galore; coproduced by deejay Casey Kasem and record exec Mike Curb, later the lieutenant governor of California. [R]▼쩠 Cyclone (1987) C-83m. ★★ D: Fred Olen Ray. Heather Thomas, Jeffrey Combs, Ashley Ferrare, Dar Robinson, Martine Beswicke, Robert Quarry, Martin Landau. TV star Thomas plays second fiddle to a hightech motorcycle that’s stolen by Landau’s henchmen. Watch for numerous cameos including Huntz Hall, Troy Donahue, Russ Tamblyn, and Michael Reagan. [R]▼●쩠 Cyclone Z SEE: Dragons Forever Cyclops, The (1957) 66m. ★★ D: Bert I. Gordon. James Craig, Gloria Talbott, Lon Chaney, Jr., Tom Drake. Expedition scours Mexico in search of Talbott’s lost fiance´, discovers that radiation has transformed him into an enormous monster. Nothing much in this cheapie.▼ Cynara (1932) 78m. ★★ D: King Vidor. Ronald Colman, Kay Francis, Henry Stephenson, Phyllis Barry, Paul Porcasi. Badly dated film about British lawyer who has interlude with working girl while wife is away; Colman is good as usual. Cynthia (1947) 98m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Z. Leonard. Elizabeth Taylor, George Murphy, S. Z. Sakall, Mary Astor, Gene Lockhart, Spring Byington, Jimmy Lydon. Sugary film of sickly girl Taylor finding outlet in music; good cast wasted. Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Gordon. Jose Ferrer, Mala Powers, William Prince, Morris Carnovsky, Elena Verdugo. Ferrer received an Oscar for portraying the tragic 17th-century wit, renowned for his nose but longing for love of a beautiful lady. From Edmond Rostand’s play. Previously filmed in 1900, 1925, and 1945; later modernized as ROXANNE, and remade in 1990. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Cyrano de Bergerac (1990-French) C138m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Ge´rard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez, Jacques Weber, Roland Bertin, Philippe Morier-Genoud. Likely to remain the definitive screen version of the Edmond Rostand perennial (depending on your personal passion for Steve Martin’s ROXANNE). Quite visceral, and frequently inspired (vide the decision to stage the balcony scene during a mild rainstorm), faltering only a little during the finale, which is overextended. Jean-Claude Carrie`re and director Rappeneau scripted; English subtitles by Anthony Burgess. [PG]▼●쩠

funeral, which triggers a series of remembrances of his irascible ‘‘da.’’ Hugh Leonard’s adaptation of his autobiographical stage comedy doesn’t work as well on the screen, but remains a touching account of a father-son relationship that isn’t interrupted by death. Hughes beautifully re-creates his Tony-winning performance, and Sheen is equally good. Hepburn is marvelous as Hughes’ pesky wife; Leonard appears briefly as a pallbearer. Filmed mostly on location in Ireland. [PG]▼● Dad (1989) C-117m. ★★ D: Gary David Goldberg. Jack Lemmon, Ted Danson, Olympia Dukakis, Kathy Baker, Kevin Spacey, Ethan Hawke, Zakes Mokae, J. T. Walsh. Busy, distracted executive learns his father may be dying; he winds up becoming his dad’s caretaker and companion, and they grow closer than they’ve ever been. Genuinely affecting tearjerker turns sappy and ‘‘cute’’ at the midway point, almost negating Lemmon’s fine performance. Why couldn’t they have quit while they were ahead? Feature directing debut for TV sitcom producer Goldberg. [PG]▼●쩠 Daddy and Them (2001) C-102m. ★★ D: Billy Bob Thornton. Billy Bob Thornton, Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Kelly Preston, Andy Griffith, Sandra Seacat, John Prine, Jeff Bailey, Jim Varney, Brenda Blethyn, Ben Affleck, Jamie Lee Curtis. Arkansas husband Thornton, his quarrelsome, jealous wife Dern, and her family drive to Little Rock to meet his kin, who are equally cantankerous. Populated with irritating characters; draggy pace picks up a lot by the second half, but it’s a long haul getting there. Thornton also wrote this slice-of-life comedy-drama. Filmed in 1998. [R] ▼쩠 Daddy Day Camp (2007) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Fred Savage. Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lochlyn Munro, Richard Gant, Tamala Jones, Paul Rae, Spencir Bridges, Brian Doyle-Murray. Frenetic but only fitfully funny sequel to DADDY DAY CARE, with Gooding filling in for Eddie Murphy as a day-care entrepreneur. This time, he takes over a ramshackle summer camp with a little help from his dad (Gant), a hard-boiled Marine colonel who whips (not literally, but almost) the campers into shape. Intended as a direct-to-video release, and it shows. [PG]쩠 Daddy Day Care (2003) C-92m. ★★★ D: Steve Carr. Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Steve Zahn, Regina King, Anjelica Huston, Lacey Chabert, Jonathan Katz, Kevin Nealon, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Laura Kightlinger. When Murphy and his best friend Garlin lose their jobs, the boredom of being househusbands inspires them to start a business—a day-care center for kids— despite their almost complete ignorance of how Da (1988) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Matt Clark. to go about it. Surprisingly benign, non-cynical Barnard Hughes, Martin Sheen, Karl Haycomedy with Murphy as a devoted dad who den, Doreen Hepburn, William Hickey, comes to realize what’s really important in his Hugh O’Conor, Ingrid Craigie. Sheen returns to his native Ireland for his father’s life. A refreshing change from the usual run of [ 309 ]

so-called family entertainment. Followed by Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island (1983) C-78m. ★1⁄2 D: Friz Freleng. Fourth DADDY DAY CAMP. [PG]▼쩠 Daddy Long Legs (1955) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 and weakest of Warner Bros.’ cartoon comD: Jean Negulesco. Fred Astaire, Leslie pilations. Linking material (spoofing TV’s Caron, Thelma Ritter, Fred Clark, Terry Fantasy Island ) is flat, and few of the ten carMoore, Larry Keating. Overlong musical retoon shorts included are better than average. make of oft-filmed story about playboy (AsHardly Daffy’s finest hour. [G]▼● taire) anonymously sponsoring waif’s Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1989) C-79m. ★★★ education—then she falls in love with him. D: Greg Ford, Terry Lennon. Voice of Mel Some good dance numbers, and Johnny MerBlanc. Perhaps the most watchable of the Warcer score highlighted by ‘‘Something’s Got to ner cartoon-compilation films, with a clever Give.’’ Previously filmed in 1919, 1931, (as bridging story incorporating the studio’s CURLY TOP) in 1935, and in the Nethermany vintage horror-movie spoofs. Daffy lands in 1938. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Duck inherits a fortune and sets up a ‘‘ghostDaddy Nostalgia (1990-French) C-105m. busting’’ service with pals Bugs Bunny and ★★1 Porky Pig. Contains the new short THE ⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Dirk Bogarde, Jane Birkin, Odette Laure. Birkin rushes DUXORCIST and a cameo appearance by to the Cote d’Azur to be at the side of her Egghead. [G]▼● father, who may be dying; during her extended Daggers of Blood SEE: With Fire and stay she tries to sort out her relationship with Sword him, and understand the life he’s led. Utterly Dahmer (2002) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Jabelievable, but not always compelling; Bocobson. Jeremy Renner, Bruce Davison, garde’s charming (and commanding) screen Artel Kaya`ru, Matt Newton, Dion Basco, presence makes it well worth seeing. PanaviKate Williamson, Christina Payano. Rather sion. [PG]▼쩠 than depicting the whole story of serial killer Daddy’s Dyin’ . . . Who’s Got the Will? Jeffrey Dahmer, this unusual film dramatizes (1990) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Fisk. Beau scenes from his life; it doesn’t even include Bridges, Keith Carradine, Beverly D’Angelo, his arrest. The cast is uniformly good, it’s Tess Harper, Judge Reinhold,AmyWright, Pawell written (by Jacobson) and imaginatively trika Darbo, Molly McClure, Bert Remsen. Afdirected, but it remains uninvolving, with an fection, reminiscence, avarice, and hostility undefinable point of view. [R] ▼쩠 intermingle as a family of memorable oddballs Daisy Kenyon (1947) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Otto gathers at the old Texas homestead to wait for Preminger. Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, their father to die and to find out what’s in the Henry Fonda, Ruth Warrick, Martha Stewwill. Del Shores adapted his own stage play, art, Peggy Ann Garner, Connie Marshall. and the results run from flat and predictable to Love triangle starts intelligently, bogs down sharp and funny; a terrific cast punches everyhalfway into typical soapy histrionics (with thing across. [PG-13]▼●쩠 a plot thread about child abuse surprising Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting (1969) C-108m. for its time). Good performances; hand★★★ D: Mark Robson. Carol White, Paul somely filmed. Look sharp in the Stork Burke, Scott Hylands, Rachel Ames, Mala Club scene for Walter Winchell, John Garfield, and Leonard Lyons.쩠 Powers, James B. Sikking. Happily married and pregnant, White is horrified when Daisy Miller (1974) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter her previous lover turns up, demanding Bogdanovich. Cybill Shepherd, Barry Brown, she kill her baby to atone for having aborted Cloris Leachman, Mildred Natwick, Eileen his child. Though contrived, story becomes Brennan, Duilio Del Prete. Handsome, intelliincreasingly tense, with nail-biting climax; gent adaptation of Henry James’ story misses shot in San Francisco. [M/PG]▼ the mark; the tone is cold, and Shepherd’s holDaddy’s Little Girls (2007) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 low performance as a naive American courting D: Tyler Perry. Gabrielle Union, Idris Elba, European society in the late 1800s nearly sinks Louis Gossett, Jr., Tracee Ellis Ross, Tasha the film. Screenplay by Frederic Raphael. Smith, Malinda Williams, Terri J. Vaughn, Filmed in Italy. [G]▼쩠 Gary Sturgis, China Anne McClain, Lauryn Dakota (1945) 82m. ★★ D: Joseph Kane. Alisa McClain, Sierra Aylina McClain. John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Walter BrenPerry drops his drag act and stays behind the nan, Ward Bond, Ona Munson, Hugo Haas. camera for this dramedy about a mechanic Sprawling Wayne vehicle with Duke inwho gets romantically involved with the upvolved in pioneer railroad territory dispute; Vera is his lovely wife!▼●쩠 scale attorney who is helping him win custody of his three daughters from his ne’er-doDakota (1988) C-97m. ★★ D: Fred Holmes. well ex-wife and her thug boyfriend. Overly Lou Diamond Phillips, Eli Cummins, dramatic and predictable, but still a someDeeDee Norton, Jordan Burton, Steve what effective look at the difficulties inRuge, John Hawkes. Well-meaning but volved when a relationship straddles both slight, independently produced drama about sides of the tracks. Perry wrote and coproa youth on the run (Phillips), who works on duced. Aka TYLER PERRY’S DADDY’S a Texas ranch and interrelates with various LITTLE GIRLS. [PG-13]쩠 characters. Phillips, who served as associ[ 310 ]

ate producer, is the sole interest here; he ‘‘When You Were a Smile on Your Mother’s made the film prior to attaining stardom in Lips and a Twinkle in Your Daddy’s Eye,’’ LA BAMBA. [PG]▼●쩠 and classic title tune.▼●쩠 Daleks—Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966Damien—Omen II (1978) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 British) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Flemyng. D: Don Taylor. William Holden, Lee Grant, Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, Andrew Lew Ayres, Sylvia Sidney, Robert FoxKeir, Ray Brooks, Jill Curzon, Roberta worth, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Leo McKern, Tovey. Agreeable sequel to DR. WHO Meshach Taylor. Sequel to huge hit of 1976 AND THE DALEKS, with the Earth threatis less effective, still has shock value from ened by Dalek aggressors. Retitled INVAgrisly murders, plus good work by Holden. SION EARTH 2150 A.D. Techniscope.▼쩠 Best scene is Ayres’ death under an icy lake. Dallas (1950) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Scott-Taylor is the demon child; Holden and Heisler. Gary Cooper, Ruth Roman, Steve Grant his stupidly unsuspecting kin. Taylor Cochran, Raymond Massey, Barbara Paytook over directing from Michael Hodges, ton, Leif Erickson, Antonio Moreno. Actionwho worked on screenplay. Followed by packed post–Civil War Western, with Reb THE FINAL CONFLICT. Panavision. [R] Cooper branded an outlaw, coming to Texas ▼●쩠 on a mission of revenge.▼쩠 Damnation Alley (1977) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Daltry Calhoun (2005) C-93m. BOMB D: Jack Smight. Jan-Michael Vincent, George Katrina Holden Bronson. Johnny Knoxville, Peppard, Dominique Sanda, Paul Winfield, Juliette Lewis, Elizabeth Banks, Kick Gurry, Jackie Earle Haley. Five survivors of nuDavid Koechner, Sophie Traub, Andrew Prine, clear wipeout travel cross-country in search Beth Grant, James Parks, Matthew Sharp. of civilization. Futuristic van in which Slovenly Knoxville morphs into a wildly sucthey travel is more interesting than story cessful sod seed manufacturer, but his plan to or characters in this uninspiring sci-fi saga. build a public golf course is disrupted by variDistantly related to the Roger Zelazny ous complications, including the unexpected novel. Panavision. [PG]▼ presence of his estranged, precocious 14-yearDamned, The (1962) SEE: These Are the old daughter and her mother. Meandering Damned Southern Fried mishmash aimlessly veers Damned, The (1969-Italian-West German) from stale comedy to half-baked sentiment. C-155m. ★★★ D: Luchino Visconti. Dirk There’s a parade of hit songs on the soundBogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem, track to make you think you’re being enterHelmut Berger, Charlotte Rampling, Flotained. Writer-director is the daughter of rinda Bolkan. Grim drama depicting the Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland. Super 35. plight of a family of German industrialists [PG-13]쩠 during the 1930s; their decline parallels Damage (1992-British) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: the rise of Hitler. Violent, melodramatic, Louis Malle. Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, and controversial, but undeniably illumiMiranda Richardson, Rupert Graves, Ian nating. [X]▼쩠 Bannen, Leslie Caron, Peter Stormare, Damned Don’t Cry, The (1950) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vincent Sherman. Joan Crawford, Gemma Clark. Arch-to-a-fault adaptation of Josephine Hart’s minimalist best-seller, David Brian, Steve Cochran, Kent Smith, about a middle-aged Brit politician who Richard Egan. Follow-up to FLAMINGO squanders his career and family by emROAD formula; Crawford is well cast as barking a hot-sex affair with his son’s mystelower-class gal rising to wealth via wit and rious girlfriend. Binoche is frigidly one-note looks, discovering too late that a gangas the latter, sinking what in some ways is disster’s moll has no right to love and happiness.쩠 passionately accomplished filmmaking. RichDamn the Defiant! (1962-British) C-101m. ★★★ ardson is spectacularly good as Irons’ spurned D: Lewis Gilbert. Alec Guinness, Dirk wife. Screenplay by David Hare. Fine score by Bogarde, Maurice Denham, Nigel Stock, Zbigniew Preisner. Unrated version available. Richard Carpenter, Anthony Quayle. Bo[R]▼●쩠 garde vs. Guinness in stalwart tale of BritDam Busters, The (1954-British) 119m. ish warship during Napoleonic campaign. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. Richard Todd, Production shows great attention to hisMichael Redgrave, Ursula Jeans, Basil Sydtoric detail. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 ney. During WW2, British devise an ingeDamn Yankees (1958) C-110m. ★★★ D: nious plan to blow up Germans’ Ruhr George Abbott, Stanley Donen. Tab Huntdam. Exciting and intelligent film. Look fast er, Gwen Verdon, Ray Walston, Russ for a young Patrick McGoohan.▼쩠 Brown, Jimmie Komack, Jean Stapleton, Dames (1934) 90m. ★★★ D: Ray Enright. Nathaniel Frey. Aging, frustrated WashJoan Blondell, Dick Powell, Ruby Keeler, ington Senators baseball fan says he’d sell ZaSu Pitts, Hugh Herbert, Guy Kibbee, his soul to see the club get one good hitter; Phil Regan. Short on plot (let’s-back-aa devilish Mr. Applegate appears to fulfill Broadway-musical) but has top Busby his wish, and transforms him into the club’s Berkeley production ensembles like ‘‘I Only new star. Faithful translation of hit BroadHave Eyes for You.’’ Other songs include way musical (with Walston, Verdon, and [ 311 ]

others repeating their original roles) loses Dance Goes On, The (1991-Canadian) C103m. ★★ D: Paul Almond. Matthew James something along the way, and has a particularly weak finale, but it’s still quite enterAlmond, James Keach, Genevieve Bujold, taining. Songs include ‘‘(You Gotta Have) Bryan Hennessey, Louise Marleau, Leslie Heart,’’ ‘‘Whatever Lola Wants,’’ and a Hope, Cary Lawrence, Deborah Freeland. mambo memorably danced by Verdon and Young Almond, who’s insensitive and moneychoreographer Bob Fosse.▼●쩠 hungry (because he has grown up in L.A.), arDamon and Pythias (1962-Italian) C-99m. rives in Quebec where he’s inherited his un★★ D: Curtis Bernhardt. Guy Williams, Don cle’s farm. Will he get in touch with his roots, Burnett, Ilaria Occhini, Liana Orfei, Arnoldo and experience ‘‘real life’’? Ever-so-predictFoa. Title reveals all in this routine cosable (not to mention boring) drama. Actor Altumer making legendary figures juvenile mond is the son of Bujold and director Almond cardboard heroes.▼쩠 (who also produced and scripted).▼ Damsel in Distress, A (1937) 101m. ★★★ Dance Hall Racket (1953) 60m. ★1⁄2 D: D: George Stevens. Fred Astaire, George Phil Tucker. Lenny Bruce, Honey Harlowe, Burns, Gracie Allen, Joan Fontaine, ConTimothy Farrell, Sally Marr. This one could stance Collier, Reginald Gardiner, Monbe retitled All in the (Dysfunctional) Famtagu Love. Bright Gershwin musical set in ily: Lenny plays a hood, real-life wife HarLondon, with dancing star Astaire pursulowe is a bimbo who shows off her ing aristocratic heiress Fontaine. Burns cleavage, and mom Marr is along for and Allen have never been better—they laughs. Scripted by Bruce; it would make a even get to sing and dance. Songs include classy double bill with Tucker’s ROBOT ‘‘Foggy Day in London Town,’’ ‘‘Nice MONSTER.▼쩠 Work If You Can Get It.’’ The clever Dancemaker (1999) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ‘‘Fun House’’ sequence won an Oscar for Matthew Diamond. Fascinating study of Hermes Pan’s dance direction. Based on a choreographer Paul Taylor and the endless novel by P. G. Wodehouse, who cowrote the difficulties managing his company and its script. ▼● dancers. Footage of his dance creations is Dan Candy’s Law SEE: Alien Thunder artfully interspersed with preparations for 1 ★ Dance Flick (2009) C-83m. ⁄2 D: Damien the troupe’s engagement in India. Film proDante Wayans. Damon Wayans, Jr., Shovides an insider’s look at what it takes to be shana Bush, Essence Atkins, Affion Crocka dancer—and a dancemaker. A feast for ett, Chris Elliott, David Alan Grier, Brennan dance buffs.쩠 Hillard, Amy Sedaris, Marlon Wayans, Shawn Dance of Death (1969-British) C-138m. ★★★ Wayans, Keenen Ivory Wayans. Lochlyn D: David Giles. Laurence Olivier, Munro appears unbilled. After her mother’s Geraldine McEwan, Robert Lang, Malcolm tragic death, Megan enrolls at Musical High Reynolds, Janina Faye, Carolyn Jones. Film School and meets a group of kids from the version of National Theatre production of wrong side of the tracks who want to teach August Strindberg’s angst-laden play about her what life is really about. It isn’t that an aging sea captain, notable chiefly for Olivhard to mock the dance movie genre, or for ier’s fiery performance. Unreleased in U.S. that matter musicals and pop culture. That’s until 1979. [PG—originally rated G] why the latest film installment of a Wayans’ Dance of Death (1971) SEE: House of Evil family parody is so disappointing. While Dance of the Damned (1988) C-83m. ★★1 there are amusing moments and laughs, ⁄2 D: Katt Shea Ruben. Cyril O’Reilly, simply put, it should be funnier. [PG-13] Starr Andreef, Deborah Ann Nassar, Ma★★1 Dance, Fools, Dance (1931) 81m. ⁄2 ia Ford, Athena Worthy, Tom Ruben. Eerie, D: Harry Beaumont. Joan Crawford, Cliff fascinating, very low-budget horror drama, in Edwards, Clark Gable, Earl Foxe, Lester which a vampire selects an intelligent, trouVail, Natalie Moorhead. Crawford, alone bled stripper as his next victim, but first inin the world, becomes reporter out to exsists she tell him what daylight is like. Slow pose mobster Gable by winning him over. to get started, but ambitious and mature, with Interesting for early Gable-Crawford teamgood characterizations and acting. [R]▼● ing; brisk pre-Code drama.▼쩠 Dance of the Dwarfs (1983) C-93m. ★1⁄2 Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Gus Trikonis. Peter Fonda, Deborah Dorothy Arzner. Maureen O’Hara, Louis Raffin, John Amos, Carlos Palomino. FeHayward, Lucille Ball, Virginia Field, Ralph male anthropologist (Raffin) searching for Bellamy, Maria Ouspenskaya, Mary Carlost pygmy tribe in jungle hooks up with lisle, Walter Abel, Edward Brophy. Innodrunken helicopter pilot (Fonda) in this cent young girl (O’Hara) aspires to be a stupid AFRICAN QUEEN–ish adventure ballerina, but self-centered Ball steers her shot in Philippines. They encounter strange toward burlesque instead. Film has won latcreatures, audience encounters boredom. ter-day acclaim for feminist angles, espeVideo title: JUNGLE HEAT. [PG]▼ cially for O’Hara’s burlesque-hall speech; Dance of the Vampires SEE: Fearless unfortunately, it’s not as good as one would Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But like. Lucy is terrific as Bubbles. ▼●쩠 Your Teeth Are in My Neck, The [ 312 ]

Dancer in the Dark (2000-Danish-SwedishWar soldier who makes friends with a French) C-137m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lars von Trier. Sioux Indian tribe and, eventually, beBjo¨rk, Catherine Deneuve, David Morse, comes one of them. Simply and eloquently Peter Stormare, Joel Grey, Vincent Pattold, with every element falling into place terson, Vladica Kostic, Udo Kier, Zˇeljko (on breathtaking South Dakota locations). Ivanek, Stellan Skarsga˚rd. Ambitious, braA triumph in every respect. Oscar winner zenly off-putting musical (!) about a Czech for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay (Miimmigrant (Bjo¨rk) who is going blind and chael Blake, from his novel), Original must arrange an operation to save her son Score (John Barry), Cinematography (Dean from the same fate. Writer-director von TriSemler), Editing (Neil Travis), and Sound er’s attempt to expand cinematic musical Recording. 237m. ‘‘special edition’’ exconventions is certainly thought provoking, pands the story and characterizations. Pabut ultimately cold and very literal minded, navision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and not helped by jagged song-and-dance Dance With a Stranger (1985-British) numbers. Bjo¨rk is impressive; she also comC-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Miranda posed the film’s music. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm, Dancers (1987) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Herbert Matthew Carroll, Tom Chadbon, Joanne Ross. Mikhail Baryshnikov, Alessandra Whalley, Jane Bertish. Stylish, trenchant Ferri, Leslie Browne, Thomas Rall, Lynn study of romantic self-destruction based Seymour, Victor Barbee, Mariangela Meon the true story of Ruth Ellis, who in lato, Julie Kent. Trite, inexplicably bad 1955 became the last woman ever exemovie about a ballet star/lothario (Baryshcuted in Britain. Peaks with about a half nikov, ideally cast) who’s rehearsing a hour to go, but Richardson, her leading screen version of Giselle, and becomes men, and a haunting atmosphere more infatuated with an innocent young dancer. than compensate. Ellis’ story was earlier A waste of time. Baryshnikov, Browne, told in YIELD TO THE NIGHT (BLONDE and Ross collaborated 10 years earlier on SINNER), with Diana Dors. [R]▼●쩠 THE TURNING POINT. [PG]▼● Dance With Me (1998) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998) C-95m. Randa Haines. Vanessa L. Williams, Chay★★1⁄2 D: Tim McCanlies. Ethan Embry, anne, Kris Kristofferson, Joan Plowright, Breckin Meyer, Peter Facinelli, Eddie Mills, Jane Krakowski, Beth Grant. Likable if forAshley Johnson, Patricia Wettig, Michael mulaic (and overlong) film about a Houston O’Neill. Slight but pleasant LAST PICdance instructor (Williams) who learns a TURE SHOW–lite tale of four small-town thing or two from a Cuban e´migre´ who’s teenage buddies facing life after high school come to work at the dance studio. What the and wondering whether they should make studio owner (Kristofferson) doesn’t know good on a childhood pact to move to L.A. Apis that the handsome young man is his son. pealing performances by the male leads make Appealing cast and terrific dance seup for their schematic roles. Promising debut quences—including a knockout at a Latin for writer-director McCanlies. [PG]▼●쩠 dance club—give this life, and Plowright Dancer Upstairs, The (2002-U.S.-Spanish) steals most of her scenes as a matronly but enthusiastic student. [PG]▼●쩠 C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Malkovich. Javier Bardem, Laura Morante, Juan Diego Botto, Dance With Me, Henry (1956) 79m. ★1⁄2 Elvira Mı´nguez, Alexandra Lencastre, Oliver D: Charles Barton. Lou Costello, Bud Cotton, Luis Miguel Cintra. Dedicated poAbbott, Gigi Perreau, Rusty Hamer. Lowlice detective Bardem is determined to idengrade Abbott and Costello involving the tify and capture the leader of a volatile duo’s ownership of run-down amusement guerrilla movement in an unnamed Latin park and two kids they’ve adopted; their American country. Meanwhile, he finds himlast film together.▼쩠 self attracted to his daughter’s beautiful balDancing at Lughnasa (1998-U.S.-Britishlet teacher. Intriguing political drama, with a Irish) C-92m. ★★★ D: Pat O’Connor. Meryl strong performance by Bardem, is weighed Streep, Michael Gambon, Catherine McCordown by its slow pace and extended length. mack, Kathy Burke, Sophie Thompson, Brid One might also question Bardem’s naivete´ Brennan, Rhys Ifans, Darrell Johnston; narat the story’s conclusion. Nicholas Shakerated by Gerard McSorley. Flavorful filmizaspeare adapted his own novel. Malkovich’s tion of Brian Friel’s play about a close-knit feature directing debut. [R]▼쩠 rural Irish family—five unmarried sisters— Dances With Wolves (1990) C-181m. in the 1930s and the return of their brother, ★★★★ D: Kevin Costner. Kevin Costner, Jack (a priest), from his post in Africa. No Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodstrong story here but a rich feel for time, ney A. Grant, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, place, atmosphere, and character, with fine Tantoo Cardinal, Robert Pastorelli, Charles performances all around. [PG] ▼●쩠 Rocket, Maury Chaykin, Larry Joshua, Dancing at the Blue Iguana (2001-U.S.British) C-123m. ★★ D: Michael Radford. Wes Studi. Altogether extraordinary film (all the more so for being Costner’s directDaryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly, Sandra Oh, ing debut) about an idealistic young Civil Sheila Kelley, Elias Koteas, Robert Wis[ 313 ]

dom, Vladimir Mashkov, W. Earl Brown, a fascinating woman in 16th-century Venice, Chris Hogan, Charlotte Ayanna. The women where women had no rights and no educawho strip at a cheesy L.A. club gratify their tion—but courtesans did. Sacrificing her one customers but harbor longings and goals true love, she becomes the most notorious, that they can’t seem to realize. Developed outspoken, and desired woman in Venice. by Radford and his cast through a series of McCormack is superb in the leading role, and improvisational workshops, which is all too Bisset is ideal as her mother, but the story apparent from the film’s extenuated length takes a sharp turn toward the end (incorporatand meandering nature. Strong perforing the plague and the Inquisition) and loses mances from the leading actresses are the its dramatic grip. Still a good-looking and, for only compensation. [R]▼쩠 the most part, absorbing tale, based on a true story. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Dancing Lady (1933) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Z. Leonard. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Dangerous Break SEE: Special Delivery Franchot Tone, May Robson, Nelson Eddy, Dangerous Friend, A SEE: Todd KillFred Astaire, Robert Benchley, Ted Healy ings, The and His Stooges. Glossy backstage romance Dangerous Game (1993) C-105m. BOMB is best remembered for Astaire’s film debut D: Abel Ferrara. Harvey Keitel, Madonna, (he plays himself), dancing opposite a lessJames Russo, Nancy Ferrara, Reilly Murthan-inspired Crawford. Show-biz story, phy, Victor Argo, Leonard Thomas, Christhree-cornered romance are strictly standard, tina Futon. Humiliatingly banal Madonna but cast and MGM gloss add points. Funniest career-killer about filmmaker whose latest moments belong to The Three Stooges. Look project begins to reflect his own life—or is fast for a young Eve Arden.▼●쩠 it the other way around? Barely released, Dancing Masters, The (1943) 63m. ★1⁄2 and surprisingly tame, given Ferrara’s preD: Mal St. Clair. Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, vious movies, and Madonna’s inclination to Trudy Marshall, Robert Bailey, Matt Briggs, hang it all out. Working title was SNAKE Margaret Dumont. L&H overcome by routine EYES, which is what the studio rolled when material, special effects that look phony. it bankrolled this one. [R]▼●쩠 Robert Mitchum has bit as a hood.쩠 Dangerous Ground (1997) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Dandy in Aspic, A (1968-British) C-107m. Darrell James Roodt. Ice Cube, Elizabeth ★★ D: Anthony Mann. Laurence Harvey, Hurley, Ving Rhames, Sechaba Morajele, Tom Courtenay, Mia Farrow, Lionel StandEric Miyeni. Dangerous, and silly, too. er, Harry Andrews, Peter Cook. Wooden Back in rural South Africa for a funeral spy melodrama in which principals keep several years after his apartheid-imposed switching sides so rapidly it becomes imflight to the U.S., literature major Cube fulpossible to follow. Mann died during filmfills a promise to mom by tracking down his ing; Harvey completed director’s chores. fugitive younger brother who’s involved in Panavision. [R]▼● a drug ring. Despite broad plot parallels, Dandy, the All-American Girl SEE: don’t look for the solemn tone director Sweet Revenge (1977) Roodt brought to his remake of CRY, THE Danger: Diabolik (1967-Italian-French) BELOVED COUNTRY. Hurley, in harsh C-100m. ★★★ D: Mario Bava. John Philmakeup, is cast as the wayward brother’s lip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, girlfriend. [R]▼●쩠 Adolfo Celi, Terry-Thomas, Claudio Gora. Dangerous Liaisons (1988) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 Entertaining, tongue-in-cheek exploits of D: Stephen Frears. Glenn Close, John super-criminal Diabolik (Law), with wonMalkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie derfully outre´ sets and costumes, stylish Kurtz, Keanu Reeves, Mildred Natwick, photography, and a bizarre psychedelic Uma Thurman, Peter Capaldi. In 18thscore by Ennio Morricone. An indelible century France, an unscrupulous woman ’60s time-capsule based on the European manipulates the lives of those around her, comic-strip character. Originally released as just for amusement, with the help of a DIABOLIK, at 105m. Panoramica.▼●쩠 like-minded count. Excellent adaptation of Danger in the Skies SEE: Pilot, The Christopher Hampton’s play Les Liaisons Dangerous (1935) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Dangereuses, based on the famous period E. Green. Bette Davis, Franchot Tone, novel. Close is magnificent, Malkovich Margaret Lindsay, Alison Skipworth, John good (though miscast). Hampton’s screenEldredge, Dick Foran. Former stage star play won an Oscar, as did the art direcDavis, on the skids, is rehabilitated by Tone tion and costumes. Same story filmed in good but syrupy tale, with flamboyant in 1959 (as DANGEROUS LIAISONS Oscar-winning performance by Davis. Re1960), 1976 (as UNE FEMME FIDE`LE, made as SINGAPORE WOMAN.▼● aka GAME OF SEDUCTION), 1989 (as Dangerous Beauty (1998) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 VALMONT), 1999 (as CRUEL INTEND: Marshall Herskovitz. Catherine McCorTIONS), and 2003 (as UNTOLD SCANDAL). [R] ▼●쩠 mack, Rufus Sewell, Jacqueline Bisset, Oliver Platt, Naomi Watts, Moira Kelly, Fred Ward, Dangerous Liaisons 1960 (1959-French) Jeroen Krabbe´, Joanna Cassidy. Chronicle of 106m. ★★★ D: Roger Vadim. Ge´rard [ 314 ]

Philipe, Jeanne Moreau, Jeanne Vale´rie, D: Charles Walters. Esther Williams, FerAnnette (Stroyberg) Vadim, Simone Renant, nando Lamas, Jack Carson, Charlotte Jean-Louis Trintignant. Modern-dress verGreenwood, Denise Darcel, William Desion of the 18th-century novel of sexcapades marest, Donna Corcoran, Barbara Whiting. among the debauched . . . and who better Cute musical comedy, one of Esther’s best, to film it than Vadim? Faithful in spirit to about a health-conscious family whose its origins, though the leads here are a leading light tries to swim the English married couple, cavorting in Paris and the Channel. Williams cavorts underwater with Alps. Lots of fun, with gorgeous actors the animated Tom and Jerry in one memoraand jazz soundtrack by Thelonious Monk, ble scene. She later married leading-man Art Blakey, and Duke Jordan, who also Lamas in real life. ▼●쩠 appear. Don’t miss Vadim’s priceless proDangerous Woman, A (1993) C-99m. ★★ logue, shot for 1961 American audiences. D: Stephen Gyllenhaal. Debra Winger, BarVadim remade this in 1976 as UNE bara Hershey, Gabriel Byrne, David StraFEMME FIDE`LE (GAME OF SEDUCthairn, Chloe Webb, John Terry, Laurie TION). French title: LES LIAISONS DANMetcalf, Jan Hooks, Paul Dooley. Muddled GEREUSES. ▼●쩠 movie of Mary McGarry Morris’ acclaimed Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, The novel, with Winger the unceasingly frank nebbish niece of wealthy widow Hershey (2002) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Care. Kieran Culkin, Jena Malone, Emile Hirsch, Vincent (who’s been having an affair with a married D’Onofrio, Jodie Foster, Jake Richardson, politician). Winger is memorable in an unatTyler Long. Likable enough coming-of-age tractive part; Hershey’s role is impossible; story about hell-raising teenage boys atand Byrne (as the handyman who comes tending a Catholic school during the 1960s. between them) comes off as the Great Stone They fantasize about their lives in the form Face. The director’s children, Maggie and of comic-book adventures (in which their Jacob (Jake) Gyllenhaal, appear in small unforgiving teacher, played by Foster, beroles. [R]▼● comes Nunzilla). These animated sequences, Danger Within SEE: Breakout (1959) produced by Todd McFarlane, give the familDaniel (1983) C-130m. ★★★ D: Sidney iar storyline considerable pizzazz. Foster Lumet. Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, also coproduced. [R]▼쩠 Lindsay Crouse, Edward Asner, Ellen Dangerous Minds (1995) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barkin, Julie Bovasso, Tovah Feldshuh, John N. Smith. Michelle Pfeiffer, George Joseph Leon, Amanda Plummer, John Dzundza, Courtney B. Vance, Robin BartRubinstein. Excellent adaptation of E. L. lett, Bruklin Harris, Renoly Santiago, Wade Doctorow’s The Book of Daniel, about the Dominguez, Beatrice Winde, Lorraine children of a couple patterned after Julius Toussaint, John Neville. Wide-eyed, inexand Ethel Rosenberg who must confront perienced teacher (and ex-Marine) takes their painful heritage in order to deal with over a class of ‘‘unteachable’’ inner-city their own lives in the protest-filled 1960s. kids. She learns that changing their attitude Not without its flaws, but overall a provocarequires a deeper understanding of their hardtive and extremely well-made film. [R]▼쩠 knock lives. What might seem like a superDaniel Boone (1936) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: David ficial retread of BLACKBOARD JUNGLE Howard. George O’Brien, Heather Angel, or TO SIR, WITH LOVE is a well-meanJohn Carradine, Ralph Forbes, Clarence ing, well-acted film, although some of it Muse. OK action adventure detailing a just doesn’t wash (Pfeiffer seems awfully chapter in the life of the legendary pioneer: mousy for an ex-Marine). Followed by a his leading some settlers west from North TV series. [R]▼●쩠 Carolina into Kentucky. O’Brien is well Dangerous Moves (1984-Swiss) C-100m. cast in the title role.▼쩠 ★★★ D: Richard Dembo. Michel Piccoli, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe SEE: Alexandre Arbatt, Leslie Caron, Liv UllRobinson Crusoe (1998) mann, Daniel Olbrychski, Michel Aumont. Dan in Real Life (2007) C-98m. ★★★ D: Absorbing, thought-provoking film about Peter Hedges. Steve Carell, Juliette Biinternational intrigue surrounding a world noche, Dane Cook, Dianne Wiest, John Machess championship. Academy Award winhoney, Alison Pill, Emily Blunt, Amy Ryan, ner for Best Foreign Film.▼쩠 Norbert Leo Butz, Jessica Hecht. Amiable Dangerous Summer, A (1981-Australian) comedy-drama of newspaper columnist Dan C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Quentin Masters. Tom (Carell), the doting but harried single father Skerritt, Ian Gilmour, James Mason, Wendy of three daughters. When the family heads Hughes, Ray Barrett. Confusing, hilariously off to New England for a holiday at his unsubtle drama of psychotic arsonist Gilmour parents’ seaside home, this widowed dad trying to torch a summer resort. Good cast unexpectedly meets someone (Binoche) looks ill at ease. Originally titled THE BURNwho seems to be perfect for him. The family ING MAN. Video title: FLASH FIRE. Pareunion is replete with sibling rivalries, secrets, and resentments. Manages to rise navision. ▼●쩠 Dangerous When Wet (1953) C-95m. ★★★ above familiar sitcom level to be an enter[ 315 ]

taining take on middle-aged affairs of the Salinas, Blanca Guerra, Margarita Isabel, heart. [PG-13]쩠 Tito Vasconcelos. Arresting feminist tale Danny Boy (1982-Irish-British) C-92m. about a dreary telephone operator (Rojo) ★★ who comes alive only when performing a D: Neil Jordan. Veronica Quilligan, Stephen Rea, Alan Devlin, Peter Caffrey, ballroom dance known as the ‘‘danzo´n.’’ Honor Heffernan, Lise-Ann McLaughlin, Her life undergoes a transformation when Donal McCann, Ray McAnally, Marie her longtime partner mysteriously disappears, Kean. Ambitious but pretentious, unreand she becomes obsessed with finding him. lentingly dreary melodrama of sax player The scenes with Rojo and Vasconcelos Rea, who exchanges his instrument for a (playing a transvestite nightclub performer) machine gun after witnessing a double are especially effective. [PG-13]▼쩠 murder. Jordan’s directorial debut, which Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) he also scripted; he and leading man Rea C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Stevenson. Allater reteamed for THE CRYING GAME. bert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery, Original British title: ANGEL. [R]▼ Jimmy O’Dea, Kieron Moore, Estelle WinDanny Deckchair (2003-Australian) Cwood. Outstanding Disney fantasy about an 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff Balsmeyer. Rhys Ifans, Irish caretaker (Sharpe) who spins so many Miranda Otto, Justine Clarke, Rhys Multales that no one believes him when he doon, Frank Magree, Anthony Phelan, John says he’s befriended the King of LepreBatchelor, Alan Flower. Mildly entertaining chauns. An utter delight, with dazzling Capra-esque romantic fantasy of one of life’s special effects—and some truly terrifying moments along with the whimsy.▼●쩠 ‘‘little people,’’ Danny Morgan (Ifans), a cement-truck driver who improbably escapes Darby’s Rangers (1958) 121m. ★★1⁄2 D: his everyday existence. On a lark, he ties William Wellman. James Garner, Etchika some helium-filled balloons to a lawn chair Choureau, Jack Warden, Edward Byrnes, and floats through the heavens, whisking him Venetia Stevenson, Torin Thatcher, Peter off to a new life and new set of values. Brown, Corey Allen, Stuart Whitman, MurClarke is a find as Danny’s calculating girlray Hamilton. Garner does well in WW2 friend. Based, apparently, on a true story. actioner as leader of assault troops in North [PG-13] ▼쩠 Africa and Italy, focusing on relationships Dante’s Inferno (1935) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harry among his command and their shore romances.▼ Lachman. Spencer Tracy, Claire Trevor, Henry B. Walthall, Alan Dinehart, Scotty Daredevil (2003) C-104m. ★★★ D: Mark Beckett. No Dante in this yarn of carnival Steven Johnson. Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garowner who gets too big for his own good; ner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, just one elaborate sequence showing Satan’s Joe Pantoliano, Jon Favreau, David Keith, paradise in good Tracy vehicle. Young Rita Erick Avari, Paul Ben-Victor, Leland Orser. Hayworth dances in one scene. Blinded as a boy in N.Y.C., Matt Murdock Dante’s Peak (1997) C-108m. ★★★ D: grows up to be a lawyer by day and crime Roger Donaldson. Pierce Brosnan, Linda fighter by night, using his heightened senses Hamilton, Jamie Rene´e Smith, Jeremy to punish bad guys . . . but he’s a tortured Foley, Elizabeth Hoffman, Charles Hallahero. Colorful, entertaining comic-book han, Grant Heslov. Formulaic but entertainfodder, played with conviction by Affleck ing disaster movie about a scientist from the and a crackerjack cast: Garner as the agile U.S. Geological Survey who sniffs around a Elektra, Favreau as his comic-relief law mountainside town in Washington just partner, Duncan as the menacing Kingpin, below a volcano that he feels is going to and a wild-eyed Farrell as Bullseye. Mark blow at any minute. Along the way he falls Margolis appears unbilled as Fallon; amusin love with the town’s mayor. Critics ing cameo by comics aficionado Kevin dumped on the first of 1997’s two volcano Smith. Based on the Marvel Comics characmovies, but hey—it ain’t supposed to be ter created by Stan Lee (who also cameos) Henry V. The characters are likable and the and Bill Everett. Alternate version runs effects are completely convincing. Super 120m. Followed by a spin-off: ELEKTRA. 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Danton (1982-Polish-French) C-136m. Darfur Now (2007) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Theo★★★★ dore Braun. Documentary about various D: Andrzej Wajda. Ge´rard Depardieu, Wojciech Pszoniak, Patrice Chereau, Angela people who are trying to make a difference Winkler, Boguslaw Linda. Literate, absorbin strife-ridden Darfur, including a man who ing, knowing drama of Danton, Robespierre, operates the World Food Program, a lawyer and the Reign of Terror following the French who plans to prosecute government officials Revolution. A brilliant film, with obvious in the International Criminal Court, a local parallels to contemporary political situation woman whose personal tragedy has led her in Poland. Depardieu is magnificent in the to become an armed rebel, a young man from title role. [PG]▼●쩠 L.A. who tries to get the state of California to Danzo´n (1991-Mexican) C-103m. ★★★ rid itself of Sudanese investments, and actor D: Maria Novaro. Maria Rojo, Carmen Don Cheadle, who uses his celebrity (and that [ 316 ]

of friends like George Clooney) to draw attenClaudia Christian. Yes, that’s a third arm tion to the crisis. By trying to find the positive growing out of Nelson’s back—and it’s in all of this and appeal to a mainstream audiputting the necessary edge on his wide ence, this well-made film sacrifices deep emoprofessional reputation as the worst stand-up tional impact. Cheadle coproduced. [PG]쩠 comic in show-biz history. Contrived in an Daring Dobermans, The (1973) C-90m. attempt to be culty, but unsuccessful even ★★1⁄2 D: Bryon Chudnow. Charles Knox on those terms. Still, film has a casting Robinson, Tim Considine, David Moses, mix one could cherish. Lowe is fitted out Claudio Martinez, Joan Caulfield. Sequel with what appears to the untrained eye to to THE DOBERMAN GANG provides be Mr. Hyde’s dental work. Director Rifkin amiable family viewing as the canines are appears as Rufus Bing. [R]▼●쩠 trained for another daring heist by a new Dark Blue (2003) C-118m. ★★ D: Ron gang of crooks. [G]▼ Shelton. Kurt Russell, Brendan Gleeson, Daring Game (1968) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scott Speedman, Michael Michele, Lolita Laslo Benedek. Lloyd Bridges, Nico MinarDavidovich, Ving Rhames, Dash Mihok, dos, Michael Ansara, Joan Blackman. Not Kurupt, Master P. Half-baked look at inbred bad adventure tale of underwater expert corruption in the LAPD during the troubled (guess who?) in search of husband and days leading up to the riots of 1992. Russell daughter of his former girlfriend.▼ (in a dynamic performance) plays a thirdDarjeeling Limited, The (2007) C-91m. generation cop who no longer blinks at the ★★1 ⁄2 D: Wes Anderson. Owen Wilson, Jason methodology of his colleagues and superiSchwartzman, Adrien Brody, Anjelica Huston, ors, but his young partner (Speedman) still Amara Karan, Wallace Wolodarsky, Waris has ideals. Awkward coincidences and a Ahluwalia, Irfan Khan, Barbet Schroeder, Capreposterous finale are just two major flaws milla Rutherford, Bill Murray. Three brothers in this narrative, which tries to be larger who get on each other’s nerves (including than life and realistic at the same time. Wilson, in heavy bandages) take a stab at Based on an original story by James Ellroy. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 reconciling on an India train journey that includes a stop-off to see mom Huston, who’s Dark Blue World (2001-Czech) C-119m. 1⁄2 D: Jan Svera ★★ ´ k. Ondrej Vetchy´, Tara now in a Himalayan convent. Another visually inventive Anderson comedy, though its Fitzgerald, Krystof Hadek, Charles Dance, thin comic story has a melancholy air. For Oldrich Kaiser. From a 1950 Soviet-ruled Anderson (and his cowriters Schwartzman Czech labor camp that’s punishing a native and Roman Coppola) it’s the journey, not pilot who flew for the R.A.F., we cut to a the destination, that matters here. Natalie 1939 flashback to find the same guy Portman, seen here in a passing bit, also (Vetchy´) involved with a Brit (Fitzgerald) stars with Schwartzman in the tangentially whose husband is missing in action. The related short HOTEL CHEVALIER. Panalater story sounds more novel and interestvision. [R]쩠 ing, but the dominant earlier one provides Dark, The (1979) C-92m. ★★ D: John the flying scenes, which are surprisingly (Bud) Cardos. William Devane, Cathy Lee elaborate. Otherwise, there’s not much to Crosby, Richard Jaeckel, Keenan Wynn, Jacdistinguish this capable but uninspired yarn quelyn Hyde, Biff Elliott, Vivian Blaine. from hundreds of other WW2 dramas. Arriscope. [R]▼쩠 Fairly well made but predictable sci-fier; writer Devane and TV reporter Crosby take Dark City (1950) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: William on a homicidal alien in a California town. Aka Dieterle. Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, THE MUTILATOR. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Viveca Lindfors, Dean Jagger, Jack Webb, Dark at the Top of the Stairs, The (1960) Don DeFore, Ed Begley, Henry (Harry) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Delbert Mann. Robert Morgan. Moody drama of cynical, alienPreston, Dorothy McGuire, Eve Arden, Anated Heston, and what happens when he gela Lansbury, Shirley Knight, Lee Kinsolvand his cronies take sap DeFore in a card ing, Frank Overton, Robert Eyer. Simple, game. It’s fun to see Webb and Morgan, eloquent drama, set in 1920s Oklahoma, with both of later Dragnet fame, cast as a Preston in top form as a traveling salesman wiseguy and ex-pug at each other’s throats. caught in a passionless marriage. His relationThis was Heston’s Hollywood debut. ships with wife McGuire, daughter Knight, Dark City (1998) C-100m. ★★★ D: Alex and ‘‘friend’’ Lansbury are played out in a Proyas. Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, series of beautifully acted scenes. Poignant Jennifer Connelly, Richard O’Brien, Ian script by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Richardson, Colin Friels, Bruce Spence, Jr., from William Inge’s play. William Hurt. In a city where it is always Dark Avenger, The SEE: Warriors, night, aliens conduct secret experiments to The (1955) learn what makes us human. Meanwhile, Dark Backward, The (1991) C-104m. his memory mostly gone, Sewell is sus★1⁄2 D: Adam Rifkin. Judd Nelson, Bill pected of being a serial killer, and finds he Paxton, Wayne Newton, Lara Flynn Boyle, now has telekinetic powers. Richly plotted James Caan, Rob Lowe, King Moody, sci-fi has striking set design and excellent [ 317 ]

use of special effects; complex, with a new D: Nikita Mikhalkov. Marcello Mastroianni, surprise every few minutes. Filmed in AusSilvana Mangano, Marthe Keller, Elena tralia. Cowritten by the director. Director’s Safonova, Pina Cei. Mastroianni gives a cut runs 111m. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 tour-de-force performance as a once-young, Dark Command (1940) 94m. ★★★ D: Raoul idealistic, aspiring architect, who settled Walsh. Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Walfor a life of wealth and ease after marrying ter Pidgeon, Roy Rogers, George ‘‘Gabby’’ a banker’s daughter . . . and proved incaHayes, Porter Hall, Marjorie Main. Pidgeon pable of holding on to what’s important to plays character based on 1860s renegade him. A rich, beautifully detailed, multilevQuantrill, small-town despot who (in this eled film that’s at once sad, funny, and story) launches his terror raids after clashhaunting. Based on short stories by Anton ing with new marshal Wayne. DramatiChekhov (one of which was previously cally uneven, but entertaining. Also shown filmed as LADY WITH A DOG).▼● in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 Dark Forces SEE: Harlequin Dark Corner, The (1946) 99m. ★★★ D: Dark Habits (1984-Spanish) C-116m. ★★1 Henry Hathaway. Lucille Ball, Clifton ⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo´var. Cristina S. Webb, William Bendix, Mark Stevens, Kurt Pascual, Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, Kreuger, Cathy Downs, Reed Hadley, ConMarisa Paredes. Singer Pascual takes it stance Collier. Top-notch mystery with secon the lam after her lover ODs and finds retary Ball helping moody boss Stevens herself in a convent crammed with wacky, escape from phony murder charge. Wellfree-spirited nuns. Funny, but not up to some of Almodo´var’s later work.▼●쩠 acted, exciting film noir.▼쩠 Dark Crystal, The (1983-British) C-94m. Dark Half, The (1993) C-122m. ★★ ★★★ D: Jim Henson, Frank Oz. Performed D: George A. Romero. Timothy Hutton, by Jim Henson, Kathryn Mullen, Frank Oz, Amy Madigan, Michael Rooker, Julie HarDave Goelz, Brian Muehl, Jean Pierre ris, Robert Joy, Kent Broadhurst, Beth Amiel, Kiran Shah. Elaborate fantasy—a Grant, Rutanya Alda, Tom Mardirosian, cross between Tolkien and the Brothers Glenn Colerider, Chelsea Field, Royal Grimm—from the Muppets crew, with Dano. Another Stephen King movie withimaginative (and often grotesque) cast of out a good half. Hutton plays a successful characters enacting classic quest: a missing writer, under a pseudonym, who fails when piece of the powerful Dark Crystal must be he writes under his own name. When he’s found or evil will take over the world. Takes threatened with exposure, he announces time to warm up to, but worth the effort. the death of his alter ego—which causes Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 the ‘‘pseudonym,’’ to come to life and Dark Days (2000) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marc embark on a murderous rampage. (King Singer. Exceptional documentary about a himself published several novels under the community of former street people who’ve pseudonym Richard Bachman before killcreated homes for themselves in railroad ing him off.) Scripted by Romero. [R]▼●쩠 tunnels under the streets of Manhattan. Dark Hazard (1934) 72m. ★★ D: Alfred First-time filmmaker Singer lived with his E. Green. Edward G. Robinson, Genesubjects for two years, and had them work vieve Tobin, Glenda Farrell, Henry B. as his crew, to fashion this compassionate Walthall, Sidney Toler. Robinson is bright and eye-opening film.▼쩠 spot of programmer about his precarious Dark End of the Street, The (1981) married life to Tobin, endangered by C-90m. ★★★ D: Jan Egleson. Laura Hargirlfriend Farrell and urge to gamble. rington, Henry Tomaszewski, Michelle Dark Horse, The (1932) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: AlGreen, Lance Henriksen, Pamela Paytonfred E. Green. Warren William, Bette Wright, Terence Grey, Ben Affleck. LowDavis, Guy Kibbee, Vivienne Osborne, budget independent feature, shot in and Frank McHugh. Lively political spoof with around Boston, about white teenagers who nitwit Kibbee running for governor with witness a black friend’s accidental death. help from campaign manager William and Realistic depiction of urban working-class co-worker Davis.▼ lifestyle and problems. Fine performances, Dark Intruder (1965) 59m. ★★★ D: Harparticularly by Harrington and Green (as her vey Hart. Leslie Nielsen, Judi Meredith, best friend). Mark Richman, Werner Klemperer, GilDarker Than Amber (1970) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 bert Green, Charles Bolender. Uneven perD: Robert Clouse. Rod Taylor, Suzy Kenformances major liability in near-flawless dall, Theodore Bikel, Jane Russell, James supernatural thriller. Occult expert called Booth, Janet MacLachlan. OK action meloin by San Francisco police in connection with drama casts Taylor as John D. MacDonald’s series of weird murders. Intricate plot and detective Travis McGee; he’s after thugs exceptional use of time period blending with who beat up Kendall. Good location phosuspense make this a one-of-a-kind movie. tography in Miami and Caribbean. [PG— Busted TV pilot given theatrical release. Dark Journey (1937-British) 82m. ★★★ edited from original R rating]▼ Dark Eyes (1987-Italian) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Victor Saville. Conrad Veidt, Vivien [ 318 ]

Leigh, Joan Gardner, Anthony Bushell, Dark Mirror, The (1946) 85m. ★★★ D: Ursula Jeans. Engrossing love story, set Robert Siodmak. Olivia de Havilland, Lew in WW1 Stockholm, about dress-shopAyres, Thomas Mitchell, Richard Long, owner-double agent Leigh, who gets inCharles Evans, Garry Owen. De Havilvolved with baron Veidt, head of German land plays twin sisters—one good, one Intelligence. Young Vivien is radiant.▼쩠 disturbed—who are implicated in murder. Dark Knight, The (2008) C-152m. ★★ D: One of Hollywood’s post-WW2 forays Christopher Nolan. Christian Bale, Heath into psychological drama; no longer Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, fresh, but still entertaining. Remade for TV in 1984 with Jane Seymour.▼쩠 Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Ron Darkness (2002-Spanish) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Dean, Cillian Murphy, Nestor Carbonell, Jaume Balaguero´. Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Eric Roberts, Ritchie Coster, Anthony MiIain Glen, Giancarlo Giannini, Fele Martı´chael Hall, Keith Szarabajka, William nez, Stephan Enquist. Disjointed hauntedFichtner. Gotham City (no longer futuristic, house story shot in Spain must have lost as it was depicted in BATMAN BEGINS) something in the translation. Paquin is a is brought to its knees by the evil machinateenage girl whose family moves into a tions of The Joker. The new D.A. (Eckhart) dreary home only to discover its terrifying wants to clean things up but Bruce Wayne past. U.S. distributor Miramax sat on this isn’t sure he can be trusted—especially misfire for two years before cutting 14m. since he’s dating Rachel Dawes (Gyllenhaal, Original 102m. Spanish version is unrated. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 replacing Katie Holmes). A Batman story for the terrorist era, this is doomsday dark and Darkness Falls (2003) C-86m. BOMB D: palpably real. It’s also incredibly long. LedJonathan Liebesman. Chaney Kley, Emma ger is a vivid Joker but his character is so Caulfield, Lee Cormie, Grant Piro, Sullivan sick it’s difficult to derive any pleasure from Stapleton, Steve Mouzakis. Dreadful horror watching him. Oscar winner for Sound Edfilm about ‘‘The Tooth Fairy’’ gone amok. iting and Best Supporting Actor, posthuA man terrorized by the dentin pixie—that mously, for Ledger. Panavision and IMAX. is, a local woman who appeared in that [PG-13]쩠 guise—since he lost his last baby tooth reDarkman (1990) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam turns to his hometown of Darkness Falls Raimi. Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, to help a similarly plagued boy. Ridiculous Colin Friels, Larry Drake, Nelson Mashita, premise spawns a film that gets worse as it goes along. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Jesse Lawrence Ferguson, Rafael H. Robledo, Danny Hicks, Bruce Campbell. ScienDark Obsession (1989-British) C-87m. tist hot on the trail of a formula for cloning BOMB D: Nicholas Broomfield. Gabriel body parts by computer is savagely attacked Byrne, Amanda Donohoe, Michael Hor(and left for dead) by thugs who represent a dern, Judy Parfitt, Douglas Hodge, Sadie crooked city developer. Retreating into a Frost, Ian Carmichael. Byrne and his regishadow world, and seeking revenge, the ment buddies run over a chambermaid laboratory genius reinvents himself as Darkafter a night of drinking—and the only one man. Grandiose melodramatics, and Raimi’s who feels guilt about the death is the only over-the-top approach, are entertaining to a one who will suffer. Documentary director point, but there’s a fundamental hollowness Broomfield’s first fiction feature is an obto this comic-book script. Old-fashioned vious, boring parable about the amorality laboratory montage and main titles by Pablo of the rich and titled. Even Donohoe’s Ferro. Jenny Agutter and John Landis apfrequent nudity quickly becomes dreary. Origpear unbilled. Followed by two video seinal British title: DIAMOND SKULLS. Requels in 1995 and 1996. [R] ▼●쩠 leased in U.S. in 1991. Available in both Dark Matter (2008) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chen NC-17- (100m.) and R-rated versions. ▼● Shi-Zheng. Liu Ye, Meryl Streep, Aidan Dark of the Night (1985-New Zealand) Quinn, Blair Brown, Bill Irwin, Joe Grifasi, C-89m. ★★★ D: Gaylene Preston. Heather Tsao Lei, Shan Jing. Brilliant Chinese stuBolton, David Letch, Gary Stalker, Danny dent wins a scholarship to study for his Mulheron, Kate Harcourt, Michael Haigh. Ph.D. in the U.S. in the early 1990s, workBolton buys a used Jaguar that’s seeming under famed cosmologist Quinn, but his ingly haunted by its previous owner, a tenacious interest in exploring ‘‘dark matter’’ woman who was murdered. Entertainingly threatens to outshine the work of his egoloopy psychological thriller that’s also a centric professor. Streep plays a college pakeenly observed feminist fable about the tron who helps newly arrived Chinese frustrations and perils of a woman seeking students acclimate to American life. Pointed independence in a ‘‘man’s world.’’ Original New Zealand title: MR. WRONG. ▼ observation of clashing cultures leads to a disturbing denouement that seems to come Dark of the Sun (1968-British) C-101m. ★★★ out of left field—even though it’s inspired D: Jack Cardiff. Rod Taylor, Yvette by a real-life incident. Film debut for noted Mimieux, Jim Brown, Kenneth More, Peter stage and opera director Chen. [R]쩠 Carsten, Andre Morell, Calvin Lockhart. [ 319 ]

Excellent cast in nerve-wracking actioner thriller about architect Agutter’s husband’s with Rod the leader of mercenary expeghost, which seems to be committing murdition to retrieve uncut diamonds and beder during the construction of her skysieged refugees in Congo. One of Taylor’s scraper. Barnett is a pseudonym for Freddie best pictures. Panavision. [PG]▼ Francis (who’s done far better). [R]▼● ★★★ Dark Passage (1947) 106m. D: Dark Victory (1939) 106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Delmer Daves. Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Edmund Goulding. Bette Davis, George Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes MooreBrent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzhead. Engrossing caper of escaped convict gerald, Ronald Reagan, Cora Witherspoon, (Bogart) undergoing plastic surgery, hidHenry Travers. Definitive Davis performing out at Bacall’s apartment till his face ance as spoiled socialite whose life is heals. Stars outshine far-fetched happenending; Brent as brain surgeon husband, ings. Also shown in computer-colored verFitzgerald as devoted friend register in sion. ▼●쩠 good soaper. Bogart as Irish stable master Dark Past, The (1948) 75m. ★★★ D: Ruseems out of place. Remade as STOLEN dolph Mate´. William Holden, Nina Foch, HOURS, and for TV in 1976 with Elizabeth Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens, Stephen Dunne. Montgomery and Anthony Hopkins. Also Absorbing narrative of mad killer holding shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 psychologist prisoner and latter’s attempts Dark Water (2005) C-105m. ★★★ D: Walto talk sense into the maniac. Remake of ter Salles. Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, BLIND ALLEY.▼ Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Pete Postlethwaite, Dark Places (1975-British) C-91m. ★1⁄2 Camryn Manheim, Ariel Gade, Debra Monk. D: Don Sharp. Christopher Lee, Joan ColNewly separated Connelly takes an apartment lins, Robert Hardy, Herbert Lom, Jane in a seedy building on N.Y.C.’s isolated RooBirkin, Jean Marsh. Mild horror thriller. sevelt Island, hoping the change will do her Hardy, heir to an insane murderer’s estate, and her 5-year-old daughter some good. Inis possessed by his spirit, kills those who stead, there are signs of dread and imminent try to do him out of it. [PG]▼ danger everywhere, along with water dripDark Side of the Sun, The (1997-Canaping from the ceiling. Director Salles (in his dian) C-101m. BOMB D: Bozidar Nikolic. American debut) milks every possibility for Brad Pitt, Guy Boyd, Cheryl Pollak, Milena atmosphere in this creepy chiller, a remake Dravic, Constantin Nitchoff. In MEET JOE of a 2002 Japanese film. Reilly adds a touch BLACK, Pitt played Death; here he plays of humor as a hilariously sleazy rental dying. Awful weepie about a young Ameriagent. Unrated version also available. Pacan exile who covers his body from head to navision. [PG-13]쩠 toe in leather because of a fatal skin disease. Dark Waters (1944) 90m. ★★ D: Andre He decides to chuck life for a few days of de Toth. Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone, passion when he meets a traveling actress. Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter, Rex InEntire film takes place in the Slavic countrygram, John Qualen, Elisha Cook, Jr. Cast side and features an irritating polka score! sinks into the bog (some literally) in conEven diehard Pitt fans best beware. Made in fused film of innocent girl staying with peculiar family.▼●쩠 1990. ▼쩠 Dark Star (1974) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Dark Wind, The (1994) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Carpenter. Dan O’Bannon, Dre Pahich, Errol Morris. Lou Diamond Phillips, Gary Brian Narelle. Satiric, spaced-out comedy Farmer, Fred Ward, Guy Boyd, John Karof weary astronauts whose mission is to len. Disappointing feature from acclaimed blow up unstable planets; one of their documentarian Morris: a ponderously slow, sentient bombs gets its own ideas. Enjoyamuddled account of young Navajo cop Philble for sci-fi fans and surfers; stretches its lips, new to his district, who attempts to shoestring budget pretty well. Carpenter’s solve a mystery amid Navajo-Hopi differfirst feature, expanded from a college short ences. Script by Neal Jimenez and Eric Berhe wrote with O’Bannon. [G]▼●쩠 gren, based on Tony Hillerman’s novel. Darktown Strutters (1975) C-85m. ★1⁄2 One of the executive producers was Robert D: William Witney. Trina Parks, Edna Redford. Filmed in 1991. [R]▼쩠 Richardson, Bettye Sweet, Shirley WashDarling (1965-British) 122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ington, Roger E. Mosley, Stan Shaw, John Schlesinger. Julie Christie, Dirk Christopher Joy. Poor spoof of black and Bogarde, Laurence Harvey, Roland Curram, white stereotypes. Story is about Parks Jose Luis de Villalonga, Alex Scott, Basil attempting to find her kidnapped mother. Henson. Christie won Oscar as girl who rises Original running time: 90m. Retitled GET from commonplace life to marry an Italian DOWN AND BOOGIE. [PG]▼ noble, with several unsatisfactory love affairs Dark Tower (1987) C-91m. BOMB D: in between. Trendy, influential ’60s film— Ken Barnett. Michael Moriarty, Jenny in flashy form and cynical content. Frederic Agutter, Carol Lynley, Anne Lockhart, Raphael’s script and costume designer Julie Theodore Bikel, Kevin McCarthy, Patch Harris also won Oscars.▼●쩠 Mackenzie. Appallingly bad supernatural Darling, How Could You! (1951) 96m. [ 320 ]

★★1

⁄2 D: Mitchell Leisen. Joan Fontaine, treu, Christian Berkel, Justus von Dohnanyi, John Lund, Mona Freeman, Peter Hanson, Oliver Stokowski, Maren Eggert, Andrea David Stollery. Doctor Lund and wife FonSawatzki. Compelling drama about 20 men taine return from Central America to their who sign up for a behavioral psychology exthree children, with various comical compliperiment in which they pretend to be in prison cations. Strictly sitcom stuff, sometimes for two weeks—some as inmates, some as sweet but mostly silly and stupid. Based on guards. Needless to say, things go terribly a James M. Barrie play. wrong. A perfect story for the Survivor/Big Darling Lili (1970) C-136m. ★★★ D: Blake Brother era, although it was inspired by a Edwards. Julie Andrews, Rock Hudson, real-life incident from the 1970s. Aka THE Jeremy Kemp, Lance Percival, Jacques EXPERIMENT. [R]▼쩠 Marin, Michael Witney. Critically lamDate Movie (2006) C-82m. BOMB D: basted when first released, this entertainAaron Seltzer. Alyson Hannigan, Adam ing spoof has Andrews and Hudson at their Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Tony Cox, best, along with writer/director Edwards, Fred Willard, Eddie Griffin, Sophie Monk, keeping tongue-in-cheek but not becoming Meera Simhan, Carmen Electra, Lil Jon. coy in telling story of German spy Julie Witless, brainless spoof of Hollywood roposing as London entertainer during WW1, mantic comedies involving an overweight falling in love with squadron commander young woman (Hannigan, in a fat suit) and Hudson. Great fun, good music, including the complications that arise when she finds Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini’s lovely her Mr. Right. Loaded with lame ‘‘comic’’ song ‘‘Whistling Away the Dark.’’ Two references to recent-vintage pop movies and decades after the fact, Edwards prepared tailored to people who think obesity and an alternative ‘‘director’s cut’’ of the film, flatulence jokes are the height of hilarity. more serious in tone, for cable TV; it runs Unrated version also available. [PG-13]쩠 114m. Panavision. [G]쩠 Date With an Angel (1987) C-105m. Darwin’s Nightmare (2005-French-AustrianBOMB D: Tom McLoughlin. Michael E. Belgian) C-107m. ★★★ D: Hubert Sauper. Knight, Phoebe Cates, Emmanuelle Be´art, Sobering, stranger-than-fiction documenDavid Dukes, Phil Brock, Albert Macklin. tary about the effect one species of fish, the Aspiring musician Knight, about to be swalNile Perch, has on the economy and ecology lowed up by marriage and his future father-inof Tanzania. Introduced to Lake Victoria years law’s firm, finds salvation with the brokenago, the predatory fish now consumes all winged angel who crashes into his pool on the other species in the water, but its desirabilnight of his bachelor party. Unbearable comic ity as an export item single-handedly susfantasy despite Be´art’s appropriately ethereal beauty. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 tains the local economy. Following each thread of this story, the film deals with globDate With Death, A SEE: McGuire, Go alization, exploitation, and other issues that Home! affect all of us, not just the poor people of Date With Judy, A (1948) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 one African nation.쩠 D: Richard Thorpe. Wallace Beery, Jane D.A.R.Y.L. (1985) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: SiPowell, Elizabeth Taylor, Carmen Miranmon Wincer. Mary Beth Hurt, Michael da, Xavier Cugat, Robert Stack, Scotty McKean, Barret Oliver, Kathryn Walker, Beckett. Musicomedy of two teenagers Colleen Camp, Josef Sommer, Steve Ryan, involved in family shenanigans; highlight Danny Corkill. Childless couple adopts a is Beery dancing with Miranda. Songs include ‘‘It’s a Most Unusual Day.’’▼●쩠 little boy who’s really a sophisticated robot. Good premise undermined by incredibly Daughter of Rosie O’Grady, The (1950) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Butler. June Haver, bland presentation; young kids might enjoy it. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Gordon MacRae, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Das Boot (1981-German) C-145m. ★★★1⁄2 Nelson, James Barton, S. Z. Sakall, Jane D: Wolfgang Petersen. Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Darwell. Formula period musical with Haver Herbert Gronemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, in title role singing turn-of-the-century faHubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge, vorites. Talented MacRae is her love inBernd Tauber, Erwin Leder, Martin May. terest, and Sakall is forced to give another Realistic, meticulously mounted nail-biter cuddly stereotype. Daughters Courageous (1939) 107m. ★★★ chronicling a German U-boat on a mission during WW2, with Prochnow solid as its D: Michael Curtiz. John Garfield, Claude commander. Manages to embrace an antiRains, Fay Bainter, Priscilla Lane, Rosewar message, as well. Based on Lotharmary Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page, May Guenther Buchheim’s autobiographical novel. Robson, Donald Crisp, Frank McHugh. Originally a 5-hour German TV miniseries, Enjoyable reworking of FOUR DAUGHwhich is available on DVD; later released in a TERS, featuring the same cast and chroni211m. Director’s Cut. Well-dubbed American cling what happens when wanderer Rains version is titled THE BOAT. [R]▼●쩠 returns to the family he abandoned 20 Das Experiment (2001-German) C-119m. years before. Garfield is fine as the brash ★★★ D: Oliver Hirschbiegel. Moritz Bleibcharmer who’s romancing Priscilla Lane. [ 321 ]

Daughters of Darkness (1971-Belgianwith good production values but generally boring script; only fair performances.▼●쩠 French) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harry Kumel. Delphine Seyrig, Daniele Ouimet, John David and Goliath (1961-Italian) C-95m. ★★ Karlen, Andrea Rau, Paul Esser, George D: Richard Pottier, Ferdinando Baldi. Jamin, Joris Collet, Fons Rademakers. SoOrson Welles, Ivo Payer, Edward Hilton, phisticated, witty, but cold tale of honeyEleonora Rossi-Drago, Massimo Serato. mooning couple meeting lesbian vampire Juvenile spectacle based on biblical tale, Elisabeth Bathory (a real historical figwith wooden script, bad acting, Welles as ure), becoming enmeshed in her schemes. hefty King Saul. Totalscope.▼쩠 Elegant, but pretentious and slow. Highly David and Lisa (1962) 94m. ★★★ D: Frank regarded by many. Also shown at 96m. DiPerry. Keir Dullea, Janet Margolin, Howrector’s cut runs 100m.▼●쩠 ard da Silva, Neva Patterson, Clifton James. Daughters of Satan (1972) C-96m. ★★ D: Independently made film about two disturbed Hollingsworth Morse. Tom Selleck, Barra teenagers is excellent, sensitively played Grant, Tani Phelps Guthrie, Paraluman. by newcomers Dullea and Margolin. Da Silva Witches’ curses, mumbo jumbo, and a lot is fine as an understanding doctor. Remade of hokum as young girl is lured into witches’ for TV in 1998. ▼●쩠 coven. [R]▼ David Copperfield (1935) 130m. ★★★★ D: Daughters of the Dust (1991) C-114m. George Cukor. Freddie Bartholomew, Frank ★★1 Lawton, W.C. Fields, Lionel Barrymore, ⁄2 D: Julie Dash. Cora Lee Day, Alva Rodgers, Adisa Anderson, Kaycee Moore, Madge Evans, Roland Young, Basil RathBarbara O, Eartha D. Robinson, Bahni bone, Edna May Oliver, Maureen O’SulliTurpin, Cheryl Lynn Bruce. Poetic, turnvan, Lewis Stone, Lennox Pawle, Elsa Lanof-the-century tale of the Gullah, descenchester, Una O’Connor, Arthur Treacher. dants of slaves who resided on islands near Hollywood does right by Dickens in this South Carolina and Georgia and mainlavishly mounted, superbly cast productained their West African heritage. The tion, following David’s exploits from youth material is fascinating, and some of the to young manhood, with such unforgettaimagery is stunning, but too much of ble characterizations as Fields’ Micawber, the historical background remains unexRathbone’s Mr. Murdstone, Young’s Uriah plained, and the slow pace weighs it down. Heep, and Oliver’s Aunt Betsey. A treat Dash also scripted this American Playhouse from start to finish. Screenplay by Howard theatrical feature.▼쩠 Estabrook and Hugh Walpole; the latter Dave (1993) C-110m. ★★★ D: Ivan Reitman. also portrays the vicar. Also shown in Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Langella, Ben Kingsley, Kevin Dunn, Ving David Holzman’s Diary (1968) 74m. ★★★1 Rhames, Charles Grodin, Faith Prince, Laura ⁄2 D: Jim McBride. L. M. Kit Carson, Linney, Bonnie Hunt, Parley Baer, Stefan Eileen Dietz, Louise Levine, Lorenzo Mans. Gierasch, Anna Deavere Smith. Shades of Superior, perceptively funny cine´ma ve´rite´ PRISONER OF ZENDA! U.S. president, infeature about a serious young filmmaker capacitated by stroke, is replaced by lookwho seeks truth by making a movie of his life. A classic of its kind.▼ alike (and everyman) Kline, who proceeds to win over the press, public, and even the Da Vinci Code, The (2006) C-148m. ★★ D: president’s estranged wife (Weaver) in this Ron Howard. Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, amusing political comedy. Farfetched premIan McKellen, Jean Reno, Paul Bettany, Alise made believable by winning cast and fred Molina, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Jean-Yves cameos by celebrities, real reporters, and acBerteloot, Etienne Chicot, Jean-Pierre Matual U.S. senators! [PG-13]▼●쩠 rielle. While lecturing in Paris, Harvard Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2006) Csymbologist Hanks is pulled into a murder 103m. ★★★ D: Michel Gondry. Freewheelcase that has deep, dark implications involving combination documentary–concert film ing a religious sect and links to the paintings in which stand-up comic Chappelle plans— of Leonardo da Vinci. Eagerly anticipated and invites one and all to attend—a block adaptation of Dan Brown’s bestseller (which party/outdoor concert on a street in rainy became a cultural phenomenon) is a letdown Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, in 2004. in every respect. Workmanlike at best, not Chappelle’s interactions with everyday people especially well staged or shot, it lacks the are as fresh and funny as his onstage material. electricity—and star chemistry—a thriller of Kanye West, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, The this magnitude ought to have. Material still Roots, The Fugees, Dead Prez, and others has pull, but Akiva Goldsman’s script makes are seen in performance. Unrated edition is changes that aren’t always an improvement on the book . . . and the movie plods as it 126m. [R]쩠 David and Bathsheba (1951) C-116m. heads down the stretch. Alternate version runs ★★ D: Henry King. Gregory Peck, Susan 28m. longer. Followed by ANGELS & DEMONS. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Hayward, Raymond Massey, Kieron Moore, James Robertson Justice, Jayne Meadows, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates John Sutton, George Zucco. Biblical epic (1956) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Foster. [ 322 ]

Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Jeff York, KenGruesome, yes, but also funny and even neth Tobey, Clem Bevans, Irvin Ashkenazy. touching; compromised only by going too far Second CROCKETT feature strung together in end-credits scenes. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 from two Disney TV shows; first half is Dawn Patrol, The (1930) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: comic keelboat race with Mike Fink (York), Howard Hawks. Richard Barthelmess, self-proclaimed ‘‘King of the River,’’ secDouglas Fairbanks Jr., Neil Hamilton, Wilond half is more serious confrontation with liam Janney, James Finlayson, Clyde Cook. Indians. Lightweight fun.▼●쩠 John Monk Saunders’ Oscar-winning story Davy Crockett, Indian Scout (1950) 71m. of a beleaguered aerial squadron in WW1 ★★ France. Devotees of director Hawks prefer D: Lew Landers. George Montgomery, Ellen Drew, Philip Reed, Chief Thunderthis to 1938 remake, but it doesn’t hold up cloud. Humdrum wagon train saga which has as well, particularly the stiff, overdrawn nothing whatsoever to do with the legend of performances. Dawn Patrol, The (1938) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 Davy C. (Montgomery plays one of his descendants.) Retitled INDIAN SCOUT. D: Edmund Goulding. Errol Flynn, Basil Davy Crockett, King of the Wild FronRathbone, David Niven, Donald Crisp, tier (1955) C-93m. ★★★ D: Norman FosMelville Cooper, Barry Fitzgerald. Remake ter. Fess Parker, Buddy Ebsen, Basil of 1930 classic is fine actioner of WW1 Ruysdael, Hans Conried, William Bakewell, flyers in France; Rathbone as stern officer Kenneth Tobey. Originally filmed as three forced to send up green recruits, Flynn and segments for Disney’s TV show, this creNiven as pilot buddies, all excellent. Insightated a nationwide phenomenon in 1955; ful study of wartime camaraderie and gruelit’s still fun today with Parker as famous ing pressures of battlefront command.▼●쩠 Indian scout and Ebsen as his pal George Day After Tomorrow, The (2004) C-124m. ★★★ Russel, whose adventures take them from D: Roland Emmerich. Dennis Quaid, Washington, D.C., to the Alamo.▼쩠 Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum, ★★1 Dawning, The (1988-British) C-97m. ⁄2 Sela Ward, Dash Mihok, Kenneth Welsh, Jay D: Robert Knights. Anthony Hopkins, Jean O. Sanders, Austin Nichols, Perry King. Simmons, Trevor Howard, Rebecca PidQuaid tries to convince his superiors in Washgeon, Hugh Grant, Tara MacGowran. Set ington, D.C. (including a Dick Cheney lookin Southern Ireland in 1920, this wellalike) that weather prognosticators are correct made but curiously ordinary drama chronand worldwide calamity is imminent—with icles the political turmoil of the time as tidal waves, tornadoes, iceberg movement, perceived by a spirited, rapidly maturing etc.—due to global warming. Ultimately, he 18-year-old girl (Pidgeon) who comes to must make his way to a flooded Manhattan the aid of a mysterious stranger (Hopkins). to rescue his son (Gyllenhaal). The characHoward’s last film; he’s cast as her wheelters are likable, the dialogue isn’t dumb, and chair-bound grandfather. [PG]▼●쩠 the effects are spectacular: in other words, a Dawn of the Dead (1978) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 pretty good, old-fashioned disaster movie. D: George A. Romero. David Emge, Ken Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Foree, Scott Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, Tom Day and the Hour, The (1963-FrenchItalian) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rene´ Clement. Savini. Sequel-cum-remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is apocalyptic horror Simone Signoret, Stuart Whitman, Genemasterpiece; as zombie population increases, vieve Page, Michel Piccoli, Reggie Nalder, four people set up quasi-Utopian existence in Pierre Dux, Billy Kearns. In Nazi-occupied barricaded shopping mall. Satiric, metaphoriFrance, Signoret is a widow who becomes cally rich adventure jerks viewers’ emotions involved in the Resistance movement; Whitaround with stunning ease, as zombies are, by man is an American paratrooper trying to turns, horrifying, heroic, made clownish, and escape to Spain. Franscope.▼ even forgotten. Savini’s hideously gory efDay at the Races, A (1937) 111m. ★★★1⁄2 fects are mostly confined to the first and last D: Sam Wood. Groucho, Harpo, Chico half hours. Nontheatrical prints run 140m. ReMarx, Allan Jones, Maureen O’Sullivan, made in 2004. Followed by DAY OF THE Esther Muir, Margaret Dumont, Douglass DEAD.▼●쩠 Dumbrille, Sig Ruman, Dorothy Dandridge. Dawn of the Dead (2004) C-99m. ★★★ D: The Marxes wreak havoc at a sanitorium, Zack Snyder. Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, where wealthy hypochondriac Dumont is Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, Ty Burrell, Mithe leading patient; often uproarious comchael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, Michael Barry, edy features some of the trio’s funniest set Lindy Booth, Jayne Eastwood, Matt Frewer. pieces (Chico selling race tips, the seduction Exciting, fast-paced, bloodthirsty fun. The scene, etc.). A perfunctory storyline and undead return to life and attack the living, conmemorable songs keep it from topping its stantly increasing their numbers. A group of immediate predecessor, A NIGHT AT THE uninfected survivors holes up in a shopping OPERA . . . but the comedy content is sensational.▼●쩠 mall, where most of the story is set. An especially good cast flourishes under confident diDaybreak (1939) SEE: Le Jour Se Le`ve rection by Snyder, making his movie debut. Daydreamer, The (1966) C-98m. ★★★ D: [ 323 ]

Jules Bass. Ray Bolger, Jack Gilford, MarMedical Services worker who springs into garet Hamilton, Paul O’Keefe; voices of action when a huge explosion cripples a Tallulah Bankhead, Boris Karloff, Burl tunnel under N.Y.C.’s Hudson River, with a Ives, Victor Borge, Terry-Thomas, Patty handful of survivors inside. Great stunts and Duke. Partly animated story of Hans Chrisspecial effects. That’s Sly’s son Sage as a tian Andersen as a 13-year-old who meets cocky young scam artist being taken to many of the fairy tale characters he later prison. [PG-13]▼●쩠 writes about. Surprisingly pleasant.▼쩠 Day Mars Invaded Earth, The (1962) Day for Night (1973-French) C-120m. 70m. ★1⁄2 D: Maury Dexter. Kent Taylor, ★★★1 Marie Windsor, William Mims, Betty Beall, ⁄2 D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Valentina Lowell Brown, Gregg Shank. Martians are Cortese, Franc¸ois Truffaut, Jean-Pierre exact doubles for scientist Taylor and famLe´aud, Alexandra Stewart, Dani, Nathalie ily as they wreak havoc on pitiful earthBaye. Enjoyable fluff about a motion piclings. Minor sci-fi B pic. CinemaScope. ture director (Truffaut) and his problems in Day Night Day Night (2007-U.S.-German) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julia Loktev. Luisa Wiltrying to film a silly love story; bright performances and a loving look into the liams, Josh P. Weinstein, Gareth Saxe, Nyintricacies of filmmaking. Oscar winner as ambi Nyambi, Frank Dattolo, Annemarie Lawless. Naı¨ve 19-year-old girl arrives in Best Foreign Film. [PG]▼쩠 Day in October, A (1990-Danish-U.S.) the N.Y.C. area and is prepared for the task C-97m. ★★★ D: Kenneth Madsen. D. B. she’s signed up for: to act as a suicide Sweeney, Kelly Wolf, Daniel Benzali, bomber in Times Square. Using a literal inTovah Feldshuh, Ole Lemmeke. Gripping, your-face approach, writer-director Loktev fact-based drama set in WW2 Denmark deliberately withholds information so we chronicles the fate of young Jewish woman focus on the girl and the immediacy of her (Wolf); she brings a stranger—wounded resituation, not her motivation or her cause. sistance fighter Sweeney—into her home, Riveting at times, but peters out, although disrupting the lives of her family. Knowing the filmmaker planned her surprising climax parable about the need to take sides (and just that way.쩠 take action) when confronted by evil. Don’t Day of Anger (1969-Italian) C-109m. ★1⁄2 miss this sleeper. [PG-13]▼쩠 D: Tonino Valerii. Lee Van Cleef, Giuliano Day in the Country, A (1946-French) Gemma, Walter Rilla, Christa Linder, Ennio 40m. ★★★★ D: Jean Renoir. Sylvia Bataille, Balbo. Story of callous gunman and his reGeorges Saint-Saens (Georges Darnoux), lationship with young prote´ge´ is below par, Jacques Borel (Jacques Brunius), Jeanne even for an Italian Western; only for the Marken. At a picnic along a river, a bourVan Cleef cult. Aka DAY OF WRATH. geois Parisian mother and daughter find Techniscope. [M/PG]▼쩠 romance while the menfolk try to fish. Day of the Animals (1977) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Nature plays a starring role in this cinematic D: William Girdler. Christopher George, tone poem about the emotional depth of Lynda Day George, Leslie Nielsen, Richspiritual love and the sexual high of a ard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara, Ruth Roman. romp in the hay. Screenplay by Renoir, Fair action thriller in the nature-on-the from a short story by Guy de Maupassant; rampage mold, with back packers in the among his assistants on this were Yves High Sierras at the mercy of hostile creaAllegret, Jacques Becker, Henri Cartiertures crazed by the sun’s radiation after the Bresson, and Luchino Visconti! Renoir earth’s ozone layer has been destroyed. Final cast himself as Poulain the innkeeper. Shot score: Beasts 7, Cast 0 (in acting as well in 1936, only partially completed, and edas survival). Aka SOMETHING IS OUT ited in Renoir’s absence. Original title: THERE. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼쩠 UNE PARTIE DE CAMPAGNE.▼ Day of the Bad Man (1958) C-81m. ★★ Day in the Death of Joe Egg, A (1972D: Harry Keller. Fred MacMurray, Joan 1 ★★★ British) C-106m. Weldon, John Ericson, Robert Middleton. ⁄2 D: Peter Medak. Alan Bates, Janet Suzman, Peter Bowles, MacMurray is appropriately stiff in tame Sheila Gish, Joan Hickson. Excellent black account of country judge holding off concomedy about a couple with a child who demned man’s brothers so scheduled hangcontemplate mercy-killing. Not a crowding can occur. CinemaScope. pleaser, but extremely well done. Peter Day of the Dead (1985) C-102m. ★★ D: Nichols adapted his own play. [R]▼ George A. Romero. Lori Cardille, Terry ★★★ Daylight (1996) C-114m. D: Rob Alexander, Joseph Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Cohen. Sylvester Stallone, Amy BrenneAntone DiLeo, Jr., Richard Liberty, Howman, Viggo Mortensen, Dan Hedaya, Jay ard Sherman. Romero’s creatures trap a O. Sanders, Karen Young, Claire Bloom, female scientist with some army sexists in Vanessa Bell Calloway, Barry Newman, an underground bunker; she wants to Stan Shaw, Colin Fox. Good old-fashioned ‘‘study’’ them, but the army balks at being disaster movie, built on a formulaic foundazombie brunch. Third DEAD entry is retion. Stallone is a disgraced Emergency lentlessly talky for over an hour, but Tom [ 324 ]

Savini’s effects do give this a show-stopping miniseries; and in 1997 as a cable TV movie. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 finale. Easily the least of the series. Remade in name only in 2007. ▼●쩠 Day of Wrath (1943-Danish) 110m. ★★★1⁄2 Day of the Dolphin, The (1973) C-104m. D: Carl Theodor Dreyer. Thorkild Roose, ★★ D: Mike Nichols. George C. Scott, Lisbeth Movin, Sigrid Neiiendam, Preben Trish Van Devere, Paul Sorvino, Fritz Lerdorff, Anna Svierker. Strikingly comWeaver, Jon Korkes, Edward Herrmann, posed drama about an old woman accused John Dehner. Big-budget misfire about of being a witch and the curse that she puts scientist Scott using his trained (and on the pastor who is responsible for her talking!) dolphins to foil an assassination burning. Serious, stark cinema, peerlessly plot. A waste of many talents. Scripter Buck photographed by Carl Andersson. Some prints run 95m.▼쩠 Henry also provides the voices for the dolphins. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Days of Glory (1944) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Day of the Evil Gun (1968) C-93m. ★★ Tourneur. Gregory Peck, Alan Reed, MaD: Jerry Thorpe. Glenn Ford, Arthur Kenria Palmer, Lowell Gilmore, Tamara Tounedy, Dean Jagger, John Anderson, Paul manova. Sincere but plodding WW2 acFix, Nico Minardos, Royal Dano, (Harry) tion pitting Russians against Nazis, memoDean Stanton. Very routine Western with rable only as Peck’s screen debut.▼ Ford and Kennedy going after Indians who Days of Glory (2006-French-MoroccanBelgian-Algerian) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rachid abducted the former’s wife; Kennedy is smooth in likable-villain role he’s played Bouchareb. Jamel Debbouze, Samy Nace´ri, many times. Panavision. [G] Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Day of the Jackal, The (1973-BritishBlancan, Mathieu Simonet, Benoit Giros, French) C-141m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fred Zinnemann. Me´lanie Laurent, Antoine Chappey. MovEdward Fox, Alan Badel, Tony Britton, ing (and enlightening) saga of North AfriCyril Cusack, Michel Lonsdale, Eric Porcan soldiers who joined their French brothers ter, Delphine Seyrig, Derek Jacobi, Ronald in combat during WW2—but were never acPickup. Exciting adaptation of Frederick cepted as equals. Built on a timeworn formula Forsyth’s best-seller about plot to assassinate of following raw recruits as they become De Gaulle and the painstaking preparations hardened combat veterans; by focusing on a of the assassin. Beautifully filmed throughhandful of men and personalizing the story, out Europe with a first-rate cast. Reworked this forgotten chapter of history comes to in 1997 as THE JACKAL. [PG]▼●쩠 vivid life. Screenplay by the director and Day of the Locust, The (1975) C-144m. Olivier Lorelle. Original French title: INDI★★★1 ⁄2 D: John Schlesinger. Donald SuthGE`NES. Hawk-Scope. [R]쩠 erland, Karen Black, Burgess Meredith, Days of Heaven (1978) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Atherton, Geraldine Page, RichTerrence Malick. Richard Gere, Brooke ard A. Dysart, Bo Hopkins, Pepe Serna, Adams, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz, RobLelia Goldoni, Billy Barty, Madge Kenert Wilke, Jackie Shultis, Stuart Margolin. nedy, Florence Lake, Natalie Schafer, Nita Exquisite mood piece about a turbulent Talbot, Paul Stewart, John Hillerman, Roblove triangle set against midwestern wheat ert Pine, Dennis Dugan, Jackie Earle Haley, harvests at the turn of the 20th century. David Ladd, Dick Powell, Jr. Excellent adOriginally shown in 70mm, its visual aptation of Nathanael West’s sweeping beauty almost overwhelms the story— novel about Hollywood’s netherworld in which is second priority here. Nestor Al1930s, seen mostly through eyes of a young mendros won well-deserved Oscar for his artist (Atherton) who finds little glamor and cinematography. [PG]▼●쩠 a lot of broken-down people in Tinseltown. Days of Thrills and Laughter (1961) Disturbing, depressing . . . and absolutely fas93m. ★★★★ Compiled by Robert Youngson. cinating. Script by Waldo Salt. [R]▼●쩠 Third Youngson silent-film compilation Day of the Outlaw (1959) 91m. ★★★ D: combines comedy clips (with Chaplin, LauAndre de Toth. Robert Ryan, Burl Ives, rel and Hardy, the Keystone Kops) with seTina Louise, Alan Marshal, Nehemiah rials and action films (featuring Douglas Persoff, Venetia Stevenson, David Nelson, Fairbanks, Pearl White, Harry Houdini). Jack Lambert, Elisha Cook. Stark Western Great fun. ▼ melodrama of outlaw Ives and gang taking Days of Thunder (1990) C-107m. ★★ D: over isolated Western town.쩠 Tony Scott. Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Day of the Triffids, The (1963-British) Randy Quaid, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes, 1 ★★ C-95m. ⁄2 D: Steve Sekely. Howard Michael Rooker, Fred Dalton Thompson, Keel, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott, Kieron John C. Reilly, Jerry Molen. Flashy, noisy Moore, Mervyn Johns. Meteor display race-car saga set in the South, by the filmblinds everyone who watched, while mumakers and star of TOP GUN. Viewer can tating experimental plants into giant, a) savor crew chief Duvall’s fine perforwalking maneaters. Based on John Wyndmance, b) revel in neurosurgeon/love interham’s classic sci-fi novel. Variable special est Kidman’s disdain for racing, c) sit back effects. Remade in 1981 as a British TV and soak up Cruise’s charisma, or d) count [ 325 ]

the cliche´s (cooked up by coauthors Cruise and Robert Towne). Gives new meaning to the term Formula One. Panavision. [PG13]▼●쩠 Days of Wine and Roses (1962) 117m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, Jack Klugman, Alan Hewitt, Tom Palmer, Jack Albertson. Modern LOST WEEKEND set in San Francisco, with Lemmon marrying Remick and pulling her into state of alcoholism. Realistic direction and uncompromising writing combine for excellent results; poignant score by Henry Mancini, who also earned an Oscar for the title song with Johnny Mercer. Originally a television play, written by JP Miller.▼●쩠 Day That Shook the World, The (1977) C-111m. ★★ D: Veljko Bulajic. Christopher Plummer, Florinda Bolkan, Maximilian Schell. Plodding historical drama surrounding the events leading up to WW1 with the death of Archduke Ferdinand (Plummer) at Sarajevo. Yugoslavian-made with a humorless international cast, resulting in tedious though epic-sized chronicle. [R]▼ Day the Earth Caught Fire, The (1961British) 99m. ★★★ D: Val Guest. Edward Judd, Janet Munro, Leo McKern, Michael Goodliffe, Bernard Braden. Intelligent, absorbing sci-fi drama of gradual chaos that follows when atomic explosions start Earth spiraling toward the sun. Judd is the reporter who first breaks the story, with the assistance of Munro (whom he romances). Watch for Michael Caine as a policeman directing traffic! Dyaliscope.▼쩠 Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951) 92m. ★★★★ D: Robert Wise. Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin. Landmark science-fiction drama about dignified alien (Rennie) who comes to Earth to deliver anti-nuclear warning, stays to learn that his peaceful views are shared by most humans—but not all. Brilliantly acted, more timely than ever, with trenchant script by Edmund North, moody score by Bernard Herrmann. And remember: Klaatu barada nikto! Remade in 2008.

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Day the Fish Came Out, The (1967-GreekBritish) C-109m. BOMB D: Michael Cacoyannis. Tom Courtenay, Candice Bergen, Colin Blakely, Sam Wanamaker, Ian Ogilvy. Plot about the loss of two atom bombs over the Aegean Sea provides framework for disastrous comedy about homosexuals; combo of Bergen plus whips, chains, and leather doesn’t work. Day the Hot Line Got Hot, The (1969French-Spanish) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Etienne Perier. Robert Taylor, Charles Boyer, George Chakiris, Dominique Fabre, Gerard Tichy. Hollow attempt at topicality as secret agents mess up Moscow-Washington hot line, causing international crisis. Taylor’s final film. Video title: HOT LINE. [M/PG]▼ Day They Robbed the Bank of England, The (1960-British) 85m. ★★★ D: John Guillermin. Aldo Ray, Elizabeth Sellars, Peter O’Toole, Hugh Griffith, Kieron Moore, Albert Sharpe. IRA members plan to rob the Bank of England in this meticulous caper film. Metroscope. Day Time Ended, The (1980) C-79m. ★★ D: John (Bud) Cardos. Jim Davis, Dorothy Malone, Christopher Mitchum, Marcy Lafferty, Scott Kolden, Natasha Ryan. Scifi mishmash about a family living in the desert, who witness strange and terrifying phenomena. Badly scripted, and never really explained. Fine special effects by David Allen. Filmed in 1978 as TIME WARP. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Dayton’s Devils (1968) C-107m. ★★ D: Jack Shea. Rory Calhoun, Leslie Nielsen, Lainie Kazan, Hans Gudegast (Eric Braeden), Barry Sadler. Another heist film, this time about plot to rob an Air Force base of $2 million; Lainie’s rendition of ‘‘Sunny’’ provides only special moment.▼ Daytrippers, The (1996) C-87m. ★★★ D: Greg Mottola. Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci, Parker Posey, Liev Schreiber, Anne Meara, Pat McNamara, Campbell Scott, Marcia Gay Harden. Funny, touching first feature about Eliza, a Long Island wife who discovers what appears to be a clandestine love letter written to her husband; she and her family pile into a station wagon and set off on a road trip to (and through) Manhattan to confront him. Mottola also scripted this thoroughly likable, low-budget winner. [R]

Day the Earth Stood Still, The (2008) C103m. ★★ D: Scott Derrickson. Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith, Jon Hamm, John Cleese, Kyle ▼쩠 Chandler, James Hong. Strange visitor from Day Watch (2006-Russian) C-132m. ★1⁄2 another planet arrives on Earth in a giant D: Timur Bekmambetov. Konstantin Khasphere and adopts human form. The governbensky, Mariya Poroshina, Vladimir Mensment and the military respond with hostility hov, Galina Tyunina, Viktor Verzhbitsky. and weapons but super-smart biologist ConWeak, confusing, and endless sequel to nelly makes a personal connection with the NIGHT WATCH in which the forces of the alien—though her young stepson (Smith) ‘‘light’’ and the ‘‘dark’’ are at it again. After isn’t as easily won over. Pallid remake of being framed, Anton (Khabensky) tries to the 1951 classic turns Klaatu into a cipher save himself and his son from evil powers in and dissipates the impact of the story. Super post-apocalyptic Russia. Hollywood-style 35. [PG-13]쩠 production proves that Russians can be just [ 326 ]

as corny as their American counterparts in personal problems. You may like THE LONGEST DAY better. CinemaScope. ▼쩠 turning out mindless supernatural drivel. At Dead, The (1987) C-83m. ★★★ D: John least the effects are good. Unrated version Huston. Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann, runs 146m. Super 35. [R]쩠 Rachael Dowling, Cathleen Delany, HeDay Without a Mexican, A (2004-Mexican1 ★ lena Carroll, Ingrid Craigie, Dan O’Herlihy, U.S.) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Sergio Arau. Caroline Frank Patterson, Donal Donnelly, Marie Aaron, Tony Abatemarco, Melinda Allen, Kean, Maria McDernottroe, Sean McClory, Fernando Arau, Frankie J. Allison, Yareli Colm Meaney. All-Irish cast helps Huston Arizmendi, Maria Beck. Premise has Califorbring James Joyce’s short story (from nians awakening to find there isn’t a single Dubliners) to life, a vignette about a lively Latino left in the state after they all mysteriholiday dinner party in 1904, followed by a ously disappear. Let the comedy begin! melancholy confrontation between a loveAiming for satire, the filmmakers miss the less husband and wife. Not for every taste, mark completely with this insipid, forgettathis finely embroidered film celebrates time, ble film, which has only a few amusing moplace, and atmosphere, without much disments. Arau (son of Alfonso) and his wife, cernible plot, but with a host of marvelous Arizmendi, originally made this as a short characterizations. Huston’s last film as disubject. [R] ▼쩠 ★★ rector scripted by his son Tony. [PG]▼● Day Zero (2008) C-93m. D: Bryan GunDead Again (1991) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kennar Cole. Elijah Wood, Jon Bernthal, Chris neth Branagh. Kenneth Branagh, Andy Klein, Ginnifer Goodwin, Elisabeth Moss, Garcia, Derek Jacobi, Hanna Schygulla, Ally Sheedy, Sofia Vassilieva. The war in Emma Thompson, Wayne Knight, CampIraq has escalated, the military draft has been bell Scott, Gregor Hesse, Christine Eberreinstituted, and three young men—wishysole, Robin Williams. Unusually conwashy writer Wood, yuppie corporate lawyer structed film noir thriller about an L.A. Klein, and gung-ho cabdriver Bernthal— gumshoe who tries to help a woman with must decide how they will respond. Potenamnesia, and finds they are both contially fascinating subject matter is undernected—in a strange twist of reincarnamined by a simplistic, meandering storyline tion—to a notorious 40-year-old murder. Inand disparate characters whose friendship triguing, but ultimately the story is too lacks credibility. [R]쩠 dense, and too artificial, to really work. And ★★★ Dazed and Confused (1993) C-102m. talk about artificial—dig that aging makeup D: Richard Linklater. Jason London, Wiley for Garcia! Williams appears as one of BraWiggins, Sasha Jenson, Rory Cochrane, nagh’s sources. [R]▼●쩠 Milla Jovovich, Marissa Ribisi, Adam Dead Alive (1992-New Zealand) C-97m. Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Matthew McCo★★★ D: Peter Jackson. Timothy Balme, naughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Joey Diana Penalver, Liz Moody, Ian Watkin, Lauren Adams. Diverting, refreshingly unBrenda Kendall. Pity poor Balme; not only sentimental mid-1970s time capsule from diis he in the thrall of his domineering mother, rector-screenwriter Linklater (SLACKER), but when the bite of a rat monkey from following a varied group of suburban Texas Skull Island turns her into a hungry zombie, teens on the last day of school in 1976. he still has to look after her—and all the Characterization outweighs narrative here: other zombies that soon proliferate. AstonLinklater accurately captures teen lifestyles ishing, vigorous, inventively gruesome and attitudes at a specific moment in time. comedy is—one hopes—the pinnacle of its Great soundtrack includes carefully selected kind. Warning: The rating above is strictly period music. Look fast for Rene´e Zellfor those with a tolerance for extreme vioweger. [R]▼●쩠 lence and gore. Original title: BRAIN ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joel D.C. Cab (1983) C-99m. DEAD. R-rated video version runs 85m. Schumacher. Adam Baldwin, Charlie Bar▼●쩠 nett, Irene Cara, Anne DeSalvo, Max Gail, Dead and Buried (1981) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gloria Gifford, DeWayne Jessie, Bill Gary A. Sherman. James Farentino, MelMaher, Whitman Mayo, Mr. T, Paul ody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Rodriguez, Gary Busey, Marsha Warfield. Redfield, Nancy Locke Hauser, Lisa Blount. Consistently likable, if loosely wound, comBizarre murders in a small New England edy about a Washington taxi company town seem even stranger when the corpses staffed by misfits who get their act tocome back to life. Gory but well-made gether when it really counts. [R]▼●쩠 chiller; from a Dan O’Bannon story. [R]▼쩠 D-Day the Sixth of June (1956) C-106m. Dead Bang (1989) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: John ★★★ D: Henry Koster. Robert Taylor, RichFrankenheimer. Don Johnson, Penelope ard Todd, Dana Wynter, Edmond O’BriAnn Miller, William Forsythe, Bob Balaen. Well-executed study of WW2’s Norban, Tim Reid, Frank Military, Tate Donmandy invasion, with massive action shots; ovan, Michael Higgins, Evans Evans. L.A. film focuses on American officer Taylor and detective Johnson tries to forget about his British leader Todd, their professional and dismal home life by chasing nasty white [ 327 ]

supremacists around the West. Unpleasant, Gay Harden, Brittany Murphy, Kerry Washfact-based action film offers nothing you ington, Giovanni Ribisi, James Franco, Mary haven’t seen before, except for the hero Steenburgen, Bruce Davison, Nick Searcy, vomiting on a suspect. [R]▼●쩠 Josh Brolin. Five episodes about women Dead Calm (1989-Australian) C-96m. ★★★ dealing with crises in their lives, tied toD: Phillip Noyce. Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, gether by a dead girl (Murphy), whose body Billy Zane. A married couple, recovering is discovered in the desert. Intriguing if from a family tragedy by spending some downbeat vignettes are linked by an overall time on their yacht at sea, pick up a rumination about violence toward women stranger who proceeds to terrorize them. in our society. Writer-director Moncrieff ofFull-blooded thriller is so skillfully acted fers her actors a superior showcase, and and directed that it enables you to gloss they’re all terrific. [R]쩠 over its flaws—and forgive its slasherDeadhead Miles (1972) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: movie–inspired finale. Based on a novel by Vernon Zimmerman. Alan Arkin, Paul Charles Williams. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Benedict, Hector Elizondo, Oliver Clark, Dead Cert (1974-British) C-92m. ★★ D: Charles Durning, Larry Wolf, Barnard Tony Richardson. Scott Antony, Judi Dench, Hughes, Loretta Swit, Allen Garfield, Bruce Michael Williams, Nina Thomas, Julian Bennett, John Milius, Ida Lupino, George Glover, Mark Digham, Ian Hogg. A horse is Raft. Plotless allegory about a trucker’s drugged before a race, and its owner-rider experiences on the road, with unusual cast, is killed. There’s a massive cover-up, and loads of in-jokes. Unreleased and unseen jockey Antony investigates. Richardson for many years. A real curio, written by coscripted this muddled mystery, based on Zimmerman and Terrence Malick. [R] a Dick Francis novel, with Dench wasted as Dead Heat (1988) C-86m. BOMB D: the deceased’s widow. That’s Dench’s realMark Goldblatt. Treat Williams, Joe Pislife husband, Michael Williams, as Sandy.쩠 copo, Lindsay Frost, Darren McGavin, Vin1 ★★★ Dead End (1937) 93m. ⁄2 D: William cent Price, Keye Luke. Moronic, occasionally Wyler. Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humdisgusting turkey with cops Williams and Pisphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, copo confronted by criminals miraculously Marjorie Main, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, returning from the dead. [R]▼●쩠 Gabriel Dell, Ward Bond, Billy Halop, Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round (1966) Bernard Punsley, Allen Jenkins. Grim SidC-104m. ★★★ D: Bernard Girard. James ney Kingsley play of slum life shows viCoburn, Camilla Sparv, Aldo Ray, Rose gnettes of humanity at breaking point in Marie, Severn Darden, Robert Webber. N.Y.C. tenements; extremely well directInvolved but entertaining crime drama ed, engrossing. Script by Lillian Hellman; about an intricate plan to rob an airport magnificent sets by Richard Day. Introbank, with a surprise ending. Look quickly duced the Dead End Kids, who appeared in for a barely recognizable Harrison Ford, in the original Broadway production.▼●쩠 his film debut, playing a bellhop.쩠 ★★ Deadfall (1968-British) C-120m. D: Dead Kids SEE: Strange Behavior Bryan Forbes. Michael Caine, Giovanna Deadlier Than the Male (1967-British) Ralli, Eric Portman, Nanette Newman, C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Richard David Buck. Jewel thief falls in love with Johnson, Elke Sommer, Sylva Koscina, beautiful woman who is married to her Nigel Green, Suzanna Leigh. Standard fare homosexual father. And you think you which half-heartedly resurrects Bulldog have problems? Overdirected film is not as Drummond, trying to solve whodunit ceninteresting as it sounds. [R]쩠 tering around two shapely suspects. Sequel: Deadfall (1993) C-98m. BOMB D: ChrisSOME GIRLS DO. Techniscope. ▼쩠 topher Coppola. Michael Biehn, Sarah TrigDeadline (1987-German) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: ger, Nicolas Cage, James Coburn, Peter Nathaniel Gutman. Christopher Walken, Fonda, Charlie Sheen, Talia Shire, Michael Hywel Bennett, Marita Marschall, Arnon Constantine, Gigi Rice, Angus Scrimm, Zadok, Amos Lavie. Convoluted politiMicky Dolenz, Marc Coppola, Renee Escal thriller with globe-trotting journalist tevez, Clarence Williams III. Bargain-baseWalken becoming enmeshed in various ment, cliche´-ridden vanity project about con intrigues and lies in Lebanon. Strictly man Biehn, who’s always been a team with Grade-D stuff. [R]▼●쩠 his dad; his world begins to unravel after Deadline at Dawn (1946) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: he accidentally kills the old man. Almost Harold Clurman. Susan Hayward, Paul unbearable at times, with an unrestrained Lukas, Bill Williams, Joseph Calleia, Osa Cage chewing and throwing up the scenery Massen, Lola Lane, Jerome Cowan, Steas a coke-snorting thug. Coppola is the ven Geray. Atmospheric but muddled murnephew of Francis (and Cage’s brother); he der mystery, with aspiring actress Hayward also coscripted. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: attempting to clear naive sailor Williams, Dead Girl, The (2006) C-85m. who is suspected of murder. Clurman’s Karen Moncrieff. Toni Collette, Piper Laurie, Rose Byrne, Mary Beth Hurt, Marcia only film as director. Screenplay by Clif[ 328 ]

ford Odets, from a novel by William Irish tainment, than you’d expect from a Wes (Cornell Woolrich).▼ Craven horror film . . . though it’s probably Deadline U.S.A. (1952) 87m. ★★★ D: the only movie ever made in which someone is beheaded by a basketball! [R]▼●쩠 Richard Brooks. Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore, Kim Hunter, Ed Begley, WarDeadly Games (1982) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: ren Stevens, Paul Stewart, Martin Gabel, Scott Mansfield. Sam Groom, Jo Ann HarJoe De Santis, Audrey Christie, Jim Backus. ris, Steve Railsback, Dick Butkus, AlexBiting account of newspaper’s struggle to andra Morgan, Colleen Camp, Christine survive and maintain civic duty. Bogey is Tudor, June Lockhart, Denise Galik. Groom tops as the crusading editor; taut, knowing is a cop, Harris a reporter in routine mysscript by director Brooks. Most enjoyable. tery about a slasher on the loose. In-jokes Don’t blink or you’ll miss a young James come fast and furious in this very knowing Dean in a silent bit part during a newspaper film, keyed to a horror board game played production montage. by the principals. Final plot explanation is Deadly Affair, The (1967) C-107m. ★★★ really stupid. [R]▼ D: Sidney Lumet. James Mason, Simone Deadly Hero (1976) C-102m. ★★ D: Ivan Signoret, Maximilian Schell, Harriet AnNagy. Don Murray, Diahn Williams, James dersson, Harry Andrews, Lynn Redgrave, Earl Jones, Lilia Skala, George S. Irving, Kenneth Haigh, Roy Kinnear. Top-notch Conchata Ferrell, Charles Siebert, Dick A. suspense tale with British agent Mason Williams, Treat Williams, Joshua Mostel. trying to unravel complicated mystery beInteresting premise: righteous cop (Murhind an agency official’s suicide. Filmed ray) saves woman’s life by killing her in England and based on John le Carre´’s attacker (Jones) . . . but then woman benovel Call for the Dead. gins to question the cop’s motives. PerforDeadly Bees, The (1967-British) C-85m. mances outshine violent presentation. ★★ Treat Williams’ film debut. Danny DeVito is D: Freddie Francis. Suzanna Leigh, Guy Doleman, Catherine Finn, Katy Wild, also listed in the closing credits. [R]▼ Frank Finlay. High-powered shock scenes Deadly Illusion (1987) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: involving swarming bees are only worthWilliam Tannen, Larry Cohen. Billy Dee while attraction in dull horror film cowritten Williams, Vanity, Morgan Fairchild, John by Robert Bloch.쩠 Beck, Joseph Cortese, Dennis Hallahan, Deadly Blessing (1981) C-102m. ★★ D: Joe Spinell. Fair programmer with Williams Wes Craven. Maren Jensen, Susan Buckwell cast as a detective framed in murder plot. ner, Sharon Stone, Lois Nettleton, Ernest Some humorous touches add to the proceedBorgnine, Jeff East, Lisa Hartman. Folings. Cohen wrote the script; aka LOVE YOU TO DEATH. [R]▼● lowing her husband’s murder, widow and two friends are terrorized, apparently by Deadly Impact (1985-Italian) C-91m. ★1⁄2 nearby repressive sect, headed by the faD: Larry Ludman (Fabrizio De Angelis). ther (Borgnine) of the dead man. Rural Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Marcia horror thriller has some good shocks but Clingan, John Morghen, Vincent Conte. becomes confused and ultimately silly, esSvenson and Williamson try to enliven unpecially the ending. [R]▼ believable crime caper in which a computer Deadly Companion SEE: Double Negative is used to tap into Las Vegas casinos and Deadly Companions, The (1961) C-90m. predict when slot machines will pay off. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Sam Peckinpah. Maureen O’Hara, Filmed in the U.S.A. in 1983.▼쩠 Brian Keith, Steve Cochran, Chill Wills. Deadly Is the Female SEE: Gun Crazy Ex-army officer accidentally kills O’Hara’s (1949) son and he makes amends by escorting the Deadly Strangers (1974-British) C-93m. ★★★ funeral procession through Indian country. D: Sidney Hayers. Hayley Mills, Simon Peckinpah’s first feature is decent if unWard, Sterling Hayden, Ken Hutchison, Peter Jeffrey. Lurid, exciting thriller about spectacular Western. Panavision.▼●쩠 Deadly Eyes (1982) C-93m. ★★ D: Robert Mills offering a ride to young man, unClouse. Sam Groom, Sara Botsford, Scataware that a violent patient has escaped from a nearby mental hospital.▼ man Crothers, Lisa Langlois, Cec Linder. Overgrown rats on the warpath, with sciDeadly Thief SEE: Shalimar ence teacher Groom and health official Deadly Three, The SEE: Enter the Dragon Botsford to the rescue. You’ve seen it all Deadly Trackers, The (1973) C-110m. before. Originally titled, appropriately enough, BOMB D: Barry Shear. Richard Harris, THE RATS. [R]▼ Rod Taylor, Al Lettieri, Neville Brand, Deadly Friend (1986) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Smith, Isela Vega. Dreadful, vioWes Craven. Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy lent Western; Harris, an Irish sheriff of a Swanson, Anne Twomey, Michael Sharrett, small Texas town, trails bank robber Taylor Richard Marcus, Anne Ramsey. Inventive and gang to Mexico to avenge the deaths of teenager, in love with the girl next door, wife and son. Sam Fuller wrote story and revives her (a` la Frankenstein) after she’s was original director. [PG]▼●쩠 killed. More heart, and more actual enterDeadly Trap, The (1971-French-Italian) [ 329 ]

C-96m. BOMB D: Rene´ Clement. Faye Gould murdered, then rising from the dead, Dunaway, Frank Langella, Barbara Parkins, with the assistance of medium/cleaning lady Karen Blanguernon, Maurice Ronet. A King (aping Whoopi Goldberg). A too-obvideadly bore, about an industrious espioous parody of how TV news has become nage organization that goes after one-time show biz. [PG-13]▼ member Langella by harassing his emoDead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) 89m. ★★ D: Carl Reiner. Steve Martin, Rachel tionally fragile wife (Dunaway). Retitled DEATH SCREAM. [PG]▼ Ward, Reni Santoni, Carl Reiner, George Deadly Treasure of the Piranha SEE: Gaynes, Frank McCarthy. A one-joke Killer Fish movie, based on 1940s film noir meloDead Man (1996-U.S.-German-Japanese) dramas, has detective Martin interacting 120m. ★★★ D: Jim Jarmusch. Johnny Depp, with clips from various vintage films, and Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael a very live client (Ward). Fun at first, but Wincott, Mili Avital, Iggy Pop, Jared Harwith no story and cardboard characters, it ris, Billy Bob Thornton, Crispin Glover, Euwears thin fast; film buffs will enjoy it gene Byrd, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, more than the average viewer. Dedicated to Alfred Molina, Robert Mitchum. In 1875, famed costume designer Edith Head, whose final film this was. [PG]▼●쩠 Cleveland accountant Depp heads west for a new job but ends up being pursued as a Dead of Night (1945-British) 103m. ★★★★ murderer by bounty hunters. Indian Farmer, D: Cavalcanti, Basil Dearden, Robert who helps him, is convinced that he is the Hamer, Charles Crichton. Mervyn Johns, poet William Blake returned to life. One-ofRoland Culver, Antony Baird, Judy Kelly, a-kind Western, written by the director, is Miles Malleson, Sally Ann Howes, Googie measured in its pace, full of unusual camWithers, Ralph Michael, Michael Redgrave, eos, and occasionally quite funny though Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Frederick it’s not a comedy. Steve Buscemi appears Valk. Classic chiller of gathering at a coununbilled. [R]▼●쩠 try house, where guests trade supernatural Dead Man on Campus (1998) C-94m. stories. One of them (Johns) has been havBOMB D: Alan Cohn. Tom Everett Scott, ing a nightmare that now seems to be comMark-Paul Gosselaar, Poppy Montgomery, ing true; final sequence with Redgrave as a Lochlyn Munro, Randy Pearlstein, Alyson schizophrenic ventriloquist is a knockout. Hannigan. Dead is right. This black comedy ▼●쩠 hinges on the urban myth that American Dead of Night (1972) SEE: Deathdream Dead of Winter (1987) C-100m. ★★★ D: universities will award 4.0 GPA’s to any student whose roommate kills himself. Arthur Penn. Mary Steenburgen, Roddy Clean-cut straight arrow and his spoiled McDowall, Jan Rubes, William Russ, Ken preppie pal team up to find a suicidal candiPogue, Wayne Robson. Down-on-her-luck date. Laughless script aspires to be a teen actress is hired for a movie role by an ripoff of THE FORTUNE COOKIE, but eccentric man who lives in an eerie old these cocky kids are no Lemmon and Matmansion; eventually she realizes that she’s thau. [R]▼●쩠 being held prisoner. Somewhat predictable Dead Man Walking (1995) C-122m. but extremely well-crafted thriller with ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Tim Robbins. Susan Sarandon, crackerjack performances all around. Based, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, Raymond J. fairly transparently, on the 1940s B movie Barry, R. Lee Ermey, Celia Weston, Lois MY NAME IS JULIA ROSS: a key character name here is Julie Rose. [R]▼●쩠 Smith, Scott Wilson, Roberta Maxwell, Margo Martindale, Barton Heyman, Larry Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972German) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Samuel Fuller. Pine, Peter Sarsgaard, Jack Black. Powerful drama based on the true story of a nun in Glenn Corbett, Christa Lang, Stephane Louisiana who becomes the spiritual advisor Audran, Anton Diffring, Alex D’Arcy. to a death row inmate, convicted of the murFast-paced, tongue-in-cheek Fuller thriller der of two young adults and awaiting execu(financed by German TV) has Corbett on a tion. As she tries to redeem his soul, she detective mission, aided by lovely Lang must also reconcile his needs with the hei(Mrs. Fuller in real life). [PG]▼ nousness of the crime and the grief of the Dead Poets Society (1989) C-128m. ★★★ murdered children’s parents. Strong perforD: Peter Weir. Robin Williams, Robert mances by Sarandon (who won a Best AcSean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles, tress Oscar) and Penn anchor this sobering Gale Hansen, Dylan Kussman, Allelon story which, despite the humanizing of its Ruggiero, James Waterston, Norman Lloyd, central character, is not a simple pro– or anti– Kurtwood Smith, Lara Flynn Boyle. Wildeath penalty treatise. [R]▼●쩠 liams is a charismatic English teacher at a Dead Men Don’t Die (1991) C-94m. ★1⁄2 staid New England prep school in 1959, D: Malcolm Marmorstein. Elliott Gould, whose infectious love of poetry—and insisMelissa (Sue) Anderson, Mark Moses, Mabel tence that each boy ‘‘seize the day’’ and King, Jack Betts, Philip Bruns. Ten-cent ripmake the most of life—inspires his impresoff of GHOST, with egotistical news anchor sionable students, not always in the right [ 330 ]

direction. Well made, extremely well acted, share each other’s lives—and lovers. Nobut also dramatically obvious and melodratable for a pair of superb performances by matically one-sided. Nevertheless, Tom Irons, and the attendant trickery that makes Schulman’s screenplay won an Oscar. 13m. us forget, at times, that we’re watching one added for network showings. [PG] ▼●쩠 man play both roles. Based (believe it or ★★1 not) on a true story! [R]▼●쩠 Dead Pool, The (1988) C-91m. ⁄2 D: Buddy Van Horn. Clint Eastwood, PatriDead Silence (1989) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harcia Clarkson, Evan C. Kim, Liam Neeson, rison Ellenshaw. Clete Keith, Joseph Scott, David Hunt, Michael Currie, James Carrey. Craig Fleming, Doris Anne Soyka, James Fifth (and final) DIRTY HARRY movie Austin, Leslie Charles, Bruce R. Barrett. finds Callahan investigating a bizarre deathYoung screenwriter and would-be director threat list, while becoming involved with a finds a backer for his newest movie—a mafemale TV reporter. The story’s pretty fioso type. But after taking his money, he straightforward—check out Carrey as a learns that this road-company Godfather exdruggy rock star—the killing almost carpects his stumblebum son to get the starring toonish, and the film surprisingly watchable part in the picture! Amiable comedy about (if not inspired). Eastwood’s charisma the perils of low-budget moviemaking, with makes all the difference. [R]▼●쩠 a wonderful final twist. Written by Keith, Dead Presidents (1995) C-119m. ★★★ D: who plays the filmmaker. Directing debut for special effects whiz Ellenshaw. [R]▼ The Hughes Brothers. Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, N’Bushe Wright, Dead Silence (2007) C-90m. ★★ D: James Freddy Rodriguez, Rose Jackson, Michael Wan. Ryan Kwanten, Amber Valletta, DonImperioli, David Barry Gray, Jaimz Woolnie Wahlberg, Michael Fairman, Joan vett, Jenifer Lewis, James Pickens, Jr., ClifHeney, Bob Gunton, Laura Regan, Dmitry ton Powell, Terrence Dashon Howard, Chepovetsky, Judith Roberts. The creators Bokeem Woodbine. Absorbing and ambiof SAW fashioned this ho-hum horror tious chronicle of a young black man’s odchiller in which a young husband (Kwanyssey from the late 1960s Bronx, through a ten) sets out to decipher the reason for a tour of duty in Vietnam, then back . . . to a brutal killing that occurs after he and his dead-end existence. Tries to cover a broad wife receive a mysterious package conlandscape (with a passing nod to the Black taining a ventriloquist’s dummy. While not Revolution movement), then winds up as a as gratuitously gory as many contemporary crime caper. Imperfect, but still a compelling horror films, it’s annoyingly illogical and tale of how the brutality of war spilled over overly familiar. Unrated version runs 91m. onto America’s urban streets. Warning: the Super 35. [R]쩠 violence is jarringly (and purposely) graphic. Dead Tired SEE: Grosse Fatigue Scripted by Michael Henry Brown from Allen Dead Zone, The (1983) C-103m. ★★★ D: and Albert Hughes’ story. Seymour Cassel David Cronenberg. Christopher Walken, and Martin Sheen appear unbilled. Super 35. Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Herbert Lom, [R]▼●쩠 Anthony Zerbe, Colleen Dewhurst, Martin Dead Reckoning (1947) 100m. ★★★ D: Sheen, Nicholas Campbell, Jackie BurrJohn Cromwell. Humphrey Bogart, Lizaoughs. Absorbing Stephen King story of beth Scott, Morris Carnovsky, William young man who emerges from near-fatal Prince, Wallace Ford. Bogart’s fine as accident with the gift (or curse) of second tough WW2 veteran solving soldier-buddy’s sight—being able to tell a person’s fate murder. Well-acted drama.▼●쩠 just by making physical contact. Walken’s Dead Right SEE: If He Hollers, Let Him moving, heartfelt performance is the core Go of involving, if sometimes meandering Dead Ringer (1964) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D. Paul movie where (despite reputations of King Henreid. Bette Davis, Karl Malden, Peter and Cronenberg) the emphasis is not on Lawford, Jean Hagen, George Macready, blood-and-guts horror. Later a TV series. Estelle Winwood. A double dose of Davis, [R] ▼●쩠 playing twin sisters (as she did earlier in A Deaf Smith & Johnny Ears (1973-Italian) C-91m. ★★★ D: Paolo Cavara. Anthony STOLEN LIFE) bearing a long-time grudge over a man, the sinister one trying to get Quinn, Franco Nero, Pamela Tiffin, Ira even. Farfetched but fun; Bette’s vehicle Furstenberg. Well-made ‘‘buddy Western’’ all the way, directed by her 1940s costar teams deaf-mute Quinn with upstart Nero as Paul Henreid. Remade for TV as THE two common-man bystanders during a time KILLER IN THE MIRROR (1986, with of social upheaval in Texas. Beautifully Ann Jillian).▼●쩠 photographed by Tonino Delli Colli. OrigiDead Ringers (1988-Canadian) C-115m. nally titled LOS AMIGOS. [PG] ★★1⁄2 D: David Cronenberg. Jeremy Irons, Deal, The (2005-U.S.-Canadian) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harvey Kahn. Christian Slater, Genevieve Bujold, Heidi Von Palleske, Barbara Gordon, Shirley Douglas, SteSelma Blair, Robert Loggia, Colm Feore, phen Lack. Fascinating but extremely unAngie Harmon, John Heard, Kevin Tighe, pleasant story of twin gynecologists who Franc¸oise Yip. Low-budget suspense thril[ 331 ]

ler had the misfortune to be released in the Brickman) so disjointed, that the results are a mishmash. [PG]▼●쩠 same year as the similar but far superior Dean Koontz’s Phantoms SEE: Phantoms SYRIANA. Slater is an associate with a Dear Brigitte (1965) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: prestigious Wall Street investment firm who Henry Koster. James Stewart, Fabian, Glynis is brought in on a deal to complete a quesJohns, Cindy Carol, Billy Mumy, John Wiltionable merger between a giant American liams, Jack Kruschen, Alice Pearce, Jesse oil group and a Russian company that conWhite, Ed Wynn. Guest: Brigitte Bardot. trols massive amounts of crude. Set during Good cast in OK family farce about an 8a nondescript future where gas is selling for year-old genius (Stewart’s son, Mumy) with $6 a gallon, the film is a bit too complicated, a crush on Brigitte Bardot (who makes a brief although its concerns couldn’t be more releappearance near the end). Tries to be whimsivant. Worth a look. [R] ▼쩠 cal but is contrived instead. Look fast for Deal (2008) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Gil Cates, Jr. James Brolin as student spokesman. CinemaBurt Reynolds, Bret Harrison, Shannon Scope. ▼ Elizabeth, Charles Durning, Jennifer Tilly, Dear Detective (1977-French) C-105m. Maria Mason, Gary Grubbs, Caroline Mc★★1 ⁄2 D: Philippe De Broca. Annie Girardot, Kinley, Michael Sexton, Vincent Van PatPhilippe Noiret, Catherine Alric, Hubert ten. Former poker champ returns to the Deschamps, Paulette Dubost. Girardot is fine game 20 years after his last tournament to as woman cop who becomes involved with train a hotshot college kid, only to find himold flame (pompous professor Noiret) as she self lured back to the tables to compete hunts a killer. Sometimes funny, more often against his protege´. Dull, derivative rehash predictable and pointless. Remade in 1979 as of every gambling-movie cliche´ in the a TV movie. Retitled DEAR INSPECTOR. book—and THE COLOR OF MONEY in Sequel: JUPITER’S THIGH. [PG]▼ particular. Reynolds sleepwalks through his Dear Frankie (2005-British-Scottish) Crole. Several real-life poker champs play 105m. ★★★ D: Shona Auerbach. Emily Mortithemselves. [PG-13]쩠 mer, Jack McElhone, Gerard Butler, Sharon Deal, The (2008-U.S.-Canadian) C-100m. Small, Mary Riggans, Jayd Johnson. Sweet ★★★ D: Steven Schachter. William H. Macy, film set in Glasgow about a woman who lives Meg Ryan, LL Cool J, Elliott Gould, Jason with her mother and her deaf 9-year-old son. Ritter, Fiona Glascott, Sharon Reginiano, Constantly on the move, to avoid contact with John Carson, David Hunt, Jeremy Crutchley. her abusive ex-husband, she has invented a Suicidal Hollywood producer Macy takes romantic father figure for her boy, telling his nephew’s unfilmable script about Benjahim that his dad is away at sea; then she’s min Disraeli and uses his considerable wiles forced to find someone to fill that role, just to bamboozle a studio into funding its for one day. Warm, never mawkish, with production—with an action star (LL Cool J) fine performances all around. [PG-13]쩠 in the lead. Only studio exec Ryan seems Dear God (1996) C-112m. ★★ D: Garry aware of his chicanery, but watching the Marshall. Greg Kinnear, Laurie Metcalf, unflappable hustler stay one step ahead of Maria Pitillo, Tim Conway, Hector Elizondo, seeing his scheme collapse is great fun. Jon Seda, Roscoe Lee Browne, Anna Maria Macy and Schachter adapted Peter LefHorsford, Nancy Marchand, Larry Miller, court’s knowing novel about the byzantine Rue McClanahan, Jack Sheldon, Coolio, Seth workings of the movie business. Released Mumy, Jack Klugman, Ellen Cleghorne. Con direct to DVD. [R]쩠 man Kinnear gets one last chance to go Dealing: or The Berkeley-to-Boston Forstraight, with a job at the post office. There, in ty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972) C-99m. the dead-letter department, he and his motley ★★1 ⁄2 D: Paul Williams. Robert F. Lyons, colleagues make ‘‘miracles’’ happen for Barbara Hershey, John Lithgow, Charles needy people who write to God. Whimsical Durning, Joy Bang. Dated but still watchcomedy gets off to a good start but loses the able adaptation of Robert and Michael one thing it needs most: conviction. Director Crichton’s lighthearted novel about HarMarshall has a cameo, along with various vard law student who runs pot on the celebs (including stars of long-ago Marshallside. Lyons is pretty blah, but compenproduced TV series). [PG] ▼●쩠 sation is provided by Hershey as his freeDear Heart (1964) 114m. ★★★ D: Delbert thinking girlfriend and Lithgow (in film Mann. Glenn Ford, Geraldine Page, Michael debut) as the head dope. Panavision. [R] Anderson, Jr., Barbara Nichols, Angela LansDeal of the Century (1983) C-99m. ★★ D: bury, Patricia Barry, Charles Drake, Alice William Friedkin. Chevy Chase, Sigourney Pearce, Mary Wickes. Winning romance with Weaver, Gregory Hines, Vince Edwards, gentlemanly traveling salesman Ford coming Richard Libertini, William Marquez, Edto N.Y.C., meeting up with sweetly wacky uardo Ricard, Wallace Shawn. Attempted postmistress Page, who’s in town for a consatire of international weapons merchants. vention. Excellent characterizations, with fine Its leading characters are so cold-blooded comic supporting players.▼ and unappealing, and its script (by Paul Dear Inspector SEE: Dear Detective [ 332 ]

Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982-German) the wrong corpse, the accidental ingestion of C-115m. ★★★ D: Peter Lilienthal. Joe Pesci, a hallucinogenic drug, and a mysterious Karen Ludwig, Evan Handler, Ivy Ray mourner who threatens to unveil a shocking Browning, Frank Vincent, Paul Herman, secret. Expert cast gets the most out of this Tony Martin. Ruby Dennis (Pesci) owns a material, which gathers momentum as it goes along in the fashion of a classic farce. [R]쩠 bowling alley-nightclub in Jersey City, thinks he’s on the verge of crashing Las Death Becomes Her (1992) C-104m. ★★ Vegas. The American Jewish working class D: Robert Zemeckis. Meryl Streep, Bruce experience, viewed with a European senWillis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini, sibility, doesn’t ring true; still, a thoughtIan Ogilvy, Adam Storke, Nancy Fish, ful portrait of a little man who must Alaina Reed Hall, Michelle Johnson, Mimi learn to take what life has to offer. The Kennedy, Jonathan Silverman, Fabio. Black sequence with Martin is particularly memorcomedy about a glamorous, self-absorbed able. Video title: RUBY’S DREAM.▼쩠 star (Streep) who’s obsessed with staying Dear Wendy (2005-Danish-French-Germanyoung, and a woman scorned (Hawn) who British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Thomas Vintervows revenge against her—at any price. berg. Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael AnEffects-laden comedy of absurd extremes garano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson, Chris is told with too heavy a hand, though Streep is Owen, Alison Pill, Mark Webber. Thoughta hoot as the egomaniacal actress. Film direcprovoking allegory about America’s fascinator Sydney Pollack is also funny in an unbilled tion with firearms, centering on a band of bit as a Beverly Hills doctor. Won Visual Effects Oscar. [PG-13]▼●쩠 alienated small-town teens who, despite their pacifistic nature, become obsessed Deathbed SEE: Terminal Choice with shooting guns. Provocative, albeit preDeath Before Dishonor (1987) C-95m. ★★ tentious, film leads to an unsurprising finale. D: Terry J. Leonard. Fred Dryer, Brian Audiences who are offended by foreign Keith, Paul Winfield, Joanna Pacula, Kasey filmmakers who censure the U.S. may find Walker, Rockne Tarkington. Cliche´d, bythis infuriating. Scripted (not surprisingly) the-numbers story of Marine gunnery serby Lars von Trier.쩠 geant Dryer (who keeps a picture of John Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About Wayne from SANDS OF IWO JIMA on His Father (2008) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kurt his wall), who singlehandedly battles MidKuenne. Riveting, emotionally charged dle Eastern terrorists after they stage a documentary started out as a visual essay massacre—and kidnap his superior (Keith). Lotsa stunts, little sense. [R]▼●쩠 about Dr. Andrew Bagby, the filmmaker’s oldest and best friend, who was murdered Death Bite SEE: Spasms before the birth of his son. The fact that Death Corps SEE: Shock Waves Zachary’s mother became the prime suspect Death Defying Acts (2008-U.S.-BritishAustralian) C-97m. ★★ D: Gillian Armin the case is one of several twists in this chronicle of good and evil that illustrates strong. Guy Pearce, Catherine Zeta-Jones, how real life often is stranger than fiction. Timothy Spall, Saoirse Ronan, Malcolm Shields, Leni Harper, Ralph Riach. After Kuenne also composed the film’s score.쩠 Death and the Maiden (1994) C-103m. getting involved in a torrid affair with a ★★★ D: Roman Polanski. Sigourney Weaver, beautiful psychic during his 1926 tour of Ben Kingsley, Stuart Wilson. Generally Britain, Harry Houdini is lured into a sensafluid filmization of Ariel Dorfman’s threetionalized se´ance by the woman and her character (and mostly one-room) play about daughter in which they ‘‘attempt’’ to conan edgy onetime victim of torture and sextact the magician’s mother, from whose ual abuse who gets a chance to exact atdeath he has never recovered. Disappointing home revenge. Though Weaver’s occasionperiod piece that fails to find the magic, ally over-the-top performance contributes to or even any significant dramatic tension, in a wobbly midsection, Polanski is pretty these colorful events. Pearce is sadly mismuch up to the tough claustrophobic chalcast and Zeta-Jones looks bored most of the lenge. Kingsley is exceptional as a physician time. Panavision. [PG]쩠 who gets the surprise of his life when he Deathdream (1972-Canadian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 drops in to a secluded beach house (presumD: Bob Clark. John Marley, Richard ably in Chile) for a nightcap. [R]▼●쩠 Backus, Lynn Carlin, Henderson Forsythe. Death at a Funeral (2007-U.S.-BritishBackus is Vietnam vet, thought dead, who German-Netherlands) C-91m. ★★★ D: Frank returns to his family a virtual stranger with Oz. Matthew Macfadyen, Keeley Hawes, a murderous lust for blood. Grim, fairly Andy Nyman, Ewen Bremner, Daisy Donoshocking. Aka DEAD OF NIGHT.▼쩠 van, Alan Tudyk, Jane Asher, Kris Marshall, Death Drums Along the River SEE: Rupert Graves, Peter Egan, Peter Dinklage. Sanders Amiable comedy chronicling the mounting Death Game (1977) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter mishaps that occur as family and friends S. Traynor. Sondra Locke, Colleen Camp, gather to attend the funeral of a British man Seymour Cassel, Beth Brickell. Unpleasant at his country estate, including the arrival of (and ultimately ludicrous) film about two ma[ 333 ]

niacal lesbians who—for no apparent reaoccasional love interest. Directed by Robson—tease, titillate, and torture a man in his ert Totten and Don Siegel, credited to fictiown house. Filmed in 1974. Trivia fans: Sissy tious Smithee (his directorial ‘‘debut’’). [M/PG]▼ Spacek was one of the set decorators! Aka Death of an Angel (1985) C-95m. ★★ D: THE SEDUCERS. [R]▼쩠 ★★ D: Peter R. Death Hunt (1981) C-97m. Petru Popescu. Bonnie Bedelia, Nick Hunt. Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, AnMancuso, Pamela Ludwig, Alex Colon, drew Stevens, Angie Dickinson, Carl Irma Garcia. Inspirational misfire about Weathers, Ed Lauter. Tough Mountie Marnewly ordained female priest Bedelia getvin pursues proud, self-reliant trapper ting involved with Mexican religious charBronson, innocent of a murder charge, latan Mancuso after her crippled daughter across icy Canada. Good action, but not (Ludwig) runs away to join his flock. Well-meaning, well-acted effort is exenough of it. Angie is wasted. [R]▼●쩠 Death in Granada SEE: Disappearance of tremely hokey, with a fantasy ending that Garcia Lorca, The is wholly unbelievable. [PG]▼● Death in the Garden (1956-French-MexiDeath of a President (2006-British) C93m. ★★★ D: Gabriel Range. Hend Ayoub, can) C-92m. ★★★ D: Luis Bun˜uel. Simone Signoret, Georges Marchal, Charles Vanel, Brian Boland, Becky Ann Baker, Robert Michele Girardon, Michel Piccoli, Tito Mangiardi, Jay Patterson, Jay Whittaker, Junco. Fleeing an unspecified Fascist state, Michael Reilly Burke, James Urbaniak. Poa ragged group—including a prostitute, a litically loaded faux documentary depicts miner, and a priest—embark on a surreal the future assassination of the then-current trek through the jungles of South America. U.S. President, George W. Bush, while on a This may have merely been a ‘‘commercial trip to Chicago in October 2007. The emchore’’ for the great Bun˜uel, but it’s fasciphasis is not so much on the crime but its nating nonetheless. Originally titled LA aftermath, and how the act is exploited by MORT EN CE JARDIN at 97m.; aka DIAthose who hold power in the U.S. Intriguing MOND HUNTERS, EVIL EDEN, and and frightening, depending on how much you buy into the premise. [R]쩠 GINA.▼ Death in Venice (1971-Italian) C-130m. Death of a Prophet (1981) C&B/W-60m. ★★★1 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Luchino Visconti. Dirk Bogarde, ⁄2 D: Woodie King, Jr. Morgan FreeMark Burns, Marisa Berenson, Bjorn man, Yolanda King, Mansoor Najee-ullah, Andresen, Silvana Mangano, Luigi BattagSam Singleton, Tommie Hicks, Yusef lia. Study of an artist, his loves, his homoIman, Sonny Jim Gaines, Ossie Davis. sexuality, and continuous search for beauty. Low-budget but involving drama (with some Thomas Mann’s slow-moving classic is documentary scenes) about the last day in splendidly brought to the screen. Music by the life of a black American leader. He’s Gustav Mahler (whom Bogarde is made up clearly supposed to be Malcolm X, though that name is not mentioned. Freeman is to resemble). Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Deathline SEE: Raw Meat excellent, and the film’s documentary style is effective. Yolanda King is the daughter Deathmask (1984) C-87m. ★★ D: Richard of Martin Luther King, Jr. ▼쩠 Friedman. Farley Granger, Lee Bryant, John McCurry, Arch Johnson, Barbara Death of a Salesman (1951) 115m. ★★★1⁄2 Bingham, Danny Aiello, Ruth Warrick. D: Laslo Benedek. Fredric March, MilMedical investigator Granger, haunted by dred Dunnock, Kevin McCarthy, Cameron the accidental drowning of his daughter, Mitchell, Howard Smith, Royal Beal, Jesse attempts to find the identity of a dead White. Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize– four-year-old boy. Done in by confusing diwinning social drama of middle-aged man rection, unnecessary exploitation elements. at end of emotional rope is transformed to Video version is 103m.▼ the screen intact, with stagy flashbacks. Deathmaster, The (1972) C-88m. ★★ D: March in title role can’t fathom why busiRay Danton. Robert Quarry, Bill Ewing, ness and family life failed; Dunnock is Brenda Dickson, John Fiedler, Betty Ann patient wife; McCarthy and Mitchell are Rees, William Jordan. Spellbinding stranger disillusioned sons. Superb. Dunnock, Mit(Quarry) leads on a group of unsuspecting chell, and Smith re-create their Broadway hippies; their ‘‘guru’’ turns out to be a roles; McCarthy repeats the role he played vampire in this bloody, run-of-the-mill on the London stage. outing. [PG]쩠 Death of a Soldier (1986-Australian) Death of a Gunfighter (1969) C-100m. C-93m. ★★ D: Philippe Mora. James ★★1⁄2 D: Allen Smithee. Richard Widmark, Coburn, Reb Brown, Bill Hunter, Maurie Lena Horne, John Saxon, Michael McFields, Belinda Davey, Max Fairchild. Greevey, Darleen Carr, Carroll O’Connor, Yank soldier in 1942 Melbourne is stranKent Smith. Downbeat but interesting Westgling Aussie women; the U.S. Army— ern drama of unwanted sheriff who refuses which desperately needs Allied help just to be fired. Horne wasted as Widmark’s after MacArthur’s arrival there from the [ 334 ]

Philippines—wants to hang the assailant incheek action film about futuristic society stead of providing the professional help he where no-holds-barred auto race is the nareally needs. Based on fact, but not as intertional sport, and points scored by running esting as it sounds; Coburn is the American down pedestrians. Fast-paced fun, marred by MP who gets caught in the middle. Panaviunnecessary gore. Remade, in name only, as sion. [R]▼ DEATH RACE. Followed by DEATHDeath of Mr. Lazarescu, The (2005SPORT. [R]▼●쩠 Romanian) C-153m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cristi Puiu. Death Rage (1976-Italian) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Ion Fiscuteanu, Luminita Gheorghiu, GaAnthony M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). briel Spahiu, Doru Ana, Dana Dogaru, FloYul Brynner, Barbara Bouchet, Martin Balrin Zamfirescu. Bleak, fascinating, sadly sam, Massimo Ranieri. Brynner plays Amerifunny film follows an older man, seized can hit man duped into agreeing to kill underwith stomach pain, who is shuffled from world kingpin in Naples. All this film kills hospital to hospital as his condition deteriois time. [R]▼쩠 rates during the course of one long night . . . Death Rides a Horse (1967-Italian) Cbut a middle-aged ambulance attendant 114m. ★★ D: Giulio Petroni. Lee Van Cleef, (Gheorghiu) refuses to abandon him. Potent John Phillip Law, Luigi Pistilli, Anthony meditation on bureaucracy and the inhuDawson. Long, drawn-out Italian revenge manity it breeds. Long but compelling; a Western with Law seeking murderers of his humanistic look at the sorry state of health family, unaware that his companion (Van care, which is apparently a universal probCleef) is one of them. Techniscope. [M]▼쩠 lem. Written by the director and Razvan Death Sentence (2007) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Radulescu. [R]쩠 James Wan. Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Death on the Nile (1978-British) C-140m. Kelly Preston, Aisha Tyler, John Goodman, ★★1⁄2 D: John Guillermin. Peter Ustinov, Jordan Garrett, Stuart Lafferty, Leigh WhanBette Davis, David Niven, Mia Farrow, nell. Bacon is a picture-perfect family man Angela Lansbury, George Kennedy, Maggie whose life is thrown into a dangerous, Smith, Jack Warden, Lois Chiles, Olivia downward spiral when a family member beHussey, Simon MacCorkindale, Jane Birkin, comes an innocent victim in a gang robbery. Jon Finch, Harry Andrews, I.S. Johar. He turns into a killing machine, and sudVisually sumptuous but only marginally denly every B-movie cliche´ is dredged up. engrossing Agatha Christie mystery has Exactly what you’d expect a pulp revenge Hercule Poirot (Ustinov) faced with a shipfilm from the director of SAW to be. Alload of suspects after the murder of Chiles. A most worth watching for one unusually deserving Oscar winner for Anthony Powell’s lengthy chase scene. Actually based on costume design; script by Anthony Shaffer. Brian Garfield’s novel that was a sequel to The first of Ustinov’s portrayals of the Belhis original Death Wish. Also shown in ungian detective. [PG]▼●쩠 rated version. Super 35. [R]쩠 Death Proof SEE: Grindhouse Death Ship (1980-Canadian) C-91m. Death Race (2008) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul BOMB D: Alvin Rakoff. George KenW. S. Anderson. Jason Statham, Joan Allen, nedy, Richard Crenna, Nick Mancuso, Sally Ian McShane, Tyrese Gibson, Natalie MarAnn Howes, Kate Reid, Saul Rubinek. tinez, Max Ryan, Jacob Vargas, Jason Luxury liner collides with ‘‘death ship.’’ Clarke. In the near future prisons are run Survivors board ‘‘death ship.’’ ‘‘Death ship’’ like corporations that must make a profit. tries to murder survivors. Forget it. [R]▼ A tough-as-nails con, wrongly convicted of Deathsport (1978) C-82m. ★★ D: Henry murdering his wife, is forced to enter a bruSuso, Allan Arkush. David Carradine, tal car race (broadcast live on the Internet) Claudia Jennings, Richard Lynch, David in which inmates have to torture and kill McLean, Jesse Vint. Follow-up to DEATH one another before the sole survivor can RACE 2000 again puts Carradine into future claim victory and freedom. With mean warworld where he and Jennings battle destructoden Allen calling the shots from the sidecycles to survive. Not as campy or enjoyable lines, this ludicrous scenario exists only to as earlier film, though Claudia unclothed is showcase mayhem and violence at every a visual asset. [R]▼쩠 turn. In-name-only remake of Roger CorDeathstalker (1984) C-80m. BOMB D: man’s exploitation favorite DEATH RACE John Watson. Richard Hill, Barbi Benton, 2000. David Carradine provides voice of Richard Brooker, Lana Clarkson, Victor Bo, Frankenstein. Unrated version runs 111m. Bernard Erhard. Tacky sword-and-sorcery Super 35. [R]쩠 opus, good only for unintended laughs and 1 ★★ Death Race 2000 (1975) C-78m. gratuitous female nudity. Filmed in Argentina. ⁄2 D: Paul Bartel. David Carradine, Simone GrifFollowed by several sequels. [R]▼●쩠 feth, Sylvester Stallone, Louisa Moritz, Deathstalker II (1987) C-77m. ★★ D: Jim Mary Woronov, Don Steele, Joyce JameWynorski. John Terlesky, Monique Gabrison, Fred Grandy, Martin Kove, T. R. elle, John La Zar, Toni Naples, Maria Sloane, John Landis. Outrageous tongue-inSocas. Princess in exile (Gabrielle) is trying [ 335 ]

to regain her throne, with the aid of soldier Death Warrant (1990-Canadian) C-111m. ★★1 of fortune Terlesky, in a medieval fantasy⁄2 D: Deran Sarafian. Jean-Claude Van land. Filmed on the cheap in Argentina. Damme, Robert Guillaume, Cynthia Gibb, Voyeurs will appreciate topless scenes by George Dickerson, Art Le Fleur, Patrick former model Gabrielle (in a dual role, no Kilpatrick. Van Damme plays a Royal Canaless). Watch for funny outtakes at the end. dian Mountie posing as a prisoner to find out Aka DEATHSTALKER II: DUEL OF THE who has been offing penitentiary inmates. TITANS. [R]▼●쩠 You guessed it . . . his cover is threatened by Deathstalker III (1989) C-86m. BOMB incoming transfer of one of his old Mountie D: Alfonso Corona. John Allen Nelson, foes. Hard to say how Sgt. Preston would Carla Herd, Terri Treas, Thom Christohave handled this one. Slightly better than pher, Aaron Hernan, Roger Cudney, Claudia most of this genre. [R]▼●쩠 Inchaurregui. Cheap, boring time-waster, Death Watch (1980-French-German) Cin which Nelson seeks a lost treasure and 119m. ★★★ D: Bertrand Tavernier. Romy becomes involved with twin princesses (both Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanplayed by Herd). Also known as DEATHton, Max von Sydow. Intelligent sci-fi drama. STALKER III: THE WARRIORS FROM In a future civilization, TV producer Stanton HELL. Followed by DEATHSTALKER uses Keitel—who has a camera in his brain— IV: MATCH OF TITANS. [R]▼● to film a documentary on terminally ill Death Takes a Holiday (1934) 78m. ★★★1⁄2 Schneider. A biting commentary on media D: Mitchell Leisen. Fredric March, Eveabuse and manipulation, with solid perlyn Venable, Guy Standing, Gail Patrick, formances, direction. Panavision. [R]▼● Helen Westley, Kent Taylor, Henry TraDeath Weekend SEE: House by the Lake vers, Katherine Alexander. Fascinating alDeath Wheelers, The SEE: Psychomania legory about Death (March) entering the (1971) human world to discover what makes us Death Wish (1974) C-93m. ★★★ D: Mitick, and falling in love. Maxwell Anderchael Winner. Charles Bronson, Hope son, Gladys Lehman, and Walter Ferris Lange, Vincent Gardenia, Steven Keats, adapted Alberto Casella’s play. Remade as William Redfield, Stuart Margolin, Stea TVM in 1971 (with Melvyn Douglas, phen Elliott, Olympia Dukakis, ChristoMyrna Loy, and Monte Markham), and as pher Guest, Paul Dooley, Eric Laneuville. MEET JOE BLACK in 1998.▼쩠 Audience manipulation at its zenith: BusiDeath to Smoochy (2002) C-109m. ★★ D: nessman Bronson’s wife and daughter are Danny DeVito. Robin Williams, Edward savagely raped, and his wife dies, turning Norton, Catherine Keener, Danny DeVito, mild-mannered liberal Bronson into a vigiJon Stewart, Harvey Fierstein, Michael Rislante on N.Y.C. streets. Chilling but irresistpoli, Pam Ferris, Danny Woodburn, Vinible; a bastardization of the Brian Garfield cent Schiavelli. Sleazy TV kiddie show host novel, in which vigilantism as a deterrent to (Williams) swears revenge on his replacement crime is not a solution but another problem. (Norton), who’s ultra-sincere and doesn’t realMusic by Herbie Hancock. One of the mugize that he’s surrounded by greedy, selfgers is played by Jeff Goldblum, in his film promoting sharks. Satiric black comedy revdebut. Followed by four sequels. [R] ▼●쩠 els in its own nastiness, but pummels all the Death Wish II (1982) C-93m. BOMB D: fun out of the premise with its heavyMichael Winner. Charles Bronson, Jill Irehanded treatment. A major disappointment land, Vincent Gardenia, J. D. Cannon, Anconsidering the talent involved. [R] ▼쩠 thony Franciosa, Ben Frank, Robin SherDeath Trap (1976) SEE: Eaten Alive wood, Robert F. Lyons, Larry Fishburne. Deathtrap (1982) C-116m. ★★ D: Sidney Bronson’s back in action, this time bringLumet. Michael Caine, Christopher Reeve, ing his one-man vigilante act to L.A. Made Dyan Cannon, Irene Worth, Henry Jones, by profiteers, not filmmakers; poorly diJoe Silver. Playwright Caine, suffering rected to boot, with Charlie giving a through a series of flops, might just kill to wooden-Indian performance. [R] ▼●쩠 take credit for novice author Reeve’s new Death Wish 3 (1985) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: work; Cannon is Caine’s hysterical wife. Michael Winner. Charles Bronson, DeboAn overlong, second-rate SLEUTH, adapted rah Raffin, Ed Lauter, Martin Balsam, by Jay Presson Allen from Ira Levin’s hit Gavan O’Herlihy, Kirk Taylor, Alex Winter, play. One sequence was added for original Tony Spiridakis, John Gabriel, Marina Sirtis. network showing. [PG]▼●쩠 1 ★ Same old stuff, except that Bronson’s ‘‘ordiDeath Valley (1982) C-87m. ⁄2 D: Dick nary guy’’ vigilante is no longer convincing; Richards. Paul Le Mat, Catherine Hicks, his entire immediate family was wiped out in Stephen McHattie, A. Wilford Brimley, the first two movies! [R]▼●쩠 Peter Billingsley, Edward Herrmann. Young Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987) Billingsley, a city boy, visits mom in AriC-99m. BOMB D: J. Lee Thompson. zona, becomes entangled with psychotic Charles Bronson, Kay Lenz, John P. Ryan, criminal McHattie. Pretty bad, with a fine cast wasted. [R]▼ Perry Lopez, George Dickerson, Soon[ 336 ]

Teck Oh, Dana Barron. Cheapie entry in rich kid with temporal lobe epilepsy, hack prostitute Zellweger in two? Pretentious, this worn-out series has a different director derivative groaner about Roth’s subsequent and an L.A. setting. This time vigilante police interrogation futilely tries to make us Bronson’s mission includes wiping out the care. With its casting—Penn and Rooker as gangs supplying crack. [R]▼●쩠 the grilling cops—it’s a given that Roth isn’t Death Wish V: The Face of Death (1994going to be the only one with personal demons. Canadian) C-96m. BOMB D: Allan A. If you must watch, see if you can make sense Goldstein. Charles Bronson, Lesley-Anne of Arquette’s role as Rooker’s sex-starved Down, Michael Parks, Chuck Shamata, wife. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Kevin Lund, Robert Joy, Saul Rubinek, Deceivers, The (1988-British-Indian) CErica Lancaster. No plot, just a pretext: 112m. BOMB D: Nicholas Meyer. Pierce Bronson’s fiance´e is murdered on the orders Brosnan, Saeed Jaffrey, Shashi Kapoor, of her mobster ex-husband (Parks), so (yawn) Helena Mitchell, Keith Michell, David he turns vigilante yet again. Crude, stupid Robb. Limp adventure saga of British offientry in weary series, very badly directed, cer Brosnan going undercover in colonial with an emphasis on torture. [R]▼●쩠 India to infiltrate a murderous brotherhood. D.E.B.S. (2005) C-91m. ★★ D: Angela RobIntriguing premise, deadening result; Brosnan inson. Sara Foster, Jordana Brewster, Devon simply fails to register. Produced, oddly Aoki, Meagan Good, Michael Clarke Dunenough, by Ismail Merchant. [PG-13]▼●쩠 can, Jessica Cauffiel, Jill Ritchie, Holland December (1991) C-92m. ★★ D: Gabe Taylor. Leggy young women in short skirts Torres. Balthazar Getty, Jason London, are, in reality, spies. Their assignment: to Brian Krause, Wil Wheaton, Chris Young, carry, or at least sustain, a retro secret-agent Robert Miller, Ann Hartfield. In the wake spoof whose major story hook is lesbian of the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941 five puppy-love. Writer-director Robinson shows young men must decide what to do with visual flair, but leads Foster and Brewster are their lives. Talky movie takes place mostly fatally vapid as the spy and target who dein dorm rooms; might have played better on velop a yen for each other. Titillation aside, it a stage. [PG]▼●쩠 plays no better than the spy comedies of the December Boys (2007-Australian) C-105m. 1960s when James Bond was new. Allen and ★★1⁄2 D: Rod Hardy. Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Rossi in THE LAST OF THE SECRET Cormie, Christian Byers, James Fraser, Jack AGENTS?, anyone? Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Thompson, Teresa Palmer, Sullivan StaDecameron, The (1970-Italian-Frenchpleton, Victoria Hill, Max Cullen. Four or1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Pier Paolo West German) C-111m. phan boys spend the holidays with a friendly Pasolini. Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Anolder couple who live on a beach cove. This gela Luce, Patrizia Capparelli, Jovan break from day-to-day life at their orphanage Jovanovic, Silvana Mangano, Pier Paolo brings out hopes, longings, and resentments as Pasolini. An octet of tales from Boccaccio’s the boys experience puppy love, attachment to Decameron, with Pasolini as Giotto, linkparental figures, and life among a group of ing them up. Lively, earthy; the first of genuine eccentrics. Adaptation of Michael the director’s medieval trilogy. [X]▼●쩠 Noonan’s novel echoes other coming-of-age Decameron Nights (1952-British) C-87m. stories but is told with straightforward sincer★★ D: Hugo Fregonese. Joan Fontaine, Louis ity. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Jourdan, Binnie Barnes, Joan Collins, MarjoDecember Bride (1991-British-Irish) Crie Rhodes. Boring tale of Boccaccio (Jour90m. ★★★ D: Thaddeus O’Sullivan. Donal dan), on the run after martial law is declared McCann, Saskia Reeves, Ciara´n Hinds, Patin Florence; he hides out at Fontaine’s villa, rick Malahide, Brenda Bruce. Austere but where in the company of his hostess and her involving romantic drama set in a rural, wards a trio of romantic tales are spun (each conservative Irish farm community, in of which also stars Jourdan and Fontaine).▼ which an independent-minded servant Deceived (1991) C-103m. ★★ D: Damian (Reeves) becomes pregnant and refuses to Harris. Goldie Hawn, John Heard, Robin reveal the identity of the father. A story Bartlett, Ashley Peldon, Tom Irwin, Beof simple but deeply felt emotion, and an atrice Straight, Kate Reid, Maia Filar, Jan allegory about the constrictions of hell-andRubes, Amy Wright. In-name-only ‘‘thriller’’ damnation religion. Stunningly directed, about happily married N.Y.C. yuppie who and crammed with painterly images.▼쩠 discovers her husband’s litany of dupliciDeception (1946) 112m. ★★★ D: Irving ties after the guy is supposedly murdered. Rapper. Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Hawn’s attempt to play it straight is too Rains, John Abbott. Talky but engrossing derivative (to say nothing of incredible) to drama, set in the world of classical music, carry much clout. [PG-13]▼●쩠 about a celebrated composer (a charismatic Deceiver (1998) C-102m. BOMB D: Jonas Rains) who seeks revenge when his lover Pate, Joshua Pate. Tim Roth, Chris Penn, (Davis) weds her old flame (Henreid).▼쩠 Michael Rooker, Rene´e Zellweger, Rosanna Deception (1993) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Graeme Arquette, Ellen Burstyn. Did Roth, a boozy Clifford. Andie MacDowell, Liam Neeson, [ 337 ]

Viggo Mortensen, Jack Thompson, Paul target account of how men and women feel Spencer, Chad Power, Monica Mikala, Jeff about each other, and use each other, in Corey, Miriam Reed. Better-than-average their quests for pleasure and happiness. mystery follows a determined woman Focus is on a group of friends: The men around the world as she sniffs out a trail of prepare a gourmet dinner, while the women bank accounts left by her deceased husband. exercise in a health club, then they come A pleasant diversion, enhanced by Mactogether. These characters gather again in THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS. [R]▼쩠 Dowell and some nice scenery. Filmed as RUBY CAIRO, this languished on the shelf Decline and Fall of a Bird Watcher (1969-British) C-86m. ★★ D: John Krish. for a while. [PG-13]▼쩠 ★★ Deception (2008) C-108m. D: Marcel Robin Phillips, Colin Blakely, Leo McKern, Langenegger. Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGenevieve Page, Felix Aylmer, Robert Gregor, Michelle Williams, Lisa Gay HamilHarris, Donald Wolfit, Patrick Magee. Unton, Maggie Q, Natasha Henstridge, Charlotte even, often labored satirical farce about a Rampling, Margaret Colin, Paz de la Huerta, young man who joins faculty of strange Rachael Taylor. Nerdy auditor (McGregor) boys’ school and becomes involved with warms to the friendly overtures of a slick manipulative older woman (Page). Adapted lawyer (Jackman) who seems to have all the from an Evelyn Waugh novel. [PG] social skills he lacks. When he winds up with Decline of Western Civilization, The (1981) C-100m. ★★★ D: Penelope Spheeris. Jackman’s cell phone he’s drawn into a secret sex club—and enjoys it, until things turn Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Catholic Dissour. A suspense movie made by people cipline, Circle Jerks, Fear, Germs, X. Funny, who’ve apparently never seen a suspense revealing documentary record of the whos, movie; painfully obvious from the word go. whats, and whys of the L.A. punk rock scene Jackman coproduced. Super 35. [R]쩠 at the end of the 1970s: the music, performers, Decision at Sundown (1957) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 dancing, clubs, violence, desperation. An D: Budd Boetticher. Randolph Scott, John aptly titled chronicle. Much of cast now dead. Carroll, Karen Steele, Noah Beery, Jr., John Followed by a sequel. [R]▼ Litel. Scott tracks down man supposedly reDecline of Western Civilization Part II: sponsible for his wife’s suicide in this odd The Metal Years, The (1988) C-90m. ★★★ D: Penelope Spheeris. Joe Perry, Stebut interesting Western.▼쩠 Decision Before Dawn (1952) 110m. ★★★ ven Tyler, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, D: Anatole Litvak. Richard Basehart, Gary Chris Holmes, Lemmy, Ozzy Osbourne, Merrill, Oskar Werner, Hildegarde Neff, Faster Pussycat, Lizzy Borden, London, Odin, Dominique Blanchar, O. E. Hasse, Wilfried Seduce, Megadeth. Follow-up to definitive Seyfert. Top-notch WW2 espionage thriller, punk rock documentary concentrates more with Werner an idealistic German medic/ heavily on interviews, juxtaposing thoughts of POW who agrees to become a spy for his seen-it-all veterans (Osbourne, Simmons, captors. Outstanding work by Werner, Neff Perry, and Tyler of Aerosmith) with young as(as a sympathetic bar-girl), and the supportpirants bucking odds for success. Sympathetic ing cast. Look quickly for Klaus Kinski as a to its subjects without condoning lifestyle it dewhining soldier. Perceptive script by Peter picts; probably only chance you’ll ever get to Viertel; Litvak coproduced.쩠 see Osbourne cook breakfast. [R]▼ Deck the Halls (2006) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: John Deconstructing Harry (1997) C-96m. ★★★1 Whitesell. Danny DeVito, Matthew Broder⁄2 D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, ick, Kristin Davis, Kristin Chenoweth, Fred Richard Benjamin, Kirstie Alley, Billy CrysArmisen, Alia Shawkat, Dylan Blue, Satal, Judy Davis, Bob Balaban, Elisabeth Shue, brina Aldridge, Kelly Aldridge, Jorge GarDemi Moore, Robin Williams, Caroline cia, Ryan Devlin, Jackie Burroughs. Two Aaron, Eric Bogosian, Mariel Hemingway, neighbors declare war after DeVito decides Amy Irving, Julie Kavner, Eric Lloyd, Julia to decorate his house with so many lights Louis-Dreyfus, Tobey Maguire, Stanley Tucci, they can ‘‘be seen from space.’’ When peoHazelle Goodman, Gene Saks, Tony Sirico, ple start coming from all over town to see Paul Giamatti, Jennifer Garner. A writer uses the display it causes great friction between his life as fodder for his work—infuriating him and Broderick, who feels he is being his friends, family, and lovers. Unusually upstaged. Incredibly dumb holiday comedy candid (and foul-mouthed) self-examination that can’t even meet the lowball standards set by Allen, incorporating his various encounby JINGLE ALL THE WAY and CHRISTters as well as enactments of his fables and MAS WITH THE KRANKS. Deck the fancies; nonfans may think it overly indulscreenwriters instead. [PG]쩠 gent, but Woodyphiles should find it fasciDecline of the American Empire, The nating and extremely funny. No one writes (1986-Canadian) C-101m. ★★★ D: Denys funnier dialogue—or keeps the spirit of Arcand. Dominique Michel, Dorothe´e BerJewish humor alive so well. [R]▼●쩠 ryman, Louise Portal, Genevie`ve Rioux, Decoy (1946) 77m. ★★★ D: Jack Bernhard. Pierre Curzi, Re´my Girard, Yves Jacques, Jean Gillie, Edward Norris, Herbert Rudley, Daniel Brie`re, Gabriel Arcand. Witty, onRobert Armstrong, Sheldon Leonard, Mar[ 338 ]

jorie Woodworth, Phil Van Zandt. Superior cover narc. Half standard urban action pic— low-budget film noir about a gangster’s but also half original. Goldblum puts a deliruthless moll (Gillie) who seduces a sap ciously eccentric spin on his role as a lawyer doctor as part of her outlandish scheme to who becomes Fishburne’s unwitting ‘‘partfind $400,000 in buried loot—by reviving ner’’ in shady drug dealings. Better if taken her boyfriend after his execution in the gas purely as a genre picture, though there are chamber! Taut B movie, based on a story indications the film wants to be something more; expert action scenes. [R]▼●쩠 by Stanley Rubin, doesn’t quite live up to its ‘‘lost classic’’ reputation, but the openDeep Crimson (1996-Mexican-FrenchSpanish) C-114m. ★★★ D: Arturo Ripstein. ing and closing scenes are knockouts, and the British Gillie makes an unforgettable Regina Orozco, Daniel Gimenez-Cacho, femme fatale; Leonard has one of his finest Marisa Paredes, Veronica Merchant, Julieta hours as a jaded police detective.쩠 Egurrola, Patricia Reyes Spindola. SpectacDedication (2007) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Justin ularly unpleasant and disturbing true-life Theroux. Billy Crudup, Mandy Moore, crime story, based on the same ‘‘Lonely Tom Wilkinson, Bob Balaban, Martin FreeHearts’’ case that inspired THE HONEYman, Dianne Wiest, Bobby Cannavale, MOON KILLERS, about the murderous Peter Bogdanovich, Amy Sedaris, Christine love affair between an obese nurse and a Taylor. Children’s book author Crudup is gigolo who swindle wealthy widows in emotionally paralyzed by the death of his 1940s Mexico. Extremely well acted and illustrator, who’s also his only friend (Wildirected study of l’amour fou and the banalkinson). We soon find out why, as this offity of evil. Packs a wallop, and pulls no putting movie asks us to show care and conpunches in its horrific depiction of the couple’s violent descent into madness.▼쩠 cern for a man who puts the funk in dysfunctional. When editor Balaban tries to Deep End (1970-U.S.-German) C-88m. ★★★ force a female illustrator (Moore) on his D: Jerzy Skolimowski. Jane Asher, reluctant author, you know romance is in John Moulder-Brown, Diana Dors, Karl the air—but the air in this movie is termiMichael Vogler. Innocent 15-year-old Moulder-Brown, an attendant in a dreary nally foul. [R]쩠 Deep, The (1977) C-123m. ★★ D: Peter public bath, falls in love with his 20-ish Yates. Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick female counterpart (Asher). Well-made Nolte, Louis Gossett, Eli Wallach, Robert Testragedy of obsessive love; set in London, sier. Endless film of Peter Benchley’s novel with music by Cat Stevens. [R]▼ about innocent couple who hit on treasure and Deep End, The (2001) C-99m. ★★★ D: drugs while scuba-diving off Bermuda coast. Scott McGehee, David Siegel. Tilda SwinGratuitous violence and titillation—not to ton, Goran Visnjic, Jonathan Tucker, Josh mention unbelievable plot—sink this handLucas, Peter Donat, Raymond Barry. A desome production. NBC added 53m. for its first voted mother of three thinks her teenage son network showing. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 may be accused of killing his gay lover, so Deep Blue Sea, The (1955-British) C-99m. she covers up the crime . . . but that’s just ★★1⁄2 D: Anatole Litvak. Vivien Leigh, the beginning of her problems. Intriguing Kenneth More, Eric Portman, Emlyn Wilthriller with surprising twists and nuanced liams. Terence Rattigan play of marital character development, but a bit cold. Interinfidelity and the repercussions on Leigh, estingly set and shot in Lake Tahoe, with a frustrated well-married woman; slow movsuperb performance by Swinton. Based on ing, but interesting. CinemaScope. the same novel by Elizabeth Sanxay HoldDeep Blue Sea (1999) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing (The Blank Wall ) that inspired THE Renny Harlin. Thomas Jane, Saffron BurRECKLESS MOMENT in 1949. Written rows, Samuel L. Jackson, Jacqueline McKenby the directors. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 zie, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, LL Deep End of the Ocean, The (1999) CCool J, Aida Turturro. Floating scientific base 109m. ★★★ D: Ulu Grosbard. Michelle Pfeifis crippled by an unlikely accident, and the fer, Treat Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Jonsuper-intelligent sharks developed by reathan Jackson, Ryan Merriman, John Kapelos, searchers ungratefully begin chasing down Michael Mcelroy. Persuasively acted adaptatheir creators as the base slowly sinks. Sometion of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s best-seller about times-exciting combination of JAWS and the disappearance of a three-year-old at his ALIEN has some surprises, but terrible diamother’s high school reunion, and his chance logue and a preposterous premise. Ronny return nine years later. Two-part story is adCox appears unbilled. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 mittedly a whopper, yet it’s handled in crediDeep Cover (1992) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill ble fashion that makes one willing to accept Duke. Larry Fishburne, Jeff Goldblum, Victoit. Plays like a TV movie at times, but by and ria Dillard, Charles Martin Smith, Sydney large, an exceptional one, with the dynamics Lassick, Clarence Williams III, Gregory Sibetween the two newfound brothers ringing erra, Roger Guenveur Smith, Def Jef, Glynn true. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Turman. Fishburne, whose dad was killed Deep Impact (1998) C-120m. ★★★ D: Mimi during a holdup, grows up to be an underLeder. Robert Duvall, Te´a Leoni, Elijah [ 339 ]

Wood, Vanessa Redgrave, Morgan Freeman, William Bendix, Keenan Wynn, James Maximilian Schell, James Cromwell, Ron Whitmore, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Joey Eldard, Jon Favreau, Laura Innes, Mary McBishop. Ladd is Quaker naval officer durCormack, Richard Schiff, Blair Underwood, ing WW2 who compensates for past inacBruce Weitz, Betsy Brantley, Charles Martin tion by heading dangerous shore mission; Bendix gives able support.▼ Smith, Leelee Sobieski. Exciting yarn about attempts to ward off a comet hurtling toward Deep Space (1987) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred Earth—and preparations to save as many peoOlen Ray. Charles Napier, Ann Turkel, ple as possible if it hits. Freeman is the rockJulie Newmar, James Booth, Ron Glass, solid U.S. President, Duvall a veteran astroAnthony Eisley, Bo Svenson, Peter Palmer. naut on a space mission to explode the comet; An ALIEN-like creature runs amok. Ultratheir authoritative presence adds weight to this hokey sci-fi thriller with comic overtones. saga, while Leoni seems a bit of a flyweight Napier is perfectly cast as a cop on its trail. as the ambitious TV newswoman who breaks Good fun for genre fans. Incidentally, title the story. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 has nothing to do with the film! [R]▼ Deep in My Heart (1954) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 DeepStar Six (1989) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Sean D: Stanley Donen. Jose Ferrer, Merle S. Cunningham. Greg Evigan, Nancy Oberon, Helen Traubel, Doe Avedon, TaEverhard, Cindy Pickett, Miguel Ferrer, mara Toumanova, Paul Stewart, Douglas Taurean Blacque, Marius Weyers, Nia Fowley, Jim Backus; guest stars Walter Peeples, Matt McCoy, Elya Baskin, Thom Pidgeon, Paul Henreid, Rosemary Clooney, Bray. In the near future, an undersea reGene and Fred Kelly, Jane Powell, Vic search and missile-installation base is threatDamone, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Howened by a carnivorous swimming crustacean. ard Keel, Tony Martin. The life of comPlodding, familiar story and talky script poser Sigmund Romberg is not the stuff of (not to mention an elaborate but unconvincing monster) sink this. [R]▼●쩠 high drama, but film sparkles in production numbers with MGM guest stars. Highlights Deep Valley (1947) 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean include Kelly brothers’ only film appearNegulesco. Ida Lupino, Dane Clark, Wayne ance together, Charisse’s exquisite and senMorris, Fay Bainter, Henry Hull, Willard sual dance number with James Mitchell, and Robertson. Into Lupino’s humdrum life an incredible number featuring Ferrer percomes an escapee from a nearby prison forming an entire show himself.▼●쩠 gang. Odd, artsy film adapted from Dan Deep in the Heart (1983-British) C-101m. Totheroh’s novel, set against the real-life ★★★ building of the Pacific Coast Highway exD: Tony Garnett. Karen Young, Clayton Day, Suzie Humphreys, Ben Jones. tension to Monterey. Lupino is good, if misThought-provoking, if occasionally simpliscast, as an ethereal, sheltered farm girl. tic, drama about the evolution of a young Deer Hunter, The (1978) C-183m. ★★★★ woman (nicely played by Young) from D: Michael Cimino. Robert De Niro, John passivity to violence, resulting from her Cazale, John Savage, Meryl Streep, Chrisrelationship with macho Texan Day. Origitopher Walken, George Dzundza, Chuck Aspegren. Stunning film about young Pennnally titled HANDGUN. [R]▼쩠 Deep Red (1975-Italian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: sylvania steelworkers, their lives before, Dario Argento. David Hemmings, Daria during, and after wartime duty in Vietnam. Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia, Macha Meril, Long but not overlong, this sensitive, painful, Glauco Mauri. There’s style to burn in evocative work packs an emotional wallop. senseless horror thriller with Hemmings on Story by Cimino, Deric Washburn, Louis trail of sadistic psycho killer. Flashy, bizarre Garfinkle and Quinn Redeker; scripted by murders set to pounding rock soundtrack. Washburn. Five Oscars include Picture, DiAka THE HATCHET MURDERS; original rector, Supporting Actor (Walken), Editing (Peter Zinner). Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Italian version, PROFONDO ROSSO, is 28m. longer and much more violent. CromoDef by Temptation (1990) C-95m. ★★★ scope. [R]▼쩠 D: James Bond III. Cynthia Bond, Kadeem Deep Rising (1998) C-106m. ★★ D: Stephen Hardison, James Bond III, Bill Nunn, Melba Sommers. Treat Williams, Famke Janssen, Moore, Samuel L. Jackson. Southern divinAnthony Heald, Wes Studi, Kevin J. O’Conity student visits his older brother in N.Y.C., nor, Djimon Hounsou, Derrick O’Connor. just in time for the latter to get involved Skipper-for-hire Williams finds himself in with a seductive succubus who preys on over his head when his current clients (a men in bars. All-black sleeper is extremely scummy lot led by heavily armed Studi) stylish, aided no end by the photography attack a luxury liner, unaware that the ship of Spike Lee’s longtime cameraman, Ernest has been under siege by some sort of horDickerson. [R]▼●쩠 rific ocean creatures. High-tech scare movie Defcon-4 (1984) C-89m. BOMB D: Paul with a hokey script; some fun on a noDonovan. Lenore Zann, Maury Chaykin, brainer level. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Kate Lynch, Tim Choate. It sounds like an Deep Six, The (1958) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: industrial-strength roach killer, and it could Rudolph Mate´. Alan Ladd, Dianne Foster, use one. Three astronauts return to a post[ 340 ]

holocaust earth run by some truly slimy soon find themselves leading a growing punks. Next to C.H.U.D., the grimiestband of Jewish refugees. Survival is the looking movie of its time (at least that one key, but so is leadership, and the two older took place underground). [R]▼●쩠 siblings (Craig and Schreiber) have opposDefector, The (1966) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing points of view about how to deal with Raoul Levy. Montgomery Clift, Hardy Kruthe enemy. Overlong and uneven, this is a ger, Roddy McDowall, David Opatoshu. great untold story of WW2 but not, alas, a Hackneyed Cold War spy trivia filmed in great film. [R]쩠 Europe, interesting only as Clift’s last film; Defiant, The SEE: Wild Pack, The Defiant Ones, The (1958) 97m. ★★★★ D: good cameo by McDowall.쩠 Defence of the Realm (1985-British) Stanley Kramer. Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Drury. Gabriel Theodore Bikel, Charles McGraw, Cara WilByrne, Greta Scacchi, Denholm Elliott, Ian liams, Lon Chaney, Jr. Engrossing story of Bannen, Bill Paterson, Fulton Mackay. two escaped convicts—one black, one Tough, obsessive journalist Byrne’s investigawhite—shackled together as they flee from tive story causes a British MP to resign—but police in the South. Fine performances by there’s more to the case than he knows. A Williams and Chaney as people they meet taut, extremely entertaining political thriller along the way. Academy Award–winning that also touches on the subject of journalistic screenplay by Harold Jacob Smith and Nathan responsibility and the public’s right to know E. Douglas (blacklisted actor-writer Nedrick what its government is up to. [PG]▼●쩠 Young) and cinematography by Sam Leavitt. Defending Your Life (1991) C-111m. Remade for TV in 1986 with Robert Urich ★★★ D: Albert Brooks. Albert Brooks, Meryl and Carl Weathers.▼●쩠 Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, Buck Henry, Definitely, Maybe (2008-U.S.-British) CGeorge D. Wallace, Lillian Lehman, Peter 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adam Brooks. Ryan ReynSchuck, Ethan Randall (Embry). Brooks olds, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Isla dies in a car crash and finds himself in JudgFisher, Rachel Weisz, Kevin Kline, Derek ment City, where Torn is assigned to defend Luke, Kevin Corrigan, Adam Ferrara. Soonhis life before a tribunal . . . and where he to-be-divorced man recounts his romantic falls in love with fellow candidate Streep, past to his 10-year-old daughter, who wants who’s too good to be true. Imperfect, like to know how he met her mother. Telling the all of Brooks’ movies, but full of funny tale of three separate romances, he weaves ideas and hard to dislike. [PG]▼●쩠 a story of how they affected his life and Defenseless (1991) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marwhat led him to his current state of untin Campbell. Barbara Hershey, Sam Shepwedded bliss. Attempt to do character comard, Mary Beth Hurt, J. T. Walsh, Kellie edy in the style of British films like LOVE Overbey, Jay O. Sanders, Randy Brooks, ACTUALLY doesn’t quite come off, though John Kapelos, Sheree North. Suspense the cast is appealing. Robert Klein plays thriller in which attorney Hershey discovhimself. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ers her client (and lover) murdered—and Def Jam’s How to Be a Player (1997) finds herself not only suspected of the C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Lionel C. Martin. Bill Belcrime, but stalked by a mysterious killer. lamy, Natalie Desselle, Lark Voorhies, Mari Not bad, and a good showcase for a firstMorrow, Pierre, Jermaine ‘‘Big Hugg’’ Hoprate cast, especially Hurt, who chews the kins, A. J. Johnson, Beverly Johnson, Max scenery in a change-of-pace part. [R]▼●쩠 Julien, Gilbert Gottfried, Bernie Mac, Elise Defiance (1980) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Neal. Smooth-talking womanizer tries oneFlynn. Jan-Michael Vincent, Art Carney, Theupping his sister and her friend after they resa Saldana, Danny Aiello. Fernando Lopez, invite all the ‘‘entries’’ in his little black book Rudy Ramos. Gritty little film about rootless to the same party. Completely flat comedy is blue-collar loner Vincent, who in an attempt meant to capitalize on TV’s no-holds-barred to match up his dying youngster’s bone marDef Jam, but the show seems a lot raunchier row single-handedly tames a vicious N.Y.C. than this big-screen trifle. [R]▼●쩠 street gang. A synthesis of ’30s Warner Bros. De´ja` Vu (1998-U.S.-British) C-116m. ★★★1 melodramas, B Westerns, ON THE WATER⁄2 D: Henry Jaglom. Stephen Dillane, FRONT, and BOARDWALK, with atmoVictoria Foyt, Vanessa Redgrave, Glynis spheric direction and colorful supporting Barber, Michael Brandon, Noel Harrison, performances. [PG]▼ Rachel Kempson, Aviva Marks. Unusual Defiance (2008) C-137m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward romance about the inexplicable and proZwick. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie found attraction between an American Bell, Alexa Davalos, Allan Corduner, Mark woman abroad and a London painter. Feuerstein, Tomas Arana, Jodhi May, Kate Though already attached to others, at every Fahy, Iddo Goldberg, Iben Hjejle, Martin turn they receive ‘‘cosmic confirmation’’ of Hancock. After the Gestapo and its Russian their belonging together. The acting is so surrogates have swept through their village good and story so satisfying that plot conin Belorussia in 1941, the three Bielski trivances don’t matter. Nepotism is a big plus, brothers head for the nearby woods and with Jaglom’s wife Foyt in the lead and Red[ 341 ]

grave’s mother Kempson in their first joint color schemes, which would ordinarily look screen appearance. Writer-director Jaglom’s like a lab mistake, contribute to the film’s best; Foyt coscripted. [PG-13]▼쩠 trenchant visual style. Codirector Caro plays Deja Vu (2006) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony Fox, one of the Cave Dwellers. ‘‘PreScott. Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, sented’’ by Terry Gilliam.▼●쩠 Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel, Adam Goldberg, Delinquents, The (1957) 75m. ★★ D: RobElden Henson, Erika Alexander, Bruce ert Altman. Tom Laughlin, Peter Miller, Greenwood, Matt Craven, Elle Fanning. Richard Bakalyan, Rosemary Howard, HeDuring Mardi Gras in New Orleans a sightlene Hawley. Intriguingly awful exploitaseeing ferry explodes, killing hundreds. tion drama about nice boy who becomes ATF agent Washington investigates a involved with a street gang because girlwoman whose anomalous death attracts his friend is too young to go steady. Altman’s interest. When he learns the FBI has a defirst film, made in Kansas City, with Julia vice that can view the past—and perhaps Lee singing ‘‘Dirty Rock Boogie.’’ enter it—he goes back in time to find the Delirious (1991) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom killer and save the woman (Patton). Science Mankiewicz. John Candy, Mariel Hemingfiction mixed with action and romance reway, Emma Samms, David Rasche, Charles sults in a shallow but entertaining thriller, Rocket, Raymond Burr, Dylan Baker, Jerry though Washington, as always, is first-rate. Orbach, Renee Taylor. Astonishingly stupid Super 35/HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 comedy with a neat premise: a beleaguered Delgo (2008) C-90m. BOMB D: Marc F. soap-opera writer gets a conk on the head Adler, Jason Maurer. Voices of Freddie and dreams that he’s stuck in his own story— Prinze, Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Chris Katin a heroic role that enables him to have tan, Val Kilmer, Anne Bancroft, Kelly Ripa, his way with the woman he worships in real Malcolm McDowell, Eric Idle, Burt Reylife. Bad writing and ham-handed direction foil a willing cast. [PG]▼●쩠 nolds, Louis Gossett, Jr., Michael Clarke Duncan, Armin Shimerman; narrated by Delirious (2007) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Sally Kellerman. In a fantasy universe, an DiCillo. Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alialien teenager from one kingdom falls in son Lohman, Gina Gershon, Kevin Corrigan, love with the princess from a rival land, Callie Thorne, Richard Short, Tom Aldredge, erupting hostilities between the two. UnapLynn Cohen, Elvis Costello. Thin but enjoypealing characters and confusing story comable satire of fame and celebrity as seen bine to sink this animated fantasy, which through the beady, bitter eyes of uncouth tries too hard to combine every scienceN.Y.C. paparazzo Buscemi. He grudgingly fiction/fantasy cliche´ into one messy conbefriends a homeless actor-hopeful (Pitt) coction. A complete misfire. Final screen who, of course, may just become The Next credit for Anne Bancroft, who portrays an Big Thing. DiCillo wrote this for Buscemi evil Queen. [PG] and together they have almost as much fun Delicate Balance, A (1973) C-132m. ★★ as in their first teaming, LIVING IN D: Tony Richardson. Katharine Hepburn, OBLIVION. Should amuse anyone who has Paul Scofield, Lee Remick, Kate Reid, ever even dreamt of a show-biz career.쩠 Joseph Cotten, Betsy Blair. Edward Albee’s Deliverance (1972) C-109m. ★★★★ D: John Pulitzer Prize–winning play about a neurotic Boorman. Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Connecticut family and the old friends who Beatty, Ronny Cox, Billy McKinney, Herdecide to move in with them indefinitely bert ‘‘Cowboy’’ Coward, James Dickey. makes for stagy, uninvolving film, extraSuperlative re-creation of Dickey novel of ordinary cast notwithstanding. An American four Atlanta businessmen who get more Film Theater Production. [PG]▼쩠 than they bargained for during a weekend Delicate Delinquent, The (1957) 100m. canoe trip. McKinney and Coward are two ★★★ D: Don McGuire. Jerry Lewis, Marof the most terrifying film villains in history; tha Hyer, Darren McGavin, Horace Mc‘‘Dueling Banjos’’ scene is equally memorMahon, Milton Frome. Jerry’s first solo able. Film debuts of Beatty and Cox. James effort after splitting with Dean Martin has Dickey adapted his own novel, and aphim as delinquent who becomes a cop with pears in the film as a sheriff; Ed O’Neill McGavin’s help. Agreeable blend of sentiappears as a highway patrolman near end ment and slapstick. VistaVision.▼●쩠 of film. The director’s son Charley (later star Delicatessen (1991-French) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 of THE EMERALD FOREST) plays Voight’s son here. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 D: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro. MarieLaure Dougnac, Dominique Pinon, Karin Deliver Us from Eva (2003) C-105m. ★★★ Viard, Jean Claude Dreyfus, Ticky HolD: Gary Hardwick. James Todd Smith aka gado, Anne Marie Pisani, Edith Ker. PostLL Cool J, Gabrielle Union, Duane Martin, apocalyptic comedy about a landlord who Essence Atkins, Robinne Lee, Meagan Good, slices humans into cutlets for nonvegetarian Mel Jackson, Dartanyan Edmonds, Kym tenants. At the very least, this is the most Whitley, Terry Crews. Amusing film about a original and entertaining comedy about canhostile, iron-willed woman who dominates the nibalism made to date. Brown-and-white lives of her three younger sisters, inspiring their [ 342 ]

men to hire a ‘‘player’’ to distract her so they cast) account of terrorist plane hijack in the can carry on their relationships. Ingratiating Middle East—until rescue climax when performances by LL Cool J and Union spark America’s special squadron (led by Marvin this overlong but entertaining film. [R]▼쩠 and Norris) takes on bad guys in comic-book Deliver Us From Evil (2006) C-101m. ★★★ style. Uneven, to say the least, but never D: Amy Berg. Potent documentary juxtaposes boring. Filmed in Israel. Followed by sevinterviews with Father Oliver O’Grady (a peeral sequels. [R]▼●쩠 dophile whom leaders of the Catholic church Delta Force 2 (1990) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: repeatedly protected) with first-person stories Aaron Norris. Chuck Norris, John P. Ryan, of some of his victims. Timely film forgoes Paul Perri, Richard Jaeckel, Begonia Plaza, narration; instead, its interviewees paint a tawMateo Gomez, Hector Mercardo, Billy Drago. dry picture of corruption in a church that Norris leads his Delta Force brigade into looked the other way while O’Grady was Latin America in an effort to snuff out an moved to several different parishes, where he elusive drug lord. Strictly by-the-numbers. continued committing his immoral acts. Fasci[R]▼●쩠 nating and expertly made, but difficult to Delta Fox (1977) C-92m. ★★ D: Beverly watch.쩠 and Ferd Sebastian. Richard Lynch, PrisDe-Lovely (2004) C-125m. ★★ D: Irwin cilla Barnes, Stuart Whitman, John Ireland, Winkler. Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, Jonathan Richard Jaeckel. Unremarkable action-chase Pryce, Kevin McNally, Allan Corduner, Sanopus about a smuggler on the run from dra Nelson, Keith Allen, James Wilby, John Miami to L.A.▼ Barrowman, Kevin McKidd, Peter PolycarDelusion (1990) C-100m. ★★★ D: Carl pou, Richard Dillane. Handsome but awkColpaert. Jim Metzler, Jennifer Rubin, Kyle ward biopic of the great songwriter Cole Secor, Robert Costanzo, Tracey Walter, Porter, whose love for his wife didn’t preclude Jerry Orbach. Tough, taut thriller about a him from pursuing homosexual affairs. Using yuppie computer executive-embezzler and his an awkward framing device (his life as a plight after happening upon a Las Vegas show), film incorporates many songs, sung by showgirl and her killer-for-hire boyfriend performers who are out of their element (Secor, in an eye-opening performance) on (Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Alanis Morisa Death Valley highway. Thoroughly entersette, Robbie Williams, et al.). Kline is much taining tale of desperation and isolation, with a point-of-view. Super 35. [R]▼ better than the film; the scene in which he teaches Barrowman how to sing ‘‘Night and Dementia 13 (1963) 81m. ★★ D: Francis Day’’ is a highlight. Oddest moment: Kline Ford Coppola. William Campbell, Luana watching Cary Grant play Porter in NIGHT Anders, Bart Patton, Mary Mitchel, PatAND DAY. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 rick Magee. Gory horror film, set in IreDelta Factor, The (1970) C-91m. ★★ D: land, about a series of axe murders. Tay Garnett. Christopher George, Yvette Coppola’s directorial debut—excluding his Mimieux, Diane McBain, Ralph Taeger. earlier nudie, TONITE FOR SURE—filmed OK Mickey Spillane tale about a private for about 29¢ for Roger Corman; may be eye on a CIA mission to rescue a scientist worth a look for curiosity’s sake.▼●쩠 imprisoned on an island. [PG] Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) CDelta Farce (2007) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: C. B. 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delmer Daves. Victor Mature, Harding. Larry The Cable Guy, Bill Engvall, Susan Hayward, Michael Rennie, Debra DJ Qualls, Keith David, Danny Trejo, Marisol Paget, Anne Bancroft, Richard Egan, Ernest Nichols, Christina Moore, Lisa Lampanelli, Borgnine. Hokey sequel to THE ROBE has Lance Smith, Glenn Morshower. Three moEmperor Caligula (Jay Robinson) searching ronic army reservists, told they are being sent for magic robe of Christ; Mature dallies to Iraq, are instead dropped into the Mexican with royal Hayward. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 desert, where Larry and his pals Everett and Demolition Man (1993) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill (apparently Moe and Curly were unavailMarco Brambilla. Sylvester Stallone, Wesable) go into action against corrupt federales ley Snipes, Sandra Bullock, Nigel Hawthey mistake for Middle Eastern terrorists. thorne, Benjamin Bratt, Bob Gunton, Glenn Give this mind-numbingly dumb outing points Shadix, Denis Leary, Jack Black, Jesse for originality: it’s probably the first (and hopeVentura. Ex-cop Stallone is sprung after 36 fully last) lame-brained comedy to try milking years of deep-freeze imprisonment for manlaughs from repeated references to Shiites and slaughter when blond Snipes (his long-ago Kurds! [PG-13]쩠 psycho nemesis) escapes from his own ★★1 Delta Force, The (1986) C-129m. ⁄2 government-imposed hibernation; the joke D: Menahem Golan. Chuck Norris, Lee is that the ‘‘San Angeles’’ of 2032 is a paciMarvin, Martin Balsam, Joey Bishop, Robfistic society that nixes violence and profanert Forster, Lainie Kazan, George Kennedy, ity (and where every restaurant is a Taco Hanna Schygulla, Susan Strasberg, Bo SvenBell). Fast, surprisingly funny, bloodletter son, Robert Vaughn, Shelley Winters, Assaf is still only marginally brainier than Sly’s Dayan, Kim Delaney. Surprisingly straightTANGO & CASH. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 forward and straight-faced (considering that Demon (1977) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Cohen. [ 343 ]

Tony Lo Bianco, Sandy Dennis, Sylvia Sidald Cammell. Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, ney, Deborah Raffin, Sam Levene, Richard Gerrit Graham, Berry Kroeger, Lisa Lu. IntelLynch, Mike Kellin, Andy Kaufman. Weird, ligent futuristic thriller, provocatively written, confusing shocker in which New York cop stylishly directed, and well acted, especially Lo Bianco investigates motiveless killings by by Christie, the beauty terrorized by an ultraordinary people possessed by Christ-like sophisticated computer (voice of Robert demon. Some good scenes. Originally titled Vaughn) that’s decided to take over the GOD TOLD ME TO. [R]▼●쩠 world. As riveting as it is bizarre. Adapted by Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The SEE: Robert Jaffe and Roger O. Hirson from the Dean Koontz novel. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Demons of the Mind (1971-British) C89m. ★★★ D: Peter Sykes. Paul Jones, Demon Knight SEE: Tales From The Crypt Presents Demon Knight Yvonne Mitchell, Gillian Hills, Robert Demonlover (2002-French) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 Hardy, Patrick Magee, Michael Hordern, D: Olivier Assayas. Connie Nielsen, Charles Shane Briant. A 19th-century baron imBerling, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Gina Gershon, Jeanprisons his son and daughter, believing Baptiste Malartre, Dominique Reymond. Illthey are possessed. Enticingly eerie Hamchosen moniker doesn’t describe this dot-com mer horror film. Aka BLACK EVIL and thriller about a cold, calculating corporate spy NIGHTMARE OF TERROR. [R]▼쩠 who gets in over her head playing both sides Demon Within, The SEE: Happiness of a business merger involving porno and torCage, The Denise Calls Up (1996) C-80m. ★★★ D: Hal ture Web sites. Slickly textured suspenser is seriously kinky and morally ambivalent, but Salwen. Tim Daly, Caroleen Feeney, Dan its violence and voyeurism lead to an all-tooGunther, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Liev certain conclusion. Director’s cut runs 117m. Schreiber, Aida Turturro, Alanna Ubach, Original French version runs 128m. Super 35/ Sylvia Miles. Nina tries to fix up a friend— Super 16. [R] ▼쩠 no easy task—while Denise (Ubach) surDemon Master, The SEE: Craze prises Gunther with a phone call he never Demonoid, Messenger of Death (1981) expected to get. Wickedly funny satire C-78m. ★1⁄2 D: Alfred Zacharias. Samantha about New Yorkers who never seem to be Eggar, Stuart Whitman, Roy Cameron able to get together and only talk on the Jenson, Erika Carlson, Lew Saunders. phone. A one-joke premise, but writer-diEggar and husband, while working Mexirector Salwen keeps adding clever twists and touches. [PG-13]▼● can mine, unearth a hand, which possesses him, wreaking terror and havoc. Insipid Dennis the Menace (1993) C-94m. ★★ D: direction, a rotten script, and shoddy speNick Castle. Walter Matthau, Mason Gamble, cial effects get in the way of any suspense. Joan Plowright, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Aka MACABRA. [R]▼ Thompson, Robert Stanton, Paul Winfield, Demon Planet, The SEE: Planet of the Amy Sakasitz, Arnold Stang, Ben Stein. UnVampires conscionable, jerry-built ripoff of the HOME ALONEs from John Hughes, based on Hank Demons (1986-Italian) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Lamberto Bava. Urbano Barberini, Natasha Ketcham’s comic strip, with the blond rasHovey, Paolo Cozza, Karl Zinny, Fiore Arcal’s skirmishes with cantankerous neighbor gento, Fabiola Toledo, Nicoletta Elmi. A horMr. Wilson (Matthau) a mere warmup to the ror film transforms its audience one by one more Culkin-ian climactic punch-out of a robinto drooling, fanged ‘‘demons’’ who attack ber/derelict (Lloyd). Fun for under-8’s, but the remaining humans. Extremely gruesome still a desperate collection of crotch and flatuand violent; no characterization, no logic, no lence jokes. Followed by two direct-to-video plot. Achieved critical fame in some quarters. sequels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Director, who shows some visual style, is son Departed, The (2006) C-151m. ★★★1⁄2 D: of horror maestro Mario Bava. Cowritten and Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt produced by Dario Argento. Followed by Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, several sequels.▼●쩠 Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera FarDemons 2 (1987-Italian) C-88m. ★★ D: miga, Anthony Anderson, Alec Baldwin, Lamberto Bava. David Knight, Nancy James Badge Dale, David Patrick O’Hara, Brilli, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, Bobby Mark Rolston, Kevin Corrigan, Dorothy Rhodes, Asia Argento, Virginia Bryant. Lyman. Potent, violent yarn about Irish crime Sequel is improvement on first film but bosses and cops in Boston, and how the lines highly derivative of NIGHT OF THE LIVcross, even over generations. Underworld ING DEAD and THEY CAME FROM bigwig Nicholson has raised and nurtured WITHIN. Demonic infection spreads among Damon, who’s now his mole in the State people in modern apartment building; they Police and assigned to capture his mentor. transform into fanged, clawed monsters and DiCaprio tries to live down his shaky family attack others. Like its predecessor, achieved history by joining the Boston police departgreat acclaim among gore fans. [R]▼●쩠 ment, only to be sent undercover—to work Demon Seed (1977) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Donwith Nicholson. Tension mounts as the [ 344 ]

characters’ paths intersect. Vibrant perforHuston. Fictionalized biography of world’s mances dominate the proceedings; the most celebrated sexual and physical perfilm’s main fault is overlength. William vert. If you’re expecting something raunMonahan’s script was inspired by the 2002 chy, forget it. Pretty tepid stuff. Original Hong Kong police story INFERNAL AFrunning time: 113m. [R]쩠 FAIRS. Oscar winner for Best Picture, DiDescent, The (2005-British) C-99m. ★★ D: rector, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing Neil Marshall. Shauna Macdonald, Natalie (Thelma Schoonmaker). Super 35. [R]쩠 Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, NoraDepartures (2008-Japanese) C-131m. ★★★ Jane Noone, MyAnna Buring, Oliver MilD: Yojiro Takita. Masahiro Motoki, Tsuburn, Molly Kayll, Craig Conway. Six tomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko women bond every year during an ‘‘exYoshiyuki, Kimiko Yo, Takashi Sasano. treme’’ adventure. This time it’s a journey When a Tokyo orchestra is dissolved, cellist into a cave in the Appalachian Mountains, Motoki realizes he can’t sustain a musical but there are sparks flying between two of career, so he and his wife return to his homethe participants . . . and the cave houses town. There he answers a cryptic want ad and subhuman flesh-eating creatures! Standard is hired as apprentice to a man who performs horror outing with feisty all-female protago‘‘encoffinments,’’ elaborately and ritualistinists. Unapologetically gruesome. Written cally preparing dead people to be laid to rest. by the director. Ending altered for U.S. reOffbeat, leisurely paced, and disarmingly lease; original unrated version available on funny at times, this likable film becomes DVD. Super 35. [R]쩠 highly emotional as loose ends in Motoki’s Desert Attack (1960-British) 79m. ★★★ life are tied up and he comes to embrace D: J. Lee Thompson. John Mills, Sylvia his unusual profession. Some will find this Syms, Anthony Quayle, Harry Andrews, manipulative; others will succumb and tears Diane Clare. Well-handled psychological will flow. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Landrama of British ambulance officer, two guage Film. nurses, and a German soldier brought toDerailed (2005) C-110m. ★★ D: Mikael gether in African desert. Original British Ha˚fstro¨m. Clive Owen, Jennifer Aniston, version ICE COLD IN ALEX runs 132m. Desert Bloom (1986) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Vincent Cassel, Melissa George, Giancarlo Esposito, David Morrissey, Georgina ChapEugene Corr. Jon Voight, JoBeth Wilman, Tom Conti, Xzibit, RZA. Chicago liams, Ellen Barkin, Annabeth Gish, Allen businessman Owen misses his commuter Garfield, Jay D. Underwood. Perceptive, train and strikes up a conversation with an exquisitely realized memoir, set in 1951 Neattractive woman. This leads to a liaison, vada—the dawn of the Atomic Age. Herobut that misstep quickly threatens to destroy ine is 13-year-old Gish, whose mother everything in Owen’s life: his family, his (Williams) only sees what she wants to and bank account, and his sanity. Modern spin whose stepfather (solidly acted by Voight) on film noir starts well enough but descends is an embittered, alcoholic WW2 hero reinto a state of incredulity and downright duced to running a gas station. Corr wrote silliness. Good cast—including hip-hop stars the poignantly precise script from a story by Linda Remy and himself. [PG] ▼●쩠 Xzibit and RZA—is wasted here. Unrated version also available. Super 35. [R]쩠 Desert Blue (1999) C-93m. ★★★ D: Morgan Deranged (1974) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff J. Freeman. Brendan Sexton III, Kate HudGillen, Alan Ormsby. Roberts Blossom, son, Christina Ricci, Daniel von Bargen, Cosette Lee, Leslie Carlson, Robert Warner, John Heard, Lucinda Jenney, Casey AfMarcia Diamond. Blossom’s neat performfleck, Sara Gilbert, Peter Sarsgaard, Miance uplifts this predictable shocker of a chael Ironside. A professor of American mother-obsessed farmer who preserves the culture and his ambitious actress-daughter old lady’s corpse, then kills and stuffs other find themselves stuck in a remote western women to keep her company. Based on the town, where the young woman bonds with same real-life case that inspired PSYCHO the locals—especially Blue, who is fixated and THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSAon realizing his late father’s dream of buildCRE. [R]▼쩠 ing a water park in the desert! Well-drawn Dersu Uzala (1975-Japanese-Russian) Ccharacters and a sharp sense of time and 140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Akira Kurosawa. Maxim place help make this a winner. Written by Munzuk, Yuri Solomine. Simple, gentle Munthe director. [R]▼쩠 zuk, a hunter of the Goldi tribe, teaches Russian Deserter, The (1971-Italian-Yugoslavian) explorer Solomine the rules of survival in SibeC-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Burt Kennedy. Bekim Fehria; they develop mutual respect and friendship. miu, John Huston, Richard Crenna, Chuck A poignant, poetic examination of contrasting Connors, Ricardo Montalban, Ian Bannen, lives. Filmed in Russia; Best Foreign Film Brandon de Wilde, Slim Pickens, Woody Strode, Patrick Wayne. Dull cavalry pic Oscar winner. Sovscope 70. [G]▼●쩠 De Sade (1969-U.S.-West German) C-92m. about Indian fighting on Mexican border. ★★ D: Cy Endfield. Keir Dullea, Senta Cast is capable, except for Fehmiu, who Berger, Lilli Palmer, Anna Massey, John didn’t improve after THE ADVENTUR[ 345 ]

ERS. Aka RIDE TO GLORY. Panavision. Wallace Shawn from his play) is a series [PG]▼ of monologues and probably should have Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, The remained a theater piece. Nichols makes a (1951) 88m. ★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. long-awaited film acting debut, but perhaps James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, Jessica he should have waited just a little while longer. [R]▼쩠 Tandy, Luther Adler, Everett Sloane, Leo G. Carroll, George Macready, Richard Boone, Design for Living (1933) 90m. ★★★ D: Robert Coote. Mason standout as Field MarErnst Lubitsch. Fredric March, Gary Cooshal Rommel in sensitive account of his miliper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett tary defeat in WW2 Africa and disillusioned Horton, Franklin Pangborn, Isabel Jewell, return to Hitler Germany. Mason repeated Jane Darwell. Ben Hecht adapted Noel role in THE DESERT RATS.▼●쩠 Coward’s stage comedy about artist CooDesert Fury (1947) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis per and playwright March, best friends Allen. John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt and Americans in Paris, and what happens Lancaster, Mary Astor, Wendell Corey. when they both fall in love with Hopkins. Mild drama of love and mystery among Most of the witty innuendos are left intact gamblers, stolen by Astor in bristling char(even if the pacing isn’t quite right).●쩠 acter portrayal. Design for Scandal (1941) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Desert Hearts (1985) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Rosalind Russell, Walter Donna Deitch. Helen Shaver, Patricia Pidgeon, Edward Arnold, Lee Bowman, Charbonneau, Audra Lindley, Andra Akers, Jean Rogers, Mary Beth Hughes, Guy Dean Butler, Jeffrey Tambor. Uptight feKibbee. Deft performances in comedy of male professor comes to Reno to get a reporter Pidgeon doing sensational story indivorce in the 1950s and is pursued by a volving prominent female judge Russell. young woman who forces her to examine Designing Woman (1957) C-118m. ★★★ D: her own sexuality. Debut feature for writerVincente Minnelli. Gregory Peck, Lauren director Deitch (with a contemporary nod Bacall, Dolores Gray, Sam Levene, Mickey to THE WOMEN) has its moments, but Shaughnessy, Chuck Connors, Ed Platt, characters are sketchily developed and story Jack Cole. Sportswriter and fashion moves in fits and starts. [R]▼●쩠 designer marry and run head-on in this Desert Patrol (1958-British) 78m. ★★1⁄2 chic comedy reminiscent of the great D: Guy Green. Richard Attenborough, John Hepburn-Tracy vehicles. Bacall and Peck Gregson, Michael Craig, Vincent Ball. do their best; George Wells won an Oscar Staunch account of British patrol attemptfor Best Story and Screenplay. Cinemaing to blow up Axis fuel dump before Scope. ▼●쩠 pending WW2 battle of El Alamein. OrigDesire (1936) 96m. ★★★ D: Frank Borzage. inally titled SEA OF SAND.▼ Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, John Desert Rats, The (1953) 88m. ★★★ D: Halliday, William Frawley, Ernest Cossart, Robert Wise. Richard Burton, James Mason, Akim Tamiroff, Alan Mowbray, Zeffie Robert Newton, Chips Rafferty. Fine WW2 Tilbury. American car-designer Cooper falls actioner with Mason convincing as Field in love with jewel thief Dietrich. SophMarshal Rommel (repeating his role from isticated romancer set in Spain; Marlene sings THE DESERT FOX); Burton is British ‘‘Awake in a Dream.’’ From the scintillatcommando trying to ward off Germans in ing start to the finish, it bears the stylish North Africa.▼쩠 stamp of its producer, Ernst Lubitsch.▼ Desert Song, The (1953) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel (1992) D: H. Bruce Humberstone. Kathryn GrayC-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Allen Castle. Sherilyn son, Gordon MacRae, Steve Cochran, Fenn, Whip Hubley, David Hewlett, DaRaymond Massey, William Conrad, Dick vid Johansen, Paul Bartel. A paranoid salesWesson. Third version of Sigmund Romman and his wife stay at a motel in berg operetta set in Africa creaks along on Anaheim, California, on their way to thin plot. American MacRae is secret leader Disneyland, but get involved in blackmail of good natives (Riffs) in battle against and murder instead. A ‘‘comedy noir’’ set evil Arabs. Songs: ‘‘The Riff Song,’’ ‘‘One in 1958, this very low-budget effort never Alone.’’ Previously filmed in 1929 and quite escapes its stage origins. Fenn does 1944.▼ look great, however. [PG-13]▼● Designated Mourner, The (1997-British) Desiree (1954) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry C-94m. ★★ D: David Hare. Miranda RichKoster. Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, ardson, Mike Nichols, David de Keyser. Merle Oberon, Michael Rennie, Cameron Endlessly talky dissertation on the death of Mitchell, Elizabeth Sellars, Cathleen Nesculture, set in an unnamed country in what bitt, Richard Deacon, Carolyn Jones. Tepid, could be the immediate future. Nichols marelaborate costumer: Brando plays a conries into the intellectual upper crust of this fused Napoleon, Simmons his seamstress mysterious society, which has cast off its love who marries another man; Oberon is artists and rendered them virtual prisoners. quite lovely as Empress Josephine. Fiction Shot in three days, the film (adapted by and fact are muddled backdrop for rise and [ 346 ]

fall of the Emperor; few action scenes. Desperate (1947) 73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony CinemaScope.▼● Mann. Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond ★★ Desire Me (1947) 91m. D: No director Burr, Douglas Fowley, William Challee, Jason credited. Greer Garson, Robert Mitchum, Robards, Sr. An honest truck driver is victimRichard Hart, George Zucco, Morris Anized by racketeers and forced to flee with his krum. Weak melodramatic romance with wife. Well-made little film noir, if not as good Garson caught between new love and old as director Mann’s follow-ups (RAW DEAL, husband, presumed dead, who returns to T-MEN, etc.). Also shown in computermake problems. Familiar story not helped colored version.▼ by limp script. Directed mostly by George Desperate Characters (1971) C-88m. ★★★ Cukor, who removed his name after studio D: Frank D. Gilroy. Shirley MacLaine, tampering; Mervyn LeRoy and Jack ConKenneth Mars, Gerald O’Loughlin, Sada way also had a hand in it. Thompson, Jack Somack, Rose Gregorio, Desire Under the Elms (1958) 114m. Carol Kane. Story of the horrors of day-to★★1 ⁄2 D: Delbert Mann. Sophia Loren, Anday living in N.Y.C. is a bit too theatrical thony Perkins, Burl Ives, Frank Overton. but benefits from excellent acting; one of Eugene O’Neill stage piece about family MacLaine’s best performances. [R]▼●쩠 hatred and greed for land. Loren miscast Desperate Hours, The (1955) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 as Ives’ young wife in love with stepson D: William Wyler. Humphrey Bogart, FredPerkins, but she sparks some life into ric March, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott, brooding account of 19th-century New EnDewey Martin, Gig Young, Mary Murphy, gland farm story. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Robert Middleton. Extremely well acted acDesk Set (1957) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Walcount of escaped convicts terrorizing family ter Lang. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hephousehold. From Joseph Hayes’ novel and burn, Gig Young, Joan Blondell, Dina Broadway play, inspired by actual events. Remade in 1990. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 Merrill, Sue Randall, Neva Patterson, Diane Jergens, Merry Anders. Broadway play Desperate Hours (1990) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: becomes a vehicle for Hepburn and Tracy, Michael Cimino. Mickey Rourke, Anthony a guarantee for top entertainment. He’s an Hopkins, Mimi Rogers, Lindsay Crouse, efficiency expert automating her research Kelly Lynch, Elias Koteas, David Morse, department at a TV network; they clash, Shawnee Smith, Danny Gerard, Matt argue, and fall in love. Great fun. Scripted McGrath. Ludicrous remake of the betterby Phoebe and Henry Ephron, from the than-ever 1955 nailbiter, prison escapees stage play by William Marchant. Merrill’s Rourke et al. taking over the Hopkins-Rogfilm debut. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 ers household. No suspense, at times laughDespair (1979-West German) C-119m. able use of music, with daughter-victim ★★★ D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Dirk you’ll beg to see coldcocked. Cimino’s unBogarde, Andrea Ferreol, Volker Spengmotivated, kamikaze disrobings of attorney ler, Klaus Lowitsch. Playwright Tom Lynch have already entered the realm of Stoppard’s adaptation of the Nabokov novel modern movie folklore. [R]▼●쩠 concentrates too many of its wittiest lines Desperate Journey (1942) 107m. ★★★ D: in the first third, but the film still has its Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Raymond Masmoments. Bogarde is brilliant as the Russey, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Coleman, Alan sian e´migre´ who runs a German chocolate Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Albert Basserman. factory as Nazis start to take power.▼ Spirited WW2 drama of American pilots Desperado (1995) C-106m. ★★ D: Robert stranded in Germany, struggling to cross borRodriguez. Antonio Banderas, Joaquim de der; forgivable propaganda interludes.Wait till you see Reagan doubletalk Nazi.▼ Almeida, Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi, Cheech Marin, Quentin Tarantino, Carlos Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) C-104m. ★★★ Gomez, Angel Aviles, Danny Trejo, Tito D: Susan Seidelman. Rosanna Arquette, Larriva. A mysterious stranger arrives in a Madonna, Aidan Quinn, Mark Blum, RobMexican town, seeking revenge on the local ert Joy, Laurie Metcalf, Steven Wright, crime boss. Opens with an amusing shaggyRichard Hell, Ann Magnuson, Richard Eddog sequence featuring Buscemi and Marin son, John Lurie, Anne Carlisle, John and grabs your attention with its hyperkinetic Turturro. Delightfully offbeat, original comscenes of gunplay, but soon it becomes clear edy about a bored suburban housewife that the film has no story—and no point. whose fascination with a kooky character Physical attraction of Banderas and leading she’s read about in the personal ads leads lady Hayek provides its only pizazz. This is to her being mistaken for the woman herRodriguez’s reworking of his inventive self. Sort of an upscale underground film, inventively directed by Seidelman, though debut picture, EL MARIACHI. [R]▼●쩠 Desperados, The (1969) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: it doesn’t sustain its buoyancy straight to Henry Levin. Vince Edwards, Jack Palance, the end. [PG-13]▼●쩠 George Maharis, Neville Brand, Sylvia Desperate Measures (1998) C-105m. ★1⁄2 Syms. Civil War deserters ravage the West. D: Barbet Schroeder. Michael Keaton, Not bad. [M]▼ Andy Garcia, Marcia Gay Harden, Brian [ 347 ]

Cox, Joseph Cross. Offensively stupid thrilsythe makes his film debut. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 ler about San Francisco cop Garcia and the amount of physical damage he unintentionDestiny Turns On the Radio (1995) Cally causes when he finds a potential bone 101m. BOMB D: Jack Baran. Dylan Mcmarrow donor for his dying son: hardened Dermott, Nancy Travis, Quentin Tarantino, con Keaton. About as bad as a movie can James Belushi, James LeGros, Janet Carget from a reputable filmmaker. Try to figroll, David Cross, Richard Edson, Bobcat ure out how many charges Garcia would Goldthwait, Barry ‘‘Shabaka’’ Henley, Lisa eventually be brought up on in real life! Jane Persky, Sarah Trigger, Tracey Walter, [R]▼●쩠 Allen Garfield. Escaped convict goes to Las Desperate Trail, The (1994) C-93m. ★★★ Vegas to reclaim his girlfriend and a stash D: P. J. Pesce. Sam Elliott, Craig Sheffer, of loot he left with his partner at the Marilyn Linda Fiorentino, Bradley Whitford, Frank Motel. However, Fate—in the form of a Whaley, John Furlong, Robin Westphal, mysterious dude named Destiny—has its Boots Southerland. Tough, original Western own agenda. Pseudo-hip script, utterly besaga released direct to video, with Elliott as reft of wit, is directed with no energy. A an unforgiving marshal whose plan to decomplete waste of time. [R]▼● liver Fiorentino to the hangman goes awry Destroy All Monsters! (1968-Japanese) Cwhen she flees with genteel outlaw Sheffer. 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ishiro Honda. Akira Kubo, Well-written (and well-acted) Western with Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi, Yoshio interesting characters, some potent violence, Tsuchiya, Kyoko Ai, Andrew Hughes. More and surprises in store to the very end of the Toho monsters than there are in heaven (intrail. [R]▼●쩠 cluding A-listers Godzilla, Mothra, and Destination Gobi (1953) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rodan) are assembled for this good-natured Robert Wise. Richard Widmark, Don Taymonster’s ball, as they initially threaten to lor, Casey Adams, Murvyn Vye, Darryl destroy Earth under the control of female Hickman, Martin Milner. Unusual WW2 aliens, then are redirected by humans to do actioner involving U.S. naval men joining battle with an obstinate King Ghidorah. forces with natives against Japanese asNinth Godzilla movie, originally intended saults; nice action sequences. as a grand finale, is an enjoyable romp, with Destination Mars! (2002) 80m. ★★★ D: a rousing score by series mainstay Akira Richard Lowry. Blane Wheatley, Jessica Ifukube. More or less remade in 2004 as Schroeder, Bobby Harwell, Henry Amitai, GODZILLA: FINAL WARS. Tohoscope. [G] 쩠 Sheila K, Blake Manion, Adrian Marinovich. Irresistible parody of tacky 1950s sci-fi Destroyer (1943) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: William movies—and Ed Wood’s PLAN 9 FROM Seiter. Edward G. Robinson, Glenn Ford, OUTER SPACE in particular—done in lowMarguerite Chapman, Edgar Buchanan, grade black & white, with dialogue, cosLeo Gorcey, Regis Toomey, Ed Brophy. tumes, and so-called special effects to Predictable wartime drama: aging seaman match. Trouble begins when Martians disRobinson shown up by novice Ford; of cover that earthlings have built an Atmos course Eddie comes through in the end. ▼ 4X Vaporizer that can wipe out whole planDestructors, The (1974-British) C-89m. ★★★ ets. Everyone plays it straight, which is why D: Robert Parrish. Anthony Quinn, this is such fun to watch. Even the names in Michael Caine, James Mason, Maureen the credits are a gag. Written by Tor Lowry. Kerwin, Marcel Bozzufi, Maurice Ronet, The same team later reunited for MONAlexandra Stewart. Good Paris-localed ARCH OF THE MOON.쩠 crime melodrama with Quinn a U.S. drug Destination Moon (1950) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 agent out to stop kingpin Mason. An aniD: Irving Pichel. John Archer, Warner Andermated Caine is fine as a likable assassin. son, Tom Powers, Dick Wesson, Erin Original title: THE MARSEILLE CONO’Brien-Moore. One of the pioneer sci-fi TRACT. [PG]▼ films about the first manned expedition to the Destry (1954) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: George moon, modestly mounted but still effective. Marshall. Audie Murphy, Mari Blanchard, Striking lunar paintings by Chesley Bonestell. Lyle Bettger, Lori Nelson, Thomas MitchWon an Oscar for its special effects. Produced ell, Edgar Buchanan, Wallace Ford. Audie by George Pal; coscripted by Robert Heinlein. is gun-shy sheriff who tames town and Woody Woodpecker makes a ‘‘guest appeardance-hall girl without violence. The 1939 ance.’’ ▼●쩠 version—DESTRY RIDES AGAIN—is still ★★★ Destination Tokyo (1943) 135m. D: unsurpassed. Later a TV series. Delmer Daves. Cary Grant, John Garfield, Destry Rides Again (1939) 94m. ★★★★ Alan Hale, John Ridgely, Dane Clark, D: George Marshall. James Stewart, MarWarner Anderson, William Prince. Suslene Dietrich, Charles Winninger, Brian penseful WW2 account of U.S. submarine Donlevy, Una Merkel, Mischa Auer, Alsent into Japanese waters and interaction len Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Jack Carson, among crew. Commander Grant, seamen Billy Gilbert, Samuel S. Hinds. SlamGarfield and Clark ring true. John Forbang, action-filled Western satire, with [ 348 ]

Stewart taming rowdy town without viosorbing brinkmanship thriller in the vein of lence and tangling with boisterous danceFAIL-SAFE, with Pollak (admittedly, an hall girl Dietrich. Marlene sings ‘‘See What unlikely choice for President of the U.S.) the Boys in the Back Room Will Have’’ in stranded in a Colorado diner during a snowthis Max Brand story, filmed before in storm, having to make a tough decision 1932, then again in 1950 (as FRENCHIE), about firing a nuclear weapon, and involvand in 1954 (as DESTRY). Screenplay by ing the civilians who happen to be there in Felix Jackson, Gertrude Purcell, and Henry the mounting drama. Contrived but excitMyers. Simply wonderful.▼●쩠 ing; feature writing-directing debut for film critic Lurie. [R]▼쩠 Detective, The (1954-British) 91m. ★★★ D: Robert Hamer. Alec Guinness, Joan Detour (1945) 69m. ★★★ D: Edgar G. Greenwood, Peter Finch, Cecil Parker, Ulmer. Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Bernard Lee, Sidney James, Ernest TheDrake, Edmund MacDonald, Tim Ryan, Essiger. Guinness is in rare form as G. K. ther Howard. Now-legendary B movie, Chesterton’s clerical sleuth after stolen art filmed in less than a week, is the quintestreasures; another British gem, superbly sence of film noir. Neal is a hitchhiking cast. British title: FATHER BROWN.▼ drifter who has the misfortune to become ★★★ D: Detective, The (1968) C-114m. involved with a formidable femme fatale Gordon Douglas. Frank Sinatra, Lee Rem(Savage, in an unforgettable performance). ick, Ralph Meeker, Jacqueline Bisset, Ulmer makes the most of his meager budWilliam Windom, Al Freeman, Tony Muget. Written by Martin Goldsmith. Remade in 1992 with Tom Neal, Jr.▼●쩠 sante, Jack Klugman, Robert Duvall. Trashy script, based on Roderick Thorpe’s best-sellDetroit Heat SEE: Detroit 9000 Detroit 9000 (1973) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Aring novel, pits cops against homosexuals; more than redeemed by fast, no-nonsense dithur Marks. Alex Rocco, Hari Rhodes, rection, good acting, particularly by Sinatra Vonetta McGee, Ella Edwards, Scatman and Freeman. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Crothers. Cops pursue jewel thieves. Bloody Detective (1985-French) C-95m. ★★ D: blaxploitation entry with an integrated Jean-Luc Godard. Claude Brasseur, Nathacast. Aka DETROIT HEAT. [R]▼●쩠 lie Baye, Johnny Hallyday, Laurent TerzDetroit Rock City (1999) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: ieff, Jean-Pierre Le´aud, Alain Cuny, StephAdam Rifkin. Edward Furlong, Giuseppe ane Ferrara, Julie Delpy. The scenario takes Andrews, James De Bello, Sam Huntington, a backseat in this talky, contrived film noir Lin Shaye, Natasha Lyonne, Shannon Tweed, homage about a variety of characters and Joe Flaherty, KISS. Ultra-dopey teen flick their business and intrigues in an elegant about four teenagers trying to scam tickets for Paris hotel. The look and feel are uniquely a KISS concert, circa 1978. Lots of crude of the director, but it’s ultimately annoying, physical comedy and head-banging metal more a concept than a movie. Godard dedianthems, but that’s the point. Plays like a cated this to John Cassavetes, Edgar G. cross between I WANNA HOLD YOUR Ulmer, and Clint Eastwood!▼쩠 HAND and an episode of That ’70s Show. Detective Story (1951) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Shaye’s a hoot as a bewigged mom on a William Wyler. Kirk Douglas, Eleanor crusade to stop rock ’n’ roll. The original Parker, Horace McMahon, William Bendix, tongue-wagging glam rockers appear only briefly at the end. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Lee Grant, Craig Hill, Cathy O’Donnell, Bert Freed, George Macready, Joseph Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo (2005) Wiseman, Gladys George, Frank Faylen, C-83m. BOMB D: Mike Mitchell. Rob Luis van Rooten, Warner Anderson, MiSchneider, Eddie Griffin, Jeroen Krabbe´, Til chael Strong, Gerald Mohr. Sidney KingsSchweiger, Douglas Sills, Carlos Ponce, ley’s once-forceful play about life at a Charles Keating, Hanna Verboom. Ads for N.Y.C. police precinct has lost much of its this woefully unfunny sequel show Schneipunch, but is still a fine film. Well cast, der sitting under a phallic Leaning Tower of with Douglas a bitter detective, Parker his Pisa that appears to be protruding from his ignored wife, and Bendix, in one of his best groin area. This would have been the film’s roles, a sympathetic colleague. McMahon best joke—except it’s not in the film; nor is (the shrewd precinct head), Wiseman (an any other form of humor. Deuce is sent to hysterical thief), Grant (unforgettable as a Holland to train as a high-end Euro man frightened shoplifter), and Strong (another whore. When he discovers some of his felthief) re-create their Broadway roles. This low gigolos are being killed, he jumps was Grant’s first film—and also her last— undercover(s). Can we possibly prevent anbefore being blacklisted. Screenplay by other sequel? Famous faces appear in camPhilip Yordan and Robert Wyler (the direceos, if that matters to you. [R] ▼쩠 tor’s brother).쩠 Deuce Bigalow Male Gigolo (1999) CDeterrence (2000) C-101m. ★★★ D: Rod 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Mitchell. Rob SchneiLurie. Kevin Pollak, Timothy Hutton, der, William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin, Arija Sheryl Lee Ralph, Sean Astin, Badja Djola, Bareikis, Oded Fehr, Gail O’Grady, RichMark Thompson, Michael Mantell. Abard Riehle, Jacqueline Obradors, Big Boy. [ 349 ]

Professional fish-tank cleaner breaks an exhospital in midst of lava flow. Stars are lost in weak film.▼●쩠 pensive tank, and in order to pay for it beDevil Bat, The (1941) 69m. ★★ D: Jean comes a gigolo. (Why not?) Potty humor Yarbrough. Bela Lugosi, Suzanne Kaaren, and outlandish situations abound, but Dave O’Brien, Guy Usher, Yolande Mallott Schneider’s character is surprisingly likable (Donlan), Donald Kerr. Lugosi raises bats in this silly comedy. Followed by a sequel. and trains them to suck victims’ blood on [R]▼쩠 cue. One of Lugosi’s more notorious picDeuces Wild (2002) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Scott tures, and fairly entertaining. Aka KILLER Kalvert. Stephen Dorff, Brad Renfro, FairBATS. Reworked as THE FLYING SERuza Balk, Norman Reedus, Frankie Muniz, PENT. Sequel: DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHMatt Dillon, Balthazar Getty, Max Perlich, TER. ▼●쩠 Deborah Harry, Drea DeMatteo, Vincent Devil Bat’s Daughter (1946) 66m. ★★ D: Pastore, James Franco, Johnny Knoxville, Frank Wisbar. Rosemary La Planche, Molly Louis Lombardi. Empty-headed, cliche´d Lamont, John James, Ed Cassidy. In this dud, a WEST SIDE STORY wannabe set in sequel to THE DEVIL BAT, La Planche Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in the late 1950s. is thought to have inherited the murderous The Deuces are a good-guy gang and the tendencies of her late father, but in a bizarre Vipers are a bad-guy gang; temperatures turn of events, Dad turns out to have been rise upon the release from prison of the a kindly researcher (contradicting the first Viper punk (Reedus) who sold a deadly film entirely!).▼쩠 dose of heroin to the brother of Deuces Devil Commands, The (1941) 65m. ★★1⁄2 Dorff and Renfro. An interesting cast is D: Edward Dmytryk. Boris Karloff, Amanda wasted. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Duff, Richard Fiske, Anne Revere, Ralph Devil, The SEE: To Bed . . . or Not to Penny, Dorothy Adams, Kenneth MacDonBed ald. Improbable but intriguing chiller of Devil and Daniel Webster, The (1941) scientist Karloff obsessed with idea of com85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Dieterle. Edward municating with dead wife. Predictable Arnold, Walter Huston, James Craig, Anne but fun. Only debit: the absurd narration.쩠 Shirley, Jane Darwell, Simone Simon, Gene Devil Dogs of the Air (1935) 86m. ★★ D: Lockhart, John Qualen, H. B. Warner. SteLloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, phen Vincent Benet’s story is a visual Margaret Lindsay, Frank McHugh. Tiredelight, with Huston’s sparkling perforsome potboiler with Marine Air Corps mance as Mr. Scratch (the Devil) matched rivalry between Cagney and O’Brien. Their by Arnold as the loquacious Webster. Oscarpersonalities, and good stunt-flying scenes, winning score by Bernard Herrmann, cineare only saving grace.▼ matography by Joseph August, and special Devil-Doll, The (1936) 79m. ★★★ D: Tod effects by Vernon L. Walker all superb. Browning. Lionel Barrymore, Maureen Screenplay by the author and Dan Totheroh. O’Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Robert Greig, Cut for reissue in 1952; restored to 107m. Lucy Beaumont, Henry B. Walthall, Grace for home video, adding interesting material Ford, Rafaela Ottiano. Very entertaining missing from other extant prints. Aka ALL yarn of Devil’s Island escapee Barrymore THAT MONEY CAN BUY and DANIEL shrinking humans to doll size to carry out AND THE DEVIL. ▼●쩠 nefarious schemes. Coscripted by Erich Devil and Max Devlin, The (1981) C-96m. von Stroheim.▼●쩠 ★★ D: Steven Hilliard Stern. Elliott Gould, Devil Doll (1964-British) 80m. ★★★ D: Bill Cosby, Susan Anspach, Adam Rich, Lindsay Shonteff. Bryant Haliday, WilJulie Budd, David Knell. Gould returns to liam Sylvester, Yvonne Romain, Philip life to recruit three innocent souls for Ray. Obscure, underrated mystery features devil Cosby. Undistinguished Disney fare. an eerily effective Haliday as a hypnotist[PG]▼쩠 ventriloquist trying to transfer Romain’s soul Devil and Miss Jones, The (1941) 92m. into that of a dummy, as he had already done ★★★1⁄2 D: Sam Wood. Jean Arthur, Robert with his onetime assistant. An exquisitely taiCummings, Charles Coburn, Spring Byinglored, sharply edited sleeper.▼쩠 ton, Edmund Gwenn, S.Z. Sakall, WilDevil in a Blue Dress (1995) C-102m. ★★1 liam Demarest. Delightful social comedy ⁄2 D: Carl Franklin. Denzel Washington, by Norman Krasna; millionaire Coburn Tom Sizemore, Jennifer Beals, Don masquerades as clerk in his own departCheadle, Maury Chaykin, Terry Kinney, ment store to investigate employee comMel Winkler, Albert Hall, Lisa Nicole Carplaints. A must.▼ son, Jernard Burks, Barry Shabaka Henley. Devil at 4 O’Clock, The (1961) C-126m. It’s L.A., 1948; Washington is unemployed ★★1⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Spencer Tracy, and thus easy prey for a hood who needs a Frank Sinatra, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Kerwin favor done. All he has to do is find an eluMathews, Barbara Luna. Static production, sive white woman, the former fiance´e of a not saved by volcanic eruption climax, involvmayoral candidate. Oozing with atmosphere ing priest Tracy helping to evacuate children’s and period detail, but the look and feel over[ 350 ]

whelm the convoluted (and not always comhostel, casts spells over its ‘‘permanent pelling) story. Washington is terrific in a residents.’’ The convent is more like a tailor-made part as Easy Rawlins; adapted psycho ward than a place for religious from Walter Mosley’s novel. Black point of meditation. Indifferently acted, technically view is the film’s strong suit, making it atrocious. Widescreen. [R]▼ unique in the film noir genre. [R] ▼●쩠 Devil Makes Three, The (1952) 96m. ★★ Devil in Love, The (1966-Italian) 97m. D: Andrew Marton. Gene Kelly, Pier ★1⁄2 D: Ettore Scola. Vittorio Gassman, Angeli, Richard Egan, Claus Clausen. Kelly Mickey Rooney, Claudine Auger, Ettore (none too convincing in one of his rare nonManni, Annabella Incontrera. Gassman musicals) plays a soldier returning to Mucomes up from Hell during the French nich to thank family who helped him during Renaissance to botch up an impending WW2; he becomes involved with daughter peace between Rome and Florence, but Angeli and black market gangs. Devils, The (1971-British) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 loses his powers when he falls for Auger. Comedy is both heavy-handed and unfunny. D: Ken Russell. Oliver Reed, Vanessa Devil in the Flesh (1946-French) 110m. Redgrave, Dudley Sutton, Max Adrian, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Autant-Lara. Ge´rard Gemma Jones, Murray Melvin, Michael Philipe, Micheline Presle, Denise Grey, Gothard. Fine performances save confused Jacques Tati. Exquisitely filmed, compasmixture of history, comedy, and surrealsionate story of WW1 love affair between ism in wide-eyed adaptation of Whiting married woman and sensitive high school play and Huxley book dealing with witchstudent. Controversial in its day because of craft and politics in 17th-century France. sensual love scenes and cuckolding of solA mad movie, with fiery finale not for the dier husband. Remade in 1986.▼ squeamish. Original British version is 12 Devil in the Flesh (1986-Italian-French) minutes longer. Panavision. [R—edited from original X version]▼ C-110m. ★★★ D: Marco Bellocchio. Maruschka Detmers, Federico Pitzalis, Anita Devil’s Advocate, The (1997) C-144m. ★★★ D: Taylor Hackford. Al Pacino, Keanu Laurenzi, Riccardo De Torrebruna. Director Bellocchio remakes and updates the Reeves, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Ju1946 French classic as another of his studdith Ivey, Connie Nielsen, Craig T. Nelson, ies of madness. Dutch actress Detmers Tamara Tunie, Debra Monk, Heather Maburns up the screen as the going-nutty tarazzo. Wild, over-the-top movie about a beauty torn between her terrorist boyfriend young hotshot lawyer from Florida who’s (De Torrebruna) and a handsome young recruited to join a sleek N.Y.C. firm run boy (Pitzalis). Reportedly the first mainby a charming megalomaniac (Pacino) who stream film in which a respected actress earmarks the newcomer for Big Things. But was involved in an explicitly pornographic there are devilish hints that all is not right. sex scene. Available in both R- and X-rated Reeves is completely believable, and Pacino versions.▼●쩠 gives a delicious, pull-out-the-stops perforDevil in the House of Exorcism SEE: Lisa mance as his manipulative mentor. The film and the Devil goes on too long, but it’s spiked with arDevil Is a Sissy, The (1936) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: resting scenes and fine performances. Great W. S. Van Dyke. Freddie Bartholomew, showcase, too, for Theron as Reeves’ imMickey Rooney, Jackie Cooper, Ian Huntpressionable wife. Delroy Lindo appears er, Peggy Conklin, Katherine Alexander. unbilled. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Three top juvenile stars outclass their maDevil’s Angels (1967) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Danterial in this rambling, episodic tale of iel Haller. John Cassavetes, Beverly Adams, tenement-district pals and British newcomer Mimsy Farmer, Leo Gordon. Killer cyclists (Bartholomew) who tries to join their gang.쩠 head for outlaw sanctuary breaking everyDevil Is a Woman, The (1935) 83m. ★★★ thing in their way. Lurid and cheap. D: Josef von Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich, Panavision. [PG]▼ Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero, Edward Devil’s Backbone, The (2001-SpanishEverett Horton, Alison Skipworth. SumpMexican) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Guillermo del tuous-looking film about alluring but heartToro. Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, less woman and the men who all but ruin Federico Luppi, In˜igo Garce´s, Fernando their lives for her, set against backdrop of Tielve, Irene Visedo, Berta Ojea. A remote 19th-century Spanish revolution. Hypnotoutpost serves as a school and shelter for ic, if dramatically shaky; Luis Bun˜uel used displaced boys in the midst of the Spanish same source material for THAT OBSCURE Civil War . . . and harbors the ghost of OBJECT OF DESIRE.▼쩠 one youngster whose spirit cannot rest. A Devil Is a Woman, The (1975-Italian) fascinating ghost story with multiple layers, C-105m. BOMB D: Damiano Damiani. strikingly shot and designed. Cowritten by Glenda Jackson, Adolfo Celi, Lisa Harthe director, Antonio Trashorras, and David Mun˜oz. [R]▼쩠 row, Claudio Cassinelli, Arnoldo Foa, Francisco Rabal. Ponderous, superficial meloDevil’s Bride, The (1968-British) C-95m. ★★★ D: Terence Fisher. Christopher Lee, drama: Jackson, the head of a religious [ 351 ]

Charles Gray, Nike Arrighi, Patrick Mower, Sarah Lawson, Paul Eddington. Taut filming of Dennis Wheatley novel. Duc de Richleau (Lee) assists young friend under spell of Mocate, ultra-evil Satanist. Watch out for that climax! British title: THE DEVIL RIDES OUT. [G]▼●쩠 Devil’s Brigade, The (1968) C-130m. ★★ D: Andrew V. McLaglen. William Holden, Cliff Robertson, Vince Edwards, Michael Rennie, Dana Andrews, Carroll O’Connor, Gretchen Wyler, Andrew Prine, Claude Akins, Richard Jaeckel, Paul Hornung, Patric Knowles, James Craig, Richard Dawson. Standard WW2 fare about reckless recruits fashioned into creditable fighting unit; goes on far too long. Holden is wasted. Panavision.▼●쩠 Devil’s Brother, The (1933) 88m. ★★★ D: Hal Roach, Charles R. Rogers. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Dennis King, Thelma Todd, James Finlayson, Henry Armetta. Stan and Ollie are at their best in this lively adaptation of a 19th-century comic opera, with King as a notorious bandit and our heroes as would-be robbers who become his helpmates. Reissued as BOGUS BANDITS. Originally titled FRA DIAVOLO.

▼●쩠

fair play on the track; obligatory racing scenes are above average. VistaVision. Devil-Ship Pirates (1964-British) C-89m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Don Sharp, Christopher Lee, Andrew Keir, Michael Ripper, John Cairney. Good little movie of stray Spanish ships conquering English countryside, unaware Armada has been defeated. Megascope.쩠 Devil’s Impostor, The SEE: Pope Joan Devil’s Island (1940) 62m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Clemens. Boris Karloff, Nedda Harrigan, James Stephenson, Adia Kuznetzoff, Will Stanton, Edward Keane. Aboveaverage Karloff vehicle of innocent doctor exiled to Devil’s Island, mistreated by supervisor Stephenson. Devil’s Men, The SEE: Land of the Minotaur Devil’s Messenger (1962-U.S.-Swedish) 72m. ★1⁄2 D: Curt Siodmak. Lon Chaney (Jr.), Karen Kadler, John Crawford, Michael Hinn. Sultry girl is sent to earth to help Satan carry out master plan that will envelop the world; hazy plot, poor production values. Originally three episodes of unsold TV series 13 Demon Street.▼쩠 Devil’s Own, The (1966-British) C-90m. ★★★ D: Cyril Frankel. Joan Fontaine, Kay Walsh, Alec McCowen, Ann Bell, Ingrid Brett, Gwen ffrangcon-Davies. Good Hammer chiller with Fontaine as headmistress of private school who learns that a student is to be sacrificed by a local voodoo cult. British title: THE WITCHES.▼●쩠 Devil’s Own, The (1997) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan J. Pakula. Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Margaret Colin, Ruben Blades, Treat Williams, George Hearn, Mitchell Ryan, Natascha McElhone, Simon Jones, Julia Stiles. Young Irish terrorist comes to N.Y.C. to broker an arms deal, and gets room and board from a straight-arrow cop who has no idea who he is. Watchable film has two charismatic stars playing deeply committed characters; their separate stories build in intensity, but when their lives finally intersect the story peters out. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Devil’s Playground, The (1976-Australian) C-107m. ★★★ D: Fred Schepisi. Arthur Dignam, Nick Tate, Simon Burke, Charles McCallum, John Frawley, Jonathan Hardy, Gerry Duggan. Young boys reaching puberty act out sexually while boarded at Roman Catholic school; meanwhile, their teachers have problems of their own. Pointed and well made, if a bit predictable.▼쩠 Devil’s Rain, The (1975) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Fuest. Ernest Borgnine, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Eddie Albert, Keenan Wynn, Joan Prather. Offbeat approach to story of Satanists provides some effective horror and also some unintentional humor. Most of the cast melts in a memorable finale. John Travolta makes his debut in a bit part. Todd-AO 35. [PG]

Devil’s Disciple, The (1959-British) 82m. ⁄2 D: Guy Hamilton. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott, Eva LeGallienne, Harry Andrews, Basil Sydney, George Rose, Neil McCallum, David Horne, Mervyn Johns. Sparkling adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s satire, set during American Revolution, with standout performances by star trio (notably Olivier as General Burgoyne, who serves as Shaw’s mouthpiece). Shows how, in Shaw’s view, the bumbling British managed to lose their colonies. Screenplay by John Dighton and Roland Kibbee.▼ Devil’s Doorway (1950) 84m. ★★★ D: Anthony Mann. Robert Taylor, Louis Calhern, Paula Raymond, Marshall Thompson, Edgar Buchanan. Well-turned Western with offbeat casting of Taylor as Indian who served in Civil War, returning home to find that he must fight to right the injustices done against his people. Devil’s Eye, The (1960-Swedish) 90m. ★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Jarl Kulle, Bibi Andersson, Nils Poppe, Sture Lagerwall. A woman’s chastity gives the Devil sty in his eye, so he sends Don Juan back to Earth from Hell to seduce her, but the modern-day woman finds his old-fashioned charm amusing rather than irresistible. Droll Bergman comedy is a bit slow, but witty and playful.▼ Devil’s Hairpin, The (1957) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cornel Wilde. Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Mary Astor, Arthur Franz. Wilde is reckless sports car champion who learns ▼●쩠 [ 352 ] ★★★1

Devil’s Rejects, The (2005) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 Coleman, Arthur Kennedy, Dame May D: Rob Zombie. Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Whitty. Powerful real-life story of Bronte¨ sisSheri Moon Zombie, Ken Foree, William ters becomes routine love triangle with HenForsythe, Geoffrey Lewis, Danny Trejo, reid in the middle; worthwhile for intense, Leslie Easterbrook, Priscilla Barnes. The dramatic performances. Made in 1943. D. I., The (1957) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack three killers from Zombie’s previous effort, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, go on a vioWebb. Jack Webb, Don Dubbins, Lin Mclent road trip and find themselves stalked by Carthy, Jackie Loughery, Monica Lewis, a sheriff who shares their sadistic tendenVirginia Gregg, Barbara Pepper. Ostensicies. Gripping horror film captures the bly realistic account of Marine basic trainmood and aesthetics of late ’60s/early ’70s ing is today a wonderful exercise in high exploitation films, but be warned: it’s relentcamp. Webb is emotionally empty serlessly violent, horrifying, and depressing. geant trying to whip his raw recruits (most Filled with B-movie celebrity cameos and of them played by actual soldiers) into retro counterculture themes. Also available shape; stubborn Dubbins is the chief thorn in unrated version. [R] ▼쩠 in his side. Sequence where soldiers search Devil’s Undead, The SEE: Nothing but for a ‘‘murdered’’ sand flea is priceless. the Night Story reused 13 years later (but with a difDevil’s Wanton, The (1949-Swedish) 72m. ferent outcome) for a TVM, TRIBES.▼쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Doris Svedlund, Diabolical Dr. Mabuse, The SEE: 1,000 Birger Malmsten, Eva Henning, Hasse EkEyes of Dr. Mabuse, The man. Sober account of desperate girl findDiabolik SEE Danger: Diabolik ing romance with another equally unhappy Diabolique (1955-French) 114m. ★★★1⁄2 soul, reaffirming their faith in humanity. D: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Simone SigNot released in U.S. until 1962.▼ noret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Devil’s Widow, The SEE: Ballad of Tam Vanel, Michel Serrault. Tyrannical schoolLin, The master (Meurisse) is bumped off by his Devil Wears Prada, The (2006) C-109m. long-suffering wife (Clouzot) and mistress ★★★ D: David Frankel. Meryl Streep, Anne (Signoret). Classic chiller builds slowly, Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Simon Baker, surely to final quarter hour that will drive Emily Blunt, Adrian Grenier, David Marshall you right up the wall. A must. Older AmeriGrant, James Naughton, Tracie Thoms, Recan prints run 107m. Aka LES DIAbecca Mader, Gisele Bu¨ndchen. Slick adaptaBOLIQUES; remade for U.S. TV as tion of Lauren Weisberger’s bestselling REFLECTIONS OF MURDER (1974) and roman a` clef about working as personal assisHOUSE OF SECRETS (1993), and for thetant to the fashion magazine editor from hell. aters in 1996. Rereleased theatrically in Streep dominates the proceedings with a 1994 with 9m. of footage edited out of original U.S. theatrical version.▼●쩠 wonderfully nuanced performance, never veering toward caricature; Hathaway is just Diabolique (1996) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Jereright as the naı¨ve college grad who gets a miah Chechik. Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, crash course in office politics and survival at Chazz Palminteri, Kathy Bates, Spalding the risk of losing her devoted boyfriend. Nice Gray, Shirley Knight, Allen Garfield, Adam work, too, from Tucci (as one of Streep’s Hann-Byrd, Clea Lewis. Top-notch cast loyal editors) and Blunt (as her long-suffering founders in this amazingly monotonous (not first assistant). Several fashionistas appear as to mention crude and embarrassing) redo of themselves. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 the 1955 classic, with Palminteri cast as the Devil Within Her, The (1975-British) unmerciful schoolmaster, Stone his icy, C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Sasdy. Joan Collins, murderous mistress, and Adjani his more Eileen Atkins, Donald Pleasence, Ralph reserved wife. This dreary film thoroughly Bates, Caroline Munro, Hilary Mason, John trashes the memory of the original—and Steiner. Collins’ newborn baby is poseven the made-for-TV remakes! [R]▼●쩠 sessed. Another idiotic ROSEMARY’S Diagnosis: Murder (1975-British) C-95m. ★★★ BABY/EXORCIST rip-off. Aka I DON’T D: Sidney Hayers. Christopher Lee, WANT TO BE BORN. [R]▼ Judy Geeson, Jon Finch, Tony Beckley, Devonsville Terror, The (1983) C-82m. Dilys Hamlett, Jane Merrow. Psychiatrist ★★ is drawn into bizarre sequence of events D: Ulli Lommel. Suzanna Love, Robert Walker, Donald Pleasence, Paul Wilson. when his wife disappears and he is accused Love (wife of German director Lommel) of murdering her. Solid little suspenser. is the new teacher in the town of DevDial M for Murder (1954) C-105m. ★★★ onsville, a burg haunted by a witch’s D: Alfred Hitchcock. Ray Milland, Grace curse from 300 years ago. Copycat horror Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams, film steals its climax directly from RAIDAnthony Dawson. Frederick Knott’s suspense play of man plotting wife’s murder ERS OF THE LOST ARK.▼쩠 1 ★★ Devotion (1946) 107m. and subsequent police investigation: stagey ⁄2 D: Curtis Bernhardt. Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, at times but slick and entertaining. Filmed Paul Henreid, Sydney Greenstreet, Nancy in 3-D. Remade for TV in 1981 with Angie [ 353 ]

Dickinson and Christopher Plummer, and in stashed away decades ago. A tailor-made ve1998 as A PERFECT MURDER.▼●쩠 hicle for Douglas makes excellent use of his Diamond Earrings SEE: Earrings of Mamacho image, his movie past (through clips dame de . . . , The from CHAMPION showing him in the ring), Diamond Head (1963) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: and even his real-life stroke in telling its likable, sentimental story. [PG-13]▼쩠 Guy Green. Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux, George Chakiris, France Nuyen, James Diamonds Are Forever (1971-British) Darren, Aline MacMahon, Elizabeth Allen. C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Guy Hamilton. Sean Soap opera set in Hawaii with Heston the Connery, Jill St. John, Charles Gray, Lana domineering head of his family, whose dictates Wood, Jimmy Dean, Bruce Cabot, Bruce almost ruin their lives. Panavision.▼●쩠 Glover, Putter Smith, Bernard Lee, Lois Diamond Horseshoe (1945) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Leonard D: George Seaton. Betty Grable, Dick Barr, Laurence Naismith, Marc Lawrence. Haymes, Phil Silvers, William Gaxton, After a one-picture hiatus, Connery returned Beatrice Kay, Carmen Cavallaro, Margaas James Bond in this colorful comic-book ret Dumont. Musical performer Grable has adventure set in Las Vegas; closer in spirit to choose between a long-cherished dream to Republic serials than Ian Fleming, but great fun. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 of luxury and life with struggling med student-cum-singer Haymes. Colorful esDiamond’s Edge SEE: Just Ask for capism, with good Harry Warren–Mack Diamond Gordon songs: ‘‘The More I See You,’’ ‘‘I Diamonds for Breakfast (1968-British) C-102m. ★★ D: Christopher Morahan. Wish I Knew.’’ Original title: BILLY ROSE’S DIAMOND HORSESHOE. Marcello Mastroianni, Rita Tushingham, Diamond Hunters SEE: Death in the Warren Mitchell, Elaine Taylor, Francisca Garden Tu, Maggie Blye. Son of Russian nobleDiamond Jim (1935) 93m. ★★★ D: A. man tries to steal royal diamonds his father Edward Sutherland. Edward Arnold, Jean gambled away on the night of his birth. Arthur, Binnie Barnes, Cesar Romero, Eric Offbeat comedy caper with fantasy eleBlore. Big-budget biography of eccentric ments just doesn’t work, relies heavily on millionaire of 19th century whose appetite Mastroianni charm. [M/PG] for money is only matched by love of food Diamond Skulls SEE: Dark Obsession and Lillian Russell; Arthur has dual role in Diamonds of the Night (1964-Czech) 71m. ★★★1 re-creation of Gay ’90s era. Most entertain⁄2 D: Jan Nemec. Ladislav Jansky, ing. Screenplay by Preston Sturges. Antonin Kumbera, Ilse Bischofova. Nemec’s Diamond Lust SEE: Kingfisher Caper, first feature is a landmark of the ill-fated The Czech ‘‘New Wave’’: a haunting, starDiamond Men (2001) C-100m. ★★★ D: tlingly directed chronicle of two Jewish Daniel M. Cohen. Robert Forster, Donnie boys’ experiences after escaping from a Wahlberg, Jasmine Guy, Bess Armstrong, train heading for a Nazi death camp during George Coe, Kristen Minter. A veteran diaWW2. Scripted by Nemec and Arnost Lusmond salesman, about to be put out to pastig (based on the latter’s story).▼ ture, agrees to break in a ‘‘new guy’’ on his Diane (1956) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Miller. route in Pennsylvania. As the older man imLana Turner, Pedro Armendariz, Roger parts his wisdom, the younger man tries to Moore, Marisa Pavan, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, help his widowed mentor open himself up to Henry Daniell. Although predictable, medifemale companionship. A small but irresisteval romance has good cast, gorgeous sets ibly likable film, anchored by Forster’s solid and costumes, and comes off surprisingly performance, which even makes an off-kilter well. Lana looks lovely, and Miklos Rozsa’s denouement palatable. Written by the direcscore helps set the mood. CinemaScope. tor. ▼쩠 ▼● Diamonds (1975-Israeli) C-101m. ★★ D: Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) 87m. ★★ D: Jean Renoir. Paulette Goddard, Hurd Menahem Golan. Robert Shaw, Richard Roundtree, Shelley Winters, Barbara (HerHatfield, Francis Lederer, Burgess Meredith, shey) Seagull, Shai K. Ophir. OK heist movie Judith Anderson, Irene Ryan, Florence Bates, with Shaw in dual role, as diamond merchant Reginald Owen. Uneasy attempt at Contiwho masterminds break-in at Tel Aviv dianental-style romantic melodrama, with mond vault and twin brother who designed blonde Goddard as outspoken maid who the security system there. Good location work arouses all sorts of emotions in her snooty in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. [PG]▼쩠 household. Tries hard, but never really sure Diamonds (1999) C-91m. ★★★ D: John of what it wants to be. Meredith as nutsy Asher. Kirk Douglas, Dan Aykroyd, Corbin neighbor and Ryan as timid scullery maid do Allred, Lauren Bacall, Kurt Fuller, Jenny their best; Meredith also coproduced and McCarthy, Mariah O’Brien, John Landis. An wrote the screenplay. Remade in 1964. ▼ elderly ex-boxer goes on a trip with his alienDiary of a Chambermaid (1964-French) ated son and loving grandson that winds up 87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. Jeanne Moin Reno, where he searches for diamonds he reau, Michel Piccoli, Georges Geret, [ 354 ]

Francoise Lugagne, Daniel Ivernel, Jean Meskill. Interesting but pointless story of Ozenne. Remake of Jean Renoir’s 1946 harried N.Y.C. wife finding much needed film concerns fascism in France in 1939 release via affair with self-centered Lanand how the bourgeoisie are viewed by gella. Asinine husband Benjamin would maid Moreau. Sharp, unrelenting film from drive anyone mad. Peter Boyle has promione of the great directors. Franscope. ▼●쩠 nent bit in final scene. Script by Eleanor Diary of a Country Priest (1950-French) Perry from Sue Kaufman’s novel. [R]▼ 120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Bresson. Claude Diary of a Madman (1963) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Laydu, Nicole Ladmiral, Jean Riveyre, D: Reginald Le Borg. Vincent Price, Nancy Nicole Maurey, Andre Guibert, Martine Kovack, Chris Warfield, Ian Wolfe, NelLemaire. The life and death of an unhappy son Olmstead. 19th-century magistrate Price young priest attempting to minister to his is possessed by an evil spirit called the first parish in rural France. Slow moving Horla, which compels him to murder. Colbut rewarding, with brilliantly stylized orful but routine. Based on a story by Guy direction. Bresson also scripted.▼●쩠 de Maupassant.▼● Diary of a Hitman (1992) C-91m. ★★★ D: Diary of Anne Frank, The (1959) 170m. ★★★1 Roy London. Forest Whitaker, John ⁄2 D: George Stevens. Millie Perkins, Bedford-Lloyd, James Belushi, Lois Chiles, Joseph Schildkraut, Shelley Winters, RichSharon Stone, Sherilyn Fenn, Seymour ard Beymer, Lou Jacobi, Diane Baker, Ed Cassel, Lewis Smith. Assassin-for-hire Wynn. Meticulously produced version of Whitaker plans to retire after one last job, Broadway drama dealing with Jewish refubut his intended victim (Fenn) tries to congees hiding in WW2 Amsterdam. Unfortuvince him to spare her. Riveting little thriller nately, Perkins never captures pivotal charm is well directed and extremely well acted by of title character, though Schildkraut is all (with kudos to Whitaker and especially fine as father Frank. Winters won Supporting Fenn). Scripted by Kenneth Pressman, based Actress Oscar as shrill Mrs. Van Daan, ever on his play Insider’s Price. [R]▼● fearful of Nazi arrest, and the cinematograDiary of a Lost Girl (1929-German) 104m. phy (William C. Mellor) and art direction★★★1⁄2 D: G. W. Pabst. Louise Brooks, set decoration also earned Academy Awards. Fritz Rasp, Josef Ravensky, Sybille Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett utilized Schmitz, Valeska Gert. Pabst and Brooks’ Anne’s diary for their stage play and its followup to their PANDORA’S BOX is screen adaptation. Later cut to 156m. Remade even more sordid, yet in some ways more several times. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 intriguing: Louise is, in succession, raped, Diary of Forbidden Dreams SEE: What? gives birth, is put in a detention home, Diary of Oharu SEE: Life of Oharu, The Diary of the Dead (2008) C-95m. ★★ D: then a brothel, inherits money, marries, is widowed . . . and writer Rudolf Leonhardt George A. Romero. Joshua Close, Scott claims only the first half of his script was Wentworth, Michelle Morgan, Joe Dinicol, filmed. Fascinating nonetheless, with an Shawn Roberts, Amy Lalonde, Philip Ricexplicitness that’s still surprising.▼●쩠 cio, Megan Park. When the dead revive and Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) Cattack the living, a group of Pennsylvania 116m. ★1⁄2 D: Darren Grant. Kimberly college students try to flee to safety in a Elise, Steve Harris, Tyler Perry, Cicely Winnebago, making a documentary as they go; Tyson, Shemar Moore, Tamara Taylor. this movie is supposedly that film. The scale Dumped by a hotshot lawyer husband with of Romero’s newest ‘‘living dead’’ outing is ties to unsavory characters, Elise reinvents smaller than most of them. Unfortunately, herself by returning to her much humbler pacing is erratic (at times boringly slow), and family, taking a modest job, and dating a the characters are a mixed bag, including a romantically sincere hunk. If you’ve ever highly unlikely college professor. Fans will wondered what it would be like to have embrace this; others beware. Listen for voice The Three Stooges show up in an otherwise cameos by noted horror writers and actors. straight production of A Streetcar Named Aka GEORGE A. ROMERO’S DIARY OF Desire, this is probably the closest approxiTHE DEAD. [R]쩠 mation. Perry, who wrote the play on which Dice Rules (1991) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jay this is based, plays three characters, including Dubin. Andrew Dice Clay. Film opens with a drag grandma named Madea, who’s as a series of curious and mostly embarrassing broad as any of the Klumps in Eddie Murblackout skits with Clay imitating Jerry phy’s NUTTY PROFESSOR movies. Elise Lewis! Finally it moves on to the standup strives mightily to keep her head above the comic’s sold-out Madison Square Garden water with an impassioned performance, concert, in which his audience communicabut here comes the tide. Followed by MAtion is total, and his sex-oriented material is DEA’S FAMILY REUNION. [PG-13]▼쩠 predictably crude, embarrassing, outraDiary of a Mad Housewife (1970) C-103m. geous—and often very funny. [NC-17]▼●쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Perry. Richard Benjamin, Dick (1999) C-95m. ★★★ D: Andrew FlemFrank Langella, Carrie Snodgress, Loring. Kirsten Dunst, Michelle Williams, Dan raine Cullen, Frannie Michel, Katherine Hedaya, Dave Foley, Saul Rubinek, Harry [ 355 ]

Shearer, Jim Breuer, Will Ferrell, Teri Garr, Lee Tamahori. Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Bruce McCulloch, Ted McGinley, G.D. Toby Stephens, Rosamund Pike, Rick Yune, Spradlin, Ana Gasteyer, Ryan Reynolds. Judi Dench, John Cleese, Michael Madsen, Clever cross of CLUELESS and ALL THE Samantha Bond. Entertaining James Bond PRESIDENT’S MEN has two likable teenouting, in the modern mode: less sophisticaage airheads (delightfully played by Dunst tion, more computer-generated effects. Bond and Williams) stumbling into all the key is taken prisoner in Korea, ultimately freed to players in the Watergate scandal—up to and wage a battle of wits with a megalomaniacal including President Richard Nixon himself industrialist (Stephens—the son of Maggie (Hedaya)—but never having an inkling of Smith and Robert Stephens). Along the way he what is going on. Funny script by Fleming joins forces with a sexy NSA agent named Jinx and Sheryl Longin is even more enjoyable (Berry). Some of the effects are absurdly unreif you remember the real-life events of the alistic (but then, so is Dench’s renouncement of 1970s. [PG-13]▼쩠 her top agent). Goes on one segment too Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star long . . . but still fun to watch. Madonna sings (2003) C-98m. ★★ D: Sam Weisman. David (and cowrote) the title song, and appears unSpade, Mary McCormack, Jon Lovitz, Craig billed. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Bierko, Jenna Boyd, Scott Terra, Alyssa MiDie! Die! My Darling! (1965-British) lano, Doris Roberts, Rob Reiner, Leif GarC-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Silvio Narizzano. Tallulah rett, Barry Williams, Dustin Diamond, Bankhead, Stefanie Powers, Peter Vaughan, Danny Bonaduce, Edie McClurg. WashedDonald Sutherland, Yootha Joyce. Tallulah, up former TV moppet Spade pays a family in her last film, has field day as weirdo who to allow him to move in and experience the keeps Powers under lock and key for personal childhood he never had in order for him to vengeance against the death of her son. Enwin a part in Reiner’s new movie. Altergaging fun, especially for Bankhead devotees. nately smart-alecky and touchy-feely, this Script by Richard Matheson. Original Britcomedy (cowritten by Spade) isn’t sure ish title: FANATIC.▼쩠 what it wants to be. Cast is peppered with Die Hard (1988) C-131m. ★★★ D: John real-life former child stars, many of whom McTiernan. Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, appear in a music-video–style finale (inBonnie Bedelia, Alexander Godunov, Regcluding a few ringers like Jeff Conaway and inald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, De’voreaux Charlene Tilton). Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 White, William Atherton, Hart Bochner, James Dick Tracy series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s Shigeta, Lorenzo Caccialanza, Robert Davi, Classic Movie Guide Rick Ducommun, Rebecca Broussard. DynaDick Tracy (1990) C-104m. ★★★ D: Warmite action yarn about a N.Y.C. cop who just ren Beatty. Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al happens to be visiting an L.A. highrise when Pacino, Glenne Headly, Charlie Korsmo, it’s commandeered by terrorist thieves. Great Mandy Patinkin, Charles Durning, Paul action scenes and stunts, with Richard EdSorvino, William Forsythe, Seymour Cassel, lund’s special effects, and a perfect part for Dustin Hoffman, Dick Van Dyke, CatherWillis, who plays cat-and-mouse with bad ine O’Hara, James Caan, Michael J. Pollard, guy Rickman. Marred only by overlength and Estelle Parsons, James Tolkan, R.G. Armtoo many needlessly stupid supporting charstrong, Kathy Bates. Colorful, high-style acters. Followed by three sequels. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 adaptation of the Chester Gould comic strip classic, with Beatty redefining the Die Hard 2 (1990) C-124m. ★★★ D: Renny hawk-nosed, jut-jawed hero. Story is simHarlin. Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Wilple in the extreme, but there’s so much to liam Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson, Franco take in you really don’t mind: a galaxy of Nero, William Sadler, John Amos, Denguest stars as Gould’s grotesque villains, eyenis Franz, Art Evans, Fred Dalton Thompson, popping, Academy Award–winning makeup Sheila McCarthy, Robert Patrick, John Leguiand art direction and Madonna singing new zamo, Don Harvey, Vondie Curtis Hall, Colm Stephen Sondheim songs (if a few too many). Meaney, Robert Costanzo. Stupendously One of them, ‘‘Sooner or Later (I Always unbelievable—but very entertaining—sequel Get My Man),’’ also won an Oscar. Standto the action hit; while waiting for his wife to out: Pacino’s hilarious, over-the-top perland at Washington’s Dulles Airport, Willis formance as Big Boy Caprice. Super 35. dives head-first into trouble when he gets wind of an impending terrorist-type plot. Lots [PG]▼●쩠 Did You Hear the One About the Travof violent, large-scale action, and lots of fun— eling Saleslady? (1968) C-97m. BOMB just don’t look for lots of logic. Based on D: Don Weis. Phyllis Diller, Bob Denver, Joe Walter Wager’s novel 58 Minutes. PanaviFlynn, Eileen Wesson, Jeanette Nolan, Bob sion. [R]▼●쩠 Hastings, David Hartman, Charles Lane, Kent Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) CMcCord. You’ve all heard it, so why bother 128m. ★★★ D: John McTiernan. Bruce watching this dud. For only the most fervent Willis, Jeremy Irons, Samuel L. Jackson, Diller fans. Techniscope. Graham Greene, Colleen Camp, Larry Die Another Day (2002) C-132m. ★★★ D: Bryggman, Anthony Peck, Nick Wyman, [ 356 ]

Sam Phillips. A madman (Irons) holds nally dull. Loosely based on the life of EleaN.Y.C. hostage with bombings—and threats nor and Kim Philby. Actor Piddock also of more—targeting his demands at ousted cop scripted and coproduced. [R] ▼쩠 John McClane (Willis), who inadvertently Different Story, A (1978) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 acquires a partner in hostile Harlem storeD: Paul Aaron. Perry King, Meg Foster, keeper Jackson. Logic and motivation take Valerie Curtin, Peter Donat, Richard Bull, a backseat to big-scale action in this nonstop Barbara Collentine. Gays King and Foster roller-coaster ride; it’s like watching 12 get married to prevent his deportation, chapters of a high-tech Saturday matinee then fall in love. Sounds terrible, but first serial all at once. Followed by LIVE FREE half is surprisingly good until film sucOR DIE HARD. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 cumbs to conventionality. Foster is terrific. [PG—edited from original R rating]▼쩠 Die Laughing (1980) C-108m. BOMB D: Jeff Werner. Robby Benson, Linda GroveDigby—The Biggest Dog in the World nor, Charles Durning, Elsa Lanchester, (1974-British) C-88m. BOMB D: Joseph Bud Cort, Peter Coyote. Benson is star, coMcGrath. Jim Dale, Spike Milligan, Milo author, coproducer, and composer of this O’Shea, Angela Douglas, Norman Rossophomoric black comedy and gives an exsington. Poor comedy-fantasy concerning cruciating performance as a cabbie who acliquid Project X, which causes sheepdog cidentally becomes implicated in the Digby to grow to huge proportions. Bad murder of a nuclear scientist. Cort is disspecial effects, too. Written by Ted Key, gustingly oily as fascist villain. [PG]▼ creator of ‘‘Hazel,’’ strictly for kids. [G]▼ Die Mommie Die! (2003) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Digger (1994) C-92m. ★★ D: Robert Mark Rucker. Charles Busch, Philip Baker Turner. Adam Hann-Byrd, Joshua Jackson, Hall, Jason Priestley, Frances Conroy, NaBarbara Williams, Timothy Bottoms, tasha Lyonne, Stark Sands, Victor RaiderOlympia Dukakis, Leslie Nielsen, P. Lynn Wexler, Nora Dunn, Sara Gilbert. Fitfully Johnson, Lochlyn Munro. An attractive but amusing spoof of Ross Hunter–style Hollydepressing film of people dealing with wood melodramas, with drag performer losses in their lives: a couple who have buried Busch cast as Angela Arden, a faded torch a drowned child, a boy dying of leukemia singer unhappily married to a domineering therapy complications, and his friend whose movie mogul and saddled with two twisted parents are divorcing. Dukakis and Nielsen children. Based on Busch’s play; despite provide welcome relief as older couple in some funny moments, this probably works the throes of romance. [PG] ▼● better onstage. [R]▼쩠 Diggers (2007) C-87m. ★★ D: Katherine Die, Monster, Die! (1965) C-80m. ★★ D: Dieckmann. Paul Rudd, Lauren Ambrose, Daniel Haller. Boris Karloff, Nick AdRon Eldard, Josh Hamilton, Sarah Paulson, ams, Freda Jackson, Suzan Farmer, Terence Ken Marino, Maura Tierney, Shannon de Marney, Patrick Magee. Based on H. P. Barry, Andrew Cherry. Set in 1970s Long Lovecraft story, this thriller has Karloff a Island, film focuses on two generations of recluse who discovers a meteor which gives clam diggers who are trying desperately to him strange powers. Good premise is not maintain their way of life (and loving) in a carried out well. Filmed in England. Retown that may be about to pass them by. made as THE CURSE (1987). Horrifying Low-budget look at the changing ways of Colorscope.▼●쩠 small-town America boasts an attractive Different for Girls (1997-British) C-92m. cast but is less than compelling—unless you ★★★ dig clams, of course. With its TV-friendly D: Richard Spence. Steven Mackintosh, Rupert Graves, Neil Dudgeon, Saskia elements this might have been more suitable Reeves. A demure transsexual who writes as a series pilot. Marino (who plays Lozo) greeting card verses takes up with a rowdy wrote and coproduced. [R]쩠 biker—the same long-ago schoolmate who Digging to China (1997) C-98m. ★★ D: protected her against adolescent persecutors Timothy Hutton. Evan Rachel Wood, Kevin before the operation that changed her life. Bacon, Mary Stuart Masterson, Cathy MoriOne of the more distinctive odd-couple roarty, Marian Seldes. Sincere but one-note mantic comedies of our time; kept on track film about the growing friendship beby the central performance of Mackintosh, tween a troubled 10-year-old girl (Wood) who pulls off a difficult role. [R]▼쩠 and a mentally retarded young man Different Loyalty, A (2004-U.S.-Canadian(Bacon). Its offbeat qualities seem a bit British) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Marek Kanievska. too contrived, though the performances Sharon Stone, Rupert Everett, Julian Wadcan’t be faulted. Hutton’s feature directing ham, Michael Cochrane, Ann Lambton, debut. [PG] ▼●쩠 Joss Ackland, Jim Piddock. Set during the Diggstown (1992) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiCold War, Stone plays an American wife chael Ritchie. James Woods, Louis Gosto Everett’s British double agent. He’s torn sett, Jr., Bruce Dern, Oliver Platt, Heather between her and his ideals, thus creating Graham, Randall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, Thomas turmoil in the marriage. The two leads act Wilson Brown, Duane Davis, Willie Green, their little hearts out, but the film is termiGeorge D. Wallace. Amiable yarn about a [ 357 ]

con-artist just sprung from prison who sets Helen Westley, Robert Kent, Stepin Fetchit, his sights on a high-rolling meanie in a Astrid Allwyn. Prime Shirley, with our small Georgia town—with boxer Gossett heroine doing her best to save her destitute as his lure for big-time bets. The two stars father, played by marvelous Morgan. Songs: are very watchable, even if the script is ‘‘Oh Mister Man Up in the Moon,’’ ‘‘What contrived. Gossett’s then-wife Cyndi plays Did the Bluebird Say.’’ Also shown in comhis spouse on-screen. [R]▼●쩠 puter-colored version. ▼쩠 Digimon: The Movie (2000-Japanese) CDim Sum: a little bit of heart (1984) C82m. ★★ D: Takaaki Yamashita, Hisashi Na89m. ★★★ D: Wayne Wang. Laureen Chew, kayama, Masahiro Aizawa. Voices of Lara Jill Kim Chew, Victor Wong, Ida F.O. Chung, Miller, Joshua Seth, Colleen O’Shaughnessy, Cora Miao. Occasionally slow—there are Philece Sampler, Bob Glouberman, Mona one too many shots of empty rooms—but Marshall. Three short stories (released as themostly wise, endearing tale of Chineseatrical shorts in Japan) based on the animated Americans in San Francisco, focusing on TV series are strung together to form a the dynamics of a mother-daughter rela‘‘movie.’’ A notch better than the POKE´tionship. Characters may be distinctively MON movies, with a standout sequence in Chinese, but there’s a refreshing, knowing the middle section as digital monsters battle universality to this comedy. [PG]▼●쩠 in a surreal internet world. Otherwise, Diner (1982) C-110m. ★★★ D: Barry strictly for wired small-fry. [PG]▼쩠 Levinson. Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Dillinger (1945) 70m. ★★★ D: Max Nosseck. Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Edmund Lowe, Anne Jeffreys, Lawrence Daly, Ellen Barkin, Paul Reiser, Michael Tierney, Eduardo Ciannelli, Elisha Cook, Jr., Tucker. Problems of growing up are nicely Marc Lawrence. Solid gangster yarn writsynthesized by writer-director Levinson in ten by Philip Yordan, one of the best B this look at a group of friends who hang movies of its kind (though a key bank robout in a Baltimore diner in the 1950s. Obvibery is comprised of stock footage lifted ously made with care and affection; a real from Fritz Lang’s YOU ONLY LIVE sleeper. Levinson’s directorial debut and first ONCE).▼쩠 film of Barkin and Reiser. [R]▼●쩠 Dillinger (1973) C-107m. ★★★ D: John Dingaka (1965-South African) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Milius. Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Cloris D: Jamie Uys. Stanley Baker, Juliet Prowse, Leachman, Michelle Phillips, Richard Ken Gampu, Siegfried Mynhardt, Bob Dreyfuss, Harry Dean Stanton, Steve Courtney. Film focuses on contrasting Kanaly. Heavily romanticized gangster movie white-black ways of life and the clashes of is aided by some rough, violent gun battles. the two cultures; production bogs down in Story follows Dillinger midway through his stereotypes. CinemaScope.▼ bank-robbing career up until his death outside Dingo (1991-Australian-French) C-108m. the Biograph Theatre. [R]▼●쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Rolf de Heer. Colin Friels, Miles ★★ Dillinger and Capone (1995) C-94m. Davis, Helen Buday, Joe Petruzzi, BernaD: Jon Purdy. Martin Sheen, F. Murray dette Lafont, Bernard Fresson. A chance Abraham, Stephen Davies, Catherine Hicks, appearance by jazz trumpeter Billy Cross Don Stroud, Sasha Jenson, Michael Oliver, (Davis) in a boy’s rural community inJeffrey Combs, Michael C. Gwynne, Anspires him to pursue music himself; now thony Crivello, Bert Remsen, Clint Howard. grown up, he still dreams of playing for a 1940: released from prison, Al Capone living—and winning the approval of his (Abraham) holds captive the family of John lifelong idol. Amiable but slow-paced story Dillinger (Sheen) who, here at least, wasn’t is sparked by Miles Davis’ dynamic presgunned down at the Biograph. Big Al wants ence and ingratiating performance. Chuck the famed bank robber to recover 15 million Findley doubled Friels’ trumpeting on the dollars of Capone’s ill-gotten gains from a soundtrack. Invigorating score by Michel hotel in Chicago. The clever idea is boosted Legrand and Davis. Panavision.▼쩠 by slick acting, but it soon slides into a Dinner at Eight (1933) 113m. ★★★★ D: routine heist thriller. [R]▼쩠 ★★1 George Cukor. Marie Dressler, John Bar⁄2 Diminished Capacity (2008) C-89m. rymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, LiD: Terry Kinney. Matthew Broderick, Alan onel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, Alda, Virginia Madsen, Lois Smith, Dylan Billie Burke, Madge Evans, Jean Hersholt, Baker, Louis C.K., Jimmy Bennett, Bobby Karen Morley, Phillips Holmes, May RobCannavale, Jim True-Frost, Tom Aldredge. son. Vintage MGM constellation of stars First-rate cast in a desperately thin story about portray various strata of society in N.Y.C., a Chicago newspaper columnist (Broderick) invited to dine and shine; Harlow in fine recovering from a head injury, who goes home comedy form, but Dressler as dowager steals to tend to his aging, memory-challenged focus in filmization of George Kaufman– uncle (Alda). Takes an odd turn as they return Edna Ferber play. Scripted by three top to Chicago to sell a rare baseball card.쩠 writers: Herman Mankiewicz, Frances Dimples (1936) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Seiter. Shirley Temple, Frank Morgan, Marion, and Donald Ogden Stewart. Don’t [ 358 ]

miss this one. Remade for cable TV in 1989 edy (cowritten by Joseph L. Mankiewicz!) with Lauren Bacall.▼●쩠 about barbers from Indian reservation sent Dinner Game, The (1998-French) C-81m. to Geneva peace conference. Reminiscent ★★★1 of MILLION DOLLAR LEGS and DUCK ⁄2 D: Francis Veber. Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Francis Huster, Daniel SOUP, with memorable comic perforPre´vost, Alexandra Vandernoot, Catherine mances by Herbert—as a Confucius-quotFrot. Laugh-out-loud farce (from the writer ing sage—and Calhern.▼● of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES) about a selfDiplomatic Courier (1952) 97m. ★★★ D: centered publisher who participates in a Henry Hathaway. Tyrone Power, Patricia weekly ritual with his friends: to invite the Neal, Stephen McNally, Hildegarde Neff, stupidest person they can find to dinner. Karl Malden. Power seeks to avenge Lhermitte has found a doozy, civil servant friend’s death in Trieste, becomes involved Villeret (who created this part on stage), but in international espionage. Cold War film the well-meaning oaf intrudes on his life in is exciting, well acted. Look for Lee Marunexpected ways. Hilariously funny withvin, Charles Bronson, and Michael Ansara in small, unbilled roles.▼ out being cruel—which is no mean feat. Technovision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Dirigible (1931) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Capra. ★★★ D: Bob Dinner Rush (2001) C-100m. Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, Fay Wray, HoGiraldi. Danny Aiello, Edoardo Ballerini, bart Bosworth, Roscoe Karns. Frank ‘‘Spig’’ Vivian Wu, Mike McGlone, Kirk Acevedo, Wead story about Navy pilots’ experimenJohn Corbett, Sandra Bernhard, Summer tal use of dirigibles in the Antarctic has Phoenix, Polly Draper, Mark Margolis, plenty of action and guts, but a sappy Ajay Naidu. A tumultuous night in the life romantic story to weigh it down. On the of a busy, newly chic N.Y.C. restaurant. whole, an interesting antique. Owner Aiello is thinking of giving up his Dirt Bike Kid, The (1986) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: bookmaking activities, his star chef is deHoite C. Caston. Peter Billingsley, Stuart manding part ownership of the eatery, two Pankin, Anne Bloom, Patrick Collins, Sage mobsters have come to pay an unfriendly Parker, Chad Sheets. Strictly formula teen visit, etc. Flavorful film has the ring of melodrama, with young Billingsley taking truth—inside the kitchen and out—and is on evil banker Pankin and some nasty bikers brimming with life. Director (and real-life with the help of a very unusual Yamaha. Harmless and forgettable. [PG]▼●쩠 restaurateur) Giraldi is better known for his commercials and music videos. [R]▼쩠 Dirty (2006) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Chris Fisher. Dino (1957) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Thomas Carr. Sal Cuba Gooding, Jr., Clifton Collins, Jr., Cole Mineo, Brian Keith, Susan Kohner, Joe De Hauser, Wyclef Jean, Keith David, Taboo, Santis, Penny Santon, Frank Faylen, RichWood Harris, Lobo Sebastian, Robert Laard Bakalyan. Mineo at his rebellious best Sardo, Aimee Garcia. Two battle-weary L.A. playing juvenile delinquent befriended by cops set out for a day’s work, but Gooding a girl (Kohner) and a social worker doesn’t know that his partner (Collins) has (Keith). Reginald Rose adapted his actalked to Internal Affairs about their gangclaimed TV play, and Mineo recreated his busting unit’s unethical tactics. Aggresstarring role.▼ sively foulmouthed and foul-minded, this Dinosaur (2000) C-82m. ★★★ D: Ralph visually convulsive TRAINING DAY wanZondag, Eric Leighton. Voices of D.B. nabe has ambitions, but offers neither its Sweeney, Alfre Woodard, Ossie Davis, Max characters nor its audience any salvation. [R]▼쩠 Casella, Hayden Panettiere, Samuel E. Wright, Julianna Margulies, Peter Siragusa, Joan PlowDirty Dancing (1987) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: right, Della Reese. Disney story of a dinosaur Emile Ardolino. Jennifer Grey, Patrick raised by a family of lemurs; when a meteor Swayze, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, shower destroys their island home, they flee Jack Weston, Jane Brucker, Kelly Bishop, to another island where they join a tribe of Lonny Price, Charles ‘‘Honi’’ Coles, dinosaurs on a desperate trek to safety. On Wayne Knight. Superficial but audienceone level, a children’s fable about survival pleasing tale of spoiled teenage girl who and compassion; on another, a dazzling dislearns something about real life—as well as play of computer animation and technology a thing or two about dancing—during famthat’s almost overwhelming. But the use of ily vacation at a Catskills, N.Y., resort hotel modern dialogue for comedy relief ultimately in the early 1960s. Sparked by some hot brands the film as kid stuff. [PG]▼쩠 dance numbers and charismatic leads. Most Dinosaur . . . Secret of the Lost Legend of the music is 1980s-style, not 1960s, but it SEE: Baby . . . Secret of the Lost Legend seems to work. For a richer portrait of CatsDion Brothers, The SEE: Gravy Train, The kills life see another 1987 release, SWEET Diplomaniacs (1933) 63m. ★★★ D: WilLORRAINE. Oscar winner for best song: liam A. Seiter. Bert Wheeler, Robert ‘‘(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.’’ FolWoolsey, Marjorie White, Louis Calhern, lowed by a sequel in 2004, a TV series, and Edgar Kennedy, Hugh Herbert. Genuinely a stage musical. [PG-13]▼●쩠 odd but endearing nonsense musical comDirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) C[ 359 ]

86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy Ferland. Diego Luna, Roma; corpses keep turning up alive with mola Garai, Sela Ward, John Slattery, Jonaboring regularity. However, some striking than Jackson, January Jones, Mika Boorem, camera work, eerie sequences. Aka INNOPatrick Swayze, Mya Harrison, Rene Lavan, CENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS. [R]▼쩠 Heather Headley. Pleasant-enough fluff Dirty Harry (1971) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Don about a teenage girl whose family relocates Siegel. Clint Eastwood, Harry Guardino, to Cuba in 1958 as political tensions are Reni Santoni, John Larch, Andy Robingrowing. She loves the freedom of Latin son, and John Vernon as ‘‘The Mayor.’’ dancing and finds a perfect partner, a boy Riveting action film with Eastwood as who works as a waiter at her hotel. The iconoclastic cop determined to bring in two appealing leads make this fun to watch. psychotic serial killer Robinson, even if he Closing narration is clumsy and unneceshas to break some rules. Brilliantly filmed sary. Swayze, who starred in the original and edited for maximum impact. Jazzy DIRTY DANCING, plays a dance instrucscore by Lalo Schifrin. Filmed ‘‘in tribute tor here. [PG-13]▼쩠 to the police officers of San Francisco who Dirty Dingus Magee (1970) C-90m. ★★★ gave their lives in the line of duty.’’ FolD: Burt Kennedy. Frank Sinatra, George lowed by MAGNUM FORCE, THE ENKennedy, Anne Jackson, Lois Nettleton, FORCER, SUDDEN IMPACT, and THE Michele Carey, Jack Elam, John Dehner, DEAD POOL. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Henry Jones, Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix. Dirty Knight’s Work (1976-British) CBroad, bawdy spoof with Sinatra as $10 88m. ★★ D: Kevin Connor. John Mills, outlaw whose attempts to make it big are Donald Pleasence, Barbara Hershey, David slightly hindered by equally bungling sherBirney, Margaret Leighton, Peter Cushiff Kennedy (not to mention assorted ing. Birney enlists Mills’ help in solving his whores, Indians, and the U.S. Cavalry). Subfather’s murder, zeroes in on strange society tle it’s not, but fast paced and amusing, espeof latter-day knights with vigilante tendencially for Western buffs; Nettleton is a delight cies. Offbeat and mildly diverting. Original as Joanne Woodward–ish schoolmarm inaptitle: TRIAL BY COMBAT. Video title: propriately named Prudence. Cowritten by CHOICE OF WEAPONS. [PG]▼ Joseph Heller. Panavision. [PG]▼ Dirty Little Billy (1972) C-92m. ★★★ D: Dirty Dishes (1978-French) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Stan Dragoti. Michael J. Pollard, Lee D: Joyce Bun˜uel. Carole Laure, Pierre Purcell, Charles Aidman, Richard Evans. Santini, Catherine Lachens, Veronique SilOffbeat story based on early life of Billy ver. Entertaining but obvious feminist comthe Kid. Grimy, muddy, adventurous; not a edy of Laure rebelling against her duties as normal Western by any stretch of the imaginaa housewife. Director Bun˜uel is the late tion. Produced by Jack L. Warner! [R] Luis Bun˜uel’s daughter-in-law. [R]▼ Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (1974) C-93m. Dirty Dozen, The (1967) C-150m. ★★★1⁄2 ★★★ D: John Hough. Peter Fonda, Susan D: Robert Aldrich. Lee Marvin, Ernest George, Adam Roarke, Vic Morrow, Roddy Borgnine, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, McDowall. Very fast action as racing driver Robert Ryan, Charles Bronson, Donald Fonda, pickup George and mechanic Roarke Sutherland, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, demolish every car in sight while escaping Ralph Meeker, Richard Jaeckel, Clint with supermarket loot. Hardly a letup, and Walker, Trini Lopez. Box-office hit about 12 marred only by downbeat finale. [PG]▼쩠 murderers, rapists, and other prisoners who Dirty Money (1972-French) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 get a chance to redeem themselves in WW2. D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Alain Delon, RichExciting, funny, and well acted, especially ard Crenna, Catherine Deneuve, Ricardo by Marvin and Cassavetes. Nunnally JohnCucciolla, Michael Conrad. Pedestrian son and Lukas Heller scripted from E. M. melodrama of bank robbery and drug trafNathanson novel. Followed in 1985, 1987, ficking. Delon and Crenna are muscular, 1988 by trio of inferior TV movies with Deneuve and the scenery gorgeous.쩠 such original cast members as Marvin, Dirty Pretty Things (2002-U.S.-British) Jaeckel, Savalas, Borgnine; then a shortC-97m. ★★★ D: Stephen Frears. Audrey lived series. Metroscope.▼●쩠 Tautou, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sergi Lo´pez, SoDirty Game, The (1965-Italian) 91m. ★★1⁄2 phie Okonedo, Benedict Wong, Zlatko D: Terence Young, Christian-Jaque, Carlo Buric. Gripping story of a sober, hardworkLizzani. Henry Fonda, Vittorio Gassman, ing Nigerian immigrant who’s running from Annie Girardot, Robert Ryan, Peter Van Eyck. his past and juggling two jobs in London as Hodgepodge of stories dealing with espionage a cab driver and hotel clerk. His innate in post-WW2 era; none of episodes is consense of justice (and personal integrity) is vincing, stars don’t help much.▼쩠 affronted when he learns of grisly blackDirty Hands (1976-French) C-102m. ★★ market transactions going on at the hotel, D: Claude Chabrol. Rod Steiger, Romy and he feels impelled to intervene. Tautou Schneider, Paolo Giusti, Jean Rochefort, is his friend, a Turkish illegal who’s been Hans Christian Blech. Laughable wife-andlover-conspire-to-murder-husband melodraworking as a hotel maid. Original and sur[ 360 ]

prising at every turn; director Frears makes che´d and contrived, and fails in its attempts the most of Steven Knight’s script. [R]▼쩠 to turn historical speculation into a political Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988) C-110m. thriller. Original title: DEATH IN GRA★★1 ⁄2 D: Frank Oz. Steve Martin, Michael NADA. Panavision. [R]▼ Caine, Glenne Headly, Anton Rodgers, BarDisaster in Time SEE: Grand Tour, The bara Harris, Ian McDiarmid, Dana Ivey. CaDisaster Movie (2008) C-88m. BOMB D: reer con artist Caine, who fleeces women with Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer. Matt great elan in the south of France, must find Lanter, Vanessa Minnillo, Gary ‘‘G-Thang’’ a way to deal with crass new competition: Johnson, Nicole Parker, Crista Flanagan, American Martin. Eventually they decide to Kim Kardashian, Carmen Electra, Ike Barinsee who can dupe wide-eyed Headly first. Exholtz, Tony Cox. A series of natural disasters tremely pleasant but unremarkable comedy, a are occurring—a massive earthquake has remake of the 1964 BEDTIME STORY, crippled the city and asteroids have struck filmed on beautiful Riviera locations. Later a Miley Cyrus—so a group of twentyBroadway musical. [PG]▼●쩠 somethings decide to save the world. Dirty Shame, A (2004) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Spoofing ENCHANTED, HIGH SCHOOL John Waters. Tracey Ullman, Johnny KnoxMUSICAL, CLOVERFIELD, Indiana ville, Selma Blair, Chris Isaak, Suzanne Jones, Amy Winehouse, et al., this ranks Shepherd, Mink Stole, Patricia Hearst, Jackie low on the parody charts. Amusing moHoffman, Ricki Lake, David Hasselhoff. Ullments are few and far between. Also availman plays it to the hilt as a repressed, scowlable in unrated version. [PG-13]쩠 ing convenience-store clerk who is conked on Disclosure (1994) C-127m. ★★★ D: Barry the head and awakens a sex addict. Waters’ Levinson. Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, outlandish film depicts a cartoonish world Donald Sutherland, Caroline Goodall, Dylan that’s gone sex-mad. Occasionally funny, Baker, Roma Maffia, Dennis Miller, Allan mostly silly; plays like the concoction of a Rich, Nicholas Sadler, Rosemary Forsyth. Enpreteen boy who’s just learned his first tertaining corporate thriller based on Michael naughty word. R-rated version also available. Crichton’s book about a not-so-bright exec [NC-17]쩠 (Douglas) in a highly competitive computer Dirty Work (1998) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Bob company who sues his new, sexy shark of a Saget. Norm Macdonald, Jack Warden, boss (Moore) for sexual harassment! Plotted Artie Lange, Traylor Howard, Don Rickles, like a mystery, with plenty of surprising twists Christopher McDonald, Chevy Chase, Chris and turns. Only complaint: hasn’t Douglas Farley, Gary Coleman, Ken Norton, John played this same kind of role a bit too often? Goodman, Rebecca Romijn. Crude, meanPanavision. [R]▼●쩠 spirited comedy vehicle for former SaturDiscreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The day Night Live star Macdonald about a shift(1972-French) C-101m. ★★★★ D: Luis less loser who teams up with his best friend to Bun˜uel. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, start a ‘‘revenge business’’ for the common Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier, Jean-Pierre man. Potentially clever idea squandered by Cassel, Michel Piccoli. A Bun˜uel joke on his endless barrage of fat and gay jokes. Lots of audience, using friends’ attempts to have dincomic talent wasted, although Rickles is good ner party as excuse for series of surrealistic as an obnoxious movie theater manager. Adam sequences. Reality and illusion soon blur into Sandler appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 one, with delicious comic results. Oscar winDisappearance, The (1977-Canadian) ner as Best Foreign Film. Screenplay by BuC-88m. ★★ D: Stuart Cooper. Donald Suthn˜uel and Jean-Claude Carrie`re. [PG]▼●쩠 erland, Francine Racette, David Hemmings, Dish, The (2000-Australian) C-104m. ★★★ David Warner, Christopher Plummer, John D: Rob Sitch. Sam Neill, Kevin Harrington, Hurt, Virginia McKenna, Peter Bowles. Tom Long, Patrick Warburton, Genevieve Slow-moving account of a hit-man’s preMooy, Tayler Kane, Billie Brown, Roy Billoccupation with the disappearance of his ing, John McMartin. Delightful comedy based wife. Strong Sutherland performance is on the true story of how an unlikely Australian obliterated by confusing script, pretentiously community put itself on the map in 1969 by arty direction. Originally 100m. [R]▼ having the only satellite dish that could track Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, The the progress of Apollo 11 in the Southern (1997-U.S.-Spanish-Puerto Rican) C-108m. ★★ Hemisphere as it made its way to the moon. D: Marcos Zurinaga. Andy Garcia, Esai Made by the same filmmaking collective reMorales, Edward James Olmos, Jeroen sponsible for THE CASTLE. [PG-13]▼쩠 Krabbe´, Marcela Wallerstein, Miguel FerDishonored (1931) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Josef rer, Giancarlo Giannini. Dreary fictionalvon Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich, Victor ized account of the mysterious death of the McLaglen, Lew Cody, Warner Oland, Gusradical Spanish poet-playwright Federico tav von Seyffertitz. Alluring Dietrich makes Garcia Lorca at the hands of Franco’s Fasthe most of a creaky script starring her as cists in 1936. Film is good to look at, coursecret agent X-27 during WW1. Worth tesy Juan Ruiz-Anchia’s elegant widescreen photography, but script is hopelessly cliseeing for her masquerade as peasant girl.▼ [ 361 ]

Disney’s Teacher’s Pet SEE: Teacher’s independently made drama detailing the Pet (2004) problems of two army couples during the Disney’s The Kid (2000) C-104m. ★★ D: 1950s. Fine performances, particularly by Jon Turteltaub. Bruce Willis, Spencer BresBesch and Woods; Lover and producer lin, Emily Mortimer, Lily Tomlin, Jean Smart, George Coe were responsible for the classic Daniel von Bargen, Chi McBride, Dana short THE DOVE. [R] Ivey, Juanita Moore. A cold-as-ice busiDistant (2002-Turkish) C-110m. ★★★ D: Nuri nessman who suppresses all memories of Bilge Ceylan. Muzaffer Ozdemir, Mehmet his childhood and shuns contact with his Emin Toprak, Zuhal Gencer Erkaya, Nazan family is confronted with his 8-year-old self, Kirilmis. Deliberately paced drama about a and doesn’t understand why. Well-meaning 40-year-old photographer in the city who is fable by Audrey Wells has its moments, but visited by his recently unemployed country doesn’t quite come off. Matthew Perry apcousin. We gradually recognize how the difpears hirsute and unbilled. [PG]▼쩠 ferences between them and their experiences Disorderlies (1987) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Micause problems in the relationship. Not for chael Schultz. The Fat Boys, Ralph Beleveryone, but patient viewers will find lamy, Tony Plana, Anthony Geary, Marco themselves rewarded by the simple truths of Rodriguez, Troy Beyer. Get down with life the film explores. Toprak was tragically Bellamy, as a Palm Beach millionaire about killed in an auto accident before the film’s to be murdered for his estate by a conniving debut; he posthumously shared a Best Actor nephew and the valet; the title chubs—kind award with Ozdemir at the Cannes Film Festival. Turkish title: UZAK. ▼쩠 of a rap version of The Three Stooges— come to the rescue. Pretty desperate, but the Distant Drums (1951) C-101m. ★★ D: ultimate in casting curios. [PG]▼●쩠 Raoul Walsh. Gary Cooper, Mari Aldon, Disorderly Orderly, The (1964) C-90m. Richard Webb, Ray Teal. Tame actioner ★★★ of Seminole Indians on warpath in early D: Frank Tashlin. Jerry Lewis, Glenda Farrell, Susan Oliver, Everett Sloane, Jack 19th-century Florida, with Cooper as stalE. Leonard, Alice Pearce, Kathleen Freewart swamp fighter. A reworking of the man, Barbara Nichols, Milton Frome. Firstcentral story idea from director Walsh’s WW2 saga OBJECTIVE BURMA.▼●쩠 rate slapstick and sight gags (including a wild chase finale) mix with cloying sentiment as Distant Thunder (1973-Indian) C-100m. ★★★ Jerry runs amuck in a nursing home. Best D: Satyajit Ray. Soumitra Chatterji, Babscene: Jerry’s suffering of ‘‘sympathy pains’’ ita, Sandhya Roy, Gobinda Chakravarty, as patient Pearce complains of her ills. Title Romesh Mukerji. Famine strikes Bengal in tune sung by Sammy Davis, Jr.▼쩠 1942 and affects the lives of various families Disorganized Crime (1989) C-101m. ★1⁄2 in many different ways. Harsh, vividly filmed D: Jim Kouf. Hoyt Axton, Corbin Bernsen, tale in which one can almost feel the sand and wind blowing across the screen.▼ Ruben Blades, Fred Gwynne, Ed O’Neill, Lou Diamond Phillips, Daniel Roebuck, Distant Thunder (1988-U.S.-Canadian) William Russ, Marie Butler Kouf. Witless C-114m. ★★ D: Rick Rosenthal. John crime-chase comedy about a quartet of Lithgow, Ralph Macchio, Kerrie Keane, crooks waiting for leader Bernsen, who’s Reb Brown, Janet Margolin, Denis Arndt, plotted the perfect bank heist but has manJamey Sheridan, Tom Bower. Well-inaged to get himself arrested. [R]▼●쩠 tentioned but gooey soaper about yet one Dispatch From Reuters, A (1940) 89m. more emotionally troubled Vietnam vet ★★1 (nicely played by the ever-reliable Lithgow), ⁄2 D: William Dieterle. Edward G. Robinson, Edna Best, Eddie Albert, Albert who lives alone in the wilderness, and Basserman, Gene Lockhart, Nigel Bruce, whose long-abandoned son (Macchio) sets Otto Kruger. Watchable (if not always out to find him. [R]▼●쩠 inspired) Warner Bros. biography of the Distant Trumpet, A (1964) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 man who started famous worldwide news D: Raoul Walsh. Troy Donahue, Suzanne agency by using pigeons to transmit inforPleshette, Kent Smith, Claude Akins, James mation across the European continent. Gregory. Paul Horgan’s novel gets shortDisraeli (1929) 89m. ★★★ D: Alfred E. circuited in stock presentation of army Green. George Arliss, Joan Bennett, Flormen in the Old West combatting warring ence Arliss, Anthony Bushell, David Indians while romancing women on the Torrence, Ivan Simpson. Somewhat stagy post; good supporting cast. Panavision.쩠 but effective vehicle for Arliss, who won Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988-British) Oscar as cunning British prime minister— C-85m. ★★★ D: Terence Davies. Freda a great statesman, devoted husband, and Dowie, Peter Postlethwaite, Angela Walsh, matchmaker (for Bennett and Bushell). Diane McBain, Dean Williams, Lorraine Remake of Arliss’ 1921 silent vehicle.▼ Ashbourne. Strikingly visual evocation of Distance (1975) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony England during the 1940s and ’50s, a time Lover. Paul Benjamin, Eija Pokkinen, when the corny, happy lyrics of popular James Woods, Bibi Besch, Hal Miller, songs can be contrasted to the drab, stultiPolly Holliday. Impressive, though flawed, fying lives of the working class. Davies’ [ 362 ]

autobiographical script mirrors the lives of C-83m. BOMB D: David Nutter. James his various family members, each of whom Marsden, Katie Holmes, Nick Stahl, William is brutalized by his irrationally cruel father. Sadler, Bruce Greenwood, Steve Railsback, While there’s little narrative structure and Tobias Mehler, Ethan Embry. Teenager Marsno depth to the characters, the haunting imden, a newcomer in town, soon realizes agery makes this most worthwhile. Sequel: there’s a sinister plot by the high school THE LONG DAY CLOSES. [PG-13]▼● guidance counselor to ‘‘reform’’ troubled Distinguished Gentleman, The (1992) Ckids: they become well groomed, love yo112m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Lynn. Eddie Murgurt and freak out when horny. Predictable, phy, Lane Smith, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Joe coldly calculated and trendy, this is teenDon Baker, Victoria Rowell, Grant Shaud, targeted dreck. Give us SCREAM—or at Kevin McCarthy, Charles S. Dutton, Victor least I WAS A TEEN-AGE WEREWOLF. Rivers, Noble Willingham, Gary Frank, Director’s cut runs 94m. [R]▼●쩠 Cynthia Harris, James Garner. Florida con Diva (1982-French) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: artist Murphy realizes that the real conJean-Jacques Beineix. Wilhelmenia Wiggins game is the political scene in Washington, Fernandez, Frederic Andrei, Richard BohD.C.—and gets himself elected to the ringer, Thuy An Luu, Jacques Fabbri. MusicHouse of Representatives. Satirical barbs loving mailman bootleg-tapes the concert of a about the System blend neatly with Eddie’s superstar diva who’s never made a recording, irresistible huckster persona for this ingratifinds himself in even hotter water when his ating (if somewhat overlong) comedy, aided possession is mixed up with a second tape by a strong supporting cast. [R]▼●쩠 that will incriminate gangsters. High-tech ★★★ District B13 (2004-French) C-84m. D: melodrama occasionally rubs your nose in its Pierre Morel. Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, technique, but still makes for whale of a direcTony D’Amario, Larbi (Bibi) Naceri, Dany torial debut by Beineix. Subway motorcycle chase is an action classic. [R] ▼●쩠 Verissimo, Franc¸ois Chattot, Nicolas Woirion. Paris, year 2010: Undercover cop RafDive Bomber (1941) C-133m. ★★★ D: faelli dives deep into a walled-off ghetto, Michael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Fred Macguided by seasoned street rat Belle, to reMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Alexis Smith, cover a bomb stolen by man-mountain drug Robert Armstrong, Regis Toomey, Craig lord D’Amario. Meanwhile, police headquarStevens. Exciting, well-paced aviation film ters launches a lethal plan of its own. Politically of experiments to eliminate pilot-blackout. pointed scenario is a jumping-off point— Flynn, MacMurray, and Smith perform well in formula story.▼●쩠 literally—for a way-cool display of the two leads’ spring-loaded parkour stunt work, toDivertimento SEE: La Belle Noiseuse tally unaided by computer trickery. What you Divided We Fall (2000-Czech) C-122m. ★★★1 see is what they did. Produced and cowritten by ⁄2 D: Jan Hrebejk. Boleslav Polı´vka, Luc Besson, with a smashing kick-derriere hipCsongor Kassai, Jaroslav Dusek, Anna hop score by Da. Octopusss. Super 35. [R] 쩠 Siskova´, Jirı´ Pecha, Martin Huba. To conceal Disturbed (1991) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles from the local Nazi collaborators that they’re Winkler. Malcolm McDowell, Geoffrey hiding a Jew in their home, a reluctant hero Lewis, Pamela Gidley, Priscilla Pointer, uses his wife’s so-called pregnancy as the exIrwin Keyes, Peter Murnik. Terrific, funny cuse from having to house a Nazi clerk. Unperformance by McDowell can’t save this fortunately, it’s a matter of public record that florid thriller set in an insane asylum where husband Josef (Polı´vka) is sterile. Brilliant what might have been a murder took place film shot in an edgy style that reflects its char10 years before. Flashy camerawork is acters’ growing neuroses; walks the tightrope merely distracting here; one shot is from between comedy and drama with Wallenda the point of view of a penis! [R]▼● finesse. Screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky scripted Disturbia (2007) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: D. J. from his novel. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Caruso. Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Divine Intervention (2002-French-MorocRoemer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Aaron Yoo, Jose can-German) C-92m. ★★★ D: Elia Suleiman. Pablo Cantillo, Matt Craven, Viola Davis. Elia Suleiman, Manal Khader, Nayef Fahoum Troubled teen LaBeouf is confined to his home Daher, Amer Daher, George Ibrahim. Two by an electronic ankle bracelet and before long Palestinian lovers try to carry on their relationbecomes a voyeur, keeping tabs on his ship near the Israeli checkpoint that divides neighbors—including a beautiful girl next their respective cities, Jerusalem and Ramaldoor, and, more ominously, a man across the lah, in this funny, absurd, but ultimately sad street whose behavior seems highly suspicious. look at the way some lives are lived in the Well-made film invites comparisons to REAR Middle East. Original and inventively filmed, WINDOW but plays its cards right and builds at times this movie seems as if it is something considerable suspense, until it becomes obviJacques Tati might have made given a similar ous (and tedious) by the finale. Casting Morse situation. Writer, director, and star Suleiman as the neighbor also sends a transparent signal takes an almost impossible subject and puts a of what’s to come. [PG-13]쩠 human face on it with insight and humor.쩠 Disturbing Behavior (1998-U.S.-Australian) Divine Madness! (1980) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 363 ]

Michael Ritchie. Bette Midler fanatics Collins, Tom Bosley, Eileen Brennan. would probably up this rating a half-star or Highly entertaining comedy of Van Dyke so, but unevenness and occasional oppresand Reynolds finding more problems than siveness of this concert film may even get they expected when they get divorced. to them. Some funny bits, but will someStars are unusually good in offbeat roles. Written by Norman Lear.▼쩠 one tell her to quit desecrating rock’n’roll? Divorcee, The (1930) 83m ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Divine Nymph, The (1979-Italian) C-90m. Z. Leonard. Norma Shearer, Chester Mor★1 ⁄2 D: Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. Marcello ris, Conrad Nagel, Robert Montgomery, Mastroianni, Laura Antonelli, Terence Florence Eldridge. Stagy but interesting Stamp, Michele Placido, Duilio Del Prete, tale of young wife Shearer who puts up Ettore Manni, Marina Vlady. Poor melowith husband Morris’ flirtations until she drama chronicling beautiful Antonelli’s indecides to equal him. Shearer won an Oscar for this performance.▼쩠 volvements with marquis Mastroianni and baron Stamp. Of interest only when Laura Divorce—Italian Style (1961-Italian) 104m. ★★★1 doffs her duds.▼ ⁄2 D: Pietro Germi. Marcello MastroDivine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood ianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli, ★★★ D: Callie Khouri. Sandra (2002) C-117m. Leopoldo Trieste. Marcello can’t stomach Bullock, Ellen Burstyn, Fionnula Flanagan, wife Rocca, so he schemes to wed sexy Ashley Judd, Maggie Smith, Shirley Knight, young Sandrelli. Hilarious, flavorful comJames Garner, Angus Macfadyen, Cherry edy, which earned an Oscar for its story Jones, Ron Eldard. Three lifelong female and screenplay. The twist ending adds a friends who made a blood pact of sisterhood as perfect—and most ironic—touch.▼쩠 young girls in Louisiana try to reconcile the Divorce of Lady X, The (1938-British) most eccentric and mercurial of their trio C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim Whelan. Merle Obe(Burstyn) with her grown-up daughter (Bulron, Laurence Olivier, Binnie Barnes, Ralph lock). In flashbacks, we learn the reasons for Richardson, Morton Selten. Cute but exthe mother’s erratic behavior, rooted in her tremely dated screwball comedy with lawchildhood and beyond. (She’s played as a yer Olivier forced to share a hotel room young woman by Judd.) Begins as comedy, with mischievous Oberon. He becomes conthen grows much darker. A careful crafting vinced he’s the cause of her pending diof Rebecca Wells’ title novel and Little vorce—even though she’s not married. Altars Everywhere, with strong perfor▼● mances all around. Feature directing debut Dixie (1943) C-89m. ★★★ D: A. Edward for THELMA & LOUISE writer Khouri. Sutherland. Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Billy DeWolfe, Marjorie Reynolds, Lynne Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The (2007Overman, Raymond Walburn, Eddie Foy, U.S.-French) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Julian Jr., Grant Mitchell. Atmosphere overshadSchnabel. Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle ows plot in this biography of pioneer minstrel Seigner, Marie-Jose´e Croze, Anne ConDan Emmett, who wrote title song; Bing signy, Patrick Chesnais, Niels Arestrup, also sings ‘‘Sunday, Monday or Always.’’ Dixie Dynamite (1976) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Olatz Lo´pez Garmendia, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Marina Hands, Isaach De Bankole´, Emma de Lee Frost. Warren Oates, Christopher Caunes, Agathe de la Fontaine, Max von George, Jane Anne Johnstone, Kathy Sydow. Remarkable portrait of JeanMcHaley, Wes Bishop, Mark Miller, R. Dominique Bauby, worldly editor of French G. Armstrong, Stanley Adams. Johnstone Elle magazine, who suffered a stroke that and McHaley wreak havoc on town after paralyzed his entire body except for the left they are dispossessed from their farm and eyelid—and managed to dictate his bestseltheir moonshiner father is killed by a triggerhappy deputy. Sound familiar? [PG]▼쩠 ling memoir, one blink at a time. Potentially depressing subject becomes a visual and Django (1966-Italian-Spanish) C-92m. 1⁄2 D: Sergio Corbucci. Franco Nero, ★★ emotional tour de force that puts the viewer inside the protagonist’s splintered conLoredano Nusciak, Eduardo Fajardo, Jose sciousness. Schnabel’s brilliant direction Bodalo, Angel Alvarez, Jimmy Douglas. (aided no end by cinematographer Janusz Though not as good as the Leone-Eastwood Kaminski and editor Juliette Welfling) and spaghetti Westerns, this is an above-average Ronald Harwood’s screen adaptation create example of the genre, with the gimmick of a fascinating world of memory, fantasy, and Nero as a ruthless gunfighter who drags self-reflection. The whole cast is exceparound a coffin containing a machine gun tional, with von Sydow heartbreaking as wherever he goes. This became a cult film Bauby’s aged father. [PG-13]쩠 and inspired a slew of European oaters with Divorce American Style (1967) C-109m. the name ‘‘Django’’ in their titles. Followed ★★★ D: Bud Yorkin. Dick Van Dyke, by DJANGO STRIKES AGAIN. ▼쩠 Debbie Reynolds, Jason Robards, Jean D.O.A. (1950) 83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph Simmons, Van Johnson, Joe Flynn, ShelMate´. Edmond O’Brien, Pamela Britton, ley Berman, Martin Gabel, Lee Grant, Pat Luther Adler, Beverly Campbell (Garland), [ 364 ]

Lynn Baggett, William Ching, Henry Hart, Warner, Bridget Fonda, Barnard Hughes, Neville Brand. Gripping, original film noir Woody Harrelson, David Ogden Stiers, Franwith O’Brien desperately trying to find who ces Sternhagen, George Hamilton, Roberts has given him a slow-acting poison—and Blossom, Barry Sobel. Fox is on his way to a why. Inventively photographed (by Ernest career in L.A. plastic surgery when he crashes Laszlo) on the streets of San Francisco and his car in South Carolina’s podunk squash L.A. Written by Russell Rouse and Clarcapital and is sentenced to perform muchence Greene. Music by Dimitri Tiomkin. Reneeded medical community service. Agreemade in 1969 (as COLOR ME DEAD) and ably played but nothing special. Warner has a 1988. Also shown in computer-colored memorable first scene, and there’s an amusing version.▼●쩠 star cameo near the end. Director Caton-Jones appears as a maıˆtre d’. [PG-13]▼●쩠 D.O.A. (1981) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Lech Kowalski. Sex Pistols, Dead Boys, Rich Dock Brief, The (1962-British) 88m. ★★1⁄2 Kids, Generation X, Terry and the Idiots, D: James Hill. Peter Sellers, Richard X-Ray Spec, Nancy Spungen. Crummy Attenborough, Beryl Reid, David Lodge. documentary rip-off about the infamous Sellers is aging barrister who incompepunk rock band Sex Pistols. Of interest tently represents accused killer Attenonly for footage of the pathetic Sid Vicious borough with strange results; pleasant comic and girlfriend Nancy Spungen.▼ satire. John Mortimer adapted his own play. U.S. title: TRIAL AND ERROR. ▼쩠 D.O.A. (1988) C-100m. BOMB D: Rocky Morton, Annabel Jankel. Dennis Quaid, Docks of New York, The (1928) 76m. ★★★★ Meg Ryan, Daniel Stern, Charlotte RampD: Josef von Sternberg. George Bancroft, ling, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Neame. Betty Compson, Olga Baclanova, Mitchell Noisy and needless remake of the film noir Lewis, Clyde Cook, Gustav von Seyffertitz. original, transplanted to academia. Quaid is Burly ship stoker Bancroft marries the suia college professor fed a slow-acting toxin cidal girl he saved from the drink, first takin a dispute over a prized fiction manuing her for granted, then coming to love her. script; Ryan is an innocent student helping A rival to SUNRISE as the visual apogee of him pursue his ‘‘killer.’’ Badly overdirected silent cinema, though the smoky hues of by the Max Headroom creators; obvious red von Sternberg’s waterfront dive can fully be herrings abound. [R] ▼●쩠 appreciated only on the big screen. Gaylord D.O.A. II SEE: Color Me Dead Carter’s organ score on the video version is DOA: Dead or Alive (2006-U.S.-Germana big plus. ▼ British) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Corey Yuen. Jaime Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze (1975) Pressly, Holly Valance, Sarah Carter, C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. Ron Devon Aoki, Eric Roberts, Natassia Malthe, Ely, Darrell Zwerling, Michael Miller, PamMatthew Marsden, Steve Howey, Kevin ela Hensley, Paul Wexler, Robyn Hilton, Nash, Brian White, Kane Kosugi. Three William Lucking, Paul Gleason. Film debut butt-kicking babes in various stages of unof Kenneth Robeson’s pulp hero was sold dress are among the combatants invited to a (and accepted) as camp; in reality, it’s a remote island to compete in a $10 million straight-faced period adventure that just fighting tournament hosted by a sinister scicame out at the wrong time. Story has Doc entist (a shamelessly hammy Roberts). (Ely) and his Fabulous Five heading to Hong Kong action ace Yuen stages some South America to investigate his father’s slick martial-arts battles in this video-game death, tangling with evil Captain Seas (Wexadaptation, in reality a silly t&a jiggle-fest ler). Fun for kids and buffs, with amusing that looks like it was made by Maxim magascore built around Sousa marches; final film of producer George Pal. [G]▼●쩠 zine. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Doberman Gang, The (1972) C-87m. Doctor, The (1991) C-125m. ★★★ D: Randa ★★1 ⁄2 D: Byron Chudnow. Byron Mabe, Haines. William Hurt, Christine Lahti, ElizJulie Parrish, Hal Reed, Simmy Bow, Jojo abeth Perkins, Mandy Patinkin, Adam D’Amore. Trim low-budget heist movie Arkin, Charlie Korsmo, Wendy Crewson, about a crook’s ingenious plan to use six Bill Macy. Successful surgeon is diagdobermans to pull off bank job. Dogs steal nosed with throat cancer—and for the first not only the loot but the picture, and time in his career, learns what it’s like to starred in two sequels. [G]▼ be a patient at the mercy of cold-blooded Doc (1971) C-96m. ★★ D: Frank Perry. doctors and a bureaucratic hospital. PerStacy Keach, Harris Yulin, Faye Dunaway, kins stands out in a showy role as fellow Michael Witney, Denver John Collins, Dan cancer patient. Engrossing, well acted, and Greenburg. Well-crafted but unpleasant antiutterly believable; based on Dr. Ed RosenWestern, telling the story of Wyatt Earp baum’s own experiences, described in his and Doc Holliday in revisionist terms. book A Taste of My Own Medicine. [PGScript by Pete Hamill. [PG—edited from 13] ▼●쩠 original R rating] Doctor and the Devils, The (1985) C-93m. ★★ D: Freddie Francis. Timothy Dalton, Doc Hollywood (1991) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Caton-Jones. Michael J. Fox, Julie Jonathan Pryce, Twiggy, Julian Sands, [ 365 ]

Stephen Rea, Phyllis Logan, Beryl Reid, ruined 20th Century-Fox studios. The charm Patrick Stewart, Sian Phillips. Seriousof Hugh Lofting’s stories is gone. One minded but unsuccessful (and unappealmerit: if you have unruly children, it may ing) Gothic tale of grave robbers who put them to sleep. Songs by Leslie Bricusse supply a dedicated doctor who’s content (including the Oscar-winning ‘‘Talk to the not to ask too many questions. Based on a Animals’’) and choreography by Herbert 1940s screenplay by Dylan Thomas, revised Ross. Oscar winner for special visual efby Ronald Harwood. Reminiscent of vinfects. Originally 152m. Remade in 1998. tage Hammer horror films; no coincidence, Todd-AO.▼●쩠 with veteran Francis directing. Made in EnDoctor Dolittle (1998) C-85m. ★★ D: Betty gland. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼쩠 Thomas. Eddie Murphy, Ossie Davis, OliDoctor at Large (1957-British) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 ver Platt, Peter Boyle, Richard Schiff, KrisD: Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, Muriel Pavten Wilson, Kyla Pratt, Raven-Symone´, low, Donald Sinden, James Robertson Justice, Jeffrey Tambor, Paul Giamatti; voices of Shirley Eaton, Derek Farr, Michael Medwin, Ellen DeGeneres, Norm Macdonald, Garry George Coulouris, Anne Heywood, Lionel Shandling, Julie Kavner, Jenna Elfman, AlJeffries, Mervyn Johns, Ernest Thesiger. Anbert Brooks, Chris Rock, Reni Santoni, John other entry in pleasing series, with novice Leguizamo, Gilbert Gottfried, Jonathan Lipdoctor Bogarde seeking staff position in nicki, Paul Reubens, Brian Doyle-Murray. wealthy hospital. VistaVision.▼ 1990s rethink of the Hugh Lofting character Doctor at Sea (1955-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 has Murphy as a busy, self-absorbed doctor D: Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, Brigitte who reacquires the gift he had as a child to Bardot, Brenda de Banzie, James Robertunderstand animals’ speech. Comic chaos son Justice, Maurice Denham, Michael ensues. Murphy is likable and energetic, but Medwin, Raymond Huntley. Preferring the the film is awfully flat; bound to appeal to bachelor life, Bogarde signs on as ship’s kids who don’t mind that seemingly every doctor on passenger-carrying freighter, in other word in the script is ‘‘butt.’’ Followed second entry of this entertaining series. by DR. DOLITTLE 2 and three DVD seVistaVision.▼ quels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Doctor Blood’s Coffin (1961-British) Doctor Faustus (1967-British) C-93m. ★★ C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Furie. Kieron D: Richard Burton, Nevill Coghill. Richard Moore, Hazel Court, Ian Hunter, Fred Burton, Andreas Teuber, Ian Marter, ElizaJohnson. In Cornwall, young scientist holes beth Taylor. Burton’s retelling of Faustus up in an abandoned tin mine to work on his legend lacks everything but a buxom Mrs. theory that placing a live heart in a corpse Burton in brief sequence as Helen of Troy. Strictly for their fans.▼쩠 will bring it back to life. He’s right, as it turns out, but unfortunately he’s also Doctor In Clover (1965-British) C-101m. ★★ crazy. . . . Crude but lively imitation-HamD: Ralph Thomas. Leslie Phillips, James mer horror opus.▼●쩠 Robertson Justice, Shirley Anne Field, John Doctor Death, Seeker of Souls (1973) Fraser, Joan Sims. New doctor, same old zany situations in sixth entry of series. C-73m. ★1⁄2 D: Eddie Saeta. John Considine, Barry Coe, Cheryl Miller, Florence Doctor studies nurses more than medicine. Marly, Jo Morrow. Cheap horror item Not up to the others’ standard. about the transferring of souls by 1,000Doctor In Distress (1963-British) C-102m. ★★1 year-old Considine. Few effective moments ⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, include The Three Stooges’ Moe Howard Samantha Eggar, James Robertson Justice, in a gag bit. Aka DOCTOR DEATH. Mylene Demongeot, Donald Houston, Bar[R]▼ bara Murray, Dennis Price, Leo McKern. Doctor Detroit (1983) C-89m. ★★ D: MiPompous chief surgeon falls in love for the chael Pressman. Dan Aykroyd, Howard first time, and his assistant tries to help the Hesseman, T. K. Carter, Donna Dixon, romance along while balancing his own Lynn Whitfield, Lydia Lei, Fran Drescher, love life. Another entertaining entry in Kate Murtagh, George Furth, Andrew comedy series. Bogarde’s last appearance Duggan, Glenne Headly, James Brown. as Dr. Sparrow.▼ Wimpy college professor becomes emDoctor in the House (1954-British) C-92m. ★★★1 broiled with pimps, prostitutes, and under⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, world intrigue, but the results are surprisMuriel Pavlow, Kenneth More, Donald ingly bland, and only sporadically funny. Sinden, Kay Kendall, James Robertson Story by Bruce Jay Friedman. Aykroyd Justice, Donald Houston, Suzanne Cloutier, later married costar Dixon. [R]▼●쩠 Geoffrey Keen, George Coulouris, Shirley Doctor Dolittle (1967) C-144m. ★1⁄2 D: Eaton, Joan Hickson, Richard Wattis. HiRichard Fleischer. Rex Harrison, Samantha larious comedy follows exploits of mediEggar, Anthony Newley, Richard Attencal students intent on studying beautiful borough, Peter Bull, Geoffrey Holder. Robwomen and how to become wealthy physiert Surtees’ photography is great, and that’s cians. This delightful film (from Richard it for this colossal musical dud that almost Gordon’s stories) spawned six other ‘‘Doc[ 366 ]

tor’’ movies, plus a TV series. Justice Stars and material spark each other at a lively pace.▼쩠 memorable as Sir Lancelot Spratt. Scripted Doctor X (1932) C-80m. ★★ D: Michael by Gordon, Ronald Wilkenson, and costar Curtiz. Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, Lee Tracy, Nicholas Phipps.▼ Preston Foster, Robert Warwick, Mae Doctor in Trouble (1970-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Ralph Thomas. Leslie Phillips, Harry Busch. Police have tracked the ‘‘full-moon strangler’’ to Atwill’s experimental laboraSecombe, James Robertson Justice, Antory. Ludicrous Grand Guignol chiller gela Scoular, Irene Handl, Robert Morley. (Wray’s entrance has her screaming—for Fair entry in the on-and-off British comno reason at all) is a must for horror-film edy series concerns Dr. Phillips’ problems buffs because of its Anton Grot sets, special when he stows away on ocean liner; good Max Factor makeup, and rich use of twosupporting cast help a bit. [R]▼ color Technicolor . . . but it creaks badly Doctor Mordrid (1992) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: and seems much longer than it is.▼●쩠 Albert and Charles Band. Jeffrey Combs, Doctor, You’ve Got to Be Kidding (1967) Yvette Nipar, Brian Thompson, Jay AcoC-94m. BOMB D: Peter Tewksbury. Sanvone, Keith Coulouris, Ritch Brinkley, dra Dee, George Hamilton, Celeste Holm, Pearl Shear, Murray Rubin, Jeff Austin, Bill Bixby, Dick Kallman, Mort Sahl, John Apicella. A woman discovers her reDwayne Hickman. Dee would rather marry clusive neighbor is a powerful sorcerer the boss than pursue singing career. Even sworn to save the world from his evil counher singing might have helped this alleged terpart. Satisfying little movie, confident of comedy. Panavision. its intent, with a sensitive performance by Doctor Zhivago (1965) C-197m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Combs. From Full Moon. [R]▼쩠 David Lean. Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, ★★1 Doctor Rhythm (1938) 80m. ⁄2 D: Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Courtenay, Alec Frank Tuttle. Bing Crosby, Mary Carlisle, Guinness, Siobhan McKenna, Ralph RichBeatrice Lillie, Andy Devine, Laura Hope ardson, Rod Steiger, Rita Tushingham, Crews, Sterling Holloway. Amiable but secAdrienne Corri, Geoffrey Keen, Jeffrey ond-rate Crosby vehicle about doctor who Rockland, Klaus Kinski, Jack MacGowran, masquerades as cop and falls in love with Tarek Sharif. Sumptuous, sprawling epic woman he’s assigned to guard. Lillie adds from Boris Pasternak’s acclaimed novel; her distinctive spark. Sharif is charismatic as Russian poet/doctor, Doctor’s Dilemma (1958-British) C-99m. an orphan who marries aristocratic Chaplin ★★★ D: Anthony Asquith. Leslie Caron, but falls in love with politicized nurse Dirk Bogarde, Alastair Sim, Robert MorChristie. Spans several decades, including ley. Bubbly Shaw period play of young WW1 and Bolshevik Revolution, with stirwife Caron conniving to convince medical ring crowd scenes, gorgeous romantic vistas specialists that her scoundrel husband is (set to Maurice Jarre’s sweeping music) and worth saving. a powerful exodus sequence on train. OverDoctors Wear Scarlet SEE: Bloodsuckers long, but with top production values and (1970) superb acting in every role. Won Oscars for Doctors’ Wives (1971) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: screenplay (Robert Bolt), cinematography George Schaefer. Dyan Cannon, Richard (Freddie Young), art direction–set decoraCrenna, Gene Hackman, Rachel Roberts, tion (John Box and Terry Marsh; Dario SiCarroll O’Connor, Janice Rule, Diana moni), costume design (Phyllis Dalton), and Sands, Cara Williams, Ralph Bellamy. score. Reissued at 180m. Remade as a cable Super-sudsy soaper sparked by mysterious miniseries in 2003. Panavision.▼●쩠 murder of cheating wife; glossy garbage. Dodes’ka-den (1970-Japanese) C-140m. Scripted by a slumming Daniel Taradash. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Akira Kurosawa. Yoshitaka Zushi, [R]▼ Tomoko Yamazaki, Hiroshi Akutagawa, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Doctor Syn (1937-British) 80m. Noboru Mitani. Episodic chronicle of Roy William Neill. George Arliss, Margaret life in a Tokyo slum; characters include a Lockwood, John Loder, Roy Emerton, Gralittle boy who feeds himself and derelict ham Moffatt. Arliss’ final film finds aging dad by scrounging garbage—together, they star somewhat miscast as English vicar who visualize a dream house; a wan girl who rides at night as a pirate, but director Neill makes artificial flowers to support her alkeeps things moving at his usual pace, and coholic stepfather; etc. Kurosawa’s first film the atmosphere is rich. Remade twice in in color. Originally 244m.▼●쩠 1962—as NIGHT CREATURES and DR. Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004) SYN, ALIAS THE SCARECROW.▼ C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rawson Marshall Thurber. Doctor Takes a Wife, The (1940) 89m. Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Christine Tay★★★ D: Alexander Hall. Ray Milland, Lolor, Rip Torn, Justin Long, Stephen Root, retta Young, Reginald Gardiner, Gail PatGary Cole, Hank Azaria, Alan Tudyk, Missi rick, Edmund Gwenn, Frank Sully, Gordon Pyle, Jason Bateman. Vaughn’s dilapidated Jones. Milland is mistaken for Young’s gym is about to go belly-up and be taken husband, then forced to pretend he is. over by snazzier rival Stiller, and it takes 17 [ 367 ]

minutes in a movie called DODGEBALL to establish that he’s going to alleviate his debts by fielding a bunch of guys and a ringer babe who play . . . oh come on, venture a guess. Affable enough, with some funny surprise cameos and the seductive sight of Torn in shoulder-length hair . . . and an excess of gross-out gags. Stiller coproduced. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Dodge City (1939) C-105m. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Ann Sheridan, Bruce Cabot, Frank McHugh, Alan Hale, John Litel, Victor Jory, Ward Bond. Errol tames the West and de Havilland, in entertaining large-scale Western, with Warner Bros. stock company and the granddaddy of all barroom brawls. The principal inspiration for BLAZING SADDLES.▼●쩠 Dodsworth (1936) 101m. ★★★★ D: William Wyler. Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Paul Lukas, Mary Astor, David Niven, Gregory Gaye, Maria Ouspenskaya, Spring Byington, Harlan Briggs. Superb adaptation of Sinclair Lewis novel about middle-aged American industrialist who retires, goes to Europe, where he and his wife find differing sets of values and new relationships. Intelligently written (by Sidney Howard), beautifully filmed, extremely well acted, with Huston recreating his Broadway role. John Payne (billed as John Howard Payne) makes screen debut in small role. Won Oscar for Interior Decoration (Richard Day). Unusually mature Hollywood film, not to be missed. ▼●쩠 Dog Day (1983-French) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yves Boisset. Miou Miou, Lee Marvin, Jean Carmet, Victor Lanoux, David Bennent, Bernadette Lafont, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Pierre Clementi, Tina Louise. Intriguing if gratuitously violent thriller about a tough but doomed American gangster on the lam (Marvin, well cast) who hides out on the farm of a depraved French family. Fairly effective as an ode to the mythical image of the American screen hood. Panavision.

Fraser. Title refers to a cruel wager by Vietnam-bound Marines in 1963 San Francisco. Taylor (superb) is a physically plain folkie who becomes an unwitting partner in Phoenix’s attempt to bring the ugliest ‘‘date’’ to a party. Original, barely released sleeper is surprisingly unmawkish, thanks to a good script by Bob Comfort and Savoca’s tough direction. Unusually apt use of period music. [R]▼●쩠 Dogma (1999) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Smith. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Linda Fiorentino, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, George Carlin, Alanis Morissette, Janeane Garofalo, Bud Cort. Ambitious comic fantasy in which age-old battles between outcast angels, Lucifer, and God are played out in modern-day America, as a young woman who’s lost her faith (Fiorentino) is chosen to save humanity. Irreverent, to say the least; challenging and clever at times, but also puerile and silly, not to mention long. Smith and Mewes reprise their characters from Smith’s earlier films. Smith also scripted. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Dog of Flanders, A (1999) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Brodie. Jack Warden, Jeremy James Kissner, Jesse James, Jon Voight, Cheryl Ladd, Steven Hartley, Bruce McGill, Andrew Bicknell. A 19th-century Belgian boy rescues an abandoned dog and uses him to pull a milk-delivery cart for him and his grandfather . . . but the boy really longs to be a painter like the great Reubens. Despite excellent photography of Belgian locations, this adaptation of Ouida’s classic children’s novel is a joyless, anachronistic, moralistic snoozer. Previously made in 1935, 1959, and in 1975 as a Japanese animated feature. [PG]▼●쩠 Dog Park (1999-U.S.-Canadian) C-91m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Bruce McCulloch. Natasha Henstridge, Luke Wilson, Kathleen Robertson, Janeane Garofalo, Bruce McCulloch, Kristin Lehman, Harland Williams. Howlingly bad romantic comedy squanders cute prem▼쩠 Dog Day Afternoon (1975) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 ise about a group of Toronto singles whose D: Sidney Lumet. Al Pacino, John Cazale, lackluster love lives affect their pet pooches. Charles Durning, James Broderick, Chris Self-absorbed, unlikable lead characters and Sarandon, Sully Boyar, Penny Allen, Carol meandering subplots don’t help. InauspiKane, Lance Henriksen, Dick Anthony Wilcious writing-directing debut from Kids in liams, Philip Charles Mackenzie. Incrediblethe Hall alum McCulloch; only laughs but-true story of a loser who holds up a come from fellow Kids member Mark McBrooklyn bank to raise money for his lover’s Kinney as a pet therapist. [R]▼쩠 sex-change operation, and sees simple heist Dogpound Shuffle (1975) C-95m. ★★★ D: snowball into a citywide incident. Pacino’s Jeffrey Bloom. Ron Moody, David Soul, performance and Lumet’s flavorful N.Y.C. atPamela McMyler, Ray Stricklyn, Raymond mosphere obscure the fact that this is much ado Sutton. Unpretentious little fable about cynabout nothing. Frank Pierson won an Oscar for ical ex-vaudevillian tap-dancer—now a his screenplay (based on an article by P. F. bum—who must raise $30 to rescue his dog Kluge and Thomas Moore). [R] ▼●쩠 from the pound. Funny and wistful, with Dogfight (1991) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Nancy excellent character performance by Moody. Aka SPOT. [PG]▼ Savoca. River Phoenix, Lili Taylor, Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark, Mitchell Dogs of War, The (1980-British) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Irvin. Christopher Walken, Whitfield, Holly Near, E. G. Daily, Brendan [ 368 ]

Tom Berenger, Colin Blakely, Hugh Milthe John Dillinger Memorial Penitentiary (yuk, yuk). [R]▼ lais, Paul Freeman, JoBeth Williams, Ed O’Neill. Appropriately mean if overly somDoin’ Time on Planet Earth (1988) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Matthau. Nichober adaptation of the Frederick Forsyth bestseller about a mercenary who tangles with las Strouse, Andrea Thompson, Hugh Gillin, an Amin-like dictator in an African hellAdam West, Candice Azzara, Hugh O’Brian, hole. Will not promote one-worldism, but Matt Adler, Timothy Patrick Murphy, Roddy Walken takes a screen beating nearly as imMcDowall, Maureen Stapleton. Fresh-feeling pressively as Brando. British running time but thin teen comedy about boy who feels 118m. [R]▼●쩠 literally alienated from his family and their Dog Soldiers SEE: Who’ll Stop the Rain Holiday Inn home: cheerful wackos West and Dogtown and Z-Boys (2002) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 Azzara convince him that he’s really an alien D: Stacy Peralta. Narrated by Sean Penn. Exborn on Earth, destined to lead others back uberant, impassioned documentary of the pito the stars. Amusingly designed, inventively oneering Zephyr skateboarders, a group of directed, but aimless. [PG]▼ misfit Venice, California, teens who revived Dolemite (1975) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: D’Urville the sport in the ’70s and became overnight Martin. Rudy Ray Moore, Jerry Jones, Lady media sensations . . . and their bittersweet Reed. Occasionally funny but amateurish vepresent-day reunion. Made by Peralta, one of hicle for standup comedian Moore (who also the original thrasher stars of the group. Feaproduced the film), a stout nonactor who tures candid interviews, a terrific classic rock combines the personality of Mr. T with a soundtrack, and amazing footage of their rhyming rap routine. Karate gangster spoof killer moves gliding on the walls of drained is set in the milieu of black nightclubs where Moore performs. [R]▼쩠 swimming pools. Later transformed into a Hollywood feature, THE LORDS OF DOG$(Dollars) (1971) C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: RichTOWN. [PG-13]▼쩠 ard Brooks. Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, Dogville (2003-Danish-Swedish-BritishGert Frobe, Robert Webber, Scott Brady. French-German-Dutch) C-177m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Top-notch caper thriller (scripted by the diLars von Trier. Nicole Kidman, Harriet Anrector) set in Germany with unusual chase dersson, Lauren Bacall, Jean-Marc Barr, that goes on for more than a fifth of the film. Paul Bettany, Blair Brown, James Caan, PaAwfully similar to PERFECT FRIDAY. Bouncy Quincy Jones score. [R]▼●쩠 tricia Clarkson, Jeremy Davies, Ben Gazzara, Philip Baker Hall, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Dollman (1991) C-86m. BOMB D: Albert Zˇeljko Ivanek, Udo Kier, Cleo King, Chloe¨ Pyun. Tim Thomerson, Jackie Earle Haley, Sevigny, Stellan Skarsga˚rd; narrated by John Kamala Lopez, Humberto Ortiz, Nicholas Hurt. Provocative and offbeat drama about Guest, Judd Omen. Tough alien cop (from a enigmatic fugitive Kidman, who stumbles planet identical to a slightly futuristic Earth) into an isolated 1930s Rocky Mountain chases a villainous flying head to our planet, hamlet and has a disturbing effect on the but surprise! The cop is only 13 inches tall. close-knit community. Dark, avant garde Underproduced trifle with poor FX and a morality tale, with overtly theatrical staging deadly slow pace. Followed by DOLLMAN VS. THE DEMONIC TOYS. [R]▼●쩠 (a` la Our Town), fresh casting, and superior acting. Long, demanding, but fascinating Dolls (1987) C-77m. ★★ D: Stuart Gorand worthwhile. Written by the director. don. Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn PurdyFollowed by MANDERLAY. HD 24P Gordon, Carrie Lorraine, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Widescreen. [R]▼쩠 Mason, Bunty Bailey, Cassie Stuart, SteDoing Time (1979-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 phen Lee. OK horror from the director of RED: Dick Clement. Ronnie Barker, Richard ANIMATOR has unsuspecting people taking Beckinsale, Fulton Mackay, Brian Wilde, shelter from a storm in mansion owned by Peter Vaughan. Barker is a delight as a elderly couple who make murderous dolls. habitual prison inmate who inadvertently Nothing special here. [R]▼●쩠 escapes—and wants back in! Reportedly Doll’s House, A (1973-British) C-105m. ★★1 not as funny as the TV series on which it’s ⁄2 D: Patrick Garland. Claire Bloom, based, but that’s usually the case with Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Richardson, Denfeature spinoffs. (The show was tried on holm Elliott, Anna Massey, Edith Evans. American TV as On the Rocks.) Original Bloom and Hopkins give thoughtful perforBritish title: PORRIDGE. mances in this rather stagy filmization of IbDoin’ It SEE: First Time, The (1983) sen’s play. Still, the words are there and the Doin’ Time (1985) C-81m. BOMB D: play is a strong statement about women’s (and George Mendeluk. Jeff Altman, Dey Young, all people’s) rights to be human beings. [G] Richard Mulligan, John Vernon, Colleen ▼쩠 Camp, Melanie Chartoff, Graham Jarvis, Doll’s House, A (1973-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. Jane Fonda, David Pat McCormick, Eddie Velez, Jimmie Walker, Judy Landers, Mike Mazurki, MuWarner, Trevor Howard, Delphine Seyrig, hammad Ali. Shoddy, thoroughly obnoxEdward Fox. Moderately successful, cinemaious POLICE ACADEMY clone, set in tic version of Ibsen play, worth a look for [ 369 ]

Fonda’s controversial interpretation of a Billy Crawford, Ralph Brown. Years before 19th-century liberated woman. Howard exorcising Regan MacNeil in THE EXORshines as the dying Dr. Rank. [G]▼ CIST, Father Merrin battles internal and exDoll Squad, The (1973) C-101m. BOMB ternal demons during an archaeological dig D: Ted V. Mikels. Michael Ansara, Franin East Africa. This film became notorious cine York, Anthony Eisley, John Carter, when it was scrubbed and Renny Harlin was Rafael Campos, Lisa Todd. Sexy York hired to remake it from scratch as EXORleads her all-female trio against ex-CIA CIST: THE BEGINNING. Schrader’s veragent Ansara, out to rule the world. Poorly sion (subsequently saved from movie limbo) made and boring, with very little action. Inis significantly more elegant, ambitious, and teresting only as a forerunner to Charlie’s thoughtful and Skarsga˚rd gives an effective Angels; the smart one’s even named Saperformance. But in spite of all this, it’s still brina! Aka HUSTLER SQUAD. [PG]▼쩠 pretty dull. Univision. [R]쩠 Dolly Sisters, The (1945) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 Dominique (1978-British) C-100m. ★★ D: D: Irving Cummings. Betty Grable, John Michael Anderson. Cliff Robertson, Jean Payne, June Haver, S. Z. Sakall, Reginald Simmons, Jenny Agutter, Simon Ward, Gardiner, Frank Latimore. Sassy hokum Ron Moody, Judy Geeson, Michael Jayston, about popular vaudeville sister act with Flora Robson, David Tomlinson, Jack Wartwo lovely stars and a bevy of old song ner. Great cast tries its best in disappointfavorites, plus newly written ‘‘I Can’t Being melodrama; crippled Simmons believes gin to Tell You.’’▼●쩠 husband Robertson wants to drive her mad; Dolores Claiborne (1995) C-131m. ★★★1⁄2 she dies, but comes back to haunt him. D: Taylor Hackford. Kathy Bates, Jennifer Video titles: DOMINIQUE IS DEAD and AVENGING SPIRIT. [PG]▼쩠 Jason Leigh, Judy Parfitt, Christopher Plummer, David Strathairn, Eric Bogosian, Dominique Is Dead SEE: Dominique Domino (2005-French-U.S.) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 John C. Reilly, Ellen Muth, Bob Gunton. A Maine woman is accused of murdering her D: Tony Scott. Keira Knightley, Mickey longtime employer, which brings her esRourke, Edgar Ramirez, Rizwan Abbasi, tranged daughter home for the first time in Delroy Lindo, Mo’Nique, Lucy Liu, Chrisyears. Now, the two women begin to sort topher Walken, Mena Suvari, Macy Gray, out unanswered questions from the past. Jacqueline Bisset, Dabney Coleman, T.K. Gripping adaptation of Stephen King’s Carter, Shondrella Avery, Tom Waits. novel (by Tony Gilroy) holds your interest Gritty but jumbled thriller inspired by the from start to finish, as the real story unfolds. life of Domino Harvey (Knightley), an angry Bates’ performance is a powerhouse, and young woman who rebels against her the rest of the cast is equally fine. Kudos, background—she’s the daughter of jet-setting too, to Hackford’s arresting visual treatactor Laurence Harvey—by becoming a ment. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 bounty hunter. Potentially intriguing but draDomestic Disturbance (2001) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 matically convoluted, and fails to offer meanD: Harold Becker. John Travolta, Vince ingful insight into its title character. Of note Vaughn, Teri Polo, Matt O’Leary, Steve Busfor Knightley’s offbeat casting and the mass cemi, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Susan Floyd. of familiar faces in supporting roles. ScreenDivorced but devoted dad Travolta is wary play by Richard Kelly of DONNIE DARKO of the man his ex is about to marry, all the fame. Harvey died at age 35 of an apparent more so after his son is eyewitness to a drug overdose after the film’s completion but before its release. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 crime that no one will believe took place. Straightforward thriller where, for a change, Domino Principle, The (1977) C-97m. everything adds up—but perhaps it’s a little BOMB D: Stanley Kramer. Gene Hacktoo neat. An ideal role for Travolta, with man, Candice Bergen, Richard Widmark, Buscemi a standout as Vaughn’s sleazy Mickey Rooney, Edward Albert, Eli Wallach. Muddled thriller about lunkhead friend. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Dominick and Eugene (1988) C-111m. Hackman’s recruitment by a mysterious ★★★ D: Robert M. Young. Tom Hulce, Ray Liorganization bent on political assassination. otta, Jamie Lee Curtis, Todd Graff, Mimi CecBergen fails to convince as a lower-middlechini, Robert Levine, Bill Cobbs, David class housewife. [R]▼쩠 Strathairn. Heartrending story of abright young Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands intern (Liotta) and his devotion to a childlike (1978-Brazilian) C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bruno twin brother (Hulce) who needs looking after. Barreto. Sonia Braga, Jose´ Wilker, Mauro An overtly sentimental, sometimes melodraMendoca, Dinorah Brillanti. Braga is torn matic, but completely affecting story of love, between giving body and soul to the dead, compassion and responsibility. Hulce’s perforirresponsible husband who keeps returning mance as the sweet-natured, slow-witted Doto earth, or to the considerate dullard who’s become her new mate. Original, very sexy minick is superb. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist fantasy. Remade as KISS ME GOODBYE. (2005) C-117m. ★★ D: Paul Schrader. Stel[R]▼●쩠 lan Skarsga˚rd, Gabriel Mann, Clara Bellar, Dona Herlinda and Her Son (1986[ 370 ]

Mexican) C-91m. ★★★ D: Jaime Humberto Donnie Darko (2001) C-113m. ★★ D: Hermosillo. Arturo Meza, Marco Antonio Richard Kelly. Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena MaTrevino, Leticia Lupersio, Guadalupe del lone, Drew Barrymore, James Duval, MagToro, Angelica Guerrero. Amusing, cheergie Gyllenhaal, Mary McDonnell, Holmes fully subversive comedy about a pair of Osborne, Katharine Ross, Patrick Swayze, gay men, one a surgeon and the other a Noah Wyle, Seth Rogen. A tortured teen who student, who move in with the former’s attends a repressive high school in the 1980s willful mother. Liberating in its depiction has nightmarish visions. Are they premoniof the lovers; a film to be savored regardtions or hallucinations? Writer-director Kelly less of one’s sexual preference.▼쩠 has ambitious and interesting ideas, but the Dondi (1961) 100m. BOMB D: Albert film builds to an unsatisfying conclusion. Zugsmith. David Janssen, Patti Page, Barrymore executive-produced and has a relaDavid Kory, Walter Winchell, Gale Gortively minor role as a schoolteacher. ‘‘Direcdon. Adaptation of sentimental comic strip tor’s Cut,’’ theatrically released in 2004, runs about a cute war orphan trying to get along 133m. Followed by a DVD sequel, S. DARKO. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 in the U.S. Goshes! Watch this film and you’ll know why Janssen became a fugitive! Do Not Disturb (1965) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Is Dead, The (1973) C-115m. ★1⁄2 Ralph Levy. Doris Day, Rod Taylor, D: Richard Fleischer. Anthony Quinn, FredHermione Baddeley, Sergio Fantoni, Regeric Forrest, Robert Forster, Al Lettieri, inald Gardiner, Mike Romanoff, Leon Angel Tompkins, Ina Balin. Mafia wars Askin. Mild Day vehicle with Taylor as form the convoluted plot of this trashy, deexecutive husband who brings her to subrivative gangster saga. Retitled BEAUTIurban England. She meets suave Fantoni, FUL BUT DEADLY. [R]▼쩠 enraging jealous hubby. Not up to her Don Juan DeMarco (1995) C-97m. ★★★ earlier fashion romps. CinemaScope.쩠 D: Jeremy Leven. Marlon Brando, Johnny Donovan’s Brain (1953) 83m. ★★★ D: Felix Depp, Faye Dunaway, Geraldine Pailhas, Feist. Lew Ayres, Gene Evans, Nancy Davis Bob Dishy, Rachel Ticotin, Talisa Soto, (Reagan), Steve Brodie. Scientist is domiRichard Sarafian, Tresa Hughes, Franc Luz. nated by brain of dead industrialist, which Psychotherapist on the verge of retirement he’s kept alive in his lab; intriguing story by becomes entranced with a new patient, a Curt Siodmak; modest, capable production. fervent young man who believes he is the Filmed before as THE LADY AND THE world’s greatest lover. Fanciful story (by diMONSTER, again as THE BRAIN.▼●쩠 rector Leven) is made compulsively watchDonovan’s Reef (1963) C-109m. ★★★ D: able by its stars: Brando, compelling as ever, John Ford. John Wayne, Lee Marvin, ElizDepp, hypnotically believeable, and Dunaabeth Allen, Jack Warden, Cesar Romero, way, a delightful match for Brando, as his Dorothy Lamour, Mike Mazurki. Actionwife. Ill-fated Tejano singer Selena appears in comedy bounces along with a good cast. the opening scene. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Wayne and his freewheeling friends on a ★★★ Donkey Skin (1971-French) C-90m. Pacific island are disrupted by Warden’s D: Jacques Demy. Catherine Deneuve, grown daughter (Allen) who comes to visit. Jacques Perrin, Jean Marais, Delphine Lots of fun in Wayne’s last feature film Seyrig. Charming adaptation of Charles with John Ford. That’s Ford’s yacht Araner in several scenes.▼●쩠 Perrault’s fairy tale about widowed King who vows that his new Queen must be as Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) 110m. ★★1⁄2 beautiful as his first. Sumptuous color proD: Donald Crisp. Douglas Fairbanks, Mary duction, witty script by Demy.▼쩠 Astor, Jack McDonald, Donald Crisp, Stella Donnie Brasco (1997) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: De Lanti, Warner Oland, Jean Hersholt. Mike Newell. Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, MiFairbanks in his element in OK sequel to chael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo, THE MARK OF ZORRO, as Don Cesar de Anne Heche, Zˇeljko Ivanek, Gerry Becker, Vega, who romances lovely Astor, clashes Zach Grenier, Brian Tarantina, Val Avery, with heinous Crisp (and is falsely accused Gretchen Mol, Tim Blake Nelson, Paul Giaof murder). Doug is both father and son in matti. Fresh, original take on life among the rousing finale. ▼●쩠 the ‘‘wiseguys’’ in N.Y.C.’s Italian crime Don Quixote (1973) C-107m. ★★★ D: Rufamilies, with rich characterizations by Pacdolf Nureyev, Robert Helpmann. Nureyev, ino (as a low-level hood in the Mob food Helpmann, Lucette Aldous, Australian Balchain) and Depp (as an FBI undercover let. Fine ballet version of Cervantes’ clasagent who becomes his prote´ge´). Depp’s assic, choreographed by Nureyev, who plays signment forces him to virtually abandon barber Basilio; Helpmann is the wandering his wife and children, as he becomes more knight. Not just for ballet buffs. [G]▼쩠 and more a part of his adoptive Mob family. Don’s Party (1976-Australian) C-91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. John Hargreaves, Rings true start to finish; based on Joseph Pistone’s memoir, scripted by Paul AttaPat Bishop, Graham Kennedy, Veronica nasio. Also available in unrated 147m. verLang, Candy Raymond, Harold Hopkins. sion. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Powerful black comedy chronicling the [ 371 ]

interaction—sexual and otherwise—among Lee, James Marshall, Esai Morales, Sarah a group of young suburbanites who get Trigger. Talented cast flounders in this contogether to watch election returns. (Important fusing, meandering Generation X drama of note: In Australia, the ‘‘liberals’’ are actually various couples whose love and sex lives the conservative party.) Stunning direction, are intertwined. Means to be insightful, but the result is a talky bore.▼쩠 top performances by all; biting script by Don’t Drink the Water (1969) C-100m. David Williamson, from his play.▼쩠 ★★ D: Howard Morris. Jackie Gleason, Don’t Answer the Phone (1980) C-94m. BOMB D: Robert Hammer. James WestEstelle Parsons, Ted Bessell, Joan Delaney, moreland, Flo Gerrish, Ben Frank, NichoMichael Constantine, Howard St. John, las Worth, Stan Haze. Another sadistic Avery Schreiber. Uninspired adaptation of killer who’s a Vietnam veteran. Don’t watch Woody Allen play about American family this movie. [R]▼쩠 held prisoner in Iron Curtain country of Don’t Be a Menace to South Central Vulgaria, and their desperate attempts to While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood escape. Cast works hard, with sporadic results. Remade for TV in 1994. [G]▼쩠 (1995) C-88m. ★★ D: Paris Barclay. Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Keenen Ivory Don’t Give Up the Ship (1959) 89m. ★★★ Wayans, Chris Spencer, Suli McCullough, D: Norman Taurog. Jerry Lewis, Dina MerDarrell Heath, Helen Martin, Isaiah Barnes, rill, Diana Spencer, Mickey Shaughnessy, Craig Wayans, Kim Wayans, Omar Epps, Robert Middleton, Gale Gordon, Claude Faizon Love, Antonio Fargas, LaWanda Akins. Top comedy with Jerry as U.S. Navy Page, Damon Wayans, Bernie Mac. lieutenant who lost a destroyer escort during NAKED GUN–like spoof of coming-of-age war and doesn’t remember how. Shaughnessy ‘‘hood’’ pictures is only intermittently sucis pal who helps look for it underwater. One cessful, despite the presence of more Wayof Lewis’ all-time best. ▼ anses than there are in Heaven. Thoroughly Don’t Just Stand There (1968) C-100m. ★★1 predictable. Marlon and Shawn (who also ⁄2 D: Ron Winston. Robert Wagner, cowrote and coexecutive-produced) are Mary Tyler Moore, Harvey Korman, Glynis Johns, Barbara Rhoades. Frantic comedy amusing as homies. [R] ▼●쩠 Don’t Bother to Knock (1952) 76m. ★★1⁄2 with perky stars; Wagner and Moore try to D: Roy (Ward) Baker. Richard Widmark, unravel mystery of disappearance of auMarilyn Monroe, Anne Bancroft, Jeanne thoress Johns after writing the first half of Cagney, Elisha Cook, Jr., Gloria Blondell. a new book. Players’ vivacity makes script Title has more punch than improbable yarn seem better than it is. Techniscope. of airline pilot Widmark getting involved with Don’t Knock the Twist (1962) 87m. mentally disturbed Monroe hired as babysitter BOMB D: Oscar Rudolph. Chubby Checkin large hotel. Bancroft’s film debut. Reer, Gene Chandler, Vic Dana, Linda Scott, made for TV as THE SITTER.▼쩠 Mari Blanchard, Lang Jeffries. The Dovells. Don’t Come Knocking (2005-U.S.-GermanTelevision producer Jeffries, with Checker’s 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. French) C-122m. assistance, coordinates a twist show. ChandSam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Galer, with cape, monocle and top hat, sings briel Mann, Sarah Polley, Eva Marie Saint, ‘‘Duke of Earl’’; otherwise, you may want Fairuza Balk, George Kennedy, James Gamto twist your way to your TV set. 쩠 mon, Marley Shelton, Julia Sweeney. TrouDont Look Back (1967) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: bled Western movie star rides his horse off his D. A. Pennebaker. Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, current film set and journeys back to his Donovan, Alan Price, Albert Grossman, Allen roots—and the family he left behind decades Ginsberg. Candid documentary about Dylan’s earlier. Returning to the Southwest of PARIS, ’65 concert tour of England, highlighted by TEXAS, Wenders and Shepard (who collabohis pseudo-hip personality, appearances by rated on the story) seem to be slumming here, Baez and Grossman (Dylan’s manager). Dylan but screenwriter Shepard provides himself performs ‘‘The Times They Are a Changin’,’’ with a meaty role and makes the most of it, ‘‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,’’ ‘‘It’s All particularly in scenes with Saint (as his Over Now, Baby Blue,’’ and ‘‘Subterranean mother) and Lange. Franz Lustig’s cinemaHomesick Blues.’’ Pennebaker assembled a collection of never-before-seen outtakes and tography is a standout. Hawk-Scope. [R]쩠 Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder (1982) performances in 2007 and released it as 65 C-108m. ★★★ D: Peter Werner. Dennis REVISITED.▼●쩠 Christopher, Susan Saint James, Roger Don’t Look Now (1973-British) C-110m. ★★★ Aaron Brown, Lisa Lu. Dramatically unD: Nicolas Roeg. Julie Christie, Doneven, but moving account of G.I. Christoald Sutherland, Hilary Mason, Clelia pher and doctor Saint James’ involvement Matania, Massimo Serato. Arty, overwith makeshift orphanage in Vietnam. indulgent but gripping Daphne du Maurier occult thriller about parents of drowned Based on a true incident. [PG]▼ 1 ★ Don’t Do It! (1994) C-90m. ⁄2 D: Eugene child and their horror-laden visit to VenHess. Alexis Arquette, Balthazar Getty, ice; highlighted by memorably steamy love Heather Graham, James Le Gros, Sheryl scene and violent climax. [R]▼●쩠 [ 372 ]

Don’t Make Waves (1967) C-97m. ★★★ Amick, Beth Grant. If you can buy GuttenD: Alexander Mackendrick. Tony Curtis, berg and Long as siblings, or Guttenberg Claudia Cardinale, Sharon Tate, Robert in a skull cap and bloated facial makeup to Webber, Mort Sahl, Jim Backus, Edgar convey Parkinson’s disease radiation treatBergen, Joanna Barnes. The one gem out ments, or Guttenberg masquerading as a of nine million bad Tony Curtis comedy scruffy New Zealand biker, then maybe vehicles; satire on Southern California has you’ll find something to like in this romangood direction, funny performance by tic comedy of mistaken identity . . . but Sharon Tate, and a catchy title song sung by don’t tell her (or him) you did. Aka THE BOYFRIEND SCHOOL. [PG-13]▼●쩠 the Byrds. Good fun. Panavision.▼ Don’t Move (2004-Italian) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991) C-105m. ★★ D: Stephen Herek. D: Sergio Castellitto. Pene´lope Cruz, Sergio Castellitto, Claudia Gerini, Angela FinocChristina Applegate, Joanna Cassidy, John chiaro, Pietro De Silva, Lina Berardi, Marco Getz, Keith Coogan, Josh Charles, David Giallini. Well-to-do Italian surgeon whose Duchovny, Kimmy Robertson, Eda Reiss daughter lies on the brink of death after a Merin, Jayne Brook, Cathy Ladman, Chrismotorcycle accident looks back on a torrid topher Plummer. Superficial comedy about affair with a poor prostitute 15 years earlier, kids whose babysitter dies, leaving them just before his child was conceived. Odd, to get along without supervision or money. very intense melodrama never quite comes The core of the film is not as bad as the together in the way it was intended. Offers title might suggest—that is, if you can get past an almost unrecognizable Cruz a showcase the first 15 minutes. Cassidy is a standout as for her acting chops; she delivers with an Applegate’s boss. [PG-13]▼●쩠 effective portrayal that won her the Italian Don’t Tempt Me (2001-Spanish-Frenchequivalent of the Oscar. Super 35. 쩠 Italian) C/B&W-108m. ★★★ D: Agustin Diaz Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River Yanes. Pene´lope Cruz, Victoria Abril, De★★ (1968) C-99m. D: Jerry Paris. Jerry mia´n Bichir, Fanny Ardant, Gael Garcı´a BerLewis, Terry-Thomas, Jacqueline Pearce, nal, Juan Echanove, Emilio Gutı´errez Caba, Bernard Cribbins, Patricia Routledge. Jerry Cristina Marcos, Gemma Jones, Bruno Bichir, plays American in England whose get-richElena Anaya, Peter McDonald. Heaven and quick schemes have put him on verge of Hell assign agents Abril and Cruz to vie for divorce; mild Lewis comedy scripted by the soul of an embittered pro boxer. GangMax Wilk, from his novel. [G]▼쩠 sters, supermarket cashiers, and assorted Don’t Say a Word (2001) C-113m. ★★★ D: otherworldly emissaries all figure into this Gary Fleder. Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, oddball seriocomic fantasy. More than a litBrittany Murphy, Famke Janssen, Oliver tle Almodo´varesque, with some truly weird Platt, Jennifer Esposito, Skye McCole Barsoundtrack choices (‘‘Kung Fu Fighttusiak, Victor Argo. In order to rescue his ing’’?!?). Original title: SIN NOTICIAS daughter from kidnappers, a successful DE DIOS. Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 N.Y.C. psychiatrist must unlock a secret Don’t Turn the Other Cheek (1973-Italguarded for ten years by a mental patient ian) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Duccio Tessari. Franco (Murphy)—on a one-day deadline. EnterNero, Lynn Redgrave, Eli Wallach, Marilu taining thriller builds to a conventional Tolo, Horst Janson. Slapstick spaghetti Hollywood-style ending and a silly final Western detailing exploits of unlikely trio: a scene, but the pace never flags and the cast fiery, revolution-fomenting Irish journalist is first-rate. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 (Redgrave), a bogus Russian prince (Nero), Don’t Tell (2005-Italian) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: and a seedy Mexican bandit (Wallach) with Cristina Comencini. Giovanna Mezzogiproverbial heart of gold. Aka LONG LIVE orno, Alessio Boni, Stefania Rocca, Angela YOUR DEATH. Techniscope. [PG]▼ Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Battiston, Luigi Lo Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of a Title Cascio. A woman seemingly content in her (1966) 83m. BOMB D: Harmon Jones. marriage and career discovers she is pregMorey Amsterdam, Rose Marie, Joey nant at about the same time she starts havAdams, Danny Thomas, Milton Berle, Nick ing nightmares about her earlier life. She Adams. Grade-Z shambles, despite many contacts her brother, a professor at a U.S. guest cameos by big TV and movie stars. university, to help her uncover the secret in Start worrying when you turn it on. their family’s past and unlock the answers Doogal (2005-British) C-79m. ★1⁄2 D: Dave that will enable her to move on. Melodrama Borthwick, Jean Duval, Frank Passingham. is slow moving and hard to crack at times, Voices of Daniel Tay, Jimmy Fallon, Whoopi but has fine performances and an intriguing Goldberg, Judi Dench, William H. Macy, story that grows on you. Comencini coChevy Chase, Jon Stewart, Ian McKellen, adapted her own novel. [R]쩠 Kevin Smith, Kylie Minogue. A group of pets Don’t Tell Her It’s Me (1990) C-101m. takes on a quest to stop a power-mad wizard ★1⁄2 D: Malcolm Mowbray. Steve Guttenwho has encased their village (and their berg, Jami Gertz, Shelley Long, Kyle human owners) in ice. Pedestrian computerMacLachlan, Kevin Scannell, Madchen animated film is aimed strictly at kids. Based [ 373 ]

on a 1960s British children’s TV series, The inhabited by a rather odd-acting population. Magic Roundabout, and originally released in Topical, thought-provoking mystery-thriller, England under that title with an all-star British not at all bad of its type. Based on the British TV series of the same name.▼쩠 voice cast (including Tom Baker, Jim Broadbent, Joanna Lumley, and Robbie Williams). Door in the Floor, The (2004) C-111m. ★★★ [G]쩠 D: Tod Williams. Jeff Bridges, Kim Doolins of Oklahoma, The (1949) 90m. Basinger, Jon Foster, Elle Fanning, Bijou ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. Randolph Scott, Phillips, Mimi Rogers, Robert LuPone, George Macready, Louise Allbritton, John Donna Murphy, Louis Arcella. Noted chilIreland. Action-packed Western with Scott dren’s book writer/illustrator hires a college as head of the Doolin gang, who decides to student as his assistant for the summer. The give up his life of crime.▼ boy has no idea what he’s in for, as the man Doom (2005-British-Czech-German-U.S.) Cand his wife are reeling from a family tragedy 100m. BOMB D: Andrzej Bartkowiak. Karl and acting out in entirely different ways. Their Urban, The Rock, Rosamund Pike, DeObia young daughter, meanwhile, has problems of Oparei,BenDaniels, RazAdoti,Richard Brake, her own. Williams adapted the first section of Al Weaver, DexterFletcher, Brian Steele, Doug John Irving’s best-selling novel A Widow for Jones. Brainless, high-testosterone sci-fi–horror One Year to create this moving, multilayered drivel, with the ultra-macho Rapid Response drama. Despite superficial echoes of other stoTactical Squad ordered into action when ries, it has a feeling all its own. Fanning is scientists are mysteriously locked down in a Dakota Fanning’s younger sister. Bridges is at the top of his form. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 high-security lab located on Mars. Unimaginative ALIEN clone is all special effects, Doors, The (1991) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Oligore, and noise; a dumb script and leaden ver Stone. Val Kilmer, Frank Whaley, pacing don’t help. Inspired by the controKevin Dillon, Meg Ryan, Kyle Macversial, wildly popular Doom video game. Lachlan, Billy Idol, Dennis Burkley, Josh Unrated director’s cut runs 113m. Super 35. Evans, Michael Madsen, Michael Wincott, [R]▼쩠 Kathleen Quinlan, John Densmore, Will Doom Generation, The (1995-U.S.Jordan, Mimi Rogers, Paul Williams, 1 ★ French) 85m. ⁄2 D: Gregg Araki. Rose Crispin Glover, Bill Graham, Billy Vera, McGowan, James Duval, Johnathon Schaech, Bill Kunstler, Wes Studi, Costas Mandylor. Margaret Cho, Lauren Tewes, Christopher Vivid impression of famed rocker Jim MorKnight, Parker Posey, Amanda Bearse, rison’s rise to fame, and eventual undoing. Heidi Fleiss. Two young lovers turn their Stone masterfully recreates the late ’60s/ lives upside down when they pick up a danearly ’70s rock and drug scene, and Kilmer gerous drifter who involves them in murder is perfect in the lead . . . but when it’s all and a sexual triangle. Bleak, bleak view of over you don’t know very much more about the younger generation makes KIDS look Morrison than when the film began. The like THE LITTLE MERMAID. ▼쩠 film’s excesses also tend to parallel Mor★★ D: Doomsday (2008-British) C-105m. rison’s. Stone appears briefly as a UCLA Neil Marshall. Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, film professor. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Adrian Lester, Alexander Siddig, David Door-to-Door Maniac (1961) 80m. ★1⁄2 O’Hara, Malcolm McDowell, Craig ConD: Bill Karn. Johnny Cash, Donald Woods, way. Shamelessly derivative, ultraviolent Cay Forrester, Pamela Mason, Midge Ware, postapocalyptic thriller in which the British Victor Tayback, Ronny Howard, Merle authorities dispatch feisty action heroine Travis. Cash and Tayback plot a bank Mitra and a band of mercenaries to sealedrobbery. Of interest only for the cast; also known as FIVE MINUTES TO LIVE.▼쩠 off Scotland to find a cure for a deadly virus. Their foes include a standard-issue Dopamine (2003) C-79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark mad scientist (McDowell) and a MohawkDecena. John Livingston, Sabrina Lloyd, coiffed zombie (Conway), who may as well William Windom, Bruno Campos, Rueben be a refugee from a MAD MAX movie. Grundy, Kathleen Antonia, Nicole Wilder. Unrated DVD runs 113m. Super 35. [R]쩠 Hit-and-miss ‘‘relationship’’ movie about a Doomsday Machine, The (1972) C-88m. computer programmer (Livingston) who has BOMB D: Lee Sholem, Harry Hope. Denny difficulty interacting with women, and his Miller, Mala Powers, Bobby Van, Ruta connection to equally troubled kindergarten Lee, Grant Williams, Henry Wilcoxon. teacher Lloyd. Director-coscripter Decena atTired cast in lumpy, stultifyingly boring tempts to offer a novel, perceptive take on melodrama about scientists on a space voymodern romance; sincere, occasionally inage who are constantly bickering. Aka ESsightful, but static and talky. HD 24P Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 CAPE FROM PLANET EARTH. ▼쩠 Doomwatch (1972-British) C-92m. ★★★ Doppelganger SEE: Journey to the Far D: Peter Sasdy. Ian Bannen, Judy Geeson, Side of the Sun George Sanders, John Paul, Simon Oates, Doppelganger: The Evil Within (1992) Geoffrey Keen. Dr. Bannen investigates C-104m. BOMB D: Avi Nesher. Drew the effects of radioactivity on an island Barrymore, George Newbern, Dennis Chris[ 374 ]

topher, Leslie Hope, Sally Kellerman, Carter, Will Geer, Hope Emerson, Glenn George Maharis, Luana Anders. ScreenStrange, Rock Hudson. O’Connor is wouldwriter Newbern’s roommate, heiress Barbe buccaneer who seeks to win his sweetrymore, claims her doppelganger (ghostly heart and expose crooked city official. Light double) is killing off her family in this sick, satire which doesn’t quite come off.쩠 nonsensical, would-be slasher film. Loud Double Dragon (1994) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: (and corny) music renders the dialogue unJames Yukich. Robert Patrick, Mark Dacascos, intelligible, which is actually no loss. Scott Wolf, Julia Nickson, Kristina Malandro Drew’s mother, Jaid Barrymore, plays her Wagner, John Mallory Asher, Leon Russom, mom on-screen. [R]▼●쩠 Alyssa Milano, Michael Berryman, Vanna Dorian Gray (1970-Italian-German-LichWhite, George Hamilton. In the junky, gangtensteinian) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Massimo Dalladominated post-earthquake ‘‘New Angeles’’ mano. Helmut Berger, Richard Todd, Herof 2007, martial artist brothers Dacascos and bert Lom, Marie Liljedahl, Margaret Lee. Wolf battle evil billionaire Patrick for the posTrashy, slow-moving filmization of Oscar session of a two-part Chinese medallion that Wilde’s novel, updated to the present: vain, grants mystical powers. Sometimes lively but immoral young man (Berger) ceases to mostly silly and tedious; based on an arcade game. [PG-13]▼●쩠 grow older—his portrait ages instead. 1945’s THE PICTURE OF DORIAN Double Dynamite (1951) 80m. ★★ D: IrGRAY is vastly superior. Aka THE SEving Cummings. Frank Sinatra, Jane RusCRET OF DORIAN GRAY. [R]▼ sell, Groucho Marx, Don McGuire. Sinatra Do the Right Thing (1989) C-120m. ★★★ plays a bank clerk falsely accused of robbery. D: Spike Lee. Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Flat comedy marked a career low point for all three of its stars. Filmed in 1948.▼쩠 Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Spike Lee, Bill Nunn, John Double Edge (1992-U.S.-Israeli) C-86m. ★★1 Turturro, Paul Benjamin, Frankie Faison, ⁄2 D: Amos Kollek. Faye Dunaway, Robin Harris, John Savage, Sam (Samuel Amos Kollek, Mohammad Bakri, Makram L.) Jackson, Rosie Perez, Martin LawKhouri, Anat Atzmon. Dunaway is well rence. Idealized, individualistic look at cast as an overly ambitious American life in the black community of Bedfordreporter covering the Arab-Israeli conflict Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, where a whitein this uneven drama about journalistic obowned pizza parlor flourishes . . . and jectivity and responsibility. Never quite dewhere circumstance leads to an outbreak livers as it should, but it does effectively of hostilities on a sweltering summer day. mix fiction with fact, as Dunaway interEntertaining and provocative, with a views Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek (the much-discussed (and troubling) finale. director-actor-screenwriter’s father) and Writer-director Lee also stars as Mookie, other real-life political figures. [PG-13]▼ the delivery boy; his real-life sister Joie Double Happiness (1994-Canadian) Cplays his sister in the film. [R]▼●쩠 100m. ★★★ D: Mina Shum. Sandra Oh, Stedot the i (2003-British-Spanish) C-92m. phen Chang, Allanah Ong, Frances You, ★★1⁄2 D: Matthew Parkhill. Gael Garcı ´a BerCallum Rennie. Insightful, refreshingly unnal, Natalia Verbeke, James D’Arcy, Tom cliche´d tale of a free-thinking young Hardy, Charlie Cox, Yves Aubert. Fiery Chinese-Canadian woman (appealingly played Spanish woman is torn between her dull by Oh), an aspiring actress whose Old World but devoted fiance´ and a more attractive, parents are pressuring her to find a boyfriend passionate man she chances to meet one and marry. Writer-director Shum does not evening. Their relationship grows more paint the parents as stodgy villains; they just fervent—and more dangerous—with each want what they feel is best for the daughter passing day, but all is not what it seems to they love. Bright touches of humor enhance this charming film. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 be. Debut film for writer-director Parkhill is undeniably clever, but terribly self-conscious, Double Impact (1991) C-118m. ★★ D: and eventually runs out of steam. Bernal is Sheldon Lettich. Jean-Claude Van Damme, charismatic and completely at ease in his first Geoffrey Lewis, Alan Scarfe, Alonna Shaw, English-language film. Released in the U.S. Cory Everson. Identical twins are sepain 2005. [R]쩠 rated at six months when Hong Kong thugs Double Con SEE: Trick Baby murder their parents, only to be reunited in Double Confession (1950-British) 86m. revenge a quarter-century later. Van Damme’s ★★ attempts to delineate two characters (one D: Ken Annakin. Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, Peter Lorre, William Hartnell, of them a gruff cigar-chomper) are nearly Kathleen Harrison, Naunton Wayne. Murky as goofy as one slow-motion love scene; melodrama at a seaside resort: an innocent studio press material, praising this Van man tries to set someone else up as a murder Damme career stretch, extolled ‘‘the light, suspect in his wife’s mysterious death, only to charming side of his persona that we haven’t get involved with some real killers.▼ seen before.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Double Crossbones (1951) C-75m. ★★ D: Double Indemnity (1944) 106m. ★★★★ D: Charles Barton. Donald O’Connor, Helena Billy Wilder. Barbara Stanwyck, Fred [ 375 ]

MacMurray, Edward G. Robinson, Porter Double Negative (1980-Canadian) C-96m. ★1 Hall, Tom Power, Fortunio Bonanova, Jean ⁄2 D: George Bloomfield. Michael SarraHeather, Bess Flowers. Wilder–Raymond zin, Susan Clark, Anthony Perkins, HowChandler script (from the James M. Cain ard Duff, Kate Reid, Al Waxman, Elizabeth novel) packs fireworks in account of insurShepherd, John Candy, Joe Flaherty. Conance salesman MacMurray lured into murder fusing, annoying thriller with mentally torplot by alluring Stanwyck and subsequent intured photojournalist Sarrazin attempting to vestigation by Fred’s colleague Robinson. track down his wife’s murderer. Sarrazin is An American movie classic, with crackling his usual bland self; Clark is wasted. Based dialogue throughout. Remade for TV in on Ross Macdonald’s The Three Roads. 1973 with Richard Crenna and Samantha Aka DEADLY COMPANION.▼ Eggar, and the obvious inspiration for LawDouble or Nothing (1937) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: rence Kasdan’s BODY HEAT. ▼●쩠 Theodore Reed. Bing Crosby, Martha Raye, Double Jeopardy (1999) C-105m. ★★★ D: Andy Devine, Mary Carlisle, William FrawBruce Beresford. Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley, Fay Holden, Frances Faye. Entertaining ley Judd, Bruce Greenwood, Annabeth Gish, musical about four people given 30 days to Roma Maffia, Davenia McFadden. Woman is double gifts of $5000. Several good specialty framed for the murder of her husband; while acts thrown in for good measure, and Bing serving the jail sentence she learns he’s sings ‘‘The Moon Got in My Eyes.’’쩠 alive and vows revenge, especially since she Double Take (2001) C-88m. BOMB D: can’t be tried twice for the same crime. George Gallo. Orlando Jones, Eddie Griffin, Slick entertainment gives you pretty much Edward Herrmann, Gary Grubbs, Shawn Elwhat you’d expect. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 liott, Brent Briscoe, Daniel Roebuck, Garcelle Double Life, A (1947) 104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Beauvais, Andrea Navedo. Slick, awful buddy George Cukor. Ronald Colman, Signe pic about a buppie banker who swaps identiHasso, Edmond O’Brien, Shelley Winties with a ghetto con artist when he’s framed ters, Ray Collins, Millard Mitchell. Colfor laundering millions for a Mexican drug man gives a bravura, Oscar-winning percartel. Full of car crashes and south-of-theformance as an actor whose stage roles border caricatures . . . and perpetuates that old spill over into his life—and now he’s about stereotype that all black people look alike. to play Othello. Brilliant melodrama by Inexplicably based on a Graham Greene Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, with wonshort story, filmed before as ACROSS THE derful New York theater flavor. Miklos BRIDGE. Vivica A. Fox appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Rozsa’s fine score also won an Oscar. Watch for playwright Paddy Chayefsky as a Double Team (1997) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Tsui crime-scene photographer. ▼쩠 Hark. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Double Life of Veronique, The (1991Rodman, Mickey Rourke, Paul Freeman, Polish-French) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Krzysztof Natacha Lindinger, Valeria Cavalli. MisKieslowski. Ire`ne Jacob, Wladyslaw Komatched buddy film with Van Damme as a walski, Guillaume de Tonquedec, Philippe world-class counterterrorist who teams with Volter. Two women (one Polish, one weapons expert Rodman in a quest to stop French, both played by Jacob) subtly afMickey Rourke (not a bad idea). Pointless fect each other’s lives while remaining action thriller from cult Hong Kong director total strangers. Unfolds like a half-hour Hark. Scenes in which the hero’s baby is teleplay with a supernatural premise stretched placed in constant jeopardy would be hard to 11⁄2 hours. Film, though, has enough to stomach even in a coherent film—which going for it to pick up a cult, for which this isn’t. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 luminous lead Jacob deserves credit.▼●쩠 Double Trouble (1962) SEE: Swingin’ Double Man, The (1967-British) C-105m. Along ★★1 ⁄2 D: Franklin Schaffner. Yul Brynner, Double Trouble (1967) C-90m. ★★ D: Britt Ekland, Clive Revill, Anton Diffring, Norman Taurog. Elvis Presley, Annette Moira Lister, Lloyd Nolan. Unconvincing Day, John Williams, Yvonne Romain, The spy thriller with Brynner playing both Wiere Brothers, Chips Rafferty, Michael unemotional C.I.A. agent and East GerMurphy. Teen-age heiress falls for pop man lookalike. Excellent photography by singer Presley when he’s performing in Denys Coop. England; usual Elvis fare, but he does sing Double McGuffin, The (1979) C-89m. ‘‘Long Legged Girl,’’ one of his best post★★1 Army tunes. Panavision.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Joe Camp. Ernest Borgnine, George Kennedy, Elke Sommer, Rod Browning, Double Wedding (1937) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dion Pride, Lisa Whelchel, Jeff Nicholson, Richard Thorpe. William Powell, Myrna Loy, Michael Gerard, Vincent Spano. Teenagers Florence Rice, John Beal, Jessie Ralph, Edgar stumble onto clues leading to assassination Kennedy, Sidney Toler, Mary Gordon, Donplot, but no one will believe them. Familyald Meek. Loy’s orchestration of her sister’s oriented thriller from creator of BENJI. Orson wedding is upset by the presence of freeWelles explains film’s title at the outset, for spirited bohemian Powell. The stars are the non-Hitchcock devotees. [PG]▼쩠 whole show in this otherwise disappointing [ 376 ]

adaptation of Ferenc Molna´r’s play Great Little Richard, Tracy Nelson, Elizabeth Love. ▼쩠 Pena, Evan Richards, Valerie Curtin, Barry Doubt (2008) C-104m. ★★★ D: John Patrick Primus, Dorothy Tristan, Alexis Arquette, Shanley. Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Mike the Dog. Bum moves in with neuroHoffman, Amy Adams, Viola Davis, Alice tic, nouveau-riche Bev Hills family and Drummond, Audrie Neenan, Joseph Foster takes over their lives. Slick, often funny, II, Paulie Litt. In a Bronx parish, circa 1964, but unusually obvious satire for Mazursky a relentlessly stern nun who serves as high (who also appears as one of Dreyfuss’ school principal suspects that her gregarious fat-cat friends). Some good performances, priest is showing unnatural interest in the though Mike the Dog easily steals the school’s first black student. She has cerfilm. A remake of Renoir’s BOUDU tainty on her side; now she needs proof. SAVED FROM DROWNING. Later a TV Often-electrifying drama is played out by a series. [R]▼●쩠 peerless cast, though its power must have Down Argentine Way (1940) C-90m. ★★★ been even greater onstage, where it origiD: Irving Cummings. Don Ameche, Betty nated. Shanley adapted his own play. Davis Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenshines as the student’s mother in one exwood, J. Carrol Naish, Henry Stephenson, tended, unforgettable scene. [PG-13]쩠 Leonid Kinskey. Enjoyable 20th CenturyDoughboys (1930) 79m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward Fox musical with Grable (in the movie that Sedgwick. Buster Keaton, Sally Eilers, boosted her to stardom) falling in love Cliff Edwards, Edward Brophy, Victor Potel. with smooth Argentinian horse breeder One of Buster’s worst films; a tiresome Army Ameche. Miranda is terrific in her first comedy. Obnoxious sergeant Brophy overAmerican movie, performing infectious Brarides few comic moments; some bright spots zilian songs with her own band . . . and with ‘‘Ukulele Ike’’ Edwards. ▼● look out for the Nicholas Brothers, who do Doughgirls, The (1944) 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: a dynamite specialty number. PictureJames V. Kern. Ann Sheridan, Alexis postcard color throughout.▼●쩠 Smith, Jane Wyman, Eve Arden, Jack Down by Law (1986) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim Carson, Charlie Ruggles, Alan Mowbray, Jarmusch. Tom Waits, John Lurie, RoCraig Stevens, Regis Toomey. Brittle comberto Benigni, Ellen Barkin, Billie Neal, edy, another tale of crowded wartime WashRockets Redglare, Vernel Bagneris, Nicoington, with newlyweds Carson and Wyman letta Braschi. Third feature by writer-director on hectic honeymoon. Arden stands out as Jarmusch is intriguing, amusing, and ever Russian army officer. so slight, a look at three losers who wind Doug’s 1st Movie (1999) C-77m. ★1⁄2 up in jail together—and then make a break D: Maurice Joyce. Voices of Thomas for it. Really comes alive when Italian McHugh, Fred Newman, Chris Phillips, Concomic Benigni turns up. Slow moving, stance Shulman, Doug Preis, Alice Playten. strikingly photographed (in black & white) The star of TV’s animated Doug is featured in by Robby Mu¨ller on location in Louisiana. this bland, formulaic story, strictly for kids. Costars Lurie and Waits also provide muMild-mannered preteen Doug Funnie’s efsic on the soundtrack. [R]▼●쩠 forts to save a local endangered ‘‘monster’’ Downfall (2004-German) C-155m. ★★★1⁄2 conflict with his desire to take his girlfriend to D: Oliver Hirschbiegel. Bruno Ganz, Alexthe school dance. [G] ▼● andra Maria Lara, Corinna Harfouch, Ulrich Doulos—The Finger Man SEE: Le Doulos Matthes, Juliane Ko¨hler, Heino Ferch, ChrisDove, The (1974) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles tian Berkel, Matthias Habich, Thomas Jarrott. Joseph Bottoms, Deborah Raffin, Kretschmann. Riveting dramatization of HitJohn McLiam, Dabney Coleman. Pleasant ler’s final days in and around his Berlin bunround-the-world adventure based on true ker, as the Nazi leader descends into madness story of 16-year-old who sails to every and paranoia and his adjutants respond in varimaginable port. Produced by Gregory Peck. ious ways, from jumping ship to standing firm Filmed on location. Panavision. [PG]▼ alongside their Fuhrer. Inspired in part by the Down Among the Z Men (1952-British) memories of his young secretary, Traudl 70m. ★★ D: Maclean Rogers. Harry SeJunge (interviewed on screen in BLIND combe, Peter Sellers, Carole Carr, Spike SPOT), whose words bookend the film. Long Milligan, Clifford Stanton, Graham Stark, but thoroughly engrossing; Ganz is outstandMiriam Karlin. Creaky vehicle for radio’s ing. Screenplay by Bernd Eichinger. [R]쩠 The Goons in story of criminals who visit Downhill (1927-British) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alsmall town to steal a professor’s secret fred Hitchcock. Ivor Novello, Ben Webscientific formula. Some good bits, especially ster, Robin Irvine, Sybil Rhoda, Lillian Sellers doing impressions of Yank soldiers, Braithwaite, Isabel Jeans, Ian Hunter. Schebut overloaded with dull song-and-dance matic silent film charts a man’s spiritual slide, beginning when, as a schoolboy, he is numbers by a female chorus line.▼●쩠 Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986) disowned by his family after an indiscretion C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Mazursky. Nick with a girl, and later as an adult when his Nolte, Richard Dreyfuss, Bette Midler, wife fritters away his unexpected inheri[ 377 ]

tance. Major debit: the contrived happy endvants downstairs. Gilbert delivers an audaing. Lesser Hitchcock boasts the master’s cious performance that more than any other visual flair. Cowritten by Novello. redeems his maligned reputation as a ‘‘talkie’’ Downhill Racer (1969) C-102m. ★★★ D: actor; he also gets story credit for the film. Michael Ritchie. Robert Redford, Gene Leading lady Bruce was then his wife. Karen Hackman, Camilla Sparv, Karl Michael Morley appears unbilled in final scene. Vogler, Jim McMullan, Christian Doermer, Down the Drain (1990) C-105m. ★★ D: Dabney Coleman. Vivid study of an empty Robert C. Hughes. Andrew Stevens, John life, with Redford as small-town egotist Matuszak, Don Stroud, Teri Copley, Jowho joins U.S. Olympic ski team. Basically seph Campanella, Stella Stevens, Jerry a character study; problem is an unappealing Mathers, Buck Flower, Pedro Gonzalezcharacter. Dazzling ski scenes make lulls Gonzalez, Benny (The Jet) Urquidez. Lawworth enduring. Ritchie’s feature directorial yer Stevens, with the help of his clients, debut. [M/PG]▼● pulls off a bank robbery. Strictly ho-hum. Down in the Delta (1998) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 [R]▼● D: Maya Angelou. Alfre Woodard, Al FreeDown to Earth (1947) C-101m. ★★ D: man, Jr., Wesley Snipes, Mary Alice, Esther Alexander Hall. Rita Hayworth, Larry Parks, Rolle, Loretta Devine. With her life a mess Marc Platt, Roland Culver, James Gleason, and virtually no hope of employment, single Edward Everett Horton. Terpsichore, the mom Woodard boards the bus with her two Goddess of Dance (Hayworth), comes to children to spend the summer in the MissisEarth to help Parks with his mythological sippi Delta, living with relatives and working musical play. Rita’s beauty is only asset of in their chicken restaurant. Episodic drama this hack musical, which appropriates recovers from clumsy exposition to win points Gleason, Horton, and Culver characters from for sheer likability, though it’s put over almost HERE COMES MR. JORDAN. Remade as XANADU.▼●쩠 exclusively by its cast. Woodard shines, and Freeman gives one of the best performances Down to Earth (2001) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: of his career. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz. Chris Rock, ReDown in the Valley (2006) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 gina King, Chazz Palminteri, Eugene Levy, D: David Jacobson. Edward Norton, Evan Frankie Faison, Mark Addy, Jennifer CooRachel Wood, David Morse, Rory Culkin, lidge, Greg Germann, Wanda Sykes, Greg Bruce Dern, Geoffrey Lewis, Artel Kaya`ru, Cho. A would-be standup comic is taken to Ty Burrell. Interesting attempt to merge a heaven before his time, then returned to life classic Western motif into a contemporary in the body of a ruthless tycoon. Appallstory set in Southern California’s San Feringly clumsy remake of HEAVEN CAN nando Valley, where a 30-something charmer WAIT (and its source, HERE COMES MR. rides into the life of an impressionable teenJORDAN), reshaped as a vehicle for Rock. age girl. Their romance goes awry as he He shines when he’s doing a comedy riff, reveals his true personality. Norton, recallbut his acting is monotonous. [PG-13]▼쩠 ing a young Henry Fonda, is excellent, but Down to the Bone (2005) C-105m. ★★★ D: writer-director Jacobson introduces and then Debra Granik. Vera Farmiga, Hugh Dillon, drops too many story threads. Intriguing if Clint Jordan, Caridad ‘‘La Bruja’’ De La violent character study seems like the bastard Luz, Jasper Moon Daniels, Taylor Foxhall. child of TAXI DRIVER and LONELY ARE Working-class woman tries to keep her THE BRAVE. Panavision. [R]쩠 family and home intact while feeding a coDown Periscope (1996) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: caine habit. Going through rehab helps her David S. Ward. Kelsey Grammer, Lauren on a short-term basis but presents her with Holly, Bruce Dern, Rob Schneider, Rip other challenges—and choices—after she Torn, Harry Dean Stanton, William H. comes to trust an addict-turned-counselor Macy, Ken Hudson Campbell, Toby Huss, (Dillon). Superior fly-on-the-wall filmmaking Duane Martin, Harland Williams. Maverick is anchored by Farmiga’s remarkably honest naval officer is finally given a submarine to performance. Based on writer-director Grancommand, but it turns out to be a mothik’s 1997 short SNAKE FEED, which won a balled wreck—with a crew that’s not much prize at Sundance—as did this film.쩠 better. But if he can prove his mettle (and Down to the Sea in Ships (1949) 120m. ★★★ the ship’s) in a war-game environment, he D: Henry Hathaway. Richard Widmark, can graduate to a first-class nuclear sub. Lionel Barrymore, Dean Stockwell, Cecil Mild comedy follows the misfits-makeKellaway, Gene Lockhart. Young Stockwell good formula fairly well. [PG-13]▼●쩠 fulfills seafaring goal on crusty Barrymore’s Downstairs (1932) 77m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Monta whaling ship, under guidance of sailor Bell. John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Widmark. Good atmospheric yarn. Bruce, Hedda Hopper, Reginald Owen, Olga Downtown (1990) C-96m. ★★ D: RichBaclanova. Crackling, adult drama about a ard Benjamin. Anthony Edwards, Forest heel who sleeps and cajoles his way from one Whitaker, Joe Pantoliano, David Clennon, Pewealthy household to another—using both the nelope Ann Miller, Kimberly Scott, Art mistresses of the houses upstairs and the serEvans, Rick Aiello. Naive white cop Edwards [ 378 ]

is transferred from easy suburban precinct to rero, Manuel Arbo. Spanish-language adaptatough downtown area of Philadelphia and tion of the horror classic was filmed simultateamed with a sad, streetwise loner (Whineously with the Hollywood version—at taker); together they go after a peculiar stolennight, on the very same sets—but much of car ring. Uneasy mix of farce, melodrama, the staging and camerawork is actually betand buddy movie looks something like a pilot ter! Other major difference: the women are for a (bad) TV series. [R]▼●쩠 dressed more provocatively. All that’s missDown to You (2000) C-91m. BOMB D: ing is an actor with the charisma of Lugosi Kris Isacsson. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Julia Stiles, in the lead.▼쩠 Shawn Hatosy, Selma Blair, Zak Orth, AshDracula (1958) SEE: Horror of Dracula ton Kutcher, Rosario Dawson, Henry WinkDracula (1979) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: John ler, Lucie Arnaz. Prinze and Stiles futilely Badham. Frank Langella, Laurence Olivitry chumming us up by speaking directly er, Donald Pleasence, Kate Nelligan, Trevor into the camera, explaining how their onceEve, Janine Duvitski, Tony Haygarth. Murky idyllic college romance went bust (though retelling of Bram Stoker classic, with Langelnot as bust as the movie). Somehow, this la’s acclaimed Broadway characterization lost manages to find room for subplots about a amid trendy horror gimmicks and ill-conTV cooking show (hosted by Winkler, as ceived changes in original story. Filmed in Prinze’s dad) and a buddy who dabbles as England. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 an adult-movie entrepreneur with a kind of Dracula (1992) SEE: BramStoker’s Dracula bohemian/intellectual porn actress. NumbDracula A.D. 1972 (1972-British) C100m. ★★ D: Alan Gibson. Peter Cushing, ingly inept comedy. [PG-13]▼쩠 Down Twisted (1987) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Christopher Lee, Stephanie Beacham, MiAlbert Pyun. Carey Lowell, Charles Rocket, chael Coles, Christopher Neame, Caroline Trudi Dochtermann, Thom Matthews, NorMunro. Farfetched, confusing tale of bert Weisser, Linda Kerridge, Nicholas modern-day descendant of Dr. Van Helsing Guest. Unremittingly complicated, and un(Cushing) battling recently revived vampire satisfying, caper yarn with innocent young (Lee). Somewhat jarring to see Dracula woman suddenly caught up in web of amid 1970s youth setting. Aka DRACULA intrigue when she’s thought to have a TODAY. Followed by THE SATANIC priceless artifact the bad guys are after. RITES OF DRACULA. [PG]▼쩠 Echoes of other (better) movies abound.[R]▼ Dracula and Son (1979-French) C-78m. ★1⁄2 Down With Love (2003) C-94m. ★★ D: D: Eduard Molinaro. Christopher Lee, BerPeyton Reed. Rene´e Zellweger, Ewan nard Menez, Marie-Helene Breillat, Catherine McGregor, David Hyde Pierce, Sarah PaulBreillat, Jack Boudet. Limp horror satire son, Tony Randall, Jeri Ryan, Rachel Dratch. chronicling the comic misadventures of the Spoof of 1960s Doris Day–Rock Hudson title vampire (Lee) and his bumbling offcomedies has Zellweger as the author of a spring (Menez); they become rivals for the best-selling book on female independence pretty heroine. Virtually destroyed by groin a battle of the sexes with playboy/magazine tesquely inappropriate English dubbing. writer McGregor. Andrew Laws’ lush, overAka DRACULA, FATHER AND SON and DRACULA PERE ET FILS. [PG]▼ the-top Hollywood-fantasy production design is the real star here; everything else is heavyDracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) C90m. ★★ D: Mel Brooks. Leslie Nielsen, handed and hollow, a self-consciously artificial parody of an already lightweight Peter MacNicol, Steven Weber, Amy Yasmovie genre. Randall’s final film. Panavibeck, Lysette Anthony, Harvey Korman, sion. [PG-13]▼쩠 Mel Brooks, Mark Blankfield, Megan CavaDo You Want to Dance With Me? SEE: nagh, Clive Revill, Chuck McCann, Avery Come Dance With Me! Schreiber, Charlie Callas, Anne Bancroft. Drabble SEE: Black Windmill, The Dracula gets the Mel Brooks treatment in this parody which spends so much time reDracula (1931) 75m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tod Browning. Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Helen telling the familiar Transylvanian’s story it Chandler, Dwight Frye, Edward Van Sloan, forgets to be funny. There are choice moHerbert Bunston, Frances Dade. Classic ments for Brooks fans . . . just not enough. horror film of Transylvanian vampire working The cast mugs its best, including MacNicol his evil spell on perplexed group of Londonas Renfield, Brooks as Dr. Van Helsing, ers. Lugosi’s most famous role with his definKorman in an amusing impression of Nigel itive interpretation of the Count, ditto Frye as Bruce, and Nielsen as the suavely sinister looney Renfield and Van Sloan as unflappable Count. Bancroft has a delightful cameo as ‘‘Madame Ouspenskaya.’’ [PG-13]▼●쩠 Professor Van Helsing. Reissued on video with a new score by Philip Glass. Sequel: Dracula, Father and Son SEE: Dracula DRACULA’S DAUGHTER.▼●쩠 and Son Dracula (1931) 103m. ★★★ D: George Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968-British) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freddie Melford. Carlos Villar (Villarias), Lupita Tovar, Pablo Alvarez Rubio, Barry NorFrancis. Christopher Lee, Rupert Davies, ton, Eduardo Arozamena, Carmen GuerVeronica Carlson, Barbara Ewing, Barry [ 379 ]

Andrews, Michael Ripper. Dracula runs its era better than almost anything. Highly recommended on a nonesthetic level.▼ afoul of small-town monsignor when he pursues the churchman’s beautiful blonde Dragnet (1987) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom niece. Pretty good Hammer horror, third Mankiewicz. Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, in the series. Sequel: TASTE THE BLOOD Christopher Plummer, Harry Morgan, AlOF DRACULA. [G]▼●쩠 exandra Paul, Jack O’Halloran, Elizabeth Dracula—Prince of Darkness (1966-British) Ashley, Dabney Coleman. Aykroyd is a C-90m. ★★ D: Terence Fisher. Christopher comic reincarnation of Jack Webb, playing Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Suzan Sgt. Joe Friday’s dense but dedicated Farmer. Sequel to HORROR OF DRACULA nephew in this parody. Hanks is fun as doesn’t measure up. The vampiric Count his freewheeling new partner, with Morgan, (Lee) is revived by a servant and wreaks Webb’s onetime sidekick, now promoted to terror on a group of tourists in a secluded captain of the L.A.P.D. Starts out quite funny, castle. Techniscope.▼●쩠 then goes flat . . . but the punchline is a howl. Dracula’s Daughter (1936) 70m. ★★★ D: Aykroyd coscripted with Mankiewicz and Alan Zweibel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Lambert Hillyer. Gloria Holden, Otto Kruger, Marguerite Churchill, Irving PicDragon and the Cobra SEE: Fist of Fear, hel, Edward Van Sloan, Nan Grey, Hedda Touch of Death Hopper. Sequel to the Lugosi classic deDragonball: Evolution (2009-U.S.-Hong Kong) C-85m. ★★ D: James Wong. Justin picts vampirish activities of Holden; Pichel adds imposing support as her sinister manChatwin, Chow Yun-Fat, Emmy Rossum, servant. Hillyer, normally a B-Western diJamie Chung, James Marsters, Joon Park, rector, manages to imbue this chiller with a Eriko Tamura, Randall Duk Kim, Ernie moody, subtly sensual quality. ▼●쩠 Hudson. Young man trained in mystic marDracula’s Dog (1978) C-90m. ★★ D: Altial arts by his grandfather has to gather bert Band. Jose Ferrer, Michael Pataki, Reseven magical balls to make a wish that ggie Nalder, Jan Shutan, Libbie Chase, John will save the world from the return of the Levin. Transylvanian vampire and bloodsupernatural villain Lord Piccolo. Based on thirsty dog, endowed with vampirish traits by the phenomenally popular Japanese manga, the original Count, go to L.A. to find Dracuwhich spawned three anime TV series and la’s last living descendant. Horror cheapie seventeen animated feature films. Lively and with admittedly novel twist. Retitled ZOLcolorful (with a mildly amusing turn by TAN, HOUND OF DRACULA. [R]▼쩠 scruffy martial arts master Chow) and laden Dracula 2000 SEE: Wes Craven Presents: with extravagant special effects, this is, noneDracula 2000 theless, just colorful eyewash, barely compreDracula’s Widow (1989) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: hensible to non-initiates. Super 35. [PG] Christopher Coppola. Josef Sommer, SylDragonfly (1976) SEE: One Summer Love Dragonfly (2002) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom via Kristel, Lenny Von Dohlen, Stefan Schnabel, Marc Coppola, Rachel Jones. Shadyac. Kevin Costner, Kathy Bates, Joe Kristel plays the title character, who comes Morton, Ron Rifkin, Linda Hunt, Susanna to L.A. and takes up residence at a wax Thompson, Jacob Vargas, Jay Thomas, Matt museum. Dull, minor fare. Twenty-fiveCraven. An emergency room physician, year-old director Coppola is the nephew of grieving for his dead wife, receives a series Francis. Filmed in 1987. [R]▼ of signals from her—including messages Dracula Today SEE: Dracula A.D. 1972 from young patients who’ve had near-death Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1970) SEE: Asexperiences. But what do they mean? More signment Terror drawn out than it needs to be, but an intriDracula vs. Frankenstein (1971) C-90m. guing and unusual story of one man’s spiriBOMB D: Al Adamson. J. Carrol Naish, tual—and physical—odyssey. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Lon Chaney, Jr., Zandor Vorkov, Russ Tamblyn, Jim Davis, Anthony Eisley. SelfDragonheart (1996) C-103m. ★★★ D: Rob conscious comedy masquerading as horror Cohen. Dennis Quaid, Sean Connery (voice film wasting talents of old-timers Naish and only), David Thewlis, Dina Meyer, Julie Chaney; Dracula makes deal with aging Dr. Christie, Pete Postlethwaite, Jason Isaacs, Frankenstein so as to have steady supply of Brian Thompson, Lee Oakes, Wolf Chrisblood. Regrettably, both Naish and Chatian, Terry O’Neill. Highly unusual fable ney’s final film. Aka THE REVENGE OF about a knight ‘‘of the old school’’ (in the DRACULA. [PG]▼●쩠 10th century A.D.) whose youthful king ★★★ Dragnet (1954) C-89m. D: Jack Webb. turns evil after having his life saved by a Jack Webb, Ben Alexander, Richard Boone, dragon who gives him half of his heart. Ann Robinson, Stacy Harris, Virginia Years later, the knight befriends that same Gregg, Dennis Weaver. ‘‘This is the dragon and joins with him to vanquish the city . . .’’ While investigating brutal murcruel king. Unlikely premise is made plausider, Sgt. Friday and Officer Frank Smith ble by Quaid’s persuasive performance and ignore 57 varieties of civil liberties; feathe commanding presence of Connery as ture film version of classic TV show evokes Drago (matched by the creature’s superior, [ 380 ]

state-of-the-art digital animation). Fine score There’s some fun in watching a flying Koby Randy Edelman. Followed by a direct-torean zoo take hold of the town, but that’s video sequel. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 about it. Also known as D-WAR. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Dragon Seed (1944) 145m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Conway, Harold S. Bucquet. Katharine Dragonworld (1994) C-84m. ★★★ D: Ted Hepburn, Walter Huston, Aline MacMahon, Nicolaou. Sam Mackenzie, Brittney Powell, Turhan Bey, Hurd Hatfield, Agnes MooreJohn Calvin, Lila Kaye, John Woodvine, head, Frances Rafferty, J. Carrol Naish, Courtland Mead, Andrew Keir, Jim Dunk. Akim Tamiroff, Henry Travers; narrated by Pleasant children’s film about a young Lionel Barrymore. Well-meant but overScottish laird forced by taxes to put his big long film of Pearl Buck’s tale of Chinese pet dragon on display in an amusement park. town torn asunder by Japanese occupation; Entertaining, good-looking movie (one of the fascinating attempts at Asian characterizabest from producer Charles Band), but did the tion. ▼쩠 plot have to be so similar to MIGHTY JOE Dragons Forever (1987-Hong Kong) C-94m. YOUNG? Good effects by Mark Rappaport ★★★1 and David Allen. [PG]▼● ⁄2 D: Samo Hung. Jackie Chan, Samo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Benny UrDragonwyck (1946) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joquidez, Deannie Yip, Pauline Yeung. Simseph L. Mankiewicz. Gene Tierney, Walply delightful film has Chan playing a ter Huston, Vincent Price, Glenn Langan, lawyer who enlists crook Hung and cracked Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Henry friend Biao to help him spy on a woman (Harry) Morgan, Jessica Tandy. Period involved with a case. Everything changes chiller set at a gloomy mansion on the Hudwhen love blossoms. Action, comedy, and son, with good cast but episodic presentation. romance blend together seamlessly under Mankiewicz’s directorial debut; he also Hung’s direction. All three stars shine in scripted from the Anya Seton story.쩠 moments of incredible acrobatics and hilariDr. Akagi (1998-Japanese) C-128m. ★★★ ous slapstick. Aka CYCLONE Z. ▼●쩠 D: Shohei Imamura. Akira Emoto, Kumiko Dragonslayer (1981) C-108m. ★★★ D: MatAso, Juro Kara, Masanori Sera, Jacques thew Robbins. Peter MacNicol, Caitlin Gamblin, Keiko Matsuzaka. Pointed satiric Clarke, Ralph Richardson, John Hallam, drama set in the waning days of WW2 about Peter Eyre, Albert Salmi. Enjoyable fantasya small-town doctor who fears that a hepatiadventure about a sorcerer’s apprentice who tis epidemic is about to sweep his country. takes on the challenge of slaying a dragon— Savagely lampoons Japanese military buand finds he is in over his head. A bit scary reaucracy, but works best as a loving porand graphic for some kids. Filmed in England, trait of a dedicated man and those in his inner circle.▼쩠 Scotland, and Wales with a mostly British cast but American MacNicol in the lead— Dr. Alien (1988) C-87m. ★★ D: David somewhat incongruously. Fine Alex North DeCoteau. Judy Landers, Billy Jacoby, score. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Olivia Barash, Stuart Fratkin, Raymond Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) O’Connor, Arlene Golonka, Linnea Quigley, Troy Donahue, Ginger Lynn Allen, Edy C-119m. ★★★ D: Rob Cohen. Jason Scott Lee, Lauren Holly, Robert Wagner, MiWilliams. Landers is an alien who dischael Learned, Nancy Kwan, Kay Tong guises herself as a college professor and Lim, Sterling Macer, Ric Young, Sventransforms freshman Jacoby from wimp to Ole Thorson. Corny but very likable biopic dreamboat. Silly stuff (with an all-star schlock movie supporting cast). [R]▼●쩠 about legendary action-movie star who died at age 33 in 1973. Plenty of martial-arts mayDrama of Jealousy, A SEE: Pizza Trihem, but also the story of a man who must angle, The overcome a variety of obstacles to find his Draughtsman’s Contract, The (1982British) C-103m. ★★ D: Peter Greenaway. place in the world. Adapted from a book by Lee’s widow, Linda. The film’s star is no Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne Lourelation to Bruce. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ise Lambert, Hugh Fraser. Arrogant young Dragon Wars (2007-South Korean) Cartist takes commissions from the mistress of 100m. ★★ D: Hyung-rae Shim. Robert Foran estate in return for sexual favors; sumptuster, Jason Behr, Amanda Brooks, Craig ous-looking 17th-century tale, but cold and Robinson, Elizabeth Pen˜a, Chris Mulkey, aloof. Will be of greater interest to fans of Aimee Garcia, John Ales, Cody Arens. writer-director Greenaway. [R] ▼쩠 With a reported budget of $70 million, Dr. Bethune (1990-Canadian-ChineseSouth Korea’s biggest production ever is French) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phillip Borsos. a dopey B monster movie elevated (only Donald Sutherland, Helen Mirren, Helen slightly) by some impressive effects. What Shaver, Colm Feore, James Pax, Ronald story there is revolves around a 500-yearPickup, Guo Da, Anouk Aime´e. Handold battle that is being reborn in contemposomely mounted but episodic account of rary L.A., where a young boy is imbued controversial Canadian doctor Norman Bewith the spirit of an ancient warrior in order thune (well played by Sutherland), ardent to take on dreaded serpentlike creatures. anti-fascist and proponent of socialized [ 381 ]

medicine. Much terrain is covered, from Dreamboat (1952) 83m. ★★★ D: Claude his love life to his involvement in the Binyon. Ginger Rogers, Clifton Webb, Spanish Civil War and with Mao Tse-tung Jeffrey Hunter, Anne Francis, Elsa Lanfighting the Japanese; unfortunately, you chester. Clever romp: silent-star Rogers never really know what makes him tick. cashes in on TV showings of her old Original title: BETHUNE: THE MAKmovies, to chagrin of co-star Webb, now ING OF A HERO. Released in the U.S. in a distinguished professor. Scenes showing 1993; Sutherland also starred in BEtheir old silent films are most enjoyable. THUNE, a 1977 Canadian TV movie. ▼ Dreamcatcher (2003) C-131m. ★★ D: LawDr. Black and Mr. White SEE: Dr. Black, rence Kasdan. Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Mr. Hyde Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Timothy OlyDr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976) C-87m. phant, Tom Sizemore, Donnie Wahlberg, Mi★★1 ⁄2 D: William Crain. Bernie Casey, chael O’Neill. This adaptation of a Stephen Rosalind Cash, Marie O’Henry, Ji-Tu King novel seems like three or four differCumbuka, Milt Kogan, Stu Gilliam. Black ent movies squashed into one. The initial lab scientist Casey tests experimental sestory is the best, as four boyhood friends rum on himself and turns into a white who share extrasensory powers meet for a monster. No surprises, but not bad, either, weekend at their remote cabin in the woods, with Casey doing first-rate job. Aka THE where things are definitely askew. Then we WATTS MONSTER and DR. BLACK get a yucky-monster movie, a military paraAND MR. WHITE. [PG]▼ noia film, a typical King childhood nostalDr. Bull (1933) 75m. ★★★ D: John Ford. gia vignette, and more. By the time we Will Rogers, Marian Nixon, Ralph Morreach the climax, with the future of mankind gan, Rochelle Hudson, Berton Churchill, at stake, it’s difficult to muster any interest Louise Dresser, Andy Devine. Rogers in at all. Screenplay by Kasdan and William Goldman. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 fine form as country doctor battling smalltown pettiness as much as fighting illness. DreamChild (1985-British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stereotyped characters are perfect foils for Gavin Millar. Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Rogers’ common-sense pronouncements; diGallagher, Caris Corfman, Nicola Cowper, rector Ford provides ideal atmosphere.쩠 Jane Asher, Amelia Shankley, Shane Rimmer. Dr. Cadman’s Secret SEE: Black Sleep, Woman for whom Rev. Charles Dodgson The (Lewis Carroll) invented his Alice in WonderDr. Christian series SEE: Leonard Malland stories comes to America at age 80 for the tin’s Classic Movie Guide author’s centenary, unable to understand the ★★1 Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) C-87m. ⁄2 D: Steve fuss, and fearful of her own repressed memoCarr. Eddie Murphy, Kevin Pollak, Kristen ries. Fascinating material seriously flawed by Wilson, Jeffrey Jones, Raven-Symone´, romantic subplot and ludicrous re-creation of Kyla Pratt, Lil’ Zane, Andy Richter. AmiaN.Y.C. setting and characters of the 1930s. ble sequel to 1998 hit DOCTOR DOLITBrowne’s superb performance makes it all TLE has Murphy trying to save a forest by worthwhile. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop propropagating an endangered species. In order vided Wonderland characters. Written by Dennis Potter. [PG]▼ to do so, a performing bear has to mate with his female counterpart in the wild. MeanDream Demon (1988-British-U.S.) C-89m. ★★ while, Dolittle is trying to strengthen a shaky D: Harley Cokliss. Kathleen Wilhoite, bond with his 16-year-old daughter. ConsiderJemma Redgrave, Timothy Spall, Jimmy ably less raunchy than the earlier film, though Nail, Susan Fleetwood, Mark Greenstreet, there’s no shortage of ‘‘mating’’ jokes. Many Annabelle Lanyon, Nickolas Grace. Sooncelebrities provide voices (Steve Zahn, Norm to-be-married Redgrave has horrifying Macdonald, Lisa Kudrow, Michael Rapaport, dreams, unwillingly pulling into them WilIsaac Hayes, Andy Dick, Michael McKean, hoite, an American in London seeking seDavid L. Lander, Mandy Moore, Joey Lauren crets of her own past. Good special effects Adams, Frankie Muniz, Jamie Kennedy, John and performances undercut by who-cares Leguizamo), not all of them credited. Folstory and many repetitive sequences. Relowed by three DVD sequels. Super 35. leased in the U.S. in 1993. [R]▼ [PG] ▼쩠 Dreamer (1979) C-86m. ★★ D: Noel NosDream a Little Dream (1989) C-99m. ★1⁄2 seck. Tim Matheson, Susan Blakely, Jack D: Marc Rocco. Corey Feldman, Meredith Warden, Richard B. Shull, Barbara Stuart, Salenger, Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, Harry Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez. Bowling, a sport Dean Stanton, William McNamara, Corey only slightly more cinematic than isometric Haim, Susan Blakely, Victoria Jackson, Alex exercises, gets the ROCKY treatment in this Rocco, Josh Evans. Yet another personalitybland rags-to-riches story. Having Matheson’s exchange comedy—this one with Robards and bowling ball made of Flubber might have Feldman switching bodies after a bike mishap. helped pick up the pace. [PG]▼ Perfectly dreadful. Director is son of costar Dreamer: Inspired By a True Story (2005) Alex Rocco. Direct-to-video sequel: DREAM C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Gatins. Kurt Russell, A LITTLE DREAM 2. [PG-13]▼쩠 Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson, Elisabeth [ 382 ]

Shue, David Morse, Freddy Rodrı´guez, Luis costumes are a knockout. Also Oscar winner for Sound Mixing. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Guzma´n, Oded Fehr, Ken Howard, Dick Allen. Routine account of 10-year-old FanDreaming of Joseph Lees (1999-BritishU.S.) C-92m. ★★ D: Eric Styles. Samantha ning, who is convinced that a horse with a broken leg not only can be nursed back to Morton, Lee Ross, Rupert Graves, Frank health but will win the Big Race. Pleasant Finlay, Miriam Margolyes, Nick Woodeenough family film, although it’s corny and son, Holly Aird, Lauren Richardson. Hackawfully predictable. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 neyed soaper, set in rural England in 1958, Dreamers, The (2003-British-Italian-French) in which a young woman (Morton) takes C-115m. ★★★ D: Bernardo Bertolucci. Miup with a self-absorbed pig farmer (Ross) chael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Robin despite her desire for her cousin, Joseph Renucci, Anna Chancellor. Young AmeriLees (Graves), a gentle geologist who lost a can joins the die-hard film buffs at Paris’ leg while working in Italy. Morton rises above the trite material. [R] ▼ Cinematheque Franc¸aise in 1968 and gets involved with an attractive brother and sisDreamland (2006) C-88m. ★★★ D: Jason ter who draw him into a world of kinky sex Matzner. Agnes Bruckner, Kelli Garner, and mind games. Any film that opens with Justin Long, John Corbett, Gina Gershon, footage of Parisians and filmmakers proBrian Klugman, Chris Mulkey. Teenaged testing the ouster of the Cinematheque’s Bruckner lives in a remote New Mexico legendary Henri Langlois and goes on to trailer park called Dreamland with her fa‘‘quote’’ movies ranging from FREAKS to ther, who’s never gotten over the death of QUEEN CHRISTINA is on the right track. her mother, and a best friend whose poor Strongly reminiscent of films from the pehealth has made her a chronic dreamer. riod it depicts: bold, excessive, daringly Bruckner feels responsible for these needy sexual, self-serious at times, but vibrantly people, putting her own life and dreams on alive. Screenplay by Gilbert Adair, from his hold. Well-acted mood piece went direct to novel The Holy Innocents. [NC-17]▼쩠 DVD. [PG-13]쩠 Dream for an Insomniac (1998) C/B&WDreamlife of Angels, The (1998-French) 88m. ★★ D: Tiffani DeBartolo. Ione Skye, C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Erick Zonca. Elodie Jennifer Aniston, Mackenzie Astin, Michael Bouchez, Natacha Re´gnier, Gre´goire Colin, Landes, Seymour Cassel. Waitress/aspiring Jo Prestia, Patrick Mercado. Evocative actress (Skye) falls for the new counter-boy/ study of two young women—one generous poet (Astin) just 48 hours before she’s about and impulsive, the other sullen and despairto move to L.A. Cute but sitcom-ish romaning—who meet at a clothing factory in Lille, tic comedy set in a Sinatra-themed, familyFrance, and become close friends, then drift owned coffeehouse in San Francisco. Charapart as one becomes involved with a club ismatic casting helps, particularly Aniston owner. An elusive story, directed with quiet as Skye’s flaky best friend, but you wish precision by coscreenwriter Zonca (his feathey’d all stop their yapping. Written by the ture debut), which slowly, penetratingly redirector. Filmed in 1995. [R]▼●쩠 veals a wealth of detail about the bonds Dreamgirls (2006) C-130m. ★★★ D: Bill of friendship and the vagaries of destiny. Condon. Jamie Foxx, Beyonce´ Knowles, Bouchez and Re´gnier are outstanding. [R] Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Anika Noni ▼쩠 Rose, Keith Robinson, Jennifer Hudson, Dream Lover (1986) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Sharon Leal, Hinton Battle, Ken Page, LoAlan J. Pakula. Kristy McNichol, Ben Masretta Devine, John Lithgow, John Krasinski, ters, Paul Shenar, Justin Deas, John McMarDawnn Lewis, Jaleel White, Eddie Mekka. tin, Gayle Hunnicutt, Matthew Penn. Abysmal Splashy, savvy adaptation of the 1981 thriller about young woman’s attempts to exBroadway musical by Tom Eyen and Henry punge recurring nightmare from her mind Krieger inspired by the saga of The Suthrough ‘‘dream therapy.’’ Intensely unsetpremes and Motown’s Berry Gordy. Entretling film with an interesting idea torpedoed preneur Foxx steers a female vocal trio to by snail-like pacing and sterile atmosphere. the top, no matter what it takes, and claims What Hitchcock could have done with this! its glamorous star (Beyonce´) as his own. [R]▼쩠 Hudson, as the forsaken member of the Dream Lover (1994) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: group, gives an extraordinary, emotionNicholas Kazan. James Spader, Ma¨dchen charged performance. (This remarkable Amick, Bess Armstrong, Fredric Lehne, Larry screen debut earned her a Best Supporting Miller, Kathleen York, Blair Tefkin, Scott Actress Oscar.) Murphy is equally potent as Coffey, Clyde Kusatsu, William Shockley. a James Brown–ish singer who gives the girls Handsome, wealthy architect Spader meets their first break. There’s so much pure entergorgeous, enigmatic Amick and the two betainment here that quibbles (the energy drops come a passionate, perfect couple—until her after Hudson’s ‘‘first-act curtain’’ song, Beycloudy past (eventually) raises his suspicions. once´’s star-solo number is too obviously Fluid camerawork (by Jean-Yves Escoffier) shoehorned into the movie) don’t stand up and some smart dialogue go out the window against the movie’s virtues. Sharen Davis’ as plausibility level declines alarmingly. Stars [ 383 ]

register well but can’t overcome a noirish D: Howard Zieff. Michael Keaton, Chrismystery that just misses. Feature directing topher Lloyd, Peter Boyle, Stephen Furst, debut for screenwriter Kazan. Also available Dennis Boutsikaris, Lorraine Bracco, Milo in unrated version. [R]▼●쩠 O’Shea, Philip Bosco, James Remar. Four Dream Machine, The (1990) C-86m. ★★ mental-hospital patients become separated D: Lyman Dayton. Corey Haim, Evan from their doctor while on a field trip to Richards, Jeremy Slate, Randall England, Yankee Stadium, and find themselves Tracy Fraim, Brittney Lewis, Susan Seastranded in an even-larger looney bin: The forth Hayes. Super-wealthy Slate is murBig Apple. Uneven farce seems inspired by dered by an embezzler after cheating on ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S his wife. She’s just learned of his infidelity NEST, and gets its mileage from the performances of its leading actors. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and, on an impulse, gives his new turbocharged Porsche to immature college stuDream Wife (1953) 101m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney dent Haim (who doesn’t know the deceased’s Sheldon. Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Walter body is stuffed in the trunk). By-thePidgeon, Betta St. John, Buddy Baer, Movita, numbers action-thriller with an intriguing Steve Forrest. Silly bedroom farce about (if unlikely) premise. [PG]▼● Grant’s engagement to Middle Eastern prinDream of Kings, A (1969) C-107m. ★★★ cess and interference from his former fiance´e, D: Daniel Mann. Anthony Quinn, Irene Kerr, a State Dept. official. Cast is wasted. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 Papas, Inger Stevens, Sam Levene, Radames Pera, Val Avery. Emotional study of Dream With the Fishes (1997) C-96m. ★★ robust Quinn trying to find money to take D: Finn Taylor. David Arquette, Brad Hunt, ailing son to Greece. Vivid look at Greek Cathy Moriarty, Kathryn Erbe, Patrick community in Chicago; heart-rending story McGaw, J. E. Freeman, Timi Prulhiere, Alby Harry Alan Petrakis. Stevens exceptional lyce Beasley, Peter Gregory. Mismatched as young widow attracted to Quinn. [R]▼쩠 buddy tale about a suicidal voyeur and a Dream of Light (1990-Spanish) C-138m. terminally ill drug addict who decide to ‘‘go ★★★1⁄2 D: Victor Erice. Unusual, understated for it’’ when they take off on a memorable documentary of renowned Spanish painter trip that involves, among other things, nude Antonio Lopez Garcia as he attempts to bowling and bank holdups. Small film has capture a backyard quince tree’s beauty on its charms but seems to be trying too hard to be quirky. [R]▼쩠 canvas. A rare portrait of an artist at work as he deals with his inner voices—and the Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940) 103m. ★★★1 mundane details of life. Quiet, deliberate, ⁄2 D: William Dieterle. Edward G. Roband completely absorbing.▼ inson, Ruth Gordon, Otto Kruger, Donald Dream of Passion, A (1978-Greek) CCrisp, Maria Ouspenskaya, Montagu Love, 106m. ★1⁄2 D: Jules Dassin. Melina MerSig Ruman, Donald Meek. Outstanding couri, Ellen Burstyn, Andreas Voutsinas, chronicle of 19th-century German scientist Despo Diamantidou, Dimitris Papa-michael. who developed cure for venereal disease. Aside from Burstyn’s powerhouse perforRobinson earnest in superior script by John mance as an American jailed in Greece for Huston, Heinz Herald, and Norman Burnside; surprisingly compelling.▼ killing her three children, this attempt to parallel her story with Medea’s is the kind of idea Dress Code, The SEE: Bruno that should never have left the story conferDressed for Death SEE: Straight on Till ence. Mercouri is typically hammy as the acMorning Dressed to Kill (1946) 72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy tress who takes up her cause. [R]▼ ★★ Dreams (1955-Swedish) 86m. D: IngWilliam Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, mar Bergman. Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet AndersPatricia Morison, Edmond Breon, Carl Harson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Ulf Palme, Inga bord, Patricia Cameron, Tom Dillon. Music Landgre. Sometimes fascinating but mostly boxes made in prison hold the key to the vague—and, ultimately lesser—Bergman whereabouts of stolen bank plates in this drama, about photo agency head Dahlbeck lively final entry in the Rathbone Sherlock and model Andersson, and their dreams, torHolmes series. Also shown in computer-colments, crises, oppression, relations with men. ored version. Aka PRELUDE TO MURDER. Aka JOURNEY INTO AUTUMN. ▼ ▼●쩠 Dreams (1990) SEE: Akira Kurosawa’s Dressed to Kill (1980) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Dreams Brian De Palma. Michael Caine, Angie Dreamscape (1984) C-99m. ★★★ D: Joseph Dickinson, Nancy Allen, Keith Gordon, Ruben. Dennis Quaid, Max von Sydow, Dennis Franz, David Margulies, Brandon Christopher Plummer, Eddie Albert, Kate Maggart. High-tension melodrama about a Capshaw, George Wendt, David Patrick psycho-killer who stalks two women—one Kelly. Quaid finds he can physically enter a frustrated suburban housewife, the other other people’s dreams in this entertaining yarn; a street-smart hooker who teams up with science-fantasy elements more successful than the first woman’s son to trap the murderer. Writer-director De Palma works on viewpolitical intrigue subplot. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dream Team, The (1989) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 er’s emotions, not logic, and maintains a [ 384 ]

fever pitch from start to finish. Chilling ation on the PLAY MISTY FOR ME/ Pino Donaggio score. Unrated version also FATAL ATTRACTION formula as costume available. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 designer Delaney picks up virile O’Keeffe Dresser, The (1983-British) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 hitchhiking, has a one-night affair, and is then D: Peter Yates. Albert Finney, Tom Courhounded by him. Director Brand (who also tenay, Edward Fox, Zena Walker, Eileen Atplays the cop on the case) shows promise but kins, Michael Gough, Cathryn Harrison. film suffers from lack of a coherent scenario. Excellent film adaptation of Ronald Har[R]▼쩠 wood’s play about an aging actor-manager Drifting Weeds SEE: Floating Weeds Driftwood (1947) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allan Dwan. (based on real-life Donald Wolfit) whose very survival depends on the constant pampering Ruth Warrick, Walter Brennan, Natalie and prodding of his dresser—who lives vicariWood, Dean Jagger, Charlotte Greenwood, ously through the old man’s performances. Jerome Cowan, H. B. Warner, Margaret Finney, as Sir, and Courtenay, as Norman the Hamilton. Small-town doctor adopts a young dresser, are simply superb. Yates captures the girl who’s never experienced ‘‘civilization’’ look and feel of wartime England, and backbefore. Entertaining family film with standout stage atmosphere of a small touring company, performance by young Natalie.▼ with uncanny ability. A must for anyone who Drillbit Taylor (2008) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: loves acting and the theater. [PG]▼●쩠 Steven Brill. Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Dressmaker, The (1988-British) C-89m. Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile, David Dorfman, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jim O’Brien. Joan Plowright, BilAlex Frost, Stephen Root, Josh Peck, Valerie lie Whitelaw, Peter Postlethwaite, Jane Tian, David Koechner, Frank Whaley, Lisa Horrocks, Tim Ransom. Medium account Ann Walter, Danny McBride. Three awkward of two Liverpool sisters, one repressed high school freshmen who’ve been targeted by (Plowright) and the other spirited (Whitea bully decide that they need professional prolaw), and what happens when their naive, tection and hire homeless goofball Wilson— fragile niece falls for an American GI who impresses them with his apparent street during WW2. Well acted, and starts off smarts. Amiable (if unremarkable) comedy copromisingly, but bogs down.▼● produced by Judd Apatow plays like a prequel 1 ★ Dr. Giggles (1992) C-95m. ⁄2 D: Manny to SUPERBAD. Cowritten by Seth Rogen, Cotto. Larry Drake, Holly Marie Combs, based on a story idea by John Hughes (using Cliff De Young, Glenn Quinn, Keith Diahis pseudonym Edmond Dantes). One of the mond, Richard Bradford, Michelle Johnprotectors the boys interview is played by son. Gory, one-note horror drama in which Adam Baldwin, star of 1980’s MY BODYcrazed doctor, who giggles whenever nervous, GUARD. Alternate version runs 109m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 goes on a murderous rampage after escaping from a looney-bin. Drake’s fine performance Drive, He Said (1972) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: is wasted. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Jack Nicholson. William Tepper, Karen Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine Black, Michael Margotta, Bruce Dern, Rob★★ D: Norman Taurog. Vin(1965) C-90m. ert Towne, Henry Jaglom, Michael Warcent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, ren, Charles Robinson, David (Ogden) Susan Hart, Fred Clark. Mad scientist tries to Stiers, Cindy Williams. Confusing tale of make a fortune manufacturing lifelike lady royouth alienation contains fine performances bots to marry wealthy men. Good chase scene, but loses itself in its attempt to cover all but otherwise just silly. Panavision. ▼쩠 the bases; Dern is fabulous as gung-ho Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966college basketball coach. Nicholson’s di★1 Italian) C-85m. ⁄2 D: Mario Bava. Vinrectorial debut; he also cowrote the screenplay with Jeremy Larner. [R]쩠 cent Price, Fabian, Franco Franchi, Moana Tahi, Laura Antonelli. Dumb sequel to Drive-In (1976) C-96m. ★★ D: Rod AmaDR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI teau. Lisa Lemole, Glen Morshower, Gary MACHINE finds Price now backed by Red Cavagnaro, Billy Milliken, Lee Newsom, China, dropping actual girl bombs into Regan Kee. Amiable low-budget trash about the laps of unsuspecting generals.▼ a night in the life of teenaged yahoos at a Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype (1980) C-99m. Texas drive-in during the unreeling of a ★★1 ⁄2 D: Charles B. Griffith. Oliver Reed, campy disaster film (which takes up much of the screen time). Better after 20 beers. [PG]▼ Sunny Johnson, Maia Danziger, Mel Welles, Virgil Frye, Jackie Coogan, Corinne Calvet. Drive Me Crazy (1999) C-91m. ★★ D: John Reed is a grotesquely ugly podiatrist who Schultz. Melissa Joan Hart, Adrian Grenier, drinks a potion to commit suicide, instead Stephen Collins, Ali Larter, Mark Metcalf, turns into a handsome murderer. ModerWilliam Converse-Roberts, Faye Grant. In ately funny comedy, also written by Roger order to win their dream prom dates, the most Corman veteran Griffith. [R]▼ popular girl in school and a rebel outcast team Drifter, The (1988) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry up and pretend they’re going steady. PredictBrand. Kim Delaney, Timothy Bottoms, Al able teen comedy could easily be called HE’S Shannon, Miles O’Keeffe, Loren Haines, ALL THAT but is kept afloat by likable lead Thomas Wagner. Interesting low-budget variperformances. Tries to have it both ways by [ 385 ]

featuring an on-screen number from punk girl Aykroyd is likable in an unusual ‘‘straight’’ band The Donnas and a title track by Britney role as Tandy’s son, though you can never Spears. [PG-13]▼쩠 quite forget who’s playing the part (espeDriven (2001) C-117m. BOMB D: Renny cially with such obvious makeup). Oscar Harlin. Sylvester Stallone, Burt Reynolds, winner for Best Picture, Actress, Screenplay (by Uhry), and Makeup. [PG] ▼●쩠 Kip Pardue, Til Schweiger, Stacy Edwards, Estella Warren, Gina Gershon, Brent Briscoe, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) 96m. ★★★ D: John S. Robertson. John BarryRobert Sean Leonard. Embarrassing amalgam of racing-pic cliche´s finds has-been Sly (who more, Martha Mansfield, Brandon Hurst, scripted) hiring on as mentor to green Pardue, Nita Naldi, Charles Lane, Louis Wolheim. a member of Reynolds’ Championship Auto One of several silent versions of famous Racing Team who’s manipulated by his tale, this one can hold its own next to the brother. This is the kind of movie in which later March and Tracy filmings; Barrymore two racers create nighttime havoc racing 195 is superb as curious doctor who ventures mph through metropolitan streets, only to get into the unknown, emerging as evil Mr. off with just a $25,000 fine . . . the kind Hyde. Bravura performance sparks wellof movie whose contempt for its audience made production.▼●쩠 knocked both Stallone and Reynolds off their Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932) 97m. ★★★ D: Rouben Mamoulian. Fredric March, superstar thrones. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Driver, The (1978) C-90m. ★★★ D: WalMiriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart, Holmes Herter Hill. Ryan O’Neal, Bruce Dern, Isabelle bert, Halliwell Hobbes. Exciting, floridly Adjani, Ronee Blakley, Matt Clark, Felice cinematic version of famous story with March Orlandi. Tense throwback to the Hollyin Oscar-winning portrayal of tormented wood film noir era pits getaway driver doctor, Hopkins superb as tantalizing Ivy. O’Neal against creepy cop Dern. Oddball Beware of 82m. re-issue version.▼●쩠 melodrama doesn’t seem like much at the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941) 114m. ★★★ time, but has a way of staying with you D: Victor Fleming. Spencer Tracy, afterwards. Great car chase sequences. Ingrid Bergman, Lana Turner, Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter, Barton MacLane, C. [PG—edited from original R rating]▼쩠 Driver’s Seat, The (1974-Italian) C-101m. Aubrey Smith, Sara Allgood. Tracy and BOMB D: Giuseppe Patroni Griffi. ElizaBergman are excellent in thoughtful, lush beth Taylor, Ian Bannen, Mona Washremake of Robert Louis Stevenson’s clasbourne, Andy Warhol, Guido Mannari. sic, which stresses Hyde’s emotions rather Liz is a disturbed woman who comes to than physical horror. Also shown in comRome in search of someone to do her in. puter-colored version.▼●쩠 You may wish to do the same after sitting Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995) C-90m. ★1 through this turkey, maybe Taylor’s all-time ⁄2 D: David Price. Sean Young, Tim Daly, worst. Adapted from a Muriel Spark novel. Lysette Anthony, Stephen Tobolowsky, Aka PSYCHOTIC. [R]▼쩠 Harvey Fierstein, Thea Vidale, Jeremy Driving Lessons (2006-British) C-98m. Piven, Polly Bergen, Stephen Shellen, Jane ★★★ D: Jeremy Brock. Julie Walters, Rupert Connell, Julie Cobb, Robert Wuhl. Did we Grint, Laura Linney, Nicholas Farrell, Mireally need a comic retread of the classic chelle Duncan, Jim Norton, Tamsin Egerton. Robert Louis Stevenson tale, with Jekyll’s Adolescent Grint escapes from an enervating great-grandson (Daly) morphing into seduchome life with his domineering, religioustress Helen Hyde (Young)? If so, it should have been a lot better. [PG-13]▼●쩠 fanatic mother (Linney) and his soft-spoken minister father (Farrell) by taking a job as Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971-British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Ward Baker. companion and helper to an aged actress (Walters). Walters is great fun as a cardRalph Bates, Martine Beswick, Gerald Sim, carrying eccentric and free spirit who has a Lewis Fiander, Susan Broderick. Interestliberating effect on her young charge. Charming twist to classic tale finds the good doctor ing yet pointed film about youthful stumbling discovering that his evil life is brought out in and adult hypocrisy. Directorial debut for the form of a beautiful but dangerous woman. screenwriter Brock (MRS. BROWN, CHARNo thrills but fun; resemblance between Bates LOTTE GRAY), who drew on his own life and Beswick is remarkable. Released in Britfor source material. [PG-13]쩠 ain at 97m. [PG]▼쩠 Driving Miss Daisy (1989) C-99m. ★★★ Dr. Kildare series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s D: Bruce Beresford. Morgan Freeman, JesClassic Movie Guide sica Tandy, Dan Aykroyd, Patti LuPone, Dr. M SEE: Club Extinction Esther Rolle. Genteel, entertaining adaptaDr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) 270m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. Rudolph Klein-Rogge, tion of Alfred Uhry’s stage play about a simple black man who’s hired as chauffeur Aud Egede Nissen, Gertrude Welcker, Alfor a cantankerous old Southern woman, fred Abel, Lil Dagover, Paul Richter. Baand winds up being her most faithful comroque tale of master criminal Mabuse panion. A smooth and enjoyable ride, (Klein-Rogge), who gambles with lives and with fine performances by the two leads. fates, is an allegory of postwar German dec[ 386 ]

adence. Brilliantly directed, designed, and photographed. Originally shown in two parts; the second half, DR. MABUSE, KING OF CRIME, details Mabuse’s descent into madness. It isn’t as flamboyant as Part One, but still quite good. Adapted by Lang and Thea Harbou from a novel by Norbert Jacques. Shown as separate films for many years; prints circulate in various lengths. Lang later made THE TESTAMENT OF DR. MABUSE (1932) and THE 1,000 EYES OF DR. MABUSE (1960).

Kyle Secor, Luca Bercovici, MalcolmJamal Warner, Rex Linn, Grace Zabriskie, Claire Stansfield, Andy Romano. Solid if predictable actioner with U.S. marshal Snipes going up against some sky-diving baddies out to pilfer data on undercover drug agents to sell to international narcotics dealers. The scenario is preposterous, but there are enough dazzling airborne stunts to keep you entertained. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Drowning by Numbers (1987-British) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Greenaway. Joan Plowright, Bernard Hill, Juliet Stephen▼쩠 Dr. No (1962-British) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: son, Joely Richardson. Another bizarre, Terence Young. Sean Connery, Ursula fascinating celluloid put-on from Greenaway, Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord, Berabout an obsessive coroner and his innard Lee, Lois Maxwell. First James Bond volvement with three generations of women film is least pretentious, with meaty story, from the same family. Stunningly filmed fine all-round production of Ian Fleming and very entertaining (but recommended caper. Bond investigates strange occurmost enthusiastically to Greenaway fans). rences in Jamaica, encounters master-fiend Not released in U.S. until 1991.▼● Dr. No (Wiseman).▼●쩠 Drowning Mona (2000) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Drop Dead Fred (1991) C-98m. BOMB Nick Gomez. Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, D: Ate De Jong. Phoebe Cates, Rik Mayall, Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell, Casey Marsha Mason, Tim Matheson, Carrie Affleck, William Fichtner, Marcus Thomas, Fisher, Keith Charles, Ron Eldard. Putrid Peter Dobson, Kathleen Wilhoite, Tracey fantasy-comedy about a repressed young Walter, Will Ferrell. Fairly amusing black woman who—as her life is crumbling comedy about a small town shaken by the around her—is revisited by her childhood drowning of its most reviled citizen make-believe ‘‘friend’’ Drop Dead Fred, a (Midler), and the repercussions felt by her repulsive mischief-maker. Cates’ appealidiot son and husband, the town sheriff (Deing performance can’t salvage this mess. Vito), and others who knew and loathed her. Recommended only for people who think [PG-13] ▼쩠 nose-picking is funny. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Drowning Pool, The (1976) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: D: Stuart Rosenberg. Paul Newman, JoMichael Patrick Jann. Kirsten Dunst, Denise anne Woodward, Anthony Franciosa, MurRichards, Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin, Allison ray Hamilton, Melanie Griffith, Richard Janney, Brittany Murphy, Sam McMurray, Jaeckel, Gail Strickland, Linda Haynes. Amy Adams, Mindy Sterling, Mo Gaffney, Newman returns as private eye Harper, Nora Dunn. Annoying pseudo-documentary (based on Ross Macdonald’s Archer charsatire about small-town Midwestern teen acter) in slickly made but slow whodunit; beauty pageants. Full of frantic mugging here he is called to help former lover and outrageous gags about eating disorders, Woodward out of a jam. Screenplay by but most of them aren’t funny. Only prizeTracy Keenan Wynn, Lorenzo Semple, winner here is Janney as good-hearted and Walter Hill. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 trailer trash. To see how it’s done right, Dr. Phibes Rises Again! (1972-British) watch SMILE. [PG-13]▼쩠 C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Fuest. Vincent Drop Squad (1994) C-86m. ★★ D: D. Clark Price, Robert Quarry, Valli Kemp, Fiona Johnson. Eriq LaSalle, Vondie Curtis Hall, Lewis, Peter Jeffrey, Peter Cushing, Beryl Ving Rhames, Kasi Lemmons, Leonard Reid, Terry-Thomas, Hugh Griffith. Campy Thomas, Billy Williams, Eric A. Payne, sequel to THE ABOMINABLE DR. Vanessa Williams, Nicole Powell, Paula PHIBES finds Price looking for elixir to Kelly. Unsatisfying tale of a black adrevive his dead wife, with Quarry hot on his agency employee (LaSalle) who conjures trail throughout Egypt. [PG]▼●쩠 up idiotic advertising campaigns, thus forDr. Popaul SEE: High Heels saking his roots; he becomes the target of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who! SEE: some vigilante deprogrammers who seek to Horton Hears a Who! make him aware of his ethnic and family Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christloyalties. Well-intentioned satire of corpomas SEE: How the Grinch Stole Christmas rate racism, but neither as humorous nor as Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat SEE: Cat daring as it sets out to be. Executive proin the Hat, The ducer is Spike Lee, who appears briefly in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to one of the commercials. [R]▼●쩠 Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb 1 ★★ (1964-British) 93m. ★★★★ D: Stanley Drop Zone (1994) C-102m. ⁄2 D: John Badham. Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey, Kubrick. Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Yancy Butler, Michael Jeter, Corin Nemec, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, Keenan [ 387 ]

Wynn, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones. U.S. President must contend with the Russians and his own political and military leaders when a fanatical general launches A-bomb attack on U.S.S.R. Sellers plays the President, British captain, and mad inventor of the Bomb in this brilliant black comedy, which seems better with each passing year. Sellers’ phone conversation with Soviet premier is classic. Outstanding cast, incredible sets by Ken Adam. Jones’ film debut. ▼●쩠 Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1962) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Neilson. Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Michael Hordern, Tony Britton, Geoffrey Keen, Kay Walsh, Patrick Wymark. Agreeable Disney production made in England (and originally shown in three parts on the Disney TV show as The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh) about country vicar who in reality is a smuggler and pirate. McGoohan is well cast as the mysterious bandit-hero who conducts his nightly raids disguised as a scarecrow. Filmed before in 1937 with George Arliss; another 1962 version, NIGHT CREATURES, stars Peter Cushing. [G]▼쩠 Dr. T & the Women (2000) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Altman. Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler, Robert Hays, Matt Malloy, Andy Richter, Lee Grant, Janine Turner. Dismal Altman misfire about a high-society Dallas gynecologist who reveres women, even though personally and professionally they are starting to shake up his world. Gere’s fine, understated performance is almost buried under a pile of strident, unfunny female caricatures, pointless subplots, and an ending that seems rejected from MAGNOLIA. Super 35. [R]

tobiographical novel of the 1970s. Screenplay by Van Sant and Daniel Yost. [R]▼●쩠 Drum, The (1938) SEE: Drums Drum (1976) C-110m. BOMB D: Steve Carver. Warren Oates, Ken Norton, Isela Vega, Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, John Colicos, Brenda Sykes, Paula Kelly. Continuation of MANDINGO—a new and dreadful low in lurid characters and incidents. Norton in title role generates neither interest nor sympathy. [R]▼ Drum Beat (1954) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delmer Daves. Alan Ladd, Audrey Dalton, Marisa Pavan, Robert Keith, Rodolfo Acosta, Charles Bronson, Warner Anderson, Elisha Cook, Jr., Anthony Caruso, Strother Martin. In southern Oregon, former Indian fighter Ladd tries to talk Modoc chief Captain Jack (Bronson) into peace. Director Daves based his script on historical events. Bronson is especially good in an unusual role. CinemaScope.▼ Drumline (2002) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Stone III. Nick Cannon, Zoe¨ Saldan˜a, Orlando Jones, Leonard Roberts, GQ, Jason Weaver, Earl C. Poitier, Candace Carey, J. Anthony Brown. Teenage drummer from N.Y.C. is accepted at a Georgia college where the marching band is all-important. But his cocky ways put him at odds with the unyielding band director, and his giant ego causes friction with fellow band members. Feel-good film covers fresh territory in a strictly formulaic way—and goes on a half hour too long—but the music is hard to resist. Alternate version runs 122m. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Drums (1938-British) C-99m. ★★★ D: Zoltan Korda. Sabu, Raymond Massey, Valerie Hobson, Roger Livesey, David Tree. Fine, colorful adventure with precocious Sabu rescuing British cavalry in early ▼쩠 20th-century India; atmospheric and actionDr. Terror’s Gallery of Horrors SEE: ful. Originally titled THE DRUM. Original Return from the Past British running time: 104m.▼● Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) CBritish) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freddie Francis. 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Claudette ColPeter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Roy Castle, bert, Henry Fonda, Edna May Oliver, John Max Adrian, Michael Gough, Donald SutherCarradine, Jessie Ralph, Arthur Shields, land, Neil McCallum, Edward Underdown, Robert Lowery, Ward Bond. John Ford Ursula Howells, Jeremy Kemp, Bernard Lee. richly captures flavor of Colonial life in Don’t let title steer you from this intelligent this vigorous, courageous story of settlers episodic thriller about a strange doctor (Cushin upstate N.Y. during Revolutionary War. ing) who tells five men’s fortunes on a train. Action, drama, sentiment, humor deftly interEnjoyable horror-fantasy. Techniscope.▼ woven in beautiful Technicolor production. ★★★1⁄2 Drugstore Cowboy (1989) C-100m. From Walter Edmonds’ novel. ▼●쩠 D: Gus Van Sant, Jr. Matt Dillon, Kelly Drums of Tahiti (1954) C-73m. ★1⁄2 Lynch, James Remar, James Le Gros, Heather D: William Castle. Dennis O’Keefe, PaGraham, Beah Richards, Grace Zabriskie, tricia Medina, Francis L. Sullivan, George Max Perlich, William S. Burroughs. FascinatKeymas. Footloose American aids a Tahiing, completely credible look at the world of a tian queen who opposes annexation by the junkie and his ‘‘family,’’ who rob drugstores French in the late 1800s. Silly Sam Katzto support their habit. No preaching or moralman production whose only novelty (in theizing here, which is precisely what gives the aters) was the use of 3-D—as you can tell film its impact. Standout performances, particby flaming torches poked at the camera! ularly from Dillon and Lynch. Based on Drunken Master (1978-Hong Kong) Cprison inmate James Fogle’s unpublished au106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yuen Wo Ping. Jackie Chan, [ 388 ]

Yuen Sui Tin, Wang Jang Lee, Hsu Hsia, D2: The Mighty Ducks (1994) C-107m. ★★ Ling Yang, Dean Shek, Yuen Shun-Yee. D: Sam Weisman. Emilio Estevez, KathJackie plays Chinese folk hero Wong Fei ryn Erbe, Michael Tucker, Jan Rubes, CarsHung in this kung fu comedy, his first big ten Norgaard, Maria Ellingsen, Joshua hit. Almost plotless film has Wong studying Jackson, Elden Ryan Ratliff (Hansen), under hard-drinking master played by Yuen Shaun Weiss, Matt Doherty. Having led his Sui Tin, the director’s father. Enjoyably rag-tag hockey team to surprise victory in silly, with some good stunt work and comic THE MIGHTY DUCKS, Estevez now gets moments. Of note mostly for its importance a chance to coach Team USA (incorporatto Chan’s career. Aka DRUNKEN MONing his former Ducks) in the Junior GoodKEY IN THE TIGER’S EYE(!) Followed will Games—and make a bundle of money by a sequel in 1994. Widescreen.▼쩠 as a potential celebrity. The kind of film that Drunken Master II (1994-Hong Kong) gives the word ‘‘contrivance’’ a bad name: C-113m. ★★★ D: Lau Kar Leung. Jackie a Disney movie with mixed messages about Chan, Anita Mui, Ti Lung, Andy Lau, Gacompetition, commercialism, puberty, and briel Wong, Ken Lo, Chin Kar-Lok. Chan sportsmanship. Kids may like it anyway. returns to the role that made him a star 16 Sports stars ranging from Wayne Gretzky to years earlier, confronting art smugglers and a Kareem Abdul Jabbar make cameo appearfather who disapproves of his drunken fightances. [PG]▼●쩠 ing style. Some truly amazing fight sequences, D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) C-104m. ★★ especially the complex final battle in a steel D: Robert Lieberman. Emilio Estevez, mill—which may leave you as breathless as Jeffrey Nordling, Joshua Jackson, David the performers! The fellow Jackie fights under Selby, Heidi Kling, Joss Ackland, Elden the train is the film’s director. Reissued in the Ryan Ratliff (Hansen), Shaun Weiss, VinU.S. as THE LEGEND OF DRUNKEN cent A. Larusso, Matt Doherty, Colombe MASTER. Technovision.▼쩠 Jacobsen, Aaron Lohr. Those adolescent Drunks (1996) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter hockey players have won scholarships to a Cohn. Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, fancy private school, where they have a Amanda Plummer, Spalding Gray, Parker new, no-nonsense coach (Nordling) and Posey, Calista Flockhart, Howard Rollins, find themselves outsiders in a snooty varsity Lisa Gay Hamilton, Dianne Wiest, Sam league. Oh yes—and Charlie (Jackson) has Rockwell, Kevin Corrigan. Potent, if stagy, a girlfriend. The Ducks franchise has run character study about alcoholics (of varied out of steam. [PG]▼●쩠 backgrounds) who tell all at an Alcoholics Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) C-101m. ★★★ Anonymous meeting. Comedian Lewis is D: Roy Del Ruth. Red Skelton, Lueffective as a particularly pained group cille Ball, Gene Kelly, Virginia O’Brien, leader. A fine actors’ showcase with some Rags Ragland, Zero Mostel, Donald Meek, strong moments. Debuted on cable TV beGeorge Givot, Louise Beavers, Tommy fore theatrical release. [R]▼쩠 Dorsey and His Orchestra. Nightclub worker Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965-British) Skelton pines for beautiful singing star Ball; when he swallows a Mickey Finn, he dreams C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Flemyng. Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, Jennie Linden, Rohe’s Louis XV, and has to contend with the berta Tovey, Barrie Ingham. Pleasing prickly Madame Du Barry (Ball). Colorful feature inspired by the long-running British nonsense, missing most of the songs from TV serial, with the Doctor and his young Cole Porter’s Broadway score, though friends transported to another world where hu‘‘Friendship’’ is used as the finale. Opens like mans are threatened by robotlike Daleks. Fola vaudeville show, with beautiful chorines and lowed by DALEKS—INVASION EARTH specialty acts, including young Mostel, and 2150 A.D. Techniscope. ▼쩠 Dorsey’s band—with Buddy Rich on Dry White Season, A (1989) C-107m. drums—doing a sensational ‘‘Well, Git It.’’ ★★1⁄2 D: Euzhan Palcy. Donald Sutherland, They turn up later in powdered wigs, as do Janet Suzman, Zakes Mokae, Ju¨rgen ProchThe Pied Pipers, with Dick Haymes and Jo now, Susan Sarandon, Marlon Brando, Stafford. Lana Turner has a bit part.▼●쩠 Winston Ntshona, Thoko Ntshinga, SuDubious Patriots, The SEE: You Can’t sannah Harker, Rowan Elmes. DisappointWin ’Em All Duchess, The (2008-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 ing film about South African apartheid, set in 1976, with Sutherland as a schoolteacher D: Saul Dibb. Keira Knightley, Ralph who slowly awakens to the appalling realFiennes, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooity of how blacks are treated in his counper, Hayley Atwell, Simon McBurney, Aidan try. Crucially important subject matter is McArdle, Michael Medwin. Knightley is unfortunately presented in the context of a well cast as Georgiana Spencer, who marries story that’s contrived and dramatically holwell in the late 1700s and becomes the Duchlow. Brando is magnetic (if somewhat ess of Devonshire. However, she soon disaskew) in a showy supporting role as an covers that her husband has little interest in outspoken barrister. [R]▼●쩠 her beyond her ability to give him an heir. D-TOX SEE: Eye See You Vivid, well-appointed yet somewhat heavy[ 389 ]

handed adaptation of Amanda Foreman’s Prime Minister Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) best-selling book Georgiana: Duchess of declares war on neighboring Sylvania just for Devonshire about the real-life socialite the hell of it. Enough gags for five movies, whose plight bears some striking parallels but our favorite is still the mirror sequence. to those that faced her descendant Princess Zeppo’s swan song with his brothers.▼●쩠 Diana. Knightley and especially Fiennes are DuckTales: The Movie—Treasure of the excellent but the film lacks a certain spark. Lost Lamp (1990) C-73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bob Michael O’Connor earned an Oscar for Hathcock. Voices of Alan Young, ChrisCostume Design. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 topher Lloyd, Rip Taylor, June Foray, Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox, The Chuck McCann, Richard Libertini, Russi (1976) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Melvin Frank. Taylor. Disney’s premier ‘‘Movietoon’’ feaGeorge Segal, Goldie Hawn, Conrad Janis, ture falls somewhere between traditional Thayer David, Roy Jenson, Bob Hoy, Richstudio standards and Saturday morning ard Farnsworth. Dumb comedy about cardgruel. Story centers on an archeological trek sharp Segal and dance-hall cutie Hawn for a genie’s lamp that can, among other teaming up in the Old West. Occasional things, make ice cream fall from the sky, laughs, inappropriate song interludes. Papitting Uncle Scrooge McDuck against the navision. [PG]▼●쩠 evil Merlock. Mild vehicle for Huey, Duchess of Idaho (1950) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dewey, Louie, and company. [G]▼●쩠 Robert Z. Leonard. Esther Williams, Van Duck, You Sucker (1972-Italian) C-158m. ★★★ Johnson, John Lund, Paula Raymond, ClinD: Sergio Leone. Rod Steiger, James ton Sundberg, Connie Haines, Mel Torme, Coburn, Romolo Valli, Maria Monti. Big, Amanda Blake. Williams vehicle has her sprawling story of Mexican revolution, and going to Sun Valley to assist her lovesick how peasant thief Steiger gets talked into takroommate, attracting bandleader Johnson. ing sides by Irish explosives expert Coburn. Guest stars Lena Horne, Eleanor Powell (in Tremendous action sequences; Leone’s wry her last film), and Red Skelton pep up fortouches and ultra-weird Ennio Morricone mula production.▼ score make it worthwhile diversion. Aka A Duchess of Langeais, The (2007-FrenchFISTFUL OF DYNAMITE; originally inItalian) C-138m. ★★★ D: Jacques Rivette. tended to be called ONCE UPON A TIME Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, MiDURING THE REVOLUTION. Restored to chel Piccoli, Bulle Ogier, Barbet Schroeder. complete Italian running time in 2006; other In post-Napoleonic France, an intense relaprints run 121m. and 138m. Techniscope. [PG]▼●쩠 tionship unfolds as a glum, wounded general (Depardieu) is smitten with a flirtatious, marDudes (1987) C-90m. BOMB D: Penelope ried socialite (Balibar). What follows is like a Spheeris. Jon Cryer, Daniel Roebuck, Flea, moral chess match between love and religion, Lee Ving, Catherine Mary Stewart. Incomprewell played by the two leads. Master filmhensible, idiotic account of a trio of N.Y.C. maker Rivette uses occasional intertitles— punk rockers, and their fate when harassed by some taken from the Honore´ de Balzac a gang of redneck killers in the Southwest. source material—to play up the ironies and Thoroughly repugnant. [R]▼● emotions. Even at this length, one of the Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000) C-83m. more accessible Rivette films. Original title: BOMB D: Danny Leiner. Ashton Kutcher, NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (DON’T Seann William Scott, Kristy Swanson, JenniTOUCH THE AXE). fer Garner, Marla Sokoloff, Charlie O’Connell, Duck Season (2004-Mexican) 85m. ★★★ D: David Herman, Andy Dick. Witless comedy Fernando Eimbcke. Enrique Arreola, Diego about two stoner pals (Kutcher, Scott) who atCatan˜o, Daniel Miranda, Danny Perea. Distempt to piece together the events of the previarmingly offbeat comedy set in a high-rise ous evening. Only for those who think of the apartment building, where two 14-year-old title as the height of comic repartee. Brent boys spend a day together, joined by a girl Spiner appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼쩠 from next door who borrows their oven and Dudley Do-Right (1999) C-77m. ★1⁄2 D: a pizza delivery guy, all of whom are afHugh Wilson. Brendan Fraser, Sarah Jessica fected by a power blackout. Deadpan viParker, Alfred Molina, Eric Idle, Robert Prognettes and character observations make sky, Alex Rocco, Jack Kehler, Louis Mustillo; this a winner, so long as the viewer adjusts narrated by Corey Burton. Poorly conceived to its pace and sensibility. Screenplay by live-action version of the delightful Jay Wardfirst-time director Eimbcke. [R]쩠 produced TV cartoons of the 1960s about a Duck Soup (1933) 70m. ★★★★ D: Leo stalwart (if thick-headed) Mountie, his sweetMcCarey. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo heart, Nell Fenwick, and the dastardly villain, Marx, Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern, RaSnidely Whiplash (played with gusto by Molquel Torres, Edgar Kennedy, Leonid Kinskey, ina). A couple of laughs here and there can’t Charles Middleton. The Marx Brothers’ most make up for a desperate, everything-but-thesustained bit of insanity, a flop when first rekitchen-sink script. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 leased, but now considered a satiric masterDuel at Diablo (1966) C-103m. ★★★ D: piece. In postage-stamp–sized Freedonia, Ralph Nelson. James Garner, Sidney Poitier, [ 390 ]

Bibi Andersson, Dennis Weaver, Bill Travers, Bates, Max von Sydow, Rupert Everett, William Redfield, John Crawford, John HubMargaret Courtenay, Cathryn Harrison, bard, John Hoyt. Aging Indians vs. Cavalry Macha Meril, Liam Neeson. World-class formula comes alive in this exciting Western; violinist Andrews is stricken with multiple offbeat casting with tight direction. Some may sclerosis, and her comfortable, rewarding find it too violent, but a must for action and life is shattered. Tom Kempinski based his Western fans. Look for Richard Farnsworth two-character play (virtuoso and psychiaas a wagon driver. ▼●쩠 trist) on a real-life cellist, but for film it Duel at Silver Creek, The (1952) C-77m. was opened up and, in the process, diluted. ★1 Husband Bates, therapist von Sydow, and re⁄2 D: Don Siegel. Audie Murphy, Stephen McNally, Faith Domergue, Susan bellious prote´ge´ Everett are fine, but it’s AnCabot, Gerald Mohr, Lee Marvin. Ponderdrews’ gutsy performance that breathes life ous oater has Murphy as the ‘‘Silver Kid’’ into the film. Made in England. [R]▼ helping marshal fight town criminals.▼쩠 Duets (2000) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Bruce Paltrow. Duel in the Sun (1946) C-130m. ★★★ D: Maria Bello, Andre Braugher, Paul Giamatti, King Vidor. Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Huey Lewis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scott SpeedGregory Peck, Lionel Barrymore, Lillian man, Angie Dickinson, Marian Seldes, LochGish, Herbert Marshall, Walter Huston, lyn Munro. Three nobodies are paired with Butterfly McQueen, Charles Bickford, Tilly optimistic spiritual guides in this road-trip Losch, Harry Carey. Producer-writer Daodyssey, culminating at an Omaha karaoke vid O. Selznick’s ambitious attempt to contest. Press notes claim ‘‘the funny, rauduplicate success of GONE WITH THE cous world of karaoke bars and chain hotels’’ WIND: big, brawling, engrossing, often is revealed; we must have missed that part. stupid sex-Western, with half-breed Jones Director Paltrow is Gwyneth’s father. One of caught between brothers Peck and Cotten. the karaoke performers is a young Michael Buble´. [R]▼쩠 Great in Technicolor, with some memorable scenes and an unexpectedly bizarre finale. Duffy (1968-U.S.-British) C-101m. ★1⁄2 From the novel by Niven Busch. Superb D: Robert Parrish. James Coburn, James score by Dimitri Tiomkin.▼●쩠 Mason, James Fox, Susannah York, John Duellists, The (1977-British) C-101m. ★★★ Alderton. Scummy crime comedy about D: Ridley Scott. Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitwo half-brothers who decide to rob their tel, Edward Fox, Cristina Raines, Robert father of bank notes he is transporting by Stephens, Diana Quick, Tom Conti, Albert ship. A waste of everyone’s talents and Finney, Peter Postlethwaite. Competent screen lovely location photography. [M/PG] version of Joseph Conrad’s The Duel conDuffy’s Tavern (1945) 97m. BOMB D: cerns long-running feud between French ofHal Walker. Barry Sullivan, Marjorie Reynficers Carradine and Keitel during the olds, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Alan Napoleonic wars. Supporting players are more Ladd, Betty Hutton, Eddie Bracken, Veconvincing than two leads; film is among ronica Lake, Robert Benchley, Paulette most staggeringly beautiful of its time. Scott’s Goddard, Brian Donlevy. Disastrous ‘‘comfirst feature. [PG]▼●쩠 edy’’ of radio character Ed Gardner trying Duel of Champions (1961-Italian) Cto save Duffy’s Tavern, Victor Moore trying 105m. ★★ D: Ferdinando Baldi. Alan to save his record company. No redeeming Ladd, Franca Bettoja, Franco Fabrizi, Robvalues despite guest appearances by severt Keith, Luciano Marin. Stodgy epic set eral dozen Paramount stars. in ancient Rome with bored-looking Ladd Dukes of Hazzard, The (2005) C-105m. the Roman leader who challenges forces of BOMB D: Jay Chandrasekhar. Johnny KnoxAlba. Totalscope.▼쩠 ville, Seann William Scott, Jessica Simpson, Duel of the Titans (1961-Italian) C-88m. Burt Reynolds, Willie Nelson, Lynda Carter, ★★ D: Sergio Corbucci. Steve Reeves, GorJoe Don Baker, M. C. Gainey, David Koechdon Scott, Virna Lisi, Massimo Girotti. ner, Kevin Heffernan, James Roday. Just as Reeves is Romulus and Scott is Remus in in the 1979–85 TV series, good ole boys this fictional account of justice overcoming drive and shoot, drink and deliver moontyranny in ancient Rome. CinemaScope.▼ shine, spit and fight and chase women. A Duet for Four (1982-Australian) C-97m. smutty, slutty, laughless, nearly plotless flat ★1 tire about a road race and a land grab in ⁄2 D: Tim Burstall. Mike Preston, Wendy Hughes, Michael Pate, Diane Cilento, Georgia (though filmed in Louisiana). Gary Day, Arthur Dignam, Rod Mullinar. Kindly unfasten your seat belts. Unrated Middle-aged Preston’s life is in turmoil: version is two minutes longer. Followed by his wife has a lover, his mistress wants a direct-to-video prequel. Super 35. [PGmarriage, his daughter might be a drug 13]▼쩠 addict, his business may be taken over. Dulcima (1971-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Weak drama does not delve beneath the Frank Nesbitt. Carol White, John Mills, surface of its characters. Panavision. Stuart Wilson, Bernard Lee, Sheila Raynor. Duet for One (1986) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Poor White moves in with and exploits Andrei Konchalovsky. Julie Andrews, Alan wealthy old farmer Mills. OK melodrama [ 391 ]

benefits from solid work by the stars. wooden companion becomes his conscience Original running time: 98m. [PG]▼ and alter ego. The actors and their oddball Duma (2005) C-100m. ★★★ D: Carroll Balcharacters give this film its thrust. Brody lard. Alex Michaletos, Eamonn Walker, made this right before starring in THE PICampbell Scott, Hope Davis. Beautifully ANIST. [R] ▼쩠 filmed story of a South African boy who Dune (1984) C-140m. ★1⁄2 D: David Lynch. raises an orphaned cheetah from the time Kyle MacLachlan, Francesca Annis, Brad it’s a cub, then has to face the inevitable Dourif, Jose Ferrer, Linda Hunt, Freddie when it’s time to return the animal to the Jones, Richard Jordan, Virginia Madsen, wild. His chore becomes a journey of Silvana Mangano, Kenneth McMillan, Jack growth and self-discovery, with an unlikely Nance, Sian Phillips, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Paul adult ally at his side. First-rate family enterSmith, Sting, Dean Stockwell, Max von tainment from the director of THE BLACK Sydow, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, Alicia STALLION, inspired by a true story and a (Roanne) Witt. Elephantine adaptation of book that set it down in print. [PG]쩠 Frank Herbert’s popular sci-fi novel set in Dumb & Dumber (1994) C-106m. ★★ D: the year 10,991. You know you’re in trouble Peter Farrelly. Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels, when film’s opening narration (setting up the Lauren Holly, Teri Garr, Karen Duffy, story) is completely incomprehensible! VisuMike Starr, Charles Rocket, Victoria Rowally imaginative, well cast, but joyless and ell, Cam Neely. No, dumbest: a selfoppressive—not to mention long. For devoproclaimed no-brainer about two idiot pals tees of Herbert’s novel only. Alternate unwho drive cross-country to Aspen to return rated version runs 177m. Remade in 2000 as a briefcase which (unbeknownst to them) a miniseries. Todd-AO 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 contains a fortune in ransom money. Dunera Boys, The (1985-Australian) CCheesy, gross-out comedy has its moments 150m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Lewin. Joseph Spano, here and there, and enthusiastic perforBob Hoskins, Joseph Furst, John Meillon, mances by the two stars, who deserve a Warren Mitchell, Mary-Anne Fahey, Sibetter script than this. Followed by a premon Chilvers, Steven Vidler, Moshe Kedem. quel and an animated TV series. Unrated Low-key, fact-based drama of Jewish refversion runs 113m. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 ugees in England at the outset of WW2 Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met who, because of their nationalities, are Lloyd (2003) C-85m. BOMB D: Troy suspected of being Nazi spies and exiled to Miller. Eric Christian Olsen, Derek Richa POW camp in Australia. Hoskins plays a ardson, Rachel Nichols, Cheri Oteri, Luis loutish fishmonger who’s as English as Guzma´n, Elden Henson, William Lee Scott, Winston Churchill, but somehow is deMimi Rogers, Eugene Levy, Lin Shaye, ported with the others. Fascinating subject Shia LaBeouf, Julia Duffy. Desperate prematter, but film is overlong and uneven. Made for Australian television.▼● quel to the 1994 comedy hit shows the two oafish friends meeting up in high school and Dungeonmaster, The (1985) C-73m. ★1⁄2 becoming pawns in their slimy principal’s D: Rosemarie Turko, John Buechler, Charles scheme to get funding for a special educaBand, David Allen, Steve Ford, Peter Manootion class—and abscond with the funds. The gian, Ted Nicolaou. Jeffrey Byron, Richard actors playing younger versions of Jim CarMoll, Leslie Wing. It took seven—count ’em, rey and Jeff Daniels do a good job, but this seven—directors to make this short, sour movie is appallingly unfunny; a particular chronicle of a girl held hostage by a villain. waste of Levy and Oteri’s comedy talents. Her savior (atrociously played by Byron) [PG-13] ▼쩠 must overcome seven challenges. You have only one: to sit through this. [PG-13]▼● Dumbo (1941) C-64m. ★★★★ D: Ben Sharpsteen. Voices of Sterling Holloway, Dungeons & Dragons (2000-U.S.-Czech) Edward Brophy, Verna Felton, Herman C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Courtney Solomon. JerBing, Cliff Edwards. One of Walt Disemy Irons, Justin Whalin, Marlon Wayans, ney’s most charming animated films, about Zoe McLellan, Thora Birch, Bruce Payne, pint-sized elephant with giant-sized ears, Kristen Wilson, Richard O’Brien, Tom Baker. and how his friend Timothy the Mouse helps In a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world, three build his confidence. Never a dull moment, young heroes opposed by evil sorcerer Irons but pink-elephants dream sequence is special and his henchman Payne try to obtain powerful treat. Frank Churchill and Oliver Wallace’s talismans to help threatened princess Birch. scoring earned them Oscars.▼●쩠 Irons is spectacularly hammy, the effects Dummy (2003) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Greg Pritihighly variable, the writing and direction amakin. Adrien Brody, Milla Jovovich, Illeana teurish. Based on the game, whose fans are the Douglas, Vera Farmiga, Jessica Walter, Ron most likely audience for this lavish but empty Leibman, Jared Harris, Mirabella Pisani. Slight movie. Lots of dragons, though. Followed by though occasionally ingratiating comedy about a direct-to-video sequel. [PG-13]▼쩠 a suburban schnook (Brody), the product of Dunkirk (1958-British) 113m. ★★★ D: Lesa stereotypically dysfunctional family, who lie Norman. John Mills, Richard Attenbordecides to take up ventriloquism; his new ough, Bernard Lee, Robert Urquhart, Ray [ 392 ]

Jackson, Lionel Jeffries. Near-epic dramatimurders her arrogant father (Howard) after he zation of the rescue by the Royal Navy and seduces the wife of his farm’s black foreman. small civilian craft of 300,000 British solAn intense, rewarding portrayal of isolation, oppression, and degradation.▼ diers trapped on the French beach of the title in 1940. One of the last films of the Dust Be My Destiny (1939) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: famed Ealing studios. Very realistic, with a Lewis Seiler. John Garfield, Priscilla Lane, fine cast and good direction. Original BritAlan Hale, Frank McHugh, John Litel, ish length: 135m. Metroscope. Billy Halop, Henry Armetta, Stanley Ridges, Dunston Checks In (1996) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bobby Jordan, Charley Grapewin. GarKen Kwapis. Jason Alexander, Faye Dunfield is ideally cast as an alienated drifter away, Eric Lloyd, Rupert Everett, Graham who finds himself in jail, where he falls Sack, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, Nathan for vicious prison foreman’s stepdaughter Davis, Jennifer Bassey. Easy-to-take kids’ (Lane). The stars rise above their less-thanoriginal material.쩠 comedy about the sons of a hard-working hotel manager who discover that an orangutan Dust Devil (1993-British-French) C-87m. ★★ has been sneaked into the establishment by a D: Richard Stanley. Robert Burke, Chelcrafty thief. Alexander is excellent, the kids sea Field, Zakes Mokae, John Matshikiza, are appealing, the orangutan is just right, EvRufus Swart, William Hootkins, Marianne erett does a Terry-Thomas homage, Dunaway Sa¨gebrecht. In Africa’s Namibia Desert, goes slapstick, and everyone has a good time, evil spirit Burke, trapped in human form, including the audience. [PG]▼●쩠 must kill to enter a spiritual realm; he meets Dunwich Horror, The (1970) C-90m. Field, fleeing an unhappy marriage, and is ★★1 ⁄2 D: Daniel Haller. Sandra Dee, Dean pursued by policeman Mokae. Interesting Stockwell, Ed Begley, Sam Jaffe, Lloyd premise, good acting partly offset lethargic Bochner, Joanna Moore, Talia Coppola pace, pretentious approach. [R]▼●쩠 (Shire). Adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft’s story Dusty (1982-Australian) C-88m. ★★★ D: about warlock Stockwell’s sinister plans for John Richardson. Bill Kerr, Noel Trevargirlfriend Dee. Often effective, but ending then, Carol Burns, Nicholas Holland, John Stanton, Kate Edwards. Subtle, touching ruins the whole film. [M]▼●쩠 1 ★ Duplex (2003) C-89m. ⁄2 D: Danny Delittle film about a dingo (wild dog Vito. Ben Stiller, Drew Barrymore, Eileen Esof the bush), captured while a puppy and sell, Harvey Fierstein, Justin Theroux, James eventually raised by an old man (Kerr). Remar, Robert Wisdom, Swoosie Kurtz, WalAdults will enjoy it as much as kids.▼ lace Shawn, Maya Rudolph, Amber Valletta, Dusty and Sweets McGee (1971) C-95m. ★★★1 Tracey Walter. Young couple purchases a ⁄2 D: Floyd Mutrux. Unconventional, Brooklyn brownstone as their dream house, no-holds-barred docudrama detailing daybut the elderly tenant upstairs, who comes to-day life of various heroin addicts in Los Angeles area. [R]쩠 along as part of the deal, makes their life a living hell. A comedy about pain, destruction, Dutch (1991) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter and nastiness is standard DeVito fare by now, Faiman. Ed O’Neill, Ethan Randall (Embry), but it’s hard to watch such likable stars caught JoBeth Williams, Christopher McDonald, in this morass. Unbearable. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Ari Meyers, E. G. Daily, Kathleen Freeman. Duplicity (2009) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony Yet another warm-hearted concoction from Gilroy. Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom the John Hughes assembly line, in which a Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti, Tom McCarthy, stuck-up rich kid learns all about life when Denis O’Hare, Kathleen Chalfant, Wayne he travels home for Thanksgiving with his Duvall, Carrie Preston, Oleg Stefan, Ulrich mother’s blue-collar boyfriend, Dutch. Thomsen. High-toned hybrid of romantic Some choice, almost Chaplinesque mocomedy and espionage yarn with Roberts and ments (particularly one terrific scene in a Owen as sexually charged spies who wind homeless shelter) and appealing perforup working for cutthroat rival industrialists mances by O’Neill and Randall can’t make Wilkinson and Giamatti in N.Y.C. It isn’t us forget that we’ve seen this formula many hard to recognize this as the work of the same times before. [PG-13]▼●쩠 writer-director who brought us MICHAEL Dutchman (1966-British) 55m. ★★1⁄2 D: CLAYTON, though his complicated flashAnthony Harvey. Shirley Knight, Al Freeback/flash-forward structure will keep you on man, Jr. Two-character allegory, based on your toes. The stars’ chemistry—and a LeRoi Jones’s play, of confrontation bestrong supporting cast—trumps the realizatween sadistic white trollop Knight and tion that the movie is really one long naive black Freeman in a subway car. Tense and well acted, but contrived.▼쩠 shaggy-dog joke. Panavision. [PG-13] D-War SEE: Dragon Wars Dust (1985-French-Belgian) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marion Hansel. Jane Birkin, Trevor HowDying Gaul, The (2005) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: ard, John Matshikiza, Nadine Uwampa, Craig Lucas. Patricia Clarkson, Campbell Lourdes Christina Sayo, Rene Diaz. Birkin Scott, Peter Sarsgaard, Ryan Miller, Robin gives a fine performance as an unmarried Bartlett, Linda Emond, Jason-Shane Scott. woman, in need of love and affection, who Grieving writer of an autobiographical [ 393 ]

screenplay becomes erotically entangled with a slick producer, who offers him one million dollars to produce the project as long as he makes the gay protagonists straight. Meanwhile, he becomes emotionally entangled with the producer’s lonely wife, a former screenwriter turned stay-at-home mom. Twists, tragedies, and fine performances mark this intelligent but dense character study. Directorial debut for playwright Lucas (Longtime Companion, Prelude to a Kiss). [R] 쩠 Dying Young (1991) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Schumacher. Julia Roberts, Campbell Scott, Vincent D’Onofrio, Colleen Dewhurst, David Selby, Ellen Burstyn. Aimless young woman answers a classified ad and becomes nurse/companion to a 28-yearold poor-little-rich-boy who’s suffering from leukemia; needless to say, they fall in love. As vehicle for Roberts’ charms, it works; as love story it has its moments; but as a tearjerker it never really delivers, wandering toward an inconclusive (and unsatisfying) finale. Scott shares a few scenes with his real-life mother, Dewhurst. [R]▼●쩠 Dynamite (1929) 129m. ★★★ D: Cecil B. DeMille. Conrad Nagel, Kay Johnson, Charles Bickford, Julia Faye, Joel McCrea. Enough plot for seven films in this silly but fascinating early talkie; aristocratic Johnson marries miner Bickford, who’s about to be executed, to gain inheritance . . . then Bickford is cleared. Typical DeMille entertainment. Dynamite Chicken (1971) C/B&W-76m. ★★ D: Ernie Pintoff. Richard Pryor, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Sha Na Na, Ace Trucking Company, Joan Baez, Ron Carey, Andy Warhol, Paul Krassner, Leonard Cohen, Malcolm X, many others. Odd, dated pastiche of songs, skits, television commercial parodies and old movie clips, filmed when nudity and profanity on celluloid were still shocking. Worth a look alone for Pryor. [R]▼ DysFunKtional Family (2003) C-89m. ★★ D: George Gallo. Raucous, raunchy combination concert film–documentary spotlighting Eddie Griffin, actor/stand-up comic and wannabe Richard Pryor; he performs onstage and is seen in his Kansas City, Missouri, hometown, with his real-life family members. The humor is blunt and vulgar; some will find it racist, chauvinistic, and homophobic, while others will think it hilarious. Most interesting when Griffin recounts his childhood and his family members’ impact on his life. [R]▼쩠

around—Cagney hits a white-hot peak as the embittered, stir-crazy fall guy—but last half of film becomes outrageously improbable. Music score by Max Steiner. ▼●쩠 Eagle and the Hawk, The (1933) 68m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Stuart Walker. Fredric March, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie, Carole Lombard, Guy Standing, Douglas Scott. Well-produced antiwar film with reluctant hero March, bullying gunner-observer Grant, everyone’s friend Oakie, sympathetic society girl Lombard. Sobering John Monk Saunders story is still timely. Mitchell Leisen, credited as ‘‘associate director,’’ reportedly directed most of the film. Originally 72m. ▼ Eagle and the Hawk, The (1950) C-104m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Lewis R. Foster. John Payne, Rhonda Fleming, Dennis O’Keefe, Thomas Gomez, Fred Clark. Contrived actioner set in 1860s Mexico-Texas with O’Keefe and Payne U.S. law enforcers stifling coup to make Maximilian ruler of Mexico; Fleming is fetching love interest. Eagle Eye (2008) C-117m. ★★ D: D. J. Caruso. Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Billy Bob Thornton, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Anthony Mackie, Ethan Embry, Anthony Azizi, William Sadler, Lynn Cohen, Bill Smitrovich, Cameron Boyce, Marc Singer. LaBeouf is a college dropout mistaken for a terrorist by a U.S. government overly fond of surveillance. Forced to become a fugitive, he teams (on the run, natch) with earnest single mom Monaghan. Frequently preposterous actionthriller plays like DISTURBIA on steroids. Instead of an updated REAR WINDOW, film seems to have been inspired by numerous other Hitchcock plots (check out that climax), beefed up with gadgets galore. Tech-heads and LaBeouf buffs may enjoy it. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Eagle Has Landed, The (1977) C-123m. ★★★ D: John Sturges. Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Jenny Agutter, Donald Pleasence, Anthony Quayle, Jean Marsh, Sven-Bertil Taube, John Standing, Judy Geeson, Treat Williams, Larry Hagman, Jeff Conaway. Action-packed wartime adventure taken from fanciful Jack Higgins best-seller about Nazi plot to kidnap Winston Churchill. Hardly a dull moment, thanks to solid cast and lively, twistladen story. Original running time in England was 134m. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Eagle in a Cage (1971-British) C-98m. ★★★ D: Fielder Cook. John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Billie Whitelaw, Kenneth ★★★ Each Dawn I Die (1939) 92m. Haigh, Moses Gunn, Ferdy Mayne. Fine D: William Keighley. James Cagney, George drama of Napoleon in exile on St. Helena. Raft, George Bancroft, Jane Bryan, Maxie Haigh is quite impressive in the title role, Rosenbloom, Stanley Ridges, Louis Jean and is surrounded by a top cast. ScreenHeydt, Abner Biberman, John Wray, Victor play by Millard Lampell. [PG]쩠 Jory, Thurston Hall. Reporter Cagney is Eagle’s Wing (1979-British) C-111m. ★1⁄2 framed, sent to prison, where he meets D: Anthony Harvey. Martin Sheen, Sam tough-guy Raft. Good performances all Waterston, Caroline Langrishe, Harvey [ 394 ]

Keitel, Stephane Audran, John Castle, Jorge Stepan Shkurat, Mikola Nademsky, Yelena Luke. God never intended penguins to fly or Maximova. Lyrical, deservedly famous clasthe British to make Westerns. Dreary, artsy sic about collective farming in the Ukraine, glop entangling half a dozen plots cribbed with peasants opposing a landowner and the from other, better oaters; principal one inarrival of a tractor symbolizing the transforvolves seesawing between renegade Indian mation of Soviet society. This ode to the Waterston and trapper Sheen for possession wonders of nature is loaded with beautiful of magnificent white stallion. Billy Williams’ imagery. Long a staple on all-time-best film lush cinematography doesn’t help. Most U.S. lists.▼쩠 prints run 98m. Panavision. [PG]▼ Earth (2007-U.S.-British-German) C-96m. ★★★ Eagle vs. Shark (2007-New Zealand) CD: Alastair Fothergill, Mark Linfield. 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Taika Waititi. Loren Horsley, Narrated by James Earl Jones. Eye-filling Jemaine Clement, Brian Sergent, Rachel look at the natural wonders of our planet, House, Craig Hall, Joel Tobeck. A celebrawith a particular emphasis on the yearlong tion of life’s oddballs, as mousy Lily (Horstruggles of three species: a polar bear father sley, who helped develop the story based on trying to find food for his mate and her cubs, a character she created for the stage) sets a great white whale and her calf making a her sights on self-styled macho man Jarrod 4,000-mile migration, and an elephant mother (Clement), who lives only to exact revenge and child on an exhausting journey overland on the classmate who used to beat him up in in search of water. Adapted from the achigh school. This likable absurdist comedy claimed BBC/Discovery Channel TV series gives off the same vibe as NAPOLEON Planet Earth, with some footage never used DYNAMITE, but seems overly selfin the show. U.S. version produced by Disconscious. [R]쩠 ney is aimed at family audiences with Eagle With Two Heads, The (1948friendly, colloquial narration by Jones, a French) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Cocteau. Edwige new score, and an upbeat ending. British Feuillere, Jean Marais, Sylvia Monfort, version is narrated by Patrick Stewart. [G] Jacques Varennes, Jean Debucourt, Yvonne Earthbound (1981) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: James de Bray. Stuffy, slightly crazed Queen FeuilL. Conway. Burl Ives, Christopher Conlere’s husband was assassinated a decade earnelly, Meredith MacRae, Joseph Campalier, on their wedding day. Amid much court nella, Todd Porter, Marc Gilpin, Elissa intrigue, a poet-anarchist (Marais) who bears Leeds, John Schuck, Stuart Pankin. Avera striking resemblance to the deceased monage family from outer space lands in Midarch stumbles into her quarters. While anydle America due to a faulty flying saucer. thing by Cocteau is worth a look, this Will dastardly government official Camparomantic drama is too often static and is his nella shoot them? Trite, dumb, idiotic. [PG] least successful film. He scripted, based on Earth Dies Screaming, The (1964-British) his play (which also starred Feuillere and ★★1 ⁄2 D: Terence Fisher. Willard 62m. Marais).▼ Parker, Virginia Field, Dennis Price, Vanda ★★★ Early Summer (1951-Japanese) 125m. Godsell. Grim thriller with invaders taking D: Yasujiro Ozu. Setsuko Hara, Chishu over remote village; packs great initial Ryu, Kuniko Miyake, Chikage Awashima, suspense but labors.쩠 Chiyeko Higashiyama. Stirring tale of a Earth Girls Are Easy (1989) C-100m. woman (Hara) who, at 28, is aging by her ★★1⁄2 D: Julien Temple. Geena Davis, Jeff society’s standards. She resides with her Goldblum, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, elderly parents, and must deal with their Julie Brown, Michael McKean, Charles pressure to marry the man of their choice. Rocket, Larry Linville, Rick Overton, A sensitively rendered film about basic Angelyne. Infectiously goofy musical comhuman emotions, made by a master filmedy about aliens landing in the San Fermaker.▼●쩠 Earrings of Madame de . . . , The (1953- nando Valley and being ushered into materialistic Southern California life by a ★★★★ D: Max Ophuls. French-Italian) 105m. ditsy manicurist. Not enough substance to Charles Boyer, Danielle Darrieux, Vittorio sustain a feature film, but there are some De Sica, Jean Debucourt, Lia de Le´a. Capgood laughs, and an endearing performance tivating classic detailing the events that by Davis. Costar Brown (who sings airhead unravel after fickle Darrieux pawns the anthem ‘‘ ’Cause I’m a Blonde’’) also coearrings presented her by husband Boyer. wrote the movie. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 A knowing look at the effect of living a Earthling, The (1980-Australian) C-102m. shallow, meaningless life. Masterfully acted ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Collinson. William Holden, and directed, with dazzling tracking shots. Ricky Schroder, Jack Thompson, Olivia Screenplay by Marcel Achard, Ophuls, and Hamnett, Alwyn Kurts. Holden, terminally Annette Wademant, from the novel by Louill, teaches Schroder, orphaned and lost, how ise de Vilmorin. Aka DIAMOND EARto survive in the bush country. OK drama RINGS. ▼●쩠 features much nature footage and will appeal Earth (1930-Russian) 90m. ★★★★ D: Alexander Dovzhenko. Semyon Svashenko, mainly to kids. Originally released at 97m., [ 395 ]

later reedited and lengthened to 102m. Panavmines to locate the girl’s family. This leads ision. [PG]▼ her into a shady, ruthless world of Russian Earthquake (1974) C-129m. BOMB D: mobsters operating out of Mueller-Stahl’s Mark Robson. Charlton Heston, Ava Gardrestaurant, where she becomes intrigued by ner, George Kennedy, Genevieve Bujold, enigmatic chauffeur-enforcer Mortensen. Richard Roundtree, Lorne Greene, Barry Intelligent thriller set against a rich tableau, Sullivan, Marjoe Gortner, Lloyd Nolan, courtesy of screenwriter Steven Knight Victoria Principal, Walter Matuschansky(DIRTY PRETTY THINGS). Mortensen is asky (Walter Matthau), Gabriel Dell, Pedro superb and has one unforgettable scene in a Turkish bathhouse. [R]쩠 Armendariz, Jr., Lloyd Gough, John Randolph, Donald Moffat. Title tells the story Easter Parade (1948) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: in hackneyed disaster epic originally reCharles Walters. Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, leased in Sensurround. Marjoe as a sex dePeter Lawford, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin. viate and Gardner as Lorne Greene’s Delightful Irving Berlin musical about Astaire daughter tie for film’s top casting honors. trying to forget ex-dance partner Miller while Additional footage was shot for inclusion in rising to stardom with Garland. Too good to network showings. Won Oscar for Sound, watch just at Eastertime. Musical highlights inplus special achievement for Visual Effects clude Astaire’s solo ‘‘Steppin’ Out With My and citations for the development of SensurBaby,’’ Miller’s ‘‘Shaking the Blues Away,’’ round. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Fred and Judy’s ‘‘A Couple of Swells,’’ and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956) 82m. the Fifth Avenue finale with Berlin’s title ★★★ song. Oscar winner for musical scoring D: Fred F. Sears. Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ank(Johnny Green and Roger Edens). Story by rum, Tom Browne Henry; voice of Paul Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett; they Frees. Matter-of-fact presentation gives trealso scripted with Sidney Sheldon.▼●쩠 mendous boost to familiar storyline (alien Easter Sunday SEE: Being, The invaders order us to surrender peaceably—or East is East (1999-British) C-96m. ★★★ D: else). Literate dialogue, subdued perforDamien O’Donnell. Om Puri, Linda Bassett, mances, and solid Ray Harryhausen effects Jordan Routledge, Archie Panjabi, Emil make this a winner that belies its B origins Marwa, Chris Bisson, Lesley Nicol, Gary nearly every step of the way. Also available Damer, Emma Rydal, Ruth Jones, John Barin computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 don. Piquant look at a cross-cultural family in Earth vs the Spider (1958) 73m. ★★ D: 1970s London. Pakistani immigrant George Bert I. Gordon. Ed Kemmer, June Kenny, (Puri) has lived there for 25 years; his wife Gene Persson, Gene Roth, Hal Torey, Sally is English, and their seven children have Fraser, June Jocelyn, Troy Patterson, Hank been raised as Brits, but he clings to his Patterson. A spider bigger than a bus is old-world ways and (rather hypocritically) found in a cave; when it’s apparently killed, expects them to conform to Pakistani cusit’s put on display in a high school gym— toms. Keenly observed social comedywhere it is revived by the sounds of rock ’n drama never betrays its stage origins; Ayub roll! Teenager-oriented Bert I. Gordon movie Khan-Din scripted from his play. [R]▼쩠 is more watchable than most of his giantEast of Eden (1955) C-115m. ★★★★ D: thing-on-the-loose films. Aka THE SPIDER. Elia Kazan. James Dean, Julie Harris, Remade in name only in 2001. ▼쩠 Raymond Massey, Jo Van Fleet, Burl Ives, Easiest Way, The (1931) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Davalos, Albert Dekker. EmotionJack Conway. Constance Bennett, Adolphe ally overwhelming adaptation of the John Menjou, Robert Montgomery, Marjorie Steinbeck novel about two brothers’ rivalry Rambeau, Anita Page, Clark Gable, Hedda for the love of their father; affects today’s Hopper. Bennett rises from dire poverty to generation as much as those who witnessed a life of luxury after becoming the mistress Dean’s starring debut. Van Fleet (in film of advertising mogul Menjou, but finds debut) won Oscar as boys’ mother. Screenheartbreak when she falls for reporter Montplay by Paul Osborn. Remade as TV minigomery. Watered-down adaptation of notoseries. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 rious play about high-priced call girls starts East of Elephant Rock (1977-British) out great, then turns into a standard romanC-92m. BOMB D: Don Boyd. Judi Bowtic triangle melodrama to satisfy the Hays ker, John Hurt, Jeremy Kemp, ChristoOffice. Gable has a small but strong role in pher Cazenove, Anton Rodgers. Inept his first film as an MGM contract player. period drama set in 1948 Malaya; final reel Eastern Promises (2007-Canadian-British) ripped off from W. Somerset Maugham’s C-100m. ★★★ D: David Cronenberg. Viggo THE LETTER. Further sabotaged by campy Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Muellersongs on soundtrack as well as opening Stahl, Vincent Cassel, Sine´ad Cusack, Jerzy disclaimer, which invites viewers to ‘‘laugh Skolimowski, Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse, Mike and smile’’ at the film. Bowker is beautiSarne. London hospital midwife Watts disful, as are Sri Lanka locations.▼ covers the diary of an abandoned, pregnant East of Shanghai SEE: Rich and Strange teenager who dies in childbirth, and deterEast of Sudan (1966-British) C-84m. ★★ [ 396 ]

D: Nathan Juran. Anthony Quayle, Sylvia student Trintignant to life of frolic with tragic results; well played and haunting.▼ Sims, Derek Fowlds, Jenny Agutter, Johnny Sekka. British trooper falls for English Easy Living (1937) 86m. ★★★ D: Mitchell governess when he leads her and several Leisen. Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray others to safety from Arabs in 1880s; OK Milland, Franklin Pangborn, William Demajuvenile adventure. Techniscope. rest, Mary Nash, Luis Alberni. Millionaire East Side of Heaven (1939) 90m. ★★★ D: Arnold throws spoiled-wife’s mink out the David Butler. Bing Crosby, Joan Blondell, window; it drops on unsuspecting working Mischa Auer, Irene Hervey, C. Aubrey Smith, girl Arthur. Arnold’s son Milland, off makBaby Sandy. Cute Crosby comedy with ing his career, falls in love. The girl: songs; Bing becomes guardian of abandoned Arthur. Delightful comedy written by Preston Sturges.▼쩠 baby, croons title tune, ‘‘Sing a Song of Sunbeams.’’쩠 Easy Living (1949) 77m. ★★★ D: Jacques East Side Story (1997-German-French) Tourneur. Victor Mature, Lizabeth Scott, C/B&W-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Dana Ranga. ‘‘SoLucille Ball, Sonny Tufts, Lloyd Nolan, Paul viet musicals’’ sounds like an oxymoron, Stewart, Jeff Donnell, Jack Paar, Art Baker. but more than 40 were made behind the Iron Mature is aging football star who can’t adCurtain from the early ’30s until the late just to impending retirement—especially ’60s. This documentary doesn’t limit itself under constant pressure from grasping wife to clips from the films, but includes interScott. Intelligent film from Irwin Shaw views with filmmakers, critics, and ordinary story, with good performance from Lucy as team secretary in love with Mature.▼● moviegoers. Some of the musicals are propaganda featuring deliriously happy workEasy Money (1983) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: James ers, but others, especially those directed by Signorelli. Rodney Dangerfield, Joe Pesci, Grigori Alexandrov, look so delightful you Geraldine Fitzgerald, Candy Azzara, Taylong to see titles like THE JOLLY FELlor Negron, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tom LOWS and VOLGA VOLGA, Stalin’s faEwell. Working-class slob has one year to vorite movie. An absolute must for film give up all his bad habits—drinking, buffs.▼쩠 overeating, smoking, gambling—in order 1 ★★ East Side, West Side (1949) 108m. to collect big inheritance. Dangerfield’s ⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Barbara Stanwyck, first starring comedy vehicle is pleasant James Mason, Ava Gardner, Van Heflin, enough—with a refreshing amount of reCyd Charisse, Gale Sondergaard, William straint for an ’80s comedy. Final gag is right out of W. C. Fields. [R]▼●쩠 Frawley, Nancy Davis (Reagan). Stanwyck and Mason have pivotal roles as chic N.Y.C. Easy Rider (1969) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Densociety couple with abundant marital woes, nis Hopper. Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, stirred up by alluring Gardner and underJack Nicholson, Karen Black, Luke Asstanding Heflin. Static MGM version of kew, Luana Anders, Robert Walker, Phil Marcia Davenport’s superficial novel.▼쩠 Spector, Toni Basil. Low-budget film of East-West (1999-French-Russian-Spanishalienated youth nearly ruined Hollywood when every studio tried to duplicate its sucBulgarian) C-121m. ★★ D: Re´gis Wargnier. Sandrine Bonnaire, Oleg Menchikov, Cathcess. Tale of two cyclists chucking it all and erine Deneuve, Sergei Bodrov, Jr. A doctor searching for ‘‘the real America,’’ while inand his French wife join other Russian e´mievitably dated, remains quite worthwhile, gre´s who are invited back to their homeland highlighted by fine Laszlo Kovacs photogfollowing WW2, but once there, their lives raphy, great rock soundtrack, and Nicholbecome a nightmare. Fascinating historical son’s star-making performance as boozy subject matter is turned into a turgid soap lawyer who tags along. Written by Fonda, opera. Deneuve has a small, thankless role Hopper, and Terry Southern. [R]▼●쩠 as a politically active stage star, but BonEasy to Love (1953) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Walters. Esther Williams, Van naire is luminous. [PG-13]▼쩠 1 ★ Easy Come, Easy Go (1967) C-95m. ⁄2 Johnson, Tony Martin, John Bromfield, D: John Rich. Elvis Presley, Dodie MarCarroll Baker. Pleasant Williams aquatic shall, Pat Priest, Elsa Lanchester, Frank vehicle set at Florida’s Cypress Gardens, McHugh, Pat Harrington. Presley’s a frogwith Johnson and Martin vying for her man diving for buried treasure in this hacklove. Spectacular production numbers by neyed comedy. Fortunately, he doesn’t sing Busby Berkeley. Baker’s first film.▼● underwater. Yet he does get to perform such Easy to Wed (1946) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: classics as ‘‘The Love Machine’’ and Edward Buzzell. Van Johnson, Esther Wil‘‘Yoga Is As Yoga Does.’’▼쩠 liams, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Cecil Easy Go SEE: Free and Easy Kellaway, June Lockhart. Remake of LIEasy Life, The (1963-Italian) 105m. ★★★ BELED LADY can’t hold a candle to D: Dino Risi. Vittorio Gassman, Catherine original, but remains passable comedy, Spaak, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Luciana Angiwith Lucy in one of her first major comedy olillo. Gassman has proper joie de vivre for showcases.▼쩠 playing middle-aged playboy who introduces Easy Virtue (1927-British) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 397 ]

Alfred Hitchcock. Isabel Jeans, Franklin the dishes of TAMPOPO, BABETTE’S Dyall, Eric Bransby Williams, Ian Hunter, FEAST, and LIKE WATER FOR CHOCORobin Irvine, Violet Farebrother. Jeans sufLATE. Lee coscripted as well. Remade in 2001 as TORTILLA SOUP. ▼●쩠 fers nobly as the wife of an alcoholic and the lover of a suicide in this melodramatic silent Eaten Alive (1976) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tobe Hitchcock. Laughable dramatics but imaginaHooper. Neville Brand, Mel Ferrer, Carolyn tively shot, based on a Noel Coward play. Jones, Marilyn Burns, William Finley, Stuart Remade in 2009. ▼쩠 Whitman, Robert Englund. Ill-fated HollyEasy Virtue (2008-U.S.-British) C-96m. wood debut feature by TEXAS CHAINSAW ★★1 director Hooper is a garishly stylized, unre⁄2 D: Stephan Elliott. Jessica Biel, Colin Firth, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ben Barnes, lentingly bizarre film about a psychopath Kris Marshall, Kimberley Nixon, Katherine (Brand) who has a crocodile living in the Parkinson, Pip Torrens, Christian Brassingfront yard of his hotel. Periodically guests ton, Charlotte Riley. Lively if uneven adaptawho upset the management are fed to this pet. tion of Noel Coward’s play about a staid Originally titled DEATH TRAP; aka STARfamily that’s shaken up when the prodigal LIGHT SLAUGHTER, LEGEND OF THE son (Barnes) brings home a dashing AmeriBAYOU, and HORROR HOTEL.▼●쩠 can auto-racing champion (Biel) as his wife. Eating (1990) C-110m. ★★★ D: Henry Arch dialogue abounds in this deconstruction Jaglom. Frances Bergen, Lisa Richards, of the British class system, but director and Nelly Alard, Gwen Welles, Mary Crosby, coadapter Elliott tries to have it both ways, Marlene Giovi, Marina Gregory, Daphna winking at the audience one moment and Kastner, Elizabeth Kemp, Toni Basil. A asking us to take things seriously the next. group of women, attending a birthday party, Great showcase for Biel, who holds her own sit around talking about food and life—in amidst a top-notch British cast. Filmed bethat order. Typically idiosyncratic, lowfore by Alfred Hitchcock in 1927. Super 35. budget Jaglom outing, but this one really [PG-13] works: the conversation is fascinating and Easy Way, The SEE: Room for One More often hilarious. Frances Bergen (Edgar’s Easy Wheels (1989) C-94m. ★★ D: David widow, Candice’s mom) is a revelation.▼쩠 O’Malley. Paul Le Mat, Eileen Davidson, Eating Raoul (1982) C-83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marjorie Bransfield, Jon Menick, Barry Paul Bartel. Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, Livingston, Mark Holton, Theresa Randle, Robert Beltran, Susan Saiger, Buck Henry, Danny Hicks, George Plimpton, Ted Raimi, Dick Blackburn, Edie McClurg, Ed Begley, Ben Stein. A gang of good male bikers Jr., John Paragon, Hamilton Camp. Delicombats a baby-stealing gang of women cious black comedy about the Blands, a bikers in the Midwest. Satirical action comsuper-square couple who lure wealthy swingers edy is awkwardly directed, but has some to their apartment and kill them, which good ideas. Writer ‘‘Celia Abrams’’ in the both reduces the number of ‘‘perverts’’ and credits is really Sam Raimi. [R]▼ helps finance their dream restaurant. Sags ★★★ D: Eat a Bowl of Tea (1989) C-104m. a little here and there, but overall a bright, Wayne Wang. Cora Miao, Russell Wong, original, hilarious satire; Paragon has a super Victor Wong, Lau Siu Ming, Eric Tsang Chi bit as a sexshop owner. Directors Joe Dante Wai. From 1924 until the end of WW2, most and John Landis also appear. [R] ▼쩠 Chinese women were not allowed to accomEat My Dust! (1976) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles pany their menfolk who emigrated to the U.S. Griffith. Ron Howard, Christopher Norris, This charming but pointed ethnic comedy Warren Kemmerling, Dave Madden, Rance chronicles what happened when the ban was Howard, Clint Howard, Corbin Bernsen. lifted, as American-born Russell Wong Nervewracking yarn about two young drivers brings Chinese-born bride Miao to N.Y.C. A unable to satisfy passion for speed. Hang on! [PG]▼쩠 film that no one else but Wang could have Eat the Peach (1986-Irish) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 made. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Eat Drink Man Woman (1994-Taiwan) D: Peter Ormrod. Stephen Brennan, Eamon C-124m. ★★★ D: Ang Lee. Sihung Lung, Morrissey, Catherine Byrne, Niall Toibin, Kuei-Mei Yang, Chien-Lien Wu, Yu-Wen Joe Lynch, Tony Doyle. Two hard-luck Wang, Winston Chao, Ah-Leh Gua, Sylvia friends in rural Ireland, suddenly unemChang. Director Lee’s follow-up to THE ployed, are inspired by a scene in Elvis WEDDING BANQUET is another charmPresley’s movie ROUSTABOUT and deing study of love, family, and tradition, cide to build a ‘‘wall of death’’ (a huge which follows a Taipei master chef (Lung) wooden cylinder in which they ride their who has lost his taste buds and has grown motorcycles in a circuslike stunt). Can apart from his three daughters. The multiple fame and fortune be far behind? Uniquely stories and their resolutions are a bit too dour Irish sensibility permeates this unpredictable, but Lee’s handling of the action even but engaging little film about hopes is dexterous and the entire cast is winning. and dreams—even cockeyed ones like these. The presentation of food onscreen is, in all Director Ormrod and producer John Kelsenses of the word, delectable, ranking with leher based their script on a true story.▼ [ 398 ]

Eat the Rich (1987-British) C-88m. BOMB stars and director. Australian title: SHADOWS OF THE PEACOCK. [R]▼● D: Peter Richardson. Nosher Powell, Lanah Pellay, Fiona Richmond, Ronald Allen, SanEcho Park (1986-Austrian-U.S.) C-93m. ★★1 dra Dorne. Ironically tasteless black comedy ⁄2 D: Robert Dornhelm. Susan Dey, about Pellay getting fired from his job in a resThomas Hulce, Michael Bowen, Christotaurant, where he later returns leading a band pher Walker, Richard (Cheech) Marin, of revolutionaries and begins serving human Cassandra Peterson, Timothy Carey. Small flesh on the menu. Weird point of view and film set in older L.A. neighborhood, which noisy heavy metal music score by Mofollows the fortunes of three offbeat chartorhead. Many pointless cameos by the likes acters: a single mother/actress, a pizza of Paul and Linda McCartney, Bill Wyman, delivery man/poet, and an Austrian weightMiranda Richardson and Koo Stark. [R]▼쩠 lifter/TV hopeful. Bowen (as the latter) Ebirah, Horror of the Deep SEE: Godscores best in this mildly diverting film; first half is best. [R]▼●쩠 zilla Vs. The Sea Monster Eboli (1979-Italian) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eclipse (1962-French-Italian) 123m. ★★★ Francesco Rosi. Gian Maria Volonte´, Irene D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Alain Delon, Papas, Paolo Bonicelli, Alain Cuny, Lea MasMonica Vitti, Francisco Rabal, Lilla Brigsari. Slow-moving but rewarding chronicle of none, Louis Seigner, Rossana Rory. Obvious anti-Facist writer/artist Carlo Levi’s exile in but fascinating drama of alienation, Ana small, primitive southern Italian mountain tonioni-style, about a translator (Vitti) who village during the mid-1930s. Stunningly dibreaks up with her boyfriend and commences rected, with Volonte perfect as Levi. Video an affair with stockbroker Delon. Antonioni title: CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI; most strikingly captures Vitti’s isolation, and the prints with this title run 210m.▼쩠 world (and city of Rome) as filtered through Echelon Conspiracy (2009) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 her sensibilities. Third in a trilogy, followD: Greg Marcks. Shane West, Edward ing L’AVVENTURA and LA NOTTE. Burns, Ving Rhames, Martin Sheen, Yuriy Original title: L’ECLISSE. ▼쩠 Kutsenko, Sergey Gubanov, Steven Elder, Ecstasy (1933-Czech) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: GusSandra De Sousa, Jonathan Pryce, Greg tav Machaty. Hedy Kiesler (Lamarr), Donaldson. It may be BOURNE-lite but it’s Aribert Mog, Jaromir Rogoz, Leopold still an entertaining sci-fi spy thriller in Kramer. A young bride discovers her which West’s insanely smart cell phone husband is impotent and has an affair. sends him all over the world alerting him to Undistinguished romantic drama was once big casino winnings, great stock tips, and all notorious for scenes of pre-Hollywood Hedy the beautiful women he can handle. Soon he in the buff—and showing her in the throes of sexual passion.▼쩠 is being chased around the globe by agents with high-tech gadgets of their own. This male Ed (1996) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Bill Couturie´. fantasy is by-the-numbers filmmaking but it’s Matt LeBlanc, Jayne Brook, Bill Cobbs, a guilty pleasure with an attractive cast, good Jack Warden, Charlie Schlatter, Carl Anenough to pass the time between Bourne and thony Payne II, Zacharias Ward, Tommy Bond movies. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Lasorda. Nervous pitcher getting his big Echoes (1983) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur break on a minor-league baseball team beAllan Seidelman. Richard Alfieri, Nathalie comes roommate with the club’s new third Nell, Mercedes McCambridge, Ruth Robaseman: a full-grown chimpanzee. Uninman, Gale Sondergaard, Mike Kellin, John spired vehicle for Friends star LeBlanc (and Spencer. Art student Alfieri becomes obsessed Hollywood debut for award-winning docuby a dream in which his twin brother, who mentary director Couturie´). Strikes out as a died before birth, is out to kill him. Intriguing warm family comedy, though younger premise, just adequate result. [R]▼쩠 viewers may be amused. [PG]▼●쩠 Echoes of a Summer (1976) C-99m. ★★ D: Eddie (1996) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve Rash. Don Taylor. Richard Harris, Lois Nettleton, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank Langella, Dennis Jodie Foster, Geraldine Fitzgerald, William Farina, Richard Jenkins, Lisa Ann Walter, Windom, Brad Savage. Another film in the John Benjamin Hickey, Troy Beyer. Gim‘‘disease’’ genre, as 12-year-old Foster’s stolid micky star vehicle for Whoopi finds her reaction to impending death inspires those going overnight from rabid N.Y. Knicks fan around her. Overwritten tearjerker, but Jodie to being coach of the team—when the cyniis always worth a look. [PG] cal new owner finds there’s great publicity Echoes of Paradise (1987-Australian) value in it. Despite the far-fetched premise, C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Phillip Noyce. Wendy Whoopi mines laughs—especially early on, Hughes, John Lone, Steven Jacobs, Peta before the film begins to take itself too seriToppano, Rod Mullinar, Gillian Jones. ously. Look for cameos by various N.Y. Frustrated Hughes’ husband cheats on her, celebs and basketball stars. [PG-13]▼●쩠 so while in Thailand she liberates herself Eddie and the Cruisers (1983) C-92m. ★★ D: Martin Davidson. Tom Berenger, by commencing an affair with Balinese dancer Lone. Boring (though attractive) Michael Pare´, Joe Pantoliano, Matthew soaper is an unfortunate misfire for talented Laurance, Helen Schneider, Ellen Barkin. [ 399 ]

Ideal premise—whatever happened to the away from her mundane life toward an explomembers of a legendary, innovative rock ration of her cosmic self. No mumbo jumbo ’n’ roll band of the ’60s—buried by terrible here, but instead a gripping drama in which script. Pare´ plays band’s iconoclastic leader, the main character forces the people closest to who ran his car off a pier; Barkin is TV reher to examine their own lives. Written by the director. Made in 1996. [R]▼쩠 porter who tries to piece together story, a la CITIZEN KANE . . . but there’s no Rosebud Edge, The (1997) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lee here. Good song score by John Cafferty. Tamahori. Anthony Hopkins, Alec BaldFollowed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 win, Elle Macpherson, Harold Perrineau, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives! L. Q. Jones, Bart the Bear. Quiet billionaire (1989) C-103m. BOMB D: Jean-Claude Hopkins accompanies his supermodel wife Lord. Michael Pare´, Marina Orsini, Beron a location shoot in Alaska, then finds nie Coulson, Matthew Laurance, Michael himself stranded in the wilderness with phoRhoades, Anthony Sherwood, Bo Diddley. tographer (Baldwin) and his assistant (PerriNow get this: Eddie Wilson did not die in a neau) when their plane crashes. The bookish 1964 New Jersey car accident; he’s living rich guy turns out to be a pretty fair survivincognito in Montreal (where movies can be alist, but meets his match in killer Kodiak financed more cheaply) and is only surfacbear. Good acting, exciting action seing now because the producers wanted a quences, but a stretch of credibility (more in sequel. Eddie’s life signs did not extend to the relationships than in the survival mode) the box office. [PG-13]▼●쩠 makes this an uneven outing. Written by David Mamet. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Eddie Cantor Story, The (1953) C-116m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Alfred E. Green. Keefe Brasselle, Edge of Darkness (1943) 120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marilyn Erskine, Aline MacMahon, Marie Lewis Milestone. Errol Flynn, Ann SheriWindsor. If Brasselle doesn’t turn you off dan, Walter Huston, Nancy Coleman, Helas Cantor, MacMahon’s Grandma Esther or a mut Dantine, Judith Anderson, Ruth Gorputty-nosed young actor (Jackie Barnett) playdon, John Beal, Roman Bohnen. Intense, ing Jimmy Durante certainly will.▼ compelling drama of underground moveEddie Macon’s Run (1983) C-95m. ment in Norway during Nazi takeover in ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff Kanew. Kirk Douglas, John WW2. Eye-popping camerawork compleSchneider, Lee Purcell, Leah Ayres, Lisa ments fine performances. Scripted by RobDunsheath, Tom Noonan, John Goodman. ert Rossen, from William Woods’ story. Bumpy chase-and-car-crash picture that has Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ wrongly convicted prison escapee Schneider Edge of Doom (1950) 90m. ★★ D: Mark (in his first starring role after attaining Dukes Robson. Dana Andrews, Farley Granger, Joan of Hazzard fame) trying to elude his relentEvans, Mala Powers, Paul Stewart, Adele Jerless pursuer (Douglas) and make it to Mexico. gens. Poor but hardworking Granger loses Based on the novel by James McLendon. control when his mother dies; only parish Goodman’s film debut. [PG]▼● priest Andrews understands his torment. Eddie Murphy Raw (1987) C-93m. ★★ Turgid drama. D: Robert Townsend. Occasionally upEdge of Eternity (1959) C-80m. ★★ D: roarious but ultimately dispiriting Murphy Don Siegel. Cornel Wilde, Victoria Shaw, concert film, shot at N.Y.C.’s Felt Forum. Mickey Shaughnessy, Edgar Buchanan, Best moments: the comic’s imitations of Rian Garrick, Jack Elam. Deputy sheriff Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor giving their Wilde tracks killers to Grand Canyon, leadopposing views on the crude tone of so ing to shoot-out on mining buckets susmuch Murphy material. Worst: sexist slurs pended on cables way above canyon. that too often predominate. Fades in the CinemaScope. stretch; there’s an amusing fictional proEdge of Love, The (2008-British) C-111m. ★1 logue, ‘‘set’’ in the Murphys’ home two ⁄2 D: John Maybury. Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy, Matthew Rhys. decades ago. [R]▼●쩠 Eddy Duchin Story, The (1956) C-123m. Mawkish soaper, set during WW2, involving ★★ D: George Sidney. Tyrone Power, Kim an egocentric poet (Rhys) and the two women Novak, Victoria Shaw, James Whitmore. in his life. One (Miller) is his high-spirited Glossy Hollywood bio of pianist-bandleader wife; the other (Knightley), a coolly beautiful of 1930s and ’40s; Power tries hard (Carsinger, is a friend from childhood. Into their men Cavallaro dubs at keyboard). Tearworld comes an idealistic soldier (Murphy) jerker ending and theme song memorable. who falls obsessively in love with Knightley. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Means to be lyrical and insightful, but the Eden (1998) C-106m. ★★★ D: Howard characters are superficially rendered and the Goldberg. Joanna Going, Dylan Walsh, actors fail to rise above the material. It seems Sean Patrick Flanery, Sean Christensen, Edof minor importance that the poet is Dylan ward O. Blenis, Jr. Original, provocative Thomas and the story is ‘‘inspired, in part, film set in 1965 about a young mother with by actual events.’’ Playwright Sharman MS, married to a prep school professor, who Macdonald, Knightley’s mother, penned has an out-of-body experience that leads her the screenplay.쩠 [ 400 ]

★1 Edge of Sanity (1989-British) C-90m. ★1⁄2 ⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Evelyne Bouix, D: Ge´rard Kikoine. Anthony Perkins, Marcel Cerdan, Jr., Jacques Villeret, JeanGlynis Barber, Sarah Maur-Thorp, David Claude Brialy, Francis Huster, Jean Bouise, Lodge, Ben Cole. Grotesque, overwrought Charles Aznavour. Passionless retelling of travesty on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert the love affair between singer Edith Piaf Louis Stevenson is not even credited). Jekyll and middleweight boxer Marcel Cerdan, who (Perkins) accidentally discovers the Hyde fordied in a 1949 plane crash. Bouix and Cerdan, mula, transforms only very slightly, and beJr., are bland in the title roles. Originally comes Jack the Ripper. Tasteless, pointless, 162m. Piaf and Cerdan’s relationship is also and unpleasant. [R] ▼●쩠 dramatized in LA VIE EN ROSE. ▼ Edge of the City (1957) 85m. ★★★★ D: Edmond (2005) C-82m. ★★ D: Stuart GorMartin Ritt. John Cassavetes, Sidney Poidon. William H. Macy, Rebecca Pidgeon, tier, Jack Warden, Ruby Dee, Kathleen Joe Mantegna, Julia Stiles, Jeffrey Combs, Maguire, Ruth White. Somber, realistic Bai Ling, Debi Mazar, Denise Richards, account of N.Y.C. waterfront life and corMena Suvari, George Wendt, Dylan Walsh, ruption. Friendship of army deserter CassaDule´ Hill, Bokeem Woodbine, Wren vetes and dock worker Poitier, both conBrown. On his way home from work a flicting with union racketeer Warden, middle-aged exec heeds a fateful tarot readprovides focus for reflections on integraing and leaves his wife to embark on an alltion and integrity in lower-class society. night odyssey through the city’s underbelly. Masterfully acted by all. Ritt’s first film as Adapted by David Mamet from his 1982 director. Robert Alan Aurthur adapted his one-act play and episodic by design, this own 1955 TV play, A Man Is Ten Feet fable becomes more difficult to take as it Tall (which was also film’s British title), goes on and Macy’s character exorcises all in which Poitier originated his role. Also of his sexist, racist paranoia. Something less shown in computer-colored version.쩠 than Homeric, made palatable only by Edge of the World, The (1937-British) Macy’s commanding performance. [R]쩠 74m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Powell. Niall MacEd’s Next Move (1996) C-88m. ★★★ D: Ginnis, Belle Chrystall, John Laurie, Finlay John Walsh. Matt Ross, Callie Thorne, Currie, Eric Berry. The life and death of an Kevin Carroll, Ramsey Faragallah, Nina isolated Shetland island as it is evacuated of Sheveleva. Sweetly engaging romantic its citizens. Engrossing drama, filmed on the comedy; a sincere, knowing story of the difNorth Sea isle of Foula. That’s Powell playficulties of finding love in the Big City. The ing the yachtsman in opening scene. Powell title character (Ross), a Wisconsin native and those cast and crew still alive revisited who comes to N.Y.C. to make his fortune, the location 40 years later to film the docuis immediately attracted to a struggling mumentary RETURN TO THE EDGE OF sician (Thorne), who is already involved THE WORLD.▼쩠 with someone. [R]▼● Edie in Ciao! Manhattan SEE: Ciao! Ed TV (1999) C-122m. ★★★ D: Ron HowManhattan ard. Matthew McConaughey, Jenna Elfman, Edison Force (2006) C-99m. BOMB D: Woody Harrelson, Sally Kirkland, Martin David J. Burke. Morgan Freeman, Kevin Landau, Ellen DeGeneres, Rob Reiner, Spacey, Justin Timberlake, LL Cool J, Dylan Dennis Hopper, Elizabeth Hurley, Adam McDermott, John Heard, Cary Elwes, RoseGoldberg, Viveka Davis, Clint Howard. Enlyn Sanchez, Damien Dante Wayans, Piper tertaining yarn about a desperate cable TV Perabo. Two Oscar winners topline this loud, network that decides to broadcast an ordiviolent direct-to-DVD clunker in which a menary guy’s life for every waking moment nagerie of shady politicos, corrupt cops—and of the day—turning the poor sap into an one intrepid reporter—clash in a crime-ridden overnight celebrity. Interesting twists in metropolis. Indescribably bad film opens Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel’s script with a standard-issue shootout, and much of keep this from being a one-joke comedy. the dialogue that follows is unintentionally Well cast right down the line. Remake of funny. Pop star Timberlake’s acting debut. a Canadian film, LOUIS XIX: ROI DES Originally screened at film festivals as EDIONDES. [PG-13]▼●쩠 SON. Super 35. [R]쩠 ★★★ Educating Rita (1983-British) C-110m. D: Edison, the Man (1940) 107m. ★★★ D: Lewis Gilbert. Michael Caine, JuClarence Brown. Spencer Tracy, Rita Johnlie Walters, Michael Williams, Maureen son, Lynne Overman, Charles Coburn, Lipman, Jeananne Crowley, Malcolm DougGene Lockhart, Henry Travers, Felix las. Entertaining adaptation of Willy RusBressart. Sequel to YOUNG TOM EDIsell’s stage play about a young workingSON perfectly casts Tracy as earnest inclass wife who wants to better herself, and ventor with passion for mechanical ingeselects boozy professor Caine as her tutor. nuity. Facts and MGM fantasy combine Walters is excellent in her film debut (rewell in sentimental treatment. Also shown creating her stage role) and Caine has one of in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Edith and Marcel (1983-French) C-104m. his best roles as her mentor. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [ 401 ]

Education of Charlie Banks, The (2009) nona Ryder, Dianne Wiest, Vincent Price, C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred Durst. Jesse EisenAlan Arkin, Anthony Michael Hall, Kathy berg, Jason Ritter, Eva Amurri, Christopher Baker, Conchata Ferrell, Caroline Aaron, Marquette, Sebastian Stan, Gloria Votsis, Dick Anthony Williams. Strikingly origiDennis Boutsikaris. Class-conscious comingnal fable (expanded from an idea Burton of-age story, set in the ’70s and early ’80s, hatched as a child) about a man-made boy about a well-bred Manhattan boy (Eisenwhose creator dies before attaching human berg) who thinks he’s left a neighborhood hands to his body. Now he’s adopted by a tough guy (Ritter) behind when he goes to relentlessly cheery Avon Lady, and taken an Ivy League college. But Ritter shows up to live in American suburbia. Mixture of in his dorm one day, ostensibly for a visit, fairy tale elements and social satire loses and finds the tony atmosphere (and Eisenits story momentum toward the end, but berg’s girlfriend, Amurri) to his liking. that can’t erase its charm or good-natured Highly uneven but interesting take on social humor. Depp is perfect as the fragile scissormores and boundary lines; creditable feahanded boy, and it’s great fun to watch Price as his master. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ture directing debut for Durst, of the rock group Limp Bizkit (filmed before 2008’s Edward II (1991-British) C-91m. ★★★ D: THE LONGSHOTS). Super 35. [R]쩠 Derek Jarman. Steven Waddington, Kevin Education of Little Tree, The (1997) Collins, Andrew Tiernan, John Lynch, DudC-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Friedenberg. ley Sutton, Tilda Swinton, Jerome Flynn, James Cromwell, Tantoo Cardinal, Joseph Jody Graber, Nigel Terry, Annie Lennox. Ashton, Graham Greene, Mika Boorem, Trenchant (if unnecessarily violent) adaptaChristopher Heyerdahl. An 8-year-old boy, tion of the Christopher Marlowe play, written half-white/half-Cherokee, goes to live with in 1592, about the downfall of the openly gay his grandparents in the backwoods of TenBritish monarch who rejects his queen for a nessee in 1935 and is taught the way of male lover. Despite 14th-century setting, some life and the land. Beautifully photographed characters wear contemporary clothing, and family film never fully takes hold, but fine film works quite well as a condemnation of performances and solid values make it 20th-century gay-bashing. Not for all tastes— pleasant viewing. [G]▼●쩠 but never dull. Lennox, formerly of EurythEducation of Sonny Carson, The (1974) mics, appears in one scene singing Cole Porter’s ‘‘Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.’’▼●쩠 C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Campus. Rony Clanton, Don Gordon, Joyce Walker, Paul Ed Wood (1994) 124m. ★★★ D: Tim BurBenjamin, Ram John Holder. Interesting if ton. Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah overemotional drama of rebellious black Jessica Parker, Patricia Arquette, Jeffrey youth in Brooklyn of the ’50s and ’60s. Jones, G. D. Spradlin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Based on Carson’s autobiography; the film Lisa Marie, Bill Murray, Mike Starr, Max takes on additional meaning with regard to Casella, Brent Hinkley, Juliet Landau, his latter-day notoriety on the N.Y.C. politiGeorge ‘‘The Animal’’ Steele. A loving cal scene. [R]▼쩠 look at Edward D. Wood, Jr., a man of Edukators, The (2004-German-Austrian) boundless enthusiasm and no talent who C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hans Weingartner. Danmade some of the worst movies of all time iel Bru¨hl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg, Burgh(including GLEN OR GLENDA and PLAN art Klaussner, Hanns Zischler. Thoughtful, 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). Cast to perfecif verbose and overlong, satirical exploration, with Depp ideal in the title role. Lantion of political idealism and hypocrisy in dau—in Rick Baker makeup (both men won contemporary Germany. A pair of strident Oscars)—is positively astonishing as the young radicals (Bru¨hl, Erceg) see themaged and impoverished Bela Lugosi, whom selves as 21st-century Robin Hoods, which Wood befriended. There isn’t much story gives them an excuse to break into the thrust here, but the vivid re-creation of time homes of the well-heeled. Complications and place makes this a must for any oldarise when Erceg’s girlfriend (Jentsch) parmovie buff. [R]▼●쩠 ticipates in one of their escapades. [R] 쩠 Eegah! (1963) C-92m. BOMB D: NichoEdward, My Son (1949-British) 112m. las Merriwether (Arch Hall, Sr.). Arch ★★1 ⁄2 D: George Cukor. Spencer Tracy, DeboHall, Jr., Marilyn Manning, Richard Kiel, rah Kerr, Ian Hunter, James Donald, Mervyn William Watters (Arch Hall, Sr.). In the deJohns, Felix Aylmer, Leueen McGrath. Wellsert near Palm Springs, a prehistoric giant acted but talky, stagy drama in which brash, (Kiel) falls in love with teenage Manning. A rags-to-riches Tracy pampers his son, failstaple at ‘‘All-Time Worst Film’’ festivals. ing to instill within him a sense of responsiArch Hall, Jr., sings the memorable ‘‘I Love bility. Gimmicks of Tracy talking to viewer, You, Vickie.’’▼●쩠 title character never being shown, come off Eel, The (1997-Japanese) C-117m. ★★★ D: as forced. Based on a play by Robert MorShohei Imamura. Koji Yakusho, Misa ley and Noel Langley. Shimizu, Fujio Tsuneta, Mitsuko Baisho, Edward Scissorhands (1990) C-100m. Akira Emoto, Sho Aikawa, Ken Kobayashi. ★★★ D: Tim Burton. Johnny Depp, WiA businessman brutally murders his wife [ 402 ]

upon discovering that she has been cheating Thayer David, Heidi Bruhl, Reiner Schoene, on him. Eight years later, he is paroled from Brenda Venus. Pseudo-James Bond misprison, and can only relate to his pet eel, fire, often unintentionally funny. Thrilling because it will not disappoint or betray him. mountain-climbing climax does not make up Then he saves a woman who has attempted for film’s many faults and ungodly length. suicide after a bad love affair. Pensive, poiJack Cassidy as gay, treacherous spy congnant allegorical drama.▼쩠 tributes the only creative acting. Based on novel by Trevanian. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-theMoon Marigolds, The (1972) C-100m. 81⁄2 (1963-Italian) 135m. ★★★★ D: Federico ★★★ Fellini. Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia D: Paul Newman. Joanne Woodward, Nell Potts, Roberta Wallach, Judith Lowry. Cardinale, Anouk Aime´e, Sandra Milo, Woodward gives superb performance in tale Barbara Steele, Rossella Falk, Madeleine of secluded boor of a mother and her two LeBeau, Caterina Boratto, Edra Gale, Mark strange daughters. Alvin Sargent adapted Paul Herron. Fellini’s unique self-analytical movie Zindel’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play. [PG] casts Mastroianni as a filmmaker trying to Effi Briest (1974-German) 135m. ★★★1⁄2 D: develop a new project, amid frequent visions Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Hanna Schygulla, and countless subplots. A long, difficult, but Wolfgang Schenck, Karl-Heinz Bohm, Ulli fascinating film, overflowing with creative Lommel, Ursula Stratz, Irm Hermann. and technical wizardry. Certainly one of the Sharply observed drama, set in 19th-century most intensely personal statements ever made Germany, is one of Fassbinder’s best. It’s the on celluloid. Screenplay by Fellini, Tullio Pistory of the social and sexual victimization of nelli, Ennio Flaiano, and Brunello Rondi. the title character (Schygulla), an innocent Oscar winner for Costume Design and as Best Foreign Language Film.▼●쩠 teenager stifled by the conventions of society and lacking the resolve to challenge them. 81⁄2 Women (1999-British) C-121m. ★1⁄2 Fassbinder also scripted; based on a novel D: Peter Greenaway. John Standing, Matby Theodor Fontane, which was filmed three thew Delamere, Vivian Wu, Shizuka Inoh, times before.▼쩠 Barbara Sarafian, Kirina Mano, Toni ColEfficiency Expert, The (1992-Australian) lette, Amanda Plummer, Natcha Amal, Manna ★★★ C-85m. Fujiwara, Polly Walker. When a successful D: Mark Joffe. Anthony Hopkins, Alwyn Kurts, Rebecca Rigg, Russell businessman is widowed, his son tries to Crowe, Angela Punch McGregor, Ben help him through his grief by taking him on Mendelsohn, Bruno Lawrence, Toni Cola sexual odyssey. The women range from a lette. Pleasant farce that follows the plight former nun (Collette) to a horsewoman/pig of Hopkins, an uncompromising managefancier (Plummer) who wears a bizarre seement consultant whose attitude is ever-sothrough harness. Copious male and female slightly altered by the various, humorously nudity can’t keep this from being a colossal inefficient workers at a small factory. Hopbore. A supposed homage to Fellini, this kins offers a solid comic performance. Origisn’t in his league. [R]▼쩠 inal title: SPOTSWOOD. [PG]▼●쩠 Eight Below (2006) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Egg and I, The (1947) 108m. ★★★ D: Marshall. Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Chester Erskine. Claudette Colbert, Fred Moon Bloodgood, Jason Biggs, Gerard PlunMacMurray, Marjorie Main, Louise Allkett, August Schellenberg, Wendy Crewson. britton, Percy Kilbride, Richard Long, DonWhen the staff of a U.S. National Science ald MacBride, Samuel S. Hinds. Colbert Research team is ordered to abandon its Antis delightful as city girl who marries chicken arctic camp, wilderness guide Walker despairs farmer MacMurray and struggles to surabout leaving his eight huskies behind. How vive on his farm; first appearance of Ma the resourceful dogs struggle to survive, and and Pa Kettle. From Betty MacDonald’s how Walker refuses to give up on them, is best-seller. Later a TV series.▼●쩠 the crux of this Disney film. Goes astray as Egyptian, The (1954) C-140m. ★★ D: Mistory drags on much longer than it should, chael Curtiz. Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, but the animal action and wintry location Gene Tierney, Michael Wilding, Bella footage are first-rate. Loose remake of the Darvi, Peter Ustinov, Edmund Purdom, Jufact-based 1983 Japanese movie NANKYdith Evelyn, Henry Daniell, John Carradine, OKU MONOGATARI (ANTARCTICA). Super 35. [PG]쩠 Tommy Rettig. Ponderous, often unintentionally funny biblical-era soaper with PurEight Crazy Nights (2002) C-75m. BOMB dom cast as the sensitive, truth-seeking title D: Seth Kearsley. Voices of Adam Sandler, character, a physician in ancient Egypt. Rob Schneider, Jackie Titone, Kevin Nealon, Darvi’s performance as a femme fatale is hiNorm Crosby, Jon Lovitz, Tyra Banks, Carl lariously awful; see how much of her dialogue Weathers, Lainie Kazan, Alison Krauss. you can understand. Loosely based on Mika Adam Sandler fans and cartoon buffs beWaltari’s novel. CinemaScope.▼● ware! Raunchy animated musical comedy, 1 ★ Eiger Sanction, The (1975) C-128m. ⁄2 about a small-town slacker given a second D: Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, George chance at redemption by aiding a pint-sized Kennedy, Vonetta McGee, Jack Cassidy, basketball coach. Scatological humor abounds [ 403 ]

at the expense of the handicapped, all reliwin causes complications. Underbudgeted gious groups and ethnicities. Story is set durbut overplotted, this curio is as ponderous ing the holiday season merely as an excuse as its little-used raft. From a novel by Jules Verne. [PG-13]▼쩠 for Sandler’s popular comic ‘‘Hanukkah Song’’ to be sung over the end credits. SandEight Iron Men (1952) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: ler provides voices for three characters and Edward Dmytryk. Bonar Colleano, Lee wrote the forgettable and numerous musical Marvin, Richard Kiley, Nick Dennis, Arnumbers. Not for kids, adults, or anyone. thur Franz, Mary Castle. WW2 actioner Full on-screen title is ADAM SANDLER’S focusing on a group of soldiers, strain they EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS. [PG-13]▼쩠 undergo during continued enemy attack. Eight Days a Week (1999) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Eight Legged Freaks (2002) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Davis. Joshua Schaefer, Keri D: Ellory Elkayem. David Arquette, Kari Russell, R. D. Robb, Mark L. Taylor, MarWuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johansson, cia Shapiro, Catherine Hicks. A boy Doug E. Doug, Rick Overton, Leon Rippy, (Schaefer) in love with his beautiful nextEileen Ryan. If you want to see a movie door neighbor (Russell) decides to camp out about giant marauding spiders, this one’s on her front lawn until she agrees to go out for you: toxic waste turns the inhabitants of with him. Sweet, well acted, a bit corny, but a spider farm into monsters that wreak makes no excuses for what it is: a teenage havoc on an Arizona town. A female sheriff romantic comedy. [R]▼쩠 (Wuhrer) and her onetime boyfriend (Ar18 Again! (1988) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul quette) try to fend off the fearsome killers. Flaherty. George Burns, Charlie Schlatter, A spirited, gooey, and amusing homage to Tony Roberts, Anita Morris, Red Buttons, 1950s films like TARANTULA and THEM! Miriam Flynn, Jennifer Runyon. 81-year(which is glimpsed briefly on TV). Tom old Jack Watson (92-year-old Burns) beNoonan appears unbilled. Super 35. [PG13] ▼쩠 comes 18 again via his grandson’s body and a bump on the head. Sound familiar? Eight Men Out (1988) C-119m. ★★★ D: What it lacks in originality is made up in John Sayles. John Cusack, Clifton James, part by Schlatter’s utterly charming performMichael Lerner, Christopher Lloyd, John ance as the young George, and that founMahoney, Charlie Sheen, David Strathairn, tain of youth Burns (who, alas, we see D. B. Sweeney, Michael Rooker, Perry precious little of). [PG]▼●쩠 Lang, James Read, Bill Irwin, Kevin Tighe, Eighth Day, The (1996-French-Belgian) Studs Terkel, John Anderson, Maggie C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jaco van Dormael. Daniel Renzi. Exquisitely detailed period piece Auteuil, Pascal Duquenne, Miou-Miou, Isaabout the infamous 1919 ‘‘Black Sox’’ belle Sadoyan, Henry Garcin, Michele World Series, in which members of the Maes. Well-intentioned but overly familiar Chicago White Sox agreed to throw the feel-good story of uptight, phony-baloney games in return for cash. Writer-director Belgian businessman Auteuil, who (predictSayles (who also appears as sportswriter ably) undergoes a personality transformaRing Lardner) touches all the bases, extion after finding himself in the company of cept perhaps in terms of emotion; the story a Down’s Syndrome victim (Duquenne, doesn’t have the impact it might have, who actually suffers from the malady). If though the actual baseball scenes are suyou’ve seen RAIN MAN . . . Auteuil and perb and the key performances (by Strathairn, Duquenne both won Cannes Film Festival Sweeney, and Cusack) are top-notch. Based on a book by Eliot Asinof. [PG]▼●쩠 acting prizes. Super 35.▼● 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997-U.S.-Brit8 Mile (2002) C-110m. ★★★ D: Curtis Hanish) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Schulman. Joe son. Eminem, Kim Basinger, Brittany MurPesci, Andy Comeau, Kristy Swanson, phy, Mekhi Phifer, Evan Jones, Omar Benson Todd Louiso, George Hamilton, Dyan CanMiller, Eugene Byrd, De’Angelo Wilson, Annon, David Spade, Frank Roman, Ernestine thony Mackie, Taryn Manning, Michael Mercer. Mob hit man Pesci’s bag of the Shannon. Angry young white rapper tries to title is accidentally swapped with that of a use his music to escape the grimness of life medical student on the way to a Mexican in Detroit but freezes when forced to comvacation. Many black-comedy complicapete in a public forum with his glib black tions ensue. Occasionally very funny, but counterparts. Familiar underdog formula is not often enough, and debuting director given grit and resonance, and makes a conSchulman’s timing is limp; Spade and Louvincing case for the power of selfiso have the best moments. [R]▼●쩠 expression. Real-life rapper Eminem is imEight Hundred Leagues Down the Amapressive in a tailor-made film that echoes his own life story. Oscar winner for Best zon (1993) C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Luis Llosa. Daphne Zuniga, Barry Bostwick, Adam Song, ‘‘Lose Yourself.’’ Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Baldwin, Tom Verica, E. E. Bell, Ramsay 8 Million Ways to Die (1986) C-115m. Ross. In the 19th century, planter Bostwick, BOMB D: Hal Ashby. Jeff Bridges, Rosanhis daughter Zuniga, and others drift down na Arquette, Alexandra Paul, Randy the Amazon on a huge raft; scheming BaldBrooks, Andy Garcia. Dreary tale of [ 404 ]

alcoholic ex-cop who gets involved with death threat from a man he helped send to high-priced call girl and her ‘‘friends’’ (a Death Row (McDonough). Lumbering, heavypowerful pimp and a sleazy drug dealer). handed theatrics and clumsy attempts at susSlow, arid film populated by unpleasant pense make this a total waste of time. Super and uninteresting characters. Remarkably 35. [R]쩠 poor script (cowritten by Oliver Stone) has 84 Charing Cross Road (1987) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Jones. Anne Bancroft, only faint resemblance to Lawrence Block’s fine novel. [R]▼● Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Jean De Baer, 8MM (1999) C-123m. ★★ D: Joel SchuMaurice Denham, Eleanor David, Mercedes macher. Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, Ruehl, Daniel Gerroll. Loving, literate, and James Gandolfini, Peter Stormare, Anthony totally disarming film about the longtime corHeald, Catherine Keener, Chris Bauer, Myra respondence, and growing friendship, beCarter. Private detective accepts an unusual tween a feisty N.Y.C. woman and the British assignment: to learn whether or not a ‘‘snuff’’ bookseller who provides her with the rare volfilm in which a girl apparently dies is genuumes she cherishes more than anything else ine. Despite himself, he becomes obsessed in life. Affectionately detailed evocation of with the case and mired in a netherworld he N.Y.C. and London over 20 years’ time is cannot stand. An intensely grim, often uncapped by ideal performances. Based on the pleasant film, somewhat reminiscent of memoirs of Helene Hanff and the play HARDCORE, is weakened by serious isadapted from her book. Screenplay by Hugh sues of credibility in Cage’s character and Whitemore. [PG]▼●쩠 motivation. Followed by a direct-to-video 84 Charlie Mopic (1989) C-95m. ★★★ D: sequel in 2005. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Patrick Duncan. Jonathan Emerson, NichEight on the Lam (1967) C-106m. BOMB olas Cascone, Jason Tomlins, Christopher D: George Marshall. Bob Hope, Phyllis Burgard, Glenn Morshower, Richard Brooks, Diller, Jonathan Winters, Jill St. John, Byron Thomas. Imaginative low-budget Shirley Eaton. Another of Hope’s horrible film provides fresh approach to life on the ’60s comedies casts him as a widower front line in Vietnam. Writer-director Dunwith seven children who finds $10,000; can tells his story completely from the point even Winters can’t help this dud.▼● of view of a combat cameraman who’s 8 Seconds (1994) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: John assigned to follow a special seven-man G. Avildsen. Luke Perry, Stephen Baldwin, reconnaissance unit on a dangerous misCynthia Geary, James Rebhorn, Carrie sion. Lulls in pace made up for by film’s Snodgress, Red Mitchell, Ronnie Claire Edoverall vitality, commanding performances wards, Linden Ashby, Renee Zellweger. by cast of unknowns. [R]▼● OK bio of rodeo legend Lane Frost gets 80 Steps to Jonah (1969) C-107m. ★★ D: standard Avildsen ROCKY rah-rah treatGerd Oswald. Wayne Newton, Mickey ment. Perry and Geary (as his wife) put the Rooney, Jo Van Fleet, Keenan Wynn, film over, up to a point, with natural, winDiana Ewing, Slim Pickens, Sal Mineo. A ning performances, but day-to-day rodeo loner, running from the police, stumbles life was captured with far more flavor in upon camp for blind children; new world THE LUSTY MEN and JUNIOR BONchanges his outlook on life. Major liabiliNER. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ty: casting of Newton in leading role. 8 Women (2002-French) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Music score by George Shearing. [G] Franc¸ois Ozon. Danielle Darrieux, Cather80,000 Suspects (1963-British) 113m. ★★ ine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny ArD: Val Guest. Claire Bloom, Richard Johndant, Emmanuelle Be´art, Virginie Ledoyen, son, Yolande Donlan, Cyril Cusack. Capable Firmine Richard, Ludivine Sagnier. Woncast saddled with yarn of doctor (Johnson) derful opportunity to watch some of France’s and wife (Bloom) finding new love together most formidable females in an odd whodunitwhile combating local small-pox outbreak. melodrama-musical set in the 1950s (and inCinemaScope. spired, Ozon says, by the lush, artificial TechEijanaika (1981-Japanese) C-151m. ★★★1⁄2 nicolor films of Douglas Sirk and Vincente D: Shohei Imamura. Shigeru Izumiya, Kaori Minnelli). The story, a deliberate contrivMomoi, Masao Kusakari, Ken Ogata, ance, involves a murder in an isolated manShigeru Tsuyuguchi, Mitsuko Baisho. Fassion in winter, and the various secrets being cinating, compelling saga of corruption, hidden by the women of the household. Fun politics, greed, power, deceit, focusing on to a degree, especially when the actresses experiences of peasant who has just resing and dance, but awfully forced. [R]▼쩠 turned to Japan after being shipwrecked 88 Minutes (2008) C-108m. BOMB D: Jon and sent to America during the 1860s. Avnet. Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee SobieFine performances, with a memorable fiski, Amy Brenneman, Deborah Kara Unger, nale. Some prints run 127m. ▼● Benjamin McKenzie, Neal McDonough, WilEl Bruto (1952-Mexican) 83m. ★★ D: liam Forsythe, Victoria Tennant. Dreadful Luis Bun˜uel. Pedro Armendariz, Katy thriller about a forensic psychiatrist (and proJurado, Andres Soler, Rosita Arenas. fessor) who’s received an all-too-palpable Armendariz is conned by scheming boss [ 405 ]

into harassing tenants he unfairly wants to up to RIO BRAVO finds aging gunfighter evict; seduced by the boss’s lusty mistress Wayne helping drunken sheriff pal Mit(Jurado), he then falls in love with a girl chum quell a range war. Typically smooth whose father he accidentally murdered. Hawks mix of comedy and action, with Simplistic, quite unsubtle melodrama, a zesty Leigh Brackett script and exemplary disappointment from a master filmmaker. performances, especially by Mitchum, Caan Aka THE BRUTE. ▼쩠 as young gambler who can’t shoot, and George as ultra-cool hired gun.▼●쩠 El Cantante (2007) C-116m. ★★ D: Leon Ichaso. Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Eleanor Roosevelt Story, The (1965) 91m. ★★★1 John Ortiz, Manny Perez, Vincent Laresca, ⁄2 D: Richard Kaplan. Narrated by Federico Castelluccio, Nelson Vasquez. Archibald Macleish, Eric Sevareid, FranPuerto Rican–born He´ctor Lavoe (Anthony) cis Cole. Oscar-winning documentary acfinds success in N.Y.C. introducing a new count of the former First Lady, a great brand of Latin music called salsa in the American citizen who overcame personal 1970s. While he also finds the love of his obstacles and became a beacon of human life, drugs erode his success onstage and kindness. A most effective music score by off. The two stars (married in real life) are Ezra Laderman.▼쩠 extremely well cast in this biopic. Lopez Election (1999) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alexanlooks gorgeous, and the music is great, but der Payne. Matthew Broderick, Reese Withthe story is a sad, one-note affair. Lopez erspoon, Chris Klein, Jessica Campbell, Mark also coproduced . . . and perhaps should Harelik, Phil Reeves, Molly Hagan, Delaney have cut a few of those loving close-ups of Driscoll, Colleen Camp, Matt Malloy. Audaherself. [R]쩠 cious, wickedly funny satire about an earnest El Cid (1961) C-184m. ★★★ D: Anthony Nebraska schoolteacher’s attempt to put a Mann. Charlton Heston, Sophia Loren, Raf roadblock in the path of an overachiever Vallone, Genevieve Page, John Fraser, who’s running unopposed for class president. Gary Raymond, Hurd Hatfield, Massimo Highly original story also involves adultery, Serato, Herbert Lom, Michael Hordern. lust, and lesbianism; somehow manages to Mammoth Samuel Bronston spectacle, shot avoid mean-spiritedness while taking dead in Spain, celebrates that country’s 11thaim at its subjects. Written by Payne and Jim century warrior hero. When not clashing Taylor from the novel by Tom Perrotta. Brodwith Moors, Heston’s Cid romances his erick and Witherspoon are exceptionally equally statuesque wife (Loren). Uneven good. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 dramatics are sold by top-scale production Electra Glide in Blue (1973) C-113m. ★★★ values, including Miklos Rozsa’s famed D: James William Guercio. Robert score. One of the better historical epics of Blake, Billy Green Bush, Mitchell Ryan, its time. Super Technirama 70.▼●쩠 Jeannine Riley, Elisha Cook, Jr., Royal Dano. El Condor (1970) C-102m. ★★ D: John Violent film about highway cop Blake making Guillermin. Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, up in brains what he lacks in height. Striking Patrick O’Neal, Mariana Hill, Iron Eyes action sequences and good characterizations. Cody, Elisha Cook, Jr. Slow Western about Look, very fast, for Nick Nolte as a hippie at a commune. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 two drifters in search of some gold supposedly buried in Mexican fortress; Hill looks Electric Dreams (1984) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: good even with her clothes on. [R]▼쩠 Steve Barron. Lenny Von Dohlen, Virginia El Crimen Perfecto (2004-Spanish-Italian) Madsen, Maxwell Caulfield, voice of Bud ´ lex de la Iglesia. GuilC-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: A Cort. Old-fashioned boy meets girl story told lermo Toledo, Mo´nica Cervera, Luis Varela, in rock-video terms, with a third corner to the Enrique Ville´n, Fernando Tejero, Javier Gulove triangle: a jealous computer. Good idea tie´rrez, Kira Miro´. Top achiever in the womgets sillier as it goes along. [PG]▼● en’s department of a busy store is living the Electric Horseman, The (1979) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sydney Pollack. Robert Redford, high life, bedding many of his customers, but when his quest to become floor manager fails, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nela nasty argument with his chief rival ends in son, John Saxon, Nicolas Coster, Wilford murder. From here a darkly funny comedy Brimley, James B. Sikking. Innocuous riptakes incredible turns and loses the steam it off of LONELY ARE THE BRAVE tries has built up. Hitchcockian farce was a hit in to palm off Redford as a near-derelict who its native Spain and takes a partially successsteals a $12 million thoroughbred from a ful stab at pulling off the art of black comedy. Vegas hotel and heads for some grazing Toledo is pretty much the whole show and land. Pleasant, to be sure, but considering delivers a sly performance. Super 35.쩠 the people involved, a disappointment. El Dorado (1967) C-126m. ★★★ D: HowPanavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ard Hawks. John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Elegy (2008) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Isabel James Caan, Arthur Hunnicutt, Edward Coixet. Pene´lope Cruz, Ben Kingsley, Peter Asner, Michele Carey, Christopher George, Sarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson, Dennis HopCharlene Holt, Paul Fix, R. G. Armstrong, per, Deborah Harry. Moving, adult drama Johnny Crawford, Robert Donner. Followabout a self-possessed N.Y.C. college pro[ 406 ]

fessor who is smitten with a beautiful exstudent, but consistent with his lifelong air of detachment, can’t give her the emotional commitment she needs. Nicholas Meyer adapted Philip Roth’s The Dying Animal, which is beautifully realized by Coixet and a superb cast. Cruz and Kingsley have never been better; the gifted Clarkson has an especially well-written part as Kingsley’s longtime sex partner who’s content with the boundary lines they’ve set for their relationship. [R]쩠 Elektra (2005) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob Bowman. Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yun Lee, Terence Stamp, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Garner’s Marvel character ended up dead in DAREDEVIL, but she’s resurrected here, a fate not likely to happen to this movie’s reputation. As an assassin, she’s assigned by The Hand (another organization up to no good) to track a father and daughter on the lam. Lackluster fight scenes, Garner’s sleepwalking, and a tendency toward the psychoanalytic (Elektra had a tough childhood) make this a groan . . . a far cry from the franchise it was intended to launch. Director’s cut runs 104m. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Element of Crime, The (1984-Danish) C104m. ★★★ D: Lars von Trier. Michael Elphick, Esmond Knight, Me Me Lei, Gerald Wells, Ahmed El-Shenawi, Astrid Henning Jensen, Lars von Trier. It’s the post-holocaust future, and the world is suffering from an ecological imbalance; ragged cop Elphick undergoes hypnosis in order to properly investigate a series of horrible mutilation murders of young girls. Surreal, thought-provoking thriller is crammed with references to earlier films, from Hitchcock to film noir to BLADE RUNNER. Von Trier also scripted, in an impressive feature debut. Shot in English.

character is just one reason this film remains aloof and uninteresting instead of being an emotional powerhouse. Nelligan plays Gage’s mother in convincing flashback sequences. [PG]▼● Elephant (2003) C-81m. ★★ D: Gus Van Sant. Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Jordan Taylor, Carrie Finklea, Nicole George, Brittany Mountain, Timothy Bottoms, Matt Malloy. Dramatically inert yet sometimes queasily effective, this you-are-there mood piece takes a clinical rather than emotional approach to recreating events leading up to a Columbinetype school massacre. Manages to create an under-your-skin sense of dreadful foreboding and offers a few telling details of high school life (like homogenized cafeteria food) but no insights whatsoever. Somehow this took the Palme d’Or award at Cannes. [R] ▼쩠 Elephant Boy (1937-British) 80m. ★★★ D: Robert Flaherty, Zoltan Korda. Sabu, W. E. Holloway, Walter Hudd, Allan Jeayes, Bruce Gordon, D. J. Williams. Interesting early-day docudrama about native boy (Sabu, in film debut) who claims he knows location of mythic elephant herd.▼● Elephant Man, The (1980) 125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Lynch. Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt, Anne Bancroft, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Freddie Jones, Michael Elphick, John Standing, Phoebe Nicholls, Kathleen Byron, Kenny Baker, Patricia Hodge. Moving dramatization of the story of John Merrick, a grotesquely deformed man shown compassion for the first time in his life by an eminent doctor in turn-of-the-century London. No relation to the Broadway play (in which one had to imagine how Merrick looked). Fine performances by all; rich Victorian atmosphere created by Lynch and veteran cameraman Freddie Francis—in ▼쩠 Elena and Her Men (1956-French) Cbeautiful black and white. Screenplay by 98m. ★★ D: Jean Renoir. Ingrid Bergman, Christopher DeVore, Eric Bergren, and the director. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Jean Marais, Mel Ferrer, Jean Richard, Magali Noel, Juliette Greco, Pierre Bertin. Elephant Walk (1954) C-103m. ★★ D: Claude Renoir’s exquisite cinematography William Dieterle. Elizabeth Taylor, Dana highlights this otherwise so-so account of Andrews, Peter Finch, Abraham Sofaer. impoverished Polish princess Bergman’s Overblown melodrama set on Ceylon tea romantic intrigues with Marais and Ferrer. plantation, with Taylor as Finch’s new Overrated by some; far from Renoir’s (or bride who must cope with environment Bergman’s) best. French-language version, and his father complex. Pachyderm-stamcalled PARIS DOES STRANGE THINGS, pede climax comes none too soon. Vivien Leigh, replaced by Taylor, can be seen in is better and runs 95m.▼쩠 long shots.▼쩠 Eleni (1985) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Yates. Kate Nelligan, John Malkovich, Linda Elevator to the Gallows (1958-French) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Jeanne MoHunt, Oliver Cotton, Ronald Pickup, Rosalie Crutchley, Dimitra Arliss, Glenne reau, Maurice Ronet, Georges Poujouly, Headly. N.Y. Times reporter gets himself Yori Bertin, Jean Wall, Charles Denner, assigned to Athens bureau so he can reJean-Claude Brialy. Malle’s experience solve life-long obsession with finding truth making documentaries informs his first ficabout his mother’s execution by commutional feature, as an amorous man and nists in Greece following WW2. Steve woman attempt to pull off the perfect crime. Tesich’s script is based on Nicholas Gage’s Filmed by Henri Decae¨ on the streets of book—and life—but coldness of the lead Paris in a bracing style that anticipates the [ 407 ]

New Wave. Famous score improvised by Miles Davis. Original U.S. title: FRANTIC.

polar bear cub is voiced by stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen. [PG]▼쩠 El Greco (1966-Italian-French) C-95m. ★★ D: Luciano Salce. Mel Ferrer, Rosanna 11:14 (2005-U.S.-Canadian) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 Schiaffino, Franco Giacobini, Renzo GioD: Greg Marcks. Henry Thomas, Blake vampietro, Adolfo Celi. Despite lavish trapHeron, Clark Gregg, Hilary Swank, Shawn pings, story of painter reduced to soapHatosy, Barbara Hershey, Stark Sands, Colin opera terms falls flat. Beautiful color, but Hanks, Ben Foster, Patrick Swayze, Rachael no plot of any distinction. CinemaScope. Leigh Cook. At 11:14 p.m. a body lands on Eliminators (1986) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter the windshield of a car and the tipsy driver Manoogian. Andrew Prine, Denise Crosby, tries to hide the corpse. Intersecting flashPatrick Reynolds, Conan Lee, Roy Dotrice. backs reveal the mishaps immediately beWoman scientist, white male guide, a ninja, fore and after the incident and how they and a cyborg team up to battle a madconverge to change the lives of several peogenius industrialist who wants to take over ple one night in a small town. Despite the the world. Good to see an equal-opportunity clever structure of the screenplay (by the adventure, but this RAIDERS clone has director) and some amusing black comedy, little to offer but low humor. Crosby is it’s hard to care about this collection of Bing’s granddaughter. [PG]▼ dumb, morally bankrupt characters. WithElizabeth (1998-British) C-123m. ★★★ D: out the time-juggling gimmick, the story Shekhar Kapur. Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey would add up to very little. Filmed in 2002. Rush, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, [R] 쩠 Christopher Eccleston, Vincent Cassel, Fanny 11 Harrowhouse (1974-British) C-98m. Ardant, Kathy Burke, Eric Cantona, Emily ★★★ D: Aram Avakian. Charles Grodin, Mortimer, John Gielgud, Edward Hardwicke, Candice Bergen, James Mason, Trevor Daniel Craig. Queen Mary I dreads the prosHoward, John Gielgud, Helen Cherry. pect of her half-sister, a heathen Protestant, asFunny action spoof of heist films, as diacending to the throne, but upon Mary’s death mond merchant Grodin robs the world that’s exactly what happens, leading to inclearinghouse for gems. Grodin also adapted trigues and divisiveness within the court. ElizaGerald A. Browne’s best-selling novel. beth (Blanchett) tries to rule with common Aka ANYTHING FOR LOVE and FAST sense and sees no reason to abandon her lover FORTUNE. Panavision. [PG]▼ simply to satisfy protocol. Interesting historical 11th Hour, The (2007) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: drama anchored by Blanchett’s charismatic Leila Conners Petersen, Nadia Conners. Coperformance as a woman who was far ahead producer Leonardo DiCaprio’s intense sinof her time. Oscar winner for Best Makeup. cerity serves him well as on- and off-screen Followed by ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN narrator of this sprawling, frequently disAGE. [R]▼●쩠 tressing documentary about the various Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007-Britishways mankind is despoiling our planet. In French) C-114m. ★★ D: Shekhar Kapur. Cate addition to footage of melting icecaps, Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Rhys widespread deforestation, overflowing landIfans, Jordi Molla`, Abbie Cornish, Samantha fills, etc., the directors include cogent testiMorton, Tom Hollander, Antony Carrick, mony by disparate experts and activists, David Threlfall, Eddie Redmayne, Susan from Stephen Hawking to Mikhail GorbaLynch. Blanchett re-creates the role that chev, who suggest specific steps that can be won her international acclaim almost a detaken to keep Earth inhabitable. [PG]쩠 cade earlier (in ELIZABETH) with lessElf (2003) C-95m. ★★★ D: Jon Favreau. than-stellar results. In this seemingly fanciWill Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, ful sequel, the Queen becomes enamored of Mary Steenburgen, Daniel Tay, Edward a dashing Sir Walter Raleigh (Owen) amid Asner, Bob Newhart, Faizon Love, Peter assorted intrigues. Ponderous and far from Dinklage, Amy Sedaris, Clint Howard, Migolden, although Blanchett always is worth chael Lerner, Andy Richter, Kyle Gass, Jon watching. Oscar winner for Best Costume Favreau; voice of Leon Redbone. One of Design (Alexandra Byrne). [PG-13]쩠 Santa’s elves learns that he is actually a Elizabeth the Queen SEE: Private Lives human being and sets off for N.Y.C. to meet of Elizabeth and Essex, The his father—as un-Christmassy a character Elizabethtown (2005) C-123m. ★★ D: as ever lived. Ferrell is a delight as the elf Cameron Crowe. Orlando Bloom, Kirsten who has a gift for spreading good cheer, Dunst, Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Bruce even in a world of cynics, and ably carries McGill, Judy Greer, Jessica Biel, Paul Schneithis film (with a little help from old pros der, Loudon Wainwright III, Gailard Sartain. like Newhart and Asner, and the charming West Coast yuppie (Bloom) whose life is in Deschanel), but Caan is miscast in an underdisarray flies to Kentucky to attend to his written role as the father. Animated characfather’s funeral. A stranger in a strange ters brought to life by the Chiodo Brothers land, he’s given signposts by a worldly-wise recall Rankin-Bass TV specials of yore; the flight attendant (Dunst), then finds himself [ 408 ]

▼쩠

immersed in the dynamics of his cheerfully ducer. In Spanish. Rodriguez later reworked this as DESPERADO. [R]▼●쩠 oddball family. Writer-director Crowe casts Elmer Gantry (1960) C-145m. ★★★1⁄2 D: his stars adrift in a pleasant but aimless Richard Brooks. Burt Lancaster, Jean Simcomedy that seems to go on forever. [PGmons, Dean Jagger, Arthur Kennedy, Shir13]▼쩠 ★★★ D: ley Jones, Patti Page, Edward Andrews, Ella Enchanted (2004) C-101m. Hugh Marlowe, John McIntire, Rex Ingram. Tommy O’Haver. Anne Hathaway, Hugh Lancaster gives a vibrant Oscar-winning Dancy, Cary Elwes, Minnie Driver, Jimi Misperformance as the salesman with the gift try, Eric Idle, Vivica Fox, Patrick Bergin, Parof gab who joins evangelist Simmons’ minder Nagra, Heidi Klum, Aidan McArdle, barnstorming troupe in the 1920s Midwest. Joanna Lumley, Lucy Punch, Jennifer HigJones won Academy Award as his jilted ham; voice of Steve Coogan. Imaginative regirlfriend turned prostitute; Brooks also won invention of the Cinderella story with an Oscar for his sprawling screenplay from Hathaway a delight as the plucky Ella, Dancy Sinclair Lewis’ trenchant novel.▼●쩠 a charming Prince, and Elwes a sinister villain El Norte (1983) C-139m. ★★★★ D: Gregory (in amusing contrast to his signature role in Nava. Zaide Silvia Gutierrez, David VilTHE PRINCESS BRIDE). Visually invenlalpando, Ernesto Gomez Cruz, Alicia del tive, with clever use of feel-good songs and Lago, Heraclio Zepeda, Stella Quan, Lupe contemporary humor; a family treat. Based Ontiveros. Sweeping, emotional saga of a on the award-winning book by Gail Carson brother and sister who leave their violenceLevine. [PG]▼쩠 torn village in Guatemala to find a better life Ellery Queen series SEE: Leonard Malin The North—El Norte. Getting to America tin’s Classic Movie Guide is half the story; making a life there is the Ellie Parker (2005) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scott other half. Writer-director Nava presents a Coffey. Naomi Watts, Rebecca Rigg, Scott heightened sense of reality that removes Coffey, Mark Pellegrino, Chevy Chase, Blair this from the realm of documentary; a Mastbaum, Keanu Reeves. Watts is the whole compassionate, heart-rending, unforgettable show in this digital video oddity about a strugfilm. Cowritten and produced by Anna gling actress who treks off to auditions while Thomas, for American Playhouse. [R]▼쩠 breaking up with her boyfriend and quesEl Super (1979) C-90m. ★★★ D: Leon tioning her existence. Inside look at life on the Ichaso, Orlando Jiminez-Leal. Raymundo fringes of the L.A. ‘‘entertainment industry’’ Hidalgo-Gato, Zully Montero, Raynaldo will be of interest primarily to film-biz wanMedina, Juan Granda, Hilda Lee, Elizabeth nabes and Watts completists; it certainly Pena. The trials of homesick exiled Cuban showcases her range. Originally a 16m. short who labors as an apartment-house super in that premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Manhattan. Hidalgo-Gato is excellent as a Festival, prior to Watts’ stardom; expanded comically sad outsider, still in transit after a intermittently over four years’ time. Watts codecade away from his homeland.▼쩠 produced with writer-director Coffey. [R]쩠 El Topo (1970-Mexican) C-125m. ★★ D: Elling (2001-Norwegian) C-89m. ★★★ D: Alejandro Jodorowsky. Alejandro JodorowPetter Naess. Per Christian Ellefsen, Sven Norsky, Brontis Jodorowsky, Mara Lorenzio, din, Marit Pia Jacobsen, Jorgen Langhelle, Per David Silva, Paula Romo, Hector Martinez, Christensen. Winning comedy about a middleAlfonso Arau. Clad in black leather, a gunaged mama’s boy (Ellefsen) who winds up in a slinger rides through the Old West with his mental institution after the death of his mother. naked 7-year-old son in tow and guns down Eventually, with his sex-obsessed hospital everyone in sight, after which he sets himroommate, he moves into a state-provided self on fire. Divided into sections, with such apartment. This funny, charming film works so names as Genesis, Psalms, and Apocalypse, well because it never loses sight of who these this pretentious head-trip cult film borrows characters are. This was Norway’s all-time from Fellini and Leone, while employing biggest box-office hit. [R] ▼쩠 meaningless symbolism and lots of perverse El Mariachi (1992) C-81m. ★★★ D: Robsex and violence. Overlong and overrated, ert Rodriguez. Carlos Gallardo, Consuelo though it seemed pretty cool in its day. RaGomez, Peter Marquardt, Jaime de Hoyos, fael Corkidi’s photography is striking.▼쩠 Reinol Martinez, Ramiro Gomez. EnerElusive Corporal, The (1962-French) 108m. ★★1 getic little film about a young singing ⁄2 D: Jean Renoir. Jean-Pierre Cassel, guitarist (mariachi) who comes to a small Claude Brasseur, Claude Rich, O. E. Hasse, town, where he’s mistaken for a ferocious Jean Carmet. Pointed if predictable chronicle prison escapee. Arresting, original (and of French corporal who attempts to escape violent) film was shot in two weeks for with his pals from a German prison camp just $7,000, but offers more entertainment during WW2. Sobering look at friendship than most of today’s megabuck Hollyand freedom, which Renoir explored more wood movies. Director Rodriguez also phosuccessfully in other, earlier films. The tographed, edited, coproduced, and wrote wry comic touches are an asset.▼●쩠 the picture; Gallardo also served as coproElusive Pimpernel, The (1950-British) [ 409 ]

C-109m. ★★★ D: Michael Powell, Emeric Schedeen. Sometimes interesting, somePressburger. David Niven, Margaret Leightimes repulsive horror sci-fi about woman ton, Cyril Cusack, Jack Hawkins, Arlette and dog grown from fetuses outside the Marchal, Robert Coote, Patrick Macnee. womb—with terrifying results. Retitled Colorful remake of THE SCARLET PIMCREATED TO KILL. [PG]▼쩠 PERNEL. Niven is British fop who secretly Emerald Forest, The (1985) C-113m. ★★★ D: John Boorman. Powers Boothe, aids victims of Reign of Terror; lively fun. This was filmed as a musical—you can tell Meg Foster, Charley Boorman, Dira Pass. where the numbers were cut! Released in American engineer spends ten years searchU.S. in 1954 as THE FIGHTING PIMPERing for his kidnapped son, who’s been NEL. ▼ raised by primitive Amazon tribe. FasciElvira Madigan (1967-Swedish) C-89m. nating look at a unique civilization, but ★★★ D: Bo Widerberg. Pia Degermark, lack of emotional empathy for the father Thommy Berggren, Lennart Malmer, Nina and contrived storyline weaken overall Widerberg, Cleo Jensen. Lovers on the impact. Still worthwhile. Script by Rospo run, in soft-focus photography: tightrope Pallenberg; rich music score by Junior walker Degermark and married army offiHomrich. And a completely convincing cer Berggren run off together. Though performance by young Boorman, son of based on a true story (and filmed before in the film’s director. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 1943), stylistically this too often resembles Emigrants, The (1971-Swedish) C-191m. ★★★ a shampoo commercial. Still, it was a big hit, D: Jan Troell. Max von Sydow, Liv with attractive stars, lush photography, and Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Allan Edwall. canny use of Mozart music. [PG]▼●쩠 Solid if rambling tale of peasant farmer Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) von Sydow, wife Ullmann, and fellow C-96m. BOMB D: James Signorelli. Elvira Swedes who emigrate to America in the (Cassandra Peterson), W. Morgan Shep19th century. Sequel, THE NEW LAND, pard, Daniel Greene, Susan Kellermann, is even better; both have been edited toJeff Conaway, Edie McClurg, William gether for TV, dubbed in English, and Duell. Peterson takes her TV horror host presented as THE EMIGRANT SAGA. See also THE OX. [PG] ▼● character to the screen in this flimsy story of a TV host shaking up a small New EnEmigrant Saga, The SEE: Emigrants, gland town which she’s visiting to pick up The and New Land, The an inheritance. Unfunny, one-joke script Emil and the Detectives (1964) C-99m. ★1 (cowritten by Peterson) keeps its attention ⁄2 D: Peter Tewksbury. Walter Slezak, firmly riveted to the star’s ample bosom. Bryan Russell, Roger Mobley, Heinz SchuMore yawns than yocks. [PG-13]▼●쩠 bert, Peter Erlich, Cindy Cassell. Turgid Elvis on Tour (1972) C-93m. ★★ D: Pierre Disney version of Erich Kastner’s chilAdidge, Robert Abel. Static study of rock dren’s book about a young boy who is ’n’ roll’s biggest super-star going through robbed and determines to nail the thief his paces at a series of U.S. concerts. with the help of young detective friends. Even the music is not up to standard. Filmed in Germany, where it was made before in 1931.▼ Multiple Screen. [G]▼● Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970) C-97m. Emily Bronte¨’s Wuthering Heights SEE: ★★★ Wuthering Heights (1992) D: Denis Sanders. Engaging look at Elvis Presley offstage, preparing major nightEminent Domain (1991) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 club act, culminating in opening-night perD: John Irvin. Donald Sutherland, Anne formance in Las Vegas. Well-filmed if Archer, Jodhi May, Paul Freeman, Berone-sided documentary paints vivid picnard Hepton. Intriguing story of high poture of Elvis as master showman. Reedited litical official (Sutherland) in pre-Solidarity from original source material for cable and Poland who wakes up one morning to video release in 2001; that version runs discover his privileged Politburo position 95m. Panavision.▼●쩠 no longer exists and no one will give him a Embassy (1972-British) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: satisfactory reason for (or even acknowlGordon Hessler. Richard Roundtree, Chuck edge) the eerie snafu. Reminiscent of Connors, Max von Sydow, Ray Milland, Kafka’s The Trial; often disturbing, but Broderick Crawford, Marie-Jose Nat. Spotty confusing in spots. [PG-13]▼ spy thriller about Russian defector von Emma (1996) C-111m. ★★★ D: Douglas Sydow seeking asylum and the State DeMcGrath. Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Norpartment’s efforts to have agent Roundtree tham, Toni Collette, Greta Scacchi, Juliet smuggle him out of the Mideast under Stevenson, Alan Cumming, Polly Walker, KGB man Connors’ nose. Good cast works Ewan McGregor, James Cosmo, Sophie valiantly with contrived plot, talky script. Thompson, Phyllida Law. Charming, witty adaptation of Jane Austen’s comedy of Aka TARGET: EMBASSY. [PG]▼쩠 ★★ Embryo (1976) C-104m. manners about a headstrong young woman D: Ralph Nelson. Rock Hudson, Diane Ladd, Barwho makes a habit of playing matchmaker bara Carrera, Roddy McDowall, Anne for others, but can’t recognize her own true [ 410 ]

feelings—or those of the men who surround Aldrich direction make this a unique her. Paltrow is delightful and surrounded by entertainment. Initially released as EMan ideal (and highly attractive) cast. ThompPEROR OF THE NORTH POLE. [PG]쩠 son (sister of actress Emma T.) is wonderful Emperor’s Club, The (2002) C-109m. ★★★ as the talkative Miss Bates; that’s her realD: Michael Hoffman. Kevin Kline, Steven life mother, Law, playing Mrs. Bates. Script Culp, Embeth Davidtz, Patrick Dempsey, by McGrath, making his directorial debut. Joel Gretsch, Edward Herrmann, Emile Oscar-winning score by Rachel Portman. Hirsch, Rob Morrow, Harris Yulin, Paul [PG]▼●쩠 Dano, Roger Rees. Absorbing story about a Emotional Arithmetic (2007-Canadian) dedicated Classics professor at an exclusive 1 ★★ C-99m. ⁄2 D: Paulo Barzman. Susan Sarprep school who puts his faith in a troubleandon, Christopher Plummer, Max von some boy. This is not the film one might Sydow, Gabriel Byrne, Roy Dupuis, Dakota expect (in spite of renaming Ethan Canin’s Goyo. Decades after the close of prewar short story ‘‘The Palace Thief’’ to sound Drancy Internment Camp on the outskirts of more like DEAD POETS SOCIETY), with Paris, two survivors (von Sydow and Byrne) interesting nuances and plot turns as it tacktravel to the home of a third (Sarandon). les issues of ethics and morality. Kline is This highly anticipated reunion leads to perfectly cast, and so is young Hirsch. [PGmental and emotional upheaval as unre13] ▼쩠 solved issues are finally unearthed. Uneven Emperor’s New Clothes, The (2002drama (told partly in flashback) doesn’t proBritish-Italian-German) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: vide a fully satisfying experience. Still, it Alan Taylor. Ian Holm, Iben Hjejle, Tim remains a sensitive and telling look at the McInnerny, Nigel Terry, Hugh Bonneville, way horrific events inform lives and how Murray Melvin, Clive Russell. Slight but survivor guilt can bring down those who entertaining ‘‘what if’’ tale with Napoleon made it out . . . if they let it. Retitled AUescaping forced exile on St. Helena in 1821 TUMN HEARTS: A NEW BEGINNING. and heading to Paris to retake France. UnSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 fortunately, his plan goes awry from the Emperor and the Assassin, The (1999very beginning, starting with the hiring of ★★★ Chinese) C-161m. a look-alike commoner to fool his captors. D: Chen Kaige. Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian, Wang Holm seems to relish the dual roles (he Zhiwen, Chen Kaige, Lu Xiaohe. Sweepplayed Bonaparte before, in TIME BANing, fact-based account of the ruler of a ChiDITS and a 1974 British TV miniseries tinese kingdom (Xuejian) in 320 B.C. who tled Napoleon in Love), but the story is thin is determined to annex the country’s other and goes on too long. The return to Waterkingdoms and become its first emperor. For loo and sanitarium scenes are gems, howthis purpose, he enlists the help of his conever. [PG]▼쩠 cubine (Li, ravishing as ever); she, in turn, Emperor’s New Groove, The (2000) Cfalls for an assassin (Fengyi). The story’s 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Dindal. Voices of predictability is outweighed by the beautiDavid Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, fully staged spectacle; this is reportedly the Patrick Warburton, Wendie Malick, Kellymost expensive Chinese film ever made. ann Kelso, Tom Jones. An Incan emperor [R]▼쩠 with an outsized ego is rousted by a schemEmperor Jones, The (1933) 72m. ★★1⁄2 ing advisor and transformed into a llama— D: Dudley Murphy. Paul Robeson, Dudbut that doesn’t stop him from seeking reley Digges, Frank Wilson, Fredi Washingvenge on those who wronged him. A most ton, Ruby Elzy. Robeson plays Pullman un-Disney-like Disney cartoon feature, this porter who escapes from chain gang and one has a fresh look and some funny moimprobably becomes king of a Caribbean ments, but relies too heavily on Spade’s island. Pretentious adaptation of Eugene smart-alecky comic persona—a little of O’Neill play derives its chief interest and which can go a long, long way. Features value from Robeson himself. Look for two songs by Sting. Followed by a directMoms Mabley in bit part.▼●쩠 to-video sequel. [G]▼쩠 Emperor of the North (1973) C-118m. Emperor Waltz, The (1948) C-106m. ★★★1 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. Lee Marvin, ⁄2 D: Billy Wilder. Bing Crosby, Joan Ernest Borgnine, Keith Carradine, Charles Fontaine, Roland Culver, Lucile Watson, Tyner, Harry Caesar, Malcolm Atterbury, Richard Haydn, Sig Ruman. Lavish but Simon Oakland, Matt Clark, Elisha Cook. lackluster musical set in Franz Joseph AusUnusual, exciting (and heavily symbolic) tria with Bing selling record players to royaction film set during the Depression. Saalty. Awfully schmaltzy material for writerdistic conductor Borgnine will kill any director Wilder. Filmed in 1946. Jasper Natramp who tries to cop a ride on his train; tional Park in Alberta, Canada, fills in for legendary hobo Marvin announces he will Tyrolean Alps.▼쩠 be the first to succeed. Beautifully filmed Empire (2002) C-95m. ★★ D: Franc. Reyes. in Oregon by Joseph Biroc; taut script by John Leguizamo, Peter Sarsgaard, Denise Christopher Knopf and typically muscular Richards, Vincent Laresca, Nestor Serrano, [ 411 ]

Delilah Cotto, Sonia Braga, Isabella Rossellini, Treach, Fat Joe. South Bronx drug dealer Leguizamo is a success on his home turf, but is he out of his league when he becomes involved in a scheme with hotshot Wall Street financier Sarsgaard? Intriguing premise, but the plot holes are gaping and the Hispanic stereotypes are downright embarrassing at times. Rossellini is oddly cast as a Colombian drug lord. Super 35. [R]

Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz, Alec Guinness, Clive Revill, Julian Glover, John Ratzenberger, voice of James Earl Jones. Smashing sequel to STAR WARS manages to top the original in its embellishment of leading characters’ personalities, truly dazzling special effects (which earned a special Oscar) and nonstop spirit of adventure and excitement. Story threads include a blossoming romance between Han Solo and Prin▼쩠 Empire of Passion (1978-Japanese) Ccess Leia, the cosmic education of Luke 110m. ★★ D: Nagisa Oshima. Kazuko Skywalker (by the mystical Yoda), an uneasy Yoshiyuki, Tatsuya Fuji, Takahiro Tamura, alliance with opportunistic Lando Calrissian, Takuzo Kawatani. Peasant woman Yoshiand a startling revelation from Darth Vader. yuki has affair with village good-for-nothing 1997 reissue included 3 minutes of additional Fuji; they murder her husband, whose ghost footage. Full title onscreen is STAR WARS returns to haunt them. Boring, despite inEPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES teresting subject matter. A follow-up to IN BACK. Sequel: RETURN OF THE JEDI. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 THE REALM OF THE SENSES. Aka IN THE REALM OF PASSION. [R]▼쩠 Employee of the Month (2006) C-108m. ★1 Empire of the Ants (1977) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: Greg Coolidge. Dane Cook, Jessica Bert I. Gordon. Joan Collins, Robert LanSimpson, Dax Shepard, Andy Dick, Tim sing, Albert Salmi, John David Carson, Bagley, Brian George, Efren Ramirez, HarRobert Pine, Jacqueline Scott. Laughable land Williams, Marcello Thedford, Danny man-vs.-giant insects chiller from H. G. Woodburn. At a warehouse store, slacker Wells’ story. Vacationers on an isolated Cook and weasely Shepard compete and island find themselves at the mercy of cheat for both knockout newbie Simpson voracious ants that have become monsters and the title award. No laughs whatsoever after feasting on a leaking barrel of radioin this CLERKS/OFFICE SPACE slapstick active waste. [PG]▼쩠 wannabe, and the performances are awful. Empire of the Sun (1987) C-152m. ★★ D: Shot in New Mexico; too bad they didn’t Steven Spielberg. Christian Bale, John bury it there. [PG-13]쩠 Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel HaEmployees’ Entrance (1933) 75m. ★★★ vers, Joe Pantoliano, Leslie Phillips, D: Roy Del Ruth. Warren William, LoMasato Ibu, Emily Richard, Rupert Frazer, retta Young, Wallace Ford, Alice White, Ben Stiller, Robert Stephens, Burt Kwouk. Allen Jenkins. Zesty pre-Code look at life in British boy, living a well-sheltered life in a department store and its ruthless, amoral Shanghai, is separated from his parents and manager. Gripping, funny, outrageous, racy. Based on a stage play.▼● forced to fend for himself when Japan invades China at the outset of WW2. Empty Canvas, The (1963-French-Italian) 118m. ★1⁄2 D: Damiano Damiani. Bette Sprawling, ambitious, but emotionally distant and loaded with cinematic crescendos Davis, Horst Buchholz, Catherine Spaak, (replete with crane camera shots and overIsa Miranda, Lea Padovani, Daniela Rocca, bearing music by John Williams) that simGeorges Wilson. Artist Buchholz is obply don’t have the emotional content to sessed with model Spaak, eventually decowarrant all that fuss. Tom Stoppard adapted rates her naked body with bank notes. J. G. Ballard’s autobiographical novel (BalDavis is his wealthy mother; hopefully, lard appears briefly in Beefeater costume in she was well paid for her time. Based on an Alberto Moravia novel.▼ an early party scene). [PG]▼●쩠 Empire Records (1995) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Empty Mirror, The (1999) C-119m. ★1⁄2 Allan Moyle. Anthony LaPaglia, Debi Mazar, D: Barry J. Hershey. Norman Rodway, Joel Liv Tyler, Maxwell Caulfield, Rory CochGrey, Peter Michael Goetz, Glenn Shadix, rane, Johnny Whitworth, Robin Tunney, Camilla Soeberg, Doug McKeon. Ignorant Rene´e Zellweger, Ethan Randall (Embry). A of time and place, we’re thrust into a strange day in the life of a record store, which the environment where Adolf Hitler encounters manager is desperately trying to save from a key people from his past as he dictates his corporate takeover. A series of noisy vignettes memoirs. Surreal, ambitious film, intercut which add up to nothing, despite attractive with footage from TRIUMPH OF THE young cast. Disappointing outing from Moyle, WILL and Eva Braun’s home movies, who directed the more potent PUMP UP THE pretty well lives up to its title: there’s not VOLUME. Alternate version runs 107m. much to reflect on. Grey’s appearance as Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Joseph Goebbels is an interesting career Empire Strikes Back, The (1980) C-124m. counterpart to his m.c. from CABARET. ★★★★ D: Irvin Kershner. Mark Hamill, Har[PG-13]▼쩠 rison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Enchanted (2007) C-108m. ★★★ D: Kevin [ 412 ]

Lima. Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James with elderly Niven recalling his tragic love Marsden, Timothy Spall, Susan Sarandon, as he watches great-niece Keyes’ romance Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey; narrated by with Granger.▼●쩠 Julie Andrews. Wide-eyed Giselle (Adams) Encino Man (1992) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Les from Andalasia, about to marry a handsome Mayfield. Sean Astin, Brendan Fraser, prince, is hurled down a well by the evil Pauly Shore, Megan Ward, Robin Tunney, queen and emerges in modern-day ManhatRick Ducommun, Mariette Hartley, Richtan. Divorce lawyer Dempsey and his 6ard Masur, Rose McGowan. Nerdy teenager year-old daughter try to help her, though he Astin and his weirdo pal Shore dig up a can’t believe she’s for real. Adams’ glowing frozen caveman in Astin’s suburban L.A. performance buoys this delightful Disney backyard. The scant laughs come from fantasy, which opens with lush, hand-drawn plunging the affable Cro-Magnon into teenanimation (supervised by James Baxter) and age life, circa 1992. Formulaic teen comsegues into live-action. Terrific songs by edy; Shore’s bogus slang irritates, but Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz include limber, good-natured Fraser (as the cave‘‘That’s How You Know,’’ which inspires a dude) has his moments. Followed by 1996 dazzling production number in Central Park. TV sequel, ENCINO WOMAN. [PG] Memorable costumes by Mona May. Affec▼●쩠 tionate spoof of classic Disney fairy tales Encore (1952-British) 85m. ★★★ D: Pat features Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel), Jackson, Anthony Pelissier, Harold French. Paige O’Hara (Belle), and Judy Kuhn (PoNigel Patrick, Roland Culver, Kay Walsh, cahontas) in small parts. Only the finale Glynis Johns, Terence Morgan. Entertainseems anticlimactic—and unnecessary. Super ing trilogy of Somerset Maugham stories: 35. [PG]쩠 brothers try to outdo one another over Enchanted April (1935) 66m. ★★1⁄2 D: money; busybody matron almost ruins ship Harry Beaumont. Ann Harding, Frank Morcruise; apprehensive circus performer faces gan, Katharine Alexander, Reginald Owen, a crisis. ▼ Jane Baxter, Ralph Forbes, Jessie Ralph, Encounters at the End of the World Charles Judels, Rafaela Ottiano. Nicely (2008) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Werner Herzog. realized adaptation of Elizabeth von ArOn assignment for the National Science nim’s novel about two repressed EnglishFoundation, Herzog idiosyncratically prowomen who leave their husbands to rent files Antarctica, a land of no natives, no an Italian villa for a month—and blossom flora, no crime. Spiraling deeper into the in the rarefied atmosphere. Harding is ideal continent’s dreamy mysteries—among them, in the lead, but Owen is way over the top a tragically deranged penguin—the film dives as a British blowhard. Improved upon by far under an icy surface that might be no the 1991 remake. more than eight inches thick. It also profiles Enchanted April (1991-British) C-101m. some of the brilliant misfits who have fallen ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Josie Lawrence, to the bottom of the planet. This right-brain Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Polly travelogue feeds the mind, the eye, and the Walker, Alfred Molina, Jim Broadbent, mind’s eye. Wryly, sometimes impatiently, Michael Kitchen, Adriana Fachetti. Utnarrated by the director, who dedicates the terly charming film about two repressed, film to Roger Ebert. [G]쩠 married women who seize an impulse and End, The (1978) C-100m. ★★★ D: Burt rent an Italian villa for a month, taking on Reynolds. Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Dom two very different women as housemates DeLuise, Joanne Woodward, Kristy Mcfor this daring adventure. Ideally cast, Nichol, Robby Benson, David Steinberg, nicely realized, and very romantic. ScreenNorman Fell, Carl Reiner, Pat O’Brien, play by Peter Barnes. Elizabeth von Arnim’s Myrna Loy. Uneven but original black 1921 novel was filmed before in 1935. Made comedy by Jerry Belson about man who for British television, released theatrically learns he’s dying and decides to commit in the U.S. [PG]▼●쩠 suicide. DeLuise is achingly funny as Burt’s Enchanted Cottage, The (1945) 92m. schizophrenic sanitarium pal, and Reynolds’ ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Cromwell. Dorothy McGuire, final soliloquy is great (in uncensored verRobert Young, Herbert Marshall, Mildred sion). [R]▼●쩠 Natwick, Spring Byington, Hillary Brooke. Endangered Species (1982) C-97m. ★1⁄2 Adaptation of Arthur Pinero play about two D: Alan Rudolph. Robert Urich, JoBeth misfits, a homely woman and a disfigured Williams, Paul Dooley, Hoyt Axton, Peter man, who find each other beautiful in the Coyote, Marin Kanter, Dan Hedaya, Harry enchanted cottage. Never quite as good as Carey, Jr., John Considine. Self-important, you’d like it to be. Previously filmed in preachy story—based on a serious real-life 1924. Some prints run 78m.▼● situation—about a N.Y. cop’s investigaEnchantment (1948) 102m. ★★★ D: Irtion of cattle mutilations in the Western ving Reis. David Niven, Teresa Wright, U.S. Tries to be a thriller, but telegraphs Evelyn Keyes, Farley Granger, Jayne all its punches. [R]▼ Meadows, Leo G. Carroll. Weepy romancer Endless Love (1981) C-115m. BOMB [ 413 ]

D: Franco Zeffirelli. Brooke Shields, Martin Hewitt, Shirley Knight, Don Murray, Richard Kiley, Beatrice Straight, James Spader, Robert Moore, Penelope Milford, Jan Miner, Tom Cruise, Jami Gertz. Scott Spencer’s deservedly praised novel about an obsessive romance between two teenagers is thoroughly trashed in textbook example of how to do everything wrong in a literary adaptation. Rightfully regarded as one of the worst films of its time. Cruise’s and Spader’s film debuts. [R]▼● Endless Night (1972-British) C-99m. ★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Britt Ekland, George Sanders, Per Oscarsson, Peter Bowles, Lois Maxwell. Gripping Agatha Christie thriller about chauffeur (Bennett) who marries rich American girl (Mills) and moves into ‘‘dream house’’ which turns out to be more a nightmare. Aka AGATHA CHRISTIE’S ENDLESS NIGHT.▼●쩠 Endless Summer, The (1966) C-95m. ★★★ D: Bruce Brown. Mike Hynson, Robert August. Enjoyable documentary on surfing, filmed on location around the world, with a most diverting tongue-in-cheek narrative. Followed by a sequel—28 years later. Followed in 2000 by ENDLESS SUMMER REVISITED. ▼●쩠 Endless Summer II, The (1994) C-107m. ★★★ D: Bruce Brown. Patrick O’Connell, Robert ‘‘Wingnut’’ Weaver. Superior sequel to Brown’s 1966 surfing documentary, enhanced this time by a bigger budget and sophisticated camera work. Exotic locales and eye-popping surfing footage will make this a must-see for hot-doggers; others will still enjoy the unspoiled beauty of big-wave beaches from Alaska to Java. Several of the veteran surfers from the original documentary turn up here as does some brief topless beachbunny nudity. Brown’s son continued the surfing odyssey with STEP INTO LIQUID. [PG]▼●쩠 End of Days (1999) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Hyams. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Robin Tunney, CCH Pounder, Rod Steiger, Derrick O’Connor, Miriam Margolyes, Udo Kier. The Devil takes the form of a wealthy New Yorker (Byrne) and sets out to find his pre-ordained bride; if he can impregnate her before midnight on New Year’s Eve, 1999, he will bring about Hell on Earth, or Armageddon, or something. However, Satan never reckoned with Arnold, who’s actually quite good as the burned-out cop/defender of humanity. Overproduced junk. Super 35. [R]

a breakdown, thanks to quarreling parents and a rich assortment of rotten men. Passionately acted by Cannon, who as a writer-director may have been in over her head. [R]▼ End of the Affair, The (1955-British) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Dmytryk. Deborah Kerr, Van Johnson, John Mills, Peter Cushing, Michael Goodliffe. Graham Greene’s mystic-religious novel about a wartime love affair in London loses much in screen version, especially from mismatched stars. Remade in 1999.▼쩠 End of the Affair, The (1999-British-U.S.) C-109m. ★★★ D: Neil Jordan. Ralph Fiennes, Julianne Moore, Stephen Rea, Ian Hart, Samuel Bould, Jason Isaacs. Finely wrought rendition of Graham Greene’s (reportedly autobiographical) novel about a WW2 love affair that takes a surprising turn when the married woman (a radiant Moore) has an unexplained change of heart. Directorscreenwriter Jordan captures the understatement and nuance of a vintage British drama with his keen eye and gifted stars. [R]▼쩠 End of the Game (1976-German-Italian) C-103m. ★★★ D: Maximilian Schell. Jon Voight, Jacqueline Bisset, Martin Ritt, Robert Shaw, Gabriele Ferzetti, Donald Sutherland. Complex thriller about dying police commissioner Ritt, who for three decades has been trying to nail omnipotent criminal Shaw. Director Ritt, in a rare acting role, is excellent; Voight plays his assistant, and Sutherland appears as a dead man! Based on Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s novel; aka GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER. [PG] End of the Line (1987) C-105m. ★★ D: Jay Russell. Wilford Brimley, Levon Helm, Mary Steenburgen, Barbara Barrie, Kevin Bacon, Holly Hunter, Bob Balaban, Clint Howard, Rita Jenrette, Howard Morris, Bruce McGill, Trey Wilson. Two lifelong Southern railroad workers, suddenly unemployed when their parent company abandons the rails for air freight, take off for the Chicago corporate headquarters in a stolen engine. Labor of love for executive producer Steenburgen begins promisingly, quickly degenerates into silly Capra-esque fantasy. Cast makes it a curio. [PG]▼●쩠 End of the Road (1970) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Aram Avakian. Stacy Keach, Harris Yulin, Dorothy Tristan, James Earl Jones, Grayson Hall, Ray Brock, James Coco. Keach and Jones give stinging performances in solid filmization of bizarre John Barth novel about unstable college instructor who becomes involved with the wife of a pro▼●쩠 End of Innocence, The (1991) C-102m. fessor. Tristan is superb in crucial and ★1⁄2 D: Dyan Cannon. Dyan Cannon, John difficult role. Screenplay by Dennis McGuHeard, George Coe, Lola Mason, Rebecca ire, Terry Southern, and the director. [X]▼쩠 Schaeffer, Steve Meadows, Billie Bird, MiEnd of the World (1977) C-87m. ★★ D: chael Madsen, Madge Sinclair, Renee John Hayes. Christopher Lee, Sue Lyon, Taylor, Eric Harrison. One woman’s road to Kirk Scott, Lew Ayres, Macdonald Carey, [ 414 ]

Dean Jagger, Liz Ross. Lee plays a priest Coney Island, N.Y., married to his warand his sinister ‘‘double’’ in this strange time protector (Stein) and fooling around sci-fi tale about imminent world destrucwith a sexy married woman (Olin). Things tion by alien invaders. Opens strong but get even more complicated when his first drifts into dullness. [PG]▼쩠 wife (Huston), who was thought dead, End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a turns up. Typically quixotic Isaac Bashevis Night Full of Rain, The SEE: Night Full Singer material—full of irony, wit, and of Rain, A heartbreak—is beautifully realized by End of Violence, The (1997) C-122m. ★★ Mazursky (who cowrote the screenplay with D: Wim Wenders. Bill Pullman, Andie Roger L. Simon) and a perfect cast. Kudos MacDowell, Gabriel Byrne, Traci Lind, also to Pato Guzman for his incredibly evocative production design. [R]▼●쩠 Loren Dean, Daniel Benzali, Pruitt Taylor Vince, John Diehl, Peter Horton, Rosalind Enemy at the Gates (2001-GermanBritish-Irish-U.S.) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 D: JeanChao, Frederic Forrest, Sam Fuller. Wenders’ first American film since PARIS, Jacques Annaud. Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, TEXAS is gorgeous to look at but fuzzy and Rachel Weisz, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, Ron half-baked. Movie producer Pullman hides Perlman, Eva Mattes, Gabriel Marshallout with a Mexican family after surviving a Thomson. A Russian sharpshooter is built professional ‘‘hit’’ that may have someup to be a hero to bolster his country’s mothing to do with a high-tech security project rale during the tense days surrounding the being run out of L.A.’s Griffith Park ObserBattle of Stalingrad. As a result, the Gervatory. Lind is appealing as a stuntwoman, mans send their top marksman (Harris) to MacDowell less so packing a rod while pick him off, leading to a deadly battle of decked out in bikini nightwear. Ry Coodwits. Starts off strong but loses its way; iner’s score sells the movie to a point, just teresting WW2 story is diminished by a silly romantic subplot. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 as it did for UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Enemy Below, The (1957) C-98m. ★★★ Endurance (1999) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leslie D: Dick Powell. Robert Mitchum, Curt Woodhead. Interesting, well-made docuJurgens, Theodore Bikel, Doug McClure, drama about Ethiopian long-distance runner Russell Collins, David Hedison. Fine Haile Gebrselassie, who won a Gold Medal at submarine chase tale, which manages the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. Dramatito garner interest from usual crew interaction cally recreates his difficult childhood and the of U.S. vs. Germany in underwater action; decisions leading up to his extraordinary runthe special effects for this earned Walter ning career. (Haile is portrayed by his nephew Rossi an Academy Award. CinemaScope. in flashback; his sister plays his mother.) Mat▼●쩠 ter-of-fact, even sleepy at times, and missing Enemy From Space SEE: Quatermass 2: the conclusive emotional punch you’re waitEnemy from Space ing for. Olympic footage directed by Bud Enemy Mine (1985) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Greenspan. Coproduced by Terrence Malick Wolfgang Petersen. Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett, Jr., Brion James, Richard Marcus. and based on his idea. Super 35. [G]▼ Enduring Love (2004-British) C-100m. Mortal space enemies are stranded together ★★1 ⁄2 D: Roger Michell. Daniel Craig, Rhys on a barren planet, forced to become friends Ifans, Samantha Morton, Bill Nighy, Susan in order to survive. Warmhearted scienceLynch, Corin Redgrave. ‘‘Obsessive’’ love fiction tale gets a bit too cuddly at times, might be more apt. Professor Craig, picnickbut it’s entertaining. Gossett’s lizardlike ing in the countryside with girlfriend Morton, makeup (by Chris Walas) is incredible; so tries to assist balloonists in distress. Back in is Rolf Zehetbauer’s production design. London, he not only can’t shake the incident, Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 he’s puzzled by a visit from Ifans, a rural Enemy of the People, An (1979) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Schaefer. Steve McQueen, loner he met that fateful day. Contemporary psychological study of not just love but the Charles Durning, Bibi Andersson, Richard fragility of relationships and the world around Bradford, Robin Pearson Rose, Richard us; worth checking out. From a novel by Ian A. Dysart. Bearded scientist McQueen deMcEwan. Craig, director Michell, and profies community by taking stand against ducer Kevin Loader teamed the previous year polluted water system in Arthur Miller’s on THE MOTHER. Super 35. [R] 쩠 adaptation of the Ibsen play. Sincere, plodEnemies, A Love Story (1989) C-119m. ding effort was a labor of love for McQueen, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Paul Mazursky. Anjelica Huston, but understandably sat on the shelf for Ron Silver, Lena Olin, Margaret Sophie years and received limited distribution. Still Stein, Alan King, Judith Malina, Rita superior to other films from McQueen’s Karlin, Phil Leeds, Elya Baskin, Paul final period. Filmed in 1977. [G]쩠 Mazursky. Quietly haunting film about an Enemy of the People, An (1989-Indian) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Satyajit Ray. Soumitra aloof Jewish intellectual (Silver) who managed to hide from the Nazis during WW2 Chatterjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Ruma and now, in 1949, leads a double life in Guhathakurta, Mamata Shankar, Dipankar [ 415 ]

Dey. Adaptation of the Ibsen play, updated pings definitely help, though Grant’s hemand set in Bengal. Its message, about the haw acting style probably adds ten minutes to perils of greed, religious fanaticism, and enthe running time. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 vironmental pollution may be topical, but English Patient, The (1996) C-162m. ★★★1 the film is too static. Still, there are enough ⁄2 D: Anthony Minghella. Ralph Fienflashes of Ray’s brilliance to make it worthnes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin while. The director also scripted. Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, Colin Enemy of the State (1998) C-132m. ★★★ Firth, Julian Wadham, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, D: Tony Scott. Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Kevin Whately. Mesmerizing adaptation Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Stuart (by Minghella) of Michael Ondaatje’s novel Wilson, Tom Sizemore, Loren Dean, Barry about a man badly burned in a WW2 plane Pepper, Ian Hart, Jake Busey, Scott Caan, crash in the African desert; a Canadian Jason Lee, Gabriel Byrne, James LeGros, Dan nurse (Binoche) tends to him in an abanButler, Jamie Kennedy, Bodhi Pine Elfman, doned monastery in Italy, and slowly, bit by Jack Black. Crackerjack thriller about a sucbit, his story emerges. Fiennes and Scott cessful D.C. lawyer who happens to get in the Thomas are perfectly matched in this intelliway of a ruthless executive at the National gent, passionate romance about two people Security Agency (Voight). The NSA official thrown together by chance during a tumulfinds it necessary to ruin the attorney’s reputatuous period. The story unfolds novelistion and throw his life into disarray . . . but the tically, layer by layer, drawing the viewer in lawyer finds help from an unlikely source. with its sinuous, sensuous images and jarNever takes a breath! Jason Robards appears ring depictions of wartime brutality. Strikunbilled. Unrated version runs 140m. Panaviingly photographed by John Seale. An sion. [R]▼●쩠 exceptional achievement all around. Winner Enforcer, The (1951) 87m. ★★★ D: Breof nine Oscars: Best Picture, Director, Cinetaigne Windust. Humphrey Bogart, Zero matography, Supporting Actress (Binoche), Mostel, Ted de Corsia, Everett Sloane, Art Direction, Sound, Score (Gabriel Yared), Roy Roberts. When informer de Corsia Costumes, and Editing. [R]▼●쩠 dies, D.A. Bogart has to find another way to Enid Is Sleeping (1990) C-100m. ★★★ D: prove that Sloane is the head of a murderMaurice Phillips. Elizabeth Perkins, Judge for-hire ring. Loosely based on the true Reinhold, Jeffrey Jones, Maureen Mueller, story of Murder, Inc., this is a generally Rhea Perlman, Michael J. Pollard. Very effective, moody thriller. Mostel is particublack comedy about a woman who accilarly good as a frightened crook.▼●쩠 dentally kills her much-hated sister—after ★★★ Enforcer, The (1976) C-96m. D: being caught sleeping with her husband James Fargo. Clint Eastwood, Tyne Daly, (who happens to be a police officer). MaHarry Guardino, Bradford Dillman, John cabre humor may not be to everyone’s Mitchum, DeVeren Bookwalter, John taste, but slapstick antics with the ‘‘dead’’ Crawford, Albert Popwell. Rule-breaking body and genuine character development detective Dirty Harry Callahan (Eastwood) put this leagues ahead of the similar WEEKhas to contend with a female partner (Daly) END AT BERNIE’S. Severely cut by its as he goes after an underground terrorist studio, then reclaimed (and restored) by its group in San Francisco. Violent, bubblestar and director; a triumph for Perkins, gum-mentality script, but it’s a formula who’s never been better. Video title: OVER that just seems to work. Followed by SUDHER DEAD BODY. [R]▼쩠 DEN IMPACT. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Enigma (1982-British-French) C-101m. ★★1 England Made Me (1973-British) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Jeannot Szwarc. Martin Sheen, Bri★★★ gitte Fossey, Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi, D: Peter Duffell. Peter Finch, Michael York, Hildegard Neil, Michael Hordern, Michel Lonsdale, Frank Finlay. The KGB Joss Ackland. Unappreciated in its initial sends out five crack assassins to eliminate release, drama of a powerful financier in five Soviet dissidents; CIA agent Sheen Nazi Germany of 1935 is absorbing, (who’s apparently seen NOTORIOUS once thoughtful fare. Made in Yugoslavia. [PG] too often) tries to stop them by having Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, but ex-lover Fossey cozy up to top Russian agent Came Down a Mountain, The (1995-BritNeill. Fine cast does its best with so-so ish) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Monger. material; script by John Briley. [PG]▼ Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzgerald, Colm Meaney, Enigma (2001-British-German-U.S.) C119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Apted. Dougray Ian McNeice, Ian Hart, Kenneth Griffith, Tudor Vaughn, Hugh Vaughn. Two British Scott, Kate Winslet, Jeremy Northam, Saffron mapmakers raise the ire of a Welsh commuBurrows, Tom Hollander, Corin Redgrave. A nity during WW1 when they designate the burned-out cryptographer is brought back to village’s prized landmark a hill and not a active duty at Bletchley Park where, during you-know-what. Woe be the one-joke movie WW2, several hundred British operatives when the joke isn’t much of a grabber, dework day and night to crack the Nazi code— spite being based on real Welsh legend. and understand the workings of their brilliantly Agreeable cast and attractive physical trapdesigned ‘‘enigma’’ machine. Great material [ 416 ]

(adapted from Robert Harris’ book by Tom lie Perkins, Kay Medford. Flat sequel to Stoppard) and faultless re-creation of the peMISTER ROBERTS has Walker sinking in riod ought to make for a top-notch film, but this Jack Lemmon role amid synthetic seaboard one peters out as it becomes unfocused and— and coral-isle shenanigans. Worth noting yes—confusing. Coproduced by Mick Jagger, for its large cast of future stars: Larry Hagwho appears briefly in a club scene. Panaviman, Gerald O’Loughlin, Al Freeman, Jr., sion. [PG-13]▼쩠 James Farentino, James Coco, Diana Sands, and Jack Nicholson. Panavision.▼ Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, The SEE: Every Man for Himself and God Against All Enter Laughing (1967) C-112m. ★★ D: Enjo (1958-Japanese) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kon Carl Reiner. Reni Santoni, Jose Ferrer, Ichikawa. Raizo Ichikawa, Tatsuya NakaShelley Winters, Elaine May, Jack Gilford, dai, Ganjiro Nakamura, Yoko Uraji, Tanie Janet Margolin, David Opatoshu, Michael Kitabayashi. Troubled young novice priest J. Pollard, Don Rickles, Nancy Kovack, Ichikawa cannot handle corruption around Rob Reiner. Reiner’s funny semi-autobiohim and burns down a temple. Perceptive psygraphical Broadway play becomes bland chological study of a human being’s destrucscreen comedy as youngster struggles to tion; based on a Yukio Mishima novel, make it as an actor, despite all manner of problems in his way.▼ fashioned around a true story. Aka CONFLAGRATION. Daieiscope.▼ Entertainer, The (1960-British) 104m. ★★★1 Enormous Changes at the Last Minute ⁄2 D: Tony Richardson. Laurence Oli(1983) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mirra Bank, Elvier, Brenda de Banzie, Roger Livesey, len Hovde. Maria Tucci, Lynn Milgrim, Joan Plowright, Daniel Massey, Alan David Strathairn, Ellen Barkin, Ron McBates, Shirley Anne Field, Albert Finney, Larty, Zvee Scooler, Kevin Bacon, Jeffrey Thora Hird. Seedy vaudevillian (Olivier, DeMunn, Sudie Bond. Three separate drarecreating his stage role) ruins everyone’s mas about contemporary women living in life and won’t catch on. Film captures N.Y.C., and their relationships with husflavor of chintzy seaside resort, complebands, ex-husbands, lovers, parents, chilmenting Olivier’s brilliance as egotistical dren. Ambitious but uneven, with some song-and-dance man. Coscripted by John good performances and touching moments. Osborne, from his play. Film debuts of Screenplay by John Sayles with Susan Bates and Finney. Olivier and Plowright Rice, based on the stories of Grace Paley. married the following year. Remade as a ‘‘Faith’s Story’’ was filmed in 1978; ‘‘Vir1975 TVM starring Jack Lemmon. ▼●쩠 ginia’s Story’’ and ‘‘Alexandra’s Story’’ Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day in 1982. Aka TRUMPS. ▼● Story (1996) C-110m. ★★ D: Michael Ray Enough (2002) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Rhodes. Moira Kelly, Martin Sheen, Boyd Apted. Jennifer Lopez, Billy Campbell, JuKestner, Lenny Von Dohlen, James Lancasliette Lewis, Dan Futterman, Noah Wyle, ter, Heather Graham, Paul Lieber, Heather Tessa Allen, Russell Milton, Chris Maher, Camille. By-the-numbers biography, set in Ruben Madera. Lopez plays a waitress who the 1920s and ’30s, of Dorothy Day (Kelly), marries a customer and seems to be living the fabled Roman Catholic activist. Scehappily ever after until she discovers what nario spotlights her spiritual evolution from kind of man he really is and flees for her journalist and suffragette in Greenwich Villife, with her young daughter in tow. Lopez lage to her conversion to Roman Catholiis well cast in this saga of domestic abuse cism and her devotion to helping the poor. Disappointingly superficial. [PG-13]▼쩠 (and revenge), but the ending is so set up and melodramatic that it robs us of real satEntertaining Mr. Sloane (1970-British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Douglas Hickox. Beryl isfaction. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Reid, Harry Andrews, Peter McEnery, Alan (2005) C-113m. ★★★ D: Alex Gibney. Sharp Webb. Acting by McEnery, Reid, and documentary, based on the book by BethAndrews is extraordinary in story of young any McLean and Peter Elkind, telescopes man who becomes involved with both the Byzantine behind-the-scenes machinabrother and sister. Uneven adaptation of tions that led to the collapse of the giant Joe Orton play.▼ Houston energy company. Clean, underEnter the Dragon (1973) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 standable presentation of the events as they D: Robert Clouse. Bruce Lee, John Saxon, unfolded (with only an occasional nod to Jim Kelly, Ahna Capri, Yang Tse, Angela ‘‘wink-wink’’ filmmaking) and the larger Mao. Almost perfect Kung Fu film that forimplicit evils of corporate America. Some gets about plot and concentrates on mindof the incriminating footage and facts inboggling action. Martial arts expert Lee (in volving bigwigs Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling, last complete film role) infiltrates strange tourand Andy Fastow truly make the mind reel nament on island fortress. This was filmed and the stomach turn. [R]쩠 after (but released before) Lee’s RETURN ★★ Ensign Pulver (1964) C-104m. OF THE DRAGON. 3m. added on video in D: Joshua Logan. Robert Walker, Jr., Burl 1998. Aka THE DEADLY THREE. PanaIves, Walter Matthau, Tommy Sands, Milvision. [R]▼●쩠 [ 417 ]

Enter the Ninja (1981) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: admittedly sordid energy. Unrated version runs 93m. [PG-13]쩠 Menahem Golan. Franco Nero, Susan George, Sho Kosugi, Alex Courtney, Will Equilibrium (2002) C-107m. ★★ D: Kurt Hare, Zachi Noy, Dale Ishimoto, ChristoWimmer. Christian Bale, Emily Watson, pher George. Ninjitsu master Nero takes Taye Diggs, Angus Macfadyen, Sean Bean, on greedy Christopher George and old David Hemmings, Matthew Harbour, Wilrival Kosugi. Third-rate chop-socky actioner liam Fichtner. In the future, any display of and certainly no ENTER THE DRAGON. emotion is against the law; citizens take a Original running time: 99m. Followed by daily drug, and transgressors are punished REVENGE OF THE NINJA. [R]▼ by an elite corps of police. Writer-director Entity, The (1983) C-115m. ★★ D: SidWimmer’s warmed-over rehash of 1984, ney J. Furie. Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451 Jacqueline Brooks, David Lablosa, George doesn’t make a lot of sense (some of the leadCoe, Margaret Blye, Alex Rocco. Woman ing characters do show emotion), but it isn’t is raped repeatedly by giant invisible mass. worth the time or effort to figure out. Bale is Her psychiatrist thinks it’s all in the mind, so intense here it seems as if he might imuntil parapsychologists set a trap for the plode at any moment. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 critter. Effectively sensational but atroEquinox (1971) C-80m. ★★ D: Jack Woods. ciously exploitive; supposedly based on acEdward Connell, Barbara Hewitt, Frank tual incident. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Boers, Jr. (Frank Bonner), Robin ChristoEntrapment (1999) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon pher, Jack Woods, Fritz Leiber. ArchaeAmiel. Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones, ology students confront Satanism—and Will Patton, Ving Rhames, Maury Chaykin. mutantlike monsters—while searching for American insurance investigator Zeta-Jones vanished professor. Late-1960s amateur film convinces her boss to let her set the bait to (directed by later special-effects Oscar winner capture world-class art thief Connery, leading Dennis Muren) was reworked for theatrical to a gigantic cat-and-mouse game played out release, mixing movie cliche´s with good spein London and Kuala Lumpur. The two stars cial effects. This film took several years to are easy to watch, and there are lots of gimcomplete, and the young cast obviously ages in it. Aka THE BEAST. [M/PG]▼쩠 micky action scenes, but it’s all rather flat. Connery coexecutive-produced. Panavision. Equinox (1993) C-110m. ★★ D: Alan Ru[PG-13]▼●쩠 dolph. Matthew Modine, Lara Flynn Boyle, Entre Nous (1983-French) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 Fred Ward, Tyra Ferrell, Marisa Tomei, D: Diane Kurys. Miou Miou, Isabelle Kevin J. O’Connor, Tate Donovan, Lori Huppert, Guy Marchand, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Singer, M. Emmet Walsh, Gailard Sartain, Robin Renucci, Patrick Bauchau. Moving, Mark Modine. Slow-moving mystery with multilayered story of two women who form Modine playing two men—a weakling auto a bond of friendship that lasts many years, mechanic and an underworld tough guy— takes many turns, and threatens their inwho live in the same city and lead parallel effectual husbands. Compassionate telling by lives. Typically quirky Rudolph drama, but Kurys of her own mother’s story, with extraweaker than most; rife with commentary on contemporary mores and morals. [R]▼● ordinary performances all around. Original French title: COUP DE FOUDRE. Followed Equus (1977) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney by C’EST LA VIE. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Lumet. Richard Burton, Peter Firth, Colin Envy (2004) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Barry LevinBlakely, Joan Plowright, Harry Andrews, son. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz, Eileen Atkins, Jenny Agutter. Peter ShafChristopher Walken, Amy Poehler. The close fer’s shattering play makes bumpy screen relationship between two best friends who live adaptation, its vivid theatricality lost on film; across the street from each other changes drasBurton, however, is superb as troubled psytically when one of them hits the jackpot with chiatrist trying to unlock deep-rooted proban invention that turns him into a multimillionlems of stable boy Firth. [R] ▼●쩠 aire. The cast can’t be faulted for this wrongEragon (2006) C-104m. ★★ D: Stefen Fangheaded comedy misfire, but the script can; it’s meier. Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, Sienna unpleasant at best, mean at worst, a sketch Guillory, Robert Carlyle, John Malkovich, idea drawn out to feature length. [PG-13]▼쩠 Djimon Hounsou, Garrett Hedlund, Alun Epic Movie (2007) C-85m. BOMB D: Armstrong, Joss Stone; voice of Rachel Weisz. Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer. Kal Penn, Orphaned farm boy finds a mysterious egg that Adam Campbell, Jennifer Coolidge, Jayma hatches the last of an extinct breed of magical Mays, Faune A. Chambers. Four siblings dragons. The boy, the dragon, and his worldfind themselves meandering through lame weary, wise old mentor travel across magical slapstick parodies of recent epic movies and lands to save the oppressed people of his home other obvious pop-culture targets. Typically kingdom from an evil king and his henchman tedious, unfunny hack job, with an array of wizard. Scenery is pretty and CGI effects are cameo appearances including Crispin Glover, fine, but the movie is a patchwork quilt of conwho (as a perverted, sadistic Willy Wonka) ventions borrowed from other fantasy films provides the film with its only moments of and stories (with none of their entertainment [ 418 ]

value). Based on the first in a series of popular That’s the real Erin Brockovich playing a waitress. [R]▼쩠 books by Christopher Paolini. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Eraser (1996) C-114m. ★★★ D: Charles Ernest Goes to Camp (1987) C-93m. ★1⁄2 Russell. Arnold Schwarzenegger, James D: John R. Cherry 3rd. Jim Varney, VicCaan, Vanessa Williams, James Coburn, Robtoria Racimo, John Vernon, Iron Eyes Cody, ert Pastorelli, James Cromwell, Danny Nucci, Lyle Alzado, Gailard Sartain. Ernest, an obRoma Maffia, Camryn Manheim. High-ocnoxious dimwit popularized in a spate of TV tane, high-tech, violent and cartoonish actioncommercials, is the star of this clumsy and thriller about a specialist in the Federal Witunfunny comedy about a dumb cluck who ness Protection Program who vows to keep a wants to be a summer camp counselor in the female witness safe and sticks to his word worst way—and gets his wish. Aimed at chileven after he becomes as much a target as dren who aren’t very bright. Followed by ERshe. Explosive, cutting-edge action and speNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS. [PG]▼●쩠 cial effects give fans their money’s worth, and Ernest Goes to Jail (1990) C-82m. ★★ D: then some. Indefensible on any artistic level, John Cherry. Jim Varney, Gailard Sartain, Bill but lots of fun. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Byrge, Barbara Bush, Randall (Tex) Cobb, Eraserhead (1978) 90m. ★★★ D: David Barry Scott, Charles Napier. Third in the surLynch. John (Jack) Nance, Charlotte Steprisingly successful series about Ernest P. wart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates, Judith Worrell finds our hero in prison as the result Anna Roberts, Laurel Near, V. Phippsof a switch set up by an evil inmate lookaWilson. Brooding experimental film full of like (also played by Varney). Harmless, prerepulsive imagery tells story of zombielike dictable, and hokey. Followed by ERNEST misfit, his spastic girlfriend, and their halfSCARED STUPID. [PG]▼●쩠 human offspring. Bona fide cult film is Ernest Goes to School (1994) C-90m. full of surreal, nightmarish tangents. FeaBOMB D: Coke Sams. Jim Varney, Linda ture film debut of director Lynch.▼●쩠 Kash, Bill Byrge, Corrine Koslo, Kevin McErendira (1983-Mexican-French-German) Nulty, Jason Michas. Sub-atomic brain accelC-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ruy Guerra. Irene Papas, erator is used to make Chickasaw Falls High’s Claudia Ohana, Michael Lonsdale, Oliver school custodian, Ernest, a temporary genius Wehe, Rufus. Strange does not begin to dein an attempt to undermine a plot to close the scribe this fable of queenly Papas forcing beauschool. Completely predictable and unfunny; tiful, obedient granddaughter Ohana into only for die-hard Ernest fans. Followed by prostitution in a vast, surreal desert. Ambitious SLAM DUNK ERNEST. [PG]▼● and fluidly directed, but unmemorable; from a Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) C-89m. ★1 screenplay by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Re⁄2 D: John Cherry. Jim Varney, Douglas made as ERENDIRA IKIKUNAI (2008). ▼ Seale, Oliver Clark, Noelle Parker, Robert Erik the Conqueror (1961-Italian) C-81m. Lesser, Gailard Sartain, Billie Bird. The ★★ title character, who makes Gomer Pyle D: Mario Bava. Cameron Mitchell, Alice Kessler, Ellen Kessler, Franc¸oise seem like Albert Einstein, attempts to help Christophe. Unexceptional account of 10thSanta Claus on Christmas Eve. This is one century Viking life, with Mitchell fighting Christmas present to be opened with exfor virtue and love. Released on video as treme caution . . . unless you’re a fan of THE INVADERS at 88m. Dyaliscope. ▼쩠 Ernest P. Worrell. Followed by ERNEST GOES TO JAIL. [PG]▼●쩠 Erik the Viking (1989-British) C-104m. BOMB D: Terry Jones. Tim Robbins, Ernest Scared Stupid (1991) C-91m. ★1⁄2 Mickey Rooney, Eartha Kitt, Terry Jones, D: John Cherry. Jim Varney, Eartha Kitt, Imogen Stubbs, John Cleese, Antony Sher, Austin Nagler, Jonas Moscartolo, Shay Gordon John Sinclair, Freddie Jones. RobAstar. The fourth Ernest P. Worrell feabins is a revisionist Erik, but what’s the ture has a patently redundant title. OrigiNorse expression for ‘‘unwatchable satire’’? nally released at Halloween time, the story has dimwitted Ernest inadvertently releasDirector’s cut runs 79m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ★★★ Erin Brockovich (2000) C-131m. ing a villainous troll from its tomb. Pretty D: Steven Soderbergh. Julia Roberts, Albert Finlame; Kitt is wasted as a witch. Followed by ERNEST GOES TO SCHOOL. [PG]▼●쩠 ney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger, Cherry Jones, Conchata Ferrell, Tracey Walter, Eros (2004-French-Italian-U.S.-Hong Kong) C/B&W-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Wong Kar-wai, SteMimi Kennedy, Peter Coyote. Roberts won a Best Actress Oscar for her performance as a ven Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni. brassy, divorced mother of three, at the end of Gong Li, Chang Chen, Robert Downey, Jr., her rope; she talks her way into a job in FinAlan Arkin, Christopher Buchholz, Regina ney’s law office, then becomes obsessed with a Nemni, Luisa Ranieri. As if they were facpro bono case involving residents of a Califoring an overpowering baseball pitcher in the nia desert town who have been exposed to poininth inning, three internationally renowned sonously polluted water. Energetic, engaging directors strike out 1-2-3 in this anthology. David vs. Goliath story never states—or Wong’s episode is the meatiest, but seems overstates—the obvious, and travels far on twice as long as it is: A young tailor remains Roberts’ charisma and Finney’s expertise. faithful to a courtesan (Gong) through her [ 419 ]

long professional slide. Shrink Arkin and polished, with sterling cast. Based on Ethel Vance’s 1939 best-seller. patient Downey bandy in Soderbergh’s Escape (1948) 78m. ★★★ D: Joseph L. Manshaggy dog joke, unworthy of the wait for a kiewicz. Rex Harrison, Peggy Cummins, punch line. Antonioni’s segment about an William Hartnell, Norman Wooland, Jill impaired relationship is the least substantive Esmond, Frederick Piper, Marjorie Rhodes, but most fun to watch; he still has his camBetty Ann Davies, Cyril Cusack. Intelligent, era eye. [R]쩠 well-paced story of law-abiding man for Erotique (1993-U.S.-German) C-93m. ★★ whom a chance encounter leads to a prison D: Lizzie Borden, Monika Treut, Clara Law. sentence; morally outraged, he determines Kamela Lopez-Dawson, Bryan Cranston, to escape. Harrison is excellent as the cereLiane Curtis, Priscilla Barnes, Camilla Soebral hero of this John Galsworthy story berg, Michael Carr, Peter Kern, Marianne Sa¨(which was filmed before in 1930). Shot on gebrecht, Tim Lounibos, Hayley Man, Choi natural locations around England. ScreenHark-kin. Uneven feature in three parts, each a play by Philip Dunne. story with a female slant. Borden’s piece, about Escape (1970) SEE: McKenzie Break, The a phone sex worker exacting revenge against Escape Artist, The (1982) C-96m. ★★ D: one of her callers, is obvious and annoying; Caleb Deschanel. Griffin O’Neal, Raul Treut tells the trite tale of a pair of lesbians who Julia, Teri Garr, Joan Hackett, Gabriel set out to seduce a man. By far the best of the Dell, Elizabeth Daily, Desiderio (Desi) lot is Law’s perceptive study of the cultural difArnaz, Huntz Hall, Jackie Coogan, M. ferences between a Hong Kong woman and Emmet Walsh, David Clennon, Harry Anher Australian-Chinese boyfriend. A fourth derson, Carlin Glynn, Margaret Ladd. Madepisode, the muddled account of a teacher’s deningly muddled tale of teenager O’Neal, erotic encounter while on a trip, was excluded an amateur magician, and the adults who from the final print but added to the video attempt to exploit him. Griffin, son of release. It is directed by Ana Maria MagalRyan and brother of Tatum, has a pleasing haes and stars Claudia Ohana and Guilherme screen presence. Directorial debut for cineLeme. Video running time is 117m.▼●쩠 matographer Deschanel. [PG]▼쩠 ★★1 Errand Boy, The (1961) 92m. ⁄2 D: Escape From Alcatraz (1979) C-112m. Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Brian Donlevy, ★★★ D: Donald Siegel. Clint Eastwood, Howard McNear, Sig Ruman, Fritz Feld, Patrick McGoohan, Roberts Blossom, Jack Iris Adrian, Kathleen Freeman, Doodles Thibeau, Fred Ward, Paul Benjamin. Weaver, Renee Taylor. Jerry on the loose Straightforward, methodical telling of true in a movie studio has its moments. Long story about 1962 breakout from supposedly string of gags provide the laughter; veteran impregnable prison. Vivid and credible character actors produce the sparkle. ▼●쩠 throughout. Watch for Danny Glover in his ★★★ Escapade (1955-British) 87m. D: film debut. [PG]▼●쩠 Philip Leacock. John Mills, Yvonne MitchEscape From Fort Bravo (1953) C-98m. ell, Alastair Sim, Jeremy Spenser, Andrew ★★★ D: John Sturges. William Holden, Ray, Marie Lohr, Peter Asher. Mills is a Eleanor Parker, John Forsythe, Polly professional pacifist whose life is anything Bergen, William Demarest, William Campbut tranquil; his three sons, fearing that bell, Richard Anderson. Well-executed their parents are about to be divorced, Civil War–era Western with Holden a hardreact in a most unusual manner. Ambinosed cavalry captain at an Arizona fort tious, insightful, solidly acted drama about where Confederate prisoners are held; both the cynicism and hypocrisy of adults and sides end up tangling with Indians.▼쩠 the idealism of youth. Stick with this.▼ Escape From L.A. (1996) C-101m. ★★ D: Escapade in Japan (1957) C-93m. ★★ D: John Carpenter. Kurt Russell, Stacy Keach, Arthur Lubin. Cameron Mitchell, Teresa Steve Buscemi, Cliff Robertson, Valeria Wright, Jon Provost, Roger Nakagawa, Golino, Peter Fonda, Michelle Forbes, A. J. Philip Ober, Kuniko Miyake, Susumu FujLanger, George Corraface, Pam Grier, Robita. Stunning location filming in Japan is ert Carradine, Bruce Campbell, Paul Bartel. the prime asset of this forgettable adventure In the year 2013, the Island of L.A. is a about two young boys, one American and penal colony for America’s undesirables. the other Japanese, and their search for the Snake Plissken (Russell) is sent there to former’s parents. Clint Eastwood appears bring back a valuable destruction device briefly as a pilot. Technirama. ▼ that was smuggled away by the daughter of Escape (1940) 104m. ★★★ D: Mervyn the U.S. President. Lackluster follow-up to LeRoy. Norma Shearer, Robert Taylor, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is tongueConrad Veidt, Nazimova, Felix Bressart, in-cheek, but devoid of wit, and not likely Albert Basserman, Philip Dorn, Bonita to satisfy action fans, either. Russell coproGranville, Blanche Yurka. Countess Shearer, duced and cowrote the script. On-screen mistress of Nazi general Veidt, helps Taytitle: JOHN CARPENTER’S ESCAPE lor get his mother (Nazimova) out of GerFROM L.A. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 man concentration camp before WW2; Escape From New York (1981) C-99m. [ 420 ]

★★

D: John Carpenter. Kurt Russell, Lee Suspense tale about aftermath of unsucVan Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleacessful attempt by Soviet Jews to hijack a sence, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau, plane wastes a capable cast. [PG]▼ Harry Dean Stanton, Season Hubley. For a Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) C-97m. ★★★ ‘‘fun’’ film this is pretty bleak. The year is D: John Hough. Eddie Albert, Ray Mil1997, Manhattan is a maximum-security land, Kim Richards, Ike Eisenmann, Donald prison, and a character named Snake Pleasence. Excellent Disney mystery-fantasy: Plissken (Russell) must effect a daring two children with mysterious powers try to disrescue from within its borders. Reminiscover their origins, while being pursued by evil cent in some ways of Carpenter’s ASMilland, who wants to use their powers for his SAULT ON PRECINCT 13, which was own purposes. Remade for TV. Followed by smaller—and better. Followed by ESCAPE sequel RETURN FROM WITCH MOUNFROM L.A. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 TAIN. [G]▼●쩠 Escape From Planet Earth SEE: DoomsEscape 2000 (1981-Australian) C-92m. day Machine, The BOMB D: Brian Trenchard-Smith. Steve Escape From the Dark SEE: Littlest Horse Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Michael Craig, Thieves, The Carmen Duncan, Roger Ward. Repellently viEscape From the Planet of the Apes olent, unpleasant ripoff of THE MOST DAN(1971) C-98m. ★★★ D: Don Taylor. Roddy GEROUS GAME, set in future society where McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman, criminals are hunted in a controlled environNatalie Trundy, Eric Braeden, William Winment. Original title: TURKEY SHOOT. Bedom, Sal Mineo, Ricardo Montalban. Third in ware of alternate 80m. version. Panavision. series is best of the sequels, with the Apes in [R]▼쩠 modern-day L.A.; ingeniously paves the way Especially on Sunday (1991-Italian-Frenchfor 4th and 5th entries in series. Followed by Belgian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Giuseppe TornaCONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE tore, Giuseppe Bertolucci, Marco Tullio GiAPES. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 ordana. Philippe Noiret, Ornella Muti, Escape From Zahrain (1962) C-93m. Bruno Ganz, Maria Maddelena Fellini, Chi★1⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Yul Brynner, Sal ara Caselli, Andrea Prodan, Bruno Berdini, Mineo, Madlyn Rhue, Jack Warden, James Nicoletta Braschi, Jean-Hugues Anglade. Mason, Jay Novello. Plodding film of five Trio of short films, each set in the Italian prisoners escaping from jail in Mideastern countryside, is a mixed bag. The first, by country, being chased across desert. Nice Tornatore (featuring Noiret as a barber who photography at least. Panavision. is comically harassed by a dog), is slight; Escape Me Never (1947) 104m. ★1⁄2 D: the second, by Bertolucci (middle-aged Peter Godfrey. Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Ganz picks up a pretty young woman and Eleanor Parker, Gig Young, Reginald her mentally ill brother), is trite; the third, Denny, Isobel Elsom. Sappy remake of by Giordana (widow Fellini develops a 1935 Elisabeth Bergner vehicle, with most unusual unspoken bond with her new Lupino as an itinerant waif (!) and Flynn daughter-in-law), is the best of the lot, a as struggling composer who marries her thoughtful meditation on loneliness. Fellini but takes up with his brother’s aristocratic is Federico’s sister; this is her screen debut. fiance´e (Parker). Forget it. ▼ European release version includes a fourth Escape to Athena (1979-British) C-101m. film, by Francesco Barilli. [R] ★★1 ⁄2 D: George Pan Cosmatos. Roger Esther and the King (1960-U.S.-Italian) C-109m. ★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Joan Collins, Moore, Telly Savalas, David Niven, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, Stefanie Richard Egan, Denis O’Dea, Sergio Fantoni. Powers, Sonny Bono, Elliott Gould, WilCardboard biblical costumer pretends to liam Holden. Agreeable time-filler, with recreate 4th-century B.C. Persia, with all-star cast in outlandish adventure yarn stony performances by Egan and Collins about WW2 POWs planning escape and as the king and the Jewish maiden he art heist at the same time. Released in wants to replace murdered queen. Filmed England at 125m. Panavision. [PG]▼ in Italy. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Escape to Burma (1955) C-87m. ★★ D: Esther Kahn (2000-French-British) CAllan Dwan. Barbara Stanwyck, Robert 145m. ★1⁄2 D: Arnaud Desplechin. Summer Ryan, David Farrar, Murvyn Vye, Lisa Phoenix, Ian Holm, Fabrice Desplechin, Montell, Reginald Denny. Stanwyck rides Frances Barber, Ian Bartholomew, Emmanherd over a tea plantation—and a pack of uelle Devos. Overlong, overwrought drama wild animals—but doesn’t quite know how about a single-minded young Jewess in lateto deal with a wanted man who seeks 19th-century London who struggles with refuge. Cast does what it can with pulp her feelings and fears while setting out to material. SuperScope.▼쩠 become an actress. Potentially interesting Escape to the Sun (1972-British-Israeli) subject matter is done in by boring stretches, 1 ★ 105m. ⁄2 D: Menahem Golan. Laurence laughably stilted dialogue, a maddeningly unHarvey, Josephine Chaplin, John Ireland, even lead performance by Phoenix, and unLila Kedrova, Jack Hawkins, Clive Revill. necessary narration that telegraphs points and [ 421 ]

emotions. A plus: Eric Gautier’s luminous Torn, Debra Winger, Curtis Garcia, Keith cinematography.▼쩠 Garcia, Paget Brewster, Rene Auberjonois, Eternally Yours (1939) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claudette Nevins, Micole Mercurio, Rance Tay Garnett. Loretta Young, David Niven, Howard. Dysfunctional family reunites over Hugh Herbert, C. Aubrey Smith, Billie the death of the patriarch and standard sitcom Burke, Broderick Crawford, ZaSu Pitts, shenanigans ensue, with frantic mugging and Eve Arden. Wayout idea comes off fairly bad sex jokes. Hard to totally fail with this well; Young is married to magician Niven, caliber of ensemble players, but still pretty thinks his tricks are taking precedence to weak. Laurie and Deschanel come off best as their married life. Also shown in comsuicidal grandmother and her granddaughter puter-colored version.▼쩠 (the only normal one in the pack). Winger Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind uncharacteristically hits all the wrong notes as (2004) C-108m. ★★★ D: Michel Gondry. Jim a homophobic, neurotic aunt. [R] ▼쩠 Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Eureka (1983) C-130m. ★★ D: Nicolas Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Tom Wilkinson, Jane Roeg. Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Adams, David Cross, Deirdre O’Connell. A Rutger Hauer, Jane Lapotaire, Ed Lauter, man learns his ex-girlfriend has had him Mickey Rourke, Joe Pesci, Corin Redgrave. literally erased from her memory and deKlondike prospector becomes fabulously cides to get the same procedure done . . . but wealthy, watches his kingdom crumble 30 has second thoughts as his mind is being years later when his daughter’s problems purged. Ingenious, Oscar-winning screenand Miami thugs converge on him at the play by Charlie Kaufman (from a story by same time. Odd drama, even for Roeg, Kaufman, Gondry, and Pierre Bismuth) is that somehow climaxes with long, windy extremely well executed by director Gondry courtroom histrionics. Shelved by its studio, (and cinematographer Ellen Kuras), though sporadically released in 1985. Aka RIVER OF DARKNESS. [R]▼쩠 the film tends to cleverly dance around the roots of emotional and romantic pain rather Eureka (2000-Japanese-French) 217m. ★★1⁄2 than fully engage them. Carrey has never D: Shinji Aoyama. Koji Yakusho, Aoi Miyabeen better; Winslet is (as always) excepzaki, Masaru Miyazaki, Yoichiro Saito. A tional. [R]▼쩠 tragic and shattering event has life-changing Ethan Frome (1993) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: John consequences for both a bus driver and the Madden. Liam Neeson, Patricia Arquette, Joan two orphaned children who are the only surAllen, Tate Donovan, Katharine Houghton, vivors of the incident. Epic film deals with Stephen Mendillo. Stately, just-adequate adapthe aftermath of a traumatic moment as the tation of Edith Wharton’s famed 1911 novella characters search for meaning and redempof tragedy, irony, and repression, set in rural tion. Beautifully shot in black and white, New England: the tale of a farmer who weds this demanding film does have rewards for a domineering woman (Allen), then falls in the adventurous filmgoer but is ultimately love with her poor but pretty cousin (Arcompromised by its indulgent overlength. quette). Beautifully photographed (by Bobby Europa Europa (1991-French-German) CBukowski) and intelligently scripted (by 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Agnieszka Holland. Marco Richard Nelson), but not as powerful and Hofschneider, Rene Hofschneider, Julie moving as it should be. An American PlayDelpy, Ashley Wanninger, Piotr Kozlowski, house theatrical feature. [PG]▼●쩠 Halina Labornarska, Hanns Zischler. GerE.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Cman-Jewish teenage boy flees the Nazis and 115m. ★★★★ D: Steven Spielberg. Dee conceals his identity—only to find himself Wallace, Henry Thomas, Peter Coyote, drafted into Hitler’s army! Eye-opening, factRobert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, based WW2 Holocaust drama, from Solomon K.C. Martel, Sean Frye, Tom (C. Thomas) Perel’s autobiography, is both harrowing and Howell. A 10-year-old boy (Thomas) behumorous; deftly blends horrific images with friends a creature from another planet that’s black comedy to depict the growing pains of been stranded on Earth. A warm, insightful a boy becoming a man in the midst of a world story of childhood innocence, frustration, in chaos. Polish writer-director Holland has courage, and love . . . with a remarkable made a riveting and moving film. [R]▼●쩠 ‘‘performance’’ by E.T. An exhilarating Europa ’51 SEE: Greatest Love, The Europeans, The (1979) C-90m. ★★★ D: experience for young and old alike. Screenplay by Melissa Mathison. John Williams James Ivory. Lee Remick, Robin Ellis, Weswon an Oscar for his soaring score, as did ley Addy, Tim Choate, Lisa Eichhorn, Tim the sound and visual effects teams. Trivia Woodward, Kristin Griffith. Meticulous film note: Debra Winger contributed to E.T.’s of Henry James novel vividly recreates 19thvoice. Reissued in a somewhat revised form century life in New England, as the arrival of in 2002, running 123m. [PG]▼●쩠 two foreign cousins disrupts the stern-faced Eulogy (2004) C-91m. ★★ D: Michael Clancy. calm of a plain American family. Deliberately paced, but richly rewarding.▼●쩠 Hank Azaria, Jesse Bradford, Zooey Deschanel, Glenne Headly, Famke Janssen, Piper Eurotrip (2004) C-92m. ★★ D: Jeff SchafLaurie, Kelly Preston, Ray Romano, Rip fer. Scott Mechlowicz, Jacob Pitts, Michelle [ 422 ]

Trachtenberg, Travis Wester, Jessica Boehrs, acting by its able cast. Could have, and should have, been much better. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 Vinnie Jones, Lucy Lawless, Fred Armisen, Evelyn Prentice (1934) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Diedrich Bader, Patrick Malahide, Matt William K. Howard. William Powell, Damon, Joanna Lumley. A high school grad Myrna Loy, Una Merkel, Rosalind Ruswho’s just been dumped by his girlfriend goes sell, Isabel Jewell, Harvey Stephens. Story to Europe to meet a German e-mail pen pal of successful attorney who doesn’t know (who, he’s just learned, is a hot babe); he his own wife is in trouble is too drawn-out, and three hometown pals have a series of ultimately too implausible. Cast rises above misadventures along the way. All too typical material, but Cora Sue Collins is an obteen comedy should please adolescent boys noxious brat. Russell’s first film. Remade with its female nudity and gross-out gags; othas STRONGER THAN DESIRE.▼쩠 ers will take their cue from the fact that there Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1994) Cis a vomit joke in the animated main titles! 97m. BOMB D: Gus Van Sant. Uma ThurJeffrey Tambor appears unbilled. Unrated verman, Lorraine Bracco, Angie Dickinson, Rain sion available on DVD. [R] ▼쩠 ★★★ Phoenix, John Hurt, Roseanne Arnold, Keanu D: Joseph Eva (1962-British) 100m. Reeves, Noriyuki ‘‘Pat’’ Morita, Sean Young, Losey. Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Crispin Glover, Ed Begley, Jr., Faye DunaVirna Lisi, Nona Medici, Francesco Risway, Steve Buscemi, Heather Graham, Victosone, James Villiers. Brooding account of ria Williams, Carol Kane, Grace Zabriskie. writer Baker whose continued attraction Tom Robbins’ hopelessly dated novel about a for Eva (Moreau) causes wife (Lisi) to hitchhiker with oversized thumbs is a candihave tragic death. Premise isn’t always date for the decade’s worst movie: there is workable, but Moreau is well cast as pernot enough peyote in the entire American sonification of evil. Based on a novel by Southwest to render scenes set in the femiJames Hadley Chase. Director’s cut (titled nist-collective ranch comprehensible or posEVE) runs 119m.▼쩠 sible to endure. Recut by the director after Evan Almighty (2007) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: its stormy reception at the Toronto Film Tom Shadyac. Steve Carell, Morgan FreeFestival knocked it off the ’93 release man, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, schedule. The k.d. lang score is the movie’s Wanda Sykes, John Michael Higgins, Jonah sole worthy component. William S. BurHill, Molly Shannon, Harve Presnell, roughs is briefly seen at film’s beginning on Johnny Simmons, Graham Phillips, Jimmy a N.Y.C. street. [R]▼●쩠 Bennett. In this follow-up to BRUCE ALEven Dwarfs Started Small (1968-GerMIGHTY former newscaster Evan Baxter man) 96m. ★★★ D: Werner Herzog. Hel(Carell), a newly elected congressman, is mut Doring, Gerd Gickel, Paul Glauer, told by God (Freeman) to build an enorErna Gschwnedtner, Gisela Hartwig. Unmous ark in preparation for a devastating usual, disturbing, truly unsettling parable flood. Wacky hijinks ensue. Wasting the about dwarfs and midgets confined to a likable and talented Carell, this shrill farce barren correctional institution who literally tries to sugarcoat its religious conservatism take over the asylum. Reminiscent of Tod with a feel-good sitcom style, but possesses Browning’s FREAKS.▼쩠 about as much genuine spirituality as a velEvening (2007) C-117m. ★★ D: Lajos Kolvet painting of Jesus. And is God really tai. Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa creating a flood to get back at a crooked Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Washington lawmaker? Super 35. [PG]쩠 Natasha Richardson, Mamie Gummer, EiEvel Knievel (1972) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marleen Atkins, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, vin Chomsky. George Hamilton, Sue Lyon, Barry Bostwick. Two sisters try to interpret Bert Freed, Rod Cameron. Biography of their mother’s ramblings while on her daredevil motorcyclist contains some great deathbed; they eventually learn about the action footage; modest but effective film. unfulfilled love of her life in a series of Shouldn’t be confused with VIVA KNIEVEL! extended flashbacks. Lugubrious translation (in which Evel played himself). Remade for of Susan Minot’s time-skipping novel (by cable TV in 2004. [PG]▼쩠 the author and Michael Cunningham), filmed Evelyn (2002-U.S.-Irish-British) C-95m. on location in Newport, Rhode Island. Gum★★1 ⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Pierce Brosnan, mer is Streep’s real-life daughter; they play Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Bates, Julithe same character, young and old. Richardanna Margulies, Sophie Vavasseur. Brosnan’s son is Redgrave’s daughter, and they play company produced this button-pushing, feelmother and daughter on-screen. Super 35. good movie based on the true story of a [PG-13]쩠 working-class Irishman who has to battle the Evening Star, The (1996) C-129m. ★★ D: government to regain custody of his sons and Robert Harling. Shirley MacLaine, Bill daughter after his wife walks out on them. Set Paxton, Juliette Lewis, Miranda Richardin 1953, the film doesn’t seem to trust the son, Ben Johnson, Scott Wolf, George inherent drama in its story, and plays everyNewbern, Marion Ross, Mackenzie Astin, thing broadly, with nudge-nudge wink-wink Donald Moffat, China Kantner, Jack Nichol[ 423 ]

son, Jennifer Grant. The further adventures of role: Dr. Eve Simmons, a scientist, and feisty, eccentric Aurora Greenway, who’s now Eve VIII, the android/robot bomb she’s raised three grandchildren (born to Debra created in her own likeness—and which is Winger in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT). running amok. Hines is the good guy who Trades on the memory of a much better movie; sets out to immobilize it. Dutch actress Soutendijk’s U.S. film debut. [R]▼●쩠 even Nicholson’s brief appearance only reminds us of the earlier film. There’s barely an Ever After (1998) C-122m. ★★★ D: Andy honest moment in the picture. Ross stands out Tennant. Drew Barrymore, Anjelica Huston, as MacLaine’s loyal longtime housekeeper Dougray Scott, Patrick Godfrey, Megan and friend. Based on Larry McMurtry’s Dodds, Melanie Lynskey, Timothy West, novel. Johnson’s final film. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Judy Parfitt, Jeroen Krabbe´, Richard O’Brien, Even Money (2007-U.S.-German) C-113m. Jeanne Moreau. The Queen of France (Mo★★ D: Mark Rydell. Forest Whitaker, Kim reau) summons the Brothers Grimm to her Basinger, Danny DeVito, Kelsey Grammer, castle so she may tell them the true story Ray Liotta, Tim Roth, Jay Mohr, Nick Canof Cinderella: what unfolds is a charming non, Carla Gugino, Grant Sullivan. Melanrethinking of the classic fairy tale, with Barcholy look at a handful of losers and rymore as a feisty orphan (named Danielle) dreamers—including compulsive gamblers who puts her potential Prince Charming to Whitaker and Basinger, has-been magician shame with her bravery and regard for huDeVito, underworld boss Roth, and smallmankind. Long, but exquisitely filmed on time bookies Mohr and Sullivan. The resolulocation in France. Barrymore is a delight tions to these stories are alternately squalid as a Cinderella for feminists. Alternate verand improbable. Good performances pique sion is rated PG. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 your interest at first, but the movie runs out Ever in My Heart (1933) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: of gas. Director Rydell has a cameo near the Archie Mayo. Barbara Stanwyck, Otto Kruend. [R]쩠 ger, Ralph Bellamy, Ruth Donnelly, Frank Event, The (2003-Canadian) C-110m. ★1⁄2 Albertson. New Englander Stanwyck, a D: Thom Fitzgerald. Parker Posey, Don Daughter of the American Revolution, weds McKellar, Sarah Polley, Jane Leeves, Brent German-born college professor Kruger. He Carver, Olympia Dukakis, Joanna P. Adler, becomes an American citizen—and then Dick Latessa, Christina Zorich. The investiWW1 comes. Well-meaning soaper regation of an apparent suicide, one of a series flects the mood of the period, but is too of mysterious deaths in the gay community hurried and simplistic to really score. of N.Y.C.’s Chelsea neighborhood, leads to Everlasting Moments (2008-Swedish) Csurprising revelations. Well intentioned but 131m. ★★★ D: Jan Troell. Maria Heiskanen, destroyed by a hopelessly muddled script, Mikael Persbrandt, Jesper Christensen, Cal¨ hrvall, Ghita Nørby, Amanda Ooms, pedestrian direction, and a series of overlin O drawn stereotypes. Only Dukakis emerges Emil Jensen. In early 20th-century Sweden a with dignity intact, somehow managing to hardworking woman with many children— create yet another memorable screen mother. and a lusty, often abusive husband—finds Cowritten by the director. [R]▼쩠 purpose (and solace) by taking photographs Event Horizon (1997-U.S.-British) C-95m. with a camera she won in a lottery. Ab★★ D: Paul Anderson. Laurence Fishburne, sorbing, evocative period piece is meticuSam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richlously realized by Troell, who also shot the ardson, Richard T. Jones, Jack Noseworthy, film (in collaboration with Mischa GavrjusJason Isaacs, Sean Pertwee. In 2047, a resjov) and cowrote the story with his wife, Agcue mission is launched to Neptune when neta Ulfsa¨ter Troell, and Nikolas Ra˚dstro¨m, the exploration ship Event Horizon reapbased on a real-life woman’s experiences. pears as mysteriously as it had vanished Title onscreen is MARIA LARSSON’S seven years before. The returned ship’s EVERLASTING MOMENTS. crew is gone, but there’s a disturbing presEverlasting Piece, An (2000) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 ence aboard, perhaps connected to the black D: Barry Levinson. Barry McEvoy, Brian F. hole designed to warp space. Well-acted O’Byrne, Anna Friel, Pauline McLynn, Ruth movie begins promisingly but becomes inMcCabe, Laurence Kinlan, Billy Connolly, creasingly unlikely; offers no explanation Des McAleer. Intermittently funny, sometimes for the strange events. Some intense horror silly satire set in Belfast (rather than director scenes. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Levinson’s customary Baltimore), about a Eve of Destruction (1991) C-98m. ★★ D: pair of inept barbers-turned-wig-salesmen; Duncan Gibbins. Gregory Hines, Renee one (McEvoy) is insolent and Catholic, the Soutendijk, Michael Greene, Kurt Fuller, other (O’Byrne) is more restrained and ProtJohn M. Jackson, Kevin McCarthy. This estant. McEvoy also scripted. [R]▼쩠 muddled FRANKENSTEIN variation might Eversmile, New Jersey (1989-Britishhave worked with a better script, and withArgentinian) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Carlos Sorin. out a point of view that manages to at the Daniel Day-Lewis, Mirjana Jokovic, Gabrisame time be reverse-sexist and antiela Archer, Julio De Grazia, Ignacio Quiros, feminist. Soutendijk gives her all in a dual Miguel Ligero, Ana Maria Glunta. If you’ve [ 424 ]

waited all your life to see a film about a travelfighting weak material about nutty family ing missionary dentist, wait no more: Dayinvolved in putting on a show. After loud Lewis plays a fanatic who works for a ‘‘dental finale you’ll be waiting for a sequel called EVERYBODY SHUT UP.▼● consciousness’’ foundation and travels the hinterlands to spread his noble message. OffEverybody Wins (1990) C-98m. BOMB beat, to say the least, but grows wearisome D: Karel Reisz. Debra Winger, Nick Nolte, Will Patton, Jack Warden, Judith Ivey, after a while. Filmed in Argentina. [PG]▼● Everybody Does It (1949) 98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kathleen Wilhoite, Frank Converse, Frank Edmund Goulding. Paul Douglas, Linda Military. Private detective with an ax to Darnell, Celeste Holm, Charles Coburn, grind ties his professional reputation to a Millard Mitchell, Lucile Watson, John schizoid small-town hooker who outbugs Hoyt, George Tobias. Exceptionally amusBugs and Daffy. Arthur Miller’s first screening yarn of aspiring singer Holm, harried play since THE MISFITS (based on his husband Douglas, and prima donna Darnell. one-act play ‘‘Some Kind of Love Story’’) Celeste wants vocal career, Douglas gets gave fruit to this ironically titled fiasco; one instead. Remake of WIFE, HUSBAND, Winger flounders in a difficult—perhaps AND FRIEND; Nunnally Johnson adapted even unplayable—role. [R]▼●쩠 his earlier screenplay (based on a James Every Day’s A Holiday (1937) 80m. ★★★ D: M. Cain story). A. Edward Sutherland. Mae West, Edmund Everybody Gets It in the End SEE: Tag: Lowe, Charles Butterworth, Charles WinThe Assassination Game ninger, Walter Catlett, Lloyd Nolan, Louis Everybody’s All-American (1988) C-127m. Armstrong. Mae sells Herman Bing the ★★★ D: Taylor Hackford. Jessica Lange, Brooklyn Bridge, so police detective Lowe Dennis Quaid, Timothy Hutton, John Goodorders her to leave N.Y.C. She returns to help man, Carl Lumbly, Ray Baker, Savannah expose crooked police chief Nolan. Gay ’90s Smith Boucher, Patricia Clarkson. The setting for fast-moving West vehicle, written 25-year saga of a college football hero and by the star herself. ▼ his homecoming queen, who find a rocky Every Girl Should Be Married (1948) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Hartman. Cary Grant, Franchot road living happily ever after. Quaid seems too aware of the caricature he is about to Tone, Diana Lynn, Betsy Drake, Alan Mowbecome, but Lange’s bittersweet perforbray. Airy comedy of girl (Drake) setting mance rings true throughout and makes this out to trap bachelor (Grant) into marriage; film worth seeing. Based on Frank Deford’s Tone has thankless ‘‘other man’’ role. Drake novel. [R]▼●쩠 also ‘‘captured’’ Grant in real life; they were Everybody’s Famous (2000-Belgian-Frenchmarried soon after this film came out. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼● Dutch) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Dominique Deruddere. Josse De Pauw, Eva van der Gucht, Every Home Should Have One SEE: Werner De Smedt, Thekla Reuten, Victor Think Dirty Lo¨w, Gert Portael. Factory worker dreams Every Little Crook and Nanny (1972) C-91m. ★★ D: Cy Howard. Lynn Redgrave, of celebrity for his overweight daughter (a Madonna wannabe). He concocts an inane Victor Mature, Paul Sand, Austin Pendlekidnapping scheme to that end, reveling in ton, John Astin, Dom DeLuise, Pat Harthe notoriety it brings him. Odd, twisted rington, Severn Darden. Good idea—the comedy-drama struggles to entertain. Maybe kidnapping of a mobster’s son by nanny you have to be Flemish. . . . [R] ▼쩠 Redgrave—gets away in this comic crimeEverybody’s Fine (1990-Italian) C-112m. and-caper film. One bright spot: Mature’s ★★1 ⁄2 D: Giuseppe Tornatore. Marcello gangster portrayal. [PG] Mastroianni, Michele Morgan, Marino Cenna, Every Man for Himself (1980-FrenchRoberto Nobile, Valeria Cavali, Norma MarSwiss) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. telli, Fabio Iellini, Salvatore Cascio. MastroiIsabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie anni is elderly, slightly befuddled Sicilian Baye, Roland Amstutz, Anna Baldaccini. patriarch who embarks on extended tour of Self-conscious account of three characters Italy to visit his five grown children. Provocawhose lives are intertwined: Dutronc, who tive idea of showing a parent’s hopes and has left his wife for Baye; Baye, who is dreams dashed by reality; unfortunately, it beleaving Dutronc for life in the boondocks; comes a lumbering Felliniesque travelogue. and Huppert, country girl turned prostitute. Creator of CINEMA PARADISO looks at Godard’s ‘‘comeback’’ film was widely overflip side of nostalgia here with so-so success rated, and certainly can’t compare with his (and a typically vital Mastroianni perforbest work of the past. mance). Michele Morgan is lovely in small Every Man for Himself and God Against All (1975-German) C-110m. ★★★★ D: Werrole of woman in tour group.▼● Everybody Sing (1938) 91m. ★★ D: Edwin ner Herzog. Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, L. Marin. Allan Jones, Judy Garland, Brigitte Mira, Hans Musaus, Willy SemFanny Brice, Reginald Owen, Billie Burke, melrogge, Michael Kroecher. Man kept in Reginald Gardiner. Shrill musical with stuconfinement from birth mysteriously appid plot, unmemorable songs; good cast pears in 1820s Nuremberg. Poignant tale [ 425 ]

based on real incident explores his alternate 106m. ★★★ D: Liev Schreiber. Elijah Wood, vision of the world and his attempts to adjust Eugene Hutz, Boris Leskin, Laryssa Lauret. to society. Herzog’s best film (from his own Jonathan (Wood), a nerdy young Jewish screenplay) features stunning performance by American who is obsessed with the objects Bruno S. as Kaspar Hauser. Story also told in that link him to his family’s past, travels to KASPAR HAUSER. Aka THE MYSTERY the Ukraine to explore his roots. Initially, OF KASPAR HAUSER and THE ENIGMA his eccentric tour guides and their screwball OF KASPAR HAUSER. ▼쩠 antics are out of sync with the seriousness Everyone Says I Love You (1996) Cof the story, but once their journey begins— 101m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, and especially when they discover an elGoldie Hawn, Alan Alda, Julia Roberts, derly woman who might have saved JonaDrew Barrymore, Edward Norton, Tim than’s grandfather from the Nazis—the film Roth, Natalie Portman, Gaby Hoffmann, becomes a poignant exploration of how obNatasha Lyonne, Lukas Haas, Billy Crudup, jects allow us to hold on to memories. David Ogden Stiers. The misadventures of Scripted by first-time director Schreiber, an upper-class Manhattan family, at home, from Jonathan Safran Foer’s best-seller. in Venice, and in Paris. A cheerful mess [PG-13] 쩠 that’s simply an excuse for Allen to make a Everything Put Together (2001) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marc Forster. Radha Mitchell, musical. The sheer joy of watching the cast sing wonderful old songs (only Barrymore is Megan Mullally, Justin Louis, Catherine dubbed) makes up for all the film’s shortcomLloyd Burns, Alan Ruck, Michele Hicks, ings (including a lack of story, and a curious Matt Malloy, Vince Vieluf. Probing look at habit of the camera’s wandering away from a woman who’s pregnant at the same time whoever is singing, for no apparent reason). as her best friends . . . but when her newEveryone seems to be having a good time, born dies they abandon her and she goes and Woody enthusiastically reprises his nebthrough several stages of personal hell. Perbish persona of yore. The score is brilliantly ceptive, mature, often uncomfortably real, arranged by Dick Hyman. [R] ▼●쩠 with a superb performance by Mitchell. The Everyone’s Hero (2006) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: director cowrote with costar Burns and Christopher Reeve, Colin Brady, Dan St. Adam Forgash. Shot on digital video. [R] Pierre. Voices of William H. Macy, Rob ▼쩠 Reiner, Brian Dennehy, Raven-Symone´, Everything’s Ducky (1961) 81m. ★★ D: Robert Wagner, Richard Kind, Jason HarDon Taylor. Mickey Rooney, Buddy Hacris, Jake T. Austin, Joe Torre, Mandy Patinkett, Jackie Cooper, Roland Winters. Nonkin, Forest Whitaker, Whoopi Goldberg, sense of Rooney-Hackett teaming up with Dana Reeve, Robin Williams. In this anitalking duck, with trio ending up on Navy mated film aimed at kids, a boy sets out missile orbiting earth; strictly for kids. across country to ‘‘help’’ Babe Ruth and the Everything You Always Wanted to Know 1932 N.Y. Yankees triumph in the World About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) (1972) C-87m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. Series by finding and returning a stolen magical bat. Theme of persevering no matWoody Allen, John Carradine, Lou Jacobi, ter what the odds can be traced to the spirit Louise Lasser, Anthony Quayle, Tony Ranand guidance of initial director Reeve. A bit dall, Lynn Redgrave, Burt Reynolds, Gene too obvious for any but the youngest viewWilder, Jack Barry, Erin Fleming, Robert ers; still, there’s heart and hope in the story Q. Lewis, Heather MacRae, Pamela Maand a stellar voice cast. Reeve’s final film son, Sidney Miller, Regis Philbin, Geofproject; he died during production. [G]쩠 frey Holder, Jay Robinson, Robert Walden. Everything But the Truth (1956) C-83m. One of Woody’s most cinematic comedies, ★★ D: Jerry Hopper. Maureen O’Hara, also most uneven, most tasteless. In multiJohn Forsythe, Tim Hovey, Frank Faylen. episode feature based very loosely on Dr. When youngster Hovey joins truth pledge David Reuben’s book, only a few segments crusade at school, repercussions to his stand out: final sequence inside male body family and townfolk grow; cutesy. during intercourse is a gem. [R]▼●쩠 Everything for Sale (1968-Polish) CEvery Time We Say Goodbye (1986105m. ★★★ D: Andrzej Wajda. Beata Israeli) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Moshe Mizrahi. Tyszkiewicz, Elzbieta Czyzewska, Daniel Tom Hanks, Cristina Marsillach, Benedict Olbrychski, Andrzej Lapicki. Not topTaylor, Anat Atzmon, Gila Almagor. Hanks’ drawer Wajda, but still an ambitious, flupresence adds to this otherwise average idly directed examination of life on a movie soaper-romance, about an American flyer who set, the relationship between a director and falls for a Sephardic Jew (Marsillach) in his actors, and what happens when the WW2 Jerusalem. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 leading man is accidentally killed. A very Every Which Way but Loose (1978) personal homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, C-114m. BOMB D: James Fargo. Clint Wajda’s star of the ’50s, who died in a Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Geoffrey Lewis, freak mishap in 1967.쩠 Beverly D’Angelo, Ruth Gordon. Clint takes Everything Is Illuminated (2005) Cthe first pickup truck to Stupidsville, with an [ 426 ]

orangutan as his best friend, in this bizarre HAUNTED HILL (just to name a few), it change of pace for the action star. The clumsiprovides a deliriously imaginative roller est comedy of its year. Sequel: ANY WHICH coaster ride for those with strong stomachs. WAY YOU CAN. [PG]▼●쩠 Video version rated R. Followed by two Eve’s Bayou (1997) C-109m. ★★★ D: Kasi sequels.▼●쩠 Lemmons. Jurnee Smollett, Meagan Good, Evil Dead II (1987) C-85m. ★★★ D: Sam Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Debbi Raimi. Bruce Campbell, Sarah Berry, Dan Morgan, Jake Smollett, Ethel Ayler, DiaHicks, Kassie Wesley, Theodore Raimi, Dehann Carroll, Vondie Curtis Hall, Lisa Ninise Bixler, Richard Domeier. After recapping cole Carson, Branford Marsalis, Victoria the first film, this inventive sequel takes off in Rowell; narrated by Tamara Tunie. Aba unique direction, blending horror and humor sorbing tale of a privileged Creole family as no other movie ever has. In that same of the early 1960s, as seen through the cabin, Campbell is again (or still) beset by eyes of a 10-year-old girl, who learns that demons, including, memorably, his own posher parents have very human frailties . . . sessed hand. Vivid, fast paced, spectacularly and are still susceptible to age-old supergory, and highly original. Followed by stitions and even voodoo. Exceptional ARMY OF DARKNESS. [R]▼●쩠 cast, led by young Smollett, give credence Evil Eden SEE: Death in the Garden to the often fanciful story, which is Evil Eye, The (1962-Italian) 92m. ★★1⁄2 drenched in Southern gothic atmosphere. D: Mario Bava. Leticia Roman, John Impressive writing and directing debut for Saxon, Valentina Cortese, Dante Di Paolo. Lemmons. Costar Jackson was one of the Incredible but enjoyable chiller set in Rome, film’s producers. [R]▼●쩠 with Roman involved in a series of unEvictors, The (1979) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: solved brutal murders. Aka THE GIRL Charles B. Pierce. Michael Parks, Jessica WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.▼쩠 Harper, Vic Morrow, Sue Ane Langdon, Evil in the Deep SEE: Treasure of JaDennis Fimple, Bill Thurman. Couple maica Reef, The moves into eerie house, unaware of its Evil Mind, The SEE: Clairvoyant, The violent history. Tired rehash of an all too Evil of Frankenstein (1964-British) C84m. ★★ D: Freddie Francis. Peter Cushing, familiar formula. Panavision. [PG]▼ Evil, The (1978) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gus Duncan Lamont, Peter Woodthorpe, James Trikonis. Richard Crenna, Joanna Pettet, Maxwell, Sandor Eles. Dr. F. thaws out Andrew Prine, Cassie Yates, Lynne Moody, his monster, with all-too-predictable conseVictor Buono, George O’Hanlon, Jr. Doctor quences in this Hammer Films potboiler, a Crenna rents ‘‘haunted’’ house to use as sequel to REVENGE OF FRANKENclinic, but he and associates are violently vicSTEIN. Followed by FRANKENSTEIN timized by powers within. Slow-moving film CREATED WOMAN.▼●쩠 covers familiar ground; some chills. Video Evil That Men Do, The (1984) C-89m. ★1 title: HOUSE OF EVIL. [R]▼● ⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. Charles Bronson, 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: MiEvil (2003-Swedish) C-113m. Theresa Saldana, Joseph Maher, Jose Ferkael Ha˚fstro¨m. Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lundrer, Rene Enriquez, John Glover, Raymond stro¨m, Gustaf Skarsga˚rd, Linda Zilliacus, St. Jacques, Antoinette Bower. Typical, vioJesper Sale´n, Filip Berg, Fredrik af Trampe. lent Bronson entry, with Charlie a profesVivid and violent story of a troubled kid sional killer on the trail of a sadistic British who’s good with his fists; he’s shipped to a doctor (Maher). For Bronson addicts only. [R]▼●쩠 boys’ boarding school where the seniors rule and make life miserable for the younger ones. Evil Under the Sun (1982-British) C117m. ★★ D: Guy Hamilton. Peter Ustinov, As he tries to change his ways and succeed academically he is sucked into the dark unJane Birkin, Colin Blakely, Nicholas Clay, derworld of the campus. Although set in the Roddy McDowall, James Mason, Sylvia ’50s and featuring a tip of the hat to REBEL Miles, Denis Quilley, Diana Rigg, Maggie WITHOUT A CAUSE, this is closer in Smith, Emily Hone. Murder at a resort hotel, spirit to Lindsay Anderson’s IF. . . . and with Hercule Poirot (Ustinov) to the rescue. FIGHT CLUB. Originally released in the An all-star cast and top production values, but still blah. Based on the Agatha Christie novel, U.S. unrated. [R]쩠 Evil Dead, The (1983) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: with a script by Anthony Shaffer; exteriors Sam Raimi. Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandfilmed in Majorca. [PG] ▼●쩠 weiss, Betsy Baker, Hal Delrich, Sarah Evita (1996) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Parker. York. Five kids at mountain cabin chop Madonna, Antonio Banderas, Jonathan each other to pieces when demons possess Pryce, Jimmy Nail. The world’s longest everything. Wildly stylish, ultra-low-budmusic video: a lavish adaptation of Andrew get movie made by precocious college Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s 1978 stage students is one of the grossest horror films musical about the rise of Eva Peron, from her ever. Borrowing inspiration from NIGHT illegitimate childhood to near-deification as OF THE LIVING DEAD, SUSPIRIA, First Lady in 1940s Argentina. As pageant, it THE EXORCIST and THE HOUSE ON works, but there is no emotional center, leav[ 427 ]

ing the viewer aloof from its leading character partners for murder. Very familiar stuff for from start to finish. Madonna parades (and genre fans, with nothing much to set it apart sings) well enough, but Pryce’s strong presfrom dozens of similar films. Followed by ence as Juan Peron and Banderas’s fiery singEXCESSIVE FORCE II: FORCE ON ing commentary bring it to life. Newly added FORCE. [R]▼쩠 song, ‘‘You Must Love Me,’’ won an Oscar. Excuse My Dust (1951) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Rowland. Red Skelton, Sally Forrest, 2.35 Research PLC. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★ Evolution (2001) C-103m. Macdonald Carey, Monica Lewis, William D: Ivan Reitman. David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, JuliDemarest. Amiable Skelton musicomedy. anne Moore, Seann William Scott, Ted Red invents automobile which almost costs Levine, Ethan Suplee, Michael Bower, Dan him his sweetheart; her father owns town Aykroyd, Sarah Silverman, Richard Moll. livery stable. Scattershot sci-fi-comedy/GHOSTBUSTERS Executioner, The (1970-British) C-107m. ★★ throwback about a pair of Arizona commuD: Sam Wanamaker.Joan Collins, George Pepnity college science teachers (Duchovny, pard, Judy Geeson, Oscar Homolka, Charles Jones) who investigate the crash of a meGray, Nigel Patrick, Keith Michell. Pedestrian teor, which begins oozing aliens that thriller with British spy Peppard suspecting quickly evolve. Loud, silly, and only occathat colleague Michell is a double agent. Pasionally funny. [PG-13]▼쩠 navision. [PG]▼ Ex, The (2007) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jesse PerExecutioner, Part II, The (1984) C-85m. etz. Zach Braff, Amanda Peet, Mia Farrow, BOMB D: James Bryant. Christopher Charles Grodin, Jason Bateman, Donal Mitchum, Aldo Ray, Antoine John Mottet, Logue, Ian Hyland, Amy Adams, Fred Renee Harmon. Amateurish actioner, atroArmisen, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd. New ciously directed and acted, with homicide York slacker must come to terms with cacop Mitchum hunting down a vigilante reer and family after his pregnant wife quits murderer. Has no connection to any other her high-paying law firm and forces him to EXECUTIONER title. [R]▼ move back to her Ohio hometown, where Executive Action (1973) C-91m. BOMB he goes to work for his father-in-law’s ad D: David Miller. Burt Lancaster, Robert company. Rarely lifts itself above the level Ryan, Will Geer, Gilbert Green, John Anof a TV sitcom but a likable cast does its derson, Ed Lauter, Sidney Clute, Lloyd best to make do with the material at hand. Gough, Dick Miller. Excruciatingly dull Grodin is an especially welcome presence thriller promised to clear the air about in his first screen role in 13 years. Released JFK’s assassination but was more successbriefly in 2006 as FAST TRACK. [PG-13]쩠 ful at clearing theaters. Scripted by Dalton Trumbo. Ryan’s last film. [PG]▼●쩠 Excalibur (1981-British) C-140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Boorman. Nicol Williamson, Nigel Executive Decision (1996) C-132m. ★★★ Terry, Helen Mirren, Nicholas Clay, Cherie D: Stuart Baird. Kurt Russell, Steven SeaLunghi, Corin Redgrave, Paul Geoffrey, Patgal, Halle Berry, John Leguizamo, Oliver rick Stewart, Gabriel Byrne, Liam Neeson. Platt, Joe Morton, David Suchet, Len CaEccentric but spellbinding, sexually aware renriou, Mary Ellen Trainor, Marla Maples dition of the King Arthur legend by a stylish Trump, J. T. Walsh, Nicholas Pryor, B. D. filmmaker working at the peak of his powers. Wong. The situation: Arab terrorists are in Written by Rospo Pallenberg and Boorman. control of a 747. The solution: Sneak an That’s the director’s son, Charley Boorman, elite team aboard the plane, already in flight. as young Mordred. Magnificent production The problems: The team has to depend on values. Later edited to 119m. and rated PG. inexperienced Russell, and there’s a nerve [R]▼●쩠 gas bomb aboard that will wipe out WashExcess Baggage (1997) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: ington, D.C. Tense, inventive thriller that— Marco Brambilla. Alicia Silverstone, Beuntil a misfired final reel—delivers the nicio Del Toro, Christopher Walken, Nichogoods in high style. Directing debut for top las Turturro, Harry Connick, Jr., Sally editor Baird, who might have tightened the Kirkland. Predictable story of rich, hostile story a bit. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 brat Silverstone trying to get her neglectful Executive Suite (1954) 104m. ★★★ D: father’s attention by faking her own kidnapRobert Wise. William Holden, June Allyping. She smokes, drinks, and whines her son, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walway through this tedious ‘‘comedy’’ in ter Pidgeon, Louis Calhern, Shelley Winters, which everybody involved in the convoPaul Douglas, Nina Foch, Dean Jagger. luted plot is ‘‘clueless.’’ [PG-13]▼●쩠 Slick, multifaceted story of company power Excessive Force (1993) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Jon struggle with top cast, from Cameron Hawley Hess. Thomas Ian Griffith, James Earl novel . . . though similar film PATTERNS Jones, Charlotte Lewis, Lance Henriksen, is much better. Later a TV series.▼●쩠 Burt Young, Tony Todd, W. Earl Brown. Exile, The (1947) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Max Martial arts whiz Griffith wrote this violent Ophuls. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Maria tale, and stars as a Chicago cop who’s acMontez, Paule Croset (Rita Corday), Henry cused of stealing millions and setting up his Daniell, Nigel Bruce, Robert Coote. OK [ 428 ]

swashbuckler with exiled king Fairbanks becomes sporadic action epic. Newman as falling in love with common girl; guest Israeli resistance leader, Saint as non-Jewish appearance by Montez. army nurse aren’t a convincing duo; supeXistenZ (1999-Canadian-British) C-97m. porting roles offer stereotypes. Best scene ★★ D: David Cronenberg. Jennifer Jason shows refugees escaping Cyprus detention Leigh, Jude Law, Willem Dafoe, Ian Holm, center, running British blockade into homeDon McKellar, Callum Keith Rennie, land. Ernest Gold won an Oscar for his Sarah Polley, Christopher Eccleston. Prescore. Super Panavision 70.▼●쩠 posterous film set in the near future about Exorcism of Emily Rose, The (2005) C119m. ★★ D: Scott Derrickson. Laura Lina virtual-reality game designer who gets trapped in one of her own games with a ney, Tom Wilkinson, Campbell Scott, Jenman who’s supposed to be protecting her. nifer Carpenter, Colm Feore, Joshua Close, At one point they wonder how to get out of Ken Welsh, Mary Beth Hurt, Shohreh Aghthe game; it’s much easier to get out of the dashloo, Henry Czerny. An agnostic lawyer movie. Cronenberg also scripted this silly (Linney) is hired to defend a priest (Wilkinconcoction. ▼●쩠 son) accused of negligent homicide in the Exit to Eden (1994) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Garry death of a college student he attempted to Marshall. Dana Delany, Paul Mercurio, exorcise. Peculiar mix of horror movie and Rosie O’Donnell, Dan Aykroyd, Hector Elicourtroom melodrama is unconvincing on all zondo, Stuart Wilson, Iman, Sean O’Bryan, levels, though handsomely produced and well Stephanie Niznik, Rosemary Forsyth, acted. Loosely based on a real European inciDonna Dixon, John Schneider. Strange dent, though the movie is set in the U.S. Uncinematic catastrophe, pried from an Anne rated version runs 122m. Super 35. [PG13]▼쩠 Rice novel, attempts to jerry-build a standard cop sitcom (Aykroyd and O’Donnell Exorcist, The (1973) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: investigate a murder) onto the sexual shenaniWilliam Friedkin. Ellen Burstyn, Max von gans at S&M island fantasy camp. O’DonSydow, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Lee J. nell’s bright performance is the one Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran. Injustification for its existence. If anything, retense, well-mounted adaptation of William sembles a raunchier version of Marshall’s old Peter Blatty’s best-seller, calculated to keep TV show Love, American Style. [R]▼●쩠 your stomach in knots from start to finish. Exit Wounds (2001) C-101m. ★★ D: AnBlair is ‘‘normal’’ 12-year-old whose body drzej Bartkowiak. Steven Seagal, DMX, is possessed by the Devil, Miller a troubled Tom Arnold, Isaiah Washington, Anthony priest who attempts to confront the demon Anderson, Michael Jai White, Bill Duke, in her—and in himself. Oscar winner for Jill Hennessy, David Vadim. Blah actioner Blatty’s screenplay; vocal effects by Merwith aging, ever-wooden Seagal playing a cedes McCambridge. Followed by two setough loner cop who tangles with some onquels, a prequel, and countless imitations. the-take colleagues. Rapper DMX adds life Reissued in 2000 with 11m. of (mostly needless) additional footage. [R] ▼●쩠 to the proceedings as a mysterious drug entrepreneur. All too familiar, but the target Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: John Boorman. Richard Burton, audience might not mind. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Ex-Lady (1933) 65m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Linda Blair, Louise Fletcher, Kitty Winn, Florey. Bette Davis, Gene Raymond, Frank James Earl Jones, Ned Beatty, Max von McHugh, Claire Dodd, Ferdinand GottSydow. Preposterous sequel to 1973 hit. schalk. Davis, looking sensational, plays Special effects are only virtue in this turan independent-minded woman who loves key about priest (Burton) trying to unravel Raymond but doesn’t believe in marriage. mystery of demon still living inside Blair. Provocative and sexy, stylishly filmed, but Boorman recut the film (from 117m.) the begins to drag and become conventional day after its premiere, and made numerous by the second half. A remake of ILLICIT, changes—to no avail. Restored to 117m. filmed just two years earlier!▼ for homevideo. [R]▼쩠 Ex-Mrs. Bradford, The (1936) 80m. ★★★ Exorcist III, The (1990) C-110m. ★★ D: D: Stephen Roberts. William Powell, Jean William Peter Blatty. George C. Scott, Ed Arthur, James Gleason, Eric Blore, Robert Flanders, Brad Dourif, Jason Miller, Nicol Armstrong. Chic a` la THIN MAN comedyWilliamson, Scott Wilson, Nancy Fish, mystery, with Powell teaming with ex-wife George DiCenzo, Viveca Lindfors, Samuel Arthur to crack a case.▼● L. Jackson. Police inspector Scott is conExodus (1960) C-213m. ★★★ D: Otto fronted by a series of gruesome murders, Preminger. Paul Newman, Eva Marie Saint, unmistakably the work of a serial killer who Ralph Richardson, Peter Lawford, Lee J. was executed the same night as the exorCobb, Sal Mineo, John Derek, Hugh Grifcism of the original movie. Film begins well fith, Gregory Ratoff, Felix Aylmer, Jill but grows more absurd and confusing until Haworth, David Opatoshu, Marius Gorit self-destructs. Shows strong evidence of ing, George Maharis. Leon Uris’ sprawlpost-production tinkering. [R]▼●쩠 ing history of Palestinian war for liberation Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) C-114m. ★★ [ 429 ]

D: Renny Harlin. Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Izabella orah Foreman, James Keach, Jan Rubes, Scorupco, James D’Arcy, Remy Sweeney, Brian Doyle-Murray, Rick Ducommun. Ben Cross, Andrew French, Ralph Brown. Fatally bland comedy about two ManhatYet another in the endless line of EXORCIST tan hipsters who are hired to open a nightfollow-ups. This one attempts to explain Faclub in a small Nebraska town—which is ther Merrin’s early years, in particular when really an exact replica of the hamlet built he was in East Africa battling the demon in the U.S.S.R. and used to train Russian Pazuzu, long before he exorcised demons spies. Weak in all respects, and peculiarly from the body of Linda Blair. Competently sentimental about the 1950s. Barely remade, shot by the great Vittorio Storaro, leased to theaters. Costars Travolta and with many horrific images; all that’s missPreston later married. [PG-13]▼● ing is a reason why we should care. Harlin Explicit Ills (2009) C-87m. ★★ D: Mark replaced writer-director Paul Schrader, Webber. Paul Dano, Rosario Dawson, Naowhose ‘‘scrapped’’ version is a separate mie Harris, Lou Taylor Pucci, Frankie Shaw, film, DOMINION: THE PREQUEL TO Tariq Trotter, Francisco Burgos. Meandering, THE EXORCIST. Univision. [R] ▼쩠 self-conscious account of the everyday traExotica (1994-Canadian) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: vails of various low-income denizens of Atom Egoyan. Bruce Greenwood, Mia inner-city Philadelphia. They run the gamut Kirshner, Don McKellar, Arsinee Khanjian, from enterprising and clearheaded to druggedElias Koteas, Sarah Polley, Victor Garber, out. The finale, involving a poor people’s David Hemblen. Five disparate characters march for health care, seems tacked on. Webbecome linked to each other’s destinies, ber’s attempt to create a relaxed lyricism is with a strip club called Exotica as the focal reminiscent of the early works of his execupoint. Only at the end of the film do we tive producer, Jim Jarmusch. Super 35. [R] fully learn the ‘‘back story’’ that brought Explorers (1985) C-109m. ★★ D: Joe Dante. two key characters into each other’s lives. Ethan Hawke, River Phoenix, Jason Presson, Intriguing, like all of Egoyan’s work, but Amanda Peterson, Dick Miller, Robert Pinot entirely satisfying. Winner of the Genie cardo, Dana Ivey, Meshach Taylor, Mary Kay Award as Canada’s Best Picture of 1994. Place. Youngster hooked on science fiction [R]▼●쩠 yearns to travel into space and gets his wish, Experience Preferred . . . but Not Eswith the help of a whiz-kid friend. Opens ★★★ sential (1983-British) C-80m. beautifully, takes its time developing story— D: Peter Duffell. Elizabeth Edmonds, Sue Wallace, then makes disastrous wrong turn in space Geraldine Griffith, Karen Meagher, Ron that transforms film into a shaggy-dog joke! Bain, Alun Lewis, Robert Blythe. Simple, Director Dante has restructured film somecharming little film about a girl’s experiwhat for video release. That version is 107m. ences working as waitress for the summer [PG]▼●쩠 at seaside resort hotel. June Roberts’ script Explosive Generation, The (1961) 89m. ★★ D: Buzz Kulik. William Shatner, Patty focuses on the blossoming of one young woman, while making humorous observaMcCormack, Billy Gray, Steve Dunne, tions about the offbeat group of people Lee Kinsolving, Virginia Field, Phillip around her. Short and sweet; made for BritTerry, Edward Platt, Beau Bridges. High school teacher Shatner causes an uproar ish TV. [PG]▼ Experiment, The SEE: Das Experiment when he has his students write essays on their attitudes about sex. Based-on-fact Experiment in Terror (1962) 123m. ★★★ D: Blake Edwards. Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, account is an intriguing relic of its era Stefanie Powers, Ross Martin, Roy Poole, (both for its subject and cast). Ned Glass. Taut suspense with bank clerk Exposed (1983) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: James Remick terrorized by murderous extortionToback. Nastassia Kinski, Rudolf Nureyev, ist Martin . . . but FBI agent Ford is on the Harvey Keitel, Ian McShane, Bibi Andercase. Realistic, unsentimental, with consson, Ron Randell, Pierre Clementi, James vincing performances by Remick and MarRusso. Girl from the Midwest quits school, tin. Great Henry Mancini score, good use comes to N.Y.C., hits it big as a fashion of San Francisco locations.▼●쩠 model, then gets involved with enigmatic Experiment Perilous (1944) 91m. ★★ D: Nureyev and his plan to kill terrorist Keitel Jacques Tourneur. Hedy Lamarr, George in Paris. Seems like three different movies— Brent, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, Margaret all of them strange. Nureyev’s performance Wycherly, Julia Dean. Static melodrama in might best be described as overripe. That’s the GASLIGHT tradition, with doctor Brent writer-director Toback in the role of Kinski’s coming to the aid of—and falling in love professor/lover. [R]▼ with—fearful Lamarr, who’s being terrorized Exposure (1991-Brazilian) C-100m. ★★ by crazed husband Lukas.▼ D: Walter Salles, Jr. Peter Coyote, Tcheky Experts, The (1989) C-83m. ★★ D: Dave Karyo, Amanda Pays, Raul Cortez, Giulia Thomas. John Travolta, Arye Gross, Gam, Cassia Kiss. Slick but corny, overCharles Martin Smith, Kelly Preston, Debbaked thriller about pompously poetic Ameri[ 430 ]

can photographer (Coyote), living in Rio de clips from 1940s newsreels and Faye’s eye makeup. Panavision. [G] Janeiro, who becomes immersed in a seamy, Extreme Adventures of Super Dave, The violent underworld (and undergoes quite a (2000) C-91m. ★★ D: Peter MacDonald. personality change), searching for killer of Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein), Dan young prostitute. [R]▼● ★★★ D: Gary Hedaya, Gia Carides, Steve Van Wormer, Art Express, The (2008) C-129m. Irizawa, Don Lake, Carl Michael Lindner, Fleder. Rob Brown, Dennis Quaid, Darrin Ray Charles. Daredevil ace Super Dave (a Dewitt Henson, Omar Benson Miller, Nelkind of live-action Wile E. Coyote) faces his san Ellis, Charles S. Dutton, Justin Martin, ultimate challenge; heavy-handed featureJustin Jones, Nicole Beharie, Aunjanue length extension of the cable TV series. EinEllis, Clancy Brown, Saul Rubinek. Inspirastein also coscripted. Mike Connors appears tional biography of Syracuse University unbilled as Super Dave’s grandfather. Made football star Ernie Davis, the first Africanfor theaters in 1998, released on video inAmerican Heisman Trophy winner. Adapted stead. [PG]▼쩠 from Robert Gallagher’s book, this story of Extreme Justice (1993) C-105m. ★★ D: toughness and determination in the face of Mark L. Lester. Lou Diamond Phillips, Scott racism and tragedy may be formula stuff, Glenn, Chelsea Field, Yaphet Kotto, Ed but it’s extremely well done. Super 35. Lauter, Andrew Divoff, William Lucking. [PG]쩠 Renegade cop finds himself caught in the Expresso Bongo (1959-British) 108m. ★★1⁄2 crossfire after being recruited into a secret poD: Val Guest. Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, lice unit that dispenses its own justice on the Yolande Donlan, Cliff Richard, Ambrosine mean streets of L.A. Violence for violence’s Phillpotts, Eric Pohlmann, Hermione Baddesake seems to be the theme of this theatrical ley, Wilfrid Lawson, Kenneth Griffith, Susan film that premiered on cable. [R]▼●쩠 Hampshire. Atmospheric but dated drama Extreme Measures (1996) C-118m. ★★ D: with Harvey shining as a high-energy, jiveMichael Apted. Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, spouting London hustler who thinks he’s Sarah Jessica Parker, David Morse, Bill found his version of Elvis in poor young Nunn, John Toles-Bey, Paul Guilfoyle, Debra bongo-playing rocker Richard. Written by Monk, J. K. Simmons. Emergency room docWolf Mankowitz. DyaliScope.▼쩠 tor senses something fishy going on after a Exterminating Angel, The (1962-Mexican) man who dies mysteriously vanishes from the ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. Silvia Pinal, 95m. hospital’s records. Medical conspiracy thriller Enrique Rambal, Jacqueline Andere, Jose starts out well enough but quickly becomes Baviera, Augusto Benedico. Guests at eleobvious and hollow. Grant has one of his best gant dinner party cannot bring themselves parts as a dedicated doctor; his girlfriend Elizto leave, begin to starve and die after abeth Hurley produced the film. Director several days. Wry assault on bourgeois David Cronenberg plays the head of a medical manners by master surrealist Bun˜uel.▼쩠 review board. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Exterminator, The (1980) C-101m. BOMB Extreme Ops (2002-British-German-LuxemD: James Glickenhaus. Christopher George, bourgian) C-93m. ★★ D: Christian Duguay. Samantha Eggar, Robert Ginty, Steve James, Devon Sawa, Rupert Graves, Bridgette Tony Di Benedetto. Gore galore with VietWilson-Sampras, Rufus Sewell, Heino Ferch, nam veteran Ginty aping Charles Bronson in Joe Absolom, Jana Pallaske. Ho-hum actioner DEATH WISH as he rubs out a gang who in which a wild-and-crazy film crew, shooting mugged and paralyzed a friend. If you love a commercialin the Austrian Alps, tangles with this film, good news—there’s a sequel! Una Serbian war criminal in hiding. The generic rated director’s cut runs 104m. [R]▼●쩠 snowboarding/skiing/kayakingsequences look Exterminator II (1984) C-88m. BOMB as if they’ve been lifted from a sports video. D: Mark Buntzman. Robert Ginty, Mario Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Van Peebles, Deborah Geffner, Frankie Extreme Prejudice (1987) C-104m. ★★ Faison, Scott Randolph, Arye Gross, John D: Walter Hill. Nick Nolte, Powers Boothe, Turturro. Ginty and his blowtorch are back, Michael Ironside, Maria Conchita Alonso, hot after a gang whose most sadistic memRip Torn, Clancy Brown, William Forber is named X. Obnoxious, grade Z garsythe, Larry B. Scott. Boyhood friends bage. [R]▼ Nolte and Boothe are now on opposite Extraordinary Seaman, The (1969) Csides of the law, as Texas Ranger and drug 80m. BOMB D: John Frankenheimer. kingpin on the Texas/Mexico border. David Niven, Faye Dunaway, Alan Alda, Though its excesses (in characterization, Mickey Rooney, Juano Hernandez, Jack music, and especially violence) are apparCarter, Manu Tupou, Barry Kelley. Exently deliberate, that doesn’t make them traordinarily muddled ‘‘comedy’’ of ecany more entertaining, though it helps if you centric Niven piloting long-lost abandoned accept it as tongue-in-cheek. [R]▼●쩠 ship during WW2; shows signs of tamperExtremities (1986) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert ing from original conception of film. Barely M. Young. Farrah Fawcett, James Russo, received theatrical release. Only highpoints: Diana Scarwid, Alfre Woodard. A woman [ 431 ]

is victimized by a taunting rapist in her own home but manages to turn the tables and trap him. William Mastrosimone adapted his own play, but what worked in a theater doesn’t translate to film; Fawcett’s adequate but one-note performance is another liability. [R]▼●쩠 Eye, The (2002-Hong Kong-Singaporean) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Danny Pang, Oxide Pang. Lee Sin-Je, Lawrence Chou, Chuctcha Rujinanon, Candy Lo, Pierre Png, Ko Yin Ping, Edmund Chen. A young, blind violinist receives a cornea transplant . . . and is soon plagued by visions of dead people. Muted psychological horror piece is nicely atmospheric with some genuinely creepy moments but loses steam by the end. Followed by several sequels. Remade in India in 2005 (as NAINA) and in the U.S. in 2008. [R]

it. Field is ideally cast as the mother driven to take the law into her own hands, but this is little more than DEATH WISH in drag, a manipulative movie that becomes awfully far-fetched. What’s more, those attack scenes are very tough to take. [R] ▼●쩠 Eye of the Beholder (1999-British-Canadian) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Stephan Elliott. Ewan McGregor, Ashley Judd, Jason Priestley, k.d. lang, Patrick Bergin, Genevieve Bujold. Terrible but oddly watchable mess with high-tech private eye McGregor tailing sexy serial killer Judd around the U.S.—and falling in love with her in the process. Plays like a voyeuristic music video. U.S. release runs 101m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Eye of the Cat (1969) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Lowell Rich. Michael Sarrazin, ▼쩠 Gayle Hunnicutt, Eleanor Parker, Tim Eye, The (2008) C-97m. ★★ D: David MoHenry, Laurence Naismith. Glossy but inreau, Xavier Palud. Jessica Alba, Alessantriguing suspenser with seductive Hunnidro Nivola, Parker Posey, Rade Serbedzija, cutt teaming with Sarrazin to murder his Fernanda Romero, Rachel Ticotin, Obba aunt (Parker), who keeps a houseful of Babatunde´, Danny Mora, Chloe Moretz, felines. Most terrifying scene has wheelTamlyn Tomita. Violinist Alba, blind since chaired Parker tottering atop a San Franchildhood, has a successful cornea transcisco hill. [M/PG] plant. But there’s a catch: she is now Eye of the Devil (1967-British) 92m. ★★1⁄2 haunted by creepy visions and can see dead D: J. Lee Thompson. Deborah Kerr, David people. Slick but empty remake of the 2002 Niven, Donald Pleasence, Edward Mulhare, Asian horror film, with a wooden Alba apFlora Robson, Emlyn Williams, Sharon pealing only as eye candy. Super 35. [PGTate, David Hemmings, John Le Mesurier. 13]쩠 Excellent cast in odd, low-key thriller set Eye Creatures, The (1965) 80m. ★1⁄2 D: in France. The Marquis de Bellac (Niven) Larry Buchanan. John Ashley, Cynthia abruptly leaves wife in Paris to ‘‘do what Hull, Warren Hammack, Chet Davis, Bill Peck. Gory horror film about title creahe must’’ at ancestral estate near Bordeaux. tures and the intrepid band that tries to Strange continuity due to cuts before inifight them off. Remake of INVASION OF tial release. Also titled: 13. THE SAUCER MEN. Aka ATTACK OF Eye of the Needle (1981) C-112m. ★★★ D: THE THE EYE CREATURES (sic).▼쩠 Richard Marquand. Donald Sutherland, ★★ D: Eye for an Eye, An (1966) C-92m. Kate Nelligan, Ian Bannen, Christopher Michael Moore. Robert Lansing, Pat Wayne, Cazenove, Philip Martin Brown. Solid WW2 Slim Pickens, Gloria Talbott. Oater with spy saga from Ken Follett’s best-seller. twist: two physically disabled men, who Sutherland plays a super-cool German agent can function via teamwork as one sharptemporarily stranded on an island off the shooter, hunt down killers of older man’s British coast, where he meets a lonely, family. Video title: TALION.▼쩠 sexually frustrated woman. [R] ▼●쩠 Eye for an Eye, An (1981) C-106m. ★★ Eye of the Storm (1991-German-U.S.) D: Steve Carver. Chuck Norris, ChristoC-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Yuri Zeltser. Craig Sheffer, pher Lee, Richard Roundtree, Matt Clark, Bradley Gregg, Lara Flynn Boyle, Leon Mako, Maggie Cooper, Terry Kiser. Cop Rippy, Dennis Hopper. After their parents Norris’s partner is killed by drug traffickare brutally murdered, and one of the boys ers; he has nightmares, becomes a oneis blinded, two brothers take over operaman army seeking vengeance against villain tion of the family’s motel in a desolate Lee and his cronies. Silly and predictable, location. When Boyle and Hopper rent a but delivers for formula fans. [R]▼쩠 room, unsettling truths begin to emerge. Eye for an Eye (1996) C-101m. ★★ D: John Tedious until the last ten minutes. Super 35. Schlesinger. Sally Field, Ed Harris, Kiefer [R] ▼●쩠 Sutherland, Joe Mantegna, Beverly D’Angelo, Eye of the Tiger (1986) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Olivia Burnette, Alexandra Kyle, Darrell Richard Sarafian. Gary Busey, Yaphet Larsen, Charlayne Woodard, Philip Baker Kotto, Seymour Cassel, Bert Remsen, WilHall, Keith David, Natalija Nogulich, liam Smith, Kimberlin Ann Brown, DeArmin Shimerman. When Field’s teenage nise Galik, Judith Barsi. Ex-con Busey’s daughter is brutally raped and murdered, she seeks revenge on the creep who did town is invaded by Hells Angels types, [ 432 ]

who sadistically murder his wife . . . so Messner, former wife of popular televangelhe goes on a one-man crusade for revenge. ist Jim Bakker, and her fall from grace. Sound familiar? [R]▼●쩠 Interesting as a chronicle of money-driven Eye See You (2002-U.S.-German) C-96m. TV ministries as well as an entertaining ★1 ⁄2 D: Jim Gillespie. Sylvester Stallone, portrait of the movement’s former First Lady. [PG-13]▼쩠 Kris Kristofferson, Tom Berenger, Charles S. Dutton, Sean Patrick Flanery, ChristoEyes, the Mouth, The (1982-Italianpher Fulford, Stephen Lang, Dina Meyer, French) C-100m. ★★ D: Marco Bellocchio. Robert Patrick, Courtney B. Vance, Polly Lou Castel, Angela Molina, Emmanuele Walker, Jeffrey Wright, Rance Howard. Riva, Michel Piccoli, Antonio Piovanelli. Stallone is an FBI agent taunted by a serial Dreary, pretentious pap about the effect of killer. When his fiance´e is murdered, our a man’s suicide on his actor-brother (Castel), hero resorts to drink, attempts suicide, and mother (Riva) and pregnant lover (Molina). winds up in rehab, conveniently located in At one point Castel and Molina see FIST the middle of nowhere. Guess who drops by IN HIS POCKET, also directed by Belfor a visit? Stallone is actually good, but the locchio and starring Castel. We suggest story is ridiculous, and the slayings gruethe viewer do the same. [R]▼ some. This belongs in I.C.U. Debuted in Eyes Wide Shut (1999) C-154m. ★★★ D: U.S. on video. Aka D-TOX. Panavision. Stanley Kubrick. Tom Cruise, Nicole Kid[R]▼쩠 man, Sydney Pollack, Marie Richardson, Eyes in the Night (1942) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd Field, Lisa Leone, Thomas Gibson, Fred Zinnemann. Edward Arnold, Ann HarVinessa Shaw, Rade Sherbedgia, Leelee Soding, Donna Reed, Stephen McNally, Regibieski, Alan Cumming, Fay Masterson. Afnald Denny, Rosemary DeCamp, Mantan fluent, happily married N.Y.C. doctor starts to Moreland, Barry Nelson. Above-par myscome apart after his wife admits to having tery with Arnold as blind detective Duncan had a potent sexual fantasy about a man she Maclain protecting Harding from Nazi never met. This leads the husband to foray agents. The dog steals the picture. ▼쩠 into a world of sexual adventure for the first Eyes of an Angel (1994) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: time. Provocative film takes place in a distincRobert Harmon. John Travolta, Ellie Raab, tive Kubrick environment—contained, almost Tito Larriva, Jeffrey DeMunn. When single claustrophobic at times. Overlong, and flawed, parent Travolta and his daughter flee from but still compelling, with two megawatt star the mobsters who threaten him, the fight performances. Nudity is plentiful, but the dog she secretly nursed back to health European version (now available on DVD) makes a preposterous cross country trip to is even more graphic and runs 158m. find her. Too violent for kids, too boring Screenplay by Kubrick and Frederic Raand absurd for adults. Sat on a shelf for phael from a 1926 Arthur Schnitzler novel. Kubrick’s final film. [R] ▼●쩠 four years; released after Travolta’s PULP FICTION success. Original title: THE Eyes Without a Face (1959-French-Italian) TENDER. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 88m. ★★★ D: Georges Franju. Pierre BrasEyes of a Stranger (1981) C-85m. BOMB. seur, Alida Valli, Edith Scob. Moody horror D: Ken Wiederhorn. Lauren Tewes, Jennifilm, a classic in some circles, about a brilfer Jason Leigh, John DiSanti, Peter DuPre, liant but crazed scientist/surgeon/researcher Gwen Lewis. Overweight creep DiSanti (Brasseur) and his fate after disfiguring his rapes and kills women, and the blood daughter. Aka THE HORROR CHAMBER OF DR. FAUSTUS. ▼●쩠 flows like wine; Tewes tracks him down, while her deaf, dumb, and blind sister Eye Witness (1950-British) 104m. ★★1⁄2 (Leigh) is established as a potential victim. D: Robert Montgomery. Robert MontgomUtter trash. Leigh’s film debut. [R]▼쩠 ery, Felix Aylmer, Leslie Banks, Michael Eyes of Hell SEE: The Mask (1961) Ripper, Patricia Wayne (Cutts). UnpretenEyes of Laura Mars (1978) C-103m. tious yarn of American attorney Montgom★★1⁄2 D: Irvin Kershner. Faye Dunaway, ery in London to defend friend accused of Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Rene homicide, coping with contrasting British Auberjonois, Raul Julia, Frank Adonis, legal system while hunting title figure. Darlanne Fluegel, Rose Gregorio, Michael Originally titled YOUR WITNESS.▼ Tucker. A high-fashion photographer has Eyewitness (1970) SEE: Sudden Terror frightening premonitions of grisly murEyewitness (1981) C-102m. ★★ D: Peter ders; some genuine suspense, lots of red Yates. William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, herrings, and a silly resolution add up to Christopher Plummer, James Woods, Irene an OK thriller but Dunaway’s kinky colWorth, Kenneth McMillan, Pamela Reed, leagues and their lifestyles are a real turnoff. Steven Hill, Morgan Freeman. Slick but John Carpenter cowrote. [R]▼●쩠 unsatisfying thriller about a building janiEyes of Tammy Faye, The (2000) C-79m. tor who uses his second-hand knowledge ★★★ D: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato. of an unsolved murder to get close to a Narrated by RuPaul Charles. Eye-opening female TV news reporter with whom he’s documentary about Tammy Faye Bakkerbeen infatuated. Steve Tesich’s script is [ 433 ]

needlessly cluttered with minor characters and story twists. [R]▼●쩠

Face Behind the Mask, The (1941) 69m. ★★★ D: Robert Florey. Peter Lorre, Evelyn Keyes, Don Beddoe, George E. Stone, Fabiola (1948-Italian-French) 96m. ★★★ D: John Tyrrell. Model B film of immiAlessandro Blasetti. Michele Morgan, Migrant Lorre having face disfigured in fire, chel Simon, Henri Vidal, Massimo Girotti, donning mask, bitterly turning to life of Louis Salou, Gino Cervi. Confusing but imcrime. Extremely well done on slim budget. pressive epic of persecution against ChrisFace in the Crowd, A (1957) 125m. ★★★1 tians in 4th-century Rome. Simon is the ⁄2 D: Elia Kazan. Andy Griffith, powerful, forward-thinking Fabius Severus; Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Morgan is Fabiola, his cavalier offspring; Matthau, Lee Remick, Kay Medford. PerVidal is Rhual, steadfast Christian gladiator. ceptive script by Budd Schulberg about Originally released in Europe at 150m.; homespun hobo (Griffith) discovered by English-dubbed version, adapted by Marc Neal and promoted into successful—and Connelly and Fred Pressburger and featurunscrupulous—TV star. Cast gives life to ing an altogether different storyline, opened fascinating story. Film debuts of Griffith in the U.S. in 1951.▼쩠 and Remick. Look for young Rip Torn and Fabulous Baker Boys, The (1989) CLois Nettleton. Many celebrities also appear as themselves, including Burl Ives, Mike 113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve Kloves. Jeff Bridges, Michelle Pfeiffer, Beau Bridges, Ellie Wallace, Betty Furness, Bennett Cerf, Faye Raab, Jennifer Tilly. Two brothers’ 15Emerson, and Walter Winchell.▼쩠 year partnership as a twin-piano nightclub Face/Off (1997) C-138m. ★★★ D: John lounge act is shaken by the addition of a Woo. John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan feisty (and sexy) singer, who sparks changes Allen, Alessandro Nivola, Gina Gershon, in their act—and their relationship. Writer Dominique Swain, Nick Cassavetes, Colm Kloves’ directing debut is stylish and selfFeore, John Carroll Lynch, CCH Pounder, assured, with some great scenes and setMargaret Cho, Jamie Denton. Two thirds pieces, but it skimps on story—and never of a terrific movie: Federal agent Travolta really fleshes out Jeff Bridges’ sullen charagrees to have a heinous criminal’s face acter. The real-life Bridges brothers are grafted onto his own, in order to fool the perfectly cast, Pfeiffer is ideal. Her steamy no-good’s brother into spilling vital inforrendition of ‘‘Makin’ Whoopee’’ atop piano mation. But the daring plan goes awry in considered a minor classic. [R]▼●쩠 more ways than one. Travolta and Cage are Fabulous Baron Munchausen, The (1961charismatically over the top, and Woo’s Czech) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Karel Zeman. staging of action scenes is powerfully Milos Kopecky, Jana Brejchova, Rudolph Jegood . . . but the film doesn’t know when to linek, Jan Werich. Filmmaker Zeman (FABstop. Silly plotting and dialogue might have ULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE) been overlooked in a tighter film. Panaviprovides another visual delight here, but sion. [R] ▼●쩠 his episodic fantasy—which takes his Face of Fu Manchu, The (1965-British) hero from the inside of a whale to the C-96m. ★★★ D: Don Sharp. Christopher surface of the moon—is stilted and unLee, Nigel Green, James Robertson Jusinvolving. Aka THE ORIGINAL FABUtice, Howard Marion-Crawford, Tsai Chin, LOUS ADVENTURES OF BARON Walter Rilla. First of new series with MUNCHAUSEN.▼● Emperor Fu bent on conquering West. Fabulous Dorseys, The (1947) 88m. ★★ Great 1920s atmosphere, good international D: Alfred E. Green. Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy cast. Followed by THE BRIDES OF FU MANCHU. Techniscope.▼ Dorsey, Janet Blair, Paul Whiteman, William Lundigan. Limp ‘‘biography’’ of Faces (1968) 130m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Casbandleading brothers, constantly arguing savetes. John Marley, Gena Rowlands, in between ‘‘Marie,’’ ‘‘Green Eyes,’’ and Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, Fred Draper, other hit songs. Musical highlight: a jam Val Avery. Highly personal drama about assession with Art Tatum, Charlie Barnet, sorted infidelities is one of the few Cassavetes Ziggy Elman and Ray Bauduc.▼●쩠 films to make it with general public. Powerful Fabulous Journey to the Center of the film with great acting, especially by Carlin and Cassel. [R]▼●쩠 Earth, The SEE: Where Time Began Fabulous World of Jules Verne, The Face to Face (1976-Swedish) C-136m. ★★★ (1958-Czech) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Karel Zeman. D: Ingmar Bergman. Liv Ullmann, Erland Lubor Tolos, Arnost Navratil, Miroslav Josephson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Aino Holub, Zatloukalova. Zeman’s ingenious Taube-Henrikson, Kari Sylwan, Sif Ruud. visual effects, reproducing the look of Brilliant Ullmann performance and Sven 19th-century engravings, outshine leaden Nykvist photography compensate someenactment of fanciful sci-fi story by Verne. what for de´ja` vu feeling one gets from Released here in 1961 with Americanized drama about woman psychiatrist who sufnames in credits and pointless introduction fers severe nervous breakdown. As harby Hugh Downs.▼쩠 rowing as they come; not for every taste or [ 434 ]

mood. Originally a four-part Swedish TV Vall, Laura Harris, Shawn Hatosy, Usher miniseries. [R] Raymond, Jon Stewart, Daniel von Bargen. Face to the Wind SEE: Cry for Me, Billy Ohio high school students who normally Facing the Giants (2006) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 clash with one another band together when D: Alex Kendrick. Alex Kendrick, Shannen they discover that their teachers are being Fields, Tracy Goode, Chris Willis, Bailey taken over by aliens. Self-referential horror Cave, Steve Williams, Mark Richt, Jason film, with a healthy nod to INVASION OF McLeod. Faith-based family drama about a THE BODY SNATCHERS, is a cut above losing football coach whose Christian high usual teen gore fests and has a first-rate cast. school is about to fire him. He also faces Overlong but sharply written (by Kevin a dying car, a deteriorating house, and a Williamson, from a story by David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel). [R] ▼●쩠 receding hairline. At his lowest ebb he pulls religion off the bench and the team begins Fade-In (1968) C-93m. ★★ D: Allen to pray and play together as one. Sincere if Smithee (Jud Taylor). Burt Reynolds, Barfamiliar home-grown production was fibara Loden, Noam Pitlik, Patricia Casey, nanced by the congregation of the SherJames Hampton, Joseph Perry. Odd little wood Baptist Church in Albany, GA, and film made concurrently with BLUE, about cowritten and edited by the director, who love affair between film editor Loden and also stars. The giants, incidentally, are failman she meets while working on location. ure and fear. [PG]쩠 Not very good, but a definite curio; never Factory Girl (2006) C-90m. ★★ D: George released theatrically. BLUE actors TerHickenlooper. Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, ence Stamp, Joanna Pettet, Ricardo MonHayden Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, Jack talban, and Sally Kirkland can be glimpsed here. Video title: IRON COWBOY.▼ Huston, Armin Amiri, Tara Summers, Mena Suvari, Shawn Hatosy, Beth Grant, James Fade to Black (1980) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Naughton, Edward Herrmann, Illeana DougVernon Zimmerman. Dennis Christopher, las, Sally Kirkland, Mary Kate Olsen, Don Linda Kerridge, Tim Thomerson, Morgan Novello, Grant James. Sad, true story of Paull, Marya Small, Mickey Rourke. 1960s socialite Edie Sedgwick (Miller) and Weirdo film buff Christopher does in his her self-destructive spiral into depravity and enemies while dressed up as his favorite drug addiction after becoming one of Andy cinema villains. Interesting idea ruined by Warhol’s underground-movie ‘‘superstars.’’ excessive violence, poor performance by Christensen plays a famous musician who Christopher. Marilyn Monroe lookalike looks, acts, and sounds suspiciously like Kerridge, as Christopher’s girlfriend, is Bob Dylan, with whom she has a stormy like a rose in a cesspool. [R]▼쩠 affair. Miller gives a raw, passionate perforFahrenheit 451 (1966) C-111m. ★★★ D: mance, while Pearce is uncanny, seemingly Franc˛ois Truffaut. Julie Christie, Oskar channeling Warhol’s voice and mannerWerner, Cyril Cusack, Anton Diffring, isms, but the script is repetitive and superJeremy Spenser, Bee Duffell, Alex Scott, ficial, and last-minute reshoots and reediting Mark Lester. Odd and generally slow-going are all too obvious. [R]쩠 adaptation of Ray Bradbury sci-fi novel Factotum (2006-Norwegian-U.S.-German) depicting future Earth civilization where all C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bent Hamer. Matt Dillon, printed reading material is banned. Though Lili Taylor, Marisa Tomei, Fisher Stevens, viewer interest is held throughout, film has Didier Flamand, Adrienne Shelly, Karen curiously reserved, unemotional feel to it. Truffaut’s only film in English.▼●쩠 Young, Tom Lyons. Low-key adaptation of Charles Bukowski’s 1975 novel, with DilFahrenheit 9/11 (2004) C-122m. ★★★ D: lon excellent as the author’s booze-soaked Michael Moore. Moore’s controversial, alter ego, Henry Chinaski, who floats through take-no-prisoners condemnation of George a series of jobs and women. Many wellW. Bush, highlighting the Bush family’s observed moments, with solid perforsupposed ties to Saudi Arabia and Osama mances, but as aimless as its source, and its bin Laden and the manner in which the U.S. protagonist’s self-love becomes a bit weaPresident allegedly exploited the tragedy of rying. Chinaski also is portrayed by Mickey 9/11 to spearhead his own political agenda. At its best, the film pointedly undercuts Rourke in BARFLY. [R]쩠 Facts of Life, The (1960) 103m. ★★★ D: Bush’s justification for starting the Iraq war; Melvin Frank. Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, it’s less effective when spotlighting Moore Ruth Hussey, Don DeFore. Sophisticated and his patented, attention-getting theatrics. comedy with Bob and Lucy leaving their How you respond to this openly propaganspouses for an interlude together. The two distic film will depend on your political stars make a team worth watching. ▼●쩠 leanings and your tolerance for Moore’s inFaculty, The (1998) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: cendiary brand of filmmaking. [R] ▼쩠 Robert Rodriguez. Josh Hartnett, Jordana Fail-Safe (1964) 111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Brewster, Elijah Wood, Salma Hayek, Piper Lumet. Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Fritz Laurie, Famke Janssen, Chris McDonald, Weaver, Dan O’Herlihy, Sorrell Booke, Robert Patrick, Bebe Neuwirth, Clea DuLarry Hagman, Frank Overton, Dom De[ 435 ]

Luise. U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered despite good performances. Filmed in to nuke Moscow, plunging heads of Ameri1994. [R]▼●쩠 can and Russian governments into crisis of Faithless (2000-Swedish-German) C-155m. ★★★1 decision making as time runs out. High-ten⁄2 D: Liv Ullmann. Lena Endre, Erland sion drama done with taste and intelligence. Josephson, Krister Henriksson, Thomas Walter Bernstein adapted the Eugene BurHanzon, Michelle Gylemo, Juni Dahr. Ingmar dick–Harvey Wheeler best-seller. Remade Bergman scripted this forceful drama about in 2000 for TV. ▼●쩠 the impact of an extramarital love affair. Failure to Launch (2006) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sparks erupt when a successful, happily wed Tom Dey. Matthew McConaughey, Sarah actress-mother (Endre) inexplicably beJessica Parker, Zooey Deschanel, Justin comes involved with her gloomy friend Bartha, Bradley Cooper, Kathy Bates, Terry (Henriksson). Exquisitely played; a comBradshaw, Patton Oswalt, Stephen Toboplex and provocative rumination on love, lowsky, Rob Corddry. Bachelor McCosex, desire, and betrayal. [R]▼쩠 naughey is content living at home with his Fakers, The SEE: Hell’s Bloody Devils folks, a fact that usually puts off any woman The Falcon series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s who’s getting too serious about a relationClassic Movie Guide ship. Then his parents hire Parker, a soFalcon and the Snowman, The (1985) called professional at motivating men like C-131m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Schlesinger. Timothis to leave the nest. Pleasant-enough rothy Hutton, Sean Penn, David Suchet, mantic comedy that heads exactly where Lori Singer, Pat Hingle, Dorian Harewood, you know it will. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Mady Kaplan, Richard Dysart, Chris Fair Game (1995) C-91m. BOMB D: Makepeace, Michael Ironside. True story, Andrew Sipes. William Baldwin, Cindy based on Robert Lindsay’s book about two Crawford, Steven Berkoff, Christopher Mcyoung men from affluent families who deDonald, Miguel Sandoval, Johann Carlo, cide to sell government secrets to the RusSalma Hayek, John Bedford Lloyd. Totally sians. Much food for thought, but we never pre-fab action thriller that almost looks as get to share Hutton’s feelings, and that if producer Joel Silver is trying to satirize keeps this well-made film somewhat aloof. himself. Miami lawyer Crawford survives the Standout: Penn’s performance as a desperrequisite amount of firepower and fireballs ate, amoral, drugged-out kid. [R]▼●쩠 during her pursuit by former KGB operaFall, The (2008-U.S.-Indian-British) Ctives. Baldwin is the cop trying to keep 118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tarsem. Lee Pace, Catinca them both alive. Arguably the worst movie Untaru, Justine Waddell, Robin Smith, Juof 1995. In her acting debut, supermodel lian Bleach, Jeetu Verma, Leo Bill, Daniel Crawford makes a good jogger. [R]▼●쩠 Caltagirone. In 1920s California, a young FairyTale: A True Story (1997-U.S.girl (Untaru) recuperating from a broken British) C-99m. ★★★ D: Charles Sturridge. arm in a remote convalescent hospital beFlorence Hoath, Elizabeth Earl, Paul friends a suicidal patient (Pace), who spins McGann, Phoebe Nicholls, Peter O’Toole, an incredible yarn that holds her spellbound. Harvey Keitel, Tim McInnerny. Charming In it, five heroic figures escape captivity on film, rich in period flavor, spun around a a desert island and go after the man who real-life incident in 1917, when two girls imprisoned them, a powerful governor. Viphotographed fairies in their garden—and sual opus by music video–commercial cult no less a figure than Sir Arthur Conan figure Tarsem is alternately whimsical and Doyle declared them genuine. As it deals ponderous, but location filming in more with death (one of the girls has lost her than 20 countries provides a panorama of brother to pneumonia), the horrors of WW1, stunning locations for his showy, often and real-life characters like Doyle and Houimaginatively staged sequences. Based on a dini (Keitel), this may actually have greater 1981 Bulgarian movie called YO HO HO. appeal to grown-ups than to children. Mel [R]쩠 Gibson, whose company produced the film, Fallen (1998) C-124m. ★★ D: Gregory has a cameo role. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★ Hoblit. Denzel Washington, John GoodFaithful (1996) C-88m. D: Paul Mazurman, Donald Sutherland, Embeth Davidtz, sky. Cher, Chazz Palminteri, Ryan O’Neal, James Gandolfini, Elias Koteas, Gabriel Paul Mazursky, Amber Smith, Elisa Leonetti, Casseus, Robert Joy, Aida Turturro, Barry Stephen Spinella, Jeffrey Wright, Allison JanShabaka Henley. Philadelphia homicide cop ney. On her 20th anniversary, the unhappy, investigates brutal copycat murders—but is neglected wife of a wealthy businessman is slow to realize that there may be an explanaseized by a hit man who ties her up and tion beyond the normal for how and why awaits a signal from her husband to murder these deaths are being executed. Hybrid of her. Meanwhile, they engage in a lively and supernatural and cop-thriller genres doesn’t surprisingly revealing conversation. All too pay off, despite creepy atmosphere and obviously derived from a stage play (by Palsolid performances. It takes much too long minteri, who also wrote the script), this interesting piece simply doesn’t work on film, to get where it’s going, and the finale sub[ 436 ]

verts the film’s own ‘‘ground rules.’’ PaBOMB D: John Mellencamp. John Mellennavision. [R] ▼●쩠 camp, Mariel Hemingway, Kay Lenz, Fallen Angel (1945) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Otto Claude Akins, Dub Taylor, Larry Crane. Preminger. Alice Faye, Dana Andrews, Warmed-over Larry McMurtry tripe about Linda Darnell, Charles Bickford, Anne Rea country music star who returns to his vere, Bruce Cabot, John Carradine. Andrews, hometown, opening old family wounds hard up and bitter, stops in a small California and reigniting a relationship with his onetown and falls for sultry waitress Darnell. To time girlfriend, who’s now married to his get money to marry her, he plans to first wed brother. Lenz’s sexy character is the only mousy heiress Faye and fleece her. Slowone that avoids cliche´; Mellencamp’s perpaced (if good-looking) film noir was an illformance is simply boring. This marked the fated change of pace for musical star Faye, in singing star’s directing debut. [PG-13] her last starring movie.쩠 ▼●쩠 Fallen Angels (1995-Hong Kong) C-95m. ★★ Falling in Love (1984) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Wong Kar-Wai. Leon Lai, Michelle Reis, Ulu Grosbard. Robert De Niro, Meryl Takeshi Kaneshiro, Charlie Yeung, Karen Streep, Harvey Keitel, Jane Kaczmarek, Mok. Slickly made but emotionally uninvolvGeorge Martin, David Clennon, Dianne ing (and practically narrative-free) portrait of Wiest. Straightforward film about two marcultural alienation, which like its predecessor, ried people who—against their better CHUNGKING EXPRESS, focuses on two judgment—have an affair. BRIEF ENsets of characters: an assassin and the beautiCOUNTER it’s not, but De Niro and espeful colleague who desires him; and a mute cially Streep lift it out of the ordinary. ex-con and the woman he covets. Dazzling [PG-13]▼●쩠 cinematography, camera angles, and editing Falling in Love Again (1980) C-103m. aside, this is mostly meandering and confus★1 ⁄2 D: Steven Paul. Elliott Gould, Susannah ing—and as emotionally distant as the characYork, Stuart Paul, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kaye ters it portrays. ▼●쩠 Ballard, Robert Hackman, Steven Paul. Fallen Idol, The (1948-British) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 Amateurish slop wherein a frustrated Gould D: Carol Reed. Ralph Richardson, Michele flashes back to his halcyon youth in the Morgan, Bobby Henrey, Sonia Dresdel, Bronx and his courtship of a WASP prinJack Hawkins, Bernard Lee. Young boy cess. Artificial, to say the least. Twentyidolizes a household servant who is suspected year-old producer-director-writer-actor Paul of murdering his wife. Exceptional realization scores points for chutzpah, not talent, with of Graham Greene story ‘‘The Basement this feature debut; also Pfeiffer’s film debut. Room,’’ told in large part from the child’s Aka IN LOVE. [PG]▼●쩠 point of view. Scripted by Greene, Lesley Fall of the House of Usher (1960) SEE: Storm, and William Templeton. Also shown House of Usher in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Fall of the Roman Empire, The (1964) Fallen Sparrow, The (1943) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: C-180m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Mann. Sophia Richard Wallace. John Garfield, Maureen Loren, Stephen Boyd, Alec Guinness, O’Hara, Walter Slezak, Patricia Morison, James Mason, Christopher Plummer, AnMartha O’Driscoll, Bruce Edwards, John thony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, Miljan, John Banner, Hugh Beaumont. EnMel Ferrer, Eric Porter. Intelligent scripting, tertaining if somewhat vague WW2 thriller good direction, and fine acting place this with Garfield returning to N.Y.C. after fightfar above the usual empty-headed spectacle. ing in the Spanish Civil War, only to find Mason and Guinness are superb; several himself hunted by undercover Nazis. Promisaction sequences are outstanding. A winner ing material never really pans out. ▼●쩠 all the way. Screenplay by Philip Yordan, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Falling Down (1993) C-115m. Ben Barzman, and Basilio Franchina. Ultra Joel Schumacher. Michael Douglas, RobPanavision 70.▼●쩠 ert Duvall, Barbara Hershey, Frederic ForFalstaff SEE: Chimes at Midnight rest, Tuesday Weld, Rachel Ticotin, Lois Fame (1980) C-133m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan ParSmith, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond J. ker. Irene Cara, Lee Curreri, Eddie Barth, Barry, D. W. Moffett, Brent Hinkley, Dedee Laura Dean, Paul McCrane, Barry Miller, Pfeiffer, Vondie Curtis Hall, Jack Kehoe, John Boyd Gaines, Gene Anthony Ray, Maureen Diehl. Nerdy Douglas blows his cool one Teefy, Antonia Franceschi, Anne Meara, morning, abandons his car in freeway traffic, Albert Hague, Debbie Allen, Richard Beland starts wandering L.A. on an increasingly zer, Isaac Mizrahi, Meg Tilly. The dreams, violent odyssey—while Duvall, his last day aspirations, struggles, and failures of stubefore retiring from the police force, sniffs dents at N.Y.C.’s High School for Perhim out. Dead-on portrait of a disenfranforming Arts should have made a great film, chised, modern-day American who goes off but this one just misses the mark, despite the deep end. It’s vivid, it’s credible, it’s exgood ingredients and Oscar-winning music tremely well acted . . . but what exactly is the (by Michael Gore) and song (by Gore and point? Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Falling From Grace (1992) C-100m. Dean Pitchford). Moments of insight, ex[ 437 ]

citement, and creativity eventually get lost appalling music scores of recent memory, in abrupt, disjointed continuity, which composed by Cy Coleman. Based on a leaves a bushel of loose ends and unrenovel by Vincent Patrick. [R]▼●쩠 solved ideas. Later a TV series. [R]▼●쩠 Family Game, The (1984-Japanese) CFamily, The (1970-Italian) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 107m. ★★★ D: Yoshimitsu Morita. Yusaku D: Sergio Sollima. Charles Bronson, Jill Matsuda, Juzo Itami, Saori Yuki, Junichi Ireland, Telly Savalas, Michel Constantin, Tsujita, Ichirota Miyagawa. Arrogant tutor Umberto Orsini, George Savalas. Fast pacis engaged to propel an indolent younger ing fails to hide cliche´s in this action son into a classy school but ends up taking drama about an ex-con (Bronson) in singleover entire household. Overlong, but origminded hunt for the man who framed him inal, satire of Japan’s burgeoning middle and stole his girl. Lots of chefs involved in class offers plenty of chuckles, insights writing this brew, among them Lina Wertinto modern-day Japan.▼쩠 muller. Also called VIOLENT CITY. Family Jewels, The (1965) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 D: Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Donna ButterFamily, The (1987-Italian) C-127m. ★★★ worth, Sebastian Cabot, Robert Strauss, D: Ettore Scola. Vittorio Gassman, Fanny Milton Frome. Depending on your taste Ardant, Stefania Sandrelli, Andrea Occhifor Lewis, you’ll either be in ecstasy or pinti, Jo Ciampa, Philippe Noiret. Epiwrithing on the floor in pain because he sodic, revealing chronicle of 80 years in the plays seven parts—all of them as potential life of an upper-middle-class Italian clan guardians of little girl who is inheriting several million dollars.▼쩠 (with some characters portrayed through the decades by several different actors). An afFamily Life (1971-British) C-108m. ★★★ fectionate depiction, leisurely paced but D: Kenneth Loach. Sandy Ratcliffe, Bill well worth catching. Don’t look for any sumpDean, Grace Cave, Malcolm Tierney, Hiltuous Roman exteriors: Scola never once ary Martyn, Alan MacNaughton. Forceful strays from the family’s apartment! [PG]▼● drama about a weak-willed and deeply trouFamily Affair, A (1937) 69m. ★★★ D: bled young woman (Ratcliffe) and her deepGeorge B. Seitz. Lionel Barrymore, Mickey ening psychological turmoil as her parents Rooney, Spring Byington, Cecilia Parker, compel her to have an abortion. While Loach’s Eric Linden, Julie Haydon, Charley Grapeleft-of-center worldview makes this a politiwin, Sara Haden. Amiable first entry in the cally loaded (and occasionally preachy) alleAndy Hardy series centers on Judge Hardy gory, he and screenwriter David Mercer (Barrymore) solving various family probnonetheless paint a harrowing portrait of an lems while trying to be reelected. A good uncaring medical bureaucracy. Originally titled WEDNESDAY’S CHILD.▼ intro to the sentimental charm of life in Louis B. Mayer’s idealized vision of smalltown Family Man, The (2000) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 America. Byington and Barrymore’s roles D: Brett Ratner. Nicolas Cage, Te´a Leoni, were taken over by Fay Holden and Lewis Jeremy Piven, Don Cheadle, Saul Rubinek, Stone for the rest of the series. Based on the Josef Sommer, Harve Presnell, Mary Beth play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol. Hurt, Amber Valletta, Francine York. A ruthFamily Business (1986-French) C-98m. less financial exec with no emotional ties is ★★1 ⁄2 D: Costa-Gavras. Johnny Hallyday, magically transported into a life he’s never Fanny Ardant, Guy Marchand, Laurent known: the working-class suburban existence Romor, Remi Martin, Juliette Rennes, Carhe might have had if he’d married his college oline Pochon. Well-made but inconsequengirlfriend. Smart and sentimental: a rare contial comedy of professional safecracker temporary holiday-themed comedy-fantasy Hallyday, whose wife, daughter, and (most that has the courage of its own convictions; tellingly) son are involved in various ways this one scores a bull’s-eye. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 with his ‘‘career.’’ The motivations of his spouse (Ardant), particularly in relation to Family Plot (1976) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Altheir son, are utterly confounding. Aka fred Hitchcock. Karen Black, Bruce Dern, CONSEIL DE FAMILLE. ▼ Barbara Harris, William Devane, Ed Lauter, Family Business (1989) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cathleen Nesbitt, Katherine Helmond. Sidney Lumet. Sean Connery, Dustin HoffHitchcock coasts along in this tongue-inman, Matthew Broderick, Rosana DeSoto, cheek thriller. Harris is phony psychic Janet Carroll, Victoria Jackson, Bill Mcwho gets involved in a murder plot hatched Cutcheon, Deborah Rush. Brainy Brodby sinister Devane. Mildly entertaining erick, estranged from father Hoffman, but never credible. Ernest Lehman scripted Hitch’s 54th and final film. [PG]▼●쩠 enlists the aid of his grandfather Connery, a career criminal, to pull off a can’t-miss Family Prayers (1993) C-108m. ★★ D: heist. Worth seeing for three terrific perScott Rosenfelt. Joe Mantegna, Anne Arformances by the charismatic leads, even cher, Patti LuPone, Julianne Michelle, Paul though they’re never quite believable as Reiser, Allen Garfield, Conchata Ferrell, family—and the story lets them down. David Margulies, Brittany Murphy, Tzvi Further undermined by one of the most Ratner-Stauber. Overlong drama of an ado[ 438 ]

lescent Jewish boy struggling to prepare for viously filmed in 1916, 1925, 1935 (in his bar mitzvah, while suffering the ups and Germany), and 1944 (in Mexico), and redowns of life with a gambling-addicted famade in 2004 as A GOOD WOMAN. Fan, The (1981) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward ther. Competent editing would have made this an excellent after-school special. This sat on Bianchi. Lauren Bacall, Michael Biehn, the shelf after completion in 1991. [PG]▼● Maureen Stapleton, James Garner, Hector Family Stone, The (2005) C-103m. ★★★ Elizondo, Anna Maria Horsford, Kurt D: Thomas Bezucha. Diane Keaton, Sarah Johnson, Dwight Schultz, Dana Delany, Jessica Parker, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Griffin Dunne. Broadway actress Bacall is Wilson, Claire Danes, Craig T. Nelson, Rastalked by a psychotic admirer in this chel McAdams, Ty Giordano, Brian White, bloody, distasteful adaptation of the Bob Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider. WarmRandall novel. Bacall’s star appeal helps hearted comedy-drama about an eventful disguise the fact that this is just an exploitation cheapie in dress clothes. [R]▼●쩠 New England family gathering at Christmastime, where one of five siblings (MulroFan, The (1996) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Tony ney) brings his uptight girlfriend and potential Scott. Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, Ellen fiance´e (Parker) to meet his folks, who put Barkin, John Leguizamo, Benicio Del Toro, her on the spot. Starts simply, then reveals a Patti D’Arbanville-Quinn, Chris Mulkey, succession of layers that broaden and enrich Dan Butler, John Kruk, Jack Black. Ridicuthe story. The cast couldn’t be better. Writlous retread of all-too-familiar material, with ten by the director. [PG-13]쩠 De Niro cast as a ’90s Travis Bickle, a loser Family That Preys, The SEE: Tyler Peron the edge, whose unhealthy passion is the ry’s The Family That Preys S.F. Giants and their newest $40 million star, Family Thing, A (1996) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Snipes. This hollow melodrama is so overRichard Pearce. Robert Duvall, James Earl heated and overhyped by souped-up visuals Jones, Michael Beach, Irma P. Hall, David and sound that the viewer feels he’s been asKeith. When tractor salesman Duvall dissaulted as much as the victimized baseball covers his real mother was a black woman, he star. Worst of all, the film puts not one but travels to Chicago to meet his half-brother, two children in jeopardy and subjects them to policeman Jones. Issues of race and family psychological and verbal abuse. Ugh. Panaviconflict are resolved a bit too easily in this sion. [R]▼●쩠 rather contrived story, made sweet and believFanatic SEE: Die! Die! My Darling! able by the efforts of a superior cast. Hall Fanboys (2009) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Kyle Newsteals every scene as their blind aunt. Coman. Jay Baruchel, Dan Fogler, Sam Hunscripted by Billy Bob Thornton. Super 35. tington, Christopher Marquette, Kristen [PG-13]▼●쩠 Bell, Ethan Suplee, Seth Rogen, Craig RobFamily Viewing (1987-Canadian) C-92m. inson, Christopher McDonald, Danny Trejo. ★★★ A long, long time ago (in 1998), an Ohio D: Atom Egoyan. David Hemblen, Aidan Tierney, Arsine´e Khanjian, Gabrielle quartet of STAR WARS fanatics plots to Rose, Selma Keklikian, Jeanne Sabourin, Rose sneak into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch Sarkisyan. Early Egoyan feature is a provocaso their sick buddy can see the rough cut of tive, daring drama-cum-black comedy about a Episode One before he dies. Overstuffed with dysfunctional family and its members’ fixapop-cult references, and too often obnoxious, tion on television, video, and impersonal sexist, and gross, this vision-quest road movie means of communication. On-target comnever once hits its emotional marks. Pretty mentary on the way hollow imagery and much made for, well, fanboys, it’s enlivened technology have affected contemporary life. only by several in-joke cameos. [PG-13]쩠 Written by the director.▼쩠 Fancy Pants (1950) C-92m. ★★★ D: George Family Way, The (1966-British) C-115m. Marshall. Mr. Robert Hope (formerly Bob), ★★★ D: Roy Boulting. Hayley Mills, Hywel Lucille Ball, Bruce Cabot, Jack Kirkwood, Bennett, John Mills, Marjorie Rhodes, Avril Lea Penman, Eric Blore. Amusing musical Angers, Murray Head. Winning comedy remake of RUGGLES OF RED GAP with about young newlyweds’ problems, includEnglish valet Hope accompanying nouveau ing impotence, and difficulty of living in riche wildcat Lucy to her Western home. same house as his parents. This warm, ▼●쩠 gentle film was actually considered conFandango (1985) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin troversial in 1967 when released in U.S.! Reynolds. Kevin Costner, Judd Nelson, Music score by Paul McCartney. Sam Robards, Chuck Bush, Brian Cesak, ★★ Fan, The (1949) 80m. D: Otto PreMarvin J. McIntyre, Suzy Amis, Glenne minger. Jeanne Crain, Madeleine Carroll, Headly. Five college pals have one last fling George Sanders, Richard Greene. Oscar before moving on to face Real Life. Based Wilde’s comedy of manners Lady Winon Reynolds’ student film called PROOF, dermere’s Fan, involving marital indisexpanded to feature length under sponsorcretion and social-climbing in Victorian ship of Steven Spielberg. Fresh and likable, England, loses much of its wit in this verif uneven. [PG]▼●쩠 sion. Madeleine Carroll’s last film. PreFanfan La Tulipe (1952-French) 99m. [ 439 ]

★★★

D: Christian-Jaque. Ge´rard Philipe, bog, the personification of evil) are so stunGina Lollobrigida, Noel Roquevert, Olivning that they make up for the less compelling ier Hussenot, Marcel Herrand, Sylvie sequences. Also notable for groundbreaking Pelayo, Genevieve Page. Delightful satire use of multichannel stereophonic sound. of swashbuckling epics; Philipe is ideal as DVD (with newly filmed credits) runs 124m. Followed by FANTASIA 2000. ▼●쩠 sword-wielding, love-hungry 18th-century Fantasia 2000 (2000) C-75m. ★★★ D: James Frenchman joining Louis XV’s army.쩠 Fanny (1932-French)120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marc Algar, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Hendel Allegret. Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Charpin, Butoy, Francis Glebas, Eric Goldberg, Pixote Orane Demazis, Alida Rouffe. Marius Hunt, Don Hahn, Steve Martin, Bette Midler, (Fresnay) abandons Fanny (Demazis) with James Earl Jones, Penn and Teller, Quincy his child; with Cesar (Raimu) playing Jones, Itzhak Perlman, Angela Lansbury, Cupid, she marries Panisse (Charpin). SecJames Levine, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. ond of Marcel Pagnol’s charming trilogy, Update of the 1940 Disney milestone suffers preceded by MARIUS and followed by from the fact that marrying music and images CESAR. All three were the basis of the is no longer a novel idea; TV-style host intros play and movie FANNY (1961).▼●쩠 don’t help. But there are a number of enterFanny (1961) C-133m. ★★★ D: Joshua Logan. taining segments, including ‘‘The Pines of Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Charles Rome,’’ with its wondrous whales, ‘‘RhapBoyer, Horst Buchholz, Baccaloni, Lionel Jefsody in Blue,’’ a UPA-type cartoon set in fries. Gorgeously photographed and beautiN.Y.C., ‘‘Pomp and Circumstance,’’ with fully scored dramatic version of Marcel Donald Duck as Noah’s assistant, and the Pagnol’s trilogy involving young girl left with ‘‘Firebird Suite’’ finale. [G]▼쩠 child by adventure-seeking sailor. Chevalier Fantasies (1981) C-81m. BOMB D: John and Boyer give flavorful performances.▼●쩠 Derek. Kathleen Collins (Bo Derek), Peter Fanny and Alexander (1983-Swedish) Hooten, Anna Alexiadis, Phaedon GheorC-197m. ★★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Pernilla ghitis, Therese Bohlin. Amateurish nonAllwin, Bertil Guve, Gunn Wallgren, Allan sense about Derek’s and Hooten’s efforts Edwall, Ewa Froling, Jan Malmsjo, Erland to renovate a Greek island into a tourist Josephson, Harriet Andersson. Haunting, entrap. Shot in 1973, when Bo was 16, as grossing autobiographical family saga set in AND ONCE UPON A LOVE. [R]▼쩠 turn-of-the-century Sweden; a summing up of Fantastic Four (2005) C-106m. ★★ D: Tim Bergman’s career (announced as his final Story. Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris film). Scenes of joy, exuberance, pain, torEvans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, ment, exquisitely expressed, and largely seen Hamish Linklater, Kerry Washington, Lauthrough the eyes of a young boy. This earned rie Holden, Maria Menounos. Scientist Reed Oscars as Best Foreign Film and for its cosRichards (Gruffudd) tries to capture the power tumes, art direction-set decoration, and Sven of a cosmic storm, with the backing of flamNykvist’s lovely cinematography. Edited from boyant billionaire Victor Von Doom (Mcan even longer television miniseries, which ran Mahon) . . . but something goes terribly 312m. Look for Lena Olin as a maid. Bergwrong. This comic-book movie doesn’t try to man’s family history is further explored in court an adult audience—and risks alienating THE BEST INTENTIONS, SUNDAY’S hard-core fans by inventing a brand-new ‘‘orCHILDREN, and PRIVATE CONFESigin’’ tale told in strictly two-dimensional SIONS. [R] ▼●쩠 terms. Best suited to 10-year-old boys. Based Fan’s Notes, A (1972-Canadian) C-100m. on the Marvel characters created by Stan Lee ★★ D: Eric Till. Jerry Orbach, Burgess and Jack Kirby; Lee has a cameo as a mailMeredith, Patricia Collins, Julia Ann Robman. Alternate unrated version runs 111m. inson, Rosemary Murphy. Confused, footFollowed by a sequel. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 ball-obsessed writer becomes disillusioned Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer with the Great American Dream of success (2007) C-92m. ★★ D: Tim Story. Ioan and conformity, and ends up in mental Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Mihospital. Unfortunate misfire of Frederick chael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, Kerry Exley’s highly regarded novel. [R] Washington, Andre Braugher, Doug Jones, Fantasia (1940) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ben Brian Posehn, Kenneth Welsh, Vanessa MinSharpsteen (production supervisor). Leopold nillo; voice of Laurence Fishburne. Sequel Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra; finds the earth imperiled by a mysterious force narrated by Deems Taylor. Walt Disney’s that is wreaking havoc with weather systems eight-part marriage of music and animated (and global landmarks), and making the imimages remains an amazing achievement; pending N.Y.C. nuptials of Reed (Gruffudd) Taylor’s narration dates it more than the conand Sue (Alba) difficult to plan. The culprit tent. ‘‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’’ (with may be the Silver Surfer or possibly the reMickey Mouse), ‘‘The Dance of the Hours’’ turning Victor Von Doom (McMahon). A (with dancing hippos and alligators), ‘‘Rite of special-effectsapalooza masquerading as a Spring’’ (dinosaurs stalking the earth), and feature film. Look for the comic’s cocreator Stan Lee as a party guest. Super 35. [PG]쩠 ‘‘A Night on Bald Mountain’’ (with Cherno[ 440 ]

Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth (1966) and Nicole, who are both beautiful and engagC-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Arch Oboler. Michael Cole, ing; problem is a dire lack of story to fill the Deborah Walley, Johnny Desmond. Relulls between fight scenes. Filmed in Ireland leased theatrically in 3-D, this plays like a and Montana. Climactic land rush really galpadded Twilight Zone episode; young coulops in Panavision Super 70. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 ple find themselves trapped in seemingly Faraway, So Close! (1993-German) C/B& deserted town enclosed in a giant Baggie. W-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. Otto The original title, THE BUBBLE, was far Sander, Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, less misleading: there are no aliens and no Peter Falk, Willem Dafoe, Nastassja Kinski, ‘‘invasion’’ in evidence, and not much Horst Buchholz, Lou Reed, Mikhail Gorbaexcitement, either. Originally 112m. Filmed chev. The perfect Wenders cast (if not the in widescreen Space-Vision.▼쩠 perfect Wenders movie) takes up where the Fantasticks, The (2000) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: more successful WINGS OF DESIRE left Michael Ritchie. Brad Sullivan, Jean Louisa off; this time it is angel Sander who becomes Kelly, Joe McIntyre, Joel Grey, Barnard mortal, joining old celestial pal Ganz—who’s Hughes, Jonathon Morris, Teller. Adaptanow married to circus performer Dommartin, tion of the longest-running off-Broadway with whom he’s raising a daughter and runshow in history (by Tom Jones and Harvey ning a pizza shop in unified Germany. Lighter Schmidt) is sweet and slight; this musical going than its predecessor, but also more fable of young lovers, their fathers and a lightweight; it’s still a borderline ordeal in the mysterious showman is almost an anachrobeginning and final segments, despite having been trimmed from 164m.▼●쩠 nism. Beautifully shot (on some of the same Arizona locations used for OKLAHOMA!), Far Country, The (1955) C-97m. ★★★ D: it’s a treat for musical devotees, even if it isn’t Anthony Mann. James Stewart, Ruth Roman, perfect. Released after sitting on the shelf for Corinne Calvet, Walter Brennan, Jay C. Flipfive years, recut by Francis Ford Coppola; pen, John McIntire, Harry Morgan, Jack Ritchie’s version, with additional songs, is on Elam, Robert Wilkie, Connie Gilchrist, Kaththe DVD. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 leen Freeman. Cattleman Stewart, a conFantastic Planet, The (1973-French) firmed loner, brings his herd to Alaska and 1 ★★ C-72m. finds nothing but trouble; solid Western set ⁄2 D: Rene Laloux. Interesting animated feature about futuristic planet against colorful backdrop of mining camp where men are dominated by superdeveltowns. Story and screenplay by Borden oped mechanized race. Worthwhile, but Chase. ▼●쩠 static and aloof. [PG]▼쩠 Farewell, Friend (1968-French-Italian) Fantastic Voyage (1966) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 C-115m. ★★ D: Jean Herman. Alain Delon, D: Richard Fleischer. Stephen Boyd, Raquel Charles Bronson, Olga Georges-Picot, BriWelch, Edmond O’Brien, Donald Pleagitte Fossey, Bernard Fresson. Mercenarsence, Arthur O’Connell, William Redfield, ies return to Marseilles following service Arthur Kennedy, James Brolin. Tremenin Algeria, team up for robbery, and inevidously entertaining science fiction story of tably clash. Ordinary and overlong. Aka medical team reduced to microscopic size, HONOR AMONG THIEVES and THE CODE (1968). [M/PG]▼쩠 injected inside human body. Film’s thenstate-of-the-art visual effects look great in Farewell, My Concubine (1993-Chinese) C-155m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Chen Kaige. Leslie widescreen. Screenplay by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jay Cheung, Zhang Fengyi, Gong Li, Lu Qi, Lewis Bixby (Jerome Bixby). Won Oscars Ying Da. Elaborate aria, no favorite at home for art direction-set decoration and special but cowinner of Cannes’ top prize, about visual effects. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 the contentious 52-year relationship of two Fantomas Against Scotland Yard (1966male childhood apprentices in the Peking French-Italian) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andre HuneOpera, one a specialist in female roles with belle. Jean Marais, Louis De Funes, Mylene a lifelong atttraction to his heterosexual Demongeot, Henri Serre. Satirical cliffpartner, who in turn marries a beauty from a hanger-type adventure yarn, with Marais as brothel. A long but consistently absorbing super-criminal engaged in athletic escadrama spanning China’s warlord era, the pades. Retitled: FANTOMAS. Franscope. Cultural Revolution, and beyond. At its best Far and Away (1992) C-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: in the first half; originally 170m. [R]▼●쩠 Ron Howard. Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Farewell, My Lovely (1975-British) C97m. ★★★ D: Dick Richards. Robert MitchThomas Gibson, Robert Prosky, Barbara Babcock, Colm Meaney, Eileen Pollock, um, Charlotte Rampling, John Ireland, SylMichelle Johnson, Cyril Cusack, Clint Howvia Miles, Jack O’Halloran, Anthony Zerbe, ard, Rance Howard. Scrappy, dirt-poor Irish Harry Dean Stanton, Sylvester Stallone, tenant farmer hooks up, in unlikely fashion, Walter McGinn. Third film version of Raywith the equally feisty daughter of a wealthy mond Chandler novel tries too hard to landowner, and together they sail for America evoke its period, but Mitchum is appealing to seek their ultimate destiny in the 1893 as a tired Philip Marlowe. Author Jim Oklahoma land rush. Ideal vehicle for Tom Thompson appears briefly. Filmed before as [ 441 ]

MURDER, MY SWEET and THE FALBradford, Tom Bower, Joel Palmer, Josh CON TAKES OVER; followed by THE Wannamaker, Margot Finley. Nicely done BIG SLEEP (1978). [R]▼쩠 (if predictable) boy-and-his-dog tale, centerFarewell to Arms, A (1932) 89m. ★★★ D: ing on young Bradford and his super-bright Frank Borzage. Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Golden Labrador as they survive the capsizAdolphe Menjou, Mary Philips, Jack LaRue, ing of their boat, and must overcome asBlanche Frederici. Lushly romantic adaptasorted dangers. [PG]▼●쩠 tion of Hemingway novel about ill-fated Far From the Madding Crowd (1967WW1 romance between American soldier British) C-171m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Schleand British nurse; dated but well done. singer. Julie Christie, Peter Finch, Terence Charles Lang’s exquisite cinematography Stamp, Alan Bates, Prunella Ransome. won an Oscar. Remade in 1951 (as FORCE Shamefully underrated adaptation of ThomOF ARMS) and 1957. Also shown in comas Hardy novel about beautiful woman and her puter-colored version. ▼●쩠 profound effect on three men. Superb proFarewell to Arms, A (1957) C-152m. ★★1⁄2 duction, with brilliant photography by Nicolas D: Charles Vidor. Rock Hudson, Jennifer Roeg, score by Richard Rodney Bennett, Jones, Vittorio De Sica, Alberto Sordi, Merscript by Frederic Raphael, and performances cedes McCambridge, Elaine Stritch, Oscar by Finch and Bates. Panavision.▼●쩠 Homolka. Overblown, padded remake has Fargo (1996) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joel Coen. unconvincing leads, static treatment of story Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve so romantically told in Hemingway novel. Buscemi, Harve Presnell, Peter Stormare, KirsHudson is American ambulance driver tin Rudrud, John Carroll Lynch, Larry Branwounded in WW1 Italy who falls in love denburg, Steven Reevis, Jose Feliciano. The with nurse Jones. Last film produced by Coen Brothers put a unique spin on a murder David O. Selznick. CinemaScope.▼쩠 case, layering their story with droll observaFarewell to the King (1989) C-117m. ★★ tions about Minnesotans and winding up with D: John Milius. Nick Nolte, Nigel Havers, a totally disarming comedy! McDormand is James Fox, Marilyn Tokuda, Frank McRae, terrific as an efficient (and pregnant) police Aki Aleong, William Wise. Disappointing chief with multiple murders on her hands; actioner with Nolte an army deserter who Macy is equally good as a two-bit schemer becomes the leader of a Borneo tribe during who tries to stay cool when he finds himself WW2. Goal: to protect his people from the way over his head in a quicksand of crime. atrocities of the Japanese and the lies of the Love that Muzak in the background! Oscar British. Intriguing premise, but result sinks winner for Best Screenplay (Joel and Ethan into cliche´. Milius scripted, from Pierre Coen) and Actress (McDormand). [R]▼●쩠 Schoendoerffer’s novel. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Far Horizons, The (1955) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 Far From Heaven (2002) C-107m. ★★★ D: D: Rudolph Mate´. Fred MacMurray, CharlTodd Haynes. Julianne Moore, Dennis ton Heston, Donna Reed, Barbara Hale, Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Patricia Clarkson, William Demarest. Movie fiction about Viola Davis, James Rebhorn, Celia Weston. Lewis and Clark expedition, beautifully Fascinating filmmaking exercise in which photographed; sporadic action; implausible love interest. VistaVision.쩠 writer-director Haynes replicates the look and feel of a 1950s Douglas Sirk TechniFarinelli (1994-Belgian) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: color soap opera, while tackling issues that Gerard Corbiau. Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo would have been taboo in that era. Moore is Verso, Jeroen Krabbe´, Elsa Zylberstein, Caroa picture-perfect suburban wife, Quaid her line Cellier, Marianne Basler. Sumptuously successful husband, but he has a dark secret, filmed saga of two brothers in 18th-century Euwhile she finds herself attracted to her rope, one a composer and the other a castrato Negro gardener (Haysbert). Not so much a opera singer (who, despite childhood castraparody as a re-creation, as if a 1957 movie tion, still woos women energetically, with the were being made in 2002, with art direction, help of his brother). Rambling script has too camerawork, costuming, music, and color many flashbacks and too little insight into the that recall such films as ALL THAT brothers’ motivations; still, it’s provocative and HEAVEN ALLOWS. [PG-13]▼쩠 good-looking. Farinelli’s castrato vocals were Far From Home (1989) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: re-created by a digitally morphed mixture of a Meiert Avis. Matt Frewer, Drew Barrymore, male and female opera singer. Original title: Richard Masur, Karen Austin, Susan Tyrrell, FARINELLI IL CASTRATO. [R]▼●쩠 Anthony Rapp, Jennifer Tilly, Andras Jones, Farm, The SEE: Curse, The Dick Miller. Dumb killer-on-the-loose proFarmer’s Daughter, The (1947) 97m. ★★★1 grammer with sexy teen Barrymore being ⁄2 D: H. C. Potter. Loretta Young, stalked while vacationing with her father. Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Charles Of interest only for Drew’s casting in her Bickford, Rose Hobart, Harry Davenport, Lex Barker, James Aurness (Arness), Keith first adolescent movie role. [R]▼●쩠 Far From Home: The Adventures of YelAndes, Rhys Williams, Art Baker. Young low Dog (1995) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phillip won an Oscar for her irresistible perforBorsos. Mimi Rogers, Bruce Davison, Jesse mance as a naı¨ve but straight-thinking farm [ 442 ]

girl who goes to work for a senator—and place for a noir-ish mystery, but the only winds up running for a congressional seat heat we get is solar from beach scenes shot against his party. Delightful comedy with in daylight. The real fascination comes from an excellent cast. Allen Rivkin and Laura speculating how this even got made, let Kerr adapted Juhani Tervapa¨a¨’s play Hulda, alone released (which it just barely was). Filmed in 2002. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Daughter of Parliament. Later a TV series. ▼ Farmer’s Wife, The (1928-British) 97m. Fashions of 1934 (1934) 78m. ★★★ D: Wil★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Hitchcock. Jameson Thomliam Dieterle. William Powell, Bette Davis, as, Lillian Hall-Davies, Gordon Harker. A Verree Teasdale, Reginald Owen, Frank Hitchcock silent comedy. Farmer Thomas, McHugh, Phillip Reed, Hugh Herbert. Trivial unsuccessful at finding a bride, is secretly but enjoyable romp of con man Powell and loved by devoted housekeeper Davies. Enjoydesigner Davis conquering the Paris fashion able rustic comedy; written by the director. world. Fine cast glides along with dapper Based on a play by Eden Philpotts.▼쩠 Powell; Busby Berkeley’s ‘‘Spin a Little Farmer Takes a Wife, The (1953) C-81m. Web of Dreams’’ number is great fun. ▼ ★★ D: Henry Levin. Betty Grable, Dale Fast & Furious (2009) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robertson, Thelma Ritter, John Carroll, Justin Lin. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, MiEddie Foy, Jr. Musical remake of 1935 chelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John film is slow-paced account of life in 1800s Ortiz, Laz Alonso, Gal Gadot, Jack Conley, along the Erie Canal.▼● Sung Kang. Fourth installment of the popular Far North (1988) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam Shepfranchise reunites four stars of 2001’s THE ard. Jessica Lange, Charles Durning, Tess FAST AND THE FURIOUS for a mostly Harper, Donald Moffat, Ann Wedgeworth, Paridiculous but frequently exciting actiontricia Arquette, Nina Draxton. Shepard’s diadventure set along the U.S.-Mexico border. recting debut, which he also scripted, is a Two reluctant allies (illegal street racer Diesel pointless, artificial drama about the various and maverick FBI agent Walker) team up members of a Minnesota family and what hapfor a vengeful campaign against a murderous pens when patriarch Durning is almost killed drug cartel. Serviceable plot is merely an exby a wild horse. Good cast is wasted. [PGcuse for some spectacular high-speed car 13]▼● chases, but fans of the series won’t be disapFar Off Place, A (1993) C-105m. ★★★ D: pointed by the thrills and spills of this demolition derby. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Mikael Salomon. Reese Witherspoon, Ethan Randall (Embry), Maximilian Schell, Jack Fast and Sexy (1958-Italian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Thompson, Sarel Bok, Robert Burke, Patricia D: Reginald Denham. Gina Lollobrigida, Kalember, Daniel Gerroll. Borderline-slow, Dale Robertson, Vittorio De Sica, Carla but head-on-straight, Disney kids’ adventure Macelloni. Lollobrigida is fun-loving widow about a young Bushman guide, a game warwho returns to her village seeking new husden’s daughter, and a visiting city boy who flee band. Technirama. across the desert from murderous poachers. Fast and the Furious, The (1954) 73m. ★★ Frank treatment of death makes this iffy for D: Edwards Sampson, John Ireland. John Ireyoung kids, but older children should find it reland, Dorothy Malone, Iris Adrian, Bruce warding. Based on the books A Story Like the Carlisle, Jean Howell, Larry Thor. Ireland is Wind and A Far Off Place by Laurens van der fugitive on the lam from murder frameup who Post. Juan Ruiz-Anchia’s magnificent photogjockeys Malone’s sports car, with uninspired raphy is a standout. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 romantic interludes and cops-on-the-chase seFar Out Man (1990) C-91m. BOMB D: quences. Produced and written by Roger CorTommy Chong. Tommy Chong, Shelby man, this was the first film for American Chong, Paris Chong, C. Thomas Howell, Releasing Corporation—soon to be the fabled Martin Mull, Rae Dawn Chong, Judd NelAIP (American-International Pictures).▼쩠 son. Labeled ‘‘A Tommy Chong Attempt,’’ Fast and the Furious, The (2001) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Cohen. Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, this vanity production is high on nepotism but short on laughs—or coherence. Chong Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, Rick plays a burned-out, leftover 1960s druggie Yune, Chad Lindberg, Johnny Strong, Matt who’s trying to find his ex-lady and their Schulze, Ted Levine, Ja Rule. A soupedchild (played by their real-life counterparts). up 21st-century version of a 1950s hot-rod Longtime partner Cheech Marin contributes movie. Newcomer Walker tries to ingratiate a cameo, but is sorely missed throughout himself with the kingpin of Southern Califorthe rest of the grungy film. [R]▼●쩠 nia street racing (Diesel), hoping to join his exFascination (2004-German-British) C-95m. tended family. Rudimentary storyline frames BOMB D: Klaus Menzel. Jacqueline Bisset, some pulse-quickening action scenes . . . but Adam Garcia, Alice Evans, Stuart Wilson, this goes on longer than any drive-in movie James Naughton. Dad drowns despite being really should. Followed by 2 FAST 2 FURIan excellent swimmer, and his son is irked OUS. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 when his mom immediately takes on a new Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The squeeze with a grown daughter (who has (2006) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Justin Lin. Lucas her own checkered history). Elements are in Black, Brandon Brendel, Zachery Ty Bryan, [ 443 ]

Daniel Booko, David V. Thomas, Amber SteModica, Lonette McKee, Victor Argo, Angelvens, Bow Wow, Lynda Boyd, Nikki Griffin, ica Torn, Austin Pendleton, Valerie Geffner, JJ Sonny Chiba. Third installment of the seMark Margolis. Breezy character-based comries travels to Japan when Black destroys his edy revolves around the ever-changing rocar in an illegal street race and is sent overseas mantic lives of customers (and their dedicated to avoid jail or juvenile detention. But old habwaitress) in a downtown Manhattan coffee its die hard; while in Tokyo he gets involved in shop. Wonderful cast makes the most of the the dangerous underworld sport of ‘‘drifting’’ uneven but occasionally insightful script from (racing cars around terrifying curves). Just as writer/director Kollek. [R]▼쩠 loud and frenetic as its predecessors, this beneFast Food Nation (2006-U.S.-British) Cfits from a change of scenery and has a couple 114m. ★★★ D: Richard Linklater. Greg Kinof ferocious pedal-to-the-metal sequences. near, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Wilmer Veteran martial arts star Chiba is fun to watch Valderrama, Bobby Cannavale, Luis Guzman, as an evil Yakuza boss. Followed by FAST & Ashley Johnson, Avril Lavigne, Esai Morales, FURIOUS. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lou Taylor Fast Break (1979) C-107m. ★★★ D: Jack Pucci, Paul Dano, Kris Kristofferson, Bruce Smight. Gabriel Kaplan, Harold SylvesWillis. Fast-food exec Kinnear is sent to a ter, Mike Warren, Bernard King, Reb meat supplier in Colorado to check out ugly Brown, Mavis Washington, Bert Remsen, rumors about foreign content in their hamRichard Brestoff, Rhonda Bates, K. Callan. burgers. Valderrama and Sandino Moreno arBasketball coach Kaplan accepts post at rive in that same town with other illegal midwestern college, but brings his N.Y.C. Mexican immigrants and get a harsh introstreet players along with him. Perfect, duction to the American dream by working innocuous TV fare, with some good laughs in the meatpacking plant. Potent, polemical and exciting game climax. [PG]▼ (and disturbingly graphic) film about the Fast Charlie, The Moonbeam Rider fast-food mind-set of our society. Based on (1979) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve Carver. David Eric Schlosser’s nonfiction book; he and Carradine, Brenda Vaccaro, L. Q. Jones, Linklater wrote the screenplay. [R]쩠 R. G. Armstrong, Jesse Vint. Period acFast Fortune SEE: 11 Harrowhouse Fast Forward (1985) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney tion comedy-drama about a WW1 deserter who enters the first long-distance motorcycle Poitier. John Scott Clough, Don Franklin, Tarace. Appealing performance by Vaccaro as mara Mark, Tracy Silver, Cindy McGee, an early-day bike groupie and picturesque Gretchen F. Palmer, Irene Worth, Constance re-creations of post-WW1 America are deTowers. Eight squeaky-clean teens from Sanfinite pluses. Also known as FAST CHARdusky, Ohio, crash N.Y.C. in search of their Big LIE AND THE MOONBEAM. [PG] Break in Show Biz. Despite the title, this film is Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997) stuck in the 1950s; break-dancing can’t disguise such cornball stuff. [PG]▼● C/B&W-82m. ★★★ D: Errol Morris. Documentary filmmaker Morris delves into the Fast Lady, The (1963-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 lives of four disparate men: a topiary garD: Ken Annakin. James Robertson Justice, dener, a lion tamer, a robot scientist, and a Leslie Phillips, Stanley Baxter, Kathleen Harnaked-mole-rat expert. Utilizing different rison, Julie Christie, Eric Barker. Enjoyable, film formats, Morris creates a fascinating exmodest farce of naive Baxter, a Scotsman livamination of lifelong passions and occupaing in England, learning to drive an antique tions that touches on the nature of existence car—and to woo Christie in the process. Julie, itself. A completely original film, enhanced in second film role, is thoroughly charming. by Caleb Sampson’s music. [PG]▼●쩠 Fast Runner, The (2002-Canadian) C161m. ★★★★ D: Zacharias Kunuk. Natar UnFastest Guitar Alive, The (1967) C-87m. ★★ D: Michael Moore. Roy Orbison, galaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Sammy Jackson, Maggie Pierce, Joan Lucy Tulugarjuk, Madeline Ivalu, Paul (PauFreeman. Doomed effort to turn recording loosie) Qulitalik. A sterling epic, perhaps the star Orbison into a movie star—with the only Inuit-made film we’ll ever see, about a dumbest title imaginable for a Civil War young hunter (Ungalaaq) whose tribe has espionage story!▼ been cursed; he falls in love but must face Fastest Gun Alive, The (1956) 92m. ★★★ the ire of a spiteful rival. The highlight is D: Russell Rouse. Glenn Ford, Jeanne our hero’s barefooted journey across the Crain, Broderick Crawford, Russ Tamblyn. North Canadian wilderness. A privileged Sincere Western with a moral. Ford is a peek into Inuit culture and a stirring, deeply peace-loving storekeeper trying to live down personal drama; based on an ancient Inuit renown as gunslinger, but there’s always folk tale. Beautifully filmed in wide-screen someone waiting to challenge him. Tamdigital video. Aka ATANARJUAT . . . (THE FAST RUNNER). [R] ▼쩠 blyn has an impressive solo dance feature. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) C-92m. ★★★ D: Amy Heckerling. Sean Penn, Fast Food, Fast Women (2000-U.S.-French) Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Amos Kollek. Anna Thomson, Jamie Harris, Louise Lasser, Robert Romanus, Brian Backer, Phoebe Cates, Ray [ 444 ]

Walston, Vincent Schiavelli, Forest Whitaker, problem, but not before this mild but harmless James Russo, Pamela Springsteen, Martin family comedy throws in some blatant plugs Brest. Brashly entertaining look at Southern for Albert DVDs. Cosby himself shows up; California high school kids, who hang out at he also cowrote and coexecutive produced the Mall and think mostly about sex. Funny, with his wife, Camille. Other famous folk appear in cameos. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 surprisingly honest, with a very appealing cast and a memorable performance by Penn as Fatal Instinct (1993) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Carl a doped-out goofball named Spicoli. HighReiner. Armand Assante, Sherilyn Fenn, Kate energy feature debut for director Heckerling, Nelligan, Sean Young, Christopher McDonbased on Cameron Crowe’s factual book. ald, James Remar, Tony Randall, Clarence Film debuts of Forest Whitaker, Eric Stoltz, Clemons, Michael Cumpsty, Blake Clark, Anthony Edwards, and Nicolas Cage (billed Eartha Kitt, Bernard Hiller. Woeful, decadesunder his real name, Nicholas Coppola). belated spoof of vintage film noir, with conSome footage of Sean Penn was added for temporary references to BASIC INSTINCT, pay TV—but songs on soundtrack changed, BODY HEAT, and FATAL ATTRACTION altering running time to 90m. Later a TV thrown in. Assante shows an unexpected flair series. [R]▼●쩠 for farce as a cop/lawyer targeted for murder Fast Track SEE: Ex, The by wife Nelligan and her lover (McDonald); Young fares best as a blonde sexpot named Fast-Walking (1982) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lola. [PG-13]▼●쩠 James B. Harris. James Woods, Tim McIntire, Kay Lenz, Robert Hooks, M. Fat City (1972) C-100m. ★★★ D: John Emmet Walsh, Timothy Carey, Susan Huston. Stacy Keach, Jeff Bridges, Susan Tyrrell. Oddball prison picture, laced with Tyrrell, Candy Clark, Nicholas Colasanto. black humor, stars Woods as Fast-Walking Taut adaptation of Leonard Gardner’s novel Miniver, mercenary prison guard who’s about tanktown boxer and his young prote´ge´ hired to assassinate politico Hooks. McIntire is one of Huston’s best later films, with gives a standout performance as a very solid performances all around. [PG]▼쩠 cagey inmate in a film whose interesting but Fate Is the Hunter (1964) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: disparate elements never quite gel. [R]▼ Ralph Nelson. Glenn Ford, Nancy Kwan, Rod Fatal Assassin SEE: Target of an Assassin Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jane Russell, Fatal Attraction (1987) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wally Cox, Nehemiah Persoff, Mark Stevens, Adrian Lyne. Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, Max Showalter, Mary Wickes. One-note Anne Archer, Ellen Hamilton Latzen, Stuart drama of investigation into cause of controPankin, Ellen Foley, Fred Gwynne, Meg versial plane crash. Good cast works with rouMundy. Happily married man has a weekend tine script. Dorothy Malone appears unbilled fling with a sexy woman who turns out to be in one key scene. CinemaScope. psychotic and proceeds to turn his (and his famFateless (2005-Hungarian-German-British) C-140m. ★★★ D: Lajos Koltai. Marcell ily’s) life into a living hell. Audience-pleasing ´ ron Dithriller telegraphs most of its suspense payoffs Nagy, Be´la Do´ra, Ba´lint Pe´ntek, A and features a finale that seems more approme´ny, Pe´ter Fancsikai, Zsolt De´r, Daniel priate to RAMBO. Still, it’s extremely well Craig. During WW2 a Hungarian Jewish acted and certainly holds your attention. The teen (Nagy) is picked off a bus and disfilm’s original ending, which was more subtle patched to the death camps of the Holoand intriguing (but dumped after an unsuccesscaust. Without analyzing his plight or ful preview), is available on video. James Dearanguishing over his wretched circumstances den based his screenplay on his own British the boy settles into a pattern of life amid short subject, ‘‘Diversion.’’ [R]▼●쩠 the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Fatal Beauty (1987) C-104m. BOMB D: Cinematographer Koltai’s directorial debut Tom Holland. Whoopi Goldberg, Sam Elis a powerful, sensitive rendering of Nobel liott, Ruben Blades, Harris Yulin, John P. Prize winner Imre Kerte´sz’s semiautobioRyan, Jennifer Warren, Brad Dourif, Neill graphical novel, although at times the filmBarry, Richard (Cheech) Marin. An inexmaker’s approach is a bit too operatic. cusably awful concoction with Goldberg as a Kerte´sz also scripted. Panavision.쩠 narcotics cop. There’s no shortage of gratuFat Girl (2001-French-Italian) C-86m. ★★★ itous violence . . . and an antidrug message to D: Catherine Breillat. Anaı¨s Reboux, Roxrationalize its excesses. Some of the diaane Mesquida, Libero De Rienzo, Arsine´e logue is mind-bogglingly awful. [R]▼●쩠 Khanjian, Romain Goupil, Laura Betti. PoFat Albert (2004) C-93m. ★★ D: Joel Zwick. tent drama from the always-provocative Kenan Thompson, Kyla Pratt, Dania Ramirez, Breillat explores the complex relationship Shedrack Anderson III, Jermaine Williams, between two sisters, aged 15 and 12, who Keith D. Robinson. Late-adolescent Pratt is (like all the director’s heroines) are obdowntrodden because she has no friends, sessed by sex. The older one (Mesquida) is so Albert, Mushmouth, and the rest of the pretty and desirable; the other (Reboux) Philly-neighborhood Bill Cosby creations may be plump and miserable, but has her emerge from her TV set as live editions of own yearnings. Breillat offers a voice to the their animated-cartoon selves. This solves her title character, a type who is usually the [ 445 ]

object of scorn or ridicule. Features graphic rane, Mitchell Marchand, Famke Janssen, sex scenes and an unsettling finale.쩠 Natasha Gregson Wagner, Paul Hipp, Ellen Father Brown SEE: Detective, The (1954) Greene, Samuel L. Jackson, Joie Lee, RoFather Goose (1964) C-115m. ★★★ D: Ralph sanna Arquette. Odd, slow-paced drama Nelson. Cary Grant, Leslie Caron, Trevor about a movie director (Goldblum) now alHoward, Jack Good, Nicole Felsette. Grant most a recluse, who lives on the Jersey goes native as shiftless bum on a South Seas shore with his teenage son (Cochrane). island during WW2, who’s persuaded to beCrowded plot involves drugs, a serial killer, come a lookout for the Australian navy—and a prophetic book, telepathy, mutated dolfinds himself sheltering Caron and a gaggle of phins and alcoholism. Tackles too much, but schoolgirls fleeing the Japanese. Lightweight is occasionally effective; Goldblum is exceland enjoyable. Oscar-winning script by Peter lent, as usual. John C. McGinley appears unStone and Frank Tarloff.▼쩠 billed. Written by the director. [R]▼ Father Hood (1993) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Darrell Fathers’ Day (1997) C-98m. ★★ D: Ivan James Roodt. Patrick Swayze, Halle Berry, Reitman. Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Sabrina Lloyd, Brian Bonsall, Michael Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Natassja Kinski, CharIronside, Diane Ladd, Bob Gunton, Adrienne lie Hofheimer, Bruce Greenwood, Jared Barbeau, Georgann Johnson. Embarrassingly Harris, Louis Lombardi, Patti D’Arbanville, bad action comedy about self-centered, twoCharles Rocket, Meagen Fay. When her 16bit hood Swayze, who inexplicably hooks up year-old son runs away, a desperate Kinski with his two kids (who’ve been ill treated tells each of two ex-lovers that he’s the real while in foster care) and takes them on a lessfather, hoping that this will spur one of them than-enthralling odyssey. In desperate need of to find the boy. The two men—a genuine a coherent script and characters who are even odd couple—wind up working together on slightly likable. [PG-13]▼●쩠 this daunting task. Lackluster remake of Father of the Bride (1950) 93m. ★★★★ D: Francis Veber’s LES COMPE`RES gets Vincente Minnelli. Spencer Tracy, Elizabeth whatever mileage it has from the two comic Taylor, Joan Bennett, Billie Burke, Leo G. Carstars’ personalities . . . but the boy is exroll, Don Taylor, Rusty (Russ) Tamblyn. Liz is tremely dislikable, and a subplot with his marrying Don Taylor, but Dad (Tracy) has all stepfather (Greenwood) is a complete misthe aggravation. Perceptive view of American fire. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 life, witty script by Frances Goodrich and AlFather’s Little Dividend (1951) 82m. bert Hackett (based on Edward Streeter’s ★★★ D: Vincente Minnelli. Spencer Tracy, book), and peerless Tracy performance. SeJoan Bennett, Elizabeth Taylor, Don Tayquel: FATHER’S LITTLE DIVIDEND. Later lor, Billie Burke, Rusty (Russ) Tamblyn. a TV series. Remade in 1991. Also shown in Delightful sequel to FATHER OF THE computer-colored version.▼●쩠 BRIDE with same cast. Now Tracy is Father of the Bride (1991) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 going to be a grandfather and he doesn’t D: Charles Shyer. Steve Martin, Diane look forward to it. Also shown in computerKeaton, Martin Short, Kimberly Williams, colored version.▼●쩠 Kieran Culkin, George Newbern, B. D. Father Was a Fullback (1949) 84m. ★★1⁄2 Wong, Peter Michael Goetz, Kate McD: John M. Stahl. Fred MacMurray, MauGregor Stewart, Martha Gehman. Pleasant reen O’Hara, Betty Lynn, Rudy Vallee, update of the 1950 comedy gem about a Thelma Ritter, Natalie Wood. Wholesome father unwilling to let go of his little girl. comedy with most engaging cast. MacIt’s refreshing to find such ‘‘normal’’ charMurray is football coach with as many acters in a ’90s movie, but there are too household problems as on the gridiron.▼ many lulls (and a few too many sidesteps Fathom (1967) C-99m. ★★★ D: Leslie into silliness) for it to hit the bull’s-eye as H. Martinson. Tony Franciosa, Raquel the original did. P.S.: Can we now arrange Welch, Clive Revill, Greta Chi, Richard a moratorium on the song ‘‘My Girl’’? Briers, Ronald Fraser, Tony Adams. FastFunny cameo by Eugene Levy. Followed paced, tongue-in-cheek spy caper with skyby a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 diver Welch getting mixed up with dubious Father of the Bride Part II (1995) C-106m. ★★★ good-guy Franciosa. Great fun, with ReD: Charles Shyer. Steve Martin, Diane vill’s performance as eccentric millionaire Keaton, Martin Short, Kimberly Williams, stealing the show. Music score by John George Newbern, Kieran Culkin, B. D. Wong, Dankworth. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Peter Michael Goetz, Kate McGregor Stewart, Fat Man, The (1951) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilEugene Levy. Agreeable sequel has married liam Castle. J. Scott Smart, Rock Hudson, daughter Williams announcing that she’s pregJulie London, Clinton Sundberg, Jayne nant, which impels Dad (Martin) to confront Meadows, Emmett Kelly. The star of ramiddle age. His midlife crisis includes a rash dio’s popular series of the same name decision to sell their house and a renewed roappeared in this one-shot film adaptation manticism. Longish but fun. [PG]▼●쩠 as the corpulent gourmet/detective (created Fathers and Sons (1992) C-100m. ★★ D: Paul Mones. Jeff Goldblum, Rory Cochby Dashiell Hammett) whose investigation [ 446 ]

of a murder leads him to a circus for Goldblum, Natasha Richardson, Michel whodunit showdown. Blanc, Jacques Villeret, Angela Pleasence, Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) C-126m. Jean-Pierre Cassel, Samuel Chaimovitch. ★★★ Pianist Goldblum agrees to pose as Christ D: Roland Joffe´. Paul Newman, Dwight Schultz, Bonnie Bedelia, John Cusack, on the cross for a photographer specializLaura Dern, Ron Frazier, John C. Mcing in Biblical pictures—and then starts Ginley, Natasha Richardson. Flawed but taking his role too seriously. Weak attempt still arresting film about the development at farce never quite connects, despite some of the atomic bomb, personalizing the story amusing moments scattered about. This cast deserves better. [R]▼● by focusing on General Groves (Newman), the bullheaded Army officer who was Fay Grim (2007-U.S.-German) C-118m. ★★1 handed the job, and the brilliant J. Robert ⁄2 D: Hal Hartley. Parker Posey, Jeff Oppenheimer (Schultz), who organized the Goldblum, James Urbaniak, Saffron Burbrain trust creating the bomb. One complaint: rows, Liam Aiken, Elina Lo¨wensohn, Leo some decidedly non-1940s slang amid the diaFitzpatrick, Chuck Montgomery, Thomas logue. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Jay Ryan. Sequel to Hartley’s HENRY Fatso (1980) C-94m. ★★ D: Anne BanFOOL picks up where that film left off, croft. Dom DeLuise, Anne Bancroft, Candice as Posey—abandoned by her husband, who Azzara, Ron Carey, Michael Lombard, Sal may or may not be dead—struggles with Viscuso. Bancroft’s only feature as writer-diher rebellious teenage son. She then berector is disappointing. Fat man DeLuise halfcomes a pawn of CIA agent Goldblum and heartedly tries to reduce after the death of his flies to Europe to carry out a strange bargain obese cousin. Film veers unevenly between involving Henry Fool’s unpublished manucomedy and pathos, with a few too many script, which supposedly contains volatile excrement jokes, perhaps the uncredited coninformation. Highly committed perfortribution of Mel Brooks. [PG]▼쩠 mances by the cast invite you to go along on Fat Spy, The (1965) C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Jothis screw-loose, convoluted, straight-faced seph Cates. Phyllis Diller, Jack E. Leonbut tongue-in-cheek journey, even though it ard, Brian Donlevy, Jayne Mansfield, doesn’t make much sense. Hartley also edJordan Christopher, The Wild Ones, Johnny ited and composed the score. [R]쩠 Tillotson. Once-in-a-lifetime cast makes FBI Story, The (1959) C-149m. ★★★ D: this a must for camp followers—and a sure Mervyn LeRoy. James Stewart, Vera Miles, thing to avoid for most others. Fat Jack Murray Hamilton, Larry Pennell, Nick plays dual roles, in a story of a search for Adams, Diane Jergens, Joyce Taylor. Wellthe Fountain of Youth. Shot in Florida.▼쩠 mounted fabrication of history of F.B.I. as Faust (1926-German) 116m. ★★★ D: F. W. seen through career of agent Stewart, allowing Murnau. Emil Jannings, Gosta Ekman, Cafor episodic sidelights into action-packed capers and view of his personal life.▼●쩠 milla Horn, Wilhelm (William) Dieterle, Yvette Guilbert, Eric Barcley. Oft-told story Fear (1996) C-95m. ★★ D: James Foley. of the eternal, earthly conflict between good Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon, Wiland evil, in which the title character barliam Petersen, Amy Brenneman, Alyssa Migains away his soul to Mephistopheles (Janlano. Squeaky-clean teen falls for sexy psycho nings). Not a classic like Murnau’s THE who locks horns with protective papa in a LAST LAUGH or SUNRISE, but still a deadly battle. Passable slasher pic is somecompelling, inventively directed, visually what redeemed by Foley’s taut, stylish direcsumptuous film, highlighted by clever spetion (the roller coaster scene is pretty cial effects and impressive use of light and steamy) and decent performances. Still, it’s shadow. Based on the play by Goethe. Dieawfully derivative, especially the final terle, then an actor, later directed THE showdown at the family nest. Former rapper/ DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER.▼●쩠 Calvin Klein pinup Wahlberg is menacing as Fauteuils d’Orchestre SEE: Avenue the lovestruck hood, but he could benefit from Montaigne diction lessons. Executive producer Brian Favor, The (1994) C-97m. ★★ D: Donald Grazer called this ‘‘FATAL ATTRACTION Petrie. Harley Jane Kozak, Elizabeth McGovfor teens.’’ Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 ern, Bill Pullman, Brad Pitt, Ken Wahl, Larry Fear and Desire (1953) 68m. ★★ D: Stanley Miller, Holland Taylor. ‘‘Happily’’ married Kubrick. Frank Silvera, Kenneth Harp, Paul Kozak asks best friend McGovern to look Mazursky, Steve Coit, Virginia Leith; narup—and sleep with—her high school hunk rated by David Allen. Kubrick’s elusive, boyfriend, so she can vicariously experience shoestring-budget feature-film debut is an the affair. Pleasant cast undone by comedy maexistential antiwar allegory centering on terial that doesn’t ring true for one minute. Sat four G.I.s (including a very green Mazuron the shelf after completion in 1991; its lattersky, in his film debut) stranded behind the day release did no one any favors. [R]▼●쩠 lines of an unknown enemy and fighting a Favour, the Watch, and the Very Big fictitious war in an unidentified country. Fish, The (1991-French-British) C-89m. Long suppressed by Kubrick himself—who ★★ D: Ben Lewin. Bob Hoskins, Jeff also photographed, edited, and cowrote with [ 447 ]

poet/playwright Howard Sackler—the movie Kelley dreams he has killed a man in a mircontains some striking imagery and shows the rored room—and wakes up to be confronted germs of budding talent, but generally comes by evidence that his fantasy was in fact realoff as an arty and pretentious student film. ity. Based on the story ‘‘Nightmare’’ by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) William Irish (Cornell Woolrich); remade under that title in 1956.▼쩠 C-119m. BOMB D: Terry Gilliam. Johnny Depp, Benicio Del Toro, Tobey Maguire, Fear in the Night (1972-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Jimmy Sangster. Judy Geeson, Joan Craig Bierko, Katherine Helmond, Mark Harmon, Tim Thomerson, Penn Jillette, Cameron Collins, Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing. NewDiaz, Lyle Lovett, Flea, Gary Busey, Chrislywed Geeson accompanies husband Bates tina Ricci, Michael Jeter, Harry Dean Stanton, to a private school where the only other Ellen Barkin. Excruciating adaptation of inhabitants are a somewhat befuddled headHunter S. Thompson’s 1971 book, which master (Cushing) and his cool wife (Coldefined the counterculture of its day. The lins). Geeson can’t get anyone to believe film, however, is simply one monotonous, someone is trying to kill her. Minor Hammer thriller. ▼쩠 painfully long drug trip—replete with closeups of vomit and swooping camera moveFear Is the Key (1972-British) C-103m. 1⁄2 D: Michael Tuchner. Barry Newman, ★ ments at any and every opportunity. Perhaps Thompson diehards will find some value Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, Dolph Sweet, here; others beware. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Ben Kingsley. Confused, unsatisfying Fear Chamber, The (1971-Mexican-U.S) Alistair MacLean thriller about a man driven C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Juan Ibanez, Jack Hill. Boris to extremes in pursuit of stolen booty— Karloff, Julissa, Carlos East, Isela Vega, and revenge for the murder of his wife and Yerye Beirute. Strange film about a semichild. Kingsley’s debut and only film work living stone from volcano caves that rebefore GANDHI. Panavision. [PG] Fearless (1993) C-122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter quires fluid from a terrified person in order to communicate with humans; dedicated Weir. Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, scientist Karloff and his assistants are all Rosie Perez, Tom Hulce, John Turturro, Betoo eager to help. Though faintly better than nicio Del Toro, Deirdre O’Connell, John De the other three Mexican-American producLancie, Spencer Vrooman, Daniel Cerny, tions Karloff worked on in 1968 (just before Eve Roberts. A man feels his life, his outhis death), this is still awful. Aka TORlook, his entire raison d’eˆtre changed after TURE ZONE.▼쩠 he survives a terrible plane crash; he can no Fear City (1984) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Abel longer deal with his own family, but is Ferrara. Tom Berenger, Billy Dee Williams, drawn to another survivor (Perez), who’s Jack Scalia, Melanie Griffith, Rossano Brazzi, unable to cope with the loss of her baby in Rae Dawn Chong, Joe Santos, Michael V. the crash. Superior writing and acting, with Gazzo, Jan Murray, Ola Ray, Maria Conchita Bridges (good as always) matched by RosAlonso. Incredibly sleazy look at Manhattan sellini (in her best performance to date, as lowlife—violent and repellent in the extreme. his wife) and Perez. Screenplay by Rafael Remarkably good cast for this kind of exploiYglesias, based on his novel. [R]▼●쩠 tation fodder. [R]▼●쩠 Fearless (2006) SEE: Jet Li’s Fearless FeardotCom (2002-British-LuxembourgianFearless Frank (1967) C-83m. BOMB German) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: William Malone. D: Philip Kaufman. Jon Voight, Monique Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, SteVan Vooren, Joan Darling, Severn Darden, phen Rea, Udo Kier, Amelia Curtis, Jeffrey Anthony Holland, Lou Gilbert, David SteinCombs, Nigel Terry, Michael Sarrazin. Cop berg, Nelson Algren. Naive country boy Dorff and health worker McElhone link a Voight treks off to the Big City, is murdered by series of strange deaths in N.Y.C. to a pargangsters, and is reincarnated as a superhero ticular computer Web site. Dark, gloomy, and his monsterlike clone. Pretentious satire is and very gory, this urban nightmare is well of interest only as a curio—and as Voight’s visualized, but the story is confusing and film debut. Filmed in Chicago in 1965. Aka hard to follow. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 FRANK’S GREATEST ADVENTURE and Fear Inside, The (1992) C-115m. ★★★ D: subsequently cut to 78m. Techniscope. Leon Ichaso. Christine Lahti, Dylan McDerFearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, mott, Jennifer Rubin, David Ackroyd, Thomas But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, The Ian Nicholas, Paul Linke. Lahti shines as an (1967-British) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Roman agoraphobic book artist held hostage at home Polanski. Jack MacGowran, Roman Polanby a pair of killers. David Birke’s well-turned ski, Sharon Tate, Alfie Bass, Ferdy Mayne, screenplay owes something, it seems, to Terry Downes, Ronald Lacey. Near-brilliant LADY IN A CAGE. Theatrical film that premixture of humor and horror: Professor miered on cable television. [R]▼● Abronsius and assistant Alfred (great bumFear in the Night (1947) 72m. ★★★ D: bling idiot team) attempt to destroy family Maxwell Shane. Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelof Slovonic vampires. Full 107m. version ley, Kay Scott, Ann Doran, Robert Emmett also available. Screenplay by Polanski and Keane. Nifty chiller in which bank teller Ge´rard Brach. Later a Broadway musical [ 448 ]

called DANCE OF THE VAMPIRES (the vidtz, Tom Bell, Gemma Jones, James Purefilm’s alternate title). Panavision.▼●쩠 foy, Greg Wise, Kenneth Anderson, Ben Fearmakers, The (1958) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chaplin. A wandering, abandoned unwed Jacques Tourneur. Dana Andrews, Dick Foran, mother finds shelter with three brothers and Marilee Earle, Veda Ann Borg, Mel Torme´. their parents, setting off sexual sparks in the Brainwashed ex-POW Andrews comes home formerly placid Victorian household. Poky from the Korean War to discover that his PR prestige film, produced by Merchant-Ivory firm has been overrun by subversives. Crisply and based on the H. E. Bates novel, begins told, low-budget Cold War thriller. While it’s and ends satisfactorily, but the middle 90 minvery much of its time, it anticipates contemutes is slow going. Davidtz is almost too amporary ideas about the way politicians and biguous in the lead. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 political ideas are sold to the public. ▼ Feast of Love (2007) C-102m. ★★ D: RobFear of a Black Hat (1993) C-86m. ★★★ ert Benton. Morgan Freeman, Greg KinD: Rusty Cundieff. Larry B. Scott, Mark near, Radha Mitchell, Selma Blair, Alexa Christopher Lawrence, Rusty Cundieff, Davalos, Billy Burke, Toby Hemingway, Kasi Lemmons, Howie Gold, Eric LaneuFred Ward, Jane Alexander, Missi Pyle, ville, Barry Heins, Shabaka (Barry Shabaka Erika Marozsa´n. Love and heartache amidst Henley). THIS IS SPINAL TAP goes rap in a group of people whose lives interweave this nifty burlesque about those rude, crude in Portland, Oregon, including a seemingly gangsta rappers N.W.H. (Niggaz With serene college professor (Freeman), an upHats). Group members are Tasty Taste, beat coffee shop owner (Kinnear) who can’t Tone Def, and Ice Cold (the latter played by ever see what’s going on with the women in director Cundieff, who also scripted). Quite his life, and a young woman (Davalos) who funny at times, with Cundieff cleverly chidpromises to brighten things up. Genteel and ing the self-serving ‘‘street politics’’ of attractive, but after a while you can feel the Public Enemy and 2 Live Crew. [R]▼●쩠 wheels turning . . . slowly. Based on a novel ★★★ Fear Strikes Out (1957) 100m. D: by Charles Baxter. Super 35. [R]쩠 Robert Mulligan. Anthony Perkins, Karl Federal Hill (1994) 100m. ★★★ D: Michael Malden, Norma Moore, Adam Williams, Corrente. Nicholas Turturro, Anthony DePerry Wilson. Stark account of baseball Sando, Libby Langdon, Michael Raynor, star Jimmy Piersall and his bout with menJason Andrews, Robert Turano, Frank Vintal illness; Perkins is properly intense, with cent. Story of male camaraderie among Malden superb as his domineering father. young Italian-Americans ‘‘from the neighVistaVision.▼●쩠 borhood’’ (Providence, R.I.) has an awfully Fear X (2003-Danish-Canadian-British) Cfamiliar MEAN STREETS ring to it, but 91m. BOMB D: Nicolas Winding Refn. it’s quite well done—extremely well acted John Turturro, Deborah Kara Unger, Stephen and filled with unexpected twists. Turturro McIntyre, William Allen Young, Jacqueline gives a star-making performance as the Ramel, James Remar. Security guard Turturro firecracker-tempered Ralphie, though the film is curious to find out who killed his wife and concentrates on Nicky (DeSando), the local why. Slow, dull exercise in the emptiness of hunk infatuated with a pretty archeology movies—uh, sorry, life . . . no, movies . . . student who’s way out of his league. Direclife . . . arggghhh! The type of film where the tor Corrente (who also scripted) plays viewer spends more time wondering at which Fredo. Available on video in original and yard sale the set decorator found the lamp computer-colored versions. [R]▼●쩠 than caring about the story or characters. Fedora (1978-German) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Widescreen. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Billy Wilder. William Holden, Marthe KelFeast (2005) C-87m. BOMB D: John Guler, Hildegarde Knef, Jose Ferrer, Frances lager. Duane Whitaker, Balthazar Getty, Sternhagen, Henry Fonda, Michael York, Chauntae Davies, Diane Goldner, Josh ZucMario Adorf, Stephen Collins. Stylish but kerman, Henry Rollins, Eileen Ryan, Jason ponderous filmization of Thomas Tryon’s Mewes, Judah Friedlander, Krista Allen, Eric short story about a producer’s disastrous atDane. The filmmakers who starred on the realtempt to lure a Garbo-esque actress out of ity TV show Project Greenlight came up with seclusion. Wilder’s potshots at today’s films this noisy, tedious ordeal, in which a motley and filmmakers might carry more weight if crew of strangers in a bar find themselves this film was better. [PG]▼● attacked by gooey, flesh-eating creatures. Feds (1988) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Dan GoldDoesn’t have a shred of character developberg. Rebecca De Mornay, Mary Gross, ment, plot, or suspense but offers copious Fred Dalton Thompson, Ken Marshall, amounts of gore, explosions, and incoherLarry Cedar. Pert female cop and her bookent, choppy editing. Director’s father, Clu ish roommate conquer male-chauvinistic colGulager, plays a bartender. Unrated DVD leagues during their struggle to make ‘‘the also available. Followed by two DVD secut’’ at the FBI Academy. Unlike the quels. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 POLICE ACADEMY farces, this is played Feast of July (1995-U.S.-British) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Menaul. Embeth Dafairly straight, perhaps in deference to Bu[ 449 ]

reau cooperation; result is laughless—and Fellini’s Casanova (1976-Italian) C-158m. ★★1 thus, pointless—comedy. [PG-13]▼● ⁄2 D: Federico Fellini. Donald SutherFeeling Minnesota (1996) C-95m. ★★ D: land, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne, John Steven Baigelman. Keanu Reeves, Vincent Karlsen, Daniel Emilfork Berenstein. UnD’Onofrio, Cameron Diaz, Delroy Lindo, involving if opulent version of 18th-century Courtney Love, Tuesday Weld, Dan Ayklover’s life, made entirely at Rome’s royd, Levon Helm. Baigelman’s highly Cinecitta Studios. Sutherland is enigmatic, touted writing and directing debut explores the film stylized to a sometimes absurd the explosive and unpredictable relationship degree. Nino Rota’s music helps. Danilo Donati won an Oscar for his costumes. [R]▼ between two brothers and the cagey young woman who comes between them. Watchable Fellini’s Roma (1972-Italian) C-128m. ★★★ at times, but utterly disappointing; interestD: Federico Fellini. Peter Gonzales, Britta ing cast is left high and dry, including the Barnes, Pia de Doses, Fiona Florence, always welcome Weld as the boys’ mother. Marne Maitland, Renato Giovannoli, FedMovie’s title was suggested by a line in a erico Fellini. Famed director’s impressionsong by Soundgarden. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 istic ode to Eternal City of his youth, his Feel the Noise (2007) C-88m. ★★ D: Aleadolescence, and the present—complete jandro Chomski. Omarion Grandberry, with fantasy sequence and usual carnivalGiancarlo Esposito, Zulay Henao, James of-life point of view. [R]▼●쩠 McCaffrey, Kellita Smith, Melonie Diaz. Fellow Traveler (1989-British) C-97m. ★★★ After running afoul of a Harlem gangster, a D: Philip Saville. Ron Silver, Hart Bochner, young would-be rapper (R&B singer Imogen Stubbs, Daniel J. Travanti, Katherine Grandberry) seeks safe haven with his longBorowitz. Excellent political thriller detailestranged father (Esposito) in Puerto Rico, ing the plight and fate of a pair of childhood where he develops a taste for reggaeto´n—a pals, one (Bochner) a movie star and the muy caliente mix of rap, hip-hop, reggae, other (Silver) a scriptwriter, who are both and salsa. Stock characters abound in this blacklisted during the McCarthy era. Esformulaic music-fueled drama, but viewers pecially on target as a reflection of the may get in the groove while savoring enertemper of the 1950s, with a perceptive script by Michael Eaton. ▼ getic reggaeto´n performances and modestly steamy dance sequences. Look sharp, and Female (1933) 60m. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. you’ll catch a glimpse of coproducer JenniRuth Chatterton, George Brent, Ferdinand fer Lopez (and husband Marc Anthony) Gottschalk, Philip Faversham, Ruth Donnelly, during the movie’s final minutes. [PG-13]쩠 Johnny Mack Brown, Lois Wilson, Gavin Feet First (1930) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clyde Gordon. Chatterton runs a major auto company Bruckman. Harold Lloyd, Barbara Kent, with an iron hand—and tries to conduct her Robert McWade, Lillian Leighton, Henry love life the same way—until independentHall. Lloyd talkie tries to rekindle spirit of minded Brent comes along. (The two stars his silent comedies with middling results. were then married in real life.) Funny, fasciEpisodic film has some very funny monating role-reversal yarn with incredibly lavments, but Harold’s building-ledge routine ish set design—watch for the organist perched in Ruth’s entrance foyer!▼●쩠 doesn’t quite come off. ▼쩠 Felicia’s Journey (1999-Canadian-British) Female on the Beach (1955) 97m. ★★ D: C-113m. ★★ D: Atom Egoyan. Bob HosJoseph Pevney. Joan Crawford, Jeff Chankins, Arsine´e Khanjian, Elaine Cassidy, dler, Jan Sterling, Cecil Kellaway, Judith Sheila Reid, Peter McDonald, Gerard McEvelyn, Natalie Schafer, Charles Drake. Sorley, Brid Brennan. Mild-mannered caHot, heavy—and very tacky—melodrama, tering manager at a British factory takes a in which fisherman-stud Chandler attempts kindly interest in a young pregnant woman to put the make on wealthy widow Crawwho’s come over from Ireland looking for ford. Outrageously trashy script is crammed the boyfriend who abandoned her . . . but with sexual double entendres. A must for the man’s intentions are far from pure. A Crawford fans—but don’t expect anything disappointment from Egoyan, from whom resembling a good movie. we expect more than just another story Female Perversions (1997) C-119m. ★★ D: about a psycho—however layered it may Susan Streitfeld. Tilda Swinton, Amy Madibe. Egoyan scripted from William Trevor’s gan, Karen Sillas, Frances Fisher, Laila Robnovel. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 ins, Clancy Brown, Paulina Porizkova, John Fellini Satyricon (1970-Italian) C-129m. Diehl, Lisa Jane Persky, Marcia Cross. Story ★★★ D: Federico Fellini. Martin Potter, of highly successful lawyer (Swinton), in line Hiram Keller, Max Born, Capucine, Salvo for a judgeship, who is consumed by selfRandone. Opinions vary on merits of this doubt. She swings both ways sexually, and visually stunning but overindulgent spectacle repeatedly puts her reputation at risk. That her on ancient Rome, but if you love Fellini, Ph.D. candidate sister is a shoplifter is testiyou’ll be more receptive than most viewers to mony to their highly dysfunctional upbringing. his unique panorama of colorful and bizarre Disjointed, pretentious film with a title more characters. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 titillating than the film itself. [R]▼쩠 [ 450 ]

Female Space Invaders SEE: Starcrash funny, with on-target jabs at high school life, Feminine Touch, The (1941) 97m. ★★1⁄2 then wanders through heavy-handed slapstick D: W. S. Van Dyke, II. Rosalind Russell, and moody self-serious ruminations before reDon Ameche, Kay Francis, Van Heflin, Dongaining momentum for a bright finish. Typiald Meek, Gordon Jones, Robert Ryan. Brittle cally uneven John Hughes script, but one of comedy of author Ameche writing book on the pop-culture landmarks of its time. Later jealousy, finding himself a victim when he a TV series. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 brings wife Russell to N.Y.C.; she suspects Ferry Cross the Mersey (1965-British) he’s carrying on with glamorous Francis. 88m. ★★ D: Jeremy Summers. Gerry and Femme Fatale (1991) C-90m. BOMB D: The Pacemakers, Cilla Black, The Fourmost, Andre´ Guttfreund. Colin Firth, Lisa Zane, Jimmy Saville. Gerry Marsden and The PaceBilly Zane, Scott Wilson, Lisa Blount, Carmakers perform eight songs in this musical mine Caridi. Firth is squeaky-clean newlywed made to cash in on their popularity; most apwhose mysterious bride vanishes on eve of propriately, they appear as a Liverpool band their honeymoon; he then uncovers lurid unattempting to compete in a music contest. derground lifestyle she came from and to Ferry to Hong Kong (1959-British) Cwhich she may have returned. Lisa Zane isn’t 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. Orson terribly enigmatic, just tedious. Psychological Welles, Curt Jurgens, Sylvia Syms, Jerdrama begs for a sensible screenplay. Lisa and emy Spenser. Welles and Jurgens have Billy Zane are sister and brother. [Available field day as straight-faced ferry boat skipin both R and PG versions]▼● per and drunken Austrian on trip to Macao. Otherwise just routine. CinemaScope.▼ Femme Fatale (2002-French) C-112m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Brian De Palma. Rebecca RomijnFestival in Cannes (2002) C-99m. ★★★ D: Stamos, Antonio Banderas, Peter Coyote, Eriq Henry Jaglom. Anouk Aime´e, Maximilian Ebouaney, Edouard Montoute, Rie RasmusSchell, Greta Scacchi, Zack Norman, Ron sen, Thierry Fre´mont, Gregg Henry. Giddy Silver, Jenny Gabrielle, Alex Craig Mann, mix of ingredients from vintage De Palma (and Peter Bogdanovich. Slice-of-life drama set Hitchcock) thrillers with Romijn-Stamos in against the Cannes Film Festival, where evfine form—literally and otherwise—as a eryone is after something: a deal, a script, a deadly blonde bombshell. She cheats her partcommitment, a comeback, a reconciliation. ners out of the loot from a daring theft and asTold in Jaglom’s loose, sometimes ragged sumes a new identity, but she’s been caught on improvisational style, with exceptional actors film by photographer Banderas . . . and the adding substance to the proceedings. Funny, twists just keep a-comin’. Story doesn’t make observant, and especially recommended for much sense, but tries to intoxicate the viewer movie buffs. Cameos include Faye Dunaway and William Shatner.▼쩠 with its audacity and a swirl of stylish images and set pieces. Re´gis Wargnier and Sandrine Feud, The (1989) C-96m. ★★★ D: Bill Bonnaire appear in the Cannes Film Festival D’Elia. Rene Auberjonois, Ron McLarty, segment, screening their film EAST-WEST. Joe Grifasi, Scott Allegrucci, Gale Mayron, Written by the director. [R] ▼쩠 David Strathairn, Stanley Tucci, Lynne KillFernGully . . . The Last Rainforest meyer, Kathleen Doyle, Libby George. David (1992) C-76m. ★★★ D: Bill Kroyer. Voices Lynch meets Norman Rockwell in this oddly of Tim Curry, Samantha Mathis, Christian likable satire of 1950s small-town America, Slater, Robin Williams, Grace Zabriskie, centering on a feud that erupts between two Cheech Marin, Thomas Chong, Tone Loc. families in neighboring hamlets. Broadly Entertaining animated feature for kids, with played; has cult-status possibilities. Based on an ecological message. Mystical miniature Thomas Berger’s novel; coscripted by firsttime director D’Elia. [R]▼ forest creatures are threatened when human invasion of their rainforest (with bullFever (1989-Australian) C-83m. ★★★ D: dozers) threatens to unleash an evil spirit Craig Lahiff. Bill Hunter, Mary Regan, who’s been locked up in a tree for years. Gary Sweet. Virtually silent film noir in the Lively and enjoyable, if not memorable, with James M. Cain/Hitchcock vein. The ingreplenty of laughs for grownups in the freedients are a tough cop, his younger wife, her flowing dialogue of Batty Koda, a whackedshallow lover, and a suitcase full of money. out bat voiced by Robin Williams. FolSurprising throughout. [R]▼ lowed by a video sequel, FERNGULLY 2: Fever (2001) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alex Winter. THE MAGICAL RESCUE. [G]▼●쩠 Henry Thomas, David O’Hara, Teri Hatcher, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) C-103m. Bill Duke, Remak Ramsey, Marisol Padilla ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Hughes. Matthew Broderick, Sanchez, Irma St. Paule. Somber, pitch-black Alan Ruck, Mia Sara, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer chiller about a struggling young artist/drawGrey, Cindy Pickett, Lyman Ward, Edie ing instructor (Thomas) who lives in a McClurg, Charlie Sheen, Ben Stein, Del dingy Brooklyn tenement. On the night a Close, Virginia Capers, Louis Anderson, Max mysterious stranger moves in upstairs, his Perlich, T. Scott Coffey, Kristy Swanson. landlord is brutally murdered. Is his new Saga of a cocky teenager’s day of adventure neighbor real or imagined? Does the cop on while cutting classes. Starts off extremely the case think he’s the killer? Occasional [ 451 ]

boring stretches are outweighed by genuDemi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, inely creepy atmosphere and effectively unKevin Pollak, James Marshall, J.T. Walsh, derstated performances; Winter (of BILL & Christopher Guest, J.A. Preston, Matt Craven, TED fame) does a fine job of visualizing the Wolfgang Bodison, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Noah artist’s fears and growing paranoia. [R] ▼쩠 Wyle. Aaron Sorkin’s powerful one-set play is Fever in the Blood, A (1961) 117m. ★★1⁄2 effectively expanded for movie retelling, as a D: Vincent Sherman. Efrem Zimbalist, slick young Navy lawyer (Cruise) is driven to Jr., Angie Dickinson, Herbert Marshall, investigate the case of two Marines who killed Don Ameche, Jack Kelly, Carroll O’Cona compatriot. Nicholson bristles as the comnor. Turgid dramatics focusing on murder manding officer of the base who doesn’t want trial which various candidates for goverthe whole story told. Smashing courtroom clinor use to further political ambitions. max, top-grade performances all around, but a Fever Pitch (1985) C-96m. BOMB D: Richhandful of contrivances keep this from scoring a direct hit. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ard Brooks. Ryan O’Neal, Catherine Hicks, Giancarlo Giannini, Bridgette Andersen, ffolkes (1980) C-99m. ★★★ D: Andrew V. Chad Everett, John Saxon, William Smith. McLaglen. Roger Moore, James Mason, Anachronistic look at gambling fever with Anthony Perkins, Michael Parks, David newspaper columnist (and ‘‘fever’’ victim) Hedison, Jack Watson, Lea Brodie. Moore O’Neal. Embarrassingly bad; overwritten by has fun playing an eccentric counterterrorist veteran Brooks with declamatory dialogue hired by the British government when a from the Dragnet school of scripts. [R]▼ team of terrorists threaten to blow up two Fever Pitch (1997-British) C-102m. ★★★ D: North Sea oil rigs. Surprisingly little action David Evans. Colin Firth, Ruth Gemmell, per se, but an entertaining yarn. Retitled Neil Pearson, Lorraine Ashbourne, Mark ASSAULT FORCE for TV. Aka NORTH Strong, Holly Aird, Ken Stott, Stephen Rea. SEA HIJACK. [PG]▼쩠 Likable, often perceptive look at a soccerF for Fake (1974) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Orson obsessed schoolteacher and the colleague who Welles. Wellesian tomfoolery, which started falls in love with him but can’t understand (or out as a portrait of notorious art forger embrace) his obsession with a local team. Nick Elmyr de Hory. When one of the interviewHornby (HIGH FIDELITY) adapted his ees turned out to be Clifford Irving—who novel, which offers a fresh look at the differfooled the world with a bogus Howard ences between men and women. Remade in Hughes autobiography—Welles was forced 2005. [R]▼쩠 to alter his film. Now it’s a free-form treaFever Pitch (2005) C-101m. ★★★ D: Peter tise on hoaxes, with Welles’ on-camera Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly. Drew Barrymore, charm compensating for some of the movJimmy Fallon, James B. Sikking, JoBeth ie’s rough edges. Joseph Cotten, Paul StewWilliams, Willie Garson, Evan Helmuth, art, and Laurence Harvey appear briefly as Ione Skye, KaDee Strickland, Marissa Jaret themselves, along with Welles’ longtime Winokur. Appealing comedy about a workacompanion, Oja Kodar.▼●쩠 holic, just turning 30, who meets a nice-guy Fickle Finger of Fate, The (1967-U.S.schoolteacher one winter, only to learn as Spanish) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Rush. spring arrives that he is a lifelong Boston Tab Hunter, Luis Prendes, Patty Shepard, Red Sox fanatic. Writers Lowell Ganz and Gustavo Rojo, Fernando Hilbeck. Idiotic Babaloo Mandel paint a believable picture of comedy with Hunter an American engitwo people who love each other but have to neer falsely accused of smuggling a canovercome a major obstacle. A departure from dlestick, known as The Finger of Fate, out gross-out absurdism for the Farrelly Brothers; of Spain. He goes undercover in an attempt to unmask the real culprit.▼ the stars couldn’t be more likable. Set against the backdrop of the Red Sox’s amazing 2004 Fiddler on the Roof (1971) C-181m. ★★★ season. Based on Nick Hornby’s novel, D: Norman Jewison. (Chaim) Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul filmed before in 1997. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Few Days in the Life of I. I. Oblomov, A Mann, Rosalind Harris, Michele Marsh, Neva SEE: Oblomov Small, Candice Bonstein, Paul (Michael) GlaFew Days With Me, A (1988-French) ser. Rousing, colorful location-filmed adaptaC-131m. ★★★ D: Claude Sautet. Daniel tion of Joseph Stein’s hit play based on Sholem Auteuil, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean-Pierre Aleichem stories of humble village of AnaMarielle, Dominique Lavanant, Danielle tevka. Topol is hearty as Tevye, trying to preDarrieux, Tanya Lopert. Intriguing chronserve Jewish heritage against growing odds. icle of chameleonlike Auteuil, whose famSheldon Harnick–Jerry Bock score melodiily owns a department-store chain, and the cally performed; Isaac Stern’s violin featured series of events that ensue upon his checkon soundtrack. Earned Oscars for Cinematoging up on one outlet, located in a provinraphy (Oswald Morris) and Scoring (John cial town. Veers too much between comedy Williams). Reissued at 150m. For an interest(some of which is hilarious) and drama. ing comparison, see the original YiddishFew Good Men, A (1992) C-138m. ★★★ D: language TEVYE. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Rob Reiner. Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Fido (2007-Canadian) C-91m. ★★ D: An[ 452 ]

drew Currie. Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy ConFiend Without a Face (1958-British) 74m. ★1 nolly, Dylan Baker, K’Sun Ray, Tim Blake ⁄2 D: Arthur Crabtree. Marshall ThompNelson, Henry Czerny, Sonja Bennett, Jenson, Kim Parker, Terence Kilburn, Michael nifer Clement, Rob LaBelle, Aaron Brown. Balfour, Gil Winfield. Scientist materializes Standard boy-and-his-dog formula is given thoughts in form of invisible brain-shaped a darkly amusing futuristic twist. A boy creatures which kill people for food. Horrific named Timmy (of course) adopts a domesticlimax; good special effects.▼●쩠 cated six-foot-tall zombie that performs all Fiend With the Atomic Brain, The SEE: the tasks a family pet might . . . until he Blood of Ghastly Horror starts sucking on the neighbors and terrorizFiend with the Electronic Brain, The ing the tight-knit community. Smart premSEE: Blood of Ghastly Horror Fierce Creatures (1997) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: ise could have been a contender in better hands; starts out great but quickly lapses Robert Young, Fred Schepisi. John Cleese, into predictable silliness and gore. Connolly Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael is fun to watch as Fido. Super 35. [R]쩠 Palin, Ronnie Corbett, Carey Lowell, RobField, The (1990-British) C-107m. ★★ D: Jim ert Lindsay. Heartless corporate mogul Sheridan. Richard Harris, John Hurt, Tom Betakes over a failing British zoo and insists it renger, Sean Bean, Brenda Fricker, Frances pay its own way, leaving the new zoo direcTomelty, John Cowley, Sean McGinley, Jenny tor (Cleese) to deal with a resentful staff and Conroy. Ireland, the 1930s: a bull of a man other complications. Pleasant enough farce who’s nurtured a rented field into a prime cowritten by Cleese to reunite the cast of A piece of land nearly goes crazy when the FISH CALLED WANDA never quite pays widow who owns it decides to sell it at aucoff, but has its moments. Kline is fun in a dual tion. Grim tale of deep-rooted stubbornness role. Filmed in 1995, then largely rewritten (and provincial clannishness) plays out like a and refilmed in 1996 with a new director Greek tragedy, and despite Harris’ towering (Schepisi); note how Lowell disappears from performance, becomes aloof and largely unwhole sections of the picture. Cynthia Cleese, moving. Based on a play by John B. Keane. one of the zookeepers, is John’s daughter. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 1 ★★★ Field of Dreams (1989) C-106m. ⁄2 Fierce People (2007) C-112m. ★★ D: GrifD: Phil Alden Robinson. Kevin Costner, fin Dunne. Diane Lane, Anton Yelchin, Amy Madigan, Gaby Hoffmann, Ray Liotta, Donald Sutherland, Kristen Stewart, ElizaTimothy Busfield, James Earl Jones, Burt beth Perkins, Paz de la Huerta, Chris Evans. Lancaster, Frank Whaley, Dwier Brown. Sutherland’s amusing performance as a recluCostner plays a novice farmer in Iowa who sive billionaire dominates this wildly uneven hears ‘‘a voice’’ that inspires him to build adaptation of Dirk Wittenborn’s novel, an a baseball diamond on his property, in the ’80s coming-of-age story about a substancehope of bringing the legendary baseball abusing masseuse (Lane), her codependent star Shoeless Joe Jackson (whose career teenage son (Yelchin), and the eventful was cut short by the Black Sox scandal) summer they spend as guests on the billionback to life. A story of redemption and aire’s New Jersey estate. Barely released two years after its film festival debut. [R]쩠 faith, in the tradition of the best Hollywood fantasies, with moments that are Fiercest Heart, The (1961) C-91m. ★★ D: pure magic. Kudos to writer-director RobGeorge Sherman. Stuart Whitman, Juliet inson, who adapted W. P. Kinsella’s book Prowse, Ken Scott, Raymond Massey, GerShoeless Joe, for hitting (and maintaining) aldine Fitzgerald. Good cast and actionjust the right note from start to finish. packed skirmishes with Zulus can’t raise Lovely score by James Horner. [PG] ▼●쩠 this programmer to any heights. Set in Fiendish Ghouls, The SEE: Mania Africa. CinemaScope. Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, The Fiesta (1947) C-104m. ★★ D: Richard (1980-British) C-108m. BOMB D: Piers Thorpe. Esther Williams, Akim Tamiroff, Haggard. Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, Sid Ricardo Montalban, John Carroll, Mary Caesar, David Tomlinson, Simon Williams, Astor, Cyd Charisse. Williams trades in Steve Franken. Disastrous comedy features her bathing suit for a toreador outfit in this Sellers in a dual role, as the title character weak musical opus.쩠 and as his archenemy, Scotland Yard de15 Minutes (2001) C-120m. ★★★ D: John tective Nayland Smith. Painfully unfunny Herzfeld. Robert De Niro, Edward Burns, and, sad to say, Sellers’ last film. [PG]▼● Kelsey Grammer, Avery Brooks, Melina KaFiend Who Walked the West, The (1958) nakaredes, Karel Roden, Oleg Taktarov, Vera 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. Hugh Farmiga, John DiResta, Charlize Theron, Kim O’Brian, Robert Evans, Dolores Michaels, Cattrall, Darius McCrary, David Alan Grier. Linda Cristal, Stephen McNally. InterestHeadline-grabbing N.Y.C. detective finds himing if not altogether successful transposiself with an unlikely partner—a young fire detion of KISS OF DEATH to Western setting, partment arson investigator—as they track a with Evans ludicrous in the Widmark psyseries of grisly murders. The culprits are an imcho role. CinemaScope.▼ migrant duo who smugly seek to manipulate [ 453 ]

the Americanmedia/celebrity machine. Highly nothing new, but retells Dumas’ story in cacharged, in-your-face, sometimes over-the-top pable fashion. Major points of interest: Ausmoviemaking with attitude to spare. Written by trian location, veteran cast. Filmed in 1977. the director. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 [PG]▼쩠 5th Ave. Girl (1939) 83m. ★★ D: Gregory Fifty/Fifty (1992) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles LaCava. Ginger Rogers, Walter Connolly, Martin Smith. Peter Weller, Robert Hays, Verree Teasdale, James Ellison, Tim Holt, Charles Martin Smith, Ramona Rahman, Kathryn Adams, Franklin Pangborn, Louis Kay Tong Lim, Dom Magwili. CIA merCalhern, Jack Carson. Tiresome social comcenaries Weller and Hays bicker and bumedy with Rogers as homeless girl taken in ble through the jungle in this silly action/ by unhappy millionaire Connolly; even adventure, in which revolvers outshoot maGinger is lifeless in this film that purports to chine guns; takes a serious turn when the show that poor is better than rich if you’ve ‘‘heroes’’ finally take a stand. [R]▼쩠 got a head on your shoulders.▼● 50 First Dates (2004) C-96m. ★★ D: Peter Fifth Day of Peace, The (1972-Italian) Segal. Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, C-100m. ★★ D: Guilliano Montaldo. RichRob Schneider, Sean Astin, Lusia Strus, ard Johnson, Franco Nero, Bud Spencer, Blake Clark, Dan Aykroyd, Amy Hill, Michael Goodliffe, Helmut Schneider. EpAllen Covert, Maya Rudolph, Nephi Poisodic story of several disillusioned WW1 maikai Brown. A veterinarian living in German soldiers aimlessly wandering warHawaii who’s known for quickie relationravaged Italian countryside following the ships falls in love with a woman who—it armistice. [PG]▼●쩠 turns out—has short-term memory loss. Fifth Element, The (1997-French) CThat means he has to win her over every 127m. ★★★ D: Luc Besson. Bruce Willis, single day! Not-bad premise for an offbeat Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, romantic comedy gets typical Sandler treatChris Tucker, Luke Perry, Brion James, ment, portraying him as a lovable guy while Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, Jr., Lee Evans, John purveying a stream of crude jokes at the Neville. Wildly imaginative tale set in the same time. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 23rd century, where a world-weary Brook55 Days at Peking (1963) C-150m. ★★★ lyn, N.Y., cab driver finds himself involved D: Nicholas Ray. Charlton Heston, Ava with a strange woman who may be responGardner, David Niven, Flora Robson, John sible for saving the world from destruction. Ireland, Paul Lukas, Jacques Sernas. Stars A visual candy store of futuristic images, provide most of the interest in confusing hisbut the film’s strongest suit is its sense of torical account of Boxer Rebellion in 1900s humor. Unfortunately, it gets a bit tedious China. Super Technirama 70. ▼● and formulaic toward the end, with Tuck54 (1998) C-93m. ★★ D: Mark Christopher. er’s over-the-top radio host hogging the Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Neve Campspotlight. Conceived by Besson when he bell, Mike Myers, Sela Ward, Breckin Meyer, was a teenager. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Sherry Stringfield, Ellen Albertini Dow, Fifth Floor, The (1980) C-90m. BOMB Heather Matarazzo, Lauren Hutton, Michael D: Howard Avedis. Bo Hopkins, Dianne York, Daniel Lapaine, Mark Ruffalo, Ron JerHull, Patti D’Arbanville, Sharon Farrell, emy. Dreary drama attempts to capture the Mel Ferrer, Julie Adams, John David Carspirit of hedonistic nightclub Studio 54, son. A few laughs don’t compensate for which flourished in the 1970s and attracted derivative story of college disco dancer naive young people like Phillippe, who who is wrongly committed to an insane thought entry meant a stepping-stone to sucasylum. Collectors of screen dementia cess and self-esteem. Cliche´d story takes should study Hopkins’ performance. [R]▼ focus off the most interesting person onFifth Monkey, The (1990) C-93m. ★★★ screen—Myers, in a canny performance as D: Eric Rochat. Ben Kingsley, Mika Lins, Steve Rubell, the ringmaster of this nightly Vera Fischer, Silvia De Carvalho. Straightdrug-and-sex party. Various celebrities apforward, extremely enjoyable tale of snake pear as themselves. [R]▼●쩠 and rare animal hunter Kingsley, and his 52 Miles to Midnight SEE: Hot Rods to escapades while attempting to sell chimps Hell and earn enough money to wed the woman 52 Pick-Up (1986) C-110m. ★★ D: John of his dreams. Rochat, who also scripted, Frankenheimer. Roy Scheider, Ann-Marmovingly illustrates the necessity for mangret, Vanity, John Glover, Robert Trebor, kind to respect the animal world. BeautiLonny Chapman, Kelly Preston, Clarence Wilfully filmed in Brazil. [PG-13]▼● liams III, Doug McClure. Self-made business5th Musketeer, The (1979-Austrian) C1 ★★ man is caught in web of blackmail and 103m. ⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Beau Bridges, murder—and determines to break free by himSylvia Kristel, Ursula Andress, Cornel Wilde, self. Elmore Leonard’s story is good, but the Ian McShane, Lloyd Bridges, Alan Hale, Jr., lead characters are cold, and film wallows too Jose Ferrer, Helmut Dantine, Rex Harrison, long in the sleazy, voyeuristic world of the bad Olivia de Havilland. Lavish, well-cast remake of THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK offers guys. It also would have been better shorter. [ 454 ]

Same novel was adapted just two years earlier Fighting Mad (1976) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: as THE AMBASSADOR. [R]▼●쩠 Jonathan Demme. Peter Fonda, Lynn ★★ Fight Club (1999) C-139m. D: David Lowry, John Doucette, Philip Carey, Scott Fincher. Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Glenn, Kathleen Miller, Harry Northup. Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf (Aday), Jared Typical revenge picture, with peaceable Leto. A disaffected office worker (Norton) Fonda driven to violence by ruthless landwhose life has turned gray finds unexpected owner who wants to take over his farm. Ontarget for this kind of entertainment. [R]▼쩠 release through violent fistfights, organized by a new ‘‘friend’’ (Pitt), who lives life on the Fighting Pimpernel, The SEE: Elusive edge. The impromptu battles evolve into an Pimpernel, The underground network of fight clubs where Fighting Prince of Donegal, The (1966) C112m. ★★★ D: Michael O’Herlihy. Peter Mcguys pummel each other . . . but the friend has an even more ambitious agenda. Draws you Enery, Susan Hampshire, Tom Adams, Gorin with its intriguing story, black comedy, and don Jackson, Andrew Keir, Donal McCann. flamboyant visuals, then shifts tone, turns Fine Disney swashbuckler made in England, heavy-handed, and heads toward an alarmingly with McEnery as new head of Irish clan who senseless resolution. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 tries to unite his country but runs afoul of ★★★ Fighting (2009) C-105m. D: Dito villainous Jackson. Vivid, colorful fun.▼쩠 Montiel. Channing Tatum, Terrence HowFighting Seabees, The (1944) 100m. ★★★ ard, Zulay Henao, Michael Rivera, Flaco D: Edward Ludwig. John Wayne, Susan Navaja, Peter Anthony Tambakis, Luis GuzHayward, Dennis O’Keefe, William Frawma´n, Anthony DeSando, Brian J. White, ley, Leonid Kinskey, J. M. Kerrigan, Ben Roger Guenveur Smith, Altagracia Guzma´n. Welden, Paul Fix, Grant Withers, Duncan Tightly written and directed melodrama Renaldo. Spirited WW2 saga of construcabout a small-town hustler who comes to tion company boss Wayne and naval officer N.Y.C. and is lured into the world of underO’Keefe tangling professionally and perground bare-knuckle fighting by a shady sonally, with journalist Hayward the love hood looking to make a quick buck. Vivid, interest. The scenario charts the manner in action-packed fight sequences are supported which the ‘‘Seabees’’ (or battalion of conby a solid storyline and strong performances struction worker–soldiers) came to be estabfrom Tatum and Howard. Montiel proved lished. Screenplay by Borden Chase and with A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING Aeneas MacKenzie. Action-packed second YOUR SAINTS (also with Tatum) that he unit direction by Howard Lydecker.▼쩠 knows his way around these particular mean Fighting 69th, The (1940) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: streets; he impressively avoids turning this William Keighley. James Cagney, Pat simple tale into a bad imitation of a grade-B O’Brien, George Brent, Jeffrey Lynn, Alan ’40s boxing movie. [PG-13] Hale, Frank McHugh, Dennis Morgan, Dick Fighting Back (1982) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Foran, John Litel, George Reeves, Frank Lewis Teague. Tom Skerritt, Patti LuPone, Coghlan, Jr. Overripe (but tough to dislike) Michael Sarrazin, Yaphet Kotto, David WW1 tale mixes roughneck comedy, exciting Rasche, Ted Ross, Pat Cooper. A return battle action, sloppy sentiment, incredible visit to DEATH WISH territory; fed up with characterizations (especially Cagney’s) detaillackadaisical police, hotheaded South Philly ing exploits of famed Irish regiment. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 deli owner (Skerritt, who’s excellent) organizes Guardian Angels–like patrol to clean up Fighting Sullivans, The SEE: Sullivans, The criminal scum, but is unprepared for the comFighting Temptations, The (2003) C-123m. ★★1 plications which ensue. Unpleasant, but fast, ⁄2 D: Jonathan Lynn. Cuba Gooding, Jr., slick, and convincing; these people know Beyonce´ Knowles, Melba Moore, Mike Epps, which buttons to push. [R]▼ Reverend Shirley Caesar, LaTanya RichardFighting Back (1982-Australian) C-100m. son, Steve Harvey, Montell Jordan, T-Bone, ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Caulfield. Lewis FitzFaith Evans, The O’Jays, Angie Stone, Faizon Gerald, Paul Smith, Kris McQuade, Robyn Love, Rue McClanahan. A would-be mover Nevin, Caroline Gillmer. Ambitious if not and shaker who’s talked his way out of a good entirely successful drama of teacher Fitzjob in N.Y.C. returns to Georgia and takes Gerald trying to tame unruly, illiterate 13over his hometown church choir, aiming to year-old (Smith, excellent in acting debut). win an annual gospel competition. He also Fighting Kentuckian, The (1949) 100m. has an eye for Knowles, who’s something of ★★1 an outcast in town but has a great voice. Obvi⁄2 D: George Waggner. John Wayne, Vera Ralston, Philip Dorn, Oliver Hardy, ous and overlong, but buoyed by heaping Marie Windsor. Frontierland around 1810 doses of great music. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 is setting for two-fisted saga of Kentuckian Figures in a Landscape (1970-British) (Wayne) combating land-grabbing crimiC-95m. ★★ D: Joseph Losey. Robert Shaw, nals and courting Ralston, French generMalcolm McDowell, Henry Woolf, Chrisal’s daughter. Hardy makes rare solo aptopher Malcolm, Pamela Brown. Capable pearance in character role. Also shown in leads and some amazing helicopter stunt computer-colored version.▼쩠 work offer scant compensation for mud[ 455 ]

dled allegory about two fugitives in an Final Chapter—Walking Tall (1977) unnamed country pursued by an unnamed C-112m. BOMB D: Jack Starrett. Bo enemy. Barely released. Losey fans will Svenson, Margaret Blye, Forrest Tucker, want to give a look. Panavision. [PG] Lurene Tuttle, Morgan Woodward. Yet anFile of the Golden Goose, The (1969other saga about true-life Tennessee sheriff British) C-105m. ★★ D: Sam Wanamaker. Buford Pusser, and inferior to its predecesYul Brynner, Charles Gray, Edward Woodsors. Despite title, this is not the final chapter; ward, John Barrie, Adrienne Corri. Strictly a TV movie (A REAL AMERICAN HERO) formula effort with American agent and and series followed. Aka WALKING TALL—FINAL CHAPTER. [R]▼●쩠 Scotland Yard man going undercover in London to get the goods on murderous Final Conflict, The (1981) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: counterfeiting gang. [M/PG] Graham Baker. Sam Neill, Rossano Brazzi, File on Thelma Jordon, The (1949) 100m. Don Gordon, Lisa Harrow, Mason Adams. ★★1 The third OMEN movie has the anti-Christ ⁄2 D: Robert Siodmak. Barbara Stanwyck, Wendell Corey, Joan Tetzel, Stanley Ridges, Damien Thorn (Neill) 30ish and the U.S. AmRichard Rober. Paul Kelly. Tough little bassador to England. For genre addicts only. film noir focusing largely on romance beFollowed by a TVM, OMEN IV: THE AWAKENING. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 tween unhappily married assistant D.A. Corey and femme fatale Stanwyck. HandFinal Countdown, The (1980) C-104m. ★★★ somely photographed by George Barnes. D: Don Taylor. Kirk Douglas, Martin Aka THELMA JORDON. Sheen, Katharine Ross, James Farentino, Fillmore (1972) C-105m. ★★★ D: Richard Ron O’Neal, Charles Durning. An aircraft T. Heffron. Bill Graham, The Grateful Dead, carrier (the real-life U.S.S. Nimitz) enters It’s a Beautiful Day, Santana, Jefferson Aira time-warp and finds itself in the Pacific plane, Quicksilver Messenger Service. Good just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. rock documentary about Fillmore West’s final Familiar but satisfying fantasy yarn; perfect days is made even better by extensive footTV fare although better viewed in wideage of its magnetic owner, Bill Graham, on screen. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 the phone and on stage; one of the better Final Cut, The (2004-Canadian-German) C-105m. ★★ D: Omar Naim. Robin Wilrock films. Multiscreen. [R]▼ Final Analysis (1992) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: liams, Mira Sorvino, Jim Caviezel, Mimi Phil Joanou. Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Kuzyk, Stephanie Romanov, Thom Bishops. Uma Thurman, Eric Roberts, Paul GuilDour sci-fi piece set in a near future when foyle, Keith David, Robert Harper, Agustin humans have implanted memory chips that Rodriguez. Stylish, sexy thriller about a record their every moment. Williams is a digSan Francisco psychiatrist who becomes ital whiz who is expert at editing his deceased involved with a patient’s unhappily marwealthy clients’ lives to give them a positive ried sister—only to find himself enmeshed spin. Williams has played a repressed automin an elaborate Hitchcockian web of muraton before—but he does it well. Stylized der and duplicity. Basinger is surprisingly mystery-thriller is funereal in more ways than good, Gere distressingly low-key; but the one. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 film’s plodding mid-section almost underFinal Destination (2000) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: mines a bravura finale. Written by Wesley James Wong. Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Strick. Harris Yulin appears unbilled as the Smith, Kristen Cloke, Daniel Roebuck, prosecuting attorney. [R]▼●쩠 Roger Guenveur Smith, Chad E. Donella, Final Approach (1991) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric Seann William Scott. Before the plane carSteven Stahl. James B. Sikking, Hector Elirying him and his classmates to Paris takes zondo, Madolyn Smith, Kevin McCarthy, off, teenager Sawa has a vision of it crashCameo Kneuer. Pilot Sikking, testing a ing. He and others leave the plane, which stealth-type jet, apparently ejects—then awak(of course) does explode—but the survivors ens in the office of psychiatrist Elizondo, who soon start dying in mysterious accidents. wants to investigate the pilot’s past. Weary, Horror movie has an unusual and interesting hackneyed plot treated as if it sparkles with premise, but paints itself into a corner; the originality. This was the first film recorded ending is annoyingly unsatisfactory. Feature with digital technology; the sound is great, but debut for X-Files vet Wong. Followed by the movie isn’t. Panavision. [R]▼● two sequels. [R]▼쩠 Final Assignment (1980-Canadian) C-92m. Final Destination 2 (2003) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: BOMB D: Paul Almond. Genevieve Bujold, David R. Ellis. Ali Larter, A. J. Cook, MiMichael York, Burgess Meredith, Colleen chael Landes, T. C. Carson, Jonathan Cherry, Dewhurst, Alexandra Stewart. Television Keegan Connor Tracy, Sarah Carter, Lynda reporter Bujold takes on the KGB when Boyd, David Paetkau. A girl has a premonishe discovers the Russians are conducting tion of death and learns (like the survivors of scientific experiments on children. Schlock the plane crash in the first film) that by production, with Montreal an unsatisfacavoiding it she and others around her have tory substitute for Moscow; poor script, cheated fate. Film exists for the sole purpose embarrassing performances. [PG]▼ of killing its characters—through fire, car [ 456 ]

crash, crushing, decapitation, impalement, Final Terror, The (1981) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: etc.—in horrifyingly realistic detail. But some Andrew Davis. John Friedrich, Adrian Zmed, people view this as comedy. If so, help yourDaryl Hannah, Rachel Ward, Mark Metcalf. self! [R] ▼쩠 Pretty bad dead-teenagers film set in the backFinal Destination 3 (2006) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: woods, of marginal interest for presence of James Wong. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, latter-day stars in cast (though they don’t get Ryan Merriman, Kris Lemche, Texas Battle, much of a showcase here). [R]▼쩠 Alexz Johnson, Jesse Moss, Gina Holden, Finders Keepers (1984) C-96m. ★★ D: Sam Easton, Crystal Lowe, Chelan Simmons, Richard Lester. Michael O’Keefe, Beverly Amanda Crew. They used the word ‘‘Final’’ D’Angelo, Louis Gossett, Jr., Ed Lauter, in the titles of two predecessors—but they David Wayne, Pamela Stephenson, Brian lied. Winstead is a high school straightDennehy, John Schuck, Timothy Blake, Jim arrow who gets a sense of deaths to come Carrey, Jack Riley. Wholehearted attempt from a roller coaster ride. As expected, the at farce, involving stolen money, con artists survivors then suffer their own supernatural in disguise, a bungling hit man, and other dispatching in TEN LITTLE INDIANS promising ingredients, remains disappointstyle. Most memorable demise comes after ingly flat. Lester manages a few neat sight two senior-class slatterns who say ‘‘totally’’ gags, and Wayne is genuinely funny as the a lot enter a tanning salon. Super 35. [R]쩠 world’s oldest train conductor. [R]▼ Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001Finding Amanda (2008) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Japanese-U.S.) C-106m. ★★ D: Hironobu Peter Tolan. Matthew Broderick, Brittany Sakaguchi, Motonori Sakakibara. Voices of Snow, Maura Tierney, Peter Facinelli, DanMing-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames, iel Roebuck, Bill Fagerbakke, Jennifer Hall, Steve Buscemi, Peri Gilpin, Donald SutherSteve Coogan, Ed Begley, Jr. Fading TV land, James Woods, Keith David, Jean Simcomedy writer and congenital liar Broderick mons, Matt McKenzie. Dr. Aki Ross runs heads to Las Vegas in search of his 20-yearinto trouble in the year 2065 when she and old hooker niece. It’s a bad place for him to her mentor confront a power-hungry genbe, given that he’s addicted to gambling. eral over the best way to battle aliens in Meanders at first but gets better as it goes their midst. Notable as the first major feaalong, particularly when it peels away the ture to use computer-generated actors. Adfac¸ade of the title character. One amusing aptation of popular computer game plays bit: the pimp who’s a wannabe screenwriter. like a standard-issue sci-fi yarn with spiriWritten by the director. [R]쩠 tual undertones. At their dullest, the actors Finding Forrester (2000) C-136m. ★★1⁄2 who provide the voices would still be more D: Gus Van Sant. Sean Connery, Rob Brown, interesting to watch than their hollow-eyed, F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta computerized counterparts. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Rhymes, April Grace, Michael Nouri. Bronx Final Option, The (1982-British) C-125m. high school student meets an odd neighborBOMB D: Ian Sharp. Lewis Collins, Judy hood resident, a reclusive novelist who’s been Davis, Richard Widmark, Robert Webber, hiding from the world since his first burst of Edward Woodward, Tony Doyle, John Dutfame. The curmudgeon becomes his mentor tine, Kenneth Griffith, Ingrid Pitt. Laughably as the boy moves to an upscale Manhattan ridiculous account of Britain’s Special Air private school, and has to examine his Services team and how one officer (Collins) choices—and priorities. Slick entertainment, goes underground—more or less—to infiltrate and a great vehicle for Connery (who also a terrorist gang with plans to take over the coproduced), but more than a bit pat—with American Embassy. Lots of violence, but no heavy-handed ‘‘villainy’’ from jealous professor Abraham. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 brains in sight. Third-billed Widmark has precious little screen time, as the U.S. Secretary Finding Nemo (2003) C-81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: of State. Original British title: WHO DARES Andrew Stanton. Voices of Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey WINS. [R]▼ Final Programme, The SEE: Last Days Rush, Allison Janney, Alexander Gould, Barry of Man on Earth, The Humphries, Eric Bana, Brad Garrett, Stephen Final Season, The (2007) C-123m. ★★ D: Root, Austin Pendleton, Vicki Lewis. Another David Mickey Evans. Sean Astin, Rachael delightful animated film from Pixar, set in a Leigh Cook, Powers Boothe, Michael Angarwondrous undersea environment. A timid ano, Mackenzie Astin, Tom Arnold, Marshall clownfish named Marlin (voiced by a perfectly Bell, Matthew W. Allen, James Gammon, cast Brooks) tries to shield his only son from Larry Miller. True story of Iowa baseball danger; when the little fish is captured and coach Kent Stock, who ditches his job (and taken many miles away, Marlin embarks on wedding) to guide Norway High School to a brave quest to rescue him. Full of great one final championship after their school is characters, animation, and design, and pepmerged into a larger one. By-the-numbers pered with hilarious gags, many of them sports story, with cliche´d dialogue, doesn’t aimed at grown-ups rather than kids. Oscar really connect. Astin covered this turf much winner for Best Animated Feature. [G]▼쩠 better in RUDY. Clairmont-Scope. [PG]쩠 Finding Neverland (2004-U.S.-British) C[ 457 ]

101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marc Forster. Johnny Cardinale, Thomas Milian, Leon Askin, Depp, Kate Winslet, Julie Christie, Radha Ellen Corby, Walter Giller. N.Y.C. policeMitchell, Dustin Hoffman, Kelly Macdonman Hudson falls for Cardinale, daughter ald, Ian Hart, Freddie Highmore, Joe Prosof an old pal, and helps her rob some pero, Nick Roud, Luke Spill, Mackenzie jewels in terrible comedy-thriller minus Crook. Trapped in a loveless marriage, at a laughs or suspense. Panavision. [M/PG] crossroads in his writing career, James M. Fine Romance, A (1992-U.S.-Italian) C83m. ★★ D: Gene Saks. Julie Andrews, Barrie is drawn to four young brothers who play at a nearby park—and their attractive, Marcello Mastroianni, Ian Fitzgibbon, Jeanwidowed mother—and becomes a surrogate Pierre Castaldi, Jean-Jacques Dulon, Mamember of their family. In time, they become ria Machado, Catherine Jarret. Andrews the inspiration for his play Peter Pan. Beautiand Mastroianni try (but fail) to enliven fully crafted, nicely underplayed period piece this obvious, barely funny farce, cast as a set at the turn of the 20th century, anchored pair whose mates have run off together, by an irresistible performance by Depp as and who predictably become romantically the warmhearted but eccentric Scotsman. involved themselves. Scripted by Ronald Oscar winner for Jan A. P. Kaczmarek’s Harwood. [PG-13]▼쩠 score. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 Finger of Guilt (1956-British) 85m. ★★1⁄2 Find Me Guilty (2006) C-124m. ★★★ D: D: Joseph Losey. Richard Basehart, Mary Sidney Lumet. Vin Diesel, Peter Dinklage, Murphy, Constance Cummings, Roger Linus Roache, Ron Silver, Alex Rocco, AnLivesey, Mervyn Johns, Faith Brook. nabella Sciorra, Rau´l Esparza, Jerry Adler, Film director Basehart is blackmailed by Richard Portnow, Josh Pais. Diesel gives a woman claiming to be his mistress, which wonderful, transformative performance as threatens his career and marriage. Intrigureal-life N.J. gangster ‘‘Jackie Dee’’ DiNoring film with disappointing resolution; good scio, an outgoing character who decides to look inside British film studio, however. Didefend himself in a record-breaking Federal rected by blacklistee Losey under pseudonyms case against the Lucchese crime family in Alec Snowden/Joseph Walton. Originally re1987–88. Better than most crime fiction, this leased in England as THE INTIMATE lively courtroom–mob saga is impeccably STRANGER at 95m. cast and directed with brio by Lumet, who Finger Points, The (1931) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: also cowrote the screenplay. Putting Louis John Francis Dillon. Richard Barthelmess, Prima on the soundtrack doesn’t hurt, either. Fay Wray, Regis Toomey, Robert Elliott, [R]쩠 Clark Gable. Vivid though meandering Find the Lady (1976-Canadian-British) melodrama about crime reporter BarthelC-79m. ★1⁄2 D: John Trent. Lawrence Dane, mess on the payroll of the mob. Wray is John Candy, Mickey Rooney, Peter Cook, a newspaperwoman who urges him to go Alexandra Bastedo, Dick Emery. Prestraight; Gable scores as a gang boss. One POLICE ACADEMY comedy about inept of the writers was W. R. Burnett. Fingers (1978) C-91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: James cops Dane and Candy, on the trail of a kidnapped socialite. A couple of genuine laughs, Toback. Harvey Keitel, Jim Brown, Tisa but mostly silly—and occasionally offensive. Farrow, Michael V. Gazzo, Tanya Roberts, Candy and Dane played same characters a Marian Seldes, Danny Aiello, Ed Marinaro, year earlier in IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD Zack Norman. Crude but fascinating meloIDEA AT THE TIME. Aka CALL THE drama about an aspiring concert pianist who COPS! and KOPEK AND BROOM. ▼ reluctantly ‘‘collects’’ on debts owed to his Fine Madness, A (1966) C-104m. ★★★ D: domineering father. Powerful, disturbing film Irvin Kershner. Sean Connery, Joanne is compellingly sensual and brilliantly acted, Woodward, Jean Seberg, Patrick O’Neal, especially by Brown in a rare subdued role. Colleen Dewhurst, Renee Taylor. It’s Remade in 2005 as THE BEAT THAT MY stubborn, nonconformist poet Connery verHEART SKIPPED. Screenplay by the disus the rest of society in uneven but somerector. [R]▼쩠 times outrageously funny satire. Screenplay Finian’s Rainbow (1968) C-145m. ★★★1⁄2 by Elliot Baker, from his novel.▼쩠 D: Francis Ford Coppola. Fred Astaire, Fine Mess, A (1986) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Blake Petula Clark, Tommy Steele, Keenan Wynn, Edwards. Ted Danson, Howie Mandel, RichAl Freeman, Jr., Don Francks, Barbara Hanard Mulligan, Stuart Margolin, Maria cock. Whimsical Burton Lane–E. Y. Harburg Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Edwards, Paul Sormusical fantasy about racial injustice was vino. A slapstick saga of two bumblers, with ahead of its time in the late ’40s on Broadway, laughs few and far between. Familiar Blake embarrassingly dated 20 years later, but CopEdwards trademarks, and the supposed inspipola and an attractive cast work wonders with ration of Laurel and Hardy’s Oscar-winning it in this imaginatively filmed, widescreen short, THE MUSIC BOX, don’t carry this winner—perhaps the best movie musical of very far. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 its era. Harburg’s lyrics remain elegant and Fine Pair, A (1968) C-89m. BOMB D: witty, and Astaire is fun as the transplanted Francesco Maselli. Rock Hudson, Claudia Irishman whose leprechaun comes to life in [ 458 ]

the American South. Try to see it in a theater. Jones, Sean Young, Bryan Kestner, Dale Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Dye, Mary Ellen Trainor, J. A. Preston, Finnegans Wake (1965) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Onorati. High-tech Apache helicopMary Ellen Bute. Page Johnson, Martin J. ters (with an assist from their pilots) take Kelly, Jane Reilly, Peter Haskell. James on South American drug cartels from the Joyce’s classic story of Irish tavern-keeper air. Standard military issue with a rupturedwho dreams of attending his own wake is duck script and no romantic chemistry bebrought to the screen with great energy tween professional rivals Cage and Young. and control. Jones doesn’t evoke memories of Gregory Fiorile (1993-Italian-French-German) CPeck in TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH when ★★★ 118m. D: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. he pep-talks Cage into a ‘‘full-tilt boogie for freedom and justice.’’ [PG-13]▼●쩠 Claudio Bigagli, Galatea Ranzi, Michael Vartan, Lino Capolicchio, Constanze EnFirechasers, The (1970-British) C-101m. ★★ gelbrecht, Athina Cenci, Giovanni Guidelli, D: Sidney Hayers. Chad Everett, Chiara Caselli. While driving to visit his Anjanette Comer, Keith Barron, Joanne ailing, reclusive father, a man reveals to his Dainton, Rupert Davies, John Loder. Strong two children the legend of their family’s production values in familiar story of inhistory, beginning with how their ancestors surance investigator hunting for arsonist. came into wealth dishonestly during the NaFirecreek (1968) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vinpoleonic era. Complex, ironic tale of tarcent McEveety. James Stewart, Henry nished innocence, outside forces cruelly Fonda, Inger Stevens, Gary Lockwood, Dean separating lovers, and how ill-gotten wealth Jagger, Ed Begley, Jay C. Flippen, Jack Elam, will in one way or another taint the spirit. Barbara Luna. Somber Western has makings [PG-13]▼●쩠 of a classic at outset, but goes astray, and goes Fire (1997-Canadian-Indian) C-104m. ★★ on too long. Stewart is mild-mannered partD: Deepa Mehta. Shabana Azmi, Nandita time sheriff in small town terrorized by Fonda Das, Kulbushan Kharbanda, Jaaved Jaaferi, and fellow plunderers. Beautifully photoRanjit Chowdhury, Kushal Rekhi. Ho-hum graphed (by William H. Clothier), but unrelesbian-feminist drama set in New Delhi, lentingly downbeat. Panavision. ▼쩠 which charts the growing spiritual/sexual atFired! (2007) C-71m. ★★ D: Chris Bradley, traction between a long-married woman Kyle LaBrache. Writer-performer Anna(Azmi) and her young, newlywed sister-inbelle Gurwitch uses her real-life dismissal law (Das). Without exception, every male from a play by Woody Allen as the basis for character in the story is a simplistic chauexploring what it means to be fired from a vinist pig, and the result is a superficial job. Scattershot, superficial first-person docdrama that substitutes female outrage for umentary tries to combine comedy, perthoughtful filmmaking.▼쩠 sonal anecdotes, and social commentary Fire and Ice (1983) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph with very mixed results; only former Labor Bakshi. Voices of Susan Tyrrell, Maggie Secretary Robert Reich’s and Ben Stein’s Roswell, William Ostrander, Stephen Mendel. observations have any real impact. Other Muscular hero and buxom heroine become interviewees include Tim Allen, Fred Willard, Illeana Douglas, and Anne Meara.쩠 involved in power struggle between two warring world powers. Animated sword-andFire Down Below (1957-British) C-116m. ★★1 sorcery saga is no worse (and arguably no ⁄2 D: Robert Parrish. Rita Hayworth, better) than an average live-action entry, and Robert Mitchum, Jack Lemmon, Herbert benefits from graphic design by fabled illusLom, Bernard Lee, Anthony Newley. Contrator Frank Frazetta, though the animation trived but entertaining melodrama of Mititself has been traced from live footage. chum and Lemmon, owners of tramp boat, Scripted by well-known comic book writers falling in love with shady Hayworth on voyRoy Thomas and Gerry Conway. [PG]▼●쩠 age between islands. Title song composed Fireball, The (1950) 84m. ★★★ D: Tay by Lemmon. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Garnett. Mickey Rooney, Pat O’Brien, Fire Down Below (1997) C-105m. ★★ D: Beverly Tyler, Marilyn Monroe, Milburn Felix Enriquez Alcala´. Steven Seagal, Marg Stone, Glenn Corbett. Rooney’s energetic Helgenberger, Kris Kristofferson, Stephen performance carries this film. Orphan boy Lang, Harry Dean Stanton, Levon Helm, devotes himself to becoming big-time rollerRichard Masur, John Diehl, Robert Ridgely, skating champ.▼ Randy Travis. You’re looking for an E.P.A. Fireball 500 (1966) C-92m. BOMB D: agent to go work incognito avenging a murWilliam Asher. Frankie Avalon, Annette der in Appalachia—so who you gonna call? Funicello, Fabian, Chill Wills, Harvey Well, how about Steve, with his standard Lembeck, Julie Parrish. Frankie is a stockhaircut and man-in-black garb? Laughably car racer who unknowingly transports moonbad action outing with a reasonable pace to shine whiskey. Desperately in need of a match its outrageousness. Marty Stuart and beach ball. Panavision.쩠 Travis Tritt appear as themselves. [R] ▼●쩠 Fire Birds (1990) C-85m. BOMB D: DaFired Up! (2009) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Will vid Green. Nicolas Cage, Tommy Lee Gluck. Eric Christian Olsen, Nicholas D’A[ 459 ]

gosto, Sarah Roemer, Molly Sims, Danneel Failed sci-fi outing, allegedly based on Harris, David Walton, Adhir Kalyan, Annafact, with Sweeney cast as Travis Wilson, Lynne McCord, Philip Baker Hall, Juliette a man who mysteriously disappeared for Goglia, John Michael Higgins, Margo Harshfive days, during which time he supposman, Amber Stevens, Francia Raisa. As stars edly was taken prisoner by extraterrestriof the football team, D’Agosto and Olsen als. Written by Tracy (son of Mel) Torme´, have conquered their school’s entire female and based on Wilson’s book The Walton population and are in search of a new hunting Experience. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ground. What better place than cheerleader Firelight (1998-U.S.-British) C-103m. ★★★ camp? The two leads are funny but the story D: William Nicholson. Sophie Marceau, meanders; over-the-top supporting characters Stephen Dillane, Dominique Belcourt, Kevin and bad acting detract from this otherwise Anderson, Lia Williams, Joss Ackland, Sally entertaining comedy. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Dexter. A beautiful Swiss governess (MarFirefly, The (1937) 129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert ceau) is hired to bear a child for a 19thZ. Leonard. Jeanette MacDonald, Allan Jones, century British aristocrat (Dillane) whose Warren William, Billy Gilbert, Henry Daniell, wife is an invalid, but naturally the two of Douglass Dumbrille, George Zucco. Triedthem fall helplessly in love with each other. and-true operetta moves slowly and goes on Well-made, old-fashioned Gothic soap opera too long, but Jones’ ‘‘Donkey Serenade’’ and in the MADAME X/JANE EYRE vein. WritJeanette’s vivacity remain enjoyable.▼ ten by the director. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Firefox (1982) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Clint Fireman Save My Child (1932) 67m. ★★1⁄2 Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Freddie Jones, D: Lloyd Bacon. Joe E. Brown, Evalyn David Huffman, Warren Clarke, Ronald Knapp, Lilian Bond, Guy Kibbee, Virginia Lacey, Stefan Schnabel, Nigel Hawthorne, Sale. Amusing Brown romp with Joe dividJohn Ratzenberger. Lamentably dull, slowing his time between firefighting and basemoving espionage yarn, with Eastwood as ball. The first in his baseball trilogy, burned-out U.S. pilot who goes behind Rusfollowed by ELMER THE GREAT and sian lines to steal the Soviets’ latest aeroALIBI IKE. nautic marvel: a supersonic fighting plane. Fireman Save My Child (1954) 80m. ★1⁄2 Jones wins the Charles Laughton Award for D: Leslie Goodwins. Spike Jones, The City Eccentric Performances. Originally released Slickers, Buddy Hackett, Hugh O’Brian, at 137m. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Adele Jergens. Sloppy slapstick with Spike Firehouse Dog (2007) C-111m. ★★★ D: Jones et al. manning fire station in 1900s Todd Holland. Josh Hutcherson, Bruce San Francisco, running amuck when they Greenwood, Bill Nunn, Scotch Ellis Loring, receive a new fire engine. Originally inMayte Garcia, Teddy Sears, Steven Culp, tended for Abbott and Costello. Dash Mihok, Bree Turner, Hannah Lochner, Firemen’s Ball, The (1967-Czech) C-73m. Claudette Mink, Shane Daly. Clever variation ★★ D: Milos Forman. Jan Vostrcil, Josef of the boy-and-his-dog genre finds a pamSebanek, Josef Valnoha, Josef Kolb, Vaclav pered, spoiled superstar movie mutt named Stockel. Acclaimed comedy of small-town Rex (star of JURASSIC BARK and THE firemen’s ball which turns into sprawling CANINE MUTINY) lost and alone in a small disaster apparently has elusive charm that town when an airplane stunt goes wrong. He completely escaped us.▼●쩠 soon finds his way into the local fire station, Fire on the Amazon (1996) C-81m. ★★ D: which is about to be razed to make way for a Luis Llosa. Craig Sheffer, Sandra Bullock, new development, but can he save the day for Juan Fernandez, Judith Chapman, Ramsey the fire chief and his son? Predictable stuff, Ross, David Elkin, Jorge Garcia Bustamante. but executed with such skill it’s hard to resist. Well-intentioned ‘‘save the rainforest’’ story, Fun for kids and their parents, too. [PG]쩠 marred by appallingly reckless and hostile Fire, Ice and Dynamite (1990-German) behavior of photojournalist Sheffer, whose C-102m. BOMB D: Willy Bogner. Roger stupidity should have had him blown away Moore, Shari Belafonte, Simon Shepherd, very early in the film. Contrived romance Uwe Ochsenknecht, Geoffrey Moore, Conwith activist Bullock is no more believable. nie de Groot, Marjoe Gortner, Isaac Hayes. Filmed in 1990. Executive-produced by Obscenely wealthy Moore, whose empire is Roger Corman. Unrated version also availcrumbling, fakes suicide to test the mettle able. [R]▼쩠 of his children and creditors in an athletic Fire Over England (1937-British) 89m. competition. Loud, lame, occasionally of★★★ D: William K. Howard. Laurence fensive timewaster, redeemed (just barely) Olivier, Flora Robson, Leslie Banks, Rayby the stuntwork. As inept as Bogner’s earmond Massey, Vivien Leigh, Tamara Desni, lier FIRE AND ICE. [PG]▼ Morton Selten, Robert Newton, Donald CalFire in the Sky (1993) C-107m. ★★ D: throp. Satisfying historical drama of BritishRobert Lieberman. D. B. Sweeney, RobSpanish conflict in 1500s with flawless perert Patrick, Craig Sheffer, Peter Berg, James formance by Robson (Queen Elizabeth), fine Garner, Henry Thomas, Bradley Gregg, Noble Willingham, Kathleen Wilhoite. villainy by Massey, romantic support by Oliv[ 460 ]

ier and Leigh. Watch for James Mason in a reunited in Miami after an eight-year sepasmall (unbilled) role. ▼●쩠 ration. Smits and Scacchi certainly make a Firepower (1979-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 great-looking couple. [R]▼쩠 D: Michael Winner. Sophia Loren, James Firewalker (1986) C-104m. BOMB D: J. Coburn, O. J. Simpson, Eli Wallach, AnLee Thompson. Chuck Norris, Lou Gossett, thony Franciosa, George Grizzard, VinMelody Anderson, Will Sampson, Sonny cent Gardenia, Victor Mature. Another Landham, John Rhys-Davies, Ian Abercrominternational all-star action thriller, with bie. Anderson, hair perfectly intact throughbeautiful people in beautiful locations (this out, hires Gossett and fellow mercenary Nortime, the Caribbean). Inane, complicated ris to find a hidden cache of loot she’s story has Loren seeking revenge for murimagined exists. Press releases described der of her chemist husband. Passable timeNorris’ character as a ‘‘soldier-of-wackyfiller, especially on TV. [R]▼ misfortune’’; his light comedy skills recall a Fire Sale (1977) C-88m. BOMB D: Alan sportswriter’s description of Yogi Berra playArkin. Alan Arkin, Rob Reiner, Vincent ing third base—‘‘like a man trying to put up a Gardenia, Anjanette Comer, Kay Medford, pup tent in a windstorm.’’ Arguably Chuck’s Sid Caesar, Barbara Dana, Alex Rocco, worst—but who wants to argue? [PG]▼●쩠 Richard Libertini, Augusta Dabney. Wretched Firewall (2006) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard black comedy about a department store owner Loncraine. Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, and his two sons gives bad taste a bad name. Virginia Madsen, Robert Forster, Alan Arkin, Truly unbearable. [PG] Robert Patrick, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Carly Fires on the Plain (1959-Japanese) 105m. Schroeder, Jimmy Bennett, Vince Vieluf. A ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Kon Ichikawa. Eiji Funakoshi, security expert must break into his own bank Mantaro Ushio, Yoshihiro Hamaguchi, in order to save his family; that’s the premise Osamu Takizawa. Japanese soldiers strugof this muddled, often preposterous thriller. gle to survive at the finale of the Philippine Ford seems an unlikely technophile, and campaign during WW2; focus is on trawhile the action builds toward the end, by vails of tubercular Funakoshi, separated then the audience has been drained of all emofrom his unit. Graphically realistic, distional investment. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 turbing, and depressing vision of damnaFire With Fire (1986) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: tion on earth, with a sobering antiwar Duncan Gibbins. Craig Sheffer, Virginia message. Daieiscope.▼●쩠 Madsen, Jon Polito, Jeffrey Jay Cohen, Firestarter (1984) C-115m. ★★ D: Mark Kate Reid, Jean Smart, D. B. Sweeney. L. Lester. David Keith, Drew Barrymore, Story of a forbidden love affair between a George C. Scott, Martin Sheen, Heather boy imprisoned at a juvenile detention Locklear, Art Carney, Louise Fletcher, facility and girl who feels imprisoned at Moses Gunn, Freddie Jones. Silly, someCatholic girls’ school nearby. Pleasant enough times laughable yarn about little girl whose to watch . . . until ludicrous finale. Film buffs parents acquired unusual mental powers as should note Ann Savage in the small role of Sister Harriet. [PG-13]▼ a result of a government experiment and who herself can set anything on fire at Fire Within, The (1963-French) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Maurice Ronet, Lena will. Lumbering story wastes a lot of acting talent, though it certainly gave emSkerla, Yvonne Clech, Hubert Deschamps, ployment to a number of stunt people and Jeanne Moreau, Alexandra Stewart. Shatterspecial effects technicians. From Stephen ing study of alcoholism, as wealthy Ronet, King’s best-seller. Followed in 2002 by a released from a sanitarium after a breakmade-for-TV movie. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 down, visits his old friends in Paris one Firestorm (1998) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Dean last time. Probably Malle’s best early film— Semler. Howie Long, William Forsythe, Scott photographed, scored (with the music of Glenn, Suzy Amis, Christianne Hirt, Garwin Erik Satie), and acted to maximum effect— Sanford. Wily con Forsythe and cohorts have and with a minimum of self-pity.▼쩠 pulled off a prison escape, incinerating a Fireworks (1998-Japanese) C-103m. ★★★ Canadian forest as their ‘‘cover.’’ This D: Takeshi Kitano. ‘‘Beat’’ Takeshi, Kaymakes the job of smoke jumpers (who paraoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Susumu Terachute into difficult fires) all the more risky. jima, Tetsu Watanabe, Taro Itsumi. Tough By-the-numbers script is fashioned as an accop’s world crumbles around him: his wife tion vehicle for athlete Long, who suggests is dying, his partner becomes confined to a what Ed Harris might look like if he couldn’t wheelchair, and a young detective dies in a move his facial muscles. [R] ▼●쩠 shootout because of his blunder, forcing Fires Within (1991) C-86m. ★★ D: Gillian him into a deal with the yakuza. Strongly Armstrong. Jimmy Smits, Greta Scacchi, directed film begins with clear but fragmenVincent D’Onofrio, Luis Avalos, Bertila tary flashbacks; melancholy, violent, sarDamas, Raul Davila, Bri Hathaway, Daniel donic, and romantic, it’s an outstanding movie Fern. Well-intentioned but underdeveloped of its genre. The director, who also wrote and story of anguish suffered by a Cuban politicoedited, uses ‘‘Beat’’ Takeshi as an acting cal prisoner and his family when they’re name. Original title: HANA-BI.▼쩠 [ 461 ]

Firm, The (1993) C-154m. ★★★ D: Sydillness. Dunaway’s near-comatose role couldn’t ney Pollack. Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, be more thankless, but good supporting cast Jeanne Tripplehorn, Holly Hunter, Ed Harand moody Gordon Jenkins score make this ris, Hal Holbrook, Terry Kinney, Wilford one of Frank’s better serious vehicles. Look Brimley, David Strathairn, Gary Busey, fast for Bruce Willis half-hidden under a cap in a bar scene. [R]▼●쩠 Steven Hill, Tobin Bell, Barbara Garrick, Jerry Hardin, Paul Colderon, Jerry WeinFirst Family (1980) C-104m. ★★ D: Buck traub, Karina Lombard, John Beal. Slick Henry. Bob Newhart, Gilda Radner, Madadaptation of John Grisham’s best-seller eline Kahn, Richard Benjamin, Bob Dishy, about a Harvard law school grad who’s Harvey Korman, Rip Torn, Austin Pendlewooed by a Memphis law firm and happily ton, Fred Willard, Julius Harris, Buck signs on, never suspecting the sinister truth Henry. Almost laughless political satire, behind its gracious facade. Good storytellwritten by Henry, with Newhart a bumbling ing and good performances, but it goes on U.S. President, Kahn his inebriated First too long . . . and makes some unfortunate Lady, Radner their horny First Daughter. changes from Grisham’s original. Still, it’s However, Newhart’s conversation with attractive and entertaining. Paul Sorvino apAfrican Ambassador Harris is a gem. [R]▼ pears unbilled as a Mafioso. [R]▼●쩠 First Great Train Robbery, The SEE: First Blood (1982) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Ted Great Train Robbery, The First Kid (1996) C-101m. ★★★ D: David Kotcheff. Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Brian Dennehy, David Caruso, Jack StarMickey Evans. Sinbad, Brock Pierce, Blake rett, Bill McKinney, Michael Talbott. ExBoyd, Timothy Busfield, Art La Fleur, RobGreen Beret is falsely arrested by smalltown ert Guillaume, Lisa Eichhorn, James cops, escapes and leads his pursuers into all Naughton, Fawn Reed, Zachery Ty Bryan, kinds of booby traps in the ‘‘jungles’’ of Bill Cobbs. Very entertaining Disney comU.S. Northwest. Throws all credibility to edy about a hang-loose Secret Service agent the winds about the time he gets off with on the White House detail who gets the only a bad cut after jumping from a mounworst assignment in town: guarding the tain into some jagged rocks. A kewpie doll President’s bratty son. Soon enough, howto anyone who can understand more than three ever, he and the boy form a bond. Subplot words of Sly’s final monologue. Followed by about a disgruntled ex-agent gets a little inRAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II. Panavitense for a family film, but otherwise this is sion. [R]▼●쩠 bull’s-eye stuff and a great comic vehicle for Sinbad. [PG]▼●쩠 Firstborn (1984) C-103m. ★★ D: Michael Apted. Teri Garr, Peter Weller, ChristoFirst Knight (1995) C-132m. ★★★ D: Jerry pher Collet, Corey Haim, Sarah Jessica Zucker. Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Julia Parker, Robert Downey, Jr. Divorced mom Ormond, Ben Cross, Liam Cunningham, is doing her best to raise two sons—until Christopher Villiers, Valentine Pelka, Colin she lets her latest boyfriend (a real lout) McCormack, Ralph Ineson, John Gielgud. move into the house and take over. CrediHandsome, sweeping, romantic adventure ble, if unappealing, drama leads to repelsaga that focuses on a love triangle involvlent conclusion, a` la DEATH WISH, putting ing King Arthur (Connery), Lady Guineto waste the film’s good qualities and vere (Ormond), and a restless, roving spirit, performances. [PG-13]▼● who lives by his wits, named Lancelot First Daughter (2004) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: (Gere). Awkward narrative moments (and Forest Whitaker. Katie Holmes, Marc Blucas, the casting of a contemporary-sounding Amerie, Michael Keaton, Margaret Colin, American as Lancelot) outweighed by the Lela Rochon Fuqua, Michael Milhoan, overall intelligence of William Nicholson’s Dwayne Adway. Fairy-tale romance for script, John Box’s breathtaking production wholesome teens centers on the sheltered design, Jerry Goldsmith’s majestic score, daughter of the U.S. President, who goes off and the splendid performances by Ormond to college to get away from her omnipresent and Connery. Camelot has never looked so Secret Service detail and falls for a hunky magical. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 student whose true identity holds a big surFirst Legion, The (1951) 86m. ★★★ D: prise (not really). CHASING LIBERTY Douglas Sirk. Charles Boyer, William was bad enough; did we really need another Demarest, Lyle Bettger, Barbara Rush. formulaic, juvenile variation of ROMAN Engrossing low-key account of Jesuit priest HOLIDAY the same year? [PG] ▼쩠 who is dubious about an alleged miracle First Deadly Sin, The (1980) C-112m. ★★★ occurring in his town. Boyer gives one of D: Brian G. Hutton. Frank Sinatra, Faye his best performances.▼ Dunaway, David Dukes, Brenda Vaccaro, First Love (1939) 84m. ★★★ D: Henry Martin Gabel, James Whitmore. Sinatra’s Koster. Deanna Durbin, Robert Stack, Helen first starring feature after 10-year absence Parrish, Eugene Pallette, Leatrice Joy, Marfinds him in good form in adaptation of cia Mae Jones, Frank Jenks. Charming Lawrence Sanders’ best-seller about an N.Y.C. Cinderella story of orphaned girl (Durbin) cop who stalks a psycho during his wife’s going to live with uncle and finding ro[ 462 ]

mance with Stack (in his film debut). Durbin mel, Diana Canova, Alexandra Morgan, Lessings ‘‘Amapola’’ and other songs; her lie Ackerman. Basically a one-joke idea that first screen kiss (courtesy Stack) made wears thin despite an air of amiability: a desheadlines around the world.▼쩠 perate young filmmaker (Nathan) tries to resFirst Love (1970-British-French-Swiss) cue his studio by making a porno musical, ★★★ C-90m. D: Maximilian Schell. John complete with production numbers such as Moulder-Brown, Dominique Sanda, Max‘‘Dancing Dildos.’’ Best contributions come imilian Schell, John Osborne. Original, from those who keep their clothes on. Kimoften moving story of young lovers is total mel also scripted and wrote most of the songs. concept of Schell. While his direction often Ron Howard appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 wanders, his script is extremely good. [R]▼ First of the Few, The SEE: Spitfire (1942) First Love (1977) C-92m. ★★ D: Joan First Power, The (1990) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Darling. William Katt, Susan Dey, John Robert Resnikoff. Lou Diamond Phillips, Heard, Beverly D’Angelo, Robert Loggia, Tracy Griffith, Jeff Kober, Mykel T. WilSwoosie Kurtz. Youthful romance between liamson, Elizabeth Arlen, Dennis Lipscomb. right-thinking college boy and girl who’s Cat-and-mouse battle between an L.A. cop involved with older man; muddled film and the spirit of an executed Devil’s disciwith unsatisfying conclusion. [R]▼ ple who has the ability to pop in and out of First Love, Last Rites (1998) C-93m. ★★ D: other people’s bodies. Very weak superJesse Peretz. Giovanni Ribisi, Natasha Gregnatural horror that fails to frighten, or offer son Wagner, Robert John Burke, Jeannetta anything fresh. Griffith is Melanie GrifArnette, Donal Logue. Deadeningly slow fith’s half-sister. [R]▼●쩠 story of two young lovers who shack up in First Snow (2007) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark a modest apartment on the Louisiana bayou. Fergus. Guy Pearce, Piper Perabo, William Feature directorial debut for music-video Fichtner, J. K. Simmons, Shea Whigham, helmer Peretz has a sensual mood and atRick Gonzalez, Luce Rains, Adam Scott, tractive leads but is devoid of dramatic inciJackie Burroughs. Slick salesman Pearce, dent. Only plus: art-rockers Shudder to who’s always looking for the right angles and Think’s score, which is meant to evoke old that elusive ‘‘big deal,’’ consults a palm 45 singles. Based on a short story by Ian reader while his car is being repaired—and McEwan. [R]▼● doesn’t get good news about his future. First Men in the Moon (1964-British) CWhat’s more, a boyhood pal has just gotten 103m. ★★★ D: Nathan Juran. Edward Judd, out of jail and may be looking for him. Pretty Martha Hyer, Lionel Jeffries, Erik Chitty. good thriller bolstered by a first-rate cast. Lavish adaptation of H. G. Wells novel is Written by Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, heavy-handed at times, overloaded with comic two of the writers of CHILDREN OF MEN; relief, but still worthwhile; good Ray HarryFergus’ directorial debut. Super 35. [R]쩠 hausen special effects. Cameo appearance First Sunday (2008) C-98m. ★★ D: David by Peter Finch. Panavision.▼●쩠 E. Talbert. Ice Cube, Katt Williams, Tracy First Monday in October (1981) C-98m. Morgan, Loretta Devine, Michael Beach, ★★1⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Walter Matthau, Keith David, Regina Hall, Malinda Williams, Jill Clayburgh, Barnard Hughes, James Chi McBride, Clifton Powell, Nicholas TurtStephens, Jan Sterling, Joshua Bryant. urro, Olivia Cole. Two petty criminals scheme Talky but OK adaptation of Jerome Lawto rob their local church when they need quick rence–Robert E. Lee stage hit about Tracycash in order to pay off a debt . . . but they get and-Hepburn-like clash of wills between much more than they bargained for. Jokes first female member of the Supreme Court mostly fall flat in this all-too-typical vehicle (a staunch conservative) and the most libfor Ice Cube and company. A couple of genueral of her brethren. Lost some of its novelty ine laughs are provided by Williams and Morwhen it happened for real just before film gan. [PG-13]쩠 was released, but still amusing. Panavision. First Time, The (1969) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: [R]▼●쩠 James Neilson. Jacqueline Bisset, Wes First Name: Carmen (1983-French-Swiss) ★★★ Stern, Rick Kelman, Wink Roberts, Gerald D: Jean-Luc Godard. MarC-85m. Parkes. Combination of Ozzie and Harriet uschka Detmers, Jacques Bonnaffe, Myriem and WALK ON THE WILD SIDE concerns Roussel, Christophe Odent, Jean-Luc Godard. a teenager’s sexual initiation. Artificial Title character is a femme fatale, terrorist, and look at adolescence. [M]▼ aspiring filmmaker, and Godard plays her First Time, The (1983) C-95m. ★★★ D: uncle, a famous but ‘‘sick’’ and ‘‘washedCharlie Loventhal. Tim Choate, Krista up’’ director named Jean-Luc Godard. Funny Errickson, Marshall Efron, Wendy Fulton, and compelling, if you like Godard’s later Raymond Patterson, Wallace Shawn, Wendie work; otherwise, it will seem like a waste of Jo Sperber, Cathryn Damon. Surprisingly intime and celluloid. ▼●쩠 telligent, funny portrait of virginal, movieFirst Nudie Musical, The (1976) C-100m. ★★ D: Mark Haggard, Bruce Kimmel. Steloving college freshman Choate. A cut above phen Nathan, Cindy Williams, Bruce Kimother films of its type, and a promising debut [ 463 ]

for young Loventhal, a prote´ge´ of Brian De Fish Hawk (1980-Canadian) C-95m. ★★ D: Palma. Aka DOIN’ IT. [R]▼ Donald Shebib. Will Sampson, Charlie Fields, ★★1 First to Fight (1967) C-97m. ⁄2 D: Geoffrey Bowes, Mary Pirle, Don Francks, Christian Nyby. Chad Everett, Marilyn Chris Wiggins. Bland family film about an Devin, Dean Jagger, Bobby Troup, Claude alcoholic Indian who tries to mend his Akins, Gene Hackman. Conventional WW2 ways—and becomes a companion to an imyarn with Everett the one-time hero who pressionable young farm boy. This is the kind almost loses his courage on the battleof unchallenging, inoffensive fare that gives field. Panavision.▼ G-rated movies a bad reputation. [G]▼쩠 First Traveling Saleslady, The (1956) Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, The (1979) ★★ C-92m. D: Arthur Lubin. Ginger RogC-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Gilbert Moses. Julius ers, Barry Nelson, Carol Channing, David Erving, James Bond III, Stockard Channing, Brian, James Arness, Clint Eastwood. RogJonathan Winters, Margaret Avery, Jack ers and Channing try to elevate this plodding Kehoe, Meadowlark Lemon, Nicholas comedy of girdle-sellers in the old West, but Pryor, Flip Wilson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. barely succeed. Carol and Clint make one of Losing basketball team tries astrology to the oddest couples in screen history. put them in winners’ circle; low-grade First Wives Club, The (1996) C-102m. comedy with disco soundtrack. Game ★★1⁄2 D: Hugh Wilson. Goldie Hawn, Bette hijinks are only saving grace. [PG]▼ Midler, Diane Keaton, Maggie Smith, Dan F.I.S.T. (1978) C-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: NorHedaya, Stockard Channing, Sarah Jessica man Jewison. Sylvester Stallone, Rod Parker, Victor Garber, Stephen Collins, Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Elizabeth Berkley, Marcia Gay Harden, Huffman, Tony Lo Bianco, Kevin Conway, Bronson Pinchot, Jennifer Dundas, Eileen Cassie Yates, Henry Wilcoxon, Brian Heckart, Philip Bosco, Rob Reiner, James Dennehy. Stallone’s one-dimensional perNaughton, Debra Monk, Kate Burton. Three formance prevents this well-produced epic college pals meet up years later at a mutual about a Hoffa-like labor kingpin from susfriend’s funeral and discover they have sometaining a strong first half. Peter Boyle does thing in common: husbands who’ve dumped well with a role inspired by former Team(or dumped on) them. Predictable, but still ster boss Dave Beck. Screenplay by Stalpretty entertaining, thanks to three lively stars lone and Joe Eszterhas. [PG]▼●쩠 and an impressive supporting cast. Diluted Fistful of Chopsticks, A SEE: They Call from Olivia Goldsmith’s novel. Heather Me Bruce? Locklear appears unbilled. [PG]▼●쩠 Fistful of Dollars (1964-Italian) C-100m. ★★★ Fish Called Wanda, A (1988) C-108m. D: Sergio Leone. Clint Eastwood, Gian ★★★ Maria Volonte´, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang D: Charles Crichton. John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Lukschy, Mario Brega, Carol Brown. SagePalin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson, Pabrush remake of YOJIMBO single-handtricia Hayes, Geoffrey Palmer. Funny edly invented the ‘‘spaghetti Western,’’ farce about an uptight British barrister made an international superstar of Eastwho becomes involved with a sexy con wood, and boosted the careers of Leone artist (Curtis), her mindlessly macho boyand composer Ennio Morricone as well. friend (Kline), and their ambitious bank Clint plays the laconic Man With No robbery and getaway scheme. Cleese’s Name, a tough gunslinger manipulating script includes enough bad-taste gags to (and manipulated by!) two rival families either repel or delight his audience, dewarring over small frontier town. Amuspending on one’s personal point of view. ing, violent, and very stylish. Released in Kline won an Oscar for his flamboyant the U.S. in 1967. Sequel: FOR A FEW comic performance. The cast later reunited DOLLARS MORE. Techniscope. ▼●쩠 for FIERCE CREATURES. [R] ▼●쩠 Fistful of Dynamite, A SEE: Duck, You Fisher King, The (1991) C-137m. ★★★ D: Sucker Terry Gilliam. Robin Williams, Jeff BridFist in His Pocket (1966-Italian) 105m. ★★★★ ges, Amanda Plummer, Mercedes Ruehl, D: Marco Bellochio. Lou Castel, Michael Jeter, Harry Shearer, John de Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase, Liliana Lancie, David (Hyde) Pierce. Expansive, Gerace, Pier Luigi Troglio. Brilliant oneemotional fable of a smart-aleck, self-abof-a-kind about a mad family of epileptics sorbed radio personality driven into a deep whose protagonist kills his mother and funk by an unexpected tragedy—and his undrowns his younger brother, while his sis likely rescue by a strange street vigilante merely settles for repressed incest. One of who’s in desperate need of rescue himself. the great, if largely unheralded, foreign Unusual and absorbing, both comic and films of the ’60s, with Castel more than up tender, this takes the viewer on quite a jourto the demands of the difficult role.쩠 ney. Ruehl won Best Supporting Actress Fist of Fear, Touch of Death (1980) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Matthew Mallinson. Fred Oscar as Bridges’ girlfriend. Look fast for Kathy Najimy. Written by Richard LaGraWilliamson, Ron Van Clief, Adolph Caevenese. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 sar, Aaron Banks, Bill Louis. Boring chop[ 464 ]

socky film chronicling the happenings at a set in WW2 Middle Europe. Five girls Madison Square Garden martial arts tourscorned by partisans for consorting with nament. Highlighted are short clips of legNazis prove their patriotism. endary Bruce Lee. Aka DRAGON AND Five Came Back (1939) 75m. ★★★ D: THE COBRA. [R]▼쩠 John Farrow. Chester Morris, Lucille Ball, Fist of Fury SEE: Chinese Connection, The Wendy Barrie, John Carradine, Allen Fist Right of Freedom SEE: Fox and His Jenkins, Joseph Calleia, C. Aubrey Smith, Friends Patric Knowles. This sleeper shows its Fists of Fury (1971-Hong Kong) C-103m. age a bit, but remains interesting for color★★ D: Lo Wei. Bruce Lee, Maria Yi, Han ful character studies among passengers Ying Chieh, Tony Liu, Miao Ker Hsiu. on plane downed in headhunter-infested Lee, in his initial Kung Fu actioner, plays Amazon jungle. Remade by Farrow as a young fellow who takes a job in an ice BACK FROM ETERNITY.▼● house, and discovers his boss is a drug 5 Card Stud (1968) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Henry smuggler. Feeble. Original title: THE BIG Hathaway. Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, BOSS. Dyaliscope. [R]▼●쩠 Inger Stevens, Roddy McDowall, KatherFitzcarraldo (1982) C-157m. ★★★★ D: ine Justice. Dino is a gambler and Mitchum Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski, Claudia virtually repeats his NIGHT OF THE Cardinale, Jose Lewgoy, Miguel Angel HUNTER role in surprisingly disappointFuentes, Paul Hittscher. Vivid, fascinating ing Western; Maurice Jarre’s Dr. Zhivagoportrait of a man obsessed (made by a man on-the-range musical score doesn’t help. obsessed—see BURDEN OF DREAMS) Probably Hathaway’s worst Western. [M/ who’s determined to capture a shipping PG] ▼쩠 route on the Amazon, even though it means Five Corners (1988) C-92m. ★★★ D: Tony hauling a boat over a mountaintop, through Bill. Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, Todd hostile tribal territory. Then he’s going to Graff, John Turturro, Elizabeth Berridge, bring in grand opera! Astonishing and capRose Gregorio, Gregory Rozakis, John tivating movie, in spite of its length; admitSeitz. Moody piece about young people tedly not to everyone’s taste. [PG]▼쩠 whose lives converge in a Bronx neighborFitzwilly (1967) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delbert hood in 1964. One of them, just released Mann. Dick Van Dyke, Barbara Feldon, from prison, stirs trouble for the others. Edith Evans, John McGiver, Harry Townes, Unexpectedly melodramatic but potent and John Fiedler, Norman Fell, Cecil Kellaway, believable . . . and seemingly the only 1960s Sam Waterston. Ordinary fluff about butperiod film not to use oldies to evoke the ler who has to rob Gimbel’s on Christmas era. James Newton Howard’s moody score Eve to save his employer. Van Dyke’s is much more effective, anyway. Written by screen career was hurt by too many films John Patrick Shanley. [R]▼●쩠 like this one. This was Feldon’s film debut. Five Day Lover (1961-French-Italian) 86m. Panavision.▼ ★★★ D: Philippe De Broca. Jean Seberg, ★★★ D: Arch Oboler. WilFive (1951) 93m. Micheline Presle, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Franliam Phipps, Susan Douglas, James Anderc¸ois Perier. Perceptive, flavorful bedroom son, Charles Lampkin, Earl Lee. Intriguing, comedy featuring Seberg as a bored houseoffbeat film by famed radio writer-director wife-mother who has an affair with Cassel, Oboler about the survivors of an atomic holowho’s being kept by her friend (Presle). caust. Talky (and sometimes given to purple Five Days from Home (1978) C-109m. prose) but interesting. Filmed in and around ★★ D: George Peppard. George Peppard, Oboler’s Frank Lloyd Wright house.쩠 Neville Brand, Savannah Smith, Sherry 5 Against the House (1955) 84m. ★★★ D: Boucher, Victor Campos, Robert Donner. Phil Karlson. Guy Madison, Kim Novak, Peppard breaks out of Louisiana prison, Brian Keith, Kerwin Mathews, William determined to reach L.A. and see his hospiConrad, Alvy Moore. ‘‘Perfect crime’’ talized son. Well-intentioned but improbcaper has five friends set out to rob Reno, able film. [PG] Nevada, casino. Execution of robbery, along Five Days One Summer (1982) C-108m. with gorgeous Novak, keep this film roll★★ D: Fred Zinnemann. Sean Connery, ing along. Based on a novel by Jack Finney.쩠 Betsy Brantley, Lambert Wilson, Jennifer Five Angles on Murder SEE: Woman in Hilary, Isabel Dean, Gerald Buhr, Anna Question, The Massey. Middle-aged man brings a young Five Ashore in Singapore SEE: Singawoman—ostensibly his wife—on Swiss pore, Singapore vacation in the early 1930s where their Five Bloody Graves SEE: Gun Riders ★★ D: hesitant relationship is explored against 5 Branded Women (1960) 106m. the natural drama of mountain climbing. Martin Ritt. Van Heflin, Silvana Mangano, Adaptation of a Kay Boyle story doesn’t Jeanne Moreau, Vera Miles, Barbara Bel come off, despite impeccable production. Geddes, Richard Basehart, Harry Guardino, Slow, ethereal, ultimately unsatisfying. Carla Gravina, Alex Nicol, Steve Forrest. Overambitious production, badly miscast, Zinnemann’s last film. [PG] ▼ [ 465 ]

Five Easy Pieces (1970) C-98m. ★★★★ D: Field Marshal Rommel (von Stroheim). Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, Billy Wilder–Charles Brackett script manBilly Green Bush, Fannie Flagg, Susan ages to incorporate wit and humor into Anspach, Sally Struthers, Ralph Waite, Lois genuinely exciting wartime yarn. A reSmith. Brilliant character study of musician make of HOTEL IMPERIAL.▼ with great promise who gave up a career to Five Guns West (1955) C-78m. ★★ D: work on an oil rig. Nicholson’s performance Roger Corman. John Lund, Dorothy Mais superb, but Black, Anspach, Smith, and lone, Touch (Mike) Connors, Jack Ingram. Bush all contribute heavily. Helena KalliaFair Corman Western, which he coscripted, niotes is hilarious as a malcontent hitchabout a group of Rebel soldiers who hold hiker; this is the film with Jack’s famous up a Yankee stagecoach. This was Corman’s first film as director.▼쩠 ‘‘chicken salad sandwich’’ speech. Beautifully written by Adrien Joyce (Carole EastFive Heartbeats, The (1991) C-120m. ★★★ man). [R]▼●쩠 D: Robert Townsend. Robert TownFive Finger Exercise (1962) 109m. ★★1⁄2 send, Michael Wright, Leon, Harry J. D: Daniel Mann. Rosalind Russell, Jack Lennix, Tico Wells, Diahann Carroll, HarHawkins, Maximilian Schell, Richard old Nicholas, John Canada Terrell, Chuck Beymer, Lana Wood, Annette Gorman. Patterson, Hawthorne James, Paul BenjaPeter Shaffer’s play suffers from change of min. Corny but entertaining saga of a locale and alteration of original ideas; now 1960s singing group’s rise to fame; loosely it becomes embarrassing soap opera of based on R&B group The Dells. Awfully possessive mother in love with daughter’s predictable, but star/director/cowriter Towntutor. Stars are miscast but try their best. send and his cast are so likable they make up 5 Fingers (1952) 108m. ★★★ D: Joseph for it. The scene in which a youthful belter L. Mankiewicz. James Mason, Danielle named Tressa Thomas helps Townsend Darrieux, Michael Rennie, Walter Hamppiece together a song on the spot is worth den, Oscar Karlweis, Herbert Berghof, the price of admission. Coscripted by John Wengraf, Michael Pate. ExceptionKeenen Ivory Wayans. [R]▼●쩠 ally intelligent spy thriller with Mason as a Five Miles to Midnight (1962) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anatole Litvak. Tony Perkins, cool customer selling high-priced secrets right under the noses of his British governSophia Loren, Gig Young, Jean-Pierre ment employers during WW2. Based on Aumont, Pascale Roberts. Jumbled murder true-life events! Followed by a short-lived mystery with Perkins convincing wife Loren TV series.▼● to collect insurance money when it’s thought Five Fingers of Death (1973-Hong Kong) he’s been killed, with ironic results.▼ C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Cheng Chang Ho. Lo Lieh, Five Million Years to Earth SEE: QuaterWang Ping, Wang Ching-Feng. Only intermass and the Pit: Five Million Years to esting in that it is the Kung Fu film that Earth began the craze in America. Family honor Five Minutes to Live SEE: Door-to-Door defended with every part of the body except Maniac the mouth, which is horrendously dubbed. Five Obstructions, The (2003-Danish-SwissBelgian-French) C/B&W-88m. ★★★ D: Jørgen Shawscope.[R]▼쩠 Five Golden Dragons (1967-British) CLeth, Lars von Trier. Unusual, stimulating ★★ 93m. semidocumentary in which von Trier mischieD: Jeremy Summers. Bob Cummings, Margaret Lee, Maria Perschy, Brian vously dares his former teacher, Danish filmDonlevy, Christopher Lee, George Raft, maker Leth, to remake THE PERFECT Dan Duryea. Cummings is naive AmeriHUMAN, a 12m. film he directed in 1967, can caught up in international crime in with a proviso: Leth must create several verHong Kong; conventional actioner. Technisions, each with a different set of restricscope. ▼ tions (or ‘‘obstructions’’) concocted by von Five Golden Hours (1961-British-Italian) Trier. Not for all tastes, but noteworthy as ★★ 90m. an exploration of the varying styles filmD: Mario Zampi. Ernie Kovacs, Cyd Charisse, George Sanders, Kay Hammakers employ and the artistic choices they make. 쩠 mond, Dennis Price, Finlay Currie, Ron Moody. Con man Kovacs fleeces wealthy Five on the Black Hand Side (1973) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Oscar Williams. Clarice widows, but his luck is sure to change after falling for Charisse, whose husband Taylor, Leonard Jackson, Virginia Capers, has just died. Limp comedy wastes the D’Urville Martin, Glynn Turman, Godfrey talents of its cast.▼ Cambridge. Black family comedy about Five Graves To Cairo (1943) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 patriarchal barber was once refreshing amidst D: Billy Wilder. Franchot Tone, Anne many black exploitation films, now seems Baxter, Akim Tamiroff, Erich von Strofoolish. [PG]▼쩠 heim, Peter Van Eyck, Fortunio Bonanova. Five Pennies, The (1959) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 WW2 intrigue situated in Sahara oasis D: Melville Shavelson. Danny Kaye, Barhotel run by Tamiroff and Baxter; Tone bara Bel Geddes, Tuesday Weld, Louis attempts to obtain secrets from visiting Armstrong, Bob Crosby, Harry Guardino, [ 466 ]

Ray Anthony, Shelley Manne, Bobby Troup. fails on the screen; story of unjustly imprisDanny plays jazz trumpeter Red Nichols in oned Jewish handyman in turn-of-the-centhis sentimental biography. Only bright spots tury Russia concerns itself too much with are musical numbers, especially duets with the thoughts of its main character to be efKaye and Armstrong. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 fective as film. [M/PG]▼ Five Senses, The (1999-Canadian) C-104m. Flags of Our Fathers (2006) C-131m. ★★★ D: Jeremy Podeswa. Mary-Louise Parker, ★★★1⁄2 D: Clint Eastwood. Ryan Phillippe, Pascale Bussieres, Richard Clarkin, Brendan Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, John BenjaFletcher, Marco Leonardi, Nadia Litz, Daniel min Hickey, John Slattery, Barry Pepper, MacIvor. Intricately woven comedy-drama Jamie Bell, Paul Walker, Robert Patrick, centers on the inhabitants of an office/apartNeal McDonough, Melanie Lynskey, Tom ment building in Toronto. Though the interMcCarthy, Chris Bauer, Judith Ivey, Joseph connected stories deal individually with the Cross, Scott Reeves, David Patrick Kelly, five senses, they’re never tricky or scheBeth Grant, Jon Polito, Gordon Clapp, Tom matic, but instead revealing, amusing, and Verica, David Clennon, David Rasche, moving. [R]▼쩠 Jason Gray-Stanford, George Grizzard, 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T., The (1953) Harve Presnell, George Hearn, Len Cariou. C-88m. ★★★ D: Roy Rowland. Peter Lind Intimate, involving portrait of the men who Hayes, Mary Healy, Tommy Rettig, Hans landed on Iwo Jima island in 1945, encounConried. A boy who hates to practice the tered death and unspeakable horrors, raised piano has a vivid nightmare about a land the U.S. flag, then were labeled heroes and where his officious teacher, Dr. Terwilliger put on display for a U.S. bond-selling tour. (Conried), rules over hundreds of boys and Told in flashback as the son of one such a gigantic keyboard. Imaginative fantasy man—who came home and never spoke conceived by Dr. Seuss with clever songs about his experiences—goes in search of his by Seuss and Frederick Hollander. Major father’s story. Stirring, sad, often profound weakness: conventional ‘‘grown-up’’ leads in its simplicity and directness, with a hellplayed by then-popular performers Healy ish depiction of combat one didn’t see in and Hayes. Look for George Chakiris WW2 movies of the 1940s. Well cast and among the dancers.▼●쩠 crafted on every level. Reeves, who has a 5x2 (2004-French) C-90m. ★★★ D: Franc¸ois small part as a Marine, is Eastwood’s son. Ozon. Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Ste´phane Screenplay by William Broyles, Jr., and Paul Freiss, Ge´raldine Pailhas, Franc¸oise Fabian, Haggis, from the book by James Bradley Michael Lonsdale, Antoine Chappey, Marc with Ron Powers. Followed by LETTERS Ruchmann. Simple, effective drama chartFROM IWO JIMA. Panavision. [R]쩠 ing the anatomy of a marriage; the gimmick Flame and the Arrow, The (1950) C-88m. ★★★ is that the story is told in five episodes and D: Jacques Tourneur. Burt Lancaster, in reverse chronological order, starting with Virginia Mayo, Robert Douglas, Aline the characters’ divorce proceeding and endMacMahon, Nick Cravat. Bouncy, coloring with their initial meeting at a vacation ful action with Lancaster romping through resort. With a wisp of sadness, Ozon peels his gymnastics as rebel leader in medieval away the gradations of the relationship and Italy leading his people on to victory. the secrets and lies that tear it apart. [R] ▼쩠 Mayo is gorgeous heroine.▼●쩠 Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962) C-101m. Flame and the Flesh, The (1954) C-104m. ★★1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Irwin Allen. Red Buttons, Barbara D: Richard Brooks. Lana Turner, Pier Eden, Fabian, Cedric Hardwicke, Peter Angeli, Carlos Thompson, Bonar Colleano, Lorre, Richard Haydn, Barbara Luna. InCharles Goldner, Peter Illing. Pointless nocuous entertainment with formula script Turner vehicle filmed in Europe involving from Jules Verne tale of balloon expedition brunette Lana being romanced by continental to Africa. Buoyed by fine cast, including Thompson, which causes a lot of misery. veterans Billy Gilbert, Herbert Marshall, Flamenco (1995-Spanish) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 Reginald Owen, Henry Daniell. CinemaD: Carlos Saura. Saura’s love of flamenco Scope.▼●쩠 saturates this ecstatic, beautifully made perFixed Bayonets! (1951) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Samformance film featuring flamenco singers, uel Fuller. Richard Basehart, Gene Evans, dancers, and guitarists of all ages, the best Michael O’Shea, Richard Hylton, Craig of whom are nothing short of dazzling. Hill. Taut Korean War drama of platoon There are neither subtitles nor dialogue— and none are needed!▼쩠 cut off from the rest of its outfit; typical tough Fuller production. James Dean is Flame of Araby (1951) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: one of the soldiers. 쩠 Charles Lamont. Maureen O’Hara, Jeff Fixer, The (1968) C-132m. ★★ D: John Chandler, Maxwell Reed, Susan Cabot. Frankenheimer. Alan Bates, Dirk Bogarde, O’Hara, looking fetching as ever, rides Georgia Brown, Hugh Griffith, Ian Holm, through this costumer of the Far East, involving battle over a prize horse.▼ Jack Gilford, Elizabeth Hartman, David Warner, Carol White. Good acting helps, Flame of New Orleans, The (1941) 78m. ★★★ D: Rene ´ Clair. Marlene Dietrich, Bruce but Bernard Malamud’s acclaimed novel [ 467 ]

Cabot, Roland Young, Laura Hope Crews, Mischa Auer, Andy Devine. Dietrich can have her pick of any man in New Orleans, can’t decide between wealthy Young or hard-working Cabot. Picturesque, entertaining. Clair’s first American film.▼쩠 Flame of the Barbary Coast (1945) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Kane. John Wayne, Ann Dvorak, Joseph Schildkraut, William Frawley, Virginia Grey. Hick rancher Wayne competes with slick Schildkraut for savvy saloon singer Dvorak; undemanding fluff, with Republic Pictures’ version of the San Francisco earthquake. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 Flame Over India (1959-British) C-130m. ★★★ D: J. Lee Thompson. Lauren Bacall, Kenneth More, Herbert Lom, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Fast-paced actioner set on northern frontier of India as British soldiers and governess Bacall seek to speed an Indian prince to safety aboard a run-down train. Originally titled NORTH WEST FRONTIER. CinemaScope.▼ Flamingo Kid, The (1984) C-100m. ★★★ D: Garry Marshall. Matt Dillon, Richard Crenna, Hector Elizondo, Jessica Walter, Fisher Stevens, Janet Jones, Bronson Pinchot, Martha Gehman, Brian McNamara, Steven Weber, Eric Douglas, Marisa Tomei, Tracy Reiner, John Turturro. Very likable film set in 1963, about a Brooklyn boy from a working-class family whose head is turned by a slick sharpie who holds court at the beach club where he works. Crenna scores a bull’s-eye as the fat cat (and catches a glimpse of himself in The Real McCoys while testing his remote control TV in one scene). Nice coming-of-age story written by Neal Marshall (no relation to director). Tomei’s film debut. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Flamingo Road (1949) 94m. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford, Zachary Scott, Sydney Greenstreet, David Brian, Gertrude Michael, Gladys George. Crawford is excellent as tough carnival dancer ditched in small town where she soon is loving Scott and Brian and matching wits with corrupt politician Greenstreet. Remade as TVM in 1980, which later spun off a TV series.

her feelings, driving her into the arms of another. He goes off to war and she becomes pregnant. Compelling, vividly etched portrait of the cruelty of war and human existence, featuring inarticulate characters who are incapable of thinking or controlling their lives. Punctuated by jarring scenes of passionless, animalistic sex and senseless violence. Written by the director. Hawk-Scope.쩠 Flannel Pajamas (2006) C-124m. ★★★ D: Jeff Lipsky. Justin Kirk, Julianne Nicholson, Rebecca Schull, Jamie Harrold, Chelsea Altman, Stephanie March. Two people meet, fall madly in love, get married, and almost immediately find that their diverging personalities are tearing the relationship apart. Intelligent, engaging character study with good performances and many moments that ring true, but the couple’s transition from blissful to wildly dysfunctional seems implausibly quick. [R]쩠 Flap (1970) C-106m. ★★ D: Carol Reed. Anthony Quinn, Claude Akins, Tony Bill, Victor Jory, Shelley Winters. Uneven story of Indian outcast Quinn. You’re supposed to pity Flapping Eagle, but script is so weak that the chances are you won’t. At times funny, but supposedly tragic. Panavision. [PG] Flareup (1969) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Neilson. Raquel Welch, James Stacy, Luke Askew, Don Chastain, Ron Rifkin, Jean Byron. Go-go dancer gets stalked from Las Vegas to L.A. by psychopathic ex-husband of friend who blames her for breakup of the marriage. Fast melodrama is helped by good location footage. [M/PG] ▼ Flashback (1990) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Franco Amurri. Dennis Hopper, Kiefer Sutherland, Carol Kane, Cliff De Young, Paul Dooley, Michael McKean, Richard Masur. Young straight-arrow FBI agent (Sutherland) is ordered to transport a recently captured ‘‘underground’’ political fugitive to the scene of his ’60s crime—disruption of a Spiro Agnew rally. Enervatingly predictable until its (surprisingly) bloody climax. Masur and McKean, who seem to be winging it, amuse as onetime political activists now trapped in a middle-class environment. [R]▼●쩠 Flashbacks of a Fool (2008-U.S.-British) ▼●쩠 C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Baillie Walsh. Daniel Flaming Star (1960) C-91m. ★★★ D: Don Craig, Jodhi May, Claire Forlani, Harry Siegel. Elvis Presley, Barbara Eden, Steve Eden, Olivia Williams, Miriam Karlin, Forrest, Dolores Del Rio, John McIntire. Mark Strong. Adult male’s emotional age is Elvis is excellent as a half-breed Indian who stunted when, at 15, a traumatic event must choose sides when his mother’s people causes him to run away from home. Craig is go on the warpath. No songs after the first on the mark as the now-successful Hollyten minutes but lots of action; along with wood star who’s boozing, womanizing, and JAILHOUSE ROCK, Presley’s best film. drugging himself into oblivion. May stands CinemaScope.▼쩠 out among a cast of top-notch actors. Flanders (2006-French) C-91m. ★★★ D: Scripted by Walsh, whose quiet, compelling Bruno Dumont. Ade´laı¨de Leroux, Samuel direction helps give this soap-opera tale Boidin, Henri Cretel, Jean-Marie Bruveart, added dimension. Panavision. [R]쩠 David Poulain. Pretty teen Leroux loves Flashdance (1983) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adrian farmer Boidin, but he is unable to reciprocate Lyne. Jennifer Beals, Michael Nouri, Lilia [ 468 ]

Skala, Sunny Johnson, Kyle T. Heffner, by uninteresting presentation. Bonus: the Lee Ving, Ron Karabatsos, Belinda Bauer, worst title song of 1984 (sung over closing Cynthia Rhodes, Liz Sagal, Robert Wuhl. credits). [R]▼●쩠 How to turn a rock video into a feature Flatfoot SEE: Knock Out Cop, The film—with glitzy images, high energy, an Flatliners (1990) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel arresting music score (principally by Giorgio Schumacher. Kiefer Sutherland, Julia RobMoroder), and the stupidest story this side of erts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin, OliBusby Berkeley. Still, this concoction about a ver Platt, Kimberly Scott, Hope Davis. Offgirl with the perfect fantasy life (macho beat but sophomoric supernatural drama (with welder by day, sexy dancer by night, courted touches of horror and humor) about medical by the rich and handsome boss, watched over students experimenting with life after death. by a patron-saint ballerina) was a smash. Title Slick camerawork and effects can’t camousong won an Oscar. [R]▼●쩠 flage the superficiality of the script, which Flash Fire SEE: Dangerous Summer, A undermines an intriguing idea. Panavision. Flash Gordon (1980) C-110m. ★★★ D: [R]▼●쩠 Mike Hodges. Sam J. Jones, Melody AnFlawless (1999) C-110m. ★★ D: Joel Schuderson, Topol, Max von Sydow, Ornella macher. Robert De Niro, Philip Seymour Muti, Brian Blessed, Timothy Dalton, Hoffman, Barry Miller, Chris Bauer, Skipp Mariangela Melato. Updated version of Sudduth, Daphne Rubin-Vega. N.Y.C. cop comic strip is better than expected, thanks suffers a stroke, and gets speech therapy to eye-filling production/costume design lessons from the unlikeliest source imaginby Danilo Donati, amusing rock score by able, a drag queen he can’t stand who hapQueen. Jones and Anderson are liabilities pens to live in the same apartment house. as Flash and Dale Arden, but Muti’s evil Meanwhile, a local crimelord is searching Princess Aura (who would make any male for stolen money that’s stashed somewhere stray from Right) leads a strong supporting in the building. Overlong, overplotted film cast. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼●쩠 (written by Schumacher) is kept afloat by Flash of Genius (2008) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: the talent of its stars, De Niro and Hoffman. Marc Abraham. Greg Kinnear, Lauren GraPanavision. [R]▼●쩠 ham, Dermot Mulroney, Jake Abel, Daniel Flawless (2008-British) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roebuck, Tim Kelleher, Bill Smitrovitch, Michael Radford. Michael Caine, Demi Alan Alda, Mitch Pileggi. In the 1960s DeMoore, Lambert Wilson, Nathaniel Parker, troit science teacher and inventor Robert Shaughan Seymour, Nicholas Jones, David Kearns (Kinnear) pitches his intermittent Barras, Joss Ackland. In the kind of film he windshield washer to the Ford Motor Comcould have made in the ’60s (and did, only pany. When they steal the invention he bebetter), Caine’s latest gambit finds him as a comes obsessed with seeing justice done— janitor who decides his retirement gift from and sacrifices everything (including his wife the London Diamond Corp. should include and six children) to that end. A true-life some of their product. He enlists an underDavid and Goliath story with a twist: David appreciated female exec at the office to help isn’t very likable. Interesting for a while, him with the heist. Caine could do this in with good period flavor, but wears thin as his sleep but he’s still fun to watch; Moore we lose rooting interest. Super 35. [PGhas learned a lot about acting since she 13]쩠 played Caine’s daughter in 1984’s BLAME Flash of Green, A (1984) C-131m. ★★ D: IT ON RIO. A pleasant enough diversion. Victor Nunez. Ed Harris, Blair Brown, Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Richard Jordan, George Coe, Helen StenFlea in Her Ear, A (1968-U.S.-French) borg, John Glover. Reporter in a small C-94m. ★★ D: Jacques Charon. Rex HarriFlorida coastal town gets in over his head son, Rosemary Harris, Louis Jourdan, Rawhen he plays footsie with a scheming chel Roberts. Unfunny farce about philcounty commissioner who’s behind a shady andering barrister. Some of the slapstick land-fill development racket. Capable pergags go on interminably. Panavision. formances and refreshingly offbeat subject [M/PG] matter are eventually negated by overlength Fled (1996) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Hooks. and plot redundancies. Made for American Laurence Fishburne, Stephen Baldwin, Will Playhouse and produced by costar Jordan. Patton, Robert John Burke, Salma Hayek, Based on John D. MacDonald’s book.▼ Michael Nader, David Dukes, Brittney Flashpoint (1984) C-94m. ★★ D: William Powell, RuPaul, Taurean Blacque. FishTannen. Kris Kristofferson, Treat Williams, burne and Baldwin escape prison chained Rip Torn, Kevin Conway, Miguel Ferrer, together in DEFIANT ONES style, leading Jean Smart, Roberts Blossom, Tess Harper. to an extended chase that involves trains, Two maverick Texas Border Patrol offitrucks, cycles, cable cars, and the cliche´d cers stumble into volatile territory when like. Self-conscious movie references abound they discover a cache of money that figin a story dealing with a secret computer ures in a long-dormant mystery. Intriguing overall premise (and good cast) defeated disk that has the goods on a Cuban mobster. [ 469 ]

Final gag isn’t that great, but it’s the best inson sequence, based on Oscar Wilde’s thing in the movie. [R]▼●쩠 Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime, is the most Fleet’s In, The (1942) 93m. ★★★ D: Vicinteresting. Coproduced by Duvivier and tor Schertzinger. Dorothy Lamour, WilBoyer. Look for Peter Lawford as a Mardi liam Holden, Eddie Bracken, Betty Hutton, Gras reveler in the first sequence. Fourth epiBetty Jane Rhodes, Leif Erickson, Cass sode, dropped before release, subsequently Daley, Gil Lamb, Barbara Britton, Rod expanded into feature titled DESTINY. Cameron, Lorraine and Rognan, Jimmy Flesh and Flame SEE: Night of the QuarDorsey Orchestra with Bob Eberly and ter Moon Flesh and Fury (1952) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Helen O’Connell. Bouncy wartime musical with reputed romeo Holden trying to Joseph Pevney. Tony Curtis, Jan Sterling, melt iceberg Lamour. Sensational score Mona Freeman, Wallace Ford, Harry (composed by director Schertzinger and Guardino. Curtis gives presentable performJohnny Mercer) includes ‘‘Tangerine,’’ ‘‘I ance as deaf prizefighter who seeks to Remember You,’’ and ‘‘Arthur Murray regain hearing and love of decent girl. Flesh and the Devil (1927) 112m. ★★★ D: Taught Me Dancing in a Hurry.’’ Feature debuts of Hutton (in a hilarious performClarence Brown. John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, ance that made her an instant star) and Lars Hanson, Barbara Kent, William Daley. Previously filmed as TRUE TO Orlamond, George Fawcett, Eugenie BesTHE NAVY and LADY BE CAREFUL; serer. Garbo at her most seductive as remade as SAILOR BEWARE. temptress who comes between old friends Flesh (1932) 95m. ★★★ D: John Ford. Gilbert and Hanson. Pulsatingly romantic, Wallace Beery, Karen Morley, Ricardo beautifully filmed, probably the best Cortez, Jean Hersholt, Herman Bing, John Garbo-Gilbert love match. But talk about Miljan. Unusual, melancholy drama with surprise endings!▼쩠 Beery as simple-minded German wrestler Flesh and the Fiends, The SEE: Mania in love with Morley—who tries to hide Flesh Eaters, The (1964) 87m. ★1⁄2 D: her shady relationship with no-good Cortez. Jack Curtis. Martin Kosleck, Rita Morley, Byron Sanders, Barbara Wilkin. Group Flesh + Blood (1985) C-126m. ★★ D: Paul Verhoeven. Rutger Hauer, Jennifer trapped on island with deranged scientist is Jason Leigh, Tom Burlinson, Jack Thompmenaced by tiny but plentiful sea creatures that son, Susan Tyrrell, Ronald Lacey, Brion eventually mass to make one giant monster. James, Bruno Kirby. Rowdy adventure set Occasionally tense, but gruesome and generally boring. Longer version on video.▼쩠 in 16th century: Leigh is betrothed to young Prince Burlinson but falls into clutches of Flesh Feast (1970) C-72m. BOMB D: B. F. Hauer and his motley band of warriors. Grinter. Veronica Lake, Phil Philbin, Plenty of flesh and blood, but it’s all Heather Hughes, Chris Martell, Martha rather foul and nasty; Verhoeven (in his Mischon. Lake’s final film (which she first American English-language effort) coproduced) is embarrassing, amateurish does score points for sheer audaciousgorefest. As a mad scientist working on reness. Aka THE ROSE AND THE SWORD. juvenation, she tortures Hitler to death at Technovision. [R]▼쩠 film’s climax (maggots eat at his face in Flesh and Bone (1993) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: close-up), then addresses us directly, shouting a patriotic, anti-Nazi diatribe! [R]▼쩠 Steve Kloves. Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, James Caan, Gwyneth Paltrow, Scott Wilson, Flesh for Frankenstein SEE: Andy WarChristopher Rydell, Betsy Brantley, Julia hol’s Frankenstein Mueller. Moody but murky ‘‘sins of the faFletch (1985) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael ther’’ drama, with Quaid well cast as a vendRitchie. Chevy Chase, Dana Wheelering machine supplier who discovers that the Nicholson, Tim Matheson, Joe Don Baker, tough-luck case he’s been driving around Richard Libertini, Geena Davis, M. EmTexas figured in the childhood tragedy that met Walsh, George Wendt, Kenneth Mars. has dominated his life. Absolutely no draChase plays a smart-ass undercover rematic payoff, but simply oozing in portent. porter (with a penchant for disguises) who Undeniable standouts are Philippe Rousselgoes after major drug ring. Good mystery ot’s photography and the performance of absolutely smothered in wisecracks, some Paltrow as a sexy con woman. [R]▼●쩠 funny, some tiresome; if you’re not a fan Flesh and Fantasy (1943) 93m. ★★★ D: of Chevy, stay clear! Watchable but never Julien Duvivier. Charles Boyer, Edward credible. Screenplay by Andrew Bergman G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert from Gregory McDonald’s novel. Followed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 Benchley, Betty Field, Robert Cummings, Thomas Mitchell, Charles Winninger. ThreeFletch Lives (1989) C-95m. ★★ D: Mipart film of supernatural linked by Benchchael Ritchie. Chevy Chase, Hal Holbrook, ley; Field is ugly girl turned beauty by Julianne Phillips, Cleavon Little, R. Lee Cummings’ love; Robinson’s life is changed Ermey, Richard Libertini, Randall (Tex) by fortune-teller Mitchell; Boyer is psyCobb, George Wyner, Patricia Kalember, chic circus star haunted by Stanwyck. RobGeoffrey Lewis, Richard Belzer. Chase [ 470 ]

returns as Fletch, the multi-personality L.A. become its country’s national film epic, reporter, in silly sequel. He finds himself in but falls short of greatness. Stays in the Louisiana, dealing with a parade of stereotypimemory, however, despite the fact that the cal Southern morons. For diehard Chase fans second half of a lengthy running time deals only. [PG]▼●쩠 only with three men freezing to death in ★★★ Flicka (2006) C-95m. the snow. Simultaneously filmed as a D: Michael Mayer. Alison Lohman, Tim McGraw, Maria Bello, miniseries for Swedish TV. An Oscar Ryan Kwanten, Dallas Roberts, Nick Searcy, nominee for Best Foreign Film.▼● Danny Pino, Dey Young. Teenage Lohman Flight of the Innocent (1992-ItalianFrench) C-105m. ★★★ D: Carlo Carlei. Manhas no interest in school and only comes alive when she’s home on her family’s uel Colao, Federico Pacifici, Sal Borgese, ranch. Then she encounters a wild horse and Giusi Cataldo, Lucio Zagaria, Massimo Loclaims it as her own—in spite of her stern dolo, Francesa Neri, Jacques Perrin. Excitfather’s warnings to leave the animal alone. ing, fast-paced thriller about a little Sicilian First-rate modern-day adaptation of Mary boy (well played by Colao) who finds himO’Hara’s novel My Friend Flicka (filmed self immersed in Mafia warfare and is before in 1943) is ideal family fare. It’s nice forced to flee for his life. Immensely enterto see veteran Western actor Buck Taylor as taining, this film also observes the stranglethe rodeo clerk. Super 35. [PG]쩠 hold that organized crime can have over a Flight Command (1940) 116m. ★★ D: society. Excellent debut feature for director/ Frank Borzage. Robert Taylor, Ruth Hussey, coscripter Carlei. [R]▼●쩠 Walter Pidgeon, Paul Kelly, Nat PendleFlight of the Intruder (1991) C-113m. ★1 ton, Shepperd Strudwick, Red Skelton, ⁄2 D: John Milius. Danny Glover, Willem Dick Purcell. Hackneyed story with good Dafoe, Brad Johnson, Rosanna Arquette, cast as upstart Taylor tries to make the Tom Sizemore, J. Kenneth Campbell, Dann grade in naval flight squadron. Look fast for Florek, Madison Mason, Ving Rhames, John Raitt as a cadet. David Schwimmer. Dull adaptation of SteFlight for Freedom (1943) 99m. ★★ D: phen Coonts’ novel, chronicling the exploits Lothar Mendes. Rosalind Russell, Fred and frustrations of bombardiers in the VietMacMurray, Herbert Marshall, Eduardo nam war. It plays like one of those 1950s Ciannelli, Walter Kingsford. Stilted tale of service dramas that was ‘‘filmed in cooperadedicated aviatrix Russell (loosely based tion with the U.S. military,’’ and this is inon Amelia Earhart), who gains worldwide congruous given the story’s setting. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 fame, and is romanced by self-centered flier MacMurray. Flight of the Navigator (1986) C-90m. ★★1 Flight From Ashiya (1964) C-100m. ★★ ⁄2 D: Randal Kleiser. Joey Cramer, VeD: Michael Anderson. Yul Brynner, Richronica Cartwright, Cliff De Young, Sarah ard Widmark, George Chakiris, Suzy ParJessica Parker, Matt Adler, Howard Hesseker, Shirley Knight. Slow movie dealing man. 12-year-old boy is whisked away by with three aviators in rescue attempt over an alien spaceship and returns home eight Pacific. Big name cast will attract; stiff years later—still a 12-year-old boy. That’s script. Panavision. when the adventure really begins. Yet anFlight of Rainbirds, A (1981-Dutch) other film featuring a youthful hero and a C-94m. ★★★ D: Ate de Jong. Jeroen Krabbe´, cute robot; adequate entertainment for kids. Marijke Merckens, Henriette Tol, Huib The voice of the robot, billed as Paul Mall, Rooymans, Claire Wauthion. Thoughtful, is actually Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee whimsical tale of sex, death, and religion, Herman. [PG]▼●쩠 with Krabbe´ in a dual role as an inept, Flight of the Phoenix, The (1965) C34-year-old biologist who’s never had a 147m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. James date, let alone slept with a woman, and his Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Alter Ego, who informs him that he has Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, seven days to seduce a woman; otherwise Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Durhe’ll die and end up in hell.▼ yea, George Kennedy. A plane crash leaves a Flight of the Doves (1971-British) C-105m. group of men stranded in the Sahara desert; ★★ D: Ralph Nelson. Ron Moody, Jack Wild, film avoids cliche´s as tension mounts among Dorothy McGuire, Stanley Holloway, Helen the men. Stewart as the captain, AttenborRaye, William Rushton. Calculated cuteness ough as the navigator stand out in uniformly fine cast. Remade in 2004. ▼●쩠 mars tale of two Liverpool children who flee to Ireland to visit their grandmother; good cast Flight of the Phoenix (2004) C-113m. ★★ isn’t seen to best advantage. [G] D: John Moore. Dennis Quaid, Tyrese GibFlight of the Eagle, The (1982-Swedish) son, Miranda Otto, Giovanni Ribisi, Tony C-139m. ★★★ D: Jan Troell. Max von Curran, Hugh Laurie, Kirk Jones (Sticky Sydow, Goran Stangertz, S. A. Ousdal, Fingaz), Jacob Vargas, Scott Michael CampEva von Hanno. Beautifully shot true story bell, Jared Padalecki. Remake of the 1965 about a foolhardy but heroic balloon misfilm has a plane crashing (this time) in the sion to the North Pole in 1897 strives to Gobi Desert, with captain Quaid and fellow [ 471 ]

passengers running out of water, patience, Taylor, Dann Florek, Richard Moll, Jonaand hope. Solid but unspectacular and, unthan Winters; voices of Harvey Korman, like the original, cliche´d. Panavision. [PGSheryl Lee Ralph, Laraine Newman, Jay 13] ▼쩠 Leno. If you’re going to make a live-action Flight of the Red Balloon (2008-French) feature from a one-note, two-dimensional ★★★ C-115m. TV cartoon series, this is about as good as D: Hou Hsiao-hsien. Juliette Binoche, Simon Iteanu, Song Fang, Hippoyou could hope for: a bouncy concoction with lyte Girardot, Louise Margolin. Harried Paan enthusiastic cast, including a surprisingly risian working mother tries to juggle her funny Taylor as Fred Flintstone’s nagging career in puppet theater while raising her mother-in-law. Mainly for kids, who should young son, Simon. Bringing some calm into understandably lap it up. Series creators Bill her life is a new nanny, a young Asian who Hanna and Joe Barbera, and Wilma’s origitells Simon of the beloved 1956 short film by nal voice, Jean Vander Pyl, have cameos. Followed by a prequel. [PG]▼●쩠 Albert Lamorisse, ‘‘The Red Balloon’’ (which features a boy Simon’s age). Plot developFlintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, The (2000) C-91m. ★★ D: Brian Levant. Mark ment is surrendered to exploration of character and the artistic temperament in this wellAddy, Stephen Baldwin, Kristen Johnston, made if laid-back domestic drama. A red balJane Krakowski, Thomas Gibson, Joan Colloon plays a peripheral role here, appearing to lins, Alan Cumming, Harvey Korman, Alex be almost another hovering caregiver for the Meneses, John Taylor; voice of Rosie still-innocent boy. Emotionally powerful O’Donnell. Silly FLINTSTONES prequel story, full of symbolic and cross-cultural featuring Fred and Barney as unmarried emtouchstones, though not for all tastes.쩠 ployees of the Bedrock Quarry; they court Flightplan (2005) C-98m. ★★ D: Robert Wilma and Betty, while Wilma is pressured Schwentke. Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, to wed snooty, slimy rich boy Chip RockeErika Christensen, Sean Bean, Kate Beafeller. The cast is game, but the result is one han, Marlene Lawston, Greta Scacchi, Jubig cliche´ that only will appeal to undisdith Scott, Michael Irby, Stephanie Faracy. criminating youngsters. [PG]▼쩠 Grieving mother (Foster, solid as always) Flipper (1963) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: James takes her young daughter home on a jumbo Clark. Chuck Connors, Luke Halpin, Kathplane that’s also carrying her husband’s cofleen Maguire, Connie Scott. Typical wholefin. When she wakes up from a nap, her some family fare about a boy who belittle girl is missing and no one believes friends a dolphin. Spun off into a TV series that the youngster ever boarded the plane! in 1964 (with Halpin) and another in 1995. Suspenseful at first, this thriller becomes reRemade in 1996. ▼쩠 mote and uninvolving; by the climax it’s Flipper (1996) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Shajust plain ridiculous. Too bad Miss Froy piro. Paul Hogan, Elijah Wood, Chelsea wasn’t along. Super 35. [PG-13] 쩠 Field, Isaac Hayes, Jonathan Banks, Jason Flight to Fury (1966) 76m. ★★ D: Monte Fuchs, Jessica Wesson. Low-key but agreeHellman. Dewey Martin, Fay Spain, Jack able time-filler about a teenage boy who Nicholson, Jacqueline Hellman, Vic Diaz. spends the summer with his unruly uncle in Odd group of adventurers headed for Coral Key, Florida, and is befriended by a Philippines location and hidden diamonds supersmart dolphin. Simplistic storytelling when plane crashes. Low-budgeter has its aimed at a juvenile crowd. Luke Halpin, star points, but never really comes across. Initially of the earlier film and TV series, appears briefly. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 released at 62m., later reedited.▼ Flight to Mars (1951) C-72m. ★★ D: Flipper’s New Adventure (1964) C-103m. ★★ Lesley Selander. Marguerite Chapman, D: Leon Benson. Luke Halpin, Pamela Cameron Mitchell, Virginia Huston, ArFranklin, Helen Cherry, Tom Helmore, Brian thur Franz. Adequate sci-fi about scientists Kelly. Further exploits of everybody’s favoand newspapermen who land on Mars and rite dolphin: Flipper and Halpin thwart discover a lost civilization. Special effects escaped convicts’ efforts to blackmail milhampered by modest budget.▼쩠 lionaire Helmore. Pleasant, inoffensive fare Flim-Flam Man, The (1967) C-104m. for kids, filmed in the Bahamas and Key ★★★ D: Irvin Kershner. George C. Scott, Biscayne.▼쩠 Sue Lyon, Michael Sarrazin, Harry MorFlirt (1995-U.S.-German-Japanese) C-85m. ★★1 gan, Jack Albertson, Alice Ghostley, Al⁄2 D: Hal Hartley. Bill Sage, Parker bert Salmi, Slim Pickens. Scott is engaging Posey, Martin Donovan, Dwight Ewell, as a veteran Southern con man who takes Geno Lechner, Peter Fitz, Miho Nikaidoh, on Sarrazin as apprentice in his travels, but Toshizo Fujisawa, Chikako Hara. Quirky finds the novice a bit too honest. Entertainthree-part film in which the same miniing comedy. Panavision. ▼ drama is told three different ways: Flirt Flintstones, The (1994) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: leaves lover to head off on a job, but the Brian Levant. John Goodman, Elizabeth lover demands a commitment before the dePerkins, Rick Moranis, Rosie O’Donnell, parture. The stories are set in N.Y.C., Berlin Kyle MacLachlan, Halle Berry, Elizabeth (with the characters gay), and Tokyo (with [ 472 ]

the male-female roles reversed). The point: working-class life involving love, money, male, female, gay, straight, and across the crime, and morality. Set and shot in Pennglobe, people experience the same feelings sylvania; the Florentine is a neighborhood and romantic crises. More interesting as an bar and meeting place. Based on a stage exercise than as entertainment.▼ play. Released direct to video. [R]▼쩠 ★★1 Flirtation Walk (1934) 97m. ⁄2 D: Floundering (1994) C-97m. ★★★ D: Peter Frank Borzage. Dick Powell, Ruby KeeMcCarthy. James LeGros, John Cusack, ler, Pat O’Brien, Ross Alexander, Guinn Ethan Hawke, Maritza Rivera, Kim WayWilliams, Henry O’Neill, Tyrone Power. ans, Ebbe Roe Smith, Steve Buscemi, Billy West Point plot is cliche´d and trivial as Bob Thornton, Alex Cox, Lisa Zane, Nelcadet Powell falls in love with officer’s son Lyon, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, daughter Keeler; some fairly good numbers Jeremy Piven, Nina Siemaszko, Viggo Morhighlighted by ‘‘Mr. and Mrs. Is the tensen. Eye-opening sleeper with LeGros in Name.’’ ▼쩠 a bravura performance as John Boyz, a senFlirting (1990-Australian) C-100m. ★★★ sitive and compassionate Southern CaliforD: John Duigan. Noah Taylor, Thandie nian whose spirit is slowly being killed by Newton, Nicole Kidman, Bartholomew the everyday injustices of modern urban Rose, Felix Nobis, Josh Picker, Liri life; through a series of bureaucratic blunParamore, Marc Gray, Greg Palmer, Joshua ders, he finds his own life in crisis. McCarMarshall, David Wieland, Craig Black, thy’s script is thoughtful and perceptive, Leslie Hill, Naomi Watts. Charming sequel and written with an acid pen. One of the to Duigan’s THE YEAR MY VOICE most radical American films of the early BROKE, which finds shy Taylor at board1990s.▼●쩠 ing school where he falls in love with a Flower Drum Song (1961) C-133m. ★★★ Ugandan girl (Newton) who goes to a D: Henry Koster. Nancy Kwan, James Shinearby girls’ school. Nothing particularly geta, Miyoshi Umeki, Benson Fong, Jack new but still a warm, perceptive look at the Soo, Juanita Hall, Reiko Sato, Patrick Adipains of adolescence, with winning perforarte, Victor Sen Yung. Rodgers and Hammances from everyone in the cast. Director merstein’s Broadway musical becomes a Duigan also wrote the screenplay.▼●쩠 bright Technicolor confection about life and Flirting With Disaster (1996) C-92m. love in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where ★★1 Old World traditions clash with modern ⁄2 D: David O. Russell. Ben Stiller, Patricia Arquette, Te´a Leoni, Alan Alda, Mary American sensibilities. Songs include ‘‘I Tyler Moore, George Segal, Lily Tomlin, Enjoy Being a Girl.’’ All-Asian cast was a Josh Brolin, Richard Jenkins, Celia Weston, rarity in Hollywood at that time. Opera Glenn Fitzgerald, David Patrick Kelly, John singer Marilyn Horne dubs Sato’s voice on Ford Noonan. Married and now a father, ‘‘Love, Look Away.’’▼●쩠 adopted Stiller decides to seek out his birth Flower in His Mouth, The (1975-Italian) parents, with the help of a psychology grad C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Luigi Zampa. Jennifer student; taking his wife in tow, they embark O’Neill, James Mason, Franco Nero, Orazio on a cross-country trek that leads to calamOrlando. O’Neill moves to small Italian ity at every turn. Determinedly offbeat and town, finds its people paralyzed by fear but full of comic twists, not all of which pay unwilling to tell why. Murky thriller isn’t off; still, a cut above the norm for contemworth time it takes to figure out. porary comedy. Moore and Segal make a Flower of Evil, The (2003-French) C104m. ★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Nathalie Baye, great neurotic Jewish couple, matched by Tomlin and Alda as middle-aged flower Benoıˆt Magimel, Me´lanie Doutey, Suzanne children. [R] ▼●쩠 Flon, Bernard Le Coq, Thomas Chabrol. LowFloating Weeds (1959-Japanese) C-119m. key Chabrol melodrama, coscripted by the di★★★1 ⁄2 D: Yasujiro Ozu. Ganjiro Nakamura, rector, is set in contemporary Bordeaux, where Machiko Kyo, Haruko Sugimura, Ayako a prosperous family harbors more twisted geWakao. Struggling acting troupe visits renealogical secrets than you can count. Film mote island, where its leader (Nakamura) makes reference to France’s murky WW2 hisvisits his illegitimate son and the boy’s tory, but comes out flat; Baye’s character, a mother, with whom he had an affair years local politician, is underwritten and her young, before. Powerful drama is meticulously sexy costars’ storyline doesn’t add up to directed, solidly acted. Ozu directed the much. Longtime Chabrol devote´es may boost rating of this cerebral film.▼쩠 same story, as a silent film, in 1934. Aka DRIFTING WEEDS.▼●쩠 Flower of My Secret, The (1995-SpanishFlorentine, The (2000) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: French) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo´Nick Stagliano. Michael Madsen, Chris var. Marisa Paredes, Juan Echanove, ImPenn, Hal Holbrook, Mary Stuart Masanol Arias, Carmen Elias, Rossy de Palma, terson, Virginia Madsen, Jeremy Davies, Chus Lampreave, Joaquin Cortes, Manuela Tom Sizemore, Luke Perry, James Belushi, Vargas. A middle-aged woman (Paredes), Burt Young, Maeve Quinlan, Lillo Branwho has been happy and a successful writer, cato. Agreeable if unremarkable slice of seems to be suffering a breakdown. Her work [ 473 ]

and marriage (to an often absent militarygarbage-scow captain (Winslet) and helps strategist husband) are meaningless, and she her evade the clutches of a menacing toad. must relearn the joys of living. A more foGood fun with clever gags to please both cused, somber portrait than usual for Almogrown-ups and kids, and an unlikely cast of do´var—although not without farcical flareheroes—including some very funny singing ups—which seems strangely reminiscent of slugs. First computer-generated film from the Douglas Sirk–Jane Wyman collaborathe clay-animation geniuses at Aardman studios. [PG]쩠 tions of 1950s Hollywood. [R]▼●쩠 Flowers in the Attic (1987) C-95m. ★★ D: Fly, The (1958) C-94m. ★★★ D: Kurt Jeffrey Bloom. Louise Fletcher, Victoria Neumann. Al (David) Hedison, Patricia Tennant, Kristy Swanson, Jeb Stuart AdOwens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, ams, Ben Granger, Lindsay Parker, MarKathleen Freeman. Improbable but divertshall Colt. Disappointing adaptation of the ing sci-fi (screenplay by James Clavell!) V.C. Andrews best-seller tones down the inabout scientist who experiments with discest and sadomasochism of the story about integration machine and has his atomic four youngsters kept locked up by evil granny pattern mingled with that of a fly. ‘‘Help (Fletcher) in the family mansion. Material is me! Help me!’’ Two sequels—RETURN strangely compelling nonetheless; benefits OF THE FLY and CURSE OF THE FLY. from effective casting. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Remade in 1986. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Flubber (1997) C-93m. ★★ D: Les MayFly, The (1986) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: David field. Robin Williams, Marcia Gay Harden, Cronenberg. Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, Christopher McDonald, Raymond J. Barry, John Getz, Joy Boushel. Goldblum is just Clancy Brown, Ted Levine, Wil Wheaton, right as slightly crazed scientist who tests Edie McClurg, voice of Jodi Benson. Surprishimself in a genetic transporter machine— ingly dull remake of Disney’s THE ABSENT and starts to evolve into a human fly. MINDED PROFESSOR, with Williams as Extremely intense, sharply written remake the fragile genius who accidentally invents of the 1958 movie that (unfortunately) flubber—flying rubber—but forgets to atgoes over the line to be gross and disgusttend his own wedding. Needlessly compliing. Written by Charles Edward Pogue and cated by John Hughes’ heavily rewritten director Cronenberg. An Oscar winner for script, which manages to leave out most of makeup (Chris Walas, Stephan Dupuis). Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 the funny stuff from the original, except for the springy basketball game. Nancy Olson Fly II, The (1989) C-104m. BOMB D: (the female lead in 1961) has a cameo as a Chris Walas. Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, secretary. [PG]▼●쩠 Lee Richardson, John Getz, Frank Turner, Fluffy (1965) C-92m. ★★ D: Earl Bellamy. Ann Marie Lee, Gary Chalk, Saffron HenTony Randall, Shirley Jones, Edward Anderson, Harley Cross, Matthew Moore. A drews, Ernest Truex, Howard Morris, Dick case of ‘‘like father, like son’’; too bad Sargent. Silly film dealing with professor director Walas isn’t like David Cronenberg. Randall experimenting with a lion; he can’t Stoltz, son of deceased Jeff Goldblum, has shake the beast, causing all sorts of repercusattained puberty at five with the intellect to sions, even winning Jones’ affection. match; now he’s being unknowingly exFluke (1995) C-96m. ★★★ D: Carlo Carlei. ploited by—here’s a novel twist—the Matthew Modine, Nancy Travis, Eric scientists in whose care he’s entrusted. Stoltz, Max Pomeranc, Ron Perlman, Jon Alternately dull and messy but mostly dull. [R]▼●쩠 Polito, Bill Cobbs, Collin Wilcox Paxton; voice of Samuel L. Jackson. Touching, Fly Away Home (1996) C-107m. ★★★ D: beautifully filmed story of a young family Carroll Ballard. Jeff Daniels, Anna Paquin, man killed in a mysterious car accident and Dana Delany, Terry Kinney, Holter Grareincarnated as a dog named Fluke—while ham, Jeremy Ratchford. First-rate family film on his way to rejoin his wife and son. More about a girl who goes to live with her esappropriate for older audiences than for tranged father in Canada after the death of young kids, who might be disturbed by cerher mom and only finds happiness when she tain scenes and themes within the picture. adopts a flock of baby geese. Then father and Samuel L. Jackson provides the voice of daughter embark on the adventure of teachFluke’s dog friend, Rumbo. Based on James ing the birds how to migrate! Credible, involving story (inspired by a real-life Herbert’s best-selling novel. [PG]▼●쩠 Flushed Away (2006-U.S.-British) C-84m. incident), sparked by Paquin’s and Daniels’ ★★★ D: David Bowers, Sam Fell. Voices of strong performances. Photographed by Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKelCaleb Deschanel, who previously collabolen, Jean Reno, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, rated with director Ballard on THE BLACK Shane Richie, Kathy Burke, David Suchet, STALLION. [PG]▼●쩠 Miriam Margolyes. A pampered pet mouse Flyboys (2006) C-139m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony is flushed into the sewers of London by a Bill. James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean rowdy rat. While struggling to find a way Reno, David Ellison, Jennifer Decker, Tyler back home, he teams up with an intrepid Labine, Abdul Salis, Philip Winchester, [ 474 ]

Daniel Rigby. Agreeably old-fashioned record . . . but there are complications and yarn about the diverse young Americans repercussions. Potentially rousing story is who went to France in 1916 to serve in the pleasant at best, but mostly episodic and uninspiring. [PG-13]쩠 Lafayette Escadrille, long before the U.S. officially entered WW1. They bond, bicker, Flying Tigers (1942) 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: David find love on the ground and danger in the Miller. John Wayne, John Carroll, Anna air. No surprises here, but this modern upLee, Paul Kelly, Mae Clarke, Gordon Jones, date of films like THE DAWN PATROL James ‘‘Jimmie’’ Dodd. Good war film in still entertains, and offers cutting-edge CG which Wayne commands the volunteer Flyimagery to make the aerial sequences more ing Tigers in China prior to Pearl Harbor vivid than ever before. Despite a formulaic while contending with egotistical ace pilot screenplay, the writers did their homework: Carroll. Exciting dog-fight scenes. Also most of the characters in this story really shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 existed. HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 FM (1978) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: John A. Flying (1986-Canadian) C-94m. ★★ D: Paul Alonzo. Michael Brandon, Martin Mull, Lynch. Olivia d’Abo, Rita Tushingham, Eileen Brennan, Cleavon Little, Cassie Yates, Keanu Reeves, Jessica Steen, Renee MurAlex Karras, Norman Lloyd, James Keach. phy. Minor imitation of FLASHDANCE Hip comedy (which could well have inspired has statuesque d’Abo overcoming a leg TV’s WKRP) about various conflicts at injury to become a medal-winning gymnast; maverick radio station, chiefly against its proTushingham (with shocking carrot-colored fit-hungry parent company. More a series of hair) is her tough coach. This formula has sketches than a movie, but nicely captures whiskers, but d’Abo is easy to watch, feel of ’70s L.A. and Mull is marvelous as even though her full figure is unconvincthe station’s craziest dj. Good rock sounding for a gymnast. Video title: TEENAGE track, plus concert appearances by Linda DREAM. ▼ Ronstadt, Jimmy Buffett, Tom Petty, and Flying Aces SEE: Flying Deuces, The REO Speedwagon. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Flying Deuces, The (1939) 65m. ★★★ D: Focus (2001) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Neal Slavin. A. Edward Sutherland. Stan Laurel, Oliver William H. Macy, Laura Dern, David PayHardy, Jean Parker, Reginald Gardiner, mer, Meat Loaf Aday, Kay Hewtrey, Michael Charles Middleton, James Finlayson. Stan and Copeman. Gentile personnel director is deOllie join the Foreign Legion so Ollie can moted at work and shunned in his WW2-era forget Parker; usual complications result. Brooklyn neighborhood because his new Good fun, faster paced than most L&H films, glasses supposedly make him look Jewish. includes charming song and dance to ‘‘Shine Well-acted relic, adapted from Arthur MilOn, Harvest Moon.’’▼●쩠 ler’s 1945 novel, establishes a concrete feel Flying Down to Rio (1933) 89m. ★★★ D: for its tight neighborhood milieu, even though Thornton Freeland. Dolores Del Rio, Gene it was shot in Toronto on a budget. Otherwise, Raymond, Raul Roulien, Ginger Rogers, it’s heavy-handed and ‘‘small’’—a lethal Fred Astaire, Blanche Frederici, Eric Blore, combination. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Franklin Pangborn. Slim Del Rio vehicle Fog, The (1980) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John memorable for its scene of dancing girls Carpenter. Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee cavorting on plane wings, plus Astaire and Curtis, Hal Holbrook, Janet Leigh, John Rogers doing ‘‘The Carioca’’ in their first Houseman, Tommy Atkins, Nancy Loomis, screen teaming. Also shown in computerCharles Cyphers. Carpenter’s follow-up to colored version.▼●쩠 HALLOWEEN is a well-directed but obFlying Leathernecks (1951) C-102m. ★★★ vious ghost story about a California coastal D: Nicholas Ray. John Wayne, Robert town cursed by a hundred-year-old shipRyan, Jay C. Flippen, Janis Carter, Don wreck. Remade in 2005. Panavision. [R] Taylor, William Harrigan. Major Wayne ▼●쩠 is exceedingly tough on his Marines; execFog, The (2005-U.S.-British) C-100m. ★1⁄2 utive officer Ryan thinks he should be a D: Rupert Wainwright. Tom Welling, Maglittle nicer. Guess who wins this argument. gie Grace, Selma Blair, DeRay Davis, KenSolid, if not especially original, WW2 neth Welsh, Adrian Hough, Sara Botsford, actioner, with good aerial scenes and nice Rade Sherbedgia. A dense fog from the Paturn by Flippen as crafty sergeant.▼●쩠 cific creeps over a Northwest seaside village, Flying Scotsman, The (2006-Britishbringing with it murderous, vengeful ghosts. German) C-98m. ★★ D: Douglas Mackinnon. Lame remake of John Carpenter’s 1980 Jonny Lee Miller, Billy Boyd, Laura Fraser, movie alters the plot slightly but is no imMorven Christie, Steven Berkoff, Brian Cox. provement. Carpenter and longtime partner Based-on-fact triumph-of-the-underdog tale Debra Hill produced this. Alternate version involving Graeme Obree (Miller), a young also available. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 outsider for whom bicycling is an escape, a Fog of War, The (2003) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 salvation. He is inspired to build a new kind D: Errol Morris. Unique, memorable docuof cycle, using homemade materials, which mentary about the life of Robert S. McNahe hopes will allow him to set a world speed mara, the controversial former secretary of [ 475 ]

defense who played a pivotal role during Follow That Camel (1967-British) C-95m. ★★1 the Vietnam War. Director Morris explores ⁄2 D: Gerald Thomas. Phil Silvers, Jim myriad political, social, and moral issues Dale, Peter Butterworth, Charles Hawtrey, that resonate even more tellingly today, and Kenneth Williams, Anita Harris, Joan Sims. McNamara—85 when the film was made— Silvers as conniving sergeant livens up remains an outspoken and forceful personalotherwise standard CARRY ON outing with ity who refuses to provide any easy answers Foreign Legion setting.▼ about the history he helped to shape. An Follow That Dream (1962) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 emotional powerhouse for anyone who lived D: Gordon Douglas. Elvis Presley, Arthur through the era depicted here so vividly. O’Connell, Anne Helm, Joanna Moore, Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature. Jack Kruschen, Simon Oakland. Presley Film carries the subtitle ELEVEN LESand family move to southern Florida where SONS FROM THE LIFE OF ROBERT S. they intend to homestead, despite all opMcNAMARA. [PG-13]▼쩠 position. Easygoing comedy from Richard Fog Over Frisco (1934) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilPowell’s book Pioneer Go Home. Elvis sings liam Dieterle. Bette Davis, Lyle Talbot, ‘‘Home Is Where the Heart Is’’ and ‘‘On Top Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods, Henry of Old Smokey’’! Panavision. ▼●쩠 O’Neill, Arthur Byron, Hugh Herbert, Alan Follow the Boys (1944) 110m. ★★★ D: A. Hale, William Demarest. Snappy meloEdward Sutherland. Marlene Dietrich, drama of deceitful, thrill-a-minute partyGeorge Raft, Orson Welles, Vera Zorina, girl Davis involved in stolen-securities Dinah Shore, W. C. Fields, Jeanette Macscheme; stepsister Lindsay tries to help. Donald, Maria Montez, Andrews Sisters, Folies Bourgeoises SEE: Twist, The Sophie Tucker, Nigel Bruce, Gale Sonder(1976) gaard. Universal Pictures’ entry in all-star Folks! (1992) C-107m. BOMB D: Ted WW2 series has Raft organizing USO Kotcheff. Tom Selleck, Don Ameche, Anne shows, Welles sawing Dietrich in half, Jackson, Christine Ebersole, Wendy CrewMacDonald singing ‘‘Beyond the Blue son, Robert Pastorelli, Michael Murphy. Horizon,’’ Fields doing classic pool-table Excruciating comedic misfire about stockroutine, etc. Lots of fun.▼ broker Selleck trying to deal with aging Follow the Boys (1963) C-95m. ★★ D: dad Ameche’s senility and death wish. An Richard Thorpe. Connie Francis, Paula outrageous number of mishaps to Selleck Prentiss, Ron Randell, Janis Paige, Russ give slapstick a bad name. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Tamblyn, Dany Robin. Dumb comedy unFolks at Red Wolf Inn, The SEE: Terror spiked by Francis’ singing or antics as quarHouse tet of girls chase around the French Riviera seeking husbands. Panavision.● Following (1999-British) 71m. ★★★ D: Christopher Nolan. Jeremy Theobald, Alex Follow the Fleet (1936) 110m. ★★★★ D: Haw, Lucy Russell, John Nolan. Interesting Mark Sandrich. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogultra-low-budget precursor to Nolan’s MEers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard (NelMENTO: another nonlinear story about a son), Astrid Allwyn, Betty Grable. Delightyoung aimless man who decides to follow ful musical with sailors Astaire and Scott people, just for the hell of it . . . until one of romancing sisters Rogers and Hilliard. Irhis ‘‘subjects’’ turns the tables and lures ving Berlin songs include ‘‘Let’s Face the him into his world, where he robs empty Music and Dance,’’ ‘‘Let Yourself Go,’’ apartments and invades his victims’ lives. ‘‘We Saw the Sea.’’ A reworking of Provocative and original. [R]▼쩠 SHORE LEAVE, a 1925 Richard BarFollow Me, Boys! (1966) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 thelmess silent, and the 1930 musical HIT D: Norman Tokar. Fred MacMurray, Vera THE DECK. That’s Lucille Ball as Kitty. Miles, Lillian Gish, Charlie Ruggles, El▼●쩠 liott Reid, Kurt Russell. Mile-high Disney Follow the Sun (1951) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: corn about simple fellow who settles in Sidney Lanfield. Glenn Ford, Anne Baxsmall town during 1930s and starts Boy ter, Dennis O’Keefe, June Havoc. FictionScout troop, devoting his life to this inspiralized biopic of golfer Ben Hogan with ing pursuit. A little less syrup would have hokey dramatics to fill in lean spots. helped, but at least it’s done with great Folly to Be Wise (1952-British) 91m. ★★★ conviction.▼쩠 D: Frank Launder. Alastair Sim, Elizabeth Follow Me Quietly (1949) 59m. ★★★ D: Allan, Roland Culver, Martita Hunt. GenRichard O. Fleischer. William Lundigan, erally amusing nonsense with Sim an Army Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey, Nestor Paiva, chaplain trying to enliven service life with Charles D. Brown, Paul Guilfoyle. Solid litvarious unique entertainment programs. tle film noir about police manhunt for selfFond Kiss, A (2004-British-Belgian-Germanrighteous psychopathic killer called The Italian-Spanish) C-104m. ★★★ D: Kenneth Judge. Packs style and substance into just Loach. Atta Yaqub, Eva Birthistle, Shabana 59 minutes.▼ Bakhsh, Shamshad Akhtar, Ahmad Riaz, GhiFollow That Bird SEE: Sesame Street zala Avan, Pasha Bocarie. Provocative, rePresents Follow That Bird freshingly unformulaic drama about the ins [ 476 ]

and outs of a mixed-race relationship between part concert film, total disaster. Story cena second-generation Pakistani (Yaqub) living ters around a comic who feels he is not with his Muslim family in Glasgow and a using his talents wisely and throwing away Catholic schoolteacher (Birthistle). All the his potential. Yeah, that’s right; he coulda characters are vividly etched, and Loach been a contender. Alas, nothing he says is and screenwriter Paul Laverty offer no simeven remotely funny. Film is also meant to ple solutions to the problems their characcapitalize on the success of hip hop star ters encounter. Original title is AE FOND Master P, who also executive-produced. KISS . . . [R] ▼쩠 The title says it all. [R]▼●쩠 Food of the Gods (1976) C-88m. BOMB Foolish Wives (1922) 107m. ★★★ D: Erich D: Bert I. Gordon. Marjoe Gortner, Pamela von Stroheim. Erich von Stroheim, Maud Franklin, Ida Lupino, Jon Cypher, Ralph George, Mae Busch, Cesare Gravina, Meeker. Dreadful adaptation of H. G. Malvine Polo. Von Stroheim’s third film Wells’ novel. Strange substance causes as director is a typically sophisticated, giant growth in wasps, worms, chickens and fascinating tale of seduction, fake counts, rats. Not for the squeamish. Similar to VILblackmail, suicide, lechery, and murder. LAGE OF THE GIANTS, filmed by GorGreat photography by William Daniels and don 11 years earlier. [PG]▼쩠 Ben Reynolds, and an incredible set deFood of the Gods II (1989-Canadian) picting the Monte Carlo casino designed by von Stroheim and Richard Day.▼●쩠 C-91m. BOMB D: Damian Lee. Paul Coufos, Lisa Schrage, Jackie Burroughs, Fool Killer, The (1965) 100m. ★★★ D: Colin Fox, Frank Moore. This time, giganServando Gonzalez. Anthony Perkins, Edtic laboratory rats terrorize a college camward Albert, Dana Elcar, Henry Hull, pus. No connection to the first film, or Salome Jens, Arnold Moss. Set in post(goodness knows) H. G. Wells’ novel. Ugh! Civil War South, film relates unusual adAka GNAW.▼●쩠 ventures of runaway orphan (Albert) and Fool and His Money, A (1988) C-84m. his meeting with strange young man (PerBOMB D: Daniel Adams. Jonathan Penner, kins). Interesting and offbeat.▼ Sandra Bullock, Gerald Orange, George Fools (1970) C-97m. BOMB D: Tom Gries. Plimpton, Jerzy Kosinski, Tama Janowitz, Jason Robards, Katharine Ross, Scott Jose Torres. Plimpton as ‘‘God’’ tells exHylands, Roy C. Jenson, Mark Bramhall. musician/ex-ad man Penner to start his own Wretchedly acted, written, and directed business, so he founds the ‘‘Preferent drama about love affair in San Francisco Church,’’ a religion whose main tenet is between horror movie star and beautiful, selfishness. Embarrassing attempt at satire neglected wife of a lawyer. Storyline is features Bullock on the video box, but she vaguely similar to PETULIA but the exeonly has about eight minutes on screen as a cution certainly isn’t. [PG]▼ public defender who can’t believe her boyFools for Scandal (1938) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: friend has turned into such a jerk. [R]▼쩠 Mervyn LeRoy. Carole Lombard, Fernand ★★ D: Fool for Love (1985) C-106m. Gravet, Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, Robert Altman. Sam Shepard, Kim BasingIsabel Jeans, Marie Wilson. Generally a er, Harry Dean Stanton, Randy Quaid. misfire, despite lovely Lombard as movie Altman’s inventive direction tries to breathe star who meets impoverished Paris nobleman life into what is ultimately a photographed Gravet; Bellamy plays the sap again. play, Shepard’s examination of two exFool’s Gold (2008) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andy lovers who find themselves inextricably Tennant. Matthew McConaughey, Kate bound together. Biggest problem is generHudson, Donald Sutherland, Alexis Dziena, ating some interest in these characters. Very Ewen Bremner, Ray Winstone, Kevin Hart, much of a piece with Shepard’s other work; Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Brian Hooks, David if you’re a fan, you might adjust our rating Roberts. Newly divorced McConaughey and Hudson get back together when he gets upward. [R]▼●쩠 ★★ Foolin’ Around (1980) C-111m. a bead on some sunken treasure they’ve D: Richard T. Heffron. Gary Busey, Annette been trying to find for years . . . but they O’Toole, Cloris Leachman, Eddie Albert, aren’t the only ones after it. Needlessly John Calvin, Tony Randall, W. (William) plotty romantic comedy is notably unfunny H. Macy. Dumb 1950s-style comedy about at first but gets livelier and more engaging a good-hearted klutz who pursues a wealthy as the treasure hunt kicks in. Beautiful scenery helps. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 girl, although she’s already engaged. Cardboard characters and clumsy slapstick. Fools of Fortune (1990-British) C-109m. ★1 [PG]▼ ⁄2 D: Pat O’Connor. Mary Elizabeth Foolish (1999) C-96m. BOMB D: Dave Mastrantonio, Iain Glen, Julie Christie, Meyers. Eddie Griffin, Master P, Amy PetMichael Kitchen, Sean McClory, Frankie ersen, Frank Sivero, Daphnee Lynn McCafferty. Muddled, haphazardly organDuplaix, Jonathan Banks, Andrew Dice ized family chronicle set against decades Clay, Marla Gibbs, Bill Nunn, Bill Duke, of fighting between the British army and Traci Bingham. Part drama, part comedy, the IRA, from 1920 on. Very difficult to [ 477 ]

sort out who’s doing what to whom. Maslawed—and confronts hellfire minister trantonio, who shows up quite late (despite (Lithgow) in effort to bring it back. Too her billing), is awkward as Glen’s love inmuch emphasis on hackneyed story in soterest. Based on William Trevor’s novel. called musical (though the soundtrack did [PG-13]▼● spawn a number of Top 10 hits). Bacon’s ★★ Fools’ Parade (1971) C-98m. charisma sparks innocuous film. Later a D: Andrew V. McLaglen. James Stewart, George Broadway musical. [PG] ▼●쩠 Kennedy, Anne Baxter, Strother Martin, Footsteps in the Dark (1941) 96m. ★★1⁄2 Kurt Russell, William Windom, Kathy CanD: Lloyd Bacon. Errol Flynn, Brenda Marnon. Another great Stewart performance shall, Ralph Bellamy, Alan Hale, Lee Patcan’t save melodramatic treatment of Davis rick, Allen Jenkins. Flynn leads double life Grubb novel. Story of three ex-cons stalked as happily married businessman and mysby their former prison guard is unintentery writer. Silly but genial.▼ tionally funny too many times to be taken Footsteps in the Fog (1955-British) C-90m. ★★★ seriously. [PG] D: Arthur Lubin. Stewart Granger, Fools Rush In (1997) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Simmons, Finlay Currie, Bill Travers, Andy Tennant. Matthew Perry, Salma Ronald Squire. Cat-and-mouse battle inHayek, Jon Tenney, Carlos Gomez, Tomas volving servant girl who blackmails her Milian, Siobhan Fallon, John Bennett Perry, employer for having murdered his wife. Stanley DeSantis, Suzanne Snyder, Jill Fine acting, rich Victorian atmosphere. Clayburgh. Hard-working New Yorker For a Few Dollars More (1966-Italian) C-130m. ★★★ D: Sergio Leone. Clint EastPerry chances to meet self-reliant MexicanAmerican photographer Hayek in Las wood, Lee Van Cleef, Gian Maria VolVegas, and it’s lust at first sight . . . but onte´, Jose Egger, Mara Krup, Rosemarie when she becomes pregnant, it’s hard for Dexter, Klaus Kinski, Mario Brega. Seeither of them to know what course to take. quel to FISTFUL OF DOLLARS finds two Pleasant if unexceptional romantic comedygunslingers forming an uneasy alliance in drama with appealing and credible perfortheir quest for outlaw Indio (Volonte´) —almances by the two stars. [PG-13]▼●쩠 though their reasons for chasing him are 1 ★ Foot Fist Way, The (2008) C-83m. ⁄2 markedly different. Slightly draggy but still D: Jody Hill. Danny McBride, Mary Jane fun; don’t miss the scene where Van Cleef Bostic, Ben Best, Spencer Moreno, Carlos strikes a match on the back of Kinski’s Lopez IV, Jody Hill, Ken Aguilar, Collette neck! Trademark atmospheric score by Wolfe. Meandering, one-note account of Ennio Morricone. Released in the U.S. in self-deluded, painfully insufferable tae1967. Followed by THE GOOD, THE kwondo instructor McBride. This crude, BAD, AND THE UGLY. Techniscope. cringe-inducing comedy barely sustains in[R—originally rated M]▼●쩠 terest and seems overlong even at 83m.! For All Mankind (1989) C-80m. ★★★ D: However, fans of JACKASS: THE MOVIE Al Reinert. Excellent documentary on the may feel otherwise. [R]쩠 Apollo moon flights, culled from a zillion Footlight Parade (1933) 104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: hours of NASA footage seamlessly edited into Lloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Joan Blondell, one representative journey. Impressive, if a bit Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell, Guy Kibbee, on the cold side; end credits inform us film was shot ‘‘on location.’’ Let us hope.▼●쩠 Ruth Donnelly, Hugh Herbert, Frank McHugh. Cagney plays a stage director For Better, For Worse SEE: Zandy’s who tries to outdo himself with spectacuBride lar musical numbers. Fast-paced Warner Forbidden (1932) 81m. ★★ D: Frank Capra. Bros. opus winds up with three incredible Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe Menjou, Ralph Busby Berkeley numbers back-to-back: Bellamy, Dorothy Peterson, Henry Armetta. ‘‘Honeymoon Hotel,’’ ‘‘By a Waterfall,’’ A spinster schoolteacher takes a cruise and falls in love with a man who can never and ‘‘Shanghai Lil.’’ ▼●쩠 Footlight Serenade (1942) 80m. ★★★ D: marry her. Fine performances and stunGregory Ratoff. Betty Grable, Victor Maning Joseph Walker photography buoy this ture, John Payne, Jane Wyman, Phil SilBACK STREET soap opera until its ridicvers, James Gleason, Mantan Moreland, ulous conclusion. Forbidden (1953) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph Cobina Wright, Jr. Cute backstage musical with cocky boxer Mature turning to Mate´. Tony Curtis, Joanne Dru, Lyle Broadway and trying to woo Grable, who’s Bettger, Marvin Miller, Victor Sen Yung. secretly engaged to Payne. Good fun.▼ OK suspenser in which two-fisted Curtis arFootloose (1984) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Herbert rives in Macao, hired by a gangland chief to Ross. Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John uncover the whereabouts of Dru (who just Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Christopher Penn, so happens to be Curtis’ ex-girlfriend). Sarah Jessica Parker, John Laughlin, ElizaForbidden Alliance SEE: Barretts of beth Gorcey, Frances Lee McCain, Jim Wimpole Street, The (1934) Young, Brian Wimmer. City kid moves to Forbidden Choices SEE: Beans of Egypt, small town where dancing has been outMaine, The [ 478 ]

Forbidden Dance, The (1990) C-97m. Forbidden World (1982) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: BOMB D: Greydon Clark. Laura Herring, Allan Holzman. Jesse Vint, June Chadwick, Jeff James, Sid Haig, Richard Lynch, BarDawn Dunlap, Linden Chiles, Fox Harris. bara Brighton, Kid Creole. Brazilian junRoger Corman-produced ALIEN rip-off is gle princess treks to America on behalf of followup to (and uses sets from) his her endangered rain forests, ends up on a GALAXY OF TERROR as well as battle TV special as . . . a lambada dancer?!? Marscenes lifted from his BATTLE BEYOND ginally lesser of two ‘‘ ‘L’-word’’ quickies THE STARS. Lots of gore, weak special that opened the same week. Inability of exeffects. Aka MUTANT. [R]▼● Miss USA Herring to dance is good for Forbidden Zone (1980) 76m. ★1⁄2 D: Richa few chuckles. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ard Elfman. Herve Villechaize, Susan Forbidden Games (1951-French) 87m. Tyrrell, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Viva. Pas★★★1 ⁄2 D: Rene´ Clement. Brigitte Fossey, tiche film set in the Sixth Dimension, an Georges Poujouly, Louis Herbert. During underground kingdom ruled by Villechaize WW2, young Parisian girl is orphaned and and Tyrrell. Mostly a collection of bizarre, taken in by simple peasant family; she campy musical numbers, done in the style develops friendship with their youngest of 1930s Max Fleischer cartoons. If only son, and shares with him a private world everything about the film weren’t so ugly! which the grown-ups cannot understand. Has an inevitable cult following. [R]▼쩠 Sad, intensely moving drama earned a Forbin Project, The SEE: Colossus: The Best Foreign Film Oscar.▼●쩠 Forbin Project Forbidden Kingdom, The (2008-U.S.Forced March (1989-U.S.-Hungarian) 1 ★★ Chinese) C-105m. ⁄2 D: Rob Minkoff. C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rick King. Chris SaranJackie Chan, Jet Li, Michael Angarano, don, Renee Soutendijk, Josef Sommer, Collin Chou, Liu Yifei, Li Bing Bing. BosJohn Seitz. American actor Sarandon faces ton boy is magically transported to a mystichallenge after traveling to Budapest to cal kingdom, bearing a golden staff that star in a film about Miklos Radnoti, must be returned to its rightful owner. He Hungarian-Jewish poet who fell victim to acquires a valuable ally in a seemingly the Holocaust. Ambitious, potentially podrunken kung-fu master (Chan), and before tent drama mostly falls flat; scenes of the long they encounter a silent monk (Li) who actor are pointlessly interspersed with those of the film in which he is starring.▼● may or may not be on their side. Uninspired story unfolds against magnificent Chinese Forced Vengeance (1982) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: scenery and ornate sets, photographed by James Fargo. Chuck Norris, Mary Louise Peter Pau. Chan and Li square off for one Weller, Camilla Griggs, Michael Cavagreat fight (choreographed by Woo-Ping naugh, David Opatoshu, Seiji Sakaguchi. Yuen) but the film as a whole is just lukeCliche´d karate nonsense with Norris, badly warm. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 in need of an acting lesson, taking on Forbidden Planet (1956) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 Hong Kong mobster Cavanaugh. [R]▼쩠 D: Fred McLeod Wilcox. Walter Pidgeon, Force: Five (1981) C-95m. ★★ D: Robert Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Clouse. Joe Lewis, Pam Huntington, MasStevens, Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson, ter Bong Soo Han, Richard Norton, Benny Earl Holliman, George Wallace, James ‘‘The Jet’’ Urquidez. Lewis and company Drury. Sci-fi version of Shakespeare’s The attempt to rescue girl from the clutches of Tempest remains one of the most ambireligious-cult-head Han. Retread of Clouse’s tious and intelligent films of its genre; only much-used martial arts formula, with slow, deliberate pacing works against it, gimmick of disparate five-person ‘‘team’’ as Nielsen and fellow space travelers visit as the collective hero. Remake of HOT planet where expatriate Pidgeon has built a POTATO. [R]▼ one-man empire with daughter Francis and Force of Arms (1951) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: obedient Robby the Robot. Great effects, Michael Curtiz. William Holden, Nancy eerie electronic score. Beware 95m. reisOlson, Frank Lovejoy, Gene Evans, Dick sue prints. Lavish use of wide-screen Wesson. Updating of Hemingway’s A CinemaScope is severely diminished on FAREWELL TO ARMS to WW2 Italy, with unmemorable results. Reissued as A television.▼●쩠 GIRL FOR JOE.▼ Forbidden Street, The (1949-British) 91m. ★★ D: Jean Negulesco. Dana Andrews, Force of Evil (1948) 78m. ★★★ D: AbraMaureen O’Hara, Sybil Thorndike, Wilfrid ham Polonsky. John Garfield, Beatrice PearHyde-White, Fay Compton. Fanciful meloson, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts, Marie drama, set in Victorian England, of wealthy Windsor, Howland Chamberlin, Beau BridO’Hara defying her family by marrying ges. Rock-solid film noir about a racketeer’s beneath her class; Andrews has a dual role, lawyer (Garfield, in a stunning performance), as a down-and-out artist (with his voice whose ideals have been obscured by his dubbed) and an ex-barrister. Scripted by greed. Beautifully photographed (by George Ring Lardner, Jr. Originally titled BRITBarnes) and lit; this has become something of ANNIA MEWS. a cult item. Polonsky, who coscripted with [ 479 ]

Ira Wolfert, was blacklisted and didn’t make in middle of spy ring with reporters Sanders another film until 1969’s TELL THEM WILand Benchley, innocent Day, suspicious father LIE BOY IS HERE.▼●쩠 Marshall. Tremendously entertaining film Force of One, A (1979) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: with several vintage Hitchcock showpieces. Paul Aaron. Chuck Norris, Jennifer O’Neill, Scripted by Charles Bennett and Joan HarClu Gulager, Ron O’Neal, James Whitmore rison; dialogue by James Hilton and BenchJr., Clint Ritchie, Pepe Serna. Follow-up to ley. ▼●쩠 GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK has karate Foreign Intrigue (1956) C-100m. ★★ D: champ Norris using his expertise to help Sheldon Reynolds. Robert Mitchum, GeneCalifornia town combat drug trafficking. vieve Page, Ingrid Thulin, Frederick O’Brady. OK action fare. [PG]▼쩠 Colorful location filming throughout EuForces of Nature (1999) C-104m. ★★ D: rope enlivens this otherwise plodding susBronwen Hughes. Sandra Bullock, Ben Afpenser, with stolid press agent Mitchum fleck, Maura Tierney, Steve Zahn, Blythe investigating the death of his wealthy, mysDanner, Ronny Cox, Michael Fairman, Janet terious employer. Based on a syndicated TV Carroll, David Strickland, Anne Haney, Bert series of the same name. Remsen. About-to-be-wed Affleck is stranded Foreign Student (1994) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: in N.Y. with fellow passenger Bullock when Eva Sereny. Robin Givens, Marco Hofschtheir plane crashes. The two strangers decide neider, Rick Johnson, Charlotte Ross, Edto travel together, by land, to their intended ward Herrmann, Jack Coleman, Charles S. destination: Savannah, GA. What promises Dutton, Hinton Battle, Anthony Herrera. to be a standard road picture with two likable Mild, but fairly individualized, low-budget stars veers off-course early on thanks to Bulnostalgia piece about an 18-year-old Parilock’s erratic character and a threadbare sian’s taboo romance with a beautiful black story; a disappointment. [PG-13]▼●쩠 schoolteacher/domestic while attending a Force 10 From Navarone (1978-British) small college in Virginia’s Shenandoah C-118m. BOMB D: Guy Hamilton. RobValley in r&b 1956. Spotty little film mixes ert Shaw, Harrison Ford, Edward Fox, it up with subplots involving football, WilFranco Nero, Barbara Bach, Carl Weathliam Faulkner, and blues greats Howlin’ ers, Richard Kiel. Awful sequel to classic Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson; from wistGUNS OF NAVARONE, poor in all deful memoirs of filmmaker Philippe Labro, a huge best-seller in France. [R]▼● partments, although Shaw, Ford, and Nero try to give it a lift. Mixed group (naturalForever Amber (1947) C-140m. ★★★ D: ly), hindered by traitor Nero, attempt to Otto Preminger. Linda Darnell, Cornel blow a bridge vital to Nazis. They blew Wilde, Richard Greene, George Sanders, the film instead. Based on the Alistair Jessica Tandy, Anne Revere, Leo G. Carroll. MacLean novel. Restored to 128m. on las‘‘Musical beds’’ costumer, taken from Katherdisc. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 leen Winsor’s once-scandalous novel, about Foreign Affair, A (1948) 116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: blonde Darnell’s ascension to the court of Billy Wilder. Jean Arthur, Marlene Dietrich, Charles II. Lengthy but colorful and enterJohn Lund, Millard Mitchell, Peter Von taining, with David Raksin’s outstanding Zerneck, Stanley Prager. Staid Arthur is sent score.▼● to Berlin to investigate post-WW2 condiForever and a Day (1943) 104m. ★★★ D: tions, finds romance instead, with hot compeRene´ Clair, Edmund Goulding, Cedric tition from Dietrich. Marlene sings ‘‘Black Hardwicke, Frank Lloyd, Victor Saville, Market,’’ ‘‘Ruins of Berlin,’’ but Jean ArRobert Stevenson, Herbert Wilcox. Brian thur’s Iowa State Song equally memorable Aherne, Robert Cummings, Ida Lupino, in great Wilder comedy. Written by Charles Charles Laughton, Herbert Marshall, Ray Brackett, Billy Wilder, and Richard Breen.▼ Milland, Anna Neagle, Merle Oberon, Foreign Body (1986-British) C-108m. Claude Rains, Victor McLaglen, Buster ★★1⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Victor Banerjee, Keaton, Jessie Matthews, Roland Young, C. Warren Mitchell, Trevor Howard, GeralAubrey Smith, Edward Everett Horton, Elsa dine McEwan, Amanda Donohoe, Denis Lanchester, Edmund Gwenn. Eighty-odd BritQuilley, Eve Ferret, Anna Massey. In a ish (and American) stars contributed their serreal casting switch, A PASSAGE TO INvices to this episodic film, about a house and DIA star Banerjee has a field day as an its inhabitants over the years, to raise funds itinerant Indian in London who poses as a for British War Relief. Uneven result, but has doctor and soon finds all the women dying many fine moments and star-gazing galore; to get him into bed. Throwback to the style once-in-a-lifetime cast.▼쩠 of 1950s British sex comedies. [PG-13]▼ Forever, Darling (1956) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Foreign Correspondent (1940) 119m. ★★★★ Alexander Hall. Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, D: Alfred Hitchcock. Joel McCrea, Laraine James Mason, Louis Calhern. Ball’s madDay, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Alcap antics nearly drive husband Arnaz to bert Basserman, Robert Benchley, Edmund divorce, but guardian angel Mason saves Gwenn, Eduardo Ciannelli, Harry Davenport, the day. Contrived but enjoyable.▼●쩠 Martin Kosleck. McCrea in title role caught Forever Female (1953) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: [ 480 ]

Irving Rapper. Ginger Rogers, William but it’s hard to resist, thanks to a charismatic Holden, Paul Douglas, Pat Crowley, James cast. [PG] ▼●쩠 Gleason, Jesse White, Marjorie Rambeau, Forget Paris (1995) C-101m. ★★★ D: Billy George Reeves, King Donovan, Marion Crystal. Billy Crystal, Debra Winger, Joe Ross. Top-notch show business comedy, Mantegna, Cynthia Stevenson, Richard with Rogers the star who finally realizes Masur, Julie Kavner, William Hickey, Robshe is too old for the ingenue role, allowert Costanzo, John Spencer, Cathy Moriing writer Holden to cast Crowley in the arty, Tom Wright. Crystal plays a basketball part. Film captures flavor of the Broadway, referee who falls head over heels for Winger, summer stock milieux. Scripted by Philip while burying his father in Paris. Sharply writand Julius Epstein; suggested by James M. ten comedy (by Crystal and Lowell Ganz and Barrie’s play Rosalind.▼● Babaloo Mandel) about the trials and tribulaForever, Lulu (1987) C-85m. BOMB D: tions of making a marriage work—after Amos Kollek. Hanna Schygulla, Deborah falling in love. Many top basketball stars Harry, Alec Baldwin, Annie Golden, Paul appear as themselves; Dan Castellaneta apGleason, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Embarpears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 rassing, amateurish imitation of DESPERForgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) CATELY SEEKING SUSAN has budding 112m. ★★★ D: Nicholas Stoller. Jason Segel, novelist Schygulla becoming embroiled in a Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Paul Rudd, Bill real-life mystery in N.Y.C. involving drugs Hader, Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Jack and killers. Despite having the title role, singMcBrayer, Maria Thayer, William Baldwin, ing star Harry makes only a brief cameo apJason Bateman, Steve Landesberg, Gedde pearance. Israeli director Kollek also turns in Watanabe. After his TV-star girlfriend leaves a poor acting job as Schygulla’s agent. Baldhim for another man, a self-pitying composer win’s first film. Aka CRAZY STREETS. goes to Hawaii to mend his broken heart. [R]▼●쩠 Then his ex and her new boyfriend turn up at Forever Mine (2000-Canadian-British-U.S.) the same resort! Another entry from proC-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Schrader. Joseph ducer Judd Apatow’s comedy crew, this Fiennes, Gretchen Mol, Ray Liotta, Vincent smart, funny comedy hits all the right notes, Laresca, Myk Watford, John Henry Canapushing the envelope for sexual content but van, Lindsey Connell. Florid, stylized ronever losing sight of real emotions. Segel mantic saga about a Florida cabana boy who wrote the screenplay and gives himself a falls deeply in love with a beautiful married great star vehicle, with plenty of room for guest and refuses to be deterred by her hotother cast members to shine. Unrated vertempered husband. An homage to the lush sion runs 118m. [R]쩠 1950s Douglas Sirk melodramas, this film Forgiven Sinner, The (1961-French) 116m. isn’t perfect, and demands a leap of faith, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Jean-Paul but offers the kind of passionate romance Belmondo, Emmanuele Riva, Patricia Gozzi, they don’t make anymore. Written by the Irene Tunc. Belmondo gives subdued, offbeat director. Made for theaters, U.S. debut on performance as clergyman trying to set shady cable TV. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 woman onto the path of righteousness. Aka For Ever Mozart (1996-French-Swiss) LEON MORIN, PRIEST. ▼ C-84m. ★★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. MadeForgotten, The (2004) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joleine Assas, Frederic Pierrot, Ghalia Laseph Ruben. Julianne Moore, Dominic West, croix, Vicky Messica, Harry Cleven. One Gary Sinise, Anthony Edwards, Alfre Woodof Godard’s better latter-career films is the ard, Linus Roache, Robert Wisdom, Jessica complex, poetic account, set in four secHecht. Woman still grieving for her son, tions, of a director attempting to mount a who died more than a year ago, is told the movie. Here, Godard insightfully deals with boy never really existed! She refuses to beone of his more prominent themes: how art lieve this and doggedly seeks the truth, (and, specifically, the art of cinema) relates which leads her into unexplored territory. to politics (in this case, the political implicaThriller goes way off base for a while, testtions of the war in Bosnia).▼쩠 ★★★ ing our patience and credulity, before tying D: Forever Young (1992) C-102m. things up with an interesting payoff. A couSteve Miner. Mel Gibson, Jamie Lee Curtis, ple of real jolts along the way keep it from Elijah Wood, Isabel Glasser, George Wendt, ever getting dull. Alternate version on DVD Joe Morton, Nicolas Surovy, David Marruns 94m. [PG-13] ▼쩠 shall Grant, Art LaFleur. The year is 1939, For Heaven’s Sake (1926) 58m. ★★★★ D: and test-pilot Gibson (whose girlfriend is Sam Taylor. Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, comatose after being hit by a car) volunNoah Young, James Mason, Paul Weigel. teers to be frozen as part of a cryogenics Screamingly funny silent comedy has Lloyd experiment. He’s accidentally thawed out a blase young millionaire whose crush on Ralin 1992, and becomes involved in the lives ston inspires him to help attract ‘‘customers’’ of a young boy (Wood) and his mom (Curtis). for her father’s Bowery Mission. Even THE This romantic comedy-fantasy may play out by the numbers as it tugs at your heartstrings, FRENCH CONNECTION hasn’t dimmed [ 481 ]

the luster of Lloyd’s chase climax on L.A. Blue, Horace (Stephen) McNally, Keenan streets.쩠 Wynn, Richard Quine. Music sustains old-hat For Keeps (1988) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: John G. plot of vaudeville couple determined to play Avildsen. Molly Ringwald, Randall BatPalace, circa WW1. Kelly’s film debut; he inkoff, Kenneth Mars, Miriam Flynn, Conand Garland sing title tune and other old fachata Ferrell, Sharon Brown, Renee Estevez, vorites. Also shown in computer-colored Larry Drake. Studious teen Ringwald beversion. ▼●쩠 comes pregnant, and must quickly face adult Formula, The (1980) C-117m. ★★ D: responsibilities. Subject matter is most worthJohn G. Avildsen. George C. Scott, Marlon while, but the result is predictable and phony. Brando, Marthe Keller, John Gielgud, G. D. Tim Kazurinsky coauthored the screenplay. Spradlin, Beatrice Straight, Richard Lynch, [PG-13]▼●쩠 John Van Dreelen, Craig T. Nelson. AmazFor Love Alone (1986-Australian) Cingly matter-of-fact thriller about a cop who in102m. ★★★ D: Stephen Wallace. Helen vestigates a friend’s murder and finds him Buday, Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, Hugh linked to a mysterious plot involving a formula Keays-Byrne, Naomi Watts. Nicely filmed for synthetic fuel. Scott and Brando are always romantic drama, set in the 1930s, with Ausworth watching, but writer-producer Steve Shagan telegraphs all his punches. [R]▼●쩠 tralian university student Buday falling in love with her professor (Weaving); even Formula 51 (2001-British-Canadian) C-91m. ★★1 though he treats her poorly, she follows him ⁄2 D: Ronny Yu. Samuel L. Jackson, Robto England. Neill does well as an altogether ert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Rhys Ifans, different man who enters her life. Based on Meat Loaf, Sean Pertwee, Ricky Tomlinson, the novel by Christina Stead. ▼ Paul Barber. Wild, tongue-in-cheek Hong For Love of Ivy (1968) C-102m. ★★ D: Kong–style yarn loaded with action and vioDaniel Mann. Sidney Poitier, Abbey Linlence. Jackson plays a pharmaceutical whiz coln, Beau Bridges, Leon Bibb, Nan Marwho develops the ultimate narcotic, then tin, Lauri Peters, Carroll O’Connor. Family double-crosses his L.A. connection (Meat wants to keep maid, so they find her a Loaf) and flies to Liverpool to make a more beau; ho-hum black romance. [G]▼쩠 lucrative deal there. Needless to say, things For Love of the Game (1999) C-137m. don’t go smoothly. An indefensible guilty ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Raimi. Kevin Costner, Kelly pleasure that offers no intellectual stimulus Preston, John C. Reilly, Jena Malone, Brian whatsoever. Mortimer is fun as a gun-toting, Cox, J. K. Simmons, Vin Scully. Likable motorcycle-riding hit woman. Jackson also vehicle for Costner as a 20-year baseball coexecutive-produced. Original British title: veteran who looks back on the last five THE 51ST STATE. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 years of his life during an eventful end-ofFor Pete’s Sake (1974) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: season game. Effectively played for star Peter Yates. Barbra Streisand, Michael value and sentiment, but goes into extra inSarrazin, Estelle Parsons, William Redfield, nings for no apparent reason, stretching out Molly Picon, Louis Zorich, Vincent Schiaa conclusion that comes as no surprise. Pavelli, Anne Ramsey. Amiable, feathernavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 weight comedy about devoted wife who For Love or Money (1963) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 tries to raise money for her ambitious cabD: Michael Gordon. Kirk Douglas, Mitzi driver husband, and gets involved with asGaynor, Gig Young, Thelma Ritter, Wilsorted nuts and underworld types. Streisand liam Bendix, Julie Newmar. Comedy strains is fine in forgettable film. [PG]▼쩠 to be funnier than it is. Widow Ritter hires For Queen & Country (1988-British) Clawyer Douglas to find spouses for her 105m. ★★★ D: Martin Stellman. Denzel three daughters. Washington, Dorian Healey, Amanda Red★★ For Love or Money (1993) C-95m. D: man, Sea Chapman, Bruce Payne. Striking, Barry Sonnenfeld. Michael J. Fox, Gabrielle laced-in-acid contemporary thriller of life in Anwar, Anthony Higgins, Michael Tucker, Thatcherite England. Washington is well cast Bob Balaban, Isaac Mizrahi, Udo Kier, as a former paratrooper who struggles for Simon Jones, Dianne Brill, Dan Hedaya, survival in an atmosphere of racism, poverty, Fyvush Finkel, Bobby Short. Tepid and corruption—and then loses his British APARTMENT variation about aggressive, citizenship because of an immigration-law ambitious Fox, concierge at an upscale technicality. The director also cowrote the N.Y.C. hotel, who’ll do anything to please screenplay. [R]쩠 his guests. Trouble brews when he finds Forrest Gump (1994) C-142m. ★★1⁄2 D: himself attracted to beautiful Anwar, the Robert Zemeckis. Tom Hanks, Robin mistress of married Higgins (a Donald Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, Mykelti Trump clone). Fox and a fine cast try their Williamson, Michael Humphreys, Hanna best, but this comedy runs out of steam long Hall, Haley Joel Osment. A slow-witted boy grows to adulthood, floating through life— before its predictable finale. [PG]▼●쩠 1 ★★ For Me and My Gal (1942) 104m. like a feather—with only a vague under⁄2 D: Busby Berkeley. Judy Garland, George standing of the tumultuous times he’s living Murphy, Gene Kelly, Marta Eggerth, Ben through. (He manages to be on hand for [ 482 ]

virtually every socio-pop-political phenomAnn Mobley, Milton Berle, Lana Wood, enon of the formative Baby Boomer deMark Richman, Chris Noel, The Nitty cades, from the rise of Elvis to the fall of Gritty Dirt Band. Certainly not for those Nixon.) Either you accept Hanks in this part who like good movies. Two girls move and go with the movie’s seriocomic sense of into singles apartment where Berle is sowhimsy, or you don’t (we didn’t)—but either cial director; result is a rape, an attempted way it’s a long journey, filled with digitized suicide, and several songs. Fort Apache (1948) 127m. ★★★ D: John imagery that puts Forrest Gump into a wide variety of backdrops and real-life events. Ford. John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Shirley Based on the (more satiric) novel by Winston Temple, Pedro Armendariz, John Agar, Groom. Oscar winner for Best Film, Best Ward Bond, George O’Brien, Victor McActor (Hanks), Director, Film Editing, Visual Laglen, Anna Lee, Irene Rich, Dick Foran, Effects, and Adapted Screenplay. Panavision. Guy Kibbee, Mae Marsh, Hank Worden. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Fonda is effectively cast against type as For Richer or Poorer (1997) C-115m. stubborn martinet who rubs his own men— ★★1 as well as neighboring Indians—the wrong ⁄2 D: Bryan Spicer. Tim Allen, Kirstie Alley, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Lerner, way. First of Ford’s cavalry trilogy tells its Wayne Knight, Larry Miller, Miguel A. story slowly, deliberately, with time for comNunez, Jr., Megan Cavanagh, Carrie Presedy and telling characterizations. Followed by ton, Katie Moore. Crass, filthy-rich New SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON. Also Yorkers Allen and Alley, whose marriage is shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 on the rocks, are forced to take it on the Fort Apache The Bronx (1981) C-125m. ★★★ lam when they’re accused of tax fraud— D: Daniel Petrie. Paul Newman, Edand hide out on an Amish farm, where they ward Asner, Ken Wahl, Danny Aiello, pretend to be cousins of farmer Sanders. Rachel Ticotin, Pam Grier, Kathleen Beller. Spoiled and lazy, they’re forced to do hard, Taut urban drama about a policeman’s life honest work, and actually come to like it. in a ravaged N.Y.C. neighborhood; crediPredictable in every way, but pleasant ble and exciting, with a fine star performenough. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ance from Newman. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ For Roseanna (1997-British) C-95m. ⁄2 For the Boys (1991) C-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Paul Weiland. Jean Reno, Mercedes Mark Rydell. Bette Midler, James Caan, Ruehl, Polly Walker, Mark Frankel, Giuseppe George Segal, Patrick O’Neal, ChristoCederna, Renato Scarpa. Sweet, well-intenpher Rydell, Arye Gross, Norman Fell, tioned film about a man who has promised Rosemary Murphy, Dori Brenner, Bud his wife, who’s terminally ill, that she will Yorkin, Jack Sheldon, Melissa Manchesbe buried in their village churchyard ter, Brandon Call, Billy Bob Thornton, cemetery . . . but with only a few vacant Xander Berkeley, Vince Vaughn. Midler is plots left, he takes it upon himself to keep in top form as U.S.O. singer who becomes the other townspeople healthy! Winning a star while performing during WW2 with performances and vivid Italian atmosphere Caan, a sexist, self-involved king of comhelp compensate for a script (by veteran TV edy; scenario follows their tumultuous relacomedy writer Saul Turteltaub) that strains tionship over the decades. Occasionally credibility to the bursting point. Panavision. hokey but mostly entertaining. Arliss How[PG-13] ▼●쩠 ard appears unbilled as Bette’s G.I. husForsaken, The (2001) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: J.S. band. [R]▼●쩠 Cardone. Kerr Smith, Brendan Fehr, JohnFor the First Time (1959) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 athon Schaech, Izabella Miko, Phina OruD: Rudolph Mate´. Mario Lanza, Johanna che, Simon Rex, Carrie Snodgress. StraightVon Koszian, Kurt Kasznar, Zsa Zsa Gabor, arrow Smith drives east from L.A., heading Hans Sohnker. Lanza is typecast as fiery for Miami, but quickly discovers the Southopera singer who falls in love with beautiful west has become infested with creepy nocdeaf girl in Capri. Not bad, with plenty of turnal predators, led by Schaech. This music to satisfy Lanza fans; this was his last vampire film offers no surprises. [R]▼쩠 film. Technirama. ▼● Forsaking All Others (1934) 84m. ★★1⁄2 For the Love of Benji (1977) C-84m. ★★★ D: W. S. Van Dyke II. Clark Gable, Joan D: Joe Camp. Benji, Patsy Garrett. Cynthia Crawford, Robert Montgomery, Charles Smith, Allen Fiuzat, Ed Nelson, Peter Butterworth, Billie Burke, Frances Drake, Bowles, Bridget Armstrong. Moviedom’s Rosalind Russell, Arthur Treacher. Gable, smartest pooch since Lassie in his second just back from Spain, is about to propose to delightful screen adventure, this time scamCrawford but learns she’s set to wed flaky pering through the streets of Athens with Montgomery. Star trio sparkles in this sosecret agents in pursuit, trying to get the so romantic comedy, scripted by Joseph L. formula tattoed on his paw. Fine family Mankiewicz. Butterworth is a treat, as entertainment. Followed by OH, HEAVENLY DOG! [G]▼쩠 always.▼●쩠 For Singles Only (1968) C-91m. BOMB For Those Who Think Young (1964) C96m. ★★ D: Leslie H. Martinson. James D: Arthur Dreifuss. John Saxon, Mary [ 483 ]

Darren, Pamela Tiffin, Paul Lynde, Tina Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Louise, Bob Denver, Robert Middleton, Ron Rich, Cliff Osmond, Judi West, Lurene Nancy Sinatra, Claudia Martin, Ellen McRae Tuttle. Biting Wilder comedy about TV cam(Burstyn), Woody Woodbury, Louis Quinn, eraman (Lemmon) injured during football Sammee Tong, Addison Richards, Mousie game and shyster lawyer (Matthau) who exGarner, Benny Baker, Anna Lee, Jack La aggerates damages for insurance purposes. Rue, Allen Jenkins, Robert Armstrong, Matthau’s Oscar-winning performance hits Lada Edmund, Jr. Great time-capsule cast home. Scripted by Wilder and partner I.A.L. in a silly time-waster about college high Diamond. Panavision.▼●쩠 jinks. Notable for taking its title from a Fort Utah (1968) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Lesley Pepsi slogan at the time—making this a Selander. John Ireland, Virginia Mayo, milestone in the history of product placeScott Brady, John Russell, Robert Strauss, ment! George Raft and Roger Smith appear James Craig, Richard Arlen, Jim Davis, unbilled. Techniscope. Don ‘‘Red’’ Barry. Former gunfighter IreFortress (1993) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Stuart Gorland fights Brady, who is stirring up Indidon. Christopher Lambert, Loryn Locklyn, ans around Fort Utah. See it only if you Kurtwood Smith, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Cliflike the cast. Techniscope. ton Gonzalez Gonzalez, Jeffrey Combs. Fort Worth (1951) C-80m. ★★ D: Edwin Husband and wife flee futuristic society L. Marin. Randolph Scott, David Brian, Phyl(which forbids them from having a second lis Thaxter, Helena Carter. Scott learns that child) because she is pregnant again. pen is not mightier than the sword; he’s a They’re captured and sent to a high-tech gunslinger who becomes newspaper editor but maximum security prison run by a sadistic can only rid town of outlaws via six-shooter.쩠 warden. (Is there any other kind?) Intriguing 40 Carats (1973) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Milpremise is sabotaged by weak acting and a ton Katselas. Liv Ullmann, Gene Kelly, weaker script. Incredible international sucEdward Albert, Binnie Barnes, Deborah cess resulted in a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Raffin, Billy Green Bush, Nancy Walker, Fort Saganne (1984-French) C-190m. Don Porter, Rosemary Murphy, Natalie ★★1⁄2 D: Alain Corneau. Ge ´ rard Depardieu, Schafer, Claudia Jennings, Brooke Palance. Philippe Noiret, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Bright Broadway comedy adapted from Duchaussoy, Roger Dumas, Sophie MarFrench farce suffers in transference to ceau, Jean-Louis Richard. Handsomely screen, mainly from miscasting of Ullmann mounted but cliche´d and overlong epic deas 40-ish New York divorcee, pursued by tailing the exploits of Charles Saganne, a 20-ish Albert. Glossy, mildly amusing; French officer of modest background who pepped up by Barnes and Kelly. [PG]▼ is posted to the Sahara in the years before 40 Days and 40 Nights (2002) C-95m. ★1⁄2 WW1. Depardieu is quietly impressive, D: Michael Lehmann. Josh Hartnett, Shanmany of the desert sequences are well done, nyn Sossamon, Vinessa Shaw, Paulo Cosand Philippe Sarde’s score adds to the atmotanzo, Griffin Dunne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, sphere. Depiction of Depardieu’s affair with Michael Maronna, Glenn Fitzgerald, Mary journalist Deneuve is especially trite. TechGross, Stanley Anderson, Adam Trese, novision. ▼쩠 Barry Newman. Young stud with an insatiaFort Ti (1953) C-73m. ★★ D: William ble appetite for women—but no idea how to Castle. George Montgomery, Joan Vohs, build a relationship—is so stung by his latIrving Bacon, James Seay. Best facet of est dumping that he decides to give up sex this oater set during French-Indian war of for Lent. Then he meets Miss Right—and 1760s is its 3-D gimmickry; otherwise, can’t explain to her why he’s unable to constandard stuff. summate their relationship. Inane comedy, Fortune, The (1975) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: full of stupid, obnoxious characters. [R]▼쩠 Mike Nichols. Jack Nicholson, Warren Forty Deuce (1982) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul Beatty, Stockard Channing, Scatman CroMorrissey. Orson Bean, Kevin Bacon, Mark thers, Florence Stanley, Richard B. Shull. Keyloun, Harris Laskaway, Tommy Citera. Nicholson and Beatty make like Laurel Heavyhanded, poorly directed drama of teenand Hardy in this uneven 1920s comedy age hustler Bacon attempting to sell runaway about two bumblers who plan to murder a to wealthy Bean; complications arise when dizzy heiress to get her money. Worth the boy overdoses on heroin. From an offseeing if only for Nicholson’s wonderful Broadway play by Alan Bowne. Second half of film is in widescreen.쩠 comic performance. David Shire’s period music is nice, too. Panavision. [PG]▼ 48HRS. (1982) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Walter Fortune and Men’s Eyes (1971-Canadian) Hill. Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O’Toole, James Remar, Frank McRae, David C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harvey Hart. Wendell Burton, Michael Greer, Zooey (David) Hall, Patrick Kelly, Sonny Landham, Brion James, Danny Freedman. Homosexuality in prison James Keane, Jonathan Banks, Denise Crosby, is the theme; sincere but exploitative, unOlivia Brown, Jim Haynie, The Busboys. pleasant. [R]▼ Slam-bang mix of action and comedy; weary Fortune Cookie, The (1966) 125m. ★★★ D: cop Nolte springs Murphy out of the jug for [ 484 ]

two days to help him catch Murphy’s escaped puts everything into what may be his final (and really disturbed) partner. Naturally, they show, then leading lady Daniels twists her hate each other’s guts at first, but. . . . Murphy, ankle! Good thing Ruby Keeler’s on hand. in his screen debut, is nothing short of sensaHarry Warren-Al Dubin songs include title tional, but so is Nolte in his low-key, raspy tune, ‘‘Young and Healthy,’’ ‘‘You’re Getting way; scene where Murphy terrorizes a redto Be a Habit With Me,’’ ‘‘Shuffle Off to neck bar is the standout. Written by Roger Buffalo.’’ Busby Berkeley’s ground-breaking Spottiswoode, Larry Gross, Steven E. de production numbers are sensational. Scripted Souza, and Hill. Sequel: ANOTHER 48HRS. by Rian James and James Seymour, from [R]▼●쩠 Bradford Ropes’ story. Adapted for the Forty Guns (1957) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Samuel Broadway stage 50 years later. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Fuller. Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger, John Ericson, Gene Barry. 47 Ronin, Part I, The (1941-Japanese) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Chojuro Florid, wildly dramatic Sam Fuller Western with Stanwyck as self-appointed land Kawarazaki, Yoshizaburo Arashi, Utaemon baroness of Tombstone Territory—until marIchikawa, Mieko Takamine. Legendary shal Sullivan shows up. CinemaScope.쩠 samurai warriors scheme to gain revenge 40 Guns to Apache Pass (1966) C-95m. for the death of their leader, who was ★★ D: William Witney. Audie Murphy, tricked and forced to commit suicide. Based Michael Burns, Kenneth Tobey, Laraine on a famous Japanese story, and fascinatStephens, Michael Blodgett, Michael Keep. ing as both cinema and as propaganda Standard Murphy Western with every horse(remember, this was made during WW2). opera cliche´ intact: plot centers around First of Mizoguchi’s two-part epic, also missing shipment of rifles. known as THE LOYAL 47 RONIN. Sev49th Parallel (1941-British) 123m. ★★★1⁄2 eral dozen versions of this same story have been filmed in Japan.▼쩠 D: Michael Powell. Anton Walbrook, Eric Portman, Leslie Howard, Raymond Mas47 Ronin, Part II, The (1942-Japanese) sey, Laurence Olivier, Glynis Johns, Niall 113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Chojuro MacGinnis, Finlay Currie. Taut, exciting Kawarazaki, Yoshizaburo Arashi, Utaemon WW2 yarn of Nazi servicemen whose Ichikawa, Mieko Takamine. The 47 Ronin U-boat is sunk off the Canadian coast. gain vengeance for their master’s death. Top-notch cast, rich suspense and characTogether with its predecessor, this was the terizations. Oscar winner for Best Story most impressive Japanese film produced (Emeric Pressburger); screenplay by Pressduring WW2; the finale is especially stirburger and Rodney Ackland. U.S. title: ring and revealing.▼쩠 THE INVADERS. First released in the U.S. Forty Shades of Blue (2005) C-108m. ★★★1 at 107m. ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Ira Sachs. Rip Torn, Dina Korzun, 49 Up (2006-British) C/B&W-135m. ★★★ Darren Burrows, Paprika Steen, Red West. D: Michael Apted. Seventh installment in Longtime girlfriend of a famous but washedthe unique and remarkable series that began up music producer finds her life shaken up with the TV documentary 7 UP in 1964. by the arrival of the producer’s estranged Apted revisits most of the young people son. Torn and Korzun give knockout perforwho first participated in the series and mances in this gem, which should have brings us up to date on their lives, which in earned more attention than it got. Sachs’ some cases have taken highly unexpected camera pays close attention to nuances of turns. Several of the interviewees talk about human behavior, and each shot and sethe impact these documentaries have had on quence adds another layer of emotional their privacy and sense of self. Thoroughly depth to the story. Almost painful to watch absorbing.쩠 at times, but highly rewarding. 쩠 40 Pounds of Trouble (1963) C-106m. 43: The Petty Story SEE: Smash-Up Alley ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Jewison. Tony Curtis, Phil 42 Up (1999-British) C/B&W-130m. ★★★ Silvers, Suzanne Pleshette, Larry Storch, D: Michael Apted. Picking up where 35 UP Howard Morris, Stubby Kaye, Claire Willeft off, Apted revisits all but three of his cox, Jack La Rue. ‘‘Cute’’ Curtis comedy lifelong subjects as they settle into middle of casino manager who ‘‘adopts’’ little girl age. As compelling as ever. Followed by 49 UP. ▼쩠 with endless complications occurring. Disneyland locations and fine character actors 40 Year Old Virgin, The (2005) C-116m. ★★1 pep it up. Carbon copy of LITTLE MISS ⁄2 D: Judd Apatow. Steve Carell, CatherMARKER. Panavision. ▼ ine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, 42nd Street (1933) 89m. ★★★★ D: Lloyd Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Leslie Mann, Bacon. Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Jane Lynch, Nancy Walls, Mo Collins, CeGeorge Brent, Bebe Daniels, Dick Powell, dric Yarbrough, David Koechner. When Guy Kibbee, Una Merkel, Ginger Rogers, some rowdy, randy coworkers at an elecNed Sparks, George E. Stone. The definitive tronics store discover that the nerd in their backstage musical still has plenty of sass— midst is still a virgin, they make it their along with its cliche´s. Ailing director Baxter mission to coach him to manhood. Mean[ 485 ]

while, he awkwardly begins a relationship C-97m. ★★ D: Wolfgang Petersen. Nastassia with a nice woman (who’s got three kids) Kinski, Christian Quadflieg, Judy Winter, and doesn’t want sex to be a stumbling Klaus Schwarzkopf. Young student Kinski block. Carell’s first starring vehicle, which has an affair with a teacher, then kills the he cowrote with director Apatow, is funny, man who tries to blackmail and seduce but its startlingly raunchy gags clash with her. Turgid soap opera. Made for German the sweet romantic-comedy approach to its TV; theatrical release in 1982. ▼ love story. Alternate unrated version runs Foul Play (1978) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Colin 133m. [R]▼쩠 Higgins. Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, BurFor Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) C-130m. gess Meredith, Dudley Moore, Rachel Rob★★★1 ⁄2 D: Sam Wood. Gary Cooper, Ingrid erts, Eugene Roche, Marilyn Sokol, Billy Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Arturo de CorBarty, Marc Lawrence, Brian Dennehy. dova, Joseph Calleia, Katina Paxinou, VlaInnocent woman (Hawn) gets caught in dimir Sokoloff, Mikhail Rasumny, Fortunio strange murder plot in San Francisco; no Bonanova. Hemingway story of U.S. merone believes her except detective Chase, cenary Cooper fighting for Spain with motwho’s falling in love with her. Likable ley crew of peasants, including Bergman; stars, good fun, but protracted story, tastetense action, beautiful color, great love less comedy, and Hitchcock plagiarism scenes, marvelous Victor Young score. detract. Followed by a short-lived TV series. [PG] ▼●쩠 Paxinou won Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Originally released at 170m.; archivally reFountain, The (2006) C-95m. ★★ D: Darstored version runs 156m.▼●쩠 ren Aronofsky. Hugh Jackman, Rachel For Your Consideration (2006) C-86m. ★★★ Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Cliff Curtis, Mark D: Christopher Guest. Catherine O’Hara, Margolis, Sean Patrick Thomas, Stephen Harry Shearer, Parker Posey, Christopher McHattie, Donna Murphy, Ethan Suplee. Guest, Fred Willard, Jane Lynch, Bob BalaAmbitious film about a man (Jackman) in ban, Michael McKean, Jennifer Coolidge, three different time frames—16th-century Eugene Levy, John Michael Higgins, Ed Spain, the modern day, and the 26th Begley, Jr., Ricky Gervais, Larry Miller, Paul century—who seeks to understand the esDooley, Don Lake, Michael Hitchcock, sence of life. The contemporary research Christopher Moynihan, Sandra Oh, Richard scientist is driven to cure his wife (Weisz), Kind, John Krasinski, Jim Piddock, Carrie whose life is ebbing away from cancer. SinAizley, Mary McCormack, Craig Bierko, cere but overwrought new-age drama (mixKevin Sussman, Rachael Harris, Deborah ing science fiction and soap opera) will Theaker, Scott Williamson. While making a elicit a wide range of opinion; the ultimate film called HOME FOR PURIM, aging acepiphany is the kind of thing that might tress O’Hara, veteran leading man Shearer, work in a novel but doesn’t play well onscreen. Written by the director. [PG-13]쩠 and costar Posey all buy into selfperpetuating ‘‘buzz’’ about their chances Fountainhead, The (1949) 114m. ★★1⁄2 for Oscars. Uncanny in its dead-on parodies D: King Vidor. Gary Cooper, Patricia Neal, of TV and radio talk shows and other follies Raymond Massey, Kent Smith, Robert of show business, though not as resonant as Douglas, Henry Hull, Ray Collins, Jerome Guest’s other films, perhaps because HollyCowan. Ambitious but confused version wood is just too easy a target. Guest’s usual of Ayn Rand philosophic novel, spotlighting cohorts (and some talented newcomers) dean idealistic architect’s clash with comliver the goods, but O’Hara takes the cake promises of society; cast does what it can as a self-deluded star. Written by Guest and with the script.▼●쩠 Levy. [PG-13]쩠 Four Adventures of Reinette and MiraFor Your Eyes Only (1981-British) Cbelle (1986-French) C-99m. ★★★ D: Eric 127m. ★★★ D: John Glen. Roger Moore, Rohmer. Joelle Miquel, Jessica Forde, Carole Bouquet, (Chaim) Topol, Lynn-Holly Philippe Laudenbach, Yasmine Haury, MaJohnson, Julian Glover, Jill Bennett, Casrie Riviere, Beatrice Romand. Typically sandra Harris, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois charming, perceptive Rohmeresque slice Maxwell, Walter Gotell. After years of of life, chronicling the friendship between space-age gadgetry, cartoon villains, fecountry girl Reinette (Miquel) and city girl male mannequins, and giants with steel Mirabelle (Forde), who become roommates teeth came this one-shot return to the old in Paris. At its best when focusing on their days of Ian Fleming minimalism. No other contrasting viewpoints, and the manner in James Bond film has provoked so much dewhich their friendship evolves.▼ bate among 007 fans (even us); judge for Four Brothers (2005) C-108m. ★★★ D: John yourself. The chases and stuntwork are Singleton. Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, spectacular; debuting helmer Glen directed Andre´ Benjamin, Garrett Hedlund, Terrence 2nd-unit on some earlier Bonds. Look for Howard, JoshCharles, Sofia Vergara, Fionnula Charles Dance as gunman. Panavision. Flanagan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Barry Shabaka Henley, Taraji P. Henson. Four incorrigible [PG]▼●쩠 For Your Love Only (1976-German) adopted brothers—two black, two white— [ 486 ]

reunite when their mother is murdered in bootleggers. Palance is a gang lord whose Detroit and swear revenge, whatever the mob and casino bear the film’s title; Lynley consequences. Violent, somewhat overlong is the moll he loves and fights for. [R]▼쩠 action-thriller veers toward melodrama but Four Faces West (1948) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: maintains rooting interest for its rough-andAlfred E. Green. Joel McCrea, Frances tumble ‘‘heroes’’ from start to finish. FlanaDee, Charles Bickford, Joseph Calleia. gan is a standout in her few scenes as the Quiet Western of fugitive pursued by deboys’ good-hearted mother. As widely termined sheriff, with cast giving intellinoted, this plays like an updated urban vergent interpretation to standard formula. sion of THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER. Original, and more appropriate, title: THEY Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 PASSED THIS WAY.▼쩠 Four Christmases (2008) C-88m. ★★ D: Seth Four Feathers, The (1939-British) CGordon. Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, 115m. ★★★★ D: Zoltan Korda. John ClemRobert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon ents, Ralph Richardson, C. Aubrey Smith, Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight YoaJune Duprez, Allan Jeayes, Jack Allen, kam, Tim McGraw, Kristin Chenoweth, Katy Donald Gray, Clive Baxter. Grand advenMixon, Colleen Camp, Peter Billingsley. ture from A. E. W. Mason story of traditionUnsatisfying holiday comedy involving a bound Britisher who must prove he’s not a couple (Vaughn, Witherspoon) forced to coward by helping army comrades quell visit each of their divorced parents in one Sudan uprising. Smith is just wonderful as day. Main characters are unusual for this tale-spinning army veteran. Screenplay by type of fare: they’re unmarried, alienated R. C. Sherriff, Lajos Biro, and Arthur from their families, and don’t want kids. Wimperis. Score by Miklos Rozsa. Original Even so, the film is predictable, the finale is release ran 130m. Previously filmed in 1921 illogical, and the stellar cast is wasted. Carol and 1929; remade as STORM OVER THE Kane appears unbilled. [PG-13]쩠 NILE, as a TVM in 1978 with Beau Bridges, 4 Clowns (1970) 97m. ★★★★ D: Roband in 2002. ▼●쩠 ert Youngson. Laurel and Hardy, Buster Four Feathers, The (2002-U.S.-British) CKeaton, Charley Chase. A must for view130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Shekhar Kapur. Heath Leders of all ages: some of the best silent ger, Kate Hudson, Wes Bentley, Djimon comedy ever. Interesting solo footage of Hounsou, Michael Sheen, Lucy Gordon, Laurel and Hardy; Keaton’s classic SEVEN Rupert Penry-Jones, Nick Holder, Alex JenCHANCES; hilarious sequences with undernings, Tim Pigott-Smith. Well-crafted rerated Chase including his best short, LIMmake of the A.E.W. Mason story, set in the OUSINE LOVE. One of compiler Younglate 1800s, about a young British soldier son’s very best efforts. [G] who is branded a coward and then has to Four Daughters (1938) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: redeem himself. Ledger is excellent (and Michael Curtiz. Claude Rains, Rosemary credible) in the leading role, and the battle Lane, Lola Lane, Priscilla Lane, Gale Page, scenes are impressive . . . but the story is John Garfield, Jeffrey Lynn, Frank McHugh, confusing at times, the character motivaMay Robson, Dick Foran. Believable, beautions muddy, and a touch of humor (so tifully acted soaper of small-town life; four memorably supplied in the 1939 version by young women with musical father Rains C. Aubrey Smith) is sorely missed. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 have lives altered by four young men. Garfield is superb in first film, matched Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971-ItalianFrench) C-101m. ★★ D: Dario Argento. Miby fine cast. Followed immediately by DAUGHTERS COURAGEOUS and sechael Brandon, Mimsy Farmer, Bud Spencer, quels FOUR WIVES and FOUR MOTHFrancine Racette. Unabsorbing psychological ERS. Remade as YOUNG AT HEART.▼쩠 murder-mystery with performers who walk Four Days in September (1997-Brazilian) through their roles in a very disinterested fashion. Techniscope.[PG] C-106m. ★★★ D: Bruno Barreto. Alan Arkin, 4 for Texas (1963) C-114m. ★★★ D: RobPedro Cardoso, Fernanda Torres, Luiz Fernando Guimaraes, Selton Mello, Claudia ert Aldrich. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Abreu, Nelson Dantas, Fisher Stevens. Anita Ekberg, Ursula Andress, Charles Emotion-charged, based-on-fact account of Bronson, Victor Buono, Richard Jaeckel, the events surrounding 1969 kidnapping of Mike Mazurki, Jack Elam, The Three American ambassador (Arkin) by an idealStooges, Yaphet Kotto. Nonsensical Sinatraistic yet diverse group of young Brazilian Martin romp set in the old West, with their revolutionaries. All sides are given a voice antics only outdone by Buono as villainous in this empathetic and well-detailed political banker. Ekberg and Andress both outstanddrama. [R]▼쩠 ing scenery attractions.▼●쩠 Four Deuces, The (1975) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Four Friends (1981) C-115m. ★★★ D: D: William H. Bushnell, Jr. Jack Palance, Arthur Penn. Craig Wasson, Jodi Thelen, Carol Lynley, Warren Berlinger, Adam Jim Metzler, Michael Huddleston, Reed Roarke, E. J. Peaker, Gianni Russo. Action Birney, James Leo Herlihy, Glenne Headly, comedy/drama involving Prohibition Era Mercedes Ruehl. A journey of self-dis[ 487 ]

covery for an idealistic young Yugoslavian immigrant (Wasson), who lives through the turbulent American 1960s. Charming, coy, powerful, sentimental, and sometimes astonishingly old-fashioned—a real mixed bag, with many rewards and not a few flaws. Largely autobiographical script by Steve Tesich. [R]▼쩠 Four Girls in Town (1956) C-85m. ★★★ D: Jack Sher. George Nader, Julie Adams, Gia Scala, Marianne Cook (Koch), Elsa Martinelli, Sydney Chaplin, Grant Williams, John Gavin. Cliche´d but absorbing account of four contrasting would-be stars coming to Hollywood seeking fame and romance; excellent musical score by Alex North. CinemaScope. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The (1921) 131m. ★★★ D: Rex Ingram. Rudolph Valentino, Alice Terry, Alan Hale, Jean Hersholt, Nigel de Brulier, Wallace Beery. Famous silent spectacle cemented Valentino’s popularity via legendary tango scene, but aside from that it’s a relentlessly grim anti-war story of cousins who end up fighting on opposite sides during WW1. Extremely well made, with imagery that still staggers and message that cannot be overlooked. Based on the Blasco Ibanez novel. Remade in 1962.▼● Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962) C-153m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Glenn Ford, Ingrid Thulin, Charles Boyer, Lee J. Cobb, Paul Henreid, Paul Lukas, Yvette Mimieux, Karl Boehm. Glossy, padded trash, losing all sense of reality in its telling of a family whose members fight on opposite sides during WW2. Loose remake of the 1921 silent film based on a novel by Vincent Blasco Ibanez. Angela Lansbury dubbed in Thulin’s lines. CinemaScope.

William A. Seiter. Kay Francis, Carole Landis, Martha Raye, Mitzi Mayfair, Phil Silvers, Dick Haymes, Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra; guest stars Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, George Jessel. Contrived wartime entertainment with four leading ladies reenacting their actual experiences entertaining soldiers overseas (which Landis turned into a popular book of the same name). Some good musical moments but nothing to shout about.▼쩠 Four Kinds of Love SEE: Bambole! 4 Little Girls (1997) C-102m. ★★★★ D: Spike Lee. Shattering documentary about the fatal bombing of a black Birmingham, Alabama church on September 15, 1963, which not only killed four innocent children but galvanized the entire nation and accelerated the civil rights movement. Remembering its young (ages 11 to 14) victims are families, now-grown-up friends, ministers, reporters, political activists, and the lawyer who, years later, helped convict the key perpetrator. One of filmmaker Lee’s finest hours. Produced for HBO but also given theatrical release.▼쩠 Four Men and a Prayer (1938) 85m. ★★★ D: John Ford. Loretta Young, Richard Greene, George Sanders, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith, William Henry, J. Edward Bromberg, Alan Hale, Reginald Denny, John Carradine. Compelling story of four brothers determined to unravel mystery behind their father’s murder; handsome, well-paced production. Remade as FURY AT FURNACE CREEK.쩠 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007Romanian) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cristian Mungiu. Anamaria Marinca, Laura Vasiliu, Vlad Ivanov, Alex Potocean, Ioan Sapdaru, Teo Corban, Tania Popa. In totalitarian Romania, 1987, a student agrees to help her ▼●쩠 Four Hundred Blows, The (1959-French) roommate obtain an illegal abortion, never 99m. ★★★★ D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Jeansuspecting that it will turn into an emotional Pierre Le´aud, Patrick Auffay, Claire ordeal, as much for her as for her friend. Maurier, Albert Remy, Jeanne Moreau, Told in a series of long, unbroken takes Jean-Claude Brialy, Jacques Demy, Franc¸ois with a fly-on-the-wall camera, this forceful Truffaut. Captivating study of Parisian youth film illustrates a society’s moral decay, as who turns to life of small-time crime as a well as one woman’s awakening to reality. reaction to derelict parents. First of TrufIts matter-of-fact tone makes it all the more faut’s autobiographical Antoine Doinel sedevastating. Written by the director. Winner ries; followed by the ‘‘Antoine et Colette’’ of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festiepisode in LOVE AT TWENTY. Dyalival. Super 35.쩠 scope.▼●쩠 Four Mothers (1941) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilFour Jacks and a Jill (1942) 68m. ★★ D: liam Keighley. Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Jack Hively. Ray Bolger, Desi Arnaz, Lane, Lola Lane, Gale Page, Claude Rains, Anne Shirley, June Havoc, Eddie Foy, Jr., Jeffrey Lynn, May Robson, Eddie Albert, Jack Durant, Henry Daniell, Fritz Feld. Frank McHugh, Dick Foran. FOUR DAUGHStruggling hoofer/pianist Bolger and his TERS formula wearing thin in soapy musician pals take in singing waif Shirley tale of McHugh going bankrupt. in this lackluster musical. Bolger’s dancFour Musketeers, The (1975) C-108m. ★★★ D: Richard Lester. Oliver Reed, Raquel ing is always a pleasure to watch, but Arnaz is wasted as an exiled king turned Welch, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Fintaxi driver. Remake of STREET GIRL and lay, Michael York, Christopher Lee, JeanTHAT GIRL FROM PARIS.▼ Pierre Cassel, Geraldine Chaplin, Simon Four Jills in a Jeep (1944) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ward, Faye Dunaway, Charlton Heston. [ 488 ]

Second half of Lester’s irreverent but amusMoorehead, Robert Keith, Howard da Silva, ing approach to Dumas with less emphasis Jeffrey Hunter, Martin Gabel, Grace Kelly, on slapstick this time around. Rich cast in Jeff Corey. Well-made suspense drama about top form. Filmed in 1973, at the same a man threatening to jump off the ledge of time as THE THREE MUSKETEERS. a building, told in semidocumentary fashion. Followed by THE RETURN OF THE Look for Harvey Lembeck and Ossie Davis MUSKETEERS. [R]▼●쩠 as cabbies, Joyce Van Patten as Paget’s girlfriend. Grace Kelly’s film debut.쩠 Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971-French) C-83m. ★★★ D: Robert Bresson. Isabelle 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992-U.S.British-French-Spanish) C-145m. ★★ D: Weingarten, Guillaume des Foreˆts, Maurice Monnoyer, Je´roˆme Massart, Lidia Biondi. Ridley Scott. Ge´rard Depardieu, Sigourney Slow-moving but beautifully filmed adaptaWeaver, Armand Assante, Frank Langella, tion of Dostoyevsky’s White Nights, upLoren Dean, Angela Molina, Fernando dated to modern Paris. A painter meets a Rey, Michael Wincott, Tche´ky Karyo. The girl on a bridge as she’s about to commit second of 1992’s Christopher Columbus suicide and falls in love with her over the epics, this effort is beautifully mounted, but next few nights; then the lover who abana long haul in steerage. The burden falls on doned her returns. Possessed of Bresson’s Depardieu as the famed explorer, a French usual lyrical qualities, the film also contains actor cast as an Italian working for Spain in an unexpected sense of humor and romance. an English-language movie—and an actor Four Poster, The (1952) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: who speaks English like Bela Lugosi readIrving Reis. Rex Harrison, Lilli Palmer. ing from cue cards. Might have been better Jan de Hartog play is tour de force for stars had the action aped director Scott’s finale to who enact various phases of married couTHELMA & LOUISE, by having Columple’s life; warm, witty script; superb perbus and crew sail off the edge of the world. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 formances enhanced by ingenious animated interludes by UPA studio. Later became the 1408 (2007) C-104m. ★★★ D: Mikael Ha˚fsstage musical I Do! I Do! tro¨m. John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Four Rooms (1995) C-98m. BOMB D: AlMary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub, Len lison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Cariou, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Jasmine Jessica Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino. Tim Roth, Anthony, Kevin Dobson. There have been Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Beals, Paul Cal56 deaths, natural and otherwise, in the title deron, Sammi Davis, Amanda de Cadenet, room, located in a Kafkaesque N.Y.C. Valeria Golino, Kathy Griffin, Marc Lawhotel-from-hell. Intrepid occult writer Curence, Madonna, David Proval, Ione Skye, sack is determined to spend the night there. Quentin Tarantino, Lili Taylor, Marisa Genuinely scary chiller, nicely paced with Tomei, Tamlyn Tomita, Alicia Witt, Lana clever touches, brings new meaning to the McKissack, Danny Verduzco, Salma Hayek. Carpenters’ song ‘‘We’ve Only Just Begun.’’ What a cast . . . what a waste! Embarrassingly Based on a Stephen King short story. Unrated awful compilation consisting of four short director’s cut runs 112m. Super 35. [PGfilms, with the sole point of interest being 13]쩠 which one is the worst. Set in an L.A. hotel Fourth Man, The (1983-Dutch) C-104m. ★★★1 on New Year’s Eve, and linked by the par⁄2 D: Paul Verhoeven. Jeroen Krabbe´, ticipation of Ted the Bellhop (Roth). Bruce Renee Soutendijk, Thom Hoffman, Dolf Willis appears unbilled in the final episode, De Vries, Geert De Jong. Sexy blonde hairby Tarantino. [R]▼●쩠 dresser Soutendijk may or may not have murFour’s a Crowd (1938) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Midered three husbands but definitely does screw chael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, up the mind of gay writer Krabbe´ when he Rosalind Russell, Patric Knowles, Hugh Hertries to find out. Stylish dream-vs.-reality bert, Lana Turner. Lightheaded romance in black comedy deserved its art-house success; which everyone loves another; straight comeflashy direction, eroticism to spare. ▼●쩠 dy’s a switch for Flynn. Pleasant.쩠 Fourth Protocol, The (1987-British) CFour Seasons, The (1981) C-107m. ★★★ 119m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Mackenzie. Michael D: Alan Alda. Alan Alda, Carol Burnett, Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Joanna Cassidy, Len Cariou, Sandy Dennis, Rita Moreno, Ned Beatty, Betsy Brantley, Peter CartJack Weston, Bess Armstrong. Four stages wright, David Conville, Matt Frewer, Ray of friendship among three middle-aged couMcAnally, Ian Richardson. Pretty good ples who vacation together. As comedy it spy thriller adapted by Frederick Forsyth scores, with warmly winning cast, but like its from his best-selling novel. Caine plays a main character, it professes to discuss serious British spy who’s assigned to foil a Rusissues while pulling back after just touching sian plot that would destroy relations bethe surface. Alda scripted, made feature ditween the U.S. and England by setting off a nuclear bomb near an American air base recting debut; later a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ Fourteen Hours (1951) 92m. in the U.K. Brosnan does well as a RusD: Henry Hathaway. Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, sian agent. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼● Barbara Bel Geddes, Debra Paget, Agnes Fourth War, The (1990) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 489 ]

John Frankenheimer. Roy Scheider, Ju¨rgen tionship is put to the test by their emerging Prochnow, Tim Reid, Harry Dean Stanton, instincts. Warm and brimming with personLara Harris, Dale Dye. Well-done but everable characters, this one approaches the old so-familiar Cold War thriller in which an Disney magic at times. Followed by a American colonel (Scheider) and his Soviet direct-to-video sequel. [G]▼쩠 counterpart (Prochnow) engage in a private, Foxes (1980) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adrian potentially disastrous war. Best for fans of Lyne. Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie, Marilyn the genre. Stanton looks very out of place as Kagan, Kandice Stroh, Scott Baio, Sally Kellerman, Randy Quaid, Lois Smith, Scheider’s commanding general. [R]▼● Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994-BritLaura Dern. Four teenaged girls try coping ish) C-117m. ★★★ D: Mike Newell. Hugh with the standard non-Our Town problems Grant, Andie MacDowell, Kristin Scott brought by growing up in San Fernando ValThomas, Simon Callow, Rowan Atkinson, ley. Capable cast; apparently sincere intenJames Fleet, John Hannah, Charlotte Coletions undermined by choppy storyline that man, David Bower, Corin Redgrave, Kenjust isn’t compelling enough. [R]▼●쩠 neth Griffiths, Jeremy Kemp, Rosalie Foxes of Harrow, The (1947) 117m. ★★1⁄2 Crutchley. Delightful contemporary comD: John M. Stahl. Rex Harrison, Maureen edy about a young man who can’t sustain a O’Hara, Richard Haydn, Victor McLaglen, relationship, while all his friends seem to be Vanessa Brown, Patricia Medina, Gene getting married. Then he hits it off with Lockhart. Lavish but lumbering tale of another wedding guest, and the plot thickphilanderer breaking up his marriage to ens. Fine ensemble, headed by the engaging seek affluence and fame in New Orleans in Grant, keep this buoyant under Newell’s 1820. Pretty stale despite the trimmings. Foxfire (1996) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Annette sure-handed direction. Richard Curtis’ screenplay may not bear close scrutiny (that Haywood-Carter. Hedy Burress, Angelina final conversation really seems out of Jolie, Jenny Lewis, Jenny Shimizu, Sarah place), but it’s certainly fun. [R]▼●쩠 Rosenberg, Peter Facinelli, Dash Mihok, Four Wives (1939) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiCathy Moriarty, Richard Beymer, John chael Curtiz. Claude Rains, Eddie Albert, Diehl. Knee-deep adaptation of Joyce Carol Priscilla Lane, Rosemary Lane, Lola Lane, Oates’ novel about four high school girls Gale Page, John Garfield, May Robson, who form a gang when an enigmatic female Frank McHugh, Jeffrey Lynn. Sentimental drifter comes to town. The cast tries hard but well-acted sequel to FOUR DAUGHbut they’re done in by a heavy-handed TERS, further chronicling the lives and script; plays like an R-rated After School Speloves of the title quartet. Garfield appears cial. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 briefly in flashback. Max Steiner’s score inFoxtrap (1986-U.S.-Italian) C-88m. ★1⁄2 cludes his Symphonie Moderne. D: Fred Williamson. Fred Williamson, Fox, The (1968) C-110m. ★★★ D: Mark Chris Connelly, Arlene Golonka, Donna Rydell. Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea, Anne Owen, Beatrice Palme, Cleo Sebastian, Heywood, Glyn Morris. Nicely crafted Lela Rochon. Low-budget actioner of Wiltale of lesbians Dennis and Heywood, and liamson hired to bring runaway Owen back what happens when intruder Dullea haphome from Europe to her family. Little pens among them. Scripted by Lewis John more than a fashion show by director Carlino and Howard Koch; based on a Williamson spotlighting his favorite acD.H. Lawrence novella. Filmed in Canada. tor: Williamson. [R]▼ Fox and His Friends (1975-German) Foxtrot (1976-Mexican-Swiss) C-91m. ★★ C-123m. ★★★★ D: Rainer Werner FassD: Arturo Ripstein. Peter O’Toole, Charbinder. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter lotte Rampling, Max von Sydow, Jorge Chatel, Karlheinz Bohm, Adrian Hoven, Luke, Helen Rojo, Claudio Brook. O’Toole Ulla Jacobsson. Compassionate, politically and his wife flee Rumania in the late astute melodrama by German wunderkind 1930s and retreat to an island paradise to Fassbinder about gay lower-class carnival isolate themselves from a world about to performer winning lottery fortune only to erupt into war. Shallow, predictable drama; have his upper-class lover exploit him. filmed in Mexico. Alternate version with Fassbinder is brilliant in title role. Aka FIST additional sex footage titled THE OTHER RIGHT OF FREEDOM.▼쩠 SIDE OF PARADISE. [R]▼ Fox and the Hound, The (1981) C-83m. Foxy Brown (1974) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Jack ★★★ Hill. Pam Grier, Peter Brown, Terry Carter, D: Art Stevens, Ted Berman, Richard Rich. Voices of Mickey Rooney, Kurt RusKathryn Loder. Violence and little else in tale sell, Pearl Bailey, Jack Albertson, Sandy of nurse Grier and her vendetta against drug Duncan, Jeanette Nolan, Pat Buttram, John ring that killed her lover. [R]▼●쩠 Fiedler, John McIntire, Paul Winchell, Fracture (2007) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregory Corey Feldman. Charming Disney animated Hoblit. Anthony Hopkins, Ryan Gosling, feature about the childhood friendship beDavid Strathairn, Rosamund Pike, Billy tween two natural enemies, a fox cub and a Burke, Fiona Shaw, Bob Gunton, Embeth Dahound pup; as they grow older their relavidtz, Cliff Curtis, Xander Berkeley, Josh [ 490 ]

Stamberg, Joe Spano. Hopkins plays a cold, ING? and in the independent feature COMcalculating man who shoots his wife after he MITTED. Look for Kevin Costner, who discovers she’s been sleeping with an L.A. has one line in an alley. [R]▼●쩠 police lieutenant. But there is no concrete eviFrancesco (1989-Italian-German) C-105m. dence, which makes the case an unexpected BOMB D: Liliana Cavani. Mickey Rourke, challenge for assistant D.A. Gosling, who’s Helena Bonham Carter, Andrea Ferreol, just about to move on to a cushy job at a Hans Zischler, Mario Adorf, Paolo Bonahigh-end law firm. Decent thriller has some celli. Laughably inept historical drama with surprises up its sleeve but takes a long time to a miscast Rourke muttering his way through lay them all out. Super 35. [R]쩠 his role as Francis of Assisi(!), son of a rich Fra Diavolo SEE: Devil’s Brother, The Italian merchant, who undergoes a spiritual Fragment of Fear (1971-British) C-96m. rebirth. The narrative is often confusing, the ★★ D: Richard C. Sarafian. David Hemmdirection is slipshod, and the result is a real snooze. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ings, Gayle Hunnicutt, Flora Robson, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Daniel Massey, RoFrancis (The Talking Mule) series SEE: land Culver, Adolfo Celi, Mona WashLeonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide bourne. Hemmings is good in disappointFrancis of Assisi (1961) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing murder mystery that begins well, then Michael Curtiz. Bradford Dillman, Dolofalls apart. Photographed by the great res Hart, Stuart Whitman, Cecil Kellaway, Oswald Morris. [PG] Finlay Currie, Pedro Armendariz. Lavish Frailty (2002) C-99m. ★★ D: Bill Paxton. religious epic dealing with story of founder Bill Paxton, Matthew McConaughey, Powof school of monks with sympathetic perers Boothe, Matt O’Leary, Luke Askew, formance by Dillman. Good cast and atJeremy Sumpter, Derk Cheetwood, Melissa mosphere. Script tends to sag at wrong Crider. A Texas widower tells his two young moments. CinemaScope.▼쩠 sons that he has had a vision: they have Frank and Ollie (1995) C-89m. ★★★ D: been chosen to destroy demons who are Theodore Thomas. Charming documentary walking the earth in human form. His boys about Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, are then forced to witness—and participate friends since the early 1930s, next-door in—a brutal series of axe murders. Story is neighbors, and longtime animators at the told in flashback by Paxton’s now grownWalt Disney studio, where they created up son (McConaughey) to FBI agent Boothe. some of the most memorable and expressive Twisty mood piece is well crafted by firstcharacters ever brought to life . . . from time director Paxton, but difficult to digest— Thumper in BAMBI to Baloo and Mowgli especially for a parent. [R]▼쩠 in THE JUNGLE BOOK. Affectionate (and Framed (1947) 82m. ★★ D: Richard Walinformative) portrait by Thomas’s son and lace. Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, Barry Suldaughter-in-law, Kuniko Okubo. [PG]▼쩠 livan, Edgar Buchanan, Karen Morley. Frankenhooker (1990) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Rootless patsy Ford falls for scheming CarFrank Henenlotter. James Lorinz, Patty ter but is kept in the dark as she hatches Mullen, Charlotte Helmkamp, Shirley a robbery plan with banker Sullivan. Not Stoler, Louise Lasser. Grim, gory, and especially stylish but efficient noir-ish seldom funny horror comedy about a novmelodrama. ice mad scientist (Lorinz) who needs body Framed (1975) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil parts to sew onto the severed head he has Karlson. Joe Don Baker, Conny Van Dyke, on ice back at the lab. When he sells Gabriel Dell, John Marley, Brock Peters, N.Y.C. 42nd Street hookers a deadly Roy Jenson. Railroaded to jail, Baker ‘‘supercrack,’’ they explode—giving him vows revenge on the corrupt cops who put all the spare limbs and organs he desires. him there. The writer, director, and star of Offensive, cheap, and ugly—even by splatter genre standards.▼●쩠 WALKING TALL, old hands at this kind of action melodrama, make the most of the Frankenstein (1931) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 D: James situation. [R]▼ Whale. Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, Boris Frances (1982) C-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: Graeme Karloff, John Boles, Edward Van Sloan, Clifford. Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Dwight Frye, Frederick Kerr, Lionel BelShepard, Bart Burns, Jeffrey DeMunn, more. Definitive monster movie, with Clive Jordan Charney, Lane Smith, Anjelica as the ultimate mad scientist, creating a Huston. Biography of 1930s movie star man-made being (Karloff) but inadvertently Frances Farmer—who wound up in a bargiving him a criminal brain. It’s creaky at baric insane asylum—chronicles her tragic times, and cries for a music score, but it’s life in some detail, but doesn’t help us still impressive . . . as is Karloff’s perforunderstand the reasons for her self-destrucmance in the role that made him a star. tive tendencies. Well crafted but cold and Long-censored footage, restored in 1987, depressing, despite impressive performances enhances the impact of several key scenes, by Lange and Stanley, as Frances’ crazed including the drowning of a little girl. mother. Her story is also told in the TVM, Based on Mary Shelley’s novel. Followed WILL THERE REALLY BE A MORNby BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN.▼●쩠 [ 491 ]

Frankenstein (1994) SEE: Mary Shelley’s cold-blooded here than usual, as he forces Frankenstein young couple to help his brain transplant exFrankenstein and the Monster From Hell periments. One of the best in Hammer series. (1974-British) C-93m. ★★ D: Terence FishFollowed by THE HORROR OF FRANer. Peter Cushing, Shane Briant, Madeline KENSTEIN. [M/PG]▼●쩠 Smith, Dave Prowse, John Stratton. Guess Frankenstein—1970 (1958) 83m. BOMB who runs a hospital for the criminally D: Howard W. Koch. Boris Karloff, Tom insane? Hammer’s final entry in their Duggan, Jana Lund, Donald Barry. As last Frankenstein cycle is amusing if you catch of the Frankenstein scientists, Karloff uses it in the right frame of mind. [R] ▼쩠 money from TV production shooting in his Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965castle to revive original monster with atomic Japanese) C-87m. ★★ D: Ishiro Honda. Nick energy. Film is slow, monster unexciting, Adams, Tadao Takashima, Kumi Mizuno. and Karloff hammy. CinemaScope.▼ Grade-C horror film, with Adams a scientist Frankenstein’s Daughter (1959) 85m. in Tokyo trying to combat giant, newly BOMB D: Richard Cunha. John Ashley, grown Frankenstein monster terrorizing the Sandra Knight, Donald Murphy, Sally Todd, countryside; poor special effects. TohoHarold Lloyd, Jr. Low-grade descendant scope. ▼쩠 of famed monster series with a new female Frankenstein Created Woman (1967horror-robot being created with typical results; tinsel sets.▼쩠 British) C-92m. ★★ D: Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, Susan Denberg, Robert MorFrankenstein Unbound (1990) C-85m. ★1 ris, Barry Warren, Thorley Walters, Dun⁄2 D: Roger Corman. John Hurt, Raul can Lamont. Sequel to EVIL OF FRANKJulia, Bridget Fonda, Nick Brimble, CathSTEIN finds Dr. Frankenstein (Cushing) erine Rabett, Jason Patric, Michael Huttring to put the soul of recently (and wrongchence, Catherine Corman, Mickey Knox, ly) executed man into body of scarred voice of Terri Treas. Thoroughly expendlover (Denberg). Everything goes wrong, able horror outing casts Hurt as a 21stincluding script. Followed by FRANKENcentury scientist, not really mad, whose STEIN MUST BE DESTROYED!▼●쩠 implosion experiments zap him back to the Frankenstein ’88 SEE Vindicator, The days of Doc Frankenstein (Julia) and Mary Frankenstein Island (1981) C-89m. BOMB Shelley (Fonda). Capable cast goes slumD: Jerry Warren. John Carradine, Andrew ming in schlockmeister Corman’s first diDuggan, Cameron Mitchell, Steve Brodie, rectorial effort in nearly 20 years. HutRobert Clarke, Katherine Victor. Lowchence, here Percy Shelley, was lead singer budget filmmaker Warren’s first feature in of Australian rock band INXS.▼●쩠 15 years reunites some of his old hands (like Frankie and Johnny (1966) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Clarke and Victor) for a sort of remake of D: Frederick de Cordova. Elvis Presley, TEENAGE ZOMBIES, with a monster who Donna Douglas, Harry Morgan, Sue Ane only shows up at the end, and who may or Langdon, Nancy Kovack. Saloon song exmay not be Frankenstein! [PG]▼쩠 panded into feature film story for Elvis. Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster Riverboat setting, cohort Morgan, several (1965) 78m. BOMB D: Robert Gaffney. pretty starlets, and tuneful songs make this James Karen, David Kerman, Nancy Mara satisfactory time-filler.▼●쩠 shall, Marilyn Hanold. Low-grade horror Frankie and Johnny (1991) C-118m. ★★★ entry dealing with interplanetary robot that D: Garry Marshall. Al Pacino, Michelle goes berserk. Bizarre, Flash Gordon–esque Pfeiffer, Hector Elizondo, Nathan Lane, aliens also involved. Has gained a peculiar cult Kate Nelligan, Jane Morris, Greg Lewis, reputation. Aka MARS INVADES PUERTO Al Fann, K Callan, Phil Leeds. Winning RICO.▼쩠 (if overlong) Hollywoodization of Terrence Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) McNally’s Off-Broadway play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Pacino (never 72m. ★★★ D: Roy William Neill. Lon Chaney, Jr., Patric Knowles, Ilona Massey, more appealing) plays a man recently reBela Lugosi, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lionel leased from prison who gets a job as a shortAtwill, Dennis Hoey, Rex Evans, Dwight order cook and falls in love with a waitress Frye. Sequel to both THE GHOST OF who tries to keep all social contact at arm’s FRANKENSTEIN and THE WOLF MAN length. Pfeiffer manages to overcome her finds werewolf Chaney seeking Dr. Franmiscasting with an equally affecting perkenstein, hoping to be put out of his misery. formance. A moving ode to loneliness. He finds the scientist is dead—but the Monster Screenplay by the playwright. [R]▼●쩠 isn’t. Slick, atmospheric, fast-paced fun; Frankie & Johnny Are Married (2004) Lugosi’s only stint as the Monster. Followed C-95m. ★★★ D: Michael Pressman. Michael by HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.▼●쩠 Pressman, Lisa Chess, Alan Rosenberg, SteFrankenstein Must Be Destroyed! (1969phen Tobolowsky, Jillian Armenante. TV 1 ★★ British) C-101m. producer-director Pressman decides to direct ⁄2 D: Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, Simon Ward, Veronica his wife in a small-theater production of TerCarlson, Freddie Jones. Cushing is more rence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the [ 492 ]

Clair de Lune to help restore her self-esteem dled with a nerdy ‘‘brother’’on a pleasure as an actress and possibly bring the two of trip to Palm Springs, bet a rival they can them closer together. Forget reality TV: here’s be the first to score with an aloof, beautiful a winning, perceptive, truth-is-stranger-thanblond. Less strident, and thus less offenfiction story, filmed documentary-style, about sive, than many of its ilk, but still nothing to enrich our moviegoing heritage. [R]▼쩠 people worth getting to know. A number of TV and show-business notables play themFraulein Doktor (1969-Italian-Yugoslavian) selves. [R]쩠 C-102m. ★★★ D: Alberto Lattuada. Suzy Frankie Starlight (1995-U.S.-Irish) CKendall, Kenneth More, Capucine, James 101m. ★★★ D: Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Matt Booth, Alexander Knox, Nigel Green, Dillon, Anne Parillaud, Gabriel Byrne, Rudi Giancarlo Giannini. Big cast and budget in Davies, Corban Walker, Alan Pentony, Georrarely seen European antiwar film centergina Cates. Engagingly offbeat drama, the tale ing on career of real-life double-agent durof an Irish dwarf (a man imprisoned in a child’s ing WW1. Some of the battle sequences body) who writes a revealing, autobiographiimpressive. Same story has been filmed cal novel in which he describes his youth; many times before, in Hollywood as his mother (Parillaud), a WW2 refugee from STAMBOUL QUEST and in France as France; and the two men (Byrne and Dillon) MADEMOISELLE DOCTEUR. [M] who love her and become his role models. A Freaked (1993) C-79m. ★★ D: Alex Wingentle, flavorful film that moves seamlessly ter, Tom Stern. Alex Winter, Megan Ward, from the past to the present. [R]▼● Michael Stoyanov, Randy Quaid, Mr. T, Frank McKlusky, C.I. (2002) C-82m. Brooke Shields. Bratty movie star and entouBOMB D: Arlene Sanford. Dave Sheridan, rage fall into the hands of mad circus owner Randy Quaid, Enrico Colantoni, Kevin Polwho mutates them and adds them to his colleclak, Orson Bean, Cameron Richardson, Andy tion of freaks. Wildly inventive makeup and, Richter, Tracy Morgan, Joanie Laurer, Dolly well, freakish ideas are undercut by an in-yourParton, George Lopez. Son of a daredevil face directorial style that hammers home every grows up hyper-safety conscious, becoming joke. It would make a terrific short. Winter’s a claims investigator for an insurance comBILL & TED compatriot Keanu Reeves appears unbilled as Dog Boy. [R]▼●쩠 pany. Crude, clumsy comedy barely got theatrical release. Many cameos include Scott Freakmaker SEE: Mutations, The Freaks (1932) 64m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tod BrownBaio, Emmanuel Lewis, Gary Owens, Lou Ferrigno. [PG-13]▼쩠 ing. Wallace Ford, Olga Baclanova, Leila Frank’s Greatest Adventure SEE: FearHyams, Harry Earles, Roscoe Ates, Johnny less Frank Eck, Daisy and Violet Hilton, Prince RanFrantic (1958-French) SEE: Elevator to dian, Zip and Pip, Schlitze. A unique the Gallows movie about a traveling sideshow and the Frantic (1988) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roman camaraderie of its unusual performers, Polanski. Harrison Ford, Emmanuelle goaded to vengeance by cruel trapeze star Seigner, Betty Buckley, John Mahoney, Baclanova. Horror-film master Tod Browning Jimmie Ray Weeks, Yorgo Voyagis, David gathered an incredible cast of real-life sideHuddleston, Gerard Klein. American docshow freaks for this bizarre and fascinating tor is drawn into espionage, and the underfilm. Severely cut in U.S. during release and world, when his wife disappears on the banned in the U.K. for 30 years, some reissue first day of their trip to Paris. Carefully prints are missing brief epilogue; aka NATURE’S MISTAKES. ▼●쩠 controlled suspense thriller never really cuts loose but keeps its grip thanks to Freaky Friday (1977) C-97m. ★★★ D: Ford’s believable performance. [R]▼●쩠 Gary Nelson. Barbara Harris, Jodie FosFraternity Row (1977) C-101m. ★★★ D: ter, John Astin, Patsy Kelly, Dick Van Thomas J. Tobin. Peter Fox, Gregory HarPatten, Sorrell Booke, Marie Windsor, rison, Scott Newman, Nancy Morgan, RobCharlene Tilton. Harris and Foster shine as ert Emhardt, Wendy Phillips. Well-done mother and daughter who magically switch drama of campus life at exclusive Eastern personalities for a day; their performances college, 1954. Writer-producer Charles make this exceptional Disney fare, even Gary Allison used USC students and crew, though Mary Rodgers’ script winds up got professional Hollywood advice for polwith formula slapstick chase. Same premise ished look at tragic, fact-based, fraternity was the basis of the 1948 movie VICE hazing. Cliff Robertson narrates, Don VERSA and several later Hollywood comeMcLean did original score. Costar Newman dies (including LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON is the late son of Paul Newman. [PG] and the 1988 VICE VERSA). Remade in 2003 and for TV in 1995. [G] ▼●쩠 Fraternity Vacation (1985) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: James Frawley. Stephen Geoffreys, Freaky Friday (2003) C-97m. ★★★ D: Mark Sheree J. Wilson, Cameron Dye, Leigh Waters. Jamie Lee Curtis, Lindsay Lohan, McCloskey, Tim Robbins, John Vernon, Mark Harmon, Harold Gould, Chad Michael Britt Ekland, Nita Talbot, Max Wright, Murray, Stephen Tobolowsky, Christina Amanda Bearse. Two frat animals, sadVidal, Rosalind Chao, Ryan Malgarini. En[ 493 ]

tertaining, souped-up remake of the 1977 D finale that didn’t even look good in theDisney comedy about a stressed-out mother aters. A total yawner. Cameos by Alice Cooand her teenage daughter, who magically per, Roseanne and Tom Arnold, and Johnny switch bodies and have to somehow cope Depp, whose film debut was the first NIGHTwith their new identities. Good fun, with MARE. Followed by WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE. [R]▼●쩠 top-notch performances by Curtis and Freddy Vs. Jason (2003) C-97m. ★★ D: Lohan as the mixed-up duo. [PG] ▼쩠 Fred Claus (2007) C-115m. ★1⁄2 D: David Ronny Yu. Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Dobkin. Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, John Monica Keena, Jason Ritter, Kelly RowMichael Higgins, Miranda Richardson, Rachel land, Christopher George Marquette, BrenWeisz, Kathy Bates, Trevor Peacock, Chris dan Fletcher. Freddy Krueger (Englund), ‘‘Ludacris’’ Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Elizabeth from the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET Banks, Allan Corduner. Ho, ho, ho? No, no, series, is stuck in Hell because the Elm no. Tepid comedy about a motor-mouth ChiStreet kids don’t believe in him anymore. cago hustler (Vaughn) who’s forced to borSo he uses hockey-masked, macheterow a sizable sum from his much more wielding Jason Voorhees, from the FRIsuccessful younger brother—Santa Claus DAY THE 13TH series, to rouse the fear of (Giamatti). Laughs aren’t exactly plentiful Freddy. Tricky setup for a simple story as the ne’er-do-well older sibling pays off that’s basically a NIGHTMARE with Jason the loan (and, of course, becomes a much added. The fight promised by the title is a better person) while working alongside long time coming. OK of its sort, but mostly elves at the North Pole. It doesn’t help that for fans (who were numerous, making this a the special effects are strikingly shoddy. major hit). Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Super 35. [PG]쩠 Free and Easy (1930) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: EdFreddie as F.R.O.7 (1992-British) C-90m. ward Sedgwick. Buster Keaton, Anita Page, ★★ Robert Montgomery, Edgar Dearing, LioD: Jon Acevski. Voices of Ben Kingsley, Jenny Agutter, Brian Blessed, Nigel nel Barrymore, Dorothy Sebastian, Trixie Hawthorne, Michael Hordern, Edmund Friganza. Interesting early-talkie musiKingsley, Phyllis Logan, Victor Maddern, comedy about Keaton becoming movie Jonathan Pryce, Prunella Scales, Billie star; many guest appearances by Cecil B. Whitelaw. If James Bond was green, and DeMille, William Haines, et al. to boost uneven film. Retitled: EASY GO.▼●쩠 animated, he might have turned out like Freddie. This toon saga of a secret agent Freebie and the Bean (1974) C-113m. ★1 frog is lively, but often difficult to follow. ⁄2 D: Richard Rush. James Caan, Alan Reedited with James Earl Jones narration Arkin, Loretta Swit, Jack Kruschen, Mike and retitled FREDDIE THE FROG. [PG]▼ Kellin, Alex Rocco. Some good action, Freddie the Frog SEE: Freddie as F.R.O.7 but mostly repellent humor as San FranFreddy Got Fingered (2001) C-87m. cisco cops Arkin and Caan nearly wreck BOMB D: Tom Green. Tom Green, Rip the city trying to get the goods on a numbers Torn, Marisa Coughlan, Eddie Kaye Thomas, racketeer. Valerie Harper has a nice cameo Harland Williams, Stephen Tobolowsky, Anas Arkin’s Latin wife. Later a short-lived TV series. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 thony Michael Hall, Julie Hagerty, Drew Barrymore. Instantly notorious word-of-mouth Freedomland (2006) C-112m. ★★ D: Joe debacle became the poster child for all that’s Roth. Samuel L. Jackson, Julianne Moore, wrong with movie comedy. Next to unemEdie Falco, Ron Eldard, William Forsythe, ployable at 28, but with vague hopes of beAunjanue Ellis, Anthony Mackie, LaTanya coming a cartoonist, live-at-home Green Richardson Jackson, Philip Bosco. Affecleaves for California to seek success and, tionately regarded white teacher with a sadhopefully, romance (which he finds with a sack personal history claims a black man wheelchair-bound simpleton who lives only abducted her young son. This exacerbates to give him oral sex). Gags include the maimcommunity-police testiness from vocal black ing of an innocent child and a newborn spun neighborhood dwellers who say the cops are around in the air by its umbilical cord—compaying undue attention because the child is pounded by the almost unimaginable ineptiwhite; investigating cop Jackson is caught in the middle. Richard Price adapted his tude with which they’re executed. [R]▼쩠 Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare own praised novel in unwieldy fashion, (1991) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Rachel Talalay. while Roth’s pedestrian direction underRobert Englund, Lisa Zane, Shon Greenmines the story throughout. Moore’s histriblatt, Lezlie Deane, Ricky Dean Logan, onics throw the film off balance and make it increasingly tough to watch. Super 35. [R]쩠 Breckin Meyer, Yaphet Kotto, Elinor Donahue. Don’t believe the title. This Freedom Writers (2007) C-123m. ★★★ D: NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET entry Richard LaGravenese. Hilary Swank, Patrick has Freddy Krueger trying to break out of Dempsey, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, the town where he’s been slaughtering teens April Lee Hernandez, Deance Wyatt, Mario, in their dreams. Now the stage is set for the Vanetta Smith, John Benjamin Hickey, Pat end-all Freddy showdown—a 10-minute 3Carroll. Idealistic young woman gets her first [ 494 ]

teaching job at a Long Beach, California, high book about her father. Remade as THE GIRL WHO HAD EVERYTHING. ▼쩠 school: she’s to teach freshman English to Freeway (1988) C-91m. ★★ D: Francis Delia. the worst students on the campus, hardened Darlanne Fluegel, James Russo, Billy Drago, by life and divided on racial lines. She turns Richard Belzer, Michael Callan, Joey Palese, their lives around by respecting and beSteve Franken, Kenneth Tobey, Clint Howard. lieving in them. Based on the real-life expeA nurse whose husband was the victim of a riences of Erin Gruwell. LaGravenese’s freeway shooting becomes obsessed with screenplay captures the raw emotions of its finding the Bible-quoting murderer, who habityoung characters and their indomitable ually phones a radio psychiatrist from his car teacher without condescension or phony Holwhile cruising L.A. looking for new victims. lywood histrionics. Swank also coexecutiveBased on a novel but prompted by similar produced. [PG-13]쩠 real-life crimes in L.A., this film is surprisFree Enterprise (1999) C-116m. ★★★ D: ingly nonexploitive, but slow and unconvincRobert Meyer Burnett. William Shatner, ing. [R]▼●쩠 Rafer Weigel, Eric McCormack, Audie EnFreeway (1996) C-102m. ★★★ D: Matthew gland, Patrick Van Horn, Jennifer SommerBright. Reese Witherspoon, Kiefer Sutherfield, Phil LaMarr, Deborah Van Valkenburgh. land, Brooke Shields, Wolfgang Bodison, Long-time friends and major sci-fi movie and Dan Hedaya, Amanda Plummer, Michael T. TV buffs McCormack and Weigel are stunned Weiss, Bokeem Woodbine, Brittany Murto be befriended by William Shatner. But he phy, Conchata Ferrell. Corrosive modern has problems of his own, like his desire to version of Little Red Riding Hood in which stage Julius Caesar with himself in all the a teenage girl, on her way to grandma’s, roles. Uneven but entertaining comedy gives hitchhikes a ride with a psychotic child psyShatner a great, self-spoofing role. Written by chiatrist (Sutherland). Extremely violent director Burnett and Mark Altman, who based satire is bolstered by Witherspoon’s one-ofthe lead characters on themselves. [R]▼●쩠 a-kind lethal Lolita performance and a Freejack (1992) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Geoff Mursmart screenplay by debut director Bright. phy. Emilio Estevez, Mick Jagger, Rene Not for the faint of heart. Deliciously oddRusso, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Banks, ball score by Danny Elfman. Followed by a David Johansen, Amanda Plummer, Grand L. direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Bush, Frankie Faison, Esai Morales, John Free Willy (1993) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Simon Shea. Good cast is wasted in this mindless acWincer. Jason James Richter, Lori Petty, Mitioner, in which race car driver Estevez dies in chael Madsen, Jayne Atkinson, Michael 1991 and finds his body snatched into the year Ironside, Richard Riehle, August Schellen2009 so that it may house the soul of ruthless berg, Mykelti Williamson. Wayward 12-yeartycoon Hopkins. Tiresome, superficial fare. old, ordered to remove paint from aquarium Based on the novel Immortality, Inc. by Robert walls, befriends and helps train an orca whale, Sheckley. Jagger plays a bounty hunter; it’s his eventually exploited by his seedy owner. Agfirst screen acting role since PERFORgressively marketed sleeper hit is perfectly OK MANCE in 1970. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 children’s fare, with an appealing performance Free Money (1999-Canadian) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: by young Richter. Michael Jackson sings Yves Simoneau. Marlon Brando, Charlie ‘‘Will You Be There’’ over closing credits. Sheen, Thomas Haden Church, Donald SutherFollowed by two sequels and an animated land, Mira Sorvino, Martin Sheen, David ArTV series. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 quette, J. P. Bergeron, Christin Watson, Holly Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home Watson. How does a movie with a cast like this (1995) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dwight Little. get rejected for theatrical release and go Jason James Richter, August Schellenberg, straight to cable? By being a frantically unJayne Atkinson, Jon Tenney, Elizabeth Pena, funny ‘‘comedy’’ that’s shrill and desperate Michael Madsen, Francis Capra, Mary Kate from the word go. A gargantuan, bald-headed, Schellhardt, Mykelti Williamson, M. Emmet bushy-mustached Brando has his biggest role Walsh. Richter has younger half-brother in years as a psychotic, small-town prison warCapra forced upon him, finds young love with den whose two idiot sons-in-law try to rob a Schellhardt, and helps his orca friend Willy train. Often embarrassing to watch. ▼쩠 (and Willy’s relatives) when an oil spill enFree Soul, A (1931) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clarence dangers the cetaceans. Overplotted children’s Brown. Norma Shearer, Lionel Barrymore, film lacks the spark of the first, but is still Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, James Gleason. good entertainment of its kind. The killer A hard-drinking, free-swinging attorney sucwhales are almost all miniatures or computer cessfully defends gangster Gable on a murder graphics. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 rap—then finds to his dismay that his equally Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997) C-85m. ★★ D: Sam Pillsbury. Jason James Richter, free-spirited daughter has fallen in love with him. Dated morality play–melodrama retains August Schellenberg, Annie Corley, Vincent interest because of its cast and Barrymore’s Berry, Patrick Kilpatrick, Tasha Simms. Richfamous courtroom finale, which clinched him ter, now a teenager, gets a summer job on a an Oscar. Based on Adela Rogers St. Johns’ marine biology research boat and clashes with [ 495 ]

a group of poachers who want to make whale sushi out of Willy and his pregnant girlfriend Nikki (or at least their animatronic/computergraphic likenesses). Shortest entry in the series is easy to take, but utterly predictable and formulaic. [PG]▼●쩠 Free Woman, A (1972-German) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Volker Schlondorff. Margarethe ¨ von Trotta, Friedhelm Ptok, Martin Luttge, Walter Sedlmayer. Von Trotta divorces Ptok, has trouble adjusting to life apart from husband and son as she tries to liberate herself from her traditional functions. Truthful but boring drama. Free Zone (2005-Israeli-Belgian-FrenchSpanish) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Amos Gitai. Natalie Portman, Hana Laszlo, Hiam Abbass, Carmen Maura, Makram Khoury, Aki Avni, Uri Klauzner. Young American woman living in Jerusalem breaks up with her Israeli boyfriend, jumps into a cab, and asks the female driver to take her ‘‘anywhere.’’ Eventually they head to Jordan’s Free Zone, where the cabbie (Laszlo) is to meet a mysterious person called The American, her husband’s Palestinian business associate. A labor of love for Israeli-born Portman, the film turns out to be a showcase for Laszlo, who won a Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Dialogue heavy and sometimes over the top, but worth it for the performances. Opening sequence in which the camera remains on a close-up of the anguished Portman is riveting. 쩠 French Cancan (1955-French) C-93m. ★★★ D: Jean Renoir. Jean Gabin, Franc¸oise Arnoul, Maria Felix, Edith Piaf. Not topdrawer Renoir, but still an impressive, enjoyable fiction about beginnings of the Moulin Rouge and impresario Gabin’s revival of the cancan. Originally released in the U.S. in 1956; a brilliantly beautiful restored version, with approximately 10m. of additional footage, opened theatrically in 1985. Originally released in France as ONLY THE FRENCH CAN at 102m.

determined to nail narcotics king (Rey) who eluded him in America. Enjoyable opening and riveting chase finale are separated by long, agonizing drug addiction segment that weighs whole film down. [R]▼●쩠 French Conspiracy, The (1973-FrenchItalian-German) C-124m. ★★ D: Yves Boisset. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Seberg, Gian Maria Volonte´, Roy Scheider, Michel Piccoli. Realistic but unexciting political drama centering around left-wing reporter Trintignant, pawn in a plot to assassinate Third World leader Volonte´. [PG] French Detective, The (1975-French) C-93m. ★★★ D: Pierre Granier-Deferre. Lino Ventura, Patrick Dewaere, Victor Lanoux. Neat, entertaining police story with Ventura a tough, independent, middleaged cop who, with exuberant young partner Dewaere, determinedly pursues a hood working for politician Lanoux. ▼ French Kiss (1995) C-111m. ★★ D: Lawrence Kasdan. Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline, Timothy Hutton, Jean Reno, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Victor Garrivier, Susan Anbeh. Charmless contrivance about a jilted woman who follows her fiance´ to Paris and hooks up with a French rogue. Will these opposites ultimately attract one another? Duh! The stars’ comic savvy can only carry this so far . . . though they’re good, and the French scenery is nice. Soundtrack harmonica by the great Toots Thielemans. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 French Lieutenant’s Woman, The (1981British) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Karel Reisz. Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Leo McKern, Hilton McRae, Emily Morgan, Charlotte Mitchell, Lynsey Baxter. A scandalous romance between a gentleman and a tainted woman in Victorian England is contrasted with a contemporary affair between the actor and actress who are playing those roles in a movie. The juxtaposition is jarring at first, but becomes more engaging as the film progresses. Beautifully visualized, with rich period detail, superb performances; script by Harold Pinter, from John Fowles’ novel. [R]▼●쩠 ▼●쩠 French Connection, The (1971) C-104m. French Line, The (1954) C-102m. ★★ D: ★★★★ D: William Friedkin. Gene Hackman, Lloyd Bacon. Jane Russell, Gilbert RoFernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Loland, Arthur Hunnicutt, Mary McCarty, Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi. Landmark urban Craig Stevens, Steven Geray, Joyce Mcaction film detailing attempted international Kenzie, Paula Corday, Scott Elliot. Rusheroin smuggle into N.Y.C., and maverick sell’s bust in 3-D was the gimmick to sell detective who stops it. Five Oscars include this dull musical. All that’s left is flat tale Best Picture, Actor, Director, Screenplay of wealthy Texas girl in Paris being ro(Ernest Tidyman) and Editing (Jerry Greenmanced by Parisian. McCarty’s wisecrackberg), the latter particularly for one of the ing is a blessing. If you blink, you’ll miss Kim Novak modeling a gown.▼ most exciting car chases ever filmed. Followed by a sequel and, in 1986, a TV French Postcards (1979) C-92m. ★★ D: movie, POPEYE DOYLE. [R]▼●쩠 Willard Huyck. Blanche Baker, Miles French Connection II (1975) C-119m. Chapin, Debra Winger, Mandy Patinkin, Val★★1⁄2 D: John Frankenheimer. Gene Hackerie Quennessen, David Marshall Grant, man, Fernando Rey, Bernard Fresson, JeanMarie-France Pisier, Jean Rochefort. Kind of Pierre Castaldi, Charles Millot, Philippe follow-up to AMERICAN GRAFFITI from Leotard, Ed Lauter, Cathleen Nesbitt. Gruff that film’s authors (Huyck and Gloria Katz), N.Y. cop Popeye Doyle goes to Marseilles, detailing romantic misadventures of group of [ 496 ]

college students spending junior year abroad. Pleasant but forgettable comedy. [PG]▼쩠 French Provincial (1974-French) C-91m. ★★ D: Andre´ Te´chine´. Jeanne Moreau, Michel Auclair, Marie-France Pisier, Claude Mann, Orane Demazis. Moreau, as a laundry woman who marries into a bourgeois family, shines in this otherwise flaky, superficially symbolic saga of economic change in France from the 1930s through 1970s. French Quarter (1978) C-101m. ★★★ D: Dennis Kane. Bruce Davison, Lindsay Bloom, Virginia Mayo, Alisha Fontaine, Lance LeGault, Laura Misch Owens, Ann Michelle, Becky Allen, Barry Sullivan, William Sims. Neglected drive-in treat is a genuine curiosity; tongue-in-cheek melodrama mixes PRETTY BABY plot with FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WOMAN structure (but predates both!). Tale of young Fontaine, growing up in New Orleans as Storyville prostitute at the turn of the century, is paralleled by present-day story with same cast, linked by voodoo plot device. Ends bizarrely with narrator reminding us to ‘‘hang up your speakers and drive home safely.’’ And Dick Hyman did the music! [R]▼쩠 French, They Are a Funny Race, The (1956-French) 83m. ★★ D: Preston Sturges. Jack Buchanan, Noel-Noel, Martine Carol, Genevieve Brunet. Director-writer Sturges’ last film is a misfire, with Buchanan as veddy-British major whose marriage to Frenchwoman sparks continuing nationalistic arguments. Original title: LES CARNETS DU MAJOR THOMPSON at 105m. French Twist (1995-French) C-100m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Josiane Balasko. Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko, Alain Chabat, Ticky Holgado, Miguel Bose´, Catherine Hiegel, Catherine Samie. Bouncy comedy written and directed by French star Balasko (TOO BEAUTIFUL FOR YOU), who plays a gay van driver/drifter who accidentally meets a jolly housewife (Abril) and her philandering husband (Chabat). What follows is a very French twist on the old love triangle theme. Enjoyable farce is liberal to a fault but loses credibility as it unfolds. Still, Abril shines, as usual, in a terrific role. Original title: GAZON MAUDIT. ▼●쩠 French Way Is, The SEE: Love at the Top Frenzy (1944) SEE: Torment Frenzy (1972-British) C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Hitchcock. Jon Finch, Barry Foster, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Anna Massey, Alec McCowen, Vivien Merchant, Billie Whitelaw, Clive Swift, Jean Marsh. Hitchcock in high gear, telling story of suave London strangler (Foster) and innocent man (Finch) suspected of murder spree. All classic Hitchcock elements are here, including delicious black humor, several astounding camera shots. Script by Anthony Shaffer. [R]

Hoblit. Dennis Quaid, Jim Caviezel, Andre Braugher, Elizabeth Mitchell, Noah Emmerich, Shawn Doyle, Jordan Bridges. N.Y.C. cop whose fireman father died when he was six digs out his dad’s old ham radio set, and by freakish fluke, finds he can communicate with his old man! Soon the father realizes he can help his son prevent crimes that are about to happen—and the son begins to wonder if he can keep his father from perishing in a flaming building. Entertaining at first but never quite convincing (like Quaid’s unfortunate New York accent), this convoluted Twilight Zone–ish story misses the mark. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Fresh (1994-U.S.-French) C-112m. ★★★ D: Boaz Yakin. Sean Nelson, Giancarlo Esposito, Samuel L. Jackson, N’Bushe Wright, Ron Brice, Jean LaMarre, Luis Lantigua. Disturbing, controversial chronicle of 12-year-old black youth who divides his time between school and his duties as a busy heroin courier. When he witnesses a playground killing, young Fresh (unforgettably played by Sean Nelson) must use his street smarts to fight for survival. An unflinching look at the urban narcotics nightmare; some may be disturbed by the ambivalent view of the bright young protagonist as drug dealer, victim, survivor, and hero. Impressive debut for writer-director Yakin. Music by Stewart Copeland. [R]

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Fresh Horses (1988) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Anspaugh. Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Patti D’Arbanville, Molly Hagan, Viggo Mortensen, Doug Hutchison, Ben Stiller, Leon Russom. Collegian McCarthy, engaged to a wealthy dullard, falls for Ringwald’s underage no-no, a semi-shantytramp who lives across the river from his Cincinnati campus. Slightly better than expected, thanks to fine Midwest location work from the director of HOOSIERS. Ringwald isn’t totally convincing in the kind of role Gloria Grahame invented. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Freshman, The (1925) 76m. ★★★★ D: Sam Taylor, Fred Newmeyer. Harold Lloyd, Jobyna Ralston, Brooks Benedict, James Anderson, Hazel Keener. One of Lloyd’s bestremembered films casts him as collegiate patsy who’ll do anything to be popular on campus, unaware that everyone is making fun of him. Football game finale is one of several comic highlights. A real audiencerouser.▼쩠 Freshman, The (1990) C-102m. ★★★ D: Andrew Bergman. Marlon Brando, Matthew Broderick, Maximilian Schell, Bruno Kirby, Penelope Ann Miller, Frank Whaley, Paul Benedict, B. D. Wong, Bert Parks. New York University film student Broderick falls in with loony mob family headed by Brando in this infectious, off-center comedy. Not an outstanding film per se, but strong cast and New York flavor, plus Berg▼●쩠 Frequency (2000) C-117m. ★★ D: Gregory man’s original and amusing screenplay, put it [ 497 ]

over. Best of all: Marlon’s knockout performance (remind you of anyone?), and his rapport with Matthew. [PG]▼●쩠 Freud (1962) 120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Huston. Montgomery Clift, Susannah York, Larry Parks, David McCallum, Susan Kohner, Eileen Herlie. Intelligent, unglamorous account of Sigmund Freud as young doctor, focusing on his early psychiatric theories and treatments and his struggle for their acceptance among Viennese medical colleagues. Fascinating dream sequence. Originally released at 139m. Also known as FREUD: THE SECRET PASSION. Frida (1984-Mexican) C-108m. ★★★ D: Paul Leduc. Ofelia Medina, Juan Jose Gurrola, Max Kerlow, Salvador Sanchez, Claudio Brook. Solid biography effectively captures the spirit of an extraordinary woman: Frida Kahlo (Medina), Mexican artist and radical who dealt with various physical crises (resulting from polio and a paralyzing accident). Also central to her story are her relationships with Diego Rivera and Leon Trotsky. Visually captivating, with superior cinematography by Angel Goded and an unstructured narrative that not so much traces the incidents in its subject’s life but paints a portrait of her.▼쩠 Frida (2002) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julie Taymor. Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina, Geoffrey Rush, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas, Edward Norton, Valeria Golino, Mia Maestro, Roger Rees, Diego Luna, Patricia Reyes Spindola, Margarita Sanz, Saffron Burrows, Didi Conn. Ambitious biography of Mexican artist and activist Frida Kahlo, who fought both physical and emotional challenges throughout her life, while her work remained in the shadow of her husband, Diego Rivera. Hayek, who shepherded this project to fruition, does a good job; Molina is superb as the robust, womanizing Rivera, and Rush is equally good in a small part as Leon Trotsky. Despite the efforts of four credited writers, rich source material, and Taymor’s visual embellishments, the movie never really soars . . . but it certainly covers a lot of ground. Oscar winner for Best Makeup and Score (Elliot Goldenthal). [R] ▼쩠 Friday (1995) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: F. Gary Gray. Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, Nia Long, Tiny ‘‘Zeus’’ Lister, Jr., John Witherspoon, Anna Maria Horsford, Regina King, Paul Jai Parker, Bernie Mac, Angela Means, Faizon Love, LaWanda Page. Rap star/actor Ice Cube coproduced, cowrote, and stars in this comedy, revealing the fun side he never showed in films like BOYZ N THE HOOD and TRESPASS. Talented cast can’t rescue this practically plotless film about youth trying to survive life in L.A.’s South Central ’hood. Followed by NEXT FRIDAY. [R]

Marcus Raboy. Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Don ‘‘D.C.’’ Curry, Anna Maria Horsford, Clifton Powell, BeBe Drake, Terry Crews. Slipshod comedy from the ’hood follows FRIDAY and NEXT FRIDAY. After a scummy Santa Claus robs Cube and Epps, they’re forced to get jobs as security guards in order to pay for a Christmas party. That’s about it for story; the rest of the film is filled with notably foul language (including overuse of the ‘‘n’’ word), and enough stereotypes to set back civil rights a hundred years. Cube scripted and coproduced. [R] ▼쩠 Friday Foster (1975) C-90m. ★★ D: Arthur Marks. Pam Grier, Yaphet Kotto, Godfrey Cambridge, Thalmus Rasulala, Eartha Kitt, Jim Backus, Scatman Crothers, Ted Lange, Carl Weathers. Black bubblegum nonsense based on comic strip about fashion photographer who gets involved in mystery and intrigue; here she tries to foil assassination/conspiracy plot against black politicians. [R]▼쩠 Friday Night (2002-French) C-90m. ★★★ D: Claire Denis. Vale´rie Lemercier, Vincent Lindon, He´le`ne de Saint-Pe`re, Gre´goire Colin. Seductive, dazzlingly visual account of a night in the life of a young Parisian (Lemercier) who is preparing to move out of her apartment and has an unusual encounter with a stranger. Using very little dialogue, Denis deftly employs the camera to tell her story, recording the minutest details of everyday life and creating a sense of intimacy that is purely cinematic. ▼쩠 Friday Night Lights (2004) C-117m. ★★★ D: Peter Berg. Billy Bob Thornton, Derek Luke, Jay Hernandez, Lucas Black, Garrett Hedlund, Tim McGraw, Connie Britton, Lee Thompson Young, Lee Jackson, Grover Coulson. Tough-minded sports movie about a real-life high school football team from Odessa, Texas, and the coach who drove them during their 1988 season. Expected cliche´s are surmounted by a hard look at small-town Church of Football mentality, exciting action, and a cast that scores (led by Thornton and country singer McGraw, impressive as a onetime player whose son is now on the team). Also nice to see Thornton reunited with his young SLING BLADE costar Black. Based on H. G. (Buzz) Bissinger’s highly regarded book. Later a TV series. Super 35. [PG-13]

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Friday the 13th (1980) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Sean S. Cunningham. Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Kevin Bacon. Palmer, who figures in an admittedly bravura finale, slaughters teens holed up in woodsy summer camp. Young folks unexpectedly made this gory, cardboard thriller a box-office smash—one more clue to why SAT scores continue to decline. Rates ▼●쩠 Friday After Next (2002) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: higher than BOMB simply because it’s [ 498 ]

slightly better than part 2. Unrated DVD adds endless series. Pretty, blonde Lincoln foolishly travels to Crystal Lake (with her mom a few seconds of carnage. Followed by a and her shrink) where her talent for telekiseemingly never-ending series of sequels and nesis brings the monstrous Jason back up a TV series. Remade in 2009. [R] ▼●쩠 from his watery grave. [R]▼●쩠 Friday the 13th (2009) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Marcus Nispel. Jared Padalecki, Danielle Manhattan (1989) C-100m. ★★ D: Rob Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Hedden. Jensen Daggett, Kane Hodder, Peter Winkle, Aaron Yoo, Derek Mears, Jonathan Mark Richman, Scott Reeves, Barbara BinSadowski. The 12th FRIDAY isn’t a sequel gham, V. C. Dupree. The best film in the but something like a remake of the 1st and ‘‘Friday’’ series, imaginatively directed and 3rd. As before, some annoying teenagers written by Hedden, is still just a slasher film, encounter the silent, murderous Jason, who though less gruesome than most. Despite the chops, stabs, and bludgeons his way through title, most of the film takes place on a cruise the cast, though without as much gore as in ship. Too long and not really for fans of the previous entries. Plodding, dull, and repetiseries. Followed by JASON GOES TO tive, this is only occasionally creepy and HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY. [R] ▼●쩠 never scary. Yes, there’s a setup for a seFried Green Tomatoes (1991) C-130m. quel, if anyone cares. Panavision. [R]쩠 ★★★ D: Jon Avnet. Kathy Bates, Jessica Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981) C-87m. Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, MaryBOMB D: Steve Miner. Betsy Palmer, Amy Louise Parker, Cicely Tyson, Chris O’DonSteel, John Furey, Adrienne King, Kirsten nell, Stan Shaw, Gailard Sartain, Tim Scott, Baker, Stu Charno, Warrington Gillette. More Gary Basaraba, Lois Smith, Grace Zabriskie. nubile campers, more bloody executions. If Enjoyable story-within-a-story film, in you loved Part 1 . . . [R]▼●쩠 which repressed Southern wife Bates meets Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982) C-96m. ★★ elderly Tandy at a nursing home and beD: Steve Miner. Dana Kimmell, Paul comes captivated by her tale-spinning about Kratka, Tracie Savage, Jeffrey Rogers, two feisty female friends and their escaCatherine Parks, Larry Zerner. Strictly amapades in the 1920s and ’30s. First-rate teur night in terms of acting and writing, adaptation of Fannie Flagg’s novel Fried but this entry deemphasizes explicit gore Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe in favor of shocks, and delivers a few— with just one problem: a couple of endings especially in 3-D and widescreen. [R]▼●쩠 too many. Impressive feature directorial Friday the 13th—The Final Chapter debut for producer Avnet. Flagg has an (1984) C-91m. BOMB D: Joseph Zito. amusing cameo. Alternate unrated version Crispin Glover, Kimberly Beck, Barbara runs 137m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Howard, E. Erich Anderson, Corey FeldFriendly Persuasion (1956) C-140m. ★★★★ man, Ted White, Bruce Mahler, Lawrence D: William Wyler. Gary Cooper, Dorothy Monoson. Why bother with a new script? McGuire, Marjorie Main, Anthony Perkins, Jason finally gets his—except that (title notRichard Eyer, Robert Middleton, (Peter) Mark withstanding) the door is left open for yet Richman, Walter Catlett, William Schallert. another sequel! [R]▼●쩠 Charming account (from Jessamyn West Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginnovel) of Quaker family struggling to mainning (1985) C-102m. BOMB D: Danny tain its identity amid confusion and heartbreak Steinmann. John Shepard, Melanie Kinnaof Civil War. Warm, winning performances in man, Shavar Ross, Richard Young, Carol this beautifully made film. Music by Dimitri Lacatell, Corey Parker, Corey Feldman. A Tiomkin. Though no screenplay credit apclever title (after . . . THE FINAL CHAPpears, film was written by blacklisted Michael TER) for more gore galore, as gruesome Wilson; he received posthumous credit in and disgusting as ever. [R]▼●쩠 1996. Remade for TV in 1975 with Richard Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives Kiley and Shirley Knight.▼●쩠 (1986) C-87m. BOMB D: Tom McLoughFriends (1971-British) C-102m. BOMB lin. Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke, David D: Lewis Gilbert. Sean Bury, Anicee Kagan, Renee Jones, Kerry Noonan, C.J. GraAlvina, Pascale Roberts, Sady Rebbot, ham, Tony Goldwyn, Ron Palillo. Jason’s Ronald Lewis. Yucky early-teen romance summer camp has enjoyed years of tranquility about French boy and girl who run off to after changing its name, but watch out! If you the seashore, set up housekeeping, and really think there’s something to gain from have a baby . . . then Mommy and Daddy watching Jason rise from the grave again, show up to take them home. Popular in its good luck! The pits. [R]▼●쩠 day, primarily due to Elton John song Friday the 13th Part VII—The New score. Buy the album instead. Sequel (!): Blood (1988) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: John Carl PAUL AND MICHELLE. [R]▼ Buechler. Lar Park Lincoln, Terry Kiser, Friends and Lovers (1999) C-104m. ★1⁄2 Susan Blu, Kevin Blair, Susan Jennifer D: George Haas. Stephen Baldwin, Danny Sullivan, Elizabeth Kaitan. Makeup expert Nucci, George Newbern, Claudia Schiffer, Buechler fails to inject much life into this Alison Eastwood, Suzanne Cryer, David [ 499 ]

Rasche, Neill Barry, Leon, Robert Downey, tor/cowriter Jackson. Director’s cut runs 123m. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Jr., Ann Magnuson. Group of friends gather Fright Night (1985) C-105m. ★★★ D: Tom for a Christmas ski holiday that quickly Holland. Chris Sarandon, William Ragsfinds them coupled in unlikely romantic dale, Amanda Bearse, Roddy McDowall, pairings. Embarrassing on every level, a Stephen Geoffreys, Jonathan Stark. Teengood group of actors is wasted in this age boy enlists the aid of TV horror-movie would-be farce that sets its sights low and host (and erstwhile actor) to kill suave, misses the mark anyway. In her first major cunning vampire who’s moved in next film role, Schiffer proves that as an actress door. Entertaining, old-fashioned horror she’s a mighty fine model.▼쩠 outing energized by Richard Edlund’s Friends of Eddie Coyle, The (1973) spectacular special effects and highlighted C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Yates. Robert by two wonderful performances, by McMitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Dowall and Sarandon. Written by Holland. Steven Keats, Alex Rocco, Mitchell Ryan. Followed by a sequel. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Ultrarealistic depiction of criminals and Fright Night Part 2 (1989) C-104m. ★★ police, as hardened con labors to supply D: Tommy Lee Wallace. Roddy McDowall, guns and make deal with cops. Bleak nightWilliam Ragsdale, Traci Lin, Julie Carmare picture of underworld enhanced by men, Jonathan Gries, Russell Clark, Brian numerous Boston locations, flawless perThompson, Merritt Butrick, Ernie Sabella. formances. Only liabilities: film’s offbeat Sister of the vampire who met a grisly end low-key narrative approach and finale. in FRIGHT NIGHT seeks revenge on the Adapted by Paul Monash from George V. duo who destroyed him. More-of-the-same Higgins’s novel. [R]쩠 sequel is definitely a comedown from the ★★★ Friends With Money (2006) C-88m. earlier film, though well produced. PanaD: Nicole Holofcener. Catherine Keener, vision. [R]▼●쩠 Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand, Fringe Dwellers, The (1986-Australian) Joan Cusack, Simon McBurney, Jason ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Kristina C-98m. Isaacs, Scott Caan, Ty Burrell, Bob SteNehm, Justine Saunders, Bob Maza, Kylie phenson, Greg Germann. Wry slice of life Belling, Denis Walker, Ernie Dingo. Amexamining the fault lines in the friendship bitious young aborigine woman convinces of four women, three of whom are married her family to move out of their shantytown and prosperous, one of whom (Aniston) is and into a prosperous, mostly white middlesingle, unhappy, and resentful. Good perforclass neighborhood in present-day Ausmances and sharp observations about martralia; the expected readjustment woes riage, money, and middle age make this a follow. Sincere, very well-acted drama winner. Super 35. [R]쩠 (especially by Nehm) is undercut by senti★★ Fright (1971-British) C-87m. D: Peter mental, dramatically dishonest conclusion. Collinson. Susan George, Honor BlackOverall, worth a look. [PG]▼● man, Ian Bannen, John Gregson, George Frisco Kid (1935) 77m. ★★ D: Lloyd Cole, Dennis Waterman. Young babysitter Bacon. James Cagney, Margaret Lindsay, (George) spends terror-filled evening at Ricardo Cortez, Lili Damita, Fred Kohler, country house, menaced by mental hospiGeorge E. Stone, Donald Woods. Routine tal escapee. Contrived, mechanical direcdrama of Barbary Coast with Cagney fighttion and so-so script. [PG]▼쩠 ing his way to the top, almost dethroned Frightened City, The (1961-British) 97m. by local gangs but saved by blueblood ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Lemont. Herbert Lom, John Lindsay. Gregson, Sean Connery, Alfred Marks, Frisco Kid, The (1979) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yvonne Romain. Interesting inside look at Robert Aldrich. Gene Wilder, Harrison a London racketeer amalgamating various Ford, Ramon Bieri, Val Bisoglio, George city gangs for master plan syndicate. ▼쩠 Ralph DiCenzo, Leo Fuchs, Penny Peyser. Frighteners, The (1996-New ZealandOffbeat story of Polish rabbi crossing U.S. U.S.) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Jackson. Miin 1850 and developing friendship with chael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, young bank robber. Wilder’s performance John Astin, Jeffrey Combs, Dee Wallace and some charming vignettes make up for Stone, Jake Busey, Chi McBride, Jim Fyfe, many other shortcomings. [PG]▼쩠 Troy Evans, Julianna McCarthy, R. Lee Fritz The Cat (1972) C-78m. ★★★ D: Ermey. Overlong, but original blend of paraRalph Bakshi. X-rated animated feature normal, horror, and black-comedy ingredients. somewhat based on Robert Crumb’s unFox plays a psychic investigator/exterminator derground comics character. Flawed but on the trail of an otherworldly serial killer. engaging, irreverent look at radical-hip Zigzags from grisly humor to slasher-movie lifestyles of the 1960s, geared for people horror. Combs (of RE-ANIMATOR fame) who experienced that era. Imaginatively has a scenery-chewing role as a wacked-out conceived cartoon. Sequel: THE NINE FBI agent on the case. Definitely not for all LIVES OF FRITZ THE CAT. [X]▼쩠 tastes. Filmed in New Zealand, home of direcFriz Freleng’s Looney Looney Looney [ 500 ]

Bugs Bunny Movie SEE: Looney Looney G.Q. (grossout quotient). Rodriguez and Looney Bugs Bunny Movie screenwriter/actor Tarantino seem to be Frogmen, The (1951) 96m. ★★★ D: having fun, especially in their casting Lloyd Bacon. Richard Widmark, Dana choices, but this is just a celebration of exAndrews, Gary Merrill, Jeffrey Hunter, cess. In fact, it might be retitled NATURAL Robert Wagner, Jack Warden. Intriguing BORN VAMPIRES. Followed by two dilook at underwater demolition squads in rect-to-video sequels. [R] ▼●쩠 action in the Pacific during WW2.쩠 From Hell (2001) C-122m. ★★★ D: The Frogs (1972) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Hughes Brothers. Johnny Depp, Heather GraMcCowan. Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan ham, Ian Holm, Robbie Coltrane, Ian RichVan Ark, Adam Roarke, Judy Pace. Patriardson, Jason Flemyng, Katrin Cartlidge, archal Milland has been destroying bayou Susan Lynch. Eccentric London police inwildlife and now all the swamp critters are spector Depp is determined to capture Jack out to destroy his whole family. Dumb but the Ripper despite a growing sense that there enjoyable thriller. [PG]▼쩠 is a cover-up at hand to protect some very Frogs for Snakes (1999) C-98m. ★★ D: important people. Gothic thriller treads familAmos Poe. Barbara Hershey, Robbie Coliar ground (for Ripperphiles) but is colorful trane, Harry Hamlin, Ian Hart, John Leguiand entertaining; an impressive showing for zamo, Lisa Marie, Debi Mazar, Ron the Hughes Brothers. Only Graham seems out Perlman, Clarence Williams III. Another of place as a weathered Whitechapel prostiTarantino wannabe, this black comedy has tute. Based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 a clever conceit: Struggling N.Y. actors who’ll do anything for a good part make From Hell to Borneo (1964) C-96m. ★★ money on the side as hit men for a Russian D: George Montgomery. George Montgomracketeer (Coltrane). Story goes nowhere, ery, Julie Gregg, Torin Thatcher, Lisa despite a good cast. [R]▼ Moreno. Filmed in the Philippines, tale From a Whisper to a Scream SEE: Offrecounts Montgomery’s efforts to maintain spring, The sanctity of his private island against aggressive crooks and smugglers.▼ From Beyond (1986) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Gordon. Jeffrey Combs, Barbara From Hell to Victory (1979-French-ItalianCrampton, Ted Sorel, Ken Foree, Carolyn Spanish) C-100m. ★★ D: Hank Milestone Purdy-Gordon, Bunny Summers, Bruce (Umberto Lenzi). George Peppard, George McGuire. The RE-ANIMATOR team reHamilton, Horst Buchholz, Capucine, turns to H. P. Lovecraft territory for this Sam Wanamaker, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Anny similarly demented film based on a scienDuperey. Friends of various nationalities tist’s search for a sixth sense . . . which, are torn apart by the coming of WW2. Unin time, causes his associates to go berserk. distinguished, superficial actioner. Technovision. [PG]▼쩠 Takes its time getting revved up, but then cuts loose in outrageous fashion. As beFrom Here to Eternity (1953) 118m. ★★★★ fore, this is not for the squeamish, but if D: Fred Zinnemann. Burt Lancaster, you liked RE-ANIMATOR . . . [R]▼●쩠 Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna From Beyond the Grave (1973-British) Reed, Frank Sinatra, Philip Ober, Ernest C-97m. ★★★ D: Kevin Connor. Peter Borgnine, Mickey Shaughnessy, Jack WarCushing, Margaret Leighton, Ian Bannen, den, Claude Akins, George Reeves. TonedDonald Pleasence, David Warner, Diana down but still powerful adaptation of James Dors, Angela Pleasence, Nyree Dawn Jones’ novel of Army life in Hawaii just Porter, Lesley-Anne Down. Neat multibefore Pearl Harbor. Depiction of Japanstoried horror pic. Visitors to Cushing’s ese sneak attack combines unforgettable antique shop, Temptations Ltd., meet terrible action scenes with actual combat footage. fates. Leighton excels as wacky clairvoyant. Brilliantly acted by entire cast, including Sinatra in his ‘‘comeback’’ role as the Retitled: CREATURES. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★ From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) C-108m. ill-fated soldier Maggio. Eight Oscars inD: Robert Rodriguez. Harvey Keitel, clude Best Picture, Director, Screenplay George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juli(Daniel Taradash), Cinematography (Burette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, nett Guffey), and Supporting Actors Sinatra Tom Savini, Fred Williamson, John Saxon, and Reed. Remade in 1979 as a TV miniKelly Preston, Marc Lawrence, Michael series, which in turn spun off a brief series.▼●쩠 Parks, Ernest Lui, Danny Trejo, Tito Larriva. Two out-of-control criminal brothers From Justin to Kelly (2003) C-81m. ★1⁄2 mow their way through Texas, heading for D: Rob Iscove. Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guara rendezvous in Mexico, and take a family ini, Katherine Bailess, Anika Noni Rose, (and their RV) hostage. But the rendezvous Greg Siff, Brian Dietzen, Jason Yribar. Guzlocation turns out to be a hellish biker bar zle sunscreen instead of sitting through this inhabited by vampires! Indefensible trash insipid musical vehicle for TV’s American certainly works on a visceral level; how Idol stars, which finds them trying to make a much you can take will depend on your love connection during Miami spring break. [ 501 ]

No one was expecting Shakespeare, but Hurt, who’s accused of murder. Hurt’s flamthere’s less heft here than in an Archie boyant performance can’t save this mongrel of comic book. Justin and Kelly belt and gya movie. J-D-C Scope. [PG] ▼●쩠 rate through a series of forgettable numbers From the Life of the Marionettes (1980but generate no chemistry, even in a chaste German) C/B&W-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Frankie-Annette sort of way. [PG] ▼쩠 Bergman. Robert Atzorn, Christine BuchegFrom Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in ger, Martin Benrath, Rita Russek, Lola China (1980) C-84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Murray Muethel, Walter Schmidinger, Heinz BenLerner. Isaac Stern, David Golub, Tan nent. Powerful, provocative drama about a Shuzhen. Moving documentary about viorespectable, successful businessman (Atlinist Stern’s ’79 tour of China. Most memzorn), who ravishes and strangles a prostiorably, he tutors talented Chinese students, tute. He has also been obsessed with killing encouraging them to feel their playing. his wife (Buchegger), with whom he conShuzhen, deputy director of the Shanghai stantly quarrels. Not coincidentally, both Conservatory of Music, describes his inwere minor characters in SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. [R]▼● carceration during the Cultural Revolution. Deservedly won Best Documentary AcadFrom the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil emy Award. [G]▼쩠 E. Frankweiler (1973) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: From Nashville With Music (1969) CFielder Cook. Ingrid Bergman, Sally Prager, ★1 87m. ⁄2 D: Eddie Crandall. Marilyn MaxJohnny Doran, George Rose, Georgann well, Leo G. Carroll, (Pedro) GonzalezJohnson, Richard Mulligan, Madeline Kahn. Gonzalez, Marty Robbins, Merle Haggard, Fanciful tale of New Jersey kids Prager Buck Owens. Some good C&W music, but and Doran who hide out in N.Y.C.’s one is better off buying one of the performMetropolitan Museum, creating a dream ers’ albums instead of suffering through this world and befriending recluse Bergman, story of a N.Y.C. couple who go to the seen too briefly. Best for children. Blanche Grand Ole Opry by mistake. Hanalis adapted E. L. Konigsburg’s novel. From Noon Till Three (1976) C-99m. Reissued as THE HIDEAWAYS. Remade ★★1⁄2 D: Frank D. Gilroy. Charles Bronson, in 1995 for TV with Lauren Bacall. [G]▼쩠 Jill Ireland, Douglas Fowley, Stan Haze, From the Terrace (1960) C-144m. ★★★ Damon Douglas, Anne Ramsey. Likably D: Mark Robson. Paul Newman, Joanne offbeat story (adapted by Gilroy from his Woodward, Myrna Loy, Ina Balin, Leon own novel) about a two-bit robber who enAmes, Elizabeth Allen, Barbara Eden, George joys a brief tryst with a woman who—after Grizzard, Patrick O’Neal, Felix Aylmer, Mae he is thought dead—fictionalizes their roMarsh. John O’Hara’s ironic chronicle of mance and turns him into a legendary hero. young war veteran’s rise to financial and A kind of shaggy dog joke, which while social success is superficial film. Woodward pleasant, doesn’t quite work. A nice change is chic and Newman wooden; Loy is superb of pace for Bronson, though. [PG]▼ as drunken mother, Ames fine as bitter dad. From Russia With Love (1963-British) CinemaScope.▼●쩠 C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Terence Young. Sean Front, The (1976) C-94m. ★★★★ D: MarConnery, Daniela Bianchi, Lotte Lenya, tin Ritt. Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Pedro Armendariz, Robert Shaw, Bernard Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy, Andrea Lee, Lois Maxwell. Second James Bond Marcovicci, Remak Ramsay, Joshua Shelley, film is one of the best; plenty of suspense Lloyd Gough, Danny Aiello, Charles and action, and one of the longest, most Kimbrough, Josef Sommer. Bull’s-eye comexciting fight scenes ever staged. Lenya edy with serious theme. Allen is a schnook makes a very sinister spy.▼●쩠 enlisted by blacklisted writers to put his From the Earth to the Moon (1958) name on their scripts during 1950s witchC-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Byron Haskin. Joseph hunt era, leading to various complications. Cotten, George Sanders, Debra Paget, Don Allen’s casting is perfect, and Mostel is Dubbins, Patric Knowles, Melville Cooper, standout as ‘‘tainted’’ comic fighting for Carl Esmond, Henry Daniell. Jules Verne’s survival. Original script by blacklisted Walfiction doesn’t float well in contrived sci-fi of ter Bernstein; Ritt, Mostel, Bernardi, Shelearly rocket flight to the moon. Veteran cast ley, and Gough were also blacklisted in looks most uncomfortable.▼● real life. [PG]▼●쩠 From the Hip (1987) C-112m. BOMB D: Frontier Hellcat (1966-German) C-98m. ★★1 Bob Clark. Judd Nelson, Elizabeth Perkins, ⁄2 D: Alfred Vohrer. Stewart Granger, John Hurt, Darren McGavin, Ray Walston, Elke Sommer, Pierre Brice, Gotz George. Dan Monahan, David Alan Grier, Nancy Another Karl May Winnetou story, which Marchand, Allan Arbus, Edward Winter. captures flavor of Old West in adventure of Once again, Nelson plays a character only a pioneers passing through Rockies. Ultramother could love: a lawyer who’s made a scope. name for himself by winning a hopeless Frontier Marshal (1939) 71m. ★★★ D: case through outrageous courtroom tactics. Allan Dwan. Randolph Scott, Nancy Kelly, Now he’s given another challenge: defending Cesar Romero, Binnie Barnes, John Car[ 502 ]

radine, Lon Chaney, Jr., Chris-Pin MarFrozen Assets (1992) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: tin, Eddie Foy, Jr. Colorful retelling of events George Miller. Shelley Long, Corbin leading to legendary gunfight at the O.K. CorBernsen, Larry Miller, Dody Goodman, ral. Scott is fine as Tombstone’s new marshal, Matt Clark, Paul Sand, Teri Copley, Gloria Wyatt Earp; Romero is more moody than Camden, Gerrit Graham. Low-octane comic cold-blooded as Doc Halliday, and Kelly is trifle, in which Bernsen is transferred to a the girl from his past who reminds Doc of his new bank—only to discover it’s a sperm earlier, saner days as—an obstetrician! Many bank (get it?). He meets repressed biologist scenes and bits of dialogue were used in the Long and after a lot of potency jokes they 1946 remake, MY DARLING CLEMfind themselves drawn to each other. MisENTINE. Ward Bond, who plays Earp’s guided movie vehicle for two proven TV brother in the later film, appears briefly as a stars. Corbin’s mother, The Young and the cowardly town marshal.쩠 Restless’ Jeanne Cooper, has a small role. [PG-13]▼ Front Page, The (1931) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Milestone. Adolphe Menjou, Pat Frozen Dead, The (1966-British) C-95m. ★★ O’Brien, Mary Brian, Edward Everett D: Herbert J. Leder. Dana Andrews, Horton, Walter Catlett, Mae Clarke, George Anna Palk, Philip Gilbert, Kathleen Breck, E. Stone. First filming of Hecht-MacArthur Karel Stepanek, Edward Fox. Bizarre acplay is forceful, funny, and flamboyantly count of scientist Andrews who froze group directed, with Menjou and O’Brien a good of top Nazis, now trying to revive them and pair as battling editor and reporter in Chithe Third Reich; sloppy production values cago. Stands up quite well alongside remar tale. Released theatrically in b&w. make HIS GIRL FRIDAY.▼쩠 Frozen River (2008) C-96m. ★★★ D: CourtFront Page, The (1974) C-105m. ★★★ ney Hunt. Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, MiD: Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon, Walter chael O’Keefe, Charlie McDermott, Mark Matthau, Carol Burnett, Susan Sarandon, Boone Junior, James Reilly, Jay Klaitz. The Vincent Gardenia, David Wayne, Allen setting is upstate New York near the CanaGarfield, Austin Pendleton, Charles Durndian border. Working-class Leo, whose husing, Harold Gould, Herb Edelman, Dick band has run off with their money—leaving O’Neill, Jon Korkes, Martin Gabel. Third her with broken dreams and two kids to filming of the Hecht-MacArthur play about raise—gets an offer she can’t refuse from a wild and woolly Chicago newspapermen sullen young Mohawk woman (Upham) to in the 1920s has hardly anything new to make ‘‘easy’’ money transporting people offer (except four-letter words) but reacross the border under perilous conditions. mains an enjoyable vehicle for this fine Low-key but utterly compelling drama with cast. Only Burnett misses the boat as patwo finely etched performances. Based on thetic hooker Molly Malloy. Remade again writer-director Hunt’s 2004 short subject of the same name. [R]쩠 (!) in 1988 as SWITCHING CHANNELS. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Fruit Machine, The (1988-British) C1 ★★ Front Page Woman (1935) 82m. ⁄2 D: 103m. ★★★ D: Philip Saville. Emile Michael Curtiz. Bette Davis, George Brent, Charles, Tony Forsyth, Robert Stephens, Winifred Shaw, Roscoe Karns, Joseph Claire Higgins, Bruce Payne, Robbie Crehan. Breezy yarn of rival reporters Davis Coltrane. Diverting contemporary thriller and Brent trying to outdo each other covering about two gay but very different Liverpool unusual murder and trial. Prime ingenue Davis teens (Charles and Forsyth, in spirited perfare. formances) who witness a gangland mur★★★★ Frost/Nixon (2008) C-122m. D: Ron der and must flee for their lives. Scripted Howard. Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, by Frank (LETTER TO BREZHNEV) Kevin Bacon, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Clarke. Video title: WONDERLAND.▼● Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Sam F.T.A. (1972) C-94m. ★★ D: Francine Rockwell, Patty McCormack, Joe Spano, Parker. Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Clint Howard, Andy Milder. Ebullient TV Len Chandler, Holly Near, Pamela Donhost David Frost, in a career lull, persuades egan, Michael Alaimo. Unusual, rarelydisgraced former President Richard Nixon seen documentary of Fonda and Sutherland’s to agree to a series of television interviews. Free (or F***) the Army revue, presented His backup team hopes to elicit a public near Army bases and featuring antiwar skits apology for his misdeeds, while Nixon’s and songs. Interesting only as a curio.쩠 loyalists intend to restore his tarnished repuFuel (2008) C-112m. ★★★ D: Joshua Ticktation. Incredibly gripping drama conceived ell. Documentary about the odyssey of by Peter Morgan, who wrote THE QUEEN, activist-turned-filmmaker Tickell, a longand so effectively reinvented as a movie— time exponent of biofuel as a source of clean by Morgan and director Howard—that energy. Revised after its 2008 Sundance you’d never know it originated on the stage. debut (as FIELDS OF FUEL), when biofuel Langella and Sheen are superb and utterly got a black eye in the media. Interviewees believable, even if you remember the realinclude scientists, cutting-edge innovators, life figures they portray. Super 35. [R]쩠 and proactive celebrities (including Julia [ 503 ]

Roberts, Sheryl Crow, Woody Harrelson, Fuller Brush Man, The (1948) 93m. ★★1⁄2 Larry Hagman, and Neil Young). More inD: S.Sylvan Simon. Red Skelton, Janet teresting for its content than its fluidity as Blair, Don McGuire, Adele Jergens, Ross cinema, but undeniably educational and Ford, Hillary Brooke. Usual Skelton slapprovocative. stick, with Red involved in murder while 1 ★★★ Fugitive, The (1947) 104m. valiantly trying to succeed as a door-to⁄2 D: John Ford. Henry Fonda, Dolores Del Rio, door salesman.▼● Pedro Armendariz, J. Carrol Naish, Leo Full Fathom Five (1990) C-82m. BOMB Carrillo, Ward Bond. Brooding drama set D: Carl Franklin. Michael Moriarty, Maria in Mexico with revolutionist priest turned Rangel, Michael Cavanaugh, John LaFayin by man who once sheltered him. Suette, Todd Field, Daniel Faraldo, Orlando perbly shot by Gabriel Figueroa. Also Sacha. Roger Corman’s ‘‘Red October’’ is shown in computer-colored version.▼● a waterlogged mess: a group of renegades Fugitive, The (1993) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: seize a Russian sub and threaten the nuAndrew Davis. Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee clear annihilation of Houston, while the Jones, Sela Ward, Julianne Moore, Joe PanU.S. is preparing to invade Panama. Far toliano, Jeroen Krabbe´, Andreas Katsulas, too cheap for its ambitions. [PG]▼ Daniel Roebuck, L. Scott Caldwell. Slick, Full Frontal (2002) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Steven solid update of the 1960s TV series about a Soderbergh. Julia Roberts, David Duchovny, doctor wrongly convicted of murdering his David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener, Nicky wife; he takes it on the lam, with a dogged Katt, Mary McCormack, Blair Underwood, federal marshal (Jones, in an Oscar-winning Brad Pitt, David Fincher, Terence Stamp, Enperformance) and his team on his trail. rico Colantoni, Erika Alexander, Brad Rowe, Great action and stunts, including an eyeCynthia Gibb, Jerry Weintraub, Sandra Oh. popping bus crash/train wreck, but it’s the Self-indulgent, Hollywood-insider piffle ofcat-and-mouse game between two strong fers a film within a film as we meet such L.A. personalities—Ford and Jones—that makes denizens as a magazine writer and a movie this work. Scripted by Jeb Stuart and David star (both played by Roberts), an unhappily Twohy from Twohy’s story; based on married couple (Pierce and Keener), and a coexecutive producer Roy Huggins’ origimovie producer (Duchovny) who’s invited nal TV premise. Followed by U.S. MAReveryone to his 40th birthday party. OccaSHALS. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 sional moments of genuine emotion are unFugitive Kind, The (1959) 121m. ★★1⁄2 dermined by showing us that it’s ‘‘only a D: Sidney Lumet. Marlon Brando, Anna movie’’ after all. An unsatisfying mess. Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Shot on digital video. [R] ▼쩠 Stapleton, Victor Jory, R. G. Armstrong. Full Metal Jacket (1987) C-116m. ★★★ Uneven filming of Tennessee Williams’ D: Stanley Kubrick. Matthew Modine, Orpheus Descending, with strange casting. Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Wandering bum (Brando) arrives in SouthErmey, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard, ern town, sparking romances with middleKevyn Major Howard, Ed O’Ross. Adapaged married woman (Magnani) and spunky tation of Gustav Hasford’s The Short TimWoodward. Movie goes nowhere. Remade ers is divided into two sections: a harrowing for cable TV in 1990 as ORPHEUS DElook at Marine basic training on Parris SCENDING.▼쩠 Island; and combat experiences in VietFugitive Pieces (2008-Canadian-Greek) Cnam. The first half is so strong (thanks in 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeremy Podeswa. Stephen part to real-life former D.I. Ermey) that Dillane, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, the second half suffers in comparison, as it Ayelet Zurer, Robbie Kay, Ed Stoppard, covers more familiar ground, while keepRachelle Lefevre, Themis Bazaka, Nina ing emotions in check. Still, it’s compelDobrev. Jewish writer (Dillane) deals with ling, well acted, and supremely well crafted, his present-day demons while immersed in certainly in keeping with Kubrick’s recurthe memory of his boyhood during WW2: ring theme of dehumanization. Original witnessing his parents’ slaughter, wondermusic by Abigail Mead, aka Vivian Kuing about the fate of his sister, being rescued brick, the director’s daughter. Filmed in Enby a kindly Greek archaeologist (Sherbedgland. [R]▼●쩠 gia). Somber mood perfectly reflects the Full Monty, The (1997-British-U.S.) mind-set of the main character, but the film C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Cattaneo. Robert is too drawn out and one-dimensionally Carlyle, Tom Wilkinson, Mark Addy, Lesdownbeat. Podeswa scripted, based on ley Sharp, Emily Woof, Steve Huison, Paul Anne Michaels’ acclaimed novel. [R]쩠 Barber, Hugo Speer, Deirdre Costello. Full Circle SEE: Haunting of Julia, The Bull’s-eye comedy about unemployed ShefFuller Brush Girl, The (1950) 85m. ★★ D: field steel-mill workers who, out of desperaLloyd Bacon. Lucille Ball, Eddie Albert, Jeff tion, the need for money, and an equal need Donnell, Jerome Cowan, Lee Patrick. Lowto have something to do, decide to become grade slapstick with energetic Lucy as doormale strippers. Funny, well cast, and never to-door salesgirl, mixed up with thieves.▼● mean spirited, this film earns its laughs hon[ 504 ]

estly. Clever screenplay by Simon Beaufoy. ented young leads. A biting commentary on ‘‘celebrity’’ in America. ▼쩠 Oscar-winning score by Anne Dudley. Funeral, The (1984-Japanese) C-124m. Later a Broadway musical. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Juzo Itami. Nobuko Miyamoto, Full Moon High (1981) C-94m. ★★★ D: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kin Sugai, Ichiro Larry Cohen. Adam Arkin, Ed McMahon, Zaitsu, Nekohachi Edoya. Itami’s debut Elizabeth Hartman, Roz Kelly, Bill Kirfeature is an on-target black comedy that chenbauer, Kenneth Mars, Joanne Nail, chides solemn, traditional Japanese funeral Alan Arkin. Infectiously silly teenage rites. The scenario details what ensues werewolf comedy, with Arkin as a highwhen a modern family is compelled to hold school football star whose strange, righta Buddhist funeral for its patriarch—who wing father (McMahon) takes him to happened to own a brothel.▼쩠 Transylvania and inadvertently changes his Funeral, The (1996) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Abel life. Lots of off-the-wall laughs and cameos Ferrara. Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, by various comedy performers. [PG]▼ Annabella Sciorra, Isabella Rossellini, VinFull Moon in Blue Water (1988) C-93m. ★★ D: Peter Masterson. Gene Hackman, cent Gallo, Benicio Del Toro, Gretchen Mol, John Ventimiglia, Paul Hipp, Victor Teri Garr, Burgess Meredith, Elias Koteas, Argo, Edie Falco. Moody 1930s gangster Kevin Cooney, David Doty. Hackman is film which follows what happens as thug wallowing in self-pity over his drowned wife, siblings Walken and Penn respond to the as creditors duplicitously plot foreclosure on murder of their Communist kid brother his coastal Texas bar. Also involved in the (Gallo). Occasionally meanders, and the talky interchange are feisty bus driver Garr, flashbacks are confusing, but there’s atmoHackman’s elderly father-in-law Meredith, sphere to spare, and Ferrara vividly depicts and mentally shaky employee Koteas. This a macho world in which one must be unfeelscreen original by playwright Bill Bozzone ing and conquer his fears in order to attain feels like bad theater. [R]▼●쩠 ‘‘manhood.’’ He also deals with his familiar Full Moon in Paris (1984-French) Cthemes of God and religion in a world of 102m. ★★★ D: Eric Rohmer. Pascale Ogier, brutality. [R] ▼●쩠 Fabrice Luchini, Tcheky Karyo, Christian Funeral Home (1982-Canadian) C-93m. Vadim, Virginie Thevenet. Neat little com★★ D: William Fruet. Lesleh Donaldson, edy from Rohmer about a headstrong young Kay Hawtrey, Barry Morse, Dean Garbett, woman (Ogier), and her relationships with Stephen Miller, Harvey Atkin. Teenager three men. Wonderful dialogue and charDonaldson investigates when guests begin acterizations, with a charming Ogier perdisappearing from grandmother Hawtrey’s formance. [R]▼쩠 summer motel. OK of its type; aka CRIES Full of It (2007) C-93m. ★★ D: Christian IN THE NIGHT. [R]▼쩠 Charles. Ryan Pinkston, Kate Mara, Teri Funeral in Berlin (1966) C-102m. ★★ D: Polo, Craig Kilborn, John Carroll Lynch, Guy Hamilton. Michael Caine, Eva Renzi, Cynthia Stevenson, Amanda Walsh, Derek Paul Hubschmid, Oscar Homolka, Guy McGrath, Joshua Close, Matt Gordon, CarDoleman. Second of three Harry Palmer men Electra. Passable teen comedy was films (based on Len Deighton’s novels) probably pitched as LIAR, LIAR set in high featuring Caine as the British spy arrangschool. Loser student with an active imagiing for defection of Russian officer in nation suddenly finds all the whoppers he’s charge of Berlin war security. Caine and been telling start coming true, making him Homolka are good, Renzi attractive, but the most popular guy on campus. Largely slow-moving tale just doesn’t click. Foluninspired gags deal with every possible lowed by BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN. teenage fantasy. [PG-13]쩠 Panavision.▼●쩠 ★★★ Full of Life (1956) 91m. D: Richard Funhouse, The (1981) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Quine. Judy Holliday, Richard Conte, SalTobe Hooper. Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper vatore Baccaloni, Esther Minciotti. HolliHuckabee, Miles Chapin, Largo Woodruff, day’s pregnant wife antics almost matched Sylvia Miles, William Finley, Kevin Conby Baccaloni’s as excitable father-in-law way. Intense drama about four teenagers who with his own way of running things. ▼ decide to spend night in funhouse of a sleazy Full Treatment, The SEE: Stop Me Betraveling carnival. Once inside, there is sex, fore I Kill! violence, suspense and an increasing tenFun (1993) C-105m. ★★★ D: Rafal Zielinsion as they encounter the unknown. Stylish ski. Alicia Witt, Renee Humphrey, William visuals help create an eerie atmosphere in R. Moses, Leslie Hope, Ania Suli. Jarring this not entirely successful chiller. Panaviaccount of seemingly average young subursion. [R]▼●쩠 ban teens who have just murdered a trusting Fun in Acapulco (1963) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: elderly woman, for the ‘‘fun’’ of it! A Richard Thorpe. Elvis Presley, Ursula Anthoughtful, disquieting film, every bit as imdress, Paul Lukas, Alejandro Rey. Scenery pressive as HEAVENLY CREATURES, outshines story of Presley working as lifefeaturing riveting performances by its talguard and entertainer in Mexican resort city [ 505 ]

and performing the likes of ‘‘No Room to Starr, Sarah Michelle Gellar. Oddly easygoRhumba in a Sports Car’’ and ‘‘You Can’t ing—and thus mildly endearing—Chase comSay No in Acapulco.’’ Lukas is amusing as edy about a N.Y. sportswriter who discovers, temperamental chef.▼쩠 MR. BLANDINGS style, that country living Fun Loving SEE: Quackser Fortune Has isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be. Has a Cousin in the Bronx the look of quality (it was photographed by Miroslav Ondricek, designed by Henry Funny About Love (1990) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Leonard Nimoy. Gene Wilder, ChrisBumstead) but too many gags fizzle. Final tine Lahti, Mary Stuart Masterson, Robert episode is the best. [PG]▼●쩠 Prosky, Stephen Tobolowsky, Anne JackFunny Games (1997-Austrian) C-104m. ★★ son, Susan Ruttan, Jean De Baer, David D: Michael Haneke. Susanne Lothar, Ulrich Margulies. Cartoonist Wilder and caterer Mu¨he, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, Stefan Lahti can’t conceive, despite the latest Clapczynski, Doris Kunstmann, Christoph techniques of their laugh-a-minute fertility Bantzer, Wolfgang Glu¨ck. Two repugnant doctor; ensuing problems force Gene to creeps bully their way into the country house take up with college sorority sister Masterof a middle-class family, who find themselves son, obviously many years younger. Terunder siege physically and psychologically. minally mild comedy with odd, ham-handed Writer-director Haneke attempts to offer punflickers of black humor. [PG-13]▼●쩠 gent commentary on the way contemporary Funny Bones (1995-British-U.S.) C-126m. society has been desensitized by violent im★★1 ⁄2 D: Peter Chelsom. Oliver Platt, Lee ages on TV and in movies, but this film is Evans, Richard Griffiths, Leslie Caron, barely credible—and highly unpleasant. ReJerry Lewis, Oliver Reed, Ian McNeice, made by Haneke in 2008. ▼쩠 George Carl, Freddie Davies, Ruta Lee, Funny Games (2008-French-Italian-British) Harold Nicholas. Son of a famous and beC-107m. ★★ D: Michael Haneke. Naomi loved comedian tries to make it on his own; Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corwhen he fails, he goes back to Blackpool, bet, Devon Gearhart, Boyd Gaines, Siobhan England, to search for material—and his Fallon Hogan, Robert LuPone. Suburban roots. Extraordinarily strange movie has family is terrorized and systematically tormany endearing moments (especially when tured by two seemingly normal young men it resurrects nuggets of show business past) who gain entry into their vacation home. but so many oddities that it never adds up— Shot-by-shot remake of Haneke’s 1997 or figures out what it wants to be. Jerry is Austrian thriller has been transported to a great, as Platt’s father, and Caron is a depicturesque U.S. lakeside setting but still light as well. [R]▼●쩠 leaves a sickening aftertaste. With characFunny Face (1957) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ters breaking the fourth wall and speaking Stanley Donen. Audrey Hepburn, Fred directly to the audience, the filmmaker is Astaire, Kay Thompson, Michel Auclair, trying to make a comment on extreme vioSuzy Parker, Ruta Lee. Stylish and highly lence in movies in a story that provides stylized musical with Astaire as fashion plenty itself. Effectively made, but for photographer who turns Hepburn into chic strong stomachs only. [R]쩠 Paris model. Top Gershwin score (‘‘How Funny Girl (1968) C-155m. ★★★ D: WilLong Has This Been Going On,’’ ‘‘He liam Wyler. Barbra Streisand, Omar Loves and She Loves,’’ ‘‘S’Wonderful,’’ Sharif, Kay Medford, Anne Francis, Waltitle tune), striking use of color, entertainter Pidgeon, Lee Allen, Gerald Mohr. ing performance by Thompson as magaStreisand’s Oscar-winning film debut as zine editor. Cinematography by Ray June Fanny Brice, singer-comedienne whose unand John P. Fulton. Leonard Gershe based happy private life contrasted comic antics his screenplay on an unproduced stage onstage. Bad as biography, but first-rate as musical—and Astaire’s role was based on musical, including fine Bob Merrill–Jule Richard Avedon, who’s credited as visual Styne score (‘‘People,’’ title tune), memoraconsultant. VistaVision.▼●쩠 ble tugboat finale to ‘‘Don’t Rain on My Funny Farm, The (1982-Canadian) C-95m. Parade,’’ plus Brice standards ‘‘My Man’’ ★★ D: Ron Clark. Miles Chapin, Eileen and ‘‘Second Hand Rose.’’ Sequel: FUNNY Brennan, Jack Carter, Tracy Bregman, LADY. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Howie Mandel, Marjorie Gross, Lou Dinos, Funny Lady (1975) C-137m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Aykroyd. Young man from Ohio Herbert Ross. Barbra Streisand, James comes to L.A. to make it as a stand-up comic. Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall, Slow-moving film introduces many unknown Ben Vereen, Carole Wells, Colleen Camp. comics who do short bits at a ‘‘comedy FUNNY GIRL sequel shows Fanny Brice at store’’ owned by Brennan. Some funny moheight of career, meeting and marrying ambiments, but overall is nothing much. [R]▼ tious showman Billy Rose (Caan). Disjointed Funny Farm (1988) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: film has fine moments of music and comedy, George Roy Hill. Chevy Chase, Madolyn but a cliche´-ridden script to contend with. Smith, Joseph Maher, Jack Gilpin, Brad SulliPanavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 van, MacIntyre Dixon, Glenn Plummer, Mike Funnyman (1967) C-98m. ★★★ D: John [ 506 ]

Korty. Peter Bonerz, Sandra Archer, Carol exander. Attempting to explore famed Androsky, Larry Hankin, Barbara Hiken, photographer Arbus’ artistic awakening in Gerald Hiken. Winning little film about metaphoric terms, this film (set in 1958) improvisational comic (Bonerz) who’s follows her evolution from a stifled uppernagged by the idea that he should be doing class N.Y.C. wife and mother to an artist something more ‘‘important.’’ Features great who’s open to a world of society’s outcasts skits by The Committee and funny animated that her parents taught her to shun. Downey spoofs by director Korty. plays a fugitive from a freak show with a Funny Money (2007-German) C-98m. ★1⁄2 furry body who moves in upstairs. He’s a D: Leslie Greif. Chevy Chase, Penelope fictitious character in this ‘‘imaginary porAnn Miller, Armand Assante, Robert Logtrait’’ that tells us little about a very interestgia, Christopher McDonald, Alex Meneses, ing woman. Ambitious and intriguing, with Kevin Sussman, Guy Torry, Rebecca WiKidman perfectly cast, but a strange, unsatsocky, Tim Stack. Droning worker bee at a isfying film. ‘‘Inspired by’’ Patricia Boswax-fruit factory (Chase) accidentally worth’s biography of Arbus. [R]쩠 brings home the wrong briefcase one Furies, The (1950) 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Annight—filled with 5 million dollars. Foreign thony Mann. Barbara Stanwyck, Walter crooks, a crooked cop, a horny boss, a randy Huston, Wendell Corey, Gilbert Roland, art dealer, a comedic cabdriver, and asJudith Anderson, Beulah Bondi, Thomas sorted others descend upon Chase’s home Gomez, Albert Dekker, Blanche Yurka, in the ruckus that follows. Ray Cooney’s Wallace Ford. Fiery Stanwyck has always lowbrow British stage farce doesn’t transbeen able to sweet-talk her cattle-baron falate well to film. Made in 2005—mostly in ther, who presides over a vast New Mexico Romania! [R]쩠 ranch called The Furies—but lately he isn’t Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the listening, and she locks horns with him. Forum, A (1966) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Operatic-style Western saga of love and Lester. Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, Buster Keahate, adapted by Charles Schnee from a ton, Jack Gilford, Michael Crawford, Annette Niven Busch novel and directed with flair Andre, Michael Hordern. Frenzied adaptation by Mann. Striking cinematography by Victor Milner. This was Huston’s final film.쩠 of Broadway musical about conniving slave (Mostel) in ancient Rome; tries too hard, Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck, The (1988) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Keith. comes off forced. Still, with great comic cast, there’s plenty worth seeing. Self-spoof on David Keith, Kathy Shower, Brant van song ‘‘Lovely’’ is a highlight; score by SteHoffman, Sydney Lassick, Tiziana Stella, phen Sondheim.▼●쩠 Patrizia Zanetti. Fun imitation of the INFun With Dick and Jane (1977) C-95m. DIANA JONES films; big white hunter ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ted Kotcheff. Jane Fonda, George Keith goes on safari in Borneo with former Segal, Ed McMahon, Dick Gautier, Allan Playboy Playmate of the Year Shower and Miller, John Dehner. Lightly amusing comher rich nerd husband van Hoffman. They edy about Segal losing his job, he and wife meet up with a cannibal tribe whose women Fonda trying to cope with no income and give Shower a vivid oil rubdown (the film’s finally turning to crime. Falls apart after promhighlight). Actor-director Keith maintains a ising start, becoming fragmented and pointbreezy tone. [R]▼● less. Watch for Jay Leno in a bit. Remade in Further Adventures of the Wilderness Fam2005. [PG]▼쩠 ily, The (1978) C-105m. ★★★ D: Frank Zuniga. Fun With Dick and Jane (2005) C-90m. Robert Logan, Susan D. Shaw, Heather Rat★★1 ⁄2 D: Dean Parisot. Jim Carrey, Te´a Leoni, tray, Ham Larsen, George (Buck) Flower, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins, Angie HarBrian Cutler. This clone of 1975’s family hit mon, John Michael Higgins, Richard Burgi, ADVENTURES OF . . . has same cast, same Laurie Metcalf, Clint Howard. Not exactly a elements, same magnificent Colorado scenery. leader in the ‘‘crying need of remaking’’ So who’s to argue with success? Aka THE department, this is obviously an EnronWILDERNESS FAMILY, PART 2; folinfluenced riff on the 1977 original about an lowed by MOUNTAIN FAMILY ROBINupward middle-class couple who turn robSON.▼쩠 bers after they’re caught in an economic Further Perils of Laurel and Hardy, The (1968) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Youngson. squeeze. Carrey gets promoted to VP in a company that barely exists, about a day beLaurel and Hardy, Charley Chase, Max fore boss Baldwin helicopters away with the Davidson, James Finlayson. Repetitious profits. Fitfully amusing comedy gets off to format of ‘‘episodes’’ dulls edge of great a fair start but loses its way into scattershot material, but still fun, with rare L&H farce. Leoni makes a good fit with Carrey’s silent footage, pleasing interludes by Chase manic persona. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 and Davidson.▼쩠 Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Fury (1936) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. ★★ Arbus (2006) C-120m. Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, D: Steven Shainberg. Nicole Kidman, Robert DowBruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brenney, Jr., Ty Burrell, Harris Yulin, Jane Alnan, Frank Albertson. Still timely drama [ 507 ]

of lynch mobs and mob rule in small town, for Reynolds fans. Script by Evan Hunter making an embittered man of innocent Tracy, from one of his 87th Precinct stories, spoiling his love for sweetheart Sidney. written as ‘‘Ed McBain.’’ [PG]▼쩠 Lang’s first American film; he also scripted F/X (1986) C-106m. ★★★ D: Robert Manwith Bartlett Cormack, from a Norman del. Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Diane Krasna story. Also shown in computer-colVenora, Cliff De Young, Mason Adams, ored version.▼●쩠 Jerry Orbach, Joe Grifasi, Josie DeGuzman, Fury, The (1978) C-118m. ★★★ D: Brian De Martha Gehman. Movie special-effects man Palma. Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie is hired to stage a phony ‘‘hit’’ with a Mafia Snodgress, Amy Irving, Fiona Lewis, Anman the target—but quickly learns that he’s drew Stevens, Charles Durning, Gordon been double-crossed. Fast-moving, enterJump, Dennis Franz. Stylish trash about taining yarn that’s a lot of fun, as long as young woman (Irving) with psychokinetic you don’t think about it for a moment afterpowers, and Douglas’ desperate attempt to ward. Dennehy and Grifasi make a hilarious save his similarly gifted son from being used— pair of Mutt and Jeff cops. Angela Bassett’s or destroyed. Bloody and violent—the ultifilm debut. Followed by a sequel and a TV mate litmus test for those who prefer form over series. [R]▼●쩠 content. Film debut of Daryl Hannah; look fast F/X2 (1991) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard for James Belushi as an extra. [R] ▼●쩠 Franklin. Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, RaFury at Smuggler’s Bay (1961-British) chel Ticotin, Joanna Gleason, Philip Bosco, 92m. ★★ D: John Gilling. Peter Cushing, Kevin J. O’Connor, Tom Mason, Dominic Michele Mercier, Bernard Lee, George Zamprogna, Josie DeGuzman, John Walsh, Coulouris, Liz Fraser. Sea yarn of pirates James Stacy. Special-effects whiz Brown scavenging passing ships and reaping reagrees to use his skills in a police case, but wards off the English coastline. Panascope. when things go wrong he finds himself emFuture Cop SEE: Trancers broiled in a deadly coverup—and calls on his ★★ Future Shock (1994) C-93m. D: Eric ex-cop pal Dennehy to help. Amiable sequel Parkinson, Francis ‘‘Oley’’ Sassone, Matt has some engaging gimmickry, but the story Reeves. Vivian Schilling, Scott Thompson, gets too lumpy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Martin Kove, Sam Clay, Bill Paxton, Brion James, Sidney Lassick, James Karen, G (2005) C-96m. ★★ D: Christopher Scott Amanda Foreman, Tim Doyle. This threeCherot. Richard T. Jones, Blair Underwood, story film’s setup: Evil experimenters test Andre Royo, Chenoa Maxwell, Laz Alonso, virtual-reality scenarios on unsuspecting psyNicoye Banks, Andrew Lauren, Jillian Lindchiatric patients. A frightened woman can’t sey. Shady character in the music industry get her husband to understand her fears of rediscovers the great love from his past . . . urban violence and wolves in Malibu; a mild but she’s got a new man. Uncredited renerd is victimized by his punkish new roommake of THE GREAT GATSBY moves mate; a photographer becomes obsessed with Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age tragedy farther east on guarding against accidental death. Only the Long Island to the Hamptons, where the hipfinal segment shows real imagination. Unhop–inflected romance remains faithful to its rated version runs 97m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 source in spirit if not in word (and that word Futureworld (1976) C-104m. ★★★ D: Richwould begin with F). Attractive, ultra-glam ard T. Heffron. Peter Fonda, Blythe Danner, mounting with catchy music helps, but a Arthur Hill, Yul Brynner, Stuart Margolin, bland Jones is no Redford—or Alan Ladd, for John Ryan. Suspenseful sequel to WESTthat matter. Written by the director. Shot in WORLD has overtones of INVASION OF 2002. Super 35. [R]쩠 THE BODY SNATCHERS as robot duGabbeh (1996-Iranian-French) C-75m. plicates try to take over. Short on action ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Shaghaybut intelligently done. [PG]▼● 1 egh Djodat, Hossein Moharami, Roghieh Futz (1969) C-92m. ★ ⁄2 D: Tom O’Horgan. Moharami, Abbas Sayahi. Simple, sweet alSeth Allen, John Bakos, Mari-Claire Charba, legory in which an elderly woman washes a Peter Craig, Sally Kirkland. Director gabbeh (carpet) by the side of a river. From O’Horgan, whose youthful touch made the gabbeh emerges a young woman, a this a mild off-Broadway hit, brings bimember of a nomadic tribe who recounts a zarre tale to screen with disastrous results. series of related stories. This elegantly lyriNo plot worth describing, except that there’s cal, stunningly visual fable allows a peek a man in love with a pig.▼ ★★ into a non-Western culture and the way it Fuzz (1972) C-92m. D: Richard A. records its history.▼쩠 Colla. Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, Yul Gable and Lombard (1976) C-131m. Brynner, Jack Weston, Tom Skerritt, Peter BOMB D: Sidney J. Furie. James Brolin, Bonerz, Steve Ihnat, James McEachin, Jill Clayburgh, Allen Garfield, Red ButBert Remsen. Oddball film tries to mix tons, Joanne Linville, Melanie Mayron. laughs and excitement, to be the MASH Pure tripe about offscreen romance of two of police dramas, but doesn’t have the style to pull it off; another disappointment great stars. Brolin and Clayburgh are game [ 508 ]

but one-dimensional; script and direction are hopeless. [R]쩠 Gabriela (1983-Brazilian-Italian) C-102m. ★★ D: Bruno Barreto. Marcello Mastroianni, Sonia Braga, Antonio Cantafora, Ricardo Petraglia. Obvious tale of barkeeper Mastroianni taking on luscious, free-spirited Braga as a cook and lover. Braga’s body and smile are the main interests here. Based on Jorge Amado’s novel, which was developed into a top soap opera on Brazilian television. [R]▼ Gabrielle (2005-French-Italian-German) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Patrice Che´reau. Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory, Claudia Coli, Thierry Hancisse, Chantal Neuwirth, Thierry Fortineau. In fin-de-sie`cle France, a smug and wealthy publisher who thinks of his wife as his prized possession is shocked when she suddenly leaves him for another man. But she returns later that day, leading to an unexpected conclusion. Polished, penetrating, but cold and talky series of scenes from a marriage; expanded from Joseph Conrad’s short story ‘‘The Return,’’ changing the setting from London to Paris and shifting the dramatic focus from the pompous husband to the repressed wife. Che´reau coscripted. Panavision.쩠 Gabriel Over the White House (1933) 87m. ★★★ D: Gregory La Cava. Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon, Samuel S. Hinds, Jean Parker, Dickie Moore. Dizzying Depression fantasy of crooked Huston elected President, experiencing mysterious change that turns him into Superpresident, determined to eliminate racketeers, find world peace. Bizarre, fascinating.

of Gypsy villagers, becomes ‘‘adopted’’ by a loud old drunk, and falls in love with a peasant woman. Things get complicated when the drunk’s real son, a Gypsy mafioso, arrives fresh from jail. Overdone and melodramatic, this story too often plays on one note. Aka CRAZY STRANGER.▼쩠 Gaily, Gaily (1969) C-107m. ★★ D: Norman Jewison. Beau Bridges, Melina Mercouri, Brian Keith, George Kennedy, Hume Cronyn, Margot Kidder, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Melodie Johnson. Ben Hecht’s colorful memories of apprenticeship on Chicago newspaper are destroyed by silly, hollow script that even changes ‘‘Hecht’’ to ‘‘Harvey.’’ Expensive sets, period flavor are only bright spots in contrived comedy. Kidder’s film debut. [M] Galaxina (1980) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: William Sachs. Stephen Macht, Dorothy R. Stratten, James David Hinton, Avery Schreiber. Cheap STAR WARS/STAR TREK spoof reeks of low production values, boring scenario, and non-acting. Definitely not a vehicle for the late Ms. Stratten, though the film is of interest for her appearance as a robot. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Galaxy of Terror (1981) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: B. D. Clark. Edward Albert, Erin Moran, Ray Walston, Bernard Behrens, Zalman King, Sid Haig. Astronauts are killed off by monsters while on mission to aid spaceship marooned on another planet. A Grade D ALIEN clone. Aka MINDWARP: AN INFINITY OF TERROR and PLANET OF HORRORS. Followed by FORBIDDEN WORLD. [R]▼● Galaxy Quest (1999) C-104m. ★★★ D: Dean Parisot. Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, ▼● Gaby (1956) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis BernAlan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockhardt. Leslie Caron, John Kerr, Sir Cedric well, Daryl Mitchell, Enrico Colantoni, Hardwicke, Taina Elg. Remake of WARobin Sachs, Patrick Breen, Missi Pyle. EnTERLOO BRIDGE, telling of ballerina gaging comedy about the washed-up cast of Caron and her romance with soldier Kerr a Star Trek–like TV show now reduced to in WW2 England. Not bad but not up to making personal appearances at fan convenoriginal. CinemaScope. tions; suddenly they’re whisked off to a Gaby—A True Story (1987) C-110m. ★★★ starship where an alien civilization (beD: Luis Mandoki. Liv Ullmann, Norma lieving their television adventures to be Aleandro, Robert Loggia, Rachel Levin (Chareal) seeks their help to save the aliens from gall), Lawrence Monoson, Robert Beltran, oblivion. By Grabthar’s hammer, it’s clever, Tony Goldwyn. Incredible true story of Gaby funny, and sweet. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Brimmer, born with cerebral palsy to wealthy Galileo (1973-British) C-145m. ★★★ D: European refugee parents in Mexico, leaving Joseph Losey. Topol, Edward Fox, Colin her body almost completely paralyzed—but Blakely, Georgia Brown, Clive Revill, Marnot affecting her mind. Levin, who is not disagaret Leighton, John Gielgud, Michael bled in real life, gives a stunning performance Gough, Judy Parfitt, Patrick Magee, Tom in the lead (matched by Monoson as her boyConti. Bertolt Brecht’s play, whose 1947 friend), with Aleandro a tower of strength as U.S. premiere was staged by director Losey, the woman who devotes her life to Gaby. An turned into unremarkable but generally satoften painful but worthwhile film. Brimmer isfactory film. Topol is a little much as the executive-produced. [R]▼● scientist whose theories of the universe Gadjo Dilo (1998-French-Romanian) Cconfound the church, but supporting actors 97m. ★★ D: Tony Gatlif. Romain Duris, Rona are excellent. An American Film Theatre Hartner, Izidor Serban, Ovidiu Balan, Angela Production. [PG]▼쩠 Serban. During a bleak Romanian winter, a Gallant Hours, The (1960) 111m. ★★★ D: young Frenchman hoping to track down a legRobert Montgomery. James Cagney, Denendary folk singer gets involved with a group nis Weaver, Ward Costello, Richard Jaeckel. [ 509 ]

Sincere, low-key biog of WW2 Admiral making her first big-screen appearance since 1943’s HOSTAGES). [R]▼쩠 ‘‘Bull’’ Halsey played documentary-style. Gambling Lady (1934) 66m. ★★1⁄2 D: Archie Cagney is reserved and effective, but proMayo. Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea, Pat duction needs livening.▼ O’Brien, Claire Dodd, C. Aubrey Smith. Gallery of Horror SEE: Return From the Honest professional gambler Stanwyck weds Past society boy McCrea; her motives are suspect Gallipoli (1981-Australian) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 because, after all, she’s from ‘‘the other side D: Peter Weir. Mark Lee, Mel Gibson, Bill of the tracks.’’ So-so drama picks up in its Kerr, Robert Grubb, David Argue, Tim second half. And isn’t that Tyrone Power in a McKenzie. Youthful idealists Lee and Gibbit in the Park Avenue gambling scene? son enlist in the military, meet their fate in Gamblin’ Man SEE: Cockfighter title WW1 battle. Engrossing human drama Game, The (1997) C-128m. ★★ D: David with meticulous direction, striking feel for Fincher. Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Carroll period detail. Final freeze-frame shot is Baker, Deborah Kara Unger, Armin Muellerreminiscent of Robert Capa’s classic SpanStahl, Peter Donat, James Rebhorn. Coldish Civil War photo of soldier at the mohearted financial whiz (Douglas) gets an unment of death. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 usual birthday present from his brother Gal Young ’Un (1979) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: (Penn)—a gift certificate for a sophisticated Victor Nunez. Dana Preu, David Peck, J. recreational company that stages a ‘‘game,’’ Smith, Gene Densmore, Jenny Stringfellow, the nature of which is never revealed. Before Tim McCormick. Low-budget gem about long, Douglas’ entire existence is stripped Prohibition-era widow Preu charmed and away, on a roller-coaster ride heading straight then exploited by foppish hustler Peck. down. Unusually mean-spirited film offers no Effective performances, use of locales (near letup—and has no sense of humor, either. Gainesville, Florida), depiction of the era. Filmed in San Francisco. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 From Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings story.▼ Game for Vultures (1979-British) C-106m. Gambit (1966) C-109m. ★★★ D: Ronald BOMB D: James Fargo. Joan Collins, RichNeame. Michael Caine, Shirley MacLaine, ard Harris, Richard Roundtree, Ray Milland, Herbert Lom, Roger C. Carmel, John AbJana Cilliers, Sven-Bertil Taube, Denholm Elbott. Gimmicky robbery yarn with scounliott, John Parsonson, Ken Gampu. Tired cast drel Caine hiring Eurasian MacLaine to in a dreadful drama about racial strife in Rhocarry out perfect heist of invaluable piece desia. The subject matter may be worthy, but of sculpture; great fun. Techniscope.▼ the result couldn’t be more ponderous. [R]▼ 1 ★★ Gamble, The (1988-Italian) C-105m. ⁄2 Game Is Over, The (1966-French) C-96m. D: Carlo Vanzina. Matthew Modine, Faye ★★1 ⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. Jane Fonda, Peter Dunaway, Jennifer Beals, Corinne Clery, McEnery, Michel Piccoli, Tina Marquand, Federica Moro, Ana Obregon, Vernon Jacques Monod. Fonda marries wealthy PicWells, Feodor Chaliapin, Ian Bannen. So-so coli, falls in love with and seduces his son adventure in the TOM JONES mold, in (McEnery). Handsome, updated version of which roguish Modine gambles with sinisZola’s La Cure´e is not bad; at the time, best ter countess Dunaway. The stakes: his life, performance of Jane’s career. Panavision. for the family fortune she won from his [R]▼쩠 father. Hokey and irrational, and the endGamekeeper, The (1980-British) C-84m. ing doesn’t work, but still amusing. [R]▼ ★★★ D: Kenneth Loach. Phil Askham, Rita Gambler, The (1974) C-111m. ★★ D: Karel May, Andrew Grubb, Peter Steels, MiReisz. James Caan, Paul Sorvino, Lauren Hutchael Hinchcliffe. Simple, effectively subton, Morris Carnovsky, Jacqueline Brookes, tle tale of conservative young gamekeeper Burt Young, Carmine Caridi, Vic Tayback, Askham, who sublimates his anger at being Steven Keats, London Lee, M. Emmet Walsh, unable to crack the British class system. James Woods, Stuart Margolin. Misfire about Game of Death, A (1946) 72m. ★1⁄2 D: college prof Caan’s compulsion to gamble; Robert Wise. John Loder, Audrey Long, much inferior to Altman’s CALIFORNIA Edgar Barrier, Russell Wade, Russell SPLIT. Written by James Toback. [R]▼●쩠 Hicks, Jason Robards (Sr.), Noble Johnson. Gambler, The (1997-Hungarian-French) Second official version of THE MOST C-97m. ★★ D: Ka´roly Makk. Michael GamDANGEROUS GAME—madman Barrier bon, Jodhi May, Polly Walker, Dominic West, hunts humans shipwrecked on his island. Luise Rainer, William Houston. An adaptation Moves well, but indifferently acted; noof Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel, this is as much where nearly as exciting as the 1932 origiabout the writing of that book as the story the nal. Next remake: RUN FOR THE SUN. author was trying to tell. Fiction and reality Game of Death (1978) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: merge as Dostoevsky, with huge debts from his Robert Clouse. Bruce Lee, Gig Young, Hugh gambling habit, signs away rights to his life’s O’Brian, Colleen Camp, Dean Jagger, Karwork unless he can deliver a new novel in just eem Abdul-Jabbar, Chuck Norris. Lee died 27 days. Lacks emotional power, despite fine midway through production of this karate performances by Gambon and Rainer (who’s thriller. Six years later, Clouse reassembled [ 510 ]

the surviving actors and, with the use of doudaily struggle of existence in Manhattan and bles, completed the film. Standard fare until his beleaguered Red Sox’s chance to win a final, incredible half hour, when Lee goes World Series against the Mets. Consistently one-on-one with each of the villains in some interesting, if not quite successful; a writer’s of the most explosive fight scenes ever filmed. film if there ever was one, marking the first Aka BRUCE LEE’S GAME OF DEATH. screenplay by novelist Don DeLillo. CoproPanavision. [R]▼●쩠 duced by Dunne. [R]쩠 Game of Their Lives, The (2005) C-96m. Gammera, The Invincible (1966-Japa★★ D: David Anspaugh. Gerard Butler, Wes nese-U.S.) 88m. ★1⁄2 D: Noriaki Yuasi. Bentley, Jay Rodan, Gavin Rossdale, Costas Brian Donlevy, Albert Dekker, John BaraMandylor, Louis Mandylor, Zachery Ty grey. A giant, jet-propelled fire-breathing Bryan, Patrick Stewart, Terry Kinney, John space turtle terrorizes the earth following Rhys-Davies, Freddy Adu. The director (Anatomic explosion. First in a series of juvespaugh) and screenwriter (Angelo Pizzo) of nile sci-fi films. Original Japanese verHOOSIERS and RUDY try for the same resion—without American actors and titled GAMERA—runs 82m. Daieiscope.▼●쩠 sults with this story of an Italian-American soccer team from St. Louis that becomes the Gandhi (1982-British-Indian) C-188m. 1⁄2 D: Richard Attenborough. Ben Kings★★★ core of an underdog U.S. squadron sent to Brazil for the 1950 World Cup games. Alas, ley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielall the emotions are told (in speeches) and gud, Trevor Howard, John Mills, Martin heard (in the overbearing music) rather than Sheen, Rohini Hattangandy, Ian Charleson, felt. Widescreen. [PG]쩠 Athol Fugard, Roshan Seth, Saeed Jaffrey, Game Plan, The (2007) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Ratzenberger, Geraldine James, Michael Andy Fickman. Dwayne ‘‘The Rock’’ Hordern, Marius Weyers, Om Puri. Sweeping Johnson, Madison Pettis, Kyra Sedgwick, account of the life and times of Mohandas K. Roselyn Sanchez, Morris Chestnut, Paige Gandhi, who rose from a position of simple Turco, Gordon Clapp. Egocentric superstar lawyer to become a nation’s leader and a quarterback (Johnson) becomes a better worldwide symbol of peace and understandperson—and a better player—after he spends ing. Storytelling at its best, in the tradition of quality time with the 8-year-old daughter great Hollywood epics, though film’s second (Pettis) he never knew he had. Predictable half is less riveting than the first. Kingsley gives mix of rib-tickling and heart-tugging elean unforgettable performance in the lead. Eight ments; this family-friendly comedy sticks Oscars include Best Picture, Actor, Director, close to the rulebook for movies about selfScreenplay (John Briley). Look for Daniel absorbed workaholics suddenly saddled Day-Lewis as one of three youths who accost Gandhi in the street. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 with parental responsibilities. Johnson enlivens the tired material with megawatt chaGang Related (1997) C-111m. ★★ D: Jim risma and first-rate comic timing. Super 35. Kouf. James Belushi, Tupac Shakur, Dennis [PG]쩠 Quaid, Lela Rochon, James Earl Jones, David Games (1967) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis Paymer, Wendy Crewson, Gary Cole, T. C. Harrington. Simone Signoret, James Caan, Carson, Brad Greenquist. Corrupt cops BeKatharine Ross, Don Stroud, Estelle Winlushi and Shakur sell coke to dealers, then kill wood. After arrival of mysterious Signoret them and recycle the drugs, but their scam at kinky newlywed N.Y.C. apartment, borstarts to unravel when one of their victims derline pranks become deadly conspiracy. turns out to be an undercover DEA agent. The trick: guess who’s double-crossing Sleazy crime thriller maintains some interwhom. Attempts at deeper meanings unfulest for a while, but falls apart due to its filling, despite good cast. Techniscope.▼ laughably contrived script and a schizoGames, The (1970-British) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: phrenic tone that alternates faux-nihilism Michael Winner. Michael Crawford, Stanley with shameless sentimentality. The late Baker, Ryan O’Neal, Charles Aznavour, JerShakur shows some talent in his last role, emy Kemp, Elaine Taylor, Kent Smith, Sam but Belushi gives an embarrassingly hammy Elliott, Mona Washbourne. Dull film on poperformance. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 tentially interesting subject: preparation of Gang’s All Here, The (1943) C-103m. ★★1 four runners for grueling 26-mile marathon in ⁄2 D: Busby Berkeley. Alice Faye, Carthe Olympics. Rafer Johnson plays one of the men Miranda, Phil Baker, Benny Goodman commentators. Panavision. [G] and Orchestra, Eugene Pallette, Charlotte Game 6 (2006) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Greenwood, Edward Everett Horton, Tony Hoffman. Michael Keaton, Robert Downey, DeMarco, James Ellison, Sheila Ryan. Corny Jr., Ari Graynor, Bebe Neuwirth, Griffin but visually dazzling wartime musical, with Dunne, Shalom Harlow, Catherine O’Hara, soldier Ellison going off to battle while both Harris Yulin, Nadia Dajani, Tom Aldredge, Faye and Ryan believe they’re engaged to Lillias White, Roger Rees. N.Y.C. in 1986: him. Two socko musical numbers courtesy a playwright and rabid baseball fan whose of Berkeley: ‘‘The Lady with the Tutti-Frutti newest show is about to open tries to deal Hat’’ (featuring Miranda at her best) and the with a variety of conflicts, including the finale, ‘‘The Polka Dot Polka.’’ Faye does [ 511 ]

‘‘No Love, No Nothin’.’’ And, as an added bubble-gum cards which feature creatures kitsch treat, Benny Goodman sings! Watch with names like Greaser Greg and Valerie for June Haver as a hat-check girl, Jeanne Vomit. They all live in a garbage pail, Crain by the swimming pool.●쩠 where they are destined to be joined by the Gangs of New York (2002) C-168m. ★★★1⁄2 negative of this movie. [PG]▼쩠 D: Martin Scorsese. Leonardo DiCaprio, DanGarbo Talks (1984) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: iel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, Sidney Lumet. Anne Bancroft, Ron SilJim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, ver, Carrie Fisher, Catherine Hicks, SteBrendan Gleeson, Gary Lewis, David Hemven Hill, Howard da Silva, Dorothy mings, Alec McCowen, Cara Seymour, BarLoudon, Harvey Fierstein, Hermione Ginbara Bouchet. Epic-scale film about rivalries gold, Mary McDonnell. Silver sets out to among warring factions of New Yorkers in fulfill his dying mother’s last request: to the 1860s. A young man who’s been away for meet Greta Garbo. Bancroft is a treat as 16 years returns to his home turf determined to the feisty mom, but film is just a series of avenge his father’s death at the hands of Bill vignettes, occasionally poignant but overthe Butcher (Day-Lewis), the self-appointed all self-conscious and contrived, further leader of the nationalistic ‘‘Native Ameriundermined by Cy Coleman’s saccharine cans.’’ Visceral, cinematic storytelling, acted score. That’s writer-performer Betty Comden out on Dante Ferretti’s extraordinary sets by a as Garbo in the last scene. [PG-13]▼● solid cast, led by a brilliant Day-Lewis as the Garde a` Vue (1981-French) C-87m. ★★★ eccentric—and ferocious—Bill. Introduction D: Claude Miller. Lino Ventura, Michel of the notorious draft riots toward the end Serrault, Romy Schneider, Guy Marchand. seems abrupt, but the overall impact of the Prominent lawyer Serrault, suspected of film is still formidable. Screenplay by Jay raping and murdering two girls, is interroCocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergated by police inspectors Ventura and gan, suggested by Herbert Asbury’s 1928 Marchand. Tense, involving drama, with book. Magnificently photographed by Mifine performances by all. chael Ballhaus. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Garden, The (1990-British) C/B&W-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Derek Jarman. Tilda Swinton, Gangster, The (1947) 84m. ★★★ D: Gordon Wiles. Barry Sullivan, Belita, Joan Johnny Mills, Philip MacDonald, Roger Cook, Lorring, Akim Tamiroff, Harry Morgan, Kevin Collins, Pete Lee-Wilson, Spencer Lee, John Ireland, Fifi D’Orsay, Shelley WinJody Graber, Michael Gough. Surreal, deeply ters. Sullivan gives strong performance as personal union of images and sound, which man who falls victim to his slum environtells (in very abstract terms) the story of the ment and ends up a vengeful crook.▼ Passion of Christ; however, the Christ figure Gangster No. 1 (2000-British-German) Cis replaced by a pair of homosexual lovers, 105m. ★★ D: Paul McGuigan. Malcolm Mcwho are destined to experience suffering and Dowell, David Thewlis, Paul Bettany, Saffron humiliation. As with most of Jarman’s work, Burrows, Kenneth Cranham, Eddie Marsan. some will find it thought provoking while An aging mobster thinks back about his life, others will be bored (if not offended). ▼ and how he went from being a street hood Garden of Allah, The (1936) C-80m. ★★ to a powerful racketeer. Stylish and interestD: Richard Boleslawski. Marlene Dietrich, ing, with strong performances, but loses its Charles Boyer, Tilly Losch, Basil Rathstory momentum and becomes repellently bone, Joseph Schildkraut, Henry Kleinbach brutal. [R]▼쩠 (Henry Brandon), John Carradine. FlaGangster Story (1959) 65m. ★1⁄2 D: Walter grantly silly romance set in the Algerian Matthau. Walter Matthau, Carol Grace, Bruce desert; full of ripe dialogue, troubled McFarlan, Gerrett Wallberg. Matthau’s lone glances, beauty shots of Marlene in a varifilm as director is a low-quality, ultra-lowety of gorgeous sheaths and flowing gowns, budget chronicle of the plight of a bank robber and some wonderful Technicolor scenery and killer. Grace, as a librarian who falls for (which helped win its cameramen, W. the thug, is real-life Mrs. Matthau.▼쩠 Howard Greene and Harold Rosson, a speGang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, The cial Oscar). It just isn’t very good. ▼쩠 (1971) C-96m. ★★ D: James Goldstone. Garden of Evil (1954) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Orbach, Leigh Taylor-Young, Jo Van Henry Hathaway. Gary Cooper, Susan HayFleet, Lionel Stander, Robert De Niro, ward, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlowe, Herve Villechaize. Film version of Jimmy Cameron Mitchell, Rita Moreno. MeanBreslin’s best-seller about comical, twelfthdering adventure set in 1850s Mexico, rate N.Y.C. crooks is well cast, but adapted with trio escorting Hayward through bandit territory to save her husband. CinemaScope.쩠 in slapdash fashion and directed without Garden of the Finzi-Continis, The (1971much feeling for the material. [PG] ▼쩠 Garbage Pail Kids Movie, The (1987) Italian) C-95m. ★★★★ D: Vittorio De Sica. C-100m. BOMB D: Rod Amateau. AnDominique Sanda, Lino Capolicchio, Helmut thony Newley, MacKenzie Astin, Katie Berger, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli. ExquiBarberi. Crude live-action kiddie film ‘‘insitely photographed drama about aristocratic spired’’ by the popular and controversial Jewish family in WW2 Italy which conve[ 512 ]

niently ignores the spectre of the concentration camp until it’s too late. Sad, haunting film boosted Sanda to stardom and won an Oscar as Best Foreign Film. Screenplay by Vittorio Bonicelli and Ugo Pirro; from novel by Giorgio Bassani. [R]▼●쩠 Gardens of Stone (1987) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Francis Coppola. James Caan, Anjelica Huston, James Earl Jones, D. B. Sweeney, Dean Stockwell, Mary Stuart Masterson, Dick Anthony Williams, Lonette McKee, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne. Well-acted story about life in Arlington National Cemetery’s home guard during the thick of the Vietnam war—and one young soldier’s determination to go into battle. Strong performances keep it going most of the way, but toward the end the dialogue sounds hollow, like the sentiment itself. Carmine Coppola’s funereal music doesn’t help. Jones steals the show in a warm-hearted role; young leading lady Masterson’s reallife parents, Peter Masterson and Carlin Glynn, play her folks on-screen. [R]▼●쩠 Garden State (2004) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zach Braff. Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Ian Holm, Ron Leibman, Jean Smart, Method Man. After his mother’s death, a wannabe actor returns to his New Jersey hometown and is slowly brought out of a numbed (and overmedicated) existence by a free-spirited young woman. Interesting debut feature from actor-writer-director Braff, who has an eye for original, quirky detail but slides into self-conscious whimsy a bit too often. Sarsgaard and, especially, Portman shine. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Garfield (2004) C-80m. ★★ D: Pete Hewitt. Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Stephen Tobolowsky; voices of Bill Murray, Nick Cannon, Alan Cumming, David Eigenberg, Brad Garrett, Jimmy Kimmel, Debra Messing. Murray is an ideal voice for the world’s laziest (and hungriest) cat in this innocuous, uninspired comedy combining computer-generated animation and live action. Meyer is Garfield’s hapless owner, who tries to woo attractive veterinarian Hewitt by adopting Odie, a homeless mutt, which spurs Garfield into defensive action. Based on Jim Davis’ comic strip and animated TV series. Followed by a sequel. [PG]

FIELD: A TAIL OF TWO KITTIES. [PG]

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Gas (1981-Canadian) C-94m. BOMB D: Les Rose. Donald Sutherland, Susan Anspach, Howie Mandel, Sterling Hayden, Sandee Currie, Peter Aykroyd, Helen Shaver. Noisy, moronic garbage about the effect of a phony gas shortage on an ‘‘average’’ American town. Car crashes ad nauseam, with Sutherland wasted as Nick the Noz, a hip disc jockey. [R]▼ Gas Food Lodging (1992) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allison Anders. Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, Fairuza Balk, James Brolin, Robert Knepper, David Lansbury, Jacob Vargas, Donovan Leitch, Chris Mulkey, Tiffany Anders. Truck-stop waitress struggles to raise two daughters in a Laramie, N.M., trailer park, with the older one already jaded by men and the younger idealistic to the end. Overrated by some, but still fairly passionate despite a slender budget and minimalist cinematics. Good performances extend to Brolin’s, as a wandering dad. Skye (Trudi) and Leitch (Darius) are real-life sister and brother. [R]▼●쩠 Gaslight (1940-British) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Thorold Dickinson. Anton Walbrook, Diana Wynyard, Frank Pettingell, Cathleen Cordell, Robert Newton, Jimmy Hanley. First version of Patrick Hamilton’s play about an insane criminal who drives his wife crazy in order to discover hidden jewels. Electrifying atmosphere, delicious performances, and a succinctly conveyed sense of madness and evil lurking beneath the surface of the ordinary. Screenplay by A. R. Rawlinson and Bridget Boland. U.S. title: ANGEL STREET.▼쩠 Gaslight (1944) 114m. ★★★ D: George Cukor. Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Dame May Whitty, Angela Lansbury, Terry Moore. The bloom has worn off this classic chiller about a man trying to drive his wife insane, but lush production, Victorian flavor, and fine performances remain intact. Bergman won Oscar; Lansbury’s film debut. Filmed before in 1940. Also shown in computercolored version.▼●쩠 Gas-s-s-s (1970) C-79m. ★★★ D: Roger Corman. Bud Cort, Cindy Williams, Robert Corff, Ben Vereen, Tally Coppola ▼쩠 (Talia Shire), Elaine Giftos. Insane, often Garfield 2 (2006) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim uproarious story focusing on reactions of Hill. Breckin Meyer, Jennifer Love Hewitt, youngsters in crisis: a gas kills everyone Billy Connolly, Ian Abercrombie, Roger on Earth over 25. Reedited against Corman’s Rees, Lucy Davis, Jane Carr; voices of Bill wishes, causing much disjointedness, but stay Murray, Bob Hoskins, Sharon Osbourne, with it. Aka GAS! OR IT BECAME NECESTim Curry, Jane Leeves, Jane Horrocks, SARY TO DESTROY THE WORLD IN Richard E. Grant, Vinnie Jones, Rhys Ifans, ORDER TO SAVE IT. [PG]▼쩠 Jim Piddock; narrated by Roscoe Lee Gate, The (1987) C-92m. ★★ D: Tibor TaBrowne. While tagging along with Meyer kacs. Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Louis on a trip to London, Garfield is mistaken Tripp, Kelly Rowan, Jennifer Irwin, Deborah for a look-alike cat who’s come into a big Grove, Scot Denton. It’s a boring weekend: inheritance. Minor but amusing. Alternate Dorff is grounded, his sister is babysitting version runs 86m. Advertised as GARwhile the parents are away—then he and a pal [ 513 ]

discover the gate to hell in their suburban backtwo in store for them. A tedious tease of a yard. Worthless first half is somewhat refilm, with moments of truly repellent viodeemed by amusing/scary special effects in the lence. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼ second. Followed by a sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Gator Bait II: Cajun Justice (1988) C-95m. ★1 Gate II (1992) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Tibor ⁄2 D: Ferd and Beverly C. Sebastian. Jan Takacs. Louis Tripp, Simon Reynolds, MacKenzie, Tray Loren, Jerry Armstrong, Pamela Segall, James Villemaire, Neil Paul Muzzcat, Ben Sebastian. Just what you’ve Munro. Demons of the underworld are rebeen waiting for: a sequel, with Loren as the summoned by now-teenaged Tripp to grant brother of the character played in the original his wishes. Though his intentions are on the by the late Claudia Jennings. City girl Macnaive side, it’s safe to say that all hell breaks Kenzie is his new wife; after being harassed loose. None of THE GATE’s goofy fright by some stereotypically slobbering backmade its way into this unnecessary sequel. woods boors, she goes into action. [R]▼● This spent three years on the shelf. [R]▼● Gattaca (1997) C-112m. ★★★ D: Andrew Gate of Hell (1953-Japanese) C-86m. Niccol. Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude ★★★1 Law, Gore Vidal, Loren Dean, Alan Arkin, ⁄2 D: Teinosuke Kinugasa. Machiko Kyo, Kazuo Hasegawa, Isao Yamagata, Xander Berkeley, Blair Underwood, Ernest Koreya Senda. Stark, stunning historical Borgnine, Tony Shalhoub, Jayne Brook, Elias drama, set in 12th-century Japan, about a Koteas. In the near future, parents can choose Samurai who falls in love with—and then to have all genetic imperfections eliminated tragically shames—a married woman. This from their children prior to birth. This has beautiful production earned Oscars for Cosgiven rise to a new form of discrimination: tume Design and Best Foreign Film.▼ the genetically perfected ‘‘Valids’’ vs. the natGates of Heaven (1978) C-82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: urally born ‘‘In-Valids.’’ In-Valid Hawke pays Errol Morris. Delightfully offbeat yet piercdisabled Valid Law for the rights to his idening documentary about a pet cemetery in— tity. Bracingly intelligent, wittily ironic, and where else?—California. At once hilarious very well acted. Given the premise, however, and an allegory about the absurdity of the dull, conformist society depicted seems unAmerican priorities. Not to be confused convincing. Notable directing debut for Niccol, who also scripted. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 with Michael Cimino’s HEAVEN’S GATE, or Stephen King’s PET SEMAGaucho, The (1927) 96m. ★★ D: F. Richard TARY, for that matter.▼쩠 Jones. Douglas Fairbanks, Lupe Velez, Eve Gathering of Eagles, A (1963) C-115m. Southern, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Nigel de ★★★ Brulier, Geraine Greear (Joan Barclay). D: Delbert Mann. Rock Hudson, Rod Taylor, Mary Peach, Barry Sullivan, Corny melodramatics and moralizing and Kevin McCarthy, Henry Silva, Leif Ericknot enough action hamper this lesser Fairson. Crisp Strategic Air Command drama banks vehicle, in which he plays a famed, with novelty of peacetime setting; Hudson egocentric South American cowboy. Mary gives one of his best performances as less Pickford, Fairbanks’ wife, appears as ‘‘Our Lady of the Shrine.’’▼●쩠 than likable colonel whose wife struggles to adjust to being a military spouse. Good Gaudi Afternoon (2002-Spanish) C-90m. ★★ D: Susan Seidelman. Judy Davis, Marcia script by Robert Pirosh. Look for Louise Fletcher as a patient’s wife.▼ Gay Harden, Lili Taylor, Juliette Lewis, ★1 Gatling Gun, The (1972) C-93m. ⁄2 D: Marı´a Barranco, Christopher Bowen, CourtRobert Gordon. Guy Stockwell, Woody ney Jines. Overbaked, gender-bending mishStrode, Patrick Wayne, Robert Fuller, Barbara mash with oddball American Harden arriving Luna, John Carradine, Pat Buttram, Phil Harin Barcelona, hiring translator Davis to help ris. Cavalry, renegade soldiers, Apaches, fight her find a missing person. Davis is shrill and over Gatling gun. Standard, forgettable WestTaylor doesn’t so much act as yell, but ern. Aka KING GUN. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Harden is a hoot in a most unusual role. Gator (1976) C-116m. ★★ D: Burt ReynBased on a book by Barbara Wilson. [R] olds. Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Lauren ▼쩠 Hutton, Jerry Reed, Alice Ghostley, Mike Gauntlet, The (1977) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Douglas, Dub Taylor. Not-so-hot sequel Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Sondra to WHITE LIGHTNING, about Justice Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill Dept. agent Weston and moonshiner ex-con McKinney, Mara Corday. Eastwood stars Reynolds out to get the goods on corrupt as a none-too-clever cop escorting hooker Southern politicians. Some good action, but Locke to trial; corrupt officials are deteroverlong and poorly constructed. Reynolds’ mined to stop them, whatever the cost. directing debut. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼●쩠 Exciting at times, but not meant to be taken Gator Bait (1976) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Ferd seriously. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 and Beverly C. Sebastian. Claudia JenGay Divorcee, The (1934) 107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: nings, Sam Gilman, Doug Dirkson, Clyde Mark Sandrich. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Ventura, Bill Thurman. All the menfolk are Alice Brady, Edward Everett Horton, Erik after sexy swamp-girl (Playboy Playmate of Rhodes, Eric Blore, Betty Grable. Top Astairethe Year Jennings) but she has a surprise or Rogers froth with usual needless plot and un[ 514 ]

usual musical numbers, including Oscar-windone; Disney did same story in 1956 as THE GREAT LOCOMOTIVE CHASE. ▼●쩠 ning ‘‘Continental’’ and Cole Porter’s ‘‘Night General, The (1998-Irish) 124m. ★★1⁄2 D: and Day.’’ Rhodes is memorable as would-be John Boorman. Brendan Gleeson, Jon Voight, corespondent in divorce case. Incidentally, the Adrian Dunbar, Sean McGinley, Maria Doyle Broadway hit on which this was based was Kennedy, Angeline Ball, Eamonn Owens. called The Gay Divorce, but the Hollywood Boorman scripted this character study of a Production Code disapproved. ▼●쩠 true-life Dublin working-class criminal known Gay Purr-ee (1962) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Abe as the General, who evaded police capture Levitow. Voices of Judy Garland, Robert for years. Following his own skewed code of Goulet, Red Buttons, Hermione Gingold, ethics, he masterminds robberies both large Paul Frees, Morey Amsterdam. A naive and small, extracts loyalty from his soldiers, cat’s misadventures in Paris. Stylish cartoon loves two women simultaneously, and from UPA studio, written by Chuck and matches wits with a hard-nosed cop (Voight) Dorothy Jones, lacks storytelling oomph. who is determined to nail him. Interesting, Chief assets are Garland and Goulet perwell made, but overlong. Filmmaker Jim forming original songs by Harold Arlen and Sheridan has a bit part. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 E. Y. Harburg, who wrote THE WIZARD General Della Rovere (1959-Italian) 129m. OF OZ score for Judy years earlier.▼●쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Roberto Rossellini. Vittorio De ★★★ Gazebo, The (1959) 100m. D: George Sica, Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo, Marshall. Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, Giovanna Ralli, Anne Vernon. De Sica is Carl Reiner, Doro Merande, John McGiver, brilliant as a con man forced by the Nazis Mabel Albertson. Offbeat comedy involvto impersonate a just-deceased Italian gening murder and a backyard gazebo that eral and find out the identity of a Resiscovers up crime. Character actors McGiver tance leader. Will this charade somehow and Merande wrap this up, but stars are transform a coward into a hero?▼쩠 competent. Also shown in computer-colored General Died at Dawn, The (1936) 97m. version. CinemaScope.▼ ★★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Milestone. Gary Cooper, Gazon Maudit SEE: French Twist Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, DudGeisha Boy, The (1958) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: ley Digges, Porter Hall, William Frawley. Frank Tashlin. Jerry Lewis, Marie McFine, atmospheric drama of Oriental inDonald, Sessue Hayakawa, Nobu McCartrigue, with mercenary Cooper falling in thy, Suzanne Pleshette, Barton MacLane, love with spy Carroll while battling evil Robert Hirano. Jerry, an inept magician, warlord Tamiroff. Author John O’Hara travels to Japan with disastrous consehas cameo as reporter on train. Another celquences. Imaginative visual gags; there’s a ebrated writer, Clifford Odets, scripted from cute sequence featuring the Los Angeles Charles Booth’s novel.▼쩠 Dodgers (and, in particular, Gil Hodges). General’s Daughter, The (1999) C-125m. Pleshette’s film debut. VistaVision.▼ ★★1 ⁄2 D: Simon West. John Travolta, MadeGene Krupa Story, The (1959) 101m. leine Stowe, James Cromwell, Timothy Hut★★1 ⁄2 D: Don Weis, Sal Mineo, Susan ton, Leslie Stefanson, Daniel von Bargen, Kohner, James Darren, Susan Oliver, Clarence Williams III, James Woods, John Yvonne Craig, Lawrence Dobkin, Red Frankenheimer. Army investigator Travolta Nichols, Buddy Lester. Hackneyed veruncovers more than he ever imagined when sion of great jazz drummer’s life, his ups and he looks into the murder of a popular generdowns, his siege of dope addiction.▼●쩠 al’s daughter, herself a captain. As evidence Genealogies of a Crime (1997-French) Cof a major scandal grows, it becomes clear 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raul Ruiz. Catherine Dethat the Army’s only concern is keeping a neuve, Michel Piccoli, Melvil Poupaud, Anlid on the matter. Slickly done, but this drzej Seweryn, Bernadette LaFont. Deneuve twisty tale (from Nelson DeMille’s bestis dazzling in a dual role as the lawyer for and seller) has a heavy air of contrivance about victim of a strange young man who’s accused it. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 of murdering his psychiatrist aunt after she Generation, A (1954-Polish) 88m. ★★★ allegedly subjected him to radical mind-conD: Andrzej Wajda. Ursula Modrzinska, trol treatments. Well-acted but pretentious, inTadevsz Lomnicki, Zbigniew Cybulski. tentionally confusing mixture of mystery, Strong, necessarily downbeat drama about satire, and surrealism; tricked up with the Polish Resistance during World War 2 meaningless flashbacks within flashbacks and what happens when a young man falls and other narrative and visual gimmicks.쩠 in love with the woman who leads the General, The (1927) 75m. ★★★★ D: Buster Resistance group. Wajda’s first film and Keaton, Clyde Bruckman. Buster Keaton, the first of a trilogy that includes the Marion Mack, Glen Cavender, Jim Farley, even better KANAL and ASHES AND Joseph Keaton. One of Keaton’s best silent DIAMONDS. Young Roman Polanski is features, setting comedy against true Civil featured in the cast.▼쩠 War story of stolen train, Union spies. Not as Generation (1969) C-104m. ★★ D: George fanciful as other Keaton films, but beautifully Schaefer. David Janssen, Kim Darby, Carl [ 515 ]

Reiner, Peter Duel, Andrew Prine, James understated as the butler; you get the feeling Coco, Sam Waterston. Darby helps othhe’s doing it only because his wife, Trudie erwise dreary comedy based on Broadway Styler, produced the film. Original title: play about just-married couple who infuriTHE GROTESQUE. Video title: GRAVE ate the girl’s father when husband plans to INDISCRETIONS. [R]▼● deliver their soon-to-arrive baby himself; Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) Cplays like a TV sitcom. [M/PG]▼ 97m. ★★ D: Richard Sale. Jane Russell, Genevieve (1953-British) C-86m. ★★★1⁄2 Jeanne Crain, Alan Young, Rudy Vallee, D: Henry Cornelius. Dinah Sheridan, John Scott Brady. Anita Loos’ follow-up to Gregson, Kay Kendall, Kenneth More, GeofGENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES has frey Keen, Joyce Grenfell, Michael Medwin. Russell and Crain, two sisters in show biz Lively, colorful comedy (by William Rose) in Paris, trying to avoid romances. Not up pits two couples and their vintage roadsters to original. CinemaScope. against one another in a cross-country race. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) C-91m. ★★★ D: Howard Hawks. Jane Russell, Uniquely British, brimming with charm and humor; a huge success in its day. Music score Marilyn Monroe, Charles Coburn, Elliott by harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler.▼ Reid, Tommy Noonan, George ‘‘Foghorn’’ Genghis Khan (1965) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Winslow. Slick, colorful bauble of enterHenry Levin. Omar Sharif, Stephen Boyd, tainment with two sassy leading ladies James Mason, Eli Wallach, Franc¸oise Dortantalizing the men of two continents; Marleac, Telly Savalas, Robert Morley, Yvonne ilyn is at her best as fortune-hunter Lorelei Mitchell, Woody Strode. Laughable epic with Lee, and Russell gives a sly, knowing gross miscasting and juvenile script, loosely comic performance as her pal. Based on based on legend of Mongol leader. No sweep the Broadway adaptation of Anita Loos’ or spectacle, but radiant Dorleac and earnest venerable story, with sprightly Leo Robin– Sharif. Panavision. Jule Styne songs including ‘‘Diamonds ★★★ Gentle Giant (1967) C-93m. D: James Are a Girl’s Best Friend.’’ Sequel: GENNeilson. Dennis Weaver, Vera Miles, Clint TLEMEN MARRY BRUNETTES.▼●쩠 Howard, Ralph Meeker, Huntz Hall. FeaGeorge A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead ture film which hatched TV series Gentle SEE: Diary of the Dead Ben is appealing children’s story of boy George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker and his pet bear.▼ SEE: Nutcracker, The (1993) Gentleman Jim (1942) 104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George of the Jungle (1997) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack D: Sam Weisman. Brendan Fraser, Leslie Carson, Alan Hale, John Loder, William Mann, Thomas Haden Church, Holland TayFrawley, Minor Watson, Ward Bond, Arthur lor, John Bennett Perry, Abraham Benrubi, Shields. Sassy biography of polished boxer Greg Cruttwell, Richard Roundtree, voice of Jim Corbett in fight game’s early days. Flynn John Cleese; narrated by Keith Scott. Liveis dynamic in title role (reportedly his favoraction Disney comedy feature based on Jay ite), supported by colorful cast—especially Ward’s 1960s cartoon show about a clumsy Bond in larger-than-life role as legendary king of the jungle. Aimed at kids, who should champ John L. Sullivan. Scripted by Vincent enjoy it thoroughly; for adults its one-note Lawrence and Horace McCoy. Also shown in silliness wears thin, with a preponderance of computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 story climaxes, but Fraser and Mann are imGentleman’s Agreement (1947) 118m. ★★★ mensely likable. Why couldn’t they come D: Elia Kazan. Gregory Peck, Dorothy Mcup with at least a few funny lines for the Guire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, Anne ReApe named Ape? Followed in 2003 by a vere, June Havoc, Albert Dekker, Jane Wyatt, direct-to-video sequel. [PG] ▼●쩠 Dean Stockwell, Sam Jaffe. Sincere OscarGeorge Raft Story, The (1961) 106m. ★★1⁄2 winningadaptation of Laura Z. Hobson’s novel D: Joseph M. Newman. Ray Danton, Jayne of writer (Peck) pretending to be Jewish, disMansfield, Barrie Chase, Julie London, Nevcovering rampant anti-Semitism. Holm won ille Brand, Frank Gorshin. Danton is good in Supporting Actress Oscar as chic but lonely title role of fast-moving account of Raft’s rise fashion editor, as did Kazan for his direction. from Broadway dancer to top Hollywood star. Then-daring approach to subject matter is tame How much is true, who can say?쩠 now. Screenplay by Moss Hart. ▼●쩠 George’s Island (1991-Canadian) C-90m. Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets (1995-British) ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Donovan. Nathaniel Moreau, C-97m. ★★ D: John-Paul Davidson. Alan Ian Bannen, Sheila McCarthy, Maury Bates, Sting, Theresa Russell, Lena Headey, Chaykin, Vicki Ridler, Brian Downcy. Steven Mackintosh, Anna Massey, Trudie Young Nova Scotia boy is taken from his Styler, Maria Aitken. An English butler, in crusty grandpop—who has regaled him cooperation with the mistress of the house, with tales of pirate ghosts and local buried frames his master for murder in this blacktreasure from Captain Kidd’s raids—and est of black British comedies. Other than its must escape from a grim foster home to clever (and somewhat prophetic) title, this lacks the necessary wit to succeed. Sting is complete his treasure quest. Modest tale [ 516 ]

dwells too long on adult caricatures and too film with her mother, Barbara Turner (who little on boyhood adventures.▼● wrote the screenplay). Winningham is excelGeorge Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Jourlent as the serene older sister and also does her own very appealing vocals. [R]▼●쩠 ney (1984) C/B&W-110m. ★★★ D: George Stevens, Jr. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Georgia, Georgia (1972) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel McCrea, Elizabeth Taylor, Fred AsStig Bjorkman. Diana Sands, Dirk Benedict, taire, Ginger Rogers, and Warren Beatty are Minnie Gentry. Black singer’s involveamong those who help create vivid document with white photographer and Amerimentary portrait of director Stevens. Great can defectors. Interesting but uneven. [R]▼ clips from ALICE ADAMS, SWING TIME, Georgia Rule (2007) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Garry GUNGA DIN, THE MORE THE MERMarshall. Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, FelicRIER, A PLACE IN THE SUN, SHANE, ity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney, Cary Elwes, GIANT, etc. Stevens, Jr., supplies personal Garrett Hedlund, Hector Elizondo, Laurie insights, plus fascinating home movies Metcalf, Rance Howard. Huffman takes her taken by his father on film sets—and color difficult, sexually precocious teenage daughter footage shot during WW2 in Europe.▼●쩠 to live with her mother in Idaho for the sumGeorge Washington (2000) C-89m. ★★★ mer. Grandma (Fonda) is a character in her D: David Gordon Green. Candace Evanofown right whose own daughter can barely ski, Donald Holden, Damian Jewan Lee, stand to be in the same room with her. What Curtis Cotton III, Rachael Handy, Paul might seem like a multigenerational story of Schneider, Eddie Rouse, Janet Taylor. Eyewomen clearing the clutter from their relationopening debut feature from writer-director ships turns into a strange story involving moGreen, spotlighting a small group of prelestation, alcoholism, sexuality, and religion! teens in a lazy North Carolina town and Odd in the extreme, with a trio of characters how they individually and collectively react who aren’t easy to like, let alone understand. to a terrible accident. Strikingly original, The polar opposite of a feel-good movie. dreamlike film is filled with beautiful imagSuper 35. [R]쩠 ery and naturalistic performances, hamGeorgy Girl (1966-British) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 pered only by the constraints of its low D: Silvio Narizzano. James Mason, Alan budget. J-D-C Scope. ▼쩠 Bates, Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, George Washington Slept Here (1942) Bill Owen, Claire Kelly, Rachel Kempson. 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Keighley. Jack Benny, Delightful, adult British comedy of modernAnn Sheridan, Charles Coburn, Percy Kilday morals, with Redgrave as ugly-duckling bride, Hattie McDaniel, William Tracy, Joyce Georgy, Mason as the wealthy, aging marReynolds, Lee Patrick, Charles Dingle, John ried man who wants her for his mistress. Emery. Sheridan (never more beautiful) surEntire cast is excellent, with Rampling scorprises her city-dweller husband Benny by ing as Georgy’s bitchy roommate. Faithful buying a dilapidated country house and pouradaptation of Margaret Forster novel; scripted ing all their money—and patience—into the by Forster and Peter Nichols. ▼●쩠 process of fixing it up. Pleasant but predictGerminal (1993-French) C-158m. ★★★ D: able adaptation of the Kaufman-Hart play, Claude Berri. Renaud, Ge´rard Depardieu, with Benny in good form, and Kilbride reMiou-Miou, Jean Carmet, Judith Henry, creating his Broadway role as the hayseed Jean-Roger Milo, Laurent Terzieff, Jeancontractor.▼● Pierre Bisson, Bernard Fresson, Jacques George White’s Scandals (1945) 95m. Dacqmine, Anny Duperey. Sprawling adap★★ tation of classic 1884 Emile Zola novel, this D: Felix E. Feist. Joan Davis, Jack Haley, Phillip Terry, Martha Holliday, Bettejane manages to tell both the epic tale of a bleak (Jane) Greer, Margaret Hamilton, Glenn rural community and the personal story of Tryon. Mild musical centering around the coal miner Depardieu’s impoverished fammounting of a ‘‘Scandals’’ stageshow, and ily. The action begins when a young jobchronicling the romances of Davis-Haley and seeker (played by French singer Renaud, in Holliday-Terry. Tryon plays George White; his feature acting debut) stirs up the workthe real impresario produced.▼ force in the mining village and begins to Georgia (1995) C-117m. ★★ D: Ulu Grospoliticize the populace. Impressively rebard. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mare Wincreates the period, though the characters ningham, Ted Levine, Max Perlich, John sometimes seem a bit hollow. Still, it’s hard Doe, John C. Reilly, Jimmy Witherspoon, to come away unaffected. Previously filmed in France in 1963. Panavision.▼● Jason Carter, Tom Bower, Smokey Hormel. A strung-out, self-destructive young woman Geronimo (1962) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arnold lives in the shadow of her older sister, a Laven. Chuck Connors, Kamala Devi, Pat popular singer, and wants to be her— Conway, Armando Silvestre, Lawrence though the younger sister has no talent. Dobkin, Ross Martin, Denver Pyle, Adam Leigh is as brilliant as ever getting inside an West. Connors fares well as the noble intense and difficult character (she does her Apache warrior who refuses to submit to own vocals, too), but that doesn’t mean we the U.S. Army. Connors later married leadcare about her much. She also coproduced the ing lady Devi. Panavision. ▼● [ 517 ]

Geronimo: An American Legend (1993) music, though there is also some vintage footC-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Walter Hill. Jason Patric, age of The Beatles. Director Lester made Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Wes Studi, more imaginative use of McCartney when he Matt Damon, Rodney A. Grant, Kevin directed him and his compadres in A HARD Tighe, Steve Reevis, Carlos Palomino, VicDAY’S NIGHT and HELP! [PG]▼쩠 tor Aaron, Stuart Proud Eagle Grant, SteGet Bruce! (1999) C-73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anphen McHattie, Richard Martin, Jr., Roger drew J. Kuehn. Slight but very amusing Callard, Scott Wilson. Stately, intelligent— look at Hollywood comedy writer and selfbut dramatically slack—chronicle of the U.S. styled character Bruce Vilanch, whose credArmy’s attempts to subjugate the great its range from the Academy Awards to HolApache warrior. Strong performance by lywood Squares. Not what you’d call a Studi in the lead, and rich characterizations probing character profile (especially since it by Hackman (as General Crook) and Duvall was done with its subject’s complete coop(as a veteran Indian scout), sustain interest eration), but the interviews with Robin Wilfor quite a while—along with magnificent liams, Billy Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, and others are often hysterically funny. [R]▼쩠 Moab, Utah, scenery. Eventually, the film’s point is made, and there’s nothing left to Get Carter (1971-British) C-112m. ★★★ maintain audience involvement. Screenplay D: Mike Hodges. Michael Caine, Ian by John Milius. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Hendry, Britt Ekland, John Osborne, Tony Gerry (2003) C-103m. ★★ D: Gus Van Sant. Beckley, George Sewell. Austere, brutal Matt Damon, Casey Affleck. Two friends go crime drama about a cheerless hit man who for a hike and leave the marked path. Before goes to Newcastle to investigate his brother’s long they realize they’re lost and must adopt death. Caine perfectly embodies his amoral increasingly challenging tactics to survive character, and the film’s violence still packs a and stay sane. The screenplay, such as it is, wallop. Based on a novel by Ted Lewis, is credited to both stars and the director, adapted by Hodges. Remade a year later (as although Van Sant devises clever and creHIT MAN) and again in 2000. [R]▼쩠 ative ways of staging and filming his charGet Carter (2000) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steacters’ odyssey. Some may find this phen Kay. Sylvester Stallone, Miranda existential poppycock stimulating; others Richardson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Alan Cumwill run for the exits. Arriscope. [R]▼쩠 ming, Mickey Rourke, John C. McGinley, MiGetaway, The (1972) C-122m. ★★★ D: chael Caine, Rhona Mitra, Johnny Strong. Las Sam Peckinpah. Steve McQueen, Ali Vegas enforcer goes home to Seattle to investiMacGraw, Ben Johnson, Sally Struthers, gate his brother’s death and meets one sleazy Al Lettieri, Slim Pickens, Dub Taylor, Bo character after another who may have been inHopkins. Exciting, enjoyable film built volved. Routine crime drama, enlivened by around a chase. Bank robber McQueen high-powered car chases but burdened by and wife MacGraw take it on the lam when show-offy visual gimmicks. Remake of the robbery goes haywire. Many fine vignettes, far superior 1971 film that starred Caine, including hair-raising episode on garbage whose role here is thankless. Gretchen Mol truck. Written by Walter Hill from a Jim appears unbilled. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Thompson novel. Music by Quincy Jones. Get Crazy (1983) C-92m. ★★★ D: Allan Remade in 1994. Todd-AO 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 Arkush. Daniel Stern, Malcolm McDowell, ★★ Getaway, The (1994) C-115m. Gail Edwards, Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), D: Roger Donaldson. Alec Baldwin, Kim BaEd Begley, Jr., Miles Chapin, Lou Reed, singer, Michael Madsen, James Woods, Stacey Nelkin, Bill Henderson, Franklyn David Morse, Jennifer Tilly, James Stephens, Ajaye, Bobby Sherman, Fabian Forte, Lori Richard Farnsworth, Philip Seymour HoffEastside, Lee Ving. Arkush’s years workman, Burton Gilliam, Royce D. Applegate. ing at Fillmore East rock palace form the He’s nailed for robbery and thrown in basis for wonderful cartoonlike comedy prison; she frees him by playing up to a set at a trouble-plagued New Year’s Eve crime kingpin; he spends the rest of the concert. Gags fly at machine-gun pace, inmovie resenting her. Or something like that. terspersed with delightful musical numbers; Action, violence, and sex by the numbers in superb take-offs on Mick Jagger (McDowthis halfhearted remake of the 1972 hit; ell), Bob Dylan (Reed), and Muddy Waters even the usually dynamic Woods seems to (Henderson), plus many familiar rock stars be just going through the motions. Watchand character actors in bits. [R]▼ ing real-life couple Baldwin and Basinger Get on the Bus (1996) C-120m. ★★★ D: make love is uncomfortably voyeuristic. It Spike Lee. Ossie Davis, Charles S. Dutton, takes Farnsworth, in the film’s closing moAndre Braugher, DeAundre Bonds, Albert ments, to bring it to life. One sexy scene Hall, Isaiah Washington, Thomas Jefferson added for video. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Byrd, Hill Harper, Harry Lennix, Bernie Get Back (1991) C-89m. ★★ D: Richard Mac, Richard Belzer, Gabriel Casseus. ViLester. Adequate rockumentary of Paul brant, highly energized film about a busload McCartney’s 1989–90 Get Back world tour. of black men heading from L.A. to the MilRecommended only for fans of McCartney’s lion Man March in Washington, D.C., in [ 518 ]

October 1995. Not a polemic, but a series of Paymer, Martin Ferrero, Miguel Sandoval. character studies and vignettes; occasional Clever black comedy about a small-time, speechifying and contrivances are forgivcool-as-ice Miami enforcer coming to L.A. on able because, overall, the film deals so well business, hooking up with a slick, grade-Z with issues facing all Americans. Screenproducer who can fulfill his dream of being play by Reggie Rock Bythewood. Kudos to connected with the movies. Ingenious plotDutton as the bus company rep and Davis as ting, tip-top performances, and some delithe senior member of the brigade. This lowcious digs at Hollywood are offset by a budget film was financed by 15 Africancertain aloofness. Scott Frank scripted from American men, including Danny Glover, Will Elmore Leonard’s novel. Bette Midler apSmith, and Wesley Snipes. Randy Quaid pears unbilled; other famous faces turn up appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 in amusing cameos. Followed by BE Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (1978COOL. [R]▼●쩠 French-Belgian) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: BerGet Smart (2008) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter trand Blier. Ge´rard Depardieu, Patrick Segal. Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dewaere, Carole Laure, Riton, Michel Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Serrault, Eleonore Hirt. Disarming black Stamp, James Caan, Masi Oka, Nate Torcomedy about a man who will do almost rence, Ken Davitian, Terry Crews, David anything to keep his sexually frustrated Koechner, Dalip Singh, Bill Murray, Larry wife happy; highly unconventional. Oscar Miller, Kevin Nealon, Blake Clark, Patrick winner for Best Foreign Film. [R]▼쩠 Warburton, Bernie Kopell. Update of the Get Over It (2001) C-86m. ★★ D: Tommy much-loved 1960s spy-spoof TV series O’Haver. Kirsten Dunst, Ben Foster, Me(created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry) lissa Sagemiller, Colin Hanks, Sisqo´, Marstars Carell as CONTROL Agent 86 Maxtin Short, Shane West, Swoosie Kurtz, Ed well Smart, who’s sent into ‘‘the field’’ for Begley, Jr., Carmen Electra, Kylie Bax, Zoe¨ the first time alongside worldly Agent 99 Saldan˜a. Teen variation of A Midsummer (Hathaway) to expose a nuclear weapon Night’s Dream, with Foster unable to deal plot hatched by KAOS. The stars’ likability with being dumped by his girlfriend, ignoring carries this overlong feature, which pays rethe fact that his best friend’s kid sister is in spect to the TV show but never equals it. love with him. Cute film can’t stay focused, Overblown action finale seems to belong which dampens the fun, but Short is hilariin some other movie. Oka and Torrence’s ous as a high school drama coach. Opens characters, Bruce and Lloyd, star in a companion DVD movie. [PG-13]쩠 with a dynamic musical number under the main titles. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Getting Away With Murder (1976) SEE: Get Real (1999-British) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: End of the Game Simon Shore. Ben Silverstone, Charlotte BritGetting Away With Murder (1996) Ctain, Brad Gorton, Louise J. Taylor, Tim Har92m. BOMB D: Harvey Miller. Jack Lemris, Stacy Hart. Teenage schoolboy in England mon, Dan Aykroyd, Lily Tomlin, Bonnie realizes he’s gay but can’t admit it to his parHunt, Brian Kerwin, Jerry Adler, Andy Roents, teachers, or schoolmates. Then he falls mano. Ethics professor Aykroyd discovers in love with the class jock. Sincere and well that his next-door neighbor (Lemmon) is a acted, but tends to plod at times. Scripted by notorious Nazi war criminal who is plotting Patrick Wilde from his play What’s Wrong to leave the country. Strictly for those who With Angry? Panavision. [R]▼쩠 found JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG a Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005) C-117m. laugh riot; a career nadir for the comic tal★★ D: Jim Sheridan. Curtis ‘‘50 Cent’’ Jackents on both sides of the camera. [R]▼●쩠 son, Terrence Howard, Joy Bryant, Bill Getting Even With Dad (1994) C-108m. ★1 Duke, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Omar ⁄2 D: Howard Deutch. Macaulay Culkin, Benson Miller, Viola Davis, Leon, Sullivan Ted Danson, Glenne Headly, Saul Rubinek, Walker, Russell Hornsby. The director of MY Gailard Sartain, Hector Elizondo, Ron CanLEFT FOOT and IN AMERICA tackles a ada. Ex-con cake decorator steals a rare coin gangsta-rap saga, which isn’t as jarring as it collection with his two doofus pals, just as might seem given Sheridan’s obvious afhis 11-year-old son shows up for an exfection for societal underdogs. Cliche´s and tended visit. Touchy-feely comedy didn’t undeveloped story lines sink a promising betouch many paying customers, despite Culginning in which a fatherless youngster with kin’s modified HOME ALONE-ing of commusical inclinations tags along with a manical villains Rubinek and Sartain; Danson’s magnet mom as she deals drugs on the street. unlikely romance with policewoman Headly is as drab as the rest. [PG]▼●쩠 Jackson eventually takes over this autobiographical role and isn’t commanding enough Getting It Right (1989) C-102m. ★★★ D: to carry a long movie. Super 35. [R]쩠 Randal Kleiser. Jesse Birdsall, Helena Get Shorty (1995) C-105m. ★★★ D: Barry Bonham Carter, Peter Cook, Lynn RedSonnenfeld. John Travolta, Gene Hackman, grave, Jane Horrocks, Richard Huw, John Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, Dennis Farina, Gielgud, Shirley Anne Field, Pat HeyDelroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, David wood, Judy Parfitt, Bryan Pringle. Sweetly [ 519 ]

comic story of a 31-year-old virgin and his performances. Final film for Richard Jorattempts to cope with people—women in dan, who has the most poignant role in the particular—seems mundane and meandering picture as General Armistead. Superb score at first, and just gets better as it goes along. by Randy Edelman. Also released on video Some wonderful characterizations, especially in 271m. director’s cut. Followed by a preRedgrave as a wealthy woman with a worldquel: GODS AND GENERALS. [PG] weary facade who just wants to be loved. ▼●쩠 Screenplay by Elizabeth Jane Howard, from Get Yourself A College Girl (1964) C-88m. ★1 her novel. Made in England by an American ⁄2 D: Sidney Miller. Chad Everett, Nancy director and producer. [R]▼● Sinatra, Mary Ann Mobley, Dave Clark Getting of Wisdom, The (1977-Australian) Five, The Animals. Songwriter who is C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Suundergraduate at a staid girls’ school falls sannah Fowle, Hilary Ryan, Alix Longman, in love with a music publisher at resort Sheila Helpmann, Patricia Kennedy, Barry hotel. Strictly for dropouts. Humphries, John Waters. A spirited, senGhidrah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964-Japanese) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ishiro sitive 13-year-old girl (Fowle) from the outback matures on her own terms at a snobHonda. Yosuke Natsuki, Yunko Hoshi, Hirbish Victorian ladies college. Fowle is oshi Koizumi, Akiko Wakabayashi, Tamiscast; however, the era is carefully recrekashi Shimura, Emi Ito, Yumi Ito. Beautiful ated. Based on autobiographical novel by princess, feared killed in a plane crash, reapone Henry Handel Richardson.▼ pears, claiming to be from Mars and warnGetting Straight (1970) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing that we’re about to be attacked by a Richard Rush. Elliott Gould, Candice space dragon. Darned if she isn’t right. Bergen, Jeff Corey, Max Julien, Cecil Debut of King Ghidorah (whose name was Kellaway, Robert F. Lyons, Jeannie Bermisspelled by the original U.S. distributor) lin, John Rubinstein, Brenda Sykes, Haris one of the better Toho monster rallies, rison Ford. A period piece, but central with Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra calling a issue of graduate student Gould choosing truce to battle this new foe. Akira Ifukube’s between academic double-talk and his bedynamic score is a plus, as is the warm liefs remains relevant. Gould’s personality presence of the illustrious Shimura. Japapropels glossy film. Bob Kaufman adapted nese running time is 92m. Tohoscope.▼쩠 Ken Kolb’s novel. [R]▼쩠 Ghost, The (1963-Italian) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Get to Know Your Rabbit (1972) C-91m. D: Robert Hampton (Riccardo Freda). Bar★★1 bara Steele, Peter Baldwin, Leonard El⁄2 D: Brian De Palma. Tom Smothers, John Astin, Suzanne Zenor, Samantha liott (Elio Jotta), Harriet White. In 1910 Jones, Allen Garfield, Katharine Ross, Scotland, adulterous wife Steele and doctorOrson Welles. Offbeat comedy was barely lover are seemingly haunted by the vengereleased, and heavily tampered with at ful ghost of her crippled husband, whom that; starts with great premise of Smothers they murdered. Measured, moody horror, dropping out of establishment life to belet down by routine plot; still atmospheric come tap-dancing magician, then loses itand watchable. Follow-up to THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK.▼쩠 self. Still has some inventive moments, funny ideas. Filmed in 1970. [R]▼ Ghost (1990) C-122m. ★★★ D: Jerry Gettysburg (1993) C-248m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zucker. Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Ronald Maxwell. Tom Berenger, Jeff DanWhoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, Rick iels, Martin Sheen, Sam Elliott, Maxwell Aviles, Vincent Schiavelli, Gail Boggs, Caulfield, Kevin Conway, C. Thomas HowArmelia McQueen, Phil Leeds. Overlong ell, Richard Jordan, Royce D. Applegate, but enjoyable mix of fantasy, thriller, and John Diehl, Patrick Gorman, Cooper Huckromance. Swayze is killed, and when he abee, James Lancaster, Brian Mallon, Andrew learns (in his ghostly state) that he was the Prine, Stephen Lang, Richard Anderson, Bo victim of a botched hit, he tries to warn his Brinkman, Kieran Mulroney, George Lagrieving girlfriend (Moore) that she’s in danzenby, Dwier Brown, Buck Taylor. Ted ger too. Storefront medium Whoopi (in an Turner’s answer to GONE WITH THE Oscar-winning role) turns out to be the only WIND, a magnificent re-creation of the one who can convey his messages to her. Civil War’s most famous battle. Based on Swayze runs the gamut of expressions from A Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning to B, but the relationships are credible and as novel, The Killer Angels, this long but ena result the fantasy works. Oscar winner for grossing slice of history was filmed on the Best Original Screenplay (Bruce Joel Rubin). [PG-13]▼●쩠 battlefields of the Gettysburg National Military Park using over 5,000 Civil War ‘‘reGhost and Mr. Chicken, The (1966) enactors’’ in the battle scenes. Look fast for C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Rafkin. Don Knotts, filmmaker Ken Burns as General Hancock’s Joan Staley, Skip Homeier, Dick Sargent, aide and Turner as a Reb foot soldier during Reta Shaw, James Milhollin, Phil Ober, Pickett’s Charge. Elliott, and especially Liam Redmond, Lurene Tuttle, Charles Daniels, stand out in a cast full of great Lane. Featherweight comedy with Knotts a [ 520 ]

would-be reporter who seizes his big chance tors’’ who go into business flushing out for a scoop by spending a night in a supposghosts and spirits in N.Y.C.—and find their edly haunted house. Full of familiar characbusiness booming! Engagingly offbeat, even ter faces. Techniscope.▼●쩠 subdued at times, with Murray’s flippant Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The (1947) 104m. personality nicely contrasting Richard Ed★★★1 lund’s eye-popping special effects. Great ⁄2 D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison, George Sanders, fun all the way; written by Aykroyd and Edna Best, Vanessa Brown, Anna Lee, Ramis. Followed by a sequel and an aniRobert Coote, Natalie Wood. A lonely mated TV series. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 widow is romanced by the ghost of a sea Ghostbusters II (1989) C-102m. ★★★ D: captain in her ‘‘haunted’’ English cottage. Ivan Reitman. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Charming, beautifully made fantasy, a disSigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Rick tant cousin to later TV sitcom; lovely score Moranis, Ernie Hudson, Peter MacNicol, by Bernard Herrmann. Philip Dunne David Margulies, Annie Potts, Ben Stein, scripted, from the R.A. Dick novel.▼●쩠 Janet Margolin, Harris Yulin, Philip Baker Ghost and the Darkness, The (1996) CHall. Amiable, entertaining sequel has the 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Hopkins. Michael ghostbusting boys reteaming five years after Douglas, Val Kilmer, Tom Wilkinson, John their last adventure to save N.Y.C. from a Kani, Bernard Hill, Brian McCardie, Henry slime attack of gargantuan proportions, generCele, Emily Mortimer, Om Puri. In 1896, ated by all the ‘‘negative energy’’ in the air of an Irish bridge builder heads to Africa for the Big Apple. Longish but good-natured, his latest project, but the campsite is soon with some solid laughs along the way. Chloe cursed by violent and unexplainable attacks Webb has a funny unbilled cameo as a guest by a pair of man-eating lions. Eventually, on Murray’s cable TV show. Panavision. renowned big-game hunter Douglas is [PG]▼●쩠 called in. What begins as a rousing, oldGhost Dad (1990) C-84m. ★★ D: Sidney fashioned adventure somehow loses its Poitier. Bill Cosby, Kimberly Russell, Deway—and its impact. Screenplay by Wilnise Nicholas, Ian Bannen, Christine liam Goldman. Based on the same true story Ebersole, Barry Corbin, Salim Grant, that inspired BWANA DEVIL. Panavision. Brooke Fontaine, Dakin Matthews, Dana [R]▼●쩠 Ashbrook, Arnold Stang. Overworked busiGhost Breakers, The (1940) 85m. ★★★ D: nessman (and widower) Cosby dies in a George Marshall. Bob Hope, Paulette Godtaxi accident, and learns he has only a few dard, Richard Carlson, Paul Lukas, Andays to try to straighten out his finances so thony Quinn, Willie Best, Noble Johnson, his three kids will be secure. Positive famTom Dugan, Lloyd Corrigan. More plot ily message aside, this effects-laden fanthan usual for a Hope film as Bob and Pautasy plays like an extended sitcom. Younger kids may like it—others beware. [PG]▼●쩠 lette investigate eerie Cuban castle that she’s inherited. Some real chills as well as Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai laughs in this first-rate film. Remade as (1999-U.S.-French) C-116m. ★★★ D: Jim SCARED STIFF (1953).▼●쩠 Jarmusch. Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, 1 ★★ Ghost Brigade (1994) C-80m. Cliff Gorman, Henry Silva, Isaach de Ban⁄2 D: George Hickenlooper. Corbin Bernsen, kole´, Tricia Vessey, Victor Argo. Ghost Adrian Pasdar, Ray Wise, Martin Sheen, Dog (Whitaker), a solitary hit man who lives Cynda Williams, Billy Bob Thornton, by the code of the Samurai, finds himself a David Arquette, Matt LeBlanc. Yankees target after a job gone wrong. Typically origiand Rebs team up to confront supernatural nal (though sometimes pretentious) Jarmusch brigade of evil soldiers that’s been wreaking mix of mysticism, action, and even comedy, gruesome slaughter on both sides. Odd mix anchored by Whitaker’s quiet, intense perof Civil War and horror genres aspires to a formance. Very bloody at times, and not for Peckinpah–type brutality but generally opts all tastes. Written by the director. [R]▼쩠 for mere shock value. Putting APOCAGhost in the Invisible Bikini, The (1966) LYPSE NOW star Sheen and HEARTS OF C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Don Weis. Tommy Kirk, DARKNESS documentary director HickenDeborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, Quinn looper together gives viewer an unmistakO’Hara, Nancy Sinatra, Claudia Martin, able feeling of de´ja` vu, as if you’re back up Harvey Lembeck, Jesse White, Susan Hart, the delta in Cambodia looking for Col. Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Patsy Kelly, Kurtz. Aka GREY NIGHT and THE KILLFrancis X. Bushman, Benny Rubin. SevING BOX. [R]▼●쩠 enth (and final) BEACH PARTY movie Ghostbusters (1984) C-107m. ★★★ D: failed to provide a shot in the arm with Ivan Reitman. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, entirely new set of characters (save LemHarold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, Rick beck’s Eric Von Zipper); larger-than-usual Moranis, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, roster of veteran movie greats might attract William Atherton, Reginald VelJohnson. masochistic film buffs. Panavision. 쩠 The first multimillion-dollar scare comedy, Ghost in the Machine (1993) C-95m. ★1⁄2 about a trio of flaky ‘‘paranormal investigaD: Rachel Talalay. Karen Allen, Chris Mul[ 521 ]

key, Ted Marcoux, Wil Horneff, Jessica Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Walter, Brandon Quintin Adams, Rick DuWashington, Karl Urban. A salvage crew commun. The spirit of a dying serial killer learns that a long-lost ocean liner is adrift in is sucked into a computer mainframe in the vicinity, offering a potential windfall. Cleveland, from which he continues to purOnce aboard, they face a decidedly eerie sue his latest target, single mother Allen, by environment and an alarming mortality rate. killing her friends and ruining her credit. Flat, by-the-numbers horror fare, with some graphically gory scenes. [R] ▼쩠 Both obvious and ludicrous. [R]▼●쩠 Ghost in the Noonday Sun (1973-British) Ghosts—Italian Style (1967-Italian) C92m. ★★ D: Renato Castellani. Sophia C-89m. BOMB D: Peter Medak. Peter Sellers, Anthony Franciosa, Spike Milligan, Loren, Vittorio Gassman, Mario Adorf, Clive Revill, Peter Boyle, Richard Willis. Margaret Lee, Aldo Guiffre. Newlyweds Absolutely atrocious pirate comedy which unLoren and Gassman move into haunted derstandably never got full-fledged theatrical house. Weak vehicle for engaging stars. [G] release. Milligan, who’s credited with ‘‘addiGhosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) C-100m. ★★ tional dialogue,’’ appears in one sequence with D: Mark Waters. Matthew McConaughey, his onetime Goon Show colleague Sellers, but Jennifer Garner, Michael Douglas, Breckin even their chemistry can’t save this turkey.▼ Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Robert Forster, Anne Ghost of Frankenstein, The (1942) 68m. Archer, Emma Stone, Daniel Sunjata. Tepid ★★1 reimagining of A Christmas Carol as a ro⁄2 D: Erle C. Kenton. Cedric Hardwicke, Lon Chaney, Jr., Lionel Atwill, Ralph Bellmantic comedy, with McConaughey typecast amy, Bela Lugosi, Evelyn Ankers, Dwight as a roguish lothario who’s encouraged to Frye. Sequel to SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. change his charming-wastrel ways while visYgor (Lugosi) tries to convince Dr. Franited by various apparitions—including his kenstein (Hardwicke) to put his brain into late playboy uncle (scene stealer Douglas)— the Monster. Good cast manages to save the night before his brother’s wedding. Game stale plot. Followed by FRANKENSTEIN actors aren’t helped by flat cinematography MEETS THE WOLF MAN.▼●쩠 (even Garner, as McConaughey’s once and Ghost Rider (2007) C-110m. ★★ D: Mark future sweetie, looks drab) and predictable Steven Johnson. Nicolas Cage, Eva Menwriting. Super 35. [PG-13] des, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott, Donal Ghosts of Mars (2001) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Logue, Matt Long, Peter Fonda, Brett CulJohn Carpenter. Natasha Henstridge, Ice len. Daredevil motorcyclist makes a deal Cube, Pam Grier, Clea DuVall, Jason Stawith the Devil (Fonda) in order to save his tham, Liam Waite, Joanna Cassidy, Wanda father’s life, then tries to adjust to living a De Jesus, Duane Davis, Robert Carradine. cursed existence. In time he finds his true In the near future, Mars has been colonized, identity as a cycle vigilante who rides enbut there’s an outbreak of mass murder in gulfed in flames, his head a burning skull! some remote settlements. People are posAdaptation of the Marvel comic book set out sessed by vengeful Martian ghosts; it’s up to West might have been better if it didn’t take the team of a lady cop and a hardened crimiso long to spell out its premise and get up a nal to battle them. Routine, predictable, and head of steam. Unrated version runs 127m. dull; unimaginatively, the Martian-possessed Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 people adopt a punk/grunge look. Basically a Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990) C-95m. BOMB remake of Carpenter’s early ASSAULT ON D: John Derek. Bo Derek, Anthony Quinn, PRECINCT 13. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Leo Damian, Don Murray, Julie Newmar, Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) C-130m. ★★★ Dee Krainz. And neither (at least on film) D: Rob Reiner. Alec Baldwin, Whoopi can John and Bo. Standard Derek atrocity Goldberg, James Woods, Craig T. Nelson, involves Bo’s international search for the Susanna Thompson, Lucas Black, William perfect male body to house the spirit of her H. Macy, Terry O’Quinn, Virginia Madsen, beloved but deceased husband (Quinn). Bonnie Bartlett, Wayne Rogers, Diane Ladd. Tony looks as if he’s been photographed Straightforward drama about Mississippi asthrough the Lucille Ball MAME filter for sistant D.A. Bobby DeLaughter (Baldwin), the supernatural scenes. Just when you who reopens the case against the murderer of think it can’t get any worse, Donald Trump civil rights leader Medgar Evers 30 years shows up in a cameo. [R]▼● after the fact. Reminiscent of 1960s movies Ghost Ship, The (1943) 69m. ★★★ D: in its earnestness and sobriety, it still works, Mark Robson. Richard Dix, Russell Wade, but lacks the edge and energy to make it Edith Barrett, Ben Bard, Lawrence Tierney. soar. Goldberg is surprisingly good as Evers’ Offbeat Val Lewton melodrama about young widow, and Woods has a showy part (in man who signs on merchant ship run by heavy makeup) as the aged murderer, Byron power-crazy captain (Dix) who’s obsessed De La Beckwith. [PG-13]▼●쩠 with ‘‘authority.’’ Absorbing mood piece Ghost Story (1981) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: with unfortunately abrupt conclusion.▼●쩠 John Irvin. Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Ghost Ship (2002) C-91m. ★★ D: Steve Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Houseman, Beck. Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Craig Wasson, Alice Krige, Patricia Neal, [ 522 ]

Ken Olin. Four elderly New Englanders ing ‘‘monster’’ in Cushing’s secluded home. are tormented by a 50-year-old secret, which Fairly interesting, nongory thriller, with now visits evil on one of their sons as well. Hurt as Cushing’s crazed gardener.▼ Absorbing if not altogether satisfying Ghoulies (1985) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Luca simplification of Peter Straub’s best-seller, Bercovici. Peter Liapis, Lisa Pelikan, Miwhich loses steam as it nears its resolution. chael Des Barres, Jack Nance, Peter Risch, Tamara de Treaux. Boring, ridiculous film Astaire’s last film. [R]▼●쩠 Ghost Town (1988) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richabout young man who invokes Satanic ard Governor. Franc Luz, Catherine Hickspirits in the form of gremlinlike creatures land, Jimmie F. Skaggs, Penelope Windust, (who look like muppets dipped in shellac) Bruce Glover, Blake Conway, Laura at a creepy old mansion. Followed by three sequels. [PG-13]▼쩠 Schaefer. Imaginative fantasy thriller has modern-day Western sheriff Luz chosen to Giant (1956) C-201m. ★★★★ D: George rid a century-old town of its curse by Stevens. Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, avenging its dead sheriff in HIGH NOON James Dean, Carroll Baker, Jane Withers, fashion. Fine special effects distinguish Chill Wills, Mercedes McCambridge, Denthis modest sleeper. [R]▼● nis Hopper, Sal Mineo, Rodney (Rod) ★★★ D: David Ghost Town (2008) C-102m. Taylor, Earl Holliman. Near-legendary epic Koepp. Ricky Gervais, Te´a Leoni, Greg based on Edna Ferber’s novel about two Kinnear, Billy Campbell, Kristen Wiig, generations of larger-than-life Texans holds Dana Ivey, Aasif Mandvi, Alan Ruck, Brian up beautifully, although still very much of d’Arcy James. Acerbic, people-phobic its time. Hudson’s best performance, close N.Y.C. dentist Gervais is haunted by a ghost to Taylor’s best, and Dean’s last film. Ste(Kinnear) who needs to resolve issues with vens won Oscar for direction. Screenplay by his widow (Leoni) before he can rest in Fred Guiol and Ivan Moffat. ▼●쩠 peace. Then the unexpected happens: the Giant Gila Monster, The (1959) 74m. ★1⁄2 dentist falls in love with her. This is the D: Ray Kellogg. Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, kind of fantasy-comedy ‘‘they don’t make Shug Fisher, Jerry Cortwright, Beverly anymore,’’ buoyed by Gervais’ distinctive Thurman, Don Flourney, Pat Simmons. comic persona and his hilarious mutterings. Big, beaded lizard menaces small Texas Funny and heartfelt; written by director town. Not as good as it sounds. Has a couple of wildly inappropriate songs.▼●쩠 Koepp and John Kamps. [PG-13]쩠 Ghost World (2001) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Giant Spider Invasion, The (1975) C-82m. Terry Zwigoff. Thora Birch, Scarlett JoBOMB D: Bill Rebane. Steve Brodie, hansson, Steve Buscemi, Brad Renfro, IlBarbara Hale, Leslie Parrish, Alan Hale, leana Douglas, Bob Balaban. A sour Robert Easton, Bill Williams. Veteran cast teenage iconoclast (Birch) finds her only can’t do much for this tacky horror opus filmed in Wisconsin. [PG]▼쩠 friend (Johansson) drifting away after their high school graduation, so she attaches herself Giant Steps (1992-Canadian) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 to geeky record collector Buscemi. A wellD: Richard Rose. Billy Dee Williams, observed study of alienation, coscripted by Michael Mahonen, Robyn Stevan, Ted Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes from the latter’s Dykstra, Ranee Lee. Idealistic teen trumcomic book . . . but it’s difficult to care peter Mahonen befriends his idol, Slate about a character who refuses to be cared Thompson (Williams), a legendary, selfabout. Zwigoff’s first fictional feature, foldestructive jazz pianist attempting to remain lowing CRUMB; in fact, R. Crumb contribtrue to his art. Well meaning but obvious uted a drawing to this film. Teri Garr and preachy.▼ appears unbilled. [R] ▼쩠 G.I. Blues (1960) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: NorGhoul, The (1933-British) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: man Taurog. Elvis Presley, Juliet Prowse, T. Hayes Hunter. Boris Karloff, Cedric Robert Ivers, Leticia Roman, Ludwig Hardwicke, Ernest Thesiger, Dorothy Stossel. Prowse’s versatile performance as Hyson, Anthony Bushell, Ralph Richarda cabaret dancer uplifts this standard Presley son, Kathleen Harrison. England’s answer fare about a guitar-playing G.I. in West to Hollywood’s horror films: Egyptologist Germany. Elvis sings ‘‘Tonight Is So Right Karloff wishes to be buried with a jewel for Love,’’ ‘‘Wooden Heart,’’ ‘‘Blue Suede he believes will allow him eternal life. It’s Shoes,’’ and title song.▼●쩠 stolen, and he rises from the dead in search G.I. Bro SEE: Inglorious Bastards of the culprit. Slow going until Karloff’s Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958-British) resurrection; then it really hums. RichardC-91m. ★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Jack Hawkins, son’s film debut. Remade as 1962 comedy Dianne Foster, Cyril Cusack, Andrew Ray, James Hayter, Ronald Howard, Anna MasNO PLACE LIKE HOMICIDE! ▼쩠 Ghoul, The (1975-British) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 sey, Anna Lee, Laurence Naismith. A typiD: Freddie Francis. Peter Cushing, John cal day in the life of a Scotland Yard inspecHurt, Alexandra Bastedo, Gwen Watford, tor; Hawkins is likable but the film is Veronica Carlson, Steward Bevan. Innocent unbelievably dull. A surprising dud from people fall victim to a mysterious flesh-eatdirector Ford. British version, titled GID[ 523 ]

EON’S DAY, runs 118m. Originally reD: Compton Bennett. Trevor Howard, Richleased theatrically in the U.S. in b&w. ard Attenborough, Sonny Tufts, James DonGideon’s Day SEE: Gideon of Scotland ald, Joan Rice, Bernard Lee, Dora Bryan, Yard Hugh Williams, Sidney James. Solid WW2 Gidget (1959) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul drama with Howard as a troublesome ship’s Wendkos. Sandra Dee, James Darren, Cliff captain, disliked by his crew, who comes Robertson, Arthur O’Connell, Joby Baker, into his own while battling a German UYvonne Craig, Doug McClure, Tom Laughboat. Also known as GLORY AT SEA.▼ lin. California teenage girl hits the beach Gift of Love, The (1958) C-105m. ★★ D: one summer and falls in love with two Jean Negulesco. Lauren Bacall, Robert surfer boys. Dee is spirited in the title role Stack, Evelyn Rudie, Lorne Greene, Anne of this hit movie (based on Frederick KohnSeymour. If you could put up with SENer’s novel about his daughter), which led to TIMENTAL JOURNEY you might bear a number of sequels and two different TV this remake, which isn’t even as good. series! CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Bacall dies but returns to earth as guiding Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) C-102m. spirit for her husband and daughter. Re★★ D: Paul Wendkos. James Darren, Mimade again for TV as SENTIMENTAL chael Callan, Deborah Walley, Carl ReinJOURNEY. CinemaScope. er, Peggy Cass, Eddie Foy, Jr. Inane Gig, The (1985) C-92m. ★★★ D: Frank D. follow-up has teenager off to the Islands, Gilroy. Wayne Rogers, Cleavon Little, with embarrassing results for all.▼쩠 Andrew Duncan, Jerry Matz, Daniel Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) C-101m. ★★ Nalbach, Warren Vache, Joe Silver, Jay D: Paul Wendkos. Cindy Carol, James Thomas. Perceptive, touching comedyDarren, Jessie Royce Landis, Cesare Dadrama about dreams, compromises, disapnova, Jeff Donnell. Mild follow-up has pointments—what it means to be alive. A fetching teenager off to Italy, involved in group of middle-class, middle-aged men predictable romancing.▼쩠 play jazz both to amuse themselves and to Gift, The (1982-French-Italian) C-105m. escape from the pressures of their lives; ★★ D: Michel Lang. Pierre Mondy, Clauthey are hired for their first professional dia Cardinale, Clio Goldsmith, Jacques engagement at a small resort, and the exFrancois, Cecile Magnet, Remi Laurent. perience proves to be unexpectedly unsettling. Gilroy also wrote the script.▼ Bank employees chip in to buy their colleague a surprise retirement gift: a beautiGigantic (2009) C-98m. ★★★ D: Matt Aselful prostitute. A ‘‘good clean sex farce,’’ ton. Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel, John strained and silly, with no sex, very little Goodman, Ed Asner, Jane Alexander, Ian nudity, and the improbable casting of beauRoberts, Robert Stanton, Clarke Peters, tiful Cardinale as Mondy’s wife. [R]▼ Susan Misner, Zach Galifianakis. Dano Gift, The (2000) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam plays the son of older parents (Asner and Raimi. Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, Alexander) and baby brother of two robust Keanu Reeves, Katie Holmes, Greg Kinnear, siblings; his only goal in life is to adopt a Hilary Swank, Michael Jeter, Kim Dickens, baby from China. Then he meets Deschanel, Gary Cole, Rosemary Harris, J. K. Simmons, who lives in the shadow of her bombastic Chelcie Ross. Young widow and mother father (Goodman). Quirky, hip, sexy New Blanchett earns money doing psychic readYork–based comedy with a disarmingly ings for her Georgia neighbors, but incurs oblique sense of humor. Feature directing the wrath of an abusive Reeves . . . and then debut for Aselton, who scripted with Adam becomes a key witness in a murder trial. Nagata. Super 35. [R] Uneven blend of Southern gothic/psychic/ Gigantis, the Fire Monster (1959-Japanese) courtroom/whodunit ingredients, made watch78m. ★★ D: Motoyoshi Oda, Hugo Griable by a strong ensemble. Written by Billy maldi. Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Makayama. A new Godzilla, here called Gigantis, Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson. [R]▼쩠 ★★★ Gift From Heaven, A (1994) C-102m. battles spiny Angorous, trashing another D: Jack Lucarelli. Sharon Farrell, Gigi Rice, Japanese city. First sequel to GODZILLA, David Steen, Sarah Trigger, Gene Lythgow, KING OF THE MONSTERS!, retitled: Mark Ruffalo, Nicholas Worth, Molly McGODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN.▼ Clure. Solid characterizations add immeaGigi (1948-French) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jacquesurably to this complex, impassioned drama line Audry. Daniele Delorme, Frank Vilabout an emotionally scarred backwoods lard, Yvonne de Bray, Gaby Morlay, Jean North Carolina mother (Farrell). She gave Tissier, Madeleine Rousset. Original verbirth to the eldest of her two grown children sion of Colette’s novel is not a musical but (Steen) when she was twelve, after being a drolly amusing (if talky and uncinematic) seduced by her preacher uncle: the emocomedy of manners. Delorme, who starred tional sparks begin to fly upon the arrival of in two more films based on Colette stories, an orphaned cousin (Trigger). Actor Steen is delightful as Gigi, the girl trained to be a also scripted the film. courtesan by her aunt and grandmother in fin de sie`cle Paris. Originally 109m.쩠 Gift Horse, The (1952-British) 100m. ★★★ [ 524 ]

Gigi (1958) C-116m. ★★★★ D: Vincente Gilda Live (1980) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Minnelli. Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Nichols. Gilda Radner, Father Guido Sarducci Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold, Jacques (Don Novello). Filmization of Radner’s Bergerac, Eva Gabor. Charming turn-ofBroadway show, with the comedienne doing the-century musical based on Colette’s story uncensored versions of her familiar Saturday of a French girl who’s groomed to be a Night Live TV characters. Best song: ‘‘Let’s courtesan. Exquisitely filmed, perfectly cast, Talk Dirty to the Animals.’’ [R]▼ with memorable Lerner & Loewe score: title Gilded Lily, The (1935) 80m. ★★★ D: tune, ‘‘Thank Heaven for Little Girls,’’ Wesley Ruggles. Claudette Colbert, Fred ‘‘I Remember It Well.’’ Winner of nine MacMurray, Ray Milland, C. Aubrey Smith, Academy Awards including Best Picture, Edward Craven, Luis Alberni, Grace BradDirector, Writing (Alan Jay Lerner), Cineley. Colbert has to choose between aristomatography (Joseph Ruttenberg), Costumes cratic Milland and down-to-earth MacMurray. (Cecil Beaton), Song (‘‘Gigi’’), and Scoring Fine romantic fluff. MacMurray’s breezy (Andre Previn). Chevalier received an honperformance here made a strong impression orary Oscar. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 and boosted him to stardom. Gigli (2003) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Martin Brest. Gilles’ Wife (2004-French-Belgian-Swiss) Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck, Justin Bartha, C-108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fre´de´ric Fonteyne. EmLainie Kazan, Al Pacino, Christopher Walmanuelle Devos, Clovis Cornillac, Laura ken, Missy Crider, Lenny Venito. UnderSmet, Colette Emmanuelle, Gil Lagay. A world functionary Affleck is hired to kidnap simple, happily married woman in a small the brother of a federal prosecutor; then, Belgian village begins to suspect that her inexplicably, Affleck’s boss sends Lopez to husband is seeing another woman—namely, keep an eye on him! Sorry excuse for a her sister. Exquisite rendering of Madeleine script (by Brest) lurches from one boring, Bourdouxhe’s 1937 novel recalls French silly, illogical, and/or unpleasant sequence films of that period; much of the story is to another, when in fact it exists merely to told through Devos’ expressive face and the show off its sexy female star, who (in the painterly images of cinematographer Virfilm’s most memorable scene) talks dirty ginie Saint-Martin. Deliberate in both its while performing yoga. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 pacing and attention to detail. Fonteyne coGigot (1962) C-104m. ★★★ D: Gene Kelly. wrote the screenplay with Philippe Blasband and Marion Ha¨nsel.쩠 Jackie Gleason, Katherine Kath, Gabrielle Dorziat, Albert Remy, Yvonne Constant. Gimme Shelter (1970) C-91m. ★★★★ D: Sentimental, well-acted tale of a deaf mute David Maysles, Albert Maysles, Charlotte (Gleason) and a young girl in Paris. SimZwerin. Rolling Stones, Jefferson Airplane, ple film, well done; Gleason is excellent. Tina Turner, Melvin Belli. Outstanding Remade for TV as THE WOOL CAP documentary of the Rolling Stones and the MAN (2004). famous Altamont Speedway free concert that G.I. Jane (1997) C-124m. ★★ D: Ridley resulted in chaos and murder. Chilling, beauScott. Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen, tifully handled, with the Stones performing Anne Bancroft, Scott Wilson, Jason Beghe, their best songs of the period (‘‘SatisfacDaniel Von Bargen. Contrived movie about tion,’’ ‘‘Sympathy for the Devil,’’ etc.). Rea woman selected as a test case for admitissued in PG form at 90m., then reedited for reissue in 2000 at 91m. [R]▼●쩠 ting females into naval combat. She undergoes the unbelievable rigors of Navy Gina SEE: Death in the Garden SEALs training, determined not to be Ginger and Fred (1986-Italian) C-126m. ★★★ shown favored treatment. Pumped-up D: Federico Fellini. Giulietta Masina, Moore is perfect for the part, though it’s a Marcello Mastroianni, Franco Fabrizi, Fredtoss-up as to which scenes are more offerick Von Ledenberg, Martin Blau, Toto putting—her body-building workouts or her Mignone. Fellini satirizes TV, and the cult physical abuse at the hands of her Master of instant celebrity, in this relaxed and Chief (Mortensen). Typically dense Scott amusing film. Ginger and Fred are, in soundtrack renders much of the dialogue fact, two small-time entertainers who used unintelligible—but it’s no loss. Too bad to imitate Rogers and Astaire and who are they didn’t lose the anticlimactic final action being reunited by an unctuous TV show. sequence. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 The targets are a bit obvious and the pace a Gilda (1946) 110m. ★★★ D: Charles Vidor. bit leisurely, but the climactic sequence is Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Mafun, and the two stars are wonderful to cready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray. watch, as always. [PG-13]▼쩠 Highly charged story of emotional triangle— Gingerbread Man, The (1998) C-115m. ★★ D: Robert Altman. Kenneth Branagh, mysterious South American casino owner Macready, his new man-Friday Ford, and Embeth Davidtz, Robert Downey, Jr., Daryl Macready’s alluring wife (Hayworth)—unHannah, Tom Berenger, Famke Janssen, fortunately cops out with silly resolutions. Mae Whitman, Jesse James, Robert Duvall. Rita has never been sexier, especially when Cocky Savannah lawyer (Branagh, with a singing ‘‘Put the Blame on Mame.’’▼●쩠 terrific accent) sleeps with a woman he’s [ 525 ]

just met (Davidtz, in a strong performance), warm, winning performance helps likable but uneven film over rough spots. [PG]▼ then gets into hot water when he tries to protect her from her lunatic father. If he’s Girl From Jones Beach, The (1949) 78m. ★★1 so smart, how could he leave himself so ⁄2 D: Peter Godfrey. Ronald Reagan, vulnerable? Ask John Grisham, who wrote Virginia Mayo, Eddie Bracken, Dona Drake, this thriller, which grows more implausible Henry Travers, Lois Wilson, Florence Bates. with each new story twist. Final showdown Breezy comedy about an artist trying to find is especially weak. Screenplay credited to a living embodiment of the perfectly proporpseudonymous Al Hayes. [R]▼●쩠 tioned female in his illustrations. Capable roGinger in the Morning (1973) C-89m. mantic-comedy performance by Reagan. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gordon Wiles. Sissy Spacek, Monte Girl From Lorraine, The (1980-FrenchSwiss) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Goretta. Markham, Mark Miller, Susan Oliver, Slim Pickens. So-so romantic comedy about a Nathalie Baye, Bruno Ganz, Angela Winklonely salesman who picks up a comely ler, Patrick Chesnais. Unemployed draughtshitchhiker. He’s attracted to her young, woman Baye, from the provinces, mainfresh independence; she’s drawn to his tains her dignity in lonely, unfriendly Paris. old-fashioned romanticism. [PG]▼쩠 Quietly rewarding drama with an extremely Girl Can’t Help It, The (1956) C-99m. likable heroine; however, sometimes as ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Tashlin. Tom Ewell, Jayne dreary as some of the characters she meets. Mansfield, Edmond O’Brien, Julie LonOriginally titled LA PROVINCIALE. don. One-joke film about press agent EwGirl From Missouri, The (1934) 75m. ★★★ ell trying to hype gangster’s girlfriend D: Jack Conway. Jean Harlow, Lionel (Mansfield) to stardom. Some good Tashlin Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Lewis Stone, sight gags; classic performances by Fats Patsy Kelly, Alan Mowbray. Delightful Domino (‘‘Blue Monday’’), The Platters fluff about good girl Harlow trying to win (‘‘You’ll Never Know’’), Gene Vincent a millionaire without sacrificing her integand His Blue Caps (‘‘BeBop A Lula’’), rity. Wise-cracking Kelly as her girlfriend Little Richard (‘‘She’s Got It,’’ ‘‘Ready is a treat.▼ Teddy,’’ and ‘‘The Girl Can’t Help It’’). Girl From Petrovka, The (1974) C-104m. ★★ D: Robert Ellis Miller. Goldie Hawn, CinemaScope.▼쩠 Girl Crazy (1943) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: NorHal Holbrook, Anthony Hopkins, Gregoire man Taurog. Mickey Rooney, Judy GarAslan, Anton Dolin. Old-fashioned comedyland, Gil Stratton, Robert E. Strickland, drama about a bittersweet affair between ‘‘Rags’’ Ragland, June Allyson, Nancy American correspondent Holbrook and RusWalker, Guy Kibbee, Tommy Dorsey and His sian Hawn. Filmed in Vienna and Hollywood. Panavision. [PG]▼ Orchestra. Rooney sent to small Southwestern school to forget girls, but meets Garland and Girl From 10th Avenue, The (1935) 69m. ★★★ that’s that. Great Gershwin score includes ‘‘I D: Alfred E. Green. Bette Davis, Ian Got Rhythm,’’ ‘‘Embraceable You,’’ ‘‘But Hunter, Colin Clive, Alison Skipworth, Not For Me.’’ Busby Berkeley (the original John Eldredge, Philip Reed, Katherine Aldirector) staged the finale. Filmed before in exander. Honest working girl Davis gets 1932; remade as WHEN THE BOYS MEET alcoholic, recently jilted society lawyer THE GIRLS. ▼●쩠 Hunter back on his feet; then his exgirlfight (2000) C-113m. ★★★ D: Karyn Kugirlfriend decides she wants him back. sama. Michelle Rodriguez, Jaime Tirelli, Davis shines in this engrossing soaper. Girl-Getters, The (1966-British) 79m. ★★★ Paul Calderon, Santiago Douglas, Ray Santiago, Elisa Bocanegra. A hotheaded Latina D: Michael Winner. Oliver Reed, Jane teenager who lives in Brooklyn finds a way Merrow, Barbara Ferris, Julia Foster, Dato channel her anger—in the boxing ring. vid Hemmings. Realistic study of hoodMaking her way in a male-dominated sport lum youths at British seaside resort, their is no easy matter, especially when she falls prankish games and romances; intelligently in love with a fellow boxer. Rodriguez is portrayed. Retitled: THE SYSTEM.▼ utterly believable in this entertaining debut Girl Happy (1965) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Boris feature for writer-director Kusama. John Sagal. Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, HarSayles, who coexecutive-produced, has a old J. Stone, Gary Crosby, Joby Baker, small part as a science teacher. [R] ▼쩠 Nita Talbot, Mary Ann Mobley, Chris Girl for Joe, A SEE: Force of Arms Noel, Jackie Coogan. Formula Presley muGirlfriends (1978) C-88m. ★★★ D: Clausical with tiresome plot of Elvis in Fort dia Weill. Melanie Mayron, Anita SkinLauderdale chaperoning Fabares, daughter ner, Eli Wallach, Christopher Guest, Bob of Chicago mobster. Panavision.▼쩠 Balaban, Amy Wright, Viveca Lindfors, Girl He Left Behind, The (1956) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Butler. Tab Hunter, Natalie Mike Kellin, Ken McMillan, Kathryn Walker, Kristoffer Tabori. A young woman Wood, Jessie Royce Landis, Jim Backus, tries to cope with love, a career, and Henry Jones, Murray Hamilton, Alan King, personal independence after roommate/girlJames Garner, David Janssen. Hunter is friend leaves to get married. Mayron’s new recruit in Army. Reminiscent of SEE [ 526 ]

HERE, PRIVATE HARGROVE, without Girl Named Tamiko, A (1962) C-110m. ★★1 any of the warmth or humor. ⁄2 D: John Sturges. Laurence Harvey, Girl Hunters, The (1963-British) 103m. France Nuyen, Martha Hyer, Gary Mer★★1 rill, Michael Wilding. Miyoshi Umeki, ⁄2 D: Roy Rowland. Mickey Spillane, Lloyd Nolan, Shirley Eaton, Hy Gardner. Lee Patrick. Overblown soaper set in Tokyo. Spillane plays his own fictional detective Harvey charms Hyer into proposing marMike Hammer in this rugged murder mysriage so he can get U.S. citizenship. Nuyen tery. Since the disappearance of his devoted is sweet Oriental whom Harvey really loves. secretary, Hammer has been wallowing in Panavision. Girl Next Door, The (1953) C-92m. ★★★ alcohol; he sobers up, and goes into action, upon learning she might be alive. PanaD: Richard Sale. Dan Dailey, June Haver, vision. ▼쩠 Dennis Day, Billy Gray, Cara Williams, Girl in a Swing, The (1989-U.S.-British) Natalie Schafer. Minor but cheerful musical C-112m. BOMB D: Gordon Hessler. Meg about a chorus-girl-turned-star who moves Tilly, Rupert Frazer, Nicholas Le Prevost, next door to a widower and his son and Elspet Gray, Lorna Heilbron, Helen Cherry. threatens to break up their buddy relationAntique dealer marries a mysterious Gership. Great set design, clever use of animaman woman after a whirlwind courtship tion (by the UPA studio), bright Harry and pays the consequences, surviving her Warren–Josef Myrow songs, and eyehallucinations and related erratic behavior. popping film noir production number ‘‘NoDespite lots of simulated (and unrated) where Guy’’ spark this likable confection. Haver’s last film before retiring.쩠 screen sex, this is absolutely unwatchable— though Frazer looks just enough like Regis Girl Next Door, The (2004) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 Philbin to give this stinker some unexD: Luke Greenfield. Emile Hirsch, Elisha pected subtext. [R]▼● Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant, James Remar, Girl in Every Port, A (1952) 86m. ★★ D: Chris Marquette, Paul Dano, Timothy BotChester Erskine. Groucho Marx, Marie Wiltoms, Jacob Young. Straight-arrow high school son, William Bendix, Don DeFore, Gene senior breaks out of his nerdy routine when Lockhart, George E. Stone. Nonsense of he falls head over heels for his new next-door two gobs who become involved with a lame neighbor, a blonde knockout who turns out to racehorse. Good cast is wasted.▼● be a porn star trying to go straight. Excellent Girl, Interrupted (1999) C-127m. ★★★ D: casting and some good laughs are mitigated James Mangold. Winona Ryder, Angelina by film’s overreliance on ideas ‘‘borrowed’’ Jolie, Clea DuVall, Brittany Murphy, Whoopi from RISKY BUSINESS, key scenes that Goldberg, Vanessa Redgrave, Jared Leto, don’t ring true, and a storyline that’s much more complicated than it has to be. [R]▼쩠 Jeffrey Tambor, Mary Kay Place, Joanna Kerns, Kurtwood Smith, Ray Baker. Vivid Girl of the Golden West, The (1938) 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Z. Leonard. Jeaadaptation of Susanna Kaysen’s autobiographical book (set in the late 1960s) about nette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Walter a girl who enters a mental institution at the Pidgeon, Leo Carrillo, Buddy Ebsen, Leonage of 18, thinking she’s normal compared ard Penn. Oft-produced tale of love affair to most of the others—though she did try to of good girl MacDonald and bandit Eddy, kill herself. Jolie is incandescent in an with tuneful Gus Kahn–Sigmund Romberg score that didn’t produce any hits.▼ Oscar-winning performance as the firebrand of the ward, who, like most of the others, Girl on a Motorcycle (1968-BritishFrench) C-91m. ★★ D: Jack Cardiff. Marihides her true emotions. [R]▼쩠 Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, The (1955) anne Faithfull, Alain Delon, Roger Mutton, C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Fleischer. Ray Marius Goring, Catherine Jourdan. Cardiff Milland, Joan Collins, Farley Granger, also photographed this oddity: a mod, psycheCornelia Otis Skinner, Glenda Farrell, Ludelic, existential tale of a woman who leaves ther Adler. Glossy, fictionalized account her husband and rides her motorcycle to visit of Evelyn Nesbit–Stanford White–Harry her ex-lover. From Andre´ Pieyre De MandiThaw escapade of early 20th-century N.Y.C. argues’s novel. Trimmed from X-rated verShowgirl falls in love with prominent arsion titled NAKED UNDER LEATHER. [R] chitect, which upsets mentally disturbed ▼●쩠 millionaire. CinemaScope.쩠 Girl on the Bridge (1951) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Girl Most Likely, The (1957) C-98m. Hugo Haas. Hugo Haas, Beverly Michaels, ★★★ Robert Dane, Johnny Close, Anthony Jochim. D: Mitchell Leisen. Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, Keith Andes, Tommy Noonan, Kindly shopkeeper saves young woman Kaye Ballard, Una Merkel. Musical refrom suicide and takes her in—along with make of TOM, DICK AND HARRY comes her baby. Typical Haas melodrama but betoff as bright, cheerful entertainment. A ter than most.▼ girl must decide which one of the trio Girl on the Bridge, The (1999-French) 92m. ★★★ D: Patrice Leconte. Daniel Aushe’ll wed; Kaye Ballard does very well in supporting role. Choreography by Gower teuil, Vanessa Paradis, Demetre Georgalas, Champion.▼● Bertie Cortez. A mysterious knife-thrower [ 527 ]

(Auteuil) saves a young woman from jumpNoreen Corcoran, Peter Brooks, Lana Wood, The Beach Boys, Lesley Gore, Dick Miller. ing off a bridge and recruits her for his Three coeds promise they’ll get The Beatles death-defying act. Their success together is to make a personal appearance and then have based not just on his skill, but on their ala mite of trouble delivering. The Beach Boys most telepathic (and sensual) sense of onesing two tunes in this predictable comedy. ness. Stylish, provocative fable, shot in Reissued as SUMMER OF ’64. widescreen b&w, opens with real-life pop Girls Town (1959) 92m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles star Paradis delivering a mesmerizing monoHaas. Mamie Van Doren, Mel Torme, logue. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Paul Anka, Ray Anthony, Maggie Hayes, Girls, The (1968-Swedish) 90m. ★★★ D: Cathy Crosby, Gigi Perreau, Gloria Talbott, Mai Zetterling. Bibi Andersson, Harriet Jim Mitchum, Elinor Donahue, Sheilah GraAndersson, Gunnel Lindblom, Gunnar ham, The Platters, Harold Lloyd, Jr. WiseBjornstrand, Erland Josephson, Ulf Palme. cracking bad girl is sent to title correctional Trenchant study of modern marriages and institution, where she learns that she doesn’t female roles, loaded with fantasy sehave all the answers. Absurd in the extreme, quences. Fabulous cast drawn by actressbut has definite camp value just for the cast turned-director Zetterling from Ingmar alone . . . plus, Anka sings ‘‘Ave Maria’’! As Bergman’s repertory company. Aka Mamie says, it’s ‘‘cool, crazy, fantabulous.’’ FLICKORNA. 쩠 Aka INNOCENT AND THE DAMNED. ▼ Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 Girls Town (1996) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim D: Norman Taurog. Elvis Presley, Stella McKay. Lili Taylor, Bruklin Harris, Anna Stevens, Laurel Goodwin, Jeremy Slate, Grace, Aunjanue Ellis, Guillermo Diaz, Benson Fong, Robert Strauss, Ginny Tiu. Ernestine Jackson, Tara Carnes, Michael Presley is chased by a mass of girls and Imperioli. Disparate clique of teenage girlcan’t decide which one he prefers. Along friends discover the depths of their individual the way, he sings ‘‘Return to Sender’’ secrets when one of their group inexplicably and some other less memorable numbers commits suicide. A largely improvised (like ‘‘Song of the Shrimp’’).▼쩠 script results in realistic dialogue that conGirl Shy (1924) 81m. ★★★ D: Fred Newsiders the issues of teenage boredom, friendmeyer, Sam Taylor. Harold Lloyd, Jobyna ship, victimization of women, solidarity, Ralston, Richard Daniels, Carlton Griffin. and empowerment. A painfully unsentimenEnjoyable Lloyd vehicle mixes comedy tal, sometimes humorous, coming-of-age in and sentiment with a spectacular chase the ’90s story. [R]▼● finale. Harold is a small-town boy who’s Girl 27 (2007) C-80m. ★★★ D: David Stenn. petrified of women but writes book on Fascinating, highly personal documentary lovemaking secrets! Fantasy scenes of his by Hollywood historian-biographer Stenn love life mark highlight.▼쩠 about a forgotten woman named Patricia Girl 6 (1996) C-105m. ★★ D: Spike Lee. Douglas, who was raped during an MGM Theresa Randle, Isaiah Washington, Spike sales convention in 1937. Stenn does admiLee, Jenifer Lewis, Debi Mazar, Peter Berg, rable detective work piecing this longMichael Imperioli, Dina Pearlman, Maggie buried story together, and reveals his disRush, Kristen Wilson, Naomi Campbell, coveries one by one. Use of 1930s movie Desi Moreno, John Turturro, Madonna, scenes to parallel the true-life story told here Quentin Tarantino, Halle Berry, Richard doesn’t always work, but the overall result Belzer, Ron Silver, Susan Batson, Gretchen is excellent.쩠 Mol. A frustrated young actress takes (and Girl Who Couldn’t Say No, The (1968becomes addicted to) a job as a phone-sex Italian) C-83m. ★★ D: Franco Brusati. worker. Done in by its predictability and Virna Lisi, George Segal, Lila Kedrova, lack of insight into the character of Girl 6. Akim Tamiroff, Paola Pitagora, Felicity Worth a look for Randle’s appealing perforMason. Square Segal and childhood friend mance and Lee’s vivid depiction of the Lisi fall for each other, but just can’t phone-sex world. [R]▼●쩠 maintain a permanent relationship; mild Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985) comedy. Techniscope. [M/PG] 1 ★★ C-87m. ⁄2 D: Alan Metter. Sarah Jessica Girl Who Had Everything, The (1953) Parker, Lee Montgomery, Morgan Woodward, 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Elizabeth Jonathan Silverman, Helen Hunt, Holly GagTaylor, Fernando Lamas, William Powell, nier, Ed Lauter, Shannen Doherty. Likable, upGig Young, James Whitmore, Robert Burbeat teen comedy about girl with reactionary ton. Good cast uplifts murky remake of A father who wants to enter dance contest. CliFREE SOUL. Independent-minded Taylor che´s and contrivances are counterbalanced by is attracted to gambling kingpin Lamas, the believable portrayal of teenage girls, appealclient of her trial-lawyer father (Powell). ingly played by Parker and Hunt. [PG]▼쩠 Young has another of his thankless ‘‘other Girls of Summer SEE: Satisfaction man’’ roles.▼ Girls on the Beach, The (1965) C-80m. Girl Who Knew Too Much, The SEE: ★1⁄2 D: William N. Witney. Martin West, Evil Eye, The [ 528 ]

Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969) C-96m. Give ’Em Hell, Harry! (1975) C-102m. ★★ ★★★ D: Francis D. Lyon. Adam West, Nancy D: Steve Binder. James Whitmore. Kwan, Nehemiah Persoff, Robert Alda. Straight reproduction of Whitmore’s one-man Adventurer who is hired to find the killer stage triumph as Harry Truman, covering of a syndicate boss discovers Communist high points in both the political and personal plot to infiltrate organized crime. [R] life of our 33rd President. Video-taped and Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003-Britishtransferred to film for theatrical release, Luxembourgian) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter but original tape version used for TV. [PG]▼ Webber. Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Give Me a Sailor (1938) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Wilkinson, Judy Parfitt, Cillian MurElliott Nugent. Martha Raye, Bob Hope, phy, Essie Davis, Joanna Scanlan, Alakina Betty Grable, Jack Whiting, Clarence Kolb, Mann. Exquisite rendering of Tracy ChevaJ. C. Nugent. Fast-moving comedy with lier’s best-selling novel about the circumRaye an ugly duckling constantly upstaged stances that lead a scullery maid to pose for by her prettier, self-centered sibling (Graone of Johannes Vermeer’s most famous ble); Hope and Whiting are Navy brothers portraits. First-time feature director Webber who play out a comic/romantic scenario inand his team create a breathtaking sense of volving the sisters.▼쩠 time and place (Delft in the 17th century), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984and Johansson is perfect as the unassuming British) C-108m. ★★ D: Peter Webb. Paul girl who seeks to find her place in the comMcCartney, Bryan Brown, Ringo Starr, Barbustible Vermeer household. Screenplay by bara Bach, Linda McCartney, Tracey Ullman, Olivia Hetreed. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Ralph Richardson. Vanity film with silly Girl With a Suitcase (1960-Italian) 111m. ‘‘plot’’ about a missing album tape connecting ★★★1 a number of music video–type numbers ⁄2 D: Valerio Zurlini. Claudia Cardinale, Jacques Perrin, Luciana Angelillo, Cor(‘‘Ballroom Dancing,’’ ‘‘No More Lonely rado Pani. Impressive film of devoted but Nights’’). Some of the music is good (and shady girl Cardinale following her ex-lover McCartney reprises a couple of Beatles to Parma, only to fall in love with his adosongs) but mostly it’s a big snooze. [PG] lescent brother. Confusing at times, but ex▼●쩠 tremely well acted. Original Italian running Gizmo (1977) C/B&W-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Howard Smith. Entertaining compilation time 135m. ▼쩠 Girl With Green Eyes (1964-British) 91m. of film clips on 20th-century ‘‘inventors’’ ★★★ D: Desmond Davis. Rita Tushingham, and their often outlandish contraptions. Peter Finch, Lynn Redgrave, T. P. McGood fun, though it can’t quite sustain Kenna, Marie Kean, Julian Glover. Movfeature length. [G]▼ ing drama of young farm girl falling in love Gladiator (1992) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Rowdy with writer Finch, highlighted by winning Herrington. Cuba Gooding, Jr., James MarTushingham performance. Redgrave scores shall, Robert Loggia, Ossie Davis, Brian Dennehy, Cara Buono, John Heard, Jon as her roommate. Filmed in Dublin.▼쩠 Girl With the Red Hair, The (1981-Dutch) Seda, Lance Slaughter. Pubescent ROCKY wannabe about a tough Chicago teenager C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ben Verbong. Renee Soutendijk, Peter Tuinman, Loes Luca, becoming involved in the tawdry underJohan Leysen, Robert Delhez, Ada Bouwground boxing scene. Builds to ludicrous man. Determined student becomes a killer climax with crooked fight promoter Denof Nazi informers during WW2. Tense, nehy actually getting in the ring! [R]▼●쩠 chilling, sober, but overlong and too often Gladiator (2000) C-154m. ★★★ D: Ridley slow; good score by Nicola Piovani helps. Scott. Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Based on a true story. [PG] Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Girly SEE: Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Hounsou, Richard Harris, David Hemmings. Girly Impressive tale from the days of the Roman Giro City SEE: And Nothing But the Empire, with Crowe as a dedicated soldier who Truth refuses to transfer his loyalty to the new emperor Commodus (Phoenix) and suffers the Give a Girl a Break (1953) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Donen. Marge and Gower consequences, winding up a gladiator in the Champion, Debbie Reynolds, Helen Wood, Roman Colosseum. Crowe is so good in his Bob Fosse, Kurt Kasznar, Richard AnderAcademy Award–winning performance—and son, William Ching, Larry Keating. Innocuhis character so compelling—that one is willous musical fluff about three young women ing to forgive story lulls; the spectacle is competing for the starring role in a Broadgrand, but the opening battle scene stresses way musical. Watching Marge and Gower chaos over coherence. Reed’s last film; he dance is always a treat, but the real highlight died during production. Also won Oscars is seeing two of the greatest choreographers for Best Picture, Costume Design, Sound, of all time (Champion and Fosse) dancing and Visual Effects. Extended edition runs together. Undistinguished score by Ira 171m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Glass Bottom Boat, The (1966) C-110m. Gershwin and Burton Lane.▼● [ 529 ]

★★★

D: Frank Tashlin. Doris Day, Rod John Malkovich, Karen Allen, James Taylor, Arthur Godfrey, Paul Lynde, Eric Naughton. Respectable, well-made version Fleming, Alice Pearce, Ellen Corby, John of Tennessee Williams’ now legendary play, McGiver, Edward Andrews, Dom De Luise, with Woodward fine as Amanda Wingfield Dick Martin. Above-average Day nonsense, and Malkovich superb as son Tom. Woodwith widow Doris hired by research scienward, Allen, and Naughton had appeared in tist Taylor as his biographer. He tries to two regional stage productions of Williams’ seduce her; she’s mistaken for a Russian play prior to making this film. [PG] ▼● spy. Lots of Tashlin’s trademark slapstick. Glass Shield, The (1995) C-108m. ★★ D: Panavision.▼●쩠 Charles Burnett. Michael Boatman, Lori ★★1 Glass House, The (2001) C-106m. ⁄2 D: Petty, Richard Anderson, Ice Cube, Bernie Daniel Sackheim. Leelee Sobieski, Stellan Casey, Elliott Gould, Michael Ironside, Don Skarsga˚rd, Diane Lane, Bruce Dern, Kathy Harvey, Michael Gregory, M. Emmett Baker, Trevor Morgan, Chris Noth, Michael Walsh, Sy Richardson, Natalija Nogulich, O’Keefe, Rita Wilson, Gavin O’Connor. Wanda de Jesus, Victoria Dillard. Young, When their well-off parents are killed in an wide-eyed Boatman is the first black man auto accident, late-teen Sobieski and her assigned to a tight-knit office of the L.A. younger brother are adopted by family friends Sheriff’s Department; he soon discovers just whose financial overextension makes the how dirty this precinct really is. A polemic kids’ trust fund look mighty attractive. Sobiemasquerading as a movie, with heavy-handed ski seems more sullen than vulnerable as the ‘‘villains’’ and a story that eventually loses its script degenerates into often-laughable chillerfocus and its momentum. [PG-13]▼●쩠 melodrama cliche´s. As a drug-addicted mom, Glass Sphinx, The (1967-Italian-Spanish) Lane’s underdeveloped character compels C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Luigi Scattini. Robert Taymore than the rest. Followed by a DVD lor, Anita Ekberg, Gianna Serra, Jack Stusequel. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 art, Angel Del Pozo, Jose Truchado. WorldGlass Houses (1972) C-90m. ★★ D: Alexfamous archaeologist Taylor is on the trail ander Singer. Jennifer O’Neill, Bernard of the tomb of a glass sphinx containing Barrow, Deirdre Lenihan, Ann Summers, magic elixir; foreign agents have similar Phillip Pine, Lloyd Kino. Low-grade drama idea. Confusing and forgettable. Techniabout infidelity and incestuous desire is scope. ▼쩠 mildly interesting in a lurid kind of way; Glass Web, The (1953) 81m. ★★★ D: Jack O’Neill’s first film, but released after RIO Arnold. Edward G. Robinson, John ForLOBO and SUMMER OF ’42. [R] sythe, Kathleen Hughes, Marcia Henderson, Richard Denning, Hugh Sanders. Glass Key, The (1935) 80m. ★★★ D: Frank Tuttle. George Raft, Claire Dodd, Edward Robinson is fine as criminal research auArnold, Rosalind Keith, Ray Milland, Guinn thority for TV mystery show, who’s caught Williams. Solid Dashiell Hammett story up in murder utilized as basis for one of the about politician Arnold getting involved in programs. Kathleen Freeman and Beverly mysterious murder, Raft trying to dig out Garland have bits. Originally shot in 3-D. the facts. Drags during second half, but Gleaming the Cube (1989) C-104m. ★★ still quite good. Remade in 1942. D: Graeme Clifford. Christian Slater, SteGlass Key, The (1942) 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ven Bauer, Ed Lauter, Micole Mercurio, Stuart Heisler. Brian Donlevy, Veronica Richard Herd, Charles Cyphers, Le Tuan. Lake, Alan Ladd, Joseph Calleia, William Rebellious young skateboarder sets out to Bendix, Bonita Granville, Richard Denfind his brother’s murderers with the help of ning. Fast-moving remake of 1935 film, a street-smart detective. Skateboard stunts with wardheeler Donlevy accused of murare sensational, but the story is by-the-numder, henchman Ladd bailing him out. Lake bers TV stuff. The title is skateboarding jarfine as mysterious love interest, Bendix gon for reaching the ultimate—which this effective as brutal bodyguard. Akira Kuromovie never does. Retitled A BROTHER’S sawa claims this was his inspiration for JUSTICE for TV. [PG-13]▼●쩠 YOJIMBO. Dashiell Hammett novel neatly Glen and Randa (1971) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 adapted by Jonathan Latimer.▼● D: Jim McBride. Steven Curry, Shelley Glass Menagerie, The (1950) 107m. ★★1⁄2 Plimpton, Woodrow Chambliss, Garry D: Irving Rapper. Jane Wyman, Kirk DougGoodrow. Years after nuclear destruction las, Gertrude Lawrence, Arthur Kennedy. of world, teenage lovers follow comicMore notable for its cast and intention than book ‘‘clues’’ and look for Metropolis. results. Slow-moving version of Tennes[R—originally rated X]▼●쩠 see Williams’ drama of lame girl, her Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) C-100m. ★★★ faded Southern belle mother, and idealistic D: James Foley. Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, brother, all living in their own fragile Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin dream worlds. Remade twice. Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Altman, Glass Menagerie, The (1987) C-134m. Jude Ciccolella. David Mamet’s scorch★★★ D: Paul Newman. Joanne Woodward, ing, profane, Pulitzer Prize–winning play [ 530 ]

about an office full of desperate real-estate Robert Sterling, John McGiver, Lilo Pulver. salesmen-cum-con-artists is faithfully reUnwitty Hope vehicle has Bob in charge produced (Mamet did the adaptation himof a baby found at U.N., with female self) with a gallery of stunning perforrepresentative from each nation demandmances. Pacino is dynamic as the office ing the child. Also shown in computerhotshot, Lemmon totally credible as the colored version. Metroscope.▼ loser, and Baldwin is dynamite (in a part Global Heresy SEE: Rock My World created especially for the film) as an insulting Gloomy Sunday (1999-German-Hungarian) ‘‘motivator.’’ Never succeeds in being anyC-112m. ★★★ D: Rolf Schu¨bel. Erika Marothing but a photographed play, but when the zsa´n, Joachim Kro´l, Ben Becker, Stefano play and the actors are this good it’s hard to Dionisi, Andra´s Ba´lint, Ge´za Boros, Rolf complain. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Becker, Ilse Zielstorff. Old-fashioned love Glenn Miller Story, The (1954) C-116m. triangle set in Budapest during the 1930s ★★★ and ’40s, built around the title tune (made D: Anthony Mann. James Stewart, June Allyson, Charles Drake, George famous in the U.S. by Billie Holiday), which Tobias, Harry Morgan, Frances Langford, came to be known as ‘‘The Suicide Song.’’ Louis Armstrong, Gene Krupa. Stewart is A genial restaurateur hires a moody young convincingly cast as the popular bandleader man to play piano in his establishment, little in this extremely sentimental (and largely dreaming that the woman he loves will be fictitious) account of his life. Music’s the torn between them. Romantic, sexy, and real star here, with most of Miller’s hit evocative of an earlier era (and its films). Based on a novel by Nick Barkow.쩠 records re-created.▼●쩠 Glen or Glenda (1953) 61m. BOMB D: Gloria (1980) C-121m. ★★ D: John CassaEdward D. Wood, Jr. Bela Lugosi, Dolovetes. Gena Rowlands, Buck Henry, John res Fuller, Daniel Davis, Lyle Talbot, TimAdames, Julie Carmen, Lupe Guarnica. Exothy Farrell, ‘‘Tommy’’ Haynes, Charles mob mistress goes on the lam with a young Crafts, Conrad Brooks. Sensational but sinneighbor-boy after gangland hit-men wipe cere ‘‘docu-fantasy’’ about transvestism out his parents. Good-looking but way overcould well be the worst movie ever made. long melodrama, which Cassavetes may or Legendarily awful director Wood stars may not be playing for laughs. Remade in (under the name Daniel Davis) as Glen, 1999. [PG]▼●쩠 who can’t decide how to tell his fiance´e he Gloria (1999) C-108m. ★★ D: Sidney wants to wear her clothes. Dizzying hodgeLumet. Sharon Stone, Jean-Luke Figueroa, podge of stock footage, demented dream seJeremy Northam, George C. Scott, Cathy quences, and heartfelt plea for tolerance Moriarty, Bonnie Bedelia, Mike Starr. Unlinked by campy Lugosi narrating from necessary, sentimental remake of 1980 John haunted house. ‘‘Bevare!’’ Even more inept Cassavetes melodrama with Stone stepping and hilarious than Wood’s infamous PLAN into Gena Rowlands’ pumps as a tough 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Also released as ex–gun moll on the lam with an adorable I CHANGED MY SEX, I LED 2 LIVES, Puerto Rican tyke (Figueroa) in tow. Still watchable, thanks to Stone’s funny, fulland HE OR SHE. Reissued at 67m.▼●쩠 1 ★ Glimmer Man, The (1996) C-92m. ⁄2 bodied performance (once you get over her D: John Gray. Steven Seagal, Keenen Ivory barely credible Noo Yawk accent) and her Wayans, Michelle Johnson, Brian Cox, Bob cuddly costar. Scott’s final theatrical film. Gunton, John Jackson, Stephen Tobolow[R]▼●쩠 sky. Seagal and Wayans team up to track Glory (1989) C-122m. ★★★★ D: Edward down a serial killer who is terrorizing the Zwick. Matthew Broderick, Denzel WashL.A. area. Tired buddy/cop picture, even by ington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Seagal’s fairly low standards; he also coproJihmi Kennedy, Andre Braugher, John Finn, duced. [R]▼●쩠 Donovan Leitch, John David Cullum, Bob Glitter (2001) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Vondie Gunton, Cliff DeYoung. Exceptional story Curtis Hall. Mariah Carey, Max Beesley, of America’s first unit of black soldiers Da Brat, Tia Texada, Valarie Pettiford, Ann during the Civil War and the young, inexMagnuson, Terrence Howard, Dorian Hareperienced Northerner (Broderick) who’s wood, Grant Nickalls, Padma Lakshmi, Eric given the job of training and leading them. Bene´t. In 1980s N.Y.C. a backup singer is Based in part on the letters of that young discovered by an ambitious club d.j. (Beesofficer and brought to life with astonishing ley) who vows to make her a star. That’s skill and believability. Grand, moving, fine with her, but if only she could reconcile breathtakingly filmed (by veteran cinemawith the mother who abandoned her when tographer Freddie Francis) and faultlessly she was a child. . . . Vehicle for pop star performed. One of the finest historical Carey is tiresome at best and awash in clidramas ever made. Oscar winner for Cinematography, Sound, and Supporting Actor che´s. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Global Affair, A (1964) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: (Washington). Screenplay by Kevin Jarre. Jack Arnold. Bob Hope, Yvonne De Carlo, Jane Alexander (as Broderick’s mother) and [ 531 ]

Raymond St. Jacques (as Frederick DougAlthough raised by an underworld figure, lass) appear unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Cagney joins F.B.I. when a pal is killed by Glory Alley (1952) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raoul gangsters, puts his first-hand knowledge to Walsh. Ralph Meeker, Leslie Caron, Giluse. Exciting film, beautifully shot by Sol bert Roland, Louis Armstrong, John McPolito; prologue with David Brian added Intire. Just before the championship bout, for 1949 reissue. Also shown in computerboxer Meeker quits the fight game, then colored version.▼쩠 goes from skid row to war hero. New OrGnaw SEE: Food of the Gods II leans backgrounds allow for some good muGnome-Mobile, The (1967) C-90m. ★★★ sical interludes. D: Robert Stevenson. Walter Brennan, MatGlory at Sea SEE: Gift Horse, The thew Garber, Karen Dotrice, Richard DeaGlory Boy SEE: My Old Man’s Place con, Tom Lowell, Sean McClory, Ed Wynn. Glory Guys, The (1965) C-112m. ★★ Crusty businessman Brennan, his niece, and D: Arnold Laven. Tom Tryon, Harve Presnephew discover gnomes in redwood fornell, Michael Anderson, Jr., Senta Berest, try to protect them from freak-show ger, James Caan, Slim Pickens, Wayne entrepreneur and land-destroyers. Lively Rogers. Lumbering Cavalry Western with Disney fantasy outing with top special a love triangle thrown in. Screenplay by effects, broad comedy highlights. Based Sam Peckinpah. Panavision.▼ on Upton Sinclair novel.▼쩠 Glory Road (2006) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Gnome Named Gnorm, A (1994) C-84m. ★★ Gartner. Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin NichD: Stan Winston. Anthony Michael Hall, ols, Jon Voight, Evan Jones, Schin A.S. Kerr, Jerry Orbach, Claudia Christian, Eli Danker, Alphonso McAuley, Mehcad Brooks, Sam Mark Harelik, Robert Z’Dar. An especially Jones III, Damaine Radcliff, Emily Deschanel, strange cop-and-partner action comedy teams Al Shearer, Tatyana Ali. Jerry Bruckheimer–eccentric young detective Hall with a gnome produced feel-good movie about an obscure who’s just burrowed up from his underground basketball coach named Don Haskins, who reworld. Short on action, whimsy, and wackicruits raw but promising players—including a ness. Special effects maestro Winston relarge number of blacks—for a community colturned to what he did best after this sat on the shelf for five years. [PG]▼ lege in El Paso, Texas, and heads for the 1966 NCAA championship. Echoing REMEMBER GO (1999) C-103m. ★★ D: Doug Liman. THE TITANS, this film pushes the right butSarah Polley, Katie Holmes, Desmond tons, and dramatizes the historic game in Askew, Taye Diggs, William Fichtner, J. E. which an all-black team faced an all-white Freeman, Jane Krakowski, Breckin Meyer, opponent . . . but glosses over some of the Jay Mohr, Timothy Olyphant, Scott Wolf, most interesting aspects of the real-life James Duval. A frenetic twenty-four hours story. Super 35. [PG]쩠 in the lives of some hedonistic L .A. teens, Glory Stompers, The (1967) C-85m. as seen from several points of view. EnerBOMB D: Anthony M. Lanza. Dennis gized, well cast, and cleverly contrived, this Hopper, Jody McCrea, Chris Noel, Jock paean to a what-the-hell lifestyle is geared Mahoney, Lindsay Crosby. Hopper, preto appeal to like-minded young people . . . EASY RIDER, stars as motorcycle-gang but others may find it too much like a junior leader who wears a swastika patch and PULP FICTION. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 mouths lines like, ‘‘Hey, like, ya know, I Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, wanna dance with you, baby.’’ And, from The (1971-German) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Noel: ‘‘I just want something better than Wim Wenders. Arthur Brauss, Erika Pluhar, being a Stompers girl.’’ Hilariously bad; Kai Fischer, Libgart Schwarz, Marie Barsee if you can count how many times dischewski. Exceptionally knowing, hauntHopper says ‘‘man.’’ Colorscope.▼ ing portrait of alienation, following a proGlove, The (1978) C-91m. ★★ D: Ross fessional soccer goalie (Brauss), who Hagen. John Saxon, Rosey Grier, Joanna abandons his team and sets out on an Cassidy, Joan Blondell, Jack Carter, Aldo odyssey. Stunningly directed; a film you Ray, Keenan Wynn. Violent action flick will not soon forget. Scripted by Peter (with episodic comic diversions by various Handke, based on his novel.▼ ‘‘guest’’ veterans), pitting a world-weary Goal! The Dream Begins (2006) C-118m. ★★★ bounty hunter against a vengeful ex-con D: Danny Cannon. Kuno Becker, Aleswho commits mayhem with a leather-laced sandro Nivola, Stephen Dillane, Anna Friel, steel riot glove. Also shown as THE Marcel Iures, Sean Pertwee, Lee Ross, CasGLOVE: LETHAL TERMINATOR and sandra Bell, Kieran O’Brien, Tony Plana, LETHAL TERMINATOR. [R] ▼쩠 Miriam Colon. Since there have been ‘‘inGlove: Lethal Terminator, The SEE: spirational’’ sports movies on everything exGlove, The cept contract bridge, another one about soccer ‘‘G’’ Men (1935) 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William (or football, as it’s known internationally) was Keighley. James Cagney, Ann Dvorak, Marprobably inevitable. Entertaining story of a garet Lindsay, Robert Armstrong, Barton poor Mexican-American player who travels MacLane, Lloyd Nolan, William Harrigan. from L.A. to England against his father’s [ 532 ]

wishes for a chance to play in the big leagues. King, Mariana Hill, Troy Donahue, Joe SpiLess about the game than the young man’s nell, Abe Vigoda, Fay Spain, Harry Dean family and team relationships, providing Stanton, Danny Aiello, Roger Corman, Domiplenty of heart and pluck. Real-life soccer sunic Chianese, James Caan. They said it perstars appear in cameos. Followed by two couldn’t be done, but cowriter-director Copsequels. Super 35. [PG]쩠 pola made a sequel that’s just as compelling. Goat, The SEE: La Chevre This one contrasts the life of melancholy Go-Between, The (1970-British) C-116m. ‘‘don’’ (Pacino) with early days of his father ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. Julie Christie, (De Niro) as an immigrant in N.Y.C. Winner Alan Bates, Dominic Guard, Margaret of six Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Leighton, Michael Gough, Michael RedScreenplay (Coppola, Mario Puzo), Supportgrave, Edward Fox. Beguiling film from ing Actor (De Niro), Score (Nino Rota, CarL. P. Hartley story of boy who becomes mine Coppola), Art Direction/Set Decoration messenger for love notes between aristo(Dean Tavoularis, Angelo Graham, George cratic Christie and farmer Bates. Lushly R. Nelson). [R]▼●쩠 filmed, full of nuances, fine performances. Godfather Part III, The (1990) C-161m. ★★★ Script by Harold Pinter. A mood piece, D: Francis Ford Coppola. Al Pacino, not for all tastes. [PG]▼ Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986) Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Ray Patterson. Voices of Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola, Raf Vallone, Margot Kidder, Roddy McDowall, MiFranc D’Ambrosio, Donal Donnelly, Richard chael Nouri, Telly Savalas. Hanna-Barbera Bright, Helmut Berger, Don Novello, John and Tonka Toys present a 75-minute aniSavage, Mario Donatone, Al Martino. Only a mated commercial about the war between filmmaker like Coppola (teamed with writer good GoBots versus evil Renegades, and Mario Puzo) could extend his history-making the struggle of innocent Rock people against Mafioso saga and make it work so well. Abwicked Rock Lords. Electronically altered sorbing story of Pacino’s attempt to remove soundtrack makes it difficult to hear bighimself from the world of crime, and how fate name voice cast. [G]▼ and circumstance draw him back in, with his ★★★ Goddess, The (1958) 105m. trigger-happy nephew (Garcia) and the rest of D: John Cromwell. Kim Stanley, Lloyd Bridges, his family in tow. Longish, but masterfully Steven Hill, Betty Lou Holland, Patty Duke. told, with one almost-fatal flaw: the casting of Absorbing biography of an ambitious girl Coppola’s daughter Sofia (an amateur) in the seeking Hollywood fame. Author Paddy pivotal role of Pacino’s daughter. Video release Chayefsky based his story on Marilyn is so-called ‘‘final director’s cut,’’ 9m. longer than theatrical version. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Monroe; the film captures tragedy of the real-life Monroe with fine acting by Stanley God Forgives, I Don’t (1969-ItalianSpanish) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Giuseppe Colizzi. and Bridges, among others. Film debuts of Stanley and Duke.▼● Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Frank Wolff, Godfather, The (1972) C-175m. ★★★★ Gina Rovere, Jose Manuel Martin. In spite D: Francis Ford Coppola. Marlon Brando, of colorful title, this spaghetti Western Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, about an attempt to find some buried loot John Cazale, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, is like a thousand others. Hill’s and Spencer’s first film together. Techniscope. [M]쩠 Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Al Lettieri, Abe God Grew Tired of Us: The Story of Lost Boys of Sudan (2006) C-89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Vigoda, Al Martino, Morgana King, Alex Rocco. The 1970s’ answer to GONE WITH Christopher Dillon Quinn. Narrated by NiTHE WIND, from Mario Puzo’s novel on cole Kidman. The subject of 2003’s THE the violent life and times of Mafia patriLOST BOYS OF SUDAN is given a new, arch Don Corleone (Brando). Pulp fiction perhaps more human perspective in this raised to the highest level; a film of epic documentary as we learn what happened proportions, masterfully done, and set to when three survivors came to the U.S. after Nino Rota’s memorable music. Absolutely spending time in a Kenyan refugee camp. irresistible. Academy Award winner for Scenes featuring the three are alternately Best Picture, Actor (Brando), and Screentouching and surprisingly funny and show play (Coppola and Puzo). Baby in baptism the true meaning of life in America as seen scene is actually Coppola’s infant daughter through outsiders’ eyes. [PG]쩠 Sofia—who later costarred in THE GODGod Is Great, I’m Not (2001-French) CFATHER PART III. Followed by two se95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pascale Bailly. Audrey Tautou, quels. [R]▼●쩠 Edouard Baer, Julie Depardieu, Catherine Godfather Part II, The (1974) C-200m. Jacob, Philippe Laudenbach, Cathy Verney, ★★★★ D: Francis Ford Coppola. Al Pacino, Mathieu Demy. Tautou is winning as a flaky Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De 20-year-old model who flits from relationship Niro, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg, to relationship and religion to religion; she Michael V. Gazzo, G.D. Spradlin, B. Kirby, embraces Judaism, even though her newest Jr. (Bruno Kirby), John Aprea, Morgana boyfriend is a nonpracticing Jew. Ambitious [ 533 ]

attempt to reflect on how individuals search turned six years later to update the lives of his subjects.쩠 for meaning in their lives, but it’s not as Godsend, The (1979-British) C-93m. ★★ emotionally involving as it ought to be. D: Gabrielle Beaumont. Cyd Hayman, MalVideo title: GOD IS GREAT, AND I’M colm Stoddard, Angela Pleasence, Patrick NOT. ▼쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: Barr. OMEN/EXORCIST-type horror film God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) 90m. about an angelic little blonde girl who is Robert Florey. Dennis Morgan, Raymond left at a family farm on a rainy night by a Massey, Andrea King, Alan Hale, Dane strange woman. In the years that follow, Clark, John Ridgely, Stanley Ridges, Dondeath, disaster, and hostility are visited ald Woods. Well-intentioned drama of WW2 upon the family in this medium thriller. [R]▼ pilots bogs down in cliche´s, still has many Godsend (2004-U.S.-Canadian) C-102m. good scenes.▼ ★★1 ⁄2 D: Nick Hamm. Greg Kinnear, Rebecca God Said, ‘‘HA!’’ (1999) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Romijn-Stamos, Robert De Niro, Cameron Julia Sweeney. Julia Sweeney. Faithful film Bright, Jenny Levine. A couple grieving over record of Sweeney’s one-woman show in the loss of their 8-year-old son is approached which she describes, with disarming good by a medical researcher who promises that he humor, her experience caring for her brother can enable the woman to give birth to the as he died of cancer—then discovering that identical child all over again—using a revolushe had a rare form of cervical cancer hertionary (if illegal) cloning method he’s perself. Quentin Tarantino coexecutive-profected. Good performances and an interestduced. [PG-13]▼쩠 ing premise reel us in, but then the filmGods and Generals (2003) C-223m. ★★1⁄2 makers string us along, teasing us about D: Ronald F. Maxwell. Jeff Daniels, Stephen where the story is headed. It doesn’t pay off. Lang, Robert Duvall, Mira Sorvino, Kevin Filmed in Canada, which never looked Conway, C. Thomas Howell, Frankie Faison, more unlike the U.S. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Matt Letscher, Jeremy London, William God’s Little Acre (1958) 117m. ★★★ D: Sanderson, Kali Rocha, Bruce Boxleitner, Anthony Mann. Robert Ryan, Tina Louise, Robert Easton. Writer-director Maxwell’s Aldo Ray, Buddy Hackett, Jack Lord, Fay prequel to GETTYSBURG is not in the same Spain, Michael Landon, Vic Morrow, Rex league but does manage to capture some of the Ingram. Picaresque Americana from Ersights, sounds, and personalities of the Civil skine Caldwell’s best-selling book about a War’s early years, with an emphasis on the lusty, eccentric Georgia family. Amusing, South. Lion’s share of the story is devoted to passionate, and highly charged; quite sexy Lang’s pious ‘‘Stonewall’’ Jackson. Telling vifor its time. Some censored moments were gnettes and vivid battle scenes make up for restored years after its original release. some ponderousness, speechiness, and overWonderful score by Elmer Bernstein. ▼쩠 length (it’s even longer—231m.—on video). Gods Must Be Crazy, The (1981-BotFilm’s backer, media mogul Ted Turner, has a swana) C-108m. ★★★ D: Jamie Uys. Marcameo as a Confederate soldier. Based on the ius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, N!xau, Louw Jeff Shaara novel. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Verwey, Michael Thys. Highly original, Gods and Monsters (1998) C-105m. offbeat comedy about cultural clashes in ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Bill Condon. Ian McKellen, BrenAfrica, involving a bushman who encoundan Fraser, Lynn Redgrave, Lolita Davidoters civilization for the first time, a pretty vich, David Dukes, Kevin J. O’Connor. schoolteacher whose new assignment is a Exceptional (if entirely fictional) character remote village, and a bumbling scientist study of film director James Whale (best whose attempts to make her welcome result remembered for FRANKENSTEIN and in slapstick catastrophes. Film itself is clumsy BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN), alone at at times, but completely disarming. A U.S. the end of his life in the 1950s, and fearful sensation in 1984. Uys, who also wrote and of losing his mind. An exquisite rendering produced, plays the reverend. Followed by a of time and place, with a superb perforsequel. Techniscope. [PG]▼●쩠 mance by McKellen, matched by Fraser as Gods Must Be Crazy II, The (1989a gardener who catches his fancy, and RedU.S.-Botswana) C-97m. ★★★ D: Jamie Uys. grave as his hilariously severe but loving N!xau, Lena Farugia, Hans Strydom, Eiros, housekeeper. A quiet, deliberately paced Nadies, Erick Bowen. Follow-up to the film; beautifully rendered, with a unique surprise smash-hit farce is just as funny blend of flashback and hallucination. Direcand endearing. N!xau returns as the bushtor Condon won an Oscar for adapting man; here, his two young children are Christopher Bram’s novel Father of Franaccidentally transported to ‘‘civilization’’ kenstein. Super 35. ▼●쩠 by a pair of poachers, and he follows them God’s Country (1985) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: with the expected, comic result. This started Louis Malle. Poignant, insightful, occashooting in 1985 and sat on the shelf for sionally hilarious look at life in Glencoe, several years. [PG]▼●쩠 Minnesota, a small, conservative farming Gods of the Plague (1969-German) 91m. ★★★ D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Hanna community. Mostly shot in 1979; Malle re[ 534 ]

Schygulla, Margarethe von Trotta, Harry nondevotees. Informally known as GMK. Super 35. [PG-13] 쩠 Baer, Gunther Kaufmann, Ingrid Caven. Godzilla 1985 (1985-Japanese) C-91m. A pair of pals plot a robbery, only to have BOMB D: Kohji Hashimoto, R. J. Kizer. their scheme disrupted by two women (both Raymond Burr, Keiju Kobayashi, Ken of whom love one of the men). Low-key, Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Shin Takuma. noirish gangster film is an ode to the Supposed update of original GODZILLA Hollywood films of the genre, with a French is just a retread, with the atomic-fueled monNew Wave sensibility. At the same time, ster threatening Tokyo again. Burr is back in it’s a knowing portrait of an aimless, aliencheaply filmed insert sequences making like ated post-war German generation.▼쩠 ★★1 Greek chorus. Too straight to be funny; the ⁄2 D: David Godspell (1973) C-103m. Big Fella is just a Big Bore. [PG]▼● Greene. Victor Garber, David Haskell, Godzilla on Monster Island (1972-JapJerry Sroka, Lynne Thigpen, Katie Hananese) C-89m. ★★ D: Jun Fukuda. Hiroshi ley, Robin Lamont. Sophomoric updating Ishikawa, Tomoko Umeda, Yuriko Hishimi, of Jesus’ life with young bouncy disciples Minoru Takashima. Garbo talks? Ha! In following their leader around modern-day this harmless, toylike movie, Godzilla talks, N.Y.C. Energetic adaptation of popuas he and spiny Angillus battle alienlar stage musical; brilliant use of N.Y.C. summoned Ghidrah and new playmate locations, good score by Stephen Schwartz Gigan, who has a buzz saw in his belly. including ‘‘Day by Day,’’ but hollow and Standard colorful Toho monster hijinks. unmoving. [G]▼쩠 Aka GODZILLA VS. GIGAN. Tohoscope. God Told Me To SEE: Demon [G]▼●쩠 Godzilla (1954-Japanese) SEE: Godzilla, Godzilla Raids Again SEE: Gigantis, the King of the Monsters! Fire Monster Godzilla (1998) C-139m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roland Godzilla’s Revenge (1969-Japanese) CEmmerich. Matthew Broderick, Hank Aza69m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ishiro Honda. Kenji Saria, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Harry Shearer, hara, Tomonori Yazaki, Machiko Naka, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner, Vicki Lewis, Sachio Sakai, Chotaro Togin, Yoshibumi Doug Savant, Arabella Field, Bodhi ElfTujima. Fantasy of child daydreaming of man. Giant lizard monster moves swiftly adventures with Godzilla’s son and other from the Pacific to N.Y. harbor, and terrormonsters. Battle scenes are mostly stock izes the Big Apple. Biologist Broderick footage from GODZILLA VS. THE SEA hooks up with mystery man Reno and his MONSTER and SON OF GODZILLA. team to stop it. Giant-scale, fx-driven noGood juvenile sci-fi. Tohoscope. [G]▼●쩠 brainer doesn’t make much sense, has shalGodzilla 2000 (1999-Japanese) C-99m. low characters, and goes on too long—but ★★★ D: Takao Okawara. Takehiro Murata, still offers a surprising amount of fun. Super Naomi Nishida, Mayu Suzuki, Hiroshi Abe, 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Shiro Sano, Tsutomu Kitagawa. Lively, wellGodzilla, King of the Monsters! (1954made series entry centers on the discovery of Japanese) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terry Morse, Ishiro a centuries-old alien craft designed to convert Honda. Raymond Burr, Takashi Shimura, Earth’s environment into one suitable for its Momoko Kochi, Akira Takarada. A firecreators. Godzilla is tricked into saving the breathing lizard threatens civilization: the speplanet again. Engaging film with fine effects cial effects are the star in this, the original and sharp script, weighed down only by a GODZILLA movie. Originally released in drawn-out monster-clash climax. Reworked, Japan in 1954 as GOJIRA (a far superior redubbed and rescored for U.S. release from film), at 98m; over 20m. were eliminated, the 107m. original. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 and inserts with Burr were added. Updated Godzilla vs. Gigan SEE: Godzilla on Monin 1985 and reworked in 1998. Original Japster Island anese version restored in 2004. ▼●쩠 Godzilla vs. Hedorah SEE: Godzilla vs. Godzilla Mothra King Ghidorah (2001the Smog Monster Japanese) C-105m. ★★★ D: Shusuke KaGodzilla vs. Mechagodzilla SEE: Godzilla neko. Chiharu Nıˆyama, Ryudo Uzaki, Masahvs. the Cosmic Monster iro Kobayashi, Shiroˆ Sano, Takashi Nishina. Godzilla vs. Megalon (1976-Japanese) Writer-director Kaneko was brought in to C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Jun Fukuda. Katsuhiko ‘‘shake things up,’’ and he certainly sucSasaki, Hiroyuki Kawase, Yutaka Hayashi, ceeded with this dark, very violent epic, which Robert Dunham. Series sinks to new low as reverts Godzilla to a soulless, nuclear-created Godzilla teams up with robot superhero killing machine. Mothra, Baragon, and even against Megalon and his pal Gigan. Incredibly King Ghidorah are now ‘‘guardian spirits’’ cheap, with lots of unintended laughs. A hoho who are awakened to stop his wave of defrom Toho in Tohoscope. [G]▼쩠 struction. The 25th Godzilla movie is conGodzilla vs. Monster Zero SEE: Monsidered by many fans to be the apex of the ster Zero series, with terrific special effects and a conGodzilla vs. Mothra SEE: Godzilla vs. sistently adult tone; worth seeing even for the Thing [ 535 ]

Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster SEE: Team, composed mostly of JapaneseGodzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster Americans (Nisei). Crammed with ironic Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster (1974touches, and uncompromising in its point Japanese) C-80m. ★★ D: Jun Fukuda. Masaaki of view (reflecting the Nisei’s collective heroic Daimon, Kazuya Aoyama, Reiko Tajima, war record). Pirosh also scripted. ▼쩠 Barbara Lynn, Akihiko Hirata. Godzilla Go-Getter, The (2008) C-93m. ★★ D: Martin battles robot duplicate of himself, built by Hynes. Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, alien apes intent on conquering the world. Jena Malone, William Lee Scott, Maura TierHe’s helped this time by ancient Okinawan ney, Judy Greer, Bill Duke, Julio Oscar monster Kingseesar. Pokey until zappityMechoso, Jsu Garcia. Recently orphaned pow climax. Aka GODZILLA VS. THE teenager who can’t get his act together impulBIONIC MONSTER and GODZILLA VS. sively steals a car and embarks on a road MECHAGODZILLA, and remade in 1993 trip, hoping to find his elusive stepbrother under that title. Tohoscope. [G] ▼●쩠 (whom he hasn’t seen in years) . . . but Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster (1966along the way he develops a relationship Japanese) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jun Fukuda. via cell phone with the owner of the car. Akira Takarada, Kumi Mizuno, Chotaro Picaresque road movie benefits from strong Togin, Hideo Sunazuka, Toru Watanabe, lead performances, but its supposed spontaAkihito Hirata, Toru Ibuki. Four people are neity too often seems studied, and many shipwrecked on a South Seas island, where fine actors appear in cameos that are frusthey not only have to avoid a terrorist orgatratingly brief. Feature debut for writerdirector Hynes. [R]쩠 nization called the Red Bamboo, but also Godzilla, Mothra, and a giant crablike creaGohatto SEE: Taboo Goin’ Cocoanuts (1978) C-96m. ★★ D: Howture called Ebirah. Seventh Godzilla movie (the first directed by Fukuda) is also the first ard Morris. Donny and Marie Osmond, Herto do away with trademark scenes of urban bert Edelman, Kenneth Mars, Chrystin destruction. Splendid use of color and nice, Sinclaire, Ted Cassidy, Marc Lawrence, Khigh change-of-pace jazzy score by Masaru Sato Dhiegh, Harold Sakata. Bad guys go after make this one of the more entertaining enMarie’s necklace in Hawaii, but the villainy, tries. Japanese running time is 87m. Aka like the story, is strictly kindergarten level. Of EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP. Tocourse, Donny and Marie get to sing. [PG] hoscope. [PG] ▼쩠 Goin’ Down the Road (1970-Canadian) Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (1972C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Donald Shebib. Doug Japanese) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yoshimitu McGrath, Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood, Banno. Akira Yamauchi, Hiroyuki Kawase, Cayle Chernin, Nicole Morin. AwardToshio Shibaki. Godzilla freelances as dowinning film made for less than $100,000 gooder in ridding Japan of monster born of puts most Hollywood blockbusters to shame; waste, fed on factory fumes and smog. modest tale of two unlucky Nova Scotians and Dubbed and daffy. Aka GODZILLA VS. their near-tragic finish packs a memorable HEDORAH. Tohoscope. [G—edited from punch. McGrath and Bradley are remarkably original PG rating]▼●쩠 good. [PG—edited from original R rating] Going All the Way (1997) C-110m. ★★ D: Godzilla vs. the Thing (1964-Japanese) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ishiro Honda. Okira TakarMark Pellington. Jeremy Davies, Ben Afada, Yuriko Hoshi, Hiroshi Koizumi, Yu fleck, Amy Locane, Jill Clayburgh, Lesley Fujiki. Vivid special effects highlight battle Ann Warren, Rose McGowan, Rachel between reptile Godzilla and Mothra, giant Weisz. Listless screen version of Dan moth. Aka GODZILLA VS. MOTHRA. Wakefield’s popular memory novel about Tohoscope. ▼●쩠 two young army vets who become friends Go Fish (1994) 87m. ★★★ D: Rose Troche. in 1950s Indianapolis despite having existed V. S. Brodie, Guinevere Turner, T. Wendy on wholly different social planes during McMillan, Anastasia Sharp, Migdalia Meltheir high school years. A good book but an endez. A romantic tale about finding a soulindifferent (and familiar-seeming) comingmate; the difference here is that both of-age movie, despite a Wakefield script. partners are women. Funny, intelligent Set in 1954, film opens with a huge 1957 comedy about brash Turner forging a relapop hit—never a good sign. [R]▼●쩠 tionship with shy Brodie. Only quibble: the Going Ape (1970) SEE: Where’s Poppa? heavy-handed political correctness of the secGoing Ape! (1981) C-87m. BOMB D: ondary characters. Made on a practically nonJeremy Joe Kronsberg. Tony Danza, Jesexistent budget; Troche (who coscripted with sica Walter, Stacey Nelkin, Danny De Turner) is a talent to watch. [R] ▼●쩠 Vito, Art Metrano, Joseph Maher. Inept Go for Broke! (1951) 92m. ★★★ D: Robert comedy, with Danza set to inherit $5 milPirosh. Van Johnson, Lane Nakano, Henry lion if he cares for a trio of orangutans. Nakamura, George Miki, Henry Oyasato, Directorial debut for screenwriter Kronsberg, Warner Anderson. Fine WW2 drama with who also penned Clint Eastwood’s EVERY Johnson, a bigoted Texan, assigned to train WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE—with an orangutan prominently featured. [PG]▼ and lead the 442nd Regimental Combat [ 536 ]

Going Berserk (1983-Canadian) C-85m. Henry Jaglom. Victoria Foyt, Rob Morrow, BOMB D: David Steinberg. John Candy, Lee Grant, Mae Whitman, Bruce Davison, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Alley Mills, Jennifer Grant, Cynthia Sikes, Martha GehPat Hingle, Richard Libertini, Paul Dooley, man, Juliet Landau, Pamela Bellwood, RobMurphy Dunne, Dixie Carter, Ernie Hudert Romanus. Santa Monica boutique is son. Awesomely inept comedy about the threatened with foreclosure unless its owner misadventures of a young dolt (Candy) can come up with some quick cash. To do this who’s set to marry the daughter of a pompshe throws the mother of all Mother’s Day ous congressman. Only a performer as sales. Means to explore women’s obsession likable as Candy could survive such a with shopping as EATING dealt with female debacle; his SCTV colleagues Flaherty and food issues. This stitched-together film— Levy have little to do. [R]▼●쩠 indulgent even by Jaglom standards—stars Going Hollywood (1933) 80m. ★★★ D: the director’s ex (Foyt, who also cowrote) and Raoul Walsh. Marion Davies, Bing Crossome of his usual troupe. At best a clearanceby, Fifi D’Orsay, Stuart Erwin, Ned Sparks, sale item. [PG-13]쩠 Patsy Kelly. Enjoyable fluff with Davies Goin’ South (1978) C-109m. ★★★ D: Jack following crooner Crosby to Hollywood Nicholson. Jack Nicholson, Mary Steendetermined to win him away from tempesburgen, Christopher Lloyd, John Belushi, tuous screen star D’Orsay. Kelly all but Veronica Cartwright, Richard Bradford, steals film from stars. Songs include Danny DeVito, Luana Anders, Ed Begley, ‘‘Temptation,’’ ‘‘We’ll Make Hay While Jr., Anne Ramsey. Amusing Western comthe Sun Shines,’’ and the title tune.▼● edy, not for all tastes, with Nicholson saving Going Home (1971) C-97m. ★★★ D: himself from lynch mob by marrying a spinHerbert B. Leonard. Robert Mitchum, Janster. Steenburgen is refreshingly offbeat and Michael Vincent, Brenda Vaccaro, Jason Belushi’s disappointingly small role is a real hoot. Film debuts of both. [PG] ▼●쩠 Bernard, Sally Kirkland, Josh Mostel. Powerful, if downbeat, study of young man’s Goin’ to Town (1935) 74m. ★★★ D: Alextroubled relationship with his father, who’s ander Hall. Mae West, Paul Cavanagh, just been released from prison after servIvan Lebedeff, Marjorie Gateson, Tito Coral. ing time for killing his wife. [PG]▼● Good West vehicle of dance-hall girl trying Going in Style (1979) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: to crash society, highlight: Mae doing ‘‘Samson and Delilah’’ scenes.▼쩠 Martin Brest. George Burns, Art Carney, Lee Strasberg, Charles Hallahan, Pamela Go Into Your Dance (1935) 89m. ★★1⁄2 Payton-Wright. Three retirees in Queens D: Archie L. Mayo. Al Jolson, Ruby Keeget more than they bargain for when they ler, Glenda Farrell, Helen Morgan, Patsy rob a bank in Manhattan to relieve their Kelly, Benny Rubin, Phil Regan, Barton boredom. Unexpected gem from a 28-yearMacLane. Flimsy backstage plot allows realold writer-director is predictably funny but life husband and wife Jolson and Keeler (in unpredictably moving, with Burns standing their only film together) to sing and dance out in a terrific cast. [PG]▼쩠 through seven listenable Harry Warren–Al Going My Way (1944) 126m. ★★★★ D: Dubin tunes, including ‘‘About a Quarter to Nine’’ and ‘‘A Latin From Manhattan.’’● Leo McCarey. Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Rise Stevens, Frank McHugh, James Go, Johnny, Go! (1958) 75m. ★★ D: Paul Brown, Gene Lockhart, Jean Heather, PorLandres. Jimmy Clanton, Alan Freed, Sandy ter Hall, Fortunio Bonanova, Stanley ClemStewart, Chuck Berry, Jo-Ann Campbell, ents, Carl (Alfalfa) Switzer. Sentimental The Cadillacs, Ritchie Valens, Eddie story of down-to-earth priest Father O’MalCochran, Harvey (Fuqua), The Flamingos, ley (Crosby) winning over aging superior Jackie Wilson. Orphan Clanton, booted (Fitzgerald) and sidewalk gang of kids is out of church choir for playing rock ’n’ roll, is hard to resist—thanks to the skills of writertransformed by Freed into ‘‘Johnny Melody,’’ director McCarey, who won two Oscars. teen idol. (‘‘He’s dreamy. Oh wow, he’s the Academy Awards also went to Crosby, living end.’’) Not very good, but an artifact of Fitzgerald, Best Picture, and Best Song: its era. Berry, who acts as well as sings, per‘‘Swinging on a Star.’’ Sequel: THE forms ‘‘Memphis, Tennessee,’’ ‘‘Little Queenie,’’ and ‘‘Johnny Be Good,’’ Cochran BELLS OF ST. MARY’S. ▼●쩠 Going Places (1974-French) C-117m. ★★★ performs ‘‘Teenage Heaven,’’ and Wilson D: Bertrand Blier. Ge´rard Depardieu, Patdoes ‘‘You’d Better Know It.’’▼● rick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Gold (1974-British) C-120m. ★★★ D: Peter Brigitte Fossey, Isabelle Huppert. Crude, Hunt. Roger Moore, Susannah York, Ray overgrown juvenile delinquents Depardieu Milland, Bradford Dillman, John Gielgud. and Dewaere commit petty crimes, terrorGrand-scale adventure action yarn about plot ize and share women. Funny, earthy, someto control price of gold on world market by times even lyrical examination of aliendestroying South African mine. Moore is ation; Moreau appears briefly as an ex-con stalwart hero. Long but entertaining. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 who trysts with the boys. [R]▼쩠 Going Shopping (2005) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 [ 537 ]

D: Mervyn LeRoy. Joan Blondell, Ruby sprightly, entertaining Arabian Nights adventure; amusing and imaginative.쩠 Keeler, Aline MacMahon, Dick Powell, Golden Bowl, The (2001-British) C-130m. Guy Kibbee, Warren William, Ned Sparks, ★★★ D: James Ivory. Uma Thurman, Nick Ginger Rogers, Sterling Holloway. Another Nolte, Kate Beckinsale, Jeremy Northam, spectacular Busby Berkeley dance outing Anjelica Huston, Madeleine Potter. Comwith familiar let’s-produce-a-Broadwaypelling adaptation of Henry James’ novel show plot. Highlights: Blondell’s ‘‘Forabout an Italian prince and an American gotten Man,’’ Rogers’ ‘‘We’re In The woman, both impoverished, who must forMoney’’ (with pig-Latin chorus), chorus sake their love in order to marry for money— girls’ ‘‘Shadow Waltz.’’▼●쩠 ★★★ but find themselves entangled just the same: D: Gold Diggers of 1935 (1935) 95m. he weds the sheltered daughter of an AmeriBusby Berkeley. Dick Powell, Adolphe can billionaire, and she marries the father. Menjou, Gloria Stuart, Alice Brady, Glenda Excellent performances amidst the beautiful Farrell, Frank McHugh, Winifred Shaw. settings one expects from a Merchant-Ivory Big-scale Berkeley musical with stereoperiod piece. Screenplay by Ruth Prawer types providing plot line and laughs between Jhabvala. Panavision.▼쩠 fantastic precision production numbers, inGolden Boy (1939) 99m. ★★★ D: Rouben cluding ‘‘The Words Are In My Heart,’’ Mamoulian. Barbara Stanwyck, Adolphe and classic, Oscar-winning ‘‘Lullaby of Menjou, William Holden, Lee J. Cobb, Broadway,’’ sung by Wini Shaw.▼●쩠 1 ★★ Joseph Calleia, Sam Levene, Don Beddoe. Gold Diggers of 1937 (1936) 100m. ⁄2 Italian immigrant’s son is torn between his D: Lloyd Bacon. Dick Powell, Joan Blonlove of the violin—instilled by his insistent dell, Glenda Farrell, Victor Moore, Lee father—and his passion for prizefighting. Dixon, Osgood Perkins. Those gold-diggers Clifford Odets’ story may seem like one won’t give up; this time it’s a group of giant cliche´ by now but it’s played with insurance salesmen backing a show. Top gusto (perhaps too much gusto by Cobb as song: ‘‘With Plenty of Money and You.’’쩠 the Henry Armetta–ish father) and benefits Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mounfrom Stanwyck’s heartfelt performance. tain (1995) C-94m. ★★ D: Kevin James This role propelled an unknown Holden to Dobson. Christina Ricci, Anna Chlumsky, stardom.▼●쩠 Polly Draper, Brian Kerwin, Diana ScarGolden Braid (1990-Australian) C-88m. wid, David Keith. New girl in town (Ricci) ★★★ D: Paul Cox. Chris Haywood, Gosia makes an unlikely friend—an aggressive, Dobrowolska, Paul Chubb, Norman Kaye, unpopular kid (Chlumsky) who’s prone to Robert Menzies, Jo Kennedy. Thoughtful, telling lies. However, her tallest tale may gentle film about a clockmaker (Haywood), not be bogus, and leads them on a search obsessed with all things past, and what for long-buried treasure in a watery cave. happens when he finds a braid of blonde Unsatisfying conclusion shortchanges this hair in an 18th-century cabinet. A film story; its strongest asset (sure to appeal to with a refreshing point of view: clocks preteen girls) is the depiction of the girls’ may stop ticking, and human hearts may friendship. [PG]▼● stop beating, but time still goes on—and Golden Age of Comedy, The (1957) 78m. human beings must celebrate life. ★★★★ D: Compiled by Robert Youngson. Golden Child, The (1986) C-96m. BOMB Laurel and Hardy, Carole Lombard, Ben D: Michael Ritchie. Eddie Murphy, CharTurpin, Will Rogers, Harry Langdon. Peerlotte Lewis, Charles Dance, Victor Wong, less grouping of some of silent comedy’s Randall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, James Hong, J.L. greatest moments, including Rogers’ clasReate. Top candidate for the worst megahit sic spoofs of silent stars, and ending with of all time. A ‘‘perfect’’ child (Reate) is Laurel and Hardy’s legendary pie fight kidnapped despite his magical powers; as from BATTLE OF THE CENTURY.▼●쩠 foretold by an ancient oracle, only Murphy Golden Arrow, The (1936) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: can rescue him. Lewis is more wooden than Alfred E. Green. Bette Davis, George Brent, most ex-models; entire reels go by with nary Eugene Pallette, Dick Foran, Carol Hughes, a chuckle. A box-office smash—but have you Catherine Doucet. Pleasant but featherweight ever met anyone who liked it? [PG-13] ▼●쩠 comedy of ‘‘heiress’’ Davis and down-toGolden Coach, The (1952-Italian) Cearth reporter Brent establishing marriage 101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean Renoir. Anna Magof convenience. nani, Odoardo Spadaro, Nada Fiorelli, Golden Blade, The (1953) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dante Rino, Duncan Lamont, Jean DebuNathan Juran. Rock Hudson, Piper Laurie, court. Delightful film about an acting troupe Gene Evans, George Macready, Kathleen touring South America in the 18th century Hughes, Steven Geray. Hudson, with the and the amorous adventures of its leading help of the magical Sword of Damascus, lady. Theatrical and stylized, this is one of helps Baghdad princess Laurie battle her cathe great films about acting—and a stunning liph father’s grand vizier (Macready) and achievement in the use of color. Ironically, his strong-arm son (Evans). Typical but it was a flop when first released, then [ 538 ]

critically rediscovered. Photographed by Minnie Driver as the Russian nightclub singer. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Claude Renoir; music by Vivaldi.▼●쩠 Golden Gate (1993) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: John Golden Compass, The (2007) C-118m. ★★★ Madden. Matt Dillon, Joan Chen, Bruno D: Chris Weitz. Nicole Kidman, Dakota Kirby, Teri Polo, Tzi Ma, Stan Egi, Jack Blue Richards, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Shearer. Young FBI agent Dillon pursues Eva Green, Christopher Lee, Tom Coursubversives in San Francisco during the tenay, Derek Jacobi, Ben Walker, Simon McCarthy witchhunts, when guiltless ChiMcBurney, Jim Carter, Magda Szubanski; nese were harassed simply for mailing voices of Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, money to their families back home. PotenFreddie Highmore, Kathy Bates, Kristin tially compelling film is hampered by listScott Thomas. Epic juvenile fantasyless direction and David Henry Hwang’s adventure, based on the first book in Philip meandering, melodramatic screenplay. An Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy called American Playhouse coproduction. [R] Northern Lights. Richards is persuasive as a ▼●쩠 plucky 12-year-old who ventures to the Arctic Goldengirl (1979) C-104m. ★★ D: Joseph Circle in search of a vanished friend—and Sargent. Susan Anton, Curt Jurgens, Robevidence of a conspiracy to make children ert Culp, Leslie Caron, Harry Guardino, conform to the wishes of the all-powerful Jessica Walter. Statuesque Anton is more Magisterium. Does a good job of introducor less turned into a robot so she can ing us to an unfamiliar world (where every become a star in the Olympics. So-so. human has an animal companion), and its [PG]▼ computer-generated creatures seem quite Golden Heist, The SEE: Inside Out (1975) real, especially the great white bear voiced Golden Needles (1974) C-92m. ★★ D: by McKellen. Oscar winner for Visual EfRobert Clouse. Joe Don Baker, Elizabeth fects. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Ashley, Jim Kelly, Burgess Meredith, Ann Golden Door (2006-Italian-German-French) Sothern. Everyone seems out of place in C-118m. ★★★ D: Emanuele Crialese. Charthis Hong Kong-L.A. filmed action pic lotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato, Aurora about a scramble for golden statue conQuattrocchi, Francesco Casisa, Filippo Puctaining youth-restoring acupuncture needles. illo, Isabella Ragonese, Vincent Schiavelli. Silly. Retitled THE CHASE FOR THE Heartfelt, dreamlike account of a dirt-poor GOLDEN NEEDLES. Panavision. [PG] Italian family that treks from rural Old Golden Rendezvous (1977) C-103m. ★★ World Sicily to Ellis Island and the U.S., D: Ashley Lazarus. Richard Harris, Ann where they enter a new, modern world. AlTurkel, David Janssen, Burgess Meredith, though it is set at the dawn of the 20th John Vernon, Gordon Jackson, Keith Baxcentury, the film is a poetic ode to the aspiter, Dorothy Malone, John Carradine. Atrations of immigrants of all eras. Filled with tractive cast in pointless adaptation of stunning images, it begs for a sequel followAlistair MacLean’s novel about gambling ing these characters into the New World. ship held hostage by terrorists. Retitled Original Italian title: NUOVOMONDO. NUCLEAR TERROR for television.▼ Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Golden Salamander (1950-British) 96m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Golden Earrings (1947) 95m. ★★★ D: Ronald Neame. Trevor Howard, Mitchell Leisen. Ray Milland, Marlene Anouk Aime´e, Walter Rilla, Herbert Lom, Dietrich, Murvyn Vye, Dennis Hoey, QuenWilfrid Hyde-White. Courting a Tunisian tin Reynolds. Incredible yet enjoyable esgirl, Howard becomes involved in gun capism set in WW2 Europe has Milland smuggling; taut actioner.▼ joining gypsy Dietrich for espionage work; Golden Seal, The (1983) C-95m. ★★★ D: Dietrich most convincing. Gypsy Vye sings Frank Zuniga. Steve Railsback, Michael the title song.▼쩠 Beck, Penelope Milford, Torquil Campbell, GoldenEye (1995) C-130m. ★★★ D: Martin Seth Sakai, Richard Narita, Sandra Seacat. Campbell. Pierce Brosnan, Sean Bean, IzaStraightforward family film about a young bella Scorupco, Famke Janssen, Joe Don couple and their son, living in the Aleutian Baker, Judi Dench, Robbie Coltrane, Tche´ky islands, cut off from the world. Like the Karyo, Gottfried John, Alan Cumming, Aleut natives, the father (Railsback) has Desmond Llewelyn, Samantha Bond. Broslong pursued the golden seal, a near-mythinan’s debut as 007 is a slam-bang action cal creature with an enormous bounty on its adventure in the best Bond tradition, with head, but it’s the boy (Campbell) who finds eye-popping stunts, sexy women, and interhim, and tries to protect him. Dialogue is national intrigue. (There are also P.C. restiff, but when the action picks up it’s abmarks about Bond being sexist and/or an sorbing and enjoyable. [PG]▼쩠 anachronism.) The crux of the story is interGolden Voyage of Sinbad, The (1974nal sabotage within Russia, and Bond’s atBritish) C-104m. ★★★ D: Gordon Hessler. tempt to figure out who’s behind it—and John Phillip Law, Caroline Munro, Tom how to stop them before they use their stoBaker, Douglas Wilmer, Gregoire Aslan, len weapons to harm the free world. That’s John Garfield, Jr. Delightful rehash of ear[ 539 ]

lier Sinbad adventures that evokes SaturGoldsmith’s Shop, The SEE: Jeweller’s day matinee fare of the 1950s, with Ray Shop, The Harryhausen’s finest ‘‘Dynamation’’ effects: Goldstein (1965) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Benjamin a ship’s figurehead comes to life, and a Manaster, Philip Kaufman. Lou Gilbert, six-armed statue does sword battle with Ellen Madison, Thomas Erhart, Benito CarSinbad in action highlights. Grand enterruthers, Severn Darden, Nelson Algren. The tainment. [G]▼●쩠 prophet Elijah (Gilbert) emerges from Lake Goldfinger (1964-British) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 Michigan, is pursued by sculptor Erhart. D: Guy Hamilton. Sean Connery, Gert Quirky, inventive film made on a shoestring Frobe, Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, in Chicago. Based on a story by Martin Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Harold Sakata, Buber. Original running time: 115m. 쩠 Tania Mallet. Entertaining, exciting James Goldwyn Follies, The (1938) C-120m. ★1 Bond adventure, third in the series. Full of ⁄2 D: George Marshall. Adolphe Menjou, ingenious gadgets and nefarious villains, Andrea Leeds, Kenny Baker, The Ritz Brothwith hair-raising climax inside Fort Knox. ers, Zorina, Helen Jepson, Bobby Clark, Frobe (Goldfinger) and Sakata (Oddjob) Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy. Dreadful are villains in the classic tradition.▼●쩠 hodgepodge as producer Menjou hires Leeds Gold for the Caesars (1964-French-Italian) as ‘‘Miss Humanity,’’ to judge his movies from average person’s point of view. She C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Andre de Toth. Jeffrey Hunter, Mylene Demongeot, Ron Randell, probably would have skipped this one. Ritz Massimo Girotti, Giulio Bosetti, Ettore Bros. come off best, while Baker sings ‘‘Love Manni. Still another Roman slave epic starWalked In’’ about 30 times. George Balanring an American actor who’d look more at chine’s ballet is a matter of taste. Look for Alan Ladd as an auditioning singer.▼●쩠 home in David and Ricky Nelson’s fraternity. Nothing special. Original French runGolem, The (1920-German) 75m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ning time: 95m. CinemaScope. Paul Wegener, Carl Boese. Paul Wegener, Gold Is Where You Find It (1938) C-90m. Albert Steinruck, Ernst Deutsch, Lyda Salm★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. George Brent, onova. Chilling, visually dazzling story of the Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, Marsupernatural, based on a famous Jewish folkgaret Lindsay, John Litel, Barton MacLane. tale of the 16th century. Rudolph of HapsAnd gold-rush miners find it on California burg has exiled the Jews, blaming them for a farmland, starting bitter feud in brisk film, plague; a rabbi conjures up a golem (a clay perked by good cast. monster, played by Wegener) in order to conGold of Naples (1954-Italian) 107m. ★★★ vince the king to repeal the edict. This classic D: Vittorio De Sica. Sophia Loren, Vittorio of German Expressionist cinema is also a De Sica, Toto`, Silvana Mangano, Paolo forerunner of FRANKENSTEIN, from the Stoppa. Four vignettes—poignant, perceptive, way the golem is brought to life to his athilarious in turn: Loren as philandering wife traction to a child. The sets were designed by of pizza baker; De Sica as avid cardplayer famed architect Hans Poelzig. The story has upstaged by 8-year-old; Toto as Milquetoast been filmed many times; Wegener also codifamily man; Mangano as prostitute involved rected versions in 1914 and 1917, and Julien in unusual marriage. ▼쩠 Duvivier filmed it in 1938, with Harry Baur. Gold of the Seven Saints (1961) 88m. ★★1⁄2 Aka THE GOLEM: HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD. ▼쩠 D: Gordon Douglas. Clint Walker, Roger Moore, Leticia Roman, Robert Middleton, Goliath and the Vampires (1961-Italian) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Giacomo Gentilomo. GorChill Wills, Gene Evans, Roberto Contreras. Fur-trappers Walker and Moore (the don Scott, Jacques Sernas, Gianna Maria latter sporting blond hair and an Irish Canale. Cloak-and-sandal nonsense; spotty brogue) find 125 lbs. of gold nuggets and special effects add only color to film. U.S. release 1964. Totalscope.▼쩠 are pursued across the desert by several parties who want to pry it loose from them. Go, Man, Go! (1954) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Enjoyable Western knockoff of THE TREAWong Howe. Dane Clark, Pat Breslin, SURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, featuring Sidney Poitier, Edmon Ryan. Imaginasome striking Utah scenery and a tangy script tive telling of the formation of Harlem cowritten by Leigh Brackett. WarnerScope. Globetrotters and their rise as famed basGold Rush, The (1925) 82m. ★★★★ D: ketball team. A rare directorial effort by Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin, Georgia celebrated cinematographer Howe. Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray. ImmorGo Masters, The (1982-Chinese-Japanese) tal Chaplin classic, pitting Little Tramp C-123m. ★★★ D: Junya Sato, Duan Jishun. against Yukon, affections of dance-hall Rentaro Mikuni, Sun Dao-Lin, Shen Guangirl, whims of a burly prospector. Dance Chu, Misako Honno, Tsu Kasa Itoh. of the rolls, eating leather shoe, cabin Sprawling, involving romance-mysterytottering over cliff—all highlights of wonsuspenser, set between the 1920s and ’50s derful, timeless comedy. Chaplin reedited and focusing on the relationships between two film in 1942; that version, with his narrafamilies, one Japanese and the other Chinese. tion and music, runs 72m.▼●쩠 Most fascinating is various characters’ obses[ 540 ]

sion with Go, a chesslike strategy game. The dies off to the Florida Everglades where first Sino-Japanese co-production, and a their dream fishing vacation is a catastrophe smash hit in both countries.▼ from beginning to end. This film really smells. [PG]▼●쩠 Gomorrah (2008-Italian) C-137m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Matteo Garrone. Salvatore Abruzzese, Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) C-103m. ★★ Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Toni D: H. B. Halicki. H. B. Halicki, Marion Servillo, Carmine Paternoster, Salvatore Busia, Jerry Daugirda, James McIntire, Cantalupo, Gigio Morra, Marco Macor, Ciro George Cole, Parnelli Jones. Muddled Petrone. Stark drama based on Roberto Savidrama about a car-theft ring is highlighted ano’s best-selling expose´ of the Neapolitan by a 40-minute-long chase sequence, which crime organization Camorra, which permeis well made—but so what? Remade (in name only) in 2000. [PG]▼쩠 ates every facet of life in the region. Separate stories follow a pair of SCARFACEGone in Sixty Seconds (2000) C-117m. ★1 obsessed teenage thugs who want to be ac⁄2 D: Dominic Sena. Nicolas Cage, Giocepted as mobsters, an even younger boy vanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, who’s heading in the same direction, a tailor Delroy Lindo, TJ Cross, William Lee Scott, whose moonlighting activities spell trouble, Scott Caan, James Duval, Will Patton, Tima bagman who tries to stay out of the line of othy Olyphant, Christopher Eccleston, Chi fire, and a businessman’s scheme to dump McBride, Jaime Bergman, Frances Fisher, toxic waste quickly and cheaply. Absence Bodhi Elfman, Arye Gross. Relentlessly of a music score helps achieve a level of stupid remake of the 1974 drive-in hit about authenticity in this film that feels like a a reformed car thief who—to save his kid punch to the gut. Italian title: GOMORRA. brother—agrees to marshal a mass theft in Super 35. 48 hours’ time, while cop Lindo is hot on Go Naked in the World (1961) C-103m. his trail. Even for a no-brainer this is pretty ★★ poor, with low-octane action and a preposD: Ranald MacDougall. Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Franciosa, Ernest Borgterous finale. Jolie is barely in it; Duvall nine, Luana Patten. Turgid melodrama badly and Lindo are wasted. Unrated version also cast. Easy-loving Lollobrigida hooks Franavailable. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 ciosa, much to his father’s (Borgnine’s) Gone To Earth SEE: Wild Heart, The dismay. CinemaScope. Gone With the Wind (1939) C-222m. ★★★★ Gone Are the Days (1963) 97m. ★★★ D: D: Victor Fleming. Clark Gable, Nicholas Webster. Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Sorrell Booke, Godfrey Cambridge, Alan Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O’Neil, Alda, Beah Richards. Davis’ satiric fable Victor Jory, Laura Hope Crews, Hattie McPurlie Victorious survives cheap adaptation, Daniel, Ona Munson, Harry Davenport, Ann thanks to buoyant performances and basic Rutherford, Evelyn Keyes, Carroll Nye, Paul story: self-appointed preacher schemes to Hurst, Isabel Jewell, Cliff Edwards, Ward undo a despotic plantation owner, as a symBond, Butterfly McQueen, Rand Brooks, bolic freeing of his people from ways of the Eddie Anderson, Oscar Polk, Jane Darwell, Old South. Alda’s film debut.▼쩠 William Bakewell, L. Kemble-Cooper, Eric Gone Baby Gone (2007) C-115m. ★★★ D: Linden, George Reeves. If not the greatest Ben Affleck. Casey Affleck, Michelle Momovie ever made, certainly one of the greatest naghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John examples of storytelling on film, maintaining Ashton, Amy Ryan, Titus Welliver, Amy interest for nearly four hours. Margaret MitchMadigan. Private detectives Affleck and ell’s story is, in effect, a Civil War soap opera, Monaghan are asked to help investigate the focusing on vixenish Southern belle Scarlett disappearance of a 4-year-old girl from a O’Hara, brilliantly played by Leigh; she won working-class Boston neighborhood. They Oscar, as did the picture, McDaniel, director discover that the truth is elusive as they deal Fleming, screenwriter Sidney Howard (postwith police, drug dealers, and tangled comhumously), many others. Memorable music munity ties. Tense, gritty drama loses steam by Max Steiner in this one-of-a-kind film by the end, but an atmosphere of regional meticulously produced by David O. Selznick. clannishness and thick moral rot is impresFollowed over five decades later by a TV sively conveyed by first-time director Afminiseries, Scarlett. ▼●쩠 fleck (who also has a great eye and ear for Gong Show Movie, The (1980) C-89m. Boston ‘‘types’’). His brother Casey stands tall BOMB D: Chuck Barris. Chuck Barris, in a terrific cast, with Ryan particularly good Robin Altman, Mabel King, Murray Langas the young girl’s less-than-ideal mother. The ston, Jaye P. Morgan, Jamie Farr, Rip director and Aaron Stockard adapted Dennis Taylor. Barris created a bizarre TV show Lehane’s novel. [R]쩠 that belongs in a time capsule, but this Gone Fishin’ (1997) C-94m. BOMB D: movie (which dwells on Chuck’s pressures Christopher Cain. Joe Pesci, Danny Glover, and problems as host and producer of the Rosanna Arquette, Lynn Whitfield, Nick show) belongs in the trash bin. [R] Brimble, Carol Kane, Willie Nelson. AnnoyGonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (2008) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ingly unfunny gambit of two bungling bud[ 541 ]

Alex Gibney. Running the full politicalGoodbye Charlie (1964) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: commentary gamut from George McGovVincente Minnelli. Tony Curtis, Debbie ern to Patrick J. Buchanan, director GibReynolds, Pat Boone, Walter Matthau, ney’s first outing following TAXI TO THE Martin Gabel, Ellen McRae (Burstyn). DARK SIDE examines the volatile career Tasteless, flat version of George Axelrod’s of celebrity journalism’s most iconoclastic play; crude gangster dies and comes back figure. Though it skimps on Thompson’s to earth as Reynolds. Even Matthau formative years growing up as a Louisville struggles for laughs. James Brolin is an outsider, this kinetic portrait is staggering extra in big party scene. CinemaScope.▼ on an ‘‘access’’ level, from both of ThompGoodbye, Children SEE: Au Revoir, les son’s wives to writer Tom Wolfe to Rolling Enfants Goodbye, Columbus (1969) C-101m. ★★★ Stone publisher Jann Wenner to illustrator Ralph Steadman to Hells Angel Sonny D: Larry Peerce. Richard Benjamin, Ali MacBarger to Jimmy Carter. Johnny Depp reads Graw, Jack Klugman, Nan Martin, Michael passages from Thompson’s classic Fear and Meyers. Philip Roth’s stinging portrait of sucLoathing in Las Vegas against clips from the cessful suburban Jewish family as seen screen version, in which he starred. [R]쩠 through eyes of young man (Benjamin, in his ★★ D: Good (2008-British-German) C-96m. film debut) who falls in love with daughter Vicente Amorim. Viggo Mortensen, Jason (MacGraw, in her first starring role). Meyers Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker, Mark Strong, Gemma steals the show as Ali’s brother. Director’s Jones, Steven Mackintosh, Rick Warden. Gerfather Jan Peerce has a cameo role at a wedman university professor (Mortensen) resists ding; look for Jaclyn Smith as a model. Music the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s but composed and performed by The Association. [PG—originally rated R]▼●쩠 ultimately finds himself caught in its tide . . . to the astonishment of his best friend, a JewGoodbye Girl, The (1977) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 ish psychiatrist (Isaacs) whose life is made D: Herbert Ross. Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha more hellish with each passing year. InefMason, Quinn Cummings, Paul Benedict, Barfectual and unsatisfying, considering the bara Rhoades. Neil Simon’s warmest comedy dramatic ingredients. Based on a stage play to date puts young actor Dreyfuss and dumpedby C. P. Taylor. Super 35. on divorce´e Mason together as unwilling tenGood Boy! (2003) C-88m. ★★ D: John Hoffants of the same N.Y.C. apartment, explores man. Molly Shannon, Liam Aiken, Kevin their growing relationship. High-caliber script Nealon, Brittany Moldowan, Hunter Elliot, and performances to match; Dreyfuss won Mikhael Speidel; voices of Matthew BroderOscar. Nicol Williamson appears unbilled. ick, Vanessa Redgrave, Delta Burke, Donald Later a Broadway musical. Remade for TV in 2004. [PG] ▼●쩠 Faison, Cheech Marin, Carl Reiner, Brittany Murphy. Lonely boy finds a ‘‘best friend’’ in Good Bye, Lenin! (2003-German-French) C-119m. ★★★ D: Wolfgang Becker. Daniel a dog from the neighborhood pound, but this canine is actually from another planet, fulfilling Bru¨hl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, a mission on Earth. What’s more, he enables Maria Simon, Florian Lukas, Alexander the boy to hear what he and all his fellow Beyer, Burghart Klaussner. An East Berlin dogs have to say. Mild fantasy-comedy may teenager (Bru¨hl) feels liberated when the appeal to very young children. [PG] ▼쩠 Wall comes down in 1989; his mother, a Good Burger (1997) C-95m. ★★ D: Brian divorce´e who has become an ardent ComRobbins. Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson, munist, falls into a coma just as WesternizaSinbad, Abe Vigoda, Shar Jackson, Dan tion is being welcomed. So the teen, with Schneider, Jan Schwieterman, Ron Lester, his older sister, decides to dupe his recuperCarmen Electra, Shaquille O’Neal, Robert ating mother into believing German reuniWuhl. Broad, juvenile comedy aimed at fication never happened! Leisurely paced, fans of Kenan and Kel from their Nickellighthearted film deals with the transient naodeon TV series. The existence of a scruffy ture of history as well as coming of age in a fast-food establishment (‘‘Welcome to single-parent household. This was a boxGood Burger, home of the good burger, office smash in Germany. [R]▼쩠 may I take your order?’’) is threatened by Goodbye Lover (1999) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: the arrival of all-powerful Mondo Burger Roland Joffe´. Patricia Arquette, Dermot across the street. Like fast food itself, this Mulroney, Don Johnson, Ellen DeGeneres, film offers no real nourishment, but will apMary-Louise Parker, Ray McKinnon, Andre peal to kids just the same. [PG]▼●쩠 Gregory, John Neville, Lisa Eichhorn, Barry Goodbye Again (1961) 120m. ★★★ D: Newman. It’s double-cross upon double-cross Anatole Litvak. Ingrid Bergman, Tony Perin this comic noir exercise of battling brothers kins, Yves Montand, Jessie Royce Landis, Mulroney and Johnson—and the wacko Diahann Carroll. Francoise Sagan’s chic femme fatale/realtor in their lives (Arquette), soaper becomes teary Bergman vehicle of who takes her marriage vows loosely, to say middle-aged woman having affair with Perthe least. So bad it’s almost fun, from a serikins, still craving playboy Montand. Set in ously slumming director. DeGeneres’ sarParis.▼ donic detective seems to have wandered in [ 542 ]

from another movie altogether. Telltale trouopen a tropical drink stand on some illble sign: Alex Rocco and Max Perlich are located beach property. Gardner’s A THOUSbilled, but hard to spot. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 AND CLOWNS may strike some as sentiGoodbye, Mr. Chips (1939-U.S.-British) mental and dated, but this one doesn’t 114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sam Wood. Robert Donat, even have comedy to carry it. A mawkish Greer Garson, Paul von Hernreid (Henreid), disaster, long on the shelf. [PG]▼● Terry Kilburn, John Mills. Donat won Goodbye Pork Pie (1981-New Zealand) well-deserved Oscar for memorable porC-105m. ★★★ D: Geoff Murphy. Kelly trayal of shy schoolmaster who devotes his Johnson, Tony Barry, Claire Oberman, life to ‘‘his boys,’’ only coming out of his Bruno Lawrence, John Beach, Frances Edshell when he meets Garson. Extreme length mond. Amiable comedy/road movie about works against film’s honest sentiment, but pair of alienated men, one (Johnson) in his Donat makes it all worthwhile. Garson’s teens and the other (Barry) about twice his film debut made her a star overnight. Based age, who trek across New Zealand in a stolen on James Hilton’s novel; scripted by R. C. car, the police on their trail. [R]▼ Sherriff, Claudine West, and Eric MaschGoodbye Solo (2009) C-91m. ★★★ D: witz. Remade as a musical in 1969. Also Ramin Bahrani. Soule´ymane Sy Savane´, shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Red West, Carmen Leyva, Diana Franco Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) C-151m. ★★ Galindo, Lane ‘‘Roc’’ Williams, Mamadou D: Herbert Ross. Peter O’Toole, Petula Lam. Solo (Savane´) is a garrulous cabdriver Clark, Michael Redgrave, George Baker, Sian from Senegal who lives and works in Phillips, Michael Bryant. Lumbering musical Winston-Salem, North Carolina. A taciturn remake of 1939 classic. O’Toole is good as passenger named William (West) hires him prim schoolteacher, but Clark’s role as showfor a future date for a trip far out of town to girl is shallow, ludicrous. Mediocre songs a spot where he plans to end his life. Solo don’t help; what emotion there is gets lost refuses to mind his own business and insinwhen film plods on to modern-day anticlimax. uates himself into William’s life. Vivid slice Ross’ directorial debut. Some prints are of life, with acute details of character and 133m. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 setting, from the director and cowriter of Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) 107m. ★★★ D: MAN PUSH CART and CHOP SHOP, and Vincent Sherman. Joan Crawford, Robert inspired by Abbas Kiarostami’s A TASTE Young, Frank Lovejoy, Eve Arden. ConOF CHERRY. gresswoman Crawford returns to her old colGood Companions, The (1956-British) lege, more to see former boyfriend Young C-104m. ★★★ D: J. Lee Thompson. Eric than to receive honorary degree. Lovejoy is Portman, Celia Johnson, Hugh Griffith, callous newsman. Film debut of Janice Janette Scott, John Fraser, Joyce Grenfell, Rule.쩠 Bobby Howes, Rachel Roberts, Thora Hird, Good-bye, My Lady (1956) 95m. ★★1⁄2 Mona Washbourne, Alec McCowen, John D: William Wellman. Walter Brennan, Phil Le Mesurier, Anthony Newley, Shirley Harris, Brandon de Wilde, Sidney Poitier. Anne Field. Fabulous cast adds luster to James Street novel of small boy (de Wilde), this entertaining chronicle of a group of inan elderly man (Brennan), and the basenji dog dividuals who combine their resources to that brings joy into their lives is basis for easysave a failing ‘‘concert party’’ (musical going, poignant film, set in the South.▼● troupe). Based on a novel by J. B. Priestley; Goodbye, New York (1985-U.S.-Israeli) first filmed in 1933. CinemaScope. C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Amos Kollek. Julie HagerGood Die First, The SEE: Beyond the ty, Amos Kollek, David Topaz, Aviva Ger, Law (1968) Shmuel Shiloh, Jennifer Babtist. Cute but Good Die Young, The (1954-British) 100m. slight, sometimes flat chronicle of New ★★ D: Lewis Gilbert. Laurence Harvey, Yorker Hagerty, a Jewish American PrinGloria Grahame, Richard Basehart, Stanley cess of Irish extraction who finds herself Baker, Margaret Leighton, John Ireland, Joan penniless and stranded in Israel. She eventuCollins. Solid cast fails to enhance standard ally adjusts to life on a kibbutz, getting to robbery tale, with a quartet of strangers know part-time soldier Kollek. [R]▼● coming together to commit a holdup. Goodbye, Norma Jean (1976) C-95m. Good Earth, The (1937) 138m. ★★★★ D: BOMB D: Larry Buchanan. Misty Rowe, Sidney Franklin. Paul Muni, Luise Rainer, Terence Locke, Patch Mackenzie, Preston Walter Connolly, Charley Grapewin, JesHanson. Sleazy look at adolescent Marilyn sie Ralph, Tilly Losch, Keye Luke, HarMonroe and her rocky road to stardom. An old Huber. Mammoth Pearl Buck novel utter piece of tripe. Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 recreated in detail, telling story of greed Goodbye People, The (1984) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Herb Gardner. Judd Hirsch, Martin ruining lives of simple Chinese farming couple. Rainer won Oscar as the everBalsam, Pamela Reed, Ron Silver, Mipatient wife of Muni, as did Karl Freund chael Tucker, Gene Saks. Absolute torture for his cinematography. Screenplay by Tal(adapted by Gardner from his play) about Balsam’s begging-for-bankruptcy scheme to bot Jennings, Tess Slesinger, and Clau[ 543 ]

dine West. The special effects are outtian Oliver. War correspondent Clooney standing.▼●쩠 returns to Berlin in 1945 on the eve of the Good Fairy, The (1935) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Potsdam conference and discovers a city in William Wyler. Margaret Sullavan, Herbert ruins, both physically and morally. His Marshall, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, driver-escort (Maguire) has mastered the Alan Hale, Beulah Bondi, Cesar Romero. black market, and a woman Clooney knew Sparkling romantic comedy, adapted from before (Blanchett) has done God knows Molnar play by Preston Sturges; wide-eyed what in order to survive the war. Now Sullavan tries to act as ‘‘good fairy’’ to Clooney finds himself knee-deep in internastruggling lawyer Marshall, while hotly purtional intrigue and murder—and still emosued by wealthy Morgan. Hilarious, charming; tionally connected to Blanchett. Shot on the movie spoof near beginning is priceless. Warner Bros. back lot in order to invoke Remade as I’LL BE YOURS.▼쩠 1940s Hollywood movies, this is an interGood Father, The (1987-British) C-90m. esting stylistic exercise for Soderbergh ★★1 ⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Anthony Hopkins, (who also shot and edited, under pseudJim Broadbent, Harriet Walter, Fanny onyms) and pretty entertaining, but it lacks, Viner, Simon Callow, Joanne Whalley, in Rick Blaine’s words, a ‘‘wow finish.’’ Michael Byrne. Hopkins is excellent in the Paul Attanasio adapted Joseph Kanon’s role of a father who loses custody of his novel. [R]쩠 child and takes out his incredible anger by Good Girl, The (2002) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: befriending Broadbent and funding latMiguel Arteta. Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gylter’s court case to regain his kid’s custody. lenhaal, John C. Reilly, Zooey Deschanel, Callow is terrific as an unscrupulous lawTim Blake Nelson, Mike White, Deborah yer. Dramatically uneven, but worth a Rush, John Carroll Lynch. A 30-year-old look. Made for British TV. [R]▼●쩠 woman who feels her life is at a dead end GoodFellas (1990) C-146m. ★★★1⁄2 D: becomes intrigued with a 20-ish loner, and Martin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, Ray winds up putting her marriage at risk. A rare Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul film that manages to make a transition from Sorvino, Frank Sivero, Tony Darrow, Mike comedy to poignant drama, with a denoueStarr, Frank Vincent, Chuck Low, Frank ment that’s nearly heartbreaking—thanks to DiLeo, Christopher Serrone, Samuel L. good writing and wonderful acting by the Jackson, Henny Youngman, Jerry Vale, leads. Screenplay by White, who costars as Debi Mazar, Kevin Corrigan, Michael Ima security guard. [R] ▼쩠 perioli, Illeana Douglas. A boy grows up in Good Guys and the Bad Guys, The (1969) an Italian-American neighborhood of BrookC-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Burt Kennedy. Robert lyn and dreams of becoming part of the Mob. Mitchum, George Kennedy, David CarraFascinating look at the allure—and the realdine, Tina Louise, Douglas Fowley, Lois ity—of day-to-day life in a Mafia family, Nettleton, Martin Balsam, John Carradine. based on experiences of Henry Hill (Liotta), Mild Western comedy-drama has aging who wound up in the Federal witness promarshal Mitchum going after lifelong foe tection program. The violence is (necessarKennedy, who has been abandoned by his ily) harsh and off-putting, like the film itself outlaw gang for being over the hill. at times, but it’s brilliantly realized by Panavision. [M/PG]▼쩠 Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Good Guys Wear Black (1979) C-96m. ★★ Ballhaus. Major criticism: It goes on too D: Ted Post. Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, long. Bracco and Oscar winner Pesci stand James Franciscus, Lloyd Haynes, Dana out in an exceptional cast; that’s Scorsese’s Andrews, Jim Backus. Norris jumps feet mother as Pesci’s mom. Screenplay by the first through a windshield and threatens to director and Nicholas Pileggi, based on the rearrange the face of bellman Backus—all in latter’s book Wiseguy. [R]▼●쩠 the name of national security. Silly political Good Fight, The (1983) C/B&W-98m. paranoia thriller kills time easily enough. Fol★★★1⁄2 D: Mary Dore, Sam Sills, Noel low-up: A FORCE OF ONE. [PG]▼●쩠 Buckner. Incisive, often moving documenGood Humor Man, The (1950) 79m. ★★1 tary of the 3,200 American men and women ⁄2 D: Lloyd Bacon. Jack Carson, Lola who were among 40,000 volunteers batAlbright, Jean Wallace, George Reeves, Richtling Fascism in the Spanish Civil War. ard Egan. Broad slapstick comedy about iceFranco may have won and they may have cream vendor Carson, who stumbles into a crime ring. Written by Frank Tashlin.▼ been harassed by their own government, but they are ultimately both authentic AmeriGood Idea! SEE: It Seemed Like a Good can patriots and survivors. Cut to 85m. Idea at the Time Good Luck (1997) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richfor PBS showings.▼●쩠 Good German, The (2006) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: ard LaBrie. Gregory Hines, Vincent D’OnoSteven Soderbergh. George Clooney, Cate frio, James Earl Jones, Max Gail, Joe Blanchett, Tobey Maguire, Beau Bridges, Theismann, Roy Firestone, Maria O’Brien, Tony Curran, Leland Orser, Jack ThompSara Trigger. ROCKY-like story of a blind son, Robin Weigert, Ravil Isaynov, Chrisman and a paraplegic who decide to enter a [ 544 ]

white-water rafting race in order to prove eral generations, small-town spinster schooltheir own self-worth. The theme of triumph teacher has touched and helped shape lives over adversity is familiar, but the film’s heart of her students. Now hospitalized, her past is in the right place. Some genuinely raucous is revealed through flashbacks. Sentimenand entertaining scenes. [R]▼●쩠 tal, warm, and wonderful. CinemaScope. Good Luck Chuck (2007) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) C-120m. ★★★ D: Barry Levinson. Robin Williams, Mark Helfrich. Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, Dan Fogler, Troy Gentile, Chelan SimForest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran, Chinmons. A lifelong curse is placed on playboy tara Sukapatana, Bruno Kirby, Robert Cook that makes him the last man to sleep Wuhl, J.T. Walsh, Noble Willingham, Floyd with a woman before she meets and marries Vivino. Williams is the whole show here, her true love. When he falls head over heels playing an Army disc jockey who turns for Alba he must keep from consummating Armed Forces radio inside out when he’s the relationship or risk losing her. Really brought to Saigon in 1965. His manic monodumb premise is even worse than it sounds. logues are so uproarious that they carry the Cook and Alba fumble every comic opporrest of the film, which has a weakly developed tunity. Unrated version runs 101m. [R]쩠 ‘‘story’’ and often irrelevant musical interGood Luck, Miss Wyckoff (1979) C-105m. ludes. Apparently the real-life Adrian CroBOMB D: Marvin J. Chomsky. Anne Heynauer, on whom story was based, wasn’t nearly wood, Donald Pleasence, Robert Vaughn, as funny or outrageous as Williams. [R]▼●쩠 Carolyn Jones, Dorothy Malone, Ronee Good Mother, The (1988) C-103m. ★★ Blakley, John Lafayette, Earl Holliman. ReD: Leonard Nimoy. Diane Keaton, Liam pressed schoolteacher’s first taste of sex comes Neeson, Jason Robards, Ralph Bellamy, via rape, in awkward adaptation of William Teresa Wright, James Naughton, Asia Inge novel. Good cast generally wasted. Vieira, Joe Morton, Katey Sagal, Tracy Video titles: THE SIN, THE SHAMING, and Griffith, Charles Kimbrough. Keaton is SECRET YEARNINGS. [R]▼ excellent as usual in the role of a divorced Good Man in Africa, A (1994) C-93m. woman who finds sexual fulfillment for ★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Colin Friels, Jothe first time in her life . . . but unwitanne Whalley-Kilmer, Sean Connery, John tingly jeopardizes her ability to raise her Lithgow, Louis Gossett, Jr., Diana Rigg, daughter in the process. Tedious adaptaSarah-Jane Fenton, Maynard Eziashi, Jackie tion of the Sue Miller novel. Film debut of Mofokeng. Crass, slapdash filming of WilMatt Damon (as an extra). [R]▼●쩠 liam Boyd’s novel about a weak-willed (and Good Neighbor Sam (1964) C-130m. ★★★ all-too-often insufferable) British diplomat D: David Swift. Jack Lemmon, Romy (Friels) in a new African nation; the sceSchneider, Edward G. Robinson, Michael nario accomplishes little more than to depict Connors, Dorothy Provine, Neil Hamilton, blacks as silly, unbelievable stereotypes. Joyce Jameson, Robert Q. Lewis. Good comConnery is sorely wasted in the role of a edy of Lemmon’s adventures pretending he’s sympathetic doctor. Boyd scripted and also not married to his real wife but to luscious coproduced with Beresford. [R]▼● neighbor Schneider. Plenty of sight gags and Good Marriage, The SEE: Le Beau chase scenes make this a lot of fun. Based on Mariage a novel by Jack Finney. ▼ Good Morning Babylon (1987-ItalianGood News (1947) C-95m. ★★★ D: Charles French-U.S.) C-117m. ★★★ D: Paolo and Walters. June Allyson, Peter Lawford, PaVittorio Taviani. Vincent Spano, Joaquim tricia Marshall, Joan McCracken, Ray McDe Almeida, Greta Scacchi, Desiree Donald, Mel Torme, Donald MacBride, Becker, Charles Dance, Omero Antonutti, Tom Dugan, Clinton Sundberg. Spirited reDavid Brandon. Two Italian brothers, make of the 1920s collegiate musical (by whose artisan family has shaped and reDeSylva, Brown, and Henderson), given a stored cathedrals for generations, come to new coat of varnish by screenwriters Betty America in 1915 and wind up working for Comden and Adolph Green. Lawford is Tait D. W. Griffith on his epic film INTOLERCollege’s cocky football hero, and Allyson is ANCE. A valentine to the early days of the brainy girl who catches him on the removiemaking, and a statement about the bound. Vintage songs include ‘‘The Best immortality of art, be it sculpture or film. Things in Life are Free,’’ ‘‘Just Imagine,’’ Beguilingly naive, like the period (and the ‘‘Varsity Drag’’; new numbers include ‘‘The people) it depicts, with a surprising turn of French Lesson’’ and ‘‘Pass That Peace Pipe.’’ events for its denouement. Dance is a standFilmed previously in 1930.▼●쩠 out as D.W. Griffith. [PG-13]▼● Good Night, The (2007-U.S-BritishGood Morning, Miss Dove (1955) CGerman) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jake Paltrow. Pe107m. ★★★ D: Henry Koster. Jennifer Jones, ne´lope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Michael Robert Stack, Kipp Hamilton, Robert DougGambon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Simon Pegg, las, Peggy Knudsen, Marshall Thompson, Danny DeVito, Keith Allen, Lucy DeVito. Chuck Connors, Biff Elliot, Jerry Paris, Pleasant enough Tylenol PM fantasy about Mary Wickes, Richard Deacon. For seva former pop star, now a bored composer [ 545 ]

for TV commercials, who yearns to find his Quinn Culkin. Superficial BAD SEED–type (literal) dream girl. Then she becomes a tad thriller, which exploitively casts HOME too real. Somewhat like THE SCIENCE OF ALONE star Culkin as an unremorseful, SLEEP without the metaphysics or VERpre-teen sociopath who terrorizes his cousin TIGO without the murder. Easy to take but (Wood), among many others. What’s next: leaves you wanting more. A brunette Gwybringing back Shirley Temple and having her neth dials down her glow to ‘‘dim’’ in this place high-tech explosives on the Good Ship debut film from her younger brother, who Lollipop? Macaulay’s sister Quinn plays his also scripted. Third-billed Gambon barely sibling, and his brother Rory can be glimpsed in a key photograph. [R]▼●쩠 appears. Lucy DeVito is Danny’s real-life daughter. [R]쩠 Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The (1966-Italian-Spanish) C-161m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Good Night, And Good Luck. (2005) 93m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: George Clooney. David Strathairn, Sergio Leone. Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Jeff DanCleef, Eli Wallach, Rada Rassimov, Maiels, Robert Downey, Jr., Frank Langella, Ray rio Brega, Chelo Alonso. Third and best of Wise, Robert John Burke, Reed Diamond, Leone’s ‘‘Dollars’’ trilogy, set during Civil Tate Donovan, Alex Borstein. Vivid dramatiWar; three disparate low-lifes search for zation of newscaster Edward R. Murrow’s Confederate government treasure chest, each groundbreaking on-the-air confrontation with possessing only partial whereabouts. Long, Commie-hunting Senator Joseph R. McCarfunny, and flamboyant, with memorable thy in the 1950s. Skillful production design Ennio Morricone score; the quintessential (by Jim Bissell), cinematography (Robert spaghetti Western. Followed by ONCE Elswit), and editing (Stephen Mirrione) UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Technicombine with pitch-perfect performances to scope. Restored version (newly dubbed by make us feel like a fly on the wall as CBS Eastwood and Wallach) runs 180m. [R— originally rated M]▼●쩠 television journalists confer, converse, carouse, and put history-making television Good Thief, The (2003-British-Irish-Frenchprograms on the air. Strathairn is superb Canadian) C-109m. ★★ D: Neil Jordan. Nick as Murrow; McCarthy ‘‘plays’’ himself in Nolte, Tche´ky Karyo, Said Taghmaoui, Nutsa vintage kinescope footage. Written by Kukhianidze, Gerard Darmon, Ouassini EmClooney and producer Grant Heslov. [PG]쩠 barek, Emir Kusturica, Marc Lavoine, Mark Good Sam (1948) 113m. ★★ D: Leo Polish, Mike Polish, Ralph Fiennes. Sleepy McCarey. Gary Cooper, Ann Sheridan, remake of Jean-Pierre Melville’s BOB LE Ray Collins, Edmund Lowe, Joan Lorring, FLAMBEUR, with Nolte as a mumbling, Ruth Roman. Almost complete misfire, heroin-addicted gambler and thief based in despite cast and director. Cooper is an Nice who reluctantly takes part in a Riviera incurable good Samaritan in this lifeless casino heist in order to replenish his ficomedy. Some prints run 128m.▼ nances. Colorfully cast and photographed Good Shepherd, The (2006) C-167m. (by Chris Menges), with Nolte making Rob★★★1⁄2 D: Robert De Niro. Matt Damon, ert Mitchum seem frenzied by comparison. Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Tammy Some regard this film as the ultimate in Cool; we find it lethargic. [R]▼쩠 Blanchard, Billy Crudup, Robert De Niro, Keir Dullea, Michael Gambon, Martina Good Times (1967) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilGedeck, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, liam Friedkin. Sonny and Cher, George Mark Ivanir, Gabriel Macht, Lee Pace, Joe Sanders, Norman Alden, Larry Duran. Back Pesci, Eddie Redmayne, John Sessions, when the singing duo was considered kooky, Oleg Stefan, John Turturro. Gripping story they made this enjoyable little film, with of an emotionally repressed young man who Sonny fantasizing their potential movie roles is recruited at Yale to do espionage work and he and Cher singing ‘‘I Got You Babe.’’ Friedkin’s first film.▼쩠 during WW2 and then to join the nascent Central Intelligence Agency, even though it Good to Go (1986) C-87m. ★★ D: Blaine means an enormous sacrifice to his family Novak. Art Garfunkel, Robert Doqui, Harlife. Eric Roth’s fictional screenplay (based ris Yulin, Reginald Daughtry, Richard heavily on fact) covers a lot of ground and Brooks, Hattie Winston, Anjelica Huston. provides great insight into the nature of the Forgettable fare about journalist Garfunkel, ‘‘spy business.’’ De Niro’s treatment uses who’s framed on a rape-murder charge. THE GODFATHER as its dramatic temOf interest mainly for its go-go music, plate, quite successfully. Damon is excellent which came out of the Washington D.C. and surrounded by well-chosen actors in ghetto . . . and did not become the naevery part, no matter how small. Exceptional music fad of its time. Highlighted tional cinematography by Robert Richardare the performances of such go-go groups son. Super 35. [R]쩠 as Redds & the Boys, Trouble Funk, Chuck Good Son, The (1993) C-87m. ★★ D: JoBrown & the Soul Searchers, among others. Video title: SHORT FUSE. [R]▼ seph Ruben. Macaulay Culkin, Elijah Wood, Wendy Crewson, David Morse, Good Wife, The (1986-Australian) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Cameron. Rachel Ward, Bryan Daniel Hugh Kelly, Jacqueline Brookes, [ 546 ]

Brown, Sam Neill, Steven Vidler, Jennifer Goofy takes his son, Max, on a road-trip vacaClaire, Bruce Barry. Isolated, bored wife tion, but it’s a culture clash between the ’90s Ward becomes obsessed with the new man boy and his old-fashioned father. Simple, in town (Neill). Predictable and a bit slow straightforward Disney cartoon feature for kids but also well made and well acted. Overwith a handful of serviceable songs and a nice all, a very mixed bag. Original Australian ‘‘message’’ about father-son relationships. No title: THE UMBRELLA WOMAN. [R]▼쩠 Disney classic, but pleasant enough. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel. [G]▼●쩠 Good Will Hunting (1997) C-126m. ★★★ D: Gus Van Sant. Matt Damon, Robin WilGoonies, The (1985) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: liams, Ben Affleck, Minnie Driver, Stellan Richard Donner. Sean Astin, Josh Brolin, Jeff Skarsga˚rd, Casey Affleck, Cole Hauser. Cohen, Corey Feldman, Kerri Green, Martha Four working-class friends hang out toPlimpton, Ke Huy Quan (Jonathan Ke Quan), gether in South Boston, but one of them, John Matuszak, Anne Ramsey, Joe Pantolipugnacious Will Hunting (Damon), has an ano. A bunch of kids go in search of hidden unusual gift: he’s a genius. When M.I.T. treasure in this old-fashioned adventure yarn math professor Skarsga˚rd gets wind of this, (from a story by Steven Spielberg, who may he insists that the young man stop wasting have recalled Our Gang’s MAMA’S LITTLE his talents, and sends him to psychologist/ PIRATE). Big, lively, and exceptionally teacher Williams to try to crack his brittle noisy, aimed squarely at kids, with a likable shell. Well-acted fiction written by costars bunch of kids onscreen. Also makes approDamon and Ben Affleck doesn’t bear close priate use of Max Steiner’s swashbuckling scrutiny but certainly entertains, with an theme from ADVENTURES OF DON array of good performances. Oscar nods for JUAN. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Best Original Screenplay and Best SupportGor (1988) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Fritz Kiersch. ing Actor (Williams). [R]▼●쩠 Urbano Barbarini, Oliver Reed, Rebecca Good Woman, A (2005-U.S.-SpanishFerratti, Larry Taylor, Graham Clarke, ArItalian-British-Luxembourg) C-93m. ★★ D: nold Vosloo, Chris Du Plessis, Paul L. Mike Barker. Helen Hunt, Scarlett JohansSmith, Jack Palance. Ordinary sword-andson, Milena Vukotic, Stephen Campbell sorcery adventure in which meek AmeriMoore, Mark Umbers, Roger Hammond, can professor is magically whisked off to John Standing, Tom Wilkinson, Diana Hard‘‘counter-Earth’’ Gor, where he becomes castle. Ill-conceived version of Oscar Wilde’s a hero and battles chuckling, tyrannical Lady Windermere’s Fan (filmed several Reed. Based on the first in ‘‘John Nortimes across the decades), set in Italy rather man’s’’ series of Edgar Rice Burroughsthan England and updated from the 1890s inspired adventure fantasies. Palance’s role to the 1930s. A number of Wilde’s British is just a cameo setting up the sequel, characters now are Americans; one of them OUTLAW OF GOR. [PG]▼ is Mrs. Erlynne (a sorely miscast Hunt), an Gordon’s War (1973) C-90m. ★★★ D: insolvent adventuress who arrives in Amalfi Ossie Davis. Paul Winfield, Carl Lee, and determines to seduce filthy-rich, newly David Downing, Tony King. When a Vietmarried Robert Windermere (Umbers). Renam vet comes home to find his wife leased in the U.S. in 2006. [PG]쩠 hooked on drugs, he trains four-man army Good Year, A (2006) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: to destroy the pushers. Good action, but gets lost toward the end. [R]▼ Ridley Scott. Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard, Abbie Cornish, Didier Gordy (1995) C-90m. ★★ D: Mark Lewis. Bourdon, Tom Hollander, Freddie HighDoug Stone, Kristy Young, Michael more, Isabelle Gardener, Archie Panjabi, Roescher, Tom Lester, Deborah Hobart, Rafe Spall, Kenneth Cranham, Valeria Ted Manson. Gordy is a talking pig who Bruni Tedeschi. Ruthless London commodsomehow becomes involved in big busiities trader learns that a beloved uncle has ness—and a quest to save his family from died and left him his property in Provence; the slaughterhouse. Very undemanding kids’ when he goes back to this scene of happy film has its moments. Based on a story by childhood memories he slowly experiences Green Acres veterans Jay Sommers and a change in his outlook on life. Based on the Dick Chevillat. Besides top-billed Stone the book by Peter Mayle (who also wrote A film features such other country music stars as Year in Provence), story takes a backseat to Roy Clark, Mickey Gilley, Jim Stafford, Box atmosphere, and while it’s attractive, the Car Willie, and Moe Bandy. [G] ▼●쩠 film needs a light touch that neither Crowe Gorgeous Hussy, The (1936) 102m. ★★1⁄2 nor director Scott can provide. Super 35. D: Clarence Brown. Joan Crawford, Robert [PG-13]쩠 Taylor, Lionel Barrymore, Franchot Tone, Goofy Movie, A (1995) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Melvyn Douglas, James Stewart, Alison Kevin Lima. Voices of Bill Farmer, Jason Skipworth, Beulah Bondi, Louis Calhern, Marsden, Jim Cummings, Kellie Martin, Rob Melville Cooper, Sidney Toler, Gene LockPaulsen, Wallace Shawn, Jenna Von Oy, hart. Star-studded cast in strained, fictionalFrank Welker, Jo Anne Worley, Julie Brown, ized historical drama of Peggy O’Neal, Joey Lawrence, Pat Buttram. Ever-lovable President Andrew Jackson’s controversial [ 547 ]

confidante. Crawford et al. are beautifully lippe, Maggie Smith, Geraldine Somerville, costumed in well-appointed settings. Based Kristin Scott Thomas, Sophie Thompson, on the novel by Samuel Hopkins Joyce.▼ Emily Watson, James Wilby. Another of AltGorgo (1961-British) C-78m. ★★★ D: Euman’s multicharacter mosaics, painting a colgene Lourie. Bill Travers, William Sylvesorful picture of life upstairs and down during ter, Vincent Winter, Bruce Seton, Joseph a weekend at an English country estate in O’Conor. Good sci-fi story of captured 1932, where murder rears its head. Great cast baby sea monster put into London circus and telling details can’t mask the film’s superand gigantic parent coming to rescue it. ficiality, made worse by a poky pace and ovExciting special effects.▼●쩠 erlength. Balaban (who conceived the idea for ★★1 Gorgon, The (1964-British) C-83m. ⁄2 D: the film with Altman) plays the producer of Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, Christopher Charlie Chan mysteries; too bad no one reLee, Richard Pasco, Barbara Shelley, membered that those films run about an hour Michael Goodliffe. In 19th-century Baland a quarter. Nevertheless, Julian Fellowes’ kan village, one of the snake-headed Gorscript won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 gons still survives, turning her victims to stone—but who is she by day? Good HamGospel (1982) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Leimer production.▼●쩠 vick, Frederick A. Ritzenberg. James CleveGorilla at Large (1954) C-84m. ★★★ D: land and the Southern California Community Harmon Jones. Cameron Mitchell, Anne Choir, Walter Hawkins and the Hawkins FamBancroft, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Burr, Peter ily, Mighty Clouds of Joy, Shirley Caesar, Whitney, Lee Marvin, Warren Stevens. OffTwinkie Clark and the Clark Sisters. Inspiring, beat murder mystery at amusement park, with tremendously entertaining concert film spotexceptionally able cast. Filmed in 3-D.쩠 lighting top gospel performers. Each number is Gorillas in the Mist (1988) C-129m. ★★★ more rousing than the last. Followed in 2004 D: Michael Apted. Sigourney Weaver, by OH HAPPY DAY (which is mostly a comBryan Brown, Julie Harris, John Omirah pilation of unused footage from this film).▼쩠 Miluwi, Iain Cuthbertson, Constantin AlexGospel, The (2005) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob androv, Waigwa Wachira. Absorbing drama Hardy. Boris Kodjoe, Idris Elba, Nona based on the life of Dian Fossey, who Gaye, Clifton Powell, Aloma Wright, Donjourneyed to Africa in 1967 and, with no nie McClurkin, Omar Gooding, Tamyra prior experience, set out to document the Gray, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Sean Nelson. vanishing breed of mountain gorillas for Upon hearing that his preacher father has National Geographic. Her transformation cancer, a rock star returns home to come to from diligent researcher to obsessive madterms with his dad, his best-friend-turnedwoman is a bit more abrupt than it ought to rival, and his mother’s death. Surprisingly be, but it’s still a good film, and Weaver is (or not) he still has time to begin a relationcompelling in the lead. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ship with a single mother and stage a glitzy Gorky Park (1983) C-128m. ★★★ D: Mifund-raiser to help open a new church. Techael Apted. William Hurt, Lee Marvin, dious, predictable, and composed entirely of Brian Dennehy, Ian Bannen, Joanna Pacula, cliche´s; at least the gospel numbers are well Alexander Knox. Absorbing murder mysperformed. [PG]▼쩠 tery set in Russia, where police investigaGospel According to St. Matthew, The (1964-Italian-French) 135m. ★★★★ D: Pier tor Hurt doggedly pursues the case of three bodies buried in Gorky Park. Lots of twists Paolo Pasolini. Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita and turns, vivid atmosphere (with Helsinki Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Mordoubling for Moscow) . . . marred someante, Mario Socrate. Unconventional, auswhat by unconvincing romance and protere film on life and teachings of Christ, tracted finale. Dennis Potter adapted Martin based solely on writings of the Apostle, Cruz Smith’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 Matthew. Amateur cast (including direcG.O.R.P. (1980) C-90m. BOMB D: Joseph tor’s mother) is expressive and moves with Ruben. Michael Lembeck, Dennis Quaid, quiet dignity. Ironically, director of this Philip Casnoff, Fran Drescher, David Hudmasterpiece was a Marxist.▼●쩠 dleston, Robert Trebor, Julius Harris, RoGospel According to Vic, The (1985-Britsanna Arquette. Sophomoric, depressingly ish) C-92m. ★★ D: Charles Gormley. Tom unfunny drug-oriented comedy set in a sumConti, Helen Mirren, David Hayman, Brian mer camp. Makes MEATBALLS seem like Pettifer, Jennifer Black. Very minor comHamlet; for people who think the word edy of Catholic schoolteacher Conti and ‘‘Quaalude’’ is automatically funny. [R]▼ the series of miracles that befall him. Mirren Gosford Park (2001-U.S.-British) Cis wasted as a music teacher/love interest. Aka HEAVENLY PURSUITS. [PG-13]▼ 137m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Altman. Eileen Atkins, Bob Balaban, Alan Bates, Charles Gospel of John, The (2003-CanadianDance, Stephen Fry, Michael Gambon, British) C-180m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip Saville. Richard E. Grant, Tom Hollander, Derek Henry Ian Cusick, Stuart Bunce, Daniel Jacobi, Kelly Macdonald, Helen Mirren, Kash, Stephen Russell, Diana Berriman, Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, Ryan PhilAlan Van Sprang, Scott Handy; narrated by [ 548 ]

Christopher Plummer. Overlong but surprisPene´lope Cruz, Charles S. Dutton, John ingly compelling retelling of Jesus’ life. AlCarroll Lynch, Bernard Hill, Dorian Harethough the material is obviously familiar wood. A mental health professional wakes up and well-worn movie fodder, Cusick’s fresh in the psychiatric ward of the prison where and utterly believable performance as Jesus she works, accused of a brutal murder she ranks favorably with any other cinematic indoesn’t remember committing. Take an earterpretation. Effectively narrated by Plummer. nest Berry, add a senseless script and mis129m. version also available. [PG-13] ▼쩠 guided direction, and you get this horror/ Gospel Road, The (1973) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 suspense/supernatural thriller/murder mystery/SNAKE PIT hodgepodge. [R] ▼쩠 D: Robert Elfstrom. Johnny Cash, June Carter, Robert Elfstrom. Musical journey through Go Tigers! (2001) C-103m. ★★★ D: KenHoly Land follows story of Jesus from his neth A. Carlson. Entertaining documentary birth to his death and resurrection. Sincere but about Massillon, Ohio, a working-class not especially good. [G] ▼쩠 town where high school football has been a Gossip (2000) C-91m. BOMB D: Davis mania for 106 years. Now the team’s very Guggenheim. James Marsden, Lena Headey, existence is at stake as a controversial Norman Reedus, Joshua Jackson, Kate school levy is put to the voters. An empaHudson, Marisa Coughlan, Eric Bogosian, thetic, close-up, cine´ma ve´rite´–style view of Edward James Olmos, Sharon Lawrence. the star athletes, coaches, teachers, parents, Inane tale of three college roomies who boosters, and even naysayers over the hatch a rumor as a class project that (natucourse of one crucial season. P.S. The filmmaker grew up in Massillon. [R]▼쩠 rally) gets way out of hand. Any dropout could guess these plot twists; viewer has an Governess, The (1998-British) C-112m. ★★1 easier choice. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Sandra Goldbacher. Minnie Driver, Gosta Berling’s Saga SEE: Atonement of Tom Wilkinson, Florence Hoath, Jonathan Gosta Berling, The Rhys-Meyers, Harriet Walter, Arlene CockGotcha! (1985) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff burn, Emma Bird. Intriguing but somewhat Kanew. Anthony Edwards, Linda Fiorenunfocused film, set in the 1800s, about a tino, Nick Corri, Alex Rocco, Marla spirited young Jewish woman who leaves Adams, Klaus Loewitsch, Christopher Ryher newly impoverished London family to dell. Nerdy college kid goes to Paris on take a job as governess on a remote Scottish vacation, meets seductive older woman who island. There she develops an unusual relainvolves him in espionage in East Berlin. tionship—both cerebral and passionate— Very nearly a good movie, with some sharp with the master of the house. Slow-moving dialogue to start, but loses its appeal as it film has interesting passages but never gels. loses its credibility. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Written by the director, who bites off more Go Tell the Spartans (1978) C-114m. than she can chew. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Ted Post. Burt Lancaster, Craig Go West (1925) 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: Buster KeaWasson, Jonathan Goldsmith, Marc Singer, ton. Buster Keaton, Howard Truesdale, Joe Unger, David Clennon, Dolph Sweet, Kathleen Myers, Brown Eyes. Buster plays James Hong. Perceptive, moving Vieta greenhorn named Friendless who winds nam War picture, set in early 1964; Burt up working on a cattle ranch out West, and shines as ‘‘advisory group’’ commander finding his soulmate in a cow named Brown who is already starting to have his doubts Eyes. Not one of Buster’s best silents, this about the conflict. More realistic in diastill has plenty of good scenes, especially logue and situation than other, more publithe climactic stampede, executed with typicized, popular films on the subject. Wendell cally Keatonesque comic skill. ▼●쩠 Mayes’ cynically funny script is right on Go West (1940) 81m. ★★ D: Edward target. Based on Daniel Ford’s novel InciBuzzell. Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx, dent at Muc Wa. [R]▼●쩠 John Carroll, Diana Lewis, Walter Woolf Gothic (1986-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Ken King, Robert Barrat. Big letdown from Russell. Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, Marxes, until hilarious train-ride climax. Natasha Richardson, Miriam Cyr, TimoOccasional bits sparkle through humdrum script.▼●쩠 thy Spall. That night in 1816 when Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) and Dr. Go West, Young Man (1936) 82m. ★★★ Polidori (The Vampyre) were inspired to D: Henry Hathaway. Mae West, Randolph write their Gothic classics—previously deScott, Warren William, Alice Brady, Elizpicted in THE BRIDE OF FRANKENabeth Patterson, Lyle Talbot, Isabel Jewell. STEIN—is given the wild Ken Russell Movie queen Mae is stuck in the sticks, but treatment here. Too weird for some, too passes time nicely with handsome farm boy. highbrow for many horror fans, but full of Not top-notch West, but still fun.▼쩠 Russell’s hallucinatory visuals. Same story Goya in Bordeaux (1999-Italian-Spanish) was told two years later in HAUNTED C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carlos Saura. Francisco SUMMER. [R]▼●쩠 Rabal, Jose´ Coronado, Eulalia Ramo´n, MarGothika (2003) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Mathieu ibel Verdu´, Dafne Ferna´ndez, Emilio GutierKassovitz. Halle Berry, Robert Downey, Jr., rez Caba, Joaquin Climent, Manuel de Blas, [ 549 ]

Cristina Espinosa, Jose´ Marı´a Pou. Vivid, Grace Quigley (1985) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: highly theatricalized vision of exiled SaraAnthony Harvey. Katharine Hepburn, Nick gossan painter Francisco Goya’s waning Nolte, Elizabeth Wilson, Chip Zien, Kit Le days in France, as he wanders through Fever, William Duell, Walter Abel, Denny deathbed memories of the women and the Dillon. Abysmal misfire that manages to be wars that inspired his work. Sumptuously both bland and tasteless, about lonely, elderly shot by Vittorio Storaro, but directed with a Hepburn, who hires hit man Nolte to kill pervasive melancholy that makes for slow her—and then others of her set who would all drama. Some nudity, but not nearly enough. rather be dead. Filmed in 1983, first shown at Aka GOYA. Univision. [R] ▼쩠 1984 Cannes Film Festival at 102m. HowGoya’s Ghosts (2007-U.S.-Spanish) C-113m. ever, another version of this exists, titled THE ★★1 ULTIMATE SOLUTION OF GRACE ⁄2 D: Milos Forman. Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Randy QUIGLEY and put together by its scriptQuaid, Jose´ Luis Go´mez, Michael Lonsdale. writer, A. Martin Zweiback. Despite an unThe kind of oddball movie only Forman can even second half, it is a touching, funny, make. Two-part story begins during the Spansurreal black comedy about the problems of ish Inquisition, as a Goya model (Portman) the elderly and the right of choice. This cut runs 94m. and is rated ★★1⁄2. [PG]▼ is unjustly imprisoned and raped in her cell by a hypocritical Catholic Church Brother Gracie (2007) C-95m. ★★ D: Davis Gug(Bardem). Returning 15 years later from genheim. Carly Schroeder, Elisabeth Shue, Napoleonic France, the Brother is asked by Dermot Mulroney, Andrew Shue, Jesse Lee Goya (Skarsga˚rd) to help track down a Soffer, Joshua Caras, Julia Garro, Hunter daughter conceived by the rape. Cowritten Schroeder. Shue plays her mother in this by Forman and Jean-Claude Carrie`re, plotsports biopic based on her own teenage heavy result is fairly zippy and not without years. Schroeder is adequately spunky as entertainment value, but the tone is shaky the future actress who wants nothing more and the wildly multinational casting disthan to play competitive soccer, circa 1978, tracts. Which isn’t to say that Quaid as just like her scrappy brothers. Extremely Spain’s King Carlos IV isn’t without its lightweight and predictable (and very amusements. [R]쩠 loosely based on the facts), this should apGrace Is Gone (2007) C-85m. ★★★ D: peal to preteen girls. Elisabeth, her costar James C. Strouse. John Cusack, She´lan brother Andrew, and director Guggenheim O’Keefe, Gracie Bednarczyk, Alessandro (Elisabeth’s husband) all coproduced. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Nivola. Midwestern working-class father learns that his wife has died while serving in Graduate, The (1967) C-105m. ★★★★ D: the U.S. Army in Iraq. Unable to confront his Mike Nichols. Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hofftwo young daughters with the news, he takes man, Katharine Ross, Murray Hamilton, them on a road trip instead, trying to seize William Daniels, Elizabeth Wilson, Brian every opportunity for happiness. Touching Avery, Norman Fell, Marion Lorne, Alice film never goes overboard with sentiment; Ghostley. Landmark film of the late ’60s that’s Cusack strikes just the right note, and the still just as pungent—and funny—as ever. girls who play his daughters seem absoHoffman, in his first major film role, plays lutely genuine. Marisa Tomei and Mary ultra-naive college grad who’s seduced by a Kay Place make eyeblink-long appearances. middle-aged woman, then falls in love with her Score by Clint Eastwood. Written by firstdaughter. Perfect song score by Simon and time director Strouse. [PG-13]쩠 Garfunkel. Script by Buck Henry (who plays ★★1 Grace of My Heart (1996) C-115m. ⁄2 the desk clerk) and Calder Willingham from D: Allison Anders. Illeana Douglas, John Charles Webb’s novel. Nichols won Best DiTurturro, Eric Stoltz, Matt Dillon, Patsy rector Oscar. Look fast for Mike Farrell in hotel Kensit, Bruce Davison, David Clennon, lobby and Richard Dreyfuss in Berkeley roomChristina Pickles, Amanda De Cadenet, ing house. Later a Broadway play and a referChris Isaak, Bridget Fonda, voice of Peter ence point for the 2005 movie RUMOR HAS Fonda. Disappointing film about a great IT . . . Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 subject: the pop music world centered Graduation Day (1981) C-96m. BOMB around N.Y.C.’s Brill Building in the 1950s D: Herb Freed. Christopher George, Patch and ’60s. Aspiring singer-songwriter DougMackenzie, E. Danny Murphy, Michael las finds doors closed to her as a performer Pataki, E. J. Peaker, Vanna White. A but becomes a successful pop tunesmith inbloody FRIDAY THE 13TH clone, done stead; her destiny is then linked to a succeswith no talent or imagination. [R]▼쩠 sion of men in the music business. Nice Graffiti Bridge (1990) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: moments here and there but superficial at Prince. Prince, Morris Day, Jerome Benevery turn—a real shame. Full of pleasant ton & The Time, Jill Jones, Mavis Staples, sound-alike songs from the period, plus one George Clinton, Ingrid Chavez, Robin showstopper, ‘‘God Give Me Strength,’’ Power, T.C. Ellis, Tevin Campbell. Furwritten by Elvis Costello and pop veteran ther auteur antics from the rocker-filmmaker Burt Bacharach. [R]▼●쩠 (and nonactor), a sequel of sorts to PUR[ 550 ]

PLE RAIN, but with murky religious overdant. Beautiful performances enhance an tones. Even the musical numbers, source eloquent script (by Renoir and Charles of the film’s socko CD soundtrack, are Spaak). Edited to 94m. for U.S. release in botched here. If you don’t even like Prince’s 1938. Beware of other versions with varimusic, you’d better convert our rating to ant running times.▼●쩠 BOMB. Purple piffle. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Grandma’s Boy (1922) 56m. ★★★ D: Grand Canyon (1991) C-134m. ★★ D: Fred Newmeyer. Harold Lloyd, Mildred Lawrence Kasdan. Danny Glover, Kevin Davis, Anna Townsend, Charles StevenKline, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Maryson, Noah Young, Dick Sutherland. Lloyd’s Louise Parker, Alfre Woodard, Jeremy Sisto, first great success casts him as a mousy Tina Lifford, Patrick Malone. Ruminations on small-town type inspired to fight for his why and how Life is Lousy, especially in L.A., girl—and his honor—by his grandma’s as a handful of disparate lives intersect: a lawtales of family heritage. Very entertaining.쩠 yer who feels distant from his wife, a wife Grandma’s Boy (2006) C-96m. ★★ D: Niwho’s discovered an abandoned baby, a towcholaus Goossen. Allen Covert, Linda Cartruck driver who’s worried about his sister’s dellini, Shirley Jones, Shirley Knight, Doris survival in a violent neighborhood, etc. Give Roberts, Peter Dante, Kevin Nealon. Slacker Kasdan (and cowriter Meg Kasdan) credit for accountant Covert moves in with granny Robattempting to make a serious film that deals erts and her golden-girl friends while taking a with matters of importance . . . but the results new job as a tester at a video game company are mushy, superficial, and unconvincing. Pasupervised by babe Cardellini. Stoner comenavision. [R]▼●쩠 dy’s crude humor (coscripted by Covert) Grande Bouffe, The (1973-French-Italian) occasionally engenders more chuckles than C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marco Ferreri. Marcello expected. As a veteran showbiz groupie Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli, whose liaisons included one with Don Philippe Noiret, Andrea Ferreol. Four bored Knotts, Jones’ raunchy role may color your middle-aged men decide to commit group suifuture viewings of CAROUSEL or The cide by eating themselves to death. Outrageous Partridge Family. Coproduced by Covert idea, but overbaked—no pun intended—and and Adam Sandler; several comedy cronies appear unbilled. Super 35. [R]쩠 excessively, graphically gross. [X]▼쩠 Grand Highway, The (1987-French) CGrand Prix (1966) C-175m. ★★ D: John 104m. ★★★ D: Jean-Loup Hubert. Anemone, Frankenheimer. James Garner, Eva Marie Richard Bohringer, Antoine Hubert, Vanessa Saint, Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Guedj, Christine Pascal. Fine, subtle, sliceBrian Bedford, Jessica Walter, Franc¸oise of-life tale of a fragile nine-year-old boy Hardy. Big cast is saddled with rambling (Hubert, son of the director) and his experiscript about personal lives of auto racers ences while spending three weeks in a and their loves; spectacular action scenes rural village while his mother is off giving and use of split screen are best appreciated birth. Guedj is a delight as the tomboy on the big screen. Deservedly won Oscars who becomes his friend. Original title: LE for the editing and sound effects people. GRAND CHEMIN. Remade in U.S. as Mifune’s English dialogue is dubbed by Paul Frees. Super Panavision 70.▼●쩠 PARADISE. [R] ▼ Grand Hotel (1932) 113m. ★★★★ D: EdGrand Slam (1967-Italian-U.S.) C-120m. ★★★ mund Goulding. Greta Garbo, John BarryD: Giuliano Montaldo. Edward G. more, Joan Crawford, Wallace Beery, Robinson, Janet Leigh, Adolfo Celi, Klaus Lionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, Jean HersKinski, Georges Rigaud, Robert Hoffman. holt, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Tully Marshall, International jewel-heist film, with all the Mary Carlisle. Vicki Baum’s novel and play trappings. Nothing new, but smoothly done, of plush Berlin hotel where ‘‘nothing ever most enjoyable. Techniscope.쩠 happens.’’ Stars prove the contrary: Garbo Grand Theft Auto (1977) C-85m. ★★ D: as lonely ballerina, John B. her jewel-thief Ron Howard. Ron Howard, Nancy Morlover, Lionel B. a dying man, Crawford an gan, Marion Ross, Pete Isacksen, Barry ambitious stenographer, Beery a hardened Cahill. Howard’s directorial debut (he also businessman, Stone the observer. Scripted coscripted with his actor-father Rance) is by William A. Drake. Best Picture Oscar typical unsophisticated car-crash action fare, winner; a must. Plot reworked many times no better or worse than most. [PG]▼●쩠 (in HOTEL BERLIN, WEEK-END AT Grand Tour, The (1992) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: THE WALDORF, etc.). Later a Broadway David N. Twohy. Jeff Daniels, Ariana Richmusical. ▼●쩠 ards, Emilia Crow, Jim Haynie, David Grand Illusion (1937-French) 117m. ★★★★ Wells, Nicholas Guest, Robert Colbert, D: Jean Renoir. Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Marilyn Lightstone. The proprietor of a Erich von Stroheim, (Marcel) Dalio, Dita small-town hotel fears that his unexpected Parlo, (Julien) Carette, Gaston Modot, guests are tourists from the future, visiting Jean Daste´. Renoir’s classic treatise on for a frightening reason. Intelligent, low-key war, focusing on French prisoners during sci-fi, well acted and consistently surprising, WW1 and their cultured German commanbut too drawn-out. From the novella ‘‘Vin[ 551 ]

tage Season’’ by Lawrence O’Donnell and wealthy aunt and her lightheaded sister. ExC. L. Moore. Filmed for theatrical release quisite performance by Laurie as the boy’s but debuted on cable TV instead. Aka DIfree-spirited soulmate, matched by Spacek SASTER IN TIME. [PG-13]▼●쩠 as a woman who’s been hardened by life. Grandview, U.S.A. (1984) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 Director Matthau appears as a customer in McDowall’s barbershop. [PG] ▼●쩠 D: Randal Kleiser. Jamie Lee Curtis, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grasshopper, The (1970) C-95m. ★★★ D: Jason Leigh, Ramon Bieri, Carole Cook, Jerry Paris. Jacqueline Bisset, Jim Brown, Troy Donahue, William Windom, ElizaJoseph Cotten, Corbett Monica, Ramon Bieri. beth Gorcey, M. Emmet Walsh, John Episodic but fairly compelling chronicle of Cusack, Joan Cusack, Michael Winslow. how a beautiful 19-year-old from British CoSo-so slice of Americana, focusing on lumbia ends up as a burned-out Vegas call girl several characters in archetypal Midwestern at age 22. Better than expected melodrama actown: a young boy coming of age, an tually features Brown in a sympathetic role. independent young woman trying to make Look fast for Penny Marshall. Aka THE PASSION OF EVIL and PASSIONS. [R] ▼쩠 it on her own running her father’s demolition-derby business, and a lovesick sap Grass Is Greener, The (1961) C-105m. ★★★ who’s her ace driver. Passable time-filler D: Stanley Donen. Cary Grant, Deborah but nothing more. [R]▼ Kerr, Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons. Chic Gran Torino (2008) C-117m. ★★★ D: Clint drawing-room fare that suffers from stagiEastwood. Clint Eastwood, Bee Vang, Ahney ness. Grant-Kerr marriage is threatened by Her, Christopher Carley, Brian Haley, GeralSimmons and Mitchum romancing the two, dine Hughes, Brian Howe, Dreama Walker, respectively. Technirama. ▼●쩠 John Carroll Lynch. With the death of his Grass Is Singing, The (1981-Britishbeloved wife, retired auto worker Walt KoSwedish) C-108m. ★★★ D: Michael Raewalski (Eastwood) is crankier than ever. Inburn. Karen Black, John Thaw, John Kani, tolerant of the Asians who have taken over John Moulder Brown, Patrick Mynhardt. his Detroit neighborhood, he slowly develBlack is excellent as a lonely woman who ops a relationship with two youngsters who marries farmer Thaw and cannot adjust to live next door and ultimately becomes prolife in the African woodland. Filmed in tective of them. Eastwood channels Archie Zambia; based on a novel by Doris LesBunker (and to some degree Dirty Harry) in sing. Released in U.S. in 1984 as KILLthis disarming fable about a man out of ING HEAT.▼쩠 touch with a changing world who unexpectGrave Indiscretions SEE: Gentlemen edly finds purpose to his life. Only Clint Don’t Eat Poets could have pulled this off—for an audience Grave Robbers From Outer Space SEE: that’s watched him grow and change over Plan 9 From Outer Space the years. Panavision. [R]쩠 Graveyard, The SEE: Persecution Grapes of Wrath, The (1940) 129m. Graveyard Shift (1989) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★★ D: John Ford. Henry Fonda, Jane Gerard Ciccoritti. Silvio Oliviero, Helen Darwell, John Carradine, Charley Grapewin, Papas, Cliff Stoker, Dorin Ferber, Dan Dorris Bowden, Russell Simpson, John QuaRose, Don Jones. Oliviero has the perfect len, O. Z. Whitehead, Eddie Quillan, Zeffie occupation for a modern vampire: an allTilbury, Darryl Hickman, Ward Bond, night cabdriver. His only victims are those in Charles Middleton, Tom Tyler, Mae Marsh, ‘‘their cycle of death,’’ but things get out of Jack Pennick. One of the great American hand anyway. Intelligent, well-acted lowfilms, an uncompromising adaptation of John budgeter harmed only by not knowing when Steinbeck’s novel about impoverished Okie to quit. Filmed in 1985. Aka CENTRAL farmers making the trek to California during PARK DRIFTER. Followed by a sequel: THE UNDERSTUDY. [R] ▼●쩠 the Depression, where the good life they’ve hoped for is well out of reach. Fonda is great Graveyard Shift (1990) C-87m. BOMB in his defining role as an ex-con whose social D: Ralph S. Singleton. David Andrews, conscience is aroused; Darwell is unforgettaKelly Wolf, Stephen Macht, Brad Dourif, ble as the matriarch Ma Joad. She and Ford Andrew Divoff, Vic Polizos. Bottom-ofwon well-deserved Oscars. Screenplay by the-barrel, cliche´-ridden shocker chroniNunnally Johnson.▼●쩠 cling the goings-on in a mysterious mill, Grass Harp, The (1996) C-107m. ★★★ D: whose workers are disappearing within its Charles Matthau. Piper Laurie, Sissy rat-infested bowels. Poorly directed, with Spacek, Walter Matthau, Edward Furlong, even worse special effects. Based on a short story by Stephen King. [R]▼●쩠 Nell Carter, Jack Lemmon, Mary Steenburgen, Sean Patrick Flanery, Joe Don Baker, Gravy Train, The (1974) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Charles Durning, Roddy McDowall, Doris D: Jack Starrett. Stacy Keach, Frederic Roberts, Scott Wilson; narrated by Boyd Forrest, Margot Kidder, Barry Primus, RichGaines. Thoughtful drama based on Truman ard Romanus, Denny Miller. OK blend Capote’s evocative memoir of his boyhood of fast-moving action and comedy as West in the South, where he was raised by his Virginia brothers Keach and Forrest de[ 552 ]

velop a liking for crime. Aka THE DION Didi Conn, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Joan BROTHERS. [R] Blondell, Edd Byrnes, Alice Ghostley, Dody Goodman, Lorenzo Lamas, Michael Tucci, Grayeagle (1978) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles B. Pierce. Ben Johnson, Iron Eyes Cody, Dinah Manoff, Barry Pearl. Energetic, Lana Wood, Jack Elam, Paul Fix, Alex imaginative filming of long-running BroadCord. Interesting if flawed rehash of THE way show fantasizes 1950s life; spirited SEARCHERS with Johnson tracking the cast, clever ideas, and Patricia Birch’s choIndian (Cord) who kidnapped his daughter. reography make it fun. Hit songs (written for Good classic Western style an asset, slugmovie) include ‘‘You’re the One That I gish pacing a drawback. Produced, directed, Want,’’ ‘‘Hopelessly Devoted To You,’’ and written by Pierce, who also appears. Panatitle number, sung by Frankie Valli. Followed vision. [PG]▼ by a sequel. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Gray Lady Down (1978) C-111m. ★★ D: Grease 2 (1982) C-114m. BOMB D: PaDavid Greene. Charlton Heston, David tricia Birch. Maxwell Caulfield, Michelle Carradine, Stacy Keach, Ned Beatty, Ronny Pfeiffer, Adrian Zmed, Lorna Luft, Didi Cox, Rosemary Forsyth. Tired drama about Conn, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Dody Goodrescue of nuclear submarine, captained by man, Tab Hunter, Connie Stevens, ChristoHeston. Good special effects, and colorful pher McDonald. Mindless sequel to the performance by Carradine as designer of musical hit; opens with a great back-to-school experimental diving craft. Look for Chrisnumber, then goes downhill. Pedestrian topher Reeve as one of the officers. Panamusic, clumsy comedy, uncharismatic leads; vision. [PG]▼쩠 only the supporting players (like newcomer Gray Matters (2007) C-96m. ★★ D: Sue Luft and veteran Arden) shine through. InausKramer. Heather Graham, Tom Cavanagh, picious directing debut for choreographer Bridget Moynahan, Alan Cumming, Molly Birch. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Shannon, Sissy Spacek, Rachel Shelley, GloGreased Lightning (1977) C-94m. ★★ D: ria Gaynor. Gray—yes, that’s her name— Michael Schultz. Richard Pryor, Beau Bridlives with her brother in Manhattan; they’re ges, Pam Grier, Cleavon Little, Vincent Garinseparable, and most people think they’re a denia, Richie Havens, Julian Bond. Spirited ‘‘couple.’’ Then he meets a beautiful woman cast does little to enliven plodding, episodic and asks her to marry him. Gray is genuinely bio of Wendell Scott, the first black racing car happy for her brother, then finds herself powdriver. A waste of Pryor, both dramatically erfully attracted to his fiance´e. Artificial in the and comically. [PG]▼쩠 extreme, this attempt to emulate and update Greaser’s Palace (1972) C-91m. ★★★ D: 1930s/’40s screwball comedies stays afloat Robert Downey. Allan Arbus, Albert Henonly because its stars are so likable. Written derson, Luana Anders, George Morgan, Larry Moyer, Michael Sullivan, James Anby the director. [PG-13]쩠 Gray’s Anatomy (1996) C/B&W-80m. tonio, Ron Nealy. Super-offbeat Jesus Christ ★★★ D: Steven Soderbergh. Spalding Gray. parody with Western setting. Drifter (Arbus) Gray’s brilliance as a raconteur shines discovers ‘‘true identity’’ and heals ‘‘sick’’ through in this witty, inventively directed cowboys in crazy, tiny town. Seven-yearmonologue charting his experience of passing old Robert Downey, Jr., appears as a mutihis 50th birthday and finding himself afflicted lated child! Aka ZOOT SUIT JESUS.▼쩠 with a rare eye disease. His encounters with Great Adventure, The (1975-Italiantraditional and alternative medicine are both Spanish) C-87m. ★★ D: Paul Elliotts funny and frightening.▼쩠 (Gianfranco Baldanello). Jack Palance, Joan Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (2006Collins, Fred Romer (Fernando Romero), Austrian-Herzegovinian-German-Croatian) CElisabetta Virgili, Manuel de Blas, Remo de Angelis. Middling Jack London tale of a 90m. ★★★ D: Jasmila Zbanic. Mirjana Karanovic, Luna Mijovic, Leon Lucev, Kenan boy and his dog trying to make it in the Catic, Bogdan Diklic. Bosnian writer-director wilds of gold-rush Alaska—fighting the Zbanic (in her feature-film debut) provides a odds, marauding wolves, sinister town boss revealing look at life in postwar Sarajevo and Palance, dancehall queen Collins.▼쩠 the lingering impact it has on a struggling Great American Broadcast, The (1941) single mother and her rebellious 12-year-old 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Archie Mayo. Alice Faye, John daughter, who live in the city’s Grbavica disPayne, Jack Oakie, Cesar Romero, The Four trict (the site of a former prison camp where Ink Spots, James Newill, Mary Beth Hughes. torture and rape were commonplace). An esFictional fun of development of radio induscalating rift between mother and daughter try, with such musical guests as zany Wiere forces them to confront the harsh realities of Brothers. Entertaining; bright cast.쩠 their lives, and the war’s continuing emotional Great American Cowboy, The (1974) toll. Impressive and powerful.쩠 C-90m. ★★★ D: Kieth Merrill. Narrated by Grease (1978) C-110m. ★★★ D: Randal Joel McCrea. Exciting documentary on Kleiser. John Travolta, Olivia Newtonrodeo life focuses on rodeo superstar Larry John, Stockard Channing, Jeff Conaway, Mahan and his competition with newcomer [ 553 ]

Phil Lyne. Oscar winner as Best Docukins, Akim Tamiroff. Terrible adaptation mentary Feature. [G]▼ of George Bernard Shaw’s comedy about Great Balloon Adventure, The SEE: Catherine the Great wastes capable cast; Olly, Olly, Oxen Free wait for Dietrich’s THE SCARLET EMGreat Balls of Fire! (1989) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 PRESS. D: Jim McBride. Dennis Quaid, Winona Great Day in Harlem, A (1994) C-60m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean Bach. Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Lisa Blount, Trey Wilson, John Doe, Steve Allen, Stephen Hinton, Marian McPartland, Art Blakey, Tobolowsky, Lisa Jane Persky, Michael Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Horace SilSt. Gerard, Peter Cook. Slick, highly stylver, Bud Freeman, Art Farmer; narrated by ized cartoon about the rise (and temporary Quincy Jones. Joyous celebration of a fafall) of ’50s rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, a mous photo taken for Esquire magazine in twice-married hellraiser whose doom was 1958, which gathered dozens of jazz greats sealed when he took his 13-year-old secon a Harlem sidewalk. What could have ond cousin as wife No. 3. Quaid’s amusbeen a prosaic ‘‘talking head’’ documentary ing but verrrry broad lead performance is becomes instead a lively collage of sights, balanced by Ryder’s more even-keeled porsounds, and memories, with charming intertrayal of cousin Myra. Reasonably enterviews, fascinating home movies of the taining but falls far short of its potential. event, and vintage performance footage of [PG-13] ▼●쩠 these musicians at work. Film director RobGreat Bank Robbery, The (1969) C-98m. ert Benton—then Esquire’s art director—is ★1 one of the interviewees.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Hy Averback. Zero Mostel, Kim Novak, Clint Walker, Claude Akins, Akim Great Day in the Morning (1956) C-92m. ★★1 Tamiroff, Larry Storch. Bogus preacher ⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Virginia Mayo, and company, Mexican gang led by TamiRobert Stack, Ruth Roman, Alex Nicol, roff, and local outlaws all compete for Raymond Burr. Good cast, beautiful color control of the town of Friendly. Spoof of scenery help so-so story of pre–Civil War Westerns is a total dud. Be warned. PanaColorado, when gold rush fever and separavision. [M/PG]쩠 tionist sentiments clashed. SuperScope.▼ Great Battle, The (1978-German-YugoGreat Debaters, The (2007) C-123m. ★★★ slavian) C-97m. BOMB D: Humphrey D: Denzel Washington. Denzel WashingLongan (Umberto Lenzi). Helmut Berger, ton, Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Samantha Eggar, Giuliano Gemma, John Whitaker, Jermaine Williams, Forest WhiHuston, Stacy Keach, Henry Fonda, Edwige taker, Gina Ravera, John Heard, Kimberly Fenech. Amateurish muddle about WW2 Elise. At all-black Wiley College in rural combines tired vignettes with well-known Texas, circa 1935, radical professor Melvin stars, dubbed sequences with others, and B. Tolson (Washington) motivates his stunewsreel footage narrated by Orson Welles. dent debate team to work through their perA waste of everybody’s time. Aka THE sonal problems in order to excel. Eventually GREATEST BATTLE, BATTLE FORCE, they travel to Harvard for a precedentTHE BATTLE OF MARETH, and THE shattering debate. Inspiring true-life drama BIGGEST BATTLE. [PG]▼ plays with the facts and succumbs to formuGreat Buck Howard, The (2009) C-90m. laic storytelling at times but never loses sight ★★★ of its goal: to remind us that education—and D: Sean McGinly. John Malkovich, Colin Hanks, Emily Blunt, Ricky Jay, Tom determination—can help ordinary people surHanks, Debra Monk, Steve Zahn, Griffin mount even the most formidable obstacles. Dunne, Wallace Langham, Adam Scott. Coproduced by Oprah Winfrey. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Young man quits law school and stumbles into a job as road manager for a self-absorbed Great Dictator, The (1940) 128m. ★★★1⁄2 stage performer whose career peaked years D: Charles Chaplin. Charles Chaplin, ago on The Tonight Show with Johnny CarPaulette Goddard, Jack Oakie, Reginald son. Small but entertaining film is worth Gardiner, Maurice Moscovich, Billy Gilseeing for Malkovich’s endearing and perbert, Henry Daniell. Chaplin’s first full suasive performance as a ‘‘mentalist,’’ intalkie; unusual comedy combines slapstick, spired by The Amazing Kreskin. Tom satire, and social commentary, as he plays Hanks coproduced the film and plays his dual role of Jewish ghetto barber and dictator real-life son Colin’s dad. [PG] Adenoid Hynkel of Tomania. Unique, surprisGreat Caruso, The (1951) C-109m. ★★★ ingly effective film also features Oakie in unD: Richard Thorpe. Mario Lanza, Ann forgettable portrayal of ‘‘Benzino Napaloni’’ Blyth, Jarmila Novotna, Dorothy Kirsten. of rival country Bacteria.▼●쩠 Biographical fiction about the legendary Great Escape, The (1963) C-168m. ★★★★ singer, entertainingly done. Fine music D: John Sturges. Steve McQueen, James makes cliche´s endurable.▼● Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Great Catherine (1968-British) C-98m. Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum, ★1⁄2 D: Gordon Flemyng. Peter O’Toole, Donald Pleasence, James Donald, Gordon Jeanne Moreau, Zero Mostel, Jack HawJackson, John Leyton, Angus Lennie, Nigel [ 554 ]

Stock. Allied POWs plot massive escape from Nazi prison camp. Based on true story, this blockbuster was beautifully photographed by Daniel Fapp on location in Germany. Rip-roaring excitement with marvelous international cast; script by James Clavell and W. R. Burnett, from Paul Brickhill’s book. Rousing score by Elmer Bernstein. Followed by a TV sequel 25 years later. Panavision.

Frank, Theodore St. John, Frank Cavett).

▼●쩠

Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965) C-193m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Stevens. Max von Sydow, Charlton Heston, Carroll Baker, Angela Lansbury, Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, John Wayne, Ed Wynn, Jose Ferrer, Van Heflin, Claude Rains, Telly Savalas, many others. Some of the most spectacular scenes ever filmed lose all validity because of inces▼●쩠 ★1 sant cameos that run throughout film. Would Greatest, The (1977) C-101m. ⁄2 D: you believe John Wayne as a Roman centurion Tom Gries. Muhammad Ali, Ernest Borgsupervising Christ’s crucifixion? Carl Sandnine, John Marley, Robert Duvall, James burg is listed in credits as a Creative Associate. Earl Jones, Roger E. Mosley, Ben JohnOriginally shown at 225m., then cut to 141m. son, Paul Winfield, Lloyd Haynes, Dina Ultra Panavision 70.▼●쩠 Merrill, David Clennon. Potentially excitGreat Expectations (1934) 102m. ★★1⁄2 ing screen bio of the great heavyweight D: Stuart Walker. Jane Wyatt, Phillips champ becomes an episodic mess sufferHolmes, George Breakston, Henry Hull, ing from a script devoid of dramatic focus Florence Reed, Alan Hale, Francis L. Suland ham-handed direction. Ironically, Moslivan. Acceptable version of Dickens’ story ley (as Sonny Liston) has the charisma Ali about a young boy and unknown benefaclacks. Soundtrack features George Benson’s tor is dwarfed by ’46 classic. Sullivan ‘‘The Greatest Love of All.’’ [PG]▼쩠 plays Jaggers in both films. ▼ Greatest Battle, The SEE: Great Battle, Great Expectations (1946-British) 118m. The ★★★★ D: David Lean. John Mills, Valerie Greatest Game Ever Played, The (2005) Hobson, Bernard Miles, Francis L. SulliC-120m. ★★★ D: Bill Paxton. Shia LaBeouf, van, Finlay Currie, Martita Hunt, Anthony Stephen Dillane, Josh Flitter, Peyton List, Wager, Jean Simmons, Alec Guinness, Elias Koteas, Marnie McPhail, Stephen Ivor Barnard, Freda Jackson, Torin ThatMarcus, Luke Askew, Peter Firth, Len Cacher, Eileen Erskine, Hay Petrie. One of riou, Joe Jackson, Dawn Upshaw. Winning the greatest films ever made, a vivid adapstory of sportsmanship and class struggle tation of Dickens’ tale of a mysterious surrounding the 1913 U.S. Open Tournabenefactor making poor young orphan a ment in Brookline, Massachusetts, where a gentleman of means. Opening graveyard caddy, Francis Ouimet (LaBeouf), is alsequence is a gem. Oscars went to cinemalowed to play opposite the much-admired tographer Guy Green and art director John British champion Harry Vardon (Dillane). Bryan. Lean, Kay Walsh, Cecil McGivern, Solid, old-fashioned storytelling with a and producers Anthony Havelock-Allan and modern eye; golf has never been portrayed Ronald Neame all contributed to script. like this before. Screenplay by Mark Frost, Filmed in 1934, 1974, and updated in 1998. from his book. Eye-catching title sequence Jean Simmons played Miss Havisham in a uses vintage photographs and footage to set 1989 miniseries. ▼●쩠 the stage for this meticulously produced peGreat Expectations (1998) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 riod picture. [PG]쩠 D: Alfonso Cuaro´n. Ethan Hawke, GwyGreatest Love, The (1951-Italian) 110m. neth Paltrow, Anne Bancroft, Chris Cooper, ★1 ⁄2 D: Roberto Rossellini. Ingrid BergHank Azaria, Robert De Niro, Josh Mostel, man, Alexander Knox, Giulietta Masina, Kim Dickens, Nell Campbell, Stephen SpiTeresa Pellati, Ettore Giannini. Bergman nella. Modern story based on the Dickens plays a wealthy American living in Rome, classic has Finn (ne´ Pip) helping a convict who feels compelled to help people in order on the Florida marshes, then being sumto restore meaning to her own life after her moned to the decrepit mansion of equally son’s suicide. Obvious, slow-moving story. decrepit Ms. Dinsmoor (ne´e Havisham), Originally titled EUROPA ’51.▼ where he meets the love of his life, the beauGreatest Show on Earth, The (1952) tiful but heartless Estella. Eventually, he’s C-153m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cecil B. DeMille. Betty whisked off to N.Y.C. to find fame and forHutton, Charlton Heston, Cornel Wilde, tune as an artist. So stylishly crafted that Dorothy Lamour, Gloria Grahame, James it’s a shame it doesn’t add up to much of Stewart, Henry Wilcoxon, Lawrence Tieranything. The skeleton of Dickens is there, ney, Lyle Bettger. Big package of fun but no resonance. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 from DeMille, complete with hokey perGreat Flamarion, The (1945) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Mann. Erich von Stroformances, cliche´s, big-top excitement, and a swell train wreck. Stewart well cast heim, Mary Beth Hughes, Dan Duryea, as circus clown with mysterious past. Some Stephen Barclay, Lester Allen, Esther funny surprise guests appear. Oscar winner Howard. Better than most von Stroheim for Best Picture and Story (Fredric M. cheapies, this one casts him as a vaudeville [ 555 ]

star who becomes romantically entangled Gorshin. Incredible story of Ferdinand Dewith his scheming married assistant. ▼쩠 mara, who succeeded in a variety of profesGreat Garrick, The (1937) 91m. ★★★ D: sional guises. Film is episodic and pat.▼ James Whale. Brian Aherne, Olivia de Great Lie, The (1941) 107m. ★★★ D: Havilland, Edward Everett Horton, MelEdmund Goulding. Mary Astor, Bette Davis, ville Cooper, Lionel Atwill, Lana Turner, George Brent, Lucile Watson, Hattie McMarie Wilson. Members of the Come´die Daniel, Grant Mitchell, Jerome Cowan. Brent Franc¸aise perpetrate a hoax to deflate the marries Davis when alliance with Astor is ego of pompous David Garrick (Aherne) annulled. He is lost in plane crash, leaving in this entertaining, fictionalized yarn about Davis and pregnant Astor to battle each other real-life British actor.쩠 and the elements. Well-mounted soaper won Astor an Oscar as fiery concert pianist.▼●쩠 Great Gatsby, The (1949) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Elliott Nugent. Alan Ladd, Betty Field, Great Locomotive Chase, The (1956) C-85m. ★★★ D: Francis D. Lyon. Fess Macdonald Carey, Barry Sullivan, Ruth Hussey, Shelley Winters, Howard da Silva. Parker, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff York, John Misguided adaptation of F. Scott FitzgerLupton, Eddie Firestone, Kenneth Tobey. ald’s book about a mysterious young milTrue story of Andrews’ Raiders (filmed lionaire who crashes Long Island society before by Buster Keaton as THE GENin the 1920s. Too talky and much too ERAL) comes to life in colorful Disney literal-minded. Ladd is pretty good, but film; Parker is famous Union spy who Field (as Daisy Buchanan) gives a strangely leads a rowdy band in capturing and ‘‘kidpetulant performance. Filmed before in napping’’ a Confederate railroad train dur1926, again in 1974, and for TV in 2001. ing Civil War. Retitled ANDREWS’ RAIDERS. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Great Gatsby, The (1974) C-144m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Clayton. Robert Redford, Mia Great Lover, The (1949) 80m. ★★★ D: Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Scott Alexander Hall. Bob Hope, Rhonda FlemWilson, Sam Waterston, Lois Chiles, ing, Roland Young, Roland Culver, George Howard da Silva, Edward Herrmann, Reeves, Jim Backus. Vintage Hope; Bob’s Patsy Kensit, Roberts Blossom. Bland adapa boy scout leader on ship filled with his tation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s jazz-age novel troop, luscious Fleming, and murderer about a golden boy in Long Island society; Young.▼쩠 faithful to the book, and visually opulent, Great Man, The (1956) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: but lacks substance and power. Script by Jose Ferrer. Jose Ferrer, Dean Jagger, Francis Ford Coppola; Theoni V. AlKeenan Wynn, Julie London, Jim Backus, dredge’s costumes and Nelson Riddle’s Ed Wynn. Well-loved TV star dies and score earned Oscars. [PG]▼●쩠 Ferrer prepares memorial show, only to Great Georgia Bank Hoax, The SEE: discover star was a despicable phony. HardGreat Bank Hoax, The bitten look at TV industry; top performances Great Gilbert and Sullivan, The (1953by senior and junior Wynns. Ferrer and Al British) C-105m. ★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Morgan adapted Morgan’s thinly veiled Robert Morley, Maurice Evans, Eileen Hernovel about Arthur Godfrey. lie, Peter Finch, Martyn Green. Agreeable Great Manhunt, The SEE: State Secret production is only a superficial biography of Great Man’s Lady, The (1942) 90m. ★★1 the legendary operetta composers, but does ⁄2 D: William Wellman. Barbara Stanoffer many highlights from their wonderful wyck, Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, Thurworks. Their lives are probed more inciston Hall, K. T. Stevens, Lucien Littlefield. sively in TOPSY-TURVY. Original British Saga of the West is no great shakes as title: THE STORY OF GILBERT AND McCrea dreams of oil wells, Donlevy takes SULLIVAN. his girl. Stanwyck ages to 100 years to frame story.▼ Great Guns (1941) 74m. ★★ D: Monty Banks. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sheila Great Man Votes, The (1939) 72m. ★★★1⁄2 Ryan, Dick Nelson, Edmund MacDonald. D: Garson Kanin. John Barrymore, Peter Later L&H Army comedy is weak, not as Holden, Virginia Weidler, Donald Macbad as some but far below their classic Bride, William Demarest. Simple, sincere, films. Look quickly for Alan Ladd.▼쩠 delightful film of Barrymore, once a proGreat Guy (1936) 75m. ★★ D: John G. fessor, now a souse, fighting for custody Blystone. James Cagney, Mae Clarke, James of his children, suddenly elevated to new Burke, Edward Brophy, Henry Kolker, stature when election time rolls around. Bernadene Hayes, Edward McNamara. MacBride fun as small-time politico, Demarest an energetic campaign promoter. ▼ Second-rate Cagney in low-budget production about inspector crusading against corGreat McGinty, The (1940) 81m. ★★★ D: ruption in meat business.▼쩠 Preston Sturges. Brian Donlevy, Muriel Great Impostor, The (1961) 112m. ★★1⁄2 Angelus, Akim Tamiroff, Allyn Joslyn, D: Robert Mulligan. Tony Curtis, Karl MalWilliam Demarest, Louis Jean Heydt, Arthur den, Raymond Massey, Edmond O’Brien, Hoyt. Sturges’ directorial debut (and OscarArthur O’Connell, Gary Merrill, Frank winning screenplay) isn’t up to his later com[ 556 ]

edy classics, but Donlevy is excellent as bum humor and insight to emphasize the importance of living a life that has meaning. [R]쩠 who is manipulated into governor’s chair by crooked political machine—then blows it all Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, The (1972) C-91m. ★★★ D: Philip Kaufman. when he tries to be honest. Typically sharp dialogue, plus fine work by Sturges’ stock Cliff Robertson, Robert Duvall, Luke Askew, company of character actors. Donlevy and R. G. Armstrong, Dana Elcar, Donald Moffat, Tamiroff reprised their roles as a gag in Elisha Cook, Jr., Royal Dano, Mary-Robin Sturges’ THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN’S Redd. Revisionist Western depicts the last CREEK. ▼●쩠 major raid by the James gang, led by fanatic Great Moment, The (1944) 83m. ★★ D: Jesse (Duvall) and easygoing Cole Younger Preston Sturges. Joel McCrea, Betty Field, (Robertson). Fictionalized, but more factual Harry Carey, William Demarest, Franklin than most movie depictions of the famous Pangborn, Grady Sutton, Louis Jean Heydt. raid. Robertson is genial in the leading role, Confused biography of anesthesia pioneer Duvall amusingly intense as the brutal Jesse. wavers from comedy to drama; ineffectual, Occasional comedic moments don’t work terribly well. Written by the director. [PG]▼쩠 filled with frustrating flashbacks. Very offbeat for writer-director Sturges, although Great O’Malley, The (1937) 71m. ★1⁄2 D: film was taken out of his hands and reedited. William Dieterle. Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Donald Crisp, Mary Filmed in 1942.▼●쩠 Great Moments in Aviation SEE: Shades Gordon, Frieda Inescort, Sybil Jason. Syrof Fear upy film of ruthless cop O’Brien and poor Great Mouse Detective, The (1986) Cman Bogart who has lame daughter and ★★★ 80m. D: John Musker, Ron Clements, turns to crime to support her. Pretty sticky. Great Outdoors, The (1988) C-90m. ★1⁄2 Dave Michener, Burny Mattinson. Voices of Vincent Price, Barrie Ingham, Val Bettin, D: Howard Deutch. Dan Aykroyd, John Susanne Pollatschek, Candy Candido, Eve Candy, Stephanie Faracy, Annette Bening, Brenner, Alan Young, Melissa Manchester. Chris Young, Ian Giatti, Hilary Gordon, Brisk animated adaptation of Eve Titus’ Rebecca Gordon, Robert Prosky. Joyless book Basil of Baker Street, about a Sherscattershot comedy about disintegration of lockian mouse who matches wits with the Candy clan’s summer vacation by the uninnefarious Prof. Ratigan (whose role is pervited appearance of boorish in-law Aykroyd formed with gusto by Price). Not much depth and family. Written by John Hughes, apparto this Disney cartoon feature, but it is a lot of ently with something else on his mind. Bening’s first film. [PG]▼●쩠 fun. Reissued in 1992 as THE ADVENTURES OF THE GREAT MOUSE DEGreat Profile, The (1940) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: TECTIVE. [G]▼●쩠 Walter Lang. John Barrymore, Mary Beth Great Muppet Caper, The (1981-British) Hughes, Gregory Ratoff, John Payne, Anne C-95m. ★★★ D: Jim Henson. The Muppet Baxter, Lionel Atwill, Edward Brophy. BarryPerformers (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave more on downslide provides some laughs in Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt), Charles self-parodying tale of aging, conceited actor. Grodin, Diana Rigg, John Cleese, Robert Great Race, The (1965) C-150m. ★★1⁄2 Morley, Peter Ustinov, Jack Warden. The D: Blake Edwards. Tony Curtis, Natalie Muppets try to solve a London jewel robWood, Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Keenan bery in their second feature film. Clever Wynn, Larry Storch, Dorothy Provine, Arthur gags and ideas plus hilarious musical numO’Connell, Vivian Vance, Ross Martin, bers with Miss Piggy make up for meanGeorge Macready. Long, sometimes funny, dering script with more than its share of often labored comedy, not the greatest ever slow spots. [G]▼●쩠 made, as advertised. Duel sequence and barGreat New Wonderful, The (2006) Croom brawl are highlights, but pie fight falls 87m. ★★★ D: Danny Leiner. Olympia Duflat, other gimmicks don’t work. Definitely kakis, Jim Gaffigan, Judy Greer, Maggie a mixed bag (although Natalie never looked Gyllenhaal, Tom McCarthy, Sharat Saxena, better); one good song, ‘‘The Sweetheart Naseeruddin Shah, Tony Shalhoub, Stephen Tree.’’ Panavision.▼●쩠 Colbert, Dick Latessa, Will Arnett, Anita Great Raid, The (2005) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gillette, Edie Falco. Striking drama, set one John Dahl. Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, year after 9/11, focuses on an array of New Joseph Fiennes, Connie Nielsen, Marton Yorkers who are either struggling to deal Csokas, Motoki Kobayashi, Robert Mamwith their feelings about that horrific day or mone, Natalie Mendoza, Cesar Montano, going about their lives as if nothing had Mark Consuelos, Dale Dye. Dramatization happened. They include a couple with a dysof a remarkable, little-known episode from functional son, an elderly woman trapped in WW2: the dramatic rescue of 500 Americans an unhappy marriage, a pair of security from a Japanese POW camp in the Philipguards, and an outwardly affable accountant pines in 1945, involving an elite corps of who worked at the World Trade Center and freshly trained U.S. Rangers, Filipino guerrilla survived 9/11, unlike many of his coworkers. fighters, and members of the local resistance Subtle, incisive study of suppressed rage uses movement. Admirably old-fashioned in many [ 557 ]

ways, with impeccable staging of the cli(1966-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Frank Launmactic raid, but not nearly as good as the der, Sidney Gilliat. Frankie Howerd, Reg story it’s re-creating. Completed in 2003. Varney, Richard Wattis, Dora Bryan. Super 35. [R]쩠 Overly droll entry in popular series begins Great Rock ’n Roll Swindle, The with the real Great Train Robbery, then (1980-British) C-103m. ★★★ D: Julien Teminjects political satire with usual hijinks ple. Malcolm McLaren, Johnny Rotten (John as crooks’ hiding place for loot becomes new Lydon), Sid Vicious, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, site for infamous girls’ school. Alastair Ronnie Biggs, Liz Fraser. Controversial, outSim’s presence is sorely missed.▼ rageously cynical free-form documentary Great Texas Dynamite Chase, The (1977) about the infamous, ground-breaking punkC-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Pressman. Claudia rock band Johnny Rotten and The Sex Pistols. Jennings, Jocelyn Jones, Johnny Crawford, Film also shows how Pistols’ manager MalChris Pennock, Tara Strohmeier. A pair of colm McLaren cleverly marketed the group. sexy female bank robbers take to the roads in One of the many highlights: the late Sid Vithis all-too-typical low-budget outing. [R]▼쩠 cious’ version of ‘‘My Way.’’▼●쩠 Great Train Robbery, The (1979-British) Great Santini, The (1979) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 C-111m. ★★★ D: Michael Crichton. Sean D: Lewis John Carlino. Robert Duvall, Connery, Donald Sutherland, Lesley-Anne Blythe Danner, Michael O’Keefe, Lisa Down, Alan Webb, Malcolm Terris, Wayne Jane Persky, Stan Shaw, Theresa Merritt, Sleep, Robert Lang. Stylish fun as an David Keith. Character study of a career elegant trio conspire to pull off the greatest Marine who, in 1962, is ‘‘a warrior withheist of all time, in the mid-1800s: stealing out a war,’’ except for the one he wages shipment of gold from a moving train! with his adolescent son. Compelling perCrichton based his script on true incident, formances give film its meat, but dramatic filmed it against beautiful Irish countrystructure and resolutions are not nearly as side. British title: THE FIRST GREAT strong. Adapted by Carlino from Pat ConTRAIN ROBBERY. [PG]▼●쩠 roy’s novel. Aka THE ACE. [PG]▼●쩠 Great Waldo Pepper, The (1975) C-107m. Great Scout and Cathouse Thursday ★★★ D: George Roy Hill. Robert Redford, (1976) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Taylor. Lee Bo Svenson, Bo Brundin, Susan Sarandon, Marvin, Oliver Reed, Robert Culp, ElizaGeoffrey Lewis, Edward Herrmann, Margot beth Ashley, Howard Platt, Strother Martin, Kidder, Scott Newman. Box-office disapSylvia Miles, Kay Lenz. Broad comedy set pointment from director of BUTCH CASin Colorado of 1908 involves swindles, deSIDY and THE STING is a much more fanged snake, kidnapped prostitutes, and personal film, even though brilliantly photorobbery of proceeds from big boxing match. graphed story of aviation pioneers wavers unCould have been funnier, but Reed is a decomfortably between slapstick and drama. light as an Indian(!). [PG]▼ Worth a look. Todd-AO 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 ★★1 Great Sinner, The (1949) 110m. ⁄2 D: Great Wall, A (1986) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Siodmak. Gregory Peck, Ava GardPeter Wang. Peter Wang, Sharon Iwai, ner, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Ethel Kelvin Han Yee, Li Qinqin, Hy Xiaoguang. Barrymore, Frank Morgan, Agnes MooreGood-natured story of culture clash that head. Lavishly produced but murky, talky results when Chinese-American family costumer of writer Peck falling for beautiful makes its first trip to mainland China. Gardner and becoming obsessed with gamAmiable but hardly inspired. First U.S.bling. Screenplay by Christopher Isherwood. Chinese coproduction is also Wang’s first Great Smokey Roadblock, The (1976) feature as cowriter, director, and star (he C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Leone. Henry Fonda, played the chef in CHAN IS MISSING by Eileen Brennan, John Byner, Dub Taylor, Wayne Wang—no relation). [PG]▼●쩠 Susan Sarandon, Melanie Mayron, Austin Great Waltz, The (1938) 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pendleton. Innocuous story of aging trucker Julien Duvivier. Luise Rainer, Fernand (Fonda) attempting one perfect cross-country Gravet, Miliza Korjus, Hugh Herbert, Lirun before his truck is repossessed; his onel Atwill, Curt Bois. Music outdoes haul is a houseful of evicted prostitutes. drama in this elaborately produced biograSome nice vignettes. Originally titled THE phy of composer Johann Strauss, with plenty LAST OF THE COWBOYS, running 106m. of waltzes covering up a standard triangle Coproduced by Sarandon. [PG]▼쩠 tale. Joseph Ruttenberg’s lovely cinemaGreat Spy Mission, The SEE: Operation tography earned an Oscar.▼● Crossbow Great Waltz, The (1972) C-135m. BOMB Great St. Louis Bank Robbery, The (1959) ★1⁄2 D: Charles Guggenheim, John D: Andrew L. Stone. Horst Buchholz, Mary 86m. Costa, Rossano Brazzi, Nigel Patrick, Stix. Steve McQueen, David Clarke, Crahan Yvonne Mitchell, James Faulkner. Bio of Denton, Molly McCarthy, James Dukas. Johann Strauss is unintentionally funny in Modest robbery caper with virtue of Mcthe way director Stone’s SONG OF NORQueen in cast.▼●쩠 Great St. Trinian’s Train Robbery, The WAY was, but after 135 minutes, even the [ 558 ]

laughs begin to subside. Filmed on locaremains a stunning work, one of the greatest tion in Austria. Panavision. [G] of all silent films. The final sequences in Great White Hope, The (1970) C-101m. Death Valley are unforgettable. Reconstructed ★★★ in 1999, using stills to cover long-lost footage; D: Martin Ritt. James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Lou Gilbert, Joel Fluellen, Chesthis version runs 242m.▼● ter Morris, Robert Webber, R. G. ArmGreedy (1994) C-113m. ★★ D: Jonathan strong, Hal Holbrook, Beah Richards, MoLynn. Michael J. Fox, Kirk Douglas, Nancy ses Gunn. Supercharged adaptation of Travis, Olivia d’Abo, Phil Hartman, Ed Broadway success with Jones and AlexanBegley, Jr., Jere Burns, Colleen Camp, Bob der (in her film debut) repeating stage Balaban, Joyce Hyser, Mary Ellen Trainor, roles as Jack Jefferson, famed heavyweight Siobhan Fallon, Kevin McCarthy, Tom champion, and white mistress. Not a boxMason, Austin Pendleton, Kirsten Dunst. ing film or social doctrine, but emotional Venal family can’t wait for a crotchety uncle character study. Holds up until final scene, to die, so they can get their hands on his which doesn’t ring true. Howard Sackler money, but when he threatens to give it all to adapted his own play. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 a sexy young companion, they dig up longGreat White Hype, The (1996) C-90m. estranged nephew Fox. Naming the family ★★1⁄2 D: Reginald Hudlin. Samuel L. JackMcTeague (after von Stroheim’s GREED) is son, Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans, Peter the cleverest thing in Lowell Ganz and BabaBerg, Jon Lovitz, Corbin Bernsen, Cheech loo Mandel’s wearisome script—which isn’t Marin, Jamie Foxx, Salli Richardson, John helped by Lynn’s slack-paced direction. (The Rhys-Davies, Rocky Carroll. Flamboyant director also appears as Kirk’s put-upon butboxing promoter Jackson needs a new gimler.) Based, believe it or not, on Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. [PG-13]▼●쩠 mick: his champ (Wayans) isn’t drawing the big money anymore, so he realizes a white Greek Tycoon, The (1978) C-106m. ★1⁄2 contender is required. Berg is amusing as D: J. Lee Thompson. Anthony Quinn, the dumb-but-earnest rival. Occasionally Jacqueline Bisset, Raf Vallone, Edward very funny, often snidely cynical, but the saAlbert, Charles Durning, Camilla Sparv, tire is not as pointed as intended. Written by James Franciscus, Luciana Paluzzi, KathRon Shelton and Tony Hendra. [R]▼●쩠 ryn Leigh Scott, Roland Culver, Linda Great World of Sound (2007) C-106m. Thorson, Lucy Gutteridge, Henderson For★★★ sythe. Pointless fabrication about romance D: Craig Zobel. Pat Healy, Kene Holliday, Robert Longstreet, Rebecca Mader, and marriage of Aristotle Onassis and a cerJohn Baker, Tricia Paoluccio. Two hucktain president’s widow. Beautiful settings sters travel the country signing ‘‘undiscovadd only luster to tepid script that doesn’t ered’’ singing talent to a bogus record label. even rate as good trash. Alternate version Comedy mixes its fictional scenario with runs 112m. Technovision. [R]▼ candid-camera–style real-life auditions, earnGreen Berets, The (1968) C-141m. BOMB ing this clever independent film extra points D: John Wayne, Ray Kellogg. John Wayne, as it merges originality and smart dialogue David Janssen, Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray, with believable situations. Holliday is a Raymond St. Jacques, Bruce Cabot, George standout as a weathered salesman who has Takei, Jack Soo, Patrick Wayne, Mike seen it all. [R]쩠 Henry. Politics aside, this overlong, inGreat Ziegfeld, The (1936) 176m. ★★★1⁄2 credibly cliche´d salute to the Special Forces D: Robert Z. Leonard. William Powell, has enough absurd situations and unfunny Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan, comedy relief to offend anyone; don’t miss Fanny Brice, Virginia Bruce, Reginald Owen, now-famous final scene, where the sun sets in the East. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Ray Bolger, Stanley Morner (Dennis Morgan). Spectacular, immensely entertaining biGreen Card (1990-Australian-French) ography of flamboyant impresario Florenz C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Weir. Ge´rard Ziegfeld, with Powell quite dashing in the Depardieu, Andie MacDowell, Bebe Neutitle role. However, Rainer (as Anna Held) is wirth, Gregg Edelman, Robert Prosky, Jesstunning, and won an Academy Award; her sie Keosian, Ann Wedgeworth, Ethan Philtelephone scene is a classic. Also won Oscars lips, Mary Louise Wilson, Lois Smith, Simon for Best Picture and Dance Direction (the ‘‘A Jones. Young woman agrees to marry FrenchPretty Girl Is Like a Melody’’ number, superman—in name only—so he may legally remain in this country . . . but when Immigration vised by Seymour Felix).▼●쩠 Greed (1925) 140m. ★★★★ D: Erich von authorities begin to investigate, she’s forced to Stroheim. Gibson Gowland, ZaSu Pitts, Jean spend time with the man. Thin, scarcely crediHersholt, Chester Conklin, Dale Fuller. Powble romantic comedy, written by the director; erful adaptation of Frank Norris’ novel worth watching for Depardieu, who’s charmMcTeague, about a simple man whose wife’s ing in English-language debut. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 obsession with money eventually drives him Greendale (2004) C-87m. ★★★ D: Bernard to madness. Even though von Stroheim’s verShakey (Neil Young). Sarah White, Eric sion was taken from him and severely cut by Johnson, Ben Keith, Erik Markegard, Elizathe studio (it originally ran eight hours), this beth Keith, Pegi Young, James Mazzeo. [ 559 ]

Provocative, free-flowing music video/rock Green Horizon, The SEE: Afurika Monogatari opera about events that befall the Green Green Ice (1981-British) C-115m. ★★ D: family of Greendale, California. The script Ernest Day. Ryan O’Neal, Anne Archer, consists of lyrics from ten songs written and Omar Sharif, Domingo Ambriz, John Larrosung by Young, lip-synched by the actors; quette. Emerald smuggling, with good guy their content is deeply personal and political, O’Neal, bad guy Sharif, Archer the woman tackling such issues as corporate corruption, in between. Painless time-killer. [PG]▼● ecological abuse, and media overkill. Those Green Light, The (1937) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: who caringly recall 1960s and ’70s social acFrank Borzage. Errol Flynn, Anita Louise, tivism (and Young’s tenure with Buffalo Margaret Lindsay, Cedric Hardwicke, Springfield) will likely find this most apHenry O’Neill, Spring Byington, Erin pealing. Filmed in Super 8, to look like a O’Brien-Moore. Genuinely odd blend of poorly shot home movie. Young appears in melodrama, religion, purple prose, and a cameo, as ‘‘Wayne Newton.’’쩠 medical drama with Flynn as an idealistic Green Dolphin Street (1947) 141m. ★★1⁄2 doctor who makes a career sacrifice and D: Victor Saville. Lana Turner, Van Hefthen tries to understand the larger meaning lin, Donna Reed, Richard Hart, Frank of his life. Adaptation of a Lloyd C. DougMorgan, Edmund Gwenn, Dame May las novel is entertaining enough but awWhitty, Reginald Owen, Gladys Cooper, fully hard to swallow seriously. Moyna MacGill, Linda Christian, Gigi Green Man, The (1957-British) 80m. ★★★ Perreau. If only for its glossy production D: Robert Day. Alastair Sim, George Cole, and Oscar-winning special effects (earthTerry-Thomas, Jill Adams, Avril Angers, quake and resultant tidal wave), this plodColin Gordon. Droll comedy of a seemingly ding costumer has merit. Story of two timid clockmaker who prefers his part-time sisters (Turner, Reed) after the same man in job as paid assassin. 19th-century New Zealand is tedious. ▼● Green Mansions (1959) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Greenfingers (2001-British-U.S.) C-91m. Mel Ferrer. Audrey Hepburn, Anthony ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joel Hershman. Clive Owen, Helen Perkins, Lee J. Cobb, Sessue Hayakawa, Mirren, David Kelly, Natasha Little, Warren Henry Silva, Nehemiah Persoff. W. H. Clarke, Danny Dyer, Adam Fogerty, Paterson Hudson’s romance set in South America Joseph. Minor but diverting film inspired by suffers from miscast Hepburn as Rima the the real-life inmates at a progressive British Bird Girl, whom fate decrees shall not prison who began gardening and wound up leave her sanctuary. Perkins properly puzcompeting at England’s leading flower show zled as male lead. CinemaScope.▼● at Hampton Court. Owen plays a loner who’s Green Mile, The (1999) C-188m. ★★1⁄2 D: persuaded to try getting back to the soil by his Frank Darabont. Tom Hanks, David Morse, aged, canny cellmate (Kelly). A bit too pat, Bonnie Hunt, Michael Clarke Duncan, but pleasant. [R] ▼쩠 James Cromwell, Michael Jeter, Graham ★★1 Green Fire (1954) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Andrew Greene, Doug Hutchison, Sam Rockwell, Marton. Grace Kelly, Stewart Granger, Paul Barry Pepper, Jeffrey DeMunn, Patricia Douglas, John Ericson, Murvyn Vye. Hokum Clarkson, Harry Dean Stanton, Dabbs Greer, about love and conflict between emerald prosEve Brent, Gary Sinise. An elderly man repector (Granger) and coffee-plantation owner calls the incident that changed his life, in (Kelly), set in Colombia, South America. At1935, when he supervised Death Row at a tractive stars, hot love scenes, slimy villain Louisiana state prison and encountered a gen(Vye). CinemaScope.▼ tle black behemoth (movingly played by DunGreen for Danger (1946-British) 93m. can) with an unusual gift. Well-made film has ★★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Alastair Sim, Sally powerful moments, but they’re needlessly Gray, Trevor Howard, Rosamund John, Leo stretched over three hours . . . and the central Genn, Judy Campbell, Megs Jenkins. Excitconceit isn’t easy to buy. Repeated scenes of ing whodunit set in a rural English emergency executions are tough to take. Based on Stehospital during WW2. Tension neatly counterphen King’s best-seller. [R]▼●쩠 balanced by droll wit of Sim as implacable Green Room, The (1978-French) C-95m. ★★ Scotland Yard inspector; a must-see classic. D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Franc˛ois Truffaut, Written by Gilliat and Claude Guerney.▼●쩠 Nathalie Baye, Jean Daste, Jean-Paul MouGreengage Summer, The SEE: Loss of lin, Jeanne Lobre. Truffaut stars as a deathInnocence obsessed journalist who converts a runGreen Grow the Rushes (1951-British) down chapel into a memorial for his de80m. ★★ D: Derek Twist. Richard Burton, ceased WW1 comrades. Dreary, lifeless, Honor Blackman, Roger Livesey, Geofdisappointing, with Truffaut’s character enfrey Keen, Archie Duncan. Talky, fitfully gulfed in his own rhetoric. Based on writfunny comedy of a Kent community inings of Henry James; coscripted by Truffaut volved in brandy smuggling. Of interest and Jean Gruault. [PG]▼ solely for the presence of Burton, in his Green Slime, The (1969-Japanese-U.S.) last British film before going Hollywood.▼ C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Kinji Fukasaku. Robert [ 560 ]

Horton, Richard Jaeckel, Luciana Paluzzi, Dante. Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Bud Widom. On space station, title subAxton, Frances Lee McCain, Polly Hollistance—exposed to blood—grows into redday, Glynn Turman, Dick Miller, Keye eyed, tentacled monsters that quickly mulLuke, Scott Brady, Judge Reinhold, Jackie tiply and threaten to spread to Earth. Not Joseph, Harry Carey, Jr., Corey Feldman. as much fun as it sounds. Toeiscope. [G]▼ A teenager’s unusual new pet spawns a Green Street Hooligans (2005-U.S.-British) legion of vicious, violent monsters who C-106m. ★★ D: Lexi Alexander. Elijah turn picture-postcard town into living hell. Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani, Comic nightmare is a cross between CaMarc Warren, Leo Gregory, Henry Goodpra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and man, Geoff Bell, Rafe Spall. American boy THE BLOB; full of film-buff in-jokes but (Wood) who’s unfairly expelled from Harnegated by too-vivid violence and mayhem. vard flees to England, where his sister is Cameos range from animator Chuck Jones living. He quickly falls in with his brotherto Robby the Robot—but you have to look in-law’s rowdy sibling (Hunnam), the leader fast for executive producer Steven Spielof a ‘‘firm’’ that regularly engages in bloody berg. Howie Mandel is the voice of Gizmo. combat with rival gangs who support various Followed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 football teams. To his surprise, the Yank finds Gremlins 2 The New Batch (1990) Cthat he likes living on the edge and engaging 106m. ★★★ D: Joe Dante. Zach Galligan, in mayhem. Intriguing film plays out badly, Phoebe Cates, John Glover, Robert Prosky, with story contrivances and changes in tone Robert Picardo, Christopher Lee, Haviland submerging some of its better qualities. PainMorris, Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Gedde fully violent at times. Super 35. [R]쩠 Watanabe, Keye Luke, Kathleen Freeman; Greenwich Village (1944) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 voice of Tony Randall. Not so much a horD: Walter Lang. Carmen Miranda, Don ror film as a goofy sendup of itself, this Ameche, William Bendix, Vivian Blaine, sequel turns the slimy creatures loose in Felix Bressart, Tony and Sally DeMarco, The N.Y.C. Filled with gags, movie in-jokes, saFour Step Brothers. Silly but amiable musical tiric barbs, and gratuitous cameo appearabout a ‘‘serious’’ composer (Ameche) perances. Glover is especially funny as a suaded to adapt his songs for a Broadway Donald Trump/Ted Turner type, and Lee is revue starring Blaine. When it’s supposed to a delight as a genetic scientist. Be sure to be 1922 N.Y.C. and Carmen Miranda turns stay with this through the closing credits. up, you know not to expect stark realism. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Look fast in both party scenes to spot The Grendel, Grendel, Grendel (1980-AusRevuers (Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Judy tralian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alexander Stitt. Holliday, Alvin Hammer).쩠 Voices of Peter Ustinov, Keith Michell, Green Years, The (1946) 127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Dignam, Ed Rosser, Bobby Bright, Victor Saville. Charles Coburn, Tom Drake, Ric Stone. Crude but appealing animation Hume Cronyn, Gladys Cooper, Dean highlights this fable about Grendel, a mediStockwell, Jessica Tandy, Norman Lloyd, eval monster only a mother could love, Wallace Ford. Sentimental A. J. Cronin and his observations about the creatures he weeper of orphaned Irish lad and his expecalls ‘‘man’’—who murder and pillage. riences growing up with his mother’s famBased on a novel by John Gardner. Score by harmonica great Toots Thielemans.▼ ily in Scotland. Coburn is wonderful as his great-grandfather, an irascible teller of tall Grey Fox, The (1982-Canadian) C-92m. ★★★ tales. Tandy plays Cronyn’s daughter here. D: Phillip Borsos. Richard Farnsworth, Greetings (1968) C-88m. ★★★ D: Brian Jackie Burroughs, Wayne Robson, Ken De Palma. Jonathan Warden, Robert De Pogue, Timothy Webber. Low-key account Niro, Gerrit Graham, Richard Hamilton, of real-life robber Bill Miner, who switched Megan McCormick, Allen Garfield. Loose, from stagecoaches to trains after spending informal, improvisational satire about the 33 years in jail. Director Borsos may be draft, sex, the counterculture. Exudes just a bit too laid back, but Farnsworth’s a late ’60s N.Y.C.–Greenwich Village ambicharming and commanding performance ence not to be found in any Hollywood feamakes up for that. The scene in which he ture. Sequel: HI, MOM! [R—edited from watches THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY original X rating]▼●쩠 is a gem. [PG]▼● Gregory’s Girl (1981-Scottish) C-91m. Greyfriars Bobby (1961) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 ★★★ D: Bill Forsyth. Gordon John Sinclair, D: Don Chaffey. Donald Crisp, Laurence Dee Hepburn, Chic Murray, Jake D’Arcy, Naismith, Alex Mackenzie, Kay Walsh, Alex Norton, John Bett. Bright, winning Duncan Macrae, Gordon Jackson. British comedy of wimpy teenager Sinclair’s love Disney film based on true story of a Skye for Hepburn, who takes his place on the terrier who became ‘‘neighborhood pet’’ school soccer team. Enjoyable, if perhaps a in Edinburgh during 19th century through bit overrated. Followed in 1999 by GREGunusual circumstances. Great charm, fine performances offset by slow pacing. A ORY’S TWO GIRLS. [PG] ▼쩠 Gremlins (1984) C-106m. ★★ D: Joe remake of CHALLENGE TO LASSIE, [ 561 ]

which also features Crisp (who played the ized but still powerful, as it poses the question dog’s master in the earlier film). Remade in of how far someone will go in order to surEngland in 2006. ▼쩠 vive. Keitel coexecutive-produced. Adapted by Nelson from his stage play. [R] ▼쩠 Grey Gardens (1976) C-95m. ★★★ D: David and Albert Maysles. Tasteless, susGridiron Gang (2006) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: pect, but riveting documentary about Edith Phil Joanou. Dwayne ‘‘The Rock’’ JohnBouvier Beale (79) and daughter Edie son, Xzibit, L. Scott Caldwell, Leon Rippy, (57)—aunt and cousin of Jacqueline OnasKevin Dunn, Jade Yorker, David V. sis—filmed in their rotting, filthy 28-room Thomas, Trever O’Brien, Setu Taase, Mo, mansion in East Hampton, N.Y., which Jurnee Smollett. The Rock, emoting more was officially declared a health hazard. than usual, is a counselor at a detention faFascinating for voyeurs, but film would cility for wayward kids who decides to form have had more depth had we been given a a football team. The program is threatened better picture of mother and daughter in when bad outside influences take hold of their youth. Later transformed into a stage some team members. Filled with sportsmusical and the basis for a 2009 cable TV movie cliche´s and stereotypical characters, movie. In 2006, Albert Maysles selected but has extra weight since it’s based on a 90m. of outtakes of Edith and Edie to create true story. Based on a documentary of the entire new documentary, THE BEALES OF same name. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 GREY GARDENS. [PG]▼쩠 Gridlock’d (1997) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vondie Grey Night SEE: Ghost Brigade Curtis Hall. Tupac Shakur, Tim Roth, ThanGrey Owl (1999-British-Canadian) Cdie Newton, Charles Fleischer, Howard ★★ 117m. D: Richard Attenborough. Pierce Hesseman, James Pickens, Jr., John Sayles, Brosnan, Annie Galipeau, Nathaniel Arcand, Eric Payne, Tom Towles, Vondie Curtis Vlasta Vrana, David Fox, Charles Powell, Hall, Kasi Lemmons, Lucy Alexis Liu. OcGraham Greene. It’s difficult to accept Broscasionally spunky comedy (a poor cousin nan as the title character, a celebrated North to TRAINSPOTTING) about drug-addicted American Indian and conservationist whose musicians Shakur and Roth, who struggle true identity is discovered by a reporter in (mostly against an uncaring bureaucracy) to 1936; the rest of the story unfolds in flashkick their habits after their singer friend (Newback. Sincere but ineffectual telling of this ton) overdoses. The two leads offer solid perinteresting tale went straight to video in the formances. Feature directorial debut for actor U.S. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Curtis Hall (who also scripted). Elizabeth Pen˜a appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord ★★★ of the Apes (1984) C-129m. D: Hugh Grifters, The (1990) C-114m. ★★★ D: Hudson. Christopher Lambert, Andie MacStephen Frears. Anjelica Huston, John CuDowell, Ian Holm, Ralph Richardson, sack, Annette Bening, Pat Hingle, Henry James Fox, Cheryl Campbell, Ian Charleson, Jones, Michael Laskin, Eddie Jones, J.T. Nigel Davenport. Retelling of Tarzan tale, Walsh, Charles Napier, Stephen Tobolowsky, liberally adapted from Edgar Rice BurSandy Baron, Gailard Sartain. Icy cold adaproughs’ original. Infant son of shipwrecked tation of Jim Thompson’s novel about con couple is raised by apes, discovered at manartists, with steely ‘‘working-woman’’ Huston hood by a Belgian explorer, and returned to coming back into the life of her grown son civilization—and his doting grandfather (Richafter many years of estrangement . . . and ardson, who’s just wonderful in his final finding that he’s taken up with a woman much film performance). At its best in the jungle, like herself. Bleak and fascinating, with three with Rick Baker’s incredible makeup effirst-rate performances. Screenplay by Donald fects; more sluggish back in Britain, and E. Westlake. Coproduced and narrated by hampered by obvious signs of prerelease Martin Scorsese. [R]▼●쩠 cutting. Leading lady MacDowell’s voice Grimm Brothers’ Snow White, The SEE: was dubbed by Glenn Close. Alternate verSnow White: A Tale of Terror sion runs 135m. Super Techniscope. Grim Prairie Tales (1990) C-94m. ★★ D: [PG]▼●쩠 Wayne Coe. James Earl Jones, Brad Dourif, Grey Zone, The (2002) C-108m. ★★★ D: Will Hare, Marc McClure, Michelle Joyner, Tim Blake Nelson. David Arquette, Steve William Atherton, Lisa Eichhorn, Wendy Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorvino, NaCooke. Lame, low-budget horror/Western tasha Lyonne, Daniel Benzali, Allan Coranthology framed by Jones and Dourif spinduner, David Chandler, Lisa Benavides. ning scary tales around a campfire. The four Potent drama about day-to-day life at stories vary widely: a cowboy is buried Auschwitz, based on the memoirs of Dr. alive by Indians; a traveling man is seduced Miklos Nyiszli, a Jewish doctor who carried by a pregnant, supernatural wanderer; a out Josef Mengele’s experiments in order to homesteader pursues a nocturnal hobby of preserve his own life and his family’s. Aiding lynching black men; and a gunslinger is haunted by one of his victims. [R]▼● him are the Sonderkommandos, Jewish prisoners who extend their lives by leading fellow Grim Reaper, The (1981-Italian) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe D’Amato. Tisa Farrow, Saverio Jews into the gas chambers. Episodic and styl[ 562 ]

Vallone, Vanessa Steiger, George Eastman. humor; otherwise, solid action fare. Remake Farrow and friends are stalked by killer on a of 1948 British film NO ORCHIDS FOR Greek island. Trifling shocker. [R]▼●쩠 MISS BLANDISH. [R]▼쩠 Grind (1997) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Grizzly (1976) C-92m. ★★ D: William Kentis. Billy Crudup, Adrienne Shelly, Paul Girdler. Christopher George, Andrew Prine, Schulze, Frank Vincent, Saul Stein, Amanda Richard Jaeckel, Joan McCall, Joe DorPeet. Flawed but arresting drama about an exsey. OK rip-off of JAWS about an 18-foot, con/race car driver wannabe who moves in 2000-pound grizzly bear who launches sewith his blue-collar brother and sister-inries of attacks on campers in national park. law and becomes involved in an insurance Might be subtitled ‘‘Claws.’’ Aka KILLER scam. Predictable, but offers a thoughtful GRIZZLY. Todd-AO 35. [PG] ▼쩠 look at working-class lives, dreams and Grizzly Man (2005) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: frustrations. Shot in 1994.▼쩠 Werner Herzog. Amazing documentary about Grind (2003) C-105m. BOMB D: Casey La self-styled animal rights activist Timothy Scala. Mike Vogel, Vince Vieluf, Adam Treadwell, who spent thirteen summers filmBrody, Joey Kern, Jennifer Morrison, Randy ing his own exploits as he communed with Quaid, Bam Margera, Summer Altice, Chad bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Fernandez, Christine Estabrook, Erin Murphy, Preserve before getting killed by one of them. Jason London, Christopher McDonald, Dave Herzog (who also narrates) is the perfect diFoley. What should (and could) have been an rector for this remarkable, empathetic study of innocuous teen movie about four skateobsession, identity, and the relationship beboarding friends who want to go pro is torpetween a filmmaker and his subject. Treadwell, doed by a weak script that wallows in crass whom we see in extensive footage from his humor and sexism. Cameos by such comic luown videos, is an amusing, confounding charminaries as Tom Green and Bobcat Goldthwait acter. Footage of Treadwell on David Letterman’s TV show is cut from the DVD. [R] 쩠 can’t compete with vomit jokes. [PG-13]▼쩠 Grindhouse (2007) C-192m. ★★★ D: RobGrizzly Mountain (1997) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: ert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino. ‘‘Planet Jeremy Haft. Dan Haggerty, Dylan HagTerror’’: Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodrigerty, Nicole Lund, Kim Morgan Greene, guez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Michael Perry Stephens, Martin Kove, Megan HagBiehn, Jeff Fahey, Michael Parks, Naveen gerty. While camping in the Oregon mounAndrews, Nicky Katt, Stacy Ferguson, Quentains, two city kids go into a cave and are tin Tarantino. ‘‘Death Proof’’: Kurt Russell, transported back to 1870, where they help a Rosario Dawson, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan friendly mountain man (guess who) battle Ladd, Rose McGowan, Sydney Poitier, Tracie greedy developers who want to destroy saThoms, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Zoe¨ Bell, cred Indian land. Ultra-innocuous family Michael Parks, Eli Roth, Quentin Tarantino. film, but worthy message is lost amidst amHomage to exploitation double features of ateurish acting, cheesy production values, yore is long but a lot of fun. Rodriguez offers and lamebrained comedy relief. [G]▼●쩠 an unabashedly gory mutant-zombie yarn Groomsmen, The (2006) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: with plenty of action and a memorable prosEdward Burns. Edward Burns, Brittany thetic for victim-turned-heroine McGowan. Murphy, John Leguizamo, Jay Mohr, MatTarantino lingers on chick-power chatter bethew Lillard, Donal Logue, Shari Albert, fore paying it off in his car-chase homage Jessica Capshaw. Five lifelong pals reunite to VANISHING POINT, with real-life stunt on the eve of Burns’ nuptials to Murphy, woman Bell earning her paycheck. Faux trailstirring up a lot of unfinished business and ers (by Rodriguez, Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, reopening old wounds. The setup couldn’t and Edgar Wright) are virtual replicas of ’70s be more transparent, and the characters sleaze fare—more so than the features themaren’t very deep, but they do ring true for selves. Bruce Willis appears unbilled; other the most part and the cast is first-rate. Writfamiliar faces are in the trailers. Both features ten by the director. [R]쩠 were expanded for separate release. Super 35/ Groove (2000) C-83m. ★★★ D: Greg HarHD Widescreen. [R]쩠 rison. Lola Glaudini, Hamish Linklater, Denny Grip of the Strangler SEE: Haunted Kirkwood, Mackenzie Firgens, Rachel True, Strangler, The Steven Van Wormer, DJ John Digweed. Grisbi SEE: Touchez Pas au Grisbi Lively, ingratiating saga of a weekend rave in San Francisco, from start to finish, and the Grissom Gang, The (1971) C-127m. ★★★ D: Robert Aldrich. Kim Darby, Scott disparate characters whose lives crisscross Wilson, Irene Dailey, Tony Musante, Ralph there. Good spirits and vivid re-creation of the Waite, Connie Stevens, Robert Lansing, rave scene make up for the simplistic qualWesley Addy, Gary Grimes. Outlandish, ity of director Harrison’s script. [R]▼쩠 extremely violent comic-book thriller set in Groove Tube, The (1974) C-75m. ★★1⁄2 the 1920s. Heiress Darby is kidnapped by D: Ken Shapiro. Ken Shapiro, Lane Sarafamily of drooling grotesques, whose leader sohn, Chevy Chase, Richard Belzer, Mary (Wilson) starts to fall in love with her. Very Mendham, Bill Kemmill. Sometimes funny, funny if you appreciate the Aldrich sense of sometimes stupid collection of satirical [ 563 ]

episodes about television. Definitely has Ground Truth, The (2006) C-77m. ★★★1⁄2 its heart in the right place, but a mixed D: Patricia Foulkrod. A roster of the bag. Originally X-rated, later trimmed; maimed, the burned, and the spiritually Chase’s feature debut. [R]▼쩠 fried incisively describes life and death in Gross Anatomy (1989) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: the killing fields of Iraq. American youth, Thom Eberhardt. Matthew Modine, Daphne brainwashed by recruiters’ lies and brutalZuniga, Christine Lahti, Todd Field, John ized by boot camp sadists, morph into peerScott Clough, Alice Carter, Robert Deapproved mass murderers as they fight a siderio, Zakes Mokae. Doctor-in-training war without armor, intel, or a clue. Using Modine doesn’t take his studies as seriously interviews strictly from the GIs’ point of as he should. Not bad, but not particularly view, without input from generals or politidistinguished; Lahti is wasted as the aspircians, this film depicts a place where mading doctors’ demanding instructor. Viewers ness is the norm and the daily grind is worse who’ve attended medical school may apthan any horror movie. No sanctimony here. preciate this more. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Unnerving soundtrack has contributions from Mos Def and Tom Waits. [R]쩠 Grosse Fatigue (1994-French) C-87m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michel Blanc. Michel Blanc, Ground Zero (1987-Australian) C-109m. ★★★ D: Michael Pattinson, Bruce Myles. Carole Bouquet, Philippe Noiret, Josiane Balasko, Christian Clavier, Charlotte GainsColin Friels, Jack Thompson, Donald bourg. French variation of STARDUST Pleasence, Natalie Bate, Simon Chilvers, MEMORIES, with Blanc finding his celebNeil Fitzpatrick, Bob Maza, Peter Cumrityhood turning into a bad dream after he is mins. Cameraman learns that his father accused of defiling Balasko. Intriguing, selfmay have died because he saw—and involved, crammed with guest appearances by photographed—too much during British familiar faces from French cinema. Blanc, A-bomb testing in Australia in the 1950s. Balasko, and Bouquet all play ‘‘themselves.’’ Exciting political paranoia thriller, though Video title: DEAD TIRED. [R]▼쩠 sluggish in spots. Pleasence is excellent in Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 supporting role as hermitlike survivor of D: George Armitage. John Cusack, Minnie those tests. A fictional story based on factual events. Panavision. [PG]▼● Driver, Alan Arkin, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Cusack, Hank Azaria, K. Todd Freeman, Group, The (1966) C-150m. ★★★ D: SidMitchell Ryan, Jeremy Piven, Barbara Harney Lumet. Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, ris, Jenna Elfman. Professional hit man Elizabeth Hartman, Shirley Knight, Joanna combines business with pleasure when he Pettet, Mary-Robin Redd, Jessica Walter, attends his 10-year high school reunion while Kathleen Widdoes, James Broderick, Larry on assignment . . . but the girl he dumped (and Hagman, Richard Mulligan, Hal Holbrook, all his friends) want to know why and how he Carrie Nye, Leora Dana, George Gaynes. disappeared. Cusack cowrote and coproduced Uneven, but generally good adaptation of this sharp black comedy, brimming with hip Mary McCarthy’s high-class soap opera dialogue and loaded with attitude. But the cliabout eight graduates of Vassar-type colmactic violence leaves a bad taste and underlege. Knight and Hackett stand out in excelmines the comedy. [R]▼●쩠 lent cast. Film debuts of Bergen, Hackett, Groundhog Day (1993) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pettet, Widdoes, and Holbrook.▼ Harold Ramis. Bill Murray, Andie MacGroup Marriage (1972) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, Stephanie Rothman. Victoria Vetri, ClauBrian Doyle-Murray, Marita Geraghty, Andia Jennings, Aimee Eccles, Zack Taylor, gela Paton, Rick Ducommun, Rick Overton, Jeff Pomerantz, Jayne Kennedy, Milt Robin Duke, Michael Shannon. Smug TV Kamen. Engaging drive-in comedy with weatherman Murray goes to Punxsutawney, something to say. Group of young CaliforPa., to cover the Groundhog Day ceremony nians sets up a communal housekeeping and finds himself trapped in a daily replay situation, gradually adding new members. of the same 24 hours. Near classic comedyNeedless to say, the neighbors are less than fantasy improves on each viewing, with thrilled. Nicely done, attractive cast. [R]▼ endless twists and turns that are funny, Grudge, The (2004-U.S.-Japanese) C-91m. ★★1 moving, and even profound. Murray, per⁄2 D: Takashi Shimizu. Sarah Michelle fectly cast, provides just the right combinaGellar, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Clea tion of edginess and incipient humanity. DuVall, Grace Zabriskie, Bill Pullman, Ted Director-cowriter Ramis has a brief scene as Raimi, Ryo Ishibashi, Yuya Ozeki, Takako a local neurologist. [PG] ▼●쩠 Fuji, KaDee Strickland. In Tokyo, a young Groundstar Conspiracy, The (1972American woman finds her life (and her friends’ as well) in danger from ghosts Canadian) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lamont Johnson. George Peppard, Michael Sarrazin, haunting a modest home where murders took Christine Belford. When explosion smashes place. Remake of JU-ON: THE GRUDGE secret space project, espionage work first (2003) by same director (with some of the begins. Tightly made, but poor dialogue. same cast) tells a more linear story than the Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 original; it’s a shade less effective, but still [ 564 ]

imaginative and intelligent. Alternate version runs 98m. Followed by THE GRUDGE 2 and a DVD sequel. [PG-13]

▼쩠

Brown, Carey Lowell, Brad Hall, Miguel Ferrer, Natalia Nogulich. Yuppie couple hires a nanny for their newborn child, but we know there’s something odd about her: she feeds babies to a tree in a nearby gully. Friedkin’s first return to horror after THE EXORCIST has a few good scenes, but a ludicrous story and a humorless approach. Seagrove is very good in an almost unplayable role. Cowritten by the director from novel The Nanny by Dan Greenburg. [R]

Grudge 2, The (2006) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Takashi Shimizu. Amber Tamblyn, Arielle Kebbel, Jennifer Beals, Edison Chen, Christopher Cousins, Teresa Palmer, Misako Uno, Joanna Cassidy, Sarah Roemer, Matthew Knight, Takako Fuji, Shaun Sipos, Jenna Dewan, Sarah Michelle Gellar. The same creaking ghosts terrorize teenage girls (and ▼●쩠 others) in Japan and Chicago. Plodding, Guardian, The (2006) C-139m. ★★★ D: confusing mess, much inferior to the first, Andrew Davis. Kevin Costner, Ashton switching clumsily from Japan to the U.S. Kutcher, Melissa Sagemiller, Bonnie Bramrepeatedly. The two threads are unlinked until lett, Clancy Brown, Sela Ward, Neal the last few minutes—that is, if anyone’s still McDonough, John Heard, Brian Geraghty, watching. Unrated version runs 108m. FolDule´ Hill, Omari Hardwick. After a tragic lowed by a DVD sequel. [PG-13]쩠 accident, veteran Coast Guard rescue swimGrumpier Old Men (1995) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 mer Costner is reassigned to teach new D: Howard Deutch. Jack Lemmon, Walter recruits—and is especially hard on a young Matthau, Ann-Margret, Sophia Loren, hotshot (Kutcher) with whom he has more Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Burgess Merin common than either one might suspect. edith, Ann Guilbert, Max Wright, James Strictly formulaic military yarn is reminisAndelin. Now reconciled, the longtime cent of everything from AN OFFICER neighbors/nemeses argue over their offAND A GENTLEMAN to G.I. JANE, but springs’ impending wedding, while a new goes through its paces with energy and conarrival in town (Loren) turns their bait shop viction. Rescue scenes at sea are especially into a restaurant. Agreeable sequel, though exciting. If only it didn’t have three endings! [PG-13]쩠 it’s discouraging to see two great comic actors reduced to getting cheap laughs by Guarding Tess (1994) C-98m. ★★★ D: spouting epithets at one another. Loren is a Hugh Wilson. Shirley MacLaine, Nicolas breath of fresh air as Matthau’s unlikely Cage, Austin Pendleton, Edward Albert, love interest. Meredith is back in form as James Rebhorn, Richard Griffiths, John RoLemmon’s horny dad. [PG-13]▼●쩠 selius, David Graf, Dale Dye. Secret SerGrumpy Old Men (1993) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 vice agent tries to get out of his demanding D: Donald Petrie. Jack Lemmon, Walter and frustrating assignment, protecting a forMatthau, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, mer First Lady—but she won’t let him go. Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Ossie Davis, Extremely satisfying comedy-drama buoyed Buck Henry, Christopher McDonald. Enby two perfect performances, by MacLaine gagingly performed but malnourished comedy and Cage. Incidentally, that’s director/coabout two mateless Minnesota retirees, rabid writer Wilson as the voice of the President ice-fishermen, whose lifelong feud escalates on the phone. [PG-13]▼●쩠 when an attractive widow moves in across Guardsman, The (1931) 89m. ★★★ D: Sidthe street. Walter and Jack are fun as usual, ney Franklin. Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne, but a few too many plot threads get wrapped Roland Young, ZaSu Pitts, Maude Eburne, up in the final 15 minutes. Compensations Herman Bing. The Lunts’ only starring film is are a funny end-credit sequence and the sincharming tour de force from Molnar’s comgular chance to hear Meredith (as Lemedy of jealous husband testing his wife’s fimon’s father) make endless salacious delity. Remade as THE CHOCOLATE wordplays on the male organ of love. FolSOLDIER and LILY IN LOVE. ▼ lowed by a sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Guess Who (2005) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Guadalcanal Diary (1943) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rodney Sullivan. Bernie Mac, Ashton Lewis Seiler. Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan, Kutcher, Zoe¨ Saldan˜a, Judith Scott, Hal WilWilliam Bendix, Richard Conte, Anthony liams, Kellee Stewart, Robert Curtis Brown, Quinn, Richard Jaeckel, Lionel Stander. RonReaco Lee, Sherri Shepherd, Richard WW2 actioner based on a reporter’s bestLawson, Jessica Cauffiel. Modern spin on selling account of the Marines taking a PaGUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, cific island stronghold. This hasn’t aged eswith Saldan˜a bringing fiance´ Kutcher home pecially well, with archetypes instead of to her mom and her demanding, overproteccharacters, from Bendix’s Brooklyn cabbie tive dad—without telling them that he’s to Jaeckel (in his film debut) as the ultimate white. Comedy quotient is fairly mild but mama’s boy. Still watchable, but for an it’s all pleasant enough. [PG-13]▼쩠 overload of racial slurs. ▼●쩠 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) CGuardian, The (1990) C-93m. ★★ D: Wil108m. ★★★ D: Stanley Kramer. Spencer liam Friedkin. Jenny Seagrove, Dwier Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier, [ 565 ]

Katharine Houghton, Cecil Kellaway, Beah TO TREAT A LADY; it’s also fun to watch Richards, Roy E. Glenn, Sr., Virginia ChrisIsaac Hayes as one of his henchmen. Stylishly tine, Isabel Sanford. Glossy tale of mixed directed by first-timer Irvin. [R]▼쩠 marriage as Houghton (Hepburn’s real-life Guilty as Sin (1993) C-107m. ★★ D: Sidney niece) brings home fiance´ Poitier to meet Lumet. Rebecca De Mornay, Don Johnson, her perplexed parents. Fluff is given Stephen Lang, Jack Warden, Dana Ivey, Ron strength by Oscar-winning Hepburn and White, Norma Dell’Agnese, Sean McCann, Tracy in his last film appearance. William Luis Guzman, Robert Kennedy. Clever Rose also took home an Oscar for his story lawyer De Mornay, obsessed with winning and screenplay. Remade in 2005 as GUESS (whether or not her clients are guilty), takes WHO. ▼●쩠 the case of sleek womanizer Johnson, who’s Guest, The (1964-British) 105m. ★★★ D: accused of murdering his wife. Then she Clive Donner. Alan Bates, Donald Pleasence, learns she may have made a bargain with a Robert Shaw. Derelict Pleasence invades killer—who now has designs on her. The the world of mentally ill Shaw and his sadidea of intelligent opponents going head to istic brother Bates. Superior cast and superb head is intriguing, but Larry Cohen’s script performances, but claustrophobically diis underplotted and ordinary. [R]▼●쩠 rected by Donner. Screenplay by Harold Guilty by Suspicion (1991) C-105m. ★★ Pinter, based on his play The Caretaker, D: Irwin Winkler. Robert De Niro, Anwhich was also this film’s title in Britain. nette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Guide for the Married Man, A (1967) Wettig, Sam Wanamaker, Luke Edwards, 1 C-89m. ★★★ ⁄2 D: Gene Kelly. Walter Chris Cooper, Ben Piazza, Martin Scorsese, Matthau, Inger Stevens, Robert Morse, Barry Primus, Gailard Sartain, Stuart Sue Ane Langdon, Claire Kelly, Elaine Margolin, Barry Tubb, Tom Sizemore, IlDevry; guest stars Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, leana Douglas, Jon Tenney. Hollywood Polly Bergen, Joey Bishop, Sid Caesar, Blacklist drama, set in 1951, is earnest, suArt Carney, Wally Cox, Jayne Mansfield, perficial, and numbingly bland. De Niro is Hal March, Louis Nye, Carl Reiner, Phil hotshot director who can’t comprehend seSilvers, Terry-Thomas, Ben Blue, Ann verity of Communist witch hunt; Bening is Morgan Guilbert, Jeffrey Hunter, Marty his sympathetic ex-wife, and Wettig (way Ingels, Sam Jaffe. Consistently funny, imagover the top), an actress friend. Viewers uninative adult comedy of Morse trying to familiar with this dark chapter of history teach faithful husband Matthau the ABC’s may find film as fascinating as intended. of adultery, with the aid of many guest Wanamaker, who spent this era in exile in stars who demonstrate Morse’s theories. England, plays a villainous attorney. VetJoke of it all is that Matthau is married to eran producer Winkler’s (mediocre) writing gorgeous Inger Stevens! Panavision.▼쩠 and directing debut. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, A Guinevere (1999-Canadian-U.S.) C-104m. (2006) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dito Montiel. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Audrey Wells. Stephen Rea, Sarah Robert Downey, Jr., Shia LaBeouf, Chazz Polley, Jean Smart, Gina Gershon, Paul Palminteri, Dianne Wiest, Channing Tatum, Dooley, Francis Guinan, Sandra Oh, Jasmine Melonie Diaz, Martin Compston, Eric RobGuy, Gedde Watanabe. Well-played tale of a erts, Rosario Dawson, Adam Scarimbolo, charming but iconoclastic photographer who Julia Garro, Peter Tambakis, Scott Michael acquires younger, female prote´ge´es, schooling Campbell. Montiel also scripted this autothem in the world of art as well as sex. His biographical slice-of-life in which a suclatest is a 20-year-old girl whose highly strung cessful L.A. writer (Downey, Jr.) returns to family doesn’t understand her. Story sags at his Queens, N.Y., home for the first time in times, but is buoyed by Rea and Polley’s many years when he learns his father is serienormously ingratiating performances. Writously ill. Jumps between the present and past, ten by the director. [R]▼쩠 when he’s a rough-and-tumble teen who Gulliver’s Travels (1939) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 hangs out with his aimless friends and is inD: Dave Fleischer. Singing voices of Lanny spired to escape into a better life. Ambitious Ross, Jessica Dragonette. Max Fleischer’s film means to be cutting-edge, but often feature-length cartoon version of Jonathan seems awkwardly improvisational and tends Swift tale suffers from weak scripting, never to ramble. [R]쩠 getting audience involved in story. Towncrier Guilty as Charged (1992) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 Gabby is obnoxious, but he’s got film’s most D: Sam Irvin. Rod Steiger, Lauren Hutton, memorable song, ‘‘All’s Well.’’▼●쩠 Heather Graham, Lyman Ward, Isaac Hayes, Gulliver’s Travels (1977-British-Belgian) Zelda Rubinstein, Irwin Keyes, Michael C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter R. Hunt. Richard Beach. Religious zealot turns out to be a Harris, Catherine Schell, Norman Shelley, self-made executioner who does away with Meredith Edwards; voices of Julian Glover, criminals in his own homemade electric Murray Melvin, Bessie Love, others. Unchair. Very black comedy seems a likely imaginative retelling of the Jonathan Swift candidate for a cult following. Steiger’s performance calls to mind his work in NO WAY classic. Part live-action, part animation; [ 566 ]

the songs are the most forgettable since Kantor and Millard Kaufman (who was the 1973 LOST HORIZON. [G]▼ ‘‘fronting’’ for then-blacklisted writer DalGulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon ton Trumbo), from Kantor’s Saturday Eve(1966-Japanese) C-78m. ★★ D: Yoshio ning Post story. Aka DEADLY IS THE Kuroda. OK animated feature has Gulliver FEMALE. Loosely remade in 1992.▼쩠 and companions going into outer space; Gun Crazy (1969) SEE: Talent for Lovacceptable kiddie fare. ing, A Gumball Rally, The (1976) C-107m. ★★★ D: Guncrazy (1992) C-96m. ★★★ D: Tamra Chuck Bail. Michael Sarrazin, Tim McIntire, Davis. Drew Barrymore, James LeGros, Raul Julia, Normann Burton, Gary Busey, Billy Drago, Rodney Harvey, Joe DalleNicholas Pryor, Susan Flannery, Steven sandro, Michael Ironside, Ione Skye. Keats, J. Pat O’Malley, Tricia O’Neil, Med Noirish tale of an abused teenager from the Flory. First of the cross-country road-race wrong side of the tracks who falls for a comedies is still the only good one, with genborn-again-Christian ex-con trying to go uinely funny characters, great cars, and loads straight, ending up on a crime spree with him. of cartoon-like action. Julia steals the film as Written by Matthew Bright but bearing a lecherous Italian who throws out his rear-view more than slight resemblance to a pair of 1949 mirror because ‘‘what’s behind me is not favorites, the similarly titled GUN CRAZY important.’’ Definitely superior to CANNONand THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. Made for theaters, but debuted on cable. [R]▼●쩠 BALL and the later CANNONBALL RUN movies, which were all inspired by the same Gunfight, A (1971) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lamont real-life event. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Johnson. Kirk Douglas, Johnny Cash, Jane Gumby the Movie (1995) C-90m. ★★ D: Alexander, Raf Vallone, Karen Black, Keith Art Clokey. Voices of Charles Farrington, Carradine. Off-beat Western about two aging Art Clokey, Gloria Clokey, Manny LaCargunfighters who meet and decide to sell ruba. Episodic clay-animated feature startickets for a winner-take-all final shoot-out. ring the popular character is slow going for Cash is good in his acting debut; also Carradine’s first film. [PG]▼쩠 all but the green guy’s biggest fans. Convoluted story concerns Gumby’s rock group, Gunfight at Comanche Creek (1964) C90m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank McDonald. Audie Murthe Clayboys, and their benefit concert to help farmers thwarted by the Blockheads. phy, Colleen Miller, Ben Cooper, DeForest Parodies of STAR WARS, TERMINATOR Kelley, Jan Merlin, John Hubbard. Undis2, and various swashbuckling epics do not tinguished Western. Detective Murphy infilhelp. Aka GUMBY 1.▼ trates gang of outlaws forcing wanted men to Gummo (1997) C-89m. BOMB D: Harparticipate in robberies, then killing them to mony Korine. Jacob Reynolds, Nick Sutton, collect reward money. Panavision. Jacob Sewell, Darby Dougherty, Chloe¨ SevGunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) C-122m. ★★★ D: John Sturges. Burt Lanigny, Carisa Bara, Linda Manz, Max Perlich. Plotless, clueless, mind-numbingly caster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo awful directorial debut for Korine (the 23Van Fleet, John Ireland, Lee Van Cleef, year-old scriptwriter of KIDS) about a cirFrank Faylen, Kenneth Tobey, DeForest cle of pathetic poor white trash in a small Kelley, Earl Holliman, Dennis Hopper, Ohio town. Tries to be shocking and outraMartin Milner, Olive Carey. Stimulating geous—two of the characters kill cats and Western filled with tense action sequences sell their corpses to a supermarket—but sucin recreation of Doc Holliday–Wyatt Earp ceeds only in being trite, with scenes pointbattle in streets of Tombstone with Clanton lessly dragging on . . . and on. [R]▼●쩠 gang. Written by Leon Uris. Frankie Laine sings title song. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Gumshoe (1971-British) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Frears. Albert Finney, Billie WhiteGunfighter, The (1950) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: law, Frank Finlay, Fulton Mackay, Janice Henry King. Gregory Peck, Helen WestRule, Carolyn Seymour. Whimsical crimecott, Millard Mitchell, Jean Parker, Karl comedy of small-time British vaudevillian Malden, Skip Homeier, Verna Felton, Elwho has seen too many Bogart films and delen Corby, Richard Jaeckel, Alan Hale, Jr. cides to play private eye. Music score by AnPeck is most impressive as gunslinger trying drew Lloyd Webber. Finney also produced. to overcome his bloody past. Classic psy[PG]▼쩠 chological Western scripted by William Gun Crazy (1949) 86m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Bowers and William Sellers; story by BowH. Lewis. Peggy Cummins, John Dall, ers and Andre de Toth. Exteriors shot in Berry Kroeger, Morris Carnovsky, Anabel Lone Pine, California. Catch this one!▼●쩠 Shaw, Harry Lewis, Nedrick Young, Gunfight in Abilene (1967) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 Rusty (Russ) Tamblyn. Knockout of a D: William Hale. Bobby Darin, Emily sleeper in the BONNIE AND CLYDE Banks, Leslie Nielsen, Michael Sarrazin. tradition, stylishly (and sometimes starUndistinguished post-Civil War account of tlingly) directed. Cummins is femme fagun-shy Darin, town sheriff, taking up tale who leads gun-crazy Dall into life of arms against outlaws. Techniscope.▼ crime. Screenplay credited to MacKinlay Gunfire (1978) SEE: China 9, Liberty 37 [ 567 ]

Gun for a Coward (1957) C-73m. ★★1⁄2 William Forsythe, Cathy Moriarty, JuliD: Abner Biberman. Fred MacMurray, anne Moore, Andy Romano, Ray McKinnon, Jeffrey Hunter, Janice Rule, Chill Wills, Xander Berkeley, Michael O’Neill, Billie Dean Stockwell, Josephine Hutchinson. Neal, Gale Mayron, Faye Grant, Marian MacMurray is rancher whose two younger Seldes, Meat Loaf, Catherine Keener, Corbrothers have contrasting personalities; predell Jackson. Now there’s a box-office title. dictable results. CinemaScope. Meek mouse Miller stumbles onto the title Gun Fury (1953) C-83m. ★★★ D: Raoul murder weapon, accidentally fires it in a Walsh. Rock Hudson, Donna Reed, Phil public restroom, then capitalizes on her Carey, Lee Marvin, Neville Brand, Leo newfound attention by falsely confessing to Gordon. Hudson goes after men who have the crime. Miller’s considerable charm is kidnapped his fiance´e (Reed); formidable tested and found wanting in this blandly tryvillainy, beautiful Arizona locations. Origiing comedy from Disney. [PG-13]▼●쩠 nally shown in 3-D.▼●쩠 Gunman’s Walk (1958) C-97m. ★★★ D: Gunga Din (1939) 117m. ★★★★ D: George Phil Karlson. Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Stevens. Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Kathryn Grant (Crosby), James Darren. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Joan Fontaine, Sam Rancher Heflin tries to train sons Hunter and Jaffe, Eduardo Ciannelli, Montagu Love, Darren to be respectable citizens, but clashing Abner Biberman, Robert Coote, Lumsden personalities cause outburst of violence. Tight-knit Western. CinemaScope.▼ Hare, Cecil Kellaway. The Hollywood action-adventure yarn, vaguely based on Gunmen (1994) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Deran SarRudyard Kipling’s famous poem, about afian. Christopher Lambert, Mario Van Peethree soldier-comrades in 19th-century Inbles, Denis Leary, Patrick Stewart, Kadeem dia battling the savage thuggee cult when they Hardison, Sally Kirkland, Richard Sarafian, aren’t busy carousing and getting into trouble. Robert Harper, Brenda Bakke, Deran SaraWater boy Jaffe saves the day in rousing clifian. U.S. agent Van Peebles and smuggler max. Splendid comic adventure whose story is Lambert set out to recover the loot of drug credited to Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur lord Stewart (who’s also responsible for the (who based the relationships of the central murder of Van Peebles’ father). Strictly bycharacters on the same marriage/rivalry device the-numbers actioner is often pointlessly viused in The Front Page); scripted by Joel Sayre olent; the in-your-face direction is no help. and Fred Guiol. For years most prints ran 96m., Real-life rappers (including Big Daddy until film was archivally restored. Shot on locaKane, Dr. Dre, and Ed Lover) appear as themselves. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 tion in Lone Pine, California. Also shown in computer-colored version. Remade as SERGun Moll SEE: Jigsaw (1949) Gunn (1967) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Blake EdGEANTS THREE. ▼●쩠 Gung Ho! (1943) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray wards. Craig Stevens, Laura Devon, EdEnright. Randolph Scott, Grace McDonward Asner, Sherry Jackson, Helen Traubel, ald, Alan Curtis, Noah Beery, Jr., J. Carrol Albert Paulsen. Unsuccessful attempt to Naish, David Bruce, Robert Mitchum, Sam recapture flavor of Peter Gunn TV series; Levene. Typical WW2 action film is marked Herschel Bernardi, Lola Albright sorely by outrageous jingoism, celebrating the missed, along with quiet understatement bloodthirsty misfits of the ‘‘gung ho’’ squadand wit that made it memorable. New ron as great American patriots. A jawstory is tasteless, violent whodunit involvdropping experience. Also shown in coming curious madam. Screenplay by Edputer-colored version.▼쩠 wards and William Peter Blatty. Revived Gung Ho (1986) C-111m. ★★★ D: Ron again for TV in 1989 as PETER GUNN. Howard. Michael Keaton, Gedde WataGunner Palace (2005-German-U.S.) Cnabe, George Wendt, Mimi Rogers, John 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Tucker, Petra EpTurturro, Soh Yamamura, Sab Shimono, perlein. Terrific documentary offers a firstClint Howard, Michelle Johnson. Cocky hand, close-up look at daily life for a Keaton convinces Japanese company to squadron of U.S. soldiers who are headquarreopen shuttered auto factory in his economitered at Uday Hussein’s former pleasure cally depressed hometown—but doesn’t count palace in Baghdad. Blending interviews, on culture clash that follows. Extremely lightfly-on-the-wall footage taken during ‘‘rouweight but entertaining comedy. Later a TV tine’’ patrols and overtly dangerous assignments, and even inspired commentary in rap series. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Gun Hawk, The (1963) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: form, this film allows the soldiers’ experiEdward Ludwig. Rory Calhoun, Rod Camences to speak for themselves. Filmed in eron, Ruta Lee, John Litel, Rod Lauren, Morlate 2003 and early 2004. [PG-13]쩠 gan Woodward, Robert J. Wilke. Outlaw Gunpoint (1966) C-86m. ★★ D: Earl BelCalhoun attempts to reform Lauren, who’s lamy. Audie Murphy, Joan Staley, Warren heading for criminal life. Stevens, Edgar Buchanan. Murphy as sherGun in Betty Lou’s Handbag, The (1992) iff gathers a posse to catch outlaw gang C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Allan Moyle. Penelope who have kidnapped saloon girl. Ann Miller, Eric Thal, Alfre Woodard, Gun Riders (1970) C-98m. BOMB D: Al [ 568 ]

Adamson. Jim Davis, Scott Brady, Robert Compact Western with Murphy reforming Dix, John Carradine. Ruthless gunman terto run a ranch and marry his employer’s rorizes settlers one more time, but his heroic daughter.▼ counterpart is there to stop him. Cast is full of Guns of August, The (1964) 99m. ★★★ D: Western veterans, but they’re not much help. Nathan Kroll. Straightforward documenAlso known as FIVE BLOODY GRAVES tary about World War 1 spans the period and LONELY MAN. Techniscope. [PG— from Edward VII’s funeral (1910) through edited from original R rating]▼쩠 the final Armistice eight years later. Highly Gun Runner, The (1984-Canadian) C-92m. competent, if not exceptional, adaptation of ★1 Barbara Tuchman’s best-seller utilizes lots ⁄2 D: Nardo Castillo. Kevin Costner, Sara Botsford, Paul Soles, Gerard Parkes, of rare combat footage from the time. Well worth a look.▼● Ron Lea, Mitch Martin, Larry Lewis, Aline Van Dine, Ruth Dahan. Murky gangster Guns of Darkness (1962-British) 95m. ★★1 melodrama about idealistic Costner, seek⁄2 D: Anthony Asquith. David Niven, ing guns for Chinese rebellion during the Leslie Caron, David Opatoshu, James Rob1920s, returning to native Canada and beertson Justice, Eleanor Summerfield, Ian coming involved with liquor smugglers. Hunter. Civilized drama of Niven searching Tedious, to say the least, this film was for life’s meaning, set in South America. (understandably) shelved until Costner’s Guns of Fort Petticoat, The (1957) C-82m. ★★★ stardom prompted a 1989 video release . . . D: George Marshall. Audie Murphy, but he isn’t very good in this one. [R] ▼● Kathryn Grant (Crosby), Hope Emerson, Gun Runners, The (1958) 83m. ★★ D: Jeff Donnell, Isobel Elsom. Most enjoyaDon Siegel. Audie Murphy, Eddie Albert, ble Western, with Army deserter Murphy Patricia Owens, Everett Sloane, Jack Elam. supervising a group of Texas women in the Murphy is involved with gun-smuggling to art of warfare against impending Indian Cuba in this bland remake of TO HAVE attack. AND HAVE NOT. Guns of Navarone, The (1961) C-157m. ★★★1⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. Gregory Peck, Guns at Batasi (1964-British) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Guillermin. Richard Attenborough, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Jack Hawkins, Mia Farrow, Flora Robson, Baker, Anthony Quayle, James Darren, John Leyton. Acting is all in this intelliIrene Papas, Gia Scala, James Robertson gent if predictable account of British miliJustice, Richard Harris, Albert Lieven, tary life in present-day Africa. CinemaBryan Forbes, Walter Gotell. Explosive Scope.▼쩠 action film about Allied commandos durGuns for San Sebastian (1968) C-111m. ing WW2 plotting to destroy German guns; ★★ high-powered adventure throughout this D: Henri Verneuil. Anthony Quinn, Anjanette Comer, Charles Bronson, Sam first-rate production, highlighted by OscarJaffe, Silvia Pinal. Quinn plays a popular winning special effects. Script by Carl bandit who helps Mexican village defeat Foreman from the Alistair MacLean novel. some Yaqui Indians after he is mistaken Sequel: FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE. for a priest, but he can’t conquer ridiculous CinemaScope.▼●쩠 script. Franscope. Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969) Gun Shy (2000) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric BlaC-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Wendkos. George keney. Liam Neeson, Oliver Platt, Sandra Kennedy, Monte Markham, James WhitBullock, Jose Zuniga, Richard Schiff, Andy more, Reni Santoni, Bernie Casey, Joe Lauer, Mitch Pileggi, Paul Ben-Victor, Mary Don Baker, Scott Thomas, Michael Ansara, McCormack, Frank Vincent, Taylor Negron. Fernando Rey. Third time out, the ‘‘Seven’’ Neeson gives a wonderful comic perforplot to free Mexican revolutionary leader mance as an undercover DEA agent who’s from a well-guarded fortress. Nothing new, suffering from stress and goes to group therbut well done, with plenty of action. apy while working on a major sting operaPanavision. [G]▼쩠 tion. Platt is equally good as a not-tooGuns of the Timberland (1960) C-91m. ★★1 bright hood, and Bullock (who produced the ⁄2 D: Robert D. Webb. Alan Ladd, film) has a relatively minor role as Neeson’s Jeanne Crain, Gilbert Roland, Frankie Avopen-minded love interest. Plot-heavy but alon. Pat telling of loggers vs. townpeople. underdeveloped; written by the director. Guns, Sin and Bathtub Gin SEE: Lady in Red, The [R]▼쩠 Gun the Man Down (1956) 78m. ★★ D: Gunslinger (1956) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Corman. John Ireland, Beverly Garland, Andrew V. McLaglen. James Arness, Angie Allison Hayes, Martin Kingsley. Strange Dickinson, Robert Wilke, Emile Meyer. little Western of female marshal trying to Wounded outlaw swears vengeance on comaintain law and order in outlaw-ridden horts who left him during holdup. Routine. Retitled: ARIZONA MISSION.쩠 town.▼ 1 ★★ Gunsmoke (1953) C-79m. ⁄2 D: NaGuru, The (1969) C-112m. ★★ D: James than Juran. Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, Ivory. Michael York, Rita Tushingham, Paul Kelly, Charles Drake, Jack Kelly. Utpal Dutt, Saeed Jaffrey, Madhur Jaffrey. [ 569 ]

Sincere but uninvolving story of rock star Blaine, Stubby Kaye, B. S. Pully, Veda York who goes to India to learn sitar, Ann Borg, Sheldon Leonard, Regis Toomeditation from guru Dutt. Director Ivory mey. Lavish Hollywoodization of classic dwells on Indian lifestyle, settings; TushBroadway musical based on Damon Runingham provides welcome lighter moments yon’s colorful characters with Blaine, Kaye, in slow-moving film. [G] Pully, and Johnny Silver reprising their Guru, The (2003-U.S.-British) C-91m. stage performances and Brando making a ★★1⁄2 D: Daisy von Scherler Mayer. Heather not-bad musical debut as gambler Sky Graham, Marisa Tomei, Jimi Mistry, Michael Masterson. Tuneful Frank Loesser score McKean, Christine Baranski, Rob Morrow, includes ‘‘Fugue for Tinhorns,’’ ‘‘If I Were Emil Marwa, Malachy McCourt, Ajay Naidu, a Bell,’’ ‘‘Luck Be a Lady,’’ Blaine’s Anita Gillette. Innocuous comedy about an memorable ‘‘Adelaide’s Lament,’’ and Indian dance teacher (Mistry) who comes to Stubby’s showstopping ‘‘Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat.’’ CinemaScope.▼●쩠 America seeking fame and fortune in the movies; instead, he lands a job in a porno Guy Thing, A (2003) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: film, is befriended by its beautiful star Chris Koch. Jason Lee, Julia Stiles, Selma (who’s actually a ‘‘good girl’’ leading a Blair, James Brolin, Shawn Hatosy, Lochdouble life), then inadvertently becomes a lyn Munro, Julie Hagerty, Diana Scarwid, celebrity as the ‘‘guru of sex.’’ Some funny Thomas Lennon, Jackie Burroughs. It took gags, a likable leading man, and good comic four writers to concoct this tiresome, derivaperformances by Graham and Tomei entive comedy of embarrassment about a guy hance this uneven feel-good movie. The who sleeps with a girl after his bachelor faux Bollywood number is fun. [R] ▼쩠 party—little dreaming she’s his fiance´e’s Gus (1976) C-96m. ★★★ D: Vincent Mccousin. Senseless from start to finish; even Eveety. Edward Asner, Don Knotts, Gary the likable leading ladies are wasted. Larry Miller appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Grimes, Tim Conway, Liberty Williams, Dick Van Patten, Dick Butkus. FootballGuyver, The (1992-U.S.-Japanese) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Screaming Mad George, Steve kicking mule catapults a last-place team to victory; crooks try to kidnap Gus with usual Wang. Mark Hamill, Vivian Wu, Jack Armresults (like slapstick chase in a supermarket). strong, David Gale, Jimmie Walker, MiEntertaining Disney comedy. [G]▼●쩠 chael Berryman, Peter Spollos, Spice Guyana: Cult of the Damned (1980Williams, Willard Pugh, Jeffrey Combs, Mexican-Spanish-Panamanian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 David Wells, Linnea Quigley. All-American D: Rene Cardona, Jr. Stuart Whitman, Gene Armstrong, infected by an alien gadget, beBarry, John Ireland, Joseph Cotten, Bradcomes an armored superhero; good thing, ford Dillman, Jennifer Ashley, Yvonne De since almost everyone else in the movie can Carlo. Not easy to turn the awesomeness of turn into a nightmarish monster. (CIA agent the Jonestown tragedy—where cult followers Hamill turns into a big cockroach.) Clumsy committed mass suicide—into lackluster clumps of humor only make the contrived drama, but that’s what they’ve done here. [R] plot seem even more foolish. From a JapaGuy Named Joe, A (1943) 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: nese comic book. Followed by GUYVER: DARK HERO. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Victor Fleming. Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne, Van Johnson, Ward Bond, James Guy Who Came Back, The (1951) 91m. ★★ Gleason, Lionel Barrymore, Barry Nelson, D: Joseph M. Newman. Paul Douglas, Esther Williams, Don DeFore. Good cast Linda Darnell, Joan Bennett, Don DeFore, flounders in meandering fantasy about WW2 Zero Mostel. Cast is above such material pilot Tracy coming back to Earth to give but does well by it: ex-football star tries to young serviceman Johnson a hand in his ‘‘find himself.’’ romance with Tracy’s girlfriend Dunne. Guy With a Grin SEE: No Time for Remade in 1989 as ALWAYS.▼● Comedy Guys, The (2003) C-88m. ★★★ D: Jim Gymkata (1985) C-90m. BOMB D: RobSimpson. Sigourney Weaver, Anthony Laert Clouse. Kurt Thomas, Tetchie Agbayani, Paglia. A N.Y.C. fire department captain Richard Norton, Edward Bell. Champion who lost eight men in the 9/11 World Trade gymnast Thomas stars in this silly martialCenter disaster gets help from a professional arts potboiler, shot in Yugoslavia by the folks writer as he prepares to deliver eulogies for who brought you ENTER THE DRAGON. the deceased. Based on Anne Nelson’s play, Amateurish stuff, based on Dan Tyler Moore’s novel, The Terrible Game. [R]▼쩠 this works surprisingly well as a film, thanks to restrained emotions, honest performances Gypsy (1962) C-149m. ★★★ D: Mervyn by the two stars, and the nobility it finds in LeRoy. Rosalind Russell, Natalie Wood, the lives of ordinary hardworking people. Karl Malden, Paul Wallace, Betty Bruce, Director Simpson coscripted with Nelson; Parley Baer, Harvey Korman. Entertaining screen version of bittersweet Broadway Weaver is his wife. [PG]▼쩠 ★★★ Guys and Dolls (1955) C-150m. musical about the ultimate stage mother, D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Marlon Brando, Mama Rose, and her daughters Baby June Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian (Havoc) and Gypsy Rose Lee. Can’t lose [ 570 ]

with that Stephen Sondheim–Jule Styne score. Suzanne Cupito (Morgan Brittany) and Ann Jilliann (Jillian) both play young June. Remade as a TVM in 1993 with Bette Midler. Technirama. ▼●쩠 Gypsy Colt (1954) C-72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew Marton. Donna Corcoran, Ward Bond, Frances Dee, Larry Keating. Tender film of faithful horse who returns to mistress after parents sell it to racing stable. Remake of LASSIE COME HOME.▼ Gypsy Girl (1966-British) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Mills. Hayley Mills, Ian McShane, Laurence Naismith, Geoffrey Bayldon. Brooding account of backward Hayley Mills finding her first romance with McShane; atmospheric but meandering. Originally titled SKY WEST AND CROOKED. Gypsy Moths, The (1969) C-110m. ★★★ D: John Frankenheimer. Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman, Scott Wilson, Bonnie Bedelia, William Windom, Sheree North. Story of three skydivers in Kansas captures the Midwest well; Kerr, Wilson, and Bedelia help raise potential soap opera to a higher plane. [R]▼쩠

Nelson, who get costar billing, have a total of six minutes’ screen time. [PG]▼쩠 Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll SEE: Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll Hail, Hero! (1969) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: David Miller. Michael Douglas, Arthur Kennedy, Teresa Wright, John Larch, Louise Latham, Charles Drake, Peter Strauss, Deborah Winters, Virginia Christine, John Qualen, Carmen Zapata. Talky, overblown drama about a well-scrubbed hippie (Douglas) who confronts his family as he sorts out his feelings about Vietnam war. Notable only as screen debuts for Douglas and Strauss, and a rare film contribution by musician Gordon Lightfoot, who composed and sings two songs. Originally 100m. [M/PG]▼ Hail, Mafia (1965) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raoul Levy. Henry Silva, Jack Klugman, Eddie Constantine, Elsa Martinelli, Micheline Presle. Fairly interesting melodrama about hired killers going after a witness to gangland mayhem; has some good European players and nice photography by Raoul Coutard. ▼ Hail Mary (1985-French-Swiss) C-107m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Myriem Roussel, Thierry Rode, Philippe Lacoste, Manon Anderson, Juliette Binoche. Boring, overblown updating of the story of Christ’s birth, with Mary a student/basketball player/ gas station attendant and Joseph her cabdriver boyfriend; although still a virgin, she finds herself pregnant. This film sparked much controversy and was even condemned by the Pope; however, all the fuss was much ado about very little. A variety of running times have been credited to this film, so beware; has been screened with THE BOOK OF MARY, an infinitely superior featurette about a girl and her bickering parents, directed by Godard associate Anne-Marie Mieville.▼●쩠 Hail the Conquering Hero (1944) 101m. ★★★★ D: Preston Sturges. Eddie Bracken, Ella Raines, Raymond Walburn, William Demarest, Bill Edwards, Elizabeth Patterson, Jimmy Conlin, Franklin Pangborn, Jack Norton, Paul Porcasi, Al Bridge, Freddie Steele. Frail Bracken, rejected by Marine Corps, is mistaken for war hero by home town. Satirical Sturges at his best, with Demarest and Pangborn stealing much of the crazed proceedings.

Hackers (1995-U.S.-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Iain Softley. Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Fisher Stevens, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Jesse Bradford, Renoly Santiago, Alberta Watson, Lorraine Bracco, Wendell Pierce, Penn Jillette, Felicity Huffman, Marc Anthony. A group of young computer fanatics is framed for crimes committed by computer whiz and would-be master criminal Stevens, and have to use their own hacking skills to prove themselves innocent. No great shakes, but fast pace and vivid direction make it fun. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Hadley’s Rebellion (1984) C-96m. ★★ D: Fred Walton. Griffin O’Neal, William Devane, Charles Durning, Adam Baldwin, Lisa Lucas. Another teenage-problem picture, this one centering on wrestling-obsessed O’Neal. Bland and superficial. [PG]▼ Haiku Tunnel (2001) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jacob Kornbluth, Josh Kornbluth. Josh Kornbluth, Warren Keith, Helen Shumaker, Amy Resnick, Brian Thorstenson, Sarah Overman, Harry Shearer. Small, fitfully amusing film about a temporary office ▼●쩠 worker and the struggle between ‘‘temps’’ Hair (1979) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Milos and ‘‘perms.’’ Leading actor/director Josh Forman. John Savage, Treat Williams, Bevalso cowrote the screenplay. [R]▼쩠 erly D’Angelo, Annie Golden, Dorsey Hail Caesar (1993) C-97m. BOMB D: AnWright, Don Dacus, Cheryl Barnes, Nichothony Michael Hall. Anthony Michael Hall, las Ray, Charlotte Rae, Miles Chapin, Robert Downey, Jr., Frank Gorshin, Samuel Michael Jeter. James Rado–Gerome Ragni– L. Jackson, Judd Nelson, Nicholas Pryor. Galt MacDermot’s hit musical play celeRepulsive rock-star wannabe (Hall) is in brated the ’60s as the Age of Aquarius; love with an obnoxious debutante, whose unfortunately, it’s now a period piece and father is involved in a plot to sabotage a its impact considerably muffled. Story of peace conference. Astonishingly bad movie straitlaced midwesterner who falls in with without a single likeable character; an inausN.Y. hippies has exciting musical moments, picious directing debut for Hall. Downey and but doesn’t hang together. Choreography [ 571 ]

by Twyla Tharp. Among the singers: Nell Shankman. John Travolta, Michelle PfeifCarter, Melba Moore, Ellen Foley, Ronnie fer, Nikki Blonsky, Christopher Walken, Dyson, Charlaine Woodard. [PG]▼●쩠 Queen Latifah, Amanda Bynes, Zac Efron, Hairdresser’s Husband, The (1992-French) Elijah Kelley, Brittany Snow, James MarsC-84m. ★★★ D: Patrice Leconte. Jean den, Allison Janney, Paul Dooley, Taylor Rochefort, Anna Galiena, Roland Bertin, Parks, Jerry Stiller. Candy-colored musical Maurice Chevit, Philippe Clevenot. Young based on the Broadway adaptation of John boy with a fixation on a bosomy haircutter Waters’ 1988 movie about Tracy Turnblad, grows up to marry a woman who’s practia perpetually cheerful teenage girl (newcally a reincarnation of his childhood dream. comer Blonsky) in 1962 Baltimore whose Skillfully assembled comedy-drama makes can-do attitude helps bring about change all great use of Rochefort’s basset-hound face; around her—even on the local teen-dance slight but charming. Definite U.S. remake TV show where whites and blacks appear possibilities. Panavision. [R]▼● separately. Taking a cue from the original Hair High (2006) C-75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Plympfilm and show, Tracy’s mother Edna is ton. Voices of Sarah Silverman, Eric Gilliplayed by a man in drag (Travolta). land, Dermot Mulroney, Beverly D’Angelo, Director-choreographer Shankman keeps Zak Orth, Keith Carradine, David Carradine, things moving; Waters and Ricki Lake (who Martha Plimpton, Tom Noonan, Craig played Tracy in 1988) have cameos. Marc Bierko, Ed Begley, Jr., Matt Groening. The Shaiman and Scott Wittman added new rose-colored high school world of GREASE songs to their Broadway score. Super 35. [PG]쩠 and Happy Days is reimagined by animator Plympton, though his fascination with anaHalf Angel (1951) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richtomical grotesquerie doesn’t seem an ideal fit ard Sale. Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, for this subject matter. Story tells of misCecil Kellaway, Basil Ruysdael, Jim Backus, matched high school classmates Spud, the Irene Ryan, John Ridgely. Pleasant comedy bumbling new kid in town, and Cherri, the of Young blessed with sleepwalking troupampered cheerleader, and how they become bles, leading to romantic complications. sweethearts. A virtual one-man production, Half A Sixpence (1967) C-148m. ★1⁄2 D: as usual, for the talented animator-writerGeorge Sidney. Tommy Steele, Julia Fosdirector-producer. ter, Penelope Horner, Cyril Ritchard, Grover Hair Show (2004) C-105m. BOMB D: Dale. Boisterous but cardboard musical based Leslie Small. Mo’Nique, Kellita Smith, on show adapted from H. G. Wells’ Kipps, Gina Torres, David Ramsey, Vivica A. Fox, about draper’s assistant who inherits fortune, Tiny Lister, James Avery, John Salley, Rostries to crash society. Colorfully filmed in Enhumba Williams, Taraji P. Henson. Insipid gland, but totally without charm. Story first comedy finds loud, overbearing hairstylist filmed in Britain (sans music) as KIPPS in 1941. Panavision.▼쩠 (Mo’Nique) running to her sister’s L.A. salon to escape the I.R.S. Happy coincidence: there’s Half Baked (1998) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Tamra a hair design contest where the prize money is Davis. Dave Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harthe exact amount she owes. (Taxes on winland Williams, Guillermo Diaz, Clarence nings not included.) Yes, that’s tennis star SeWilliams III, Rachel True. Three potheads rena Williams in her film debut. Coexecutivetry to raise money for their buddy’s release produced by Earvin ‘‘Magic’’ Johnson. [PGfrom jail by selling marijuana, without 13] 쩠 Chappelle’s girlfriend finding out. Some Hairspray (1988) C-96m. ★★★ D: John surprisingly clever touches and attempts to Waters. Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Dimoralize against drugs, completely overvine, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Michael St. Geshadowed by Breuer’s irritating character rard, Debbie Harry, Ricki Lake, Leslie and general plot stupidity. Cameos include Ann Powers, Jerry Stiller, Shawn ThompSteven Wright, Willie Nelson, Snoop son, Pia Zadora, Ric Ocasek, John WaDoggy Dogg, Tommy Chong and Janeane ters. Shock/schlock merchant Waters goes Garofalo. [R]▼●쩠 PG, with irresistible nostalgia satire about Half-Breed, The (1952) C-81m. ★★ D: the integration of a TV teen dance program Stuart Gilmore. Robert Young, Janis Carin 1962 Baltimore. ‘‘Name’’ performances ter, Jack Buetel, Barton MacLane, Reed include Harry as the shellac-haired mother Hadley, Porter Hall. Unscrupulous profiof a deposed local celebrity, Zadora as a teer incites Apaches to attack white settlers in this predictable Western.▼ pot-smoking Bohemian, Brown as the owner of an r & b record store, and direcHalf Moon Street (1986) C-90m. BOMB tor Waters as the deranged psychiatrist. D: Bob Swaim. Michael Caine, Sigourney Loses steam toward the end, but still fun. Weaver, Keith Buckley, Patrick KavRich soundtrack mixes chestnuts and deanagh, Nadim Sawalha, Angus MacInnes. servedly unearthed oldies. Later a BroadIntriguing premise has Weaver playing a way musical, which in turn was made into a Ph.D researcher by day and glorified call girl by night, Caine a British diplomat who theatrical film in 2007. [PG]▼●쩠 Hairspray (2007) C-115m. ★★★ D: Adam becomes an extra special client. Sounds as if [ 572 ]

it can’t miss, but is worthless on every level; rambunctious temperance leader out to stop perennially fresh Weaver gives the first stilted cavalry-guarded shipment of whiskey en performance of her career. Adapted from Docroute to thirsting Denver miners; amiable tor Slaughter, the first half of Paul Theroux’s but lumbering western satire goes on and two-part novella Half Moon Street. Look for on. Ultra Panavision 70.▼●쩠 Janet McTeer as a secretary. [R] ▼●쩠 Halloween (1978) C-91m. ★★★ D: John Half Nelson (2006) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Carpenter. Donald Pleasence, Jamie Lee Ryan Fleck. Ryan Gosling, Shareeka Epps, Curtis, Nancy Loomis, P. J. Soles, Charles Anthony Mackie, Deborah Rush, Jay O. Cyphers, Kyle Richards. Low-budget chiller Sanders, Tina Holmes, Denis O’Hare, Monabout psychotic murderer who struck on Halique Curnen. Dedicated Brooklyn gradeloween as a child, and threatens to do so again school teacher tries to make a difference in 15 years later. Well made, with lots of scares, the lives of his kids, and pays special attenplus in-joke references for film buffs. Altertion to 13-year-old Drey (Epps), whom he nate 104m. version prepared for network TV fears is at risk of making the wrong choices. is available on video. Followed by several But she knows her teacher’s darkest secret: sequels and myriad clones. Curtis’ feature he’s a hopeless drug addict. Outstanding film debut. Remade in 2007. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 performances by Gosling and Epps anchor this riveting, intimate drama. Fleshed out Halloween (2007) C-109m. ★★ D: Rob from a short subject by director Fleck and Zombie. Malcolm McDowell, Brad Dourif, cowriter Anna Boden. [R]쩠 Tyler Mane, Daeg Faerch, Sheri Moon Half Past Dead (2002) C-99m. BOMB D: Zombie, William Forsythe, Udo Kier, RichDon Michael Paul. Steven Seagal, Ja Rule, ard Lynch, Clint Howard, Danny Trejo, Morris Chestnut, Nia Peeples, Bruce Weitz, Leslie Easterbrook, Bill Moseley, Sybil Tony Plana, Stephen J. Cannell, Claudia Danning, Dee Wallace, Micky Dolenz, Tom Christian. Seagal is an undercover FBI agent Towles, Sid Haig. Umpteenth rehash of the who arrives as an inmate at a prison on the 1978 movie retells the story of Michael same day a team of crooks—get this—break Myers, who kills his family and spends 17 into the joint, to get a condemned man to tell years in a mental institution before escaping. them where there’s a hidden stash of gold As he searches for his younger sister he sets bars. To call this bad is an understatement . . . off on a rampage, treating the town of Hadeven by Seagal standards. Followed by a donfield to his latest murderous tricks. Aldirect-to-video sequel. [PG-13]▼쩠 though horror fanatic Zombie remains faithful Hallelujah (1929) 106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: King to the premise (with more backstory on Myers Vidor. Daniel L. Haynes, Nina Mae Mcthan ever before), it’s clearly just an excuse Kinney, William Fountaine, Everett McGarto show off the latest advances in movie rity, Victoria Spivey. King Vidor’s early gore. Unrated version runs 121m. Super 35. [R]쩠 talkie triumph, a stylized view of black life focusing on a Southern cotton-picker who Halloween II (1981) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Rick becomes a preacher but retains all-too-human Rosenthal. Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald weaknesses. Dated in some aspects and unPleasence, Charles Cyphers, Jeffrey Kramer, abashedly melodramatic, but still quite Lance Guest, Pamela Susan Shoop, Dana moving. Beautifully filmed on location, Carvey. Explicitly bloody sequel is as bad with outstanding musical sequences.▼●쩠 as any of HALLOWEEN’s countless clones, Hallelujah I’m a Bum (1933) 82m. ★★★1⁄2 with maniac continuing to stalk Curtis on the D: Lewis Milestone. Al Jolson, Madge same night on which the original ends. Evans, Frank Morgan, Harry Langdon, Scripted by John Carpenter and Debra Hill. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Chester Conklin, Tyler Brooke, Edgar Connor. Fascinating Depression curio about Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983) a hobo who tries to ‘‘reform’’ for the sake C-96m. BOMB D: Tommy Lee Wallace. of a beautiful woman. Provocative, politiTom Atkins, Stacey Nelkin, Dan O’Herlihy, cally savvy script by Ben Hecht and S. N. Ralph Strait, Michael Currie. Genuinely Behrman, rhyming dialogue and lovely repellent ’80s-style horror film, with gore songs by Rodgers and Hart (who also make galore (after a slow start), about a maniacal plot cameo appearances as a photographer and a to murder millions of children on Halloween. bank clerk, respectively), and winning perNice, huh? No relation to either of the earlier formances all around. Beware edited prints HALLOWEEN films, but owes more than a (reissue title: THE HEART OF NEW bit to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHYORK) and the frequently screened British ERS. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 version, cut and redubbed as HALLELUHalloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) C-88m. ★★ D: Dwight H. LitJAH I’M A TRAMP.▼●쩠 Hallelujah Trail, The (1965) C-165m. tle. Donald Pleasence, Ellie Cornell, Danielle ★★1⁄2 D: John Sturges. Burt Lancaster, Lee Harris, George P. Wilbur, Michael Pataki, Remick, Jim Hutton, Brian Keith, Martin Beau Starr, Kathleen Kinmont. Unkillable Landau, Donald Pleasence, Pamela Tiffin; monster is back, this time mindlessly headed narrated by John Dehner. Remick is for his hometown to murder his niece (young [ 573 ]

Harris). Standard horror thriller is technically D: Lewis Milestone. Richard Widmark, well made but offers little novelty. [R]▼●쩠 Karl Malden, Walter (Jack) Palance, RegiHalloween 5 (1989) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Domnald Gardiner, Robert Wagner, Richard inique Othenin-Girard. Donald Pleasence, Hylton, Richard Boone, Skip Homeier, Jack Danielle Harris, Donald L. Shanks, Wendy Webb, Bert Freed, Neville Brand, Martin Kaplan, Ellie Cornell, Jeffrey Landman. Milner, Philip Ahn. Gung-ho salute to the Slightly more plot than before but still just U.S. Marines as a squadron embarks on a a sequential slaughter of teenagers as Mitypically rugged WW2 Pacific island invachael Myers (Shanks) again sets out to kill sion, with flashbacks to various men’s civilhis young niece (Harris). Routine and plodian lives. Especially notable for a cast filled ding, with too many endings and unneceswith future stars . . . including real-life exsary setup for sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Marine Brand.▼쩠 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) Hambone and Hillie (1984) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 ★★★ C-85m. D: Steve Miner. Jamie Lee D: Roy Watts. Lillian Gish, Timothy BotCurtis, Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, Mitoms, Candy Clark, O. J. Simpson, Robert chelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Walker, Jack Carter, Alan Hale, Anne Lyn O’Keefe, Janet Leigh, LL Cool J, Chris Lockhart. Elderly Gish loses her devoted Durand, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Twenty mutt at an airport and he races crossyears after the killings in HALLOWEEN, country to find her. Sugar-coated soaper is Laurie Strode (Curtis) has built a new life no dog, but is also no BENJI. [PG]▼ for herself and her son, but her psychotic Hamburger Hill (1987) C-110m. ★★ D: brother Michael Myers is after her again John Irvin. Anthony Barrile, Michael Patrick with a big sharp knife. Surprisingly good Boatman, Don Cheadle, Michael Dolan, Don belated sequel is plenty scary, and has a nice James, Dylan McDermott, M. A. Nickles, sense of humor (note Leigh’s car), but the Tim Quill, Courtney B. Vance, Steven plot could have used more complications. Weber. Cold, clinical, yet occasionally Curtis, who suggested this project, gives a preachy recreation of some true-life 1969 terrific performance. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Vietnam carnage, with troops of the 101st Halloween: Resurrection (2002) C-89m. Airborne Division encountering the enemy in ★1 mutual slaughter for the title reward. Authen⁄2 D: Rick Rosenthal. Jamie Lee Curtis, Brad Loree, Busta Rhymes, Bianca Kajlich, tic, with expertly staged battle scenes—but Sean Patrick Thomas, Daisy McCrackin, limited in its emotional power. Scripted by Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tyra Banks, Ryan MerJim Carabatsos. [R] ▼●쩠 riman. Six young people are chosen to spend a Hamlet (1948-British) 153m. ★★★★ D: Launight in Michael Myers’ childhood home, with rence Olivier. Laurence Olivier, Eileen Web cams watching their every move. MayHerlie, Basil Sydney, Felix Aylmer, Jean hem ensues. Forget logic, story construction, Simmons, Stanley Holloway, Peter Cushconsistency of characterization—the filming. Brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare’s makers certainly did! This movie franchise play about Danish prince ‘‘who just couldn’t shoulda stayed dead. Curtis is only here for make up his mind.’’ Won Oscars for Best Picher name value; the director appears as a ture, Best Actor (Olivier), Art Direction-Set college professor. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Decoration, and Costumes.▼●쩠 Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers Hamlet (1969-British) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: (1995) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe Chappelle. DonTony Richardson. Nicol Williamson, Gorald Pleasence, Paul Stephen Rudd, Maridon Jackson, Anthony Hopkins, Judy Parfitt, anne Hagan, Mitchell Ryan, Kim Darby, Mark Dignam, Marianne Faithfull. RichBradford English, Keith Bogart, Mariah ardson and Williamson moved their boisO’Brien. Pursued by the masked killer, Miterous interpretation of the Shakespeare chael’s niece escapes from mysterious cataplay from stage to screen with only fair combs with her newborn baby. Then he results; perhaps the irritating overuse of starts killing a family which has the misforclose-ups will play better on TV. Interesttune merely to live in his former home. ing casting of Faithfull as Ophelia. [G]▼ Routine slash-fest, of interest only to the Hamlet (1990) C-135m. ★★★ D: Franco dedicated, even though this time it links MiZeffirelli. Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm, Helena Bonchael to the Druids! [R]▼●쩠 Halloween Party SEE: Night of the ham Carter, Stephen Dillane, Nathaniel ParDemons ker, John McEnery. Agreeable re-do of the Halls of Anger (1970) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Shakespeare staple with Gibson giving an enPaul Bogart. Calvin Lockhart, Janet Macergetic interpretation of the Melancholy Dane. Lachlan, James A. Watson, Jr., Rob ReinIn fact, Mel comes off better than costar Close er, Jeff Bridges, Edward Asner. Standard (Gertrude); Bates, as Claudius, is the standout violence-in-school story, but with a racial in the stellar cast. Never as enthralling or perangle. No better or worse than a dozen ceptive as Kenneth Branagh’s HENRY V, but other similar films. [M/PG] still worthwhile. [PG]▼●쩠 Hamlet (1996-U.S.-British) C-242m. ★★★ Halls of Montezuma (1951) C-113m. ★★★ [ 574 ]

D: Kenneth Branagh. Kenneth Branagh, jobs, gets A Second Chance with a shot at Julie Christie, Derek Jacobi, Kate Winslet, making the Olympic boxing team. Modest, Rufus Sewell, Richard Briers, Brian Blessed, likable sports comedy trots out every cineGe´rard Depardieu, Charlton Heston, Rosematic underdog cliche´, but comedian–radio mary Harris, Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, host Carolla (who wrote the story and is a Robin Williams, Richard Attenborough, former Golden Gloves fighter) keeps things Nicholas Farrell, John Gielgud, John Mills, percolating with his sardonic working-class Rowena King. Branagh’s unexpurgated Bard persona and scores some genuine laughs. workout is a movie of moments and mixed [R]쩠 blessings, with the story’s updating—to the Hammersmith Is Out (1972) C-108m. ★★ second half of the 19th century—doing a lot D: Peter Ustinov. Elizabeth Taylor, to defuse any criticism of its stunt casting. Richard Burton, Peter Ustinov, Beau BridJacobi (Claudius), Christie (Gertrude), and ges, Leon Askin, Leon Ames, John Schuck, Winslet (Ophelia) come off extremely well, George Raft. Grotesque comedy about menthough Branagh essentially gives a stage pertal patient, his male nurse, and a hash formance that’s nearly as cinematically over slinger proves once again that Liz and the top as some of his directorial touches. Dick would do anything for money; cast Guest star turns are extremely variable. Gorhas more fun than viewers in this variation geously shot in 70mm by Alex Thomson. on the Faust legend. [R]▼ Panavision Super 70. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Hammers Over the Anvil (1994Hamlet (2000) C-112m. ★★ D: Michael Australian) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ann Turner. Almereyda. Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachCharlotte Rampling, Russell Crowe, Alexlan, Sam Shepard, Diane Venora, Bill Murander Outhred, Frankie J. Holden, Frank ray, Liev Schreiber, Julia Stiles, Karl Geary, Gallacher. Too much narration hampers this Steve Zahn, Dechen Thurman, Jeffrey heartfelt tale of a crippled boy coming of Wright, Paul Bartel, Casey Affleck. Transage in early-20th-century rural Australia. plant of Shakespeare’s timeless play to Crowe exudes charisma as a free-spirited modern-day N.Y.C., where the head of the but emotionally vulnerable horse breaker. Denmark Corporation has died, adds nothWatch this and you’ll see why he became an international star.▼쩠 ing to our understanding or appreciation of the story. Some clever gags and stunt castHammett (1983) C-97m. ★★★ D: Wim ing score occasional points. Hawke, sportWenders. Frederic Forrest, Peter Boyle, ing a ski cap through much of the action, is Marilu Henner, Elisha Cook, R. G. Armeasily outshone by Schreiber (as Laertes), strong, Richard Bradford, Roy Kinnear, MacLachlan (as Claudius), and Stiles (an Lydia Lei, Sylvia Sidney, Samuel Fuller, impressive Ophelia). [R]▼쩠 Royal Dano. Wenders’ first American film Hamlet 2 (2008) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew is a real treat for detective buffs: an adaptaFleming. Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, tion of Joe Gores’ fiction about famed David Arquette, Amy Poehler, Melonie author Dashiell Hammett’s involvement in Diaz, Joseph Julian Soria, Skylar Astin, a real-life mystery (elements of which would Phoebe Strole, Elisabeth Shue, Marshall find their way into his later stories). You Bell; narrated (uncredited) by Jeremy Irons. couldn’t ask for a more faithful re-creation Twisted comedy about an overly earnest— of 1930s studio look; a magnificent-looking (and sounding) film. [PG]▼쩠 but spectacularly untalented—high school drama teacher. When he’s given notice, he Hamster of Happiness, The SEE: Seconddecides to go out with a bang, and stirs up Hand Hearts his unmotivated students to join him in a Hamsun (1996-Norwegian-Swedish-German) C-152m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jan Troell. Max von painfully autobiographical, and plainly blasphemous, concoction called Hamlet 2. Sydow, Ghita Nørby, Anette Hoff, Asa Wildly inconsistent, this does have some Soderling, Gard B. Eidsvold, Eindride Eidsvery funny moments, with Coogan perfectly vold. Famed Norwegian author Knut Hamcast as the clueless hero. The film also ofsun (von Sydow), winner of the 1920 Nobel fers a neat showcase for Shue, playing Prize, supported the Nazi takeover of his ‘‘herself.’’ [R]쩠 own country. This thoughtful film illumiHammer (1972) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Bruce nates the combination of naı¨vete´, arrogance Clark. Fred Williamson, Bernie Hamilton, and nationalism that led to his sorry choice. Vonetta McGee, William Smith, Charles Entire cast is excellent, but von Sydow and Lampkin. Black boxer takes on the syndiNorby (as his ego-starved wife) are brilliant, cate in fast, but mindless melodrama. Some and the movie deserves to be better known. Based on a book by Thorkild Hansen.▼쩠 violence may be cut. [R]쩠 Hammer, The (2008) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hana-Bi SEE: Fireworks Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. Adam Carolla, Hancock (2008) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Berg. Oswaldo Castillo, Heather Juergensen, HarWill Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateold ‘‘House’’ Moore, Tom Quinn, Jonathan man, Eddie Marsan, Johnny Galecki, Hernandez. A once promising fighter, now Thomas Lennon, Jae Head. Foul, wrong40 and aimlessly working at construction headed ‘‘comedy’’ about a drunken, antiso[ 575 ]

cial superhero and a struggling p.r. man D: Mitchell Leisen. Carole Lombard, Fred (Bateman) who tries to rehabilitate him. It’s MacMurray, Ralph Bellamy, Astrid Allwyn, bad enough that the material stinks, but diMarie Prevost. Lombard sparkles as fortunerector Berg shoots it in nausea-inducing hunting manicurist who has to choose behandheld style, with pointless macro-closetween MacMurray and Bellamy.▼쩠 ups of the actors. Woe to parents who share Hands of a Stranger (1962) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: this with their kids in the misguided belief Newton Arnold. Paul Lukather, Joan Harthat it’s going to be fun. Film’s coproducers vey, James Stapleton, Irish McCalla, Barry Michael Mann and Akiva Goldsman appear Gordon, Sally Kellerman. Entertaining and briefly. HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 well-directed little chiller is an unacknowlHand, The (1981) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Oliver edged fourth version of THE HANDS OF Stone. Michael Caine, Andrea Marcovicci, ORLAC. Brilliant young pianist’s hands are Annie McEnroe, Bruce McGill, Viveca Lininjured in a car accident; idealistic surgeon dfors, Rosemary Murphy, Mara Hobel, Pat replaces them with those of a just-deceased Corley, Charles Fleischer. Cartoonist Caine’s criminal.▼쩠 drawing hand is severed in auto accident, Hands of Death SEE: Beyond the Living which destroys his career and places addiHands of Orlac, The (1925-German) 81m. ★★★ D: Robert Wiene. Conrad Veidt, Fritz tional strain on his shaky marriage. Life becomes even more nightmarish when the hand Kortner, Carmen Cartellieri, Alexandra Sorreturns on a murderous spree; unfortunately it ina, Fritz Strassny. Veidt is an eerie presdidn’t get Caine or writer-director Stone. ence as Paul Orlac, a celebrated pianist Stone plays a bum who gets killed. [R] ▼●쩠 whose hands are crushed in a train wreck; a Handful of Dust, A (1988-British) C-118m. strange doctor replaces them with those of ★★★1 an executed killer. Genuinely spooky ⁄2 D: Charles Sturridge. James Wilby, Kristin Scott Thomas, Rupert Graves, Judi chiller, adapted from Maurice Renard story Dench, Anjelica Huston, Alec Guinness, and made by the director of THE CABIPip Torrens, Cathryn Harrison. Rich adapNET OF DR. CALIGARI. Remade in 1935 tation of Evelyn Waugh’s ironic story about (as MAD LOVE) and 1961.▼쩠 a doomed marriage among England’s smart Hands of Orlac, The (1961-British-French) 95m. ★★ D: Edmond T. Greville. Mel set in the early 1930s, and the unexpected results for both the stiflingly traditionFerrer, Lucile Saint-Simon, Christopher bound husband (brilliantly and movingly Lee, Dany Carrel, Felix Aylmer, Basil played by Wilby) and the nonchalantly Sydney, Donald Wolfit, Donald Pleasence. selfish wife (perfectly essayed by Thomas). Pianist gets hand transplant from a strange Superior script by Tim Sullivan, Derek doctor—and finds he has the impulse to Granger, and Sturridge is matched by an kill. Flat remake of Maurice Renard’s faunerring eye for period detail. [PG]▼쩠 mous story, filmed before in 1925 and (as Handgun SEE: Deep in the Heart MAD LOVE) in 1935. French-language Handle With Care (1977) C-98m. ★★★ D: version runs 105m. Also known as HANDS Jonathan Demme. Paul LeMat, Candy Clark, OF THE STRANGLER.▼쩠 Ann Wedgeworth, Marcia Rodd, Charles Hands of the Ripper (1971-British) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Sasdy. Eric Porter, Angharad Napier, Alix Elias, Roberts Blossom, Ed Begley, Jr. Fine character studies and viRees, Jane Merrow, Keith Bell, Derek gnettes make up for shortcomings in bright, Godfrey. Early believer in Freud tries to original film. Loosely revolves around help young daughter of Jack the Ripper. LeMat and his obsession with C.B. radio; Great atmosphere, solid performances, but subplot with bigamist truckdriver is hilariafter good start, dissolves into series of bloody murders. [R]▼ ous. Written by Paul Brickman. Originally released as CITIZENS BAND. [PG]▼ Hands of the Strangler SEE: Hands of Handmaid’s Tale, The (1990) C-109m. Orlac, The ★★1⁄2 D: Volker Schlondorff. Natasha RichHands over the City (1963-Italian) 101m. ¨ ★★★ ardson, Robert Duvall, Faye Dunaway, D: Francesco Rosi. Rod Steiger, Salvo Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth McGovern, VicRandone, Guido Alberti, Marcello Cannatoria Tennant, Blanche Baker, Traci Lind. vale, Dante Di Pinto, Alberto Conocchia, Intriguing story set in a near-future world Carlo Fermariello, Terenzio Cordova. The in which young, healthy white women are collapse of a building in a Naples slum trigbrainwashed to become bearers of babies gers a series of shady political schemes and for a new, ‘‘pure’’ generation. Richardson backroom deals, as a ruthless land develmust overcome the jealousy of an infertile oper (Steiger) uses his position as a city wife (Dunaway) while fending off the adcouncilman to manipulate the investigation vances of her high-powered husband (Duto his advantage. Fiery critique of civic corvall). Interesting but best described as sterruption and capitalist greed in the name of ile. Scripted by Harold Pinter from the ‘‘progress’’ is vividly filmed on location, novel by Margaret Atwood. David Dukes using many real-life Neapolitan politicians appears unbilled as a doctor. [R]▼●쩠 in the cast.쩠 Hands Across the Table (1935) 80m. ★★★ Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The (1992) [ 576 ]

C-110m. ★★ D: Curtis Hanson. Annabella Swenson, Ben Piazza, Virginia Gregg. Literate, low-key Western with outstanding perforSciorra, Rebecca De Mornay, Matt McCoy, mance by Schell as a blind girl nursed by Ernie Hudson, Julianne Moore, Madeline Cooper, a frontier doctor with a past. Not for Zima, John de Lancie, Mitchell Laurance. all tastes. Scott’s first film.▼ Demented, revenge-seeking nanny De MorHanging Up (2000) C-94m. BOMB D: nay takes a job with unsuspecting married Diane Keaton. Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, couple Sciorra and McCoy—guess what Lisa Kudrow, Walter Matthau, Adam happens next. Some good performances Arkin, Duke Moosekian, Ann Bortolotti, (especially by De Mornay) boost this othCloris Leachman. Three sisters live most of erwise derivative shocker. Tension builds, their lives via cell phone, but Ryan finds but gruesome finale is fairly predictable. herself the only one willing to bear responMcCoy may be the most sensitive screen sibility for their father, who’s hospitalized husband of the early ’90s. [R]▼●쩠 and senile. It’s hard to think of a movie with Handyman, The (1980-Canadian) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Micheline Lanctot. Jocelyn Bemore strident, obnoxious characters, or a script that makes so little sense from scene rube, Andree Pelletier, Jannette Bertrand, to scene. Three appealing stars are hung out Paul Dion, Marcel Sabourin. Shy, boyish, to dry in this seriocomedy, written by Nora romantic Berube—he’s not exactly short, and Delia Ephron, from Delia’s book. Matbut other men seem to tower over him— thau’s final film. [PG-13]▼쩠 has a love affair with a married woman. A Hangin’ With the Homeboys (1991) sad, beautifully made little film about peo★★★ C-88m. D: Joseph P. Vasquez. Doug ple who can never get what they want E. Doug, Mario Joyner, John Leguizamo, because they are unable to take stands. Nestor Serrano, Kimberly Russell, Mary B. Hangar 18 (1980) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: James Ward. Jarringly honest, energetically directed L. Conway. Darren McGavin, Robert and acted account of a day in the lives of Vaughn, Gary Collins, James Hampton, several young African-Americans and Puerto Philip Abbott, Joseph Campanella, Pamela Ricans who’ve grown up on the mean streets Bellwood, Steven Keats, Tom Hallick, of the South Bronx. Each is different, but all William Schallert. This Sunn Classic Picare linked in that they’re traveling down a ture alleges that the U.S. government is road to nowhere. [R] ▼●쩠 concealing a captured UFO. Slickly made, Hangman, The (1959) 86m. ★★ D: Michael but about as credible as THE THREE Curtiz. Robert Taylor, Tina Louise, Fess ParSTOOGES IN ORBIT; shown on TV as ker, Jack Lord, Mickey Shaughnessy, Shirley INVASION FORCE with new ending that Harmer. Rugged Taylor is the lawman who undermines entire film! [PG]▼●쩠 must buck the entire Western town defending a ★★1 ⁄2 D: Hang ’em High (1968) C-114m. man wanted for murder. Ted Post. Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Ed Hangman’s House (1928) 72m. ★★★ D: Begley, Pat Hingle, Arlene Golonka, James John Ford. June Collyer, Larry Kent, Earle MacArthur, Ruth White, Ben Johnson, Charles Foxe, Victor McLaglen, Hobart Bosworth. McGraw, Bruce Dern, Alan Hale Jr., Dennis Florid melodrama of frustrated romance and Hopper, Bob Steele. Slick American attempt family honor, with Collyer acceding to her at spaghetti Western comes off fairly well. father’s wishes and marrying blackguard Eastwood survives his own hanging, swears Foxe despite her love for Kent. Elevated by vengeance on nine men who lynched him. sumptuous production and Ford’s sure direcFine supporting cast; nice cameo by James tion, with McLaglen playing a character who Westerfield as a fellow dungeon prisoner. is the polar opposite of his role in THE IN[M]▼●쩠 FORMER. Steeplechase scene predates the Hanging Garden, The (1997-Canadian) one in THE QUIET MAN and you can spot C-91m. ★★★ D: Thom Fitzgerald. Chris Leayoung John Wayne as one of the animated vins, Kerry Fox, Seana McKenna, Peter spectators along the racetrack railing!▼쩠 McNeill, Christine Dunsworth, Troy VeiHangman’s Knot (1952) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: notte, Sarah Polley, Joel S. Keller, Joan OrRoy Huggins. Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, enstein. Strikingly original, multi-layered Claude Jarman, Jr., Richard Denning, Lee psychological drama about Sweet William, Marvin. Above-par Scott Western involving the product of a dysfunctional family, who Rebs robbing gold shipment and officer Scott returns home after a ten-year absence to atdeciding they should return it. ▼쩠 tend his sister’s wedding. The film moves in Hangmen Also Die! (1943) 131m. ★★1⁄2 D: and out of reality, and between present and Fritz Lang. Brian Donlevy, Walter Brenpast; a telling exploration of the complexinan, Anna Lee, Gene Lockhart, Dennis ties and emotional truths of family relationO’Keefe, Lionel Stander. OK WW2 drama, ships. [R]▼쩠 loosely based on fact and spotlighting the Hanging Tree, The (1959) C-106m. ★★★ resistance by Czech citizens against their D: Delmer Daves. Gary Cooper, Maria Nazi occupiers and the plight of Donlevy Schell, Karl Malden, George C. Scott, Karl after he assassinates Reinhard Heydrich, [ 577 ]

Nazi governor of Prague. Based on a story ture version of popular Disney Channel TV by Lang and Bertolt Brecht, which is also series about a girl named Miley who leads a told in HITLER’S MADMAN.▼쩠 double life, as an average teen and (with Hangover Square (1945) 77m. ★★★ D: blond wig) as pop star Hannah Montana. But John Brahm. Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, when her dad (played by real-life dad Cyrus) George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Faye Martakes her home to her grandmother’s farm in lowe, Alan Napier, Frederic Worlock. Tennessee she finds it difficult to shed her Cregar (in his final film) is delicious as alter ego and the trappings that go with it. unhinged composer who goes off his top Innocuous song-filled fare should please the and kills women whenever he hears loud, show’s young fans—but it’s too bad the discordant noises. Barre Lyndon’s script slapstick gags are staged so poorly. [G] bears little relation to the Patrick Hamilton Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007) C-83m. novel, but result is still entertaining, with BOMB D: Joe Swanberg. Greta Gerwig, Kent superb Victorian London sets and evocative Osborne, Andrew Bujalski, Ry Russo-Young, Bernard Herrmann score.쩠 Mark Duplass. Patience-testing time-waster is Hangup (1974) C-94m. ★★ D: Henry every bit as unfocused and self-indulgent as Hathaway. William Elliott, Marki Bey, its eponymous heroine, a Chicago production Cliff Potts, Michael Lerner, Timothy Blake. company employee (gratingly played by GerDisappointing black-oriented actioner about wig) who wanders through a series of shorta drug racket; Hathaway has done many lived relationships that aren’t romances so fine films, but this, his last, isn’t one. much as crushes with benefits. If you’re cuBey is good as a doomed prostitute. Aka rious about the so-called Mumblecore genre SUPER DUDE. [R] of improvised indie films about aimless 20Hanky Panky (1982) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: somethings you’re better off checking out Sidney Poitier. Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Bujalski’s MUTUAL APPRECIATION.쩠 Kathleen Quinlan, Richard Widmark, RobHanna K. (1983-French) C-108m. ★★ D: ert Prosky, Josef Sommer, Johnny Sekka. InConstantine Costa-Gavras. Jill Clayburgh, nocent architect Wilder is chased by spies, Jean Yanne, Gabriel Byrne, Mohammed cops, etc. Predictable, barely funny comedyBakri, David Clennon. Intriguing but unthriller, with Radner miscast as the love intersatisfying melodrama about flaky lawyer est. (The film was intended to be a follow-up Clayburgh and her conflicting relationto STIR CRAZY, but Richard Pryor’s part ships with ex-husband Yanne, Israeli district was rewritten for Gilda.) You’ve seen it all attorney Byrne and Palestinian Bakri, who’s before, and better. [PG]▼●쩠 attempting to reclaim his ancestral home. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) C-106m. Controversial because of its pro-Palestinian ★★★1 stand, but on artistic terms a major disap⁄2 D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, pointment from Costa-Gavras. [R]▼ Barbara Hershey, Lloyd Nolan, Maureen Hanna’s War (1988) C-148m. ★1⁄2 D: O’Sullivan, Daniel Stern, Max von Sydow, Menahem Golan. Ellen Burstyn, Maruschka Dianne Wiest, J.T. Walsh, Richard Jenkins, Detmers, Anthony Andrews, Donald PleaJulie Kavner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, John sence, David Warner, Denholm Elliott, Turturro, Joanna Gleason, Bobby Short. Vincenzo Ricotta, Ingrid Pitt. The true story Allen strikes gold as he examines some of Hungarian freedom fighter Hanna Senesh typically interesting and neurotic New (Detmers), based in part on her diaries, is a Yorkers whose lives intertwine. Superbly misguided mess. The young, Jewish WW2 cast with Woody in peak form as Farrow’s martyr deserved a far better production than hypochondriac ex-husband; Wiest in a powthis overlong, uninspiring melodrama. Hanerhouse performance as Mia’s self-conna’s prison-issue designer blouses don’t help sumed, self-destructive sister. There’s also matters. Panavision. [PG-13]▼● an atypical Allen touch of warmth, even Hannibal (1960-U.S.-Italian) C-103m. ★★ D: Edgar G. Ulmer. Victor Mature, sentiment, as frosting on the cake—all of it set to some wonderful old songs. Academy Rita Gam, Gabriele Ferzetti, Milly Vitale. Award winner for Best Supporting Actor Cardboard costume saga follows Hannibal (Caine), Best Supporting Actress (Wiest), and his elephants across the Alps and into and Woody’s Original Screenplay. Tony Rome . . . but you may not last that long. SuperCinescope.쩠 Roberts and Sam Waterston appear unbilled. One of the children at the Thanksgiving celeHannibal (2001) C-132m. ★★ D: Ridley brations is Soon-Yi Previn. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Scott. Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Hannah Lee SEE: Outlaw Territory Ray Liotta, Giancarlo Giannini, Gary OldHannah Montana: The Movie (2009) Cman, Frankie R. Faison, Francesca Neri, Zˇeljko Ivanek, Hazelle Goodman. A big, 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Chelsom. Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment, Jason long tease of a movie, quite unlike its predeEarles, Mitchel Musso, Moises Arias, Lucas cessor, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, though Till, Vanessa Williams, Margo Martindale, mostly faithful to Thomas Harris’ novel. Peter Gunn, Melora Hardin, Barry Bostwick, Hannibal Lecter, now at large in Florence, Jane Carr, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts. FeaItaly, reenters the life of FBI agent Clarice [ 578 ]

Starling (Moore, taking over for Jodie FosHans Christian Andersen (1952) C-112m. ★★1 ter) at a troubled time in her career. A ⁄2 D: Charles Vidor. Danny Kaye, Fartwisted, unfocused black comedy, stylish ley Granger, Jeanmaire, Roland Petit, John but slowly paced, with several key grossQualen. Melodic Frank Loesser score out moments. Scripted by David Mamet and (‘‘Inchworm,’’ ‘‘Ugly Duckling,’’ ‘‘ThumSteven Zaillian. Followed by a prequel: belina,’’ etc.) can’t save musical biograRED DRAGON. [R]▼쩠 phy of vagabond tale-teller. Glossy and Hannibal Brooks (1969-British) C-101m. completely fabricated—has no relation to ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Winner. Oliver Reed, real Andersen’s life story. ▼●쩠 Michael J. Pollard, Wolfgang Preiss, Helmut Hansel & Gretel (2002) C-88m. BOMB Lohner, Karin Baal, Peter Karsten. Pleasant, D: Gary J. Tunnicliffe. Jacob Smith, Taylor forgettable film of British P.O.W. Reed asMomsen, Lynn Redgrave, Howie Mandel, signed to evacuate valuable elephant from Delta Burke, Gerald McRaney, Dakota FanMunich zoo during WW2; forced to go on ning; voices of Sinbad, Tom Arnold, Bobcat foot, he turns trip into escape plan. Wavers Goldthwait. Lame live-action rendition of the from comedy to melodrama, with Pollard classic tale is not particularly faithful to the major comic character; good action climax. Brothers Grimm. It’s also cheap-looking, lowbrow, and jokey. Arriscope. [PG] ▼쩠 [M/PG] Hannibal Rising (2007-Italian-U.S.-FrenchHanussen (1988-German-Hungarian) C115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Istvan Szabo. Klaus Maria Czech-Italian) C-121m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Webber. Gaspard Ulliel, Rhys Ifans, Gong Li, Brandauer, Erland Josephson, Ildiko BanHelena Lia Tachovska, Dominic West, Aaron sagi, Walter Schmidinger, Karoly Eperjes. Thomas, Kevin McKidd, Richard Brake. The Brandauer offers a compelling performance Secret Origin of Hannibal Lecter: as a child as the title character, a WW1 Austrian soldier at the end of WW2 he had to watch while who is shot in the head—and develops the Nazi collaborators ate his younger sister! ability to read minds and foretell the future. As a young adult (Ulliel), inspired by his An intriguing, insightful, based-on-fact tale; Japanese aunt, he hunts down the killers third in a trilogy, following MEPHISTO and and exacts brutal revenge. Handsome but COLONEL REDL. [R]▼● ponderous, dull and self-important, though Happening, The (1967) 101m. ★★ D: Elnever as gory as might be expected. liot Silverstein. Anthony Quinn, George Scripted by Thomas Harris from his own Maharis, Michael Parks, Robert Walker, Faye novel. Ulliel never recalls Brian Cox, much Dunaway, Milton Berle, Oscar Homolka, less Anthony Hopkins. Super 35. [R]쩠 Jack Kruschen, Clifton James, Eugene Hannie Caulder (1971-British) C-85m. Roche. Lighthearted and lightheaded ca★★1 per story centering around kidnapping of a ⁄2 D: Burt Kennedy. Raquel Welch, Robert Culp, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, now respectable former gangster (Quinn). Strother Martin, Christopher Lee, Diana Dors. Turns unpleasantly serious towards end. Bizarre, mystical Western about raped/widDunaway’s film debut. The title song beowed/homeless woman who begs bounty came a No. 1 hit for The Supremes. hunter Culp to teach her to shoot so she can Happening, The (2008) C-89m. ★★ D: M. seek vengeance. Neat idea to have bad guys Night Shyamalan. Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Borgnine, Elam, and Martin play it a la The Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty BuckThree Stooges, but laughter is vitiated by their ley, Frank Collison, Ashlyn Sanchez, Spengory killings. Nice turn by Lee as sympathetic cer Breslin, Robert Bailey, Jr., Alan Ruck. gunsmith. Panavision. [R]▼● Philadelphia schoolteacher Wahlberg, his Hanoi Hilton, The (1987) C-130m. ★1⁄2 wife, and friends flee after a strange virus D: Lionel Chetwynd. Michael Moriarty, overtakes the city . . . but what’s causing it Paul LeMat, Jeffrey Jones, Lawrence Pressand where can they be safe? Tense, even man, Stephen Davies, David Soul, Rick Fitts. frightening at first, but then spins its wheels What may have been a sincere effort to drawith nowhere to go. Shyamalan’s signature matize the plight of American POWs in Vietportentousness is punctuated by moments so nam becomes an unbearably dull, impossibly absurd they inspire unintended laughter; the overlong, and embarrassingly cliche´d drama, director also appears in a small role. [R]쩠 which does a real disservice to its subject . . . Happenstance (2000-French) C-97m. ★★★ and throws in right-wing polemics and potD: Laurent Firode. Audrey Tautou, Faudel, shots at Jane Fonda to boot. [R]▼●쩠 Eric Savin, Lysiane Meis, Ire`ne Ismailoff, Hanover Street (1979) C-109m. ★★ D: Eric Feldman. Sweet, thoughtful allegory in Peter Hyams. Harrison Ford, Lesley-Anne which a group of strangers become linked Down, Christopher Plummer, Alec Mcby a series of small, seemingly disconnected Cowen, Richard Masur, Michael Sacks. encounters, all of which lead to a ‘‘chance’’ WW2 romance between married Englishmeeting between two potential soul mates. woman and American soldier who’s sent This winning exploration of destiny is sparked on daring mission behind enemy lines is by a solid ensemble (including Tautou, as a slick but contrived and unconvincing. Script wide-eyed salesgirl). [R] ▼쩠 by director Hyams. Panavision.[PG]▼●쩠 Happiest Days of Your Life, The (1950[ 579 ]

British) 84m. ★★★ D: Frank Launder. person to an eternally hopeful young woman Alastair Sim, Margaret Rutherford, Guy named Joy whose life is a perpetual mess. Middleton, Joyce Grenfell, Edward Rigby, Any film that tackles such topics as masturbaMuriel Aked, John Bentley, Bernadette tion and pederasts isn’t going to appeal to O’Farrell, Richard Wattis, Pat (Patricia) everyone, but writer-director Solondz makes Owens. Funny comedy involving a boys’ them real people and tempers everything with school sharing quarters with a displaced humor. A truly remarkable film.▼●쩠 girls’ academy, with frantic situations reHappiness Cage, The (1972) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 sulting. Launder and John Dighton scripted, D: Bernard Girard. Christopher Walken, from the latter’s play.▼ Joss Ackland, Ralph Meeker, Ronny Cox, Happiest Millionaire, The (1967) C-118m. Marco St. John, Tom Aldredge. Uneven but ★★1 thought-provoking drama about doctor in ⁄2 D: Norman Tokar. Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Greer Garson, Geraldine Germany who utilizes shock treatment on Page, Gladys Cooper, Hermione Baddeley, soldiers to stabilize aggressive behavior. Lesley Ann Warren, John Davidson. Lively Video titles: THE MIND SNATCHERS and THE DEMON WITHIN. [PG]▼쩠 but overlong and uninvolving Disney musical (the last film he personally oversaw) about Happy Accidents (2001) C-110m. ★★ D: Philadelphia household of eccentric millionBrad Anderson. Marisa Tomei, Vincent aire Anthony J. Drexel Biddle (MacMurray). D’Onofrio, Nadia Dajani, Holland Taylor, Lightly entertaining. Originally tradescreened Tovah Feldshuh, Sean Gullette, Anthony at 164m., then released at 141m.; reissued in Michael Hall. Fantasy-romance about a guy 1984 at 159m.▼쩠 who tells a girl he is a time traveler from the Happily Ever After (1990) C-74m. ★★ D: future who fell in love with her old photo John Howley. Voices of Irene Cara, Edand just had to visit her era in order to meet ward Asner, Carol Channing, Dom Deher. Has some amusing moments, but someLuise, Phyllis Diller, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Linda how we just can’t shake the feeling that we Gary, Jonathan Harris, Michael Horton, have seen this all before. [R]▼쩠 Sally Kellerman, Malcolm McDowell, Happy Birthday, Gemini (1980) C-107m. ★★ D: Richard Benner. Madeline Kahn, Tracey Ullman, Frank Welker. All-star voice cast gives major boost to this otherRita Moreno, Robert Viharo, Alan Rosenwise undistinguished sequel to the story of berg, Sarah Holcomb, David Marshall Grant, Snow White, who’s surrounded here by Timothy Jenkins. Disappointing adaptation dwarfelles. (Don’t ask.) Produced by Filmaof Albert Innaurato’s long-running Broadway tion Studios with noticeably better animaplay Gemini, centering on young man’s tion than their Saturday morning product sexual identity crisis. Colorful stage characters are lost on film. [R]▼ can boast. Aka SNOW WHITE IN THE LAND OF DOOM. [G]▼●쩠 Happy Birthday to Me (1981-Canadian) Happily N’Ever After (2006-GermanC-108m. BOMB D: J. Lee Thompson. U.S.) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul J. Bolger, Yvette Melissa Sue Anderson, Glenn Ford, Tracy Kaplan. Voices of George Carlin, Andy Bregman, Jack Blum, Matt Craven, LawDick, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jon Polito, Sirence Dane. Is or is not Anderson killing gourney Weaver, Rob Paulsen, Freddie off her classmates at Crawford Academy Prinze, Jr., Wallace Shawn, Phil Proctor, because they inadvertently caused her Patrick Warburton, Laraine Newman, Tom mother’s death four years earlier? More Kenny, Tress MacNeille, Kath Soucie. Notkillings, more blood, more exploitation; so-clever storybook takeoff finds evil Frieda Ford, as Anderson’s psychiatrist, hit rock (Weaver) plotting to take over Fairy Tale bottom with this appearance. [R]▼●쩠 Land, battling against stepdaughter Ella (GelHappy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) lar), who fears she will be erased forever unC-105m. ★★★ D: Mark Robson. Rod Steiger, less she takes matters into her own hands. Susannah York, George Grizzard, Don Routine animation and a by-the-numbers Murray, William Hickey, Pamelyn Ferdin, script torpedo this low-budget ’toon that Steven Paul. Stagy but enjoyable film of even kids will see right through. Followed Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., play. Male chauvinist exby a DVD sequel. [PG]쩠 plorer, returning home after eight years, finds Happiness (1965) SEE: Le Bonheur his wife matured (and engaged), and his valHappiness (1998) C-140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Todd ues now obsolete. Fine performances of Solondz. Jane Adams, Jon Lovitz, Philip SeyVonnegut’s funny black-humor situations mour Hoffman, Dylan Baker, Lara Flynn and dialogue; Hickey hilarious as Steiger’s Boyle, Cynthia Stevenson, Molly Shannon, Jerry Lewis-esque buddy. [R] Happy Ending, The (1969) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 Louise Lasser, Ben Gazzara, Camryn Manheim, Jared Harris, Elizabeth Ashley, Marla D: Richard Brooks. Jean Simmons, John Maples. Portrait of an unhappy family—three Forsythe, Lloyd Bridges, Shirley Jones, sisters, their mother and father—and others Teresa Wright, Dick Shawn, Nanette Fabray, who come into their orbit, each dealing with Robert (Bobby) Darin, Tina Louise. Inipersonal demons. They range from a teletially intriguing view of modern marriage phone stalker who can’t confront women in drones on interminably, as Simmons walks [ 580 ]

out on husband and family trying to find memorable Marsan), who may explode at herself. Michel Legrand score highlighted any moment. More a character study than a by ‘‘What Are You Doing the Rest of story, the film meanders a bit but Hawkins’ Your Life?’’ Panavision. [M/PG]▼ genuine performance makes it worthwhile. Happy Endings (2005) C-130m. ★★★ D: Super 35. [R]쩠 Don Roos. Lisa Kudrow, Maggie GyllenHappy Hooker, The (1975) C-96m. ★★ haal, Tom Arnold, Jesse Bradford, Laura D: Nicholas Sgarro. Lynn Redgrave, JeanDern, Steve Coogan, Jason Ritter, Bobby Pierre Aumont, Lovelady Powell, NichoCannavale, Sarah Clarke, David Sutcliffe. las Pryor, Elizabeth Wilson, Tom Poston, Kudrow has been living a lie for years, having Conrad Janis, George Dzundza, Vincent given up a son for adoption; now a young Schiavelli, Mason Adams, Anita Morris. would-be filmmaker essentially blackmails Xaviera Hollander’s best-seller about her her into cooperating on a documentary. But rise as N.Y.C.’s most prominent madam is everyone who has even tangential contact so heavily sanitized that one wonders just with these characters carries secrets around what audience scripter William Richert with them as well. Interesting mosaic-style had in mind; moderately amusing, and cast comedy-drama wryly explores the nature seems to be having a good time. Followed by two fictitious sequels. [R]▼●쩠 (and consequences) of lies, half-truths, and hypocrisy in our contemporary culture. Peter Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood, The (1980) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan Roberts. Martine Horton appears unbilled. Written by the director. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Beswicke, Chris Lemmon, Adam West, Phil Happy Feet (2006-U.S.-Australian) C-108m. Silvers, Richard Deacon, Lindsay Bloom, ★★1 ⁄2 D: George Miller. Voices of Elijah Army Archerd, Edie Adams. Now Xaviera is Wood, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, a brunette; she and her girls rush to the aid of Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Hugo Weava corruption-riddled movie studio in this limp ing, Anthony LaPaglia, E. G. Daily, Magda rehash of SILENT MOVIE. Fine comic cast Szubanski, Miriam Margolyes, Steve Irwin, is wasted, although film buffs might enjoy Chrissie Hynde. An Antarctic penguin is osseeing cult actors Beswicke and Dick Miller tracized from his tribe because he can’t sing in bed together. [R]▼●쩠 a mating call—but he sure can dance! EnHappy Hooker Goes to Washington, The dearing characters, beautifully animated in a (1977) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: William A. Levey. breathtaking landscape, make this an eyeful, Joey Heatherton, George Hamilton, Ray and there’s vintage pop music galore on the Walston, Jack Carter, Phil Foster, Billy Barty, soundtrack . . . but the story becomes proDavid White. Xaviera (a blonde this time) is tracted as it tries to drive home an ecologicalled before Congress to answer charges that cal message. Savion Glover’s dancing and sex is ruining the country and subsequently body language are successfully transposed gets involved in a CIA escapade. A few to Mumble. Williams is very funny as the chuckles here and there, but overall, more voice of Ramo´n. Oscar winner as Best Anisilly than sexy; Hamilton and writer Bob mated Feature. Digital Widescreen. [PG]쩠 Kaufman did considerably better with their Happy Gilmore (1996) C-92m. ★★ D: Dennext film, LOVE AT FIRST BITE. [R]▼쩠 nis Dugan. Adam Sandler, Christopher McHappy Hour (2004) C-93m. ★★ D: Mike Donald, Carl Weathers, Julie Bowen, Alan Bencivenga. Anthony LaPaglia, Eric Stoltz, Covert, Bob Barker, Frances Bay, Joe FlaCaroleen Feeney, Robert Vaughn, Mario herty, Kevin Nealon, Richard Kiel, Dennis Cantone, Malachy McCourt. Uninspired Dugan. Sporadically funny vehicle for Sandnovelist LaPaglia spends his days toiling at ler, as a would-be hockey player whose inan ad agency and his nights in a bar. Then ability to skate leads him to the pro golf he befriends school teacher Feeney, who also tour, where he turns game on its ear with his loves to drink, and his life is no longer the unsportsmanlike antics. Highpoint: a brawl same. Good performances save this often between Sandler and The Price Is Right’s slow, dark film about relationships, emotional Barker. Sandler cowrote the script. Ben baggage, and mortality.쩠 Stiller appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Happy Mother’s Day Love, George (1973) Happy-Go-Lucky (2008-British) C-118m. C-90m. ★★ D: Darren McGavin. Patricia ★★★ D: Mike Leigh. Sally Hawkins, Eddie Neal, Cloris Leachman, Bobby Darin, Ron Marsan, Alexis Zegerman, Andrea RiseborHoward, Simon Oakland. Unconvincing ough, Sine´ad Matthews, Kate O’Flynn, horror tale, despite some clever attempts Sarah Niles, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Karina by director McGavin to spice it up. Strange Fernandez. Schoolteacher Poppy (Hawkins) doings in seaside house include two great goes through life spreading good cheer— gory murders, but everything else is weak. even where it isn’t welcome—and refusing Retitled: RUN, STRANGER, RUN. [PG]▼ to dwell on the negative. Potentially annoying Happy New Year (1973-French) C-112m. ★★★ D: Claude Lelouch. Lino Ventura, Franat first, we come to learn that Poppy isn’t a fool; she’s bright and compassionate and c¸oise Fabian, Charles Gerard, Andre Falchooses to take an upbeat approach to con. Two thieves plot a robbery, but one falls life . . . unlike, say, her driving instructor (a hard for the liberated charmer who runs [ 581 ]

the antique shop next to the target. Bright developing feelings for the blind stepdaughromantic caper film is easy to take. Reter (Dong Jie) of the emotional abuser he’s made in Hollywood in 1987. Retitled: THE been dating. With his equally ragtag budHAPPY NEW YEAR CAPER.▼쩠 dies, he acquires an abandoned warehouse, Happy New Year (1987) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: tells the young woman it’s part of a hotel he John G. Avildsen. Peter Falk, Wendy owns and ‘‘hires’’ her with fake paper Hughes, Charles Durning, Tom Courtenay, money to be its masseuse, piping in street Joan Copeland. Falk is a treat to watch in sounds through a boom box as she gives this pleasant Americanization of Claude chaste, no-nonsense backrubs to cohorts Lelouch’s French comedy caper about a posing as customers. Sentimental, but not pair of sophisticated crooks and their plans overly so, movie holds its emotions in check until the affectingly wistful finale. [PG] ▼쩠 to hit a jewelry store in West Palm Beach, Florida. Hughes is charming in her first Happy Together (1989) C-102m. ★★ D: American film; Lelouch has a cameo in the Mel Damski. Patrick Dempsey, Helen opening scene. [PG]▼ Slater, Dan Schneider, Marius Weyers, BarHappy New Year Caper, The SEE: Happy bara Babcock, Brad Pitt. Slight, predictable New Year (1973) romantic comedy in which college students Happy Road, The (1957) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dempsey and Slater are accidentally paired Gene Kelly. Gene Kelly, Barbara Laage, Mias roommates. You can just guess how this one turns out. [PG-13]▼● chael Redgrave, Bobby Clark, Brigitte Fossey. Two single parents—American Kelly and Happy Together (1997-Hong Kong) C/B&W-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wong Kar-Wai. LesFrenchwoman Laage—are drawn together when their children run away from school tolie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Chang gether. Pleasant but minor family fare, enChen. Polished production overshadows a hanced by location filming in French predictable, paper-thin chronicle of a deeply countryside. troubled relationship between a constantly Happy, Texas (1999) C-99m. ★★★ D: Mark bickering Hong Kong gay couple in Buenos Illsley. Jeremy Northam, Steve Zahn, WilAires. The filmmaker won a Best Director liam H. Macy, Ally Walker, Illeana Douglas, prize at Cannes for this, but pointedly the M.C. Gainey, Ron Perlman, Paul Dooley, Mo script did not.▼●쩠 Gaffney. Engaging comedy about two prison Happy Years, The (1950) C-110m. ★★★ escapees who steal a van and assume the idenD: William Wellman. Dean Stockwell, tities of its owners, gay partners who stage Scotty Beckett, Darryl Hickman, Leo G. kiddie talent contests. Holed up in a small Carroll, Margalo Gillmore, Leon Ames. Texas town, they’re forced to assume those High-spirited boy in turn-of-the-century prep lives while getting more involved with the school finds he has trouble fitting in. Famillocals than they ever intended. Shot on a shoeiar comedy-drama, adapted from Owen string, but it doesn’t show; Zahn is a comic Johnson’s Lawrenceville Stories, is hardly standout in the first-rate cast. [PG-13]▼쩠 typical Wellman fare, but well done. Robert 1 ★★ ⁄2 Happy Thieves, The (1962) 88m. Wagner makes his film debut. D: George Marshall. Rex Harrison, Rita Hardball (2001) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Hayworth, Joseph Wiseman, Gregoire Aslan, Robbins. Keanu Reeves, Diane Lane, John Alida Valli. Sad pairing of star duo, out of Hawkes, Bryan Hearne, Julian Griffith, Michplace in museum theft caper, set in Spain. ael B. Jordan, A. Delon Ellis, Jr., DeWayne Happy Time, The (1952) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Warren, Mike McGlone, D.B. Sweeney, GraRichard Fleischer. Charles Boyer, Louis ham Beckel. Addictive gambler Reeves hits Jourdan, Bobby Driscoll, Marsha Hunt, Kurt rock bottom and a friend agrees to bail him Kasznar, Linda Christian, Marcel Dalio, Jeaout if he will coach a kids’ baseball team in nette Nolan, Richard Erdman. Charming the Chicago projects. Naturally, he regains his film about a boy’s coming of age in 1920s own self-esteem as he steers these emotionOttawa, Canada, amidst a colorful and ecally needy kids onto the right path. Call it centric family. Driscoll is the adolescent corny, but it works surprisingly well and emwho develops a crush on pretty magician’s phasizes the fact that one person can make a assistant Christian. Boyer is his understanddifference in the world around him. Based on ing father, eternally forgiving of his two Daniel Coyle’s experiences, as related in his wayward brothers (Jourdan and Kasznar, rebook. [PG-13]▼쩠 creating his Broadway role). Earl Felton Hard-Boiled (1992-Hong Kong) C-126m. ★★★ adapted Samuel A. Taylor’s play, based in D: John Woo. Chow Yun-Fat, Tony turn on Robert Fontaine’s autobiographical Leung, Teresa Mo, Philip Chan, Anthony stories. Wong, Kwan Hoi-Shan, A-Lung. Stylish, Happy Times (2000-Chinese) C-102m. ultra-violent story of police inspector (Yun★★★ D: Zhang Yimou. Zhao Benshan, Dong Fat) who teams up with a mysterious hit Jie, Dong Lihua. The director of RAISE man (Leung) to stop a gang of arms dealers. THE RED LANTERN and TO LIVE inStandard plot of revenge and male bonding dulges his sense of humor this time out. A is springboard for unbelievable action se50-ish strikeout with women (Zhao) starts quences that are bloody, comic, and hypno[ 582 ]

tic. Yun-Fat is a perfectly assured hero, and idea of a typical day in the group’s life. He director Woo (who wrote the original story) lets his imagination run wild; result is a visual appears as a bartender.▼●쩠 delight, with many Beatles songs on the Hard Bounty (1995) C-89m. ★★ D: Jim soundtrack (including ‘‘Can’t Buy Me Wynorski. Matt McCoy, Kelly LeBrock, Love,’’ ‘‘And I Love Her,’’ ‘‘I Should John Terlesky, Felicity Waterman, Jay Have Known Better,’’ and the title tune). Richardson, Ross Hagen, Kimberly Kelley. Original screenplay by Alun Owen. Reissued in 1982 with a short prologue. ▼●쩠 Languid, corpse-laden Western, in which whore LeBrock and her entourage saddle Hard Driver SEE: Last American Hero, up and seek revenge after tragedy strikes. The McCoy is an Eastwoodesque bounty hunter Hard Eight (1997) C-101m. ★★★ D: Paul known as The Holy Ghost. [R]▼쩠 Thomas Anderson. Philip Baker Hall, John ★★1 Hard Candy (2006) C-103m. ⁄2 D: David C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Slade. Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Jackson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Spare Jennifer Holmes. Essentially a two-character but accomplished Nevada mood piece about drama, supremely intense story has a 14-yeara minor gambling pro who, for reasons that old girl meeting a 32-year-old photographer remain tantalizingly obscure for threeshe has flirted with on the Internet. When they fourths of the movie’s length, elects to tutor go back to his place, her real purpose is rea much younger man in eking out a minimal vealed as she traps him in a personal sting operliving ‘‘working’’ casinos. Punctuated by ation to extract a major price for what she sporadic and deftly timed spurts of viobelieves is his criminal past. Watching her turn lence; Paltrow is successfully cast against the tables on this sexual predator gives this tale type as a cocktail waitress and sometime a certain perverse fascination. While it has echhooker with no brains at her disposal. Aka oes of thrillers like FATAL ATTRACTION SYDNEY. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 and MISERY, Page’s brutal vengeance seeker Harder They Come, The (1973-Jamaican) makes Kathy Bates’ character seem like Pippi C-103m. ★★★ D: Perry Henzell. Jimmy Longstocking. Super 35. [R]쩠 Cliff, Janet Barkley, Carl Bradshaw, Ras Hard Contract (1969) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Daniel Hartman, Bobby Charlton. CountryS. Lee Pogostin. James Coburn, Lee Remick, boy Cliff comes to Kingston to make it as a Lilli Palmer, Burgess Meredith, Patrick singer; ironically, it isn’t until he turns to a Magee, Sterling Hayden, Karen Black. Hired life of crime that his record starts to climb killer Coburn starts to have self-doubts when the charts. Crude but powerful film almost a woman (Remick) humanizes him. Film is single-handedly launched reggae music’s too concerned with making an ‘‘important popularity in America; still a major cult fastatement’’ to become particularly entertainvorite. Terrific song score includes ‘‘You ing or involving. Panavision. [PG] Can Get It If You Really Want,’’ ‘‘Many Rivers to Cross,’’ title tune. [R]▼●쩠 Hardcore (1979) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Schrader. George C. Scott, Peter Boyle, SeaHarder They Fall, The (1956) 109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mark Robson. Humphrey Bogart, son Hubley, Dick Sargent, Leonard Gaines, David Nichols. Calvinistic Midwesterner Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling, Mike Lane, Scott (in powerful performance) searches for Max Baer, Edward Andrews. Bogart’s last teenage daughter who’s inexplicably dropped feature casts him as cynical sportswriterout. He’s heartsick after viewing porno film turned-press agent who realizes for the starring her, and his journey into netherworld first time how badly prizefighters are maof prostitution and porn is at times fascinating, nipulated by their unfeeling managers. Powsad, and repellent. Marred by unbelievable erful drama by Budd Schulberg.▼쩠 conclusion. [R]▼●쩠 Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) 79m. ★★ Hard Country (1981) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Ida Lupino. Claire Trevor, Sally David Greene. Jan-Michael Vincent, Kim Forrest, Carleton Young, Robert Clarke, Basinger, Michael Parks, Gailard Sartain, Kenneth Patterson. Domineering mother Tanya Tucker, Ted Neeley, Daryl Hanpushes daughter into world of competitive nah, Richard Moll. Good ole boy Vincent tennis. Straightforward story, awkwardly works all day, parties all night; his girlfriend filmed (and acted) at times. Director Lupino (Basinger) wants to marry him, but also and Robert Ryan make cameo appearances. wants out of Texas. Overshadowed by Hard Knocks (1980-Australian) C-85m. ★★★ D: Don McLennan. Tracey Mann, URBAN COWBOY, but not bad and done with conviction. Music by Michael Martin John Arnold, Bill Hunter, Max Cullen, Murphey. Film debuts of Basinger and Tony Barry. Gritty, powerful drama cenNashville star Tucker. [PG]▼●쩠 tering on the efforts of ex-con Mann to Hard Day’s Night, A (1964-British) 85m. straighten out her life, highlighted by a ★★★★ D: Richard Lester. John Lennon, brilliant, multifaceted lead performance.▼ Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Hardly Working (1981) C-91m. ★★ D: Starr, Wilfrid Brambell, Norman RossingJerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Susan Oliver, ton, John Junkin, Victor Spinetti, Anna Roger C. Carmel, Deanna Lund, Harold J. Quayle. First Beatles film is director Lester’s Stone, Steve Franken, Buddy Lester. Jer[ 583 ]

ry’s ‘‘comeback’’ (filmed in Florida in care about the story? Followed by PI1979) is typical lamebrain comedy (about CASSO TRIGGER. [R]▼쩠 an unemployed circus clown who bumbles Hard Times (1975) C-97m. ★★★ D: Walter from one job to another), but an older Hill. Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill IreJerry wavers between playing the oafish land, Strother Martin, Maggie Blye, Michael kid of yore and a more ‘‘mature’’ characMcGuire. Bronson is a tight-lipped streetter. Not a very good movie; the opening fighter and Coburn is the sharpster who armontage from earlier films is much funnier ranges his bare-knuckled bouts in 1930s New than anything that follows. Trimmed from Orleans. Colorful (but violent) entertainment. European release length. [PG]▼ Hill’s directorial debut. Panavision. [PG— Hard Promises (1992) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: edited from original R rating]▼●쩠 Martin Davidson. Sissy Spacek, William Hard to Get (1938) 80m. ★★★ D: Ray Petersen, Brian Kerwin, Mare Winningham, Enright. Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland, Jeff Perry, Olivia Burnette, Peter MacNicol, Charles Winninger, Allen Jenkins, Bonita Ann Wedgeworth, Amy Wright, Lois Smith. Granville, Penny Singleton. Good variaPetersen gets the invitation to ex-wife tion on spoiled-rich-girl-meets-poor-butSpacek’s new marriage one day before the hardworking-boy idea. Winninger, as Olivceremony, and rushes home to small Texas ia’s wealthy father, and Singleton, as their town to disrupt the proceedings. Surprisingly maid, are hilarious. Film is full of great unpleasant comedy, with Petersen’s loutish supporting comics (Grady Sutton, Thurston behavior in the establishing scenes mitigating Hall, Arthur Housman, etc.), and includes against any potential fun. Rip Torn (Spacek’s ‘‘You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby.’’쩠 cousin) appears unbilled. [PG] ▼●쩠 Hard to Handle (1933) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hard Rain (1998) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mikael Mervyn LeRoy. James Cagney, Mary Brian, Salomon. Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater, Ruth Donnelly, Allen Jenkins, Emma Dunn, Randy Quaid, Minnie Driver, Ed Asner, MiClaire Dodd, Robert McWade. Cagney sparchael Goorjian, Mark Rolston, Richard Dykles in this otherwise so-so Depression-era sart, Betty White. As a small Midwest town comedy as a fast-talking promoter/hustler who disappears under rising flood waters, a crimcourts pretty Brian; Donnelly is aces as her inal gang headed by Freeman tries to catch mom. The ‘‘Grapefruit Acres’’ and diet armored car guard Slater, who’s hidden the schemes are homages of sorts to Cagney’s money they’re after. The cast is above averlegendary scene with Mae Clarke in THE age, the effects are impressive, and the setPUBLIC ENEMY. ting is unusual, but a routine script barely Hard to Hold (1984) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Larry keeps this afloat. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Peerce. Rick Springfield, Janet Eilber, Patti Hard Ride, The (1971) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hansen, Albert Salmi, Bill Mumy. PamBurt Topper. Robert Fuller, Sherry Bain, pered rock star collides (literally) with Tony Russel, Marshall Reed, Biff Elliot, spirited young woman who doesn’t know— William Bonner. Ex-sergeant Fuller accomor care—who he is . . . so naturally he falls panies the body of a black buddy home from in love with her. Tiresome romance designed Vietnam and tries to persuade the vet’s white as star vehicle for teen idol Springfield, and sweetheart and the Indian leader of his motorretitled ‘‘Hard to Watch’’ by some wags. cycle gang to attend his funeral. Not just an[PG—edited from original R rating]▼●쩠 other cycle flick, and not bad. [PG]▼ Hard to Kill (1990) C-95m. ★★ D: Bruce Hard Target (1993) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Malmuth. Steven Seagal, Kelly LeBrock, Woo. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lance Bill Sadler, Frederick Coffin, Bonnie BurHenriksen, Arnold Vosloo, Yancy Butler, roughs, Zachary Rosencrantz, Dean Norris. Kasi Lemmons, Wilford Brimley, Chuck Police detective Seagal uncovers a major Pfarrer. Acclaimed action-director Woo’s political corruption ring and is shot and left U.S. debut is a disappointing thriller featurfor dead; when he awakens from a sevening Van Damme as a sailor aiding hard-luck year coma, he’s ripe for revenge. Full of the veterans being exploited by sadistic Henrikusual violence and chases for this genre, but sen (who by now can play this kind of role Seagal is fun to watch. LeBrock, who in his sleep). Not bad of its type, but doesn’t nurses him back to health, was then the realmatch Woo’s highly touted Hong Kong– life Mrs. Seagal. [R] ▼●쩠 made efforts. [R]▼●쩠 Hard Traveling (1985) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) C-96m. ★★ Dan Bessie. J. E. Freeman, Ellen Geer, D: Andy Sidaris. Dona Speir, Hope Marie Barry Corbin, James Gammon, Jim Haynie. Carlton, Ronn Moss, Harold Diamond, Occasionally touching but ultimately disRodrigo Obregon, Cynthia Brimhill, Patty appointing drama about a gentle, decent, Duffek, Wolf Larson. Typical Andy Sidaris but uneducated and disadvantaged man mix of action, beautiful scenery, and buxom (Freeman) who finds love and stability bimbos baring their breasts. The story? with widow Geer, but commits murder when Something about female undercover agents unable to support her. Done in by too running a sting operation that gets them in hot water with drug lords. Does anyone many flashbacks. Based on the novel Bread [ 584 ]

and a Stone by Alvah Bessie, father of the against the Eastover Mining Company, a director. [PG]▼ subsidiary of Duke Power. Memorable Hardware (1990-British-U.S.) C-92m. ★★ scene of miner and Brooklyn cop having a ‘‘conversation.’’ [PG]▼쩠 D: Richard Stanley. Dylan McDermott, Stacy Travis, John Lynch, Iggy Pop, WilHarlem Globetrotters, The (1951) 80m. ★★ liam Hootkins, Mark Northover. SomeD: Phil Brown. Thomas Gomez, Dorowhere in the post-nuke future, desert thy Dandridge, Bill Walker, Angela Clarke. scavenger McDermott presents some anVehicle built around famed basketball team, droid remains to Travis; eventually, the with a few romantic interludes. Harlem Nights (1989) C-115m. ★★ D: stuff rekindles what is apparently its life mission—to destroy all living things (and Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy, Richard the Travis pad, besides). Surprisingly well Pryor, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Michael made, but recalls many earlier (and better) Lerner, Della Reese, Berlinda Tolbert, Stan films. Heavy violence nearly earned this an Shaw, Jasmine Guy, Lela Rochon, Arsenio X rating, before it was trimmed. [R]▼● Hall, Robin Harris. Proprietor of an afterHard Way, The (1942) 109m. ★★★ D: hours club in 1930s Harlem (Pryor) and his Vincent Sherman. Ida Lupino, Dennis Moradopted son (Murphy) try standing up to a gan, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson, Gladys white mobster determined to cut in on their George, Julie Bishop. Intriguing but artifitake or put them out of business. Murphy’s cial story of strong-willed Lupino pushing debut as writer-director is skimpily scripted younger sister Leslie into show business and completely devoid of energy. Even Prycareer. Holds up until improbable finale, or’s effortless charisma can’t breathe much although it seems unlikely that Broadway life into this one. [R]▼●쩠 would cheer Leslie as the greatest discovHarlequin (1980-Australian) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 ery of the age. Morgan and Carson (in first D: Simon Wincer. Robert Powell, David of several teamings) match Lupino’s fine Hemmings, Carmen Duncan, Broderick performance. ▼● Crawford, Gus Mercurio, Alan Cassell. Hard Way, The (1991) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Faith-healer Powell helps politician HemJohn Badham. Michael J. Fox, James mings’ son, who has leukemia; however, his Woods, Stephen Lang, Annabella Sciorra, wife (Duncan) is also attracted to the healer. Penny Marshall, John Capodice, Luis GuzMiddling drama updating story of Rasputin, man, LL Cool J, Delroy Lindo, Christina Nicholas, and Alexandra. Retitled DARK Ricci, Karen Lynn Gorney. Long, loud, FORCES. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 loose cannon of a movie about a spoiled-brat Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man Hollywood star who attaches himself to a (1991) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Simon Wincer. reckless N.Y.C. street cop to prepare for his Mickey Rourke, Don Johnson, Chelsea next movie role. Some laughs, lots of action, Field, Daniel Baldwin, Giancarlo Esposito, but it all goes out of control. Panavision. Vanessa Williams, Tom Sizemore. An[R]▼●쩠 other title in search of a movie. Drifter Hard Word, The (2002-Australian-British) Rourke and onetime rodeo cowboy Johnson rob a bank to help their pal, whose C-103m. ★★★ D: Scott Roberts. Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Robert Taylor, Joel EdgerRock ’n’ Roll Bar and Grill is about to be ton, Damien Richardson, Rhondda Findleton, closed by strong-armed creditors. ModerKate Atkinson, Vince Colosimo. Violent ately futuristic comic-adventure moves fast crime caper with a tough attitude, a sly sense enough, but even some unexpectedly silly of humor, and some neat story twists. Three encounters can’t distinguish it. Touted in convicts (led by Pearce, the brains of the the studio press material as ‘‘the lighter side of Mickey Rourke.’’ [R]▼●쩠 outfit) commit a string of robberies with the help of their crooked warden and a slick Harlow (1965) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon lawyer—but a series of double-crosses Douglas. Carroll Baker, Peter Lawford, leads to bitterness and a hunger for revenge, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Raf Vallone, even if the score takes time to settle. Written Angela Lansbury, Martin Balsam, Leslie by the director. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Nielsen. Slick, colorful garbage will hold Harem (1985-French) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: your interest, but doesn’t ring true. Baker Arthur Joffe. Nastassja Kinski, Ben Kingscould never match the real Harlow, but ley, Dennis Goldson, Zohra Segal, Michel Vallone and Lansbury are good as her Robin, Julette Simpson. Thin, boring drama stepfather and mother. Rushed through proabout Arab prince Kingsley, who kidnaps duction to compete with the slipshod Carol Kinski and adds her to his harem. Solid Lynley version. Panavision.▼ production values can’t take the place of a Harlow (1965) 109m. ★★ D: Alex Segal. coherent scenario and fully fleshed-out Carol Lynley, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Barry characterizations. Panavision.▼● Sullivan, Hurd Hatfield, Ginger Rogers, Harlan County, U.S.A. (1977) C-103m. Hermione Baddeley, Lloyd Bochner, Au★★★1⁄2 D: Barbara Kopple. Gripping, human drey Totter, John Williams, Robert Strauss. documentary (an Academy Award winner) Amateurish off-the-cuff tedium loosely based about the strike of Kentucky mine workers on screen star of the 1930s. Rogers as Mama [ 585 ]

Harlow is best. This quickie production made Harold Lloyd, Bebe Daniels, Mildred Davis. news in 1965 because it was produced in an Delightful comedy scenes show why Lloyd unusual manner: staged as a live television was so popular in the 1920s. Highlights show and recorded as a kinescope. include classic building-climbing episode Harmonists, The (1997-German-Austrian) and other great sight gags. A real gem.쩠 ★★★ C-116m. D: Joseph Vilsmaier. Ben Harold Robbins’ The Betsy SEE: Betsy, Becker, Heino Ferch, Ulrich Noethen, HeinThe rich Schafmeister, Max Tidof, Kai Wiesinger, Harper (1966) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jack Meret Becker, Katja Riemann. StraightforSmight. Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall, Juward telling of a fascinating story about the lie Harris, Shelley Winters, Robert Wagner, formation of an innovative vocal group whose Janet Leigh, Arthur Hill, Pamela Tiffin, enormous popularity in late 1920s–early ’30s Robert Webber, Strother Martin, Harold Germany almost seems impervious to growGould. High-grade action-mystery has Newing Nazi dictums—but inevitably runs afoul man as private eye hired by Bacall to investiof the new government, as three of the singers gate disappearance of her husband; blowsy are Jewish. The same story was chronicled in Winters, frustrated Harris are involved in a German documentary, THE COMEDIAN fast-paced, sophisticated yarn. Screenplay by HARMONISTS, which was this film’s title in William Goldman, from Ross Macdonald’s Europe. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 The Moving Target. Sequel: THE DROWNING POOL. Panavision.▼●쩠 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Jon HurHarper Valley P.T.A. (1978) C-102m. ★★ witz, Hayden Schlossberg. John Cho, Kal D: Richard Bennett. Barbara Eden, Penn, Rob Corddry, Jack Conley, Roger Bart, Ronny Cox, Nanette Fabray, Susan Swift, Neil Patrick Harris, Danneel Harris, Eric Ron Masak, Louis Nye, Pat Paulsen, AuWinter, Paula Garce´s, Jon Reep, Missi Pyle, drey Christie, John Fiedler, Bob Hastings. Beverly D’Angelo, David Krumholtz, ChrisBubblegum comedy from hit Jeannie C. Riley topher Meloni, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Ed song about small-town mother who arouses Helms. Appalling follow-up to the 2004 comlocal wrath for her free-thinking ways, retaliedy finds the pot-smoking slackers mistaken ates with series of elaborate revenges. Old for terrorists. Corddry plays a Homeland Sepros eke some chuckles out of threadbare macurity Chief who’s on their trail. The first terial. Later a TV series. [PG]▼쩠 film was benign and goofy, but this one is Harp of Burma SEE: Burmese Harp, The determined to be as raunchy as possible . . . Harrad Experiment, The (1973) C-88m. ★★1 to an astonishing degree. Harris again plays ⁄2 D: Ted Post. Don Johnson, James Whit‘‘himself,’’ a drug-addled sexaholic. Altermore, Tippi Hedren, B. Kirby, Jr. (Bruno nate version runs 107m. [R]쩠 Kirby), Laurie Walters, Robert MiddleHarold & Kumar Go to White Castle ton, Victoria Thompson. Fair adaptation (2004-U.S.-Canadian) C-87m. ★★ D: Danny of offbeat best-seller by Robert Rimmer in Leiner. Kal Penn, John Cho, Paula Garce´s, which experimental coed college pushes Neil Patrick Harris, David Krumholtz, Eddie policy of sexual freedom. Two pairs of Kaye Thomas, Christopher Meloni, Ryan relationships singled out as in book, but Reynolds, Fred Willard, Ethan Embry, Jamie film actually should’ve been longer! ImKennedy, Malin Ackerman. Two friends try provisational group Ace Trucking Co. apto satisfy a craving by driving to a White pears as itself. Melanie Griffith (Hedren’s Castle hamburger stop in New Jersey but have daughter) was an extra in this—at age 14. a nightlong series of misadventures instead. Look for young Gregory Harrison. Sequel: Good actors in the leads and a distinctive HARRAD SUMMER. [R]▼쩠 goofball vibe are definite assets, but a spotty Harrad Summer (1974) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 script too often fails to deliver on its promise. D: Steven H. Stern. Richard Doran, Victo(We won’t even mention the toilet scene.) ria Thompson, Laurie Walters, Robert Anthony Anderson appears unbilled; Harris Reiser, Bill Dana, Marty Allen. Fair seplays himself. Unrated version runs 90m. Folquel to THE HARRAD EXPERIMENT, lowed by a sequel. [R] ▼쩠 about sex-education school for young stuHarold and Maude (1971) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 dents that sends them home, where they D: Hal Ashby. Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, can apply what they’ve learned. Aka STUDENT UNION. [R]▼ Vivian Pickles, Cyril Cusack, Charles Tyner, Ellen Geer. Black comedy focuses on lovHarriet Craig (1950) 94m. ★★★ D: Vining relationship between 20-year-old Cort, cent Sherman. Joan Crawford, Wendell who’s obsessed with death, and 79-year-old Corey, Lucile Watson, Allyn Joslyn, Ellen swinger Gordon. Dismissed at time of release, Corby. Remake of CRAIG’S WIFE is well this has become a cult favorite, and the corcast, with Crawford in title role of perfecnerstone of writer Colin Higgins’ reputationist wife who’ll stop at nothing to have tion. Cort’s phony suicides are hilarious. her house and life run as she wishes.▼ Music by Cat Stevens. [PG]▼●쩠 Harriet the Spy (1996) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold Lloyd’s World of Comedy (1962) Bronwen Hughes. Michelle Trachtenberg, ★★★ 94m. Vanessa Lee Chester, Gregory Smith, Rosie Compiled by Harold Lloyd. [ 586 ]

O’Donnell, J. Smith-Cameron, Robert Joy, Caine, Charles Durning, Lesley Ann Warren, Eartha Kitt. Young girl is encouraged by Val Avery, Jack Gilford, Carol Kane. Lavish her eccentric nanny (O’Donnell) to keep a but lopsided period farce with Caan and journal of everything she sees, which evenGould as low-grade vaudevillians in the 1890s tually gets her into trouble with friends and who wind up trying their luck as safecrackers foes alike. Gets lost somewhere in the midin N.Y. Spirited but strenuous comedy misses dle, but makes an impressive recovery in the mark. Nice art direction by Harry Horner. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 the final third, when an insightful look at childhood relationships comes to the fore. Harry in Your Pocket (1973) C-103m. ★★★ Based on the popular juvenile novel by D: Bruce Geller. James Coburn, MiLouise Fitzhugh. [PG]▼●쩠 chael Sarrazin, Trish Van Devere, Walter Harrison’s Flowers (2002-French) C-130m. Pidgeon. Engaging story of group of super★★ D: Elie Chouraqui. Andie MacDowell, pickpockets and how they prey upon innoDavid Strathairn, Elias Koteas, Adrien Brody, cent victims. Pidgeon steals the film as Brendan Gleeson, Alun Armstrong, Diane sleazy professional crook. Baker, Marie Trintignant. When MacDowell Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is told that her photographer-husband has (2002) C-161m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Columbus. died in war-torn Yugoslavia, she refuses to Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watbelieve it and goes there to find him. Vivid son, Kenneth Branagh, John Cleese, Robbie look at life in the midst of a chaotic, seemColtrane, Warwick Davis, Richard Griffiths, ingly senseless war, and the way photojourRichard Harris, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, nalists thrust themselves into the thick of that Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Julie Walters, tumult . . . but surrounding story is woefully Shirley Henderson, Miriam Margolyes, Mark underwritten. Main character’s odyssey is Williams, Gemma Jones. J. K. Rowling’s more grueling than inspiring. Super 35. saga of witchcraft and wizardry continues in a [R]▼쩠 darker vein as Harry, Ron, and Hermione Harry and Son (1984) C-117m. ★★ D: Paul enter their sophomore year at Hogwarts, Newman. Paul Newman, Robby Benson, where they battle a mysterious evil force that Joanne Woodward, Ellen Barkin, Wilford threatens the school’s very existence. Second Brimley, Judith Ivey, Ossie Davis, Morgan verse, pretty much the same as the first, with Freeman. Newman directed, coproduced and a plethora of engaging action set pieces (incowrote this contrived, meandering drama cluding another Quidditch match, a flying car, about the relationship between a widower a CGI elf named Dobby, talking spiders, and father (who’s just lost his job—and his selfa climactic battle with a formidable serpent), respect) and son (who hasn’t gotten his life but the film suffers from overlength and uninin order yet). Newman isn’t really convincing spired transcription from page to screen. New as the old man; Benson has played the cast members Branagh (as a pompous profesyounger role a bit too often. [PG]▼● sor) and Isaacs (Draco Malfoy’s malevolent Harry and the Hendersons (1987) C-110m. father) add some spark. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: William Dear. John Lithgow, MeHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire linda Dillon, Margaret Langrick, Joshua (2005) C-157m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Rudoy, Kevin Peter Hall, David Suchet, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma WatLainie Kazan, Don Ameche, M. Emmet son, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, MiWalsh. Family encounters a Bigfoot-type chael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Jason monster in the woods and takes it home, Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Miranda Richardson, thinking it’s dead. When it comes alive, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Timothy Spall, the family finds itself becoming attached Frances de la Tour, Pedja Bjelac, David Bradto the hairy fellow. Amusing but fatally ley, Warwick Davis, Robert Hardy, Robert overlong, this sweet-natured variation on Pattinson, Shirley Henderson. Harry’s fourth E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL runs year at Hogwarts is marked by the Quidditch hot and cold; best recommended for kids. World Cup and a Triwizard Tournament in Lithgow is terrific as always. Rick Baker’s which students from three schools compete in makeup earned an Academy Award. Later a series of increasingly challenging contests. a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 By far the most intense installment in the seHarry and Tonto (1974) C-115m. ★★★ D: ries, dealing not only with the magical aspects Paul Mazursky. Art Carney, Ellen Burstyn, of the characters’ lives but also the trials of Chief Dan George, Geraldine Fitzgerald, adolescence. Again, Steve Kloves tries to Larry Hagman, Arthur Hunnicutt, Joshua compress the contents of J. K. Rowling’s Mostel, Melanie Mayron, Herbert Berghof, hefty book into a cohesive screenplay, and Barbara Rhoades. An old man takes a crosswhile some avid fans of the novel may feel country trip with his cat as companion. Art unfulfilled, the action, storytelling, and perforCarney won an Oscar for his performance in mances are excellent. The familiar players are this bittersweet, episodic comedy. [R]▼쩠 joined here by several world-class newcomers. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Harry and Walter Go to New York Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoe(1976) C-123m. ★★ D: Mark Rydell. James nix (2007) C-138m. ★★★ D: David Yates. Caan, Elliott Gould, Diane Keaton, Michael [ 587 ]

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert the charm of Rowling’s characters and ideas, Grint, Gary Oldman, Imelda Staunton, Robespecially in the hands of a peerless British ert Hardy, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, cast. Known outside U.S as HARRY POTTER Ralph Fiennes, Katie Leung, Helena Bonham AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE. First Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Brendan Gleeson, of series. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 Richard Griffiths, Jason Isaacs, Alan RickHarry’s Machine SEE: Hollywood Harry man, Fiona Shaw, David Thewlis, Emma Harry’s War (1981) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kieth Thompson, David Bradley, Warwick Davis, Merrill. Edward Herrmann, Geraldine Page, Tom Felton, Julie Walters, Robert Pattinson. Karen Grassle, David Ogden Stiers, Salome The longest Potter novel turned shortest Potter Jens, Elisha Cook. Easygoing postman Herrmovie begins with Harry in trouble: standing mann battles the IRS after his aunt (Page) is in front of a tribunal for using his magical unfairly billed for $190,000 in back taxes. powers in front of a civilian. This sets a bumCapra-esque one-man-against-the-bureaucracy luck tone for its protagonist in a screenplay tale is sometimes touching but mostly overthat seems in a rush to get on to the next entry; baked. Herrmann performs earnestly; Merrill also wrote the screenplay. [PG]▼ one senses some Harry midlife crisis in the wings. Acceptable slice of dank gloom-andHarry Tracy, Desperado (1982-Canadian) doom, minus some of the fun of earlier epiC-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: William A. Graham. sodes. Highlighted by Staunton’s outlandish Bruce Dern, Helen Shaver, Michael C. but dead-on portrayal of the kind of shrew Gwynne, Gordon Lightfoot. Saga of outlaw teacher everybody has had at least once. Prowho lives by his own moral code. Laid-back duction finesse and ‘‘event’’ aura made this but worthwhile for Dern’s fine performance entry one of the more watchable summer and vivid re-creation of Western life at the 2007 blockbusters. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 turn of the 20th century. Original Canadian Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkatitle: HARRY TRACY. [PG]▼쩠 ban (2004) C-142m. ★★★ D: Alfonso CuaHarsh Times (2006) C-117m. ★★ D: David ro´n. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Ayer. Christian Bale, Freddy Rodrı´guez, Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Michael GamEva Longoria, Terry Crews, Noel Gugliemi, bon, Richard Griffiths, Gary Oldman, Alan Chaka Forman, Michael Monks, J. K. SimRickman, Fiona Shaw, Maggie Smith, Timmons. Brutally intense drama about a forothy Spall, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson, mer soldier, experienced in cold-blooded Tom Felton, Julie Walters, David Bradley, killing, who wants to join the L.A.P.D. but Dawn French, Warwick Davis, Lenny Henry, is much more interested in getting into trouPam Ferris, Julie Christie. J. K. Rowling’s ble with his lifelong pal and keeping him much-loved characters Harry, Hermione, and from his responsibilities (including a promRon, now entering adolescence, begin their ise to his girlfriend to go job-hunting). Bale third year at Hogwarts School. Harry tanmakes yet another psychotic character utgles with Sirius Black (Oldman), an evil terly believable in this ugly, visceral portrait wizard–escaped convict who was supposof society’s underbelly. Gripping but emoedly involved in the death of his parents. tionally draining. Directorial debut for Episodic as ever, loaded with fantasy and speTRAINING DAY writer Ayer, who also scripted. [R]쩠 cial effects, but more foreboding and psychologically complex—and far more cinematic— Hart’s War (2002) C-125m. ★★★ D: Gregthan the first two offerings, a result of Cuaro´n ory Hoblit. Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Tertaking over director’s reins. Thompson and rence Howard, Cole Hauser, Marcel Iures, Thewlis add spunk as new Hogwarts profesLinus Roache, Vicellous Shannon, Adrian sors. Screenplay by Steve Kloves. A mildGrenier, Joe Spano, Rory Cochrane. Amerimannered Gambon replaces the late Richard can soldier who’s never seen action is taken Harris as Dumbledore. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 prisoner during WW2 and wages a battle of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone wits with the ranking officer at his POW camp. The plot thickens when two black (2001) C-152m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Columbus. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watsoldiers arrive on the scene and racism son, Richard Harris, Robbie Coltrane, Maggie flares up. Entertaining yarn is a good showSmith, Ian Hart, Alan Rickman, John Hurt, case for Farrell and a perfect fit for Willis, John Cleese, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, though its message about honor is a bit Sean Biggerstaff, Tom Felton, Warwick muddy. There’s still no villain quite like an Davis, Julie Walters, Zoe Wanamaker, David urbane, educated Nazi. Based on a novel by John Katzenbach. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Bradley. At age 11, J. K. Rowling’s bespectacled hero is freed from the custody of his miserHarum Scarum (1965) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: able aunt and uncle to fulfill his destiny at Gene Nelson. Elvis Presley, Mary Ann Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Mobley, Fran Jeffries, Michael Ansara, where he makes friends and enemies, learns Jay Novello, Philip Reed, Theo Marcuse, dangerous secrets, and has many high-flying Billy Barty. Visiting the Middle East gives adventures. Begins with a real sense of wonder usual Presley musical formula a change of and magic, winds up an overlong, bombastic scenery, via back-lot desert locations.▼●쩠 special-effects movie . . . but nothing can erase Harvard Man (2002) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: [ 588 ]

James Toback. Adrian Grenier, Sarah MiHasty Heart, The (1949-British) 99m. ★★★1 chelle Gellar, Joey Lauren Adams, Eric ⁄2 D: Vincent Sherman. Ronald Reagan, Stoltz, Rebecca Gayheart, Gianni Russo, Patricia Neal, Richard Todd, Anthony Ray Allen, John Neville. Harvard basketball Nicholls, Howard Crawford. Sensitive film player who’s sleeping with his philosophy version of John Patrick play, focusing on professor (Adams) as well as the daughter proud Scottish soldier who discovers he (Gellar) of a Mafioso borrows money from has short time to live and friendships he the don—mistake #1—then tries out a finally makes among his hospital mates. Refriend’s new batch of LSD—mistakes #2, 3, made in 1983 for cable TV.▼쩠 and 4. Typically edgy, in-your-face Toback Hatari! (1962) C-159m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Howmovie; arresting at first, but then goes comard Hawks. John Wayne, Elsa Martinelli, pletely haywire, with unbelievable and absurd Red Buttons, Hardy Kruger, Gerard Blain, story twists. Al Franken makes a very funny Bruce Cabot. Marvelous lighthearted acunbilled appearance. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 tion film of wild-animal trappers in Africa, Harvest (1937-French) 127m. ★★★★ D: with just-right mixture of adventure and Marcel Pagnol. Gabriel Gabrio, Orane comedy. Wayne is at his best. Notable Demazis, Fernandel, Edouard Delmont, Henry Mancini score. Filmed in TanganHenri Poupon. Simple, stark tale of peasyika; title is Swahili for ‘‘Danger!’’▼●쩠 ants Gabrio and Demazis struggling against Hatchet (2007) C-83m. ★★ D: Adam all odds to till the land and give life to the Green. Joel David Moore, Tamara Feldman, earth. Magnificent, with Fernandel memoDeon Richmond, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, rable as Demazis’ comical husband.▼ Joel Murray, Patrika Darbo, Robert EnHarvey (1950) 104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry glund. Horror fans might have a few guiltyKoster. James Stewart, Josephine Hull, Peggy pleasure giggles with this crude but knowDow, Charles Drake, Cecil Kellaway, Victoing homage to ’80s slasher movies. Mardi ria Horne, Jesse White, Wallace Ford, Ida Gras revelers are methodically (and graphiMoore. Stewart gives one of his best perforcally) murdered by a misshapen psycho mances as tippler Elwood P. Dowd, whose after they venture into a ‘‘haunted’’ Louisicompanion is a six-foot invisible rabbit named ana swamp. Also available in unrated ver1 sion. [R]쩠 Harvey (actually, he’s 6 feet, 3 ⁄2 inches). Hull won Oscar as distraught sister. Mary Chase Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1971-ItalianSpanish) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mario Bava. and Oscar Brodney adapted Chase’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play. Hull and White re-create Stephen Forsyth, Dagmar Lassander, Laura their Broadway roles. Remade for TV in Betti, Gerard Tichy, Femi Benussi. Char1998. ▼●쩠 acteristic Bava horror thriller: strong on vivid Harvey Girls, The (1946) C-101m. ★★★ imagery, shot in fluid, cinematic style, with a D: George Sidney. Judy Garland, Ray screwy, hard-to-follow plot about a madman Bolger, John Hodiak, Angela Lansbury, who murders brides, while haunted by the Preston Foster, Virginia O’Brien, Marjoghost of his own wife. [PG]▼쩠 rie Main, Kenny Baker, Cyd Charisse, Hatchet Man, The (1932) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Catherine McLeod. Westward expansion William Wellman. Edward G. Robinson, brings with it Fred Harvey’s railroad staLoretta Young, Dudley Digges, Blanche tion restaurants, and proper young waitresses Frederici, Leslie Fenton. Fascinating yarn who have civilizing influence on rowdy about Chinatown tongs, and Robinson’s communities. Silly script made entertaining attempts to Americanize himself. Potent by good cast and a few musical highlights melodrama, once you get past obvious (like Oscar-winning ‘‘On the Atchison, barrier of Caucasian cast. Topeka, and the Santa Fe’’).▼●쩠 Hatchet Murders, The SEE: Deep Red Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965) CHate (1995-French) 95m. ★★★ D: Mathieu 75m. ★★ D: Ernest Pintoff. Gene Troobnick, Kassovitz. Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Hermione Gingold, Patricia Harty, Arlene Said Taghaoui, Karim Belkadra, Edouard Golonka, Will MacKenzie, Charles Durning. Montoute. Two-fisted tale of three young Low-key comedy about mildmannered firehoods (an Arab, a Jew, and a black), living man trying to coordinate fantasy and real in the projects outside of Paris, who seek life; amiable but unfocused film was aniretribution when their best friend is beaten mator Pintoff’s first live-action feature. into a coma by the cops. Basically an antiHas Anybody Seen My Gal (1952) C-89m. police polemic, this is short on subtlety but ★★1 still powerfully effective. Bravura cam⁄2 D: Douglas Sirk. Charles Coburn, Piper Laurie, Rock Hudson, Gigi Perreau, Lynn erawork is reminiscent of Spike Lee, but Bari, William Reynolds, Larry Gates, Skip Kassovitz’s mise-en-sce`ne is his own and Homeier. Pleasant, lightweight 1920s nosaptly reflects the alienated world of lowertalgia about rich old Coburn planning to class kids without keys to their own city. leave his fortune to the family of a woman Winner of Best Director award at Cannes. who turned down his marriage proposal Original title: LA HAINE. [R]▼쩠 years earlier. Coburn’s performance is the Hatful of Rain, A (1957) 109m. ★★★ D: whole show; look fast for James Dean.쩠 Fred Zinnemann. Eva Marie Saint, Don [ 589 ]

Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan, D: Roger Corman. Vincent Price, Debra Henry Silva, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, WilPaget, Lon Chaney, Jr., Frank Maxwell, liam Hickey. Realistic melodrama of the Leo Gordon, Elisha Cook, Jr., John Dierkes. living hell dope addict Murray undergoes, When a man arrives in New England town to and the effects on those around him; fine claim family castle, he discovers the town performances. Scripted by Michael V. populated by mutants and the castle under an Gazzo, Alfred Hayes, and Carl Foreman ancestor’s evil spell, which soon possesses from Gazzo’s play. CinemaScope. him. Good-looking but minor film from Cor1 ★★ Hatter’s Castle (1941-British) 90m. ⁄2 D: man’s Edgar Allan Poe cycle, although based Lance Comfort. Deborah Kerr, James Mason, mainly on H. P. Lovecraft’s The Strange Robert Newton, Emlyn Williams. Fine cast Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Script by must support fair material in tale of poor man Charles Beaumont. Panavision.▼●쩠 who relentlessly pursues his dream of social Haunted Strangler, The (1958-British) acceptance; from A. J. Cronin’s novel. 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Day. Boris Karloff, Hatter’s Ghost, The (1982-French) CAnthony Dawson, Elizabeth Allan, Jean 120m. ★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Michel Kent, Derek Birch. Offbeat story set in Serrault, Charles Aznavour, Monique 1880; socially conscious author Karloff inChaumette, Aurore Clement. Disappointing vestigates the case of a man who was exemurder mystery from Chabrol, based on a cuted 20 years earlier. Original British title: Georges Simenon novel. Tailor Aznavour GRIP OF THE STRANGLER. ▼●쩠 learns that nephew Serrault is a mass killer, Haunted Summer (1988) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 but is too scared to inform the police. D: Ivan Passer. Phillip Anglim, Laura Dern, Potentially exciting thriller is badly handled. Alice Krige, Eric Stoltz, Alex Winter. Flawed Haunted Honeymoon (1940-British) 83m. film version of Anne Edwards’ novel about ★★1 ⁄2 D: Arthur B. Woods. Robert Montthe fabled and emotional meeting between gomery, Constance Cummings, Leslie poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, novelist Banks, Seymour Hicks, Robert Newton, Mary Godwin, and Dr. John Polidori in Italy Googie Withers. Famed amateur criminolin 1816. The psychedelic ’60s had nothing on ogist Lord Peter Wimsey (Montgomery) this ‘‘summer of love’’ and experimentation. marries mystery writer (Cummings) and Beautifully filmed, and better than Ken Russettles down to quiet honeymoon—until sell’s similar GOTHIC, but it’s still forced murder enters the picture and demands and unconvincing. [R]▼● their involvement. Montgomery miscast as Haunting, The (1963) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Dorothy L. Sayers’ witty sleuth. OrigiRobert Wise. Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, nally titled BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON. Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Lois MaxHaunted Honeymoon (1986) C-82m. well, Fay Compton. 90-year-old New England BOMB D: Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder, haunted house is setting for chosen group being Gilda Radner, Dom DeLuise, Jonathan introduced to the supernatural, with hair-raisPryce, Paul L. Smith, Peter Vaughan, Bryan ing results. Don’t see this one alone! Filmed Pringle. Tediously unfunny ‘‘scare movie’’ in England; Nelson Gidding adapted Shirley farce inspired by old Bob Hope/Red SkelJackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Reton comedies; set in an old dark house full made in 1999. Panavision. ▼●쩠 of creepy people (with one great gag lifted Haunting, The (1999) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Jan from Fred MacMurray’s MURDER, HE De Bont. Liam Neeson, Catherine ZetaSAYS). When you put Dom DeLuise in Jones, Owen Wilson, Lili Taylor, Bruce Dern, drag and still can’t get laughs, you know Marian Seldes, Virginia Madsen. Three peosomething’s wrong. [PG]▼●쩠 ple are lured to a creepy mansion under false Haunted House of Horror, The SEE: pretenses by a psychological researcher (NeeHorror House son). Incredibly dull chiller has all the special ★★ Haunted Mansion, The (2003) C-98m. effects money can buy but no sense, no logic, D: Rob Minkoff. Eddie Murphy, Terence and virtually no scares. Taylor’s performance Stamp, Wallace Shawn, Marsha Thomason, as a lonely woman who feels a kinship with Jennifer Tilly, Nathaniel Parker, Dina Wathe house is the only redeeming feature of this ters, Marc John Jefferies, Aree Davis. clunker, which has little in common with the Workaholic real estate salesman Murphy 1963 movie or Shirley Jackson’s novel, on brings his family along when his wife is which it’s supposedly based. Panavision. [PGsummoned to a creepy old mansion. It 13] ▼●쩠 seems the master of the house thinks she Haunting Fear (1991) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: is his long-lost love. Flat, poky attempt at Fred Olen Ray. Brinke Stevens, Jay Richghostly comedy, inspired by the great Disardson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Karen Black, ney theme park attraction; too scary for Della Sheppard, Robert Clarke, Robert small children, too boring for adults, despite Quarry, Michael Berryman. Stevens fears Murphy’s trademark energy. Super 35. being buried alive, her husband has a sexy [PG] ▼쩠 1 ★★ Haunted Palace, The (1963) C-85m. ⁄2 mistress, and Vincent is lurking around in [ 590 ]

the street. Odd plot tries to bring it all Haven (2004-U.S.-British-German-Spanish) C-98m. ★★ D: Frank E. Flowers. Bill Paxton, together, but motivation is absent. Hasty, Orlando Bloom, Stephen Dillane, Zoe Salempty film allegedly based on Poe’s ‘‘Predana, Razaaq Adoti, Agnes Bruckner, Victor mature Burial.’’▼● Rasuk, Lee Ingleby, Anthony Mackie, Robert Haunting in Connecticut, The (2009) C1 ★ Wisdom, Joy Bryant, Bobby Cannavale, Se92m. ⁄2 D: Peter Cornwell. Virginia Madrena Scott Thomas. Slickly directed but consen, Kyle Gallner, Elias Koteas, Amanda fusing, connect-the-dots story that opens with Crew, Martin Donovan. Creaky horror picPaxton and his teen daughter fleeing to the ture show, purportedly based on fact, about Cayman Islands when the Feds show up on a family that learns the hard way why they his doorstep. Who is he? Why is he on the got such a great deal on a rental property run? More important, why should we care? with ‘‘a bit of a history.’’ Long on spooky Annoyingly fragmented narrative tries to be atmosphere, short on drama. There’s nothclever but succeeds only at being convoing here you haven’t seen done better, and luted. Bloom coproduced. [R]쩠 scarier, in other haunted house dramas. Have Rocket—Will Travel (1959) 76m. Super 35. [PG-13] ★★1 ⁄2 D: David Lowell Rich. The Three Haunting of Julia, The (1976-BritishStooges, Jerome Cowan, Anna Lisa, Bob Canadian) C-96m. ★★ D: Richard Loncraine. Colbert. Good slapstick as the Stooges acciMia Farrow, Keir Dullea, Tom Conti, Jill dentally launch into space, meet a unicorn, Bennett, Robin Gammell, Cathleen Nesbitt. and go on to become national heroes. This Occult thriller about a young woman who was the trio’s first starring feature after tries to start a new life after the death of her being rediscovered on TV, though Joe Dedaughter and moves into a house inhabited by Rita had, by this time, filled the Curly/ a troubled spirit. A good (if familiar) start, Shemp slot.▼ but soon lapses into unsatisfying contrivance. Having a Wild Weekend (1965-British) From a Peter Straub story. Originally titled 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Boorman. Dave Clark FULL CIRCLE. Panavision. [R]▼ Five, Barbara Ferris, Lenny Davidson, Rick Haunting of Molly Hartley, The (2008) Huxley, Mike Smith, Denis Payton, David C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Mickey Liddell. Haley BenLodge. Just as The Dave Clark Five tried to nett, Jake Weber, Chace Crawford, Shansteal some of the Beatles’ thunder, this fastnon Marie Woodward, Shanna Collins, paced trifle tried to capture success of A AnnaLynne McCord, Marin Hinkle, Nina HARD DAY’S NIGHT. The Five star as Siemaszko. After being stabbed by her psystuntmen who, along with a model (Ferris), cho mom, Bennett is dispatched to a hoitysearch for a dream island. Songs include toity prep school, where she comes to be‘‘Having a Wild Weekend,’’ ‘‘Catch Us If lieve she may be demonic. Dull, clumsy You Can,’’ ‘‘I Can’t Stand It.’’ Director horror thriller. [PG-13]쩠 Boorman’s first film. Originally titled Haunts (1977) C-98m. ★★★ D: Herb Freed. CATCH US IF YOU CAN.▼ May Britt, Cameron Mitchell, Aldo Ray, Having Wonderful Crime (1945) 70m. William Gray Espy, Susan Nohr. You have to ★★1⁄2 D: A. Edward Sutherland. Pat O’Bristay with it to appreciate this offbeat horror en, George Murphy, Carole Landis, Lenore pic fully, but it’s well worth the effort. Writers Aubert, George Zucco. Lively mysteryAnne Marisse and Herb Freed and a good cast comedy in which a trio of friends—brash have vividly captured small-town atmosphere lawyer O’Brien and wise-cracking newlywhen a series of murders grips the countryweds Murphy and Landis—become involved side. As a farm woman with demons of her with a magician who disappears and his mysown, Britt gives the best performance of her terious assistant. Based on characters created erratic career. [PG]▼쩠 by Craig Rice, though the film bears no rela★★1 ⁄2 D: Sydney Havana (1990) C-140m. tion to Rice’s novel of the same name.▼ Pollack. Robert Redford, Lena Olin, Alan Having Wonderful Time (1938) 71m. Arkin, Tomas Milian, Daniel Davis, Tony ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Santell. Ginger Rogers, Plana, Betsy Brantley, Lise Cutter, Richard Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Peggy Conklin, LuFarnsworth, Mark Rydell. No masterpiece, cille Ball, Lee Bowman, Eve Arden, Dorothea overly reminiscent of CASABLANCA, and Kent, Richard (Red) Skelton, Donald Meek, a huge box-office disaster, but still unJack Carson, Allan Lane, Grady Sutton. OK justly maligned as a stinker. Redford (aging, film about Catskills resort hotel; Ginger wants but marvelous) plays a professional gamculture on summer vacation but gets Doug inbler hoping to score in the waning hours of stead. Arthur Kober adapted his own BroadBatista’s Cuba; Olin (surprisingly stiff) is way comedy, but the original’s satiric the married Swede who takes his mind off depiction of Jewish New Yorkers is comthe game. Production designer’s dream is pletely homogenized. Skelton sparkles in his very entertaining for about 90 minutes, feature debut; Dean Jagger plays Ginger’s then tails off. Similar to the underrated brother and Ann Miller is visible among the Richard Lester film CUBA. Raul Julia apcampers.▼●쩠 pears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Havoc (2005-U.S.-German) C-85m. ★★ D: [ 591 ]

Barbara Kopple. Anne Hathaway, Bijou tries to find meaning in his life by capturing Phillips, Shiri Appleby, Michael Biehn, Joand attempting to train a red-tailed hawk. seph Gordon-Levitt, Matt O’Leary, Freddy Unceasingly intense drama is done in by Rodriguez, Laura San Giacomo, Mike pretension and confusion . . . and is an orVogel, Cecilia Peck, Sam Bottoms. Welldeal to sit through. Giamatti rises way meaning but overwrought chronicle of a above the material. Based on a novel by bright, wealthy, bored teen who’s sleepHarry Crews.쩠 walking through her life. She and her Hawks (1988-British) C-107m. ★★ D: Robfriends attempt to adopt a gangsta lifestyle ert Ellis Miller. Timothy Dalton, Anthony but don’t know what they’re getting into Edwards, Janet McTeer, Camille Coduri, when they mix with real inner-city Latinos. Jill Bennett, Sheila Hancock, Connie Booth. Potentially intriguing exploration of race, Heavy-handed black comedy about British class, and teen lifestyles goes way over the lawyer Dalton and American jock Edwards, top. Rare non-documentary effort by Kopboth terminally ill with cancer but still equally ple, scripted by another Oscar winner, Stered-blooded; they rip off an ambulance and phen Gaghan. Released direct to DVD in head for the brothels of Amsterdam for one the U.S. Unrated version runs 93m. Folfinal fling. Uneasy mixture of humor and lowed by a direct-to-DVD sequel. [R]쩠 touchy-feely emotion does not work. Barry Hav Plenty (1998) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: ChristoGibb (of the Bee Gees, who did the music) pher Scott Cherot. Christopher Scott Cherot, is coauthor of the story upon which this is Chenoa Maxwell, Hill Harper, Tammi based. [R]▼ Katherine Jones, Betty Vaughn. Smug, selfHawk the Slayer (1980-British) C-93m. ★1 satisfied romantic comedy about down-and⁄2 D: Terry Marcel. Jack Palance, John out writer who finds unexpected sparks with Terry, Bernard Bresslaw, Ray Charleson, his best friend when he spends New Year’s Peter O’Farrell, Harry Andrews, Roy weekend with her crazy friends and family. Kinnear, Ferdy Mayne. Brothers Palance Maxwell gives a truly irritating performance and Terry vie for a magical family sword as the inexplicable girl of Cherot’s dreams, in this period costumer. Labored, with but the writer-director-editor-star has chagimmicky direction.▼●쩠 risma; it’s his filmmaking skills that need Hawmps! (1976) C-113m. ★★ D: Joe Camp. polishing. Dopey movie-within-a-movie endJames Hampton, Christopher Connelly, Slim ing features Shemar Moore, Nia Long, TLC’s Pickens, Jack Elam, Denver Pyle. Amusing Chili, The Fugees’ Lauryn Hill, and Mekhi idea based on real life incident: camels trained Phifer. [R]▼쩠 as Army mounts in Texas desert. Some comHawaii (1966) C-171m. ★★★ D: George edy results, but how far can you stretch one idea? Originally released at 126m. [G]▼쩠 Roy Hill. Julie Andrews, Max von Sydow, Richard Harris, Torin Thatcher, Gene Head (1968) C-86m. ★★★ D: Bob Rafelson. Hackman, Carroll O’Connor, Jocelyne The Monkees, Terry (Teri) Garr, Vito Scotti, LaGarde, John Cullum, George Rose, MiTimothy Carey, Logan Ramsey, Frank chael Constantine. Sprawling filmization of Zappa, Jack Nicholson. Far-out film debut James Michener’s novel. Story (adapted by for TV rock group was written (or conDalton Trumbo and Daniel Taradash) follows cocted) by Rafelson and Nicholson before growth of Hawaii in 1800s as fierce but wellthey made big splash with FIVE EASY intentioned missionary tries to bring religion PIECES; this overlooked item is a delightto the undeveloped islands. Uneven but generful explosion of crazy ideas with no coherally entertaining epic. Originally released at ent plot, many old film clips, some good 189m.; some prints 151m. Look for Bette songs, and such unlikely guest stars as Midler as a passenger on the Hawaii-bound Sonny Liston and Victor Mature. Well ship. Sequel: THE HAWAIIANS. Panaworth seeing. [G]▼●쩠 vision. ▼●쩠 Head Above Water (1996-U.S.-British) Hawaiians, The (1970) C-134m. ★★★ D: C-92m. ★★ D: Jim Wilson. Harvey Keitel, Tom Gries. Charlton Heston, Geraldine Cameron Diaz, Craig Sheffer, Billy Zane, Chaplin, John Phillip Law, Tina Chen, Shay Duffin. Black comedy–thriller about Alec McCowen, Keye Luke, Mako. Selovely substance abuser Diaz; she’s married quel to HAWAII is epic narrative of seato judge Keitel, but her male friends still faring Heston returning home to a restless, carry a torch for her, with disastrous consechanging Hawaii. Film follows several dequences. Convoluted plot twists abound, but cades of relationships, conflict, hardship, you don’t really care what happens to any of progress, sex, leprosy—you name it. Comthese characters. Remake of same-named pelling, colorful storytelling, with outstand1993 Norwegian film. U.S. debut on cable ing performance by Chen. Panavision.[PG] TV. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Hawk Is Dying, The (2006) C-107m. ★1⁄2 Heading South (2005-Canadian-French) D: Julian Goldberger. Paul Giamatti, MiC-108m. ★★★ D: Laurent Cantet. Charlotte chelle Williams, Robert Wisdom, Rusty Rampling, Karen Young, Louise Portal, Schwimmer, Ann Wedgeworth, Michael Me´nothy Cesar, Lys Ambroise, Jackenson Pitt. Amid much angst, a stressed-out man Pierre Olmo Diaz. Absorbing, politically [ 592 ]

loaded drama set in Haiti during the late is the story development, but the director, 1970s, where pampered, sexually frustrated cowriter and star deliver the laughs. [PGmiddle-aged female tourists have hunky 13] ▼쩠 young native boys service them, blissfully Head-On (2004-German-Turkish-French) ¨ nel, Sibel unaware of the pressures they face under C-121m. ★★★ D: Fatih Akin. Birol U the brutal dictatorship of ‘‘Baby Doc’’ DuKekilli, Catrin Striebeck, Gu¨ven Kirac, Melvalier. The spotlight is on Rampling and tem Cumbul, Zarah McKenzie, Stefan GebelYoung, who vie for the attention of a handhoff. Two Turks, one a late-30s alcoholic some local (Cesar). Based on short stories nightclub employee, the other a young but by Dany Laferriere. 쩠 far-from-innocent woman determined to esHead in the Clouds (2004-Canadiancape her traditional family, meet in a hospiBritish) C-133m. ★★ D: John Duigan. Chartal in their adopted country of Germany. lize Theron, Pene´lope Cruz, Stuart Townsend, They embark on a paper marriage and live Thomas Kretschmann, Steven Berkoff, David as roommates, but drugs and other influLa Haye, Gabriel Hogan. Forthright young ences cause their lives to intertwine in unexwoman (Theron) lives a Bohemian life in pected ways. Harsh, powerful drama of 1930s Paris, some of it in a me´nage a` trois stubborn determination and immigrant culwith a photographer’s model (Cruz) and an ture provides a glimpse into a seedy milieu uptight Irish beau (Townsend) who is drawn that never seems phony.쩠 to the plight of the Spanish Republicans. Head Over Heels (1979) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Duigan’s screenplay bites off more than it Joan Micklin Silver. John Heard, Mary can chew, spanning 20 years, the evolution Beth Hurt, Peter Riegert, Kenneth McMilof two relationships, and a character’s politlan, Gloria Grahame, Nora Heflin, Griffin ical awakening. WW2 section rings hollow; Dunne. Low-key story of Heard’s obsesartificial backdrops don’t help. Theron and sion with winning back former girlfriend Cruz are quite good, and very sexy. Super Hurt; the kind of film that engenders strictly 35. [R]▼쩠 personal reactions—it will either charm or Headless Body in Topless Bar (1996) Cannoy you. Based on Ann Beattie’s novel CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER, and re101m. ★1⁄2 D: James Bruce. Raymond Barry, Jennifer MacDonald, Rustam Branaissued under that name at 93m. Jazz harman, April Grace, Taylor Nichols, David monica great Toots Thielemans is prominently featured on the soundtrack. [PG]▼ Selby, Paul Williams, Biff Yeager. This ‘‘psychological dark comedy’’ based on the Head Over Heels (2001) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: infamous 1983 New York Post headline is a Mark Waters. Monica Potter, Freddie Prinze, talky character piece about an ex-con who Jr., Shalom Harlow, Ivana Milicevic, Sarah takes the inhabitants of a topless bar hostage O’Hare, Tomiko Fraser, China Chow, Timafter killing the bartender. Might have othy Olyphant. Klutzy, unlucky-in-love art worked better as a one-act play—or, better restorer Potter falls for nice-guy fashion yet, left on the newsstand.▼쩠 exec Prinze, whose apartment is next door ★★ D: Ken Head Office (1986) C-86m. to the one she’s sharing with four fashion Finkleman. Judge Reinhold, Eddie Albert, models. While peeping in on him, she thinks Jane Seymour, Danny DeVito, Rick Moranis, she sees him commit murder. Forget REAR Don Novello, Michael O’Donoghue, WalWINDOW: this is an addlebrained, cliche´lace Shawn, Lori-Nan Engler. Naive Reinladen romantic comedy-farce-thriller. Super hold is hired by world’s most powerful 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 multinational conglomerate after his father Health (1979) C-100m. ★★ D: Robert Altpulls strings, falls for board chairman’s reneman. Carol Burnett, Glenda Jackson, James gade daughter. Episodic, wildly uneven Garner, Lauren Bacall, Diane Stilwell, Henry comedy wastes good cast, though Novello, Gibson, Donald Moffat, Paul Dooley, Dick Albert, and O’Donoghue have their funny Cavett, Alfre Woodard. Offbeat political moments, Seymour some sexy ones. Panasatire using health-food convention in Florvision. [PG-13]▼쩠 ida hotel as basis for various backroom sheHead of State (2003) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: nanigans. Non-Altman buffs may like this Chris Rock. Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Dylan more than devotees; Woodard steals the Baker, Nick Searcy, Lynn Whitfield, Robin film—no easy feat considering that incrediGivens, Tamala Jones, James Rebhorn, Keith ble cast—as hotel’s ultra-patient manager. David, Stephanie March, Nate Dogg, Jude Shelved for two years. Title is acronym for Ciccolella, Tracy Morgan. A hardworking Happiness, Energy, And Longevity Through community activist and alderman from WashHealth. Panavision. [PG] ington, D.C., is drafted as a last-minute reHear My Song (1991-U.S.-British) Cplacement candidate for president. He soon 104m. ★★★ D: Peter Chelsom. Ned Beatty, tires of following orders and begins to speak Adrian Dunbar, Shirley Anne Field, Tara his mind. Rock is the whole show here, and Fitzgerald, David McCallum, William he’s on top of his game, spouting the kind Hootkins, Harold Berens, James Nesbitt. of straight talk we’d all like to hear from Wheeler-dealer nightclub owner must recandidates. The filmmaking is sloppy, as deem himself with his girlfriend—and his [ 593 ]

community—by finding expatriate Irish for John Larroquette. Cassady’s life is also explored in NEAL CASSADY. [R]▼쩠 tenor Josef Locke and bringing him back to England for an engagement. Charmingly offbeat, Heartbeeps (1981) C-79m. ★1⁄2 D: Allan old-fashioned film written by its first-time feaArkush. Andy Kaufman, Bernadette Peters, ture director and leading man Dunbar, very Randy Quaid, Kenneth McMillan, Melaloosely based on real-life story. If Beatty (as nie Mayron, Christopher Guest; voice of Jack Locke) didn’t pull off the climactic scene, it Carter. Two robots fall for each other in this wouldn’t work—but he does. [R]▼● misfired futuristic comedy. Students of Hear No Evil (1993) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Robmakeup might want to take a peek at Stan Winston’s work. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ert Greenwald. Marlee Matlin, D. B. Sweeney, Martin Sheen, John C. McGinley, Heartbreakers (1984) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christina Carlisi, Greg Elam, Charley Lang, Bobby Roth. Peter Coyote, Nick Mancuso, Marge Redmond. Plotline reminiscent of Carole Laure, Max Gail, James Laurenson, WAIT UNTIL DARK, except the terrorCarol Wayne, Kathryn Harrold, Jamie ized young woman here is deaf, not blind. Rose. Moody, provocative film about two You can fill in the blanks. Grade-Z thriller, male friends (avant-garde artist Coyote, only partly redeemed by the presence of second-generation businessman Mancuso) Matlin. [R]▼●쩠 seeking creative and sexual fulfillment and Hearse, The (1980) C-100m. ★★ D: George trying to define their relationships with Bowers. Trish Van Devere, Joseph Cotten, others. Highly personal, occasionally inDavid Gautreaux, Donald Hotton, Med sightful film invites highly personal reacFlory, Donald Petrie. Passably engrossing tions. Bull’s-eye performances, great use yarn right off the woman-in-distress/houseof L.A. locations. [R]▼ inhabited-by-spirits assembly line, with Heartbreakers (2001) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: an unsatisfying conclusion. [PG]▼쩠 David Mirkin. Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Heartaches (1981-Canadian) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 Love Hewitt, Gene Hackman, Ray Liotta, D: Donald Shebib. Margot Kidder, Annie Jason Lee, Anne Bancroft, Jeffrey Jones, Potts, Robert Carradine, Winston Rekert, Nora Dunn, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Carrie George Touliatos, Guy Sanvido. Pregnant Fisher, Ricky Jay, Sarah Silverman, Shawn Potts abandons husband Carradine—who Colvin, Kevin Nealon, Elya Baskin. Sleazy is not the baby’s father—and becomes the if watchable comedy about mother-andunwilling buddy of man-hunting screwball daughter con artists who marry men and Kidder. Fine lead performances spark this then take them for everything they’re worth minor comedy. [R]▼● in divorce settlements. Cast seems to be Heart and Souls (1993) C-104m. ★★★ D: having a good time; wonderful performance Ron Underwood. Robert Downey, Jr., by Hewitt’s breasts. Panavision. [PG-13] Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Kyra Sedg▼쩠 wick, Tom Sizemore, David Paymer, ElisaHeartbreak Hotel (1988) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 beth Shue, Eric Lloyd, Bill Calvert, Lisa D: Chris Columbus. David Keith, Tuesday Lucas, Richard Portnow, B. B. King. Four Weld, Charlie Schlatter, Jacque Lynn Colton, disparate San Franciscans die in a bus acciAngela Goethals, Chris Mulkey, Karen dent in 1959, and find themselves inexoraLandry. A reliable test of your whimsy threshbly linked with a baby who’s been born at old, as an Ohio teen (Schlatter) kidnaps Elvis that same exact moment; what’s more, only in 1972, then transports him home to the dihe can see and hear them. A great showcase vorced mom (Weld) who’s carried a torch for for Downey—whose body is inhabited, at the King since the mid-1950s. Keith’s Presvarious times, by his heavenly friends— ley, like the entire film, is fun, though the though Woodard is equally good, as usual. premise is so hard to swallow that you’re Fans of mushy, sentimental, old-fashioned likely to go with this—or reject it—all the Hollywood fantasies (like us) should enjoy way. Pair this with WILD IN THE COUNthis fable; others beware. Based on a 9-minTRY or ROCK, ROCK, ROCK for a compatute short subject by the coauthors of this ible video double bill. [PG-13]▼●쩠 script. Look fast to see Bob Newhart’s son, Heartbreak Kid, The (1972) C-104m. ★★★ Robert William Newhart, impersonating his D: Elaine May. Charles Grodin, Cybill dad. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Shepherd, Jeannie Berlin, Eddie Albert, Heart Beat (1980) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: John Audra Lindley. Neil Simon’s supreme comByrum. Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, John edy of embarrassment, adapted from Bruce Heard, Ray Sharkey, Anne Dusenberry, Jay Friedman’s short story ‘‘A Change of Kent Williams, Tony Bill, Steve Allen. Plan.’’ Jewish boy (Grodin) gets married (to Hapless chronicle of the relationship beBerlin) but meets beautiful WASP blonde tween Jack Kerouac (Heard) and Carolyn (Shepherd) on honeymoon, and determines to (Spacek) and Neal (Nolte) Cassady. Byrum’s juggle plans. Either hilarious or horrifying, deflaky script (based more on fiction than on pending on your point of view; directed for fact) has no continuity whatsoever. Sharkey maximum impact by May, whose daughter stands out as the Allen Ginsbergesque Ira; plays Grodin’s bride. Remade in 2007. [PG] good period score by Jack Nitzsche. Watch ▼●쩠 [ 594 ]

Heartbreak Kid, The (2007) C-116m. Sincere adaptation of Carson McCullers’ ★★1 novel, set in the Deep South, benefits from ⁄2 D: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. Ben Stiller, Malin Akerman, Michelle Momoving performances—including Arkin, naghan, Jerry Stiller, Rob Corddry, Carlos Locke (whose debut film this was), and comic Mencia, Scott Wilson, Polly Holliday, Lesactor McCann, in a revelatory change-of-pace lie Easterbrook, Eva Longoria. Eligible San part as Arkin’s simple-minded mute friend. Francisco bachelor Stiller chances to meet a Also marked film debut for Keach. [G]▼쩠 beautiful blonde dream girl (Akerman) and Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, The in no time flat gets married. Only on their (2004-U.S.-British-French-Japanese) C-97m. ★★ honeymoon to Mexico does he discover that D: Asia Argento. Asia Argento, Jimmy she’s the bride from hell . . . while striking Bennett, Cole Sprouse, Dylan Sprouse, up a warm relationship with an American Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Ornella Muti, Kip tourist (Monaghan) staying at the same Pardue, Michael Pitt, Marilyn Manson, Jerhotel. Reinvention of the 1972 hit plays suremy Sisto. Pretentious drama about a prisingly well, given the Farrellys’ usual woman who is ill equipped for parenthood penchant for overlength and gross-out gags but gains custody of her young son, who (though this one flopped). Super 35. [R]쩠 has been in foster care. He’s justifiably 1 ★★ ⁄2 Heartbreak Ridge (1986) C-130m. angry; she callously toys with his feelings, D: Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Marwith no regard for his safety. One-note film sha Mason, Everett McGill, Moses Gunn, may be read as an outsider’s warped view Eileen Heckart, Bo Svenson, Boyd Gaines, of an American heartland populated by abuMario Van Peebles, Arlen Dean Snyder. Eastsive parents, perverts, and hypocritical wood is so enjoyable to watch, as a hellBible-thumping rednecks. Argento also raising career marine sergeant who whips a scripted. Winona Ryder appears unbilled. squadron of young recruits into shape, that [R]쩠 he makes this predictable and protracted film Heartland (1979) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richworthwhile. But it’s still pretty thin stuff and ard Pearce. Rip Torn, Conchata Ferrell, takes longer to play out than the real-life invaBarry Primus, Lilia Skala, Megan Folson, Amy Wright. Simple, well-told story of sion of Grenada it depicts. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ Heartburn (1986) C-108m. hearty Americans surviving the rigors of D: Mike Nichols. Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, frontier life, circa 1910. Ferrell plays a Jeff Daniels, Maureen Stapleton, Stockard young widow who accepts a job as houseChanning, Richard Masur, Catherine O’Hara, keeper for dour rancher Torn in the wilds Steven Hill, Milos Forman, Karen Akers, of Wyoming. Well acted, well filmed, and Anna Maria Horsford, Mercedes Ruehl, Jobeautifully understated; based on the actual diaries of a pioneer woman. [PG]▼쩠 anna Gleason, Yakov Smirnoff, Kevin Spacey, Natasha Lyonne. Nora Ephron Heartland Reggae (1980-Canadian) Cadapted her own best-selling (and autobio87m. BOMB D: J. P. Lewis. Bob Marley graphical) book about a sophisticated couand the Wailers, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller ple whose marriage seems just fine until she and the Inner Circle Band, Althea and learns he’s been having an affair—while Donna. Shoddy documentary of ’78 concert she’s pregnant! Lightweight, superficial commemorating a visit to Jamaica by Haile story is supercharged by two charismatic Selassie. Even the music can’t save it.▼쩠 stars, who make it a must-see. Director Heart Like a Wheel (1983) C-113m. ★★1 Forman’s acting debut. [R]▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Jonathan Kaplan. Bonnie Bedelia, Heart Condition (1990) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Beau Bridges, Leo Rossi, Hoyt Axton, James D. Parriott. Bob Hoskins, Denzel Bill McKinney, Anthony Edwards, Dean Washington, Chloe Webb, Roger E. MosPaul Martin, Paul Bartel, Dick Miller, ley, Ja’net DuBois, Alan Rachins, Ray Terence Knox. Well-made but curiously Baker, Jeffrey Meek. Superficial but enteruninspiring bio of race-car driver Shirley taining yarn about a crass, bigoted L.A. Muldowney, who had to fight sexism— cop who gets a heart transplant and learns, and the conflict of career vs. marriage—to to his dismay, that the donor was the slick become a champion on the track. Bedelia’s black lawyer he’d been stalking. What’s performance is outstanding, but disjointed more, the deceased appears as a ghost/comnarrative—particularly where her relationpanion who wants the cop to help avenge his ship with racer Connie Kalitta (Bridges) is murder. Outlandish premise made palatable concerned—is a handicap. [PG]▼●쩠 by its two dynamic leads. [R]▼●쩠 Heart of Dixie (1989) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The (1968) Martin Davidson. Ally Sheedy, Virginia C-125m. ★★★ D: Robert Ellis Miller. Alan Madsen, Phoebe Cates, Treat Williams, Arkin, Sondra Locke, Laurinda Barrett, Don Michael Paul, Kyle Secor, Francesca Stacy Keach, Jr., Chuck McCann, Biff Roberts, Kurtwood Smith, Richard BradMcGuire, Percy Rodriguez, Cicely Tyson, ford, Barbara Babcock. Forgettable story Jackie Marlowe. Heart-rending drama of a of Alabama college sorority in the late deaf mute’s lonely world, and how he helps 1950s and one girl’s awakening to larger an adolescent girl struggling to find herself. realities of life—including the mistreatment [ 595 ]

of blacks in the South. Superficial and unincestuous relationship of Cooper and his redvolving, to say the least. [PG]▼●쩠 headed daughter Regan. Pretentious drama Heart of Glass (1976-German) C-93m. benefits from good acting, tense musical score ★★★ by Leonard Rosenman. [R]▼쩠 D: Werner Herzog. Josef Bierbichler, Stefan Autter, Clemens Scheitz, Volker Hearts and Armour (1982-Italian) C101m. ★★ D: Giacomo Battiato. Tanya Prechtel, Sonia Skiba. A glassblower has died without revealing the secret formula Roberts, Barbara De Rossi, Zeudi Araya, of his craft, and this has a profound, disRick Edwards, Leigh McCloskey, Ron turbing effect on his fellow townspeople. Moss. Well-mounted but confusing fanThematically muddled but visually stuntasy based on the 1516 classic Orlando ning; crammed with stark, graphic, beautiFurioso by Ludovico Ariosto. De Rossi is ful images. Based on a Bavarian legend; a sexy female warrior in knight’s armor Herzog each day put his cast into a hypfighting in the war between Christians and notic trance, to attempt to achieve an efMoors. American stars such as Roberts fect of collective hysteria.▼쩠 and McCloskey add little to a film (also Heart of Me, The (2003-British) C-96m. shot in TV miniseries form) aimed at an ★★1 ⁄2 D: Thaddeus O’Sullivan. Helena Boninternational audience. Technovision. ▼ ham Carter, Olivia Williams, Paul Bettany, Hearts and Minds (1974) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 Eleanor Bron, Luke Newberry, Tom Ward, D: Peter Davis. Oscar-winning documenGillian Hanna, Andrew Havill, Alison Reid. tary about our misguided involvement in A fine cast enlivens this earnest soap opera Vietnam was political hot potato for a while, about an upper-class gent in 1930s London but may rate more frequent showings now falling into an indiscreet affair with his that the country has caught up with it. wife’s sister. Well made, with good period Packs a wallop, regardless of one’s politidetail, this film works mainly as a showcase cal persuasion. [R]▼●쩠 for its actors. Based on the novel by RosaHearts in Atlantis (2001) C-101m. ★★ D: mond Lehmann. [R] ▼쩠 Scott Hicks. Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Heart of Midnight (1988) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: David Morse, Anton Yelchin, Mika Boorem, Matthew Chapman. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Alan Tudyk, Celia Weston, Tom Bower. An Peter Coyote, Gale Mayron, Sam Schacht, Deimpressionable boy, being raised by his nise Dummont, Frank Stallone, Brenda Vacmother—who resents single parenthood— caro, Steve Buscemi. Psychological thriller falls under the spell of a mysterious, charisabout a young woman teetering on the edge of matic stranger who comes to board with sanity, who inherits a seedy sex club which them. Mushy mumbo-jumbo, nostalgically attracts a sick clientele. Good performance by set in 1960. Adapted by William Goldman Leigh and artsy approach to subject are minor from two short stories—Stephen King’s— diversions in this muddled and unpleasant but not the one that bore this title! Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 film. Written by the director. [R]▼● Heart of the Game, The (2006) C-97m. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apoc★★★1⁄2 D: Ward Serrill. Narrated by Chris alypse (1991) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fax Bahr, ‘‘Ludacris’’ Bridges. Filmmaker Serrill spent George Hickenlooper. Top-notch documenseven years filming a Seattle-area high tary detailing the disaster-laden producschool girls’ basketball team, and his first tion of Francis Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam gift was finding its unorthodox coach (colepic, APOCALYPSE NOW. Expertly lege tax prof Bill Resler, moonlighting). mixes footage shot by Eleanor Coppola Eventually, he was awarded a second (the director’s wife) during the film’s shoot(player Darnellia Russell, gifted but a buning in the Philippines and decade-later dle of emotions) and the kind of unanticiinterviews with crew and cast (excluding pated personal/legal plot twist that has to Marlon Brando, who declined to particibe the dream of all documentarians. HOOP pate). Revealing peek into the filmmaking DREAMS originated this kind of movie, process and a record of events during this but this is an extraordinary story and it gets particular film’s chaotic shoot. [R]▼●쩠 the crowd-pleasing rendering it deserves. Hearts of Fire (1987) C-95m. BOMB D: [PG-13]쩠 Richard Marquand. Fiona (Flanagan), RuHeart of the Matter, The (1953-British) pert Everett, Bob Dylan, Julian Glover, 105m. ★★★ D: George More O’Ferrall. Suzanne Bertish, Ian Dury, Richie HaTrevor Howard, Elizabeth Allan, Maria vens, Larry Lamb, Maury Chaykin. PerSchell, Denholm Elliott. Graham Greene’s fectly dreadful account of the rise of a rock novel of inner and outward conflict set in singer (Fiona), and her relationships with Sierra Leone, with Howard as police offiher mentors: a British pop star (Everett) cer on verge of mental collapse. and a cynical, retired rock legend (who Heart of the Stag (1984-New Zealand) else but Dylan). Dylan’s first screen apC-91m. ★★ D: Michael Firth. Bruno Lawpearance since 1978’s RENALDO AND rence, Mary Regan, Terence Cooper, Anne CLARA; Marquand’s final credit as direcFlannery. Lawrence is mysterious stranger tor. This turkey played briefly in England who signs on as a farmhand and disrupts inin 1987, and was released to video in [ 596 ]

1990. There are 19 songs on the soundtrack formances. Screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, from her novel. [R]▼쩠 (but none memorable enough to raise its rating). J-D-C Scope. [R]▼● Heat and Sunlight (1988) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Hearts of the West (1975) C-102m. ★★★ D: Rob Nilsson. Rob Nilsson, Consuelo D: Howard Zieff. Jeff Bridges, Andy Faust, Don Bajema, Ernie Fosselius, Bill Griffith, Donald Pleasence, Blythe Danner, Bailey, Bill Ackridge. Photographer Nilsson Alan Arkin, Richard B. Shull, Herb Edelmust deal with his feelings and obsessions man, Alex Rocco, Marie Windsor, Dub as his love affair with dancer Faust ends. Taylor, William Christopher. Offbeat comLively in its best moments, but also meanedy. Starry-eyed Bridges comes to 1930s Holders and lacks structure. Characters are the lywood hoping to be a Western writer, winds most interesting element here. ▼●쩠 up starring in cheap cowboy films instead. Heathers (1989) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Enjoyable but low-key. [PG]▼ Lehmann. Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Heat (1972) C-100m. ★★★ D: Paul MorShannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, rissey. Sylvia Miles, Joe Dallesandro, Penelope Milford, Glenn Shadix, Lance FenAndrea Feldman, Pat Ast, Ray Vestal. ton. Sharp, somewhat smug satire of high Andy Warhol meets SUNSET BOULEschool social strata, with Ryder in a terrific VARD in this hot and heavy tale of unemperformance as a girl who hangs out with the ployed actor Dallesandro taking up with school’s bitch-queens but doesn’t feel quite faded star Miles. Even nonfans of the comfortable about their reign of terror. OutraWarhol group might like this. [R]▼쩠 geous black humor works at first, but isn’t Heat (1987) C-101m. BOMB D: R. M. sustained; uneven script goes far astray. Slater Richards. Burt Reynolds, Karen Young, is commanding in his Jack Nicholson-esque Peter MacNicol, Howard Hesseman, Neill performance. Feature debut for director LehBarry, Diana Scarwid, Joe Mascolo, Alfie mann and writer Daniel Waters, with many virtues as well as flaws. [R]▼●쩠 Wise. Dim, dingy, scattershot film (written by William Goldman, of all people) about a Las Heat of Desire (1980-French) C-90m. ★★ Vegas tough, whose exact livelihood is never D: Luc Beraud. Patrick Dewaere, Clio defined, but who knows how to handle the Goldsmith, Jeanne Moreau, Guy Marchand, low-lifes—and teaches ‘‘prote´ge´’’ MacNicol Pierre Dux, Jose-Luis Lopez Vasquez. Hapall he knows. So what? [R]▼●쩠 pily married university professor is whisked Heat (1995) C-172m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael away for spontaneous sex by mysterious, Mann. Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Killoose-living free spirit, who soon destroys mer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Diane his marriage and scuttles his career. Silly Venora, Amy Brenneman, Ashley Judd, but sometimes sexy heavy-breather; several Mykelti Williamson, Wes Studi, Ted Levscreen-filling shots of Goldsmith’s ample ine, Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, frame. U.S. release: 1984. [R]▼● Natalie Portman, Tom Noonan, Kevin Heat’s On, The (1943) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: GregGage, Hank Azaria, Henry Rollins, Tone ory Ratoff. Mae West, Victor Moore, Loc, Jeremy Piven. Dynamite cops-andWilliam Gaxton, Lester Allen, Mary Roche, robbers saga, with Pacino an obsessive, suHazel Scott, Xavier Cugat, Lloyd Bridges. persmart L.A. detective on the trail of highMae’s last starring vehicle (for several dectech, high-precision robber De Niro and his ades) is a routine show-biz musical about tight-knit gang. It turns out that the two a star involved with conniving producers. have more in common than either one might Befuddled Moore and colorful Cugat are think. A fascinating, multilayered character fun, but there isn’t enough of West in this study studded with gripping (and often viofilm; when she’s on screen, she’s just as funny as ever.▼ lent) action scenes, plus a chance to see two of the world’s greatest actors working Heatwave (1983-Australian) C-99m. ★★★ together—even though they share precious D: Phillip Noyce. Judy Davis, Richard little screen time. Overlength is the only Moir, Chris Haywood, Bill Hunter, John criticism of this crackerjack contemporary Gregg, Anna Jemison. Radical Davis prodrama. Mann scripted, reworking his 1989 tests destruction of neighborhood for $100 TV movie L.A. TAKEDOWN. Bud Cort million redevelopment project by firm which might have mob connections. Situation appears unbilled. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Heat and Dust (1983-British) C-130m. further complicated by attraction between ★★★ D: James Ivory. Julie Christie, Greta her and project architect Moir in this Aussie Scacchi, Christopher Cazenove, Julian counterpart to CHINATOWN. From a realGlover, Susan Fleetwood, Shashi Kapoor, life incident, which also inspired THE KILLING OF ANGEL STREET. [R]▼ Madhur Jaffrey, Barry Foster, Zakir Hussain, Patrick Godfrey. Englishwomen Heaven (1987) C-80m. ★★ D: Diane Scacchi and great-niece Christie, 60 years Keaton. Nothing if not bizarre, this perapart, fall in love with India and become sonal project of Keaton’s intersperses oddly pregnant by natives—yet still remain outshot interviews with non sequitur clips siders in a land they can never fully from old movies on the subject of Heaven: comprehend. Intelligent drama, lovely perhow to get there, what it will be like, if it [ 597 ]

exists, etc. Clips range from METROPOEugene Pallette, Signe Hasso, Louis CalLIS to THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDhern. Excellent comedy-fantasy told in NIGHT—what’s the point? [PG-13] ▼●쩠 flashback. Ameche, who believes he’s lived Heaven (1998) C-103m. ★★ D: Scott Reyna life of sin, recalls his past as he requests olds. Martin Donovan, Danny Edwards, admission to Hades. Witty Samson RaphaelRichard Schiff, Joanna Going, Patrick Mason script helps make this a delight. Based lahide, Karl Urban. An intriguing premise on the play Birthdays by Laszlo BusFekete.▼●쩠 goes unrealized in this muddled psychological thriller about a deeply troubled architect Heaven Can Wait (1978) C-100m. ★★★ (Donovan) with a severe gambling problem D: Warren Beatty and Buck Henry. Warwho’s been rejected by his wife. Endless, ren Beatty, Julie Christie, Jack Warden, confusing plot twists are set into motion Dyan Cannon, Charles Grodin, James when he mixes with Heaven (Edwards), a Mason, Buck Henry, Vincent Gardenia. transvestite stripper who is also clairvoyant. Gentle, pleasing remake of HERE COMES Super 35. [R]▼쩠 MR. JORDAN with Beatty as good-natured Heaven (2002-U.S.-German) C-96m. ★★★ football player who is taken to heaven D: Tom Tykwer. Cate Blanchett, Giovanni ahead of schedule, and has to return to Ribisi, Mattia Sbragia, Alberto Di Stasio, ‘‘life’’ in another man’s body. Amiable Remo Girone, Alessandro Sperduti, Franbut never moving, with Christie miscast as cesca Neri. English schoolteacher living in the woman who inspires Beatty. Scripted by Italy, frustrated by a corrupt drug culture Beatty and Elaine May. This was remade as DOWN TO EARTH (2001). [PG] ▼●쩠 that’s harming her students, plants a bomb in the office of a local bigwig and suffers Heaven Help Us (1985) C-104m. ★★★ D: the consequences. During her police interroMichael Dinner. Donald Sutherland, John gation, a young, naı¨ve translator falls in love Heard, Andrew McCarthy, Mary Stuart with her and helps her escape. Ethereal, exMasterson, Kevin Dillon, Malcolm Danare, istential drama takes us on a surprising jourJennie Dundas, Kate Reid, Wallace Shawn, ney—with the always-riveting Blanchett at Philip Bosco, Patrick Dempsey, Christoits core. This was the final screenplay writpher Durang. Very funny evocation of ten by Krzysztof Kieslowski with his partCatholic high school life in Brooklyn, ner, Krzysztof Piesiewicz. [R]▼쩠 circa 1965, with solid ring of truth Heaven and Earth (1990-Japanese) Cthroughout. Shawn has hilarious cameo as 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Haruki Kadokawa. Takaai priest who kicks off school dance with Enoki, Masahiko Tsugawa, Atsuko Asano, denunciation of lust. Impressive feature Tsunehiko Watase, Naomi Zaizen, Binpachi debuts for writer Charles Purpura and director Dinner. [R]▼●쩠 Ito; narrated by Stuart Whitman. Physically impressive, large-scale Samurai epic, notable Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957) C107m. ★★★ D: John Huston. Deborah Kerr, for budget (reportedly over $40 million) and because much of it was shot in Canada! Lacks Robert Mitchum. Marvelous, touching tale the mastery of a Kurosawa at the helm, but of nun Kerr and Marine Mitchum stranded fans of big battle scenes may enjoy it anyway. together on a Japanese-infested Pacific isReleased in Japan at 119m.▼● land during WW2. Solid performances by Heaven & Earth (1993) C-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: the stars. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Oliver Stone. Tommy Lee Jones, Hiep Thi Heavenly Creatures (1994-New Zealand) Le, Joan Chen, Haing S. Ngor, Debbie C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Jackson. Melanie Reynolds, Dustin Nguyen, Conchata FerLynskey, Kate Winslet, Sarah Peirse, Diana rell, Vivian Wu, Dale Dye, Liem Whatley. Kent, Clive Merrison, Simon O’Connor. Vietnamese woman’s painful odyssey from Dark, exhilarating story based on the truea peaceful childhood in a peasant village to life case of New Zealand teenagers Pauline a lifetime of upheaval both in Vietnam and Parker and Juliet Hulme, whose obsessive the U.S. This true story (based on two pubrelationship drove them to murder. Very lished memoirs by Le Ly Hayslip) tells of a well acted, and stunningly directed by Jackwoman forever caught between forces of son, who plunges us into the bizarre fantasy North and South in her native country; beworld that the girls create for themselves. tween the spiritual and the practical; beThe real-life Hulme, it was later discovered, tween Vietnamese and American ways. A has written best-selling murder mysteries jumbled narrative, difficult to watch at times, for years under the pseudonym Anne Perry. but writer-director Stone lets us share the Jackson also cowrote the screenplay with character’s emotional catharsis at the concluFrances Walsh. Director’s cut runs 109m. sion. Hayslip can be seen briefly as a jewelry Original New Zealand running time: 108m. broker; Jeffrey Jones appears unbilled as a Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 priest. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Heavenly Kid, The (1985) C-89m. ★1⁄2 Heaven Can Wait (1943) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cary Medoway. Lewis Smith, Jason D: Ernst Lubitsch. Gene Tierney, Don Gedrick, Jane Kaczmarek, Richard MulliAmeche, Charles Coburn, Marjorie Main, gan, Mark Metcalf. Embarrassingly amaLaird Cregar, Spring Byington, Allyn Joslyn, teurish fantasy-comedy about a greasy [ 598 ]

teen of the early ’60s who dies in a chicken coming her boyfriend and savior. There is a race and can’t get into heaven—until he sense of sadness and eloquence to Victor, helps out a young nerd in the 1980s. [PGbut not quite enough. ▼●쩠 13]▼쩠 Heavy Metal (1981-Canadian) C-90m. ★★★ Heavenly Pursuits SEE: Gospel AccordD: Gerald Potterton. Voices of Richard ing to Vic, The Romanus, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis, John Heavens Above! (1963-British) 105m. ★★★ D: John Boulting. Peter Sellers, Cecil ParVernon. Episodic animated feature is unker, Isabel Jeans, Eric Sykes, Bernard even, but great fun on a mindless, adolesMiles, Ian Carmichael, Irene Handl, Brock cent level. Sexy sci-fi stories and vignettes Peters, William Hartnell, Roy Kinnear, in a variety of graphic styles, many set to Joan Hickson. Wry satire on British clergy rock music. Our favorites: ‘‘Harry Canyon,’’ life; Sellers top-notch as the reverend who about a N.Y.C. cabbie of the future, and becomes bishop in outer space. Originally ran ‘‘Den,’’ a boy’s macho fantasy. Film is actu118m. Produced by Roy Boulting.▼쩠 ally the work of many animation studios, direcHeaven’s Gate (1980) C-149m. ★★ D: tors, and writers around the world. Followed in Michael Cimino. Kris Kristofferson, Chris2000 by an in-name-only direct-to-video setopher Walken, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff quel. [R] ▼●쩠 Bridges, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Heavy Petting (1988) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dourif, Joseph Cotten, Geoffrey Lewis, Obie Benz. David Byrne, Sandra BernRichard Masur, Terry O’Quinn, Mickey hard, Allen Ginsberg, Ann Magnuson, SpaldRourke, Willem Dafoe. Writer-director Ciing Gray, Josh Mostel, Laurie Anderson, mino’s now-notorious spectacle is missing John Oates, Abbie Hoffman, Jacki Ochs. just one thing: a story. It deals, more or ATOMIC CAFE–style look at sexual less, with the conflict between immigrant mores in the 1950s, punctuated by celebrity settlers of 19th-century Wyoming and the interviews and highlighted by hysterical ruthless American empire-builders who period film clips. Scattershot quasi-docuwant them eliminated. Stunningly photomentary lacks strong point of view, but it’s graphed (by Vilmos Zsigmond) on magtough to knock a film in which such ‘‘witnificent locations, with incredible period nesses’’ as David Byrne, William S. Burdetail—all to little effect, since the narraroughs, and Zoe Tamerlis (of MS. 45 cultdom) offer their views on teen dating. [R]▼●쩠 tive, character motivations, and soundtrack are so hopelessly muddled. Originally Heavy Traffic (1973) C-76m. ★★★1⁄2 D: shown at 219m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Ralph Bakshi. Animated feature is someHeaven’s Prisoners (1996) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 what pretentious and largely gross in telling D: Phil Joanou. Alec Baldwin, Mary Stuart of young New Yorker depressed by sights Masterson, Kelly Lynch, Eric Roberts, Teri and sounds around him, finding refuge at Hatcher, Vondie Curtis Hall. Alcoholic fordrawing-board. Dazzling cinematic treatmer New Orleans cop Baldwin and his wife ment, with often revolutionary combination Lynch rescue a little girl from a wrecked of live-action and animation. Some brilliant aircraft, but this leads to involvement with set-pieces within loose story framework. [R—edited from original X rating]▼쩠 drug runners and murder. Adaptation of James Lee Burke’s popular novel about a Heavyweights (1994) C-97m. ★★ D: Steven Cajun detective is too long and slow, and Brill. Tom McGowan, Aaron Schwartz, captures little of the regional atmosphere; Ben Stiller, Shaun Weiss, Tom Hodges, except for the miscast Baldwin, the cast is Leah Lail, Paul Feig, Max Goldblatt, Jeffrey excellent, especially Masterson as a stripper Tambor, Jerry Stiller, Anne Meara. Yet anand Roberts as a drug lord. Tommy Lee other summer camp movie, this one about a Jones later played detective Dave Robihaven for overweight kids where, as the cheaux in IN THE ELECTRIC MIST. press release said, ‘‘big is beautiful and thin isn’t in.’’ That is, until campers meet up with [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Heaven With a Gun (1969) C-101m. the fitness counselor of their nightmares. This ⁄2 D: Lee H. Katzin. Glenn Ford, Carolyn heavy-handed comedy’s intended ‘‘mesJones, Barbara Hershey, John Anderson, sage’’ about self-esteem is undermined by a David Carradine. Peace-loving man is forced barrage of fat jokes! [PG] ▼●쩠 to return to world of violence in the Old Hedda (1975-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: West. Uneven. Panavision. [M] Trevor Nunn. Glenda Jackson, Peter Eyre, Heavy (1996) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Timothy West, Jennie Linden, Patrick StewMangold. Pruitt Taylor Vince, Liv Tyler, art. Royal Shakespeare Company producShelley Winters, Deborah Harry, Joe Grition of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler attains a fasi, Evan Dando. Somber character study modicum of vitality from Jackson’s showy about Victor (Vince), a chubby, balding, performance in the title role. So-so. [PG]▼ hopelessly shy pizza chef who toils in a Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) C91m. ★★★ D: John Cameron Mitchell. John rural eatery run by his widowed mother (Winters). Enter a pretty teen (Tyler), the Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Stephen new waitress; Victor fantasizes about beTrask, Theodore Liscinski, Rob Campbell, [ 599 ]

Michael Aronov, Andrea Martin. Hedwig is for Terrio, adapted by Amy Fox from her an ‘‘internationally ignored’’ rock star, the one-act play. A Merchant-Ivory presentasurvivor of a botched sex-change operation tion. [R] 쩠 whose dumping by the boy-toy rock idol Heimat (1984-German) C/B&W-940m. ★★★ he helped nurture has left him dazed and D: Edgar Reitz. Marita Breuer, Dieter embittered. Very offbeat off-Broadway muSchaad, Rudiger Weigang, Karin Rasenack, sical is cleverly filmed by its author-star in Willi Burger, Gertrud Bredel, Mathias an impressive directing debut. Even wary Kniesbeck. No, that running time is not a viewers might be pulled in by the terrific typo! This is an ambitious epic, almost 16 score (by costar Trask) and inventive musihours in length, about life in a provincial cal numbers. Imaginative animation by German village between 1919 and 1982. Emily Hubley. [R]▼쩠 First few hours are generally more comHe Got Game (1998) C-136m. ★★1⁄2 D: pelling than the last. Has its boring stretches, Spike Lee. Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, and after a while it does seem like a Milla Jovovich, Rosario Dawson, Hill Harper, glorified soap opera, but at its best, perZelda Harris, Ned Beatty, Jim Brown, Joseph ceptive, comic, even poetic. Gernot Roll’s Lyle Taylor, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Locinematography is exquisite. Followed by two sequels. ▼쩠 nette McKee. A prisoner is freed for one week to convince his son—the country’s hottest Heiress, The (1949) 115m. ★★★★ D: Wilhigh school basketball player—to sign with liam Wyler. Olivia de Havilland, Ralph the state governor’s favorite college. FarRichardson, Montgomery Clift, Miriam fetched premise is played out with conviction, Hopkins, Vanessa Brown, Mona Freeman, but its points are obvious and hammered Ray Collins, Selena Royle. Henry James’ home redundantly. Redeemed by strong charnovel Washington Square receives superacterizations and powerful moments. Many lative screen treatment with Oscar-winning basketball stars and coaches appear as themde Havilland as spinster wooed by fortuneselves; young Allen is himself an NBA hunter Clift in 19th-century N.Y.C., deplayer. [R]▼●쩠 spite warnings from her cruel father, RichHeidi (1937) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allan Dwan. ardson. Aaron Copland’s music score also Shirley Temple, Jean Hersholt, Arthur won an Oscar. Adapted by Ruth and AuTreacher, Helen Westley, Mady Christians, gustus Goetz from their stage play. Remade in 1997 as WASHINGTON SQUARE. ▼●쩠 Sidney Blackmer, Sig Ruman, Marcia Mae Jones, Mary Nash. Classic children’s story Heir to Genghis Khan, The SEE: Storm set in 19th-century Switzerland is good Over Asia vehicle for Shirley, playing girl taken from Heist, The (1979-Italian) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: grandfather (Hersholt) to live with cruel Sergio Gobbi. Charles Aznavour, Virna Nash. Nice tear-jerker for children. Also Lisi, Robert Hossein. Typical cop-chasingshown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 gangster mishmash wastes its cast but is Heidi (1965-Austrian-German) C-95m. ★★★ distinguished by some great stunt drivD: Werner Jacobs. Eva Marie Singhammer, ing. Video version runs 92m.▼ Gertraud Mittermayr, Gustav Knuth, Lotte Heist (2001) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Ledi. Fine retelling of classic children’s Mamet. Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito, Delstory about young girl who leaves her cozy roy Lindo, Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Pidgeon, home in Swiss Alps for adventures in the Ricky Jay, Patti LuPone, Jim Frangione. Caworld below.▼ reer criminal is ready to retire with his girlHeidi’s Song (1982) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Robfriend, but his backer insists on one more ert Taylor. Voices of Lorne Greene, Sammy robbery—a daring heist of a Swiss cargo Davis, Jr., Margery Gray, Michael Bell, plane. Hackman and his crew aren’t just Peter Cullen. Animated feature from Hannathieves, they’re master con artists, so the Barbera studio reprises all-too familiar Heidi film is overloaded with cons, twists, twists tale. Despite songs by Sammy Cahn and on cons, etc. Mamet’s script is sharp and Burton Lane, awkward continuity, lifeless funny but perhaps too clever for its own animation and an excess of cute animals good; by the end it’s no longer satisfying. leave this little better than most Saturday [R] ▼쩠 morning fare. [G]▼ He Knows You’re Alone (1981) C-94m. ★1 Heights (2005) C-93m. ★★★ D: Chris Ter⁄2 D: Armand Mastroianni. Don Scardino, rio. Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Caitlin O’Heaney, Elizabeth Kemp, Tom Marsden, Jesse Bradford, Matt Davis, John Rolfing, Patsy Pease, Tom Hanks, Dana Light, Andrew Howard, Eric Bogosian, Barron, Paul Gleason. Yet another entry in George Segal, Isabella Rossellini, Rufus slice-and-dice genre, this one with minor Wainwright, Tom (Thomas) Lennon. Comnovelty of brides-to-be as victims. A bit pelling look at 24 hours in the life of hip, less bloody than others of its ilk; otherwise, young Manhattanites, both gay and straight, business as usual. Hanks’ film debut. Aka BLOOD WEDDING. [R]▼쩠 and their tumultuous romantic relationships. Anchored by Close’s bravura turn as an He`las Pour Moi (1993-French-Swiss) Caging theater legend. Stylish feature debut 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Ge´rard De[ 600 ]

pardieu, Laurence Masliah, Bernard Verley, horror fare. Still, after years of watching movJean-Louis Loca. Pensive account of an avies where straight people act stupid and get erage married couple (Depardieu and Maskilled, gay horror fans may welcome a mediocre genre picture to call their own. [R]쩠 liah) who reside in a Swiss village, and what happens when the husband’s body supposedly Hellbound (1993-U.S.-Canadian-Israeli) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Aaron Norris. Chuck Norris, is borrowed by a ‘‘god.’’ Of interest as an examination of the meaning of faith, but Calvin Levels, Christopher Neame, Sheree the narrative is much too fragmented and J. Wilson, David Robb, Cherie Franklin, the film too cluttered with declarations and Jack Adalist, Erez Atar. After being imprisepisode headings. Godard based his screenoned by Richard the Lion-Hearted in 1186, play in part on Greek legend. Video title: Satan’s emissary (Neame) is freed in modOH, WOE IS ME.▼쩠 ern times to face a more formidable foe: Held Up (2000) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve Rash. Chuck Norris. Too much acting from Jamie Foxx, Nia Long, Barry Corbin, John Neame, not enough from Norris, and a silly Cullum, Jake Busey, Michael Shamus story with little action. This sat on the shelf Wiles, Eduardo Yanez, Sarah Paulson, Julie for two years before going direct to video. Hagerty. While vacationing in the Grand Some attractive Israeli settings. [R] ▼●쩠 Canyon, Long dumps her fiance´ (Foxx) Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988-British) upon learning that he’s spent their nest egg C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Tony Randel. Ashley Lauon a vintage Studebaker. Then the car is rence, Clare Higgins, Kenneth Cranham, stolen . . . and finally, Foxx is taken hostage. Imogen Boorman, Sean Chapman, Doug The real crime is that time-wasters like this Bradley, William Hope. Confusing, tedious make it to the screen. [PG-13]▼쩠 sequel begins immediately after first film ends. Helen Morgan Story, The (1957) 118m. Teenage heroine literally goes to Hell in ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Ann Blyth, Paul effort to rescue ill-fated father, but encounNewman, Richard Carlson, Gene Evans, Alan ters opposition from her revived stepmother King, Cara Williams. Fiction about dynamic and an occult-obsessed psychiatrist. But 1920s and ’30s torch singer, dwelling on her Hell is a boring, dusty labyrinth. Almost as romances and alcoholism; Blyth never capgruesome as HELLRAISER (it’s not a sequel tures the star’s pathos or greatness. She’s to HELLBOUND), but nowhere near as endubbed by Gogi Grant. CinemaScope.▼쩠 tertaining. Followed by HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH. [R]▼●쩠 Helen of Troy (1956) C-118m. ★★ D: Robert Wise. Stanley Baker, Rossana Podesta, BriHellboy (2004) C-125m. ★★★ D: Guillermo gitte Bardot, Jacques Sernas, Cedric Harddel Toro. Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma wicke, Harry Andrews. Sweeping pageantry, Blair, Rupert Evans, Karel Roden, Jeffrey but empty script spoils this version of story Tambor, Doug Jones, Ladislav Beran, Bridget about the woman who caused the Trojan War. Hodson. Explosive adaptation of Mike MigFilmed in Italy. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 nola’s comic book about a powerful creature Hell and High Water (1954) C-103m. born during a (literally) hellish confrontation ★★1⁄2 D: Samuel Fuller. Richard Widmark, during WW2; nowadays he works as a ‘‘seBella Darvi, Victor Francen, Cameron cret weapon’’ for the U.S. government. Only Mitchell, Gene Evans, David Wayne, Steproblem: he’s a bit of a wiseguy. Enough phen Bekassy, Richard Loo. Uneven mixeffects and imaginative ideas for at least two ture of romance, espionage, and a demovies stuffed into one, leavened by a dismolition caper, stemming from submarine arming sense of humor. Perlman is terrific mission to Arctic. Tame film got a boost as the cigar-chomping, emotionally vulnerafrom being shot in CinemaScope.쩠 ble Hellboy. Del Toro also scripted. David Hellbenders, The (1967-Italian-Spanish) Hyde Pierce provides the uncredited voice C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Sergio Corbucci. Joseph for Abe Sapien. Director’s cut runs 145m. Cotten, Norma Bengell, Julian Mateos, Followed by an animated series and a seGino Pernice, Angel Aranda, Maria Marquel. [PG-13] ▼쩠 tin. Dreary spaghetti Western in which Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) Ccrazed ex-Confederate officer Cotten schemes 110m. ★★★ D: Guillermo del Toro. Ron Perlto rekindle the rebel cause, facing a variety man, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones, John Alexander, James Dodd, Luke of complications and crises.▼쩠 Hellbent (2005) C-85m. ★★ D: Paul EtheredgeGoss, Anna Walton, John Hurt, Roy DoOuzts. Dylan Fergus, Bryan Kirkwood, trice; voice of Seth MacFarlane. Now marHank Harris, Andrew Levitas, Matt Phillips, ried but just as ornery as ever, Hellboy (or Wren T. Brown. A group of gay men find Red, as his wife Liz calls him) and his parathemselves stalked by a serial killer during normal partners battle a power-hungry West Hollywood’s Halloween parade. This ‘‘dark prince’’ who’s determined to awaken ‘‘first gay slasher film’’ (as its ads pro- a slumbering army of mechanical soldiers claimed) has moments that cleverly combine and take over the world. This one’s all about and send up slasher movie conventions and the journey, not the destination; filled with gay stereotypes, but it isn’t much scarier or wildly imaginative creatures, special effects more entertaining than typical made-for-video set pieces, and the snarky sense of humor [ 601 ]

shared by del Toro and Mike Mignola, who Japanese, confront each other on deserted created the Hellboy comic books. Only WW2 Pacific island. Gripping idea well excomplaint: it goes on too long. [PG-13]쩠 ecuted, with two dynamic actors; only the finale disappoints. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Hellcats of the Navy (1957) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nathan Juran. Ronald Reagan, Nancy Davis Hellions, The (1962-British) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 (Reagan), Arthur Franz, Harry Lauter, D: Ken Annakin. Richard Todd, Anne Selmer Jackson. Satisfactory actioner of Aubrey, Lionel Jeffries, Zena Walker, Jamie WW2 exploits of U.S. submarine and its Uys, Marty Wilde. Western revenge plot crew. Ronald and Nancy Reagan’s only transferred to 19th-century South Africa; screen appearance together.▼쩠 inevitable shoot-out intact. Technirama. Hell Comes to Frogtown (1987) C-88m. Hell Is for Heroes (1962) 90m. ★★★ D: ★1 Donald Siegel. Steve McQueen, Bobby ⁄2 D: R. J. Kizer, Donald G. Jackson. Roddy Piper, Sandahl Bergman, Rory CalDarin, Fess Parker, Harry Guardino, James houn, Cec Verrill, William Smith, Nicholas Coburn, Mike Kellin, Nick Adams, Bob Worth, Kristi Sommers. Goofy post-holoNewhart. Tough, taut WW2 film about a caust tale with wrestler ‘‘Rowdy’’ Roddy small squadron forced to hold off a Geras the only fertile male left on earth, who man attack by pretending they’re larger—and sets out to rescue women being held capmore powerful—than they really are. Takes tive by froglike mutants. At least the frog its time getting started but builds in intensity masks are good. 1992 sequel: RETURN TO to a riveting climax. Only incongruous note: FROGTOWN. [R]▼●쩠 presence of young Newhart, who even interHell Divers (1932) 113m. ★★ D: George polates a variation on one of his telephone Hill. Wallace Beery, Clark Gable, Conrad monologues into the story! Cowritten by WW2 specialist Robert Pirosh.▼●쩠 Nagel, Dorothy Jordan, Marjorie Rambeau, Marie Prevost, Cliff Edwards. Beery and Hell Night (1981) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom Gable are boisterous rivals in the Naval DeSimone. Linda Blair, Vincent Van PatAir Force in this often lively but overlong ten, Peter Barton, Jenny Neumann, Kevin MGM effort, with some still-exciting aeBrophy, Suki Goodwin. How’s this for rial action. Watch for young Robert Young originality? Four college fraternity/sorority as a sailor. pledges must spend a night in Garth ManHell Drivers (1957-British) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: sion, which is haunted by ghost of retarded Cy Endfield. Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, killer. Unfortunately, reports of his death Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan, Jill were greatly exaggerated. No nudity or exIreland, Gordon Jackson, David McCallum, plicit violence, which makes one wonder Sean Connery. Taut account of ex-con just what audience they had in mind. Extremely dull. [R]▼쩠 trucker carrying heavy cargoes over rugged roads and trying to expose boss’ racket. Hello Again (1987) C-96m. ★★ D: Frank British running time: 108m. VistaVision. Perry. Shelley Long, Judith Ivey, Gabriel Heller in Pink Tights (1960) C-100m. Byrne, Corbin Bernsen, Sela Ward, Aus★★1⁄2 D: George Cukor. Sophia Loren, tin Pendleton, Carrie Nye, Robert Lewis, Anthony Quinn, Margaret O’Brien, Steve Madeleine Potter, Illeana Douglas. Long IsForrest, Edmund Lowe. Colorful tale of land housewife chokes to death but is theatrical troupe that travels throughout brought back to life by her witchlike sister the Old West—with the law often in purone year later . . . and soon discovers that she suit. Based on a Louis L’Amour novel.▼쩠 can’t simply pick up her life where she left off. Hellfighters (1968) C-121m. ★★ D: AnContemporary comedy written by Susan Isaacs drew V. McLaglen. John Wayne, Kathadoesn’t develop its premise with any logic or rine Ross, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles, Bruce momentum, and quickly sags. Long tries Cabot, Jay C. Flippen. Broadly acted adher best. [PG]▼●쩠 venture about men who fight oil fires is made Hello, Dolly! (1969) C-146m. ★★1⁄2 D: endurable by good cast. Wayne’s character is Gene Kelly. Barbra Streisand, Walter based on real-life oil well firefighter Red Matthau, Michael Crawford, E. J. Peaker, Adair. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Marianne McAndrew, Tommy Tune, Louis Hellfire Club, The (1961-British) C-93m. Armstrong, Danny Lockin. Splashy treatment ★★★ D: Robert S. Baker, Monty Berman. of smash Broadway play with Jerry Herman’s Keith Michell, Adrienne Corri, Peter Cushing, popular score. Dolly Levi insists on playing Peter Arne, Kai Fischer, David Lodge, Martin matchmaker, even when she herself gets Stephens, Miles Malleson, Francis Matthews. matched. Overblown and unmemorable, but Lively, entertaining 18th-century swashbuckcolorful diversion. Based on Thornton Willer with familiar rightful- vs. wrongful-heir der’s The Matchmaker (filmed in 1958). plot; acrobatic Michell makes a dashing hero. Oscar winner for Sound, Art Direction, and The depraved, powerful, real-life club of the Score (Lennie Hayton and Lionel Newman). title serves as backdrop. DyaliScope. ▼쩠 Some prints run 118m. Todd-AO. [G]▼●쩠 ★★★ Hell in the Pacific (1968) C-103m. Hello Down There (1969) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: D: John Boorman. Lee Marvin, Toshiro Jack Arnold. Tony Randall, Janet Leigh, Mifune. Two men, one American, one Jim Backus, Roddy McDowall, Ken Berry, [ 602 ]

Merv Griffin, Richard Dreyfuss. So-called Michael Beach, Laura Cayouette, Francesco comedy about family living in experimenQuinn. Generally dreadful Tarantino wantal underwater home might entertain chilnabe, charting the swagger and antics of a dren if you pay them to watch it. Reissued band of aging bikers. Oh yes, there’s plenty as SUB-A-DUB-DUB. [G]쩠 of female nudity, with the babes collectively ★★ Hello Frisco, Hello (1943) C-98m. young enough to be the bikers’ offspring. D: H. Bruce Humberstone. Alice Faye, John Bishop (the star of 1960s and ’70s biker Payne, Jack Oakie, Lynn Bari, Laird Cregar, films) also scripted and produced. Quentin June Havoc, Ward Bond. Hackneyed Tarantino, in fact, is one of the executive producers. Super 35. [R]쩠 musicomedy of Payne getting too big for his britches as Barbary Coast entrepreneur; Hell’s Angels (1930) 127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: HowOscar-winning song, ‘‘You’ll Never Know.’’ ard Hughes. Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Big comedown from earlier musicals with Harlow, John Darrow, Lucien Prival, Roy star trio.▼쩠 Wilson. Hughes’ expensive, indulgent WW1 Hello-Goodbye (1970-British) C-107m. aviation film is in a class by itself; slowBOMB D: Jean Negulesco. Michael Crawmoving and sometimes corny storywise, ford, Curt Jurgens, Genevieve Gilles, Ira but unmatched for aerial spectacle. Also Furstenberg, Lon Satton. Abysmal love the film that launched Harlow (‘‘Would triangle goes nowhere, makes no sense. you be shocked if I put on something Awful, loose, and annoying. [PG] more comfortable?’’) to stardom. TwoHello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987color Technicolor party scene and tinted Canadian) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Pittman. night sequences were restored in 1989. Lisa Schrage, Michael Ironside, Wendy James Whale, credited as dialogue direcLyon, Justin Louis. No relation to PROM tor, actually wrote and directed much of NIGHT. Lyon, who looks great in or out the film. Beware shorter prints.▼쩠 of costume, is possessed by the spirit of Hell’s Angels on Wheels (1967) C-95m. ★★1 a murdered prom queen and becomes her ⁄2 D: Richard Rush. Adam Roarke, Jack instrument of revenge. [R] ▼●쩠 Nicholson, Sabrina Scharf, Jana Taylor, Hellraiser (1987-British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Garwood. Excellent photography by Clive Barker. Andrew Robinson, Clare then-unknown Laszlo Kovacs, and NichHiggins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapolson’s characterization as gas station atman, Oliver Smith, Robert Hines. Robintendant named Poet, make this one tough son and Higgins move into a roomy British to resist on a trash level. Famed Angel Sonny Barger was technical advisor.▼쩠 dwelling, unaware that his half brother— and her former lover—is hiding upstairs in Hell’s Bloody Devils (1970) C-92m. ★★ a kind of gelatinous/skeletal state; soon the D: Al Adamson. Broderick Crawford, Scott beast is forcing her to lure stray men back Brady, John Gabriel, Kent Taylor, John to the house so he can replenish himself Carradine, Robert Dix, Keith Andes, Jack with their blood. Grisly but stylish directoStarrett, Anne Randall, Vicki Volante. Travrial debut by famed horror novelist Barker; eling the low road to action with, believe it or ugly fun all the way. Followed by HELLnot, a gang of sadistic bikers, a band of neoBOUND: HELLRAISER II. [R]▼●쩠 Nazis, the Vegas mob, a sinister dude named Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) Count von Delberg—all beating one another C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony Hickox. Terry to a pulp. Add a cast of veteran actors and, Farrell, Doug Bradley, Paula Marshall, incredibly, a score by Nelson Riddle! Aka Kevin Bernhardt, Ken Carpenter, Ashley THE FAKERS, SMASHING THE CRIME Laurence. Further adventures of the grossSYNDICATE, and SWASTIKA SAVAGES. [PG]쩠 out Pinhead goes for the jokes, not the jugular. This time Pinhead crosses paths with Hell’s Island (1955) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil an ambitious TV newswoman who winds up Karlson. John Payne, Mary Murphy, Franwith the grisliest (if not the biggest) story of cis L. Sullivan, Eduardo Noriega, Paul her career. Freddy and Jason are starting to Picerni. Tough-talking melodrama about look good by comparison. [R]▼●쩠 Payne’s pursuit of stolen gem and relaHellraiser: Bloodline (1996) C-85m. tionship with deceitful former girlfriend; BOMB D: Alan Smithee. Bruce Ramsay, script has echoes of THE MALTESE FALValentina Vargas, Doug Bradley, Adam CON, and even a Sydney Greenstreet figScott, Charlotte Chatton. Pinhead matches ure in the person of Sullivan. VistaVision. wits with a demon lover/cohort, ironically Hell’s Long Road (1963-Italian) C-89m. ★★1 named Angelique (Vargas). Dull and plot⁄2 D: Charles Roberti. Elena Brazzi, heavy, even if you’re a Clive Barker devotee. Kay Nolandi, Berto Frankis, Bela Kaivi, Re-caulk your bathtub instead. Followed by Marcello Charli. Offbeat costume sudser five direct-to-video sequels. [R] ▼●쩠 set in ancient Rome during rule of Nero Hell Ride (2008) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Larry (Frankis), focusing on personal life of arch Bishop. Larry Bishop, Michael Madsen, senator (Charli) and romance with splendiEric Balfour, Vinnie Jones, Leonor Varela, ferous Brazzi; vivid settings. David Carradine, Dennis Hopper, Julia Jones, Hellstrom Chronicle, The (1971) C-90m. [ 603 ]

★★1

⁄2 D: Walon Green. Lawrence Pressman. Help Me Dream (1981-Italian) C-112m. ★★★ Documentary about man’s impending strugD: Pupi Avati. Mariangela Melato, gle against insects somehow beat THE Anthony Franciosa, Paola Pitagora, JeanSORROW AND THE PITY for the Oscar, Pierre Le´aud, Alexandra Stewart. Intriguing, but sappy narration and repetitive structure original, winningly nostalgic musical rolessen its effect. Still, microphotography is mance centering on affable American flyer incredible; enjoyed brief vogue as a ‘‘head’’ Franciosa hiding out with Italian Melato movie. [G]▼ and children in a farmhouse during WW2. An Hell to Eternity (1960) 132m. ★★1⁄2 D: ode to an idealized America, with period Phil Karlson. Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, songs and choreography by Hermes Pan. Vic Damone, Patricia Owens, Sessue Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man (1962) C-145m. ★★ D: Martin Ritt. Hayakawa. Straightforward drama based on true story of WW2 hero Guy Gabaldon, Richard Beymer, Diane Baker, Paul Newwho was raised by Japanese foster parents; man, Corinne Calvet, Fred Clark, Dan battle scenes galore.▼쩠 Dailey, James Dunn, Juano Hernandez, Hell Up in Harlem (1973) C-96m. BOMB Arthur Kennedy, Ricardo Montalban, SuD: Larry Cohen. Fred Williamson, Julius san Strasberg, Jessica Tandy, Eli Wallach, W. Harris, Gloria Hendry, Margaret Avery, Simon Oakland, Michael (J.) Pollard. D’Urville Martin. Excessively violent, Loosely based on autobiographical data poorly filmed sequel to BLACK CAESAR from his stories, this pretentious, drawnas Fred makes N.Y.C. a decent place to out memory of the famed author is overlive by annihilating all who stand in his blown, cornball, and embarrassing. Fine way. [R]▼쩠 cast mostly wasted. Aka ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN. CinemaScope.쩠 Hell With Heroes, The (1968) C-95m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Sargent. Rod Taylor, ClauHennessy (1975-British) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 dia Cardinale, Harry Guardino, Kevin McD: Don Sharp. Rod Steiger, Lee Remick, Carthy, Peter Duel, William Marshall. OK Richard Johnson, Trevor Howard, Peter pulp fiction about WW2 flyers Taylor and Egan, Eric Porter. Interesting but unbeDuel who run air-cargo service, become lievable thriller about Irish man whose involved with notorious smuggler Guardino wife and child are killed in Belfast vioand his mistress (Cardinale). Unprofound, lence, stirring him to plan bombing of but slickly done. Techniscope. Parliament on opening day when the Royal Hellzapoppin’ (1941) 84m. ★★★ D: H. C. Family attends. [PG]▼ Potter. Ole Olsen, Chic Johnson, Martha Henry Aldrich series SEE: Leonard MalRaye, Mischa Auer, Jane Frazee, Hugh tin’s Classic Movie Guide Henry & June (1990) C-134m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Herbert, Robert Paige, Shemp Howard, Elisha Cook, Jr. Famous madcap Broadway Philip Kaufman. Fred Ward, Uma Thurshow is conventionalized by Hollywood, man, Maria de Medeiros, Richard E. Grant, with romantic subplot and too many songs, Kevin Spacey, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Bruce but still has many inspired moments of Myers, Jean-Louis Bunuel. Stylish, atmolunacy, from a throwaway CITIZEN KANE spheric, and surprisingly unerotic adaptagag to the mutterings of Hugh Herbert. tion of the Anais Nin diaries dealing He Loves Me . . . He Loves Me Not (2002specifically—and in sexually explicit fashFrench) C-96m. ★★★ D: Laetitia Colombani. ion—with her lover (author Henry Miller) Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihan, Isabelle and Henry’s wife June. Performed with Carre´, Cle´ment Sibony, Sophie Guillemin, gusto (in Ward’s case, broad gusto) and Eric Savin. Evocative psychological thriller distinguished by brilliant production deabout a young art student (Tautou) who is sign of randy Paris, circa 1931. Screenobsessively in love with a married cardioloplay by Philip and Rose Kaufman. Controgist (Le Bihan) and is convinced he’s about versy over the adult material in this film to leave his wife for her. Then the story is finally caused the MPAA to create a new told from his point of view. Most enjoyable, NC-17 rating. [NC-17]▼●쩠 and an assured feature debut for director/ Henry Fool (1998) C-137m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hal coscreenwriter Colombani.▼쩠 Hartley. Thomas Jay Ryan, James UrHelp! (1965-British) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: baniak, Parker Posey, Maria Porter, James Richard Lester. John Lennon, Paul McSaito, Kevin Corrigan, Liam Aiken, Miho Cartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Nikaido, Gene Ruffini. Hartley just misses Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, the mark with this characteristically offbeat Roy Kinnear, Patrick Cargill. Crazy, funny tale of Simon Grim (Urbaniak), a bashful film, the Beatles’ second. Lots of wild garbageman, and the title character (Ryan), gags, many songs (including ‘‘Ticket to a free spirit who encourages him to begin Ride,’’ ‘‘Another Girl,’’ ‘‘You’ve Got to writing poetry. An allegory that, in its best Hide Your Love Away,’’ title tune). The moments, serves as an ode to nonconforstory: a religious sect attempts to recover a mity and risk-taking; but it’s uneven and sacrificial ring from Ringo. Written by overlong. Scripted by Hartley. Followed a decade later by FAY GRIM. [R]▼쩠 Charles Wood and Marc Behm.▼●쩠 [ 604 ]

Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1973Wilson is dour and dreary throughout, but British) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Waris HusBarraza is wonderful as a gentle true besein. Keith Michell, Donald Pleasence, Charliever. Simple story of a man’s spiritual lotte Rampling, Jane Asher, Lynne Frederick. awakening is well told but not particularly Adapted from BBC-TV series, historical pagcompelling. Super 35. [PG]쩠 eant divides time evenly among the wives, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990) Rampling and Frederick coming off best. MiC-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John McNaughton. Michell is exceptional as the King. [PG]쩠 chael Rooker, Tracy Arnold, Tom Towles. Henry V (1945-British) C-137m. ★★★★ D: Unpleasant, unexploitive, and brilliantly Laurence Olivier. Laurence Olivier, Robdirected portrayal of diseased minds (not ert Newton, Leslie Banks, Renee Asherson, just Henry’s), loosely based on the life of Esmond Knight, Leo Genn, Ralph Truman, self-confessed Texas mass murderer Henry Harcourt Williams, Ivy St. Helier, Ernest Lee Lucas. As disturbing as Michael PowThesiger, Max Adrian, George Cole, Felix ell’s PEEPING TOM, which it in many Aylmer, Robert Helpmann, Freda Jackson, ways resembles. Definitely not for everyJimmy Hanley, John Laurie. Olivier’s masone, with some very graphic scenes; a terful rendition of Shakespeare play is a cinepowerful (if minimalist) movie experience. matic treat, filmed in rich color and framed Screenplay by director McNaughton and by ingenious presentation of a typical perRichard Fire. Filmed in 1986. Followed by formance at the Globe theater during 1500s. a 1997 sequel. [X]▼●쩠 This earned Olivier a special Academy Her Alibi (1989) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Award ‘‘for his outstanding achievement as Beresford. Tom Selleck, Paulina Porizkova, actor, producer, and director in bringing William Daniels, James Farentino, Hurd HENRY V to the screen.’’▼●쩠 Hatfield, Patrick Wayne, Tess Harper, Joan Henry V (1989-British) C-137m. ★★★1⁄2 Copeland. Successful mystery writer hopes D: Kenneth Branagh. Kenneth Branagh, to cure his career slump by providing a Derek Jacobi, Brian Blessed, Alec Mcfake alibi for accused murderer Porizkova Cowen, Ian Holm, Richard Briers, Robert (by putting her up in his dreamy country Stephens, Robbie Coltrane, Christian home and observing her behavior). AmiaBale, Judi Dench, Paul Scofield, Michael ble but awkwardly directed comedy benefits Maloney, Emma Thompson, Geraldine from attractive leads and amusing supportMcEwan. Stunning revitalization of Shakeing cast; would you believe Wayne in a speare’s play about the warrior-king, with ponytail and loud golf pants? [PG]▼●쩠 Branagh (in an incredible directorial deHe Ran All the Way (1951) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: but) breathing fire and meaning into the John Berry. John Garfield, Shelley Winters, worthy text. A different reading from OliviWallace Ford, Selena Royle, Gladys George, er’s but no less impressive; when he finishes Norman Lloyd. Taut but predictable thriller his speech before leading his men into battle with on-the-lam cop killer Garfield hiding out at Agincourt, you’re ready to enlist! Superb in Winters’ home. Garfield’s final film. music by Patrick Doyle. Supporting cast is Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) C-101m. ★★★ peppered with familiar faces from the elite D: Angela Robinson. Lindsay Lohan, Miof British theater and film. Won Costume chael Keaton, Matt Dillon, Justin Long, Design Oscar.▼●쩠 Breckin Meyer, Cheryl Hines, Jill Ritchie. ★★ D: Henry IV (1984-Italian) C-95m. Single father Keaton takes daughter Lohan Marco Bellochio. Marcello Mastroianni, to an auto junkyard so she can pick out a car Claudia Cardinale, Luciano Bartoli, Latou as a college graduation present; instead, a Chardons, Leopoldo Trieste. Disappointing car (Herbie) picks her. In fact, the Volkswaupdate of Pirandello’s brilliant satirical play gen Beetle steers her into a rivalry with on the nature of madness and illusion. cocky NASCAR driver Dillon. FamilyWhen a nobleman falls off his horse, he friendly reprise of the Disney series that comes to believe he’s Emperor Henry began with THE LOVE BUG, and a good IV . . . or does he? The two stars do what vehicle for Lohan. Real-life racers and they can to extract a few moments of lucidsportscasters appear as themselves; cowriter ity from the confusion. [PG-13]▼쩠 Thomas Lennon plays Dillon’s hapless Henry Poole Is Here (2008) C-99m. ★★ brother. [G] 쩠 D: Mark Pellington. Luke Wilson, Radha Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) C-100m. Mitchell, Adriana Barraza, Cheryl Hines, ★1⁄2 D: Vincent McEveety. Charlie Martin George Lopez, Richard Benjamin, Morgan Smith, Steven W. Burns, Cloris Leachman, Lily, Rachel Seiferth, Beth Grant. DeJohn Vernon, Elyssa Davalos, Harvey pressed man dumps his fiance´e and business Korman, Richard Jaeckel, Alex Rocco, when he believes he is dying and moves Fritz Feld. Fourth Disney LOVE BUG back to the neighborhood where he grew epic finds Smith and Burns driving ol’ ’53 up, wanting to be left alone. When neightoward a race in Brazil, but encountering bors think they see a stucco image of Christ all sorts of ‘‘hilarious’’ obstacles along the on his property, his serenity is interrupted by constant visitors in search of a miracle. way. One amusing scene where the VW [ 605 ]

turns matador; otherwise, strictly scrap animated TV series and a video sequel. [G] metal. A TV series followed. [G]▼●쩠 ▼●쩠 Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) Hercules II (1985-Italian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: C-91m. ★★ D: Vincent McEveety. Dean Lewis Coates (Luigi Cozzi). Lou Ferrigno, Jones, Don Knotts, Julie Sommars, Roy Milly Carlucci, Sonia Viviani, William Kinnear, Jacques Marin. Spy ring hides Berger, Carlotta Green, Claudio Cassinelli. diamond in Herbie the Volkswagen’s gas Sequel to HERCULES (1983). Recomtank while Jones is racing in Europe. Dismended for nondiscriminating viewers too ney’s LOVE BUG formula is starting to young to read this. Video title: THE ADVENTURES OF HERCULES. [PG]▼쩠 run out of gas. [G]▼●쩠 Herbie Rides Again (1974) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 Hercules in New York (1970) C-91m. ★1 D: Robert Stevenson. Helen Hayes, Ken ⁄2 D: Arthur Allan Seidelman. Arnold Berry, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn, Stang, Arnold Strong (Schwarzenegger), John McIntire, Huntz Hall. OK sequel to Taina Elg, James Karen, Deborah Loomis, THE LOVE BUG with similar special efErnest Graves, Tanny McDonald. Hercules fects, as Herbie the Volkswagen tries to journeys to Earth from Mt. Olympus and help Hayes and Berry steer clear of evil gets mixed up with wrestling promoters— Alonzo Hawk (Wynn). Typical Disney and mobsters—in this lumbering comedy. slapstick. [G]▼●쩠 Inept, but irresistible for the opportunity to Her Bridal Night SEE: Bride Is Much watch a young, badly dubbed SchwarzenegToo Beautiful, The ger in his movie debut. (His original dialogue Her Brother (1960-Japanese) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 track was restored for the DVD.) Reissued D: Kon Ichikawa. Keiko Kishi, Hiroshi as HERCULES—THE MOVIE at 82m., and Kawaguchi, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori. HERCULES GOES BANANAS at 75m. Troublesome family is brought together when [G]▼●쩠 immature brother-son Kawaguchi contracts Hercules in the Haunted World (1961tuberculosis; central to the scenario is his Italian) C-83m. ★★ D: Mario Bava. Reg warm relationship with his older sister (Kishi). Park, Christopher Lee, Leonora Ruffo, Sentimental drama. Daieiscope. Giorgio Ardisson, Ida Galli. Occasionally 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Hercules (1959-Italian) C-107m. sparked by atmospheric settings, this swordPietro Francisci. Steve Reeves, Sylva and-sandal epic narrates adventures of Koscina, Gianna Maria Canale, Fabrizio Park in the devil’s kingdom. Totalscope Mioni, Ivo Garrani, Gina Rovere, Luciana Super/100.▼쩠 Paoluzzi (Paluzzi). This Italian import beHercules Unchained (1960-Italian) Ccame a surprise U.S. hit, and served as the 101m. ★★ D: Pietro Francisci. Steve Reeves, prototype of all cloak-and-sandal pictures to Sylva Koscina, Primo Carnera, Sylvia come: Reeves is musclebound mythical hero Lopez. Par-for-the-course entry featuring in essentially a retelling of the story of Jason the muscleman hero and his princess bride and the Golden Fleece. Sequel: HERCULES setting off for the city of Thebes; along the UNCHAINED. Dyaliscope. ▼●쩠 way he will bid to prevent a war and tangle Hercules (1983-Italian) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: with a sinister queen. Dyaliscope.▼●쩠 Lewis Coates (Luigi Cozzi). Lou Ferrigno, Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) 93m. ★★★★ Mirella D’Angelo, Sybil Danning, Ingrid D: Alexander Hall. Robert MontAnderson, William Berger, Brad Harris, gomery, Evelyn Keyes, Claude Rains, Rita Rossana Podesta. Silly, special-effects-laden Johnson, Edward Everett Horton, James epic with Hercules (Ferrigno) attempting to Gleason, John Emery. Excellent fantasyrescue kidnapped Princess Anderson. Howcomedy of prizefighter Montgomery acciever, the ex-Incredible Hulk is undeniably dentally sent to heaven before his time, well cast. Followed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 forced to occupy a new body on earth. Hercules (1997) C-93m. ★★★ D: John Hollywood moviemaking at its best, with Musker, Ron Clements. Voices of Tate first-rate cast and performances; Harry Donovan, Susan Egan, James Woods, Segall won an Oscar for his original story, Danny DeVito, Rip Torn, Samantha Eggar, as did Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller Bobcat Goldthwait, Matt Frewer, Hal Holfor their screenplay. Characters used again brook, Barbara Barrie; opening narration by in DOWN TO EARTH (1947); film remade Charlton Heston. Entertaining Disney caras HEAVEN CAN WAIT in 1978 and toon feature based on Greek mythology. DOWN TO EARTH (2001). Look fast for a young Lloyd Bridges.▼●쩠 Baby Hercules is stolen from Mount Olympus by the bungling henchmen of Hades; Here Comes the Groom (1951) 113m. ★★★ raised as a mortal with extraordinary strength, D: Frank Capra. Bing Crosby, Jane he must prove himself a real hero to regain Wyman, Franchot Tone, Alexis Smith, entry to the home of the gods. Funny, wellJames Barton, Anna Maria Alberghetti. paced story is peppered with gags and songs Crosby contrives to keep former fiance´e (by Alan Menken and David Zippel), and a Wyman from marrying millionaire Tone in standout characterization by Woods as the this lightweight musical outing. Guest apgarrulous and glib villain. Followed by an pearances by Louis Armstrong, Dorothy [ 606 ]

Lamour, Phil Harris, and Cass Daley, plus constant dead-end. Amusing, often clever Oscar-winning song, ‘‘In the Cool, Cool, adolescent romp; music by Stevie Winwood Cool of the Evening.’’▼●쩠 & Traffic, Spencer Davis Group. Here Comes the Navy (1934) 86m. ★★1⁄2 Her Majesty Mrs. Brown SEE: Mrs. D: Lloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Pat O’BriBrown Hero, The (1970) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richen, Gloria Stuart, Dorothy Tree, Frank McHugh. Enjoyable but standard tale of ard Harris. Richard Harris, Romy Schneicocky Cagney who becomes Navy hero; der, Kim Burfield, Maurice Kaufman, Yossi nothing new, but well done. Yadin. Old-fashioned film about a soccer Here Come the Co-Eds (1945) 87m. ★★1⁄2 star and the young boy who idolizes him; D: Jean Yarbrough. Bud Abbott, Lou partly filmed in Israel. [PG]▼ Costello, Peggy Ryan, Martha O’Driscoll, Hero (1992) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen June Vincent, Lon Chaney (Jr.), Donald Frears. Dustin Hoffman, Geena Davis, Andy Cook. Pretty zany Abbott and Costello Garcia, Joan Cusack, Kevin J. O’Connor, comedy of two wacky caretakers turning Maury Chaykin, Stephen Tobolowsky, Chrisformerly staid girls’ school on its ear.▼쩠 tian Clemenson, Tom Arnold, Warren BerHere Come the Girls (1953) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 linger, Susie Cusack, James Madio, Darrell D: Claude Binyon. Bob Hope, Arlene Dahl, Larson. Seriocomic yarn about a ne’er-doRosemary Clooney, Tony Martin, Fred well (Hoffman) who saves lives after a plane Clark, Robert Strauss, the Four Step Brothcrash, barely giving it a thought, until an imers. At times amusing romp with Hope a postor (Garcia) takes credit for the good deed, naive show biz-ite who becomes involved and becomes lionized by the public—and the with killer on the loose.▼● media. Flawed but entertaining, with some Here Come the Nelsons (1952) 76m. ★★ glib, funny potshots at television. How many D: Frederick de Cordova. Ozzie, Harriet, times did they watch MEET JOHN DOE beDavid, Ricky Nelson, Rock Hudson, Ann fore filming this? Chevy Chase, Edward HerrDoran, Jim Backus, Barbara Lawrence, Shelmann, Barney Martin, and Fisher Stevens don Leonard, Gale Gordon. Expanded version appear unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 of radio’s Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet, Hero (2002-Hong Kong-Chinese) C-96m. ★★★ D: Zhang Yimou. Jet Li, Tony Leung spotlighting a series of typical, comical situations. Light, predictable fare that paved the Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, way for the long-running TV series.▼ Chen Dao Ming, Donnie Yen, Liu Zhong Here Come the Waves (1944) 99m. ★★★ Yuan. A ruthless, ambitious king is atD: Mark Sandrich. Bing Crosby, Betty tempting to merge the conflicting Chinese Hutton, Sonny Tufts, Ann Doran, Gwen municipalities into a united empire in 3rdcentury A.D., and the title character (Li, perCrawford, Noel Neill, Catherine Craig, Mae Clarke. Zippy wartime music-comedy fectly cast), a warrior called Nameless, rewith Crosby cleverly cast as a Sinatra-like lates how he overpowered the king’s three crooner, the idol of bobby-soxers, who most potent enemies. Different versions are joins the Navy, and becomes involved with offered in a RASHOMON-like manner, and twin sisters (played by Hutton—and one’s each unfolds using a different color scheme. even demure!). Harold Arlen–Johnny Mercer Action-packed, visually sumptuous saga score includes ‘‘Let’s Take the Long Way also charts a love triangle between two of Home,’’ ‘‘(That Old) Black Magic’’ (rethe enemy warriors (Cheung, Leung Chiuprised from STAR SPANGLED RHYTHM), wai) and a servant (Ziyi). A bit confusing at and ‘‘Ac-cent-u-ate the Positive,’’ which is times, but visually dazzling. Aka JET LI’S performed in blackface! Yvonne De Carlo HERO. Released in the U.S. in 2004. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 and Mona Freeman have bit parts.▼쩠 Here on Earth (2000) C-96m. ★★ D: Mark Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich, A Piznarski. Chris Klein, Leelee Sobieski, (1978) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Nelson. Josh Hartnett, Michael Rooker, Bruce GreenCicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Larry B. ´ nnie Corley, wood, Annette O’Toole, A Scott, Helen Martin, Glynn Turman, David Elaine Hendrix, Stuart Wilson. Spoiled prepGroh. Well-meaning drama (from Alice pie Klein falls for small-town girl Sobieski Childress’ book) about intelligent but while rooming with her boyfriend’s family alienated black ghetto youth who takes up for the summer. Fateful teen romantic triandrugs. Moralistic film may get PTA recgle is strictly by-the-numbers. Sobieski gets ommendations, but doesn’t really deliver: points for radiantly dangling two hunky young Scott’s performance is major guys along; if she were any more angelic asset. [PG]▼●쩠 she’d explode. [PG-13]▼쩠 Hero and the Terror (1988) C-96m. ★1⁄2 Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush D: William Tannen. Chuck Norris, Brynn (1968-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clive DonThayer, Steve W. James, Jack O’Halloran, ner. Barry Evans, Judy Geeson, Angela Ron O’Neal, Billy Drago. Flat melodrama Scoular, Sheila White, Vanessa Howard, proves to be an unwise change of pace for Denholm Elliott. British teenager Evans action star Norris, here playing a ‘‘sensiis hung up on girls, but finds his pursuits a tive’’ police detective who must exorcise [ 607 ]

his personal demons by doing battle one man Cotten in undistinguished romance, last time with his larger-than-life maniac brightened by Deanna’s singing. Songs: nemesis O’Halloran. Film’s cowriter, for‘‘Begin The Beguine,’’ etc. He Said, She Said (1991) C-115m. ★★ D: mer actor Michael Blodgett, has an endless cameo in a restaurant scene. [R]▼●쩠 Ken Kwapis, Marisa Silver. Kevin Bacon, ★★1 Hero At Large (1980) C-98m. Elizabeth Perkins, Sharon Stone, Nathan ⁄2 D: Martin Davidson. John Ritter, Anne ArchLane, Anthony LaPaglia, Stanley Anderer, Bert Convy, Kevin McCarthy, Harry son, Charlaine Woodard, Danton Stone. Bellaver, Anita Dangler. Unemployed actor We say, piffle. Gimmick comedy charts the Ritter is mistaken for do-gooding ‘‘Capdissolution of a romance between two Baltitain Avenger’’; political hucksters Convy more journalists who parlay their rival and McCarthy attempt to co-opt him. Winpoint/counterpoint columns into a popular ning if naive satire. Look fast for Kevin local TV spot. Kwapis’ half (marginally funBacon. [PG]▼쩠 nier) is shown from Bacon’s point of view; Heroes, The (1972-Italian) C-99m. ★★ D: Silver’s (marginally better, thanks to PerDuccio Tessari. Rod Steiger, Rod Taykins) takes overlong story from the opposite lor, Rosanna Schiaffino, Claude Brasseur, perspective. About as contemporary as a Terry-Thomas. A middling script sinks ’60s TV sitcom, with clumsy fantasy sethis forgettable actioner about a motley quences. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 crew that bands together to pull off a heist He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) Cof ‘‘lost’’ military money. Techniscope. [PG] 129m. ★★★ D: Ken Kwapis. Ginnifer GoodHeroes (1977) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeremy win, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Kagan. Henry Winkler, Sally Field, Scarlett Johansson, Drew Barrymore, BradHarrison Ford, Val Avery, Olivia Cole, ley Cooper, Ben Affleck, Kevin Connolly, Hector Elias. Innocuous film marked WinJustin Long, Kris Kristofferson, Busy Philkler’s first starring role, as crazy Vietnam vet ipps, Leonardo Nam, Sasha Alexander, who chases a dream of wealth and success Wilson Cruz. Men send signals to women— cross-country; Field is appealing as the girl he more than ever in the age of electronic meets and wins along the way. [PG]▼쩠 devices—but some women don’t know how ★★★ Heroes for Sale (1933) 73m. to read them. That’s what needy Goodwin D: William A. Wellman. Richard Barthelmess, tries to learn with help from self-styled masLoretta Young, Aline MacMahon, Robert ter of communication Long. Other attractive Barrat, Grant Mitchell, Douglass Dumbrille, couples face a variety of crises in this epiCharles Grapewin, Ward Bond. Potent sodic comedy with unexpectedly serious melodrama with Barthelmess as an Ameriundertones. Not another airheaded romantic can Everyman who manages to survive one comedy but a ‘‘battle of the sexes’’ for our calamity after another—from morphine addictimes, based on the book by Greg Behrendt tion (as a result of a WW1 injury) to joband Liz Tuccillo. Luis Guzma´n appears unhunting during the Depression—and continbilled. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 ues to endure, like the country itself. AmbiHe’s My Girl (1987) C-104m. ★★ D: tious script by Wilson Mizner and Robert Gabrielle Beaumont. T.K. Carter, David Lord tackles everything from the hypocrisy of Hallyday, Misha McK, Jennifer Tilly, Dahero worship to Communism! A fascinating vid Clennon. A few amusing moments social document of the early 1930s.▼쩠 cannot save this silly comedy about Carter Heroes of Telemark, The (1965-British) dressing in drag to accompany pal Hallyday C-131m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Mann. Kirk on a free trip to Hollywood. Lots of enDouglas, Richard Harris, Michael Redgrave, ergy, but it’s mostly for naught. [PG-13]▼ Mervyn Johns, Eric Porter. Douglas and Hester Street (1975) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joan Harris spend more time battling each other Micklin Silver. Steven Keats, Carol Kane, than the Nazis overrunning Norway in this Mel Howard, Dorrie Kavanaugh, Doris pictorially striking (filmed on location), Roberts, Stephen Strimpell. Young Jewish predictable blow-up-the-German-factory yarn. immigrant (Kane) joins her husband in Panavision.▼ N.Y.C. at turn of the century, only to Hero’s Island (1962) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: find that he has forsaken his Old World Leslie Stevens. James Mason, Kate Manx, ways and expects her to do the same. Neville Brand, Rip Torn, Warren Oates, Disarmingly simple story, outstanding peBrendan Dillon, (Harry) Dean Stanton. riod flavor. [PG]▼쩠 Peculiar mixture of adventure and soap He Walked by Night (1948) 79m. ★★★ D: opera set in 18th-century on island near Alfred L. Werker. Richard Basehart, Scott North Carolina, involving pirates and homeBrady, Roy Roberts, Whit Bissell, Jack Webb. steaders. Mason coproduced. Panavision. Grade-A drama of killer hunted by police; told Hers to Hold (1943) 94m. ★★ D: Frank in semi-documentary style (and partially diRyan. Deanna Durbin, Joseph Cotten, rected by Anthony Mann). Great climax in Charles Winninger, Nella Walker, Gus L.A. storm drains; photographed by the great Schilling, Ludwig Stossel, Irving Bacon. John Alton. This clearly inspired Webb’s creation of Dragnet.▼●쩠 Grown-up Durbin is in love with service[ 608 ]

He Was Her Man (1934) 70m. ★★ D: Lloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Victor Jory, Frank Craven, Sarah Padden. Disappointing drama of safecracker Cagney on the lam, meeting Blondell, who’s engaged to fisherman Jory. One of Cagney’s weakest Warner Bros. vehicles. He Who Gets Slapped (1924) 85m. ★★★ D: Victor Seastrom. Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer, John Gilbert, Tully Marshall, Marc McDermott, Ford Sterling. Brilliant scientist tries to bury personal tragedy under mask of circus clown, who falls in love with beautiful bareback rider (Shearer). Famous story becomes Pagliacci-type vehicle for Chaney.▼● He Who Rides a Tiger (1966-British) 103m. ★★ D: Charles Crichton. Tom Bell, Judi Dench, Paul Rogers, Kay Walsh, Ray McAnally. Cat burglar is nice to children and is further softened by love, but he still has professional problems; OK programmer. Hex (1973) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Leo Garen. Keith Carradine, Tina Herazo (Cristina Raines), Hilarie Thompson, Gary Busey, Robert Walker, Dan Haggerty, John Carradine, Scott Glenn. Off-the-wall bike movie that involves a motorcycle gang with occultism in post-WW1 Nebraska. You’ve been warned. Video title: THE SHRIEKING. [PG]▼● Hexed (1993) C-90m. ★★ D: Alan Spencer. Arye Gross, Claudia Christian, Adrienne Shelly, Ray Baker, R. Lee Ermey, Michael Knight, Robin Curtis, Brandis Kemp, Norman Fell, Teresa Ganzel. Hotel clerk with delusions of grandeur gets involved with a once overweight fashion model whose long-ago act of arson killed 32 people. Very hit-and-miss—and at worst, terrible—but at least it isn’t bland. Christian, as the model, is a stitch. [R]▼●쩠 Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002) C-76m. ★★ D: Tuck Tucker. Voices of Spencer Klein, Francesca Marie Smith, Jamil Smith, Dan Castellaneta, Tress MacNeille, Paul Sorvino, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Maurice LaMarche, Kath E. Soucie. Arnold leads his friends and neighbors in a protest when an industrialist threatens to tear down their neighborhood to build an elaborate mall. Straightforward adaptation of the popular animated TV series plays like an extended episode; OK for young children. [PG]

from the sexy Swedish classic SHE ONLY DANCED ONE SUMMER. [R]▼●쩠 Hey Boy! Hey Girl! (1959) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: David Lowell Rich. Louis Prima, Keely Smith, James Gregory, Henry Slate, Asa Maynor, Sam Butera and The Witnesses. Minor lowbudget musical about a singer (Smith) who will join Prima and The Witnesses only if they appear at a church bazaar. Louis sings the unforgettable ‘‘A Banana Split for My Baby (And a Glass of Water for Me).’’ Hey Good Lookin’ (1982) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph Bakshi. Voices of Richard Romanus, David Proval, Jesse Welles, Tina Bowman. Animated feature dips into ‘‘nostalgia’’ for street gangs in 1950s Brooklyn, and a sense of deja vu hangs over the proceedings. More interesting visually than Bakshi’s other later films, because this one wasn’t completely traced from live-action footage, but as entertainment it’s vulgar and pointless. Originally made in 1975, then largely redone for 1982 release. [R]▼ Hey, Let’s Twist! (1961) 80m. BOMB D: Greg Garrison. Joey Dee, The Starliters, Peppermint Loungers, Jo Ann Campbell, Zohra Lampert, Teddy Randazzo, Allan Arbus. Let’s not. This minor film about the rise, decline, and rise of the Peppermint Lounge nightclub came out at the height of the Twist dance rage and wasn’t very good then . . . now it’s just a bad way to kill 80 minutes. Try spotting a young Joe Pesci (then a Starliters guitarist, making his film debut) as an extra. Hey There It’s Yogi Bear (1964) C-89m. ★★ D: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera. Voices of: Mel Blanc, J. Pat O’Malley, Julie Bennett, Daws Butler, Don Messick. First full-length cartoon from Hanna-Barbera studio stars Yogi Bear in amusing musical tale for younger folk.▼●쩠 H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (2005) C-179m. BOMB D: Timothy Hines. Anthony Piana, Jack Clay, James Lathrop, Darlene Sellers, John Kaufmann, Jamie Lynn Sease, Susan Goforth, W. Bernard Bauman. One of three 2005 movies based on Wells’ classic novel about a Martian invasion, this is easily the worst, though also the most ambitious in terms of fidelity to its source. The script essentially is the novel, retaining the 1890s setting, and proving conclusively that fidelity is not in itself a virtue. CGI effects ▼쩠 Hey Babu Riba (1986-Yugoslavian) Care below video-game level. No tension, ex109m. ★★★ D: Jovan Acin. Gala Videnovic, citement, or interest, amateurish acting, and Relja Basic, Nebojsa Bakocevic, Marko lousy, gold-toned color; what’s more, it’s Todorovic, Dragan Bjelogrlic, Milos Zutic. three hours long. Shot in and around Seattle. Perceptive film combines nostalgia and Director’s cut runs 135m.! [R] ▼쩠 political commentary in flashback story of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds (2005) Cfour men recalling their pranks in the early 90m. ★1⁄2 D: David Michael Latt. C. Thomas 1950s when all were in love with dream Howell, Rhett Giles, Andy Lauer, Tinarie girl Videnovic. Film buffs will appreciate Van Wyk-Loots, Jake Busey, Dash Howell, picture being built around kids’ fascination Peter Greene. Invading aliens in tanklike, with Esther Williams in BATHING multilegged fighting machines ravage the BEAUTY; also features vintage footage countryside. Scientist Howell struggles to [ 609 ]

reach Washington, D.C., in hopes of finding Brian Cox, Brad Dourif, Mai Zetterling, Jim his wife and son. Direct-to-video adaptation Norton, Maurice Roeves. American human of Wells’ novel is respectable but dull with rights activist McDormand and British police scant, mediocre effects. In this variation, it’s inspector Cox (both excellent) try to unravel our hero who finds a way to defeat the aliens. mystery surrounding police ambush and One of three 2005 movies based on the Wells cover-up in strife-ridden Belfast during the novel. Followed by a cable TV sequel. [R]쩠 early 1980s. Effective political thriller set Hickey & Boggs (1972) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 amidst the battleground of Northern Ireland. D: Robert Culp. Robert Culp, Bill Cosby, If not exactly unbiased (director Loach is Rosalind Cash, Sheila Sullivan, Isabel Sanknown for films which are critical of the ford, Ta-Ronce Allen, Lou Frizzell. Tough U.K.), it is believable. Many small roles melodrama by Walter Hill about two weary, played by Belfast non-actors. [R]▼●쩠 hard-luck private eyes whose search for a Hidden Eye, The (1945) 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: missing girl brings death to almost everyone Richard Whorf. Edward Arnold, Frances around them. Well made but extremely vioRafferty, Ray Collins, Paul Langton, Raylent and downbeat; a sharp contrast to the mond Largay, William Phillips. Followstars’ tongue-in-cheek antics on their I Spy up to EYES IN THE NIGHT, with blind TV series. Many now-familiar faces appear detective Arnold making good use of other in bits: Robert Mandan, Michael Moriarty, senses to solve murder mystery; fast-moving, Vincent Gardenia, James Woods, and Ed entertaining mystery. Lauter. [PG]쩠 Hidden Fortress, The (1958-Japanese) 1 Hidalgo (2004) C-135m. ★★★ ⁄2 D: Joe John126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro ston. Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, Louise Mifune, Misa Uehara, Minoru Chiaki, Lombard, Saı¨d Taghmaoui, Peter Mensah, J.K. Kamatari Fujiwara, Susumu Fujita, Takashi Simmons, Zuleikha Robinson, Silas Carson, Shimura. Autocratic young Princess Uehara Joshua Wolf Coleman, Adam Alexi-Malle, and loyal general Mifune must make danFloyd Red Crow Westerman, C. Thomas gerous journey to their homeland with royal Howell. Mortensen is perfect as disenchanted fortune, with only bare minimum of help real-life cowboy Frank T. Hopkins, who parfrom two bumbling misfits hoping to make ticipates in the world’s longest, most grueling off with a share of the gold. Solid comedyhorse race across the Arabian Desert with his adventure with great deadpan performance trusty steed Hidalgo. An old-fashioned high by Mifune; one of Kurosawa’s personal adventure, set in 1890, with the added kick of favorites. Acknowledged by George Lucas desert veteran Sharif as the sheik who sponsors as a primary inspiration for STAR WARS. the race. There are doubts about the inspiraSome U.S. prints cut to 90m.; released in tion for this ‘‘true story,’’ but there’s no quesJapan at 139m., and reissued in the U.S. tion about its entertainment value. Written by in 1984 at that length. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 John Fusco. Malcolm McDowell appears unHidden Room, The (1949-British) 98m. billed. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ★★★ D: Edward Dmytryk. Robert Newton, ★★★ D: Jack Hidden, The (1987) C-96m. Sally Gray, Naunton Wayne, Phil Brown, Sholder. Michael Nouri, Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Balfour, Olga Lindo. Very effecEd O’Ross, Clu Gulager, Claudia Christian, tive suspenser involving Newton’s plan to Clarence Felder, William Boyett, Richard eliminate a man threatening his marriage; Brooks. L.A. cop Nouri pursues an alien crimnifty climax. Retitled: OBSESSION.▼쩠 inal that loves violence, fast cars, and rock Hide and Seek (2005) C-101m. ★★ D: John music—and can pass from one human body Polson. Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, to another. FBI agent MacLachlan, helping Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irout, is really an alien cop. Smart, fast-paced ving, Dylan Baker, Melissa Leo. After psythriller effectively blends horror, sci-fi, and chologist De Niro’s wife commits suicide, action with humor; good acting and savvy he and his traumatized daughter (Fanning) direction. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 move to the country to start life anew; Hidden II, The (1994) C-95m. BOMB D: strange incidents begin occurring when the Seth Pinsker. Raphael Sbarge, Kate Hodge, child befriends a noxious ‘‘imaginary’’ Jovin Montanaro, Christopher Murphy, Miplaymate. So-called thriller has a paper-thin chael Weldon, Michael A. Nickles, Tony script, limp pacing, and a less-than-inspired Di Benedetto, Tom Tayback. Fifteen years De Niro performance. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 after the events in the original, the daughter Hideaway (1995) C-112m. BOMB D: of the L.A. cop who chased down the bodyBrett Leonard. Jeff Goldblum, Christine switching alien teams up with another alien Lahti, Alfred Molina, Jeremy Sisto, Rae cop, here to save us from more of the evil Dawn Chong, Kenneth Welsh, Alicia Silvisitors. Cheap, slow-paced sequel distorts verstone. Horror film from best-selling novel the premise of the original; result is stilted by Dean R. Koontz about a man resuscitated and routine, utterly devoid of the wit and after ‘‘dying,’’ who returns psychically linked energy that sparked the first. [R]▼●쩠 to a psychotic killer who’s also back from Hidden Agenda (1990-British) C-108m. ★★★ D: Ken Loach. Frances McDormand, the beyond—and intent on making the man’s [ 610 ]

family his next victims. This goes nowhere the lam from thugs. He hides out by dyeing for nearly two interminable hours; Koontz had his hair and becoming an instant highthe good sense to try and have his name taken school senior. Jon’s real-life mother, actress/ off the picture. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 writer Gretchen Cryer, plays Aunt Lucy. Hideaways, The SEE: From the Mixed[PG-13]▼쩠 Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Hiding Place, The (1975) C-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: James F. Collier. Julie Harris, Eileen Hide in Plain Sight (1980) C-98m. ★★★ D: James Caan. James Caan, Jill Eikenberry, Heckart, Arthur O’Connell, Jeanette Clift, Robert Viharo, Joe Grifasi, Barbra Rae, Robert Rietty, Pamela Sholto. Well-meanKenneth McMillan, Josef Sommer, Danny ing, sometimes effective, but draggy, preAiello. Caan made a creditable directing dictable story of Dutch Christians aiding debut with this true story about a divorced Jews in WW2. Produced by Billy Graman whose children are swept away by the ham’s Evangelistic Association. [PG]▼쩠 U.S. government when their new father is High and Low (1963-Japanese) 142m. ★★★ moved underground by the Justice DepartD: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, ment’s witness relocation program. StraightTatsuya Mihashi, Yutaka Sada, Tatsuya forward and well done. Panavision. [PG]▼ Nakadai, Kyoko Kagawa. Carefully paced Hideous Kinky (1999-British-French) Cstudy of business executive Mifune, who is financially ruined when he nobly pays 97m. ★★★ D: Gillies MacKinnon. Kate Winslet, Saı¨d Taghmaoui, Bella Riza, Carrie ransom money to kidnappers who misMullan, Pierre Cle´menti, Sira Stampe. Intertakenly stole his chauffeur’s son. Based on esting story about an immature young an Ed McBain story; one color sequence. woman who’s left her lover, and her life, Tohoscope.▼●쩠 in England to seek spiritual satisfaction in High and the Mighty, The (1954) CMorocco—with her two young daughters 147m. ★★★ D: William A. Wellman. John in tow. Well-observed study of selfishness, Wayne, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert spontaneity, and social mores set in the Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, Robert early 1970s, anchored by Winslet’s fine perNewton, David Brian, Paul Kelly, John formance. Based on an autobiographical Howard, Stanley Blackmer, Julie Bishop, novel by Esther Freud. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Wally Brown, Doe Avedon, Karen Sharpe, Hideous Sun Demon, The (1959) 74m. John Smith, William Campbell, Douglas ★1 Fowley, (Pedro) Gonzales Gonzales, John ⁄2 D: Robert Clarke, Tom Boutross. Robert Clarke, Patricia Manning, Nan Peterson, Qualen, Ann Doran, Paul Fix, Joy Kim, Patrick Whyte, Fred La Porta. Doctor exCarl Switzer, William Hopper, Regis posed to radiation discovers that sunlight Toomey. Granddaddy of all airborne disasturns him into ghastly lizard creature. Hidter films and more fun than most of them eously low-budget production stars codirecput together: a GRAND HOTEL cast of tor Clarke himself as demon of title.▼쩠 characters boards a flight from Honolulu to Hide-Out (1934) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: W. S. Van San Francisco, little dreaming of the trouble Dyke. Robert Montgomery, Maureen O’Sulliin store or the tensions in the cockpit. Corny van, Edward Arnold, Elizabeth Patterson, at times, but still entertaining, bolstered by Whitford Kane, Mickey Rooney, C. Henry Dimitri Tiomkin’s Oscar-winning music Gordon,Edward Brophy. Big-cityracketeer re(including the title song, which became a covers from gunshot wound on idyllic farm big hit). Written by Ernest K. Gann, from where he falls in love (of course) with fetching his novel. CinemaScope. 쩠 O’Sullivan. Opens and closes great, with some High Anxiety (1977) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mel humdrum stuffing in between; wonderful supBrooks. Mel Brooks, Madeline Kahn, Cloris porting cast (including Henry Armetta and Leachman, Harvey Korman, Dick Van PatHerman Bing as nightclub co-owners!). Reten, Ron Carey, Howard Morris, Murphy made in 1941 as I’LL WAIT FOR YOU.▼ Dunne, Jack Riley, Charlie Callas. AffecHider in the House (1991) C-109m. ★1⁄2 tionate, well-made but uneven spoof of D: Matthew Patrick. Gary Busey, Mimi Hitchcock films with Brooks as psychiatrist Rogers, Michael McKean, Kurt Christowho walks into trouble as new head of sanipher Kinder, Candy Hutson, Elizabeth tarium. Isolated moments of great comedy Ruscio, Bruce Glover. Disturbed Busey bolster so-so film. Future RAIN MAN director creates a secret living space in the home of Barry Levinson, who coscripted this film, a family he admires, but his efforts to try appears as a hostile hotel bellman. Kahn’s to ingratiate himself with them lead to father is played by special effects maestro violence. Routine thriller with a ludicrous (and real-life Hitchcock collaborator) Albert J. Whitlock. [PG]▼●쩠 premise; Busey is fine as the psycho. [R]▼● Hiding Out (1987) C-98m. ★★ D: Bob High Art (1998-Canadian) C-101m. ★★★ D: Giraldi. Jon Cryer, Keith Coogan, AnnaLisa Cholodenko. Ally Sheedy, Radha Mitchbeth Gish, Gretchen Cryer, Oliver Cotton, ell, Patricia Clarkson, Tammy Grimes, GaTim Quill, Anne Pitoniak, John Spencer. briel Mann, Bill Sage, David Thornton. OffSilly, thoroughly unbelievable teen comedyputting at first, but a clear-eyed character thriller about stockbroker Cryer, who’s on study of a naive young woman whose stock [ 611 ]

rises at a pretentious art magazine because twists coming around the corner. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 of her budding relationship with a once brilHigher and Higher (1943) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: liant photographer who had a breakdown Tim Whelan. Michele Morgan, Jack Haley, years ago. The question is how deeply Frank Sinatra, Leon Errol, Marcy McGuire, Mitchell is willing to immerse herself in Victor Borge, Mary Wickes, Mel Torme. Sheedy’s hedonistic, heroin-infused, lesbian Bright, breezy, generally witless musical, lifestyle. Sheedy is solid and understated; with good cheer compensating for lack of Clarkson is a hoot in a wonderfully showy material, as once-wealthy Errol schemes performance as her companion, an eccenwith his own servants to raise money. tric, egomaniacal German actress. Sarita Sinatra’s songs are fine: ‘‘The Music Choudhury appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 Stopped,’’ ‘‘I Couldn’t Sleep a Wink Last High-Ballin’ (1978-U.S.-Canadian) CNight.’’ This was his starring debut.▼●쩠 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Carter. Peter Fonda, Higher Learning (1995) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Reed, Helen Shaver, Chris Wiggins, John Singleton. Omar Epps, Kristy SwanDavid Ferry, Chris Longevin. Good-buddy son, Laurence Fishburne, Michael Rapatruckdrivers Fonda and Reed battle a rival port, Jennifer Connelly, Ice Cube, Jason kingpin’s goons who want to force them Wiles, Tyra Banks, Cole Hauser, Bradford off the road for good. Predictable action English, Regina King, Busta Rhymes, Jay fare, with added spice from female trucker Ferguson. Provocative drama of life at a Shaver. [PG]▼ ★★ big university where problems tend to break High Barbaree (1947) 91m. D: Jack down along racial and sexual lines. Epps Conway. Van Johnson, June Allyson, plays a young black athlete searching for Thomas Mitchell, Marilyn Maxwell, Camdirection and, sometimes blindly, raging at eron Mitchell. Navy flier’s life story told injustice. Fishburne is a political science in flashback as he awaits rescue in plane in professor who tries to help him see the ocean. Good cast in inferior story. world as it is. Credible, well-acted film goes High Bright Sun, The SEE: McGuire, awry when writer-director Singleton steers Go Home! it toward melodrama and focuses on a group High Commissioner, The (1968-British) of extremist skinheads. [R]▼●쩠 C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. ChristoHigh Fidelity (2000) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stepher Plummer, Rod Taylor, Lilli Palmer, phen Frears. John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Camilla Sparv, Daliah Lavi, Clive Revill, Todd Louiso, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, CathFranchot Tone. Wonderful cast is wasted erine Zeta-Jones, Joan Cusack, Tim Robbins, in tired spy thriller about diplomat involved Lili Taylor, Joelle Carter, Natasha Gregson in murder at height of Cold War negotiaWagner, Sara Gilbert, Bruce Springsteen. tions. British title: NOBODY RUNS FORAfter his girlfriend leaves, a music-obsessed EVER.쩠 Chicago record store owner (Cusack) reflects High Cost of Loving, The (1958) 87m. on his failed relationships. Adaptation of Nick ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jose Ferrer. Jose Ferrer, Gena Hornby’s novel (originally set in London) is Rowlands, Joanne Gilbert, Jim Backus, alternately insightful and annoying, embodied Bobby Troup, Edward Platt, Werner Klemby Cusack’s direct-to-camera chats and the perer, Nancy Kulp. Lots of familiar faces fanatically detailed depiction of the music in this very mild romantic comedy about scene and its inhabitants. Cusack coproduced tensions that threaten marriage of Ferrer and and cowrote the screenplay. [R]▼쩠 Rowlands. Enjoyable but innocuous semiHigh Frequency (1988-Italian) C-105m. satire. Rowlands’ film debut. CinemaScope. ★★ D: Faliero Rosati. Vincent Spano, OliHigh Crime (1973-Italian) C-100m. ★★ ver Benny, Anne Canovas, Isabelle Pasco, D: Enzo G. Castellari. Franco Nero, James David Brandon. Satellite relay station attendWhitmore, Fernando Rey, Delia Boccardo. ant Spano and young ham operator Benny see Energetic but superficial action drama. Narc a murder on a satellite monitor and try to Nero going up against Mafioso Rey. You’ve warn a woman they believe will be the killer’s seen it all before. ▼ next victim. Ersatz REAR WINDOW lifts High Crimes (2002) C-115m. ★★★ D: Carl ideas—but not substance—from the HitchFranklin. Ashley Judd, Morgan Freeman, cock classic. Italian production released Jim Caviezel, Amanda Peet, Adam Scott, with English-language soundtrack. [PG]▼● Tom Bower, Bruce Davison, Juan Carlos High Heels (1972-French) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Hernandez, Jude Ciccolella, Michael ShanD: Claude Chabrol. Jean-Paul Belmondo, non. Successful lawyer defends her husband Mia Farrow, Laura Antonelli, Daniel when he’s revealed to be a Marine who’s Ivernel. Well-acted but disappointing Chabeen wanted for 15 years for a massacre he brol comedy-mystery about a playboy docsupposedly committed in El Salvador. Then tor (Belmondo) attracted to women other she enlists the aid of a man who knows his men find unappealing. Originally titled way around a military courtroom, eccentric DR. POPAUL. Aka SCOUNDREL IN lawyer Freeman. Slick and entertaining, WHITE. ▼ even though you can see some of the story High Heels (1991-Spanish) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 [ 612 ]

D: Pedro Almodo´var. Victoria Abril, Marisa encircling shield, but years later, the shield’s Paredes, Miguel Bose´, Feodor Atkine, Bibi the problem. At least, that seems to be the Andersen, Rocio Munoz. So-so Almodo´var setup; hard to tell in a film so awesomely dull. concoction about the conflicts and intricaConnery is dull, too, and in it very briefly. cies in the relationship between a famous, We learn new stuff about the immortals that egocentric actress (Paredes) and her TV contradicts the first film without adding anynewscaster daughter (Abril). First half is thing interesting. Even those who liked the vintage Almodo´var, but film becomes a bit first one hated this. Some video versions run more serious (than necessary) as it un108m. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 folds. Still, there are plenty of the direcHighlander: Endgame (2000) C-88m. tor’s outlandish touches—check out that BOMB D: Douglas Aarniokoski. Adrian women’s prison—and also some interestPaul, Christopher Lambert, Bruce Payne, ing views on celebrity. Leading man Bose´ Lisa Barbuscia, Donnie Yen, Ian Paul Cas(son of Italian actress Lucia Bose´ and sidy, Sheila Gish. Tedious sequel in which Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin) 500-year-old Lambert goes up against felis a pop music star in Spain. [R]▼ low immortal Payne, a vengeance-seeking, High Heels and Low Lifes (2001-Britishpower-hungry rogue. Also involved is Lam1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Mel Smith. Minnie U.S.) C-86m. bert’s clan brother (Paul, from the TV seDriver, Mary McCormack, Michael Gambon, ries). Of interest only to die-hard series Danny Dyer, Kevin McNally, Mark Wilfans. Fifth in the series—HIGHLANDER: liams, Julian Wadham. Broad British import THE SOURCE. Video runs 101m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 about a pair of down-on-their-luck best friends who accidentally discover a bank robbery in Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994progress and decide to blackmail the burglars U.S.-Canadian) C-99m. BOMB D: Andy into giving up the money. Clever setup and Morahan. Christopher Lambert, Mario Van appealing lead performances make this frisky Peebles, Deborah Unger, Mako, Raoul Trufun, even though the violent climax puts a jillo, Martin Neufeld, Michael Jayston. damper on things—and strains credulity. EnConor McCloud, the wanderer from medijoyable female buddy caper is more OUTRAeval Scotland, does battle in today’s N.Y. GEOUS FORTUNE than THELMA & with evil fellow immortal from the past, the LOUISE. [R]▼쩠 Mongol magician Cane (Van Peebles). FoolHigh Hopes (1988-British) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 ish, badly written piffle is a sequel only to the D: Mike Leigh. Philip Davis, Ruth Sheen, first film, ignoring the second and the TV Edna Dore, Philip Jackson, Heather Tobias, series. Lambert is glum, Van Peebles shameLesley Manville, David Bamber. Extraorlessly hammy. Dozens of unexplained eledinary slice-of-life comedy-drama about ments, starting with Cane’s perfect English. love, alienation, and responsibility, centered Video version rated R. Super 35. [PG-13] on a young, laid-back working-class couple, ▼●쩠 his aged mother and manic sister. WriterHigh Noon (1952) 84m. ★★★★ D: Fred director Leigh offers a provocative, highly Zinnemann. Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchoriginal view of life’s misfits in modernell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace day England, and offers food for thought Kelly, Otto Kruger, Lon Chaney (Jr.), along with some very hearty laughs.▼쩠 Henry (Harry) Morgan, Lee Van Cleef, Highlander (1986) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: RusRobert Wilke, Sheb Wooley. On his wedsell Mulcahy. Christopher Lambert, Roxding—and retirement—day, marshal Cooper anne Hart, Clancy Brown, Sean Connery, learns that a gunman is coming seeking reBeatie Edney, Alan North. Immortal being venge. Though he has good excuses for is tracked from 16th-century Scotland to leaving, he feels a responsibility to stay and modern-day America by his eternal archface the gunman—but no one in town is willing enemy. Interesting notion made silly and to help. The story appears to unfold in ‘‘real boring. Connery, at least, shows some time,’’ as the many on-screen clocks will verstyle in smallish role as Lambert’s survival ify. Legendary Western drama about a crisis of tutor. Former rock video director Mulcahy’s conscience, written by Carl Foreman, underrelentlessly showy camera moves may cause scored by Tex Ritter’s performance of Oscaryou to reach for the Dramamine. Ran 17m. winning Dimitri Tiomkin–Ned Washington longer outside U.S. (and reportedly made song, ‘‘Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darmore sense). Director’s Cut edition is 5m. lin’.’’ Oscars also went to Cooper, Tiomkin’s longer. Followed by three sequels, a TV score, and Elmo Williams’ and Harry Gersseries, an animated TV series, and an anime tad’s editing. Followed by 1980 TV sequel feature. [R]▼●쩠 with Lee Majors; remade for TV in 2000. Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) Also shown in computer-colored version. C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Russell Mulcahy. Christo▼●쩠 pher Lambert, Virginia Madsen, Michael High Plains Drifter (1973) C-105m. ★★★ Ironside, Sean Connery, John C. McGinley, D: Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Verna Allan Rich, Phil Brock, Rusty Schwimmer. Bloom, Marianna Hill, Mitchell Ryan, Jack Lambert has saved the world by a globeGing, Stefan Gierasch. Moody, self-con[ 613 ]

scious but compelling story of drifter hired man, Olesya Rulin, Alyson Reed, Jemma by townspeople to protect them from vengeMcKenzie-Brown, Matt Prokop. Senior year ful outlaws who have just been released at East High brings new challenges as basketfrom prison. Half-serious, half tongue-inball star Efron is persuaded to participate in cheek, with great role for midget Billy the school musical and girlfriend Hudgens Curtis. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 has to decide whether to pursue early admisHighpoint (1980-Canadian) C-88m. BOMB sion to college, among other story threads. All D: Peter Carter. Richard Harris, Christothe stars of the first two wildly successful pher Plummer, Beverly D‘Angelo, Kate Disney Channel TV movies are reunited for Reid, Peter Donat, Saul Rubinek. Conthis lively, energetic teen musical, executed fused and sloppy comedy thriller (reedited on a larger scale than its predecessors. by a film doctor) has Harris as an accounStory-wise, this hearkens back to Archie tant mixed up in a CIA plot and internaand Veronica, but it’s cheerful and upbeat tional intrigue. An excuse for frequent chases throughout. Extended version runs 117m. culminating in a poorly photographed stunt [G]쩠 fall off Toronto’s CN tower. ▼● High Season (1987-British) C-92m. ★★ D: High Risk (1981) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: StewClare Peploe. Jacqueline Bisset, James Fox, art Raffill. James Brolin, Cleavon Little, Irene Papas, Sebastian Shaw, Kenneth Bruce Davison, Chick Vennera, Anthony Branagh, Lesley Manville, Robert Stephens. Quinn, Lindsay Wagner, James Coburn, Romantic misfire has Bisset (stunningly Ernest Borgnine. Preposterous movie about lovely as always) as a photographer regroup of normal Americans becoming mersiding in Rhodes who becomes involved cenaries, flying to South America, parawith obnoxious tourists, a spy, and her chuting into jungle to rip off dope dealers egotistical ex-hubbie Fox. Fluff offers lit. . . and that’s just the beginning, because tle more than luscious views of Bisset and the Greek island setting. [R]▼●쩠 they soon run into bandidos. Ridiculous story, but good fun. [R]▼●쩠 High Sierra (1941) 100m. ★★★ D: Raoul High Road to China (1983) C-120m. ★★ Walsh. Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan D: Brian G. Hutton. Tom Selleck, Bess Curtis, Arthur Kennedy, Joan Leslie, Henry Armstrong, Jack Weston, Wilford Brimley, Hull, Henry Travers, Barton MacLane, Jerome Robert Morley, Brian Blessed. Low road Cowan, Cornel Wilde, Donald MacBride, John to escapism, with Selleck (in his first Eldredge, Isabel Jewell, Willie Best. Bogey is starring feature) as a boozy ex-WW1 aerial Mad Dog Earle, killer with a soft heart on the ace hired by heiress Armstrong to find her lam from police, in rousing (if not exactly credfather. Strictly mediocre, with substandard ible) gangster caper. Lupino as the moll and action scenes, and the flattest dialogue this Leslie as the lame innocent Bogart befriends side of the Great Wall. [PG]▼● offer interesting contrast. Screenplay by John High School Confidential! (1958) 85m. Huston and W. R. Burnett based on Burnett’s ★1 ⁄2 D: Jack Arnold. Russ Tamblyn, Jan novel. Remade as I DIED A THOUSAND Sterling, John Drew Barrymore, Mamie TIMES, and in Western garb as COLOVan Doren, Diane Jergens, Ray Anthony, RADO TERRITORY. Also shown in comJerry Lee Lewis, Jackie Coogan, Charles puter-colored version. ▼●쩠 Chaplin, Jr., Lyle Talbot, William WellHigh Society (1956) C-107m. ★★★ D: man, Jr., Michael Landon. Amateurish, Charles Walters. Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, hilariously awful marijuana expose´, with Frank Sinatra, Celeste Holm, John Lund, young undercover agent Tamblyn obtainLouis Calhern, Louis Armstrong, Sidney ing evidence against dope pushers. A most Blackmer. Fluffy remake of THE PHILAfascinating cast. Retitled YOUNG HELDELPHIA STORY is enjoyable, but has LIONS; followed by COLLEGE CONlost all the bite of the original. Kelly is FIDENTIAL! CinemaScope.▼●쩠 about to marry Lund when ex-hubby High School High (1996) C-86m. ★★ D: Crosby arrives, along with reporters Sinatra Hart Bochner. Jon Lovitz, Tia Carrere, Louand Holm. Cole Porter songs include ‘‘True ise Fletcher, Mekhi Phifer, Malinda WilLove,’’ ‘‘Did You Evah?,’’ ‘‘You’re Sensaliams, John Neville. Lovitz plays an tional,’’ plus Bing and Satchmo’s ‘‘Now idealistic teacher who finds himself in an You Has Jazz.’’ Grace Kelly’s last acting role. VistaVision.▼●쩠 urban high school so mean it even has its own cemetery! Farcical at times, uncomHigh Spirits (1988) C-97m. BOMB D: fortably realistic at other moments, this film Neil Jordan. Peter O’Toole, Daryl Hansuffers from a severe identity crisis. AIRnah, Steve Guttenberg, Beverly D’Angelo, PLANE/NAKED GUN veterans David Liam Neeson, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Zucker and Pat Proft were among the writTilly, Ray McAnally, Donal McCann, Coners. [PG-13]▼●쩠 nie Booth, Liz Smith. Two yuppie stereoHigh School Musical 3: Senior Year types and a pair of 200-year-old ghosts ★★★ (2008) C-109m. romp around in an Irish castle threatened D: Kenny Ortega. Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, with foreclosure, with O’Toole—looking Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Colea bit ghostly here himself—playing ring [ 614 ]

master. Head-splitting farce full of col102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce McDonald. Don lapsing sets and lots of wind-machine action; McKellar, Valerie Buhagiar, Earl Pastko, cast members complained that film’s proPeter Breck, Jello Biafra. An odd couple— ducers crudely altered the original whimsiintroverted, inexperienced small-town barcal intentions of writer-director Jordan. ber McKellar and eccentric, on-the-lam Unbearable. [PG-13]▼●쩠 roadie Buhagiar—find themselves travelHigh Strung (1991) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger ing from Ontario to New Orleans, along Nygard. Steve Oedekerk, Denise Crosby, the highway immortalized by Bob Dylan, Fred Willard, Thomas F. Wilson, Ed Wilwith a coffin strapped to the roof of their liams, Jani Lane, Kirsten Dunst, Tony Sawcar. Quirky rock ’n roll road movie is yer. A day in the life of chronic whiner strangely likable, depending on your taste Oedekerk (who cowrote film with Robert and tolerance for the material. McKellar Kuhn). Grating comedy was rereleased in also wrote the script. [R]▼●쩠 1994 to capitalize on the success of Jim Highway to Hell (1992) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Carrey, who has a very small (about 5 minAte de Jong. Patrick Bergin, Chad Lowe, utes), unbilled role. [PG]▼● Kristy Swanson, Richard Farnsworth, C. J. High Tension (2003-French) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 Graham, Lita Ford, Kevin Peter Hall. D: Alexandre Aja. Ce´cile de France, Maı¨Newlyweds Lowe and Swanson have their wenn (Maı¨wenn Le Besco), Philippe Nahon, honeymoon ruined when she’s abducted Franck Khalfoun, Andrei Finti, Oana Pellea. by a cop from hell . . . literally! Lowe French import about two girls trying to esthen learns that local legend gives him 24 cape from a perverted serial killer in the hours to rescue his bride. Oddball yarn is isolated countryside was one of the most unexciting and unfunny; even comic Gilbert acclaimed entries in a seemingly endless seGottfried in a cameo as Hitler can’t salvage ries of ’70s slasher-film revivals. While this one. Filmed in 1989. [R] ▼● many of its frightening images and susHigh, Wide, and Handsome (1937) 112m. ★★1 penseful, cleverly orchestrated sequences live ⁄2 D: Rouben Mamoulian. Irene Dunne, up to its title, an unsatisfying final twist Randolph Scott, Dorothy Lamour, Elizamakes it seem even more dated than the beth Patterson, Charles Bickford, Raymond movies it emulates. Cut for U.S. theatrical Walburn, Alan Hale, Akim Tamiroff, Wilrelease. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 liam Frawley. Jerome Kern–Oscar HamHigh Tide (1987-Australian) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 merstein old-time musical of determined D: Gillian Armstrong. Judy Davis, Jan Scott drilling for oil in 19th-century PennAdele, Claudia Karvan, Colin Friels, John sylvania, fighting corrupt Hale. Corny plot Clayton, Frankie J. Holden, Monica Trapput over by energetic cast; result is enteraga, Mark Hembrow. Quietly emotional taining. Songs include ‘‘The Folks Who story of a woman who inadvertently enLive on the Hill.’’ counters the teenage daughter she abanHigh Wind in Jamaica, A (1965-British) doned years ago. Truthfully told, well acted, C-104m. ★★★ D: Alexander Mackendrick. and set against bleakness of an Australian Anthony Quinn, James Coburn, Dennis coastal town, but hampered by a leading Price, Gert Frobe, Lila Kedrova, Nigel character we don’t necessarily care about. Davenport, Kenneth J. Warren, Deborah It’s fun to see Davis in the opening scenes Baxter. Excellent cast and intelligent script playing a backup singer for a crummy about group of children who reveal their Elvis impersonator! [PG-13]▼● basic natures when left adrift aboard a pirate High Time (1960) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blake vessel. Score composed by harmonica virtuEdwards. Bing Crosby, Fabian, Tuesday oso Larry Adler. CinemaScope.쩠 Weld, Nicole Maurey. Middling Crosby Hilary and Jackie (1998-British) C-120m. ★★★ vehicle has Bing a widower resuming colD: Anand Tucker. Emily Watson, Ralege career and trying to be one of the chel Griffiths, James Frain, David Morboys; forced comedy. CinemaScope. rissey, Charles Dance, Celia Imrie, Rupert Highwayman Rides, The SEE: Billy the Penry-Jones, Bill Paterson. Highly charged Kid (1930) portrait of British cellist Jacqueline du Pre´ Highway Patrolman (1993-U.S.-Mexican) (Watson) and her complex relationship with her sister, Hilary (Griffiths), which grows C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alex Cox. Roberto Sosa, Bruno Bichir, Vanessa Bauche, Zaide Silvia more troubled as Jackie becomes a star in Gutierrez, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Malena the classical music world. Told in nonlinear Doria. Portrait of an idealistic young highfashion, with arresting performances by both way patrolman (Sosa), who is committed women; Watson’s cello work is extraordito upholding the law but gradually allows narily convincing. The facts (disputed by himself to be corrupted. Mildly entertaining some relatives and colleagues) come from Hilary’s memoir. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 and more straightforward than one might expect from filmmaker Cox; if anything, the Hilda Crane (1956) C-87m. ★★ D: Philip problem is the story’s lack of dramatic Dunne. Jean Simmons, Guy Madison, Jeantension.▼ Pierre Aumont, Judith Evelyn, Evelyn Highway 61 (1991-Canadian-British) CVarden. Twice-divorced Simmons returns [ 615 ]

to the college town that used to be her porting to be a recollection by a dog! Filmed in 1983. [R]▼●쩠 home, starts the local gossips to fluttering Hills Have Eyes, The (2006) C-107m. with her behavior. Not much overall, but title ★★1 ⁄2 D: Alexandre Aja. Michael Bailey character is surprisingly liberated for her time, Smith, Tom Bower, Ted Levine, Kathleen making her one of the ’50s’ more interesting Quinlan, Dan Byrd, Aaron Stanford, Vinessa screen heroines. CinemaScope. Shaw, Emilie de Ravin, Robert Joy, Billy Hildegarde Withers series SEE: Leonard Drago. A family follows a creepy gas station Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide ★★ attendant’s shortcut and gets stranded in the Hi-Life (1998) C-82m. D: Roger Heddesert, surrounded by a community of deden. Katrin Cartlidge, Charles Durning, formed killers who inevitably attack. ReDaryl Hannah, Moira Kelly, Peter Riegert, maining family members must fend for Campbell Scott, Eric Stoltz, Anne De themselves and avenge their loved ones. Salvo, Saundra Santiago, Bruce McVittie, Certainly not for all (or even most) audiCarlos Alban. Characters and complications ences; gruesome, disturbing, and finally sort abound in this contrived Christmastime tale of hokey. Still, Aja deserves credit for a about a N.Y.C. bartender (Scott) and his horror remake that—for once—manages to attempt to raise sufficient funds to pay for retain much of the original’s intensity. Unwhat he has been led to believe is his sister’s rated version also available. Followed by a abortion. MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET it sequel. Super 35. [R]쩠 ain’t, but the talented cast makes it watchHills Have Eyes II, The (2007) C-89m. able. [R]▼쩠 ★1 ⁄2 D: Martin Weisz. Michael McMillian, Hill, The (1965) 122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Jessica Stroup, Daniella Alonso, Jacob VarLumet. Sean Connery, Harry Andrews, gas, Lee Thompson Young, Ben Crowley, Ian Hendry, Michael Redgrave, Ian Bannen, Eric Edelstein, Flex Alexander, Reshad Strik, Alfred Lynch, Ossie Davis, Roy Kinnear, Michael Bailey Smith. A National Guard Jack Watson. Powerful drama of military troop training in the Southwestern desert prison camp, with superb performances by comes up against that tribe of radioactively all. One problem: British actors bark at mutated cannibals from the previous film. Beeach other and much dialogue is unintelligins well but becomes predictable and rougible to American ears (though if you can tine, especially when everyone ends up in make it through the first reel, hang on). mine tunnels favored by the mutants. Good Written by Ray Rigby. Also shown in if grisly makeup effects. Written by Wes computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Craven and his son Jonathan. Not a remake Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967) of THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II. C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Jean Yarbrough. Ferlin Filmed in Morocco. Unrated version also Husky, Joi Lansing, Don Bowman, John available. Super 35. [R]쩠 Carradine, Lon Chaney, Jr., Basil RathHills of Home (1948) C-97m. ★★★ D: bone, Molly Bee, Merle Haggard, Sonny Fred M. Wilcox. Edmund Gwenn, Donald James. Country singers Husky and LanCrisp, Tom Drake, Rhys Williams, Janet sing spend a night in an old mansion, Leigh. Fine Lassie movie about doctor conbecome involved with an espionage ring. vincing Scottish father to urge son to study Moronic comedy with an elderly, tired medicine. ▼ cast; a follow-up to LAS VEGAS HILLHills Run Red, The (1966-Italian) C-89m. BILLYS. Sorry to say, Rathbone’s last ★★ D: Carlo Lizzani. Thomas Hunter, film.▼쩠 Henry Silva, Dan Duryea, Nando Gazzola. Hills Have Eyes, The (1977) C-89m. Civil War Western of stolen payrolls; poorly ★★1 ⁄2 D: Wes Craven. Susan Lanier, Robdubbed and loosely acted. Techniscope.쩠 ert Houston, Virginia Vincent, Russ Grieve, Hi-Lo Country, The (1998) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 Dee Wallace, Martin Speer, Michael BerryD: Stephen Frears. Woody Harrelson, Billy man. Typical American family on campCrudup, Patricia Arquette, Sam Elliott, Cole ing trip is harassed by savage, cannibalistic Hauser, Penelope Cruz, Darren Burrows, mutants. Above average of its type, with Jacob Vargas, James Gammon, Lane Smith, compact direction and plenty of amusing Katy Jurado. Story of two cowboy friends plot twists. Extremely gory film has acquired in post-WW2 New Mexico who happen to a cult following. Followed by a sequel. Refall in love with the same woman—though made in 2006. [R]▼●쩠 she’s already married. A paean to the cowHills Have Eyes Part II, The (1985boy way of life and the joys of true friendU.S.-British) C-88m. BOMB D: Wes Craship, this film has so much going for it ven. Michael Berryman, John Laughin, (including Harrelson’s terrific performance as Tamara Stafford, Kevin Blair, John Bloom. a hell-raiser and Oliver Stapleton’s cinemaLame sequel has a group of young mototography) that it’s a shame it doesn’t hit the cross enthusiasts stranded in the desert, bull’s-eye . . . and Arquette is so dull. Screenpreyed upon by primitive family. Loaded play by Walon Green from the novel by Max with flashback footage from 1977 film, Evans. 2.35 Research PLC. [R] ▼●쩠 including one sequence ludicrously purHi, Mom! (1970) C/B&W-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: [ 616 ]

Brian De Palma. Robert De Niro, Allen Pierre Barbaud, Bernard Fresson. Resnais’ Garfield, Lara Parker, Jennifer Salt, Gerrit first feature is a thoughtful, complex study Graham, Charles Durning. Sequel to GREETof a French film actress (Riva) and Japanese INGS! is funny satire of the late ’60s, with architect (Okada), each with a troubled past, Vietnam veteran De Niro making dirty movwho have a brief affair in postwar Hiroshima. Scripted by Marguerite Duras.▼쩠 ies and bombing apartment houses. Aka CONFESSIONS OF A PEEPING JOHN and His Brother’s Wife (1936) 90m. ★★ D: BLUE MANHATTAN. [R]▼쩠 W. S. Van Dyke, II. Barbara Stanwyck, Hindenburg, The (1975) C-125m. ★★ D: Robert Taylor, Jean Hersholt, Joseph Robert Wise. George C. Scott, Anne BanCalleia, John Eldredge, Samuel S. Hinds. croft, William Atherton, Roy Thinnes, Gig Glossy soaper of dedicated scientist Taylor Young, Burgess Meredith, Charles Durning, scorning Stanwyck, who marries his brother Richard A. Dysart, Robert Clary, Rene Eldredge for spite. Stanwyck and Taylor Auberjonois, Katherine Helmond. Intrimarried in real life three years later. guing premise, that 1937 airship disaster His Girl Friday (1940) 92m. ★★★★ D: was an act of sabotage, undermined by Howard Hawks. Cary Grant, Rosalind Russilly Grand Hotel–type characters and sell, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart, Helen unexciting denouement combining original Mack, Ernest Truex, Clarence Kolb, Porter newsreel footage and newly shot material. Hall, Roscoe Karns, Abner Biberman, Cliff This earned special Oscars for its visual and Edwards, John Qualen, Frank Jenks, Billy sound effects. 5m. were added to film for Gilbert. Splendid comedy remake of THE network showing. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 FRONT PAGE with Grant as conniving Hips, Hips, Hooray (1934) 68m. ★★★ D: editor, Russell as star reporter (and his Mark Sandrich. Bert Wheeler, Robert ex-wife), Bellamy as mama’s boy she’s Woolsey, Dorothy Lee, Thelma Todd, Ruth trying to marry amid hot murder story. Etting, George Meeker. One of Wheeler & Terrific character actors add sparkle to Woolsey’s best vehicles is a lavish, risque´ must-see film, scripted by Ben Hecht and musical comedy about their attempts to Charles Lederer. Remade (with the same save Todd’s ailing beauty business. Wild gender twist) in 1988 as SWITCHING CHANNELS.▼●쩠 production numbers, plus a nice song from Etting, ‘‘Keep Romance Alive.’’▼● His Kind of Woman (1951) 120m. ★★★ Hired Hand, The (1971) C-93m. ★★★ D: D: John Farrow. Robert Mitchum, Jane Peter Fonda. Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Russell, Vincent Price, Tim Holt, RayVerna Bloom, Robert Pratt, Severn Darden. mond Burr, Charles McGraw, Marjorie First-rate photography by Vilmos ZsigReynolds, Jim Backus. Mitchum blindly mond and good performances by Oates goes to Mexico for a payoff of 50 grand, and Bloom aid this offbeat, sometimes discovers he’s the soon-to-be-dead chump pretentious Western about cowboy who whose identity will help deported gangster goes to work for the wife he deserted Burr re-enter the country. Cult film is seven years before. [PG]▼쩠 overlong, but its spoofing of he-man heroHired to Kill (1990) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Nico ics predates the more celebrated BEAT Mastorakis, Peter Rader. Brian ThompTHE DEVIL by three years; Price is hilarison, Oliver Reed, George Kennedy, Jose ous as a ham actor.▼쩠 Ferrer, Michelle Moffett, Barbara Lee AlHis Majesty O’Keefe (1953) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 exander, Jordana Capra, Kendall Conrad, D: Byron Haskin. Burt Lancaster, Joan Kim Lonsdale, Jude Mussetter, Penelope Rice, Benson Fong, Philip Ahn, Grant Reed. Mercenary Thompson poses as a Taylor. Another athletic Lancaster buccaneer romp, set in the South Seas.▼쩠 gay fashion designer to spring rebel leader Ferrer from Latin American prison. His History Boys, The (2006-British-U.S.) Ccommando squad: six gorgeous women 109m. ★★★ D: Nicholas Hytner. Richard posing as fashion models! Well produced, Griffiths, Stephen Campbell Moore, Franbut awesomely silly. [R]▼ ces de la Tour, Samuel Barnett, Dominic Hireling, The (1973-British) C-108m. Cooper, Samuel Anderson, James Corden, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Alan Bridges. Robert Shaw, Sarah Andrew Knott, Sacha Dhawan, Jamie Parker, Miles, Peter Egan, Elizabeth Sellars, CaroRussell Tovey, Clive Merrison, Penelope Willine Mortimer, Patricia Lawrence. Artistic ton, Georgia Taylor. Screen adaptation of rivadaptation of L. P. Hartley novel of stieting, Tony Award–winning Alan Bennett fling class system of England. Chauffeur play arrives with director and its London/ (Shaw) helps upper-class woman (Miles) Broadway cast intact. Eight gifted goof-offs out of mental depression, mistakenly asface university exam prep with two consumes she’s interested in him. Ensemble trasting profs: a wildly idiosyncratic veteran British cast, good direction. Screenplay by who gives them life lessons (Griffiths) and Wolf Mankowitz. [PG] a humorless younger man hired to drill them Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959-Frenchon test-taking tactics. Hardly cinematic, but Japanese) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Resnais. anyone who has ever loved GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS won’t mind. [R]쩠 Emmanuele Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas, [ 617 ]

History Is Made at Night (1937) 97m. loy. Smith is a date doctor who coaches ★★★1 timid, nerdy New York guys on how to woo ⁄2 D: Frank Borzage. Charles Boyer, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Colin Clive, women, using several ‘‘basic principles.’’ Ivan Lebedeff, George Meeker, Lucien His latest client (James) is madly in love Prival, George Davis. Arthur, fleeing from with a celebrated heiress (Valletta), but a jealous husband she doesn’t love, falls in Smith doesn’t see her as unattainable. Then love with Parisian headwaiter Boyer. Elehe sets his own sights on gossip columnist gant, adult romantic drama, seamlessly Mendes. Likable at first, this romantic comdirected by Borzage, with incredible shipedy becomes needlessly complicated and board climax and flawless performances overlong. Smith also coproduced. Super 35. by the two leads.▼● [PG-13] ▼쩠 History of the World—Part 1 (1981) Hitcher, The (1986) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobC-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks, ert Harmon. Rutger Hauer, C. Thomas Gregory Hines, Dom DeLuise, Madeline Howell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jeffrey Kahn, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, DeMunn, John Jackson. Hitchhiker Hauer Ron Carey, Sid Caesar, Pamela Stephenson, keeps reappearing in Howell’s life—is he Mary-Margaret Humes, Howard Morris, real, or an hallucination? Reminiscent of Spike Milligan, Barry Levinson, many other movies, except all those other movguest stars; narrated by Orson Welles. Scaties (DUEL, NIGHT OF THE HUNTER) tershot comedy wanders from the Stone are better. Not without interest, but some Age to Roman Empire to French Revoluof the violence is genuinely grisly and tion, dispensing gags ranging from hilarious unappealing. Followed in 2002 by a directto hideous. After a while momentum’s gone, to-video sequel. Remade in 2007. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 and it all just lies there, despite efforts of a large comic cast. Caesar scores highest as a Hitcher, The (2007) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Dave caveman in opening scenes. Hines’ film Meyers. Sophia Bush, Sean Bean, Zachary debut. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Knighton, Neal McDonough. Unnecessary History of Violence, A (2005-U.S.-Canadian) remake of the 1986 horror film in which a hitchhiker terrorizes a young couple who C-95m. ★★★ D: David Cronenberg. Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed wish they’d never picked him up in the first Harris, Ashton Holmes, Stephen McHattie, place. Some good car stunts and a credible Peter MacNeill. Soft-spoken man who runs performance from Bean as the evildoer a small-town luncheonette is suddenly conaren’t enough to justify revisiting this matefronted by two violent strangers—and is rial. Apparently the most original change more than ready to respond. His actions lead filmmakers could think of was switching the to questions and repercussions. Sexually pogender in the notorious body ‘‘stretching’’ tent, harshly violent story based on the scene we first saw 20 years earlier. Super 35. [R]쩠 graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke is arresting entertainment that means Hitch-Hiker, The (1953) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ida to hit us right between the eyes, and does. Lupino. Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy, William Talman, Jose Torvay. Well-made [R]▼쩠 Hit! (1973) C-134m. ★★★ D: Sidney J. suspense yarn about two men on a hunting Furie. Billy Dee Williams, Paul Hampton, trip whose car is commandeered by a murRichard Pryor, Gwen Welles. Detailed and derous fugitive. Good performances, espeoverlong, but exciting story of black U.S. cially by a venal Talman in the title role, but agent who seeks revenge on top drug imthe film’s once-powerful impact has been porters in Marseilles who are indirectly muted by decades of more graphic and imaginative films.▼●쩠 responsible for his daughter’s death. Panavision. [R]▼ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Hit, The (1984-British) C-98m. ★★★ D: (2005) C-110m. ★★★ D: Garth Jennings. Stephen Frears. Terence Stamp, John Hurt, Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Tim Roth, Laura Del Sol, Bill Hunter, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Anna ChancelFernando Rey, Jim Broadbent. Sly, offbeat lor, John Malkovich, Simon Jones, David film about a criminal stool pigeon (Stamp) Leamer; voices of Alan Rickman, Helen Mirwho’s been in hiding for ten years but ren, Richard Griffiths, Ian McNeice, Thomas whose time has just run out: two hit men Lennon; narrated by Stephen Fry. Clever if have tracked him down. Sharp, often very low-key screen adaptation of Douglas funny, and doggedly unpredictable. Written Adams’ much-loved book (which began as by Peter Prince; memorable theme music by a BBC radio serial) about an ordinary bloke Eric Clapton. Film debut of Tim Roth. who finds himself having an intergalactic adventure after earth is destroyed . . . and [R]▼●쩠 Hitch (2005) C-117m. ★★ D: Andy Tenencountering other species in search of the nant. Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin Big Answers. Visually and verbally witty, James, Amber Valletta, Michael Rapaport, though the energy lags at times. Filmed as a Adam Arkin, Julie Ann Emery, Kevin Sussminiseries in 1981. Super 35. [PG]쩠 man, Robinne Lee, Philip Bosco, Matt MalHitler (1962) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Heisler. [ 618 ]

Richard Basehart, Cordula Trantow, Maria Kurylenko, Robert Knepper, Ulrich Thomsen, Emo, Martin Kosleck, John Banner, Carl Henry Ian Cusick. Every bit as visually flashy Esmond. Basehart gives a cerebral interand dramatically sketchy as you would expect pretation to the career of the leader of the a video-game–inspired action-adventure to be. Third Reich.▼ Still, some genuinely rousing run-and-gun Hitler—Dead or Alive (1943) 70m. ★★ D: sequences—enhanced with rapid-fire editNick Grinde. Ward Bond, Dorothy Tree, ing, slo-mo flourishes, and very loud Warren Hymer, Paul Fix, Russell Hicks, music—generate interest as prolifically leFelix Basch, Bobby Watson. Low-budget thal but increasingly self-doubting Agent 47 nonsense, with con men shooting for high (Olyphant), a bald-pated, bar-code–tattooed stakes by attempting to kill Hitler.▼쩠 assassin, dashes about Russia after being Hitler Gang, The (1944) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: betrayed by his employers. Unrated version John Farrow. Robert Watson, Martin also available. Super 35. [R]쩠 Kosleck, Victor Varconi, Luis Van Rooten, Hitman, The (1991) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Aaron Sig Ruman, Tonio Selwart, Ludwig Donath. Norris. Chuck Norris, Michael Parks, Al Historical drama of Hitler’s rise to power Waxman, Alberta Watson, Salim Grant, had greatest impact on WW2 audiences Ken Pogue, Marcel Sabourin. Fairly awful but is still fairly interesting, though dwarfed Chuck Norris vehicle in which the star by recent documentaries. goes undercover to infiltrate an organized Hitler’s Children (1943) 83m. ★★★ D: crime ring. Norris gets to play a heavy Edward Dmytryk, Irving Reis. Tim Holt, —even though we know all along it’s a Bonita Granville, Kent Smith, Otto Kruruse. This acting ‘‘stretch’’ still isn’t enough ger, H. B. Warner, Lloyd Corrigan. Ento distinguish the film. Stuntwork remains the only redeeming quality. [R]▼●쩠 grossing exploitation film of young people forced to live life of horror in Nazi GerHit Team, The SEE: Company of Killers Hit the Deck (1955) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: many. Quite sensational in its day.▼ Hitler’s Gold SEE: Inside Out (1975) Roy Rowland. Jane Powell, Tony Martin, Hitler’s Madman (1943) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Debbie Reynolds, Ann Miller, Vic Damone, Douglas Sirk. Patricia Morison, John Russ Tamblyn, Walter Pidgeon, Kay Armen, Carradine, Alan Curtis, Ralph Morgan, Gene Raymond. Second-string MGM musiHoward Freeman, Ludwig Stossel, Edgar cal of sailors on shore leave is pleasant timeKennedy. Vintage WW2 propaganda of citfiller, no more, with nice Vincent Youmans izens in small Czech village and their fate songs like ‘‘Hallelujah,’’ ‘‘Sometimes I’m against their Nazi tormentors. Carradine is Happy,’’ ‘‘More Than You Know.’’ Filmed appropriately depraved as Reinhard Heybefore in 1930. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 drich, Nazi governor of Prague. Coscripted Hit the Ice (1943) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles by Yiddish playwright Peretz Hirchbein; Lamont. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Ginny look for Ava Gardner in a small part. Simms, Patric Knowles, Elyse Knox, ShelLoosely based on fact; the story is also told don Leonard, Marc Lawrence, Joseph Sawin HANGMEN ALSO DIE! yer. Bud and Lou are newspaper photogHitler: The Last Ten Days (1973-Britishraphers involved with gang of thugs in zany Italian) C-108m. ★★ D: Ennio de Concini. comedy with good gags on skating rink. Alec Guinness, Simon Ward, Adolfo Celi, ▼●쩠 Diane Cilento, Gabriele Ferzetti, Eric PorH. M. Pulham, Esq. (1941) 120m. ★★★1⁄2 ter, Doris Kunstmann. Strange treatment D: King Vidor. Hedy Lamarr, Robert of Hitler’s final tyrannies is grimly amusYoung, Ruth Hussey, Charles Coburn, Van ing at times; muddled film doesn’t really Heflin, Fay Holden, Bonita Granville, Leif work. [PG]▼쩠 Erickson, Sara Haden. Intelligent, mature, Hit List (1989) C-87m. ★★ D: William and witty film (based on John P. MarLustig. Jan-Michael Vincent, Lance Henquand story) about a man who’s lived his riksen, Rip Torn, Leo Rossi, Jere Burns, life as he was supposed to—not as he Ken Lerner. Familiar urban thriller of ordichose to. Lamarr is excellent as the spirnary guy whose child is mistakenly kidited career woman who coaxes proper Bosnapped by cold-eyed hit man working for tonian Young out of his shell, ever so flamboyant mobster Torn. Hero teams up briefly. Scripted by Elizabeth Hill and direcwith the real target, an informer. Lots of tor Vidor. Anne Revere has unbilled bit as a violent action. Torn and Henriksen are secretary in flashback scenes. Look fast for good, but you’ve seen it all before. [R]▼● Ava Gardner on the dance floor behind LaHit Man (1972) C-90m. ★★ D: George marr and Young.쩠 Armitage. Bernie Casey, Pamela Grier, Hoax, The (2007) C-115m. ★★★ D: Lasse Lisa Moore, Don Diamond, Roger E. MosHallstro¨m. Richard Gere, Alfred Molina, ley. Reworking of GET CARTER in black Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, Stanley mold. Big rubout is key to crime story, Tucci, Julie Delpy, Eli Wallach, Zeljko Ivaand it loses steam before long. [R] nek, John Bedford Lloyd, Mamie Gummer. Entertaining look at one of the greatest frauds Hitman (2007) C-93m. ★★ D: Xavier Gens. Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga of the 20th century, when, in 1971, failed [ 619 ]

author Clifford Irving convinced a major pubJeremy Bulloch, Ruth Dunning. Very odd, lisher that he was the conduit to an autobioglow-key dual character study with Sellers raphy of eccentric, elusive billionaire Howard blackmailing attractive young bride-to-be Hughes. Gere brilliantly captures Irving’s brato spend week with him. Slightly overlong; vado, and his anxieties; Molina is funny as great performances. [PG]쩠 his hapless partner in crime. Hallstro¨m and Holcroft Covenant, The (1985-British) screenwriter William Wheeler’s treatment of C-112m. ★★ D: John Frankenheimer. Mithe material is unexpectedly complex and chael Caine, Anthony Andrews, Victoria challenging, presenting a mental puzzle in Tennant, Lilli Palmer, Mario Adorf, Micinematic form. [R]쩠 chael Lonsdale. Muddy, twisty, unbelievHobson’s Choice (1954-British) 107m. able tale from Robert Ludlum novel. Caine’s ★★★ D: David Lean. Charles Laughton, late father (a comrade-in-arms of Adolf John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Daphne AnHitler) has left a fortune behind, supposedly derson, Prunella Scales, Richard Wattis, to make amends for his wrongdoing—and Helen Haye. Laughton is selfish, overbearing leading Caine on a globe-trotting series of adowner of bootshop in 1890s who’s used to ventures. Just old-fashioned enough to be being tended to by his three subservient watchable—but not very good. [R]▼●쩠 daughters; then his eldest (De Banzie) decides Hold Back the Dawn (1941) 115m. ★★★1⁄2 to take matters into her own hands. BeautiD: Mitchell Leisen. Charles Boyer, Olivia de fully staged and photographed (by Jack HildHavilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, yard), with Laughton having a field day in the Walter Abel, Rosemary DeCamp. First-rate lead. Loses momentum along the way, but soaper with Billy Wilder-Charles Brackett still entertaining. Filmed before in 1920 and script of gigolo Boyer marrying spinsterish 1931; remade as a TVM in 1983. ▼●쩠 Olivia to get into U.S. That’s director Leisen Hockey Night (1984-Canadian) C-77m. in the Hollywood soundstage sequence, di★★1 ⁄2 D: Paul Shapiro. Megan Follows, recting Veronica Lake and Brian Donlevy Rick Moranis, Gail Youngs, Yannick in I WANTED WINGS. Catch this one. Bisson, Henry Ramer, Sean McCann. A girl Hold Back Tomorrow (1955) 75m. ★★ D: goalie makes the boys’ hockey team in a Hugo Haas. Cleo Moore, John Agar, Frank de small Canadian town. Unexceptional but Kova, Harry Guardino, Jan Englund. Another still likable, and ideal nonexploitation fare of writer-director-producer Haas’ oddball for pre- and early teens.▼쩠 low-budget dramas, this one about a conHocus Pocus (1993) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Kenny demned murderer who marries a girl on the Ortega. Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, night before his execution. Fairly ambitious Kathy Najimy, Omri Katz, Thora Birch, for a film clearly made on a shoestring. Vinessa Shaw, Amanda Shepherd, Larry Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me (1992) Bagby III, Tobias Jelinek, Stephanie FarC-92m. ★★★ D: Joel Hershman. Max Paracy, Charlie Rocket, Kathleen Freeman, rish, Adrienne Shelly, Sean Young, Diane Don Yesso. Lonely male teen in Salem, Ladd, Timothy Leary, Andrea Naschak, Mass., conjures up three long-deceased Bela Lehoczky. Parrish goes on the lam witches who can only sustain themselves by after shooting his fiance´e (Young), a wealthy sucking the life out of children. Someone weirdo, and becomes involved with an certainly sucked the humor out of this oversexed, abusive stripper and her virghoulish, effects-laden concoction. Hammy ginal kid sister, who live in a trailer park to the extreme, and a discredit to Disney inhabited by assorted oddballs. Funky, ex‘‘family entertainment.’’ [PG]▼●쩠 tremely entertaining comedy. Fans of Pe1 ★★ Hoffa (1992) C-140m. ⁄2 D: Danny dro Almodo´var, John Waters, and early DeVito. Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, David Lynch will really go for this. Also Armand Assante, J. T. Walsh, John C. available in unrated version. [R]▼● Reilly, Frank Whaley, Kevin Anderson, Hold On! (1966) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur John P. Ryan, Robert Prosky, Natalija Lubin. Peter Noone, Herman’s Hermits, Nogulich, Nicholas Pryor, Karen Young, Sue Ane Langdon, Karl Green, Shelley Cliff Gorman. Scattershot (and sanitized) Fabares. Will NASA name a spaceship biography of legendary Teamster boss after Herman’s Hermits? That’s the burnJimmy Hoffa, transformed into a must-see ing question in this awful musical, set by the galvanizing performance of Nicholwhile the group is on a U.S. tour. One of son. DeVito indulges in visual flourishes but their songs is titled ‘‘A Must to Avoid,’’ seldom engages our emotions; nor does which sums up this loser. Panavision. David Mamet’s script, which never gives us Hold That Ghost (1941) 86m. ★★★ D: much insight into the man or his motivaArthur Lubin. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, tions. Nicholson’s daughter, Jennifer NichRichard Carlson, Joan Davis, Mischa Auer, olson, has a bit as a nursing nun in white. Evelyn Ankers, Marc Lawrence, Shemp Bruno Kirby appears unbilled as a nightclub Howard, Ted Lewis, The Andrews Sisters. comic. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Prime A&C, with the boys inheriting a Hoffman (1970-British) C-116m. ★★★ D: Alvin Rakoff. Peter Sellers, Sinead Cusack, haunted house. Fine cast includes hilarious [ 620 ]

Davis as professional radio screamer. Highing his match in Hepburn (who had underlight: the moving candle.▼●쩠 studied the role in the original Broadway Hold Your Man (1933) 86m. ★★★ D: Sam company a decade earlier). Screenplay by Wood. Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, Stuart Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney BuchErwin, Elizabeth Patterson, Blanche Friman. Delightful film.▼●쩠 derici. Delightful film that effectively Holiday, The (2006) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: makes the transition from comedy to drama Nancy Meyers. Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, with Harlow falling for jailbound Gable. Jude Law, Jack Black, Eli Wallach, Edward Burns, Rufus Sewell, Miffy Englefield, The stars are at their best here.▼ Hole, The (2001-British) C-102m. ★★ D: Emma Pritchard, Shannyn Sossamon, Bill Nick Hamm. Thora Birch, Desmond HarMacy, Shelley Berman, Kathryn Hahn, rington, Daniel Brocklebank, Laurence Fox, John Krasinski. Stressed-out L.A. workaKeira Knightley, Embeth Davidtz. Private holic Diaz, who’s just split with her longtime school student Birch stumbles onto campus boyfriend, impulsively decides to swap after she and fellow classmates have been houses for Christmas with Winslet, a Brit missing for over two weeks. She tells a tale who’s trying to get over her hopeless infatuaof how she and three teens ditched a weektion with Sewell. Each woman moves into a end field trip to hang out in an underground dream house and meets a dream guy in this bunker, only to find themselves trapped and highly attractive—but needlessly overlong— at the mercy of a troubled soul. Birch’s piece of fluff. Not without its charms, but complex performance is the best part of this awfully contrived. Written by the director. [PG-13]쩠 lackluster psychological horror film. Released direct to video in the U.S. in 2004. Holiday Affair (1949) 87m. ★★★ D: Don Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Hartman. Robert Mitchum, Janet Leigh, Hole in the Head, A (1959) C-120m. ★★ Wendell Corey, Gordon Gebert, Griff BarD: Frank Capra. Frank Sinatra, Edward G. nett, Esther Dale, Henry O’Neill, Henry Robinson, Eleanor Parker, Carolyn Jones, (Harry) Morgan. Well-done Christmastime Thelma Ritter, Eddie Hodges, Keenan Wynn, story of war widow Leigh, with a young son, Joi Lansing. Sticky story of a ne’er-do-well who’s courted by nice-guy Corey. Fate inter(Sinatra) and his son (Hodges) doesn’t seem venes when she meets articulate, kindly rollsincere. Only distinction is Oscar-winning ing stone Mitchum. Remade in 1997. ▼쩠 song, ‘‘High Hopes.’’ CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Holiday for Lovers (1959) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 Holes (2003) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew D: Henry Levin. Clifton Webb, Jane Davis. Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Shia Wyman, Jill St. John, Carol Lynley, Paul LaBeouf, Khleo Thomas, Patricia Arquette, Henreid, Gary Crosby, Jose Greco. Arch Tim Blake Nelson, Dule´ Hill, Henry Winkler, Dr. Webb and Wyman escort attractive Nate Davis, Rick Fox, Scott Plank, Eartha daughters on South American vacation, Kitt, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Brenden Jefferwith predictable mating. CinemaScope. son, Jake M. Smith. Boy from an eccentric Holiday in Mexico (1946) C-127m. ★★★ family is sent to a strange desert detention D: George Sidney. Walter Pidgeon, Ilona camp where it’s believed that digging holes Massey, Roddy McDowall, Jose Iturbi, builds character. As he gets to know the other Xavier Cugat, Jane Powell. Engaging, wellmisfits—among the kids and staff—pieces of cast musical comedy of daughter of ambassador falling for noted musician.▼ his life begin to come together and make sense. Louis Sachar’s adaptation of his popuHoliday Inn (1942) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mark lar, award-winning novel should please his Sandrich. Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Marjuvenile audience, but adults may grow impajorie Reynolds, Virginia Dale, Walter Abel, tient as the artificial, incident-laden story plays Louise Beavers. Entertaining musical built out over two hours’ time. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 on paper-thin plot about a romantic triangle, Holiday (1930) 96m. ★★★ D: Edward H. and the establishment of a country inn that’s Griffith. Ann Harding, Robert Ames, Mary open only on holidays. That’s the cue for a Astor, Edward Everett Horton, Hedda Hopraft of Irving Berlin holiday songs (there’s per, Monroe Owsley. First version of Philip even one for George Washington’s birthday!) Barry’s play about nonconformity is a pleasincluding the timeless Oscar winner ‘‘White ant surprise; an unstodgy early talkie with Christmas.’’ Good fun, and snappier than parcasting that in some cases (Astor, Owsley) tial remake WHITE CHRISTMAS. Bing’s even tops the more famous 1938 version original Rhythm Boys partner, Harry Barris, (Horton plays the same role in both movies). plays the orchestra leader. Also available in Holiday (1938) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Cukor. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Hollow Man (2000) C-114m. ★★ D: Paul Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Edward Everett Verhoeven. Kevin Bacon, Elisabeth Shue, Horton, Henry Kolker, Binnie Barnes, Jean Josh Brolin, William Devane, Greg GrunDixon, Henry Daniell. Fine, literate adapberg, Mary Jo Randle, Joey Slotnick, Steve tation of Philip Barry’s play (filmed before Altes, Kim Dickens. New twist on The Inin 1930) about nonconformist Grant convisible Man has cocky research lab genius fronting stuffy N.Y.C. society family, findBacon deciding to try his revolutionary for[ 621 ]

mula on himself, with incendiary results. days in Hollywood (based, very loosely, on Starts out fun, then turns nasty (in true VerMack Sennett and Mabel Normand) starts hoeven style) and stupid. A shame, considout fun, with some lively recreations of siering how great the special effects are. Fine lent slapstick comedies, but gets bogged score by Jerry Goldsmith. Alternate version down in cliche´d dramatics later on.쩠 runs 122m. Followed in 2006 by a direct-toHollywood Dreams (2007) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Henry Jaglom. Tanna Frederick, Justin video sequel. [R]▼쩠 Hollow Point SEE: Wild Pair, The Kirk, Zack Norman, Karen Black, David Hollow Reed (1996-British-German) CProval, Melissa Leo, Jon Robin Baitz, Sey104m. ★★★ D: Angela Pope. Martin Donomour Cassel, Sally Kirkland, Eric Roberts. van, Joely Richardson, Jason Flemyng, Ian Jaglom hits rock bottom with this familiar Hart, Sam Bould. Doctor Donovan, who is tale of a young midwestern wannabe star divorced, senses that his young son is being who comes to Hollywood and hooks up abused by his ex-wife’s live-in boyfriend. with a couple of producers who promise to He decides to petition for custody, but put her in a movie. Eventually she falls for knows his concern for his son’s safety will an attractive actor. Dialogue is so corny and be obscured by the fact that he is gay. Incontrived, the whole film sinks under its weight. [R]쩠 tensely dramatic, extremely well-acted psychological drama works on two levels: as a Hollywood Ending (2002) C-112m. ★★★ D: top-notch suspense thriller and a no-holdsWoody Allen. Woody Allen, Te´a Leoni, barred indictment of homophobia. [R]▼ Debra Messing, Treat Williams, Mark RyHolly and the Ivy, The (1952-British) dell, George Hamilton, Tiffany Thiessen, 80m. ★★★ D: George More O’Ferrall. Ralph Marian Seldes, Isaac Mizrahi, Doug McRichardson, Celia Johnson, Margaret LeighGrath. Often hilarious comedy about a ton, Denholm Elliott, Hugh Williams, Rohighly neurotic, washed-up movie director land Culver. Straightforward adaptation of who gets a shot at making a comeback thanks Wynyard Browne play revolving around to his ex-wife (Leoni) . . . but can’t get over Christmas holiday with Richardson, the the fact that he now has to work for her small-town cleric, learning about his three fiance´, studio head Williams. Woody is in grown-up children; nicely acted. fine fettle here as writer, director, and star, Hollywood Boulevard (1976) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 and offers many laugh-out-loud moments D: Joe Dante, Allan Arkush. Candice as well as a fine showcase for leading ladies Rialson, Mary Woronov, Rita George, JefLeoni and Messing. [PG-13]▼쩠 frey Kramer, Dick Miller, Paul Bartel. Hollywood Harry (1985) C-99m. ★★ D: Shameless low-budgeter splices shots from Robert Forster. Robert Forster, Joe Spinell, various Roger Corman films into the ‘‘story’’ Shannon Wilcox, Marji Martin, Kathrine of a would-be actress who goes to work for Forster, Mallie Jackson. Down-the-tubes some schlock moviemakers. Engaging nonprivate eye Forster hires on to find a young sense and some funny gags (especially for girl who’s turned up in an X-rated movie. film buffs and Corman devotees)—though Strictly standard fare. Forster also pronot enough to completely hide the fact that duced and scripted; his 14-year-old daughthis is a schlock movie. Miller and Bartel ter Kathrine plays Harry’s niece. Aka HARare great fun as an agent and a motivationRY’S MACHINE. [PG-13]▼ minded director. Don’t miss gag after closHollywood Homicide (2003) C-115m. ★1⁄2 ing credits. [R]▼쩠 D: Ron Shelton. Harrison Ford, Josh HartHollywood Canteen (1944) 124m. ★★1⁄2 nett, Lena Olin, Bruce Greenwood, Isaiah D: Delmer Daves. Bette Davis, John GarWashington, Lolita Davidovich, Keith David, field, Joan Leslie, Robert Hutton, Dane Martin Landau, Master P, Gladys Knight, Clark, Janis Paige; many guest stars inLou Diamond Phillips, Dwight Yoakam, cluding Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino, BarEric Idle. Odd-couple L.A. cops (one a partbara Stanwyck, Eddie Cantor, Jack Carson, time realtor, the other an aspiring actor) are Eleanor Parker, Alexis Smith, S. Z. Sakall. obliged to concentrate on a case when Amiable all-star silliness set in Hollywood’s there’s a bloody shoot-out at a prominent real-life haven for WW2 servicemen, feahip-hop club. The stars are good, but if turing cofounders Davis and Garfield. director-cowriter Shelton set out to make a Hutton plays G.I. with a crush on lovely Big Dumb Hollywood Movie, he succeeded Leslie. Best bits: Peter Lorre and Sydney all too well. Trying to have us care about Greenstreet; Jack Benny and violinist Jothe story and turning it into a farce at the seph Szigeti. Roy Rogers introduces ‘‘Don’t same time was not a good plan. Several Fence Me In,’’ later reprised by the Anstars and celebrities appear in cameos. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 drews Sisters.▼●쩠 Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Hollywood Hotel (1937) 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Irving Cummings. Alice Faye, Don Busby Berkeley. Dick Powell, Rosemary Ameche, J. Edward Bromberg, Al Jolson, Lane, Lola Lane, Ted Healy, Johnnie Mack Sennett, Stuart Erwin, Buster Keaton, ‘‘Scat’’ Davis, Alan Mowbray, Frances Rin-Tin-Tin, Jr. Colorful saga of pioneering Langford, Louella Parsons, Hugh Herbert, [ 622 ]

Glenda Farrell, Edgar Kennedy. Silly, paperprints run 63m. and are missing appearance thin plot about Powell winning Hollywood by Mickey Mouse and color Disney cartoon talent contest but finding stardom elusive, HOT CHOC-LATE SOLDIERS.▼● buoyed by bright Johnny Mercer–Richard Hollywood Revue of 1929, The (1929) Whiting score, including ‘‘Hooray for Hol130m. ★★ D: Charles Riesner. Conrad Nagel, lywood’’ and historic numbers by the Benny Jack Benny, John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Goodman band (‘‘Sing Sing Sing’’) and Joan Crawford, Laurel and Hardy, Bessie quartet (with Gene Krupa, Lionel HampLove, Lionel Barrymore, Marion Davies, ton, Teddy Wilson). Ronald Reagan has Buster Keaton, Marie Dressler, Polly Moran, brief bit as radio announcer.쩠 many others. MGM’s all-star revue introducHollywood Knights, The (1980) C-95m. ing its silent-film stars as talkie personalities, ★1 cohosted by Benny and Nagel. Definitely a ⁄2 D: Floyd Mutrux. Tony Danza, Michelle Pfeiffer, Fran Drescher, Leigh French, curio for film buffs, rough sledding for others. Randy Gornel, Robert Wuhl, Stuart Pankin, Surviving 116m. print is missing some mateP. R. Paul, Richard Schaal, Debra Feuer. rial; several scenes originally filmed in color. A punk answer to AMERICAN GRAFFITI, ● which follows a band of high-school hellHollywood Shuffle (1987) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 raisers on Halloween Night, 1965, when their D: Robert Townsend. Robert Townsend, favorite drive-in hangout is about to close. Anne-Marie Johnson, Starletta Dupois, Sophomoric humor to spare, only a small part Helen Martin, Craigus R. Johnson. Unof it funny. Danza’s feature debut. [R]▼쩠 even but enjoyable comedy about young Hollywoodland (2006) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: black actor trying to get a foothold in Allen Coulter. Adrien Brody, Diane Lane, Hollywood, but running into problems of Ben Affleck, Bob Hoskins, Lois Smith, stereotyping at every turn. Townsend (who Robin Tunney, Larry Cedar, Jeffrey Dealso directed and cowrote, with Keenen Munn, Caroline Dhavernas, Brad William Ivory Wayans) is so appealing, and his Henke, Dash Mihok, Molly Parker, Kathmessage is so dead on-target, that it’s hard leen Robertson, Joe Spano. Seedy, smallto dislike this film, even though it’s strictly time private eye (Brody) whose life is a hit-or-miss. [R]▼●쩠 mess takes on a significant case when Hollywood Vice Squad (1986) C-100m. George Reeves’ mother claims her son’s BOMB D: Penelope Spheeris. Trish Van death wasn’t a suicide. As he pieces toDevere, Ronny Cox, Frank Gorshin, Leon gether the actor’s story—from the time he Isaac Kennedy, Carrie Fisher, Ben Frank, met his longtime lover Toni Mannix, wife Robin Wright, Joey Travolta. Stupid comic of a powerful MGM executive, to his sudvariation on VICE SQUAD with Van Devere den fame as TV’s Superman, to his mysteriasking help of the cops to find her runaway ous demise—he does some soul-searching daughter, who’s now a hooker and heroin addict. Wright’s film debut. [R]▼●쩠 of his own. Nuanced, well-written and -realized period piece, with Brody, Lane, HosHolocaust 2000 SEE: Chosen, The (1978) kins, and especially Affleck turning in Holy Lola (2004-French) C-128m. ★★★ D: flawless performances. Feature directing Bertrand Tavernier. Jacques Gamblin, Isadebut for Coulter. Screenplay by Paul Bernbelle Carre´, Bruno Putzulu, Lara Guirao, baum. [R]쩠 Fre´de´ric Pierrot, Maria Pitarresi, Jean-Yves Hollywood or Bust (1956) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 Roan. A French couple travels to Cambodia D: Frank Tashlin. Dean Martin, Jerry to adopt a baby; there they join a commuLewis, Anita Ekberg, Pat Crowley. Starnity of temporary expatriates, all desperstruck Lewis teams up with gambler Marately trying to deal with the bureaucracy, tin on trek to crash the movie capital; corruption, endless waiting, and turbulent typical comedy by the frantic team. Dean emotions that are all part of the process. and Jerry’s last film together opens with Heartrending and utterly credible at every Jerry’s ‘‘tribute’’ to movie fans around the turn; in fact, it’s difficult to endure at times world. VistaVision.▼쩠 for just those reasons. Tavernier cowrote Hollywood Party (1934) 68m. ★★1⁄2 No with his daughter Tiffany and son-in-law director credited. Jimmy Durante, Laurel Dominique Sampiero. and Hardy, Lupe Velez, Polly Moran, Holy Man (1998) C-114m. ★★ D: Stephen Charles Butterworth, Eddie Quillan, June Herek. Eddie Murphy, Jeff Goldblum, Clyde, George Givot, Jack Pearl, Ted Healy Kelly Preston, Robert Loggia, Jon Cryer, and The Three Stooges, many others. MuEric McCormack, Sam Kitchin. Slick prosical comedy hodgepodge built around screen ducer for a home shopping TV network star Durante throwing a gala party. Rostumbles onto a spiritual man named G who mantic subplot is for the birds, but Stan says he’s on a pilgrimage. Before long, G and Ollie battling fiery Velez, Durante as has affected every part of the man’s life and Schnarzan, befuddled Butterworth and openbecome a sensation on the air. Promising ing title tune make it worthwhile. Richard movie wanders all over the place and squanBoleslawski, Allan Dwan, Roy Rowland ders Murphy’s likable performance. It’s still directed various scenes without credit; some watchable, thanks to him, Goldblum, and [ 623 ]

Preston. Various celebrities appear in cameos, including, most curiously, designer Nino Cerutti. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Holy Matrimony (1943) 87m. ★★★ D: John M. Stahl. Monty Woolley, Gracie Fields, Laird Cregar, Una O’Connor, Alan Mowbray, Melville Cooper, Franklin Pangborn. Delightful tale of artist Woolley assuming late butler’s identity to avoid publicity, finding many complications. Remake of 1933 film HIS DOUBLE LIFE. Holy Matrimony (1994) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Leonard Nimoy. Patricia Arquette, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Tate Donovan, John Schuck, Lois Smith, Courtney B. Vance, Jeffrey Nordling. Arquette, on the lam for robbery, hides out in a Hutterite community and (through contrived circumstances) ends up married to 12-yearold Gordon-Levitt. Bland, juvenile, comedic variation on WITNESS, but GordonLevitt is charming. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Holy Smoke (1999-U.S.-Australian) C114m. ★★ D: Jane Campion. Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Julie Hamilton, Tim Robertson, Daniel Wyllie, Sophie Lee, Kerry Walker, Pam Grier. When a young Australian woman falls under the spell of an Indian guru, her family hires an expert American cult deprogrammer to bring her back to her senses. She turns the tables and finds him surprisingly susceptible to her mind games and sexual teasing. Naked performances—in every sense of the word— by the two leads and a layered script rife with quirky humor and sexual politics can’t bring credibility to Keitel’s character. This is supposed to be his 190th case; what were the other 189 like? [R]▼쩠 Holy Terror (1977) C-96m. ★★ D: Alfred Sole. Brooke Shields, Tom Signorelli, Louisa Horton, Paula Sheppard, Mildred Clinton, Linda Miller, Lillian Roth. Does 12-year-old Alice (Sheppard) kill her sister, parents, aunt, etc.? OK murder mystery is noteworthy mainly as Shields’ feature debut—and she’s bumped off in the first reel. Filmed in Paterson, N.J.; cameo appearance by Roth as a pathologist. Originally 108m. Aka ALICE, SWEET ALICE and COMMUNION. [R]

Billie Bird, Angela Goethals, Devin Ratray, Hope Davis. Wildly successful comedy about an eight-year-old boy whose family inadvertently leaves him behind when they go to Paris for Christmas vacation. The plucky kid then proceeds to fend off two bumbling burglars with a variety of elaborate boobytraps. Culkin is terrific, but the film has its ups and downs; the violence, even for a cartoonish farce, is a bit extreme. Climactic scene with forbidding neighbor Blossom is certainly the film’s high point. Macaulay’s brother Kieran plays his cousin Fuller. Followed by two sequels and a made-for-TV movie. [PG]▼●쩠 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) C-120m. ★★ D: Chris Columbus. Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, John Heard, Tim Curry, Brenda Fricker, Devin Ratray, Hillary Wolf, Eddie Bracken, Dana Ivey, Rob Schneider, Kieran Culkin, Gerry Bamman. Culkin boards the wrong plane at Christmastime, is separated from his family, and ends up in N.Y.C., where he befriends pigeon-lady Fricker and contends with nitwits Pesci and Stern, more than ever a pair of cartoon characters come to life. Essentially a reworking of its smash-hit predecessor, but it manages to be even more violent. There are also shameless plugs for the Plaza Hotel, replete with a walk-on by owner Donald Trump. Written and produced by John Hughes. [PG]▼●쩠 Home Alone 3 (1997) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raja Gosnell. Alex D. Linz, Olek Krupa, Rya Kihlstedt, Lenny von Dohlen, David Thornton, Haviland Morris, Kevin Kilner, Marian Seldes, Scarlett Johansson. Another little boy left home alone battles another gang of crooks, but this time they’rehigh-tech industrial thieves after an important computer chip. Unexpectedly funny follow-up (rather than sequel), helped by an appealing little boy (Linz), smarter crooks, and a less sappily sentimental subplot. Written by John Hughes. [PG] ▼●쩠 Home and the World, The (1984-Indian) C-130m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Satyajit Ray. Soumitra Chatterjee, Victor Banerjee, Swatilekha Chatterjee, Gopa Aich, Jennifer Kapoor. Wealthy, liberated estate owner allows ▼●쩠 ★★★ Hombre (1967) C-111m. his wife to break with the tradition of D: Martin Ritt. Paul Newman, Fredric March, Richfemale seclusion—and she falls in love ard Boone, Diane Cilento, Cameron Mitchwith his best friend, a nationalist leader. ell, Barbara Rush, Martin Balsam. InterSet in early 20th-century Bengal, and based esting Western (from an Elmore Leonard on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore; a story) of Indian-raised Newman trying masterful and poignant film, made by a world-class filmmaker.▼ to survive in white man’s world in Arizona circa 1880. Encounters with various charHome at Seven (1952-British) 85m. ★★★ acters on a stagecoach provide basis for D: Ralph Richardson. Ralph Richardson, film’s action and drama; well acted, enterMargaret Leighton, Jack Hawkins, Camptaining. Panavision.▼●쩠 bell Singer. Taut thriller of club treasurer Home Alone (1990) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: who can’t account for a day in his life Chris Columbus. Macaulay Culkin, Joe when a murder and a robbery occurred. Pesci, Daniel Stern, John Heard, Roberts Aka MURDER ON MONDAY.▼ Blossom, Catherine O’Hara, John Candy, Home at the End of the World, A (2004) C[ 624 ]

93m. ★★★ D: Michael Mayer. Colin Farrell, Amy Yasbeck, Shawn Hatosy. Dreary Robin Wright Penn, Dallas Roberts, Sissy ‘‘comedy’’ about a woman at loose ends who Spacek, Matt Frewer, Erik Smith, Harris flies home to spend Thanksgiving with her Allan, Andrew Chalmers. Two male friends wildly dysfunctional family. Filled with unexplore their sexuality during an event-filled pleasant (and in some cases unfathomable) adolescence in late 1960s Cleveland. After characters who are neither funny nor interestyears apart, they wind up living in a Greening. Why would anybody want to spend time with these people? [PG-13] ▼●쩠 wich Village apartment in the early 1980s with a free-spirited older woman. Michael Home Fries (1998) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Dean Cunningham adapted his novel about unconParisot. Drew Barrymore, Luke Wilson, ventional relationships that redefine the noCatherine O’Hara, Jake Busey, Shelley tion of family. Impressive debut film for Duvall, Kim Robillard, Daryl ‘‘Chill’’ stage director Mayer. Farrell is excellent, Mitchell. Black-comedy misfire has two playing an uncharacteristically gentle soul. brothers giving their stepfather a unique Tom Hulce coproduced. Wendy Crewson scare at the behest of Mom. As a result, his appears unbilled. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 pregnant mistress (Barrymore) is left withHome Before Dark (1958) 136m. ★★★ D: out a father for her child; matters grow comMervyn LeRoy. Jean Simmons, Dan O’plicated when one of the brothers shows Herlihy, Rhonda Fleming, Efrem Zimbalist, interest. She’s a Podunk fast-food waitress, Jr. Shiny but poignant telling of Simmons’ which explains the title, but not why this readjustment to life after nervous breakfarce is so poky—and laughless. [PG-13] down; on-location shooting in Massachusetts. ▼●쩠 ★★1 Homebodies (1974) C-96m. ⁄2 D: Larry Home From the Hill (1960) C-150m. ★★★ Yust. Frances Fuller, Ian Wolfe, Ruth D: Vincente Minnelli. Robert Mitchum, McDevitt, Paula Trueman, Peter Brocco, Eleanor Parker, George Peppard, George William Hansen. Bizarre horror-comedy Hamilton, Luana Patten, Everett Sloane, will depend on one’s taste for scenario. Constance Ford. Strong drama, set in SouthElderly tenants of condemned building resort eastern Texas during the 1950s, centering on to murder to keep their home. Good cast, most prominent family in a small town. Patriincluding Douglas Fowley as the builder. arch Mitchum is estranged from wife, Parker, Made in Cincinnati.▼ and takes over raising their son, Hamilton, Homeboy (1976) SEE: Black Fist when he comes of age. Peppard is a likable, Homeboy (1988) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mifatherless local important to both the older chael Seresin. Mickey Rourke, Christoman and his son. Low-key, involving, and inpher Walken, Debra Feuer, Thomas Quinn, telligent; well directed by Minnelli, handling Kevin Conway, Antony Alda, Ruben uncharacteristic material. Cast is very good, Blades. Downbeat, rainy tale of aging, including Peppard and Hamilton in what alcoholic boxer Rourke, his relationship may be career-best performances for both. with flashy, philosophical crook Walken, From the best-selling novel by William Humphrey. ▼쩠 and his romance with a carousel owner. Very well made, with fine, quirky performances Homegrown (1998) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steby the leads, but so unrelentingly grim it can phen Gyllenhaal. Billy Bob Thornton, Hank scarcely be called entertainment. [R]▼● Azaria, Kelly Lynch, Jon Bon Jovi, Ryan Homecoming (1948) 113m. ★★ D: Mervyn Phillippe, Judge Reinhold, Jon Tenney, Jamie LeRoy. Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Anne Lee Curtis, John Lithgow, Ted Danson. Baxter, John Hodiak, Ray Collins, CamWhen a big-time drug dealer is assassinated, eron Mitchell. Gable and Turner have exthree of his worker bees try to cover up the citing WW2 romance in the trenches, but death so they can cash in on his latest marithat can’t support 113 minutes of dreary juana crop. Needless to say, they find themdrama; one of Gable’s lesser efforts.▼쩠 selves in way over their heads. Alternately Homecoming, The (1973) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 funny and serious, this unfocused film has a D: Peter Hall. Cyril Cusack, Ian Holm, strong cast and interesting, often amusing Michael Jayston, Vivien Merchant, Tervignettes, but never quite comes together. ence Rigby, Paul Rogers. Jayston, long The director’s children, Maggie and Jacob separated from his London family, brings (Jake) Gyllenhaal, appear in small roles. [R]▼●쩠 wife Merchant home to meet his father and two brothers. Film version of the Harold Home Is Where the Heart Is SEE: Square Pinter play is among the most satisfactory Dance of all stage-to-screen adaptations. An AmerHome Movies (1979) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian ican Film Theater Production. [PG]▼쩠 De Palma. Keith Gordon, Nancy Allen, ★★ Home for the Holidays (1995) C-103m. Kirk Douglas, Gerrit Graham, Vincent D: Jodie Foster. Holly Hunter, Robert DowGardenia, Mary Davenport. Flaky farce ney, Jr., Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, reminiscent of De Palma’s early work. NebDylan McDermott, Geraldine Chaplin, Cynbish Gordon, an ‘‘extra in his own life,’’ is thia Stevenson, Steve Guttenberg, Claire given Star Therapy treatment by egomaniaDanes, Austin Pendleton, David Strathairn, cal director Douglas (who has his own life [ 625 ]

filmed constantly), and sets out to woo Allen Tilly, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Steve Buscemi, Esaway from his nutsy older brother (Graham). telle Harris, Charles Dennis, Charles Haid, Original in concept but tiresome in execuCarole Cook, Joe Flaherty, G.W. Bailey, tion, although nobody eats a hamburger like Ja’net DuBois. Three cows set out to capture Allen. Most of the production crew was an elusive rustler and use the reward money made up of De Palma’s filmmaking students to save their beloved farm from foreclosure. from Sarah Lawrence College. Aka THE A refreshingly ‘‘cartoony’’ Disney animated MAESTRO. [PG]▼●쩠 feature set in the Old West. Filled with colorHome of Our Own, A (1993) C-104m. ful characters, funny gags, and lively songs by ★★1 Alan Menken and Glenn Slater. Good fun for ⁄2 D: Tony Bill. Kathy Bates, Edward Furlong, Soon-Teck Oh, Tony Campisi, kids and grown-ups alike. Digital Widescreen. [PG]▼쩠 Clarissa Lassig, Sarah Schaub, Miles Feulner, Amy Sakasitz, T. J. Lowther. Bates is a Homer and Eddie (1990) C-99m. BOMB determined single mother in 1962 L.A. who D: Andrei Konchalovsky. James Belushi, uproots her six children and settles in a desWhoopi Goldberg, Karen Black, Ernestine olate Idaho town; she has almost no money McClendon, Nancy Parsons, Anne Ramsey, but a lot of energy and a fierce fighting Beah Richards. He’s been mentally imspirit. Young Furlong is the reluctant ‘‘man paired since getting smacked in childhood of the family.’’ Avoids becoming overly by a flying baseball; she’s dying of brain sentimental, but film is still basically Disney cancer; theirs is an odyssey-by-auto punctufare with an edge. Campisi—Bates’ persisated by service-station knock-offs and a tent boyfriend—is the actress’ real-life husmusical interlude where they dance with band. Director Bill has an unbilled cameo paper bags on their heads. Not to be conas a doctor. [PG]▼●쩠 fused with Homer & Jethro or Flo & Eddie, Home of the Brave (1949) 85m. ★★★ D: though you may be praying for any and all to show up. [R] ▼●쩠 Mark Robson. James Edwards, Douglas Dick, Steve Brodie, Jeff Corey, Lloyd Home Room (2003) C-132m. ★★★ D: Paul Bridges, Frank Lovejoy. More daring when F. Ryan. Busy Philipps, Erika Christensen, made than now, but still hard-hitting account Victor Garber, Holland Taylor, Ken Jenkins, of black soldier Edwards suffering more Raphael Sbarge, James Pickens, Jr., Richard abuse from fellow G.I.’s than the enemy Gilliland, Rick Lenz. Thoughtful drama about while on a mission during WW2. From an the aftermath of a high school shooting ramArthur Laurents play.▼● page, focusing on three characters: an antisoHome of the Brave (1986) C-90m. ★★★ cial eyewitness (Philipps), who apparently D: Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson, had some relationship with the shooter; a Adrian Belew, Richard Landry, Joy Askew, straight-arrow classmate (Christensen), who Dolette McDonald, Janice Pendarvis, Wilsurvived with physical injuries and major liam S. Burroughs. Concert film pretty well emotional scars; and a compassionate cop duplicates what fans of performance artist (Garber), who’s trying to make sense of the Anderson have been seeing for years; mix incident. Writer-director-editor Ryan wisely of music and provocative visuals doesn’t concentrates on his specific characters and quite add up to another STOP MAKING doesn’t try to drive home too many universal SENSE, but it’s a generally rewarding introtruths. [R] ▼쩠 duction for the uninitiated. Mostly accessiHometown USA (1979) C-93m. BOMB ble, but the middle section will test your D: Max Baer. Gary Springer, David Wilopenness to unconventional music. ▼ son, Brian Kerwin, Pat Delaney, Julie Home of the Brave (2006) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 Parsons, Sally Kirkland. Yet another nosD: Irwin Winkler. Samuel L. Jackson, Jestalgic look at teenagers in the late 1950s is sica Biel, Brian Presley, Curtis ‘‘50 Cent’’ just a sloppy, sleazy, unfunny AMERIJackson, Christina Ricci, Chad Michael CAN GRAFFITI rip-off.▼쩠 Murray, Victoria Rowell, Joyce M. CamHomeward Bound: The Incredible Joureron, Jeffrey Nordling. Story of returning ney (1993) C-84m. ★★★ D: DuWayne DunIraq war vets visits the same territory as ham. Robert Hays, Kim Greist, Jean Smart, such films as THE BEST YEARS OF OUR Benj Thall, Veronica Lauren, Kevin ChevLIVES and COMING HOME but fails to alia; voices of Michael J. Fox, Sally Field, pack their emotional punch. Focusing priDon Ameche. Three beloved household marily on three vets as they readjust to life pets, separated from their youthful masin Seattle, film has an episodic and sudsy ters, embark on an almost impossible trek feel, particularly in a scene where a drunken over mountainous terrain to rejoin them. Samuel Jackson disrupts his family’s Remake of 1963’s THE INCREDIBLE Thanksgiving dinner. Biel is touching as a JOURNEY enables us to hear the animals wounded soldier struggling to establish new talking, and in true ’90s fashion, their relationships. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 dialogue is overstuffed with lowbrow wise★★★ Home on the Range (2004) C-76m. cracks. Still, the story is compelling, and D: Will Finn, John Sanford. Voices of Rosethe vocal performances excellent, especially anne Barr, Randy Quaid, Judi Dench, Jennifer Ameche, as the older, more faithful canine. [ 626 ]

Sure-fire Disney family entertainment. Folhere. Good script by James Edward Grant, lowed by a sequel. [G]▼●쩠 from a story by Louis L’Amour. OrigiHomeward Bound II: Lost in San Frannally shown in 3-D. Later a short-lived cisco (1996) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: David R. TV series. ▼쩠 Ellis. Robert Hays, Kim Greist, Veronica Honey (2003) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bille WoodLauren, Kevin Chevalia, Benj Thall, Miruff. Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Lil’ chael Rispoli, Max Perlich; voices of MiRomeo, Joy Bryant, David Moscow, Lonchael J. Fox, Sally Field, Ralph Waite, ette McKee, Zachary Isaiah Williams, LauSinbad, Jon Polito. Congenial sequel has the rie Ann Gibson, Anthony Sherwood, Missy three household pets forced to fend for themElliott, Shawn Desman, Ginuwine. Sweet selves in the City by the Bay, where Chance, story of a good-hearted girl who dreams of Sassy, and Shadow find themselves dodging being a dancer and teaches inner-city kids at both canine and human adversaries on the city a community center. A music video director streets. Enough snappy dialogue to amuse parspots her and opens a door to her dream ents as well as their kids. [G]▼●쩠 job—but also wants to own her. Alba is Homework (1982) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: James sincere and charismatic, which gives a big Beshears. Joan Collins, Michael Morgan, boost to an all-too-predictable story. [PGShell Kepler, Lanny Horn, Lee Purcell, Car13] ▼쩠 rie Snodgress, Wings Hauser, Mel Welles, Honeydripper (2007) C-122m. ★★★ D: Beverly Todd, Betty Thomas. Atrocious, John Sayles. Danny Glover, Lisa Gay Hamwildly inconsistent ‘‘comedy’’ about a ilton, Yaya DaCosta, Charles S. Dutton, teenage boy’s sexual awakening—and emVondie Curtis Hall, Gary Clark, Jr., Dr. barrassment. Filmed mostly in 1979, it Mable John, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburunderwent major surgery, including atgen, Sean Patrick Thomas, Keb’ Mo’, Kel tempt to simulate nude scenes with Joan Mitchell. Leisurely, entertaining slice of Collins (using an alleged double) so it Southern life, circa 1950. Hard-luck Glover could be promoted as a young boy–older runs a threadbare bar and restaurant in a small woman sex comedy a` la PRIVATE LESAlabama town, and seizes his last chance to SONS and MY TUTOR. [R] ▼●쩠 make good by hiring a popular bluesman to Homicidal (1961) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: William play his establishment. Less concerned with Castle. Jean Arless, Joan Marshall, Patristory than with character and atmosphere, this cia Breslin, Glenn Corbett, Eugenie Leonpicaresque film is brimming with juicy pertovitch, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust. One of formances and good music. Writer-director Castle’s less gimmicky shockers, about Sayles has a cameo as a liquor delivery man. pretty but rather strange young nurse who [PG-13]쩠 presides over creepy household consisting Honey I Blew Up the Kid (1992) C-89m. of mute stroke victim and decidedly meek ★★★ D: Randal Kleiser. Rick Moranis, young man. Shamelessly steals a great deal Marcia Strassman, Robert Oliveri, Daniel from PSYCHO, and much of the dialogue is and Joshua Shalikar, Lloyd Bridges, John ludicrous, but still manages to deliver some Shea, Keri Russell, Ron Canada, Gregory shudders. 쩠 Sierra, Julia Sweeney, Ken Tobey. Bull’s1 ★★ Homicide (1991) C-102m. ⁄2 D: David eye sequel to the surprise Disney hit Mamet. Joe Mantegna, William H. Macy, HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS. This Natalija Nogulich, Ving Rhames, Rebecca time, absentminded scientist Moranis acciPidgeon, Vincent Guastaferro, Lionel Mark dentally enlarges his two-year-old son, who Smith, Jack Wallace, J. J. Johnston. Urgrows to gargantuan proportions and stalks ban homicide detective is pulled off a the streets of Las Vegas! Good, clean fun major case to take care of a seemingly with terrific special effects and a lot of genroutine murder of an elderly shopkeeper, uine laughs; wears a bit thin after a while, but soon finds himself embroiled in a but its upbeat spirit makes up for that. Video strange, conspiracy-like situation that causes sequel: HONEY, WE SHRUNK OURhim to question his own motives and his SELVES. [PG]▼●쩠 identity as a Jew. Provocative material is Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Cunderdeveloped by writer-director Mamet, 93m. ★★★ D: Joe Johnston. Rick Moranis, and laid on with too heavy a hand . . . but Matt Frewer, Marcia Strassman, Kristine the ‘‘Mametspeak’’ and lead performance Sutherland, Thomas Brown, Jared Rushare still quite commanding. [R]▼● ton, Amy O’Neill, Robert Oliveri. Cute Hondo (1953) C-84m. ★★★ D: John Farcomedy-fantasy about a quartet of kids row. John Wayne, Geraldine Page, Ward who accidentally trigger Moranis’s exBond, Michael Pate, James Arness, Rodolfo perimental ray gun and find themselves Acosta, Leo Gordon, Lee Aaker, Lassie. reduced to microscopic size—and stranded Rousing, well-done Western with Wayne across the yard from their home. Enthe tough, wily cavalry scout who comes joyable family fare, with engaging special upon Page and her young son living in effects (by such whizzes as Phil Tippett the wilderness, unalarmed about a pending Apache uprising. Wayne is in top form and David Allen). Followed by HONEY, [ 627 ]

I BLEW UP THE KID and later, a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 Honeymoon Academy (1990) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Gene Quintano. Kim Cattrall, Robert Hays, Leigh Taylor-Young, Charles Rocket, Lance Kinney, Christopher Lee. Time waster about a secret agent (Cattrall) who tries to take time off for a honeymoon in Madrid, but finds herself involved in espionage business all the same. Attempt at lighthearted chase comedy/romance doesn’t come off . . . and incidentally, the film’s title has nothing to do with the story. [PG-13]▼● Honeymooners, The (2005) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: John Schultz. Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps, Gabrielle Union, Regina Hall, Eric Stoltz, Jon Polito, John Leguizamo. Recasting the classic Jackie Gleason–Art Carney TV hit as an urban comedy might have looked good on paper, but what lands on-screen is a pale version of the original. Ralph Kramden is still a bus driver with big get-rich-quick schemes, but things never go as he plans. The jokes are lame and the actors try awfully hard to wring what life they can out of them. At least there’s a cute dog. PG version also available. [PG-13]

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told in Arturo Ripstein’s DEEP CRIMSON and LONELY HEARTS (2006). [R]▼●쩠 Honeymoon Machine, The (1961) C87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Steve McQueen, Jim Hutton, Paula Prentiss, Brigid Bazlen, Dean Jagger, Jack Weston. Pleasant comedy with a spirited cast about two sailors who find a way to beat the roulette table in Venice. Easy to take, easy to forget. CinemaScope.▼ Honey Pot, The (1967) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Rex Harrison, Susan Hayward, Cliff Robertson, Capucine, Edie Adams, Maggie Smith, Adolfo Celi. Director/writer Mankiewicz updates Volpone in sly blend of high comedy and whodunit. Harrison pretends to be dying, sends for former mistresses to see their reactions; hoax evolves into elaborate murder scheme. Never as amusing as one would like it to be. Aka IT COMES UP MURDER.▼ Honeysuckle Rose (1980) C-119m. ★★★ D: Jerry Schatzberg. Willie Nelson, Dyan Cannon, Amy Irving, Slim Pickens, Joey Floyd, Charles Levin, Priscilla Pointer, Mickey Rooney, Jr., Diana Scarwid. Appealing, low-key film about a country music star and his lifestyle at home in Texas and on the road, which begins to come apart when he starts fooling around with the young daughter of his longtime musical sidekick. Lots of good music by Willie, fiddler Johnny Gimble, and guest star Emmylou Harris. Officially based on INTERMEZZO, believe it or not! Retitled ON THE ROAD AGAIN. Panavision. [PG]

Honeymoon Hotel (1964) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Henry Levin. Robert Goulet, Jill St. John, Nancy Kwan, Robert Morse, Elsa Lanchester, Keenan Wynn. Asinine shenanigans with bachelors Goulet and Morse arriving at resort for newlyweds. Lanchester is fun despite all. Panavision. Honeymoon in Vegas (1992) C-95m. ▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Andrew Bergman. James Caan, Hong Kong (1951) C-92m. ★★ D: Lewis Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pat R. Foster. Ronald Reagan, Rhonda FlemMorita, Johnny Williams, John Capodice, ing, Nigel Bruce, Marvin Miller, Lee MarRobert Costanzo, Anne Bancroft, Peter vin. Mediocre account of Reagan trying to Boyle, Burton Gilliam, Seymour Cassel, heist a valuable antique from orphaned boy Jerry Tarkanian, Tony Shalhoub, Natasha but going straight before finale. Strictly Lyonne, Ben Stein. Cage and Parker finally backlot Hong Kong. decide to tie the knot—in Las Vegas—but Honkers, The (1972) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: he loses her in a rigged poker game to mobSteve Ihnat. James Coburn, Lois Nettleton, ster Caan! Engaging farce from writer-direcSlim Pickens, Anne Archer, Richard Antor Bergman has enough twists, turns, and derson, Joan Huntington, Jim Davis. Theme cockeyed humor to keep things lively from about aging rodeo performer was handled start to finish . . . including a corps of ‘‘flying better in J. W. COOP and JUNIOR BONElvises.’’ Presley music (performed by evNER (all made same year!); actor Ihnat died eryone from Billy Joel to Bono) fills the shortly after directing this film. [PG] soundtrack. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Honky (1971) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Honeymoon Killers, The (1970) 108m. A. Graham. Brenda Sykes, John Nielson, ★★★ D: Leonard Kastle. Shirley Stoler, William Marshall, Maia Danziger, Marion Tony LoBianco, Mary Jane Higby, Doris Ross, Lincoln Kilpatrick. Not-bad drama Roberts. Taut, based-on-fact account of the of budding romance between black Sykes Lonely Hearts Killers: Martha Beck (Stoler), and white Nielson, and the problems they a rotund nurse, and Ray Fernandez (LoBiencounter. Score by Quincy Jones. Panavianco), a gigolo. Together, they scheme to sion. [R]▼ swindle and murder wealthy, lonely women. Honky Tonk (1941) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Low-budget item has deservedly developed a Conway. Clark Gable, Lana Turner, Frank cult reputation over the years. Martin Scorsese Morgan, Claire Trevor, Marjorie Main, was the original director; he was replaced by Albert Dekker, Chill Wills, Veda Ann Donald Volkman, who in turn was replaced Borg. Good-gal Lana loves gambler Gable by Kastle (who also scripted). Same story rein romantic Western that’s fun for a spell, [ 628 ]

then drags into talky marathon. Morgan ther Williams, Angela Lansbury, James and Wills offer fine character performances. Gleason, Lewis Stone, ‘‘Rags’’ Ragland, Remade for TV in 1974. Also shown in Frank McHugh, Slim Summerville. Confuscomputer-colored version.▼●쩠 ing mishmash with Powell a cynical, Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) C-107m. money-obsessed WW1 vet who, between ★★ schemes, falls for pretty Williams. This one D: John Schlesinger. William Devane, Beverly D’Angelo, Beau Bridges, Jessica squeaks by solely on Powell’s charm. Tandy, Hume Cronyn, Geraldine Page, Hoods (1999) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Malone. George Dzundza, Teri Garr, Joe Grifasi, Joe Mantegna, Kevin Pollak, Joe Pantoliano, Howard Hesseman, Paul Jabara, Frances Vincent Berry, Jennifer Tilly, Robert CosLee McCain, John Astin, David Rasche, tanzo, Richard Foronjy, John Capodice, JoDaniel Stern. An absurdist view of contemseph Maher. Wry look at N.Y.C. mobsters porary America, in fragmented vignettes of and a hapless functionary who’s stuck carvarious oddballs whose lives converge in rying out orders for his mentally incompeTiclaw, Florida, a tiny town determined to tent father. Some genuinely funny scenes attract tourists despite the lack of an exit ramp and ingratiating performances by an A-1 enfrom the new freeway. As a statement on life, semble make this worth a look, even though it’s a failure; as a silly comedy, it sometimes the payoff is weak. Seymour Cassel and succeeds. Reminiscent (in its narrative Charles Martin Smith appear unbilled. Made for theaters, debuted on cable. [R]▼쩠 style) of NASHVILLE. [PG]▼쩠 Honkytonk Man (1982) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Hoodwinked (2005) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cory Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Kyle Edwards, Todd Edwards, Tony Leech. Eastwood, John McIntire, Alexa Kenin, Voices of Anne Hathaway, Patrick WarburVerna Bloom, Matt Clark, Barry Corbin. ton, Glenn Close, Jim Belushi, David The kind of film that gives ‘‘change-ofOgden Stiers, Chazz Palminteri, Anthony pace’’ a bad name. Clint is Depression-era Anderson, Andy Dick, Xzibit. In a storycountry singer hoping to make it to the book forest a froggy police detective tries to Grand Old Opry before he dies of tubercuget the real story behind a well-known fairylosis; son Kyle plays his nephew, who tags tale plot, told RASHOMON-style by its along. Artificial and overlong; many music leading characters: Red Riding Hood, The greats appear in bits, including Marty RobWolf, Granny, and the Woodsman. Each bins, who provides film’s sole touching mocharacter breaks stereotypes with updated ment and, ironically, died himself only days backstories and modern pop-culture referbefore the picture opened. [PG]▼●쩠 ences. Low-budget computer-animated feaHonor Among Thieves SEE: Farewell, ture makes up for artistic shortcomings with Friend witty script and clever vocal performances. Honor Guard, The SEE: Wolf Lake Several songs by cowriter-director Todd Edwards are funny and unobtrusive. [PG]쩠 Hoodlum (1997) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Duke. Laurence Fishburne, Tim Roth, Hook, The (1963) 98m. ★★★ D: George Vanessa L. Williams, Andy Garcia, Cicely Seaton. Kirk Douglas, Robert Walker, Jr., Tyson, Chi McBride, Clarence Williams III, Nick Adams, Nehemiah Persoff. Film exRichard Bradford, William Atherton, Loamines men at war (Korean) and the taking retta Devine, Queen Latifah. GODFATHER of one life, face-to-face, as opposed to wannabe about 1930s Harlem racketeer Ellskilling many in battle. Earnest, thoughtworth ‘‘Bumpy’’ Johnson, who locks horns provoking. Music by harmonica virtuoso with Dutch Schultz (Roth) and Lucky LuLarry Adler. Panavision. ciano (Garcia), and tries to carve his own Hook (1991) C-144m. ★★ D: Steven niche in the numbers game. Well-crafted, Spielberg. Dustin Hoffman, Robin Wilmulti-character gangster saga has its moliams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie ments, but takes a long time to tell its story Smith, Caroline Goodall, Charlie Korsmo, and never builds the emotional punch it Amber Scott, Phil Collins, Arthur Malet, seeks. One welcome novelty: a ’30s-style Dante Basco, Gwyneth Paltrow. Unfortumontage illustrating Bumpy’s rise to power. nate cheapening of the beloved James Bar[R] ▼●쩠 rie tale of Peter Pan, with Williams as a Hoodlum Priest, The (1961) 101m. ★★★ heartless corporate takeover honcho who D: Irvin Kershner. Don Murray, Larry must rediscover his true identity—as Pan— Gates, Keir Dullea, Logan Ramsey, Cindi in order to save his children, who’ve been Wood. Based on real-life clergyman who kidnapped by Captain Hook. Great casting devoted himself to trying to help would-be in key roles is dissipated by a script that criminals, focusing on Murray’s efforts to offers no joy, and very little magic—with a rehabilitate delinquent Dullea (in film troupe of TV-generation Lost Boys who’d be debut); splendidly acted. Murray copromore at home in a McDonald’s commercial. duced and cowrote (latter under pseudonym (Musician David Crosby and an unrecognizDon Deer).▼쩠 able Glenn Close have bit parts as pirates.) Hoodlum Saint, The (1946) 91m. ★★ If this is Peter Pan for the ’90s, give us the ’50s instead. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 D: Norman Taurog. William Powell, Es[ 629 ]

Hooked Generation (1969) C-92m. BOMB pro-ecology message. Shriner adapted the D: William Grefe. Jeremy Slate, Willie novel by Carl Hiaasen, who coproduced, as Pastrano, Steve Alaimo, John Davis Chandid Buffett (who composed the score and dler, Socrates Ballis. Narcotics peddlers plays a marine science teacher). [PG]쩠 slaughter Cuban contacts, kidnap innocent Hootenanny Hoot (1963) 91m. ★★ D: victims; poor excuse for a film. [R]▼쩠 Gene Nelson. Peter Breck, Joby Baker, Hook, Line & Sinker (1969) C-91m. Ruta Lee, Pam Austin, Johnny Cash, Sheb BOMB D: George Marshall. Jerry Lewis, Wooley, The Brothers Four, Judy Henske. Peter Lawford, Anne Francis, Pedro GonPredictable comedy about college hootenzalez-Gonzalez, Jimmy Miller, Kathleen anny show brought to TV is made bearFreeman. Potentially funny premise about able only by presence of Cash and other supposedly dying man who runs up $100,000 country/folk performers. One of producer in credit card debts, only to discover he’s Sam Katzman’s ‘‘topical’’ low-budgeters. healthy, is totally botched; even Lewis Hope and Glory (1987-British) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Boorman. Sarah Miles, fans will be bored. [G] Hooker Cult Murders, The SEE: Pyx, The David Hayman, Derrick O’Connor, Susan Hoop Dreams (1994) C-169m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wooldridge, Sammi Davis, Ian Bannen, Steve James. Exceptional documentary folSebastian Rice-Edwards, Jean-Marc Barr, lows two Chicago inner-city kids (Arthur Annie Leon. A loving look back at British Agee and William Gates), who have dreams family life during the first years of WW2, of basketball stardom, over four years’ time. as seen through the eyes of a young boy to This intimate and engrossing film plays like whom the whole thing is a great advendrama, not documentary, except that it takes ture. Boorman’s autobiographical tale (he unexpected twists and turns no writer could scripted and produced, as well) is funny, invent. A searing commentary on our social moving and richly detailed; no one has capsystem, the indomitable strength of the famtured the experience of living through the ily unit, and the unpredictability of life. London air raids and bombings so well. Overlong, perhaps, but fascinating most of Charley Boorman (the director’s son, who the way. Produced by Steve James, Frederstarred in THE EMERALD FOREST) apick Marx, and Peter Gilbert. [PG-13]▼●쩠 pears briefly as a German pilot who’s been Hooper (1978) C-100m. ★★★ D: Hal Needshot down. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ham. Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, Hope Floats (1998) C-114m. ★★★ D: Forest Sally Field, Brian Keith, John Marley, James Whitaker. Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Best, Adam West, Robert Klein. Lighthearted Jr., Gena Rowlands, Mae Whitman, Milook at aging ace Hollywood stunt man Reynchael Pare´, Cameron Finley, Kathy Najimy, olds, his freewheeling lifestyle, and the young Bill Cobbs. Learning her husband has been tyro who gets him to try the biggest stunt of unfaithful, Bullock moves back to her Texas all. [PG] ▼●쩠 hometown, taking along her lonely daugh★★★ D: David Hoosiers (1986) C-114m. ter, Whitman. Her mother immediately tries Anspaugh. Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, to set her up with Connick, but Bullock is Dennis Hopper, Sheb Wooley, Fern Parsons, having a hard time just learning about herBrad Boyle, Steve Hollar, Brad Long, David self. Well acted, particularly by Whitman, Neidorf. Hackman gets a last-chance job with inventive direction, the movie is entercoaching a small-town Indiana high school taining throughout, but as shapeless as soup. basketball team in the 1950s, and faces the Excellent song score. Rosanna Arquette apdual challenge of bringing the team to the pears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 state championship—and redeeming himself. Hope Springs (2003-U.S.-British) C-92m. Thoroughly ingratiating (and just as thor★★ D: Mark Herman. Colin Firth, Heather oughly calculated), this well-made slice of Graham, Minnie Driver, Mary Steenburgen, Americana is hard to resist. Hackman is terOliver Platt, Frank Collison. Having just rific as usual; Hopper is fine in a showy role been dumped by his fiance´e (Driver), Britas an alcoholic basketball nut. Written by Anish artist Firth heads to the U.S. and falls gelo Pizzo. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★1 for Graham. Then, wouldn’t you know it, ⁄2 D: Wil Shriner. Hoot (2006) C-93m. Minnie shows up. Spirited performances Logan Lerman, Brie Larson, Cody Linley, from everyone, but not enough laughs for a Luke Wilson, Tim Blake Nelson, Jessica romantic comedy. Based on the novel New Cauffiel, Jimmy Buffett, Neil Flynn, Eric Cardiff by Charles (The Graduate) Webb. Phillips, Clark Gregg, Robert Wagner, Kin Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Shriner. Well-meaning but strictly formuHoppity Goes to Town (1941) C-77m. laic family comedy-drama in which Ler★★1⁄2 D: Dave Fleischer. Pleasant animated man, the new kid in middle school, copes feature about residents of bug-ville and their with everything from a class bully to the various problems—living in a human world, vandalizing of a construction site that is and threatened by villainous C. Bagley Beetle. home to endangered owls. Preteens may Good-looking but uncompelling story-wise, overlook plot holes and be amused by the innocuous lowbrow humor and the worthy with unmemorable Frank Loesser–Hoagy [ 630 ]

Carmichael score. Originally titled MR. BUG Chiller about a demented WW2 victim GOES TO TOWN. Aka BUGVILLE. ▼●쩠 running rampant in a Rhine castle, using Hopscotch (1980) C-104m. ★★★ D: Ronassorted torture chamber devices on unsusald Neame. Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackpecting people. Effect is numbing. Aka THE son, Sam Waterston, Ned Beatty, Herbert VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG and TERROR Lom. Entertaining contrivance about a mavCASTLE. British title: THE CASTLE OF erick CIA operative who’s fed up with his TERROR.▼쩠 idiotic boss (Beatty) and decides to teach Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus, The him a lesson by publishing his volatile memSEE: Eyes Without a Face oirs. Barely believable, but fun to watch, Horror Creatures of the Prehistoric thanks largely to Matthau. From the novel by Planet SEE: Vampire Men of the Lost Brian Garfield, who coproduced and coPlanet scripted the film. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Horror Express (1972-Spanish-British) C88m. ★★★ D: Eugenio Martin. Christopher Horizons West (1952) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Budd Boetticher. Robert Ryan, Julia (Julie) Adams, Lee, Peter Cushing, Telly Savalas, Silvia TorRock Hudson, Raymond Burr, James Arness, tosa, Jorge Rigaud. Crackerjack horror movie, John McIntire, Dennis Weaver. Standard ingeniously staged and well acted by the Western of brothers Ryan and Hudson on opgenre’s superstars. Turn-of-the-century chiller posite sides of the law; the latter attempts to has a long-frozen monster coming to life block the former’s efforts to ruthlessly acquire while being transported from Asia to the power in post–Civil War Texas.▼ West. Lee and Cushing are rival anthropoloHorizontal Lieutenant, The (1962) C-90m. gists aboard the train and Savalas is a power★★ D: Richard Thorpe. Jim Hutton, Paula crazed Cossack officer. Aka PANIC ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN EXPRESS. [R]▼쩠 Prentiss, Miyoshi Umeki, Jim Backus, Jack Carter, Marty Ingels, Charles McGraw. ArHorror House (1969-British) C-79m. ★1⁄2 tificial service comedy about inept army inD: Michael Armstrong. Frankie Avalon, telligence officer Hutton and his misJill Haworth, Dennis Price, George Sewell, adventures in the Pacific during WW2. Gina Warwick, Richard O’Sullivan. Belowstandard thriller using dog-eared ‘‘let’s-spendCinemaScope.▼ Horn Blows at Midnight, The (1945) a-night-in-a-haunted-house’’ script. Frankie 78m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Jack Benny, should have stayed on the beach with AnAlexis Smith, Dolores Moran, Allyn Joslyn, nette. Original British title: THE HAUNTReginald Gardiner, Guy Kibbee, John ED HOUSE OF HORROR. [M/PG] Alexander, Margaret Dumont, Franklin Horror of Dracula (1958-British) C-82m. ★★★ Pangborn, Bobby (Robert) Blake. EnjoyD: Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, able, original comedy-fantasy about an anChristopher Lee, Melissa Stribling, Migel (Benny) sent to destroy earth with a chael Gough, Carol Marsh, John Van blast from Gabriel’s horn. Broad, funny, Eyssen, Valerie Gaunt, Miles Malleson. no classic, but not the turkey Benny so Probably Hammer Films’ best shocker, a often joked about either. Franklin Pangborn handsomely mounted retelling of the Stoker is especially funny as a flustered hotel tale, with fantasy elements deemphasized. detective.▼● Lee is smooth as the Count, and Cushing Hornets’ Nest (1970) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: perfect as tireless Professor Van Helsing. Phil Karlson. Rock Hudson, Sylva Koscina, Script by Jimmy Sangster; full-blooded Sergio Fantoni, Jacques Sernas, Giacomo score by James Bernard. Released in Rossi Stuart, Tom Felleghi. Hudson and Britain as DRACULA; followed by six group of Italian children plot to blow up sequels, the first of which was DRACULA —PRINCE OF DARKNESS.▼●쩠 Nazi-controlled dam. Reasonably well done and exciting. [M]▼ Horror of Frankenstein, The (1970Horrible Dr. Hichcock, The (1962-Italian) British) C-95m. ★★ D: Jimmy Sangster. Ralph Bates, Kate O’Mara, Graham Jones, C-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Hampton (Riccardo Freda). Robert Flemyng, Barbara Veronica Carlson, Bernard Archard, DenSteele, Teresa Fitzgerald, Maria Teresa nis Price, Joan Rice. New kind of Dr. Vianello. Unaware her doctor husband is a Frankenstein: he arranges murder of fa(gulp!) necrophiliac, woman accompanies ther, cheats on his lover, kills his best him to the mansion where his first wife friend, while creating new, laughable monapparently died 12 years earlier during sexster. Semi-spoof remake of CURSE OF ual games. Eerie, handsome horror, with unFRANKENSTEIN. For aficionados only. dertones of Poe. British version, TERROR Followed by FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL. [R]▼●쩠 OF DR. HICHCOCK, runs 88m. and is also available on tape. Followed by THE Horror of Party Beach, The (1964) 72m. GHOST. Panoramic.▼ BOMB D: Del Tenney. John Scott, Alice Horror Castle (1964-Italian) C-83m. ★1⁄2 Lyon, Allen Laurel, Marilyn Clark, EulaD: Anthony Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). belle Moore. Radioactive waste is dumped Christopher Lee, Rossana Podesta, George off-shore, resulting in scaly monsters who Riviere, Jim Nolan, Anny Belli Uberti. disrupt the fun of a bunch of Connecticut [ 631 ]

beach bunnies. One of the earliest anti-nuProvence locations help boost this adventure clear warning films, although for some saga, based on Jean Giono’s 1951 novel—a strange reason the message fails to come literary classic in France. Depardieu has a across. Billed as ‘‘The First Horror Musical’’ humorous cameo as an unorthodox police by its producers, who evidently never saw superintendent. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 Liberace in SINCERELY YOURS.▼쩠 Horsemasters, The (1961) C-87m. ★★ D: Horror of the Blood Monsters SEE: VamWilliam Fairchild. Annette Funicello, Janpire Men of the Lost Planet et Munro, Tommy Kirk, Donald PleasHorror on Snape Island (1972-British) ence, Tony Britton, Jean Marsh, John FraC-85m. BOMB D: Jim O’Connolly. Bryant ser, Millicent Martin. Minor family fare Haliday, Jill Haworth, Anna Palk, Jack (originally shown on Disney TV show) Watson, Mark Edwards, Derek Fowlds. about Annette learning horsemanship—and One of the horrors is a series of brutal to overcome her fear of jumping—at exclumurders masterminded by lunatic; another sive British riding school. Filmed in Enone is the film itself. Retitled TOWER OF gland; released as a feature in Europe.▼ EVIL and BEYOND THE FOG. [R]▼쩠 Horsemen, The (1971) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Horror Planet (1982-British) C-86m. John Frankenheimer. Omar Sharif, Leigh BOMB D: Norman J. Warren. Robin Clark, Taylor-Young, Jack Palance, David De Jennifer Ashley, Stephanie Beacham, SteKeyser, Peter Jeffrey. Sharif enters grueling ven Grives, Barry Houghton, Victoria Tenbuzkashi tournament to please his demanding nant, Judy Geeson. Obnoxious, gory garbage father (Palance) and prove his machismo. about male and female space travelers and Old-fashioned action-adventure mixes untheir discovery of a crawling terror. Incomfortably with soul-searching in Dalton teresting cast wasted in this awful ALIEN Trumbo’s script. Filmed in Afghanistan and clone. Cut for U.S. release. Original title: Spain. Beautiful photography by Claude ReINSEMINOID. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 noir in Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Horror Show, The (1989) C-95m. BOMB Horsemen (2009-U.S.-Canadian) C-91m. ˚ kerlund. Dennis Quaid, D: James Isaac. Lance Henriksen, Brion BOMB D: Jonas A James, Rita Taggart, Thom Bray, Matt Clark, Ziyi Zhang, Lou Taylor Pucci, Clifton ColDedee Pfeiffer, Lewis Arquette, Lawrence lins, Jr., Patrick Fugit, Paul Dooley, Barry Tierney, Alvy Moore. Henriksen gives typiShabaka Henley, Eric Balfour, Chelcie cally strong performance as cop pursued by Ross, Peter Stormare, Liam James. Overmurderous—and already executed—maniac worked, recently widowed detective Quaid James, who’s intent on wiping out the cop’s investigates a series of gruesome murders family by turning nightmares into reality. that are linked to the Book of Revelations Confused, silly and boring. Known outside and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Preposterous, sickening mystery-thriller is U.S. as HOUSE III. [R]▼ Horse Feathers (1932) 68m. ★★★1⁄2 D: only for those who are entertained by Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho, Harpo, Chico, graphic images of torture. [R]쩠 and Zeppo Marx, Thelma Todd, David LanHorse Named Comanche, A SEE: Tonka dau, Robert Greig, Nat Pendleton. Groucho is Horseplayer, The (1990) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: head of Huxley College, building up football Kurt Voss. Brad Dourif, Sammi Davis, team to play rival Darwin U. in crazy Marx M. K. Harris, Vic Tayback. Extremely odd nonsense. The password is ‘‘swordfish.’’ story of an artist and his seductive sister who interrupt the life of a recluse when they move Originally released at 70m.▼●쩠 Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit, The (1968) into his apartment building. No one is quite what they seem—but who cares? [R]▼● C-113m. ★★★ D: Norman Tokar. Dean Jones, Diane Baker, Lloyd Bochner, Fred Clark, Horse’s Mouth, The (1958-British) C-93m. ★★★1 Ellen Janov, Kurt Russell. Cheerful Disney ⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Alec Guinness, comedy about advertising man (Jones) who Kay Walsh, Renee Houston, Mike Morfinds a way to link his daughter’s devotion to gan, Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger. Guinhorses with an ad campaign. [G]▼쩠 ness adapted Joyce Cary’s story into this droll Horseman on the Roof, The (1995screenplay about a brilliant, eccentric, egocenFrench) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Paul Raptric—and perpetually starving—artist whom pennau. Juliette Binoche, Olivier Martinez, some consider a genius. Many others, who Pierre Arditi, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Jean Yanne, know him more intimately, think of him as a Ge´rard Depardieu. Gorgeous but rather leimajor irritant. Score makes ideal use of Prosurely spectacle, set in 1832, of Italian cavalry kofiev’s ‘‘Lieutenant Kije’’ suite.▼●쩠 officer (Martinez), part of an underground netHorse Soldiers, The (1959) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 work spread throughout southern France, who D: John Ford. John Wayne, William is trying to force Austrian overlords out of Holden, Constance Towers, Althea Gibson, Italy. On top of everything else, a cholera Hoot Gibson, Anna Lee, Russell Simpson, epidemic is ravaging the French countryside. Ken Curtis, Denver Pyle, Strother Martin, Binoche is noblewoman who becomes the Hank Worden. Ford’s only feature set durhorseman’s traveling companion. Exquisite ing the Civil War, based on actual incidents. [ 632 ]

Union Colonel Wayne leads sabotage party deep into Rebel territory, accompanied by somewhat pacifistic doctor Holden. Largescale actioner rates only a ‘‘medium’’ by Ford buffs; others may like it better.▼●쩠 Horse Whisperer, The (1998) C-169m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Redford. Robert Redford, Kristin Scott Thomas, Sam Neill, Dianne Wiest, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Cooper, Cherry Jones, Ty Hillman, Jeanette Nolan, Don Edwards. Exquisite rendering of Nicholas Evans’ novel about a teenaged girl, traumatized in a horse-riding accident, whose domineering mother drives them both (and the horse) to Montana, where a renowned horse trainer tries to rehabilitate the animal— and simultaneously, the girl. Story offers a tailor-made part for Redford and an opportunity for mature romance, but like his character, Redford the filmmaker takes his time telling the story. It’s risky, but it works. Screenplay by Eric Roth and Richard LaGravenese. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Horse Without a Head, The (1963) C-89m. ★★★ D: Don Chaffey. Leo McKern, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Herbert Lom, Pamela Franklin, Vincent Winter. Excellent cast in entertaining British-made Disney film (first shown on the Disney TV show) about kids mixed up with bad guys on the trail of stolen loot. First-rate family fare.

Hospital of Terror SEE: Beyond the Living Host, The (2006-Korean-Japanese) C119m. ★★★ D: Bong Joon-ho. Song Kangho, Byeon Hie-bong, Park Hae-il, Bae Duna, Ko Ah-sung, Scott Wilson. An American callously dumps toxic waste down a drain that leads to the Han River. Years later, a huge monster gallops out of the river and wreaks havoc on the populace; what’s more, it may be hosting a new plague. When it carries away a little girl (Ah-sung), her somewhat dysfunctional family unites to get her back. Effective monster thrills and great CGI effects blend with satire, comedy, tragedy, and family values, sometimes all at once. A monster movie for the 21st century, this owes a lot to previous films, yet isn’t like anything else. Korea’s biggest-grossing home-grown movie to date. [R]쩠 Hostage, The (1967) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Russell S. Doughton, Jr. Don O’Kelly, (Harry) Dean Stanton, John Carradine, Ron Hagerthy, Ann Doran. Well-done low-budget film about a six-year-old who stows away on moving van driven by two killers. Shot on location in Iowa.▼쩠 Hostage (1983-Australian-German) C-90m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Frank Shields. Kerry Mack, Ralph Schicha, Judy Nunn, Clare Binney. Young, carefree Mack is blackmailed into marriage by Nazi Schicha, and her life becomes ▼쩠 Horton Hears a Who! (2008) C-88m. hell on earth. Intriguing scenario, based on ★★1 a true story and set in the ’70s, but the ⁄2 D: Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino. Voices of Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol result is disjointed, repetitive, boring. OrigBurnett, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Dan inal title: HOSTAGE: THE CHRISTINE Fogler, Isla Fisher, Jonah Hill, Amy Poehler, MARESCH STORY. Video title: SAVJaime Pressly, Jesse McCartney; narrated by AGE ATTRACTION.▼ Charles Osgood. Another bloated movie Hostage (1992-British) C-101m. ★★ D: based on a classic Dr. Seuss book—in this Robert Young. Sam Neill, Talisa Soto, case, the beloved story of good-hearted James Fox, Michael Kitchen, Art Malik, Horton the elephant, who hears the teenyCristina Higueras, Jean Pierre Reguerraz. tiny citizens of Whoville, while no one else British secret agent Neill wants out of the believes they exist. Seuss’ gentle tale is exService, but his slimy superiors won’t let panded and vulgarized, though it has its mohim go. Mildly interesting morality tale of ments, and the CG animation from Blue kidnapping and ethical considerations in the Sky Studios is first-rate. Stick with Chuck world of international politics. [R]▼ Jones’ 1970 half-hour TV adaptation. Aka Hostage (2005-U.S.-German) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 DR. SEUSS’ HORTON HEARS A WHO! D: Florent Emilio Siri. Bruce Willis, Kevin [G]쩠 Pollak, Ben Foster, Jonathan Tucker, Marshall Hospital, The (1971) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Allman, Michelle Horn, Jimmy Bennett, Kim Arthur Hiller. George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, Coates, Serena Scott Thomas. After fatally Barnard Hughes, Nancy Marchand, Richmiscalculating an assignment as the LAPD’s ard A. Dysart, Stephen Elliott, Jordan hostage negotiator, Willis relocates with esCharney, Roberts Blossom, Robert Walden, tranged wife and daughter to what he thinks is Lenny Baker, Frances Sternhagen, Stockard a sleepier burg. Instead, he gets himself inChanning, Katherine Helmond. Sardonivolved with two abductions (one an offshoot cally funny view of modern city hospital of the other), the first a household takeover by where bitterly discouraged doctor (Scott) three teen carjackers, one of whom turns out is drawn into chaos by crazy girl (Rigg) and to be a psycho. Filmed with style and a genuher scheming father. Paddy Chayefsky’s ine camera eye, picture goes over the top even Oscar-winning script makes fun of serious siton a melodramatic level, though the central uation by turning it into Marx Brothers–ish house provides the coolest movie digs in a lunacy; ultimate truth in what’s being said while. Willis’ real-life daughter Rumer plays his daughter here. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 leaves viewer somewhat sad. [PG]▼●쩠 [ 633 ]

Hostage: The Christine Maresch Story very broad comedy, with the now-usual dose SEE: Hostage (1983) of crudities, but when it tries to get warm and Hostel (2006) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Eli Roth. Jay fuzzy that’s asking too much. Recognize that Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudbathroom attendant? It’s ’60s comic icon Dick jonsson, Barbara Nedelja´kova´, Jan Vlasa´k. Gregory. Schneider coscripted. Adam SanThree buddies on a European vacation backdler, who coexecutive-produced the film, pack to a small Slovakian village lured by the appears unbilled. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 promise of sex and drugs. Instead (of course) Hot Dog . . . The Movie (1984) C-96m. ★1⁄2 they encounter violence and bloodshed. Starts D: Peter Markle. David Naughton, Patrick out promisingly as an atmospheric, ominously Houser, Tracy N. Smith, John Patrick Reger, suggestive horror-mystery that pokes fun at a Frank Koppola, Shannon Tweed. Hijinks at a certain kind of dense, young American tourski resort: an updating of ’60s Beach Parist, but quickly descends into seemingly ty–type movies, just as dumb, but now much endless sequences of torture that are as borraunchier. Good ski sequences, but that’s ing as they are gruesome and painful to about it. Film is so titled to avoid confusion with HOT DOG . . . THE OPERA. [R]▼쩠 watch. Quentin Tarantino coexecutive produced. A slightly gorier unrated version is Hotel (1967) C-124m. ★★ D: Richard Quine. available on DVD. Followed by a sequel. Rod Taylor, Catherine Spaak, Karl Malden, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Conte, Michael Super 35. [R]쩠 Hostel: Part II (2007) C-93m. BOMB D: Rennie, Merle Oberon, Kevin McCarthy. AdEli Roth. Lauren German, Heather Mataaptation of still another Arthur Hailey multirazzo, Roger Bart, Bijou Phillips, Richard charactered novel is not all that inferior to Burgi, Jay Hernandez, Jordan Ladd, Vera AIRPORT, but that’s faint praise; Douglas has some good scenes. Later a TV series.▼ Jordanova. Dreary, pointless sequel to Roth’s original ‘‘torture porn’’ bloodbath. In this Hotel (2002-British-Italian) C-109m. BOMB variation, it’s three beautiful young girls on D: Mike Figgis. Rhys Ifans, David Schwimvacation in Europe who come upon a chammer, Salma Hayek, Max Beesley, John Malber of horrors when they meet the wrong kovich, Saffron Burrows, George DiCenzo, guys. Once inside they manage to turn the Valeria Golino, Danny Huston, Jason Isaacs, tables on their captors, American businessLucy Liu, Mı´a Maestro, Chiara Mastroianni, men who pay big bucks to engage in sadoOrnella Muti, Burt Reynolds, Julian Sands. masochistic activities. Here’s hoping there Figgis returns to TIMECODE territory (with won’t be a PART III. Unrated version also new, much-touted handheld riggings for picavailable. Super 35. [R]쩠 ture, sound, and even night-vision photogra★★1 Hostile Guns (1967) C-91m. ⁄2 D: R. phy, which is pointlessly exploited throughout) G. Springsteen. George Montgomery, for another largely improvised story about a Yvonne De Carlo, Tab Hunter, Brian foredoomed film troupe attempting to shoot a Donlevy, John Russell. U.S. marshal, transversion of The Duchess of Malfi in Venice. porting prisoners to penitentiary, discovers Only Ifans, astheegomaniacal director, hasany that female prisoner is a woman he once real spark. This astonishing indulgence loved. Typical. Techniscope. ▼● prompts two repeated questions from the viewer: ‘‘Is it over yet?’’ and ‘‘Why not?’’▼쩠 Hot Blood (1956) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Nicholas Ray. Jane Russell, Cornel Wilde, Luther Hotel Colonial (1983-Italian-U.S.) C-104m. Adler, Joseph Calleia. Jane Russell shakes her BOMB D: Cinzia Torrini. John Savage, tambourines and drives Cornel Wilde, in this Rachel Ward, Robert Duvall, Massimo supremely silly (not to mention unbelievable) Troisi. International mishmash wastes a gypsy yarn. CinemaScope. good cast in downbeat tale of Savage going Hot Box, The (1972) C-85m. ★★ D: Joe to Colombia to investigate the death of his Viola. Margaret Markov, Andrea Cagan, brother, aided by embassy attache´ Ward Ricky Richardson, Laurie Rose, Charles and thwarted by evil Duvall. Pretty MexiDierkop. Filipino-shot women’s prison film can scenery is film’s only merit. [R]▼● adequately runs through the standard Hotel for Dogs (2009) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: changes, as heroines break out and foment Thor Freudenthal. Emma Roberts, Jake T. a local revolution. Cowritten and proAustin, Kyla Pratt, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dilduced by Jonathan Demme. [R]▼ lon, Don Cheadle, Johnny Simmons, Troy Hot Car Girl SEE: Hot Rod Girl Gentile, Ajay Naidu. Cute film for kids Hot Chick, The (2002) C-104m. ★★ D: about an orphaned brother and sister, now Tom Brady. Rob Schneider, Anna Faris, living with flaky, irresponsible foster parMatthew Lawrence, Eric Christian Olsen, ents, who manage to keep the existence of Robert Davi, Melora Hardin, Alexandra their pet dog a secret. Then they discover an Holden, Rachel McAdams, Maritza Murray, abandoned hotel that becomes a refuge not Tia Mowry, Tamera Mowry, Michael only for their pooch but for every stray in O’Keefe. Ancient earrings cast a magical spell the city. Likable bit of make-believe with and put spoiled high school girl McAdams appealing canine costars and some nifty into scuzzy Schneider’s body—and vice Rube Goldberg–like devices. [PG]쩠 versa. Schneider is surprisingly good in this Hotel New Hampshire, The (1984) C[ 634 ]

110m. ★★★ D: Tony Richardson. Rob Lowe, key individuals in his life. A fine companion Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges, Nastassja piece to Ophuls’ THE SORROW AND Kinski, Paul McCrane, Jennie Dundas, THE PITY.▼● Dorsey Wright, Matthew Modine, Wilford Hot Enough for June SEE: Agent 83⁄4 Brimley, Amanda Plummer, Wallace Hot Fuzz (2007-British-U.S.) C-120m. ★★ Shawn, Anita Morris, Joely Richardson. D: Edgar Wright. Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Faithful adaptation of John Irving’s sprawlJim Broadbent, Paddy Considine, Timothy ing seriocomic novel about an unconvenDalton, Billie Whitelaw, Edward Woodtional family and its bizarre adventures— ward, Rafe Spall, Olivia Colman, Paul Freesocial, sexual, and political—on both sides man, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth of the Atlantic. Some fine vignettes and Cranham, Stuart Wilson, Lucy Punch, good performances make this worth watchDavid Threlfall. SHAUN OF THE DEAD ing, though characters eventually wear out team reunites for a protracted, disappointing their welcome. [R]▼●쩠 spoof of crime/buddy movies. Pegg (who Hotel Paradiso (1966-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 cowrote with director Wright) plays a byD: Peter Glenville. Alec Guinness, Gina the-book London cop who’s so outstanding Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Akim Tamirhe makes everyone else look bad, so his off. Pretentious farce of manners is only superiors transfer him to a quiet country vilfitfully amusing; meek Guinness tries to lage. It seems resolutely dull, but Pegg soon carry on his rendezvous with gorgeous discovers otherwise. Some funny gags scatneighbor Gina, but everything interferes. tered about can’t compensate for unevenness Based on the Georges Feydeau play. and extreme overlength. Cate Blanchett and Panavision.▼ Steve Coogan appear unbilled. Super 35. [R]쩠 Hotel Rwanda (2004-South African-BritishHot Lead SEE: Run of the Arrow Italian) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Terry George. Hot Lead and Cold Feet (1978) C-90m. Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin ★★★ D: Robert Butler. Jim Dale, Darren Phoenix, Nick Nolte, Desmond Dube, David McGavin, Karen Valentine, Jack Elam, O’Hara, Cara Seymour, Fana Mokoena, HaDon Knotts, John Williams. Amiable Diskeem Kae-Kazim. The slaughter of nearly ney Western spoof with lots of slapstick one million Tutsis in the African nation of features British comic Dale in three roles: Rwanda in 1994 is dramatized through the tough patriarch, tougher gunfighter son, experiences of Paul Rusesabagina, a careerand meek twin, a Salvation Army lad. The minded hotel manager who becomes a hero, brothers participate in a wild obstacle race sheltering innocent people within the walls to gain possession of the town, then to of his establishment. Powerful film avoids defeat villainous Mayor McGavin. Good being overly didactic by focusing on one Oregon location filming. [G]▼쩠 compelling character, believably brought to Hot Line SEE: Day the Hot Line life by Cheadle. Written by director George Got Hot, The and Keir Pearson. Jean Reno appears unHot Millions (1968-British) C-105m. ★★★ billed. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 D: Eric Till. Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, Hotel Sahara (1951-British) 96m. ★★1⁄2 Karl Malden, Bob Newhart, Robert Morley, D: Ken Annakin. Yvonne De Carlo, Peter Cesar Romero. Wry piece of fluff about UstiUstinov, David Tomlinson, Roland Culnov using a computer to siphon off big bucks ver. Pleasant fluff about North African from huge American conglomerate. Good hotel owner and beautiful fiance´e who performers aid pleasant romp, which became must shift ‘‘loyalties’’ every time new one of the biggest sleepers of its year. Ustiarmy marches into town during WW2. nov cowrote script. [G]▼ Hotel Sorrento (1995-Australian) C-112m. Hot Potato (1976) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Oscar ★★★ D: Richard Franklin. Caroline Goodall, Williams. Jim Kelly, George Memmoli, Caroline Gillmer, Tara Morice, Joan PlowGeoffrey Binney, Irene Tsu, Judith Brown. right, John Hargreaves, Ben Thomas, Ray Idiotic action film in which karate expert Barrett. Atmospheric, well-acted drama, set Kelly and two cohorts try to rescue kidin a small seaside Australian town, focusing napped Senator’s daughter from Oriental on the reunion of a trio of very different villain. Comic-book stuff. Filmed in Thaisisters, one of whom has just published a land. Remade as FORCE: FIVE. [PG]▼ highly successful autobiographical novel. Hot Pursuit (1987) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Steven What follows may be predictable, but the Lisberger. John Cusack, Robert Loggia, result is compelling nonetheless. Also Wendy Gazelle, Jerry Stiller, Monte Markham, known as SORRENTO BEACH. [R] ▼ Shelley Fabares, Ben Stiller. Student Cusack, Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of 1 ★★★ grounded by bad grades, has been prevented Klaus Barbie (1987) C-267m. ⁄2 D: from taking a dream vacation with the family Marcel Ophuls. Sobering, Oscar-winning of his wealthy girlfriend. Then he gets lastdocumentary about the infamous Nazi war minute reprieve from a kindly prof, and tries criminal who, decades after WW2, was exto catch up with them on the road. Silly compelled from Bolivia and returned to France for trial. Filled with incisive interviews with edy will probably remind you of Cusack’s [ 635 ]

earlier THE SURE THING—and the comCaffaro (whose husband produced the film). Aka T&A ACADEMY. [R]▼쩠 parison isn’t favorable. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Hot Shots! (1991) C-85m. ★★★ D: Jim Hot Rock, The (1972) C-105m. ★★★ D: Abrahams. Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Peter Yates. Robert Redford, George Segal, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, Kevin Ron Leibman, Paul Sand, Zero Mostel, Moses Dunn, Jon Cryer, William O’Leary, Kristy Gunn, William Redfield, Charlotte Rae, Swanson, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Bill Irwin, Topo Swope. Light, funny caper comedy Judith Kahan, Pat Proft, Heidi Swedberg. where inept robbers blunder every step of Sheen plays a pilot trying to overcome his carefully planned jewel heist. Best bit: the father’s disastrous reputation in the cockpit raid on the police station. Screenplay by in this zany, often hilarious takeoff on William Goldman from Donald Westlake’s ‘‘flyboy’’ movies from ONLY ANGELS novel; followed by BANK SHOT. PanaHAVE WINGS to TOP GUN. Surprisingly vision. [PG]▼●쩠 1 ★ high quotient of successful gags, including Hot Rod (2007) C-88m. ⁄2 D: Akiva sendups of movies ranging from DANCES Schaffer. Andy Samberg, Bill Hader, Isla WITH WOLVES to ROCKY, help this Fisher, Jorma Taccone, Will Arnett, Chris comedy soar at times. Bridges is a riot as Parnell, Chester Tam, Sissy Spacek, Ian an admiral with a loose propeller. Followed McShane. In order to raise money for his by a sequel. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 abusive father’s heart operation, a young Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993) C-89m. Evel Knievel–style daredevil plans a major ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jim Abrahams. Charlie Sheen, stunt in which he must jump over 15 buses. Lloyd Bridges, Valeria Golino, Richard Smart-aleck humor and thin script short on Crenna, Brenda Bakke, Miguel Ferrer, laughs make this an ordeal to sit through, Rowan Atkinson, Jerry Haleva, Mitchell even though it’s under 90 minutes. Saturday Ryan, Gregory Sierra. Obligatory sequel Night Live’s digital shorts star Samberg with Rambo-like Sheen called into action proves he is not quite ready for feature to rescue U.S. soldiers who tried to rescue films. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 soldiers (and so on . . .) held captive after Hot Rod Gang (1958) 72m. ★1⁄2 D: Lew Desert Storm. Plenty of gags and countless Landers. John Ashley, Gene Vincent, Jody movie parodies, but just as many misses as Fair, Steve Drexel. Low-budget relic of its hits this time around, especially in the second era, about hot-rod-happy Ashley joining Vinhalf. The cast acquits itself nicely, particularly cent’s band to earn money to enter big race. Sheen, Bridges, and Crenna (who kids his Hot Rod Girl (1956) 75m. BOMB D: own RAMBO series role). [PG-13]▼●쩠 Leslie H. Martinson. Lori Nelson, Chuck Hot Spell (1958) 86m. ★★ D: Daniel Connors, John Smith, Frank Gorshin, RoxMann. Shirley Booth, Anthony Quinn, Shiranne Arlen, Dabbs Greer. Blah juvenile deley MacLaine, Earl Holliman, Eileen Heckart, linquency potboiler, with sympathetic cop Warren Stevens. Quinn—not just a pig but a Connors establishing drag strip to keep hotblue-ribbon hog—cheats on wife Booth, who rodding teens off the streets. Aka HOT spouts irritating platitudes like Hazel on CAR GIRL.▼쩠 speed. Well-acted but dated drama about the Hot Rod Rumble (1957) 79m. ★1⁄2 D: breakup’s effect on their children; MacLaine Leslie Martinson. Brett Halsey, Richard shines as their daughter. Set in New Orleans. Hartunian, Joey Forman, Leigh Snowden. VistaVision ▼ Title tells all in this formula programmer Hot Spot SEE: I Wake Up Screaming of juvenile delinquents. Hot Spot, The (1990) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hot Rods to Hell (1967) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dennis Hopper. Don Johnson, Virginia John Brahm. Dana Andrews, Jeanne Crain, Madsen, Jennifer Connelly, Charles MarMimsy Farmer, Laurie Mock. Fast-paced tin Smith, William Sadler, Jerry Hardin, actioner has Andrews and family tormented Barry Corbin, Leon Rippy, Jack Nance. by hot-rod-happy juvenile delinquents. OrigSounds as if it can’t miss, but does: drifter inal title: 52 MILES TO MIDNIGHT.쩠 Johnson, selling used cars in a nowhere H.O.T.S. (1979) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Gerald Texas burg, gets involved with boss’ wife Seth Sindell. Susan Kiger, Lisa London, Madsen, an R-rated descendant of Barbara Pamela Jean Bryant, Kimberly Cameron, Stanwyck from DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Lindsay Bloom, Mary Steelsmith, Angela Overlong by 30 minutes and never once Aames, Danny Bonaduce, Ken Olfson. hits the bull’s-eye, but there’s so much Lame-brained knock-off of ANIMAL ornery sex that you may be compelled to HOUSE with two sororities at each other’s keep watching. Connelly plays the mystethroats until they settle their differences rious ‘‘nice girl’’ (with a sensuous body) with a strip football game. Leering sexwho handles the car lot’s financing. Based ploitation fare at least has gorgeous girls on Charles Williams’ 1952 novel Hell Hath (including several Playboy playmates) and No Fury. [R]▼●쩠 decent production, making this best watched Hot Stuff (1979) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dom with the sound off. Written by two women, DeLuise. Dom DeLuise, Suzanne Pleshette, believe it or not, one of them actress Cheri Jerry Reed, Luis Avalos, Ossie Davis, Marc [ 636 ]

Lawrence. Four Miami cops set up a Whitman, Arthur O’Connell, Dodie Ste‘‘Sting’’-like operation to fence stolen goods. vens, Betty Field, Royal Dano, Margo Unexceptional but pleasant trifle that surMoore, Claude Akins, Edgar Buchanan, prises by treating its characters as real Jane Darwell, L.Q. Jones. Pleasant tale of human beings instead of cartoon stereotypes. Southern country boys Fabian (in film deCowritten by Donald Westlake. [PG]▼● but) and Whitman courting Stevens and Hot Sweat SEE: Keetje Tippel Lynley. Fabian is surprisingly good; of Hottest State, The (2007) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 course, he also sings. CinemaScope. D: Ethan Hawke. Mark Webber, Catalina Hound of the Baskervilles, The (1939) 80m. ★★★ D: Sidney Lanfield. Basil RathSandino Moreno, Ethan Hawke, Michelle Williams, Sonia Braga, Laura Linney, Frank bone, Nigel Bruce, Richard Greene, Wendy Whaley. Adapting his own semiautobioBarrie, Lionel Atwill, John Carradine, Beryl graphical novel, writer-director Hawke inMercer, Mary Gordon, E. E. Clive. Rathfuses raw emotional intensity into a familiar bone made his first appearance as Sherlock story about the turbulent romance of two atHolmes in this grade-A production based tractive twentysomethings—an aspiring actor on Conan Doyle’s story about mysterious (Webber) from Texas and a Latina pop singer murders taking place at a creepy mansion (Sandino Moreno) from Connecticut—who on the moors (though he’s off-screen for a fall madly in love much too quickly in good part of the story). Fairly faithful to N.Y.C. Best moments of uneven drama focus the source material with the now classic on male lead’s increasingly frantic and selfclosing line from cocaine-user Holmes: humiliating attempts at reconciliation after ‘‘Quick Watson, the needle!’’ (Fourth screen he’s dumped. Director Richard Linklater version of the oft-filmed novel.)▼●쩠 appears in a brief cameo. [R]쩠 Hound of the Baskervilles, The (1959Hottie & The Nottie, The (2008) C-90m. British) C-84m. ★★★ D: Terence Fisher. BOMB D: Tom Putnam. Paris Hilton, Joel Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Andre Moore, Christine Lakin, Adam Kulbersh, Morell, Maria Landi, Miles Malleson, John The Greg Wilson, Johann Urb. Vehicle for LeMesurier. Cushing is well cast as Sherlock dubious acting talents of real-life celebrity Holmes and Lee is fine as Sir Henry Baskerheiress Hilton is complete nonsense as a ville in this atmospheric Hammer Films adapyoung man tries to woo the ‘‘hottie,’’ only tation of the Conan Doyle classic.▼●쩠 to find true love could be with her incrediHound of the Baskervilles, The (1978bly ugly childhood friend, the ‘‘nottie.’’ Get British) C-84m. BOMB D: Paul Morrissey. it? Actually, forget it. [PG-13]쩠 Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Denholm Elliott, Hot to Trot (1988) C-83m. BOMB D: Joan Greenwood, Spike Milligan, Jessie MatMichael Dinner. Bob Goldthwait, Virginia thews, Roy Kinnear. Dreadful spoof of Conan Madsen, Dabney Coleman, Cindy Pickett, Doyle story scripted by Cook (who plays Jim Metzler, Tim Kazurinsky, Gilbert Sherlock Holmes), Moore (as both Watson Gottfried, Jack Whitaker; voices of John and Holmes’ mother), and director Morrissey. Candy, Burgess Meredith. Here’s a fresh After a few laughs it descends into dreariness concept for the 1980s: a comedy about a and never recovers. What a waste of talent! talking horse. Goldthwait plays a semiU.S. version runs 78m., with sequences out of imbecile who gets stock tips from a whinorder. Technovision.▼쩠 nying pal with the voice of John Candy. Hour of the Assassin (1987) C-93m. ★★ As comedies go, this is the equivalent of D: Luis Llosa. Erik Estrada, Robert Black Monday. Coleman, courtesy of the Vaughn, Alfredo Alvarez Calderon, Lourmakeup department, wears a pair of horse des Berninzon. OK political thriller has teeth here; they are funny. [PG]▼● Estrada called back from L.A. to South Hot Water (1924) 60m. ★★★ D: Sam TayAmerican nation of San Pedro to assassilor, Fred Newmeyer. Harold Lloyd, Jobyna nate the newly elected democratic presiRalston, Josephine Crowell, Charles Stedent. Vaughn is the CIA agent assigned to venson, Mickey McBan, Pat Harmon. Typistop him. Filmed in Peru. [R]▼ cally entertaining silent comedy feature Hour of the Gun (1967) C-100m. ★★ D: with Lloyd, atypically, as a put-upon husJohn Sturges. James Garner, Jason Robards, band. Not as strong as Lloyd’s best comedies; Robert Ryan, Albert Salmi, Charles Aidbuilt instead on three lengthy set pieces, but man, Steve Ihnat, Michael Tolan, William they’re very funny indeed—especially the Windom, William Schallert, Monte Markride on the trolley and a trouble-prone autoham, Frank Converse, Jon Voight. Westmobile outing with the family.▼쩠 ern about Ike Clanton and the Earp Brothers Houdini (1953) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: George after O.K. Corral shoot-up begins well, beMarshall. Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Torin comes increasingly tedious. Robards has a Thatcher, Ian Wolfe, Sig Ruman. Fanciful good time as Doc Holliday; flavorful score biography of famed escape artist; more by Jerry Goldsmith. Panavision.▼●쩠 fiction than fact, but entertaining.▼●쩠 Hour of the Star, The (1986-Brazilian) Hound-Dog Man (1959) C-87m. ★★★ D: C-96m. ★★★ D: Suzana Amaral. Marcelia Don Siegel. Fabian, Carol Lynley, Stuart Cartaxo, Jose Dumont, Tamara Taxman, [ 637 ]

Fernanda Montenegro. Amaral’s debut feagoings-on and efforts by her brother-in-law to ture (made when she was 52 years old) is a get her out. Slow, overlong, thrill-less, this subtle, touching neorealist drama about a lurches from comedy to horror, and can’t even plain, awkward, virginal country orphan match the shoddy effects of the first two. Al(Cartaxo) and her experiences in Sa˜o Paolo. though Katt has the same character name as Slow in spots, but still worthwhile.쩠 in HOUSE, he doesn’t seem to be playing Hour of the Wolf (1968-Swedish) 88m. ★★★ the same person. [R]▼● D: Ingmar Bergman. Liv Ullmann, Max von House Arrest (1996) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sydow, Erland Josephson, Gertrud Fridh, Harry Winer. Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin PolGudrun Brost. Lesser Bergman about painter lak, Jennifer Tilly, Kyle Howard, Christovon Sydow, wife Ullmann, and apparitions he pher McDonald, Sheila McCarthy, Wallace sees when they retreat to deserted island. The Shawn, Ray Walston, Caroline Aaron, Mooky acting, as usual, is first-rate.▼●쩠 Arizona, Colleen Camp, Russel Harper, JenHours, The (2002) C-114m. ★★★ D: Stephen nifer Love Hewitt, Amy Sakasitz, Ben Stein. Daldry. Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, JuliSensitive, put-upon teenage boy is so shocked anne Moore, Ed Harris, Toni Collette, Claire that his parents are separating that he locks Danes, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Dillane, Allison them in the basement, hoping to force them Janney, John C. Reilly, Miranda Richardson, to talk out their problems; soon his scheme Eileen Atkins, Margo Martindale. Demanding escalates as other kids bring their parents to adaptation of Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer join them. Not as bad as it sounds, a somePrize–winning novel about three women times thoughtful comedy that should have been a one-hour TV show. [PG] ▼●쩠 whose emotional lives intersect: novelist Virginia Woolf (an unrecognizable Kidman in an Houseboat (1958) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: MelOscar-winning performance), 1950s Ameriville Shavelson. Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, can housewife Moore, and contemporary New Martha Hyer, Harry Guardino, Eduardo Yorker Streep, who’s throwing a party—much Ciannelli, Murray Hamilton. Loren becomes like Woolf’s fictional Mrs. Dalloway—for a Grant’s housekeeper and takes his three dying friend (Harris). Emotionally draining, to motherless kids in hand. Predictable rosay the least, but redeemed by the luminescent mance ensues, in this delightful comedy. performances of its three stars. Screenplay by Guardino hilarious as houseboat handyDavid Hare, with a memorable score by Philip man. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Glass. [PG-13] ▼쩠 House Bunny, The (2008) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: House (1986) C-93m. ★★ D: Steve Miner. Fred Wolf. Anna Faris, Colin Hanks, Emma William Katt, George Wendt, Richard Moll, Stone, Kat Dennings, Katharine McPhee, Kay Lenz, Michael Ensign, Susan French, Rumer Willis, Monet Mazur, Kiely Williams, Mary Stavin. Horror novelist Katt, simultaneTyson Ritter, Beverly D’Angelo, Christopher ously suffering from the split-up of his marMcDonald, Nick Swardson, Hugh Hefner. riage, son’s disappearance, and Vietnam memDitzy but endearing Faris has had a perfect ories, is plagued by demonic fantasies when life as a Playmate at the Playboy mansion, he moves to the Victorian home where his so when she’s kicked out she feels she has aunt hanged herself. Lots of horror effects no identity. She becomes a den mother to that don’t hang together, but a quirky attitude, the worst sorority at a nearby college, vowand a sense of humor, buoy things enough to ing to revamp its image and help its eccenmake this moderately entertaining. Followed tric members fit in. Silly and predictable, by several sequels. [R]▼●쩠 but Faris and her castmates make this goofy House II: The Second Story (1987) C-88m. yarn enjoyable. There are cameos by celeb★1 ⁄2 D: Ethan Wiley. Arye Gross, Jonathan rities and Hefner’s harem. HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 Stark, Royal Dano, Lar Park Lincoln, Bill Maher, John Ratzenberger. A follow-up House by the Lake (1977-Canadian) Crather than a sequel to HOUSE, this inco89m. ★1⁄2 D: William Fruet. Brenda Vacherent mess is, if anything, a step down. caro, Don Stroud, Chuck Shamata, Richard Another young hero moves into another Ayres, Kyle Edwards. Violent, ugly thriller. weird house, and finds himself involved Four morons led by Stroud invade weekend with living-dead gunslingers, crystal skulls, retreat of lovers Vaccaro and Shamata. Stroud Aztec sacrifices, pterodactyls, and a swordand Vaccaro good, though. Original title: wielding electrician. Busy, but chaotic and DEATH WEEKEND. [R]▼ boring. [PG-13]▼●쩠 House by the River, The (1950) 84m. ★★★ House III SEE: Horror Show, The D: Fritz Lang. Louis Hayward, Jane House IV (1992) C-100m. BOMB D: Wyatt, Lee Bowman, Ann Shoemaker, Lewis Abernathy. Terri Treas, Scott BurkKathleen Freeman. Strange, moody tale of holder, Denny Dillon, Melissa Clayton, Willarcenous husband (Hayward) who spins web liam Katt, Ned Romero, Ned Bellamy, Dabbs of evil that involves his wife (Wyatt) and Greer, John Santucci. When her husband is brother (Bowman). Overwrought at times— killed and her daughter confined to a wheelparticularly near the end—but full of fascinatchair in a car wreck, a young wife holds onto ing touches, striking atmosphere.쩠 the old house he inherited, despite spooky House Calls (1978) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: How[ 638 ]

ard Zieff. Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, its two leads. French title: UNE FEMME DE ME´NAGE. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Art Carney, Richard Benjamin, Candice Azzara, Dick O’Neill, Thayer David. Matthau Housekeeper’s Daughter, The (1939) 79m. ★★ plays recently widowed doctor who tries to D: Hal Roach. Joan Bennett, Victor woo feisty Jackson without sacrificing his indeMature, Adolphe Menjou, William Gargan. pendence, in this laughing-out-loud contempoPleasant murder mystery enhanced by chic rary comedy. Cowritten by Max Shulman and Bennett, who helps crack a homicide case. Julius J. Epstein. Carney hilarious as addleMature’s film debut. brained head of surgery at Matthau’s hospital. Housekeeping (1987) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Later a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 Bill Forsyth. Christine Lahti, Sara Walker, ★★ Houseguest (1995) C-109m. D: Randall Andrea Burchill. Two orphaned girls meet Miller. Sinbad, Phil Hartman, Jeffrey Jones, their aunt for the first time when she comes to Kim Greist, Stan Shaw, Tony Longo, Paul live with them; she turns out to be a free spirit Ben-Victor, Mason Adams, Kim Murphy, who shuns responsibility and has a profound Chauncey Leopardi, Talia Seider, Ron effect on the sisters’ own relationship. ForGlass. Deep-in-debt dreamer pursued by syth’s first American film, set in the 1950s, is a thuggish money collectors poses as a worldquiet, offbeat, and melancholy story that unrenowned oral surgeon and childhood friend folds like a novel but lacks a certain momenof a suburban advertising exec. Sinbad is tum. Still, there are many touching moments. likable, but no funnier than the desperate Lahti is wonderful as always, and the girls rest. Woefully overextended comedy is (both movie newcomers) are excellent. Based on Marilynne Robinson’s book. [PG]▼ mired in uninvolving subplots and burdened by two of the unfunniest break-ya-fingas House of Angels (1992-Swedish) C-126m. ★★1 comical thugs in screen history. The kind of ⁄2 D: Colin Nutley. Helena Bergstrom, movie that opens in January. [PG]▼●쩠 Rikard Wolff, Per Oscarsson, Sven Wollter, Householder, The (1963-U.S.-Indian) Viveka Seldahl, Reine Brynolfsson, Jacob 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Ivory. Shashi Kapoor, Eklund. Contemporary tale of sexy and libLeela Naidu, Durga Khote, Hariendernath eral Bergstrom who, with her avant-garde Chattopadaya. Fair comedy about perpal, descends on a rural Swedish village to plexed schoolteacher Kapoor, coping with claim an inheritance and throws the straithis arranged marriage and new obligalaced townfolk for a loop. Easygoing, offtions. Ivory’s first fiction feature, and inibeat (if longish) film is really not all that tial collaboration with longtime producer different from those classic Ealing comedies Ismail Merchant and scriptwriter Ruth coming from 1950s Britain. U.S. theatrical Prawer Jhabvala; from her novel.▼●쩠 version ran 119m. Aka COLIN NUTLEY’S HOUSE OF ANGELS. [R] ▼ Household Saints (1993) C-124m. ★★★ D: Nancy Savoca. Tracey Ullman, Vincent House of a Thousand Dolls (1967-BritishSpanish) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeremy Summers. D’Onofrio, Lili Taylor, Judith Malina, Michael Rispoli, Victor Argo, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Price, Martha Hyer, George Nader, Illeana Douglas, Joe Grifasi. Rich, almost Anne Smyrner, Wolfgang Kieling, Sancho folkloric portrait of three generations of Italian Garcia. Vacationing couple in Tangiers beworking-class N.Y.C. women: elderly immifriended by young man convinced that his grant Malina, whose life is ruled by old fiance´e has been abducted into white slavery wives’ tales; her daughter-in-law (Ullman), an ring. Incredible dialogue, with Price walking old-maid-in-training won by Malina’s son through film in a daze. Techniscope. ▼ (D’Onofrio) in a pinochle game; and their House of Bamboo (1955) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 religion-obsessed daughter (Taylor). As in her D: Samuel Fuller. Robert Ryan, Robert first feature, TRUE LOVE, director Savoca Stack, Shirley Yamaguchi, Cameron Mitch(who scripted with her husband, Richard ell, Sessue Hayakawa. Picturesque if not Guay, from Francine Prose’s novel) depicts credible story of army officers and Japanese Italian New Yorkers with uncanny accuracy. police tracking down a gang of former [R]▼ soldiers working for a well-organized House in Nightmare Park SEE: Crazy syndicate. CinemaScope.쩠 House (1973) House of Cards (1969) C-105m. ★★ D: John Housekeeper, The (2002-French) C-91m. Guillermin. George Peppard, Inger Stevens, ★★1 Orson Welles, Keith Michell, Ralph Michael, ⁄2 D: Claude Berri. Jean-Pierre Bacri, E`milie Dequenne, Brigitte Catillon, Jacques Maxine Audley. Down-and-out boxer/ Frantz, Axelle Abbadie, Catherine Breillat. adventurer (Peppard) hired by rich widow Shortly after separating from his wife a man (Stevens) to tutor her young son becomes hires a new housekeeper who does more pawn of Fascist millionaires and generals for him than change the sheets. Typically intent on retaking Europe. Sound familiar? French in attitude and style, this amusing if One good chase, though. Techniscope. [G] minor effort from director Berri manages House of Cards (1993) C-109m. ★★ D: to explore the ultimate male fantasy. Never Michael Lessac. Kathleen Turner, Tommy fully meets the potential of its concept deLee Jones, Park Overall, Shiloh Strong, spite fine, understated performances from Asha Menina, Esther Rolle, Michael Horse, [ 639 ]

Anne Pitoniak. Architect Turner and her film work; this is the worst of the lot. Aka two children return to the U.S. after sevDANCE OF DEATH and SERANATA eral years of living among Mayan ruins MACABRA. [PG]▼쩠 (and the eerie spirituality of the Mayan House of Exorcism, The SEE: Lisa and Indians) of Central America. When her the Devil House of Fear, The (1945) 69m. ★★★ D: young daughter becomes increasingly withdrawn and shows signs of autism, Turner Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel battles child psychologist Jones over therBruce, Dennis Hoey, Aubrey Mather, Paul apy. Pokey story is less a treatise on the Cavanagh, Holmes Herbert, Gavin Muir. girl’s trauma than it is on the benefits of Sherlock Holmes is called in to investigate having a well-to-do parent with lots of free when members of an eccentric Scottish time and a big backyard. [PG-13]▼●쩠 gentleman’s club are knocked off one by one. House of Crazies SEE: Asylum (1972) Liberal, but ingenious, adaptation of Conan Doyle’s ‘‘The Five Orange Pips.’’▼●쩠 House of D (2005) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Duchovny. Anton Yelchin, David DuHouse of Flying Daggers (2004-Hong KongChinese) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zhang Yimou. chovny, Robin Williams, Te´a Leoni, Erykah Badu, Frank Langella, Zelda Williams, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau, Zhang Ziyi, Mark Margolis, Magali Amadei, Harold Song Dandan. China, A.D. 859: The notoriCartier, Orlando Jones. Duchovny’s debut ous Flying Daggers have won renown for as writer-director is a semiautobiographical stealing from the rich and giving to the story about a man looking back on his childpoor. Mei (Ziyi), a blind beauty and martial hood growing up in 1970s Greenwich Village arts expert who is the daughter of the deand the life-altering choice he makes when ceased leader of the Daggers, becomes the tragedy intervenes. Overly sentimental and love object of two dashing Tang Dynasty shot with so many close-ups it can’t be recgovernment deputies; they compete for her ommended for claustrophobics, this awkamid many battles and fight scenes. Dazwardly structured memory play still has zling set pieces, special effects, and use of laughs and touching moments. Yelchin is a color, but long, boring at times, and downreal find as the younger version of the man, right silly toward the end; still, it’s great to played by Duchovny; Williams is good as the look at. Zhang’s second foray into the marboy’s mentally challenged friend and cotial arts genre, following HERO. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 worker. Williams’ real-life daughter Zelda makes a charming first-love interest. [PGHouse of Fools (2002-Russian) C-104m. ★★1 13]쩠 ⁄2 D: Andrei Konchalovsky. Yuliya VyHouse of Dark Shadows (1970) C-96m. sotskaya (Julia Vysotsky), Bryan Adams, ★★★ Sultan Islamov, Stanislav Varkki, Vladas BagD: Dan Curtis. Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Roger Davis, donas, Yevgeni Mironov. This thoroughly Joan Bennett, John Karlen, Thayer David, Russian film is set in a mental hospital where Louis Edmonds, Nancy Barrett. Feature verone of the patients is fixated on a fantasy life sion of popular TV serial, recounting vampire with pop singer Bryan Adams, only to see her Barnabas Collins’ (Frid) quest for a cure so he dreams shattered by the real-life Chechen war can wed lovely Scott. Nothing new scriptin her midst. An odd cross between NO wise, but beautiful locations, flashy direction MAN’S LAND and ONE FLEW OVER THE and camerawork, and some nice jolts make it CUCKOO’S NEST; the actors shine in spite of an enjoyable chiller. Followed by NIGHT OF the film’s dreary tone. Adams appears throughDARK SHADOWS. [PG]▼● out, singing his hit ‘‘Have You Ever Really House of Dracula (1945) 67m. ★★1⁄2 D: Loved a Woman’’ perhaps three times too Erle C. Kenton. Onslow Stevens, Lon many for his (and the film’s) own good. [R] Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Martha O’ ▼쩠 Driscoll, Jane Adams, Lionel Atwill, Glenn House of Frankenstein (1944) 71m. ★★1⁄2 Strange, Skelton Knaggs. Sequel to HOUSE D: Erle C. Kenton. Boris Karloff, J. Carrol OF FRANKENSTEIN takes different tack: Naish, Lon Chaney, Jr., John Carradine, Elena Stevens tries ‘‘real’’ science to cure various Verdugo, Anne Gwynne, Lionel Atwill, Peter Universal monsters, but finds that some of Coe, George Zucco, Glenn Strange, Sig Rutheir bad habits begin to rub off. Acting, direcmann. Episodic all-star monster opus linked tion, eerie set design compensate for overby evil scientist Karloff and hunchback Naish posing as traveling horror show operators. ambitious script, hasty resolution. ▼●쩠 House of Evil (1971-Mexican-U.S.) CFirst third has them dealing with Dracula 80m. BOMB D: Juan Ibanez, Jack Hill. (wonderfully played by Carradine), the rest Boris Karloff, Julissa, Andres Garcia, Anpicks up where FRANKENSTEIN MEETS gel Espinosa, Beatriz Baz. The old heirsTHE WOLF MAN left off. Contrived, to say being-killed-one-by-one story, involving the least, but tough to dislike. Strange’s first crazy composer Karloff, his old house, appearance as the Frankenstein Monster. Sekiller toys, and an organ melody that herquel: HOUSE OF DRACULA.▼●쩠 alds death. One of four films Karloff made House of Fright SEE: Two Faces of Dr. back to back in 1968, constituting his last Jekyll, The [ 640 ]

House of Games (1987) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: tertaining chronicle of famed banking family, David Mamet. Lindsay Crouse, Joe Manwith Arliss as Nathan Rothschild at time of tegna, Mike Nussbaum, Lilia Skala, J.T. Napoleonic Wars, Loretta his daughter, Walsh, Willo Hausman, Ricky Jay, Meshach R. Young her suitor, Karloff as civilized Taylor, W. (William) H. Macy. Uptight fevillain. Finale shot in color. male psychiatrist (and best-selling author) beHouse of Sand, The (2005-Brazilian) Ccomes involved with a slick confidence man 115m. ★★★ D: Andrucha Waddington. Ferand his ‘‘team,’’ and quickly gets in over her nanda Montenegro, Fernanda Torres, Ruy head. Fascinating Hitchcockian tale by David Guerra, Seu Jorge, Luiz Melodia, Enrique Mamet, which also marks his film directing Dı´az, Steˆnio Garcia, Emiliano Queiroz. debut. Many of his stage cronies are on hand, Sensuous story begins as a crazed man notably Mantegna, in a dynamic performance, drags his wife (and her mother) to a remote and Crouse, then Mamet’s wife. [R]▼●쩠 spot in the Brazilian desert where he plans House of God, The (1979) C-108m. ★1⁄2 to build a home. The women remain and D: Donald Wrye. Tim Matheson, Charles create a life for themselves away from civiHaid, Bess Armstrong, Michael Sacks, Lisa lization, spilling into the next generation— Pelikan, George Coe, Ossie Davis, Howard and in spite of the daughter’s determination Rollins, Jr., James Cromwell, Sandra Bernto get out. The female stars (who are realhard. Misfire black comedy about bunch of life mother and daughter) exchange roles in young interns coming to grips with reality of a near-mystical passage of 59 years as this hospital pressures. A few scattered laughs, but unique, cosmic drama unfolds. Super 35. [R]쩠 mostly a waste of terrific (and then-unknown) talent. Adapted by Wrye from Samuel House of Sand and Fog (2003) C-126m. ★★★1 Shem’s novel; never released theatrically. [R] ⁄2 D: Vadim Perelman. Jennifer ConHouse of Mirth, The (2000-British-U.S.) Cnelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances 140m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terence Davies. Gillian AnFisher, Kim Dickens, Shohreh Aghdashloo, derson, Eric Stoltz, Dan Aykroyd, Eleanor Jonathan Ahdout, Navi Rawat. A lost soul Bron, Terry Kinney, Anthony LaPaglia, Laura (Connelly) is evicted from her house overLinney, Elizabeth McGovern, Jodhi May. looking the ocean. The county sells it, at a Faithful but mirthless adaptation of Edith bargain price, to an Iranian ex-colonel now Wharton novel about a beautiful woman who living in diminished circumstances who is ostracized from N.Y. society at the turn of hopes to resell it for a profit. This sets Conthe 20th century because she doesn’t ‘‘play the nelly and Kingsley on a collision course game.’’ Deadly slow, the film gets more interthat wreaks havoc neither one can foresee. esting as it goes along . . . but a more charisThere’s not a false move or a wasted momatic leading actress might have helped. ment in this exquisitely rendered, emotionExquisitely mounted production. Arriscope. ally devastating film. Impressive feature [PG]▼쩠 debut for director Perelman, who adapted House of Mystery (1961-British) 56m. the screenplay with Shawn Otto from Andre ★★1⁄2 D: Vernon Sewell. Jane Hylton, Peter Dubus III’s best-selling novel. [R] ▼쩠 Dyneley, Nanette Newman, Maurice KaufHouse of Seven Corpses, The (1973) C-90m. ★★ D: Paul Harrison. John Ireland, man, John Merivale. Nifty little story of haunted house, with its new owners learnFaith Domergue, John Carradine, Carole ing the mysterious history of the premises; Wells, Charles Macaulay, Jerry Strickler. A supernatural played up well.▼ movie crew uses a house with a notorious past House of 1000 Corpses (2003) C-88m. for location work on a horror film, and learns BOMB D: Rob Zombie. Sid Haig, Bill Moseto regret it; low budget, but not bad. [PG]▼쩠 ley, Sheri Moon, Karen Black, Chris HardHouse of Strangers (1949) 101m. ★★★ D: wick, Erin Daniels, Jennifer Jostyn, Rainn Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Edward G. RobinWilson, Tom Towles, Dennis Fimple, Michael son, Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, LuJ. Pollard, Jeanne Carmen. A night of bloodther Adler, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Debra drenched terror begins when two morons and Paget, Hope Emerson, Esther Minciotti. their girlfriends pay a visit to Captain SpauldDynamic drama of ruthless financier Robing’s Museum of Monsters and Madmen. inson who uses his four sons to suit his own This infantile ROCKY HORROR PICTURE schemes. Unique plot line has been utilized in SHOW/TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE various disguises for many subsequent wannabe sacrifices genuine scares for gratufilms—most memorably, five years later in the Western BROKEN LANCE. ▼쩠 itous gore and nonstop profanity. Rocker Zombie, who has a genuine fondness for horHouse of the Black Death (1965) 80m. ★1 ror films, pointlessly sprinkles in vintage ⁄2 D: Harold Daniels. Lon Chaney, Jr., movie/TV clips. Filmed in 2000. Followed by John Carradine, Andrea King, Tom Drake, THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. [R]▼쩠 Dolores Faith, Sabrina. Warlock holds peoHouse of Rothschild (1934) 88m. ★★★ D: ple captive in a creepy old house; terribly dragged out, grade-Z stuff.▼ Alfred L. Werker. George Arliss, Boris Karloff, Loretta Young, Robert Young, FloHouse of the Dead (2003-U.S.-Germanrence Arliss, C. Aubrey Smith. Elaborate, enCanadian) C-92m. BOMB D: Uwe Boll. [ 641 ]

Jonathan Cherry, Tyron Leitso, Clint Howtions. Aka FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 ard, Ona Grauer, Ellie Cornell, Will SandHouse of Usher, The (1988) C-90m. ★1⁄2 erson, Enuka Okuma, Ju¨rgen Prochnow. D: Alan Birkinshaw. Oliver Reed, Donald Low-grade horror movie, based on the Pleasence, Romy Windsor, Rufus Swart, Norvideo-game series, which charts the all-tooman Coombes, Anne Stradi. Yet another tellpredictable fates of some addle-brained ing of the Edgar Allan Poe saga is one big young people drawn to an island inhabited yawn, with Reed as Roderick Usher, and by zombies. Sloppily made and mindWindsor as his prey—the woman who can numbingly inept. Prochnow’s character is bear him a son and continue the family name. named Captain Kirk. How clever! Followed Filmed in South Africa. [R]▼● by a TVM, HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2. House of Wax (1953) C-88m. ★★★ D: [R] ▼쩠 Andre de Toth. Vincent Price, Frank House of the Long Shadows (1983-British) Lovejoy, Phyllis Kirk, Paul Picerni, Carolyn C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Pete Walker. Vincent Price, Jones, Paul Cavanagh, Charles Buchinsky Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Desi (Bronson). Remake of MYSTERY OF THE Arnaz, Jr., John Carradine, Sheila Keith, WAX MUSEUM stars Price as vengeful Julie Peasgood, Richard Todd. Arnaz, Jr. sculptor who rebuilds his fire-destroyed single-handedly sinks this sixth screen vershowplace by using human victims as wax sion of George M. Cohan’s spoof, SEVEN figures. Jones excellent as an early victim. KEYS TO BALDPATE, miscast as a mysMost popular of the era’s 3-D films, a status it tery writer staying the night in a spooky retains today. This is the film that launched mansion on a bet with Todd. Notable only Price on his horror film cycle after 15 years of for its historic teaming of four all-time horror ‘‘straight’’ roles. Love that paddleball man! masters, all wasted in small roles. [PG]▼ Remade in 2005. ▼●쩠 House of the Seven Gables, The (1940) House of Wax (2005-U.S.-Australian) C★★★ 89m. D: Joe May. George Sanders, 105m. ★★ D: Jaume Collet-Serra. Elisha Margaret Lindsay, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Alan Napier, Cecil Kellaway, Dick Foran. Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki, Jon Good adaptation of Hawthorne’s classic Abrahams, Robert Ri’chard, Damon Herrinovel. Set in 19th-century New England; man. A group of friends heading to a colconniving Sanders frames his brother, Price, lege football game take a shortcut, find for murder of their father in effort to cheat themselves stranded, get separated, stumble him out of inheritance. Fine performances into a deserted town, and enter a house of from all. Price also appeared in TWICEwax with a ‘‘closed’’ sign on the door. TOLD TALES, which includes abbreviated Plays like a mediocre 1970s slasher flick, version of Seven Gables novel.▼ but with contemporary, ‘‘fleshed-out’’ charHouse of the Spirits, The (1993-Germanacters. An in-name-only remake of the 1953 Danish-Portuguese-U.S.) C-138m. ★★ D: movie, though the wax sculptor is named Bille August. Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Vincent. [R]▼쩠 Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Vanessa RedHouse of Women (1962) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: grave, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Antonio BandWalter Doniger. Shirley Knight, Andrew eras, Maria Conchita Alonso, Miriam Colon, Duggan, Constance Ford, Barbara NichVincent Gallo, Jan Niklas, Teri Polo. Epic ols, Margaret Hayes, Virginia Gregg. Trite South American saga that follows a prominent rendition of conditions in a women’s prison family’s turbulent life from the 1920s through elevated by good cast and fast pacing. the early ’70s. Heavy with portent—and Remake of CAGED. clearly written by someone for whom English House of Yes, The (1997) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 is not a first language—this sprawling story D: Mark Waters. Parker Posey, Josh Hamilton, tries to incorporate the mysticism of Isabel AlTori Spelling, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Genevieve lende’s bestselling novel with sputtering reBujold, Rachael Leigh Cook. On a stormy sults. Streep is badly miscast, and Irons night in 1983, a young man brings his fiance´e struggles with his Hispanic role. Mamie Gumhome to meet his cracked Washington, D.C., mer, Streep’s daughter, plays her character as a family, including his demented twin sister, child. Opened in Europe at 145m. Panavision. Jackie-O, whose fantasies about Jacqueline [R]▼●쩠 Kennedy have extended to reenacting the JFK House of Usher (1960) C-85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: assassination—with real bullets. Well-wrought Roger Corman. Vincent Price, Mark Damon, black comedy, based on the stage play by Myrna Fahey, Harry Ellerbe. First-rate horror Wendy MacLeod, never quite escapes being a film based on classic tale by Edgar Allan Poe. ‘‘play on film.’’ Strong performances, led by When beautiful young girl’s suitor arrives to Posey’s, make this worth a look. [R] ▼●쩠 ask her hand in marriage, the doors of the House on Carroll Street, The (1988) house of Usher fling open, and terror begins. C-100m. ★★ D: Peter Yates. Kelly McGillis, Filmed several times before and since, but Jeff Daniels, Mandy Patinkin, Christopher never this effectively; a great tour de force for Rhode, Jessica Tandy, Jonathan Hogan, Trey Price. First of Corman’s eight Poe adaptaWilson. McGillis, who’s just lost her job after [ 642 ]

being branded a subversive during the Mcleading up to (and following) a house party Carthy era, stumbles onto a strange espionage one night. Upbeat and imaginative, cast plot that’s being covered up, and gradually with real-life music rappers (including Reid, persuades FBI agent Daniels that she’s on to who plays the leading role of Kid). A solid something big. Finely detailed period piece feature debut for young writer-director set in 1950s N.Y.C. starts off well, then Hudlin. Followed by animated TV series chucks its relevance (and believability) for a Kid ’n Play and three sequels. [R]▼●쩠 melodramatic finale filmed a` la Hitchcock at House Party 2 (1991) C-94m. ★★ D: Doug Grand Central Station . . . leaving a passel of McHenry, George Jackson. Christopher Reid, plot holes and unanswered questions. A real Christopher Martin, Eugene Allen, George disappointment from onetime blacklisted Anthony Bell, Georg Stanford Brown, Tony writer Walter Bernstein. Patinkin is excellent Burton, Tisha Campbell, Iman, Kamron, as Roy Cohn–type attorney. [PG]▼●쩠 Queen Latifah, Martin Lawrence, William House on Haunted Hill (1958) 75m. ★★★ Schallert. Uninspired sequel has Kid (Reid) D: William Castle. Vincent Price, Carol Ohmheading off to college—if he can just hold on art, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Elisha to the money his church congregation has Cook, Jr., Carolyn Craig, Leona Anderson. raised to send him there. Reid is still appealing, Zillionaire Price offers group of people but this fragmented film has little to offer, in $10,000 each if they’ll spend a night in spite of its social-consciousness rhetoric and get-an-education ‘‘message.’’ [R] ▼●쩠 spooky old mansion with murder-laden history; he even provides loaded guns as party House Party 3 (1994) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric favors. Campy fun. Originally presented theMeza. Christopher Reid, Christopher Martin, atrically with flying skeleton gimmick ‘‘EmDavid Edwards, Angela Means, Tisha Campergo.’’ Remade in 1999. ▼●쩠 bell, Bernie Mac, Gilbert Gottfried, Ketty House on Haunted Hill (1999) C-93m. Lester. Kid, amid jitters over his impending ★1 marriage, is trying to make it in music man⁄2 D: William Malone. Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Bridgette Wilagement by signing a feisty female rap group son, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan, Ali and dodging a vindictive tour promoter. ScatLarter, Max Perlich, Jeffrey Combs, Lisa tershot chuckles, but coarse, crude, and miLoeb. Dreary remake of the 1958 movie, sogynistic, unlike the original. More hangover with two obnoxious ‘‘hosts’’—a venomous than beer blast. [R]▼●쩠 married couple (Rush, Janssen)—having a HouseSitter (1992) C-102m. ★★ D: Frank party whose guest list is comprised of five Oz. Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Dana strangers. Each one can win a million dolDelany, Julie Harris, Donald Moffat, Pelars for surviving the night in a former saniter MacNicol, Richard B. Shull, Laurel tarium with a bloodstained past. HeavyCronin, Christopher Durang, Cherry Jones. handed, and no fun at all. Followed by a Unusual hybrid of comedy, farce, and direct-to-DVD sequel. [R]▼●쩠 screwball romance that doesn’t know what House on 92nd Street, The (1945) 88m. it’s trying to be. Martin plays a New En★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Hathaway. William Eythe, gland architect who meets kooky nonconLloyd Nolan, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart, formist Hawn; in no time she’s moved into Leo G. Carroll, Lydia St. Clair. Exciting, the vacant dream home he’d intended for trend-setting documentary-style drama— Delany and begun spinning lies about being based on fact and staged on actual his Mrs. Laughs throughout, and the stars locations—about FBI counterespionage acdo their best, but the film is painfully Hollywood-cookie-cutter in form. [PG]▼●쩠 tivities during WW2: Nazi agents, operating in N.Y.C., attempt to pilfer part of the atom House That Dripped Blood, The (1970British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Duffell. bomb formula. Charles G. Booth earned an Oscar for his original story. Screenplay by John Bennett, John Bryans, Denholm ElBooth, Barre Lyndon, and John Monks, Jr. liott, Joanna Dunham, Tom Adams, Peter Look for E. G. Marshall, in film debut. FolCushing, Christopher Lee, Nyree Dawn lowed by THE STREET WITH NO Porter, Jon Pertwee, Ingrid Pitt. EntertainNAME. ▼쩠 ing four-part horror film written by Robert House on Telegraph Hill, The (1951) Bloch with a bit too much tongue in cheek, revolving around suitably creepy-looking 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Wise. Richard Basehart, Valentina Cortese, William Lundigan, mansion purchased by new, hesitant owner. Fay Baker. Good cast in intriguing tale of Best segments: first and last. [PG]▼쩠 WW2 refugee assuming dead woman’s House That Screamed, The (1970-Spanish) identity so that she can come to San FranC-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Narciso Ibanez Serrador. cisco where wealthy relatives reside.쩠 Lilli Palmer, Chistina Galbo, John MoulderHouse Party (1990) C-100m. ★★★ D: RegBrown, Mary Maude, Candida Losada. Grisly inald Hudlin. Christopher Reid, Robin Harhorror at a home for troubled girls, where ris, Christopher Martin, Martin Lawrence, disciplinarian Palmer and her sex-starved son Tisha Campbell, A. J. Johnson, Paul An(Brown) make life difficult—to say the thony. Infectiously good-natured comedy least—for the young ladies. Franscope. [PG]쩠 about urban black teenagers and the events House Where Evil Dwells, The (1982) [ 643 ]

C-88m. ★★ D: Kevin Connor. Edward Albert, tuan production produces gargantuan headache. Executive produced, but disowned, by Susan George, Doug McClure, Amy Barrett, George Lucas. [PG]▼● Mako Hattori, Toshiyuki Sasaki, Toshiya MarHow Do I Love Thee? (1970) C-110m. uyama. American family moves into stylishold ★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Gordon. Jackie Gleason, house in Kyoto, Japan, ignoring warnings that Maureen O’Hara, Shelley Winters, Rosemary it’s haunted by ghosts of doomed 19th-century Forsyth, Rick Lenz, Clinton Robinson. Plealove triangle. A few new twists can’t relieve sant cast can’t do much for sloppily sentifamiliar formula and general air of silliness. mental film about Gleason’s inability to relate Quite violent at times. [R]▼쩠 to his son, a philosophy professor. Plays Housewife (1934) 69m. ★★ D: Alfred E. like a TV show, a bad one at that. [PG]▼ Green. Bette Davis, George Brent, Ann How Funny Can Sex Be? (1976-Italian) Dvorak, John Halliday, Ruth Donnelly. C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dino Risi. Giancarlo Little punch in story of struggling copyGiannini, Laura Antonelli, Alberto Liowriter Brent deserting wife Dvorak for nello, Duilio Del Prete, Paola Borboni, old-flame Davis (playing unsubtle vamp). Carla Mancini. Eight bawdy episodes on How About You . . . (2007-Irish) C-91m. ★★ D: Anthony Byrne. Vanessa Redgrave, love, sex, and marriage. More misses than hits, but buoyed by Giannini’s comic Imelda Staunton, Brenda Fricker, Hayley prowess and Antonelli’s tantalizing Atwell, Joss Ackland, Orla Brady, Joan beauty. Released here after Giannini’s O’Hara. Young Atwell comes to work in a success in Wertmuller films. [R]▼ residential home whose aging inhabitants How Green Was My Valley (1941) 118m. are mostly eccentric or crotchety. What ★★★★ D: John Ford. Walter Pidgeon, Maumight have been an appealing tale of interreen O’Hara, Donald Crisp, Anna Lee, generational bonding is ill conceived and Master Roddy McDowall, John Loder, Sara often downright silly. Livens up in Atwell’s Allgood, Barry Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, all-too-brief scenes with elderly, dying Rhys Williams, Arthur Shields, Ann Todd, O’Hara. Based on a short story by Maeve Mae Marsh. Narrated by Irving Pichel; Binchy. Super 35. 쩠 United Kingdom version narrated by Rhys Howards End (1992-British) C-140m. Williams. Moving drama from Richard ★★★★ D: James Ivory. Anthony Hopkins, Llewellyn’s story of Welsh coal miners, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, centering on Crisp’s large, close-knit famEmma Thompson, James Wilby, Sam West, ily. Beautifully filmed, lovingly directed, Jemma Redgrave, Nicola Duffett, Prunella winner of five Academy Awards: Best PicScales. Sumptuous, stimulating adaptation of ture, Director, Supporting Actor (Crisp), CinE. M. Forster’s novel of class distinction— ematography (Arthur Miller), Art Direction. and what happens when members of different Screenplay by Philip Dunne. ▼●쩠 social strata collide in 1910 England. ThompHow High (2001) C-93m. ★★ D: Jesse Dylan. son won an Oscar for her terrific performance Method Man, Redman, Lark Voohries, Obba as an audacious and independent young Babatunde, Mike Epps, Fred Willard, Anna woman of no means who is ever-so-subtly Maria Horsford, Chuck Davis, Jeffrey Jones, seduced by Hopkins, a successful man whose Spalding Gray, Hector Elizondo, Tracey Walsocial veneer masks an insidious (and even ter. With Willard playing the chancellor of cruel) nature. Extraordinarily good on every Harvard and Bob Dylan’s son directing, this level. Also won Oscars for Best Screenplay rare Ivy League stoner comedy has a curio (by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala) and Art Direcadvantage going in. Film’s rapper leads play tion–Set Decoration. Simon Callow appears goof-offs who finesse their entrance exams unbilled as a lecturer. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 by smoking the mind-expanding ashes of a Howards of Virginia, The (1940) 122m. dead friend. (Who says the spirit of Lub★★1 ⁄2 D: Frank Lloyd. Cary Grant, Martha itsch is dead?) Movie has enough low-grade Scott, Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Marshal, Richlaughs to sustain its length, though there ard Carlson, Paul Kelly, Irving Bacon. Historhave probably been cockfights with more ical account of Revolutionary War is OK, but redeeming social value. [R]▼쩠 too long for such standard retelling. Look for How I Got Into College (1989) C-89m. ★★ young Peter Cushing.▼쩠 D: Savage Steve Holland. Anthony EdHoward Stern’s Private Parts SEE: Priwards, Corey Parker, Lara Flynn Boyle, Finn vate Parts Carter, Charles Rocket, Christopher Rydell, Howard the Duck (1986) C-111m. BOMB Brian Doyle-Murray, Richard Jenkins, Nora D: Willard Huyck. Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Dunn, Phil Hartman. Aimless senior applies Jones, Tim Robbins, Paul Guilfoyle, Holly to a small college because his high-achiever Robinson, Miles Chapin, Virginia Capers, dream girl is doing the same, and gets caught David Paymer, Thomas Dolby, and voice up in the cutthroat recruitment machine. Mild of Richard Kiley. Steve Gerber’s sarcastic execution of ripe satirical premise, buoyed by comic-book creation is (unwisely) turned fantasy set pieces associated with director into a live-action character for this hopeless Holland’s previous work. Has its moments, mess of a movie set in Cleveland. Garganbut not enough of them. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [ 644 ]

How I Killed My Father (2001-FrenchHowling IV: The Original Nightmare Spanish) C-95m. ★★★ D: Anne Fontaine. (1988-British) C-92m. BOMB D: John Michel Bouquet, Charles Berling, Natacha Hough. Romy Windsor, Michael T. Weiss, Re´gnier, Amira Casar, Ste´phane Guillon, Anthony Hamilton, Susanne Severeid. Being Hubert Kounde´, Karole Rocher, Franc¸ois based somewhat more closely on Gary BradBerle´and. A doctor (Berling) whose spener’s original novel doesn’t save this film cialty is slowing down the aging process from being a turkey in wolf’s clothing. Isoamong his wealthy clientele learns that his lated in a distant cabin, a young woman batlong-estranged father (Bouquet) has died tles werewolves, including her boyfriend, a unexpectedly. In a flash, he recalls their last newly minted howler. Shot in South Africa, extended meeting—or is this reunion all in unsuccessfully passing itself off as California. his mind? Quietly devastating character Poor makeup effects. [R]▼●쩠 study emphasizes the enduring impact parHowling V: The Rebirth (1989) C-99m. ★★ ents have on children. Aka MY FATHER D: Neal Sundstrom. Victoria Catlin, AND I.쩠 Elizabeth Silverstein, Mark Faulkner, StephHow I Won the War (1967-British) anie Shockley, William Stavin. Much betC-109m. ★★★ D: Richard Lester. Michael ter than II or IV, this still suffers from a Crawford, John Lennon, Roy Kinnear, Jack very low budget—so low there are no wereMacGowran, Michael Hordern, Lee Monwolves to be seen! All the hairy monster stuff tague, Alexander Knox. Pungent, if occatakes place off-screen in this variation on Ten sionally overbaked, account of a middleLittle Indians, as a group in a picturesque old aged veteran whose pompous reminiscenses castle is knocked off one by one by the secret of his wartime heroics cannot obscure his werewolf among them. Some suspense, OK ineptitude in battle. A deliciously cynical performances, and a genuine surprise at the parody of the lunacy of war. Interesting to end. [R]▼●쩠 see Lennon in one of his very few acting Howling VI—The Freaks (1991) C-102m. roles, as the Cockney Gripweed.▼● ★1 ⁄2 D: Hope Perello. Brendan Hughes, Howling, The (1981) C-91m. ★★★ D: Joe Michelle Matheson, Bruce Martyn Payne, Dante. Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, DenJered Barclay, Sean Gregory Sullivan, Annis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda tonio Fargas, Carlos Cervantes. This time Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, the werewolf is the hero, a drifter who Slim Pickens, Elisabeth Brooks, Robert turns up in a Southwestern desert town just Picardo, Noble Willingham, Kenneth Tobey, ahead of a circus full of monsters. IntelliDick Miller, Meshach Taylor. A female TV gently written, especially for this series, news reporter is sent to a strange California but pretentious, with vague Ray Bradencounter-group community to recover from buryesque overtones. Awkward and cona sexual trauma, unaware that virtually everyfusing, of appeal to buffs only. [R]▼●쩠 one there is a werewolf. A hip, well-made Howl’s Moving Castle (2004-Japanese) Chorror film, brimming with film-buff jokes ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Hayao Miyazaki. Voices of 119m. (almost every character is named after a Christian Bale, Jean Simmons, Billy Cryswerewolf-movie director) and Rob Bottin’s tal, Lauren Bacall, Emily Mortimer, Blythe amazing wolf transformations. Only comDanner, Josh Hutcherson, Jena Malone, plaint: Why set the horror against such a patMoosie Drier. A girl falls under the spell of ently bizarre backdrop? Coscripter John a witch and is transformed into a wrinkled Sayles has a funny cameo as a morgue attenold woman . . . but in her new form she dant. Followed by several so-called sequels. acquires a sense of daring and wisdom she [R]▼●쩠 never had before, especially when she disHowling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf covers a magical moving castle. This mysti(1985) C-90m. BOMB D: Philippe Mora. cal fable offers a unique experience. It asks Christopher Lee, Annie McEnroe, Reb Brown, the viewer to take a leap of faith—and then Sybil Danning, Marsha A. Hunt, Ferdy Mayne. offers constant surprise, turning from humor Ridiculous sequel is set in Transylvania where to sadness to a sense of wonder in the blink unlikely siblings Danning and Lee head up a of an eye. Animation master Miyazaki family of werewolves. Attempt at sending up adapted Diana Wynne Jones’ novel. Simthe genre falls flat. [R]▼●쩠 ★★ mons, Bacall, and Crystal contribute rich Howling III (1987-Australian) C-94m. D: vocal performances to the U.S. version. Philippe Mora. Barry Otto, Imogen Anne[PG]쩠 sley, Dasha Blahova, Max Fairchild, Frank How She Move (2008-Canadian) C-91m. Thring, Michael Pate, Barry Humphries. OK ★★ D: Ian Iqbal Rashid. Rutina Wesley, Tre ´ horror spoof stars Annesley, a Kim BasingerArmstrong, Cle´ Bennett, Melanie Nichollslike beauty, as an Australian marsupial King, Brennan Gademans, Dwain Murphy, werewolf, who gives birth to a cute little creaKeyshia Cole, DeRay Davis. Utterly preture that lives in a pouch on her belly. Unusual dictable story about a young girl who, after addition to werewolf genre features some her sister’s death, returns to her old neighfunny cameos, including Thring as an Alfred borhood in the Caribbean projects of ToHitchcock–style director. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [ 645 ]

ronto. To earn college tuition money she How the West Was Won (1962) C-155m. ★★★1 decides to compete in step-dancing compe⁄2 D: John Ford (‘‘The Civil War’’), titions. Mediocre in every way; the dancing Henry Hathaway (‘‘The Rivers, The Plains, and music are uninspired, and they’re supThe Outlaws’’), George Marshall (‘‘The Railroad’’). Carroll Baker, Henry Fonda, Gregory posed to drive the film. [PG-13]쩠 How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) Peck, George Peppard, Carolyn Jones, Eli C-124m. ★★ D: Kevin Rodney Sullivan. AnWallach, Robert Preston, Debbie Reynolds, gela Bassett, Taye Diggs, Regina King, James Stewart, John Wayne, Richard WidWhoopi Goldberg, Suzzanne Douglas, Mimark, All-Star Cast; narrated by Spencer chael J. Pagan, Sicily, Richard Lawson, Barry Tracy. Blockbuster epic about three generaShabaka Henley, Glynn Turman, Carl Lumtions of Western pioneers isn’t same experibly. Tight-midriffed San Francisco stockence seen at home as it is on a Cinerama screen, broker, age 40, romances the 20-year-old but great cast, first-rate photography and lovely med-school hopeful she meets while vacaAlfred Newman score still make it top entertioning in Jamaica, setting off a wave of tsktainment. Peppard stands out with excellent tsk-ing among her friends and his parents. portrayal. This won Oscars for Story and Overlong and dull, this occasionally lush Screenplay (James R. Webb) and Editing (Harversion of Terry McMillan’s novel might be old F. Kress). Cinerama. ▼●쩠 more convincing if Bassett didn’t look more How to Beat the High Co$t of Living like a 25-year-old knockout. Subplot about (1980) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Scheerer. Goldberg’s illness and subsequent hospitalSusan Saint James, Jane Curtin, Jessica ization helps keep the film from getting into Lange, Richard Benjamin, Cathryn Damon, a groove. [R]▼●쩠 Fred Willard, Dabney Coleman, Eddie ★1 How Sweet It Is! (1968) C-99m. ⁄2 D: Albert, Art Metrano, Garrett Morris. ThorJerry Paris. James Garner, Debbie Reynolds, oughly blah caper comedy by Bob Kaufman Maurice Ronet, Paul Lynde, Marcel Dalio, about three housewives who plot a heist at the Terry-Thomas. Married couple with teenage local shopping center. Worth a glance to see son goes to Europe to revitalize themselves, Coleman in rare romantic lead . . . and Saint but Mom starts to dally with sexy Frenchman. James and Curtin years before they clicked Bland comedy looks like a TV show and is together as Kate and Allie. [PG]▼쩠 about as memorable. Watch for Penny MarHow to Be Very, Very Popular (1955) shall as one of the Tour Girls. Panavision.▼ C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nunnally Johnson. Betty How the Garcia Girls Spent Their SumGrable, Robert Cummings, Charles Coburn, ★★★ mer (2008) C-128m. Sheree North, Fred Clark, Alice Pearce, D: Georgina Garcia Riedel. Elizabeth Pen˜a, America Orson Bean. Grable and North on the lam Ferrera, Lucy Gallardo, Steven Bauer, Jorge hide in a college fraternity in this semiCervera, Jr., Leo Minaya. Sharply observed remake of SHE LOVES ME NOT. Sheree and sympathetically detailed dramedy about does wild ‘‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’’ numthe romantic entanglements of three generaber, stealing Grable’s spotlight. This was tions of Mexican-American women—aging Betty’s last movie. CinemaScope. grandmother (Gallardo), divorced mother How to Commit Marriage (1969) C-95m. ★★ (Pen˜a), 17-year-old daughter (Ferrera)—in D: Norman Panama. Bob Hope, Jackie a sleepy Arizona border town. Funny and Gleason, Jane Wyman, Maureen Arthur, Tim insightful, but be forewarned: this SUMMER Matheson, Leslie Nielsen, Tina Louise, Irwin proceeds at the pace of someone amiably Corey. Above average for later Hope movies, drifting through a hot August afternoon. but still a far cry from great comedy. Hope Filmed before, but released after, Ferrera hit it and Wyman are about to divorce when their big on TV’s Ugly Betty. Panavision. [R]쩠 daughter announces plans to marry Gleason’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) son. ‘‘Mod’’ elements of script were already ★1 C-105m. ⁄2 D: Ron Howard. Jim Carrey, dated when film came out. [M/PG]▼쩠 Jeffrey Tambor, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, How to Deal (2003) C-101m. ★★ D: Clare Molly Shannon, Clint Howard, Taylor MomKilner. Mandy Moore, Allison Janney, sen; narrated by Anthony Hopkins. Cheerless Trent Ford, Alexandra Holden, Dylan bastardization of the beloved children’s book Baker, Nina Foch, Mackenzie Astin, Conby Dr. Seuss about a dastardly creature’s nie Ray, Mary Catherine Garrison. Dealing attempt to rob Whoville of its yuletide holiwith a divorced mom and a pregnant best day. Carrey is good, but the film is loud and friend, a teenage girl vows never to fall in cluttered, losing all the charm of the sweet, love. Dull attempt at dramedy isn’t helped simple source material. Only good songs are by Moore’s uninteresting lead performance. two holdovers from the vastly superior 1966 Only the older generation here—Janney, animated TV special. Rick Baker and Gail Baker, and Foch as a grandmother who Ryan won Oscars for Best Makeup. Full title tokes marijuana for ‘‘medicinal’’ reasons— is DR. SEUSS’ HOW THE GRINCH STOLE have any fun, though the dotty grandma bit CHRISTMAS. Later a Broadway musical. has been overdone by now. Based on two of Sarah Dessen’s popular teen novels. Peter Bah, humbug! [PG]▼쩠 [ 646 ]

Gallagher appears unbilled as Moore’s hipwho takes on the challenge of attracting— ster radio DJ dad. [PG-13]▼쩠 and then driving away—a man, for the sake How to Eat Fried Worms (2006) C-83m. of an article, never dreaming that the man ★★1 she chooses has taken a bet that he can woo ⁄2 D: Bob Dolman. Luke Benward, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Adam Hicks, Austin Rogand win her. The stars are attractive, though ers, Alexander Gould, Ryan Malgarini, Philip Hudson is obliged to act obnoxious—and Daniel Bolden, Clint Howard, Ty Panitz, is apparently shot through layers of gauze. Kimberly Williams-Paisley, Tom Cavanagh, Diverting for a while, but overlong, and James Rebhorn. Cooked in Crisco. Mixed there’s barely an honest moment in the film. [PG-13]▼쩠 with marshmallow. Peanut butter and worm sandwich. These are some of the ways that How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008-U.S.-British) C-109m. ★★★ D: Robert the new kid in school must dine on phylum Annelida to win a bet and prove a point. Weide. Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Brightly adapted from Thomas Rockwell’s Bridges, Danny Huston, Gillian Anderson, 1973 classic novel of preadolescent crudity, Megan Fox, Miriam Margolyes, Bill Paterthis is one big gross-out joke that, while a son, Max Minghella, Diana Kent, Thandie family movie, is so not a popcorn movie. Newton. Snarky British journalist Pegg desYoung Benward is an appealing hero. Super perately wants to be on the inside of the 35. [PG]쩠 glamour scene and gets the opportunity How to Frame a Figg (1971) C-103m. ★★ when N.Y. magazine editor Bridges hires D: Alan Rafkin. Don Knotts, Joe Flynn, him. His obnoxious, bull-in-a-china-shop Elaine Joyce, Edward Andrews, Yvonne behavior is nearly his undoing until he Craig. Simplistic chap (Knotts) finds troulearns to play the game—and gets to score ble behind every doorway as he is made with a sexy starlet (Fox). Drawn from Toby patsy for crooked politicians. Usual unsubYoung’s book about working for Vanity tle Knotts comedy. [G]▼쩠 Fair, with Bridges having fun as a Graydon How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989Carter type. A sharp look at our celebrity British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Robinson. culture. Alternately silly and clever; well Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilcast from top to bottom. [R]쩠 son, Jacqueline Tong, John Shrapnel, Susan How to Make an American Quilt (1995) Wooldridge, Mick Ford. Advertising hotshot C-116m. ★★ D: Jocelyn Moorhouse. Winona Grant is under so much pressure—and has Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Bancroft, Maya become so negative about his manipulative Angelou, Kate Nelligan, Jean Simmons, Saprofession—that his anxiety brings forth a mantha Mathis, Alfre Woodard, Lois Smith, talking boil on his shoulder with a mind of Kate Capshaw, Johnathon Schaech, Holland its own! Certifiably weird comedy by writerTaylor, Maria Celedonio, Claire Danes, Loren director Robinson (reunited with the star of Dean, Melinda Dillon, Dermot Mulroney, Derhis first film, WITHNAIL AND I) has its rick O’Connor, Esther Rolle, Rip Torn, Myshare of funny and bizarre moments, but its kelti Williamson, Alicia (Lecy) Goranson, attack on advertising is so heavy-handed that Adam Baldwin, Richard Jenkins, Jared Leto. as satire it fizzles. [R]▼●쩠 Aimless young woman leaves her fiance´ beHow to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog (2001hind to spend the summer with her grandU.S.-German) C-107m. ★★★ D: Michael Kalemother and great-aunt. Soon she’s delving into sniko. Kenneth Branagh, Robin Wright Penn, their lives and the experiences of their female Suzi Hofrichter, Lynn Redgrave, Jared Harris, friends who work together in a nonstop quilting Lucinda Jenney, Peter Riegert, Peri Gilpin, bee. Episodic ‘‘woman’s film’’ (based on Tamala Jones, David Krumholtz, Johnathon Whitney Otto’s novel) offers at least one Schaech. Sardonic playwright whose career flashback too many in its quiltlike pattern. It’s is in a slump grapples with his wife’s desire genteel, good looking, and well acted, but has no narrative momentum. [PG-13]▼●쩠 to have a baby. Meanwhile, a cute little girl moves in across the street and begins to How to Make It SEE: Target: Harry affect the man’s outlook—and even his How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) work. Glib and funny, Kalesniko’s screenC-95m. ★★★ D: Jean Negulesco. Marilyn play deepens as it progresses with fine perMonroe, Betty Grable, Lauren Bacall, Wilformances by Branagh, Penn, and young liam Powell, Rory Calhoun, David Wayne, Hofrichter. Refreshingly unconventional Alex D’Arcy, Fred Clark, Cameron Mitchell. comedy made its U.S. debut on cable TV. Terrific ensemble work in dandy comedy Daniel Stern appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 of three man-hunting females pooling reHow to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) Csources to trap eligible bachelors. Nunnally 115m. ★★ D: Donald Petrie. Kate Hudson, Johnson scripted and produced this remake Matthew McConaughey, Michael Michele, of THE GREEKS HAD A WORD FOR Shalom Harlow, Adam Goldberg, Bebe THEM, which is preceded by Alfred NewNeuwirth, Robert Klein, Kathryn Hahn, man conducting his famed ‘‘Street Scene’’ Thomas Lennon, Annie Parisse, Celia Westheme (a prologue designed to show off steton, Liliane Montevecchi. Airy romantic reophonic sound). CinemaScope.▼●쩠 comedy about a women’s-magazine writer How to Murder Your Wife (1965) C[ 647 ]

118m. ★★★ D: Richard Quine. Jack LemO’Connell, Gary Merrill. Little of Mark Twain mon, Virna Lisi, Terry-Thomas, Eddie Mayeis left in this handsome but empty-headed muhoff, Claire Trevor, Sidney Blackmer, Max sical version of his classic story. Score by RichShowalter, Jack Albertson, Mary Wickes. Enard and Robert Sherman is as forgettable as gaging comedy that almost holds up to finale. their script. Panavision. [G] ▼●쩠 Cartoonist Lemmon marries Lisi while drunk Hucksters, The (1947) 115m. ★★★ D: and spends rest of film devising ways to get Jack Conway. Clark Gable, Deborah Kerr, rid of her. Mayehoff is standout as LemSydney Greenstreet, Adolphe Menjou, Ava Gardner, Keenan Wynn, Edward Arnold. mon’s lawyer friend.▼●쩠 How to Save a Marriage (And Ruin Glossy dig at advertising and radio indusYour Life) (1968) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Fielder tries, with Gable battling for integrity among Cook. Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, Eli Walyes-men. Greenstreet memorable as deslach, Anne Jackson, Betty Field, Jack Albertpotic head of soap company; Kerr’s first son. Typical 1960s sex farce has swinging American movie. Also shown in computerbachelor Dino mistaking Stella for his best colored version.▼● friend’s mistress, with predictable complicaHud (1963) 112m. ★★★★ D: Martin Ritt. tions. Stevens wasted again. Panavision. 쩠 Paul Newman, Patricia Neal, Melvyn DougHow to Steal a Million (1966) C-127m. las, Brandon de Wilde, John Ashley. Excel★★★ D: William Wyler. Audrey Hepburn, lent story of moral degradation set in modern Peter O’Toole, Charles Boyer, Eli Wallach, West, with impeccable performances by all. Hugh Griffith. Hepburn and O’Toole are a deNeal won Best Actress Oscar as family houselightful match in this sophisticated comedy keeper who doesn’t want to get involved with about a million-dollar theft in a Paris art muno-account Newman. Douglas received Best seum. Boyer, O’Toole’s boss, and Griffith, Supporting Oscar as Newman’s ethical, unHepburn’s father, are equally good. Panavicompromising father, and James Wong sion. ▼●쩠 Howe’s cinematography also earned a statuHow to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965) C-93m. ette. Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank, Jr. ★★ D: William Asher. Annette Funicello, scripted from Larry McMurtry’s novel HorseDwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy, Buster man, Pass By. Panavision.▼●쩠 Keaton, Mickey Rooney, Harvey Lembeck, Hudson Hawk (1991) C-95m. ★★ D: MiBeverly Adams, Jody McCrea, John Ashley, chael Lehmann. Bruce Willis, Danny Bobbi Shaw. The fatigue is palpable in Aiello, Andie MacDowell, James Coburn, this sixth BEACH PARTY movie, which Richard E. Grant, Sandra Bernhard, Dontries out another new leading man (with ald Burton, Don Harvey, David Caruso, AnFrankie Avalon again shunted to a cameo drew Bryniarski, Lorraine Toussaint, Frank role). As usual, the veterans—especially Stallone, Leonardo Cimino. Wildly overblown Rooney—liven things a little, but overall, vanity film (Willis cowrote the story and the pretty mediocre. Followed by GHOST IN title song) about a cat burglar, just sprung from THE INVISIBLE BIKINI. Panavision.▼쩠 prison, who’s blackmailed into performing How to Succeed in Business Without several daring art heists, including one from the Vatican! Blissfully incoherent, with some good Really Trying (1967) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Swift. Robert Morse, Michele Lee, action scenes, but nothing to hang them on exRudy Vallee, Anthony Teague, Maureen Arcept a steady stream of Willis wisecracks, only some of which are funny. [R] ▼●쩠 thur, Sammy Smith, Robert Q. Lewis. Delightful musical from Broadway hit about Hudson’s Bay (1940) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irambitious window-washer (Morse) who uses ving Pichel. Paul Muni, Gene Tierney, wiles, and a handbook, to rise to prominence Laird Cregar, John Sutton, Virginia Field, in Vallee’s Worldwide Wicket Co. Superb Vincent Price, Nigel Bruce. Muni’s good, but farce, good Frank Loesser songs (including life of founder of Hudson Bay fur-trading ‘‘Brotherhood of Man’’ and ‘‘I Believe in company lacks punch. Expansive production. You’’), imaginative staging of musical numHudsucker Proxy, The (1994) C-111m. ★★★ bers by Bob Fosse. Panavision.▼●쩠 D: Joel Coen. Tim Robbins, Jennifer How U Like Me Now (1992) C-109m. ★★★ Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, Charles Durning, D: Darryl Roberts. Darnell Williams, Salli John Mahoney, Jim True, William Cobbs, Richardson, Raymond Whitfield, Daniel GardBruce Campbell, Joe Grifasi, Peter Gallagher, ner, Byron Stewart, Darryl Roberts, Charnele Noble Willingham, Steve Buscemi, Anna NiBrown. Likable comedy of middle and workcole Smith, Jon Polito. A country bumpkin aring-class African-American twenty-somerives in the Big City and becomes the unwitting things in Chicago, with the focus on live-in pawn in a scheme to ruin a thriving corporalovers Williams and Richardson, whose relation. The Coen brothers’ most extravagant cretionship is at a crossroads. Refreshingly, none ation to date, an eye-popping ’50s fantasy of of the characters are stereotypical ghetto carbig business gone berserk, with Robbins absolutely perfect as the wide-eyed patsy who mitoons. [R]▼쩠 ★★ Huckleberry Finn (1974) C-118m. raculously rises to the top. Newman is a crafty D: J. Lee Thompson. Jeff East, Paul Winfield, villain, and Leigh is fun (if a bit one-note) as a Harvey Korman, David Wayne, Arthur fast-talking, Kate Hepburn–ish reporter. Writ[ 648 ]

ten by Ethan and Joel Coen with Sam Raimi; played by Ashcroft) are attempting to acthe Coens rival Fellini in the selection of unquire several miniature paintings. Deftly usual faces to populate their films. [PG]▼●쩠 scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Originally produced for British television.▼쩠 Hue and Cry (1946-British) 82m. ★★★ D: Charles Crichton. Alastair Sim, Jack Warner, Human Beast, The SEE: La Beˆte Humaine Valerie White, Harry Fowler, Jack Lambert, Human Comedy, The (1943) 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Clarence Brown. Mickey Rooney, Frederick Piper, Joan Dowling. Snappy romp as young Fowler suspects that details in the Frank Morgan, Jackie ‘‘Butch’’ Jenkins, stories published in his favorite weekly pulp James Craig, Marsha Hunt, Fay Bainter, Ray magazine are being used as a code by a gang Collins, Darryl Hickman, Donna Reed, Van of crooks. Nicely filmed on location on the Johnson. Memorable Americana, faithfully streets of post-WW2 London. The first of adapted from William Saroyan’s sentimental many good Ealing comedies; written by T.E.B. Oscar-winning story of life in a small town durClarke. Released in the U.S. in 1950.▼ ing WW2. Unfolds like a novel, with many Huggers SEE: Crazy Moon lovely vignettes, and one of Rooney’s best perHugo Pool (1997) C-94m. ★★ D: Robert formances as a teenager with growing responDowney. Alyssa Milano, Patrick Dempsey, sibilities. Screenplay by Howard Estabrook. Cathy Moriarty, Malcolm McDowell, RobP.S.: Keep an eye out for those three soldiers ert Downey, Jr., Richard Lewis, Sean Penn, on leave: Barry Nelson, Don DeFore, and Bert Remsen, Chuck Barris, Ann MagnuRobert Mitchum! Also shown in computerson. Strained whimsy about an L.A. pool colored version.▼● cleaner (Milano) and her dealings with her Human Condition, The SEE: No Greater dysfunctional parents and assorted oddball Love, Road to Eternity, and Soldier’s clients, one of whom—a man suffering from Prayer, A Lou Gehrig’s disease—she falls in love with. Human Desire (1954) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Self-indulgent shaggy-dog farce comes off Lang. Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Brodlike an actors’ improv exercise and varies erick Crawford, Edgar Buchanan, Kathwildly from deadpan absurdist comedy to leen Case, Diana DeLaire. Lang’s follow-up mawkish sentimentality. Laura Downey to THE BIG HEAT is a well-directed but (the director’s wife) coscripted. [R]▼●쩠 muddled account of railroad engineer Ford, Hugo the Hippo (1976) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: just back from Korea, who becomes mixed William Feigenbaum. Voices of Burl Ives, up with married Grahame and murder. Marie and Jimmy Osmond, Robert Morley, Based on Zola’s La Beˆte Humaine, filmed in 1938 in France by Jean Renoir.▼ Paul Lynde. OK children’s cartoon musical about a youngster’s attempt to save a hippo Human Duplicators, The (1965) C-82m. ★★ from extinction in ancient Zanzibar. [G]▼ D: Hugo Grimaldi. George Nader, BarHulk (2003) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ang Lee. bara Nichols, Richard Kiel, George MaEric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, cready, Dolores Faith, Hugh Beaumont, RichJosh Lucas, Nick Nolte, Kevin Rankin, ard Arlen. An alien giant paves the way for a Celia Weston. Research scientist Bruce major invasion by duplicating people—but Banner represses painful childhood memothen falls in love. Some imagination here, but low-budget production sinks it.▼쩠 ries that eventually explode and turn him into The Hulk. Only his ex-girlfriend seems Human Experiments (1980) C-82m. ★1⁄2 to understand his agony, while her father, a D: Gregory Goodell. Linda Haynes, Geofgeneral with an age-old chip on his shoulfrey Lewis, Ellen Travolta, Aldo Ray, der, wants to bring the big green guy down. Jackie Coogan, Darlene Craviotto. As the Takes its time building character and story, title says . . . [R]▼ then spoils it with cardboard villains, a Human Factor, The (1975-British-Italian) heavy-handed KING KONG homage, and a C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward Dmytryk. George climax where the Hulk bounces around like Kennedy, John Mills, Raf Vallone, Rita a video-game character. Even director Lee’s Tushingham, Barry Sullivan, Arthur Franz. ingenious comic-book graphic style wears Violent, bloody chronicle of Kennedy trackout its welcome in this overlong, overly seriing down the killers of his family. Decent ous saga. Lou Ferrigno (TV’s The Incredible cast wasted. [R]▼쩠 Hulk) and Marvel’s Stan Lee have an amusHuman Factor, The (1979) C-115m. ★★ ing cameo together. Based on the comic book D: Otto Preminger. Nicol Williamson, Iman, created by Lee and Jack Kirby. See also THE Derek Jacobi, Richard Attenborough, Robert INCREDIBLE HULK (2008). [PG-13] ▼쩠 Morley, Ann Todd, John Gielgud. Dry, unexHullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie’s citing filmization of Graham Greene’s spy Pictures (1978-British) C-89m. ★★★ D: novel about a British double agent (WilliamJames Ivory. Peggy Ashcroft, Victor Banerson) who’s forced to defect to Russia. Top jee, Larry Pine, Saeed Jaffrey, Aparna cast, script by Tom Stoppard, but results are Sen, Jane Booker. Wry comedy about the mediocre. Preminger’s final film. [R]▼ purpose and significance of art, set in an Human Gorilla, The SEE: Behind Locked Indian palace where various people (inDoors cluding a British aristocrat, wonderfully Human Highway (1982) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: [ 649 ]

Bernard Shakey (Neil Young), Dean Stockwell. Neil Young, Russ Tamblyn, Dennis Hopper, Sally Kirkland, Dean Stockwell, Charlotte Stewart, Devo. Young and Tamblyn run a gas station in the middle of nowhere in this wacked-out, anti-nuke comedy. Notable for footage of Young in concert plus rock group Devo performing with a red, radioactive glow about them (caused by the nuclear power plant in the vicinity). ▼● Humanite´ (2000-French) C-148m. ★★★ D: Bruno Dumont. Emmanuel Schotte´, Se´verine Caneele, Philippe Tullier, Ghislain Ghesque`re, Ginette Alle`gre. Morose police superintendent (Schotte´) with a troubled past investigates the rape and murder of an 11year-old girl in a rural French town. Slow but never boring, and more a character study than a mystery or crime drama; a potent portrait of loneliness and depravity in a quietly ugly world. Written by the director. Hawk-Scope.

class-struggle drama about a businessschool student who becomes a trainee at the factory where his father works, only to find that he has to fire him. Cantet achieves a seamless Ken Loach–style social realism. Cast of nonprofessionals—except for boyishly handsome lead Lespert—is impressive.쩠 Human Stain, The (2003) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Benton. Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Ed Harris, Gary Sinise, Wentworth Miller, Jacinda Barrett, Harry Lennix, Clark Gregg, Anna Deavere Smith, Lizan Mitchell, Phyllis Newman, Margo Martindale, Mili Avital, Mimi Kuzyk. Moving, intelligent adaptation (by Nicholas Meyer) of Philip Roth’s novel about a distinguished college professor whose life is shattered by a chance remark. As he reveals more about himself to a newfound friend (Sinise), we learn that he has been living a lie for most ▼쩠 of his adult life. His chance for rebirth and Human Jungle, The (1954) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: redemption comes through an unlikely afJoseph M. Newman. Gary Merrill, Jan fair with a working-class woman much Sterling, Paula Raymond, Emile Meyer, younger than he. Rich in nuance, filled with Regis Toomey, Chuck Connors, Lamont pitch-perfect performances, and beautifully Johnson, Claude Akins. Documentary-style shot by the late Jean Yves Escoffier. Super account of a typical day at a busy police 35. [R] ▼쩠 precinct house; nicely done. Human Traffic (1999-British) C-86m. ★★ Human Monster, The (1939-British) 73m. D: Justin Kerrigan. John Simm, Lorraine ★★ D: Walter Summers. Bela Lugosi, Hugh Pilkington, Shaun Parkes, Nicola Reynolds, Williams, Greta Gynt, Edmon Ryan, WilDanny Dyer, Dean Davies. Deeply unorigifred Walter. Absurd, sometimes engaging nal Gen X fare about five Welsh twentyEdgar Wallace tale of evil Lugosi using somethings stuck in dead-end jobs; they blind men as pawns in elaborate murder work for the weekend, when life becomes scheme. Original British title: DARK EYES one big Ecstasy-drenched, debauched rave. OF LONDON. Remade in West Germany Meant to be adrenaline-pumped, nihilistic, as DEAD EYES OF LONDON. ▼●쩠 TRAINSPOTTING meets Tarantino, but it’s Human Nature (2001-French-U.S.) Cway too desperate to be rebel cool. [R] ▼쩠 1 ★★ 96m. ⁄2 D: Michel Gondry. Tim RobHumboldt County (2008) C-96m. ★★★ D: bins, Patricia Arquette, Rhys Ifans, Miranda Darren Grodsky, Danny Jacobs. Jeremy Otto, Rosie Perez, Robert Forster, Mary Strong, Fairuza Balk, Peter Bogdanovich, Kay Place, Miguel Sandoval, Paul Giamatti, Brad Dourif, Frances Conroy, Madison DavHilary Duff. Loopy film from Charlie Kaufenport, Chris Messina. Abandoned by his flaky man, who wrote BEING JOHN MALKOVone-night stand, an uptight medical school stuICH, about a tunnel-visioned research dent (Strong) finds himself among unreconscientist (Robbins) who hooks up with a structed hippies and second-generation fringe woman just back from the wild (where she dwellers who farm marijuana in the ‘‘Lost had moved because of embarrassment over Coast’’ region of Northern California. There’s her hairy body) to attempt to civilize a mana distinctively ’70s flavor to this easygoing beast (Ifans). Too laid back, but engagingly and ingratiating indie, a character-driven silly and unpredictable. [R]쩠 comedy-drama with standout performances Humanoids from the Deep (1980) C-80m. ★★★ by Dourif and Conroy as laid-back leaders D: Barbara Peeters. Doug McClure, of the counterculture community. Written Ann Turkel, Vic Morrow, Cindy Weintraub, by the directors, who also appear as Bob Anthony Penya, Denise Galik. Mutated and Steve. [R]쩠 salmon monsters with penchant for bikinied Humongous (1981-Canadian) C-93m. ★1⁄2 beachgoers commit rape and other (graphic) D: Paul Lynch. Janet Julian, David Wallace, mayhem in small oceanside town. Fast, occaJanit Baldwin, John Wildman, Joy Boushel, sionally hilarious gutter trash from the Roger Layne Coleman. Slow-moving horror film Corman stable. The finale is not for squeamish opens with brutal rape and follows with viewers. Remade in 1996 for TV. [R]▼●쩠 every cliche´ in the book. A group of youths Human Resources (2000-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: Laurent Cantet. Jalil Lespert, Jeanwho wreck their boat on a small island are picked off one at a time by a raving manClaude Vallod, Chantal Barre´, Ve´ronique de Pandelae`re, Michel Begnez. Engrossing beast. Most of the action occurs in com[ 650 ]

plete darkness and you never even get a Susan Sarandon, Cliff DeYoung, Beth good look at the monster. [R]▼ Ehlers, Dan Hedaya. Kinky trash masquerHumoresque (1946) 125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean ading as a horror film, with Deneuve as a Negulesco. Joan Crawford, John Garfield, vampire who needs fresh blood to survive. Oscar Levant, J. Carrol Naish, Craig Stevens, Bowie’s quite good as Deneuve’s comTom D’Andrea, Peggy Knudsen, Paul Cavapanion—with an aging scene that’s the nagh. Ambitious violinist Garfield gets infilm’s highlight. As for the rest, bevolved with wealthy, unstable patroness ware, unless seeing Deneuve and SaranCrawford. No cardboard soap opera this; sudon in bed together is your idea of a good perb performances, handsome production, hitime. Look for Ann Magnuson and Willem larious support from Levant, and a knockout Dafoe in small roles. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 finale. Perhaps Crawford’s finest hour. Young Hunger (2008-British-Irish) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 Robert Blake plays Garfield as a child, and D: Steve McQueen. Michael Fassbender, that’s Isaac Stern’s violin on the soundtrack. Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Brian Filmed before in 1920.▼●쩠 Milligan, Liam McMahon. Raw, riveting, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1923) minimalist account of jailed Irish Republi117m. ★★★ D: Wallace Worsley. Lon Chaney, can Army members who are horrifically Patsy Ruth Miller, Ernest Torrence, Tully abused by their British jailors. Based on the Marshall, Norman Kerry. Lavish filming events surrounding the 1981 Maze Prison of Hugo classic, capturing flair of medihunger strike, during which various IRA deeval Paris and strange attraction of outcast tainees, including Bobby Sands (played Chaney for dancing girl (Miller). Silent here by Fassbender), starved themselves to classic holds up well, with Chaney’s makeup death. Not for the faint of heart. Super 35. Hunk (1987) C-102m. ★★ D: Lawrence still incredible. Various prints survive with different running times. ▼●쩠 Bassoff. John Allen Nelson, Steve Levitt, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1939) Deborah Shelton, Rebeccah Bush, James 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Dieterle. Charles Coco, Robert Morse, Avery Schreiber. Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Youthful nerd sells his soul to become a Mitchell, Maureen O’Hara, Edmond O’Brien, California hunk—but still has to deal with Alan Marshal, Walter Hampden, Harry Davthe Devil (Coco) and his beautiful emisenport, George Zucco, Curt Bois, George sary (Shelton). Silly stuff benefits from an attractive and colorful cast. [PG] ▼●쩠 Tobias, Rod La Rocque. Superb remake of Lon Chaney silent is even better than the origHunted (1952) SEE: Stranger in Beinal. Laughton, as Victor Hugo’s misshapen tween bell-ringer Quasimodo, is haunting and unforHunted, The (1995) C-118m. ★1⁄2 D: J. F. gettable. Magnificently atmospheric studio Lawton. Christopher Lambert, John Lone, recreation of 15th-century Paris also a big Joan Chen, Yoshio Harada, Yoko Shimada. plus. Film debut of O’Brien and U.S. debut N.Y. businessman is chased by masked ninja of O’Hara. Also shown in computer-colored assassins who actively conceal their identities, version. ▼●쩠 which at least puts them one-up on some of Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1957their fellow cast members. Slicing and dicing French) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Delannoy. via DTS sound technology suggests an episode Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Quinn, Jean of The Montel Williams Show gone terribly Danet, Alain Cuny. Quinn makes a valiant wrong: titles of bona fide Japanese classics intry in lead, but film misses scope and flavor of dicate what it’s like sitting through this: GATE Hugo novel. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 OF HELL, STREET OF SHAME and—in Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1996) Lambert’s case—AN ACTOR’S REVENGE. [R] ▼●쩠 C-85m. ★★★ D: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise. Voices of Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Kevin Hunted, The (2003) C-94m. ★★★ D: WilKline, Tony Jay, Jason Alexander, Heidi liam Friedkin. Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Mollenhauer, Paul Kandel, Charles KimDel Toro, Connie Nielsen, Leslie Stefanson, brough, Mary Wickes, Jane Withers, David John Finn, Jose Zuniga, Ron Canada, Ogden Stiers. Intensely dramatic, involving Lonny Chapman, Rex Linn. When a soldier story about the pathetic, put-upon Quasi(Del Toro) is suspected in a series of brutal modo, his evil guardian Frollo, and the one murders, the FBI calls on the man (Jones) person who shows him kindness, the gypsy who helped train him as part of an elite Esmeralda. Disney’s all-time strangest choice corps of killers in Kosovo. Solid action/susfor an animated feature turns out surprisingly pense yarn with breathtaking hand-to-hand well: handsomely designed, dynamically combat scenes and kinetic camerawork (by staged, with songs that (if unmemorable) Caleb Deschanel). Jones and Del Toro apwork within the fabric of the story; comic parently did much of their own physical relief, however, involving Quasi’s three garaction—and it shows. [R] ▼쩠 goyle friends, seems contrived. Followed by Hunter, The (1980) C-97m. BOMB D: a direct-to-video sequel. [G]▼●쩠 Buzz Kulik. Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, Hunger, The (1983) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Tony Kathryn Harrold, LeVar Burton, Ben Scott. Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Johnson. Incomprehensible bio of real-life [ 651 ]

contemporary bounty hunter Ralph (Pappy) Scott Anderson’s experiences) but deflates at the finale. Super 35. [R]쩠 Thorson has plot holes that Hannibal could have led elephants through. McQueen’s last hurlyburly (1998) C-122m. ★★ D: Anthony film and probably his worst. [PG]▼●쩠 Drazan. Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey, Robin Hunters, The (1958) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wright Penn, Chazz Palminteri, Garry ShandDick Powell. Robert Mitchum, Robert ling, Anna Paquin, Meg Ryan. A seamy Wagner, Richard Egan, Mai Britt, Lee slice of life about a circle of L.A. friends— Phillips. Veteran pilot falls for wife of self-absorbed, smart-assy, driven, drugyounger flyer—who crashes behind enemy infused people desperately looking for haplines. Fair of its type. CinemaScope.▼쩠 piness in all the wrong places. David Rabe Hunt for Red October, The (1990) adapted his much-admired 1984 play, but it C-135m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John McTiernan. Sean loses something in the transition to film, Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, Sam becoming more realistic and less funny despite a powerhouse cast. [R]▼●쩠 Neill, James Earl Jones, Joss Ackland, Richard Jordan, Peter Firth, Tim Curry, Hurricane, The (1937) 102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Courtney B. Vance, Jeffrey Jones, Fred DalJohn Ford. Dorothy Lamour, Jon Hall, ton Thompson, Timothy Carhart. Exciting, Mary Astor, C. Aubrey Smith, Raymond complex thriller from the best-seller by Massey, Thomas Mitchell, John Carradine, Tom Clancy. Connery stars as a Soviet subJerome Cowan. First-rate escapism on isle marine captain who may (or may not) be of Manikoora, where idyllic native life of planning to defect to the U.S. during the Hall and Lamour is disrupted by vindictive maiden voyage of a supersecret nuclear sub; governor Massey. Climactic hurricane efBaldwin is the American intelligence ace fects have never been equaled. Lovely score who tries to anticipate his every move. by Alfred Newman. Screenplay by Dudley Long, potentially confusing at times, but alNichols and Oliver H. P. Garrett, from the ways manages to make a course correction novel by Charles Nordhoff and James Norin the nick of time . . . and deliver another man Hall. Remade in 1979. ▼●쩠 direct hit. Oscar winner for sound-effects Hurricane (1979) C-119m. BOMB D: Jan editing. Followed by PATRIOT GAMES. Troell. Jason Robards, Mia Farrow, Max Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 von Sydow, Trevor Howard, Dayton Ka’ne, Hunting (1990-Australian) C-97m. ★★ D: Timothy Bottoms, James Keach. Look what Frank Howson. John Savage, Kerry Armjust blew in: a $22 million remake of the strong, Guy Pearce, Jeffrey Thomas, Re1937 classic that may well put you to sleep! Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼쩠 becca Rigg, Rhys McConnochie. Ambitious but overwrought exercise in style, about Hurricane, The (1999) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: beautiful but deeply troubled secretary Norman Jewison. Denzel Washington, ViArmstrong, who forsakes her self-pitying cellous Reon Shannon, Deborah Kara husband, and becomes involved with allUnger, Liev Schreiber, John Hannah, Debbi powerful (and predictably evil, hypocritical) Morgan, Dan Hedaya, Clancy Brown, Harris empire-builder Savage. Panavision. [R]▼ Yulin, David Paymer, Rod Steiger. WashingHunting Party, The (1971) C-108m. ton’s powerful performance as wrongly imBOMB D: Don Medford. Oliver Reed, prisoned prizefighter Rubin ‘‘Hurricane’’ Candice Bergen, Gene Hackman, Simon Carter makes this otherwise conventional Oakland, L. Q. Jones, Ronald Howard, drama worth seeing. Shannon plays a ghetto G. D. Spradlin. When his wife is kidnapped teenager who reads Carter’s autobiography and raped by Reed and his gang, Hackman and determines to find a way to set him sets out to kill them one by one. Fine cast free. The boy’s Canadian guardians are illwasted in repellently violent Western that defined characters and weaken the story, adds nothing new to tired plot, unless you along with heavy-handed portrayals of Carter’s victimizers. [R]▼●쩠 count the bordello-equipped train. [R]쩠 Hunting Party, The (2007) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 Hurricane Streets (1998) C-88m. ★★★ D: D: Richard Shepard. Richard Gere, TerMorgan J. Freeman. Brendan Sexton III, rence Howard, Jesse Eisenberg, James Shawn Elliott, Isidra Vega, David Roland Brolin, Ljubomir Kerekesˆ, Kristina Krepela, Frank, L. M. ‘‘Kit’’ Carson, Heather MatarDiane Kruger, Joy Bryant, Dylan Baker. TV azzo, Edie Falco. Moving drama of adolesproducer Howard returns to Bosnia 5 years cents whose underlying decency is put to the after the end of the war that he covered as test in a world of petty thievery in N.Y.C.’s a cameraman with daredevil reporter Gere. East Village. Realistic, unsentimental acting Reluctant at first, he allows himself (and highlights this excellent first feature from tyro newsman Eisenberg) to be talked into writer-director Freeman (not to be confused joining a now-disgraced Gere on a wild with the actor), who puts both angst and hope into his story. [R]▼● scheme to flush out the world’s most wanted war criminal, who’s still at large in Hurry Sundown (1967) C-142m. ★★ D: the Balkans. Gripping, forceful storytelling, Otto Preminger. Michael Caine, Jane Fonda, dotted with absurdly funny moments; rings John Phillip Law, Diahann Carroll, Robert true (and is based on real-life journalist Hooks, Faye Dunaway, Burgess Mere[ 652 ]

dith, Robert Reed, George Kennedy, Frank Aldrich. Burt Reynolds, Catherine Deneuve, Converse, Loring Smith, Beah Richards, Ben Johnson, Paul Winfield, Eileen BrenMadeleine Sherwood, Rex Ingram, Jim nan, Eddie Albert, Ernest Borgnine, Jack Backus. Often ludicrous, overripe meloCarter, Catherine Bach. Pretentious, fouldrama with ruthless Southerner Caine demouthed, foul-minded story about an L.A. termined to buy up cousin’s land, stopping cop and a high-class call-girl who dream of at nothing to achieve goal. A curio for escaping from their gritty life but never make it. This one’s the pits. [R]▼쩠 Fonda and Caine’s offbeat casting, not to mention Horton Foote as one of the scriptHustle & Flow (2005) C-115m. ★★★ D: ers. Jane’s saxophone ‘‘solo,’’ though, is Craig Brewer. Terrence Howard, Taryn worth checking out. Panavision. Manning, Anthony Anderson, Taraji P. Husbands (1970) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Henson, Paula Jai Parker, Elise Neal, DJ Cassavetes. Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Qualls, Isaac Hayes, Ludacris (Chris BridCassavetes, Jenny Runacre, Jenny Lee ges). Potent drama about a small-time pimp Wright, Noelle Kao. Cassavetes’ followin Memphis who, frustrated with his deadup to FACES is not nearly as good; story end life, pursues his improbable dream to deals with trio of middle-aged buddies become a rap star. Despite the squalid setwho take off for Europe when their best ting and dialogue, this is a surprisingly oldfriend dies. Some good scenes, but plagued fashioned (even corny) movie at times. by Cassavetes’ habitual self-indulgence. First-time director Brewer lets his script and Originally released at 154m. [PG]▼ talented actors put it across without reHusbands and Wives (1992) C-107m. sorting to flashy editing techniques. Howard ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, has a commanding presence from the film’s Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, Mia Farrow, opening monologue to the final shot. Oscar Juliette Lewis, Liam Neeson, Sydney winner for Best Song, ‘‘It’s Hard Out Here Pollack, Lysette Anthony, Cristi Conaway, for a Pimp.’’ [R] 쩠 Timothy Jerome, Ron Rifkin, Jerry Zaks, Hustler, The (1961) 135m. ★★★★ D: RobBruce Jay Friedman, Benno Schmidt, Carert Rossen. Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, oline Aaron, Nora Ephron. Long-married Piper Laurie, George C. Scott, Myron couple startles their best friends by anMcCormick, Murray Hamilton, Michael nouncing they’re going to split up; meanConstantine, Jake LaMotta, Vincent Garwhile, the friends start to stray themselves. denia. Newman is outstanding as disenPerceptive, witty, knowing script by Allen chanted drifter and pool hustler who chalis brilliantly performed (especially by Davis lenges legendary Minnesota Fats (Gleason). and Pollack), though Woody and Mia’s Dingy pool-hall atmosphere vividly realheadline-making scandal at the time of the ized in this incisive film. Cinematografilm’s release made it difficult not to gripher Eugen Shuftan won an Oscar. Walter mace at some pointed dialogue. Only negative Tevis novel adapted by Sidney Carroll and note: amateurish hand-held camera and jumpdirector Rossen. Followed years later by THE cuts are jarring and distracting. [R]▼●쩠 COLOR OF MONEY. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Hush (1998) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Darby. Hustler Squad SEE: Doll Squad, The Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnathon Hysteria (1965-British) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: FredSchaech, Nina Foch, Debi Mazar, David die Francis. Robert Webber, Anthony NewThornton, Hal Holbrook. Paltrow and wealthy lands, Jennifer Jayne, Maurice Denham, boyfriend Schaech are manipulated by his Lelia Goldoni, Peter Woodthorpe, Sandra neurotic horse-rancher mother (Lange). ViewBoize. After a car accident, an amnesiac ers could read a novel while watching this Yank in London finds himself entangled in ‘‘thriller’’ and still not miss anything. Lange a complex murder plot that may or may not appears to believe she’s doing Blanche Dube a figment of his imagination. Twisty, reabois all over again. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sonably intriguing Hammer thriller starts out Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) promisingly, but gets bogged down.▼ ★★★ 133m. D: Robert Aldrich. Bette Davis, Hysterical (1983) C-87m. BOMB D: Chris Olivia de Havilland, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Bearde. William, Mark and Brett Hudson, Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Buono, Cindy Pickett, Richard Kiel, Julie NewMary Astor, Bruce Dern. Macabre story of mar, Bud Cort, Robert Donner, Murray a family with a skeleton in its closet, Hamilton, Clint Walker, Franklin Ajaye, confusing at times but worth watching for Charlie Callas, Keenan Wynn, Gary Owens. its cast. Bette is Olivia’s victimized cousLame parody of AMITYVILLE/EXORCIST in; Cotten is Olivia’s boyfriend.▼●쩠 type pictures; the start and finish of the HudHussy (1980-British) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Matsons’ screen career. [PG]▼●쩠 thew Chapman. Helen Mirren, John Shea, Murray Salem, Paul Angelis, Jenny RunI Accuse! (1958-British) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: acre. Muddled, poorly directed melodrama Jose Ferrer. Jose Ferrer, Anton Walbrook, centering on hooker Mirren, boyfriend Shea, Emlyn Williams, Viveca Lindfors, David and illicit drugs. [R]▼쩠 Hustle (1975) C-120m. BOMB D: Robert Farrar, Leo Genn, Herbert Lom, Harry [ 653 ]

Andrews, Felix Aylmer, George Coulouris, Charlie Tahan, Salli Richardson, Willow Donald Wolfit. Sincere but pretentious treatSmith, Darrell Foster, Dash Mihok. In the ment of the treason trial of Alfred Dreyfus year 2012, scientist Smith is apparently the (Ferrer), with Williams as his defender, world’s only human survivor, alone on the Emile Zola. Screenplay by Gore Vidal. island of Manhattan, following a horrifying CinemaScope. plague spread by the use of a chemical that I Aim at the Stars (1960) 107m. ★★★ D: was supposed to cure cancer. The only thing J. Lee Thompson. Curt Jurgens, Victoria that keeps him going is his blind determinaShaw, Herbert Lom, Gia Scala. Low-key tion to find an antidote to the virus before fictional history of Nazi missile scientist he’s destroyed by rampaging mutants. Third Wernher von Braun and his problems adscreen version of Richard Matheson’s novel justing to life in America. (following THE LAST MAN ON EARTH I Am a Camera (1955-British) 98m. ★★★1⁄2 and THE OMEGA MAN) benefits from D: Henry Cornelius. Julie Harris, Laurence Smith’s charisma and physicality but falls Harvey, Shelley Winters, Ron Randell, back on horror cliche´s when it comes to the Anton Diffring, Patrick McGoohan, Peter zombies. Emma Thompson appears unProwse. Intelligent adaptation of John van billed. Alternate version runs 107m. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Druten’s play (based on Christopher Isherwood stories) about prewar Berlin, with Harris i am sam (2001) C-132m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jessie a delight as a fun-loving young woman who’ll Nelson. Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diaccept anything from anyone. Screenplay by anne Wiest, Dakota Fanning, Richard John Collier. Basis of Broadway musical Schiff, Loretta Devine, Doug Hutchison, and film CABARET.▼ Laura Dern, Stanley DeSantis, Rosalind I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang Chao, Mary Steenburgen, Brent Spiner. A (1932) 93m. ★★★★ D: Mervyn LeRoy. Paul sweet, mentally retarded man becomes a faMuni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Presther, but his devotion to his loving daughter ton Foster, Edward Ellis, Allen Jenkins. Still runs aground when she reaches the age of packs a wallop after all these years, with Muni seven and a social services agency insists he as innocent man brutally victimized by crimiisn’t capable of raising her anymore. Then nal justice system. Haunting finale is justly he finds an unlikely ally: a high-powered, famous. Scripted by Sheridan Gibney and self-absorbed attorney whose own life is a Brown Holmes, from Robert E. Burns’ automess. Fine entertainment, with a great perbiographical story. Burns’ plight is also dramformance by Penn and equally good work atized in the made for cable TVM THE MAN by Pfeiffer and adorable young Fanning. WHO BROKE 1,000 CHAINS.▼●쩠 Penn’s fixation on the Beatles is reflected in I Am Cuba (1964-Russian-Cuban) 141m. a terrific soundtrack, with cover versions of ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Mikhail Kalatozov. Sergio Cortheir classic songs. [PG-13] ▼쩠 rieri, Salvador Vud, Jose Gallardo, Raul I Am the Cheese (1983) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Garcia. Luz Maria Collazo, Jean Bouise. Robert Jiras. Robert MacNaughton, Hope Sweeping, eye-popping ode to Cuba and the Lange, Don Murray, Robert Wagner, CynCastro revolution. Vignettes idealize hardthia Nixon, Lee Richardson, John Fiedler, working but exploited peasants and Castro’s Sudie Bond. Paper-thin but occasionally staunch, freedom-loving revolutionaries, appealing tale of alienated teenager who has depicting Americans as decadent, sexist witnessed his parents’ death, and his fantasies swine. And the images are consistently dazwhile under psychiatric care. From Robert zling; the film demands to be seen and saCormier’s novel. Remade as LAPSE OF vored by any lover of pure cinema. Scripted MEMORY. [PG]▼쩠 by Yevgeny Yevtushenko and Enrique Pineda I Am the Law (1938) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: AlexBarnet; released in the U.S. in 1995. ▼●쩠 ander Hall. Edward G. Robinson, Otto I Am David (2004) C-95m. ★★★ D: Paul Kruger, Wendy Barrie, John Beal, Louis Feig. Ben Tibber, Joan Plowright, Jim CaJean Heydt, Fay Helm, Barbara O’Neil. viezel, Marie Bonnevie, Viola Carinci, SilNo surprises in this story of D.A. Robinvia De Santis. In 1952, a young boy escapes son fighting corrupt city government, but from a Bulgarian labor camp and has to it’s done so smoothly you forget you’ve make his way through Italy and Switzerland seen it before. Don’t miss E.G. dancing to Denmark, and safety. The only life he’s the Big Apple at the beginning.▼● ever known is one of brutality, so he’s easI Became a Criminal SEE: They Made ily rattled—and confused—during his jourMe a Fugitive ney. Genuinely moving story avoids cheap I Can Get It for You Wholesale (1951) 90m. ★★★ D: Michael Gordon. Susan Haysentimentality and earns our emotional involvement, with a remarkable perforward, Dan Dailey, Sam Jaffe, George Sandmance by young Tibber. Impressive feature ers, Randy Stuart, Marvin Kaplan, Harry directing debut for Feig, who adapted Anne Von Zell. Hayward is aces as a modelHolm’s novel. [PG] ▼쩠 turned dress designer determined to make it in I Am Legend (2007) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: N.Y.C.’s garment industry. Jerome WeidFrancis Lawrence. Will Smith, Alice Braga, man’s flavorful novel was adapted by Vera [ 654 ]

Caspary and scripted by Abraham Polondream to start a musical ice revue, she goes sky. Aka: ONLY THE BEST. off on her own and becomes a movie star I Capture the Castle (2003-British) Covernight! Strange pastiche obviously con113m. ★★★ D: Tim Fywell. Romola Garai, cocted by MGM to showcase Shipstad and Rose Byrne, Henry Thomas, Marc Blucas, Johnson’s Ice Follies show—complete with a (boring) Technicolor finale. ●쩠 Bill Nighy, Tara Fitzgerald, Sine´ad Cusack, Henry Cavill. In the mid-1930s, a wildly Ice Harvest, The (2005) C-88m. ★★ D: Hareccentric family living in a drafty old castle old Ramis. John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, in the English countryside is changed by the Connie Nielsen, Oliver Platt, Randy Quaid, arrival of two wealthy American brothers. Mike Starr, T. J. Jagodowski. A recounting Intelligent, involving comedy-drama from of how a ‘‘perfect’’ crime goes awry one the novel by Dodie Smith (of One Hundred Christmas Eve introduces us to a variety and One Dalmatians fame). Beautifully of lowlifes in Wichita, Kansas, including photographed (by Richard Greatrex) and inlawyer Cusack and porn purveyor Thornteresting throughout, but just a shade smug. ton, who’ve been skimming money from Super 35. [R]▼쩠 their boss. Mostly unfunny black comedy Ice Age (2002) C-81m. ★★★ D: Chris must have worked better on the pages of Wedge. Voices of Ray Romano, John LeguiScott Phillips’ novel, adapted by the film’s zamo, Denis Leary, Goran Visnjic, Jack Black, coexecutive producers, Richard Russo and Tara Strong, Cedric the Entertainer, Stephen Robert Benton. [R] ▼쩠 Root, Jane Krakowski. Funny, imaginative Iceman (1984) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fred computer-animated feature that’s sort of a Schepisi. Timothy Hutton, Lindsay Crouse, prehistoric THREE GODFATHERS, with a John Lone, Josef Sommer, David Stratwoolly mammoth and a loopy sloth named hairn, Danny Glover, James Tolkan. A Sid trying to return a human baby to its tribe. Neanderthal man is found frozen in ice. SciThey’re joined by a saber-toothed tiger whose entists manage to bring him back to life, but motives aren’t so altruistic. Distinctively deonly Hutton is interested in him as a human signed, with humor geared for young and old being and not a lab specimen. Fascinating, alike. Leguizamo’s vocal performance as Sid credible science fiction made all the more is a riot. Wonderful score by David Newman. involving by Schepisi’s fine direction. HauntFollowed by a sequel. [PG] ▼쩠 ing score by Bruce Smeaton; remarkable perIce Age: The Meltdown (2006) C-90m. formance as the caveman by Lone. Story by ★★1 ⁄2 D: Carlos Saldanha. Voices of Ray John Drimmer; scripted by Chip Proser and Drimmer. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Queen Latifah, Seann William Scott, Josh Iceman Cometh, The (1973) C-178m. ★★★1 Peck, Will Arnett, Jay Leno, Stephen Root, ⁄2 D: John Frankenheimer. Lee MarRenee Taylor, Joseph Bologna. In this sevin, Fredric March, Robert Ryan, Jeff quel, our heroes learn that the ice around Bridges, Martyn Green, Moses Gunn, Bradthem is melting and they’d better move or ford Dillman, Evans Evans. Remarkably be flooded out. Along the way, Manny, fearsuccessful film of Eugene O’Neill’s play ful that he’s the last of his species, encounabout assorted barflies in a 1912 saloon; ters a fetching female wooly mammoth who Marvin’s Hickey is only adequate, but thinks she’s a possum! CG-animated family Ryan dominates an outstanding supporting fare lacks the freshness of the original (and cast. An American Film Theatre producmakes Diego the sabertooth tiger rather toothtion. First shown at 239m. This was March’s last film. [PG]▼쩠 less), but it’s enjoyable enough. The misadventures of Scrat, the hapless rodent from the Ice Palace (1960) C-143m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vinfirst film, punctuate this story. [PG]쩠 cent Sherman. Richard Burton, Robert Ryan, Ice Castles (1979) C-109m. ★★★ D: DonCarolyn Jones, Martha Hyer, Jim Backus, ald Wrye. Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Ray Danton, Shirley Knight, Diane McBain, Benson, Colleen Dewhurst, Tom Skerritt, Karl Swenson, George Takei. Typically Jennifer Warren, David Huffman. Successsprawling (and silly) Edna Ferber saga of ful ice skating career of Iowa farm girl is two men whose friendship turns to bitter interrupted after she is blinded in freak accirivalry, and whose lives parallel the develdent. Tops for the disease/affliction genre, opment of Alaska. Watchable, to be sure, with well-photographed skating sequences but hokey from start to finish.▼ and good performances by all. [PG]▼쩠 Ice Pirates, The (1984) C-91m. ★★ D: Ice Cold in Alex SEE: Desert Attack Stewart Raffill. Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Ice Follies of 1939, The (1939) 93m. ★★ D: Michael D. Roberts, John Matuszak, Reinhold Schunzel. Joan Crawford, James Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, John Stewart, Lew Ayres, Lewis Stone, Bess Carradine, Robert Symonds. Spoofy blend Ehrhardt, Lionel Stander, Roy Shipstad, of space opera and swashbuckler, set in an Eddie Shipstad, Oscar Johnson. Stewart and arid future where water has become the Ayres are skating partners who split after most precious of commodities. Script vacilJimmy marries Joan; rather than risk hurting lates between clever and half-baked; claustheir act and getting in the way of Jimmy’s trophobic direction keeps this from being [ 655 ]

more than passable rainy-afternoon fare. Nichetti’s BICYCLE THIEF–type drama [PG]▼●쩠 being presented on TV with so many comIce Princess (2005) C-92m. ★★★ D: Tim mercials that soon no one can separate the Fywell. Joan Cusack, Kim Cattrall, Miprogram from the ads . . . including the chelle Trachtenberg, Hayden Panettiere, actors in the film! Nichetti plays with his Trevor Blumas, Connie Ray, Kirsten Olson, audience, often amusingly, but pulls the rug Juliana Cannarozzo, Jocelyn Lai. High out from under a bit too often.▼ school science whiz applies her intellectual I Come in Peace (1990) C-92m. ★★ D: curiosity to a study of ice skating and unexCraig R. Baxley. Dolph Lundgren, Brian pectedly becomes a competitive skater, to Benben, Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues, the chagrin of her mom, a feminist teacher David Ackroyd, Jay Bilas, Michael J. Polwho has no respect for the sport. Entertainlard, Jesse Vint. Black-clad alien, who looks ing film for young audiences realistically like a giant surfer, arrives to harvest people portrays teenage life, parental pressures, the for their endorphins; his race is addicted to harsh reality of competition, and the exhilathem. Basically just another cop (Lundgren) ration of pursuing something you love. and new partner (FBI agent Benben) movie, Real-life Olympic skating champs Michelle with lots of explosions. Routine and unimaginative. [R]▼● Kwan and Brian Boitano appear as themselves. [G] ▼쩠 I Confess (1953) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Ice Rink, The (1999-French-Belgian-Italian) Hitchcock. Montgomery Clift, Anne BaxC-77m. ★★★ D: Jean-Philippe Toussaint. Tom ter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, Dolly Novembre, Mireille Perrier, Bruce Campbell, Haas, O. E. Hasse. A priest hears a murderDolores Chaplin, Marie-France Pisier, Jeaner’s confession and is himself accused of Pierre Cassel, Gilbert Melki, Dominique the crime. Lesser Hitchcock film, made in Deruddere. Cineastes will savor this witty, Quebec, is nevertheless intriguing for its allegorical film about the making of a stark photography and symbolism. See also movie, completely set in the title locale. Cast LE CONFESSIONNAL. ▼●쩠 includes a sultry French leading lady (ChapI Could Go on Singing (1963-British) lin, granddaughter of Charlie), a Hollywood C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Judy Garaction-hero leading man, and Lithuanian land, Dirk Bogarde, Jack Klugman, Aline hockey players; the filmmaking process is MacMahon, Gregory Phillips. Garland is amusingly portrayed as organized chaos. 쩠 famed singer returning to England to claim Ice Station Zebra (1968) C-148m. ★★1⁄2 D: illegitimate son living with real father John Sturges. Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, (Bogarde). Garland is exceptional in singPatrick McGoohan, Jim Brown, Tony Bill, ing sequences revealing the true Judy; sadly, this was her last film. Panavision.▼●쩠 Lloyd Nolan. Standard Cold War nail-biter with all-male cast has Hudson a sub comI Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Amy Heckerling. Michelle mander sailing for North Pole to await orders, not knowing that Cold War incident will Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd, Saoirse Ronan, Fred ensue; McGoohan a British agent out to trap a Willard, Jon Lovitz, Tracey Ullman, Stacey Russian spy. Based on the Alistair MacLean Dash, Sarah Alexander, Sally Kellerman, novel; originally in Cinerama. Infamous as Wallace Shawn. Desperately unfunny mix of Howard Hughes’ favorite movie! Super Patoothless showbiz satire, romantic-comedy navision 70. [G]▼●쩠 cliche´s, and charm-free fantasy, about a 40Ice Storm, The (1997) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: something TV producer (Pfeiffer) who falls Ang Lee. Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourfor the 29-year-old star (Rudd) of her teenney Weaver, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, centric TV series. Despite marquee names Henry Czerny, Adam Hann-Byrd, Tobey on both sides of the camera, this received Maguire, Jamey Sheridan, Kate Burton, no U.S. theatrical release. Henry Winkler appears unbilled. [PG-13]쩠 Larry Pine, Katie Holmes, Allison Janney. Icy adaptation of Rick Moody’s muchI Cover the War (1937) 68m. ★★ D: praised novel about a real-life ice storm in Arthur Lubin. John Wayne, Gwen Gaze, 1973 and how it parallels activities in upMajor Sam Harris, James Bush, Don Barclay. scale New Canaan, Connecticut. A sober Second-rate pulp fiction about correspondent and absorbing chronicle of sexuality—reWayne tangling with Arab rebel leader. pressed and unleashed—in ’70s suburbia I’d Climb the Highest Mountain (1951) (love those clothes!), but also somewhat C-88m. ★★★ D: Henry King. Susan Hayclinical and off-putting, until the heartrendward, William Lundigan, Rory Calhoun, ing finale. A film one can admire without Gene Lockhart, Ruth Donnelly, Barbara actually enjoying. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Bates, Lynn Bari, Alexander Knox. SimIcicle Thief, The (1989-Italian) C-85m. ple good-hearted slice of Americana filmed ★★1⁄2 D: Maurizio Nichetti. Maurizio Nichetti, on location in Georgia, with Lundigan as a Caterina Sylos Labini, Heidi Komarek, preacher whose bride must learn a new way of life in Southern hill country. ▼ Renato Scarpa. Ingenious satire of contemporary commercialism—and disrespect Ideal Husband, An (1948-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alexander Korda. Paulette Godfor the art of film on television—has [ 656 ]

★★ dard, Michael Wilding, Diana Wynyard, D: Stuart Heisler. Jack Palance, ShelC. Aubrey Smith, Glynis Johns, Michael ley Winters, Lori Nelson, Lee Marvin, Medwin. Oscar Wilde’s drawing room comEarl Holliman, Lon Chaney (Jr.), Dennis edy receives classy presentation but is slowHopper. Overblown remake of Bogart’s moving. Remade in 1999.▼ HIGH SIERRA with Palance as mad killer Ideal Husband, An (1999-British-U.S.) Cwith soft spot for crippled girl (Nelson). Winters is his moll in this gangster run96m. ★★★ D: Oliver Parker. Cate Blanchett, through. CinemaScope. ▼● Rupert Everett, Jeremy Northam, Julianne Moore, Minnie Driver, John Wood, Jeroen Idiocracy (2006) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Krabbe´, Peter Vaughan, Lindsay Duncan. Judge. Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Delightful revision of Oscar Wilde’s classic Shepard, Terry Alan Crews, David Herman, 1895 comedy about a stalwart Member of Andrew Wilson, Brad ‘‘Scarface’’ Jordan, Parliament who becomes a blackmail tarJustin Long, Thomas Haden Church, Sara get—and can’t stand the idea that his deRue; narrated by Earl Mann. It’s as simple voted wife will find him less than perfect. as this: stupid people procreate at a much One couldn’t ask for a more attractive or greater rate than smart people, so in just a appealing cast, though Everett practically few years the U.S. will be overpopulated steals the film. [PG-13]▼쩠 with idiots. When a military experiment I Deal in Danger (1966) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 sends Wilson and Rudolph 500 years into D: Walter Grauman. Robert Goulet, Christhe future, even they are stupefied by the tine Carere, Donald Harron, Werner moronic state of affairs that has all but paraPeters. Feature version of TV series Blue lyzed society. Smart, funny ideas by Judge Light involves adventures of Goulet preand cowriter Etan Cohen can’t quite keep tending to be Nazi convert in order to this scattershot movie afloat, but it’s got help Allies. 쩠 some laugh-out-loud moments. Barely reIdentification of a Woman (1982-Italianleased to theaters. Stephen Root appears unFrench) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michelangelo billed. [R]쩠 Antonioni. Tomas Milian, Daniela Silverio, Idiot, The (1951-Japanese) 166m. ★★★ D: Christine Boisson, Sandra Monteleoni, GiAkira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, Masayuki ampaolo Saccarola. A familiar Antonioni Mori, Setsuko Hara, Takashi Shimura. theme—alienation and the difficulty of iniKurosawa coscripted this updated version tiating relationships in contemporary sociof the Dostoyevsky novel, about a prince ety—is explored in this low-key tale of a and his friend who both love the same movie director (Milian) and his involvewoman. Dramatically uneven (because the ment with two women. Atmospheric, allerelease version was edited down from gorical film of interest mostly to Antonioni Kurosawa’s original cut), but there are diehards. Released in the U.S. in 1996.▼ enough flashes of brilliance to make it worthwhile.▼쩠 Identity (2003) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: James Mangold. John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Idiots, The (1998-Danish-French) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Lars von Trier. Bodil Jorgensen, John Hawkes, Rebecca De Mornay, Alfred Molina, John C. McGinley, Clea DuVall, Jake Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, Troels Busey, William Lee Scott, Leila Kenzle, PruLyby, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Henrik Prip. Preitt Taylor Vince, Matt Letscher, Bret Loehr, tending to be mentally handicapped, a group Holmes Osborne. A group of seemingly unreof 20-ish dropouts boorishly disrupt restaulated people find themselves holed up in a rants and swimming pools to gain gratis fleabag motel on a stormy night with a psycho treatment. Too dull to be controversial, this killer on the loose—or so it seems. Means to was the first Danish film shot under the be clever but at its core is a harsh, unrelent‘‘pure cinema’’ manifesto called Dogma ingly ugly rip-off of Agatha Christie’s Ten 95; the results look about as groundbreaking Little Indians. Also hampered by cliche´d charin a modern context as Vitaphone. One acters and some truly dumb dialogue. A good character talks about trying to find his cast is wasted. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 ‘‘inner idiot,’’ which, of course, Jerry Lewis Identity Crisis (1990) C-98m. BOMB D: has been doing for half a century. [R]▼ Melvin Van Peebles. Mario Van Peebles, Idiot’s Delight (1939) 105m. ★★★ D: Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Nicholas Kepros, ShelClarence Brown. Norma Shearer, Clark ley Burch, Rick Aviles, Stephen J. Cannell, Gable, Edward Arnold, Charles Coburn, Olivia Brown, Larry ‘‘Bud’’ Melman, Joseph Schildkraut, Burgess Meredith, VirBobby Rivers. Crude, messy pseudo-farce, ginia Grey. Disparate characters—including in which the spirit of a white, stereotypia tacky vaudevillian and his one-time flame, cally effeminate fashion designer is mysteriwho’s come up in the world—are forced ously transferred into the body of black, to share each other’s company in a hotel stereotypically superhip rapper. Excruciatnear the Italian border as WW2 is about to ing and, ultimately, boring. Scripted by erupt. Robert E. Sherwood’s Pulitzer Prize– Mario; produced by Melvin (who appears winning play is badly dated, an interesting as a police inspector). [R]▼ period piece, notable for its pacifist ideals I Died a Thousand Times (1955) C-109m. . . . but frankly more interesting for Ga[ 657 ]

ble’s famous song-and-dance routine to edy boasts a likable cast but slides too easily into caricature and stereotype. [PG]▼●쩠 ‘‘Puttin’ on the Ritz.’’ Alternate ending for European release was added to U.S. laserI Don’t Care Girl, The (1953) C-78m. ★★1 disc. ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Lloyd Bacon. Mitzi Gaynor, David Idle Hands (1999) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Rodman Wayne, Oscar Levant, Warren Stevens. Flender. Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Elden Premise of George Jessel preparing film Henson, Jessica Alba, Fred Willard, Jack bio of Eva Tanguay is vehicle to re-create Noseworthy, Vivica A. Fox. Lazy, dopefacets in life of the vaudeville star. smoking teenager Sawa discovers that his I Don’t Want to Be Born SEE: Devil right hand is possessed and a killer. He, Within Her, The or it, murders his parents and his two best I Don’t Want to Talk About It (1994Argentine) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Maria Luisa friends, then he tries to remedy matters. Horror comedy (with ideas reminiscent of Bemberg. Marcello Mastroianni, Luisina many other films, notably EVIL DEAD II) Brando, Alejandra Podesta. Memorable but is doomed by too many crude and genuinely not altogether compelling fable about a tasteless jokes. [R] ▼●쩠 polished Casanova who finds himself atIdlewild (2006) C-120m. ★1⁄2 D: Bryan tracted to a small town’s most cultured Barber. Andre´ Benjamin, Antwan A. (Big woman—a dwarf whose physically attracBoi) Patton, Paula Patton, Terrence Howtive but repellently possessive mother has ard, Malinda Williams, Macy Gray, Ben her own eyes set on this eligible bachelor. Vereen, Ving Rhames, Faizon Love, Patti At 70, Mastroianni remains dashing. [PG13]▼● LaBelle, Cicely Tyson, Bill Nunn, Paula Jai Parker. Train wreck of a musical featuring I Dood It (1943) 102m. ★★ D: Vincente Minthe hip-hop duo OutKast set in Prohibitionnelli. Red Skelton, Eleanor Powell, Richard era Georgia. Big Boi Patton is a smooth Ainley, Patricia Dane, Lena Horne, Hazel talker who runs a nightclub and performs; Scott, Sam Levene, Butterfly McQueen, John Benjamin is a stifled mortician’s son who Hodiak, Jimmy Dorsey and Orchestra. moonlights as a pianist and songwriter. Strained, overlong musicomedy about a taiWriter-director Barber’s self-consciously lor’s assistant obsessively in love with a stage cool shots can’t make up for long-winded, star; good songs include ‘‘Star Eyes’’ and heavy-handed storytelling and cliche´d dia‘‘Taking a Chance on Love,’’ but patchwork logue. Fragmented song-and-dance numfilm lifts its big finale from Powell’s earlier bers unsuccessfully try to merge 1930s BORN TO DANCE! A remake (more or less) of Buster Keaton’s SPITE MARRIAGE.▼ swing and hip-hop. Benjamin’s climactic song—performed during an embalming I’d Rather Be Rich (1964) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 ceremony—has to be seen to be disbeD: Jack Smight. Sandra Dee, Maurice lieved. Super 35. [R]쩠 Chevalier, Andy Williams, Robert Goulet, Idol, The (1966) 107m. ★★ D: Daniel Gene Raymond, Charles Ruggles, HerPetrie. Jennifer Jones, Michael Parks, John mione Gingold, Allen Jenkins, Rip Taylor. Leyton, Jennifer Hilary, Guy Doleman. Airy remake of IT STARTED WITH Trash about worthless type who makes it EVE. Dee finds substitute fiance´ to please with both mother and girl of his best friend; dying grandfather who wants to see her interesting only as chance to see latter-day happy. Only Chevalier-Gingold scenes Jones and watch Parks try to ape James have spice. Dean. Filmed in England.▼ I Dreamed of Africa (2000) C-112m. ★★ Idolmaker, The (1980) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Hugh Hudson. Kim Basinger, Vincent Taylor Hackford. Ray Sharkey, Tovah Perez, Eva Marie Saint, Liam Aiken, GarFeldshuh, Peter Gallagher, Paul Land, Joe rett Strommen, Daniel Craig. Story of Kuki Pantoliano, Maureen McCormick, OlymGallmann, an Italian who moves with her pia Dukakis. Fictionalized bio of rock proyoung son and new husband to remote Afriducer Bob Marcucci, who guided (pushed?) can ranch. She is determined to triumph Frankie Avalon and Fabian to stardom in over adverse conditions, and becomes pasthe late ’50s. A great idea overcome sionate about animal rights. Basinger (an by a script that builds momentum and animal activist herself) is effective, but biothen drops the ball. Good performances, pic is never quite as compelling as intended. sharp direction, though little period flavor Hawk-Scope. [PG-13]▼쩠 (even in rock vet Jeff Barry’s slick music I Drink Your Blood (1970) C-72m. ★★ D: score). [PG]▼●쩠 David Durston. Bhaskar, Jadine Wong, I Don’t Buy Kisses Anymore (1992) Ronda Fultz, George Patterson. To get C-112m. ★★ D: Robert Marcarelli. Jason Alrevenge on sadistic band of hippies, young exander, Nia Peeples, Lainie Kazan, Lou boy gives them meat pies infected with Jacobi, Eileen Brennan, Larry Storch. rabies and they go homicidally crazy. Chubby shoestore owner Alexander is beNuff said. [R]▼쩠 friended by psychology student Peeples; he I Eat Your Skin (1970) 82m. BOMB D: wants romance, but she wants to study his Del Tenney. William Joyce, Heather Hewitt, compulsive eating disorder. Romantic comBetty Hyatt Linton, Dan Stapleton, Walter [ 658 ]

Coy, Robert Stanton. Scientifically created James, Carmen Miranda, Phil Silvers, Edzombies menace two-fisted hero on Caribgar Buchanan, Reed Hadley. James’ band bean island. Worthless. Filmed in 1964. Aka is broke and unemployed, and becomes VOODOO BLOODBATH. [PG]▼쩠 involved with politician Buchanan’s ‘‘comI Escaped from Devil’s Island (1973) mon man’’ campaign. Paper-thin remake of C-89m. BOMB D: William Witney. Jim THANKS A MILLION, occasionally upBrown, Christopher George, Paul Richlifted by Silvers’ and Miranda’s spunk.쩠 ards, Rick Ely, Richard Rust, Jan Merlin. If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium Produced by the Corman boys (Roger and (1969) C-99m. ★★★ D: Mel Stuart. SuGene) in Mexico and the Caribbean, this zanne Pleshette, Ian McShane, Mildred actioner is an insult to vet director Witney’s Natwick, Murray Hamilton, Sandy Baron, standing with buffs who know his earlier Michael Constantine, Norman Fell, Peggy work. Violent, vulgar. [R] Cass, Joan Collins. Funny study of Ameriif. . . . (1968-British) C/B&W-111m. ★★★★ cans abroad on quickie tour; filmed throughD: Lindsay Anderson. Malcolm McDowell, out Europe. Host of cameos sprinkled David Wood, Richard Warwick, Robert throughout. Rehashed as a TV movie in Swann, Christine Noonan, Arthur Lowe, 1987. [G]▼●쩠 Mona Washbourne, Graham Crowden, If I Were King (1938) 101m. ★★★ D: Simon Ward. Magnificent, surrealistic study Frank Lloyd. Ronald Colman, Frances of students at boarding school who plot Dee, Basil Rathbone, Ellen Drew, C. V. revolution—or do they? Originally X-rated, France, Henry Wilcoxon, Heather Thatcher, later trimmed for wider acceptance. Written Sidney Toler. Colman (with that inimitable by David Sherwin. [R]▼●쩠 voice) is ideally cast as the French poetIf a Man Answers (1962) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 rogue Franc¸ois Villon, who matches wits D: Henry Levin. Sandra Dee, Bobby with the crafty King Louis XI (Rathbone) Darin, Micheline Presle, John Lund, and falls hopelessly in love with a lady-inCesar Romero, Stefanie Powers, Chriswaiting (Dee). Forget historical accuracy; topher Knight, Charlene Holt. Trite pap this is just good entertainment. Scripted by of Dee and Darin (then married in real Preston Sturges. Filmed before in 1920 and, life) trying to outdo each other with as the operetta THE VAGABOND KING, jealousy-baiting antics.쩠 in 1930 and again in 1956. Villon was also If Ever I See You Again (1978) C-105m. played by John Barrymore in THE BE★1 ⁄2 D: Joe Brooks. Joe Brooks, Shelley LOVED ROGUE (1927).▼ Hack, Jimmy Breslin, Jerry Keller, George If Looks Could Kill (1991) C-88m. ★★ D: Plimpton, Danielle Brisebois. ProducerWilliam Dear. Richard Grieco, Linda Hunt, director-writer-composer-arranger-conducRoger Rees, Robin Bartlett, Gabrielle tor Brooks’ follow-up to his mediocre YOU Anwar, Geraldine James, Carole Davis, LIGHT UP MY LIFE is even worse; this Roger Daltrey. Class clown is mistaken time he stars, as a songwriter trying to for a top undercover agent while touring rekindle old flame with Hack (in her starParis with his high school class; standard ring movie debut). Breslin should stick to flunk-out slapstick ensues. Negligible, writing. [PG]▼ though Hunt adds a touch of class as a If He Hollers, Let Him Go (1968) C-106m. whip-wielding villainess. [PG-13]▼● ★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Martin. Raymond St. If Lucy Fell (1996) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric Jacques, Kevin McCarthy, Barbara McNair, Schaeffer. Sarah Jessica Parker, Eric Dana Wynter, Arthur O’Connell, John RusSchaeffer, Ben Stiller, Elle Macpherson, sell, Ann Prentiss, Royal Dano. Prison James Rebhorn, Robert John Burke, David escapee St. Jacques tries to clear himThornton, Dominic Chianese, Mujibur Rahself of false rape-murder charge. Lots of man, Sirajul Islam, Scarlett Johansson. Puerile cliche´s, plus McNair’s celebrated nude ‘‘romantic comedy,’’ with writer-director Schaeffer playing an artist of arrested emoscenes. Aka DEAD RIGHT. [R]▼ 1 ★★★ If I Had a Million (1932) 83m. tional development who shares an apart⁄2 D: James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone, Stement with Parker, a therapist (!) with whom phen Roberts, William A. Seiter, Ernst he also shares a ‘‘death pact,’’ if neither one Lubitsch, Norman Taurog, Norman Z. has found the perfect mate by the age of 30. McLeod. Gary Cooper, George Raft, Mary Any resemblance between these characters Boland, Charles Laughton, W. C. Fields, and actual human beings is strictly coinciWynne Gibson, Gene Raymond, Charlie dental. Schaeffer isn’t dumb, however; he Ruggles, Alison Skipworth, Jack Oakie, wrote himself a makeout scene with supermodel Macpherson. [R]▼●쩠 Frances Dee, Richard Bennett. Wealthy Bennett gives that sum to various people; If Winter Comes (1947) 97m. ★★ D: all the episodes are good, but the most faVictor Saville. Walter Pidgeon, Deborah mous are Laughton’s worm-turning and Kerr, Angela Lansbury, Binnie Barnes, Fields’ revenge on road hogs.● Janet Leigh, Dame May Whitty, Reginald If I’m Lucky (1946) 79m. ★★ D: Lewis Owen. Good cast fails to enliven wooden Seiler. Vivian Blaine, Perry Como, Harry drama about a crisis in the life of kindly, [ 659 ]

highly principled Pidgeon, living in a stuffy whole hood when they get their hands on a small town outside London and trapped in a truckload of ‘‘hot’’ beepers and cell phones. marriage to coldhearted Lansbury. Dopey vehicle for rapper/producer Master If You Can’t Say It, Just See It SEE: P, and an unremarkable feature debut for Whore R&B video director Martin. Makes FRIDAY look like RASHOMON. [R]▼●쩠 If You Could Only Cook (1935) 70m. ★★★ D: William A. Seiter. Herbert MarI Hate Actors (1986-French) C/B&W90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gerard Krawrzyk. Jean shall, Jean Arthur, Leo Carrillo, Lionel Stander, Alan Edwards. Arthur and MarPoiret, Michel Blanc, Bernard Blier, Michel shall are superb team in this delightful comGalabru, Guy Marchand, Dominique Laedy of wealthy automobile tycoon/inventor vanant. Cute, slight little satire on Hollyand penniless woman, who, for complex wood, with a series of murders comically reasons, become mobster Carrillo’s maid disrupting the filming of a costume epic; and butler. This film wrongly carried Frank agent Poiret is the prime suspect. Based on Capra’s name as director in many European a novel by Ben Hecht and filmed mostly in prints as a fraudulent studio effort to exploit beautiful black-and-white; set in Tinseltown, his massive popularity.쩠 yet all of the dialogue’s in French. Look If You Could See What I Hear (1982very carefully for Ge´rard Depardieu. [PG] I Hate Blondes (1981-Italian) C-89m. ★★★ Canadian) C-103m. ★★ D: Eric Till. Marc Singer, R. H. Thompson, Sarah Torgov, D: Giorgio Capitani. Enrico Montesano, Shari Belafonte Harper, Douglas Campbell, Jean Rochefort, Corinne Clery, Marina Helen Burns. Well-intentioned but overly Langner, Paola Tedesco, Ivan Desny. Funny cute, ultimately unreal biography of Tom comedy about ghostwriter Montesano, whose Sullivan (Singer), the writer, composer, work inspires a series of real-life heists. athlete, TV personality and Renaissance Crammed with sight gags; highlighted by a man who happens to be blind. [PG]▼● sequence in which Montesano searches for Igby Goes Down (2002) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: stolen jewels at a party.▼ Burr Steers. Kieran Culkin, Ryan Phillippe, I Hate Your Guts! SEE: Intruder, The Claire Danes, Amanda Peet, Jeff Goldblum, i ♥ huckabees (2004) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Susan Sarandon, Bill Pullman, Celia WesDavid O. Russell. Jason Schwartzman, Duston, Bill Irwin, Rory Culkin, Jared Harris. tin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Mark Somber comedy-drama about a screwed-up Wahlberg, Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert, rich kid with a nutty mother and a schizoJean Smart, Tippi Hedren, Bob Gunton, phrenic father; he refuses to stay in school Shania Twain. Young man seeking the and won’t listen to anyone, least of all his source of coincidences in his life hires a preppie older brother. As a result, he’s husband-and-wife team of existential deteckicked around by life in general and most of tives who try to show him that everything in the people he meets. Some striking vilife is interconnected. Amusing, impudent gnettes but not a successful film on the comedy about the search for life’s imponwhole; Culkin’s fine performance helps, derables resonates with the fun of watching along with a talented cast. Written by the so many good actors bring oddball characdirector. Gore Vidal makes a cameo appearters to life. Doesn’t necessarily lead anyance. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 where, but the journey is enjoyable enough. I Girasoli SEE: Sunflower (1969) Jon Brion offers an appropriately odd music Igor (2008) C-87m. ★★ D: Anthony score. Talia Shire, Schwartzman’s real-life Leondis. Voices of John Cusack, Jennifer mom, plays his mother. Richard Jenkins apCoolidge, John Cleese, Steve Buscemi, pears unbilled. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Molly Shannon, Sean Hayes, Eddie Izzard, Ikarie XB1 SEE: Voyage to the End of Jay Leno, Christian Slater. Mad scientist’s the Universe hunchbacked lab assistant takes over when I Killed Rasputin (1967-French-Italian) Chis master unexpectedly dies. With the help 95m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Hossein. Gert Frobe, of a sarcastic laboratory rabbit and a fussy Peter McEnery, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert robot, Igor creates a she-monster and later Hossein, Ira Furstenberg, Ivan Desny. Wellsaves the kingdom from an evil ruler. Lots mounted but ponderous story of the men of lightning and electrical effects . . . but who befriended and then murdered Rasputin. Frobe is simply awful. Franscope.▼ nothing comes to life. Mediocre computergenerated animated feature feels like a Tim Ikiru (1952-Japanese) 143m. ★★★★ D: Burton wannabe without any of Burton’s Akira Kurosawa. Takashi Shimura, Nobuo style or appeal. [PG]쩠 Kaneko, Kyoko Seki, Miki Odagiri, YunoI Got the Hook Up (1998) C-93m. BOMB suke Ito. Minor bureaucrat Shimura, dying D: Michael Martin. Master P, A.J. Johnson, of cancer, searches for meaning in his life. Gretchen Palmer, Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, Thoughtful, poignant examination of loneliHelen Martin, John Witherspoon, Ice Cube, ness, with a brilliant performance by Shimura. Mia X, Snoop Doggy Dogg. Witless, interServes as inspiration for LIFE AS A minable blaxploitation comedy about South HOUSE. ▼●쩠 Central L.A. con artists who hoodwink the I Know What You Did Last Summer [ 660 ]

(1997) C-100m. ★★ D: Jim Gillespie. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Johnny Galecki, Bridgette Wilson, Anne Heche, Muse Watson. In coastal North Carolina, four friends accidentally run down a pedestrian on a lonely road. They dump the body into the sea and vow never to mention it again. But a year later, they each begin receiving the title message in the mail, and then the murders begin. . . . Scripter Kevin Williamson’s attempt at a SCREAM follow-up is too routine to succeed overall. Followed by I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Panavision. [R]

law. Subdued satirical remake of TOPAZE, with Sellers the timid schoolteacher who becomes an unscrupulous businessman. British title: TOPAZE. CinemaScope. I Live My Life (1935) 92m. ★★ D: W. S. Van Dyke II. Joan Crawford, Brian Aherne, Frank Morgan, Aline MacMahon, Eric Blore, Fred Keating, Jessie Ralph, Arthur Treacher, Frank Conroy, Sterling Holloway, Vince Barnett, Hedda Hopper, Lionel Stander. Crawford and Aherne are in love, but she’s flighty and he’s an archeologist. Glossy and empty. Scripted by Joseph L. Mankiewicz.▼ Il Ladro di Bambini SEE: Stolen Children I’ll Be Home for Christmas (1998) C▼●쩠 I Know Where I’m Going! (1945-British) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arlene Sanford. Jonathan ★★★★ D: Michael Powell, Emeric 91m. Taylor Thomas, Jessica Biel, Adam LaVorPressburger. Wendy Hiller, Roger Livesey, gna, Sean O’Bryan, Gary Cole, Kathleen Finlay Currie, Pamela Brown, Valentine Freeman, Amzie Strickland. Conniving colDyall, Petula Clark. Simple film of headlege kid tries to make his way cross-country strong girl (Hiller) who plans to marry for to be home for Christmas dinner, only bemoney, stranded in Scottish seacoast town for cause his dad has promised him a Porsche if a week, where she meets and slowly falls in he does. Fairly predictable boy-gets-girl, love with Livesey. Very little plot, but an boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-again-and-learnsabundance of charm and wit. A quiet gem. a-lesson comedy aimed at young fans of the Beautifully scripted by the filmmakers. teenage star. [PG]▼●쩠 I’ll Be Seeing You (1945) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: ▼●쩠 I Know Who Killed Me (2007) C-105m. William Dieterle. Ginger Rogers, Joseph BOMB D: Chris Sivertson. Lindsay Lohan, Cotten, Shirley Temple, Spring Byington, Julia Ormond, Neal McDonough, Brian Tom Tully, John Derek. Overblown David Geraghty, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, SpenSelznick schmaltz. Rogers, convict home cer Garrett, Gregory Itzin. Hopeless thriller on parole, meets disturbed soldier Cotten and they fall in love. 쩠 in which a young woman is kidnapped and terrorized by a serial killer. When she wakes I’ll Be Yours (1947) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wilup in a hospital, she tries to convince everyliam A. Seiter. Deanna Durbin, Tom Drake, one she is not who they think she is. WoeAdolphe Menjou, William Bendix, Frankfully inept, with an incoherent plot and lin Pangborn. Pleasant but undistinguished incompetent cinematography. HD Wideremake of THE GOOD FAIRY with Descreen. [R]쩠 anna in hot water after telling white lie to Il Bell’ Antonio SEE: Bell’ Antonio wealthy and amorous Menjou.▼ Il Bidone SEE: Swindle, The (1955) I’ll Cry Tomorrow (1955) 117m. ★★★1⁄2 Il Grido (1957-Italian) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiD: Daniel Mann. Susan Hayward, Richard chelangelo Antonioni. Steve Cochran, Alida Conte, Jo Van Fleet, Ray Danton, Eddie Valli, Dorian Gray, Betsy Blair, Lyn Shaw. Albert, Margo. Superlative portrayal by Leisurely paced yet compelling study of Hayward of star Lillian Roth, her assorted Cochran’s mental disintegration due to lack of marriages and alcoholic problems. Everything communication with those he loves; Cochran a movie biography should be. Helen Rose is quite good. Aka THE OUTCRY. ▼쩠 won an Oscar for her costumes. Also shown I Like It Like That (1994) C-105m. ★★★ in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 D: Darnell Martin. Lauren Velez, Jon Seda, I’ll Do Anything (1994) C-115m. ★★ D: Tomas Melly, Desiree Casado, Isaiah GarJames L. Brooks. Nick Nolte, Albert cia, Jesse Borrego, Lisa Vidal, Griffin Brooks, Julie Kavner, Joely Richardson, Dunne, Rita Moreno. Fresh, vibrant little Tracey Ullman, Whittni Wright, Jeb Brown, film about a Latino woman from the Bronx Joely Fisher, Ian McKellen, Suzzanne whose tumultuous, love/hate relationship Douglas, Robert Joy, Harry Shearer, Rosie with her husband and three kids is rocked O’Donnell, Ken Page, Woody Harrelson, when she stumbles into a job—an exciting Patrick Cassidy, Anne Heche. Self-abone, no less—in the record business. sorbed actor whose career is on the ropes is Writer-director Darnell Martin examines suddenly forced to care for his six-year-old real, everyday issues with zest, humor, and daughter. Writer-director Brooks tries to the ring of truth. [R]▼●쩠 weave a tale of fatherhood into a cutting I Like Money (1960-British) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 look behind the scenes of Hollywood, with D: Peter Sellers. Peter Sellers, Nadia Gray, discouragingly spotty results. Some great Herbert Lom, Leo McKern, Martita Hunt, ‘‘in’’ material shares screen time with an John Neville, Michael Gough, Billie Whitearray of truly dislikeable characters. Kavner [ 661 ]

and Albert Brooks come off best, as a neurotic D: Ingmar Bergman. Maj-Britt Nilsson, match made in heaven. Shot as a musical, Alf Kjellin, Birger Malmsten, Georg Funkbefore test screenings indicated all the musical quist. Moody film using flashback retells Nilsnumbers should come out! [PG-13]▼●쩠 son’s romance with now-dead lover, and its Illegal (1955) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Allen. relationship to her present frame of mind. Edward G. Robinson, Nina Foch, Hugh Original title: SUMMERPLAY; video title: Marlowe, Jayne Mansfield, Albert Dekker, SUMMER INTERLUDE.▼ Ellen Corby, DeForest Kelley, Howard Ill Met By Moonlight SEE: Night AmSt. John. Former D.A. Robinson becomes bush criminal attorney with gangster client, but I’ll Never Forget What’s ’Isname (1967lays reputation—and life—on the line to British) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Windefend former assistant Foch for homicide. ner. Orson Welles, Oliver Reed, Carol Valiant attempt to recapture spark of earWhite, Harry Andrews, Michael Hordern, lier Robinson vehicles; remake of THE Wendy Craig, Marianne Faithfull, Peter MOUTHPIECE.▼쩠 Graves, Frank Finlay, Edward Fox. Excellent Illegal in Blue (1994) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stu comedy-drama in which one man rebels Segall. Stacey Dash, Dan Gauthier, Louis against his good life and tries vainly to go Giambalvo, Trevor Goddard, Michael Durback to simpler days. Script by Peter Draper. rell, Sandra Reinhardt, David Groh, Raye ▼쩠 Birk. Cop Gauthier, on leave without pay I’ll See You in My Dreams (1951) 110m. ★★1 after turning in some crooked coworkers, ⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Doris Day, Danny becomes involved with a sultry nightclub Thomas, Frank Lovejoy, Patrice Wymore, singer (Dash) who may or may not have James Gleason. Warner Bros. formula murdered her husband. Atmospheric 1990s musical biography at its hokiest: trite tellfilm noir is occasionally illogical but fun ing of Gus Kahn’s life and times; songs nonetheless, and quite sexy. Unrated verinclude ‘‘Ain’t We Got Fun,’’ ‘‘It Had to sion also available. [R]▼ Be You.’’▼●쩠 Illegal Tender (2007) C-108m. ★★ D: I’ll sleep when I’m dead (2004-U.S.Franc. Reyes. Rick Gonzalez, Wanda De British) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Mike Hodges. Jesus, Dania Ramirez, Antonio Ortiz, Tego Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jonathan Calderon, Jessica Pimentel, Manny Perez. Rhys Meyers, Malcolm McDowell. Sudden N.Y.C. drug dealer is gunned down the death of a young would-be hustler brings same night his wife gives birth. Twenty his brother—a former local crime boss— years later, the mother is living a nice life in out of isolation, looking for explanations a suburb with her college-student son. and revenge. Lugubrious drama doesn’t When thugs arrive to finish off a job started lead anywhere especially interesting, and two decades earlier, she shows her true coltakes its time getting there, to boot. A disapors, turning into a pistol-packing mama. pointing reunion for the director and star of Pulpy, Latin-flavored melodrama has lots of CROUPIER. [R] 쩠 fireworks and a good performance by De I’ll Take Sweden (1965) C-96m. ★★ D: Jesus, but is brought down by mindless vioFrederick de Cordova. Bob Hope, Dina lence and an incredible plotline that walMerrill, Tuesday Weld, Frankie Avalon, lows in stereotypes. Super 35. [R]쩠 Jeremy Slate. Pseudo-sexy Hope vehicle, Illegally Yours (1988) C-102m. BOMB with everyone frantic over life and love; D: Peter Bogdanovich. Rob Lowe, Colwitless proceedings.▼쩠 leen Camp, Harry Carey, Jr., Kenneth illtown (1998) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Nick Gomez. Mars, Kim Myers. Juror Lowe is shocked Michael Rapaport, Lili Taylor, Adam Trese, to see that defendant Camp was once the Kevin Corrigan, Paul Schulze, Angela Feathgirl he lusted for in elementary school, and erstone, Saul Stein, Tony Danza, Isaac Hayes. snoops around on his own to clear her of Good cast flounders in this downer of a the charge. Barely released, painfully unfunny drama about drug dealers Rapaport, Taylor, farce, with Bogdanovich still trying to and Corrigan—they’re the good guys—and emulate Howard Hawks; how bizarre to see a vengeance-seeking ex-partner (Trese) pratfalling Lowe (in glasses) aping Ryan who’s just been released from jail. PretenO’Neal in WHAT’S UP DOC?—who, in tious, boring, and crammed with fuzzy morturn, was aping Cary Grant in BRINGING alizing. Of note for Danza’s offbeat casting as a gay crimelord. Filmed in 1995. [R]▼● UP BABY. [PG]▼쩠 Illicit (1931) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: Archie Mayo. Illuminata (1999) C-111m. ★★ D: John Barbara Stanwyck, James Rennie, Ricardo Turturro. John Turturro, Katherine BoroCortez, Joan Blondell, Charles Butterworth, witz, Susan Sarandon, Christopher Walken, Natalie Moorhead. Independent-minded Rufus Sewell, Beverly D’Angelo, Donal Stanwyck loves Rennie, but doesn’t want McCann, Georgina Cates, Ben Gazzara, marriage to taint her happiness. Boring, Aida Turturro. Life, love, lust, and ambition badly directed, overly talky ‘‘talkie.’’ Rein a theatrical troupe in turn-of-the-20thcentury N.Y.C. (although the flavor is dismade two years later as EX-LADY.▼● Illicit Interlude (1951-Swedish) 94m. ★★1⁄2 tinctly European). Playwright Turturro is in [ 662 ]

love with the company’s star/manager, and longs to have her perform his latest play. Lively, even campy, roles for a fine cast spark this good-looking but often lumbering production, which plays like a French farce in slow motion. Turturro coscripted with Brandon Cole, based on the latter’s play. [R]▼쩠 Illusionist, The (2006) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Neil Burger. Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell, Edward (Eddie) Marsan, Jake Wood, Tom Fisher. In turnof-20th-century Vienna the imperious Crown Prince Leopold (Sewell) sees a master stage magician (Norton) as a threat— especially when it’s clear that the Prince’s fiance´e (Biel) is smitten with the illusionist. Intriguing story lets down toward the end and becomes disappointingly ordinary. Giamatti is especially good as a tenacious police inspector. Based on a short story by Steven Millhauser. Music by Philip Glass. [PG-13]쩠 Illusion Travels by Streetcar (1953Mexican) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. Lilia Prado, Carlos Navarro, Domingo Soler, Fernando Soto, Agustin Isunza. Two transit workers steal a streetcar destined for the scrap heap, take it on one last run, picking up odd assortment of passengers. Agreeable (if lesser) Bun˜uel fable.▼쩠 Illustrated Man, The (1969) C-103m. ★★ D: Jack Smight. Rod Steiger, Claire Bloom, Robert Drivas, Don Dubbins, Jason Evers, Tim Weldon, Christie Matchett. Young wanderer Drivas meets tattooed man Steiger, searching for the strange woman (Bloom), who ‘‘illustrated’’ his entire body. The wanderer sees futuristic tales in three of the illustrations, all of which also star Steiger and/or Bloom and Drivas. Disappointing, slow-paced adaptation of stories from Ray Bradbury. Panavision. [M/PG]

romancing Blair while searching for her missing sister-in-law. I Love Trouble (1994) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Shyer. Julia Roberts, Nick Nolte, Saul Rubinek, James Rebhorn, Robert Loggia, Kelly Rutherford, Olympia Dukakis, Marsha Mason, Eugene Levy, Charles Martin Smith, Dan Butler, Paul Gleason, Nora Dunn, Keith Gordon, Dorothy Lyman, Stuart Pankin, Megan Cavanagh, Jessica Lundy, Robin Duke. Rival Chicago newspaper reporters reluctantly join forces to investigate a mysterious train wreck—and, naturally, fall in love. A likable homage to vintage Hollywood bickering/bantering romantic comedies with a touch of adventure and suspense thrown in; there are even oldfashioned ‘‘wipes’’ between shots. Unfortunately, the film’s overlength hampers its cuteness, and reveals the degree of contrivance at work. [PG]▼●쩠 I Love You (1981-Brazilian) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Arnaldo Jabor. Sonia Braga, Paulo Cesar Pereio, Vera Fischer, Tarcisio Meira, Maria Lucia Dahl, Regina Case. Silly, pretentiously arty chronicle of relationship between Braga and Pereio, each of whom tries to manipulate the other. Sonia, however, is lovely to look at. [R]▼ I Love You Again (1940) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: W. S. Van Dyke II. William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh, Edmund Lowe, Donald Douglas, Nella Walker. Hilarious story of amnesiac Powell—solid citizen in a small town—reverting to former life as con-man, but trying to forestall divorce proceedings by ‘‘his’’ wife (Loy). Ingenious script by Charles Lederer, George Oppenheimer, and Harry Kurnitz.▼●쩠 I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hy Averback. Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Leigh Taylor-Young, Joyce Van Patten. Excellent comedy about the freaking out of mild-mannered L.A. lawyer. ▼●쩠 I Love Melvin (1953) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Sellers has never been better. Written by Larry Tucker and Paul Mazursky. [R]▼●쩠 Weis. Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Una Merkel, Allyn Joslyn, Richard AnderI Love You, I Love You Not (1979) SEE: son, Noreen Corcoran, Jim Backus, Robert Together? Taylor. N.Y.C. location filming enhances I Love You, I Love You Not (1996French-German-British-U.S.) C-92m. ★★ this cute musical, spotlighting lowly photo assistant O’Connor’s attempt to impress D: Billy Hopkins. Jeanne Moreau, Claire ambitious dancer Reynolds by pretending Danes, Jude Law, James Van Der Beek, Kris that he can get her picture in Look magaPark, Lauren Fox, Emily Burkes-Nossiter, zine. ▼● Robert Sean Leonard, Julia Stiles. DisapI Love My . . . Wife (1970) C-95m. ★★ pointingly overwrought drama about a shy D: Mel Stuart. Elliott Gould, Brenda teen (Danes) who attends a Manhattan prep Vaccaro, Angel Tompkins, Dabney Coleschool; she has a crush on the school hunk man, Joan Tompkins. The kind of comedy (Law), and encounters anti-Semitism when for which the word ‘‘vehicle’’ was inventher classmates learn that her beloved granded. Rarely funny chronicle of Gould’s lifemother (the ever-resplendent Moreau) is a long sexual hangups suffers from witless Holocaust survivor. Scripted by Wendy script, bland direction. [R]▼ Kesselman, based on her play; Danes also I Love Trouble (1948) 94m. ★★★ D: S. plays the grandmother (as a young woman) in the Holocaust sequences.▼●쩠 Sylvan Simon. Franchot Tone, Janet Blair, Janis Carter, Adele Jergens, Glenda FarI Love You, Man (2009) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 rell. Flippant mystery with private-eye Tone D: John Hamburg. Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, [ 663 ]

Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, J. K. Simsurprise: the story is imaginative, scary and mons, Jane Curtin, Jon Favreau, Jaime funny, the effects are clever, and the cast Pressly, Rob Huebel, Thomas Lennon, Sarah above average; there’s also a wow of an ending. If it only made sense . . . [R]▼●쩠 Burns, Lou Ferrigno. Straight-arrow nice guy Rudd plans to wed girlfriend Jones, but Imagemaker, The (1986) C-93m. ★★ D: comes to realize he doesn’t have any real Hal Wiener. Michael Nouri, Jerry Orbach, buddies—and no one to serve as best man. In Jessica Harper, Anne Twomey, Farley his quest to make friends he bonds with overGranger, Maury Povich, Marcia Gay Harden. age adolescent Segel, who’s fun to be with The President’s ex-media adviser, still reelbut turns out to be a very loose cannon. The ing from his wife’s death, has an audio two main characters are sharply drawn and tape that could incriminate his former boss; well played in this comedy but the raunch genuine or bogus, people are literally dying factor is uncomfortably high. Incredible Hulk to get their hands on it. A muddled mess, TV star Ferrigno plays . . . himself. [R] though a sometimes entertaining one; high I Love Your Work (2005) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 point is a hilariously melodramatic scene D: Adam Goldberg. Giovanni Ribisi, Franka on a Washington talk show. Twomey Potente, Joshua Jackson, Marisa Coughlan, good as an ambitious TV reporter. [R]▼ Christina Ricci, Jared Harris, Elvis Costello, Images (1972-U.S.-British) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 Jason Lee, Nicky Katt, Randall Batinkoff, D: Robert Altman. Susannah York, Rene Haylie Duff, Judy Greer, Shalom Harlow, Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Hugh Millais, Vince Vaughn, Lake Bell. Hot young film Cathryn Harrison. Difficult but fascinating actor (Ribisi) has a tempestuous relationship film about a troubled woman who tries to with his movie-star wife while being consort out her life; images of reality and stantly pawed at in public; as he yearns for fantasy clash in a kind of continuous halan ordinary life, he becomes convinced he’s lucination. Off-putting at first, but worth being stalked by a fan. Obvious, occasionthe effort to hang on. Filmed in Ireland. ally rambling, but still an attention-grabbing Panavision. [R]쩠 exploration of the pitfalls of celebrity. GoldImaginary Crimes (1994) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 berg cowrote, coproduced, and collaborated D: Anthony Drazan. Harvey Keitel, Fairuza on the music. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Balk, Kelly Lynch, Vincent D’Onofrio, I Love You to Death (1990) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Elisabeth Moss, Diane Baker, Chris Penn, D: Lawrence Kasdan. Kevin Kline, Tracey Amber Benson, Seymour Cassel, Annette Ullman, Joan Plowright, River Phoenix, O’Toole. Thoughtful, moving (if ultimately William Hurt, Keanu Reeves, James Gamoverly familiar) coming-of-age story with mon, Victoria Jackson, Miriam Margolyes, Keitel doing well as a hustler-dreamer who Heather Graham. Lumpy black comedy tries to be the best father he can to his two about a gregarious Italian-American pizzeria motherless daughters: drab 17-year-old owner whose constant womanizing remains a Balk and younger sister Moss. Lynch shines secret to his wife—until one day when she in her few flashback scenes as the family’s deceased wife-mother. [PG]▼●쩠 learns the truth, and then attempts to murder him, with spectacular lack of success. Kline Imaginary Heroes (2004) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 is fun, Plowright is hilarious as his mordant, D: Dan Harris. Sigourney Weaver, Emile Slavic mother-in-law, but unfortunately, the Hirsch, Jeff Daniels, Michelle Williams, film goes flat. Director Kasdan plays a lawyer Kip Pardue, Deirdre O’Connell, Ryan Doin the closing scenes; Kline’s real-life wife, nowho, Suzanne Santo, Jay Paulson. A Phoebe Cates, has an unbilled part as one of shape-shifting drama laced with dark humor his one-night stands. Amazingly, based on a about a suburban family struck by tragedy. real-life couple! [R]▼●쩠 A strong-willed mother, a disconsolate faIl Postino SEE: Postman, The (1994) ther, and an emotionally fragile brother each Il Posto (1961-Italian) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Erstruggles to cope with his own demons and manno Olmi. Sandro Panseri, Loredana each other. Writer-director Harris (in his Detto, Tullio Kezich, Mara Revel. This feature debut) presents a dysfunctional famearly Olmi feature has something of the feel ily to match any in ancient Greek tragedy, of early Truffaut and Milos Forman in its with mixed results—but superior perforportrayal of everyday life with its tiny trimances. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 umphs and failures. Simple story concerns a Imagine: John Lennon (1988) C-103m. ★★1 teenaged boy getting his first job and meet⁄2 D: Andrew Solt. Narrated by John Lening a girl, but the beauty of the film is in the non. Unusual documentary, produced by Solt loving and perceptive observation of human and David L. Wolper, assembled from 240 behavior. A small-scale gem. 쩠 hours of footage from Yoko Ono’s personal I, Madman (1989) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tibor archives. Not exactly a puff job, but a bit Takacs. Jenny Wright, Clayton Rohner, discomforting given the obvious calculation Randall William Cook, Steven Memel, that went into the project. Not to be missed Stephanie Hodge. A young woman’s readare Lennon’s confrontations with Al Capp ing of a novel brings its murderous, superand journalist Gloria Emerson. [R]▼●쩠 natural author back to life. A nice, small Imagine Me & You (2006-British-German) [ 664 ]

C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ol Parker. Piper Perabo, Talbott notices that husband Tryon (as Lena Headey, Matthew Goode, Celia Imrie, well as some of his friends) has been beAnthony (Stewart) Head, Darren Boyd, Sue having very peculiarly of late. Some nice, Johnston, Eva Birthistle, Ruth Sheen. Amicreepy moments in chiller which has slowly able romance with a twist: Perabo weds her developed a cult following. Remade for TV in 1998.▼●쩠 longtime boyfriend, only to question her feelings for him when she senses a mutual I Married an Angel (1942) 84m. ★★ D: attraction with the woman hired to provide W. S. Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, flowers for their nuptials. Generally winning Nelson Eddy, Edward Everett Horton, exploration of the unpredictability of life and Binnie Barnes, Reginald Owen, Douglass love is hampered only by the formulaic (and Dumbrille. Playboy Eddy dreams he marries highly unlikely) finale. Super 35. [R]쩠 angel MacDonald in this bizarre adaptation of Imagining Argentina (2004-British-SpanishRodgers and Hart musical. MacDonald and U.S.) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher HampEddy’s last film together. Songs include ton. Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson, ‘‘Spring Is Here,’’ title tune.▼ Rube´n Blades, Marı´a Canals, Kuno Becker, I Married a Shadow (1982-French) CJohn Wood, Claire Bloom. A military dicta110m. ★★★ D: Robin Davis. Nathalie Baye, torship rules Argentina in 1976, and Francis Huster, Richard Bohringer, Madejournalist-activist Thompson is among the leine Robinson, Guy Trejan. Engrossing if thousands whom the authorities indiscrimisometimes overwrought drama of abannately kidnap and imprison—or murder. doned, pregnant Baye taking on the identity Husband Banderas searches for her in vain, of another after a train wreck. Baye is then begins having visions of the fates of radiant, particularly in the scenes with her other victims. Sobering, well-intentioned newborn baby. Based on a Cornell Woolrich drama pointedly parallels the plight of Arstory previously filmed as NO MAN OF gentineans during this period to victims of HER OWN (1950). Remade in 1996 as the Holocaust . . . but despite some powerful MRS. WINTERBOURNE. Aka I MARsequences, the story lacks dramatic coheRIED A DEAD MAN. [PG]▼ sion. Hampton scripted, based on a muchI Married a Strange Person! (1998) C74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Plympton. Voices of lauded novel by Lawrence Thornton. Barely released in the U.S. [R]쩠 Charis Michelson, Tom Larson, Richard I’m All Right Jack (1959-British) 104m. Spore, Toni Rossi, J. B. Adams, John Russo. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: John Boulting. Ian Carmichael, Animator-director-cowriter Plympton invokes Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Richard AttenPicasso’s famous quote disdaining ‘‘good borough, Margaret Rutherford, Dennis taste,’’ and follows through with this wild, Price, Irene Handl, Miles Malleson. Carfreeform story of a man who acquires strange michael works for his uncle and unwitpowers—and an overactive imagination—just tingly upsets an elaborate and crooked busias he embarks on married life. Brash, bizarre, ness scheme in this memorable comedy. full of deliberately ‘‘gross’’ sight gags involvSellers wonderful as labor leader. Scripted ing body parts, and often howlingly funny . . . by Frank Harvey, John Boulting, and Alan but not for prudish viewers. Plympton fans should revel in it.▼쩠 Hackney, from Hackney’s novel Private Life. Sequel to PRIVATE’S PROGRESS. I Married a Witch (1942) 76m. ★★★ D: Produced by Roy Boulting.▼쩠 Rene´ Clair. Fredric March, Veronica Lake, I Married a Communist (1950) 73m. ★★ Robert Benchley, Susan Hayward, Cecil D: Robert Stevenson. Laraine Day, Robert Kellaway, Elizabeth Patterson. Witch burned Ryan, John Agar, Thomas Gomez, Janis in Salem centuries ago (Lake) comes back Carter, Richard Rober, William Talman. to haunt descendants of Puritan (March) Cornball acting and a ‘‘better-dead-thanwho sent her to her death. Saucy comedyRed’’ scenario sink this noirish melodrama, fantasy based on a story by Thorne (Topper) which has become a relic of its era. Ryan is Smith. Good special effects, too.▼● a shipping executive and former political I’m Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) radical whose past comes back to haunt C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Hofsiss. Jill Clayhim. The ‘‘commies’’ (headed by Gomez) burgh, Nicol Williamson, Dianne Wiest, are depicted as two-bit gangsters, but TalDaniel Stern, Joe Pesci, Geraldine Page, man is especially good as a killer-for-hire. James Sutorius, Cordis Heard, Richard Retitled THE WOMAN ON PIER 13. Masur, Ellen Greene, John Lithgow. SucI Married a Dead Man SEE: I Married cessful Valium-addicted TV documentary a Shadow filmmaker Clayburgh undergoes harrowI Married a Monster from Outer Space ing ordeal when she quits pills cold-turkey. Searing because of subject matter, but not (1958) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gene Fowler, Jr. Tom Tryon, Gloria Talbott, Ken Lynch, John particularly well made; still, Clayburgh Eldredge, Jean Carson, Maxie Rosenbloom. and costars are first-rate. Screenplay by One of the silliest titles in film history David Rabe (Clayburgh’s husband), based obscures pretty good little rehash of on Barbara Gordon’s memoir. [R]▼●쩠 INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: I’m Going Home (2001-French-Portuguese) [ 665 ]

C-90m. ★★★ D: Manoel de Oliveira. Michel Elizabeth Perkins, Amanda Donohoe, Buck Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve, John MalkovHenry, Laraine Newman, Daniel von Bargen. ich, Antoine Chappey, Jean Koeltgen. PoiInteresting, adult film about a Hollywood gnant, carefully observed account of a producer who learns he’s dying just as his celebrated actor (Piccoli) and his solitude grown children (Arquette, McCarthy) are upon learning that his family has been going through crises of their own. Full of wiped out in a car crash, leaving only his incisive vignettes, though one is left wanting grandson behind. A beautifully realized to know more about some of the characters. film, from a 93-year-old filmmaker, about A creditable directing debut for Wagner, who the need to maintain one’s personal and aradapted his own novel. Gina Gershon aptistic integrity, the passage of time, and the pears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 fleeting nature of life. ▼쩠 Immediate Family (1989) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) C-87m. D: Jonathan Kaplan. Glenn Close, James ★★★ Woods, Mary Stuart Masterson, Kevin DilD: Keenen Ivory Wayans. Keenen Ivory Wayans, Bernie Casey, Antonio lon, Linda Darlow, Jane Greer, Jessica Fargas, Steve James, Isaac Hayes, Jim James, Mimi Kennedy. Well-off profesBrown, Ja’net DuBois, Dawnn Lewis, John sional marrieds yearn for a child and hook Vernon, Clu Gulager, Kadeem Hardison, up with a pregnant, underprivileged teenDamon Wayans, Jester Hairston, Anne ager via an adoption agency. Watchable Marie Johnson, Gary Owens, Eve Plumb, change of pace from a pair of often angstClarence Williams III, David Alan Grier, ridden leads but more slick and rose-colored Kim Wayans, Robin Harris, Chris Rock. than need be. Masterson stands out in a Hip spoof of ’70s blaxploitation films with solid acting quartet. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wayans (who also wrote and directed) as Immortal Bachelor, The (1979-Italian) CJack Spade, vowing to avenge the death of 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marcello Fondato. Monica his brother, who died of an o.g. (overdose Vitti, Giancarlo Giannini, Vittorio Gassof gold chains). Loose and good-natured, man, Claudia Cardinale, Renato Pozzetto. with some laugh-out-loud gags. Jim Brown Cleaning woman Vitti is on trial for killing and Isaac Hayes, who made so many philandering husband Giannini; jury memstraight-faced films of this kind, contribute ber Cardinale decides she’d prefer him to some of the funniest moments. Look for her boring husband (Gassman). Slight NeaRobert Townsend in a cameo. [R]▼●쩠 politan comedy.▼ Imitation General (1958) 88m. ★★ D: Immortal Battalion, The SEE: Way George Marshall. Glenn Ford, Red ButAhead, The tons, Taina Elg, Dean Jones, Kent Smith, Immortal Beloved (1994) C-121m. ★★★ D: Tige Andrews. Tepid, occasionally tasteBernard Rose. Gary Oldman, Jeroen less WW2 comedy defeats its game cast. Krabbe´, Isabella Rossellini, Johanna Ter Ford is a sergeant who impersonates supeSteege, Marco Hofschneider, Miriam Marrior officer. CinemaScope. golyes, Barry Humphries, Valeria Golino. Imitation of Life (1934) 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Handsome, absorbing biography is told in John M. Stahl. Claudette Colbert, Warren picture-puzzle style, as Beethoven’s most William, Rochelle Hudson, Louise Beaardent admirer and confidant (Krabbe´) tries vers, Fredi Washington, Ned Sparks, Alan to learn the identity of the composer’s ‘‘imHale, Henry Armetta. Believable but dated mortal beloved,’’ addressed in a passionate first version of Fannie Hurst’s soaper of letter found after his death. Filmed in and working-girl Colbert who makes good with around Prague, it’s a sumptuous-looking and Beavers’ pancake recipe; Washington is sumptuous-sounding tale, but apparently takes fine as latter’s daughter who passes for as many liberties with the facts as those corny white. Ultrasentimental. Adapted for the Hollywood composer biopics of yore. Oldscreen by Preston Sturges.▼쩠 man is ideal in the leading role. The director Imitation of Life (1959) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 also scripted. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 D: Douglas Sirk. Lana Turner, John Gavin, Immortal Sergeant, The (1943) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John M. Stahl. Henry Fonda, Sandra Dee, Dan O’Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda, Juanita Moore, Mahalia JackMaureen O’Hara, Thomas Mitchell, Allyn son, Troy Donahue, Jack Weston. Plush Joslyn, Reginald Gardiner, Melville Cooremake of Fannie Hurst story, with Turner per. OK wartime drama of inexperienced as career-driven actress; Moore is the goodcorporal who is forced to take command of hearted black woman who shares her life, patrol in Africa after sergeant dies.▼쩠 and whose troubled daughter (Kohner) Immortal Story, The (1968-French) C63m. ★★★ D: Orson Welles. Orson Welles, passes for white. Fine performances and direction overcome possible soapiness to Jeanne Moreau, Roger Coggio, Norman make this quite credible and moving.▼쩠 Eshley, Fernando Rey. Intriguing tale (from I’m Losing You (1999) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: an Isak Dinesen story) about a morally Bruce Wagner. Frank Langella, Rosanna bankrupt merchant (Welles) who contrives Arquette, Salome Jens, Andrew McCarthy, to make a myth about a sailor seducing a [ 666 ]

wealthy man’s wife come true. Generally well done and, at times, dazzling; originally made for French television. ▼ I’m No Angel (1933) 87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wesley Ruggles. Mae West, Cary Grant, Edward Arnold, Gertrude Michael, Kent Taylor. West is in rare form as star of Arnold’s sideshow who chases after playboy Grant. Builds to a hilarious courtroom climax. Mae gets sole screenplay credit for this, one of her all-time best.

gangster Cochran and events in his crimefilled life. Full title: I MOBSTER . . . THE LIFE OF A GANGSTER. CinemaScope.▼쩠 I, Monster (1971-British) C-74m. ★★ D: Stephen Weeks. Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Mike Raven, Richard Hurndall, George Merritt, Kenneth J. Warren. Good, atmospheric production and ensemble performances cannot completely redeem boring adaptation of Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This time, early student of Freud ▼●쩠 I’m Not Rappaport (1996) C-136m. ★★1⁄2 develops serum to relieve human inhibitions. D: Herb Gardner. Walter Matthau, Ossie Intended to be shown in 3-D, which explains some of the camera movements. [PG]쩠 Davis, Amy Irving, Martha Plimpton, Craig T. Nelson, Guillermo Diaz, Boyd Gaines, Impact (1949) 111m. ★★★ D: Arthur Lubin. Ron Rifkin, Irwin Corey. Too long—and Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Helen Walker, too literal—adaptation of Gardner’s 1986 Charles Coburn, Anna May Wong, Robert Tony Award–winning Broadway play about Warwick, Mae Marsh. Nice-guy Donlevy’s a pair of old codgers who develop an adwife is cheating on him. She and her lover versarial friendship in Central Park. Strong plot to do him in . . . but there are compliperformances by Matthau, as an aged radications. Entertaining, thoughtful drama will keep you guessing at every turn.▼쩠 cal and congenital tale-spinner, and Davis, as a nearly blind building superintendent Importance of Being Earnest, The (1952British) C-95m. ★★★ D: Anthony Asquith. just trying to hang on. The characters are so good and so likable that they almost overMichael Redgrave, Michael Denison, Richcome the silliness of the climactic sequence ard Wattis, Edith Evans, Margaret Ruther(standing up to drug pusher Nelson) . . . but ford, Joan Greenwood, Dorothy Tutin. Oscar not quite. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wilde’s peerless comedy of manners set in I’m Not Scared (2003-Italian-SpanishVictorian England is given admirable treat★★★ ment. Remade in 2002. ▼●쩠 British) C-101m. D: Gabriele Salvatores. Aitana Sa´nchez-Gijo´n, Dino Abbrescia, GiorImportance of Being Earnest, The (2002British-U.S.) C-94m. ★★ D: Oliver Parker. gio Careccia, Giuseppe Cristiano, Mattia Di Pierro, Diego Abatantuono. A ten-year-old Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O’Con(Cristiano) inadvertently discovers a boy nor, Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Tom hidden away in a covered hole in the ground Wilkinson, Anna Massey, Edward Fox. Two near a spot where he and his friends play; lotharios pursue their women by adopting false neither one understands what’s going on or identities in this remake of the Oscar Wilde why, though we in the audience put the comedy by the writer-director of AN IDEAL pieces together one by one. Understated yet HUSBAND. This time, unfortunately, the tone evocative film, set in rural Southern Italy in is all wrong: the actors are terribly, terribly coy, 1978, is told from an innocent child’s point the comedy much too self-aware. Fox fares of view. Based on Nicco`lo Ammaniti’s best as a wry butler—but he’s barely in the best-selling book. Super 35. [R]쩠 film. Witherspoon comes off quite well, British I’mNot There (2007-U.S.-German) C/B&Waccent and all. Lively score by Charlie Mole. 135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd Haynes. Christian Dench’s real-life daughter Finty Williams Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, plays her mother’s character in flashback Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw, scene. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 Charlotte Gainsbourg, David Cross, Bruce Impossible Object SEE: Story of a Love Greenwood, Julianne Moore, Michelle WilStory liams, Richie Havens; narrated by Kris Impossible Years, The (1968) C-92m. Kristofferson. Fragmented portrait of Bob BOMB D: Michael Gordon. David Niven, Dylan, with six actors (including Blanchett, Lola Albright, Chad Everett, Ozzie Nelwho is extraordinary) playing different asson, Cristina Ferrare. Stupid, leering sex pects of the musician’s biographical and farce from hit Broadway play about psychiafictional personas. Provocative attempt to trist who has problems of his own with nubile circumvent the cliche´s of a biopic; exyoung daughter; the most obscene G-rated tremely well filmed and acted, but becomes film of all. Panavision. [G]▼ an exercise that provides little insight into Impostor (2002) C-95m. BOMB D: Gary Dylan, his work, or his cultural impact. Fleder. Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe, VinDylan fans may find more to enjoy; film cent D’Onofrio, Tony Shalhoub, Mekhi buffs will have fun spotting references to Phifer, Tim Guinee, Lindsay Crouse, ElizaFellini, Godard, and other directors. Super beth Pen˜a. Is Sinise an alien spy impersonating a scientist married to Stowe in 2079? The 35. [R]쩠 1 ★★ I Mobster (1958) 80m. movie’s distributor apparently didn’t think ⁄2 D: Roger Corman. Steve Cochran, Lita Milan, Robert anyone cared enough to find out, because this Strauss, Celia Lovsky. Rugged account of malnourished Philip K. Dick adaptation sat on [ 667 ]

the shelf for more than a year. Most interestImpulse (1990) C-108m. ★★★ D: Sondra ing features are the neat home appliances in Locke. Theresa Russell, Jeff Fahey, George the early scenes, which include a voiceDzundza, Alan Rosenburg, Nicholas Mele, activated wall-screen TV that shuts off on Eli Danker, Charles McCaughan, Lynne command. You should be so lucky when Thigpen, Shawn Elliott. Half-standard, halfwatching this movie at home. Director’s cut fresh, and always tough: honest narc Rusruns 102m. and is rated R. [PG-13] ▼쩠 sell, moonlighting as an L.A. streetwalker Impostors, The (1998) C-100m. ★★★ D: for the vice squad, briefly but fatefully Stanley Tucci. Stanley Tucci, Oliver Platt, Alyields to corruption after lousy hours and fred Molina, Lili Taylor, Tony Shalhoub, Steve failed relationships combine to wear her Buscemi, Allison Janney, Richard Jenkins, Isadown. Underrated sleeper doesn’t exactly bella Rossellini, Campbell Scott, Billy Conexpand parameters of the cop genre, but nolly, Dana Ivey, Hope Davis, Lewis J. has a memorable central character; arguably Russell’s best performance. [R]▼● Stadlen. A rare bird for our time: an oldfashioned farce, written and directed by and Impulsion SEE: Stepmother, The Impure Thoughts (1985) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 starring Tucci, who’s teamed (providentially) with Platt, as unemployed actors D: Michael A. Simpson. Brad Dourif, whose audacious behavior toward popular Lane Davies, Terry Beaver, John Putch, ham actor Molina sends them scurrying— Joe Conley, Mary McDonough, Mary Nell and hiding out on a luxury liner. Doors Santacroce; narration by Dame Judith Anslam, people trip over each other and fall in derson. A quartet of men has died; they love at the drop of a hat. A treat to watch . . . meet in purgatory and recall their lives especially with this cast of supremely gifted together as Catholic school students when actors (including one surprise). [R]▼●쩠 JFK was president and no one had ever heard Impromptu (1991-British) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 of Vietnam. Occasionally funny and insightD: James Lapine. Judy Davis, Hugh Grant, ful, with some truly wonderful moments, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Julian but it just doesn’t hold together. [PG]▼ Sands, Ralph Brown, Georges Corraface, I’m the One That I Want (2000) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lionel Coleman. Margaret Cho. Anton Rodgers, Emma Thompson, Anna Massey. Intellectual romp, in the SMILES Terrific concert film of Cho’s one-woman OF A SUMMER NIGHT mold, about 19thshow at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater century superstars—Chopin, Liszt, Deladetails her rise, fall, and rebirth after barely croix, George Sand, and the like—on a living through All-American Girl, a TV sitcountry holiday. Spirited performances and com based on her Korean-American family. some timeless satire of culture vultures on Alternately poignant and hilarious material the make; compared to A SONG TO REtackles the double standard that women— MEMBER, they do make them better than especially minority women—face in the entertainment industry. [R]▼쩠 they used to. Film debut of stage director Lapine; screenplay by Sarah Kernochan, his Inadmissible Evidence (1968-British) 96m. 1⁄2 D: Anthony Page. Nicol Williamson, ★★ wife. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Improper Channels (1981-Canadian) CEleanor Fazan, Jill Bennett, Peter Sallis, 1 ★★ 92m. David Valla, Eileen Atkins. John Osborne’s ⁄2 D: Eric Till. Alan Arkin, Mariette Hartley, Sarah Stevens, Monica Parker, play about barrister who has reached satuHarry Ditson. OK comedy with oddball ration point with everyone and everything architect Arkin erroneously accused of child preserves Williamson’s fine stage perforabuse. Stevens, as his 5-year-old daughmance, but still a photographed play, not a ter, is cute; Hartley, as his estranged wife, film. Music by Dudley Moore. [R] In a Lonely Place (1950) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: is wasted. [PG]▼● Impulse (1974) C-91m. BOMB D: WilNicholas Ray. Humphrey Bogart, Gloria liam Grefe. Ruth Roman, William Shatner, Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Robert Warwick, Harold Sakata, Kim Nicholas, Jenifer Jeff Donnell, Martha Stewart. Mature, powBishop, James Dobson. Distasteful Floridaerful drama about a feisty, self-destructive made cheapie with Shatner overacting as a screenwriter (Bogart) who has an affair lothario who cons, then kills, women. Truly with starlet Grahame while trying to clear awful. Originally titled WANT A RIDE, himself of a murder rap. Excellent performLITTLE GIRL? [PG]▼쩠 ances in this study of two turbulent characters Impulse (1984) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Graham set against realistic and cynical Hollywood backdrop. Written by Andrew Solt.▼쩠 Baker. Tim Matheson, Meg Tilly, Hume Cronyn, John Karlen, Bill Paxton, Amy In America (2003-Irish-British) C-115m. ★★★1 Stryker. Matheson visits girlfriend Tilly in ⁄2 D: Jim Sheridan. Samantha Morton, a small farming community, finds the citiPaddy Considine, Djimon Hounsou, Sarah zens are robbing banks, shooting children, Bolger, Emma Bolger, Juan Hernandez. urinating on cars. Plodding reverse variaPoignant, bittersweet fable of survival based tion on INVASION OF THE BODY on writer-director Sheridan’s own experiSNATCHERS—here, everyone exhibits too ences emigrating to the U.S. (through Canmuch emotion. [R]▼●쩠 ada) with his family. Seen largely through [ 668 ]

the eyes of two young sisters, who filter out ceptional score by Carter Burwell. Ciara´n Hinds appears unbilled. Super 35. [R]쩠 the grunginess of their N.Y.C. existence (human and otherwise) and make a special In Celebration (1975-British) C-110m. ★★★ connection with a seemingly hostile neighbor D: Lindsay Anderson. Alan Bates, (Hounsou). Sheridan, always a gifted storyJames Bolam, Brian Cox, Constance Chapteller, wrote this very personal film with his man, Gabrielle Day, Bill Owen. Overly daughters Naomi and Kirsten, and cast retheatrical but still taut, vivid drama depictmarkable, real-life sisters as the children. ing the pain, anger, and intense relation[PG-13]▼쩠 ship of three brothers who return to the In & Out (1997) C-90m. ★★★ D: Frank Oz. coal mining town of their youth for their Kevin Kline, Joan Cusack, Tom Selleck, Matt parents’ 40th anniversary. Based on a play Dillon, Debbie Reynolds, Wilford Brimley, by David Storey, which Anderson had Bob Newhart, Gregory Jbara, Shalom Harlow, directed on the stage; an American Film Theatre production. [PG]▼쩠 Lewis J. Stadlen, Ernie Sabella, Dan Hedaya, Joseph Maher, Shawn Hatosy, Selma Blair. Incendiary (2008-British) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: When a young actor (Dillon) wins an Oscar, Sharon Maguire. Ewan McGregor, Michelle he thanks his small-town high school Williams, Matthew Macfadyen, Nicholas teacher—who, he says, is gay. The popular Gleaves, Sidney Johnston, Usman Khokhar, teacher, days away from his wedding, denies Sasha Behar. Suicide bombers attack a North this emphatically but still has to deal with the London stadium during a high-profile soctumult and media frenzy that erupt. Very funny cer match. One of the victims is Williams’ script by Paul Rudnick, played to a fare-theeyoung son; as she mourns, she fixates on a well by an expert cast. Enjoyable cameos by boy whose father she believes was one of Whoopi Goldberg and Glenn Close at the the terrorists. Barely watchable drama acmock Oscar ceremony. [PG-13]▼●쩠 complishes the near impossible: It portrays In a Shallow Grave (1988) C-92m. BOMB issues relating to terrorism and its impact on D: Kenneth Bowser. Michael Biehn, Mauindividual lives as hackneyed soap opera. reen Mueller, Michael Beach, Patrick DempWilliams’ gutsy performance is the sole insey, Thomas Boyd Mason. Gloomy, slowterest here. Maguire scripted, from Chris Cleave’s 2005 novel. Panavision. [R]쩠 moving tale of WW2 veteran Biehn, disfigured at Guadalcanal, who has retreated to his Incense for the Damned SEE: Bloodsuckfamily’s desolate Virginia homestead to brood ers (1970) about his condition (and wallow in self-pity). Inchon! (1982-Korean-U.S.) C-105m. Biehn tries hard but is overpowered by film’s BOMB D: Terence Young. Laurence Olivsnaillike pacing and bizarre, romantic storyier, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro line (involving drifter Dempsey, whose charMifune, Richard Roundtree. Empty-headed acter is weird in the extreme). One of the Korean war epic produced by Rev. Sung oddest and most maudlin dramas ever made. Myung Moon’s Unification Church. OlivAn American Playhouse presentation. [R]▼ ier looks like a wax museum figure in In a Year with 13 Moons (1978-German) his makeup as Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Laughable script punctuated by epic-scale C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Volker Spengler, Ingrid Caven, Gottbattle scenes. Cut from 140m. length. [PG] fried John, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Eva Mattes. Incident, The (1967) 107m. ★★★ D: Larry Extraordinary performance by Spengler in Peerce. Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, Beau the difficult role of a pathetic transsexual Bridges, Jack Gilford, Thelma Ritter, Brock conceived and abandoned by his mother Peters, Ruby Dee, Ed McMahon, Diana while her husband was in a prison camp. Van Der Vlis, Mike Kellin, Jan Sterling, Powerful, disturbing tale of loneliness, Gary Merrill, Donna Mills. Tough, brutal alienation, rejection, winningly written and story of two drunken hoods who terrorize directed by Fassbinder.▼쩠 passengers in N.Y.C. subway. Well made In Bruges (2008-U.S.-British) C-107m. but unpleasant—and still topical. Film de★★★ D: Martin McDonagh. Colin Farrell, buts of Sheen and Mills.▼● Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Cle´mence Incident at Oglala (1992) C-89m. ★★★ D: Poe´sy, Je´re´mie Re´nier, Thekla Reuten, JorMichael Apted. Narrated by Robert Reddan Prentice, Zˇeljko Ivanek. Black comedy ford. Incisive documentary detailing the about two hit men who are exiled to the alleged framing of Leonard Peltier, Native Belgian tourist city of Bruges until things American who was jailed in the wake of a cool off after a bungled job at home. Easy1975 ‘‘incident’’ at South Dakota’s Pine going Gleeson is content to take in the sights Ridge Reservation that resulted in the deaths but hotheaded Farrell is bored—and itchy. of two FBI agents. Must viewing in tandem Eventually their mercurial boss (Fiennes) is with the thematically related THUNDERforced to follow them there. Ingenious feature HEART, also directed by Apted. Redford debut for playwright McDonagh, who creates also is executive producer. [PG]▼●쩠 truly original characters: hard-core criminals, Incognito (1997-U.S.-British) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Badham. Jason Patric, Ire ` ne each with his own moral code. All three leading actors are on top of their game. ExJacob, Rod Steiger, Thomas Lockyer, Ian [ 669 ]

Richardson, Simon Chandler. An art forger lege lab where he first experimented on (Patric) who’s hired to create a fake Remhimself (and fell in love). Straightforward brandt goes to Europe and falls for an art comic-book movie has energy to spare and expert (Jacob) who happens to be the world’s a first-rate performance by Norton. Monforemost Rembrandt authority, and forces strous street-fight finale is reminiscent of her to go on the run with him after he’s the climax of TRANSFORMERS. Offers framed for murder. Barely released, wouldpleasing nods to the vintage TV series and be Hitchcockian thriller. Ian Holm appears its stars. Robert Downey, Jr., appears ununbilled. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 billed. The Hulk’s cocreator Stan Lee camIn Cold Blood (1967) 134m. ★★★★ D: eos. See HULK (2003). Panavision. [PGRichard Brooks. Robert Blake, Scott Wil13]쩠 son, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald S. Incredible Invasion SEE: Sinister InO’Loughlin, Jeff Corey, Will Geer. Excellent vasion semidocumentary adaptation of Truman CaIncredible Journey, The (1963) C-80m. ★★★ pote’s book, tracing stories of two young killD: Fletcher Markle. Emile Genest, ers (Blake, Wilson), their motives and eventual John Drainie, Tommy Tweed, Sandra Scott. arrest after slaughtering innocent family. InciEntertaining, well-made Disney story of sive, engrossing, unsensational; masterful three pets—two dogs and a cat—who make script, direction by Brooks, fine black-and250-mile journey across Canada on their white photography by Conrad Hall. Remade as own to be with their family of humans. Rea TV miniseries in 1996. The story of Capote made by Disney in 1993 as HOMEWARD researching this book is recounted in CABOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY. POTE and INFAMOUS. Panavision.▼●쩠 ▼●쩠 Inconvenient Truth, An (2006) C-96m. Incredible Melting Man, The (1978) ★★★ D: Davis Guggenheim. Intelligent C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: William Sachs. Alex Rebar, filmed version of Al Gore’s multimedia preBurr DeBenning, Myron Healey, Michael sentation on the phenomenon of global cliAldredge, Ann Sweeney, Lisle Wilson. mate change, in which the former vice Rebar is only survivor of outer space mispresident clearly, succinctly explains global sion which has turned his body into a warming and its potentially disastrous conmelting muck. Cheap, old-fashioned B horsequences. While the film persuasively exror film whose only saving grace is Rick Baker’s excellent makeup effects. [R]▼ plores an issue that is relevant to the future of planet earth, it also serves as a celluloid Incredible Mr. Limpet, The (1964) C102m. ★★ D: Arthur Lubin. Don Knotts, press release for Gore by spotlighting the major events in his life, stressing his deep Jack Weston, Carole Cook, Andrew Duggan, commitment to the issue at hand. Oscar Larry Keating. Knotts plays a milquetoast winner for Best Documentary and Original who dreams of becoming a fish—and miSong ‘‘I Need to Wake Up’’ by Melissa raculously gets his wish (turning into an Etheridge. [PG]쩠 animated cartoon figure). What’s more, he 1 ★ In Country (1989) C-120m. ⁄2 D: Norhelps the Navy spot Nazi submarines durman Jewison. Bruce Willis, Emily Lloyd, ing WW2. Innocuous family fare goes on too long.▼●쩠 Joan Allen, Kevin Anderson, John Terry, Peggy Rea, Judith Ivey, Richard HamilIncredibles, The (2004) C-115m. ★★★ D: ton, Patricia Richardson, Jim Beaver. DisBrad Bird. Voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly appointing, poorly executed film of VietHunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Walnam vet Willis and niece Lloyd, two Kenlace Shawn, Sarah Vowell, Spencer Fox, tuckians trying to come to terms with the Elizabeth Pen˜a, John Ratzenberger. Dywar. Willis is good as a cynical, shellnamic computer-animated film from Pixar shocked recluse, but script, from Bobbie about a family of superheroes who now live Ann Mason’s acclaimed novel, is flawed: in a witness-protection program and have character relationships are uneven, and too to suppress their superpowers . . . until a many questions are left unanswered (like mysterious source calls on Mr. Incredible Willis’ medical condition). Beautifully hanfor help. Starts out as sharp comedy, then dled concluding scenes, leading up to Washmorphs into a comic-book–style action film; ington, D.C., Veterans Memorial visit, can’t result is a shift in tone and a lengthening of redeem film. [R]▼●쩠 the story, but it all comes together. WriterIncredible Hulk, The (2008) C-112m. ★★★ director Bird provides the voice of costume D: Louis Leterrier. Edward Norton, Liv designer Edna Mode, and includes a cameo Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake by (and tribute to) legendary Disney animaNelson, Ty Burrell, Christina Cabot. Bruce tors Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Banner lives in exile in Brazil, trying to Snazzy music score by Michael Giacchino. figure out what causes him to become the Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature Hulk when he gets angry. Then his old nemand Sound Editing. Digital widescreen. esis, General Ross (Hurt), tracks him down, [PG] ▼쩠 with a ferocious fighting man (Roth) in tow, Incredible Sarah, The (1976) C-106m. ★★ D: Richard Fleischer. Glenda Jackson, and sends him on the run—back to the col[ 670 ]

Daniel Massey, Yvonne Mitchell, DougMaggenti. Laurel Holloman, Nicole Parker, las Wilmer, David Langton, Simon WilMaggie Moore, Kate Stafford, Sabrina liams. Broadly sketched portrait of legenArtel. A grungily dressed, white tomboy dary French actress Sarah Bernhardt; from a lesbian household falls for a finanJackson chews the scenery in a flamboyant cially secure black beauty—a reciprocated performance, but someone should have romance that has the latter’s snooty high chewed up the script instead. Filmed in school pals reeling. Given the physical charEngland. [PG]▼● acteristics of the two leads and the script’s Incredible Shrinking Man, The (1957) lack of mean streak, the tolerant may overlook 81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jack Arnold. Grant Wilthis meagerly budgeted comedy’s total lack liams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langof cinematic interest. Otherwise, it’s more interminable than incredible. [R] ▼쩠 ton, William Schallert, Billy Curtis. Accidents result in Williams shrinking ever smaller; ‘‘In’’ Crowd, The (1988) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 trapped in his own basement, he has memoraD: Mark Rosenthal. Donovan Leitch, Jenble encounters with a cat and (even smaller) a nifer Runyon, Scott Plank, Joe Pantoliano, spider. Intelligent, serious approach, excepBruce Kirby, Wendy Gazelle, Page Hantional effects for the period, and a vigorous nah. Surprisingly likable look at the lives leading performance result in a genuine sci-fi and loves of those guys and gals who classic, unsurpassed by later attempts. No diadanced their hearts out on daily TV dance logue in the last third, just Williams’ occa- shows in the 1960s. Not as hip as John sional narration. Director Arnold’s best movie. Waters’ similarly themed HAIRSPRAY Screenplay by Richard Matheson, from his but fun anyway. Leitch is the son of ’60s own novel. ▼●쩠 recording star Donovan. [PG]▼● Incredible Shrinking Woman, The (1981) In Crowd, The (2000) C-104m. BOMB D: C-88m. ★★ D: Joel Schumacher. Lily Mary Lambert. Lori Heuring, Susan Ward, Tomlin, Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty, Henry Nathan Bexton, Matthew Settle, Daniel Hugh Gibson, Elizabeth Wilson, Mark Blankfield, Kelly, Taylor Negron, Tess Harper, Jay R. Pamela Bellwood, John Glover, Mike Ferguson. Sub-par cross between a slasher Douglas. Semi-spoof of SHRINKING pic and Aaron Spelling sludge about a trouMAN with Tomlin in three roles, princibled girl, fresh out of the loony bin, who pally as a suburban housewife whose contakes a summer job at an exclusive country stant exposure to household products causes club. There she falls in with a homicidal, her to dwindle; she becomes a media darbisexual young woman and her 90210 hottie ling, then the target of an evil corporation. friends. The pinup cast pouts, glares, and Never as funny or pointed as it would like shows off its tan lines with minimal conviction. [PG-13]▼쩠 to be, but worth catching for really peculiar color schemes and an amazing perforIncubus (1966) 74m. ★★★ D: Leslie Stemance by Rick Baker as a gorilla named vens. William Shatner, Allyson Ames, EloSidney. Schumacher’s directorial debut. ise Hardt, Robert Fortier, Ann Atmar, Milos [PG]▼● Milos. First—and so far only—movie ever Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, The made in the language of Esperanto concerns (1971) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony M. Lanza. a beautiful succubus who tries to corrupt a Bruce Dern, Pat Priest, Casey Kasem, Albert pure soul, only to fall in love instead. LongCole, John Bloom, Berry Kroeger. The head lost, genuinely creepy curio written and diof an insane murderer is attached to the head rected by the creator of The Outer Limits of a mental retardate. Which head made this plays like a feature-length episode of that film? [PG]▼쩠 series—as made by Ingmar Bergman. ConIncredibly Strange Creatures Who rad Hall’s expressionistic b&w photography Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up of the striking Big Sur locations is a major Zombies!!?, The (1963) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: asset.▼쩠 Ray Dennis Steckler. Cash Flagg (Ray Incubus, The (1982-Canadian) C-90m. Dennis Steckler), Brett O’Hara, Atlas BOMB D: John Hough. John Cassavetes, King, Sharon Walsh, Madison Clarke, Son Kerrie Keane, Helen Hughes, Erin FlanHooker. Legendary (thanks to that title) nery, Duncan McIntosh, John Ireland. low-budget horror film about hideous goingsRepulsive, poorly made horror thriller about on at a carny sideshow, with lots of rock numsex murders in small Wisconsin town. bers thrown in. Truly bizarre film features gor[R]▼●쩠 geously saturated color, awful acting, hideous In Custody (1993-British-Indian) C-123m. ★★ dialogue, haunting atmosphere and little plot. D: Ismail Merchant. Shashi Kapoor, ShaCinematography by Joe Micelli (author of bana Azmi, Om Puri, Sushma Seth, Neena American Cinematographers’ Manual) with Gupta, Tinnu Anand, Yacov Freedman. very young Laszlo Kovacs and Vilmos ZsigSilly tale of a doltish college lecturer and mond helping. Aka THE TEENAGE PSYintellectual (Puri) who writes poetry no one CHO MEETS BLOODY MARY.▼쩠 will publish; he sets out to interview India’s Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls ‘‘greatest living Urdu poet’’ (Kapoor), in Love, The (1995) C-94m. ★★ D: Maria which quickly proves to be a disheartening [ 671 ]

experience. Means to be an allegory about Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, and Roger Corthe lack of respect for history, intellectuman, along with Stiller’s wife, Anne Meara, alism, and scholarship in modern India, but and son, Ben. Stay through the credits for the entire Fineman filmography. [R] ▼쩠 the result is only nonsensical. Disappointing feature directorial debut from Merchant Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) C-122m. ★★★ D: Ste(better known as James Ivory’s longtime ven Spielberg. Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, producer). [PG]▼쩠 ★★ Indecent Proposal (1993) C-118m. Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim D: Adrian Lyne. Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Broadbent, Shia LaBeouf, Igor Jijikine. After Woody Harrelson, Oliver Platt, Seymour a 19-year hiatus, Indy returns with the same Cassel, Billy Bob Thornton, Rip Taylor, brand of high adventure that marked the origJoel Brooks, Billy Connolly, Sheena Easton, inal RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. In Herbie Hancock. A cocky high roller offers 1957 the intrepid archaeologist-professor destitute couple Harrelson and Moore a milruns afoul of Russian spies (including a wily lion dollars to sleep with her for one night. Blanchett), then follows a young man (LaThey accept, but are immediately plunged Beouf) who bears a letter from an old into a whirlpool of remorse, jealousy, and friend, now lost in the jungles of Peru, that bitterness. Intriguing premise bogged down may lead them to the Crystal Skull of by sheer silliness (not to mention overlength), Akator—and the lost city of El Dorado. though it remains watchable. [R]▼●쩠 Opens with slam-bang action, falls into a Independence Day (1983) C-110m. ★★ lull of exposition, then revs into high gear D: Robert Mandel. Kathleen Quinlan, Dafor an eye-filling finale. Ford reclaims the vid Keith, Frances Sternhagen, Cliff Derole he invented in fine fashion. Written by Young, Dianne Wiest, Josef Sommer, Bert David Koepp from a story by George Lucas Remsen, Richard Farnsworth, Brooke and Jeff Nathanson. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Alderson, Noble Willingham, Susan Ruttan. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Interesting but unfocused little picture about (1989) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven Spielberg. a young woman who’s aching to leave her Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elclaustrophobic hometown but held back liott, Alison Doody, John Rhys-Davies, Ju(in part) by romance with car mechanic lian Glover, River Phoenix, Michael Byrne, Keith. Subplot about battered wife (suAlex Hyde-White. Follow-the-numbers adperbly played by Wiest) seems to be a venture spectacle has Ford in fine form and separate film altogether. [R]▼ Connery adding panache as Indy’s archaeoloIndependence Day (1996) C-145m. ★★1⁄2 gist father, whose mysterious disappearance D: Roland Emmerich. Will Smith, Bill Pull(while searching for the Holy Grail) sets the man, Jeff Goldblum, Mary McDonnell, story in motion. This deliberately oldJudd Hirsch, Margaret Colin, Randy Quaid, fashioned Saturday matine´e yarn has everyRobert Loggia, James Rebhorn, Harvey thing money can buy, but never really generFierstein, Adam Baldwin, Brent Spiner, ates a sense of wonder and excitement. A James Duval, Vivica A. Fox, Lisa Jakub, definite improvement over the second IndiRoss Bagley, Bill Smitrovich, Harry Conana Jones outing, but it still bears the mark of nick, Jr. Spectacular—and spectacularly one too many trips to the well. Oscar winner stupid—sci-fi saga of alien ships hovering for sound effects editing. Followed by INDIover the earth and apparently planning to ANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF attack. U.S. President Pullman tries to deTHE CRYSTAL SKULL. Panavision. [PG13]▼●쩠 termine how best to fight, as the stakes keep changing on an hour-to-hour basis. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) C-118m. ★★ D: Steven Spielberg. Big, Oscar-winning special effects are impressive, but the human stories are so Harrison Ford, Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan dumb, the writing so lame, and some of (Jonathan Ke Quan), Amrish Puri, Roshan the performances so broad they make Seth, Philip Stone, Dan Aykroyd. Headachesome silly ’50s sci-fi movies look brilliant inducing prequel to RAIDERS OF THE by comparison. 15m. added for special LOST ARK, but this time the 1930s edition. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 archaeologist-adventurer has a weaker story Independent, The (2001) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: and wimpier heroine. Re-creates (and outStephen Kessler. Jerry Stiller, Janeane Gardoes) a bunch of great cliffhanger stunts, but ofalo, Max Perlich, Andy Dick, John never gives us a chance to breathe . . . and Lydon, Ginger Lynn Allen, Billy Burke, tries to top the snake scene in RAIDERS by Fred Dryer, Richard Paul, Larry Hankin. coming up with a variety of new ‘‘gross-out’’ Mockumentary about legendary schlock gags. Oscar winner for Visual Effects. Folfilm producer Morty Fineman (Stiller), who lowed by INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 enlists his estranged daughter to save his bankrupt production company. Uneven, but Indian Fighter, The (1955) C-88m. ★★★ the cast is game and the clips from Morty’s D: Andre de Toth. Kirk Douglas, Walter extremely prolific oeuvre are very funny. Matthau, Elsa Martinelli, Walter Abel, Many cameos from filmmakers like Ron Lon Chaney. Exciting account of Douglas [ 672 ]

leading wagon train through rampaging Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Claus Holm, Indian country. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Sabine Bethmann, Rene´ Deltgen. The pace Indian in the Cupboard, The (1995) Cpicks up a bit in this second of Lang’s 96m. ★★★ D: Frank Oz. Hal Scardino, LiteIndian diptych, chronicling the events leadfoot, Lindsay Crouse, Richard Jenkins, ing up to lovers Paget and Hubschmid’s Rishi Bhat, Steve Coogan, David Keith, escape from the clutches of maharajah Sakina Jaffrey, Vincent Kartheiser, Nestor Reyer. Paget’s exotic dance is a highlight. Serrano. A boy (Scardino) receives an old This and Part One (THE TIGER OF cupboard as a birthday present, and finds ESCHNAPUR) were originally dubbed, that when he puts a plastic Indian inside and edited down to 95m., and released in the U.S. turns the key, the Indian comes to life. Then as JOURNEY TO THE LOST CITY.쩠 he learns that the Indian is not a toy, but Indige`nes SEE: Days of Glory (2006) a real person, and complications ensue— Indiscreet (1958) C-100m. ★★★ D: Stanespecially when his best friend conjures up ley Donen. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, a real-life cowboy. First-rate adaptation of Cecil Parker, Phyllis Calvert, David KossLynne Reid Banks’ popular children’s off, Megs Jenkins. Bergman is renowned book, scripted by Melissa Mathison (of E.T. actress whom American playboy Grant rofame); full of wonder and simple wisdom mances and can’t forget. Delightful comedy . . . if a few too many giant closeups of the from Norman Krasna play Kind Sir. Made in boy’s face. [PG] ▼●쩠 England. Remade as a 1988 TVM with RobIndian Love Call SEE: Rose Marie (1936) ert Wagner and Lesley-Anne Down.▼쩠 Indian Paint (1964) C-91m. ★★ D: NorIndiscretion of an American Wife (1953man Foster. Johnny Crawford, Jay SilverU.S.-Italian) 63m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vittorio De Sica. heels, Pat Hogan, Robert Crawford, Jr., Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Gino George J. Lewis. Fifteen-year-old Arikara Cervi, Richard Beymer. Turgid melodrama (Crawford), his foal, and his coming-toset in Rome’s railway station, with Jones manhood. Harmless, forgettable.▼쩠 the adulterous wife meeting lover Clift for Indian Runner, The (1991) C-125m. ★★★ one more clinch. De Sica’s original 87m. D: Sean Penn. David Morse, Viggo Morversion, titled TERMINAL STATION, was tensen, Valeria Golino, Patricia Arquette, restored in 1983. Remade in 1998 for TV. Charles Bronson, Sandy Dennis, Dennis ▼쩠 Hopper, Benicio Del Toro, Kenny Stabler. Indochine (1992-French) C-155m. ★★ D: Mood piece about a young man’s desperate Re´gis Wargnier. Catherine Deneuve, Vinattempts to understand—and get closer to— cent Perez, Linh Dan Pham, Jean Yanne, his troubled kid brother, who’s just returned Dominique Blanc, Henri Marteau, Carlo from Vietnam. Lethargic at times, but filled Brandt, Gerard Lartigau. Soap opera set with emotion and truth, and ultimately quite against political upheaval in French Indomoving. Strong performances all around, china during the 1930s. Deneuve plays a with offbeat but effective casting of Bronwealthy French landowner who’s raised an son as the boys’ melancholy father. Impresorphaned Indochinese girl, and now must sive achievement for first-time writer/ contend with the fact that she’s grown—and director Penn. Penn’s real-life mother, achas a mind of her own. Interesting historical tress Eileen Ryan, plays Mrs. Baker. Inspired elements, set against a fascinating landscape, by Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘‘Highway Pabut story is mostly tripe. Even so, nabbed the trolman.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Foreign Film Oscar. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Indian Scout SEE: Davy Crockett, InIndomitable Teddy Roosevelt, The (1983) dian Scout C-94m. ★★★ D: Harrison Engle. Narrated Indian Summer (1993) C-97m. ★★★ D: by George C. Scott. Excellent and innovaMike Binder. Alan Arkin, Matt Craven, tive documentary about the remarkable, Diane Lane, Bill Paxton, Elizabeth Perlarger-than-life figure who became our kins, Kevin Pollak, Vincent Spano, Julie 26th president. Artfully mixes newsreel Warner, Kimberly Williams. Good-natured footage with meticulous recreations featuryuppie nostalgia about thirtysomethings who ing Bob Boyd in the role of T.R. Set to the return to the beloved summer camp of stirring music of John Philip Sousa.▼쩠 their youth for a reunion weekend. Arkin In Dreams (1999) C-99m. ★★ D: Neil Joris wonderful as the camp director, and the dan. Annette Bening, Robert Downey, Jr., cast couldn’t be more appealing. WriterAidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Paul Guilfoyle, director Binder based this on his own memDennis Boutsikaris, Katie Sagona, Krystal ories, and filmed at the actual Camp Benn. Massachusetts woman is haunted by Tamakwa he attended in Canada. That’s didisturbing dreams which turn out to be the rector Sam Raimi playing Arkin’s flunky. Pathoughts of a sick man who’s abducting and navision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 murdering children. Is she insane, or someIndian Summer (1995) SEE: Alive and how psychically connected to the killer ? Kicking Extremely unpleasant adult horror film is Indian Tomb, The (1959-German) C-97m. well made but hard to watch. It’s also hard ★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. Debra Paget, Paul to top the opening sequence, based on the [ 673 ]

real-life incident of a town being flooded to then learns that the gang has planted a mole in create a reservoir. Jordan coscripted with the police department for the same amount of Bruce Robinson. [R]▼●쩠 time. Tense game of cat and mouse ensues as In Enemy Country (1968) C-107m. ★★ each one tries to discover the other’s identity. D: Harry Keller. Tony Franciosa, Anjanette Stylish, character-driven thriller delivers Comer, Guy Stockwell, Paul Hubschmid, plenty of action while dealing with philoTom Bell, Emile Genest. So-so programsophical notions of morality, identity, and mer of WW2 intrigue, set in France and loyalty. Followed by a prequel and a sequel. England, filmed on Universal’s backlot. Remade by Martin Scorsese as THE DEPARTED. Arriscope. [R] 쩠 Not very convincing. Techniscope. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Infernal Idol, The SEE: Craze Inferno (1953) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy (1977) C-96m. ★★★ D: Anthony Page. Bibi Andersson, Kathleen Quinlan, Ben Piazza, (Ward) Baker. Robert Ryan, Rhonda FlemLorraine Gary, Reni Santoni, Susan Tyrrell, ing, William Lundigan, Henry Hull, Carl Signe Hasso, Jeff Conaway, Diane Varsi, BarBetz, Larry Keating. Fleming plots rich bara Steele, Sylvia Sidney, Dennis Quaid. Inhusband Ryan’s demise, with surprising retelligent adaptation of Hannah Green’s book sults. Good desert sequences. Originally in 3-D. Remade as a TV movie, ORDEAL.쩠 about her treatment for schizophrenia as a teenager, focusing on relationship between her Inferno (1980-Italian) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: (Quinlan) and dedicated psychiatrist (AndersDario Argento. Leigh McCloskey, Irene Mirson). Graphic, clinical approach is often disacle, Sacha Pitoeff, Daria Nicolodi, Eleonora turbing. [R] ▼쩠 Giorgi, Veronica Lazar, Alida Valli. AmeriI Never Sang for My Father (1970) can returns to N.Y. from studies in Rome to C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gilbert Cates. Melvyn investigate the gruesome murder of his sister, Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, and discovers ‘‘evil mothers’’ wreaking suEstelle Parsons, Elizabeth Hubbard, Lovepernatural havoc on both sides of Atlantic. lady Powell. Sensitive adaptation of RobSurreal, hypnotic shocker by Italian horror ert Anderson play about grown man (Hackmaestro Argento is short on sense, but long man) faced with problem of caring for on style. Second in Argento’s Three Mothers elderly father (Douglas). Fine job all around, trilogy, following SUSPIRIA; followed by but extremely depressing. Scripted by the MOTHER OF TEARS. [R]▼쩠 playwright. [PG]▼●쩠 Infinity (1996) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Matthew Inevitable Grace (1994) C-103m. BOMB D: Broderick. Matthew Broderick, Patricia ArAlex Canawati. Maxwell Caulfield, Stephanie quette, Peter Riegert, Dori Brenner, Peter Knights, Jennifer Nicholson, Tippi Hedren, Michael Goetz, Zˇeljko Ivanek, Matt Mulhern, Samantha Eggar, Sandra Knight, Rob SheifJoyce Van Patten, James LeGros. Sweet but fele, Taylor Negron. Lame psychological uneven movie based on the life of Richard thriller about a psychiatrist at a mental instituFeynman, whose relationship with Arline tion who gets involved in a nasty (and ludiGreenbaum (Arquette) in pre-WW2 N.Y.C. crous) triangle with her patient and the takes a fateful turn when he is recruited to woman’s husband. Seemingly endless movie work on the Manhattan Project. (The theoretioffers a chance to check out Jack Nicholson cal physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1965.) and Sandra Knight’s daughter Jennifer, but Effective when dealing with the love story, but that’s not much of a recommendation.▼ meanders when Feynman moves to Los Infamous (2006) C-118m. ★★★ D: Douglas Alamos. Broderick’s directorial debut; scripted by his mother, Patricia Broderick. [PG]▼●쩠 McGrath. Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Sigourney Weaver, Daniel Craig, Informer, The (1935) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Hope Davis, Isabella Rossellini, Juliet SteFord. Victor McLaglen, Heather Angel, Presvenson, Lee Pace, Gwyneth Paltrow, Peter ton Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Bogdanovich, John Benjamin Hickey. Writer Una O’Connor, J. M. Kerrigan, Joseph Sauers Truman Capote (a superb Jones), darling of (Sawyer), Donald Meek. Dated but still potent 1950s New York society, heads to Kansas study of human nature tells of hard-drinking with novelist pal Nelle Harper Lee (BulMcLaglen, who informs on buddy to collect lock) when a random murder spree piques reward during Irish Rebellion of 1922. Powerhis interest. Based on a George Plimpton ful drama, based on Liam O’Flaherty’s novel, book, this film covers the same ground as with a memorable Max Steiner score. McLag2005’s CAPOTE, but on a broad canvas, len’s performance won the Oscar, as did Ford, with more humor and panache. Written by Steiner, and Dudley Nichols (for Best Screenthe director. [R]쩠 play). Filmed before in England in 1929. ReInfernal Affairs (2002-Hong Kong) C-101m. made as UP TIGHT.▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Tony Leung Informers, The (1965-British) SEE: UnChiu-wai, Andy Lau, Anthony Wong, Eric derworld Informers Tsang, Chapman To, Lam Ka-tung, Ng TingInformers, The (2009) C-98m. BOMB D: yip, Wan Chi-keung. Hong Kong cop goes Gregor Jordan. Billy Bob Thornton, Kim deep undercover to infiltrate a Triad crime Basinger, Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, gang and spends 10 years rising to the top, Brad Renfro, Jon Foster, Amber Heard, Rhys [ 674 ]

Ifans, Chris Isaak, Austin Nichols, Lou TayPryor, who plays God. Feldman also cowrote the script. [PG]▼ lor Pucci, Mel Raido, Theo Rossi. Returning to the bored, drug-addled, sex-obsessed L.A. In Good Company (2004) C-109m. ★★★ D: deadheads he made famous in Less Than Paul Weitz. Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Zero, author and coscreenwriter Bret Easton Scarlett Johansson, Marg Helgenberger, Ellis’ collection of familiar and wasted HollySelma Blair, David Paymer, Clark Gregg, wood types adds up to way less than zero this Philip Baker Hall, Frankie Faison, Ty Burrell, time. A good cast is lost in the fog of cliche´d Kevin Chapman, Amy Aquino, Colleen writing and indifferent direction. There’s the Camp, Lauren Tom. Successful, happily marsinister studio exec, the neglected wife having ried, 50-ish sales exec Quaid has his world an affair with the pool boy, the aging newsturned inside out when a young 20-ish hotshot caster, the low-level hood, and a host of with no experience is installed as his boss— beautiful, vapid young people who spend and even starts seeing Quaid’s college-age their days doing drugs and their nights in daughter. Smart, relevant social comedy tackbed with each other. Yecccch. This was les a variety of modern-day ills in a consisRenfro’s last film. Super 35. [R] tently entertaining way. Breakout role for In for Treatment (1979-Netherlands) C-99m. Grace, who’s perfect as the corporate climber ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric van Zuylen, Marja Kok. Helmert who finds that his life is empty. Weitz’s Woudenberg, Frank Groothof, Hans Man In’t solo debut as writer-director. Malcolm McDowell appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Veld, Marja Kok, Joop Admiraal. Simple, pointed, powerful story of a middle-aged man In Harm’s Way (1965) 165m. ★★1⁄2 D: who checks into a hospital for tests but is really Otto Preminger. John Wayne, Kirk Dougdying of cancer; he must deal with a distant, las, Patricia Neal, Tom Tryon, Paula Prentiss, maddeningly impersonal hospital system. Henry Fonda, Brandon de Wilde, Jill Haworth, Hard to watch because of the subject, but still Dana Andrews, Stanley Holloway, Burgess poignant and never maudlin; a production of Meredith, Franchot Tone, Patrick O’Neal, Carthe Werkteater, a Dutch theater collective.▼ roll O’Connor, Slim Pickens, Barbara Infra-Man (1976-Hong Kong) C-92m. ★★★ Bouchet, Hugh O’Brian, George Kennedy, D: Hua-Shan. Li Hsiu-hsien, Wang Hsieh, Bruce Cabot, Larry Hagman. Overlong, meloYuan Man-tzu, Terry Liu, Tsen Shu-yi, dramatic account of warfare in the South PaHuang Chien-lung, Lu Sheng. Princess cific at the outset of WW2, focusing on the Dragon Mom (Liu) and her odd assortment exploits of larger-than-life naval officer Wayne of monster underlings attempt to take over (whose character is nicknamed ‘‘Rock’’). the earth—and it’s Infra-Man (Hsiu-hsien) Most interesting for its cast of old-timers and to the rescue. Action-packed, with gloriup-and-coming stars. Panavision.▼쩠 ously corny dialogue (dubbed), outlandish Inheritance, The (1976-Italian) C-105m. ★★1 costumes and sets, adequate special ef⁄2 D: Mauro Bolognini. Anthony Quinn, fects. Great fun. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Dominique Sanda, Fabio Testi, Adriana Inglorious Bastards (1978-Italian) CAsti, Luigi Proietti. Moody melodrama 100m. ★★ D: Enzo G. Castellari. Ian Banabout dying patriarch (Quinn) who wants nen, Bo Svenson, Fred Williamson, Peter to disown everyone but his calculating Hooten, Michael Pergolani. Five soldiers daughter-in-law (Sanda), who offers him about to be court-martialed during WW2 sexual comforts. Well-acted, handsome protake off through France, hoping to make the duction with emphasis on eroticism. OrigiSwiss border. Far-fetched story with a few nally 121m. Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 good action scenes. Aka COUNTERFEIT Inheritors, The (1998-Austrian) C-95m. ★★★ COMMANDOS and G.I. BRO. [R]▼쩠 D: Stefan Ruzowitzky. Simon Schwarz, In God’s Hands (1998) C-96m. ★★ D: ZalSophie Rois, Lars Rudolph, Julia Gschnitzer, man King. Matt George, Matty Liu, Patrick Ulrich Wildgruber, Elizabeth Orth, Tilo PruckShane Dorian, Shaun Tomson, Maylin ner, Susanne Silverio. A landowner dies and Pultar, Bret Michaels. Three world-class bequeaths his assets to the seven lowly peassurfers (played by three actual world-class ants who worked his farm. Spirited, pointed (if surfers) embark on the ultimate global tour predictable) political allegory, set in an Ausof duty. Fictional film suffers from amateurtrian village in the 1930s. Vivid characterizaishness of its cast of nonperformers, but is tions add punch to the proceedings. [R]▼쩠 marginally worth seeing for gorgeous cineInherit the Wind (1960) 127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: matography and, of course, some breathtakStanley Kramer. Spencer Tracy, Fredric ing wave riding. A change of pace for softMarch, Gene Kelly, Florence Eldridge, core auteur King. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Dick York, Harry Morgan, Donna AnderIn God We Tru$t (1980) C-97m. BOMB son, Elliott Reid, Claude Akins, Noah D: Marty Feldman. Marty Feldman, Peter Beery, Jr., Norman Fell. Vocals by Leslie Boyle, Louise Lasser, Richard Pryor, Andy Uggams. Absorbing adaptation of Jerome Kaufman, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Severn Lawrence–Robert E. Lee play based on Darden. Naive monk Feldman treks to notorious Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, L.A. to raise money for his monastery. A when Clarence Darrow defended and comedy that is tragically unfunny—including William Jennings Bryan prosecuted a [ 675 ]

schoolteacher arrested for teaching DarHarry Dean Stanton, Peter J. Lucas, Karowin’s Theory of Evolution. Names are lina Gruszka, Jan Hench, Grace Zabriskie, changed (Kelly’s character is based on Diane Ladd, Julia Ormond, Ian Abercromacid-tongued H. L. Mencken), but the isbie, William H. Macy, Mary Steenburgen, sue is real and still relevant. An acting tour Laura Harring, Nastassja Kinski, Michael de force, with solid support from Morgan Pare´; voice of Naomi Watts. Demanding, as the judge, Reid as a lawyer, Eldridge as surreal Lynchian experiment is almost imMarch’s devoted wife. Only offbeat castpossible to describe. Suffice it to say that ing of Kelly doesn’t quite come off. ScreenDern offers staggering performances in sevplay by Nathan E. Douglas (Nedrick Young) eral roles (which may or may not be the and Harold Jacob Smith. Remade as 1988 same character), most prominently as an acTVM with Kirk Douglas and Jason Robards. tress who is cast as the lead in a new movie. Also remade as a TVM in 1999 with Jack A digitally shot companion piece to MULLemmon and George C. Scott.▼●쩠 HOLLAND DR. Not for every filmgoer; In Her Shoes (2005) C-129m. ★★★ D: CurLynch buffs will probably rate this higher. tis Hanson. Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette, Dern also coproduced. [R]쩠 Shirley MacLaine, Mark Feuerstein, Ken In-Laws, The (1979) C-103m. ★★★ D: Howard, Candice Azzara, Brooke Smith, Arthur Hiller. Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Francine Beers, Norman Lloyd, Jerry Adler. Richard Libertini, Nancy Dussault, Penny A woman who struggles with her self-image Peyser, Arlene Golonka, Michael Lembeck, is constantly undone by her sexy sister, whose Ed Begley, Jr., Rosana (de) Soto, Art life is an even bigger mess. Then her sibling Evans, David Paymer. Wacky comedy travels to Florida and looks up their longabout a dentist (Arkin) who becomes inestranged grandmother, who’s living at a sevolved in the bizarre intrigues of his daughnior community; here, of all places, she finds ter’s father-in-law-to-be (Falk), who claims direction and purpose for the first time in her to be a CIA agent. Andrew Bergman’s life. First-rate adaptation of Jennifer Weiner’s script commendably unpredictable start to best-seller by Susannah Grant, ideally cast with finish; Libertini hilarious as Latin dictator with a great part for Diaz. MacLaine scores espea Sen˜or Wences fetish. Enjoyable score by cially well by underplaying. Super 35. [PGJohn Morris. Remade in 2003. [PG]▼●쩠 13]쩠 In-Laws, The (2003) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: AnInitiation: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 drew Fleming. Michael Douglas, Albert SEE: Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 Brooks, Robin Tunney, Ryan Reynolds, CanInkheart (2008-U.S.-German) C-106m. ★★ dice Bergen, David Suchet, Lindsay Sloane, D: Iain Softley. Brendan Fraser, Paul BetMaria Ricossa. Needless but amusing-enough tany, Helen Mirren, Jim Broadbent, Andy remake of the fondly remembered 1979 comSerkis, Eliza Hope Bennett, Rafi Gavron; edy, bolstered by its well-cast stars. Douglas narrated by Roger Allam. When Fraser reads is a reckless CIA agent—and neglectful father aloud he brings characters from books to of groom-to-be Reynolds—who takes Brooks, life—with often frightening results. He and a timid, nebbishy father of the bride, on the adhis daughter go to Europe in search of the venture of his life in the days leading up to their rare book that can free her mother from imkids’ wedding. Suchet is a standout as the prisonment within its pages. Elaborate fancrazed French arms buyer and megalomaniac. tasy based on Cornelia Funke’s novel [PG-13]▼쩠 borrows from other, better, stories (including In Like Flint (1967) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: The Wizard of Oz) and never coalesces into a Gordon Douglas. James Coburn, Lee J. great yarn of its own. Nice in-joke has JenniCobb, Jean Hale, Andrew Duggan, Anna fer Connelly, Bettany’s real-life wife, doing Lee. Weak sequel to OUR MAN FLINT a cameo as his spouse. Panavision. [PG]쩠 finds our hero going against secret society Inkwell, The (1994) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Matty of women plotting to take over the world. Rich. Larenz Tate, Joe Morton, Suzzanne CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Douglas, Glynn Turman, Vanessa Bell CalIn Love SEE: Falling in Love Again loway, Adrienne-Joi Johnson, Morris ChestIn Love and War (1996-U.S.-British) Cnut, Jada Pinkett, Duane Martin, Mary Alice, 115m. BOMB D: Richard Attenborough. Phyllis Yvonne Stickney. A 16-year-old, Sandra Bullock, Chris O’Donnell, Mackenwhose toy doll confidante naturally worries his zie Astin, Emilio Bonucci, Ingrid Lacey, parents, learns about love, SUMMER OF Margot Steinberg. Lumbering catastrophe ’42–style, in this Summer of ’76 nostalgia chronicles Ernest Hemingway’s WW1 love piece set in a black section of Martha’s Vineaffair with Red Cross nurse Agnes von Kuryard. Clumsily written and directed and (doll owsky, eight years his senior and the inspiaside) irritatingly derivative. Filmmakers ration for the character Catherine Barkley groused that the result would have been better in A Farewell to Arms. Miscast O’Donnell without studio interference. [R] ▼●쩠 might actually be more credible playing ErInland Empire (2006-U.S.-Polish-French) nest Borgnine, and the leads have no chemC/B&W-179m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Lynch. Laura Dern, Jeremy Irons, Justin Theroux, istry. The film leans on what used to be [ 676 ]

called ‘‘scenic values’’ like a bookie who’s the body of hypochondriac Short. Heady been stiffed. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 combination of science fiction and comIn My Country (2005-U.S.-British-Irish) edy, with an off-the-wall sensibility that C-102m. ★★ D: John Boorman. Samuel L. keeps things unpredictable . . . though tightJackson, Juliette Binoche, Brendan Gleeening would have helped. Short is a delight son, Menzi Ngubane, Sam Ngakane, Lionel as the comic hero. Oscar winner for Best Newton. Reporter Jackson and poet BiVisual Effects. [PG]▼●쩠 noche are covering the Truth and ReconciliInnocence (2000-Australian-Belgian) Cation Commission hearings in South Africa, 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paul Cox. Julia Blake, Charles an event where opposing sides from the ‘‘Bud’’ Tingwell, Terry Norris, Robert MenApartheid era confront each other. Despite a zies, Marta Dusseldorp, Kristien Van Pellitalented cast and director, important subject com, Chris Haywood, Norman Kaye. matter, and a provocative setting, it all goes Complex, poignant tale of a long-widowed awry and winds up being a 3-D movie: dull, man and a long-married woman (Tingwell, dreary, and disappointing. Even Jackson is Blake) who rekindle a romance that first blosbland. Original British title: COUNTRY OF somed four decades earlier. This wise, nuMY SKULL. [R]▼쩠 anced tale explores the meaning of love, and ★★★ D: John In Name Only (1939) 94m. dares to be both tender and sensuous while Cromwell. Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, dealing with characters who are in the twilight of their lives. Cox also scripted.▼쩠 Kay Francis, Charles Coburn, Helen Vinson, Peggy Ann Garner. Solid soaper with Innocent, The (1976-Italian) C-127m. ★★★★ wealthy, married Grant falling for widowed D: Luchino Visconti. Giancarlo Lombard, trying desperately to obtain a Giannini, Laura Antonelli, Jennifer O’Neill. divorce from bitchy, manipulative social Director Visconti’s final film is among his climber Francis. Beautifully acted.▼● greatest, a lavishly mounted tragedy about Inner Circle, The (1991) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 a Sicilian aristocrat who has the tables D: Andrei Konchalovsky. Tom Hulce, Loturned on him by the luscious wife he has lita Davidovich, Bob Hoskins, Alexandre chosen to ignore. Digitally released in the Zbruev, Feodor Chaliapin, Jr., Bess Meyer, U.S. at 115m. Technovision. [R]▼쩠 Maria Baranova. Intriguing if ultimately Innocent, The (1985-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 obvious, disappointing saga of life in the D: John Mackenzie. Andrew Hawley, Kika Soviet Union under the iron rule of Stalin. Markham, Kate Foster, Liam Neeson, PatStory follows naive, humble projectionist rick Daley, Tom Bell, Clive Wood, Mi(Hulce) who gets to screen a film for the randa Richardson. Medium drama about a dictator. Much more subtlety is in order young boy (Hawley) on the edge of puhere, as Hulce’s performance soon beberty, growing up in a Yorkshire town durcomes grating and one-dimensional. Based ing the Depression. Occasionally striking on a true story; some sequences were shot but too often slow. inside the Kremlin, and even KGB headInnocent, The (1993-British-German) C107m. ★★ D: John Schlesinger. Isabella Rosquarters. [PG-13]▼● Inner Life of Martin Frost, The (2007sellini, Anthony Hopkins, Campbell Scott, U.S.-French-Spanish-Portuguese) C/B&WRonald Nitschke, Hart Bochner, James Grant, 93m. ★★★ D: Paul Auster. David Thewlis, Jeremy Sinden. Blah Cold War/paranoia thrilIre`ne Jacob, Michael Imperioli, Sophie Ausler, set in the 1950s, about an ingenuous Britter. Work-weary novelist Thewlis, decomish circuitry expert (Scott) sent to Berlin to pressing alone in a borrowed country home, help set up a complicated phone-tapping apis startled to wake up one morning next to paratus to be used against the East Germans; lovely, cheerful Jacob. Romance blooms— along the way, he becomes involved in a pashow could it not?—but soon he learns she’s sionate romance. Hopkins is fine as usual (alnot what she appears to be. Intriguing Orthough he’s miscast as a blustery American phic fable intimately addresses large themes CIA official). The characters are strictly oneof literature, philosophy, and the creative dimensional; a minor credit for all concerned. process, while delicately tiptoeing across Unreleased in U.S. till 1996. [R]▼●쩠 the balance beam of fantasy. Adapted from Innocent and the Damned SEE: Girls his own novel and austerely narrated by diTown Innocent Blood (1992) C-112m. ★★★ D: rector Auster.쩠 Innerspace (1987) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe John Landis. Anne Parillaud, Robert LogDante. Dennis Quaid, Martin Short, Meg gia, Anthony LaPaglia, David Proval, Don Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, Fiona Lewis, VerRickles, Chazz Palminteri, Rocco Sisto, non Wells, Robert Picardo, Wendy Schaal, Tony Sirico, Tony Lip, Kim Coates, Angela Harold Sylvester, William Schallert, Henry Bassett, Luis Guzman, Leo Burmester, LinGibson, Orson Bean, Kevin Hooks, Kathnea Quigley, Frank Oz. Guilty-pleasure leen Freeman, Dick Miller, Ken Tobey. time: a sexy French vampire (Parillaud) Diverting tale of rambunctious Navy test sinks her teeth into mob boss Loggia and pilot (Quaid) who undergoes miniaturization unwittingly unleashes a brood of bloodexperiment and is accidentally injected into sucking gangsters! Meanwhile, good cop [ 677 ]

LaPaglia tries to figure out just what’s going well acted, but wears out its welcome. on. Wild and woolly crossbreed of urban Based on a novel by Ruth Rendell. Origiaction thriller and vampire movie, with a nal British title: TREE OF HANDS.▼ wicked sense of humor; doesn’t always Innocent Voices (2005-Mexican-U.S.-Puerto make sense, but fun to watch (if you can Rican) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luis Mandoki. take the blood). Rickles is terrific as LogCarlos Padilla, Leonor Varela, Gustavo gia’s loyal lawyer. Landis casts other film Mun˜oz, Jose´ Marı´a Yazpik, Ofelia Medina, directors, as usual, in cameo roles, including Daniel Gime´nez Cacho, Jesu´s Ochoa. Dario Argento, Michael Ritchie, and Sam Heartfelt story of an 11-year-old boy who, Raimi. [R]▼●쩠 with his brother, sister, and hardworking Innocent Bystanders (1973-British) Cmother, struggles to survive in the midst of 111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Collinson. Stanley the civil war in 1980s El Salvador. It’s not a Baker, Geraldine Chaplin, Donald Pleasence, matter of choosing sides when bullets fly Dana Andrews, Sue Lloyd, Derren Nesbitt. through their makeshift house or when the Baker plays James Bond–like character ingovernment recruits schoolboys at the age volved in international manhunt for Rusof 12. Based on the experiences of writer sian scientist who has escaped from Siberia. Oscar Torres; simplistic at times, but still has the ring of truth and sincerity. [R]쩠 Well-made but standard fare, with heavy doses of sadism and violence. [PG] Inn of the Damned (1974-Australian) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terry Bourke. Judith Innocent Man, An (1989) C-113m. ★★ D: Peter Yates. Tom Selleck, F. Murray AbraAnderson, Alex Cord, Michael Craig, Joham, Laila Robins, David Rasche, Richseph Furst, Tony Bonner, John Meillon. ard Young, Badja Djola. Happily married Bounty hunter Cord investigates the disapairline mechanic is mistaken for a drug pearances of travelers at an inn operated contact by a pair of on-the-take cops who’ve by sickies Anderson and Furst. Fair of its burst into his home; victim gets a hearty type, uplifted immeasurably by Anderson’s course of ‘‘Slammer 101’’ after both slugs entertaining performance.▼쩠 frame him. Slick and soft at the center, despite Inn of the Frightened People (1971some potentially compelling script elements; British) 89m. ★★ D: Sidney Hayers. Joan not too strong on credibility, either. [R]▼●쩠 Collins, James Booth, Ray Barrett, Sinead Innocents, The (1961-British) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 Cusack, Tom Marshall, Kenneth Griffith. D: Jack Clayton. Deborah Kerr, Michael Parents of young girl who was raped and murRedgrave, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, dered take revenge on man they believe guilty. Pamela Franklin, Martin Stephens. FirstSordid, low-budget thriller with some interestrate thriller based on Henry James’ ‘‘The ing moments. British title: REVENGE. Aka TERROR FROM UNDER THE HOUSE. ▼ Turn of the Screw,’’ with Kerr as governess haunted by specters that may or may not be Inn of the Sixth Happiness, The (1958) C-158m. ★★★ D: Mark Robson. Ingrid real. Script by William Archibald and Truman Capote, brilliantly realized on film. PhoBergman, Curt Jurgens, Robert Donat, Rontographed by Freddie Francis. Remade in ald Squire, Athene Seyler, Richard Wattis. 1992 as THE TURN OF THE SCREW. True story of English servant (Bergman) CinemaScope.▼●쩠 who, despite her lack of credentials, realizes Innocent Sleep, The (1996-British) C-95m. her dream of becoming a missionary in ★★ China. Bergman is wonderful and Donat D: Scott Michell. Rupert Graves, Annabella Sciorra, Michael Gambon, Franco Nero, memorable in final screen performance. John Hannah, Graham Crowden. A drunken Simple, effective score by Malcolm Arnold. derelict in London finds himself being pursued CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 by a corrupt cop after witnessing a murder and In Old California (1942) 88m. ★★ D: stumbling onto a high-level international conWilliam McGann. John Wayne, Binnie spiracy. Old-fashioned, would-be HitchBarnes, Albert Dekker, Helen Parrish, Patsy cockian ‘‘innocent-man-on-the-run’’ thriller Kelly, Edgar Kennedy, Dick Purcell, Harry is extremely slow moving and murkily plotShannon. Wayne moves into Western town ted, with a cop-out finale that fails to wrap controlled by shifty Dekker, with inevitaup the myriad loose ends. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ble confrontation. Also shown in computerInnocents with Dirty Hands SEE: Dirty colored version. ▼쩠 Hands In Old Chicago (1938) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Innocent Victim (1989-British) C-89m. Henry King. Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, ★★1 Don Ameche, Alice Brady, Andy Devine, ⁄2 D: Giles Foster. Helen Shaver, Lauren Bacall, Malcolm Stoddard, Peter Firth, Brian Donlevy, Phyllis Brooks, Tom Brown, Paul McGann, Katie Hardie, Tony HayBerton Churchill, Sidney Blackmer, Gene garth, Phyllida Law. When the young son Reynolds, Bobs Watson. Lavish period of unmarried writer Shaver unexpectedly piece building up to Chicago fire of 1871; dies, her disturbed mother (Bacall) kidOscar-winning Brady is Mrs. O’Leary, naps another boy, the abused son of a whose sons Power, Ameche, and Brown would-be singer (Hardie). Deliberately find their own adventures in the Windy paced thriller with too many plot twists; City. Scripted by Lamar Trotti and Sonya [ 678 ]

Levien, based on a story by Niven Busch. recalls nearly two decades’ worth of conOriginally released at 115m.▼쩠 quests, all of whom are paraded across the In Old Oklahoma (1943) 102m. ★★1⁄2 screen in various stages of undress. Strasberg D: Albert S. Rogell. John Wayne, Martha and Stewart are particularly praiseworthy, Scott, Albert Dekker, Gabby Hayes, Marbut nothing else is in this tease of a movie. Remade in 1997. [R]▼쩠 jorie Rambeau, Sidney Blackmer, Dale Evans. Slugger Wayne brooks no nonsense Inquiry, The (1987-Italian) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 in this oil-drilling yarn; good action, obligD: Damiano Damiani. Keith Carradine, atory romance. Aka WAR OF THE WILDHarvey Keitel, Phyllis Logan, Lina Sastri. CATS. ▼ Intriguing story treats the resurrection of In Our Time (1944) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: VinChrist as a mystery thriller. Carradine is a cent Sherman. Ida Lupino, Paul Henreid, hardnosed investigator sent from Rome to Nazimova, Nancy Coleman, Mary Boland, find out what happened to the missing body Victor Francen, Michael Chekhov. Lupino of Jesus Christ; an official cover-up is preand Henreid try to save Poland from Nazi sumed. Offbeat point of view holds interest. takeover in plush soaper that seeks to be Excellent dubbing of the Italian supporting meaningful propaganda; Nazimova is touchcharacters, but it’s still distracting to hear Keitel’s Bronx accent as Pontius Pilate. ▼ ing as Henreid’s aristocratic mother. Never quite hits the mark. In Search of Gregory (1970-BritishItalian) C-90m. ★★ D: Peter Wood. Julie I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Dennis Dugan. Christie, John Hurt, Michael Sarrazin, AdAdam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, olfo Celi, Paola Pitagora. Muddled film set Dan Aykroyd, Ving Rhames, Steve Busin Geneva, about two potential lovers who cemi, Nicholas Turturro, Allen Covert, Rafantasize about, but never meet, each other. chel Dratch, Richard Chamberlain, Mary [M/PG] Pat Gleason, Rob Corddry, Lance Bass, In Search of the Castaways (1962) CBlake Clark. In order to overcome bureau100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Stevenson. Hayley cratic red tape two single, heterosexual Mills, Maurice Chevalier, George SandBrooklyn firefighters, one (Sandler) a laers, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Michael Anderdies’ man and the other (James) a widower, son, Jr., Keith Hamshire. Expedition tries pretend to be a gay couple. Generally idiotic to locate missing sea captain, in journey comedy hypocritically lambastes homophobia that encounters fire, flood, earthquake and while featuring characters who are flagrant other disasters. Disney adaptation of Jules gay stereotypes. Rob Schneider and David Verne suffers from muddled continuity; Spade appear unbilled. [PG-13]쩠 good cast does its best.▼●쩠 In Person (1935) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Insect SEE: Blue Monkey Seiter. Ginger Rogers, George Brent, Alan Inseminoid SEE: Horror Planet Mowbray, Grant Mitchell, Samuel S. Inserts (1975-British) C-99m. BOMB D: Hinds, Joan Breslau. In between TOP HAT John Byrum. Richard Dreyfuss, Jessica and FOLLOW THE FLEET, Rogers made Harper, Veronica Cartwright, Bob Hosthis formula comedy about a movie star kins, Stephen Davies. Pretentious, unending who’s had a nervous breakdown; while nonsense played out by five characters on recuperating, she spars romantically with one set: decaying Hollywood mansion in Brent. Trivial, but pleasant.▼● early thirties where once-famous director In Praise of Love (2001-French-Swiss) now makes porno films. Dreadful. The British version runs 117m. [X]▼쩠 C/B&W-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Bruno Putzulu, Ce´cile Camp, Jean Davy, Inside (1996) C-94m. ★★ D: Arthur Penn. Franc¸oise Verney, Audrey Klebaner, JerEric Stoltz, Nigel Hawthorne, Louis Gosemy Lippman, Jean Lacouture. Two-part sett, Jr., Ian Roberts, Jerry Mofokeng. South film is a return to form for the everAfrican university professor Stoltz is acprovocative director. Part one deals with cused of conspiring against the apartheid discussions of a project in the works called government and is subjected to ruthless in‘‘E´loge de L’amour,’’ from which the film terrogation by a sadistic colonel (Hawtook its original French title. In part two, set thorne). Years later, the colonel is subject to two years earlier, an elderly couple attempt questioning by Gossett. The cast is first rate to sell their story of fighting in the French and the subject matter is interesting, but film Resistance to Hollywood. Doesn’t always hit lacks dramatic spark. First shown on cable TV. [R]▼●쩠 its mark, particularly when it takes potshots at Steven Spielberg and SCHINDLER’S Inside Daisy Clover (1965) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 LIST, but this challenging film is worth D: Robert Mulligan. Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Christopher Plummer, Roddy seeing, especially for Godard fans. [PG]▼쩠 In Praise of Older Women (1978-CanaMcDowall, Ruth Gordon, Katherine Bard. dian) C-108m. BOMB D: George KacPotentially biting account of Wood’s rise zender. Tom Berenger, Karen Black, Susan as Hollywood star in 1930s misfires; pat Strasberg, Helen Shaver, Alexandra Stewsituations with caricatures instead of people. Panavision.▼●쩠 art, Marilyn Lightstone. Hungarian stud [ 679 ]

Inside Deep Throat (2005) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Mason, Robert Culp, Aldo Ray, Charles D: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato. Narrated Korvin. Savalas engineers break-in at maxby Dennis Hopper. Saga of DEEP THROAT, imum security prison in East Germany to the 1972 porno film that became a landfree notorious war criminal who knows mark: the first such movie to enjoy huge whereabouts of a secret cache of gold. Not mainstream success and a lightning rod for bad international caper. Retitled HITLER’S government attacks on obscenity. Neatly GOLD and THE GOLDEN HEIST. [PG] ▼ mixes archival footage, interviews with the Insider, The (1999) C-157m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Miparticipants (actors Linda Lovelace and chael Mann. Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Harry Reems, director Gerard Damiano), Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip and popular-culture commentators (Hugh Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar, Hefner, Erica Jong, Norman Mailer, Helen Stephen Tobolowsky, Colm Feore, Bruce Gurley Brown, John Waters, et al.). InterestMcGill, Gina Gershon, Michael Gambon, ing, to be sure, but not as profound as its Rip Torn, Lynne Thigpen, Hallie Kate Eisenfilmmakers would have you believe. R-rated berg, Wings Hauser, Pete Hamill. Dynamic version also available. [NC-17]쩠 fact-based story of a gutsy segment producer Inside I’m Dancing SEE: Rory O’Shea for TV’s 60 Minutes (Pacino) who sniffs out Was Here a story in disaffected scientist Crowe, who’s just been fired by a major tobacco company. Inside Man (2006) C-128m. ★★★ D: Spike Lee. Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Compelling, adult entertainment that finds Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem great drama in the real-life machinations of Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Carlos Andre´as TV journalism (and big business). Great perGo´mez, Kim Director, James Ransone, Berformances all around. Screenplay by Mann nard Rachelle, Peter Gerety, Victor Coland Eric Roth, based on a magazine story by icchio, Peter Frechette, Daryl ‘‘Chill’’ Marie Brenner. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Mitchell. Clever reinvention of a bank-heist Insignificance (1985-British) C-110m. ★★★1 story with a streetwise N.Y.C. detective ⁄2 D: Nicolas Roeg. Gary Busey, Tony (Washington) trying to figure out the real Curtis, Theresa Russell, Michael Emil, motive of the wily robber (Owen) who is Will Sampson. Striking, gloriously cinestaked out inside the bank building. Laced matic examination of the meaning of fame with uniquely New York–flavored moments in America and the perils of atomic warfare. of humor and character riffs, though it overThe stars are cast as unnamed celebrities—a plays its hand and goes on too long. Foster ballplayer, senator, actress, and professor— brings no color whatsoever to her role as a who resemble Joe DiMaggio, Joseph Mchigh-stakes power broker. Super 35. [R]쩠 Carthy, Marilyn Monroe, and Albert EinInside Monkey Zetterland (1992) C-93m. stein, and meet in a N.Y.C. hotel room in ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jefery Levy. Steven Antin, Kather1954. Funny, ironic, thought provoking. ine Helmond, Patricia Arquette, Tate DonoWonderfully acted by all. Screenplay by van, Sandra Bernhard, Sofia Coppola, Terry Johnson. [R] ▼●쩠 Rupert Everett, Bo Hopkins, Martha PlimpIn Society (1944) 75m. ★★ D: Jean Yarton, Debi Mazar, Ricki Lake, Lance Loud, brough. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, MarFrancis Bay. Hit-and-miss L.A. comedy ion Hutton, Arthur Treacher, Thomas about the title character (Antin), a young Gomez, Thurston Hall, Kirby Grant. Minor screenwriter, and his complex connections A&C, with the boys as plumbers mistaken with family (most tellingly, soap opera star for members of society; hectic slapstick mom Helmond) and friends. Filled with finale. Includes chase footage lifted from moments of humor and insight, and tolerNEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK.▼쩠 ance for its various offbeat characters, but at other times affected and formulaic. Loosely Insomnia (1997-Norwegian) C-97m. ★★★ autobiographical; star Antin scripted and D: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Gisken Armand, coproduced. [R]▼●쩠 Inside Moves (1980) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bjorn Floberg, Maria Bonnevie, Kristian FiRichard Donner. John Savage, David genschow. Moody police thriller with two Morse, Diana Scarwid, Amy Wright, Tony criminal investigators traveling to remote, Burton, Bill Henderson, Bert Remsen, Hararctic Norway on a murder case; soon the old Russell. Offbeat drama about a young relentless midnight sun and tactical missteps suicide survivor (Savage) who falls in cause one of the men to unravel. Skarsga˚rd is with a group of upbeat misfits and learns good, as always, in this psychological maelabout self-esteem. A well-meaning film strom. Remade in 2002.▼쩠 with some excellent performances and emoInsomnia (2002) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Christional highpoints but a few too many story topher Nolan. Al Pacino, Robin Williams, flaws—including the final scene. Russell’s Hilary Swank, Maura Tierney, Martin Donofirst film since THE BEST YEARS OF OUR van, Nicky Katt, Paul Dooley, Jonathan JackLIVES. [PG]▼●쩠 son. Famous LAPD detective Pacino and his Inside Out (1975-British) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 partner (Donovan) are sent to small town in D: Peter Duffell. Telly Savalas, James Alaska to help solve a grisly murder—and to [ 680 ]

get them away from the firing line of a departInspiration (1931) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clarence ment controversy. It turns out that whodunit is Brown. Greta Garbo, Robert Montgomery, not the problem, but how to catch the culprit .. . Lewis Stone, Marjorie Rambeau, Beryl especially when he starts playing a cat-andMercer. Lesser Garbo vehicle about beautimouse game with Pacino. Multilayered story is ful Parisian woman whose past makes her enhanced by Nolan’s cunning use of visual and decide to leave Montgomery, even though aural devices, plus top-notch performances. she still loves him. A modern version of Remake of 1997 film of the same name, Alphonse Daudet’s Sappho. ▼● adapted by Hillary Seitz. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Instinct (1999) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon TurInspecteur Lavardin (1986-French) C-99m. teltaub. Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Jean Poiret, JeanJr., Donald Sutherland, Maura Tierney, Claude Brialy, Bernadette Lafont, Jacques George Dzundza, John Ashton, John AylDacqmine, Jean-Luc Bideau, Hermine ward. Ambitious psychiatric resident Claire, Pierre-Francois Dumeniaud, Florent (Gooding) evaluates brilliant and/or insane Gibassier, Guy Louret, Jean Depusse. primatologist (Hopkins), who’s been living Crime and comedy make for an unusual among the Rwandan gorillas he studied and mix in this tale of quirky police detective who may have murdered some park rangers. Poiret’s murder investigation in a French Talky drama sets off a few sparks whenever seaside village. Lafont—newly widowed, the two leads square off, and has some wealthy, and an old flame of the inspector’s— CUCKOO’S NEST flourishes throughout. and her wacky brother (Brialy) head the Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 list of suspects. A sequel to Chabrol’s COP Insurance Man, The (1985-British) CAU VIN/POULET AU VINAIGRE (1984) 77m. ★★★ D: Richard Eyre. Robert Hines, which introduced Poiret’s Lavardin character Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Broadbent, Hugh in a supporting role.쩠 Fraser, Tony Haygarth. Dramatically unInspector Calls, An (1954-British) 80m. even yet still ambitious, impressive ac★★★ D: Guy Hamilton. Alastair Sim, Arthur count of a young dyeworker named Franz Young, Olga Lindo, Eileen Moore. J. B. (Hines), whose body develops a rash, and Priestley play detailing British police detechis dealings with both the bureaucracy and tive Sim’s investigation of girl’s suicide. a man named Mr. Kafka (Day-Lewis), a Via flashbacks he learns a family’s responclaims assessor who also writes. A tribute sibility for her fate. Clever plot finale. to Kafka and his work, with a screenplay Inspector Clouseau (1968) C-94m. ★★ D: by Alan Bennett. Bud Yorkin. Alan Arkin, Delia Boccardo, Intacto (2001-Spanish) C-108m. ★★ D: Juan Frank Finlay, Patrick Cargill, Beryl Reid, Carlos Fresnadillo. Max von Sydow, LeoBarry Foster. Scotland Yard calls on inept nardo Sbaraglia, Eusebio Poncela, Mo´nica French detective to crack potential robLo´pez, Antonio Dechent, Guillermo Toledo. bery; in spite of Arkin’s talents, Peter Ambitious but muddled thriller involving an Sellers is too well identified with the role aging high-stakes gambler/Holocaust survi(from other Pink Panther movies) for one vor (von Sydow) who enjoys, and appears to fully accept this characterization. Beto be able to control, good fortune; he takes sides, film isn’t particularly funny. Made away the luck of an underling who’s anin England. Panavision. [G]쩠 nounced his wish to go off on his own. Means Inspector Gadget (1999) C-80m. ★★ D: to be eerie and compelling, but is pretentious David Kellogg. Matthew Broderick, Rupert and confusing instead. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle TrachtenIntended, The (2003-Danish-British) Cberg, Andy Dick, Cheri Oteri, Michael G. 110m. ★★ D: Kristian Levring. Janet McTeer, Hagerty, Dabney Coleman, Rene AuberjoOlympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Tony nois, Frances Bay; voices of D. L. Hughley, Maudsley, JJ Feild, David Bradley, Philip Don Adams. Desperate gimmick comedy Jackson. In 1920s Malaya, a miserable wretch for kids based on the 1980s animated TV who works as an ivory trading-post overseer series. After a severe accident, Broderick’s (Fricker) makes life intolerable for one and body is pieced back together with cuttingall, including a youthful surveyor (Feild) and edge technology, just right for chasing bad his older fiance´e (McTeer). An altogether guys like Everett (aka Claw). Gizmos and unpleasant—and unnecessary—experience, slapstick galore, but precious few laughs in despite some good performances. Levring this Disney concoction. Followed by a and McTeer coscripted. [R]쩠 direct-to-video sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 Interiors (1978) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Woody Inspector General, The (1949) C-102m. ★★★ Allen. Diane Keaton, Geraldine Page, D: Henry Koster. Danny Kaye, WalE. G. Marshall, Maureen Stapleton, Kristin ter Slezak, Barbara Bates, Elsa Lanchester, Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Gene Lockhart, Alan Hale, Walter Catlett. Sam Waterston. Allen’s first screen drama Kaye plays a buffoon who pretends to be a as writer-director is an Ingmar Bergvisiting bureaucrat in an Eastern European manesque study of a family full of unhappy, village. Entertaining musical adaptation of frustrated men and women; drama of anthe Gogol story.▼쩠 [ 681 ]

guished lives is not for all tastes, but exter has surprisingly little resonance. Super 35. [R]쩠 tremely well done. [PG] ▼●쩠 International House (1933) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 Interlude (1968-British) C-113m. ★★★ D: D: A. Edward Sutherland. W. C. Fields, Peggy Kevin Billington. Oskar Werner, Barbara Hopkins Joyce, Stuart Erwin, George Burns, Ferris, Virginia Maskell, Donald SutherGracie Allen, Bela Lugosi, Franklin Pangborn, land, Nora Swinburne, Alan Webb, John Rudy Vallee, Sterling Holloway, Cab CalCleese. Charming, sentimental tale of symloway, Baby Rose Marie. Offbeat, delightful phony conductor and reporter who have an film with early television experiment bringing affair; told in flashback. Previously filmed people from all over the world to large Orienas WHEN TOMORROW COMES and tal hotel. Spotlight alternates between Fields INTERLUDE (1957). [M/PG] and Burns & Allen, all in rare form, with Intermezzo (1939) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gregguest spots by various radio entertainers. ory Ratoff. Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, Short and sweet, a must-see film. Calloway Edna Best, Cecil Kellaway, John Halliday. sings the memorable ‘‘Reefer Man.’’▼●쩠 One of the best love stories ever filmed, as International Squadron (1941) 87m. ★★1⁄2 married Howard, renowned violinist, has D: Lothar Mendes. Ronald Reagan, James an affair with musical prote´ge´e Bergman Stephenson, Olympe Bradna, William Lundi(in her first English-speaking film). Short gan, Joan Perry, Julie Bishop, Cliff Edwards. and sweet, highlighted by Robert Henning– Air Force straightens out no-account Reagan Heinz Provost love theme. Original title: INand turns him into fighting ace. Standard war TERMEZZO, A LOVE STORY; Bergman story, a remake of CEILING ZERO. played same role in Gustav Molander’s 1936 International Velvet (1978-British-U.S.) Swedish version. Remade, after a fashion, C-127m. ★★★ D: Bryan Forbes. Tatum as HONEYSUCKLE ROSE.▼●쩠 O’Neal, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Intermission (2003-Irish-British) C-102m. Hopkins, Nanette Newman, Dinsdale Lan★★★ D: John Crowley. Colin Farrell, Shirley den. Long overdue sequel to NATIONAL Henderson, Kelly Macdonald, Colm Meaney, VELVET has Velvet (Newman) a grown Cillian Murphy, Ger Ryan, Brı´an F. O’Byrne, woman with a live-in lover (Plummer) and Barbara Bergin, Michael McElhatton, Deirdre a niece (O’Neal) primed to follow in her O’Kane, David Wilmot. A lively mosaic of footsteps as an Olympic horsewoman. Too stories in modern-day Dublin involving lengthy and shunned by the critics, but working-class people whose dysfunctional deftly played by Hopkins and Plummer; exlives collide as they search for love, vent quisitely filmed, entertaining. [PG]▼쩠 their anger, and commit crimes that can’t Internecine Project, The (1974-British) possibly pay. Alternately furious and funny, ★★ D: Ken Hughes. James Coburn, C-89m. shot with a great feeling of spontaneity on Lee Grant, Harry Andrews, Ian Hendry, high-definition video by a first-time direcMichael Jayston, Keenan Wynn. Lacklustor. The girl with the ice cream cone in ter espionage drama with Coburn as opporthe film’s first scene is Emma Bolger, who tunist who tries to eliminate skeletons in costars in IN AMERICA. [R]▼쩠 his closet by having a handful of industrial Internal Affairs (1990) C-117m. ★★ D: spies kill each other off. [PG]▼ Mike Figgis. Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Interns, The (1962) 120m. ★★★ D: David Nancy Travis, Laurie Metcalf, Richard Swift. Michael Callan, Cliff Robertson, Bradford, William Baldwin, Michael Beach, James MacArthur, Nick Adams, Suzy ParAnnabella Sciorra, Elijah Wood. Smarmy, ker, Haya Harareet, Stefanie Powers, Buddy overripe, and overlong drama about a Ebsen, Telly Savalas. Glossy, renovated young cop who joins L.A.’s Internal Affairs DR. KILDARE soap opera, kept afloat by Dept. and becomes obsessed with nailing a an interesting young cast. Followed by cocky, corrupt officer (Gere) who’s a past sequel THE NEW INTERNS.▼● master at manipulating people. Intriguing Interpreter, The (2005-U.S.-German) Cideas get lost, and illogic takes over pretty 128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sydney Pollack. Nicole Kidquickly. [R]▼●쩠 man, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Jesper International, The (2009-U.S.-German) Christensen, Yvan Attal, Earl Cameron, MiC-118m. ★★ D: Tom Tykwer. Clive Owen, chael Wright, George Harris, Clyde Kusatsu, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Ulrich Hugo Speer. U.N. interpreter Kidman overThomsen, Brian F. O’Byrne, Jack McGee, hears what sounds like an assassination plot Felix Solis, James Rebhorn. Interpol agent against the leader of her homeland, Matobo, Owen teams up with Manhattan D.A. Watts who’s about to visit N.Y.C. Federal agent in an effort to get the goods on an internaPenn is assigned to investigate the credibility tional bank that’s involved in all sorts of of her claim and becomes emotionally indirty deals. Slick suspense thriller circles volved. Star wattage and filmmaking craftsthe globe but is discouragingly sparse on manship help compensate for many loose ends suspense or thrills, except for a long, brain this thriller (credited to three separate screenvura shootout inside N.Y.C.’s Guggenheim writers, ‘‘with the help of’’ a novel), but it Museum. Its seemingly topical subject matseems neither the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, [ 682 ]

U.N. security, nor the NYPD can keep an eye pire Chronicles (1994) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: on a suspect for long! Pollack has a small role Neil Jordan. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio as Penn’s boss. Technovision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Banderas, Stephen Rea, Christian Slater, Interrupted Melody (1955) C-106m. ★★★ Kirsten Dunst, Domiziana Giordano, ThanD: Curtis Bernhardt. Eleanor Parker, Glenn die Newton, Indra Ove. In contemporary Ford, Roger Moore, Cecil Kellaway, Ann San Francisco, a young man grants an interCodee, Stephan Bekassy. Fine biography view about his 200-year existence as a of Marjorie Lawrence, Australian opera vampire—a ‘‘life’’ with which he has never star, who made a comeback after being felt completely comfortable. Likely to satcrippled by polio. Eileen Farrell sings for isfy fans of Anne Rice’s popular novel, and Parker. William Ludwig and Sonya Levien female fans of its star ‘‘hunks,’’ but this won Oscars for their story and screenplay. descent into the netherworld is unappealing, CinemaScope.▼●쩠 unrelenting, and (after a while) downright Intersection (1994) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Mark boring. The actors can’t be faulted, nor can Rydell. Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, Lolita the handsome production design. Followed by QUEEN OF THE DAMNED. [R]▼●쩠 Davidovich, Martin Landau, David Selby, Jenny Morrison, Ron White. Dreary romanIntervista (1987-Italian) C-108m. ★★★ D: tic triangle of wealthy architect Gere, who Federico Fellini. Sergio Rubini, Antonella has drifted apart from his aloof wife Ponziani, Maurizio Mein, Paola Liguori, (Stone), and taken up with spunky DavidoLara Wendel, Antonio Cantafora, Nadia vich. Meanwhile, all involved feel terribly Ottaviani, Anita Ekberg, Marcello Masguilty about the teenage daughter they’re troianni, Federico Fellini. Engaging, illuhurting. Title comes from an accident site, minating mock-documentary about the makwhich prompts all this moping around in a ing of a film about Fellini; the master is series of flashbacks. Derived from a 1970 depicted in production of an adaptation of French feature, LES CHOSES DE LA VIE Kafka’s Amerika. Mastroianni and Ekberg (THE THINGS OF LIFE), directed by (who costarred almost 30 years before in Claude Sautet. [R]▼●쩠 LA DOLCE VITA) appear as themselves. Interval (1973-Mexican) C-84m. ★★ D: The film also serves as an homage to Daniel Mann. Merle Oberon, Robert WoldCinecitta`, the studio where Fellini shot all ers, Claudio Brook, Russ Conway, Charles of his classics. ▼쩠 Bateman, Barbara Ransom. A globetrotIn the Army Now (1994) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: ting woman, running from her past, finds Daniel Petrie, Jr. Pauly Shore, Lori Petty, true love with a much younger man David Alan Grier, Andy Dick, Esai Morales, (Wolders, who became Oberon’s husband Lynn Whitfield, Art LeFleur, Tom Villard, in real life). Drippy May-December roKeith Coogan. Pauly is a pacifist who joins mance, filmed in Mexico and produced by the army so he can ‘‘be all that he can be Oberon, whose last film this was. [PG] ▼ for free,’’ only to learn that there’s more to Interview (2007) C-86m. ★★★ D: Steve Busenlisting than receiving complimentary room cemi. Sienna Miller, Steve Buscemi. Political and board. Latest in a long line of barracks reporter reluctantly carries out an assignment comedies proves no competition for BUCK to interview a beautiful young actress who’s PRIVATES. Pauly’s fans might disagree. put off by his obvious indifference to the Brendan Fraser appears unbilled. [PG] ▼●쩠 task. Over the course of an evening, they In the Bedroom (2001) C-138m. ★★★ D: take turns seducing and bamboozling each Todd Field. Sissy Spacek, Tom Wilkinson, other. Remake of Theo van Gogh’s Dutch Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei, William Mamovie of the same name, shot in a series of pother, William Wise, Celia Weston, Karen lengthy handheld takes, ebbs and flows but Allen. An avuncular small-town Maine docnever completely loses its momentum betor and his wife, who teaches music in the cause of the two stars’ compelling perforlocal school, don’t approve of the ‘‘older’’ mances. Buscemi and David Schechter woman their son has fallen in love with . . . adapted Theodor Holman’s original screenbut no one is prepared for the events that play. [R]쩠 then unfold. Quiet, observant film explores Interview With the Assassin (2002) C-88m. how grief affects a longtime married couple ★★★ D: Neil Burger. Raymond J. Barry, Dylan and the people around them. Rock-solid Haggerty, Renee Faia, Kelsey Kemper, Denperformances by all the lead actors. Field’s nis Lau, Jared McVay. An unemployed camfeature directing debut; he also coscripted eraman interviews and tapes his terminally with Rob Festinger, from a story by Andre ill next-door neighbor (Barry, in a riveting Dubus. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 performance), who claims to be the soIn the Bleak Midwinter SEE: Midwincalled second gunman who assassinated ter’s Tale, A John F. Kennedy. This documentary-style In the Company of Men (1997) C-93m. ★★ D: Neil LaBute. Aaron Eckhart, Stacy film is a bit gimmicky, but still interesting and disturbing, a worthy companion piece Edwards, Matt Malloy, Mark Rector. Provocto Oliver Stone’s JFK.▼쩠 ative but stark and discomfiting low-budget Interview With the Vampire: The Vamfilm about two yuppie office workers who— [ 683 ]

frustrated by the world around them, and women in particular—make a pact that while they’re on assignment in another city, they’ll both date a woman and then dump her, just for the satisfaction of it. The slicker of the two (Eckhart) turns out to have a hidden agenda, however. Alternately absorbing, humdrum, and distasteful. Eckhart’s creepy character does get under your skin. Highly praised in some circles. Written by the director. [R]

117m.). John Sayles has a hilarious cameo as a foulmouthed movie director. Alec Baldwin played Robicheaux in 1996’s HEAVEN’S PRISONERS. Panavision. [R]쩠 In the French Style (1963) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Parrish. Jean Seberg, Stanley Baker, Addison Powell, James Leo Herlihy, Philippe Forquet, Claudine Auger. Two short stories by Irwin Shaw are basis for this overlong account of American girl who discovers tran▼●쩠 In the Cool of the Day (1963-British) sient affairs are marring her life. C-89m. ★★ D: Robert Stevens. Peter Finch, In the Good Old Summertime (1949) C-102m. ★★★ D: Robert Z. Leonard. Judy Jane Fonda, Angela Lansbury, Arthur Hill, Constance Cummings, Alexander Knox, Garland, Van Johnson, S. Z. ‘‘Cuddles’’ Nigel Davenport, Alec McCowen. Good Sakall, Spring Byington, Clinton Sundberg, cast flounders in turgid soaper, with Finch Buster Keaton. Musical remake of THE (who is married to bitchy Lansbury) mediatSHOP AROUND THE CORNER, with ing marital rift between Hill and his emoGarland and Johnson the pen pals who fall tionally and physically fragile wife Fonda; in love. Not up to most MGM Garland soon Finch and Fonda fall in love. Location vehicles, but pleasant. That’s young Liza Minnelli with Judy in the finale.▼●쩠 filming in Greece helps. Panavision. In the Cut (2003-U.S.-Australian) C-118m. In the Heat of Passion (1992) C-102m. ★★1 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jane Campion. Meg Ryan, Mark ⁄2 D: Rodman Flender. Sally Kirkland, Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nick Damici, Nick Corri, Jack Carter, Michael Greene, Sharrieff Pugh. An English teacher becomes Gloria LeRoy, Carl Franklin. Low-budget involved with a homicide detective who’s but diverting film noir, with Corri a young investigating a series of brutal murders of garage mechanic who puts the moves on women in her Manhattan neighborhood. A wealthy, mysterious Kirkland. When her daring look at a sexual relationship between husband gets in the way, what’s a lover to two emotionally fragile people, set against do? Twisty tale encompasses a serial rapist the backdrop of a murder mystery. Provocaand the reality-TV show tracking him, with tive and doggedly antiromantic, the storytellCorri’s assistance. Genuinely suspenseful, ing is faulty and drawn out, but the sexually frank film hindered by mediocre atmosphere and performances are first-rate. production values. [R]▼● Adapted by Campion and Susanna Moore In the Heat of the Night (1967) C-109m. ★★★★ from the latter’s novel. Kevin Bacon appears D: Norman Jewison. Sidney Poitier, unbilled. Unrated version runs 119m. [R] ▼쩠 Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant, In the Devil’s Garden (1971-British) CScott Wilson, Larry Gates, Quentin Dean, 89m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney Hayers. Suzy Kendall, James Patterson, Anthony James, William Frank Finlay, Freddie Jones, Lesley-Anne Schallert. Redneck Southern sheriff grudgDown, James Laurenson, Tony Beckley. Uningly accepts help from big-city black detecdistinguished thriller of rapist-killer in girls’ tive in solving bizarre murder. Marvelous school; of interest mainly for the presence of social thriller hasn’t dated one bit—tough, Down, in an early role as one of the victims. funny, and atmospheric, with unbeatable actAka ASSAULT, THE CREEPERS, TOWER ing and splendid Quincy Jones score. Five OF TERROR and SATAN’S PLAYOscars include Best Picture, Actor (Steiger), THINGS. Panavision. [R]▼ Screenplay (Stirling Silliphant), Editing (Hal In the Electric Mist (2009-U.S.-French) CAshby). Poitier reprised his character in 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Tommy THEY CALL ME MISTER TIBBS! and Lee Jones, John Goodman, Mary SteenburTHE ORGANIZATION. Followed by a TV gen, Peter Sarsgaard, Kelly Macdonald, series 20 years later. ▼●쩠 Pruitt Taylor Vince, Justina Machado, Ned In the Land of Women (2007) C-98m. ★★ Beatty, James Gammon, Levon Helm, D: Jonathan Kasdan. Adam Brody, Kristen Buddy Guy, Julio Ce´sar Cedillo. RecovStewart, Meg Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Maering alcoholic Louisiana detective Dave kenzie Vega, Elena Anaya, Clark Gregg, Robicheaux (Jones) is trying to solve a seJoBeth Williams, Dustin Milligan, Ginnifer ries of gruesome murders when the corpse Goodwin. A 26-year-old L.A. writer, feeling of a black man killed 40 years ago surfaces he’s a failure, moves to Michigan to care for in a nearby marsh. Atmospheric and well his elderly (i.e., frail but feisty) grandmother cast, this police procedural with mystical and soon gets to know/help/save an upscale undertones is highly watchable, although (i.e., cold and empty) family across the street. some of the characters and relationships Oh, yes—he also finds himself in the process. seem a bit sketchy (and may come to life Brody (The O.C.) is good in his first film lead, more fully in James Lee Burke’s novel or but this is pretty predictable stuff. Feature Tavernier’s European cut, which runs writing and directing debut for Jonathan Kas[ 684 ]

dan (son of Lawrence, brother of Jake). Super tensen. From his padded cell, desperate Neill 35. [PG-13]쩠 relates his story to Warner: Hired to locate In the Line of Fire (1993) C-128m. ★★★1⁄2 reclusive horror writer Prochnow, Neill finds D: Wolfgang Petersen. Clint Eastwood, him in a small New England town. But then John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Dylan Mcpeople, places, and even reality begin underDermott, Gary Cole, Fred Dalton Thompgoing horrific transformations. The first twoson, John Mahoney, Jim Curley, Clyde thirds is among Carpenter’s best work as a Kusatsu, Patrika Darbo, John Heard. Crackdirector, and Neill is outstanding, but the last ling, well-made thriller about a would-be third becomes pointlessly obscure, and the presidential assassin who pulls Secret Serending is a pretentious letdown. Derived, vice agent Eastwood—who failed to protect without credit, from concepts created by H. P. Lovecraft. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 President Kennedy in 1963—into a cruel game of cat-and-mouse as he plans to murIn the Name of the Father (1993-U.S.Irish) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jim Sheridan. der the current president. Eastwood, as an older, vulnerable, piano-playing loner, has Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma never been better, and Malkovich matches Thompson, John Lynch, Corin Redgrave, Beahim as the superintelligent loony. Steve tie Edney, Daniel Massey. Searing, fact-based Railsback appears unbilled. Written by Jeff account of youthful Belfast no-good who’s Maguire. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 picked up—along with a friend and most of his In The Mix (2005) C-95m. BOMB D: Ron family—by British police and accused of a terUnderwood. Usher, Chazz Palminteri, Robrorist bombing he had nothing to do with. Diert Costanzo, Robert Davi, Matt Gerald, rector Sheridan grabs you by the collar and Emmanuelle Chriqui, Anthony Fazio, Kevin never lets go; Day-Lewis is extraordinarily inHart, Nick Mancuso, Deezer D, Geoff Stults. tense and believable, Postlethwaite every bit as Lame vehicle for rap star Usher, who is good as his simple, straightforward dad. Gerry adequate—and nothing more—in this gangsta Conlon’s book Proved Innocent adapted by nap about a club deejay recruited to guard a Sheridan and Terry George. [R]▼●쩠 mob boss’ daughter. When they get inIn the Name of the King: A Dungeon volved romantically, Dad gets ticked off. Siege Tale (2008-German-Canadian) CPredictable comedy-drama merges the 126m. BOMB D: Uwe Boll. Jason Statham, worlds of hip-hop and the Mob in pedesJohn Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, Matthew trian manner. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Lillard, Leelee Sobieski, Burt Reynolds, In the Mood (1987) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil Ron Perlman, Claire Forlani, Kristanna Alden Robinson. Patrick Dempsey, Talia Loken. Reluctant warrior Statham joins Balsam, Beverly D’Angelo, Michael Conforces with a brave king (Reynolds) to batstantine, Betty Jinette, Kathleen Freeman, tle a treacherous usurper (Lillard) and a Peter Hobbs, Edith Fellows. Engaging if wicked wizard (Liotta). Another videolow-key comedy based on true story of game–inspired fiasco from the unfortunately 1944’s ‘‘woo woo kid’’ Sonny Wisecarver, prolific Boll. Even with a bigger budget and a 15-year-old California boy who made better actors than usual, this is a plodding headlines because of his affairs with two patchwork of derivative fantasy-adventure, ‘‘older’’ women, one of whom he actually with substandard CGI effects and haphazmarried. Dempsey is ideal and Robinson’s ardly edited action sequences. Alternate version runs 162m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 script is delightfully wry, but film lacks a certain punch. The real-life Wisecarver apIn the Navy (1941) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur pears as a mailman in newsreel sequence Lubin. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dick (narrated by an uncredited Carl Reiner). Powell, The Andrews Sisters, Claire Dodd, Wonderful score by Ralph Burns, incorpoDick Foran. Bud and Lou are somehow in rating many vintage songs. [PG-13]▼● the Navy; Lou has hallucinations and nearly In the Mood for Love (2000-Hong Kongwrecks the entire fleet. Powell and Andrews Sisters provide songs, and Costello shows French) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wong Kar-wai. Abbott how 7 × 13 = 28. ▼●쩠 Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung, Lai Chin, Rebecca Pan, Siu Ping-lam, Chin Tsi-ang. In In the Realm of Passion SEE: Empire of 1962 Hong Kong, two lonely, married people Passion are drawn to each other, but dare not pursue In the Realm of the Senses (1976-JapaneseFrench) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nagisa Oshima. their feelings. An intriguing study of repressed emotions, ingeniously filmed so we’re often Tatsuya Fuji, Eiko Matsuda, Aio Nakajima, peeking around corners, only partially seeing Meika Seri. Sexually insatiable Matsuda what is going on. An exceptional mood piece will do anything to possess husband Fuji. that, like its characters, too often keeps us at Explicit, controversial, often erotic and wellan emotional distance. [PG]▼쩠 acted, but overall a pretentious film. The story In the Mouth of Madness (1995) C-95m. was previously told in A WOMAN CALLED ★★1⁄2 D: John Carpenter. Sam Neill, Jurgen SADA ABE: BEYOND THE REALM OF ¨ THE SENSES.▼쩠 Prochnow, Charlton Heston, David Warner, John Glover, Julie Carmen, Bernie Casey, In the Shadow of the Moon (2007-U.S.Peter Jason, Frances Bay, Hayden ChrisBritish) C-100m. ★★★★ D: David Sington. [ 685 ]

The story of the Apollo space program, as dunit takes us into dark, difficult terrain, all told by ten of the men who flew to (and in of it mirrored on Jones’ haunted face; his some cases walked on) the moon, illustrated exceptional performance anchors this outby breathtaking NASA footage, some of standing film. Haggis scripted from a story which has never been seen before. The ashe wrote with Mark Boal, inspired by reallife events. Super 35. [R]쩠 tronauts are candid, articulate, and reflective, nearly 40 years after their otherworldly In the White City (1983-Swiss-Portuguese) exploits. (The most impressive: Mike ColC-108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Tanner. Bruno lins, who’s kept a low profile since Apollo Ganz, Teresa Madruga, Julia Vonderlinn, 11.) An unexpectedly moving reminder of a Jose Carvalho. Involving, thought-provoking, time when Americans were united in justiKafkaesque tale of seaman Ganz’s experifiable pride over a towering human achieveences while in Lisbon, highlighted by his ment. [PG]쩠 relationship with chambermaid Madruga. In the Shadow of the Stars (1991) C-93m. The work of a filmmaker in complete ★★★ D: Irving Saraf, Allie Light. Absorbing command of his art.▼ documentary about members of the chorus of In This Our Life (1942) 97m. ★★★ D: John the San Francisco Opera Company—the drive Huston. Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, that makes them want to sing, the yearning George Brent, Dennis Morgan, Charles Coto take center stage, the sacrifices made, the burn, Frank Craven, Billie Burke, Hattie Mcdreams fulfilled. Even nonopera lovers will be Daniel, Lee Patrick, Ernest Anderson. Fine caught up in this very human story, simply drama of neurotic family with husband-stealbut eloquently told (with a healthy selection ing Davis ruining sister de Havilland’s life, of operatic excerpts). Oscar winner for Best and eventually her own; Davis at histrionic Documentary Feature.▼쩠 height. Based on Ellen Glasgow novel. Walter In the Soup (1992) C/B&W-90m. ★★1⁄2 Huston has cameo role as bartender in one D: Alexandre Rockwell. Steve Buscemi, scene. Also shown in computer-colored Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Pat Moya, version.▼●쩠 Will Patton, Sully Boyar, Jim Jarmusch, Carol In This World (2003-British) C-90m. ★★★ Kane, Stanley Tucci, Rockets Redglare, ElizaD: Michael Winterbottom. Jamal Udin Torbeth Bracco, Debi Mazar, Sam Rockwell. Ababi, Enayatullah. Teenage Jamal and his surdist comedy about a naive, ambitious writer slightly older uncle Enayat pool their re(Buscemi) who’s penned a 500-page screensources for cross-country transportation play and the eccentric small-time hood (Cassel, from an Afghan refugee camp to London. in a canny, award-caliber performance) who They travel by truck, train, and boat with promises to produce his film. At times very surprisingly few complications—but those funny, but also downright silly; coscripted by few can be deadly. Intriguing, unscripted Rockwell. Filmed in color, released in b&w. film was shot as the two protagonists, playBoth versions available on video.▼쩠 ing themselves, actually made the journey. In the Spirit (1990) C-94m. ★★ D: Sandra This, coupled with handheld photography, Seacat. Marlo Thomas, Elaine May, Peter creates a powerful sense of realism. EnFalk, Jeannie Berlin, Olympia Dukakis, grossing, almost hypnotic at times, though Melanie Griffith, Michael Emil, Christothe ultimate point remains elusive. Digital pher Durang. Oddball throwback to black Video Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 comedies of the 1970s, as mystic Thomas Intimate Affairs SEE: Investigating Sex and house guest May get targeted by the Intimate Lighting (1965-Czech) 72m. ★★★ mysterious killer who’s murdered the prosD: Ivan Passer. Vera Kresadlova, titute next door. Packed with characters Zdenek Brezusek, Karel Blazek, Jaroslava and performances that tend to grate on the Stedra, Jan Vostrcil, Vlastmila Vlkova, nerves, though it is fun to see Thomas and Karel Uhlik. Unpretentious, day-in-the-life May doing Abbott and Costello (or is it a story of two old friends, professional neurotic version of Lucy and Ethel?). Grifmusicians, reuniting after long absence at fith has just one scene. [R]▼ country home. Excellent performances.▼ In the Valley of Elah (2007) C-120m. Intimate Relations (1996-British-Cana★★★1 ⁄2 D: Paul Haggis. Tommy Lee Jones, dian) C-105m. ★★★ D: Philip Goodhew. Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, Jason PaJulie Walters, Rupert Graves, Matthew tric, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Frances Walker, Laura Sadler, Holly Aird, Les DenFisher, Jonathan Tucker, Mehcad Brooks, nis, Elizabeth McKechnie. Black comedy/ Wes Chatham, Jake McLaughlin, Victor melodrama of romantic obsession in 1954 Wolf, Barry Corbin. Retired Army investiEngland. Housewife Walters (wickedly efgator Jones takes matters into his own hands fective) takes in sailor Graves as a lodger, when his son, just returned from duty in and in no time passions are aroused Iraq, is reported AWOL. In time he conthroughout the household. Interesting Britvinces police detective Theron that his susish Empire tale (fact based, and for mature picions are worth checking out, in spite of viewers) reminiscent in many ways of both stonewalling from Army officials and the A PRIVATE FUNCTION and HEAVENLY CREATURES. [R]▼● young man’s fellow soldiers. Riveting who[ 686 ]

Intimate Stranger, The SEE: Finger of Guilt Intimate Strangers (2004-French) C-105m. ★★★ D: Patrice Leconte. Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Bonnaire, Michel Duchaussoy, Anne Brochet, Gilbert Melki, Laurent Gamelon. A woman forces her way into a psychiatrist’s office and pours her heart out about her marital woes; he doesn’t have the heart to tell her that she’s come to the wrong office, as he is a mere tax adviser. Their relationship blossoms just the same in this charming, often piquant film, with two masterly performances guided by the gifted Leconte. The girl who asks a question in the library is Aurore Auteuil, daughter of Daniel Auteuil and Emmanuelle Be´art. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Intolerable Cruelty (2003) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Coen. George Clooney, Catherine ZetaJones, Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, Edward Herrmann, Paul Adelstein, Richard Jenkins, Billy Bob Thornton, Julia Duffy, Jonathan Hadary, Tom Aldredge. A swaggering divorce attorney meets his match in a gold digger who sets her cap for him as the ultimate conquest. Clooney is terrific, Zeta-Jones is luminous, and they’re supported by canny costars and faces out of Fellini’s old casting directory . . . but the fun turns sour after a while, as no one is ‘‘real’’ enough to root for. Still, there are many funny moments, especially with Herrmann, Rush, and Thornton. Bruce Campbell appears unbilled. [PG-13]

covers a heretofore unexplored subject: the extraordinary efforts to place Jewish children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia out of harm’s way by sending them to live with families in England during WW2. Told in large part by the people who lived through this experience, with the help of some incredibly rare footage from the period. From the same writer-director responsible for THE LONG WAY HOME. Oscar winner for Best Documentary. [PG]▼쩠 Into the Blue (2005) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: John Stockwell. Paul Walker, Jessica Alba, Scott Caan, Ashley Scott, Josh Brolin, James Frain, Tyson Beckford. While diving in the Bahamas, a quartet of Beautiful People encounters the remains of a crashed plane laden with a cache of cocaine. Picturesque scenery and plenty of eye candy don’t compensate for a half-baked storyline, routine suspense, and mindless violence. Followed by a DVD sequel. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Into the Fire (1987-Canadian) C-93m. ★★ D: Graeme Campbell. Susan Anspach, Olivia d’Abo, Art Hindle. Old-fashioned murder/sex triangle thriller has the novelty of a wintry Canadian setting where lodge owner Anspach is an impressive seductress. Almost outdone by one too many plot twists. Precocious d’Abo is also a stunning, contrasting femme fatale. Aka LEGEND OF WOLF LODGE. [R]▼●쩠 Into the Night (1985) C-115m. ★★★ D: John Landis. Jeff Goldblum, Michelle ▼쩠 Intolerance (1916) 178m. ★★★★ D: D. W. Pfeiffer, Richard Farnsworth, Irene Papas, Griffith. Lillian Gish, Robert Harron, Mae Kathryn Harrold, Paul Mazursky, Roger Marsh, Constance Talmadge, Bessie Love, Vadim, Dan Aykroyd, David Bowie, Bruce Seena Owen, Alfred Paget, Eugene PalMcGill, Vera Miles, Clu Gulager. Engaglette, many others. Landmark American ing, episodic film about a middle-class epic interweaves four stories of prejudice nerd who helps a beautiful woman who’s and inhumanity, from the Babylonian era being chased by killers. Convoluted story to the modern day. Melodramatic, to be filled with offbeat vignettes and colorful sure, but gains in momentum and power as characters, many of them played by Hollyit moves toward its stunning climax. That’s wood directors (Don Siegel, Jonathan Lillian Gish as the mother rocking the Demme, Jack Arnold, Lawrence Kasdan, cradle; Constance Talmadge gives a most Paul Bartel, David Cronenberg, Richard appealing and contemporary performance Franklin, Colin Higgins, Andrew Marton, as the sprightly Mountain Girl. Shown in a Jonathan Kaufer, Amy Heckerling). Landis variety of prints with variant running himself is very funny as one of the Iranian times—as long as 208m.▼●쩠 bad guys. Probably more appealing to film In Too Deep (1999) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mibuffs than general audiences. [R]▼●쩠 chael Rymer. Omar Epps, LL Cool J, Nia Into the Sun (1992) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Long, Stanley Tucci, Hill Harper, Pam Fritz Kiersch. Anthony Michael Hall, Grier, Veronica Webb. Police academy grad Michael Pare´, Deborah Maria Moore, Terry (Epps) goes undercover to take on a ruthless Kiser, Brian Haley. Hall plays a conceited crimelord known as ‘‘God’’ (LL Cool J) actor who tags along with U.S. pilot Pare´ in but finds he can’t get out. Gritty, realistic order to research an upcoming film role. gangsploitation actually avoids most of the Virtually identical in plot to the Michael cliche´s of the genre and has a commanding, J. Fox/James Woods comedy THE HARD understated performance from Epps at its WAY, with a change in milieu (and budget). core. Hip-hoppers Jermaine Dupri, Mya and Aerial stunts aren’t bad considering the Nas appear in cameos. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 threadbare production values, but it’s only Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the for those who’ll try anything. [R]▼● Kindertransport (2000) C/B&W-117m. Into the West (1993-Irish) C-97m. ★★★ D: ★★★1⁄2 D: Mark Jonathan Harris. Narrated Mike Newell. Gabriel Byrne, Colm by Judi Dench. Well-crafted documentary Meaney, Ellen Barkin, Ciaran Fitzgerald, [ 687 ]

Ruaidhri Conroy, David Kelly, Johnny physical, as he leaves his hearty life behind Murphy, John Kavanagh, Pauline Delaney. on the French-Swiss border, arranges for a Dark, melancholy fable about two young heart transplant, and moves to a remote brothers who flee their drab Dublin life South Seas island. Denis demands a great (with a morose, widowed father) on the deal of the viewer as she interweaves past, back of a mystical white horse. A highly present, and future and alternates between original film with equal parts charm, dour reality and a kind of dream-state. Difficult Irish moods, and the theme of family and its and fascinating at the same time; beautifully inexorable pull on us all. Written by Jim shot by Agnes Godard. Inspired by JeanSheridan. [PG]▼●쩠 Luc Nancy’s memoir. Super 35.쩠 Into the Wild (2007) C-148m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Intruder in the Dust (1949) 87m. ★★★ D: Sean Penn. Emile Hirsch, William Hurt, Clarence Brown. David Brian, Claude Marcia Gay Harden, Jena Malone, CatherJarman, Jr., Juano Hernandez, Porter Hall, ine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Patterson. Black man (Hernandez, Hal Holbrook, Brian Dierker, Zach Galifiin a solid performance) is accused of muranakis, Thure Lindhardt. Recent college der in a Southern town, and a gathering graduate Chris McCandless spurns his mob wants to lynch him. First-rate adaptaparents—and America’s capitalist society— tion of William Faulkner novel. Surprisin search of quieter, more personal fulfillingly strong for a mainstream Hollywood ment in the Alaskan wilderness. But along film of that period; good use of locations, the road he meets a variety of people who superbly photographed by Robert Surtees. become something like extended family. IdBiggest problem: Brian’s character is aliosyncratic melding of hippie sensibility ways speechifying and moralizing. Screenand nature documentary results in writerplay by Ben Maddow. ▼ director-coproducer Penn’s most artistic and Invaders, The SEE: 49th Parallel powerful release to date—and a heartbreaker. Invaders From Mars (1953) C-78m. Working on a large canvas, Penn elicits ★★★ D: William Cameron Menzies. Helena some wonderful vignettes and expert perCarter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif formances and punctuates it all with music Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Bert Freed. by Eddie Vedder, among others. Based on Starkly stylish sci-fi told from little boy’s the nonfiction bestseller by Jon Krakauer. point of view, as he alone witnesses arrival Super 35. [R]쩠 of aliens who capture and brainwash resiIntroducing the Dwights (2007-Australian) dents of average small town. Remade in C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cherie Nowlan. Brenda 1986. Alternate British version runs 83m.— Blethyn, Rebecca Gibney, Khan Chittenand changes the ending!▼●쩠 den, Richard Wilson, Frankie J. Holden, Invaders From Mars (1986) C-100m. ★1⁄2 Russell Dykstra, Emma Booth, Katie Wall, D: Tobe Hooper. Karen Black, Hunter Philip Quast. A soft-spoken teenage boy has Carson, Timothy Bottoms, Laraine Newput his own life on hold in order to shuttle man, James Karen, Louise Fletcher, Bud his mother—a force of nature not to be triCort, Jimmy Hunt. Remake of ’50s fantasy fled with—to engagements in comedy clubs favorite about a boy’s nightmarish experiaround greater Sydney. But when he acquires ences when aliens land in his back yard and a girlfriend for the first time, Mom goes ballisovertake everyone around him—even his partic. Mild comedy-drama about a messed-up ents. Starts fine, rapidly goes downhill toward family is easy to take and offers Blethyn a utter disaster. Hunt, the youngster in the origigreat showcase. Original Australian title: nal film, plays a police chief here; the boy this CLUBLAND. [R]쩠 time is real-life son of costar Black. J-D-C Intruder, The (1962) 80m. ★★★ D: Roger Scope. [PG] ▼●쩠 Corman. William Shatner, Frank Maxwell, Invasion, The (2007) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: OliBeverly Lunsford, Robert Emhardt, Leo ver Hirschbiegel. Nicole Kidman, Daniel Gordon, Jeanne Cooper, Charles Beaumont, Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jackson Bond, VeGeorge Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan. ronica Cartwright, Jeffrey Wright, Josef Racist Shatner drifts from one small SouthSommer, Celia Weston, Roger Rees, Eric ern town to another inciting townspeople to Benjamin, Adam LeFevre. Third remake of riot against court-ordered school integraINVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHtion. Corman’s only ‘‘message’’ film—and ERS is not the charm, as this mess never one of his few box-office flops—still packs comes together as both the sci-fi thriller and a punch; low budget and location filming human drama it seeks to be. Kidman is a aid authenticity. Script by Charles BeauWashington, D.C., psychiatrist who slowly mont. Reissued as I HATE YOUR GUTS! discovers that a mysterious disease taking and SHAME.▼쩠 over the planet may be alien-inspired. With Intruder, The (2005-French) C-129m. ★★★ the help of doctor Craig she must find the D: Claire Denis. Michel Subor, Gre´goire antidote before most of humankind is lost. Colin, Katia Golubeva, Bambou, Florence Widely reported reshoots couldn’t salvage Loiret-Caille, Beatrice Dalle. Unusual drama of one man’s journey, both literal and metathis film. [PG-13]쩠 [ 688 ]

Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. SEE: Daleks— Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Invasion Force SEE: Hangar 18 Invasion of the Animal People (1962) 73m. ★1⁄2 D: Virgil Vogel, Jerry Warren. Robert Burton, Barbara Wilson, Sten Gester, Bengt Bomgren. John Carradine is narrator and American link for Swedishmade 1958 production about rampaging monster who escapes from spaceship and terrorizes Lapland. Low-grade nonsense. Original Swedish version, TERROR IN THE MIDNIGHT SUN, available on DVD.

anna Going, Kathy Baker, Will Patton, Barbara Williams, Alessandro Nivola, Shawn Hatosy. Two working-class brothers try to woo the beautiful and wealthy Abbott sisters in 1950s Midwest America. Aspires to be a classic coming-of-ager like SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, but despite a very attractive cast, the proceedings are pretty flaccid. Lush surroundings can’t compensate for dull scripting; plays like an anemic Douglas Sirk melodrama or a return to Peyton Place. Michael Keaton narrates unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Investigating Sex (2006-U.S.-German) C108m. ★★ D: Alan Rudolph. Dermot Mulro▼쩠 Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) C-85m. ney, Julie Delpy, Robin Tunney, Neve ★★★ Campbell, Jeremy Davies, Alan Cumming, D: Denis Sanders. Victoria Vetri, William Smith, Anitra Ford, Cliff Osmond, Til Schweiger, John Light, Nick Nolte, TerWright King, Ben Hammer. Wonderfully rence Dashon Howard, Tuesday Weld, campy (and sexy) sci-fi outing about a Emily Bruni. Talky film, set in the 1920s, in strange force that’s transforming women which a group of artists and intellectuals into dangerous creatures who you-knowinitiate a discourse on the subject of sexualwhat men to death in a small California ity. Occasionally tart dialogue is overshadtown. Written by Nicholas Meyer preowed by long stretches of boredom and an SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION. [R]▼쩠 outdated sense of daring. Hart Bochner apInvasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) pears unbilled. Completed in 2001. Aka INTIMATE AFFAIRS. [R]쩠 80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Don Siegel. Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Investigation of a Citizen Above SuspiDonovan, Carolyn Jones, Virginia Christine. cion (1970-Italian) C-115m. ★★★ D: Elio Classic, influential, and still very scary Petri. Gian Maria Volonte´, Florinda Bolkan, science-fiction (with McCarthy-era subtext) Salvo Randone, Gianni Santuccio, Arturo about small-town residents who are being reDominici. Oscar-winning foreign film about placed by duplicates hatched from alien powerful police chief who slashes the throat ‘‘pods.’’ Tense script by Daniel Mainwarof his mistress, then waits entire movie to ing from Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers; see if he’ll be caught. Interesting, but not Sam Peckinpah can be glimpsed as a meter overly gripping. Superbly creepy score by reader. Appropriately frightening musical Ennio Morricone. [R] score by Carmen Dragon. Reissued in 1979 Invincible (2002-British-German) C-127m. ★★ at 76m., minus unnecessary, studio-imposed D: Werner Herzog. Tim Roth, Jouko prologue and epilogue with Whit Bissell and Ahola, Anna Gourari, Jacob Wein, Max Richard Deacon. Remade in 1978 and 1994 Raabe, Gustav Peter Wo¨ehler, Udo Kier. A (as BODY SNATCHERS), and in 2007 as sweetly naı¨ve young Polish Jew becomes a THE INVASION. Also shown in computerfalse symbol of hope for Jewry in pre-Hitler colored version. SuperScope.▼●쩠 Berlin upon winning fame as a strongman Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) in a cabaret show staged by Hanussen C-115m. ★★★ D: Philip Kaufman. Donald (Roth), the magician-clairvoyant. This factSutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, based account is overlong and by the numJeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright. Chillbers; it’s a compelling tale that deserves a ing remake of 1956 classic with many new far more subtle, pointed treatment. Hanustwists and turns; unfortunately, it runs out sen’s story is told much more forcefully in Istvan Szabo’s HANUSSEN. [PG-13] ▼쩠 of steam and offers one climax too many. Kevin McCarthy and Don Siegel, star and Invincible (2006) C-104m. ★★★ D: Ericson director of original film, have significant Core. Mark Wahlberg, Greg Kinnear, Elizacameo roles; look fast for Robert Duvall. beth Banks, Kevin Conway, Michael RisWeird score by Denny Zeitlin. [PG] ▼●쩠 poli, Michael Nouri, Kirk Acevedo, Dov Invasion Siniestra SEE: Sinister Invasion Davidoff, Michael Kelly, Sal Darigo, NiInvasion U.S.A. (1985) C-107m. BOMB coye Banks. Working-class stiff who’s been D: Joseph Zito. Chuck Norris, Richard laid off from his job and dumped by his Lynch, Melissa Prophet, Alex Colon. wife pursues a whim when the new coach Political-paranoia action film about retired of the Philadelphia Eagles football team CIA agent (Norris) back on the job when Rusholds an open tryout. Fact-based story of sian terrorists invade Florida, try to overtake Vince Papale (well played by Wahlberg) entire country by causing panic and turmoil. captures the hold a team can have on its Repellent in the extreme. [R]▼●쩠 hometown fans, especially when they have ★★ Inventing the Abbotts (1997) C-120m. little else to believe in. Solid entertainment. D: Pat O’Connor. Liv Tyler, Joaquin PhoeSuper 35. [PG]쩠 nix, Jennifer Connelly, Billy Crudup, JoInvincible Six, The (1970) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 [ 689 ]

D: Jean Negulesco. Stuart Whitman, Elke Sommer, Curt Jurgens, James Mitchum, Ian Ogilvy. Energetic action film about a motley crew on the lam who come to the aid of isolated villagers under the thumb of a bandit gang. It’s THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN transplanted to present-day midEast in this Iranian-made production. Widescreen. ▼ Invisible, The (2007) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: David S. Goyer. Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Marcia Gay Harden, Chris Marquette, Alex O’Loughlin, Callum Keith Rennie, Michelle Harrison, Ryan Kennedy, Andrew Francis. Dreary teen ghost story about a promising high school senior who is caught in limbo between life and death, ‘‘invisible’’ to all around him and headed for expiration unless he can solve the mystery of his own murder. Sort of a cross between GHOST and RIVER’S EDGE, this tries to be a spiritual whodunit but winds up a whydidtheymakeit instead. Based on a 2002 Swedish film of the same name. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Invisible Boy, The (1957) 89m. ★★★ D: Herman Hoffman. Richard Eyer, Philip Abbott, Diane Brewster, Harold J. Stone, Robert H. Harris; voice of Marvin Miller. The movies’ first supercomputer not only helps scientist Abbott’s lonely son Eyer become invisible (briefly) but also makes him smarter, so he can reassemble FORBIDDEN PLANET’s Robby the Robot. However, the computer wants to use Robby to control the world. Robot-loving kids will take this straight, but it’s an amusing, intelligent, low-key spoof of itself.쩠 Invisible Circus, The (2001) C-92m. ★★ D: Adam Brooks. Jordana Brewster, Christopher Eccleston, Cameron Diaz, Blythe Danner, Patrick Bergin, Camilla Belle, Moritz Bleibtreu. A teenage girl tries to retrace the footsteps of her older sister, a free spirit who died mysteriously in Europe seven years earlier. Diaz is excellent, but Brewster hits just one note in this unsatisfying film. Brooks adapted Jennifer Egan’s novel. [R]

of murder charge. Considered by many to be Price’s first horror film.▼●쩠 Invisible Man’s Revenge, The (1944) 77m. ★★ D: Ford Beebe. Jon Hall, Alan Curtis, Evelyn Ankers, Leon Errol, John Carradine, Gale Sondergaard, Ian Wolfe, Billy Bevan. Hall allows unsuspecting scientist Carradine to make him invisible so he can seek vengeance on former business partners. Mixed-up script, unfunny comic relief (Errol), and slightly below par special effects add up to weakest INVISIBLE MAN sequel. ▼●쩠 Invisible Ray, The (1936) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lambert Hillyer. Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Frances Drake, Frank Lawton, Walter Kingsford, Beulah Bondi. Scientist Karloff contracts radiation poisoning that gives him touch of death (and makes him glow in the dark). Interesting yarn, but a notch below other Karloff-Lugosi vehicles.

▼●쩠

Invisible Stripes (1939) 82m. ★★★ D: Lloyd Bacon. George Raft, Jane Bryan, William Holden, Flora Robson, Humphrey Bogart, Paul Kelly, Moroni Olsen, Tully Marshall. Earnest account of parolee Raft trying to go straight, protecting brother Holden from gangster Bogart; subdued acting is effective.

쩠

Invisible Woman, The (1941) 72m. ★★★ D: A. Edward Sutherland. John Barrymore, Virginia Bruce, John Howard, Charlie Ruggles, Oscar Homolka, Margaret Hamilton, Donald MacBride, Edward Brophy, Shemp Howard, Charles Lane, Thurston Hall. Great cast in likable comedy about screwy professor Barrymore turning model Bruce invisible, arousing the curiosity of playboy sponsor Howard, as well as the more monetary interests of gangster Homolka. Slick and sprightly, with Ruggles terrific as Howard’s long-suffering butler; Maria Montez has a bit as one of Bruce’s fellow models.▼●쩠 Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964) C-92m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Wilson. Yul Brynner, George Segal, Janice Rule, Pat Hingle, ▼쩠 Brad Dexter. Cast surpasses turgid, talky ★★★1 ⁄2 Invisible Man, The (1933) 71m. script about town that hires gunslinger to D: James Whale. Claude Rains, Gloria kill an outcast, with surprising results.▼쩠 Stuart, Una O’Connor, William Harrigan, Invitation to the Dance (1956) C-93m. ★★1 E. E. Clive, Dudley Digges, Dwight Frye. ⁄2 D: Gene Kelly. Gene Kelly, Igor H. G. Wells’ fantasy brilliantly materialYouskevitch, Claire Sombert, David Paltenizes on screen in tale of mad scientist ghi, Daphne Dale, Claude Bessy, Tommy who makes himself invisible, wreaking Rall, Carol Haney, Tamara Toumanova, havoc on British country village. Rains’ Belita. Kelly’s ambitious film tells three starring debut is dated but still enjoystories entirely in dance. Earnest but uninable. Look fast for John Carradine phonspired, until final ‘‘Sinbad’’ segment with ing in a ‘‘sighting’’; that’s Walter Brennan Kelly in Hanna-Barbera cartoon world. whose bicycle is stolen. ▼●쩠 Music by Jacques Ibert, Andre Previn, and Invisible Man Returns, The (1940) 81m. Rimsky-Korsakov. Filmed in 1952.▼ ★★★ D: Joe May. Cedric Hardwicke, VinIn Which We Serve (1942-British) 115m. ★★★★ D: Noel Coward, David Lean. Noel cent Price, John Sutton, Nan Grey, Cecil Kellaway, Alan Napier. Fine follow-up, Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia with Price going invisible to clear himself Johnson, Kay Walsh, Joyce Carey, Michael [ 690 ]

Wilding, James Donald, Richard Attenphen Fry, Tony Shalhoub, Frank Whaley, borough. Unlike many WW2 films, this Keene Curtis, Charles Durning, Alice masterpiece doesn’t date one bit; superb Playten, Danny Zorn. Pleasant romantic film about men on a British fighting ship, comedy (perhaps too ‘‘cute’’ for some told through flashback. Written, codirected, viewers) about a garage mechanic who falls and scored by costar Coward (who was in love with a customer at first sight, and given a special Oscar ‘‘for his outstanding gets some unusual matchmaking help from production achievement’’). Lean’s first diher uncle—Albert Einstein! Likable perforrecting credit. Film debuts of Johnson, mances by well-matched Robbins and Attenborough, young Daniel Massey, and Ryan, with Matthau having fun as the cagey infant Juliet Mills.▼●쩠 Professor. Set in 1950s Princeton, N.J. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 I Only Want You to Love Me (1976-West German) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rainer Werner Ira & Abby (2007) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobFassbinder. Vitus Zeplichal, Elke Aberle, ert Cary. Chris Messina, Jennifer Westfeldt, Alexander Allerson, Ernie Mangold, JoFrances Conroy, Judith Light, Jason Alexhanna Hofer. Intriguing morality tale of ander, Robert Klein, Fred Willard, Maddie decent, hardworking young bricklayer, Corman, Darrell Hammond, Chris Parnell, whose Bavarian upbringing was noticeably Jon Hamm, B. D. Wong. Westfeldt (KISSlacking in parental affection. When he marING JESSICA STEIN) wrote this ‘‘comedy ries and moves to Munich, the lure of the of divorce’’ about neurotic New Yorker Ira big-city consumer society (and the ability to (Messina), who can’t ever make a decision. buy on credit) proves disastrous. DeliberAt the other end of the spectrum, Abby ately paced but offbeat examination of a (Westfeldt) wants to get married minutes shattered psyche. Made for TV; unreleased after meeting him. She’s a warmhearted, in the U.S. until 1994.▼ outgoing person, and he gets caught up in I Ought to Be in Pictures (1982) C-107m. her upbeat life—at least for a while. Light ★★ D: Herbert Ross. Walter Matthau, Annand Klein are funny as Messina’s analyst Margret, Dinah Manoff, Lance Guest, parents, as are Conroy and Willard as WestLewis Smith, Martin Ferrero, David Fausfeldt’s sunny mom and dad. Uneven but tino, Michael Dudikoff. Poor formula Neil often very funny. Donna Murphy appears Simon sitcom, adapted from his play: unbilled. [R]쩠 19-year-old Brooklynite Manoff hitches to Iraq in Fragments (2006) C-94m. ★★★ D: L.A. to make it in movies—and estabJames Longley. Documentary takes its camlishes connection with her father (Matthau), eras from southern to northern Iraq to see screenwriter turned gambler-drinker. Matthe effect war—and opposing religious thau and Manoff do their best; Ann-Margret philosophies—has taken on the country, in wasted as Walter’s mistress. [PG]▼ three segments that spotlight Shiites, Ipcress File, The (1965-British) C-108m. Sunnis, and Kurds. Using no intruding nar★★★1 ⁄2 D: Sidney J. Furie. Michael Caine, ration, filmmaker Longley tells the story Nigel Green, Guy Doleman, Sue Lloyd, through the eyes and words of the Iraqi peoGordon Jackson. First and best of Len ple, painting a compelling portrait of a trouDeighton’s Harry Palmer series, with Caine bled country and presenting a largely as unemotional Cockney crook turned secret nonpolitical view Americans have rarely agent, involved in grueling mental torture seen. Longley photographed, coedited, cocaper. Eerie score by John Barry. Folproduced, and scored the film.쩠 lowed by two sequels—FUNERAL IN I Remember Mama (1948) 134m. ★★★1⁄2 BERLIN and BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN D: George Stevens. Irene Dunne, Barbara —and a pair of cable TV follow-ups in 1997, Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Philip Dorn, BULLET TO BEIJING and MIDNIGHT IN Cedric Hardwicke, Edgar Bergen, Rudy ST. PETERSBURG. Techniscope.▼●쩠 Vallee, Barbara O’Neil, Florence Bates, Ellen Iphigenia (1977-Greek) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Corby. Beautifully realized, exquisitely deMichael Cacoyannis. Irene Papas, Tatiana tailed filming of John Van Druten’s play, Papamoskou, Costa Kazakos, Costa Carras, based on Kathryn Forbes’ memoirs about Christos Tsangas. Ambitious but overgrowing up with her Norwegian immigrant directed adaptation of Euripides’ Iphigenia family in San Francisco. A bit long, but richly in Aulis, in which Agamemnon becomes rewarding, with top performances in each and convinced that, to earn military victory, he every role. Screenplay by DeWitt Bodeen. will have to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia Followed by the TV series Mama. Also (impressively played by young Papashown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 moskou). The elements of high drama are Irina Palm (2008-Belgian-French-Germanpresent, but Cacoyannis opts for eyeBritish-Luxembourgian) C-100m. ★★★ D: popping visuals rather than focusing on the Sam Garbarski. Marianne Faithfull, Miki heart of the story.▼쩠 Manojlovic, Kevin Bishop, Siobhaˆn Hew★★★ I.Q. (1994) C-95m. lett, Dorka Gryllus, Jenny Agutter. A sixD: Fred Schepisi. Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Walter Matthau, tyish widow (Faithfull), in a financial bind Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks, Joseph Maher, Stedue to her grandson’s illness, takes a job as [ 691 ]

a ‘‘hostess’’ (translation: sex worker) in a contemporary moviemaking. The title, incidentally, is an anagram.▼●쩠 Soho, London, club. Simple, no-frills drama I, Robot (2004) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alex presents a hardnosed look at human relaProyas. Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, tions in a cold, cynical world while offering Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi an unusual, nonexploitive spin on the sex McBride, Shia LaBeouf, Adrian L. Ricard, industry. Only falters during a couple of Alan Tudyk. In the year 2035, Chicago cop unnecessary scenes near the finale. [R]쩠 Smith harbors a deep resentment toward the Iris (2001-British-U.S.) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: robots that have become ubiquitous as serRichard Eyre. Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent, vants and laborers in American society. Kate Winslet, Hugh Bonneville, Penelope When a prominent scientist dies, he (and he Wilton, Juliet Aubrey, Samuel West, Timoalone) suspects foul play, and won’t rest thy West, Eleanor Bron. Dench plays noted until he connects the dots at the monopolisBritish author and psychologist Dame Iris tic corporation that manufactures and sells Murdoch, with Broadbent as her devoted the robots. Interesting premise is squanhusband; Winslet and Bonneville play the dered in this obvious and overlong film, characters in flashbacks to the 1950s when with cartoonish special effects and too they first met at Oxford. As Iris descends many Will Smith–isms. ‘‘Suggested’’ by into the world of Alzheimer’s, her husband Isaac Asimov’s classic short story collecloses his grip, and the results become diffition. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 cult to watch, despite the fine performances. Iron Cowboy SEE: Fade-In Broadbent won an Oscar for Best SupportIron Curtain, The (1948) 87m. ★★★ D: ing Actor. [R] ▼쩠 William Wellman. Dana Andrews, Gene Irish in Us, The (1935) 84m. ★★ D: Lloyd Tierney, June Havoc, Berry Kroeger, Edna Bacon. James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Olivia Best. Well-made, based-on-fact ‘‘antide Havilland, Mary Gordon, Frank McHugh, commie’’ saga of Igor Gouzenko (AnAllen Jenkins. Pretty stale comedy about ridrews), who with wife Tierney attempts to valry between policemen and prizefighters, defect to the West with top-secret docuwith good cast to hold one’s interest. ments. Filmed on location in Canada. ReIrishman, The (1978-Australian) C-108m. titled: BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN. ★★★ D: Donald Crombie. Michael Craig, Iron Eagle (1986) C-119m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney Simon Burke, Robin Nevin, Lou Brown, J. Furie. Louis Gossett, Jr., Jason Gedrick, Andrew Maguire. Effective, wonderfully David Suchet, Tim Thomerson, Larry G. acted drama of teamster Craig, his wife Scott, Caroline Lagerfelt, Jerry Levine. Dumand sons, and his refusal to accept change dum comic-book movie about an 18-year-old and progress during the 1920s. A touching who commandeers an F-16 fighter jet and portrait of a family in turmoil.▼쩠 flies to the Middle East (playing rock music ★★1 Irma la Douce (1963) C-142m. ⁄2 D: on his Walkman all the way) in order to save Billy Wilder. Shirley MacLaine, Jack his dad, who’s been taken prisoner. Full of Lemmon, Lou Jacobi, Herschel Bernardi, jingoistic ideals, dubious ethics, and people Joan Shawlee, Hope Holiday, Bill Bixby. who die and miraculously come back to life. Wilder’s straight comedy adaptation of Not boring, just stupid. Followed by three seBroadway musical is a Parisian fairytale quels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 for adults. Gendarme Lemmon falls for Iron Eagle II (1988-Canadian-Israeli) prostitute MacLaine and will do anything to C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney J. Furie. Louis keep her for himself. Red Light District is Gossett, Jr., Mark Humphrey, Stuart Marvividly recreated, but reteaming of stars golin, Alan Scarfe, Sharon H. Brandon, and director can’t equal THE APARTMaury Chaykin. Equally idiotic sequel, with MENT. Andre´ Previn won an Oscar for General Gossett recruiting pilot Humphrey to his scoring. Look fast for young James team with his Soviet counterparts on a secret Caan in walk-on. Panavision.▼●쩠 mission in the Mideast. Humphrey may be a Irma Vep (1996-French) C-96m. ★★★ D: Tom Cruise clone, but the film makes TOP Olivier Assayas. Maggie Cheung, JeanGUN seem like FROM HERE TO ETERPierre Le´aud, Nathalie Richard, Alex DesNITY. Sequels: ACES: IRON EAGLE III cas, Nathalie Boutefeu, Dominique Faysse, and IRON EAGLE IV. [PG]▼●쩠 Bulle Ogier, Arsine´e Khanjian, Lou Castel. Iron Giant, The (1999) C-86m. ★★★ D: Keen, insightful satire of movies and the Brad Bird. Voices of Jennifer Aniston, Eli disorder surrounding the moviemaking proMarienthal, Harry Connick, Jr., Vin Diesel, cess. Hong Kong action-film star Cheung Christopher McDonald, James Gammon, (cast as herself ) comes to Paris to star in Cloris Leachman, John Mahoney, M. Emmet a reworking of Louis Feuillade’s 1915–16 Walsh. Striking and original animated feaserial LES VAMPIRES. However, the inture gently pokes fun at 1950s paranoia (and spiration for her character is not so much sci-fi movies), as a boy befriends a huge Feuillade as Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman robotic creature from outer space. That in BATMAN RETURNS. Crammed with writer-director Bird and his animators can cinematic references and biting criticisms of bring such feeling to a metallic character is [ 692 ]

★★★ just one of this film’s triumphs. Based on D: Yuen Wo Ping. Yu Rong Guang, Donthe book The Iron Man by Ted Hughes. nie Yen, Jean Wang, Tsang Sze Man, Yuen Celco-Widescreen. [PG]▼●쩠 Shun Yi, James Wong, Yen Yee Kwan. In meIron Hand, The SEE: Chinese Connecdieval China, a kindly village doctor masquertion, The ades as Iron Monkey, a Robin Hood type who ★★★ Iron Horse, The (1924) 119m. fights a corrupt governor and helps the downD: John Ford. George O’Brien, Madge Beltrodden. Made years before CROUCHING lamy, Cyril Chadwick, Fred Kohler, Gladys TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (and directed by Hulette, J. Farrell MacDonald. Epic-scale its action choreographer), this anticipates some silent film about building of transcontinenof its high-flying action techniques but has no tal railroad, intertwined with predictable pretensions: just a fast, entertaining action yarn human-interest subplots involving surveyor with the exaggerated acting style of Hong O’Brien, sweetheart Bellamy, traitor Kohler, Kong escapist fare. Pure fun. Cowritten byTsui etc. May seem hackneyed today, but it’s Hark. New music score added for slightly edimportant to note that this movie invented ited U.S. release in 2001. [PG-13]▼쩠 what later became cliche´s. ▼쩠 Iron Petticoat, The (1956-British-U.S.) CIron Man (2008) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Bob Hope, Favreau. Robert Downey, Jr., Jeff Bridges, Katharine Hepburn, James Robertson JusGwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Leslie tice, Robert Helpmann, David Kossoff. CuBibb, Shaun Toub, Faran Tahir, Clark rious comedy made in England tries to Gregg, Bill Smitrovich, Jon Favreau, Peter update NINOTCHKA theme with Hepburn Billingsley, Tim Guinee; voice of Paul Betas humorless Russian and Hope as Ameritany. When wealthy weapons manufacturer can military man who tries to win her over. Tony Stark is taken prisoner on a trip to Stars’ surprising rapport is film’s chief Afghanistan he cobbles together a supervalue; mediocre script and direction kill the suit . . . and vows to get out of the arms rest. VistaVision. business, having seen the misery it produces Iron Triangle, The (1989) C-91m. ★★ D: firsthand. Not-bad adaptation of the Marvel Eric Weston. Beau Bridges, Haing S. Ngor, comic book, with Downey in good form as Johnny Hallyday, Liem Whatley, James the brainy billionaire, but there are too Ishida. A U.S. Army captain, serving in many misfired ideas (like the Middle EastVietnam in 1969, is captured by a 17-yearern setting, uncomfortably real for a piece old Vietcong soldier, and the pair develop of escapist entertainment) and a retro heroa bond. Intriguing as a look at the war ine in Paltrow’s lovesick Girl Friday. As from the side of the ‘‘enemy,’’ but the usual there’s a cameo by the character’s coresult is confused and slight. [R]▼● creator Stan Lee. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Ironweed (1987) C-144m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hector Iron Mask, The (1929) 87m. ★★★ D: Babenco. Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Allan Dwan. Douglas Fairbanks, Belle Carroll Baker, Michael O’Keefe, Diane Bennett, Marguerite De La Motte, DoroVenora, Fred Gwynne, Margaret Whitton, thy Revier, Vera Lewis, William Bakewell, Tom Waits, Jake Dengel, Nathan Lane, Nigel de Brulier, Ullrich Haupt. EntertainJames Gammon, Joe Grifasi, Bethel Lesing Dumas tale (later filmed as THE MAN lie, Ted Levine, Frank Whaley. William IN THE IRON MASK) told from point of Kennedy adapted his Pulitzer Prize–winning view of D’Artagnan (Fairbanks), who novel about street people, set in Albany, becomes Louis XIV’s protector from birth N.Y., 1938. Nicholson plays a man trying to later time when scheming Rochefort to come to terms with the life he turned his (Haupt) tries to pass off twin brother as heir back on years ago. Streep is his longtime to throne. Lavish silent swashbuckler origcompanion who, like him, can’t stay off the inally had talkie sequences. Final scenes bottle for long. Babenco’s first American are especially poignant as this was Doug’s film is strong on atmosphere and filled with farewell to the swashbuckling genre. Most haunting images . . . but it’s long and unrecurrent prints are of the 1940 reissue with mittingly bleak, with a few too many dranarration by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.▼●쩠 matic peaks. The salvation is Nicholson and Iron Maze (1991-U.S.-Japanese) C-102m. Streep, whose rich performances are a privi★1 ⁄2 D: Hiroaki Yoshida. Jeff Fahey, Bridget lege to watch. [R]▼●쩠 Fonda, Hiroaki Murakami, J. T. Walsh, Iron Will (1994) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles Gabriel Damon, John Randolph. Japanese Haid. Mackenzie Astin, Kevin Spacey, Auindustrialist Murakami, hoping to build an gust Schellenberg, David Ogden Stiers, amusement park in a Pennsylvania steel Brian Cox, George Gerdes, John Terry. town, is near-fatally assaulted; his AmeriYoungster enters a Winnipeg-to-St. Paul can wife (Fonda) and a laid-off steelworker dog-sled race in the WW1 era; result is so (Fahey) offer different perceptions of events ‘‘by the numbers’’ that you almost expect leading to the incident. Muddled, pretenthe numerals to start flashing on the screen, tious RASHOMON remake, coexecutivea` la John Waters’ POLYESTER. Two addiproduced by Oliver Stone. [R]▼●쩠 tional writers polished the original script by Iron Monkey (1993-Hong Kong) C-87m. veteran John Michael Hayes (REAR WIN[ 693 ]

DOW), presumably to make it more like a parents’ nursing home. His life changes bad Disney Channel entry. There’s a faint with the arrival of the Amazing Clarence pulse whenever Spacey (as a journalist) (Caine), a retired magician. Agreeable, if shows up on screen. [PG]▼●쩠 unremarkable, film buoyed by its two lead Irreconcilable Differences (1984) C-117m. performances. British title: IS THERE ★★★ ANYBODY THERE? Super 35. [PG-13] D: Charles Shyer. Ryan O’Neal, Shelley Long, Drew Barrymore, Sam WanaI Saw What You Did (1965) 82m. ★★★ D: maker, Allen Garfield, Sharon Stone, DaWilliam Castle. Sara Lane, Andi Garrett, vid Paymer. Bittersweet comedy about a John Ireland, Joan Crawford, Leif Erickson, bright young couple who marry and prosPatricia Breslin. Tense, gimmick-free Casper, until success in Hollywood causes tle shocker about two teenage girls who them to lose sight of what’s really impordial phone numbers at random and whisper tant in their lives. Result: Their ten-year-old film’s title; one of their ‘‘victims’’ is daughter sues them for divorce! Perceptive Ireland—who’s just murdered his wife! script by Nancy Meyers and first-time direcLook out! Remade for TV in 1988.▼쩠 tor Shyer, with especially funny jabs at HolI See a Dark Stranger SEE: Advenlywood. Also the only film in memory to turess, The drop the name of Sig Rumann! [PG]▼●쩠 I Sent a Letter to My Love (1981-French) Irre´versible (2002-French) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Moshe Mizrahi. Simone Gaspar Noe´. Monica Bellucci, Vincent CasSignoret, Jean Rochefort, Delphine Seyrig. sel, Albert Dupontel, Philippe Nahon, Jo A woman (Signoret) cares for her paraPrestia. ‘‘Controversial’’ does not begin to lyzed brother (Rochefort); through a newsdescribe this ugly, over-the-top rape-andpaper personals column, they unknowingly revenge tale, told in reverse a la MEbegin a romantic correspondence. PercepMENTO, spotlighting events surrounding the tive character study, highlighted by brildefiling of beautiful Bellucci. Graphically violiant Signoret performance; fine work by lent, even by contemporary standards, this Rochefort and Seyrig (as their spinsterish glorified exploitation film features an exfriend). Director Mizrahi and Gerard Brach tended rape sequence and brutal murder that’s adapted Bernice Rubens’ novel. [PG]▼ hard to stomach. Though gimmicky and reI Served the King of England (2006pugnant, some will admire the film for its Czech) C-119m. ★★★ D: Jirı´ Menzel. Ivan audacity. Nahon’s character, a butcher, apBarnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Marpears in the director’s earlier I STAND tin Huba, Maria´n Labuda, Milan Lasica, ALONE. Bellucci and Cassel are married in Josef Abrha´m, Istva´n Szabo´. Wide-eyed real life. Super 16.▼쩠 young man works as a waiter in increasIsadora (1968-British) C-131m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ingly posh establishments during the 1930s, Karel Reisz. Vanessa Redgrave, James hoping to become a millionaire . . . but Fox, Jason Robards, Ivan Tchenko, John when the Germans invade Czechoslovakia Fraser, Bessie Love, Cynthia Harris. Exhis eye for pretty women gets him entremely long but gripping study of Isadora meshed in politics that will affect the rest of Duncan, first of modern dancers and most his life. Told in flashback as the leading prominent free-thinker of her time. Intercharacter, now an old man just released esting technique and carefully studied perfrom prison, looks back on his life. Alterformances combine together in this offbeat nately whimsical, sexy, and pointed parable biography. Originally released at 168 minabout life in a country that has undergone utes, later recut to 131 minutes and retitled more than its share of upheavals. Menzel THE LOVES OF ISADORA. A third veradapted the novel by Bohumil Hrabal, who sion, supervised by the director, was realso wrote the director’s signature film, leased to television in 1987 under the CLOSELY WATCHED TRAINS.쩠 original title. [M/PG]▼ I Shot Andy Warhol (1996-U.S.-British) I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew C-106m. ★★★ D: Mary Harron. Lili Taylor, 1 ★ (1968) C-95m. ⁄2 D: Richard L. Bare. Jared Harris, Stephen Dorff, Martha PlimpGardner McKay, Fred Clark, Diane McBain, ton, Danny Morgenstern, Lothaire Bluteau, Pat Buttram, Edy Williams. One of the allMichael Imperioli, Reg Rogers, Donovan time camp classics, if only for its title. Leitch, Tahnee Welch, Eric Mabius. In Unfortunately, film doesn’t live down to 1968, Valerie Solanas shot pop art icon its expectations. Warhol, seriously wounding him. This film Is Anybody There? (2009-U.S.-British) Ctraces her bizarre life leading to that mo1 ★★ 92m. ⁄2 D: John Crowley. Michael Caine, ment, including the writing of her ‘‘SCUM Bill Milner, Anne-Marie Duff, David MorManifesto’’ decreeing males biologically rissey, Rosemary Harris, Elizabeth Spriggs, obsolete. Taylor is brilliant as the delusional Leslie Phillips, Sylvia Syms, Peter Vaughan, Solanas, and the film depicts Warhol (HarLinzey Cocker. Ten-year-old boy (Milner, ris, son of actor Richard), his ‘‘Factory,’’ from SON OF RAMBOW) has an insatiaand the period in convincing detail. Not for ble curiosity about death, not surprising all tastes and slightly pretentious, but well since he lives among elderly people in his made and fascinating. [R]▼●쩠 [ 694 ]

I Shot Jesse James (1949) 81m. ★★ D: increasingly unbelievable action scenes and Samuel Fuller. Preston Foster, Barbara an unconvincing plot similar to that of Britton, John Ireland, Reed Hadley, J. PARTS: THE CLONUS HORROR. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Edward Bromberg. Flamboyant directorial touches (in Fuller’s first film) cannot redeem Island at the Top of the World, The (1974) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Stevenson. essential dullness of story about Bob Ford, David Hartman, Donald Sinden, Jacques the man who plugged Jesse in the back.▼쩠 ★★ Ishtar (1987) C-107m. Marin, Mako, David Gwillim, Agneta D: Elaine May. Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Eckemyr. Disney’s attempt to score again Isabelle Adjani, Charles Grodin, Jack Wesin Jules Verne territory misses bull’s-eye; ton, Tess Harper, Carol Kane, Aharon simplistic, derivative story of Arctic expeIpale. The HEAVEN’S GATE of movie dition which stumbles across ‘‘lost’’ Vikcomedies made headlines because of its ing civilization. Mainly for kids. [G]▼쩠 huge expense and costly delays, but the only Island in the Sky (1953) 109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: thing wrong with it is that it isn’t very William A. Wellman. John Wayne, Lloyd funny. Beatty and Hoffman go the Hope Nolan, Walter Abel, James Arness, Andy and Crosby route as untalented singer-songDevine, Allyn Joslyn, Jimmy Lydon, Harry writers who get involved with international Carey, Jr., Hal Baylor, Sean McClory, intrigue in North Africa (shades of ROAD Wally Cassell, Regis Toomey, Louis Jean TO MOROCCO!). A blind camel and a Heydt, Bob Steele, Darryl Hickman, Touch flock of vultures steal the show. Paul Wil(Mike) Connors, Gordon Jones, Frank Fenliams’ deliberately awful songs are funny, ton, Paul Fix, Carl Switzer, Ann Doran. too, but not funny enough to overcome the Transport plane goes down in snowy Labraflatness of director May’s script. Produced dor, and the crew’s flying buddies devote all by Beatty. [PG-13]▼● their energies to locating them. Meanwhile, Island, The (1962-Japanese) 96m. ★★★ D: pilot Wayne has to keep his crew’s spirits Kaneto Shindo. Nobuko Otowa, Taiji up as they try to survive in frigid weather Tonoyama, Shinji Tanaka, Masanori Horiwith little food and no heat. Moving drama moto. Engrossing documentary-style study with a striking score by Emil Newman. Erof peasant family living on rocky island nest K. Gann based his screenplay (and near Japan, struggling to survive. Visually novel) on a real-life incident from WW2. stunning film contains not a single word Gann, Wellman, and Wayne reteamed a of dialogue.▼ year later for THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. Look fast for Fess Parker. 쩠 Island, The (1980) C-114m. BOMB D: Michael Ritchie. Michael Caine, David Island in the Sun (1957) C-119m. ★★ D: Warner, Angela Punch McGregor, Frank Robert Rossen. James Mason, Joan FonMiddlemass, Don Henderson, Zakes Mokae, taine, Dorothy Dandridge, Joan Collins, Jeffrey Frank. Absolutely awful thriller Michael Rennie, Diana Wynyard, John about magazine reporter who investigates Williams, Stephen Boyd, Harry Belafonstrange doings in the Caribbean and winds te. Misfire adaptation of Alec Waugh’s up a prisoner of primitive island tribe. You book about idyllic West Indies island torn know you’re in trouble when David Warby racial struggle. Good cast can’t do ner plays the most normal guy on the much with unconvincing script. CinemaScope.▼쩠 island! Peter Benchley scripted from his own novel. Panavision. [R]▼● Island of Dr. Moreau, The (1977) C104m. ★★★ D: Don Taylor. Burt LancasIsland (1989-Australian) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Cox. Irene Papas, Eva Sitta, Anoja ter, Michael York, Nigel Davenport, BarWeerasinghe, Chris Haywood, Francois bara Carrera, Richard Basehart. HandBernard. Three women—each struggling somely produced remake of ISLAND OF with a personal emotional crisis—meet on LOST SOULS with Lancaster heading a a remote Greek island. Knowing they are solid cast as demented doctor who has only to cross paths briefly, they unburden spent years creating half-man, half-beast their innermost feelings to each other. At‘‘humanimals.’’ Good horror-fantasy chiller, mospheric psychological drama lacks a based on H. G. Wells’ novel. Remade in strong central core. 1996. [PG]▼쩠 Island, The (2005) C-136m. ★★ D: Michael Island of Dr. Moreau, The (1996) C-95m. ★1 Bay. Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, ⁄2 D: John Frankenheimer. Marlon Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi, Brando, Val Kilmer, David Thewlis, FairMichael Clarke Duncan, Ethan Phillips, Brian uza Balk, Ron Perlman, Marco HofStepanek. In a futuristic underground city, soschneider, Temuera Morrison. Heavyciety is rigidly controlled and a lottery dehanded retelling of H. G. Wells’ novel, as cides who’ll get to move to an idyllic island. Thewlis is rescued at sea and brought to When McGregor suspects something is Dr. Moreau’s island, where he’s horrified to amiss, he enlists Johansson’s aid to escape discover experiments turning animals into into a world they didn’t expect. Well-cast humans. Grotesque in the extreme, obvious, but overheated thriller burns itself up with and ultimately pointless, but Brando devo[ 695 ]

tees will want to check out his flamboyantly Islands in the Stream (1977) C-105m. ★★1 silly performance, and makeup buffs should ⁄2 D: Franklin J. Schaffner. George C. admire Stan Winston’s remarkable creScott, David Hemmings, Claire Bloom, ations. Director’s cut version runs 99m. Susan Tyrrell, Gilbert Roland, Richard Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Evans, Hart Bochner, Julius Harris. Film Island of Lost Souls (1933) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 version of Hemingway novel about an D: Erle C. Kenton. Charles Laughton, island-dwelling sculptor and his three sons Bela Lugosi, Richard Arlen, Kathleen begins well but falls apart completely in Burke, Stanley Fields, Leila Hyams. Strong the final third. Still one of the better adapadaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel of a mad tations of this author, with one of Scott’s scientist isolated on a remote island, where best performances. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 he transforms jungle beasts into half-human Isle of Fury (1936) 60m. ★★ D: Frank abominations (‘‘. . . are we not men?’’). McDonald. Humphrey Bogart, Margaret Laughton hams it up a bit, but despite more Lindsay, Donald Woods, Paul Graetz, Gordon explicit horror films of late, this retains its Hart, E. E. Clive. Mild remake of Somerset frightening aura, particularly in the grisly fiMaugham novel The Narrow Corner, involvnale. Remade as THE ISLAND OF DR. ing love triangle on South Sea island. MOREAU in 1977 and 1996.▼● Isle of Lost Women SEE: 99 Women Island of Love (1963) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Isle of the Dead (1945) 72m. ★★★ D: Morton Da Costa. Robert Preston, Tony Mark Robson. Boris Karloff, Ellen Drew, Randall, Giorgia Moll, Walter Matthau, Marc Cramer, Katherine Emery, Helene Betty Bruce, Michael Constantine. Con Thimig, Jason Robards (Sr.). Eerie horror artist Preston sets out to transform a Greek tale of assorted characters stranded on isle into a tourist trap while evading the Greek island during quarantine—one of clutches of vengeful gangster Matthau. them possibly a vampire. Good Val Lewton production.▼●쩠 Silly, unfunny comedy wastes the talents of all concerned. Panavision. Isle of the Snake People SEE: Snake Island of Terror (1966-British) C-90m. People ★★ D: Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, EdIsn’t She Great (2000) C-95m. ★★ D: Anward Judd, Carole Gray, Niall MacGinnis. drew Bergman. Bette Midler, Nathan Lane, Sci-fi tale about cancer research gone wild Stockard Channing, David Hyde Pierce, and mutations that result is directed and John Cleese, John Larroquette, Amanda acted by veterans of the field, but result is Peet. Ill-conceived film about highly driven nothing special.▼ actress turned authoress Jacqueline Susann Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964) C-93m. (Valley of the Dolls) and the one man who ★1 believes in her, her press agent husband, ⁄2 D: James B. Clark. Celia Kaye, George Kennedy, Ann Daniel, Carlos Romero, Larry Irving Mansfield. Not funny enough to sucDomasin. True story of Indian girl (Kaye) ceed as a comedy, not serious or solid abandoned on small island, befriended only enough to work as a biography; Lane is by wild dogs. Set in early 19th century. Well awfully hard to resist, however, as the irremeaning but not very good. Based on the pressibly upbeat Mansfield. Screenplay by novel by Scott O’Dell.▼ Paul Rudnick, from Michael Korda’s magaIsland of the Burning Damned SEE: Iszine article. [R]▼쩠 land of the Burning Doomed Is Paris Burning? (1966-French-U.S.) Island of the Burning Doomed (1967173m. ★★ D: Rene´ Clement. Jean-Paul British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terence Fisher. Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Patrick Jean-Pierre Cassel, Claude Dauphin, Alain Allen, Sarah Lawson, Jane Merrow, WilDelon, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Gert liam Lucas. Aliens cause a massive heatFrobe, Daniel Gelin, Yves Montand, Anwave during winter. Good sci-fi, with Lee thony Perkins, Simone Signoret, Robert and Cushing at their best. Also known as Stack, Orson Welles. Rambling pseudo-docISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED umentary-style recreation of WW2 France, and NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT.▼ showing liberation of Paris and Nazis’ attempt Island of the Lost (1967) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: to burn the city. Cameos by international playJohn Florea; Underwater sequences, Ricou ers confuse blotchy film made in Europe. Browning. Richard Greene, Luke Halpin, Screenplay by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Mart Hulswit, Jose De Vega, Robin MattCoppola, from the Larry Collins-Dominique Lapierre book. Panavision.▼●쩠 son, Irene Tsu. Anthropologist Greene takes his family on an expedition to find an I Spy (2002) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Betty Thomas. uncharted South Sea isle but becomes shipEddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janswrecked. Clean-cut, highly innocuous travsen, Malcolm McDowell, Gary Cole, Phill elogue from the Ivan Tors studio, cowritten Lewis. In-name-only reincarnation of the by Tors and actor Richard Carlson. Undersmart 1960s TV show (which starred Robert water expert Browning appeared with Culp and Bill Cosby). Here, Wilson is an Carlson years before as the CREATURE inept NSA operative who uses cocky prizeFROM THE BLACK LAGOON. ▼쩠 fighter Murphy as his cover to locate a se[ 696 ]

cret weapon in Budapest. An object lesson Paul Maxwell, Aubrey Richards. McDowall in bad screenwriting, with an incoherent brings hulking stone statue—the Golem, no story, and characters that make no sense; less—to life and soon finds it makes a great murderer. Kill it! Filmed in England.쩠 only the occasional comic riffs by Murphy and Wilson keep this from complete disasIt Ain’t Hay (1943) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Erle C. ter. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Kenton. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Patsy Istanbul (1957) C-84m. ★★ D: Joseph PevO’Connor, Grace McDonald, Leighton Noble, ney. Errol Flynn. Cornell Borchers, John Cecil Kellaway, Eugene Pallette, Eddie QuilBentley, Torin Thatcher, Leif Erickson, lan. Pretty good A&C from Damon Runyon Martin Benson, Nat ‘‘King’’ Cole, Werner story, ‘‘Princess O’Hara,’’ of racehorse TeaKlemperer. Dull drama of flyer Flynn rebiscuit; good supporting cast helps.쩠 turning to Istanbul, discovering his ladylove I Take This Woman (1940) 97m. ★★ D: (whom he believed had perished in a fire) to W. S. Van Dyke II. Spencer Tracy, Hedy be alive and an amnesiac. Sole bright spot: Lamarr, Verree Teasdale, Kent Taylor, Cole singing ‘‘When I Fall in Love.’’ ReLaraine Day, Mona Barrie, Louis Calhern, make of SINGAPORE. CinemaScope.▼ Marjorie Main, Frances Drake, Jack CarIstanbul (1990-Turkish-Swedish) C-88m. son. Disappointing soaper with dedicated BOMB D: Mats Arehn. Timothy Bottoms, doctor Tracy sacrificing all for Lamarr, Twiggy, Emma Kilberg, Robert Morley, who at first isn’t grateful. Long in producLena Endre, Sverre Anker Ousdal. Jourtion, with innumerable behind-the-scenes nalist Bottoms arrives in Istanbul with his changes, this was a notorious dud in 1940. Italian, The (2005-Russian) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 daughter to seek information on family of his wife’s son, becomes enmeshed in conD: Andrei Kravchuk. Kolya Spiridonov, fusing intrigue. Twiggy is a mystery Maria Kuznetsova, Nikolai Reutov, Yriy Itwoman. Murky, clumsy, international coskov, Denis Moiseenko. Six-year-old Vanya production is about as interesting as watch(Spiridonov) resides in an orphanage in coning camel spit dry. [PG-13] ▼● temporary Russia, whose administrators sell Is There Sex After Death? (1971) C-97m. their charges for profit. Even though an Ital★★★ D: Jeanne Abel, Alan Abel. Buck Henry, ian couple has adopted him, he remains deAlan Abel, Marshall Efron, Holly Woodtermined to find his birth mother, who lawn, Earle Doud. Crude but funny satire abandoned him. Dickensian slice-of-life of porn films. Famous hoaxer Abel (who, about a youngster who is wise beyond his with his wife, also produced and scripted) years and whose childhood has been stolen plays a traveling sexologist; Efron hilarifrom him. Occasionally affecting, but not as ous as an X-rated-film director. [R—edited involving as it should be. [PG-13] 쩠 from original X rating]▼쩠 Italian Connection, The (1973-Italian) I Still Know What You Did Last Summer C-92m. ★★ D: Fernando Di Leo. Henry Silva, (1998) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Danny Cannon. Woody Strode, Mario Adorf, Luciana PaJennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze, Jr., luzzi, Sylva Koscina, Adolfo Celi. Violent Brandy, Mekhi Phifer, Muse Watson, Matgangster meller has Milanese hood Adorf set thew Settle, Bill Cobbs, Jeffrey Combs, Jenniup by gang boss Celi for the blame in a sixfer Esposito, John Hawkes. Hewitt and friends million-dollar heroin heist. For action fans win a vacation to a Caribbean island, where only. Aka MANHUNT (1973). [R]▼쩠 they are pursued by the killer with a hook Italian for Beginners (2000-Danish) Cfrom the first movie, I KNOW WHAT YOU 99m. ★★★ D: Lone Scherfig. Anders W. BerDID LAST SUMMER. Another film in thelsen, Anette Støvelbaek, Peter Gantzler, which the cast runs around screaming while Ann Elonora Jørgensen, Lars Kaalund, Sara being killed, one by one. Plotless mess lacks Indrio Jensen, Bent Mejding. Sweet, upbeat any suspense, and makes the original look romantic comedy in which several lonely, like a classic. Jack Black appears unbilled. vulnerable thirty-something singles mix and Followed by DVD sequel, I’LL ALWAYS match while taking an Italian-language adult KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMeducation class. Most enjoyable, and defiMER. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 nitely not for cynics! Filmed using the It (1927) 72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clarence Badger. ‘‘pure cinema’’ rules of Dogma 95. OrigiClara Bow, Antonio Moreno, William Ausnally shown at 112m. [R]▼쩠 tin, Jacqueline Gadsdon (Jane Daly), PrisItalian Job, The (1969-British) C-101m. ★★1 cilla Bonner. Bow is dazzling in this ⁄2 D: Peter Collinson. Michael Caine, otherwise ordinary tale of a spirited, goldNoel Coward, Maggie Blye, Benny Hill, digging department-store salesgirl with deTony Beckley, Raf Vallone. $4,000,000 signs on her handsome boss (Moreno). in gold bullion’s the object in average Based on Elinor Glyn’s trendy story of the caper film about prison-based mastermind same title; Madame Glyn appears briefly Coward’s plan to divert authorities in Turin, as herself. Look for Gary Cooper in a Italy, causing ‘‘history’s biggest traffic jam.’’ walk-on as a reporter.▼●쩠 Wild chases galore, plus truly bizarre ending, It! (1967) C-96m. ★★ D: Herbert J. Leder. but characterizations are pat, forgettable. Remade in 2003. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Roddy McDowall, Jill Haworth, Ernest Clark, [ 697 ]

Italian Job, The (2003) C-110m. ★★★ D: F. Aykroyd, John Candy, Cheech and Chong, Gary Gray. Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Gilda Radner. Contemporary comedy stars Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, are spectacularly unfunny introducing and Mos Def, Franky G, Donald Sutherland. narrating clips from some of Hollywood’s Entertaining caper starts out with a daring worst movies—most of which are funny robbery, then a traitor disrupts business as enough without additional wisecracks. usual with the otherwise loyal band of What’s more, this pointless, poorly conthieves. Winds up in L.A. with a wild chase structed compilation includes scenes from sequence through the city’s streets and subgood movies like WAR OF THE WORLDS way system. Slick script, superior action and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING scenes, and an array of colorful, well-drawn MAN! Even so, howlers like MARS characters make this fun from start to finish. NEEDS WOMEN and PLAN 9 FROM Remake of the 1969 film includes a brief OUTER SPACE still offer some genuine laughs. [PG]▼● homage to its star, Michael Caine. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 It Came From Outer Space (1953) 81m. ★★★ It All Came True (1940) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Jack Arnold. Richard Carlson, BarLewis Seiler. Ann Sheridan, Humphrey bara Rush, Charles Drake, Russell Johnson, Bogart, Jeffrey Lynn, ZaSu Pitts, Jessie Joe Sawyer, Kathleen Hughes. Intriguing Busley, Una O’Connor, Grant Mitchell, science-fiction based on a Ray Bradbury Felix Bressart. Offbeat story combines comstory. An alien ship crashes in the Arizona edy, drama, music, and sentiment as gangdesert; its passengers assume the identities of ster Bogart hides out in quaint boardingnearby townspeople so they can effect repairs house. Fine showcase for Sheridan, who unnoticed—they think. Remarkably sober for sings ‘‘Angel in Disguise’’ and ‘‘The Gauits era, with crisp performances and real recho Serenade.’’ straint, even in its use of 3-D. The 1996 TV It All Starts Today (1999-French) Cmovie IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE II 117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Philis a much inferior remake, rather than the ippe Torreton, Maria Pitarresi, Nadia Kaci, sequel the title suggests.▼●쩠 Ve´ronique Ataly, Nathalie Be´cue, EmmanuIt Came Without Warning SEE: Without elle Bercot. Wrenchingly believable study of Warning a dedicated schoolteacher in a working-class It Comes Up Murder SEE: Honey Pot, The It Conquered the World (1956) 68m. ★★1⁄2 French community who tries to overcome one hurdle after another—from government buD: Roger Corman. Peter Graves, Beverly reaucracy to negligent parents—to provide Garland, Lee Van Cleef, Sally Fraser, Jonahis children with a decent education. No than Haze, Dick Miller. Low-budget sci-fi false dramatics here, just a potent slice of which intelligently attempts to create atmolife. Written by the director, his daughter spheric excitement in yarn of carrot-shaped Tiffany, and her husband, Dominique Sammonster from Venus, Paul Blaisdell’s finest piero (based on his experience as a teacher). creation. One of Corman’s best early quickies, Super 35.▼쩠 well acted and interesting but awkwardly plotIt Always Rains on Sunday (1947-British) ted. Remade as ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS.▼ 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Hamer. Googie Withers, Jack Warner, John McCallum, It Could Happen to You (1994) C-101m. ★★★ Edward Chapman, Jimmy Hanley, John D: Andrew Bergman. Nicolas Cage, Carol, John Slater, Susan Shaw, Sydney Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez, Wendell Tafler, Alfie Bass, Betty Ann Davies, Jane Pierce, Isaac Hayes, Victor Rojas, Seymour Hylton, Hermione Baddeley. Excellent moCassel, Stanley Tucci, J. E. Freeman, Red saic of characters whose lives intertwine in Buttons, Richard Jenkins. Charming romana drab London neighborhood. McCallum tic comedy about a Good Samaritan cop is escaped convict seeking refuge with his who shares a lottery ticket with a hard-luck ex-lover, Withers. (In real life, the two waitress—little dreaming it will make them stars married the following year.) Arthur both millionaires. Warm, winning perforLa Bern’s novel was scripted by Henry mances by Cage and Fonda carry this N.Y.Cornelius, Angus MacPhail, and Hamer. based fairy tale, with a plot not intended It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) for close scrutiny. Inspired by a true-life 80m. ★★★ D: Robert Gordon. Kenneth story. [PG]▼●쩠 Tobey, Faith Domergue, Donald Curtis, I Thank a Fool (1962-British) C-100m. ★★ Ian Keith, Harry Lauter. Breathtaking speD: Robert Stevens. Susan Hayward, cial effects highlight this sci-fi thriller. Peter Finch, Diane Cilento, Cyril Cusack, Huge octopus emerges from Pacific Ocean Kieron Moore, Athene Seyler. Dreary, farand wreaks havoc on San Francisco. First film fetched story about Hayward spending a made by the team of Ray Harryhausen and year and a half in prison for mercy-killing, producer Charles H. Schneer. Also available then becoming involved with lawyer Finch, in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 who prosecuted her case, with bizarre results. It Came From Hollywood (1982) C-80m. CinemaScope. ★1⁄2 D: Malcolm Leo, Andrew Solt. Dan It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963) [ 698 ]

C-105m. ★★★ D: Norman Taurog. Elvis on tomorrow’s headlines, leading to unPresley, Joan O’Brien, Gary Lockwood, expected complications. Low key, often Yvonne Craig. Entertaining Presley vehicle charming.▼쩠 set at Seattle World’s Fair, with Elvis and It Happens Every Spring (1949) 87m. ★★★1 O’Brien brought together by little Ginny Tiu. ⁄2 D: Lloyd Bacon. Ray Milland, Jean Listenable tunes (including ‘‘One Broken Peters, Paul Douglas, Ed Begley, Ted de Heart for Sale,’’ ‘‘A World of Our Own’’ Corsia, Ray Collins, Jessie Royce Landis, and ‘‘Happy Ending’’) help make this most Alan Hale, Jr., Debra Paget. Clever little enjoyable. Young Kurt Russell, who later comedy of chemistry professor (Milland) played Elvis in a TV movie, makes his film accidentally discovering a chemical mixdebut in a small role. Panavision.▼쩠 ture which causes baseballs to avoid all It Happened Here (1966-British) 95m. ★★★ wooden surfaces, namely baseball bats. D: Kevin Brownlow, Andrew Mollo. PauHe takes leave from academia and emline Murray, Sebastian Shaw, Fiona Lelard, barks on meteoric pitching career. A most Honor Fehrson. Imaginative fable of Britain enjoyable, unpretentious picture. Story taken over by the Nazis during WW2, made by Shirley W. Smith and Valentine Davies; in semidocumentary style by two ingenious scripted by Davies.▼ young filmmakers. To get along in a harsh I, the Jury (1953) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harry time, most Brits collaborate with the invaders, Essex. Biff Elliot, Preston Foster, Peggie including nurse Murray, who has personal Castle, Margaret Sheridan, Alan Reed, Mary reasons to hate the resistance movement.▼쩠 Anderson, Tom Powers, Joe Besser, Paul It Happened in Brooklyn (1947) 105m. ★★ Dubov, Elisha Cook, Jr., John Qualen. Screen D: Richard Whorf. Frank Sinatra, Kathryn debut of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer Grayson, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, (and Elliot as well) finds the thuggish sleuth Gloria Grahame. Hokey musical with Brookspending his Christmas holidays hunting lynite Sinatra returning to his beloved bordown the killer of a close pal. Naturally, ough after WW2; complications follow as more corpses ensue. Dark-humored fun, he falls for music teacher Grayson. Some with a moody Franz Waxman score and good songs, including ‘‘Time After Time’’ stunning 3-D photography by John Alton, and wonderful Sinatra-Durante duet, ‘‘The including some eye-popping shots inside Song’s Gotta Come From the Heart.’’ ▼●쩠 L.A.’s famed Bradbury Building. ScreenIt Happened One Night (1934) 105m. ★★★★ play by Essex. Remade in 1982. D: Frank Capra. Clark Gable, Claudette I, the Jury (1982) C-111m. ★★ D: RichColbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, ard T. Heffron. Armand Assante, Barbara Alan Hale, Ward Bond. Legendary romantic Carrera, Alan King, Laurene Landon, Geofcomedy doesn’t age a bit. Still as enchanting frey Lewis, Paul Sorvino, Judson Scott. as ever, with reporter Gable and runaway Mickey Spillane’s hard-boiled Mike Hamheiress Colbert falling in love on rural bus mer seems out of place in this updated trip. Hitch-hiking travails, the Walls of Jericho, remake, though contemporary levels of other memorable scenes remain fresh and violence and nudity suit the material. Lots delightful. First film to win all five major of action and some truly beautiful women Oscars: Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, help camouflage the holes in Larry Cohen’s and Screenplay (Robert Riskin). Based on script; Assante is a sulky Hammer. [R]▼ Samuel Hopkins Adams’ story ‘‘Night I Think I Love My Wife (2007) C-94m. ★1 Bus,’’ originally published in Cosmopolitan. ⁄2 D: Chris Rock. Chris Rock, Kerry Remade as musicals EVE KNEW HER Washington, Gina Torres, Steve Buscemi, APPLES and YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY Edward Herrmann, Welker White, Michael FROM IT.▼●쩠 K. Williams, Stephen A. Smith, Wendell It Happened One Summer SEE: State Pierce. Director-cowriter-coproducer Rock Fair (1945) plays a successful but bored suburban family man who is contacted at his N.Y.C. ofIt Happened to Jane (1959) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Quine. Doris Day, Jack Lemfice by an old pal’s smoking-hot former mon, Ernie Kovacs, Steve Forrest, Teddy flame (Washington). Her flirty afternoon Rooney, Russ Brown, Mary Wickes, Parvisits become more frequent, and he is ker Fennelly. Breezy, likable comedy: Doris sorely tempted to stray. Rock has loosely runs a Maine lobstery, and Jack is her updated Eric Rohmer’s CHLOE IN THE lawyer; together they tangle with ultracheap AFTERNOON with dismal results. His own villain Kovacs (who hams mercilessly). Aka performance is leaden, and even WashingTWINKLE AND SHINE.쩠 ton’s femme fatale is wasted here. [R]쩠 It Happened Tomorrow (1944) 84m. ★★★ It Lives Again (1978) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: D: Rene´ Clair. Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Larry Cohen. Frederic Forrest, Kathleen Jack Oakie, Edgar Kennedy, John Philliber, Lloyd, John Ryan, John Marley, Andrew Edward Brophy, George Cleveland, Sig Duggan, Eddie Constantine. Sequel to IT’S Ruman, Paul Guilfoyle. Diverting if someALIVE offers not one but three murderous what static fantasy yarn about a turn-ofbabies. More of a horror film than a thriller— the-century reporter who gets inside track and not a very good one. Constantine’s first [ 699 ]

American film in many years. Aka IT’S ple and places in U.S. Other segments make ALIVE II; followed by IT’S ALIVE III: ISup for it in very uneven film. LAND OF THE ALIVE. [R]▼●쩠 It’s a Bikini World (1967) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: It Only Happens to Others (1971-FrenchStephanie Rothman. Deborah Walley, Italian) C-88m. ★★ D: Nadine Trintignant. Tommy Kirk, Bob Pickett, Suzie Kaye, Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, The Animals, The Gentrys. Superlover Kirk Serge Marquand, Dominique Labourier, loves bikinied Debbie, but she doesn’t dig Catherine Allegret. Loss of young child him until he masquerades as an intellectucauses happily married couple to withdraw al. Not among the best of its kind, if there from society. Heavy on the syrup. Paneven is a best of its kind. The Animals, oramica. [PG] however, do perform ‘‘We Gotta Get Out It Runs in My Family (1994) C-85m. ★★ of This Place.’’ Techniscope. D: Bob Clark. Charles Grodin, Kieran CulIt’s a Date (1940) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: William kin, Mary Steenburgen, Christian Culkin, A. Seiter. Deanna Durbin, Walter Pidgeon, Al Mancini, Troy Evans, Roy Brocksmith, Kay Francis, Eugene Pallette, Lewis HowGlenn Shadix, Dick O’Neill, Wayne Grace. ard, S. Z. Sakall, Samuel S. Hinds, Cecilia Follow-up to A CHRISTMAS STORY— Loftus. Durbin faces unique growing pains with a new cast—is a huge disappointment, when she’s offered a Broadway role inchronicling the same family’s adventures in tended for her mother (Francis) and then is the early ’40s—from the boy’s efforts to courted by a man her mother’s age (Pidwin at top-spinning to the Old Man’s feud geon). Star trio shines brightly in this enwith his hillbilly neighbors. Culkin and joyable contrivance, which unfortunately Grodin are no match for Peter Billingsley goes on too long and ends (incongruously) and Darren McGavin in the earlier film, and with Deanna singing ‘‘Ave Maria’’! Remany of writer/narrator Jean Shepherd’s made as NANCY GOES TO RIO.▼ nostalgic musings don’t come off nearly as It’s a Gift (1934) 68m. ★★★★ D: Norman well as they do in his writings and broadZ. McLeod. W. C. Fields, Baby LeRoy, casts. Barely released theatrically; retitled Kathleen Howard, Tommy Bupp, Morgan Wallace. Fields is a grocery store owner who MY SUMMER STORY. [PG]▼쩠 ★★ It Runs in the Family (2003) C-109m. goes West with his family. Beautiful comedy D: Fred Schepisi. Michael Douglas, Kirk routines in one of the Great Man’s unforgettaDouglas, Cameron Douglas, Diana Douglas, ble films. Charles Sellon as a blind man, T. Roy Bernadette Peters, Rory Culkin, Michelle MoBarnes as a salesman looking for Carl LaFong, naghan, Sarita Choudhury. Superficial story contribute some hilarious moments. A remake about conflicts between fathers, sons, girlof Fields’ silent film IT’S THE OLD ARMY GAME.▼●쩠 friends, and spouses serves merely as an excuse to bring three generations of DougIt’s a Great Feeling (1949) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 lases together on-screen (not to mention D: David Butler. Dennis Morgan. Doris Kirk’s ex, Diana). But this contrivance is Day, Jack Carson, Bill Goodwin. Gentle just that, with a script that might not pass spoof of Hollywood with Carson’s ego muster as a TV movie. Michael Douglas making filming difficult for himself and also produced. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 partner Morgan; guest appearances by many I Trust You to Kill Me (2006) C/B&WWarner Bros. players and directors, includ90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Manu Boyer. While on hiatus ing Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Michael from shooting his hit TV series 24, Kiefer Curtiz, Jane Wyman, Sydney Greenstreet, Sutherland acts as road manager on a EuroDanny Kaye, Edward G. Robinson, King pean tour for Rocco DeLuca & The Burden, Vidor, Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Raoul the group he’s signed to his independent Walsh, Ronald Reagan—and even Reagan record label. Frank, revealing documentary and Wyman’s daughter Maureen!▼●쩠 offers a candid look at a celebrity after It’s Alive! (1974) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry hours, but is most effective when conCohen. John Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Antrasting a famous face and a bunch of taldrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell, James Dixon, ented but unknown wannabes. Bogs down Michael Ansara. Schlocky thriller about in parts, but holds your interest most of the a baby who goes on a murderous rampway. Film’s title is the name of one of Deage. Has a devoted following, but not Luca’s songs. [R]쩠 for all tastes. Effective score by BerIt’s a Big Country (1951) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: nard Herrmann. Sequels: IT LIVES AGAIN Charles Vidor, Richard Thorpe, John and IT’S ALIVE III: ISLAND OF THE Sturges, Don Hartman, Don Weis, ClarALIVE. [PG]▼●쩠 ence Brown, William Wellman. Ethel BarIt’s Alive II SEE: It Lives Again rymore, Keefe Brasselle, Gary Cooper, It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) Nancy Davis (Reagan), Gene Kelly, Keenan C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Cohen. Michael Wynn, Fredric March, Van Johnson, James Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, Whitmore; narrated by Louis Calhern. Dore Gerrit Graham, James Dixon, Neal Israel, Schary’s plug for America uses several Macdonald Carey. Part 3 makes serious pointless episodes about the variety of peocomments on issues ranging from the AIDS [ 700 ]

crisis to abortion as Moriarty, father of a ces Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Jo monster baby, succeeds in preventing society Swerling expanded Philip Van Doren from exterminating all the monster infants, Stern’s short story ‘‘The Greatest Gift’’ who are quarantined on a desert island. (which had originally been written by Stern Wild fun, loaded with dark humor.▼쩠 as a Christmas card!). Remade for TV as ★★★ It’s All True (1993) C/B&W-87m. IT HAPPENED ONE CHRISTMAS. Also D: Richard Wilson, Myron Meisel, Bill Krohn. shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Fascinating assemblage of the remaining It’s a Wonderful World (1939) 86m. ★★★ ‘‘lost’’ footage from Orson Welles’ abanD: W. S. Van Dyke II. Claudette Colbert, doned three-part documentary he was shootJames Stewart, Guy Kibbee, Nat Pendleton, ing in Brazil in 1942 as RKO brass was taking Frances Drake, Edgar Kennedy, Ernest a knife to THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERTruex, Sidney Blackmer, Hans Conried. SONS back in Hollywood. Only tantalizing Screwball comedy with Colbert a runaway snippets remain of the My Friend Bonito epipoetess, Stewart a fugitive chased by cops sode (shot in Mexico by Norman Foster under Pendleton and Kennedy. Very, very funny, Welles’ supervision) and of the seductive Carwith Stewart having a field day. Scripted by naval footage (some in color); virtually intact Ben Hecht, from his and Herman J. Mankieis what would have been the original’s centerwicz’ story. We swear by our eyes! piece: the Four Men on a Raft tribute to BraIt Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (1975-Canadian) C-106m. ★★ D: John zilian fishermen. A major contribution to movie history, albeit one for specialized Trent. Anthony Newley, Stefanie Powers, tastes; film concludes with an audio track of Isaac Hayes, Lloyd Bochner, Yvonne De Welles with Carmen Miranda. For film buffs Carlo, Henry Ramer, Lawrence Dane, John who think they’ve experienced it all.▼●쩠 Candy. Tired comedy with a mostly tired cast, It’s Always Fair Weather (1955) C-102m. centering on Newley’s attempts to woo back ★★★ his remarried ex-wife. Dane and Candy apD: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen. Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, Michael Kidd, Cyd pear as a pair of bumbling cops, characters Charisse, Dolores Gray, David Burns. Three they replayed a year later in FIND THE WW2 buddies meet ten years after their LADY. Aka GOOD IDEA! [PG]▼쩠 discharge and find they have nothing in It Should Happen to You (1954) 87m. ★★★ D: George Cukor. Judy Holliday, Peter common. Pungent Comden and Green script falls short of perfection but still has wonLawford, Jack Lemmon, Michael O’Shea, derful moments, and some first-rate musiVaughn Taylor. Holliday is Gladys Glover cal numbers (like Cyd’s ‘‘Baby, You Knock of Binghamton, N.Y., who has come to Me Out’’ and Dolores’ ‘‘Thanks a Lot But N.Y.C. to make a name for herself—and No Thanks’’). Best: the ash-can dance in does so, by plastering her moniker across a widescreen. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Columbus Circle billboard. Judy is radiant It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) in this charming romantic comedy/satire, C-154m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Kramer. Spenscripted by Garson Kanin. Lemmon’s first cer Tracy, Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid film.▼●쩠 Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet SEE: All Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Dorothy ProThings Bright and Beautiful vine, Phil Silvers, Jonathan Winters, Peter It’s in the Bag! (1945) 87m. ★★★ D: RichFalk, Jimmy Durante, Terry-Thomas, Eddie ard Wallace. Fred Allen, Binnie Barnes, ‘‘Rochester’’ Anderson, William Demarest, Robert Benchley, Sidney Toler, Jack Benny, many guest stars. Supercomedy cast in atDon Ameche, Victor Moore, Rudy Vallee, tempt at supercomedy, about group of people William Bendix. Story similar to THE racing to find hidden bank loot under watchful TWELVE CHAIRS with flea-circus proeye of detective Tracy. Big, splashy, generally moter Allen entitled to inheritance; plot soon funny, but bigness doesn’t equal greatness. goes out the window in favor of unrelated Homevideo version restored to 175m. Ultra but amusing episodes, including hilarious Panavision 70. ▼●쩠 encounter between Allen and Benny.▼ It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 129m. ★★★★ It’s Love I’m After (1937) 90m. ★★★ D: D: Frank Capra. James Stewart, Donna Archie Mayo. Bette Davis, Leslie HowReed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchard, Olivia de Havilland, Patric Knowles, ell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Eric Blore, Bonita Granville, Spring ByFaylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. ington, Veda Ann Borg. Delightful, witty Warner, Frank Albertson, Todd Karns, comedy of ego-struck actor Howard and Samuel S. Hinds, Mary Treen, Sheldon his fiance´e/costar Davis, who explodes Leonard, Ellen Corby. Sentimental tale of when he becomes involved with infatuated Stewart, who works all his life to make good admirer de Havilland. Reminiscent in spirit in small town, thinking he’s failed and tryof TWENTIETH CENTURY; Blore is maring to end his life. Guardian angel Travers velous as Howard’s ultra-dedicated valet.쩠 comes to show him his mistake. Only Capra It’s My Party (1996) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: and this cast could pull it off so well; this Randal Kleiser. Eric Roberts, Gregory Harfilm seems to improve with age. Capra, Franrison, Margaret Cho, Bruce Davison, Lee [ 701 ]

Grant, Devon Gummersall, Marlee Matlin, match, but they do their best. Attractive fluff. VistaVision.▼쩠 Roddy McDowall, Olivia Newton-John, Bronson Pinchot, Paul Regina, George It Started With a Kiss (1959) C-104m. ★★1 Segal, Dimitra Arlys (Arliss), Christopher ⁄2 D: George Marshall. Glenn Ford, Atkins, Ron Glass, Victor Love, Joel Polis, Debbie Reynolds, Eva Gabor, Fred Clark, Nina Foch, Sally Kellerman, Greg LouEdgar Buchanan, Harry Morgan. Airy comganis. Roberts portrays a successful L.A. edy about wacky Reynolds and her Army designer suffering from AIDS, who decides officer husband Ford, trying to make a go he’d prefer to die with dignity and throws of marriage; set in Spain. CinemaScope.▼ himself a wild weekend party for a final It Started With Eve (1941) 90m. ★★★ D: fling. Quite moving and often very funny. Henry Koster. Deanna Durbin, Charles Roberts is excellent in the lead. [R]▼●쩠 Laughton, Robert Cummings, Guy Kibbee, It’s My Turn (1980) C-91m. ★★★ D: Margaret Tallichet, Walter Catlett. DelightClaudia Weill. Jill Clayburgh, Michael ful romantic comedy; Deanna poses as Douglas, Charles Grodin, Beverly Garland, Cummings’ fiance´e to please his dying Steven Hill, Teresa Baxter, Joan Copeland, father (Laughton). Trouble starts when John Gabriel, Charles Kimbrough, Jennifer Laughton shows signs of recovery. Remade as I’D RATHER BE RICH.▼●쩠 Salt, Daniel Stern, Dianne Wiest. Enjoyable, low-key romantic comedy-drama It’s the Rage (2000) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: James about a young woman trying to balance her D. Stern. Joan Allen, Jeff Daniels, Andre life as a career woman, mate, and daughter. Braugher, Gary Sinise, Josh Brolin, Robert A quirky and consistently surprising little Forster, Anna Paquin, Giovanni Ribisi, film with good performances, especially David Schwimmer. The lives of a group of from Grodin as Clayburgh’s aloof lover. seemingly disparate people are connected Film debut of Dianne Wiest. [R]▼● by personal crises . . . which lead to resoluIt’s Not the Size That Counts (1974tions with guns. Loud, heavy-handed satire British) C-90m. BOMB D: Ralph Thomabout individual and cultural violence gets as. Leigh Lawson, Elke Sommer, Denholm worse as it goes along, despite the efforts of Elliott, Vincent Price, Judy Geeson, George a good cast, of whom only Allen and Forster Coulouris, Milo O’Shea. Abominable sequel emerge unscathed. Keith Reddin adapted his to PERCY, even worse, if that’s possible; own play. Made for theaters, but U.S. debut on cable TV. [R]▼쩠 Lawson replaces Hywel Bennett as penistransplant recipient. Original title PERCY’S It Takes All Kinds (1969-U.S.-Australian) C-98m. ★★ D: Eddie Davis. Robert Lansing, PROGRESS. [R]▼ It’$ Only Money (1962) 84m. ★★★ D: Frank Vera Miles, Barry Sullivan, Sid Melton, Tashlin. Jerry Lewis, Joan O’Brien, Zachary Penny Sugg. Fair double-cross drama about Scott, Jack Weston, Jesse White, Mae Miles’ shielding of Lansing when he acciQuestel. TV repairman Jerry wants to be a dentally kills sailor in a brawl in Australia. detective like his idol (White!), so he sets It Takes Two (1995) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: out to locate a missing heir—and guess who Andy Tennant. Kirstie Alley, Steve Gutit turns out to be? Slick mystery-comedy is tenberg, Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, one of Lewis’ best vehicles, thanks to solid Philip Bosco, Jane Sibbett, Michelle Grison, script (by John Fenton Murray) and direction, Desmond Robertson, Ernie Grunwald, Lawfine cast, and memorable climax involving rence Dane. Surprisingly well-wrought runaway army of robot lawn mowers. comedy for kids about lookalikes who trade It’s Pat (1994) C-77m. BOMB D: Adam places in order to help each other. The fabuBernstein. Julia Sweeney, David Foley, lously wealthy girl has a father who’s about Charles Rocket, Kathy Griffin, Julie Hayto marry a patently awful woman, while the den, Kathy Najimy, Larry Hankin, Tim orphan is about to lose her best friend, the Meadows, Camille Paglia. Sweeney’s social worker who supervises the orphanage. cheerfully obnoxious, androgynous characThe twins give very likable performances, as ter from Saturday Night Live skits was do their adult costars. A cross between THE never a prime candidate for feature-film PRINCE AND THE PAUPER and THE stardom. If you can get through the first five PARENT TRAP. [PG]▼●쩠 minutes, you may get through the whole It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward L. Cahn. Marshall movie, as Pat finds true love with the equally androgynous Chris (Foley). Barely Thompson, Shawn Smith, Kim Spalding, released theatrically. Sweeney coscripted. Ann Doran, Dabbs Greer. The second [PG-13]▼●쩠 spaceship to Mars heads for Earth with the It Started in Naples (1960) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 sole survivor of the first expedition, accused D: Melville Shavelson. Clark Gable, Soof murdering his crewmates—but the real phia Loren, Vittorio De Sica, Marietto, killer is a Martian monster (Ray ‘‘Crash’’ Paolo Carlini, Claudio Ermelli. Gable is Corrigan), which has crept aboard the reAmerican lawyer, in Italy to bring nephew turning ship. ALIEN owes a lot to this tidy, susback to America, but sexy Aunt Sophia penseful, but underproduced movie, scripted by sci-fi writer Jerome Bixby. ▼●쩠 won’t agree. Star duo never clicks as love [ 702 ]

Ivanhoe (1952) C-106m. ★★★ D: Richard Thorpe. Robert Taylor, Joan Fontaine, Elizabeth Taylor, Emlyn Williams, George Sanders, Robert Douglas, Finlay Currie, Felix Aylmer, Francis de Wolff, Guy Rolfe, Norman Wooland, Basil Sydney. Almost a classic spectacular, marred by draggy scripting of Walter Scott’s epic of England in Middle Ages, in days of chivalrous knights; beautifully photographed on location in Great Britain. Remade as a TVM in 1982.▼●쩠 Ivan’s Childhood (1962-Russian) 94m. ★★★ D: Andrei Tarkovsky. Kolya Burlaiev, Valentin Zubkov, Ye Zharikov, Nikolai Grinko. Taut, poignant account of 12-yearold Burlaiev, whose family is slaughtered during WW2, and his plight as he’s sent as a spy into Nazi territory. Tarkovsky’s first feature. Retitled: THE YOUNGEST SPY.

Mara, Stephanie Bachelor. Heartfelt romantic drama (from the master of the genre, Borzage) about a young woman who studies to be a concert pianist with a brilliant but harsh taskmaster—and falls in love with him. Beautifully photographed in Technicolor, with Artur Rubinstein providing the actual piano renditions on the soundtrack. That’s young Andre Previn as a piano student in the opening scene. ▼● I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987Canadian) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Patricia Rozema. Sheila McCarthy, Paule Baillargeon, Ann-Marie McDonald, John Evans. Wistful, original comedy-drama about a young woman who’s never been successful at anything but lands a job as assistant to a chic, intelligent art gallery owner whom she comes to idolize. McCarthy’s winning and empathetic performance, in her film debut, ▼●쩠 ivansxtc. (2002) C-94m. ★★★ D: BernardRose. keeps us hooked even when the movie starts Danny Huston, Peter Weller, James Merento wander, which it does, more than once, dino, Adam Krentzman, Lisa Enos, Joanne before redeeming itself with the final shot. Duckman, Caroleen Feeney, Valeria Golino, A slight but impressive first feature for Robert Graham, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Vicwriter-director Rozema.▼●쩠 toria Silvstedt. Raw, emotionally intense look I’ve Loved You So Long (2008-Frenchat the last few weeks of a Hollywood talent German) C-117m. ★★★ D: Philippe Claudel. agent. Inspired by real-life agent Jay Moloney Kristin Scott Thomas, Elsa Zylberstein, and based on Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan IlySerge Hazanavicius, Laurent Gre´vill, Fre´dich, the film is shot as if it were a cinema-verite´ e´ric Pierrot, Lise Se´gur, Jean-Claude Ardocumentary and never hits a false note. Husnaud. Zylberstein brings her sister (Scott ton is astonishingly good as the slick, hedonisThomas) home to live with her husband and tic Hollywood agent who finally encounters family, to whom she is a stranger: she’s something he can’t finesse or ‘‘handle’’—his been away for 15 years. As details of her mortality. [R] absence are revealed we come to empathize Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1943-Ruswith this fragile woman’s tentative reentry sian) 99m. ★★★★ D: Sergei Eisenstein. into society. The story can’t bear much Nikolai Cherkassov, Ludmila Tselikovskaya, scrutiny but it’s worth seeing for Scott Serafima Birman. Film spectacle of the Thomas, who conveys so much through her highest order. Eisenstein’s incredibly lavfacial expressions and body language; Zylish, detailed chronicle of Czar Ivan IV’s berstein is also quite good as her welllife from coronation to defeat to reinstatemeaning sister. Directing debut for novelist ment, forging fascinating image of the and screenwriter Claudel. [PG-13]쩠 man and his country. Enhanced by ProkoI Vitelloni (1953-Italian) 107m. ★★★★ D: fiev’s original score. Heavy going, but Federico Fellini. Alberto Sordi, Franco worthwhile; the story continues in IVAN Interlenghi, Franco Fabrizi, Leopoldo TriTHE TERRIBLE, PART TWO.▼●쩠 este. Magnificent comedy-drama—arguably Ivan the Terrible, Part Two (1946Fellini’s masterpiece—about five shiftless Russian) 88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sergei Eisenstein. male adolescents in a small Adriatic town Nikolai Cherkassov, Serafima Birman, who have to cope with emerging adulthood. Mikhail Nazvanov, Pavel Kadochnikov, Film’s episodic structure brings to mind Andrei Abrikosov. Continuation of the saga AMERICAN GRAFFITI; its love of huof Czar Ivan IV, in which he takes on the manity anticipates the director’s own boyars in a battle for power. Impressive AMARCORD two decades later. In any film is just a shade below its predecessor. event, a lovely film.▼●쩠 Banned by Stalin because of controversial I Wake Up Screaming (1941) 82m. ★★★ depiction of Ivan’s secret police, and not D: H. Bruce Humberstone. Betty Grable, released until 1958. (The director had Victor Mature, Carole Landis, Laird Cregar, planned to shoot Part Three—which, needWilliam Gargan, Alan Mowbray, Allyn Josless to say, he never did.) Banquet-dance lyn, Elisha Cook, Jr. Entertaining whodunit sequence was originally in color.▼●쩠 with Grable and Mature implicated in murI’ve Always Loved You (1946) C-117m. der of Betty’s sister, pursued by determined ★★★ D: Frank Borzage. Philip Dorn, Cathercop Cregar. Good twist finish. Remade as VICKI; originally titled HOT SPOT.▼쩠 ine McLeod, Bill Carter, Maria Ouspenskaya, Felix Bressart, Elizabeth Patterson, I Walk Alone (1947) 98m. ★★ D: Byron Vanessa Brown, Lewis Howard, Adele Haskin. Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott, [ 703 ]

Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey, Kristine City comedy troupe. Silverman is a standout as a crazy/sexy ice cream parlor waitress.쩠 Miller, George Rigaud, Marc Lawrence. I Want to Go Home (1989-French) CA prison term changes Lancaster’s outlook 101m. BOMB D: Alain Resnais. Adolph on life, and return to outside world makes Green, Ge´rard Depardieu, Linda Lavin, him bitter. Good cast, weak film. Laura Benson, Micheline Presle, Geraldine I Walked with a Zombie (1943) 69m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Frances Dee, Chaplin, John Ashton, Ludivine Sagnier. Musical writer-performer Green (SINGIN’ Tom Conway, James Ellison, Edith BarIN THE RAIN) plays a neurotic American rett, Christine Gordon, Theresa Harris, cartoonist who travels to Paris for an art James Bell. Nurse Dee comes to Caribgallery show—and to see his estranged bean island to treat zombielike wife of daughter (Benson). Depardieu, an exuberant troubled Conway, finds skeletons in famadmirer, brings him to his mother’s country ily closet, plus local voodoo rituals and home for the weekend. Written by Jules legends that cannot be ignored. Exceptional Feiffer, with a score by John Kander, this Val Lewton chiller with rich atmosphere, Franco-American curio is appallingly bad, mesmerizing story. Loosely adapted from marked by amateurish performances and Jane Eyre! Read small-print disclaimer in stilted dialogue.쩠 opening credits carefully. Remade as RITI Want to Live! (1958) 120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: UAL. ▼●쩠 Robert Wise. Susan Hayward, Simon OakI Walk the Line (1970) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: land, Virginia Vincent, Theodore Bikel, John Frankenheimer. Gregory Peck, TuesJohn Marley, Dabbs Greer, Gavin Macday Weld, Estelle Parsons, Ralph Meeker, Leod. Hayward won an Oscar for her Lonny Chapman, Charles Durning. Rural gutsy performance as prostitute-crook Barsheriff Peck falls for moonshiner’s daughbara Graham who (according to the film) ter Weld, thereby destroying both his prois framed for murder and goes to gas fessional and personal life. Offbeat but chamber. Smart presentation, fine acting, aimless drama, helped by excellent Weld memorable jazz score by Johnny Mandel. performance. Johnny Cash sings five songs. Nelson Gidding and Don Mankiewicz based Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 script on articles about Graham. Look fast for I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) C-104m. Jack Weston, Brett Halsey. Remade as a 1983 ★★★ D: Robert Zemeckis. Nancy Allen, TVM with Lindsay Wagner. ▼●쩠 Bobby DiCicco, Marc McClure, Susan I Want What I Want (1972-British) Kendall Newman, Theresa Saldana, Eddie C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Dexter. Anne HeyDeezen, Wendie Jo Sperber, Will Jordan. wood, Harry Andrews, Jill Bennett, Nigel Teenagers connive to get tickets for the Flatley, Paul Rogers. Interesting little piece Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sulliabout sexual crisis in the life of man who van Show. If this original comedy seems wants a sex-change operation.▼ occasionally silly and overbearing, that’s I Want You (1951) 102m. ★★★ D: Mark the price it pays for being a generally Robson. Dana Andrews, Dorothy McGuire, accurate portrayal of a raucous event. CoFarley Granger, Peggy Dow, Robert Keith, median Jordan is as hilariously SullivanMildred Dunnock, Martin Milner, Ray like as ever. Steven Spielberg was executive Collins, Jim Backus. Dated yet still touchproducer. [PG]▼●쩠 ing Americana detailing effects of the Ko★★ D: I Wanted Wings (1941) 131m. rean War on a small-town family. An artifact Mitchell Leisen. Ray Milland, William of its era, with fine performances all around. Holden, Wayne Morris, Brian Donlevy, Screenplay by Irwin Shaw.▼ Constance Moore, Veronica Lake, Hedda I Was a Communist for the FBI (1951) Hopper. Stale plot of three men undergo83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. Frank ing Air Force training served to introduce Lovejoy, Dorothy Hart, Philip Carey, James Lake as star material; that remains only Millican. Documentary-style counterspy real point of interest. However, the special caper, low key and effective.쩠 effects for this did garner an Oscar. I Was a Male War Bride (1949) 105m. ★★★ I Want Her Dead SEE: W D: Howard Hawks. Cary Grant, Ann I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With Sheridan, Marion Marshall, Randy Stuart, (2007) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff Garlin. Jeff William Neff, Ken Tobey. Delightful comGarlin, Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, Amy edy of errors has French Army officer Sedaris, David Pasquesi, Gina Gershon, Elle Grant trying to accompany WAC wife Fanning. Garlin makes an unassumingly enSheridan back to U.S. with hilarious regaging impression as an overweight, unluckysults. Grant in drag makes this one worth in-love comic who thinks he would be perfect watching.▼쩠 for the lead role in a proposed remake of I Was a Teenage Boy SEE: Something MARTY (and not just because he still lives Special with his mother). Mildly amusing ensemble I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957) comedy (based on Garlin’s stage show) in72m. ★1⁄2 D: Herbert L. Strock. Whit cludes fellow alumni of the famed Second Bissell, Gary Conway, Phyllis Coates, Rob[ 704 ]

ert Burton. Campy junk about mad scienVampira, Steven Weber. An unproduced tist who pulls young Conway from an auto screenplay by Edward D. Wood, Jr., served as wreck and ‘‘repairs’’ him. Doesn’t live up the ‘‘inspiration’’ for this tedious chronicle of to that title; worth catching only for Bissell’s a thief (Zane) who breaks out of a mental inimmortal line, ‘‘Answer me! You have a stitution. The intention was to make a bad civil tongue in your head! I know—I sewed (read: unintentionally funny) movie in the it in there!’’ One sequence is in color.▼ style of Ed Wood, but the result is just boring. I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) 75m. Made as a silent movie, with sound effects ★★★ D: Gene Fowler, Jr. Michael Landon, and music. Zane coproduced.▼ Yvonne Lime, Whit Bissell, Vladimir I Wonder Who’s Killing Her Now? (1976) Sokoloff, Guy Williams. Landon plays a C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven H. Stern. Bob hair-trigger-temper teen who’s got a nut Dishy, Joanna Barnes, Bill Dana, Vito (Bissell) for a psychotherapist with dangerScotti. Luckless husband hires someone to ous ideas about hypnotic regression and bump off his wife for insurance money, then man’s prehistoric past. Result: a werewolf tries to call it off; uneven but often funny in a high school jacket. As good as a lowfarce, written by Woody Allen’s one-time budget drive-in monster movie gets; it collaborator Mickey Rose. [PG]▼ launched Landon’s career. ▼ I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Nigh. Don Castle, Elyse I Was a Teenage Zombie (1987) C-92m. BOMB D: John E. Michalakias. Michael Knox, Regis Toomey, Charles D. Brown, Ruben, George Seminara, Steve McCoy, Rory Mallinson, Robert Lowell, Bill KenCassie Madden. Low-grade horror spoof nedy. Knox teams with cop Toomey to save concerns teen zombie Ruben battling Mcher tap-dancer husband, who was railroaded Coy, the zombie version of a drug pusher after throwing a pair of shoes out the winwho’s been preying on adolescents. Amadow to silence a wailing cat, only to be teur night at the movies.▼●쩠 convicted of murder after police find his I Was Happy Here SEE: Time Lost and shoe prints near the corpse of a rich man. Time Remembered Minor film noir based on a Cornell WoolI Was Monty’s Double (1958-British) rich story has good shabby atmosphere and 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Guillermin. M. E. fairly engrossing story; twist ending is Clifton-James, John Mills, Cecil Parker, pretty obvious, but still satisfying. Marius Goring, Michael Hordern, Leslie Phillips, Bryan Forbes. Exciting, true WW2 Jabberwocky (1977-British) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 story of actor persuaded to pose as Gen. D: Terry Gilliam. Michael Palin, Max Montgomery in order to divert German Wall, Deborah Fallender, John Le Mesurier, intelligence in North Africa. Cast is first-rate. Annette Badland. Gilliam and Palin of I Went Down (1997-Irish-British) CMONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paddy Breathnach. Brendan GRAIL fame give us another satire of Gleeson, Peter McDonald, Tony Doyle, Peter medieval times, but the humor is even Caffrey, Antoine Byrne. A good but downmore spotty than its predecessor’s. For on-his-luck guy is forced to pull off a kidnapfans. [R]▼●쩠 ping in order to work off a large debt he owes J’Accuse (1937-French) C-95m. ★★★ D: Abel some gangsters. Quirky Irish action comedy Gance. Victor Francen, Jean Max, Delaitre, has genuine affection for its unlikely heroes Renee Devillers. Very good—but not great— but never really catches fire, despite a wily antiwar film, focusing on exploited war vetperformance from Gleeson as an aging petty eran Francen; in a vivid sequence, he calls thug who can’t even steal a car properly. A on war casualties to rise from their graves. Previously filmed by Gance in 1918.▼ big hit in Ireland. [R]▼ I Will, I Will . . . For Now (1976) Jack (1996) C-113m. ★★ D: Francis Ford C-96m. ★★ D: Norman Panama. Elliott Coppola. Robin Williams, Diane Lane, JenGould, Diane Keaton, Paul Sorvino, Vicnifer Lopez, Brian Kerwin, Fran Drescher, toria Principal, Robert Alda, Warren BerBill Cosby, Michael McKean, Don Novello, linger, Madge Sinclair, Candy Clark. Fair Allan Rich, Adam Zolotin, Todd Bosley. A satire on frigidity, infidelity, marriage counboy born prematurely—but fully developed— selling and a sex clinic. Gould and ex-wife turns out to be aging at four times normal rate. Keaton spend film rediscovering each other. At 10, with the physical characteristics of a 40-year-old man, he leaves his cloistered Panavision. [R]▼ I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1999) home to go to school and deal with other kids C/B&W-90m. BOMB D: Aris Iliopulos. his age for the first time in his life. Williams Billy Zane, Abraham Benrubi, Sandra Bernis the perfect choice to play this man-child, hard, Karen Black, Conrad Brooks, Tippi but the script goes nowhere. Overlong, too Hedren, Eartha Kitt, Ann Magnuson, Anadult for kids, too redundant for grown-ups; drew McCarthy, Ron Perlman, Will Patton, destined to please no one. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Max Perlich, Summer Phoenix, Tara Reid, Jackal, The (1997) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiChristina Ricci, John Ritter, Rick Schroeder, chael Caton-Jones. Bruce Willis, Richard Nicolette Sheridan, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Gere, Sidney Poitier, Diane Venora, Tess [ 705 ]

Harper, J. K. Simmons, Mathilda May, Stephen Spinella, Richard Lineback, Jack Black, Sophie Okonedo. When the FBI and the KGB are stumped as to how to capture an international assassin called The Jackal, they turn to the one man who knows him—an Irish terrorist (Gere) who’s serving time in a U.S. prison. Watchable globe-trotting thriller is weakened by lapses of credibility, but boosted by Gere’s charismatic performance. Venora is also a standout as a no-nonsense Russian agent. Bears only the slightest resemblance to the superior THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, despite being ‘‘officially’’ based on that screenplay. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Jackals, The (1967) C-105m. ★★ D: Robert D. Webb. Vincent Price, Diana Ivarson, Robert Gunner, Bob Courtney, Patrick Mynhardt. William Wellman’s striking YELLOW SKY reset in the South African Transvaal, with six bandits terrorizing a grizzled old miner (Price) and his granddaughter into surrendering their gold.▼쩠 Jack & Sarah (1995-British-French) C110m. ★★1⁄2 D. Tim Sullivan. Richard E. Grant, Samantha Mathis, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Cherie Lunghi, Eileen Atkins, Imogen Stubbs. A London lawyer is crushed when his young wife dies in childbirth, but he finds a reason to live in his infant daughter. He hires a young American as a nanny, which leads to romance—and complications. Good performances, particularly by the two leads, keep this uneven film watchable and pleasant. Also available in PG version. [R]▼●쩠 Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) C/B&W78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Yarbrough. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Dorothy Ford, Barbara Brown, Buddy Baer. A&C version of fairy tale OK for kids, but not as funny as their earlier films. Begins in sepiatone, then changes to color, like THE WIZARD OF OZ.▼●쩠 jackass: the movie (2002) C-85m. ★★ D: Jeff Tremaine. Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Dave England, Ryan Dunn, Jason ‘‘Wee Man’’ Acun˜a, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey. R-rated expansion of the mysteriously popular MTV show in which guys gleefully injure themselves doing all manner of stupid, raunchy, goofball stunts. Artless frat-house–level humor that some people find hilarious . . . especially the participants. Followed by a sequel. [R]

that cross the line and a cast willing to do anything—and we mean anything—for a laugh, this tasteless but sometimes hilarious collection of body-bashing gags is not for everyone—and you all know who you are. Don’t try this at home! Unrated version runs 93m. [R]쩠 Jack Be Nimble (1993-New Zealand) C93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Garth Maxwell. Alexis Arquette, Sarah Smuts-Kennedy, Bruno Lawrence, Tony Barry, Elizabeth Hawthorne. Weird, clever little chiller in which the title character is adopted into a family of cretins and abused beyond endurance; he sets out to find his long-lost sister, and also to seek revenge. Doesn’t quite work when it takes itself too seriously; otherwise, this is devilishly entertaining, and has cult possibilities. [R]▼●쩠 Jacket, The (2005-U.S.-German-Scottish) C-103m. ★★ D: John Maybury. Adrien Brody, Keira Knightley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kris Kristofferson, Daniel Craig, Kelly Lynch, Brad Renfro, Mackenzie Phillips, Jason Lewis. Following a violent 1991 incident while serving in the Gulf War, soldier Brody ends up in Vermont and later in a time-travel journey to 2007. There he deals with the ramifications of a good Samaritan deed he performed—before another act of violence—in his previous life. Ugly to look at and apparently conceived from body parts of previous movies, modest head-case story (with the obligatory shady shrink) is only worth the time if you’re curious to see the normally well-scrubbed Knightley sporting the goth look. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Jack Frost (1998) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Troy Miller. Michael Keaton, Kelly Preston, Mark Addy, Joseph Cross, Henry Rollins, Dweezil Zappa. A neglectful dad dies in a car accident and comes to life one year later as a snowman in his son’s front yard! Warm, likable performances and an absence of treacle make this an OK family film, but it never overcomes its fundamental problem: a very strange premise. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Jackie Brown (1997) C-154m. ★★★ D: Quentin Tarantino. Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Michael Keaton, Bridget Fonda, Robert De Niro, Michael Bowen, Chris Tucker, Sid Haig. Leisurely paced but enjoyable adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s crime caper Rum Punch, reset in Southern California. Grier (in a standout performance) plays a flight attendant who’s been trafficking in hot money for lowlife ▼쩠 jackass number two (2006) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 Jackson; when caught, she plays all the D: Jeff Tremaine. Johnny Knoxville, Bam angles she can think of to keep herself out Margera, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Preston of jail, managing to keep the cops, her chief Lacy, Ryan Dunn, Ehren McGhehey, Jason client, and everyone else on ice. Dynamite ‘‘Wee Man’’ Acun˜a, Jay Chandrasekhar, performances all around sustain film Tony Hawk, Spike Jonze, Mike Judge, John through its periodic lulls. [R]▼●쩠 Waters, Luke Wilson, Rip Taylor. The tagJackie Chan’s First Strike (1996-Hong line, ‘‘When was the last time a movie Kong) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Tong. made you beg for mercy?’’ pretty much Jackie Chan, Chen Chun Wu, Jackson Lou, sums up this sequel, a spinoff from the enorBill Tung, Jouri Petrov. Hong Kong’s most mously successful MTV series. With stunts physically agile cop finds himself in a [ 706 ]

James Bond–like intrigue involving the Jack of Diamonds (1967-U.S.-German) C105m. ★1⁄2 D: Don Taylor. George HamilCIA, Russian mafia, a nuclear device, and of course, a good-looking female scuba ton, Joseph Cotton, Marie Lafont, Maurice diver. The dubbing here is typically Evans, Carroll Baker, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lilli wretched, yet in a lark like this it really Palmer. Hamilton plays a cat burglar who doesn’t matter; the last two thirds is almost robs jewels from Baker, Gabor, and Palmer, wall-to-wall action, including a doozy of a who are ‘‘special guests’’ in this sorry film. donnybrook in which Chan makes memoraSkip this and wait for TO CATCH A ble use of a ladder. Technovision and PaTHIEF instead. Jackpot, The (1950) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Walter navision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Jackie Chan’s Police Story SEE: Police Lang. James Stewart, Barbara Hale, James Story (1985) Gleason, Fred Clark, Natalie Wood. Dated, Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? (1998-Hong minor comedy, uplifted by stars; Stewart Kong) C-108m. ★★★ D: Jackie Chan, Benny is winner of radio contest but can’t pay Chan. Jackie Chan, Michelle Ferre, Mirai taxes on winnings.▼ Yamamoto, Ron Smerczak, Ed Nelson, Tom Jackpot (2001) C-96m. ★★ D: Michael PolPompert. Chan is part of a secret military ish. Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Garrett Morteam sent on a fatal mission; although he surris, Peggy Lipton, Crystal Bernard, Anthony vives, he loses his memory, and can’t underEdwards, Mac Davis, Adam Baldwin. An stand why so many people are pursuing him. over-the-hill desert rat (Gries) ditches his Lame dialogue and cardboard performances wife and baby daughter to become a traveling are outshone by one fantastic action scene karaoke cowboy, playing the Nevada circuit after another, including a unique episode inwith his clingy, overambitious manager (Morvolving wooden shoes in Rotterdam. Chan ris). Shot on high-definition video, the film also wrote the screenplay. Filmed in English. looks even more fantastic than Mark and Originally 117m. Aka WHO AM I? PanaMichael Polish’s first feature, TWIN vision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 FALLS, IDAHO, but this irony-drenched Jackie Robinson Story, The (1950) 76m. movie about a failed American dream gets ★★★ D: Alfred E. Green. Jackie Robinson, pretty dreary once we realize we’re stuck in Ruby Dee, Minor Watson, Louise Beathe company of an irredeemable loser. HD vers, Richard Lane, Harry Shannon, Ben 24P Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 Lessy, Joel Fluellen. Straightforward bio Jack’s Back (1988) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Rowdy of Robinson, the first black man to play Herrington. James Spader, Cynthia Gibb, major-league baseball. Fascinating as a Rod Loomis, Rex Ryon, Robert Picardo, social history; pointed in its presentation Chris Mulkey, Danitza Kingsley. Umpof the racial issues involved. Interestingly, teenth retelling of the JACK THE RIPPER Robinson’s Negro League ball club is called saga is updated to contemporary L.A. where the Black Panthers! Dee plays Robinson’s young doctor Spader is the #1 suspect wife; 40 years later, she was cast as his when prostitutes are killed in grisly fashmother in the TV movie THE COURTion 100 years to the day after Bloody MARTIAL OF JACKIE ROBINSON.▼쩠 Jack’s legendary crimes. Plot twist halfJack London (1943) 94m. ★1⁄2 D: Alfred way through is preposterous; Spader is Santell. Michael O’Shea, Susan Hayward, earnest but miscast. [R]▼● Osa Massen, Harry Davenport, Frank CraJackson County Jail (1976) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 ven, Virginia Mayo. Hokey, episodic ‘‘biD: Michael Miller. Yvette Mimieux, ography’’ of famed writer spends too much Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Carradine, Fredtime maligning Japanese—which was superic Cook, Severn Darden, Howard Hesseposed to give topical slant to this period man, Mary Woronov. Prisoner Yvette, drama in 1943. Aka THE ADVENTURES dumped on by everyone she meets, goes on OF JACK LONDON and THE LIFE OF the lam with fellow inmate in yet another chase pic. Livelier than most, this one has JACK LONDON.▼쩠 Jack London’s Klondike Fever SEE: eveloped a cult reputation. Miller later remade Klondike Fever it for TV as OUTSIDE CHANCE; it was Jacknife (1989) C-102m. ★★★ D: David remade again in 1996 as MACON COUNTY Jones. Robert De Niro, Ed Harris, Kathy JAIL. [R]▼●쩠 Baker, Charles Dutton, Loudon Wainwright Jack the Bear (1993) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: III. Simple and involving story of a Vietnam Marshall Herskovitz. Danny DeVito, Robvet (De Niro) who looks up an old Army ert J. Steinmiller, Miko Hughes, Gary buddy (Harris) and tries to get him to face Sinise, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Reese Witherup to his repressed memories of Nam, and spoon, Bert Remsen, Andrea Marcovicci. their mutual best friend who died there. Sporadically affecting, but mostly mudMeanwhile, a romance blossoms between dled comedy-drama about the emotional De Niro and Harris’ wallflower sister, with unraveling of a widowed TV horror-movie whom he lives. Three terrific performances host whose neighbor is a pro-Nazi psycho make this a must. Stephen Metcalfe adapted who poses a threat to children. Kept on his play Strange Snow. [R]▼●쩠 track at least some of the time by Steinmiller’s [ 707 ]

★★★1 exceptional performance as DeVito’s older ⁄2 D: Agne´s Varda. Philippe Maron, son (age 12). Set in 1972; based on Dan Edouard Joubeaud, Laurent Monnier, BriMcCall’s novel. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 gitte de Villepoix. Deeply moving chroniJack the Giant Killer (1962) C-94m. ★★★ cle of the sum of a man’s life, as Varda D: Nathan Juran. Kerwin Mathews, Judi creates a portrait of her late husband, French Meredith, Torin Thatcher, Walter Burke. filmmaker Jacques Demy. Varda cuts from Marvelous Fantascope special effects make interviews with Demy (lovingly photothis costume adventure yarn (in the SINBAD graphed in extreme close-up), to clips from tradition) great fun. Beware reissue, which his films, to the re-created story of young was dubbed into an ersatz musical!▼●쩠 ‘‘Jacquot’’ growing up in Nantes during Jacob’s Ladder (1990) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: the 1940s and developing a passion for Adrian Lyne. Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Pena, cinema. A heartfelt valentine from one life Danny Aiello, Matt Craven, Pruitt Taylor partner to another. Released in U.S. in 1993 Vince, Jason Alexander, Patricia Kalember, as JACQUOT. Varda has since directed Eriq La Salle, Ving Rhames. Brooding, several other celluloid tributes to Demy.▼ often effective tale of Vietnam vet who Jade (1995) C-101m. ★★ D: William suffers from hallucinations, which may or Friedkin. David Caruso, Linda Fiorentino, may not be linked to his everyday life in Chazz Palminteri, Michael Biehn, Richard N.Y.C. Nightmarish story leads to a cliCrenna, Donna Murphy, Ken King, Holt max that—like a bad shaggy-dog joke— McCallany, David Hunt, Angie Everhart, negates the entire film! Bruce Joel Rubin’s Kevin Tighe. While investigating the brutal script is reminiscent of Ambrose Bierce’s murder of a wealthy San Franciscan, assisclassic ‘‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek tant D.A. Caruso realizes to his dismay that Bridge,’’ only not as good. Macaulay his old flame (Fiorentino, married to his Culkin appears unbilled in a key supportgood friend Palminteri) may be involved. ing role. Two deleted scenes were added Sordid mystery/thriller from the seedy pen for the film’s cable TV debut. [R]▼●쩠 of Joe Eszterhas; has its moments (includJacob the Liar (1974-East German) Cing an exciting S.F. car chase) but never rises above the mire. Unrated video edition 95m. ★★★ D: Frank Beyer. Vlastimil Brodhas 12m. additional footage. [R] ▼●쩠 sky, Erwin Geschonneck, Manuela Simon, Henry Hubchen, Blanche Kommerell, Jagged Edge (1985) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Armin Mueller-Stahl. Touching, sometimes Richard Marquand. Jeff Bridges, Glenn comic tale of Polish Jew Brodsky, whose Close, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia, John false tales to fellow ghetto dwellers give Dehner, Leigh Taylor-Young, Karen Aussome hope against their Nazi captors. Retin, Lance Henriksen, James Karen, Mimade in 1999 as JAKOB THE LIAR.▼쩠 chael Dorn. Wealthy publishing magnate Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang is accused of murdering his wife; hotshot (1977-Canadian) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Theolawyer Close will defend him only if she dore J. Flicker. Stephen Rosenberg, Alex believes he’s innocent. Not only is she Karras, Guy L’Ecuyer, Joy Coghill, Earl convinced—she immediately falls in love Pennington, Claude Gail. Engaging fanwith him! Credibility goes out the window in tasy for kids written by Mordecai Richler, this otherwise well-made, often gripping comabout a boy who dreams he’s sent to chilbination of thriller and courtroom drama. How dren’s prison. Low-budget production valcould such a ‘‘smart’’ movie allow so many ues are unfortunate detriment. [G]▼ silly loopholes? Loggia is terrific as usual as Close’s street-smart leg man. [R]▼●쩠 Jacqueline Susann’s Once Is Not Enough (1975) C-121m. BOMB D: Guy Green. Jaguar Lives! (1979) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: ErKirk Douglas, Alexis Smith, David Janssen, nest Pintoff. Joe Lewis, Christopher Lee, Deborah Raffin, George Hamilton, Melina Donald Pleasence, Barbara Bach, Capucine, Mercouri, Brenda Vaccaro. Trashy film Joseph Wiseman, Woody Strode, John Husbased on Susann’s trashy novel of jet-set ton. Karate champ Lewis is featured in this intrigue, and a blossoming young woman predictable action cheapie as a special (Raffin) with a father-fixation. Incurably agent sent to dispatch narcotics biggies in stupid, and surprisingly dull. Vaccaro ofvarious world capitals. Top cast, but don’t fers brightest moments as unabashed manbe fooled. [PG]▼ chaser. Panavision. [R]▼ Jail Bait (1954) 70m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward D. Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and LivWood, Jr. Timothy Farrell, Lyle Talbot, ing in Paris (1975) C-98m. ★★ D: Denis Steve Reeves, Herbert Rawlinson, DoloHeroux. Elly Stone, Mort Shuman, Joe res Fuller, Clancey Malone, Theodora Masiell, Jacques Brel. Musical revue feaThurman, Mona McKinnon. Farrell leads turing 26 bittersweet songs on life, love, young Malone into life of crime; when the war and death by Belgian balladeer Jacques law closes in, he forces Malone’s plastic Brel. No plot, no dialogue. Based on 1968 surgeon father to change his face. Misleadstage show. An American Film Theater ingly titled thriller is less inept than Wood’s ‘‘classics,’’ and thus less funny, but inProduction. [PG]▼쩠 Jacquot de Nantes (1991-French) C-118m. spired teaming of Talbot and Reeves (in [ 708 ]

his first speaking part) as cops is good for Susan Sarandon, Miriam Margolyes, David a few giggles.▼●쩠 Thewlis. Wondrous adaptation of Roald Jail Bait (1972-German) C-99m. ★★★ D: Dahl’s fantasy about a beleaguered boy, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Eva Mattes, tended by two harridan aunts, who discovers a Harry Baer, Jorg von Liebenfels, Ruth magic pathway inside a giant peach. Together Drexel, Kurt Raab, Hanna Schygulla. Anwith a grasshopper, a spider, a centipede, a other provocative, controversial exploration worm, a glowworm, and a ladybug, he sets of emptiness in post-WW2 Germany from sail for the city of his dreams—N.Y. Starts in the prolific Fassbinder. Here, a seductive 14live action, then segues to stop-motion animayear-old (Mattes) becomes involved with tion to bring Dahl’s (typically) bizarre but deBaer, eventually coaxing him into murdering lightful story to life. Gets better and better as her father. Originally made for German teleit goes along, with impeccable voice characvision; not released in the U.S. until 1977. terizations and charming songs by Randy Jailhouse Rock (1957) 96m. ★★★ D: RichNewman. A rare movie that creates a world ard Thorpe. Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, all its own, and an even rarer children’s film that has real wit and imagination. [PG]▼●쩠 Vaughn Taylor, Dean Jones, Mickey Shaughnessy. Elvis learns to pick a guitar in the James Dean Story, The (1957) 82m. ★★ D: Big House, later becomes a surly rock star. George W. George, Robert Altman. Narrated Presley’s best film captures the legend in all by Martin Gabel. Uninspired use of available his nostril-flaring, pre-Army glory. Great material makes this a slow-moving documenLeiber-Stoller score, including ‘‘Treat Me tary on life of 1950s movie star.▼●쩠 Nice,’’ ‘‘Don’t Leave Me Now,’’ and terrific Jamo´n Jamo´n (1992-Spanish) C-93m. ★★★ title song. Also shown in computer-colored D: Jose´ Juan Bigas Luna. Pene´lope Cruz, version. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Stefania Sandrelli, Anna Galiena, Juan Jake Speed (1986) C-104m. BOMB D: Diego, Jordi Molla, Javier Bardem. Clever, Andrew Lane. Wayne Crawford, Dennis erotic black comedy-melodrama about sex Christopher, Karen Kopins, John Hurt, Leon and food, which also serves to mirror SpanAmes, Roy London, Donna Pescow, Barry ish society in transition. The scenario foPrimus, Monte Markham. Utter waste of time cuses on the various members of two about a paperback hero who turns up in real families from different classes, and what life to help a damsel in distress. Crawford, who follows after beautiful Cruz falls for (and has all the star appeal of a can of tuna, presumbecomes pregnant by) her boss’ spoiled son ably got the lead role because he also cowrote (Molla). A delight from start to finish, and a sleeper hit in Europe.▼ and coproduced the film. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★1 Jakob the Liar (1999) C-114m. ⁄2 D: Jane Austen Book Club, The (2007) C106m. ★★★ D: Robin Swicord. Maria Bello, Peter Kassovitz. Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Hannah Taylor Gordon, Armin Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Amy BrenneMueller-Stahl, Liev Schreiber, Michael Jeter, man, Maggie Grace, Jimmy Smits, Hugh Nina Siemaszko, Mathieu Kassovitz. In a Dancy, Marc Blucas, Kevin Zegers, Lynn Polish ghetto in 1944, a wistful widower Redgrave, Nancy Travis. Agreeable fare (Williams) raises hopes among his fellow about five women—and one unlikely townspeople after he accidentally hears an man—who form a book club devoted to optimistic report about the war on a Nazi Jane Austen’s novels, only to discover that radio. Soon, he is besieged for more ‘‘radio the storylines parallel their own dealings reports,’’ which he is forced to invent. Modwith marriage, divorce, fidelity, etc. Likable est film from Jurek Becker’s novel is only cast propels this easy-to-take material, with mildly successful, though Williams does his Blunt a standout as a repressed (yet snooty) best. Mueller-Stahl also appeared in the schoolteacher. Directing debut for screen1974 version. [PG-13]▼쩠 writer Swicord, who also adapted Karen Joy Jamaica Inn (1939-British) 98m. ★★ D: Fowler’s novel. [PG-13]쩠 Alfred Hitchcock. Charles Laughton, MauJane Austen in Manhattan (1980) Creen O’Hara, Leslie Banks, Robert New108m. ★1⁄2 D: James Ivory. Robert Powell, ton, Emlyn Williams, Mervyn Johns. Stodgy Anne Baxter, Michael Wager, Tim Choate, Victorian costumer of cutthroat band headed John Guerrasio, Katrina Hodiak, Kurt Johnby nobleman Laughton; O’Hara is lovely, son, Sean Young. Dreary, confusing oddbut plodding Hitchcock film is disappointing. ity about charismatic acting-teacher PowBased on Daphne du Maurier novel; Hitch ell and his rival Baxter, each trying to had far more success a year later with du produce a newly discovered play written Maurier’s Rebecca. Remade for British by Jane Austen. Overlong; a disappointTV in 1985 with Jane Seymour and Patrick ment from director Ivory. Hodiak is the McGoohan. ▼●쩠 daughter of Baxter and John Hodiak.▼쩠 James and the Giant Peach (1996) CJane Austen’s Mafia! (1998) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Selick. Paul Terry, D: Jim Abrahams. Jay Mohr, Billy Burke, Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley, Pete Christina Applegate, Lloyd Bridges, Pamela Postlethwaite, Mike Starr; voices of Simon Gidley, Olympia Dukakis, Jason Fuchs, Joe Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Jane Leeves, Viterelli, Tony Lo Bianco. Parody from the [ 709 ]

AIRPLANE/NAKED GUN school takes tralia where her company operates. They aim at THE GODFATHER and CASINO share unexpected adventures and eventually but throws in gags referring to everything break through their professional reserve; from FORREST GUMP to JURASSIC then fate steps in. Intriguing story about the PARK. Disorganized, to say the least, but role of chance in our lives; deliberately pulls full of funny stuff—funny enough to overthe rug out from under the audience, but look many of its shortcomings. Bridges’ last doesn’t fully compensate us for that jarring film. Aka MAFIA! [PG-13]▼●쩠 experience. Collette is excellent as usual. Jane Eyre (1934) 67m. ★★ D: Christy Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Cabanne. Virginia Bruce, Colin Clive, Jarhead (2005) C-123m. ★★★ D: Sam MenBeryl Mercer, Aileen Pringle, David Tordes. Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie rence, Lionel Belmore. Thin version of the Foxx, Lucas Black, Brian Geraghty, Jacob oft-filmed Bronte¨ novel, produced by Vargas, Laz Alonso, Evan Jones, Chris CooMonogram, of all studios, with Bruce in the per, Dennis Haysbert. Visual diary of a raw title role and Clive as Mr. Rochester. Still, Marine recruit who’s shipped to the Arabian it’s not uninteresting as a curio.▼쩠 desert in 1990, where he and fellow newbies Jane Eyre (1944) 96m. ★★★ D: Robert are placed in a holding pattern called OperaStevenson. Orson Welles, Joan Fontaine, tion Desert Shield, waiting to fight in what Margaret O’Brien, Henry Daniell, John Sutton, eventually became Operation Desert Storm. Agnes Moorehead, Elizabeth Taylor, Peggy Absurdities mount up on a daily basis in Ann Garner, Sara Allgood, Aubrey Mather, this surreal, sun-baked atmosphere. William Hillary Brooke. Artistically successful if slowBroyles, Jr., adapted Anthony Swofford’s moving version of Charlotte Bronte¨ novel best-selling memoir; Mendes consciously about orphan girl who grows up to become a echoes FULL METAL JACKET, APOCAgoverness in mysterious household. One of LYPSE NOW, and others in this offbeat Elizabeth Taylor’s early films.▼●쩠 but compelling war film in which there is Jane Eyre (1996-French-Italian-U.S.-Britprecious little combat. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ish) C-117m. ★★ D: Franco Zeffirelli. WilJason and the Argonauts (1963-British) liam Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Anna C-104m. ★★★ D: Don Chaffey. Todd ArmPaquin, Geraldine Chaplin, Fiona Shaw, strong, Gary Raymond, Nancy Kovack, Elle Macpherson, John Wood, Joan PlowHonor Blackman, Nigel Green. Great speright, Amanda Root, Charlotte Attenborcial effects (by Ray Harryhausen) and colorough. Unremarkable remake of Bronte¨’s ful backgrounds in fable about Jason’s classic romance features Gainsbourg as a very search for golden fleece. Encounters with credible Jane. Unfortunately, there is a lack of mythic monsters and gods highlight this chemistry between the leads, and a rushed sweeping adventure. Rich score by Bernard ending that is completely out of sync with Herrmann. Remade for TV in 2000. ▼●쩠 the rest of the film. The 1944 version reJason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday mains the best attempt. [PG]▼●쩠 (1993) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Adam Marcus. John Janis (1975) C-96m. ★★★ D: Howard Alk, D. LeMay, Kari Keegan, Kane Hodder, SteSeaton Findlay. Documentary on Janis Jopven Williams, Steven Culp, Erin Gray, lin was filmed with cooperation of her Rusty Schwimmer, Billy Green Bush. Ninth family, so it ignores the singer’s dark side. entry in the FRIDAY THE 13TH series, igOK within its limits, with a dozen or so nores the plots of the last six or so, and opens songs performed (including ‘‘Piece of My with Jason being blown to pieces in an amHeart,’’ ‘‘Me and Bobby McGee,’’ ‘‘Kozbush. However, his evil spirit takes over a mic Blues,’’ ‘‘Mercedes Benz’’). [R]▼ convenient bystander, and reborn, he heads January Man, The (1989) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: for home to confront his (hitherto unmenPat O’Connor. Kevin Kline, Mary Elizationed) sister. Erratic, illogical, and pointlessly beth Mastrantonio, Susan Sarandon, Harcruel; some fans liked it because of its delight vey Keitel, Danny Aiello, Rod Steiger, in including elements from other contempoAlan Rickman, Faye Grant, Tandy Cronyn. rary horror movie series. Followed in 2002 Appallingly wrongheaded mix of cop by JASON X. [R]▼●쩠 movie, romantic drama, and offbeat comJason’s Lyric (1994) C-119m. ★★ D: Doug edy written by John Patrick Shanley, with McHenry. Allen Payne, Jada Pinkett, Forest Kline as a self-styled eccentric whose Whitaker, Bokeem Woodbine, Treach, Lisa brother, the police commissioner of N.Y.C., Carson, Suzzanne Douglas, Eddie Griffin, is forced to hire him to help catch a serial Lahmard Tate. Overly familiar (not to menkiller. Fine cast founders in this unfunny, tion confusing) tale of good-and-evil brothillogical mess. [R]▼●쩠 ers. Jason (Payne) is an honest and dependJapanese Story (2003-Australian) C-99m. able workingman; Joshua (Woodbine) is a ★★1⁄2 D: Sue Brooks. Toni Collette, Gotaro drug-abusing thief. Jason falls in love with Tsunashima, Matthew Dyktynski, Lynette an attractive waitress named Lyric (PinCurran, Yumiko Tanaka, Kate Atkinson. kett)—more a romantic male fantasy than a Geologist Collette is chosen to escort a Japreal person—and you know what’s coming. anese businessman to a remote area of AusSeveral sex scenes were trimmed to avoid [ 710 ]

an NC-17 rating, but gruesome violence reeffects. Retitled JAWS III for TV and homevideo. ArriVision. [PG]▼●쩠 mains intact. [R]▼●쩠 Jaws the Revenge (1987) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Jason X (2002) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim Isaac. Joseph Sargent. Lorraine Gary, Lance Kane Hodder, Lexa Doig, Lisa Ryder, Chuck Guest, Mario Van Peebles, Karen Young, Campbell, Jonathan Potts, Peter Mensah, Michael Caine, Lynn Whitfield. Watchable Melyssa Ade. In this, the tenth FRIDAY THE but mediocre retread of JAWS, the fourth 13TH installment (and first since 1993’s time around, with Gary as the widow of JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIsheriff Scheider (from the original film) DAY), cryogenically frozen Jason (Hodder) who’s convinced the great white shark is deand a sexy scientist (Doig) are thawed while liberately seeking out and killing off members on board a spacecraft in the year 2455. You of her family. Marginal movie really sunk by can guess what happens next. For dedicated stupid, abrupt finale; Caine wasted in frivoslasher fans only. David Cronenberg aplous supporting role. Set mostly in the Bapears briefly as Dr. Wimmer. Not to be conhamas. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 fused with MALCOLM X. Followed by Jaws of Death, The SEE: Mako: The FREDDY VS. JASON. [R]▼쩠 Jaws of Death Jawbreaker (1999) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Darren Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) CStein. Rose McGowan, Rebecca Gayheart, 104m. ★★ D: Kevin Smith. Kevin Smith, Julie Benz, Judy Evans Greer, Carol Kane, Jason Mewes, Ben Affleck, Shannon ElizaWilliam Katt, Jeff Conaway, Tatyana Ali, beth, Ali Larter, Eliza Dushku, Jennifer Pam Grier, Brian Warner (Marilyn Manson), Schwalbach, Jason Lee, Will Ferrell, Judd P.J. Soles, The Donnas. Monotonous—and Nelson, Seann William Scott, Carrie Fisher, unpleasant—black comedy about a tight-knit Jon Stewart, Jason Biggs, James Van Der band of girls who rule their high school— Beek, Chris Rock, Mark Hamill, Morris until an accidental murder forces them to Day. The two crude doper-slackers from ‘‘adopt’’ a geeky student who could cause CLERKS, MALLRATS, etc., journey to trouble for them. A short-subject idea padHollywood to stop a movie being made ded to feature length. [R]▼●쩠 about them—or at least collect some dough. Jaws (1975) C-124m. ★★★★ D: Steven Giant in-joke comedy where the people on Spielberg. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, screen are clearly having a better time than Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray we are in the audience. Moviemaking scene Hamilton, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backwith Affleck and Matt Damon is arguably linie, Carl Gottlieb. A rare case of a bubblethe funniest; many cameos include stars of gum story (by Peter Benchley) scoring as a earlier Smith films. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 terrific movie. The story: New England Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959) C-85m. shore community is terrorized by shark ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Bert Stern. Louis Armstrong, attacks; local cop (Scheider), ichthyologist Big Maybelle, Chuck Berry, Dinah Wash(Dreyfuss) and salty shark expert (Shaw) ington, Gerry Mulligan, Thelonious Monk, determine to kill the attacker. Hold on to Anita O’Day, Mahalia Jackson, Sonny Stitt, your seats! Screenplay by Benchley and Jack Teagarden. Candid, enjoyable filmed Gottlieb. Three Oscars include John Wilrecord of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. liams’ now-classic score, Verna Fields’ A must for jazz aficionados.▼쩠 sensational editing. Benchley has cameo Jazz Singer, The (1927) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: as reporter on beach. Followed by three Alan Crosland. Al Jolson, May McAvoy, sequels. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Warner Oland, Eugenie Besserer, Otto LedJaws 2 (1978) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeannot erer, William Demarest, Roscoe Karns. LegSzwarc. Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray endary first talkie is actually silent with several Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey Kramer, sound musical and talking sequences. Story of Collin Wilcox. Just when you thought it was Cantor Oland’s son (Jolson) going into show safe to turn on your TV set again, here comes business is creaky, but this movie milestone another gratuitous sequel. The shark scenes deshould be seen once. Songs: ‘‘My Mammy,’’ liver the goods, but Robert Shaw and Richard ‘‘Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye,’’ ‘‘Blue Skies,’’ Dreyfuss are sorely needed when film is on etc. Look fast for Myrna Loy as a chorus girl. land. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Remade twice (so far!).▼●쩠 Jaws 3-D (1983) C-97m. ★★ D: Joe Alves. Jazz Singer, The (1953) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Simon Michael Curtiz. Danny Thomas, Peggy MacCorkindale, Louis Gossett, Jr., John Lee, Mildred Dunnock, Eduard Franz, Putch, Lea Thompson. Road-company IrTom Tully, Allyn Joslyn. Slick remake win Allen-type disaster film, unrelated to benefits from Curtiz’ no-nonsense direcfirst two JAWS except by contrivance; this tion and presence of Lee and Dunnock time a shark’s on the loose in Florida’s Sea . . . but it’s still just so schmaltzy.▼ World. (Does this make it an unofficial Jazz Singer, The (1980) C-115m. BOMB remake of REVENGE OF THE CREAD: Richard Fleischer. Neil Diamond, LauTURE?) Might play on TV, but in theaters rence Olivier, Lucie Arnaz, Catlin Adams, its only real assets were excellent 3-D Franklyn Ajaye, Paul Nicholas, Sully Boyar, [ 711 ]

Mike Kellin. Cantor Olivier shouts, ‘‘I hef Brennan, Brandon Smith, Peggy Sheffield. no son!’’—one of the highpoints of this mothA brother and sister driving across the balled sudser in which Diamond becomes a American South stop to investigate what rock star in about as much time as it takes looks like a murder, but turns out to be to get a haircut. This remake may actually something far worse. Well directed and excontain more cliche´s than the 1927 version! citing, with an imaginatively conceived [PG]▼●쩠 monster. This is genuinely scary at times, JCVD (2008-Belgian-Luxembourgian-French) but the ending is unsatisfying and unpleasC-96m. ★★★ D: Mabrouk El Mechri. Jeanantly cynical. Written by the director. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼쩠 Claude Van Damme, Franc¸ois Damiens, Zinedine Soualem, Karim Belkhadra, JeanJeepers Creepers 2 (2003) C-106m. ★★ D: Franc¸ois Wolff, Anne Paulicevich, Franc¸ois Victor Salva. Ray Wise, Jonathan Breck, Beukelaers, Saskia Flanders. Down-on-hisGarikayi Mutambirwa, Eric Nenninger, luck action hero ditches Hollywood (and a Nicki Aycox, Travis Schiffner, Lena Cardcostly child custody case) and returns to his well, Billy Aaron Brown, Diane Delano, European roots. By chance he walks straight Luke Edwards. The Creeper returns to atinto a bloody bank heist and becomes a celebtack a school bus filled with teenagers rerity, a hostage, and a suspect. Dour, desaturturning from a football game. Well-crafted ated art-house thriller—partly scripted, partly film creates a tangible sense of fear and improvised—seems set in an alternate reality. dread, and has plenty of good scares . . . but Van Damme, playing ‘‘himself’’ but not after a while its bag of tricks empties out. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 himself, proves he’s a real actor as well as a movie star. Who’da thunk it? Super 35. [R]쩠 Jefferson in Paris (1995) C-144m. ★★ D: J. D.’s Revenge (1976) C-95m. ★★ D: James Ivory. Nick Nolte, Greta Scacchi, Arthur Marks. Glynn Turman, Joan Pringle, Thandie Newton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Seth Lou Gossett, Carl Crudup, James Louis Gilliam, James Earl Jones, Simon Callow, Watkins, Alice Jubert. Black horror meloMichael Lonsdale, Nancy Marchand, Jeandrama: possession of innocent man by vengePierre Aumont, Daniel Mesguich. While servful spirit. Fairly well executed. [R]▼쩠 ing as U.S. Ambassador to France in the Jean de Florette (1986-French) C-122m. 1780s, a widowed Thomas Jefferson (Nolte) ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Berri. Yves Montand, Ge ´rard begins to fall in love with an Italian-born EnDepardieu, Daniel Auteuil, Elisabeth Deparglishwoman (Scacchi), but also finds himself dieu, Ernestine Mazurowna, Marcel Champel, attracted to a black, teenaged slave (Newton) Armand Meffre. Proud, cocky French farmer on his household staff; meanwhile, his strongschemes with his simple-minded nephew to acwilled daughter (Paltrow) seems to want to be quiresome nearbyfarmland bymaking sure the the only woman in his life. Story is framed, in new owners never discover an all-important flashback, by Jones as free black man who natural spring on the property. Richly textured, claims to be Jefferson’s son. Ambitious, wellemotionally powerful adaptation of Marcel appointed drama is also long and sluggish. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Pagnol novel, exquisitely and meticulously filmed, with galvanizing performances—espeJeffrey (1995) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher cially by Depardieu as the doggedly optimistic Ashley. Steven Weber, Michael T. Weiss, novice farmer. Story continues in MANON OF Patrick Stewart, Bryan Batt, Sigourney THE SPRING. Technovision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Weaver, Nathan Lane, Olympia Dukakis, Jeanne and the Perfect Guy (1999Christine Baranski, Robert Klein, Kathy French) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Olivier Ducastel. Najimy, Irma St. Paule, Camryn Manheim. Virginie Ledoyen, Mathieu Demy, Valerie Thirtyish New Yorker Jeffrey (Weber), who is Bonneton, Jacques Bonnaffe. Musical comgay, has sworn off sex in this era of AIDS— edy about a beautiful young woman who fionly to meet hunky gym rat Weiss. They nally meets the love of her life, only to lose launch into a relationship and encounter just him when he disappears after learning he is about every sort of ‘‘type’’ (gay or straight) HIV-positive. Unusual subject matter for a imaginable, including Stewart (very good as a musical, to say the least, but Ducastel (seemhomosexual interior designer with a biting ingly inspired by Jacques Demy films) almost wit). Paul Rudnick’s off-Broadway success pulls it off. Downbeat subject is eclipsed by works best when going for laughs; the ininventive use of songs and ultimately lifetended poignancy of this very ’90s romantic comedy is more forced. Kevin Nealon apaffirming message. Panavision. ▼쩠 pears unbilled. [R] ▼●쩠 Jeanne Eagels (1957) 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Sidney. Kim Novak, Jeff ChanJekyll & Hyde . . . Together Again (1982) dler, Agnes Moorehead, Gene Lockhart, C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Jerry Belson. Mark BlankVirginia Grey. Novak tries but can’t rise to field, Bess Armstrong, Krista Errickson, Tim demands of portraying famed actress of Thomerson, Michael McGuire, George Chak1920s. Chandler is her virile love interest. iris. Nothing here that Jerry Lewis’s Nutty ★★1⁄2 D: Jeepers Creepers (2001) C-90m. Professor didn’t do better, as Blankfield exagVictor Salva. Gina Philips, Justin Long, gerates on his druggist character from Fridays Jonathan Breck, Patricia Belcher, Eileen TV show in tasteless excursion into cheap sex [ 712 ]

and drug jokes. A few scattered laughs in disapJeremy (1973) C-90m. ★★★ D: Arthur pointing directorial debut by veteran comedy Barron. Robby Benson, Glynnis O’Conwriter Belson. [R]▼쩠 nor, Len Bari, Leonard Cimino, Ned WilJennifer (1978) C-90m. ★★ D: Brice Mack. son, Chris Bohn. Two shy teenagers in Lisa Pelikan, Bert Convy, Nina Foch, Amy N.Y.C. meet, fall in love, then sepaJohnston, John Gavin, Jeff Corey, Wesley rate. Poignant and real; situations, characEure. Unusually good cast in blatant ripters, and atmosphere are memorable. [PG] off of CARRIE, with Pelikan as ostracized ▼쩠 high-school girl whose powers include abilJericho SEE: Dark Sands ity to unleash deadly snakes on her vicJerk, The (1979) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carl tims. Retitled JENNIFER (THE SNAKE Reiner. Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, GODDESS) for TV. [PG]▼ Catlin Adams, Mabel King, Richard Ward, Jennifer Eight (1992) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dick Anthony Williams, Bill Macy, Jackie Bruce Robinson. Andy Garcia, Uma ThurMason. Martin’s first starring feature is a man, Lance Henriksen, Kathy Baker, Graham hit-or-miss comedy about the misadvenBeckel, Kevin Conway, John Malkovich, tures of a terminally stupid man. Some very Perry Lang, Lenny von Dohlen. Taut, enterfunny moments, but after a while they’re taining thriller in which burned-out L.A. cop spread pretty thin. Martin later produced a TV Garcia relocates to a small Northern California version, THE JERK, TOO. Rob Reiner has an town, where he promptly finds himself investiunbilled cameo. [R]▼●쩠 gating a series of brutal murders. Will the next Jerky Boys, The (1995) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: victim be beautiful, blind Thurman? Strong James Melkonian. John G. Brennan, Kamal performances and eerie snowbound locations Ahmed, Alan Arkin, William Hickey, Alan are plusses, but unfortunately, credibility dwinNorth, Brad Sullivan, James Lorinz. Crankdles as the story plays out. [R]▼●쩠 Jennifer on My Mind (1971) C-90m. call practitioners (who in real life had a hit BOMB D: Noel Black. Michael Brandon, record in N.Y.C.) who describe themselves Tippy Walker, Lou Gilbert, Steve Vinovich, as ‘‘two low-lifes from Queens’’ palm Peter Bonerz, Renee Taylor, Chuck Mcthemselves off as Chicago hit men, thorCann, Barry Bostwick, Jeff Conaway. Proboughly confusing N.Y. mobster Arkin. Reably the worst of many drug films released sult may appeal to the type of person who in the early ’70s; rootless American drifter enjoys vandalizing suburban mailboxes. and rich American girl smoke grass in [R]▼● Venice, advance to hard drugs back home. Jerrico, The Wonder Clown SEE: 3 Ring Awful script by Erich Segal; of interest Circus mainly for presence of Robert De Niro, in Jerry and Tom (1999) C-92m. ★★ D: Saul small, prophetic role of gypsy cab driver. [R] Rubinek. Joe Mantegna, Sam Rockwell, Jennifer (The Snake Goddess) SEE: Maury Chaykin, Ted Danson, Charles DurnJennifer ing, William H. Macy, Peter Riegert, Sarah Jenny (1970) C-88m. BOMB D: George Polley. Flashback film about a couple of hit Bloomfield. Marlo Thomas, Alan Alda, men: a mentor and his prote´ge´. A fine cast Marian Hailey, Elizabeth Wilson, Vincent fires expectations, but despite some good Gardenia, Stephen Strimpell. Sappy soaper moments, the film never really delivers. about filmmaker who marries pregnant girl Rubinek’s first directing effort debuted on in order to avoid the draft. Opening scene U.S. cable. [R]▼쩠 includes a clip from A PLACE IN THE Jerry Maguire (1996) C-138m. ★★★1⁄2 D: SUN, which is best thing in film. [M/PG]▼ Jeopardy (1953) 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Cameron Crowe. Tom Cruise, Cuba GoodSturges. Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sulliing, Jr., Rene´e Zellweger, Kelly Preston, van, Ralph Meeker, Lee Aaker. Uneven Jerry O’Connell, Jay Mohr, Bonnie Hunt, thriller with Stanwyck, on vacation in MexRegina King, Jonathan Lipnicki, Glenn ico, attempting to save husband Sullivan from Frey, Eric Stoltz, Jann Wenner, Alexandra drowning—and then being kidnapped herself Wentworth, Lucy Alexis Liu. Cocky, superby killer-on-the-lam Meeker. Starts off well, successful sports agent has a crisis of conbut then fizzles. Paging Alex Trebek!쩠 science, which costs him his job and all but ★★★ Jeremiah Johnson (1972) C-116m. one of his clients—the most difficult one on D: Sydney Pollack. Robert Redford, Will the roster (Gooding, in a charismatic, OscarGeer, Stefan Gierasch, Allyn Ann McLerie, winning performance). His only ally is a Charles Tyner, Josh Albee. Atmospheric young woman (with a little boy) who’s dechronicle of life of a mountain man, survoted to him professionally and personally. viving wintry wilderness, Indians, rival Intelligent, original, layered screenplay (by trappers. Unfortunately, film doesn’t know Crowe) with characters who are actually inwhere to quit, rambling on to inconclusive teresting and three-dimensional. Cruise’s ending. Geer is delightful as feisty mounearnestness is perfect for the part, and Zelltain hermit. Script by John Milius and weger is a real find. Various sports figures Edward Anhalt. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 [ 713 ]

play themselves; Beau Bridges appears unJesus Camp (2006) C-87m. ★★★ D: Heidi billed. Only complaint: It goes on too long. Ewing, Rachel Grady. Fascinating and Some prints have a faux athletic shoe comfrightening look at the evangelical movemercial at the end. [R]▼●쩠 ment as seen through the eyes of three kids Jersey Girl (2004) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin from Missouri who spend the summer at a Smith. Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, Jennifer Lopez, camp for future Jerry Falwells. Artfully George Carlin, Jason Biggs, Raquel Castro, shows the indoctrination of children with Mike Starr, Stephen Root, Jason Lee, Matt ideas about politics and religion at an early Damon, Will Smith. High-powered musicage, demonstrating how the movement industry publicist is shattered by his wife’s plans to spread its word to future generadeath in childbirth and moves back to his tions. Curriculum includes lectures on the father’s house in New Jersey to raise his evils of homosexuality and abortion and the daughter and lick his wounds . . . until he importance of working toward a Supreme Court populated by ‘‘believers.’’ [PG-13]쩠 meets a free-spirited video-store clerk (Tyler) who shakes him out of his stupor. UltraJesus Christ Superstar (1973) C-103m. ★★★ sentimental modern-day fairy tale is false D: Norman Jewison. Ted Neeley, Carl and hollow—and played that way by everyAnderson, Yvonne Elliman, Barry Dennen, one but Tyler. Writer-director Smith’s most Joshua Mostel, Bob Bingham. From recatypical movie to date—and his worst. Paord album to Broadway show to motion navision. [PG-13]▼쩠 picture—film retains the Tim Rice–Andrew Jerusalem (1996-Swedish-Danish) C-166m. Lloyd Webber score, adds some interest★★1 ing settings and visual trappings. It’s ⁄2 D: Bille August. Maria Bonnevie, Ulf Friberg, Lena Endre, Pernilla August, Svennot everyone’s cup of religious experience, Bertil Taube, Reine Brynolfsson, Olympia but certainly innovative. Watch for ubiquiDukakis, Max von Sydow. In late 19thtous porno star Paul Thomas in the chorus. Todd-AO 35. [G]▼●쩠 century Sweden, a poor, rural community is swept up in religious fervor; the town becomes Jesus of Montreal (1989-Canadian-French) bitterly divided, separating a pair of young C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Denys Arcand. Lothaire sweethearts (Friberg, Bonnevie). When the Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Johanneconverted emigrate to a Christian commune in Marie Tremblay, Remy Girard, Robert Palestine, led by American Dukakis, they find Lepage, Gilles Pelletier, Marie-Christine new strife and strain. Long, fact-based epic Barrault. A group of actors come together (from Selma Lagerlof’s novel) is earnest to a to stage an unconventional production of fault. Made for Swedish TV. [PG-13]▼ the Passion Play, and find themselves Jesse James (1939) C-105m. ★★★ D: Henry embroiled in controversy. Writer-director King. Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Nancy Arcand takes on religious hypocrisy, comKelly, Randolph Scott, Henry Hull, Brian mercialism, and other social ills in this wise, Donlevy, John Carradine, Jane Darwell. profoundly moving and sometimes savagely Sprawling, glamorous Western with Power funny film. A real gem. Arcand also appears in the role of the judge. [R]▼●쩠 and Fonda as Jesse and Frank James; movie builds a case that the Old West’s most notoJesus’ Son (1998-Canadian) C-109m. ★★ D: rious outlaw was misguided. Sequel: THE Alison Maclean. Billy Crudup, Samantha RETURN OF FRANK JAMES. ▼●쩠 Morton, Denis Leary, Jack Black, Will Patton, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s DaughGreg Germann, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopter (1966) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: William Beauper, Mike (Michael) Shannon, Miranda July. dine. John Lupton, Narda Onyx, Cal Bolder, A stream-of-consciousness reminiscence by Estelita, Jim Davis, Steven Geray, William one young man who’s swallowed up in the Fawcett. Low-budget nonsense mixes horror drug culture of the 1970s. Told in nonlinear and Western genres, with Dr. Frankenstein’s flashback style, with vignettes involving a vadaughter practicing brain experiments—inriety of characters who cross his path (played cluding turning Jesse’s pal into a new monby Leary, Hopper, Hunter). Main problem: ster. ▼쩠 it’s hard to care about the leading character. Jessica (1962) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Based on Denis Johnson’s acclaimed collecNegulesco. Angie Dickinson, Maurice Chetion of short stories. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 valier, Noel-Noel, Gabriele Ferzetti, Sylva Jet Lag (2002-French-British) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 Koscina, Agnes Moorehead. Dickinson is D: Danie`le Thompson. Juliette Binoche, Jean an Italian midwife who has men in her Reno, Sergi Lo´pez. A beautician and a chef village lusting for her, with Chevalier as meet randomly during an airport layover and the local priest. Malarkey. Panavision. over the course of 24 hours fall in love. FeathJesus (1979) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Sykes, erweight romance is just an excuse to see two John Krish. Brian Deacon, Rivka Noiman, star performers at the height of their charm . . . Yossef Shiloah, Niko Nitai, Gadi Roi, but what’s wrong with that? Veteran screenDavid Goldberg; narrated by Alexander writer Thompson (COUSIN, COUSINE, Scourby. Straightforward but unmemorable QUEEN MARGOT) cowrote with her son retelling of Jesus’ life, produced by The Christopher. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Genesis Project; filmed in Israel. [G] ▼쩠 Jet Li’s Fearless (2006-Hong Kong-Chinese[ 714 ]

U.S.) C-103m. ★★★ D: Ronny Yu. Jet Li, STONE can’t capture charm of original, Shido Nakamura, Li Sun, Yong Dong, Hee because the characters are set—and charChing Paw, Nathan Jones, Brandon Rhea, acter change (particularly Turner’s) is what Anthony De Longis. Li apparently caps his made the first movie fun. Some good career in this genre playing martial arts legstunts and funny lines, but it all rings hollow. Widescreen. [PG]▼●쩠 end Huo Yuanjia, China’s most famous fighter at the turn of the 20th century, who Jewel Robbery (1932) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wilnearly dies in a tragic incident in which he liam Dieterle. William Powell, Kay Francis, loses most of his family. In time he returns Hardie Albright, Henry Kolker, Spencer to the ring and is pitted against four imposCharters, Alan Mowbray, Helen Vinson. ing fighters who represent the major foreign Lubitsch-like bauble with wealthy, married powers dominating China at that time. Francis (who aches for excitement in her life) Emotionally charged and visually striking; being captivated by debonair burglar Powell. Li shows why he is a master of the art. Breathlessly paced, witty and charming. Unrated version runs 104m. Aka FEARScreenplay by Erwin Gelsey, based on a play LESS. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 by Ladislaus Fodor. Jet Li’s Hero SEE: Hero (2002) Jezebel (1938) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Jet Pilot (1957) C-112m. ★★ D: Josef von Wyler. Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, George Sternberg. John Wayne, Janet Leigh, Jay Brent, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Crisp, Fay C. Flippen, Paul Fix, Richard Rober, RoBainter, Spring Byington, Richard Cromwell, land Winters, Hans Conried. One of HowHenry O’Neill. Davis won her second Oscar ard Hughes’ movie curios, updating his as tempestuous Southern belle who goes too HELL’S ANGELS interest in aviation with far to make fiance´ Fonda jealous; Bainter also cold war theme, as American pilot Wayne received Oscar as Davis’ sympathetic aunt. falls in love with Russian jet ace Leigh. RidicFine production, entire cast excellent. John ulous, to say the least, though some of its Huston was one of the writers. Also shown in humor seems to have been intentional. Comcomputer-colored version.▼●쩠 pleted in 1950, unreleased for seven years! Jezebels, The SEE: Switchblade Sisters Incidentally, some of the stunt flying was JFK (1991) C/B&W-188m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Olidone by Chuck Yeager.▼●쩠 ver Stone. Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Jetsons: The Movie (1990) C-81m. ★★ Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie D: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera. Voices Metcalf, Gary Oldman, Michael Rooker, of George O’Hanlon, Penny Singleton, Jay O. Sanders, Beata Pozniak, Joe Pesci, Mel Blanc, Tiffany, Don Messick, Patric Donald Sutherland, John Candy, Jack Zimmerman. Disappointing expansion of Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ed Asner, Vinthe 1960s animated TV sitcom has nothing cent D’Onofrio, Sally Kirkland, Brian to offer now-grown-up fans of the series, Doyle-Murray, Wayne Knight, Tony Plana, but remains a palatable offering for very Tomas Milian, Sean Stone. Absolutely rivyoung children, with pro-social messages eting film about New Orleans D.A. Jim thrown in at the end. [G]▼● Garrison and his gradual involvement (and Je Vous Aime (1981-French) C-105m. eventual obsession) with finding the truth ★1⁄2 D: Claude Berri. Catherine Deneuve, about President Kennedy’s assassination. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ge´rard Depardieu, Full of startling scenes, and bravura acting; Alain Souchon, Christian Marquand, Serge as dramatic moviemaking, it’s superb. Not Gainsbourg. Shallow, solemn tale of libto be mistaken for a documentary, however, erated career woman Deneuve, who is unable despite its sanctimonious attitude toward to remain monogamous. Good cast can do the truth. Oscar winner for Robert Richardlittle with material; disappointing. son’s cinematography and Joe Hutshing and Jeweller’s Shop, The (1987-Italian-CanaPietro Scalia’s phenomenal editing. Screendian) C-97m. ★★ D: Michael Anderson. Burt play by Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar. Lancaster, Ben Cross, Olivia Hussey, AnThe real Garrison can be glimpsed playing drea Occhipinti. Lancaster is a mysterious Earl Warren. Lolita Davidovich and Frank old Polish jeweler at the start of WW2 who Whaley appear unbilled. Director’s cut runs brings together two pairs of lovers. Of par205m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ticular interest both as one of the star’s last Jigsaw (1968) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Goldfilm appearances and for the fact that it’s stone. Harry Guardino, Bradford Dillman, based on a play by Karol Wojtyla, who later Hope Lange, Pat Hingle, Diana Hyland, became Pope John Paul II. Aka THE Victor Jory, Paul Stewart, Susan Saint GOLDSMITH’S SHOP. James, Michael J. Pollard, James Doohan, Jewel of the Nile, The (1985) C-104m. ★★ Kent McCord. Fast-paced, utterly confusing D: Lewis Teague. Michael Douglas, Kathyarn about amnesiac Dillman trying to figure leen Turner, Danny DeVito, Spiros Focas, out his past and unravel murder caper he was Avner Eisenberg, The Flying Karamazov involved in. Frantic editing and music don’t Brothers. Contrived ‘‘high adventure’’ inhelp viewer; remake of MIRAGE. Made volving an evil potentate and a precious for TV but shown theatrically first. ‘‘jewel.’’ Sequel to ROMANCING THE Jigsaw Man, The (1984-British) C-91m. [ 715 ]

★★

D: Terence Young. Michael Caine, computer-generated cartoon produced by Laurence Olivier, Susan George, Robert Nickelodeon. When a young inventor inadPowell, Charles Gray, Michael Medwin. vertently causes alien invaders to kidnap all Caine, an ex-British Secret Service honcho the parents in the neighborhood, it’s up to him who defected to Russia, comes back to and his classmates to travel through space and England (following rejuvenating plastic surmount a rescue. Cute kids’ film with plenty gery) for one final mission. Will he serve of visual and verbal humor, but lavish settings one country, the other, or play both ends (particularly in outer space) clash with weak against the middle? Unfortunately this character designs and low-budget animation. Followed by a TV series. [G]▼쩠 Caine-Olivier pairing is no SLEUTH, so you won’t care. [PG]▼● Jimmy the Gent (1934) 67m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim Buck SEE: Portrait of a Hitman Michael Curtiz. James Cagney, Bette Davis, Jimi Hendrix (1973) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alice White, Allen Jenkins, Philip Reed, Joe Boyd, John Head, Gary Weis. DocuMayo Methot. Crooked businessman Cagney mentary on life of noted black rock guitarpretends to refine himself to impress Davis ist; good segments from various concerts, in this bouncy comedy. interviews with those who knew him well. Jimmy the Kid (1983) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Gary Songs include ‘‘Purple Haze,’’ ‘‘Wild Nelson. Gary Coleman, Paul LeMat, Walter Olkewicz, Dee Wallace, Ruth Gordon, Don Thing,’’ ‘‘Johnny B. Goode.’’ [R]▼쩠 Jiminy Glick in La La Wood (2005Adams, Cleavon Little, Avery Schreiber. Canadian) C-90m. ★★ D: Vadim Jean. MarBored, brilliant son of wealthy husband-andtin Short, Jan Hooks, John Michael Higgins, wife singing team is kidnapped by gang of paElizabeth Perkins, Linda Cardellini, Janeane thetically incompetent bunglers who teach him Garofalo, Corey Pearson, Peter Breck. Illhow to enjoy being a kid. Coleman returns conceived extension of Primetime Glick, favor by bringing good cast down to his level Short’s TV series, in which he plays a characof nonacting, consisting of endless mugging ter introduced on The Martin Short Show: a and exaggerated eyeball rolling, in this lame thickheaded, roly-poly celebrity interviewercomedy. Based on a Donald Westlake novel, critic from Butte, Montana. Here, Jiminy and with LeMat as the same character played by Robert Redford in THE HOT ROCK. [PG]▼ his family attend the Toronto Film Festival and become involved in a complicated murder Jim Thorpe—All-American (1951) 107m. ★★1 plot. Film buffs will enjoy Short’s imperson⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Burt Lancaster, ation of David Lynch, and Jiminy is always Charles Bickford, Steve Cochran, Phyllis hilarious, but he and guest star Steve Martin Thaxter, Dick Wesson. The life of the provide the only bright spots in this painfully famed American Indian athlete who was unfunny comedy. Other stars appear on camstripped of his Olympic medals for playing era, caught at the Toronto festivities. [R]쩠 professional baseball. Lancaster lends digJimmy Carter: Man from Plains (2007) nified vigor to title role; Bickford is espeC-126m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Demme. Intimate cially outstanding as Thorpe’s mentor, documentary portrait of the former U.S. legendary coach Pop Warner.▼●쩠 president follows him on his 2006–07 book Jindabyne (2006-Australian) C-123m. ★★★ tour for Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, in D: Ray Lawrence. Laura Linney, Gabriel which he stresses that a Middle East peace Byrne, Deborra-lee Furness, John Howard, only will come when the Israelis and PalesLeah Purcell, Stelios Yiakmis, Simon Stone, tinians agree to live in harmony. CompelBetty Lucas. Gas station owner (Byrne) and ling account of Carter’s life since leaving three pals take off for an annual fishing weekoffice in 1981. [PG]쩠 end at a remote spot where there isn’t cell Jimmy Hollywood (1994) C-109m. ★★ D: phone reception. They come upon a woman’s Barry Levinson. Joe Pesci, Christian Slater, dead body floating in the river, and while Victoria Abril, Jason Beghe, John Cothran, they’re shocked they figure there’s nothing Jr., Rob Weiss, Chad McQueen. Wellthey can do to help her, so they continue fishmeaning but one-note tale of hard-luck ing. That decision has unexpected repercusmiddle-aged dreamer Pesci, a would-be actor sions not only with their families but with the who earns fame by playing out the role of a community at large. Absorbing, multifaceted lifetime: Jericho, an urban vigilante. Obvious drama flavored by aboriginal mysticism. look at life in seedy, contemporary Hollywood, Based on Raymond Carver’s story ‘‘So Much which once was a ‘‘mecca of dreams.’’ Pesci is Water So Close To Home,’’ which was also good, but his character quickly becomes weadramatized in Robert Altman’s SHORT rying. Watch for director Levinson at the finale. CUTS. Super 35. [R]쩠 Levinson also scripted. [R] ▼●쩠 Jingle All the Way (1996) C-88m. ★★ D: Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001) CBrian Levant. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sin83m. ★★1⁄2 D: John A. Davis. Voices of bad, Phil Hartman, Rita Wilson, Robert ConMegan Cavanagh, Mark DeCarlo, Debi Derryrad, Martin Mull, James Belushi, Harvey berry, Patrick Stewart, Martin Short, Rob Korman, Laraine Newman, Jake Lloyd. NePaulsen, David L. Lander, Laraine Newman, glectful father promises his son a Turbo Man Andrea Martin, Mary Hart, Bob Goen. Clever action figure, then frantically searches to find [ 716 ]

the sold-out toy the day before Christmas. His Ward Bond, Shepperd Strudwick, Hurd chief rival in the search (Sinbad) turns out to Hatfield, Gene Lockhart, John Emery, Cebe not just a competitor but a major sicko. cil Kellaway, George Coulouris, John IreEven at 88 minutes this feels prolonged and land. Bergman is staunchly sincere in this protracted, a dubious ’90s addition to the overlong, faithful adaptation of Maxwell canon of holiday movies. Arnold gives it his Anderson’s play. Not enough spectacle to best, but he simply isn’t funny. [PG] ▼●쩠 balance talky sequences. Originally released theatrically at 145m.▼●쩠 Jinnah (1998-U.S.-Pakistani-British) C94m. ★★★ D: Jamil Dehlavi. Christopher Joan of Paris (1942) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: RobLee, James Fox, Maria Aitkin, Shashi Kaert Stevenson. Michele Morgan, Paul poor, Shireen Shah, Richard Lintern, Robert Henreid, Thomas Mitchell, Laird Cregar, Ashby, Sam Dastor. Lee is outstanding as the May Robson, Alexander Granach, Alan dedicated, brittle and reserved Mohammed Ladd. Excellent WW2 tale of dedicated Ali Jinnah, founder of Pakistan, in this odd Morgan giving herself up so Henreid and biography in which, on the verge of death, fellow pilots can return to Allied lines. U.S. debuts for both Morgan and Henreid.▼ he’s shown the events of his past in Ebenezer Scrooge style. Fox, Ashby, and Dastor are Jocks (1987) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve Carver. also fine as Mountbatten, Nehru, and Gandhi. Scott Strader, Perry Lang, Mariska HarA worthwhile, intelligent movie that deserves, gitay, Richard Roundtree, R. G. Armlike its subject, to be better known.▼ strong, Christopher Lee, Stoney Jackson, Jinxed! (1982) C-103m. ★★ D: Don Siegel. Adam Mills, Katherine Kelly Lang, TriniBette Midler, Ken Wahl, Rip Torn, Val dad Silva, Don Gibb. Silly teen comedy of Avery, Jack Elam, Benson Fong. Messy college tennis team’s hijinx in Las Vegas. black comedy about a Vegas lounge singer, Despite oddball roles for vets Lee and Armthe lout she lives with, and a young blackstrong, picture only comes to life on the tennis court. Filmed in 1984. [R]▼쩠 jack dealer the lout has managed to jinx at his own table. Though a characteristically Joe (1970) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: John G. ripped Rip provides some amusement, the Avildsen. Peter Boyle, Dennis Patrick, K. much-reported lack of rapport between Callan, Audrey Caire, Susan Sarandon, PatMidler/Wahl and Midler/Siegel comes rick McDermott. Sleeper film brought Boyle through on the screen. Screenwriter ‘‘Bert to prominence as hardhat bigot who practices Blessing’’ is really Frank D. Gilroy. [R]▼쩠 genteel blackmail on executive Patrick, Jitterbugs (1943) 74m. ★★ D: Mal St. Clair. who’s murdered his daughter’s hippie boyStan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Vivian Blaine, friend. Overrated film owes much to Boyle’s Robert Bailey, Douglas Fowley, Noel Madicharacterization, not to contrived plot. Sarandon’s film debut. [R]▼●쩠 son. One of the team’s better later efforts, with Blaine sharing the spotlight and doing quite Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs and Englishmen (1971-British) C-119m. ★★★ D: Pierre nicely. Ollie’s scene with Southern belle Lee Patrick is a gem. Previously filmed as ARIAdidge. Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, Chris ZONA TO BROADWAY.쩠 Stainton, Carl Radle, John Price, Bobby Keys, J-Men Forever! (1979) 75m. ★★★ D: RichRita Coolidge, Claudia Linnear. Excellent ard Patterson. Philip Proctor, Peter Bergrockumentary of Cocker’s ’70 American tour, man, voice of M. G. Kelly. Clever stunt highlighted by Cocker, Russell, and Linnear that really works—scenes from countless in performance. Songs include ‘‘Feelin’ AlRepublic serials are re-edited into new right,’’ ‘‘With a Little Help from My feature, with redubbed soundtrack and a Friends,’’ ‘‘Darlin’ Be Home Soon,’’ many few new scenes. Story (by Firesign Theaothers. Aka MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN. Multiple Screen. [PG]▼쩠 tre’s Proctor and Bergman) has The Lightning Bug (‘‘From the Moon, Baby!’’) out to conJoe Dirt (2001) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Dennie Gorquer Earth by flooding radio airwaves with don. David Spade, Dennis Miller, Brittany rock; various heroes try to make the world Daniel, Adam Beach, Kid Rock, Jaime safe for Lawrence Welk. Amazing job of editPressly, Christopher Walken, Caroline Aaron, ing by Gail Werbin; one great gag involves a Fred Ward. One would need more than a spade young Leonard Nimoy. [PG]▼쩠 to dig up laughs in this mucky saga of a whiteJoanna (1968-British) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: trash loser with a big heart and an even bigger Michael Sarne. Genevieve Waite, Christian mullet hairdo who’s on a quest to find the parDoermer, Calvin Lockhart, Donald Sutherents who ditched him when he was eight. land, Glenna Forster-Jones. Flashy story of Charming comic bits involve frozen animal wide-eyed girl falling in with loose-living testicles, incest, excrement, vomit, and the amLondon crowd, growing up through heartputation of limbs. Joe Don Baker, Rosanna Arbreak, conflict. Sutherland steals film in quette, Kevin Nealon, and Carson Daly all flamboyant role as frail, wealthy young man appear sans credit, while Walken (as taptrying to enjoy life to fullest. Panavision. [R] dancing janitor Gert E. Frobe) may wish he had 1 ★★ done the same. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Joan of Arc (1948) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Victor Fleming. Ingrid Bergman, Jose Joe Gould’s Secret (2000) C-104m. ★★★ Ferrer, Francis L. Sullivan, J. Carrol Naish, D: Stanley Tucci. Ian Holm, Stanley Tucci, [ 717 ]

Patricia Clarkson, Hope Davis, Steve Marthe director. Based on a short that first aired on MTV in 1992. [PG-13]▼●쩠 tin, Susan Sarandon, Patrick Tovatt, Celia Weston, Allan Corduner. New Yorker proJoe Somebody (2001) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: John file writer Joseph Mitchell (Tucci) is introPasquin. Tim Allen, Julie Bowen, Kelly duced to ‘‘the king of the Bohemians,’’ Lynch, Hayden Panettiere, Jim Belushi, street savant Joe Gould (Holm), and beGreg Germann, Robert Joy, Patrick Warcomes fascinated (and sucked in) by this burton. Beaten-down corporate worker fibombastic Greenwich Village habitue. Nonally stands up for his rights by fighting table for its loving re-creation of 1940s with a bully in the company parking lot— N.Y.C. and the world that Mitchell docuand discovers that he suddenly has the attenmented so vividly. Holm is simply superb. tion, and respect, of coworkers who never Screenplay by Howard A. Rodman. [R]▼쩠 noticed him before. Allen is good in his Joe Hill (1971-Swedish) C-114m. ★★★ D: comedic everyman role, but the concept is hazy and underdeveloped. [PG] ▼쩠 Bo Widerberg. Thommy Berggren, Ania Schmidt, Kelvin Malave, Everl Anderson, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007-Irish-British) C-125m. ★★★ D: Julien Cathy Smith. Fabricated story of legendary labor leader has usual Widerberg matterTemple. Compelling documentary traces of-taste glossiness, but also some affecting the life and death of Clash front man, showscenes and pleasant performances. Joan ing his vast influence both musically and Baez sings title song. [PG] personally on those around him. Employing Joe Kidd (1972) C-88m. ★★ D: John Super 8 home movies, photos, and current Sturges. Clint Eastwood, Robert Duvall, John interviews (with everyone from Bono to Saxon, Don Stroud, Stella Garcia, James Johnny Depp), Temple presents a telling Wainwright. Eastwood is hired to hunt down portrait of a pioneering musician from his some Mexican-Americans by land baron Duchildhood influences to his heyday in the vall in ordinary Western; nice photography late ’70s and ’80s to his latter-day life as a and a rousing scene where Eastwood drives a star, husband, and father. Musical setrain through a barroom. Written by Elmore quences are superbly chosen and edited in Leonard. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 this worthwhile look at a true rock music ★★ legend.쩠 Joe Louis Story, The (1953) 88m. D: Robert Gordon. Coley Wallace, Paul StewJoe the King (1999) C-83m. ★★ D: Frank art, Hilda Simms, James Edwards, John Whaley. Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Marley, Dots Johnson. Biopic of the heavyYoung, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, weight champ is interesting historically Austin Pendleton, Max Ligosh, James but dramatically hokey; Wallace looks the Costa, Camryn Manheim, Amy Wright. A part of Louis, but is no actor.▼쩠 14-year-old boy’s life is one long, losing Joe Macbeth (1955-British) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: battle. With a drunken, irresponsible father Ken Hughes. Paul Douglas, Ruth Roman, (Kilmer) and an absentee mother (Young), Bonar Colleano, Gregoire Aslan, Sidney he’s descended into a life of theft and antiJames. Occasionally amusing variation on social behavior. He’s not really a bad kid, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, with Douglas a but there is no relief, and certainly no hope, 1930s gangster whose wife (Roman) nags in sight for him. Actor Whaley’s writinghim into murdering his way to the top of directing debut is a vivid portrait of workhis ‘‘profession.’’ ing-class life, but is so dismal it might be Joe Panther (1976) C-110m. ★★★ D: Paul retitled THE 800 BLOWS. [R]▼쩠 Krasny. Brian Keith, Ricardo Montalban, Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) C-102m. ★★1 Alan Feinstein, Cliff Osmond, A Martinez, ⁄2 D: John Patrick Shanley. Tom Hanks, Ray Tracey. Good family film about Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, modern-day Seminole youth (Tracey) strivDan Hedaya, Abe Vigoda, Ossie Davis, ing to make his way in the white man’s Barry McGovern, Amanda Plummer, Carol Kane, Nathan Lane. Pleasant if pointless world. [G]▼ 1 ★★ Joe’s Apartment (1996) C-80m. fable about a stressed-out nerd who learns ⁄2 D: John Payson. Jerry O’Connell, Megan Ward, he has six months to live, and accepts an Robert Vaughn, Don Ho, Shiek Mahmudeccentric millionaire’s offer to enable him Bey, Jim Sterling, Sandra Denton, Toukie to live like a king—so long as he jumps Smith, Scott ‘‘Bam Bam’’ Bigelow, Paul into a volcano at the end of his ‘‘vacation.’’ Bartel; voices of Billy West, Reginald HudUnfortunately, the story also takes a dive. lin, Dave Chappelle, B. D. Wong. Joe Writer Shanley’s directorial debut turns out (O’Connell) lives in a N.Y.C. slum apartment to be a shaggy-dog story that doesn’t pay infested by thousands of singing, dancing, and off. However, it is fun watching Ryan play talking cockroaches, who help him defeat the three distinctively different women . . . and schemes of his evil landlord (Don Ho). To put remember, luggage is everything. Panaviit mildly, not for all tastes, but if you can sion. [PG] ▼●쩠 handle break-dancing vermin, the effects are Joey (1985) C-97m. ★★ D: Joseph Ellison. excellent, the musical numbers inventive, and Neill Barry, James Quinn, Elisa Heinsohn, the whole thing harmlessly silly. Written by Linda Thorson, Ellen Hammill, Dan Gri[ 718 ]

maldi, Frankie Lanz. Hokey but harmless nold, Virginia Field. Genial adaptation of ode to Oldies and Doo Wop, chronicling Norman Krasna’s Broadway hit about a the troubled personal life of teen rock musoldier (Reagan) who does his pal a favor sician Barry and his relationship with his by marrying the fellow’s British girlfriend, dad (Quinn), who used to turn out hit recso she can come to the U.S.—intending to ords but now toils in a gas station and get divorce upon arrival. Naive fluff was drinks away his paycheck. Otherwise miNeal’s film debut.▼쩠 nor item features cameo appearances by Johnny Angel (1945) 79m. ★★★ D: Edwin The Limelights (who perform ‘‘Daddy’s L. Marin. George Raft, Claire Trevor, Home’’), Silhouettes (‘‘Get a Job’’), AdSigne Hasso, Lowell Gilmore, Hoagy Libs (‘‘Boy From New York City’’), EleCarmichael, Marvin Miller, Margaret gants (‘‘Little Star’’), Screamin’ Jay Wycherly, J. Farrell MacDonald. Tough, Hawkins (‘‘I Put a Spell on You’’) and, well-done melodrama, with Raft cleaning fleetingly, Jimmy Merchant and Herman up notorious mob, solving mystery of father’s Santiago, the only surviving Teenagers murder. Trevor lends good support.▼● (‘‘Why Do Fools Fall in Love?’’). [PG]▼ Johnny Apollo (1940) 93m. ★★★ D: Henry Joey Breaker (1993) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: SteHathaway. Tyrone Power, Dorothy Lamour, ven Starr. Richard Edson, Cedella Marley, Edward Arnold, Lloyd Nolan, Charles Fred Fondren, Erik King, Gina Gershon, Grapewin, Lionel Atwill, Marc Lawrence. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michael ImpeGood-natured Power turns crook, resentful of rioli, Parker Posey. Astute, candid, but too father Arnold, white-collar thief. Good acting, especially by Lamour as the girlfriend.▼쩠 often dramatically static portrait of a suave, self-absorbed N.Y. talent agent (Edson), Johnny Be Good (1988) C-84m. BOMB and how his consciousness is raised. Marley D: Bud Smith. Anthony Michael Hall, Rob(the daughter of Bob Marley) plays the roert Downey, Jr., Paul Gleason, Uma Thurmantic interest, a Jamaican nursing student. man, Steve James, Seymour Cassel, Howard Starr, an ex-William Morris agent, also Cosell, Jim McMahon, Robert Downey, scripted and coproduced. [R]▼ Sr., Jennifer Tilly. Offensive, bottom-ofJohn and Mary (1969) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: the-barrel comedy about star high-school Peter Yates. Dustin Hoffman, Mia Farjock Hall and how various colleges atrow, Michael Tolan, Sunny Griffin, Stantempt to illegally recruit him. The seriousley Beck, Tyne Daly, Alix Elias, Marian ness of the issue completely eludes the Mercer, Olympia Dukakis, Cleavon Little, makers of this turkey. R-rated scenes were Kristoffer Tabori. John and Mary meet, added for homevideo version. [PG-13— make love, but don’t know if the relationlater reedited to R]▼●쩠 ship should end right there. Innocuous, Johnny Belinda (1948) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: uncompelling trifle. Hoffman seems to be Jean Negulesco. Jane Wyman, Lew Ayres, sleepwalking; audience may join him. Charles Bickford, Jan Sterling, Agnes MoorePanavision. [PG—originally rated R]쩠 head, Stephen McNally, Rosalind Ivan, John Carpenter’s Escape From L.A. Alan Napier, Dan Seymour. Sensitively SEE: Escape From L.A. acted, atmospheric drama of young deafJohn Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars SEE: mute girl (Wyman) and doctor (Ayres) who Ghosts of Mars works with her. Setting of provincial fishJohn Carpenter’s Vampires SEE: ing-farming community vividly realized. Vampires Wyman won an Oscar for her fine perforJohn Goldfarb, Please Come Home mance. Elmer Harris play was scripted by ★1 (1965) C-96m. ⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. Irmgard von Cube and Allen Vincent. ReShirley MacLaine, Peter Ustinov, Richard made for TV in 1982 with Rosanna ArCrenna, Scott Brady, Jim Backus, Charles quette. Also shown in computer-colored Lane, Jerome Cowan, Wilfrid Hyde-White, version.▼쩠 Fred Clark, Harry Morgan, Telly Savalas, Johnny Come Lately (1943) 97m. ★★1⁄2 Richard Deacon, Jackie Coogan, Jerome D: William K. Howard. James Cagney, (Jerry) Orbach, Barbara Bouchet. Trapped Grace George, Marjorie Main, Marjorie in desert kingdom, two Americans (pilot, Lord, Hattie McDaniel, Ed McNamara. woman reporter) conspire to help Arabian Tame but amusing Cagney vehicle, with chief Ustinov’s football team beat Notre Jimmy as wandering newspaperman who Dame. Notre Dame University found this helps elderly editor George in small-town political battle.▼● spoof so offensive it sued in court; the viewer has an easier alternative. ScreenJohnny Concho (1956) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: play by William Peter Blatty. Look for Don McGuire. Frank Sinatra, Keenan Wynn, Teri Garr. CinemaScope. William Conrad, Phyllis Kirk, Wallace John Grisham’s The Rainmaker SEE: Ford, Dorothy Adams, Jean Byron, Claude Rainmaker, The (1997) Akins, John Qualen. Plodding Western ★★1⁄2 D: John Loves Mary (1949) 96m. with novelty of Sinatra as cowardly soul David Butler. Ronald Reagan, Jack Carson, who must build courage for inevitable shootPatricia Neal, Wayne Morris, Edward Arout. Adapted from a Studio One TV play. [ 719 ]

Johnny Cool (1963) 101m. ★★★ D: WilWalter Hill. Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, liam Asher. Henry Silva, Elizabeth MontElizabeth McGovern, Morgan Freeman, gomery, Sammy Davis, Jr., Richard AnForest Whitaker, Lance Henriksen, Scott derson, Jim Backus, Wanda Hendrix, Brad Wilson, Blake Clark. Disfigured Rourke is Dexter, Joey Bishop, Marc Lawrence, John imprisoned after his abandonment by felMcGiver, Mort Sahl, Telly Savalas, Elisha low lowlifes during a heist; a doctor then Cook, Jr. Sadistic study of vicious gangproposes performing plastic surgery on his ster seeking revenge. Brutal account, realfeatures, hoping to lower his recidivism istically told. potential. Eccentric, to say the least, and Johnny Dangerously (1984) C-90m. ★1⁄2 not totally without interest given the cast, D: Amy Heckerling. Michael Keaton, Joe but eventually wears out its welcome. Given Piscopo, Marilu Henner, Maureen StapleRourke’s standard appearance, this must ton, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne, Richard be the only skull surgery ever performed without benefit of a shampoo. [R]▼●쩠 Dimitri, Glynnis O’Connor, Byron Thames, Danny DeVito, Dom DeLuise, Ray WalJohnny in the Clouds SEE: Way to the ston, Sudie Bond. Lame comedy about Stars, The Prohibition-era gangsters; looks like a TV Johnny Mnemonic (1995-Canadian) C98m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Longo. Keanu Reeves, show and plays that way, too, with scattershot jokes (only a few of them funny) Dolph Lundgren, Takeshi, Ice-T, Dina instead of a script. [PG-13]▼쩠 Meyer, Udo Kier, Denis Akiyama, Henry Johnny Eager (1941) 107m. ★★★ D: Mervyn Rollins, Tracy Tweed, Don Francks. In the LeRoy. Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edvery ugly future of 2021, a world-weary ward Arnold, Van Heflin, Robert Sterling, courier (who carries info in his head) takes Patricia Dane, Glenda Farrell, Barry Nelone final run from Beijing to Newark, his son. Slick MGM melodrama with convostorage capacity dangerously overloaded luted plot about sociology student (and with volatile data sought by a huge, ruthless daughter of D.A. Arnold) Turner falling in corporation. Intriguing premise, written by love with unscrupulous racketeer Taylor. William Gibson and directed by artist Heflin won Best Supporting Actor Oscar Longo, goes absolutely nowhere, as uninteras Taylor’s alcoholic friend.▼쩠 esting characters mouth laughable dialogue Johnny English (2003-British-U.S.) Cagainst a landscape of urban hell. Despite 86m. ★★★ D: Peter Howitt. Rowan Atkinthe computer graphics, this is cyberclaptrap. son, John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Runs about 15m. longer in Japan. [R] ▼●쩠 Ben Miller, Douglas McFerran, Tim PigottJohnny O’Clock (1947) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Smith, Kevin McNally, Greg Wise. Very Robert Rossen. Dick Powell, Evelyn Keyes, funny James Bond spoof with Atkinson as a Lee J. Cobb, Ellen Drew, Nina Foch, Jeff hopelessly clumsy office functionary who Chandler. Cast and director make script gets to live out his fantasy and become a about high-class gambler in trouble with secret agent. His adversary: a wily French the law seem better than it is; Powell is criminal named Pascal Sauvage, played with fine in lead role. brio by Malkovich. Atkinson is in prime form Johnny Reno (1966) C-83m. BOMB D: in this engagingly silly sight-gag comedy. R.G. Springsteen. Dana Andrews, Jane Based on a series of British TV commerRussell, Lon Chaney (Jr.), John Agar, Lyle cials from the 1990s. [PG]▼쩠 Bettger, Tom Drake, Richard Arlen, Robert Johnny Got His Gun (1971) C-111m. ★★ Lowery. Laughably cliche´d Western has MarD: Dalton Trumbo. Timothy Bottoms, shal Andrews trying to save accused killer Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards, from lynching. Only for buffs who want to play ‘‘spot the star.’’ Techniscope.▼쩠 Donald Sutherland, Diane Varsi, David Soul, Tony Geary. Morbid film version of Johnny Stecchino (1991-Italian) C-100m. ★★★ Trumbo’s novel about WW1 basket case D: Roberto Benigni. Roberto Benigni, has moving opening and climax, but everyNicoletta Braschi, Paolo Bonacelli, Ignazio thing in the middle is either talky, prePappalardo, Franco Volpi. A mild and tentious, or amateurish. [PG]▼●쩠 meek school bus driver is the spitting imJohnny Guitar (1954) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: age of a notorious gangster—Johnny StecNicholas Ray. Joan Crawford, Sterling Haychino (‘‘Toothpick’’). When the latter’s den, Scott Brady, Mercedes McCambridge, luscious girlfriend drags the naive lookWard Bond, Ben Cooper, Ernest Borgnine, alike down to her Sicilian villa all sorts of Royal Dano, John Carradine, Paul Fix, shenanigans ensue. Bright physical comFrank Ferguson. The screen’s great kinky edy was Italy’s most successful film ever at Western, a memorable confrontation bethe box office, and director-cowriter-star Between saloonkeeper Crawford and righnigni has thrown in a wide array of his tradeteous hellion McCambridge, who wants mark physical gags. Material wears a little her run out of town and/or hanged. Simply thin after a while, but it’s hard to dislike a film fascinating with symbolism rampant throughwith a heroine whose favorite exclamation is out. Script by Philip Yordan.▼● ‘‘Holy Cleopatra!’’ [R]▼● Johnny Handsome (1989) C-94m. ★★ D: Johnny Suede (1991) C-95m. ★★★ D: [ 720 ]

Tom DiCillo. Brad Pitt, Calvin Levels, Harvey, Christopher B. Duncan, Jennifer FreeAlison Moir, Catherine Keener, Tina Louman, Gabby Soleil, Wade Williams, Aloma ise, Nick Cave, Samuel L. Jackson. Pitt is Wright, Shari Headley. Uptight insurance man perfectly cast as Johnny Suede, who sports takes his family—including his estranged a glorious pompadour and dreams of starwife—on a disaster-prone motor trip from dom as a Ricky Nelson–type pop singer. L.A. to Missouri for a family reunion and Clever, winningly hip little film; at its best competition. Amateurish comedy is played contrasting Johnny’s dream world with the so broadly you expect Kingfish Stevens to reality that surrounds him.▼●쩠 turn up at any minute. Cedric stars and also Johnny Tiger (1966) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: plays a bombastic, mush-mouthed character Paul Wendkos. Robert Taylor, Geraldine named Uncle Earl. Followed by two DVD sequels. [PG-13]▼쩠 Brooks, Chad Everett, Brenda Scott. Set in Florida, tame tale of teacher Taylor, John Tucker Must Die (2006) C-90m. ★1⁄2 doctor Brooks, and half-breed Seminole D: Betty Thomas. Jesse Metcalfe, Brittany Everett trying to come to conclusions about Snow, Ashanti, Sophia Bush, Arielle KebIndians’ role in modern world.▼ bel, Jenny McCarthy, Penn Badgley, FatsoJohnny Tremain (1957) C-80m. ★★★ D: Fasano, Kevin McNulty, Patricia Drake. Robert Stevenson. Hal Stalmaster, Luana When three high school girls discover they Patten, Jeff York, Sebastian Cabot, Dick have all been dating the same two-timing Beymer, Walter Sande. Excellent Disney lothario, they convince an innocent classfilm, from Esther Forbes’ novel about a mate to seduce the smooth-talking jock and young boy who gets involved in the Rebreak his heart. Charmless and predictable volutionary War; sprinkles fiction with fact teen comedy loses touch with reality about to bring history to life.▼●쩠 halfway through and winds up a ludicrous John Paul Jones (1959) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: mess. Any similarity between these characJohn Farrow. Robert Stack, Marisa Pavan, ters and actual human beings is purely coinCharles Coburn, Erin O’Brien, Macdonald cidental. [PG-13]쩠 Carey, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Peter Cushing, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (1986) Bruce Cabot, Bette Davis. Empty spectacle C-97m. ★★ D: Richard Pryor. Richard of 18th-century American naval hero, with Pryor, Debbie Allen, Art Evans, Fay cameo by Davis as Russian empress, Catherine Hauser, Barbara Williams, Carmen McRae, the Great. Look for Mia Farrow (daughter of Paula Kelly, Diahnne Abbott, Scoey film’s director and Maureen O’Sullivan) in Mitchell, Billy Eckstine, Wings Hauser, film debut. Technirama.▼ E’lon Cox, Virginia Capers, Dennis Fa★★1 John Q (2002) C-118m. ⁄2 D: Nick Casrina. Pryor examines his life, with the help savetes. Denzel Washington, James Woods, of an alter-ego character; largely autobioRobert Duvall, Anne Heche, Ray Liotta, graphical film only sparks when chroniKimberly Elise, Eddie Griffin, Shawn Hatosy, cling the comedian’s early life and first Obba Babatunde, Troy Beyer, Paul Johansshow-biz encounters. From there it’s downson, Daniel E. Smith. Factory worker who’s hill: jumbled, at arm’s-length, and boring. struggling to make ends meet learns that his Pryor’s directorial debut, if you don’t count insurance will not cover his son’s heart transan earlier concert film (he also coscripted plant surgery. Assaulted by red tape and unand produced). Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 caring bureaucrats, he commandeers the Joke of Destiny, A (1983-Italian) C-105m. ★1 hospital’s emergency room—willing to do ⁄2 D: Lina Wertmuller. Ugo Tognazzi, anything to save his child’s life. Story ingrediPiera Degli Esposti, Gastone Moschin, ents ring true, but the film shamelessly pushes Renzo Montagnani, Valeria Golino. A high emotional buttons, with speechifying and government official is accidentally locked two-dimensional supporting characters. Rein his computer-controlled limousine, and deemed, to a surprising extent, by Washinghis dilemma is dealt with as if it’s a national crisis. Loud, overwrought satire has ton’s powerful performance. [PG-13]▼쩠 ★★ johns (1996) C-94m. a couple of laughs but will either put you D: Scott Silver. Lukas Haas, David Arquette, Arliss Howto sleep or give you a headache. Full title: ard, Keith David, Christopher Gartin, Elliott A JOKE OF DESTINY, LYING IN WAIT Gould, Terrence Dashon Howard, Richard AROUND THE CORNER LIKE A BANDIT. [PG]▼ Kind, John C. McGinley. Depressing tale of friendship between two hustlers on the L.A. Joker Is Wild, The (1957) 126m. ★★★ D: scene, set on the day before Christmas. Charles Vidor. Frank Sinatra, Mitzi Gaynor, Gritty and bleak with solid performances by Jeanne Crain, Eddie Albert, Beverly Haas and Arquette, but the subject and tone Garland, Jackie Coogan, Sophie Tucker. will remind viewers of the far superior Sinatra is fine in biography of nightclub MIDNIGHT COWBOY. [R]▼쩠 performer Joe E. Lewis, with Crain and Johnson Family Vacation (2004) C-97m. Gaynor diverting as his two loves. Cahn and BOMB D: Christopher Erskin. Cedric the Van Heusen song ‘‘All the Way’’ won an Entertainer, Vanessa Williams, Bow Wow, Oscar; in fact, the film was reissued as ALL Shannon Elizabeth, Solange Knowles, Steve THE WAY. VistaVision. [ 721 ]

Jokers, The (1966-British) C-94m. ★★★ photography allows us to take bird’s point of D: Michael Winner. Michael Crawford, view as he forsakes his flock to explore wonOliver Reed, Gabriella Licudi, Harry Anders of flying. Dialogue doesn’t work nearly drews, James Donald, Daniel Massey, as well, nor does Neil Diamond’s overbearing Michael Hordern, Frank Finlay, Rachel score. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 Kempson, Edward Fox. Droll satire on the Joni (1980) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: James F. Establishment with Reed and Crawford Collier. Joni Eareckson, Bert Remsen, Kathtwo brothers from upper classes, putting erine De Hetre, Cooper Huckabee, John everyone on and carrying out perfect caMilford, Michael Mancini, Richard Lineper; ironic results. back. Earnest account of Eareckson’s acJolson Sings Again (1949) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 tual struggle to rebuild her life and find D: Henry Levin. Larry Parks, Barbara religion after breaking her spine in a divHale, William Demarest, Ludwig Donath, ing mishap. Based on a book by Eareckson; Tamara Shayne. Attempt to continue THE financed by Billy Graham. [G]▼ JOLSON STORY only partially succeeds, Joseph and His Brethren (1962) C-103m. ★★ D: Irving Rapper. Marietto, Geoffrey and is a curio at best . . . especially when Parks (playing Jolson) meets Parks (playHorne, Belinda Lee, Finlay Currie, Antoing Parks). Jolson standards (‘‘Baby nio Segurini, Charles Borromel, Carlo Face,’’ ‘‘Sonny Boy,’’ ‘‘Back In Your Giustini. Juvenile biblical tale, lavishly Own Back Yard,’’ and many others) are produced but empty-headed. Totalscope.▼쩠 still great. ▼●쩠 Joseph Andrews (1977-British) C-103m. 1 Jolson Story, The (1946) C-128m. ★★★ ⁄2 ★★ D: Tony Richardson. Ann-Margret, D: Alfred E. Green. Larry Parks, Evelyn Peter Firth, Michael Hordern, Beryl Reid, Keyes, William Demarest, Bill Goodwin, Jim Dale, Natalie Ogle, Peter Bull, Karen Ludwig Donath, Tamara Shayne. Hokey Dotrice. Director Richardson returns to but very entertaining biography of all-time Henry Fielding but TOM JONES lightning great Al Jolson, with Parks giving his all fails to strike again; well-photographed in story of brash vaudeville performer’s farce based on concealed identities is dull rise in the show biz world. Songs: ‘‘April throughout. [R]▼쩠 Showers,’’ ‘‘Avalon,’’ ‘‘You Made Me Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent SEE: Love You,’’ ‘‘My Mammy’’ plus many Secret Agent, The (1996) others, all dubbed by Jolson; that’s the real Josh and S.A.M. (1993) C-98m. ★★ D: Jolson in long shot on the runway during Billy Weber. Jacob Tierney, Noah Fleiss, the ‘‘Swanee’’ sequence. Morris Stoloff Martha Plimpton, Stephen Tobolowsky, earned an Oscar for his scoring. Sequel: Joan Allen, Chris Penn, Maury Chaykin, JOLSON SINGS AGAIN.▼●쩠 Udo Kier, Allan Arbus, Amy Wright, Jake Jonah: a VeggieTales Movie (2002) CGyllenhaal. Odd, unsatisfying road movie 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki. about a pair of emotionally put-upon brothVoices of Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki, Tim ers, the offspring of otherwise occupied (as Hodge, Lisa Vischer, Dan Anderson, Kriswell as divorced) parents, who end up stealtin Blegen. The VeggieTales gang learns a ing a car and picking up hitchhiker Plimpton. lesson in compassion and mercy in the story The scenario strains credibility, if only beof Jonah, the messenger of God who is cause the boys are aged 12 and 7. There’s swallowed by a whale, then given a second the germ of an engaging film here, but the chance to deliver his message to the wayresult is just too silly. [PG-13]▼● ward people of Nineveh. A feature-length Joshua (1976) C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Larry spin-off from a popular series of direct-toSpangler. Fred Williamson, Isela Vega, video programs, this low-budget computerBrenda Venus, Stacy Newton, Kathryn generated Bible-themed animated feature is Jackson. Modest Western of Williamson OK for young kids. [G]▼쩠 patiently tracking down and killing one by Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 1 one the bandits who murdered his mother, ★★★ ⁄2 D: Alain Tan(1976-Swiss) C-115m. maid to a frontier family. Embarrassing, ner. Myriam Boyer, Jean-Luc Bideau, Mioucynical script by Williamson insults the Miou, Roger Jendly, Jacques Denis. Senaudience; Mexican superstar Vega is wastsitive, literate, engaging comedy about ed. Originally titled: THE BLACK RIDER. eight individuals affected by the political [PG—reedited from original R rating]▼쩠 events of the late ’60s. Miou-Miou is lovely Joshua (2002) C-91m. ★★ D: John Purdy. as supermarket clerk with no qualms about Tony Goldwyn, F. Murray Abraham, Kurt liberating groceries. A companion to TanFuller, Stacy Edwards, Colleen Camp, Giner’s later NO MAN’S LAND (1985). ▼ ancarlo Giannini. Bland religious parable of Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1973) Caffable drifter Goldwyn, a woodworker whose 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hall Bartlett. Voices of presence in small American town makes James Franciscus, Juliet Mills, Hal Holbrook, nearly everyone happier except grumpy, disKelly Harmon, Dorothy McGuire, Richard trustful Catholic priest Abraham. Giannini Crenna. Unique film based on Richard Bach’s best-seller about an existential seagull. Superb plays the Pope! Music by Christian pop star [ 722 ]

Michael W. Smith. A good substitute if the types seeking to leave. Offbeat romance babysitter cancels. [G]▼쩠 between Kerr and Communist officer BrynJoshua (2007) C-106m. ★★ D: George Ratner. Film debuts of Robards and Howard. liff. Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Jacob Journey (1972-Canadian) C-87m. BOMB Kogan, Celia Weston, Dallas Roberts, MiD: Paul Almond. Genevieve Bujold, John chael McKean, Haviland Morris. A precoVernon, Gale Garnett, George Sperdakos, cious 9-year-old in an upper-middle-class Elton Hayes. Young woman, saved from N.Y.C. household appears to deeply resent drowning by head of wilderness commune, the arrival of his newborn baby sister. believes that she brings bad luck to everyStrong performances by indie faves Rockwell one with whom she comes in contact. and Farmiga, as the understandably stressedIncluding the people who made this film. Heavy going. [PG]▼ out parents, compensate for a storyline that, though chilling, is also a bit repetitious. Strong Journey Back to Oz (1974) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 on atmosphere and production design but D: Hal Sutherland. Voices of Liza Minnelli, weak on logic. Young couples with dreams Milton Berle, Margaret Hamilton, Jack E. of enlarging their families might want to Leonard, Paul Lynde, Ethel Merman, steer clear of young Josh. [R]쩠 Mickey Rooney, Rise Stevens, Danny Joshua Then and Now (1985-Canadian) Thomas, Mel Blanc. Long-delayed (made in 1964) animated sequel without the C-118m. ★★★ D: Ted Kotcheff. James Woods, Gabrielle Lazure, Alan Arkin, MiWizard. Okay for the kids; main interest chael Sarrazin, Linda Sorenson, Alan Scarfe, for grownups is familiar voices, including Minnelli in her late mother’s role. [G]▼쩠 Alexander Knox, Robert Joy. Unorthodox life and times of a Jewish writer in Canada whose Journey for Margaret (1942) 81m. ★★★ father was a small-time gangster and who D: W. S. Van Dyke II. Robert Young, Laraine marries into a politically and socially promiDay, Fay Bainter, Nigel Bruce, Margaret nent WASP family. Uneven but entertainO’Brien, William Severn. Heartfelt WW2 ing comedy-drama, based on Mordecai drama about American journalist Young deRichler’s semiautobiographical novel; Woods veloping an attachment to children orphaned is fine in one of his first leading-man roles, in London bombings. O’Brien is very appealArkin terrific as his colorful dad. [R]▼ ing scene-stealer, Young her adopted father. Josie and the Pussycats (2001) C-95m. ★★ ▼ D: Harry Elfont, Deborah Kaplan. Rachael Journey Into Autumn SEE: Dreams (1955) Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson, Journey Into Fear (1943) 69m. ★★★ D: Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Gabriel Mann, Norman Foster. Orson Welles, Joseph Paulo Costanzo, Missi Pyle, Alex Martin, Cotten, Dolores Del Rio, Ruth Warrick, Carson Daly, Jann T. Carl, Russ Leatherman. Agnes Moorehead, Everett Sloane, Jack Live-action treatment finds the Archie Comics Moss, Hans Conried. Often baffling WW2 girl group used by record execs and the governspy drama started by Welles, taken out of ment to front subliminal marketing campaigns his hands. Much of tale of smuggling to kids. Goofy send-up of trendy teen pop culmunitions into Turkey still exciting. Cotten ture often misses the mark, but the occasional and Welles scripted this adaptation of the hit is straight on. Best part comes early on with Eric Ambler novel. Remade in 1975. Also the top boy band Dujour (Word!). Breckin shown in computer-colored version.▼● Meyer, Seth Green, Donald Faison, and EuJourney Into Fear (1975-Canadian) Cgene Levy appear unbilled. [PG-13]▼쩠 103m. ★★ D: Daniel Mann. Sam Waterston, Jour de Fete (1949-French) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 Zero Mostel, Yvette Mimieux, Scott MarD: Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, Guy Decomble, lowe, Ian McShane, Joseph Wiseman, ShelPaul Frankeur, Santa Relli, Maine Vallee, ley Winters, Stanley Holloway, Donald Roger Rafal. In this exquisite feature-film diPleasence, Vincent Price. Muddled remake rectorial debut French comedian/mime Tati of 1943 film, shot throughout Europe, plays a postman whose attempts to modernize with Waterston as research geologist involdelivery link up a series of delightful gags ved in international intrigue. [R]▼ built around a small town’s Bastille Day celeJourney of August King, The (1995) C95m. ★★★ D: John Duigan. Jason Patric, bration. Tati’s cleverness and timing make him one of the most accomplished cinematic Thandie Newton, Larry Drake, Sam Wacomedians since Buster Keaton. Originally terston, Sara-Jane Wylde, Eric Mabius. filmed in color, but released in b&w with Troubled, widowed farmer August King color tinting. Restored to its original color (Patric) comes to the assistance of Annalees version in 1997. Some prints run 87m. Aka Williamsburg (Newton), a vulnerable young THE BIG DAY.▼● slave who has run away from her master Journey, The (1959) C-125m. ★★★ D: in 1815 North Carolina. Contemplative and Anatole Litvak. Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner, civilized tale, beautifully filmed and richly Jason Robards, Jr., Robert Morley, E. G. humanistic. Waterston (cast as a landowner) Marshall, Anne Jackson, Ronny Howard, also coproduced. Scripted by John Ehle, Kurt Kasznar, Anouk Aime´e. Heady melobased on his novel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 drama set in 1956 Budapest, with assorted Journey of Hope (1990-Swiss) C-110m. [ 723 ]

★★★1

⁄2 D: Xavier Koller. Necmettin Cobthe intended 3D, imaginatively used throughout. [PG]쩠 anoglu, Nur Surer, Emin Sivas, Erdinc Akbas, Journey to the Center of Time (1967) Yaman Okay. Heartbreaking, based-on-fact C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: D. L. Hewitt. Scott Brady, account of what happens when a poor Turkish Gigi Perreau, Anthony Eisley, Abraham couple and their young son set off for SwitzerSofaer, Poupee Gamin, Lyle Waggoner. land, in the hope of finding a better life. This Very cheap sci-fi time travel adventure to could have wallowed in sentiment and clifuture and past, using plot elements from che´s, but director-coscripter Koller consisearlier THE TIME TRAVELERS. Aka tently keeps it on the right emotional track. TIME WARP. ▼쩠 Deserving Best Foreign Film Academy Journey to the Far Side of the Sun Award winner packs a real wallop.▼● (1969-British) C-99m. ★★★ D: Robert ParJourney of Natty Gann, The (1985) rish. Roy Thinnes, Lynn Loring, Herbert C-101m. ★★★ D: Jeremy Kagan. Meredith Lom, Patrick Wymark. Entertaining exSalenger, John Cusack, Ray Wise, Lainie ploration of planet hidden behind the sun. Kazan, Barry Miller, Scatman Crothers, The ending makes the movie. Originally tiVerna Bloom. Girl travels cross-country tled DOPPELGANGER. [G]▼●쩠 during the hardest days of the Depression, Journey to the Lost City SEE: Indian in order to be with her father; along the way Tomb, The and Tiger of Eschnapur she acquires an unlikely companion and Journey to the Seventh Planet (1961protector—a wolf. Low-key but entertainDanish) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney Pink. John ing Disney film travels smoothly to exAgar, Greta Thyssen, Ann Smyrner, Mimi pected conclusion. Rich 1930s atmosphere Heinrich, Carl Ottosen. In year 2001, exhelps a lot, and the wolf (actually played by pedition to Uranus discovers hostile alien a dog!) is great. Widescreen. [PG]▼●쩠 brain that can turn thoughts into reality. Journey Through the Past (1972) C-78m. Cheap, clumsy, dull, with just a smidge of ★1⁄2 D: Bernard Shakey (Neil Young). imagination. ▼●쩠 Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Buffalo Joyeux Noe¨l (2005-French-German) CSpringfield, Carrie Snodgress, Jack Nitzsche. 116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Christian Carion. Diane Overblown, phony, pseudo-hip home movie Kruger, Benno Fu¨rmann, Guillaume Canet, centering on rock superstar Young. [R] Gary Lewis, Dany Boon, Alex Ferns, Daniel Journey to Shiloh (1968) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Bru ¨ hl, Bernard Le Coq, Michel Serrault, SuWilliam Hale. James Caan, Michael Sarrazanne Flon, Ian Richardson. Potent dramatizazin, Brenda Scott, Don Stroud, Paul tion of a real-life incident in which French, Petersen, Harrison Ford. Limp Civil War German, and Scottish soldiers on the front programmer about young Texans anxious lines in WW1 decide to risk court-martial— to engage in battle. Veterans Rex Ingram, or worse—and call a one-night Christmas Eve John Doucette, and Noah Beery are lost in truce. This simple act demonstrates a clear this jumble. Techniscope. reason why sometimes the ‘‘rules of engageJourney to the Beginning of the World ment’’ should be broken, despite what superiSEE: Voyage to the Beginning of the World ors far from the battlefields dictate. With a Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) flawless international cast, this delivers a les★★★ C-132m. D: Henry Levin. James son worth remembering in any era. Written Mason, Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl, Diane Baker, by the director. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Thayer David, Alan Napier. Entertaining, oldJoy House (1964-French) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: fashioned fantasy-adventure, from Jules Rene´ Clement. Jane Fonda, Alain Delon, Verne’s story of daring expedition headed by Lola Albright, Sorrell Booke. Living on Mason; long in telling, with silly digressions, his looks, a playboy on the run seeks but generally fun. Remade in 1999 (for TV), refuge in gloomy French mansion run by 2008, and as WHERE TIME BEGAN. Best two American women. Fate and quicker wits enjoyed in CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 than his control this brooding tale of irony. Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008) Aka THE LOVE CAGE. Franscope.▼쩠 C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Brevig. Brendan FraJoy in the Morning (1965) C-103m. ★★ ser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem, Seth D: Alex Segal. Richard Chamberlain, Yvette Meyers. Hoping to salvage the reputation of Mimieux, Arthur Kennedy, Sidney Blackhis vanished brother, scientist Fraser heads mer. Betty Smith’s gentle novel of strugfor Iceland with his bored nephew Hutchergling law student and his marital problems son. They join forces with an attractive becomes mild vehicle for Chamberlain, who guide (Briem) and set out hiking, as the crusades for human dignity amid stereotypes title says, on a journey to the earth’s center, of a college town. evading dinosaurs and other menaces along Joy Luck Club, The (1993) C-135m. ★★★ the way. Lively, ingratiating family-friendly D: Wayne Wang. Kieu Chinh, Tsai Chin, comedy-adventure is so loosely based on France Nuyen, Lisa Lu, Ming-Na Wen, TamJules Verne’s novel that a copy of the book lyn Tomita, Lauren Tom, Rosalind Chao, Anis a plot element. Good effects and design drew McCarthy, Diane Baker, Chao-Li Chi, help, especially when the movie is seen in Melanie Chang, Victor Wong, Irene Ng. Rich [ 724 ]

tapestry of eight stories; the incredible saga of the Saddle with this Western OTHELLO: four women who survived—and prevailed— when jealous rancher Borgnine seeks some against all odds in China, and their assimilated lovemaking advice from cowhand Ford, along American daughters, whose troubles seem alcomes Steiger hinting that Ford’s giving Borgmost trivial by comparison. Starts losing its nine’s wife (French) a few ‘‘lessons’’ as well. grip in the penultimate sequence, but soars Brooding, intense drama is pretty good on its again for a powerhouse finale that will have own terms, more intriguing if you know the original. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 you reaching for a crying towel. Screenplay by Amy Tan and Ronald Bass, from Tan’s Jubilee Trail (1954) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: best-selling novel. [R]▼●쩠 Joseph Kane. Vera Ralston, Joan Leslie, Joy of Living (1938) 90m. ★★★ D: Tay Forrest Tucker, John Russell, Ray MiddleGarnett. Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks, ton, Pat O’Brien. Expansive Republic WestJr., Alice Brady, Guy Kibbee, Jean Dixon, ern vehicle for Ralston as heart-of-gold Eric Blore, Lucille Ball. Delightful screwchanteuse sorting out rancher’s life in old ball musicomedy with gay-blade Fairbanks California.▼ wooing singing star Dunne.▼●쩠 Judas Kiss (1999) C-97m. ★★★ D: SebasJoy of Sex (1984) C-93m. BOMB D: tian Gutierrez. Carla Gugino, Hal Holbrook, Martha Coolidge. Michelle Meyrink, CamEmma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Roscoe eron Dye, Lisa Langlois, Charles Van Lee Browne, Lisa Eichhorn, Greg Wise, Eman, Christopher Lloyd, Colleen Camp, Philip Baker Hall, Gil Bellows, Simon Baker. Ernie Hudson. Virgin Meyrink, believing Young New Orleans pick-up gang kidnaps an she has weeks to live, decides to ‘‘do it important official of a computer company for all’’ before she dies. Nothing of Alex a big ransom payoff—but there’s more to this Comfort’s book—including his name—is caper than first meets the eye. Sexy Gugino left (and despite the title, no one seems to (who also coproduced the film) sparks a good be having a good time) in embarrassingly cast, but the real treat is watching Thompson bad high-school comedy. [R]▼ and Rickman drawling together as Southern Joyride (1977) C-92m. ★★ D: Joseph Ruben. investigators (one Federal, one local) on the Desi Arnaz, Jr., Robert Carradine, Melacase. Written by the director. Made for theaters; debuted on cable. Panavision. [R]▼ nie Griffith, Anne Lockhart, Tom Ligon, Cliff Lenz. Meandering tale of two youngJudas Was a Woman SEE: La Beˆte and-footloose couples on the road to Alaska Humaine looking for adventure but drifting into crime. Jude (1996-British) C-123m. ★★ D: MiFour show-biz offspring play the leads: the chael Winterbottom. Christopher Eccleston, sons of Desi Arnaz (and Lucy) and John Kate Winslet, Rachel Griffiths, Liam CunCarradine, the daughters of Tippi Hedren ningham, June Whitfield, Ross Colvin Turnand June Lockhart. [R]▼쩠 bull. Dour, generally uninvolving adaptation Joy Ride (2001) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Dahl. of Thomas Hardy’s final novel, Jude the ObPaul Walker, Leelee Sobieski, Steve Zahn, scure, about an unschooled but intellectually Jessica Bowman. Egged on by his no-account ambitious 19th-century stonemason who enbrother (Zahn), a young man (Walker) plays a dures a lifetime of smashed dreams. The early prank on a trucker using his CB radio—but going wobbily telescopes many of the book’s the victim of the joke doesn’t find it funny events into the opening half hour; the movie and exacts terrifying revenge by stalking the then gets a desperately needed shot in the two and the girlfriend who joins them on the arm when Winslet (terrific) shows up as the road. Lots of action and suspense in this imcousin, lover, and academic rebel trying to probable yarn, but the fun drains a bit toward exist in a society that systematically crushes rebels. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 the end. Followed by a direct-to-DVD sequel. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Judge and the Assassin, The (1975J. R. SEE: Who’s That Knocking at My French) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bertrand TavDoor ernier. Philippe Noiret, Michel Galabru, ★★★ D: William Juarez (1939) 132m. Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Claude Brialy, Renee Dieterle. Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Brian Faure. In a way, the title tells all in this inciAherne, Claude Rains, John Garfield, Gale sive, expertly directed and acted drama: Judge Sondergaard, Donald Crisp, Gilbert RoNoiret must determine whether murderer Galand, Louis Calhern, Grant Mitchell. Inlabru is insane or faking. Fascinating from teresting biography of Mexican leader start to finish. Panavision.▼● (Muni), with unforgettable performance Judge Dredd (1995) C-96m. ★★ D: Danny by Rains as Napoleon III; also notable is Cannon. Sylvester Stallone, Armand AsGarfield’s offbeat casting as Mexican Gensante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan eral Diaz. Elaborately done, but never as Chen, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow, inspiring as it’s intended to be.▼ Balthazar Getty, Joanna Miles, Mitchell Jubal (1956) C-101m. ★★★ D: Delmer Ryan. Loud, ugly adaptation of the comic Daves. Glenn Ford, Ernest Borgnine, Rod book set in a future world of urban chaos Steiger, Valerie French, Felicia Farr, Noah where new-age police are empowered to Beery, Jr., Charles Bronson. It’s Bard in ‘‘judge’’—and kill, if need be—on the spot. [ 725 ]

Judge Dredd (Stallone) is caught in a conbut surprisingly absorbing in the early spiracy much bigger and more insidious going. Leary is a standout as the chief than he realizes. Some interesting plotting is heavy. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 lost in a sea of hard-edged violence, video Judith (1966) C-109m. BOMB D: Daniel game–like special effects, and overripe actMann. Sophia Loren, Peter Finch, Jack ing. James Earl Jones reads opening narraHawkins, Hans Verner, Zharira Charifai. tion; James Remar and Scott Wilson appear Austrian Jewess Loren survives prison camp unbilled. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 with makeup intact, comes to Israel in Judgement in Stone, A (1986-Canadian) 1948 to locate Nazi husband who betrayed C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Ousama Rawi. Rita her. Film is both dull and unbelievable, a bad Tushingham, Ross Petty, Tom Kneebone, combination. Video title: CONFLICT. Panavision.▼ Shelley Peterson, Jessica Stern, Jonathan Crombie, Jackie Burroughs. Tushingham Ju Dou (1989-Chinese-Japanese) C-95m. ★★★1 is well cast in this otherwise tiresome, ⁄2 D: Zhang Yimou. Gong Li, Li Wei, drawn-out chiller as a repressed, illiterate, Li Bao-Tian, Zhang Yi, Zhen Ji-an. Striking, and psychotic spinster who takes a job as a visually magnificent drama, set during the housemaid with tragic results. Aka THE 1920s, telling the tragic story of a young peasHOUSEKEEPER. Remade in France as LA ant woman who’s forced to wed an elderly, CE´RE´MONIE. [R] ▼● bitter factory owner, and commences an affair Judge Priest (1934) 80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John with his nephew. Banned in China, supposFord. Will Rogers, Tom Brown, Anita edly because of its focus on individual values Louise, Henry B. Walthall, Stepin Fetchit, and unflattering depiction of the old man (in a Hattie McDaniel. Exceptional slice of Amernation ruled by a small elite group of old icana with Rogers as commonsensical yet men); authorities feared audiences would see controversial judge in small town; full of it as a metaphor for the way China’s leaders warm and funny character vignettes, incontrol society. First Chinese film ever to earn cluding Walthall’s stirring courtroom scene. a Best Foreign Film Academy Award nomiFord remade it in 1953 as THE SUN nation—and those responsible for entering it SHINES BRIGHT.▼쩠 in the competition were disciplined by their Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) 178m. superiors. Controversy aside, a powerful, pro★★★★ D: Stanley Kramer. Spencer Tracy, vocative film. ▼●쩠 Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, MarJudy Berlin (2000) 96m. ★★★ D: Eric Menlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Maximilian delsohn. Barbara Barrie, Bob Dishy, Edie Schell, Montgomery Clift, William Shatner. Falco, Carlin Glynn, Aaron Harnick, Bette Superior production revolving around U.S. Henritze, Madeline Kahn, Julie Kavner, Anne judge Tracy presiding over German warMeara, Novella Nelson. Cross-section of resicriminal trials. Schell, who originated the role dents of Long Island town dream of happiness in Abby Mann’s 1959 TV play, won Oscar as while facing bleak reality—and a lingering defense attorney, as did Mann for his screensolar eclipse. Original, often eloquent (if play. Fine performances by Dietrich as widow slow-paced) statement on contemporary life of German officer, Garland as hausfrau, Clift and love, depicted by top-notch cast of N.Y. as unbalanced victim of Nazi atrocities. Later actors, including Kahn in her final film. a Broadway play. ▼●쩠 Writer-director Mendelsohn’s feature directing debut. ▼쩠 Judgment in Berlin (1988) C-92m. ★★ D: Leo Penn. Martin Sheen, Sam Wanamaker, Juggernaut (1974-British) C-109m. ★★★ Sean Penn, Max Gail, Juerger Hemrich, D: Richard Lester. Richard Harris, Omar ShaCarl Lumbly, Max Volkert Martens. U.S. rif, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, judge Sheen, thrown into one of those Shirley Knight, Ian Holm, Roy Kinnear, FredSpencer Tracy/Nuremberg situations, has die Jones. Surprisingly effective thriller about to determine if the hijacking of an East bomb threat on luxury ocean liner, and demoGerman jet into Berlin is justified. Ragged lition experts’ attempts to avoid disaster. Harbut just watchable, with actor Penn (the ris is first-rate and so is Lester’s direction of a director’s son) turning in one unexpectedly formula story. [PG]▼쩠 heartfelt cameo during some climactic courtJuggler, The (1953) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edroom testimony. Shown on TV as ESCAPE ward Dmytryk. Kirk Douglas, Milly Vitale, TO FREEDOM. [PG]▼●쩠 Paul Stewart, Alf Kjellin, Beverly WashJudgment Night (1993) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: burn. Sentimental account of Jewish refugee Stephen Hopkins. Emilio Estevez, Cuba Douglas going to Israel to rebuild his life, Gooding, Jr., Denis Leary, Stephen Dorff, overcoming bitterness from life in a concenJeremy Piven, Peter Greene. Sporadically tration camp. Filmed in Israel. tense, competently directed programmer Juice (1992) C-92m. ★★ D: Ernest R. about four suburban buddies who end up Dickerson. Omar Epps, Jermaine Hopbeing chased through tenements and sewers kins, Tupac Shakur, Khalil Kain, Cindy after driving their fancy RV over a shooting Herron, Vincent Laresca, Samuel L. Jackvictim in a very tough part of Chicago. Ultison. Impressively shot but overly conmately done in by standard genre cliche´s, trived (and extremely violent) tale of four [ 726 ]

black teenage friends whose lives take a a woman whose life splits in two, leaving tragic turn when a store robbery goes out her caught between a happily married exisof control. Promising directorial debut tence with Byrne and a dangerous affair for Spike Lee’s talented cinematographer. with photographer Sting. Intriguing, wellCostar Herron (from the group En Vogue), acted psychological thriller that unfortuQueen Latifah, and other rap stars appear, nately leads nowhere. Handsomely photoand perform on the soundtrack. [R]▼●쩠 graphed by Giuseppe Rotunno, this theatJuke Girl (1942) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis rical release was made on high-definition Bernhardt. Ann Sheridan, Ronald Reagan, video, then transferred to film. [R]▼● Richard Whorf, Gene Lockhart, Betty Julia Has Two Lovers (1991) C-86m. ★★1 Brewer, Faye Emerson, George Tobias, ⁄2 D: Bashar Shbib. Daphna Kastner, Alan Hale, Howard da Silva, Donald MacDavid Duchovny, David Charles, Tim Ray, Bride, William B. Davidson, Fuzzy Knight, Clare Bancroft, Martin Donovan. ChilWillie Best. Exploitation of farmers is the dren’s author, who’s ‘‘involved’’ with a subject of this robust Warner Bros. film, man but convinced she can do better, dewhich is spoiled by typecasting of the bad velops a fantasy relationship with a teleguys and a melodramatic script that veers phone wrong number, who ends up engaging way off-course. It does provide Reagan her in mutually stimulating chats. Cheaply with one of his most interesting parts, howmade, unevenly acted, but solid-enough premise keeps you engrossed to the end. [R]▼ ever, as an itinerant worker who becomes a farmers’ rights activist(!), battling for unJulia Misbehaves (1948) 99m. ★★★ D: derdog Tobias against fat-cat Lockhart. Jack Conway. Greer Garson, Walter PidJules and Jim (1961-French) 104m. ★★★★ geon, Peter Lawford, Elizabeth Taylor, D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Jeanne Moreau, Oskar Cesar Romero, Mary Boland, Nigel Bruce. Werner, Henri Serre, Marie Dubois, Vanna Bouncy account of showgirl Garson returnUrbino. Truffaut’s memorable tale of three ing to dignified husband Pidgeon when people in love, and how the years affect daughter Taylor is about to marry; Romero their interrelationships. A film of rare beauty is fun as bragging acrobat. Stars seem and charm. Screenplay by Truffaut and Jean right at home with slapstick situations.▼ Gruault, based on novel by Henri-Pierre Julie (1956) 99m. ★★ D: Andrew L. Roche´. Americanized by Paul Mazursky in Stone. Doris Day, Louis Jourdan, Barry WILLIE AND PHIL. Franscope.▼●쩠 Sullivan, Frank Lovejoy, Jack Kelly, Ann Julia (1977) C-118m. ★★★★ D: Fred ZinneRobinson, Jack Kruschen, Mae Marsh. mann. Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Overbaked soaper in which Day contends Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell, Hal with jealous, psychopathic spouse JourHolbrook, Rosemary Murphy, Meryl Streep, dan, who strangled her first husband and Lisa Pelikan, Cathleen Nesbitt, John Glover. now threatens to kill her. Sometimes tense, Fonda plays Lillian Hellman in adaptation but too often unintentionally funny. Also of author’s story in Pentimento about her shown in computer-colored version.▼ exuberant, unusual friend Julia, and how Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: she drew Hellman into involvement with Harmony Korine. Ewen Bremner, Chloe¨ European resistance movement in 1930s. Sevigny, Werner Herzog, Evan Neumann, Fine storytelling in beautifully crafted film; Joyce Korine, Chrissy Kobylak, Alvin Law. Robards (as Dashiell Hammett), screenwriter Korine (of KIDS fame and GUMMO infamy) Alvin Sargent, and radiant Redgrave won Osscripted this disgustingly sordid freak show cars. Streep’s feature debut. [PG]▼●쩠 about a dysfunctional family including a Julia (2008-French-U.S.-Mexican) C-138m. schizophrenic (Bremner), his pregnant sis ★★★ (Sevigny), and their sadistically cruel father D: Erick Zonca. Tilda Swinton, Aidan Gould, Saul Rubinek, Kate del Castillo, Jude (Herzog). The first American film to utilize Ciccolella, Bruno Bichir. Swinton commands the cinematic rules of Dogma 95. [R]▼쩠 our attention playing a character unlike any Juliet of the Spirits (1965-Italian) C-148m. ★★★ D: Federico Fellini. Giulietta Masina, she’s tackled before: a self-destructive alcoholic and party girl. She’s so desperate she Sandra Milo, Mario Pisu, Valentina Cortese, hatches a harebrained scheme to kidnap a Lou Gilbert, Sylva Koscina. Surrealistic Mexican neighbor’s young son and collect fantasy triggered by wife’s fears that her a ransom payoff from his wealthy grandfawell-to-do husband is cheating on her. A film ther. You never know where this audacious, requiring viewer to delve into woman’s psyfast-paced film is heading next, and it’s a che via a rash of symbolism; counterbalanced wild ride . . . but even at its most outlandish with rich visual delights.▼●쩠 Swinton keeps it firmly anchored. French Julius Caesar (1953) 120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: filmmaker Zonca made this as an homage to Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Marlon Brando, John Cassavetes’ GLORIA. Super 35. [R] James Mason, John Gielgud, Louis Calhern, Edmond O’Brien, Greer Garson, Deborah Julia and Julia (1987-Italian) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Del Monte. Kathleen Turner, Kerr, George Macready, Michael Pate, Gabriel Byrne, Sting, Gabriele Ferzetti, Alan Napier, Ian Wolfe, Douglass DumAngela Goodwin. Turner is compelling as brille, Edmund Purdom. Superior adapta[ 727 ]

tion of William Shakespeare’s play of pofor plenty of sight gags when they join military paratroop squad.▼●쩠 litical power and honor in ancient Rome. Jumpin’ Jack Flash (1986) C-100m. ★1⁄2 Lavishly produced (by John Houseman), D: Penny Marshall. Whoopi Goldberg, with an excellent cast and Oscar-winning Stephen Collins, John Wood, Carol Kane, art direction-set decoration. Screenplay by Annie Potts, Peter Michael Goetz, Roscoe director Mankiewicz.▼●쩠 Lee Browne, Sara Botsford, Jeroen Krabbe´, Julius Caesar (1970) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Pryce, Jon Lovitz, Phil Hartman, Stuart Burge. Charlton Heston, Jason Tracy Reiner, Jim Belushi, Paxton WhiteRobards, John Gielgud, Richard Johnson, head, Tracey Ullman, Jamey Sheridan. Robert Vaughn, Richard Chamberlain, Diana Computer programmer is pulled into interRigg, Jill Bennett, Christopher Lee, Minational intrigue when spy who wants in chael Gough, Andre Morell. Technically from the cold contacts her on her terminal. ragged, but acceptable version of ShakesLively but stupid star vehicle for Goldpeare play, negated somewhat by Robards’ berg, who’s infinitely better than the script. zombielike portrayal of Brutus. The 1953 Feature directing debut for Marshall, who version (also starring Gielgud) is much cast her producer-director brother Garry as a better. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 police detective and former TV costar MiJumanji (1995) C-104m. ★★ D: Joe Johnchael McKean in an unbilled cameo as a ston. Robin Williams, Bonnie Hunt, Kirsten British party guest. [R]▼●쩠 Dunst, Bradley Pierce, Bebe Neuwirth, JonJump Tomorrow (2001-U.S.-British) Cathan Hyde, David Alan Grier, Patricia 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Hopkins. Tunde AdeClarkson, Adam Hann-Byrd. In 1969 New bimpe, Natalia Verbeke, Hippolyte Girardot, England, a boy finds a board game buried James Wilby, Patricia Mauceri, Isiah Whitunderground and soon discovers that by lock, Jr. Sweet, slight romantic comedy about playing it a world of terror is unleashed; 26 an uptight office worker on his way to a years later, in the same house, two kids start family-planned marriage (to a girl from his playing the very same game and bring that homeland, Nigeria). When he chances to meet boy—now a full-grown man—back to life. a charming Latina, he’s smitten. .. and encourA phantasmagoria of digital special effects aged to pursue her by a lovesick Frenchman. (a virulent vine, a stampede of wild animals, Debut feature for writer-director Hopkins giant attacking mosquitoes, etc.) seems to takes its time to win you over, but succeeds. be this film’s raison d’eˆtre. Unfortunately, Based on Hopkins’ own award-winning short we’re all too aware that they are special subject called JORGE. [PG] ▼쩠 effects. The story doesn’t seem to have much June Bride (1948) 97m. ★★★ D: Bretaigne of a point, except perhaps that one shouldn’t Windust. Bette Davis, Robert Montgomplay with ancient board games. Based on ery, Fay Bainter, Tom Tully, Barbara Bates, Chris Van Allsburg’s book. Followed by an Jerome Cowan, Mary Wickes. Flippant animated TV series. [PG] ▼●쩠 comedy of magazine writers Davis and Jumbo SEE: Billy Rose’s Jumbo Montgomery inspired by story they are Jumper (2008) C-90m. ★★ D: Doug Liman. doing on June brides. Breezy script by RaHayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, nald MacDougall. Don’t blink or you’ll Diane Lane, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, miss Debbie Reynolds in her film debut.▼ Michael Rooker, AnnaSophia Robb, Max Junebug (2005) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Phil Thieriot, Tom Hulce, Kristen Stewart. Sci-fi Morrison. Amy Adams, Embeth Davidtz, and action-thriller genres awkwardly blend Benjamin McKenzie, Alessandro Nivola, in this overblown (albeit fast-paced) acFrank Hoyt Taylor, Celia Weston, Scott count of Christensen, who can transport Wilson. Exceptional character study of a sohimself from locale to locale at will—but phisticated Chicago art dealer and her husnot without complications. Based on Steven band, who travel to his North Carolina Gould’s novel. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 home after a long absence and meet head-on Jumpin at the Boneyard (1992) C-107m. with family pressures and chasms in culture. ★1⁄2 D: Jeff Stanzler. Tim Roth, Alexis Direct, spare, and moving in a way that is Arquette, Danitra Vance, Samuel L. Jackmost unusual for an American film, with son, Kathleen Chalfant, Luis Guzman, Elizdirector Morrison (making his feature debut) abeth Bracco, Jeffrey Wright. Divorced, and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan quiunemployed Bronx father’s further burden: etly and powerfully examining the effects his younger brother, a crack addict he’s reof environment on people and relationships. united with after three years. Honorably intenAdams stands out in a perfect cast. [R] 쩠 tioned but stillborn drama taking place over Jungle Book (1942) C-105m. ★★★ D: 24 hours. Thematically and aesthetically for Zoltan Korda. Sabu, Joseph Calleia, John masochists only. [R]▼● Qualen, Frank Puglia, Rosemary DeCamp, Jumping Jacks (1952) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: NorNoble Johnson. Colorful Kipling fantasy of man Taurog. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, boy (Sabu) raised by wolves. Exciting family Mona Freeman, Don DeFore, Robert fare, fine Miklos Rozsa score. Remade Strauss. Daffy duo has good opportunity twice (by Disney).▼●쩠 [ 728 ]

Jungle Book, The (1967) C-78m. ★★★ D: dictable, Disney comedy about a careerWolfgang Reitherman. Voices of Phil Harobsessed New Yorker who goes to the Amris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George azon to get final divorce papers signed by Sanders, Sterling Holloway, J. Pat O’Malley, his ex-wife and comes back with a son he Verna Felton, Bruce Reitherman. Genial never knew he had. The boy’s jungle inDisney animated feature freely adapted stincts are no match for life in Manhattan— from Rudyard Kipling’s stories. Mowgli, though he does manage to score some the boy raised by wolves, is befriended by points along the way. Good laughs througha laid-back bear named Baloo (memorably out this family-oriented feature, a remake voiced by Harris) who joins him in his of the French hit LITTLE INDIAN, BIG jungle adventures. Hand-picked cast of actors CITY. [PG]▼●쩠 help create some vivid characterizations in Jungle Warriors (1984-German-Mexican) this easygoing film. Songs include ‘‘The Bare C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Ernst R. von Theumer. Necessities,’’ ‘‘I Wanna Be Like You,’’ Nina Van Pallandt, Paul L. Smith, John ‘‘Trust in Me.’’ Followed by a sequel 36 Vernon, Alex Cord, Sybil Danning, Woody years later. Remade in 1998 as a live-action Strode, Dana Elcar, Louisa Moritz, Marjoe direct-to-video movie: THE JUNGLE Gortner. How’s this for a plot: fashion BOOK: MOWGLI’S STORY. ▼●쩠 models are taken prisoner by South AmeriJungle Book 2, The (2003) C-72m. ★★ D: can drug kingpin and tortured by his kinky Steve Trenbirth. Voices of John Goodman, half-sister (Danning). Credible cast stuck Haley Joel Osment, Mae Whitman, Connor in sub-par action yarn.▼ Funk, Bob Joles, Tony Jay, John RhysJunior (1994) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ivan ReitDavies, Jim Cummings, Phil Collins, David man. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeOgden Stiers. Retread of the 1967 Disney Vito, Emma Thompson, Frank Langella, feature has Mowgli leaving the village Pamela Reed, Judy Collins, James Eckhouse, where he now lives to rejoin his old friends Aida Turturro, Welker White. Pleasantin the jungle—in spite of the ever-present enough comedy about a straitlaced scientist threat of the tiger Shere Khan. Sound-alikes (Schwarzenegger) who’s persuaded by an agfor Phil Harris, George Sanders, and other gressive colleague (DeVito) to try injecting voices from the original film, and reuse of sperm into his body and becoming pregnant. its hit songs, only emphasize how pointless Unexpected result: he doesn’t want to give up this sequel really is. [G] ▼쩠 his baby! This ‘‘politically correct farce’’ Jungle Book, The (1994) SEE: Rudyard boasts enthusiastic performances from its three Kipling’s The Jungle Book stars, and precious few laughs after the initial ★★★ Jungle Fever (1991) C-132m. D: ‘‘joke’’ is presented. Instead, Arnold becomes Spike Lee. Wesley Snipes, Annabella a better man by experiencing childbearing like Sciorra, Spike Lee, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, a woman. Sheesh. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Samuel L. Jackson, Lonette McKee, John Junior Bonner (1972) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Turturro, Frank Vincent, Anthony Quinn, Sam Peckinpah. Steve McQueen, Robert Halle Berry, Tyra Ferrell, Veronica Webb, Preston, Ida Lupino, Ben Johnson, Joe Don Tim Robbins, Brad Dourif, Debi Mazar, Baker, Barbara Leigh, Mary Murphy. Totally Nicholas Turturro, Queen Latifah. Encaptivating rodeo comedy-drama as an aging grossing look at a love affair that crosses McQueen returns to his home and family to over racial, ethnic, cultural, and geographic take part in a local contest. Peckinpah’s most boundary lines, when upwardly mobile, gentle film is full of natural performances, happily married Snipes has a fling with his particularly by Preston and Lupino as new temp secretary Sciorra. Less than perMcQueen’s estranged parents. Written by Jeb Rosebrook. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼쩠 fect, with a drug subplot that throws the film off-kilter toward the end—but still utterly Junkman (1982) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: H. B. compelling. Lee doesn’t have all the anHalicki. H. B. Halicki, Christopher Stone, swers, but he certainly raises interesting Susan Shaw, Lang Jeffries, Hoyt Axton, questions. Terrific songs by Stevie Wonder Lynda Day George. Cars speed, crash, and score by Terence Blanchard, although and practically bring each other to orgasm. the music practically drowns out the diaOh, yes, there is a story . . . [PG]▼쩠 logue in some scenes. What’s the point of Juno (2007) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jason Reitthat? [R]▼●쩠 man. Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer GarJungle Fighters SEE: Long and the Short ner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. and the Tall, The Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, Rainn Wilson, Jungle Heat SEE: Dance of the Dwarfs Cameron Bright. Precocious 16-year-old girl Jungle Jim series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s discovers she is pregnant, and decides to Classic Movie Guide deal with the situation herself, choosing the Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) C-105m. ★★★ D: couple she wants to adopt her baby. With John Pasquin. Tim Allen, Martin Short, Joher too-cool demeanor and lingo, Juno may Beth Williams, Lolita Davidovich, David be off-putting at first, but we soon discover Ogden Stiers, Bob Dishy, Valerie Mahafthat she’s all too human. Exceptional, fey, Leelee Sobieski. Very likable, if preOscar-winning screenplay by Diablo Cody [ 729 ]

grows warmer at every turn, and leads us in seph Mazzello, Ariana Richards, Samuel surprising directions. Janney and Simmons L. Jackson, Wayne Knight. Billionaire are terrific as Juno’s straight-shooting parAttenborough invites paleontologists Dern ents, and Page is peerless in the title role. and Neill and mathematician Goldblum to Great title sequence and use of music inspect his island amusement park, poputhroughout. [PG-13]쩠 lated with living dinosaurs; he even has his Juno and the Paycock (1930-British) 96m. grandchildren tag along, blissfully uncon★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Sara Allgood, vinced that anything could go wrong. SlamEdward Chapman, Sidney Morgan, Marie bang thriller delivers the goods with action, O’Neill, John Laurie, Dennis Wyndham, suspense, hair-raising chills, and landmark John Longden. Faithful but dull, stagebound special effects: the dinosaurs seem alive. adaptation (by Hitchcock and Alma Reville) The story can’t bear such close scrutiny, but of Sean O’Casey’s play about a poor Dublin while this thrill ride is going, you won’t family’s travails during the civil war. The mind. Michael Crichton cowrote the screenstraightforward material defeats the direcplay from his own novel. Won three Oscars, tor; however, Allgood is a standout as Juno. for Visual Effects, Sound, and Sound EfThat’s Barry Fitzgerald as ‘‘The Orator,’’ in fects Editing. Followed by THE LOST his screen debut.▼쩠 WORLD: JURASSIC PARK. [PG-13] Ju-on: The Grudge (2003-Japanese) C▼●쩠 92m. ★★★ D: Takashi Shimizu. Megumi Jurassic Park III (2001) C-93m. ★★★ D: Okina, Misaki Ito, Misa Uehara, Yui IchiJoe Johnston. Sam Neill, William H. Macy, kawa, Kanji Tsuda, Takako Fuji, Kayoko Te´a Leoni, Alessandro Nivola, Trevor MorShibata, Yukako Kukuri, Takashi Matsuyama, gan, Michael Jeter, John Diehl, Bruce A. Yuya Ozeki. Ghosts of a brutally murdered Young, Laura Dern. Entertaining popcorn mother and her son vengefully terrorize and movie that takes a formula and plays it for kill a series of people who have a connection all it’s worth: professor-paleontologist Neill with the modest Tokyo home where the muris persuaded to lead an air expedition to the ders took place. Not a story as such, but a forbidden island where dinosaurs roam, but of series of eerie images, some quietly creepy, course he hasn’t been told the truth, and the others outright terrifying; made in the same plane lands there . . . a very bad idea. Full of unnerving style as RINGU. Part of a Japanese scares, and lots of fun: proof that a thrill-ride series with a dedicated following. The imagitype of movie doesn’t have to be dumb . . . or native director remade the movie for Hollyoverlong. Script by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor. [PG-13]▼쩠 wood as THE GRUDGE. Followed by a sequel. [R] ▼쩠 Juror, The (1996) C-116m. ★★ D: Brian Jupiter’s Darling (1955) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gibson. Demi Moore, Alec Baldwin, JoGeorge Sidney. Esther Williams, Howard seph Gordon-Levitt, Anne Heche, James Keel, George Sanders, Marge and Gower Gandolfini, Lindsay Crouse, Tony Lo BiChampion, Norma Varden. Lavish musical anco, Michael Constantine, Matt Craven, of Robert Sherwood’s Road to Rome, which Todd Susman, Michael Rispoli, Jack Gilbogs down in tedium: Williams is temptress pin. Shady (and, it turns out, psychopathic) who dallies with Hannibal (Keel) to prevent underworld figure Baldwin victimizes an attack on Rome. CinemaScope.▼● unsuspecting Moore so that she will sway Jupiter’s Thigh (1979-French) C-90m. fellow jurors into acquitting a Mafia boss. ★★ D: Philippe De Broca. Annie Girardot, Comparisons to TRIAL BY JURY are apt, Philippe Noiret, Frances Perrin, Catherine but this one goes on (much) longer and gets Alric. Blah sequel to DEAR DETECTIVE, more ridiculous by the minute. The stars with sleuth Girardot and professor Noiret can’t be faulted, but the script certainly can. becoming involved in intrigue while honPanavision. [R]▼●쩠 eymooning in Greece. [PG]▼ Jury Duty (1995) C-85m. BOMB D: John Jupiter’s Wife (1994) C-78m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fortenberry. Pauly Shore, Tia Carrere, StanMichel Negroponte. Compelling documenley Tucci, Brian Doyle-Murray, Abe Vitary about a middle-aged homeless woman goda, Charles Napier, Richard Edson, whom filmmaker Negroponte chanced to Richard Riehle, Alex Datcher, Shelley Winencounter in N.Y.’s Central Park. She ters, Dick Vitale, Andrew (Dice) Clay. claims to have ESP and be the wife of the ‘‘BOMB’’ may be too high a rating for this god Jupiter and daughter of the late actor inane, insulting ‘‘comedy’’ featuring Shore Robert Ryan! Negroponte delves into her as a jerk who would much rather face duty past and discovers quite a few surprises in on a sequestered jury (and get a free hotel this extremely moving portrait of a shatroom) than find himself a job. Loaded with tered life. Shown on cable TV prior to its tasteless, gratuitous references to the O. J. Simpson trial. [PG-13]▼●쩠 theatrical premiere. ▼쩠 Jurassic Park (1993) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jury of One (1974-French-Italian) C-97m. ★★ Steven Spielberg. Sam Neill, Laura Dern, D: Andre´ Cayatte. Sophia Loren, Jean Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Gabin, Henri Garcin, Julien Bertheau, Peck, Martin Ferrero, B. D. Wong, JoMichel Albertini. Plodding melodrama about [ 730 ]

a woman who goes to outrageous extremes D: Irving Cummings. Shirley Temple, Joan to protect her son, on trial for murder and Davis, Charles Farrell, Amanda Duff, Bill rape. Gabin plays the judge. Aka THE VERRobinson, Bert Lahr, Claude Gillingwater. DICT. [R] Simpleminded corn with Shirley singleJust a Gigolo (1979-West German) Chandedly ending the Depression, manipulat1 ★★ 105m. ing pessimistic tycoon Gillingwater into creat⁄2 D: David Hemmings. David Bowie, Sydne Rome, Kim Novak, David ing new jobs. But the musical numbers with Hemmings, Maria Schell, Curt Jurgens, Robinson are still a delight. Also shown in Marlene Dietrich. Very interesting cast is computer-colored version.▼쩠 chief attraction of weird melodrama starJust Ask for Diamond (1988-British) ring Bowie as Prussian war vet who drifts C-94m. ★★★ D: Stephen Bayly. Susannah from job to job in Berlin before finally York, Patricia Hodge, Roy Kinnear, Midiscovering his true calling. Dietrich, in chael Medwin, Peter Eyre, Nickolas Grace, her last film appearance, pops in long enough Dursley McLinden, Colin Dale, Bill Paterto croak the title song; Rome’s spirited son, Jimmy Nail, Saeed Jaffrey. Clever, if performance gives lift to uneven film that occasionally cartoonish, detective-film parpossibly made more sense in original 147m. ody, about the kid brother of a dumbbell version released in Europe. [R]▼● private eye and the mystery surrounding a Just a Kiss (2002) C-90m. ★★ D: Fisher box of candy. Best for older children (alStevens. Patrick Breen, Ron Eldard, Kyra though they might not get all the referSedgwick, Marisa Tomei, Marley Shelton, ences to 1940s Hollywood detective dramas). Taye Diggs, Zoe Caldwell, Sarita ChoudScreenplay by Anthony Horowitz, from hury, Ron Rifkin. Love, sex, infidelity, and his novel The Falcon’s Malteser. Aka DIAMOND’S EDGE. [PG]▼쩠 betrayal among a group of N.Y.C. hipsters, showing how a simple kiss between a phiJust Between Friends (1986) C-110m. ★★1 landerer (Eldard) and the girlfriend of his best ⁄2 D: Allan Burns. Mary Tyler Moore, pal (Breen) leads to a bizarre chain of disasTed Danson, Christine Lahti, Sam Waterters and deaths. Well-acted feature directing ston, Salome Jens, Jane Greer, James debut for actor Stevens is yet another selfMacKrell. Genteel tearjerker about two indulgent indie riff on LA RONDE, pointwomen who strike up a friendship, unlessly gimmicked up with animation, surreal aware that they share the same man—one flashbacks and flash-forwards, and a third-act as wife, one as lover. Too pat, too neat rewind where the characters get a second and clean to really hit home, though the actchance. Unattractive digital video cinemaing is first-rate, and Lahti is terrific as the tography doesn’t help. Written by Breen, single career woman. Nice role for Jane based on his play. [R] ▼쩠 Greer, too, as Mary’s mom. Directing debut Just a Little Harmless Sex (1999) C-98m. for writer Burns. [PG-13]▼쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Rick Rosenthal. Alison Eastwood, Just Cause (1995) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Arne Lauren Hutton, Kimberly Williams, Jonathan Glimcher. Sean Connery, Laurence FishSilverman, Jessica Lundy, Rachel Hunter, burne, Kate Capshaw, Blair Underwood, Ed William Ragsdale. After a wife kicks her husHarris, Christopher Murray, Ruby Dee, band out of the house (when he reluctantly Scarlett Johansson, Daniel J. Travanti, Ned picks up a hooker one night) their marriage Beatty, Liz Torres, Lynne Thigpen, Kevin is thrust into crisis mode. She calls her girlMcCarthy, Hope Lange, Chris Sarandon, friends together for advice, and he does the George Plimpton. Eminent Harvard Law same with the guys; they all converge at School professor is persuaded to help a a local club. Minor but entertaining, even black man in Florida who’s about to be exeinsightful, low-budget romantic comedy cuted for a heinous crime he swears he with a very attractive cast. [R]▼쩠 didn’t commit. Starts out as an engrossing Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1993) story, but goes so far afield—and becomes so preposterous (not to mention unpleasant) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Leslie Harris. Ariyan Johnson, Kevin Thigpen, Ebony Jerido, Chequita by the swampy climax that it winds up a huge Jackson, William Badget, Jerard Washwaste of time. John Katzenbach’s novel considerably changed. [R]▼●쩠 ington. A bright, sassy 17-year-old AfricanAmerican (Johnson) desires to escape from Just for You (1952) C-104m. ★★★ D: her stifling Brooklyn housing project by Elliott Nugent. Bing Crosby, Jane Wyman, going to college and then medical school, but Ethel Barrymore, Bob Arthur, Natalie her dreams are shattered when she finds herWood, Cora Witherspoon, Regis Toomey. self pregnant. Cinematically, this is strictly Zesty musical of producer Crosby who amateur night; plus, the film’s two white can’t be bothered with his growing children, characters are thoughtless, mean-spirited till Wyman shows him the way. Pleasant stereotypes (proving that an African-American Harry Warren–Leo Robin score, highlighted filmmaker can be as insensitive and racist as by ‘‘Zing a Little Zong.’’ Based on Stephen Vincent Benet novel Famous. ▼●쩠 a white one). Sole merit: Johnson, who ofJust Friends (2005-U.S.-Canadian) Cfers a spirited performance. [R] ▼쩠 94m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Kumble. Ryan ReynJust Around the Corner (1938) 70m. ★★ [ 731 ]

olds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris, Chris Klein, ate but disappointing memory trip plays out Julie Hagerty, Stephen Root, Christopher like an ethnic episode of TV’s The Wonder Marquette. An unlikely airplane breakdown Years. [R]▼쩠 traps a handsome music industry bigwig (who Just Married (2003) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: was overweight and unpopular as a kid) and a Shawn Levy. Ashton Kutcher, Brittany deranged teen pop sensation in his New JerMurphy, Christian Kane, David Moscow, sey hometown. When he tries to get back Monet Mazur, David Rasche, Veronica together with his best friend from high school, Cartwright, Raymond J. Barry. Young couple who never returned his affections, the exsets off for a European honeymoon, where pected hijinks ensue. Caricatures, cliche´s, and one disaster follows another—and the bride is painfully unfunny slapstick sequences ruin a pursued by her onetime boyfriend. Surprispotentially sweet love story. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ingly likable formula comedy, with Murphy Just Imagine (1930) 109m. ★1⁄2 D: David and Kutcher giving it 100 percent. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Butler. El Brendel, Maureen O’Sullivan, John Garrick, Marjorie White, Frank AlJust My Luck (2006) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: bertson, Hobart Bosworth. Famous but Donald Petrie. Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, utterly disappointing sci-fi musical set in Faizon Love, Missi Pyle, Bree Turner, Sa1980, with Brendel, officially dead since maire Armstrong, Tovah Feldshuh, Carlos 1930, suddenly revived and unable to get Ponce, Makenzie Vega, McFly. At a masked used to phenomenal changes in living. ball, the world’s most naturally fortunate Futuristic sets, gags, costumes made tregirl kisses a handsome stranger, who just mendous impression on everyone who saw happens to be the most ill-fated fellow alive. film in 1930, but alas, it doesn’t wear well Their karmas magically cross, and the girl at all. Songs by DeSylva-Brown-Henderson. who used to beat the odds every time stumJustine (1969) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: George bles through the rest of the movie trying to Cukor. Anouk Aime´e, Dirk Bogarde, Robert figure out what to do about the guy who Forster, Anna Karina, Philippe Noiret, Mistole her luck. Romantic comedy’s gimchael York, John Vernon, Jack Albertson, micky switcheroo script has both good and Cliff Gorman, Michael Constantine, Marcel bad gags, but it’s Lohan who makes it a star vehicle. [PG-13]쩠 Dalio, Michael Dunn, Abraham Sofaer. Jews and Moslems equal topicality, but this is Just One of the Guys (1985) C-100m. ★★★ merely exotic kitsch (though Cukor makes D: Lisa Gottlieb. Joyce Hyser, Claygreat use of widescreen). Tunisian settings and ton Rohner, Billy Jacoby, Toni Hudson, a lush brothel scene can’t rescue this condensaWilliam Zabka, Leigh McCloskey, Sherilyn tion of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria QuarFenn, Arye Gross. Pretty high school setet. [R]▼ nior, convinced that looks have kept paJust Like a Woman (1994-British) C-102m. tronizing male teachers from supporting her in ★★1 citywide journalism competition, dons male ⁄2 D: Christopher Monger. Julie Walters, Adrian Pasdar, Paul Freeman, Gordon Kendisguise and tries again at another school. Ennedy, Susan Wooldridge. Amiable (if a bit gagingly eccentric characterizations take this overlong) comedy featuring Pasdar as Gerfast-paced sleeper out of the ordinary; perald, a heterosexual American in London who formed with gusto by a cast that’s aiming to derives pleasure from becoming ‘‘Geralplease. [PG-13]▼●쩠 dine’’ and wearing women’s clothes. The Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) film works because it’s never condescending C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Lumet. Ali toward Gerald; he’s not a caricature, but a MacGraw, Alan King, Myrna Loy, Keenan guy with an unusual predilection. ▼ Wynn, Tony Roberts, Peter Weller, Judy Just Like Heaven (2005) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kaye, Dina Merrill, Joseph Maher, Michael Mark Waters. Reese Witherspoon, Mark Gross, Leslie Easterbrook, David Rasche, Ruffalo, Donal Logue, Ben Shenkman, Jon John Gabriel. Obnoxious tycoon King drives Heder, Dina Waters, Rosalind Chao, Ivana long-time mistress MacGraw into arms of Milicevic. Widower Ruffalo moves into an younger man, then does everything he can apartment inhabited by Witherspoon’s spirit to get her back. Bitchy upper-class comedy and an unlikely connection begins. Amiable may be too strident for some tastes, but fluff is sustained by charming performances King’s flamboyant performance is sensafrom the leads and a solid supporting cast. tional, as is Loy’s quiet one as his longsuffering secretary. Screenplay by Jay [PG-13] ▼쩠 Just Looking (2000) C-97m. ★★ D: Jason Presson Allen, from her novel. Loy’s last Alexander. Ryan Merriman, Gretchen Mol, theatrical feature. [R]▼ Patti LuPone, Peter Onorati, Amy BraverJust the Ticket (1999) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: man. Bland coming-of-age sexcom about a Richard Wenk. Andy Garcia, Andie Mac14-year-old Jewish kid (Merriman) who gets Dowell, Richard Bradford, Laura Harris, sent to his aunt and uncle in the country (read: Andre Blake, Elizabeth Ashley, Patrick Queens) for the summer. His mission is to Breen, Fred Asparagus, Ron Leibman, Chris watch two people in the act of love, so he Lemmon, Don Novello, Abe Vigoda, Bill starts spying on a pretty neighbor. AffectionIrwin. Mostly likable but lumpy comedy[ 732 ]

drama about ne’er-do-well ticket scalper Gardine Page, Cristina Ferrare, R. G. Armcia and his on-again, off-again relationship strong, John Crawford. Vivid character with MacDowell—who loves him but can’t study of none-too-bright drifter who sets tolerate his utter irresponsibility. Nice charhis sights on becoming No. 1 rodeo star. acterizations, vivid filming on the streets of Tour de force: director/cowriter/star Robertson scores in all departments. [PG]▼쩠 N.Y.C.; hurt by uneven narrative and overlength. Garcia produced the film and composed much of its music. Written by the Kabloonak (1994-Canadian-French) C105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Massot. Charles director. [R]▼●쩠 Just the Way You Are (1984) C-94m. Dance, Adamie Quasiak Knukpuk, David ★★★ Bursztein, Patty Hannock, Philippe Freturn, D: Edouard Molinaro. Kristy McNichol, Michael Ontkean, Kaki Hunter, Andre Peter Hudson, Geoffrey Bateman. Dance Dussolier, Catherine Salviat, Robert Carr(who played D.W. Griffith in GOOD adine, Lance Guest, Alexandra Paul, TimMORNING, BABYLON) here portrays piothy Daly, Patrick Cassidy. Episodic but oneer documentarian Robert Flaherty, who likable film about crippled musician (Mcspends one year in Alaska befriending Inuit Nichol) who goes to French ski resort with eskimos in order to make NANOOK OF her leg in a cast—to see, for once, what it’s THE NORTH (1922). Interesting throughlike when people don’t know she’s handiout, if not particularly inspired. Aka THE capped. Elements of sharp comedy, escapist STRANGER.▼ romance, and travelogue aren’t seamlessly Kabluey (2008) C-86m. ★★ D: Scott Prenconnected, but results are extremely pleasant, dergast. Lisa Kudrow, Scott Prendergast, and McNichol has never been more appealChristine Taylor, Conchata Ferrell, Jeffrey ing. Script by Allan Burns. [PG]▼쩠 Dean Morgan, Chris Parnell, Teri Garr, Just Visiting (2001-French) C-89m. ★★ D: Cameron Wofford, Landon Henninger. Jean-Marie Gaubert. Jean Reno, Christina Burnt-out Kudrow is attempting to raise her Applegate, Christian Clavier, Malcolm Mctwo bratty kids while her husband is fightDowell, Matthew Ross, Tara Reid, Bridgette ing in Iraq. Her loser brother-in-law arrives Wilson-Sampras, John Aylward, George on the scene to help out and gets a job that Plimpton. A 12th-century French knight and requires him to wear a large blue suit that his valet are transported to the 21st century, makes him look like an overgrown extraterwhere their only ally is the descendant of the restrial. Bizarre, ambitious, but mostly nobleman’s bride-to-be. Americanization of downright silly; doesn’t know if it wants France’s 1993 box-office smash LES VISIto be a quirky farce, a cynical portrait of TEURS with the same director and stars, and corporate culture, or a social commentary screenplay revisions by John Hughes. Reno on the inanity of contemporary America. [PG-13]쩠 and Clavier (the film’s cowriter) are terrific, but this remake is heavy-handed and only ocKadosh (1999-Israeli) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: casionally funny. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Amos Gitai. Yael Abecassis, Yoram HatJust You and Me, Kid (1979) C-95m. tub, Meital Barda, Sami Hori, Uri Ran ★1⁄2 D: Leonard Stern. George Burns, Brooke Klausner, Yussef Abu Warda, Lea Koenig. Shields, Lorraine Gary, Nicolas Coster, Thoughtfully made, involving peek into the Burl Ives, Ray Bolger, Leon Ames, Carl world of the Orthodox Jew, centering on Ballantine, Keye Luke. Burns struggles to two deeply troubled sisters who live in an keep awful comedy afloat, but it ain’t ultra-religious community in Jerusalem and easy. Shields plays a runaway who comes are oppressed by the dictates of their faith. to stay with the ex-vaudevillian. CommerA trenchant exploration of the nature of cial interruptions might help this one. [PG] spirituality and the impact of blindly followJuwanna Mann (2002) C-91m. ★★ D: ing the strictures of religion without considJesse Vaughan. Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Vivering the consequences.▼쩠 ica A. Fox, Kevin Pollak, Tommy DavidKafka (1991) C/B&W-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steson, Ginuwine, Kim Wayans, Jenifer Lewis, ven Soderbergh. Jeremy Irons, Theresa Lil’ Kim (Kimberly Jones), Annie Corley. Russell, Joel Grey, Ian Holm, Jeroen Egocentric basketball star torpedoes his Krabbe´, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Alec Guinown career and no one in the NBA will hire ness, Brian Glover, Robert Flemyng. Strikhim—until he disguises himself as a woman ingly photographed and designed film about and joins a female team. Naturally, he’s atmild-mannered insurance clerk Franz Kafka tracted to one of his colleagues—and pre(Irons), who becomes both curious and dictably, he suffers a crisis of conscience as assertive for the first time when he begins the experience turns him into a better man. investigating a friend’s disappearance. TeasThis is TOOTSIE light—or is it TOOTSIE ing, darkly comic tale takes elements from dark? Similarities to that classic comedy are various Kafka stories about oppression and superficial at best. Several real-life sports paranoia, and weaves them into an expresfigures appear as themselves. [PG-13] ▼쩠 sionistic tapestry. Set in 1919 Prague. Not J. W. Coop (1972) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: a total success, and not for all tastes, but Cliff Robertson. Cliff Robertson, Geraloffers many delights, including some choice [ 733 ]

character vignettes. Written by Lem Dobbs; 7-year-old Knapskog and the world around photographed on location in Prague by her: most distressingly, her constantly squabWalt Lloyd. [PG-13]▼● bling parents; most specially, the secret Kagemusha (1980-Japanese) C-159m. ★★★★ world she shares with a little boy. Knapskog D: Akira Kurosawa. Tatsuya Nakadai, is remarkable, and the film can be favorTsutomu Yamazaki, Kenichi Hagiwara, ably compared to SMALL CHANGE and Jinpachi Nezu, Shuji Otaki. SixteenthFORBIDDEN GAMES, the celluloid mascentury thief is spared execution if he will terpieces about childhood. pose as secretly deceased warlord whose Kanal (1956-Polish) 97m. ★★★ D: Andrzej throne is coveted by others. Grand combiWajda. Teresa Izewska, Tadeusz Janczar, nation of humanism and spectacle from a Wienczylaw Glinski, Wladyslaw (Vladek) great filmmaker in the twilight of his career. Sheybal. Intense, almost unrelentingly Released outside the U.S. at 179m. Aka graphic account of the final days of the SepKAGEMUSHA (THE SHADOW WARtember, 1944, Warsaw uprising in NaziRIOR). [PG]▼●쩠 occupied Poland. This is the second of WajKairo SEE: Pulse (2001) da’s war trilogy, after A GENERATION Kaleidoscope (1966) C-103m. ★★ D: Jack and before ASHES AND DIAMONDS. Smight. Warren Beatty, Susannah York, Aka THEY LOVED LIFE. Not shown in Clive Revill, Eric Porter, Murray Melvin. U.S. until 1961.▼쩠 Idea of Beatty-York teaming can’t miss, Kandahar (2001-Iranian-French) C-85m. ★★1 but does, in bland comedy about American ⁄2 D: Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Nelofer Pazplayboy/card-shark forced to capture narira, Sadou Teymouri, Hassan Tantaı¨, Hayacotics smuggler or go to jail. Flashy but talah Hakimi. A journalist who fled forgettable. Filmed in England.▼쩠 Afghanistan during one of its many civil Kalifornia (1993) C-117m. ★★★ D: Domiwars returns to her birthplace after receiving nic Sena. Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David a suicidal letter from her despondent sister, Duchovny, Michelle Forbes, Sierra Pechwho remained behind. Timely film of opeur, Gregory Mars Martin. Offbeat roadpression and hypocrisy in a religiously movie thriller about a writer and a photogracharged country is hurt by amateur actors pher, researching a coffee-table book on seand an underdeveloped script. The stark rial killers, who get a harsh dose of reality photography, simultaneously showing the when they hook up with Pitt and Lewis. beauty and desolation of that part of the Effectively ironic, and well acted by its talworld, is a plus. Loosely based on Pazira’s real life.▼쩠 ented cast. Unrated version runs 118m. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Kangaroo (1986-Australian) C-105m. ★★ Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996-InD: Tim Burstall. Colin Friels, Judy Davis, ★★★ dian) C-114m. D: Mira Nair. Indira John Walton, Julie Nihill, Hugh KeaysVarma, Sarita Choudhury, Naveen Andrews, Byrne. Muddled account of controversial Ramon Tikaram, Rekha, Pearl Padamsee, British writer (Friels) who exiles himself Arundhati Rao. Frankly erotic, spirited femand wife Davis to Australia in the early inist saga of sex and sexual politics in 16th1920s, and develops an intellectual attachcentury feudal India, telling the story of ment to a group of Fascists. Potentially Maya (Varma), an independent-minded serfascinating, insightful portrait of a man of vant who seduces a young king. He beletters and his difficulties in dealing with comes obsessed with her, but weds a the real world, but there’s little feel for the princess whom he does not love. A pointed characters and their motivations. Adapted portrait of a woman who is unwilling to from D. H. Lawrence’s autobiographical accept a woman’s ‘‘destiny’’ of being her novel. Friels and Davis are real-life husband father’s property one day and her husband’s and wife. Panavision. [R]▼ property the next. R-rated version runs Kangaroo Jack (2003) C-89m. ★★ D: David McNally. Jerry O’Connell, Anthony 113m. [NC-17] ▼●쩠 Kamikaze ’89 (1982-German) C-106m. Anderson, Estella Warren, Michael Shan★★★ D: Wolf Gremm. Rainer Werner non, Christopher Walken, Bill Hunter, MarFassbinder, Gunther Kaufmann, Boy Goton Csokas. Lifelong odd-couple pals are bert, Arnold Marquis, Richy Mueller, ordered (by O’Connell’s mob-boss stepfaBrigitte Mira, Frank Ripploh, Franco ther) to deliver an envelope of money to Nero. Police lieutenant Fassbinder (in Australia—but a kangaroo makes off with his final screen role) attempts to foil the cash. Juvenile comedy has a terrible an alleged bomb plot, set in a futuristic script, but kids may still respond to the amiGermany. Exciting if sometimes confusable leads and the Australian setting. Don’t blink or you’ll miss Dyan Cannon in the ing thriller, from Per Wahloo novel.▼ Kamilla (1981-Norwegian) C-100m. ★★★ opening flashback as O’Connell’s mother. D: Vibeke Lokkeberg. Nina Knapskog, Followed by an animated direct-to-video sequel. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 Vibeke Lokkeberg, Helge Jordal, Kenneth Johansen, Karin Zetlitz Haerem. Briskly Kangaroo: The Australian Story (1952) paced yet quietly disturbing chronicle of C-84m. ★★ D: Lewis Milestone. Maureen [ 734 ]

O’Hara, Peter Lawford, Finlay Currie, Richabashedly old-fashioned, manipulative movie ard Boone. Uninspired blend of romance is a real audience-pleaser; from director of the and adventure, salvaged by Australian landoriginal ROCKY. Winning performances by scapes and fetching O’Hara.▼ Macchio and Morita. If only they’d trimmed Kansas (1988) C-108m. BOMB D: David it a bit. Followed by three sequels (last is THE Stevens. Matt Dillon, Andrew McCarthy, NEXT KARATE KID) and animated TV seLeslie Hope, Brent Jennings, Brynn Thayer, ries. [PG]▼●쩠 Kyra Sedgwick. McCarthy gets stranded Karate Kid, Part II, The (1986) C-113m. ★★1 in the Midwest after his car and posses⁄2 D: John G. Avildsen. Ralph Macchio, sions blow up on the road, and takes it on Noriyuki (Pat) Morita, Nobu McCarthy, the lam after boxcar acquaintance (and Danny Kamekona, Yuji Okumoto, Tamlyn punk) Dillon implicates him in a bank Tomita, Martin Kove. Purposeless sequel robbery. Goes into fast free-fall around the takes main characters from original film to time McCarthy rescues the governor’s Japan, where they’re confronted by Morita’s daughter from drowning (!)—and falls for long-ago arch-enemy and his nasty nephew. the kind of farmer’s daughter who wears Corny in the extreme (all that’s missing from makeup and pearls in the field. Second climax is hounds and ice floes), but made only to Toto as the Sunflower State’s top palatable by performances of Macchio and movie dog. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Morita. Aimed strictly at kids. [PG]▼●쩠 Kansas City (1996-U.S.-French) C-115m. Karate Kid III, The (1989) C-111m. ★★ D: Robert Altman. Jennifer Jason Leigh, BOMB D: John G. Avildsen. Ralph Macchio, Miranda Richardson, Harry Belafonte, MiNoriyuki (Pat) Morita, Robyn Elaine Lively, chael Murphy, Dermot Mulroney, Steve Thomas Ian Griffith, Martin Kove, Sean Buscemi, Brooke Smith, Jane Adams, A. C. Kanan, Jonathan Avildsen. Utterly stupid seSmith. Vividly atmospheric but dramatiquel has the ‘‘kid’’ (27-year-old Macchio) cally lackluster portrait of K.C. in the being set up for slaughter by nemesis Kove 1930s, a hotbed of racketeering, political (in an obligatory appearance). When Morita machines, and jazz, focusing on local mob refuses to train him, Macchio turns instead to kingpin Belafonte, young upstart Mulroney, Griffith—a sadistic millionaire Vietnam vet and his wife, Leigh. Lots of flavor but little (who also turns out to be a buddy of Kove’s!). substance and a redundant storyline. Best Will Morita save him? Naturally . . . but this film is hopeless. [PG]▼●쩠 part: the jazz, which is played almost continuously (often on-camera) by an all-star lineup Kate & Leopold (2001) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: including Nicholas Payton, Joshua Redman, James Mangold. Meg Ryan, Hugh JackMark Whitfield, Christian McBride, Cyrus man, Liev Schreiber, Breckin Meyer, NaChestnut, and Ron Carter. [R]▼●쩠 tasha Lyonne, Bradley Whitford, Paxton Kansas City Bomber (1972) C-99m. ★★ Whitehead, Spalding Gray, Philip Bosco, D: Jerrold Freedman. Raquel Welch, Kevin Viola Davis. A genial crackpot (Schreiber) McCarthy, Helena Kallianiotes, Norman manages to find a portal in time and transAlden, Jeanne Cooper, Dick Lane, Jodie port a 19th-century gentleman to 21stFoster. Once you’ve seen five minutes, it century N.Y.C., where he meets a driven doesn’t pay to stay through the rest. Raquel career woman who’s as foreign to his acstars as good-hearted roller derby star who quaintance as he is to her. Cute, funny romanhas female colleagues jealous, male emtic comedy goes on longer than it should— ployers drooling. Dialogue, situations often given that the finale is a foregone conclusion. unintentionally funny. [PG]쩠 Jackman is charming, and Meyer is very Kansas City Confidential (1952) 98m. ★★★ funny as Ryan’s actor brother. [PG-13] ▼쩠 D: Phil Karlson. John Payne, Coleen Gray, Kathleen (1941) 88m. ★★ D: Harold S. Preston Foster, Neville Brand, Lee Van Bucquet. Shirley Temple, Herbert Marshall, Cleef, Jack Elam, Dona Drake. Tough acLaraine Day, Gail Patrick, Felix Bressart. tion drama with hard-luck ex-con Payne imPredictable story of neglected daughter Templicated in a bank heist, determined to quite ple bringing widower father Marshall and literally unmask the real culprits. Quentin Day together. Tarantino must have seen this one prior to Katie’s Passion SEE: Keetje Tippel Katyn (2007-Polish) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: scripting RESERVOIR DOGS!▼쩠 Karate Cop SEE: Slaughter in San Andrzej Wajda. Andrzej Chyra, Maja OsFrancisco taszewska, Artur Zmijewski, Danuta Stenka, Karate Kid, The (1984) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 Jan Englert, Magdalena Cielecka, Agnieszka D: John G. Avildsen. Ralph Macchio, Glinska. Intense, epic drama set in Poland Noriyuki (Pat) Morita, Elisabeth Shue, during and immediately following WW2. In Randee Heller, Martin Kove, William 1940, thousands of Polish officers and civilZabka, Chad McQueen, Tony O’Dell, Larry ians are massacred by the Russians in the Drake. Teenager is beset by bullies until Katyn forest, an event that the Germans use an unlikely mentor (the Japanese handyto propagandize the Poles while occupying man in his apartment house) teaches him the country. Once the war ends, the Soviets about self-confidence—and karate. Un(who are building their postwar powerbase) [ 735 ]

attribute the atrocity to the Nazis . . . and Arthur Lubin. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, heaven help anyone who disagrees. SceCarol Bruce, Martha Raye, William Gargan, nario focuses on various individuals caught Dick Foran. Good A&C mixed in with in the chaos; the final, extended sequence is cliche´d plot of stunt pilot Foran unable to heartbreaking. Octogenarian Wajda coaccustom himself to Air Force discipline. Raye is fun playing twins.▼●쩠 scripted (based on Andrzej Mularczyk’s novel); his father, a captain in the Polish inKeeper of the Flame (1943) 100m. ★★★ fantry, died in the massacre. Super 35.쩠 D: George Cukor. Spencer Tracy, KathaKatzelmacher (1969-German) 88m. ★★ D: rine Hepburn, Richard Whorf, Margaret Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Hanna Schygulla, Wycherly, Forrest Tucker, Frank Craven, Lilith Ungerer, Elga Sorbas, Doris Mattes, Audrey Christie, Horace (Stephen) McNally, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Harry Baer. FassDarryl Hickman, Howard da Silva, Donbinder’s second film is an aimless seriocomic ald Meek. Reporter Tracy sets out to write look at a group of suburban Munich slackers the true story of a beloved, just-deceased who spend their days sitting on the sidewalk American patriot. Dated, somewhat heavywhile bitching, bickering, and putting down handed treatment of a still-timely theme: a Greek immigrant (Fassbinder). Interesting the pitfalls of blind hero worship. Scripted as an experiment in minimalism, but an arby Donald Ogden Stewart, with some intistic and dramatic dead end. Based on a teresting echoes of CITIZEN KANE.▼● play by the filmmaker. ▼쩠 Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam, Kazaam (1996) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul M. The (2005) C-95m. ★★★ D: Kayvan MasGlaser. Shaquille O’Neal, Francis Capra, Ally hayekh. Adam Echahly, Bruno Lastra, MoWalker, Marshall Manesh, James Acheson, ritz Bleibtreu, Rade Serbedzija, Vanessa Fawn Reed. Threadbare urban fantasy has a Redgrave, Christopher Simpson, Marie Estroubled kid accidentally summoning a pinosa, Diane Baker, C. Thomas Howell, friendly genie from his home—a boom box. Daniel Black. Family-friendly double feature: Vehicle for basketball star O’Neal confirms first, a Houston 12-year-old of Iranian descent his pleasing personality but gets mired in a embarks on a vision quest to find his roots; story full of grimy and unpleasant characters; then, the epic story of the 11th-century Perfar from ideal family entertainment. Glaser sian poet-scientist of Rubaiyat fame. Eastern also wrote the story. [PG] ▼●쩠 and Western halves—seamlessly and subtly Kazablan (1974-Israeli) C-114m. ★★★ D: braided—are equally engaging, tied toMenahem Golan. Yehoram Gaon, Arie gether by the theme of passing cultural Elias, Efrat Lavie, Joseph Graber. Enterknowledge to successive generations. In a taining musical made in Old Jaffa and perfectly cast film, Bleibtreu stands out as the callow sultan. [PG]쩠 Jerusalem, in English, based on a popular show. Gaon repeats his stage role as Keeping Mum (2005-British) C-103m. ★★★ streetwise war hero out to save his neighD: Niall Johnson. Rowan Atkinson, Kristin borhood from being torn down. Excellent Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, Patrick color and location work. Panavision. [PG]쩠 Swayze, Tamsin Egerton, Toby Parkes, Liz Keane (2005) C-93m. ★★★ D: Lodge KerriSmith. British black comedy set in Little gan. Damian Lewis, Amy Ryan, Abigail Wallop, where vicar Atkinson, his sexually Breslin. Harrowing portrait of a desperately frustrated wife, and their two children weldriven man who (we learn) fell apart after come an eccentric new housekeeper (Smith). losing sight of his 6-year-old daughter at the Small but delightfully realized fun, sparked Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan by a sterling cast. Scripted by American many months ago. A chance meeting with a novelist Richard Russo but transposed to single mom and her young daughter offers bucolic English countryside by directorhim the first link to stability, and reality, cowriter Johnson. Panavision. [R]쩠 he’s had in a long time. A tour-de-force Keeping the Faith (2000) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 performance by Lewis propels this lean, inD: Edward Norton. Ben Stiller, Edward Nortense, ultimately satisfying drama shot enton, Jenna Elfman, Anne Bancroft, Eli Waltirely with a handheld camera. Written by lach, Ron Rifkin, Milos Forman, Holland the director. [R]쩠 Taylor, Lisa Edelstein, Rena Sofer, Ken Keep, The (1983) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Leung, Brian George. N.Y.C. boyhood pals Mann. Scott Glenn, Ian McKellen, Algrow up to be a priest and a rabbi, both conberta Watson, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Robert temporary thinkers with great appeal to their Prosky, Gabriel Byrne. German soldiers congregations. Into their lives comes a savvy try to defend a Rumanian mountain pass woman who was their best friend at age during WW2 by headquartering in an eight, before she moved away; now they ancient fortress—ignoring villagers’ warnbecome caught in a most unusual triangle. ings of a strange presence inside. OutSmart (if predictable) comedy goes on landish, incoherent, and mostly awful; much too long and wears out its welcome, recommended only for connoisseurs of though the trio of stars is likable throughout. Strange Cinema. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Norton’s directorial debut. [PG-13]▼쩠 Keep ’Em Flying (1941) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Keeping Up with the Steins (2006) C[ 736 ]

90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scott Marshall. Jeremy Piven, Minor but spirited frontier adventure set Jami Gertz, Garry Marshall, Daryl Hannah, in 1820s with Lancaster (doing double duty Daryl Sabara, Doris Roberts, Larry Miller, as star and director) traveling to Texas with Cheryl Hines, Richard Benjamin. Utterly his son, hoping to start new life. Based on likable, if somewhat loose-jointed, comedy Felix Holt’s novel The Gabriel Horn. Matthau’s film debut. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 about a Hollywood overachiever (Piven) whose rivalry with an arch-nemesis (Miller) Kentucky (1938) C-95m. ★★★ D: David reaches its apex as he plans a spectacular Butler. Loretta Young, Richard Greene, bar mitzvah for his son. But when the boy Walter Brennan, Douglass Dumbrille, Karen invites his long-estranged grandfather (MarMorley, Moroni Olsen, Russell Hicks. shall) to stay with the family in the days Lushly filmed story of rival horsebreeding leading up to the big bash, the older mensch families in blue-grass country, with lovers sets the kid on a different path. A comedy Young and Greene clinching at finale. Brennan won Best Supporting Actor Oscar.▼ of recognition for its target audience, though first-time director Marshall (like his Kentucky Fried Movie, The (1977) C84m. ★★★ D: John Landis. Evan Kim, father, Garry) is in fact a goy. Filmed in 2004. [PG-13]쩠 Master Bong Soo Han, Bill Bixby, George Keep Your Powder Dry (1945) 93m. ★★ Lazenby, Henry Gibson, Donald SutherD: Edward Buzzell. Lana Turner, Laraine land, Tony Dow, Boni Enten, Ursula DiDay, Susan Peters, Agnes Moorehead, Bill gard. Vulgar, often funny skits strung toJohnson, Natalie Schafer, Lee Patrick, Jess gether. Best: a lengthy Bruce Lee takeoff, a Barker, June Lockhart. Hackneyed tale of b&w spoof of the old courtroom TV shows. playgirl Turner, by-the-book Day, and solIdea originated with Kentucky Fried Theatre, a dier’s wife Peters, and their exploits as they Madison, Wisconsin, satirical group whose join the WACS during WW2. key members—Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Keetje Tippel (1975-Dutch) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 and Jerry Zucker—went on to do AIRPLANE! D: Paul Verhoeven. Rutger Hauer, Monique Followed a decade later by AMAZON van de Ven, Eddie Brugman, Hannah De WOMEN ON THE MOON. [R] ▼●쩠 Leeuwe, Andrea Domburg. Slickly proKentucky Kernels (1934) 75m. ★★★ D: duced tale of a poor-but-determined young George Stevens. Bert Wheeler, Robert woman (van de Ven), and her struggles as Woolsey, Mary Carlisle, Spanky McFarland, she rises up the social ladder in 19thNoah Beery, Lucille LaVerne. Wheeler & century Amsterdam. Superficial social comWoolsey take little Spanky into the deep mentary on working class life. However, South to collect inheritance, but find themvan de Ven is excellent as Keetje. Aka A selves in the midst of a family feud. Good GIRL NAMED KATJE TIPPEL, KATIE’S vehicle for the team with great slapstick PASSION, CATHY TIPPEL, and HOT finale.▼● SWEAT. [R] ▼●쩠 Kes (1969-British) 113m. ★★★ D: Kenneth Kelly’s Heroes (1970) C-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: Loach. David Bradley, Lynne Perrie, FredBrian G. Hutton. Clint Eastwood, Telly die Fletcher, Colin Welland, Brian Glover, Savalas, Don Rickles, Donald Sutherland, Bob Bowes. Refreshingly unsentimental acCarroll O’Connor, Gavin MacLeod, Stuart count of a young working-class boy who Margolin, (Harry) Dean Stanton. Large-scale finds release from the dreariness of his life WW2 film tries for Sergeant Bilko-ish by looking after and training a falcon. This atmosphere with middling results; hippie is no typical boy-and-his-pet story; rather, soldier Sutherland isn’t credible in 1940s it’s a pointed commentary on the lack of setting. Action-filled aspects of Savalas and opportunities for the lower classes in EnEastwood’s far-fetched gold heist behind gland—a theme that’s been a constant in enemy lines make film worth watching. Padirector Loach’s work. Key, The (1958-British) 125m. ★★1⁄2 D: navision. [PG]▼●쩠 Kennel Murder Case, The (1933) 73m. Carol Reed. William Holden, Sophia Loren, ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. William Powell, Trevor Howard, Oscar Homolka, Kieron Mary Astor, Eugene Pallette, Ralph MorMoore, Bernard Lee. Jan de Hartog novel gan, Helen Vinson, Jack LaRue, Robert becomes pointless romance tale. Loren is Barrat, Arthur Hohl, Paul Cavanagh. The disillusioned woman passing out key to definitive Philo Vance mystery, about an her room to series of naval captains during apparent suicide which Vance believes was WW2, hoping to make their dangerous really murder, tied to intrigue among rilives a little happier. Michael Caine has a vals competing in a Long Island dog show. small role. CinemaScope.▼● Stylish direction and photography and a Key Exchange (1985) C-90m. ★★★ D: fine cast make this top-notch by any Barnet Kellman. Ben Masters, Brooke Adstandard.▼●쩠 ams, Daniel Stern, Danny Aiello, Nancy Kentuckian, The (1955) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mette, Tony Roberts. Masters plays a neuBurt Lancaster. Burt Lancaster, Diana Lynn, rotic New Yorker who exchanges apartDianne Foster, Walter Matthau, John ment keys with Adams but can’t commit McIntire, Una Merkel, John Carradine. himself to her alone. Amusing adaptation [ 737 ]

of Kevin Wade’s off-Broadway play with cle unfortunately lost in the shadow of fine performances and good use of N.Y.C. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Olivier is eerily locations. [R]▼ effective as an 1885-era Osama bin Laden, Key Largo (1948) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Heston is first-rate as ‘‘Chinese’’ Gordon, Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. with solid support from a charismatic Richard Robinson, Lauren Bacall, Lionel BarryJohnson. Fabulous battle sequences were more, Claire Trevor, Thomas Gomez, Jay staged by the legendary Yakima Canutt. Ultra Panavision 70. ▼●쩠 Silverheels, Marc Lawrence, Dan Seymour, Harry Lewis. Dandy cast in adaptation of Kickboxer (1989) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Mark Maxwell Anderson’s play about tough gangDiSalle, David Worth. Jean-Claude Van ster (Robinson) holding people captive in Damme, Denis Alexio, Dennis Chan, Tong Florida hotel during tropical storm. Trevor Po, Haskell Anderson, Rochelle Ashana. Dull, won Best Supporting Actress Oscar as Robdumb martial-arts time-killer. Van Damme inson’s boozy moll. Script by Huston and seeks revenge against Thai fighter who cripRichard Brooks. Score by Max Steiner. Also pled his brother. Strictly by the numbers. Followed by several unrelated sequels. [R]▼●쩠 shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Keys of the Kingdom, The (1944) 137m. Kicked in the Head (1997) C-88m. ★★★ D: John M. Stahl. Gregory Peck, BOMB D: Matthew Harrison. Kevin CorriThomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Edmund gan, Linda Fiorentino, Michael Rapaport, Gwenn, Roddy McDowall, Cedric HardJames Woods, Lili Taylor, Burt Young. Woewicke, Peggy Ann Garner. Peck is fine in fully inept N.Y. comedy about a would-be authis long but generally good film about misthor of a meaning-of-life book and the tiresome sionary’s life (played as boy by McDowall); characters he meets in the passing parade— from A. J. Cronin novel.▼●쩠 among them motormouthed uncle Woods and Keys to the House (2004-Italian-French) Cflight attendant Fiorentino. Scripted by the director and his star. [R]▼●쩠 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gianni Amelio. Kim Rossi Stuart, Andrea Rossi, Charlotte Rampling, Alla Kicking and Screaming (1995) C-96m. ★★ D: Faerovich, Pierfrancesco Favino. WellNoah Baumbach. Josh Hamilton, Eric Stoltz, meaning, low-key story has a young father Olivia d’Abo, Chris Eigeman, Parker Posey, meeting his teenage handicapped son for the Jason Wiles, Cara Buono, Carlos Jacott, Elliott first time, slowly trying to establishthe relationGould, Jessica Hecht. Guess what? It’s another ship they never had, and would never have had we-just-graduated-from-college-what-do-weuntil fate intervened. Rampling is moving as do-now film! This one centers on a group of a woman with a disabled daughter who young men and their life-and-death crises conteaches the man the joy of caring and responcerning relationships, jobs, parents, etc. Sucsibility. Film might have had more impact if cessful in spots, but should have been better. the performance of leading actor Stuart were Funniest scene is the opening—a grad night more affecting. Young Rossi, who is disabled lawn party. Eigeman virtually reprises the roles in real life, does an exceptional job. ▼쩠 he had in Whit Stillman’s METROPOLITAN 1 ★ Keys to Tulsa (1997) C-113m. ⁄2 D: Lesand BARCELONA. [R]▼●쩠 lie Greif. Eric Stoltz, James Spader, DeboKicking & Screaming (2005) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jesse Dylan. Will Ferrell, Robert rah Kara Unger, Joanna Going, Michael Rooker, Randy Graff, Mary Tyler Moore, Duvall, Mike Ditka, Kate Walsh, Musetta James Coburn, Peter Strauss, Cameron Vander, Dylan McLaughlin, Josh HutcherDiaz. Or, Time Spent with Low-lifes in son, Jeremy Bergman, Elliot Cho, Steven Oklahoma. Tiresome crime melodrama Anthony Lawrence, Laura Kightlinger. Freabout a perpetual screw-up (Stoltz) who netic family sports comedy is a perfect vehicle gets involved with a blackmail scheme infor Ferrell’s everyman appeal and ballistic stigated by seedy Spader, who also happens comic style. When his u¨ber-competitive father to be married to Stoltz’s longtime heartthrob (Duvall) dumps his own grandson from his Unger. Diaz is fun in the first scene, but kids’ soccer team, Ferrell is drafted to coach then disappears—and with her, all hope for their ragtag competitors. Less about moviesome form of entertainment. [R]▼●쩠 cute kids than out-of-control parents who Key to the City (1950) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: adopt a ‘‘win at all cost’’ attitude, this upGeorge Sidney. Clark Gable, Loretta Young, beat trifle has some hilarious moments, as Frank Morgan, Marilyn Maxwell, Raymond when an overcaffeinated Ferrell goes nuts Burr, James Gleason. Bland romance bein a coffee store. Former Chicago Bears legtween Gable and Young, two mayors who end Ditka has a sizeable and amusing role meet at convention in San Francisco.▼ as himself, recruited to juice up Ferrell’s Khartoum (1966-British) C-134m. ★★★ D: timid coaching style. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 Basil Dearden. Charlton Heston, Laurence Kickin’ It Old Skool (2007) C-108m. Olivier, Richard Johnson, Ralph RichardBOMB D: Harv Glazer. Jamie Kennedy, son, Alexander Knox, Johnny Sekka, MiMaria Menounos, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Michael Hordern, Nigel Green, Hugh Williams, chael Rosenbaum, Christopher McDonald, Ralph Michael; narrated by Leo Genn. IntelliDebra Jo Rupp, Bobby Lee, Alan Ruck, Aris gent, compelling widescreen historical spectaAlvarado, Vivica A. Fox. Think of it as BIG [ 738 ]

meets BREAKIN’ 2: ELECTRIC BOOGAC-96m. ★★★ D: Carol Reed. Celia Johnson, LOO, but then again thinking about this abysDiana Dors, David Kossoff, Jonathan Ashmal break-dancing comedy is not advised. more, Brenda De Banzie, Primo Carnera, SidKennedy falls off a stage while bustin’ some ney Tafler, Lou Jacobi. Imaginative fable of a fancy moves at the age of 10 and doesn’t poor little London boy (Ashmore) with a wake from a coma until 20 years later. With vivid imagination; he looks for a unicorn he his mind still in the ’80s he puts together his believes will work miracles, and finds instead old dance team to challenge a new generation a sick, one-horned goat. Script by Wolf Manof fancy foot-steppers. This moronic exercise kowitz, based on his novel.▼쩠 gets its only laughs from a David Hasselhoff Kid From Brooklyn, The (1946) C-113m. ★★★ cameo. TV’s Webster, Emmanuel Lewis, also D: Norman Z. McLeod. Danny Kaye, appears. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Steve Cochran, Kid, The (1921) 60m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Charles Eve Arden, Walter Abel, Lionel Stander, Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin, Jack (Jackie) CooFay Bainter. Comedy of milkman accidengan, Edna Purviance, Chuck Reisner, Lita tally turned into prizefighter is often overGrey. Chaplin’s first real feature mixes slapdone but still a funny Kaye vehicle; remake stick and sentiment in a winning combination, of Harold Lloyd’s THE MILKY WAY.▼● as the Tramp raises a streetwise orphan. WonKid Galahad (1937) 101m. ★★★ D: Miderful film launched Coogan as major child chael Curtiz. Edward G. Robinson, Bette star, and it’s easy to see why.▼●쩠 Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Wayne Morris, Kid, The (2000) SEE: Disney’s The Kid Jane Bryan, Harry Carey, Veda Ann Borg. Kid and I, The (2005) C-93m. ★★ D: PeWell-paced yarn with promoter Robinson nelope Spheeris. Tom Arnold, Eric Gores, making naive bellhop Morris a boxing star, Richard Edson, Linda Hamilton, Henry tangling with mobster Bogart at every turn. Winkler, Joe Mantegna, Brenda Strong, Remade in 1941 (as THE WAGONS ROLL Shannon Elizabeth, Arielle Kebbel, PenelAT NIGHT) and in 1962. Shown on TV for ope Spheeris. Arnold plays a despondent, years as BATTLING BELLHOP. ▼쩠 down-on-his-luck actor who reluctantly Kid Galahad (1962) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil agrees to write and appear in a film with a Karlson. Elvis Presley, Gig Young, Lola nonpro: a 17-year-old boy with cerebral Albright, Joan Blackman, Charles Bronson, palsy (Gores) whose father is bankrolling Ned Glass. This remake lacks wallop of the movie. Comedy mixes fact and fiction the original. Elvis stars as a boxer who (in real life Gores proposed the idea to Arwins championship—and sings six forgetnold, who wrote and coproduced) and table songs—but prefers quiet life as gaavoids becoming overly maudlin without rage mechanic. ▼●쩠 excelling in any other way. A number of Kid Glove Killer (1942) 74m. ★★★ D: familiar faces appear in cameos. [PG-13]쩠 Fred Zinnemann. Van Heflin, Lee BowKid Blue (1973) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: James man, Marsha Hunt, Samuel S. Hinds, Frawley. Dennis Hopper, Warren Oates, Ben Cliff Clark, Eddie Quillan. Solid B film about Johnson, Peter Boyle, Janice Rule, Lee Purpolice chemist Heflin uncovering the killer of cell, Ralph Waite, Clifton James, Howard a mayor, with taut direction by Zinnemann. Hesseman, M. Emmet Walsh. Pseudo-hip Look for Ava Gardner as a car hop. Western comedy about misfit Hopper’s falKid in King Arthur’s Court, A (1995) Ctering attempts to exist in small Texas town 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Gottlieb. Thomas Ian in early 20th century. Laughs, excitement, Nicholas, Joss Ackland, Art Malik, Paloma and interest are at a minimum here in spite of Baeza, Kate Winslet, Ron Moody, Daniel cast; Hopper is too old for his role. PanaviCraig. Innocuous kids’ comedy about a teension. [PG] aged boy who’s magically transported to anKid Brother, The (1927) 82m. ★★★★ D: cient Camelot, where he helps to redeem the Ted Wilde, J. A. Howe. Harold Lloyd, doddering King Arthur and undo the archJobyna Ralston, Walter James, Leo Wilvillain Lord Belasco. Parents may yawn, but lis, Olin Francis. Delightfully winning, beauit’s a pleasant-enough outing for kids. Young tifully filmed silent comedy with Harold as Nicholas is engaging and Ackland is solid as Cinderella-type kid brother in robust alla rock, playing the good King. [PG]▼●쩠 male family, who gets to prove his mettle Kidnapped (1938) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred in exciting finale where he subdues beefy L. Werker. Warner Baxter, Freddie Bartholvillain. One of Lloyd’s all-time best.▼쩠 omew, Arleen Whelan, C. Aubrey Smith, Kidco (1984) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ronald F. Reginald Owen, John Carradine, Nigel Bruce. Maxwell. Scott Schwartz, Cinnamon Idles, Good adventure yarn of 1750s Scotland and Tristine Skyler, Elizabeth Gorcey. Okay comEngland but not Robert Louis Stevenson; fine edy about the problems of preteen entreprecast in generally entertaining script. neur Schwartz and his cohorts, yuppies-inKidnapped (1948) 80m. ★★ D: William training all. Ideal fare for the money-obsessed Beaudine. Roddy McDowall, Sue England, ’80s yet barely released theatrically. Based on Dan O’Herlihy, Roland Winters, Jeff Corey. a true-life story; filmed in 1982. [PG]▼ Kid for Two Farthings, A (1955-British) Disappointing low-budget adaptation of Rob[ 739 ]

ert Louis Stevenson novel. Look for Hugh mogul and ladies man, Robert Evans has O’Brian as a sailor.쩠 lived a colorful (and often public) life. This Kidnapped (1960) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robdocumentary allows him to tell his story, ert Stevenson. Peter Finch, James MacArbut his self-absorption grows tiresome after thur, Bernard Lee, Niall MacGinnis, John a while, and only vintage video and film Laurie, Finlay Currie, Peter O’Toole. Disclips bring it to life. Not nearly as much fun ney feature filmed in England is faithful to as listening to Evans’ audiobook version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel, his autobiography. Highlight: Dustin Hoffbut surprisingly dull. Good cast and vivid man’s impression of Evans, shown during the closing credits.▼쩠 atmosphere are its major assets.▼●쩠 Kidnapped (1971-British) C-100m. ★★ D: Kid Vengeance (1977) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe Delbert Mann. Michael Caine, Trevor HowManduke. Lee Van Cleef, Jim Brown, ard, Jack Hawkins, Donald Pleasence, GorJohn Marley, Leif Garrett, Glynnis O’Condon Jackson, Vivien Heilbron, Lawrence nor, Matt Clark. Bloody, gory, obnoxious Douglas. Disappointing version of Stevenson Western about young Garrett seeking retale is made endurable by Caine’s pleasing venge against outlaws who killed his parperformance as Alan Breck. Panavision. [G] ents and kidnapped his sister.▼쩠 Kidnapping of the President, The (1980Kika (1993-Spanish) C-111m. ★★★ D: Pedro U.S.-Canadian) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Almodo´var. Peter Coyote, Veronica Forque, Mendeluk. William Shatner, Hal Holbrook, Victoria Abril, Alex Casanovas, Rossy de Van Johnson, Ava Gardner, Miguel FernanPalma, Santiago Lajusticia, Anabel Alonso, des, Cindy Girling. The title tells all: Third Bibi Andersson. Wacky, very adult story World terrorists kidnap president Holbrook, about free-spirited makeup artist Kika with Secret Service chief Shatner interven(Forque, whose performance is positively ining. OK actioner is certainly topical; based fectious) and the men in her life, including an on Charles Templeton’s novel. [R]▼쩠 American expatriate writer (Coyote) and a Kid Rodelo (1966) 91m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard psychotic prison escapee. Almodo´var has Carlson. Don Murray, Janet Leigh, Broderick given his favorite actress, Abril, the role of Crawford, Richard Carlson. After jail term, a lifetime: a tabloid TV hostess who cruises cowboys go off to search for hidden $50,000 Madrid with a camera strapped to her head, in gold. You’ve seen it all before. Based on a seeking to capture criminal acts on videotape. Louis L’Amour novel. Filmed in Spain. Very funny, explicitly sexual film doesn’t Kids (1995) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Clark. quite sustain its momentum to the end, but remains fresh and certainly different. ▼●쩠 Leo Fitzpatrick, Justin Pierce, Chloe Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Yakira Peguero, Harold Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989-Japanese) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hayao Miyazaki. Voices Hunter, Sarah Henderson. Photographer/ skateboardist Clark’s filmmaking debut is a of Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Matthew cinema verite´–style look at aimless N.Y.C. Lawrence, Debbie Reynolds, Janeane Garoteens, focusing on Telly (Fitzpatrick), who falo, Tress MacNeille, Edie McClurg. Enloves to deflower virgins, and Jennie (Sevchanting coming-of-age fable about a igny), who’s facing the consequences of one friendly, precocious witch who must leave such encounter. A telling portrait of ’90shome on her 13th birthday to find her place style hedonism and the results of kids growin life. With her talking cat in tow, she ing up without parents to guide them. Utmakes friends (and uses her powers and terly matter-of-fact and nonjudgmental flying broom) as the delivery girl for a about its sexual frankness and violence, small-town bakery. Another beautifully ani(which is precisely what disturbed many mated, kindhearted gem from filmmaker Miyazaki. [G] ▼쩠 viewers). Is it purely exploitive, or true to life? You be the judge. ▼●쩠 Kikujiro (1999-Japanese) C-116m. ★★ D: Kids Are Alright, The (1979) C-108m. Takeshi Kitano. Beat Takeshi, Yasuke Seki★★★ D: Jeff Stein. Overlong and disjointed, guchi, Kayoko Kishimoto, Yuko Daike, Beat yet frequently exhilarating documentary Kiyoshi. Half road movie, half variation on on The Who that manages to capture the the unhappy child/crusty adult genre, a listless anarchic spirit of the group—and of rock story of a young boy’s journey to seek out his ’n’ roll. Brief appearances by Steve Marlong-gone mother—with a low-life chapertin, Tom Smothers, and Ringo Starr, along one. Title character (played by the director with wild interviews with Townshend, under his ‘‘Beat Takeshi’’ monicker) is an Daltrey, Moon, and Entwistle. Songs inunsympathetic bully, while young Sekiguchi clude ‘‘Magic Bus,’’ ‘‘Happy Jack,’’ and is a bit of a lump. By the time this very several numbers from Tommy. [PG]▼●쩠 protracted story tries turning fanciful by inKids in the Hall Brain Candy SEE: Brain troducing two of the most unlikely bikers in Candy history, a cutting-edge action filmmaker has Kid Stays in the Picture, The (2002) Clost control of his picture. [PG-13]▼쩠 93m. ★★ D: Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen. Kill and Kill Again (1981) C-100m. ★★ Narrated by Robert Evans. From garmentD: Ivan Hall. James Ryan, Anneline Kriel, center hotshot to screen actor to movie Ken Gampu, Norman Robinson, Michael [ 740 ]

Meyer. OK chop-socky actioner, with Ryan drama achieves near-operatic grandeur, foiling scientist Meyer’s plot to take over thanks to multileveled characterizations and the world. Filmed in South Africa. [PG]▼쩠 story, creative direction, and phenomenal Kill, Baby, Kill (1966-Italian) C-83m. ★★★ action scenes that make most American D: Mario Bava. Erika Blanc, Giacomo films look anemic by comparison. Woo also wrote the screenplay.▼●쩠 Rossi Stuart, Fabienne Dali, Giana Vivaldi, Piero Lulli, Max Lawrence. One of horror Killer: A Journal of Murder (1996) Cmaestro Bava’s best films, spoiled only by 91m. ★1⁄2 D: Tim Metcalfe. James Woods, his overuse of a zoom lens. Suicide victims Robert Sean Leonard, Steve Forrest, Robert in a small Transylvanian village are found John Burke, Cara Buono, Ellen Greene, Jefwith gold coins embedded in their hearts. frey DeMunn, Christopher Petrosino, RichStylish, witty and colorful, with many asard Riehle, Harold Gould. In 1929, young tonishing sequences. Also shown in cut verJewish prison guard Leonard befriends sion under title CURSE OF THE LIVING Leavenworth convict Carl Panzram (Woods), DEAD. [PG]▼쩠 smuggling him forbidden writing supplies. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Panzram, a habitual killer, writes his story, Quentin Tarantino. Uma Thurman, Lucy which we see in flashbacks. Woods is brilLiu, Vivica A. Fox, Michael Madsen, Daryl liant, but the point of view is hackneyed Hannah, David Carradine, Sonny Chiba, Chiand outmoded. Badly written and directed. [R] ▼●쩠 aki Kuriyama, Gordon Liu (Chia-hui), Michael Parks, Julie Dreyfus, Bo Svenson. A Killer Bats SEE: Devil Bat, The Killer Elite, The (1975) C-122m. ★★ D: blood-spattered bride vows revenge on her former boss and colleagues, a team of elite Sam Peckinpah. James Caan, Robert Duvall, assassins who left her for dead. Tarantino Arthur Hill, Bo Hopkins, Mako, Burt channels a dizzying array of pop culture Young, Gig Young. Mercenary Duvall influences, including spaghetti Westerns, double-crosses partner Caan, leading to samurai films, vintage Hong Kong chopcharacteristic but lesser Peckinpah bloodsocky vehicles, and anime, but the result is all bath involving the CIA. Trashy script slightly his own: a wild, adrenaline-charged, operatiredeemed by director’s flair for action sequences. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 cally violent, comic-book action yarn. This would be indefensible if it pretended to be Killer Fish (1979-Italian-Brazilian) C101m. ★★ D: Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio anything other than what it is. The women are all terrific, and the climactic swordfight Margheriti). Lee Majors, Karen Black, is a knockout. Ends with a cliffhanger leadJames Franciscus, Margaux Hemingway, ing to VOL. 2, though originally planned to Marisa Berenson, Gary Collins. Pursuit of be one long film. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 stolen jewels dumped in lake full of deadly Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004) C-137m. ★★★ D: piranha fish forms basis for this predictaQuentin Tarantino. Uma Thurman, David ble outing filmed in Brazil. Same fishy Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, predators were used in much more enjoyable Gordon Liu (Chia-hui), Michael Parks, Larry film, PIRANHA. Also known as DEADLY Bishop, Sid Haig, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeannie TREASURE OF THE PIRANHA. [PG]▼ Epper, Bo Svenson. Perfect companion Killer Force (1975) C-101m. ★★ D: Val piece to VOL. 1 doesn’t have the same enGuest. Peter Fonda, Telly Savalas, Hugh ergy or enormous set pieces but establishes O’Brian, Christopher Lee, Maud Adams, its own pace and style. Thurman must elimO. J. Simpson, Ian Yule. Dirty doings at inate two more assassins (Madsen and Handiamond syndicate’s desert mine in South nah) before her ultimate showdown with the Africa. Has cast and potential but overly diffuse and complex. [R]▼ boss, Bill. Carradine gives the performance of his career as Thurman’s wily, articulate, Killer Grizzly SEE: Grizzly and deadly mentor. Parks and Liu play (alKiller Inside Me, The (1976) C-99m. ★★★ D: Burt Kennedy. Stacy Keach, Susan beit briefly) entirely different roles than in VOL. 1. Tarantino continues to pay homage Tyrrell, Keenan Wynn, Tisha Sterling, Don to favorite films and genres; there’s even a Stroud, Charles McGraw. Bizarre opus quick shot of Roy Rogers in a William Witabout a psychotic deputy sheriff (flashney Western. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 backs accounting for his present state) about Killbots SEE: Chopping Mall to go off the deep end; saved and made Kill Castro SEE: Cuba Crossing believable by strong performance from Keach. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Killer SEE: Bulletproof Heart Killer, The (1989-Hong Kong) C-110m. Killer Is Loose, The (1956) 73m. ★★★ D: ★★★1 ⁄2 D: John Woo. Chow Yun-Fat, Sally Budd Boetticher. Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Yeh, Danny Lee, Kenneth Tsang, Chu Fleming, Wendell Corey, Alan Hale, Michael Kong, Lam Chung, Shing Fui-On. SpecPate. Cop Cotten accidentally kills the wife tacular thriller about a hit man (Yun-Fat) of quiet bank-clerk-turned-robber Corey, who who forms an unusual relationship with a later escapes from prison with eye-for-an-eye singer (Yeh) he accidentally blinds and the revenge in mind. Fast-paced suspenseful cop (Lee) assigned to stop him. Pulp melosleeper, with excellent L.A. location photog[ 741 ]

raphy and perhaps Corey’s best performance: Killers From Space (1954) 71m. BOMB he’s both scary and pathetic. D: W. Lee Wilder. Peter Graves, James Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988) Seay, Steve Pendleton, Barbara Bestar, C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Chiodo. Grant Frank Gerstle. Scientist Graves, killed in a Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Vernon, John plane crash, is brought back to life by Allen Nelson, Peter Licassi, Michael Siegel, aliens from the planet Astron Delta. They’re Royal Dano. One-of-a-kind alien invasion sciplanning to invade Earth and want him to fi featuring blood-drinking alien clowns harpilfer atomic data. Poor in all departments— vesting a small city. Routinely plotted, but and too dull to be funny. ▼쩠 vividly designed, with cheeky humor, it plays Killer’s Kiss (1955) 67m. ★★ D: Stanley its premise to the hilt, all circus bases touched. Kubrick. Frank Silvera, Jamie Smith, Irene A cult favorite. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Kane, Jerry Jarret. Meandering account of Killer McCoy (1947) 104m. ★★★ D: Roy revenge when boxer’s courting of workingRowland. Mickey Rooney, Brian Donlevy, girl causes her boss to commit murder. Ann Blyth, James Dunn, Tom Tully, Sam Interesting early Kubrick; the inspiration Levene. Good drama of fighter Rooney for the film-within-a-film of STRANGERS accidentally involved in murder, with fine KISS. Leading lady Kane became TV and newspaper journalist Chris Chase.▼●쩠 supporting cast of promoters and racketeers. Remake of THE CROWD ROARS (1938). Killers Three (1968) C-88m. BOMB D: Killer of Sheep (1977) 81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Kessler. Robert Walker, Diane Varsi, Charles Burnett. Henry Gayle Sanders, Dick Clark, Norman Alden, Maureen Arthur, Kaycee Moore, Charles Bracy, Angela BurMerle Haggard. Knock-off of BONNIE AND nett, Eugene Cherry, Jack Drummond. CLYDE doesn’t offer much by way of comStarkly simple series of documentary-style parison, unless you find the idea of Dick Clark vignettes set in the Watts district of L.A., in wirerims a gas. [M/PG] Killing, The (1956) 83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stanfocusing primarily on a working-class man (Sanders) who’s become emotionally numb, ley Kubrick. Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, especially with his wife. Could it be the Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Ted de Corresult of his job at a slaughterhouse? These sia, Marie Windsor, Joe Sawyer, Elisha Cook, quiet slices of black ghetto life are conTimothy Carey. The film that really put Kunected by the thinnest possible thread, but brick on the map—a case study of a racetrack offer a portrayal that’s both profound and heist, with a colorful cast of characters, inpoetic. Barely released in 1977, when it was cluding the ultimate nebbish (Cook, married a thesis project at UCLA film school; theatto vixenish Windsor) and an ultra-cool killer rically released in 2007. Soundtrack feafor hire (Carey). Major flaw: the Dragnettures black artists ranging from Paul style narration. Kubrick scripted from Lionel Robeson to Earth Wind & Fire. Burnett also White’s novel Clean Break.▼●쩠 photographed and edited.쩠 Killing Affair, A (1988) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Killers, The (1946) 105m. ★★★★ D: Robert David Saperstein. Peter Weller, Kathy Siodmak. Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Baker, John Glover, Bill Smitrovich. Dreary Edmond O’Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam goings on in the Southern backwoods, Levene, Virginia Christine, William Concirca 1943, where Weller kills Baker’s rad, Charles McGraw. Compelling crime hateful husband, and then develops a turdrama (based on Hemingway story) of bulent relationship with her. Based on Robex-fighter found murdered, subsequent ert Houston’s novel Monday, Tuesday, investigation. Film provides fireworks, early Wednesday, this marks writer Saperstein’s success of Lancaster (in film debut) and directing debut. Filmed in 1985. [R]▼●쩠 Gardner. Miklos Rozsa’s dynamic score Killing Box SEE: Ghost Brigade features the familiar dum-da-dum-dum Killing Fields, The (1984-British) C-141m. ★★★1 theme later utilized by Dragnet. Screen⁄2 D: Roland Joffe´. Sam Waterston, play by Anthony Veiller (and, uncredited, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich, Julian John Huston). Reworked in 1964.▼●쩠 Sands, Craig T. Nelson, Bill Paterson, Killers, The (1964) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Athol Fugard, Spalding Gray. Highly Siegel. Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie charged drama based on the memoirs of Dickinson, Ronald Reagan, Clu Gulager, N.Y. Times reporter Sidney Schanberg, Claude Akins, Norman Fell. Two inquisiwho remained in Cambodia after Ameritive hit men piece together the story of the can evacuation—putting his native translaman they’ve just murdered, in this free tor and assistant Dith Pran in great jeopardy. adaptation of Hemingway’s short story. Frighteningly realistic depiction of a counOriginally shot for TV, it was rejected as try torn apart by war and terrorism; an ‘‘too violent’’ and released to theaters inemotional powerhouse. Long but worthstead. Some latter-day notoriety derives while. Impressive feature debut for Malkovfrom Reagan’s casting as a brutal crime ich and documentary director Joffe´; Ngor kingpin; it was his last movie role. Marvin (who lived through Cambodian turmoil in real life) won Best Supporting Actor Oscar has a great closing line.▼쩠 Killer’s Curse SEE: Beyond the Living for his acting debut. Oscars also went to [ 742 ]

cinematographer Chris Menges, editor Jim her evil husband (Rogers). DOUBLE INDEMNITY it ain’t! [R]▼●쩠 Clark. [R]▼●쩠 Killing Game, The (1967-French) C-94m. Killing Zoe (1994) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger ★★1 Avary. Eric Stoltz, Jean-Hugues Anglade, ⁄2 D: Alain Jessua. Jean-Pierre Cassel, Claudine Auger, Michael Duchaussoy, ElJulie Delpy, Tai Thai, Bruce Ramsey, Kario eanore Hirt. Mystery comic strip writer Salem, Salvator Xurev, Gary Kemp, Martin comes up with his ultimate puzzler. Not Raymond, Cecilia Peck. Writer-director bad.▼ Avary, coscripter of PULP FICTION, spreads Killing Heat SEE: Grass Is Singing, The mayhem and body tissue in his own Paris-set Killing Me Softly (2002-U.S.-British) Cdirectorial debut—a Bastille Day bank caper 100m. ★★ D: Chen Kaige. Heather Graham, in which some participants are preoccupied Joseph Fiennes, Natascha McElhone, Ulrich with drugs, and their imported Yank safeThomsen, Ian Hart, Jason Hughes, Kika cracker is preoccupied with a call girl who Markham. American Graham, living in has surpassed all expectations. Plot twists and London and already in a relationship, is stylistic flourishes notwithstanding, zippy drawn to a handsome stranger. Will this atmelodrama is too little, too late. Extremely traction be fatal? Potentially intriguing tale of violent. [R] ▼●쩠 desire, obsession, and the fine line between Kill! Kill! Kill! (1972-French-Spanishecstasy and terror starts off promisingly but German-Italian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Romain falls apart, becoming just another predictable Gary. Jean Seberg, James Mason, Stephen thriller. Kaige’s English-language debut. ReBoyd, Curt Jurgens, Daniel Emilfork. leased direct to video in the U.S. Also availInterpol agent Mason, on the trail of Italian able in an unrated version. [R]▼쩠 drug kingpins, gets competition from felKilling of a Chinese Bookie, The (1976) low agent Boyd, who believes in playing C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: John Cassavetes. Ben dirty. Hardened violence clashes with writerGazzara, Timothy Agoglia Carey, Seymour director Gary’s purple prose. Original title Cassel, Azizi Johari, Meade Roberts, Alice KILL, at 102m. Friedland. Strange, self-indulgent (even Kill Me Again (1989) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: for Cassavetes) home movie centering John Dahl. Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalleyaround the owner of a strip joint, the mob Kilmer, Michael Madsen, Jonathan Gries, and what used to be called ‘‘B-girls.’’ Pat Mulligan, Nick Dimitri, Bibi Besch. Small cult may take to this; others beFemme fatale Whalley-Kilmer makes like ware. [R]▼●쩠 Jane Greer in this contemporary film noir, Killing of Angel Street, The (1981-Aussexily scamming her way through the Netralian) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Donald Crombie. vada desert (and a couple of big cities) Liz Alexander, John Hargreaves, Alexantrying to steal gangland booty. Fans of der Archdale, Reg Lye, Gordon McDougall. detective genre will enjoy this mild send-up Fair melodrama about corrupt real estate of crime flicks. Fun, but also inherently manipulators harassing homeowners to sell derivative. [R]▼쩠 their property. Communist Hargreaves and Kill Me Later (2001) C-105m. ★★★ D: geologist Alexander take on the villains Dana Lustig. Selma Blair, Max Beesley, when her activist father mysteriously dies. O’Neal Compton, Lochlyn Munro, D.W. Supposedly based on actual events that Moffett, Brendan Fehr, Tom Heaton. Young also inspired HEATWAVE (1983).▼ woman who’s sour on life is about to end it Killing of Sister George, The (1968) all when she’s taken hostage by a bungling C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. Beryl bank robber, who takes it on the lam. In Reid, Susannah York, Coral Browne, Rontime (of course), they drop their defenses ald Fraser, Patricia Medina. Overwrought and actually bring out the best qualities in but entertaining drama, with comedy touches, each other, even as the cops close in. Modabout soap opera actress Reid who fears est but entertaining mix of black comedy her character (Sister George) is due to be and romance with good performances by ‘‘killed.’’ Story follows her deteriorating the two leads. Director Lustig appears as lesbian relationship with dependent, childBeesley’s ex-wife. [R]▼쩠 like York, who’s caught the eye of network Kill-Off, The (1990) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: executive Browne. Very good performances Maggie Greenwald. Loretta Gross, Andrew in this adaptation of Frank Marcus’ play. Lee Barrett, Jackson Sims, Steve Monroe, [R—originally rated X]▼쩠 Cathy Haase, William Russell. A miserable, Killing Time, The (1987) C-94m. ★★ D: manipulative, bedridden woman terrorizes Rick King. Beau Bridges, Kiefer Sutherher small seaside town by spreading maliland, Wayne Rogers, Joe Don Baker, Cacious gossip over the phone. Clearly, this melia Kath, Janet Carroll, Michael Madsen, cannot last. First-rate realization of Jim Gracie Harrison. Stale noir-ish thriller about Thompson’s novel in this modest, moody sex, sin, violence and duplicity in a small film noir, scripted by Greenwald, perfectly California town. Sutherland has murdered photographed by Declan Quinn, with an a deputy, assumed his identity, while new ideal score by Evan Lurie. [R]▼ sheriff Bridges and mistress Kath plot to do in Kill or Be Killed (1980) C-90m. ★★ D: [ 743 ]

Ivan Hall. James Ryan, Norman Combes, Kind of Loving, A (1962-British) 112m. ★★★ Charlotte Michelle, Danie DuPlessis. Karate D: John Schlesinger. Alan Bates, June Ritchie, champions lock limbs as ex-Nazi coach seeks Thora Hird, Bert Palmer, Gwen Nelson, revenge against Japanese counterpart who Malcolm Patton, Leonard Rossiter, Peter bested him in a tournament during WW2. A Madden. Intelligent account of young couple cut above the usual martial arts fodder. [PG]▼ forced to marry when girl becomes pregnant, Killshot (2009) C-95m. ★★ D: John Maddetailing their home life; well acted.▼ den. Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Thomas Kindred, The (1987) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rosario DawStephen Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow. Rod son, Lois Smith, Don McManus, Hal HolSteiger, Kim Hunter, David Allen Brooks, brook. Routine crime thriller based on Amanda Pays, Talia Balsam, Timothy Gibbs, Elmore Leonard’s novel about a divorcing Peter Frechette, Julia Montgomery. Enjoyable couple (Lane, Jane) forced to enter the Fedhorror flick of teens in danger from a scientific eral Witness Protection Program after runexperiment that resulted in a grotesque monning afoul of a weary, half-Indian hit man ster. OK special effects in a film marking (Rourke) and his psychotic young partner Steiger’s latter-day entry into Donald Pleas(Gordon-Levitt). Quintessential B-movie ence–type horror roles. [R]▼● material is drained of action and suspense King, The (2006) C-105m. ★★ D: James via pretentious treatment from the director Marsh. Gael Garcı´a Bernal, William Hurt, Pell of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, although James, Laura Harring, Paul Dano, Derek Alvainteresting cast keeps it watchable. Made rado, Milo Addica. A 21-year-old dreamer, just in 2006 and barely released theatrically (at out of the Navy, returns to his hometown to 84m.), film underwent extensive reshoots seek outthe father he has only heard about from and recutting. Super 35. [R]쩠 his deceased Mexican mother. Now a happily Kim (1950) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Victor married minister with two all-American kids, Saville. Errol Flynn, Dean Stockwell, Paul Dad wants nothing to do with him. Then the Lukas, Thomas Gomez, Cecil Kellaway. young man shatters taboos by taking up roRousing actioner based on Kipling classic, mantically with his unwitting half-sister. set in 1880s India, with British soldiers Dreary tale isn’t helped by Bernal’s less-thancombatting rebellious natives. Flavorful appealing character and the sick nature of the production. Remade for TV in 1984 with film’s evolving relationships. Predictably vioPeter O’Toole.▼쩠 lent events unravel what little interest the film Kindergarten Cop (1990) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 holds in its first half. Super 35.쩠 D: Ivan Reitman. Arnold Schwarzenegger, King: A Filmed Record . . . MontgomPenelope Ann Miller, Pamela Reed, Linda ery to Memphis (1970) 180m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hunt, Richard Tyson, Carroll Baker, Cathy No director credited. Superior documentary Moriarty, Park Overall, Richard Portnow, covering life of Dr. Martin Luther King Angela Bassett. Macho cop is forced to from 1955 until his death in 1968 is marred masquerade as a kindergarten teacher in only by the pretentious and unnecessary order to find a youngster who’s living with ‘‘bridges’’ featuring stars Paul Newman, his mother incognito. Amusing but overly Joanne Woodward, James Earl Jones, Harry contrived Schwarzenegger vehicle blends Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Clarence Wilelements of comedy, cop thriller, and roliams III, Ruby Dee, Ben Gazzara, Burt mance. Despite the presence of cute kids, Lancaster, and Anthony Quinn. Otherwise, this is definitely not for children—espewell-chosen compilation of news footage cially the finale. [PG-13]▼●쩠 carries tremendous wallop. Sidney Lumet Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949-British) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz directed portions of the film. ● 104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Hamer. Dennis Price, Alec Guinness, Valerie Hobson, King & Country (1964-British) 90m. ★★★1 Joan Greenwood, Miles Malleson, Hugh ⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. Dirk Bogarde, Tom Griffith, Jeremy Spenser, Arthur Lowe. Courtenay, Leo McKern, Barry Foster, James Peerless black comedy of castoff member Villiers, Peter Copley. Vivid antiwar treatise of titled family setting out to eliminate beautifully acted by strong supporting cast. them all. Guinness plays all eight victims! Bogarde is detached Army captain lawyer Hamer and John Dighton adapted Roy assigned to defend deserter private CourHorniman’s novel Israel Rank.▼●쩠 tenay during WW1. Score composed by harKind Lady (1951) 78m. ★★★ D: John Sturges. monica virtuoso Larry Adler. ▼쩠 Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela King and Four Queens, The (1956) Lansbury, Betsy Blair, Keenan Wynn, John C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raoul Walsh. Clark Gable, Williams, Doris Lloyd. Creepy little chiller Eleanor Parker, Jo Van Fleet, Jean Willes, about a genteel older woman (Barrymore) Barbara Nichols, Sara Shane, Jay C. who is victimized by a charmer (Evans), who Flippen. Static misfire with Gable on the takes over her home—and her life. Wynn is search for money hidden by husbands of four particularly effective as a thug/butler. Coswomen he encounters. CinemaScope.▼ cripted by Edward Chodorov and based on King and I, The (1956) C-133m. ★★★1⁄2 his play; filmed previously in 1936. D: Walter Lang. Deborah Kerr, Yul Bryn[ 744 ]

ner, Rita Moreno, Martin Benson, Terry Saunders, Rex Thompson, Alan Mowbray. Excellent film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein Broadway musical, based on book filmed in 1946 as ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (and remade as ANNA AND THE KING). Kerr plays widowed English schoolteacher who travels to Siam to teach the King’s many children, and finds dealing with His Highness her greatest challenge. Brynner gives the performance of a lifetime, and won an Oscar recreating his Broadway role. Kerr is charming; her singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon. Songs include ‘‘Hello, Young Lovers,’’ ‘‘Getting to Know You,’’ ‘‘Shall We Dance.’’ Also won Oscars for art direction-set decoration, Irene Sharaff’s costumes, Alfred Newman and Ken Darby’s scoring. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman. CinemaScope 55.

Woodward, Alice Krige, Denis Quilley, Niall Buggy, Cherie Lunghi, Hurd Hatfield, Jack Klaff. Solid biblical story traces young David’s life from boyhood battle with Goliath to uneasy reign as king; only goes awry in second half, where abruptness undermines narrative. Visually striking, with Donald McAlpine’s photography, Carl Davis’ music strong assets—along with outstanding performance by Woodward as deposed King Saul. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Kingdom, The (1994-Danish) C-271m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Lars von Trier. Ernst-Hugo Jaregard, Kirsten Rolffes, Ghita Norby, Soren Pilmark, Holger Juul Hansen, Annevig Schelde Ebbe, Jens Okking, Otto Brandenburg, Baard Owe, Solbjorg Hojfeldt. Four-hour film is actually four Danish TV episodes strung together, set and shot at the real National State Hospital in Copenhagen (known as ‘‘The ▼●쩠 King and I, The (1999) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kingdom’’). As virtually every critic has Richard Rich. Voices of Miranda Richardpointed out, this is ER meets Twin Peaks, with son, Christiane Noll, Martin Vidnovic, Ian crackpot doctors, paranormal goings-on, sex, Richardson, Darrell Hammond, Adam Wylie, black humor, etc. A must for those who think Allen D. Hong. Condensed animated kiddie they’ve seen everything. Note: The unusual version of classic Rodgers and Hammerstein look of the film (a brownish, dirty-looking musical now includes romps with animal print texture) was achieved by shooting on chums, black magic by the king’s evil minis16mm, transferring to video, editing on video, ter, and unfunny slapstick with his racially transferring back to 16mm, and finally blowstereotyped sidekick. Artwork and settings are ing up to 35mm! Alternate version runs 291m. colorful and lavish, but animation is erratic. Remade as a miniseries for TV in 2004. FolEight songs (out of twenty) survive somewhat lowed by THE KINGDOM, PART 2. ▼●쩠 unscathed; Barbra Streisand sings medley Kingdom, The (2007) C-110m. ★★★ D: Peter over end credits. [G] ▼●쩠 Berg. Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris King Arthur (2004-U.S.-British-Irish) CCooper, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom, 126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Antoine Fuqua. Clive Owen, Ali Suliman, Jeremy Piven, Danny Huston, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Richard Jenkins, Frances Fisher, Anna Dillane, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Ray Winstone, Deavere Smith, Tim McGraw. The political Hugh Dancy, Til Schweiger, Mads Mikthriller reinvented as an action movie: kelsen, Ray Stevenson. Camelot is nowhere blood-pumping story of an elite FBI team in sight in this revisionist look at the legend that travels surreptitiously to Riyadh, Saudi of King Arthur: the dark, gritty story conArabia, to investigate a massacre at a U.S. cerns a warrior who fights long and hard, compound. Special Agent Foxx teams up only to be betrayed by his sovereign. Better with a sympathetic Saudi colonel (Barhom) than one might expect, with Owen an ideal who cuts through red tape to find the perpelead and Winstone supplying welcome roughtrator of this atrocity. Plays like escapist acand-tumble comedy relief, but Knightley is tion fare—except that the setting and too young for the role of Guinevere (and her political climate are all too real. Director skimpy costume in the climactic battle scene Berg makes a cameo early on. Super 35. is laughable). Unrated director’s cut runs [R]쩠 138m. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Kingdom Come (2001) C-92m. ★★★ D: King Creole (1958) 116m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiDoug McHenry. LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett chael Curtiz. Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, Liliane MonLoretta Devine, Anthony Anderson, Toni tevecchi, Walter Matthau, Paul Stewart, Vic Braxton, Cedric the Entertainer, Darius Morrow. Elvis is quite good as young New McCrary, Richard Gant, Masasa, Clifton Orleans nightclub singer who is eventually Davis. A funeral brings a raucous family todragged into the criminal underworld. Tonedgether, but nothing can quell the tumult. down adaptation of Harold Robbins’ A Stone Warmhearted, often broadly funny comedyFor Danny Fisher (which was set in Chidrama, adapted from the play Dearly Decago), coscripted by Michael V. Gazzo. Songs parted by its authors, David D ean Bottrell include ‘‘Hard Headed Woman,’’ ‘‘Trouble,’’ and Jessie Jones. Impressive performance by title number. VistaVision.▼●쩠 LL Cool J as a man coming to terms with his King David (1985) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: feelings about his father. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 Bruce Beresford. Richard Gere, Edward Kingdom of Heaven (2005-British-Spanish[ 745 ]

U.S.-German) C-145m. ★★★ D: Ridley Scott. beauty-and-beast theme is a moviegoing Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, Eva Green, must, with Willis O’Brien’s special effects Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeand animation of monster ape Kong still son, Marton Csokas, Ghassan Massoud, Edunsurpassed. Final sequence atop Empire ward Norton, Jon Finch, Iain Glen, Michael State Building is now cinema folklore; Sheen. A blacksmith, reeling from personal Max Steiner music score also memorable. tragedy, is persuaded to join the Crusades by Followed immediately by THE SON OF an illustrious knight, who reveals himself to be KONG. Remade in 1976 and 2005. Also the young man’s father. The new recruit shows shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 his mettle by proving himself a man of the peoKing Kong (1976) C-134m. ★1⁄2 D: John ple who struggles to achieve peace between the Guillermin. Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, Muslims and the Christians while defending Jessica Lange, John Randolph, Rene Jerusalem. Impressive, epic-scale film manAuberjonois, Julius Harris, Jack O’Hallages to find nobility in the Crusades, but never oran, Ed Lauter, John Lone. Addle-brained loses sight of its main character’s personal remake of 1933 classic has great potential journey. Like the man he portrays, Bloom but dispels all the mythic, larger-than-life definitely carries his weight. Director’s cut runs qualities of the original with idiotic charac194m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ters and campy approach. Highly touted Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) C-94m. special effects (which earned a special ★★★ Oscar) run hot-and-cold; real marvel is Rick D: John (Bud) Cardos. William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Baker in a gorilla suit. Extra footage added Dressler, Altovise Davis. Unsurprising but for network showing. Lange’s film debut; well-made chiller about veterinarian Shatner Joe Piscopo has a small role; look fast for and entomologist Bolling discovering that Corbin Bernsen playing a reporter. Foltarantulas are going on the warpath in lowed a decade later by KING KONG LIVES. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Arizona. [PG]▼쩠 Kingfisher Caper, The (1975-South AfKing Kong (2005) C-187m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter rican) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dirk DeVilliers. Jackson. Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Hayley Mills, David McCallum, Jon CyBrody, Thomas Kretschmann, Colin Hanks, pher. Typical tale of intrigue, love and Andy Serkis, Evan Parke, Jamie Bell, Kyle passion interwoven with a family feud Chandler. In Depression-era N.Y.C. connivover the running of a South African diaing movie producer Carl Denham (Black) mond empire. Aka DIAMOND LUST. shanghais a crew, a screenwriter (Brody), [PG] ▼ and a leading lady (Watts) for an ocean voyKing Gun SEE: Gatling Gun, The age to Skull Island on the biggest gamble of King in New York, A (1957-British) 100m. his career. They soon find themselves in a ★★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Chaplin. Charles Chaplin, desperate struggle to survive in a jungle inDawn Addams, Oliver Johnston, Maxine habited by predatory prehistoric creatures, Audley, Harry Green, Michael Chaplin. while Kong is distracted by the feisty blonde Unseen in U.S. until 1973, supposedly girl. A rare remake that reinvents the original anti-American film is rather mild satire of film while honoring it at the same time. Jack1950s sensibilities, witch hunts, and techson pulls us into a world of wonder, both on nology. Chaplin over-indulges himself, and Skull and Manhattan island, and takes us on film lacks focus, but there are good moa long but thrilling adventure that’s hard to ments, and interesting performance by son beat. He also cowrote with Fran Walsh and Michael as young malcontent.▼●쩠 Philippa Boyens. Oscar winner for Sound King is Alive, The (2000-Danish-U.S.) CMixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 108m. ★1⁄2 D: Kristian Levring. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janet McTeer, Bruce Davison, King Kong Escapes (1967-Japanese) CMiles Anderson, Romane Bohringer, David 96m. BOMB D: Ishiro Honda. Rhodes Bradley, David Calder, Brion James, Peter Reason, Mie Hama, Linda Miller, Akira Kubheka, Vusi Kunene, Chris Walker, Lia Takarada. Contrived new plot involving Williams. Dreary, sun-baked drama about girl who wins ape’s heart, battle against a group of exceptionally unpleasant people would-be world conqueror. Kong never stranded in the African desert who, to pass had it so bad. Tohoscope. [G]쩠 the time, stage a production of King Lear. King Kong Lives (1986) C-105m. BOMB Supposedly inspired by Lear, it plays more D: John Guillermin. Brian Kerwin, Linda like a cross between a Greek tragedy and Hamilton, John Ashton, Peter Michael an episode of Survivor. A Dogma 95 film, Goetz, Frank Maraden, Alan Sader. Dino written and directed by one of the moveDe Laurentiis sequel gives the ape a mate ment’s founders. [R]▼쩠 with everything he loves: She’s tall, King Kong (1933) 103m. ★★★★ D: Merian statuesque, with great mossy teeth. The C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack. Fay Army tries to kill them (naturally), but not Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, before a finale that actually rips off the Frank Reicher, Sam Hardy, Noble Johnfinal scene in SPARTACUS. Desperate. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]▼●쩠 son, James Flavin. Classic version of [ 746 ]

King Kong Vs. Godzilla (1963-Japanese) Lewis. Written by Paul D. Zimmerman. Filmed in 1981. [PG]▼●쩠 C-90m. ★★ D: Ishiro Honda, Thomas Montgomery. Tadao Takashima, Kenji Sahara, King of Hearts (1966-French-British) C-102m. ★★★ D: Philippe De Broca. Alan Yu Fujiki, Ichiro Arishima, Mie Hama, Akihiko Hirata, Jun Tazaki. Essentially a Bates, Pierre Brasseur, Jean-Claude Brialy, KONG remake, with Tokyo subbing for Genevieve Bujold, Francoise Christophe, N.Y.C. and Godzilla showing up to make that Adolfo Celi. Scotsman Bates walks into mess even bigger. (Oh yes, there’s also a giFrench town in WW1 that has been abangantic octopus.) Third Godzilla movie—the doned by everyone except those in the first in color and widescreen—was originally insane asylum. Stylish film isn’t for all a clever satire of the worst excesses of TV tastes, but has become a cult favorite. Offbeat. Techniscope.▼●쩠 journalism, but the U.S. version eliminates most of this (as well as Akira Ifukube’s King of Kings, The (1927) 155m. ★★★ D: thrilling score), and adds awful new scenes Cecil B. DeMille. H. B. Warner, Ernest Torwith Michael Keith, Harry Holcombe, rence, Jacqueline Logan, Joseph Schildkraut, Byron Morrow, and Victor Milian. Still Victor Varconi, Robert Edeson, William worth a look. (P.S.: Despite urban legend, Boyd. Lavish silent film benefits from Deonly one ending was shot.) Japanese runMille’s superb storytelling skills and reverning time 98m. Tohoscope. ▼쩠 ence for the subject. The Resurrection King Lear (1971-British) 137m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sequence is in two-color Technicolor. Some Peter Brook. Paul Scofield, Irene Worth, prints run 112m. Remade in 1961.▼●쩠 Jack MacGowran, Alan Webb, Cyril CuKing of Kings (1961) C-168m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sack, Patrick Magee. This version of Nicholas Ray. Jeffrey Hunter, Siobhan McShakespeare tragedy could be heavy going Kenna, Robert Ryan, Hurd Hatfield, Viveca for the uninitiated, but often a strong and Lindfors, Rita Gam, Rip Torn; narrated by rewarding experience. Starkly photographed Orson Welles. The life of Christ, intelliin Denmark. [PG]▼ gently told and beautifully filmed; full of King Lear (1987-U.S.-Swiss) C-91m. ★1⁄2 deeply moving moments, such as the SerD: Jean-Luc Godard. Peter Sellars, Burmon on the Mount, Christ’s healing of the gess Meredith, Molly Ringwald, Jean-Luc lame, and many others. Memorable Miklos Godard, Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, Rozsa score. Not without flaws, but well Kate Mailer. Bizarre, garish, contemporary worthwhile; grandly filmed in widescreen. punk-apocalyptic updating of Shakespeare SuperTechnirama 70.▼●쩠 classic. Little to be said about this pretentious King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, The mess except . . . avoid it. [PG]▼ (2007) C-82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Seth Gordon. Vastly King of California (2007) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 entertaining documentary about Billy MitchD: Mike Cahill. Michael Douglas, Evan Raell, who has held the world’s record for highchel Wood, Willis Burks II, Laura Kacherest score on the first-generation video game gus, Paul Lieber, Kathleen Wilhoite. Donkey Kong since 1982, and unassuming Sixteen-year-old Wood’s life turns chaotic Seattle schoolteacher Steve Wiebe, who when her father is released from a mental threatens to rob him of his title. Although institution. A free spirit (to say the least), he the film takes us deep inside the video-game is obsessed with locating an ancient Spanish community it isn’t really about the game at treasure right under their noses in California all, but a portrait of some amazing characters. and pulls her into his crazy scheme—against Gordon wisely allows the viewer to make his own judgments. [PG-13]쩠 her better judgment. Whimsically inventive story isn’t easily pigeonholed, embracing King of Kong Island (1978-Italian) comedy and drama, dreams and reality, and C-92m. BOMB D: Robert Morris. Brad contrasting individuality vs. ‘‘progress.’’ A Harris, Esmeralda Barros, Marc Lawrence, genuine original, and an impressive debut Adrianna Alben, Mark Farran. Mercenary film for writer-director Cahill. Douglas has Harris on the trail of loony scientist Lawnever been better. [PG-13]쩠 rence, who’s been monkeying around with King of Comedy, The (1983) C-109m. the brains of apes, making them act like ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Martin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, robots. Couldn’t be any worse; not even Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Berngood for laughs. Aka KONG ISLAND.▼쩠 hard, Shelley Hack, Tony Randall, Ed King of Marvin Gardens, The (1972) Herlihy, Fred de Cordova. Pungent black C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bob Rafelson. Jack comedy about a show-business hanger-on Nicholson, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, and world class loser who idolizes AmerJulia Anne Robinson, Scatman Crothers. ica’s top TV comedian/talk-show host and Pretentious but genuinely haunting, origifigures out a bizarre scheme to get on the nal drama about Nicholson’s failure to program. The denouement is a wow! Too discourage brother Dern’s outlandish fimordant and ‘‘sick’’ for many viewers’ nancial schemes. Burstyn’s performance taste, though it’s all been done with a minias an aging beauty is chilling in its perfecmum of exaggeration . . . and a pair of tion, and Laszlo Kovacs’ photography rates knock-out performances by De Niro and with the best of the decade. [R]▼●쩠 [ 747 ]

King of Masks, The (1997-Chinese) Cfor himself in the depths of the Great De101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wu Tianming. Chu Yuk, pression, using his wits to survive against Chao Yim Yin, Zhang Riuyang, Zhao Zhiextraordinary odds. One of the most vivid gang. Beautifully realized story, set in depictions of the Depression ever captured 1930s Sichuan, about an aged street perforon film; full of rich, often harrowing detail mer who realizes he has no heir to whom that draws us in to vicariously experience he can pass on his ancient tradition (and everything young Aaron (Bradford) is going secrets) . . . so he purchases a child on the through. Director Soderbergh also scripted black market. Simple, eloquent, and movthis adaptation of the memoir by A. E. ing. Written by Wei Minglun.▼쩠 Hotchner. Exceptional in every way. SuperKing of New York (1990) C-103m. ★★ D: 35. [PG-13]▼● Abel Ferrara. Christopher Walken, David King of the Khyber Rifles (1953) C-100m. ★★1 Caruso, Larry Fishburne, Victor Argo, Wes⁄2 D: Henry King. Tyrone Power, Terry ley Snipes, Janet Julian, Joey Chin, Steve Moore, Michael Rennie, John Justin. Power Buscemi, Paul Calderon, Giancarlo Esposis half-caste British officer involved in ito. Fidgety Walken plays the ex-con lord to native skirmishes, Moore the general’s a band of black drug dealers who regularly daughter he loves. Film version of Talbot annihilate their Colombian-Italian-Chinese Mundy’s novel lacks finesse or any sense of rivals. Cult director Ferrara offers style and Kipling-style reality-fantasy. CinemaScope. little more in this ultraviolent outing; one exKing of the Mountain (1981) C-90m. ★★ tended monsoon shootout makes this preD: Noel Nosseck. Harry Hamlin, Joseph sumably tongue-in-cheek effort worth a Bottoms, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Richglance on a very draggy night. Walken’s ard Cox, Dennis Hopper, Dan Haggerty, improbable headquarters, the Plaza Hotel, Seymour Cassel. Garage mechanic Hamlin begs for a scene between his low-rent minand friends guzzle beer and race their cars ions and Ivana Trump in the service elevadown L.A.’s treacherous Mulholland Drive. tor. [R]▼●쩠 Pretentious, cliche´d script and situations, King of the Grizzlies (1970) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 with superficial and obvious finale. Hopper D: Ron Kelly. John Yesno, Chris Wigoveracts outrageously as a burned-out forgins, Hugh Webster, Jack Van Evera; narmer king of the Drive. Inspired by David rated by Winston Hibler. Standard Disney Barry’s feature in New West magazine. animal-adventure about Indian who was [PG]▼ ‘‘brother’’ to bear as a cub, and who now King of the Roaring 20’s—The Story of faces the full-grown grizzly in a different Arnold Rothstein (1961) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: light. Filmed in the Canadian Rockies. Joseph M. Newman. David Janssen, Di[G]▼쩠 anne Foster, Jack Carson, Diana Dors, King of the Gypsies (1978) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 Mickey Rooney. Slow-paced narrative of D: Frank Pierson. Eric Roberts, Judd famous gambler’s rise and fall miscasts Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Sterling Hayden, lead role (real Rothstein was short and fat), Annette O’Toole, Brooke Shields, Shelley slightly whitewashes him, and gets most of Winters, Annie Potts, Michael V. Gazzo, the facts wrong. Stray gangster-movie eleMichael Higgins, Mary Louise Wilson, ments are inappropriately added. ▼쩠 Matthew Laborteaux, Danielle Brisebois, King of the Underworld (1939) 69m. ★★ Patti LuPone, Linda Manz, Tom Mason, D: Lewis Seiler. Humphrey Bogart, Kay Rachel Ticotin. Loose adaptation of Peter Francis, James Stephenson, John Eldredge, Maas’ best-seller about three generations of Jessie Busley. Far-fetched tale of doctor gypsies in N.Y.C. Dying Hayden passes Francis, falsely linked to gangster Bogart, tribe leadership to grandson Roberts (in his the ‘‘last of the public enemies,’’ setting out film debut), skipping over sleazy son to prove her innocence. Remake of DR. Hirsch, who promptly sets out to kill his SOCRATES. offspring. Initially fascinating melodrama Kingpin (1996) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Farturns into conventional chase thriller, but relly, Bobby Farrelly. Woody Harrelson, still intriguing, with fine acting, moody Randy Quaid, Vanessa Angel, Bill Murray, Sven Nykvist photography, and infectious Chris Elliott, William Jordan, Richard score by David Grisman and Stephane Tyson, Rob Moran, Lin Shaye, Zen Gesner, Grappelli (who also appear in the film). Prudence Wright Holmes. Once-promising [R]▼쩠 bowling champ whose career was ruined King of the Hill (1993) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: by a sleazy competitor sees his chance for Steven Soderbergh. Jesse Bradford, Jeroen reflected glory when he discovers a potenKrabbe´, Lisa Eichhorn, Karen Allen, Spaldtial ace, who turns out to be Amish. Stupid ing Gray, Elizabeth McGovern, Joseph and proud of it, this comedy goes the grossChrest, Adrien Brody, Cameron Boyd, out route and then, halfway through, asks Amber Benson, Kristin Griffith, Remak us to care about these pinhead characters! Ramsay, Katherine Heigl. A 12-year-old St. Setups for laugh lines or visual punch lines Louis boy, whose mother is ill and whose flaky father is often away, is forced to fend are muffed time and time again. What a [ 748 ]

waste. 117m. R-rated version debuted on slow, introspective, disarming tale (written video in 1999. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 by the director) of itinerant cinema meKing, Queen, Knave (1972-British) Cchanic Vogler, traveling with Zischler along 92m. BOMB D: Jerzy Skolimowski. Dathe underpopulated, forgotten border revid Niven, Gina Lollobrigida, John Mouldergions between East and West Germany—a Brown, Mario Adorf. Coarse, heavy-handed dying area that serves as a metaphor for the adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov novel about decline of the German film industry. It’s a klutzy youth who falls in love with his also about cars, rock ’n’ roll, and the Amerisexy aunt (Lollobrigida). Never released can cultural imperialism of Wenders’ hometheatrically in the U.S. [R]▼ land. The last (and best) in Wenders’ ‘‘road King Ralph (1991) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Damovie’’ trilogy, after ALICE IN THE vid S. Ward. John Goodman, Peter O’Toole, CITIES and WRONG MOVE.▼ John Hurt, Camille Coduri, Richard GrifKings of the Sun (1963) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: fiths, Leslie Phillips, James Villiers, Joely J. Lee Thompson. Yul Brynner, George Richardson, Niall O’Brien, Julian Glover, Chakiris, Shirley Anne Field, Richard Judy Parfitt. Mild, one-joke comedy about Basehart, Brad Dexter. Skin-deep spectaa Las Vegas lounge entertainer who is cle, badly cast, telling of Mayan leader found to be the only living heir to the who comes to America with surviving throne of England. Inoffensive but hardly tribesmen and encounters savage Indians. inspired; Goodman’s likability has to carry Filmed in Mexico. Panavision.쩠 this a long, long way. Based on Emlyn King Solomon’s Mines (1937-British) 80m. Williams’ novel Headlong. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Robert Stevenson. Paul Robeson, King Rat (1965) 133m. ★★★ D: Bryan Cedric Hardwicke, Roland Young, John Forbes. George Segal, Tom Courtenay, Loder, Anna Lee. Robust adventure given James Fox, Patrick O’Neal, Denholm Elliott, full-blooded treatment by fine cast, explorJames Donald, John Mills, Alan Webb. James ing Africa in search of treasure-filled mines. Clavell novel of WW2 Japanese POW camp, One of Robeson’s best screen roles even focusing on effect of captivity on Allied prisallows him to sing. H. Rider Haggard oners. Thoughtful presentation rises above story remade in 1950, 1985, and for TV cliche´s; many exciting scenes.▼쩠 in 2004.▼쩠 King Richard and the Crusaders (1954) King Solomon’s Mines (1950) C-102m. ★1 C-114m. ⁄2 D: David Butler. Rex Harrison, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Compton Bennett, Andrew MarVirginia Mayo, George Sanders, Laurence ton. Deborah Kerr, Stewart Granger, RichHarvey, Robert Douglas. Cardboard cosard Carlson, Hugo Haas. Remake of H. tumer of Middle Ages, with laughable script. Rider Haggard story is given polished proIndeed, Sanders as The Lion Heart and duction, with Granger-Kerr-Carlson trio Harrison as a Saracen warrior do appear leading safari in search for legendary diato be having a good time. CinemaScope.▼ mond mines. Scripted by Helen Deutsch. Kings and Desperate Men (1983-CanaThis won Oscars for Cinematography (Rob★1⁄2 D: Alexis Kanner. Patdian) C-118m. ert Surtees) and Editing; excess footage rick McGoohan, Alexis Kanner, Andrea used in WATUSI and other later jungle Marcovicci, Margaret Trudeau, Robin Spry, films. ▼●쩠 Frank Moore. Abrasive talk-show host King Solomon’s Mines (1985) C-100m. McGoohan is held hostage in his studio by ★1⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. Richard Chamamateurish terrorists seeking public forum berlain, Sharon Stone, Herbert Lom, John to debate plight of their comrade, conRhys-Davies, Ken Gampu. H. Rider Hagvicted of manslaughter. Interesting premgard’s adventure yarn is updated for the ise sabotaged by poor direction, choppy Indiana Jones generation, but the results editing. McGoohan overacts shamelessly. are unsuccessful. Cartoon characters and Trudeau has limited footage as his wife. outlandish cliffhanger situations abound— [PG-13]▼ ★★★ but where’s the charm? Followed by sequel D: Kings Go Forth (1958) 109m. (shot simultaneously), ALLAN QUATERDelmer Daves. Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, MAIN AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD. Natalie Wood, Leora Dana, Karl Swenson. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]▼쩠 Soapy but well-done three-cornered romance, King Solomon’s Treasure (1977-Canadset in WW2 France. Two GI buddies both fall ian-British) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Alvin Rakoff. for same girl, unaware that she is half-black. David McCallum, John Colicos, Patrick Script by Merle Miller; several jazz greats, Macnee, Britt Ekland, Yvon Dufour, Ken including Red Norvo and Pete Candoli, put Gampu, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Silly, lowin appearances.▼●쩠 budget adaptation of H. Rider Haggard’s King’s Mistress, The SEE: King’s Whore, Allan Quatermain has miscast trio of The Colicos, McCallum (with comedy-relief Kings of the Road (1976-German) 176m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. Rudiger Vogler, stutter) and Macnee hunting for African treasure, fighting off dinosaurs and meetHanns Zischler, Lisa Kreuzer, Rudolf Schundler, Marquard Bohm. Deliberately ing Phoenician queen Ekland. Despite ob[ 749 ]

vious similarities, this is no RAIDERS OF tion. Also involved is a Japanese businessTHE LOST ARK.▼쩠 man, newly come to L.A., whose daughter is King’s Pirate, The (1967) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 kidnapped by the pimp. Some interesting ideas, but mostly formulaic. [R]▼●쩠 D: Don Weis. Doug McClure, Jill St. John, Guy Stockwell, Mary Ann Mobley. Kinky Boots (2005-British) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 Cardboard, juvenile swashbuckler set in D: Julian Jarrold. Joel Edgerton, Chiwetel 18th century, with McClure the nominal Ejiofor, Sarah-Jane Potts, Jemima Rooper, hero. Remake of AGAINST ALL FLAGS. Linda Bassett, Nick Frost, Robert Pugh, Mona Hammond, Stephen Marcus. Comedy King’s Ransom (2005) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeff Byrd. Anthony Anderson, Jay Mohr, Kellita in the mold of such feel-good films as THE Smith, Nicole Parker, Regina Hall, Loretta FULL MONTY and CALENDAR GIRLS, Devine, Donald Faison, Charlie Murphy, about a transvestite club entertainer who Jackie Burroughs. Stereotypes abound in this comes to the aid of a young man who’s entirely unfunny comedy. A wealthy mogul inherited his father’s failing shoe factory. (Anderson), hated by everyone around him, When they hatch an idea of creating outattempts to get out of paying off his ex-wiferageous boots for man-sized feet they set a to-be by having himself kidnapped, uncourse for reinventing the business and savaware that someone else is really planning ing the soul (or is that sole?) of the company to abduct him. Screwball antics and obvious and its workforce. Worth seeing for the mix-ups add up to naught, even with this high-octane performance of Ejiofor, who talented cast. [PG-13]▼쩠 looks great in heels and gets to perform Kings Row (1942) 127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sam such songs as ‘‘These Boots Were Made for Wood. Ann Sheridan, Robert Cummings, Walking.’’ Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Ronald Reagan, Betty Field, Charles CoKinsey (2004) C-118m. ★★★ D: Bill Conburn, Claude Rains, Judith Anderson, Madon. Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Chris ria Ouspenskaya. Forerunner of PEYTON O’Donnell, Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Hutton, PLACE still retains its sweep of life in John Lithgow, Tim Curry, Oliver Platt, Dylan pre-WW1 Midwestern town, with the fates Baker, Julianne Nicholson, William Sadler, of many townsfolk intertwined. Beautiful Heather Goldenhersh, John McMartin, VeErich Wolfgang Korngold music score backs ronica Cartwright, Kathleen Chalfant, Dagmup plush production, fine characterizations. ara Dominczyk, Lynn Redgrave, Katharine Notable, too, as Reagan’s finest performHoughton. Provocative look at the life of Alance. Screenplay by Casey Robinson, from fred Kinsey, who during a sexually repressed Henry Bellamann’s best-selling book. Also childhood developed a keen interest in biolshown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 ogy that ultimately led to his great mission in King’s Thief, The (1955) C-78m. ★★★ D: life: freeing Americans from ignorance about Robert Z. Leonard. Ann Blyth, Edmund sex, and publishing the results of a massive Purdom, David Niven, George Sanders, survey about sexual behavior. Startlingly Roger Moore, John Dehner, Sean McClory. frank, evocative biopic boasts superior perforThe king is England’s Charles II (Sanders) mances and a keen sense of period detail, and the thief is brash Purdom, whose pilferalthough it tries to cover too much ground, ing of a valuable book sets off plenty of and much like its leading character, loses its intrigue in this lavish costumer. Niven way toward the end. Written by the director. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼쩠 makes a fine villain. CinemaScope. ▼ King’s Whore, The (1990-French-AustrianKipperbang (1982-British) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: British-Italian) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Axel Michael Apted. John Albasiny, Alison Corti. Timothy Dalton, Valeria Golino, Steadman, Gary Cooper, Abigail CruttenStephane Freiss, Feodor Chaliapin, Margaden, Maurice Lee. Annoyingly lightweight ret Tyzack, Eleanor David, Robin Renucci. comedy detailing the romantic fantasies Lavishly filmed but dramatically uneven and predicaments of young teens and their historical melodrama. In the royal court of elders—particularly, their English teacher— Piedmont in Northern Italy, king Dalton in 1948 Britain. Originally made for Britbecomes consumed by his burning desire ish television, released here theatrically in for beautiful but unwilling Golino, the 1984. Original title: P’TANG YANG KIPwife of his chamberlain. Scripted by Corti, PERBANG. [PG]▼ Frederic Raphael, and Daniel Vigne. Aka Kippur (2000-Israeli) C-117m. ★★★ D: THE KING’S MISTRESS. [R]▼●쩠 Amos Gitai. Liron Levo, Tomer Ruso, Uri Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989) CRan Klauzner, Yoram Hattab, Guy Amir, Ran ★★ 97m. D: J. Lee Thompson. Charles Kauchinsky. A unique vision of the Yom KipBronson, Juan Fernandez, James Pax, pur War as seen through the eyes of two Kumiko Hayakawa, Perry Lopez, Peggy Lipvolunteer soldier brothers, both completely ton, Amy Hathaway, Bill McKinney, Sy unprepared for battle. A painstaking, gruelRichardson, Alex Hyde-White, Richard Egan, ing picture of war.▼쩠 Jr. Glum urban thriller pitting supercop BronKismet (1944) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: William son against scummy pimp Fernandez, who Dieterle. Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, specializes in turning teenage girls to prostituEdward Arnold, Florence Bates, James [ 750 ]

Craig, Joy Ann Page, Harry Davenport. Lee, Adam Horovitz. Almost completely Colman tries a change of pace playing the ineffectual thriller about an ambitious young ‘‘king of beggars,’’ a wily magician whose sicko who charms—and murders—his way daughter is wooed by the handsome young into a powerful family. Young plays twin Caliph in this plot-heavy Arabian Nightssisters, enabling us to watch her give two type tale. Passably entertaining but nothbad performances. Writer-director Dearden ing special, despite opulent MGM produceven dares to have her looking at Hitchtion. Best of all is Dietrich, with tongue in cock’s VERTIGO on TV, a reminder (as if cheek and body painted gold for one fawe needed one) of the right way to make mous dance scene. Filmed before in 1920 this kind of film. Ira Levin’s novel was and 1930; remade in 1955 after the Broadfilmed before in 1956. [R]▼●쩠 way musical version. Retitled ORIENTAL Kiss Daddy Good Night (1987) C-89m. ★1⁄2 DREAM.▼ D: Peter Ily Huemer. Uma Thurman, Paul Kismet (1955) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: VinDillon, Paul Richards, Steve Buscemi, Annacente Minnelli. Howard Keel, Ann Blyth, belle Gurwitch, David Brisbin. Vague, forgetDolores Gray, Monty Woolley, Sebastian table melodrama-thriller about a young vamp Cabot, Vic Damone. Handsome but un(Thurman, in her screen debut), who seduces inspired filming of the Broadway musical and robs men, and her strange relationship of this Arabian Nights–type tale. Robert with older bohemian Richards. [R] ▼쩠 Wright–George Forrest songs (based on Kissed (1996-Canadian) C-73m. ★1⁄2 D: Borodin themes) include ‘‘Stranger in Lynne Stopkewich. Molly Parker, Peter Paradise,’’ ‘‘Baubles, Bangles, and Beads.’’ Outerbridge, Jay Brazeau, Natasha Morley, CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Jessie Winter Mudie. A woman infatuated Kiss, The (1929) 62m. ★★★ D: Jacques with corpses since childhood gets her dream Feyder. Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, Anjob working in a mortuary, then meets a dres Randolf, Holmes Herbert, Lew Ayres, man who becomes obsessed with her flirtaGeorge Davis. Married Garbo gives young tion with death. Dull, occasionally repulsive Ayres, who is smitten with her, an innothought provoker seeks poetry in necrocent goodnight kiss, which leads to misphilia. Only pluses are Parker and Morley’s understanding and tragedy. Sleek, fluidly transfixing performances. Educational value: filmed Garbo vehicle was her last silent everything you ever wanted to know about embalming.▼쩠 and Ayres’ first starring role. Farfetched but very enjoyable.▼●쩠 Kisses for My President (1964) 113m. ★★1 Kiss, The (1988) C-101m. ★★ D: Pen ⁄2 D: Curtis Bernhardt. Fred MacMurray, Densham. Joanna Pacula, Meredith SalenPolly Bergen, Arlene Dahl, Edward Anger, Mimi Kuzyk, Nicholas Kilbertus, Jan drews, Eli Wallach. Thirties-style comedy Rubes. Occasionally scary horror film builds of Bergen becoming President of the U.S., up to but downplays the sexual implicawith MacMurray her husband caught in tions of its CAT PEOPLE–style story of a unprecedented protocol. Sometimes funny, often witless.▼● family curse passed down to each generation by a woman-to-woman kiss. Salenger is Kiss for Corliss, A (1949) 88m. ★★ D: the unlucky target of beautiful aunt Pacula’s Richard Wallace. Shirley Temple, David evil smooch. [R]▼●쩠 Niven, Tom Tully, Virginia Welles. PuffedKiss and Kill SEE: Blood of Fu Manup comedy of teenager Temple convincchu, The ing everyone that she and playboy Niven are Kiss and Tell (1945) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richgoing together; naı¨ve fluff. Limp follow-up ard Wallace. Shirley Temple, Jerome to KISS AND TELL with Shirley as Corliss Courtland, Walter Abel, Katherine AlexArcher; this was her final film. Retitled ander, Robert Benchley, Porter Hall. Film ALMOST A BRIDE.▼쩠 of successful Broadway play about wacky Kiss From Eddie, A SEE: Arousers, The teenager Corliss Archer is a bit forced but Kissin’ Cousins (1964) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: generally funny; one of Temple’s better Gene Nelson. Elvis Presley, Arthur O’Congrown-up roles. Sequel: A KISS FOR nell, Glenda Farrell, Jack Albertson, PaCORLISS. mela Austin, Yvonne Craig, Donald Woods. Kiss Before Dying, A (1956) C-94m. ★★★ Elvis has a dual role as military officer D: Gerd Oswald. Robert Wagner, Virginia trying to convince yokel relative to allow Leith, Jeffrey Hunter, Joanne Woodward, missile site to be built on homestead; good Mary Astor, George Macready. Effective supporting cast, usual amount of singing— chiller with Wagner superb as psychomostly forgettable—and dancing. Panavision.▼쩠 pathic killer and Astor his devoted mother; well paced. Based on an Ira Levin novel. Kissing a Fool (1998) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Doug Remade in 1991. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Ellin. David Schwimmer, Jason Lee, Mili Kiss Before Dying, A (1991) C-95m. ★1⁄2 Avital, Bonnie Hunt, Vanessa Angel, Kari D: James Dearden. Matt Dillon, Sean Wuhrer, Bitty Schram. Thoroughly charmYoung, Max von Sydow, Diane Ladd, James less romantic comedy, told via flashback in Russo, Martha Gehman, Ben Browder, Joie an irritating narrative form, about a be[ 751 ]

trothed Chicago sportscaster who badgers directors, and one of Aldrich’s best films. a novelist buddy into testing his fiance´e’s Leachman’s film debut. Some video versions fidelity as he himself is playing around. have 82 seconds of additional footage that completely change the finale. ▼●쩠 Subliminally sleazy but wrapped in a cozily sentimental veneer, which means the film Kiss Me Goodbye (1982) C-101m. ★★ D: doesn’t even have the courage of its convicRobert Mulligan. Sally Field, James Caan, tions. Avital is appealing as the pretty book Jeff Bridges, Paul Dooley, Claire Trevor, editor who deserves better. Schwimmer also Mildred Natwick, Dorothy Fielding, Wilcoexecutive-produced. [R]▼●쩠 liam Prince. Strained romantic comedyKissing Bandit, The (1948) C-102m. ★★ fantasy about young woman who’s visited D: Laslo Benedek. Frank Sinatra, Kathryn by her dead husband just as she’s about to Grayson, Ann Miller, J. Carrol Naish, remarry. Attractive cast is pretty much Ricardo Montalban, Mildred Natwick, Cyd wasted in this reworking of the Brazilian Charisse, Billy Gilbert. Frail Sinatra vehifilm DONA FLOR AND HER TWO cle about son of Western kissing bandit HUSBANDS. [PG]▼쩠 who picks up where Dad left off; song Kiss Me, Guido (1997) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: ‘‘Siesta’’ sums it up.▼쩠 Tony Vitale. Nick Scotti, Anthony Barrile, ★★★ Kissing Jessica Stein (2002) C-97m. Anthony DeSando, Craig Chester, Dominick D: Charles Herman-Wurmfeld. Jennifer Lombardozzi, Molly Price, Christopher LawWestfeldt, Heather Juergensen, Scott Cohen, ford. Earnest comedy about a heterosexual Tovah Feldshuh, Jackie Hoffman, Michael Pacino/De Niro wannabe (Scotti) from the Mastro, Carson Elrod, David Aaron Baker. Bronx who moves to Manhattan and unA single Jewish woman in N.Y.C., tired of knowingly takes a gay roommate. Occalooking for Mr. Right, answers a personal sionally funny, even though the set-up is ad and hooks up with a woman, which leads artificial and the characters are stereotypes. to unexpected emotional consequences. Later a TV series: Some of My Best Smart, funny romantic comedy that balFriends. [R]▼●쩠 ances sitcom-style moments with clever inKiss Me Kate (1953) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sights, good supporting characters, and George Sidney. Kathryn Grayson, Howterrific chemistry between Westfeldt and ard Keel, Ann Miller, Bobby Van, Keenan Juergensen, who cowrote the screenplay Wynn, James Whitmore, Bob Fosse, based on their play Lipschtick. [R]▼쩠 Tommy Rall, Kurt Kasznar, Ron Randell. Kiss Kiss-Bang Bang (1966-Spanish) CBright filmization of Cole Porter’s Broad90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Duccio Tessari. Giuliano way musical, adapted from Shakespeare’s Gemma, George Martin, Antonio Casas, The Taming of the Shrew. Grayson and Daniel Vargas. Routine spy yarn of British Keel are erstwhile married couple whose Secret Service efforts to prevent sale of secret off-stage and on-stage lives intertwine. formula to foreign powers. Techniscope. Songs include ‘‘So in Love,’’ ‘‘Always Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005) C-102m. ★★ True to You in My Fashion,’’ ‘‘Brush Up D: Shane Black. Robert Downey, Jr., Val Your Shakespeare’’ (delightfully performed Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernby Wynn and Whitmore); the ‘‘From This sen, Dash Mihok, Larry Miller, Shannyn Moment On’’ number, highlighting Fosse and Sossamon. Thief-turned-actor and a gay deCarol Haney, is outstanding. Originally in 3-D.▼●쩠 tective team up with an aspiring actress (the actor’s old flame) to solve several murders. Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) 122m. ★★ D: Uneven neo-noir/screwball comedy starts Billy Wilder. Dean Martin, Ray Walston, out as mindless entertainment but quickly Kim Novak, Felicia Farr, Cliff Osmond, grows confusing and tiresome. LETHAL Barbara Pepper, Doro Merande, Henry WEAPON scribe Black seems awfully imGibson, John Fiedler, Mel Blanc. Martin pressed with himself for repeatedly having plays womanizing crooner named ‘‘Dino’’ the protagonist break away from the story to whose interest in unsuccessful songwriter mock the film’s use of narrative and genre Walston might increase if he gets a crack cliche´s. Enjoyably pulpy characters and at his wife. Lewd farce (by Wilder and charismatic stars make it somewhat bearI. A. L. Diamond) was condemned as able. Downey’s real-life son plays his char‘‘smut’’ when first released, and hasn’t acter as a boy. Loosely based on a Brett improved very much—although it does have its defenders. DVD features the alternate EuHalliday novel. Super 35. [R]쩠 ropean ending. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Kiss Me Deadly (1955) 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. Ralph Meeker, Albert DekKiss of Death (1947) 98m. ★★★ D: Henry ker, Paul Stewart, Cloris Leachman, Wesley Hathaway. Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Addy, Nick Dennis, Maxine Cooper, Gaby Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, Karl Rodgers, Jack Elam, Strother Martin, Jack Malden, Taylor Holmes, Mildred Dunnock. Lambert. Meeker is a perfect Mike Hammer Famous gangster saga is showing its age, in moody, fast, and violent adaptation of with both the cops and robbers a little too Mickey Spillane novel. Years ahead of its polite—except, of course, for Widmark, time, a major influence on French New Wave in his notorious film debut as giggling, [ 752 ]

psychopathic killer who shoves a wheelwho take it on the lam after their latest dupe chair-bound old woman down a flight of unexpectedly dies. The style, impudence, stairs! Mature is solid as thief who turns and unusual characters overcome the formulaic story. [R]▼● state’s evidence. Scripted by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer; filmed on authentic Kiss the Blood off My Hands (1948) 80m. ★★ N.Y.C. locations. Remade in 1995.▼쩠 D: Norman Foster. Joan Fontaine, Burt Kiss of Death (1995) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lancaster, Robert Newton. Disappointing Barbet Schroeder. David Caruso, Nicolas romance-thriller follows the plight of two Cage, Samuel L. Jackson, Helen Hunt, Kathlost souls, lonely nurse–war widow Fonryn Erbe, Stanley Tucci, Michael Rapaport, taine and deeply troubled ex-POW LancasVing Rhames, Philip Baker Hall, Anthony ter, who’s on the lam for murder in London. Heald, Anne Meara, Kevin Corrigan, Hope Some potent scenes and good Miklos Rozsa Davis. Mediocre ’90s remake of ’40s crime score cannot salvage tepid film. Kiss the Girls (1997) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: yarn (with Richard Price script) has Caruso as an ex-con trying to go straight who’s swept Gary Fleder. Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, back into the underworld—then forced to turn Cary Elwes, Tony Goldwyn, Bill Nunn, Brian stoolie for the D.A. Caruso is OK—nothing Cox, Jeremy Piven, Roma Maffia, Jay O. more—in first starring film, but Cage is a Sanders, Alex McArthur, Mena Suvari. When parody of a mad-dog bad guy. Jackson shines, a police forensic psychologist learns that his as usual, in a solid supporting role. Jay O. niece has been abducted, he uses his considSanders appears unbilled as a Federal erable skills to try and identify the culprit— agent. [R]▼●쩠 a devious sicko who doesn’t kill all his victims, Kiss of the Dragon (2001-U.S.-French) Cbut holds them captive instead. Surprisingly 98m. ★★ D: Chris Nahon. Jet Li, Bridget discreet for a ’90s film—but in its final segFonda, Tche´ky Karyo, Ric Young, Burt ments, increasingly conventional and formuKwouk, Laurence Ashley. In Paris on a selaic. And too long. Freeman is—typically— cret mission, Chinese agent Li is framed for solid as a rock; Judd is very good as a doctor murder by a corrupt French official and has who refuses to be treated as a victim. Folto go on the run. His only ally is mistreated lowed by ALONG CAME A SPIDER. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 prostitute Fonda. Lots of fights, but not as well staged or photographed as Jet Li’s Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die Hong Kong movies. A convoluted plot (1966-Italian) C-101m. BOMB D: Henry slows the action, although Karyo is an enLevin. Michael Connors, Dorothy Provine, tertaining villain. Overall, highly forgettaTerry-Thomas, Raf Vallone, Beverly ble. Cowritten and coproduced by Luc Adams, Oliver McGreevy. Dull spy spoof Besson. Technovision. [R] ▼쩠 about power-crazy industrialist who has a Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985-U.S.satellite capable of sterilizing the world, Brazilian) C/B&W-119m. ★★★ D: Hector which is something Bond, Flint, and Matt Babenco. William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Helm wouldn’t mind. Awful film. Braga, Jose Lewgoy, Nuno Leal Maia, Kiss Them for Me (1957) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 Denise Dumont. Adaptation of Manuel D: Stanley Donen. Cary Grant, Jayne MansPuig’s highly regarded novel actually gets field, Leif Erickson, Suzy Parker, Larry better as it goes along, revealing layers in Blyden, Ray Walston. Forced comedy about story of gay man and political activist romantic entanglements of navy officers locked together in South American prison on shore leave. CinemaScope.쩠 cell. Hurt is superb in Oscar-winning Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950) 102m. ★★1 performance as man whose only food ⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. James Cagney, for survival is his memory of tacky HollyBarbara Payton, Luther Adler, Ward Bond, wood movies. Script by Leonard Schrader. Helena Carter, Steve Brodie, Barton MacLater a Broadway musical. [R]▼●쩠 Lane, Rhys Williams, Frank Reicher, John Kiss of the Vampire, The (1963-British) CLitel, William Frawley, Neville Brand, 1 ★★ 88m. Kenneth Tobey. Violent thriller in the wake ⁄2 D: Don Sharp. Clifford Evans, Edward DeSouza, Noel Willman, Jennifer of WHITE HEAT, with Cagney as crimiDaniel. Luckless honeymooners run out of nal so ruthless he even blackmails crooked petrol in eastern Europe and take refuge in cops! Despite impressive cast, Jimmy’s the castle of Count Ravna, leader of a vampractically the whole show; only Adler as pire cult. Ornate masked ball anticipates Poshyster lawyer gives him any competition. lanski’s FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS. Cagney’s brother William produced—and Intelligent Hammer production with many also plays his brother.▼●쩠 chilling sequences.▼●쩠 Kitchen Stories (2003-Norwegian-Swedish) Kiss or Kill (1997-Australian) C-93m. ★★★ C-95m. ★★★ D: Bent Hamer. Joachim CalD: Bill Bennett. Matt Day, Frances O’Conmeyer, Tomas Nordstro¨m, Bjørn Floberg, nor, Chris Haywood, Barry Otto, Andrew Reine Brynolfsson, Sverre Anker Ousdal. S. Gilbert, Barry Langrishe, Max Cullen. Offbeat but warm human comedy set in a Neat, noirish murder mystery with Day and remote town in post-WW2 Norway has a O’Connor well cast as a pair of scam-artists research institute sending scientific ‘‘ob[ 753 ]

servers’’ to sit in tall chairs in the kitchen nabe senator Forsythe and forcing him to corner to study the cooking habits of single drive to Mexico.▼ men. Although not allowed to speak to the Kitty (1945) 104m. ★★★ D: Mitchell Leisen. subjects or interrupt any activities, one anaPaulette Goddard, Ray Milland, Patric lyst bends the rules and learns more about Knowles, Reginald Owen, Cecil Kellaway, himself in the process than he ever possibly Constance Collier. Overlong but entertainimagined. Quirky, completely original movie ing costumer of girl’s rise from guttersnipe grows on you as it goes along. Written by to lady in 18th-century England with help Hamer and Jo¨rgen Bergmark.▼쩠 of impoverished rake Milland; one of GodKitchen Toto, The (1987) C-96m. ★★★ D: dard’s best roles. Harry Hook. Edwin Mahinda, Bob Peck, Kitty Foyle (1940) 107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sam Phyllis Logan, Robert Urquhart, Kirsten Wood. Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, Hughes, Edward Judd. Moving account of James Craig, Eduardo Ciannelli, Ernest Kenya’s final break from British rule in Cossart, Gladys Cooper. Tender love story the mid-1950s. This complicated and viowon Rogers an Oscar as Christopher Morlent struggle for freedom is told through ley’s working-girl heroine; Ciannelli memthe eyes of a young ‘‘kikuyu’’ boy slowly orable as speakeasy waiter.▼●쩠 drawn into these events when he goes to KKK SEE: Klansman, The work in the household of the British police Klansman, The (1974) C-112m. BOMB D: chief after his father is murdered by terrorTerence Young. Lee Marvin, Richard Burists. Demanding but ultimately rewarding; ton, Cameron Mitchell, Lola Falana, Luciana first-rate debut for director Hook, who Paluzzi, Linda Evans, O. J. Simpson. grew up in Kenya during the period deThoroughly trashy racial melodrama casts picted here. [PG-13]▼● Marvin as a Southern sheriff and Burton as Kite Runner, The (2007) C-128m. ★★★ D: a local landowner who get involved in a Marc Forster. Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun hotbed (and hot beds) of racial activity. Ershadi, Zekiria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Original director Sam Fuller (who is still Mahmoodzada, Shaun Toub, Nabi Tanha, credited as coscripter) wisely took an Saı¨d Taghmaoui, Atossa Leoni. Iranian man early hike. Aka THE BURNING CROSS living in San Francisco receives a phone call and KKK. [R]▼쩠 summoning him home, where he tries to Klimt (2007-Austrian-German-Britishundo a wrong he committed years earlier. In French) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Rau´l Ruiz. John flashback we learn about his boyhood friendMalkovich, Veronica Ferres, Stephen Dilship with the son of his father’s household lane, Saffron Burrows, Sandra Ceccarelli, servant, their participation in Kabul’s kiteNikolai Kinski. Gorgeous but faux-artsy biflying competition, and the incident that opic of the Symbolist radical Gustav Klimt changes both their lives. David Benioff is fop cinema, set in fin de sie`cle Vienna. adapted Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel. Pretentious, factually questionable, and Well done, although it never reaches the annoyingly hallucinatory, elevated only by emotional heights the story calls for. The actthe luminous paintings and abundant nuing is exceptional, and the faces of the two dity. A somnolent Malkovich makes not the boys are unforgettable. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 slightest effort to sound anything but pure Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) Illinoisan. Written by the director, whose C-100m. ★★★ D: Patricia Rozema. Abigail version runs 131m. 쩠 Breslin, Joan Cusack, Glenne Headly, Jane Klondike Annie (1936) 80m. ★★★ D: Raoul Krakowski, Chris O’Donnell, Julia OrWalsh. Mae West, Victor McLaglen, Philip mond, Wallace Shawn, Stanley Tucci, Max Reed, Helen Jerome Eddy, Harry Beresford, Thieriot, Willow Smith, Zach Mills. UnusuHarold Huber, Soo Young, Lucille Webally smart family film with Breslin as a ster Gleason. West and McLaglen are rugplucky 10-year-old (and aspiring newspaper ged team, with Mae on the lam from reporter) who experiences the effects of the police, going to the Yukon and masquerGreat Depression firsthand in 1934 Cincinading as Salvation Army worker. West nati. Her father leaves home in search of chants ‘‘I’m An Occidental Woman in An work and her mother is forced to take in Oriental Mood For Love.’’ ▼●쩠 boarders, including a magician (Tucci) who Klondike Fever (1980) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: bears watching—and not just when he’s Peter Carter. Rod Steiger, Angie Dickinperforming tricks. Evocative look at everyday son, Jeff East, Lorne Greene, Barry Morse. life in the 1930s has entertainment value for Jack London (East) in Alaska during the grown-ups as well as kids. Based on Valerie Gold Rush. Poorly made adventure yarn. Tripp’s stories, which were inspired by a popAka JACK LONDON’S KLONDIKE ular line of dolls and books. [G]쩠 FEVER. [PG]▼쩠 Kitten With a Whip (1964) 83m. ★★ D: Klute (1971) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan J. Douglas Heyes. Ann-Margret, John ForPakula. Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, sythe, Patricia Barry, Peter Brown, Ann Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider, Dorothy Tristan, Doran. Uninspired account of delinquent (Ann-Margret) and friends victimizing wanRita Gam, Jean Stapleton. Fine combination [ 754 ]

detective-thriller/character-study, with SutherKing Arthur’s Court, revealing famous love triangle. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 land a private-eye searching for suburban Knight’s Tale, A (2001) C-132m. ★★ D: husband last seen in N.Y.C. Fonda won Oscar as call girl who once saw man in Brian Helgeland. Heath Ledger, Mark Addy, Rufus Sewell, Paul Bettany, Shannyn Sossaquestion. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 mon, Alan Tudyk, Christopher Cazenove. Knack . . . and How to Get It, The (1965High-concept moviemaking at its screwiest: a British) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lester. gleefully anachronistic medieval tale of a Rita Tushingham, Ray Brooks, Michael would-be knight who becomes a jousting Crawford, Donal Donnelly. One of the champion, set to rock ’n’ roll music. If it had funniest comedies ever imported from gone completely over the top it might be fun, Britain. One man’s a whiz with the ladies, but writer-director Helgeland wants us to care and his buddy simply wants to learn his about his characters and story—while unsecret. Fast-moving, constantly funny. dermining them at every turn. Almost rescued Charles Wood adapted Ann Jellicoe’s play. by Ledger’s star quality and strong supporting Look sharp for Charlotte Rampling (as a performances. (P.S. The jousting itself bewater skier) and Jacqueline Bisset.▼●쩠 comes surprisingly monotonous.) Super 35. Knife in the Head (1978-German) C-113m. ★★★1 [PG-13]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Reinhard Hauff. Bruno Ganz, Knight Without Armour (1937-British) Angela Winkler, Hans Christian Blech, Hans 101m. ★★★ D: Jacques Feyder. Marlene Honig, Hans Brenner. Ganz is excellent as Dietrich, Robert Donat, Irene Vanbrugh, a biogeneticist who is paralyzed after being Herbert Lomas, Miles Malleson, David shot in the head in a police raid, then Tree. Secret agent Donat helps countess used as a pawn by both police and political Dietrich flee Russian revolutionaries. Sumpradicals. Fascinating, disturbing drama.▼ tuous production, charismatic stars.▼● Knife in the Water (1962-Polish) 94m. K-9 (1989) C-102m. BOMB D: Rod Dan★★★★ D: Roman Polanski. Leon Niemczyk, iel. James Belushi, Mel Harris, Kevin Tighe, Jolanta Umecka, Zygmunt Malanowicz. Ed O’Neill, Jerry Lee, James Handy, Cotter Absorbing drama grows out of the tensions Smith. Cop Belushi teams with a German created when a couple off for a sailing weekend shepherd (Jerry Lee) to crack a drug case. pick up a student hitchhiker. Polanski’s first Dubbing this one a dog would be much feature film is a brilliant piece of cinematic stotoo kind. Followed by two direct-to-video rytelling, and a must-see movie.▼●쩠 sequels. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Knight Moves (1992) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: K-19 The Widowmaker (2002) C-138m. Carl Schenkel. Christopher Lambert, Di★★1 ⁄2 D: Kathryn Bigelow. Harrison Ford, ane Lane, Tom Skerritt, Daniel Baldwin. Liam Neeson, Peter Sarsgaard, Joss AckChess master Lambert finds himself a murland, John Shrapnel, Donald Sumpter, Tim der suspect during a competition on an Woodward. In 1961, a patriotic Russian island in Washington state. Meanwhile, naval officer (Ford) takes out a nuclear subthe killer teases Lambert by providing the marine on its maiden voyage, having just chess champion with clues he must deciusurped command from a well-liked captain pher for himself. OK thriller; has its mo(Neeson) who stays on as executive officer. ments, but also more than its share of lulls. But the sub, and its crew, are ill prepared Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 for the challenges they will face. Tense and Knight of the Dragon, The SEE: Star exciting at times, but its main characters’ Knight motivations are not always understandable— Knightriders (1981) C-145m. ★★★ D: even less so after a climactic showdown. George A. Romero. Ed Harris, Gary Lahti, Much Sturm und Drang in this very long Tom Savini, Amy Ingersoll, Patricia Tallmovie, but not enough meaning. Based on a man, Christine Forrest, Warner Shook, real-life incident. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Brother Blue. Ambitious, unusual film about Knockaround Guys (2002) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: a traveling band that stages medieval fairs David Levien, Brian Koppelman. Barry Pepat which knights joust on motorcycles, and per, John Malkovich, Vin Diesel, Seth Green, their self-styled King Arthur, who tries to Andrew Davoli, Dennis Hopper, Tom Nooget his followers to live under an oldnan. Interesting variation on the usual gangfashioned code of honor. Finely crafted ster saga, examining the younger generation little change-of-pace for horror master of today’s remaining gangland dinosaurs. Romero, who also wrote the screenplay; Pepper, the son of mob boss Hopper, doesn’t Stephen King has a funny cameo as a have his father’s respect, or a career to call his beer-guzzling spectator. [R]▼●쩠 own. He begs for the chance to do something Knights of the Round Table (1953) important, so his father finally gives him an C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Robert assignment, which goes completely awry, Taylor, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, Stanley sending him and his Brooklyn-based cousins Baker, Felix Aylmer. MGM’s first wideto the wilds of Montana. Good cast and offscreen film (made in England) was excuse beat setting keep this lively, but the finale for this pretty but empty mini-spectacle of doesn’t entirely add up. Filmed in 1999; re[ 755 ]

leased in Italy in 2001 as DANGEROUS live-action comic strip with tough, beefy COMPANY. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 police inspector Spencer on the hunt Knocked Up (2007) C-129m. ★★★ D: Judd for drug smugglers. For prepubescent Apatow. Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl, Paul boys only. Originally titled FLATFOOT. Rudd, Leslie Mann, Jason Segel, Harold Video title: TRINITY: TRACKING FOR Ramis, Jay Baruchel, Joanna Kerns, Jonah TROUBLE.▼ Hill, Alan Tudyk, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader. Knowing (2009) C-121m. ★★ D: Alex ProFast-rising entertainment reporter (Heigl) yas. Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Chandler finds herself pregnant after a drunken oneCanterbury, Ben Mendelsohn, Lara Robinson, night stand with an amiable, scruffy goof-off Nadia Townsend, Alan Hopgood, Danielle (Rogen). She decides to have the baby and, Carter. In 1959, students in a Boston-area to the surprise of both, a wobbly relationship school draw pictures to put in a time capsule, develops between them. Overlong but often but one spooky little girl scribbles down a hysterically funny comedy is also sweet, robunch of numbers on a paper. Fifty years mantic, and, despite the exceedingly foullater, the paper winds up with a boy whose mouthed dialogue, downright moral. Writfather, M.I.T. astrophysics professor Cage, ten by the director. Numerous celebrities discovers that the numbers accurately preappear as themselves. Unrated version also dicted the dates, locations, and death tolls of available. [R]쩠 major catastrophes of the past—and quite Knock Off (1998-U.S.-Hong Kong) Cpossibly the future. Intriguing premise would 91m. ★1⁄2 D: Tsui Hark. Jean-Claude Van have made a great Twilight Zone episode, but Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon, Mithis New Age doomsday thriller becomes inchael Fitzgerald Wong, Paul Sorvino, Carmen creasingly dour and tedious, with a particuLee. Van Damme teams up with American larly preposterous finale blending science agents to combat terrorists. Having Van fiction and biblical prophecy. Shot mostly Damme play a Hong Kong clothing dein Australia. HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 signer/importer in an action film pinned to a Knute Rockne All American (1940) 96m. plot about designer jeans is peculiar but not ★★★ D: Lloyd Bacon. Pat O’Brien, Gale interesting . . . which also describes the Page, Donald Crisp, Ronald Reagan, Almovie. Director Hark abandons his usual bert Bassermann, John Qualen. Corny but vivid fight choreography for standard swift entertaining bio of famed Notre Dame footintercutting instead. Samo Hung appears ball coach (O’Brien, in a standout performunbilled. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 ance), with Reagan as his star player, Knock on Any Door (1949) 100m. ★★1⁄2 George Gipp. Several long-excised scenes, D: Nicholas Ray. Humphrey Bogart, John including O’Brien’s famous locker-room Derek, George Macready, Allene Roberts, pep talk and Reagan’s ‘‘win just one for Susan Perry. More a showcase for young the Gipper’’ speech have now been reDerek—as a ‘‘victim of society’’ who turns stored to most prints. Also shown in to crime—than a vehicle for Bogart, as computer-colored version.▼쩠 conscience-stricken attorney who defends Kolya (1996-Czech-British) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 him. Serious but dated drama. Sequel: D: Jan Sverak. Zdenek Sverak, Andrej LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH.▼● Chalimon, Libuse Safrankova, Ondrez Knock on Wood (1954) C-103m. ★★★ D: Vetchy, Stella Zazvorkova, Ladislav SmolNorman Panama, Melvin Frank. Danny Kaye, jak, Irena Livanova. Sentimental tale of a Mai Zetterling, Torin Thatcher, David Burns, mid-fiftyish cellist, an unattached lothario Leon Askin, Abner Biberman. Superior Kaye who unexpectedly is made guardian of a vehicle, with ventriloquist Danny involved small Russian boy. Set in 1988 Prague, on with beautiful Zetterling and international the eve of independence from the Russians, spies; good Kaye routines. this is a sweet-natured love story that unforKnockout (2000) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Lorenzo tunately seems too pat and manufactured. Doumani. Sophia-Adella Hernandez, Eduardo You’ll laugh and certainly cry, but same Yanez, Tony Plana, William McNamara, essential story has been told on film many Maria Conchita Alonso, Paul Winfield. Btimes before. Lead actor/screenwriter is the movie about an East L.A. homegirl (Herdirector’s father. Oscar winner as Best Fornandez) who becomes a boxer, following in eign Film. [PG-13]▼●쩠 the footsteps of her dad (Plana), who gave Konga (1961-British) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: John up life in the ring to become a cop. PotenLemont. Michael Gough, Margo Johns, tially intriguing subject matter KO’d by Jess Conrad, Claire Gordon. Very mad scihammy performances (especially McNaentist Gough, intent on creating a plant-animara as a yuppie sleaze promoter), flat dimal hybrid, occasionally enlarges his rection, and a cliche´d script that would chimpanzee friend to gorilla size, then sends shame Syd Field. [R]▼쩠 the ape out to kill his enemies. A climactic Knock Out Cop, The (1978-Italian-Ger★★ overdose makes Konga king-sized for an D: Steno. Bud Spencer, man) C-113m. exceptionally dull rampage. Brassy, silly Werner Pochat, Enzo Cannavale, Joe Stewardson, Bodo, Dagmar Lassander. Silly Herman Cohen–produced knockoff of [ 756 ]

KING KONG has only Gough’s juicy, nutcase is brought to a N.Y.C. mental instihammy performance to recommend it.▼쩠 tution, claiming to be a visitor from the adKong Island SEE: King of Kong Island vanced planet K-Pax. Psychiatrist Bridges Kon-Tiki (1951) C-68m. ★★★ D: No director tries to figure him out, but begins to wonder credited. Narrated by Ben Grauer, Thor Heyif the guy isn’t telling the truth. Is this erdahl. Oscar-winning documentary based on movie a warm, fuzzy wish-fulfillment fanHeyerdahl’s best-selling book about his raft tasy or a psychiatric case study? Ultimately trip from Peru to Tahiti, which substantiated it fails on both counts, despite the best efhis theory that ancient sailing boats crossed forts of its cast. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 the Pacific Ocean. Revised and rescored in Krakatoa East of Java (1969) C-101m. ★★1 1995; that version runs 58m. ▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Bernard Kowalski. Maximilian Kontroll (2003-Hungarian) C-106m. ★★★ Schell, Diane Baker, Brian Keith, Barbara D: Nimro´d Antal. Sa´ndor Csa´nyi, Sa´ndor Werle, John Leyton, Rossano Brazzi, Sal Bada´r, Zolta´n Mucsi, Zsolt Nagy, Csaba PinMineo. Muddled epic-adventure of disparate droch, Eszter Balla. Highly original thriller set group sailing for location of treasure-laden entirely in the Budapest underground system, sunken ship. Attempt at Jules Verneish saga where a ticket inspector has to deal with gangs hampered by shallow characterizations, diaof rival workers, a mystery woman who’s logue, but action footage is first-rate, climaxed caught his eye, and a fiendishly clever, elusive by volcanic explosion and tidal wave. Heavily murderer. Cowriter-director Antal creates a cut after premiere, leaving story more jumbled dense, dynamic universe all his own. [R] ▼쩠 than before. P.S.: Krakatoa was West of Java. Kopek and Broom SEE: Find the Lady Retitled VOLCANO. Originally 136m. Super Korczak (1990-Polish) 118m. ★★★ D: AnPanavision 70. [G]▼●쩠 drzej Wajda. Wojtek Pszoniak, Ewa DalKramer vs. Kramer (1979) C-104m. ★★★★ kowska, Teresa Budzisz-Krzyzanowska, D: Robert Benton. Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Piotr Kozlowski, Jan Peszek. Tremendously Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry, Howmoving, real-life story of a truly remarkable ard Duff, George Coe, JoBeth Williams. man: Janusz Korczak (Pszoniak, in a powerWife walks out on upwardly mobile husful performance), a respected doctor, writer band, leaving him to fend for himself and and children’s rights advocate who operated young son; intelligent, beautifully crafted, ina house for Jewish orphans in Warsaw durtensely moving film. Adapted by Benton from ing the 1930s and maintained his moral Avery Corman’s novel and acted to perfection standards after the Nazis invaded his homeby entire cast. Oscar winner for Best Picture, land. Simple, poignant script by Agnieszka Actor, Screenplay, Director, Supporting AcHolland.▼ tress (Streep). [PG]▼●쩠 Kotch (1971) C-113m. ★★★ D: Jack LemKrays, The (1990-British) C-119m. ★★★ mon. Walter Matthau, Deborah Winters, FeliD: Peter Medak. Billie Whitelaw, Gary cia Farr, Charles Aidman, Ellen Geer, Darrell Kemp, Martin Kemp, Susan Fleetwood, Larson, Lucy Saroyan, Larry Linville. MatCharlotte Cornwell, Jimmy Jewel, Avis thau is the entire show in this winning Bunnage, Kate Hardie, Alfred Lynch, Tom comedy-drama about a friendly, childBell, Steven Berkoff, Victor Spinetti, Barloving septuagenarian who is out of sync bara Ferris, Julia Migenes, John McEnery, with the coolness of the contemporary world, Sadie Frost. Brutal but stylish bio of the and who helps a young unwed mother-to-be. real-life twins (one gay, one straight) who Lemmon’s lone film as director; look fast for ruled London’s underworld in the 1960s, him as a mustachioed sleeping passenger on aided immeasurably by the title-role casting a bus. Farr is Lemmon’s wife; Saroyan is of two sibling members (not twins) of the Brit Matthau’s stepdaughter. [PG] ▼쩠 pop group Spandau Ballet. Picks up, after an ★★★★ D: Koyaanisqatsi (1983) C-87m. iffy beginning, when the Kemps take over Godfrey Reggio. Spellbinding, sensesfrom an assortment of child actors; would staggering nonnarrative film soars across the have been even stronger had it gone beyond United States in search of vistas both natural character study and dealt more with the lowand man-made. Much of the photography is life Mod milieu. Whitelaw is good, as usual, slow-motion or time-lapse (the title is Hopi as the boys’ smothering mother. [R]▼● Indian for ‘‘life out of balance’’), all of it set Kremlin Letter, The (1970) C-120m. ★1⁄2 to a mesmerizing score by Philip Glass. So D: John Huston. Bibi Andersson, Richard rich in beauty and detail that with each viewBoone, Max von Sydow, Orson Welles, Pating it becomes a new and different film. rick O’Neal, Barbara Parkins, Dean Jagger, Should be seen in a theatre for maximum George Sanders, Raf Vallone. Dull, compliimpact. Followed by POWAQQATSI and cated thriller based on best-seller concerns efNAQOYQATSI. ▼쩠 forts to retrieve bogus treaty supposedly K-PAX (2001) C-120m. ★★ D: Iain Softsigned by U.S. and Soviet Union that will pit ley. Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, Mary them against Red China. Good cast is thrown McCormack, Alfre Woodard, David Patrick away; film does provide rare opportunity to Kelly, Saul Williams, Peter Gerety, Celia Weston, Ajay Naidu, John Toles-Bey. A see Sanders in drag. Panavision. [M/PG]쩠 [ 757 ]

Kriemhild’s Revenge SEE: Die Nibecia Charbonneau, Luca Bercovici, Julia lungen Nickson-Soul, Jamal Shah. A Seattle asKrippendorf’s Tribe (1998) C-94m. ★★ D: sistant D.A. (brash) and his physics-prof pal Todd Holland. Richard Dreyfuss, Jenna Elf(gentle) attempt to climb the world’s steepest man, Natasha Lyonne, Gregory Smith, Carl and most remote mountain. Gritty outdoor Michael Lindner, Stephen Root, Elaine expansion of Patrick Meyers’ play, which Stritch, Tom Poston, David Ogden Stiers, Lily won a Tony for its impressive mountain set; Tomlin, Zakes Mokae. Widowed anthropolmagnificent outdoor footage compensates ogy professor, who’s spent all his grant for that, but not for the stock movie characmoney, is forced to present his findings on an terizations. Film never tops its first 15 minunknown tribe in New Guinea. Trouble is, utes, which are spellbinding. [R]▼●쩠 he never found such a tribe, so he makes Kuffs (1992) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Bruce Evone up, then shoots bogus videos with his ans. Christian Slater, Tony Goldwyn, Milla three kids to back up his claims. Farcical Jovovich, Bruce Boxleitner, George De La comedy fizzles with wildly inconsistent Pena, Troy Evans, Lu Leonard, Leon Rippy, characters (particularly Elfman) and desperMary Ellen Trainor, Ashley Judd. Smarmy ate plot devices. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Slater desperately needs a job after abandonKristin Lavransdatter (1995-Norwegian) ing his pregnant girlfriend; as luck would have it, his brother gets shot in the line of duty C-144m. ★★ D: Liv Ullmann. Elisabeth Matheson, Bjorn Skagestad, Sverre Anker as a private policeman in San Francisco. Ousdal, Henny Moan, Rut Tellefsen, Erland Unbearably flip, especially during frequent Josephson, Lena Endre. Intense, plodding breaks for Slater’s straight-to-camera narradrama, set in the 14th century, about the title tion. You keep waiting for Dirty Harry to character (Matheson) and how pressures from show up and toss this kiddie cop one of family and society thwart her from being with his patented glares. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 her true love and steer her to marry another Kull the Conqueror (1997) C-95m. ★★ D: man instead. It’s a conflict between religious John Nicolella. Kevin Sorbo, Tia Carrere, obligation and ‘‘the sin of passion,’’ and well Karina Lombard, Thomas Ian Griffith, Liteacted, but never as profound or involving as foot, Roy Brocksmith, Harvey Fierstein, intended. Ullmann also scripted, based on Edward Tudor-Pole, Douglas Henshall, novel by Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset. Sven Ole Thorsen. In ancient times, Kull, a Originally shown at 180m.▼쩠 barbarian from Atlantis, unexpectedly beKronos (1957) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kurt Neucomes king of a troubled country, and soon mann. Jeff Morrow, Barbara Lawrence, finds himself involved in swordfights, magic, John Emery, George O’Hanlon, Morris and palace intrigue. Passionless, incoherent, Ankrum. Diverting science-fiction with and routine, with a few good performances, unique monster: an enormous metallic walkvery uneven effects and makeup, and not ing machine capable of absorbing the enough sorcery. Based on a character creEarth’s energy. Occasionally shaky speated by Conan creator Robert E. Howard; in cial effects are compensated for by nice fact, this began life as a script for a third touch of mysterioso and convincing perConan movie. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 formances, especially by Emery as the Kundun (1997) C-134m. ★★★ D: Martin alien’s catspaw. Regalscope.▼●쩠 Scorsese. Tenzin Thuthob Tsarong, Gyurme Kronos (1974) SEE: Captain Kronos: Tethong, Tulku Jamyang Kunga Tenzin, TenVampire Hunter zin Yeshi Paichang, Tencho Gyalpo, Tsewang Krull (1983) C-117m. ★★ D: Peter Yates. Migyur Khangsar, Sonam Phuntsok, Robert Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Lin. The fascinating saga of the 14th Dalai Jones, Francesca Annis, David Battley, Lama begins with the discovery that he has Liam Neeson, Robbie Coltrane. Overly been reincarnated in the body of a two-yearfamiliar story elements and plodding treatold boy. We follow his journey through life, ment keep this traditional fantasy quest including education, exile, and a confrontation from going anywhere, despite its elaborate with the Chinese government, led by Mao Tsetrappings. Marshall is the young hero who tung. Search in vain for a Scorsese ‘‘edge’’— must recover a magic ornament to save damthis is just good, solid storytelling, from Melissa Mathison’s script (written with the Dalai sel and kingdom. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Krush Groove (1985) C-97m. ★★ D: MiLama’s cooperation). A cast of nonprofeschael Schultz. Blair Underwood, Joseph sional actors is simply remarkable, and so is Philip Glass’ score. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Simmons, Sheila E., Fat Boys, Daryll McDaniels, Kurtis Blow. Yet another rap musiKung Fu Hustle (2005-Hong Kong) Ccal, with a silly (almost nonexistent) story 99m. ★★ D: Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow, but lots of music, rapping, and street culture Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu, Leung Siu Lung, Dong artifacts. Aficionados of this kind of music Zhi Hua, Chiu Chi Ling, Xing Yu, Chan Kwok Kwan, Lam Tze Chung. In Pig Sty Alley, the rate the soundtrack very highly. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ K-2 (1992-British) C-111m. brutal Axe Gang terrorizes the locals but ⁄2 D: Franc Roddam. Michael Biehn, Matt Craven, doesn’t know what to make of a young Raymond J. Barry, Hiroshi Fujioka, Patrigangster-wannabe (Chow). Less a story than [ 758 ]

a series of action sequences, this heavyhanded mix of martial arts and slapstick (with a dollop of romance) pays homage to everything from THE SHINING and Road Runner cartoons to TOP HAT! The novelty of liveaction cartoon violence wears thin pretty fast. Chow cowrote and coproduced; choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, THE MATRIX). Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Kung Fu Panda (2008) C-91m. ★★★ D: John Stevenson, Mark Osborne. Voices of Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Dan Fogler, Michael Clarke Duncan, Laura Kightlinger. Entertaining animated feature about a panda who dreams of being a martial arts hero, instead of the son of a dumpling chef. Then, through a quirk of fate, he is chosen as the Dragon Warrior to help save a city that’s about to be attacked by a ferocious leopard. Uncommonly handsome production design and exciting action scenes enhance a simple storyline. Black’s engaging performance as the schlump who wants to make good is matched by Hoffman’s deadpan delivery as his kung fu master. Digital Widescreen. [PG]쩠 Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve Oedekirk. Steve Oedekirk, Lung Fai, Leo Lee, Chen Hui Lou, Jennifer Tung. Writer-director Oedekirk redubs, and adds deliberately clunky new footage to, a 1976 Hong Kong martial arts movie, TIGER & CRANE FISTS (directed by Jimmy Wang Yu), turning the original into a parody of itself, with a nonstop barrage of gags—occasionally funny, but obvious and repetitive. Oedekirk also stars, as The Chosen One. Not nearly as good as WHAT’S UP, TIGER LILY?, but if you do watch, stay till the end of the credits. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Kwaidan (1964-Japanese) C-164m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Masaki Kobayashi. Rentaro Mikuni, Michiyo Aratama, Keiko Kishi, Tatsuya Nakadai, Takashi Shimura. Four tales of the supernatural, based on works by Lafcadio Hearn, focusing on samurais, balladeers, monks, spirits. Subtle, moody, well staged; stunning use of color and widescreen. Released in U.S. in 1965 at 125m., with the second episode (featuring Kishi and Nakadai) deleted. Tohoscope.▼●쩠

Cesar Awards (France’s Oscar) including Best Picture. [R]▼쩠 La Bamba (1987) C-108m. ★★★ D: Luis Valdez. Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosana De Soto, Elizabeth Pena, Danielle von Zerneck, Joe Pantoliano, Rick Dees, Marshall Crenshaw, Brian Setzer. Solid musical biography of Ritchie Valens, a poor Mexican-American who became a rock ’n’ roll sensation at age 17. Writerdirector Valdez can’t avoid some standard Hollywood bio trappings, but good-time music and Phillips’ commanding, sympathetic performance more than compensate. Morales is excellent as Ritchie’s troubled brother. Valens’ music is performed by Los Lobos on soundtrack—they appear as the Tijuana band. Original music by Carlos Santana and Miles Goodman. [PG-13]▼●쩠 La Belle Noiseuse (1991-French) C-240m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jacques Rivette. Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin, Emmanuelle Be´art, Marianne Denicourt, David Bursztein, Gilles Arbona, Bernard Dufour. Riveting story of the relationship between a once-famed artist and the young woman who inspires him to paint after 10 years of inactivity, and becomes his model. A stunning examination of the artistic process and its accompanying obsessions, with outstanding performances by Piccoli as the artist and gorgeous Be´art as his subject. Extremely long, deliberately paced but always involving; beautifully directed by Rivette and photographed by William Lubtchansky. Screenplay by Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, and Christine Laurent. Dufour, by the way, supplies the artist’s hand. A new version, reworked and with a new perspective, was released in 1993. Its title: DIVERTIMENTO, running 125m. ▼쩠 La Beˆte Humaine (1938-French) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean Renoir. Jean Gabin, Julien Carette, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Blanchette Brunoy, Gerard Landry. Locomotive engineer Gabin displays fits of uncontrollable violence against women. When he forms a liaison with the flirtatious wife of a deputy stationmaster, he becomes entangled in a plot to kill the husband. Sublimely atmospheric adaptation of Emile Zola’s novel suited the fatalistic mood of Europe in 1938, as the Nazis overran Czechoslovakia. That’s Renoir himself in the role of Cabuche; he also scripted. Aka THE HUMAN BEAST and JUDAS WAS A WOMAN. Fritz Lang remade it in the U.S. as HUMAN DESIRE.▼쩠 La Balance (1982-French) C-102m. ★★★ D: Bob Swaim. Nathalie Baye, Philippe La Boum (1981-French) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leotard, Richard Berry, Maurice Ronet, Claude Pinoteau. Claude Brasseur, Brigitte Christophe Malavoy, Jean-Paul Connart. Fossey, Sophie Marceau, Denise Grey, BerExtremely tough, violent Parisian cop movie nard Giraudeau. Cliche´d but harmless chroni(directed and cowritten by an American) cle of the life of pretty 13-year-old Marceau, about effort to nail criminal kingpin by whose parents (Brasseur, Fossey) are having forcing one-time associate (Leotard) to turn marital difficulties. A French box-office informer. Baye is excellent as prostitute in smash. Sequel: LA BOUM 2.▼ love with victimized pimp. Winner of many La Boum 2 (1982-French) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 [ 759 ]

D: Claude Pinoteau. Sophie Marceau, (Tognazzi) and his female-impersonator Claude Brasseur, Brigitte Fossey, Pierre housemate (Serrault) become involved with Cosso, Shiela O’Connor, Denise Grey. a spy ring in this mild sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Here teenager Marceau is two years older La Cage aux Folles 3: The Wedding (1985and has a romance with another student. French-Italian) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Georges Her parents are still squabbling. A formula Lautner. Michel Serrault, Ugo Tognazzi, film, no better or worse than the original. Michel Galabru, Benny Luke, Stephane La Buche (1999-French) C-107m. ★★★ D: Audran, Antonella Interlenghi. Pointless Daniele Thompson. Charlotte Gainsbourg, sequel has drag queen Albin (Serrault) Emmanuelle Be´art, Sabine Azema, Claude in line for big inhertance—if he marries Rich, Franc¸oise Fabian, Christopher Thompand produces a son. This farce has been milked dry by now. [PG-13]▼● son, Jean-Pierre Darroussin. Penetrating examination of three sisters who must deal La Ce´re´monie (1995-French-German) C111m. ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Isabelle with their problems and differences (not to mention their long-estranged parents) as the Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jacqueline BisChristmas holiday approaches. A refreshing set, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Virginie Ledoyen, Vaantidote to all those sugary seasonal films. lentin Merlet. Slow-moving but effective Directorial debut for Thompson, a top Chabrol thriller, with Huppert and Bonnaire French screenwriter, who coscripted with as lower-class pals in rural Brittany, who her son Christopher (who also plays Joresent the wealthy household in which Bonseph). Super 35.▼쩠 naire is employed as maid. Nice turn by Bisset, as sympathetic matriarch. ▼쩠 Labyrinth (1986) C-101m. ★★★ D: Jim Henson. David Bowie, Jennifer Connelly, La Che`vre (1982-French) C-91m. ★★★ D: Toby Froud. Teenage girl’s baby brother Francis Veber. Pierre Richard, Ge´rard is kidnapped by the King of the Goblins Depardieu, Michel Robin, Pedro Armen(Bowie); in order to rescue him she must dariz, Jr., Corynne Charbit, Andre Valardy. navigate a devilish labyrinth. Entertaining No-nonsense sleuth Depardieu sets out to lovariation on Alice in Wonderland written cate an industrialist’s daughter who’s disapby Monty Python’s Terry Jones, executive peared in Mexico, finds himself comically produced by George Lucas, and filtered hampered by his employer’s accountant (Richthrough the sensibilities of The Muppets’ ard), an amateur detective. Amiable, amusing Jim Henson. A treat for kids and the young comedy was a box-office smash in France. at heart (Muppet fans in particular); only Veber also scripted. Aka THE GOAT. Americanized remake: PURE LUCK. ▼쩠 weakness is that it does get slow at times. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 La Chienne (1931-French) 95m. ★★★★ D: Labyrinth of Passion (1982-Spanish) Jean Renoir. Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, C-100m. ★★★ D: Pedro Almodo´var. Celia Georges Flamant, Madeleine Berubet. ReRoth, Imanol Arias, Helga Line, Antonio noir’s first sound film, and first sound-film Banderas. Zany, energetic sex farce, most masterpiece: a terse, somber drama of mildof which is beyond the power of descripmannered bank cashier Simon, with an tion. It does involve a gallery of comically overbearing wife, who plays into the hands outlandish characters scurrying about Maof prostitute Mareze and her scheming drid, including transvestites, punk rockers, pimp. Renoir coscripted; Mareze died in a nymphomaniacs—and Islamic fundamentacar accident a couple of weeks after filmlists. Occasionally crude, and always rude, ing was completed. Fritz Lang redid this but that’s all part of the fun.▼● as SCARLET STREET; what a double bill La Cage aux Folles (1978-French-Italian) they would make!▼● C-91m. ★★★ D: Edouard Molinaro. Ugo La Chinoise (1967-French) C-95m. ★★★ Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru, D: Jean-Luc Godard. Anne Wiazemsky, Claire Maurier, Remy Laurent, Benny Luke. Jean-Pierre Le´aud, Michel Semianko, Lex A gay couple tries to act straight for the sake de Bruijn, Juliet Berto. Five young Maoists of Tognazzi’s son, who’s bringing home his share an apartment and try to apply their fiance´e and her parents. Entertaining adaptapolitics to the reality of their lives. Godard tion of French stage farce, with some hilarious aficionados will be fascinated; others may moments and a wonderful performance by be bored.쩠 Serrault as the more feminine half of the midLa Ciudad SEE: City, The dle-aged twosome—but why this became La Collectionneuse (1971-French) C-88m. ★★★ such a raging success is a mystery. Followed D: Eric Rohmer. Patrick Bauchau, by two sequels, as well as a hit Broadway Haydee Politoff, Daniel Pommerulle, Alain musical. Remade in 1996 as THE BIRDJouffroy, Mijanou Bardot. No. 3 of Rohmer’s ‘‘Six Moral Tales’’ is less compelCAGE. [R] ▼●쩠 La Cage aux Folles II (1980-French) ling than later films, still intriguing for C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edouard Molinaro. fans of contemplative stories in this series, Michel Serrault, Ugo Tognazzi, Marcel focusing on young man’s attraction to aloof Bozzuffi, Michel Galabru, Paola Borboni, young girl sharing summer villa on the Mediterranean. Made in 1967. ▼쩠 Benny Luke. St. Tropez nightclub owner [ 760 ]

Lacombe Lucien (1974-French) C-137m. washes ashore one morning near their sea★★★★ side Cornwall cottage. Not a great film by D: Louis Malle. Pierre Blaise, Aurore Clement, Holger Lowenadler, Therese any means, but it’s as cozy and inviting as a Giehse. Brilliant, perceptive account of warm blanket on a cold winter night. Actor opportunist French peasant Blaise, who Dance’s screenwriting and big-screen directing debut. [PG-13]쩠 joins the Gestapo during the Nazi Occupation—after setting out to join the ResisLadies in Retirement (1941) 92m. ★★★ tance—and falls in love with a Jewish D: Charles Vidor. Ida Lupino, Louis Haytailor’s daughter. Subtle, complex tale of ward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Edith guilt, innocence, and the amorality of power; Barrett, Isobel Elsom, Emma Dunn. Static masterfully directed. [R]쩠 but well-made gothic melodrama about L.A. Confidential (1997) C-136m. ★★★1⁄2 housekeeper Lupino’s attempt to cover up D: Curtis Hanson. Kevin Spacey, Russell murder in eccentric British household. Not Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, as potent—or as shocking—as it must have David Strathairn, Kim Basinger, Danny Debeen in 1941, but still good. Remade as Vito, Graham Beckel, Brenda Bakke, Paul THE MAD ROOM. Guilfoyle, Ron Rifkin, Simon Baker. VivLadies’ Man, The (1961) C-96m. ★★★ idly atmospheric tale of L.A. in the early D: Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Helen Traubel, 1950s, run by corrupt cops—one of whom Kathleen Freeman, Hope Holiday, Pat (Spacey) works hand in hand with the pubStanley, Jack Kruschen, Doodles Weaver, lisher of a sleazy tabloid (DeVito). SelfHarry James and His Band. Pretty funny righteous Pearce, however, thinks he can rise comedy with Jerry the handyman in a above the muck in the department. Director girls’ boardinghouse run by Miss WellenHanson and Brian Helgeland’s Oscarmelon (Traubel). Enormous set is the real winning adaptation of the James Ellroy star; Buddy Lester and George Raft have amusing cameo appearances.▼●쩠 novel is overlong but compelling and richly detailed; a bleak worldview, to be sure. BaLadies Man, The (2000) C-84m. ★★ D: singer won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar Reginald Hudlin. Tim Meadows, Karyn as the Veronica Lake–ish call girl, but she’s Parsons, Billy Dee Williams, Kevin Mcsurrounded by Oscar-worthy costars. Super Donald, Tiffani (Amber) Thiessen, Lee 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Evans, Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, Julianne Ladder 49 (2004) C-114m. ★★★ D: Jay RusMoore, Eugene Levy. Kinky comedy about sell. Joaquin Phoenix, John Travolta, Jacinda a sex-driven radio talk-show host who has a Barrett, Robert Patrick, Morris Chestnut, Balbad habit of sleeping with married women. thazar Getty, Tim Guinee. Straightforward Meadows is exceedingly funny, but the film story of a Baltimore fireman, from the day once again proves that Saturday Night Live he reports for work as a rookie to his ultiTV skits are meant to be just that: skits. Meadows coscripted. [R]▼쩠 mate challenge inside a burning factory. Warm depiction of firemen’s lives as brothLadies of Leisure (1930) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: ers in an extended family. Full of whiteFrank Capra. Barbara Stanwyck, Ralph knuckle sequences depicting daring (but reGraves, Lowell Sherman, Marie Prevost, alistic) rescue operations, which cumulaNance O’Neill, George Fawcett. Stanwyck tively pay tribute to some of the bravest falls in love with playboy-artist Graves, men on earth. Solid, old-fashioned storytellbut cannot shake her reputation as golding. [PG-13]▼쩠 digger. Creaky story made worthwhile by Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stanwyck’s believable performance and Stains (1982) C-87m. ★★ D: Lou Adler. Capra’s fluent filmmaking technique. Remade as WOMEN OF GLAMOR.▼ Diane Lane, Ray Winstone, Peter Donat, David Clennon, John Lehne, Cynthia Sikes, Ladies of the Chorus (1949) 61m. ★★ D: Laura Dern, John (Fee) Waybill, Christine Phil Karlson. Adele Jergens, Rand Brooks, Lahti. Antisocial teenage girl decides to Marilyn Monroe, Eddie Garr, Nana Bryant. become a punk rock star and takes to the Cheapie musical about mother/daughter burroad. Unreleased major studio film is strilesque chorines, with young Monroe seemdent and unappealing, despite good cast. ingly headed for the same romantic blunder Lahti shines in her two scenes. Members of that mom Jergens made. Worth a look for Clash and The Sex Pistols appear as a BritMM in her first sizable role. Garr (who plays a burlesque clown) is the father of Teri.▼ ish punk band. [R]쩠 Ladies in Lavender (2004-British) C-103m. Ladies They Talk About (1933) 69m. ★★★ ★★1 D: Charles Dance. Judi Dench, Maggie ⁄2 D: Howard Bretherton, William Smith, Natascha McElhone, Daniel Bru¨hl, Keighley. Barbara Stanwyck, Preston FosMiriam Margolyes, Freddie Jones, David ter, Lyle Talbot, Dorothy Burgess, Maude Warner, Clive Russell. Dames Dench and Eburne, Lillian Roth, Ruth Donnelly. StanSmith add luster to this lightly likable drama wyck is terrific in this punchy but occasionabout a pair of aging sisters in pre-WW2 ally silly pre-Code women’s prison picture. England whose lives are changed when a She’s a tough cookie who’s sent up the river handsome young Polish man mysteriously after participating in a bank heist. ▼● [ 761 ]

La Discre`te (1990-French) C-94m. ★★★ D: Tramp who helps pedigreed canine named Christian Vincent. Fabrice Luchini, Judith Lady out of a jam—and into a romance. Henry, Maurice Garrel, Francois ToumarElements of adventure and drama are maskine. Insightful allegory about a heartless terfully blended with comedy and music in writer/Don Juan (Luchini) who allows vengethis stylish film, the Disney studio’s first ful publisher Garrel to convince him to toy feature cartoon in CinemaScope. Songs by with the emotions of typist Henry, to extract Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee (who’s the raw material for a book. Solid performances voice of Peg, Darling, Si and Am, the Sia(especially by Henry) help put this one mese cats). Followed in 2001 by a direct-tovideo sequel. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 over.▼ ★★★1 La Dolce Vita (1960-Italian) 175m. ⁄2 Lady Be Good (1941) 111m. ★★★ D: D: Federico Fellini. Marcello Mastroianni, Norman Z. McLeod. Eleanor Powell, Ann Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aime´e, Yvonne Sothern, Robert Young, Lionel Barrymore, Furneaux, Magali Noel, Alain Cuny, John Carroll, Red Skelton, Virginia O’BriAnnibale Ninchi, Walter Santesso, Lex en, Dan Dailey, Jimmy Dorsey and His Barker, Jacques Sernas, Nadia Gray. Orchestra. Spunky musical of married Lengthy trend-setting film, not as ambigusongwriters Sothern and Young, with Powell ous as other Fellini works—much more and Skelton along for good measure. Fine entertaining, with strong cast. Mastroianni score: title tune, ‘‘Fascinating Rhythm,’’ stars as tabloid reporter who sees his life ‘‘You’ll Never Know,’’ Oscar-winning in shallow Rome society as worthless but ‘‘Last Time I Saw Paris.’’ ▼●쩠 can’t change. Story and screenplay by Lady Beware (1987) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, and Tullio Pinelli, Karen Arthur. Diane Lane, Michael Woods, with Brunello Rondi. Piero Gherardi’s cosCotter Smith, Viveca Lindfors, Peter Nevartumes won an Oscar. Totalscope.▼●쩠 gic, Edward Penn, Tyra Ferrell. Lane’s Ladro´n que roba a ladro´n . . . (2007) mildly kinky store-window displays arouse a C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Menendez. Fernando married psychotic; he soon graduates from Colunga, Miguel Varoni, Gabriel Soto, Julie irritating phone calls and mail interception to Gonzalo, Ivonne Montero, Sonya Smith, Sau´l breaking into her window-barred loft. ImperLisazo. Innocuous U.S.-produced Spanishfect, but compelling, feminist exploitation language OCEAN’S ELEVEN–inspired caper film builds to a satisfying (and surprisingly comedy in which a pair of Robin Hood–like nonviolent) conclusion; Lane’s performance thieves plot to rip off a pompous L.A. inis uneven, but her rage convincing. Filmed and set in Pittsburgh. [R]▼● fomercial king, who has built his fortune by duping poor Latino immigrants. OccasionLadybird, Ladybird (1994-British) C102m. ★★★ D: Kenneth Loach. Crissy Rock, ally clever, but mostly covers familiar ground. Title’s English translation is A Vladimir Vega, Ray Winstone, Sandie LaTHIEF WHO STEALS FROM A THIEF; velle, Mauricio Venegas, Clare Perkins. the main actors are veterans of SpanishShattering, based-on-fact account of a duralanguage telenovelas. [PG-13]쩠 ble but deeply troubled single mother of Lady and the Duke, The (2001-French) Cfour (extremely well played by Rock), who 125m. ★★★ D: Eric Rohmer. Lucy Russell, has a history of being abused by men; she Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Alain Libolt, Charlotte becomes involved with kindly Vega, but Ve´ry, Le´onard Cobiant, Franc¸ois Marthis relationship will not be without its share thouret, Caroline Morin. Intelligent, provocof crises. Another impassioned look at British working class life from Loach. ▼ ative historical drama set during the French Revolution. The lady of the title is Grace Ladybug Ladybug (1963) 84m. ★★★ D: Elliott (Russell), a Scottish blueblood expaFrank Perry. Jane Connell, William Dantriate; the duke is Philippe d’Orleans (Dreyiels, James Frawley, Richard Hamilton, fus), a cousin to Louis XVI. The two share Kathryn Hays, Jane Hoffman, Elena Karam, a complex relationship as the politics and Judith Lowry, Nancy Marchand, Estelle events of the period swirl around them. Parsons, Miles Chapin, Alice Playten. AmConversation is the hallmark of a Rohmer bitious and provocative (if a bit too obvious) film, and here it is never less than illuminataccount of some rural schoolchildren and ing. Shot in digital video; the 81-year-old their reactions when a civil defense system filmmaker also scripted (based on Elliott’s warns of an impending nuclear attack. Screenplay by Eleanor Perry; a follow-up of memoirs). [PG-13]▼쩠 Lady and the Outlaw, The SEE: Billy sorts to DAVID AND LISA. Based on an Two Hats actual incident. Ladybugs (1992) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney Lady and the Tramp (1955) C-75m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, WilJ. Furie. Rodney Dangerfield, Jacke´e, Jonfred Jackson. Voices of Peggy Lee, Barathan Brandis, Ilene Graff, Vinessa Shaw, bara Luddy, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucon, Tom Parks, Jeanetta Arnette, Nancy ParStan Freberg, Verna Felton, Alan Reed. sons, Blake Clark, Tommy Lasorda. To plaOne of Walt Disney’s most endearing anicate his boss and secure a promotion, mated features about a rakish dog named Rodney becomes the coach of a girls’ soc[ 762 ]

cer team—complete with an in-drag male Parker, Walter Connolly, Ned Sparks, Nat player (the son of his fiance´e). Slapdash exPendleton. Wonderful Damon Runyon fable ecution of what sounds like a sure-fire Danof seedy apple vendor Robson transformed gerfield premise; the best zingers concern into perfect lady by softhearted racketeer Wilrival female coach Parsons. [PG-13]▼●쩠 liam. Robert Riskin adapted Runyon’s story Lady Caroline Lamb (1972-British) C‘‘Madame La Gimp.’’ Sequel: LADY BY 118m. BOMB D: Robert Bolt. Sarah Miles, CHOICE. Remade by Capra as POCKETJon Finch, Richard Chamberlain, John Mills, FUL OF MIRACLES. ▼●쩠 Margaret Leighton, Ralph Richardson, LauLady for a Night (1942) 87m. ★★ D: Leigh rence Olivier. Wretched filmization of faJason. Joan Blondell, John Wayne, Ray mous story; wife of English politician Middleton, Philip Merivale, Blanche Yurka, scandalizes everyone by her open affair with Edith Barrett, Hattie Noel. Plodding cosLord Byron. Bolt’s banal script is often unintume drama of wealthy, status-seeking gamtentionally funny. Panavision. [PG]▼ bling queen Blondell and her plight upon Lady Chatterley (2006-French-Belgian) marrying impoverished society drunk Middleton. Good cast seems out of place.▼ C-168m. ★★★ D: Pascale Ferran. Marina Hands, Jean Louis Coullo’ch, Hippolyte GiLady Frankenstein (1971-Italian) C-84m. rardot, He´le`ne Alexandridis, He´le`ne Fillie`res, BOMB D: Mel Welles. Joseph Cotten, Bernard Verley, Sava Lolov. Beautifully Mickey Hargitay, Sarah Bey, Paul Muller, filmed, leisurely adaptation of D. H. LawPeter Whiteman. Poor horror entry with rence’s erotic novel about a wealthy womCotten a tired, ill-fated Baron; his daughan’s affair with the gamekeeper on her ter (Bey) takes up where he leaves off in paralyzed husband’s estate. Sensuous and the monster-making department. [R]▼쩠 startlingly fine performance by Hands as the Lady From Louisiana (1941) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lady who explores her sexual feelings. Bernard Vorhaus. John Wayne, Ona MunGraphic, but tasteful, telling of the onceson, Ray Middleton, Henry Stephenson, notorious book milks its romantic content Helen Westley, Jack Pennick, Dorothy Danfor everything it’s worth. Winner of five dridge. Wayne and Munson fall in love, then Ce´sar awards including Best Film. Eurodiscover they’re on opposite sides of gambling controversy; so-so period piece.▼ pean TV version runs 220m. Also available in R-rated version.쩠 Lady From Shanghai, The (1948) 87m. ★★★ Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1981-FrenchD: Orson Welles. Rita Hayworth, Orson British) C-105m. BOMB D: Just Jaeckin. Welles, Everett Sloane, Glenn Anders, Sylvia Kristel, Nicholas Clay, Shane Briant, Ted de Corsia, Erskine Sanford, Gus SchillAnn Mitchell, Elizabeth Spriggs, Peter Bening. The camera’s the star of this offbeat nett. Dull, cheap version of the D. H. Lawthriller, with the cast incidental in bizarre rence classic, with Kristel as the lady and murder mystery about an Irish adventurer Clay as the lover. Kristel is beautiful, but still (Welles) who joins seductive Hayworth cannot act. From the director of EMMANUand her husband (Sloane) on a Pacific ELLE. Previously filmed in France in 1955; cruise. The famous hall of mirrors climax remade in 2006. [R]▼●쩠 is riveting. Cinematography by Charles Lady Dances, The SEE: Merry Widow, Lawton, Jr. Based on novel by Sherwood The (1934) King; scripted and produced by Welles. Lady Dracula (1973) C-80m. BOMB D: That’s Errol Flynn’s yacht, Zaca, in the Richard Blackburn. Cheryl Smith, Lesley seagoing scenes.▼●쩠 Gilb, William Whitton, Richard Blackburn. Lady Gambles, The (1949) 98m. ★★★ D: Perfectly awful low-budgeter about a lady Michael Gordon. Barbara Stanwyck, Robert vampire with lesbian tendencies. Bring Preston, Stephen McNally, Edith Barrett, back Gloria Holden! Aka LEGENDARY John Hoyt, Leif Erickson. The LOST CURSE OF LEMORA and LEMORA, WEEKEND of gambling films, a well-acted drama chronicling Stanwyck’s decline from THE LADY DRACULA. [PG]쩠 1 ★★★ Lady Eve, The (1941) 94m. respectable writer’s wife to desperate, ad⁄2 D: Preston Sturges. Barbara Stanwyck, Henry dicted gambler and all-around screwup. Fonda, Charles Coburn, Eugene Pallette, Look for Tony Curtis—then billed as ‘‘AnWilliam Demarest, Eric Blore, Melville thony’’—as a bellboy. Lady Godiva (1955) C-89m. ★★ D: ArCooper. Stanwyck is a con artist who sets her eyes on wealthy Fonda—the dolt to thur Lubin. Maureen O’Hara, George Nader, end all dolts, who proclaims ‘‘snakes are Victor McLaglen, Torin Thatcher, Robert my life.’’ Sometimes silly and strident, this Warwick. Cardboard costumer of famed lady film grows funnier with each viewing— and her horseback ride set in Middle Ages thanks to Sturges’s script, breathless pace, England—What a dull ride! Look for Clint and two incomparable stars. Remade as Eastwood, billed as ‘‘First Saxon.’’ ▼ THE BIRDS AND THE BEES.▼●쩠 Lady Hamilton SEE: That Hamilton ★★★★ Lady for a Day (1933) 96m. Woman D: Frank Capra. Warren William, May RobLadyhawke (1985) C-124m. ★★★ D: Richson, Guy Kibbee, Glenda Farrell, Jean ard Donner. Matthew Broderick, Rutger [ 763 ]

Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Leo McKern, Moss Hart Broadway show (minus most of John Wood, Ken Hutchison, Alfred Molina. the Kurt Weill–Ira Gershwin songs) about a Overlong but generally entertaining medieval career woman who undergoes psychoanalysis fantasy adventure about star-crossed lovers to find the root of her problems. Intriguing but caught in an evil spell—and a young thief ultimately ponderous. Lady in the Lake (1946) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: who becomes their unlikely ally. Hauer and Pfeiffer are perfectly cast as stalwart hero and Robert Montgomery. Robert Montgomery, heroine, but Broderick’s manner and dialogue Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, seem better suited to a Woody Allen movie! Leon Ames, Jayne Meadows. Raymond Thunderous music by Andrew Powell. TechChandler whodunit has novelty of camera novision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 taking first-person point of view of detecLady Ice (1973) C-93m. ★★ D: Tom Gries. tive Philip Marlowe (Montgomery); unforDonald Sutherland, Jennifer O’Neill, Robtunately, confusing plot is presented in more prosaic (and dated) manner.▼●쩠 ert Duvall, Patrick Magee, Eric Braeden, Jon Cypher. Dull caper film pairs insurLady in the Water (2006) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: ance investigator Sutherland and wealthy M. Night Shyamalan. Paul Giamatti, Bryce O’Neill, whose father is a major ‘‘fence’’ Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balafor stolen jewels. Good cast wasted. Panaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung, M. vision. [PG]▼쩠 Night Shyamalan, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Lady in a Cage (1964) 93m. ★★★ D: Walter Irwin, Mary Beth Hurt, Jared Harris, Tovah Grauman. Olivia de Havilland, Ann SothFeldshuh. Superintendent in an apartment ern, Jeff Corey, James Caan, Jennifer Billcomplex discovers an ethereal young woman ingsley, Rafael Campos, Scatman Crothers. in the swimming pool and senses that she Bone-chilling psychological drama in needs protection. As this fable (or bedtime which incapacitated widow de Havilland story, as Shyamalan would have it) unfolds, finds herself stuck in an elevator in her we’re given more and more ‘‘information’’ home, then is terrorized by thugs. Allegorito swallow until it becomes laughably abcal tale of alienation and mindless cruelty in surd. Giamatti’s empathetic performance an impersonal society; unpleasant to watch, helps, but writer-director Shyamalan was but undeniably truthful and prophetic. Starkly unwise to put himself in a key role—as directed and well acted.▼쩠 mankind’s savior! [PG-13]쩠 Lady in Cement (1968) C-93m. ★★ D: Lady in White (1988) C-112m. ★★★ D: Gordon Douglas. Frank Sinatra, Raquel Frank LaLoggia. Lukas Haas, Len Cariou, Welch, Dan Blocker, Richard Conte, MarAlex Rocco, Katherine Helmond, Jason tin Gabel, Lainie Kazan, Richard Deacon, Presson, Jared Rushton, Renata Vanni, Joe E. Lewis. Sequel to TONY ROME finds Angelo Bertolini. Sleeper film combines Sinatra discovering nude corpse with feet en1960s nostalgia with supernatural horror in cased in cement. Typical private-eye hokum, original fashion. An inquisitive youngster with heavy doses of violence, leering sex. Pa(Haas) becomes involved with ghosts in navision. [PG—originally rated R]▼●쩠 mystery story about an unsolved murder Lady in Red, The (1979) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: and the legendary Lady in White (Helmond) Lewis Teague. Pamela Sue Martin, Robert residing in a spooky house nearby. VilConrad, Louise Fletcher, Robert Hogan, Laulain’s identity is a bit too easy to guess, but rie Heineman, Glenn Withrow, Christopher there are plenty of chills and great period Lloyd, Dick Miller. Martin suffers a life on atmosphere along the way. Director’s cut version runs 6m. longer. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 the lam, before and after her period of notoriety as girlfriend of John Dillinger (Conrad). Lady Is Willing, The (1942) 92m. ★★★ D: Lurid, low-budget retread of familiar material Mitchell Leisen. Marlene Dietrich, Fred is handled with surprising verve. A Roger MacMurray, Aline MacMahon, Arline Corman production; screenplay by John Judge, Stanley Ridges, Roger Clark. AgreeSayles. Robert Forster appears uncredited in able comedy; glamorous Dietrich wants to key supporting role. Retitled GUNS, SIN adopt a baby, so she marries pediatrician AND BATHTUB GIN. [R]▼쩠 MacMurray. Dramatic segment near the Lady in the Car With Glasses and a Gun, end spoils lively mood.▼ The (1970-French) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anatole Lady Jane (1985-British) C-142m. ★★★ Litvak. Samantha Eggar, Oliver Reed, John D: Trevor Nunn. Helena Bonham Carter, McEnery, Stephane Audran, Billie Dixon. Cary Elwes, John Wood, Michael Hordern, Eggar is best thing about otherwise unexcepJill Bennett, Jane Lapotaire, Sara Kesteltional film. Psychological thriller about atman, Patrick Stewart, Warren Saire, Joss tempt to drive young woman crazy is only Ackland, Ian Hogg, Richard Johnson. Aboccasionally interesting. Panavision. [R] sorbing historical drama about the machiLady in the Dark (1944) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 nations that put a 16-year-old girl on the D: Mitchell Leisen. Ginger Rogers, Ray Milthrone of England for just nine days. Exquisite land, Jon Hall, Warner Baxter, Barry Sullivan, looking, well acted, just a trifle slow at times. Gail Russell, Mischa Auer. Overproduced Same story told before in a 1936 film, TUDOR ROSE. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Technicolor adaptation of the groundbreaking [ 764 ]

Lady Killer (1933) 74m. ★★★ D: Roy Del with Deanna witnessing a murder, then Ruth. James Cagney, Mae Clarke, Leslie getting involved with nutty family of the Fenton, Margaret Lindsay, Henry O’Neill, deceased tycoon. You’ll never guess killer’s Raymond Hatton, George Chandler. Vinidentity in neatly plotted yarn which even tage Cagney, with tangy tale of mobster allows Deanna to sing a few tunes. Based on a Leslie Charteris story.▼쩠 becoming Hollywood actor, torn between two professions; Cagney repeats his Clarke Lady on the Bus (1978-Brazilian) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Neville D’Almedia. Sonia Braga, slapfest.▼●쩠 Ladykillers, The (1955-British) C-90m. Nuno Leal Maia, Paulo Cesar Pereio, Jorge ★★★1 Doria, Yara Amaral, Claudio Marzo. Braga, ⁄2 D: Alexander Mackendrick. Alec Guinness, Katie Johnson, Cecil Parker, the least likely of all actresses to project Herbert Lom, Peter Sellers, Danny Green, frigidity, is unresponsive on her wedding Frankie Howerd. Droll black comedy of night—but wait! Soon she begins sampling not-so-bright crooks involved with seemingly other men, and sampling, and sampling. . . . harmless old lady. Guinness scores again Follow-up to DONA FLOR AND HER (even his teeth are funny) with top-notch supTWO HUSBANDS has even more sex but porting cast in this little Ealing Studios gem, far less wit and charm. A dull ride. [R]▼ written by William Rose. Original British Lady Sings the Blues (1972) C-144m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney J. Furie. Diana Ross, Billy running time: 97m. Remade in 2004.▼쩠 Ladykillers, The (2004) C-104m. ★★★ D: Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James CalJoel Coen, Ethan Coen. Tom Hanks, Irma P. lahan, Paul Hampton, Sid Melton. Black Hall, Marlon Wayans, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, version of Hollywood cliche´-biography, Ryan Hurst, George Wallace, Diane Delano, sparked by superb performance by Ross (in Stephen Root. Obsequiously polite Southern her acting debut) as Billie Holiday, legendgentleman rents a room from a churchgoing ary jazz singer whose life was ruined by widow, then plots a daring heist in her basedrug addiction. Valueless as biography, ment with an ill-chosen group of accomplices. but OK as soap opera, with excellent supThe Coens keep a sure hand on this farcical port from Pryor as ‘‘Piano Man.’’ Panablack comedy with impeccable casting, finely vision. [R]▼●쩠 tuned performances, and a bedrock of Southern Lady Takes a Chance, A (1943) 86m. ★★★ D: William A. Seiter. Jean Arthur, gospel music (produced by T-Bone Burnett). Remake of the well-remembered Ealing comJohn Wayne, Charles Winninger, Phil Silvers, edy of 1955. [R] ▼쩠 Mary Field, Don Costello. Wayne and Arthur Lady L (1965-British) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: make fine comedy team as burly rodeo star Peter Ustinov. Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, and wide-eyed city girl who falls for him; Silvers adds zip as bus-tour guide.▼쩠 David Niven, Claude Dauphin, Philippe Noiret, Michel Piccoli. Stars and sets are Lady Takes a Flyer, The (1958) C-94m. ★★1 elegant, but this wacky comedy set in ⁄2 D: Jack Arnold. Lana Turner, Jeff early 20th-century London and Paris fizzles, Chandler, Richard Denning, Andra Mardespite Ustinov’s writing, directing, and tin. Different-type Turner fare. Lana is lady flier who marries pilot Chandler, each cameo appearance. Panavision.▼ Lady Liberty (1972-Italian) C-95m. ★1⁄2 finds it hard to settle down to married life. D: Mario Monicelli. Sophia Loren, WilCinemaScope. liam Devane, Luigi Proietti, Beeson CarLady Vanishes, The (1938-British) 97m. ★★★★ roll, Danny DeVito, David Doyle, RichD: Alfred Hitchcock. Margaret ard Libertini, Edward Herrmann, Alan Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas, Feinstein, Christopher Norris, Susan SaranDame May Whitty, Googie Withers, Cecil don. Dull comedy of immigrant brideParker, Linden Travers, Catherine Lacey. to-be who tries to get an enormous sausage An old woman’s disappearance during a through U.S. customs. Watch for Warhol’s train ride leads baffled young woman into Candy Darling in transvestite cameo; origa dizzying web of intrigue. Delicious inally titled MORTADELLA. [PG] mystery-comedy; Hitchcock at his best, Lady of Burlesque (1943) 91m. ★★★ D: with a witty script by Frank Launder and William Wellman. Barbara Stanwyck, MiSidney Gilliat, and wonderful performances chael O’Shea, J. Edward Bromberg, Iris by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford, Adrian, Marion Martin, Pinky Lee, Frank who scored such a hit as a pair of twits that Conroy, Gloria Dickson. Stanwyck attempts they repeated those roles in several other to uncover—no pun intended—killer of films! Based on Ethel Lina White’s novel strippers in this amusing adaptation of The Wheel Spins. Remade in 1979.▼●쩠 Gypsy Rose Lee’s G-String Murders.▼쩠 Lady Vanishes, The (1979-British) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony Page. Elliott Gould, Cybill Lady on a Train (1945) 93m. ★★★ D: Charles David. Deanna Durbin, Ralph Shepherd, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom, Bellamy, Edward Everett Horton, George Arthur Lowe, Ian Carmichael. Remake of Coulouris, Allen Jenkins, David Bruce, Hitchcock classic retains basic story but is Patricia Morison, Dan Duryea, William sabotaged by the obnoxious characterizaFrawley. Excellent comedy/murder-mystery tions of its ‘‘screwball’’ stars, Gould [ 765 ]

and Shepherd. Screenplay by George Axelrod. Panavision. [PG]▼● Lady Vengeance (2005-Korean) C-115m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Park Chan-wook. Lee Yeong-ae, Choi Min-sik, Kim Si-hu, Nam Il-woo, Kim Byeong-ok, Oh Dal-Su. Conclusion of the director’s ‘‘revenge trilogy’’ (preceded by SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and OLDBOY) focuses on a woman, wrongfully imprisoned for kidnapping and murdering a young boy when she was 19, who is released after serving 13 years. While trying to reunite with the daughter she was forced to give up for adoption, she executes an elaborate and grisly revenge against the killer for whom she took the fall. Dazzlingly directed film is an undeniable display of cinematic virtuosity, but also a deeply unpleasant experience that seems to revel in brutality and torture, much of it involving children. Super 35. [R]쩠 Lady With a Dog (1959-Russian) 90m. ★★★ D: Josif Heifits. Iya Savvina, Alexei Batalov, Ala Chostakova, N. Alisova. Middle-aged man and young woman, both married, meet and fall in love on vacation. Intelligent tale of adulterous love, sensibly handled, with no contrived ending. Based on the short story by Anton Chekov, also partly the basis of DARK EYES. ▼쩠 Lafayette (1962-French) C-110m. ★★ D: Jean Dreville. Jack Hawkins, Orson Welles, Howard St. John, Edmund Purdom, Vittorio De Sica, Michel Le Royer. Overblown, badly scripted costumer of famed 18thcentury Frenchman; an episodic minor spectacle. Super Technirama 70. ▼ Lafayette Escadrille (1958) 93m. ★★ D: William Wellman. Tab Hunter, Etchika Choureau, William Wellman, Jr., Jody McCrea, Dennis Devine, Marcel Dalio, David Janssen, Paul Fix, Will Hutchins, Clint Eastwood, Tom Laughlin, Brett Halsey. Wellman’s final film is a well-intentioned but flat account of the celebrated French flying legion of WW1, spotlighting the coming to maturity of wayward Hunter. Mostly of interest for its cast, with Wellman, Jr., playing his father (who actually was a pilot during the war). Wellman, Sr., wrote the story and narrates. ▼ La Femme Infide`le (1969-French-Italian) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Stephane Audran, Michel Bouquet, Maurice Ronet, Stephen Di Napolo, Michel Duchaussoy. Razor-sharp thriller about a husband who thinks his wife is cheating on him. Audran and Bouquet are well cast in one of writerdirector Chabrol’s finest films, which chips away at the fac¸ade of a seemingly ordinary marriage. Remade in 2002 as UNFAITHFUL. Aka THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE. [R]

Slick, ultra-violent saga of a hedonistic young woman who runs with a punked-out gang— until she’s recruited by a French intelligence officer, determined to make her an undercover agent and ‘‘hit man.’’ Stylish and compelling, if not always believable, with a star-making role for Parillaud. Remade in the U.S. as POINT OF NO RETURN, and in Hong Kong as BLACK CAT; later a U.S. cable TV series. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001Indian) C-224m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ashutosh Gowariker. Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Blackthorne, Suhasini Mulay, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Raghuveer Yadav. India, 1893: an arrogant British military commander offers to cancel the crippling land tax in a drought-ridden farming village for three years if the locals, led by defiant peasant Khan (who also produced the film) can beat his team in a cricket match. If the villagers lose, they’ll have to pay triple tax! Long but entertaining historical drama is a quintessential Bollywood epic, expertly combining action, romance, humor, and songs in a resplendent widescreen package. Arriscope. [PG]▼쩠 L’Age d’Or (1930-French) 63m. ★★★★ D: Luis Bun˜uel. Gaston Modot, Lya Lys, Max Ernst, Pierre Pre´vert. Bishops turn into skeletons and the cow wanders into the bedroom in Bun˜uel’s first feature, a surrealistic masterpiece coscripted by Salvadore Dali. Rightwing agitators caused a riot at the film’s first (and for a long time, only) public screening; its anticlericalism put it into the ‘‘banned film’’ category for decades. Still has the power to delight, if no longer shock.▼●쩠 La Grande Bouffe SEE: Grande Bouffe, The La Grande Bourgeoise (1974-Italian) C115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mauro Bolognini. Catherine Deneuve, Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, Tina Aumont, Paolo Bonicelli. Strong cast adds some punch to true story about Giannini’s murder of sister Deneuve’s loutish husband and the political storm it generates. Stylish but not terribly compelling. [R]▼ La Guerre Est Finie (1966-French-Swedish) 121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Resnais. Yves Montand, Ingrid Thulin, Genevieve Bujold, Jean Daste, Michel Piccoli. Aging, tired leftist Montand travels from Spain to Paris, reports to his political associates, and visits mistress Thulin. Complex, emotionally powerful drama, with striking direction, performances. Screenplay by Jorge Semprun.▼쩠 Lair of the White Worm, The (1988British) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Russell. Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, Sammi Davis, Stratford Johns, Paul Brooke, Christopher Gable. Typically outrageous Ken Russell farce, ▼쩠 La Femme Nikita (1990-French-Italian) adapted from a novel by Bram Stoker (of ★★★ C-117m. Dracula fame). Strange doings begin when an D: Luc Besson. Anne Parillaud, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Tche´ky Karyo, archaeologist unearths a huge wormlike skull Jeanne Moreau, Jean Reno, Jean Bouise. on the grounds of an estate; they get curiouser [ 766 ]

and curiouser when it turns out worms are the billed. Followed by 2007 TV sequel. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 stuff of legend in that area. Bizarre, campy, Lakeview Terrace (2008) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 and altogether outlandish. [R]▼●쩠 D: Neil LaBute. Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Lakeboat (2001) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe ManWilson, Kerry Washington, Ron Glass, Justegna. Peter Falk, Tony Mamet, Robert Fortin Chambers, Jay Hernandez, Robert Pine. ster, Charles Durning, Denis Leary, J.J. Mixed-race couple moves into a suburban Johnston, Jack Wallace, George Wendt, Saul cul-de-sac next door to an angry veteran Rubinek. A series of vignettes about the crew L.A. cop (and single father) who feels emof a cargo freighter that travels Lake Michigan. powered to impose his moral code on everyDavid Mamet adapted his play, with younger one around him. Provocative and well acted, brother Tony taking one of the leading roles as but film’s constantly shifting sympathies a student who signs on for the summer. Never make it difficult to know what the point is quite becomes a movie, but does offer wondersupposed to be. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ful dialogue and superb performances. Forster La Lectrice (1988-French) C-98m. ★★★ D: is particularly good. Andy Garcia appears unMichel Deville. Miou-Miou, Christian Ruche´, billed. Feature directing debut for veteran Sylvie Laporte, Michel Raskine, Brigitte CatilMamet actor Mantegna. [R]▼쩠 lion, Re´gis Royer, Maria Casare´s, Pierre Dux. Lake House, The (2006) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fascinating, multi-textured account of MiouAlejandro Agresti. Keanu Reeves, Sandra BulMiou reading a book aloud to her boyfriend lock, Dylan Walsh, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and imagining herself the heroine in the story: Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, a professional reader who becomes involved Willeke van Ammelrooy, Lynn Collins. Chiin the lives of her various clients. Scripted by cago architect Reeves moves into a striking Deville and his wife, Rosalinde. [R]▼● lakefront glass house and finds a letter from its La Marseillaise (1938-French) 130m. former occupant—doctor Bullock—waiting ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean Renoir. Pierre Renoir, Louis for him. They begin to correspond, leaving Jouvet, Julien Carette, Lisa Delamare. Retheir letters in the old-fashioned mailbox at the noir scripted this stirring account of the front of the property, and eventually discover French Revolution, featuring dialogue exthat they are living two years apart. Romantic tracted from documents of the 1790s. Begins drama stretches credulity (to put it mildly) but with news of the fall of the Bastille reaching still creates a moodiness that’s intriguing . . . Louis XVI, ends with the Marseilles Battalion enough to allow a willing viewer to go along of the French Revolutionary Army storming for the ride. Based on a Korean film, IL the Tuilleries and marching to Valmy. Renoir MARE (2000). Super 35. [PG]쩠 opted for a humanist approach to history, Lake of Fire (2007) 152m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tony avoiding what he considered the false solemKaye. It’s shot in stark b&w, but this scrunity of most historical epics. ▼쩠 pulously balanced and profoundly troubling Lamb (1985-British) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: documentary depicts the ongoing debate over Colin Gregg. Liam Neeson, Hugh O’Conor, abortion in painfully ambiguous shades of Ian Bannen, Rouan Wilmot, Frances Togray. Filmed over a 17-year period, Kaye’s melty, Dudley Sutton. Neeson is good in emotionally and intellectually challenging this otherwise obvious drama spotlighting film forces viewers on both sides of the issue the complex relationship between an idealto rethink assumptions while exposing them istic Brother who teaches at a Roman Cathto archival footage, on-the-street interviews, olic school for problem boys and a deeply and sometimes dispassionate, sometimes fatroubled pupil (O’Conor) who is maltreated natical testimony from journalists, activists, by the authoritarian headmaster. Not rephilosophers, academics, ministers–-and, of leased in the U.S. until 1995.▼쩠 course, women who have chosen (and, in Lambada (1990) C-98m. BOMB D: Joel some cases, regretted their decisions) to Silberg. J. Eddie Peck, Melora Hardin, have abortions.쩠 Shabba-Doo, Ricky Paull Goldin, Basil Lake Placid (1999) C-82m. ★★ D: Steve Hoffman, Dennis Burkley. By day, Peck Miner. Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver teaches math to snots in a posh Beverly Platt, Brendan Gleeson, Betty White, David Hills high school; by night, he tries to Lewis, Mariska Hargitay, Meredith Salenger. ‘‘reach’’ barrio kids in an East L.A. The creature terrorizing a Maine lake (which lambada club. In other words, it’s STAND is not Lake Placid, N.Y.) turns out to be a AND DELIVER with better buns; avoid at very large crocodile. Between arguments, paall costs unless you never miss a Shabbaleontologist Fonda, game warden Pullman, Doo movie. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sheriff Gleeson, and irritating, wealthy acaLamerica (1994-Italian-French) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gianni Amelio. Enrico Lo Verso, demic Platt try to figure out what to do about it. David E. Kelley, writing down to the material, Michele Placido, Carmelo Di Mazzarelli, provides lots of wisecracks, but few scares. Piro Milkani, Elida Janushi. Deeply touchBrief but tiresome film tries—but fails—to be ing, laced-in-acid drama, set in the wake of a monster movie and environmentally correct Albania’s emancipation from communism at the same time. Adam Arkin appears unand detailing the manner in which fate links [ 767 ]

up a young, arrogant Italian capitalist (Lo Mackintosh, Tom Georgeson, Maureen Verso) and the just-liberated political prisO’Brien, Gerald Down. Disappointing soap oner (Di Mazzarelli) he is attempting to exopera based on the potentially fascinating story ploit. A politically savvy account of how of the Women’s Land Army, formed in 1941 to the downtrodden go from one kind of exput women to work on English farms whose ploitation to another as political systems men had gone off to war. The three attractive change. Amelio effectively captures the young women who come to live with farmer feeling of what it’s like to be a poor and Georgeson wind up dallying with his randy powerless refugee. Technovision.▼쩠 son (Mackintosh), and after a while it all La Moustache (2005-French) C-84m. ★★★ seems rather silly. Leland coscripted from a D: Emmanuel Carre`re. Vincent Lindon, novel by Angela Huth. Panavision. [R]▼● Emmanuelle Devos, Mathieu Amalric, HipLandlord, The (1970) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: polyte Girardot, Cylia Malki, Macha PoliHal Ashby. Beau Bridges, Pearl Bailey, Diana karpova, Fantine Camus. On a whim, a man Sands, Louis Gossett, Lee Grant, Susan Anshaves off his moustache and no one respach, Bob (Robert) Klein, Patricia (Trish) members that he ever had one—beginning Van Devere. Vibrant comedy-drama with with his wife. Disturbing, challenging alleBridges as aimless rich-kid who buys Brookgorical drama that ponders the nature of inlyn tenement planning to renovate it for himtimate human relationships and asks how self, changing plans when he meets tenants. well two people ever really know each Delightful comic touches combined with perother. Carre`re adapted his own novel with ceptive sidelights on black experience. AshJe´roˆme Beaujour. 쩠 by’s first film as director. [PG—originally Lancelot and Guinevere SEE: Sword of rated R]▼ Lancelot Land of Fury SEE: Seekers, The Land and Freedom (1995-U.S.-SpanishLand of Plenty (2004-U.S.-German) C119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. John Diehl, German) C-109m. ★★★ D: Kenneth Loach. Ian Hart, Rosana Pastor, Iciar Bollain, Tom Michelle Williams, Richard Edson, WenGilroy, Marc Martines, Frederic Pierrot, Andell Pierce, Gloria Stuart, Burt Young, gela Clarke. Perceptive, passionate account of Shaun Toub, Bernard White. Psychologithe Spanish Civil War, centered on a young, cally disconnected Vietnam veteran (Diehl) working-class British Communist (Hart) who cruises around L.A., looking for suspected comes to Spain to join the anti-fascists in their terrorists. He and his niece (Williams), battle against Franco. Rich human drama of newly arrived in town and working in a political idealism and reality, if a bit too morhomeless shelter, investigate the drive-by alistic at times. Highlight: that pseudo-docushooting of a destitute Middle Easterner. mentary ad hoc town meeting. ▼● This mournful meditation on paranoia, Land Before Time, The (1988) C-69m. homelessness, and violence in America is at ★★1 best a plea for peace and understanding in ⁄2 D: Don Bluth. Voices of Pat Hingle, Gabriel Damon, Helen Shaver, Candace our post-9/11 world, but it meanders and is Hutson, Judith Barsi, Will Ryan, Burke way overlong. Digital Video Widescreen.쩠 Barnes. A young dinosaur is orphaned and Land of the Dead (2005-U.S.-CanadianFrench) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: George A. Romero. must make his way to a valley green with vegetation where he and his tribe can surSimon Baker, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopvive. Along the way he meets other young per, Asia Argento, Robert Joy, Eugene Clark, friends of different dinosaur species, and Joanne Boland, Tony Nappo. Survivors of a they make the trek together. Enjoyable if disaster that turned the dead into flesh-eating leisurely paced (and plotted) cartoon feature zombies hole up in a city on a river with for younger viewers. Followed by far too barricades to keep the zombies out. Inside, many video sequels. [G]▼●쩠 tensions increase while outside the dead are Land Before Time II: The Great Valley getting smarter. Romero’s fourth walking dead movie is well produced and suspenseful, Adventure, The (1994) C-74m. ★★★ D: Roy Allen Smith. Voices of Jeff Bennett, with a dose of social satire and a standout Heather Hogan, Kenneth Mars, John Ingle, performance by Leguizamo . . . but we’ve Linda Gary, Candace Hutson, Scott McAfee. seen it all before, and it never really catches Charming direct-to-video sequel to earlier fire. Title on-screen is GEORGE A. ROMEanimated feature has young brontosaurus RO’S LAND OF THE DEAD. Also availLittlefoot and his dino pals contending with able in unrated version. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 omnivores and a baby T-Rex who wants to Land of the Minotaur (1976-U.S.-British) join their group! Kids will identify with the C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Costa Carayiannis. Donyoung reptiles in this delightful adventure. ald Pleasence, Luan Peters, Peter Cushing, Songs by The Roches; original theme music Nikos Verlekis, Costas Skouras. Tourists are by James Horner. Followed by several more kidnapped by Greek Minoan devil-worship cult, and a local priest tries to save them, in video sequels. [G]▼●쩠 Land Girls, The (1998-British-French) Cthis draggy, uninteresting yarn. Aka MINO110m. ★★ D: David Leland. Catherine McTAUR. Released in England at 94m. as THE DEVIL’S MEN. [PG]▼쩠 Cormack, Rachel Weisz, Anna Friel, Steven [ 768 ]

Land of the Pharaohs (1955) C-106m. pearance of a woman whose own marriage is ★★1 in jeopardy. Beautifully nuanced at every turn. ⁄2 D: Howard Hawks. Jack Hawkins, Joan Collins, James Robertson Justice, Dewey Screenplay by Andrew Bovell from his play Speaking in Tongues. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Martin, Alexis Minotis, Sydney Chaplin, James Hayter. Entertaining, if fruity spectacle La Nuit de Varennes (1982-Italian-French) C-133m. ★★★ D: Ettore Scola. Marcello about building of the Great Pyramid, filmed on an epic scale. Hawks claimed neither he Mastroianni, Jean-Louis Barrault, Hanna nor his writers (including William Faulkner Schygulla, Harvey Keitel, Jean-Claude and Harry Kurnitz) ‘‘knew how a pharaoh Brialy. Witty historical fable allows such talked’’ . . . and it shows. Still worth catching famous figures as Casanova and Thomas for great revenge ending and now-campy vilPaine to cross paths at the time of the lainy by Collins. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 French Revolution. Original French runLand Raiders (1970) C-100m. ★★ D: Naning time 150m. Technovision. [R]▼ than Juran. Telly Savalas, George Maharis, La Passante (1982-French-German) CArlene Dahl, Janet Landgard, Jocelyn Lane, 106m. ★★★ D: Jacques Rouffio. Romy SchGeorge Coulouris, Guy Rolfe. Even if you neider, Michel Piccoli, Wendelin Werner, can accept Savalas and Maharis as brothHelmut Griem, Gerard Klein, Dominique ers, this Western about family feuds Labourier, Mathieu Carriere, Maria Schell. amidst Indian attacks has little to offer.▼쩠 Why does nonviolence advocate Piccoli kill Landru SEE: Bluebeard (1962) a Paraguayan ambassador, an ex-Nazi living Land That Time Forgot, The (1975-Britunder an assumed name? Interesting drama ish) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Connor. Doug is ambitious in scope, but could have been McClure, John McEnery, Susan Penhalibetter. Schneider, in her final film, plays gon, Keith Barron, Anthony Ainley. Edboth Piccoli’s wife and the woman who gar Rice Burroughs’ 1918 sci-fi novel sheltered him as a boy. ▼● about Germans and Americans in WW1 subLa Pelle (1981-Italian-French) C-131m. ★1 marine discovering unknown land in South ⁄2 D: Liliana Cavani. Marcello MastroAmerica is not bad as adventure yarn, but ianni, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, special effects (dinosaurs, volcanic eruption) Ken Marshall, Alexandra King, Carlo are not convincing. Sequel: THE PEOPLE Giuffre. Distastefully bitter panorama of THAT TIME FORGOT. [PG]▼쩠 American troops in Naples after the LiberLangrishe, Go Down (1978-British) Cation, based on the memoirs of Curzio 112m. ★★★ D: David Jones. Judi Dench, JerMalaparte (played here by Mastroianni). emy Irons, Annette Crosbie, Harold Pinter, Overlong; poorly directed and scripted (by Margaret Whiting, Susan Williamson. Dench Cavani and Robert Katz). A disaster. is superb in this understated drama, set in La Permission SEE: Story of a Three Day the 1930s, as one of the daughters of a faded Pass, The aristocratic Irish family; she experiences an La Petite Lili (2003-French-Canadian) Carray of emotions while immersing herself in 104m. ★★★ D: Claude Miller. Nicole Garcia, an affair with a calculating Bavarian intellecBernard Giraudeau, Jean-Pierre Marielle, tual (Irons). Starts off slowly and becomes Ludivine Sagnier, Robinson Ste´venin, Julie more involving as it goes along. Scripted by Depardieu, Yves Jacques, Michel Piccoli. A Pinter, from a novel by Aidan Higgins. Origifamily’s country retreat becomes charged nally made for British television, this opened with emotion when the hotheaded son—an theatrically in the U.S. in 2002. 쩠 aspiring filmmaker/artiste—discovers that his La Notte (1961-French-Italian) 120m. ★★1⁄2 girlfriend is intrigued with his mother’s boyD: Michelangelo Antonioni. Jeanne Mofriend, a successful director of mainstream reau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, movies. Ingenious film inspired by Chekhov’s Bernhard Wicki. Moreau is bored and trouThe Seagull, exploring the line between art bled by one-dimensional husband Mastroand life, and how the two affect each other. ianni in this study of noncommunication. Screenplay by Miller and Julien Boivent. 쩠 Moody, introverted, abstract—and superfiLa Prisonniere (1969-French) 104m. ★★ cial—filled with ‘‘empty, hopeless images.’’ D: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Laurent Terzieff, The second of a trilogy, preceded by L’AVBernard Fresson, Elsabeth Wiener, Dany VENTURA and followed by L’ECLISSE. Carrel, Dario Moreno, Daniel Riviere. Aka THE NIGHT.▼쩠 From the director of DIABOLIQUE comes Lantana (2001-Australian-German) Cthis obscure, confused study of woman 121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ray Lawrence. Anthony Laobsessed with a photographer of sadoPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Barbara Hershey, masochism. Strikingly photographed. Kerry Armstrong, Rachael Blake, Vince ColLa Promesse (1996-Belgian-French-Luxosimo, Daniela Farinacci, Peter Phelps. Movembourgian-Tunisian) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ing, adult story of relationships thwarted by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne. Je´re´mie boredom, habit, and lack of communication. Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Assita Ouedraogo, LaPaglia plays a cop whose marriage has Rasmane´ Ouedraogo. Harrowing tale of a boy stagnated, leading him to sleep with another being raised by a father who mercilessly exwoman; meanwhile, he investigates the disapploits illegal immigrants—as their supposed [ 769 ]

★★★1 savior, landlord, and employer. Trouble be⁄2 D: Robert Bresson. Christian Patey, gins when the boy, who’s always obeyed Sylvie van den Elsen, Michel Briguet, his father unquestioningly, develops a Caroline Lang, Jeanne Aptekman. How the friendship with one of the illegals. Moving petty maneuverings of some upper-class boys in its understated, matter-of-fact look at a and shopkeepers result in the ruin of workingyoung man at a moral crossroads in his life. man Patey: the rich lie, and get their workers Remarkably raw . . . and real. Written by to lie for them, but are aghast when the the directors.▼쩠 workers lie to them. Subtle, powerful film, La Provinciale SEE: Girl From Lorraine, simply and effectively directed by a master The filmmaker; based on a Tolstoy story. ▼쩠 Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986-Japanese) Larger Than Life (1996) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: C-124m. ★★★★ D: Hayao Miyazaki. Voices of Howard Franklin. Bill Murray, Janeane James Van Der Beek, Anna Paquin, Cloris Garofalo, Matthew McConaughey, Linda Leachman, Mark Hamill, Mandy Patinkin, Fiorentino, Keith David, Pat Hingle, Jeremy Andy Dick. Magnificent animated adventure Piven, Maureen Mueller, Harve Presnell, fantasy about an orphan girl who is pursued Lois Smith, Tai. Disappointing comedic by sky pirates and an evil government agent misfire of motivational speaker Murray trywho want to get their hands on the magical ing to get an elephant cross-country in a crystal that allows her to float—and also holds hurry. One hysterical sequence of Murray’s the secret to finding a mythical treasure-laden mishandling of a truck is the only real island above the clouds. Stunning visuals, laugh. Promising possibilities fall flat, with thrilling set pieces and compelling characters McConaughey way over the top and Fiorenmake this a masterpiece of action filmmaking, tino completely wasted. [PG] ▼●쩠 animated or otherwise, inspiring a true sense La Ronde (1950-French) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: of awe. Aka CASTLE IN THE SKY. ▼쩠 Max Ophuls. Anton Walbrook, Serge ReggiLara Croft Tomb Raider (2001) C-100m. ani, Simone Simon, Simone Signoret, Daniel ★1 ⁄2 D: Simon West. Angelina Jolie, Jon Gelin, Danielle Darrieux, Fernand Gravet, Voight, Noah Taylor, Iain Glen, Daniel Odette Joyeux, Jean-Louis Barrault, Isa MiCraig, Christopher Barrie, Richard Johnson, randa, Ge´rard Philipe. Wise, witty account of Leslie Phillips. Jolie plays the sexy British various people having affairs, forming a chain archeologist-adventurer who follows her late that eventually comes full circle, all held tofather’s instructions to find—and destroy— gether by sarcastic Walbrook. A film of style both pieces of an ancient relic that can control and charm, based on an Arthur Schnitzler time. Perhaps the dullest action-adventure play. Screenplay by Jacques Natanson and difilm ever made, with flat writing and perforrector Ophuls. Remade as CIRCLE OF mances (save for Jolie) and lifeless direction, LOVE and CHAIN OF DESIRE.▼●쩠 sparked now and then by some flashy setLarry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector pieces. Voight, Jolie’s real-life father, plays (2006) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Trent Cooper. Larry Croft’s dad. Based on a popular computer the Cable Guy (Dan Whitney), Iris Bahr, game. To quote a character in the film itself, Bruce Bruce, Joanna Cassidy, Brooke Dill‘‘Enough of this twaddle!’’ Followed by a man, Tony Hale, David Koechner, Lisa Lamsequel. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 panelli, Megyn Price, Tom Wilson, Joe Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Pantoliano, Kid Rock, Jerry Mathers. Whitney Life (2003) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Jan De Bont. brings his blue-collar ‘‘Larry’’ character—a Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Noah Taylor, beer-bellied, foulmouthed, endlessly flatulent Ciara´n Hinds, Djimon Hounsou, Til Schweidimwit—to the screen in this low-rent, lowger, Christopher Barrie, Simon Yam. Pouting laugh-quotient comedy about a bungling and plundering in a variety of revealing outfits, health inspector who investigates a series Jolie returns as the video-game adventuress of restaurant food poisonings. ‘‘Larry’’ fans who teams up with her shady ex in a race to and aficionados of redneck humor may rate find Pandora’s Box before it falls into the this higher. [PG-13]쩠 hands of an evil scientist who wants to harLars and the Real Girl (2007) C-106m. ness its power to create biological weapons. ★★★ D: Craig Gillespie. Ryan Gosling, Astonishingly inept and interminable sequel Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Kelli gives new meaning to the word ‘‘boring.’’ Garner, Paul Schneider. Sweet film about Game over. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 socially traumatized Gosling, who purLarceny, Inc. (1942) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lloyd chases a life-sized doll and treats her as if Bacon. Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, she’s real—to the dismay of his older Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Anthony brother and sister-in-law (who feel protecQuinn, Edward Brophy. Hilarious little tive of him) and the neighbors in their tightcomedy of ex-cons Robinson, Crawford, knit community. Fortunately, a sympathetic and Brophy using luggage store as front doctor (Clarkson) steers them in the right for shady activities; villain Quinn tries to direction. This could have been written as horn in. Look for Jackie Gleason in a farce, but instead it’s a story about caring small role as a soda jerk.쩠 L’Argent (1983-French-Swiss) C-81m. and compassion in the face of genuinely [ 770 ]

odd behavior . . . and it’s disarmingly effecwith the Duke, even after he brings the dog tive. Written by Nancy Oliver. [PG-13]쩠 to his Glasgow estate, and makes the long Larsen, Wolf of the Seven Seas SEE: journey home, meeting a variety of colorful Wolf Larsen characters along the way. Pleasing, straightLa Salamandre (1971-Swiss) 125m. ★★★ forward retelling of Eric Knight’s story, D: Alain Tanner. Bulle Ogier, Jean-Luc filmed before as LASSIE COME HOME Bideau, Jacques Denis. Simple, funny ex(1943). Super 35. [PG]쩠 amination of truth: journalist Bideau and Lassie Come Home (1943) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 writer Denis research facts behind the case D: Fred M. Wilcox. Roddy McDowall, of mysterious Ogier, accused by her uncle Donald Crisp, Dame May Whitty, Edmund of attempted murder. Fine performances Gwenn, Nigel Bruce, Elsa Lanchester, Elizby the three leads.▼ abeth Taylor. Winning, wonderful film from La Separation (1994-French) C-85m. ★★★ Eric Knight’s book about a poor family D: Christian Vincent. Isabelle Huppert, forced to sell their beloved dog, who underDaniel Auteuil, Jerome Deschamps, Karin takes several tortuous journeys to return to Viard, Laurence Lerel. Knowingly detailed, them. A tearjerker of the first order, and one beautifully acted chronicle of the simmering of the all-time great family films. Lassie is tensions between a married couple (Huppert played—quite remarkably—by a male coland Auteuil) as their relationship disintelie named Pal. Sequel: SON OF LASSIE. grates. In its best moments, this sobering Remade as GYPSY COLT, THE MAGIC film compares favorably with Bergman’s OF LASSIE, and LASSIE (2005).▼●쩠 SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. Released Lassiter (1984) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger in the U.S. in 1998.▼쩠 Young. Tom Selleck, Jane Seymour, Laserblast (1978) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiLauren Hutton, Bob Hoskins, Joe Regalchael Raye. Kim Milford, Cheryl Smith, buto, Ed Lauter, Warren Clarke. A secondRoddy McDowall, Ron Masak, Keenan story man is shanghaied into doing espioWynn, Dennis Burkley. Low-budget sci-fi nage work in London on the eve of WW2. with teen Milford finding alien ray gun which Stylish and nicely acted, but too plodding enables him to become a creature who can to overcome its basic problem of ordinaridestroy his enemies. David Allen’s stop-moness. Selleck’s second star vehicle is at tion effects are a highlight. [PG]▼●쩠 least an improvement over his first (HIGH Laser Mission (1989-German-South AfricanROAD TO CHINA). [R]▼● U.S.) C-83m. ★★ D: Beau Davis. Brandon Last Action Hero (1993) C-130m. ★★ D: Lee, Debi Monahan, Ernest Borgnine, WerJohn McTiernan. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ner Pochath, Graham Clarke, Maureen F. Murray Abraham, Art Carney, Charles Lahoud, Pierre Knoessen. Freelance seDance, Frank McRae, Tom Noonan, Robert cret agent Lee and tough Monahan travel Prosky, Anthony Quinn, Mercedes Ruehl, across a South African desert to rescue laser Austin O’Brien, Ian McKellen, Toru Tanaka, expert Borgnine, kidnapped by the Soviets. Joan Plowright, Tina Turner, Rick DucomLee is appealing, but this low-rent 007-type mun, Michael V. Gazzo. Noisy, smug, selfadventure has nothing new to offer.▼●쩠 conscious blockbuster-wannabe about a boy ★★★ Lassie (1994) C-92m. D: Daniel Petrie. whose ‘‘magic ticket’’ transports him into an Helen Slater, Thomas Guiry, Jon Tenney, action movie alongside his No. 1 hero, Jack Brittany Boyd, Frederic Forrest, Richard Slater (Schwarzenegger). Genuinely bad writFarnsworth, Michelle Williams, Charlie ing and an overall air of unpleasantness torHofheimer. A city family with some probpedo this film; good action scenes and lems decides to start over again at the old occasional clever ideas can’t save it. (And family farm; along the way, a remarkably how exactly did an Ingmar Bergman picture smart dog ‘‘adopts’’ them. Young Guiry is work its way into the story?) A raft of cameo a standout as the troubled boy who (quite appearances add to the in-joke tone of the credibly) changes under the influences of picture. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Lassie and his new country environment. Last Adventure, The (1967-French) CPainted in broad strokes, for its intended ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Enrico. Alain Delon, 102m. youthful audience. [PG]▼●쩠 Lino Ventura, Joanna Shimkus, Hans Meyer. Lassie (2005-British-Irish-French-U.S.) C★★★ Two adventurers and a beautiful woman D: Charles Sturridge. Peter 100m. go on a very engaging treasure hunt. TechO’Toole, Samantha Morton, John Lynch, niscope.▼ Peter Dinklage, Steve Pemberton, Jemma Last American Hero, The (1973) C-100m. Redgrave, Jonathan Mason, Edward Fox, ★★★ D: Lamont Johnson. Jeff Bridges, John Standing, Gregor Fisher, Robert Hardy, Valerie Perrine, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Art Kelly Macdonald, Nicholas Lyndhurst. The Lund, Gary Busey, Ed Lauter, Ned Beatty. setting is Yorkshire, 1938: young Joe (Mason) Unusual, engrossing saga of Junior Jackson, is heartbroken when his impoverished parNorth Carolinan moonshiner and racing faents are forced to sell his beloved collie to natic, pitting his ability against the System. the Duke of Rudling (O’Toole, in fine fettle). But Lassie has no intention of staying Three-dimensional, believable characters en[ 771 ]

hance cynical point of view. Retitled HARD Brolin, Eileen Atkins, Richard Schiff, Liane DRIVER. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 Balaban. A poor shlub (Hoffman) whose caLast Angry Man, The (1959) 100m. ★★★ reer is on the skids flies to London for his D: Daniel Mann. Paul Muni, David Wayne, daughter’s wedding but feels alienated from Betsy Palmer, Luther Adler, Joby Baker, the festivities, presided over by his ex-wife Joanna Moore, Godfrey Cambridge, Billy and her new husband. Then he chances to meet Dee Williams. Sentimental story of an old, a middle-aged working woman (Thompson) dedicated family doctor in Brooklyn whose and strikes up a conversation. A poignant life is going to be portrayed on TV. Muni portrait of two mature people who form a (in his last film) makes it worth seeing. kinship; this shows off the two stars at their Adapted by Gerald Green from his novel. very best. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Look fast for a young Cicely Tyson. ReLast Chase, The (1981-Canadian) Cmade as 1974 TVM with Pat Hingle.▼ 101m. ★1⁄2 D: Martyn Burke. Lee Majors, Last Boy Scout, The (1991) C-105m. ★★ Burgess Meredith, Chris Makepeace, AlexD: Tony Scott. Bruce Willis, Damon andra Stewart, Ben Gordon. Oil shortage Wayans, Chelsea Field, Noble Willingham, causes the demise of auto travel during the Taylor Negron, Danielle Harris, Halle 1980s; 20 years later, ex-race-car driver Berry, Bruce McGill. Hardcore action film Majors reassembles his Porsche and bewith Willis as a fired Secret Service agent comes a ‘‘symbol of freedom’’ as he races now supporting himself through sticky gumacross the country. Flimsy drama that reeks shoe hire-outs; Wayans is his buddy in bondof Reaganomics. [PG]▼ ing (and an ex-pro-football quarterback) who Last Command, The (1928) 88m. ★★★★ helps him investigate gridiron corruption. D: Josef von Sternberg. Emil Jannings, More of the same from LETHAL WEAPON Evelyn Brent, William Powell, Nicholas screenwriter Shane Black. Violent, even by Soussanin, Michael Visaroff, Jack Raythis genre’s standards, but zippy enough to mond, Fritz Feld. Stunning silent drama of make it an OK view. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 refugee Russian general Jannings, who is Last Butterfly, The (1991-Czech-British) now reduced to working as a Hollywood extra—and destined to appear in a movie C-110m. ★★★ D: Karel Kachyna. Tom Courtenay, Brigitte Fossey, Ingrid Held, depicting the Russian revolution. A fasciFreddie Jones, Milan Knazko, Josef Kemer, nating story laced with keen perceptions of Linda Jablonska. Acidly ironic drama of life and work in Hollywood. Lajos Biros’ famous French mime Courtenay, who is story was based on an actual person; ‘‘hired’’ by the Nazis to give one perforJannings’ gripping performance won him mance for the children of Terezin, the an Oscar (shared for his work in THE WAY OF ALL FLESH).▼ infamous ‘‘city of the Jews,’’ during WW2. It’s meant for propaganda purposes, to show Last Command, The (1955) C-110m. ★★1 the world that Jews in concentration camps ⁄2 D: Frank Lloyd. Sterling Hayden, were living the Life of Riley. Occasionally Anna Maria Alberghetti, Richard Carlson, heavy going because of subject matter, but Arthur Hunnicutt, Ernest Borgnine, J. Carrol Naish, Ben Cooper, John Russell, Virginia always moving. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Last Castle, The (2001) C-131m. ★★ D: Grey, Jim Davis, Eduard Franz, Otto Kruger, Rod Lurie. Robert Redford, James GandolSlim Pickens. Elaborate, sweeping account of fini, Mark Ruffalo, Steve Burton, Delroy the battle of the Alamo, hampered by tedious Lindo, Paul Calderon, Clifton Collins, Jr., script. Story centers on wandering adventurer Samuel Ball, Frank Military. After a controJim Bowie (Hayden), who is galvanized by versial court-martial, a highly respected Mexican threats against Texas. All the historigeneral is sent to a military prison, where he cal Alamo set pieces are here, with Hunnicutt squares off against the warden and ultia refreshingly rustic Davy Crockett. Music by mately leads a revolt. Redford plays the Max Steiner; ‘‘Jim Bowie’’ sung by Gordon kind of quiet rebel he virtually invented in MacRae.▼ the 1970s, but the script is swimming in Last Dance (1996) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce movie cliche´s, and Gandolfini is too obviBeresford. Sharon Stone, Rob Morrow, ous a target. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Randy Quaid, Peter Gallagher, Jack ThompLast Challenge, The (1967) C-96m. ★★ son, Jayne Brook, Pamala Tyson, Skeet UlD: Richard Thorpe. Glenn Ford, Angie rich. Younger brother of governor’s chief of Dickinson, Chad Everett, Gary Merrill, staff arrives in state capitol and gets a makeJack Elam, Delphi Lawrence, Royal Dano. work job in the Clemency Office. He throws Punk Everett is out to get Marshal Ford in himself into his first case, launching a crusade well-cast but routine Western; Angie plays to save a woman convicted of double murder saloon-keeper, which makes one wonder from being executed. Stone gives a creditable why the two men don’t just settle their performance in this severely deglamorized problems over a drink. Panavision. role, though it’s hard to empathize with a murLast Chance Harvey (2008-U.S.-British) derer heroine. (By film’s end, you can’t help C-90m. ★★★ D: Joel Hopkins. Dustin Hoffbut feel something.) Morrow is good, too, but man, Emma Thompson, Kathy Baker, James his character’s motivations are muddy. Suffers [ 772 ]

from comparison to the previous year’s supeout from under the creep’s thumb—as a rior DEAD MAN WALKING. Charles S. screenwriter. Unsympathetic characters in a Dutton appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 harsh and violent world, spouting quirky diLast Days, The (1999) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: alogue amidst the L.A. porn scene; yet anJames Moll. Exceptional documentary other PULP FICTION wannabe. Debuted on U.S. cable TV. [R]▼쩠 about five survivors of the Holocaust who suffered through Hitler’s ‘‘final solution’’ Last Days of Man on Earth, The (1973in the last year of the war in Hungary. BrilBritish) C-78m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Fuest. Jon liantly compiled from archive footage, vivid Finch, Jenny Runacre, Sterling Hayden, interviews and contemporary visits to GerPatrick Magee, Hugh Griffith, Harry Anmany and Hungary, with five well-chosen drews. Muddled sci-fi comedy set in subjects whose stories gradually meld into Lapland, London and Turkey as world a mosaic. Produced by Steven Spielberg’s nears its end. A few scattered laughs. Shoah Foundation. Oscar winner as Best Longer, original British version (called Documentary. [PG-13]▼쩠 THE FINAL PROGRAMME, running 89m.) Last Days (2005) C-97m. ★★ D: Gus Van has more substance. Based on one of Michael Sant. Michael Pitt, Lukas Haas, Asia ArMoorcock’s ‘‘Jerry Cornelius’’ stories; film gento, Scott Green, Nicole Vicius, Ricky has gained cult reputation. [R]▼●쩠 Jay, Ryan Orion, Harmony Korine, Kim Last Days of Pompeii, The (1935) 96m. ★★★ Gordon. Ambitious but ineffective miniD: Ernest B. Schoedsack. Preston malist drama chronicling the final hours in Foster, Basil Rathbone, Dorothy Wilson, the life of a Kurt Cobain–like rock star David Holt, Alan Hale, John Wood, Louis (Pitt). Van Sant attempts to get inside the Calhern. Former blacksmith Foster aspires to character’s head and explore his mental and wealth and power as gladiator; climactic specemotional state; despite some striking imtacle scenes are expertly done, by the same ages, the result is meandering . . . and the special effects team responsible for KING religious references are preposterous. [R] 쩠 KONG. Also shown in computer-colored Last Days of Chez Nous, The (1993version.▼●쩠 Australian) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gillian ArmLast Days of Pompeii, The (1960-Italian) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mario Bonnard. Steve strong. Lisa Harrow, Bruno Ganz, Kerry Fox, Miranda Otto, Kiri Paramore, Bill Reeves, Christine Kaufmann, Barbara CarHunter. Aspiring novelist with a teenage roll, Anne Marie Baumann, Mimmo Paldaughter endures marital discord when her mara. New version of venerable tale foaimless younger sister moves in. Director cuses on muscleman Reeves and synthetic Armstrong returns to her roots for this interestaccount of Christian martyrs. Very little spectacle. SuperTotalscope.▼쩠 ing, if not entirely successful, film about relationships—between spouses, siblings, children Last Detail, The (1973) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 and parents. (Biggest problem: an enigmatic D: Hal Ashby. Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, and unappealing lead character.) A movie for Randy Quaid, Clifton James, Carol Kane, real grown-ups, though it lacks the emotional Michael Moriarty, Nancy Allen. Superior power of MY BRILLIANT CAREER. Offers comedy-drama about two career sailors a view of Sydney (the bleaker part) that other ordered to transport a kleptomaniac prismovies usually don’t show. [R]▼ oner to the brig. Robert Towne’s brilliant Last Days of Disco, The (1998) C-113m. off-color dialogue contributes to a quintes★★★ D: Whit Stillman. Chloe¨ Sevigny, Kate sential Nicholson performance. Based on a Beckinsale, Chris Eigeman, Mackenzie Darryl Ponicsan novel. Look quickly for Astin, Matt Keeslar, Robert Sean Leonard, Gilda Radner. [R]▼●쩠 Jennifer Beals, Burr Steers, David Thornton, Last Dragon, The (1985) C-109m. ★★ D: Jaid Barrymore, Carolyn Farina. Two friends, Michael Schultz. Taimak, Vanity, Chris naive but smart Sevigny and critical BeckinMurney, Julius J. Carry 3rd, Faith Prince, sale, hang out at a trendy disco in the early Ernie Reyes, Jr., Keshia Knight (Pulliam), 1980s, trying—like everyone they know—to William H. Macy. Juvenile film about wouldmake the transition from group activity to be martial arts master who gets involved with pairing off. Sardonic but sympathetic to its glamorous video deejay (Vanity) and some characters, the movie is amusing and well overwrought gangsters. Campy and heavyacted but not particularly insightful. Said to be handed; strictly kid stuff, except for one gag: the last in Stillman’s romantic-yuppies trilogy the name of the Chinatown warehouse. Rewith METROPOLITAN and BARCELONA; leased theatrically as BERRY GORDY’S some of the characters from those films turn THE LAST DRAGON. Look fast for Chazz Palminteri as a thug. [PG-13] ▼쩠 up here. [R]▼●쩠 Last Days of Frankie the Fly, The (1997) Last Embrace (1979) C-102m. ★★★ D: C-95m. BOMB D: Peter Markle. Dennis Jonathan Demme. Roy Scheider, Janet Hopper, Daryl Hannah, Kiefer Sutherland, Margolin, John Glover, Sam Levene, ChrisMichael Madsen, Dayton Callie. Hopper is topher Walken, Charles Napier. CIA agent a lowly runner for a neighborhood thug Scheider sees wife ambushed, spends rest of (Madsen, surprise!) who’s looking to get the picture believing he’s next. One of the [ 773 ]

better Hitchcock-influenced suspense thrillers by Ernest K. (THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY) Gann. [G] ▼쩠 offers good performances and a punchy Last Frontier, The (1956) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 climax at Niagara Falls. Fine Miklos Rozsa D: Anthony Mann. Victor Mature, Guy score; watch for Mandy Patinkin. [R]▼● Madison, Robert Preston, James Whitmore, Last Emperor, The (1987-Italian-BritishAnne Bancroft. Three wilderness scouts Chinese) C-165m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bernardo Bersee their lives change with the coming of tolucci. John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter cavalry outpost and military martinet (PresO‘Toole, Ying Ruocheng, Victor Wong, Denton). Offbeat characterizations in this cavnis Dun, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Maggie Han, Ric alry drama. Aka SAVAGE WILDERYoung. Remarkable film inspired by true NESS. CinemaScope.▼쩠 story of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, who Last Gangster, The (1937) 81m. ★★★ D: is crowned at age three and lives a cloistered Edward Ludwig. Edward G. Robinson, life in the Forbidden City until he is deposed James Stewart, Rosa Stradner, Lionel (as a young man) during the revolution and Stander, Douglas Scott, John Carradine, forced to fend for himself in the outside world Sidney Blackmer, Louise Beavers, Edfor the first time. A magnificent journey to ward Brophy, Grant Mitchell. Robinson’s another time and place, hampered by unandynamic performance, and slick MGM proswered questions in the narrative and a main duction, elevate this tale of an underworld character who remains somewhat cold. Nothchief who’s sent away for ten years, obing can top the spectacle of life in the Forbidsessed by the thought of the son he’s never den City (where scenes were actually met. Entertaining story by William Wellman filmed)—or the twists of fate that fill Pu Yi’s and Robert Carson was originally to have life. Photographed by Vittorio Storaro; music been called Another Public Enemy. by Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, and Last Good Time, The (1994) C-91m. ★★★ Cong Su. Winner of nine Academy Awards D: Bob Balaban. Armin Mueller-Stahl, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Maureen Stapleton, Lionel Stander, Olivia Screenplay (Mark Peploe, Bertolucci), Cined’Abo, Adrian Pasdar, Zohra Lampert, matography, Art Direction, Editing, Costume Kevin Corrigan. Well-observed little chamDesign, and Original Score. Hong Kong–ber drama about an elderly widower who produced version, based on Pu Yi’s autobiogtakes in a young woman hiding from her raphy, predates this. Alternate version runs lowlife boyfriend. Well acted all around, 218m. Technovision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 and nicely detailed, with a fine score by Last Escape, The (1970) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Tunick. [R]▼● Walter Grauman. Stuart Whitman, John Last Hard Men, The (1976) C-103m. ★1⁄2 Collin, Pinkas Braun, Martin Jarvis, Gunther D: Andrew V. McLaglen. Charlton Heston, Neutze, Margit Saad. O.S.S. Captain WhitJames Coburn, Barbara Hershey, Michael man is ordered to sneak rocket expert out Parks, Jorge Rivero, Larry Wilcox, Thalmus of Germany near the end of WW2 with Rasulala, Morgan Paull, Robert Donner, predictable results. [G] Christopher Mitchum. Outlaw Coburn leads Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989-W. German) a gang of men on a jailbreak, then sets into C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Uli Edel. Stephen Lang, motion plan of vengeance on sheriff Heston: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Burt Young, Peter kidnapping daughter Hershey and threatenDobson, Jerry Orbach, Stephen Baldwin, ing to gang-rape her. Repellently violent Sam Rockwell, Ricki Lake, John Costelloe, and tasteless Western, loosely based on a Alexis Arquette. Gritty, brutal but stylish Brian Garfield novel, saved only by Parks’ adaptation of Hubert Selby, Jr.’s notorious interesting performance as reform-minded slice-of-life novel set on the mean streets sheriff. Panavision. [R] of 1952 Brooklyn, where violence—verbal, Last Holiday (1950-British) 89m. ★★★ D: physical, sexual, and otherwise—rules. Henry Cass. Alec Guinness, Beatrice CampCrammed with local color, but all the charbell, Kay Walsh, Bernard Lee, Wilfrid acters are thoroughly repellent and the film Hyde-White, Sidney James, Ernest Thesiger. is difficult to like and to take. Selby himself Ordinary man is told he is dying and appears as a cab driver. [R]▼● decides to live it up at a swank resort. A Last Flight of Noah’s Ark, The (1980) droll, biting script by J. B. Priestley (who C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Jarrott. Elliott also coproduced), with sterling performances Gould, Genevieve Bujold, Ricky Schroder, by all. Remade in 2006.▼ Tammy Lauren, John Fujioka, Yuki ShiLast Holiday (2006) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: moda, Vincent Gardenia. Typical Disney Wayne Wang. Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, sentimentality, somewhat effective. Pilot Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Gould, missionary Bujold, stowaway chilWitt, Ge´rard Depardieu, Jane Adams, Mike dren, and a planeload of animals are forced Estime, Susan Kellermann, Ranjit Chowdhry, down in the Pacific, where they unite with Michael Nouri, Emeril Lagasse, Smokey two Japanese soldiers, who didn’t know Robinson. Affable reworking of the 1950 WW2 was over, to convert the plane into an Alec Guinness film (written by J. B. Priestark. Filmed largely on Waikiki Beach. Story ley), with Latifah in good form as a shy [ 774 ]

department store salesclerk who decides to loosely based on life of Boston’s mayor go for broke when she learns she is termiJames Curley who in this story is mounting nally ill. Squanders its good vibes by going his final election campaign. Top-notch veteran on too long toward an obvious conclusion, cast makes film sparkle. Remade for TV in but Latifah’s warmhearted performance car1977 by (and with) Carroll O’Connor.▼●쩠 ries it most of the way. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Last King of Scotland, The (2006-BritishLast Hour, The (1991) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: German) C-121m. ★★★ D: Kevin MacdonWilliam Sachs. Michael Pare´, Shannon ald. Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Tweed, Bobby Di Cicco, Robert Pucci, RobWashington, Gillian Anderson, Simon Mcert Miano, George Kyle, Danny Trejo, Raye Burney, David Oyelowo, Stephen RwangyHollitt. A gangster kidnaps the ex-wife of cop ezi. Aimless young Scottish doctor (McAvoy) Pare´ and current wife of high-living Pucci, travels to Uganda and, through odd circumwho previously double-crossed the gangster, stances, finds himself personal physician to and holds her hostage in an old L.A. building. General Idi Amin (Whitaker). He lives the Pretty good low-rent imitation DIE HARD high life until the dictator’s brutal nature is with atmospheric photography and occasionrevealed. Provocative story goes exactly ally amusing dialogue. [R]▼● where you expect it to but is powered by Last House on the Left, The (1972) C-84m. Whitaker’s mesmerizing, Oscar-winning per★1⁄2 D: Wes Craven. David Hess, Lucy Grantformance, which captures all of Amin’s ham, Sandra Cassel, Marc Sheffler, Jeramie charm and danger. Peter Morgan and Jeremy Rain, Fred Lincoln. Group of thugs rapes and Brock adapted Giles Foden’s novel. Fiction kills two girls, then meets bloody vigilante feature debut for documentary filmmaker justice from one girl’s parents. Cheap, and Macdonald. Super 35. [R]쩠 looks it. Repellent but admittedly powerful Last Kiss, The (2001-Italian) C-114m. ★★★ and (for better or worse) influential horror D: Gabriele Muccino. Stefano Accorsi, Gioshocker. Surprisingly, based on Bergman’s vanna Mezzogiorno, Stefania Sandrelli, THE VIRGIN SPRING. First film by director Claudio Santamaria, Marco Cocci, Giorgio Wes Craven. Also available in unrated verPasotti, Martina Stella, Pierfrancesco Favino. sion. Remade in 2009. [R] ▼●쩠 A man about to turn 30—and become a father Last House on the Left, The (2009) Cwith his lover—begins to regret that he no 110m. ★1⁄2 D: Dennis Iliadis. Garret Dillalonger feels great passion. Meanwhile, his hunt, Michael Bowen, Joshua Cox, Riki friends plan a way to escape their lives and flee, Lindhome, Aaron Paul, Sara Paxton, Monica and his lover’s mother (Sandrelli), wracked Potter, Tony Goldwyn, Spencer Treat Clark, by fear of growing old, attempts to leave her Martha MacIsaac. Attractive teenage girl husband. A very passionate, very Italian drama. Remade in 2006. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 leaves her parents’ vacation home with a friend, but they’re captured by brutal prison Last Kiss, The (2006) C-104m. ★★★ D: escapees with rape and murder on their Tony Goldwyn. Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, minds. Later, the killers take refuge from a Casey Affleck, Rachel Bilson, Michael Wesstorm—with the girl’s parents. Remake of the ton, Blythe Danner, Tom Wilkinson, Eric 1972 horror film is better made but lacks its Christian Olsen, Marley Shelton, Lauren Lee crude, direct power; this wastes such good Smith, Harold Ramis. Braff has a good job actors as Dillahunt and Goldwyn. Not as vioand comfortable life, and is contemplating lent as the original, but still more gruesome marriage to his pregnant girlfriend . . . but than some recent slasher movies. [R] he and his pals are suffering a collective panic Last House on the Left, Part II SEE: attack as they near the age of 30, still wary Twitch of the Death Nerve of accepting adult responsibility. Meanwhile, Last Hunt, The (1956) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Braff’s future in-laws (Danner and WilkinRichard Brooks. Robert Taylor, Stewart son) are going through a crisis of their own. Granger, Lloyd Nolan, Debra Paget, Russ The characters are refreshingly human in this Tamblyn, Constance Ford. In the Old West, satisfying drama set in Madison, Wisconsin. Granger and Taylor form an uneasy partnerPaul Haggis scripted this remake of the ship to hunt the last remaining herds of buffalo; 2001 Italian film. Panavision. [R]쩠 Granger is sick of killing, Taylor likes it all too Last Laugh, The (1924-German) 87m. ★★★1 well. Complex characters and good dialogue ⁄2 D: F. W. Murnau. Emil Jannings, help, but overlength and slow pace damage this Maly Delschaft, Max Hiller, Hans Unterserious Western. CinemaScope. ▼ kirchen. Silent-film classic told entirely by Last Hurrah, The (1958) 121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: camera, without title cards. Jannings plays John Ford. Spencer Tracy, Jeffrey Hunter, Diproud doorman at posh hotel who is sudanne Foster, Basil Rathbone, Pat O’Brien, denly demoted; film details his utter and Donald Crisp, James Gleason, Ed Brophy, grievous humiliation. Brilliantly filmed by John Carradine, Ricardo Cortez, Frank pioneer cameraman Karl Freund, with towMcHugh, Jane Darwell, Anna Lee, Charles ering performance by Jannings. Remade in FitzSimmons, Ken Curtis, O. Z. Whitehead, Germany in 1955.▼●쩠 Jack Pennick, Dan Borzage. Sentimental verLast Legion, The (2007-British-Frenchsion of Edwin O’Connor novel of politics, Italian) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Doug Lefler. [ 775 ]

Colin Firth, Ben Kingsley, Aishwarya Rai, Rainn Wilson, Kathryn Hahn, Michael Peter Mullan, John Hannah, Thomas SangsClarke Duncan. Two Seattle kids find a box ter, Kevin McKidd, Iain Glen, Rupert sent back from the future; the devices inside Friend. After barbarian hordes invade the increase their intelligence and give them crumbling Roman Empire in A.D. 476, a abilities to help them change the future for loyal military officer (Firth) and his brave the better. Treacly misfire tosses science men escort the newly crowned 12-year-old fiction and fantasy elements into the same emperor (Sangster) to relative safety in farhopper; wants to be the new E.T. but falls off Britannia. There are faint echoes of Robfar short. Loosely based on the short story ert Louis Stevenson in this fitfully rousing, ‘‘Mimsy Were the Borogoves’’ by Lewis amusingly retro action-adventure. Kingsley Padgett. The director’s day job is running is well cast as a cryptic sage (and occasional New Line Cinema. Super 35. [PG]쩠 wizard) who serves as mentor to Sangster’s Last Mogul: The Life and Times of Lew resilient young hero. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Wasserman, The (2005-U.S.-Canadian) CLast Man on Earth, The (1964-U.S.110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barry Avrich. Compelling Italian) 86m. ★★ D: Sidney Salkow. Vindocumentary chronicles the life and career cent Price, Franca Bettoia, Emma Danieli, of MCA-Universal kingpin Wasserman Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Tony Cerevi. Often from his early days to his huge success as crude chiller with Price the sole survivor of an agent to his years as head of one of plague, besieged by victims who arise at Hollywood’s most important studios. Told night thirsting for his blood; erratic proin straightforward fashion, this unauthoduction. Based on Richard Matheson’s I Am rized look does not shy away from controLegend; remade as THE OMEGA MAN versial areas of his life, including his and I AM LEGEND. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 reputed association with mob figures. Still, Last Man Standing (1996) C-101m. ★★ D: while well made and researched, the film Walter Hill. Bruce Willis, Christopher Waldoesn’t appear to cover the whole picture; ken, Bruce Dern, Alexandra Powers, David key people, including family members and Patrick Kelly, William Sanderson, Karina longtime associates, are conspicuous by Lombard, Ned Eisenberg, Michael Imperioli, their absence. [PG-13]쩠 R. D. Call, Leslie Mann. Willis chances to pass Last Movie, The (1971) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: through a dreary Texas town where two ChiDennis Hopper. Dennis Hopper, Julie cago gangs are at each other’s throats—and Adams, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, tries to work both sides of the street to his own Sylvia Miles, John Phillip Law, Rod Camadvantage. Remake of YOJIMBO (which iteron, Sam Fuller. Hopper’s fatally pretenself became FISTFUL OF DOLLARS), set in tious follow-up to EASY RIDER is interthe 1930s, is rife with gunplay, but overcome esting only as curio; incomprehensible story by sheer boredom. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 of small Peruvian village after a movie Last Married Couple in America, The company pulls out has lovely photogra1 ★ (1980) C-103m. ⁄2 D: Gilbert Cates. phy, good acting by Adams. Otherwise, George Segal, Natalie Wood, Richard Benyou’ve been warned. Among the supportjamin, Valerie Harper, Bob Dishy, Dom ing cast: Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, DeLuise. Likable cast in stupid sex comMichelle Phillips. Kristofferson’s film deedy about happily married couple so upset but (he also wrote the music). Also known by breakup of married friends that they as CHINCHERO. [PG]▼ begin to question their own relationship. Last Night (1998-Canadian-French) CSmutty and ridiculous. [R]▼ ★★ 93m. D: Don McKellar. Don McKellar, Last Metro, The (1980-French) C-133m. Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith ★★1 ⁄2 D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Catherine DeRennie, David Cronenberg, Robin Gammel, neuve, Ge´rard Depardieu, Jean Poiret, Heinz Genevieve Bujold, Jackie Burroughs. RuBennent, Andrea Ferreol, Paulette Dubost. mination on the last night of civilization, A beautiful actress struggles to keep her and how various people deal with their im‘‘exiled’’ husband’s theater alive during pending demise. Not exactly profound, the German occupation of Paris. A film with though Oh’s heartrending performance alcharm and style but no point—a problem unmost makes this worth watching. Written by derscored by its abrupt and quizzical finale. leading actor McKellar, making his directoWatching the elegant Deneuve provides most rial debut. [R]▼쩠 of this film’s appeal. [PG]▼●쩠 Last Night at the Alamo (1983) 80m. Last Mile, The (1959) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★ D: Eagle Pennell. Sonny Davis, Lou Howard W. Koch. Mickey Rooney, ClifPerry, Steve Matilla, Tina Hubbard, Doris ford David, Harry Millard, Don ‘‘Red’’ Hargrave. The last night at the Alamo, no Barry, Ford Rainey, Leon Janney. The famous battle site but a small, obscure ‘‘big house’’ oldie dusted off as a dramatic Houston bar. A fascinating portrayal of the vehicle for Rooney. Filmed before in 1932. 1 ★ modern-era ‘‘cowboy’’ as henpecked, alLast Mimzy, The (2007) C-90m. ⁄2 D: coholic, ultimately pathetic. Independently Bob Shaye. Chris O’Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, produced, with a hilariously profane script [ 776 ]

by Kim Henkel, author of THE TEXAS Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots (1970) C-108m. ★★ D: Sidney Lumet. James CHAINSAW MASSACRE.▼ Last of Mrs. Cheyney, The (1937) 98m. Coburn, Lynn Redgrave, Robert Hooks, ★★★ Perry Hayes, Reggie King. Ambitious flop D: Richard Boleslawski. Joan Crawford, William Powell, Robert Montgomery, from Tennessee Williams’ Seven Descents Frank Morgan, Jessie Ralph, Nigel Bruce. of Myrtle about volatile interracial trianGlossy remake of Norma Shearer’s 1929 gle set in Deep South. (‘‘Mobile’’ refers success, from Frederick Lonsdale’s play to the Alabama town.) [R—edited from about a chic American jewel thief in Enoriginal X rating]▼ gland. Great fun for star watchers, though it Last of the Mohicans, The (1936) 91m. ★★★ was considered a dated dud in 1937. ReD: George B. Seitz. Randolph Scott, made in 1951 as THE LAW AND THE Binnie Barnes, Heather Angel, Hugh BuckLADY.▼ ler, Henry Wilcoxon, Bruce Cabot, Phillip Last of Sheila, The (1973) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 Reed, Robert Barrat. Effective and excitD: Herbert Ross. James Coburn, James ing adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper Mason, Dyan Cannon, Ian McShane, Joan novel about conflicts between British Army Hackett, Raquel Welch, Richard Benjaand Colonial settlers during the French and min. Super murder-puzzler about jet-set Indian War. Scott is a stout Hawkeye, gamester who devises what turns into a Cabot an appropriately hissable Magua. deadly game of whodunit. Many red herScreenplay by Philip Dunne. Also shown in rings make it all the more fun. Script by computer-colored version. ▼● Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim, Last of the Mohicans, The (1992) Creal-life puzzle fans. [PG]▼쩠 113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Mann. Daniel Last of the Cowboys, The SEE: Great Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Smokey Roadblock, The Means, Eric Schweig, Jodhi May, Steven Last of the Dogmen (1995) C-120m. ★★ D: Waddington, Wes Studi, Maurice Roe¨ves, Tab Murphy. Tom Berenger, Barbara HerPatrice Chereau, Colm Meaney, Peter Posshey, Kurtwood Smith, Steve Reevis, Antlethwaite. Rousing, kinetic update of the drew Miller, Gregory Scott Cummins, James Fenimore Cooper classic, replete Molly Parker; narrated by Wilford Brimley. with 1990s sensibilities, potent depiction of Annoyingly cliche´d, eminently forgettable violence, and a charismatic central perforadventure with crackerjack tracker Bemance by Day-Lewis as Hawkeye. Wavers renger setting out to bring back a trio of between sweep of historical fiction and prison escapees who meet a horrible fate as smaller canvas of its love story, but never fails he nears their campsite. Could it have been to entertain. Oscar winner for Best Sound. the work of the mysterious, legendary Screenplay by Mann and Christopher Crowe Cheyenne ‘‘dog soldiers’’? You may not from Philip Dunne’s script for the 1936 film. want to stick around to find out. Panavision. Evocative score by Trevor Jones and Randy [PG] ▼●쩠 Edelman. Expanded version runs 117m. Last of the Finest, The (1990) C-106m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ★★ D: John Mackenzie. Brian Dennehy, Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1972) C-98m. Joe Pantoliano, Jeff Fahey, Bill Paxton, BOMB D: Gene Saks. Alan Arkin, Sally Deborra-Lee Furness, Guy Boyd, Henry Kellerman, Paula Prentiss, Renee Taylor. Darrow, Lisa Jane Persky. Honest, inAppalling film version of typical Neil Simon dependent-minded L.A. cop Dennehy and play concerns Arkin’s unsuccessful attempts his comrades discover sinister forces at to carry on sneaky love affair with three work while attempting to bust drug trafdifferent women (not all at once). Actors fickers. Dennehy’s usual solid performance scream at each other for more than an hour can’t overcome occasionally outlandish sceand a half in shoddy production for which nario, with obvious parallels to the Iranthe term ‘‘photographed stage play’’ must have been invented. [PG]▼●쩠 Contra affair. [R]▼● Last of the High Kings, The (1996-IrishLast of the Secret Agents?, The (1966) Danish) C-104m. ★★★ D: David Keating. C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Norman Abbott. Marty Gabriel Byrne, Catherine O’Hara, Jared Allen, Steve Rossi, John Williams, Nancy Leto, Christina Ricci, Colm Meaney, SteSinatra, Lou Jacobi. Tiring spoof on spy phen Rea, Lorraine Pilkington, Emily Mormovies ends up unintentional self-mockery. timer, Jason Barry, Ciaran Fitzgerald. Solid Strictly for Allen and Rossi fans. Look for coming-of-age tale, set in Dublin, which Harvey Korman as a German colonel. tells the story of idealistic 17-year-old Last of the Vikings, The (1961-Italian) C-102m. ★★ D: Giacomo Gentilomo. CamFrankie (Leto) and the individuals who affect his life—beginning with his eccentric, eron Mitchell, Edmund Purdom, Isabelle egocentric actor father (Byrne) and his comCorey, Helene Remy. Filmed with gusto, ically pro-Protestant mom (O’Hara, who has elaborate epic deals with Mitchell out to never been better). Loaded with charm and punish the Norse for devastating his homethoughtfully scripted by Keating and Byrne. lands; poorly acted. Dyaliscope.▼쩠 Aka SUMMER FLING. [R]▼쩠 Last Orders (2001-British) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 [ 777 ]

D: Fred Schepisi. Michael Caine, Tom Leachman for sensitive performances, but Courtenay, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, entire cast works at same level. Beautifully Helen Mirren, Ray Winstone, JJ Field, photographed in b&w by Robert Surtees. Cameron Fitch, Anatol Yusef, Kelly Reilly, Shepherd’s film debut. Sequel: TEXStephen McCole, George Innes, Laura MoASVILLE. ‘‘Special Edition’’ reedited by relli, Sally Hurst, Denise Black, Sue James, Bogdanovich in 1990 includes 7m. of mateMeg Wynn Owen. Four longtime friends rial originally cut from the film. [R] ▼●쩠 agree to take a pal’s remains to be scattered La Strada (1954-Italian) 115m. ★★★★ D: into the sea and recall their sometimesFederico Fellini. Anthony Quinn, Giulietta rocky relationships. Inevitably entertaining, Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani, with such a strong cast, but not completely Marcella Rovere, Livia Venturini. Decepsatisfying. Director Schepisi adapted prizetively simple tale of brutish strongman Quinn winning novel by Graham Swift. That’s taking simple-minded Masina with him as Hemmings’ look-alike son Nolan playing he tours countryside, where he encounters him as a young man. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 gentle acrobat Basehart. Best Foreign Film L.A. Story (1991) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mick Oscar winner; stunning performances, haunJackson. Steve Martin, Victoria Tennant, ting Nino Rota score. Story and screenplay by Richard E. Grant, Marilu Henner, Sarah Fellini and Tullio Pinelli. ▼●쩠 Jessica Parker, Kevin Pollak, Sam McLast Rebel, The (1971) C-89m. BOMB Murray, Patrick Stewart, Iman. Martin D: Denys McCoy. Joe Namath, Jack Elam, wrote this amusing piece of fluff about a Woody Strode, Ty Hardin, Victoria George. wacky TV weatherman trying to sort out Namath plays Confederate soldier who raises his life. Slender story thread allows Martin havoc in small Missouri town after the to make comic observations about living in Civil War. Film has obvious camp value, trend-conscious L.A., some of them mild, but it’s not enough; Joe makes Ty Hardin some of them worthy of laughing out loud. look like John Gielgud. [PG] Several of Martin’s comedy cronies make Last Remake of Beau Geste, The (1977) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marty Feldman. Marty cameo appearances. A deleted scene with John Lithgow was added for the film’s Feldman, Ann-Margret, Michael York, Peter cable-TV debut. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Ustinov, James Earl Jones, Trevor HowLast Outpost, The (1951) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 ard, Henry Gibson, Terry-Thomas, Spike D: Lewis R. Foster. Ronald Reagan, Rhonda Milligan, Roy Kinnear. After uproarious Fleming, Bruce Bennett, Bill Williams, first half, Feldman’s Foreign Legion spoof Peter Hanson, Noah Beery, Jr. Burst of falters and gropes its way to weak concluaction saves wornout yarn of two brothers sion. Enough belly-laughs to make it worthon opposite sides of Civil War, teaming up while, and sidesplitting performance by to fight off Indian attack. This was Reagan’s butler Milligan. Feldman also cowrote this, his directorial debut. [PG]▼ first starring Western. Video title: CAVALRY CHARGE.▼쩠 Last Resort (1986) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★ D: Last Party, The (1993) C-96m. Zane Buzby. Charles Grodin, Robin PearMark Benjamin, Marc Levin. Robert Dowson Rose, John Ashton, Ellen Blake, Megan ney, Jr., takes his video camera on an odyssey Mullally, Christopher Ames, Jon Lovitz, of America, focusing on 1992 Democratic and Gerrit Graham, Mario Van Peebles, Phil Republican national conventions, to get a Hartman. Newly unemployed Grodin desense of the country and its political atticides, on impulse, to take his family to a tudes. Along the way he interviews such Club Med–type vacation resort, with precolleagues as Sean Penn and Mary Stuart dictably comic results. Likable but iffy Masterson, and such varied notables as Olicomedy does have some genuine laughs. ver Stone, Spike Lee, G. Gordon Liddy, First-time director Buzby also appears as resort’s baby sitter. [R]▼●쩠 Jerry Falwell, and even his father, filmmaker Robert Downey, Sr. Not quite a docLast Resort (2000-British) C-73m. ★★★ D: umentary, but an entertaining journey (in Pawel Pawlikowski. Dina Korzun, Artiom the ROGER & ME vein); ultimately, we Strelnikov, Paddy Considine, Lindsey Honey. learn more about Downey, Jr., than we do Abandoned by her British fiance´, a Russian about the state of the union.▼● woman and her young son are detained in Last Picture Show, The (1971) 118m. England at a holding area for refugees and ★★★★ D: Peter Bogdanovich. Timothy befriended by an arcade manager. Spare, Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ben Johnson, Cloris affecting story has few surprises, but is Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Cybill Shepherd, compellingly told in quasi-naturalistic style Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, Sam Bottoms, and very well acted. Randy Quaid, John Hillerman, Noble Last Rites (1988) C-103m. ★★ D: Donald Willingham. Brilliant study of life in small P. Bellisario. Tom Berenger, Daphne Texas town during 1950s, and how charZuniga, Chick Vennera, Anne Twomey, acters’ lives intertwine, from Larry McDane Clark, Paul Dooley, Vassili LamMurtry’s novel (he and Bogdanovich wrote brinos. Routine drama of a priest who uses the script). Oscars went to Johnson and the auspices of the church to protect a girl [ 778 ]

on a Mafia hit list. Of course, he falls in NITY look like Snow White! Sizzling, sexy love with her. Of course, he also happens to thriller from modern film noir expert Dahl be the son of a Mafia chieftain himself. And and writer Steve Barancik. Unrelenting meanof course, the studio sent this one straight to ness wears it down a bit toward the end. Made video. [R]▼●쩠 U.S. debut on cable. Followed by a direct-tovideo sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Last Roman, The (1968-German-RumaLast September, The (1999-British-Irishnian) 92m. ★★ D: Robert Siodmak. LauFrench) C-103m. ★★ D: Deborah Warner. rence Harvey, Orson Welles, Sylva Koscina, Honor Blackman, Michael Dunn, Harriet Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Jane BirAndersson, Lang Jeffries, Robert Hoffman. kin, Fiona Shaw, Lambert Wilson, Keeley Big cast in spears and togas look baffled at Hawes, David Tennant, Gary Lydon. A what has become of Felix Dann’s German less-than-compelling look at the last days of bestseller Kamf um Rom about the decline the Anglo-Irish, the British ruling class who of the Roman Empire. Edited down from a live in cloistered elegance in Ireland as a two-part spectacular. Techniscope.▼ storm brews all around them. The year is Last Run, The (1971) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: 1920, and a wealthy couple’s young ward Richard Fleischer. George C. Scott, Tony (Hawes) enters into a forbidden relationship Musante, Trish Van Devere, Colleen with a young Irishman who’s wanted for Dewhurst. Mediocre tale of aging gangmurder. Based on Elizabeth Bowen’s novel. [R]▼쩠 land driver who has to make one more run for his ego. Great photography by Sven Last Shot, The (2004) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff Nykvist. Started by John Huston, who left Nathanson. Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldearly on. Panavision. [PG] win, Toni Collette, Tony Shalhoub, Calista Last Safari, The (1967-British) C-110m. Flockhart, Tim Blake Nelson, Buck Henry, ★★ D: Henry Hathaway. Kaz Garas, Stewart Ray Liotta, James Rebhorn, Jon Polito, Pat Granger, Gabriella Licudi, Johnny Sekka, Morita. Entertaining farce, inspired by a Liam Redmond. Uninteresting action tale true story, about an FBI agent (Baldwin) with depressed professional hunter (Stewwho pretends to produce a movie in order art) coming to terms with himself and rich to snare a mobster with ties to the Teamsters young couple who hire him. Good cast union. Baldwin begins to like his ‘‘role’’ as can’t handle script.▼ producer, as he brings hope into the life Last Samurai, The (2003) C-154m. ★★★ D: of sincere, would-be filmmaker Broderick. Edward Zwick. Tom Cruise, Ken WataUneven, but has some hilarious moments. nabe, Tony Goldwyn, Timothy Spall, Billy Directing debut for screenwriter Nathanson. Connolly, Hiroyuki Sanada, Masato HarJoan Cusack appears unbilled; other actors turn up in gag cameos. [R]쩠 ada, Koyuki, Scott Wilson, William Atherton. Burnt-out U.S. cavalry officer is hired Last Starfighter, The (1984) C-100m. ★★1 to go to Japan in 1876 and train the emper⁄2 D: Nick Castle. Lance Guest, Robert or’s soldiers to fight the last samurai warPreston, Dan O’Herlihy, Catherine Mary riors, who oppose their emperor’s decision Stewart, Barbara Bosson, Norman Snow, to abandon their traditional way of life. Cameron Dye, Wil Wheaton. Sci-fi for kids, When the American is taken prisoner, he about a youngster whose video-game prowand captor Watanabe develop a mutual reess makes him a prime recruit to help save spect as fellow warriors, and Cruise comes real-life planet under attack. Likable but to appreciate traditional Japanese customs, toothless adventure (with an arch-villain who especially their code of honor. Epic-scale simply disappears from the proceedings) film flirts with greatness but falls short bebenefits greatly from performances of old cause it succumbs to Hollywood cliche´s a pros Preston and O’Herlihy, who’s unrecogfew times too many. (There’s even a scene nizable in lizardlike makeup. Preston’s last film. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 uncomfortably reminiscent of a famous Cruise moment in RISKY BUSINESS!) Last Summer (1969) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Still, there is much to admire, including Frank Perry. Richard Thomas, Barbara Herstrong performances and a vivid sense of shey, Bruce Davison, Cathy Burns, Ralph time and place. Zwick coscripted; Cruise Waite, Conrad Bain. Powerful story based on coproduced. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Evan Hunter novel of teenagers playing on Last Seduction, The (1994) C-110m. ★★★ the beach in a summer resort. Film follows D: John Dahl. Linda Fiorentino, Peter Berg, their games, sexual awakenings, and how evil J. T. Walsh, Bill Nunn, Bill Pullman, Mimanifests itself with calculated determination. chael Raysses, Zach Phifer. PathologicalCathy Burns a standout. [R—edited from original X rating]▼ ly evil—and stunningly sexual—woman ditches her husband, grabs the cash he’s Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995) Cmade in a drug deal, and flees N.Y.C., en105m. ★★ D: Henry Jaglom. Victoria Foyt, camping in a small upstate town where she Viveca Lindfors, Jon Robin Baitz, Savanattracts and mystifies a local man—her latnah Boucher, Roscoe Lee Browne, Andre est patsy. Fiorentino’s fiery femme fatale Gregory, Nick Gregory, Melissa Leo, Roddy makes Stanwyck in DOUBLE INDEMMcDowall, Martha Plimpton, Holland Taylor, [ 779 ]

Ron Rifkin, Brooke Smith, Diane Salinger, logue and slow stretches; still worthwhile, Kristoffer Tabori. An insecure young movie with a genuine feeling for time and place star (Foyt) arrives in the summer commuthat helps make the story vivid and real. Music by Peter Gabriel. [R]▼●쩠 nity of East Hampton, Long Island, and becomes involved with the assorted theater Last Time, The (2007) C-96m. ★★ D: Mifolk who comprise a circle of friends-lovchael Caleo. Michael Keaton, Brendan Fraers-colleagues. Another of Jaglom’s occaser, Amber Valletta, Daniel Stern, Neal sionally insightful talk-fest/confessionals in McDonough, Michael G. Hagerty, Michael which the characters reveal their jealousies, Lerner, William Ragsdale. Country bumpkin neuroses, and feelings. For inveterate JagFraser is transferred to the N.Y. home office lom fans only. Scripted by Jaglom and Foyt of a business where sales exec Keaton prides (who are husband and wife). [R]▼●쩠 himself on his take-no-prisoners tactics. He Last Sunset, The (1961) C-112m. ★★★ mentors the naı¨ve newcomer and winds up D: Robert Aldrich. Rock Hudson, Kirk in bed with his beautiful wife. There’s more Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotten, going on than meets the eye . . . though Carol Lynley, Neville Brand, Regis Toomey, the setup is awfully obvious. Minor-league Jack Elam. Strange on the Range, courtesy stuff, but Keaton is good. Super 35. [R]쩠 Aldrich and scripter Dalton Trumbo; philoLast Time I Committed Suicide, The sophical outlaw Douglas and pursuing sher(1997) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Stephen Kay. iff Hudson play cat-and-mouse with each Thomas Jane, Keanu Reeves, Adrien Brody, other during lengthy cattle drive. Throws John Doe, Claire Forlani, Jim Haynie, Marg in everything from incest to Indians!쩠 Helgenberger, Lucinda Jenney, Gretchen Mol. Last Supper, The (1996) C-94m. ★★ D: Mordantly stylized, cliche´-laden story of beat Stacy Title. Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Anicon Neal Cassady, ostensibly based on a letnabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner, Courtney B. ter he once wrote to Jack Kerouac. Totally Vance, Nora Dunn, Ron Perlman, Bill Paxunsympathetic, angst-filled characters are ton, Charles Durning, Mark Harmon, Jason put to even greater disadvantage by a jittery camera and harsh lighting. [R]▼●쩠 Alexander, Bryn Erin. Five grad student friends decide to rid the world of antisocial Last Time I Saw Archie, The (1961) 98m. ★★ D: Jack Webb. Robert Mitchum, extremists who don’t happen to conform to their worldview. Intriguing premise plays Jack Webb, Martha Hyer, France Nuyen, itself out too soon and stretches credibility Louis Nye, Richard Arlen, Don Knotts, in the name of satire; ultimately unpleasant Joe Flynn, Robert Strauss. Webb’s sole and unsatisfying, though the cast is excelattempt at comedy is less funny than some lent and some of the cameos (Paxton, Durnof his more serious films; a pity, because ing, Harmon, Perlman) are first-rate. Filmed William Bowers’ script—based on his own in 1994. [R] ▼●쩠 Army experiences—had real potential, and Last Tango in Paris (1973-French-Italian) Mitchum nicely underplays as the titular C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bernardo Bertolucci. con man. (By the way, the real Archie Hall Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jeansued for invasion of privacy!) Pierre Le´aud, Darling Legitimus, CatherLast Time I Saw Paris, The (1954) ine Sola, Mauro Marchetti, Dan Diament. C-116m. ★★★ D: Richard Brooks. ElizaExpatriate American in Paris tries purging beth Taylor, Van Johnson, Donna Reed, himself of bad memories after his wife’s Walter Pidgeon, Eva Gabor, George Dosuicide, enters into a tragic ‘‘no questions lenz, Roger Moore. Updated version of F. asked’’ sexual liaison with a chance acScott Fitzgerald story, set in post-WW2 quaintance. The most controversial film of Paris, of ruined marriages and disillusioned people. MGM gloss helps.▼●쩠 its era is still explicit by today’s standards, though it’s mellowed somewhat with age. Last Train From Gun Hill (1959) C-94m. ★★★ A sterling showcase for Bertolucci’s camD: John Sturges. Kirk Douglas, Anera mastery; Brando’s performance is thony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Earl Holliman, among the best of his career. [X—also Brad Dexter, Brian Hutton, Ziva Rodann. shown in R-rated version]▼●쩠 Superior Western of staunch sheriff deLast Temptation of Christ, The (1988) termined to leave Gun Hill with murder suspect, despite necessity for shoot-out. C-164m. ★★★ D: Martin Scorsese. Willem VistaVision.▼쩠 Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie, Verna Last Tycoon, The (1976) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 Bloom, Andre Gregory, Juliette Caton, D: Elia Kazan. Robert De Niro, Tony Curtis, Roberts Blossom, Irvin Kershner, Nehemiah Robert Mitchum, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Persoff, Barry Miller. Thought-provoking Nicholson, Donald Pleasence, Peter Strauss, and deeply felt drama adapted from Nikos Ingrid Boulting, Ray Milland, Dana AnKazantzakis’ book which speculates about drews, Theresa Russell, John Carradine, Jesus’ self-doubts when he realizes he has Anjelica Huston. Low-keyed but effective been chosen by God to carry His message. Harold Pinter adaptation of F. Scott FitzMoments of great power and beauty are gerald’s final novel benefits immeasurably diminished somewhat by mundane diafrom De Niro’s great, uncharacteristic per[ 780 ]

formance as 1930s movie producer (inlawyer (Chamberlain) defending aborigine spired by Irving Thalberg) who is slowly accused of murder. Modern symbolism and working himself to death. Along with Joan ancient tribal rituals make for unusual and absorbing film. [PG]▼쩠 Micklin Silver’s TV film BERNICE BOBS HER HAIR, the best Fitzgerald yet put on Last Will of Dr. Mabuse, The SEE: the screen. Lew Ayres appears unbilled; KaTestament of Dr. Mabuse, The Last Woman, The (1976-French) C-112m. zan’s final feature as director. [PG] ▼●쩠 ★★ D: Marco Ferreri. Ge ´ rard Depardieu, Last Unicorn, The (1982-British) C-92m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Arthur Rankin, Jr., Jules Bass. Ornella Muti, Michel Piccoli, Zouzou, Voices of Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges, Mia Renato Salvatori, David Biffani, Nathalie Farrow, Tammy Grimes, Robert Klein, AnBaye. Provocative subject matter is superfigela Lansbury, Christopher Lee, Keenan cially handled in this pointlessly sensationWynn, Paul Frees, Rene Auberjonois. Set alistic drama about macho, self-absorbed in the time of Robin Hood, this pleasing engineer Depardieu, insensitive to women animated fable tells of the adventures of a and confused by a world of changing roles beautiful white unicorn who enters a forest and relationships. His final act of selfin search of others of its kind. The weakest mutilation is as ridiculous as it is shockelement: those bland, forgettable Jimmy ing. [X] Webb songs. Scripted by Peter S. Beagle, Last Woman on Earth, The (1960) C-71m. and based on his novel. [G]▼쩠 BOMB D: Roger Corman. Antony Carbone, Last Valley, The (1970-British) C-128m. Edward Wain, Betsy Jones-Moreland. Dull ★★ three-cornered romance involving last surviD: James Clavell. Michael Caine, Omar Sharif, Florinda Bolkan, Nigel Davenport, vors on Earth after unexplained disaster. Per Oscarsson, Arthur O’Connell. ThinkScreenplay by Robert Towne—his first. He ing man’s adventure epic is an unfortunate also costars, using acting pseudonym Edward Wain. Shot in Puerto Rico. Vistascope.▼쩠 misfire; 17th-century story brings warrior Caine and his soldiers to peaceful valley Last Year at Marienbad (1961-Frenchwhich has remained untouched by the Thirty Italian) 93m. ★★★ D: Alain Resnais. DelYears War. Todd-AO. [PG]▼쩠 phine Seyrig, Giorgio Albertazzi, Sacha ★★★ Last Voyage, The (1960) C-91m. Pitoeff. Murky, difficult but oddly fasciD: Andrew L. Stone. Robert Stack, Dorothy nating tale in which Albertazzi confronts Malone, George Sanders, Edmond O’Bribewildered Seyrig, claiming they’d had an en, Woody Strode. Engrossing drama of affair ‘‘last year at Frederiksbad, or perluxury ship that goes down at sea, and the haps at Marienbad.’’ An art-house hit in ways the crew and passengers are affected. its day, beautifully photographed (by Sacha (To heighten the realism of the film, they Vierny); scripted by Alain-Robbe Grillet. really sank a ship.) Sanders is ill-fated Dyaliscope.▼쩠 captain, Stack and Malone a married couLas Vegas Hillbillys (1966) C-90m. ★1⁄2 ple in jeopardy.▼●쩠 D: Arthur C. Pierce. Ferlin Husky, Jayne Last Wagon, The (1956) C-99m. ★★★ D: Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, Richard Delmer Daves. Richard Widmark, Felicia Kiel, Sonny James, Del Reeves, Bill Farr, Susan Kohner, Tommy Rettig, StephAnderson, Connie Smith. How does counanie Griffin, Ray Stricklyn, Nick Adams, try hick Husky become a big-time Las Timothy Carey. Widmark is condemned Vegas entrepreneur? You don’t want to killer who saves remnants of wagon train know. A once-in-a-lifetime cast. Sequel: after Indian attack, leading them to safety. HILLBILLYS IN A HAUNTED HOUSE. Cliche´d plot well handled. CinemaScope.쩠 ▼쩠 Last Waltz, The (1978) C-117m. ★★★★ Las Vegas Lady (1976) C-87m. BOMB D: Martin Scorsese. The Band, Bob Dylan, D: Noel Nosseck. Stella Stevens, Stuart Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Whitman, George DiCenzo, Lynne Moody, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, The Staples, Linda Scruggs, Joseph Della Sorte, Jesse Muddy Waters, Emmylou Harris, Paul White. Substandard heist pic about a Butterfield, Dr. John, Ronnie Hawkins, security guard who flips for title femme. Ringo Starr, Ron Wood. Truly wonderful Even LAS VEGAS HILLBILLYS is better. documentary about The Band’s Thanks[PG]▼쩠 giving, 1976, farewell concert, filmed by La Symphonie Pastorale (1946-French) state-of-the-art Hollywood talent. A pair 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean Delannoy. Pierre of studio-shot numbers involving The StaBlanchar, Michele Morgan, Jean Desailly, ples and Harris are as exciting to watch as Line Noro, Andree Clement. Quietly powlisten to, but the whole film is beautifully erful classic about pastor Blanchar’s allconsuming passion for blind girl Morgan, done. [PG]▼●쩠 Last Wave, The (1977-Australian) C-106m. whom he takes under his wing and edu★★★ D: Peter Weir. Richard Chamberlain, cates. This sensitive study of moral and Olivia Hamnett, (David) Gulpilil, Frederick spiritual corruption was coscripted by the Parslow, Vivean Gray, Nanjiwarra Amdirector, and based on an Andre Gide novel.▼ agula. Fascinating chiller about Australian [ 781 ]

L’Atalante (1934-French) 89m. ★★★★ D: six-year-old daughter. Intriguing film contains graphic sexual scenes and nudity. ▼쩠 Jean Vigo. Michel Simon, Dita Parlo, Jean Daste´, Gilles Margaritis, Louis Lefe`vre, La Terra Trema (1947-Italian) 154m. ★★★★ Diligent Raya. Naturalism and surrealist D: Luchino Visconti. Narrated by fantasy blend beautifully in all-time masLuchino Visconti, Antonio Pietrangeli. terpiece about a young couple who begin Powerful, lyrical neorealist classic about a poor their life together sailing down the Seine family in a Sicilian fishing village, exploited by on a barge. Ultimate in romantic cinema fish wholesalers and boat owners. Filmed on also anticipated neorealist movement by location, and in Sicilian dialect, with a nonmore than a decade; Vigo died at 29, just professional cast. Francesco Rosi and Franco as film premiered. Restored in 1990 to its Zeffirelli were Visconti’s assistant directors. Beware of severely edited versions.▼쩠 full length; avoid 82m. version, which circulated for years.▼쩠 Late Show, The (1977) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Late August, Early September (1999Robert Benton. Art Carney, Lily Tomlin, ★★★ French) C-112m. D: Olivier Assayas. Bill Macy, Eugene Roche, Joanna Cassidy, Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, Franc¸ois John Considine, Howard Duff. Carney is Cluzet, Jeanne Balibar, Arsine´e Khanjian, an aging private eye who tries to solve Alex Descas, Nathalie Richard. Bittersweet, murder of his ex-partner (Duff), ‘‘helped’’ subtly rendered slice of life about various by flaky, aimless young woman (Tomlin). friends, lovers, and acquaintances who are unEchoes of Chandler and Hammett resound able to set down roots—professionally, perin Benton’s complex but likable script; sonally, or romantically. The specter of chemistry between Carney and Tomlin is mortality hangs over the proceedings as one of perfect. Later a short-lived TV series called Eye to Eye. [PG]▼●쩠 them, a novelist (Cluzet) who has just turned 40, suffers from an unnamed illness. A heartLatin Lovers (1953) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: felt and potent portrait of self-involvement Mervyn LeRoy. Lana Turner, Ricardo and emotional stagnation.▼쩠 Montalban, John Lund, Louis Calhern, Late Autumn (1960-Japanese) C-127m. Jean Hagen, Rita Moreno. Hokey romance ★★★ D: Yasujiro Ozu. Setsuko Hara, Yoko yarn set in South America, with Turner seeking true love; pointless script.▼ Tsukasa, Mariko Okada, Keiji Sada, Shin Saburi. Widowed Hara seeks a husband Latino (1985) C-105m. ★★★ D: Haskell for unmarried daughter Tsukasa. Solid Ozu Wexler. Robert Beltran, Annette Cardona, drama reworking his LATE SPRING.쩠 Tony Plana, Ricardo Lopez, Luis TorLate for Dinner (1991) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: rentes, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Julio Medina, W. D. Richter. Brian Wimmer, Peter Berg, James Karen. Gut-wrenching drama of VietMarcia Gay Harden, Peter Gallagher, Colnam replayed, with Chicano Green Beret leen Flynn, Kyle Secor, Michael Beach, Beltran ‘‘advising’’ the U.S.-backed ConBo Brundin, Janeane Garofalo. Two tras in their war against the Sandanistas in friends, on the lam and in need of help, Nicaragua. Unabashedly left-wing; to some are frozen by a doctor who’s experimenting it will be propaganda, while to others it with cryonics; when they’re awakened 29 will be truth. Striking direction with a fine years later, physically unchanged, they sense of irony; however, Beltran’s relationstumble to put their lives back together. Offship with Cardona just doesn’t ring true. beat, to say the least, and movingly acted, Filmed in Nicaragua; Wexler’s first ‘‘ficbut the transition from loopy comedy to tion’’ film since MEDIUM COOL.▼● deeply felt sentiment (in the film’s denoueLatitude Zero (1969-Japanese) C-99m. ★★ ment) doesn’t quite come off. [PG]▼● D: Ishiro Honda. Joseph Cotten, Cesar Late George Apley, The (1947) 98m. Romero, Richard Jaeckel, Patricia Medi★★★ D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Ronald na, Linda Haynes, Akira Takarada. Better Colman, Peggy Cummins, Vanessa Brown, than average imported cast helps usual Richard Haydn, Charles Russell, Richard wide-eyed sci-fi adventure of underwater Ney, Percy Waram, Mildred Natwick, Edna civilization of benevolent geniuses fighting Best. John P. Marquand’s gentle satire of legions of Malic (Romero), out to control Boston bluebloods is smoothly entertainworld. Some good sets, but action and ing. Colman is perfectly cast as the stuffy suspense poorly handled. Based on the old patriarch who strives to uphold his fami(American) radio series. Tohoscope. [G]쩠 ly’s social status. L’Atlantide SEE: Journey Beneath the Late Marriage (2001-Israeli-French) CDesert 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dover Kosashvili. Lior AshLa Traviata (1982-Italian) C-112m. ★★★★ kenazi, Ronit Elkabetz, Moni Moshonov, D: Franco Zeffirelli. Teresa Stratas, Placido Lili Kosashvili, Aya Steinovits Laor, Rozina Domingo, Cornell MacNeil, Alan Monk, Cambus. Handsome bachelor is caught in the Axelle Gail. Verdi’s opera, adapted from cross fire of tradition and emotion. His Georthe Alexandre Dumas Camille saga, makes gian Jewish heritage dictates that he must a magnificent film. If Domingo looks too choose a young virgin to marry, but he is old for Alfredo, he still sings beautifully, secretly in love with a divorce´e who has a while Stratas’ performance as the tragic [ 782 ]

Violetta matches her brilliant voice. The cinematography and production design are the equal of anything from the Golden Age of moviemaking in a film that even those who dislike opera will enjoy. [G]▼●쩠 La Truite SEE: Trout, The Latter Days (2004) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: C. Jay Cox. Steve Sandvoss, Wes Ramsey, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rebekah Johnson (Jordan), Amber Benson, Khary Payton, Erik Palladino, Mary Kay Place, Dave Power, Jacqueline Bisset. A young Mormon missionary gets involved with a sexually aggressive gay party boy, causing lots of friction within his archconservative family. Very low budget independent effort doesn’t score a dramatic bull’s-eye, but interesting premise and solid acting from its attractive, mostly unknown cast make it worthwhile viewing for discerning adult audiences. [R]▼쩠 L’Auberge Espagnole (2002-French-Spanish) C-116m. ★★ D: Ce´dric Klapisch. Romain Duras, Judith Godre`che, Audrey Tautou, Ce´cile de France, Kelly Reilly, Cristina Brondo. A 25-year-old French grad student goes to Spain for his year abroad and winds up living in a cramped apartment with seven strangers of all different nationalities. Fictitious version of The Real World is bland and overlong despite an appealing cast. Disappointing follow-up from the writer-director of the infinitely more charming WHEN THE CAT’S AWAY. Title translates literally to SPANISH APARTMENT, or in French slang, EURO PUDDING. [R]▼쩠 Laughing Policeman, The (1974) C-111m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Stuart Rosenberg. Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, Lou Gossett, Albert Paulsen, Anthony Zerbe, Anthony Costello, Cathy Lee Crosby, Joanna Cassidy. Reasonably engrossing San Francisco cop drama about search for mass slayer of bus passengers. Matthau and Dern are good as cops with contrasting styles. Based on the Martin Beck novel by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. [R]

cruciating film from Nabokov novel about wealthy married man (Williamson) whose fascination with young girl (Karina) backfires at every turn, eventually ruining his life. Exceedingly unpleasant, and seemingly interminable. [X] Laura (1944) 85m. ★★★★ D: Otto Preminger. Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, Grant Mitchell, Lane Chandler, Dorothy Adams. Classic mystery with gorgeous Tierney subject of murder plot; detective Andrews trying to assemble crime puzzle. Fascinating, witty, classic, with Webb a standout as cynical columnist Waldo Lydecker and Price in his finest non-horror performance as suave Southern gigolo. Based on the Vera Caspary novel; also features David Raksin’s theme. Rouben Mamoulian started directing film, Preminger took over. Screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt. Joseph LaShelle’s cinematography earned an Oscar. Several minutes of dialogue were cut from all prints after initial release; this footage has now been restored.▼●쩠 Laurel and Hardy’s Laughing 20’s (1965) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 Compiled by Robert Youngson. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Charley Chase, Edgar Kennedy, James Finlayson, Anita Garvin. Some of L&H’s best moments on film are included, with everything from pie-throwing to pants-ripping. Also some excellent sequences of Charley Chase, adding to the fun.▼● Laurel Canyon (2003) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lisa Cholodenko. Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale, Natascha McElhone, Alessandro Nivola, Louis Knox Barlow, Russell Pollard. Med-school grad Bale and prim fiance´e Beckinsale reluctantly move in with his flaky mother (McDormand), a rock-music producer. Soon the uptight young woman is seduced by the free-spirited lifestyle of her future mother-in-law . . . while the son is attracted to a beautiful doctor. Su▼쩠 Laughing Sinners (1931) 72m. ★★ D: perficial but diverting hijinks with an attracHarry Beaumont. Joan Crawford, Clark tive cast, and McDormand in a role unlike Gable, Neil Hamilton, John Mack Brown, any she’s done before. Follows the same Marjorie Rambeau, Guy Kibbee, Roscoe pattern as Cholodenko’s previous, more Karns. Crawford attempts suicide after Hamilrichly textured film, HIGH ART. [R] ▼쩠 ton dumps her; Salvation Army preacher Gable Lavender Hill Mob, The (1951-British) (!) stops her. The rest is predictable.▼쩠 82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Charles Crichton. Alec Laughter in Paradise (1951-British) 95m. Guinness, Stanley Holloway, Sidney James, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Mario Zampi. Alastair Sim, Joyce Alfie Bass, Marjorie Fielding, John GregGrenfell, Hugh Griffith, Fay Compton, son, Edie Martin. Excellent comedy with John Laurie. Notorious practical joker dies, droll Guinness a timid bank clerk who has and leaves hefty sum to four relatives if perfect scheme for robbing a gold bullion they will carry out his devilish instructions. truck, with a madcap chase climax. Won Pleasant little comedy. Audrey Hepburn an Oscar for Best Story and Screenplay appears fleetingly as cigarette girl. Remade (T.E.B. Clarke); look for Audrey Hepburn in opening scene.▼●쩠 in 1969 as SOME WILL, SOME WON’T. Laughter in the Dark (1969-British) La Venexiana SEE: Venetian Woman, The 1 ★ C-101m. ⁄2 D: Tony Richardson. Nicol L’Aventure, C’est L’Aventure SEE: Williamson, Anna Karina, Jean-Claude Money Money Money Drouot, Peter Bowles, Sian Phillips. ExLa Vie Continue (1982-French) C-93m. [ 783 ]

★1

⁄2 D: Moshe Mizrahi. Annie Girardot, inique Blanchar, James Addams. Massari Jean-Pierre Cassel, Pierre Dux, Giulia Salvamysteriously disappears on an uninhabited tori, Emmanuel Gayet, Rivera Andres. Dreary island after arguing with boyfriend Ferzetti, sudser wastes Girardot as middle-aged impelling him and her friend Vitti to look for woman whose husband suddenly drops dead her. Subtle, incisive allegory of spiritual and of a heart attack; she struggles with her newmoral decay makes for demanding viewing. found widowhood. Loosely remade in U.S. as Antonioni’s first international success was MEN DON’T LEAVE. [PG]▼ also the first of a trilogy (followed by LA La Vie de Bohe`me (1992-Finnish-FrenchNOTTE and L’ECLISSE).▼●쩠 Swedish-German) 100m. ★★★ D: Aki KauLaw, The SEE: Where the Hot Wind rismaki. Matti Pellonpaa, Andre Wilms, Kari Blows! Law and Disorder (1974) C-103m. ★★★ Vaananen, Christine Murillo, Evelyne Didi, Samuel Fuller, Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre D: Ivan Passer. Carroll O’Connor, Ernest Le´aud. Pleasantly offbeat comic/absurdist Borgnine, Ann Wedgeworth, Anita Danslice-of-life about three poor, struggling artgler, Leslie Ackerman, Karen Black, Jack ists: a painter, composer and writer. While at Kehoe. Intelligent, original comedy-drama best mediocre talent-wise, each is dedicated to of two middle-aged New Yorkers incensed the artistic life and values his books, piano, or at rising crime who become auxiliary cops. paint over all else. A loose updating of a novel At first they treat it as a lark, but soon it by Henri Murger, which was the inspiration becomes deadly serious. Full of fine perfor Puccini’s La Bohe`me. ▼ ceptions, interesting vignettes. [R]▼쩠 La Vie de Chateau SEE: Matter of ReLaw and Order (1953) C-80m. ★★ D: sistance, A Nathan Juran. Ronald Reagan, Dorothy La Vie en Rose (2007-French-British-Czech) Malone, Alex Nicol, Preston Foster, Ruth C-140m. ★★★ D: Olivier Dahan. Marion CotilHampton, Russell Johnson, Dennis Weavlard, Clotilde Courau, Jean-Paul Rouve, Syler, Jack Kelly. Lawman Reagan wants to vie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Jean-Pierre retire to marry Malone, but first must tame Martins, Emmanuelle Seigner, Ge´rard Debad guy Foster. Standard Western was pardieu, Catherine Alle´gret. Not a convenfilmed far more successfully in 1932. ▼쩠 tional biography, but a series of snapshots Lawless Breed, The (1952) C-83m. ★★★ D: (jumbled out of chronological order) about the Raoul Walsh. Rock Hudson, Julia (Julie) difficult life and transcendent talent of French Adams, John McIntire, Mary Castle, Hugh singer Edith Piaf. Randomness of the narraO’Brian, Lee Van Cleef, Dennis Weaver, tive is a liability, but a must-see for Cotillard’s Michael Ansara. Solid Western drama that astonishing Academy Award–winning perrecounts the life and times of legendary formance. She transforms herself into the (and misunderstood) outlaw John Wesley Little Sparrow in her youth, at her peak, and Hardin (well played by Hudson, in his starring debut).▼쩠 during her precipitous decline . . . and does a remarkable job lip-synching Piaf (and a Lawless Heart (2001-British) C-86m. ★★★ soundalike who recorded songs from her D: Neil Hunter, Tom Hunsinger. Douglas early years). Oscar winner for Best Makeup Henshall, Tom Hollander, Bill Nighy, Cle´m(Didier Lavergne, Jan Archibald). Piaf’s relaentine Ce´larie´, Josephine Butler, Ellie Hadtionship with boxer Marcel Cerdan, which is dington, Stuart Laing, Sukie Smith. Clever detailed here, is also depicted in EDITH AND three-part story about lives that intersect in ˆ ME. MARCEL. Original French title: LA MO a small seaside town when friends and famSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 ily gather for a young man’s funeral: first La Vie Prive´e SEE: Very Private Affair, A one person’s story is told, then two others La Vie Promise (2002-French) C-93m. ★★ that overlap in interesting and unpredictable D: Olivier Dahan. Isabelle Huppert, Pascal ways. Satisfying, well written, and original, Greggory, Maud Forget, Andre´ Marcon, Fawith rich performances throughout. Written bienne Babe. A hooker must flee Nice when by the directors. [R]▼쩠 her estranged daughter commits a violent Lawless Street, A (1955) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 D: crime. A new bond develops between the Joseph H. Lewis. Randolph Scott, Angela two women as they travel the French counLansbury, Warner Anderson, Jean Parker, tryside, where the mother comes face-toWallace Ford, Ruth Donnelly, Michael face with gut-wrenching decisions she made Pate. Hard-bitten marshal Scott tries to in the past as well as an uncertain future. eliminate evil forces from western town, then Exquisite cinematography, eclectic music confronts his bittersweet past when musical score, and a fine performance from Huppert star Lansbury comes to town. Entertaining Western with disappointing resolution.▼쩠 (as always) can’t redeem this earnest but slow-moving and mostly uninvolving story Lawman (1971) C-98m. ★★★ D: Michael of a woman at the crossroads of a life that Winner. Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee didn’t go the way she planned. Super 35.쩠 J. Cobb, Robert Duvall, Sheree North, L’Avventura (1960-French-Italian) 145m. Albert Salmi, Joseph Wiseman, J.D. Can★★★1⁄2 D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Monica non, Richard Jordan, John McGiver, Ralph Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lea Massari, DomWaite, John Beck, John Hillerman. Intri[ 784 ]

guing thought-Western about stoic marLaw of the Lawless (1964) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 shal (Lancaster) who comes into unfamiliar D: William F. Claxton. Dale Robertson, town to bring back wanted men, refusing Yvonne De Carlo, William Bendix, Bruce to sway from duty even though entire town Cabot, Richard Arlen, John Agar, Lon turns against him. Unsatisfactory resoluChaney (Jr.), Kent Taylor. Veteran cast is tion mars otherwise compelling story; Ryan chief interest here, with Robertson an exgives one of his finest performances as gunman turned judge. Techniscope. timid sheriff. [PG]▼●쩠 Lawrence of Arabia (1962-British) CLawn Dogs (1998-U.S.-British) C-100m. 216m. ★★★★ D: David Lean. Peter O’★★1 Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, ⁄2 D: John Duigan. Kathleen Quinlan, Sam Rockwell, Christopher McDonald, Bruce Jack Hawkins, Claude Rains, Anthony McGill, Tom Aldredge, Mischa Barton. Odd Quayle, Arthur Kennedy, Omar Sharif, but intriguing story of the unlikely relationship Jose Ferrer. Blockbuster biography of enigthat develops between a misfit kid who lives matic adventurer T. E. Lawrence is that in an antiseptic, gate-guarded community, rarity, an epic film that is also literate. and a drop-out gardener who grew up in the Loses some momentum in the second half, area but has long been an outcast in the but still a knockout—especially in 1989 community. Sometimes uneasy mix of reissue version, which restored many cuts black comedy and social satire, but marked made over the years (and made a few by good performances and a piquant sense judicious trims in the process). Still, the of humor. [R]▼●쩠 only way to really appreciate this film is Lawnmower Man, The (1992) C-105m. on a big screen. Screenplay by Robert Bolt ★1 ⁄2 D: Brett Leonard. Jeff Fahey, Pierce and Michael Wilson, based on Lawrence’s Brosnan, Jenny Wright, Mark Bringleson, book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Seven Geoffrey Lewis, Jeremy Slate, Dean NorOscars include Best Picture, Director, Cineris, Austin O’Brien. Scientist Brosnan needs matography (Freddie Young), Score (Maurice a guinea pig for hitherto failed experiments Jarre), Editing, and Art Direction. O’Toole’s in drug therapy and computer instruction; first leading role made him an instant star. who better than the grinning mental defecBeware of shorter prints. Originally 222m. Super Panavision 70. ▼●쩠 tive who mows his lawn? At least the pyrotechnics at the end (simulating ‘‘virtual Laws of Attraction (2004-British-Irish) C90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Howitt. Pierce Brosnan, reality’’) are full of visual buzz. Fahey in a blond wig is really tough to take. Has nothing Julianne Moore, Frances Fisher, Parker to do with the Stephen King short story it’s Posey, Michael Sheen, Nora Dunn, David ostensibly based on. Alternate version runs Kelly. N.Y.C. divorce lawyer Moore has 140m. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 never lost a case but meets her match in Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace wily opposing counsel Brosnan, who also (1996-U.S.-British-Japanese) C-93m. ★★ D: manages to get her to let her guard down. Farhad Mann. Patrick Bergin, Matt Frewer, Romantic comedy never nears the bull’sAustin O’Brien, Ely Pouget, Camille Cooper, eye, but showcases Brosnan’s easygoing Patrick La Brecque, Crystal Celeste Grant, charm and gives Moore a rare comedic opKevin Conway. Moron-turned-genius Jobe is portunity. There are worse ways to spend back, still intent on ruling the world from cysome time than in their company. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 berspace. This involves ruthless billionaire Conway, reclusive computer expert Bergin, Laws of Gravity (1991) C-100m. ★★★ D: doctor Pouget, and young O’Brien, returning Nick Gomez. Peter Greene, Adam Trese, from the original film. The plot is both comEdie Falco, Arabella Field, Paul Schulzie. plicated and simpleminded, and aimed primarIntense, vivid chronicle of three momenily at teenage computer fans—but the tous days in the lives of a pair of young standardized BLADE RUNNER future, roublue-collar Brooklyn thieves and their tine action, and only intermittent computer girlfriends. Shot on a minuscule budget, graphics will likely leave them as disinterested and distinguished by gritty, Scorsese-like as everyone else. Aka: LAWNMOWER realism. The performances are collectively MAN 2: JOBE’S WAR. Panavision. [PGterrific, and Jean de Segonzac’s hand-held camera is a major plus. [R]▼ 13]▼●쩠 Law of Desire (1987-Spanish) C-100m. Lawyer, The (1970) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★ D: Pedro Almodo´var. Eusebio Poncela, Sidney J. Furie. Barry Newman, Harold Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, MiGould, Diana Muldaur, Robert Colbert, guel Molina, Bibi Andersson, Manuela Kathleen Crowley. Lively story loosely based Velasco, Nacho Martinez. Surreal, hedoon famous Dr. Sam Sheppard murder case; nistic, and hilarious comedy focusing on a Newman is stubborn young lawyer defending gay love triangle, with equal doses of doctor accused of murdering his wife, battling passion, sex, fantasy, and tragedy. Maura legal protocol and uncooperative client. Unis a standout as a free-spirited transsexual; exceptional but diverting; Newman later this film helped to cement Almodo´var’s inrevived role in TV series Petrocelli. [R] ternational reputation. ▼●쩠 Layer Cake (2004-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 [ 785 ]

D: Matthew Vaughn. Daniel Craig, Colm bank heist. High-class British humor makes Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, George Harris, this tale of crime a delight. Forbes also Jamie Foreman, Sienna Miller, Michael Gamwrote the script. Look for Oliver Reed as a ballet dancer!▼● bon, Marcel Iures, Tom Hardy, Jason Flemyng, Sally Hawkins. London drug dealer who League of Their Own, A (1992) C-128m. ★★★ tries to approach what he does on a strictlyD: Penny Marshall. Tom Hanks, Geena business basis comes to learn that he has no Davis, Madonna, Lori Petty, Jon Lovitz, control over his life or the actions of the peoDavid Strathairn, Garry Marshall, Megan Caple around him. Superficial crime yarn vanagh, Rosie O’Donnell, Renee Coleman, boasts a good cast but travels an all-tooAnn Cusack, Tracy Reiner, Janet Jones, Te´a familiar path. First-time director Vaughn Leoni, Bill Pullman. Thoroughly entertaining (who produced LOCK, STOCK AND comedy about the women’s baseball league TWO SMOKING BARRELS and that sprang up when male ballplayers were off SNATCH) indulges in look-at-me camera fighting in WW2. Davis and Madonna stand shots that add nothing. Adapted by J. J. out in a first-rate cast, with Hanks giving a terConnolly from his novel. J-D-C Scope. rific comedy performance as the drunken ex[R]▼쩠 baseball star who manages their team. Good1 ★★★ ⁄2 D: GorLeadbelly (1976) C-126m. natured fiction that sheds light on a neglected don Parks. Roger E. Mosley, Paul Benjachapter of real-life sports history. Later, briefly a TV series. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 min, Madge Sinclair, Alan Manson, Albert P. Hall, Art Evans, Loretta Greene. PoiLean on Me (1989) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: gnant biography of the legendary folksinger John G. Avildsen. Morgan Freeman, BevHuddie Ledbetter, master of the 12-string erly Todd, Robert Guillaume, Alan North, guitar and long-time convict on Texas and Lynne Thigpen, Robin Bartlett, Michael Louisiana chain gangs. Stunning musical Beach, Ethan Phillips, Regina Taylor. The performances (including ‘‘Rock Island story of ‘‘Crazy Joe’’ Clark, the real-life Line,’’ ‘‘Goodnight Irene’’ and many more baseball bat, bullhorn toting high school classics), with Mosley effectively restrained principal from New Jersey who whips his in the title role. Superior entertainment. [PG] students into shape by alternately bolsterLeading Man, The (1997-British) Cing and bullying them. Freeman is riveting 100m. ★★★ D: John Duigan. Jon Bon Jovi, in the central role, making up for script’s Anna Galiena, Lambert Wilson, Thandie shortcomings and Avildsen’s all-too-familiar Newton, Barry Humphries, David Warner. approach. That’s Michael Imperioli as one British backstage theater romance about an of the kids being kicked out of the school. American movie star who seduces a play[PG-13]▼●쩠 wright’s lonely wife and his leading-lady Leap Into the Void (1979-Italian) C-120m. ★★★ mistress. While it can’t quite make up its D: Marco Bellocchio. Michel Piccoli, mind whether it’s a comic drama or a light Anouk Aime´e, Michele Placido, Gisella thriller, it’s still very entertaining stuff. Bon Burinato, Antonio Piovanelli. A compasJovi is good as the brash, amoral Yankee, sionate comedy about a very unusual topic: and Galiena and Newton are fetching as the suicide. Magistrate Piccoli uses Placido to women caught in his web. [R]▼●쩠 try to induce his mentally ill sister (Aime´e) League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, to do herself in. Leap of Faith (1992) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: The (2003) C-110m. ★★ D: Stephen Norrington. Sean Connery, Shane West, StuRichard Pearce. Steve Martin, Debra Wingart Townsend, Naseeruddin Shah, Richard er, Lolita Davidovich, Liam Neeson, Lukas Roxburgh, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Jason Haas, Meat Loaf, Philip Seymour HoffFlemyng, David Hemmings, Max Ryan. Intriman, M. C. Gainey, Delores Hall. Nicely guing premise—a gathering of notorious textured look at an evangelist’s traveling 19th-century fictional figures, from Dr. Jekyll tent show—but Martin is never credible as and Dorian Gray to Dracula’s Mina Harker, a religious pitchman who connects with his whose various attributes combine to form a gullible audiences. Director Pearce has a kind of Justice League—is undone by lumpy keen eye for detail and atmosphere, but the storytelling, poorly staged action, and outfilm’s story flaws are hard to overlook. The sized, cartoonish special effects sequences. real treat: watching Winger as Martin’s Connery is charismatic as ever playing Allan savvy partner-in-crime. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Quatermain. Based on a graphic novel by Learning Tree, The (1969) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Panavision. D: Gordon Parks. Kyle Johnson, Alex [PG-13] ▼쩠 Clarke, Estelle Evans, Dana Elcar, Mita League of Gentlemen, The (1960-British) Waters. Parks called virtually every shot in brilliantly photographed but surprisingly 114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Basil Dearden. Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey, Richmild film version of his autobiographical ard Attenborough, Bryan Forbes, Kieron novel about young black growing up in Moore, Robert Coote, Nanette Newman. Kansas. Film’s appeal lies more in its Ex-army colonel enlists the aid of former intentions than in what it actually accomplishes. Panavision. [M/PG]▼ officers (through blackmail) to pull off big [ 786 ]

Leather Boys, The (1963-British) 105m. expertly handled all around with Tierney ★★★ breathtakingly photographed in Technicolor D: Sidney J. Furie. Rita Tushingham, Colin Campbell, Dudley Sutton, Gladys by Oscar winner Leon Shamroy. And how Henson. Uncompromising study of impulabout those incredible homes in New Mexsive Tushingham’s incompatible marriage ico and Maine! Remade for TV as TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE in 1988.▼●쩠 to motorcycle-loving mechanic, focusing on their opposing viewpoints and sleazy Leave It to Beaver (1997) C-89m. ★★★ D: environment. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Andy Cadiff. Christopher McDonald, JanLeatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre ine Turner, Cameron Finley, Erik von DetIII (1990) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeff Burr. Kate ten, Adam Zolotin, Barbara Billingsley, Hodge, Ken Foree, R. A. Mihailoff, Viggo Ken Osmond, Frank Bank, Erika ChrisMortensen, William Butler, Joe Unger. tensen, Alan Rachins. Cute family comedy Mostly a remake of the first film: cannibal based on the vintage TV series, with Finley clan battles three would-be dinners. Sean appealing Theodore Cleaver, for whom verely damaged by prerelease cuts designed things never seem to go quite right . . . to reduce gore but which only make the especially when he volunteers to play footfilm incoherent. Followed by TEXAS ball in order to please his dad. Brother CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT Wally (who experiences his first taste of GENERATION. [R]▼●쩠 puppy love) and unctuous Eddie Haskell Leatherheads (2008) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: are here, too. Billingsley, Osmond, and George Clooney. George Clooney, Rene´e Bank (June, Eddie, and Lumpy from the Zellweger, John Krasinski, Jonathan Pryce, original show) make token appearances. Peter Gerety, Jack Thompson, Stephen [PG]▼●쩠 Root, Wayne Duvall, Marian Seldes, Max Leaving Las Vegas (1995) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 Casella, Blake Clark. Hotshot gridiron D: Mike Figgis. Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth player Clooney, desperate to keep his team Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis, Steven afloat in the early ragtag days of pro football Weber, Valeria Golino, Graham Beckel, in 1925, recruits a WW1 hero (Krasinski) Carey Lowell, R. Lee Ermey, Mariska Harwho’s become a star college player. Meangitay, Laurie Metcalf, Julian Lennon, Lou while, hotshot reporter Zellweger is assigned Rawls, Ed Lauter, Xander Berkeley, Susan to attach herself to the hero and expose him Barnes. Cage is a hopeless alcoholic who as a fraud. Attempt to replicate a smart, sassy moves to Las Vegas, determined to drink 1930s Hollywood movie succeeds only spohimself to death, while Shue is a prostitute radically; likable enough but overlong and who demeans herself on a nightly basis. slow. Film’s composer, Randy Newman, apTheir attachment to one another (and their pears briefly as a pianist. [PG-13]쩠 willingness to accept each other as they are) Leather Jackets (1991) C-90m. BOMB makes this an unusually powerful and movD: Lee Drysdale. D. B. Sweeney, Bridget ing love story, in spite of the seamy trapFonda, Cary Elwes, Craig Ng, Marshall pings. Cage and Shue give brave, honest Bell, Christopher Penn, Jon Polito, James performances (Cage won the Best Actor LeGros, Neil Giuntoli. Leather-jacketed Oscar). Figgis scripted from John O’Brien’s Elwes and friends rip off and murder a novel and also composed the score, with Vietnamese mob bagman, whose associvocals by Sting. Ironically, O’Brien comates vow vengeance—and plenty of it. mitted suicide after selling the movie rights Newly engaged Sweeney and Fonda try to to his book. [R] ▼●쩠 help, and get caught in the crossfire, which Leaving Normal (1992) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: they deserve for being in such a turkey. Edward Zwick. Christine Lahti, Meg Tilly, What a bloody mess! [R]▼● Lenny Von Dohlen, Maury Chaykin, James Leave All Fair (1985-New Zealand) CGammon, Patrika Darbo, Eve Gordon, 88m. ★★★ D: John Reid. John Gielgud, James Eckhouse, Brett Cullen, Rutanya Jane Birkin, Feodor Atkine, Simon Ward. Alda. An aggressively cynical cocktail waitIntelligent, rewarding account of the elress and her quieter, twice-wed friend take derly John Middleton Murry (Gielgud), off for Alaska after failing to find fulfillhusband and editor of Katherine Mansfield, ment in Normal, Wyoming. Smug collecand his manipulative relationship with her. tion of on-the-road episodes fails to build She’s portrayed in flashback by Birkin, a solid foundation, though the film does who also appears as a young woman who reimprove marginally once the characters minds Murry of her. Stick with this one. settle down at their destination. Tilly is Leave Her to Heaven (1945) C-110m. well cast, but Lahti is atypically insuffer★★★ able. Cinematographer Ralf Bode’s color D: John M. Stahl. Gene Tierney, Cornel Wilde, Jeanne Crain, Vincent Price, vistas help. [R]▼● Mary Philips, Ray Collins, Darryl HickLe Bal (1982-Italian-French) C-112m. ★★★ man, Gene Lockhart. Tierney’s mother D: Ettore Scola. Christophe Allwright, Marc says, ‘‘There’s nothing wrong with Ellen. Berman, Regis Bouquet, Chantal Capron, It’s just that she loves too much.’’ In fact, Nani Noel, Jean-Franc¸ois Perrier. Original, she loves some people to death! Slick trash, stylish panorama of life, love, loneliness, [ 787 ]

war and peace, from the mid-’30s to ’80s. velously played by Bourvil). Another winSet in a ballroom, with no major characters; ner from the star and writer-director of LE the actors play different roles, in different SAMOURAI. Cut to 100m. for initial U.S. release, restored in 2003. ▼쩠 time periods. No dialogue, just music and sound effects. Quite different, but most L’Eclisse SEE: Eclipse definitely worthwhile.▼ Le Confessionnal (1995-Canadian-BritishLe Beau Mariage (1982-French) C-97m. French) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Lepage. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Beatrice Romand, Lothaire Bluteau, Patrick Goyette, JeanAndre Dussollier, Feodor Atkine, Hugette Louis Millette, Kristin Scott Thomas, RichFaget, Arielle Dombasle. Headstrong young ard Frechette, Marie Gignac. Elaborate, woman rather arbitrarily decides she will challenging, but only intermittently successbe married (to no one in particular), initiful tale which intercuts two scenarios set ates an embarrassing pursuit of male with years apart, involving a pregnant adolescent other ideas. If you can accept this hard-toin 1952 Quebec (as Alfred Hitchcock is in swallow premise, film is a beautifully acted town shooting I CONFESS) who is detercomedy of humiliation. Romand, incidenmined not to reveal her lover’s identity, and tally, is the now-grown-up adolescent from the adopted brother (Bluteau) of her natural Rohmer’s CLAIRE’S KNEE, made 11 father. Fluidly directed, with clever visual years earlier. Aka THE GOOD MARreferences to Hitch, but the result somehow RIAGE. [PG]▼쩠 seems disconnected and unnecessarily comLe Beau Serge (1958-French) 97m. ★★★ plex. Worth a look, especially for Hitchcock D: Claude Chabrol. Jean-Claude Brialy, aficionados. Stage director Lepage’s debut Ge´rard Blain, Michele Meritz, Bernadette feature; he also scripted.▼ Lafont, Edmond Beauchamp. Considered Le Corbeau (1943-French) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 to be the first New Wave film, this rural D: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Pierre Fresnay, tale also marked the feature directing deGinette Leclerc, Helena Manson, Noel but of Cahiers du Cine´ma film critic Claude Roquevert, Sylvie, Louis Seigner. IngeChabrol. When Brialy returns to his tiny nious suspenser detailing what happens home town, he is stunned to find how when a series of mysterious poison pen drastically his old school chum (Blain) has letters begins circulating in a small French changed. Perceptive examination of the tritown. Quite controversial in its day, because als of life in a poor farming community it was financed by a German movie company and the moral questions raised by how one and considered to be anti-French propaganda. treats a friend. Brialy, Blain, and young Remade in Hollywood as THE 13TH LETLafont (a teenaged nymphet) continued to TER. Aka THE RAVEN.▼쩠 collaborate with Chabrol (who also wrote Le Crabe Tambour (1977-French) Cand produced) for three decades.▼ 120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pierre Schoendoerffer. Le Bonheur (1965-French) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Jacques D: Agne´s Varda. Jean-Claude Drouot, Claire Dufilho, Jacques Perrin, Odile Versois, Drouot, Sandrine Drouot, Oliver Drouot, Aurore Clement. Expertly directed, deMarie-France Boyer. Happily married cartailed chronicle, mostly told in flashback, penter Drouot falls for postal clerk Boyer, of the complex relationship between dying feels he can love both her and wife and they naval captain Rochefort and legendary offiwill share him. Intriguing, but emotionally cer Perrin, a character out of Soldier of uninvolving and unbelievable. Drouot’s real Fortune magazine. Both, along with Rich wife and children portray his cinematic spouse as the doctor and Dufilho as the chief and offspring. Aka HAPPINESS.▼쩠 engineer, offer top-notch performances, Le Bossu SEE: On Guard and Raoul Coutard’s cinematography is Le Boucher (1969-French-Italian) C-93m. breathtaking.▼● ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Stephane Audran, Leda SEE: Web of Passion Jean Yanne, Antonio Passallia, Mario Le Dernier Combat (1984-French) 90m. ★★ D: Luc Besson. Pierre Jolivet, Jean Beccaria, Pasquale Ferone. Another good psychological thriller from Chabrol, focusing Bouise, Fritz Wepper, Christiane Kruger, on sympathetic murderer and his relationship Jean Reno. Wildly overpraised science-ficwith beautiful schoolteacher in small French tion film is basically another post-apocavillage. Aka THE BUTCHER. [PG] ▼●쩠 lypse epic. Jolivet is curious survivor Le Cercle Rouge (1970-French-Italian) Cwandering around a devastated landscape 140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Alain having odd, pointless encounters with strange Delon, Gian-Maria Volonte´, Andre´ Bourvil, people. Novelty item is without dialogue, in Yves Montand, Franc¸ois Pe´rier, Rene b&w, with stereo sound. Widescreen CineBerthier. Super-cool gangster Delon is remaScope. [R]▼쩠 leased from prison on the same day another Le Deuxie`me Souffle (1966-French) 150m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Lino Venhood (Volonte´) makes a daring escape from custody. The two hook up, along with Montura, Paul Meurisse, Raymond Pellegrin, tand, for an ambitious heist, all the while Christine Fabre´ga, Marcel Bozzufi, Paul Franhumiliating a patient police inspector (markeur, Michel Constantin. Ventura means busi[ 788 ]

ness as Gu, a tough crook who escapes from Newman. Penn’s first feature, based on a jail and becomes involved in a big heist, but 1955 Philco Playhouse TV play by Gore is duped into helping the cops. Melville Vidal in which Newman starred. See also GORE VIDAL’S BILLY THE KID. ▼쩠 pulls out all the cinematic stops in his definitive caper film, a major reworking of his Left-Handed Woman, The (1978-German) C-119m. ★★ D: Peter Handke. Edith Clevfavorite themes of criminal loyalty, beer, Bruno Ganz, Michel Lonsdale, Markus trayal, and professionalism.쩠 Le Divorce (2003-U.S.-French) C-117m. Muhleisen, Angela Winkler, Ines de Long★★ D: James Ivory. Kate Hudson, Naomi champs, Bernhard Wicki, Ge´rard DeWatts, Leslie Caron, Stockard Channing, pardieu. Clever, as The Woman, demands Glenn Close, Thierry Lhermitte, Sam Wathat husband Ganz leave her. He complies. terston, Melvil Poupaud, Stephen Fry, MatTime passes . . . and the audience falls thew Modine, Bebe Neuwirth, Romain Duris, asleep. Jean-Marc Barr, Samuel Labarthe, Thomas Left Hand of God, The (1955) C-87m. ★★★ Lennon, Nathalie Richard, Daniel Mesguich. D: Edward Dmytryk. Humphrey Bogart, Large, impressive cast flounders in this paperGene Tierney, Lee J. Cobb, Agnes Moorethin comedy-of-manners about the sexual and head, E. G. Marshall, Benson Fong. Bogart romantic plight of an inexperienced Amerimanages to be convincing as American can in Paris (Hudson) and her pregnant, caught in post-WW2 China, posing as clerabandoned sister (Watts). There are plenty of gyman with diverting results. Cinemaplot complications, but they don’t add up to Scope.▼ much; the potential for exploring the cultural Left Luggage (1998-Dutch-Belgian-U.S.) differences between Americans and the C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeroen Krabbe´. Isabella French is wasted. Scripted by Ivory and Ruth Rossellini, Maximilian Schell, Laura Fraser, Prawer Jhabvala, based on Diane Johnson’s Jeroen Krabbe´, Marianne Sa¨gebrecht, David novel. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Bradley, Adam Monty, Chaim Topol, MirLe Doulos (1962-French) 108m. ★★★ D: iam Margolyes. In 1972 Antwerp, a freeJean-Pierre Melville. Jean-Paul Belmondo, spirited Jewish woman (Fraser), the daughSerge Reggiani, Jean Desailly, Fabienne ter of Holocaust survivors, hires on as Dali, Michel Piccoli, Rene´ Lefe`vre, Monnanny for a Hasidic family and immediately ique Hennessy. Hard-boiled crime tale cenbonds with a mute, cherubic five-year-old tering on the search for hidden loot stolen who is terrified of his rigid father. Emotionby Reggiani and whether or not fellow ally charged drama explores a host of iscrook Belmondo ratted him out to the cops. sues, but despite some powerful moments, Slick Melville imitation of an American is far too obvious and even schmaltzy at times. Opened in the U.S. in 2000.▼쩠 film noir is a notch below his best, but still an entertaining study of duplicity and honor Legacy, The (1979) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: among thieves. Aka DOULOS—THE FINRichard Marquand. Katharine Ross, Sam GER MAN. ▼쩠 Elliott, John Standing, Ian Hogg, Marga1 ★ Leech Woman, The (1960) 77m. ⁄2 D: ret Tyzack, Charles Gray, Lee Montague, Edward Dein. Coleen Gray, Grant WilRoger Daltrey. Two Americans find themliams, Phillip Terry, Gloria Talbott, John selves among group of people shanghaied Van Dreelen. In Africa, an aging woman obto British mansion where strange deaths tains power that restores her youth, but reand an occult ceremony await. Acceptable quires her to murder—including her rotten fare for fans of this genre. Filmed in husband. Back in L.A. it’s more of the same. England; aka THE LEGACY OF MAGGIE Gray is very good; the movie isn’t.▼●쩠 WALSH. [R]▼쩠 Left Behind (2000) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Vic Legacy of Blood SEE: Blood Legacy Sarin. Kirk Cameron, Brad Johnson, Janaya Legacy of Maggie Walsh, The SEE: Stephens, Chelsea Noble, Clarence Gilyard. Legacy, The What do religion, international bankers, Legacy of Rage (1986-Hong Kong) Ccontrol of the world’s food supply, and the 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ronny Yu. Brandon Lee, Misudden disappearance of millions of people chael Wong, Regina Kent, Onno Boelee have in common? They’re all pieces of a (Bolo Yeung), Tanya George, Wai-Man puzzle intrepid reporter Cameron is trying Chan, Randy Mang. Lee’s debut film has to put together. Intriguing story (based on a him framed for the murder of a cop by a best-selling book inspired by biblical prophmobster ‘‘friend’’ who then tries to steal his ecies) is defeated by one-dimensional treatfiance´e; eight years later he’s released from ment. Debuted on home video before prison and is out for blood. Martial arts theatrical release. Followed by two sequels. mayhem is surprisingly kept to a bare mini[PG-13] ▼쩠 mum in this imitation John Woo crime Left Handed Gun, The (1958) 102m. drama filled with gory shootouts, bone★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Penn. Paul Newman, Lita crushing violence and hyperkinetic car chases and explosions.▼●쩠 Milan, John Dehner, Hurd Hatfield. Faltering psychological Western dealing with Legal Eagles (1986) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ivan Billy the Kid’s career, method-acted by Reitman. Robert Redford, Debra Winger, [ 789 ]

Daryl Hannah, Brian Dennehy, Terence Matt Damon, Charlize Theron, Bruce McGill, Stamp, Steven Hill, David Clennon, John Joel Gretsch, Lane Smith, Harve Presnell, J. McMartin, Jennie Dundas, Roscoe Lee Michael Moncrief. A once-promising golfer Browne, Christine Baranski, Jay Thomas. from Savannah, Georgia, shattered by his exUnderwritten, overproduced romantic comperiences in WW1, is goaded into competing edy about assistant D.A. who becomes inagainst champions Bobby Jones and Walter volved with flaky lawyer (Winger) and her Hagen in an exhibition match . . . with the even flakier client (Hannah). Redford’s chahelp of a mysterious caddy named Bagger risma is at its brightest, which helps make up Vance. Leisurely paced, beautifully rendered for lack of spark between him and Winger, fable; fortunately, some undercooked mystiand film’s other weaknesses. Panavision. cism doesn’t get in the way. Jack Lemmon appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼쩠 [PG]▼●쩠 Legally Blonde (2001) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Legend of Billie Jean, The (1985) C-96m. ★★ Robert Luketic. Reese Witherspoon, Luke D: Matthew Robbins. Helen Slater, Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis, Victor Keith Gordon, Christian Slater, Richard Garber, Jennifer Coolidge, Holland Taylor, Ali Bradford, Peter Coyote, Martha Gehman, Larter, Jessica Cauffiel, Alanna Ubach, Oz Dean Stockwell. Texas girl and her brother Perkins, Raquel Welch. A way-perky sorority are implicated in a shooting; unjustly acgirl gets accepted at Harvard Law School in cused of other crimes, they run from poorder to win her ex-boyfriend back, then lice and soon become rebel heroes. Slater discovers she has the right stuff to become is very good, and film is watchable, but its a lawyer. Witherspoon is practically the adult characters come out as caricatures whole show in this very predictable but enand the ‘‘message’’ gets muddy. Christian Slater’s first feature film. [PG-13]▼ gagingly silly comedy that, like its heroine, has more smarts than you’d expect. Later a Legend of Boggy Creek, The (1972) C-90m. ★★ D: Charles B. Pierce. Willie E. Broadway musical. Followed by a sequel. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Smith, John P. Nixon, John W. Gates, Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde Jeff Crabtree, Buddy Crabtree. Docudrama about sightings of a horrifying swamp mon(2003) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Charles HermanWurmfeld. Reese Witherspoon, Sally Field, ster in an Arkansas community. This modRegina King, Jennifer Coolidge, Bruce Mcest but well-touted endeavor became a Gill, Dana Ivey, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jessica huge success, inspiring many similar films— Cauffiel, Alanna Ubach, Bob Newhart, Luke including RETURN TO BOGGY CREEK Wilson. Appallingly imbecilic sequel sends and THE BARBARIC BEAST OF BOGGY Witherspoon’s effervescent Elle Woods to CREEK PART II (which is actually the third in the series). Techniscope. [G]▼쩠 Washington (like Mr. Smith, who is briefly invoked) to push through a bill that will Legend of Drunken Master, The SEE: prevent chemical testing on animals. She Drunken Master II gets some quick lessons on ‘‘playing the Legend of Frenchie King, The (1971French-Spanish-Italian-British) C-97m. ★1⁄2 game,’’ capitol-style. Any film that begins with its heroine hiring a detective to locate D: Christian-Jaque, Guy Casaril. Brigitte her dog’s birth mother isn’t going for Bardot, Claudia Cardinale, Michael J. Pollard, credibility . . . but this one can’t even give Patty Shepard, Micheline Presle. Clumsy atus an emotionally satisfying climax when tempt at bawdy Western in the style of VIVA Elle addresses Congress! Followed by a MARIA, with Bardot and her sisters as female DVD sequel. [PG-13] ▼쩠 outlaws at a French settlement in New MexLegend (1985-British) C-89m. ★★ D: Ridley ico, circa 1880. Badly dubbed. Aka PETROLEUM GIRLS. [R]▼ Scott. Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, David Bennent, Alice Playten, Billy Barty. Legend of Gosta Berling, The SEE: Lavishly mounted fantasy, in the Grimm’s Atonement of Gosta Berling, The Fairy Tale mold, about the demon DarkLegend of Hell House, The (1973-British) ness trying to gain control over young girl C-95m. ★★★ D: John Hough. Roddy Mcwho represents absolute innocence. InDowall, Pamela Franklin, Clive Revill, credibly handsome but story lacks moGayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver, Peter mentum and characters are not well Bowles. Harrowing story of occult phedefined. Kids might enjoy it. Released in nomena as four researchers agree to spend U.S. in 1986 with Tangerine Dream score; one week in house known to be inhabited European version had a Jerry Goldsmith by malignant spirits. Not the usual ghost score. Director’s cut runs 113m. J-D-C story, and certain to curl a few hairs. MiScope. [PG] ▼●쩠 chael Gough turns up as a corpse at concluLegendary Curse of Lemora SEE: Lady sion. Written by Richard Matheson from his Dracula novel Hell House. [PG]▼●쩠 Legend in Leotards SEE: Return of CapLegend of Lylah Clare, The (1968) C-130m. ★★ D: Robert Aldrich. Kim Novak, tain Invincible, The Legend of Bagger Vance, The (2000) CPeter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Milton Selz★★★ 127m. D: Robert Redford. Will Smith, er, Valentina Cortese, Michael Murphy, [ 790 ]

Lee Meriwether, Coral Browne, Ellen Perry, John Hart. A middling effort to tell Corby. Has-been Hollywood director fashthe origin of the Masked Man, which waions young woman into the image of his vers between seriousness and tongue-inlate wife for screen biography; flamboycheek. Some fine action, great scenery, antly awful, but some think it’s so bad it’s and a promising storyline, but sabotaged good. Judge for yourself. Based on a 1963 by awkward handling, uncharismatic leads Dupont Show of the Week TV play by (Spilsbury was dubbed to no great effect), Robert Thom. [R] and an awful ‘‘ballad’’ narration by Merle Legend of Nigger Charley, The (1972) Haggard. Bring back Clayton Moore and C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Martin Goldman. Fred Jay Silverheels! Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Williamson, D’Urville Martin, Don Pedro Legend of the Lost (1957) C-109m. ★★ Colley, Gertrude Jeanette, Marcia McD: Henry Hathaway. John Wayne, Sophia Broom, Alan Gifford. Violent, routine Loren, Rossano Brazzi, Kurt Kasznar, Sonia black Western about Virginia slave who Moser. Incredibly insipid hodgepodge inbecomes a fugitive after killing treacherous teresting as curio: Wayne and Brazzi on overseer; Lloyd Price sings title tune. Setreasure hunt in Sahara battle over rights to quel: THE SOUL OF NIGGER CHARLoren. Technirama.▼쩠 LEY. [PG] Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, The Legend of 1900, The (1998-Italian) CSEE: Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, The 116m. ★★ D: Giuseppe Tornatore. Tim Legend of the Werewolf (1975-British) Roth, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Bill Nunn, ClarC-87m. ★★ D: Freddie Francis. Peter ence Williams III, Melanie Thierry, Harry Cushing, Ron Moody, Hugh Griffith, Ditson. Expansive fable about an infant Roy Castle, David Rintoul, Lynn Dalby. named 1900, born (and abandoned) on a Trite version has handsome Rintoul as the huge ocean liner at the turn of the 20th cenhairy guy, working in French zoo, tracked tury; he spends his entire life on that ship, down by coroner-investigator Cushing. and turns out to be a uniquely gifted pianist. Man-to-Wolf transformation scenes are Ambitious tale has some wonderful mosubpar.▼ ments—including a piano duel with Jelly Legend of Wolf Lodge SEE: Into the Fire Roll Morton (Williams)—but rambles inLegend of Zorro, The (2005) C-129m. conclusively. Italian title: THE LEGEND ★★1 ⁄2 D: Martin Campbell. Antonio BandOF THE PIANIST ON THE OCEAN, eras, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rufus Sewell, which runs 170m. Technovision. [R]▼쩠 Nick Chinlund, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Shuler Legend of Rita, The (2000-German) CHensley, Michael Emerson, Adrian Alonso, 103m. ★★★ D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Bibiana Mary Crosby. In this sequel to THE MASK Beglau, Martin Wuttke, Nadja Uhl, Harald OF ZORRO, our hero, now married and the Schrott, Alexander Beyer, Jenny Schilly, father of a son, is persuaded to retire by his Mario Irrek. Trenchant look at the youthful wife as Californians vote to become part idealism of headline-grabbing political fireof the U.S., but the arrival of a mysterious brands who were active in West Germany stranger from Europe signals a need for him during the 1970s. The fictional title characto return to action. Escapism with a capital ter (Beglau) is a radical/zealot who finds E, made with a family audience in mind, herself in East Germany living under a false full to overflowing with grandiose action identity and toiling alongside drab, disconand stunts . . . but like the first film, there’s tented fellow workers. With much irony, too much of everything. The charismatic Schlo¨ndorff examines the era’s politics, stars do their best to combat a plot-heavy passions, and harsh realities.▼쩠 script. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 Legend of Sea Wolf SEE: Wolf Larsen Legend of Zu, The SEE: Zu Warriors Legend of the Bayou SEE: Eaten Alive Legends of the Fall (1994) C-134m. ★★ D: Legend of the Holy Drinker, The (19881 Edward Zwick. Brad Pitt, Anthony HopItalian) C-125m. ★★★ ⁄2 D: Ermanno Olmi. kins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond, Henry Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Thomas, Karina Lombard, Gordon Tootosis, Dumas, Dominique Pinon, Sophie Segalen. Tantoo Cardinal, Paul Desmond. Sprawling Subtle, poetic tale of a down-and-out man family saga about three brothers raised in (Hauer, in a very uncharacteristic perforMontana by their iconoclastic father—a formance), who drinks too much, sleeps under mer cavalry officer who turned his back on a bridge, and is haunted by his past. The bloodshed and the exploitation of Indians. scenario chronicles what happens when he’s Lumbering, Edna Ferber-esque plot is rife presented 200 francs by a stranger. As in with sibling rivalry, pregnant looks, and Olmi’s best films, there are often long siheated exchanges. Many moviegoers—eslences—but those silences are golden. pecially fans of red-hot Pitt—embraced this Legend of the Lone Ranger, The (1981) film, but its earnest, straight-faced story gets C-98m. ★★ D: William A. Fraker. Klinton sillier as it goes along. Performances are Spilsbury, Michael Horse, Christopher fairly one-note, as well, except for Thomas Lloyd, Jason Robards, Matt Clark, Juanin Clay, Richard Farnsworth, John Bennett as the youngest brother. Based on a novella [ 791 ]

by Jim Harrison. Oscar winner for John Maxwell, Lloyd Nolan, Jane Darwell, WilToll’s cinematography. [R]▼●쩠 liam Frawley. Hope is hilarious as raceLegionnaire (1998) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter track tout who owes big money to gangster MacDonald. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Adand must pay or else. Adapted from Damon ewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Steven Berkoff, Runyon story, filmed before in 1934. Film Nicholas Farrell, Jim Carter, Ana Sofrenovic. introduced Livingston-Evans Christmas hit Boxer Van Damme joins the French Foreign ‘‘Silver Bells.’’ ▼●쩠 Legion in 1925 and flees to Morocco after Lemon Sisters, The (1990) C-93m. ★1⁄2 defying a mobster who orders him to take a D: Joyce Chopra. Diane Keaton, Carol dive. The script is so dated and unintentionKane, Kathryn Grody, Elliott Gould, Rually hilarious that you keep expecting to see ben Blades, Aidan Quinn, Estelle Parsons, Ramon Novarro show up in a turban, or at Richard Libertini, Nathan Lane. Dopey least Marty Feldman; but alas, it’s all played female buddy comedy revolving around with numbing seriousness and a lack of style the relationships of three women; doesn’t and imagination. Released straight to video in take off despite an impressive cast. Althe U.S. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 though the laughs are few, the scene in Le Grand Chemin SEE: Grand Highwhich Kane sings ‘‘Rawhide’’ is almost way, The worth a look. This film sat on the shelf Le Haine SEE: Hate awhile before its desultory release to theLe Jouet (1976-French) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: aters. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Francis Veber. Pierre Richard, Michel Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) C-107m. ★★★ D: Brad Bouquet, Fabrice Greco, Suzy Dyson, Jacques Francois. To show up his cutSilberling. Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily throat father, a rich boy buys a human toy. Browning, Kara Hoffman, Shelby Hoffman, Sometimes funny, sometimes not . . . but Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Cathit’s miles ahead of the American remake, erine O’Hara, Billy Connolly, Luis Guzman, THE TOY. Veber also scripted. [PG] Jamie Harris, Craig Ferguson, Jennifer CooLe Jour Se Le`ve (1939-French) 93m. lidge, Jane Adams, Cedric the Entertainer. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marcel Carne ´ . Jean Gabin, JacThree newly orphaned siblings are sent to queline Laurent, Jules Berry, Arletty, Mady live with their very strange uncle, would-be Berry. A staple of French cinema, from actor Count Olaf, who intends to do them the writer-director team that later created in and steal their inheritance. When they CHILDREN OF PARADISE; factory workmanage to escape from his clutches, they er Gabin, trapped in a building, flashes back are taken in by a series of odd and unusual on events that drove him to murder. Generally guardians. Grand Guignol family fodder holds up, while going a long way toward debased on three Lemony Snicket novels fining Gabin’s screen persona. Written by (written by Daniel Handler), impeccably deJacques Pre´vert, from Jacques Viot’s story. signed by longtime Tim Burton colleague U.S. title: DAYBREAK. Later remade here Rick Heinrichs. Unbeatable cast strikes just as THE LONG NIGHT.▼쩠 the right darkly comic tone, led by Carrey Le Mans (1971) C-106m. ★★★ D: Lee H. in one of his richest performances. Oscar Katzin. Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch, winner for Valli O’Reilly and Bill Corso’s Elga Andersen, Ronald Leigh-Hunt. Exmakeup. Stick around for the ingenious, entertaining closing credits. [PG]▼쩠 citing study of Grand Prix auto racing with exceptionally fine camera work on the Lemora, The Lady Dracula SEE: Lady track. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Dracula Le Mentale SEE: Code, The (2002) L’Enfant (2005-Belgian-French) C-95m. ★★★ Le Million (1931-French) 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: D: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc DarRene´ Clair. Annabella, Rene´ Lefevre, denne. Je´re´mie Renier, De´borah Franc¸ois, Vanda Greville, Paul Olivier, Louis AlliJe´re´mie Segard, Fabrizio Rongione, Olivier bert. A chase after a lost lottery ticket Gourmet. A young, amoral thief and his girlpropels this charming, whimsical, innovafriend have a baby, but responsibility is tive gem from Clair. The actors sing some such a foreign concept to him that he sells of their dialogue; as much fun today as the child to a black-market ring, with unexpected consequences. As forceful and natuwhen first released.▼●쩠 Lemonade Joe (1964-Czech) 84m. ★★★ ralistic as the Dardennes’ other films, but D: Oldrich Lipsky. Carl Fiala, Olga Schothe story is uncharacteristically schematic, berova, Veta Fialova, Miles Kopeck, Rudy which dilutes its impact somewhat. Said to Dale, Joseph Nomaz. Sometimes repetibe inspired by Crime and Punishment and tious but often quite funny spoof of the Robert Bresson’s PICKPOCKET. The leadAmerican Western; title refers to hero, ing actor starred in the filmmakers’ LA who drinks Kola Loca lemonade instead of PROMESSE when he was a boy. Winner of booze. Original running time is 99m. Cinemathe Palme D’Or at Cannes. [R]쩠 Scope. ▼쩠 L’Enfer (1994-French) C-105m. ★★ D: Lemon Drop Kid, The (1951) 91m. ★★★ Claude Chabrol. Emmanuelle Be´art, FranD: Sidney Lanfield. Bob Hope, Marilyn c¸ois Cluzet, Marc Lavoine, Nathalie Car[ 792 ]

done, Andre Wilms, Christiane Minazzoli, laden tomato! Lauzon penned the semiautobiographical script.▼●쩠 Dora Doll, Jean-Pierre Cassel. Cluzet and Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (2005) sexy Be´art marry, become settled in domesC/B&W-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lian Lunson. ticity and seem very happy—until the husAgreeable if unspectacular documentaryband becomes convinced that the wife is concert film that charts the life and times cheating on him. Chabrol ponders some inof the famed Canadian songwriter-novelistteresting questions—how well can two peopoet. Most interesting are Cohen’s recollecple know each other? how far can they trust tions of his early success and his decision to each other?—but result is one-note, with Cluinterrupt his career to pass time in a Zen zet becoming a laughable caricature of an inmonastery. Cohen and others (including sanely jealous man. Scripted by Chabrol, from Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Kate and original screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot Anna McGarrigle, Beth Orton, and Jarvis (which the latter had started filming in 1964 Cocker) perform in a tribute concert at the but never completed). [R]▼쩠 Sydney Opera House. [PG-13]쩠 Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989★★★ Leonard Part 6 (1987) C-85m. BOMB Finnish) C-80m. D: Aki Kaurismaki. D: Paul Weiland. Bill Cosby, Tom CourMatti Pellonpaa, Kari Vaananen, Jim tenay, Joe Don Baker, Moses Gunn, Pat Jarmusch, Nicky Tesco. Straight-faced comColbert, Gloria Foster, Victoria Rowell. edy from Kaurismaki about a group of With a band of mad animals knocking off dreadful musicians from Finland; they’re so the government’s top-secret agents, resbad that they decide to head for the U.S.— taurateur Cos comes out of retirement to where people will listen to ‘‘anything’’— avenge his one-time colleagues by foiling and they set out on tour through the modern the villainess responsible. Even Cosby wasteland of small-town America. Shot in warned audiences to stay away from this the U.S. and Finland, and scripted by the megabomb (for which he receives story prolific Kaurismaki; while his films have and producer credit). [PG]▼●쩠 become known and admired at festivals, Leon Morin, Priest SEE: Forgiven Sinner, this was the first to have a major theatrical The release in the U.S. [PG-13]▼● Leonor (1975-French-Spanish-Italian) CLenny (1974) 112m. ★★★★ D: Bob Fosse. 90m. BOMB D: Juan Bun˜uel. Michel Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner, Piccoli, Liv Ullmann, Ornella Muti, AntoStanley Beck, Gary Morton. Powerful binio Ferrandis, Jorge Rigaud. Medieval ography of troubled nightclub comic Lenny mishmash with Lady Liv rising from the Bruce, whose hip humor and scatological dead a decade after husband Piccoli seals dialogue made him a controversial figure her in a tomb. Deadening and idiotic. in the 1950s. Fine direction, evocative Directed by the son of Luis Bun˜uel. [PG]▼ b&w camerawork (by Bruce Surtees) showLeopard, The (1963-French-Italian) Ccase excellent performances by Hoffman 195m. ★★★★ D: Luchino Visconti. Burt and Perrine (as Lenny’s wife, stripper Honey Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Harlowe). Script by Julian Barry, expanded Rina Morelli, Paolo Stoppa. Magnificent specfrom his Broadway play. [R]▼●쩠 tacle, set in 1860 Sicily, about an aristocrat who Le Notti Bianche SEE: White Nights (1957) tries coming to terms with the unification of Lensman (1984-Japanese) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 Italy. Originally released here in a badly D: Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Kazuyuki Hirokawa. dubbed 165m. version, film was restored in Voices of Kerrigan Mahan, Tom Wyner, 1983 to proper form (though Lancaster’s voice Greg Snegoff, Michael McConnohie. Japis still dubbed, as it was in original foreign veranese animated feature based on classic sion). Delon and Cardinale are close to the final sci-fi novels of American E. E. ‘‘Doc’’ word in romantic pairings; concluding hourSmith, which also inspired STAR WARS. long banquet scene is among the great set Unfortunately, this film plays like a medipieces in movie history. Technirama.쩠 ocre rip-off of the George Lucas film; Leopard in the Snow (1978-Canadiancomputer-generated animation sequences British) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gerry O’Hara. are interesting to watch but don’t move the Keir Dullea, Susan Penhaligon, Kenneth story along. For comic book buffs only.▼ More, Billie Whitelaw, Jeremy Kemp, Le´olo (1992-Canadian-French) C-107m. Yvonne Manners. First movie produced ★★★ D: Jean-Claude Lauzon. Maxime by publishers of Harlequin Romance paCollin, Ginette Reno, Roland Blouin, Juperbacks is predictably tearful love story lien Guiomar, Pierre Bourgault, Giuditta about English girl who falls for a testy, Del Vecchio, Denys Arcand; narrated by reclusive American who’s afraid to admit Gilbert Sicotte. Bizarrely funny black comhis feelings. [PG]▼쩠 edy about a boy, on the verge of adolesLeopard Man, The (1943) 66m. ★★1⁄2 cence, surviving in the slums of Montreal. D: Jacques Tourneur. Dennis O’Keefe, He’s stifled by a family he aptly describes Margo, Jean Brooks, Isabel Jewell, James as a ‘‘black hole,’’ and is convinced he’s Bell, Margaret Landry, Abner Biberman. Inthe offspring of a contaminated, spermtriguing but flawed Val Lewton thriller about [ 793 ]

series of murders in small New Mexico town Karina makes her feature debut as a leftist blamed on escaped leopard. Based on novel activist with whom Subor falls in love. FeaBlack Alibi by Cornell Woolrich. ▼●쩠 turing an unforgettable torture scene, this Leopard Son, The (1996) C-84m. ★★★1⁄2 powerful film was banned in France until D: Hugo Van Lawick. Narrated by John 1963; less about politics than personal freedom and the banality of evil. ▼쩠 Gielgud. Sweeping, beautifully filmed documentary following the birth, growing Le Petit The´aˆtre de Jean Renoir SEE: pains, and coming-of-age of a leopard cub. Little Theatre of Jean Renoir, The Shot over a two-year period in Africa’s SerLepke (1975) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Menahem engeti Plain, this eye-opening film shows Golan. Tony Curtis, Anjanette Comer, Mijust how much luck plays a part in any anichael Callan, Warren Berlinger, Milton mal’s survival. Parents should know that Berle, Vic Tayback. Cut above usual gangthere are disturbing scenes of animal death, ster film, with Curtis surprisingly convincthough handled with discretion. Music by ing as title character, head of ’30s Murder, Stewart Copeland. Discovery Channel’s Inc. Berle has serious cameo as Comer’s first theatrical release. [G]▼● father. Recut to 98m. by Golan for cable Leo the Last (1970-British) C-103m. ★★ TV release. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 D: John Boorman. Marcello Mastroianni, Le Plaisir (1951-French) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Billie Whitelaw, Calvin Lockhart, Glenna Max Ophuls. Jean Gabin, Danielle Darrieux, Forster-Jones, Graham Crowden. Oddball Simone Simon, Claude Dauphin, Gaby film about reticent Mastroianni, last in a Morlay, Pierre Brasseur, Pauline Dubost, line of princes, who gradually emerges Madeleine Renaud, Daniel Gelin. The joy from decaying London mansion to become and heartache of l’amour and the pursuit involved with people living on his black of pleasure is explored with subtlety and ghetto block. Enigmatic, unsatisfying film, sophistication in a trilogy of stories by Guy with occasional bright touches. Boorman exde Maupassant: in ‘‘Le Masque,’’ a vain old plored some of the same ideas 20 years later man tries to regain his youth by donning a in WHERE THE HEART IS. [R] mask to a ball; in ‘‘Le Maison Tellier,’’ a Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1997) Cgroup of prostitutes travels to the country to ★★ 108m. attend the first communion of the madam’s D: Bernard Rose. Sophie Marceau, Sean Bean, Alfred Molina, Mia Kirshniece; in ‘‘Le Modele,’’ a free-living artist’s ner, James Fox, Fiona Shaw, Danny Huston, affair with a model takes a tragic turn. BrilPhyllida Law, David Schofield, Saskia Wickliantly acted by a superb cast and directed ham, Jennifer Hall. Practically passionless rewith customary virtuosity and a dazzlingly counting of the oft-filmed tale of the title fluid style. Jean Marais narrates the French character (Marceau), a wife and mother who version of the film as de Maupassant (Peter commences an illicit affair with dashing Ustinov narrates the English version; Anton Walbrook narrates the German version).▼쩠 Count Vronsky (Bean) in 19th-century Russia. Handsomely mounted, but dramatically Leprechaun (1993) C-92m. BOMB D: flat. Notable only as the first Western-proMark Jones. Warwick Davis, Jennifer duced ANNA to be filmed in Russia—in St. Aniston, Ken Olandt, Mark Holton, RobPetersburg, to be exact. Panavision. [R]▼● ert Gorman, John Sanderford, Shay Duffin. Le Petit Lieutenant (2005-French) C-111m. Inept horror drama in which a pint-sized ★★★ Irish fairy (Davis) goes on a rampage after D: Xavier Beauvois. Nathalie Baye, Jalil Lespert, Roschdy Zem, Antoine Chappey, being ripped off of a hundred gold-pieces. Jacques Perrin, Patrick Chauvel, Xavier BeauGratuitous gore and cheap shocks take the vois. Engrossing, low-key account of life in a place of moviemaking skill. [R]▼●쩠 Parisian criminal investigation police unit. Leprechaun 2 (1994) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: RodThe main characters are the title one (Lespert), man Flender. Warwick Davis, Charlie newly graduated from the police academy, Heath, Shevonne Durkin, Sandy Baron, who’s been assigned to the unit, and his supeAdam Biesk, James Lancaster, Clint Howrior officer (Baye), a world-weary recovering ard, Kimmy Robertson. A spurned, vengealcoholic who’s haunted by the death of her ful leprechaun arrives in L.A. from ancient son. There’s a plot, involving the tracking of a Ireland to claim his bride—the descendant pair of Russian thugs, but the emphasis is on of a lass he was tricked out of 1,000 years the drudgery—and heartbreak—of everyday ago. Just another excuse for high-body-count police work. Beauvois, who coscripted, also gratuitous gore, begorrah! [R]▼●쩠 plays one of the cops.쩠 Le Rouge et le Noir (1954-French-Italian) Le Petit Soldat (1960-French) 88m. ★★★ D: C-145m. ★★★ D: Claude Autant-Lara. Ge´Jean-Luc Godard. Michel Subor, Anna Karina, rard Philipe, Danielle Darrieux, Antonella Henri-Jacques Huet, Paul Beauvais, La´szlo´ Lualdi, Jean Martinelli. Solidly acted, handSzabo´, Georges de Beauregard. Godard’s secsomely produced historical drama based on ond feature concerns the terrorist activities of the Stendahl novel about a man of the lower Algerian rebels who capture French army declasses (Philipe) and his obsession with serter Subor and blackmail him into commitmaking it in society in 1830 France; Darting an assassination. Godard’s future wife rieux and Lualdi are the women in his life. [ 794 ]

European running time 170m. Remade for CAGE AUX ROSSIGNOLS (1947). Aka French TV in 1997. Aka THE RED AND THE CHORUS. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 THE BLACK.▼ Les Compe`res (1984-French) C-92m. ★★★ Le Samourai (1967-French) C-101m. D: Francis Veber. Pierre Richard, Ge´rard ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Melville. Alain Delon, Depardieu, Anny Duperey, Michel Aumont, Nathalie Delon, Franc¸ois Perier, Cathy Rosier, Stephane Bierry. Endearing comedy in Jacques Leroy, Jean-Pierre Posier, Catherine which beautiful, desperate Duperey maJourdan. Delon is the ultimate existential hit nipulates former boyfriends Richard and man in this tale of an assassin who’s hired to Depardieu into searching for runaway son kill a nightclub owner, but is double-crossed Bierry by making each think that the boy is by his mysterious employers. Alain Delon his. This one works primarily because of was never better than in this quintessential the stars’ knowing performances. Veber Melville policier, a marvelously stylish medialso scripted. Remade in the U.S. as FAtation on crime and solitude that was a direct THERS’ DAY. [PG]▼쩠 influence on John Woo’s THE KILLER. First Les Destine´es (2000-French-Swiss) Creleased in U.S. as THE GODSON. ▼쩠 174m. ★★1⁄2 D: Olivier Assayas. EmmanuLe Sauvage SEE: Lovers Like Us elle Be´art, Charles Berling, Isabelle HupLes Biches (1968-French-Italian) C-94m. pert, Olivier Perrier, Dominique Reymond, ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Jean-Louis Andre´ Marcon, Alexandra London, Julie Trintignant, Jacqueline Sassard, Stephane Depardieu, Catherine Mouchet. Heartfelt, Audran, Nane Germon. Excellent film of sumptuously filmed but disappointing epic rich, aging lesbian who picks up unformed set during the first decades of the 20th cenwaif who earns her living drawing on the tury, centering on small-town minister Bersidewalks of Paris. [R]▼●쩠 ling, who agrees to take over his family’s Les Bonnes Femmes (1960-French) 93m. porcelain-manufacturing business, and his ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Bernadette Lafont, evolving relationship with beautiful Be´art. Clotilde Joano, Stephane Audran, Lucile Sporadically on target when spotlighting the Saint-Simon, Pierre Bertin, Jean-Louis Maury, importance of love in a cold, fast-changing Claude Berri, Mario David. Offbeat, intriworld, but never as involving as it should guing Chabrol concoction, an important be . . . and terribly overlong. Originally tifilm of the early French New Wave, about a tled LES DESTINE´ES SENTIMENquartet of French shopgirls and their varied TALES. Widescreen.▼쩠 hopes and dreams. The most interesting Les Diaboliques SEE: Diabolique (1955) storyline spotlights dreamy Joano and her Le Sex Shop (1973-French) C-92m. ★★★ fascination with a mysterious motorcyclist. D: Claude Berri. Claude Berri, Juliet Berto, The finale is a real knockout.▼쩠 Nathalie Delon, Jean-Pierre Marielle, BeLes Carabiniers (1963-French-Italian) 80m. atrice Romand, Catherine Allegret. Amia★★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. Albert Juross, ble spoof of our preoccupation with sex; Marino Mase´, Genevieve Galea, Catherine failing bookstore owner starts selling porno Ribeiro, Ge´rard Poirot, Jean Brassat, Alvaro material, becomes increasingly fascinated Gheri, Barbet Schroeder. In an unspecified by it. Clever idea well done; originally time and place, two peasants are offered rated X because of its candid (yet unmoney and the promise of great adventures sensational) scenes. [R—edited from origif they fight for the king; they accept, but inal X rating]▼ are executed when a peace treaty is signed. Les Girls (1957) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Critically lambasted upon its release, this Cukor. Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Ken(intentionally) crudely made and anachrodall, Taina Elg, Jacques Bergerac, Leslie nistic fable remains one of the few honest Phillips, Henry Daniell, Patrick Macnee. films about the insanity and immorality of Charming, sprightly musical involving three war: it refuses to romanticize its subject. show girls who (via flashback) reveal their reWritten by Godard, Jean Gruault, and Rolationship to hoofer Kelly; chicly handled in berto Rossellini. ▼쩠 all departments, with Cole Porter tunes and Les Choristes (2004-French-Swiss) C-97m. ★★1 Oscar-winning Orry-Kelly costumes. John ⁄2 D: Christophe Barratier. Ge´rard Jugnot, Patrick adapted Vera Caspary’s novel. Franc¸ois Berle´and, Kad Merad, Jacques PerCinemaScope.▼●쩠 rin, Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Marie Bunel, Les Miserables (1935) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Paul Bonnaire, Maxence Perrin. New Richard Boleslawski. Fredric March, Charles supervisor reports for work at a reform Laughton, Cedric Hardwicke, Rochelle school for ‘‘difficult’’ boys run by a severe Hudson, Frances Drake, John Beal, Florand unenlightened man. By starting a choir, ence Eldridge, Jessie Ralph, Leonid Kinsthe new man gives his young charges unity key. Meticulous production of Victor and hope. Well made, but obvious from the Hugo’s classic tale. Minor thief March word go, which undercuts its emotional imtries to bury past and become respectable pact. Coproducer Jacques Perrin plays the town mayor, but police inspector Javert conductor in the opening scene; that’s his son Maxence as Pe´pinot. Remake of LA (Laughton) won’t let him. John Carradine [ 795 ]

has bit part as student radical. Screenplay experienced young Marais falling in love by W. P. Lipscomb.▼●쩠 with Day, unaware that she’s been his faLes Miserables (1947-Italian) 118m. ★★★ ther’s mistress. De Bray is outstanding as D: Riccardo Freda. Gino Cervi, Valentina Marais’s neurotic mother, who subtly exCortesa, John Hinrich, Aldo Nicodemi, Ducpresses incestuous feelings toward her son. cia Giraldi, Marcello Mastroianni. Intelligent, Cocteau scripted based on his play (which handsomely mounted version of the oftfeatured these same actors). Remade in England as INTIMATE RELATIONS.▼● filmed Victor Hugo story, with Cervi making a fine Jean Valjean. Mario Monicelli was one Lesson in Love, A (1954-Swedish) 95m. ★★★ of the scripters. Originally 140m. ▼ D: Ingmar Bergman. Gunnar BjornLes Miserables (1952) 104m. ★★★ D: Lewis strand, Eva Dahlbeck, Yvonne Lombard, HarMilestone. Michael Rennie, Debra Paget, riet Andersson, Ake Gronberg. Obstetrician Robert Newton, Sylvia Sidney, Edmund Bjornstrand, happily married for 15 years to Gwenn, Cameron Mitchell, Elsa LanchesDahlbeck, has an affair with a patient; Dahlter, Florence Bates. Glossy but thoughtful beck then returns to her former lover—the husband’s best friend. Medium Bergman.▼ remake of the venerable Victor Hugo classic.쩠 Less Than Zero (1987) C-96m. ★★ D: Les Mise´rables (1957-French-German) Marek Kanievska. Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, Robert Downey, Jr., James Spader, C-210m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Paul Le Chanois. Jean Gabin, Daniele Delorme, Bernard Tony Bill, Nicholas Pryor, Brad Pitt. Bret Blier, Bourvil, Gianni Esposito, Serge Easton Ellis’ nihilistic novel about young, Reggiani. Victor Hugo tale, with Gabin as disengaged L.A. have-it-alls is sanitized Jean Valjean, Blier as Javert. Respectful but into pointlessness, though a faithful adaptauninspiring. Often shown in two parts. tion would have turned off everyone; try to Technirama.▼쩠 imagine it with Eddie Bracken, Veronica Les Mise´rables (1995-French) C-178m. Lake, and Sonny Tufts. The two leads are ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Jean-Paul Belawful, but Spader is creepy as a drug-dealmondo, Michel Boujenah, Alessandra Maring slug, Downey exceptional as a wealthy tines, Annie Girardot, Clementine Celarie, addict. Almost good-bad. [R]▼●쩠 Philippe Leotard, Rufus, Jean Marais, MicheLes Visiteurs SEE: Visitors, The (1993line Presle, Darry Cowl, Salome, Ticky HolFrench) Les Voleurs (1996-French) C-117m. ★★ D: gado, Philippe Kohrsand, Nicole Croisille, Paul Belmondo. Extraordinary recycling of Andre´ Te´chine´. Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel into a 20thAuteuil, Laurence Coˆte, Fabienne Babe, Jucentury landscape, culminating in a story of lien Rivie`re, Benoıˆt Magimel, Didier BeWW2 France. Belmondo plays a simple man zace, Ivan Desny. Something different from who takes on the qualities of Jean Valjean as he Te´chine´ (who last teamed with these two helps a Jewish family fleeing from the Nazis. stars on MA SAISON PRE´FE´RE´E): a Lelouch’s modern parable/adaptation emphacrime picture, laced with his usual emosizes the impact that one good man can tional/sexual twists. Here, as a boy pieces have on the lives of people around him; the together his father’s death, the viewer meets result is absolutely riveting. Great, humanhis outcast uncle, a cop (Auteuil), a cipheristic storytelling. Marais (from the Cocteau like professor (Deneuve), and the young classics of the 1940s) plays the Monseiwoman who comes between them (Coˆte). gneur; Presle plays the Me`re Supe´rieure. More an acting exercise than a cogent drama. Aka THIEVES.▼● The ballerina and her daughter are played by Lelouch’s real-life wife and daughter. Let Freedom Ring (1939) 87m. ★★★ D: Super 35. [R] ▼● Jack Conway. Nelson Eddy, Virginia Bruce, 1 ★★ Les Mise´rables (1998) C-131m. ⁄2 D: Victor McLaglen, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Bille August. Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Charles Butterworth, Uma Thurman, Claire Danes, Hans MatheH.B. Warner, Raymond Walburn, George F. son, Reine Brynolfsson, Mimi Newman. (Gabby) Hayes. Ben Hecht scripted this fasciRespectful, well-made adaptation of the nating Western drama with music about a Hugo classic, with strong performances singing lawyer (Eddy) who returns to his from Neeson (as Jean Valjean), Thurman hometown and battles corrupt Arnold. Ser(as Fantine), Danes (as Cosette), and of monizes a bit, but its points about the power course Rush (as the villainous Javert). Locaof the press and a citizen’s responsibilities in a free society are as relevant as ever. ▼ tion filming in Paris (and Prague) is another asset. Yet there is a certain fire missing, Lethal Terminator SEE: Glove, The especially at the finale, which keeps this Lethal Weapon (1987) C-110m. ★★★ D: Richard Donner. Mel Gibson, Danny from soaring. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Les Parents Terribles (1948-French) 98m. Glover, Gary Busey, Mitchell Ryan, Tom ★★★ D: Jean Cocteau. Jean Marais, Josette Atkins, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe. UnDay, Yvonne de Bray, Marcel Andre, Gadercover cop Gibson, a borderline psychobrielle Dorziat. Absorbing drama of a dyspath who’s always on the edge, is partnered functional middle-class family, with inwith stable family man Glover, and they [ 796 ]

prove a good team as they go after a particuson. Uneven, draggy documentary is reslarly scummy drug ring. Loud, violent, trashy cued and abetted by brilliant, Oscar-winning cop movie done to a turn; fast paced and score by The Beatles. When they perform entertaining so long as you don’t think it becomes magical; when others are thrown about it too much. Director’s cut runs 117m. in it becomes a bore. [G]▼● Followed by three sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Let It Ride (1989) C-86m. ★★ D: Joe Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) C-113m. ★★★ D: Pytka. Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, David Richard Donner. Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Johansen (Buster Poindexter), Jennifer Tilly, Joe Pesci, Joss Ackland, Derrick O’Connor, Allen Garfield, Ed Walsh, Michelle PhilPatsy Kensit, Darlene Love, Traci Wolfe, lips, Mary Woronov, Robbie Coltrane, Steve Kahan. Ultraviolent, superslick sequel Richard Edson, Cynthia Nixon. Disjointed, is just as cartoonish as the first—and possibly only sporadically funny tale of a compulsive even more entertaining. This time around, our gambler who finally hits a winning streak at a heroes tangle with a nefarious smuggling Florida racetrack. First-time director Pytka kingpin hiding behind diplomatic immunity, tries for a Damon Runyon flavor and a fast but doesn’t reckon with Gibson’s reckless pace, but it doesn’t come off; screenwriter ways. A must for action fans. Director’s cut Nancy Dowd had her name removed from credits. [PG-13]▼●쩠 runs 118m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) 106m. ★★★ D: Philip Leacock. Burl Ives, D: Richard Donner. Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Stuart Shelley Winters, James Darren, Jean Seberg, Wilson, Steve Kahan, Darlene Love, Traci Ricardo Montalban, Ella Fitzgerald. BiWolfe, Gregory Millar, Jason Meshoverzarre account of slum life, focusing on Iorg, Delores Hall. Glover is about to retire Darren and his dope-addicted mother inwhen he and partner Gibson find themselves volved with a variety of corrupt individuals. Sequel to KNOCK ON ANY DOOR.▼ in the midst of an escalating war with a former cop turned criminal mastermind. Despite lazy L’Etoile du Nord (1982-French) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Pierre Granier-Deferre. Simone writing and pointless plot turns, manages to crank out enough thrills, laughs, and violent Signoret, Philippe Noiret, Fanny Cottencon, action to rate as acceptable escapism. DirecJulie Jezequel, Gamil Ratib. Boring tale of tor’s cut runs 117m. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 down-and-out Noiret murdering wealthy Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) C-127m. ★★★ D: businessman Ratib, and his relationships Richard Donner. Mel Gibson, Danny with gold digger Cottencon and her mother Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock, (Signoret). Just talk, flashbacks, and more Jet Li, Steve Kahan, Kim Chan, Darlene talk, with insufficient action or character Love, Traci Wolfe. Those wacky cops are development. Signoret can’t save this one. at it again, this time battling a Chinese gangBased on a Georges Simenon novel. [PG]▼ lord—and facing domestic crises involving Let’s Dance (1950) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norpregnancy and marriage. Added this time: man Z. McLeod. Betty Hutton, Fred Rock, as an overzealous cop, and Li, as a Astaire, Roland Young, Ruth Warrick, formidable bad guy. The cast is so likable Shepperd Strudwick, Lucile Watson, Barand their energy so infectious that the filmton MacLane, Melville Cooper. Lessermakers get away with murder, presenting known Astaire vehicle is still fun, with war an overlong, incoherent story and peppering widow Hutton attempting to shield her young it with supercharged action sequences. Fans son from the clutches of his wealthy, stuffy of the series won’t be disappointed; others great-grandmother. Astaire is the man who needn’t bother. Richard Libertini appears loves her, and his dancing (particularly in unbilled. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 the ‘‘Piano Dance’’ number) is wonderful. Let Him Have It (1991-British) C-115m. Songs by Frank Loesser.▼● ★★★ D: Peter Medak. Chris Eccleston, Paul Let’s Do It Again (1953) C-95m. ★★★ D: Reynolds, Tom Courtenay, Tom Bell, Eileen Alexander Hall. Jane Wyman, Ray Milland, Atkins, Clare Holman, Mark McGann, MiAldo Ray, Leon Ames, Tom Helmore. chael Gough, Ronald Fraser, James Villiers, Musical remake of THE AWFUL TRUTH Murray Melvin, Norman Rossington, Clive with Milland in Cary Grant’s role, Wyman Revill. Absorbing drama based on the true in Irene Dunne’s, and Ray in Ralph Bellastory of Derek Bentley, a slow-witted youth my’s. Songs add to spicy plot, but no who was pulled into a life of crime in postclassic like original ’37 film. Let’s Do It Again (1975) C-112m. ★★★ D: war England and sentenced to death for a murder actually committed by his youthful Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, cohort. Medak’s sympathetic point of view Jimmie Walker, Calvin Lockhart, John is abetted by vivid performances, including Amos, Denise Nicholas, Lee Chamberlain. Eccleston in the lead, and a gallery of top Hilarious follow-up to UPTOWN SATURDAY NIGHT; lodge brothers Poitier and British actors in supporting roles. [R] ▼●쩠 ★★★ Let It Be (1970-British) C-80m. Cosby hypnotize Walker into becoming D: Michael Lindsay-Hogg. John Lennon, Paul great boxer, figuring they can clean up on McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harribets. Yes, it’s an old Bowery Boys [ 797 ]

plot, but still well done. Followed by Lawson, Reff Sanchez, Nestor Paiva. A PIECE OF THE ACTION. [PG]▼쩠 Green’s ham is just right for this outraLet’s Face It (1943) 76m. ★★ D: Sidney Langeous tale of 12-year-old who tries to kill field. Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, ZaSu Pitts, his uncle because his uncle is trying to kill Phyllis Povah, Dave Willock, Eve Arden. him over a $5 million inheritance. Lots of Brassy comedy with loud Hutton competing hokey thrills involving sharks, tarantulas, with Hope for laughs in forced wartime comand the like. Loosely based on Rohan edy of soldiers hired as male companions. O’Grady novel. Let’s Get Harry (1986) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Let’s Make It Legal (1951) 77m. ★★ D: Alan Smithee. Michael Schoeffling, Tom Richard Sale. Claudette Colbert, MacdonWilson, Glen Frey, Gary Busey, Robert ald Carey, Zachary Scott, Robert Wagner, Duvall, Rick Rossovich, Ben Johnson, Matt Barbara Bates, Marilyn Monroe. Trifling Clark, Gregory Sierra, Elpidia Carrillo, comedy in which Colbert divorces Carey Mark Harmon, Jere Burns. Inherently stuand is tempted to wed ex-beau Scott. Monpid, unbelievable action yarn about a solroe is wasted as a bathing beauty.▼쩠 dier of fortune’s attempt to rescue pipeline Let’s Make Love (1960) C-118m. ★★★ D: worker Harmon, who’s been kidnapped George Cukor. Marilyn Monroe, Yves (along with an ambassador) by an underMontand, Tony Randall, Frankie Vaughan, ground group of drug dealers in South Wilfrid Hyde-White, David Burns. BilAmerica. Busey and Duvall give lively lionaire Montand hears of show spoofing performances, but that’s all one can rechim, wants to stop it, then meets the show’s ommend about this turkey. Director Stuart star, Monroe. To charm her, he hires Bing Rosenberg had his name removed from the Crosby to teach him to sing, Milton Berle credits. Barely received theatrical release. to coach on comedy, Gene Kelly to make Video title: THE RESCUE. [R]▼● him dance. Bubbly cast, snappy musical numbers. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Let’s Get Lost (1989) 119m. ★★★ D: Bruce Weber. Chet Baker, jazz trumpeter and Let’s Make Up (1954-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Herbert Wilcox. Errol Flynn, Anna singer from the ‘‘cool’’ school of the 1950s, is the subject of photographer Weber’s Neagle, David Farrar, Kathleen Harrison, high-style, b&w documentary. It’s a fasciPeter Graves. Froth about overimaginative nating (and sometimes disquietingly perNeagle trying to decide between suitors sonal) look at the charismatic musician once Flynn and Farrar. Sean Connery has a bit in referred to as the James Dean of jazz, whose his film debut. Original title: LILACS IN THE SPRING.▼ long involvement with drugs never seemed to deter him from making beautiful music. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971) C-89m. ★★1 Overlong, but worthwhile.▼ ⁄2 D: John Hancock. Zohra Lampert, Let’s Go to Prison (2006) C-90m. BOMB Barton Heyman, Kevin O’Connor, MariD: Bob Odenkirk. Dax Shepard, Will ArClaire Costello, Gretchen Corbett. Creepy nett, Chi McBride, David Koechner, Dylan little tale of murder and deception as unBaker, Michael Shannon. Prisoner vows to stable girl gets full fright-treatment at counget revenge on the judge who put him betry home. [PG]▼쩠 hind bars by framing his wealthy, spoiled Let’s Spend the Night Together (1982) son and introducing him to the horrors of C-94m. ★★ D: Hal Ashby. Tired concert penitentiary life. Quirky, charismatic perfilm, edited from three separate performformers are trapped in a humorless, poorly ances from the Rolling Stones’ 1981 tour. directed, generally deadening film. Even Flirts with excitement only when lookers people who find ‘‘don’t drop the soap in the in appropriate garb help Mick Jagger pershower’’ jokes amusing will probably be form ‘‘Honky Tonk Woman.’’ This is at least bored. Very loosely based on Jim Hogthe third Stones concert film, followed in 2008 by SHINE A LIGHT. [PG]▼● shire’s book You Are Going to Prison. Also Let’s Talk About Men (1965-Italian) 93m. available in unrated version. [R]쩠 ★★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Nino Manfredi, Let’s Hope It’s a Girl (1985-Italian) C-114m. ★★★ D: Mario Monicelli. Liv Luciana Paluzzi, Margaret Lee, Milena Ullmann, Philippe Noiret, Catherine DenVukotic, Patrizia DeClara, Alfredo Baraneuve, Bernard Blier, Giuliana De Sio, chini. Amusing episodic film (four stories Athina Cenci, Stefania Sandrelli. Complex, tied to a fifth): Manfredi competently and funny, seriocomic account of what happens comically plays five different men involved when Count Noiret returns to his former with different women and situations. Made wife (Ullmann) and family and attempts to right after Ettore Scola’s LET’S TALK sell part of their estate. The men all have a ABOUT WOMEN, this took 11 years to variety of faults, and the women can very cross the ocean but was worth the wait. well live without them. Blier is great Let’s Talk About Sex (1998) C-82m. ★1⁄2 as the elderly, hilariously senile uncle. D: Troy Beyer. Troy Beyer, Paget Brewster, Let’s Kill Uncle (1966-British) C-92m. Randi Ingerman, Joseph C. Phillips, Micha★★1⁄2 D: William Castle. Nigel Green, Mary line Babich, Tina Nguyen. Let’s not and say Badham, Pat Cardi, Robert Pickering, Linda we did. Miami advice columnist enlists her [ 798 ]

two roomies to help make a documentary lished letters. Eastwood’s son Kyle cowrote about what women really think about men the score. Coproduced by Eastwood and and sex. Intriguing concept is poorly handled Steven Spielberg. Oscar winner for Sound Editing. Panavision. [R]쩠 with lame attempts at shock humor and mawkish dramatic material. This film would Letters From My Windmill (1954-French) 140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marcel Pagnol. Henri lead you to believe that the peak of sexual freedom derives from all-night, frozenVelbert, Daxely, Yvonne Gamy, Rellys, yogurt–bingeing, teary-eyed confessionals. Robert Vattier, Roger Crouzet. A trio of Directorial debut for actress Beyer, who delights from Pagnol: ‘‘The Three Low also wrote the infantile B*A*P*S. [R]▼● Masses,’’ ‘‘The Elixir of Father Gaucher,’’ Let’s Talk About Women (1964-Italian‘‘The Secret of Master Cornille.’’ The French) 108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ettore Scola. second is best, with monk Rellys leading Vittorio Gassman, Maria Fiore, Donatella his monastery into liquor business. Pagnol Mauro, Giovanna Ralli, Antonella Lualdi, scripted, and the English subtitles were Slyva Koscina, Heidi Stroh, Rosanna penned by Preston Sturges!▼ Ghevardi, Walter Chiari, Eleonora RossiLetter to Brezhnev (1985-British) C-94m. ★★★ Drago, Jean Valerie. Nine-episode comD: Chris Bernard. Peter Firth, Alfred edy with Gassman starring in each, and Molina, Alexandra Pigg, Margi Clarke, encountering a variety of women. Some Neil Cunningham, Ken Campbell, Angela segments better than others; one of the best Clarke, Tracy Lea. Bored, unemployed has Gassman discovering that the prostiPigg and zany girlfriend Margi Clarke meet tute he’s hired is married to an old friend Russian sailors Firth and Molina, who are of his! Lina Wertmuller’s LET’S TALK on leave in dreary Liverpool. There’s the ABOUT MEN came a year later. potential for love, yet in a few hours Letter, The (1940) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wilthey’ll be far apart, perhaps forever. liam Wyler. Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Charming, disarming fable about taking James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort, Gale risks and dreaming dreams, whose many Sondergaard. Lushly photographed Somerassets far outweigh its few defects. Very set Maugham drama set in Malaya, tells of much a product of Liverpool. [R]▼● murderess (Davis) who tries to cover up Letter to Three Wives, A (1949) 103m. ★★★★ D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Jeanne her deed by pleading self-defense. Davis quite appealing in her unsympathetic role. Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk DVD offers an alternate ending. Previously Douglas, Paul Douglas, Jeffrey Lynn, filmed in 1929 (also with Herbert Marshall Barbara Lawrence, Connie Gilchrist, Florin cast); remade as THE UNFAITHFUL, ence Bates, Thelma Ritter. Delicious Amerthen again for TV in 1982 with Lee Reicana showing reactions of three women mick. ▼●쩠 who receive a letter from town flirt who Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) has run off with one of their husbands. 90m. ★★★ D: Max Ophuls. Joan Fontaine, Celeste Holm provides the voice of the Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians, Marcel letter’s authoress. Mankiewicz won OsJournet, Art Smith. Lush romantic flavor cars for his terrific script and direction. of direction and performances obscures Based on a novel by John Klempner, cliche´s and improbabilities in story of Fonadapted by Vera Caspary. Remade as a TVM in 1985.▼●쩠 taine’s lifelong infatuation with musician Jourdan.▼● Let the Devil Wear Black (2000) C-89m. ★★1 Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) C-141m. ⁄2 D: Stacy Title. Jonathan Penner, Jac★★★1 ⁄2 D: Clint Eastwood. Ken Watanabe, queline Bisset, Mary-Louise Parker, Jamey Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Sheridan, Philip Baker Hall, Jonathan Banks, Kase, Shido Nakamura, Hiroshi Watanabe, Maury Chaykin, Chris Sarandon. Son of a Takumi Bando, Nae (Yuuki), Mark Moses, deceased millionaire returns to L.A. and Roxanne Hart, Ryan Carnes. Exceptional comes to believe his shady uncle, now linked companion piece to FLAGS OF OUR FAto his mother, murdered his father. Urban THERS depicts the battle of Iwo Jima from thriller based on Hamlet is alternately inthe Japanese point of view: General Kurisightful and silly (the Hamlet character bayashi (Watanabe) is sent to the desolate meets his father’s ghost in a toilet). Penner island to shore up defenses against incomcoscripted with his wife, Title. Worth a ing American forces, knowing full well that look.▼쩠 few, if any, of his soldiers are expected to Let the Good Times Roll (1973) C/B&Wsurvive. Spare, almost pointilistic examina98m. ★★★ D: Sid Levin, Bob Abel. Chuck tion of human behavior in the shadows of Berry, Chubby Checker, Bo Diddley, Little war and death, with Watanabe a tower of Richard, Five Satins, Shirelles, Coasters, quiet strength. Cinematographer Tom Bill Haley and The Comets. Rockumentary Stern’s desaturated colors lend grave elewith flavor and wit. Study of 1950s told gance to the historic events. Screenplay by through incredible compilation of film footIris Yamashita; story by Yamashita and age, and some fine performances by leading Paul Haggis, inspired by Kuribayashi’s pubrock ’n’ rollers of the period in revival con[ 799 ]

certs, highlighted by terrific finale with ecdotes, which he worked into screenplay. Aka VOYAGE EN DOUCE. ▼쩠 Berry and Diddley dueting on ‘‘Johnny B. Liam (2001-British-German) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Goode.’’ Imaginative multi-image wideD: Stephen Frears. Ian Hart, Claire Hackett, screen effects are letterboxed on most TV Anthony Borrows, Anne Reid, David Hart, prints. Multi-Screen. [PG] Megan Burns, Russell Dixon, Julia Deakin, Let the Right One In (2008-Swedish) CBernadette Shortt. Vivid evocation of 1930s 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tomas Alfredson. Ka˚re working-class England, seen through the eyes Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, of a young boy (Borrows) who watches his Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist, Peter Carlfather lose his job, his mother try to maintain berg, Ika Nord, Mikael Rahm, Karl-Robert her pride, his sister take a job, and his priest Lindgren, Patrik Rydmark. Unique gothic and schoolteacher warn him about the sins horror tale set against the snowy backdrop that will have him burning in hell forever. of a suburban town outside of Stockholm. Well done in every respect, with a sharp-eyed There, a lonely 12-year-old boy who’s bulscript by Jimmy McGovern . . . but damaged lied at school finds an unlikely soul mate in by an unsatisfying conclusion. [R]▼쩠 a strange girl who lives in the apartment Lianna (1983) C-110m. ★★★ D: John next door—and turns out to be a vampire. Sayles. Linda Griffiths, Jane Hallaren, Jon Unusual melding of horror and adolescent DeVries, Jo Henderson, Jessica Wight angst in an utterly ordinary setting; adapted MacDonald, Jesse Solomon, Maggie Renzi. by John Ajvide Lindqvist from his novel. Young woman, trapped in an unhappy Artfully staged and photographed in widemarriage, finds herself attracted to another screen, this doles out its moments of shock woman, and tries to come to grips with in leisurely fashion—which magnifies their being lesbian. Writer-director Sayles hasn’t impact when they occur. Super 35. [R]쩠 a false note or an unsure line of dialogue, Let Us Live (1939) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: John though the film goes on a bit too long. As Brahm. Maureen O’Sullivan, Henry Fonda, usual, he’s written himself a good role, as Ralph Bellamy, Alan Baxter, Stanley Ridga film professor; look for Chris Elliott as a es. Weepy melodrama about innocent man lighting technician. [R]▼쩠 Fonda convicted of murder and his girl Liar Liar (1997) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom O’Sullivan trying to clear him. Shadyac. Jim Carrey, Maura Tierney, Jennifer Leviathan (1989) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: George Tilly, Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Donohoe, Pan Cosmatos. Peter Weller, Richard Jason Bernard, Mitchell Ryan, Anne Haney, Crenna, Amanda Pays, Daniel Stern, ErJustin Cooper, Cary Elwes, Randall ‘‘Tex’’ nie Hudson, Michael Carmine, Lisa EilCobb, Cheri Oteri. Unscrupulous lawyer with bacher, Hector Elizondo, Meg Foster. Yet a penchant for lying gets his just deserts when one more dreadful ALIEN clone, this one his neglected son makes a birthday wish that set underwater (like several other 1989 rehis dad has to tell the truth for 24 hours— leases), with a team of men and women and it comes true. Carrey vehicle delivers the imperiled as they toil in the depths of the laughs for his fans, but once the premise unAtlantic. Skip it. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 folds it’s pretty formulaic. Bob Hope lived Levity (2003) C-100m. ★★★ D: Ed Solothrough a similar 24 hours in NOTHING mon. Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan FreeBUT THE TRUTH (1941). [PG-13]▼●쩠 man, Holly Hunter, Kirsten Dunst, Dorian Liar’s Moon (1981) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: DaHarewood, Geoffrey Wigdor, Luke Robertvid Fisher. Matt Dillon, Cindy Fisher, Chrisson. Released from prison after 23 years, a topher Connelly, Hoyt Axton, Maggie Blye, shell-shocked Thornton seeks out the sister Susan Tyrrell, Yvonne DeCarlo, Broderick of the young man he murdered and is taken Crawford, Mark Atkins, Molly McCarthy. in by a storefront preacher/neighborhood Hokey and obvious but still engaging soaper activist (Freeman). Thoughtful, slow-paced of poor Dillon and wealthy Fisher falling rumination on guilt, shame, responsibility, in love, with a ‘‘terrible secret’’ between and redemption doesn’t give its characters them. Director Fisher also wrote the easy solutions to their dilemmas. Directing screenplay. Filmed with two different debut for screenwriter Solomon, better endings; both were released. [PG]▼쩠 known for cowriting the BILL & TED movLibel (1959) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony ies and MEN IN BLACK. Freeman also Asquith. Dirk Bogarde, Olivia de Havilland, executive-produced. [R]▼쩠 Robert Morley, Paul Massie, Wilfrid Le Voyage en Douce (1980-French) C-98m. Hyde-White, Anthony Dawson, Richard ★★1⁄2 D: Michel Deville. Dominique Sanda, Wattis, Millicent Martin. Engrossing if Geraldine Chaplin. What do women talk uninspired filming of Edward Wooll’s vinabout when men aren’t around? Friends tage play about a baronet (and former Sanda and Chaplin travel to the South of prisoner of war) who is challenged in court France; they gab, flirt, tell each other lies. to prove his identity—which turns out to Sometimes witty, but ultimately disappointbe unusually difficult. Metroscope. ing; director Deville asked 15 French writers Libeled Lady (1936) 98m. ★★★★ D: Jack of both sexes to provide him with sexual anConway. Jean Harlow, William Powell, [ 800 ]

Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Walter ConLicence to Kill (1989-British) C-133m. ★★★ nolly, Charley Grapewin, Cora Witherspoon. D: John Glen. Timothy Dalton, Carey Wonderful comedy with the four stars workLowell, Robert Davi, Talisa Soto, Anthony ing at full steam: conniving newspaper Zerbe, Frank McRae, Everett McGill, Wayne editor Tracy uses his fiancee (Harlow) and Newton, Benicio Del Toro, Desmond Lleweex-employee (Powell) to get the goods on lyn, David Hedison, Priscilla Barnes. Tough, hot-headed heiress Loy—but everything mean James Bond adventure, with Dalton purgoes wrong. Sit back and enjoy. Screensuing a drug kingpin to avenge an attack on his play by Maurine Watkins, Howard Embest friend. Dazzling stunts, high adventure, mett Rogers, and George Oppenheimer. and a sexy companion for Bond (Lowell) make Remade as EASY TO WED.▼●쩠 this one of the best of the series since Sean Liberation of L. B. Jones, The (1970) Connery’s departure (yet it still lacks that oldC-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Wyler. Lee J. time panache). Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cobb, Anthony Zerbe, Roscoe Lee Browne, Licensed to Kill SEE: Second Best SeLola Falana, Lee Majors, Barbara Herscret Agent in the Whole Wide World License to Drive (1988) C-88m. ★★ D: hey, Yaphet Kotto, Chill Wills. Wyler’s final film is militant tale of racism in the Greg Beeman. Corey Haim, Corey FeldSouth. Some good performances, espeman, Carol Kane, Richard Masur, Heather cially Falana’s, but slow pace and many Graham, Michael Manasseri, Harvey Miller, subplots hurt. [R]▼ Nina Siemaszko, Grant Goodeve, Parley Libertine, The (2005-U.S.-British) CBaer. Noisy teen comedy about a 16-year-old 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Laurence Dunmore. Johnny who’s just flunked his driver’s test, and sneaks Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, his grandfather’s prized car out for a ‘‘dream’’ Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Johnny date that turns into a nightmare. Appealing Vegas, Kelly Reilly, Jack Davenport, Richperformance by Haim, and a terrific one by ard Coyle, Francesca Annis, Rupert Friend, the underrated Masur. Uneven comedy; low Claire Higgins. The Earl of Rochester point: a long, tasteless sequence involving a (Depp) promises, ‘‘You will not like me.’’ drunk driver. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Moreover, this witty social gadfly doesn’t License to Wed (2007) C-91m. BOMB D: like himself, as he proves through his creKen Kwapis. Robin Williams, John Krasinatively and sexually self-destructive behavski, Mandy Moore, Christine Taylor, Eric ior. He squanders the goodwill bestowed Christian Olsen, Peter Strauss, Josh Flitter, upon him by King Charles II (Malkovich) DeRay Davis, Grace Zabriskie, Roxanne and tests our patience in this often leaden, Hart, Rachael Harris. Embarrassing comedy drawn-out drama . . . but there’s still somewastes a talented cast in a laughless story thing magnetic about the character as writabout a reverend who puts an unsuspecting ten by Stephen Jeffreys (from his play) and engaged couple through a series of ‘‘tests’’ portrayed by Depp. Super 35. [R]쩠 to determine if they are ready to be married. Liberty Heights (1999) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gag after gag falls hopelessly flat, with one Barry Levinson. Adrien Brody, Ben Foster, involving mechanical babies hitting a new Orlando Jones, Bebe Neuwirth, Joe Manlow, even for this kind of lame-brained aftegna, Rebekah Johnson, David Krumholtz, fair. A comic misfire for Williams, who is Richard Kline, Vincent Guastaferro, Justin basically straitjacketed here. Wanda Sykes appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Chambers, Carolyn Murphy, James Pickens, Jr., Shane West. A family living in a L.I.E. (2001) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Jewish suburb in 1954 Baltimore must deal Cuesta. Brian Cox, Paul Franklin Dano, with changing times and values represented Billy Kay, Bruce Altman, James Costa, by ‘‘the other kind,’’ i.e., gentiles and AfriTony Donnelly. Challenging, perceptive can Americans. Director-writer Levinson’s mood piece about an upper-middle-class fourth Baltimore tale (following DINER, 15-year-old boy who lives near the Long TIN MEN and AVALON) is well mounted Island Expressway: his mother recently died, and has many insightful and humorous mohis sleazy father is mostly absent, and he has ments, but is also surprisingly bland, with become a lost soul. This would seem to make rather pedestrian plot turns and revelations him easy prey for a local Fagin-like pederast named Big John . . . but things aren’t that of character and theme. [R]▼●쩠 Liberty Kid (2008) C-92m. ★★★ D: Ilya simple. Intelligent, believable drama whose Chaiken. Al Thompson, Kareem Savin˜on, characters reveal themselves layer by layer. Johnny Rivera, Fly Williams, Rayniel Rufino, Great performances by Cox and young Anny Mariano, Raquel Jordan, Rosa Ramos. Dano. Written by the director, Gerald Cuesta, and Stephen M. Ryder. [NC-17] ▼쩠 Frank, flavorful slice-of-life about two young New Yorkers, blue-collar workers on LibLiebestraum (1991) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: erty Island (home of the Statue of Liberty), Mike Figgis. Kevin Anderson, Pamela and their plight upon losing their jobs after Gidley, Bill Pullman, Kim Novak, Graham 9/11. Rambles a bit but offers a sobering Beckel, Zach Grenier, Thomas Kopache, Max look at the struggles of the N.Y.C. underPerlich, Catherine Hicks, Taina Elg. An archiclasses. 쩠 tectural writer visits his dying mother in a [ 801 ]

small town, only to get involved in a fortyPowell, Emeric Pressburger. Roger Livesey, year-old sex scandal, his own adultery, and Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook, John Laurie, the demolition of the town’s most distinctive James McKechnie, Neville Mapp. Superb, building by his lover’s husband. So-so matesentimental story of a staunch British soldier, rial with a truly insane title; directed (overdirand incidents that dovetail in his long, eventful ected?) with some style by the maker of life. Opens in WW2 and flashes back as far as STORMY MONDAY. Novak, who’s wasted, the Boer War. Kerr charming as three differspends most of the film bedridden in a ent women in the Colonel’s life. (Title characgloomy hospital. Also available in unrated ter bears no relation to famous David Low version. [R]▼●쩠 caricature buffoon on whom he’s supposedly Lies & Alibis (2006) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kurt based.) Heavily cut for various reissues; often shown in b&w.▼●쩠 Mattila, Matt Checkowski. Steve Coogan, Rebecca Romijn, Selma Blair, James Brolin, Life and Nothing But (1990-French) C-135m. ★★★ D: Bertrand Tavernier. Philippe Sam Elliott, Jaime King, John Leguizamo, James Marsden, Debi Mazar, Henry RolNoiret, Sabine Azema, Pascale Vignal, Maulins, Deborah Kara Unger, Sharon Lawrice Barrier, Franc¸ois Perrot. Two years after rence, Jerry O’Connell, Allan Rich, Jon the WW1 armistice, French Army officer Polito. Coogan plays an entrepreneur who Noiret is still tabulating French casualties and runs a service that provides alibis for cheatidentifying bodies, a job which brings him into ing spouses, but gets in over his head when contact with a wealthy and repressed young a longtime client’s randy son accidentally woman who’s been searching obsessively for kills a woman. Not great by any means but her husband. Subject matter is more compelvery watchable, with a clever denouement ling than the script, which loses its edge; still worthwhile. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 in which all its story threads and characters intersect. It’s also unusual to find a modest Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, The (1976) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Friedenberg. film in which virtually every part, no matter how small, is filled by a familiar actor! Dan Haggerty, Don Shanks, Lisa Jones, Completed in 2004. Super 35. [R]쩠 Marjorie Harper, Bozo. Poorly made, clumLies My Father Told Me (1975-Canadian) sily scripted family/wilderness saga, about 1 ★★★ C-102m. fur trapper innocently pursued for crime, ⁄2 D: Jan Kadar. Yossi Yadin, Len Birman, Marilyn Lightstone, Jeffrey who finds peace in the mountains where he Lynas. Tender film about young boy in befriends a massive bear. Followed by THE Canadian-Jewish ghetto of the 1920s who MARK OF THE BEAR in 1991, GRIZZLY idolizes his grandfather, a simple, oldMOUNTAIN in 1998, the 1982 made-forfashioned junk collector. Author Ted Allan TV movie THE CAPTURE OF GRIZZLY ADAMS and a TV series. [G]▼ plays Mr. Baumgarten. Simple and moving drama. [PG]▼ Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, The (2000) C/B&W-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Aviva KempLieutenant Wore Skirts, The (1956) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Tashlin. Tom Ewell, ner. Heartfelt but flawed documentary about Sheree North, Rita Moreno, Rick Jason, Hall of Fame baseball player Greenberg. Les Tremayne, Jean Willes. Ewell makes Spotlights his humanity and his travails as a nonsense acceptable as he chases after wife Jew playing in the major leagues during the who reenlisted in service thinking he’d been 1930s and ’40s—but leaves the erroneous drafted again. CinemaScope. impression that he was the only Jewish ballLife (1999) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ted Demme. player of this period. Among the interviewEddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Obba Baees: Alan Dershowitz, Walter Matthau, and batunde´, Ned Beatty, Bernie Mac, Miguel several of Greenberg’s ballplayer contemporaries.▼쩠 A. Nun˜ez, Jr., Clarence Williams III, Bokeem Woodbine, Nick Cassavetes, Anthony Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, The Anderson, Barry Shabaka Henley, Poppy (1972) C-120m. ★★★ D: John Huston. Paul Montgomery, Noah Emmerich, Rick James, Newman, Ava Gardner, Victoria Principal, R. Lee Ermey, Lisa Nicole Carson. A slick Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Tab Harlem pickpocket and a none-too-bright Hunter, John Huston, Stacy Keach, Roddy patsy meet up in the early 1930s and are McDowall, Ned Beatty, Dick (Richard) Farnsrailroaded into a Mississippi prison, where worth. Tongue-in-cheek Western saga with they spend the next 55 years. Broad comedy surrealistic touches. Newman plays self-apis juxtaposed against unexpectedly poignant pointed ‘‘Judge’’ who rules over barren terriand serious moments in this episodic film; tory, encountering various colorful characters not always on target, but entertaining just as town grows and matures. Engaging cameos the same. Murphy and Lawrence are very by Keach, Huston, McDowall, and Gardner funny, and age believably in Rick Baker’s as Lillie Langtry. Written by John Milius. makeup. [R]▼●쩠 [PG]▼●쩠 Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The (2004) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wes Anderson. The SEE: Nicholas Nickleby (1947) Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, ★★★★ (1943-British) C-163m. D: Michael Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Gold[ 802 ]

blum, Michael Gambon, Bud Cort, Seu duced and adapted by Nunnally Johnson Jorge, Seymour Cassel. A Jacques Cousfrom Emlyn Williams’ play. teau–like figure who’s seen better days tries Life Begins for Andy Hardy (1941) 100m. ★★★ to regain his professional footing when into D: George B. Seitz. Mickey Rooney, his life comes a young man who may or Lewis Stone, Judy Garland, Fay Holden, may not be his son from a 30-year-old relaAnn Rutherford, Sara Haden, Patricia Dane, tionship. Droll, quirky comedy expands on Ray McDonald. Andy decides to get a job ideas and themes from Anderson’s other in the Big Apple before starting college films, but it’s his oddest, most elusive and and is confronted with the harsh realities self-indulgent work to date. Devotees will of life and love. Unusually adult and cynienjoy Murray’s deadpan performance, the cal addition to the series. Garland’s third vocal-and-guitar renditions of David Bowie and final appearance; her songs were cut(!) songs by Jorge (from CITY OF GOD), and from the finished film.▼● Henry Selick’s animated sea creatures; othLifeboat (1944) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alfred ers may flounder. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Hitchcock. Tallulah Bankhead, William Life as a House (2001) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bendix, Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, Irwin Winkler. Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Thomas, Hayden Christensen, Jena Malone, Hume Cronyn, Canada Lee. Penetrating Mary Steenburgen, Mike Weinberg, Jamey revelations about shipwreck survivors adrift Sheridan, Scott Bakula, Sam Robards. Talk in lonely lifeboat during WW2. Bankhead about a midlife crisis: Kline is divorced, his remarkable as spoiled journalist, Slezak fine teenage son won’t speak to him (or anyone as Nazi taken aboard. Only Hitchcock would else in the family), he’s just been fired, and take on the challenge of such a film—and he learns he’s dying of cancer. So he desucceed. Jo Swerling adapted John Steincides to build his dream house and enlist his beck’s original story. Remade as a 1993 TVM, LIFEPOD. ▼●쩠 son’s help, in order to bond with the boy. Uneven film benefits from Kline’s comLifeforce (1985) C-101m. ★★ D: Tobe manding performance; manages to push Hooper. Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank some emotional buttons, but goes for the Finlay, Mathilda May, Patrick Stewart, obvious and wraps things up too neatly. InMichael Gothard. Completely crazy sciencespired by Akira Kurosawa’s IKIRU. Panafiction yarn starts as outer space saga, then vision. [R] ▼쩠 becomes a vampire movie, then turns into Life at the Top (1965-British) 117m. ★★1⁄2 an end-of-the-world story! Ridiculous, to D: Ted Kotcheff. Laurence Harvey, Jean say the least, but so bizarre, it’s fascinatSimmons, Honor Blackman, Michael Craig, ing: people disintegrate, London is overDonald Wolfit, Robert Morley, Margaret run by zombies, and controlling it all is a Johnston, Nigel Davenport. Follow-up to beautiful nude space vampiress! Don’t say ROOM AT THE TOP picks up the acwe didn’t warn you. Based on Colin Wilcount a decade later; film lacks flavor or son’s novel Space Vampires. Foreign relife—best moments are flashbacks to Siglease version running 116m. available on noret-Harvey romance.▼ video. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Life Before Her Eyes, The (2008) C-90m. Lifeguard (1976) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Daniel ★★1 ⁄2 D: Vadim Perelman. Uma Thurman, Petrie. Sam Elliott, Anne Archer, Kathleen Evan Rachel Wood, Eva Amurri, Gabrielle Quinlan, Stephen Young, Parker Stevenson, Brennan, Brett Cullen, Oscar Isaac, Jack Steve Burns, Sharon Weber. After his 15-year Gilpin, Maggie Lacey. Two girlfriends high school reunion, Elliott can’t decide (Wood and Amurri) share their hopes and whether to chuck the title job to become a dreams—until an outbreak of violence at salesman. Slight drama resembles made-fortheir high school changes the course of their TV movie, but attractive cast and locations make it pleasant enough. [PG]▼쩠 lives in an instant. This is paralleled by scenes from Wood’s later life as a wife and Life Is a Bed of Roses (1983-French) mother (Thurman) who is tormented by the C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Resnais. Vittorio upcoming anniversary of that school inciGassman, Ruggero Raimondi, Geraldine dent. Compelling but elliptical drama, based Chaplin, Fanny Ardant, Pierre Arditi, Sabine on Laura Kasischke’s novel, leads to an unAzema. Enchanting, magical, original fable satisfying conclusion that poses more quesparalleling the stories of wealthy Raimondi tions than it answers . . . yet it can’t building a ‘‘temple of happiness’’ circa completely negate the interesting drama that WW1, and a conference on alternative educahas unfolded. Panavision. [R]쩠 tion at that site in the present day. Resnais and Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942) 85m. screenwriter Jean Gruault beautifully illustrate ★★★ D: Irving Pichel. Monty Woolley, Ida that there are no simple solutions to problems, Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Sara Allgood, Melthat those who impose their ideas of perfecville Cooper, J. Edward Bromberg. Drunken tion on the world are just as dangerous as those who cause disorder. [PG]쩠 washed-up actor Woolley disrupts daughter Lupino’s life. Highlight is scene of Life Is a Long Quiet River (1987-French) Woolley as intoxicated Santa Claus. ProC-95m. ★★★ D: Etienne Chatiliez. Benoit [ 803 ]

Magimel, Valerie Lalande, Tara Romer, way to make these two fated souls fall in love. Jerome Floch, Sylvie Cubertafon, EmmanFans of the two likable stars will perhaps be uel Cendrier. A mixup of babies is remore forgiving than others of this oddball, vealed twelve years after the fact, and two sporadically funny outing from the SHALvery different families must learn to deal LOW GRAVE/TRAINSPOTTING team. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 with the life-changing events it causes. Delightful French comedy that examines Life of Brian (1979-British) C-93m. ★★★ the differences between the lower class D: Terry Jones. Graham Chapman, John and the bourgeois. Wry, winning directoCleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry rial debut for Chatiliez.▼ Jones, Michael Palin. This Monty Python Life Is Beautiful (1997-Italian) C-116m. religious parable will probably offend ev★★★1 ery denomination equally, but it shouldn’t. ⁄2 D: Roberto Benigni. Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Story of a man whose life parallels Christ Durano, Sergio Bustric, Marisa Paredes, Horst is the funniest and most sustained feature Buchholz. Extraordinary film by comedy star from Britain’s bad boys. [R]▼●쩠 Benigni about an irrepressible spirit who reLife of David Gale, The (2003) C-130m. ★★★ fuses to ever give in to adversity, even when D: Alan Parker. Kevin Spacey, Kate he is taken to a concentration camp with his Winslet, Laura Linney, Gabriel Mann, Matt wife (Benigni’s real-life wife, Braschi) and Craven, Rhona Mitra, Leon Rippy, Elizayoung son. He determines that the boy will be beth Gast, Cleo King, Jim Beaver. Abshielded from the horrors around them—and sorbing tale of a man on death row (Spacey) somehow finds a way to do it. A unique and who requests a specific newsmagazine rebeguiling fable that celebrates the human porter (Winslet) to interview him during the spirit. Benigni cowrote with Vincenzo Cerlast days of his life. In flashback, we learn ami. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language the story of this passionate activist for the Film, Best Actor, Best Score (Nicola Piovani). abolition of capital punishment, and how his Original title: LA VITA E BELLA. [PGlife falls apart, but that still doesn’t explain 13]▼●쩠 his conviction for murder—at first. A good Life Is Cheap . . . but Toilet Paper Is yarn that may not stand up to close scrutiny. ★★ J-D-C Scope. [R]▼쩠 Expensive (1990) C-89m. D: Wayne Wang. Spenser Nakasako, Lo Wai, Cora Life of Emile Zola, The (1937) 116m. ★★★★ Miao, Victor Wong, Cheng Kwan Min. D: William Dieterle. Paul Muni, Courier is sent to Hong Kong with metal Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Globriefcase handcuffed to his wrist; upon ria Holden, Donald Crisp, Erin O’Brienarrival, he’s unable to deliver his mysteriMoore, Morris Carnovsky, Louis Calhern, ous attache´, so he decides to take in the Harry Davenport, Marcia Mae Jones, Dickie colorful sights of the city instead. ExMoore, Ralph Morgan. Sincere biography tremely bizarre, graphic, and dense little of famed 19th-century French writer who film, of interest mainly to fans of filmrose to cause of wrongly exiled Captain maker Wang. Some bloody scenes threatDreyfus (Schildkraut); detailed production ened to earn this an X rating, so the film filled with fine vignettes. Won Oscars for was released unrated and visually intact. Best Picture, Screenplay (Norman Reilly Life Is Sweet (1991-British) C-102m. ★★★ Raine, Geza Herczeg, and Heinz Herald), Supporting Actor (Schildkraut).▼●쩠 D: Mike Leigh. Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Life of Her Own, A (1950) 108m. ★★1⁄2 Stephen Rea, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis. D: George Cukor. Lana Turner, Ray Milland, Another slice of working-class life from Tom Ewell, Louis Calhern, Ann Dvorak, Leigh, focusing on an endearing couple and Margaret Phillips, Jean Hagen, Barry Sullitheir iconoclastic twin daughters—one of van, Phyllis Kirk. Turner is at the center of whom (Horrocks) is waist-deep in selfthree-cornered romance leading to heartbreak loathing. More a series of vignettes than a for all. MGM fluff; Dvorak wraps it up with conventional story, and filled with deliher expert portrayal of an aging model. Broniciously offbeat humor; not for every taste, slau Kaper’s musical theme was later reused but a bittersweet treat for fans of Leigh’s for his classic INVITATION.▼ work. Leading lady Steadman was then the Life of Oharu, The (1952-Japanese) 146m. ★★1 director’s wife.▼● ⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Kinuyo Tanaka, Life Less Ordinary, A (1997-British) Toshiro Mifune, Hisako Yamane, Yuriko C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Danny Boyle. Ewan Hamada, Ichiro Sugai. Cliche´d account McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, of beautiful Tanaka, banished for loving a Delroy Lindo, Ian Holm, Ian McNeice, samurai (Mifune, in a small role) below Stanley Tucci, Dan Hedaya, Tony Shalhoub, her station, ending up an aged prostitute. Maury Chaykin, Judith Ivey. Black comedy Also shown at 118m. and known as DIARY about a janitor who kidnaps his ex-boss’s OF OHARU.▼● daughter, a spoiled heiress who finds life a Life on a String (1991-Chinese-Britishbore. Meanwhile, two emissaries from German) C-110m. ★★★ D: Chen Kaige. Liu Heaven (Hunter and Lindo) have to find a Zhong Yuan, Huang Lei, Xu Qing, Ma Ling, [ 804 ]

Zhang Zhengguan. Lyrical, beautifully filmed Thoolen, Hans Veerman. Sleek horror thriller tale of a blind boy who’s told by his master set in a new highrise, where the elevators are that his sight will be restored if he devotes his involved in a suspicious number of accidents. life to music; he becomes a saintly old man Maas is a better director than writer; smoothly (still without sight) who travels from village made, suspenseful, and witty, but talky, with to village with his young disciple singing no satisfactory explanation for the bizarre songs, which he finds spiritually nurturing. events. Remade by the director in 2001 as THE SHAFT. [R] ▼● Thoughtful film crammed with poetic imagery, soundtrack of wonderful folk songs. ▼쩠 Light at the Edge of the World, The Life or Something Like It (2002) C-103m. (1971-Spanish-Liechtensteinian) C-119m. ★★ ★1 D: Stephen Herek. Angelina Jolie, Ed⁄2 D: Kevin Billington. Kirk Douglas, Yul ward Burns, Tony Shalhoub, Christian Kane, Brynner, Samantha Eggar, Jean-Claude DruJames Gammon, Melissa Errico, Stockard out, Fernando Rey. Amidst their fight for Channing, Lisa Thornhill, Gregory Itzin. possession of an island, lighthouse keeper Career-driven Seattle TV reporter is told by Douglas and sea pirate Brynner battle it a street prophet that she has one week to out for affections of shipwreck victim live. A down-to-earth cameraman tries to Eggar. Jules Verne tale has some exciteshow her what life is really about, even as a ment, but is more often unintentionally tempting job offer looms in N.Y.C. Romanfunny. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 tic comedy gives Jolie a good opportunity to Lighthorsemen, The (1987-Australian) show her lighter side, with Burns a likable C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Simon Wincer. Jon leading man, but logic goes out the window Blake, Peter Phelps, Nick Wateres, Tony as the story builds to a pat and improbable Bonner, Bill Kerr, John Walton, Tim Mcresolution. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Kenzie, Sigrid Thornton, Anthony AnLife Stinks (1991) C-95m. ★★ D: Mel drews. Saga of the Australian Light Horse Brooks. Mel Brooks, Lesley Ann Warren, Brigade, and their involvement in a dauntJeffrey Tambor, Stuart Pankin, Howard Moring desert campaign during WW1. Sweeping ris, Rudy De Luca, Teddy Wilson, Michael widescreen adventure, stunningly filmed, but Ensign, Matthew Faison, Billy Barty, Carmarred by simplistic characterizations, and mine Caridi. Money-hungry developer Brooks overlength (though trimmed for U.S. retakes a bet that he won’t survive on the streets lease). Climactic charge on Beersheba is of L.A. for one month without a cent. Usual genuinely exciting. Original Australian runBrooks smorgasbord of gags, but the success ning time: 128m. Panavision. [PG]▼● rate is pretty low. Attempts to make meaningLight in the Forest, The (1958) C-93m. ★★★ ful statement about homelessness are thin at D: Herschel Daugherty. James Macbest, tasteless at worst. Brooks also cowrote Arthur, Carol Lynley, Fess Parker, Wenthe screenplay. [PG-13]▼●쩠 dell Corey, Joanne Dru, Jessica Tandy, Life With Father (1947) C-118m. ★★★★ Joseph Calleia, John McIntire. Absorbing D: Michael Curtiz. William Powell, Irene Disney for young people, from Conrad RichDunne, Elizabeth Taylor, Edmund Gwenn, ter’s story of a white boy, raised by Indians, ZaSu Pitts, Jimmy Lydon, Martin Milner. who has difficulty readjusting to life with his Rich adaptation of long-running Broadway real parents. Lynley’s film debut.▼● play (by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse) Light in the Jungle (1990) C-89m. ★★ D: based on Clarence Day’s story of growing up Gray Hofmeyer. Malcolm McDowell, in turn-of-the-century N.Y.C. with his loving Susan Strasberg, Andrew Davis, John Carbut eccentric father. Utterly delightful, and a son, Helen Jessop, Henry Cele, Patrick handsome production as well. Screenplay by Shai. Languid story of Nobel prize winner Donald Ogden Stewart.▼●쩠 Albert Schweitzer’s years as a doctor in AfLife With Mikey (1993) C-91m. ★★★ D: rica, where he battles both the superstitions James Lapine. Michael J. Fox, Christina of the natives and the interference of his Vidal, Nathan Lane, Cyndi Lauper, David European benefactors. Inspired visuals, but Krumholtz, David Huddleston, Victor choppy storytelling hampers this potentially Garber, Tony Hendra. Former child TV interesting bio. [PG]▼ star Fox lackadaisically runs a Manhattan Light in the Piazza (1962) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 talent agency for kids with his more dediD: Guy Green. Olivia de Havilland, Roscated brother. Then he tries to turn 10-yearsano Brazzi, Yvette Mimieux, George old pickpocket Vidal into a star of cookie Hamilton, Barry Sullivan. Splendid soaper commercials and finds himself fired up in about mother who’s anxious to marry off the process. Funny film, with serious overretarded daughter but isn’t sure she’s being tones, is a perfect vehicle for Fox and fair to suitor. Beautifully filmed on location appealing newcomer Vidal. Audition scenes in Italy. Screenplay by Julius Epstein, from are particularly good. Ruben Blades appears Elizabeth Spencer’s novel. Later a Broadunbilled as Vidal’s father. [PG]▼●쩠 way musical. CinemaScope. 1 ★★ Light It Up (1999) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Craig Lift, The (1983-Dutch) C-98m. ⁄2 D: Dick Maas. Huub Stapel, Willeke Van AmmelBolotin. Usher Raymond, Forest Whitaker, rooy, Josine Van Dalsum, Pret Romer, Gerard Marcello Robinson, Rosario Dawson, Robert [ 805 ]

Ri’chard, Judd Nelson, Fredro Starr, Sara Gilpersonal problems threaten to tear the fambert, Glynn Turman, Vanessa L. Williams. ily apart. Rowlands, in a gratuitous subplot, Well-intentioned but preachy drama about a plays their dying mother. Real-life rock star group of N.Y.C. students who occupy their Jett steals the movie with her compelling perhigh school after their favorite teacher is unformance, but the film degenerates as it goes fairly suspended and a police officer is accidenalong. Occasional sparks can’t save Schradtally shot. Attempts to deal with a number of er’s muddled script. [PG-13] ▼● serious issues, but results are forced and meloLightship, The (1985) C-89m. ★★ D: Jerzy dramatic. Written by the director. [R]▼쩠 Skolimowski. Robert Duvall, Klaus Maria Lightning in a Bottle (2004) C-106m. Brandauer, Tom Bower, Robert Costanzo, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Antoine Fuqua. Spirited BluesBadja Djola, William Forsythe, Arliss Howtribute concert film, staged in 2003 at Radio ard, Michael Lyndon. Duvall, practically City Music Hall, opens with an onstage unrecognizable, gives an outrageously inintro by Martin Scorsese (who also coexecventive performance as a slimy homosexutive produced). Then it rips up the joint. ual thug in this otherwise muddled, pretenWhat little backstage material there is proves tiously symbolic saga of a trio of criminals compelling, but director Fuqua wisely lets the who besiege Brandauer’s lightship. Narraperformers dominate a roughly chronological tion, spoken by Brandauer’s son (Lyndon— history featuring both veteran and contemporeal-life son of Skolimowski), is laughably hokey. [PG-13]▼쩠 rary performers. For a blues movie, smileyface moments abound: Natalie Cole surprises Light Sleeper (1992) C-103m. ★★★ D: with a super-charged ‘‘St. Louis Blues,’’ Paul Schrader. Willem Dafoe, Susan Saranwhile veterans B. B. King and Solomon don, Dana Delany, David Clennon, Mary Burke prove they can still belt, even though Beth Hurt, Victor Garber, Jane Adams, they’re sitting down. [PG-13] 쩠 Paul Jabara, Sam Rockwell, David Spade. Lightning Jack (1994-Australian) C-93m. Quintessential Schrader Lonely Guy film, ★★ D: Simon Wincer. Paul Hogan, Cuba with Dafoe an aging sadsack who wants Gooding, Jr., Beverly D’Angelo, Kamala more out of life than his dead-end job taxiDawson, Pat Hingle, Richard Riehle, Frank ing cocaine to upscale users in N.Y. Well McRae, Roger Daltrey, L. Q. Jones, Max performed by all, and with surprising dashes Cullen. Hogan attempts to repeat his of loopy humor—though leading to an inev‘‘CROCODILE’’ DUNDEE success with itable bloodbath given the standard bluethis amiable but obvious, undistinguished print for most Schrader movies. Quite the Western/comedy. He’s the whole show in his image-altering showcase for Delany. [R] role as two-bit desperado Lightning Jack ▼●쩠 Kane, but all his charm can’t save it. Gooding Light That Failed, The (1939) 97m. ★★★ is his mute sidekick. Hogan also scripted and D: William Wellman. Ronald Colman, Walcoproduced. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ter Huston, Ida Lupino, Dudley Digges, Lightning Swords of Death (1974-JapaMuriel Angelus, Fay Helm, Francis Mcnese) C-83m. ★★★ D: Kenji Misumi. Donald. Fine cast in Kipling melodrama of Tomisaburo Wakayama, Masahiro TomiLondon artist Colman going blind, deterkawa, Goh Kato. Discredited samurai roams mined to finish portrait of Lupino, whose medieval Japan pushing his young son ahead florid Cockney performance steals film. Light Years (1988-French) C-71m. ★★ D: of him in baby cart in this edited entry from Sword of Vengeance series. Unending Rene Laloux. Voices of Glenn Close, Chrisaction and beautifully staged fights, with topher Plummer, Jennifer Grey, John Shea, climactic battle rivaling finale of THE WILD David Johansen, Terrence Mann, Penn and BUNCH. Very bloody, though; followed Teller. Pretentious animated sci-fi fantasy, by SHOGUN ASSASSIN. Inexplicably about a prince who time-travels into the available on DVD as SHOGUN ASSASfuture; he’s surrounded by characters named Ambisextra, Metamorphosis, Chief of the SIN II. Shawscope. [R]쩠 Lightning, the White Stallion (1986) Deformed, and The Collective Voice (so C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: William A. Levey. Mickey you know this wasn’t made with young Rooney, Isabel Lorca, Susan George, Billy children in mind). The animation is nothWesley. Extremely weak family fare with ing special, and the talky script is by none Rooney a wealthy man whose racehorse is other than Isaac Asimov. [PG]▼● stolen. The Mick can’t save it. [PG]▼쩠 Light Years Away (1981-French-Swiss) C-105m. ★★★ D: Alain Tanner. Trevor Light of Day (1987) C-107m. ★★ D: Paul Schrader. Michael J. Fox, Gena RowHoward, Mick Ford, Bernice Stegers, Henri lands, Joan Jett, Michael McKean, Thomas Vorlogeux. Irritable old Howard, who reG. Waites, Cherry Jones, Michael Dolan, sides in a deserted, dilapidated gas staJason Miller, Michael Rooker. Family angst tion, becomes the mentor of drifter Ford. movie masquerading as a rock ’n’ roll tale. Thoughtful yarn is well acted by its two Jett and Fox are sister and brother who leads. Filmed in Ireland. perform together in a local Cleveland band Like a Turtle on Its Back (1978-French) that starts to gain some recognition, just as C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luc Beraud. Jean-Francois [ 806 ]

Stevenin, Bernadette Lafont, Virginie ert Strauss. Lively Gene DePaul–Johnny Mercer musical based on Broadway version Thevenet, Veronique Silver, Claude Millof Al Capp’s comic strip; loud and brassy, er. Uneven yet absorbing tale of blocked with corny comedy, some good songs. Stubby writer Stevenin’s efforts to create, offering Kaye is fine as Marryin’ Sam; other Dogpatch a hint of the real struggle a writer must characters vividly enacted. Look sharp for make to pound out meaningful sentences young Valerie Harper and Beth Howland on his typewriter. among the chorus girls. VistaVision.▼쩠 Like Father, Like Son (1987) C-98m. Lilacs in the Spring SEE: Let’s Make Up BOMB D: Rod Daniel. Dudley Moore, Lila Says (2005-French-Italian-British) CKirk Cameron, Margaret Colin, Catherine 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ziad Doueiri. Vahina GioHicks, Patrick O’Neal, Sean Astin. Heart cante, Mohammed Khouas, Karim Ben surgeon accidentally sprinkles an ancient Haddou, Lotfi Chakri, Hamid Dkhissi, CarIndian potion into his Bloody Mary and men Lebbos, Edmonde Franchi. A Marpresto!—he and his teenage son have someseille teenager on the brink of manhood how switched identities. Moore’s mugging thinks about becoming a writer, but he’s talents get a major workout in this Hall of broke, ghettoized, and pressured by his Fame embarrassment, first of four 1987/1988 peers to remain a loser . . . until he meets a comedies to utilize an adult-teen switchblonde bombshell who sparks his literary eroo theme. [PG-13]▼●쩠 fuse, and then some. Faintly surreal saga Like Mike (2002) C-99m. ★★★ D: John of contemporary French-Arabian relations Schultz. Lil’ Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, stays lightweight and nymphet-fixated until Jonathan Lipnicki, Robert Forster, Crispin its inevitable bittersweet ending. Written by Glover, Eugene Levy, Brenda Song, Jesse the director. [R]쩠 Plemons, Anne Meara. Cute film for kids Lili (1953) C-81m. ★★★★ D: Charles Walabout an orphaned boy who acquires sneakters. Leslie Caron, Mel Ferrer, Zsa Zsa ers that may have belonged to Michael JorGabor, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Amanda Blake, dan and turns into a basketball-playing Kurt Kasznar. Enchanting musical with phenomenon . . . but what he really wants is Leslie as French orphan who attaches hera father. Engaging, well cast, and family self to carnival and self-pitying puppeteer friendly, with a notable absence of crude Ferrer. Bronislau Kaper’s Oscar-winning score humor, bad language, and violence. Film includes ‘‘Hi Lili, Hi Lo.’’ Helen Deutsch debut for hip-hop recording sensation Lil’ scripted, from Paul Gallico’s story. Later a Bow Wow. Many basketball stars appear as Broadway musical, Carnival. ▼● themselves. Followed by a direct-to-video Lilies of the Field (1963) 93m. ★★★ D: sequel. [PG] ▼쩠 Ralph Nelson. Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Like Water for Chocolate (1992-Mexican) Lisa Mann, Isa Crino, Stanley Adams. A C-113m. ★★★ D: Alfonso Arau. Lumi ‘‘little’’ film that made good, winning Poitier Cavazos, Marco Leonardi, Regina Torne, an Oscar as handyman who helps build chapel Mario Ivan Martinez, Ada Carrasco. Strikfor Skala and her German-speaking nuns. ing and sensuous film (from a novel by Quiet, well acted, enjoyable. Director Nelson Laura Esquivel, the director’s then-wife), followed this with a TV movie, CHRISTset in the early part of the 20th century: a MAS LILIES OF THE FIELD.▼●쩠 young woman’s life is shaped first by her Lili Marleen (1981-German) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 stern and unyielding mother, and more D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Hanna important, by the overwhelming power of Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, Mel Ferrer, cooking. Sumptuous fable—not without Karl Heinz von Hassel, Christine Kaufmann, humor—with a good cast and a top-notch perHark Bohm, Karin Baal, Udo Kier. Secondformance from lead actress Cavazos. Pirate Fassbinder about third-rate cabaret singer quant, sometimes mystical, and enjoyably Schygulla, whose recording of the title song unpredictable. Original running time was becomes a hit in Nazi Germany. Intriguing 144m. ▼●쩠 subject matter is pretentiously handled. [R] Li’l Abner (1940) 78m. ★1⁄2 D: Albert S. Lilith (1964) 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Rossen. Rogell. Granville Owen, Martha O’Driscoll, Warren Beatty, Jean Seberg, Peter Fonda, Mona Ray, Johnnie Morris, Buster Keaton, Kim Hunter, Jessica Walter, Anne MeaKay Sutton. Actors in grotesque makeup cham, Gene Hackman, Rene Auberjonois. bring Al Capp’s Dogpatch comic strip charFairly faithful version of controversial J. R. acters to life, but despite the presence of Salamanca novel about a novice therapist many silent comedy veterans (Keaton, Edgar who falls in love with a troubled patient. A Kennedy, Chester Conklin, Billy Bevan, Al probing if not altogether satisfying look at St. John, to name a few) there’s nary a laugh the many facets of madness—and love. Diin sight. Later musical is much better.▼쩠 rector-writer Rossen’s last film.▼쩠 Li’l Abner (1959) C-113m. ★★★ D: MelLillian Russell (1940) 127m. ★★ D: Irving vin Frank. Peter Palmer, Leslie Parrish, Cummings. Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Henry Stubby Kaye, Howard St. John, Julie Fonda, Edward Arnold, Warren William, Leo Newmar, Stella Stevens, Billie Hayes, RobCarrillo, Nigel Bruce. Strained bio of early [ 807 ]

20th-century star; lavish backgrounds and teenage daughter (Martinez), who’s filled weak plotline diminish Faye’s vehicle; Arnold with self-loathing and tired of her mother’s repeats his Diamond Jim Brady role with mercurial relationships. Surprising, intelligent, and richly textured. [R]▼쩠 gusto. 쩠 Lilo & Stitch (2002) C-85m. ★★★ D: Chris Limelight (1952) 145m. ★★★ D: Charles Sanders, Dean DeBlois. Voices of Daveigh Chaplin. Charles Chaplin, Claire Bloom, Chase, Christopher Michael Sanders, Tia Nigel Bruce, Buster Keaton, Sydney ChapCarrere, Kevin McDonald, Ving Rhames, lin, Norman Lloyd. Sentimental story of David Ogden Stiers, Zoe Caldwell, Jason aging, washed-up music hall clown (ChapScott Lee, Kevin Michael Richardson. Forlin) who saves ballerina Bloom from suilorn Hawaiian girl being raised by her older cide and regains his own confidence while sister finds an unlikely friend at the dog building her up. Overlong, indulgent Chaplin pound: a monstrous alien whom she names effort still has many moving scenes, historic Stitch. Meanwhile, emissaries from Stitch’s teaming of Chaplin and Keaton in comedy planet have landed on earth to retrieve the skit. Young Geraldine Chaplin (the director’s destructive little fellow. Lively Disney cardaughter) makes her film debut as a street toon feature takes time to warm up to— urchin. This won an Oscar for its score in since Stitch is so mean-spirited—but even1972, the year in which it was first eligible tually wins you over. Unique character defor the competition—because it had not been shown in an L.A. theater until then!▼●쩠 sign and beautiful watercolor backgrounds are major assets. Followed by two direct-toLimey, The (1999) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven video sequels and a TV series. [PG] ▼쩠 Soderbergh. Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, ★★★ Lilya 4-Ever (2002-Swedish) C-109m. Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzman, Barry D: Lukas Moodysson. Oksana Akinshina, Newman, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Artiom Bogucharskij, Elina Benenson, Lilia Amelia Heinle. A taciturn Britisher, just out Sinkarjova, Pavel Ponomarjov. Obvious but of prison, comes to L.A. to avenge the susstinging account of an adolescent girl picious death of his daughter, who fell (Akinshina) who lives in what once was the under the spell of a sleazy music magnate Soviet Union and yearns to go to America, (Fonda). Stylish and understated, with great but is abandoned and abused by everyone use of L.A. locations, but the story at the around her, starting with her mother. Of the core isn’t all that interesting. Stamp appears countless films that have focused on child in flashbacks lifted from his 1967 film abuse, few are as edgy or as memorable. [R] POOR COW. [R]▼●쩠 Lily in Love (1985-U.S.-Hungarian) CLimits of Control, The (2009) C-116m. ★1 103m. ★1⁄2 D: Karoly Makk. Christopher ⁄2 D: Jim Jarmusch. Isaach De Bankole´, ´ scar Plummer, Maggie Smith, Elke Sommer, Alex Descas, Jean-Franc¸ois Ste´venin, O Adolph Green, Szabo Sandor. Flat, unfunny Jaenada, Luis Tosar, Paz de la Huerta, Tilda (and uncredited) reworking of Molnar’s Swinton, Youki Kudoh, John Hurt, Gael THE GUARDSMAN and THE CHOCOGarcı´a Bernal, Hiam Abbass, Bill Murray. LATE SOLDIER. Egotistical actor PlumIncomprehensible and downright boring mer disguises himself as an Italian, and drama about a mysterious man with a crimicourts wife Smith. Tries to be charming and nal past who arrives in Spain, ostensibly to sophisticated, but fails dismally despite finish a job. His journey is never quite clear, Plummer and Smith’s efforts. [PG-13]▼● taking him to places that may be real or imagLimbo (1972) C-112m. ★★ D: Mark Robson. ined. Mainly he walks around a lot, encounKathleen Nolan, Kate Jackson, Katherine Justering people who utter clues like, ‘‘Wait tice, Stuart Margolin, Hazel Medina, Russell three days until you see the bread and the Wiggins. Emotional melodrama about three guitar will find you.’’ Indulgent exercise by women, whose husbands are either missing or Jarmusch wastes a talented cast, although captured in Vietnam, who become friends. Swinton, in too brief a cameo, is vibrant and One of the first major Hollywood productions original. Her character sums the whole thing to examine homefront repercussions of the up by saying, ‘‘Sometimes there are films war, but its intentions are better than its results. where people just sit there.’’ [R] Screenplay by Joan (Micklin) Silver and James Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story, The Bridges. Aka WOMEN IN LIMBO. [PG] (1996) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Susan Warms Limbo (1999) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Dryfoos. Outstanding documentary about Sayles. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Al Hirschfeld, the most famous—and duraStrathairn, Vanessa Martinez, Kris Kristofble—caricaturist of the 20th century. The ferson, Casey Siemaszko, Leo Burmester, articulate artist is seen throughout and some Kathryn Grody, Rita Taggart. Novelistic film of his admiring, amused subjects appear, by writer-director Sayles set in modern-day including Lauren Bacall, Carol Channing, Alaska about characters who find themselves Joan Collins and Robert Goulet. Jules Feifat emotional crossroads: a quiet man with a fer offers commentary as well. The highest skeleton in his closet (Strathairn), an itinerant praise possible: the film is truly worthy of nightclub singer (Mastrantonio) with a habit its subject. Beware the hour-long broadcast TV version.▼쩠 of picking rotten male companions, and her [ 808 ]

Line of Fire SEE: Sam’s Song Katharine Hepburn, Jane Merrow, Anthony Lineup, The (1958) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Hopkins, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton, Nigel Siegel. Warner Anderson, Emile Meyer, Stock, John Castle. Brilliant, fierce, and perEli Wallach, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Keith. sonal drama (adapted by James Goldman Expanded version of TV series set in San from his play) of Henry II deliberating over a Francisco, focusing on gun-happy hoodsuccessor on fateful Christmas Eve. Hepburn lum after a cache of dope. Cult favorite co-won Best Actress Oscar for her strong perwith fans of director Siegel. Pretty ordiformance as Eleanor of Aquitaine. Oscars also nary except for final car-chase stunt.쩠 went to Goldman and composer John Barry. Linguini Incident, The (1992) C-98m. Film debuts of Hopkins and Dalton. O’Toole ★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Shepard. Rosanna Arquette, also played Henry II in BECKET. Remade for cable TV in 2004. Panavision. ▼●쩠 David Bowie, Eszter Balint, Andre Gregory, Buck Henry, Viveca Lindfors, Marlee Lion Is in the Streets, A (1953) C-88m.★★1⁄2 Matlin, Lewis Arquette. Even pasta lovers D: Raoul Walsh. James Cagney, Barbara should probably steer clear of this dismal Hale, Anne Francis, Warner Anderson, John trendy-cutesy-quirky caper comedy. Arquette McIntire, Jeanne Cagney, Lon Chaney, Jr., (quite appealing) is a Houdini-obsessed Frank McHugh. Cagney, in a Huey Long waitress at a N.Y.C. restaurant who wants take-off, is lively as a swamp peddler turned to rob the place, Bowie is an illegal alien politician, but rambling screenplay prevents bartender, and Matlin is a cashier. Story film from having much impact. Well photoconcerns magic acts, wagers, and an angraphed by Harry Stradling. ▼●쩠 tique wedding ring. Julian Lennon and Lion King, The (1994) C-88m. ★★★ D: Iman have cameos. [R]▼●쩠 Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff. Voices of JonaLink (1986-British) C-103m. BOMB D: than Taylor Thomas, Matthew Broderick, Richard Franklin. Terence Stamp, ElisaJames Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Moira beth Shue, Steven Pinner, Richard GarKelly, Niketa Calame, Ernie Sabella, Nanett. Primatologist Stamp is experimenting than Lane, Robert Guillaume, Rowan Aton chimps . . . and his activities get prekinson, Madge Sinclair, Whoopi Goldberg, dictably out of hand. A horror film that’s Cheech Marin, Jim Cummings. A lion cub not horrifying, or suspenseful, or even raised to take his father’s place someday as mildly entertaining. [R]▼쩠 king of the jungle is sabotaged by his evil L’Innocente (1976-Italian) SEE: The uncle—and lives in exile until he realizes Innocent his rightful place in the circle of life. With Lion, The (1962) C-96m. ★★ D: Jack Cardistant echoes of BAMBI, this entertaining diff. William Holden, Trevor Howard, Disney cartoon feature (highlighted by Capucine, Pamela Franklin, Samuel RomOscar-winning Elton John–Tim Rice songs boh, Christopher Agunda. Beautiful sceand Oscar-winning music score by Hans nery of Kenya is far better than melodrama Zimmer) has dazzling scenics, some showabout young girl attached to pet lion, with stopping animation, and outstanding voice family concerned it is turning her into a work—but drama so intense (and comedy savage. CinemaScope. so hip), it’s not really for very young viewLionheart (1987) C-104m. ★★★ D: Frankers. Followed by animated TV series, two lin J. Schaffner. Eric Stoltz, Gabriel Byrne, direct-to-video sequels, and a Broadway Nicola Cowper, Dexter Fletcher, Deborah musical. Rereleased in Imax in 2002 at Barrymore, Nicholas Clay. Seeking Rich89m. [G] ▼●쩠 ard the Lionhearted, who’s passing through Lion of the Desert (1981-Libyan-British) France headed for the Crusades, runaway C-162m. ★★★ D: Moustapha Akkad. Anyoung knight Stoltz gradually forms his thony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, John own children’s crusade as more and more Gielgud, Irene Papas, Raf Vallone, Gastone homeless children follow him. Richly proMoschin. Sweeping ‘‘David vs. Goliath’’ duced, well acted, with a superb Jerry spectacle, with Quinn as Omar Mukhtar, Goldsmith score, it’s a shame this sincere, guerrilla leader who stymied Italian forays if slight, film received almost no theatrical into Libya between 1911 and 1931. Steiger release. [PG]▼● is Benito Mussolini. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Lionheart (1991) C-105m. ★★ D: Sheldon Lions for Lambs (2007) C-88m. ★★★ D: Lettich. Jean-Claude Van Damme, DeboRobert Redford. Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep, rah Rennard, Harrison Page, Lisa Pelikan, Robert Redford, Andrew Garfield, Michael Ashley Johnson. By-the-numbers programPen˜a, Derek Luke, Peter Berg, Kevin Dunn. mer with Van Damme deserting the foreign Hotshot senator (Cruise) summons a star legion, becoming a professional streetreporter (Streep) to unveil his plan to attack fighter, and battling a variety of villains. terrorists in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a colOnly for those who like films in which fights lege professor (Redford) tries to inspire a are staged ad nauseam. Aka A.W.O.L. and student with great potential who seems to WRONG BET. [R]▼●쩠 have drifted, even though his last two prote´Lion in Winter, The (1968-British) C-135m. ge´s took his call for involvement to ex★★★★ D: Anthony Harvey. Peter O’Toole, tremes. Unusual chamber piece allows three [ 809 ]

commanding actors to make long, pointed who just happens to be Satan. Truly strange, speeches about everything from Washingsurreal psychological horror tale filled with ton games-playing to empty-headed TV hallucinatory imagery. Re-edited in 1975 as journalism. Short on subtlety but obviously THE HOUSE OF EXORCISM, with gory impassioned. Screenplay by Matthew Minew footage and unrelated scenes with Robert Alda as a priest. ▼●쩠 chael Carnahan. Panavision. [R]쩠 Lipstick (1976) C-89m. BOMB D: Lamont Lisa Picard is Famous (2001) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Griffin Dunne. Laura Kirk, Nat DeJohnson. Margaux Hemingway, Chris Sarandon, Perry King, Anne Bancroft, Robin Wolf, Griffin Dunne, Daniel London. Kirk Gammell, Mariel Hemingway. Gorgeous is a struggling N.Y.C. actress whose (painmodel is brutally raped, must ultimately take fully) ordinary life is being documented by justice into her own hands. Totally wretched filmmaker Dunne. DeWolf is her gay pal, film gives new dimension to term ‘‘exploitawhose success is equally meager. Satire of tion picture.’’ Mariel’s film debut. [R]▼●쩠 fame, actors, and the show-business milieu Liquidator, The (1966-British) C-105m. has many sharp moments but wears thin ★★1 after a while. Written by costars Kirk and ⁄2 D: Jack Cardiff. Rod Taylor, Trevor Howard, Jill St. John, Wilfrid Hyde-White. DeWolf. Mira Sorvino and Fisher Stevens Nice location photography and adequate are two of the producers; they are among acting add up to a rather limp Bondian many celebrities who pop up in choice cameos. [PG-13]▼쩠 imitation. Even Taylor can’t save this one. Panavision. Lisbon (1956) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray Milland. Liquid Dreams (1991) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray Milland, Maureen O’Hara, Claude Mark Manos. Richard Steinmetz, Candice Rains, Yvonne Furneaux, Francis Lederer, Daly, Barry Dennen, Juan Fernandez, Percy Marmont, Jay Novello. On-location Tracey Walter, Frankie Thorn, Paul Bartel, tale of international thief Rains hiring skipMink Stole, John Doe. Beautiful Daly, per Milland to rescue Maureen’s husband determined to uncover her sister’s killer, from Communist imprisonment. Nice scebecomes immersed in a world of decadent, nery, nothing special. Naturama. ▼ nightmarish dance halls and clubs, and Listen, Darling (1938) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edwin various hidden evils. Provocative if overly L. Marin. Judy Garland, Freddie Barthoslick thriller with sci-fi elements. Also lomew, Mary Astor, Walter Pidgeon, Alan available in unrated version. [R]▼ Hale, Scotty Beckett. Judy and Freddie try Liquid Sky (1983) C-112m. ★★★ D: Slava to land mother (Astor) a husband; Garland Tsukerman. Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Shepsings ‘‘Zing Went The Strings Of My pard, Susan Doukas, Otto Von Wernherr, Heart.’’▼● Bob Brady. Gleefully nasty original about Listen to Me (1989) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: a lesbian punker whose Manhattan pentDouglas Day Stewart. Kirk Cameron, Jami house patio is trespassed by a UFO. A Gertz, Roy Scheider, Amanda Peterson, one-joke movie, but a pretty good joke; Tim Quill, George Wyner, Anthony Zerbe, Carlisle, who also plays a gay male model, Christopher Atkins. Slick travesty about a is remarkable, and there’s some potent renowned small-college debating squad, imagery despite the minuscule budget. Not set on the kind of party-school campus for every taste, but you knew that when where Dick Dale and The Del-Tones you read the plot synopsis. [R]▼●쩠 wouldn’t be out of place. Climactic aborLisa (1962-U.S.-British) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: tion debate—before the Supreme Court, Philip Dunne. Stephen Boyd, Dolores Hart, no less—is cheap and hokey in roughly Leo McKern, Hugh Griffith, Donald Pleaequal measure. Beware of Cameron’s shifting Oklahoma accent. [PG-13] ▼● sence, Harry Andrews, Robert Stephens, Marius Goring, Finlay Currie. Jan de Hartog’s Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones suspenseful novel of Dutch-Jewish girl in (1990) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ellen Weissbrod. post-WW2 Europe trying to get to PalesUltraslick look at the life and times of tine. Exciting film despite gaps in story Quincy Jones, the famed musician-comlogic. Stylishly photographed on location by poser-arranger-producer. Not so much a docuArthur Ibbetson. Released in England as mentary as a visual and musical collage; THE INSPECTOR. CinemaScope. sometimes effective, but too often plays like a Lisa and the Devil (1972-Italian-Spanishmusic video—and is much too self-congratulatory. Dozens of Jones’ friends, associates, West German) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mario Bava. Elke Sommer, Telly Savalas, Sylva Koscina, and admirers appear, including Dizzy GillesAlida Valli, Alessio Orano, Gabriele Tinti, pie, Lionel Hampton, Jesse Jackson, Frank Kathy Leone, Eduardo Fajardo. A tourist Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Miles Davis, Steven (Sommer) gets lost in an unidentified EuroSpielberg, Sidney Lumet, Ella Fitzgerald, pean town and winds up at an eerie mansion Oprah Winfrey, Ray Charles, Ice T, Melle replete with rotting corpses, wax dummies, a Mel, Big Daddy Kane. [PG-13]▼●쩠 blind woman, and a man who thinks she’s the List of Adrian Messenger, The (1963) reincarnation of his dead wife. Oh yes, there’s 98m. ★★★ D: John Huston. George C. also an evil lollipop-sucking butler (Savalas), Scott, Clive Brook, Dana Wynter, Herbert [ 810 ]

Marshall, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Burt pioneer, adopted Indian, drinking pal of Wild Lancaster, Robert Mitchum, Frank Sinatra, Bill Hickok, medicine-show hustler, and surviJohn Huston, Bernard Fox. Good murder vor of Custer’s Last Stand. Rich humor, colormystery has a gimmick: Curtis, Douglas, ful characterizations, moving tragedy are Lancaster, Mitchum, and Sinatra are all among ingredients, and they all click. Screenheavily disguised in character roles. All play by Calder Willingham. Originally rethat trouble wasn’t necessary; the mystery leased at 150m. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 is good on its own. The director’s son Little Bit of Soul, A (1998-Australian) CTony (billed as Anthony Walter Huston) 85m. ★★ D: Peter Duncan. Geoffrey Rush, plays Wynter’s son.▼● David Wenham, Frances O’Connor, Heather Lisztomania (1975-British) C-105m. ★1⁄2 Mitchell, John Gaden. Wacko Aussie black D: Ken Russell. Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelcomedy about two scientists (and ex-lovers) man, Paul Nicholas, Fiona Lewis, Ringo working on an immortality serum who Starr. So-called biography of Franz Liszt is, in make a pact with their married benefactruth, one of Ken Russell’s most outlandish tors—who just happen to be your average, extravaganzas; director’s devotees may enjoy everyday Satanists! Attempted satire of scithis visual, aural (and sexual) assault. Others ence and religion is ultimately too shrill and beware! Panavision. [R]▼● strained to generate many laughs despite a Little Ark, The (1972) C-100m. ★★★ D: capable cast. Soundtrack of Louis Jordan oldies helps liven things up. [R]▼쩠 James B. Clark. Theodore Bikel, Philip Frame, Genevieve Ambas, Max Croiset, Little Black Book (2004) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Johan De Slaa. Another good children’s Nick Hurran. Brittany Murphy, Holly Hunter, film from producer Robert Radnitz; this one Ron Livingston, Kathy Bates, Stephen Toboconcerns two Dutch youngsters who try to lowsky, Julianne Nicholson, Josie Maran, find their father after being separated from Sharon Lawrence. Murphy lands a job at a him during a flood. Panavision. [G] trash-TV talk show and becomes a prote´ge´e Little Ashes (2009-Spanish-British) C-112m. of ambitious staffer Hunter, who encourages ★★ D: Paul Morrison. Robert Pattinson, Javier her to spy on her boyfriend using his handheld Beltra´n, Matthew McNulty, Marina Gatell, PDA. Vehicle for Murphy has too many plot Arly Jover. It’s Madrid in the jazz age of the threads, many of them dark and unpleasant, anything-goes ’20s when 18-year-old artist and doesn’t seem to have a point . . . except to Salvador Dali arrives at the university and pay homage to better movies like WORKING strikes up a friendship with two other aspiring GIRL and BROADCAST NEWS. The actors young talents, director Luis Bun˜uel and poet (other than Murphy) are photographed in Federico Garcı´a Lorca. As time and events the most unflattering manner imaginable. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 drag on Dali is increasingly attracted (intellectually and otherwise) to Garcı´a Lorca. Little Boy Lost (1953) 95m. ★★★ D: George Loosely structured quasi-biopic takes mucho Seaton. Bing Crosby, Claude Dauphin, liberties with its key subjects and never gets Nicole Maurey, Gabrielle Dorziat. Synbelow the surface. Soft-core gay love scene thetic tear-jerker set in post-WW2 France, may surprise Pattinson’s rabid fans from where newspaperman Crosby is trying to TWILIGHT, but he does show acting chops locate his son, not knowing which boy at as well. [R] orphanage is his. Little Buddha (1993) C-123m. ★★ D: BerLittle Big League (1994) C-119m. ★★ D: Andrew Scheinman. Luke Edwards, Timonardo Bertolucci. Keanu Reeves, Chris thy Busfield, John Ashton, Ashley Crow, Isaak, Bridget Fonda, Alex Wiesendanger, Kevin Dunn, Jonathan Silverman, Dennis Ying Ruocheng, Raju Lal, Rudraprsad, Jo Farina, Jason Robards, Wolfgang Bodison, Champa. Disappointing, dramatically mudScott Patterson. A 12-year-old boy inherits dled Bertolucci epic with obvious similaritthe Minnesota Twins from his grandfather, ies to THE LAST EMPEROR, telling the and decides to manage the baseball team parallel stories of an aged Tibetan monk himself. Could have and should have been a (Ruocheng) who believes that a young Seatcute family movie, but it has no energy— tle boy (Wiesendanger) is the reincarnation and goes on forever. Special appearances by of his respected mentor, and the young real-life major leaguers Ken Griffey, Jr., Prince Siddhartha (Reeves), who lived Lou Piniella, Sandy Alomar, Jr., Tim 2,500 years ago. Pretty to look at, but otherRaines, Wally Joyner, and others. Directing wise pretty much of a bore. Technovision (35mm), Arriflex (70mm). [PG]▼●쩠 debut for producer Scheinman. [PG] ▼●쩠 Little Big Man (1970) C-139m. ★★★★ D: Little Caesar (1930) 80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mervyn Arthur Penn. Dustin Hoffman, Faye DunaLeRoy. Edward G. Robinson, Douglas way, Martin Balsam, Richard Mulligan, Fairbanks, Jr., Glenda Farrell, Stanley Chief Dan George, Jeff Corey, Alan OpFields, Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Ince, penheimer, Aimee Eccles, William Hickey. George E. Stone. Small-time hood becomes Sprawling, superb filmization of Thomas Berunderworld big shot; Robinson as Caesar ger’s novel about Jack Crabb, 121-year-old Enrico Bandello gives star-making performan who reminisces about his life as young mance in classic gangster film, still excit[ 811 ]

ing. Francis Faragoh and Robert E. Lee acts her costar with a solid performance. Panavision. [R]▼● adapted W. R. Burnett’s novel.▼●쩠 Little Dorrit (1988-British) ★★ D: ChrisLittle Children (2006) C-137m. ★★★★ D: tine Edzard. Derek Jacobi, Alec Guinness, Todd Field. Kate Winslet, Patrick Wilson, Roshan Seth, Sarah Pickering, Miriam Jennifer Connelly, Gregg Edelman, Noah Margolyes, Cyril Cusack, Max Wall, ElEmmerich, Jackie Earle Haley, Phyllis eanor Bron, Michael Elphick, Joan GreenSomerville, Trini Alvarado, Helen Carey, wood, Patricia Hayes, Robert Morley, Mary B. McCann, Jane Adams, Raymond J. Sophie Ward, Bill Fraser. PART ONE: Barry; narrated by Will Lyman. Intensely NOBODY’S FAULT (C-177m.) Ambitious emotional story, which unfolds in novelistic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ satiric novel fashion (complete with narration) about concerns upstanding but ineffectual Jacobi, lives that crisscross in an upscale Massachuand the young seamstress Little Dorrit (Picksetts town: a woman who’s unhappy as a ering) who lives with her father (Guinness) wife and mother (Winslet), a housein debtors’ prison. Low-budget produchusband who can’t get his act together (Wiltion is painstakingly slow moving: viewson), a sex offender (Haley) just released ers will either adore this or despise it. from prison who still lives with his mother, PART TWO: LITTLE DORRIT’S STORY and an ex-cop (Emmerich) who’s obsessed (C-183m.) Second half of saga unfortuwith the predator in their midst. Spellbindnately insists on recreating almost the ening look at how frustrated people act out tire first half scene for scene before moving without thinking about the consequences, forward. As in first part, there are several told with an ironic point of view. Tom Pergood performances (notably Guinness’) rotta adapted his own novel with director but screenplay is inadequate. [G]▼● Field. Super 35. [R]쩠 Little Dorrit’s Story SEE: Little Dorrit Little Cigars (1973) C-92m. ★★★ D: Chris Little Dragons, The (1980) C-90m. ★1⁄2 Christenberry. Angel Tompkins, Billy CurD: Curtis Hanson. Charles Lane, Ann tis, Jerry Maren, Frank Delfino, Emory Sothern, Chris Petersen, Pat Petersen, Sally Souza, Felix Silla, Joe De Santis. CrimeBoyden, Rick Lenz, Sharon Weber, Joe caper comedy with a midget gang commitSpinell, Tony Bill. Junior Kung Fu aficioting the mayhem. Fast and funny, with nados solve a kidnapping mystery. May Tompkins especially good as a former appeal to the less discriminating 9-yearmistress to gangster De Santis, and Curtis, old. Lane and particularly Sothern are the leader of the tiny troupe. Look for a wasted. [PG]▼ funny bit by dwarf Angelo Rossitto during Little Drummer Girl, The (1984) Ca police lineup. [PG] ★★★ D: George Roy Hill. Diane 130m. Little City (1999) C-89m. ★★ D: Roberto Keaton, Yorgo Voyagis, Klaus Kinski, Benabib. Jon Bon Jovi, Penelope Ann Sami Frey, Michael Cristofer, Thorley WalMiller, Josh Charles, Annabella Sciorra, Joters, Anna Massey. Adaptation of John le Beth Williams, Joanna Going. Life and Carre´’s best-selling spy thriller is long, loves—gay and straight, platonic and slow, confusing, not always believable— passionate—among a group of young peobut still worthwhile, if only for Keaton’s ple in San Francisco. Pleasant-enough timestrong performance as a mercurial profiller, with an attractive cast and postcard Palestinian actress recruited to perform as views of the city, but nothing special. ReIsraeli agent. Globe-trotting story about a leased direct to video. [R]▼쩠 novice caught in the world of terrorists Little Colonel, The (1935) 80m. ★★★ D: holds interest throughout, even with its David Butler. Shirley Temple, Lionel Barflaws. Kinski is first-rate as Israeli counrymore, Evelyn Venable, John Lodge, Sidterintelligence officer. [R]▼●쩠 ney Blackmer, Bill Robinson. Even nonLittle Fauss and Big Halsy (1970) C-97m. fans should like this, one of Shirley’s best ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney J. Furie. Robert Redford, films, as she mends broken ties between Michael J. Pollard, Lauren Hutton, Noah Grandpa Barrymore and Mama Venable in Beery, Lucille Benson. So-so character the Reconstruction South . . . and does that study of two motorcycle racers, one timid famous step dance with Robinson. Final scene and gullible (Pollard), the other a selfwas filmed in Technicolor. Also shown in centered braggart (Redford) who takes adcomputer-colored version. ▼●쩠 vantage of cohort. Beery and Benson outLittle Darlings (1980) C-95m. ★★ D: Ronstanding as Pollard’s folks; flavorful song ald F. Maxwell. Tatum O’Neal, Kristy score by Johnny Cash. Panavision. [R] McNichol, Armand Assante, Matt Dillon, Little Fish (2005-Australian) C-114m. ★★★ Maggie Blye, Nicolas Coster, Krista ErD: Rowan Woods. Cate Blanchett, Sam ickson, Alexa Kenin, Cynthia Nixon. TaNeill, Hugo Weaving, Martin Henderson, tum and Kristy wager which one will be the Dustin Nguyen, Noni Hazlehurst, Joel Tofirst to lose her virginity at summer camp. beck, Lisa McCune, Susie Porter. Gritty Not quite as sleazy as it sounds, but not kitchen-sink drama with the alwaysvery inspiring, either. McNichol easily outwatchable Blanchett playing an ex–heroin [ 812 ]

addict who faces all sorts of pressures and temptations while struggling to stay straight. She’s surrounded by an array of vividly etched characters, with Weaving and Neill especially good as an addict and a gang lord. [R]쩠 Little Foxes, The (1941) 116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Wyler. Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, Teresa Wright, Richard Carlson, Patricia Collinge, Dan Duryea, Charles Dingle. Outstanding filmization of Lillian Hellman’s play of greed and corruption within a crumbling Southern family on the financial outs, headed by majestic Davis as ruthless Regina. Collinge, Duryea, Dingle, Carl Benton Reid, and John Marriott all re-create their Broadway roles, with Collinge, Duryea, Reid, and Teresa Wright making their film debuts. Scripted by Hellman. Prequel: ANOTHER PART OF THE FOREST.▼●쩠 Little Fugitive (1953) 75m. ★★★ D: Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin. Richie Andrusco, Rickie Brewster, Winifred Cushing, Will Lee. A young boy who thinks he has killed his brother wanders lost through Coney Island. A lyrical little comedy-drama, produced independently and on a threadbare budget. A minor classic. Remade in 2006.

Engrossing, one-of-a-kind film written by Laird Koenig. [PG]▼●쩠 Little Hut, The (1957-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Mark Robson. Ava Gardner, Stewart Granger, David Niven, Finlay Currie, Walter Chiari. Busy husband Granger takes sexy wife Gardner for granted. Will her friendship with Niven stay platonic when all three are stranded on an island? Static, flat, talky sex farce, from the Andre Roussin play. Little Indian, Big City (1994-French) C90m. ★1⁄2 D: Herve´ Palud. Thierry Lhermitte, Ludwig Briand, Patrick Timsit, Arielle Dombasle. Dopey French kiddie comedy about a stockbroker who goes to the Amazon to divorce his estranged wife and discovers he has a 13-year-old son, whom he brings back to Paris. A big hit in France, Disney released it in the U.S., with terrible American dubbing. Jokes are mainly of the scatological variety: the little kid’s name Mimi-Siku means ‘‘cat pee’’ in his native tongue. Americanized in 1997 as JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE. [PG]▼ Little Kidnappers, The (1953-British) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Philip Leacock. Jon Whiteley, Vincent Winter, Adrienne Corri, Duncan Macrae, Jean Anderson, Theodore Bikel. Splendid children’s story set in Nova Scotia, 1900. Two orphan youngsters ▼●쩠 ‘‘adopt’’ abandoned baby when strict ★★ D: William Little Giant (1946) 91m. grandfather forbids them having a dog. A. Seiter. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Brenda Whiteley and Winter won special Oscars for Joyce, Jacqueline de Wit, George Cleveoutstanding juvenile performances. British land, Elena Verdugo, Mary Gordon, Margatitle: THE KIDNAPPERS. Remade for ret Dumont. Bud and Lou don’t work as cable TV in 1990 with Charlton Heston. a team in this atypical comedy with Lou Little Laura & Big John (1973) C-82m. becoming a vacuum cleaner salesman; filled ★★1 ⁄ 2 D: Luke Moberly, Bob Woodburn. with amusing, tried-and-true routines.▼쩠 Fabian Forte, Karen Black, Ivy Thayer, Little Giants (1994) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: DuKen Miller, Paul Gleason, Cliff Frates. wayne Dunham. Rick Moranis, Ed O’Neill, Surprisingly engaging road company BONShawna Waldron, Mary Ellen Trainor, MatNIE AND CLYDE set in Everglades counthew McCurley, Susanna Thompson, Brian try. One-time teen rock ‘n’ roll idol Fabian Haley, Devon Sawa, Michael Zwiener, John made his acting comeback in this one, alMadden, Harry Shearer, Dabbs Greer. Morthough Warren Beatty needn’t be too conanis has always lived in the shadow of big cerned about the competition. [R]▼쩠 brother O’Neill, a swaggering football star; Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936) 98m. ★★★ when Moranis’ daughter—a first-rate player— D: John Cromwell. Freddie Bartholomew, doesn’t get picked for O’Neill’s Pop WarC. Aubrey Smith, Guy Kibbee, Dolores ner football team, she persuades her dad to Costello, Mickey Rooney, Jessie Ralph. launch a rival team, as a haven for all the Young New Yorker Bartholomew suddenly town’s misfit kids. Amiable juvenile comfinds himself a British lord in this charmedy is formula to the max, but knows how ing film from classic story. Handsome, to please its youthful audience. Several realwell-cast production. Previously filmed in Enlife football players appear as themselves. gland in 1914 and in 1921; remade for TV in [PG]▼●쩠 1980 with Ricky Schroder and Alec Guinness, Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and in Russia in 2003. Also shown in The (1976-Canadian) C-94m. ★★★ D: computer-colored version.▼쩠 Nicolas Gessner. Jodie Foster, Martin Little Malcolm (1974-British) C-112m. ★★ Sheen, Scott Jacoby, Mort Shuman, Alexis D: Stuart Cooper. John Hurt, John Smith. Complex, unique mystery with FosMcEnery, David Warner, Rosalind Ayres, ter as young girl whose father never seems Raymond Platt. Hurt is prototypical angry to be home—and she gets very nervous young man (booted out of art school) who when anyone goes near the basement. Think forms neofascist cult and rails out against you’ve figured it out? Forget it, Charlie; society in this well-acted adaptation of you haven’t even scratched the surface. David Halliwell’s play criticizing 1960s [ 813 ]

protest movements. Warner takes acting Hitler’s rise to power. Sullavan is luminous. honors as Hurt’s obsessive verbal adverWilliam Anthony McGuire scripted, from sary. Ex-Beatle George Harrison’s first the novel by Hans Fallada. Little Men (1940) 84m. ★★ D: Norman Z. venture into film production. Original British title: LITTLE MALCOLM AND HIS McLeod. Kay Francis, Jack Oakie, George STRUGGLE AGAINST THE EUNUCHS. Bancroft, Jimmy Lydon, Ann Gillis, Charles Little Man (2006) C-98m. BOMB D: Esmond, William Demarest. Occasionally Keenen Ivory Wayans. Marlon Wayans, cute but slight, predictable adaptation of the Shawn Wayans, Tracy Morgan, Kerry WashLouisa May Alcott novel, focusing on rough ington, John Witherspoon, Chazz Palminteri, adolescent Lydon ‘‘learning the ways’’ at Molly Shannon, David Alan Grier. DiminuFrancis’ school. Oakie easily steals the film as tive criminal drops a stolen diamond in a an irrepressible con man. Remade in 1998. woman’s purse and is forced to disguise him▼쩠 self as a baby left on her doorstep to get it Little Men (1998-Canadian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 back. Idiotic gags involving breast feeding, D: Rodney Gibbons. Mariel Hemingway, anal thermometers, and dirty diapers ensue. A Chris Sarandon, Michael Caloz, Ben Cook, running joke in which ‘‘the baby’’ molests Ricky Mabe, Gabrielle Boni; narrated by unsuspecting women is particularly offensive. Kathleen Fee. Pleasant TV-style period The three Wayans who wrote this admit they piece based on Louisa May Alcott’s folwere inspired by the Bugs Bunny cartoon lowup to Little Women. Jo and Mr. Bhaer ‘‘Baby Buggy Bunny’’—which is funnier are now married and running a home for (and shorter). See also the Our Gang comwayward boys; they turn their kind attention edy ‘‘Free Eats.’’ Rob Schneider appears to a newly orphaned street urchin and his unbilled. [PG-13]쩠 rowdy friend. Official title is: LOUISA Little Manhattan (2005) C-90m. ★★★ D: MAY ALCOTT’S LITTLE MEN. [PG]▼ Mark Levin. Josh Hutcherson, Charlie Ray, Little Mermaid, The (1989) C-82m. ★★★ Bradley Whitford, Cynthia Nixon, Talia D: John Musker, Ron Clements. Voices of Balsam, John Dossett, Willie Garson, Tonye Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Samuel E. Wright, Patano, J. Kyle Manzay, Josh Pais. In an ideal Kenneth Mars, Buddy Hackett, ChristoN.Y.C. where nothing bad ever happens, 10pher Daniel Barnes, Rene Auberjonois, year-old Gabe and Rosemary discover a muBen Wright. Delightful Disney animated featual attraction during karate class, though ture loosely based on Hans Christian Anderthey’ve known each other since kindergarsen story about a young mermaid named Ariel ten. Wonder Years–style narration and who longs to be human. One could squabble bright, imaginative visual design combine about certain story points, but the film is so with sweet performances in an Upper West enjoyable it’s foolish to try. Buoyant musical Side story filled with bubbles and balloons. numbers include ‘‘Kiss The Girl,’’ ‘‘Part of The dialogue is a bit precocious, but this Your World,’’ and ‘‘Under the Sea,’’ sung by miniaturized romantic comedy is genuinely a Jamaican crab named Sebastian (Wright). cute. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Won Oscars for Best Original Score (Alan Little Man Tate (1991) C-99m. ★★★ D: Menken) and Song (‘‘Under the Sea,’’ by Jodie Foster. Jodie Foster, Dianne Wiest, Menken and Howard Ashman). Followed by Adam Hann-Byrd, Harry Connick, Jr., an animated TV series and a DVD sequel. Later a Broadway musical. [G] ▼●쩠 David Pierce, P.J. Ochlan, Debi Mazar, Celia Weston, Danitra Vance, Josh Mostel, Little Minister, The (1934) 110m. ★★★1⁄2 George Plimpton. Moving, extraordinarily D: Richard Wallace. Katharine Hepburn, John empathic look at a child genius; his single, Beal, Donald Crisp, Andy Clyde, Beryl Merworking-class mom (Foster) can’t give him cer. Charming film of James M. Barrie story the support and stimulation he needs—but about Scottish pastor falling in love, with Hepburn radiant in period romance. ▼●쩠 neither can the director (Wiest) of a school for exceptional children who takes him Little Miss Broadway (1938) 70m. ★★ D: under her wing. Beautifully realized by Irving Cummings. Shirley Temple, George Foster in her directing debut; her perforMurphy, Jimmy Durante, Phyllis Brooks, mance is equally strong. Bittersweet screenEdna May Oliver, George Barbier. Not play by Scott Frank; solid jazz score by bad Temple, with Shirley bringing OliMark Isham. Bob Balaban appears unbilled ver’s theatrical boardinghouse to life; Shiras a quizmaster. [PG]▼●쩠 ley and Durante are good together. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Little Man, What Now? (1934) 104m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Frank Borzage. Margaret SulLittle Miss Marker (1934) 80m. ★★★ D: lavan, Douglass Montgomery, Alan Hale, Alexander Hall. Adolphe Menjou, Shirley Catherine Doucet, Mae Marsh, Alan MowTemple, Dorothy Dell, Charles Bickford, bray, Hedda Hopper. Impoverished German Lynne Overman, Warren Hymer. Winning newlyweds are further strapped when wife Damon Runyon tale of bookie Menjou and becomes pregnant. Splendid romance was N.Y.C. gambling colony reformed by adorable also the first Hollywood film to deal even little Shirley, left as IOU for a debt. Remade peripherally with conditions that resulted in as SORROWFUL JONES and 40 POUNDS [ 814 ]

OF TROUBLE, and again in 1980. Also (1990-Japanese) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Masami shown in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 Hata, William T. Hurtz. Voices of Gabriel ★★ Little Miss Marker (1980) C-103m. Damon, Mickey Rooney, Rene Auberjonois, D: Walter Bernstein. Walter Matthau, Julie Danny Mann, Laura Mooney, Bernard ErAndrews, Tony Curtis, Bob Newhart, Sara hard. Beautifully rendered animation about a Stimson, Lee Grant, Brian Dennehy, Kenneth young boy’s odyssey into the world of McMillan. Boring remake of the Damon Rundreams—and the perils of Nightmare Land. yon story, with Matthau as the bookie, StimStarts with a knockout opening sequence, and son the little girl, Andrews the love interest, has much to entertain youngsters (and animaCurtis the heavy. Veteran screenwriter Berntion buffs), but its story loses momentum. Instein’s first directing credit. [PG]▼쩠 spired by Winsor McCay’s comic strip classic. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) C-101m. Songs by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris. Concept for the screen by Ray Bradbury. Not released in the U.S. until 1992. [G]▼●쩠 Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, Little Nicky (2000) C-90m. ★★ D: Steven Bryan Cranston, Beth Grant, Wallace LangBrill. Adam Sandler, Patricia Arquette, Harham, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Mary Lynn Rajvey Keitel, Rhys Ifans, Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ skub, Gordon Thomson. Winning comedyLister, Jr., Rodney Dangerfield, Robert drama about a seriously off-kilter family, inSmigel, Allen Covert, Blake Clark, Kevin cluding a 7-year-old girl who wants to enter Nealon, Reese Witherspoon, Quentin beauty contests. Each family member underTarantino. The sweetest of the Devil’s three goes a change during an eventful road trip to sons must go to Earth and bring back his California in an old Volkswagen bus to get two errant brothers or his father will die. the little girl to an all-important pageant. ImMeanwhile, his siblings are turning N.Y.C. pressive feature debut for top TV commercial into a living hell. Outrageous, sometimes directors Dayton and Faris, who capture all appalling, occasionally funny comedy revthe telling details in the script by first-time els in extraordinary crudeness. Full of gag screenwriter Michael Arndt. The cast simcameos (many by Sandler’s onetime Saturply couldn’t be better. Oscar winner for day Night Live costars). Sandler cowrote and coproduced. [PG-13]▼쩠 Best Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Arkin). Super 35. [R]쩠 Little Night Music, A (1978) C-124m. ★1 Little Monsters (1989) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: Harold Prince. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Alan Greenberg. Fred Savage, Howie Diana Rigg, Len Cariou, Lesley-Anne Mandel, Ben Savage, Daniel Stern, Margaret Down, Hermione Gingold, Lawrence GuitWhitton, Rick Ducommun, Amber Barretto, tard, Christopher Guard, Chloe Franks. Frank Whaley. BEETLE JUICE–inspired fanLaughably stilted film version of the Stetasy comedy suffers from clumsy script and phen Sondheim–Hugh Wheeler stage musiobvious postproduction cuts. Boy finds prankcal which in turn was based on Ingmar ish monster (Mandel) under his bed; their Bergman’s sex-at-a-country-estate comedy, friendship leads to various crises, in our world SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT. Liz’s and in the dimly lit land of the monsters. rendition of ‘‘Send in the Clowns’’ is no chart buster. Filmed in Austria. [PG]▼●쩠 Premise was promising but results are dismal. Cast tries hard. [PG]▼●쩠 Little Nikita (1988) C-98m. ★★ D: RichLittle Murders (1971) C-110m. ★★★ D: ard Benjamin. Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Alan Arkin. Elliott Gould, Marcia Rodd, Richard Jenkins, Caroline Kava, Richard Vincent Gardenia, Elizabeth Wilson, Jon Bradford, Richard Lynch, Loretta Devine, Korkes, Donald Sutherland, Lou Jacobi, Lucy Deakins. Intriguing premise—young, Alan Arkin. Jules Feiffer’s ultrablack comall-American Phoenix learning that his parents edy about life in nightmarish N.Y.C. foare Soviet agents—fails to catch fire in this cuses on aggressive urbanite (Rodd) who sometimes entertaining but ultimately incolassoes passive photographer Gould into herent thriller. Poitier adds a bit of spark as an marriage. Superb performance by GardeFBI agent. [PG]▼●쩠 nia as Rodd’s father, hilarious cameo by Little Noises (1991) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arkin as mind-blown detective, but even Jane Spencer. Crispin Glover, Tatum funniest moments are overshadowed by O’Neal, Rik Mayall, Tate Donovan, John frighteningly depressing atmosphere. [PG— C. McGinley, Nina Siemaszko, Carole Shelley, Steven Schub. Ambitious but muddled edited from original R rating]▼쩠 Little Nellie Kelly (1940) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: account of Glover, a failure who calls himNorman Taurog. Judy Garland, George self a writer (even though he’s never penned Murphy, Charles Winninger, Douglas anything); he finds status and monetary reMcPhail. Lightweight musical based on ward after passing off the poetry of a deaf George M. Cohan play about Judy patchmute orphan as his own.▼● ing up differences between father Murphy Little Odessa (1994) C-98m. ★★★ D: James and grandfather Winninger. Garland sings Gray. Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Moira ‘‘It’s A Great Day For The Irish.’’▼● Kelly, Vanessa Redgrave, Maximilian Schell, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland Paul Guilfoyle, Natasha Andreichenko, David [ 815 ]

Vadim, Mina Bern. Melancholy drama set durHall) is the only standout—along with Pete ing a bleak Brooklyn winter, about Joshua the Pup. Gag cameos by a few stars and (Roth), a hitman whose Russian-Jewish family celebrities seem extraneous. [PG]▼●쩠 resides in Brighton Beach. He has been disLittle Romance, A (1979) C-108m. ★★★ owned by his adulterous father (Schell), and his D: George Roy Hill. Laurence Olivier, mother (Redgrave) is dying; his kid brother Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Arthur (Furlong) is caught between Russian and Hill, Sally Kellerman, David Dukes, BroAmerican cultures, and between his love for derick Crawford. Engaging film about reJoshua and the knowledge that his brother is lationship of young American girl (Lane, in evil. Grim, disturbing, brilliantly directed with her film debut) living in Paris and running a distinctive visual style by 24-year-old Gray off with a charming French boy (Bernard), (who also scripted). Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 chaperoned by wily old con man (Olivier, Little Old New York (1940) 100m. ★★1⁄2 wonderfully hammy). A throwback to diD: Henry King. Alice Faye, Brenda Joyce, rector Hill’s WORLD OF HENRY ORIFred MacMurray, Richard Greene, Henry ENT in its winning treatment of adolesStephenson. Claims to be story of Robert cence, but not quite as good. Crawford Fulton and his steamboat; merely serves as has funny cameo as himself. Georges framework for standard romance. Delerue’s music score won a well-deserved Little Prince, The (1974-British) C-88m. Oscar. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Stanley Donen. Richard Kiley, Little Sex, A (1982) C-95m. ★★ D: Bruce Steven Warner, Bob Fosse, Gene Wilder, Joss Paltrow. Tim Matheson, Kate Capshaw, Ackland, Clive Revill, Donna McKechnie, Edward Herrmann, John Glover, Joan Victor Spinetti. Antoine de St. Exupery’s chilCopeland, Susanna Dalton, Wendie Malick, dren’s book is considered a classic, but this muWallace Shawn, Melinda Culea, Bill Smitsical fantasy doesn’t do it justice. Kiley plays rovich. MTM Enterprises’ first theatrical aviator who counsels and guides a young boy feature is basically an R-rated TV-movie, who wants to learn about life. Unmemorable with Matheson marrying long-time girlfriend score by Lerner and Loewe is just one of this Capshaw hoping it will cure him of his fable’s major letdowns. [G]▼●쩠 womanizing. It doesn’t. Tired but watchable ★★★ Little Princess, The (1939) C-91m. comedy-drama has pretty N.Y.C. locations D: Walter Lang. Shirley Temple, Richard and pleasing performances, particularly by Greene, Anita Louise, Ian Hunter, Cesar Herrmann as Matheson’s wiser older Romero, Arthur Treacher, Marcia Mae brother. Capshaw’s film debut. [R]▼쩠 Jones, Sybil Jason. Shirley stars as a Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come, The Victorian waif who makes good in this (1961) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew V. lavishly mounted, colorful production. McLaglen. Jimmie Rodgers, Luana PatFilmed again in 1995. ▼●쩠 ten, Chill Wills, George Kennedy, Neil Little Princess, A (1995) C-97m. ★★★ D: Hamilton. Bland family-type film of boy Alfonso Cuaron. Eleanor Bron, Liam Cunwho fought for the North during Civil War ningham, Liesel Matthews, Rusty Schwimand his return to rural life. Based on the mer, Arthur Malet, Vanessa Lee Chester, 1903 novel by John William Fox. KenneErrol Sitahal, Vincent Schiavelli. A little dy’s film debut. CinemaScope. jewel of a movie about a fanciful young girl Little Shop of Horrors, The (1960) 70m. ★★★1 (Matthews) whose father deposits her at a ⁄2 D: Roger Corman. Jonathan Haze, boarding school while he goes off to fight in Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, MyrWW1—unaware that the headmistress is a tle Vail, Jack Nicholson. Classic black comspiteful woman. Devotees of Frances Hodgedy about young schnook who develops son Burnett’s classic novel (filmed before bloodthirsty plant and is forced to kill in order with Shirley Temple) may be dismayed at to feed it. Initially infamous as The Film Shot liberties taken with the original—moving it In Two Days, but now considered one of Corto N.Y.C. in the teens, for instance—but its man’s best pictures. Nicholson has hilarious spirit is intact. Hard to believe this handsome bit as masochist who thrives on dental pain; production was filmed almost entirely on a delightful screenplay by Charles Griffith (who Burbank studio backlot! [G] ▼●쩠 also plays the hold-up man and is the voice of Little Rascals, The (1994) C-72m. ★★ D: ‘‘Audrey, Jr.’’). Later a stage musical, which Penelope Spheeris. Travis Tedford, Bug was filmed in 1986. Also shown in computerHall, Brittany Ashton Holmes, Kevin Jamal colored version.▼●쩠 Woods, Zachary Mabry, Ross Elliot BagLittle Shop of Horrors (1986) C-88m. ★★1 ley, Sam Saletta, Blake Jeremy Collins. ⁄2 D: Frank Oz. Rick Moranis, Ellen Spanky and the members of the He-Man Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, Woman Haters Club try to sabotage AlfalJames Belushi, John Candy, Christopher fa’s budding romance with Darla. Aimed Guest, Bill Murray, voice of Levi Stubbs. squarely at young children, who will probaVery entertaining black comedy/musical bly enjoy it, though it’s no match for the about a nebbish (played to perfection by original 1930s Hal Roach comedy shorts. Moranis) whose ‘‘unusual’’ new plant The kids are cute, but Alfalfa (played by brings him good fortune—but turns into a [ 816 ]

Frankenstein. Greene (repeating her stage Alan Sharp. Margot Kidder, Ted Danson, role) is a delight as his squeaky-voiced Burt Lancaster, Joseph Hacker, Malena heartthrob, Martin hilarious as her macho Doria, John Pearce. A stripper ventures to boyfriend. But when Audrey II, the plant, Mexico to meet her long-lost father but turns really mean and monstrous, with spends most of her time searching for super-duper special effects, the fun drains treasure with a dropout American. Unsatisfyaway. Based on the off-Broadway musical ing story marked directing debut for writer Sharp. Danson comes off best. [R]▼● by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, which in turn was based on Roger Corman’s Little Vampire, The (2000-German-DutchU.S.) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Uli Edel. Jonathan Lip1960 low-budget black comedy (written by Charles B. Griffith). [PG-13]▼●쩠 nicki, Richard E. Grant, Alice Krige, Anna Littlest Horse Thieves, The (1977) CPopplewell, Jim Carter, John Wood, Pamela 104m. ★★★ D: Charles Jarrott. Alastair Gidley, Rollo Weeks. A nine-year-old CaliSim, Peter Barkworth, Maurice Colbourne, fornia schoolboy moves to Scotland and makes Susan Tebbs, Andrew Harrison, Chloe Franks. friends with a nine-year-old vampire who Well-made Disney period piece, filmed in Ensucks him into his world and shows him the gland, about three children’s efforts to save pittime of his life. Good-natured if uninspired adponies who work the mines from abuse and aptation of Angela Sommer-Bodenburg’s death. Set at the turn of the century. Good popular German children’s books. Lipnicki is location photography. Originally titled EScute as always, but Weeks steals the show as CAPE FROM THE DARK. [G]▼쩠 his vampire pal. [PG]▼쩠 Littlest Outlaw, The (1955) C-75m. ★★★ Little Vegas (1990) C-91m. ★★ D: Perry Lang. D: Roberto Gavaldon. Pedro Armendariz, Anthony John Denison, Catherine O’Hara, Joseph Calleia, Rodolfo Acosta, Andres Jerry Stiller, Michael Nouri, Perry Lang, Bruce Velasquez, Pepe Ortiz. Unpretentious litMcGill, John Sayles, Jay Thomas, Bob Goldtle Disney film about Mexican boy (Velasthwait. Subtle comedy revolving around offquez) who runs away with a horse rather beat characters in trailer park located in than see it killed for its misdeeds; filmed desolate area that Mafia developers want to on location.▼ turn into a ‘‘little’’ Las Vegas. Intriguing possi★★★ bilities, but it doesn’t quite gel. [R]▼● Littlest Rebel, The (1935) 73m. D: David Butler. Shirley Temple, John Boles, Little Vera (1988-Russian) C-133m. ★★★ Jack Holt, Karen Morley, Bill Robinson, D: Vassili Pitchul. Natalia Negoda, Andrei Stepin Fetchit, Guinn ‘‘Big Boy’’ Williams. Sokolov, Yuri Nazarov, Ludmila Zaisova, One of Shirley’s best films, a Civil War saga Alexander Niegreva. Groundbreaking, postset in the Old South, with our heroine managglasnost look at life in modern Russia. ing to wrap Union officer Holt around her Negoda offers a fresh performance as an little finger and protect her Confederate officer alienated, working-class, rock music-loving father (Boles). Temple and Robinson do some young woman; the depiction of her sexual delightful dancing as well. Also shown in relationship with Sokolov, plus the mancomputer-colored version. ▼쩠 ner in which Western culture has affected Little Theatre of Jean Renoir, The her life, make this unlike any other Soviet (1971-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: Jean Refilm you’ve ever seen. Not surprisingly, it noir. Jeanne Moreau, Fernand Sardou, was a smash hit in its homeland.▼●쩠 Francoise Arnoul, Jean Carmet, MargueLittle Voice (1998-British-U.S.) C-96m. ★★★ rite Cassan, Dominique Labourier. QuarD: Mark Herman. Jane Horrocks, Mitet of short sketches about human dignity and chael Caine, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent, goodness of country life (as opposed to surEwan McGregor, Annette Badland, Philip viving in a dehumanized urban wilderness). Jackson. When a sleazy talent agent (Caine) Renoir’s celluloid swan song may not be and an equally greasy nightclub owner (Broadamong his best, but still has much to offer. bent) discover that the reclusive daughter of a middle-aged shrew has the uncanny ability to Made for television in 1969.▼● Little Thief, The (1989-French) C-104m. sing like Judy Garland and other show★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Miller. Charlotte Gainsbusiness greats, they smell money. But the bourg, Didier Bezace, Simon de la Brosse, mousy girl, known as Little Voice, sings for Nathalie Cardone, Raoul Billerey. So-so other reasons entirely. Vivid adaptation of Jim character portrait of the title lass, an alienCartwright’s London play The Rise and Fall ated, amoral teen drifting through life in of Little Voice, with Horrocks re-creating her postwar France. If she comes off as a sensational performance, joined by a superb female Antoine Doinel, it’s because the cast that (to put it mildly) doesn’t hold back. [R]▼●쩠 original story was cowritten by Franc˛ois Truffaut, who was supposedly planning to film Little Women (1933) 115m. ★★★★ D: George this at the time of his death; resulting film lacks Cukor. Katharine Hepburn, Joan Bennett, Paul the director’s inimitable touch. Miller was for Lukas, Frances Dee, Jean Parker, Edna May ten years Truffaut’s assistant; Gainsbourg is Oliver, Douglass Montgomery, Spring Byinthe daughter of Jane Birkin. [R]▼● gton. Film offers endless pleasure no matter Little Treasure (1985) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: how many times you’ve seen it; a faithful, [ 817 ]

beautiful adaptation of Alcott’s book by Vican altercation with a dishy drug user. Upon tor Heerman and Sarah Y. Mason, who dehis release, he discovers that the woman is servedly received Oscars. The cast is married to his victim! What might have uniformly superb. Remade in 1949, 1978 (for been a melodramatic howler is instead AlTV), and 1994.▼●쩠 modo´var’s best feature since WOMEN ON ★★1 Little Women (1949) C-121m. THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAK⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. June Allyson, Peter LawDOWN. After a bumpy start, film becomes ford, Margaret O’Brien, Elizabeth Taylor, a model of how to change moods. The diJanet Leigh, Mary Astor. Glossy remake rector scripted from the novel by Ruth Rendell. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 of Louisa May Alcott’s gentle account of teenage girls finding maturity and romance— Live for Life (1967-French-Italian) C-130m. ★★1 patly cast.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Yves Montand, Little Women (1994) C-118m. ★★★★ D: GilAnnie Girardot, Candice Bergen, Irene lian Armstrong. Winona Ryder, Susan SaranTunc, Anouck Ferjac. TV documentary don, Gabriel Byrne, Trini Alvarado, Samantha producer Montand leaves wife Girardot for Mathis, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes, Chrisfashion model Bergen in glossy film helped tian Bale, Eric Stoltz, John Neville, Mary by some good acting; picture was followWickes. Exquisite rendering of Louisa May up to Lelouch’s A MAN AND A WOMAN. Alcott’s Civil War–era classic about four deLive Free or Die (2007) C-90m. ★★ D: voted sisters who eventually have to leave Gregg Kavet, Andy Robin. Aaron Stanford, their New England nest. A perfect cast is led Paul Schneider, Michael Rapaport, Ebon by Ryder as the headstrong Jo, with Sarandon Moss-Bachrach, Judah Friedlander, Kevin as that tower of strength, Marmee. Not a false Dunn, Zooey Deschanel. Quirky comedy moment or false move in the entire film, spotlighting John ‘‘Rugged’’ Rudgate though purists may object to Marmee mouth(Stanford), a ‘‘legendary’’ criminal who ing 1990s-style feminist doctrine. Veteran thinks he’s a modern-day Al Capone/Billy character actress Wickes threatens to steal the Kid but is actually a tenth-rate, selfevery scene she’s in, as crotchety Aunt March. deluded loser. Schneider does a Will Ferrell Screenplay by Robin Swicord. [PG]▼●쩠 imitation as Rudgate’s trusting, mentally Live a Little, Love a Little (1968) C-90m. challenged prote´ge´, and the bizarre scenario ★★ D: Norman Taurog. Elvis Presley, Miconsists of an escalating series of misadvenchele Carey, Don Porter, Rudy Vallee, tures and coincidences. The only problem is Dick Sargent, Sterling Holloway, Eddie that none of it is particularly funny. The Hodges. Elvis manages to land two welldirectors, who also coscripted, were occapaying photographer’s jobs and work them sional writers of Seinfeld. [R]쩠 both by hopping back and forth from office Live Free or Die Hard (2007) C-129m. ★★★ to office. Pleasant, if standard, Presley D: Len Wiseman. Bruce Willis, Justin fare. Panavision.▼●쩠 Long, Timothy Olyphant, Cliff Curtis, Live a Little, Steal a Lot (1975) C-101m. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Maggie Q, Kevin ★★1⁄2 D: Marvin Chomsky. Robert Conrad, Smith, Zˇeljko Ivanek, Yancey Arias, ChrisDon Stroud, Donna Mills, Robyn Millan, tina Chang. While snooping on his daughLuther Adler, Burt Young, Paul Stewart. ter, NYPD cop (and overprotective father) Unremarkable but engrossing tale based on John McClane picks up a N.J. suspect for a real-life story of two Florida beach bums who federal sweep of computer geeks and brings engineered ‘‘impossible’’ heist of 564-carat him to Washington, just as cyber-lord OlyStar of India. Fine TOPKAPI-like caper phant initiates a plan to shut down the entire scenes, plus good speedboat chase. Originally country. DIE HARD is effectively reintitled MURPH THE SURF and retitled YOU vented for a post-9/11 world, with the techCAN’T STEAL LOVE. [PG]▼쩠 ies proving no match for an indestructible Live and Let Die (1973-British) C-121m. old-school cop. Credibility gives way to ★★1⁄2 D: Guy Hamilton. Roger Moore, preposterous action scenes toward the end, Yaphet Kotto, Jane Seymour, Clifton but it’s still fun to watch. Released overseas James, Geoffrey Holder, Bernard Lee, Lois as DIE HARD 4.0. Also available in unrated version. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Maxwell. Barely memorable, overlong James Bond movie seems merely an excuse to film Live It Up SEE: Sing and Swing Live Nude Girls (1995) C-92m. ★★ D: Juliwild chase sequences; superagent goes after master criminal subverting U.S. economy via anna Lavin. Dana Delany, Kim Cattrall, Cyndrugs. Works on level of old-time serial. This thia Stevenson, Laila Robins, Lora Zane, was Moore’s first appearance as 007; title Olivia d’Abo, Glenn Quinn, Tim Choate. A song by Paul McCartney. [PG]▼●쩠 bunch of galpals come together for a bachelorLive Flesh (1997-Spanish-French) C-100m. ette party and pass the time talking, at which ★★★1⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo ´ var. Liberto Rabal, point assorted jealousies, fantasies, and feelFrancesca Neri, Javier Bardem, Angela ings come to the surface. Well intentioned, to be sure, but oh, so predictable. [R]▼●쩠 Molina, Jose Sancho, Pene´lope Cruz. Smitten son of a prostitute is jailed for accidenLives of a Bengal Lancer, The (1935) 109m. ★★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. Gary Cooper, tally shooting and paralyzing a cop during [ 818 ]

Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Sir Guy terial like the famous ‘‘scorpion dance.’’ Still worthwhile. Academy Award winner.▼쩠 Standing, C. Aubrey Smith, Monte Blue, Kathleen Burke, Noble Johnson, Lumsden Hare, Living End, The (1992) C-92m. ★★★ D: Gregg Akim Tamiroff, J. Carrol Naish, Douglass Araki. Mike Dytri, Craig Gilmore, Mark Finch, Dumbrille. Delightful Hollywood foray into Mary Woronov, Johanna Went, Darcy Marta, empire building in Northwest India. Cooper Nicole Dillenberg, Paul Bartel. Frank, impertiand Tone are pals in famed British regiment, nent black comedy–road movie about Dytri Cromwell thecallow son of commander Standand Gilmore. Each is twentyish, gay, and HIVing whom they take under their wing. Top positive, and they set out on a nihilistic journey. story, action, repartee—and wonderful snakeDespite the characters’ situation, the film is charming scene. Grover Jones, William Slaspirited and devilishly funny, but there’s still no vens McNutt, Achmed Abdullah, Waldemar shortage of rage over their circumstances. Young, and John Balderston coscripted; from Araki also scripted, photographed, and edited this ultra-low-budget gem.▼쩠 the novel by Major Francis Yeats-Brown. Remade, with obvious changes, as GERONLiving Free (1972-British) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 IMO (1939).▼●쩠 D: Jack Couffer. Susan Hampshire, Nigel Lives of Others, The (2006-German) CDavenport, Geoffrey Keen. Sequel to BORN 137m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Florian Henckel von DonFREE details further adventures of lioness nersmarck. Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mu¨he, SeElsa and her three cubs. Nice photography but far too leisurely. [G]▼쩠 bastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Volkmar Kleinert. In 1984 Living in a Big Way (1947) 103m. ★★ D: East Berlin a single-minded officer (Mu¨he) in Gregory La Cava. Gene Kelly, Marie Mcthe Stasi, the country’s well-staffed secret poDonald, Charles Winninger, Phyllis Thaxter, lice, is assigned to eavesdrop on playwright Spring Byington. Kelly returns from WW2 Koch, refusing to believe that the popular to get to know his war bride for the first writer is completely loyal to his government. time and clashes with her nouveau riche But this obsessive quest has an unexpected effamily. A notorious flop in its day, but not fect on the professional spy. Fascinating drama all that bad; Kelly does a couple of firstdeals with the poisonous nature of a society rate dance numbers.▼ built on suspicion and doubt. Outstanding perLiving in Oblivion (1995) C/B&W-91m. ★★★ D: Tom DiCillo. Steve Buscemi, Cathformances in this impressive writing and directing debut for von Donnersmarck. Oscar erine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle winner as Best Foreign Language Film. HawkVon Zerneck, James Le Gros, Rica MarScope. [R]쩠 tens, Peter Dinklage, Hilary Gilford, MiLive Wire (1992) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chrischael Griffiths, Matthew Grace, Robert tian Duguay. Pierce Brosnan, Ron Silver, Wightman. Clever, amusing look at a lowBen Cross, Lisa Eilbacher, Brent Jennings, budget movie in progress, from several Tony Plana, Al Waxman, Philip Baker Hall, points of view. Writer-director DiCillo has Michael St. Gerard. FBI bomb expert Brosseveral tricks up his sleeve to go along with nan is puzzled when several people in his pointed perceptions about how egos colWashington literally explode; his nemesis is lide—and how things go wrong on every terrorist Cross. Silver is a crooked senator, movie set. Most of the cast also worked one of Cross’ targets. OK thriller with good behind the scenes. [R]▼●쩠 performances and an unusual, if absurd, Living It Up (1954) C-95m. ★★★ D: Norpremise. Debuted on cable TV. Also availman Taurog. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, able in 87m. unrated version. [R] ▼●쩠 Janet Leigh, Edward Arnold, Fred Clark, Living Daylights, The (1987-British) CSheree North, Sig Ruman. Bright remake 130m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Glen. Timothy Dalton, of NOTHING SACRED. Jerry has Carole Maryam d’Abo, Jeroen Krabbe´, Joe Don Lombard’s role as supposed radiation Baker, John Rhys-Davies, Art Malik, Andreas victim brought to N.Y.C. as publicity Wisniewski, Desmond Llewelyn, Robert stunt by reporter Leigh; Martin is Jerry’s Brown. Dalton makes an impressive debut as doctor. Scene at Yankee Stadium is a James Bond in this entertaining, globe-trotting classic. That’s sexy Sheree North, in her spy story about a double-dealing Russian genfilm debut, doing what was billed as ‘‘the eral; it’s brimming with great stunts and gimfirst rock ’n’ roll dance on the screen.’’쩠 micks, and eschews the smirking comic Living Out Loud (1998) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: attitude of other recent Bond outings. But like Richard LaGravenese. Holly Hunter, Danny some other Bonds, this one goes on far too DeVito, Queen Latifah, Martin Donovan, long. Caroline Bliss debuts as Miss MonRichard Schiff, Elias Koteas, Suzanne Shepeypenny. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 herd, Rachael Leigh Cook. Deeply felt comLiving Desert, The (1953) C-69m. ★★★ edy-drama about loneliness, focusing on a D: James Algar. Narrated by Winston Hibler. woman who can’t get over the breakup of Disney’s first True-Life Adventure feature has her marriage and an elevator operator in her dazzling footage of the American desert and Manhattan building who falls in love with its inhabitants, but attracted justifiable critiher. Because there’s no strong storyline it cism for its gimmicky treatment of some mabobs and weaves a bit, but there are many [ 819 ]

fine vignettes and moments of truth . . . and their relationships. Slow-moving but wortha dynamite opening, with Latifah singing a while film. Feature directing debut for Anna beautiful rendition of ‘‘Lush Life.’’ Inspired Campion, sister of director Jane. [R]▼●쩠 in part by two Chekhov short stories. DiLocal Color (2006) C-107m. ★★★ D: George recting debut for top screenwriter LaGraGallo. Armin Mueller-Stahl, Trevor Morgan, venese. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Ray Liotta, Diana Scarwid, Samantha Mathis, Livin’ Large (1991) C-96m. ★★ D: MiRon Perlman, Julie Lott, Charles Durning. chael Schultz. Terrence ‘‘T.C.’’ Carson, Teenaged boy with a passion to paint attaches Lisa Arrindell, Blanche Baker, Nathaniel himself to a Russian e´migre´ who’s a great ‘‘Afrika’’ Hall, Julia Campbell, Bernie artist—and a foul-mouthed iconoclast. Over McInerney, Loretta Devine. Young streetthe course of a season at the painter’s rural wise black desperately wants to be a TV summer home the boy soaks up life lessons newsman—and gets his chance by sheer that will inform his art. Mueller-Stahl is wonfluke; then he learns that staying on top in derful, and the youthful Morgan keeps up with the TV game means selling his soul. Farcihim at every turn. Deeply felt autobiographical cal comedy has moments, but grows increasdrama by Gallo. Digital Widescreen. ingly shallow, predictable; only energetic, likLocal Hero (1983-British) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 able cast keeps it alive. [R]▼●쩠 D: Bill Forsyth. Peter Riegert, Burt Lancaster, Lizzie (1957) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hugo Haas. Fulton MacKay, Denis Lawson, Norman Eleanor Parker, Richard Boone, Joan Chancer, Peter Capaldi, Jenny Seagrove. EnBlondell, Hugo Haas, Ric Roman, Marion chantingly off-kilter comedy about an oil Ross, Johnny Mathis. Interesting, if ulticompany rep (Riegert) who’s assigned to buy mately pedantic, adaptation of Shirley Jackup a Scottish coastal village which is badly son’s The Bird’s Nest, with Parker as a needed for a refinery site. Nothing normal or mousy woman who turns out to have three predictable happens from that point on; distinct personalities. Boone is a psychiawriter-director Forsyth is more interested in trist trying to help her. A project of rare disquirkiness than belly-laugh gags, and his film tinction for cultish director Haas, though he is overflowing with ingenious characters and injects his familiar personality by playing a incidents. A little gem. [PG]▼●쩠 kibitzing neighbor. Parker is excellent. Local Stigmatic, The (1990) C-54m. ★★1⁄2 Eclipsed by release of similar (and superior) D: David Wheeler. Al Pacino, Paul GuilTHE THREE FACES OF EVE soon after. foyle, Joe (Joseph) Maher, Michael HigLizzie McGuire Movie, The (2003) Cgins, Brian Mallon. Lots of chatter in this 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim Fall. Hilary Duff, Adam mostly two-character exploration of envy Lamberg, Hallie Todd, Robert Carradine, Jake and evil, centering on a pair of disaffected Thomas, Ashlie Brillault, Clayton Snyder, British hooligans (Pacino, Guilfoyle) who Alex Borstein, Yani Gellman. A teenage girl converse, go to a movie, drink in a pub— travels to Rome with her classmates and meets and commit a senseless act of violence. Not a handsome Italian pop star who offers her roterribly cinematic—which was Pacino’s mance and adventure—not to mention the intention—but a must for Pacino complechance of posing as his singing partner. Innoctists, as he offers a bravura performance. uous feature film based on the popular Disney Based on a one-act play by Heathcote WilChannel TV series for preadolescent girls. liams (in which Pacino starred onstage in Punctuated by amusing animated vignettes 1969). Never released theatrically.쩠 designed by Debra Solomon—including a Loch Ness (1996-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: final nod to Tinker Bell. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 John Henderson. Ted Danson, Joely Richard1 ★★★ Lloyd’s of London (1936) 115m. ⁄2 D: son, Ian Holm, Harris Yulin, James Frain, Henry King. Freddie Bartholomew, MadeKirsty Graham, Keith Allen, Nick Brimble. leine Carroll, Sir Guy Standing, Tyrone Lighthearted adventure-fantasy with jaded Power, C. Aubrey Smith, Virginia Field, scientist Danson going to Scotland to prove George Sanders. Handsomely mounted ficLoch Ness monster is a hoax, only to discover tion of rise of British insurance company; some real magic and fall in love with single young messenger boy Bartholomew grows mom Richardson. Innocuous, but amiable, up to be Power, who competes with Sandfamily fare. U.S. debut on network TV. ers for affection of Carroll.▼ Filmed in 1994. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Loaded (1994-British-New Zealand) CLocket, The (1946) 86m. ★★ D: John 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anna Campion. Oliver Brahm. Laraine Day, Brian Aherne, RobMilburn, Nick Patrick, Catherine McCorert Mitchum, Gene Raymond, Sharyn mack, Thandie Newton, Mathew Eggleton, Moffet, Ricardo Cortez. Another of those Danny Cunningham, Biddy Hodson, Dearpost-WW2 psychological dramas, with Day bhla Molloy. Seven young-adult friends as a woman who makes men fall in love spend a weekend in the British countryside with her—blinding them to her true perto make an amateur horror movie. They are sonality (and problems). Famed for its by turns aimless, repressed, rebellious, flashback within a flashback within a flashscared (etc.); before the weekend ends, recklessness and tragedy permanently alter back . . . but not very good. Look for young [ 820 ]

brunette Martha Hyer as a party guest and lodger at a turn-of-the-century London Ellen Corby as a household servant.● boarding house may be Jack the Ripper. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels Good, atmospheric chiller with fine perfor(1998-U.S.-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy mances. Remade as MAN IN THE Ritchie. Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, ATTIC.쩠 Nick Moran, Jason Statham, Steven MackLogan’s Run (1976) C-120m. ★★ D: Miintosh, Vinnie Jones, Sting, Lenny McLean, chael Anderson. Michael York, Jenny P. H. Moriarty. PULP FICTION, British Agutter, Richard Jordan, Peter Ustinov, style: a young smart aleck tries to beat a Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Roscoe Lee Browne. professional gambling ring and sinks in Dazzling first half, showing life of unending over his head, while others peripheral to this pleasure and extinction at age 30 in the year action are drawn into a vortex of coinci2274, canceled out by dreary second half. dence, misunderstanding, and violence. Earned a special Oscar for visual effects. Outlandish, audacious, and funny, though it From novel by William F. Nolan and George wears thin after a while, and its ultimate Clayton Johnson. Later a brief TV series. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼●쩠 resolution is apparent a bit too soon. Followed by SNATCH. [R]▼●쩠 Loggerheads (2005) C-96m. ★★★ D: Tim 1 ★ Lock Up (1989) C-106m. ⁄2 D: John Flynn. Kirkman. Bonnie Hunt, Kip Pardue, Tess Sylvester Stallone, Donald Sutherland, DarHarper, Chris Sarandon, Michael Learned, lanne Fluegel, John Amos, Sonny Landham, Michael Kelly, Robin Weigert. Sincere, Tom Sizemore, Frank McRae. With six low-key drama of several lives that intersect months to go on his sentence, convict Stallone in North Carolina during the 1990s: a drifter gets abducted from his country-club cell and who knows he hasn’t long to live strives transported to a hellhole run by old Hun-like to help endangered turtles on the Carolina adversary Sutherland. Missing are Linda shore . . . a woman who’s haunted by Blair, John Vernon, a lesbian guard, and 15 thoughts of the child she gave up for adopgratuitous showers; you do get a body-shop tion nearly 20 years earlier . . . and a preachmontage backed by Ides of March’s ‘‘Vehier’s wife who has regrets about having cle.’’ Bottom of the world, ma. [R]▼●쩠 driven away her gay son. Everyone hits the Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969-British) right notes in this simply told drama, inC-102m. BOMB D: Peter Coe. Christospired by a real woman’s encounter with pher Plummer, Susannah York, Glynis adoption bureaucracy in her state. Kirkman Johns, Ian Bannen, Tom Bell, Elaine also scripted. [PG-13] 쩠 Taylor. Film version of Henry Fielding play Lola (1961-French) 90m. ★★★ D: Jacques tries to be another TOM JONES, but tale Demy. Anouk Aime´e, Marc Michel, Jacques of mistaken identities in 18th-century EngHarden, Alan Scott, Elina Labourdette. land couldn’t be more forced. [R] Contemporary fable of love, with several Locusts, The (1997) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: John disparate people’s lives intertwining in port Patrick Kelley. Ashley Judd, Kate Capshaw, city of Nantes. Aime´e is enchanting as cabaPaul Rudd, Jeremy Davies, Vince Vaughn, ret dancer and carefree single mother; MiJessica Capshaw. A hunk of a drifter comes chel is young man looking for life’s to town and is hired by oversexed ranch meaning—and romance. Demy’s first feaqueen Kate Capshaw to work for her, both ture successfully links coincidence and Holday and night; along the way, he develops lywood-movie fantasy with ’60s realism a friendship with her highly disturbed son. and sexual frankness. References to Lola Brooding drama of cruel family secrets pop up in Demy’s later films. Music score gives viewers a reprieve whenever localby Michel Legrand; film is dedicated to Max Ophuls. Franscope.▼쩠 girl-with-a-heart-of-gold Judd is on-screen. Set in 1950s Kansas. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Lola (1969-British-Italian) C-88m. ★★ D: Lodger, The (1926-British) 75m. ★★★ D: Richard Donner. Charles Bronson, Susan Alfred Hitchcock. Ivor Novello, Malcolm George, Trevor Howard, Michael Craig, Keen, June, Marie Ault, Arthur Chesney. Honor Blackman, Lionel Jeffries, Robert The director’s first suspense thriller, with Morley, Jack Hawkins, Orson Bean, Kay a classic Hitchcockian theme: lodger Novello Medford, Paul Ford. Sixteen-year-old is accused by jealous detective Keen of nymphet initiates relationship with 38-yearbeing a killer. Memorable finale: Novello old porno book writer; hyperkinetic film chased by bloodthirsty mob. Aka THE CASE misses target, despite good cast and likaOF JONATHAN DREW. Remade in 1932 ble performance by Bronson. Released in (again with Novello), 1944, and in 1954 as England as TWINKY, at 98m. Aka STATUTORY AFFAIR. [PG]▼쩠 MAN IN THE ATTIC. Look for Hitchcock’s Lola (1982-German) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: first cameo.▼쩠 Lodger, The (1944) 84m. ★★★ D: John Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Barbara SukBrahm. Merle Oberon, George Sanders, owa, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mario Adorf, Laird Cregar, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Sara Mathias Fuchs, Helga Feddersen, Karin Baal, Allgood, Aubrey Mather, Queenie LeonIvan Desny. Brilliantly directed and edited ard, Doris Lloyd, Billy Bevan. That new chronicle of repercussions when cynical, cal[ 821 ]

culating singer-whore Sukowa sets sights on respectable Mueller-Stahl, the new Building Commissioner and only honest politician in town. Striking, unusual use of lighting and color. One-third of Fassbinder’s trilogy of life in postwar Germany (with THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN and VERONIKA VOSS). [R]쩠 Lola Montes (1955-French) C-115m. ★★★ D: Max Ophuls. Martine Carol, Peter Ustinov, Anton Walbrook, Oskar Werner, Ivan Desny. Legendary film about beautiful circus performer and her effect on various men nonetheless suffers from Carol’s lack of magnetism in title role. Ophuls makes superb use of widescreen and color; the celebrated director’s last film. Aka THE SINS OF LOLA MONTES. CinemaScope.

plays a woman named London, the object of Evans’ affection who broke up with him; as the film goes on it’s easy to see why. Most of the action occurs in the bathroom as Evans and Statham do drugs, drink, and discuss God, love, and all of life’s Big Questions. Depressing and drawn out, with graphic sex and nudity, but there are no revelations, resolutions, or warm feelings here. Super 35. [R]쩠 London Kills Me (1991-British) C-107m. BOMB D: Hanif Kureishi. Justin Chadwick, Steven Mackintosh, Fiona Shaw, Emer McCourt, Brad Dourif, Roshan Seth, Tony Haygarth, Stevan Rimkus, Eleanor David, Alun Armstrong. Glossy, phony tale of a homeless, rootless young man who steals and deals drugs, and decides he wants to go straight. This shallow cop-out of a movie does little more than serve as a recruiting poster for ▼●쩠 Lolita (1962-British) 152m. ★★★ D: Stanthieving and shooting heroin. Directorial debut ley Kubrick. James Mason, Shelley Winof playwright-screenwriter Kureishi (MY ters, Peter Sellers, Sue Lyon, Marianne BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE, SAMMY Stone, Diana Decker. Sexually precocious AND ROSIE GET LAID). [R]▼ Lyon becomes involved with stolid profesLoneliness of the Long Distance Runsor Mason, and bizarre Sellers provides ner, The (1962-British) 103m. ★★★★ D: peculiar romance leading to murder and Tony Richardson. Michael Redgrave, Tom lust. Screenplay for this genuinely strange Courtenay, Avis Bunnage, Peter Madden, film is credited to Vladimir Nabokov, who Alec McCowen, James Fox, Julia Foster, wrote the novel of the same name, but John Thaw. Engrossing story of rebellious bears little relation to his actual script, young man chosen to represent reform later published. Winters is outstanding as school in track race. Superbly acted film Lyon’s sex-starved mother. Reissued in U.S. confronts society, its mores and institutions. with 1m. of additional dialogue from British Screenplay by Alan Sillitoe, from his own story. Key British film of 1960s.▼●쩠 version. Remade in 1997.▼●쩠 ★★★1 Lolita (1997-British-French) C-137m. ⁄2 Lonely Are the Brave (1962) 107m. ★★★ D: Adrian Lyne. Jeremy Irons, Melanie D: David Miller. Kirk Douglas, Gena RowGriffith, Dominique Swain, Frank Langella, lands, Walter Matthau, Michael Kane, CarSuzanne Shepherd. Exceptional remake of roll O’Connor, William Schallert, George Vladimir Nabokov’s notorious novel about Kennedy, Bill Bixby. Penetrating study of rea man’s overwhelming (and ultimately, selfbellious cowboy Douglas escaping from jail, destructive) infatuation with a nymphet. In pursued by posse utilizing modern means of this version we’re told the source of his communications and transportation. Script by obsession, which is just one reason it stands Dalton Trumbo, from Edward Abbey’s novel, Brave Cowboy. Panavision.▼● up against Kubrick’s 1962 version and in some ways surpasses it . . . though Peter Lonely Guy, The (1984) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sellers is sorely missed. Irons is a perfect Arthur Hiller. Steve Martin, Charles Grodin, Humbert, Swain ideal as his object of deJudith Ivey, Robyn Douglass, Steve Lawsire. Screenplay by Stephen Schiff. [R] ▼쩠 rence, Merv Griffin, Dr. Joyce Brothers. Lolly Madonna XXX (1973) C-103m. ★★ Unusually subdued and offbeat vehicle for D: Richard C. Sarafian. Rod Steiger, RobMartin, who’s quite likable as a nerd-ish ert Ryan, Jeff Bridges, Scott Wilson, Seatype who’s just been thrown out by his son Hubley, Katherine Squire, Ed Lauter, girlfriend . . . only to find he’s not alone. Gary Busey, Randy Quaid. Modern-day Grodin is a delight as a melancholy soulmate Hatfield-McCoy feud erupts between two who inducts him into the society of Lonely backwoods families, prompted by mistaken Guys in N.Y.C. Too prolonged and uneven. identity situation involving innocent girl Based on Bruce Jay Friedman’s book The (Hubley). Histrionics galore, but no point Lonely Guy’s Book of Life. Adapted by Neil to it at all. Aka THE LOLLY-MADONNA Simon, scripted by Ed. Weinberger and WAR. Panavision. [PG] Stan Daniels. [R] ▼●쩠 Lolly-Madonna War, The SEE: Lolly Lonelyhearts (1958) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vincent Madonna XXX J. Donehue. Montgomery Clift, Robert Ryan, London (2006) C-92m. BOMB D: Hunter Myrna Loy, Dolores Hart, Maureen StaRichards. Chris Evans, Jessica Biel, Jason pleton, Frank Maxwell, Jackie Coogan, Mike Statham, Joy Bryant, Kelli Garner, Isla Fisher, Kellin. Superior cast in interesting adaptation John Newton, Dane Cook, Leelee Sobieski. of Nathanael West’s book and Howard TeichPoorly written movie about coke-heads. Biel mann’s play, both titled Miss Lonelyhearts. [ 822 ]

Clift is would-be reporter assigned to title colPerry Lopez, Robert J. Wilke. Actionpacked feature version of the popular TV umn and becomes too deeply involved in the series, focusing on the Masked Man and problems of his readers. A bit dated by toTonto as they tangle with scheming rancher day’s standards, but watchable; scripted and Bettger, who has been stirring up trouble produced by Dore Schary. West’s book had with the Indians.▼쩠 previously been filmed as ADVICE TO THE Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold, LOVELORN. Film debuts of Stapleton and The (1958) C-80m. ★★ D: Lesley Selander. director Donehue.▼ Clayton Moore, Jay Silverheels, Douglas Lonely Hearts (1981-Australian) C-95m. ★★★ Kennedy, Charles Watts. Typical Lone D: Paul Cox. Wendy Hughes, NorRanger Western is fine for younger audiman Kaye, Jon Finlayson, Julia Blake, ences, involving hooded killers and mysteriJonathan Hardy. Delightfully quirky roous clues to a hidden treasure city.▼쩠 mantic comedy about an unlikely match—a Loners, The (1972) C-79m. ★★ D: Sutton middle-aged piano tuner with a flair for Roley. Dean Stockwell, Todd Susman, theatrics, and a painfully shy office worker. Scott Brady, Gloria Grahame, Pat Stich, Lovely performances match director Cox’s Alex Dreier, Tim Rooney. Standard bike offbeat screenplay. [R]▼●쩠 movie with several screen veterans and a plot Lonely Hearts (2007-U.S.-German) C★★ involving three drop-out cyclists who turn 107m. D: Todd Robinson. John Travolta, their backs on society and take it on the lam Salma Hayek, James Gandolfini, Jared Leto, across the Southwest. [R]▼ Scott Caan, Laura Dern, Alice Krige, DagLonesome Jim (2006) C-91m. ★★★ D: mara Dominczyk, Michael Rispoli, Ellen TraSteve Buscemi. Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, volta. Real-life story of Ray Fernandez (Leto), Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel, Kevin who conned women who advertised in Corrigan, Jack Rovello, Mark Boone Ju‘‘lonely hearts’’ newspaper ads, and how his nior. A young man of vague ambition who’s twisted relationship with Martha Beck (Hayek) failed in N.Y.C. has nowhere to go but home led to a series of grisly murders in the 1940s. to Indiana, where he is less than thrilled to be Travolta plays Nassau County detective Elmer with his parents again. Suffering from Robinson (grandfather of this film’s writer‘‘chronic despair,’’ he doesn’t know how to director), who became obsessed with capturing deal with a nice, non-neurotic woman he these heartless killers. Uninspired treatment of meets. So low-key it makes a Jim Jarmusch acutely unpleasant material, dramatized befilm seem like PEARL HARBOR, but grows fore in THE HONEYMOON KILLERS and on you, especially if you share its sly, specific DEEP CRIMSON. Super 35. [R]쩠 (and dark) sense of humor. Affleck is terrific. Lonely Lady, The (1983) C-92m. BOMB Written by novelist James C. Strouse. [R]쩠 D: Peter Sasdy. Pia Zadora, Lloyd Bochner, Lone Star (1952) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vincent Bibi Besch, Joseph Cali, Anthony Holland, Sherman. Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Lionel Jared Martin, Ray Liotta, Kenneth Nelson. Barrymore, Beulah Bondi, Broderick CrawTerrible movie about an aspiring screenwriter ford, Ed Begley. Texas fights for indepenwho’s used and abused while on her way to dence, with good guy Gable vs. badman Crawthe Top in Hollywood; adapted from the Harford, Ava the woman in between. OK oater. old Robbins novel. Pia does her best, but this Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ is rock-bottom stuff, not even fun on a trash Lone Star (1996) C-134m. ★★★ D: John level (although there’s campy dialogue to Sayles. Kris Kristofferson, Chris Cooper, spare). Filmed mostly in Italy. [R]▼● Elizabeth Pen˜a, Joe Morton, Ron Canada, Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, The Miriam Colon, Clifton James, Matthew (1987-British) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack ClayMcConaughey, Stephen J. Lang, Tony Plana, ton. Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Wendy Frances McDormand. Absorbing multicharacHiller, Marie Kean, Ian McNeice, Alan ter story set in small Texas border town, Devlin, Rudi Davies, Prunella Scales. Smith where the memory of a former sheriff looms gives a knockout performance as a lonely, large—especially to his son, who’s the current driven Irish woman whose life takes anlawman. Keenly observed character studies other turn for the worse after moving into a are woven together by writer-director boardinghouse run by snippy Kean. HosSayles with his usual eye for detail and ear kins is equally fine as a garrulous gentlefor good dialogue. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 man with whom she sparks a relationship The Lone Wolf series SEE: Leonard Malbased on mutual misunderstanding. All the tin’s Classic Movie Guide performances are superb in this adaptation Lone Wolf & Cub: Sword of Vengeance of Brian Moore’s 1955 novel about a wom(1972-Japanese) C-83m. ★★★ D: Kenji Misan’s blind faith in the church—and total umi. Tomisaburo Wakayama, Yunosuke Itoo, lack of faith in herself . . . but the story has Fumio Watanabe, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi, Toa few too many peaks and valleys. [R]▼ moko Mayama, Tomoo Uchida. In 17th1 ★★ Lone Ranger, The (1956) C-86m. ⁄2 D: century Japan, Itto Ogami (Wakayama), the Stuart Heisler. Clayton Moore, Jay SilShogun’s executioner, is framed by the verheels, Lyle Bettger, Bonita Granville, Yagyu clan, who also murder his wife. Embit[ 823 ]

tered, he becomes a traveling assassin for hire, Minoru Ooki, Isao Kimura. Ogami is conwheeling his young son Daigoro around fronted by the last remaining son of his archJapan in a baby cart loaded with more gadgets enemy; this time, the supernatural plays a than James Bond’s Aston-Martin. First in the part, and for the first time the Lone Wolf is outstanding series is largely a setup for the afraid—but not for long. Particularly resemsequels; beautifully stylized, gorily violent, bles the comic books. Robust battle on a and intelligent. Based on a long-running snowy mountain climaxes the series, one of manga series written by Kazuo Koike, illusthe best, not just in Japanese cinema history, trated by Goseki Kojima. LIGHTNING but world cinema. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 SWORDS OF DEATH and SHOGUN ASLone Wolf McQuade (1983) C-107m. ★★1 SASSIN were composed of segments from ⁄2 D: Steve Carver. Chuck Norris, Dathis and/or the sequels. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 vid Carradine, Barbara Carrera, Leon Isaac Lone Wolf and Cub 2: Baby Cart at the Kennedy, Robert Beltran, L.Q. Jones, R.G. River Styx (1972-Japanese) C-81m. ★★★1⁄2 Armstrong, Sharon Farrell. Maverick Texas D: Kenji Misumi. Tomisaburo Wakayama, Ranger Norris takes on gun-running operaKayo Matsuo, Minoru Ooki, Shooji Kobaytion headed by Carradine. Played as a spaashi, Shin Kishida, Akihiro Tomikawa. ghetti Western, providing perfect milieu for Ogami is hired to kill a defecting worker Norris’ fighting skills. A little long, with a who knows the secret of a dye process, the sappy emotional sub-plot. [PG]▼●쩠 basis of the prosperity of a province. Best in Long Ago Tomorrow (1970-British) Cthe series, with amazing fights (Ogami is 100m. ★★ D: Bryan Forbes. Malcolm Mcattacked with a radish at one point), photogDowell, Nanette Newman, Georgia Brown, raphy, period atmosphere, and a sense of Bernard Lee, Gerald Sim, Michael Flanhumor about itself. As with all in the series, ders. Rather wrong-headed drama of love very violent and bloody. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 between paraplegics. Could have been senLone Wolf & Cub 3: Baby Cart to Hades sitive if script and direction weren’t so ★★★ (1972-Japanese) C-89m. D: Kenji Misporous and obvious. Original British title: umi. Tomisaburo Wakayama, Goo Katoo, THE RAGING MOON. [PG]▼ Yuuko Hama, Isao Yamagata, Michitaro Long and the Short and the Tall, The Mizushima, Ichiroo Takatani. A man whose (1961-British) 105m. ★★★ D: Leslie Norinsane lord was betrayed hires Ogami to kill man. Richard Todd, Laurence Harvey, Richthe betrayer, now an important official. First ard Harris, David McCallum, Ronald Frain the series to climax with Wakayama deser. Well-delineated account of British pafeating a virtual army singlehanded. More trol unit during WW2, focusing on their conventional than usual, it’s still an accomconflicting personalities and raids on Japplished, stylish film. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 anese. Retitled: JUNGLE FIGHTERS. Lone Wolf & Cub 4: Baby Cart in Peril Long Arm, The SEE: Third Key, The (1972-Japanese) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Buiichi Long, Dark Night, The SEE: Pack, The Saito. Tomisaburo Wakayama, Yooichi Long Day Closes, The (1992-British) CHayashi, Michie Azuma, Akihiro Tomi★★★ D: Terence Davies. Leigh McCor83m. kawa, So Yamamura. Ogami is hired to kill mack, Marjorie Yates, Anthony Watson, a tattooed woman, an expert with a short Aysee Owens, Nicholas Lamont, Tina sword, who’s carving up those connected to Malone. Poignant, painterly slice-of-life rethe man who raped her. Meanwhile, more membrance by writer-director Davies of Yagyu assassins try to kill our stone-faced working-class England in the 1950s. The dehero. Stylistically overblown, with flashpiction of family life is far rosier than in Dabacks, narration, and voice-overs galore; vies’ DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES, as slowly paced, but has a great climactic a dreary postwar England yearns for an idealfight. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 ized beauty found in Hollywood movies and Lone Wolf & Cub 5: Baby Cart in the romantic pop songs. [PG]▼ Land of Demons (1973-Japanese) C-89m. Long Day’s Dying, The (1968-British) C★★★ D: Kenji Misumi. Tomisaburo Waka93m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Collinson. David Hemyama, Michiyo Yasuda, Akihiro Tomikawa, mings, Tom Bell, Tony Beckley, Alan Dobie. Shingo Yamashiro, Tomomi Satoo, Akira YaDull story of three British soldiers and their mauchi. One by one, five samurai face Ogami German captive during weary trek through to test his skills before hiring him. As each one European countryside. Techniscope. [R] dies, he gives Ogami another part of his inLong Day’s Journey Into Night (1962) structions: to kill their lord, his concubine, and 174m. ★★★★ D: Sidney Lumet. Katharine their five-year-old daughter. Grimmest of the Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, lot, but also graced with the finest photography Jr., Dean Stockwell, Jeanne Barr. Faithin the series and a powerful incident centering ful, stagy adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s on Ogami’s young son. Tohoscope. ▼●쩠 detailed study of family in the 1910s. Lone Wolf & Cub 6: White Heaven in ★★★ Hepburn is dope-addicted wife, RichardD: YoshiHell (1974-Japanese) C-83m son her pompous actor husband, Stockwell yuki Kuroda. Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Junko Hitomi, Goroo Mutsumi, the son dying of TB, and Robards the [ 824 ]

alcoholic son. Later cut to 136m. Remade Some nice touches, especially John Williams’ for TV in 1987 with Jack Lemmon. ▼●쩠 jokey score, but Altman’s attitude toward the Long Duel, The (1967-British) C-115m. genre borders on contempt. Screenplay by ★★1 Leigh Brackett, who had earlier coscripted ⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Yul Brynner, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, Andrew Keir, THE BIG SLEEP. Look for Arnold SchwarCharlotte Rampling. Brynner leads peaszenegger as a muscleman, David Carradine as ant revolt against British raj in 1920s Ina prisoner. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 dia; routine adventure saga. Look for EdLong Good Friday, The (1980-British) ward Fox. Panavision. C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Mackenzie. Bob Longest Day, The (1962) 180m. ★★★★ D: Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Eddie Constantine, Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek ThompWicki. John Wayne, Rod Steiger, Robert son, George Coulouris, Stephen Davies, Ryan, Peter Lawford, Henry Fonda, Robert Pierce Brosnan. Occasionally confusing Mitchum, Richard Burton, Richard Beymer, but otherwise terrific portrait of hoodlum Jeffrey Hunter, Sal Mineo, Roddy Mcrivalry in contemporary London; takes its Dowall, Eddie Albert, Curt Jurgens, Gert rightful place with the best gangster movFrobe, Sean Connery, Robert Wagner, Red ies of all time. Hoskins, brilliant as underButtons, Mel Ferrer, many others. One of world entrepreneur, is matched by Mirren the last great epic WW2 films. Brilliant as subtly sexy mistress. Original screenplay by Barrie Keeffe. [R]▼●쩠 retelling of the Allied invasion of Normandy, complete with all-star international Long Gray Line, The (1955) C-138m. ★★★ cast, re-creation of historical events on a D: John Ford. Tyrone Power, Maugrand scale; Oscar-winning special effects and reen O’Hara, Robert Francis, Ward Bond, cinematography. Also shown in computerDonald Crisp, Betsy Palmer, Phil Carey, colored version. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Harry Carey, Jr. Lengthy sentimental meloLongest Yard, The (1974) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 drama of West Point athletic trainer Power D: Robert Aldrich. Burt Reynolds, Eddie and his many years at the Academy. O’Hara Albert, Ed Lauter, Michael Conrad, Jim is radiant as his wife. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Hampton, Bernadette Peters, Charles Tyner, Long Hot Summer, The (1958) C-117m. ★★★ D: Martin Ritt. Paul Newman, Joanne Mike Henry, Harry Caesar, Richard Kiel, Robert Tessier, Malcolm Atterbury. Convict ReynWoodward, Anthony Franciosa, Orson olds, a former football pro, quarterbacks a Welles, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury. squad of dirty players against warden Albert’s Well-blended William Faulkner short stohand-picked team. An audience picture if there ries make a flavorful, brooding drama of ever was one; hilarious bone-crunching comdomineering Southerner (Welles) and a edy written by Tracy Keenan Wynn. Remade wandering handyman (Newman), who dein 2001 as MEAN MACHINE (the original cides to stick around and marry daughter film’s British title) and in 2005. [R]▼●쩠 Woodward. Excellent Alex North score, Longest Yard, The (2005) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 weak finish to strong film; the Newmans’ D: Peter Segal. Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, first film together. Remade for TV with Don Burt Reynolds, William Fichtner, Nelly, MiJohnson. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 chael Irvin, James Cromwell, Nick Turturro, Long John Silver (1954-Australian) CTerry Crews, Cloris Leachman, Courteney 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Byron Haskin. Robert NewCox, Tracy Morgan. By-the-numbers remake ton, Connie Gilchrist, Kit Taylor, Grant (the second, after MEAN MACHINE) with Taylor. Newton reprises title role from Sandler as the disgraced former pro quarterTREASURE ISLAND (with same director back who is sent up the river. There, he is as the Disney film) and chews the scenery coerced by the hard-nosed warden (Cromin this loose adaptation of Robert Louis well) into creating a football team out of felStevenson. Look for Rod Taylor in a small low inmates. Blends comedy and violence as role. Aka RETURN TO TREASURE ISwell as the 1974 film, but lacks its freshness LAND. CinemaScope.▼쩠 and spark. Reynolds takes over the Michael Long Kiss Goodnight, The (1996) CConrad role with a knowing wink. (Ed Lauter 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Renny Harlin. Geena Davis, shows up, too.) Populated with many recogSamuel L. Jackson, Craig Bierko, Yvonne nizable sports figures . . . and, yes, Rob Zima, Tom Amandes, Brian Cox, Patrick Schneider. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Malahide, David Morse, Joseph McKenna, Long Goodbye, The (1973) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 G. D. Spradlin, Alan North. If you find a D: Robert Altman. Elliott Gould, Nina kitchen sink, it’s the one screenwriter Shane Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Henry GibBlack forgot to throw into this over-the-top son, Mark Rydell, Jim Bouton, David action yarn, which starts out seriously, then Arkin, Warren Berlinger. Strange, almost changes tone. Davis plays an amnesiac with spoofy updating of Raymond Chandler’s a young daughter, whose happy life is disnovel, with Gould as a shabby Philip rupted when she’s forced to confront her Marlowe involved with mysterious Van past—as a professional undercover assasPallandt, alcoholic Hayden, evil Gibson, misssin! Jackson is a low-rent private eye who ing pal Bouton, and Jewish gangster Rydell. goes along for this roller-coaster ride, full of [ 825 ]

large-scale stunts and humor with Davis as vey Korman, Ted Wass, Jonathan Winters, a combination Pauline (as in PERILS Stella Stevens, Anne Meara, George DiOF . . .) and Rambo. No one seems to mind Cenzo. Four lower-middle-class losers boror care that a child is also part of the mayrow $5,000 from the local break-ya-fingas hem. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 financier to finance a sure thing at the track. Long Live Your Death SEE: Don’t Turn Pathetic comedy is full of toilet gags and can’t the Other Cheek even coast on the good will established by Long, Long Trailer, The (1954) C-96m. the cast in better days. Mike Nichols (Mike ★★1 ⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Lucille Ball, Nichols!!!) executive-produced. [PG-13]▼쩠 Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn, Longshots, The (2008) C-94m. ★★ D: Fred Gladys Hurlbut. Lucy and Desi decide to Durst. Ice Cube, Keke Palmer, Tasha Smith, spend their honeymoon visiting scenic spots Dash Mihok, Matt Craven, Glenn Plummer, in the West, traveling and living in the 50Garrett Morris, Jill Marie Jones, Michael foot house trailer of the title (a perfect ‘‘veColyar, Malcolm Goodwin. Routine ‘‘inspihicle’’ for a CinemaScope movie). Though rational’’ drama based on true story of a based on the popular novel by Clinton young girl who becomes the only female on Twiss, this enduringly popular slapstick a Pop Warner football team. Urged on and comedy is almost an I Love Lucy episode on later coached by her ne’er-do-well uncle, a wheels. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 former pro player now fallen on hard times, Long Night, The (1947) 101m. ★★ D: Anashe quarterbacks a footloose, ragtag group tole Litvak. Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Gedright to the cusp of junior pigskin glory. As des, Vincent Price, Ann Dvorak, Howard she proved in AKEELAH AND THE BEE, Freeman, Elisha Cook, Jr., Queenie Smith, Palmer is endearing and irresistible, while Charles McGraw. Factory worker Fonda kills Cube gets his best screen outing in a Price, then holes up in his boarding house while . . . but neither of them can rescue this (besieged by police) and relives in flashbacks, by-the-numbers family film swimming in and flashbacks within flashbacks, the events sports-movie cliche´s. Super 35. [PG]쩠 leading up to his predicament. Plodding and Longtime Companion (1990) C-96m. ★★★ sullen; a long night indeed. Remake of Jean D: Norman Rene´. Stephen Caffrey, PatGabin film LE JOUR SE LEVE.▼쩠 rick Cassidy, Brian Cousins, Bruce DaviLong Ride from Hell, A (1970-Italian) Cson, John Dossett, Mark Lamos, Dermot 94m. ★1⁄2 D: Alex Burks (Camillo Bazzoni). Mulroney, Mary-Louise Parker, Michael Steve Reeves, Wayde Preston, Dick Palmer, Schoeffling, Campbell Scott, Robert Joy. Silvana Venturelli, Lee Burton, Ted Carter. Emotional pre-PHILADELPHIA examinaTitle is another instance of truth-in-advertistion of AIDS in the ’80s, focusing on a ing; dreary Western co-authored by Reeves closely knit group of gay men in N.Y.C. has to do with rancher who tries to clear himFilm spans the entire decade, from first reself of phony train-robbery charge. [R]쩠 ports of a mystery illness to a time when the Long Ride Home, The SEE: Time for disease became a tragic part of everyday Killing, A life. Craig Lucas’s script is insightful, heartwrenching, and funny. Entire cast is excelLong Riders, The (1980) C-100m. ★★★ D: Walter Hill. David, Keith and Robert lent, especially Davison. A PBS American Carradine, Stacy and James Keach, Randy Playhouse presentation. [R]▼●쩠 and Dennis Quaid, Nicholas and ChristoLong Tomorrow, The SEE: Cry For pher Guest, Pamela Reed, Savannah Smith, Me, Billy James Whitmore, Jr., Harry Carey, Jr. All in Long Voyage Home, The (1940) 105m. ★★★1 the Family out West. The Carradines, Keaches, ⁄2 D: John Ford. John Wayne, Thomas Quaids, and Guests portray, respectively, the Mitchell, Ian Hunter, Ward Bond, Barry Younger, James, Miller, and Ford brothers in Fitzgerald, Wilfrid Lawson, Mildred Natthis stylish but extremely bloody film. Typiwick, John Qualen, Arthur Shields, Joe cally meticulous direction by Hill, with David Sawyer, J. Warren Kerrigan. Evocative Carradine and Reed igniting sparks as Cole look at men who spend their lives at sea, Younger and Belle Starr. Excellent score by adapted (by Dudley Nichols) from four short Ry Cooder. [R]▼●쩠 O’Neill plays. Richly textured drama with Long Ships, The (1964-British-Yugoslamany beautiful vignettes; exquisitely photographed by Gregg Toland. ▼●쩠 vian) C-125m. ★★ D: Jack Cardiff. Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Rosanna Schiaffino, Long Walk Home, The (1990) C-97m. ★★★ Russ Tamblyn, Oscar Homolka, Colin Blakely. D: Richard Pearce. Sissy Spacek, Fairly elaborate but comic-book–level cosWhoopi Goldberg, Dwight Schultz, Ving tume adventure of Vikings battling Moors Rhames, Dylan Baker; narrated by Mary for fabled treasure. Good cast deserves betSteenburgen. Perceptive, extremely wellter. Super Technirama 70.▼쩠 acted account of the life and changing Long Shot, The (1976) SEE: Target of times in the segregated American South of an Assassin the mid-1950s. The focus is on the conLongshot, The (1986) C-89m. BOMB D: sciousness-raising of Spacek, a privileged Paul Bartel. Tim Conway, Jack Weston, Harpillar of Southern womanhood; Goldberg [ 826 ]

is her hard-working housekeeper, who’s Harewood, Tim Rossovich, Darryl Hickman. struggling to help support her own family. Conglomerate head Coburn produces the Fine sense of period detail; most intriguing computerized images of gorgeous models to of all, John Cork’s script mirrors the conhawk products and political candidates on nection between feminism and the civil TV—and also murders his subjects. As he rights movement. [PG]▼●쩠 is losing all his clients, Beverly Hills plastic Long Way Home, The (1997) C-119m. surgeon Finney investigates. Intriguing prem★★★1⁄2 D: Mark Jonathan Harris. Narrated ise is illogically and boringly handled; even by Morgan Freeman. Exceptional, OscarFinney cannot save this turkey. Watch for Vanna White. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 winning documentary about the incredible story of Jews who—once freed from Nazi Look for the Silver Lining (1949) C-100m. ★★1 concentration camps—were forced to en⁄2 D: David Butler. June Haver, Ray dure yet another ordeal. Unwelcome in their Bolger, Gordon MacRae, Charles Ruggles, homelands, bereft of families, they were Rosemary DeCamp. Superficial biography held in squalid detention camps or arrested of Marilyn Miller’s career in show busifor illegal immigration until the formation ness, with vintage vaudeville numbers bolof the state of Israel in 1948. Well told stering trivial plot line.▼ through the use of archival footage, on-camLooking for Comedy in the Muslim World era interviews, and the words of survivors (2006) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Albert Brooks. Albert and participants. ▼●쩠 Brooks, Sheetal Sheth, John Carroll Lynch, Look At Me (2004-French) C-110m. ★★★ Jon Tenney, Amy Ryan, Homie Doroodian, D: Agne`s Jaoui. Marilou Berry, Jean-Pierre Fred Dalton Thompson, Penny Marshall. Bacri, Agne`s Jaoui, Laurent Gre´vill, VirBrooks (playing his usual on-screen self) is ginie Desarnauts, Keine Bouhiza. Another asked by the U.S. government to bridge a smart, sophisticated comedy from Jaoui vital cultural gap in the post-9/11 world by (THE TASTE OF OTHERS) about a group traveling to India and Pakistan to learn what of people who have all the answers for immakes Muslim people laugh. What might proving each other’s lives but not a clue have been brilliant as a short is a bit mild at of what to do about their own. Flawless feature length but still has many funny and ensemble includes real-life husband and inspired moments as Brooks targets showwife Jaoui and Bacri, who also cowrote the business egotists, government drones . . . and himself. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 screenplay, set in the world of literature and music, but shining an all-knowing light on Looking for Love (1964) C-83m. BOMB the mystery (and fragility) of human nature. D: Don Weis. Connie Francis, Susan OliSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 ver, Jim Hutton, Barbara Nichols, Danny Look Back in Anger (1959-British) Thomas, Johnny Carson, George Hamilton, 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tony Richardson. Richard Paula Prentiss. They should have looked for Burton, Claire Bloom, Edith Evans, Mary a script instead. Plastic show-biz romance Ure, Gary Raymond, Glen Byam Shaw, with little help from various guest stars, Donald Pleasence. John Osborne’s trendincluding Carson (who wound up making setting angry-young-man play, with Burton HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT-type jokes rebelling against life and wife, realistically about this—his first film appearance). filmed and acted; dialogue bristles. Remade Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977) C-135m. ★1 for British TV in 1989. ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Richard Brooks. Diane Keaton, RichLook Both Ways (2005-Australian) Card Gere, William Atherton, Tuesday Weld, 100m. ★★★ D: Sarah Watt. Justine Clarke, Richard Kiley, LeVar Burton, Tom Berenger, William McInnes, Anthony Hayes, Lisa Brian Dennehy. Sordid rewrite (by director Flanagan, Andrew S. Gilbert, Daniela FariBrooks) of Judith Rossner’s novel begins as nacci, Sacha Horler, Maggie Dence. A intelligent study of repressed young girl, then woman who sees disaster lurking around wallows endlessly in her new ‘‘liberated’’ every corner and a photojournalist who’s lifestyle. Keaton’s performance outclasses this facing a genuine health crisis meet under unpointless movie. Story recycled in the TVM usual circumstances and feel a connection beTRACKDOWN: FINDING THE GOODtween them. Meanwhile, everyone around BAR KILLER. [R]▼● them is dealing with their mortality in one Looking for Richard (1996) C-109m. ★★★1 way or another. Fresh, likeable comedy⁄2 D: Al Pacino. Al Pacino, Frederic drama tackles the biggest subjects of all—life Kimball, Harris Yulin, Penelope Allen, and death—using animation to illustrate the Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Estelle Parcharacters’ deepest fears. Feature debut for sons, Winona Ryder, Aidan Quinn. Fascinatanimator Watt, who also scripted. Winner of ing documentary-style film about Pacino’s multiple Australian Film Institute awards, staging of Richard III and his simultaneous including Best Film. [PG-13]쩠 exploration of the relevance of Shakespeare Look Down and Die SEE: Steel (1980) to people in every walk of life. Every scene Looker (1981) C-94m. BOMB D: Miis dissected—by actors and scholars—before chael Crichton. Albert Finney, James Coburn, we see it performed, bringing this play to Susan Dey, Leigh Taylor-Young, Dorian vivid life, especially for those of us who [ 827 ]

aren’t already Shakespeare buffs. A treat Gildersleeve), Lee Bonnell. Bergen’s plane from start to finish. Among the interviewees: inadvertently lands in Wistful Vista, where Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Kline, James Earl he becomes involved in a municipal squabJones, Rosemary Harris, Peter Brook, Derek ble with Fibber and Molly. Slim vehicle Jacobi, Vanessa Redgrave, and John Gielgud. for radio favorites only comes alive when Charlie McCarthy takes the spotlight.▼● [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Looking Glass War, The (1970-British) Look Who’s Talking (1989) C-90m. ★★★ C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank R. Pierson. ChrisD: Amy Heckerling. John Travolta, Kirstie topher Jones, Pia Degermark, Ralph RichardAlley, Olympia Dukakis, George Segal, son, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Rogers, Susan Abe Vigoda; voice of Bruce Willis. AmiaGeorge, Anna Massey, Ray McAnally, Vible comedy about an unmarried woman vien Pickles. Dull film version of John le Carwho has a baby (by her no-good married re´’s best-seller has Jones risking his life to boyfriend) and then sets out to find a photograph a rocket in East Berlin. Good opsuitable ‘‘daddy’’ for him. Good showcase portunity to study the leads’ bone structure, for costars Alley and Travolta. Written by since they never change facial expressions. director Heckerling. One quibble: though Panavision. [M/PG]▼쩠 set in N.Y.C., it’s all too obvious that it Lookin’ to Get Out (1982) C-104m. was shot somewhere else (Vancouver, to BOMB D: Hal Ashby. Jon Voight, Burt be precise). Followed by two sequels and Young, Ann-Margret, Bert Remsen, Jude the TV series Baby Talk. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Farese, Allen Keller, Richard Bradford, Look Who’s Talking Now (1993) C-92m. ★★ Angelina Jolie. Implausible, often embarD: Tom Ropelewski. John Travolta, Kirrassing comedy about two losers who talk stie Alley, George Segal, Olympia Dukakis, their way into a suite at the MGM Grand in David Gallagher, Tabitha Lupien, Lysette Las Vegas with a plan to win big at blackAnthony; voices of Danny DeVito, Diane jack. Remsen’s performance as a wily old Keaton. Third entry in the series isn’t bad, card shark is the only bright spot in this utter thanks to some cute dogplay and the decatastrophe. Voight coscripted, coproduced, lightful voice-over work by DeVito and and seems to be trying out his Al Pacino Keaton, as a kind of live-action LADY impression. In 2009 an alternate version of AND THE TRAMP, who wreak havoc on the film surfaced, edited by Ashby before the lives of the Umbriacco family. Passable family entertainment. [PG-13]▼●쩠 his untimely death; it runs 120m. and is a definite improvement. Incidentally, the little Look Who’s Talking Too (1990) C-81m. girl at the end is Voight’s four-year-old BOMB D: Amy Heckerling. John Travolta, daughter, Angelina Jolie. [R] ▼쩠 Kirstie Alley, Olympia Dukakis, Elias Lookout, The (2007) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Koteas, Twink Caplan, Gilbert Gottfried, Scott Frank. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeff Lorne Sussman; voices of Bruce Willis, Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher, Carla Roseanne Barr, Damon Wayans, Mel Brooks. Gugino, Bruce McGill, Alberta Watson, Militantly offensive sequel adds a baby girl to Alex Borstein, Sergio Di Zio, David Huthe formula—with the voice of Barr. It took a band. Onetime Midwest high school prince million bad poo-poo jokes and a gratuitous (Gordon-Levitt) now struggles through Travolta dance number to pad the running every day since surviving a devastating car time. Climactic apartment fire may traumatize young children. [PG-13]▼●쩠 accident. He shares an apartment with a sardonic blind man (Daniels) and holds down Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, The (1981) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Friz a simple job as night janitor at the local bank. This makes him a prime target for Freleng. Voice of Mel Blanc. Featurecrafty Goode, who’s planning a bank heist length compilation of classic Warner Bros. and needs an inside man to help. Crackercartoons is divided into three parts. In the jack thriller is also a superb (if dark) characfirst, Yosemite Sam must return Bugs Bunny ter study. Every person on-screen is well to the Devil in order to save his own soul. drawn, no matter how small the part; Second part has Bugs rescuing Tweety Gordon-Levitt is terrific as usual. Directing from gangsters Rocky and Muggsy. Third debut for screenwriter Frank. HD Wideand best segment is a parody of Hollywood award shows featuring Freleng’s wonscreen. [R]쩠 Looks and Smiles (1981-British) 104m. derful 1957 cartoon THE THREE LITTLE ★★★ D: Kenneth Loach. Graham Green, BOPS. Also includes Bugs Bunny’s OscarCarolyn Nicholson, Tony Pitts, Phil Askwinning KNIGHTY KNIGHT BUGS ham, Cilla Mason. Working-class teenager (1958). Official billing is FRIZ FRELGreen cannot find a job or place for himENG’S LOONEY, LOONEY, LOONEY self in society. Solid, realistic story of BUGS BUNNY MOVIE. [G] ▼쩠 alienation, frustration, anger.쩠 Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) CLook Who’s Laughing (1941) 78m. ★★ 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Dante. Brendan Fraser, D: Allan Dwan. Edgar Bergen, Jim and Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy DalMarion Jordan (Fibber McGee and Molly), ton, Joan Cusack, Heather Locklear, Mary Lucille Ball, Harold Peary (The Great Woronov, Robert Picardo, Marc Lawrence; [ 828 ]

voices of Joe Alaskey, Billy West, Jeff Curt Jurgens, Eli Wallach, Jack Hawkins, Glenn Bennett, Bob Bergen. Humorless Paul Lukas, Daliah Lavi, Akim Tamiroff. Warner Bros. V.P. of Comedy Elfman is Overlong, uneven adaptation of Joseph forced to join forces with ex-studio guard Conrad’s story about idealistic young man Fraser to bring the recently fired Daffy in British Merchant Marine in the 19th Duck back to the studio, unaware that he’s century discredited as a coward who lives fallen prey to the machinations of the Acme with scar for the rest of his life. Film’s great Company’s evil chairman (Martin). Bugs moments provided by outstanding supporting Bunny, Daffy, and friends are just as funny cast. Super Panavision 70.▼쩠 as ever, but the live-action story line is Lord Love a Duck (1966) 105m. ★★★ D: strained at best. Even obscure WB cartoon George Axelrod. Tuesday Weld, Roddy characters make brief but welcome appearMcDowall, Lola Albright, Martin West, ances. As always, Dante fills his movie with Ruth Gordon, Harvey Korman, Martin in-jokes for buffs (watch carefully!) and Gabel, Sarah Marshall, Lynn Carey. Madcameos. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 cap black comedy about progressive SouthLoophole (1980-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: ern California high school where botany John Quested. Albert Finney, Martin Sheen, is called ‘‘plant skills.’’ Film wavers unSusannah York, Colin Blakely, Jonathan comfortably between comedy and drama at Pryce, Robert Morley, Alfred Lynch, Christimes, but really delivers some belly laughs. topher Guard. Slick but very ordinary caper Terrific performances in movie that was film about an unemployed architect who’s ahead of its time. Directorial debut of cowriter Axelrod.▼쩠 persuaded to participate in an ambitious break-in of ‘‘impenetrable’’ London bank. Lord of Illusions (1995) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Aka BREAK IN.▼ Clive Barker. Scott Bakula, Kevin J. Loose Cannons (1990) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: O’Connor, Famke Janssen, Vincent SchiaBob Clark. Gene Hackman, Dan Aykroyd, velli, Barry Del Sherman, Sheila Tousey, Dom DeLuise, Ronny Cox, Nancy Travis, Joel Swetow, Joseph Latimore, Susan Robert Prosky, Paul Koslo, Dick O’Neill, Traylor, Daniel Von Bargen, Barry Shabaka Jan Triska, David Alan Grier. Below-rockHenley. Private eye Bakula, a specialist in bottom car-chase excuse about two D.C. the supernatural, is in L.A. on a ‘‘normal’’ cops caught between ex-Nazis and Israeli case when a stage magician is apparently adversaries scuffling over a mysterious Hitkilled during a performance. This is linked ler home movie. Unfunny and offensive, to the pending resurrection of an evil sorfilm stagnated on the shelf while the stucerer, and soon Bakula is battling the forces dio figured out what to do with it. Career of darkness again. Intelligent thriller, writnadir for most of its participants. Panaten by the director, is better than the usual vision. [R]▼●쩠 genre fodder, but it’s thinly plotted, and Loose Shoes (1980) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ira condescends slightly to its audience. UnMiller. Bill Murray, Howard Hesseman, rated version runs 122m. [R] ▼●쩠 David Landsburg, Ed Lauter, Susan Tyrrell, Lord of the Flies (1963-British) 90m. ★★★ Avery Schreiber, Misty Rowe, Jaye P. MorD: Peter Brook. James Aubrey, Tom Chapin, gan, Buddy Hackett, Murphy Dunne. Very Hugh Edwards, Roger Elwin, Tom Gaman. mixed bag of spoofs of coming-attractions Unique story of a group of British schoolpreviews, some hilarious, some duds. Highboys stranded on remote island. Their gradlights: ‘‘Skateboarders From Hell,’’ ‘‘The Yid ual degeneration into a savage horde is and the Kid’’ (Chaplin), ‘‘The Sneaker’’ compelling. Adapted from William Gol(Woody Allen), ‘‘Welcome to Bacon ding’s novel. Remade in 1990.▼●쩠 County,’’ ‘‘Jewish Star Wars,’’ and unbearLord of the Flies (1990) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: ably funny ‘‘Darktown After Dark.’’ Dunne Harry Hook. Balthazar Getty, Chris Furrh, also composed score and songs. Filmed mostly Danuel Pipoly, Badgett Dale, Edward and in 1977. Originally titled COMING ATAndrew Taft. Color update of the novel-toTRACTIONS. Aka QUACKERS. [R]▼쩠 film turns William Golding’s savage schoolLoot (1970-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Silvio boys into TV-savvy American kids; it may Narizzano. Lee Remick, Richard Attenbormake the story more immediate (though ough, Roy Holder, Hywel Bennett, Milo even that’s arguable), but it also purges the O’Shea, Dick Emery, Joe Lynch. Frantic original of its poetry. Visceral, and imblack comedy from Joe Orton’s stage hit. proves as it progresses, but inferior to Holder and Bennett knock over a bank, Peter Brook’s 1963 version whose amateur hide the swag in the coffin of the former’s actors, by and large, were superior to this brood. [R]▼●쩠 mother, and then have a spot of trouble retrieving it. Despite Mod trappings, basiLord of the Rings, The (1978) C-133m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Bakshi. Voices of Christocally an old-fashioned, door-slamming farce; funny for those in the mood. [PG— pher Guard, William Squire, John Hurt, originally rated R]▼ Michael Sholes, Dominic Guard. AmbiLord Jim (1965) C-154m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richtious animated version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy saga covers 11⁄2 books of his ard Brooks. Peter O’Toole, James Mason, [ 829 ]

trilogy (ending rather abruptly). Story of Dourif, Karl Urban, Andy Serkis. Spectacudifferent races in Middle-earth competing lar continuation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, for ownership of all-powerful Rings is with Frodo and a far-ranging group of warinspired and exciting, but begins to drag— riors plunging ahead in the quest to prevent and confuse—during last hour. Bakshi’s evil Lord Sauron from destroying Middletechnique awkwardly combines animation earth. Darker, more focused, more deeply and live-action tracings. Remade in 2001. emotional, and more exciting than the first [PG]▼쩠 installment, with a stunning array of technical Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the wizardry and an ideal cast. Highlighted by the Ring, The (2001) C-178m. ★★★ D: Peter presence of Gollum, an amazing blend of CGI Jackson. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv and Serkis’ performance. Rhys-Davies also Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate provides the voice of Treebeard. Oscar winBlanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, ner for Visual Effects and Sound Editing. Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, ChrisExtended video version runs 223m. Foltopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian lowed by THE LORD OF THE RINGS: Holm. Sprawling, epic adaptation of the THE RETURN OF THE KING. Super 35. first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy about [PG-13]▼쩠 Frodo Baggins, the Hobbit chosen to destroy Lord of War (2005) C-122m. ★★★ D: Ana powerful ring that threatens Middle-earth. drew Niccol. Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto, Moves in fits and starts, but intelligent and Bridget Moynahan, Ian Holm, Ethan Hawke, beautifully executed by director/cowriter Eamonn Walker, Sammi Rotibi. Biting satire Jackson, with phenomenal production valof the arms industry with Cage as a Russian ues and a fine cast, led by McKellen, perfect immigrant who’s desperate to escape his as the wizard Gandalf. Won Oscars for dead-end life in 1980s Brooklyn, and sees a Makeup, Visual Effects, Cinematography way out: selling guns, without regard to the (Andrew Lesnie), and Original Score (Howconsequences of who buys them or why. ard Shore). Extended video version runs Ultimately he learns that there is a price to 208m. Followed by THE LORD OF THE pay for his success. Raw and relevant, this RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS. Super 35. cuts awfully close to the bone, which is why [PG-13] ▼쩠 it’s no candidate for Feel Good Movie of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the the Year. Written by the director. Cage also coproduced. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 King, The (2003) C-200m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Jackson. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Lords of Discipline, The (1983) C-102m. ★★1 Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate ⁄2 D: Franc Roddam. David Keith, RobBlanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, ert Prosky, G. D. Spradlin, Rick Rossovich, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando John Lavachielli, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, David Mark Breland, Michael Biehn, Barbara Wenham, Karl Urban, John Noble, Andy Babcock, Judge Reinhold, Bill Paxton, Serkis, Ian Holm, Sean Bean. Final film in the Jason Connery, Matt Frewer, Sophie Ward. J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy ends on a high note as Familiar but satisfactory military school Frodo approaches his destiny at Mount Doom drama, set in 1964 South Carolina. Keith and the forces of good prepare for final battle plays senior asked to keep an eye on first against the evil minions of Sauron. Long, to black cadet (Breland) who’s being systembe sure, with a few too many endings, but atically tortured by secret society called still a staggering achievement—alone and ‘‘The Ten.’’ Good performances, espein concert with the previous two films. Cast, cially by Prosky as school’s number-two production, and direction are splendid and officer; based on the Pat Conroy novel. the astounding visual effects are always at Unbelievable as it may appear, most of the the service of a story that scales heroic and film was shot in England! [R]▼●쩠 very human heights. Winner of 11 Oscars: Lords of Dogtown (2005-U.S.-German) CBest Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay 107m. ★★ D: Catherine Hardwicke. Emile (by Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa BoyHirsch, Victor Rasuk, John Robinson, Miens), Costumes (Ngila Dickson, Richard Taychael Angarano, Nikki Reed, Rebecca De lor), Art Direction (Grant Major, Dan Mornay, Heath Ledger, Johnny Knoxville, Hennah, Alan Lee), Score (Howard Shore), Vincent Laresca, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Song (‘‘Into the West’’), Sound Mixing, Sofia Vergara, Pablo Schreiber, Elden HenEditing, Makeup, and Visual Effects. Exson, America Ferrera, Jeremy Renner, Wiltended version runs 250m. Super 35. [PGliam Mapother, Bai Ling, Charles Napier. 13] ▼쩠 Venice, California, 1975: a group of rauLord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The cous teens find themselves on the cutting edge of the skateboarding craze. High(2002) C-179m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Jackson. Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo energy account is inspired by a true story, Mortensen, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchett, John and scripted by one of the ‘‘lords,’’ Stacy Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, Peralta (played here by Robinson), who Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando made the documentary DOGTOWN AND Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, Brad Z-BOYS, but there’s not enough material to [ 830 ]

sustain a feature film. Attempts to capture Losing Chase (1996) C-92m. ★★★ D: Kevin the purity and joy of skateboarding, but inBacon. Helen Mirren, Kyra Sedgwick, Beau stead merely glorifies insufferable behavior. Bridges, Michael Yarmush, Lucas Denton, Unrated version also available. [PG-13]▼쩠 Nancy Beatty. Well-acted character-driven Lord’s of Flatbush, The (1974) C-88m. drama, set on Martha’s Vineyard, about a ★★★ psychologically troubled woman (Mirren) D: Stephen F. Verona, Martin Davidson. Perry King, Sylvester Stallone, Henry and her complex relationship with the new Winkler, Paul Mace, Susan Blakely, Paul mother’s helper (Sedgwick) hired to look Jabara, Dolph Sweet. Fun story of a Flatbush after her children. This premiered on cable gang, circa 1957, with original music score. TV prior to theatrical release; Bacon’s feaTraining ground for two future stars, with ture directing debut. Sedgwick (Bacon’s wife) executive-produced. [R]▼●쩠 Stallone writing some of the dialogue and Winkler trying out his Fonzie character. Look Losing Isaiah (1995) C-108m. ★★★ D: Stefor Ray Sharkey as a student, Armand Asphen Gyllenhaal. Jessica Lange, Halle sante as a wedding guest. [PG]▼●쩠 Berry, David Strathairn, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Lords of the Deep (1989) C-79m. BOMB Daisy Eagan, Marc John Jeffries, Samuel L. D: Mary Ann Fisher. Bradford Dillman, Jackson, Joie Susannah Lee, Regina Taylor, Priscilla Barnes, Daryl Haney, Melody La Tanya Richardson, Jacqueline Brookes. Ryane, Eb Lottimer, Stephen Davies. In Dedicated white Chicago social worker undersea base of future, menace seems to adopts a black infant who’s been thrown be manta-shaped aliens, but it’s really loony in the trash (literally) by his crack-addicted leader Dillman. Clumsy, cheap, and amamother; several years later, when the young teurish, this was the fourth and last of woman straightens out her life, she goes to 1989’s undersea sci-fi thrillers, and the court to reclaim her son. Wrenching (and worst by far. Roger Corman appears believable) drama scores points by making unbilled (which is just as well). [PG-13]▼ all of its characters human and flawed; firstLords of Treason SEE: Secret Honor rate performances make the most of Naomi Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) C-135m. ★★★ D: Foner’s intelligent script. Only disappointGeorge Miller. Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, ment is the final scene, which isn’t very Peter Ustinov, Kathleen Wilhoite, Gerry satisfying. Incidentally, Jackson and RichBamman, Margo Martindale, James Rebardson, who play opposing attorneys, are real-life husband and wife. [R]▼●쩠 horn, Ann Hearn, Zack O’Malley Greenburg, Laura Linney. True-life story of Michaela Losin’ It (1983) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis and Augusto Odone, who learned their son Hanson. Tom Cruise, Jackie Earle Haley, had adrenoleukodystrophy, an incurable deJohn Stockwell, Shelley Long, John P. generative disease, and proceeded to turn Navin, Jr., Henry Darrow, Hector Elias, the medical community upside down to Rick Rossovich. Pleasant enough but prekeep him alive. Powerful film transcends its dictable film about three teenagers out for ‘‘disease of the week’’ roots, thanks to a a wild time in Tijuana—with more bluster highly cinematic visual style and an intellithan experience. Appealing cast gives it gent script (cowritten by director Miller, a extra value. [R]▼●쩠 physician by training, and Nick Enright). Los Olvidados (1950-Mexican) 88m. ★★★1⁄2 Nolte and Sarandon are excellent, and UstiD: Luis Bun˜uel. Alfonso Mejia, Roberto nov offers fine support as a sympathetic Cobo, Stella Inda, Miguel Inclan. Gripdoctor. The physical torture that Lorenzo ping story of juvenile delinquency among goes through is often painful to watch. [PGslums of Mexico, with surreal dream se13] ▼●쩠 quences interspersed. An offbeat winner Los Amigos SEE: Deaf Smith & Johnny from Bun˜uel, aka THE YOUNG AND Ears THE DAMNED.▼● Loser (2000) C-95m. ★★ D: Amy HeckerLoss of Innocence (1961-British) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. Kenneth More, ling. Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Greg Kinnear, Zak Orth, Thomas Sadoski, Dan Danielle Darrieux, Susannah York, MauAykroyd, Twink Caplan, Andy Dick, Steven rice Denham. York gives poignant perWright, David Spade, Colleen Camp. Disapformance as teenager who, through love pointing teen romantic comedy from the diaffair, becomes a woman; events leave her rector of FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT and younger sister and brother stranded on HIGH and CLUELESS about a nice smallthe Continent. Original title: THE GREENtown kid who goes to college in N.Y.C. GAGE SUMMER. He’s branded a loser by his roommates, and Loss of Sexual Innocence, The (1999falls in love with a classmate who’s caught British) C-106m. BOMB D: Mike Figgis. in a bad relationship with an English profesJulian Sands, Saffron Burrows, Stefano Disor. Gen Y variation of THE APARTonisi, Kelly MacDonald, Gina McKee, JonMENT has adorable leads but they seem athan Rhys-Meyers, Bernard Hill, Rossy De way too smart to endure the contrivances in Palma. An outlandish, pretentious, and Heckerling’s script. Not helped by abrupt pointless film with parallel story threads ending. [PG-13]▼쩠 from different phases of a man’s life con[ 831 ]

trasting contemporary sexual relations and Canada Lee, Rev. Robert Dunn, Carleton the first loss of innocence in the Garden Carpenter. Penetrating, well-meaning if of Eden. Almost plays like a parody of an slow-moving account of a dedicated, light‘‘art’’ film.▼쩠 skinned Negro doctor (Ferrer, in his screen Lost and Delirious (2001-Canadian) Cdebut) who (with his family) passes for ★★1 103m. white in a small New Hampshire town. A ⁄2 D: Le´a Pool. Piper Perabo, Jessica Pare´, Mischa Barton, Graham Greene, clear-eyed look at segregated America.▼쩠 Jackie Burroughs, Mimi Kuzyk. Sensitive Lost Boys, The (1987) C-97m. ★★ D: coming-of-age tale about two budding lesJoel Schumacher. Jason Patric, Corey bians at a Canadian girls boarding school Haim, Dianne Wiest, Barnard Hughes, and the reverberations of their secret relaEdward Herrmann, Kiefer Sutherland, tionship. Though it makes an awkward shift Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Jamison Newinto Gothic melodrama in its second half, lander. Family moves to California town the film features handsome production valwhere the local teenage gang turns out ues and a magnetic lead performance from to be a pack of vampires! Slick movie Perabo as a jilted lover. [R]▼쩠 aimed at juvenile audiences; both the Lost and Found (1979) C-112m. ★★ D: humor and the plotting are pretty obvious. Melvin Frank. George Segal, Glenda JackOnly real fireworks come at the end durson, Maureen Stapleton, Hollis McLaren, ing final showdown. Followed by DVD seJohn Cunningham, Paul Sorvino, John quel. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Candy, Martin Short. Widowed college Lost City, The (2006) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: prof and British divorcee meet in a French Andy Garcia. Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, Ine´s ski resort and quickly cool their romance Sastre, Toma´s Milian, Dustin Hoffman, Steby marrying. Attempt to recapture the sucven Bauer, Enrique Murciano, Danny Pino, cess of the overrated A TOUCH OF CLASS Julio Oscar Mechoso, Nestor Carbonell, Milis just more old-fashioned nonsense posing lie Perkins, Richard Bradford, Lorena Feijo´o, as hip comedy. [PG]▼ Tony Plana, Elizabeth Pen˜a, Victor Rivers. Lost & Found (1999) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeff Heartfelt attempt to bring Guillermo Cabrera Pollack. David Spade, Sophie Marceau, Infante’s sweeping saga of the 1950s Cuban Patrick Bruel, Artie Lange, Mitchell Whitrevolution to life through the story of one field, Martin Sheen, Jon Lovitz, Estelle Harfamily (a university professor and his three ris, Rose Marie, Marla Gibbs, Carole Cook. sons, one an apolitical cabaret owner, the othSpade plots to win his beautiful new neighers fighting for social change). Captures the bor’s affections while they search for her spirit of that time and place, along with its missing dog—which he has kidnapped. music and color, but bites off more than it can Crude, offensive, unoriginal, often painful chew, and goes on far too long. The romantic to watch; only redeeming feature is an enstory seems trivial and Murray’s wisecracks gaging Marceau. Fundamental error: her (as a character inspired by Infante) seem out of ‘‘slimy’’ ex-boyfriend is more likable than place. Hoffman is amusing as Meyer Lansky. the leading man. Spade also takes credit as Labor of love for writer-director-producercowriter. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 composer-actor Garcia. [R] 쩠 Lost Angel (1944) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Lost Command (1966) C-130m. ★★★ D: Rowland. Margaret O’Brien, James Craig, Mark Robson. Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, Marsha Hunt, Philip Merivale, Henry George Segal, Michele Morgan, Maurice O’Neill, Donald Meek, Keenan Wynn, Ronet, Claudia Cardinale, Gregoire Aslan, Bobby (Robert) Blake. O’Brien is winning Jean Servais. Taut, well-made story of as precocious child—trained as a genius French-Algerian guerrilla warfare in North by scientists—who learns life’s simple pleaAfrica, with Quinn as the peasant who has sures when she moves in with reporter Craig. risen to a position of command. Fine inLook for Ava Gardner as a hat-check girl. ternational cast, good direction, and some topnotch action sequences blend very well. Lost Angels (1989) C-116m. ★★ D: Hugh Panavision.▼쩠 Hudson. Donald Sutherland, Adam Horovitz, Amy Locane, Don Bloomfield, Celia WesLost Continent (1951) 86m. ★★ D: Samuel ton, Graham Beckel, Kevin Tighe, John Newfield. Cesar Romero, Hillary Brooke, C. McGinley, Park Overall. Sincere but John Hoyt, Whit Bissell, Sid Melton, Acobvious and compromised drama of teenquanetta. Lavish production values are obager Horovitz, unjustly sent to a mental viously lacking as Romero leads expedition clinic treating teenagers far more troubled to prehistoric mountaintop to recover missthan he. Sutherland is sole sympathetic ing rocket, encounters stop-motion dinosaurs. Some scenes are tinted.▼쩠 psychiatrist. Shallow story grows increasingly incoherent and uninvolving. Horovitz, Lost Continent, The (1968-British) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Carreras. Eric Porter, of singing group Beastie Boys, is good in acting debut. Super 35. [R]▼● Hildegard Knef, Suzanna Leigh, Tony BeckLost Boundaries (1949) 99m. ★★★ D: ley, Nigel Stock, Neil McCallum. Tramp Alfred L. Werker. Beatrice Pearson, Mel steamer wanders into the seaweed-choked Ferrer, Richard Hylton, Susan Douglas, Sargasso Sea and finds isolated freak civili[ 832 ]

zation derived from Spanish monarchy. Good (made on infrequent trip to MGM), but cast handles lopsided script straightfaced; ocstrictly routine. Some good scenes here casional good action. Based on Dennis and there with sultan Dumbrille; Maxwell is perfect harem girl.▼●쩠 Wheatley’s novel Uncharted Seas. [G]▼●쩠 Lost Highway (1997-U.S.-French) CLost in Alaska (1952) 76m. ★1⁄2 D: Jean ★★1 135m. Yarbrough. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, ⁄2 D: David Lynch. Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, Balthazar Getty, Robert Mitzi Green, Tom Ewell, Bruce Cabot. Blake, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Richard Unremarkable slapstick set in 1890s, with Pryor, Lisa Boyle, Michael Massee, Jack A&C off to the wilds to help a friend but doing more hindering.▼쩠 Nance, Henry Rollins, Gary Busey, Robert Loggia, Marilyn Manson, Giovanni Ribisi. Lost in America (1985) C-91m. ★★★ D: Bizarre Lynchian story that makes Twin Albert Brooks. Albert Brooks, Julie HagPeaks seem as easy to follow as a Sesame erty, Garry Marshall, Art Frankel, MiStreet episode. Basic plot involves Pullman as chael Greene. Two yuppies drop out of the a jazz musician who, believing his wife is rat race and take to the road (‘‘just like having an affair, suddenly finds himself the EASY RIDER’’) in this low-key, often main suspect in her murder. Or is he? Or was hilarious satire of upwardly mobile types. she? Lynch fans will have fun trying to figure Written by Brooks and Monica Johnson. it out; others will find it incomprehensible. And isn’t that Albert’s voice on the phone as the Mercedes salesman? [R]▼●쩠 Blake is particularly enigmatic as a mystery man with a bad makeup job. Panavision. Lost in La Mancha (2002-U.S.-British) C92m. ★★★ D: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe. Nar[R]▼●쩠 Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, The rated by Jeff Bridges. Fascinating documen(1975-German) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Volker tary case study of a movie production where Schlo¨ndorff, Margarethe von Trotta. Angela everything goes wrong, as filmmaker and Winkler, Mario Adorf, Dieter Laser, Heinz dreamer Terry Gilliam prepares to shoot his Bennent, Ju¨rgen Prochnow. Solid drama longtime pet project, THE MAN WHO about a woman persecuted because she is susKILLED DON QUIXOTE, with Jean pected of aiding terrorists that is also a stingRochefort and Johnny Depp. The director’s ing commentary on individual freedom, own drawings, brought to life through anipolitical repression, and the dangers of media mation, give us an idea of what might have manipulation. Based on the Henrich Boll been. A unique, close-up study of the many novel; remade as a TVM, THE LOST factors—including human folly—that go into making a film. [R]▼쩠 HONOR OF KATHRYN BECK with Marlo Thomas. [R]▼쩠 Lost in Space (1998) C-122m. ★★ D: SteLost Horizon (1937) 132m. ★★★★ D: Frank phen Hopkins. Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Capra. Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, John Matt LeBlanc, Mimi Rogers, Heather GraHoward, Edward Everett Horton, Margo, ham, Lacey Chabert, Jack Johnson, Jared Sam Jaffe, H. B. Warner, Isabel Jewell, Harris, Edward Fox; voice of Dick Tufeld. Thomas Mitchell. James Hilton’s classic In 2058, with the hope of opening a gatestory about five people stumbling into way to a new planet for denizens of the strange Tibetan land where health, peace, and overcrowded Earth, a family is launched longevity reign. A rare movie experience, into space, accompanied by a he-man pilot with haunting finale. Screenplay by Robert and the weasely doctor who tried to saboRiskin. After being shown in edited reissue tage the journey. The 1960s TV series is reprints for years, this classic has been recreated on a lavish scale, but hurt by crudely stored to its original length—though several episodic story, grim tone, and paper-thin scenes are still missing, and are represented characters. Oldman, curiously, underplays by dialogue only, illustrated with stills. Rethe role of Dr. Smith. Angela Cartwright, made with music in 1973.▼●쩠 Mark Goddard, Marta Kristen, and June Lost Horizon (1973) C-143m. ★1⁄2 D: CharLockhart, stars of the original TV series, les Jarrott. Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, Sally have cameo roles. Also available in PG verKellerman, George Kennedy, Michael York, sion. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Olivia Hussey, Bobby Van, James Shigeta, Lost in the Stars (1974) C-114m. ★★★ D: Charles Boyer, John Gielgud. First half hour Daniel Mann. Brock Peters, Melba Moore, copies 1937 film scene-for-scene, and everyRaymond St. Jacques, Clifton Davis, Paula thing’s fine; then we get to Shangri-La and Kelly. Good American Film Theatre version awful Burt Bacharach–Hal David songs, and of the Kurt Weill–Maxwell Anderson musical, it falls apart. ‘‘Lost’’ is right. Script by based on Alan Paton’s CRY, THE BELarry Kramer. Originally released at 150m. LOVED COUNTRY (filmed on its own in Panavision. [G] 1951). Owes much of its power to Peters’ porLost in a Harem (1944) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: trayal of the South African minister. Filmed in Charles Riesner. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Jamaica, B.W.I., and Hollywood. [G]▼쩠 Marilyn Maxwell, John Conte, Douglass Lost in Translation (2003) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 Dumbrille, Lottie Harrison, Jimmy DorD: Sofia Coppola. Bill Murray, Scarlett Josey Orchestra. Slicker-than-usual A&C hansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris, Fumi[ 833 ]

hiro Hayashi, Catherine Lambert. Beguiling ring Victor McLaglen’s brother, Cyril, in the mood piece about a wry movie star who lead role; reworked many times (BAD travels to Tokyo on business, without his LANDS, SAHARA, BATAAN, etc.). ▼●쩠 family, and forms a friendship with the Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The (2004) young wife of a busy American photogra89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Blamire. Larry Blampher. A wistful, telling, often very funny ire, Fay Masterson, Andrew Parks, Susan film about two lonely people, far from McConnell, Brian Howe, Jennifer Blaire, Dan home, who find solace in each other’s comConroy. Genial spoof of tacky, low-budget pany. Writer-director Coppola captures the 1950s sci-fi films, with writer-director Blampoignancy of that unique life experience, ire as an earnest scientist scouring the counthe chance meeting, while observing the tryside (with his wife in tow) in search of a natural humor of Americans bumbling their meteor. Along the way they encounter an way through the Japanese culture. A perfect alien couple who try their best to blend in. showcase for Murray, who seems to ad-lib The actors never wink at the audience in many of his best lines; Johansson comes this affectionate homage, made on a shoeacross equally well. Oscar winner for Best string. Most inspired decision: using auOriginal Screenplay. Francis Ford Coppola thentic 1950s ‘‘stock library’’ music. [PG] coexecutive produced. [R] ▼쩠 ▼쩠 Lost in Yonkers (1993) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lost Souls (2000) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Janusz Martha Coolidge. Richard Dreyfuss, MerKaminski. Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, Sarah cedes Ruehl, Irene Worth, David Strathairn, Wynter, Philip Baker Hall, Elias Koteas, John Brad Stoll, Mike Damus, Robert Guy MiHurt, John Beasley, Victor Slezak, John Diehl. randa, Jack Laufer, Susan Merson. StrugRyder, survivor of a childhood exorcism, begling widower leaves his two sons with his comes convinced that atheist true-crime writer steely German mother, and his sweet but Chaplin will become Satan incarnate on his simple-minded grown-up sister, while he goes 33rd birthday. As the directional debut of off to make a living during WW2. Faithful famed cinematographer Kaminski, it’s not adaptation of Neil Simon’s Pulitzer Prize– surprising that this looks great, and it’s well winning comedy-drama. Simon’s script and acted, but it’s just another religious-themed Coolidge’s direction try to make you forget horror film, more pretentious—and borit’s a photographed play, and they almost sucing—than most. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ceed. Worth seeing if only to watch Ruehl and Lost Weekend, The (1945) 101m. ★★★★ Worth repeat their moving, Tony Award– D: Billy Wilder. Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, winning stage performances. [PG]▼●쩠 Phillip Terry, Howard da Silva, Doris DowLost Man, The (1969) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: ling, Frank Faylen, Mary Young. Unrelenting Robert Alan Aurthur. Sidney Poitier, Jodrama of alcoholism—and a landmark of adult anna Shimkus, Al Freeman, Jr., Michael filmmaking in Hollywood. Milland’s powerful Tolan, Leon Bibb, Richard Dysart, David performance won him an Oscar; there’s fine Steinberg, Paul Winfield. Uncomfortable support from bartender da Silva, sanitarium updating of ODD MAN OUT from an Irish aide Faylen. Won Academy Awards for Best setting to present-day black underground Picture, Director, Actor, Screenplay (Wilder and Charles Brackett). ▼●쩠 has some tension, but doesn’t really work. Three stars are good. Panavision. [M/PG]▼ Lost World, The (1925) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lost One, The (1951-German) 97m. ★★ Harry Hoyt. Bessie Love, Wallace Beery, D: Peter Lorre. Peter Lorre, Karl John, Lewis Stone, Lloyd Hughes. Silent film verRenate Mannhardt, Johanna Hofer. Lorre’s sion of A. Conan Doyle adventure yarn is reonly film as director is a talky, grim, but markable for special effects recreating not uninteresting drama about the downfall prehistoric beasts encountered on scientific exof a German researcher (played by Peter pedition to remote plateau. Interesting as prehimself, with appropriate weariness), whose cursor to KING KONG—in story structure girlfriend is thought to have been passing and in Willis O’Brien’s special effects. on his discoveries to the British during Shown in severely truncated prints for years; WW2. Of interest mostly as a footnote to two restored versions now exist. Remade Lorre’s career; based on a true story.▼ twice. ▼●쩠 Lost Patrol, The (1934) 73m. ★★★★ D: Lost World, The (1960) C-98m. ★★ D: John Ford. Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff, Irwin Allen. Michael Rennie, Jill St. John, Wallace Ford, Reginald Denny, Alan Hale, David Hedison, Claude Rains, Fernando J. M. Kerrigan, Billy Bevan. McLaglen’s Lamas, Richard Haydn. Despite cinematic small British military group lost in Mesopotaadvances, this remake of the 1925 film mian desert, as Arabs repeatedly attack the doesn’t match original’s special effects. dwindling unit. Classic actioner filled with OK juvenile entry of an expedition into slice-of-life stereotypes, headed by religious remote territory hopefully inhabited by prefanatic Karloff. Fast-moving fun, great Max historic monsters (‘‘played’’ by photographically enlarged lizards). CinemaScope.▼쩠 Steiner score. Scripted by Dudley Nichols, from Philip MacDonald’s novel Patrol. PreLost World, The (1993-Canadian) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Timothy Bond. John Rhys-Davies, viously filmed in 1929, as a British silent star[ 834 ]

David Warner, Eric McCormack, Nathania decided between Coburn and Gwenn; most disarming. Film debut of Piper Laurie. Stanford, Darren Peter Mercer, Tamara GorLouisa May Alcott’s Little Men SEE: Litski, Innocent Chosa, Kate Egan. In 1912, an tle Men (1998) expedition journeys to an African plateau Louisiana Purchase (1941) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 where dinosaurs still live. Rhys-Davies as D: Irving Cummings. Bob Hope, Vera Professor Challenger and Warner as his rival Zorina, Victor Moore, Irene Bordoni, Dona are good, but others in the too-large cast are Drake. Brassy Irving Berlin musicomedy, amateurish, and the dinosaurs are not only with Hope’s comedy very funny, especially badly done, but extremely scarce. A cheap, famous filibuster scene in Congress. Zorina, insignificant version of Conan Doyle’s wonMoore and Bordoni re-create their Broadderful novel, which still deserves a lavish reway roles. Opening scene of chorus girls make. Sequel, RETURN TO THE LOST (including Barbara Britton, Margaret Hayes WORLD (1994), was shot simultaneously. ▼ and Jean Wallace) singing lines about charLost World: Jurassic Park, The (1997) acters being fictitious is probably a movie C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven Spielberg. Jeff first . . . and last. ▼쩠 Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Pete PostleLouisiana Story (1948) 77m. ★★★★ D: thwaite, Arliss Howard, Richard AttenborRobert Flaherty. Classic, influential docuough, Vince Vaughn, Vanessa Lee Chester, mentary set in the Louisiana bayous, with Peter Stormare, Harvey Jason, Richard a young boy observing oil drillers at work. Schiff, Thomas F. Duffy, Joseph Mazzello, Beautifully made; produced by the Standard Ariana Richards. It turns out that madman Oil Company. Music by Virgil Thomson.▼쩠 Attenborough left a menagerie of dinosaurs Loulou (1980-French) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: behind on a second island—and wants to Maurice Pialat. Isabelle Huppert, Ge´rard sponsor an expedition there. Goldblum Depardieu, Guy Marchand, Humbert Balsan, knows the dangers, but his girlfriend is alBernard Tronczyk. Huppert leaves stable ready there and he’s forced to follow, along hubby for topsy-turvy life with loutish with assorted others. Havoc ensues. ComDepardieu. Two leads have terrific sexual pletely contrived sequel to JURASSIC rapport in dynamic star vehicle.▼쩠 PARK benefits from Goldblum’s deprecatLove (1927) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edmund Gouling dialogue and superior special effects. ding. Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, George Enough cliffhanger-style action scenes to Fawcett, Emily Fitzroy, Brandon Hurst, make up for the lulls. Followed in 2001 by Philippe De Lacy. Silent version of Anna JURASSIC PARK III. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Karenina in modern setting, as married Lot Like Love, A (2005) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Garbo falls in love with dashing military Nigel Cole. Ashton Kutcher, Amanda Peet, guard Gilbert, an affair doomed from start. Kathryn Hahn, Kal Penn, Ali Larter, Taryn Lesser entry for famed screen lovers, with GilManning, Gabriel Mann, Jeremy Sisto, Molly bert’s eyebrow-raising gestures at their worst. Cheek, Amy Aquino, Holmes Osborne. RoGarbo’s 1935 remake (ANNA KARENINA) mantic comedy about how, after a chance airis much better. MGM actually filmed two endport meeting, two people who are attracted ings—one happy, one sad.▼●쩠 to each other don’t get together, for a variLove Actually (2003-U.S.-British-French) ety of reasons, over a period of years. The C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Curtis. Hugh stars are affable enough to keep this afloat, Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, but the story seems one episode too long. Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, [PG-13]▼쩠 Bill Nighy, Martine McCutcheon, Keira Lotus Eaters, The (1993-Canadian) CKnightley, Rowan Atkinson, Andrew Lin101m. ★★★ D: Paul Shapiro. Sheila McCarthy, coln, Billy Bob Thornton, Shannon ElizaR. H. Thomson, Michele-Barbara Pelletier, beth, Denise Richards, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aloka McLean, Tara Frederick, Frances HyHeike Makatsch, Rodrigo Santoro, Lu´cia land, Andrea Libman, Gabe Khouth, Paul Moniz, Martin Freeman, Joanna Page. It Soles. Amiably amusing 1960s nostalgia set seems as if every Brit from the prime minison an island in Western Canada, where a ter to a fading rock star to a widower is change of wind (signified by the arrival of a falling in love, which helps to explain a new schoolteacher) blows a gust of drama into mild comedy’s grandiose running time. Full the lives of a mildly eccentric school principal, of charm and wit but also highly uneven, his wife, and their two impressionable daughand the hopscotching stories turn into overters. Winner of three Genie Awards including kill actually. Highlights include Nighy’s Best Actress for McCarthy and Best Screenoriginal performance as the aging rocker, play (Peggy Thomson). [PG-13]▼ Thompson’s portrayal of a wife betrayed, Louisa (1950) 90m. ★★★ D: Alexander and funny bits by P.M. Grant. Directing Hall. Ronald Reagan, Charles Coburn, Ruth debut for screenwriter Curtis (FOUR WEDHussey, Edmund Gwenn, Spring Byington, DINGS AND A FUNERAL, NOTTING Piper Laurie, Scotty Beckett, Martin MilHILL, et al.). Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 ner. Delightful romantic yarn of Byington Love Affair (1939) 87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Leo seeking to become a December bride, unMcCarey. Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, [ 835 ]

Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moscovich, Joan Brodel (Leslie). Superior comedy-drama about shipboard romance whose continuation onshore is interrupted by unforseen circumstances. Dunne and Boyer are a marvelous match. Screenplay by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart, from story by Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey. Remade by McCarey as AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, and a second time (by Warren Beatty). Beware public-domain copy with entirely new music score. ▼쩠 Love Affair (1994) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Glenn Gordon Caron. Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Katharine Hepburn, Garry Shandling, Chloe Webb, Pierce Brosnan, Kate Capshaw, Paul Mazursky, Brenda Vaccaro, Glenn Shadix, Barry Miller, Harold Ramis, Elya Baskin, Taylor Dayne, Carey Lowell, Dan Castellaneta, Rosalind Chao, Wendie Jo Sperber, Frank Campanella, Ray Charles, Mary Hart, John Tesh. Soulless remake of the 1939 weepie (itself remade as AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER), with Beatty as an ex-jock-turned-sportscaster and ladies man who chances to meet Bening on an eventful plane ride. Frustrating film runs hot and cold; high point is the sequence with Hepburn (in her final feature film) as Beatty’s feisty aunt. Intrusive songs on the soundtrack are a debit, Conrad Hall’s silky cinematography is a plus, but the biggest letdown is the ending, which stops short of a big, old-fashioned sentimental Hollywood finish—just what the movie really needs. Beatty produced and cowrote with Robert Towne. [PG-13]

NBA professional; their relationship goes through many phases from the time they’re 11 years old to young adulthood, as the story breaks down into four ‘‘quarters.’’ A crowd-pleaser from start to finish, if a little long; only the final resolution seems contrived. Feature debut for writer-director Prince-Bythewood. [R]▼쩠 Love and Bullets (1979-British) C-103m. ★★ D: Stuart Rosenberg. Charles Bronson, Rod Steiger, Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, Bradford Dillman, Henry Silva, Michael V. Gazzo. Bronson is supposed to nab gangster’s moll Ireland for the FBI, but falls in love with her during his pursuit in Switzerland. Routine action yarn . . . for Bronson fans only. Panavision. [PG]▼ Love and Death (1975) C-82m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Harold Gould, Alfred Lutter, Olga GeorgesPicot, Zvee Scooler. One of Woody’s most pretentious films won applause for its spoofs of Russian literature and foreign films, but this tale of a devout coward in the Napoleonic wars is more like a remake of Bob Hope’s MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE. Funny but uneven, with music by Prokofiev. [PG]▼●쩠 Love and Death on Long Island (1997Canadian-British) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Kwietniowski. John Hurt, Jason Priestley, Fiona Loewi, Sheila Hancock, Maury Chaykin, Gawn Granger, Elizabeth Quinn. Quiet gem about an eccentric, reclusive British writer who stumbles into the wrong movie theater and, while watching HOT PANTS COLLEGE II, becomes intrigued, and then obsessed, with one of its cast members (Priestley). Before long, he flies to ▼●쩠 Love and a .45 (1994) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 Long Island, N.Y., in the hope of somehow D: C. M. Talkington. Gil Bellows, Rene´e consummating his fantasy relationship with Zellweger, Rory Cochrane, Jeffrey Combs, the actor. A marvel of nuance and quiet Jace Alexander, Michael Bowen, Ann observation, with Hurt simply perfect in the Wedgeworth, Peter Fonda. Derivative (allead; impressive feature directing debut for though not uninteresting) young-lovers-onKwietniowski, who also scripted (from Gilthe-lam melodrama, about a white-trash bert Adair’s novel). [PG-13]▼쩠 couple who become criminals and outlaws. Love and Fear (1988-Italian-GermanFeatures the same over-the-top comic-book French) C-114m. ★★★ D: Margarethe von violence that made RESERVOIR DOGS an Trotta. Fanny Ardant, Greta Scacchi, Valeria instant cult favorite. [R]▼쩠 Golino, Peter Simonischek, Sergio CastelLove and Anarchy (1973-Italian) C-108m. lito, Agnes Sorel, Paolo Hendel. Involv★★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Giancarlo Gianing if occasionally melodramatic account nini, Mariangela Melato, Lina Polito, Eros of the lives and loves of a trio of sisters: the Pagni, Pina Cel, Elena Fiore. Italian bumpoldest (Ardant) is an intellectual and all too kin Giannini tries to assassinate Mussolini aware of passing time and advancing age; the in 1932, falls for a prostitute in the brothel middle one (Scacchi) has no professional serving as his base of operation. Uneven identity and lives by her emotions; the younbut stylish drama helped establish Wertgest (Golino) is a passionate, idealistic premed muller’s reputation in the U.S. [R]▼쩠 student. Crammed with ideas and observaLove and Basketball (2000) C-124m. ★★★ tions about how life is in constant flux; loosely D: Gina Prince-Bythewood. Sanaa Lathan, based on Chekhov’s Three Sisters. Omar Epps, Alfre Woodard, Dennis HaysLove and Human Remains (1993-Canabert, Debbi Morgan, Harry J. Lennix, Kyla dian) C-100m. ★★★ D: Denys Arcand. Pratt, Glenndon Chatman. A most agreeable Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, Cameron hybrid of love story and coming-of-age Bancroft, Mia Kirshner, Joanne Vannicola, saga. Lathan plays a precocious, talented Matthew Ferguson, Rick Roberts. Arcand’s basketball player, Epps the cocky son of an first English-language film is a provocative [ 836 ]

portrait of confused, restless urban singles, Stan Dragoti. George Hamilton, Susan St. focusing on a pair of ex-lovers who are still James, Richard Benjamin, Dick Shawn, Arte roommates: Gibson, a gay, 30-ish former Johnson, Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, teen TV star who now works as a waiter, Barry Gordon, Ronnie Schell, Eric Laneuand Marshall, who’s straight and desperate ville. Silly but likable comedy about Count for tenderness. Meanwhile, there’s a maniac Dracula’s adventures in N.Y.C., and love afon the loose murdering unsuspecting women! fair with fashion model St. James. Hamilton’s An astute look at what it means to fall in comic performance is bloody good. Written love in the era of AIDS, ambiguous sexualby Robert Kaufman. [PG] ▼●쩠 ity, and pervasive violence. Scripted by Love at Large (1990) C-97m. ★★ D: Alan Brad Fraser, based on his play. ▼● Rudolph. Tom Berenger, Anne Archer, ElizaLove and Larceny (1963-Italian) 94m. beth Perkins, Kate Capshaw, Annette ★★1 ⁄2 D: Dino Risi. Vittorio Gassman, Anna O’Toole, Ted Levine, Ann Magnuson, Kevin Maria Ferrero, Dorian Gray, Peppino De J. O’Connor, Ruby Dee, Barry Miller, Neil Filippo. Saucy comedy of exuberant conYoung. A challenge to Rudolph cultists everyman Gassman making no pretense about his where, this coy mess involves rival private decarefree life and pleasures. Totalscope.▼ tectives (male and female) who keep tripping ★★ D: Love and Money (1982) C-90m. over each other while following a case plagued James Toback. Ray Sharkey, Ornella Muti, by problems of mistaken identity. Made Klaus Kinski, Armand Assante, King Vidor, watchable by the director’s typically beguiling Susan Heldfond, William Prince. Convouse of color and decor, plus his penchant for luted drama about Sharkey’s entanglement offbeat casting. Rocker Neil Young has a in international scheme plotted by billionstraight part (uh . . . so to speak). [R]▼●쩠 aire businessman Kinski; has its bright Love at Stake (1987) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: spots, but disappoints nonetheless because John Moffitt. Patrick Cassidy, Kelly Presdirector Toback distances himself from his ton, Bud Cort, Barbara Carrera, Stuart material. Sex scenes with Sharkey and Pankin, Dave Thomas, Georgia Brown, Muti were toned down before film’s reAnnie Golden. Wacky, overlooked comlease. Of interest mainly for presence of edy spoofs the Salem witch trials in the legendary director Vidor as Sharkey’s seirreverent Mel Brooks tradition (producer nile grandfather. Completed in 1980. [R] Michael Gruskoff coproduced several Brooks Love and Other Catastrophes (1996pictures). Ingenues Cassidy and Preston Australian) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Emma-Kate (who plays baker Sarah Lee) are appealCroghan. Frances O’Connor, Alice Garner, ing, but the show is stolen by Carrera as a Radha Mitchell, Matt Day, Matthew Dykvery sexy witch and Pankin and Thomas as corrupt officials. [R]▼●쩠 tynski. Agreeable comedy about the various crises, crushes and romances among a group Love at the Top (1974-French) C-105m. ★★ of twentysomething Melbourne University D: Michel Deville. Jean-Louis Trintistudents who are male and female, straight gnant, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Romy Schneiand gay. An amusing look at a point in young der, Jane Birkin, Florinda Bolkan. Slick but adulthood in which switching one’s major is superficial, muddled account of club-footed a pivotal life decision; also refreshing in its writer Cassel advising Trintignant on how depiction of the easy mixing and socializing to become rich and sleep with lots of between characters with different sexual prefwomen. Birkin, Bolkan, and Schneider are erences. A promising debut for 23-year-old attractive, but it’s all window dressing. Aka THE FRENCH WAY IS. [R]쩠 director/coscripter Croghan. [R] ▼ Love and Pain (and the Whole Damn Love at Twenty (1962-International) 113m. ★★1 Thing) (1972) C-110m. ★★★ D: Alan J. ⁄2 D: Franc˛ois Truffaut, Renzo Rossellini, Pakula. Maggie Smith, Timothy Bottoms. Shintaro Ishihara, Marcel Ophuls, Andrzej Charming story of two introverts who miWajda. Jean-Pierre Le´aud, Eleonora Rossiraculously and humorously find each other, Drago, Zbigniew Cybulski, Nami Tamura, fall in love while touring Spain; written Marie-France Pisier, Barbara Lass. Quinby Alvin Sargent. [PG] tet of middling stories produced in France, Love & Sex (2000) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Valerie Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland; variations Breiman. Famke Janssen, Jon Favreau, Noah on theme of love among younger generaEmmerich, Cheri Oteri, Ann Magnuson, Josh tion. Truffaut’s ANTOINE ET COLETTE Hopkins, Robert Knepper, David Steinberg. is a sequel to THE FOUR HUNDRED Romantic comedy in which a magazine writer BLOWS (the first of his Antoine Doinel (Janssen), doing a piece on how to maintain a films). Original French running time: relationship, recalls her own involvement with 123m. Totalscope. a wisecracking, neurotic painter (Favreau). Love Bug, The (1969) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Director-writer Breiman provides some Robert Stevenson. Dean Jones, Michele Lee, snappy, sitcom-style one-liners, although Buddy Hackett, David Tomlinson, Joe Flynn, the results are predictable. David SchwimBenson Fong, Iris Adrian. Delightful Disney mer appears uncredited.▼쩠 comedy about a Volkswagen with a mind of Love at First Bite (1979) C-96m. ★★★ D: its own; subtle it ain’t, but the slapstick [ 837 ]

and stunts are great fun to watch. Followed than Kaplan. Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis by four HERBIE sequels and a 1997 madeHaysbert, Stephanie McFadden, Brian Kerfor-TV movie. ▼●쩠 win, Louise Latham, Peggy Rea, Mark Miller. Love Cage, The SEE: Joy House Small, sensitive film of Dallas beautician (a Love Child (1982) C-96m. ★★ D: Larry platinum-blond Pfeiffer) who is enthralled by Peerce. Amy Madigan, Beau Bridges, MacPresident and Mrs. Kennedy—and is like an kenzie Phillips, Albert Salmi, Joanna excited schoolgirl at the thought of their fateMerlin, Rhea Perlman. Trifling melodrama ful 1963 visit to her hometown. (Love Field is of prisoner Madigan who has baby by the name of Dallas’ airport.) Really a road Bridges and fights for the right to mothermovie, with Pfeiffer deserting her husband hood. Plays like an R-rated made-for-TV and traveling halfway across the country with movie; based on a true story. [R]▼ the unlikely duo of black father and daughter Love Crazy (1941) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack (Haysbert and McFadden). Rich perforConway. William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail mances (especially Pfeiffer’s), rural flavor, Patrick, Jack Carson, Florence Bates, Sidney and an unflinching look at race relations alBlackmer, Sig Ruman. One misunderstandmost compensate for the sometimes overly ing leads to another in this energetic maricontrived plot. [PG-13]▼●쩠 tal farce that loses steam halfway through. Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) 90m. ★★★ Highlighted by Powell’s attempts to prove D: George B. Seitz. Lewis Stone, Mickey himself insane and Carson’s hilarious charRooney, Judy Garland, Cecilia Parker, Fay acterization as Ward Willoughby.▼쩠 Holden, Ann Rutherford, Betsy Ross Clark, Love Crimes (1992) C-85m. BOMB D: Lana Turner, Gene Reynolds. One of the best Lizzie Borden. Sean Young, Patrick Bergin, of the series finds young Andrew frantically Arnetia Walker, James Read, Ron Orbach, trying to juggle two girlfriends at the same Wayne Shorter. Astonishingly inept, contime. Classy support by ingenues Garland and fusing thriller with Young (in a lifeless Turner. Judy sings three songs, including performance) playing an assistant district ‘‘Meet the Beat of My Heart.’’▼●쩠 attorney who becomes involved with Bergin Love God?, The (1969) C-101m. ★★ D: Nat who, posing as a fashion photographer, exHiken. Don Knotts, Anne Francis, Edmond ploits and rips off unsuspecting women. The O’Brien, James Gregory, Maureen Arthur, director’s cut (which is unrated and runs Maggie Peterson, Jesslyn Fax. Comedy for 97m.) is far more coherent. However, the scethose who are amused by Knotts playing nario remains obvious and superficial. That Hugh Hefner type; film is final work of version is rated ★★. [R]▼ Nat Hiken, who created Sergeant Bilko in ★★★1 Loved One, The (1965) 116m. ⁄2 D: better days. [M]▼쩠 Tony Richardson. Robert Morse, Jonathan Love Guru, The (2008) C-86m. ★★ D: Winters, Anjanette Comer, Rod Steiger, Marco Schnabel. Mike Myers, Jessica Alba, Dana Andrews, Milton Berle, James CoJustin Timberlake, Romany Malco, Meagan burn, John Gielgud, Tab Hunter, Margaret Good, Verne Troyer, Ben Kingsley, Manu Leighton, Liberace, Roddy McDowall, Narayan, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jim Robert Morley, Lionel Stander, Ayllene Gaffigan. Myers hams it up as an AmericanGibbons, Bernie Kopell, Alan Napier, born self-help guru raised in India, who is Jamie Farr. Correctly advertised as the pichired by the fetching owner (Alba) of the ture with something to offend everyone. Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team to help a Britisher Morse attends to uncle’s burial in struggling star player regain his confidence. California, encountering bizarre aspects of Myers also cowrote this silly little farce that funeral business. Often howlingly funny, has a few laughs but is mostly filled with and equally gross. Once seen, Mrs. Joyboy juvenile double entendres and recycled can never be forgotten. Based on the Evelyn Austin Powers shtick. A number of celebriWaugh novel, adapted by Terry Southern ties appear as themselves. Super 35. [PG13]쩠 and Christopher Isherwood.▼●쩠 Love Don’t Cost a Thing (2003) C-101m. Love Happy (1949) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: David ★★ D: Troy Beyer. Nick Cannon, Christina Miller. Harpo, Chico, and Groucho Marx, Milian, Kenan Thompson, Kal Penn, Steve Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Marion Hutton, Harvey, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Dante Basco. Raymond Burr, Eric Blore. No NIGHT Remake of the similarly forgettable 1987 AT THE OPERA, but even diluted Marx comedy CAN’T BUY ME LOVE with a Brothers are better than none. Putting on a change of color. High school nerd (Cannon) musical forms background for Harpo’s hires the most popular girl in class to pretend antics, with Chico in support, Groucho in to be his girlfriend, and undergoes an extreme a few unrelated scenes. Marilyn Monroe personality change once he’s perceived as has a brief bit. Among the writers were being cool by his classmates. Cannon’s Ben Hecht and Frank Tashlin. ▼●쩠 character quickly becomes a caricature in Love Has Many Faces (1965) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alexander Singer. Lana Turner, this low-grade, superficial teen comedy. Cliff Robertson, Hugh O’Brian, Ruth [PG-13] ▼쩠 1 ★★ Love Field (1992) C-104m. Roman, Stefanie Powers, Virginia Grey. ⁄2 D: Jona[ 838 ]

Timid attempt at lurid soaper; playgirl Turmannered young man falls in love with a ner’s costume changes are the highlights. woman on sight, and though she marries a O’Brian and Robertson are gigolos. Filmed wealthy doctor, he never abandons his obin Acapulco.▼ sessive dream of being with her. Robust Love Hurts (1990) C-106m. ★★ D: Bud interpretation of Gabriel Garcı´a Ma´rquez Yorkin. Jeff Daniels, Judith Ivey, Cynthia novel captures its ‘‘magical realism’’—and Sikes, John Mahoney, Cloris Leachman, disarming sense of humor—as it spans 50 Amy Wright, Mary Griffin, Brady Quaid. years. Filled with colorful characters, beauUnhappily divorced Daniels goes home for tiful women, and a quixotic central charachis sister’s wedding, only to find his ex-wife ter beautifully played by Bardem. Inspired and their kids staying with his folks. Bitteradaptation by Ronald Harwood; exquisite sweet comedy-drama has some good moproduction design (by Wolf Kroeger) and ments, but not enough. Mahoney and Leachcostumes (by Marit Allen). Super 35. [R]쩠 man’s performances as Daniels’ parents Love in the Time of Hysteria SEE: So´lo border uncomfortably on caricature. [R]▼쩠 Con Tu Pareja Love in Germany, A (1984-German) Love Is a Ball (1963) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrzej Wajda. Hanna David Swift. Glenn Ford, Hope Lange, Schygulla, Marie-Christine Barrault, ArCharles Boyer, Ricardo Montalban, Telly min Mueller-Stahl, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Savalas. Forced froth trying hard to be Daniel Olbrychski, Piotr Lysak, Bernhard chic; gold-digging and romance on the Wicki. German shopkeeper, her husband Riviera. Panavision. off fighting at the front, risks life and Love Is All There Is (1996) C-90m. ★1⁄2 reputation by romancing a much younger D: Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna. Renee Polish POW. Wimpy Lysak doesn’t look Taylor, Joseph Bologna, Lainie Kazan, Paul as if he could drive a girl’s hopscotch team Sorvino, Barbara Carrera, Angelina Jolie, into sexual delirium, creating severe crediNathaniel Marston, William Hickey, Abe bility problems in this subpar Wajda efVigoda, Connie Stevens, Dick Van Patten. fort. Barrault is effectively cast against Taylor and Bologna scripted this loud, sentype as conniving Nazi sympathizer. [R]▼ timental, silly romantic comedy of two rival Love-Ins, The (1967) C-92m. BOMB D: Italian catering families whose children fall Arthur Dreifuss. James MacArthur, Susan in love. This modern-day Romeo and Juliet Oliver, Richard Todd, Mark Goddard, Carol makeover is set in City Island, The Bronx, Booth. Professor Timothy Leary—er, Richwhere the scenery upstages the largely ard Todd—advocates LSD, becomes a hipwasted cast. Filmed in 1994. [R]▼●쩠 pie messiah. A bad trip. Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955) Love in the Afternoon (1957) 130m. ★★★1⁄2 C-102m. ★★★ D: Henry King. William D: Billy Wilder. Gary Cooper, Audrey Holden, Jennifer Jones, Murray Matheson, Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, John McGiver. Torin Thatcher, Jorja Curtright, Virginia Forget age difference between Cooper and Gregg, Isobel Elsom, Richard Loo, Soo Hepburn and enjoy sparkling romantic comYong, Philip Ahn, James Hong, Keye Luke. edy, with Chevalier as Audrey’s privateWell-mounted soaper set in Hong Kong at eye dad. McGiver lends good support in witty time of Korean War. Eurasian doctor Jones comedy set in Paris. Wilder’s first film cowritfalls in love with war correspondent Holden. ten with I.A.L. Diamond, and a tribute to his Effective telling of true story, beautifully exeidol, Ernst Lubitsch.▼●쩠 cuted, with Oscar-winning costumes (Charles Love in the City (1953-Italian) 90m. LeMaire), scoring (Alfred Newman), and ★★ D: Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico title song (Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Fellini, Dino Risi, Carlo Lizzani, Alberto Webster). CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Lattuada, Francesco Maselli, Cesare ZaLove Is Better Than Ever (1952) 81m. vattini. Ugo Tognazzi, Maresa Gallo, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Stanley Donen. Elizabeth Taylor, Caterina Rigoglioso, Silvio Lillo, Angela Larry Parks, Josephine Hutchinson, Tom Pierro. The title tells all in this episodic, Tully, Ann Doran, Elinor Donahue, Kathsix-part neorealist chronicle—filmed cine´ma leen Freeman. Forgettable froth involving verite´ style—of various aspects of romance talent agent Parks and dance teacher Tayin Rome. This was supposed to be the first lor. Mild MGM musical, but Liz looks edition of a film journal, known as ‘‘The terrific. Gene Kelly has an unbilled Spectator.’’ Originally 110m.; the Lizzanicameo. ▼ directed sequence, about prostitution, was love jones (1997) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Theodeleted from foreign-release prints.▼ dore Witcher. Larenz Tate, Nia Long, Isaiah Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) C1 ★★★ Washington, Bill Bellamy, Bernadette 138m. ⁄2 D: Mike Newell. Javier Clark, Lisa Nicole Carson, Khalil Kain. Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Benjamin Age-old boy-meets-girl love story given Bratt, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Hector Eli’90s treatment, set in the upwardly mobile zondo, Liev Schreiber, Ana Claudia Talanblack culture of Chicago. Slightly overlong co´n, Fernanda Montenegro, Unax Ugalde, John Leguizamo, Laura Harring. Mildbut refreshing date movie is energized by [ 839 ]

the chemistry of leads Tate and Long, and Dermot Mulroney. A laid-back character fine supporting performances. [R]▼●쩠 study of two dysfunctional sisters and their Loveless, The (1983) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: well-meaning but screw-loose mother. Keener Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery. J. approaches the world with unbridled anger, Don Ferguson, Willem Dafoe, Marin while Mortimer has no self-esteem; young Kanter, Robert Gordon, Tina L’Hotsky, children affect the lives of all the women Liz Gans. A group of bikers stop in a in the story. Uneven seriocomedy from the small Southern town while on their way to creator of WALKING AND TALKING is the races at Daytona. Uneven homage to strident at times, but resolves itself quite movingly.▼쩠 THE WILD ONE: pretentious and practically plotless, with about five times as Lovely To Look At (1952) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 much rockabilly music as dialogue; still, D: Mervyn LeRoy. Kathryn Grayson, Red visually stunning, like an Edward Hopper Skelton, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, Marge painting of the 1950s. [R]▼쩠 & Gower Champion, Zsa Zsa Gabor. SecLove Letter, The (1999) C-88m. ★★ D: ond screen version of ROBERTA is a Peter Ho-sun Chan. Kate Capshaw, Blythe lesser MGM musical, but definitely has Danner, Ellen DeGeneres, Geraldine Mcits moments as American comic Skelton Ewan, Julianne Nicholson, Tom Everett inherits half-interest in a Paris dress salon Scott, Tom Selleck, Gloria Stuart. Low-key run by Grayson and Marge Champion. romantic comedy of New England seaside Miller and the Champions add punch to hamlet; bookstore owner/single mom Capthe musical sequences; Vincente Minnelli shaw finds a love letter that inadvertently directed the fashion show sequence. Songs gets passed around town. Fun at first, but include ‘‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,’’ ‘‘I Won’t Dance,’’ and title tune.▼● slows to a crawl at the midway point. Capshaw coproduced; her daughters Jessica Lovely Way to Die, A (1968) C-103m. ★★1 Capshaw and Sasha Spielberg briefly ap⁄2 D: David Lowell Rich. Kirk Dougpear. Based on the novel by Cathleen Schine. las, Sylva Koscina, Eli Wallach, Kenneth Jack Black appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Haigh, Sharon Farrell, Gordon Peter, Martyn Love Letters (1945) 101m. ★★ D: William Green. Odd detective suspenser. Douglas Dieterle. Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Ann is likable cop turned private eye assigned Richards, Anita Louise, Cecil Kellaway, by D.A. (Wallach) to protect Koscina, Gladys Cooper, Reginald Denny. Artifiawaiting murder trial. Pacing and script cial soaper of amnesiac Jones cured by offbeat at right moments, otherwise stanCotten’s love; only real asset is Victor dard. Look for Ali MacGraw in screen Young’s lovely title song. Ayn Rand debut. Techniscope. Love Machine, The (1971) C-108m. ★1⁄2 adapted Chris Massie’s book, Pity My Simplicity.▼ D: Jack Haley, Jr. John Phillip Law, Dyan Love Letters (1983) C-98m. ★★★ D: Amy Cannon, Robert Ryan, Jackie Cooper, Jones. Jamie Lee Curtis, James Keach, David Hemmings, Shecky Greene, Maureen Amy Madigan, Bud Cort, Matt Clark, Arthur. Ridiculous screen version of Bonnie Bartlett, Sally Kirkland. Moving Jacqueline Susann’s best-seller about Robin drama about a young single woman (nicely Stone (Law), ruthless TV executive who played by Curtis) who discovers deceased uses others for self-gain. [R]▼ mother’s correspondence with lover, then Love Maniac, The SEE: Blood of Ghastly takes up with a married man of her own Horror (Keach). Originally titled MY LOVE LETLove Me if You Dare (2003-FrenchTERS. Aka PASSION PLAY. [R]▼●쩠 Belgian) C-94m. ★★ D: Yann Samuell. GuilLove Liza (2002-U.S.-French) C-90m. laume Canet, Marion Cotillard, Thibault ★★1 ⁄2 D: Todd Louiso. Philip Seymour HoffVerhaeghe, Jose´phine Lebas-Joly, Ge´rard man, Kathy Bates, Jack Kehler, Sarah KosWatkins, Gilles Lellouche. Alternately koff, Stephen Tobolowsky, Erika Alexander. whimsical and cruel romantic comedy Offbeat story of a man desperately trying to chronicling the twisted, hypnotic relationship cope with an unthinkable tragedy—the suiof a boy and girl through adulthood. As chilcide of his wife, who’s left behind a letter dren they begin daring each other to commit he can’t bear to read. Unlike mainstream silly pranks in defiance of authority; years movies, this one doesn’t try to solve its later the challenges become increasingly dancharacter’s problems in a neat and tidy way, gerous, both physically and psychologically. which is admirable but also off-putting at Feature directing debut from animator Samtimes. Interesting and surprising from start uell employs many gimmicks in this complex to finish. Written by the star’s brother, playtale of love, but it eventually becomes tiresome. [R]▼쩠 wright Gordy Hoffman. [R]▼쩠 Lovely & Amazing (2002) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 Love Me or Leave Me (1955) C-122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Charles Vidor. Doris Day, James D: Nicole Holofcener. Catherine Keener, Brenda Blethyn, Emily Mortimer, Raven Cagney, Cameron Mitchell, Robert Keith, Goodwin, Aunjaue Ellis, Clark Gregg, Jake Tom Tully. Engrossing musical bio (from Gyllenhaal, James LeGros, Michael Nouri, an Oscar-winning story by Daniel Fuchs) [ 840 ]

of singer Ruth Etting, whose life and cacorrespondent Gable takes it on the lam with reer were dominated by a gangster called frustrated heiress Crawford and becomes inthe Gimp. Day and Cagney give strong volved with international spies. This stale performances. Score includes Doris’ hit IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT variation re‘‘I’ll Never Stop Loving You,’’ plus oldies lies solely on its star power. ▼●쩠 like ‘‘Ten Cents a Dance,’’ ‘‘Shaking the Love on the Run (1979-French) C-90m. ★★★ D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Jean-Pierre Blues Away.’’ CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Love Me Tender (1956) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Le´aud, Marie-France Pisier, Claude Jade, Robert D. Webb. Richard Egan. Debra Dani, Dorothee, Rosy Varte, Julien BerPaget, Elvis Presley, Robert Middleton, theau, Daniel Mesguich. Further romantic William Campbell, Neville Brand, Miladventures of Truffaut’s alter ego, Antoine dred Dunnock. Presley’s film debut is Civil Doinel (Le´aud): Here, he divorces wife War yarn of conflicting politics among Jade and sets out again on his hopeless sons in a Southern family, and their muchase after love. Fine, but not top-notch tual love for Paget. Elvis’ singing (‘‘Let Truffaut. Fifth entry in series, following BED Me,’’ ‘‘We’re Gonna Move (to a Better AND BOARD; included are clips of others, Home),’’ ‘‘Poor Boy,’’ and the title tune) which don’t work here. Le´aud’s final appearance as Doinel. [PG]▼●쩠 highlights so-so Western. Elvis’ swivel hips might not be authentic period detail! Love Parade, The (1929) 110m. ★★★ D: CinemaScope.▼쩠 Ernst Lubitsch. Maurice Chevalier, JeaLove Me Tonight (1932) 96m. ★★★★ D: nette MacDonald, Lillian Roth, Lionel Rouben Mamoulian. Maurice Chevalier, Belmore, Lupino Lane, Ben Turpin. IniJeanette MacDonald, Charlie Ruggles, tial teaming of Chevalier and MacDonald is Myrna Loy, C. Aubrey Smith, Charles enjoyable operetta with chic Lubitsch touch, Butterworth, Robert Greig. One of the about love among the royalty of Sylvania. best musicals ever made; Chevalier plays a Acrobatic comedian Lane and personality pertailor who falls in love with a princess former Roth make wonderful second leads. (MacDonald). Along the way they get to Virginia Bruce is one of Jeanette’s ladies-insing Rodgers and Hart’s ‘‘Lover,’’ ‘‘Mimi,’’ waiting. ‘‘Dream Lover’’ is film’s best song. ‘‘Isn’t It Romantic?,’’ among others. Score by Victor Schertzinger (later a film Mamoulian’s ingenious ideas, and mobile director himself) and Clifford Grey. MacDonald’s film debut.●쩠 camera, keep this fresh and alive. Screenplay by Samuel Hoffenstein, Waldemar Young, Love Potion No. 9 (1992) C-96m. ★★ D: and George Marion, Jr., from a play by LeoDale Launer. Tate Donovan, Sandra Bulpold Marchand and Paul Armont. Origilock, Mary Mara, Dale Midkiff, Hillary nally released at 104m.▼쩠 Bailey Smith, Dylan Baker, Anne BanLove Nest (1951) 84m. ★★ D: Joseph M. croft. Sluggish, often silly comedy in which Newman. June Haver, William Lundigan, two timid people, biochemist Donovan and Frank Fay, Marilyn Monroe, Jack Paar, animal psychologist Bullock, become huLeatrice Joy. Cheerful but bland comedy man guinea pigs for a love potion. Launer about an Army returnee whose wife has also produced and scripted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 bought a broken-down brownstone apartLover, The (1992-French) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 ment, and whose tenants become part of D: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Jane March, Tony their lives. Interesting only for early looks Leung, Fre´de´rique Meininger, Arnaud at Monroe and future TV host Paar.▼쩠 Giovaninetti, Melvil Poupaud, Lisa FaulkLove on a Pillow (1962-French) C-102m. ner, Xiem Mang; narrated by Jeanne Mo★★ D: Roger Vadim. Brigitte Bardot, Robreau. Exotic, soft-core adaptation of ert Hossein, James Robertson Justice, JeanMarguerite Duras’ autobiographical novel Marc Bory. Charitable Bardot bestows her about a teenage girl who’s initiated into pleasures on young man, hoping to divert sex by an older Chinese dandy in 1929 his intended suicide; saucy little comedy. Indochina. Borderline tedious, yet offbeat Franscope.▼쩠 and well mounted enough to amuse anyLove on the Ground (1984-French) Cone inclined to see it in the first place. 126m. ★1⁄2 D: Jacques Rivette. Geraldine Peripheral characters are more interesting Chaplin, Jane Birkin, Andre Dussollier, than the two leads (at least when clothed). Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Facundo Bo, Laszlo Sexier European version is available unSzabo. Boring, confusing, pretentious story rated. [R]▼●쩠 of actresses Chaplin and Birkin, hired by Loverboy (1989) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Joan Kalfon to rehearse and perform his play— Micklin Silver. Patrick Dempsey, Kate whose ending has not yet been written. For Jackson, Robert Ginty, Nancy Valen, Rivette admirers only. Charles Hunter Walsh, Barbara Carrera, Love on the Run (1936) 80m. ★★ D: W. S. Bernie Coulson, Ray Girardin, Robert Van Dyke II. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Camilletti, Vic Tayback, Kim Miyori, Franchot Tone, Reginald Owen, Mona BarKirstie Alley, Carrie Fisher. Paper-thin rie, Ivan Lebedeff, Charles Judels, William comedy of pizza delivery boy Dempsey Demarest, Donald Meek. Roving newspaper turning on a bevy of frustrated older women, [ 841 ]

with resulting predictable complications. Curiously anachronistic, and not even up to sitcom level; a major disappointment from the otherwise dependable Silver. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Loverboy (2005) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Bacon. Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Blair Brown, Matt Dillon, Oliver Platt, Campbell Scott, Marisa Tomei, Melissa Errico, Dominic Scott Kay, Sandra Bullock. Story of a woman whose sole goal in life is to have a child. She feeds her obsession by smothering her son with attention and affection in all the wrong ways while everyone around her is oblivious—or just moronic. Director Bacon turns Victoria Redel’s novel of an unbalanced woman into an unbalanced film, with his wife in the leading role. He tries hard but can’t make this offbeat tale engrossing or believable. Bacon and Sedgwick coproduced; their children Sosie and Travis Bacon have small roles. [R]쩠 Lover Come Back (1946) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: William A. Seiter. Lucille Ball, George Brent, Vera Zorina, Carl Esmond, William Wright, Charles Winninger. Bright little comedy of Lucy suing Brent for divorce when she sees his companion during war, photographer Zorina. Retitled WHEN LOVERS MEET. Lover Come Back (1961) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Delbert Mann. Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Edie Adams, Jack Oakie, Jack Kruschen, Ann B. Davis, Joe Flynn, Jack Albertson, Howard St. John, Donna Douglas. Early Day-Hudson vehicle is one of the best. Funny, fast-moving comedy has ad exec Doris trying to get account away from rival Rock—unaware that the product doesn’t exist! Edie Adams stands out in fine supporting cast.▼●쩠 Lovers, The (1958-French) 88m. ★★★ D: Louis Malle. Jeanne Moreau, Alain Cuny, Jose Luis de Villalonga, Jean-Marc Bory, Gaston Modot. Chic, once-controversial tale of wealthy, married, spiritually empty Moreau and her two very different extramarital involvements. Malle’s first major international success, and one of Moreau’s most important early credits. Dyaliscope.

complications surrounding romance between American tourist Hawn and Italian bank exec Giannini. Aka TRAVELS WITH ANITA; originally ran 125m. [R]▼●쩠 Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cy Howard. Gig Young, Bea Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Anne Jackson, Harry Guardino, Michael Brandon, Richard Castellano, Bob Dishy, Marian Hailey, Cloris Leachman, Anne Meara. Vividly real, genuinely funny movie about side effects, reverberations when young couple gets married. Film won fame for Castellano, with catch-line ‘‘So what’s the story?’’ just one of many memorable vignettes. Gig Young delightful as perennially cheerful father of the bride. From the play by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna (they scripted with David Z. Goodman); with Oscar-winning song, ‘‘For All We Know.’’ Diane Keaton’s film debut. [PG— originally rated R]▼쩠 Lover’s Knot (1996) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Pete Shaner. Bill Campbell, Jennifer Grey, Tim Curry, Adam Baldwin, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Anne Francis, Zelda Rubinstein, Dawn Wells. Cutesy romantic trifle in which cupid Curry must bring together a poetry scholar and a beautiful doctor, then keep them an item for the rest of this movie’s seemingly endless running time. Cupid’s arrow definitely misses the funny bone here. [R]▼ Lovers Like Us (1975-French) C-103m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Catherine Deneuve, Yves Montand, Luigi Vanucchi, Tony Roberts, Dana Wynter. Globetrotting screwball comedy has Deneuve and Montand running away from their respective spouses, meeting and falling in love with each other. Nothing special, but easy to take. Original title: LE SAUVAGE. [PG]▼쩠 Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998-Spanish) C-112m. ★★★ D: Julio Medem. Najwa Nimri, Fele Martinez, Nancho Novo, Maru Valdivielso, Kristel Dı´az, Victor Hugo Oliveira. Beguiling romantic drama about two young people who first meet as eight-yearold schoolmates and gradually realize they are destined to be together; in fact, their entire lives are linked by a series of odd parallels. It’s no coincidence that the main ▼쩠 1 ★★★ Lovers (1991-Spanish) C-103m. characters’ names, Anna and Otto, are pal⁄2 D: Vicente Aranda. Victoria Abril, Jorge Sanz, indromes; director Medem’s conceit is that Maribel Verdu. Handsome youth snuggles love is circular and eternal. Only sour note up with his sexy older landlady, while is film’s conclusion. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 leaving his deceptively innocent fiance´e in Lovers on the Bridge, The (1991-French) the lurch. Erotic true-crime saga, based on C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Le´os Carax. Juliette Bia murder case from 1955 Franco Madrid. noche, Denis Lavant, Klaus-Michael Gru¨ber, Impressively acted and photographed. Daniel Buain, Marion Stalens, Edith Scob. Screenplay by director Aranda, Alvaro Del Binoche is a lustrous presence in this otherwise hot-and-cold tale as a homeless, halfAmo, and Carlos Perez Merinero.▼ Lovers and Liars (1979-Italian) C-96m. ★★ blind painter who, with manipulative streetD: Mario Monicelli. Goldie Hawn, Gianperformer Lavant, camps out on Paris’s carlo Giannini, Claudine Auger, Aurore crumbling Pont Neuf Bridge while it’s Clement, Laura Betti, Andrea Ferreol. closed down for restoration. Some dazzling Forgettable black comedy centering on imagery combined with an air of pretension [ 842 ]

make this a decidedly mixed bag. Lavant pianist Pucholt. Gentle comedy-drama is both plays the same character in BOY MEETS entertaining and revealing.▼●쩠 GIRL and BAD BLOOD (1987). Released Loves of Carmen, The (1948) C-99m. ★★1 in the U.S. in 1999. [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Charles Vidor. Rita Hayworth, Loves and Times of Scaramouche, The Glenn Ford, Ron Randell, Victor Jory, 1 ★ (1975-Italian) C-95m. ⁄2 D: Enzo G. Luther Adler. Hayworth’s beauty is all Castellari. Michael Sarrazin, Ursula Andress, there is in this colorful but routine retelling Aldo Maccione, Giancarlo Prete, Michael of the story of a gypsy man-killer, minus Forest. Scaramouche has his way with Bizet’s music.▼●쩠 women, and runs afoul of an oafish NapoLoves of Count Iorga, Vampire, The leon in this energetic but empty-headed SEE: Count Yorga, Vampire farce. Maccione adds some laughs as BoLoves of Isadora, The SEE: Isadora naparte. Poorly dubbed. Filmed in Rome Love Song for Bobby Long, A (2004) Cand Zagreb.▼쩠 119m. ★★ D: Shainee Gabel. John Travolta, Love Serenade (1996-Australian) C-101m. Scarlett Johansson, Gabriel Macht, Deborah ★★1 ⁄2 D: Shirley Barrett. Miranda Otto, ReKara Unger, Dane Rhodes, David Jensen. becca Frith, George Shevtsov, John Alansu, Upon the death of her mother, from whom Jessica Napier. Oddball black comedy about she was estranged, a young woman returns a desperate, clingy beautician (Frith) and to her New Orleans home, which is now her reclusive younger sister (Otto) vying for occupied by two of her mother’s friends: a the affections of a self-centered hipster deeboozy Southern character, once an admired jay (Shevtsov)—who seems to be the only professor of English literature, and his emoeligible man in town. Often poignant and tionally paralyzed prote´ge´. Picaresque, richly deadpan funny, but the ending is unsatisimbued with Louisiana flavor, but overlong fying. Worth seeing for the performances, and unconvincing. Feature debut for writerespecially Otto, a compendium of hilaridirector Gabel, inspired by Ronald Everett ously paranoid body tics. Film takes its title Capps’ novel Off Magazine Street. [R]▼쩠 from a Barry White song, one of many feaLove Songs (1986-Canadian-French) Ctured on the groovy ’70s soundtrack. Writ107m. ★★ D: Elie Chouraqui. Catherine ten by the director. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Deneuve, Richard Anconina, Christopher Lovesick (1983) C-95m. ★★ D: Marshall Lambert, Jacques Perrin, Nick Mancuso, Brickman. Dudley Moore, Elizabeth McDayle Haddon, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Govern, Alec Guinness, John Huston, WalLightweight, predictable soap opera about lace Shawn, Alan King, Renee Taylor, Ron the loves and ambitions of rock singers Silver, Gene Saks, David Strathairn. ‘‘Sick’’ (Anconina, Lambert), focusing mostly on is right; this romantic comedy (about a psythe latter’s relationship with an older woman chiatrist who falls in love with his newest (Deneuve). Attempts to be touching and patient) needs a shot of adrenalin. Fine cast bittersweet but doesn’t ring true. ▼쩠 founders; Guinness’ turn as the shade of SigLove Songs (2007-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: mund Freud is a waste. Only Silver gets real Christophe Honore´. Louis Garrel, Ludivine laughs as a Pacino-like actor. [PG]▼●쩠 Sagnier, Chiara Mastroianni, Clotilde Love’s Labour’s Lost (2000-U.S.-BritishHesme, Gre´goire Leprince-Ringuet, Brigitte French) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Kenneth Branagh. Rou ¨ an, Jean-Marie Winling, Yannick ReKenneth Branagh, Natascha McElhone, nier. Ambitious, generally winning (and Alicia Silverstone, Nathan Lane, Adrian very French) romantic musical in which Lester, Alessandro Nivola, Matthew Lillard, Garrel and Sagnier commence—he wholeTimothy Spall, Carmen Ejogo, Emily Mortiheartedly, she reluctantly—a me´nage a` trois mer, Geraldine McEwan, Richard Briers. with Hesme. Then tragedy strikes. Bold atShakespeare’s comic romp becomes a 1930s tempt to explore the way people are drawn musical. The King of Navarre (Nivola) and to each other, how they deal with their feelthree comrades swear off women—just as the ings, and the curveballs that life tosses at King of France’s daughter (Silverstone) arthem. Stylistically, Honore´ pays homage to rives with three attractive friends. Hollywoodthe French New Wave; musical interludes inspired production numbers are downright are reminiscent of Demy’s THE UMBRELembarrassing at times; everyone tries hard, LAS OF CHERBOURG. but only Lane emerges unscathed. Uses old Lovespell (1979) C-91m. BOMB D: Tom Fred & Ginger songs, but reminds one more Donovan. Richard Burton, Kate Mulgrew, of Burt & Cybill (from AT LONG LAST Nicholas Clay, Cyril Cusack, Geraldine LOVE). Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Fitzgerald, Niall Toibin, Diana Van Der Vlis, Loves of a Blonde (1965-Czech) 88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Milos Forman. Hana Brejchova, Niall O’Brien. Thoroughly inept retelling of the romantic Tristan and Isolde legend. Josef Sebanek, Vladimir Pucholt, Jan VosOne-take-only filming on Irish locations trell, Vladimir Mensik. Sweet, poignant tale has static direction and writing from a Clasof idealistic shoe-factory worker Brejchova, sics Illustrated comic book. Mulgrew is too and what happens after she spends the night with—and falls in love with—womanizing old for the Isolde role, and her American ac[ 843 ]

cent clashes with the rest of the cast. Aka twins of wildly differing dispositions (last name, uh, Jeckyll). [R]▼●쩠 TRISTAN AND ISOLDE.▼쩠 Love Stinks (1999) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeff Love Walked In (1998-U.S.-Argentinian) C-90m. ★★ D: Juan J. Campanella. Denis Franklin. French Stewart, Bridgette Wilson, Bill Bellamy, Tyra Banks, Steve Hytner, Leary, Terence Stamp, Aitana SanchezJason Bateman, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Gijon, Danny Nucci, Moira Kelly, Michael Colleen Camp. Love is not the only thing Badalucco, Marj Dusay. Routine, low-rent that stinks in this barely funny (and meanfilm noir about a sour nightclub pianist who spirited) tale of a television comedy writer agrees to use his beautiful girlfriend as bait (Stewart) who becomes romantically into entrap a wealthy admirer. Object: a big volved with a sociopathic beauty-from-hell cash payoff. Adequate but uninspired time filler. [R]▼ (Wilson). Plays like a one-note, R-rated TV sitcom episode. [R]▼쩠 Love With the Proper Stranger (1963) 100m. ★★★ D: Robert Mulligan. Natalie Love Story (1970) C-99m. ★★★ D: Arthur Hiller. Ali MacGraw, Ryan O’Neal, Ray Wood, Steve McQueen, Edie Adams, HerMilland, John Marley, Katherine Balfour, schel Bernardi, Tom Bosley. Nifty, cyniRussell Nype, Tom (Tommy) Lee Jones. cal romance tale of working girl Wood Just what it says: simple, modern boyand trumpet player McQueen. Much N.Y.C. meets-girl story set against New England on-location filming, nice support from college backdrop, tinged with tragedy of Adams. Written by Arnold Schulman. Good girl’s sudden illness. Can’t hold a candle to bit: the title tune.▼● older Hollywood schmaltz, but on its own Love Your Mama (1993) C-92m. ★★ D: terms, pretty good (and a box-office smash). Ruby Oliver. Carol E. Hall, Audrey MorScreenplay by Erich Segal, who also wrote gan, Andre Robinson, Earnest Rayford III, the bestselling novel. Francis Lai won an Kearo Johnson, Jacqueline Williams. LowOscar for his score. Followed by OLIVER’S budget, semi-autobiographical melodrama STORY. [PG]▼●쩠 about a mother in a Southside Chicago Love Streams (1984) C-141m. ★★ D: John ghetto whose tribulations include an unCassavetes. Gena Rowlands, John Cassafaithful, alcoholic husband, a pregnant teenvetes, Diahnne Abbott, Risa Martha Blewitt, age daughter, and two sons whose lives Seymour Cassel, Margaret Abbott. Typical seem to be headed nowhere. Debuting Cassavetes fodder about a brother and sister writer-director Oliver must be commended with a strong emotional bond: for her, love for surmounting all obstacles to get her vinever ends; and for him, love is an abstract sion on the screen; in point of fact, her saga undone by the harsh realities of life. Cassof getting the movie made is more inspiring than the film itself. [PG-13]▼ avetes aficionados will probably like it; for others, only marginally bearable. Based on Loving (1970) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Irvin a play by Ted Allan, who cowrote screenKershner. George Segal, Eva Marie Saint, play with Cassavetes. [PG-13]▼ Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynn, Nancie Love the Hard Way (2003-U.S.-German) Phillips, Janis Young, Roy Scheider, Sherry Lansing. Extremely good drama chroniC-104m. ★★ D: Peter Sehr. Adrien Brody, Charlotte Ayanna, Jon Seda, August Diehl, cles Segal’s marital and occupational Pam Grier, Katherine Moennig. Dull noir problems. Director Kershner has great feelabout a two-bit grifter who seduces a prim ing for day-to-day detail; film’s superb college coed into a life of crime, with tragic climax involves public lovemaking. [R]▼쩠 results. Brody and Ayanna have chemistry Loving Couples (1980) C-97m. ★★ D: (and some steamy sex scenes) but the script Jack Smight. Shirley MacLaine, James fails to make their relationship plausible. Coburn, Susan Sarandon, Stephen Collins, Gritty Manhattan atmosphere helps someSally Kellerman, Nan Martin. Couples what, as does some off-the-wall comic diaMacLaine/Coburn and Sarandon/Collins logue (but not enough). Oddly, based on a switch partners. A titillating title for a Chinese pulp novel. [R] ▼쩠 predictable comedy. [PG]▼쩠 Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) CLoving Jezebel (2000) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Mantello. Jason AlexanKwyn Bader. Hill Harper, Nicole Ari Parker, der, Randy Becker, Stephen Bogardus, John Laurel Holloman, Sandrine Holt, Phylicia Glover, John Benjamin Hickey, Justin Kirk, Rashad, David Moscow. Shrill romantic Stephen Spinella. Entertaining but overlong comedy about a frustrated waiter/writer and adaptation of Terrence McNally’s Tony his penchant for sleeping with neurotic, unAward–winning play about eight gay male available women. Deserves some points for acquaintances who spend countryside its casual depiction of interracial relationweekends at their host’s dream Victorian ships, but is full of irritating characters and home over three summer holidays. Too substitutes histrionics for hilarity. The women much of the text tiresomely depends on are gorgeous but are reduced to man-crazed, screaming harpies. [R]▼쩠 Backbiting! Pettiness! and Sniping!, though Glover (reprising his Tony Award–winning Loving You (1957) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hal performance) is impressive in a dual role as Kanter. Elvis Presley, Lizabeth Scott, Wen[ 844 ]

dell Corey, Dolores Hart, James Gleason. her from the clutches of a police officer to Publicist Liz and country-western musiwhom she has been ‘‘given’’ as a bribe. cian Corey discover gas station attendant Loose adaptation of the 1902 Maxim Gorki Presley and promote him to stardom. Elvis’ play changes the setting from Czarist Russecond movie is highlighted by his persia to an imaginary land. Renoir scripted formance of ‘‘Teddy Bear’’ and the title with Charles Spaak. Remade 21 years later tune. VistaVision.▼●쩠 by Akira Kurosawa, who was more faithLovin’ Molly (1974) C-98m. ★★ D: Sidful to the play. Original title: LES BASney Lumet. Anthony Perkins, Beau BridFONDS. ▼쩠 ges, Blythe Danner, Edward Binns, Susan Lower Depths, The (1957-Japanese) 125m. ★★★ Sarandon, Conard Fowkes. Danner is just D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, right in otherwise indifferent filmization of Isuzu Yamada, Ganjiro Nakamura, Kyoko Larry McMurtry’s novel Leaving Cheyenne, Kagawa. Well-directed and acted but endabout two friends in Texas and their lifelessly talky drama of tortured, povertylong love for the same woman. [R] stricken souls, with Mifune a thief who Low Down, The (2001-British) C-96m. ★★ becomes involved with Kagawa. Based on D: Jamie Thraves. Aidan Gillen, Kate Asha Maxim Gorki play.▼쩠 field, Dean Lennox Kelly, Tobias Menzies, Low Life, The (1996) C-98m. ★★ D: Rupert Proctor, Samantha Power. Low-lowGeorge Hickenlooper. Rory Cochrane, Kyra low-key slice of slacker London life about a Sedgwick, Sean Astin, Ron Livingston, successful artist in his late 20s who lives Christian Meoli, Sara Melson, James Le in a slum neighborhood and grapples with Gros, Shawnee Smith, J.T. Walsh, Rene´e moving up and moving on. Gillen makes Zellweger. Wannabe writer Cochrane comes for an appealing commitment-phobe but it’s to L.A. and finds himself surrounded by aimhard to care when all he and his mates do is less companions and a woman (Sedgwick) sit around, drink beer and smoke cigarettes. who cannot commit. Well acted, but deFeature-film debut for music video director pressing and unfulfilling. [R] ▼●쩠 Thraves. Loyal 47 Ronin, The SEE: 47 Ronin, Part Low Down Dirty Shame, A (1994) CI and Part II, The L. 627 (1992-French) C-145m. ★★★ D: Ber108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Keenen Ivory Wayans. Keenen Ivory Wayans, Charles S. Dutton, trand Tavernier. Didier Bezace, Charlotte Jada Pinkett, Salli Richardson, Andrew Kady, Philippe Torreton, Nils Tavernier, Divoff, Corwin Hawkins, Gary Cervantes, Jean-Paul Comart, Jean-Roger Milo, Lara Gregory Sierra, Kim Wayans. Occasionally Guirao. ‘‘Lulu’’ Marguet is a career cop amusing comedy-actioner with Wayans as a who fights drug dealers with a keen sense of private detective hired by the DEA to uncommitment—which is more than can be cover some missing drug money. However, said for many of his colleagues. Pungent you might say that it’s a low-down dirty satire of contemporary French police force, shame that this film isn’t funnier—or that and the way an ‘‘elite’’ drug-busting unit Wayans (who also scripted) so often resorts tries to function amid the absurdities of red to unsubtle stereotyping for cheap laughs. tape and administrative bungling. Funny, Pinkett really scores as Wayans’ loyal assisyet frightening. Director Tavernier’s son tant. [R]▼●쩠 plays Vincent.▼ Lower City (2005-Brazilian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 L-Shaped Room, The (1963-British) 125m. ★★★ D: Se´rgio Machado. Alice Braga, La´zaro D: Bryan Forbes. Leslie Caron, Tom Ramos, Wagner Moura. Two lifelong pals Bell, Brock Peters, Avis Bunnage, Emlyn operate a cargo boat, leading a rough-andWilliams, Cicely Courtneidge, Bernard Lee, tumble existence. Their relationship changes Patricia Phoenix, Nanette Newman. French after they give a lift to a beautiful young woman crosses the Channel to face pregnancy prostitute in return for sexual favors: both alone, comes to meet interesting assortment of men are deeply attracted to her, and she characters in shabby London boarding house. refuses to choose between them. Resolution Caron is superb in the lead.▼ isn’t terribly satisfying, but story takes a Lt. Robin Crusoe, USN (1966) C-110m. backseat to the atmosphere in this striking, BOMB D: Byron Paul. Dick Van Dyke, sexy slice-of-life drama. Debut feature for Nancy Kwan, Akim Tamiroff, Arthur documentary filmmaker Machado, who also Malet, Tyler McVey. Labored Disney comcoscripted. Walter Salles coproduced. Braga edy is unworthy of Van Dyke, who plays is the niece of actress Soˆnia. [R]쩠 modern-day Robinson Crusoe, a navy pilot Lower Depths, The (1936-French) 92m. who drifts onto deserted island, becomes in★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean Renoir. Jean Gabin, Louis volved with pretty native girl. Film has virtuJouvet, Suzy Prim, Vladimir Sokoloff, ally nothing of merit to recommend. Story by Junie Astor, Robert Le Vignan. Sordid Retlaw Yensid (spell it backwards).▼쩠 drama about assorted characters in a squalid Lucas (1986) C-100m. ★★★ D: David Selthome for derelicts. Pepel (Gabin), a prozer. Corey Haim, Kerri Green, Charlie fessional thief, loves the younger sister of Sheen, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Winona his mistress, and commits murder to save Ryder, Thomas E. Hodges. Thoroughly [ 845 ]

winning story of a precocious 14-year-old please fans of British comedy, especially boy who develops a serious crush on the when it finally gets around to the night of the new girl in town—and the various ramifibig show. Lyrics for that show were written by Stephen Fry. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 cations that follow. One of the few Hollywood films about young people in the ’80s Lucky Lady (1975) C-118m. ★★ D: Stanthat doesn’t paint its characters in black and ley Donen. Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli, white only. A real sleeper, marking writer Burt Reynolds, Geoffrey Lewis, John Seltzer’s directing debut as well as screen Hillerman, Robby Benson, Michael Hordebut for Ryder. [PG-13]▼쩠 dern. Star trio make an engaging team, as Lucia, Lucia (2002-Mexican-Spanish) Camateur rum-runners in the 1930s who 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Antonio Serrano. Cecilia practice a me´nage-a`-trois after business ´ lvarez-Novoa, Kuno Becker. Roth, Carlos A hours . . . script goes astray and drags An unhappily married middle-aged author along to a limp, hastily refilmed conclugets a new lease on life when her husband sion. Unfortunate waste of talent; written disappears. Two men—one older, one by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. [PG] younger—fall in love with her while helpLucky Luciano (1974-Italian-French-U.S.) ing her track him down. Curious romantic C-110m. ★★ D: Francesco Rosi. Giancomedy-thriller set in Mexico City can’t Maria Volonte´, Rod Steiger, Edmond figure out what it wants to be; still a dyO’Brien, Vincent Gardenia, Charles Cioffi. namic vehicle for Roth (ALL ABOUT MY Fair international coproduction about the MOTHER), who’s never been more appealdeported crime kingpin, given a good intering. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 pretation by Volonte. Former federal narLucie Aubrac (1997-French) C-116m. cotics agent Charles Siragusa, Luciano’s ★★1 real-life nemesis, plays himself. [R]▼ ⁄2 D: Claude Berri. Carole Bouquet, Daniel Auteuil, Patrice Chereau, JeanLucky Me (1954) C-100m. ★★ D: Jack Roger Milo, Heino Ferch, Pascal Greggory. Donohue. Doris Day, Robert Cummings, Married couple Auteuil and Bouquet are Phil Silvers, Eddie Foy, Nancy Walker, members of the Resistance in Lyon, France. Martha Hyer, Bill Goodwin. Bright-faced When he is captured by the Gestapo, she but doggedly mediocre musical set in Midetermines to free him. WW2 drama emami, with Doris as star of Silvers’ third-rate phasizes real-life love story but suffers from theatrical troupe who attracts the attention of deliberate pacing. Based on the book OutBroadway songwriter Cummings. Look for witting the Gestapo by Lucie Aubrac heryoung Angie Dickinson in first film appearance. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 self. Leading French director Chereau portrays Max. Technovision. [R]▼ Lucky Numbers (2000) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Luckiest Man in the World, The (1989) Nora Ephron. John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow, C-82m. ★★★ D: Frank D. Gilroy. Philip Tim Roth, Ed O’Neill, Michael Rapaport, Bosco, Doris Belack, Joanne Camp, MatDaryl Mitchell, Bill Pullman, Richard Schiff, thew Gottlieb, Arthur French, Stan Lachow. Michael Moore, Michael Weston, Sam McScrooge-like businessman Bosco is almost Murray. Hapless local TV weatherman Trakilled in a plane crash, and abruptly devolta, who’s in debt, is persuaded to try cides to change his ways. Gilroy also rigging the station’s weekly state lottery scripted this unpretentious, well-acted litdrawing, with the help of ‘‘lottery girl’’ Kutle tale; the ‘‘voice’’ in the bathroom is drow. Witless comedy full of unpleasant that of Moses Gunn. characters; a total turn-off. [R]▼쩠 Luck of Ginger Coffey, The (1964Lucky Number Slevin (2006) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 ★★★ Canadian-U.S.) 100m. D: Irvin KershD: Paul McGuigan. Josh Hartnett, Bruce Wilner. Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Liam Redlis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy mond, Tom Harvey, Libby McClintock. Liu, Stanley Tucci, Danny Aiello, Kevin Effective kitchen-sink drama with Shaw in Chamberlin, Mykelti Williamson, Robert Forone of his best performances as an out-ofster. A mysterious figure (Willis) tells a work Irish-born dreamer, approaching midstranger about a crime committed long ago; dle age, who moves to Montreal with wife the rest of the film reveals the other side of Ure and their teenage daughter, hoping to that coin. Hartnett is mistaken for a friend find success. Scripted by Brian Moore, he’s visiting in N.Y.C. and is summoned based on his novel.▼ by two rival crime bosses (Freeman, cast Lucky Break (2001-British-German) Cagainst type, and Kingsley, as a rabbi107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Cattaneo. James Nescrimelord with a New York accent) who bitt, Olivia Williams, Timothy Spall, Bill expect him to do their bidding in order to save Nighy, Lennie James, Ron Cook, Frank his life. Challenging, puzzlelike script is never Harper, Christopher Plummer. Cattaneo’s dull but is too self-consciously clever. Liu is a follow-up picture to THE FULL MONTY is at standout as Hartnett’s love interest who’s also best an amusing story of inmates who literally the city coroner. Super 35. [R]쩠 stage an escape by producing and appearing Lucky Ones, The (2008) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: in a musical written by the prison governor. Neil Burger. Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, Slight but diverting, well-acted tale should Michael Pen˜a, Annie Corley, John Diehl, [ 846 ]

John Heard, Molly Hagan, Spencer Garrett, Ludwig (1972-Italian-French-German) C173m. ★★ D: Luchino Visconti. Helmut BerArden Myrin. Three lost souls who have just returned to the U.S. after serving in Iraq take ger, Romy Schneider, Trevor Howard, off on a cross-country road trip and discover Silvana Mangano, Helmut Griem, Gert Frobe. an America that is at best appreciative of— Lavish film about Mad King of Bavaria keeps but mostly indifferent to—their sacrifices. Epmain character so cold, aloof that one feels no isodic tale features touching moments and sympathy; after nearly three hours, effect is solid performances (particularly by Mcdeadening. Authentic locations are breathtakAdams), but some unnecessary attempts at ing. Schneider and Howard excellent, but comic relief fall flat. [R]쩠 slow-moving film doesn’t work. Incredibly, Lucky Partners (1940) 99m. ★★ D: Lewis the original version of this runs 246m.! Video runs 237m. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Milestone. Ronald Colman, Ginger Rogers, Jack Carson, Spring Byington, Cecilia Loftus, Lullaby of Broadway (1951) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Harry Davenport. Far-fetched comedy about D: David Butler. Doris Day, Gene Nelson, Colman and Rogers winning sweepstakes Gladys George, S. Z. Sakall, Billy de together, then taking ‘‘imaginary’’ honeyWolfe, Florence Bates, Anne Triola. Mumoon. Stars try to buoy mediocre script.▼ sical comedy star Day returns to N.Y.C., Lucky Star, The (1980-Canadian) C-110m. unaware that her singer mother has hit the ★★★ D: Max Fischer. Louise Fletcher, Rod skids. Warner Bros. musical is decent but Steiger, Lou Jacobi, Brett Marx, Helen no big deal; good cast and lots of great old Hughes. Entertaining tale of a young Jewish songs keep it moving.▼●쩠 boy (Marx) whose parents are taken away by Lulu on the Bridge (1999) C-103m. ★★★ the Nazis. He is sheltered on a Rotterdam D: Paul Auster. Harvey Keitel, Mira Sorfarm and singlehandedly goes up against Gervino, Willem Dafoe, Gina Gershon, Mandy man Colonel Steiger. A sleeper. [PG] Patinkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Don Byron, Lucky Stiff (1988) C-82m. ★★ D: AnRichard Edson, Victor Argo, Kevin Corrigan, thony Perkins. Joe Alaskey, Donna Dixon, Harold Perrineau, Lou Reed, David Byrne; Jeff Kober, Morgan Sheppard, Barbara Howvoice of Stockard Channing. Jazz saxophonist ard, Charles Frank, Fran Ryan, Leigh McKeitel’s career abruptly ends after he is a vicCloskey, Bill Quinn. Uneven black comedy tim of random violence. After coming upon a about cannibalism improves as it goes along. magic stone on a Manhattan street, he enters Fat Alaskey, full of jokes and yearning to be into an unusual, intensely romantic relationmarried, is romanced by gorgeous Dixon, but ship with a struggling actress (Sorvino). Jardoesn’t know that she’s selected him as Mr. ring, provocative film is crammed with Christmas Dinner for her inbred family. Awktwists and surprises and explores the roles wardly structured script and odd rhythms of that coincidence and fate play in everyday film are helped by Alaskey’s ingratiating perlife. Sorvino has never been lovelier. Solo formance. [PG]▼●쩠 directing debut for novelist Auster, who Lucky You (2007) C-124m. ★★ D: Curtis also scripted. [PG-13]▼쩠 Hanson. Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, RobLulu the Tool SEE: Working Class Goes ert Duvall, Debra Messing, Horatio Sanz, to Heaven, The Lumiere (1976-French) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Martin Smith, Joey Kern, Jean Smart, Phyllis Somerville, Robert Downey, Jeanne Moreau. Jeanne Moreau, Francine Jr., Saverio Guerra, Madeleine Peyroux, Racette, Lucia Bose, Caroline Cartier, Marie Michael Shannon. Poker-faced study of proHenriau, Keith Carradine, Bruno Ganz, Franfessional gambler Bana, who lives in Las c¸ois Simon. Elaborate but not very involving Vegas and plays cards for a living—but drama about four actresses of different ages can’t step out of the shadow of his estranged and status and their relationships with careers, father (Duvall), a revered poker champion. men, each other. Curio is worth seeing for Moreau’s directorial debut. [R]▼ Movie gets everything right when it comes to the game (even re-creating the 2003 Luminarias (2000) C-100m. ★★★ D: Jose World Series of Poker, with many key playLuis Valenzuela. Evelina Fernandez, Marta ers as themselves) but fails to ignite an inDuBois, Angela Moya, Diana Ortelli, Sal teresting story for its characters. Amazingly Lopez, Scott Bakula, Cheech Marin, Robert dull. Written by Hanson and Eric Roth. Beltran, Andrew Kim, Pepe Serna, Liz TorSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 res. Four L.A. Latina women of a certain Lucy Gallant (1955) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: age cling to one another as they try to find Robert Parrish. Charlton Heston, Jane the right men—while battling their own soWyman, Thelma Ritter, Claire Trevor, Wilcial prejudices. A sharply observed portrait liam Demarest, Wallace Ford. Spiritless of women with ethnic identity crises, told soaper of success-bent Wyman rejecting suitwith vigor and humor. Written by its imors Heston et al., wanting to get ahead instead; pressive leading lady, Fernandez. [R]▼쩠 set in Western oil town. Wyman plays dressLumumba (2000-French-Belgian-GermanHaitian) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Raoul Peck. maker, and veteran Hollywood costume designer Edith Head makes a rare on-screen Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, The´ophile appearance near the end. VistaVision. Sowie´, Maka Kotto, Dieudonne´ Kabongo, [ 847 ]

Pascal N’Zonzi. Powerful account of the other in an old church, waiting for the crealife and times of Patrice Lumumba (Ebouatures who live in tunnels below to make their ney, who is magnetic), the dedicated but illannual attack. Seedy and tiresome, this seems fated first prime minister of the Congo (now more derived from KEY LARGO than from Zaire) after it was granted independence H. P. Lovecraft’s story. Shot in Romania, and looks it. From Full Moon.▼●쩠 from Belgium in 1960. Both a top-notch thriller and a fair-minded biography of a Lust, Caution (2007-Hong Kong-U.S.courageous, charismatic individual and the Chinese) C-157m. ★★★ D: Ang Lee. Tony complex time in which he lived. Written by Leung Chiu-Wai, Wei Teng, Joan Chen, Peck and Pascal Bonitzer.▼쩠 Lee-Hom Wang, Chung Hua Tou, Chih★★★ Luna (1979) C-144m. D: Bernardo ying Chu, Ying-hsien Kao, Anupam Kher. Bertolucci. Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Idealistic student in late 1930s Shanghai is Veronica Lazar, Renato Salvatori, Fred recruited to join a resistance movement Gwynne, Alida Valli, Roberto Benigni. against Chinese people who are collaboratInitially dazzling tale of male adolescent’s ing with the Japanese invaders. Her job is to identity crisis becomes ponderous when it win over a hardened official in order to set turns into a mother-son soap opera with him up for assassination, but their relationincestuous implications. Cinematically exship becomes so intense—sexually and citing, though, with a bravura finale. [R] psychically—that her emotions are blurred. Lunatics: A Love Story (1992) C-87m. Unusual story unfolds at great length yet ★★1 ⁄2 D: Josh Becker. Theodore Raimi, Debmaintains an almost hypnotic mood; sex orah Foreman, Bruce Campbell, Brian scenes are graphic, but it’s the looks in the McCree, Eddie Rosmaya, Michele Stacey. leading actors’ eyes that really tell the tale. Raimi is a gentle paranoid, confined by his Exquisite score by Alexandre Desplat. Rfears to his lonely, foil-lined L.A. apartrated version runs 148m. [NC-17]쩠 ment; Foreman is convinced she causes the Lust for a Vampire (1971-British) C-95m. ★1 death of everyone she loves. Odd low⁄2 D: Jimmy Sangster. Ralph Bates, Yutte budget comedy has real, if eccentric, charm. Stensgaard, Barbara Jefford, Michael Johnson, Suzanna Leigh, Mike Raven, Christo‘‘Presented’’ by Sam Raimi. [PG-13]▼ Lunatics and Lovers (1976-Italian) Cpher Neame. Carmilla, the seductress from 93m. ★1⁄2 D: Flavio Mogherini. Marcello THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, preys on stuMastroianni, Claudia Mori, Lino Morelli, dents at a girls’ school. Third-rate Hammer Flora Carabella, Adriano Celentano. Arishorror, anemically produced. Followed by tocrat Mastroianni has an imaginary wife; TWINS OF EVIL. Original title: TO LOVE an organ grinder convinces prostitute A VAMPIRE. [R]▼쩠 Mori to ‘‘impersonate’’ her. When it’s not Lust for Life (1956) C-122m. ★★★★ D: silly, it’s dull.▼ Vincente Minnelli. Kirk Douglas, Anthony Lunch Wagon (1980) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: ErQuinn, James Donald, Pamela Brown, Evnest Pintoff. Pamela Jean Bryant, Rosanne erett Sloane, Niall MacGinnis, Noel PurKaton, Candy Moore, Rick Podell, Rose cell, Henry Daniell, Jill Bennett, Lionel Marie, Chuck McCann, Vic Dunlop, Jeffries, Eric Pohlmann. Brilliant adaptaJimmy Van Patten, Dick Van Patten. Above tion of Irving Stone’s biography of painter average drive-in comedy about trio of Van Gogh, vividly portraying his anguished young lovelies who set up their lunch truck life. Quinn won well-deserved Oscar for at a prime construction site, unaware that performance as painter-friend Gauguin, in their competition is really a cover for a this exquisite color production. Script by planned bank robbery. Good cast, spirited Norman Corwin. Produced by John Housedirection; Dale Bozzio sings ‘‘Mental Hopman. Fine music score by Miklos Rozsa. scotch.’’ Reissued as LUNCH WAGON CinemaScope.▼●쩠 GIRLS and COME ’N’ GET IT. [R]▼ Lust in the Dust (1985) C-85m. BOMB Lunch Wagon Girls SEE: Lunch Wagon D: Paul Bartel. Tab Hunter, Divine, Lainie Lured (1947) 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Douglas Kazan, Geoffrey Lewis, Henry Silva, Cesar Sirk. George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Romero, Gina Gallego, Woody Strode, Coburn, Alan Mowbray, Cedric Hardwicke, Pedro Gonzales-Gonzales. Hunter and Boris Karloff, George Zucco. Ball turns deDivine descend on a New Mexico helltective in this melodrama, encounters hole—he (like most of the cast) to locate strange characters and harrowing experisome buried treasure, she (he?) to fulfill a ences while tracking murderer; pretty good, dream of becoming a saloon singer. Dreadful with top cast. Remake of Robert Siodmak’s attempt at camp despite an apparently whim1939 French film PIE`GES. ▼쩠 sical casting director; what’s to say about a Lurking Fear (1994) C-76m. ★1⁄2 D: C. movie where Divine’s warbling is the comiCourtney Joyner. Jon Finch, Blake Bailey, cal highlight? Techniscope. [R]▼●쩠 Ashley Lauren, Jeffrey Combs, Allison Lusty Men, The (1952) 113m. ★★★ D: Mackie, Paul Mantee, Vincent Schiavelli. On Nicholas Ray. Susan Hayward, Robert a hot, sunny Christmas in Massachusetts, Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Arthur Hunnicrooks and monster fighters confront one ancutt, Frank Faylen. Intelligent, atmospheric [ 848 ]

rodeo drama, with ex-champ Mitchum befilm written by the director and his brother coming mentor of novice Kennedy—and Steve Martini; the real-life Culkin brothers finding himself attracted to Kennedy’s noplay siblings on-screen. Panavision. [R] nonsense wife (Hayward). Solid going most of the way—until that hokey finale. Well M (1931-German) 111m. ★★★★ D: Fritz Lang. directed by Ray.▼● Peter Lorre, Otto Wernicke, Ellen Widmann, Luther (1973-British) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy Inge Landgut, Theodor Loos, Gustaf Gru¨ndGreen. Stacy Keach, Patrick Magee, Hugh gens. Harrowing melodrama about psychotic Griffith, Robert Stephens, Alan Badel, Judi child murderer brought to justice by Berlin Dench. Sincere but placid American Film underworld. Riveting and frighteningly conTheatre re-creation of John Osborne’s play temporary; cinematically dazzling, especially about Martin Luther (Keach), leader of the for an early talkie. Lorre’s performance is unProtestant Reformation.▼쩠 forgettable. Older 99m. prints still circulate— Luther (2003-U.S.-German) C-113m. ★★ with a truncated ending. Remade in 1951. D: Eric Till. Joseph Fiennes, Alfred Molina, ▼●쩠 Bruno Ganz, Jonathan Firth, Peter Ustinov, M (1951) 88m. ★★★ D: Joseph Losey. David Claire Cox, Benjamin Sadler. Handsomely Wayne, Howard da Silva, Luther Adler, mounted but one-dimensional historical soap Karen Morley, Jorja Curtright, Martin opera about the life and times of Martin LuGabel, Norman Lloyd. Interesting, intellither (Fiennes), the father of the Protestant Refgent re-thinking of Fritz Lang classic set in ormation. Dramatically over-the-top and filled L.A., with Wayne as child killer hunted with corny dialogue, but its major failing is down by community of criminals. that it reduces complex historical issues to Ma and Pa Kettle series SEE Leonard good-versus-evil simplicity. [PG-13]▼쩠 Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide Luv (1967) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Clive Donner. Mac (1992) C-118m. ★★★ D: John Turturro. Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Elaine May, Eddie John Turturro, Michael Badalucco, Carl Mayehoff, Paul Hartman, Severn Darden. Capotorto, Katherine Borowitz, John Amos, Murray Schisgal’s three-character hit play Olek Krupa, Ellen Barkin, Joe Paparone. about pseudo-intellectuals was not a natural Rock-solid tale of a trio of Italian-American for the screen anyway, but this version is truly brothers in Queens, New York, during the an abomination. The cast tries. Look for a mid-1950s. The eldest (Turturro), a carpenter, young Harrison Ford. Panavision.▼● is fiercely determined to realize his American Luzhin Defence, The (2000-BritishDream, so he starts up his own construction French) C-106m. ★★★ D: Marleen Gorris. company. Crammed with offbeat humor, but John Turturro, Emily Watson, Geraldine most refreshing as a sincere depiction of the James, Stuart Wilson, Christopher Thomplives and struggles of blue-collar Americans. son, Fabio Sartor. Intriguing adaptation of Turturro’s directorial debut; he coscripted Vladimir Nabokov novel about a Russian with Brandon Cole. The film is dedicated to chess master who falls in love while atTurturro’s father, a carpenter, and inspired by the senior Turturro’s life. [R] ▼●쩠 tending a world tournament in Italy during the 1920s. But his longtime teacher knows Macabra SEE: Demonoid, Messenger of his dark secret: chess is not a game for him, Death but a compulsion. A treat to watch Turturro Macabre (1958) 73m. ★★ D: William Casand Watson in this modest but well-made tle. William Prince, Jim Backus, Christine period piece. [PG-13]▼쩠 White, Jacqueline Scott. Weird goings-on in Lydia (1941) 104m. ★★★ D: Julien Duvivier. small town where doctor’s young daughter Merle Oberon, Edna May Oliver, Alan Marmysteriously vanishes—and an anonymous shal, Joseph Cotten, Hans Yaray, George phone caller announces that the child has Reeves. Sentimental tale of elderly woman been buried alive. Film promises much, de(Oberon) meeting her former beaux and relivers little. Famous for Castle’s gimmick of calling their courtship. Remake of Duvivier’s handing out policies insuring moviegoers own French classic, UN CARNET DE for $1,000 against death by fright. BAL.▼ Mac and Me (1988) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Stewart Lymelife (2009) C-94m. ★★★ D: Derick MarRaffill. Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Ward, tini. Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Jill HenKatrina Caspary, Lauren Stanley, Jade nessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, Calegory. Slight E.T. clone about Mac, an Kieran Culkin, Emma Roberts. Meek, adolesouter space creature, and his plight in cent boy (Rory Culkin) sees his parents’ suburban L.A. More a TV commercial strained marriage dissolve before his eyes, than a movie: There’s a production numeven as he falteringly initiates his first ber set in a McDonald’s, and the alien relationship—with the pretty girl next door survives by sipping Coca-Cola. [PG]▼●쩠 (Roberts). Coming-of-age tale set in Long IsMacao (1952) 80m. ★★ D: Josef von Sternland in 1979, as the boy’s father (Baldwin) berg. Robert Mitchum, Jane Russell, Wilbrashly pursues the American dream, covers liam Bendix, Gloria Grahame, Thomas familiar turf with some original touches and Gomez, Philip Ahn. Flat yarn supposedly winning performances. Lean, independent set in murky title port, with Russell a [ 849 ]

singer and Mitchum the action-seeking man Macbeth is a cocaine-snorting, mentally unshe loves.▼●쩠 hinged schemer. There’s precious little conMacaroni (1985-Italian) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: versation during the film’s first nine minutes, Ettore Scola. Jack Lemmon, Marcello but plenty of bloody corpses. Adapted by Mastroianni, Daria Nicolodi, Isa Danieli, Wright and Hill (who plays Lady M.); both Maria Luisa Saniella. Uptight American coproduced. 쩠 businessman goes to Naples and finds some Machine, The (1994-French-German) unfinished personal business left over from C-96m. ★★★ D: Franc¸ois Dupeyron. Ge´rard his last visit—when he was an amorous Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, Didier Bourdon, soldier during WW2. Two of the world’s Natalia Woerner, Erwan Baynaud, Marc most endearing actors try to keep this souffle´ Andreoni, Julie Depardieu. Scientist Deparfrom falling and almost succeed. [PG]▼● dieu’s experiment works better than he exMacArthur (1977) C-130m. ★★★ D: Jopected, and he switches minds with a seph Sargent. Gregory Peck, Dan O’Herlihy, psychotic killer of women. Suspenseful, Ed Flanders, Sandy Kenyon, Dick O’Neill, well-plotted Gallic variation on old themes; Marj Dusay, Art Fleming. Solid, absorbgood direction, better acting. From the ing saga of flamboyant military chief durnovel La Machine by Rene Belletto.▼● ing WW2 and Korean War. Peck is excellent Machine-Gun Kelly (1958) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: but film doesn’t pack the punch of PATRoger Corman. Charles Bronson, Susan TON. Originally trade-screened at 144m. Cabot, Barboura Morris, Morey Amsterthen cut for release. [PG]▼●쩠 dam, Wally Campo, Jack Lambert, ConMacArthur’s Children (1985-Japanese) nie Gilchrist. With typical efficiency, C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Masahiro Shinoda. Corman gives this gangster chronicle pacMasako Natsume, Shima Iwashita, Hiromi ing and more than passing interest. Bronson Go, Takaya Yamauchi, Yoshiyuka Omori, is fine in title role. Superama.▼ Shiori Sakura, Juzo Itami, Ken Watanabe. Machine Gun McCain (1968-Italian) CExtremely poignant, proud, loving remem94m. ★★ D: Giuliano Montaldo. John Casbrance of life in a small Japanese fishing savetes, Britt Ekland, Peter Falk, Gabriele village immediately following that nation’s Ferzetti, Salvo Randone, Gena Rowlands. defeat in WW2. Most effectively delineated Junk about just-released gangster who tries are the Japanese reaction to losing the war, to rob Mafia-controlled casino in Las as well as the cultural effects of the American Vegas. Techniscope.[PG] occupation—from styles of dress to baseMachinist, The (2004-Spanish) C-102m. ball. [PG]▼● ★★★ D: Brad Anderson. Christian Bale, Jen★★★ D: Orson Macbeth (1948) 89m. nifer Jason Leigh, Aitana Sa´nchez-Gijo´n, Welles. Orson Welles, Jeanette Nolan, Dan John Sharian, Michael Ironside, Larry GilliO’Herlihy, Edgar Barrier, Roddy McDoward, Reg E. Cathey, Anna Massey. Machine all, Robert Coote, Erskine Sanford, Alan shop worker Bale is deeply troubled: he Napier, Peggy Webber, John Dierkes. hasn’t slept in a year . . . mysterious notes Welles brought the Bard to Republic Picappear on his refrigerator . . . he converses tures with this moody, well-done adaptawith a coworker who doesn’t appear to tion, filmed entirely on bizarre interiors exist . . . and he’s losing weight at an (which deliberately emphasize its theatricalalarming rate. Eerie, weirdly compelling ity). Most revival houses now show Welles’ psychological thriller is beautifully designed original version, which runs 105m. and has and shot. If Franz Kafka ever scripted a the actors speaking with authentic Scot acmovie, this might have been it. Bale’s mere cents. ▼● presence is disturbing: he shed 63 pounds for Macbeth (1971-British) C-140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: this role and moves through the film like a Roman Polanski. Jon Finch, Francesca walking skeleton. Super 35. [R]쩠 Annis, Martin Shaw, Nicholas Selby, John Macho Callahan (1970) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stride, Stephan Chase. Gripping, atmoBernard Kowalski. David Janssen, Lee J. spheric, and extremely violent re-creation Cobb, Jean Seberg, David Carradine, Pedro of Shakespeare tragedy of young Scots nobleArmendariz, Jr., James Booth, Richard man lusting for power, driven onward by Anderson. Janssen miscast as Civil War crazed wife and prophecies. Great example POW-escapee, out to kill man who got of film storytelling, thanks to excellent him arrested in first place; will recognize direction. Todd-AO 35. [R]▼●쩠 latter by his yellow shoes. Interesting view Macbeth (2006-Australian) C-109m. ★★ D: of West, but dialogue often unbelievable. Geoffrey Wright. Sam Worthington, Victoria Panavision. [R]▼ Hill, Lachy Hulme, Gary Sweet, Steve BasMack, The (1973) C-110m. ★★ D: Mitoni, Mick Molloy, Matt Doran. Ill-conceived chael Campus. Max Julien, Don Gordon, retelling of the Shakespeare classic set among Richard Pryor, Carol Speed, Roger E. warring gangsters in contemporary MelMosley, William C. Watson. Extremely bourne (but with Shakespearean dialogue inviolent melodrama about a black pimp in tact). Macbeth is depicted as a shaggy-haired hood who resembles a grunge rock star; Lady Oakland was one of the most popular [ 850 ]

blaxploitation films; strange, because it’s with a Georgia sheriff. Drive-in classic was utterly ordinary. [R]▼●쩠 a huge hit and created a sub-genre. IntelliMackenna’s Gold (1969) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 gent, well acted and suspenseful; shot around D: J. Lee Thompson. Gregory Peck, Omar Sacramento, California. And despite the introSharif, Telly Savalas, Camilla Sparv, Keenan ductory claim, it’s not based on a true story. Wynn, Julie Newmar, Lee J. Cobb, RayBaer produced and scripted. Followed by REmond Massey, Burgess Meredith, Anthony TURN TO MACON COUNTY. [R]▼쩠 Quayle, Edward G. Robinson, Eli Wallach, Mad About Mambo (1999-British) CTed Cassidy, Eduardo Ciannelli; narrated by 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Forte. William Ash, Keri Victor Jory. Overblown adventure saga Russell, Brian Cox, Theo Fraser Steele, Rosaabout search for lost canyon of gold, with leen Linehan, Maclean Stewart. Belfast lad doublecrosses, conflicts, mysterious clues, desperately wants to play football (Amerietc. Super cast saddled with ludicrous script, cans: read ‘‘soccer’’), but isn’t any good— made worse by pre-release tampering that until he hears a Brazilian pro say it’s all in cut extremely long film, leaving abrupt dethe rhythm, which inspires him to take Latin nouement, several loose ends. Fine Quincy dance lessons. There he meets a rich girl Jones score; produced by Carl Foreman who’s determined to win an upcoming com(who also scripted) and Dimitri Tiomkin. petition. Utterly predictable fluff, but nicely Super Panavision 70. [M]▼●쩠 done, with a dollop of social commentary and Mackintosh and T.J. (1975) C-96m. ★★ a radiant Russell. P.S. The film is about the D: Marvin J. Chomsky. Roy Rogers, Clay samba, not the mambo. [PG-13]▼ O’Brien, Billy Green Bush, Andrew RobMad About Music (1938) 98m. ★★★ D: inson, Joan Hackett. Old-fashioned modernNorman Taurog. Deanna Durbin, Herbert day Western about an aging ranch hand and a Marshall, Gail Patrick, Arthur Treacher, young boy. Those charmed by idea of Roy Helen Parrish, Marcia Mae Jones, William Rogers’ comeback will want to see it; others Frawley. Excellent Durbin vehicle; busy beware. Music by Waylon Jennings. [PG] mother Patrick leaves Deanna in Swiss Mackintosh Man, The (1973) C-105m. girls’ school, where she pretends Marshall ★★1⁄2 D: John Huston. Paul Newman, Domis her father. Holds up better than remake TOY TIGER.▼ inique Sanda, James Mason, Harry Andrews, Ian Bannen, Nigel Patrick, Michael Hordern. Madadayo (1993-Japanese) C-134m. ★★★ D: Well-made espionage thriller has only one Akira Kurosawa. Tatsuo Matsumura, Kyoko problem: it’s all been done before. Filmed in Kagawa, Hisashi Igawa, George Tokoro. KurIreland, England, and Malta; screenplay credosawa’s final film, made when he was 83, is a ited to Walter Hill. [PG]▼●쩠 gentle and contemplative series of vignettes Mack the Knife (1989) C-120m. BOMB depicting two decades in the life of a revered D: Menahem Golan. Raul Julia, Richard professor—his retirement in 1943, the bombHarris, Julia Migenes, Roger Daltrey, Juing of his house during an air raid, building a lie Walters, Rachel Robertson, Clive Revill. new home, finding and losing a stray cat, Name cast over-emotes in this ill-conceived, etc.—all centered around a string of birthday overly stylized version of The Threepenny parties thrown for him by his ex-students at Opera. More a filmed stage revue than which he shouts ‘‘madadayo!’’ (‘‘not yet!’’) anything else, and not a very good one; to indicate he’s not ready to be taken by death. Golan adapted the script, and completely A warmhearted and life-affirming finale to the misses the spirit of the original. This one career of a cinematic master. Released in the U.S. in 1998. ▼쩠 blots the memory of Brecht and Weill (not to mention Bobby Darin). [PG-13]▼● Mad Adventures of ‘‘Rabbi’’ Jacob, The (1974-French) C-96m. ★★★ D: Gerard Oury. Macomber Affair, The (1947) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zoltan Korda. Gregory Peck, Joan BenLouis De Funes, Suzy Delair, Marcel Dalio, nett, Robert Preston, Reginald Denny, Carl Claude Giraud, Claude Pieplu. Broad slapHarbord. Penetrating, intelligent filmization stick comedy about hotheaded, bigoted of Hemingway story about conflicts that businessman who—for complicated readevelop when hunter Peck takes married sons—is forced to disguise himself as a couple (Preston, Bennett) on safari. Brisrabbi. Uneven but often quite funny, with tling performances help make this one of echoes of silent-screen humor. [G]▼쩠 the most vivid screen adaptations of a Madagascar (2005) C-86m. ★★ D: Eric Hemingway work. Based on ‘‘The Short Darnell, Tom McGrath. Voices of Ben Happy Life of Francis Macomber’’; scripted Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada by Casey Robinson and Seymour Bennett. Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali G), Macon County Line (1974) C-89m. ★★★ Cedric the Entertainer, Andy Richter. A zebra D: Richard Compton. Alan Vint, Cheryl wants to leave his comfy home at N.Y.C.’s Waters, Max Baer, Jr., Jesse Vint, Joan Central Park Zoo. His best friends (a lion, a Blackman, Geoffrey Lewis, James Gamhippo, and a giraffe) try to stop him, which mon, Leif Garrett. In 1954, two fun-loving leads to a series of misadventures—and finds brothers from Chicago roam the South bethem all deposited in the wilds of Madagasfore military service, but get into trouble car. Computer-animated feature has all the [ 851 ]

moves and rhythms of a sitcom, with ‘‘clever’’ references for grown-ups in the audience, but it isn’t very funny. Instantly forgettable. Codirector McGrath provides the voice of the head penguin. Followed by a sequel. [PG]

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cente Minnelli’s version may turn the novel upside down, but it’s a far more significant movie. Even viewers with unusually refined auteurist radar would have a tough time pegging this as a Chabrol. [PG-13]

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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008) CMadame Curie (1943) 124m. ★★★ D: 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Darnell, Tom McGrath. Mervyn LeRoy. Greer Garson, Walter Voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Pidgeon, Henry Travers, Albert Basserman, Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Robert Walker, C. Aubrey Smith. Despite Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, Andy stretches of plodding footage, bio of famed Richter, Bernie Mac, Alec Baldwin, Sherri female scientist is generally excellent. GarShepherd, Will I. Am, Tom McGrath. The son and Pidgeon team well, as usual.▼●쩠 animal characters of the original attempt to Madame Rosa (1977-French) C-105m. ★★1 return to N.Y.C. but instead find themselves ⁄2 D: Moshe Mizrahi. Simone Signoret, in Africa, where they mix with their wild Samy Ben Youb, Claude Dauphin, Ga(rather than zoo-raised) brethren. Computerbriel Jabbour, Michal Bat-Adam, Costaanimated comedy is a rarity for kids’ movGavras. Signoret’s magnetic performance ies: a sequel that improves on the original. gives substance to interesting but aimless film [PG]쩠 about an aging madam who earns her keep Madame (1961-French) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: sheltering prostitutes’ children. Won Best Foreign Film Oscar. [PG]▼ Christian-Jaque. Sophia Loren, Robert Hossein, Julien Bertheau, Marina Berti. Madame Sousatzka (1988) C-122m. ★★★ Uninspired remake of MADAME SANSD: John Schlesinger. Shirley MacLaine, GENE (filmed in 1925) with Loren, who Navin Chowdhry, Peggy Ashcroft, Twiggy, uses looks and wits to rise from laundress to Shabana Azmi, Leigh Lawson, Geoffrey nobility in Napoleonic France. Super TechBayldon, Lee Montague. Eccentric, reclunirama 70.쩠 sive London piano teacher (MacLaine, Madame Bovary (1934-French) 102m. wearing clanky jewelry and piles of makeup) ★★ D: Jean Renoir. Valentine Tessier, Pierre implores her students to cultivate their Renoir, Max Dearly, Daniel Lecourtois, artistic spirit and bring passion to their Fernand Fabre, Alice Tissot, Helena Manmusic. She meets her match in her star son. Uneven, unsatisfying version of the pupil, a 15-year-old boy of Indian herioft-filmed Flaubert story, about the rotage. Beautifully made film succeeds largely mantic, ill-fated title character. Originally due to the strong emotions being played three hours long, Renoir (who also scripted) out, and to the superb supporting cast was forced to drastically edit it. While the (especially young Chowdhry and mother first version may have been more compelAzmi—the latter a major star in her native ling than the existing film, the fact remains India). [PG-13]▼● that Tessier is miscast as Emma Bovary.▼ Madame X (1929) 90m. ★★ D: Lionel Madame Bovary (1949) 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Barrymore. Ruth Chatterton, Lewis Stone, Vincente Minnelli. Jennifer Jones, James Raymond Hackett, Holmes Herbert, EugeMason, Van Heflin, Louis Jourdan, Chrisnie Besserer, Sidney Toler. Leaden weeper, topher Kent (Alf Kjellin), Gene Lockhart, filmed previously in 1906, 1916, and 1920, Gladys Cooper, George Zucco, Henry about cold, cruel husband Stone forcing (Harry) Morgan. Gustave Flaubert’s 19thwife Chatterton onto the streets. Their son century heroine sacrifices her husband and comes of age believing she’s dead . . . and their security for love, meets a horrible then gets to defend her on a murder charge. end. Once-controversial adaptation looks A curio at best; the remakes are better.● better every year, despite an odd ‘‘framMadame X (1937) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam ing’’ device involving Flaubert’s morals Wood. Gladys George, John Beal, Warren trial. Justifiably celebrated ball sequence William, Reginald Owen, William Henry, is among the greatest set pieces of MinHenry Daniell, Phillip Reed, Ruth Hussey. nelli’s—or anyone else’s—career. ScreenAlexandre Bisson’s stalwart soap opera gets play by Robert Ardrey. Previously filmed polished MGM treatment and a fine perforin 1932 (as UNHOLY LOVE) and 1934 mance by Gladys George as the woman (in France, by Jean Renoir); remade in whose ultimate sacrifice is never detected by France in 1991.▼●쩠 her son. Goes astray toward the end (with Madame Bovary (1991-French) C-130m. Beal a bit much), but worth a look.▼ ★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Isabelle Huppert, Madame X (1966) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Jean-Francois Balmer, Christopher MalLowell Rich. Lana Turner, John Forsythe, avoy, Jean Yanne, Lucas Belvaux, JeanConstance Bennett, Ricardo Montalban, Claude Bouilland. Huppert’s persona is far Burgess Meredith, Keir Dullea, Virginia too chilly to convey the passion of Emma Grey. Plush remake of perennial soaper of Bovary in this faithful but exhaustingly attorney defending a woman accused of dull rendering of Flaubert’s classic. Vinmurder, not knowing it’s his mother. Fine [ 852 ]

cast and varied backgrounds bolster Turnily MacLachlan, but his real rival is big boss er’s pivotal performance. Constance BenDreyfuss, fresh out of prison. Dry and intelnett’s last film. Remade for TV in 1981 with ligent, but slow and ostentatiously stylish. Tuesday Weld.▼쩠 Goldblum is sensational, however. Written by Mad Checkmate SEE: It’s Your Move the director, the son of Joey Bishop, who ap★★ Mad City (1997) C-114m. pears unbilled. Retitled TRIGGER HAPPY. D: CostaGavras. John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, [R] ▼●쩠 Alan Alda, Mia Kirshner, William AtherMade (2001) C-95m. ★★★ D: Jon Favreau. ton, Raymond J. Barry, Ted Levine, Robert Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Famke JansProsky, Blythe Danner. Recently fired musen, Peter Falk, Sean Combs, Faizon Love, seum guard Travolta tries to get his job back Vincent Pastore, Jonathan Silverman. Favat gunpoint, accidentally taking some chilreau and Vaughn (who worked so well todren hostage and giving disgraced TV gether in SWINGERS) play L.A. slackers newsman Hoffman a chance to get back into hired by Falk to handle some shady business the big time. Well-crafted movie with a in N.Y.C. involving big-shot Combs (in his knockout performance by Hoffman is unscreen-acting debut). The stars’ rapport, espefortunately routine and obvious. Does anycially Vaughn’s inept character, make MADE one still find it outrageous that a TV a whole lot funnier than many bigger movie newsman might exploit his subjects for selfcomedies. The two stars also produced; Fagain? Bill Nunn appears unbilled. Super 35. vreau wrote the script. Bud Cort and Sam [PG-13]▼●쩠 Rockwell appear unbilled. [R]▼쩠 Maddening, The (1996) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Madea Goes to Jail SEE: Tyler Perry’s Danny Huston. Burt Reynolds, Angie DickMadea Goes to Jail inson, Mia Sara, Brian Wimmer, Josh MosMadea’s Family Reunion (2006) C-107m. ★1 tel, William Hickey. Addled Angie and ⁄2 D: Tyler Perry. Lynn Whitfield, Tyler brutal Burt hold Mia and her young daughPerry, Blair Underwood, Rochelle Aytes, Lisa ter captive in backwoods Florida, while her Arrindell Anderson, Boris Kodjoe, Henry estranged husband searches for her. OverSimmons, Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou, Keke the-top Southern gothic saddled with a faPalmer, Jenifer Lewis. Cliche´-ridden comedymiliar, predictable plot and uneven acting. soaper about a class-conscious louse (WhitFilmed in 1994. [R]▼● field) who relishes manipulating her daughMad Dog SEE: Mad Dog Morgan ters. One is engaged to an abusive scoundrel, Mad Dog and Glory (1993) C-96m. ★★★ the other is a single mom who’s been burned D: John McNaughton. Robert De Niro, in previous relationships. Like writer-directorUma Thurman, Bill Murray, Kathy Baker, star Perry’s DIARY OF A MAD BLACK David Caruso, Mike Starr, Tom Towles, WOMAN, this is based on his play, and he J. J. Johnston, Richard Belzer. Offbeat appears in three roles, most prominently the concoction from street-smart writer Richtitle character, a feisty matriarch. Uneasy mixard Price, about a nerdy cop (De Niro) ture of shameless moralizing and crude humor is as subtle as a sledgehammer. [PG-13]쩠 who does a favor for a Chicago hood (Murray), and is repaid by having ThurMade For Each Other (1939) 93m. ★★★ D: man delivered to him as a ‘‘present’’ for John Cromwell. Carole Lombard, James Steone week. Though it’s low-key, and doesn’t wart, Charles Coburn, Lucile Watson, Alma quite hit the bull’s-eye, it’s still oddly Kruger, Esther Dale, Ward Bond, Louise endearing. Coproduced by Price, Martin Beavers. First-rate soaper of struggling Scorsese, and Barbara De Fina. [R]▼●쩠 young marrieds Stewart and Lombard batMad Dog Morgan (1976-Australian) Ctling illness, lack of money, Stewart’s med102m. ★★★ D: Philippe Mora. Dennis Hopdling mother Watson. Fine acting makes per, Jack Thompson, David Gulpilil, Frank this all work. Also shown in computer-colThring, Michael Pate. Hopper gives lively ored version.▼쩠 performance as legendary Australian outlaw Made for Each Other (1971) C-101m. ★★★ D: Robert B. Bean. Renee Taylor, of the 1800s in this moody, well-made, but extremely violent film. Retitled: MAD Joseph Bologna, Paul Sorvino, Olympia DOG. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Dukakis, Adam Arkin. Exceptionally funny Mad Dogs and Englishmen SEE: Joe tale of two oddball types who meet at enCocker: Mad Dogs and Englishmen counter session and fall in love. Screenplay Mad Dog Time (1996) C-93m. ★★ D: Larry by Taylor and Bologna. [PG] Made in America (1993) C-110m. ★★ D: Bishop. Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Lane, GregRichard Benjamin. Whoopi Goldberg, Ted ory Hines, Kyle MacLachlan, Burt Reynolds, Danson, Will Smith, Nia Long, Paul RodriChristopher Jones, Henry Silva, Michael J. guez, Jennifer Tilly, Peggy Rea, Clyde KuPollard, Billy Idol, Billy Drago, Paul Anka, satsu, Lu Leonard. Fiercely proud, independent Rob Reiner, Richard Pryor, Angie Everhart. Goldberg is forced to reveal to her teenage On another, but almost identical, Earth, daughter that she was conceived from a sperm gangsters rule supreme. Sleek Goldblum is bank. The daughter then learns that her ‘‘facontinually challenged by upstarts, primarther’’ is a blowhard car salesman—who’s [ 853 ]

white. Dishearteningly stupid movie based on devices, the film captures the spirit of the a clever premise. The two ladies trapped in books and benefits from location filming in Whoopi’s store, by the way, are Frances BerParis. Too bland for older children—and, gen (Candice’s mother) and ’50s TV leading most likely, their parents—but just right for lady Phyllis Avery. [PG-13]▼●쩠 young ones. [PG] ▼●쩠 Made in Heaven (1987) C-103m. ★★ D: Mademoiselle (1966-British-French) 103m. ★★ D: Tony Richardson. Jeanne Moreau, EtAlan Rudolph. Timothy Hutton, Kelly McGillis, Maureen Stapleton, Don Murray, tore Manni, Keith Skinner, Umberto Orsini, Marj Dusay, Ray Gideon, Amanda Plummer, Jane Berretta, Mony Rey. Ponderous, someMare Winningham, Timothy Daly. Young times hilariously pretentious film written by man dies and goes to heaven, where he meets Jean Genet, about a sexually repressed a yet-unborn beauty and falls in love. The Big schoolteacher in a small French village who Question: how long will it take for them to secretly poisons animals, sets fires, and tries meet, in their new identities on earth, and to destroy an Italian woodcutter whom she realize that they were ‘‘made for each other’’? can’t seduce. Woeful foray into arty s&m Potentially sweet fantasy-romance is underwas shot in both French and Englishmined by too many kinky touches and insidelanguage versions. Panavision.▼쩠 joke cameos (Debra Winger, in drag, plays Mademoiselle Fifi (1944) 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hutton’s guardian angel). This is apparently Robert Wise. Simone Simon, John Emery, director Rudolph’s idea of a mainstream HolKurt Kreuger, Alan Napier, Jason Robards, lywood movie. Among the other cameos: Sr., Helen Freeman. A laundress reveals more Neil Young, Tom Petty, Ellen Barkin, Ric integrity and patriotic spirit than her conOcasek, David Rasche, Tom Robbins, Gary descending fellow passengers on an eventful Larson. [PG]▼● coach ride during the Franco-Prussian war. Made in Paris (1966) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Uneven Val Lewton production (with alleBoris Sagal. Ann-Margret, Louis Jourgorical implications about WW2), adapted dan, Richard Crenna, Edie Adams, Chad from two Guy de Maupassant stories.▼● Everett. Witless, unpolished shenanigans Mademoiselle Striptease SEE: Please! Mr. of Ann-Margret, fashion designer in France, Balzac Made of Honor (2008) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: falling for Jourdan. Panavision.쩠 Made in U.S.A (1966-French-Italian) CPaul Weiland. Patrick Dempsey, Michelle ★★★ 85m. Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Kathleen QuinD: Jean-Luc Godard. Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Le´aud, La´szlo Szabo´, Yves lan, Sydney Pollack, Kadeem Hardison, Afonso, Ernest Menzer, Marianne Faithfull. Chris Messina, Richmond Arquette, Busy Journalist Karina turns into a trench-coated Philipps, Whitney Cummings, Emily Nelson, shamus to discover who killed her lover and James B. Sikking, Kevin Sussman. Dempsey gets mixed up in a labyrinthine mystery in a is a serial womanizer but loves spending place called Atlantic City (even though the time with best friend Monaghan. Only when action is clearly set in France). Thoroughly she announces that she’s getting married (to whacked-out and completely unauthorized a Scotsman she’s just met) does he realize adaptation of a Richard Stark (Donald E. he’s going to lose her. As her ‘‘maid of Westlake) novel is a bracing (if sometimes honor’’ he determines to undo her wedding incomprehensible) homage to American noir, plans. Slick romantic comedy covers familfilled with typical Godardian movie referiar ground, but does it with brio—and great ences, allusions to political conspiracies and Scottish scenery. Dempsey’s first star vehiassassinations, and characters named Richard cle since his reemergence on TV’s Grey’s Widmark, Donald Siegel, Inspector Aldrich, Anatomy. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 David Goodis, Robert McNamara, and RichMade-Up (2004) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony ard Nixon. Techniscope.쩠 Shalhoub. Brooke Adams, Lynne Adams, Madeleine (1950-British) 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eva Amurri, Kalen Conover, Light Eternity, David Lean. Ann Todd, Leslie Banks, ElizaTony Shalhoub, Gary Sinise, Jim Issa, Lance beth Sellars, Ivor Barnard. Superior cast Krall. Actor Shalhoub’s directing debut purimproves oft-told drama of woman accused ports to show us the making of a mockumenof murdering her lover. A vehicle for Lean’s tary about the extremes people go to to then wife, Ann Todd, and one of the filmcounterattack the aging process with all sorts of maker’s few disappointments. Retitled: cosmetic help. A genuine family affair benefits from occasionally amusing script from ShalSTRANGE CASE OF MADELEINE.▼ Madeline (1998) C-90m. ★★★ D: Daisy von houb’s real-life sister-in-law Lynne Adams Scherler Mayer. Frances McDormand, Hatty and fine lead performance from his wife, Jones, Nigel Hawthorne, Ben Daniels, Ste´phBrooke Adams, as a former actress who’s put ane Audran. Genteel adaptation of Ludwig family ahead of show business. Overdone Bemelmans’ beloved children’s books about faux-documentary form is weakly employed a mischievous orphan girl and the wise nun, here, but rescued by smart, funny dialogue, Miss Clavel (McDormand), who looks after especially from Amurri’s character.쩠 her and her classmates. Combining eleMad Ghoul, The (1943) 65m. ★★1⁄2 D: James ments from several stories with new plot Hogan. David Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, George [ 854 ]

Zucco, Turhan Bey, Charles McGraw, Rocere and straightforward; definitely not for cynics. Made in 1999. Panavision. [PG]쩠 bert Armstrong, Milburn Stone, Rose HoMad Little Island (1957-British) C-94m. bart. Strong cast buoys grim story of scien★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Relph. Jeannie Carson, tist Zucco turning assistant Bruce into a Donald Sinden, Roland Culver, Noel zombie in order to clear the path to romance Purcell, Ian Hunter, Duncan MacRae, Cathwith Bruce’s girl.▼ erine Lacey, Jean Cadell, Gordon Jackson. Mad Hot Ballroom (2005) C-105m. ★★★ Sequel to TIGHT LITTLE ISLAND finds D: Marilyn Agrelo. Irresistible documentary that little Scottish isle’s tranquility disabout public elementary school students turbed again, this time by imminent instalwho learn ballroom dancing, with the hope lation of missile base. Not up to its preof participating in a citywide competition. decessor, but on its own terms, decent Upbeat without being saccharine, this film enough. Original title: ROCKETS GALORE! says a lot about the possibilities that unfold Mad Love (1935) 70m. ★★★ D: Karl Freund. for children when given an opportunity to Peter Lorre, Frances Drake, Colin Clive, learn poise, politeness, and self-confidence Ted Healy, Sara Haden, Edward Brophy, through dance. The very embodiment of a Keye Luke. Famous Hands of Orlac story feel-good movie. [PG]쩠 refitted for Lorre as mad Paris surgeon in Madhouse (1974-British) C-89m. ★★★ D: love with married Drake. He agrees to operate Jim Clark. Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, on her pianist husband’s injured hands, with Robert Quarry, Adrienne Corri, Natasha disastrous results. Stylishly directed by legPayne, Linda Hayden. Price plays horrorendary cameraman Freund; only debit is unfilm actor making a TV comeback after a welcome comedy relief by Healy.▼●쩠 long mental breakdown—until he’s impliMad Love (1995) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Antonia cated in a series of grisly homicides. Good, Bird. Chris O’Donnell, Drew Barrymore, if somewhat unimaginative, adaptation of Joan Allen, Jude Ciccolella, Kevin Dunn, Angus Hall novel Devilday. [PG]▼쩠 Liev Schreiber, Richard Chaim, Robert Madhouse (1990) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom Nadir, Matthew Lillard. Teen-lovers-onRopelewski. John Larroquette, Kirstie Alley, the-lam movie with a difference: she’s menAlison LaPlaca, John Diehl, Jessica Lundy, tally unstable. Attractive young stars do the Bradley Gregg, Dennis Miller, Robert Ginty. best they can, but the script peters out and Larroquette and Alley find themselves unable leaves them nothing to work with. A waste to enjoy their new home when unwanted of time. By the way, this is not a remake of house guests drop in and never leave. Gags the 1935 movie; too bad—they could have are drawn out endlessly; though Larroquette used a dose of Peter Lorre. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 is a talented farceur, he can’t sustain the whole Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy film. Humor here would never pass muster on SEE: Up the Academy the stars’ later TV series. [PG-13]▼● Mad Magician, The (1954) 72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Madigan (1968) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: DonJohn Brahm. Vincent Price, Mary Murphy, ald Siegel. Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Patrick O’Neal, Eva Gabor, John Emery, Harry Guardino, Inger Stevens, James WhitLenita Lane, Donald Randolph, Jay Novmore, Susan Clark, Michael Dunn, Sheree ello. Amusing knockoff of HOUSE OF North. Excellent, unpretentious film blends WAX, made by many of the same hands day-to-day problems of detective Madigan (and also shot in 3-D). This time Price is an (Widmark) with endless dilemmas facing poillusionist, but otherwise the plots are pretty lice commissioner Fonda. Shot largely on lomuch alike. Much better than it has any cation in N.Y.C.; fine work by Guardino, right to be; Brahm, no stranger to VictorianWhitmore, and supporting cast. Adapted as era melodrama, keeps it moving swiftly, TV series. Techniscope.▼●쩠 with Lane upstaging the stars as a nosy Madigan’s Million (1968) C-86m. BOMB crime novelist. Lyle Talbot appears unbilled D: Stanley Prager. Dustin Hoffman, Elsa as a program hawker. Martinelli, Cesar Romero. Pre-GRADUATE Madman (1978-Israeli) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Hoffman is caught in amateurish movie Dan Cohen. Michael Beck, F. Murray released to capitalize on later success; he Abraham, Alan Feinstein, Sigourney Weaver, plays bumbling Treasury agent sent to Italy Esther Zevko. Bitterly vengeful Sovietto recover money stolen by recently murJewish mental patient joins the Israeli army, dered gangster Romero. Inept. [G]▼쩠 intent on killing Russians. Slow, poorly Madison (2005) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: William directed film lacks conviction. Casting of Bindley. Jake Lloyd, Mary McCormack, Weaver, in her first leading role, and fuJames (Jim) Caviezel, Bruce Dern, Reed Diature Oscar-winner Abraham, gives this film mond, Richard Lee Jackson, Brent Briscoe, its only distinction. [R]▼ Paul Dooley, Chelcie Ross. Old-fashioned unMad Max (1979-Australian) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 derdog story about a man’s attempt to overD: George Miller. Mel Gibson, Joanne come a troubling memory and win an annual Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, hydroplane race. Loosely based on a true Tim Burns, Roger Ward. In the desolate story; set in Madison, Indiana, in 1971. Sinnear-future, the police have their hands full [ 855 ]

keeping roads safe from suicidally daring Rupert Everett, Rupert Graves, John Wood, drivers and roving gangs. Top cop Gibson Amanda Donohoe, Julian Rhind-Tutt. In the tires and quits, but when his wife and child late 18th century, England’s benevolent are murdered by vicious cyclists, he embarks King George (Hawthorne) suddenly takes on high-speed revenge. Weird atmosphere ill, and shows signs of mental instability— and characters combine with amazing stunt opening the door for court intrigue and the work in this remarkable action film. Thrown usurping of the throne by his ne’er-do-well away by its U.S. distributor (which also son, the Prince of Wales (Everett). Hawredubbed it with American voices), later thorne vividly re-creates his stage perforfound its audience in the wake of successmance (surrounded by a first-rate cast) in ful sequel. Todd-AO 35. [R]▼●쩠 Alan Bennett’s adaptation of his witty and Mad Max 2 SEE: Road Warrior, The intriguing play; Bennett also appears in a Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985cameo near the end as a member of ParliaAustralian) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Miller, ment. First film for theater director Hytner. George Ogilvie. Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Oscar winner for Art Direction.▼●쩠 Angelo Rossitto, Helen Buday, Rod Zuanic, Madonna of the Seven Moons (1946Frank Thring, Angry Anderson. In the British) 105m. ★★★ D: Arthur Crabtree. desolate future Mad Max comes upon Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger, Patricia Turner’s cutthroat city of Bartertown, Roc, Jean Kent, John Stuart, Peter Glenville. survives a battle-to-the-death in RomanCalvert is pushed in two directions because of style Thunderdome arena, and is exiled to strange gypsy curse; she is wife, mother, and the desert, where he’s rescued by tribe of mistress at same time. Taut melodrama, may wild children. Thunderous film has lots of be considered camp in some circles. action and stunts, and even some philosophMadonna Truth or Dare SEE: Truth or ical moments, but lacks the kinetic energy Dare Madron (1970) C-93m. ★★ D: Jerry Hopof THE ROAD WARRIOR (MAD MAX 2). Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 per. Richard Boone, Leslie Caron, Paul Madmen of Mandoras SEE: They Saved Smith, Gabi Amrani, Chaim Banai, AvraHitler’s Brain ham Telya. A nun who survived wagon★★★ D: Callie Mad Money (2008) C-104m. train massacre and a scowling gunslinger Khouri. Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie try to elude Apaches on the warpath in this Holmes, Ted Danson, Adam Rothenberg, ho-hum Western shot in Israel’s Negev Roger Cross, Stephen Root, Christopher Desert. [PG]▼쩠 McDonald, Finesse Mitchell, Meagen Fay. Mad Room, The (1969) C-92m. ★★ D: Entertaining comedy about a nouveau poor Bernard Girard. Stella Stevens, Shelley suburbanite (Keaton) who goes to work as a Winters, James Ward, Carol Cole, Severn janitor at the Federal Reserve Bank in KanDarden, Beverly Garland, Michael Burns. sas City and realizes there is a way to steal Mild but unexceptional remake of LAmoney so it will never be traced or even DIES IN RETIREMENT concerns the skelmissed. She recruits two other workers to etons in Stella’s closet. Grisly tale has a be her partners in crime, and off they go! few shocking scenes. [M]▼ Engaging farce is played with verve by the Mad Wednesday SEE: Sin of Harold three female costars. Remake of a 2001 Diddlebock, The British TV movie called HOT MONEY. Madwoman of Chaillot, The (1969) CSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 132m. ★★ D: Bryan Forbes. Katharine Mad Monkey, The SEE: Twisted ObHepburn, Charles Boyer, Claude Dauphin, session Edith Evans, John Gavin, Paul Henreid, Mad Monster, The (1942) 72m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam Oscar Homolka, Margaret Leighton, GiuNewfield. Johnny Downs, George Zucco, lietta Masina, Nanette Newman, Richard Anne Nagel, Glenn Strange, Sarah Padden, Chamberlain, Yul Brynner, Donald PleaGordon DeMain. Dull, low-budget madsence, Danny Kaye. Unfortunate misfire, scientist thriller drags heavy feet for uninwith Hepburn as eccentric woman who tended laughs. Zucco effortlessly steals refuses to believe the world no longer show as crazed doctor changing man into beautiful. Stellar cast wasted in heavybeast in bargain-basement WOLF MAN handed allegory that just doesn’t work; knockoff.▼쩠 adapted from Jean Giraudoux’s play. [G] Mad Monster Party? (1967) C-94m. ★★ D: ▼● Jules Bass. Voices of Boris Karloff, Phyllis Ma¨edchen in Uniform (1958-German) Diller, Gale Garnett, Ethel Ennis. Famous C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Geza von Radvanyi. Lilli monsters are brought together by Baron von Palmer, Romy Schneider, Christine KaufFrankenstein (voice of Karloff), who wants to mann, Therese Giehse. Rather talky story of announce his retirement, in this silly animated girls’ school and one particularly sensitive youngster (Schneider) who is attracted to kiddie feature from Rankin/Bass. ▼쩠 Madness of King George, The (1994-Brither teacher (Palmer). Remake of famous ish-U.S.) C-107m. ★★★ D: Nicholas Hytner. 1931 movie is a shade above average. Nigel Hawthorne, Helen Mirren, Ian Holm, Maestro, The SEE: Home Movies [ 856 ]

Mafia! SEE: Jane Austen’s Mafia! Beatty; guests Laurence Olivier, Michael Mafioso (1962-Italian) 99m. ★★★ D: Alberto Redgrave, Eric Portman, Glynis Johns, Lattuada. Alberto Sordi, Norma Bengell, GaEmlyn Williams, Richard Attenborough, briella Conti, Ugo Attanasio, Cinzia Bruno, Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford, Katiusca Piretti, Armando Tine. Sicilian Peter Ustinov, Bessie Love, Cecil Parker, Sordi has a good job in Milan and is about to etc. Practically every British star appears embark on his first vacation in years: a visit in this superb biography of William Friesehome to show off his Northern Italian wife Greene, the forgotten inventor of movies. and children to his skeptical family and Beautifully done; one scene where Donat friends. He soon learns that the village perfects the invention, pulling in a cop Mafia don, now a grandfatherly figure, has off the street (Olivier) to see it, is a gem. lost none of his power. You’ll never guess Magic Bubble, The SEE: Unbecoming where this story is headed! Fascinating Age blend of comedy and drama and a tailorMagic Christian, The (1969-British) made vehicle for Sordi, who personifies the C-93m. ★★★ D: Joseph McGrath. Peter Italian working-class hero. Released in the Sellers, Ringo Starr; guest stars Richard U.S. in 1964; a restored version was reAttenborough, Christopher Lee, Raquel leased theatrically in 2007.쩠 Welch, Laurence Harvey, Yul Brynner, Mafu Cage, The (1978) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Wilfrid Hyde-White, Spike Milligan, DenKaren Arthur. Lee Grant, Carol Kane, nis Price, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Will Geer, James Olson. Grant and Kane Roman Polanski. In series of wacky schemes, are sisters in this offbeat, unfocused meloworld’s wealthiest man and his prote´ge´ drama of incest, jealousy, and murder. wreak havoc on society by demonstrating Mafu is Kane’s pet orangutan; each protagohow people will do anything for money. nist in turn assumes animal’s caged, victimFiendishly funny adaptation of Terry Southized role. Retitled MY SISTER, MY LOVE ern’s insane novel, scripted by Southern and THE CAGE. [R]▼쩠 and McGrath, with contributions from SellMagdalene Sisters, The (2002-Britishers, Cleese, and Chapman. Some prints run 88m. [M/PG]▼●쩠 Irish) C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Mullan. Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, NoraMagic Flute, The (1974-Swedish) C-134m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Ulric Cold, Jane Noone, Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray, Britta Smith, Frances Healy, Josef Kostlinger, Erik Saeden, Birgit Nordin, Eamonn Owens. Harrowing, fact-based Irma Urrila, Hakan Hagegard. Lively, indrama set in 1960s Ireland in a convent telligent filmization of Mozart’s opera of where young women are incarcerated for activities surrounding the kidnapping of committing such ‘‘misdeeds’’ as flirting Urrila, the Queen’s daughter, by sorcerer with boys, becoming pregnant out of wedCold. Shot for Swedish TV, released as a lock, and being raped. They are physically feature in the U.S. Kenneth Branagh diand psychologically abused by the head nun rected his own version of this in 2006. [G]▼●쩠 and her sadistic staff, who are convinced they are doing the Lord’s work. Sometimes Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart, The (1970) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Leonard Horn. painful to watch, but it’s a story that needs to be told. Director Mullan plays one girl’s Don Johnson, Linda Gillin, Michael Greer, furious father; he based his screenplay on Dianne Hull, Holly Near, Victoria Racimo. the experiences of actual Magdalene inVapid film from Robert Westbrook’s novel mates. [R]▼쩠 about sexual and drug-oriented experiences Magic (1978) C-106m. ★★ D: Richard of aimless college student trying to put his Attenborough. Anthony Hopkins, Annhead together. A yawn, except for Greer, Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter, and Stanley’s underground film ‘‘HeadJerry Houser, David Ogden Stiers. Ludiless.’’ [R] crous thriller about demented ventriloquist Magician, The (1958-Swedish) 102m. ★★★ Hopkins who’s tormented by his dummy— D: Ingmar Bergman. Max von Sydow, even as he tries to rekindle romance with Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Naima high-school sweetie Ann-Margret. Wait Wifstrand, Bibi Andersson, Erland Josephfor a rerun of DEAD OF NIGHT (1945) son. Complex, provocative account of Albert instead. Screenplay by William Goldman, Emanuel Vogler (von Sydow), a 19th-century from his novel. [R]▼●쩠 hypnotist-magician who has studied with Magic Bow, The (1947-British) 105m. Mesmer but finds himself debt-ridden and ★★1 ⁄2 D: Bernard Knowles. Stewart Grancharged with blasphemy. A thoughtful (and ger, Phyllis Calvert, Jean Kent, Dennis too-long underrated) portrait of a man who is Price, Cecil Parker. As usual, music part-faker, part-genius.▼● overshadows weak plot in biography of Magician of Lublin, The (1979) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Menahem Golan. Alan Arkin, violinist Paganini.▼ Magic Box, The (1951-British) C-103m. Louise Fletcher, Valerie Perrine, Shelley ★★★★ D: John Boulting. Robert Donat, Winters, Lou Jacobi, Maia Danziger, Lisa Maria Schell, Margaret Johnston, Robert Whelchel. Turn-of-the-century Jewish ma[ 857 ]

gician tries for the big time in stilted, Magnificent Cuckold, The (1966-Italian) 111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Antonio Pietrangeli. Claupoorly acted version of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Polish-based novel. However, you dia Cardinale, Ugo Tognazzi, Michele do get to see Winters destroy a jailhouse Girardon, Bernard Blier. Saucy sex comeven more impressively than Sam Jaffe’s edy of marital infidelity, with Tognazzi, elephant did in GUNGA DIN. [R]▼ the businessman husband of Cardinale, Magic in the Water (1995-Canadian) Coutwitted by his curvaceous wife. Magnificent Doll (1946) 95m. ★★ D: Frank 101m. ★1⁄2 D: Rick Stevenson. Mark Harmon, Harley Jane Kozak, Joshua Jackson, Borzage. Ginger Rogers, Burgess MereSarah Wayne, Willie Nark-Orn, Thomas dith, David Niven, Horace (Stephen) (Tom) Cavanagh, David Rasche. In the laidMcNally, Peggy Wood. Rogers just isn’t back community of Glenorky a number of right as Dolley Madison, and historical residents believe there’s a monster that lives drama with Meredith as President Madison and Niven as Aaron Burr falls flat.▼ in the lake; a vacationing family comes to learn there is some ‘‘truth’’ to the myth. All Magnificent Dope, The (1942) 83m. ★★★ the magic must be in the water; there’s cerD: Walter Lang. Henry Fonda, Lynn Bari, tainly none on the screen. Routine family film Don Ameche, Edward Everett Horton, Hofeels like recycled Spielberg. [PG] ▼●쩠 bart Cavanaugh, Pierre Watkin. EntertainMagic of Lassie, The (1978) C-100m. ing comedy of hopeless hayseed Fonda ★★1 who shows up sharper Ameche in big city; ⁄2 D: Don Chaffey. James Stewart, Lassie, Mickey Rooney, Alice Faye, Stephanie Bari is the girl between them.▼ Zimbalist, Pernell Roberts, Michael Sharrett, Magnificent Matador, The (1955) C-94m. ★★1 Mike Mazurki. Stewart is worth watching ⁄2 D: Budd Boetticher. Anthony Quinn, in this bland remake of LASSIE COME Maureen O’Hara, Manuel Rojas, Thomas HOME, as grandfather of Zimbalist and Gomez, Richard Denning, Lola Albright. Sharrett, who are forced to turn over their Another of director Boetticher’s bullfighting beloved Lassie to mean owner Roberts. films has Quinn an aging matador who Songs performed by Pat and Debby Boone, reexamines his commitment to bullfighting, plus Faye and even Stewart. [G]▼ while protecting his young ‘‘prote´ge´’’ (Rojas) 1 ★★ Magic Sword, The (1962) C-80m. and being romanced by American O’Hara. ⁄2 D: Bert I. Gordon. Basil Rathbone, Estelle CinemaScope.▼ Winwood, Gary Lockwood, Anne Helm, Magnificent Obsession (1935) 101m. ★★★ Liam Sullivan, Jacques Gallo. EntertainD: John M. Stahl. Irene Dunne, Robert ing, often (unintentionally) hilarious advenTaylor, Betty Furness, Charles Butterworth, ture. Young knight Lockwood sets out to Sara Haden, Ralph Morgan, Arthur Treacher. rescue beautiful princess Helm, who’s been Dated but sincere adaptation of Lloyd Dougkidnapped by evil sorcerer Rathbone. In las’ story about drunken playboy who mends their better moments, Lockwood and Helm his ways, becomes respected surgeon in seem like refugees from a Beach Party order to restore the eyesight of a woman movie; Rathbone and Winwood offer know(Dunne) he blinded in an auto accident. ingly hammy performances.▼●쩠 Soap opera gave Taylor his first important Magic Town (1947) 103m. ★★★ D: Willead—and made him a star. Original runliam Wellman. James Stewart, Jane Wyman, ning time was 112m. Remade in 1954.쩠 Kent Smith, Regis Toomey, Donald Meek. Magnificent Obsession (1954) C-108m. ★★★ Intriguing satire of pollster Stewart finding D: Douglas Sirk. Jane Wyman, Rock perfect average American town, which ruins Hudson, Barbara Rush, Otto Kruger, Agnes itself when people are told his discovery. Moorehead, Gregg Palmer. Director Sirk Doesn’t always hit bull’s-eye but remains enpulls out all the stops in this baroque, grossing throughout; written by Frank Capra’s melodramatic remake of 1935 film which frequent scripter, Robert Riskin. Also shown remains faithful to original story. Like its predecessor, a smash hit which (once again) in computer-colored version. ▼● boosted its male lead to stardom.▼쩠 Magnificent Ambersons, The (1942) 88m. ★★★★ D: Orson Welles. Tim Holt, Joseph Magnificent Rebel, The (1962) C-95m. ★★1 Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, ⁄2 D: Georg Tressler. Karl Boehm, Ernst Agnes Moorehead, Ray Collins, Richard Nadhering, Ivan Desny, Gabriele Porks. Bennett, Erskine Sanford. Brilliant drama Boehm makes an intense Beethoven in this from Booth Tarkington novel of family rather serious Disney film, not really for kids unwilling to change its way of life with the at all. Great musical sequences and very good times; mother and son conflict over her German location photography, though romanlover. Welles’ follow-up to CITIZEN tic angle of story never really compels attenKANE is equally exciting in its own way, tion. Released theatrically in Europe, shown though film was taken out of his hands, in U.S. as two-part Disney TV show. recut and reshot by others. Previously filmed Magnificent Seven, The (1960) C-126m. 1⁄2 D: John Sturges. Yul Brynner, Steve ★★★ in 1925 as PAMPERED YOUTH. Also shown in computer-colored version. ReMcQueen, Eli Wallach, Horst Buchholz, made for cable TV in 2001. ▼● James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert [ 858 ]

Vaughn, Brad Dexter. Enduringly popular Caine, Candice Bergen, Anna Karina, Paul Western remake of SEVEN SAMURAI, Stassino, Julian Glover. Pretentious, hopeabout paid gunslingers who try to rout the lessly confusing story from John Fowles’ bandits who are devastating a small Mexican novel about a magus, or magician (Quinn), town. Great cast of stars-to-be; memorable who tries to control destiny of Caine, new Elmer Bernstein score. Followed by three searrival on his Greek island. At first mazelike quels, starting with RETURN OF THE story is fun, but with no relief it grows tiresome. Panavision.쩠 SEVEN, and a TV series. Remade as a TVM in 1998. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Mahler (1974-British) C-115m. ★★★ D: Magnificent Seven Ride!, The (1972) Ken Russell. Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, 1 ★★ C-100m. ⁄2 D: George McCowan. Lee Richard Morant, Lee Montague, Rosalie Van Cleef, Stefanie Powers, Mariette Crutchley. Not for every taste (could it be a Hartley, Michael Callan, Luke Askew, Russell film if it were?) but one of the Pedro Armendariz, Jr. Newly married gundirector’s best films; a gorgeously shot, fighter decides to help his buddy fight set, and costumed bio about the turn-of-thebandits after they kidnap his wife. Fourth century composer and his tormented life. ‘‘ride’’ for the Seven isn’t bad. [PG]쩠 If you think this means it’s refined, check Magnificent Yankee, The (1950) 80m. out the purposely anachronistic Nazi hu★★★ D: John Sturges. Louis Calhern, Ann mor. Energetic to a fault. [PG]▼쩠 Harding, Eduard Franz, James Lydon, Philip Mahogany (1975) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Berry Ober, Richard Anderson, Hayden Rorke, Gordy. Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, John Hamilton. Genteel, entertaining saga Anthony Perkins, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Beah of Oliver Wendell Holmes and his devoted Richards, Nina Foch. Silly, contrived afwife, spanning many decades from the day fair about fashion designer who becomes they arrive in Washington, D.C., in 1902 so world famous, then finds happiness only he may join the Supreme Court. A pleasure in arms of unsuccessful boy friend. Wooden from start to finish, with Calhern re-creating performances except for Perkins’ extension of PSYCHO role. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 his triumphant Broadway role.▼쩠 Magnolia (1999) C-188m. ★★★ D: Paul Maid, The (1991-U.S.-French) C-91m. ★★ Thomas Anderson. Tom Cruise, Julianne D: Ian Toynton. Martin Sheen, JacqueMoore, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards, line Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Victoria Philip Seymour Hoffman, Melora Walters, Shalet, James Faulkner. Wall Street laWilliam H. Macy, Philip Baker Hall, Jeremy dies’ man Sheen poses as a ‘‘maid’’ to Blackman, Michael Bowen, Melinda Dillon, ingratiate himself with French businessmom April Grace, Luis Guzma´n, Ricky Jay, Alfred Bisset and her spoiled young daughter. Molina, Michael Murphy, Henry Gibson, FeWarm but predictable romantic comedy licity Huffman, Eileen Ryan. A mosaic of which gets off to a faulty start. [PG]▼ misery, with an array of characters—rangMaid in Manhattan (2002) C-105m. ★★★ ing from a dying man and his angelic male D: Wayne Wang. Jennifer Lopez, Ralph nurse to a precocious kid pressured to perFiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, form on a TV game show—who must deal Bob Hoskins, Tyler Garcia Posey, Frances with anger, guilt, isolation, the sins of the Conroy, Chris Eigeman, Marissa Matrone, fathers, and ultimately, forgiveness, on an Amy Sedaris. Fiennes and Lopez meet cute almost biblical level. Fine performances in in a frothy, old-fashioned Cinderella story this emotionally exhausting film, including about a wealthy senatorial candidate who a dynamic Cruise as a self-invented Pied has a whirlwind affair with a hotel chamberPiper of satyrdom. Overall impact is muted maid (and single mother) who he believes by the film’s sheer length. Haunting songs to be a socialite. Formulaic to be sure, but by Aimee Mann. Written by the director. Fiennes’ charm and Lopez’s believability as Robards’ final film. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 a hardworking mom make it an enjoyable Magnum Force (1973) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: romantic fantasy. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Ted Post. Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, Maids, The (1975-British) C-95m. ★★ D: Mitchell Ryan, David Soul, Felton Perry, Christopher Miles. Glenda Jackson, SuRobert Urich, Kip Niven, Tim Matheson. sannah York, Vivien Merchant, Mark Burns. Eastwood’s second go-round as individualJean Genet’s windy, pointless, exasperatistic San Francisco cop Dirty Harry Callaing play about two maids who hate their han. This time he traces a series of mysterimistress. Excellent acting wasted on tripe. An American Film Theater Production. [PG]▼쩠 ous slayings to the police department itself, and finds himself in extra-hot water. Some Maid to Order (1987) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Amy brutal scenes; not nearly as stylish as the Jones. Ally Sheedy, Beverly D’Angelo, Mioriginal. Written by John Milius and chael Ontkean, Valerie Perrine, Dick Shawn, Michael Cimino. Look for Suzanne Somers Tom Skerritt, Merry Clayton. Cute fairytale at gangster’s pool party. Followed by THE comedy about spoiled rich girl who’s robbed ENFORCER. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 of her identity, and forced to work as a maid Magus, The (1968-British) C-117m. BOMB for a gaudy and self-centered Malibu couple D: Guy Green. Anthony Quinn, Michael (played to perfection by Perrine and Shawn). [ 859 ]

D’Angelo is fun as her fairy godmother, and Ontkean is a sweet Prince Charming. Clayton scores as the household cook who belts out two numbers. Film’s good-heartedness makes up for its shortcomings. [PG]▼●쩠 Mail Order Bride (1964) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Burt Kennedy. Buddy Ebsen, Keir Dullea, Lois Nettleton, Warren Oates, Marie Windsor, Barbara Luna. Harmless—and plotless—Western with rambunctious young rancher Dullea marrying widow Nettleton to satisfy his late father’s old friend (Ebsen). Climactic shoot-out is virtual duplicate of the one in RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY. Panavision. Main Event, The (1979) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Howard Zieff. Barbra Streisand, Ryan O’Neal, Paul Sand, Whitman Mayo, Patti D’Arbanville, Richard Lawson, James Gregory, Rory Calhoun, Ernie Hudson. Tortuous farce about a bankrupt executive who inherits a hapless boxer and goads him into resuming his career. O’Neal comes off slightly better than Streisand, but only because his yelling and screaming isn’t as abrasive as hers; D’Arbanville tops them both as a girl with a really bad cough. [PG] ▼●쩠 Maisie series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide Maitresse (1976-French) C-112m. ★★★ D: Barbet Schroeder. Ge´rard Depardieu, Bulle Ogier, Andre Rouyer, Nathalie Keryan, Roland Bertin, Tony Taffin. Wickedly amusing comedy about a woman (Ogier) who earns her keep as a dominatrix, and puts her profession aside in her romantic relationship with Depardieu. Decidedly not for all tastes, but delicious fun for those who are game.▼쩠 Majestic, The (2001) C-152m. ★★ D: Frank Darabont. Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden, David Ogden Stiers, James Whitmore, Jeffrey DeMunn, Ron Rifkin, Hal Holbrook, Bob Balaban, Brent Briscoe, Gerry Black, Susan Willis, Chelcie Ross, Allen Garfield, Daniel von Bargen, Bruce Campbell. A Capraesque approach to the Hollywood witch hunt of the 1950s. Apolitical screenwriter Carrey loses his memory in an accident and winds up in an idyllic coastal town where he is mistaken for Landau’s longmissing son, a WW2 hero. Carrey is good in a Jimmy Stewart–ish role, but the film is long, slow, and maddeningly uneven, relying too often on secondhand emotions. Landau stands out as the owner of the town’s dilapidated movie theater. Features the voices of Matt Damon, Rob Reiner, Garry Marshall, Paul Mazursky, and Sydney Pollack. [PG]

as 12-year-old to save train fare, becoming involved with Milland’s military school. Wilder’s first directorial effort (written with Charles Brackett) is still amusing. Story suggested by Edward Childs Carpenter’s play Connie Goes Home and Saturday Evening Post story ‘‘Sunny Goes Home’’ by Fannie Kilbourne. That’s Ginger’s real-life mom playing her mother near the end of the film. Remade as YOU’RE NEVER TOO YOUNG.

▼쩠

Major Barbara (1941-British) 131m. ★★★★ D: Gabriel Pascal. Wendy Hiller, Rex Harrison, Robert Morley, Robert Newton, Emlyn Williams, Sybil Thorndike, Deborah Kerr, David Tree, Stanley Holloway. Topnotch adaptation of Shaw play about wealthy girl who joins Salvation Army; Harrison is a professor who woos her. Excellent cast in intelligent comedy (scripted by Anatole de Grunwald and Shaw). Kerr’s film debut. Also shown at 115m.▼ Major Dundee (1965) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Peckinpah. Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson, Jr., Senta Berger, Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, Warren Oates, Slim Pickens, Ben Johnson, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, Michael Pate, Dub Taylor. Obsessive Union officer Heston leads a ragtag brigade (including recently sprung Confederate prisoner Harris) to Mexico to rescue three children who’ve been kidnapped by Apaches. Sweeping, violent, epic-scale Western with an Ahab-like protagonist was severely cut prior to release; Peckinpah disowned the film and its score. In 2005 it was reconstituted to 136m., 6m. shy of its intended length, with a supportive new score by Christopher Caliendo. This version is more meaningful if no less flawed. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Majority of One, A (1962) C-153m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Rosalind Russell, Alec Guinness, Ray Danton, Madlyn Rhue, Mae Questel. Compared to Broadway play, this is overblown, overacted account of Jewish matron Russell falling in love with Japanese widower Guinness. Written by Leonard Spiegelgass.▼ Major League (1989) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: David S. Ward. Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen, Margaret Whitton, James Gammon, Rene Russo, Wesley Snipes, Dennis Haysbert, Charles Cyphers, Bob Uecker. Bitchy baseball team owner Whitton seeks to get out of her Cleveland franchise by organizing a team that’s guaranteed to lose games—and fans. Pleasant but completely unremarkable baseball comedy, with no surprises whatsoever. Fol▼쩠 Major and the Minor, The (1942) 100m. lowed by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Billy Wilder. Ginger Rogers, Ray Major League II (1994) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Milland, Rita Johnson, Robert Benchley, David S. Ward. Charlie Sheen, Tom BeDiana Lynn, Frankie Thomas, Jr., Charles renger, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert, Smith, Larry Nunn, Norma Varden. MemoraJames Gammon, Omar Epps, Eric Bruskotble comedy of working girl Rogers disguised ter, Bob Uecker, David Keith, Alison Doody, [ 860 ]

Margaret Whitton, Takaaki Ishibashi, MiPressman. Troubled teenager, just coming of chelle Burke, Randy Quaid. Excruciatingly age, falls prey to his long-lost older brother unfunny, decidedly minor-league sequel, with who leads him into a life of crime. Offmost of the principals returning for a second putting at first, interesting for a while, but season; the key exclusion is Wesley Snipes, overall an unsatisfying brew. Never released theatrically. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 replaced by Epps as Willie Mays Hayes. Crammed with cheap jokes; except for UeckMake Way For Tomorrow (1937) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Leo McCarey. Victor Moore, er’s quips, there’s barely a laugh in sight. What’s more, it’s shamelessly loaded with Beulah Bondi, Fay Bainter, Thomas Mitchplugs for commercial products. [PG] ▼●쩠 ell, Porter Hall, Barbara Read, Louise Major League: Back to the Minors Beavers. Sensitive film of elderly couple (1998) C-100m. ★★ D: John Warren. Scott in financial difficulty, shunted aside by Bakula, Corbin Bernsen, Dennis Haysbert, their children, unwanted and unloved; Takaaki Ishibashi, Jensen Daggett, Eric shatteringly true, beautifully done. Bruskotter, Ted McGinley, Bob Uecker, Making It (1971) C-97m. ★★ D: John Walt Goggins, Kenneth Johnson, Peter Erman. Kristoffer Tabori, Joyce Van PatMacKenzie. Ex-ballplayer Bakula hires on ten, Marlyn Mason, Bob Balaban, Lawas manager of a minor league team, transrence Pressman, Louise Latham, Dick Van forming it from loser to contender. Sound Patten. Uneven, seriocomic ‘‘youth picfamiliar? Ho-hum comedy isn’t as irritating ture’’ with Tabori (son of Viveca Lindfors, as MAJOR LEAGUE II and does have impressive in his first starring role) as a Uecker around for laughs. [PG-13]▼●쩠 17-year-old with little but sex on his mind— Major Payne (1995) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Nick until he shares a traumatic experience with Castle. Damon Wayans, Karyn Parsons, his mother. Filmed in Albuquerque. [R] William Hickey, Michael Ironside, Albert Making Love (1982) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hall, Steven Martini, Orlando Brown, AnArthur Hiller. Michael Ontkean, Kate Jackdrew Harrison Leeds, Damien Wayans. Major son, Harry Hamlin, Wendy Hiller, Arthur Benson Payne is a warrior without a war, a Hill, Nancy Olson, Terry Kiser. Repressed disciplinarian with a rigid military mentality homosexual doctor jeopardizes 8-year marwho is oblivious to humanity and feeling. This riage by coming out of the closet with sexuis about to change upon his taking command ally carefree novelist. Soaper is easy to take, of a group of underage cadets. Inane, by-thebut that’s its problem; script, direction, nonstenumbers comedy, with a miscast Wayans too reotyped performances, lack edge in bland atoften hard to take in the title role. Remake of tempt to avoid offending anyone. From the THE PRIVATE WAR OF MAJOR BENdirector of LOVE STORY. [R]▼쩠 SON. Wayans coscripted. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Making Mr. Right (1987) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 Make Mine Mink (1960-British) 100m. D: Susan Seidelman. John Malkovich, Ann ★★★ Magnuson, Glenne Headly, Ben Masters, D: Robert Asher. Terry-Thomas, Athene Seyler, Hattie Jacques, Billie Whitelaw, Laurie Metcalf, Polly Bergen, Harsh NayElspeth Duxbury, Raymond Huntley, Ron yar, Hart Bochner, Polly Draper, Susan Moody, Jack Hedley, Kenneth Williams, Anton. Nerdy scientist Malkovich has creSidney Tafler. Former military man Terryated a nearly human android in his own Thomas organizes unlikely band of fur image; public relations whiz Magnuson is thieves in this delightful British farce. Behired to sell the concept of Ulysses to the ware of shorter version on tape.▼ public. Hit-or-miss comedy has good perMake Mine Music (1946) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 formances and many effective moments, D: Joe Grant (production supervisor). but misses the bull’s-eye. Filmed and set in Miami Beach. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Voices of Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Jerry Colonna, The Andrews Sisters, Andy RusMaking the Grade (1984) C-105m. ★1⁄2 sell, Sterling Holloway, and music by The D: Dorian Walker. Judd Nelson, Jonna Benny Goodman Quartet. Ten-part Walt Lee, Carey Scott, Dana Olsen, Gordon Disney animated feature with such segJump, Walter Olkewicz, Ronald Lacey, ments as ‘‘Peter and the Wolf,’’ ‘‘Johnny Scott McGinnis. Spoiled rich kid hires Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet,’’ and young hustler to take his place at prep ‘‘Casey at the Bat.’’ At its worst when it school. Better than the average raunchy tries to be ‘‘arty,’’ and at its best when it youth comedies of the ’80s, but that’s faint offers bright, original pieces like ‘‘The praise. Andrew Clay plays a character here named Dice. [R]▼쩠 Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met,’’ and the dazzling Benny Goodman number ‘‘After Makioka Sisters, The (1985-Japanese) You’ve Gone.’’ A mixed bag, to be sure. C/B&W-140m. ★★ D: Kon Ichikawa. Keiko Video release is missing ‘‘The Martins and Kishi, Yoshiko Sakuma, Sayuri Yoshinaga, the Coys’’ segment.▼쩠 Yuko Kotegawa, Juzo Itami. Emotionally Maker, The (1997) C-98m. ★★ D: Tim distant, occasionally confusing tale of four Hunter. Matthew Modine, Mary-Louise upper-class sisters, two married and two Parker, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Fairuza Balk, single, and the manner in which they conJesse Borrego, Michael Madsen, Lawrence tend with tradition and social change in [ 861 ]

pre-WW2 Osaka. Ichikawa coscripted, from with a superb performance by Washington, and a highly regarded novel by Junichiro sure-footed guidance from director/cowriter Tanizaki.▼● Lee. A surprisingly measured and intelligent Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) C-93m. portrait of a still-controversial figure, with ★★1 ⁄2 D: William Grefe. Richard Jaeckel, Lee’s expected indulgences limited to the main Jenifer Bishop, Harold Sakata, John Chantitle sequence and epilogue. Screenplay by Lee dler, Buffy Dee. Good horror premise has and Arnold Perl, based on the book The AutoJaeckel a friend and protector of sharks biography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex who goes berserk when both he and his Haley. Many famous people appear as themselves. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ‘‘friends’’ are exploited. Shown theatrically as THE JAWS OF DEATH. [PG]▼ Male Animal, The (1942) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 Malaga (1960-British) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Laslo D: Elliott Nugent. Henry Fonda, Olivia Benedek. Trevor Howard, Dorothy Dande Havilland, Joan Leslie, Jack Carson, dridge, Edmund Purdom, Michael Hordern. Herbert Anderson, Don DeFore, Hattie Bizarre casting in routine robbery tale is McDaniel, Eugene Pallette. Intelligent, primary diversion. Originally titled MOentertaining Elliott Nugent–James ThurMENT OF DANGER. ber comedy of college professor Fonda 1 ★★ Malaya (1949) 98m. defending his rights, while losing wife ⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, de Havilland to old flame Carson. Excellent Valentina Cortese, Sydney Greenstreet. Rouperformances in this fine, contemporary tine WW2 melodrama set in the Pacific, film, with spoof on typical football rallies about Allies’ efforts to smuggle out ruba highlight. Remade as SHE’S WORKING ber. Good cast let down by so-so script.▼쩠 HER WAY THROUGH COLLEGE.▼ Malcolm (1986-Australian) C-86m. ★★★ D: Male Hunt (1964-French) 92m. ★★★ D: Nadia Tass. Colin Friels, John Hargreaves, Edouard Molinaro. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Lindy Davies, Chris Haywood, Charles Jean-Claude Brialy, Catherine Deneuve, ‘‘Bud’’ Tingwell, Beverly Phillips, Judith Francoise Dorleac, Marie Laforet. Spicy Stratford. Charming, disarmingly offbeat romp about trio of Frenchmen avoiding the comedy about a slow-witted young man with clutches of marriage-minded women. Malena (2000-Italian-U.S.) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 a genius for Rube Goldberg–like mechanical devices and his unusual entry into a life of D: Giuseppe Tornatore. Monica Bellucci, crime. Surefooted directorial debut for actress Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, MaTass, whose husband David Parker wrote the tilde Piana, Pietro Notarianni, Gaetano Aroscreenplay (and designed the Tinkertoys) and nica. Maddeningly uneven farce, set in 1941 whose real-life brother was the inspiration for Sicily, about an earthy, stunningly beautiful the character of Malcolm. Infectious music woman (Bellucci) whose husband has gone score performed by The Penguin Cafe Oroff to war and who must suffer the brunt of chestra. Australian Film Institute winner for small-town sexism, jealousy, and gossip; one Best Picture and other awards. [PG-13]▼● of her ardent admirers is an imaginative, ob★★★ No director Malcolm X (1972) 92m. sessive 13-year-old boy (Sulfaro). A decidcredited. Excellent documentary about the edly mixed bag, at once bittersweet and simplistic. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 life and times of the black revolutionary leader, which allows him to speak for Male of the Century, The (1975-French) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Berri. Juliet Berto, himself. (Passages from his autobiography are spoken by James Earl Jones; his eulogy Claude Berri, Hubert Deschamps, Laszlo is read, as it was in real life, by Ossie Szabo, Yves Afonso. Writer-director Berri Davis.) A fascinating time capsule and stars in this slight, occasionally perceptive history lesson. Particularly interesting to comedy as a jealous chauvinistic husband; see alongside Spike Lee’s later film, which his wife is taken hostage during a bank was produced and cowritten by Marvin robbery . . . and he’s positive that she’s Worth and Arnold Perl, the same partnerbecoming sexually involved with her captor. ship responsible for this Oscar-nominated Malibu Express (1985) C-101m. ★★ D: documentary. [PG]▼쩠 Andy Sidaris. Darby Hinton, Sybil Dan★★★1 ⁄2 D: Spike Malcolm X (1992) C-201m. ning, Art Metrano, Shelley Taylor Morgan, Lee. Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, AlLori Sutton, Barbara Edwards. Hinton is a bert Hall, Al Freeman, Jr., Delroy Lindo, Spike private detective working on a complex esLee, Theresa Randle, Kate Vernon, Lonette pionage and blackmail case, but this film is McKee, Tommy Hollis, Giancarlo Esposito, just an excuse to showcase the charms of Craig Wasson, John Ottavino, David Patrick numerous Playboy centerfold models (acKelly, Shirley Stoler, Christopher Plummer, counting for its frequent programming on Peter Boyle, Karen Allen. Sweeping biography pay-cable services). A loose remake of Sidaris’ 1973 STACEY. [R]▼쩠 of the black leader, tracing his transformation from street hustler to prison inmate to religious Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003) C-86m. ★★ convert—and his ascension to national leaderD: John Whitesell. Jamie Kennedy, Taye ship while preaching the words of Elijah MuDiggs, Anthony Anderson, Blair Underwood, hammad. Compelling every step of the way, Regina Hall, Damien Dante Wayans, Ryan [ 862 ]

O’Neal, Bo Derek, Jeffrey Tambor, Kellie from a golf ball–size bullet wound. [R] Martin; voice of Snoop Dogg. B-Rad (a char▼● Maltese Bippy, The (1969) C-88m. ★★ D: acter Kennedy introduced on his self-named Norman Panama. Dan Rowan, Dick MarTV series) is a pampered white boy from tin, Carol Lynley, Julie Newmar, Mildred Malibu, California, who has adopted the perNatwick, Fritz Weaver, Robert Reed. sonality and patois of an urban black rapper. Werewolves, haunted houses, good cast, His father (O’Neal) is running for governor, but few true laughs in tired horror-movie so campaign manager Underwood hires two spoof. Film tried to cash in on the great black actors to kidnap B-Rad and scare him success of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In out of his pose. Diggs and Anderson, as the TV show—and their ‘‘bippy’’ catchword. ‘‘homies for hire,’’ bring the most laughs to Panavision. [G] this one-joke comedy. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Maltese Falcon, The (1931) 80m. ★★★ D: Malice (1993) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold Roy Del Ruth. Bebe Daniels, Ricardo CorBecker. Alec Baldwin, Nicole Kidman, Bill tez, Dudley Digges, Robert Elliott, Thelma Pullman, Bebe Neuwirth, George C. Scott, Todd, Una Merkel, Dwight Frye. First Anne Bancroft, Peter Gallagher, Josef Somfilm version of Dashiell Hammett story is mer, Tobin Bell, Debrah Farentino, Gwyquite good, with Cortez more of a ladies’ neth Paltrow. A professor at a New England man than Bogart; otherwise very similar to college finds himself undermined—and later classic. Remade in 1936 (as SATAN overshadowed—by the arrival in town of a MET A LADY) and 1941.▼쩠 hotshot surgeon who rents a room from him Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 100m. ★★★★ and his wife. The plot thickens, and gets D: John Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Mary progressively sillier, in this slick, enAstor, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, grossing, sexy thriller. Good performances Ward Bond, Gladys George, Barton Machelp disguise story holes until the denoueLane, Elisha Cook, Jr., Lee Patrick, Jement, when it all goes to pieces. Overheated rome Cowan. Outstanding detective drama and fairly absurd. [R]▼●쩠 improves with each viewing; Bogey is Malicious (1973-Italian) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dashiell Hammett’s ‘‘hero’’ Sam Spade, Salvatore Samperi. Laura Antonelli, Turi Astor his client, Lorre the evasive Joel Ferro, Alessandro Momo, Angela Luce, Cairo, Greenstreet (in his talkie film debut) Pino Caruso, Tina Aumont. Seriocomic the Fat Man, and Cook the neurotic gunsel slice of life about a sexy, though innocent Wilmer. Huston’s first directorial effort young woman who comes to work as house(which he also scripted) moves at lightning keeper for a widower and his three sons—and pace, with cameo by his father Walter tantalizes both the father and one of his Huston as Captain Jacobi. Previously filmed teenage boys. Intriguing but often unpleasant in 1931 and in 1936 (as SATAN MET A look at mores, morals, and hypocrisy, with LADY). Also shown in computer-colored typically titillating role for Antonelli. Originversion.▼●쩠 ally titled MALIZIA. Techniscope. [R]▼ Mama’s Boy (2007) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Tim Malizia SEE: Malicious Hamilton. Jon Heder, Diane Keaton, Jeff Mallrats (1995) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Daniels, Anna Faris, Eli Wallach, Mary Kay Smith. Shannen Doherty, Jeremy London, Place, Sarah Chalke, Laura Kightlinger. IrreJason Lee, Claire Forlani, Jason Mewes, deemably clunky ‘‘comedy’’ with Heder as a Kevin Smith, Michael Rooker, Renee Humself-absorbed 29-year-old slacker whose emophrey, Ethan Suplee, Ben Affleck, Joey tional bullying of his widowed mother (KeaLauren Adams, Priscilla Barnes. Inert, unton) is far too creepy to be funny. When mom funny film, from the creator of CLERKS, falls for a motivational speaker (Daniels), the about a band of friends, enemies, former son rightly senses a rival for her attention and girl- and boyfriends, and geeks who hang sets out to sabotage the budding romance. out at a suburban mall. Don’t look for more Keaton and Daniels are better than the movie story than that . . . or much else. Comic deserves. Barely released, and with good reabook legend Stan Lee plays himself in a son. [PG-13]쩠 rather contrived subplot. Extended edition Mama, There’s a Man in Your Bed runs 123m. [R]▼●쩠 (1989-French) C-111m. ★★★ D: Coline Malone (1987) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Harley Serreau. Daniel Auteuil, Firmine Richard, Cokliss. Burt Reynolds, Cliff Robertson, Pierre Vernier, Maxime Leroux, Gilles Kenneth McMillan, Cynthia Gibb, Scott Privat, Muriel Combeau, Catherine Salviat. Wilson, Lauren Hutton. Robertson is a Unlikely romance between the harried CEO megalomaniac plotting to take over America; of a yogurt company and the financially lucky for us the mountain-town gas station strapped cleaning woman who will do anyessential to his plans is the same one exthing to keep her five children (from five CIA agent Reynolds stops at for a fill-up. different marriages) from going hungry. Hybrid of SHANE and a modern-day shootClever, heartwarming story from the diem-up turns pretty ludicrous after a passable rector of THREE MEN AND A CRADLE beginning; note how quickly Burt recovers has a lot to say about class and color [ 863 ]

differences in a world none too tolerant of shine her costars’), with beautiful Greek either. Original French title: ROMUALD scenery as the backdrop. The creators of the ET JULIET.▼● show also put together this feel-good film, Mambo (1954-U.S.-Italian) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: which seemingly has four or five finales . . . Robert Rossen. Silvana Mangano, Michael but they’re all fun. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Rennie, Shelley Winters, Vittorio Gassman, Mamma Roma (1962-Italian) 110m. ★★★1⁄2 Eduardo Ciannelli, Mary Clare, Katherine D: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Anna Magnani, EtDunham. Offbeat romance set in Venice; tore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini, young saleswoman, her love life compliLuisa Orioli, Paolo Volponi. Magnani domcated by a penniless gambler and a sickly inates the screen as the title character, an count, becomes a famous dancer. Strong earthy, larger-than-life woman attempting cast keeps it watchable. Original Italian to abandon her career as a prostitute and running time 107m.▼ enter the middle class. The scenario charts Mambo Italiano (2003-Canadian) C-89m. her complex relationship with (and high ★1 ⁄2 D: E´mile Gaudreault. Luke Kirby, Paul hopes for) her adolescent son, with whom Sorvino, Ginette Reno, Claudia Ferri, Peter she is reunited after many years. Pasolini Miller, Mary Walsh, Sophie Lorain. Or, My scripted this fascinating, intensely involving Big Fat Gay Wedding. Bombastic, by-thedrama which is loaded with cinematic refernumbers comedy about a nice Italianences; Mamma Roma would be the same Canadian boy (Kirby) who’s struggling to character Magnani played in Rossellini’s find a way to tell his stereotypically ethnic OPEN CITY had that character not been parents that he’s gay. Plays like a tired, killed at the finale! Watch for Lamberto Magdated TV sitcom, though it’s based on a giorani, the star of De Sica’s THE BICYCLE play by Steve Galluccio. [R]▼쩠 THIEF, in a small but pivotal role. Released Mambo Kings, The (1992) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 theatrically in the U.S. in 1994.▼쩠 D: Arne Glimcher. Armand Assante, AnMam’zelle Pigalle (1956-French) C-77m. ★★ tonio Banderas, Cathy Moriarty, Maruschka D: Michel Boisrond. Brigitte Bardot, Detmers, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Celia Cruz, Jean Bretonniere, Franc¸oise Fabian, BerRoscoe Lee Browne, Vondie Curtis-Hall, nard Lancret, Mischa Auer. Dull doings with Tito Puente, Talisa Soto. Two brothers Bardot as a schoolgirl who pursues crooner leave Cuba for the U.S. in the early 1950s Bretonniere and becomes mixed up with and try to establish their own band. Colorcounterfeiters. Scripted by Boisrond and ful adaptation of Oscar Hijuelos’ Pulitzer Roger Vadim. Retitled: NAUGHTY GIRL Prize–winning novel Mambo Kings Play and THAT NAUGHTY GIRL. CinemaSongs of Love is disappointingly underScope. ▼쩠 written and one-dimensional. Most intriMan, The (1972) C-93m. ★★ D: Joseph guing sequence involves Desi Jr. playing Sargent. James Earl Jones, Martin Balhis father and inviting the brothers to apsam, Burgess Meredith, Lew Ayres, Wilpear on an episode of I Love Lucy. Adapted liam Windom, Barbara Rush, Janet Macfor the stage in 2005. [R]▼●쩠 Lachlan. Black Senator Jones becomes PresMame (1974) C-131m. BOMB D: Gene ident of U.S. after freak disaster kills chief Saks. Lucille Ball, Robert Preston, Beexecutive in Europe. Originally made for atrice Arthur, Bruce Davison, Joyce Van TV but released theatrically; marginally Patten, Don Porter, Audrey Christie, Jane interesting Rod Serling adaptation of IrConnell, Kirby Furlong, John McGiver. ving Wallace best-seller plus acceptable Hopelessly out-of-date musical taken from performances add up to forgettable experiJerry Herman’s Broadway hit and based ence. Cameo appearance by Jack Benny. [G] on AUNTIE MAME will embarrass even Man, The (2005) C-83m. BOMB D: Les those who love Lucy. Calling Fred and Mayfield. Samuel L. Jackson, Eugene Levy, Ethel Mertz! Bea Arthur re-creates her TonyLuke Goss, Miguel Ferrer, Susie Essman, winning stage role; Lucy’s final feature Anthony Mackie, Horatio Sanz, Rachael film. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Crawford. A case of mistaken identity Mamma Mia! (2008) C-108m. ★★★ D: forces a tough ATF agent (Jackson) to team Phyllida Lloyd. Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosup with a nerdy dental-supply salesman nan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Julie (Levy) to pull off a sting operation. ConWalters, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seytrived, derivative, mismatched-buddies romp fried, Christine Baranski. Cheerful adaptamixes lame action and juvenile humor. Yet tion of the internationally successful stage another waste of Levy’s comic talent. [PGshow based on the enduring songs of Swed13]쩠 ish pop group ABBA. Seyfried has been Man About Town (2005-U.S.-Canadian) raised by her mom (Streep) on a Greek isC-98m. ★★ D: Mike Binder. Ben Affleck, land; now that she’s going to be married, Rebecca Romijn, John Cleese, Gina Gersshe sends wedding invitations to the three hon, Adam Goldberg, Howard Hesseman, men who might be her father. Thin story Bai Ling, Jerry O’Connell, Kal Penn, Samstrings together a parade of songs by an uel Ball, Damien Dante Wayans. As both attractive cast (though Streep’s pipes outclients and wife slip away, a disaffected tal[ 864 ]

ent agent starts keeping a secret daily jourand young son take after the thief who has nal to examine his smileless existence . . . stolen their horse in a kind of black BICYonly to have it stolen by a ruthless, amoral CLE THIEF. Decent enough family film with Cosby in rare dramatic role. [G]▼쩠 reporter. Affleck gives a fine performance as a loser who has everything, but this act Man Apart, A (2003) C-109m. ★★ D: F. of Hollywood self-flagellation, though optiGary Gray. Vin Diesel, Larenz Tate, Timocally clever, is an unlikable pageant of past thy Olyphant, Geno Silva, Jacqueline Obraand present pain. Written by the director, dors, Steve Eastin, Juan Fernandez, Jeff who also plays a fellow rep. Super 35. [R]쩠 Kober. Undercover DEA operatives Diesel Management (2009) C-93m. ★★★ D: Steand Tate bust a Mexican drug lord whose phen Belber. Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, replacement—a fiendish, mysterious figure Woody Harrelson, Margo Martindale, Fred called El Diablo—is even more ruthless than Ward, James Liao, Mark Boone Junior, Tzi his predecessor. Slick, bullet-riddled action Ma. Whimsical comedy-drama of an almost yarn gives Diesel a star vehicle in the mold childlike 30-something misfit (Zahn) who of earlier Stallone movies, but yields to prelives and works at his parents’ Arizona motel. dictability at every turn. Diesel coexecutiveWhen businesswoman Aniston checks in he produced. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 is instantly smitten, and though she’s unreMan at the Top (1975-British) C-92m. ★★★ D: Mike Vardy. Kenneth Haigh, Nasponsive at first, he is undeterred. How— and why—their relationship develops is the nette Newman, Harry Andrews, John heart and soul of this small-scale, entertainQuentin, Mary Maude. Feature spin-off of ing film. At turns disarming, poignant, and British TV show which in turn is a spin-off funny. Playwright Belber’s debut feature as of ROOM AT THE TOP, with Haigh as writer-director. [R] Joe Lampton, now caught in EXECUTIVE Man Alone, A (1955) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: SUITE–type business conflicts. Ray Milland. Ray Milland, Mary Murphy, Man, a Woman and a Bank, A (1979Ward Bond, Raymond Burr, Lee Van Cleef. Canadian) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Noel Black. Intelligent oater of fugitive from lynch mob Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Paul (Milland) hiding with sheriff’s daughter Mazursky, Allen Magicovsky, Leigh Ham(Murphy) in small town. Milland’s first ilton. Needless but inoffensive caper movie directorial attempt isn’t bad.▼ about a $4 million bank heist, with pleasMan and a Woman, A (1966-French) ing performances by the three leads. C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Anouk Magicovsky isn’t too appealing as a suiciAime´e, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre dal whipped cream freak, but how many Barouh, Valerie Lagrange. Moving rosuicidal whipped cream freaks do you know that are? [PG]▼쩠 mantic drama about young widow and widower who fall in love; one of the 1960s’ Man Betrayed, A (1941) 83m. ★★ D: most popular love stories, thanks to intelJohn H. Auer. John Wayne, Frances Dee, ligent script, winning performances, innoEdward Ellis, Wallace Ford, Ward Bond, vative direction and camerawork, Francis Harold Huber, Alexander Granach. CounLai’s music score. Oscar winner for Best try lawyer crusades against father of Foreign Film, Best Original Screenplay. Regirlfriend to prove that he’s crooked politimade by cowriter/director Lelouch in cian. Minor melodrama with the Duke in 1977 as ANOTHER MAN, ANOTHER one of his oddest roles. Retitled: WHEEL CHANCE, and followed by A MAN AND OF FORTUNE.▼ A WOMAN: 20 YEARS LATER.▼쩠 Man Between, The (1953-British) 101m. ★★★ Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later, A D: Carol Reed. James Mason, Claire (1986) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Claude Lelouch. Bloom, Hildegarde Neff, Geoffrey Toone. Anouk Aime´e, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Hardened black-market dealer falls in love Richard Berry, Evelyne Bouix, Robert and finds himself torn between East and Hossein, Marie-Sophie Pochat. Badly misWest. Taut, moody, and well-acted drama conceived sequel to one of the ’60s’ essenset in post-WW2 Berlin. tial ‘‘date’’ movies finds former script girl Man Bites Dog (1992-Belgian) 88m. ★★★ Aimee now a film producer, race driver D: Re´my Belvaux, Andre´ Bonzel, Benoˆt Trintignant involved in a Paris-to-Dakar Poelvoorde. Benoˆt Poelvoorde, Jacquerally. Silly film-within-a-film pays homline Poelvoorde Pappaert, Nelly Pappaert, age to DIAL M FOR MURDER and—in Hector Pappaert. Controversial, no-holdsone desert scene—the opening to HAbarred portrait of an unashamedly brutal serial TARI! Someone should have reminded killer (played by codirector Poelvoorde). The Lelouch that ‘‘hatari!’’ means ‘‘danger’’ nonstop, graphic brutality can be viewed either in Swahili. [PG]▼ as sensationalism, a sick joke, or as a comMan and Boy (1972) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: E. ment on violence on-screen and in society. W. Swackhamer. Bill Cosby, Gloria FosShot in cine´ma-ve´rite´ documentary style; codter, Leif Erickson, George Spell, Douglas irectors Belvaux and Bonzel play a reporter Turner Ward, John Anderson, Yaphet Kotto, and cameraman making a film about the killer Henry Silva, Dub Taylor. Civil War vet (whose actions clearly are spurred on by their [ 865 ]

presence). Definitely not for all tastes. Also available in unrated version. [NC-17] ▼쩠 Man Called Adam, A (1966) 102m. ★★ D: Leo Penn. Sammy Davis, Jr., Ossie Davis, Cicely Tyson, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Jr., Peter Lawford, Mel Torme, Lola Falana, Gerald O’Loughlin. Pretentious melodrama of trumpet-player Davis trying to find some purpose in life; amateurishly produced.▼ Man Called Dagger, A (1968) C-86m. BOMB D: Richard Rush. Terry Moore, Jan Murray, Sue Ane Langdon, Paul Mantee, Eileen O’Neill, Maureen Arthur. Ex-Nazi scientist journeys to L.A. followed by secret agent Richard Dagger to assist former S.S. colonel (Murray!) in worldconquering plan. Embarrassing script, acting. Man Called Flintstone, The (1966) C-87m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Barbera, William Hanna. Voices of Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, June Foray. Feature-length cartoon based on TV series of Stone Age characters satirizes superspy films. Mainly for kids.▼●쩠 Man Called Horse, A (1970) C-114m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Elliot Silverstein. Richard Harris, Judith Anderson, Jean Gascon, Manu Tupou, Corinna Tsopei, Dub Taylor. English aristocrat gets captured by Sioux Indians, undergoes torture to prove his worth. Sometimes gripping, sometimes gory; fine score by Leonard Rosenman. Followed by THE RETURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE and TRIUMPHS OF A MAN CALLED HORSE. Panavision. [M/PG]

John McGiver, Leslie Parrish, Khigh Dhiegh. Tingling political paranoia thriller about strange aftermath of a Korean war hero’s decoration and his mother’s machinations to promote her Joseph McCarthy-like husband’s career. Harrowing presentation of Richard Condon story (adapted by George Axelrod). Score by David Amram. Rereleased theatrically in 1987; remade in 2004. ▼●쩠 Manchurian Candidate, The (2004) C130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Demme. Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Kimberly Elise, Jeffrey Wright, Ted Levine, Bruno Ganz, Miguel Ferrer, Dean Stockwell, Jude Ciccolella, Simon McBurney, Vera Farmiga, Obba Babatunde´, Zˇeljko Ivanek, John Bedford Lloyd, Anthony Mackie, Robyn Hitchcock, Bill Irwin, Charles Napier, Roger Corman, Tracey Walter. Washington, a veteran of Operation Desert Storm, is obsessed by the feeling that something isn’t right about his memories of combat or the decorations given his comrade in arms (Schreiber), who’s now running for Vice-President, with his powerful mother, a Senator (Streep), pushing him along. Remake of a genuinely great film puts an intriguing, modern spin on the depiction of backroom power brokers but lacks the chilling edge—and starkness— that marked the original. Tina Sinatra coproduced. [R] ▼쩠 Man Could Get Killed, A (1966) C-99m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ronald Neame, Cliff Owen. James Garner, Melina Mercouri, Sandra Dee, Tony Franciosa, Robert Coote, Roland Culver. Businessman Garner is mistaken for ▼●쩠 Man Called Peter, A (1955) C-119m. ★★★ international spy in this so-so secret agent D: Henry Koster. Richard Todd, Jean Peters, spoof with beautiful Rome and Lisbon Marjorie Rambeau, Doris Lloyd, Emmett locations. Bert Kaempfert’s score introLynn. Moving account of Scotsman Peter duces the hit tune ‘‘Strangers in the Marshall who became clergyman and U.S. Night.’’ Panavision. Senate chaplain; sensitively played by Todd, Mandela (1996) C-120m. ★★★ D: Jo Menell, with fine supporting cast. CinemaScope. ▼쩠 Angus Gibson. Documentary chronicling the Man Called Sledge, A (1970-Italian) life of one of South Africa’s greatest leaders, C-93m. ★★ D: Vic Morrow. James Garfamed political prisoner and Nobel prizewinner, Dennis Weaver, Claude Akins, John ner Nelson Mandela. From his tribal upbringMarley, Laura Antonelli, Wade Preston. ing to his work with the African National Violent Western about a gunman whose Congress, viewers are given a sense of what gang goes after a cache of gold stored in a shaped his future role under apartheid rule to prison, and then fights over the loot. Nothen become South Africa’s first black presitable mainly for Garner’s atypical role as dent. Insightful and inspiring. Coproduced by brutal outlaw. Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 Jonathan Demme. ▼●쩠 Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery, Manderlay (2005-Danish-Swedish-DutchThe (1973) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dean HarFrench-German-British) C-139m. ★1⁄2 D: grove. Gabriel Dell, Will Geer, Joyce Van Lars von Trier. Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach Patten, Anjanette Comer, Jackie Coogan, de Bankole´, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, JerHuntz Hall, Barbara Harris. Fairly sucemy Davies, Lauren Bacall, Chloe¨ Sevigny, cessful satire of tough private eye meloJean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, Zeljko Ivanek; nardramas of 1940s. Cast and director on top rated by John Hurt. Venal follow-up to DOGof their material help make up for cheapVILLE, with the same bare-bones staging, ness of production. [PG] finds righteous idealist Grace (now played by Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 126m. Howard) in the Deep South in 1933; she and ★★★1⁄2 her gangster father discover a plantation where D: John Frankenheimer. Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Anblacks still live as slaves. Grace opts to regela Lansbury, Henry Silva, James Gregory, main at Manderlay as liberator, but obstacles [ 866 ]

and dysfunction make that exceedingly diffiHuston, Michael Des Barres, Richard Bradcult. Writer-director von Trier’s contempt for ford, Xander Berkeley, Rosalind Chao, Joe the U.S. practically oozes from the screen. Santos. A failed novelist with a loving wife Title may refer to the Manderley estate in and son is so desperate that he accepts a REBECCA, with its own themes of domistranger’s offer to work for his escort service. nation, and possibly also MANDINGO. HD He becomes involved with a beautiful woman 24P Widescreen.쩠 and, unexpectedly, her husband, a gruff, PulitMandingo (1975) C-127m. BOMB D: zer Prize–winning novelist who is nearing the Richard Fleischer. James Mason, Susan end of his life. Consistently intriguing fable George, Perry King, Richard Ward, Brenda creates a world of its own, and has enough Sykes, Ken Norton, Lillian Hayman, Roy going for it (including strong, sincere perforPoole, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Paul Benedict, Ben mances) to forgive it its imperfections. Garcia Masters. Trashy potboiler will appeal only also coproduced. [R]▼쩠 to the s & m crowd. Mason is a bigoted Man From Galveston, The (1963) 57m. ★★ D: William Conrad. Jeffrey Hunter, plantation patriarch, George his oversexed daughter, Norton—what else?—a fighter. Preston Foster, James Coburn, Joanna Stinko! Based on the Kyle Onstott novel, Moore, Edward Andrews, Kevin Hagen, the first of a long series, although only one Martin West, Ed Nelson. Unsatisfying litmore—DRUM—was filmed. [R]▼●쩠 tle Western with lawyer Hunter defending Man-Eater SEE: Shark! ex-girlfriend Moore on a murder charge in Man for All Seasons, A (1966-British) a frontier town.쩠 C-120m. ★★★★ D: Fred Zinnemann. Paul Man From Laramie, The (1955) C-104m. Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Robert ★★★ D: Anthony Mann. James Stewart, Shaw, Orson Welles, Susannah York, John Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, Cathy Hurt, Nigel Davenport, Vanessa Redgrave. O’Donnell, Alex Nicol, Aline MacMahon, Splendid film based on Robert Bolt’s play Wallace Ford. Taut action tale of revenge, about Sir Thomas More’s personal conflict with Stewart seeking those who killed his when King Henry VIII asks his support in brother. CinemaScope.▼쩠 break with Pope and formation of Church of Man From O.R.G.Y. (1970) C-92m. ★1⁄2 England. Scofield’s rich characterization D: James A. Hill. Robert Walker, Steve matched by superb cast, vivid atmosphere. Rossi, Slappy White, Louisa Moritz. Banal Six Oscars: Best Actor, Director, Picture, counterespionage comedy-drama. Who’s Screenplay (Robert Bolt), Cinematography got the secrets? [R] (Ted Moore), Costumes. Remade for TV in Man From Planet X, The (1951) 70m. 1988 with Charlton Heston. ▼●쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: Edgar G. Ulmer. Robert Clarke, Man Friday (1976-British) C-115m. ★1⁄2 Margaret Field, Raymond Bond, William D: Jack Gold. Peter O’Toole, Richard Schallert. Scottish Highlands are visited Roundtree, Peter Cellier, Christopher by alien from wandering planet; at first he Cabot, Joel Fluellen. Defoe classic rewritis benign, but evil designs of Schallert turn ten to conform to today’s racial standards. him against human race. Extremely cheap, Amid gore and confusing flashbacks, Fribut atmospheric; script is stilted but story day revolts against bondage, outwits master is strong and somewhat unusual.▼●쩠 Crusoe, and also drives him mad (as shown in Man From Snowy River, The (1982-AusCannes, Crusoe, having failed to ‘‘educate’’ tralian) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Miller. Friday to British standards, and himself reKirk Douglas, Tom Burlinson, Sigrid fused admission to Friday’s tribe, blows his Thornton, Jack Thompson, Lorraine Bayly, brains out!). [PG]▼쩠 Tommy Dysart, Bruce Kerr. Grand, oldMan From Button Willow, The (1965) fashioned Western saga, based on epic C-84m. ★★ D: David Detiege. Cartoon Australian poem, about strong-willed young Western featuring the voices of Dale Robman who goes to work for an empireertson, Edgar Buchanan, Howard Keel, building cattleman, and falls in love with Herschel Bernardi, Ross Martin and others his daughter. Hokey, simplistic, but is only for small kiddies; story deals with great fun, with eye-filling scenery and America’s first undercover agent in 1869 incredible action scenes with some wild who prevents crooks from forcing settlers horses. Douglas has fun in a dual role; to get rid of their land.▼ Thompson’s part is virtually a cameo. Man From Colorado, The (1948) C-99m. ★★★ Followed by RETURN TO SNOWY RIVER. D: Henry Levin. Glenn Ford, William Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Holden, Ellen Drew, Ray Collins, Edgar Man From the Alamo, The (1953) CBuchanan. Unusual Western of brutal Ford ★★★ D: Budd Boetticher. Glenn Ford, 79m. appointed Federal judge, taking tyrannical Julia (Julie) Adams, Chill Wills, Hugh hold of the territory.▼쩠 O’Brian, Victor Jory, Neville Brand, Jeanne Man from Elysian Fields, The (2002) C★★★ Cooper, Dennis Weaver. Ford leaves the D: George Hickenlooper. Andy 105m. Alamo to protect his family but is branded a Garcia, Mick Jagger, Julianna Margulies, Olivia Williams, James Coburn, Anjelica coward and is forced to prove his heroism [ 867 ]

while battling lawless Jory. Typically offstory won an Oscar. Footnoted in American beat Boetticher Western. ▼쩠 history as the film John Dillinger saw just Man from the Diner’s Club, The (1963) before being gunned down at the Biograph 90m. ★★ D: Frank Tashlin. Danny Kaye, Theatre in Chicago. Reworked as a 1942 Martha Hyer, Cara Williams, Telly Savalas, B movie, NORTHWEST RANGERS. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 George Kennedy, Ann Morgan Guilbert. Labored slapstick comedy about a bungling Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) Ccredit-card company clerk who inadver108m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, tently OKs an account for gangster Savalas. Diane Keaton, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Look for Harry Dean Stanton as a beatnik. Jerry Adler, Lynn Cohen, Ron Rifkin, Joy Cowritten by Bill (William Peter) Blatty. Behar, Marge Redmond, Aida Turturro. Title song sung (and cowritten) by Steve Slight but enjoyable caper, with Allen and Lawrence. Keaton as a married couple who suspect Mangler, The (1995) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: their seemingly harmless neighbor has murTobe Hooper. Robert Englund, Ted Levine, dered his wife. A return (of sorts) to ‘‘earDaniel Matmor, Jeremy Crutchley, Vanessa lier, funnier’’ filmmaking for Allen, this is Pike. An evil, gargantuan steam iron and no classic but it is consistently entertaining, speed-folder at a rural industrial laundry has with the usual quota of one-liners and some been eating the employees lately; a local very funny set pieces. Best of all is the marcop tries to exorcise the demons responsivelous chemistry between Allen and Keaton ble. Englund is good as the laundry’s crazed (taking over the role originally intended for owner, but ridiculous ‘‘scares’’ and lack of Mia Farrow), who play off each other’s neulogic defeat this forgettable genre entry based roses with intuitive ease. Allen cowrote the on a Stephen King short story. Horror fans screenplay with his ANNIE HALL and will be disappointed with the results of this MANHATTAN collaborator Marshall Brickman. [PG]▼●쩠 Englund-Hooper-King convergence. Unrated version available on video. Followed by two Manhattan Project, The (1986) C-117m. ★★ D: Marshall Brickman. John Lithgow, in-name-only sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Mango Tree, The (1977-Australian) CChristopher Collet, Cynthia Nixon, Jill 1 ★★ 93m. Eikenberry, John Mahoney, Sully Boyar, ⁄2 D: Kevin Dobson. Christopher Pate, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Robert HelpGregg Edelman, Robert (Sean) Leonard, mann, Diane Craig, Gerald Kennedy, GloRichard Jenkins. Precocious teenager ria Dawn. A young man’s coming of age breaks into top-secret plant, steals some pluin Australia, around the time of WW1; tonium, and builds his own nuclear reactor, pictorially pleasing, with a warm performostensibly to make a point but also to show ance by Fitzgerald as the young man’s off. Slick, extremely well-acted film is blawise, gentle grandmother, but nothing out tantly irresponsible and has us cheering for of the ordinary. Written and produced by the kid as he outwits the dopey grownups former actor Michael Pate, whose son plays and nearly blows up the world! [PG13]▼●쩠 the lead. Panavision.▼ Manhattan (1979) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Woody Man Hunt (1941) 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Allen. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, MiLang. Walter Pidgeon, Joan Bennett, chael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl George Sanders, John Carradine, Roddy Streep, Anne Byrne, Tisa Farrow. BitterMcDowall. Farfetched yet absorbing drama sweet slice-of-life about a N.Y.C. comedy of man attempting to kill Hitler, getting writer and his cerebral friends; blisteringly into more trouble than he bargained for. accurate and ultimately poignant, a worthy Tense, well done. Screenplay by Dudley follow-up to Woody’s ANNIE HALL. MagNichols, from Geoffrey Household’s novel. nificently photographed (in b&w) by GorRemade as ROGUE MALE.쩠 don Willis, with splendid use of Gershwin Manhunt (1973) SEE: The Italian Connecmusic on the soundtrack. Wallace Shawn’s tion role is especially funny; that’s Mark LinnManhunter (1986) C-121m. ★★★ D: MiBaker as one of the Shakespearean actors, chael Mann. William L. Petersen, Kim and Karen Allen (in blonde wig) and DaGreist, Joan Allen, Brian Cox, Dennis vid Rasche on TV show. Panavision. Farina, Stephen Lang, Tom Noonan. Force[R]▼●쩠 ful contemporary cops-and-robbers meloManhattan Melodrama (1934) 93m. ★★★ drama told with Miami Vice stylistics (and D: W. S. Van Dyke II. Clark Gable, hard-pounding music) by that show’s creWilliam Powell, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo, ator, writer-director Mann. Petersen plays Isabel Jewell, Mickey Rooney, Nat Pena troubled former FBI agent who’s called dleton. Boyhood pals remain adult friends back to service to capture a serial killer, though one is a gangster and the other a which he does by getting himself to think D.A. (a plot device reused many times). just like the murderer! Gripping all the What might be unbearably corny is top way and surprisingly nonexploitive. Don’t entertainment, thanks to this star trio and a examine story too carefully or the holes start director with gusto. Arthur Caesar’s original to show through. Jailed killer Hannibal [ 868 ]

Lecter figures in the story; later he’d be96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dusan Makavejev. Camilla come the subject of his own story, THE Søeberg, Alfred Molina, Simon Callow, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. Based on Eric Stoltz, Lindsay Duncan, Rade S’erThomas Harris’ novel Red Dragon. Direcbedz’ija, Svetozar Svetkovic’, Chris Haytor’s cut runs 124m. Aka RED DRAGON, wood, Patrick Godfrey, Linda Marlowe, also the name of the 2002 remake. Super Gabrielle Anwar, Ronald Lacey. Set in the 35. [R]▼●쩠 1920s, this anarchic dark comedy depicts a Mania (1959-British) 87m. ★★★ D: John small Balkan community that’s a hotbed of Gilling. Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, assassination plots, sexual freedom, and reGeorge Rose, June Laverick, Dermot pressive ideas. Loosely derived from a story Walsh, Billie Whitelaw. Deliciously lurid by Emile Zola, the film is brightly colored shocker with Cushing going all out as an and impishly written (by the director), but Edinburgh scientist who employs graveeventually becomes too anarchic for its own robbers Pleasence and Rose to supply him good. More notable for what it attempts with corpses for his experiments. Origithan what it achieves. Makavejev’s first film nally titled THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS in Yugoslavia after a 17-year exile. Video (and released at 93m.; European version has title: A NIGHT OF LOVE. [R]▼ more nudity and violence). Aka PSYCHO Man I Killed, The SEE: Broken Lullaby KILLERS and THE FIENDISH GHOULS Man I Love, The (1946) 96m. ★★★ D: (running 74m.). Dyaliscope. ▼쩠 Raoul Walsh. Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Maniac (1962-British) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiBruce Bennett, Andrea King, Dolores chael Carreras. Kerwin Mathews, Nadia Moran, Martha Vickers, Alan Hale. Slick, Gray, Donald Houston, Justine Lord. One well-acted melodrama casts Ida as nightof the better British thrillers made in wake club singer pursued by no-good mobster of PSYCHO, with Mathews as vacationAlda. Forget logic and just enjoy. This ing artist in France arousing hatred of film inspired Scorsese’s NEW YORK, girlfriend’s sick father. Good plot twists. NEW YORK.▼● Written by Jimmy Sangster. Megascope.▼ Man in a Cocked Hat (1959-British) 88m. ★★★ D: Jeffrey Dell, Roy Boulting. TerryManiac (1977) SEE: Ransom (1977) Maniac (1980) C-87m. BOMB D: WilThomas, Peter Sellers, Luciana Paluzzi, liam Lustig. Joe Spinell, Caroline Munro, Thorley Walters, Ian Bannen, John Le Gail Lawrence (Abigail Clayton), Kelly Mesurier, Miles Malleson. Screwball farce Piper, Rita Montone, Tom Savini. Unreabout Island of Gallardia, a British prolenting exercise in nihilistic gore about a tectorate forgotten for 50 years; when cretin who murders women and then scalps rediscovered, bumbling Terry-Thomas of them so that he can dress up his mannethe Foreign Office is left in charge. quins. Although an excellent character acBritish title: CARLTON-BROWNE OF THE F.O.▼쩠 tor, coscriptwriter-producer-star Spinell bears most of the blame for this claustroMan in a Uniform (1993-Canadian) Cphobic, sickening film. [R]▼●쩠 99m. ★★★ D: David Wellington. Tom Maniac Cop (1988) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: WilMcCamus, Brigitte Bako, Kevin Tighe, liam Lustig. Tom Atkins, Bruce CampDavid Hemblen, Graham McPherson. Starbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, tlingly effective TAXI DRIVER variation William Smith, Robert Z’dar, Sheree North. about an actor (McCamus, who is excellent) Potentially intriguing premise, of a killer who wins a role as a cop on a TV series on the police force striking terror in the and begins wearing his costume uniform in hearts of N.Y.C. residents, is bungled by public, with jarring results. Film effectively failed black humor and ham-fisted direcexamines the difference between real and reel tion into standard stalk-and-slash fare. Best life in an impersonal, randomly violent sociwork is done by North as a crippled, ety. Well worth watching. Original title: I embittered policewoman. Followed by sevLOVE A MAN IN UNIFORM. ▼●쩠 eral sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Man in Grey, The (1943-British) 116m. ★★★ Manic (2003) C-100m. ★★ D: Jordan MelD: Leslie Arliss. Margaret Lockwood, amed. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey DeschaJames Mason, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart nel, Michael Bacall, Don Cheadle, Elden Granger, Helen Haye, Martita Hunt. Henson, Sara Rivas, Blayne Weaver, Cody Wealthy Calvert befriends impoverished Lightning. Interesting but uneven drama about schoolmate Lockwood; years later, Lockemotionally troubled teens in a mental hoswood repays the kindness by trying to steal pital. Shot with handheld digital cameras, her husband. Elaborate costume drama, the film has a feeling of spontaneity, which told in flashback, is entertaining, and works best in group therapy scenes (led by notable for boosting Mason (as Calvert’s the rock-solid Cheadle), but the constant hateful husband) to stardom. Originally use of ultra-tight close-ups becomes tireshown in the U.S. at 93m.▼ some after a while. Written by two of the Man in Love, A (1987-French-Italian) C-117m. ★★★ D: Diane Kurys. Peter Coyfilm’s actors, Bacall and Weaver. [R]▼쩠 Manifesto (1988-U.S.-Yugoslavian) Cote, Greta Scacchi, Peter Riegert, Claudia [ 869 ]

Cardinale, Jamie Lee Curtis, John Berry, C-153m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Nunnally Johnson. GregVincent Lindon, Jean Pigozzi. Full-blooded ory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Fredric March, romance about a married American actor Marisa Pavan, Lee J. Cobb, Keenan Wynn, who falls in love with his leading lady Gene Lockhart, Gigi Perreau, Arthur O’Conwhile making a movie in Rome. Coyote nell, Henry Daniell. Sloan Wilson’s slick and Scacchi are believable (and extremely novel of Madison Avenue executive strugsexy) in this sensual and intelligent film, gling to get ahead and to find meaning in written by Israel Horovitz and director his home life. Nice cameo by Ann Harding as Kurys, whose first English language film March’s wife. Scripted by the director; music by Bernard Herrmann. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 this is. Technovision. [R]▼● Man Inside, The (1990-U.S.-French) Man in the Iron Mask, The (1939) 110m. ★★★ C-93m. ★★ D: Bobby Roth. Ju¨rgen ProchD: James Whale. Louis Hayward, now, Peter Coyote, Nathalie Baye, Dieter Joan Bennett, Warren William, Joseph Laser, Monique van de Ven, Phillip Anglim, Schildkraut, Alan Hale, Walter Kingsford, Henry G. Sanders. Crusading West GerMarion Martin. Rousing adventure of twin man investigative reporter infiltrates a brothers: one becomes King of France, the scandal-sheet newspaper in order to write other a carefree gay blade raised by an indictment of their sleazy practices. A D’Artagnan (William) and the Three Musmisfire, despite its intriguing premise and keteers. Fine swashbuckler. Filmed in 1929 cast; it may just be that the film bites off with Douglas Fairbanks as THE IRON more than it can chew. Story seems dated MASK.▼ already. [PG]▼● Man in the Iron Mask, The (1998) CMan in the Attic (1953) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: 132m. ★★★ D: Randall Wallace. Leonardo Hugo Fregonese. Jack Palance, Constance DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Smith, Byron Palmer, Frances Bavier, Rhys Ge´rard Depardieu, Gabriel Byrne, Anne Williams, Sean McClory, Isabel Jewell, Leslie Parillaud, Judith Godreche, Edward AtterBradley. Flavorful account of notorious Jack ton, Peter Sarsgaard, Hugh Laurie. Handthe Ripper, with Palance going full-blast. Resome retelling of the durable Alexandre make of THE LODGER.▼쩠 Dumas tale of a man unjustly imprisoned 1 ★★ Man in the Chair (2007) C-107m. and encased in an iron mask—because his ⁄2 D: Michael Schroeder. Christopher Plummer, very existence threatens the reigning king Michael Angarano, M. Emmet Walsh, Robof France, the young, selfish Louis XIV. ert Wagner, George Murdock, Mimi KenThe fate of both are soon in the hands of nedy, Joshua Boyd, Allan Rich, Mitch the aging but still passionate Musketeers. It Pileggi, Tracey Walter, Ellen Geer. Alcoholic would be hard to miss with that cast; the down-on-his-luck former studio gaffer meets film is quite enjoyable, but it does go on too a rebellious young filmmaker at a fading long. [PG-13]▼●쩠 revival movie theater. They forge a friendMan in the Middle (1964-British) 94m. ★★ ship that leads to a collaboration, which also D: Guy Hamilton. Robert Mitchum, reinvigorates the lives of several residents France Nuyen, Barry Sullivan, Keenan of a motion-picture retirement home. WellWynn, Alexander Knox, Trevor Howard. meaning drama is awkward at times but Unconvincing, confusing film of Howard Plummer’s tour-de-force performance (and Fast novel The Winston Affair, about Ameria fine supporting cast) make it worth a look. can military officer accused of homicide; Super 35. [PG-13] static courtroom sequences. CinemaScope.쩠 Man in the Dark (1953) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Man in the Moon (1961-British) 98m. ★★★ Lew Landers. Edmond O’Brien, Audrey D: Basil Dearden. Kenneth More, Totter, Ruth Warren, Ted de Corsia, Horace Shirley Anne Field, Norman Bird, Michael McMahon, Nick Dennis. Convict O’Brien unHordern, John Phillips. Top comedy satidergoes brain surgery to eliminate criminal rizing space race. Government recruits man bent and loses memory in the process; his old unaffected by cold, heat, speed, etc., to be cohorts only care that he remember where he perfect astronaut. stashed their stolen loot. OK remake of Man in the Moon, The (1991) C-99m. ★★★ THE MAN WHO LIVED TWICE was D: Robert Mulligan. Sam Waterston, originally shown in 3-D. Tess Harper, Gail Strickland, Reese WitherMan in the Glass Booth, The (1975) spoon, Jason London, Emily Warfield, C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. MaximilBentley Mitchum, Ernie Lively. Ingratiatian Schell, Lois Nettleton, Luther Adler, ingly old-fashioned weeper set in rural Lawrence Pressman, Henry Brown, RichLouisiana in 1957, about a 14-year-old girl ard Rasof. American Film Theatre version in love with an older boy, who in turn preof Robert Shaw’s play about a glib Jewish fers her college-bound sis. Newcomer industrialist brought to trial for Nazi war Witherspoon is unforgettable as the younger crimes. Schell is good, but overall effect is sister—more early adolescent lightning for contrived. Shaw had his name removed director Mulligan, who guided TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and SUMMER OF ’42. from credits of film. [PG]▼쩠 Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, The (1956) Nicely shot by Freddie Francis. Waterston [ 870 ]

has some effective scenes as the girls’ faSwanson, William Ragsdale, Meshach Tayther. Mulligan’s last film. [PG-13]▼●쩠 lor, Terry Kiser, Stuart Pankin, Cynthia Man in the Net, The (1959) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harris. This inept sequel to MANNEQUIN Michael Curtiz. Alan Ladd, Carolyn Jones, makes you think the original was not so Diane Brewster, Charles McGraw, John bad by comparison. Again, a window Lupton, Tom Helmore. Fair drama of Ladd dresser (Ragsdale) in a department store trying to clear himself of murder charge frees the spirit of a medieval peasant for wife’s death. (Swanson) who has been imprisoned inside Man in the Shadow (1957) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: a mannequin’s form for—quite logically— 1,000 years. Torpor ensues. [PG]▼●쩠 Jack Arnold. Jeff Chandler, Orson Welles, Colleen Miller, James Gleason. Welles Manny & Lo (1996) C-97m. ★★★ D: Lisa chomps his way through role of rancher Krueger. Scarlett Johansson, Aleksa Pallaresponsible for helper’s death. Chandler is dino, Mary Kay Place, Paul Guilfoyle, the earnest sheriff. CinemaScope.▼ Glenn Fitzgerald, Novella Nelson. OrMan in the White Suit, The (1951-British) phaned 11-year-old Manny (Johansson) and 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alexander Mackendrick. her more naive 16-year-old sister Lo (PalAlec Guinness, Joan Greenwood, Cecil Parker, ladino) sleep in model homes and drive Michael Gough, Ernest Thesiger, Vida Hope, about in an old station wagon, until it’s obGeorge Benson, Edie Martin. Guinness is invious Lo is pregnant, so they kidnap prissy ventor who discovers a fabric that can’t wear Place to help with the delivery while hiding out or soil; dismayed garment manufacturers out in a woodsy cabin. Wise, warm comset out to bury his formula. Most engaging edy-drama is fresh and unexpected; a notacomedy. Screenplay by Roger Macdougall, ble debut for writer-director Krueger. Place is particularly good. [R]▼●쩠 John Dighton, and Mackendrick, from Macdougall’s play.▼●쩠 Man of Aran (1934-British) 73m. ★★★★ Man in the Wilderness (1971) C-105m. D: Robert Flaherty. Colman (Tiger) King, ★★★ D: Richard C. Sarafian. Richard HarMaggie Dillane. Superb, classic documenris, John Huston, John Bindon, Ben Cartary about day-to-day existence, and conruthers, Prunella Ransome, Henry Wilcoxon. stant fight for survival, of fisherman in Trapper Harris abandoned in wasteland, remote Irish coastal community. Scenes at must fight for survival, and revenge as well. sea are breathtaking.▼쩠 Well-made, engrossing, but bloody film. Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) 122m. ★★★1 Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Joseph Pevney. James Cagney, Manitou, The (1978) C-104m. BOMB D: Dorothy Malone, Jane Greer, Marjorie RamWilliam Girdler. Tony Curtis, Susan Strasbeau, Jim Backus, Jeanne Cagney, Robert berg, Michael Ansara, Ann Sothern, BurJ. Evans, Roger Smith, Jack Albertson, gess Meredith, Stella Stevens. Long-dead Snub Pollard. Surprisingly dedicated, wellIndian medicine man gets himself resuracted biography of silent star Lon Chaney. rected through a fetus on Strasberg’s neck. Cagney as Chaney, Malone as disturbed Veterans Curtis, Sothern, and Meredith first wife, Greer as wife who brings him look properly embarrassed. Based on a happiness, are all fine. Chaney’s life and novel by Graham Masterson. Panavision. career are recreated with taste (if not accu[PG]▼●쩠 racy). Touching portrayal of movie extra by Mannequin (1937) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Rambeau. Ralph Wheelwright’s story was Borzage. Joan Crawford, Spencer Tracy, adapted by R. Wright Campbell, Ivan Goff, and Ben Roberts. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Alan Curtis, Ralph Morgan, Leo Gorcey, Elisabeth Risdon. Prototype rags-to-riches Man of Flowers, A (1984-Australian) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Cox. Norman Kaye, soaper, with working-girl Crawford getting ahead via wealthy Tracy. Predictable Alyson Best, Chris Haywood, Sarah Walker, script, but nice job by stars, usual MGM Julia Blake, Bob Ellis, Barry Dickins. Kaye, a wealthy flower-loving bachelor gloss (even in the tenements!).▼●쩠 Mannequin (1987) C-89m. BOMB D: with a mother fixation, pays artist’s model Michael Gottlieb. Andrew McCarthy, Kim Best $100 a week to disrobe for him on Cattrall, Estelle Getty, G. W. Bailey, James call. Original but monotonal mix of somSpader, Meshach Taylor, Carole Davis. berness and silliness; may catch your interCattrall is an ancient Egyptian spirit who est if you’re in the right mood. Werner embodies a department store mannequin; Herzog plays Kaye’s father in flashback. McCarthy is the only one who sees her ▼●쩠 come to life, and falls in love with her. Man of Iron (1956-Italian) 116m. ★★★ D: Attempt to recreate the feeling of old screwPietro Germi. Pietro Germi, Luisa Della ball comedies is absolute rock-bottom fare. Noce, Sylva Koscina, Carlo Giuffre. SomDispiriting to anyone who remembers what ber account of Germi, railroad engineer, movie comedy ought to be. Followed by whose life takes a tragic turn, affecting his a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 whole family; realistically presented. OrigMannequin Two: On the Move (1991) inal title: THE RAILROAD MAN.쩠 C-95m. BOMB D: Stewart Raffill. Kristy Man of Iron (1980-Polish) C-152m. ★★★1⁄2 [ 871 ]

D: Andrzej Wajda. Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Krystyna Janda, Marian Opiana. Sequel to MAN OF MARBLE finds documentary filmmaker Janda married to son of the fallen hero whose life she had been researching. Rousing march for Solidarity is not quite up to its predecessor, but two films taken together are as epic in scope as our own GODFATHER sagas. Lech Walesa appears briefly as himself. [PG]▼●쩠 Man of La Mancha (1972) C-130m. BOMB D: Arthur Hiller. Peter O’Toole, Sophia Loren, James Coco, Harry Andrews, John Castle. Plodding, abysmal adaptation of Dale Wasserman’s popular musical based on Cervantes’ Don Quixote, with Joe Darion– Mitch Leigh score. Beautiful source material has been raped, murdered, and buried. [PG]

David Shiner, Art LaFleur, Richard Portnow. Thomas is the center of attention in this tepid comedy, as the sometimes overbearing son of Fawcett, whom district attorney Chase intends to marry. Stepdad-to-be attempts to ingratiate himself with the boy, who plots to eliminate the man from his mom’s life. The humor—what there is of it—is plenty predictable, but kids will probably lap it up. [PG]▼●쩠 Man of the House (2005) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Stephen Herek. Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Archer, Cedric the Entertainer, Christina Milian, Paula Garce´s, Monica Keena, Vanessa Ferlito, Kelli Garner, R. Lee Ermey, Curtis Armstrong, Paget Brewster. Destined to go down in history as the movie in which Jones buys tampons, this lamer-than-lame comedy casts him as a Texas Ranger house-sitting a band ▼●쩠 Man of Marble (1977-Polish) C-160m. of cheerleaders who’ve witnessed a murder. ★★★★ D: Andrzej Wajda. Krystyna Janda, Though there’s potential in the idea of the Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Tadeusz Lomnicki, girls giving Jones a makeover, the actor’s dysJacek Lomnicki, Krystyna Zachwatowicz. peptic facial expression seems to have been Compelling, controversial, brilliantly diexacerbated by reading the script. Panavision. rected tale of determined filmmaker Janda [PG-13] ▼쩠 retracing the life of Radziwilowicz, naive Man of the West (1958) C-100m. ★★★ D: bricklayer lionized in the 1950s as a workerAnthony Mann. Gary Cooper, Julie Lonhero of the State. Wajda celebrates the role don, Lee J. Cobb, Arthur O’Connell, Jack of filmmaker as a speaker of truth; ironically, Lord, John Dehner, Royal Dano. Dismissed the film’s finale, an explanation of the brickin 1958, this powerful story deserves another layer’s fate, was excised by the Polish look. Cooper plays a reformed outlaw who is censors. Followed by MAN OF IRON.▼쩠 forced to rejoin his ex-boss (Cobb) to save Man of No Importance, A (1994-British) himself and other innocent people from the C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Suri Krishnamma. Albert gang’s mistreatment. Strong, epic-scale Finney, Brenda Fricker, Michael Gambon, Western, with script by Reginald Rose. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Tara Fitzgerald, Rufus Sewell, Patrick Malahide, David Kelly, Mick Lally, Jonathan Man of the Year (2006) C-108m. ★★ D: Rhys-Myer (Meyers). While staging Oscar Barry Levinson. Robin Williams, Laura LinWilde’s controversial Salome at his local ney, Christopher Walken, Lewis Black, Jeff Dublin church, a theater-loving bus conductor Goldblum, Rick Roberts, David Alpay. Glib examines his repressed sexual feelings— talk-show host Williams runs for President as toward both his leading actress and the bus’ a lark, then finds himself elected. The reahandsome driver. Initially lightweight comson: there’s a flaw in a new computer voting edy-drama gradually becomes more complex, program, and the firm that created it can’t possibly taking on more than it can handle; afford to admit the mistake. Linney tries Finney, however, devours the role with his to go public with the information, but only usual feeling and conviction. Later a stage Williams seems to believe her. Muddled musical. [R]▼● mess of a movie tries to be topical, funny, Man of the Century (1999) 80m. ★★ D: suspenseful, and romantic. Scattered sharp, Adam Abraham. Gibson Frazier, Susan Egan, funny moments can’t salvage Levinson’s David Margulies, Frank Gorshin, Bobby unwieldy screenplay. Various TV personaliShort, Anne Jackson, Gary Beach, Marisa ties and politicos appear as themselves. Ryan, Lester Lanin. A snappy-talking newsSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 paper reporter named Johnny Twennies (FraMan on a String (1960) 92m. ★★★ D: zier) lives in a 1920s world, immersed in its Andre de Toth. Ernest Borgnine, Kerwin slang, customs, and music, unaware of the Mathews, Colleen Dewhurst, Alexander realities around him, or the very contempoScourby, Glenn Corbett. Fictionalized acrary sexual longing of his girlfriend (Egan). count of counterspy Boris Morros, involved An obvious labor of love, this somewhat in Russian-U.S. Cold War conflict. Taut amateurish film has enthusiasm to spare, action sequences. and some amusing cameos, but one overridMan on a Swing (1974) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing problem: it makes no sense. Written by Frank Perry. Cliff Robertson, Joel Grey, the director and his star. [R]▼쩠 Dorothy Tristan, Elizabeth Wilson, George ★★ Man of the House (1995) C-96m. Voskovec. Mysterious clairvoyant (Grey) D: James Orr. Chevy Chase, Farrah Fawcett, offers to help a cop (Robertson) solve Jonathan Taylor Thomas, George Wendt, sex-slaying that’s been troubling him, but [ 872 ]

generates more questions than answers. lor process; most surviving prints don’t look very good.▼쩠 Intriguing idea sadly misses the mark by Man on the Flying Trapeze, The (1935) building up to an unsatisfying conclusion. 65m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Clyde Bruckman. W. C. Based on a true story. [PG] Fields, Mary Brian, Kathleen Howard, Man on a Tightrope (1953) 105m. ★★1⁄2 Grady Sutton, Vera Lewis, Walter Brennan. D: Elia Kazan. Fredric March, Gloria GraHilarious Fieldsian study in frustration, hame, Terry Moore, Cameron Mitchell, with able assistance from hardboiled wife Adolphe Menjou, Richard Boone, Robert Howard, good-for-nothing Sutton. Best seBeatty. Passable based-on-fact account of quence has W. C. receiving four traffic an obscure, downtrodden little circus troupe tickets in a row!쩠 and its escape from Communist-ruled CzechoMan on the Moon (1999) C-118m. ★★ D: slovakia to freedom in Austria. Has its moMilos Forman. Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, ments, but the characters are far too broadly Courtney Love, Paul Giamatti, Vincent Schiadrawn. Scripted by Robert E. Sherwood. velli, Peter Bonerz, Gerry Becker, Leslie Man on Fire (1957) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ranald Lyles. The writers of ED WOOD and THE MacDougall. Bing Crosby, Mary Fickett, PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT, reteamed Inger Stevens, E.G. Marshall, Malcolm with FLYNT director Forman, strike out with Broderick, Anne Seymour, Richard Eastthis bio of the late comedy performer Andy ham. Divorced father (Crosby) refuses to Kaufman. Carrey perfectly embodies his subgrant his remarried ex-wife partial custody ject, but it’s impossible to get inside Kaufof their son in this modest domestic drama. man’s head and understand what made him Man on Fire (2004) C-146m. ★★ D: Tony so very, very strange, on-stage and off . . . if Scott. Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, indeed it’s even worth the effort. Some of Marc Anthony, Radha Mitchell, Christopher Kaufman’s real-life acting colleagues appear Walken, Giancarlo Giannini, Rachel Ticotin, as themselves. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Jesus Ochoa, Mickey Rourke. Guilt-ridden Man on the Roof (1977-Swedish) C-110m. military ops veteran Washington is hired as a ★★★1⁄2 D: Bo Widerberg. Carl-Gustaf Lindbodyguard for young Fanning to protect her stedt, Hakan Serner, Sven Wollter, Thomas from the constant threat of kidnapping in Hellberg. A cop killer is the subject of a Mexico City. After a good first hour the film Stockholm manhunt in this police film with becomes a vigilante saga, urging us to cheer substance and style. Absorbing for its look on the violent deaths of scummy characters at police methodology as well as its suspense who ‘‘deserve’’ it. Told in director Scott’s and action. Based on the Martin Beck novel self-indulgent style, with uncomfortable by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (Walter ultra-close-ups, smash cuts with loud sound Matthau played Beck in THE LAUGHING effects, and handheld grainy shots in the POLICEMAN). [R]▼ middle of scenes for no reason at all. Too Man on the Train (2002-French) C-90m. bad. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ★★★ D: Patrice Leconte. Jean Rochefort, Manon of the Spring (1986-French) CJohnny Hallyday, Jean-Franc¸ois Stevenin, 113m. ★★★ D: Claude Berri. Yves Montand, Charlie Nelson, Pascal Parmentier, Isabelle Emmanuelle Be´art, Daniel Auteuil, HipPetit-Jacques. A gun-toting stranger comes polyte Girardot, Elisabeth Depardieu, Gato a small town and rooms with a retired briel Bacquier. Conclusion of the story schoolteacher; the two men couldn’t be begun in JEAN DE FLORETTE resumes more different, but as they get to know each with Manon, now a beautiful, free-spirited other each one sees in the other qualities young shepherdess, learning the truth behe’s always longed for in his own life. A hind her father’s death, and plotting her minor but entertaining fable that makes the revenge on the pathetic Auteuil and the most of its two stars’ exceptional screen scheming Montand. Berri spins his story presence. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 slowly, deliberately, savoring every moMan on Wire (2008-U.S.-British) C-94m. ment leading to the unexpected conclu★★★1⁄2 D: James Marsh. On August 7, 1974, sion. Only thing missing in this second daredevil Philippe Petit made big news as half is the strong presence of Ge´rard he took a leisurely 45-minute stroll back Depardieu. Filmed before in 1952 by Marand forth on a steel cable between New cel Pagnol. Technovision. [PG]▼●쩠 York’s World Trade Center towers. VertigiMan on the Eiffel Tower, The (1949) nous documentary, based on Petit’s 2002 C-97m. ★★ D: Burgess Meredith. Charles memoir, To Reach the Clouds, unveils his Laughton, Franchot Tone, Burgess Meredith, support crew’s rehearsals, subterfuge, and Robert Hutton, Jean Wallace, Patricia Roc, reservations, while questioning the sanity of Wilfrid Hyde-White, Belita. Tiresome adaptaa gutsy artist whose arrest report provides tion of a Georges Simenon thriller with the title. Literally breathtaking account is all Laughton as Inspector Maigret and Tone as a a thriller should be, yet it’s real, aside from madman who thinks he can carry out a perfect a few dramatic reenactments and one nutty crime. Meredith’s directorial debut, filmed ensex scene. Not for the acrophobic. Oscar tirely in Paris. Shot in experimental AnscoCowinner as Best Documentary. [PG-13]쩠 [ 873 ]

Man Outside (1986) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Mark to stomach at times, but film’s enormous Stouffer. Robert Logan, Kathleen Quinlan, heart conquers all, bolstered by appealing Bradford Dillman, Levon Helm, Andrew performances. Originally released at 75m. Barach. Why has Logan dropped out and Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964) C-120m. ★★1 chosen to isolate himself and live off the ⁄2 D: Howard Hawks. Rock Hudson, land in rural Arkansas? Anthropology proPaula Prentiss, John McGiver, Maria fessor Quinlan decides to find out and Perschy, Roscoe Karns, Charlene Holt. promptly falls for him . . . even as he’s Amusing, often labored variation on Hawks’ accused of kidnapping a young boy. Slickly own BRINGING UP BABY. Fishing made but obvious, overbaked, and a bore. ‘‘expert’’ Hudson, who in reality has never In addition to Helm, other former members fished, is forced to enter big tournament of The Band (Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, by pushy Prentiss (in her best performance). Richard Manuel) appear. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Loaded with slapstick and sexual innuManpower (1941) 102m. ★★★ D: Raoul endo; Norman Alden is hilarious as wiseWalsh. Edward G. Robinson, Marlene Diecracking Indian guide.▼쩠 trich, George Raft, Alan Hale, Walter Catlett, Mansfield Park (1999-British) C-99m. ★★1 Frank McHugh, Eve Arden. Lively, typical ⁄2 D: Patricia Rozema. Frances O’ConWarner Bros. film, with nightclub ‘‘hostess’’ nor, Embeth Davidtz, Jonny Lee Miller, Dietrich coming between high-voltage power Alessandro Nivola, Harold Pinter, Lindsay line workers Robinson and Raft. Scene in a Duncan, Sheila Gish. In early 19th-century diner is worth the price of admission. England, an impoverished girl is sent to live Man-Proof (1938) 74m. ★★ D: Richard with wealthy relatives. Working as their serThorpe. Myrna Loy, Franchot Tone, Rosalind vant she grows to be an astute, imaginative Russell, Walter Pidgeon, Nana Bryant, Rita and surprisingly independent-minded woman. Johnson, Ruth Hussey. Flimsy plot with Very loosely based on Jane Austen’s novel bright stars: Loy and Russell both love Pidand personal journals. O’Connor shines as geon, but Tone is ready to step in any time. the heroine among a top-notch cast, but Man Push Cart (2006) C-87m. ★★★ D: story lacks the wit and satirical edge of Ramin Bahrani. Ahmad Razvi, Leticia Dolother Austen adaptations. [PG-13]▼쩠 era, Charles Daniel Sandoval, Ali Reza, Man They Could Not Hang, The (1939) Farooq ‘‘Duke’’ Muhammad. Pakistani im65m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nick Grinde. Boris Karloff, migrant hauls his food cart into place every Lorna Gray, Robert Wilcox, Roger Pryor, morning to sell coffee and snacks to a myrAnn Doran. First of series of four Karloff iad of New Yorkers. His private life isn’t vehicles with basically same plot; hanged man nearly as orderly: he’s battling his in-laws brought back to life seeks revenge on judge, jury, et al. Good of its type.▼쩠 for custody of his young son, he’s abandoned a once-thriving musical career, and Man to Remember, A (1938) 80m. ★★★ D: his inner turmoil prevents him from making Garson Kanin. Anne Shirley, Edward Ellis, the most of new contacts and acquaintances. Lee Bowman, William Henry, Granville Penetrating character study in which locaBates, Harlan Briggs, Frank M. Thomas, tion, looks, and silences tell more than diaCharles Halton, Dickie Jones. Character logue. Writer-director Bahrani’s feature actor Ellis (who played the title role in THE debut. Also Razvi’s acting debut; he used to THIN MAN) is showcased as a selfless docwork as a pushcart vendor.쩠 tor with an abundance of commonsense Man’s Best Friend (1993) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: wisdom who spends 20 years serving an John Lafia. Ally Sheedy, Lance Henriksen, often-ungrateful town. Kanin’s directorial Robert Costanzo, Fredric Lehne, John Casdebut was much praised in 1938 and made sini, J. D. Daniels, William Sanderson, this a breakout B movie; it seems dated Trula Marcus, Rick Barker. Investigative renow, but builds up to an unexpectedly movporter Sheedy rescues big doggy, Max, ing finale. Remake of ONE MAN’S JOURfrom scientist Henricksen’s vivesection lab NEY (1933).쩠 . . . but Max is genetically engineered with Man-Trap (1961) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edmond many odd abilities—and a bad attitude. O’Brien. Jeffrey Hunter, David Janssen, Modestly clever thriller pushes cliche´s assoStella Stevens, Hugh Sanders. Capable ciated with dogs (mailmen, junkyards, cats) cast involved in adultery, robbery and dito amusingly violent extremes. Derivative saster; unusual fling at directing by O’Brien. but fun. Written by the director. [R]▼●쩠 Panavision. Man’s Castle (1933) 69m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Man Trouble (1992-U.S.-Italian) C-100m. ★1 Borzage. Spencer Tracy, Loretta Young, ⁄2 D: Bob Rafelson. Jack Nicholson, Ellen Marjorie Rambeau, Arthur Hohl, Walter Barkin, Beverly D’Angelo, Harry Dean Connolly, Glenda Farrell, Dickie Moore. Stanton, Michael McKean, Veronica CartTypically lovely Borzage romance; penniwright, David Clennon, Paul Mazursky, less Young moves in with shantytown Saul Rubinek, Lauren Tom. Opera singer tough-guy Tracy, hoping to develop a real Barkin is troubled by a frightening break-in relationship in spite of his reluctance. and other harassment so she hires guardTracy’s ultra-macho character is a bit tough dog specialist Nicholson to beef up security. [ 874 ]

This mongrel of a screwball comedy consisParis during the 1930s, where she’s taken tently misses the target. Particularly disapunder the wing of a flamboyant nightclub pointing in light of reteaming Nicholson dancer (Blanchett, almost unrecognizable), with FIVE EASY PIECES director Rafelpursued by a self-important Italian tenor son and writer Carole Eastman. Way below (Turturro), and charmed by a quiet, selfpar for all concerned. [PG-13]▼●쩠 assured gypsy (Depp) as storm clouds gather Manufactured Landscapes (2007-Canadian) over Europe. What’s the point? We still don’t C/B&W-87m. ★★★ D: Jennifer Baichwal. know. Her costars act rings around a blankProvocative documentary portrait of phofaced Ricci. Written by the director. [R]▼쩠 tographer Edward Burtynsky, who takes Man Who Fell to Earth, The (1976-British) stark, stunning images that reflect on how C-140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Nicolas Roeg. David natural landscapes are altered by industrialBowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry, ization while showing the impact that indusBernie Casey, Jackson D. Kane. Title chartrial waste is having on the environment acter ostensibly heads world conglomerand the future of humankind. Well worth ate, but is actually here to find water for watching—and pondering.쩠 his planet. Highly original, fabulously phoMan Under Suspicion (1984-German) tographed adaptation of Walter Tevis’ clas1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Norbert Kuckelmann. C-126m. sic fantasy novel is riveting for the first Maximilian Schell, Lena Stolze, Robert two-thirds, goes downhill toward the end. Aldini, Wolfgang Kieling, Kathrin AckStill tops of its kind. Originally released in ermann, Reinhard Hauff. Lawyer Schell the U.S. at 118m. Remade as 1987 TVM. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 investigates the motives behind a young man’s act of violence at a political rally. Man Who Finally Died, The (1962-British) 100m. ★★ D: Quentin Lawrence. Stanley Provocative subject matter—how the roots of fascism must be destroyed before they Baker, Peter Cushing, Mai Zetterling, Eric are given the opportunity to blossom—but Portman, Niall MacGinnis, Nigel Green, low-keyed to the point of tedium, and Barbara Everest. Tepid attempt at Hitchcockmuch too long, though final twenty minlike thriller: Baker returns to German home utes are fairly effective. town and tries to discover what happened Man Who Came to Dinner, The (1941) to his father during WW2. CinemaScope. 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Keighley. Bette Man Who Had Power Over Women, The (1970-British) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Davis, Ann Sheridan, Monty Woolley, Billie Burke, Jimmy Durante, Richard Krish. Rod Taylor, James Booth, Carol Travis, Grant Mitchell, Mary Wickes, ElizWhite, Penelope Horner, Charles Korvin, abeth Fraser, Reginald Gardiner. Acerbic Clive Francis, Magali Noel. Seriocomic satradio commentator Woolley (re-creating his ire about an executive with ethics in a Broadway role) is forced to stay with London talent agency. Andrew Meredith’s Burke’s Midwestern family for the winter, script (from the Gordon Williams novel) driving them crazy with assorted wacky tends toward overstatement, which a good cast tries to moderate. [R]▼ friends passing through. Delightful adaptation of George S. Kaufman–Moss Hart play, Man Who Haunted Himself, The (1970British) C-94m. ★★ D: Basil Dearden. Roger inspired by the celebrated critic and columnist Alexander Woollcott. Scripted by the Moore, Hildegarde Neil, Alastair MackenEpstein brothers. Also shown in computerzie, Hugh Mackenzie, Kevork Malikyan. colored version. ▼●쩠 Strange psychological drama about Moore Man Who Changed His Mind, The SEE: encountering a duplicate of himself in the Man Who Lived Again, The aftermath of a car crash. Mildly interesting; good location footage of London. [PG]▼쩠 Man Who Could Work Miracles, The (1936-British) 82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lothar Man Who Knew Too Little, The (1997) Mendes. Roland Young, Ralph RichardC-94m. ★★ D: Jon Amiel. Bill Murray, Peter son, Edward Chapman, Ernest Thesiger, Gallagher, Joanne Whalley, Alfred Molina, Joan Gardner, George Zucco, Wallace Richard Wilson, Geraldine James, John Lupino, Joan Hickson, George Sanders, Standing, Anna Chancellor, Nicholas WoodeTorin Thatcher. H. G. Wells’ fantasy of timid son. Curiously flat Murray vehicle about a British department store clerk (Young) endolt who visits his brother in England, is dowed with power to do anything he wants. signed up for an ‘‘interactive theater’’ expeSpecial effects are marvelous, supported by rience, but walks instead into the midst of a good cast, in charming film.▼●쩠 complex espionage scheme. Murray is game Man Who Cried, The (2000-Britishas always, in the kind of situation that used to French) C-100m. ★★ D: Sally Potter. Chrisserve Bob Hope and Danny Kaye so well, but tina Ricci, Johnny Depp, Cate Blanchett, John the script lets him down. The title is the funniTurturro, Harry Dean Stanton, Oleg Yankovest part of the picture. [PG]▼●쩠 skiy, Claudia Lander-Duke. Strange, unsatisMan Who Knew Too Much, The (1934British) 75m. ★★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. fying saga—with a capital S—about a girl separated from her father in 1920s Russia. Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Peter Lorre, Nova She grows up in England and winds up in Pilbeam, Frank Vosper, Pierre Fresnay. [ 875 ]

Film buffs argue which version of exciting C-110m. ★★ D: Blake Edwards. Burt story is better. We vote this one, with Reynolds, Julie Andrews, Kim Basinger, Hitchcock in fine form weaving dry British Marilu Henner, Barry Corbin, Cynthia humor into a story of heart-pounding Sikes, Jennifer Edwards, Tracy Vaccaro. suspense; young girl is kidnapped to preLackluster, snail’s pace remake of the vent her parents from revealing what they’ve Franc˛ois Truffaut film—minus the climaclearned about assassination plot.▼●쩠 tic revelation that gave the earlier movie Man Who Knew Too Much, The (1956) its point. Reynolds gives one of his most C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Hitchcock. James appealing performances, but spends an eterStewart, Doris Day, Brenda De Banzie, nity discussing his adoration of women Bernard Miles, Ralph Truman, Daniel with stone-faced psychoanalyst Andrews. Gelin, Alan Mowbray, Carolyn Jones, HilDirector-writer Edwards gave coscreenplay lary Brooke. Hitchcock’s remake of his credit to his own psychiatrist! [R]▼●쩠 1934 film is disappointing. Even famous Man Who Never Was, The (1956-British) Albert Hall assassination sequence rings flat C-103m. ★★★ D: Ronald Neame. Clifton in tale of American couple accidentally inWebb, Gloria Grahame, Robert Flemyng, volved in international intrigue. Doris’s Josephine Griffin, Stephen Boyd. Good ‘‘Que Sera, Sera’’ won Jay Livingston and WW2 spy yarn based on true story of Ray Evans Best Song Oscar. Composer BerAllies planting elaborate red herring to nard Herrmann is conducting orchestra at the divert attention from invasion of Sicily. climax. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 CinemaScope.▼쩠 Man Who Laughs, The (1928) 110m. ★★★ Man Who Played God, The (1932) 81m. ★★1 D: Paul Leni. Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin, ⁄2 D: John G. Adolfi. George Arliss, Olga Baclanova, Brandon Hurst, Cesare Bette Davis, Violet Heming, Louise Closser Gravina, Stuart Holmes, Sam De Grasse, Hale, Donald Cook, Ray Milland. WellGeorge Siegmann, Josephine Crowell. Viacted tale of musician Arliss going deaf, sually dazzling adaptation of the Victor infatuated student Davis sticking by him. Hugo novel with Veidt well cast as the title Not as stagy as other Arliss films, with character, a man whose smile has been Bette getting her first big break and young carved into his face. Because of this freakMilland in a small role. Remake of Arliss’ ish look, it’s almost impossible for him to silent vehicle; later remade as SINexpress his true feelings, even to the love of CERELY YOURS. his life. More striking than moving, this is Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962) 123m. ★★★★ D: John Ford. James typical of the European influence on Hollywood filmmaking at the end of the silent Stewart, John Wayne, Vera Miles, Lee era. ▼쩠 Marvin, Edmond O’Brien, Andy Devine, Man Who Lived Again, The (1936-British) Woody Strode, Jeanette Nolan, Ken Murray, 61m. ★★★ D: Robert Stevenson. Boris John Qualen, Strother Martin, Lee Van Karloff, Anna Lee, John Loder, Frank Cleef, John Carradine, Carleton Young. Cellier, Lyn Harding, Cecil Parker. Mad Tenderfoot lawyer Stewart helps civilize the doctor Karloff has been transferring perWest, but needs help from he-man Wayne to sonalities from one monkey to another. do so. Panned and patronized upon original How soon will he be experimenting with release, but now regarded as an American human subjects? Solid, above-par chiller. classic; one of the great Westerns. Producer Original British title: THE MAN WHO Willis Goldbeck and James Warner Bellah adapted Dorothy Johnson’s story.▼●쩠 CHANGED HIS MIND.▼쩠 Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, The (1973) Man Who Understood Women, The (1959) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nunnally JohnC-122m. ★★★ D: Richard C. Sarafian. Burt Reynolds, Sarah Miles, George Hamilton, son. Leslie Caron, Henry Fonda, Cesare Lee J. Cobb, Jack Warden, Bo Hopkins, RobDanova, Myron McCormick, Marcel Dalio, ert Donner, Jay Silverheels. Western tale of Conrad Nagel. Unsatisfactory narrative of defiant woman who leaves her husband and moviemaker genius Fonda who hasn’t takes up riding along with a band of outlaws. slightest notion of how to treat wife Caron. Sluggish in spots, but enjoyable; script by ElCinemaScope. Man Who Wasn’t There, The (1983) eanor Perry. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Man Who Loved Women, The (1977C-111m. BOMB D: Bruce Malmuth. Steve French) C-119m. ★★★ D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Guttenberg, Jeffrey Tambor, Lisa Langlois, Charles Denner, Brigitte Fossey, Nelly Art Hindle, Morgan Hart, Bill Forsythe, Borgeaud, Leslie Caron, Genevieve FontaVincent Baggetta. Inept—not to mention nel. Charming, sophisticated comedy about inane—invisibility comedy that touted its a bachelor who is obsessed with women 3-D effects but offered little in any dimenand, it turns out, they with him. To make sion. Better writing, directing, and acting can sense of the fact that he falls in love with be found at a nursery school pageant. almost every woman he meets, he writes Panavision. [R]▼ Man Who Wasn’t There, The (2001) his autobiography. Remade in 1983.▼●쩠 116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Coen. Billy Bob ThornMan Who Loved Women, The (1983) [ 876 ]

ton, Frances McDormand, James Gandolfini, Michael Badalucco, Katherine Borowitz, Jon Polito, Scarlett Johansson, Richard Jenkins, Tony Shalhoub, Adam Alexi-Malle, Christopher McDonald. Exquisitely detailed b&w homage to film noir, and James M. Cain in particular, set in the 1940s. Thornton gives a striking performance as a taciturn smalltown barber who gets involved in a crime that snowballs out of control. Unfortunately, the script takes one of those Coen Brothers left turns, changes gears, and goes on much longer than it should. Still, there’s incredible production design, Roger Deakins’ cinematography, and a gallery of rich, colorful performances to compensate. [R]

cially for buffs. Adapted from his own novel and produced by Andrew J. Fenady; Raft’s final film. Aka SAM MARLOW, PRIVATE EYE. [PG]▼쩠 Man With Connections, The (1970-French) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Berri. Guy Bedos, Yves Robert, Rosy Varte, Georges Geret, Zorica Lozic. Good-natured comedy about young Frenchman who tries to use ‘‘pull’’ to make Army hitch as pleasant as possible. Autobiographical film is, like Berri’s others, amiable, quietly entertaining. [R] Man With Nine Lives, The (1940) 74m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Nick Grinde. Boris Karloff, Roger Pryor, Jo Ann Sayers, Stanley Brown, John Dilson, Hal Taliaferro. Scientist Karloff seeks cure for cancer by freezing ▼쩠 Man Who Watched Trains Go By SEE: bodies in suspended animation. Hokey, Paris Express, The but fun when Karloff himself thaws out. Man Who Would Be King, The (1975) Also known as BEHIND THE DOOR. ▼쩠 C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Huston. Sean ConMan With One Red Shoe, The (1985) C-93m. ★★ D: Stan Dragoti. Tom Hanks, nery, Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer, Saeed Jaffrey, Shakira Caine. Old-fashioned Dabney Coleman, Lori Singer, Charles Durnadventure and derring-do from Kipling via ing, Carrie Fisher, Edward Herrmann, Jim BeHuston: two British soldier-pals try to bamlushi, Irving Metzman, Gerrit Graham, David boozle high priests of remote Kafiristan L. Lander, David Ogden Stiers. Flat remake into turning over their riches by convincof THE TALL BLOND MAN WITH ONE ing them that Connery is a god. Caine and BLACK SHOE, about an innocent guy Connery are ideal, script is superb, and film wrongly targeted by CIA types for eliminais entertaining, if not quite in the realm tion. Wastes the considerable comic talents of of GUNGA DIN. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 its cast—and doesn’t allow leading man Hanks to be funny at all! [PG]▼쩠 Man With a Cloak, The (1951) 81m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Fletcher Markle. Barbara Stanwyck, Man Without a Face, The (1993) C114m. ★★★ D: Mel Gibson. Mel Gibson, Joseph Cotten, Louis Calhern, Leslie Caron, Jim Backus, Margaret Wycherly, Nick Stahl, Margaret Whitton, Fay MasJoe DeSantis. Intriguing little mystery, set terson, Gaby Hoffmann, Geoffrey Lewis, in 19th-century N.Y.C.; housekeeper StanRichard Masur, Michael DeLuise, Ethan wyck plots to kill Calhern for his money Phillips, Jean De Baer, Viva. Literate, aband romances Cotten, whose identity is sorbing drama exploring the evolving relakept secret until the climax. Not bad, with tionship between lonely 12-year-old Stahl, spooky David Raksin score, but having who’s intent on gaining entrance to a miliBarbara sing was a mistake. tary academy, and reclusive, facially scarred Man With a Million (1954-British) Cex-teacher Gibson, who becomes his mentor. 92m. ★★ D: Ronald Neame. Gregory Peck, Despite some dramatic lapses, Gibson’s direcJane Griffiths, Ronald Squire, A. E. Mattorial debut is more than respectable; he and thews, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Reginald BeckStahl offer excellent performances. From Isawith. Often tedious telling of Mark Twain belle Holland’s novel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 story ‘‘The Million Pound Bank Note,’’ in Man Without a Past, The (2002-Finnishwhich penniless American Peck is given the German-French) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Aki title sum of money on a wager, leading to Kaurisma¨ki. Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, various complications. Original title: THE Juhani Niemela¨, Kaija Pakarinen, Sakari MILLION POUND NOTE. Remade as A Kuosmanen, Esko Nikkari. After being bruMILLION TO JUAN. tally beaten by muggers upon his arrival in Man With Bogart’s Face, The (1980) Helsinki and miraculously cheating death, a middle-aged man becomes a penniless amC-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Day. Robert Sacchi, Michelle Phillips, Olivia Hussey, nesiac. Without knowing a single person, Franco Nero, Misty Rowe, Victor Buono, ‘‘The Man’’ must try to survive. Existential Herbert Lom, Sybil Danning, Dick Bakblack comedy contrasts society’s emphasis alyan, George Raft, Mike Mazurki, Yvonne on the importance of identity with the indiDeCarlo, Henry Wilcoxon, Victor Sen vidual and idiosyncratic imprint that makes Yung, Jay Robinson. Offbeat mystery about each of us spiritually unique. Fascinating present-day detective who has plastic surand funny; written and produced by the progery to resemble his idol and immediately lific Kaurisma¨ki. [PG-13]▼쩠 becomes involved in MALTESE FALCONMan Without a Star (1955) C-89m. ★★★ esque case. Not really a comedy, although D: King Vidor. Kirk Douglas, Jeanne Crain, it has its lighter moments; good fun, espeClaire Trevor, Richard Boone, Jay C. [ 877 ]

Flippen, William Campbell. Boisterous of Warner’s condo and the identity of ‘‘The Elevator Killer.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Western with drifter Douglas befriending young Campbell, tangling with manipulaMan, Woman and Child (1983) C-99m. ★★★ tive rancher Crain. Kirk gets to sing and D: Dick Richards. Martin Sheen, Blythe play the banjo in this one. Remade as A Danner, Sebastian Dungan, Arlene McMAN CALLED GANNON.▼ Intyre, Missy Francis, Craig T. Nelson, Man With the Balloons, The (1965-ItalianDavid Hemmings, Nathalie Nell. UnFrench) 85m. ★★ D: Marco Ferreri. Marcello abashed tearjerker (from Erich Segal’s book) Mastroianni, Catherine Spaak. Mastroianni about a happily married man, with two plays successful businessman who loses children, who learns that a brief affair he his girl, eventually goes mad because he had with a Frenchwoman 10 years ago probecomes obsessed with finding out how duced a son—and that the boy has just been much air a balloon needs before it bursts. orphaned. Simple, honestly sentimental movie. [PG]▼쩠 Offbeat idea, to be sure, but result is just plain silly. Panoramica. Manxman, The (1929-British) 90m. ★★1⁄2 Man with the Golden Arm, The (1955) D: Alfred Hitchcock. Carl Brisson, Malcolm 119m. ★★★ D: Otto Preminger. Frank Sinatra, Keen, Anny Ondra, Randle Ayrton. FisherKim Novak, Eleanor Parker, Darren Mcman Brisson and lawyer Keen, best friends Gavin, Arnold Stang, Doro Merande. Nelson since childhood, both love Ondra. OK meloAlgren’s novel, the first to win the National drama was Hitchcock’s last silent film.▼쩠 Book Award, was presumed to be unfilmable Map of the Human Heart (1993-BritishAustralian-French-Canadian) C-126m. ★★★ until Preminger ignored and thus busted Hollywood’s Production Code. The taboo D: Vincent Ward. Jason Scott Lee, Anne subject was heroin addiction, and Sinatra’s Parillaud, Patrick Bergin, John Cusack, performance is still provocative, especially Robert Joamie, Annie Galipeau, Jeanne in the actor’s famed gets-the-shakes withMoreau, Ben Mendelson, Clotilde Courau. drawal scene. Otherwise, the film (which Fascinating, if not altogether successful, fable appears to have been shot on the cheap) has about an Inuit Eskimo boy plucked from his lost some, though hardly all, of its power. Canadian homeland and taken to ‘‘civilizaTwo other landmarks: Saul Bass’s trendsettion’’ by a mapmaker in the 1930s. The rest ting opening credits and Elmer Bernstein’s of the young man’s life unfolds like a strange jazz score, which put the composer on the dream. Director Ward’s sometimes hallucinamap.▼●쩠 tory images and a mystical atmosphere make Man With the Golden Gun, The (1974this a compelling film to watch even when ★★★ British) C-125m. D: Guy Hamilton. it falters storywise. Filled with extraordinary Roger Moore, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, performances, including a cameo by the alMaud Adams, Herve Villechaize, Clifton ways wonderful Moreau. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 James, Richard Loo, Marc Lawrence, Map of the World, A (1999) C-126m. ★★★ Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond D: Scott Elliott. Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Llewelyn. Moore’s second shot as super Moore, David Strathairn, Ron Lea, Arliss agent James Bond is good, gimmicky fun Howard, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Louise Fletcher. but the actor had one more film to go School nurse Weaver, whose family life is (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME) before fragmented, observes the world with ironic actually growing into the character; Lee is detachment until she’s imprisoned for abusexcellent as assassin Scaramanga. Great ing a student. She regards jail as almost a vacar stunts, worldwide locales. [PG]▼●쩠 cation from her responsibilities, but cannot Man With the Gun (1955) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: evade her own memories. Excellent perforRichard Wilson. Robert Mitchum, Jan Stermances, especially by Weaver, enliven this ling, Angie Dickinson, Barbara Lawrence, intelligent adaptation of the novel by Jane Karen Sharpe, Henry Hull. Mitchum as Hamilton. The middle seems to mark time, lawman who brings peace to a Western but the first third is outstanding. [R]▼쩠 town is the whole show.쩠 Mara Maru (1952) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Man With the Synthetic Brain, The SEE: Douglas. Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman, RayBlood of Ghastly Horror mond Burr, Richard Webb, Nestor Paiva. Man With Two Brains, The (1983) Turgid adventure pits Flynn against Burr C-93m. ★★★ D: Carl Reiner. Steve Martin, as they vie for sunken treasure, with Roman Kathleen Turner, David Warner, Paul the love interest. Marathon Man (1976) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Benedict, Richard Brestoff, James Cromwell, George Furth, Randi Brooks. While John Schlesinger. Dustin Hoffman, Laurence trapped in a loveless marriage with venal Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, MarTurner, brilliant surgeon Michael Hfuhruhurr the Keller, Fritz Weaver, Marc Lawrence, (Martin) falls in love with a brain in a jar Richard Bright. Glossy thriller adapted by Wil(voiced by Sissy Spacek) and immediately liam Goldman from his book. Basic premise of starts searching for a new ‘‘home’’ for it. As graduate student Hoffman propelled into dizsilly as it sounds, but put your brain in neutral zying world of international intrigue spoiled by and the laughs are there, particularly the decor repellent violence and some gaping story [ 878 ]

holes. Hoffman and arch-villain Olivier are superb but film doesn’t do them justice. [R]

who is forced by circumstance to enter the uptown world of a controversial bad-boy rap star (Wayans). Offers nary a laugh, not Marat/Sade (Persecution and Assassinato mention some mind-bogglingly tasteless tion of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed stereotypes. Written by Paul Rudnick. Completed in 2001. [R] ▼쩠 by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis Marco (1973) C-109m. ★★ D: Seymour de Sade, The) (1966-British) C-115m. ★★★★ Robbie. Desi Arnaz, Jr., Jack Weston, Zero D: Peter Brook. Patrick Magee, Clifford Mostel. Lavish but lumbering musical, Rose, Glenda Jackson, Ian Richardson, filmed on Oriental locations, with Arnaz Brenda Kempner, Ruth Baker, Michael Wilas young Marco Polo and Mostel as Kublai Khan. Disappointing. [G]▼쩠 liams, Freddie Jones. Chilling adaptation of Peter Weiss play about ‘‘performance’’ Marco Polo (1962-Italian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 staged by inmates of French insane asylum, D: Hugo Fregonese. Rory Calhoun, Yoko under direction of Marquis de Sade. Lurid atTani, Robert Hundar, Camillo Pilotto, Pierre mosphere is so vivid that it seems actors Cressoy, Michael Chow. Unspectacular epic are breathing down your neck; brilliantly about medieval adventurer and his journey directed by Brook. Not for weak stomachs. to China. Calhoun and film lack needed Screenplay by Adrian Mitchell.▼●쩠 vigor. CinemaScope. Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember, Yes Marco the Magnificent (1965) C-100m. ★★1 I Remember (1997-Italian) C/B&W-98m. ⁄2 D: Denys De La Patelliere, Noel ★★★ Howard. Horst Buchholz, Anthony Quinn, D: Anna Maria Tato´. Film lovers in general and fans of the late actor in particular Omar Sharif, Elsa Martinelli, Akim Tamishould savor this full-bodied documentary roff, Orson Welles. Laughable mini-epic, portrait, made by Mastroianni’s longtime extremely choppy, with episodic sequences companion, who filmed him not long before pretending to recount events in life of his death in 1996. Mastroianni reminisces, medieval adventurer. Franscope. jokes, reflects on his career and the directors Marebito (2004-Japanese) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: with whom he worked—and, most tellingly, Takashi Shimizu. Shinya Tsukamoto, Toexudes a love of and passion for life. Origimomi Miyashita, Kazuhiro Nakahara, Miho nally 199m.; made for Italian television.▼쩠 Ninagawa, Shun Sugata. Freelance video March of the Penguins (2005-French) Cjournalist totes his camcorder deep into the 80m. ★★★ D: Luc Jacquet. Narrated by MorTokyo subway system to solve a grisly suigan Freeman. Entertaining, beautifully cide. There, the electronic-age Orpheus filmed documentary about the journey of finds his unlikely Eurydice: a chained-up the Emperor penguins and their cycle of naked girl. With fangs. He takes her home. mating, breeding, and surviving in the unbeSubtitled A STRANGER FROM AFAR, lievably harsh climate of the Antarctic. A this morbid study of a man who shouldn’t simple story compellingly told, with the title have thrown away his Prozac is both a decharacters an endearing, scrappy, and endscent into the netherworld and an ascent lessly photogenic lot. Original 85m. French into the metaphysical. Morose and unsetversion had actors providing ‘‘voices’’ for tling, but a mundane resolution drags the the penguins; the American release (wisely) disturbing back into the ordinary. Script by Chiaki Konaka, from his novel. [R]쩠 dropped this, added a new music score by Alex Wurman and Freeman’s narration. Margaret Cho: Assassin (2005) C-85m. ★★ Stay through the credits to get an idea of D: Kerry Asmussen. Cho’s fourth conthe conditions the filmmakers faced. Oscar cert film, taped in Washington, D.C., is winner for Best Documentary. [G]쩠 strictly by-the-numbers, with the comedian March of the Wooden Soldiers SEE: offering commentary on gay marriage and Babes in Toyland (1934) animal activists, Martha Stewart and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Zhang March or Die (1977) C-104m. ★★ D: Dick Richards. Gene Hackman, Terence Hill, Max Ziyi . . . and Laura and George W. Bush. von Sydow, Catherine Deneuve, Ian Holm. What once was fresh now seems tired, Homage to French Foreign Legion adventures preachy, and only intermittently funny. of filmdom’s past. Good cast wages losing Strictly for diehard Cho fans.쩠 battle with static script and walks downheartMargaret’s Museum (1995-Canadian) Cedly through action scenes. Disappointing 118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mort Ransen. Helena Bonepic-that-might-have-been. Additional footham Carter, Kate Nelligan, Clive Russell, age tacked on for network showing. [PG]▼쩠 Craig Olejnik, Andrea Morris, Peter Boretski, Marci X (2003) C-84m. BOMB D: Richard Kenneth Welsh. Bonham Carter is terrific as Benjamin. Lisa Kudrow, Damon Wayans, a maverick who lives in a Nova Scotia minRichard Benjamin, Christine Baranski, Paula ing town that seems to be on the edge of Garce´s, Jane Krakowski, Veanne Cox, Sherie civilization; she despises the mines, which Rene Scott, Billy Griffith, Charles Kimhave killed her father and brother and embitbrough. Abysmal satire involving a vapid, tered her mother (Nelligan). Then she falls in aging Jewish-American Princess (Kudrow), love with a burly former miner (Russell). Well [ 879 ]

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meaning—with some strong moments— (Sukowa) is a radical political terrorist. but gloomy and predictable. [R] ▼● Superbly acted, a must-see.▼ Margie (1946) C-89m. ★★★ D: Henry King. Maria’s Lovers (1984) C-100m. ★★ D: Jeanne Crain, Glenn Langan, Lynn Bari, Andrei Konchalovsky. Nastassia Kinski, Alan Young, Barbara Lawrence, Conrad John Savage, Robert Mitchum, Keith Janis, Esther Dale, Hobart Cavanaugh, Ann Carradine, Anita Morris, Bud Cort, Karen Todd, Hattie McDaniel. Sweet nostalgia Young, Tracy Nelson, John Goodman, Vinabout ultra-sensitive teen (Crain) in 1920s cent Spano, Bill Smitrovich. Young soldier who gets more than a crush on her handreturns home from WW2, after suffering nersome new French teacher. The manner in vous breakdown, and finds himself unable to which the teacher relates to Margie is innoconsummate his love with new bride. Richly cent enough, but it surely would get him atmospheric film, set in Pennsylvania mining thrown in jail today! Loaded with snippets town, has fine performances and other attriof period songs (‘‘April Showers,’’ ‘‘My butes, but is unrelievedly ponderous. Opening Time Is Your Time,’’ the title tune, etc.). sequence cleverly integrates footage from Margin for Error (1943) 74m. ★★ D: John Huston’s famous documentary LET Otto Preminger. Joan Bennett, Milton Berle, THERE BE LIGHT with newly shot material Otto Preminger, Carl Esmond, Howard of Savage. [R]▼쩠 Freeman, Ed McNamara. Dated, awkward Marie (1985) C-112m. ★★★ D: Roger ‘‘comedy’’ of Jewish cop Berle assigned Donaldson. Sissy Spacek, Jeff Daniels, Keith to guard German consul in N.Y.C. during Szarabajka, Morgan Freeman, Fred (Dalton) WW2. Director Preminger should have Thompson, Don Hood, John Cullum. Solid told actor Preminger to stop overacting. drama about divorce´e and mother of three Margot at the Wedding (2007) C-91m. ★★ who takes a job in Tennessee state governD: Noah Baumbach. Nicole Kidman, Jenniment, then blows the whistle on corruption fer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro, and finds herself in very hot water. Might be Ciara´n Hinds, Zane Pais, Flora Cross, Halhard to believe if it wasn’t true (though knowley Feiffer. Margot (Kidman) hasn’t talked ing the outcome of the case will certainly to her sister (Leigh) in a long time, but remove a lot of the suspense). Based on Peter agrees to attend her wedding—to a layabout Maas’ book; defense attorney Thompson plays ‘‘artist’’ (Black)—at the home where they himself. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]▼ grew up in the Hamptons. Yet from the Marie Antoinette (1938) 149m. ★★1⁄2 D: minute she arrives Margot’s poisonous W. S. Van Dyke II. Norma Shearer, Tymind, and mouth, take over, with little rerone Power, John Barrymore, Robert Morgard for the turmoil she creates—or the efley, Gladys George, Anita Louise, Joseph fect it has on her vulnerable, adolescent son. Schildkraut. Opulent MGM production of Spending time with this spectacularly neurotic life of 18th-century French queen lacks family is no fun at all. Occasional insights and pace but has good acting, with great perobservations can’t make up for the lack of formance by Morley as Louis XVI. Shearer story, or the loathsome cast of characters, captures essence of title role as costumer in Baumbach’s Chekhovian comedy-drama. retells her life from Austrian princess to [R] 쩠 doomed queen of crumbling empire.▼●쩠 Maria Full of Grace (2004-U.S.-Colombian) Marie Antoinette (1955-French) C-108m. C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joshua Marston. Cata★★1⁄2 D: Jean Delannoy. Michele Morgan, lina Sandino Moreno, Wilson Guerrero, Richard Todd, Jean Morel. Epic on life of ´ lex Toro, Jaime Yenny Paola Vega, Jhon A famed 18th-century French queen has marOsorio Go´mez, Guilied Lo´pez, Patricia Rae. velous Morgan in title role but lacks perExceptional film about a 17-year-old Colomspective and scope. bian girl, dissatisfied with her dead-end life, Marie Antoinette (2006) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: who accepts a job as a ‘‘mule,’’ digesting Sofia Coppola. Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzpackets of drugs and smuggling them into the man, Judy Davis, Rip Torn, Steve Coogan, U.S. She has no idea what lies in store for Rose Byrne, Asia Argento, Molly Shannon, her . . . and neither do we. There is no artifice Shirley Henderson, Danny Huston, Marianne in debuting writer-director Marston’s presenFaithfull, Mary Nighy, Sarah Adler. Visually tation of the story, nor is there a feeling of sumptuous account of a teenager’s journey ‘‘acting’’ in any of the utterly believable perfrom Vienna to the Palace at Versailles and formances. A knockout. [R]▼쩠 the throne of France. Writer-director CopMarianne and Juliane (1982-German) ★★★1 pola’s Marie (as played by Dunst) is a conC-106m. ⁄2 D: Margarethe von Trotta. temporary girl, with modern music set Jutta Lampe, Barbara Sukowa, Rudiger against the pomp and detail of the 18thVogler, Doris Schade, Franz Rudnick. Procentury life in the fast lane. Starts to tire found, multileveled, and memorable chronafter a while and ends with a whimper, not a icle of the relationship between two sisters, bang . . . but there’s much to enjoy here. alike in some ways yet so very different in Based on Antonia Fraser’s book Marie Antoiothers. Juliane (Lampe) is a feminist editor working within the system; Marianne nette: The Journey. Oscar winner for Costume [ 880 ]

Design (Milena Canonero). Francis Ford tic villain. Also available in unrated version. [PG-13]쩠 Coppola coexecutive-produced. [PG-13]쩠 Marines, Let’s Go (1961) C-104m. ★1⁄2 Marigold (2007-U.S.-Indian) C-112m. ★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Tom Tryon, David D: Willard Carroll. Ali Larter, Salman Khan, Hedison, Barbara Stuart, William Tyler. Nandana Sen, Ian Bohen, Helen Khan, SuchiTedium about four soldiers, their comic tra Pillai, Shari ‘‘Truth Hurts’’ Watson. Obadventures on leave in Tokyo, and their noxious grade-Z Hollywood actress (‘‘I don’t dramatic encounters on Korean battlefield. do ‘grateful’ very well,’’ she admits) flies to CinemaScope. India to make a movie, only to find that the Marius (1931-French) 125m. ★★★ D: Alproduction has fallen apart. Before long she’s exander Korda. Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, hired to participate in a Bollywood musical, Charpin, Alida Rouffe, Orane Demazis. and a mutual attraction grows between her Amusing, flavorful if a bit too theatrical satire and the handsome choreographer . . . but he of provincial life, centering on the love of Marisn’t forthcoming about his family backius (Fresnay) for Fanny (Demazis). Raimu is ground. Opening scenes with Larter are inwonderful as Cesar, cafe owner and father of credibly off-putting; the rest is innocuous Marius. Screenplay by Marcel Pagnol; first of but trite. Super 35. [PG-13] a trilogy, followed by FANNY and CESAR. ‘‘Marihuana’’ (1936) 58m. BOMB D: All three were the basis of the play and movie Dwain Esper. Harley Wood, Hugh McFANNY (1961).▼●쩠 Arthur, Pat Carlyle, Paul Ellis, Dorothy Marjoe (1972) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Howard Dehn, Richard Erskine. Some naive, funSmith, Sarah Kernochan. Oscar-winning loving kids puff on the title weed, offered documentary about life of fake evangelist them by a man you know is evil incarnate Marjoe Gortner is certainly interesting, but because he has a mustache, and the result is a little too pleased with itself, a little too is nude swimming, a drowning . . . and pat to be totally convincing. Marjoe himworse! This exploitation fare is almost self is likable enough. [PG]▼쩠 mind-boggling in its dopiness. And don’t Marjorie Morningstar (1958) C-123m. forget that it was researched ‘‘with the help ★★1⁄2 D: Irving Rapper. Gene Kelly, Nataof federal, state and police narcotic offilie Wood, Claire Trevor, Ed Wynn, Evercers.’’ A companion piece to REEFER ett Sloane, Carolyn Jones, Martin Milner, MADNESS. Originally titled ‘‘MARIMartin Balsam, Ruta Lee. Wood is only JUANA’’—THE DEVIL’S WEED.▼쩠 adequate as Herman Wouk’s heroine in Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & tale of N.Y.C. girl aspiring to greatness 1 ★ Charm School (2006) C-103m. ⁄2 D: but ending up a suburban housewife, with Randall Miller. Robert Carlyle, Marisa Kelly her summer romance.▼●쩠 Tomei, Sean Astin, John Goodman, Mary Mark, The (1961-British) 127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Steenburgen, Donnie Walhberg, David PayGuy Green. Stuart Whitman, Maria Schell, mer, Camryn Manheim, Adam Arkin, Sonia Rod Steiger, Brenda De Banzie, Maurice Braga, Elden Henson, Ernie Hudson, MiDenham, Donald Wolfit, Paul Rogers, Donguel Sandoval, Danny DeVito, Ian Aberald Houston. Whitman is excellent in his crombie. When a recent widower aids a dying portrayal of emotionally broken sex crimiaccident victim it sets in motion a quest to nal who has served time, now wants to find that man’s long-lost love at a school remake new start. Thoughtful, well-acted union. This leads to a ballroom dance school adult drama written by Sidney Buchman and a dreary, hokey, overly sentimentalized and Stanley Mann. CinemaScope.▼쩠 story. Based on Miller’s 1990 short film, Marked for Death (1990) C-94m. ★★ D: there’s more padding here than in a WonDwight H. Little. Steven Seagal, Basil derbra. Meant to be romantic and moving, but Wallace, Keith David, Tom Wright, Josucceeds only in wasting its considerable onanna Pacula, Elizabeth Gracen, Bette Ford, screen talent. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Danielle Harris, Al Israel, Arlen Dean Marine, The (2006) C-93m. ★★ D: John Snyder, Jimmy Cliff. Familiar, brainless Bonito. John Cena, Robert Patrick, Kelly actioner with ex-drug agent Seagal taking Carlson, Anthony Ray Parker, Abigail Bion Jamaican dope pushers who’ve, as the anca, Jerome Ehlers, Manu Bennett, Damon title says, marked him and his family for Gibson. In South Carolina, fleeing diamond extinction. Cliff and band appear briefly and robbers make the mistake of kidnapping the perform on soundtrack. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 wife (Carlson) of a recently discharged MaMarked Woman (1937) 99m. ★★★ D: rine (Cena), who doggedly pursues them Lloyd Bacon. Bette Davis, Humphrey down highways and through swamps, despite Bogart, Lola Lane, Isabel Jewell, Jane everything in sight exploding in impressive Bryan, Eduardo Ciannelli, Allen Jenkins, fireballs. Backed by World Wrestling EnterMayo Methot. Bristling gangster drama of tainment, this didn’t turn poker-faced wresD.A. Bogart convincing Davis and four tler Cena into a movie star; occasionally girlfriends to testify against their boss, lively, jokey throwback to 1980s-style acunderworld king Ciannelli.▼●쩠 tion adventures. Patrick is fun as the sarcasMark of the Hawk, The (1957-British) [ 881 ]

C-83m. ★★★ D: Michael Audley. Eartha David Frankel. Owen Wilson, Jennifer AnKitt, Sidney Poitier, Juano Hernandez, John iston, Eric Dane, Kathleen Turner, Alan McIntire. Unusual tale intelligently acted, Arkin, Nathan Gamble, Haley Bennett, set in contemporary Africa, with peaceJoyce Van Patten. Sweet film about the life ful vs. violent means for racial equality of a rambunctious dog and how he affects the main theme. Originally titled ACa young couple and their growing family. CUSED. Aka SHAKA ZULU. SuperScope Wilson plays a happily married newspaper 235.▼쩠 reporter whose career takes an unexpected Mark of the Renegade, The (1951) Cturn when he starts writing a column drawn 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hugo Fregonese. Ricardo from his own life. Parents and dog lovers Montalban, Cyd Charisse, J. Carrol Naish, should approach with caution: the movie Gilbert Roland, Antonio Moreno, George follows the dog’s life to its very end. Based Tobias, Andrea King, Armando Silvestre, on the autobiographical book by newspaGeorgia Backus, Robert Warwick, Robert perman John Grogan; screenplay by Scott Cornthwaite. Colorful adventure, based on Frank and Don Roos. Super 35. [PG]쩠 a story by Zorro creator Johnston McCulMarlowe (1969) C-95m. ★★★ D: Paul ley, set in 1820s California, then part of Bogart. James Garner, Gayle Hunnicutt, Mexico. Dashing Montalban is sent to Los Carroll O’Connor, Rita Moreno, Sharon Angeles, which has been besieged by piFarrell, William Daniels, Jackie Coogan, rates, on a mission that also requires him to Bruce Lee. Slick updating of Raymond romance the gorgeous Charisse. Forget the Chandler’s The Little Sister with Garner as plot, just enjoy the cast, gorgeous costumes, Philip Marlowe, hired by girl to find missCharisse’s fiery dance number, and the noving brother. Really belongs in 1940s, but elty (for 1951) of a Latino as a leading man. works fairly well; Moreno memorable as Mark of the Vampire (1935) 61m. ★★★ stripper who helps solve case in exciting fiD: Tod Browning. Lionel Barrymore, Eliznale, plus hilarious scene where Lee reduces abeth Allan, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Marlowe’s office to rubble. [M/PG]▼ Carol (Carroll) Borland, Jean Hersholt, Marnie (1964) C-129m. ★★★ D: Alfred Donald Meek. Delightful, intriguing tale of Hitchcock. Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren, vampires terrorizing European village; inspecDiane Baker, Martin Gabel, Louise Latham, tor Atwill, vampire expert Barrymore investiAlan Napier. This story of a habitual thief gate. Beautifully done, with an incredible (Hedren) whose employer (Connery) is ending. Remake of Browning’s silent LONdetermined to understand her illness was DON AFTER MIDNIGHT.▼●쩠 considered a misfire in 1964 . . . but ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Mark of Zorro, The (1920) 90m. there’s more than meets the eye, especially Fred Niblo. Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Marfor Hitchcock buffs. Script by Jay Presson guerite De La Motte, Noah Beery, Robert Allen. Look for Bruce Dern, Mariette HartMcKim, Charles Mailes. Silent classic with ley, and Melody Scott Thomas in small Fairbanks as the masked hero of old Caliroles.▼●쩠 fornia; perhaps Doug’s best film—his first Maroc 7 (1967-British) C-91m. ★★ D: swashbuckler. Nonstop fun.▼●쩠 Gerry O’Hara. Gene Barry, Elsa Martinelli, 1 ★★★ Mark of Zorro, The (1940) 93m. ⁄2 Cyd Charisse, Leslie Phillips. Slow robberyD: Rouben Mamoulian. Tyrone Power, murder tale of secret agent out to catch Linda Darnell, Basil Rathbone, Gale Sonsplit-personality thief. Panavision.▼ dergaard, Eugene Pallette, J. Edward Marooned (1969) C-134m. ★★ D: John Bromberg, Montagu Love. Lavish swashSturges. Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, buckler with Power as son of California James Franciscus, David Janssen, Gene aristocrat in 1800s, alternately a foppish Hackman, Lee Grant, Nancy Kovack, dandy and a dashing masked avenger of Mariette Hartley. Glossy but disappointing evil: climactic swordplay with Rathbone a story of astronauts unable to return to swashbuckling gem. Great score by Alfred earth, while space agency head Peck tries Newman. Remade for TV in 1974.▼●쩠 to keep lid from blowing off. Alternately Marlene (1984-German) C/B&W-96m. ★★★ boring and excruciating; climactic scenes in D: Maximilian Schell. Utterly, unexspace produce agony, not excitement. Oscarpectedly fascinating look at Marlene Diewinning special effects are chief asset. Retitrich, built on unusual foundation of a tapetled SPACE TRAVELLERS. Panavision. recorded interview with Schell that she [M/PG] ▼●쩠 refused to allow to be filmed! How Schell Marquise of O, The (1976-French-German) turns this liability into an asset for the C-102m. ★★★ D: Eric Rohmer. Edith Clevfilm—just one of its layers—and how er, Bruno Ganz, Peter Luhr, Edda Seippel, Dietrich reveals so much about herself Otto Sander. Delicate, disarmingly simple even in her stubborn rejection of basic story set in 18th-century Italy; a young interview questions, is all part of the film’s widow saved from rape by a Russian solmystique (and Marlene’s). Includes most dier during Franco-Prussian war finds herof her finest moments on screen.▼●쩠 Marley & Me (2008) C-116m. ★★★ D: self pregnant some months later, and doesn’t [ 882 ]

understand how. Beautiful period flavor, marriage, because he’s found a (younger) but film’s charm is very low-key. [PG]▼쩠 woman (McAdams) who truly loves him. Marriage-Go-Round, The (1960) C-98m. He just can’t figure out how to break the ★★1 news to his spouse. Intriguing blend of so⁄2 D: Walter Lang. Susan Hayward, James Mason, Julie Newmar, Robert Paige, cial commentary, soap opera, and noir-ish June Clayworth. Film version of Leslie melodrama set in 1949 plays like one long Stevens’ saucy play about marriage: Mason pregnant pause; elevated by a quartet of is professor attracted to free-love–oriented good actors in top form. Adapted from John Newmar. Amusing, but lacks real bite. Bingham’s novel Five Roundabouts to CinemaScope. Heaven by Sachs and Oren Moverman. Marriage Is a Private Affair (1944) 116m. [PG-13]쩠 ★★★ D: Robert Z. Leonard. Lana Turner, Married to It (1993) C-112m. ★★ D: James Craig, John Hodiak, Frances Gifford, Arthur Hiller. Beau Bridges, Stockard Hugh Marlowe, Keenan Wynn. Somewhat Channing, Robert Sean Leonard, Mary dated, glossy MGM yarn of man-chasing Stuart Masterson, Cybill Shepherd, Ron Turner, not about to be stopped just beSilver, Don Francks, Donna Vivino. Several cause she’s married. married couples meet in Manhattan and beMarriage Italian-Style (1964-Italian) Ccome the unlikeliest of friends. Each spouse 102m. ★★★ D: Vittorio De Sica. Sophia manages to embrace several annoyingly Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Aldo Puglisi, bland cliche´s: yuppie, young newlywed, exPia Lindstrom, Vito Moriconi, Marilu Tolo. hippie, bitchy stepmother—you get the picSpicy account of Loren’s efforts to get longture. Cast of decent actors can’t begin to time lover Mastroianni to marry her and save the pedestrian script. This one sat on the shelf for a couple of years. [R]▼●쩠 stay her husband. Based on Eduardo De Filippo’s 1946 play Filumena. ▼ Married to the Mob (1988) C-103m. ★★★ Marriage of a Young Stockbroker, The D: Jonathan Demme. Michelle Pfeiffer, ★★1 (1971) C-95m. ⁄2 D: Lawrence Turman. Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, MerRichard Benjamin, Joanna Shimkus, Elizcedes Ruehl, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, abeth Ashley, Adam West, Patricia Barry, Trey Wilson, Charles Napier, Tracey WalTiffany Bolling. Humorous and sad depicter, Al Lewis, Nancy Travis, David Johansen tion of marital breakdown; husband indulges (Buster Poindexter), Chris Isaak, Oliver in voyeurism, wife has own problems. Platt, Todd Solondz. A woman tries to esGood cast working with script that seems cape from the Mafia after the death of her uncertain as to what point it wants to drive hit man husband, only to find that the local across. Director Turman, who’d produced boss has the hots for her. Amiable, enterTHE GRADUATE, hoped lightning would taining farce with right-on performances by strike twice with this adaptation of novel Pfeiffer and Stockwell (in a neat comic turn as by same author, Charles Webb. [PG— the mafioso). Only director Demme could edited from original R rating]▼ make a mob movie with likable characters in Marriage of Maria Braun, The (1978it! Score by David Byrne. [R]▼●쩠 German) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rainer WerMarried Woman, A (1964-French) 94m. ★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. Macha Meril, ner Fassbinder. Hanna Schygulla, Ivan Desny, Gottfried John, Klaus Lowitsch, Philippe Leroy, Bernard Noel. Turgid threeGisela Uhlen. Schygulla shines in the Joan cornered romance, with Meril unable to Crawfordesque role of a penniless soldier’s decide between husband Leroy and lover wife who builds an industrial empire after Noel; then, she finds herself pregnant. the end of WW2. Riveting; the first of Godard narrates this pretentious allegory of middle-class alienation.▼쩠 Fassbinder’s three parables of postwar Germany, followed by LOLA and VERMarrying Kind, The (1952) 93m. ★★★ D: ONIKA VOSS. [R]▼쩠 George Cukor. Judy Holliday, Aldo Ray, Marriage on the Rocks (1965) C-109m. Madge Kennedy, Sheila Bond, John Alex★★1⁄2 D: Jack Donohue. Frank Sinatra, ander, Rex Williams, Phyllis Povah, Peggy Deborah Kerr, Dean Martin, Cesar RomeCass, Mickey Shaughnessy, Griff Barnett. ro, Hermione Baddeley, Tony Bill, Nancy Bittersweet drama of young couple on verge Sinatra, John McGiver, Trini Lopez. Frank of divorce recalling their life together via and Deborah have marital spat, get quickie flashbacks; sensitive performers outshine Mexican divorce, she ends up married to talky script—but story and situations haven’t dated one bit.▼쩠 his best pal, Dino. A waste of real talent. Panavision.▼쩠 Marrying Man, The (1991) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 Married Life (2008) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ira D: Jerry Rees. Kim Basinger, Alec BaldSachs. Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, win, Robert Loggia, Elisabeth Shue, ArPierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams, David mand Assante, Paul Reiser, Fisher Stevens, Wenham, David Richmond-Peck. SuccessPeter Dobson, Gretchen Wyler. Engaged ful businessman Cooper tells his best friend L.A. playboy joyrides with buddies to (Brosnan) that he plans to leave his wife post-WW2 Las Vegas—and falls for a (Clarkson) and disrupt their apparently happy gorgeous chanteuse who happens to be [ 883 ]

Bugsy Siegel’s mistress. Neil Simon origiits time, when women were discovering nal was notorious for its on-set hijinks, feminism. Cineastes take note: Martha’s last in-fighting, and star egos, causing just name is Heyer (as in Martha Hyer), and she about everyone down to the Key Grip to lives on Douglas Sirk Street! First made disown the thing. In truth, the picture’s available in the U.S. in 1994.쩠 fairly entertaining, with sexy Baldwin and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence SEE: Very Thought of You, The super-sultry Basinger hard to resist. [R]▼●쩠 Martian Child (2007) C-106m. ★★ D: Marry Me Again (1953) 73m. ★★ D: Frank Tashlin. Robert Cummings, Marie Menno Meyjes. John Cusack, Bobby ColeWilson, Mary Costa, Jess Barker. Mild man, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Oliver Platt, shenanigans of aviator Cummings and Anjelica Huston, Sophie Okonedo, Richard beauty contest winner Wilson’s on-again, Schiff, Howard Hesseman. By turns annoyoff-again romance. ingly sappy and affectingly sentimental, unMarry Me, Marry Me (1969-French) even comedy-drama focuses on the father-son C-87m. ★★★ D: Claude Berri. Elisabeth bond that develops between a recently widWiener, Regine, Claude Berri, Luisa owed sci-fi author (John Cusack) and an orColpeyn. Delightful story of love and (what phaned youngster (Coleman) who claims to be else?) marriage, Berri-style. [M/PG]▼ an extraterrestrial. Joan Cusack, John’s real-life Mars Attacks! (1996) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: sibling, offsets the schmaltz with her sassy supTim Burton. Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, porting performance as the writer’s sister. Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny Based on David Gerrold’s novella. [PG]쩠 DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Martians Go Home (1990) C-89m. ★1⁄2 Michael J. Fox, Rod Steiger, Tom Jones, D: David Odell. Randy Quaid, Margaret Lukas Haas, Natalie Portman, Jim Brown, Colin, Anita Morris, Barry Sobel, Vic Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Sylvia Sidney, Dunlop, John Philbin, Gerrit Graham, Jack Black, Lisa Marie, Joe Don Baker, Ronny Cox, Harry Basil. TV songwriter Christina Applegate, Barbet Schroeder. Quaid accidentally summons a billion green Overly self-satisfied spoof of ’50s alien-inwisecracking Martians to Earth; chaos (limvasion movies (and ’50s attitudes) has Marited by the film’s low budget) ensues. tians landing in flying saucers. President Fredric Brown’s classic sci-fi humor novel Nicholson urges calm and reason, but the misfires on the screen, partly because the little guys turn out to be predators . . . nasty pesky Martians are all played by mediocre ones at that! Great effects and animation (of standup comics. [PG-13]▼● the Martian characters) but awfully broad Martin (1978) C-95m. ★★★ D: George A. and one-note in tone, spoofing something Romero. John Amplas, Lincoln Maazel, that’s already funny in the straight-faced Christine Forrest, Elayne Nadeau, Tom originals of the period. One can’t comSavini, Sarah Venable, George A. Romero. pletely dislike a film in which Slim WhitTypical Romero mix of social satire and man figures so prominently, however. stomach-churning gore: 17-year-old Amplas Inspired by a gum card series of the same thinks he’s a vampire (lacking fangs, he name. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 must resort to razor blades); thanks to his Marseille Contract, The SEE: Destrucfrequent calls to a late-night radio show, tors, The (1974) he’s also something of a local celebrity! Mars Invades Puerto Rico SEE: FrankIntriguing little shocker is worth seeing, enstein Meets the Space Monster but not right after dinner. [R]▼●쩠 Mars Needs Women (1968) C-80m. ★1⁄2 Martin Lawrence Live: Runteldat SEE: D: Larry Buchanan. Tommy Kirk, Yvonne Runteldat Craig, Byron Lord, Roger Ready, Warren Martin Lawrence: You So Crazy SEE: Hammack, Anthony Houston. Just as the You So Crazy title suggests, Martians Kirk and four pals, Martin’s Day (1984-Canadian) C-98m. ★★ D: Alan Gibson. Richard Harris, Lindhoping to increase birthrate on their planet, arrive here to capture live women. Strangely say Wagner, James Coburn, Justin Henry, sincere but extremely silly and distended. Karen Black, John Ireland. Utterly ordinary Texas-made film written by the director. ‘‘family film’’ about escaped prisoner who Most important revelation: Mars abandoned kidnaps (and ultimately befriends) young boy. Bland and unconvincing. [PG]▼ neckties 50 years ago.▼●쩠 Marsupials, The: The Howling III SEE: Marty (1955) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Delbert Mann. Howling III Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Joe Mantell, Martha (1973-West German) C-112m. Joe De Santis, Esther Minciotti, Augusta ★★1 Ciolli, Karen Steele, Jerry Paris, Frank ⁄2 D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Bohm, Gisela FackSutton. Borgnine shines as a Bronx butcher eldey, Adrian Hoven, Peter Chatel. Unsubwho unexpectedly finds love. Paddy Chaytle account of spinsterish Carstensen, who efsky adapted his TV play for the screen. has spent her life under the control of her Oscar winner for Borgnine, Chayefsky, father. He dies and she immediately marMann, and Best Picture. Some prints inries, with disastrous results. Very much of clude a scene with Blair and her parents [ 884 ]

that’s inexplicably missing from other verDotrice, Matthew Garber, Arthur Treacher, sions. ▼●쩠 Reginald Owen. There’s charm, wit, and Marvin and Tige (1983) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 movie magic to spare in Walt Disney’s D: Eric Weston. John Cassavetes, Gibran adaptation of P. L. Travers’ book about Brown, Billy Dee Williams, Denise Nicha ‘‘practically perfect’’ nanny who brings olas Hill, Fay Hauser. Tearjerker about a profound change to the Banks family of loser (Cassavetes) who takes in an aimless London, circa 1910. Oscars went to Rich11-year-old (Brown) who tried to kill himard and Robert Sherman for their tuneful self. Well acted, and well intentioned, but score, the song ‘‘Chim-Chim-Cheree,’’ the pretty standard stuff. Aka LIKE FATHER formidable Visual Effects team, Cotton AND SON, running 109m. [PG]▼ Warburton for his editing, and Andrews, Marvin’s Room (1996) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: in her film debut (though Van Dyke is Jerry Zaks. Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaequally good as Bert, the whimsical jack prio, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, Hume of all trades). That’s Jane Darwell, in Cronyn, Gwen Verdon, Dan Hedaya, Hal her last screen appearance, as the bird Scardino, Victor Garber. Affecting adaptalady. A wonderful movie. Scripted by cotion of Scott McPherson’s Off-Broadway producer Bill Walsh and Donald Da Gradi. Adapted for the stage in 2004. ▼●쩠 play about a woman who’s devoted her adult life to caring for her stroke-ridden faMary, Queen of Scots (1971) C-128m. ★★★ ther and a dithery aunt; now she must call D: Charles Jarrott. Vanessa Redgrave, on her long-estranged sister and nephews to Glenda Jackson, Patrick McGoohan, Timhelp out in her own health emergency. A othy Dalton, Nigel Davenport, Trevor Howpoignant and pointed look at family ties, ard, Daniel Massey, Ian Holm. Inaccurate old wounds, love, and responsibility, with history lesson but good costume drama, uniformly fine performances. Cronyn adds with strong performances from Redgrave immeasurable strength, though he says not as Mary, Jackson as Queen Elizabeth, ria word. Rachel Portman’s beautiful score is vals for power in Tudor England. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 another asset. Broadway director Zaks’ film debut. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mary Reilly (1996) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: SteMarx Brothers at the Circus SEE: At phen Frears. Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, the Circus Glenn Close, George Cole, Michael GamMarx Brothers Go West SEE: Go West bon, Kathy Staff, Michael Sheen, Bronagh Maryjane (1968) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Maury Gallagher, Linda Bassett, Ciara´n Hinds. InDexter. Fabian, Diane McBain, Michael triguing premise: the story of Dr. Jekyll and Margotta, Kevin Coughlin, Patty McCorMr. Hyde from the point of view of a housemack, Terri (Teri) Garr. 1960s version of maid in his employ. Unfortunately, this REEFER MADNESS casts Fabian as high chamber drama is played out in ponderous school art teacher who tries to keep his fashion and almost sinks under its own students from smoking grass; terrible, but weight, despite the interesting performances may play better if you’re stoned. Look by its stars. (Admittedly, Roberts’ Irish acquickly for Garry Marshall and the film’s cent comes and goes at whim.) Close is fun cowriters, Dick Gautier and Peter Marshall. in a flamboyant part as a madam. ScreenMary, Mary (1963) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: play by Christopher Hampton from the novel by Valerie Martin. [R]▼●쩠 Mervyn LeRoy. Debbie Reynolds, Barry Nelson, Michael Rennie, Diane McBain, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) C128m. ★★ D: Kenneth Branagh. Robert De Hiram Sherman. Unremarkable, stagy adaptation of Jean Kerr’s sex comedy about Niro, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Hulce, Helena divorced couple trying to screw up each Bonham Carter, Aidan Quinn, Ian Holm, other’s new romances. Stick with THE Richard Briers, John Cleese, Robert Hardy, AWFUL TRUTH. Cherie Lunghi. Hugely disappointing, ‘‘faithful’’ rendition of the Frankenstein saga. EnerMary of Scotland (1936) 123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Katharine Hepburn, Fredric getic to a fault, with a camera that refuses to March, Florence Eldridge, Douglas Walstand still. Branagh allows us to understand ton, Moroni Olsen, John Carradine, Robert what makes Dr. F. tick, but the story goes Barrat, Ian Keith, Ralph Forbes, Alan Mowaskew once his creation is unleashed. Furbray, Donald Crisp. Lavish historical drama ther encumbered by story framework with in which Mary, Queen of Scots (Hepburn), sea captain Quinn. De Niro’s monster rereturns to her homeland from France, to rule mains doggedly De Niro-ish, and makes ‘‘fairly and justly.’’ She falls in love with one yearn for Karloff. (Even Peter Boyle would do.) [R]▼●쩠 lord March and contends with various treacheries. Based on a play by Maxwell Ma Saison Pre´fe´re´e (1993-French) CAnderson.▼●쩠 124m. ★★★ D: Andre´ Te´chine´. Catherine Mary Poppins (1964) C-140m. ★★★★ D: Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Marthe VillaRobert Stevenson. Julie Andrews, Dick longa, Jean-Pierre Bouvier, Chiara MastroiVan Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, anni, Carmen Chaplin, Anthony Prada. Ed Wynn, Hermione Baddeley, Karen Story of intertwining relationships, and [ 885 ]

more interestingly, familial bonds and duties. Deneuve (married, with successful small business but stress at home) and eccentric brother Auteuil (a bachelor and neurosurgeon) make realistic, offbeat leads as adults trying to understand and enjoy life. Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni’s reallife daughter, Chiara, makes her film debut, playing Deneuve’s daughter. Talky, but worthwhile. Panavision.▼●쩠 Masculine-Feminine (1966-French-Swedish) 103m. ★★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. Jean-Pierre Le´aud, Chantal Goya, Marlene Jobert, Michel Debord, CatherineIsabelle Duport, Eva-Britt Strandberg, Brigitte Bardot. Engaging, original concoction mixes politics, sex, comedy, nostalgia with standard boy-meets-girl theme. Interviewer/journalist Le´aud has affair with would-be rock star singer Goya; they’re Godard’s ‘‘children of Marx and CocaCola.’’ Adapted, oddly enough, from a Guy de Maupassant story!▼쩠 MASH (1970) C-116m. ★★★★ D: Robert Altman. Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Jo Ann Pflug, Rene Auberjonois, Roger Bowen, Gary Burghoff, Fred Williamson, John Schuck, Bud Cort, G. Wood. Altman’s first major success gave new meaning to the word ‘‘irreverence,’’ set new style for contemporary filmmaking; follows black-comedy exploits of wild and woolly medical unit during Korean War in hilarious, episodic fashion. Oscar-winning screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr.; reissued in 1973 at 112m., with new title music by Ahmad Jamal. Later a hit TV series (M*A*S*H). Panavision. [PG—edited from original R rating]▼●쩠 Mask, The (1961-Canadian) 83m. ★1⁄2 D: Julian Roffman. Paul Stevens, Claudette Nevins, Bill Walker, Anne Collings, Martin Lavut, Jim Moran. Low-budget shocker about an ancient Aztec mask that causes wearer to hallucinate and murder. 3-D scenes were put together by famed montage expert Slavko Vorkapich. Retitled EYES OF HELL.▼● Mask (1985) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Bogdanovich. Cher, Sam Elliott, Eric Stoltz, Estelle Getty, Richard Dysart, Laura Dern, Harry Carey, Jr., Lawrence Monoson, Marsha Warfield, Barry Tubb, Andrew Robinson. Irresistible film based on true story of Rocky Dennis, teenage boy whose face has been terribly disfigured by a rare disease, and his mother Rusty, who’s instilled a sense of confidence and love in her son, though her own defenses are easily broken down. Anna Hamilton Phelan’s script dodges cliche´, while Cher and Stoltz make their characters warm and real. A winner. Director’s cut runs 127m. [PG-13]

Fiorella Infascelli. Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Maloney, Feodor Chaliapin, Roberto Herlitzka. Trivial, dull account of self-centered count’s son who becomes obsessed with pretty young actress Carter. She’s put off by him, so he woos her by donning various masks and changing his identity. Extremely slow-moving. Mask, The (1994) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Russell. Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck, Richard Jeni, Orestes Matacena, Timothy Bagley, Nancy Fish, Ben Stein. A wimpy bank clerk discovers a mask that turns him into a sizzling Superdude who acts out his alter ego’s fantasies. Pretty entertaining, though it’s seamier (and more violent) than it needs to be, and has some real lulls during its plottier moments. The already rubberfaced Carrey is aided and abetted by stunning digital computer effects, inspired by the manic 1940s cartoons of Tex Avery. Based on the comic book. Followed by SON OF THE MASK and an animated TV series. Also available in PG version. [PG13]▼●쩠 Masked and Anonymous (2003-U.S.British) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Larry Charles. Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Pene´lope Cruz, John Goodman, Jessica Lange, Luke Wilson. A faded music legend is freed from jail to headline a televised benefit concert. Dylan and Charles (using pseudonyms) penned this misfire, set in a fictional America that’s become a police state. Shaggy storytelling, Dylan’s nonperformance, and an air of pomposity do this in. Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Cheech Marin, Chris Penn, Giovanni Ribisi, Mickey Rourke, Christian Slater, and Fred Ward are among those who appear in cameos. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Mask of Diijon, The (1946) 73m. ★★ D: Lewis Landers. Erich von Stroheim, Jeanne Bates, Denise Vernac, William Wright, Edward Van Sloan. Stroheim is hypnotist who has delusions of grandeur, and schemes to commit murder; exciting finish.▼쩠 Mask of Dimitrios, The (1944) 95m. ★★★ D: Jean Negulesco. Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, Zachary Scott, Faye Emerson, Victor Francen, George Tobias, Steve Geray, Eduardo Ciannelli, Florence Bates. Fine, offbeat melodrama with mild-mannered mystery writer Lorre reviewing life of notorious scoundrel Scott (in film debut). Frank Gruber adapted Eric Ambler’s novel A Coffin for Dimitrios. As always, Lorre and Greenstreet make a marvelous team.▼ Mask of Fu Manchu, The (1932) 68m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Brabin. Boris Karloff, Lewis Stone, Karen Morley, Myrna Loy, Charles Starrett, Jean Hersholt. Elaborate chiller of Chinese madman Karloff menacing expedition searching for tomb of Genghis Khan. Adaptation of Sax Rohmer ▼●쩠 Mask, The (1988-Italian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: novel is ornate and hokey, but fun; Loy is [ 886 ]

terrific as Fu’s deliciously evil daughter.

★★★

D: Renee Daalder. Derrel Maury, Andrew Stevens, Kimberly Beck, Robert Mask of Zorro, The (1998) C-136m. Carradine, Roy Underwood, Steve Bond. D: Martin Campbell. Antonio Banderas, Newcomer to California high school doesn’t Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta-Jones, like the way students are being terrorized Stuart Wilson, Matt Letscher, Maury Chayby a gang, so he decides to eliminate kin, Tony Amendola, Pedro Armendariz, them, in ultra-violent fashion . . . but L.Q. Jones, Victor Rivers. An aging Zorro that’s not the end of the story. Seemingly passes the mantle of public protector to a typical blend of teen and revenge formulas younger man, who’s reluctant at first but given offbeat twists by writer-director soon relishes his secret identity with cape Daalder. [R]▼ and sword. Exquisite, exciting, with great Massacre at Fort Holman SEE: Reaswordplay and horse action—but has too son to Live, a Reason to Die, A much of everything, as if the filmmakers Massacre in Rome (1973-French-Italian) want to wear you out. Banderas is an ideal C-103m. ★★★ D: George Pan Cosmatos. Zorro, Hopkins a surprisingly engaging one, Richard Burton, Marcello Mastroianni, Leo Zeta-Jones a saucy and beautiful heroine. McKern, John Steiner, Anthony Steel. Good Followed by THE LEGEND OF ZORRO. drama: priest Mastroianni opposed to idealisPanavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 tic German Colonel Burton, who must exeMasque of the Red Death, The (1964) cute 330 Roman hostages in retaliation for C-86m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Roger Corman. Vincent deaths of 33 Nazi soldiers. [PG]▼쩠 Price, Hazel Court, Jane Asher, David Massacre Mansion SEE: Nesting, The Weston, Patrick Magee, Skip Martin, Nigel Mass Appeal (1984) C-100m. ★★★ D: Green, John Westbrook. The most BergmanGlenn Jordan. Jack Lemmon. Zeljko like of Corman’s films, an ultra-stylish Ivanek, Charles Durning, Louise Latham, adaptation of the Poe tale (with another, Lois de Banzie, James Ray, Talia Balsam, Hop Frog, worked in as a subplot), Gloria Stuart. Feisty young seminarian ratstarring Price as evil Prince Prospero, livtles the complacency of a popular parish ing it up in eerie, timeless castle while priest in this entertaining filmization of Plague ravages the countryside. BeautiBill C. Davis’ glib Broadway play. Lemmon fully photographed in England by Nicolas is first-rate as usual, and though film belies its stage origins it still works fine. [PG]▼● Roeg. Remade in 1989. Panavision.▼●쩠 Masque of the Red Death (1989) C-83m. Master and Commander: The Far Side ★★ of the World (2003) C-139m. ★★★ D: Peter D: Larry Brand. Adrian Paul, Clare Hoak, Jeff Osterhage, Patrick Macnee, Tracy Weir. Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Reiner. Roger Corman produced this reBoyd, James D’Arcy, Lee Ingleby, George make of one of his best films. Poe’s Prince Innes, Mark Lewis Jones, Chris Larkin, Prospero (Paul) is still dissipated, but this Richard McCabe, Robert Pugh, David time more thoughtful and troubled. DeThrelfall. Lavish adaptation of Patrick spite an interesting approach to figure of the O’Brian’s series of naval novels, with Red Death and literate (if talky) script, overall Crowe as British Captain Jack Aubrey of cheapness and very slow pace cripple this the HMS Surprise against a dangerous medieval melodrama. [R]▼ enemy during the Napoleonic era. Heavier Masquerade (1965-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 on atmosphere than on story, but Crowe is D: Basil Dearden. Cliff Robertson, Jack an ideal commander, the human element is Hawkins, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Bill nicely played, and the physical production Fraser, John LeMesurier. Above-average is impressive. Screenplay by Weir and John spy satire highlighted by Robertson’s porCollee. Oscar winner for Best Cinematogratrayal of recruited agent. Good support phy (Russell Boyd) and Sound Editing. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 casting with good location shooting to give Arabic atmosphere. Master Gunfighter, The (1975) C-121m. 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Bob Masquerade (1988) C-91m. BOMB D: Frank Laughlin. Tom Laughlin, Swaim. Rob Lowe, Meg Tilly, Kim CatRon O’Neal, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Geo Anne trall, Doug Savant, John Glover, Dana Sosa, Barbara Carrera, Victor Campos. Delany, Erik Holland. Lowe essentially BILLY JACK’S creator-star is an intense has the ambiguous Cary Grant SUSPIgunfighter who hates to kill but does it just CION role: Does he really love delicate the same. Lots of rhetoric. Remake of a (and in this case, filthy rich) spouse 1969 Japanese samurai film, GOYOKIN. Tilly—or is he planning to murder her at Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 the first opportunity? Romantic suspense Mastermind (1976) C-131m. ★★★ D: Alex thriller has its moments, and might have March. Zero Mostel, Bradford Dillman, had more with a better leading man. Keiko Kishi, Gawn Grainger, Herbert Merely OK, with Tilly, Glover, Delany Berghof, Jules Munshin, Sorrell Booke. and lovely Hamptons scenery offering Enjoyable spoof of Charlie Chan films with Mostel as Inspector Hoku, who tries compensation. [R]▼●쩠 Massacre at Central High (1976) C-85m. to protect robot-like invention sought by [ 887 ]

▼●쩠

★★★

international interests. Some good slapstick, Master Touch, The (1973-Italian-German) C-96m. ★★ D: Michele Lupo. Kirk Douglas, rousing car chase. Received limited release after sitting on shelf since 1969. [G]▼ Florinda Bolkan, Giuliano Gemma, Rene Masterminds (1997) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Koldehoff. Safecracker Douglas, just out of Roger Christian. Patrick Stewart, Vincent jail, attempts to trip up a foolproof alarm Kartheiser, Brenda Fricker, Brad Whitford, and rip off a safe for $1 million. DeadenMatt Craven, Annabelle Gurwitch. Highing. Techniscope. [PG]▼쩠 tech action/adventure yarn finds evil genius Matador (1986-Spanish) C-106m. ★★★ D: Stewart taking over an exclusive private Pedro Almodo´var. Assumpta Serna, Antoschool for ransom, but former student and nio Banderas, Nacho Martinez, Carmen computer whiz kid Kartheiser stands in his Maura, Eva Cobo, Julieta Serrano, Chus Lamway. Kids might find the attitude-driven preave. Dazzling black comedy chronicles script harmless fantasy, but adults may plight of retired matador Martinez, passing cringe watching this DIE HARD for pretime by compulsively watching snuff films— teens. Super 35. [PG-13]▼● and his young, troubled prote´ge´ (Banderas). Opening sequence is a real stunner.▼●쩠 Master of Ballantrae, The (1953) C-89m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: William Keighley. Errol Flynn, Matador, The (2005) C-97m. ★★★ D: RichRoger Livesey, Anthony Steel, Yvonne ard Shepard. Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Furneaux. Robert Louis Stevenson’s hisHope Davis, Philip Baker Hall, Dylan Baker, torical yarn has Flynn involved in plot to Adam Scott. Amusing black comedy/ make Bonnie Prince Charles king of Encharacter study about a paid assassin who gland; on-location filming in Scotland, strikes up an acquaintance with a straitlaced Sicily, and England adds scope to costumer. American businessman while on assignRemade for TV in 1984.▼●쩠 ment in Mexico. The two men couldn’t be Master of Disguise, The (2002) C-80m. more different, but at a moment of crisis, ★1 the hit man realizes that the square is in fact ⁄2 D: Perry Andelin Blake. Dana Carvey, Brent Spiner, Jennifer Esposito, Harold his only friend. Low-key from start to finGould, James Brolin, Maria Canals, Mark ish, but sharply defined performances by Devine, Edie McClurg, Austin Wolff. SimBrosnan, Kinnear, and Davis and Shepard’s pleminded Italian waiter named Pistachio offbeat script make this worth watching. Disguisey must rescue his kidnapped parSuper 35. [R]쩠 ents from a super-criminal after learning Mata Hari (1932) 90m. ★★★ D: George that he’s descended from a long line of seFitzmaurice. Greta Garbo, Ramon Novarro, cret agent–type disguise masters. PurportLionel Barrymore, Lewis Stone, C. Henry edly aimed at little kids, yet packed with Gordon, Karen Morley. Garbo is the allurspoofs of SCARFACE, THE EXORCIST, ing spy of WW1, beguiling everyone from and other grown-up movies. Silly, fartNovarro to Barrymore. Highlights: Garbo’s filled, often embarrassingly unfunny pretext exotic dance sequence, Morley stalked by for Carvey (who also cowrote) to do goofy gang executioner. That’s an unbilled Mischa impersonations and act like an imbecile. Auer in opening scene as condemned man Cameos include Bo Derek, Jesse Ventura, who won’t betray Garbo’s love.▼●쩠 and Kevin Nealon. [PG]▼쩠 Match Factory Girl, The (1990-Finnish) Master of the World (1961) C-104m. C-70m. ★★★ D: Aki Kaurismaki. Kati ★★★ Outinen, Elina Salo, Esko Nikkari, Vesa D: William Witney. Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Mary Webster, Henry Vierikko. A drab, oppressed young woman Hull, Richard Harrison. Sci-fi adventure allows herself to fall for the wrong man; he adapted from two Jules Verne novels about unceremoniously dumps her, but her reaction a 19th-century genius (Price) seeking to is anything but passive. Clever, ironic pitchstop war from his ingenious flying mablack comedy from prolific Kaurismaki. ▼쩠 chine, a cross between a zeppelin and a Matchmaker, The (1958) 101m. ★★★ D: helicopter. Bronson (oddly cast) admires Joseph Anthony. Shirley Booth, Anthony Perhis ends, deplores his methods, and sets kins, Shirley MacLaine, Paul Ford, Robert out to stop him. Very well done. ScreenMorse, Wallace Ford. Endearing Thornton play by Richard Matheson.▼● Wilder comedy about middle-aged widower Masters of the Universe (1987) C-106m. deciding to re-wed . . . but the matchmaker he ★★ consults has plans of her own. Solid perforD: Gary Goddard. Dolph Lundgren, Frank Langella, Courteney Cox, James Tolmances, fine period detail; later musicalized as HELLO, DOLLY! VistaVision.▼●쩠 kan, Meg Foster, Christina Pickles, Billy Barty, Jon Cypher. He-Man (Lundgren) Matchmaker, The (1997-U.S.-Irish) Ccomes to Earth seeking a key that controls the 96m. ★★★ D: Mark Joffe. Janeane Garofalo, power of the universe, stolen by cosmic crud David O’Hara, Milo O’Shea, Denis Leary, Skeletor (unrecognizable Langella); somehow Jay O. Sanders, Rosaleen Linehan, Paul two teen puppy-lovers get involved. Elaborate Hickey, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Robert comic book nonsense (which has had another Mandan. Cute comedy about a campaign life in kiddie animation) is dumb but inoffenworker for a less than exemplary U.S. Senasive. [PG]▼●쩠 tor from Massachusetts, who’s given the job [ 888 ]

of tracing his relatives to a small village in every note ring true in this meticulous peIreland and setting up a photo opportunity riod piece; he even cowrote some phony to entice the state’s Irish-American vote. labor songs! Beautifully photographed by Haskell Wexler. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Garofalo arrives in the remote village during its annual matchmaking festival and, deMatilda (1978) C-103m. BOMB D: Danspite everything, gets caught up in a iel Mann. Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum, relationship. Fanciful, rather than realistic, Harry Guardino, Clive Revill, Karen Carlbut entertaining. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 son, Lionel Stander, Larry Pennell, Art Match Point (2005-U.S.-British) C-124m. Metrano. Good cast wasted in awful kiddie ★★★ pic about a boxing kangaroo, played by a D: Woody Allen. Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, man in a suit (Gary Morgan). Paul Gallico’s novel loses everything in translation. [G]▼ Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton, Ewen Bremner, James Nesbitt, Rupert Matilda (1996) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Danny DePenry-Jones, Margaret Tyzack. Dramatic Vito. Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Emeffort from Allen about an ambitious young beth Davidtz, Pam Ferris, Mara Wilson, tennis coach in London who gets involved Paul Reubens, Tracey Walter, Kiami Dawith the daughter of a prominent family as vael. Cursed with a cretinous family and a well as a sexy American actress, with conwitch of a school principal, a bright young sequences that no one—he least of all—can girl learns self-reliance—and develops unforesee. Dark examination of chance and usual powers. Wilson’s irresistible charm fate covers familiar ground, but Allen reanchors this very black comedy from the sponds to the fresh British milieu with some book by Roald Dahl. The bizarre goings-on, of his most urgent and (surprisingly) pasand the strange sensibilities, may play better sionate filmmaking. Echoes of Crime and on the printed page (and in a reader’s imagiPunishment and An American Tragedy nation) than they do when acted out literally abound. [R]쩠 on-screen. Anne Ramsey being dead, DeVito Matchstick Men (2003) C-116m. ★★★ D: had to find another harpy—in this case the Ridley Scott. Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, furious Ferris. Jon Lovitz appears unbilled; Alison Lohman, Bruce Altman, Bruce DeVito narrates. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 McGill, Sheila Kelley, Beth Grant. Phobic Matinee (1993) C-98m. ★★★ D: Joe Dante. con artist discovers he has a teenage daughJohn Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenter, which casts a new light on his work, his ton, Omri Katz, Lisa Jakub, Kellie Martin, relationship with his prote´ge´-partner, and Jesse Lee, Lucinda Jenney, James Villemaire, his life in general. Lively, engaging yarn Robert Picardo, Jesse White, Dick Miller, with pinpoint performances and a nice eye John Sayles, David Clennon, Luke Halpin, for detail, though it goes on a bit longer than Naomi Watts. Goodman is delightful as a it should . . . and then pulls the rug out. movie schlockmeister (inspired by real-life Inventive score by Hans Zimmer and great producer William Castle) previewing his latuse of source music, too. Based on the novel est scare-the-pants-off-’em horror movie at a by Eric Garcia. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Key West theater—the very weekend of the Material Girls (2006) C-97m. ★★ D: MarCuban missile crisis, when everyone’s nerves tha Coolidge. Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, are on edge. Sweet-natured film, full of nostalMaria Conchita Alonso, Anjelica Huston, gia and in-jokes for film buffs, but a little slow Brent Spiner, Lukas Haas, Marcus Coloma, (and soft) until it gets rolling. Film-within-aObba Babatunde, Colleen Camp, Judy Tenfilm, MANT, is a real hoot, with appearances uta. Two spoiled cosmetics industry heirby sci-fi stalwarts William Schallert, Kevin esses lose their money after a controversy McCarthy, Robert Cornthwaite. [PG]▼●쩠 involving face cream and a disfiguring skin Matinee Idol, The (1928) 56m. ★★★ D: disease. Forced to suffer indignities like ridFrank Capra. Johnnie Walker, Bessie Love, ing the bus and wearing last year’s fashions, Lionel Belmore, Ernest Hilliard, Sidney they eventually learn the value of hard work D’Albrook. Delightful farce about Broadway and fight to reclaim their company’s reputastar Walker who, while stranded in the countion. This movie glorifies ‘‘the high life’’ try, appears incognito in Love’s local play, while praising its heroines for transcending then brings her amateur theater group to N.Y. it. Filled with absurdities, but fast paced, to put on a hilariously bad Civil War show. colorful, and painless. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Long-lost Capra silent is an expert mixture Matewan (1987) C-130m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John of comedy, romance, and sentiment.▼쩠 Sayles. Chris Cooper, Will Oldham, Mary Mating Game, The (1959) C-96m. ★★★ McDonnell, Bob Gunton, James Earl Jones, D: George Marshall. Debbie Reynolds, Kevin Tighe, Gordon Clapp, Josh Mostel, Tony Randall, Paul Douglas, Fred Clark, Joe Grifasi, Maggie Renzi, David StratUna Merkel, Philip Ober, Charles Lane. hairn. Compelling and compassionate drama Zippy comedy romp of tax agent Randall about labor troubles in the heart of coalfalling in love with farm girl Reynolds, mining country, Matewan, West Virginia, in with Douglas rambunctious as Debbie’s the 1920s. As usual, writer-director Sayles father. CinemaScope.▼쩠 (who appears briefly as a preacher) makes Mating Season, The (1951) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 [ 889 ]

D: Mitchell Leisen. Gene Tierney, John than the love story between Reeves and Lund, Miriam Hopkins, Thelma Ritter, Moss. BILL & TED’S BOGUS JOURNEY Jan Sterling, Larry Keating, James Lorishould not be the better sequel on Reeves’ resume´. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 mer. Excellent, underrated comedy with cynical undertones about the American Matter of Innocence, A (1967-British) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy Green. Hayley Mills, dream. Hardworking Lund marries socialite Tierney, suffers embarrassment when his Trevor Howard, Shashi Kapoor, Brenda De plain-talking mother (Ritter) comes to town Banzie. Plain Jane (Mills) travels to Singaand is mistaken for servant. Ritter is simply pore with aunt, has an affair with Eurasuperb. Written by Walter Reisch, Richard sian Kapoor and becomes a woman. Trite Breen, and producer Charles Brackett. soaper with unusual role for suave HowMatrix, The (1999) C-136m. ★★1⁄2 D: The ard; from Noel Coward story ‘‘Pretty Polly.’’ Wachowski Brothers. Keanu Reeves, LauTechniscope. rence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Matter of Life and Death, A (1946-BritWeaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano, Marish) C-104m. ★★★★ D: Michael Powell, Emcus Chong. A computer hacker (Reeves) diseric Pressburger. David Niven, Kim Hunter, covers the world he is living in is an illusion Raymond Massey, Roger Livesey, Robert maintained by computers that have taken over Coote, Marius Goring, Richard Attenborthe world . . . and he is thought to be ‘‘the ough. Powell and Pressburger manage to chosen one’’ to save humanity. Cutting-edge straddle reality and fantasy in a most disarmvisuals and production design compete with ing manner in this unusual story of a pilot an overlong script, written by the directors, during WW2 who claims he was accidentally that’s got a high MJQ (Mumbo-Jumbo Quochosen to die, and must now plead for his life tient), and a tendency to keep changing its in a Heavenly court. Like most films by this own complicated ‘‘rules.’’ Martial arts scenes writer-director team, an absolute original— staged by Yuen Wo Ping are highlights. and a gem, too. Original U.S. title: STAIROscar winner for Film Editing, Sound, WAY TO HEAVEN. ▼쩠 Sound Effects Editing, and Visual Effects. Matter of Resistance, A (1966-French) Followed by THE MATRIX: RELOADED 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Cathand the DVD collection of animated shorts, erine Deneuve, Philippe Noiret, Pierre THE ANIMATRIX. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Brasseur, Mary Marquet, Henri Garcin, Matrix: Reloaded, The (2003) C-138m. Carlos Thompson. Pleasant French com★★1 ⁄2 D: The Wachowski Brothers. Keanu edy of bored housewife (Deneuve) who Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne welcomes arrival of soldiers to her village Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, prior to Normandy invasion. Originally titled LA VIE DE CHATEAU.▼쩠 Gloria Foster, Harold Perrineau, Jr., Monica Bellucci, Harry Lennix, Lambert Wilson, Matter of Time, A (1976) C-99m. BOMB Randall Duk Kim, Anthony Zerbe. Big, D: Vincente Minnelli. Liza Minnelli, Inbooming sequel is more straightforward in its grid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Spiros Andros, storytelling than the original, as our heroes Tina Aumont, Anna Proclemer. Depressing race against time to stop a marauding army schmaltz about a chambermaid in pre-WW1 from overtaking the last outpost of huEurope taught to love life by a batty contessa. mankind, Zion. Doesn’t have the feeling of Director Minnelli’s worst film, though, for his stylistic innovation that the first film did, but part, he denounced this version as edited. there’s plenty of action and special effects to Final film for both Boyer and the director. compensate. Ironically, the highlight of this Bergman’s daughter, Isabella Rossellini, dense, futuristic saga is a car chase on a Calimakes her screen debut as a nun. [PG]▼ fornia freeway! Followed by THE MATRIX: Matter of WHO, A (1961-British) 90m. ★★1 REVOLUTIONS. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Don Chaffey. Terry-Thomas, Alex Matrix Revolutions, The (2003) C-130m. Nicol, Sonja Ziemann, Guy Deghy, Richard 1 ★ ⁄2 D: The Wachowski Brothers. Keanu Briers, Carol White, Honor Blackman. Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Occasionally entertaining mystery with Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, Thomas in a rare straight role as a World Mary Alice, Harold Perrineau, Jr., Monica Health Organization bureaucrat who turns Bellucci, Harry Lennix, Lambert Wilson, detective to trace a smallpox carrier.▼ Nona Gaye, Anthony Zerbe. No one exMaurice (1987-British) C-135m. ★★★ D: pected the third JAWS movie to be any James Ivory. James Wilby, Hugh Grant, good, but the Wachowski Brothers’ failure Rupert Graves, Denholm Elliott, Simon to cap their franchise with any real meaning Callow, Billie Whitelaw, Ben Kingsley, was one of 2003’s bigger disappointments. Judy Parfitt, Phoebe Nicholls, Barry FosLike Santa Anna’s troops at the Alamo or ter. Typically meticulous Merchant-Ivory the Blob in any neighborhood, the so-called production of a literary work (by E. M. Machines are on the march to outpost Zion, Forster) about a young Britisher’s coming with only Neo and the remaining humans of age in the 1910s, and coming to terms left to stop them. Pinkett Smith’s piloting of with his homosexuality. Beautifully reala tricky aircraft is actually more compelling ized and extremely well acted all around . . . [ 890 ]

but overlong. Helena Bonham Carter makes a Max Dugan Returns (1983) C-98m. ★★★ cameo appearance. [R]▼●쩠 D: Herbert Ross. Marsha Mason, Jason Ro★★ Maurie (1973) C-113m. D: Daniel Mann. bards, Donald Sutherland, Matthew BroderBernie Casey, Bo Svenson, Janet MacLachick, Dody Goodman, Sal Viscuso, David lan, Stephanie Edwards, Paulene Myers, Bill Morse, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Lau. Walker. Well-meaning but downbeat tearSweet, simple Neil Simon comedy about a jerker based on true story of basketball star long-lost father who tries to make amends Maurice Stokes (Casey). His sudden paralysis to his daughter (a struggling schoolteacher spurs teammate Jack Twyman (Svenson) to and single parent) by showering her with devote himself to Maurie’s rehabilitation. Too presents—using money he’s obtained by similar to other sports-tragedy films to stand slightly shady means. Acted with verve and out. Shown on TV as BIG MO. [G]▼ sincerity by a perfect cast. Film debuts of Maverick (1994) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Matthew Broderick and Kiefer Sutherland. [PG]▼●쩠 Donner. Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner, Graham Greene, James Coburn, AlMaxed Out (2007) C/B&W-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: fred Molina, Paul Smith, Geoffrey Lewis, James D. Scurlock. Outraged, muckraking Max Perlich, Dub Taylor. Lackadaisical updocumentary about our country’s consumerdate of the fondly remembered ’60s TV lending industry and the vicious cycle of show relies heavily on personal charm to profit and debt it has created and gladly fuels. carry a thin storyline that moseys along Frequently compelling, even eye-opening, but much too slowly—and much too long. Gibresorts to obvious tactics a bit too much and son is fun as a wily cardsharp on his way to often confuses self-righteousness with effeca big-stakes poker game, and the cast is tive reportage. Stay through the end credits.쩠 peppered with familiar faces from the world Max et les Ferrailleurs (1971-French) Cof vintage TV Westerns and contemporary 110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Sautet. Michel Piccountry music; look for a couple of cameos coli, Romy Schneider, Bernard Fresson, by stars of earlier movies from director Georges Wilson, Franc¸ois Pe´rier, Maurice Donner. Garner, who starred in the old TV Auzel, Philippe Le´otard. Top-notch film series, is cast here as a marshal. Script by about a moralistic police inspector who, William Goldman. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 tired of seeing a gang of bank robbers esMaverick Queen, The (1956) C-92m. cape, decides to set up a situation where he ★★1 can be assured of capturing some thieves. ⁄2 D: Joseph Kane. Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Scott Brady, Mary MurThis involves forming a relationship with the phy, Wallace Ford. Stanwyck is peppy as girlfriend of his target thief, but he doesn’t outlaw who’s willing to go straight for foresee how living a lie will affect his own lawman Sullivan. Filmed in Naturama.▼ integrity. A crackling, diamond-hard story, Ma Vie en Rose (1997-Belgian-Frenchperfectly enacted by Piccoli, Schneider, and British) C-88m. ★★★ D: Alain Berliner. MiFresson. Written by Sautet and Claude chele Laroque, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, HeNe´ron. Aka MAX AND THE JUNKMEN. lene Vincent, Georges Du Fresne, Julien Maxie (1985) C-90m. ★★ D: Paul Aaron. Riviere. Ludovic (Du Fresne), a sweet little Glenn Close, Mandy Patinkin, Ruth Gorboy who resides with his parents in a Beldon, Barnard Hughes, Valerie Curtin, gian suburb, has decided that, when he Googy Gress, Harry Hamlin. Roaring twengrows up, he wants to be a girl. To him ties flapper inhabits the body of hardworking this is perfectly logical; he already favors eighties woman, and titillates her husband wearing dresses and makeup, and is deterto boot! Very old-fashioned screwball mined to eventually wed the boy-next-door. comedy-fantasy just doesn’t come off, deNeedless to say, mom and dad are perspite good intentions. Incidentally, the acplexed and none too pleased. All points of tress playing Maxie in authentic silent movie footage is Carole Lombard. [PG]▼●쩠 view are well served in this charming and Maximum Overdrive (1986) C-97m. compassionate comedy-drama. [R]▼쩠 Max (2002-Hungarian-British-Canadian) CBOMB D: Stephen King. Emilio Estevez, Pat 109m. ★1⁄2 D: Menno Meyjes. John Cusack, Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, Noah Taylor, Leelee Sobieski, Molly ParJohn Short, J. C. Quinn. Customers and emker, Ulrich Thomsen, David Horovitch, ployees of interstate truck stop are terrorized Janet Suzman, Caroleen Feeney. What might by the trucks themselves, which have come to have happened if Adolf Hitler had been endemonic life as part of a global rebellion of couraged to pursue a career in art in the machines. Novelist King, making his directing days following WW1? Fascinating idea is debut, said he set out to create a junk movie, bungled by writer-director Meyjes, with a nothing more . . . but he made it stupid and miscast Cusack (spouting incongruously boring. Remade as a 1997 cable movie, modern vernacular) as a German-Jewish art TRUCKS. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 dealer who is drawn to the angry young Maximum Risk (1996) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: artist (well played by Taylor). Best/worst Ringo Lam. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Naline: ‘‘Hitler, come on, I’ll buy you a glass tasha Henstridge, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Zach of lemonade.’’ [R] ▼쩠 Grenier, Paul Ben-Victor, Frank Senger. The [ 891 ]

FBI and the Russian mafia are both after foragent wife are desperately trying to have a mer French soldier Van Damme, who’s out to baby while dealing with the vicissitudes of avenge the death of an identical twin brother their show-business careers. Anyone who’s that everyone seems to think he is. He even faced difficulty getting pregnant will recoginherits the brother’s dishy girlfriend in the nize the truth in Elton’s amusing screenplay; deal. Marginally closer to a real movie than his leading actors’ charm helps make up for most Van Damme efforts, thanks to some the unevenness of surrounding story elements. stylish touches by Hong Kong action specialCameos by the likes of Thompson and Atkinist Lam. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 son don’t hurt, either. [R]▼쩠 Max Keeble’s Big Move (2001) C-86m. ★★ Maybe . . . Maybe Not (1995-German) CD: Tim Hill. Alex D. Linz, Larry Miller, 93m. ★★ D: So¨nke Wortmann. Til Schweiger, Jamie Kennedy, Nora Dunn, Zena Grey, Josh Katja Riemann, Joachim Kro´l, Rufus Beck, Peck, Robert Carradine, Clifton Davis, Noel Antonia Lang, Armin Rohde. Thrown out Fisher, Orlando Brown. Loud, often obnoxfor cheating on his girlfriend, a heterosexual ious cookie-cutter comedy about seventhmale finds respite at the home of a gay acgrader Max (Linz), who is harassed at school quaintance. While the ensuing advances of by fellow students and even the principal. gay suitors are somewhat humorous, the Upon learning that his family is moving out of film is filled with characters about whom town, he plots a hit-and-run–style revenge, but we care very little. Based on a series of there are predictable complications. [PG]▼쩠 German comic books, entitled ‘‘Der BeMax Payne (2008) C-100m. ★★ D: John wegte Mann’’ and ‘‘Pretty Baby,’’ by comic artist Ralf Ko¨nig. [R]▼● Moore. Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Chris ‘‘Ludacris’’ Bridges, Chris Mayerling (1936-French) 92m. ★★★ D: O’Donnell, Donal Logue, Amaury Nolasco, Anatole Litvak. Charles Boyer, Danielle Kate Burton, Olga Kurylenko, Joel Gordon, Darrieux, Suzy Prim, Jean Dax, Vladimir Jamie Hector, Nelly Furtado. A Dirty HarSokoloff. Touching, well-made romantic ry–like homicide cop (Wahlberg) seeks retragedy based on true story of Austrian venge against the killers of his loved ones. Crown Prince Rudolph, who dared to fall Good-looking film falls flat dramatically. in love with a commoner. Good perforThere’s plenty of gore, though it’s not mances spark international hit; miles ahead graphic enough to earn this an R rating. of 1969 remake.▼ Based on a popular video game. Unrated Mayerling (1969-British) C-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: version runs 103m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Terence Young. Omar Sharif, Catherine DeMay (2002) C-93m. ★★ D: Lucky McKee. neuve, James Mason, Ava Gardner, James Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, Robertson Justice, Genevieve Page. Remake James Duval, Nichole Hiltz, Kevin Gage, of 1936 version casts Sharif as Austrian prince Merle Kennedy. Wacko who grew up with who defies convention, and his father (Mason), only a doll for a best friend wigs out in by falling in love with commoner Deneuve. adulthood and goes to gruesome lengths to Old-fashioned tragic romance is pleasant but make a friend . . . literally. Yucky chiller is uncompelling. Justice steals film as spirited well acted, but is way too pleased with its Prince of Wales. Panavision. [M/PG] ▼ own cruelty to be able to watch on a full May Fools (1990-French-Italian) C-108m. ★★1 stomach. The writer-director cameos in a ⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Michel Piccoli, Mioucouple of self-serving scenes in an elevator. Miou, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique [R] ▼쩠 Blanc, Bruno Carette, Harriet Walter, Maya (1966) C-91m. ★★ D: John Berry. Clint Francois Berleand, Martine Gautier, PauWalker, Jay North, I. S. Johar, Sajid Kahn, lette Dubost. Ensemble piece, set in the Jairaj, Sonia Sahni. Silly juvenile jungle tale French countryside in 1968. A grandmothhas young North temporarily losing respect er’s death brings assorted relatives to their for his big-game hunter father Walker, who ancestral home; most of them, like MiouMiou, are more money grubbing than grievhas lost his nerve. Panavision.▼ Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (1994) ing. Piccoli is splendid as the head of the C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freida Lee Mock. Respectclan, a contented vintner who truly mourns ful, Oscar-winning documentary about artist his late mother. There are romantic entanMaya Lin, best known as the designer of the glements, an interesting subtext of Paris Washington, D.C., Vietnam Veterans Memostudent rebellion, jazzy Stephane Grappelli rial. While effective as a record of the artist’s score—but it’s all rather slight. Not topnotch Malle, but still diverting. [R]▼● creative process, her conception for the Memorial and the controversy it created, this is not a Mayor of Hell, The (1933) 90m. ★★★ D: particularly insightful or memorable film.▼쩠 Archie Mayo. James Cagney, Madge Evans, Maybe Baby (2000-British-French) C-93m. Allen Jenkins, Dudley Digges, Arthur ★★1⁄2 D: Ben Elton. Hugh Laurie, Joely RichByron, Frankie Darro, Allen ‘‘Farina’’ Hosardson, Adrian Lester, James Purefoy, Tom kins. Fascinating, somewhat strange meloHollander, Joanna Lumley, Rowan Atkinson, drama with political-machine appointee Matthew Macfadyen, Dawn French, Emma Cagney taking a genuine interest in the way Thompson. BBC-TV executive and his talentkids are being mistreated at reform school run [ 892 ]

by slimy Digges. Climax is both unexpected Schuck, Bert Remsen, Keith Carradine, and bizarre. Remade as CRIME SCHOOL William Devane, Shelley Duvall, Michael and HELL’S KITCHEN.쩠 Murphy, Hugh Millais, Jack Riley. Richly Maytime (1937) 132m. ★★★ D: Robert Z. textured mood piece about an ambitious Leonard. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, small-timer who opens bordello in turn-ofJohn Barrymore, Herman Bing, Tom the-century boom town. Altman deglamorBrown, Lynne Carver, Rafaela Ottiano, izes Hollywood image of period with his Paul Porcasi, Sig Ruman, Walter Kingsford, realistic visions. Beatty is first-rate as the twoHarry Davenport. One of singing duo’s best bit braggart McCabe. Edmund Naughton’s films, despite occasional heavy-handedness novel McCabe adapted by Brian McKay and and piercing operatic sequence near the end Altman. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 (composed especially for film, based on McConnell Story, The (1955) C-107m. ★★★ Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony). Exquisite D: Gordon Douglas. Alan Ladd, June filming of simple story: opera star and penAllyson, James Whitmore, Frank Faylen. niless singer fall in love in Paris, but her Weepy yet effective fictional biography of husband/mentor (Barrymore) interferes. jet test pilot, with Allyson as his underOnly song retained from Sigmund Romstanding wife. CinemaScope.▼● berg’s hit Broadway score is ‘‘Will You McCullochs, The SEE: Wild McCullochs, Remember (Sweetheart).’’▼● The McGuffin, The (1985-British) C-95m. ★★ Maze, The (1953) 81m. ★★ D: William Cameron Menzies. Richard Carlson, VeD: Colin Bucksey. Charles Dance, Ritza ronica Hurst, Michael Pate, Katherine Brown, Francis Matthews, Brian Glover, Emery, Hillary Brooke. Mysterious doings Phyllis Logan, Jerry Stiller, Anna Massey, at a Scottish castle; a low-budgeter with a Ann Todd, Bill Shine. Meandering, conludicrous (and unsatisfying) payoff. Stylfusing thriller about film critic Dance, whose ishly composed as a 3-D movie by designercuriosity about a couple of his neighbors leads director Menzies. to his involvement in murder and mayhem. Maze (2000) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Morrow. Starts off nicely but goes downhill all too Rob Morrow, Laura Linney, Craig Sheffer, quickly. An homage to Hitchcock in general, REAR WINDOW in particular.▼ Rose Gregorio, Gia Carides, Robert Hogan. While his best friend’s away, an artist with McGuire, Go Home! (1965-British) C101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, Tourette Syndrome falls in love with his pregnant girlfriend. Lightweight romantic George Chakiris, Susan Strasberg, Denholm drama and personal project for Morrow Elliott. Set in 1954 Cyprus; peppy account isn’t as bad as it sounds. Linney, in a lovely of terrorist campaign against British occulow-key performance, steals the show. Playpation, with side plot of officer Bogarde in wright Jon Robin Baitz cameos as an art love with American girl Strasberg. Video gallery patron. [R]▼쩠 titles: A DATE WITH DEATH; THE HIGH M. Butterfly (1993) C-101m. ★★ D: David BRIGHT SUN.▼ Cronenberg. Jeremy Irons, John Lone, BarMcHale’s Navy (1964) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: bara Sukowa, Ian Richardson, Annabel Edward J. Montagne. Ernest Borgnine, Leventon, Shizuko Hoshi, The Beijing Joe Flynn, Tim Conway, George Kennedy, Opera Troupe. Surprisingly tame and conClaudine Longet, Bob Hastings, Carl ventional Cronenberg rendering of David Ballantine, Billy Sands, Gavin MacLeod, Henry Hwang’s Tony–winning Broadway Jean Willes. Theatrical feature inspired by play—about the bizarrely extended relationpopular TV series finds the PT-73 crew ship between a French diplomatic functiondoing everything possible to try and raise ary and a Chinese diva/spy who managed to money to pay off gambling debts. Usual conceal the fact from him that she was a blend of slapstick and snappy dialogue; entertaining for fans.▼ man. Cinematic closeups blatantly telegraph Lone’s maleness; it’s symptomatic of the McHale’s Navy (1997) C-109m. ★★ D: movie’s failure that office politics and even Bryan Spicer. Tom Arnold, Dean StockIrons’ weary marriage are more compelling well, Ernest Borgnine, Debra Messing, than the central ruse. [R]▼●쩠 David Alan Grier, Tim Curry, Brian Haley, McBain (1991) C-102m. ★★ D: James French Stewart, Bruce Campbell, Tommy Glickenhaus. Christopher Walken, Maria Chong. Former Navy man who now wheels Conchita Alonso, Michael Ironside, Steve and deals from a remote Pacific island is James, Jay Patterson, T.G. Waites, Victor called back to service to do battle with ‘‘the Argo, Chick Vennera. To pay back a debt, second-best terrorist in the world.’’ Broad ex-Vietnam P.O.W. Walken joins rebels approach, simplistic script make this strictly in a battle against a corrupt Colombian a juvenile outing. Very loosely based on dictatorship. Predictable, by-the-numbers the 1960s TV series; Borgnine, who played actioner. [R]▼● McHale back then, appears here as a Pentagon security chief. [PG] ▼●쩠 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Altman. Warren Beatty, McHale’s Navy Joins the Air Force (1965) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward J. Montagne. Julie Christie, Rene Auberjonois, John [ 893 ]

Tim Conway, Joe Flynn, Bob Hastings, as his prison buddy/fellow escapee and his common-law wife. [R]▼● Ted Bessell, Susan Silo, Henry Beckman, Mean Creek (2004) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jacob Billy Sands, Gavin MacLeod, Tom Tully, Aaron Estes. Rory Culkin, Ryan Kelly, Jacques Aubuchon. Rather unusual comScott Mechlowicz, Carly Schroeder, Trevor edy with little relation to either the first Morgan, Josh Peck. Surprisingly adept tale feature or the TV series (including no of a bullied boy (Culkin) who plots revenge, Borgnine). Ensign Parker (Conway) is miswith his older brother and friends, on his taken for an Air Force hot shot, and the tormentor. The performances are realistic, more he screws up, the higher he’s prowith unforced emotional revelations and inmoted! John Fenton Murray’s intricate script sight, but the film can’t escape echoes of adds some mild satire to normal quota of similar stories. Still, a promising feature slapstick; a genuine curio.▼ debut for writer-director Estes. [R] ▼쩠 McKenzie Break, The (1970) C-106m. ★★★ Me and Him (1989-U.S.-West German) D: Lamont Johnson. Brian Keith, HelC-94m. BOMB D: Doris Do¨rrie. Griffin mut Griem, Ian Hendry, Jack Watson, Dunne, Ellen Greene, Kelly Bishop, Carey Patrick O’Connell. Daring escape from a Lowell, Craig T. Nelson, Mark Linn-Baker. P.O.W. camp for Germans in Scotland Embarrassingly unfunny story of a man makes for engrossing movie fare. Aka ESand his talking sex organ. Based on an CAPE. [PG]▼쩠 Italian novel, clever idea goes absolutely McLintock! (1963) C-127m. ★★★ D: Anlimp. Linn-Baker supplies the voice of drew V. McLaglen. John Wayne, MauDunne’s ‘‘special friend.’’ [R]▼● reen O’Hara, Patrick Wayne, Stefanie PowMe and My Gal (1932) 78m. ★★★ D: ers, Yvonne De Carlo, Chill Wills, Bruce Raoul Walsh. Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, Cabot, Jack Kruschen, Jerry Van Dyke, Marion Burns, George Walsh, J. Farrell Perry Lopez, Strother Martin. Brawling MacDonald, Noel Madison. Wholly entercattle baron G. W. McLintock (Wayne) taining film blending comedy, romance, locks horns with his feisty, estranged wife melodrama in one neat package; cop Tracy (O’Hara) who has returned home to get a falls in love with waitress Bennett, whose divorce; their daughter visiting from college sister and father become involved with a only complicates matters. Rowdy slapstick gangster. Stars at their most charming, with seldom stops—a giant mud pit free-for-all bottomless reserve of snappy dialogue. and a public spanking for O’Hara are just a Mean Dog Blues (1978) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: few of the stops along the way in this WestMel Stuart. George Kennedy, Gregg Henry, ern version of The Taming of the Shrew. Kay Lenz, Scatman Crothers, Tina Louise, Not recommended for feminists. Produced Felton Perry, Gregory Sierra, James Wainby Michael Wayne. Panavision.▼●쩠 wright, William Windom. Henry is railroaded McMasters, The (1970) C-89/97m. ★★1⁄2 onto prison farm run by Kennedy and a D: Alf Kjellin. Burl Ives, Brock Peters, team of bloodthirsty Dobermans; unsurprisDavid Carradine, Nancy Kwan, Jack Paling but well-made action film. [R]▼ ance, John Carradine. Pretty grim drama Me and the Colonel (1958) 109m. ★★1⁄2 of bigotry and violence gone crazy as D: Peter Glenville. Danny Kaye, Curt Jurblack Union soldier (Peters) returns to ranch gens, Nicole Maurey, Franc¸oise Rosay. Franz of former master (Ives), eventually made Werfel’s Jacobowsky and the Colonel is co-owner of land. Dual running times insource for spotty satire; Jacobowsky is played dicate two different endings: bad guys by Kaye, and Jurgens is the anti-Semitic (led by Palance) win out or good guys military officer, both brought together duremerge victorious. Both versions were reing crisis in WW2. Filmed in France.▼ leased to theaters. [PG]▼ Me and the Kid (1993) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: ★★ D: John Sturges. McQ (1974) C-116m. Dan Curtis. Danny Aiello, Alex ZuckerJohn Wayne, Eddie Albert, Diana Muldaur, man, Joe Pantoliano, Cathy Moriarty, David Colleen Dewhurst, Clu Gulager, David HudDukes, Anita Morris, Abe Vigoda, Demond dleston, Al Lettieri, Julie Adams. An aging Wilson, Rick Aiello, Ben Stein. Rich kid is Duke tries to be Clint Eastwood as a Firebirdkidnapped in a bungled robbery attempt and driving cop out to get the gangster who sets out on the road with a couple of cons— murdered his partner. Good action, but that’s who get more than they bargained for. Lowabout all. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 budget attempt to cash in on the HOME McVicar (1980-British) C-111m. ★★★ D: ALONE bonanza, with a decent cast Tom Clegg. Roger Daltrey, Adam Faith, wasted; recommended only for the most unCheryl Campbell, Brian Hall, Steven demanding young viewers. [PG]▼●쩠 Berkoff, Jeremy Blake, Ian Hendry. ImMe and You and Everyone We Know pressive drama about John McVicar (Dal(2005) C-90m. ★★★ D: Miranda July. John trey), England’s Public Enemy Number 1, Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson, and his escape from prison. Screenplay by Brandon Ratcliff, Carlie Westerman, Natasha McVicar, who adapted his book; Daltrey Slayton, Najarra Townsend, Hector Elias, is surprisingly good; Faith and Campbell fine Tracy Wright, JoNell Kennedy, Brad Henke, [ 894 ]

Ellen Geer, James Mathers. Highly original, Mean Streets (1973) C-110m. ★★★★ D: observational comedy-drama about lonely Martin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, Harvey people of all ages—from children to senior Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richcitizens—who are desperately trying to conard Romanus, Cesare Danova, George Memnect. Hawkes is a newly divorced shoe moli, Robert Carradine, David Carradine. salesman trying to raise two boys (the Masterpiece about small-time hood Keitel, younger of whom is making ‘‘friends’’ on irresponsible friend De Niro, and their knockthe Internet); July plays a struggling artist about cronies in N.Y.C.’s Little Italy. Techniwho’s more comfortable creating videos cally dazzling film put director Scorsese on the map and deservedly so. [R]▼●쩠 than dealing with people in person. Earns its R rating with some sexually explicit mateMeantime (1983-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 rial. Debut feature as writer-director for perD: Mike Leigh. Marion Bailey, Phil Danformance artist July. [R]쩠 iels, Tim Roth, Pam Ferris, Jeff Robert, Mean Girls (2004) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Alfred Molina, Gary Oldman. Downbeat Waters. Lindsay Lohan, Tina Fey, Rachel kitchen-sink drama about the problems McAdams, Tim Meadows, Ana Gasteyer, of a working-class London family; no Amy Poehler, Lacey Chabert, Amanda Seyone captures this milieu quite like director fried, Jonathan Bennett, Lizzy Caplan, Daniel Leigh, though it can be pretty bleak. Molina Franzese, Neil Flynn. Sixteen-year-old who’s and Oldman later costarred in PRICK UP YOUR EARS.▼쩠 been home-schooled (in Africa!) goes to Illinois public school for the first time. She’s Meatballs (1979-Canadian) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: immediately torn between two outcasts who Ivan Reitman. Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, adopt her as a friend and a clique of popular Kate Lynch, Russ Banham, Kristine DeBell, girls who set their own agenda and make fun Sarah Torgov. Alternately cruel and slopof almost everyone else. Sounds awfully fapily sentimental comedy about summer camp miliar, but the script by Fey (based on Rosawill no doubt wow fifth graders of all ages, lind Wiseman’s book Queen Bees and though myopic screen characters named Wannabes) has sharp, funny moments one ‘‘Spaz’’ aren’t really all that funny. Pretty doesn’t usually find in teen movies; she also desperate. Followed by several so-called sequels. [PG] ▼●쩠 plays a sympathetic teacher. Reverts to formula, but still a cut above the norm. [PGMeatballs Part II (1984) C-87m. ★★ D: 13]▼쩠 Ken Wiederhorn. Richard Mulligan, John Mean Johnny Barrows (1976) C-85m. Mengatti, Hamilton Camp, Kim Richards, ★★ Tammy Taylor, John Larroquette, Archie D: Fred Williamson. Fred Williamson, Jenny Sherman, Aaron Banks, Anthony CaHahn, Misty Rowe, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee ruso, Luther Adler, Stuart Whitman, Roddy Herman), Elayne Boosler. In-name-only seMcDowall, Elliott Gould. Mean but dull; quel throws in everything from Jewish aliens Vietnam vet gets involved with the Mafia. to FROM HERE TO ETERNITY take-off, as Slow-paced, notable for unlikely cast and the fate of Camp Sasquatch rides on a boxing Gould’s incongruous comedy relief. [R]▼쩠 match against nearby Camp Patton (‘‘Where Mean Machine (2001-British-U.S.) COutdoor Living Molds Killers’’). Slightly bet98m. ★1⁄2 D: Barry Skolnick. Vinnie Jones, ter than its predecessor (which isn’t saying David Kelly, David Hemmings, Ralph Brown, much). [PG]▼● Vas Blackwood, Robbie Gee, Geoff Bell, Meatballs III (1987) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Jason Flemyng, Jason Statham. Disgraced ex– George Mendeluk. Sally Kellerman, Patsoccer star Jones winds up in a high-security rick Dempsey, Al Waxman, Isabelle Mejias, prison, where he is caught between brutal Shannon Tweed, Ian Taylor, George Buza. guards and embittered fellow prisoners and What do you say about a movie dealing with ends up involved in a cons-versus-guards soca dead porno star who coaches a teen-age cer match. By-the-numbers remake of THE nerd on how to lose his virginity at summer LONGEST YARD (which was titled THE camp? As little as possible. [R]▼● MEAN MACHINE in the U.K.) is as subtle Mechanic, The (1972) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: as a jackhammer and sorely missing the Michael Winner. Charles Bronson, Keenan spunk of the original. Strictly for those who Wynn, Jan-Michael Vincent, Jill Ireland. delight in bone-crunching brutality. [R]▼쩠 Detailed study of James Bond-type assasMean Season, The (1985) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 sin and youth he trains to take his place. D: Phillip Borsos. Kurt Russell, Mariel Worth it for the double-twist ending; terse script by Lewis John Carlino. [PG]▼●쩠 Hemingway, Richard Jordan, Richard Masur, Joe Pantoliano, Andy Garcia. MiMedallion, The (2003-Hong Kong-U.S.) ami newspaper reporter (Russell, in a very C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Gordon Chan. Jackie Chan, credible performance) becomes sole conLee Evans, Claire Forlani, Julian Sands, tact for crazed killer, but as the headlines Jonathan Rhys-Davies, Anthony Wong, (and murders) continue, it becomes a quesChristy Chung. Hong Kong cop joins forces tion of who is ‘‘using’’ whom. Intriguing with Interpol to capture a nefarious villain and initially believable idea goes awry in who has kidnapped a mystic child; his melatter half of this mean movie. [R]▼●쩠 dallion holds the key to immortality. OK [ 895 ]

story framework is pounded into senseElizabeth Banks, Logan Lerman, Timothy lessness by bad writing, overacting, hammy Olyphant, Holmes Osborne, Jessica Alba, comedy touches, and incongruous special Reed Diamond, Craig Bierko, Kristen Wiig, effects. Chan is still fun to watch, and a Marisa Coughlan, Jason Sudeikis. Bill’s life handful of action scenes (sans fx) show is a mess; he hates his job, his wife is cheatwhat he’s capable of. Action directed by ing on him, and he’s unhappy. It isn’t until he Sammo Hung. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 (reluctantly) begins mentoring a remarkably Medicine Ball Caravan (1971) C-90m. intelligent but rebellious teenager (Lerman) ★★1 ⁄2 D: Francois Reichenbach. B. B. King, that he finally gains confidence in himself. Alice Cooper, Delaney and Bonnie, Doug Though uneven in tone, this is an honest and Kershaw, David Peel. The Caravan is a relatable comedy with strong performances by Eckhart and Lerman. [R]쩠 150-member troupe that traveled the U.S. during the summer of ’70 to spread peace, Meet Danny Wilson (1952) 86m. ★★1⁄2 love, music—and make a movie. SuperfiD: Joseph Pevney. Frank Sinatra, Shelley cially arty direction; Martin Scorsese was Winters, Alex Nicol, Raymond Burr. Minor associate producer and supervising editor. but engaging musical about a young singer Techniscope. [R] and his piano-playing pal, who make the 1 ★★ Medicine Man (1992) C-106m. mistake of signing a contract with nightclub ⁄2 D: John McTiernan. Sean Connery, Lorraine owner/racketeer Burr—then moving in on Bracco, Jose´ Wilker. Connery plays a rehis ‘‘girl.’’ No original songs, but Sinatra search scientist, sequestered in the Brazildoes sing plenty of old favorites and even ian rain forest, who’s found the cure for does a winning duet with Winters on ‘‘A cancer—but can’t duplicate it. Bracco is Good Man Is Hard to Find.’’▼ his brainy superior from the U.S. who’s Meet Dave (2008) C-90m. ★★ D: Brian come to check up on him. Connery carries Robbins. Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, this movie singlehandedly, and as usual Gabrielle Union, Scott Caan, Ed Helms, he’s commanding to watch, but the film is Kevin Hart, Mike O’Malley, Pat Kilbane, weak, and Bracco’s abrasive performance Judah Friedlander, Marc Blucas, Jim Turner, (and poorly written character) practically Austyn Lind Myers. High-concept fish-outsink it. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 of-water family fantasy about tiny aliens who Mediterraneo (1991-Italian) C-92m. ★★★ construct a spacecraft in the image of a man D: Gabriele Salvatores. Diego Abatantuono, (who looks amazingly like Murphy) and Claudio Bigagli, Giuseppe Cederna, Claudio come to Earth on a mission to drain its Bisio, Gigio Alberti, Vanna Barba. It’s oceans in order to save their own planet. 1941 and Greek-island males are off fightPredictable complications arise in the form ing in WW2, so some stranded Italian solof a pretty single mom (Banks), her bullied diers partake in la dolce vita—for years. son, and the discovery of such human emoSweet memory movie with double-digit tions as love. Innocuous and overstretched, guffaws, though a slight choice to have won but easily amused kids may go for it. [PG]쩠 the Best Foreign Film Oscar.▼● Meetings With Remarkable Men (1979Medium Cool (1969) C-110m. ★★★★ D: British) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Brook. Haskell Wexler. Robert Forster, Verna Terence Stamp, Dragan Maksimovic, Mikica Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill, HarDimitrijevic, Athol Fugard, Warren Mitchold Blankenship, Peter Boyle. Arresting, ell, Gerry Sundquist, Bruce Myers, Natasha unique film of TV cameraman who reParry, Martin Benson. Uneven account of mains detached though surrounded by G. I. Gurdjieff (Maksimovic), the famed, events demanding his involvement. Director/ inspirational cult leader, focusing on his writer/cameraman Wexler used real footage quest through Asia to uncover the meaning of his actors at 1968 Democratic convention of human existence. Has its moments of in Chicago, and subsequent riots, as basis for insight, but will ultimately be of interest ultrarealistic film. Score by Mike Bloomfield; only to those fascinated by the subject. Paul Butterfield and The Mothers of InvenBased on Gurdjieff’s memoirs. [G]▼ tion are among the artists on the soundMeeting Venus (1991-British) C-117m. ★★★ track. [R]▼●쩠 D: Istvan Szabo. Glenn Close, Niels Medusa Touch, The (1978-British-French) Arestrup, Erland Josephson, Johanna Ter C-110m. ★★ D: Jack Gold. Richard Burton, Steege, Jay O. Sanders, Maria de Medeiros, Lino Ventura, Lee Remick, Harry Andrews, Ildiko Bansagi. During the tumultuous prepAlan Badel, Marie-Christine Barrault, Jerarations for a multinational production of emy Brett, Michael Hordern, Gordon JackWagner’s Tannhauser, a Hungarian conson, Derek Jacobi. Burton has spent his ductor (Arestrup) and a Swedish diva whole life willing people’s deaths, and now (Close, who’s outstanding) find themselves he’s completely out of control; Remick is involved in an affair. Witty, knowing rohis psychiatrist in this derivative, unappealmantic farce about the politics of art, which ing film. [PG]▼ also works as a metaphor for the aftereffects Meet Bill (2008) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bernie of European reunification. Veteran HungarGoldmann, Melisa Wallack. Aaron Eckhart, ian director Szabo’s first film in English. [ 896 ]

Close’s singing voice is dubbed by Kiri Te songs ‘‘The Boy Next Door,’’ ‘‘Have YourKanewa. [PG-13]▼● self a Merry Little Christmas,’’ ‘‘The Trolley Meet Joe Black (1998) C-178m. ★★ D: Song,’’ while Margaret O’Brien steals every Martin Brest. Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt, scene she’s in as little sister Tootie. (In fact, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marcia Gay she won a special Oscar, as the year’s best Harden, Jeffrey Tambor, David S. Howard. child actress.) Screenplay by Irving Brecher Death comes to claim a billionaire industriand Fred F. Finklehoffe. Years later adapted for Broadway.▼●쩠 alist (Hopkins), and decides to take human form (Pitt), emerging as a mysterious Meet Me Tonight SEE: Tonight at 8:30 Meet the Applegates (1991) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 stranger with a childlike manner and a fondness for peanut butter. Odd rethinking of D: Michael Lehmann. Ed Begley, Jr., StockDEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY adds subard Channing, Dabney Coleman, Bobby Japlots that make it go on for days, toward coby, Cami Cooper, Glenn Shadix, Susan a preposterous and unsatisfying conclusion. Barnes. Brazilian beetles in human form asHopkins is terrific, but Death’s character similate (sort of) in U.S. suburbia, but still simply makes no sense. Sumptuous producmanage to stock their quota of human prey in tion design. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 the basement. Spotty, but sometimes funny ★★★ D: Meet John Doe (1941) 132m. comedy, wittily designed but marred by a Frank Capra. Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanweak conclusion. Released on video, for no wyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, apparent reason, as THE APPLEGATES. Spring Byington, James Gleason, Gene [R] ▼● Lockhart. Overlong but interesting social Meet the Browns (2008) C-100m. ★★ D: commentary, with naive Cooper hired to Tyler Perry. Angela Bassett, David Mann, spearhead national goodwill drive benefitRick Fox, Irma P. Hall, Jenifer Lewis, Tamela ting corrupt politician Arnold. Wordy ideJ. Mann, Frankie Faison, Margaret Avery, alism can’t bury good characterizations; Lance Gross, Chloe Bailey, Mariana Tolbert, usual Capra touches exulting populism. Sofia Vergara, Tyler Perry. Single mother Virtually all existing prints (from reissue) barely making ends meet gets talked into takrun 123m. Also shown in computer-colored ing her family to the funeral of the father she version.▼●쩠 never met. She gets more than she bargained Meet Me After the Show (1951) C-86m. for: a boisterous extended family, a new ro★★1 mance, and a surprise piece of ol’ dad’s ‘‘es⁄2 D: Richard Sale. Betty Grable, Macdonald Carey, Rory Calhoun, Eddie Albert, tate.’’ Bassett tries to elevate this but it’s Lois Andrews, Irene Ryan. Undistinguished typical Perry fodder, veering wildly between Grable musical lacking bounce of her other broad comedy and overwrought melodrama. vehicles, with usual show biz storyline. Perry appears briefly toward the end in crossMeet Me at the Fair (1953) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 dressing mode as Madea in a shameless preD: Douglas Sirk. Dan Dailey, Diana Lynn, view for his next feature. Aka TYLER PERHugh O’Brian, Carole Mathews, Rhys WilRY’S MEET THE BROWNS. [PG-13]쩠 liams, Chet Allen, Scatman Crothers. Dailey Meet the Deedles (1998) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: is good as a sideshow medicine man who Steve Boyum. Steve Van Wormer, Paul helps a young orphan and courts Lynn; Walker, A. J. Langer, John Ashton, Dennis pleasant musical. Hopper, Megan Cavanaugh, Eric Braeden, Meet Me in Las Vegas (1956) C-112m. Richard Lineback, M. C. Gainey, Robert ★★1 ⁄2 D: Roy Rowland. Dan Dailey, Cyd Englund. Idiotic BILL & TED clone about Charisse, Agnes Moorehead, Lili Darvas, twin surfer dude brothers from Hawaii Jim Backus, Cara Williams; guest stars whose filthy rich father schemes to teach Jerry Colonna, Paul Henreid, Lena Horne, them responsibility by dispatching them to a Frankie Laine, Mitsuko Sawamura. Charsummer camp. Bottom-of-the-barrel Disney isse’s dancing is highlight of mild musical wipeout; less discriminating teens might go involving rancher Dailey and ballet star Cyd for it for about three minutes. Hopper plays in gambling capital. Cameos by many top a villainous ex-park ranger, and Bart the stars add to the flavor. Liliane Montevecchi Bear has a cameo. [PG]▼● is one of the dancers. George Chakiris Meet the Fockers (2004) C-115m. ★1⁄2 D: (billed as Kerris) has a tiny part. CinemaJay Roach. Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, DusScope. ▼● tin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Blythe DanMeet Me in St. Louis (1944) C-113m. ner, Teri Polo, Alanna Ubach, Tim Blake ★★★★ Nelson, Shelley Berman, Owen Wilson. UnD: Vincente Minnelli. Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Lucille Bremer, Tom necessary follow-up to MEET THE PARDrake, Mary Astor, Leon Ames, Marjorie ENTS has Stiller taking his future in-laws and Main, June Lockhart, Harry Davenport, Joan fiance´e Polo to meet his parents. Hoffman and Carroll, Hugh Marlowe. Captivating musical Streisand are the wacky, liberal, free-spirited based on Sally Benson’s slice of Americana Fockers; De Niro and Danner are the stuffedabout a family’s experiences during the year shirt, conservative Byrneses. Together they of the St. Louis World’s Fair, 1903. Judy make humiliation, embarrassment, and missings wonderful Ralph Blane–Hugh Martin understandings the foundation of a lame [ 897 ]

comedy . . . but the public loved it! [PGLook for mercifully short cameos from 13] ▼쩠 Tony Danza, Tim Allen, Roseanne, Jay Meet the Parents (2000) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leno, and Gilbert Gottfried. [R] ▼●쩠 Jay Roach. Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Megaforce (1982) C-99m. BOMB D: Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, James Rebhorn, Hal Needham. Barry Bostwick, Persis Jon Abrahams, Owen Wilson, Phyllis George. Khambatta, Michael Beck, Edward Mulhare, A male nurse spends a weekend with his girlGeorge Furth, Henry Silva. Atrocious friend’s parents, hoping to ask her uptight bubble-gum movie about an ultra-modern father for her hand in marriage . . . but the fighting force headed by one Ace Hunter dad is so intimidating that he starts bungling (Bostwick, badly miscast). Embarrassing things and can’t seem to stop. Funny setup, performances, clunky hardware, uninspired action scenes. [PG]▼ ideal cast, but the results are frustratingly uneven. Based on a low-budget film of the Megiddo (2001) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian same name from 1992. Followed by MEET Trenchard-Smith. Michael York, Michael THE FOCKERS. [PG-13]▼쩠 Biehn, Diane Venora, R. Lee Ermey, Udo Meet the People (1944) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kier, Franco Nero, Jim Metzler. From the Charles Riesner. Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, people who brought you THE OMEGA Virginia O’Brien, Bert Lahr, Rags Ragland, CODE (this was subtitled in ads as June Allyson, Vaughn Monroe and His OrOMEGA CODE 2) comes another tale of chestra, Spike Jones and His City Slickers, York’s desire for world domination. This Bobby (Robert) Blake. Complications folone includes a flashback of the bad seed’s low when shipyard worker Powell conchildhood, and his relationship with his vinces stage star Ball to bring to Broadway brother (Biehn). Silly, pathetic; just another the ‘‘common man’’ musical he’s coauattempt to capitalize on the intriguing premthored. OK musicomedy; so-so score.쩠 ise of Armageddon. [PG-13]▼쩠 Meet the Robinsons (2007) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Mein Kampf (1961-Swedish) 117m. ★★★ D: Stephen Anderson. Voices of Daniel HanD: Erwin Leiser. Narrated by Claude Stesen, Jordan Fry, Wesley Singerman, Angela phenson. Technically smooth, impressive Bassett, Tom Selleck, Harland Williams, Laudocumentary chronicle of the horrors of rie Metcalf, Adam West, Ethan Sandler, Tom Nazi Germany. Restrained narration allows Kenney. Orphaned boy becomes a science the visuals to speak for themselves. ▼●쩠 whiz; then one day he’s whisked off to the Melinda and Melinda (2005) C-100m. ★★ future by a kid in a time-traveling space vehiD: Woody Allen. Radha Mitchell, Will Fercle. There he meets a family just like the one rell, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Jonny Lee Miller, he’s always longed for. Disney CGI cartoon Amanda Peet, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Brooke feature follows a wildly uneven story path, Smith, Josh Brolin, Gene Saks, Vinessa and suffers from some lackluster voice perforShaw, Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine, Steve mances (including director Anderson as the Carell. Two playwrights discuss how they villain), but finally hits its emotional stride for would approach a story they’ve heard about the home stretch. Based on the book A Day a young woman who shows up unanWith Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce. nounced on an old friend’s Manhattan [G]쩠 doorstep—one in comedic terms, the other Meet the Spartans (2008) C-84m. BOMB dramatic. Both stories unfold but don’t lead D: Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer. Sean anywhere; meandering film offers echoes Maguire, Carmen Electra, Ken Davitian, and reminders of earlier, better Allen movKevin Sorbo, Diedrich Bader, Method Man, ies, though it serves as a good showcase for Jareb Dauplaise, Travis Van Winkle, Nicole Mitchell. Ferrell’s dialogue is stuffed with Woodyesque one-liners. [PG-13]▼쩠 Parker. The creators of DATE MOVIE and EPIC MOVIE concocted this moronic, Me´lo (1986-French) C-110m. ★★★ D: Alain product-placement-laden spoof of the hoResnais. Sabine Aze´ma, Pierre Arditi, moeroticism of 300, aimed at adolescent Andre Dussollier, Fanny Ardant, Jacques boys. Plot involves King Leonidas of Sparta Dacqmine, Catherine Arditi. Different sort (Maguire) and his self-adoring, scantily clad of film experiment from innovator Resnais, warriors as they battle the Persians. Oodles rigorously adapting Henry Bernstein’s 1929 of pop-cultural references are complete duds. play about a tragic love triangle. Top-notch Unrated version runs 87m. [PG-13]쩠 acting and direction make this one a winner, Meet Wally Sparks (1997) C-104m. ★1⁄2 but the (intentionally) stagy production D: Peter Baldwin. Rodney Dangerfield, makes it not for all tastes. Previously filmed ¨ UMENDE Debi Mazar, Cindy Williams, Burt Reynas ME´LO (1932); DER TRA olds, David Ogden Stiers, Alan Rachins. MUND (1932) and DREAMING LIPS Embarrassingly unfunny vehicle for Dan(1937), both with Elisabeth Bergner; and ¨ UMENDE MUND (1953). 쩠 gerfield, as a trashy TV talk show host atDER TRA tempting to save his program. Instead of Melody (1971-British) C-103m. ★★★ D: successfully satirizing elements of the morWaris Hussein. Jack Wild, Mark Lester, ally bankrupt TV talk genre, the screenplay Tracy Hyde, Sheila Steafel, Kate Williams, (cowritten by Dangerfield) sinks to its level. Roy Kinnear. Adolescent view of life, [ 898 ]

disarmingly played by Lester and Wild McKean, Stephen Tobolowsky, Rosalind (from OLIVER!) as friends who rebel against Chao. Clever (but endless) special effects adult establishment, particularly when Lesare the star of this stale, paper-thin dud. ter and girlfriend Hyde decide they want to Chase plays a securities analyst who’s renget married. Music by The Bee Gees. [G]▼ dered invisible after an accident, and finds ★★★1 Melvin and Howard (1980) C-95m. himself involved in a by-the-numbers spy ⁄2 D: Jonathan Demme. Paul LeMat, Jason Roscenario. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 bards, Mary Steenburgen, Jack Kehoe, PaMemoirs of a Survivor (1981-British) mela Reed, Dabney Coleman, Michael J. C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: David Gladwell. Julie Pollard, Gloria Grahame, Elizabeth Cheshire, Christie, Christopher Guard, Leonie MelMartine Beswicke, Charles Napier, John linger, Debbie Hutchings, Nigel Hawthorne, Glover. Wonderful slice-of-life comedy based Pat Keen. Christie’s presence cannot save this on the story of Melvin Dummar, who once dismal, badly directed fantasy about a woman gave a lift to a grizzled Howard Hughes and and a teenager (Mellinger) surviving in a delater produced a will naming himself as heir to cayed urban civilization. Good idea—film the Hughes fortune. An endearing, bittersweet is based on a Doris Lessing novel—but American fable, with Oscar winner Steenburpoorly realized.▼쩠 gen providing most of the comic highlights, Memories of Me (1988) C-105m. ★★ D: including a memorable TV talent contest. Bo Henry Winkler. Billy Crystal, Alan King, JoGoldman’s script also won an Academy Beth Williams, Janet Carroll, David Ackroyd, Award. (That’s the real Melvin Dummar bePhil Fondacaro, Robert Pastorelli, Sidney hind a bus station lunch counter.) [R]▼쩠 Miller. A heart surgeon, who recently suffered Member of the Wedding, The (1952) a heart attack himself, seeks out his father, 91m. ★★★ D: Fred Zinnemann. Ethel Wafrom whom he’s been estranged, hoping to ters, Julie Harris, Brandon de Wilde, Arput his life in order. Contrived comedy-drama thur Franz, Nancy Gates, James Edwards. combines comic shtick with mawkish emoCarson McCullers’ sensitive account of tional scenes and never quite manages to be child Harris prodded into growing up by convincing. Crystal cowrote the screenplay her brother’s forthcoming marriage. Waand coproduced with King. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ters, Harris, and de Wilde movingly re-create Memory of a Killer, The (2003-Belgiantheir Broadway roles, the latter two making Dutch) C-123m. ★★★ D: Erik Van Looy. Jan their film debuts. Slow but worthwhile. ReDecleir, Koen De Bouw, Werner De Smedt, made for cable TV in 1997.▼쩠 Hilde De Baerdemaeker, Geert Van RamMemento (2001) C/B&W-113m. ★1⁄2 D: pelberg, Jo De Meyere. An aging profesChristopher Nolan. Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne sional assassin (Decleir) in the early stages Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone, Jr., Steof Alzheimer’s disease refuses to carry out a phen Tobolowsky, Jorja Fox, Callum Keith hit on a 12-year-old prostitute and tries to help Rennie. A man with short-term memory loss the cops nail the powerful baron who hired tries to keep his life in order while avenging his him—before he loses his memory. Gripping wife’s murder. Is he being helped, or manipupolice procedural/character study is as slick lated, by the people around him? Pretentious and stylish as any American crime thriller, pap plays with storytelling conventions and while offering stinging social commentary juggles ‘‘real time,’’ but adds up to zero with a worldly European sensibility. Super 35. [R]쩠 (though the film has many ardent fans). Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Memory of Justice, The (1976-GermanU.S.) C-278m. ★★★★ D: Marcel Ophuls. Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) C-144m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Rob Marshall. Ziyi Zhang, Ken Outstanding documentary from the director Watanabe, Michelle Yeoh, Gong Li, Koˆji of THE SORROW AND THE PITY quesYakusho, Youki Kudoh, Kaori Momoi, Tsai tions how one country can pass judgment on Chin, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Randall Duk the atrocities of others by examining the NurKim, Mako, Ted Levine. Sumptuous adapemberg trials and their aftermath, the French tation of Arthur Golden’s bestseller about a performance in Algeria and the American young peasant woman’s training in the art intervention in Vietnam. Always riveting in of the geisha, even as its traditions collide spite of its mammoth length. [PG] with the demands of increasingly modern Memory of Us (1974) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: H. times and WW2. Intriguing story is HollyKaye Dyal. Ellen Geer, Jon Cypher, Barbara woodized at every turn but still reasonably Colby, Peter Brown, Robert Hogan, Rose entertaining thanks to the presence of Zhang, Marie, Will Geer. Modest, interesting contemYeoh, and Li. Spectacular production earned porary drama about a happily married woman Oscars for Art Direction and Set Decoration who begins to question her role as wife and (John Myhre, Gretchen Rau), Costumes (Colmother; script by star Ellen Geer, whose father Will makes brief appearance. [PG]▼ leen Atwood), and Cinematography (Dion Beebe). Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Memphis Belle (1990-British) C-101m. ★★ Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) D: Michael Caton-Jones. Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, Tate Donovan, D.B. C-99m. ★★ D: John Carpenter. Chevy Chase, Daryl Hannah, Sam Neill, Michael Sweeney, Billy Zane, Sean Astin, Harry [ 899 ]

Connick, Jr., Reed Edward Diamond, promptly befriends her lover and becomes his roommate, with hilarious results.▼ Courtney Gains, Neil Giuntoli, David Strathairn, John Lithgow, Jane Horrocks. Men (1998) C-93m. ★★ D: Zoe ClarkeIf you can make it through the first hour (a Williams. Sean Young, John Heard, Dylan virtual catalogue of war-movie cliche´s) this Walsh, Richard Hillman, Jr., Karen Black, film ultimately provides an exciting fictional Beau Starr, Shawnee Smith, Glenn Shadix, reenactment of the famous B-17’s final bombAnnie McEnroe. Trite, pretentious tearjerker ing raid over Germany during WW2. Still, about a young woman whose journey of selfit’s hard to believe that such a cornball discovery and sexual fulfillment takes her script could be concocted in 1990. Coprofrom N.Y. to California, where she gets induced by Catherine Wyler, whose father, volved with a married middle-aged man and a William Wyler, made the 1944 documentary radical young photographer. Young is good, THE MEMPHIS BELLE. [PG-13]▼●쩠 even if she’s too old for the part, but much of Me Myself and I (1992) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: her dialogue is unintentionally funny. Karen Pablo Ferro. JoBeth Williams, George Black, who cowrote the script, livens things Segal, Don Calfa, Shelley Hack, Betsy up with a cameo as a blind lesbian with an Lynn George, Bill Macy, Sharon McNight, indecipherable accent. [R]▼●쩠 Ruth Gilbert. Novelist-TV writer Segal Menace II Society (1993) C-97m. ★★★ D: becomes involved with his next-door neighAllen and Albert Hughes. Tyrin Turner, Larbor, a schizophrenic (well played by Wilenz Tate, Jada Pinkett, Vonte Sweet, MC Eiht, liams) who is intelligent and nurturing when Ryan Williams, Too $hort, Samuel L. Jack‘‘sane,’’ but otherwise totally off-the-wall. son, Charles Dutton, Glenn Plummer, Bill Bizarre comedy is uneven, sometimes enDuke. Powerful, unflinching story of life in joyable and other times annoying.▼ the Watts district of Los Angeles and one Me, Myself & Irene (2000) C-100m. ★★ D: teenager (Turner) who is too immersed in that Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. Jim Carrey, violent world to get out. Social points are Rene´e Zellweger, Robert Forster, Tony often hammered home, but the atmosphere of Cox, Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee, tension and random brutality is captured with Jerod Mixon, Chris Cooper, Michael Bowsearing authenticity. Extremely bloody (and man, Richard Jenkins, Rob Moran. A mildprofane) but gripping and well acted in natumannered Rhode Island state trooper sudralistic fashion. Strong debut by Hughes denly develops an alter ego, unleashing Brothers, who also cowrote story with screenyears of pent-up fury. Revealing more of writer Tyger Williams. [R]▼●쩠 the ‘‘plot’’ would be pointless. A typical Menage (1986-French) C-84m. ★★★ D: Farrelly mishmash of oddball characters Bertrand Blier. Ge´rard Depardieu, Michel and non sequitur bad-taste gags, this one Blanc, Miou-Miou, Bruno Cremer, Jeanhas an air of desperation about it. [R]▼쩠 Pierre Marielle. Outrageous, fast-paced farce Me Myself I (1999-Australian-French) Cabout a roguish, gay crook (Depardieu), who 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pip Karmel. Rachel Grifthoroughly disrupts the lives of an imfiths, David Roberts, Sandy Winton, Yael poverished couple (Blanc and Miou-Miou)— Stone, Shaun Loseby, Trent Sullivan. Fiercely sexually and otherwise. Peters out at the independent career woman realizes that she end but still worth a look. Panavision.▼ may have made a mistake putting off marMe, Natalie (1969) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred riage and family. She gets to see how the Coe. Patty Duke, James Farentino, Martin other half lives when she comes face-toBalsam, Elsa Lanchester, Salome Jens, face with the husband and kids she would Nancy Marchand, Deborah Winters, Al have experienced had she gone the ‘‘soccer Pacino. Soap opera-ish tale about unmom’’ route. Comedy-drama takes its time attractive N.Y.C. girl struggling to find unfolding, but Griffiths is good as always in herself gets tremendous boost by Duke’s a ‘‘dream’’ role. Directing debut for Kargreat performance; otherwise, film wavers uncomfortably between comedy and drama. mel, the editor of SHINE. [R]▼쩠 1 ★★★ Men, The (1950) 85m. Pacino’s feature debut. [M/PG] ⁄2 D: Fred Zinnemann. Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, Men at Work (1990) C-99m. ★★ D: Emilio Everett Sloane, Jack Webb, Richard ErdEstevez. Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Lesman, Dorothy Tree, Howard St. John, Delie Hope, Keith David, Dean Cameron, John Forest Kelley. Brando excels in film debut Getz, Cameron Dye, John Putch. Estevez and as ex-GI adjusting to life in wheelchair after real-life brother Sheen play garbage men wartime injury; low-key acting is most effecwhose freewheeling lifestyle is interrupted tive. Story and screenplay by Carl Foreman. when they discover a dead body along their Retitled: BATTLE STRIPE. ▼●쩠 route. Estevez also wrote the screenplay. LauMen . . . (1985-German) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: rel and Hardy they’re not, but this sibling duo Doris Do¨rrie. Heiner Lauterbach, Uwe Ochdoes provide some undemanding fun—if you senknecht, Ulrike Kriener, Janna Marangocheck your brain at the door. [PG-13]▼●쩠 soff. Ingenious comedy-satire about an uptight Men Don’t Leave (1990) C-115m. ★★★ adman who becomes haplessly jealous when D: Paul Brickman. Jessica Lange, Arliss he learns that his wife’s having an affair. He Howard, Joan Cusack, Chris O’Donnell, Char[ 900 ]

lie Korsmo, Kathy Bates. Widowed Lange, left is doctor torn between study with Hersholt and marriage to society girl Loy.쩠 broke with two sons, relocates from smallMen of Boys Town (1941) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: town Maryland to downtown Baltimore high Norman Taurog. Spencer Tracy, Mickey rise. Erratic but well-performed comedyRooney, Bobs Watson, Larry Nunn, Dardrama is compromised by introduction of ryl Hickman, Henry O’Neill, Lee J. Cobb. movie-predictable Mr. Right. Good moments If you liked BOYS TOWN . . .▼쩠 abound, though, particularly between Lange Men of Honor (2000) C-129m. ★★★ D: and Cusack. And ultimately, film offers a George Tillman, Jr. Robert De Niro, Cuba good cry. Brickman’s second directorial Gooding, Jr., Charlize Theron, Aunjanue Ellis, credit, following a seven-year layoff after Hal Holbrook, David Keith, Michael Rapaport, RISKY BUSINESS. Remake of French film Powers Boothe, Joshua Leonard, Glynn TurLA VIE CONTINUE. [PG-13]▼● man, Carl Lumbly, Lonette McKee. OldMen in Black (1997) C-98m. ★★★ D: Barry fashioned but rock-solid biopic of Carl BraSonnenfeld. Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, shear, the first African-American to become a Linda Fiorentino, Rip Torn, Vincent D’OnoNavy diver, in the 1950s. Gooding is sincere frio, Tony Shalhoub, Siobhan Fallon. Hip, and believable as a young man of extraordifunny spin on the usual sci-fi invasion saga. nary determination, even in the face of abuse Street-smart NYPD cop Smith is recruited from his superiors—including diver-turnedto join Jones on the super-secret team that instructor De Niro. A real crowd-pleaser, if keeps an eye on thousands of aliens who not exactly true to life. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 already populate our planet, without most of Men of Respect (1991) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: us knowing it. When one especially violent William Reilly. John Turturro, Katherine visitor starts acting up, it’s a race to find Borowitz, Dennis Farina, Peter Boyle, Rod the prize he’s looking for before Earth is Steiger, Lilia Skala, Steven Wright, Stanley destroyed. Outrageous and original at every Tucci. Pretentious modern-day Macbeth: turn, with great aliens by Rick Baker (AcadHood Turturro, pushed by an ambitious wife, emy Award winner for Best Makeup, with rises to the top by helping blow away mob David LeRoy Anderson), sharp pacing that rivals. The classic sleepwalking scene (you never lets up, and a snappy script by Ed keep wondering how it will be staged) takes Solomon, based on the Malibu comic by place in a courtyard with Borowitz carrying Lowell Cunningham. Followed by a sequel a flashlight! Overacted and underlit. Columand an animated TV series. [PG-13]▼●쩠 bia Pictures’ first gangster/Shakespeare hyMen in Black II (2002) C-88m. ★★ D: brid since JOE MACBETH; we’re in no Barry Sonnenfeld. Tommy Lee Jones, Will hurry for them to try it again. [R]▼●쩠 Smith, Rip Torn, Lara Flynn Boyle, Rosario Men of Steel SEE: Steel (1980) Dawson, Tony Shalhoub, Patrick WarburMen of the Fighting Lady (1954) C-80m. ton, Johnny Knoxville. Agent Smith tries to ★★★ D: Andrew Marton. Van Johnson, coax Agent Jones out of retirement to help Walter Pidgeon, Louis Calhern, Dewey fight humankind’s latest enemy, an alien in Martin, Keenan Wynn, Frank Lovejoy, the form of a seductress who can morph Robert Horton, Bert Freed. Above-par Kointo other less-appealing creatures at will. rean War actioner, focusing on lives of All the fun and freshness of the first film men on U. S. aircraft carrier.▼● have evaporated in this sequel, which feels Men’s Club, The (1986) C-100m. BOMB as if it was manufactured, like so much D: Peter Medak. David Dukes, Richard product. Cheesy, unconvincing special efJordan, Harvey Keitel, Frank Langella, fects don’t help, and celebrity cameos offer Roy Scheider, Craig Wasson, Treat Wilonly fleeting chuckles. A talking dog gets liams, Stockard Channing, Cindy Pickett, most of the good lines. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Gwen Welles, Ann Dusenberry, Jennifer ★★★ D: Anthony Men in War (1957) 102m. Jason Leigh, Ann Wedgeworth. Jumbled, Mann. Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, Robert barely released expansion of Leonard MiKeith, Phillip Pine, Nehemiah Persoff, Vic chaels’ novel (scripted by the author) about Morrow, James Edwards, L. Q. Jones. In seven males who try starting an encounter Korea, an American platoon, separated group in Jordan’s home. Undistinguished from the main force, joins with a sergeant performances despite that interesting cast; and nearly-comatose general in an effort to only noteworthy aspect is the elegant brothel rejoin the main group. Grim, low-key, and for high-rollers, ‘‘The House of Affecpsychologically valid, this well-acted film is tion.’’ Ridiculous finale. [R]▼● devoid of stereotypes and cliche´s; deserves Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail, The to be better known.▼●쩠 (1945-Japanese) 60m. ★★1⁄2 D: Akira KuroMen in White (1934) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richsawa. Denjiro Okochi, Susumu Fujita, Kenard Boleslawski. Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, ichi Enomoto, Suhu Nishina, Masayuki Jean Hersholt, Elizabeth Allan, Otto KruMori, Takashi Shimura. Lyrical, humanistic ger, Wallace Ford, Henry B. Walthall, (if modestly produced) fable, set in the 12th Samuel S. Hinds. Sterling cast in sterile century and based on a Kabuki play about a filming of Sidney Kingsley’s play; Gable lord who is being hunted by his brother; he [ 901 ]

and six generals dress as monks and set rich and poignant meditation on mundane existence and failed dreams.▼쩠 out on a journey across a heavily fortified Merchant of Venice, The (2004-U.S.-Italianbarrier. Banned first by Japanese censors, British-Luxembourg) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Miwho alleged it was not true to its source chael Radford. Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Joseph material, then by the country’s post-WW2 Fiennes, Lynn Collins, Zuleikha Robinson, military occupiers because of its depiction Kris Marshall, Charlie Cox, Heather Goldof feudal militarism; released in 1953. Enoenhersh, Mackenzie Crook, John Sessions, moto is especially good as a porter.▼ ★★★ Gregor Fisher, Ron Cook, Allan Corduner. InD: Men With Guns (1998) C-126m. telligent, frequently riveting adaptation of John Sayles. Federico Luppi, Damia´n DelShakespeare’s controversial tale of Shylock gado, Dan Rivera Gonza´lez, Damia´n Alca´zar, (Pacino), a Jewish moneylender in 1596 Mandy Patinkin, Katherine Grody, Tania Venice, and his plight after advancing 3,000 Cruz. Dedicated, idealistic Central American ducats to merchant Irons. Shylock may have doctor decides to track down former students been fashioned as a caricature, but Radford from a government-sponsored program to (who also adapted the play) presents the charbring good medicine to remote villages and acter sympathetically and emphasizes that, in tribes. This trek becomes an odyssey of dis16th-century Venice, Jews were the victims covery for the affluent but naive doctor, of prejudice. Exceedingly well acted, particuwho acquires some unlikely companions larly by Pacino (despite his New York acalong the way. Writer-director Sayles takes cent). Aka WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S us on a road we’ve never traveled before— THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. Super 35. in Spanish, no less—and though it’s long, [R] ▼쩠 it’s a fascinating journey. [R]▼●쩠 Merchants of Death SEE: B.O.R.N. ★★★ Mephisto (1981-Hungarian) C-135m. Merci Docteur Rey (2003-U.S.-French) CD: Istvan Szabo. Klaus Maria Brandauer, ★★ 91m. D: Andrew Litvack. Dianne Wiest, Krystyna Janda, Ildiko Bansagi, Karin Boyd, Jane Birkin, Stanislas Merhar, Bulle Ogier, Rolf Hoppe. Brandauer is magnetic as a vain, Karim Salah, Simon Callow, Jerry Hall, brilliant German actor who sells himself to Vanessa Redgrave. Campy mystery-comedy gain prestige when the Nazis come to power. involving a young phone-sex fanatic, his diva Engrossing drama is handsomely produced if mother, and several other oddball characters, a bit uneven. Based on a novel by Klaus including a Vanessa Redgrave wannabe Mann, son of Thomas, who committed sui(and the star herself, in a brief cameo). Murcide allegedly because he could not get the der, mayhem, and, sadly, a shortage of real book published. Oscar winner for Best Forwit fill this mixed bag. Without the talents eign Film. First of a trilogy, followed by of the glorious Wiest and the sublime Paris COLONEL REDL and HANUSSEN.▼쩠 locations there would be little to recommend Mephisto Waltz, The (1971) C-108m. here. A Merchant-Ivory production.쩠 ★★★ D: Paul Wendkos. Alan Alda, JacqueMerci Pour le Chocolat (2000-Frenchline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Curt Jurgens, Swiss) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. IsBrad Dillman, William Windom, Kathabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Anna leen Widdoes. Chiller about young jourMouglalis, Rodolphe Pauly, Brigitte Catillon. nalist who falls prey to Satanic cult after Swiss heiress remarries her first husband, a meeting dying concert pianist Jurgens; good piano virtuoso. Then an attractive young feoccult story with some truly frightening male pianist shows up and reveals she may moments. Adapted by Ben Maddow from be part of the family. Subdued psychological the Fred Mustard Stewart novel. [R]▼쩠 thriller is mostly nuanced talk, with Chabrol Mercenaries, The SEE: Cuba Crossing favorite Huppert well suited to the role of Mercenary, The (1968-Italian) C-105m. perverse matriarch. Aka NIGHTCAP.▼쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Sergio Corbucci. Franco Nero, Mercury Rising (1998) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Harold Becker. Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Ralli. Better-than-average Italian pasta WestMiko Hughes, Chi McBride, Kim Dickens, ern with loads of action and violence and a Robert Stanton, Bodhi Pine Elfman, Carrie welcome serving of humor. At odds with Preston, L. L. Ginter, Camryn Manheim. An one another: a stalwart mercenary (Nero), autistic nine-year-old boy innocently cracks a his sadistic rival (Palance), a patriotic revtop-secret government code; cold-eyed buolutionary (Musante), a lusty peasant girl, reaucrat Baldwin orders him killed, while overa greedy mineowner. Video title: A PROthe-hill FBI agent Willis tries to protect him. FESSIONAL GUN. Techniscope. [PG]▼쩠 Except for the boy’s autism, a routine suspense Merchant of Four Seasons, The (1971thriller, but well made and interesting throughGerman) C-88m. ★★★ D: Rainer Werner out. Willis’s standard action hero character Fassbinder. Hans Hirschmuller, Irm Hershows a softer side here, while Baldwin plays mann, Hanna Schygulla, Andrea Schober. an out-and-out heavy. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Fruit peddler trapped in unhappy marriage Meridian (1990) C-85m. ★★ D: Charles and frustrated with life disintegrates menBand. Sherilyn Fenn, Malcolm Jamieson, tally and emotionally in this surprisingly Charlie, Hilary Mason, Alex Daniels. [ 902 ]

★★★ Gothic tale about art student (Fenn) who D: Robert Bierman. Richard E. Grant, becomes heiress to Italian castle—and its Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Wadham, Jim curse. OK variation on Beauty and the Carter, Harriet Walter, Lesley Vickerage, Liz Beast doesn’t hold up past the first hour, in Smith, Barbara Leigh-Hunt. Sweet, enjoyable spite of extensive nudity. Aka KISS OF THE comedy-satire about an advertising man BEAST. From Full Moon. [R]▼●쩠 (Grant) who is captivated by the concept of ofMermaids (1990) C-111m. ★★★ D: Richfering his life to ‘‘art.’’ He quits his day job and ard Benjamin. Cher, Bob Hoskins, Wiembraces a Bohemian lifestyle as he sets out to nona Ryder, Michael Schoeffling, Christina become a full-time poet, all the while mainRicci, Caroline McWilliams, Jan Miner. taining a relationship with his ex–coworker/ Saucy, sexy single mother of two is a girlfriend (Bonham Carter). Based on Keep the source of constant embarrassment to her Aspidistra Flying, a semi-autobiographical teenage daughter, who’s trying to deal novel by George Orwell; it played the film festival circuit under that title.▼쩠 with her own sexual awakening—and not having an easy time of it. Lively mix of Merry Widow, The (1934) 99m. ★★★ D: comedy and drama set in New England in Ernst Lubitsch. Maurice Chevalier, Jeathe early 1960s. Funny and affecting, with nette MacDonald, Una Merkel, Edward a standout performance by Ryder; based Everett Horton, George Barbier, Herman on a novel by Patty Dann. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Bing. Chevalier (as Count Danilo) is sent to Merrill’s Marauders (1962) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Paris to lure a wealthy widow (MacDonald) D: Samuel Fuller. Jeff Chandler, Ty Hardin, back to her homeland of Marshovia, where Peter Brown, Andrew Duggan, Will Hutchher taxes keep the tiny country afloat. ins, Claude Akins, John Hoyt. Gritty war Charming reinvention of the famous operfilm; a WW2 actioner with Chandler (his etta gets the fabled Lubitsch touch. Many of last screen role) cast as Brig. Gen. Frank the original Franz Lehar songs remain, with Merrill, leader of a band of GIs battling new lyrics by Lorenz Hart and Gus Kahn. the Japanese in the Burmese jungle. Fuller Filmed before in 1925, again in 1952.▼● coscripted. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Merry Widow, The (1952) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 Merry Andrew (1958) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Curtis Bernhardt. Lana Turner, FerMichael Kidd. Danny Kaye, Pier Angeli, Bacnando Lamas, Una Merkel, Richard Haydn. caloni, Robert Coote. Danny is a British Franz Lehar’s operetta has been rewritten teacher-archeologist with a yen for the circus (the widow is now a glamorous American and one of its performers (Angeli) in this who poses as a Parisian chorus girl) and the bright musicomedy. Not as wacky as earlier production is sumptuous, but there’s no zing Kaye efforts, but good. CinemaScope. in this glossy remake.▼ Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983Merton of the Movies (1947) 82m. ★★ D: British-Japanese) C-122m. ★★★ D: Nagisa Robert Alton. Red Skelton, Virginia O’ Oshima. Tom Conti, David Bowie, Ryuichi Brien, Gloria Grahame, Leon Ames, Alan Sakamoto, Takeshi, Jack Thompson. OshiMowbray, Hugo Haas. Lifeless remake of ma’s first film in English (for the most George S. Kaufman–Marc Connelly play part) is strange, haunting drama set in (filmed before in 1924 and 1932) about Japanese POW camp, centering on test of wills movie-struck simpleton’s adventures in Holbetween martinet commander Sakamoto and lywood. A real disappointment. Choreographer Alton’s directing debut.▼ British major Bowie. Quite rewarding for those willing to stick with it, but it does Mesmerized (1986-British-Australian-New Zealand) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Laughlin. take some effort; splendid performances all around, especially Takeshi as tough sergeant Jodie Foster, John Lithgow, Michael Murand Conti as title character, camp’s only phy, Harry Andrews, Dan Shor, Reg Evans. bilingual prisoner. Japanese music superstar Weird, ultimately silly drama about innocent Sakamoto also composed the score. [R]▼ orphan Foster who weds older man Lithgow in Merry Gentleman, The (2009) C-96m. late-19th-century New Zealand. Laughlin ★★★ D: Michael Keaton. Michael Keaton, adapted from Jerzy Skolimowski story. Aka Kelly Macdonald, Tom Bastounes, Bobby SHOCKED. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Cannavale, Darlene Hunt, Guy Van SwearMessage, The SEE: Mohammad, Mesingen, William Dick. Austere but stylish senger of God chamber thriller about a woman (Macdonald) Message from Space (1978-Japanese) fleeing an abusive husband (Cannavale) who C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kinji Fukasaku. Vic tries to start a new life in Chicago. Extremely Morrow, Sonny Chiba, Philip Casnoff, Peggy vulnerable, she keeps to herself but strikes Lee Brennan, Sue Shiomi, Tetsuro Tamba. up a relationship with another loner (Keaton) Embattled planet sends SOS, and intergalactic who, unbeknownst to her, works as a hit man. team comes to its rescue. Cardboard perforImpressive directorial debut for Keaton, mances take back seat to special effects and working from Ron Lazzeretti’s screenplay, ‘‘cute’’ robot, both obviously patterned after but it’s Macdonald who really makes the film STAR WARS. Toeiscope. [PG] worth seeing. Super 35. [R] Message in a Bottle (1999) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 Merry War, A (1997-British) C-102m. D: Luis Mandoki. Kevin Costner, Robin [ 903 ]

Wright Penn, Paul Newman, John Savage, Joan of Arc, with a vibrant Jovovich as the Illeana Douglas, Robbie Coltrane, Jesse peasant girl who leads her countrymen into James, Bethel Leslie, Tom Aldredge, Viveka battle. But in this version (scripted by Besson Davis, Raphael Sbarge, Rosemary Murphy. and Andrew Birkin) she also questions herSappy, old-fashioned romance based on Nichself, which causes the film to lose momentum olas Sparks’ novel about a Chicago newspaafter a rousing first half that’s filled with vivid, per researcher who finds a bottle washed in-your-face battle scenes. Alternate version runs 158m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ashore and in it a passionate letter from a man to his lover. She becomes obsessed with Meteor (1979) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Rontracking down the writer, and when she finds ald Neame. Sean Connery, Natalie Wood, him (widower Costner) she doesn’t reveal that Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Henry Fonda, their meeting was not by chance. Too long, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Richard too slow, but enjoyable escapism if you buy Dysart. Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Maninto it, with Wright Penn nicely cast against hattan all get a big piece of the rock when type, and Newman in fine form as Costner’s a giant meteor comes crashing to Earth. starchy father. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Late entry in Hollywood’s disaster cycle Message to Love: The Isle of Wight Music wastes fine cast with dull script, shoddy ★★★ Festival (1996) C-128m. D: Murray Lereffects. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ner. The Who, The Doors, Joan Baez, Joni Meteor Man, The (1993) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Jethro Tull, Emerson, Robert Townsend. Robert Townsend, Marla Lake and Palmer, Tiny Tim, The Moody Gibbs, Eddie Griffin, Robert Guillaume, Blues, Kris Kristofferson, Miles Davis, DonoJames Earl Jones, Roy Fegan, Cynthia Belvan. Top-notch documentary chronicling the grave, Marilyn Coleman, Don Cheadle, Bill on- and offstage activities at Great Britain’s Cosby, Frank Gorshin, Sinbad, Luther Vanversion of Woodstock/Altamont: the 1970 Isle dross, Samuel L. Jackson. Townsend plays a of Wight Festival, a musical smorgasbord that timid inner-city schoolteacher (with a fear of was as ineptly organized as it was musically heights) who’s hit by an odd emerald meteor significant. Priceless footage of rock acts, inthat turns him into a superhero. Townsend cluding Hendrix and The Doors’ Jim Moralso wrote this ‘‘Superman N the Hood’’ tale, rison just before their deaths. Because of full of pro-social values—but not many laughs. financing problems, it took Lerner a quarterAs a comedy it just doesn’t fly. [PG]▼●쩠 century to complete this.▼●쩠 Metro (1997) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Thomas Messenger of Death (1988) C-91m. ★1⁄2 Carter. Eddie Murphy, Michael Rapaport, D: J. Lee Thompson. Charles Bronson, Michael Wincott, Carmen Ejogo, Denis Trish Van Devere, Laurence Luckinbill, Arndt, Art Evans, Donal Logue, Kim MiyJeff Corey, Marilyn Hassett, John Ireland, ori. Murphy is a self-assured hostage negoDaniel Benzali. Boring Bronson vehicle tiator for the San Francisco police, but this casts him as a reporter determined to get to action film needs his thousand-watt personthe bottom of an odd murder case involvality to keep it afloat. Plotting is cluttered ing two warring Mormon sects led by and predictable, with a heinous villain Corey and Ireland. By-the-numbers film(Wincott) who proves so indestructible that making wastes a potentially interesting look when he finally dies, there’s no satisfaction at a different culture. [R]▼●쩠 because we’re not sure he’s really finished! Messengers, The (2007) C-90m. ★★ D: Action highlight: a runaway cable car. PaDanny Pang, Oxide Pang. Kristen Stewart, navision. [R]▼●쩠 Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller, Metroland (1998-British) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Corbett, Dustin Milligan. A family tryPhilip Saville. Christian Bale, Emily Wating to make a fresh start moves from the son, Lee Ross, Elsa Zylberstein, Rufus, Joncity to an abandoned farm (where, it turns athan Aris, Ifan Meredith, Amanda Ryan, out, the prior owners were mysteriously John Wood. 1977: Chris (Bale), a comfortmurdered). Troubled teenage daughter Stewably married man, is visited by his oldest art immediately sees and senses things that friend, a vagabond poet, who forces him to her parents are unaware of; before long, reflect on his Bohemian days in late ’60s these nasty spirits close in on her and her Paris and question the value of middle-class baby brother. Anemic horror film is all existence in London suburbia. A thoughtful setup with little payoff, eerie but not scary. though basically unsurprising examination American debut for Hong Kong directors of compromised dreams, bolstered by the the Pang Brothers. Followed by a DVD seperformances of Bale and Watson. Adrian quel. [PG-13]쩠 Hodges adapted Julian Barnes’ novel. ▼쩠 Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Metropolis (1927-German) 124m. ★★★★ D: Fritz Lang. Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, The (1999-French-U.S.) C-148m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luc Besson. Milla Jovovich, John MalkovGustav Froelich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz ich, Faye Dunaway, Dustin Hoffman, Pascal Rasp. Classic silent-film fantasy of futuristic Greggory, Vincent Cassel, Tche´ky Karyo, city and its mechanized society, with upperRichard Ridings, Desmond Harrington, Timoclass young man abandoning his life of luxury thy West. Arresting approach to the story of to join oppressed workers in a revolt. Heavy [ 904 ]

going at times, but startling set design and Charles Barton. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, special effects command attention throughout. Virginia Grey, Luba Malina, John HubMany shorter prints exist; reissued in 1984 at bard, Pedro de Cordoba, Fritz Feld. Lack87m. with color tints and score by Giorgio luster A&C vehicle, with the boys on a Moroder. Definitive German restoration dewild goose chase with a mine deed in buted in 2002. ▼●쩠 Mexico. Based on a Cole Porter Broadway Metropolis (2001-Japanese) C-106m. ★★★ musical, but without the songs!▼쩠 D: Rintaro. Voices of Yuka Imoto, Kei KoMexican Spitfire series SEE: Leonard bayashi, Kohki Okada, Taro Ishida, Kousei Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide Tomita. A private detective and his nephew MGM’s The Big Parade of Comedy track a suspect to futuristic Metropolis, meet (1964) 90m. ★★1⁄2 Compiled by Robert a mysterious girl who is actually a very powYoungson. Fifty of the greatest stars of all erful robot, and unravel a plot by a military time appear in this compilation, but too leader who plans to take over the city. Specbriefly. Still worthwhile for many priceless tacular Japanese anime with original story insequences with Garbo, Laurel and Hardy, spired by Fritz Lang’s classic film. Written Keaton, Gable, Robert Benchley, Jean Harby Katsuhiro Otomo (AKIRA), based on a low, Marion Davies, Marx Brothers, et al.▼ graphic novel by Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy). Miami Blues (1990) C-99m. ★★ D: George Opulent backdrops contrast with cartoonyArmitage. Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin, Jenlooking lead characters, but dramatic storytellnifer Jason Leigh, Nora Dunn, Charles ing and powerful visuals overcome film’s Napier, Jose Perez, Paul Gleason, Obba shortcomings. [PG-13]▼쩠 Babatunde, Martine Beswicke. PsychoMetropolitan (1990) C-98m. ★★★ D: Whit pathic thief and murderer (Baldwin) arrives Stillman. Carolyn Farina, Edward Clemin Miami, hooks up with a naive young ents, Christopher Eigeman, Taylor Nichols, woman who’s blind to his problems, and sets Allison Rutledge-Parisi, Dylan Hundley, a world-weary cop on his trail by stealing the Isabel Gillies, Bryan Leder, Will Kempe, detective’s badge and I.D. Three dynamic Elizabeth Thompson. Title might suggest performances and some hip, high-style teeming masses, but this thoroughly origifilmmaking command your attention—but nal little film looks instead at N.Y.C.’s the rampant amorality and violence leave a upper crust—specifically, the inner circle of bad taste. Jonathan Demme and costar debutantes (who haven’t yet ‘‘come out’’), Ward were among the producers. From the preppies, and their way of life. Social comCharles Willeford novel. [R]▼●쩠 edy, brimming with irony, is set during Miami Rhapsody (1995) C-95m. ★★ D: Christmas season, with loner Clements David Frankel. Sarah Jessica Parker, Mia Fardrawn into small clique of friends. Sharply row, Antonio Banderas, Gil Bellows, Paul written by first-time director Stillman, and well Mazursky, Carla Gugino, Naomi Campbell, acted by cast of newcomers; Eigeman, as Kevin Pollak, Mark Blum, Ben Stein. Young Nick, is a standout. [PG-13]▼●쩠 woman is afraid of committing to marriage, Me Without You (2001-British-German) given the tumult of her parents’ and siblings’ C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sandra Goldbacher. Anna marital lives. Only problem is that she can’t Friel, Michelle Williams, Oliver Milburn, seem to stop talking about it. Light comedy, Trudie Styler, Marianne Denicourt, Steve with serious undertones, almost sinks under John Shepherd, Nicky Henson, Allan Corthe weight of talk: an incessant stream of oneduner, Kyle MacLachlan, Anna Popplewell. line, sitcom-style jokes. Written by the direcShy, sensitive Williams and loose, outgoing tor. Overbearing big band–style score by Friel have been best pals since childhood, Mark Isham. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 but as they come of age their friendship is Miami Vice (2006) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Micompromised. Potentially intriguing female chael Mann. Jamie Foxx, Colin Farrell, buddy film has some forceful moments, but Gong Li, Naomie Harris, Ciara´n Hinds, Jusit doesn’t gel. [R]▼쩠 ★★ tin Theroux, Barry Shabaka Henley, Luis Mexican, The (2001) C-123m. D: Gore Tosar, John Ortiz, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Verbinski. Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Eddie Marsan, John Hawkes, Isaach De Gandolfini, J.K. Simmons, Michael CerBankole´. Miami detectives Crockett and veris, Bob Balaban, David Krumholtz, Steve Tubbs are back from the stylish 1980s TV Rossi. Barely adequate, overlong caper comseries, but this time their pursuit of a ruthedy starring America’s sweethearts as a bickless drug lord takes them to Central and ering couple who (separately) get involved South America . . . and Crockett pursues an with thugs all over the Southwest and Mexico. improbable relationship with the drug czar’s While Pitt hunts down the titular weapon, an sexy business partner. Super-cool cars, antique pistol, amid every conceivable calamboats, planes keep this fantasy version of ity, Roberts and mobster Gandolfini become cops-and-robbers watchable on a makeirrepressible buddies. Gandolfini, predictably, believe level, but the final showdown is awsteals the show. Gene Hackman appears unfully conventional. Mann, who coexecutive billed. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Mexican Hayride (1948) 77m. ★★ D: produced the original series, also wrote this [ 905 ]

screenplay. Director’s cut runs 140m. HD family. Soon, he’s pressed into doing favors Widescreen/Super 35. [R]쩠 for some of ‘‘the boys.’’ Starts out funny Michael (1996) C-105m. ★★★ D: Nora but soon sputters. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Ephron. John Travolta, Andie MacDowell, Mickey One (1965) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur William Hurt, Robert Pastorelli, Bob HosPenn. Warren Beatty, Hurd Hatfield, Alexkins, Jean Stapleton, Teri Garr, Wally andra Stewart, Franchot Tone, Teddy Hart, Ward, Joey Lauren Adams, Carla Gugino, Jeff Corey, Kamatari Fujiwara, Donna MiTom Hodges, Wallace Langham. A pair of chelle. Nightclub comic in trouble with mob cynical reporters and a phony ‘‘angel extakes it on the lam and assumes a new idenpert’’ discover that a dotty old lady’s claim tity. Offbeat, to say the least; Penn’s version of that the archangel Michael is living with her a French New Wave film; heavy with visual is true. Michael, however, turns out not to symbols but we’re not quite sure what it’s all be your average angel. Genial, wry movie about. Fine jazz score by Eddie Sauter with never goes quite where you expect and solos by Stan Getz.▼● takes its sweet time getting there, but the Micki + Maude (1984) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: trip is charming, and Travolta, as the seedy, Blake Edwards. Dudley Moore, Amy Irvrandy Michael, is perfectly cast. Ideal music ing, Ann Reinking, Richard Mulligan, score by Randy Newman. [PG]▼●쩠 George Gaynes, Wallace Shawn, John Michael Clayton (2007) C-120m. ★★★ D: Pleshette, Lu Leonard, Priscilla Pointer, Tony Gilroy. George Clooney, Tom WilkinGeorge Coe. Dudley has a wife and a son, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack, Michael girlfriend—and they’re both pregnant! SurO’Keefe, Ken Howard, David Lansbury, prisingly warmhearted comedy that turns Denis O’Hare, Austin Williams. The morals into old-fashioned farce. Runs out of steam of a corporate law firm’s ‘‘fixer’’ (Clooney) somewhere along the line but benefits from are put to the test when one of its lead attorwinning performances by all three leads. neys (Wilkinson) reveals damaging eviPanavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 dence in a huge class-action lawsuit. RockMicrocosmos (1996-French-Swiss-Italian) solid thriller and character study may fall C-77m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Nuridsany, Marie back on some stock elements, but writer/ Perennou. Strikingly visual nature docufirst-time director Gilroy tells his story with mentary using high-powered lenses to resupreme assurance, avoiding a lot of obvicord a magical universe that hardly can be ous melodramatic pitfalls. Wilkinson is tops seen by the human eye: the world of insects, in an excellent cast and Clooney offers a in which beetles, snails, caterpillars, ladytextbook lesson in understated acting by a bugs, and dragonflies exist amid grass and Movie Star. Swinton’s performance earned vines, dewdrops and poppies. An imher a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Be mensely entertaining, endlessly fascinating sure to sit through the credits. Panavision. visual treat; stunningly photographed and [R]쩠 edited. U.S. prints feature narration by KrisMichael Collins (1996-U.S.-Irish) C-132m. ten Scott Thomas. [G]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Neil Jordan. Liam Neeson, Aidan Midaq Alley (1995-Mexican) C-144m. ★★ Quinn, Julia Roberts, Stephen Rea, Alan D: Jorge Fons. Ernesto Go´mez Cruz, Marı´a Rickman, Ian Hart, Brendan Gleeson, Charles Rojo, Salma Hayek, Bruno Bichir, Delia Dance, Gerard McSorley, Jonathan Rhys Casanova, Margarita Sanz, Claudio Obrego´n. Myers (Meyers). Politically charged story of Overwrought soap opera featuring several Irish rebel leader Collins (Neeson), who with storylines involving characters who frecharm, guts, and idealistic fervor leads the quent a bar at the title locale in Mexico City. fight against British rule in the teens and Although based on a novel by Nobel Prize ’20s. Dynamic and powerful first half gives winner Naguib Mahfouz, the characters are way to more sober and inevitable concludisappointingly one-dimensional. Hayek is sion, in which Collins is forced to become a striking presence as Alma, a poor beauty a diplomat and compromiser—sowing the driven to desperate acts.▼쩠 seeds of his own demise. Neeson is excelMidas Run (1969) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alf lent and surrounded by a first-rate cast in Kjellin. Fred Astaire, Richard Crenna, Anne this persuasive, believable, and violent peHeywood, Ralph Richardson, Roddy Mcriod piece, beautifully filmed by Chris Dowall, Cesar Romero. British secret serMenges. Jordan also scripted. [R] ▼●쩠 viceman plots a daring gold heist in this Michael Shayne series SEE: Leonard Malroutine caper film, enlivened by Astaire’s tin’s Classic Movie Guide peerless presence in lead. Fred Astaire, Jr., Mickey Blue Eyes (1999-U.S.-British) Cappears briefly as plane’s copilot. [M/PG] 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kelly Makin. Hugh Grant, Middle Age Crazy (1980-Canadian) CJames Caan, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Burt 95m. ★1⁄2 D: John Trent. Bruce Dern, Young, James Fox, Joe Viterelli, Gerry Ann-Margret, Graham Jarvis, Eric ChristBecker, Maddie Corman. Fitfully amusing mas, Deborah Wakeham. Title tells all: farce about a N.Y.C. art auctioneer who 40-year-old Dern buys a Porsche, some asks his girlfriend to marry him—never dreaming that she’s part of an Italian mob new threads, and leaves wife Ann-Margret [ 906 ]

for pro-football cheerleader Wakeham. Nothdevelopments hamper things, but Muellering new; inspired by the hit song. [R]▼ Stahl is very good. [R]▼쩠 Middle of the World, The (1974-FrenchMidnight Cowboy (1969) C-113m. ★★★★ Swiss) C-115m. ★★★ D: Alain Tanner. D: John Schlesinger. Dustin Hoffman, Jon Olimpia Carlisi, Philippe Le´otard, Juliet Voight, Sylvia Miles, John McGiver, Berto, Jacques Denis, Roger Jendly. Brenda Vaccaro, Barnard Hughes, Ruth Intelligent, quietly effective tale of marWhite, Jennifer Salt, Bob Balaban. Emoried engineer Le´otard, running for political tionally shattering dramatization of James office, who has scandalous affair with waitLeo Herlihy’s novel was rated X in 1969, ress Carlisi. but it’s essentially an old-fashioned story with some unusual modern twists: hayseed Midnight (1939) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mitchell Leisen. Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Voight comes to N.Y.C. in hopes of becomJohn Barrymore, Francis Lederer, Mary ing a freelance stud, and develops unusual Astor, Hedda Hopper, Monty Woolley. and deep friendship with seedy Ratso Rizzo Penniless Colbert masquerades as Hungarian (Hoffman). Seamiest side of N.Y.C. is countess in chic Parisian marital mixup; backdrop for compelling, keen-eyed characnear-classic comedy written by Billy Wilter study that if anything looks better today der and Charles Brackett. Barrymore’s anthan it did when it came out. Won Best tics are especially memorable. Remade as Picture, Director, Screenplay (Waldo Salt) MASQUERADE IN MEXICO.▼쩠 Oscars. Graphic effects by Pablo Ferro. Midnight (1981) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: John [R—edited from original X rating]▼●쩠 Russo. Lawrence Tierney, Melanie Verliin, Midnight Crossing (1988) C-104m. ★1⁄2 John Amplas, John Hall, Charles Jackson, D: Roger Holzberg. Faye Dunaway, DanDoris Hackney. Low-budget horror, shot iel J. Travanti, Kim Cattrall, Ned Beatty, in Pennsylvania, isn’t bad. Unfortunate teenJohn Laughlin. Hokey, boring, needlessly ager Verliin, driven out of her home by a violent soaper-adventure, with insurance lecherous policeman stepfather (Tierney), agent Travanti intent on recovering some meets two young thieves and then a family booty he and his late pal buried years of cultists who sacrifice young women. before. Dunaway is thanklessly cast as his Russo adapted his own novel. Aka BACKwife, who is blind. [R]▼●쩠 WOODS MASSACRE. Followed by a seMidnight Express (1978) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 quel. [R]▼쩠 D: Alan Parker. Brad Davis, Irene MiraMidnight (1989) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Norman cle, Bo Hopkins, Randy Quaid, John Hurt, Thaddeus Vane. Lynn Redgrave, Tony Mike Kellin, Paul Smith. Riveting, harshly Curtis, Steven Parrish, Frank Gorshin, violent story of young American Billy Hayes Wolfman Jack, Rita Gam. Tiresome story (Davis), who faces physical and emotional of TV horror-movie hostess who finds peobrutalization in Turkish prison after being ple around her mysteriously dying. Alwayscaught drug-smuggling. Great moviemaking, watchable Redgrave does her best, but meathough not as faithful to Hayes’ true story ger, slow-moving script does her in. A as filmmakers would have us believe. Oscar longer ‘‘director’s cut’’ had theatrical showwinner for Oliver Stone’s script and Giorgio ings following its video release. [R]▼● Moroder’s score. [R]▼●쩠 Midnight Auto Supply SEE: Love and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) C-155m. ★★ D: Clint Eastwood. the Midnight Auto Supply Kevin Spacey, John Cusack, Jack ThompMidnight Clear, A (1992) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Keith Gordon. Peter Berg, Kevin Dilson, The Lady Chablis, Alison Eastwood, lon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, Irma P. Hall, Paul Hipp, Jude Law, Dorothy Frank Whaley, John C. McGinley, Larry Loudon, Anne Haney, Kim Hunter, Geoffrey Joshua, Curt Lowens. Top-notch anti-war Lewis, Richard Herd, James Moody. Meandrama, about a squad of young American dering adaptation of John Berendt’s best-seller GI’s (led by Hawke) on a mission in the about some of the more eccentric denizens Ardennes Forest near the end of WW2. of Savannah, Georgia. Cusack plays a N.Y. Refreshingly unhurried film is filled with reporter assigned to cover Spacey’s A-list insight, irony, and eloquence. Extremely Christmas party; when that gracious, noveau well acted and directed; Gordon also riche bon vivant is accused of murder later the scripted, from William Wharton’s novel. same night, Cusack decides to stick around and see what happens. Never terribly compel[R]▼●쩠 Midnight Cop (1989-West German) C-96m. ling, despite several likable performances, and ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Patzak. Armin Mueller-Stahl, fatally overlong. [R]▼●쩠 Michael York, Morgan Fairchild, Frank Midnight Lace (1960) C-108m. ★★★ D: Stallone, Julia Kent, Monica Bleibtreu, David Miller. Doris Day, Rex Harrison, Allegra Curtis. Slow but interesting murder John Gavin, Myrna Loy, Roddy McDowall, mystery pitting quirky Berlin cop against Herbert Marshall, Natasha Parry, Anthony both a serial killer and a blackmailer. OverDawson. Shrill murder mystery; unbelievdone tenor sax jazz score and murky plot able plot line, but star cast and decor [ 907 ]

smooth over rough spots. Set in London; Mohr’s glistening cinematography won an redone as a TVM in 1980.▼ Oscar—the only one ever awarded on a Midnight Madness (1980) C-110m. write-in. This was the only sound film of BOMB D: David Wechter, Michael Nanesteemed European stage director Reinkin. David Naughton, Debra Clinger, Eddie hardt. Film debut of Olivia de Havilland Deezen, Brad Wilkin, Maggie Roswell, (who had appeared in Reinhardt’s HollyStephen Furst. Idiotic comedy about colwood Bowl production of the play a year earlier). Originally 132m.▼●쩠 lege students participating in an all-night scavenger hunt. Nothing to stay up for Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (1966) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dan Eriksen. Suzanne (unless you want to see Michael J. Fox in his feature film debut). [PG]▼쩠 Farrell, Edward Villella, Arthur Mitchell, Midnight Man, The (1974) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 Mimi Paul, Nicholas Magallanes. Filmed D: Roland Kibbee, Burt Lancaster. Burt record of New York City Ballet’s presentaLancaster, Susan Clark, Cameron Mitchell, tion of Shakespeare’s comedy is mostly Morgan Woodward, Joan Lorring, Ed Lauter, for dance buffs; makes some attempt to be Catherine Bach, Linda Kelsey, Harris cinematic, but not enough. Panavision. Yulin. Involved, overlong mystery with Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (1968British) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Hall. Diana Lancaster as college security officer looking into a coed’s murder. Lancaster and Rigg, David Warner, Michael Jayston, Ian Kibbee also cowrote and coproduced. [R] Richardson, Judi Dench, Ian Holm, Bill Midnight Mary (1933) 74m. ★★★ D: WilTravers, Helen Mirren. Fine cast of Engliam A. Wellman. Loretta Young, Ricardo land’s Royal Shakespeare Co. in middling Cortez, Franchot Tone, Andy Devine, Una performance of the Shakespeare classic.▼쩠 Merkel, Frank Conroy, Warren Hymer. ViMidsummer Night’s Dream, A (1999) Csually arresting story, told in flashback, of 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Hoffman. Kevin hard luck Young, orphaned at nine, seduced at Kline, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Everett, Stansixteen, sent to prison. Loaded with Wellley Tucci, Calista Flockhart, Anna Friel, Chrisman flourishes, and Loretta is mesmeriztian Bale, Dominic West, David Strathairn, ingly beautiful. Story by Anita Loos.쩠 Sophie Marceau, Roger Rees, Max Wright, 1 ★★★ Midnight Run (1988) C-122m. Gregory Jbara, Bill Irwin, Sam Rockwell, Ber⁄2 D: Martin Brest. Robert De Niro, Charles nard Hill, John Sessions. Shakespeare’s classic Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dencomedy transported from ancient Greece to nis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, Wendy Phillate-19th-century Italy (complete with newly lips, Richard Foronjy. Socko action-comedy invented bicycles). Young love runs wild, with with bounty hunter (and ex-cop) De Niro Everett and Pfeiffer as King and Queen of the determined to bring bail-jumper Grodin, Fairies, Tucci a spirited Puck and Kline (in an embezzling accountant, from N.Y. to his element) a buffoonish Bottom. Works betL.A. What De Niro doesn’t know is that ter in parts than as a whole, but still enjoyable the Mob is also on Grodin’s trail—with for lovers of the play. Full on-screen title is orders to kill. Sensational byplay between the WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S A MIDstars is matched by first-rate action and a SUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. 2.35 Research PLC. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sharply written script by George Gallo. Director Brest handles the blend of violence and Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, A (1982) C-88m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. comedy as well as he did in BEVERLY HILLS COP. Dynamic music score by Danny Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Jose Ferrer, Elfman. Followed by a TV series. [R]▼●쩠 Mary Steenburgen, Tony Roberts, Julie ★★1 Midnight Story, The (1957) 89m. ⁄2 Hagerty. SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, D: Joseph Pevney. Tony Curtis, Marisa Woody Allen-style; a quirky, entertaining Pavan, Gilbert Roland, Ted de Corsia, diversion about sexual byplay among three Kathleen Freeman. Atmospheric murder yarn couples on a summer weekend in the counwith Curtis an ex-cop seeking the culprit who try, circa 1900. Appealing cast (including killed neighborhood priest. CinemaScope. Farrow, in first film with Woody), exquisite Midsummer Night’s Dream, A (1935) Gordon Willis photography. [PG]▼쩠 117m. ★★★ D: Max Reinhardt, William Midway (1976) C-132m. ★★ D: Jack Dieterle. James Cagney, Dick Powell, Joe Smight. Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, E. Brown, Jean Muir, Hugh Herbert, Olivia James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, de Havilland, Ian Hunter, Frank McHugh, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson, Toshiro Victor Jory, Ross Alexander, Verree TeasMifune, Robert Wagner, Edward Albert, dale, Anita Louise, Mickey Rooney, Robert Webber, Ed Nelson, James Shigeta, Arthur Treacher, Billy Barty. HollywoodMonte Markham, Christopher George, Shakespeare has good and bad points; Glenn Corbett. Prominent cast acts to reels Cagney as Bottom and the Mendelssohn of stock shots from THIRTY SECONDS music are among good parts; Hugh HerOVER TOKYO, antique Japanese war bert and other incongruous cast members films, and actual wartime footage. Silly make up the latter. After a while Rooney soap opera (Heston’s ensign son in love (as Puck) gets to be a bit too much. Hal with Japanese girl) doesn’t help. Still, some [ 908 ]

of the drama and impact of the great naval battle comes through. Many familiar faces in cast: Tom Selleck, Kevin Dobson, Pat Morita, Dabney Coleman, Erik Estrada, Steve Kanaly, etc. Paul Frees dubbed Mifune’s English dialogue. Panavision. [PG]

winning performance as the woman in question. [R] ▼●쩠 Mighty Ducks, The (1992) C-100m. ★★ D: Stephen Herek. Emilio Estevez, Joss Ackland, Lane Smith, Heidi Kling, Josef Sommer, Joshua Jackson, Elden Ratliff (Hansen), Shaun Weiss, Matt Doherty. ▼●쩠 Harmless, cliche´d Disney yarn of self-cenMidwinter’s Tale, A (1995-British) 98m. ★★1 tered yuppie lawyer Estevez who’s busted for ⁄2 D: Kenneth Branagh. Michael Malodrunk-driving, ordered to do community serney, Richard Briers, Mark Hadfield, Nicholas vice, and assigned to coach a ragtag inner-city Farrell, Gerard Horan, John Sessions, Celia peewee hockey team. Guess what happens Imrie, Hetta Charnley, Julia Sawalha, Joan next. (Anaheim-based pro hockey team was Collins, Jennifer Saunders. Unemployed actor formed by Disney in 1993 called . . . you decides to mount a free-form production of guessed it.) Followed by D2: THE MIGHTY Hamlet in a remote English town with an allDUCKS, D3: THE MIGHTY DUCKS, an volunteer cast and crew. Uneven comedy hits animated series, and a TVM based on that its stride in the final portion of the film as the series. [PG]▼●쩠 cast and production for the play come together Mighty Heart, A (2007) C-108m. ★★★ D: and the parallels between their real lives and Michael Winterbottom. Angelina Jolie, Dan their stage lives are revealed. A little too pat, Futterman, Archie Panjabi, Irrfan Khan, but likable. Original screenplay by Branagh, Will Patton, Denis O’Hare, Adnan Siddiqui, who tailored many of the parts for these Gary Wilmes, Alyy Khan. Gripping account specific actors. Original British title: IN of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl’s THE BLEAK MIDWINTER. [R]▼● 2002 kidnapping in Pakistan and the desperMifune (1999-Danish) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: ate efforts of his journalist wife Mariane Soren Kragh-Jacobsen. Anders W. Ber(Jolie) and others to find him. Jolie is excelthelsen, Iben Hjejle, Jesper Asholt, Emil lent in this superbly crafted film, which unTarding, Anders Hove, Sofie Gra˚bol, Paprika folds in documentary style that does not Steen, Mette Bratlann. A newly married busicheapen the tragic subject matter but tends nessman returns home to take care of his mento keep the viewer at an emotional distance. tally handicapped brother after their father Based on Mariane’s memoir. Brad Pitt codies. Complications follow when the houseproduced. Super 35. [R]쩠 keeper he hires turns out to be an ex-hooker Mighty Joe Young (1949) 94m. ★★★ D: with problems of her own. Filmed according Ernest B. Schoedsack. Terry Moore, Ben to the spartan cinematic rules of Dogma 95, Johnson, Robert Armstrong, Mr. Joseph this has good acting and lovely isolated moYoung, Frank McHugh. Updating of KING ments, but not enough to overcome a thin KONG theme has comparable (and Oscarstory with few surprises. Mifune, by the way, winning) stop-motion special effects by refers to actor Toshiro. [R]▼쩠 Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, but Mighty, The (1998) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: no matching storyline, and Moore is no Fay Peter Chelsom. Kieran Culkin, Elden HenWray. Mr. Young is good, though. Last son, Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, Harry sequence was originally shown with color Dean Stanton, Gillian Anderson, James tints, which have been restored for most Gandolfini, Meat Loaf, Jenifer Lewis. Beauprints. Also shown in computer-colored tifully realized story of two young misfits version. Remade in 1998. ▼●쩠 who bond together and become, in their Mighty Joe Young (1998) C-114m. ★★★ hearts and imaginations, invincible as the D: Ron Underwood. Bill Paxton, Charlize knights of old. Poetic and heart-rending, Theron, David Paymer, Regina King, Rade with remarkable performances by the Sherbedgia (Serbedzija), Peter Firth, Linda youthful leading actors. Screenplay by Purl, Robert Wisdom, Lawrence Pressman, Charles Leavitt from the novel Freak the John Alexander, Naveen Andrews. EntertainMighty by Rodman Philbrick. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ing update of the 1949 movie: Theron is Mighty Aphrodite (1995) C-95m. ★★★ D: raised in the jungle alongside a giant gorilla. Woody Allen. F. Murray Abraham, Woody In order to protect Joe from poachers, she Allen, Claire Bloom, Helena Bonham Carter, agrees to bring him to an L.A. animal habiOlympia Dukakis, Michael Rapaport, Mira tat—but no one understands the big guy as Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Jack Warden, she does. What is more, a bad guy is out to Peter Weller, Steven Randazzo, Donald Symget him, leading to an inevitable rampage. ington, Rosemary Murphy, Tony Sirico, Paul Good fun, earnestly done. Terry Moore (star Giamatti. Highly entertaining fluff with of the 1949 film) and Ray Harryhausen (who Woody as a happily married man whose wife helped animate the original Joe) have a cameo convinces him to adopt a baby; then, years together; so does Dina Merrill, whose huslater, he becomes obsessed with learning band produced the film. Joe was designed by about (and getting to know) the boy’s real Rick Baker. [PG]▼●쩠 mother. Sorvino is sensational in an OscarMighty Morphin Power Rangers: The [ 909 ]

Movie (1995-U.S.-Japanese) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bryan Spicer. Karan Ashley, Johnny Yong Bosch, Steve Cardenas, Jason David Frank, Amy Jo Johnson, David Yost, Paul Schrier, Jason Narvy, Paul Freeman, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Nicholas Bell. The teenage Rangers temporarily lose their powers when primordial bad guy Ivan Ooze reappears after centuries of captivity and attacks their mentor, sending them on a quest for renewed power. Juvenile fantasy/adventure aimed squarely at the huge audience of the same-named TV series . . . and not bad, for what it is. Followed by TURBO: A POWER RANGERS MOVIE, then in 1999 a direct-to-video sequel. [PG] ▼●쩠 Mighty Quinn, The (1989) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carl Schenkel. Denzel Washington, Robert Townsend, James Fox, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Art Evans, Esther Rolle, Norman Beaton, Keye Luke. Washington plays the independent-minded police chief of a Caribbean island who’s determined to get to the bottom of a murder, even though it apparently involves political sensitivities—and his boyhood pal, a now-notorious character played by Townsend. Colorful locale spices this ordinary tale and makes it a pleasant time-filler. [R]▼●쩠 Mighty Wind, A (2003) C-92m. ★★★ D: Christopher Guest. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Bob Balaban, Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Jane Lynch, John Michael Higgins, Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Begley, Jr., Larry Miller, Michael Hitchcock, Paul Dooley. When a veteran folk-music promoter dies, one of his sons launches a reunion concert of disparate folkies at N.Y.C.’s Town Hall. So droll that you have to pinch yourself to realize just how dead-on its satirical skewering is, including a host of bogus ’60s folk songs (and even album covers). Treats its targets a bit more gently than WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and BEST IN SHOW; it’s even touching at times. Willard is a scream as a showbiz promoter and ‘‘idea man’’ whose ideas could sink a continent. Screenplay by Guest and Levy. [PG-13]

Ned Beatty, Rose Arrick, Carol Grace, Joyce Van Patten. Ragged film (in the editing room for several years) improves as it goes along, examining relationship between small-time hoods who were childhood pals, one of whom may be fingering the other for hit man Beatty. Superb performances by Falk and Cassavetes. [R]▼쩠 Milagro Beanfield War, The (1988) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Redford. Ruben Blades, Richard Bradford, Sonia Braga, Julie Carmen, James Gammon, Melanie Griffith, John Heard, Carlos Riquelme, Daniel Stern, Chick Vennera, Christopher Walken, Freddy Fender, Robert Carricart, M. Emmet Walsh, Trinidad Silva. Spirited, fanciful tale of a rugged individualist (dirt-poor, hard-luck Vennera) who decides to stand up to the big, brash developers who plan to milk his (and his neighbors’) New Mexico land for all it’s worth. Distilled from John Nichols’ sprawling novel by Nichols and David Ward, this film takes a whimsical tone that’s positively infectious . . . aided by a top ensemble cast, beautiful scenery, and Dave Grusin’s lyrical, Oscar-winning score. [R]▼●쩠 Mildred Pierce (1945) 109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Bruce Bennett, Lee Patrick, Butterfly McQueen. Crawford won an Oscar as housewifeturned-waitress who finds success in business but loses control of ungrateful daughter Blyth—especially when she finds they’re competing for the love of the same man. Solid adaptation (scripted by Ranald MacDougall) of James M. Cain’s novel with top supporting cast. Also shown in computercolored version.▼●쩠 Miles From Home (1988) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Gary Sinise. Richard Gere, Kevin Anderson, Penelope Ann Miller, Laurie Metcalf, John Malkovich, Brian Dennehy, Judith Ivey, Helen Hunt, Terry Kinney. The ‘‘Farm of the Year’’ from 1959 goes bankrupt in 1988; heir Gere burns it down rather than see it taken over by the bank, then takes off on a Midwest spree accompanied by acquiescent brother Anderson. Gere’s actions (and performance) are so off-putting that you begin to wonder if ▼쩠 Mike’s Murder (1984) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: he doesn’t deserve his fate, which can hardly James Bridges. Debra Winger, Mark Keybe the point. Miller and Metcalf put spins on marginal roles. [R]▼● loun, Darrell Larson, Paul Winfield, Brooke Alderson, William Ostrander, Dan Shor. Milk (2008) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gus Van One of the worst movies ever made by a Sant. Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile filmmaker of Bridges’ stature; after an acHirsch, Josh Brolin, Diego Luna, Alison quaintance is butchered in a drug deal, Pill, Victor Garber, Denis O’Hare, Joseph Winger decides to investigate for herself. Cross, Stephen Spinella. Exceptional biopic Filmed in 1982, followed by years at the about Harvey Milk, America’s pioneering editing table to no avail; Winfield provides openly gay elected official, who changed only life as jaded record exec. Escapes both laws and perceptions as a San FranBOMB rating only because several critics cisco city supervisor in the 1970s. Penn disthought highly of it. [R]▼ appears into the character of the sweet but Mikey and Nicky (1976) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 forceful man who never gave up, despite D: Elaine May. Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, repeated setbacks—and the knowledge that [ 910 ]

he might be cut down in his prime. Dustin Voices of Miyoko Shoˆji, Mami Koyama, Lance Black’s expansive screenplay covers Fumiko Orikasa, Shozo Iizuka, Masaya a lot of territory, both personal and public, Onosaka. A legendary actress agrees to give a while Van Sant’s seamless interweaving of rare interview to a documentary filmmaker vintage news footage and re-creations transand reveals personal secrets that allow the ports us back in time. Milk’s crusade, and director and his cameraman to vicariously exthe vitriolic response to it, has uncanny perience her life and times. Mature, literate modern-day resonance. Oscar winner for Japanese animated feature makes innovative Best Actor (Penn) and Best Original Screenuse of flashbacks but never quite lives up to play. See also: THE TIMES OF HARVEY the potential inherent in the story. EspeMILK. [R]쩠 cially interesting to anyone who knows JapMilk Money (1994) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Richanese film history, as the actress spans the ard Benjamin. Melanie Griffith, Ed Harris, eras of propaganda films, Samurai sagas, and monster movies. [PG] ▼쩠 Michael Patrick Carter, Malcolm McDowell, Anne Heche, Casey Siemaszko, Philip Millennium Mambo (2001-FrenchTaiwanese) C-119m. ★1⁄2 D: Hou Hsiao Bosco. ‘‘Family-values’’ comedy about a 12-year-old who raises funds to ogle a sexy Hsien. Shu Qi, Jack Kao, Tuan Chun-Hao, hooker—who later turns up in his homeChen Yi-Hsuan, Maggie Cheung. Disaptown! Not as grubby as it sounds, but still an pointing downer from acclaimed director unlikely candidate to contribute to anyone’s concerns a young, beautiful girl caught in Irving G. Thalberg Award chances. Mca dead-end life in Taipei. Scenes with her Dowell overplays it, if that’s possible in this drugged-out boyfriend and a small-time kind of DOA dud, as a mobster. [PGmobster at the club where she occasionally 13]▼●쩠 works don’t add up to much. Film’s apparMilky Way, The (1936) 89m. ★★★ D: Leo ent point is that it’s tough being young nowMcCarey. Harold Lloyd, Adolphe Menjou, adays. Hip score and flashy camerawork Verree Teasdale, Helen Mack, William can’t really compensate for the empty tale Gargan, George Barbier, Dorothy Wilson, being told. [R]▼쩠 Lionel Stander. Milquetoasty milkman is Miller’s Crossing (1990) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 recruited by scheming fight promoter D: Joel Coen. Gabriel Byrne, Albert Finney, Menjou after inadvertently knocking out Marcia Gay Harden, John Turturro, Jon the middleweight champion! Bland but enPolito, J.E. Freeman, Mike Starr, Al tertaining film is one of Lloyd’s best Mancini, Michael Jeter, Steve Buscemi. talkies. Remade, almost scene for scene, Moody, stylish, and pretentious take on as THE KID FROM BROOKLYN, with gangster films by the Coen brothers (Joel diDanny Kaye, but they couldn’t top the rected and cowrote with producer-brother hilarious ducking scene with Lloyd and Ethan). Byrne plays a black-hearted Irish matron Marjorie Gateson. Some prints run mobster with a code of ethics known only 83m.▼●쩠 to himself, and a vow of loyalty to crime Milky Way, The (1969-French) C-102m. kingpin Finney. Dense and dour, it’s almost ★★★1⁄2 D: Luis Bunuel. Paul Frankeur, Laurent doggedly off-putting at first, but gets more ˜ Terzieff, Alain Cuny, Bernard Verley, Miinvolving as its serpentine story unfolds. chel Piccoli, Pierre Clementi, Georges Some bravura moments, along with Barry Marchal, Delphine Seyrig. Two men makSonnenfeld’s compelling cinematography. ing religious pilgrimage through France Frances McDormand has unbilled bit as a secretary. [R]▼●쩠 form basis for string of Bun˜uel ‘‘jokes,’’ parables, surrealistic visions. Heretical, Millionaire for Christy, A (1951) 91m. ★★★ funny, haunting, thoroughly enjoyable. [M/ D: George Marshall. Fred MacMurray, PG]▼●쩠 Eleanor Parker, Richard Carlson, Una Merkel. Millennium (1989) C-108m. ★★ D: Mi1930s-type screwball comedy; fast, unpretenchael Anderson. Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl tious, very funny, with winning performances Ladd, Robert Joy, Daniel J. Travanti, Brent by Parker and MacMurray in tale of goldCarver, Maury Chaykin, David McIlwraith, digging girl out to snare rich husband. Al Waxman, Lloyd Bochner. Intriguing Millionairess, The (1960-British) C-90m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Anthony Asquith. Sophia Loren, premise features time travelers from the future kidnapping doomed passengers from Peter Sellers, Alastair Sim, Vittorio De Sica, crashing airliners; suspicious crash investiDennis Price. Loren is an heiress who thinks gator Kristofferson becomes involved with money can buy anything, until she meets InLadd, one of the time travelers. Story dian doctor Sellers, who won’t sell his princislowly falls apart, decaying into sheer corn. ples, or his love. Sophia is stunning, but this Highly regarded sci-fi writer John Varley adaptation of G. B. Shaw’s play is heavyhanded comedy. CinemaScope.▼쩠 adapted his own short story ‘‘Air Raid,’’ but someone didn’t trust the audience’s Million Dollar Baby (2004) C-133m. ★★★ intelligence. [PG-13]▼●쩠 D: Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Hilary Millennium Actress (2002-Japanese) Swank, Morgan Freeman, Anthony Mackie, C/B&W-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Satoshi Kon. Jay Baruchel, Mike Colter, Lucia Rijker, [ 911 ]

Brian O’Byrne, Margo Martindale. Aging MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD is difight manager/trainer reluctantly takes on a rected with more gusto than you’d expect 31-year-old woman as his newest client and is from Fleischer. See how many plugs for soon won over by her heart, determination, Glad Bags (cosponsor, along with De and talent. Entertaining, picaresque look at Laurentiis Entertainment Group, of a realemotionally wounded people who find comlife promotional million-dollar treasure hunt) fort in each other’s protection; propelled by you can spot. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 strong performances and flavorful narration Million Eyes of Su-Muru, The (1967) by Freeman. Screenplay by Paul Haggis, C-95m. ★★ D: Lindsay Shonteff. Frankie from stories in Rope Burns by F. X. Toole. Avalon, George Nader, Shirley Eaton, Oscar winner for Best Picture, Director, AcWilfrid Hyde-White, Klaus Kinski. Tonguetress and Supporting Actor (Freeman). Pain-cheek tale of murder and women’s ornavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ganization bent on enslaving all of mankind. Million Dollar Duck, The (1971) C-92m. From a Sax Rohmer story. Techniscope. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Vincent McEveety. Dean Jones, Million Pound Note, The SEE: Man With Sandy Duncan, Joe Flynn, Tony Roberts, a Million James Gregory, Lee H. Montgomery. A Millions (2005-British) C-98m. ★★★ D: duck who lays golden eggs spurs predictDanny Boyle. Alexander Nathan Etel, Lewis able twists and turns in this standard Disney Owen McGibbon, James Nesbitt, Daisy Doncomedy. [G]▼쩠 ovan, Christopher Fulford, Jane Hogarth. A Million Dollar Hotel, The (2000-Germansmart, surprising and spiritual change of U.S.) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. Jerpace for TRAINSPOTTING director Boyle. emy Davies, Milla Jovovich, Mel Gibson, Two young brothers have one week to Jimmy Smits, Donal Logue, Gloria Stuart, spend a bagful of money they’ve come Bud Cort, Amanda Plummer, Julian Sands, across, before the British pound switches Peter Stormare, Charlayne Woodard, Ellen over to the Euro. The choices the boys make Cleghorne, Harris Yulin, Tim Roth. Wacko, not only say a lot about each of them but DAVID AND LISA–type story of two menserve as a reflection of how society views tally ill young lovers in an L.A. welfare hotel. the conflict between instant wealth and Bono (of U2) cowrote the confounding, conmoral values. Newcomer Etel provides genvoluted script, which will try your patience, uinely touching moments that are never but Wenders’s lensing has its share of visual maudlin. Boyle’s zippy visuals are another poetry, and Davies and Jovovich are effective plus; he forgoes the usually dreary movie leads. Colorful supporting cast helps, too. look of British neighborhoods to make these (Gibson, as an FBI agent with a Frankensteinsunny English ’burbs look like a Technicolor haven. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 like back brace, seems to be in a different movie altogether.) Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Millions Like Us (1943-British) 103m. ★★★ Million Dollar Legs (1932) 61m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Launder, Sidney Gilliat. D: Edward Cline. W. C. Fields, Jack Oakie, Eric Portman, Patricia Roc, Gordon JackSusan Fleming, Lyda Roberti, Andy Clyde, son, Anne Crawford, Megs Jenkins, Basil Ben Turpin, Dickie Moore, Billy Gilbert, Radford, Naunton Wayne, Irene Handl, Hugh Herbert. Wacky nonsense with Fields Brenda Bruce. Memorable depiction of as President of Klopstokia, a nutty country ordinary people coping with war. Roc is entering the Olympics. Oakie is a young an airplane-factory worker during WW2, American pursuing W. C.’s daughter rooming in nearby hostel with women from (Fleming). Joseph Mankiewicz was one of varied social classes. Boasts realistic apthe writers of this little gem. Title on-screen proach sorely missing from SWING SHIFT is MILLION $ LEGS.▼ 40 years later. Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) C-115m. Million to Juan, A (1993) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Esther Williams, D: Paul Rodriguez. Paul Rodriguez, Tony Victor Mature, Walter Pidgeon, David Plana, Bert Rosario, Polly Draper, Jonathan Brian, Donna Corcoran, Jesse White, Maria Hernandez, Larry Linville, Victor Rivers, Tallchief. Williams does OK as real-life David Rasche, Edward James Olmos, Pepe aquatic star Annette Kellerman, alternatSerna, Paul Williams, Cheech Marin, ing her swimming with romancing MaRuben Blades. Poor but honest, much putture. Some typically elaborate production upon Rodriguez, widowed with a ten-yearold son, is inexplicably given a check for numbers by Busby Berkeley.▼● Million Dollar Mystery (1987) C-95m. ★★ $1 million. Predictable comedy-fantasy is D: Richard Fleischer. Eddie Deezen, Penny uplifted by some sweet, touching moments. Baker, Tom Bosley, Rich Hall, Wendy Based on a Mark Twain story, ‘‘The MilSherman, Rick Overton, Mona Lyden, lion Pound Bank Note’’; previously filmed Kevin Pollak. Bosley, in his dying breath, as MAN WITH A MILLION. [PG]▼쩠 informs customers at a roadside diner that Milwaukee, Minnesota (2005) C-95m. ★★ $4 million is hidden nearby—giving them D: Allan Mindel. Troy Garity, Alison Folland, just enough clues to send the rabid group Randy Quaid, Bruce Dern, Hank Harris, scrambling. Shameless rip-off of IT’S A Debra Monk, Josh Brolin, Holly Woodlawn. [ 912 ]

Paper-thin account of a mentally challenged Lisa Langlois, Sean McCann, Christopher young man who is an expert ice fisherman Plummer, Stefan Wodoslawsky, Harvey and the con artists who attempt to exploit him. Atkin, Eugene Clark. Montreal cop Ironside Aims for a quirky tone, but turns out to be is plagued by problems on the job, mysteconventional—and forgettable. [R]쩠 rious killings, and strange LSD-like flash★★★ Mimic (1997) C-105m. D: Guillermo backs connected to CIA researcher Plummer. del Toro. Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Complicated, slow movie tries to cover Charles S. Dutton, Alexander Goodwin, too much ground (including police unions Giancarlo Giannini, Josh Brolin, F. Murray and JFK’s assassination). [R]▼● Abraham. Entomologist Sorvino creates a Mind Games SEE: Agency non-breeding insect to wipe out a plague of Mindhunters (2004-British-Dutch-Finnishdisease-carrying cockroaches. This works, U.S.) C-106m. ★★ D: Renny Harlin. Eion but three years later, the cure is getting out Bailey, Patricia Velasquez, Clifton Collins, of hand. The hybrids bred after all, and have Jr., Will Kemp, Val Kilmer, Jonny Lee become giants, capable of disguising themMiller, Kathryn Morris, Christian Slater, selves as their favorite prey: people. Lively, James Todd Smith (LL Cool J), Cassandra scary sci-fi thriller becomes conventional in Bell. A group of FBI agents-in-training are the last third; until then it’s great fun. From left on an isolated island designed to test their Donald A. Wollheim’s short story. Followed skills as profilers—but one of them is a serial by two direct-to-video sequels. [R] ▼●쩠 killer intent on murdering the others, one by Min and Bill (1930) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: George one. Moderately suspenseful and well-acted Hill. Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Dorthriller sticks too closely to the TEN LITTLE othy Jordan, Marjorie Rambeau, Frank INDIANS formula. Filmed in 2002. Super McGlynn. Sentimental early talkie with 35. [R] 쩠 unforgettable team of Beery and Dressler Mind of Mr. Soames, The (1970-British) Cas waterfront characters trying to protect 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan Cooke. Terence Stamp, Jordan from her alcoholic mother (RamRobert Vaughn, Nigel Davenport, Christian beau). Dressler won an Academy Award for Roberts. Exceptionally fine sci-fi tale of man her performance.▼쩠 who has been in a coma since birth; finally reMina Tannenbaum (1994-French) C-123m. vived, he must be taught 30 years’ worth of ★★★ D: Martine Dugowson. Romane Bohknowledge in brief span of time. [M/PG] ringer, Elsa Zylberstein, Florence Thomassin, Mind Snatchers, The SEE: Happiness Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Nils Tavernier, StephCage, The ane Slima, Hugues Quester. Entertaining meloMindwalk (1991) C-110m. ★★ D: Bernt dramaabout the friendship between two Jewish Capra. Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, John Parisian girls, an introspective artist and a brash Heard, Ione Skye. Unusual ecological reporter, and its disintegration when they fall in talkfest may be the MY DINNER WITH love with the same man. First half plays like a ANDRE of the environmental movement. Nora Ephron coming-of-age comedy, while the Mainly a conversation on the sad state of rest is pure Max Ophuls. Despite the unthe world among three people (a poet, a evenness, the film is buoyed by two great physicist, and a politician) roaming a picperformances from Zylberstein and Bohringer turesque French isle. Sometimes fascinat(in the title role). [R]▼ ing; mostly static, pretentious. If you met up Minbo: Anti-Extortion Woman (1992with any of these people at a party, you’d be Japanese) C-123m. ★★★ D: Juzo Itami. Nofumbling for the car keys. [PG]▼ buku Miyamoto, Akira Takarada, Masahiro Mindwarp: An Infinity of Terror SEE: Murata, Yasuo Daichi, Hideji Otaki, HoGalaxy of Terror boru Mitani, Shiro Ito, Akira Nakao. WonMini’s First Time (2006) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: derful wish-fulfillment comedy with the Nick Guthe. Alec Baldwin, Nikki Reed, canny, super-competent (but diminutive) Carrie-Anne Moss, Jeff Goldblum, Luke Miyamoto helping hapless hotel managers Wilson, Svetlana Metkina, Sprague Grayden, to confront the most intimidating Yakuza Rick Fox. Slutty teen (THIRTEEN’s Reed), members in Hong Kong. A big hit in Japan, living in a hilltop L.A. mansion, opts to turn this film also inspired real-life Yakuza to tricks to spite her mother. Soon stepfather attack writer-director Itami. Aka MINBO: Baldwin gets involved—in more ways than THE GENTLE ART OF JAPANESE EXone. Tantalizingly overripe performances TORTION.▼ from the strong cast cannot overcome this unMind Benders, The (1963-British) 101m. ★★★ convincingly scripted satire. [R]쩠 D: Basil Dearden. Dirk Bogarde, Mary Miniskirt Mob, The (1968) C-82m. ★1⁄2 Ure, John Clements, Michael Bryant, D: Maury Dexter. Jeremy Slate, Diane Wendy Craig, Edward Fox. Top cast in McBain, Sherry Jackson, Patty McCormack, slow-moving but compelling account of Ross Hagen, Harry Dean Stanton, Ronnie experiments in sensory deprivation, with Rondell. McBain plays leader of female espionage theme worked into plot.쩠 motorcycle gang, even though she looks as Mind Field (1990-Canadian) C-92m. ★★ D: Jean-Claude Lord. Michael Ironside, if she’d be more comfortable on a Tour[ 913 ]

nament of Roses float. Those who like the though fairly effective, would have played title will probably like the film.쩠 better years ago before the screen’s oversaturMinistry of Fear (1944) 85m. ★★★ D: ation with quiet, sensitive psychotics. InterestFritz Lang. Ray Milland, Marjorie Reyning for its sometimes-successful casting olds, Carl Esmond, Dan Duryea, Hillary against type: comedic Wilson as the killer, Brooke, Alan Napier, Percy Waram. Atthe usually acerbic Garofalo as a lonely almospheric thriller of wartime London, with coholic and rocker Crow as a bar-hopper with asthma. [R]▼쩠 Milland framed in complicated espionage plot; good cast, fine touches by director Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, A (1967-Italian) C-97m. ★★★ D: Franco Lang. From the Graham Greene novel.▼ Miniver Story, The (1950) 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Giraldi. Alex Cord, Arthur Kennedy, RobH. C. Potter. Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, ert Ryan, Mario Brega. Outlaw seeks reJohn Hodiak, Leo Genn, Cathy O’Donnell, fuge in Escondido from outlaws, bounty Henry Wilcoxon, Reginald Owen, Peter hunters, territorial lawmen, and anyone out Finch. Sequel to MRS. MINIVER (filmed to take advantage of his occasional paralytic this time in England) doesn’t work as well, seizures. Outstanding color photography adds but Garson and Pidgeon have some poito great atmosphere. Aka OUTLAW GUN. [R]▼쩠 gnant scenes as family reunited in postWW2 England. Young James Fox, billed Miracle, The (1959) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: as William, makes his film debut.▼ Irving Rapper. Carroll Baker, Roger Moore, Minnesota Clay (1965-French-ItalianWalter Slezak, Vittorio Gassman, Katina Spanish) C-95m. ★★ D: Sergio Corbucci. Paxinou, Dennis King, Isobel Elsom. ClapCameron Mitchell, Georges Riviere, Ethel trap vehicle resurrected as glossy, empty Rojo, Diana Martin, Anthony Ross. Standard spectacle of 1810s Spain, with Baker the European oater, with Mitchell giving a good would-be nun unsure of her decision, Moore the soldier she romances. Technirama.▼ performance as gunslinger who escapes prison to find the man who can clear him. Miracle, The (1991-British) C-100m. ★★★ He’s going blind and faces his enemies aided D: Neil Jordan. Beverly D’Angelo, Donal by a heightened sense of hearing.쩠 McCann, Niall Byrne, Lorraine Pilkington, Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) C-114m. J. G. Devlin. Evocative coming-of-age ★★★ D: John Cassavetes. Gena Rowlands, drama about Byrne and Pilkington, a pair Seymour Cassel, Val Avery, Timothy of bright, bored Irish teens who view the Carey, Katherine Cassavetes, Elsie Ames. world with youthful cynicism, and become One of Cassavetes’ most likable films intrigued by a beautiful mystery woman chronicles manic romance between lonely (D’Angelo) arriving in town. Soon Byrne is museum curator (Rowlands) and crazy pursuing her romantically, but he has no idea parking-lot attendant (Cassel). Touching, how her presence will affect his life. Collecamusing, and most enjoyable. [PG]▼쩠 tively well acted, with intelligent, precise Minority Report (2002) C-144m. ★★1⁄2 D: script by Jordan. [R]▼● Steven Spielberg. Tom Cruise, Colin FarMiracle (2004) C-135m. ★★★ D: Gavin rell, Samantha Morton, Max von Sydow, O’Connor. Kurt Russell, Patricia Clarkson, Lois Smith, Peter Stormare, Tim Blake NelNoah Emmerich, Sean McCann, Kenneth son, Kathryn Morris, Jessica Capshaw, JesWelsh, Eddie Cahill, Patrick O’Brien Demsica Harper, Arye Gross. In the year 2054, sey, Michael Mantenuto, Nathan West. The Cruise is the top cop in an elite D.C. unit story of coach Herb Brooks, who’s hired to that uses seers to predict and stop crimes prepare a U.S. hockey team to compete with before they occur, but the controversial prothe unassailable Soviets in the 1980 Winter gram is under fire by the Feds. High-tech, Olympics. He knows that the only way to highly charged sci-fi saga has many fine do this is to beat them at their own game— ingredients, but goes on far too long (espeand build a team that breathes as one, no cially considering it was adapted from a matter what sacrifices that requires along short story, by Philip K. Dick). Multiple the way. Exciting, even though the conclusion endings, and growing confusion, diminish is a given. Russell has never been better; most the effectiveness of the film, one of Spielof the younger cast members are athletes berg’s harshest. Excellent score by John making their acting debuts. Karl Malden Williams. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 played Brooks in the 1981 TV movie MIRMinotaur (1976) SEE: Land of the MinoACLE ON ICE. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 taur Miracle at St. Anna (2008-U.S.-Italian) C★★1 Minus Man, The (1999) C-112m. ⁄2 D: 160m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Spike Lee. Derek Luke, Hampton Fancher. Owen Wilson, Janeane Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Garofalo, Brian Cox, Sheryl Crow, MerMiller, Pierfrancesco Favino, Valentina cedes Ruehl, Dennis Haysbert, Dwight YoaCervi, Matteo Sciabordi, John Turturro, Jokam. Serial killer takes up residence in a seph Gordon-Levitt, John Leguizamo, Kerry middle-age suburban couple’s spare room and Washington, D. B. Sweeney, Walton Goghires on as a fellow postal worker with his gins, Robert John Burke, Omero Antonutti, landlord. Film’s low-budget creepiness, Sergio Albelli. A modern crime story cues a [ 914 ]

flashback to 1944: four black members of the Meredith. Contrived story of miracle ocBuffalo Soldiers division of the U.S. Army curring when movie star is laid to rest in are separated from their unit in Italy. As they coal-mining home town; often ludicrous, fend for themselves in a Tuscan village, despite sincere cast. Screenplay by Ben they contend with internal friction—and Hecht and Quentin Reynolds. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ questions about their role in the war—as well as partisans, Fascists, racist superiors, Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) a Nazi prisoner, and a frightened boy whom C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. Robert one of them adopts. Long but picaresque, Taylor, Lilli Palmer, Curt Jurgens, Eddie rich with detail about this unique chapter of Albert, James Franciscus, John Larch. Long, WW2 history. James McBride adapted his talky, confusing drama about evacuation own novel. Super 35. [R]쩠 of prized Lippizan show-horses from ViMiracle in Milan (1951-Italian) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 enna during WW2. A most un-Disneylike Disney film.▼쩠 D: Vittorio De Sica. Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Emma Gramatica, Guglielmo Miracle on 34th Street (1947) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 Barnabo. Toto the Good (Golisano) brings D: George Seaton. Maureen O’Hara, John cheer to a dreary village of poor people, Payne, Edmund Gwenn, Gene Lockhart, aided by the old lady who raised him, who Natalie Wood, Porter Hall, William Frawley, is now in heaven. Bitingly comic condemJerome Cowan. Classic Valentine Davies nation of the manner in which displaced fable of Kris Kringle (Gwenn) working in Europeans were treated after WW2.▼● Macy’s, encountering an unbelieving child Miracle in the Rain (1956) 107m. ★★1⁄2 (Wood), and going on trial to prove he’s D: Rudolph Mate´. Jane Wyman, Van JohnSanta. Delightful comedy-fantasy won Osson, Peggie Castle, Fred Clark, Eileen cars for Gwenn, Davies, and screenwriter Heckart, Josephine Hutchinson, Barbara Seaton. Thelma Ritter’s auspicious screen Nichols, William Gargan, Alan King, Arte debut; an amusing bit for young Jack AlJohnson. Above-par soaper of two lost bertson, as a postal employee. Remade in souls, Wyman and Johnson, falling in love 1973 (for TV) and 1994. Also shown in in N.Y.C. during WW2.쩠 computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 1 ★ Miracle Mile (1989) C-87m. ⁄2 D: Steve Miracle on 34th Street (1994) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Les Mayfield. Richard AttenborDeJarnatt. Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham, John Agar, Lou Hancock, Mykel ough, Elizabeth Perkins, Dylan McDermott, T. Williamson, Kelly Minter, Kurt Fuller, Mara Wilson, Robert Prosky, J. T. Walsh, Denise Crosby, Robert Doqui, Danny De James Remar, Jane Leeves, Simon Jones, La Paz. Good-natured musician who’s just William Windom, Allison Janney, Horatio gotten to first base with a coffee shop Sanz. Pretty good remake of the 1947 waitress picks up a ringing pay phone and charmer. Attenborough is wonderful as the learns that the U.S. has fired a nuclear man who calls himself Kris Kringle, and warhead—which means that the end of the Wilson is irresistible as the little girl who world is about an hour away. Artificial and doesn’t believe in Santa. Loses its way overwrought from the word go. Credible whenever it veers from the original script— costars Edwards and Winningham can’t do as in the relationship between Mara’s mom anything with this material. [R]▼●쩠 (Perkins) and her neighbor/friend (McDerMiracle of Fatima SEE: Miracle of Our mott) . . . and when it manages to keep the Lady of Fatima, The adorable youngster off-screen. Tellingly, Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, The (1944) this version is almost 20 minutes longer ★★★★ 99m. D: Preston Sturges. Eddie Brackthan the earlier film. Produced and written en, Betty Hutton, William Demarest, Diana by John Hughes. Joss Ackland appears unLynn, Brian Donlevy, Akim Tamiroff, Porter billed. [PG]▼●쩠 Hall, Almira Sessions, Jimmy Conlin. Frantic, Miracles (1986) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim Kouf. hilarious comedy of Betty attending all-night Tom Conti, Teri Garr, Paul Rodriguez, party, getting pregnant and forgetting who’s Christopher Lloyd, Adalberto Martinez, the father. Bracken and Demarest have Jorge Russek. Conti and Garr, recently never been better than in this daring wardivorced, are whisked away to South Amertime farce. Filmed in 1942; sort of remade ican hellhole by jewel thief Rodriguez in as ROCK-A-BYE BABY. ▼●쩠 this clone of ROMANCING THE STONE. Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, The The stars do their best, but we’ve seen it (1952) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Brahm. Gilall before, and better. Written by first-time bert Roland, Angela Clarke, Frank Silvera, director Kouf. Super Techniscope. [PG]▼ Jay Novello, Sherry Jackson. Thoughtful acMiracles (1989-Hong Kong) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 count of religious miracle witnessed by farm D: Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Wu children in 1910s; intelligent script. Retitled: Ma, Richard Ng, Bill Tung, Gui Ya-Lei, Gloria Yip, Billy Lau, Lo Lieh, Ko ChuenMIRACLE OF FATIMA. ▼●쩠 Miracle of the Bells, The (1948) 120m. Hsiang, Yuen Biao, Jacky Cheung, Ricky ★1⁄2 D: Irving Pichel. Fred MacMurray, Hui, Amy Yip. A naı¨ve newcomer to 1930s Valli, Frank Sinatra, Lee J. Cobb, Charles Hong Kong accidentally becomes head of a [ 915 ]

powerful mob and battles a rival racketeer. Yankovsky. Extremely personal, moving Meanwhile, he befriends a flower seller and tale of life in Russia during WW2. Superbly agrees to help her impress her visiting daughdirected; overall, it works most effectively as an homage to childhood innocence.▼쩠 ter, who thinks she’s wealthy. Uncredited remake of Frank Capra’s LADY FOR A DAY Mirror Crack’d, The (1980-British) C105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy Hamilton. Angela and POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES follows that part of the story faithfully—punctuated Lansbury, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudby mind-boggling fight scenes! An amusing son, Kim Novak, Tony Curtis, Edward oddity. Aka MR. CANTON AND LADY Fox, Geraldine Chaplin, Wendy Morgan, ROSE, later retitled BLACK DRAGON. Charles Gray, Pierce Brosnan. A mild Agatha Technovision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Christie whodunit made enjoyable by its Miracle Woman, The (1931) 90m. ★★★ quartet of 1950s stars, particularly Taylor and D: Frank Capra. Barbara Stanwyck, David Novak, fun as catty rival movie stars. Lansbury Manners, Sam Hardy, Beryl Mercer, Rusis a crisp Miss Marple. A highlight: the b&w sell Hopton. Stanwyck plays an evangelist movie-within-a-movie, Murder at Midnight. [PG]▼●쩠 (patterned after Aimee Semple McPherson) whose splashy sermons become big Mirror Has Two Faces, The (1996) Cbusiness. Manners is a blind man who falls 126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barbra Streisand. Barbra in love with her. Story contrivances overStreisand, Jeff Bridges, Lauren Bacall, come by fine performances, direction, and Mimi Rogers, George Segal, Pierce Broscamerawork (by Joseph Walker).▼ nan, Brenda Vaccaro, Austin Pendleton, Miracle Worker, The (1962) 107m. ★★★1⁄2 Elle Macpherson. A nerdy college prof, D: Arthur Penn. Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, smarting from love affairs gone bad, enters Victor Jory, Inga Swenson, Andrew Prine, into a cerebral relationship with fellow proBeah Richards, Kathleen Comegys. Austerely fessor Streisand in which sex plays no part. beautiful treatment of William Gibson’s play Then she begins to long for something about Annie Sullivan (Bancroft), the remarkmore. A Very Barbra Movie—she even coable woman who accepts the challenge of getwrote the love theme—that deals with selfting through to blind, deaf Helen Keller image and the impact of physical beauty, (Duke). There is absolutely no sentiment, then undermines its own convictions in a which only increases the emotional power of nonsensical climax. Still, entertaining and the piece. Bancroft and Duke had been playing attractively cast, with Bacall terrific as Streithese parts on Broadway for over a year, but sand’s self-absorbed mother. Based on the 1958 French movie. [PG-13]▼●쩠 you’d never know it from their spontaneous and totally compelling performances, which Mirrormask (2005-U.S.-British) C-101m. ★★★ earned them both Oscars. Originally staged as D: David McKean. Stephanie Leonidas, a 1957 Playhouse 90 on TV, also directed by Jason Barry, Rob Brydon, Gina McKee, Penn. Remade for TV in 1979, with Duke in Stephen Fry. Teenage girl who feels alienthe role of Sullivan, and again in 2000.▼●쩠 ated from her parents—and their threadbare Mirage (1965) 109m. ★★★ D: Edward traveling circus—expresses her frustrations Dmytryk. Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walthrough drawing. When her mother takes ter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, Jack Weston, ill, the guilt-ridden girl goes into a dream Leif Erickson, Walter Abel, George Kenstate inspired by those drawings and emnedy. Fine Hitchcock-like thriller, with barks on an odyssey to keep the world from Peck the victim of amnesia, and everyone being overtaken by dark forces. Wildly else out to get him. Matthau steals film as imaginative fantasy uses THE WIZARD OF easygoing private-eye; interesting onOZ as a template, but the visuals are utterly location footage in N.Y.C. Remade as original, the work of famed artist/designer JIGSAW (1968).▼●쩠 McKean, making his directing debut. ScreenMiranda (1948-British) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken play by McKean’s frequent collaborator Neil Annakin. Googie Withers, Glynis Johns, Gaiman, from a story they cowrote. PreGriffith Jones, John McCallum, David Tomsented by the Jim Henson Company. [PG] 쩠 linson, Margaret Rutherford, Maurice DenMirrors (2008) C-110m. ★★ D: Alexandre ham. Cute movie (adapted by Peter BlackAja. Kiefer Sutherland, Amy Smart, Paula more from his play) about a happily married Patton, Cameron Boyce, Erica Gluck, Mary doctor who’s abducted by a mermaid; she Beth Peil, John Shrapnel, Jason Flemyng. agrees to send him back to dry land only if Aja, director of the 2006 THE HILLS she can accompany him to see what the HAVE EYES remake, has apparently dehuman world is like. Charming fluff. Amuscided that mirrors have eyes, too. Troubled ing to see Johns and Tomlinson together years ex-cop Sutherland takes a job as a night before they were husband and wife in MARY security guard in an abandoned department POPPINS. Title song by Jean Sablon. Folstore, where evil mirrors seem to take on a lowed by a sequel, MAD ABOUT MEN. life of their own. Haunted by the deaths of ★★★1⁄2 Mirror, The (1976-Russian) C-106m. the previous guard and a family member, D: Andrei Tarkovsky. Margarita Terekhova, and contending with problems at home, Philip Yankovsky, Ignat Daniltsev, Oleg Sutherland must convince everyone he’s not [ 916 ]

crazy before it’s too late. Pretty lame atMisfits, The (1961) 124m. ★★★ D: John tempt at horror bungles what could have Huston. Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, been a decent psychological tale of a man in Montgomery Clift, Thelma Ritter, Eli Walcrisis. Based on a 2001 Korean film, INTO lach, James Barton, Estelle Winwood. UnTHE MIRROR. Super 35. [R]쩠 satisfying but engrossing parable authored Misadventures of Merlin Jones, The by Arthur Miller, involving disillusioned divorcee Monroe and her brooding cowboy (1964) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Stevenson. Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, Leon friends. Both Monroe’s and Gable’s last Ames, Stuart Erwin, Alan Hewitt, Connie film.▼●쩠 Gilchrist. Skimpy Disney comedy about Mishima (1985) C/B&W-120m. ★★★ D: college brain (Kirk) and his misadventures Paul Schrader. Ken Ogata. Narration read by with mind-reading and hypnotism. Sequel: Roy Scheider. Ambitious, highly stylized THE MONKEY’S UNCLE.▼쩠 drama about Japan’s most controversial postMisadventures of Mr. Wilt, The (1989WW2 author, playwright, actor, director, British) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Tuchner. and militarist, Yukio Mishima, whose passion Griff Rhys-Jones, Mel Smith, Alison to merge life and art led to his ritualistic Steadman, Diana Quick, Jeremy Clyde, suicide in 1970. Scenes of Mishima’s life Roger Allam. Two stars of the hit British (shot in black & white) are contrasted with TV series Alas Smith and Jones are feavivid dramatizations (in opulent color) of tured in this silly farce about college leckey fictional works that grappled with his turer Henry Wilt (Rhys-Jones), who hates emotional crises. Long, difficult, not always his bitchy wife—and becomes the prime successful, but fascinating. Beautifully suspect when the police think she’s been photographed by John Bailey, swept along by stunning Philip Glass score. [R]▼●쩠 murdered. Smith is the twit of an inspector assigned to the case. Funny—if it hits you Miss Annie Rooney (1942) 84m. ★★ D: in the right mood. Based on Tom Sharpe’s Edwin L. Marin. Shirley Temple, William best-seller. Original British title: WILT.▼ Gargan, Guy Kibbee, Dickie Moore, Peggy Mischief (1985) C-93m. ★★ D: Mel Damski. Ryan, Gloria Holden, Selmer Jackson, June Doug McKeon, Catherine Mary Stewart, Lockhart. Moore gives Shirley her first Kelly Preston, Chris Nash, D. W. Brown, screen kiss in slight tale of girl from wrong Jami Gertz, Terry O’Quinn. Amiable but side of tracks in love with rich boy. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼ leaden-paced teen movie set in 1950s. Likable cast and vivid period atmosphere are Miss Congeniality (2000) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 chief assets—but any film that shows a D: Donald Petrie. Sandra Bullock, Michael clip from REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE Caine, Benjamin Bratt, William Shatner, and then tries to duplicate the scene is Ernie Hudson, John DiResta, Candice Bergen, asking for trouble. [R]▼●쩠 Heather Burns. All-too-predictable comedy Misery (1990) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob about a tomboyish FBI agent who goes underReiner. James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard cover as a contestant in the Miss United States Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren beauty pageant to find a dangerous criminal. Bacall, Graham Jarvis. Stephen King whiteLikable cast (with Caine a standout) does its knuckler about a successful romance novbest with a disappointing script. Followed elist who’s nursed back to health after a by a sequel. [PG-13] ▼쩠 snowy car crash by his Number One Fan— Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous who turns out to be a serious sicko. Ex(2005) C-115m. ★1⁄2 D: John Pasquin. Sandra tremely well acted, but the suspense ebbs Bullock, Regina King, William Shatner, Ernie and flows; there was much more nuance, Hudson, Enrique Murciano, Heather Burns, and more interesting development of the Treat Williams, Diedrich Bader, Eileen Brenrelationship between fan and prisoner, in nan, Abraham Benrubi, Stephen Tobolowsky. the novel. Bates won an Oscar for her Bullock returns as FBI agent Gracie Hart who, unforgettable performance. Screenplay by for public relations purposes, becomes the William Goldman; striking cinematography ‘‘face of the FBI.’’ When Burns and Shatner by Barry Sonnenfeld. J. T. Walsh has unare kidnapped, the bureau’s beauty and her billed cameo as a park ranger. Later adapted bodyguard (King) abandon their PR duties and try to find the hostages. Forced (and redundant) as a stage play in London. [R]▼●쩠 Misfit Brigade, The (1987-U.S.-British) sequel has only a couple of bright moments, C-99m. ★★ D: Gordon Hessler. Bruce and never hits a comedic stride. Several celebrities have bit parts. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Davison, David Patrick Kelly, David Carradine, D. W. Moffett, Jay O. SandMiss Europe SEE: Prix de Beaute´ ers, Keith Szarabajka, Oliver Reed. At Miss Firecracker (1989) C-102m. ★★★ D: once cliche´d and lighthearted (!) DIRTY Thomas Schlamme. Holly Hunter, Mary DOZEN variation, about a group of GerSteenburgen, Tim Robbins, Alfre Woodard, man prisoners who find themselves reScott Glenn, Ann Wedgeworth, Trey Wilson, cruited into the military by the Nazis (who Amy Wright, Bert Remsen. Beth Henley’s are desperate for fighting men). Aka Off-Broadway play, The Miss Firecracker WHEELS OF TERROR. [R]▼ Contest, becomes a most enjoyable movie, [ 917 ]

with a peerless Hunter recreating her stage role. In a Mississippi hamlet, lonely, pitiful (and hilarious) Hunter yearns for love and self-esteem. Cast is first-rate in this sweet-natured comedy-drama, scripted by Henley; reminiscent of 1930s screwball films. Director Schlamme’s feature debut; that’s his real-life wife, Christine Lahti, as a neighbor (holding their own newborn baby!). [PG]▼●쩠 Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) 87m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Lloyd Bacon. Lucille Ball, William Holden, Janis Carter, James Gleason, Frank McHugh. Ball is wacky secretary innocently involved with crooks; she’s the whole show.▼ Missing (1982) C-122m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Constantin Costa-Gavras. Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi, David Clennon, Joe Regalbuto, Richard Venture, Janice Rule. A carefully manipulated drama that works, because of Costa-Gavras’ convincing direction and Lemmon’s emphatic performance as a stiff-backed father who comes to a politically volatile Latin American country in search of his missing son—unable and unwilling to believe that American representatives there might not be telling him the truth. Based on the true experiences of Ed Horman; Costa-Gavras and Donald Stewart earned Oscars for their screenplay adaptation. [PG]

lovers only. Followed by BRADDOCK: MISSING IN ACTION III. [R] ▼●쩠 Missing Pieces (1996) C-93m. ★★ D: Leonard Stern. Eric Idle, Robert Wuhl, Lauren Hutton, Richard Belzer, Bob Gunton, Bernie Kopell, James Hong. Silly slapstick farce about two pals who try to solve the riddle of a mysterious inheritance that’s made them a target for some deadly criminals. Amiable enough, but the gags are hitor-miss. Filmed in 1990, never released theatrically in the U.S. [PG]▼● Mission, The (1986-British) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roland Joffe´. Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Ray McAnally, Aidan Quinn, Cherie Lunghi, Ronald Pickup, Chuck Low, Liam Neeson, Daniel Berrigan. Productive (and profitable) Jesuit mission in the jungles of Brazil is threatened by greedy merchants and political factions within the church, in the late 18th century. Magnificent-looking film (Chris Menges’ cinematography won an Oscar), rich in imagery, goes on so long—to such an inevitable conclusion— that its dramatic power is drained. Literate, high-minded screenplay by Robert Bolt; fine performances by Irons and De Niro. JD-C Scope. [PG] ▼●쩠 Missionary, The (1982-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Richard Loncraine. Michael Palin, Maggie Smith, Phoebe Nicholls, Trevor Howard, Denholm Elliott, Michael Hor▼●쩠 dern, Graham Crowden. Fans of Monty Missing, The (2003) C-135m. ★★★ D: Ron Python’s Palin may be surprised by this Howard. Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, mild comedy, which he also wrote and Eric Schweig, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna coproduced. Returning from Africa, young Boyd, Steve Reevis, Ray McKinnon, Val Kilman of the cloth is recruited to run a mer, Aaron Eckhart, Max Perlich, Simon home for fallen women (‘‘Women who’ve Baker, Jay Tavare, Sergio Caldero´n, Clint tripped?’’) and quickly finds himself the Howard, Rance Howard. Grim, gritty Westrecipient of, uh, fringe benefits. Great ern story of a healer (Blanchett), long essupporting cast, gorgeous locations, beautiful tranged from her father (Jones), who cinematography (by Peter Hannan) overreluctantly joins him in order to rescue her whelm modest picture. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 daughter from the clutches of a mystical Mission: Impossible (1996) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 Apache and his gang of savages. Engrossing D: Brian De Palma. Tom Cruise, Jon and unpredictable, but also unexpectedly Voight, Emmanuelle Be´art, Henry Czerny, brutal. Strong performances and unfamiliarJean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott looking New Mexico scenery are major Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave. Slick update of assets; overlength is a liability. Based on the vintage TV spy series about a crack underThomas Eidson’s novel The Last Ride. Uncover unit is full of high-tech hijinks, as rated version runs 154m. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 ‘‘team leader’’ Cruise tries to learn what went Missing in Action (1984) C-101m. ★★ D: wrong on a crucial mission in Prague—and Joseph Zito. Chuck Norris, M. Emmet discover who set them up. Energy wanes at Walsh, David Tress, Lenore Kasdorf, James several junctions, only to be revved up Hong. Colonel Norris, an ex-POW in Vietnam, again for a train-and-helicopter chase finale. returns to Asia to liberate American prisoners. Lalo Schifrin’s memorable TV theme is reA simplistic, revisionist fantasy-actioner, in the used here, at a much higher decibel level. mold of UNCOMMON VALOR and Emilio Estevez appears unbilled. Followed RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART 2. Followed by two sequels. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 by a prequel. [R]▼●쩠 Mission: Impossible II (2000) C-126m. ★★ Missing in Action 2—The Beginning D: John Woo. Tom Cruise, Thandie New(1985) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Lance Hool. Chuck ton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames, Richard Norris, Soon-Teck Oh, Steven Williams, Roxburgh, John Polson, Brendan Gleeson, Bennett Ohta, Cosie Costa. In this limp Rade´ Sherbedgia. Cruise is called into acprequel to you-know-what, Norris escapes tion in Sydney when a ruthless renegade spy from a POW camp in Vietnam. For Norris (Scott) captures a virus and its antidote and [ 918 ]

murders its creator. Cruise looks great, perlandscape, its customs and, most wonderforms nifty martial-arts stunts and engages fully, its music. in hair-raising car and motorcycle chases, Mississippi Burning (1988) C-125m. ★★★ but there isn’t a character to care about, or a D: Alan Parker. Gene Hackman, Willem story worth two hours’ time; after a while Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, it’s simply boring, in spite of Woo’s flamR. Lee Ermey, Gailard Sartain, Stephen boyant treatment (and a script by Robert Tobolowsky, Michael Rooker, Pruitt TayTowne). Anthony Hopkins appears unlor Vince, Park Overall. Two FBI agents— billed. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 one a tight-jawed, by-the-book type, the Mission: Impossible III (2006) C-125m. other an experienced Southern lawman ★★★ D: J. J. Abrams. Tom Cruise, Philip who knows how to handle people—head Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy the government investigation into the disCrudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys appearance of three civil rights workers in Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Laurence Mississippi during the summer of 1964. Fishburne, Simon Pegg, Eddie Marsan. SlamVivid re-creation of the period and setting bang action yarn and Cruise-controlled star helps carry a less-than-perfect script (invehicle has the deep-cover agent trying to spired by real-life events); Hackman gives hide his activities from fiance´e Monaghan a dynamic performance as the former while jetting around the globe to rescue his small-town sheriff who figures out how to prote´ge´e (Russell) and deal with a nefarious crack the case. Peter Biziou’s cinematogarms dealer (Hoffman). Debuting feature raphy won an Oscar. [R]▼●쩠 writer-director Abrams, creator of TV’s FeMississippi Gambler, The (1953) C-98m. ★★1 licity, Alias, and Lost, favors ultra-close-ups ⁄2 D: Rudolph Mate´. Tyrone Power, and handheld camerawork but knows how Piper Laurie, Julia (Julie) Adams, John to stage big action scenes—just as Cruise McIntire, Dennis Weaver. Power is title knows how to work his Movie Star persona. figure with ambitions of establishing a Highlight: a Cruise-Hoffman doppelga¨nger gambling business in New Orleans. Mississippi Masala (1992) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 sequence. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Mission Mars (1968) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Nick D: Mira Nair. Denzel Washington, Sarita Webster. Darren McGavin, Nick Adams, Choudhury, Roshan Seth, Sharmila Tagore, George DeVries, Heather Hewitt, Michael Charles S. Dutton, Joe Seneca, Ranjit DeBeausset, Shirley Parker. Typical asChowdhry. Affecting, leisurely paced story tronaut drama has three U.S. space men of interracial romance between Washingbattling unseen forces while on a mission.▼ ton and Choudhury and the problems it Mission to Mars (2000) C-112m. ★★ D: causes their respective communities in Brian De Palma. Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, Greenwood, Mississippi. Starts out fine, Don Cheadle, Connie Nielsen, Jerry O’Conwith lively characters and interesting obnell, Kim Delaney, Elise Neal. Stupefyingly servations of a transplanted Indian lifestyle in dull drama about a pioneering voyage to the Deep South, then bogs down in standard— Mars in the year 2020, marked by mishap, and extenuated—melodrama. Good perfortragedy, and some mind-blowing cosmic mances by Washington (as always) and espediscoveries. Film takes a matter-of-fact apcially by Seth as Choudhury’s proud lawyer proach to space travel that soon becomes father who wants to return home to Uganda. deadening, with a spell-it-all-out climax for ‘‘Masala,’’ by the way, is a collection of those who still don’t get 2001: A SPACE hot and colorful spices. Director Nair also appears as a gossipmonger. [R]▼●쩠 ODYSSEY. There is, however, an ingenious bit of product placement for Dr PepMississippi Mermaid (1969-French-Italian) C-123m. ★★★ D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Jeanper. Armin Mueller-Stahl appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Paul Belmondo, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Mississippi (1935) 73m. ★★★1⁄2 D: A. EdBouquet, Nelly Borgeaud. One of the diward Sutherland. Bing Crosby, W. C. Fields, rector’s few flops, but any film with Joan Bennett, Queenie Smith, Gail Patrick, Belmondo-Deneuve-Truffaut combo is of Claude Gillingwater. Fine cast in musiinterest; story concerns tobacco planter whose comedy of riverboat captain Fields and mail-order bride turns out to be Deneuve. Alsinger Crosby, with Rodgers-Hart score inways buy brand names. Based on the Cornell cluding ‘‘It’s Easy To Remember But So Woolrich novel Waltz Into Darkness. OrigiHard to Forget.’’ Unforgettable poker game nally shown in the U.S. at 110m. Remade as ORIGINAL SIN. Dyaliscope. [PG]▼●쩠 with Fields. Based on Booth Tarkington’s ‘‘Magnolia,’’ filmed before as THE FIGHTMiss Julie (1950-Swedish) 87m. ★★★ D: ING COWARD. Look quickly for Ann Alf Sjoberg. Anita Bjork, Ulf Palme, Marta Sheridan. Dorff, Anders Henrikson. Masterful adapMississippi Blues (1983) C-96m. ★★★ D: tation of August Strindberg’s tragic play Bertrand Tavernier, Robert Parrish. Easyabout the love affair between an aristogoing documentary from American Parcratic young woman and a commoner. rish and Frenchman Tavernier about the Superbly acted and photographed, with American South—its country folk, its imaginative use of flashbacks. A mile[ 919 ]

stone in Swedish cinema. Remade in 1999.

Lesser, David Bamber, Phyllida Law, Lloyd Owen, Lucy Boynton. Lifelong dreamer Beatrix Potter marches to her own drummer, to the dismay of her Victorian parents, but the feisty young woman surprises everyone by landing a publisher for her whimsical stories and watercolors about Peter Rabbit. Warm, genteel, and whimsical film about the famous author, with an utterly charming performance by McGregor as the gentlemanpublisher who falls in love with his author. Written by Broadway veteran Richard Maltby, Jr. Noonan’s first directorial effort since BABE in 1995. Panavision. [PG]쩠 Miss Robin Hood (1952-British) 78m. ★★ D: John Guillermin. Margaret Rutherford, Richard Hearne, Edward Lexy, Frances Rowe. OK mixture of fantasy and farce, Rutherford an elderly nut seeking retrieval of family whiskey formula; Hearne is meek girl’s-magazine writer aiding her. Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) C-91m. ★★★ D: Curtis Bernhardt. Rita Hayworth, Jose Ferrer, Aldo Ray, Russell Collins, Charles Bronson. Rita gives a provocative performance in musical of Somerset Maugham’s RAIN, previously made as SADIE THOMPSON and DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM U.S.A. Originally in 3-D. ▼●쩠 Miss Tatlock’s Millions (1948) 101m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Haydn. John Lund, Wanda Hendrix, Barry Fitzgerald, Monty Woolley, Robert Stack, Ilka Chase, Dorothy Stickney. Original comedy of Hollywood stuntman Lund hired to masquerade as a wealthy nitwit; offbeat, to say the least. Haydn, billed as ‘‘Richard Rancyd,’’ appears as a lawyer; watch for cameos by Ray Milland and director Mitchell Leisen.▼ Mist, The (2007) C-127m. ★★★ D: Frank Darabont. Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Frances Sternhagen, Nathan Gamble. After a fierce storm and the arrival of a mysterious mist, an artist (Jane) and his young son (Gamble) are ▼●쩠 among those forced to take refuge in a Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008Maine supermarket. Then they learn that there ★★ U.S.-British) C-92m. D: Bharat Nalluri. are strange things out in that mist—things that Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, Lee kill. The people in the market gradually form Pace, Ciara´n Hinds, Shirley Henderson, into antagonistic factions. Suspenseful and Mark Strong, Tom Payne. Headstrong Guigraced with very good effects, this is a monnevere Pettigrew (McDormand) has lost one ster movie in the classic mode. It also has job after another and winds up penniless on some social commentary, ported over from the streets of London in 1939, until she Stephen King’s novella by director-writer bluffs her way into a job as social secretary Darabont. Controversial ending is changed for flighty would-be actress Delysia Lafosse from the story. Also available on DVD in the (Adams), who’s juggling three men in her director’s preferred b&w version. Aka STElife. Arch, self-consciously cute rendering PHEN KING’S THE MIST. [R]쩠 of Winifred Watson’s 1930s novel, though Mister Buddwing (1966) 100m. ★★ D: the two female stars give it their all. Super Delbert Mann. James Garner, Jean Sim35. [PG-13]쩠 mons, Suzanne Pleshette, Angela Lansbury, Miss Potter (2006-U.S.-British) C-91m. ★★★ D: Chris Noonan. Rene Katharine Ross, Raymond St. Jacques, ´ e Zellweger, Nichelle Nichols. Misfire; over-familiar Ewan McGregor, Emily Watson, Barbara Flynn, Bill Paterson, Matyelok Gibbs, Anton amnesia plot with Garner trying to fill in [ 920 ]

▼쩠

Miss Julie (1999-British-U.S.) C-103m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Mike Figgis. Saffron Burrows, Peter Mullan, Maria Doyle Kennedy. Pungent adaptation of August Strindberg’s fiery 19th-century play about the mistress of a household who toys with the affections of her footman—who in turn plays sexual games with her. Well acted, vigorously filmed, but awfully dismal. [R]▼쩠 Miss March (2009) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore. Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, Raquel Alessi, Craig Robinson, Molly Stanton, Hugh M. Hefner, Geoff Meed, Cedric Yarbrough, Eve Mauro, Alexis Raben. Young man has a terrible accident moments before he is about to lose his virginity to his high school sweetheart. He awakens four years later to discover that she is now a Playboy Playmate. If you’re a fan of the stars’ work on the TV show The Whitest Kids U’ Know you might find this movie funny, but when you don’t care about the characters or their objectives, it’s hard to enjoy. [R] Miss Mary (1986-Argentine) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Maria Luisa Bemberg. Julie Christie, Nacha Guevara, Luisina Brando, Iris Marga, Eduardo Pavlovsky, Gerardo Romano. Proper, prim British governness Christie arrives in Argentina in 1938, to look after the children in a proper, prim, upperclass family. A few nice touches but mostly forgettable tale of unreleased passion and emerging sexuality. An offbeat role for Christie.▼ Missouri Breaks, The (1976) C-126m. BOMB D: Arthur Penn. Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Kathleen Lloyd, Randy Quaid, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton. Dynamite star combo in hired gun vs. horse thief confrontation—all for naught. Jumbled, excessively violent pseudo-event; a great director’s worst film and one of the worst ‘‘big’’ movies ever made. [PG]

his past, meeting assorted women who as one character says of her comrades, ‘‘It isn’t the Stooges’ fault!’’ Super 35. might have been part of his prior life. Mister Moses (1965-British) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 Mister Cory (1957) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blake D: Ronald Neame. Robert Mitchum, Carroll Edwards. Tony Curtis, Charles Bickford, Baker, Ian Bannen, Alexander Knox, RayMartha Hyer, Kathryn Grant (Crosby). Curtis mond St. Jacques, Reginald Beckwith. Maldoes OK as poor-boy-turned-rich-gambler arkey of rugged Mitchum and virtuous Baker who returns to home town to show off leading African native tribe to their new his wealth. CinemaScope. homeland. Panavision. Mister Drake’s Duck (1950-British) 76m. ★★★ Mister Roberts (1955) C-123m. ★★★★ D: D: Val Guest. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., John Ford, Mervyn LeRoy. Henry Fonda, Yolande Donlan, Howard Marion-Crawford, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Reginald Beckwith. American newlyweds Lemmon, Betsy Palmer, Ward Bond, Nick Fairbanks and Donlan (wife of director Adams, Philip Carey, Harry Carey, Jr., Guest) buy a small English farm, then run Ken Curtis, Martin Milner, Jack Pennick, into maddening military bureaucracy when Perry Lopez, Pat Wayne. Superb comedyone—but which one?—of their 60 ducks drama with Fonda recreating his favorite lays uranium eggs. Mild but diverting spoof stage role as restless officer on WW2 cargo of postwar red tape, with good perforship who yearns for combat action but has mances. ▼ to contend with an irascible and eccentric Mister 880 (1950) 90m. ★★★ D: Edmund captain (Cagney) instead. Fonda, Cagney, Goulding. Dorothy McGuire, Burt Lancaster, Powell (in his last screen appearance) as a Edmund Gwenn, Millard Mitchell, Minor philosophical doctor, and Lemmon (in an Watson. Easygoing comedy, with Gwenn an Oscar-winning performance) as the irreelderly N.Y.C. counterfeiter tracked down by pressible Ensign Pulver, are all terrific. federal agent Lancaster. Script by Robert Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan’s BroadRiskin, based on a true story. way hit was adapted for film by Logan and Mister Frost (1990-French-British) C-92m. Frank Nugent. LeRoy replaced Ford as ★★ D: Philip Setbon. Jeff Goldblum, Alan director sometime during production . . . Bates, Kathy Baker, Jean-Pierre Cassel, but it certainly doesn’t show. Sequel: ENDaniel Gelin, Francois Negret, Maxime SIGN PULVER. Remade for TV in 1984 Leroux, Vincent Schiavelli, Catherine with Kevin Bacon. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Allegret, Charley Boorman. Goldblum is Mister Scoutmaster (1953) 87m. ★★★ D: blithe, cheerful serial killer who tells psyHenry Levin. Clifton Webb, Edmund Gwenn, chiatrist Baker that he’s really the Devil, George Winslow, Frances Dee, Veda Ann something ex-cop Bates already believes. Borg. Child-hater Webb becomes scoutmaster It all has to do with Lucifer’s annoyance in this airy film which will appeal mainly over lack of belief in him. Goldblum is to kids. clearly having a great time, but you’re not Mister Superinvisible (1973-Italian-Gerlikely to. [R]▼● man-Spanish) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Mister Johnson (1991) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: M. Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). Dean Bruce Beresford. Pierce Brosnan, Edward Jones, Ingeborg Schoener, Gastone MoWoodward, Maynard Eziashi, Beatie Edney, schin, Peter Carsten. Engaging comedy Denis Quilley, Nick Reding. Africa, 1923: made in Geneva has American researcher an ambitious, educated (and larcenous) Jones becoming invisible as he seeks a black man who works for the local British cure for the common cold. Good for kids, magistrate continually gets into trouble by okay for grownups. Techniscope. [G]▼쩠 being too smart for his own good. HandMister V SEE: ‘‘Pimpernel’’ Smith some, well-made, well-acted film still leaves Mistress (1991) C-109m. ★★ D: Barry one wanting to know more about Mister Primus. Robert Wuhl, Martin Landau, Jace Johnson and what makes him tick. Based Alexander, Robert De Niro, Danny Aiello, on a novel by Joyce Cary. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Eli Wallach, Laurie Metcalf, Sheryl Lee Mister Lonely (2008-U.S.-British-FrenchRalph, Jean Smart, Tuesday Knight, ChrisIrish) C-112m. BOMB D: Harmony Kortopher Walken, Ernest Borgnine, Stefan ine. Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, Denis Gierasch, Roberta Wallach. Hollywood Lavant, James Fox, Melita Morgan, Anita comedy-drama about a washed-up writer Pallenberg, Rachel Korine, Jason Pen(Wuhl) who gets a chance to try to realize his nycooke, Richard Strange, Werner Herzog, dream—thanks to a has-been producer Leos Carax, David Blaine. When a Michael (Landau, who’s marvelous). Plot concerns Jackson impersonator meets a Marilyn Monrounding up the money—and placating the roe look-alike in Paris, she invites him to join money-men’s mistresses. Paper-thin story her at a mountainside commune filled with has several choice moments, but never doppelgangers (for everyone from Buckbuilds to a satisfying result. Veteran wheat to the Pope). Meanwhile, in a jungle actor Primus’ feature directing debut. [R] somewhere in Latin America, nuns are taking ▼●쩠 to the skies. Achingly awful movie, though Misty (1961) C-92m. ★★★ D: James B. [ 921 ]

Clark. David Ladd, Pam Smith, Arthur Miyazaki’s Laputa SEE: Laputa O’Connell, Anne Seymour. Marguerite HenMiyazaki’s Spirited Away SEE: Spirited ry’s popular children’s book is nicely realAway Mob, The (1951) 87m. ★★★ D: Robert ized, with Ladd and Smith as children on island off Virginia coast who fall in love Parrish. Broderick Crawford, Betty Buehler, with a wild horse. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Richard Kiley, Otto Hulett, Neville Brand, Misunderstood (1984) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ernest Borgnine, John Marley, Charles Jerry Schatzberg. Gene Hackman, Henry Bronson. Crawford is tough as nails as Thomas, Rip Torn, Huckleberry Fox, Mauundercover cop on the trail of waterfront reen Kerwin, Susan Anspach. Boy cries racketeers and their mystery boss. Sharp diout for the love of his father, who’s too alogue (by William Bowers), good suspense busy (and too consumed by the loss of his in this combination crime drama-whodunit. wife) to understand how much the boy Mo’ Better Blues (1990) C-127m. ★★ D: needs his attention—and affection. ExSpike Lee. Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, tremely well acted but emotionally uneven Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Robin drama. Filmed in Tunisia in 1982. [PG]▼ Harris, Joie Lee, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Mitchell (1975) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew Dick Anthony Williams, Cynda Williams, V. McLaglen. Joe Don Baker, Martin BalNicholas Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson, sam, Linda Evans, John Saxon, Merlin Ruben Blades, Abbey Lincoln, Joe Seneca. Olsen, Morgan Paull. Baker plays tough cop Backstage look at a self-centered jazz trumwhose singleminded pursuit of drug ring peter who manages to keep everyone at arm’s leads to expected action and violence; slick length—including the two ladies in his life. handling of typical action fodder. [R]▼쩠 Colorful, musically alive, with some good Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life) (1994) Cvignettes from members of Lee’s stock 92m. ★★★ D: Allison Anders. Angel Aviles, company, but it goes on forever—with Seidy Lopez, Jacob Vargas, Marlo Marron, barely enough story to keep it afloat. BranJessie Borrego, Magali Alvarado, Julian ford Marsalis’ Quartet with Terence Reyes, Salma Hayek. Powerful look at Blanchard is featured on the soundtrack; hopes and realities of Latina gang girls in music score by Bill Lee (Spike’s father). [R]▼●쩠 L.A.’s Echo Park area. Episodic structure takes some getting used to (as do some of Mobsters (1991) C-104m. ★★ D: Michael the performances), but writer-director Anders Karbelnikoff. Christian Slater, Patrick ultimately succeeds in capturing the frustraDempsey, Costas Mandylor, Richard Grieco, tions of the characters’ world and the cycle of F. Murray Abraham, Michael Gambon, social rituals and violence affecting them Lara Flynn Boyle, Anthony Quinn, Chrisdaily.▼쩠 topher Penn, Nicholas Sadler. What promMixed Company (1974) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: ised to be YOUNG TOMMY GUNS turns Melville Shavelson. Barbara Harris, Joseph out to be simply boring: a fanciful rehash Bologna, Tom Bosley, Lisa Gerritsen, of the Prohibition Era, with youthful acDorothy Shay. Less than heartwarming but tors as Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, still entertaining comedy of losing basketBugsy Siegel, and Meyer Lansky. Long, ball coach Bologna coping with wife Harris’ convoluted, and unrewarding. Only disadopting orphans of mixed ethnic backtinction: Richard Sylbert’s handsome production design. [R]▼●쩠 grounds. [PG] Mixed Nuts (1994) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Nora Moby Dick (1930) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lloyd Ephron. Steve Martin, Madeline Kahn, Rita Bacon. John Barrymore, Joan Bennett, Wilson, Robert Klein, Anthony LaPaglia, JuWalter Long, Nigel de Brulier, Noble liette Lewis, Rob Reiner, Adam Sandler, Liev Johnson, Virginia Sale. Barrymore is a Schreiber, Joely Fisher, Parker Posey, Jon vivid Captain Ahab, though film is more Stewart, Haley Joel Osment. Genuinely Hollywood than Melville. Pointless love strange black comedy (or is it black farce?) story added to original narrative, as in about the genially bumbling staff of a suicide Barrymore’s earlier silent-film version, THE helpline in Venice, California, and their misadSEA BEAST. Remade in 1956 and 1998. ventures on Christmas Eve. Occasional laughs Moby Dick (1956) C-116m. ★★★ D: John sputter through the haze, but this oddity never Huston. Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, really finds its comic center. Written by Ephron Friedrich Ledebur, Leo Genn, Orson Welles, and her sister Delia, based on a 1982 French James Robertson Justice, Harry Andrews, film, LE PERE NOEL EST UNE ORDURE. Bernard Miles, Royal Dano. Moody version Garry Shandling and Steven Wright appear unof Herman Melville sea classic, with Peck billed. [PG-13]▼●쩠 lending a deranged dignity to the role Mix Me a Person (1962-British) 116m. of Captain Ahab. Fine scenes throughout, in★1⁄2 D: Leslie Norman. Anne Baxter, Doncluding second-unit camera work by the great ald Sinden, Adam Faith, Jack MacGowran, Freddie Francis. Screenplay by Huston and Topsy Jane, Walter Brown. Unexceptional Ray Bradbury. Francis Ford Coppola execudrama of psychiatrist Baxter proving teenager tive produced 1998 remake as a TV miniseries with Patrick Stewart. ▼●쩠 Faith innocent of murdering a policeman. [ 922 ]

Model and the Marriage Broker, The Brooks plays a director; he returned the favor (1951) 103m. ★★★ D: George Cukor. Jeanne by writing Albert a plum role in BROADCrain, Scott Brady, Thelma Ritter, Zero CAST NEWS several years later. [R]▼●쩠 Mostel, Michael O’Shea, Frank Fontaine, Moderns, The (1988) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nancy Kulp. Poignant, perceptive little Alan Rudolph. Keith Carradine, Linda comedy-drama chronicling the affairs of Fiorentino, John Lone, Genevieve Bujold, marriage broker Ritter, who plays Cupid Geraldine Chaplin, Wallace Shawn, Kevin for model Crain and X-ray technician Brady. J. O’Connor. Beautifully mounted but draHowever, most of her clients don’t have matically flawed period piece about a compretty faces: they’re shy, lonely, desperate munity of ‘‘artistes’’ in 1926 Paris. Bland for companionship. A winner. Carradine is a major liability as an art Model Shop (1969-French) C-95m. ★★★ D: forger; portraits of Hemingway and Gertrude Jacques Demy. Anouk Aime´e, Gary LockStein are less than half baked. Lone and Fiorenwood, Alexandra Hay, Carole Cole, Severn tino are standouts as a menacing U.S rubber Darden, Tom Fielding. Twenty-four hours in baron and wife, she a lost love of Carradine’s. Worthy but iffy. [R]▼●쩠 life of disenchanted young architect (Lockwood), his affair with recently abandoned fashModern Times (1936) 89m. ★★★★ D: ion model (Aime´e). Director Demy’s eye for Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin, Paulette L.A. is striking, but overall feel to story is Goddard, Henry Bergman, Chester Conklin, ambiguous. [M/PG] Stanley ‘‘Tiny’’ Sandford. Charlie attacks Modern Affair, A (1996) C-90m. ★★ D: the machine age in inimitable fashion, Vern Oakley. Lisa Eichhorn, Stanley Tucci, with sharp pokes at other social ills and the Caroline Aaron, Wesley Addy, Robert Lustruggle of modern-day survival. Goddard Pone, Tammy Grimes, Robert Joy. Small, is the gamine who becomes his partner in moderately amusing comedy about a suclife. Chaplin’s last silent film (with his cessful corporate executive who undergoes own music—including ‘‘Smile’’—sound artificial insemination, gets pregnant, and then effects and gibberish song) is consistently impulsively tracks down the anonymous hilarious, and unforgettable. Final shot sperm donor. Results are predictable, but is among Chaplin’s most famous and most Tucci and Eichhorn lift the material up a coupoignant. One of Goddard’s sisters early on ple of notches. This forgettable concoction is young Gloria DeHaven (daughter of Chaplin’s assistant director). ▼●쩠 may play better on the small screen. [R]▼ Modern Love (1990) C-109m. ★★ D: Modesty Blaise (1966-British) C-119m. ★★ Robby Benson. Robby Benson, Karla D: Joseph Losey. Monica Vitti, Dirk BoDeVito, Rue McClanahan, Burt Reynolds, garde, Terence Stamp, Harry Andrews, MiFrankie Valli, Louise Lasser, Kaye Ballard, chael Craig, Scilla Gabel, Tina Marquand, Lou Kaplan. Paper-thin comedy which Clive Revill, Alexander Knox. Director Losey director-star Benson also produced and ate watermelon, pickles, and ice cream, went to scripted. The film should be titled FAMsleep, woke up, and made this adaptation of the ILY AFFAIR: DeVito, Benson’s wife, plays comic strip about a sexy female spy. Filmed at his on-screen mate, and their daughter the height of the pop-art craze, it tries to be a Lyric is cast as the couple’s offspring. The spoofat times, doesn’t know whatit’s supposed scenario—the duo meet, fall in love, wed, to be at other moments.▼쩠 and deal with various ‘‘modern problems’’— Mod Squad, The (1999) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: is run-of-the-mill. Filmed in South CaroScott Silver. Claire Danes, Giovanni Ribisi, lina, while Benson was teaching a univerOmar Epps, Dennis Farina, Josh Brolin, Misity moviemaking class. [R]▼ chael Lerner, Steve Harris, Richard Jenkins, Modern Problems (1981) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Bodhi Elfman. Brain-dead rehash of the late Ken Shapiro. Chevy Chase, Patti D’Arban’60s–early ’70s TV series. Here, the title ville, Mary Kay Place, Nell Carter, Brian trio—all young delinquents recruited to Doyle-Murray, Dabney Coleman, Mitch work undercover in the LAPD—go into acKreindel. Air-traffic controller Chase action in a scenario involving the theft of conquires telekinetic powers. A couple of fiscated drugs and other mayhem. Plays like funny bits; mostly flat, boring. [PG]▼쩠 an extended, R-rated episode that was spit Modern Romance (1981) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 out of a computer. [R]▼●쩠 D: Albert Brooks. Albert Brooks, Kathryn Mogambo (1953) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Harrold, Bruno Kirby, Jane Hallaren, James Ford. Clark Gable, Ava Gardner, Grace L. Brooks, George Kennedy. Writer-director Kelly, Donald Sinden, Philip Stainton, Brooks plays a world-class neurotic who’s Eric Pohlmann, Laurence Naismith, Denis obsessively devoted to Harrold but unable to O’Dea. Lusty remake of RED DUST. maintain a normal relationship with her. AlterGable repeats his role, Ava replaces Harnately obnoxious and hilarious, with wonderful low, Kelly has Mary Astor’s part. John in-jokes about moviemaking (Brooks plays a Lee Mahin reworked his 1932 screenplay. film editor); Brooks’ brother Bob Einstein Romantic triangle in Africa combines plays a sporting-goods salesman in a nice love and action; beautifully filmed by Robert Surtees and Freddie Young.▼●쩠 cameo. Real-life writer-director James L. [ 923 ]

Mohammad, Messenger of God (1977but not-uninteresting feminist Western, with Arabic) C-180m. ★★★ D: Moustapha Akkad. Miles doing well as a repressed sheriff’s Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael wife who chooses to assist a brash young Ansara, Johnny Sekka, Michael Forest, killer (Elliott) in a prison escape. Their deNeville Jason. Spectacle of the beginnings veloping relationship forms the basis of the story. [PG]▼쩠 of Moslem religion is sincere effort, more impressive with action than religious anMolly and Me (1945) 76m. ★★★ D: Lewis gles. In accordance with the religion, MoSeiler. Gracie Fields, Monty Woolley, hammad is never shown. Aka THE MESRoddy McDowall, Reginald Gardiner, NatSAGE. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 alie Schafer, Edith Barrett, Doris Lloyd. UnMole People, The (1956) 78m. ★★ D: Virgil employed actress-turned-housekeeper Fields Vogel. John Agar, Cynthia Patrick, Hugh goes about brightening the life (and solving Beaumont, Alan Napier. Agar and others find the problems) of her new boss, a dour and lost underground civilization of albino Sumersnippy disgraced politician (Woolley). Well ians, who have half-human creatures as their played by a fine cast, with Gardiner almost slaves. Probably the worst of Universalstealing the film as Woolley’s butler. International’s ’50s sci-fi movies.▼●쩠 Molly Maguires, The (1970) C-123m. 1 1⁄2 D: Martin Ritt. Sean Connery, Rich★★★ ★★ Molie`re (2007-French) C-120m. ⁄2 D: Laurent Tirard. Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchard Harris, Samantha Eggar, Frank Finlay, ini, Laura Morante, Edouard Baer, Ludivine Art Lund, Anthony Costello. Well-crafted Sagnier, Fanny Valette. The great 17thfilm about secret society of Irish minecentury French playwright (Duris) learns a workers in Pennsylvania, circa 1876, led valuable life lesson at a crucial moment in his by Connery; newcomer Harris is working career. He’s rescued from debtor’s prison by as informer. Vivid atmosphere, good pera wealthy man (Luchini) who needs coaching formances, but downbeat film lacks apfor his first, stumbling effort as an actorpeal, and is hurt by inconclusive ending. playwright, which is designed to impress Panavision. [M/PG]▼●쩠 the beautiful Sagnier. Meanwhile, Molie`re Molokai: The Story of Father Damien becomes involved with the smitten man’s (1999-Australian-Dutch) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: neglected wife (Morante). Hints of Molie`re Paul Cox. David Wenham, Derek Jacobi, plays to come are cleverly sprinkled throughAlice Krige, Kris Kristofferson, Sam Neill, out the elegant, bittersweet screenplay by Peter O’Toole, Leo McKern. True story of director Tirard and Gre´goire Vigneron. A Father Damien and his battle to get proper delight. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 medical and religious care for the outcast ★★1 Moll Flanders (1996) C-123m. ⁄2 D: inhabitants of a leper colony in the HawaiPen Densham. Robin Wright, Morgan Freeian islands. Hansen’s disease is graphically man, Stockard Channing, John Lynch, shown; not for the fainthearted. Beautifully Brenda Fricker, Geraldine James, Aisling filmed on the site of the original colony, but Corcoran, Jeremy Brett. Daniel Defoe’s given the subject matter, film is never as compelling as it ought to be. Super 35. ▼쩠 18th-century heroine was the inspiration for this newly spun tale of a girl, born to povMom and Dad Save the World (1992) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Greg Beeman. Teri Garr, erty and abuse, who spends her whole life standing up to men (and women) who Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz, Thalmus Rasulala, would ‘‘use’’ her. Wright is rock-solid as Wallace Shawn, Eric Idle, Dwier Brown, Moll, but the interesting story has its share Kathy Ireland. Perfectly dreadful comedy/ of lulls. Filmmaker Jim Sheridan plays a fantasy about the megalomaniacal ruler of priest. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 a tiny planet (Lovitz) who’s about to blow up Molly (1999) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: John Duigan. Earth. He becomes attracted to a suburban Elisabeth Shue, Aaron Eckhart, Thomas Mom (Garr) and spirits her and her husband Jane, Jill Hennessy, D.W. Moffett, Eliza(Jones) to his planet so she can be his bride. beth Mitchell, Lucy Liu. Female spin on Some imaginative visuals can’t buoy this CHARLY is a saccharine vehicle for Shue strained and unfunny concoction. [PG]▼●쩠 as a childlike autistic person who gets a Moment by Moment (1978) C-102m. major brain upgrade. Solid support from BOMB D: Jane Wagner. Lily Tomlin, Eckhart as her reluctant older brother and John Travolta, Andra Akers, Bert Kramer, Jane as her shy boyfriend can’t make up for Shelley R. Bonus. Role-reversal romance with a major case of the cutes. Film preaches Travolta as sex object, Tomlin as bored Malendlessly (and irresponsibly) about how ibu resident gives new dimension to the kooky and free-spirited autistic people can word ‘‘dreary.’’ Panavision. [R] be and how wretched we are for not enMoment of Danger SEE: Malaga joying the simple things in life as they do. Moment to Moment (1966) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 Made its U.S. debut as an inflight movie! D: Mervyn LeRoy. Jean Seberg, Honor [PG-13]▼쩠 Blackman, Sean Garrison, Arthur Hill. Molly and Lawless John (1971) C-97m. Unconvincing, confused murder mystery ★★ D: Gary Nelson. Vera Miles, Sam Elliott, set on the Riviera, but filmed largely on Universal’s sound stage.▼ Clu Gulager, John Anderson. Slow-moving [ 924 ]

Mommie Dearest (1981) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 ally stifling 1950s, but quickly learns that D: Frank Perry. Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarshe’s bucking the system in and out of the wid, Steve Forrest, Howard da Silva, Mara classroom. There’s some fun seeing conHobel, Rutanya Alda, Harry Goz. Vivid, welltemporary young actresses in a period setcrafted filmization of Christina Crawford’s ting, but the movie is so smug and book about growing up the adopted and condescending that even anti-nostalgists abused daughter of movie queen Joan Crawmay be put off. Pop culture reminders of the ford (brilliantly played by Dunaway). Know1950s are laid on with a trowel . . . and even ing that the story is (allegedly) real makes the villains in DELIVERANCE would know watching this film a creepy experience, someColumbia Records’ superstar Doris Day did thing akin to voyeurism . . . though now it’s not record for RCA Victor, though one closeup implies that she did. [PG-13]▼쩠 seen as a camp classic! [PG]▼●쩠 Mommy (1995) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Max Monarch of the Moon (2005) C-98m. ★★★ Allan Collins. Patty McCormack, Jason D: Richard Lowry. Blane Wheatley, MonMiller, Brinke Stevens, Majel Barrett, Mickey ica Himmelheber, Brent Moss, Kimberly Spillane, Rachel Lemieux, Sarah Jane Miller. Page, Will McMillan, Penny Drake, Kyle Pretty good little thriller set (and shot) in MusVogt. Entertaining parody of 1940s Saturcatine, Iowa, with McCormack as The Bad day matinee serials (divided into six chapSeed grown up: a smothering mommy who ters), with the heroic Yellowjacket using his murders freely to get her way (and to prowinged backpack to soar into action at a tect her beloved daughter). Now the daughmoment’s notice to protect the interests of ter starts to wonder how to deal with the U.S.A.—and locking horns with the evil Mommy. McCormack is chillingly good, villainess Dragonfly. Executed on a microand the film seldom betrays its low-budget budget with great verve and humor; even status. Scripted by the director, who also the sometimes-primitive special effects are wrote (and sings) several songs on the sounfun to watch. This is the film SKY CAPdtrack! Followed by MOMMY 2: MOMTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORMY’S DAY. ▼●쩠 ROW aspired to be. Made by the same team Mo’ Money (1992) C-91m. ★★ D: Peter Macthat created DESTINATION MARS!쩠 donald. Damon Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Mondays in the Sun (2002-Spanish) CStacey Dash, Joe Santos, John Diehl, Harry 113m. ★★★ D: Fernando Leo´n de Aranoa. ´ ngel J. Lennix, Almayvonne. Slapdash, needJavier Bardem, Luis Tosar, Jose´ A lessly violent comedy-actioner which barely Egido, Nieve de Medina, Enrique Ville´n, runs on the energy of its talented stars. Celso Bugallo, Aida Folch, Joaquı´n Climent. Damon Wayans plays a streetwise jerk who, Fine if somber study of men who have lost in order to woo Dash, takes a job on the their jobs as dockworkers and manage to bottom rung of the credit card company where survive on little more than hope. Bardem is she works, and (with kid brother Marlon) bevery effective, and the film has something comes involved with fraud, blackmail, and universally important to say. Based on a mayhem. Look for Bernie Mac as a doorman. true story. Winner of the Goya, Spain’s Damon Wayans also scripted and executive Oscar, for Best Picture.▼쩠 produced. [R]▼●쩠 Mondo Cane (1963-Italian) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 Mona Lisa (1986-British) C-104m. ★★★ Producer: Gualtiero Jacopetti. First and D: Neil Jordan. Bob Hoskins, Cathy Tyson, best of Italian shockumentaries, with dubbed Michael Caine, Robbie Coltrane, Clarke American narration; focuses on bizarre pePeters, Kate Hardie, Zoe Nathenson, Sammi culiarities of man in various parts of the Davis. Absorbing adult drama about a smallworld. Features hit song ‘‘More.’’▼●쩠 time hood who’s given a job driving around a Money for Nothing (1993) C-100m. ★★ D: high-priced callgirl but remains naive about Ramon Menendez. John Cusack, Debi the life she leads, and about the degree of Mazar, Michael Madsen, Benicio Del Toro, depravity his underworld chums have sunk to. Michael Rapaport, Maury Chaykin, James Director Jordan (who cowrote screenplay with Gandolfini, Fionnula Flanagan, Philip SeyDavid Leland) leads us into this nether world mour Hoffman. True story of unemployed along with Hoskins, allowing us to discover longshoreman who finds over a million things at the same time. Hoskins and newbucks which has fallen out of an armored comer Tyson are terrific; Caine is wonderfully car; he sees it as his ticket to the good life, but it doesn’t work out that way. Earnest slimy in support. [R]▼●쩠 Mona Lisa Smile (2003) C-119m. ★★ D: but drab treatment of an interesting story; Mike Newell. Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, promoted as a comedy, which it is not. The Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Juliet Stereal-life Joey Coyle, on whom the film is venson, Dominic West, Ginnifer Goodwin, based, committed suicide shortly before its Topher Grace, Marcia Gay Harden, John release. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Slattery, Jordan Bridges, Marian Seldes. Money From Home (1953) C-100m. ★★ D: Dedicated, freethinking art history prof George Marshall. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Roberts molds young Wellesley women— Marjie Millar, Pat Crowley, Richard Haydn, even spoiled, mouthy Dunst—in the culturRobert Strauss, Gerald Mohr, Sheldon Leo[ 925 ]

nard, Jack Kruschen. One of Dean and Jerself-sufficient. Rare non-Western from ry’s weakest outings is slickly made but Kennedy; adapted by Walter Bernstein wanders all over the place, with Jerry as an from Lionel White’s novel. Panavision.쩠 aspiring veterinarian who gets involved Mongol (2007 - Kazakhstanian - German with gangsters, steeplechase racing, an Arab Russian-Mongolian) C-126m. ★★★ D: Sergei ruler and his harem. Based on a Damon Bodrov. Tadanobu Asano, Khulan Chuluun, Honglei Sun. Surprisingly personal portrait Runyon story. Originally in 3-D.쩠 Money Money Money (1973-French) of the man who would be known as GenC-113m. ★★★ D: Claude Lelouch. Lino ghis Khan—warrior and conqueror—and Ventura, Jacques Brel, Charles Denner, Aldo his extraordinary bond with the woman he Maccione, Charles Gerard. Gang of successchose to be his wife when he was nine years ful thieves decide that changing times deold. Vivid character portrait is played out on mand their switch to political crimes, which an enormous canvas, with eye-filling impay more handsomely. Clever, funny spoof ages and massive battle scenes, though the of our heated political era as seen through film’s storytelling momentum flags from time to time. Super 35. [R]쩠 eyes of men whose only belief is in money. Aka L’AVENTURE, C’EST L’AVENMongols, The (1961-Italian) C-102m. ★★ TURE. [PG]쩠 D: Andre de Toth, Leopoldo Savona. Jack Money Pit, The (1986) C-91m. ★★ D: Palance, Anita Ekberg, Antonella Lualdi, Richard Benjamin. Tom Hanks, Shelley Franco Silva. Unimaginative spectacle set Long, Alexander Godunov, Maureen Stain 13th century, with Palance the son of pleton, Joe Mantegna, Philip Bosco, Genghis Khan on the rampage in Europe, Josh Mostel. A young couple’s slapstick Ekberg his girl. CinemaScope.▼ misadventures trying to repair and reMon Homme (1996-French) C-95m. ★★★ model a lemon of a house. Hanks and D: Bertrand Blier. Anouk Grinberg, Ge´rard Long are very likable, but this yuppie Lanvin, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Olivier update of MR. BLANDINGS BUILDS Martinez, Sabine Azema, Bernard Le Coq. HIS DREAM HOUSE loses all contact Gleefully amoral sex fable about a sweetwith reality (and humor). Starts out funny natured, nymphomaniac prostitute (Grinbut just gets worse and worse. Produced berg) and what happens when she falls in by Steven Spielberg and Co. [PG]▼●쩠 love with a homeless man and turns him Money Talks (1997) C-95m. ★★ D: Brett into her pimp. Full of typically perverse Ratner. Chris Tucker, Charlie Sheen, Heather and surreal Blier touches, but also surprisLocklear, Paul Sorvino, Veronica Cartwright, ingly affecting. Aka MY MAN. PanaGerard Ismael, Paul Gleason, David Warner. vision. ▼ TV newsman Sheen stumbles into a big story Monika SEE: Summer With Monika involving fugitive Tucker, and is forced to Monitors, The (1969) C-92m. ★★ D: Jack palm off the hustler as a longtime friend to Shea. Guy Stockwell, Susan Oliver, Avery fiance´e Locklear and her rich parents. Surprise Schreiber, Larry Storch, Ed Begley, Keenan box-office success is familiar and lightweight, Wynn, Alan Arkin, Xavier Cugat, Stubby but has one genuine spark of whimsy: TuckKaye, Jackie Vernon, Everett Dirksen. er’s phony masquerade as ‘‘Vic Damone, Great cast wasted in this failed attempt at Jr.,’’ brought on by the movie’s amusingly science fiction satire filmed in Chicago by concocted TV ad for an album of Vic Sr.’s Second City company. Alien Monitors conhit recordings. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 trol Earth and keep everything peaceful, but Money Train (1995) C-103m. ★★ D: Jorebels plot against them. From novel by sciseph Ruben. Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelfi writer Keith Laumer. [M/PG]▼ son, Jennifer Lopez, Robert Blake, Chris MonkeyBone (2001) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Henry Cooper, Joe Grifasi. The costars of WHITE Selick. Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, MEN CAN’T JUMP try to reignite their Dave Foley, Whoopi Goldberg, Giancarlo chemistry as randy N.Y.C. transit cops— Esposito, Rose McGowan, Megan Mullally, and brothers (!)—who fight over the same Lisa Zane, Chris Kattan; voice of John Turwoman, argue over Woody’s gambling fever, turro. Simply awful fantasy-comedy about and get involved in the theft of a moneya cartoonist who’s created a mischievousladen subway car. Violent, overly contrived monkey cartoon alter ego. When he slips buddy flick with some big subterranean acinto a coma, he enters a bizarre, nightmarish tion scenes. The stars are funny together, but netherworld in which the monkey runs ramBlake is way over the top as the boys’ megapant; then the creature wreaks havoc in his lomaniac supervisor. All in all, ‘‘token’’ en‘‘real life’’ too. Overblown, ugly, unfotertainment. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 cused mess; Kattan steals the show in a Money Trap, The (1966) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: small but hilarious part. Thomas Haden Burt Kennedy. Glenn Ford, Rita Hayworth, Church appears uncredited. Based on the Elke Sommer, Joseph Cotten, Ricardo graphic novel Dark Town. [PG-13]▼쩠 Montalban. Ford is detective turned crook Monkey Business (1931) 77m. ★★★1⁄2 D: in pedestrian murder yarn. Hayworth most Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho, Harpo, convincing as middle-aged woman no longer Chico, Zeppo Marx, Thelma Todd, Ruth [ 926 ]

Hall, Harry Woods. Four brothers stow warbled by Annette and The Beach Boys. away on luxury liner; Groucho goes after Sequel to THE MISADVENTURES OF Thelma, all four pretend to be Maurice MERLIN JONES.▼쩠 Chevalier to get off ship. Full quota of Monkey Trouble (1994) C-95m. ★★★ D: sight gags and puns in typically wacky Franco Amurri. Thora Birch, Harvey Keitel, comedy, coscripted by S. J. Perelman; their Mimi Rogers, Christopher McDonald, Kevin Scannell. Nicely done family film first film written directly for the screen.▼●쩠 Monkey Business (1952) 97m. ★★★ D: about Eva (Birch), a clever nine-year-old Howard Hawks. Ginger Rogers, Cary who yearns for a pet; she adopts a Capuchin Grant, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, monkey, whom she hides from her parents. Hugh Marlowe. Grant discovers rejuvenaSplendid change-of-pace for Keitel, as a tion serum, which affects him, wife Rogers, gypsy who’d been using the monkey to pick boss Coburn, and secretary Monroe in pockets; the monkey, whom Eva names this zany comedy. Coburn’s classic line ‘‘Dodger’’ (played by ‘‘Finster’’), is a real to MM: ‘‘Find someone to type this.’’ scene-stealer. Kids Eva’s age should love it. Written by Ben Hecht, Charles Lederer, Amurri scripted, with Stu Krieger. Ridley and I.A.L. Diamond; that’s Hawks’ voice Scott executive-produced. [PG] ▼●쩠 during the opening credits.▼●쩠 Monolith (1994) C-95m. BOMB D: John Monkey Grip (1982-Australian) C-101m. Eyres. Bill Paxton, Lindsay Frost, John Hurt, ★★1 Louis Gossett, Jr., Paul Ganus, Musetta ⁄2 D: Ken Cameron. Noni Hazlehurst, Colin Friels, Alice Garner, Harold Hopkins, Vander, Andrew Lamond. Nonsensical sci-fi/ Candy Raymond. Unmemorable drama deaction adventure of cops Paxton and Frost tailing the trials of singleminded single chasing an invincible killer alien. Attempts at repartee are embarrassing. [R]▼● mother Hazlehurst, particularly her relationship with obnoxious drug addict boyfriend Mon Oncle (1958-French) C-126m. ★★★★ Friels. Nice performance by Hazlehurst, but D: Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, Jean-Pierre ultimately just a superficial soap opera.▼ Zola, Adrienne Servantie, Alain Bercourt. Monkey Hustle (1977) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Tati’s first color film is a masterpiece. M. Arthur Marks. Yaphet Kotto, Rosalind Cash, Hulot’s simple, uncluttered life is sharply Rudy Ray Moore, Kirk Calloway, Randy contrasted to that of his sister and brotherBrooks. Appealing cast is only saving grace in-law, who live in an ultramodern, gadgetof dumb comedy actioner designed for laden home reminiscent of those in Buster black audiences, shot in Chicago. Kotto Keaton’s silent classics. Continuous flow of is a black Fagin; ghetto neighborhood’s sight gags (including the funniest fountain impending demise for an expressway forms you’ll ever see) makes this easygoing, nearly a bit of plot. [PG]▼쩠 dialogue-less comedy a total delight. Oscar Monkeys, Go Home! (1967) C-101m. ★★ winner as Best Foreign Film. Aka MY D: Andrew V. McLaglen. Maurice ChevaUNCLE and MY UNCLE, MR. HULOT. lier, Dean Jones, Yvette Mimieux, BerOriginal U.S. release ran 110m.▼●쩠 nard Woringer, Clement Harari, Yvonne Mon Oncle Antoine SEE: My Uncle Constant. Disney trivia about a man who Antoine inherits French olive farm and trains monMon Oncle d’Amerique (1980-French) keys to pick his crop. Gossamer-thin, for kids C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Resnais. Ge´rard only. Chevalier’s final film appearance.▼쩠 Depardieu, Nicole Garcia, Roger Pierre, Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear Marie Dubois, Nelly Bourgeaud, Henri (1988) C-115m. ★★ D: George Romero. Laborit. Intensely directed, acted, and writJason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, ten (by Jean Gruault) film illustrating reJoyce Van Patten, Christine Forrest, Stesearch scientist Laborit’s theories on human phen Root, Stanley Tucci, Janine Turner. conduct. The focus is on the intertwined A cute monkey (injected with human brain lives of a plant manager (Depardieu), accells) is enlisted to help a quadraplegic get tress (Garcia), and media executive (Pierre). on with his life. From that premise writerIntelligent, thought-provoking. [PG]▼쩠 director Romero tries to build horror and Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) 93m. ★★★ D: suspense, but it only works in spurts, and George Marshall. Bob Hope, Joan Caultaxes our credibility (and our patience) far field, Patric Knowles, Marjorie Reynolds, too often. [R]▼●쩠 Cecil Kellaway, Joseph Schildkraut, RegMonkey’s Uncle, The (1965) C-87m. ★★ inald Owen, Constance Collier. Pleasing D: Robert Stevenson. Tommy Kirk, AnHope vehicle with Bob in costume as barnette Funicello, Leon Ames, Frank Faylen, ber sent on mission as dead duck sure to be murdered. Plush settings, funny gags.▼쩠 Arthur O’Connell, Norman Grabowski. Juvenile Disney comedy has Kirk again as Monsieur Hire (1989-French) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Patrice Leconte. Michel Blanc, Merlin Jones, college whiz-kid who first tries sleep-learning method on monkey, Sandrine Bonnaire, Luc Thuillier, Eric then sets himself up in makeshift flying Berenger. Bald, middle-aged Peeping Tom machine. Flight sequences provide brightfalls in love with the object of his obsession— est moments. Unforgettable title song a young woman, peripherally involved in a [ 927 ]

murder, who lives across the courtyard. Cold, local Communist politician (McKern) take a but involving and terrifically acted version journey that mirrors the adventures of Cervanof a Georges Simenon novel; the short runntes’ knight errant. Gentle film features fine ing time helps. Previously filmed in 1946 as acting and an interesting story but never enPANIQUE. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 gages the emotions. Based on a Graham Greene novel. Made for British television.▼ Monsieur Ibrahim (2003-French) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Francois Dupeyron. Omar Sharif, Monsoon Wedding (2002-Indian-U.S.) C¸ 113m. ★★★ D: Mira Nair. Naseeruddin Shah, Pierre Boulanger, Gilbert Melki, Isabelle Renauld, Lola Naymark, Anne Suarez, Lillete Dubey, Shefali Shetty, Vasundhara Mata Gabin, Isabelle Adjani. A resourceful Das, Parvin Dabas, Vijay Raaz, Tilotama Jewish teen (Boulanger) in 1960s Paris gets Shome, Rajat Kapoor. A middle-class Punto know the philosophical Muslim shopjabi man plans an elaborate wedding that is keeper across the street . . . and the neighwell beyond his means for his daughter, borhood prostitutes as well. The growing who has only met the groom weeks ago. In friendship between the elder and the adolesthe days leading up to the event, the tangled cent, along with the life lessons, are nicely relationships of his extended family—and played, but story is rather slight and leihis daughter’s own doubts—lead to tumult. surely paced. Adjani has a bit as a movie Long but richly textured comedy-drama star. [R]▼쩠 emphasizing how love, betrayal, and ambiMonsieur N. (2003-French-British) C-128m. tion impose themselves on even the most ★★ D: Antoine de Caunes. Philippe Torreton, tradition-bound societies.▼쩠 Richard E. Grant, Jay Rodan, Elsa ZylMonster, The (1994-Italian) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 berstein, Roschdy Zem, Bruno Putzulu, D: Roberto Benigni. Roberto Benigni, MiSte´phane Freiss, Fre´de´ric Pierrot, Siobhan chel Blanc, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean-Claude Hewlett. Fanciful yarn set on the island of Brialy, Massimo Girotti, Dominique LavaSt. Helena, where a British military martinet nant, Ivano Marescotti. Bumbling Benigni (Grant) is sent to guard Napoleon Bonaparte is mistaken by the police for a wanted serial (Torreton) in 1815, certain that the ingenious killer, and he’s followed by an attractive emperor is planning to escape. Told through female cop hoping to get the goods on him. the eyes of a British lieutenant (Rodan) who Moderately amusing comedy will mostly suspects, 20 years later, that history has please those who already adore Benigni; been hoodwinked. Promising story actually others will find fewer laughs. Original title: grows less interesting as it develops, despite IL MOSTRO.▼쩠 impressive production values. Super 35.쩠 Monster (2003) C-109m. ★★★ D: Patty JenMonsieur Verdoux (1947) 123m. ★★★1⁄2 kins. Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce D: Charles Chaplin. Charles Chaplin, Martha Dern, Scott Wilson, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Lee Raye, Isobel Elsom, Marilyn Nash, Irving Tergesen, Annie Corley. Theron won an Bacon, William Frawley. Chaplin’s controOscar for her raw, no-holds-barred perforversial black comedy about a Parisian Bluemance as Aileen Wuornos, the infamous beard who murders wives for their money was prostitute and serial killer who murdered years ahead of its time; its wry humor and paciseven men and was executed in 2002. The fist sentiments make it quite contemporary film works better as a love story between when seen today. Broad comic sequence with the emotionally scarred Wuornos and a Raye is particular highlight.▼●쩠 young woman she grows to trust (Ricci) Monsignor (1982) C-122m. ★★ D: Frank than as an incisive social commentary. ImPerry. Christopher Reeve, Genevieve Bujold, pressive feature debut for writer-director Fernando Rey, Jason Miller, Joe Cortese, AdJenkins. Theron’s extraordinary makeup was crafted by Toni G. [R] ▼쩠 olfo Celi, Leonardo Cimino, Tomas Milian, Robert J. Prosky. Saga of ambitious priest Monster Club, The (1980-British) C-97m. ★1 who commits every heresy imaginable (in⁄2 D: Roy Ward Baker. Vincent Price, cluding having an affair with a nun!) while John Carradine, Donald Pleasence, Stuart operating as the Vatican’s business manager. Whitman, Warren Saire, Richard Johnson, Grows more ridiculous as it goes along—with Britt Ekland, Simon Ward, Anthony Steel, unintentional comedy on a grand scale—culPatrick Magee. A trio of horror stories, all minating in an astonishing final shot involving told by vampire Price. Disappointing and the Pope. Another camp classic from the prounimaginative, with only the barest of shudducer and director of MOMMIE DEAREST. ders; never released theatrically in the U.S. [R]▼ The club, by the way, is a disco patronized Monsignor Quixote (1988-British) C-118m. by Transylvanians.▼●쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Rodney Bennett. Alec Guinness, Leo Monster House (2006) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gil McKern, Ian Richardson, Graham Crowden, Kenan. Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maurice Denham, Philip Stone, Rosalie Kevin James, Nick Cannon, Jason Lee, Jon Crutchley, Valentine Pelka, Don Fellows. To Heder, Catherine O’Hara, Fred Willard, his surprise, a quiet, provincial Spanish priest Kathleen Turner, Mitchel Musso, Sam Ler(Guinness), a descendant of Don Quixote, is ner, Spencer Locke. Two adolescent boys appointed monsignor. To celebrate, he and a and a girl they’ve just met realize that the [ 928 ]

spooky house across the street is actually their latest execution. Challenging film alive and swallowing up people! Story gets tackles issues of darkness and light with stranger as it goes along (try explaining it to great feeling and nuance, as Thornton beyour kids) but offers some good, spooky comes involved with the unstable widow of moments for juvenile audiences. Why it’s the man he just put to death. Unlike some done with ‘‘motion capture,’’ to make anidramas that wallow in misery, this one promated characters act like real people, is a vides a meaningful—and plausible—catharquestion adults will have to grapple with. sis, with superb acting right down the line. Digital Widescreen. [PG]쩠 Berry’s shattering performance earned her a Monster in a Box (1992) C-96m. ★★★ D: Best Actress Oscar. Written by Milo Addica Nick Broomfield. The second film adaptaand Will Rokos. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 tion of a Spalding Gray monologue, this Monsters, Inc. (2001) C-92m. ★★★ D: Peter one chronicling various adventures from Docter. Voices of John Goodman, Billy L.A. to the Soviet Union which interrupt Crystal, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi, James Gray’s efforts to write a huge autobioCoburn, Jennifer Tilly, John Ratzenberger, graphical novel (the monster of the title). Frank Oz, Bonnie Hunt. Clever, funny The direction and the music are more obcomputer-animated tale of life in Monstrotrusive than in the previous SWIMMING polis, a city powered by the screams of chilTO CAMBODIA, but Gray’s stories and dren frightened by monsters who come out observations are still funny, profound, and of their closets at night. Trouble begins extremely compelling. Our favorite anecdote: when a little girl named Boo invades this Gray’s semi-disastrous stint as the Stage Manworld—to the dismay of furry monster Sulager in a N.Y. revival of Our Town.▼쩠 ley and his talkative squire, Mike WazowMonster-in-Law (2005) C-95m. ★★ D: Robski. Goodman and Crystal give wonderful ert Luketic. Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Mivocal performances; full of laughs for kids chael Vartan, Wanda Sykes, Adam Scott, and grownups alike. Randy Newman’s song Monet Mazur, Annie Parisse, Will Arnett, ‘‘If I Didn’t Have You’’ won an Oscar. Elaine Stritch. Nice girl meets nice guy, and Another winner from Pixar and Disney. [G] he asks her to marry him. Now she has to ▼쩠 contend with the mother-in-law from hell, Monster Squad, The (1987) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 a vain, controlling woman who’ll stop at D: Fred Dekker. Andre Gower, Robby nothing to prevent the nuptials from taking Kiger, Stephen Macht, Duncan Regehr, Tom place. Professionalism (and Sykes’ wellNoonan, Brent Chalem, Ryan Lambert, calculated one-liners) just barely sustain this Ashley Bank. Young friends belong to a obvious, heavy-handed comedy. Fonda is club that’s devoted to monsters, but they still a formidable presence after 15 years unexpectedly encounter the horror heavies off-screen; too bad she couldn’t have found in real life when Dracula (accompanied by a better script for her return. Super 35. [PGthe Frankenstein monster, the Mummy, the 13] ▼쩠 Wolf Man, and the Gill Man) comes to their Monster in the Closet (1986) C-87m. town in search of an amulet vital to his con★★★ D: Bob Dahlin. Donald Grant, Denise tinued existence. Affectionate homage to DuBarry, Claude Akins, Howard Duff, classic horror films and their monster stars Henry Gibson, Donald Moffat, Paul Dooley, is ultimately too bland and unbelievable (even John Carradine, Jesse White, Stella Stefor a kiddie horror film). Climactic showdown vens. Perceptive and funny homage to 1950s boasts Richard Edlund’s super-duper special effects. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 sci-fi flicks. Clark Kent–type reporter Grant and scientist DuBarry team up to track down Monsters vs Aliens (2009) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 and destroy California monsters who pop out D: Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon. Voices of closets and kill people. A must for buffs. of Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Filmed in 1983. [PG]▼쩠 Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Monster Island (1981-U.S.-Spanish) CRainn Wilson, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, 1 ★ 100m. ⁄2 D: Juan Piquer Simon. Terence Julie White, Jeffrey Tambor, Amy Poehler, Stamp, Peter Cushing, Ian Serra, David Ed Helms, Rene´e Zellweger, John Krasinski. Hatton, Blanca Estrada. Humdrum actioner, Young woman who’s about to be married with Serra and Hatton shipwrecked on an has a close encounter with a meteorite and island loaded with gold and strange creabecomes a giant. The government seizes her tures. Based on a story by Jules Verne. and closets her away with other assorted Monster’s Ball (2001) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: monsters—then realizes that these creatures Marc Forster. Billy Bob Thornton, Halle might be just the ones to fend off an alien Berry, Peter Boyle, Heath Ledger, Sean invasion. Jokey monster movie is also (no Combs, Mos Def, Coronji Calhoun. A softkidding) a female empowerment story. Inspoken Georgia prison functionary who’s nocuous animated family entertainment (esrepressed his feelings for years—through pecially good in 3-D) but the final gags fall family tragedies and the emotional upheavcuriously flat. Digital Widescreen. [PG] als of his job—begins to change after his Monster Zero (1966-Japanese) 92m. ★1⁄2 D: son, a fellow prison guard, reacts badly to Ishiro Honda. Nick Adams, Akira Taka[ 929 ]

rada. Godzilla and Rodan are swiped from Alessandro Gassman. Garrulous, unmarried Earth to battle Ghidrah on an alien planet. Brit (Redgrave) vacations at Italy’s Lake Lesser monster movie from the Toho StuComo on the eve of WW2. She’s interested dio. Aka GODZILLA VS. MONSTER in a fellow hotel guest, stiff-upper-lip Fox, ZERO. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 but her hesitancy opens the door for flirta★★1 Montana (1950) C-76m. tious American Thurman. Sweetly enter⁄2 D: Ray Enright. Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith. S. Z. taining (and picturesque), if painted in very Sakall, Monte Blue, Douglas Kennedy. broad strokes. That’s Vittorio Gassman’s Slick yet unexciting Western with formula son as the young lothario. Based on the novella by H. E. Bates. [PG]▼●쩠 Warner Bros. plot line and type casting; minor Flynn vehicle.▼쩠 Month in the Country, A (1987-British) C-96m. ★★★ D: Pat O’Connor. Colin Firth, Monte Carlo (1930) 90m. ★★★ D: Ernst Lubitsch. Jeanette MacDonald, Jack BuKenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson, Patchanan, ZaSu Pitts, Claude Allister. Dated but rick Malahide, Tony Haygarth, Jim Carenjoyable musical froth with Jeanette an ter. Occasionally slow but still thoughtful, impoverished countess wooed by royal Burewarding drama about shellshocked WW1 chanan, who’s incognito, of course. Lubvet Firth, and his experiences while uncovitsch’s methods of integrating songs into the ering a medieval painting on a church wall film were innovations in 1930; most memorain a remote Yorkshire town. Screenplay by ble is ‘‘Beyond the Blue Horizon.’’ ●쩠 Simon Gray, from a novel by J. R. Carr. Monte Carlo or Bust SEE: Those Daring Stick with this one. [PG]▼● Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975Monte Carlo Story, The (1957-Italian) British) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terry Gilliam, C-99m. ★★ D: Samuel Taylor. Marlene Terry Jones. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Dietrich, Vittorio De Sica, Arthur O’ConTerry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael nell, Natalie Trundy, Mischa Auer. CharmPalin. The Python troupe’s second feature is ing stars try to support thin story of trouwildly uneven, starting out well and then getbled romance between two compulsive gamting lost—in the ‘‘story’’ of a medieval quest. blers; filmed on location. Technirama. Some inspired lunacy, and a lot of dry Montenegro (1981-Swedish-British) Cstretches; awfully bloody, too. Recommended 98m. ★★★ D: Dusan Makavejev. Susan for fans only. Adapted into a stage musical, Spamalot, in 2004. [PG]▼●쩠 Anspach, Erland Josephson, Per Oscarsson, John Zacharias, Svetozar Cvetkovic, PaMonty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982-British) C-77m. ★★★ D: Terry tricia Gelin. Bored middle-class housewife Anspach becomes sexually liberated when she Hughes, ‘‘Monty Python.’’ Graham Chapaccidentally falls in with Yugoslav workers man, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric who frequent a boisterous bar. Funny and Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Neil entertaining. Aka MONTENEGRO—OR Innes, Carol Cleveland. Britain’s bad boys PIGS AND PEARLS. [R]▼●쩠 invade Los Angeles with this madcap series 1 ★★★ ⁄2 D: Monterey Pop (1969) C-88m. of sketches and routines, including many old James Desmond, Barry Feinstein, D.A. favorites. A must for Python aficionados. Pennebaker, Albert Maysles, Roger MurVideotaped, then transferred to film. Aka phy, Richard Leacock, Nick Proferes. Otis MONTY PYTHON LIVE. [R]▼●쩠 Redding, Mamas and Papas, Jimi Hendrix, Monty Python’s Life of Brian SEE: Life The Who, Janis Joplin, Animals, Jefferson of Brian Airplane. First major rock concert film, shot Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life at 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, is still one of (1983-British) C-103m. ★★★ D: Terry Jones. the best ever, with Joplin’s ‘‘Ball and Chain’’ Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry and Hendrix’s pyrotechnical ‘‘Wild Thing’’ Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael among the highlights. Video version includes Palin, Carol Cleveland, Simon Jones. Original, outrageous comedy exploring vari9m. extra footage. ▼●쩠 ★★★ Monte Walsh (1970) C-106m. ous facets of life and death—from procreD: William Fraker. Lee Marvin, Jeanne Moation to the Grim Reaper himself—with reau, Jack Palance, Mitch Ryan, Jim Davis, typical Python irreverence. Highlights inAllyn Ann McLerie, Richard Farnsworth. clude the world’s most obese man (an Melancholy Western with Marvin a veteran unforgettable scene, like it or not) and a cowboy who finds himself part of a dying cheerful, elaborate production number about West. Sensitive filming of novel by Jack sperm! A barrel of bellylaughs for Python Schaefer (who wrote SHANE). Fine perforfans; others beware. [R]▼●쩠 mance by Palance in atypical good-guy Monument Ave. (1998) C-90m. ★★ D: Ted role. Directorial debut for noted cinematogDemme. Denis Leary, Billy Crudup, Ian rapher Fraker. Remade for TV in 2003. PaHart, Jason Barry, Colm Meaney, Martin Sheen, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Famke Janssen, navision. [PG]▼ Month by the Lake, A (1995) C-94m. Noah Emmerich, John Diehl. Substitute ★★1⁄2 D: John Irvin. Vanessa Redgrave, EdBoston-Irish hoods for Martin Scorsese’s ward Fox, Uma Thurman, Alida Valli, Italian counterparts, and you get a sense of [ 930 ]

what this aspires to be. Serviceable drama Niven, Maggie McNamara, Tom Tully, deals with the tension between an older Dawn Addams, Gregory Ratoff. Oncementor and his band of younger car thieves, saucy sex comedy about a young woman as well as the women who mourn at the who flaunts her virginity now seems tame, funerals their actions have engendered. too much a filmed stage play, with most Might have been more impressive had it innuendoes lacking punch. Adapted by F. come out ten years earlier. [R]▼●쩠 Hugh Herbert from his stage hit. Hardy Moolaade´ (2005-Senegalese-French-MorocKruger (who has a small part here) played can-Tunisian-Burkina Faso-Cameroon) Cthe lead in a German-language version that Preminger filmed simultaneously.▼● 124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ousmane Sembene. Fatoumata Coulibaly, Maı¨mouna He´le`ne Diarra, Moonlight and Valentino (1995) C-104m. ★★★ Salimata Traore´, Dominique T. Zeı¨da, Mah D: David Anspaugh. Elizabeth Perkins, Compaore´. Deceptively simple but riveting Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Turner, Gwyaccount of a single-minded wife/mother in a neth Paltrow, Jon Bon Jovi, Jeremy Sisto, small West African village, who defiantly Josef Sommer. A young woman cannot deal gives refuge to some terrified young girls who with the reality of suddenly being widwant to avoid the ritualistic mutilation of their owed—despite the support of her best genitals—a custom throughout many parts of friend, her younger sister, and her exAfrica. Difficult subject matter is potently hanstepmother, who rally around her. Unusual dled by octogenarian Senegalese writersubject matter portrayed with skill and undirector Sembene, who has fashioned a multipredictability, though some will find it too layered, politically savvy drama that also brims talky and/or too studied in its quirkiness. with charm and wit. This is his final film.쩠 Perkins gives an outstanding performance. Moon and Sixpence, The (1942) 89m. Ellen Simon (daughter of Neil) adapted her ★★★ D: Albert Lewin. George Sanders, stage play, based on her own experience. Herbert Marshall, Doris Dudley, Eric Blore, Peter Coyote appears unbilled as GoldAlbert Bassermann, Molly Lamont, Elena berg’s husband. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Verdugo, Florence Bates, Heather Thatcher. Moonlighter, The (1953) 75m. ★★ D: Surprisingly adult adaptation of W. SomerRoy Rowland. Barbara Stanwyck, Fred set Maugham’s novel based on the life of Paul MacMurray, Ward Bond, William Ching, Gauguin, with Sanders as the restless (and John Dierkes, Jack Elam. Drifter MacMurselfish) spirit who turns his back on his family, ray returns home to find that sweetheart and society, to become a painter. A postscript, Stanwyck is about to marry his brother. tacked on to satisfy Hollywood’s moral code, Complications ensue but there are no weakly tries to undermine the character that sparks, though Stanwyck is convincing as a Sanders and writer-director Lewin have just rugged woman of the West. Mediocre portrayed so well! Climactic scene of paintWestern written by Niven Busch. Originally in 3-D.쩠 ings originally shown in color.▼쩠 Moonfleet (1955) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Moonlighting (1982-British) C-97m. ★★★★ Lang. Stewart Granger, Jon Whiteley, D: Jerzy Skolimowski. Jeremy Irons, Eugene George Sanders, Viveca Lindfors, Joan Lipinski, Jiri Stanislav, Eugeniusz HaczkieGreenwood, Ian Wolfe. Tepid 18th-century wicz. Slow-paced but mesmerizing allegory story of Britisher Granger becoming a about a Polish man sent to London with a buccaneer. CinemaScope.● trio of workmen to renovate a wealthy man’s Moon 44 (1990-West German) C-102m. ★1⁄2 apartment. The supervisor (Irons) must keep D: Roland Emmerich. Michael Pare´, Lisa their job a secret, since they have no work Eichhorn, Malcolm McDowell, Dean Devlin, permits; the pressure increases when he learns Brian Thompson, Stephen Geoffreys, Mechthat Poland has imposed martial law. Fascimed Yilmaz, Leon Rippy, Roscoe Lee nating study of loneliness and desperation, full Browne. In the 21st century, a multinational of irony and bittersweet humor; Irons is sucompany forces its prisoners to protect their perb. Written and directed by Polish emigre´ claim on a ‘‘moon’’ from takeover attempt Skolimowski. [PG]▼●쩠 by rival company. Pare´ plays a tough underMoonlight Mile (2002) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: cover agent. Annoyingly derivative, drearily Brad Silberling. Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Holly Hunter, obvious sci-fi epic. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Moon in the Gutter, The (1983-French) Ellen Pompeo, Richard T. Jones, Allan CorC-126m. ★1⁄2 D: Jean-Jacques Beineix. duner, Dabney Coleman. Young man Nastassia Kinski, Gerard Depardieu, Vicwhose fiance´e was murdered just before toria Abril, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Domitheir wedding continues to live with the nique Pinon. Overbaked, pompously surreal girl’s parents as they all try to deal with tale of dockworker Depardieu, seeking his their grief—and he grapples with feelings sister’s rapist, and his involvement with of guilt and indecision. Delicate material is wealthy, beautiful Kinski. Both stars handled with skill and good humor, until the couldn’t be worse. Panavision. [R]▼ young hero meets a woman who’s too good Moon Is Blue, The (1953) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: to be true, and the story’s credibility is deOtto Preminger. William Holden, David railed. Salvaged, to a great degree, by supe[ 931 ]

rior acting from Hoffman and Sarandon. does in this psychological melodrama of Silberling wrote this in response to the murangry, alienated Clark and his plight after der of his girlfriend, actress Rebecca Schafaccidentally killing the banker’s son who’s fer, in 1989. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 been taunting him for years. But it’s beautiMoon Over Broadway (1997) C-92m. fully directed; check out stunning opening ★★★ shot, and opening sequence. ▼● D: D. A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus. Revealing—and entertaining—documentary Moonrunners (1974) C-102m. ★★ D: Gy about the Broadway production of Ken LudWaldron. James Mitchum, Kiel Martin, wig’s comedy Moon Over Buffalo, starring Arthur Hunnicutt, Joan Blackman, Waylon Carol Burnett, in her first Broadway play in Jennings, Chris Forbes. Action-comedy many years, and Philip Bosco. The assorted about modern day bootleggers sputters bebehind-the-scenes power trips, emotions, cause of Mitchum’s lethargic acting and the and distresses are captured in vivid detail; a script’s lack of credibility. Later developed fascinating look at what goes into creating a into the Dukes of Hazzard TV series. [PG] high-profile Broadway production. A must Moonshine County Express (1977) C95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gus Trikonis. John Saxon, for theater buffs.▼쩠 Moon Over Miami (1941) C-91m. ★★★ Susan Howard, William Conrad, Morgan D: Walter Lang. Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Woodward, Claudia Jennings, Jeff Corey, Robert Cummings, Carole Landis, CharDub Taylor, Maureen McCormick. Murdered lotte Greenwood, Jack Haley. Grable, sismoonshiner’s three sexy daughters decide to ter Landis, and Greenwood go fortunecompete with local biggie (Conrad) whom hunting in Miami, come up with more than they believe caused their father’s death. Strong they bargained for in smoothly entertaincast buoys good action programmer. [PG]▼ ing musical romance, especially nice in Moonshine War, The (1970) C-100m. ★★ color. Tuneful songs include title number, D: Richard Quine. Richard Widmark, ‘‘You Started Something.’’ Remake of Alan Alda, Patrick McGoohan, Melodie JohnTHREE BLIND MICE, also remade as son, Will Geer, Joe Williams, Lee HazleTHREE LITTLE GIRLS IN BLUE.▼쩠 wood. Tediously plotted mixture of comedy Moon Over Parador (1988) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 and drama during late Prohibition era enlivD: Paul Mazursky. Richard Dreyfuss, Raul ened by unusual cast and honest attempt to Julia, Sonia Braga, Jonathan Winters, Michael evoke country atmosphere. Script by Elmore Greene, Polly Holliday, Charo, Marianne Sa¨Leonard, from his novel. Look for Teri Garr gebrecht, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dick Cavett, Ed as the tourist’s wife. Panavision. [PG] Moon-Spinners, The (1964) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 Asner. Amiable comedy about an American actor who’s shanghaied into portraying a reD: James Neilson. Hayley Mills, Eli Walcently deceased Latin American dictator; relach, Pola Negri, Peter McEnery, Joan luctant at first, he soon finds he enjoys the Greenwood, Irene Papas. Disney’s attempt charade (and the despot’s sexy companion). at Hitchcock-like intrigue with a light touch Entertaining enough, but never hits the bull’shas Hayley a vacationer in Crete who eye. Cowriter/director Mazursky has a hilaribecomes involved with jewelry-smuggling ous cameo in drag. Inspired by THE MAGring. Too long and muddled, but still enterNIFICENT FRAUD (1939). [PG-13]▼●쩠 taining, with Negri (off-screen since 1943) Moon Pilot (1962) C-98m. ★★★ D: James an enjoyable villainess. ▼●쩠 Neilson. Tom Tryon, Brian Keith, Edmond Moonstruck (1987) C-102m. ★★★★ D: NorO’Brien, Dany Saval, Tommy Kirk, Bob man Jewison. Cher, Nicolas Cage, VinSweeney, Kent Smith. Dated but enjoyacent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, Danny ble Disney comedy about astronaut Tryon Aiello, Julie Bovasso, John Mahoney, Louis who meets mysterious girl from another Guss, Feodor Chaliapin, Anita Gillette. A planet (Saval) just before his mission.▼쩠 gem of a movie that unfolds like a good Moonraker (1979) C-126m. ★★ D: Lewis play, without ever seeming static or stagy. Gilbert. Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, MiCher plays an independent young widow chael Lonsdale, Richard Kiel, Corinne Clery, who agrees to marry an older man (Aiello) Bernard Lee, Desmond Llewelyn, Lois —and then finds herself inexorably drawn Maxwell. James Bond no longer resemto his misfit younger brother (Cage). John bles Ian Fleming’s creation; now he’s a Patrick Shanley’s script is brimming with tired punster pursuing an intergalactic madwonderful vignettes and acute observaman. Overblown comic-strip adventure is tions about Italian-American families. Cher, strictly for the bubble-gum set . . . but tune in Dukakis (terrific as the mother), and Shanley for eye-popping free-fall opening, the best part won Oscars for their work. [PG]▼●쩠 of this movie. Lee’s last appearance as ‘‘M.’’ Moontrap (1989) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Dyke. Walter Koenig, Bruce Campbell, Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Moonrise (1948) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Leigh Lombardi, Robert Kurcz. OK enterBorzage. Dane Clark, Gail Russell, Ethel tainment, as aging space shuttle pilot and Barrymore, Allyn Joslyn, Henry (Harry) younger partner are sent to the Moon to Morgan, Lloyd Bridges, Selena Royle, investigate alien artifacts, but inadvertently Rex Ingram, Harry Carey, Jr. Uneven script restart alien machinery designed to invade [ 932 ]

the Earth. Very low-budget production Considering cast and Reeves’ career, fairly shows ingenuity in its special effects and lively and interesting swashbuckler based imagination in the story, but dramatic valon life of illustrious pirate. Original Italian running time: 105m. CinemaScope.▼● ues are highly variable. [R]▼● Moon Zero Two (1970-British) C-100m. Morituri SEE: Saboteur, Code Name ★1 Morituri, The ⁄2 D: Roy Ward Baker. James Olson, Catherina Von Schell (Catherine Schell), Morning After, The (1986) C-103m. ★★ Warren Mitchell, Adrienne Corri, Ori Levy, D: Sidney Lumet. Jane Fonda, Jeff BridDudley Foster. Sci-fi adventure is almost like a ges, Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Richard Western, with people making mining claims Foronjy, Geoffrey Scott, James (Gypsy) on the moon and having to fight for their rights. Haake, Kathleen Wilhoite, Frances Bergen, You’ve seen it before without the craters. ▼쩠 Rick Rossovich. So-called thriller about More American Graffiti (1979) C-111m. alcoholic actress waking in bed with a dead ★1 man and not knowing how it happened. ⁄2 D: B. W. L. Norton. Candy Clark, Bo Hopkins, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, MacTiresome story and ill-defined characters kenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy send this one down the tubes, despite promWilliams, Anna Bjorn, Scott Glenn, Mary ising star combo. Look fast for Kathy Bates as neighbor of victim. [R]▼●쩠 Kay Place, Rosanna Arquette, Delroy Lindo. More is less, in this sequel to 1973 hit, placMorning Glory (1933) 74m. ★★★ D: Lowing that film’s likable characters in a quartet ell Sherman. Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe of pointless vignettes. Look sharp for HarMenjou, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., C. Aurison Ford as a motorcycle cop. Panavision brey Smith, Mary Duncan. Dated but lovely (part). [PG]▼●쩠 film from Zoe Akins’ play about stageMore Than a Miracle (1967-Italian-French) struck young girl called Eva Lovelace who C-105m. ★★ D: Francesco Rosi. Sophia tries to succeed in N.Y.C. Good cast, Loren, Omar Sharif, Dolores Del Rio, sharp script, but it’s magically compelling Georges Wilson, Leslie French, Marina MalHepburn who makes this memorable; she fatti. Sophia has never looked better but this won her first Oscar for her work. Remade absurd fairy tale about a prince and a peasant in 1958 as STAGE STRUCK.▼●쩠 girl is just a waste of time. Franscope. Morning Light (2008) C-97m. ★★ D: Mark More the Merrier, The (1943) 104m. Monroe, Paul Crowder. Narrated by Patrick ★★★ Warburton. Longtime sailing enthusiast D: George Stevens. Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Gaines, (and racing cup holder) Roy E. Disney Bruce Bennett, Ann Savage, Ann Doran, sponsors a competition to select 15 young Frank Sully, Grady Sutton. The wartime people from various backgrounds to particihousing shortage forces Arthur to share a pate in the Transpac, a grueling 2,200-mile Washington, D.C., apartment with McCrea race across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. and crafty old codger Coburn (who won an Curiously uninvolving reality-TV–type fare Oscar for this comic performance). Highly enin which even the finale fails to pack a tertaining, with Arthur at her peerless best. punch. [PG] Remade as WALK, DON’T RUN.▼●쩠 Morocco (1930) 92m. ★★★ D: Josef von Morgan! (1966-British) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sternberg. Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Karel Reisz. Vanessa Redgrave, David Adolphe Menjou, Francis McDonald, Eve Warner, Robert Stephens, Irene Handl. Southern, Paul Porcasi. Dietrich is allurDecidedly offbeat gem. Artist Warner ing and exotic in her first Hollywood film, verges on insanity, keyed off by wife as a cabaret singer (improbably stuck in Redgrave’s divorcing him, and goes on Morocco) who must choose between wealthy eccentric escapades. Script by David MerMenjou and Foreign Legionnaire Cooper. cer, from his play. Vanessa’s film debut. A treat. Marlene sings three numbers, including ‘‘What Am I Bid.’’▼●쩠 Complete title is MORGAN—A SUITABLE Morons From Outer Space (1985-British) CASE FOR TREATMENT.▼●쩠 C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Hodges. Griff Rhys Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home (1987) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan Smithee. Jon Cryer, Lynn Jones, Mel Smith, James B. Sikking, Redgrave, Nicholas Pryor, Viveka Davis, Paul Dinsdale Landen, Jimmy Nail, Joanne Gleason. Inane comedy from the notorious, and Pearce, Paul Brown. Chaos reigns supreme pseudonymous, director Smithee (in this case in this inventive, uneven, but sometimes hiPaul Aaron) abouta teenager who returnshome larious comedy about some very human from boarding school and tries to change the aliens with British accents—who also hapways of his obnoxious, politically ambitious pen to be brainless twits—and what happarents. Plays like an unsold sitcom pilot. Redpens when their spaceship crash-lands on grave is wasted, and even Cryer’s considerEarth. Sight gags galore. [PG-13]▼쩠 able charm can’t make this worth coming Mortadella SEE: Lady Liberty home to see. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mortal Kombat (1995) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Morgan the Pirate (1961-Italian) C-95m. Paul Anderson. Christopher Lambert, Robin ★★ D: Andre de Toth. Steve Reeves, ValShou, Linden Ashby, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, erie Lagrange, Lydia Alfonsi, Chelo Alonso. Bridgette Wilson, Talisa Soto. Shou, Ashby, [ 933 ]

and Wilson are among those kompeting in a martial arts tournament with nothing less than the fate of Earth in the balance. Elaborate special effects and impressive set design are helpless against a weak story, uneven akting, and komikally thin karakters. Mostly one fight after another, as you might expect from a movie based on a video game. Followed by a sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997) C-95m. BOMB D: John Leonetti. Robin Shou, Talisa Soto, James Remar, Brian Thompson, Lynn ‘‘Red’’ Williams, Irina Pantaeva. Mind-numbing sequel rehashes battle between good and evil for the fate of mankind ( yawn). OK visual effects but endless fight scenes and dreadful acting stop film dead in its tracks. Of interest only to American Gladiator fanatics and vidkids with really low attention spans. Remar’s morph from David Carradine–style kung fu sensei to turbo warrior is unintentionally hilarious. [PG-13]

exudes a quiet, poignant sadness. Based on the novel by Alan Warner. ▼쩠 Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980-Russian) C-152m. ★★★ D: Vladimir Menshov. Vera Alentova, Irina Muravyova, Raisa Ryazonova, Natalia Vavilova, Alexei Batalov. A trio of young women come to Moscow during the late ’50s to seek love and work. Enjoyable if slow moving; closer in spirit to THE BEST OF EVERYTHING than WAR AND PEACE. Oscar winner as Best Foreign Film.▼쩠 Moscow on the Hudson (1984) C-115m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Paul Mazursky. Robin Williams, Maria Conchita Alonso, Cleavant Derricks, Alejandro Rey, Savely Kramarov, Elya Baskin. Fine original comedy-drama by Mazursky and Leon Capetanos about a Russian musician who defects during a trip to N.Y.C. —in Bloomingdale’s, no less—and tries to come to grips with his new life in a new land. Full of endearing performances, perceptive and bittersweet moments—but a few too ▼●쩠 many false endings. Williams is superb in ★★★1 Mortal Storm, The (1940) 100m. ⁄2 the lead. [R]▼●쩠 D: Frank Borzage. Margaret Sullavan, James Mosquito Coast, The (1986) C-117m. Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Peter Weir. Harrison Ford, Helen Stack, Bonita Granville, Irene Rich, Maria Mirren, River Phoenix, Jadrien Steele, HilOuspenskaya, Gene Reynolds, Ward Bond. ary Gordon, Rebecca Gordon, Conrad RobNazi takeover in Germany splits family, ruins erts, Andre Gregory, Dick O’Neill, Martha life of father, professor Morgan; Stewart tries Plimpton, Butterfly McQueen, Jason Alto leave country with professor’s daughter exander. Utterly compelling, novelistic saga (Sullavan). Sincere filming of Phyllis Botof iconoclastic inventor and idealist (Ford, tome’s novel is beautifully acted, with one of in a knockout performance) who moves his Morgan’s finest performances. Screenplay by family to remote village in Central America Claudine West, Andersen Ellis, and George where he creates an incredible utopia . . . and Froeschel. Film debut of Dan Dailey (billed as proceeds to play God. Not for all tastes, since Dan Dailey, Jr.); look sharp in second classFord’s character is unsympathetic (though he room scene for Tom Drake.▼ was even worse in Paul Theroux’s novel!). ★★1 ⁄2 Mortal Thoughts (1991) C-104m. Beautifully crafted, with fine screenplay by D: Alan Rudolph. Demi Moore, Glenne Paul Schrader. A serious and emotionally Headly, Bruce Willis, John Pankow, Hargripping film. [PG]▼●쩠 vey Keitel, Billie Neal. Two police detecMosquito Squadron (1969-British) C-90m. tives question a woman about the incidents ★★1 ⁄2 D: Boris Sagal. David McCallum, surrounding the murder of her best friend’s Suzanne Neve, David Buck, David Dundas, husband, an abusive lout. Interesting, Dinsdale Landen, Charles Gray. Good enflashback-framed film boasts some good semble performances in tired story of performances, but a cast of characters it’s Canadian-born RAF pilot (McCallum)’s hard to care much about, and a conclusion crucial behind-the-lines mission to destroy that pulls the rug out from everything else Germany’s ultimate weapon project. [G]쩠 we’ve just seen. Meaningless ‘‘touches’’ Most Beautiful, The (1944-Japanese) 85m. (like use of slow-motion) don’t add any★★ D: Akira Kurosawa. Takashi Shimura, thing. Moore coproduced. [R]▼●쩠 Ichiro Sugai, Soji Kiyokawa, Takako Irie, Morvern Callar (2002-British) C-97m. ★★★ Yoko Yaguchi. One of Kurosawa’s earliD: Lynne Ramsay. Samantha Morton, Kathest features includes considerable WW2 leen McDermott, Raife Patrick Burchell, Dan propaganda; young women factory workCadan, Carolyn Calder, Jim Wilson, Dolly ers are exhorted by foreman Shimura (star Wells, Ruby Milton. Effectively moody, stunof Kurosawa’s IKIRU and SEVEN SAMningly visual portrait of reckless youth and URAI) to become production warriors by inaimlessness. Morton is a Scottish supermarket creasing output of optical weaponry. Tearful clerk floating through a club-hopping, boozeyoung girl Yaguchi later married Kurosawa. swilling, pill-popping youth scene; her writerNot released in America until 1987. boyfriend has killed himself, and she shameMost Dangerous Game, The (1932) 63m. ★★★ D: Ernest B. Schoedsack, Irving lessly claims to be the author of his unpublished novel. This cautionary tale about not Pichel. Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie having goals and accepting responsibilities Banks, Robert Armstrong, Noble Johnson. [ 934 ]

Vivid telling of Richard Connell’s famous, mother explores rediscovered sexual desire oft-filmed story about a megalomaniac when she secretly carries on a red-hot affair named Count Zaroff who hunts human with her whiny daughter’s boyfriend, a carbeings on his remote island. Banks is a penter half her age. Absorbing and explicit florid, sometimes campy villain. Made at drama benefits from Reid’s luminous perthe same time as KING KONG by many of formance as an older woman not fulfilled the same people. Remade as A GAME OF just playing with the grandkids. Dramatic DEATH and RUN FOR THE SUN, and sparks between her and Craig (as her hunky ripped off many other times.▼●쩠 lover) lift what could have been perverse Most Dangerous Sin, The SEE: Crime melodrama into a different league. Chaland Punishment (1958) lenging, well-written script by Hanif Kureishi. [R]▼쩠 Mostly Martha (2002-German) C-105m. ★★★ D: Sandra Nettelbeck. Martina Gedeck, Mother Ghost (2007) C-76m. ★★★ D: Rich Maxime Foerste, Sergio Castellitto, August Thorne. Mark Thompson, Kevin Pollak, Zirner, Sibylle Canonica, Katja Studt. Food, Dana Delany, Jere Burns, Charles Durning, love and human relationships blend seamlessly Joe Mantegna, Garry Marshall, James Franco, in this tasty concoction about a neurotically obDavid Keith. Self-assured businessman has sessive chef (Gedeck), whose life of order and been acting strange since the death of his isolation is jolted upon the arrival of her 8mother a year ago; his wife and best friend year-old niece (Foerste) and a charming new tell him he needs help, but he’s in denial. coworker (Castellitto). Nothing spectacular or Then he chances to hear a radio psychiatrist innovative here, just a diverting entertainment and impulsively calls in; before long he’s that’s as fun to watch as the mouthwatering spilling his guts. Modestly made film does dishes Martha concocts. Remade as NO RESwhat few major movies accomplish, focusERVATIONS. [PG] ▼쩠 ing on a character who lays bare his emoMost Wanted (1997) C-99m. ★★ D: David tions. Pollak is especially good as the Glenn Hogan. Keenen Ivory Wayans, Jon shrink. Thompson (half of the morningVoight, Jill Hennessy, Paul Sorvino, Robert radio team Mark & Brian) also wrote the Culp, Wolfgang Bodison, Simon Baker script. Made in 2002.쩠 Denny, David Groh, John Diehl, Eric RobMother, Jugs & Speed (1976) C-95m. ★★★ D: Peter Yates. Bill Cosby, Raquel erts. Wayans coexecutive-produced and scripted this slick but boring, predictable, Welch, Harvey Keitel, Allen Garfield, Larry and instantly forgettable actioner about a Hagman, Bruce Davison, Dick Butkus, L.Q. G.I., trained as a government assassin, who Jones, Toni Basil. Hilarious black comedy takes it on the lam after being framed for about a rundown ambulance service more inmurdering the First Lady. Voight makes the terested in number of patients serviced than most of his role as a creepy, power-obsessed their welfare. Hagman especially good as oversexed driver. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 general. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Motel Hell (1980) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975Connor. Rory Calhoun, Paul Linke, Nancy German) C-108m. ★★★ D: Rainer Werner Parsons, Nina Axelrod, Wolfman Jack, Elaine Fassbinder. Brigitte Mira, Ingrid Caven, MarJoyce, Dick Curtis, John Ratzenberger. Just git Carstensen, Karl-Heinz Bohm (Carl what are Calhoun and his rotund sister putBoehm), Irm Hermann, Gottfried John. When ting in their smoked sausage out there in the a factory worker goes berserk and commits boondocks? Good to see Rory and Wolfsuicide after killing his boss’ son, his shocked man sharing screen credit, but scattered widow tries to learn how such a thing could laughs and a lively finish fail to distinguish occur, only to find herself being exploited by this gory horror comedy. [R]▼●쩠 both right- and left-wing groups as well as Mother (1996) C-104m. ★★★ D: Albert her own family. Darkly satirical, politically Brooks. Albert Brooks, Debbie Reynolds, charged fable is one of Fassbinder’s most Rob Morrow, Lisa Kudrow, John C. McGinstraightforward, accessible films. ▼쩠 ley, Isabel Glasser, Peter White. Typically lowMother Lode (1982) C-101m. ★★ D: key but likable Brooks movie about a twiceCharlton Heston. Charlton Heston, Nick divorced man who decides to move back in Mancuso, Kim Basinger, John Marley. with his mother in an attempt to understand the Heston’s a meanie here—in twin brother root of his problems with women. A benign roles—playing a Scottish miner who’ll stop comedy of recognition, with Brooks as enat nothing to get his sullied hands on a dearing as ever and Reynolds in a well-modumother lode of gold in the mountains of lated, nonjokey performance as Mother. British Columbia. Lackluster script was Brooks scripted with frequent collaborator written by his son, Fraser Clarke Heston, Monica Johnson. [PG-13]▼●쩠 who also produced the film. Reissued as Mother, The (2003-British) C-112m. ★★★ SEARCH FOR THE MOTHER LODE: D: Roger Michell. Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, THE LAST GREAT TREASURE. [PG]▼ Peter Vaughan, Cathryn Bradshaw, Anna Mother Night (1996) C/B&W-110m. ★★★ Wilson-Jones, Danira Govich. During a famD: Keith Gordon. Nick Nolte, Sheryl Lee, ily visit to London a recently widowed grandAlan Arkin, John Goodman, Kirsten Dunst, [ 935 ]

Arye Gross, Frankie Faison, David Straher two sons. No MURDER, HE SAYS, thairn, Bernard Behrens, Brawley Nolte. but Drano/electric carving-knife finale does American prisoner in an Israeli jail writes boast showmanship.▼●쩠 his memoirs, flashing back to his upbringing Mother Wore Tights (1947) C-107m. ★★★ in Germany, where his career as a successD: Walter Lang. Betty Grable, Dan ful playwright was interrupted by his reDailey, Mona Freeman, Connie Marshall, cruitment as a U.S. spy. His mission: to Vanessa Brown, Veda Ann Borg; narrated pose as a Nazi propagandist on the radio. by Anne Baxter. One of Grable’s most popNolte takes on the challenging role in this ular films, about a vaudeville family. Coloradaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s provocative ful production, costumes, nostalgic songs, novel by writer-producer Robert B. Weide. Oscar-winning Alfred Newman score, plus specialty act by the great Sen˜or Wences.▼ Somber, fascinating, and unsettling. Vivid contributions by Arkin, Goodman, and othMothman Prophecies, The (2002) C-119m. ★★ ers in supporting roles. Vonnegut does a D: Mark Pellington. Richard Gere, Laura cameo near the end of the film. [R]▼●쩠 Linney, Debra Messing, Will Patton, Lucinda Mother of Tears (2007-U.S-Italian) CJenney, Alan Bates, David Eigenberg, Ann 102m. ★1⁄2 D: Dario Argento. Asia Argento, McDonough. Newspaper reporter Gere’s Cristian Solimeno, Adam James, Moran wife has a paranormal experience. Then, Atias, Valeria Cavalli, Udo Kier. American several years later, he finds himself in a archaeologist in Rome opens an ancient urn, West Virginia town where scary, unexplainreleasing the last witch on Earth, and must able incidents are happening right and left. elicit her own unsuspected psychic power to Science-fiction meets conspiracy thriller in rout the evil flooding the city with waves of this muddled film; creepy at first, then simmurder and mayhem. Gory, nonsensical ply tiresome. Based on real-life events, but eye-roller was made (unconvincingly) in so what? Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 English, delivering cliche´ after cliche´ with Mothra (1961-Japanese) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: little of Argento’s usual rococo e´lan. Third Ishiro Honda, Lee Kresel. Franky Sakai, entry in director’s ‘‘Three Mothers’’ trilogy, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kyoko Kagawa, Emi preceded by SUSPIRIA (1977) and INItoh, Yumi Itoh, Jelly Itoh. Colorful JapaFERNO (1980), and drawn from Thomas nese monster movie about a giant caterpillar De Quincey’s 1845 Suspiria De Profundis. who invades Tokyo to rescue tiny twin girls, Daria Nicolodi, Asia’s mother, plays her who are guiding it with their supernatural ghost mom. Super 35. [R]쩠 powers. Caterpillar then turns into a giant Mother Riley Meets the Vampire (1952moth (natch), which carries on the destruc★★ British) 74m. D: John Gilling. Bela Lution. Mothra (or its descendants) turned up in later films too. Tohoscope.▼ gosi, Arthur Lucan, Dora Bryan, Richard Wattis, Philip Leaver, Judith Furse. OverMotorcycle Diaries, The (2004-U.S.-BritishArgentinian) C-126m. ★★★★ D: Walter Salles. bearing vampire satire with Lugosi cast as Von Housen, crazed criminal who tangles Gael Garcı´a Bernal, Rodrigo de la Serna, Mia with Old Mother Riley, a comical storeMaestro, Gustavo Bueno, Jorge Chiarella. keeper. Last entry in the Old Mother Riley Two friends set off from Buenos Aires in series of British farces, with Lucan playing 1952 on a beat-up motorcycle to see South the series title character in drag. Aka MY America before they settle down. We share a SON, THE VAMPIRE. ▼쩠 journey of self-discovery (and political awakMother’s Boys (1994) C-95m. ★★ D: Yves ening) with these passionate young men as Simoneau. Jamie Lee Curtis, Peter Galthey travel through Chile, Peru, and Venezulagher, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Vanessa ela, winding up at a leper colony where they Redgrave, Luke Edwards, Colin Ward, Joey have volunteered their services. One of them Zimmerman, Joss Ackland. Curtis makes an will become famous as Che Guevara, but that unwise return to the horror genre in this lies far ahead. Jose Rivera’s screenplay is silly mom-who-deserted-family-wants-thembased on the two friends’ published memoirs, back revenge film. Gallagher, in a rare sympabeautifully realized by director Salles. A prothetic turn, plays the husband, and Edwards is foundly moving film. Oscar winner for Jorge the eldest of three sons (and the one whose Drexler’s song ‘‘Al Otro Lado Del Rio.’’ [R] buttons Mother tries her best to push). Sus▼쩠 pense is minimal, and story is too undernourMouchette (1967-French) 90m. ★★★ D: Robished to have much bite. Despite one (odd) ert Bresson. Nadine Nortier, Marie Cardinal, nude scene, Jamie Lee fans would fare better Paul He´bert, Jean Vimenet, Jean-Claude Guilre-renting HALLOWEEN. [R]▼●쩠 bert. Affecting tale of a 14-year-old girl who Mother’s Day (1980) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: tries to escape her unhappy life with an abuCharles Kaufman. Tiana Pierce, Nancy sive, alcoholic father and invalid mother, but Hendrickson, Deborah Luce, Rose Ross, only finds more cruelty and misery in the Holden McGuire, Billy Ray McQuade. Just outside world. Sensitive Bresson study about about the final word in the horror-misogyny the inherent pain of existence is relentlessly genre. Three college chums are victimized by, bleak, but essential viewing for serious stuthen turn the tables on, a hillbilly mother and dents of cinema; beautifully shot by Ghis[ 936 ]

lain Cloquet. From the novel by Georges plorer Sir Richard Burton and his search for Bernanos.▼쩠 the source of the Nile River in the late 1800s. Moulin Rouge (1952) C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bergin is a charismatic lead, with Glen as John Huston. Jose Ferrer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, John Hanning Speke, the dilettante who acSuzanne Flon, Eric Pohlmann, Colette companies him. Vivid, stimulating, and satisMarchand, Christopher Lee, Michael Balfying; manages to embrace the sweep of an four, Peter Cushing. Rich, colorful film epic film along with a compellingly personal based on life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, story. Screenplay by Rafelson and William the 19th century Parisian artist whose growth Harrison, based on the latter’s biographical was stunted by childhood accident. Huston novel Burton and Speke and on actual jourbrilliantly captures the flavor of Montmartre, nals of the two explorers. [R]▼●쩠 its characters, and Lautrec’s sadly disMourning Becomes Electra (1947) 173m. ★★1 torted view of life. Excellent cast; memo⁄2 D: Dudley Nichols. Rosalind Rusrable theme song by Georges Auric. Oscar sell, Michael Redgrave, Raymond Maswinner for its stunning art direction-set sey, Katina Paxinou, Nancy Coleman, Leo decoration and costumes.▼●쩠 Genn, Kirk Douglas. Eugene O’Neill’s Moulin Rouge! (2001-U.S.-Australian) Cplay set in New England and adapted from ★★ D: Baz Luhrmann. Nicole Kid128m. the Greek tragedy Oresteia. Civil War man, Ewan McGregor, John Leguizamo, Jim general is killed by wife and their children Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, Garry Mcseek revenge. Heavy, talky drama, even in Donald, Kylie Minogue, Lara Mulcahy. Visu105m. version. British version runs 159m. ally dazzling but maddening, hyperkinetic ▼●쩠 musical about a star-crossed love affair at Mouse and His Child, The (1977) C-83m. Paris’ Moulin Rouge circa 1900. A hybrid of BOMB D: Fred Wolf, Chuck Swenson. Luhrmann’s earlier films (STRICTLY BALLVoices of Peter Ustinov, Alan Barzman, ROOM and WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S Marcy Swenson, Cloris Leachman, Andy ROMEO & JULIET), this one is full of exDevine, Sally Kellerman. Boring animated traordinary images—but the ‘‘story’’ is anefilm about a toy mouse and his child, and mic and aloof, leaving the two leads to their adventures in the real world. Talk, talk, talk and no action. [G]▼ attempt sincerity in the midst of a grotesque circus. Kidman and McGregor sing quite Mouse Hunt (1997) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gore well; the songs are mostly a pastiche of past Verbinski. Nathan Lane, Lee Evans, Vicki pop hits. Oscar winner for Art Direction and Lewis, Maury Chaykin, Eric Christmas, MiCostume Design. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 chael Jeter, Debra Christofferson, Camilla Mountain, The (1956) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Soeberg, William Hickey, Christopher WalEdward Dmytryk. Spencer Tracy, Robert ken. Two hapless brothers inherit a musty Wagner, Claire Trevor, William Demarest, old house and a string factory from their Richard Arlen, E. G. Marshall. Turgid father; the house has promise but is inhabtale of brothers Tracy and Wagner climbited by one small, very crafty rodent who ing Alpine peak to reach plane wreckage, defies extermination. Black comedy and for different reasons. VistaVision.▼ slapstick combine for surprisingly clever reMountain Men, The (1980) C-102m. sults, but after a while it’s simply exBOMB D: Richard Lang. Charlton Heshausting. Lane and Evans are an ideal (and ton, Brian Keith, Victoria Racimo, Stevery funny) team, but Laurel & Hardy and phen Macht, John Glover, Seymour Cassel, The Three Stooges did this sort of thing in twenty minutes flat. [PG]▼●쩠 David Ackroyd, Victor Jory. Heston and Keith star as fur trappers in this unnecessarily bloody, Mouse on the Moon, The (1963-British) C-82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lester. Margacrude, tiresome good-guys-vs.-Indians epic. Screenplay by Fraser Clarke Heston, the ret Rutherford, Bernard Cribbins, Ron star’s son. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Moody, Terry-Thomas, Michael Crawford. Mountain of the Cannibal God SEE: Hilarious sequel to THE MOUSE THAT Slave of the Cannibal God ROARED, about Duchy of Grand Fenwick. Mountain Road, The (1960) 102m. ★★1⁄2 Tiny country enters space race, with little D: Daniel Mann. James Stewart, Lisa Lu, help from its befuddled Grand Duchess, Glenn Corbett, Henry (Harry) Morgan, Margaret Rutherford.▼쩠 Frank Silvera, James Best. Stewart is alMouse That Roared, The (1959-British) ways worth watching, but this saga of C-83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jack Arnold. Peter American squadron working in China durSellers, Jean Seberg, David Kossoff, Wiling waning days of WW2 is pretty flat.▼ liam Hartnell, Monty Landis, Leo McKern. Mountains of the Moon (1990) C-135m. Hilarious satire about the Duchy of Grand ★★★1⁄2 D: Bob Rafelson. Patrick Bergin, Fenwick declaring war on the U. S. Sellers Iain Glen, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw, stars in three roles, equally amusing. Gag beJohn Savident, James Villiers, Adrian Rawfore opening titles is a masterpiece. Roger lins, Delroy Lindo, Paul Onsongo, BerMacdougall and Stanley Mann adapted Leonard Hill, Roshan Seth, Anna Massey, Leslie nard Wibberley’s novel. Sequel: THE MOUSE ON THE MOON. ▼●쩠 Phillips, Roger Rees. Captivating saga of ex[ 937 ]

Mouth to Mouth (1978-Australian) C-95m. D: Stanley Donen. George C. Scott, Trish ★★★1 Van Devere, Eli Wallach, Red Buttons, Bar⁄2 D: John Duigan. Kim Krejus, Sonia Peat, Ian Gilmour, Sergio Frazetto, Walter bara Harris, Barry Bostwick, Harry Hamlin, Pym. A pair of unemployed, aimless teenArt Carney, Rebecca York, Ann Reinking, age couples steal and hustle to survive. Kathleen Beller. Affectionate parody of 1930s Fascinating, funny, sad, with lively direcdouble feature: ‘‘Dynamite Hands’’ is b&w tion by Duigan. boxing saga with Hamlin in the John Mouth to Mouth (1995-Spanish) C-105m. Garfield–ish role; ‘‘Baxter’s Beauties of ★★1 ⁄2 D: Manuel Gomez Pereira. Javier 1933’’ is Busby Berkeley–type musical, with Bardem, Maria Barranco, Aitana Sancheznumbers staged by Michael Kidd (who plays Gijon, Josep Maria Flotats, Myriam Mezieres. Hamlin’s father in first story). There’s even Moderately amusing comedy about an out-ofa Coming Attractions prevue! Introduced by work actor who soon finds his thespian talents George Burns. [PG]▼ in hot demand on a phone-sex line. ComplicaMoving (1988) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan Metter. tions arise when he becomes romantically inRichard Pryor, Beverly Todd, Randy Quaid, volved with one of his customers. Attractive Dave Thomas, Dana Carvey, Stacey Dash, cast makes this erotic romp actually funnier Gordon Jump, Morris Day, Rodney Danthan it has a right to be. Original title: BOCA gerfield, King Kong Bundy. Mass transit A BOCA. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 engineer Pryor falls into a dream job folMove (1970) C-90m. BOMB D: Stuart lowing his unexpected and unceremonious Rosenberg. Elliott Gould, Paula Prentiss, firing—only hitch: he and the family must Genevieve Waite, John Larch, Joe Silver, Ron relocate from New Jersey to Boise, Idaho. O’Neal. One of those comedies that helped to Wallows in the predictable (kids rebel, the kill Gould’s career within a year; porn-writer/ movers are psychos), with a modest chuckle dog-walker has problems when he moves every half-hour or so. Pryor seems uncomfortable as Ozzie Nelson. [R]▼●쩠 from one apartment to another, but not as many as viewers will have trying to make Moving the Mountain (1994-British) sense out of the film. Panavision. [R] C/B&W-83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Apted. Move Over, Darling (1963) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 Life-affirming documentary about young D: Michael Gordon. Doris Day, James Chinese student Li Lu and others of his genGarner, Polly Bergen, Chuck Connors, eration who became demonstrators at TiaThelma Ritter, Fred Clark, Don Knotts, nanmen Square in 1989. The film also Elliott Reid, John Astin, Pat Harrington, chronicles Li Lu’s life during the Cultural Jr. Woman long thought dead returns from Revolution and his reasons for deciding to desert island sojourn, to find her husband has defy his government. Revealing, never less remarried. Slick, amusing remake of MY FAthan riveting; the ‘‘mountain’’ of the title is VORITE WIFE, with strong cast of character communist Chinese authorities. ▼●쩠 actors milking every laugh. Film was inMoving Violation (1976) C-91m. ★★ D: tended to star Marilyn Monroe and Dean Charles S. Dubin. Stephen McHattie, Kay Martin, under the title SOMETHING’S Lenz, Eddie Albert, Lonny Chapman, Will GOT TO GIVE, but production was halted Geer, Jack Murdock, John S. Ragin. Redneck early on, and Marilyn died shortly theresheriff goes after young couple, leading to after. CinemaScope.▼쩠 usual car chases. So what else is new? [PG]▼ Movers and Shakers (1985) C-79m. ★1⁄2 Moving Violations (1985) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: William Asher. Walter Matthau, Charles D: Neal Israel. John Murray, Jennifer Tilly, Grodin, Vincent Gardenia, Tyne Daly, Bill James Keach, Brian Backer, Sally Kellerman, Macy, Gilda Radner. Satiric look at movieFred Willard, Lisa Hart Carroll, Wendie Jo making in the ’80s, written and coproduced Sperber, Clara Peller, Nedra Volz, Ned Eisenby Grodin, who spent years trying to get it berg, Don Cheadle. Threadbare comedy of admade. Talented cast (including cameos by ventures in traffic violations school; more Steve Martin and Penny Marshall) largely potholes than laughs. Wiseacre star Murray is wasted in this unfunny comedy sprinkled Bill M.’s brother. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 with just an occasional insight or laugh. Mozart & the Whale (2006) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 Too bad . . . Love in Sex had great D: Petter Næss. Josh Hartnett, Radha possibilities. [PG]▼ Mitchell, Gary Cole, Sheila Kelley, Erica Movie Crazy (1932) 84m. ★★★ D: Clyde Leerhsen, John Carroll Lynch, Nate MooBruckman. Harold Lloyd, Constance Cumney, Rusty Schwimmer, Robert Wisdom. mings, Kenneth Thomson, Sydney Jarvis, Hartnett and Mitchell meet and begin datEddie Fetherston. Lloyd’s best talkie recaping. They have much in common: both like tures the spirit of his silent-comedy hits, tellanimals, both are fragile and vulnerable, and ing story of small-town boy who goes to both suffer from Asperger syndrome, a Hollywood with stars in his eyes, gets rude form of autism. Well-intentioned ‘‘fictional awakening but finally makes good. Includes story inspired by true events’’ (scripted by his famous magician’s coat scene. Cummings Ronald Bass) strives to be meaningful but is a charming leading lady.쩠 seems unreal, particularly when people Movie Movie (1978) C/B&W-107m. ★★★ stand by passively as the lead characters are [ 938 ]

conspicuously loud and emotional in public. takes a liking to him. Selleck is ingratiating as usual. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 While touching at times and well acted, it’s just too formulaic. [PG-13]쩠 Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007-U.S.-British) C-88m. ★★★ D: Steve Bendelack. Rowan Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990) C-124m. ★★ D: James Ivory. Paul Newman, Joanne Atkinson, Emma de Caunes, Max Baldry, Woodward, Blythe Danner, Simon Callow, Willem Dafoe, Jean Rochefort, Karel Roden, Kyra Sedgwick, Robert Sean Leonard, MarSteve Pemberton. Bumbling Mr. Bean wins garet Welsh, Saundra McClain, Diane Kagan, a dream vacation to the south of France, but Austin Pendleton, Remak Ramsay. Portrait of from the moment he arrives in Paris he finds straitlaced, well-to-do Kansas City couple, himself in one jam after another. He also acand how they are affected by the demands of quires a traveling companion, a boy who’s their growing children and the changes that been separated from his father, and becomes overtake them in the 1930s and ’40s. A pleththe beˆte noire of a pompous filmmaker (Dafoe) ora of intriguing but undeveloped, half-baked whose latest opus is playing at the Cannes story threads make it frustrating and unsatisFilm Festival. Thoroughly enjoyable sightfying. Newman and Woodward are excellent, gag comedy and follow-up to 1997’s BEAN; as usual. Based on two novels by Evan S. the last word comes at the end of the credits. [G]쩠 Connell, Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969). [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949) 83m. ★★ D: Elliott Nugent. Clifton Webb, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) 95m. ★★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Carole Lombard, Robert Shirley Temple, Tom Drake, Alan Young, Montgomery, Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, Jessie Royce Landis, Kathleen Hughes. Philip Merivale, Betty Compson, Lucile The sharp-tongued character from SITWatson. Madcap comedy of Lombard and TING PRETTY enrolls in college, with Montgomery discovering their marriage predictable results. Nothing special. Jeff wasn’t legal. One of Hitchcock’s least typiChandler has bit as a policeman. cal films, but bouncy nonetheless; written Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Koster. Clifton Webb, Joby Norman Krasna.▼●쩠 Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) C-120m. ★★★ D: anne Dru, Hugh Marlowe, Zero Mostel, Doug Liman. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Vince Doro Merande, Billy Lynn. Another followVaughn, Adam Brody, Kerry Washington, up to SITTING PRETTY isn’t as witty. Keith David, Chris Weitz, Rachael Huntley, Webb enters old folks’ home to prove his Michelle Monaghan; voices of Angela Bassett, theory that age has nothing to do with William Fichtner. Not your parents’ romantic leading a full life. star vehicle: a slick, sexy, supercharged showMr. Billion (1977) C-93m. ★★ D: Jonathan case for the well-paired Pitt and Jolie, as a Kaplan. Terence Hill, Valerie Perrine, Jackie bored married couple who discover that they Gleason, Slim Pickens, Chill Wills, William both work as undercover assassins. Never Redfield. Uninspired comedy about a lowly before have a man and woman engaged in a Italian mechanic (Hill, in his American debut) slugfest like the one in this film, but it’s not on a mad, cross-country scramble to claim to be taken seriously (or literally). Director a billion-dollar legacy, and the attempts of scoundrels to swindle him out of it. [PG] ▼쩠 Liman attempts to outdo his car chase from THE BOURNE IDENTITY—and succeeds. Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) 94m. ★★★ D: H. C. Potter. Cary Dynamic score by John Powell. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Grant, Myrna Loy, Melvyn Douglas, RegiMr. Arkadin (1955-Spanish-French) 99m. nald Denny, Sharyn Moffett, Connie Mar★★1 ⁄2 D: Orson Welles. Orson Welles, Mishall, Louise Beavers, Ian Wolfe, Lurene chael Redgrave, Patricia Medina, Akim Tuttle, Lex Barker. Slick comedy of city couTamiroff, Mischa Auer, Katina Paxinou, ple attempting to build a house in the country; Robert Arden. Overblown Welles curiosexpertly handled, with Grant at his peak. And ity (thematically similar to CITIZEN KANE) no one ever described room colors better than in which he stars as a famed tycoon with a Loy! Norman Panama and Melvin Frank shady past; the scenario follows his actions scripted, from Eric Hodgins’ novel. Also after being threatened with blackmail by shown in computer-colored version. Remade his daughter’s suitor. Filmed in English in 2007 as ARE WE DONE YET? ▼●쩠 and Spanish-language versions. Variant Mr. Brooks (2007) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce prints run 98m. and 105m. Aka CONFIA. Evans. Kevin Costner, Demi Moore, Dane DENTIAL REPORT.▼●쩠 Cook, William Hurt, Marg Helgenberger, ★★1 Mr. Baseball (1992) C-113m. ⁄2 D: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Danielle Panabaker, Fred Schepisi. Tom Selleck, Ken Takakura, Aisha Hinds, Lindsay Crouse, Jason Lewis, Aya Takanashi, Toshi Shioya, Dennis Michael Cole. Respected businessman, husHaysbert. Pleasant if uninspired comedy band, and father (Costner) has a deadly secret: about a washed-up big leaguer who’s traded he’s a serial killer. He battles his addiction just to Japan, where his smart-ass attitude alas an alcoholic would, but he’s egged on by most does him in with his team, his manhis evil alter ego (Hurt). Detective Moore, ager, and the young Japanese woman who whose private life is a wreck, is determined to [ 939 ]

catch the multiple murderer, while eyewitness Mr. Forbush and the Penguins SEE: Cook has a different reaction: he wants in Cry of the Penguins on the adrenaline rush of killing. Interesting Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) Cingredients, but a lumpy stew; sometimes 116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Koster. James Stewart, laughably absurd. Costner coproduced. [R]쩠 Maureen O’Hara, Fabian, John Saxon, Marie Mr. Bug Goes to Town SEE: Hoppity Wilson, Reginald Gardiner, Lauri Peters, John Goes to Town McGiver. Glossy Hollywood family fare, Mr. Canton and Lady Rose SEE: Mira’60s-style, about various misadventures as cles (1989) Stewart and O’Hara’s clan rent a house by the Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. ocean for the summer. Based on a novel by Leuchter, Jr. (1999) C-92m. ★★★ D: Errol Edward Streeter, the same man who wrote Morris. Documentarian Morris has found Father of the Bride. CinemaScope.▼쩠 another oddball to profile: a milquetoast Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995) C-142m. ★★★ type who’s had a lifelong fascination with D: Stephen Herek. Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne instruments of death. After becoming an exHeadly, Jay Thomas, Olympia Dukakis, W. pert at building and repairing electric chairs (William) H. Macy, Alicia Witt, Terrence and the like, he’s hired by Holocaust deniers Howard, Jean Louisa Kelly, Nicholas John to gather ‘‘evidence’’ as to whether Hitler’s Renner, Joseph Anderson, Anthony Natale, gas chambers in Poland were really used Joanna Gleason. Disney dips into GOODfor their stated purpose. Leuchter strikes the BYE, MR. CHIPS for this sentimental, oldviewer as amusing at first, then misguided, fashioned story of a musician who reluctantly possibly insidious, and ultimately pathetic. takes a job as a high school music teacher, then Music by Caleb Sampson. [PG-13]▼쩠 spends the next thirty years of his life dedicated Mr. Deeds (2002) C-96m. BOMB D: Steto imbuing students with a love of music. It’s ven Brill. Adam Sandler, Winona Ryder, his own family that suffers. Too much time is Peter Gallagher, Jared Harris, Allen Covert, spent on the climactic school play, but it’s still John Turturro, Steve Buscemi, Conchata a heartwarming tearjerker and Dreyfuss is perFerrell, Harve Presnell, Erick Avari, Blake fect in the lead. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Clark. Sloppy remake of MR. DEEDS Mr. Hulot’s Holiday (1953-French) 86m. GOES TO TOWN follows the original’s ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, Nathalie basic outline, with small-town good guy Pascaud, Michelle Rolla, Valentine Camax, Sandler brought to N.Y.C., where he’s Louis Perrault. Tati introduced his delighttaken advantage of by tycoon Gallagher and ful Hulot character in this amusing excurreporter Ryder, who falls in love with him. sion to a French resort town; a fond The new ingredients: Sandler’s imbecilic throwback to the days of silent-screen compersona and fondness for crude humor. You edy. French version runs 114m.▼●쩠 don’t have to know Frank Capra’s 1936 Mr. Jealousy (1998) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: classic to know this one stinks; it doesn’t Noah Baumbach. Eric Stoltz, Annabella even believe in its own story. Rob SchneiSciorra, Chris Eigeman, Carlos Jacott, Marder appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ianne Jean-Baptiste, Brian Kerwin, Peter Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) 115m. Bogdanovich, Bridget Fonda. Stoltz meets ★★★★ D: Frank Capra. Gary Cooper, Jean Sciorra and they hit it off, but his suspicions Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, and jealousy over her former boyfriend start Douglass Dumbrille, Mayo Methot, Raymond driving them both crazy. Talky but humorWalburn, Walter Catlett, H. B. Warner. Cooous romance with real N.Y.C. flavor and per is Longfellow Deeds, who inherits 20 milsome priceless group therapy sequences. lion dollars and wants to give it all away to Stoltz also executive-produced. [R]▼쩠 needy people. Arthur is appealing as the hardMr. Jones (1993) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Mike boiled big-city reporter who tries to figure out Figgis. Richard Gere, Lena Olin, Anne Banwhat makes him tick. Capra won his second croft, Tom Irwin, Delroy Lindo, Bruce AltOscar for this irresistible film, written by Robman, Lauren Tom, Anna Maria Horsford, ert Riskin (from Clarence Budington KelLucinda Jenney, Taylor Negron. A manic land’s story ‘‘Opera Hat’’). Later a short-lived depressive and a shrink on the rebound have TV series. Remade in 2002.▼●쩠 a professionally taboo romance. Gere’s beMr. Destiny (1990) C-110m. ★★ D: James havior—bounding on stage during a conOrr. James Belushi, Linda Hamilton, Michael cert, tightrope-walking a high construction Caine, Jon Lovitz, Hart Bochner, Rene Russo, beam—turns this into THE JESTER OF Bill McCutcheon, Pat Corley, Courteney Cox, TIDES. Gere is OK; Olin gives an awkward Kathy Ireland. Blah, by-the-numbers fantasy performance and is horribly lit. Sat on the with Belushi an average, bored working stiff shelf for a year. [R]▼●쩠 who gets to go back in time and replay an atMr. Kingstreet’s War (1973) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 bat in a high school baseball game—which D: Percival Rubens. John Saxon, Tippi Hesignificantly alters his fate. Well intentioned dren, Rossano Brazzi, Brian O’Shaughnessy. but heavy-handed; comparisons to IT’S A Loner and his wife find idyllic life at African WONDERFUL LIFE are more hopeful than actual. [PG-13]▼●쩠 game preserve disrupted by WW2 and set [ 940 ]

out to do something about it. Interesting and Lettieri, Linda Cristal, Lee Purcell, Paul unusual. Aka HEROES DIE HARD.▼ Koslo, Alejandro Rey. Above average BronMr. Klein (1977-French) C-122m. ★★★ D: son thriller, casting him as Colorado waterJoseph Losey. Alain Delon, Jeanne Moreau, melon farmer (!) marked for destruction by Francine Berge´, Michel Lonsdale, Juliet syndicate hit man Lettieri; surprisingly tonguein-cheek script by Elmore Leonard. [PG]▼쩠 Berto, Suzanne Flon, Massimo Giroti, Michel Aumont. A French art dealer exploits Mr. Mom (1983) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stan Jews who are desperately in need of money Dragoti. Michael Keaton, Teri Garr, Marduring WW2, then finds he is mistaken for tin Mull, Ann Jillian, Christopher Lloyd, a Jew with the same name. Enigmatic, interFrederick Koehler, Taliesin Jaffe, Graham esting parable about the nature of identity. Jarvis, Jeffrey Tambor. Pleasant enough [PG] ▼쩠 rehash of age-old sitcom premise: Mom Mr. Love (1985-British) C-98m. ★★★ D: gets a job when dad gets fired, leaving him Roy Battersby. Barry Jackson, Maurice to learn the perils of running a household. Denham, Christina Collier, Helen Cotterill, Likable stars make it palatable, but you’ve seen it all before. [PG]▼●쩠 Julia Deakin, Linda Marlowe, Margaret Tyzack. Gentle, winning tale of quiet, Mr. Moto series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s reserved gardener, in a loveless marriage for Classic Movie Guide almost 30 years and whom most everybody Mr. Music (1950) 113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard thinks is a joke—so why do all those Haydn. Bing Crosby, Nancy Olson, Charles women appear at his funeral? The CASACoburn, Ruth Hussey, Marge and Gower BLANCA scene is a gem. [PG-13]▼ Champion, Peggy Lee, Groucho Marx. Mr. Lucky (1943) 100m. ★★★ D: H. C. PotEasygoing vehicle for crooner Crosby as ter. Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles BickBroadway songwriter who wants to live ford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry the easy life. Remake of ACCENT ON YOUTH.▼● Stephenson, Paul Stewart, Kay Johnson, Florence Bates. Gambling-ship-owner Grant inMr. Nanny (1993) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael tends to fleece virtuous Day, instead falls in Gottlieb. Terry ‘‘Hulk’’ Hogan (Bollea), love and goes straight. Basis for later TV seSherman Hemsley, Austin Pendleton, Robries has spirited cast, engaging script. Love ert Gorman, Madeline Zima, David Jothat rhyming slang!▼●쩠 hansen, Mother Love. Lamebrained comedy Mr. Magoo (1997) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Stanley featuring Hogan as a struggling wrestler Tong. Leslie Nielsen, Kelly Lynch, Matt hired to look after a pair of spoiled, ignored Keeslar, Nick Chinlund, Stephen Tobolowrich kids (whom weirdo Johansen is plotting sky, Ernie Hudson, Jennifer Garner, Malcolm to kidnap). Strictly for die-hard fans of the McDowell, Miguel Ferrer. Alarmingly unHulkster. Hemsley and Hogan are no threat funny feature based on the famous nearto Clark and McCullough. [PG]▼●쩠 sighted cartoon character (revived in the Mr. Nice Guy (1997-Hong Kong) C-113m. ★★★ animated credits, with Greg Burson filling D: Samo Hung. Jackie Chan, Richard in for Jim Backus as the voice of Magoo). Norton, Miki Lee, Karen McLymont, GabriNielsen does his best, as always, but the elle Fitzpatrick, Vince Poletto. Jackie, a TV pointlessly complicated plot—about the chef(!), is pursued by two sets of bad guys theft of a precious ruby—just goes on and who are after an incriminating videotape on. And there are an awful lot of meanthat’s fallen into his hands. One of Jackie’s spirited characters for a kids’ movie. Inausbetter later films, set in Melbourne and, like picious Hollywood debut for Jackie Chan’s almost all his best movies, an action comedy. frequent director and collaborator; even the Dazzling and exciting fights abound, the best closing outtakes aren’t funny! [PG]▼●쩠 (and funniest) staged at a construction site. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium Only the climax, involving a colossal truck (2007) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zach Helm. Dustin flattening a luxury home, is below par for the Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Zach Mills, Jason astounding Mr. Chan. Director Samo, Jackie’s Bateman, Ted Ludzik. A 243-year-old proprilifelong friend, has a cameo as an irritated etor of a magical toy store prepares to leave bicyclist. Technovision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 his lifelong business and bequeaths it to his Mr. North (1988) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Danny number-one clerk. When financial problems Huston. Anthony Edwards, Robert Mitchum, are revealed, a crisis ensues as dark and Lauren Bacall, Harry Dean Stanton, Anjelica strange things begin to happen to the Huston, Mary Stuart Masterson, Virginia toys . . . until a young customer takes matMadsen, Tammy Grimes, David Warner, ters into his own hands. Harmless family Hunter Carson, Christopher Durang, Mark fare with amusing, old-fashioned toy creMetcalf, Katharine Houghton. Bright but ations will appeal primarily to the under-8 penniless young man makes a major imset, but the sugar-coated plot may find adults pact on Newport high society in the 1920s wanting to fast-forward. Hoffman seems to be by being forthright, ingenious, and poschanneling Ed Wynn. Super 35. [G]쩠 sessing an unusual amount of electricity in Mr. Majestyk (1974) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: his body! Agreeable fable based on ThornRichard Fleischer. Charles Bronson, Al ton Wilder’s Theophilus North has many [ 941 ]

assets (fine cast, beautiful locations) as well as some liabilities (uneven performances, shifts of tone). Coscripted by John Huston, just before his death; this marks his son’s theatrical feature debut as director. [PG]

conclusion was filmed). Screenplay by Ray Russell from his novella Sardonicus.▼쩠 Mr. Saturday Night (1992) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Billy Crystal. Billy Crystal, David Paymer, Julie Warner, Helen Hunt, Mary Mara, Jerry Orbach, Ron Silver, Sage Al▼●쩠 Mr. Patman (1980-Canadian) C-105m. len, Jackie Gayle, Carl Ballantine, Slappy ★1⁄2 D: John Guillermin. James Coburn, White, Conrad Janis, Jerry Lewis. Saga of Kate Nelligan, Fionnula Flanagan, Les a comedian who turns out to be his own Carlson, Candy Kane, Michael Kirby. worst enemy. Many moments of truth and Coburn is well cast in this convoluted, insight, but too long, with too many poorly made tale of a charming but slightly climaxes, and Crystal’s old-age makeup is mad psycho-ward orderly and his shenanigarish and unbelievable. It’s also tough to gans. Aka CROSSOVER. ▼ make an appealing movie about an unappealMr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948) ing character. The real treat is watching Pay89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irving Pichel. William Powmer in a terrific performance as Crystal’s ell, Ann Blyth, Irene Hervey, Andrea King, long-suffering brother. Crystal’s directing Clinton Sundberg. Mild comedy-fantasy by debut; he also cowrote with Lowell Ganz and Nunnally Johnson has its moments, with Babaloo Mandel (both of whom appear fleetingly as inept TV writers). [R]▼●쩠 unsuspecting Powell coming across a lovely mermaid while fishing. Powell makes anyMrs. Brown (1997-British-U.S.-Irish) C-103m. ★★★ D: John Madden. Judi Dench, thing look good.▼ Mr. Quilp (1975-British) C-118m. ★★★ Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony D: Michael Tuchner. Anthony Newley, Sher, Gerald Butler, Richard Pasco, David David Hemmings, David Warner, Michael Westhead. Rewarding drama, set in the Hordern, Jill Bennett, Sarah Jane Varley. 1860s. Queen Victoria (Dench) has been in Entertaining musical version of Dickens’ The mourning for years, following the death of Old Curiosity Shop with songs by Newley her beloved husband Albert; living in Windand musical score by Elmer Bernstein. Lightsor Castle, away from London and public hearted until last reel when it goes serious life, she only comes out of her shell when in the Dickens vein. Retitled THE OLD her husband’s trusted Highland horseman, CURIOSITY SHOP. Remade for cable in John Brown (Connolly), refuses to coddle 1995. Panavision. [G] her. An unusual relationship develops beMr. Ricco (1975) C-98m. ★★ D: Paul tween the two—much to the consternation Bogart. Dean Martin, Eugene Roche, Thalof everyone else on the Queen’s staff. mus Rasulala, Geraldine Brooks, Denise Richly detailed, with two superb perforNicholas, Cindy Williams, Philip Michael mances at the forefront; Sher is also impresThomas. Martin in offbeat casting as criminal sive as the bemused Benjamin Disraeli. lawyer involved with racist killings, sex and Screenplay by Jeremy Brock. [PG]▼●쩠 assorted violence, but looks too tired to care. Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Good mystery angle. Panavision. [PG] Daughter (1968-British) C-95m. ★★ D: Mr. Rock and Roll (1957) 86m. ★★ D: Saul Swimmer. Herman’s Hermits, StanCharles Dubin. Alan Freed, Little Richley Holloway, Mona Washbourne, Sara ard, Clyde McPhatter, Frankie Lymon and Caldwell, Lance Percival. A silly excuse for a the Teenagers, Teddy Randazzo, Chuck movie, with Herman and his Hermits heading Berry, Rocky Graziano, Lois O’Brien, Lifor London to enter their greyhound in a race. onel Hampton, Ferlin Husky, The MoonIn between the suspense they sing ‘‘There’s a glows, Brook Benton, LaVern Baker. The Kind of Hush All Over the World’’ and the saga of how Alan Freed ‘‘discovered’’ title tune. Panavision. [G]▼ rock ’n’ roll. In AMERICAN HOT WAX, Mrs. Dalloway (1998-British-Dutch) CBerry played opposite Tim McIntire por97m. ★★★ D: Marleen Gorris. Vanessa Redtraying Freed; here, he acts with the real grave, Natascha McElhone, Rupert Graves, McCoy. Vintage footage of McPhatter, Michael Kitchen, Alan Cox, Lena Headey, Lymon, Little Richard; Rocky Graziano is Amelia Bullmore, Sarah Badel, Oliver Ford along for comic relief. Also of note: The Davies, Katie Carr, John Standing, Robert 1999 TVM MR. ROCK ’N’ ROLL: THE Hardy, Margaret Tyzack, Phyllis Calvert. ALAN FREED STORY. Redgrave is radiant as the wife of a British Mr. Sardonicus (1961) 89m. ★★ D: WilM.P. who, on the day of a major soiree, thinks liam Castle. Ronald Lewis, Audrey Dalton, back to her youth when she chose between a Guy Rolfe, Oscar Homolka. Recluse count safe, secure life and a more daring existence with face frozen in hideous grin lures with a man who truly loved her. McElhone is wife’s boyfriend/doctor to castle to cure an excellent match for Redgrave in the flashhim. Minor fare despite good ending; Castle back scenes. Thoughtful, intelligent drama gave the theatrical audiences the option of adapted by actress Eileen Atkins from the Virvoting ‘‘thumbs up’’ or ‘‘thumbs down’’ ginia Woolf novel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 via a ‘‘Punishment Poll’’ (but only one Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) C-125m. ★★★ D: [ 942 ]

Chris Columbus. Robin Williams, Sally art, Jean Arthur, Claude Rains, Edward ArField, Pierce Brosnan, Harvey Fierstein, nold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Polly Holliday, Lisa Jakub, Matthew LawPallette, Beulah Bondi, Harry Carey, H. B. rence, Mara Wilson, Robert Prosky, Anne Warner, Charles Lane, Porter Hall, Jack CarHaney, Scott Capurro. Crowd-pleasing son. Stewart is young idealist who finds nothcomedy (with serious overtones) about a ing but corruption in U.S. Senate. Fine Capra free spirit whose wife divorces him after Americana, with Stewart’s top performance fourteen years; he can’t bear being sepabolstered by Arthur as hard-boiled dame won rated from his three kids, so he disguises over by earnest Mr. Smith, and a stellar suphimself as a dowdy British housekeeper porting cast; Carey is magnificent as the Vice (under an Oscar-winning makeup job) and President. Brilliant script by Sidney Buchgets himself hired to look after them. Wilman; however, Lewis R. Foster’s Original liams is in peak form, and director ColumStory received the Oscar. Later a brief TV bus keeps story and characters reasonably series. Remade as BILLY JACK GOES TO realistic in order to drive home a humanistic WASHINGTON.▼●쩠 message. Based on the book Alias Madame Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont (2005Doubtfire by Anne Fine. Panavision. [PGBritish) C-108m. ★★★ D: Dan Ireland. Joan 13]▼●쩠 Plowright, Rupert Friend, Zoe Tapper, Anna Mr. Sebastian SEE: Sebastian Massey, Robert Lang, Marcia Warren, MilliMrs. Henderson Presents (2005-British) cent Martin, Lorcan O’Toole. An elderly C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Frears. Judi widow moves into a residential hotel in LonDench, Bob Hoskins, Will Young, Christodon to live out her days. A chance meeting pher Guest, Kelly Reilly, Thelma Barlow, with a charming if rootless young writer deAnna Brewster, Rosalind Halstead. Revelops into genuine friendship, and makes cently widowed Dench decides to assert her Mrs. Palfrey the most envied member of the newfound independence by buying a Lonsedate but gossipy Claremont ‘‘family.’’ don theater, The Windmill, and hitting on Played in broad strokes at first, this comedythe idea of staging nude tableaux. With the drama deepens and becomes more satisfying coming of WW2, the theater becomes a as it goes along. A sweet film with a typically haven for soldiers and war-weary Londoncommanding—and honest—performance by ers. Entertaining fluff based on a true story Plowright. That’s Peter O’Toole’s son playing (which inspired the 1945 movie TONIGHT Plowright’s grandson. Adapted from ElizaAND EVERY NIGHT). Bright musical beth Taylor’s novel by Ruth Sacks.쩠 numbers, good period flavor, but a bit calcuMrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle lated in its cuteness. Super 35. [R]쩠 (1994) C/B&W-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan RuMr. Skeffington (1944) 146m. ★★★ D: dolph. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Campbell Vincent Sherman. Bette Davis, Claude Scott, Matthew Broderick, Andrew McRains, Walter Abel, Richard Waring, JeCarthy, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Beals, rome Cowan, Charles Drake, Gigi Perreau. Gwyneth Paltrow, Sam Robards, Martha Grand soap opera spanning several dePlimpton, Tom McGowan, Stephen Baldcades of N.Y.C. life from 1914 onward. win, Wallace Shawn, Lili Taylor, James Le Davis is vain society woman who marries Gros, Keith Carradine, Nick Cassavetes, Jane stockbroker Rains for convenience, disAdams, Gary Basaraba, Rebecca Miller, covering his true love for her only after Heather Graham, Jake Johannsen, Chip Zien. many years. Lavish settings, bravura Davis Closeup look at Dorothy Parker, fabled writer performance. ▼●쩠 and charter member of the Algonquin Round Mrs. Miniver (1942) 134m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Table in the 1920s; a vivid re-creation of that William Wyler. Greer Garson, Walter period and those celebrated wits, but Parker’s Pidgeon, Dame May Whitty, Teresa Wright, chronic unhappiness (and Leigh’s often Reginald Owen, Henry Travers, Richard mannered performance) makes for tough Ney, Henry Wilcoxon, Helmut Dantine, going in this longish film. Scott is a standout Peter Lawford. Moving drama about middleas Robert Benchley in the well-chosen supclass English family learning to cope with porting cast; the famous humorist’s grandwar. Winner of six Academy Awards—for son, author Peter Benchley, appears early on Garson, Wright, director Wyler, and Best as editor Frank Crowninshield. Stanley Tucci Picture, among others—this film did much appears unbilled. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 to rally American support for our British Mrs. Parkington (1944) 124m. ★★1⁄2 D: allies during WW2, though its depiction of Tay Garnett. Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, English life was decidedly Hollywoodized. Edward Arnold, Gladys Cooper, Agnes Screenplay by Arthur Wimperis, George Moorehead, Frances Rafferty, Selena Royle, Froeschel, James Hilton, and Claudine Dan Duryea, Lee Patrick, Rod Cameron, Tom West; based on Jan Struther’s short stories. Drake, Cecil Kellaway, Peter Lawford. OverSequel: THE MINIVER STORY. Also long but well-mounted soaper involving poor, shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 naive Garson and how she changes after marMr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) rying wealthy, charismatic Pidgeon.▼쩠 129m. ★★★★ D: Frank Capra. James StewMrs. Pollifax—Spy (1971) C-110m. ★1⁄2 [ 943 ]

D: Leslie Martinson. Rosalind Russell, bases. Various celebrities and sports figures appear as themselves. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Darren McGavin, Nehemiah Persoff, Harold Gould, John Beck, Dana Elcar. A Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride SEE: Wind in the bored widow volunteers as a CIA agent— Willows, The and gets accepted—in this lame comedy Mr. Untouchable (2007) C-92m. ★★ D: spy caper. Russell’s last theatrical film Marc Levin. Uneven, occasionally unset(for which she did the screenplay, under tling chronicle of the rise, fall, and ongoing pseudonym) is also one of her worst. [G] survival of 1970s Harlem drug kingpin Mrs. Soffel (1984) C-110m. ★★ D: Gillian Leroy ‘‘Nicky’’ Barnes, who continues to Armstrong. Diane Keaton, Mel Gibson, hide from former accomplices he ‘‘ratted Matthew Modine, Edward Herrmann, Trini out’’ to authorities. Even though Barnes is Alvarado, Jennie Dundas, Danny Corkill, filmed only in silhouette—director Levin Terry O’Quinn. Interesting but gloomy, duly notes that his reclusive subject has a $1 emotionally aloof rendering of true story, million bounty on his head—the unrepenset in 1901, when wife of Pittsburgh prison tant gangster, living large in exile, has an warden falls in love with convicted murundeniable star power, which this documenderer Gibson. Well made, but a pall hangs tary does little to diminish. [R]쩠 over entire film. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred E. Green. Edward G. RobMrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934) 80m. ★★★ D: Norman Taurog. W. C. Fields, inson, Ruth Warrick, Ted Donaldson, RobPauline Lord, ZaSu Pitts, Evelyn Venable, ert Armstrong, Bob Haymes, Richard Lane. Kent Taylor, Donald Meek, Virginia WeidWilbert Winkle (Robinson) is timid, henler. Venerable melodrama about a goodpecked, physically unfit, and past 40, yet hearted woman and her ever-growing brood he’s drafted into WW2. Clever, insightful gets a shot of comic adrenalin from Fields, little comedy.▼ who’s perfectly matched with Pitts. Not a typMr. Wonderful (1993) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: ical Fields vehicle by any means. Based on Anthony Minghella. Matt Dillon, Annabella the 1901 novel by Alice Hegan Rice; filmed Sciorra, Mary-Louise Parker, William Hurt, Vincent D’Onofrio, David Barry Gray, before in 1914 and 1919; remade in 1942.▼ 1 ★★ Mrs. Winterbourne (1996) C-104m. Bruce Kirby, Dan Hedaya, Bruce Altman, ⁄2 D: Richard Benjamin. Shirley MacLaine, Luis Guzman, Jessica Harper, James GanRicki Lake, Brendan Fraser, Miguel Sandodolfini. Onetime childhood sweethearts Dilval, Loren Dean, Peter Gerety, Susan Haslon and Sciorra get divorced, after she kell. Wide-eyed Lake is impregnated by her broadens her blue-collar horizons; to get out sleazy boyfriend, who then kicks her out; a of paying her alimony, he tries to marry coincidental meeting with another pregnant her off. Takes its time, but succeeds when woman on a train leads to mistaken identity, exploring its characters’ feelings. The atand she’s taken in by a wealthy Boston family tractive (and competent) cast helps. [PGwho think she’s one of their own. Likable 13]▼●쩠 comedy goes flat, but benefits from earnest Mr. Wong series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s performances. Based on Cornell Woolrich’s I Classic Movie Guide Mr. Woodcock (2007) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Married a Dead Man, which was filmed before, more seriously, as NO MAN OF HER Craig Gillespie. Billy Bob Thornton, Seann OWN (1950) and I MARRIED A SHADOW William Scott, Susan Sarandon, Amy (1982). Paula Prentiss appears unbilled as an Poehler, Melissa Sagemiller, Ethan Suplee, obnoxious nurse. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 M. C. Gainey, Brent Briscoe, Bill Macy, ★1 Mr. Sycamore (1974) C-88m. ⁄2 D: Melissa Leo. Successful self-help book auPancho Kohner. Jason Robards, Sandy Denthor is confronted with painful high school nis, Jean Simmons, Robert Easton, Mark memories when he comes home to discover Miller. A milquetoasty mailman with a his mother is engaged to his terrifying phys. nagging wife (and a crush on local libraried. coach. One-joke premise thrusts him an) decides to escape rat race by turning into a series of competitions with the gym into a tree! A definite curio, sadly defeated teacher, who seems to take joy in humiliatby heavy-handed treatment of material.▼ ing his future son-in-law. Gillespie’s origiMr 3000 (2004) C-102m. ★★★ D: Charles nal version was heavily reshot and retooled Stone III. Bernie Mac, Angela Bassett, Paul by the studio, but it’s still a mess, despite Sorvino, Chris Noth, Michael Rispoli, Brian Thornton’s game efforts. Super 35. [PG13]쩠 J. White. A Milwaukee Brewers baseball star with a giant ego retires after making his Mr. Write (1994) C-89m. BOMB D: Char3000th hit . . . but is forced to return years lie Loventhal. Paul Reiser, Jessica Tuck, later when the statistic is found to be erroneMartin Mull, Doug Davidson, Jane Leeves, ous. Mac somehow makes this insufferable Calvert De Forest, Gigi Rice, Tom Wilson, braggart appealing, and the script treats his Wendie Jo Sperber, Darryl M. Bell; voice relationship with sports reporter Bassett in a of Ben Stein. Astonishingly awful comedy surprisingly refreshing, adult manner. Enabout a would-be writer with no talent who tertaining comedy manages to touch all the falls head over heels for an advertising ex[ 944 ]

ecutive (Tuck) when he chances to work on quite well as Queen, with Guinness a joy a TV commercial. Cliche´d at best, annoyas Disraeli. Filmed in England. ingly amateurish at worst. This was comMulan (1998) C-88m. ★★★ D: Barry Cook, pleted in 1992 before Reiser launched his Tony Bancroft. Voices of Ming-Na Wen, Lea TV series Mad About You. [PG-13]▼● Salonga, Eddie Murphy, B. D. Wong, Donny Mr. Wrong (1985) SEE: Dark of the Night Osmond, Harvey Fierstein, Miguel Ferrer, Pat Morita, June Foray, Miriam Margolyes, Mr. Wrong (1996) C-92m. ★★ D: Nick Castle. Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Pullman, Joan George Takei, James Shigeta, Gedde WataCusack, Dean Stockwell, Joan Plowright, nabe, James Hong. Disney’s animated musical Ellen Cleghorne, John Livingston, Robert rendering of an ancient Chinese legend, about Goulet, Polly Holliday, Louie Anderson, a headstrong daughter who disguises as a boy Hope Davis. Single DeGeneres finds the in order to take her father’s place in the Impeperfect man in Pullman . . . or so she thinks. rial Army—and bring honor to her family. Not the light, funny romantic comedy you Strikingly staged and designed, with a strong might expect, but a dark-humored attempt and appealing leading character; the constant at satire on stalking. DeGeneres, in her starcomedy ‘‘relief,’’ while funny, seems jarring ring debut, turns in a fine performance opand unnecessary in such a strong dramatic tale. posite the always reliable Pullman, but an Followed by a direct-to-video sequel. [G] uneven script works against the cast. [PG▼●쩠 13]▼●쩠 Mulholland Dr. (2001-U.S.-French) CMs. Don Juan (1973-French) C-87m. ★1⁄2 145m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Lynch. Justin TherD: Roger Vadim. Brigitte Bardot, Maurice oux, Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Ann Ronet, Robert Hossein, Mathieu Carriere, Miller, Scott Wulf, Robert Forster, Brent Jane Birkin, Michele Sand. Bardot, in title Briscoe, Dan Hedaya, Michael Des Barres, role, seduces and/or humiliates everyone in Billy Ray Cyrus, Katharine Towne, Lee Grant, her sight: a priest (who’s also her cousin), a James Karen, Chad Everett. A plucky young politician, a businessman. Glossy but limp; actress arrives in Hollywood and tries to solve may be good for some unintended laughs.▼쩠 the mystery of an amnesiac woman’s identity. Ms. 45 (1981) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Abel Hypnotic, full-bore Lynchian strangeness, Ferrara. Zoe Tamerlis, Steve Singer, Jack loaded with the writer-director’s trademark Thibeau, Peter Yellen, Darlene Stuto. visual fetishes and unexplainable dream logic, Tamerlis is raped twice, gets her ‘‘revenge’’ anchored by a knockout performance from by murdering every male in sight. WellWatts. Certainly not for all tastes. Originally made, violent role-reversal formula film a rejected TV pilot (!), later reshot and exwith echoes of PSYCHO, REPULSION, panded to present length. Miller’s final film. [R] ▼쩠 CARRIE, etc., which won some strong reviews and a cult reputation. Aka ANGEL Mulholland Falls (1996) C-107m. ★★ D: OF VENGEANCE. [R]▼●쩠 Lee Tamahori. Nick Nolte, Melanie GrifMuch Ado About Nothing (1993-Britishfith, Chazz Palminteri, Michael Madsen, ★★★ D: Kenneth Branagh. U.S.) C-111m. Chris Penn, Treat Williams, Jennifer ConKenneth Branagh, Michael Keaton, Robnelly, Andrew McCarthy, John Malkovich, ert Sean Leonard, Keanu Reeves, Emma Daniel Baldwin, Kyle Chandler, Ed Lauter, Thompson, Denzel Washington, Richard Aaron Neville. L.A. period piece (and CHIBriers, Kate Beckinsale, Brian Blessed, NATOWN wannabe) about an elite squad Richard Clifford, Ben Elton, Gerard Horan, of cops who make their own rules . . . until Phyllida Law, Imelda Staunton, Jimmy their leader (Nolte) becomes personally inYuill. Shakespeare’s comedy of the wooing volved in a murder case with far-reaching of Benedick (played by actor-directorconsequences. Story unfolds in an obvious, screenwriter Branagh) and Beatrice (his heavy-handed way, and much of the cast is then wife, Thompson) is set and shot entirely wasted. Tiresome, redundant score by Dave in and around an Italian villa in Tuscany and Grusin. That’s production designer Richard features a top-notch supporting cast. Rowdy, Sylbert (who also worked on CHINAhigh spirited, and remarkably fast paced; this TOWN) as the coroner. William L. Petbrings vigor to the Bard’s text, though the ersen, Rob Lowe, Louise Fletcher, and poetry sometimes gets lost in the shenanigans. Bruce Dern appear unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Branagh does impressive job, but cannot Multiplicity (1996) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harmatch earlier Shakespearean effort, HENRY old Ramis. Michael Keaton, Andie MacV (1989). [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dowell, Harris Yulin, Richard Masur, Eugene Mudlark, The (1950) 99m. ★★★ D: Jean Levy, Ann Cusack, Brian Doyle-Murray. Negulesco. Irene Dunne, Alec Guinness, Working stiff who feels pulled in all direcFinlay Currie, Anthony Steel, Andrew tions by his job and his family finds a soluRay, Beatrice Campbell, Wilfrid Hydetion: he clones himself—again and again and White. Offbeat drama of Queen Victoria again. Amusing gimmick comedy, in the (Dunne), a recluse since her husband’s same vein as Ramis’ GROUNDHOG DAY, death, coming back to reality after meeting but not quite as good. Keaton has a field day waif who stole into her castle. Dunne does with his multiple characters, but the premise [ 945 ]

★1 is stretched way beyond credibility and wears ⁄2 D: Rob Cohen. Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, thin. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, ★★1 Mumford (1999) C-112m. ⁄2 D: LawLuke Ford, David Calder, Isabella Leong, rence Kasdan. Loren Dean, Hope Davis, Chau Sang Anthony Wong, Russell Wong, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonLiam Cunningham. Third in the series that nell, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Zooey Deschanel, began with the 1999 MUMMY finds advenMartin Short, David Paymer, Jane Adams, turer Fraser, his wife (Bello), and son Ted Danson, Kevin Tighe, Dana Ivey. (Ford), plus hangers-on, in China battling Quirky, novelistic film about a quiet, cleanthe resurrected Emperor Han (Li), who’s cut psychologist who wins over a small after an immortality formula. Fast-paced, town with his commonsense approach to with lots of effects, but a dopey story and their problems—while remaining an enigma ruinously over-edited action sequences sink himself. Original and amusing in a nice, what might have been a fun film. Li and old-fashioned way, but awfully tidy. WritYeoh are badly used. Bring back Kharis! ten by Kasdan. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Mummy, The (1932) 72m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Karl Mummy’s Curse, The (1944) 62m. ★★1⁄2 Freund. Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, David D: Leslie Goodwins. Lon Chaney, Jr., Manners, Arthur Byron, Edward Van Sloan, Peter Coe, Virginia Christine, Kay Harding, Bramwell Fletcher, Noble Johnson. Horror Dennis Moore, Martin Kosleck, Kurt Katch. classic stars Karloff as Egyptian mummy, Kharis and the reincarnated Ananka, last revived after thousands of years, believing seen slipping into a New England swamp, Johann is reincarnation of ancient mate. are unaccountably dug up in a Louisiana Remarkable makeup and atmosphere make bayou, where he’s soon strangling people it chills ahead of many follow-ups.▼●쩠 again. Surprisingly eerie and effective, with Mummy, The (1959-British) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 a good performance by Christine. Silent star D: Terence Fisher. Peter Cushing, ChrisWilliam Farnum has a bit role as a caretopher Lee, Yvonne Furneaux, Eddie Byrne, taker. Last of the series.▼●쩠 Felix Aylmer, Raymond Huntley. Against Mummy’s Ghost, The (1944) 60m. ★1⁄2 D: warnings of severe consequences, archaeoloReginald LeBorg. Lon Chaney, Jr., John gists desecrate ancient tomb of Egyptian PrinCarradine, Ramsay Ames, Robert Lowery, cess Ananka. They return to England and Barton MacLane, George Zucco. Sequel to those consequences. Stylish Hammer resurTHE MUMMY’S TOMB finds seemingly rection of Universal’s Kharis series. ▼●쩠 unkillable Kharis and his mentor (Carradine) Mummy, The (1999) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Steon the trail of a woman who is the reinphen Sommers. Brendan Fraser, Rachel carnation of Princess Ananka. Least interestWeisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Kevin J. ing of the series, with nothing new or O’Connor, Jonathan Hyde, Oded Fehr. Hokey, different to offer. Followed by THE MUMMY’S CURSE.▼●쩠 jokey, Indiana Jones–ish adventure yarn has little to do with earlier Mummy movies. LibrarMummy’s Hand, The (1940) 67m. ★★★ ian and Egyptologist Weisz (a clumsy D: Christy Cabanne. Dick Foran, Wallace character in the first scene—then, oddly, never Ford, Peggy Moran, Cecil Kellaway, George again) hires Fraser to lead her to the ‘‘lost’’ city Zucco, Tom Tyler, Eduardo Ciannelli, Charles of Hamunaptra, where the tomb of Imhotep Trowbridge. Archeologists seeking lost tomb (Vosloo) is desecrated, to everyone’s regret. of Egyptian princess get more than they barSpecial effects galore, but no sense of awe or gained for when they find it guarded by a livwonder; what’s more, it goes on forever. Is ing—and very deadly—mummy (Tyler). that Dick Foran in the mummy attack scene? First of the ‘‘Kharis’’ series is entertaining Followed by THE MUMMY RETURNS. blend of chills and comedy, with good cast, Panavision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 flavorful music and atmosphere. Not a sequel Mummy Returns, The (2001) C-129m. to THE MUMMY (1932), although it does ★1⁄2 D: Stephen Sommers. Brendan Fraser, utilize flashback footage; itself followed by Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosthree sequels, starting with THE MUMMY’S loo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez, Freddie TOMB. ▼●쩠 Boath, Alun Armstrong, The Rock. Fraser Mummy’s Shroud, The (1967-British) and wife Weisz (with a precocious son in C-90m. BOMB D: John Gilling. Andre tow) desecrate an ancient crypt and inadverMorell, John Phillips, David Buck, Elizatently discover the means to raise an ancient beth Sellars, Maggie Kimberley, Michael army from the dead. Big Dumb Sequel to Ripper. British expedition takes mummy the original Big Dumb Hit has all the same of child pharaoh back to Cairo; boy’s ingredients (plus skeletal pygmy warriors!). guardian, also a mummy, murders those A long, noisy action-adventure film made up responsible. One of the least of the Hammer horrors.▼●쩠 entirely of climaxes. Followed by THE SCORPION KING and an animated TV seMummy’s Tomb, The (1942) 61m. ★★ D: ries. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Harold Young. Lon Chaney, Jr., Elyse Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Knox, John Hubbard, Turhan Bey, Dick The (2008-U.S.-German-Canadian) C-112m. Foran, Wallace Ford, George Zucco, Mary [ 946 ]

Gordon. Sequel to THE MUMMY’S HAND finds Kharis (now played by Chaney) transported to America to kill off surviving members of the expedition. Weak script and too much stock footage are the real villains.

a Georgia swamp to Hollywood. Unnecessary movie-star cameos can’t dim Muppets’ appeal in their first feature film. Trimmed from 97m. after initial release. [G]▼●쩠 Muppets from Space (1999) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim Hill. Gonzo, Kermit the Frog, Miss ▼●쩠 Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1970Piggy (Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Frank British) C-101m. BOMB D: Freddie FranOz), Jeffrey Tambor, F. Murray Abraham, cis. Vanessa Howard, Michael Bryant, UrRay Liotta, David Arquette, Andie Macsula Howells, Pat Heywood, Howard Dowell, Pat Hingle, Hollywood (Hulk) Trevor. Rock-bottom murder tale of ecHogan. Gonzo learns that he’s really a centric family where children’s ‘‘gamestranded alien, and that others of his race are playing’’ has lethal overtones. Stupid. Aka on the way. Conspiracy-minded Tambor is GIRLY. [R]▼ sure this means an invasion. Weak Muppet Munich (2005) C-164m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven outing turns the story over to supporting Spielberg. Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciara´n characters, and loses the edge that sparked Hinds, Mathieu Kassovitz, Hanns Zischler, their earlier adventures. OK overall. [G]▼쩠 Ayelet Zurer, Geoffrey Rush, Michael LonsMuppets Take Manhattan, The (1984) dale, Gila Almagor, Mathieu Almaric, Lynn C-94m. ★★★ D: Frank Oz. Kermit the Cohen, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Yvan Attal. Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, et In the wake of the 1972 massacre of the Israeli al. (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Olympic team, the government of Israel hires Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whita low-level operative (Bana) to head a secret mire), Dabney Coleman, Art Carney, James squad. Its mission: to murder the terrorists Coco, Joan Rivers, Gregory Hines, Linda responsible for the attack. Bana and his coLavin, surprise guest stars. The Muppets horts immerse themselves in the cloak-andtry to crash Broadway with their college dagger world, but before long begin to quesshow, but Kermit soon discovers there’s a tion their own motives—and the toll the job broken heart for every light . . . Enjoyable may be taking on their humanity. Despite a outing with bouncy songs, nice use of N.Y.C. locations. [G]▼●쩠 script by Tony Kushner and Eric Roth (based on George Jonas’ book Vengeance, which inMuppet Treasure Island (1996) C-99m. ★★1 spired the 1986 TV movie SWORD OF GID⁄2 D: Brian Henson. Kermit the Frog, EON), there is less here than meets the eye. A Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear (Steve seeming lack of focus, and a feeling of treadWhitmire, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz), Tim ing familiar ground, dissipates the impact of Curry, Kevin Bishop, Billy Connolly, Jennikey suspense scenes. Super 35. [R]쩠 fer Saunders. The Muppets take on Robert Munster, Go Home! (1966) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Louis Stevenson’s classic pirate story, with D: Earl Bellamy. Fred Gwynne, Yvonne Kermit the Frog as Captain Smollett and De Carlo, Terry-Thomas, Hermione GinMiss Piggy as ‘‘Benjamina’’ Gunn. Good gold, John Carradine, Debby Watson, Butch fun, but seems longer than it is, and Curry Patrick. Monster family goes to England is—of all things—a bit more subdued as to claim a castle they’ve inherited; juvenile Long John Silver than you’d expect. Of production based on the popular TV sitcom. course, after Robert Newton, anyone would seem subdued! [G]▼●쩠 Followed by TV movies in 1981 and 1995. Murder! (1930-British) 104m. ★★★ D: Al▼쩠 Muppet Christmas Carol, The (1992) fred Hitchcock. Herbert Marshall, Norah ★★★ C-85m. D: Brian Henson. Michael Baring, Phyllis Konstam, Edward ChapCaine, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie man. Good early Hitchcock casts Marshall Bear, The Great Gonzo, Animal, Rizzo as actor who serves on jury at murder trial the Rat (Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve and believes accused woman innocent.▼쩠 Whitmire, Jerry Nelson). Delightful adaptaMurder Ahoy (1964-British) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: tion of the Dickens perennial, with a human George Pollock. Margaret Rutherford, Lionel Scrooge (Caine, in a nicely modulated perJeffries, Charles Tingwell, William Mervyn, formance) surrounded by mostly Muppet Joan Benham, Stringer Davis, Miles Malcharacters. Jerry Juhl’s script neatly balleson. This time out, Miss Marple investiances humor with the story’s robust melogates murder on a naval cadet trainingdrama, and Paul Williams’ songs add ship. Original screenplay (by David Persall perfect punctuation. [G]▼●쩠 and Jack Seddon) based on wonderful AgaMuppet Movie, The (1979) C-94m. ★★★ tha Christie character.▼●쩠 D: James Frawley. Kermit the Frog, Miss Murder at 1600 (1997) C-107m. ★★ D: Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and the Muppets (Jim Dwight Little. Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Alan Alda, Daniel Benzali, Ronny Cox, Hunt, Dave Goelz), Charles Durning, AusDennis Miller, Tate Donovan, Diane Baker, tin Pendleton; 15 guest stars. Enjoyable Charles Rocket, Harris Yulin, Nicholas showcase for Jim Henson’s irresistible Pryor. Muddled, predictable mystery thriller characters, charting Kermit’s odyssey from in which Washington, D.C., homicide cop [ 947 ]

Snipes wades his way through assorted cover-ups and intrigue upon discovery of the bloody corpse of a beautiful White House staffer in an Oval Office bathroom. One Good Cop vs. Big Bad Bureaucracy scenario is done in by its endless plot holes, not to mention ludicrous finale. [R] ▼●쩠 Murder at the Gallop (1963-British) 81m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: George Pollock. Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson, Charles Tingwell, Duncan Lamont, Stringer Davis, James Villiers, Robert Urquhart. Amateur sleuth Miss Marple suspects foul play when wealthy old recluse dies. Based on Agatha Christie’s After the Funeral. ▼●쩠 Murderball (2005) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro. Electrifying documentary look at a group of gung-ho athletes who play their sport with the same competitive fire as the best pro and amateur jocks—only they are quadriplegics, and their game is rugby in wheelchairs. While the game sequences are riveting, the film is at its best when it focuses on the players’ personalities and challenges off the field. [R]▼쩠 Murder by Contract (1958) 81m. ★★ D: Irving Lerner. Vince Edwards, Philip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel. Intriguing little film about a hired killer and what makes him tick; ultimately sabotaged by pretentious dialogue and posturing.쩠 Murder by Death (1976) C-94m. ★★★ D: Robert Moore. Peter Sellers, Peter Falk, David Niven, Maggie Smith, James Coco, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, Eileen Brennan, Nancy Walker, Estelle Winwood, Truman Capote. Capote invites world’s greatest detectives to his home and involves them in a baffling whodunit. Neil Simon spoofs such characters as Charlie Chan, Miss Marple, and Sam Spade in this enjoyable all-star comedy, with marvelous sets by Stephen Grimes. Simon followed this with THE CHEAP DETECTIVE. [PG]

her new partner (Chaplin) on a brutal murder committed by two high schoolers out to stage the perfect crime, a la Leopold and Loeb. Yet another contemporary thriller that squanders all its good qualities by tacking on a silly, old-fashioned Hollywood finale. By that time, the two sick teenage criminals have worn out their welcome anyway. [R]▼쩠 Murder by Phone (1980-Canadian) C79m. ★★ D: Michael Anderson. Richard Chamberlain, John Houseman, Sara Botsford, Robin Gammell, Gary Reineke, Barry Morse. Talented cast and director go slumming in this hoary horror exercise involving a crazed killer who literally phones in his murders, doing in his victims by ingenious long distance device. Filmed as BELLS. [R]▼ Murder, Czech Style (1968-Czech) 90m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jiri Weiss. Rudolf Hrusinsky, Kyeta Fialova, Vaclav Voska, Vladimir Mensik. Clever, gentle spoof of romantic triangle melodramas, with pudgy middle-aged clerk (Hrusinsky) marrying beautiful woman, realizing she’s been cheating on him, planning revenge, via dream sequences.▼ Murderers’ Row (1966) C-108m. BOMB D: Henry Levin. Dean Martin, AnnMargret, Karl Malden, Camilla Sparv, James Gregory, Beverly Adams. Malden kidnaps A-M’s father, threatens to melt Washington, D.C., with a ‘‘helio beam’’; only Matt Helm can save both. (What if he’d had to make a choice?) Second Helm caper—after THE SILENCERS—offers one funny jibe at Frank Sinatra, absolutely nothing else. Sequel: THE AMBUSHERS.▼쩠 Murder, He Says (1945) 93m. ★★★ D: George Marshall. Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main, Jean Heather, Porter Hall, Peter Whitney, Barbara Pepper, Mabel Paige. Zany slapstick of pollster MacMurray encountering Main’s family of hayseed murderers. Too strident at ▼●쩠 Murder by Decree (1979-Canadian-British) times, but generally funny; clever script by Lou Breslow.▼ C-121m. ★★★ D: Bob Clark. Christopher Plummer, James Mason, Donald SutherMurder, Inc. (1960) 103m. ★★★ D: Burt land, Genevieve Bujold, Susan Clark, Balaban, Stuart Rosenberg. Stuart WhitDavid Hemmings, Frank Finlay, John Gielman, May Britt, Henry Morgan, Peter gud, Anthony Quayle. Sherlock Holmes inFalk, David J. Stewart, Simon Oakland, vestigates slayings of prostitutes by Jack the Morey Amsterdam, Sarah Vaughan, JoRipper, with surprising results. Involved, seph Campanella. Solid little fact-based often lurid story doesn’t sustain through chronicle of the title crime organization, conclusion, but flaws overshadowed by with Falk in particular scoring as Abe warm interpretations of Holmes and Watson Reles, the syndicate’s ill-fated numberby Plummer and Mason. For another verone killer. Lots of familiar faces (Vincent sion of Holmes vs. the Ripper, see A Gardenia, Sylvia Miles, Seymour Cassel) in supporting roles. CinemaScope.쩠 STUDY IN TERROR. [PG]▼●쩠 Murder by Numbers (2002) C-120m. Murder in the First (1995) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 ★★1⁄2 D: Barbet Schroeder. Sandra Bullock, D: Marc Rocco. Christian Slater, Kevin Ben Chaplin, Ryan Gosling, Michael Pitt, Bacon, Gary Oldman, Embeth Davidtz, Agnes Bruckner, Chris Penn, R.D. Call. HoWilliam H. Macy, Stephen Tobolowsky, micide detective Bullock—a brilliant loner Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey, Mia Kirshner, with heavy emotional baggage—works with Stefan Gierasch. Young lawyer in the public [ 948 ]

defender’s office is given his first assignDEATH ON THE NILE. Remade for TV in 2001. [PG]▼●쩠 ment: defending an Alcatraz prisoner who Murderous Maids (2000-French) C-94m. murdered a fellow inmate. Only extenuating ★★★ D: Jean-Pierre Denis. Sylvie Testud, circumstance: the young prisoner was driven Julie-Marie Parmentier, Isabelle Renauld, to madness by unspeakably brutal treatment Franc¸ois Levantal, Dominique Labourier, for three straight years. Bacon’s bravura Jean-Gabriel Nordmann, Marie Donnio. A performance is the centerpiece of this impernew take on the notorious 1933 murder case fect but commanding drama, which is a bit that rocked all of France. Christine Papin too self-satisfied and manipulative. Based on (Testud) and her younger sister Le´a, like a true story, and set in the 1930s and ’40s. their mother before them, work as houseBacon’s wife Kyra Sedgwick is amusingly maids, but Christine’s simmering resentcast in a cameo. With this film, director Rocco ment of her mother, her situation, and her has used up his moving-camera allotment for employers boils over in various destructive at least 10 years. [R]▼●쩠 ways. Denis’ unsparing approach to the maMurder in the Ring SEE: Ripped Off ★★★ terial doesn’t even allow for a music score; Murder Man, The (1935) 70m. D: Testud’s performance is riveting and real. Tim Whelan. Spencer Tracy, Virginia Bruce, Super 35. 쩠 Lionel Atwill, Harvey Stephens, Robert Murder She Said (1961-British) 87m. Barrat, James Stewart. Tracy is good as ★★★ D: George Pollock. Margaret Rutherusual playing a hard-drinking newspaper ford, Arthur Kennedy, Muriel Pavlow, reporter who specializes in covering murders. James Robertson Justice, Charles Tingwell, Snappy little film also offers Stewart in Thorley Walters, Joan Hickson. Miss Marhis first feature appearance (playing a fellow ple takes a job as a domestic in order to reporter named Shorty). solve a murder she witnessed. Based on Murder Most Foul (1965-British) 90m. Agatha Christie’s 4:50 From Paddington; ★★★ D: George Pollock. Margaret Rutherfirst of four films starring Rutherford as ford, Ron Moody, Charles Tingwell, AnMarple. Trivia note: Rutherford has several drew Cruickshank, Stringer Davis, Francesscenes with Hickson, later to play Miss ca Annis, Dennis Price, James Bolam. Marple herself in a fine British TV series. When Miss Marple is lone jury member ▼●쩠 who believes defendant is innocent, she Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932) 62m. sets out to prove it. Based on Agatha ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Florey. Bela Lugosi, Sidney Christie’s Mrs. McGinty’s Dead.▼●쩠 Fox, Leon Waycoff (Ames), Bert Roach, 1 ★★★ Murder, My Sweet (1944) 95m. ⁄2 D: Noble Johnson, Brandon Hurst, Arlene Edward Dmytryk. Dick Powell, Claire Francis. Expressionistic horror film based Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike on Poe story, with Lugosi as fiendish Dr. Mazurki, Miles Mander. Adaptation of Mirakle, with eyes on lovely Fox as the Raymond Chandler’s book Farewell My bride of his pet ape in 1845 Paris. ConsidLovely gave Powell new image as hardered strong stuff back then. John Huston boiled detective Philip Marlowe, involved was one of the writers. Remade as PHANin homicide and blackmail. Still packs a TOM OF THE RUE MORGUE, and twice wallop. Scripted by John Paxton. Story more (once for TV in 1986) under original previously used for THE FALCON TAKES title.▼●쩠 OVER; remade again as FAREWELL, MY Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971) LOVELY in 1975. Also shown in computerC-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Gordon Hessler. Jason colored version.▼●쩠 Robards, Herbert Lom, Christine Kaufmann, Murder on Monday SEE: Home at Seven Lilli Palmer, Adolfo Celi, Maria Perschy, MiMurder on the Orient Express (1974chael Dunn. Sensationalistic reworking of Poe ★★★ British) C-128m. D: Sidney Lumet. story; players at Grand Guignol–type theater Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsuddenly become victims of real-life murders, sam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, gory goings-on. Set in Paris, but filmed in Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Spain. [PG]▼쩠 Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Muriel (1963-French-Italian) C-115m. ★★★ Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, RichD: Alain Resnais. Delphine Seyrig, Jeanard Widmark, Michael York, Colin Blakely, Pierre Ke´rien, Nita Klein, Claude Sainval, George Coulouris. Elegant all-star producJean-Baptiste Thiere´e. Poignant drama of tion of Agatha Christie’s whodunit set in alienation, about a widow (Seyrig) and her the 1930s, with unrecognizable Finney as stepson (Thiere´e); she’s haunted by the super-sleuth Hercule Poirot, and all his memory of her first love, he by his suspects on the same railroad train. Colorinvolvement in the torture and death of a ful entertainment, but awfully sluggish; woman named Muriel during the Algerian sharp viewers will be able to guess the War.▼쩠 denouement, as well. Bergman won Best Muriel’s Wedding (1994-Australian) CSupporting Actress Oscar. First of several 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: P. J. Hogan. Toni Collette, lavish Christie adaptations; followed by Bill Hunter, Rachel Griffiths, Jeanie Dry[ 949 ]

nan, Gennie Nevinson, Matt Day, Chris to BEACH PARTY picks up the pace as the Haywood, Daniel Lapaine. Ugly duckling gang finds the beach has been invaded by with a strikingly dysfunctional family (and Rickles and his stable of body-builders. Usual a blustery, small-time politico father) yearns blend of surf, sand, and corn; Rickles’ first sefor a happier life, and starts on that road by ries appearance and the screen debut of ‘‘Litleaving her home town of Porpoise Spit for tle’’ Stevie Wonder. Sequel: BIKINI BEACH. Sydney, in the company of her fast-track Panavision.▼●쩠 girlfriend. Not the simple, straight-ahead Muse, The (1999) C-96m. ★★★ D: Albert ‘‘feel good’’ movie you might expect, but Brooks. Albert Brooks, Sharon Stone, a darker, more idiosyncratic comedy-drama Andie MacDowell, Jeff Bridges, Mark about friendship, dreams, reality, and the Feuerstein, Steven Wright, Bradley Whitjoys of ABBA music. A very satisfying ford. Brooks plays a Hollywood screenfilm, full of wonderful performances; writwriter who’s told that he’s out of touch— ten by the director. [R]▼●쩠 until he hooks up with a bona fide muse Murmur of the Heart (1971-French(Stone), a capricious woman whose workGerman-Italian) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis ing methods are unconventional at best. As Malle. Lea Massari, Benoit Ferreux, Danwith so many of Brooks’ movies, the parts iel Gelin, Marc Winocourt, Michel Lonsare greater than the whole, but his gibes at dale. Fresh, intelligent, affectionately comic Hollywood are priceless, and some of the tale of bourgeois, sensuous Massari and cameo appearances (which we won’t give her precocious 14-year-old son (Ferreux), away) are very funny indeed. [PG-13]▼쩠 builds to a thoroughly delightful resolution. Muse Concert: No Nukes, The SEE: Wonderful performances. [R]▼●쩠 No Nukes Music and Lyrics (2007) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Murph the Surf SEE: Live a Little, Steal a Lot Marc Lawrence. Hugh Grant, Drew BarryMurphy’s Law (1986) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: more, Brad Garrett, Kristen Johnston, J. Lee Thompson. Charles Bronson, KathCampbell Scott, Haley Bennett, Aasif Mandleen Wilhoite, Carrie Snodgress, Robert vi, Adam Grupper. Paper-thin but cute roF. Lyons, Richard Romanus, Angel Tompmantic comedy about a washed-up ’80s pop kins, Bill Henderson, James Luisi, Janet star (Grant) who’s presented with a big MacLachlan, Lawrence Tierney. All-toobreak—getting to perform an original song typical Bronson vehicle about a cop framed with a contemporary music star (Bennett)— for murders by psychopathic ex-con he if he can only find a lyricist with whom he originally sent to prison; only novelty is that can collaborate. She appears in the unlikely the psycho is a woman (Snodgress). Strictly person of a ditzy woman who’s supposed to formula; violent and unpleasant. [R]▼●쩠 take care of the plants in his N.Y.C. apartMurphy’s Romance (1985) C-107m. ★★★ ment. Grant is at his best, tossing off a D: Martin Ritt. Sally Field, James Garner, steady stream of funny lines. Written by the Brian Kerwin, Corey Haim, Dennis Burkdirector. [PG-13]쩠 ley, Georgann Johnson, Charles Lane. Young Music Box (1989) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Costadivorce´e (with 12-year-old son) makes fresh Gavras. Jessica Lange, Armin Muellerstart in small Arizona community, where she’s Stahl, Frederic Forrest, Donald Moffat, attracted to older, laid-back, widowed pharmaLukas Haas, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Michael cist—and vice versa. Charming, easygoing Rooker. Chicago criminal attorney Lange comedy written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet is thrown for a loop when her HungarianFrank, Jr. (from Max Schott’s novella), with immigrant dad is accused of heinous war Garner in a standout performance as Murphy, crimes and threatened with deportation. the last of the rugged individualists. In fact, She defends him in a sensational trial but this earned him his first Oscar nomination. has trouble—legally and emotionally— [PG-13] ▼●쩠 proving his innocence. What could have Murphy’s War (1971-British) C-108m. been a crackling political thriller becomes ★★★ D: Peter Yates. Peter O’Toole, Sian a high-gloss melodrama instead, plodding Phillips, Philippe Noiret, Horst Janson, John and far-fetched, though Lange is good in Hallam, Ingo Morgendorf. Well-staged, grip(rare) ethnic role, and Mueller-Stahl is ping action sequences combine with psychostrong as the enigmatic elder. A disappointlogical study of Irish seaman (O’Toole) only ment from the director of Z and MISSING. survivor of German massacre, out to get rePanavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 venge. Good idea, but nonaction sequences Music for Millions (1944) 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: tend to bog film down; script by Stirling SilliHenry Koster. Margaret O’Brien, Jimmy phant. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Durante, June Allyson, Marsha Hunt, Hugh Muscle Beach Party (1964) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 Herbert, Jose Iturbi, Connie Gilchrist, Harry D: William Asher. Frankie Avalon, AnDavenport, Marie Wilson, Larry Adler, nette Funicello, Buddy Hackett, Luciana Ethel Griffies. Teary tale of war-bride Paluzzi, Don Rickles, John Ashley, Jody Allyson, a cellist in Iturbi’s orchestra, galMcCrea, Morey Amsterdam, Peter Lupus, lantly waiting to have a baby—and for husCandy Johnson, Dan Haggerty. Follow-up band’s return. O’Brien is her precocious kid [ 950 ]

sister. While there’s plenty of Chopin and Deobvious as often as possible, and makes bussy, Durante steals film with ‘‘Umbriago.’’ many of the student characters worth caring Watch for Ava Gardner in a bit. about. Reaches its emotional peak before Music in Darkness SEE: Night Is My the climactic concert—but still a sweet, upFuture beat film. Inspired by the documentary 1 ★★ Music in My Heart (1940) 69m. SMALL WONDERS about the real-life Ro⁄2 D: Joseph Santley. Tony Martin, Rita Hayberta Guaspari. Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, worth, Edith Fellows, Alan Mowbray, and many other noted musicians appear as George Tobias, Joseph Crehan, George themselves. [PG]▼쩠 Humbert. Cheerful grade-B musical about a Music Teacher, The (1988-Belgian) Csinger wanted for deportation who hides out 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gerard Corbiau. Jose Van with a friendly family in a colorful, multiDam, Anne Roussel, Philippe Volter, Sylvie ethnic N.Y.C. neighborhood. The cast Fennec, Patrick Bauchau, Johan Leyson. couldn’t be more appealing, and Tony warA familiar plot and stale script sink this bles some good songs (including ‘‘It’s a musical drama detailing what happens when Blue World’’) by Robert Wright and Chet opera star Van Dam retires at the pinnacle Forrest. ▼쩠 of his fame to train fetching young Roussel Music Lovers, The (1971-British) C-122m. and petty thief Volter. The charisma and ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Russell. Glenda Jackson, magnificent singing voice of Van Dam, Richard Chamberlain, Max Adrian, Christhe Belgian bass-baritone, almost (but not topher Gable, Kenneth Colley. Occasionquite) redeem this. [PG]▼● ally striking but self-indulgent and factually Music Within (2007) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stedubious account of Tchaikovsky (Chamven Sawalich. Ron Livingston, Melissa berlain), who marries and abandons the George, Michael Sheen, Yul Va´zquez, Rewhorish Nina (Jackson). Overacted, overbecca De Mornay, Hector Elizondo, Leslie directed. Panavision. [R]▼● Nielsen, Marion Ross, Clint Howard, Dale Music Man, The (1962) C-151m. ★★★1⁄2 Dye. Young man from Portland, Oregon, D: Morton Da Costa. Robert Preston, Shiris stymied in pursuing his dream of public ley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione speaking, goes to Vietnam instead, and Gingold, Paul Ford, Pert Kelton, Ronny loses his hearing in an explosion. Back Howard. Peerless Preston reprises his home he overcomes his impairment and beBroadway performance as super salesman/ comes a celebrated advocate for the disacon man Prof. Harold Hill, who mesmerbled, but doesn’t fare as well in his private izes Iowa town with visions of uniformed life. True story of Richard Pimentel seems marching band. Faithful filmization of Merto have the right stuff—including a showy edith Willson’s affectionate slice of Amerperformance by Sheen as a man with cereicana. Score includes ‘‘76 Trombones,’’ bral palsy—but winds up resembling a pat ‘‘Till There Was You,’’ and showstopping TV movie. Further hampered by a heavy‘‘Trouble.’’ Remade for TV in 2003. Techhanded ’70s jukebox score. [R]쩠 nirama. ▼●쩠 Musketeer, The (2001-German-U.S.-LuxMusic of Chance, The (1993) C-98m. embourg) C-105m. BOMB D: Peter Hyams. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip Haas. James Spader, Mandy Catherine Deneuve, Mena Suvari, Stephen Patinkin, M. Emmet Walsh, Charles DurnRea, Tim Roth, Justin Chambers, Bill ing, Joel Grey, Samantha Mathis, ChristoTreacher, Daniel Mesguich, Nick Moran, pher Penn. A man gives a lift to a fellow Steven Speirs, Jan Gregor Kremp. Clumsily stumbling alongside a country road, learns revamped version of THE THREE MUSKEhe’s a high-stakes poker player, and decides TEERS crams in Hong Kong–style martial to back him in an upcoming game against arts action, but loses many of the charactwo eccentric millionaires. Low-key adaptaters—not to mention the charm and wit— tion of Paul Auster’s existential novel offers from the novel. The Three Musketeers as many questions as answers while it spins barely get a word in! Drab looking, badly its interesting—but oddball—tale. Coscripted photographed (by the director), and seemby director Haas, a documentarian making his ingly endless, this unattractive film may be feature debut. Superior performances by a the worst version ever of Dumas’ everhand-picked cast; Spader is a particular green. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 standout as a slimeball with his own pecuMustang Country (1976) C-79m. ★★★ liar code of ethics.▼● D: John Champion. Joel McCrea, Robert Music of the Heart (1999) C-124m. ★★★ D: Fuller, Patrick Wayne, Nika Mina. ExWes Craven. Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, cellent Western set along Montana-CanAngela Bassett, Gloria Estefan, Jane adian border in 1925. 70-year-old McCrea Leeves, Cloris Leachman, Kieran Culkin, most convincing as ex-rancher and rodeo Charlie Hofheimer, Jay O. Sanders. Newly star who shares adventures with runaway single woman moves to East Harlem and Indian boy while hunting a wild stallion. starts a violin class, against all odds, giving [G] her kids a sense of discipline, purpose, and Must Love Dogs (2005) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: pride. Pamela Gray’s script sidesteps the Gary David Goldberg. Diane Lane, John [ 951 ]

Cusack, Elizabeth Perkins, Dermot Mulroney, perb use of locations, but his script is secChristopher Plummer, Stockard Channing, ond-rate; the story goes on too long, and is Tony Bill, Ben Shenkman, Brad Hall, Steven riddled with coincidences. Alec Guinness, R. Schirripa. Amiable if unremarkable romanin his final film, appears unbilled as a master tic comedy about two divorced people who criminal. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 meet through an Internet personals ad: a Mutilator, The SEE: Dark, The woman whose family insists she start dating Mutiny (1952) C-77m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward again, and a guy whose best friend does Dmytryk. Mark Stevens. Angela Lansbury, likewise. Sheer likability of the two stars Patric Knowles, Gene Evans, Rhys Williams. carries this a long way over familiar terriSleep-inducing actioner set amidst the War of tory. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 1812, with rival sailors Stevens and Knowles vying for adventuress Lansbury.▼쩠 Must Read After My Death (2009) C/ B&W-73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Morgan Dews. A Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) 132m. ★★★★ woman dies, leaving behind hours of audio D: Frank Lloyd. Charles Laughton, Clark recordings and home movies. Dews is her Gable, Franchot Tone, Herbert Mundin, grandson; from this material, he has fashEddie Quillan, Dudley Digges, Donald Crisp, ioned an unsettling portrait of an outwardly Movita, Henry Stephenson, Spring Byington, happy but tragically dysfunctional AmeriIan Wolfe, Mamo. Storytelling at its best, in can family. While the film offers the point this engrossing adaptation of the Nordhoffof view that families suffered greatly beHall book about mutiny against tyrannical cause of predetermined gender roles in preCaptain Bligh (Laughton) on voyage to the feminist 1960s America, there also is the South Seas. Whole cast is good, but Laughton sense that Dews is disrespecting his relais unforgettable. Scripted by three top writers: tives’ privacy. Watching this film is akin to Talbot Jennings, Jules Furthman, and Carey peeking through a window and staring at an Wilson. Oscar winner for Best Picture; open wound. Dews wrote, directed, proleagues ahead of its 1962 remake and the duced, and edited. 1984 film THE BOUNTY. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Mutant (1982) SEE: Forbidden World Mutant (1984) SEE: Night Shadows Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) C-179m. 1⁄2 D: Lewis Milestone. Marlon Brando, ★★ Mutant Chronicles (2008-U.S.-British) C101m. ★1⁄2 D: Simon Hunter. Ron Perlman, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris, Hugh GrifThomas Jane, Devon Aoki, Sean Pertwee, fith, Richard Haydn, Tim Seely, Percy Benno Fu¨rmann, John Malkovich, Anna Herbert, Tarita, Gordon Jackson. Lavish Walton, Tom Wu, Steve Toussaint, Luis remake of 1935 classic can’t come near it, Echegaray. Necromutants unleashed on the although visually beautiful; Howard good as planet Earth strive (for no apparent reason Captain Bligh, but Brando is all wrong as other than it’s what they do) to turn all huFletcher Christian. Best thing about this vermans into violent, blood-lusting creatures sion is spectacular score by Bronislau Kaper. like themselves. Perlman plays a monk who Ultra Panavision 70.▼●쩠 believes he’s the one to bring the mutants Mutual Appreciation (2006) 110m. ★★★ D: down, and rounds up a group of miscreant Andrew Bujalski. Justin Rice, Rachel Cliff, soldiers to help. By the time they do, who Andrew Bujalski, Seung-Min Lee, Kevin cares? Futuristic blood-and-guts thriller Micka, Bill Morrison. Deadpan indie about takes itself much too seriously; not even an alternative rock musician who moves to worth watching for a laugh. Drawn from the N.Y.C. in search of a gig, stays with an old popular role-playing board game. [R]쩠 buddy and his girlfriend, and frets about roMutations, The (1973-British) C-92m. mance and life. Ultra-ultra low-budget film ★★ has some stretches of tedium, but writer/direcD: Jack Cardiff. Donald Pleasence, Tom Baker, Brad Harris, Julie Ege, Mitor/editor Bujalski creates an improvisational chael Dunn, Jill Haworth. Scientist Pleasence mood of quiet, gently comic 20-something crossbreeds humans with plants—and his unangst that few films achieve. The characters suspecting university students are abducted as look, sound, and feel like real human beguinea pigs. Predictable story with truly groings. [R]쩠 tesque elements and characters. Not recomMVP: Most Valuable Primate (2000mended for dinnertime viewing. Video title: U.S.-Canadian) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert THE FREAKMAKER. [R]▼쩠 Vince. Kevin Zegers, Jaime Rene´e Smith, Mute Witness (1995-British-GermanOliver Muirhead, Russell Ferrier, Dave Russian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Waller. Thomas, Ric Ducommun, Jay Brazeau, PatMarina Sudina, Fay Ripley, Evan Richards, rick Cranshaw, Bernie, Mac, Louie. ConOleg Jankowskij, Igor Volkow, Sergei Kartrived time-filler about a trained chimp who lenkov, Alex Bureew. The mute makeup becomes the star player on a minor-league artist on an American horror movie being hockey team. This boring AIR BUD on ice shot in Moscow sees a snuff film being shot may serve as perfect bedtime viewing for after-hours, and soon finds hit men from the young tykes of worn-out parents. Followed Russian Mafia out to kill her. Impressive by two direct-to-video sequels. [PG] ▼쩠 directing debut for Waller, who makes suMy American Cousin (1985-Canadian) [ 952 ]

C-95m. ★★★ D: Sandy Wilson. Margaret dia Cardinale and Eva Mattes are among Langrick, John Wildman, Richard Donat, those interviewed.▼쩠 Jane Mortifee. Well-acted, nostalgic comMy Best Friend (2006-French) C-94m. ★★★ ing-of-age story set in British Columbia in D: Patrice Leconte. Daniel Auteuil, Dany the summer of 1959, about a young girl’s Boon, Julie Gayet, Julie Durand, Henri Garinfatuation with her James Dean-like Calicin, Jacques Mathou, Marie Pillet, Jacques fornia cousin. Winner of six Genie awards Spiesser. Charming comedy about an antique (Canada’s Oscar) including Best Picture. dealer (Auteuil) who pays more attention to Donat is Robert Donat’s nephew. Followed objects than human beings. Challenged by by a sequel, AMERICAN BOYFRIENDS. business associates who claim he has no per[PG]▼● sonal life, he claims that he can produce a My Architect (2003) C-116m. ★★★★ D: Na‘‘best friend’’ and then desperately tries to thaniel Kahn. The illegitimate son of noted find one, settling on talkative, outgoing cabAmerican architect Louis Kahn sets out to driver Boon. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 learn about his father, who died when the My Best Friend Is a Vampire (1988) boy was 11. He visits his father’s buildings C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Jimmy Huston. Robert around the world, talks to friends, colSean Leonard, Evan Mirand, Cheryl Pollak, leagues (including such admiring architects as Rene´ Auberjonois, Cecilia Peck, Fannie Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, and Frank Gehry), Flagg, Kenneth Kimmins, David Warner, and members of Kahn’s ‘‘alternate’’ families. Paul Wilson. One-joke comedy, in the In making such a personal odyssey, the wake of TEEN WOLF, has a high-school younger Kahn comes up with something kid transformed into a vampire and trymuch more resonant and universal; a quietly ing to cope with it as a fact of life. Solid profound and beautiful film about dreams, supporting cast does what it can. [PG]▼쩠 goals, disappointments, and realities.▼쩠 My Best Friend’s Girl (1983-French) My Baby’s Daddy (2004) C-86m. BOMB C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bertrand Blier. Coluche, D: Cheryl Dunye. Eddie Griffin, Anthony Isabelle Huppert, Thierry Lhermitte, Daniel Anderson, Michael Imperioli, Paula Jai ParColas, Francois Perrot. Medium sex comker, Joanna Bacalso, Bai Ling, Marsha edy with Lhermitte bringing home pick-up Thomason, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Method Huppert; she moves in, and his best friend Man, Amy Sedaris, John Amos, Tom (Coluche) falls for her. A familiar Blier ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, Jr. ‘‘Comedy’’ with alleged theme (the sexual relationship between one heart is story of three buddies (and roomwoman and two men) is indifferently mates) whose three girlfriends all become handled. Panavision.▼ pregnant around the same time. All-tooMy Best Friend’s Girl (2008) C-102m. ★★ predictable antics ensue as they grapple D: Howard Deutch. Dane Cook, Kate Hudwith raising infants while still trying to son, Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin, Diora grow up themselves. Griffin also cowrote Baird, Lizzy Caplan. In the world according this time waster. [PG-13] ▼쩠 to this aggressively foulmouthed but only My Beautiful Laundrette (1985-British) fitfully funny comedy, any guy who’s C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Frears. Saeed dumped by his girlfriend can win her back Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis, simply by paying Tank (Cook), a smoothGordon Warnecke, Derrick Branche, Shirtalking rogue, to treat her to the worst date ley Anne Field. Extremely entertaining, of her life. Complications arise when Tank perceptive examination of both race relagenuinely falls for the lovely former flame tions and the economic state in Britain, (Hudson) of his best buddy (Biggs). Baldcentering on a pair of young friends, Omar win steals scenes right and left as Cook’s (Warnecke) and Johnny (Day-Lewis), and equally swinish college-professor father. what happens when they take over a beatCop-out ending plays like a last-minute imup laundrette. On-target script by Hanif provised compromise. Unrated version runs Kureishi, a Pakistani playwright who re112m. [R]쩠 sides in England. Originally made for My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) British TV. [R]▼●쩠 C-105m. ★★★ D: P. J. Hogan. Julia Roberts, My Best Fiend (1999-German-British) CDermot Mulroney, Cameron Diaz, Rupert 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Werner Herzog. Klaus KinEverett, Philip Bosco, M. Emmet Walsh, ski starred in many of Werner Herzog’s Rachel Griffiths, Carrie Preston, Susan Sulmost notable films, but his intensity, ego livan, Chris Masterson, Paul Giamatti, and near-demented behavior made the proHarry Shearer. Roberts and Mulroney are ductions tough going for everyone; at times old friends, and former lovers, who have the director and star actually plotted to murpacted to wed at age 28 if they’re both still der each other. Hosting this unique docusingle. When Mulroney springs fiance´e mentary, Herzog revisits the locations of his Diaz on Julia, she starts to freak out and Kinski films, musing over the actor’s bitries to sabotage the nuptials. Smart and zarre behavior. Funny, insightful, touching funny romantic comedy (written by Ronald and deeply engrossing, it can’t really explain Kinski, but it’s a grand journey. ClauBass) with Roberts scoring in a tailor-made [ 953 ]

role, and Everett stealing every scene he’s in as her gay pal. Panavision. [PG-13]

of horror movies. Released to theaters as MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D. [R]쩠 My Blueberry Nights (2008-Hong KongFrench) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Wong Kar Wai. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) CNorah Jones, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Zwick. Nia Vardalos, David Strathairn, Natalie Portman, Frankie John Corbett, Michael Constantine, Lainie Faison, Chan Marshall. Jones is a sweet, Kazan, Andrea Martin, Joey Fatone, Gia sensitive young woman in N.Y.C. with roCarides, Louis Mandylor. Amiable comedy mantic problems who makes a friend in cafe about a Greek-American woman trying to owner Law—the dreamiest, most unlikely break free of her family’s stifling adherence to counter man in all of Manhattan. Balance of old-world customs and falling in love with a film takes place in Memphis and out West, WASP. You don’t have to be Greek to relate with Jones on a personal, solo odyssey to her story, especially with old pros like Conto . . . nowhere. Good cast is wasted; jazzstantine and Kazan as her parents. Expansion pop sensation Jones is all too obviously an of Vardalos’ one-woman show is slight, acting tyro. Inauspicious English-language predictable, and sometimes broad, but enterdebut for the noted Hong Kong filmmaker, taining, and became an unexpected boxfor whom style often trumps story. Super office smash. Written by its star. Later a TV 35. [PG-13]쩠 series. [PG]▼쩠 My Blue Heaven (1950) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005) CHenry Koster. Betty Grable, Dan Dailey, 80m. BOMB D: Philip Zlotorynski. Paget David Wayne, Jane Wyatt, Mitzi Gaynor, Brewster, Neil Barton, Ashley Head, Eric Una Merkel. Pleasing musicomedy with Hoffman, Brian Krow, Clint Howard; voice Grable and Dailey as radio stars who try to of Jason Mewes. Two hit men hook up with adopt a child.쩠 a man mistaken for a fellow professional to My Blue Heaven (1990) C-95m. ★★★ D: pull off a ‘‘botched robbery’’ in Las Vegas. Herbert Ross. Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, SCARY MOVIE–style treatment of indeJoan Cusack, Melanie Mayron, Bill Irwin, pendent cinema (PULP FICTION, SWINGCarol Kane, William Hickey, Deborah ERS, etc.) is unfunny, self-indulgent, and a Rush, Daniel Stern, Ed Lauter, Julie struggle to watch. Brought to you, in part, by Bovasso, Colleen Camp. Lightweight but the folks at Film Threat. [R]쩠 entertaining comedy about an Italian hood My Blood Runs Cold (1965) 104m. from N.Y.C. who’s moved to suburban ★★1 ⁄2 D: William Conrad. Troy Donahue, California as part of the FBI’s witness Joey Heatherton, Barry Sullivan, Jeanette protection program, where he’s watched Nolan. Young man thinks girl is long-dead over by straight-arrow G-man Moranis. ancestor, and recalls love affair from generaNo fireworks, but does have some good tions before. Not all that bad, but not worth laughs, and enjoyable performances. Writmissing I Love Lucy for, either. Panavision.쩠 ten by Nora Ephron. [PG-13]▼●쩠 My Bloody Valentine (1981-Canadian) CMy Bodyguard (1980) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: 91m. ★1⁄2 D: George Mihalka. Paul Kelman, Tony Bill. Chris Makepeace, Adam BaldLori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Keith Knight, Alf win, Martin Mull, Ruth Gordon, Matt Humphreys, Cynthia Dale. Another gory Dillon, John Houseman, Joan Cusack, HALLOWEEN/FRIDAY THE 13TH clone. Craig Richard Nelson. Pleasant little film Coal miner axes various victims (male as about high-school boy who hires a behemoth well as female) in the friendly little town of classmate to protect him from toughs at Valentine Bluffs. Ecch. Remade in 2009. school. Totally likable but ultimately simplis[R]▼쩠 tic comedy-drama. Filmed in and around ChiMy Bloody Valentine (2009) C-101m. ★1⁄2 cago; look for Tim Kazurinsky, George D: Patrick Lussier. Jensen Ackles, Jaime Wendt, and Jennifer Beals as a classmate. King, Kerr Smith, Betsy Rue, Tom Atkins, Bill’s directorial debut. [PG]▼쩠 Kevin Tighe. Remake of notorious 1981 My Boss’s Daughter (2003) C-86m. slasher flick relied on 3-D gimmickry to BOMB D: David Zucker. Ashton Kutcher, increase the shock value of its full-bore gore Tara Reid, Jeffrey Tambor, Andy Richter, in theatrical release. In 2-D it’s just a routine Michael Madsen, Terence Stamp, Jon Abrareprise of a low-budget horror opus that hams, David Koechner, Carmen Electra, wasn’t very good to begin with. While a Molly Shannon, Kenan Thompson. Smitten masked killer fatally applies a pickaxe to with the title girl of his dreams (Reid), various unfortunates in a small mining town, Kutcher is trapped into house-sitting for her local sheriff Smith suspects a recently rewealthy father, a clean-freak who warns him turned mining-company heir (Ackles), the against letting the inevitable happen: the thorex-boyfriend of the sheriff’s wife (King), is ough trashing of the family mansion. The behind the killing spree. Rue deserves some leads have no chemistry in this trendily crude sort of good sport prize for remaining feisty comedy that makes a short running time seem and formidable during one of the longest longer than the uncut GREED. This sat on the displays of gratuitous nudity in the history shelf for a couple of years before being [ 954 ]

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dumped on the market. R-rated version also nold, Charlie Ruggles, Spring Byington. available. [PG-13]▼쩠 Gimmick comedy that’s fun at the start but My Boyfriend’s Back (1993) C-84m. ★1⁄2 drags to slow finish. My Chauffeur (1986) C-97m. ★★ D: David D: Bob Balaban. Andrew Lowery, Traci Lind, Danny Zorn, Edward Herrmann, Beaird. Deborah Foreman, Sam Jones, E.G. Mary Beth Hurt, Matthew Fox, Philip SeyMarshall, Sean McClory, Howard Hessemour Hoffman, Austin Pendleton, Cloris man. Heavily male chauvinist chauffeur serLeachman, Jay O. Sanders, Paul Dooley, vice has to contend not only with Foreman’s Bob Dishy, Paxton Whitehead, Rene´e Zellhiring, but her emergence as the most popular weger. Terminally moronic comedy about a employee on the staff. Strange mix of 30s teen (Lowery) who is killed and comes back screwball with today’s cruder comedies to life to take pretty Lind to the prom. Easydoesn’t really come off, yet is enough of a curito-please 13-year-olds might like it; others, osity to keep you watching. [R]▼●쩠 beware. Talented cast is wasted. [PGMy Country, My Country (2006) C-90m. ★★★1 13]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Laura Poitras. Heartrending (and My Boys Are Good Boys (1978) C-90m. eye-opening) documentary follows a civic★1 ⁄2 D: Bethel Buckalew. Ralph Meeker, minded humanitarian Sunni doctor during Ida Lupino, Lloyd Nolan, David F. Doyle, the months leading up to the January 2005 Sean T. Roche. Odd little film mixes elections in Iraq. Dr. Riyadh feels it is his 1940s approach to juvenile delinquency obligation to run for office, to serve his with far-fetched story of teenagers robbing community and his country, but the inherent armored car. [PG]▼쩠 danger frightens his family, and the actions My Brilliant Career (1979-Australian) of the U.S. forces cause nothing but anger C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gillian Armstrong. and frustration. An intimate look at the ripJudy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, ple effect of the American occupation on Robert Grubb, Max Cullen, Pat Kennedy. the Iraqi people. Originally aired on PBS’ Excellent portrait of a headstrong young series P.O.V.쩠 woman determined to live a life of inMy Cousin Rachel (1952) 98m. ★★★ D: dependent and intelligent pursuits in turnHenry Koster. Olivia de Havilland, Richof-the-century Australia. Armstrong’s eye ard Burton, Audrey Dalton, John Sutton, for detail and Davis’ performance dominRonald Squire. Successful filmization of ate this fine import, based on a true Daphne du Maurier mystery, with Burton story. [G]▼쩠 (in his American debut) trying to discover My Brother is an Only Child (2007if de Havilland is guilty or innocent of Italian-French) C-108m. ★★★ D: Daniele murder and intrigue. My Cousin Vinny (1992) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 Luchetti. Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Diane Fleri, Angela Finocchiaro, Alba D: Jonathan Lynn. Joe Pesci, Ralph Macchio, Rohrwacher, Vittorio Emanuele Propizio. Marisa Tomei, Mitchell Whitfield, Fred Absorbing tale of two brothers’ relationship Gwynne, Lane Smith, Austin Pendleton, through the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s. The Bruce McGill. Very likable (if much too older sibling (Scamarcio) is a Communist lackadaisical) comedy about Brooklyn agitator, while the younger one (Germano) ‘‘lawyer’’ Pesci’s attempt to defend his aligns himself—at first—with old-line Fasinnocent cousin (Macchio) and a friend on a cists. They also come to care for the same murder charge in the Deep South. Pesci is woman. From raucously funny family scenes perfect in a tailor-made part, and Tomei (in an to highly dramatic events, the film remains Oscar-winning performance) is a delight to more personal than political, which is why watch as his girlfriend. But there’s no reason it’s so affecting. Screenplay by Luchetti and for this simple comedy to take so long to get the team that wrote THE BEST OF YOUTH, where it’s going. [R]▼●쩠 Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli.쩠 My Crazy Life SEE: Mi Vida Loca My Brother’s Wedding (1983) C-118m. My Darling Clementine (1946) 97m. ★★★★ ★★★ D: Charles Burnett. Everett Silas, JesD: John Ford. Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, sie Holmes, Gaye Shannon-Burnett, RonVictor Mature, Walter Brennan, Cathy nie Bell, Dennis Kemper, Sally Easter. Downs, Tim Holt, Ward Bond, Alan Impressive, knowing tragicomedy from the Mowbray, John Ireland, Jane Darwell, talented director of KILLER OF SHEEP, Grant Withers, J. Farrell MacDonald. Beauabout a 30-year-old product of the Watts tifully directed, low-key Western about ghetto who is pleased with his lot in life Wyatt Earp (Fonda) and Doc Holliday (Maand despises his lawyer brother’s upward ture), leading to inevitable gunfight at mobility. Now he reluctantly agrees to be O.K. Corral. Full of wonderful details and best man at his brother’s nuptials. Impresvignettes; exquisitely photographed by Josively captures the urban black experience. seph P. MacDonald. One of director 2007 director’s cut runs 81m. 쩠 Ford’s finest films, and an American clasMy Brother Talks to Horses (1946) 93m. sic. Screenplay by Samuel G. Engel and ★★ D: Fred Zinnemann. ‘‘Butch’’ Jenkins, Winston Miller, from a story by Sam Peter Lawford, Beverly Tyler, Edward ArHellman. Based on a book by Stuart N. [ 955 ]

Lake. Remake of FRONTIER MARSHAL tion of Lerner and Loewe’s enchanting (1939). In 1994 an archival print was musical from Shaw’s PYGMALION, with found of the 104m. preview version, conProf. Henry Higgins (Harrison) transformtaining a number of minor differences and ing guttersnipe Hepburn into regal lady, to a slightly different finale.▼●쩠 win a bet. Sumptuously filmed, with ‘‘The My Darling Shiksa SEE: Over the BrookRain in Spain,’’ Harrison’s soliloquys lyn Bridge among highlights. Eight Oscars include PicMy Dear Secretary (1948) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: ture, Actor, Director, Cinematography Charles Martin. Laraine Day, Kirk Douglas, (Harry Stradling), Costumes (Cecil Beaton), Keenan Wynn, Helen Walker, Rudy Vallee, Score Adaptation (Andre Previn), Art DiFlorence Bates, Alan Mowbray. Entertainrection (Beaton and Gene Allen). Super Panavision 70.▼●쩠 ing (if trivial) comedy of wannabe writer Day hiring on as secretary to best-selling My Family/Mi Familia (1995) C-128m. ★★★ author Douglas. Wynn steals the show as D: Gregory Nava. Jimmy Smits, Esai Douglas’ comical pal.▼쩠 Morales, Edward James Olmos, Eduardo My Demon Lover (1987) C-86m. ★★ D: Lopez Rojas, Jenny Gago, Elpidia Carrillo, Charles Loventhal. Scott Valentine, MiLupe Ontiveros, Jacob Vargas, Jennifer chelle Little, Arnold Johnson, Gina Gallego, Lopez, Maria Canals, Leon Singer, Michael Robert Trebor. Trendy horror comedy has De Lorenzo, Jonathan Hernandez, ConValentine turning into a variety of monsters stance Marie, Mary Steenburgen, Scott Bawhenever he becomes sexually aroused, with kula, DeDee Pfeiffer. A Mexican-American Little the modern girl who tries to save him. writer (Olmos) looks back at his family’s Cast, including knockout beauty Gallego, is colorful history since immigrating to L.A. far better than the special effects-oriented in the 1920s. Evocative, well-cast, multimaterial would indicate. [PG-13] ▼● generational saga indulges in melodrama at My Dinner With Andre (1981) C-110m. times, but never seems false, and redeems ★★1 ⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Andre Gregory, Walitself with a healthy sense of humor. Written lace Shawn. Playwright-actor Shawn has by Nava and producer Anna Thomas, who dinner with his old friend, theater director also made EL NORTE. [R] ▼●쩠 Gregory, who’s been having a series of My Father and I SEE: How I Killed My strange life experiences; they talk about Father them and their philosophies for nearly two My Father Is Coming (1991-German) hours. A daring and unique film, written by C-82m. ★★★ D: Monika Treut. Alfred Edel, its two principals, with moments of insight, Shelley Kastner, Mary Lou Graulau, Dadrama, and hilarity—but not enough to vid Bronstein, Michael Massee, Annie sustain a feature-length film. [PG]▼●쩠 Sprinkle, Fakir Musafar. Engrossing lowMy Dog Skip (2000) C-95m. ★★★ D: Jay budget drama of German-born Kastner, Russell. Frankie Muniz, Diane Lane, Kevin who’s struggling to find someone to love Bacon, Luke Wilson, Caitlin Wachs, Brad(whether it be male or female), and make ley Coryell, Clint Howard; narrated by it as an actress in N.Y.C.; her father’s visit Harry Connick, Jr. Sweet (but not cloying) proves to be an awakening for both parent family film based on Mississippi-born auand child. In its best moments, an astute thor Willie Morris’ memoir of growing up commentary on the importance of acceptin the 1940s with his beloved English fox ing who you are, as well as the differences terrier, who helps see him through childin others. Notable for the appearances of hood, boyhood, adolescence and young porn star/performance artist Annie Sprinmanhood. Warm and winning for grownups kle and ‘‘modern primitive’’ Fakir Musafar (who must be seen to be believed).▼ as well as children . . . but have a handkerchief handy! [PG]▼●쩠 My Father’s Glory (1990-French) CMy Dream Is Yours (1949) C-101m. 110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Yves Robert. Philippe ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Jack Carson, Doris Caubere, Nathalie Roussel, Didier Pain, Day, Lee Bowman, Adolphe Menjou, Eve Therese Liotard, Julien Caimaca. Richly Arden. Carson makes Day a radio star in rewarding reminiscence, set in rural France standard musicomedy; highlights are Bugs at the turn of the century, chronicling the Bunny dream sequence, Edgar Kennedy’s life of a precocious little boy and his performance as Day’s uncle. Remake of family and a summer trip to Provence, TWENTY MILLION SWEETHEARTS, where the child becomes immersed in the with Doris stepping into Dick Powell’s country and village life. Based on Marcel role (and reprising the 1934 hit ‘‘I’ll String Pagnol’s childhood memoirs. This is stoAlong With You’’).▼●쩠 rytelling, and moviemaking, of the first My Fair Lady (1964) C-170m. ★★★1⁄2 D: order. The story continues in MY MOTHGeorge Cukor. Rex Harrison, Audrey HepER’S CASTLE. [G]▼쩠 burn, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid HydeMy Father The Hero (1994) C-90m. ★★★ White, Gladys Cooper, Jeremy Brett, TheD: Steve Miner. Ge´rard Depardieu, Katherodore Bikel, Henry Daniell, Mona Washine Heigl, Dalton James, Lauren Hutton, bourne, Isobel Elsom. Ultrasmooth filmizaFaith Prince, Stephen Tobolowsky, Ann [ 956 ]

Hearn, Robyn Peterson, Frank Renzulli. Richard Benjamin. Peter O’Toole, Mark Longtime absentee father takes his resentful Linn-Baker, Jessica Harper, Joseph Bologna, 14-year-old daughter on a Caribbean vacaBill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Anne DeSalvo, tion, where (to impress potential suitors) she Lou Jacobi, Adolph Green, George Wyner, spins a web of lies—starting with the Selma Diamond, Cameron Mitchell. En‘‘fact’’ that he’s not her father, but her joyable comedy about a young writer on lover. Depardieu recreates his role from the TV’s top comedy show in 1954 who’s 1991 French film MON PE`RE, CE HE´ROS, given the job of chaperoning that week’s and brings his considerable charisma and guest star, screen swashbuckler and offcredibility to a potentially silly comedy, makscreen carouser Alan Swann (O’Toole, in a ing it a lot of fun. [PG]▼●쩠 tailor-made role). Shifts gears, and focus, My Favorite Blonde (1942) 78m. ★★★ D: a bit too often, but has many good moments, Sidney Lanfield. Bob Hope, Madeleine and likable performances (including BoloCarroll, Gale Sondergaard, George Zucco, gna as Sid Caesar–ish TV star). The woman Victor Varconi. Bob and his trained penO’Toole dances with in night club is 1930s guin become sitting ducks when spy Madleading lady Gloria Stuart. Benjamin’s dieleine uses them to help deliver secret rectorial debut. Musicalized on Broadway a decade later (also with Kazan). [PG]▼●쩠 orders; very funny WW2 Hope vehicle.▼쩠 My Favorite Brunette (1947) 87m. ★★★ My Fellow Americans (1996) C-101m. ★★★ D: Elliott Nugent. Bob Hope, Dorothy D: Peter Segal. Jack Lemmon, James Lamour, Peter Lorre, Lon Chaney, John Garner, Dan Aykroyd, Lauren Bacall, John Hoyt, Reginald Denny. Better-than-usual Heard, Bradley Whitford, Sela Ward, Wilford Hope nonsense with Bob as a photographer Brimley, Esther Rolle. Two ex-presidents of mixed up with mobsters; Lorre and Chaney the U.S.—longtime enemies—are forced to add authenticity. Two very funny surprise work together to uncover a plot to blame cameos at beginning and end of film. Also one of them for a dirty deal conducted by shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 the current head of state. On the lam and My Favorite Martian (1999) C-93m. ★★ left to their own devices, they have to deal D: Donald Petrie. Christopher Lloyd, Jeff with ordinary citizens for the first time in Daniels, Elizabeth Hurley, Daryl Hannah, years. Breezy comedy, short on subtlety and Wallace Shawn, Christine Ebersole, Milong on punchlines and occasional bathchael Lerner, Ray Walston. Strictly juvenile room humor . . . but it works, thanks to the update of the 1960s TV sitcom, with Lloyd charisma and professionalism of Lemmon as the Martian who lands on Earth and and Garner. Bacall (as Lemmon’s wife) has moves in with good-natured lunkhead Danalmost nothing to do. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 iels, a TV news producer. Broad, sometimes My First Mister (2001) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 crass special-effects comedy for undeD: Christine Lahti. Leelee Sobieski, Albert manding kids. The presence of Walston Brooks, Desmond Harrington, Carol Kane, (from the original show) may bring a smile Mary Kay Place, John Goodman, Michael to those who remember the series. An unMcKean, Rutanya Alda. A suicidal teenbilled Wayne Knight provides the voice of aged girl who hates her life, and especially the Suit. [PG]▼●쩠 hates her parents, is unexpectedly attracted My Favorite Season SEE Ma Saison to a schlumpy middle-aged clothing salesPre´fe´re´e man. Soon, she is affecting his outlook on My Favorite Spy (1951) 93m. ★★★ D: life as much as he is hers. A wonderfully Norman Z. McLeod. Bob Hope, Hedy fresh comedy-drama written by Jill FrankLamarr, Francis L. Sullivan, Mike Mazurki, lyn, with great performances by the two John Archer, Iris Adrian, Arnold Moss. stars. An impressive feature directing debut Bob resembles murdered spy, finds himself for Lahti. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 thrust into international intrigue. Fast-movMy First Wife (1984-Australian) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Cox. John Hargreaves, Wendy ing fun, with glamorous Hedy aiding Bob on all counts. Hughes, Lucy Angwin, Anna Jemison, My Favorite Wife (1940) 88m. ★★★ D: David Cameron. Painful, provocative drama Garson Kanin. Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, about self-centered man who literally goes Gail Patrick, Randolph Scott, Ann Shoecrazy when his wife leaves him after 10 years. maker, Scotty Beckett, Donald MacBride. Achingly real, superbly acted, but slow and Dunne, supposedly dead, returns to U.S. talky at times. Cox coscripted with Bob Ellis, based on his own experiences. ▼ to find hubby Grant remarried to Patrick, in familiar but witty marital mixup, reMy Foolish Heart (1949) 98m. ★★★ D: made as MOVE OVER, DARLING. InMark Robson. Dana Andrews, Susan Hayspired by Enoch Arden; Grant’s character ward, Kent Smith, Lois Wheeler, Jessie even has the same last name. Produced and Royce Landis, Robert Keith, Gigi Perreau. co-written (with Sam and Bella Spewack) Deftly handled sentimental WW2 romance by Leo McCarey. Also shown in computertale between soldier Andrews and Hayward; Victor Young’s lovely theme helps. Based on colored version.▼●쩠 My Favorite Year (1982) C-92m. ★★★ D: J. D. Salinger’s story ‘‘Uncle Wiggily in Con[ 957 ]

necticut,’’ the only one of the author’s works kid. Sweet and amusing as long as Muresan’s ever adapted to film.▼● stomping around but the film turns borderline My Forbidden Past (1951) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: mawkish toward the end. Crystal is likeable Robert Stevenson. Robert Mitchum, Ava as always, and then real-life Washington WizGardner, Melvyn Douglas, Janis Carter. ards center Muresan is winning in the title Silly tripe about Gardner, who’s got a role. That’s Crystal’s daughter Lindsay as a skeleton in her family closet, seeking reput-upon production assistant. [PG-13] venge on Mitchum for jilting her. Fast▼●쩠 moving, watchable nonsense set in anteMy Girl (1991) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Howard bellum New Orleans.▼ Zieff. Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, ★★★ My Friend Flicka (1943) C-89m. D: Macaulay Culkin, Anna Chlumsky, RichHarold Schuster. Roddy McDowall, Presard Masur, Griffin Dunne, Ann Nelson, Peter ton Foster, Rita Johnson, Jeff Corey, James Michael Goetz, Tom Villard, Ray Buktenica. Bell. Sentimental story of boy who loves Likable if soft-centered tale of an 11-year-old rebellious horse; nicely done, beautifully girl crying for attention from her widowed filmed in color. Followed by sequel THUNfather, a mortician who doesn’t know how to DERHEAD, SON OF FLICKA and a TV reach out to his precocious daughter. Bitterseries. Remade in 2006 as FLICKA. ▼쩠 sweet comedy touches on love, friendship, puMy Friend Irma (1949) 103m. ★★ D: berty, and most of all, death, but its telling George Marshall. Marie Wilson, John Lund, moments are muted by an overall air of preDiana Lynn, Don DeFore, Dean Martin, dictability. Appealing cast sparked by ChlumJerry Lewis, Hans Conried. Based on radio sky’s mature performance. Followed by a series, movie concerns Wilson in title role Culkin-less sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 as dumb blonde, Lynn as her level-headed My Girl 2 (1994) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Howard pal, encountering wacky Martin and Lewis Zieff. Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, in their film debut. Followed by a sequel. Anna Chlumsky, Austin O’Brien, Richard Later a TV series.▼●쩠 Masur, Christine Ebersole, John David My Friend Irma Goes West (1950) 90m. Souther, Angeline Ball, Aubrey Morris, ★★1⁄2 D: Hal Walker. John Lund, Marie Gerrit Graham, Ben Stein, Richard Beymer, Wilson, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, CoGeorge D. Wallace. Budding teenager Chlumrinne Calvet, Diana Lynn, Lloyd Corrigan, sky travels to L.A. (where her uncle lives) to try Don Porter, Kenneth Tobey. Daffy Irma and learn something about her mother, who (Wilson) and pals join Martin and Lewis on died giving birth to her; her companion on their trek to Hollywood.쩠 this odyssey is the son of her uncle’s girlMy Gal Sal (1942) C-103m. ★★★ D: Irving friend. Bland but likeable fodder aimed squarely at young viewers. [PG]▼●쩠 Cummings. Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, John Sutton, Carole Landis, James Gleason, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend SEE: BoyPhil Silvers, Mona Maris, Walter Catlett. Nosfriends and Girlfriends talgic Gay 90s musical about songwriter Paul My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys (1991) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart RosenDresser (Mature) in love with beautiful singer Hayworth. Includes Dresser’s songs, such as berg. Scott Glenn, Kate Capshaw, Ben title tune and other old-time numbers. The Johnson, Balthazar Getty, Tess Harper, two stars (and knockout Technicolor) really Gary Busey, Mickey Rooney, Clarence put this one across. That’s co-choreographer Williams III, Dub Taylor, Clu Gulager, Hermes Pan featured with Rita in the ‘‘Gay Dennis Fimple. Aging collection of contuWhite Way’’ number. Based on the story My sions (Glenn) comes home from the rodeo Brother Paul by Theodore Dreiser. circuit to care for his father, only to battle My Geisha (1962) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack sis and her husband, who’d just as soon Cardiff. Shirley MacLaine, Yves Montand, the old man be put away. If you’ve seen Edward G. Robinson, Bob Cummings, Sam Peckinpah’s sublime JUNIOR BONYoko Tani. Occasionally amusing comedy. NER (which also featured Johnson) this MacLaine is movie star who tries the hard has got to ring a bit hollow. Capable cast way to convince husband-director Montand looks good in blue jeans, but cowpie cinthat she’s right for his movie. Loosely based ema has been better served. [PG]▼● on MacLaine’s relationship with husband My Kid Could Paint That (2007) C-84m. ★★★ Steve Parker (who produced the film). D: Amir Bar-Lev. Fascinating docuFilmed in Japan. Technirama.▼●쩠 mentary about Marla Olmstead, a 4-yearMy Giant (1998) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael old girl whose abstract paintings became the Lehmann. Billy Crystal, Gheorghe Murehit of the New York art world until quessan, Kathleen Quinlan, Joanna Pacula, Zane tions surfaced about their authenticity. What Carney, Jere Burns, Dan Castellaneta, Harold begins as an amusing look at modern art Gould, Doris Roberts, Lorna Luft, Estelle becomes an unsettling examination of the Harris, Steven Seagal. Ne’er-do-well showbiz nature of documentary filmmaking itself, agent chances to meet a 7'7" giant in Romaunintended by director Bar-Lev, who found nia—and sees in him a way to resurrect his himself caught between his relationship career and win back his estranged wife and with the Olmstead family and the facts he [ 958 ]

felt obliged to pursue. The film allows the ultimately an honest depiction of the often viewer to draw his own conclusions, and confusing nature of childhood. Glanzelius raises questions that are troubling and well is excellent in the lead; based on an autoworth considering. [PG-13]쩠 biographical novel by Reidar Jo¨nsson. Later My Left Foot (1989-Irish) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 a cable-TV series. ▼●쩠 D: Jim Sheridan. Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda My Life’s in Turnaround (1994) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric Schaeffer, Donal Lardner Ward. Fricker, Ray McAnally, Hugh O’Conor, Fiona Shaw, Cyril Cusack, Adrian DunEric Schaeffer, Donal Lardner Ward, Lisa bar, Ruth McCabe, Alison Whelan. ExGerstein, Dana Wheeler Nicholson, Debra hilarating film with Day-Lewis in a tour de Clein, Sheila Jaffe, John Dore, John Sayles, force as Christy Brown, feisty Irish artistMartha Plimpton, Phoebe Cates, Casey writer who was born with cerebral palsy. Siemaszko. Tired inside-Hollywood (or This is no disease-of-the-week weeper; it’s fringes-of-Hollywood) comedy might elicit an intensely moving story with just the a few approving snorts from the rarefied right touches of humor, warmth, and audience for which it’s intended. Aspiring poignancy. Fricker and McAnally are ideal filmmakers exploit any presumed break that as Christy’s parents, and O’Conor is absocomes their way, be it a taxicab encounter lutely remarkable as the young Christy. with Phoebe Cates or a restaurant encounter Sheridan coscripted (with Shane Conwith Martha Plimpton. Someone should have put this in turnaround.▼쩠 naughton) from Brown’s autobiography. Lovely score by Elmer Bernstein. Both My Life So Far (1999-English-Scottish) C93m. ★★★ D: Hugh Hudson. Colin Firth, Day-Lewis and Fricker won Oscars for their performances. [R]▼●쩠 Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Malcolm My Life (1993) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce McDowell, Rosemary Harris, Ire`ne Jacob, Joel Rubin. Michael Keaton, Nicole KidRobert Norman, Tche´ky Karyo, Brendan man, Haing S. Ngor, Bradley Whitford, Gleeson. Delightful memoir of growing up Queen Latifah, Michael Constantine, in an eccentric family, set in the Scottish Rebecca Schull, Mark Lowenthal, Lee Garhighlands during the 1920s and ’30s. Firth lington, Toni Sawyer. Successful ad execuis a dreamer/inventor, Mastrantonio his pative, whose wife is pregnant, learns he’s tient wife, McDowell his scheming mandying and doesn’t know how to deal with about-town brother who has no patience for the unfinished business in his life (particuFirth’s peccadilloes, and Jacob the alluring larly his feelings of anger toward his famFrenchwoman who captures the imaginaily) or the fact that he may never see his tion of every male in the household. Spirchild. Many truthful and poignant moments ited, funny, and handsomely made. Based in this unabashed tearjerker, but contrivon the book Son of Adam by Sir Denis ances ultimately take over—especially Forman. [PG-13]▼쩠 toward the finale. Directing debut for My Life to Live (1963-French) 85m. ★★★ screenwriter Rubin (the screenwriter of anD: Jean-Luc Godard. Anna Karina, Saddy other misty-eyed Hollywood concoction, Rebbot, Andre S. Labarthe, Guylaine Schlumberger. Complex, fascinating 12GHOST). [PG-13]▼●쩠 My Life and Times with Antonin Artaud chapter portrait of a prostitute (Karina, (1994-French) 93m. ★★ D: Ge´rard Mordilwho was then wed to Godard), told in lat. Sami Frey, Marc Barbe´, Julie Je´ze´quel, documentary style. Probing look at the Valerie Jeannet, Clotilde de Bayser, Charmanner in which women and men view lotte Valandrey. Slow-moving fiction set in one another—and a celluloid valentine to 1946, depicting the curious friendship beKarina, upon whose mere presence Godard tween Jacques Prevel (Barbe´), an eager, seems to be transfixed. Aka VIVRE SA starving young poet, and Artaud (Frey), the VIE. ▼●쩠 brilliant but tortured, self-involved, and My Life With Caroline (1941) 81m. ★★1⁄2 drug-addicted writer/actor/intellectual who D: Lewis Milestone. Ronald Colman, Anna has just been released from an asylum. A Lee, Charles Winninger, Reginald Gardireal downer, of interest mainly to aficionaner, Gilbert Roland. Colman’s charm susdos of Artaud. Crisply filmed in b&w; also tains this frothy comedy of man suspecting in 1993, Mordillat codirected a companion his wife of having a lover. documentary, THE TRUE STORY OF ARMy Life Without Me (2003-SpanishCanadian) C-106m. ★★★ D: Isabel Coixet. TAUD THE MOMO.▼쩠 My Life as a Dog (1985-Swedish) C-101m. Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, Deborah ★★★ D: Lasse Hallstro¨m. Anton Glanzelius, Harry, Mark Ruffalo, Leonor Watling, Tomas von Bro¨mssen, Anki Liden, MeAmanda Plummer, Julian Richings, Maria linda Kinnaman, Kicki Rundgren, Ing-mari de Medeiros. A trailer-dwelling mom in her Carlsson. Warm-hearted look at the tumulearly ’20s (Polley) learns that she has incurtuous life of an irrepressibly mischievous able cancer. She makes a list of things she 12-year-old boy who’s shipped off to live wants to accomplish in her remaining time with relatives in a rural village in 1950s on earth, including preparing her children Sweden. Both comedic and poignant, this is for her absence and having an affair—in [ 959 ]

this case, with a Laundromat acquaintance Lombard and crazy household hiring Pow(Ruffalo). Polley nips the potential for any ell as butler thinking he’s a tramp who mawkish excess, but modestly moving needs a job; he teaches them that money drama isn’t a one-woman show. Richings is isn’t everything. Auer is impressive as a standout as a shy, gentle doctor mortified starving artist, sheltered by patroness Brady. by his bad-news plight. Adapted by the diBut Pallette—as harried head of houserector from a short story by Nanci Kincaid. hold—has some of the best lines. ScreenAlfred Molina appears unbilled. [R] ▼쩠 play by Morrie Ryskind and Eric Hatch, My Little Chickadee (1940) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: from Hatch’s novel. Jane Wyman is an extra Edward Cline. Mae West, W. C. Fields, in the party scene. Classic screwball comedy; Joseph Calleia, Dick Foran, Ruth Donnelly, remade in 1957.▼쩠 Margaret Hamilton, Donald Meek. Team of My Man Godfrey (1957) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: West and Fields out West is good, but should Henry Koster. June Allyson, David Niven, have been funnier; W. C.’s saloon scenes are Martha Hyer, Eva Gabor, Jeff Donnell. notable. The two stars also wrote screenShallow compared to original, but on its play.▼●쩠 own a harmless comedy of rich girl Allyson My Little Girl (1986) C-113m. ★★★ D: finding life’s truths from butler Niven. Connie Kaiserman. Mary Stuart Masterson, CinemaScope.▼ James Earl Jones, Geraldine Page, Pamela My Mom’s New Boyfriend (2008) C-97m. ★★ Payton Wright, Anne Meara, Peter GallD: George Gallo. Antonio Banderas, agher, Page Hannah, Erika Alexander, Traci Meg Ryan, Colin Hanks, Selma Blair, Trevor Lin, Jordan Charney, Jennifer Lopez. SubMorgan, John Valdeterro, Eli Danker, Keith tle, perceptive account of affluent, romantic, David, Enrico Colantoni, Marco St. John. naive young Masterson, who volunteers to Flatfooted comedy casts a willing Ryan as work one summer in a children’s detention Hanks’ fat, depressed mother who—while center. Extremely well played by all, with a he’s gone, training as an FBI agent—slims special nod to Alexander and Lin (as a pair down and rejuvenates her life. But when he of troubled, abused girls). [R]▼● brings his fiance´e home he discovers that his My Little Pony (1986) C-89m. ★★ D: now-hot mom is being wooed by a slick art Michael Joens. Voices of Danny DeVito, thief (Banderas), who’s a wanted man. This Madeline Kahn, Tony Randall, Cloris might have played better as a broad farce; as Leachman, Rhea Pearlman. Animated fanit is it just lies there. Released direct to DVD. tasy pits the good Little Ponies against an Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 evil witch. Highlight is an encounter with My Mother’s Castle (1990-French) Cthe Smooze, an evergrowing mass of living 98m. ★★★ D: Yves Robert. Julien Caimaca, lava—a good idea hampered by bad animaPhilippe Caubere, Nathalie Roussel, Didier tion. Too ‘‘cute’’ for anyone over the age Pain, Therese Liotard. Sweet, warm conof 7. Followed by a TV series. [G]▼쩠 tinuation of the story which begins in MY My Love Letters SEE: Love Letters (1983) FATHER’S GLORY. Here, young Marcel My Main Man From Stony Island SEE: further enjoys weekend family outings to Stony Island his beloved Provence. Based on Marcel My Man SEE: Mon Homme Pagnol’s childhood memoirs; a notch beMy Man Adam (1985) C-84m. ★★ D: low the first film, but still most worthRoger L. Simon. Raphael Sbarge, Page while (and must-viewing in tandem with Hannah, Veronica Cartwright, Larry B. its predecessor, as well as with Claude Scott, Dave Thomas, Charlie Barnett, AusBerri’s JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON tin Pendleton. Yet another youth wishOF THE SPRING).▼쩠 fulfillment comedy, done as a teen version My Name is Joe (1998-British-German) Cof UP THE SANDBOX. Sbarge is a pizza 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Loach. Peter Mullan, delivery boy who fantasizes about dreamgirl Louise Goodall, Gary Lewis, Lorraine McHannah (Daryl’s redheaded sister, in her Intosh, David McKay, Anne-Marie Kennedy, first starring role) and becomes involved in David Hayman, Scott Hannah. Likable loser a real-life murder adventure. Barely released Mullan is a recovering alcoholic eking out a film is pleasant but uneventful. [R]▼ life in Glasgow, Scotland. Mullan’s tentaMy Man and I (1952) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: William tive romance with health-care worker GooA. Wellman. Shelley Winters, Ricardo Mondall is worth a look . . . and more engaging talban, Wendell Corey, Claire Trevor, Robert than the melodramatic turn the story takes involving local thugs. [R]▼ Burton, Jack Elam. Interesting curio about cheerful, kindly Mexican-born Montalban, My Name Is John SEE: Legend of Hillwho despite his trials and struggles is fiercely billy John, The proud of his American citizenship. My Name Is Julia Ross (1945) 65m. ★★★ My Man Godfrey (1936) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: D: Joseph H. Lewis. Nina Foch, Dame Gregory La Cava. William Powell, Carole May Whitty, George Macready, Roland Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, EuVarno, Anita Bolster, Doris Lloyd. An ungene Pallette, Alan Mowbray, Mischa Auer, suspecting young woman answers a London Franklin Pangborn. Delightful romp with newspaper ad for a job and winds up the [ 960 ]

prisoner of a crazy family. Often cited as a brutality, but has several amusing sequences model B movie, it does go a long way on a and the comic chemistry of its stars. Not low budget, though it’s a bit more obvious released in the U.S. until 1997. Aka MY now than it must have been in 1945. Foch’s NEW PARTNER AT THE RACES. performance is still a standout. Later the My Night at Maud’s (1969-French) 105m. ★★★ inspiration for DEAD OF WINTER. D: Eric Rohmer. Jean-Louis Trintignant, My Name Is Nobody (1973-Italian-FrenchFranc¸oise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault, ★★★ D: Tonino Valerii. German) C-115m. Antoine Vitez. No. 3 of Rohmer’s ‘‘Six Henry Fonda, Terence Hill, Jean Martin, Moral Tales’’ is most intellectual, with Leo Gordon, R. G. Armstrong, Steve Trintignant as moral Catholic man infatuKanaly, Geoffrey Lewis. Underrated, enated with woman completely unlike himjoyable if overlong Western spoof with self. Talky, fascinating, more specialized Hill as an easygoing gunman who worin appeal than later entries in series. Barrault’s first film. [PG]▼●쩠 ships aging Fonda, a gunfighter who wants to retire. Filmed in the U.S. and Spain; My Old Man’s Place (1972) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 produced by Sergio Leone. Released in D: Edwin Sherin. Mitchell Ryan, Arthur Italy at 130m. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Kennedy, William Devane, Michael MorMy Neighbor Totoro (1988-Japanese) iarty, Topo Swope. Moriarty (in his first film) returns home from war with two soldier C-86m. ★★★ D: Hayao Miyazaki. Voices of Lisa Michaelson, Cheryl Chase, Greg pals; inevitable tensions lead to rape and Snegoff, Natalie Core, Kenneth Hartman. murder. Not profound, but moody and interesting. Original title: GLORY BOY. [R]▼ Gentle, infectious animated tale of two young sisters in rural Japan and their magiMy Own Private Idaho (1991) C-102m. ★★1 cal adventures with Totoro, a giant furry ⁄2 D: Gus Van Sant. River Phoenix, forest spirit. Beautiful art direction and Keanu Reeves, James Russo, William excellent English language dubbing raise Richert, Rodney Harvey, Flea, Grace this a couple of notches above other Zabriskie, Tom Troupe, Udo Kier. Uniquely Japanimation imports. Ideal for small fry distinctive portrayal of male street-hustling and parents; older kids may chafe at the in the American Northwest, with Phoenix story’s leisurely pace. Wait till you see the as a narcoleptic sex-for-hiree and Reeves 12-legged cat-bus! Story and script by Miyaas the son of Portland’s mayor—slumming zaki, the ‘‘Walt Disney of Japan.’’ Released in the trade. Film opens terrifically, promin U.S. in 1993. [G]▼●쩠 ising to surpass even Van Sant’s DRUGMy New Gun (1992) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: STORE COWBOY—then gets bogged Stacy Cochran. Diane Lane, James LeGros, down in a long, dreadfully conceived gay Stephen Collins, Tess Harper, Bill Raymond, variation on Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part Bruce Altman, Maddie Corman, Natasha I, from which it never fully recovers. Many Lyonne, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Deadpotent scenes, though, and Phoenix is expan comedy about a quietly put-upon suburcellent; cult status is assured. [R]▼●쩠 ban housewife whose life takes unexpected My Pleasure Is My Business (1974turns when her loutish husband insists on Canadian) C-85m. BOMB D: Al Waxman. buying her a .38 pistol. Some amusing moXaviera Hollander, Henry Ramer, Colin Fox, ments and wry performances, but the film Kenneth Lynch, Jayne Eastwood. ‘‘The seems a bit undernourished. Feature debut Happy Hooker’’ makes her own attempt at for writer-director Cochran. [R]▼●쩠 acting in this witless comedy which purMy New Partner (1984-French) C-106m. ports to tell her true story (albeit just as ★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Zidi. Philippe Noiret, Thierry cleaned-up as THE HAPPY HOOKER itLhermitte, Regine, Grace de Capitani, Claude self). Hollander is so expressionless she Brosset. So-so comedy-drama about corrupt can’t even play herself well. [R]▼ veteran cop Noiret, and how he responds Myra Breckinridge (1970) C-94m. BOMB when teamed with by-the-book rookie LherD: Michael Sarne. Mae West, John Huston, mitte. Noiret is fine as always, but the film is Raquel Welch, Rex Reed, Roger Herren, strictly standard (despite its great popularity Farrah Fawcett, Jim Backus, John Carradine, in France and its Best Picture/Director Ce´sar Andy Devine, Grady Sutton. Gore Vidal’s loosely structured comic novel about sexawards). Followed by a sequel. [R]▼● My New Partner 2 (1990-French) C-107m. change operation was probably unfilmable, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Claude Zidi. Philippe Noiret, but this version doesn’t even give book a Thierry Lhermitte, Guy Marchand, Line Rechance; as bad as any movie ever made, it naud, Grace de Capitani, Michel Aumont, tastelessly exploits many old Hollywood Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Jean-Claude Brialy. favorites through film clips. That’s Tom Intricately plotted sequel finds the amiably Selleck—minus mustache—as one of Mae’s corrupt French cops suspended from the ‘‘studs.’’ Panavision. [R—edited from origiforce and plotting to oust their replacenal X rating]▼쩠 ments, who turn out to be even more corrupt My Reputation (1946) 94m. ★★★ D: Curtis than they were! Breezy farce deals frivoBernhardt. Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, lously with such serious issues as police Warner Anderson, Lucile Watson, John [ 961 ]

Ridgely, Eve Arden, Jerome Cowan, Esther Dale, Scotty Beckett, Bobby Cooper. Wellmounted soaper with Stanwyck excellent as a long-stifled recent widow who causes scandal in her conservative community when she begins dating Major Brent. Completed in 1944.쩠 My Science Project (1985) C-94m. BOMB D: Jonathan Beteul. John Stockwell, Danielle Von Zerneck, Fisher Stevens, Raphael Sbarge, Dennis Hopper, Barry Corbin, Ann Wedgeworth, Richard Masur. Laughless, often tasteless comedy about high school kids who unearth an other-worldly device that can create time and space warps. Lost in the quagmire is Hopper in funny role as a latter-day hippie science teacher. Panavision. [PG]

Robertson, David Janssen, Eileen Heckart, Hans Conried, Alice Pearce, Jim Backus. Syrupy fluff of theater star Reynolds ‘‘adopting’’ six waifs. VistaVision. My Son John (1952) 122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leo McCarey. Helen Hayes, Robert Walker, Dean Jagger, Van Heflin, Frank McHugh, Richard Jaeckel. Archetypal apple-pie parents (Hayes, Jagger) suspect their son (Walker) of being a Communist in this reactionary period piece. Dramatically overwrought, but fascinating as social history. Walker (who’s superb) died before film was finished; most shots of him in final reel are cribbed from STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. My Son the Fanatic (1997-British) C-89m. ★★★ D: Udayan Prasad. Om Puri, Rachel Griffiths, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Akbar Kurtha, ▼●쩠 My Side of the Mountain (1969) C-100m. Gopi Desai, Harish Patel, Bhasker Patel. ★★1 Writer Hanif Kureishi again examines a Pa⁄2 D: James B. Clark. Ted Eccles, Theodore Bikel, Tudi Wiggins, Frank Perry, kistani coming to terms with his life in EnPeggi Loder. Children should enjoy this tale gland. In this case it’s a taxi driver (Puri) about 13-year-old Canadian boy who runs who’s alienated from his wife, and whose son away from home to get closer to nature. is rebelling against him for reasons he can’t Panavision. [G]▼쩠 understand—even while he fosters a relaMy Sister Eileen (1942) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: tionship with prostitute Griffiths. A multiAlexander Hall. Rosalind Russell, Brian layered story, pointed and insightful.▼쩠 Aherne, Janet Blair, George Tobias, Allyn My Son, the Hero (1962-Italian) C-122m. ★★ D: Duccio Tessari. Pedro Armendariz, Joslyn, Elizabeth Patterson, June Havoc. Amusing tale of two Ohio girls trying to Jacqueline Sassard, Antonella Lualdi, Giulisurvive in Greenwich Village apartment; ano Gemma. Costume picture about evil strained at times. Belongs mainly to RusKing Cadmus of Thebes, who defies the sell as older sister of knockout Blair. Ruth gods and faces the wrath of the Titans. OrigMcKinney, Joseph Fields, and Jerome inally released in the U.S. at 111m., with Chodorov adapted their Broadway hit (based comic dubbing a` la WHAT’S UP, TIGER on McKinney’s autobiographical book). LILY?, which it preceded. Remade as a musical in 1955 (and musiMy Son, The Vampire SEE: Mother calized on Broadway as Wonderful Town). Riley Meets the Vampire Finale features a gag cameo. ▼● My Stepmother Is an Alien (1988) C1 ★★★ My Sister Eileen (1955) C-108m. ⁄2 D: 108m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Benjamin. Dan AykRichard Quine. Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, royd, Kim Basinger, Jon Lovitz, Alyson Jack Lemmon, Kurt Kasznar, Dick York, Hannigan, Joseph Maher, Ann Prentiss Horace McMahon, Robert (Bob) Fosse, (voice of purse), Seth Green, Wesley Mann, Tommy Rall. Delightful, unpretentious muHarry Shearer (voice of Carl Sagan). Lussical version of 1942 movie about Ohio cious Basinger, who knows nothing of girls seeking success in the big city, moving romance or sex, marries widowed scientist into nutty Greenwich Village apartment. Es(Aykroyd); he wants to settle into domesticity, pecially interesting to see young Lemmon while her mind is only on saving her planet singing and equally young Fosse dancing; from destruction. Somehow, Jimmy Durante this was the first film he choreographed on imitations get worked into this lowbrow, his own. Not to be confused with the Broadhigh-concept comedy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 way musical Wonderful Town, based on the Mysterians, The (1957-Japanese) C-85m. ★★1 same source. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Ishiro Honda. Kenji Sahara, My Sister, My Love SEE: Mafu Cage, Yumi Shirakawa, Momoko Kochi, Akihiko The Hirata. Centuries after the destruction of My Six Convicts (1952) 104m. ★★★ D: Hugo their planet, the title aliens land on Earth, Fregonese. Millard Mitchell, Gilbert Roland, install an impregnable dome by a lake, and John Beal, Marshall Thompson, Alf Kjellin, demand women. The world does not take this Henry (Harry) Morgan, Jay Adler, Regis well. Colorful special effects and fast pace Toomey, John Marley, Charles Buchinsky make this one of the better Japanese (Bronson). Unusual comedy of prison life censci-fis. Tohoscope.▼쩠 tering on title group who manage to make jail Mysterious Island (1961-British) C-101m. ★★★ D: Cy Endfield. Michael Craig, Joan routine tolerable, egged on by prison psychiatrist. Greenwood, Michael Callan, Gary MerMy Six Loves (1963) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: rill, Herbert Lom. Deliberately paced fanGower Champion. Debbie Reynolds, Cliff tasy adventure based on two-part Jules [ 962 ]

Verne novel, a sequel to his 20,000 Leagues powers uniting to rescue a genuine hero Under the Sea. Confederate prison escapees from an evil villain. Good dialogue and a hijack observation balloon and are blown fun cast make up for the overblown special off course; find uncharted island with gieffects and cluttered array of characters. gantic animals. Great special effects by [PG-13]▼●쩠 Ray Harryhausen; rousing Bernard HerrMystery of Edwin Drood, The (1935) mann score. Filmed before in 1929. Remade 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Walker. Claude Rains, for cable TV in 2005. ▼●쩠 Douglass Montgomery, Heather Angel, Mysterious Lady (1928) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Manners, E. E. Clive, Francis (L.) Fred Niblo. Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel, Sullivan, Valerie Hobson. Seemingly reGustav von Seyffertitz, Albert Pollet, Edward spectable English choirmaster Rains is actuConnelly. Austrian military officer (Nagel) ally responsible for horrible murder. Pretty falls in love with Garbo, unaware that she’s good Hollywood adaptation of Charles a Russian spy. Another contrived plot made Dickens’ unfinished novel, which inspired a worthwhile by Garbo herself.▼쩠 Broadway musical in the 1980s. Remade in 1993.▼ Mysterious Skin (2004) C-99m. ★★★ D: Gregg Araki. Brady Corbet, Joseph GordonMystery of Edwin Drood, The (1993Levitt, Elisabeth Shue, Mary Lynn Rajskub, British) C-102m. ★★ D: Timothy Forder. Michelle Trachtenberg, Jeffrey Licon, Lisa Robert Powell, Michelle Evans, Jonathan Long, Bill Sage, George Webster, Chase ElPhillips, Rupert Rainsford, Finty Williams, lison, Richard Riehle, Billy Drago, Chris Peter Pacey, Nanette Newman, Freddie Mulkey. Absorbing, disturbing drama about Jones, Gemma Craven, Rosemary Leach, two adolescents who are linked by a painful Ronald Fraser. Dickens’ unfinished novel incident in their past. One (Gordon-Levitt) of a suspicious choirmaster, whose deadly is a reckless, jaded gay hustler; the other jealousy over his fiance´e gets him into hot (Corbet) is a deeply troubled introvert who water, gets another go-round here, but the has erased the occurrence from his memory. results are mediocre at best. Powell is an Often difficult to watch, but well worth uncharismatic lead, but the cast is peppered seeing and pondering. The director scripted, with familiar British actors.▼ based on a novel by Scott Heim. [NC-17]쩠 Mystery of Kaspar Hauser, The SEE: Every Mystery, Alaska (1999) C-118m. ★★ D: Man for Himself and God Against All Jay Roach. Russell Crowe, Burt Reynolds, Mystery of Oberwald, The (1980-Italian) Hank Azaria, Mary McCormack, Lolita DaC-129m. ★★ D: Michelangelo Antonioni. vidovich, Colm Meaney, Maury Chaykin, Monica Vitti, Ahmad Saha Alan, Paolo BoRon Eldard, Michael McKean, Mike Myers, nacelli, Franco Branciaroli, Luigi Diberti, Little Richard. Remote Alaskan town’s Elisabetta Pozzi. Static adaptation of Cochockey team is given the chance to play teau’s play The Eagle Has Two Heads, against the professional N.Y. Rangers as a about a queen who protects and gradually publicity stunt. A hodgepodge of characters falls in love with an assassin sent to kill her. and an inevitable big-game finale, coupled Notable for being shot on video and then with derivative storylines, prove that David transferred to 35mm., as well as for the diE. Kelley (who coscripted and coproduced) rector’s experiments with some odd and should stick to TV. Crowe is the only one to rather labored color effects, which do little rise above the material. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 to relieve the tedium of the melodramatic Mystery Date (1991) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: plot. ▼ Jonathan Wacks. Ethan Hawke, Teri Polo, Mystery of Picasso, The (1956-French) Brian McNamara, Fisher Stevens, B. D. C-85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Wong, Tony Rosato, Don Davis, James Fascinating documentary about Pablo PiHong, Victor Wong. Shy Hawke dreams casso, who discusses his work and creates of dating a dishy neighbor, so older brother a number of paintings before the camera McNamara rings her up and arranges a (all of which were destroyed after shooting date . . . but it turns out he has an agenda ended, meaning that they exist only on of his own, which includes a corpse in the film). Photographed by Claude (nephew of trunk of the car Hawke is driving. SurprisJean and grandson of Auguste) Renoir. ingly black youth comedy with more than CinemaScope (part).▼●쩠 a few unexpected twists. Wong is a scream Mystery of Rampo, The SEE: Rampo as a criminal rival in McNamara’s highMystery of the Wax Museum (1933) C77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. Lionel Atwill, stakes schemes. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mystery Men (1999) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fay Wray, Glenda Farrell, Allen Vincent, Kinka Usher. Hank Azaria, Claire Forlani, Frank McHugh, Arthur Edmund Carewe. Janeane Garofalo, Greg Kinnear, William Vintage horror film strays somewhat into H. Macy, Kel Mitchell, Lena Olin, Paul excess ‘‘comic relief’’ and contrivances, but Reubens, Geoffrey Rush, Ben Stiller, Wes plot of madman Atwill encasing victims in Studi, Tom Waits, Jenifer Lewis, Ricky Jay, wax, with Farrell next on his list, is still Louise Lasser, Eddie Izzard. Silly, flimsy exciting. Filmed in early two-color Technistory of wannabe superheroes with specious color; noteworthy as first horror film with [ 963 ]

contemporary urban setting. Remade as Mystic River (2003) C-138m. ★★★1⁄2 D: HOUSE OF WAX. ▼●쩠 Clint Eastwood. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Movie (1996) C-73m. ★★★ D: Jim Mallon. Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Kevin ChapMichael J. Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin man, Thomas Guiry, Emmy Rossum. The Murphy, Jim Mallon, John Brady. Theatrilives of three boyhood pals from a tightcal presentation of cable TV cult favorite knit, working-class Boston neighborhood has shorter running time than an average intersect years later: one is now a cop, anepisode but just as many laughs. Nelson other a potent figure in the community, and plays a hapless human trapped on orbiting the other still bears deep emotional scars spaceship with crew of wisecracking puppet from a tragic childhood incident. Brian Helrobots, forced to watch an edited version geland expertly adapted Dennis Lehane’s of 1955’s sci-fi outing THIS ISLAND powerful novel about friendship, murder, EARTH. Silhouettes of Nelson and robots neighborhood ties, and a criminal code of appear at lower right of screen, and their honor. Penn and his costars are exceptional, running commentary during the film is often and Eastwood’s handling of the material is hilarious. Brief framing setup and occamasterful, if perhaps too leisurely at times. sional break segments throughout are not Penn and Robbins won Oscars for their perso clever, especially compared to original formances. Eli Wallach and Kevin Conway series created by comedian Joel Hodgson. appear unbilled. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 [PG-13]▼●쩠 Mystique SEE: Circle of Power Mystery Submarine (1963-British) 90m. My Summer Story SEE: It Runs in My ★1 ⁄2 D: C. M. Pennington-Richards. Edward Family Judd, James Robertson Justice, Laurence My Summer of Love (2004-British) CPayne, Arthur O’Sullivan, Albert Lieven. 86m. ★★★ D: Pawel Pawlikowski. Nathalie Tame WW2 espionage tale of German sub Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine, Dean manned by British crew—captured by Andrews, Michelle Byrne, Paul AntonyEnglish fleet. Aka DECOY. Barber, Lynette Edwards, Kathryn Sumner. Mystery Train (1989) C-113m. ★★★ D: Emotion-packed coming-of-age drama that Jim Jarmusch. Masatoshi Nagase, Youki happily veers from formula. Two adolesKudoh, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Cinque cent girls meet one summer at a Yorkshire Lee, Nicoletta Braschi, Elizabeth Bracco, village and become fast friends: workingJoe Strummer, Rick Aviles, Steve Buscemi, class Mona (Press), who is shy and lives Tom Noonan, Rockets Redglare, Rufus with her ex-con, born-again Christian Thomas; voice of Tom Waits. Typically brother, and Tamsin (Blunt), who is aggresquirky slice-of-life from Jarmusch, trio of stosive and presents herself as experienced and ries depicts foreigners’ stays in sleazy Memsophisticated. As their relationship deepens, phis hotel. Jarmusch’s minimalist style results their story becomes intricate in ways that in some slow stretches, but there are enough are better seen than described. Based on a genuinely funny moments to make this worth novel by Helen Cross. [R]쩠 seeing. [R]▼●쩠 My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) C-96m. Mystic Masseur, The (2002-U.S.-French) ★★ D: Ivan Reitman. Uma Thurman, Luke C-117m. ★★ D: Ismail Merchant. Aasif Wilson, Rainn Wilson, Anna Faris, Eddie Mandvi, Om Puri, Ayesha Dharker, James Izzard, Wanda Sykes, Stelio Savante, Mike Fox, Jimi Mistry, Sakina Jaffrey, Zohra Iorio, Mark Consuelos. After breaking up Segal. Rare directorial effort from the prowith a needy art gallery owner with emoducing half of the Merchant-Ivory team is tional problems, an architect learns the hard an adaptation of Nobel laureate V.S. Naiway that hell hath no fury like a woman paul’s novel about a fledgling author who scorned—especially when that woman is suddenly becomes known for his ‘‘mystiactually a superhero bent on revenge. The cal’’ abilities to heal people. First part of cast is likable and the concept of a neurotic the film is more successful than the second, female superhero is amusing, but the film when it gets bogged down in politics. Actfizzles out in a welter of mechanical ploting is first-rate, however, and colorful locating, perfunctory action scenes, and shoddy tions in the Indian community of mid-20thspecial effects. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 century Trinidad add flavor. [PG]▼쩠 Myth of Fingerprints, The (1997) C-90m. Mystic Pizza (1988) C-104m. ★★ D: Don★★ D: Bart Freundlich. Blythe Danner, Roy ald Petrie. Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Scheider, Julianne Moore, Noah Wyle, Lili Taylor, Vincent D’Onofrio, William Arija Bareikis, Brian Kerwin, Michael VarR. Moses, Adam Storke, Conchata Ferrell, tan, Laurel Holloman, Hope Davis, James Joanna Merlin, Matt Damon. The amorous Le Gros. A dysfunctional New England adventures of three young women who family reunion at Thanksgiving reveals work at a pizzeria in Mystic, Connecticut. WASP angst simmering below the surface Superficial in the extreme but geared for a of gentility. Too many characters leave little young female audience. A ‘‘nice little film’’ time for any depth of understanding. Notathat isn’t all that good. [R]▼●쩠 [ 964 ]

ble casting includes Wyle as Scheider’s son; Nacho Libre (2006) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jared he was also associate producer. [R]▼쩠 Hess. Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera, He´cMy Tutor (1983) C-97m. ★★ D: George tor Jime´nez, Troy Gentile, Moises Arias, Bowers. Matt Lattanzi, Caren Kaye, Kevin Lauro Chartrand, Peter Stormare, Richard McCarthy, Arlene Golonka, Clark Brandon, Montoya. Extremely offbeat concept for a Bruce Bauer, Crispin Glover. Rich, hunky comedy feature casts Black as a Mexican (but still virginal) Lattanzi won’t graduate high friar who moonlights as a masked wrestler school unless he passes French, so his folks to raise money for the orphanage where he hire beautiful Kaye to spend the summer tuworks. Black’s engaging silliness is showtoring him. Earns points for sincerity, but cased against the kind of deadpan-humor credulity is low. [R]▼●쩠 landscape you’d expect from the director My 20th Century (1989-Hungarian) 92m. and writers of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE, ★★★ D: Ildiko Enyedi. Dorotha Segda, but it doesn’t jell as one might like. Black Oleg Jankovskij, Paulus Manker, Peter also coproduced. [PG]쩠 Andorai, Gabor Mate´. Compelling tale of Nada (1974-French-Italian) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 twin sisters, born in 1880 Budapest, who D: Claude Chabrol. Fabio Testi, Michel Duare separated during childhood; one bechaussoy, Maurice Garrel, Michel Aumont, comes a seductress, the other an anarchist. Lou Castel, Didier Kaminka, Viviane RoEnyedi incisively depicts an era that bemance, Mariangela Melato. Riveting politigins with promise, as Thomas Edison cal thriller about a group of hapless left(Andorai) demonstrates the wonders of elecwing terrorists who kidnap the American tricity, but develops into an age in which Ambassador to France, but then have to human relations do not keep pace with deal with a fascistic police chief who’s even technological innovation. Segda is excelmore violent than they are and doesn’t care lent as both sisters, and also appears as about getting the hostage back alive. Chatheir mother. Enyedi also scripted.▼● brol is at the top of his cool, calculated, and My Uncle SEE: Mon Oncle ultra-cynical form in this superbly filmed My Uncle Antoine (1971-Canadian) Cblend of razor-sharp action and absurdist 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Jutra. Jean Duceppe, humor. Written by Chabrol and Jean Patrick Olivette Thibault, Claude Jutra, Jacques Manchette, from the latter’s novel. Original Gagnon, Helene Loiselle. Fifteen-year-old running time: 134m. Aka THE NADA Gagnon observes those around him while GANG.▼쩠 growing up in a small mining town during Nadine (1987) C-82m. ★★★ Robert Benthe 1940s. Not bad, but nothing special. ton. Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, Rip Torn, Video title: MON ONCLE ANTOINE. ▼쩠 Gwen Verdon, Glenne Headly, Jerry Stiller, My Uncle, Mr. Hulot SEE: Mon Oncle Jay Patterson. Lightweight but pleasing comedy set in 1954 Austin, about a pregMy Wife is an Actress (2001-French) Cnant but nearly divorced hairdresser who 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yvan Attal. Charlotte accidentally witnesses a murder while Gainsbourg, Yvan Attal, Terence Stamp, trying to retrieve some nude ‘‘art studies’’ Noe´mie Lvovsky, Laurent Bateau, Ludivine she posed for in a weak moment. Very Sagnier. Sportswriter married to a Julia well cast, with Basinger a surprising standRoberts–type star must deal with her fame, out; catchy credit tune is performed by his jealousies, and trying to live a normal Sweethearts of the Rodeo. [PG]▼●쩠 life away from the spotlight. Entertaining Nadja (1994) 92m. ★★★ D: Michael Almefroth with star-writer-director Attal (who rereyda. Elina Lowensohn, Peter Fonda, Suzy sembles Al Pacino) delightful as the befudAmis, Galaxy Craze, Martin Donovan, dled hubby. Stamp also scores as the star’s Jared Harris, Karl Geary. Cleverly amusing latest leading man. Incidentally, Gainsbourg vampire movie with the vampirish title and Attal are married in real life. [R]▼쩠 character (perfectly played by Lowensohn) My Winnipeg (2008-Canadian) C/B&Wstalking the streets and late-night clubs of 80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Guy Maddin. Darcy Fehr, Manhattan’s East Village. Fonda is a hoot Ann Savage, Amy Stewart, Louis Negin, as ‘‘Dr. Van Helsing,’’ who has murdered Brendan Cade, Wesley Cade. Another ingeNadja’s father and now is after her and her nious, deeply personal cinematic exercise from twin brother. Most enjoyable, but the stylish Maddin, a self-described ‘‘docu-fantasia’’ in visuals sometimes swallow up the story. which he plays tour guide on a journey Filmed in b&w, in part using a plastic toy through his Winnipeg, Manitoba, homePixelvision video camera! Executive protown. Maddin narrates and offers up a subduced by David Lynch, who appears as a jective portrait of his childhood and the city morgue attendant. [R]▼●쩠 in which he came of age (and which defines Nails (1992) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Flynn. him). What is fact and what is exaggeraDennis Hopper, Anne Archer, Tomas Milian, tion? Who cares? Just sit back and enjoy. Keith David, Carlos Carrasco, Charles HalGreat to see Savage (of DETOUR fame) as lahan, Cliff De Young. Wired Hopper slips Maddin’s mother.쩠 into his profane, law-bending cop bit, battling [ 965 ]

druggies and crooked politicians. Misplaced St. John, Roy Engel, Eugene Iglesias, theatrical release debuted on cable.▼● Charita. Modern Western about a snowNaked (1993-British) C-131m. ★★★ D: balling series of crimes. Based on a story by Mike Leigh. David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Gorky, and much admired by Ulmer buffs. Katrin Cartlidge, Greg Cruttwell, Claire Naked Edge, The (1961) 99m. ★★1⁄2 Skinner, Peter Wight, Ewen Bremner. D: Michael Anderson. Gary Cooper, DebUnique, contemporary, energized examinaorah Kerr, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, tion of a drifter from Manchester (Thewlis) Hermione Gingold, Michael Wilding. Unwho arrives unannounced at an ex-girleven suspenser of Kerr thinking husband friend’s London flat and proceeds to verCooper is guilty of murder. Cooper’s last bally abuse and amuse everyone in sight. film, made in London.▼ Bleak, often brutal, and frequently hilarious Naked Face, The (1985) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 look at people drifting in an alienated modD: Bryan Forbes. Roger Moore, Rod ern society, with a very impressive perforSteiger, Elliott Gould, Anne Archer, Damance by Thewlis; its only real shortcoming vid Hedison, Art Carney. Change of pace is its overlength. Another challenging film for Moore, playing a psychiatrist suspected of from writer-director Leigh.▼●쩠 murdering one of his patients. Low-budget Naked and the Dead, The (1958) C-131m. adaptation of Sidney Sheldon novel crudely ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Aldo Ray, Cliff injects clues and red herrings. [R]▼ Robertson, Raymond Massey, William Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Campbell, Richard Jaeckel, James Best, Squad!, The (1988) C-85m. ★★★ D: David Joey Bishop, L. Q. Jones, Robert Gist, Zucker. Leslie Nielsen, George Kennedy, Lili St. Cyr, Barbara Nichols. Norman Priscilla Presley, Ricardo Montalban, O.J. Mailer’s intensive novel about WW2 solSimpson, Nancy Marchand. A failed (but diers in the Pacific gets superficial but loyally supported) TV sitcom, Police Squad, rugged filmization. Ray is the tough seris reincarnated as a hilarious feature film, geant, Robertson the rich-kid lieutenant, with a deadpan, dead-perfect Nielsen as Bishop the comic Jew, Jones the hick, Gist Lt. Frank Drebin, the stupidest law officer the loner, etc. RKO-Scope/WarnerScope.▼ since Inspector Clouseau. Writers David and 1 ★ Naked Ape, The (1973) C-85m. ⁄2 D: Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Pat Proft Donald Driver. Johnny Crawford, Victoria can’t keep their momentum from slowing a Principal, Dennis Oliveri, Diana Darrin. bit during the baseball game finale, but they Tongue-in-cheek Playboy production loosely provide solid, silly laughs from start to finish. Followed by two sequels. [PG-13]▼●쩠 based on the pop anthropology of Desmond Morris’s nonfiction best-seller. Snickering Naked Gun 21⁄2: The Smell of Fear, The (1991) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 (what else?) D: David sex jokes and mediocre animation (by Charles Swenson) add nothing to this episodic sumZucker. Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, mary of 10 million years of Man’s evolution. George Kennedy, O. J. Simpson, Robert Musical score by Jimmy Webb. [PG] Goulet, Richard Griffiths, Jacqueline ★★ Naked Cage, The (1986) C-97m. Brookes, Lloyd Bochner, Tim O’Connor, D: Paul Nicholas. Shari Shattuck, Angel TompPeter Mark Richman. Frank Drebin is back, kins, Lucinda Crosby, Faith Minton, Christhis time to save America from a plot tina Whitaker, John Terlesky. Standard hatched by oil, coal, and nuclear power women’s prison drama as innocent Stattuck brokers to keep the country from adopting a is framed for a bank robbery and ends up new energy policy. Lots of gags, some of in the slammer. [R]▼ them funny, but film lacks the freshness of its Naked City, The (1948) 96m. ★★★ D: Jules predecessor and empties out its bag of tricks sooner than it should. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dassin. Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Don Taylor, Dorothy Hart, Ted de Corsia, Naked Gun 331⁄3: The Final Insult (1994) House Jameson, Frank Conroy, David OpaC-82m. ★★1⁄3 (what else?) D: Peter Segal. toshu, Molly Picon, Celia Adler. Time (and Leslie Nielsen, Priscilla Presley, George decades of TV cop shows) have dulled the Kennedy, O.J. Simpson, Fred Ward, Kathedge of this once-trendsetting crime drama, leen Freeman, Anna Nicole Smith, Ellen produced by columnist Mark Hellinger on the Greene, Ed Williams, Randall ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb. streets of N.Y.C., following the investigation Sloppy sequel in which a now retired Frank of a murder case step by step. Fitzgerald is Drebin returns to Police Squad for one more still first-rate, cast against type as the detective case . . . losing the love of his wife in the in charge, and the cast is peppered with soonprocess. The most slapdash slapstick yet, to-be-familiar character actors (Arthur O’Conwith some real laughs here and there, and a nell, Paul Ford, James Gregory, et al.). Cinepassel of cameo appearances at the climacmatographer William Daniels and editor Paul tic Oscar ceremony. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Weatherwax won Oscars for their work. Naked in New York (1994) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 Screenplay by Albert Maltz and Malvin Wald. D: Dan Algrant. Eric Stoltz, Mary-Louise Later a TV series.▼●쩠 Parker, Ralph Macchio, Kathleen Turner, Naked Dawn, The (1955) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 Tony Curtis, Timothy Dalton, Jill ClayD: Edgar G. Ulmer. Arthur Kennedy, Betta burgh, Roscoe Lee Browne. Unsuccessful, but [ 966 ]

generally watchable backstage comedy about can who is pawn in bizarre plot to get him an aspiring playwright who can’t decide to assassinate enemy agent. Farfetched, too whether to pursue his career in N.Y.C. or reheavily plotted. Techniscope. ▼ main with the woman he loves in their Ivy Naked Space SEE: Creature Wasn’t League environment. Stoltz and Macchio Nice, The Naked Spur, The (1953) C-91m. ★★★1⁄2 aren’t aggressive enough for their roles, but Turner (as a soap actress) and Curtis (a D: Anthony Mann. James Stewart, Janet Broadway producer) give mild film a boost. Leigh, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Millard Mitchell. One of the best Westerns ever made: Amusing literati cameos. [R]▼●쩠 Naked Jungle, The (1954) C-95m. ★★★ a tough, hard little film about self-styled D: Byron Haskin. Eleanor Parker, Charlton bounty hunter Stewart trying to capture Ryan, Heston, Abraham Sofaer, William Conrad. who stirs tension among Stewart’s newly acHigh-class South American jungle adventure, quired ‘‘partners.’’ Strikingly directed and with Heston and wife Parker surrounded on photographed (by William Mellor) on locatheir plantation by advancing army of ants. tion in the Rockies. Written by Sam Rolfe and Harold Jack Bloom.▼쩠 Produced by George Pal.▼●쩠 Naked Kiss, The (1964) 93m. ★★★ D: SamNaked Tango (1991) C-90m. ★★ D: Leonuel Fuller. Constance Towers, Anthony Eisard Schrader. Vincent D’Onofrio, Mathilda ley, Michael Dante, Virginia Grey, Patsy May, Esai Morales, Fernando Rey, Cipe LinKelly, Betty Bronson. In-your-face melocovski, Josh Mostel, Constance McCashin. drama opens with a bang and never lets up, as Very dark look at the Tango underground of prostitute Towers arrives in a small town hop1920s Buenos Aires, in which the famous ing to start a new life. By turns lurid, sentidance symbolizes the obsessive and strange mental, romantic, surprising; a me´lange that passions of three people caught up in this could only have been concocted by writerforbidden world. Uneasy mixture of sex and director Fuller. ▼●쩠 violence, with an unconvincing central perforNaked Lunch (1991-Canadian-British) mance by D’Onofrio, though stunning producC-115m. ★★★ D: David Cronenberg. Peter tion design and cinematography compensate Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian a little for the murky storytelling. A real letSands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, down from the producer (David Weisman) Nicholas Campbell, Michael Zelniker, Roband screenwriter (Schrader) of KISS OF THE ert A. Silverman, Joseph Scorsiani. A noSPIDER WOMAN. [R] holds-barred, graphic filming of William Naked Truth, The SEE: Your Past Is S. Burroughs’ thoroughly unfilmable 1959 Showing novel, weaving elements of the author’s Naked Under Leather SEE: Girl on a life in with the fictional material. Weller is Motorcycle an aspiring writer and N.Y.C. exterminaNaked Warriors SEE: Arena, The tor in 1953; when his loony drug-addict Naked Weekend, The SEE: Circle of Power wife (Davis, who’s great) dies, the real story Name of the Rose, The (1986-ItalianGerman-French) C-130m. ★★ D: Jeantakes off. He is immersed in an extended, drug-laced odyssey to a Casablanca-like Jacques Annaud. Sean Connery, F. Murcommunity that’s seething with oddballs and ray Abraham, Christian Slater, Elya Baskin, weirdos. Cronenberg was undeniably the Feodor Chaliapin, Jr., William Hickey, right person to direct this, but be warned: Michael Lonsdale, Ron Perlman; narrated by mutating, oozing typewriter-size talking Dwight Weist. Unusual film (to say the least) bugs fill the screen throughout. [R]▼●쩠 based on Umberto Eco’s best-seller, which Naked Maja, The (1959) C-111m. ★★ D: places a Sherlock Holmesian monk (Connery) Henry Koster. Ava Gardner, Anthony in the midst of a mysterious Italian abbey Franciosa, Amedeo Nazzari, Gino Cervi, during the inquisition of the 13th century. Too Massimo Serato, Lea Padovani, Carlo Rizzo. provocative to dismiss, too lumbering to thorMishmash involving 18th-century Spanish oughly enjoy, buoyed considerably by Conpainter Goya and famed model for title nery’s charismatic performance. [R]▼●쩠 painting. Technirama.▼ Namesake, The (2007) C-122m. ★★★ D: Naked Night, The SEE: Sawdust and Tinsel Mira Nair. Kal Penn, Tabu, Irrfan Khan, Jacinda Barrett, Zuleikha Robinson, Ruma Naked Prey, The (1966) C-94m. ★★★ D: Cornel Wilde. Cornel Wilde, Gert Van Guha Thakurta, Tamal Roy Choudhury, Den Bergh, Ken Gampu. Harrowing, wellGlenne Headly, Daniel Gerroll, Linus Roache, done safari movie. African natives give Brooke Smith, Amy Wright, Heather Macprisoner Wilde headstart before they close Rae. Richly layered saga of a Bengali family’s in on him for kill, forcing Wilde to combat cultural journey, spanning two generations. them with savage tactics; memorable bruAfter an arranged marriage in Calcutta, a tal sequences. Panavision.▼●쩠 young man and his wife move to N.Y.C., Naked Runner, The (1967-British) Cwhere he pursues a career and she must ad1 ★ 104m. ⁄2 D: Sidney J. Furie. Frank Sinatra, just to life in a strange new land. Their son Peter Vaughan, Toby Robins, Edward Fox. (Penn) grows up an assimilated American Dull spy melodrama focusing on Ameriand has mixed feelings about his heritage, his [ 967 ]

identity, and even his name. Episodic drama Raucous period variation on MARY POPcovers some familiar territory about the clash PINS has an abundance of slapstick and groof cultures but delves beneath the surface and tesquerie, enacted by a first-class ensemble, is ultimately quite moving. Based on a novel but the end result is unmemorable. Thompson by Jhumpa Lahiri. [PG-13]쩠 scripted from the Nurse Matilda books by Christianna Brand. Super 35. [PG] 쩠 Namu, the Killer Whale (1966) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Laslo Benedek. Robert Lansing, Nanook of the North (1922) 79m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Anderson, Lee Meriwether, Richard Robert Flaherty. Pioneer documentary of Erdman, Robin Mattson. Intriguing tale, Eskimos’ daily life withstands the test of based on true story of naturalist Lansing time quite well, remains as absorbing saga, capturing and training a killer whale. Nicely well filmed. Set the standard for many done, good family fare. Aka NAMU, MY documentaries to follow. Soundtrack added BEST FRIEND. ▼쩠 in 1939. The film’s production is re-created in KABLOONAK. ▼쩠 Nancy Drew series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide Napoleon (1927-French) 235m. ★★★★ D: Nancy Drew (2007) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: AnAbel Gance. Albert Dieudonne´, Antonin drew Fleming. Emma Roberts, Josh Flitter, Artaud, Pierre Batcheff, Armand Bernard, Max Thieriot, Rachael Leigh Cook, Tate Harry Krimer, Albert Bras, Abel Gance. Donovan, Amy Bruckner, Barry Bostwick, Hard to put into words the impact of this Laura Elena Harring, Caroline Aaron, Pat monumental silent epic. Dieudonne´ mesCarroll, Adam Goldberg. Pleasant, somemerizingly plays the famed emperor; notawhat bland movie about the teenage sleuth ble sequences include snowball fight, the (created in the 1930s by ‘‘Carolyn Keene’’) Reign of Terror, and eye-popping threewho accompanies her father to L.A. and screen Polyvision finale. Recut and shortmoves into a creepy old house; it once beened many times over the years (often by longed to a glamorous movie star whose Gance himself), finally painstakingly pieced murder was never explained. Nancy has together by historian Kevin Brownlow and promised her dad she won’t ‘‘sleuth’’ anyreissued in 1981 with a serviceable music more but she just can’t help it. Roberts is score by Carmine Coppola. Not the kind good as Nancy, who’s portrayed as the ultiof film one can best appreciate on TV. mate square. Bruce Willis, Eddie Jemison, Filmed in part-widescreen triptych.▼● and Chris Kattan appear unbilled. Super 35. Napoleon and Samantha (1972) C-92m. ★★1 [PG]쩠 ⁄2 D: Bernard McEveety. Michael DougNanny, The (1965-British) 93m. ★★★ D: las, Jodie Foster, Johnny Whitaker, Will Seth Holt. Bette Davis, Wendy Craig, Jill Geer, Arch Johnson, Henry Jones. Disney tale Bennett, James Villiers, Pamela Franklin, of two kids who run away with pet lion is OK William Dix, Maurice Denham. Twisting, family fare. Foster’s film debut. [G]▼쩠 scary plot plus fine direction reap results. SusNapoleon Dynamite (2004) C-90m. ★★★ D: pects of child murder narrowed to governess Jared Hess. Jon Heder, Jon Gries, Aaron Davis and disturbed youngster Dix. Unusual Ruell, Efren Ramirez, Tina Majorino, DieHammer production, written by Jimmy Sangdrich Bader, Haylie Duff, Trevor Snarr, ster. From the novel by Evelyn Piper.▼쩠 Shondrella Avery. Deadpan comedy about Nanny Diaries, The (2007) C-105m. ★★ a geeky high school kid (Heder), his family, D: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini. and friends, who inhabit an alternate uniScarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Alicia verse but struggle to get by in the real world Keys, Chris Evans, Donna Murphy, Paul of rural Idaho. Trying to connect with a Giamatti, Nicholas Reese Art, Nathan female classmate, contending with a macho Corddry, Cady Huffman, Julie White. Aimuncle who moves in when his guardian less working-class college grad stumbles into grandma gets injured, or resentfully feeding a job as a nanny for pampered ‘‘perfect wife’’ the family’s pet llama, Napoleon is one of a Linney, who has virtually nothing to do with kind. Not for every taste, but it’s the sort of her little boy. Bland, defanged adaptation of film that gets funnier with repeated viewing. Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’ deliFive-minute epilogue was added after closcious book, which was based on their realing titles midway during the film’s theatrilife experiences tending to spoiled children, cal run. Vote for Pedro! Written by Hess impossibly demanding women, and emotionand his wife Jerusha. [PG] ▼쩠 ally detached fathers. [PG-13]쩠 Narc (2002) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe CarnaNanny McPhee (2005-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 han. Ray Liotta, Jason Patric, Chi McBride, D: Kirk Jones. Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Busta Rhymes, Anne Openshaw, Richard Kelly Macdonald, Derek Jacobi, Patrick BarChevolleau, John Ortiz, Krista Bridges. Dislow, Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, Angela graced Detroit narcotics detective (Patric) gets Lansbury, Thomas Sangster. Widower with a chance to redeem himself when he is asked to seven unruly children finds the perfect nanny probe the murder of a cop with the man’s foron his doorstep: a serene, strange-looking mer partner (Liotta), a violent maverick who woman who has almost magical powers to may know more than he is telling. Visceral calm the kids and bring out the best in them. look at the brutal realities of undercover work [ 968 ]

is relentlessly grim, although the two stars give During the Third Reich’’ results in her obsesforceful performances, and the opening sesive quest for the truth. Stolze convincingly quence is certainly a grabber. Scripted by the ages from adolescence to womanhood in this director. [R] ▼쩠 remarkable film, which is based on a true Narrow Margin, The (1952) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 story (and scripted by the director). VerD: Richard Fleischer. Charles McGraw, hoeven’s visual style is equally striking, mixMarie Windsor, Jacqueline White, Queenie ing real locations and theatrical backdrops for Leonard. Hard-boiled cop, transporting a his actors. [PG-13]▼● gangster’s widow against his will to the Nasty Habits (1977) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Mitrial in which she’ll testify, must dodge chael Lindsay-Hogg. Glenda Jackson, hit men aboard their train who are trying Melina Mercouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy to silence her. One of the best B’s ever Dennis, Anne Jackson, Anne Meara, Susan made—fast paced, well acted, impressively Penhaligon, Edith Evans, Rip Torn, Eli shot in claustrophobic setting. Photographed Wallach, Jerry Stiller. Labored comedy sets by George E. Diskant; scripted by Earl Felton, allegory of Nixon and Watergate scandal in from a story by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Philadelphia convent, with Jackson as conLeonard. Remade in 1990. Also shown in niving Mother Superior, Dennis a dead ringer for John Dean. A one-joke film. [PG]▼쩠 computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Narrow Margin (1990) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nasty Rabbit, The (1964) C-85m. ★★ D: Peter Hyams. Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, James Landis. Arch Hall, Jr., Micha Terr, James B. Sikking, J.T. Walsh, M. Emmet Melissa Morgan, John Akana. Weak spoof Walsh, Susan Hogan, Nigel Bennett, J.A. with serious overtones involving Russian Preston, Harris Yulin. Hackman is superb attempt to set loose a disease-infected rabas an assistant D.A. who accompanies bit in the U. S. Retitled: SPIES A GO GO. murder witness Archer on an eventful train Techniscope.▼쩠 ride through the Canadian Rockies— Nate and Hayes (1983-U.S.-New Zealand) pursued by henchmen of the gangster who C-100m. ★★ D: Ferdinand Fairfax. Tommy set up the killing she saw. Some sharp Lee Jones, Michael O’Keefe, Max Phipps, dialogue for Hackman and a great action Jenny Seagrove, Grant Tilly, Peter Rowley. climax atop the train, but dramatically it An adventure movie for people who’ve never misses the bull’s-eye—and cannot top the seen a real adventuremovie: watchable enough original 1952 film. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 but pretty pale. Seagoing rogue ‘‘Bully’’ Nashville (1975) C-159m. ★★★★ D: RobHayes (Jones) helps a young missionary resert Altman. Henry Gibson, Karen Black, cue his fiance´e, who’s been kidnapped by a Ronee Blakley, Keith Carradine, Geralscurrilous pirate. Lots of serial-type action, dine Chaplin, Lily Tomlin, Michael Murbut the leading characters lack charisma. Cophy, Barbara Harris, Allen Garfield, Ned written by John Hughes. [PG]▼●쩠 Beatty, Barbara Baxley, Shelley Duvall, Nathalie . . . (2004-French-Spanish) CKeenan Wynn, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, 101m. ★★ D: Anne Fontaine. Fanny Ardant, Gwen Welles, Bert Remsen, Robert Doqui. Emmanuelle Be´art, Ge´rard Depardieu, Altman’s brilliant mosaic of American life Wladimir Yordanoff, Judith Magre, Aurore as seen through 24 characters involved in Auteuil. Muddled account of the evolving Nashville political rally. Full of cogent relationship between two women: a married character studies, comic and poignant vigynecologist and the prostitute she hires to gnettes, done in seemingly free-form style. seduce her philandering husband. Even the Carradine’s song ‘‘I’m Easy’’ won an Oshooker’s vivid descriptions of their sexual car; Elliott Gould and Julie Christie appear encounters fail to light a spark under this pretentious character study. Super 35.쩠 as themselves. Screenplay by Joan Tewkesbury. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 National Lampoon Goes to the Movies Nashville Girl (1976) C-93m. ★★ D: Gus (1981) C-89m. BOMB D: Henry Jaglom, Trikonis. Monica Gayle, Glenn Corbett, Bob Giraldi. Peter Riegert, Diane Lane, Roger Davis, Johnny Rodriguez, Jesse Candy Clark, Teresa Ganzel, Ann DusenWhite. OK low-budgeter about small-town berry, Robert Culp, Bobby DiCicco, Fred girl who wants to make it big as a singer Willard, Joe Spinell, Mary Woronov, Dick and falls in with typical no-good types in Miller, Robby Benson, Richard Widmark, the music biz. Country superstar Rodriguez Christopher Lloyd, Elisha Cook, Julie makes his movie debut. Reissued as COUNKavner, Henny Youngman. Incredibly idiotic TRY MUSIC DAUGHTER. [R]▼ parody of the movies, presented in three Nasty Girl, The (1990-German) C/B&Wexcruciating parts, each one worse than the 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Verhoeven. Lena next. ‘‘Personal growth’’ films, Harold Stolze, Monika Baumgartner, Michael Gahr, Robbins/Sidney Sheldon soap operas and Fred Stillkrauth, Elisabeth Bertram, Robert police movies are spoofed; a fourth segment, Giggenbach. Biting serio-comic story of a parodying disaster films and featuring Alyoung woman (Stolze) from a small Bavarian len Goorwitz (Garfield), Marcia Strassman, town whose attempts to enter a national essay and Kenneth Mars, was excised. It’s easy to contest on the subject of ‘‘My Hometown see why this never received theatrical re[ 969 ]

lease. Aka NATIONAL LAMPOON’S insult the National Lampoon brand, this is MOVIE MADNESS. [R] ▼쩠 the proof. Taylor’s husband, Joe Bologna, is National Lampoon’s Animal House credited as ‘‘creative consultant’’; their son (1978) C-109m. ★★ D: John Landis. John Gabriel plays a jail guard. Unrated version Belushi, Tim Matheson, John Vernon, Verna also available. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Bloom, Thomas Hulce, Cesare Danova, Peter National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1 Riegert, Stephen Furst, Donald Sutherland, (1993) C-83m. ★★ D: Gene Quintano. Emilio Karen Allen, Sarah Holcomb, Bruce McGill, Estevez, Samuel L. Jackson, Jon Lovitz, Martha Smith, Mary Louise Weller, James Tim Curry, Kathy Ireland, Frank McRae, Daughton, Kevin Bacon, Mark Metcalf, William Shatner, James Doohan, Charlie James Widdoes. Spoof of early 1960s college Sheen, Bill Nunn, F. Murray Abraham, life is only sporadically funny, depends Richard Moll, Denis Leary, Corey Feldman, largely on Belushi’s mugging as frat-house Phil Hartman, J.T. Walsh, Erik Estrada, animal. Not nearly as roisterous or amusing as Larry Wilcox, Paul Gleason, Allyce Beasley, any issue of the Lampoon, but it became a Rick Ducommun, Charles Napier, Beverly tremendous hit—and spawned a number of Johnson, Denise (Lee) Richards. Lethal truly terrible imitations—as well as a shortWeapon, Loaded Weapon, get it? Qualitylived TV series, Delta House. [R]▼●쩠 caboose of the movie-spoof genre has at National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation least a few laugh-out-loud gags: a takeoff on (1989) C-97m. ★★★ D: Jeremiah S. Chechik. the BASIC INSTINCT interrogation scene Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy and a skewering of the standard cop film conQuaid, Diane Ladd, John Randolph, E. G. venience-store shootup. Estevez is no Leslie Marshall, Doris Roberts, Julia LouisNielsen, but you knew that. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dreyfus, Mae Questel, William Hickey, National Lampoon’s Movie Madness SEE: Brian Doyle-Murray, Juliette Lewis, Johnny National Lampoon Goes to the Movies Galecki, Nicholas Guest, Miriam Flynn. National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995) Funny (if typically spotty, sometimes tasteC-91m. ★★ D: Kelly Makin. Matt Frewer, less) saga of the Griswold family’s disasterValerie Mahaffey, Lawrence Dane, Tommy filled holiday season, with Chase as the Chong, Jeremy Renner, Rob Moore. Conterminally stupid head of the household. niving senator is exposed by expected array of Sprinkles some believably poignant moLampoon honor-rollers: dopers, drop-outs, the ments into its slapstick brew with surprisclass tramp, a Cheetos freak, a self-described ing deftness. Third in the VACATION ‘‘frigid head case,’’ etc. Lower-than-low humor, but fairly fast paced. [R] ▼●쩠 series. Written by John Hughes. Followed by VEGAS VACATION and a direct-to-video National Lampoon’s Vacation (1983) C98m. ★★★ D: Harold Ramis. Chevy Chase, spinoff. [PG-13]▼●쩠 National Lampoon’s Class Reunion (1982) Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall, C-84m. BOMB D: Michael Miller. Gerrit Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, Dana Barron, Graham, Michael Lerner, Fred McCarren, Christie Brinkley, John Candy, Eddie Bracken, Miriam Flynn, Stephen Furst, Marya Small, Brian Doyle-Murray, Eugene Levy, Jane KraShelley Smith, Zane Buzby, Anne Ramsey. kowski. Enjoyable comedy about a sappy Spectacularly unfunny comedy about a high middle-class family’s cross-country trip by car. school reunion shaken by mad killer on the Given the obvious premise, there are a surprisprowl. If you went to school with people like ing number of genuine laughs—including the this, no jury in the world would convict you ultimate fate of Aunt Edna. Written by John for turning homicidal, either. [R]▼쩠 Hughes. Followed by three sequels, starting National Lampoon’s European Vacation with NATIONAL LAMPOON’S EUROPEAN VACATION. [R] ▼●쩠 (1985) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Amy Heckerling. Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Jason National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002) Lively, Dana Hill, Eric Idle, Victor Lanoux, C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Walt Becker. Ryan ReynJohn Astin, Paul Bartel, Mel Smith, Robbie olds, Tara Reid, Tim Matheson, Kal Penn, Coltrane. Pretty sorry sequel to VACATeck Holmes, Daniel Cosgrove, Paul GleaTION, with idiotic Chase and his family son, Erik Estrada, Curtis Armstrong, Edie stumbling through Europe. Misfire gags McClurg. Reynolds is the title character, a right and left, and surprising sexism in a slick campus wheeler-dealer who never wants film directed by a woman. Followed by NAto graduate. Homage to ANIMAL HOUSE TIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VAand other, better teen comedies even casts CATION. [PG-13]▼●쩠 actors associated with those films in supporting National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers (2004) roles . . . but just a rehash of the same old stuff C-87m. BOMB D: Gary Preisler. Will with new gross-out gags. Tom Everett Scott Friedle, Chris Owen, Louise Lasser, Renee appears unbilled. Followed by two sequels. Taylor, Rudy De Luca, Nikki Ziering. Two [R] ▼쩠 inept overgrown teenagers arrive in L.A. National Lampoon’s Van Wilder 2: The hoping to con their way into the good life. Rise of Taj (2006) C-97m. BOMB D: Mort They select a pair of creepily libidinous elNathan. Kal Penn, Lauren Cohan, Daniel derly sisters as their prey. If it’s possible to Percival, Holly Davidson, Anthony Cozens, [ 970 ]

Steven Rathman, Glen Barry. Taj (Penn), a Deutsch, from Enid Bagnold’s novel. Folprote´ge´ of Van Wilder, heads off to England lowed years later by INTERNATIONAL to attend grad school, where he butts heads VELVET and a TV series. ▼●쩠 with an elitist aristocrat while somehow atNative Son (1986) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jertracting the attention of a sexy scholar. Charmrold Freedman. Victor Love, Matt Dillon, less male-fantasy comedy is sloppily made, Elizabeth McGovern, Geraldine Page, Oprah with lame humor that will appeal only to the Winfrey, Akosua Busia, Carroll Baker, John most undiscriminating beer guzzlers. UnMcMartin, Art Evans, John Karlen, Willard rated version also available. Followed by a E. Pugh, David Rasche, Ving Rhames. SecDVD sequel. [R]쩠 ond, star-studded filming of Richard National Security (2003) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wright’s landmark 1940 novel. NineteenDennis Dugan. Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn, year-old Bigger Thomas (played by newColm Feore, Bill Duke, Eric Roberts, Timocomer Love) is a poor black in 1930s Chithy Busfield, Robinne Lee, Matt McCoy, cago whose life takes a tragic turn. Capable Brett Cullen, Stephen Tobolowsky, Joe Flahcast and serviceable script cannot overcome erty. Two adversarial ex-cops discover malfilm’s deliberate alterations and softening of feasance in high legal places while working as some of the novel’s key plot points and security guards. Buddy comedy doesn’t make themes. Still, for those unfamiliar with the much sense even on its predictably moronic book, an OK melodrama. A coproduction of PBS’s American Playhouse. [PG]▼● level, yet Lawrence and Zahn are surprisingly in sync, and as funny as they’ve ever been. Nativity Story, The (2006) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 The scene that leads to Zahn getting ousted D: Catherine Hardwicke. Keisha Castlefrom the force is first-rate; everything else is Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Hiam Abbass, Shaun pretty much recycled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Toub, Alexander Siddig, Ciara´n Hinds, ShohNational Treasure (2004) C-130m. ★★★ D: reh Aghdashloo. Familiar saga of Mary, JoJon Turteltaub. Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, seph, and Jesus gets a reverent (if uninspired) Jon Voight, Sean Bean, Christopher Plummounting that endows well-known figures mer, Harvey Keitel, Hunter Gomez, Justin with emotional cores. Set in a time—circa Bartha. Surprisingly entertaining yarn about a 9 months B.C.—when conceiving a child of man who’s devoted (some say ‘‘wasted’’) his mysterious parentage is punishable by death, life to the pursuit of a hidden treasure, its clues 16-year-old Mary has to deal not only with on the back of the Declaration of Indepenthe imminent birth of the Israelites’ deliverer dence. The Da Vinci Code lite, this thoroughly but also how to explain things to her skeptical engaging action-adventure offers a clever husband. Detailed script even provides a reascript, good characters, and imaginative use of sonable explanation for the Star of Bethlehem, its Washington, D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, but screenwriter Mike Rich fails to credit the and N.Y.C. locations. Longer than it needs original author. Super 35. [PG]쩠 to be, but still fun. Followed by a sequel. Natural, The (1984) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 Barry Levinson. Robert Redford, Robert National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) Duvall, Glenn Close, Kim Basinger, Wilford Brimley, Richard Farnsworth, Barbara C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon Turteltaub. Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Ed Harris, Hershey, Robert Prosky, Joe Don Baker. Helen Mirren, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Serpentine saga of a young man with a gift Bruce Greenwood, Ty Burrell, Brent Briscoe, for baseball, whose life takes more than a Randy Travis. Treasure hunter Cage has a few surprising turns. Freely adapted from personal stake in his latest quest: proving the Bernard Malamud’s offbeat novel, with innocence of an ancestor who may have heavy doses of sentiment and larger-thanbeen involved in planning Abraham Linlife imagery (courtesy of cinematographer coln’s assassination. Pretty good premise is Caleb Deschanel). Some effective mogiven slick treatment, with lots of action set ments, with a fine cast, but too long and pieces and a first-rate cast, although it’s all inconsistent. Best of all: Randy Newman’s too obvious that it’s a sequel, with contrived score. Darren McGavin appears unbilled. plotting at every turn. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Director’s cut runs 144m. [PG] ▼●쩠 National Velvet (1944) C-125m. ★★★★ Natural Born Killers (1994) C-119m. ★1⁄2 D: Clarence Brown. Mickey Rooney, ElizD: Oliver Stone. Woody Harrelson, Juliette abeth Taylor, Donald Crisp, Anne Revere, Lewis, Robert Downey, Jr., Tommy Lee Angela Lansbury, Reginald Owen, Norma Jones, Tom Sizemore, Russell Means, RodVarden, Jackie ‘‘Butch’’ Jenkins, Terry ney Dangerfield, Edie McClurg, Steven Kilburn. Outstanding family film about a Wright, Joe Grifasi, Pruitt Taylor Vince, girl who determines to enter her horse in Balthazar Getty, Dale Dye, James Gamthe famed Grand National Steeplechase. mon, Arliss Howard. Supposed satire of Taylor is irresistible, Rooney was never America’s infatuation with outlaws and sobetter, and they’re surrounded by a perfect cial miscreants, focusing on a hedonistic supporting cast. Revere won a Best Supcouple who murder more than 50 people on porting Actress Oscar as Taylor’s mother. their ‘‘honeymoon.’’ Whatever points Stone Screenplay by Theodore Reeves and Helen wants to make are delivered early on, with a [ 971 ]

bludgeon; the rest is all sound and fury. Navy Blue and Gold (1937) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sixties-inspired hyperkinetic filmmaking Sam Wood. Robert Young, James Stewstyle soon becomes boring and repetitious. art, Florence Rice, Billie Burke, Lionel Story by Quentin Tarantino; three others Barrymore, Tom Brown, Samuel S. Hinds, (including Stone) are credited with the Paul Kelly. Hackneyed but entertaining screenplay. Director’s cut (with 3m. of new saga of three pals (one rich and innocent, footage) available on video. [R]▼●쩠 one a cynic, and one mysterious ‘‘with a Natural Enemies (1979) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: past’’) going to Annapolis. Predictable footJeff Kanew. Hal Holbrook, Louise Fletcher, ball game climax is fun. That’s Dennis Peter Armstrong, Beth Berridge, Steve AusMorgan (billed under his real name, Stantin, Jose Ferrer, Viveca Lindfors. Successful ley Morner) dancing with Billie Burke.▼ publisher Holbrook wakes up one day with Navy SEALS (1990) C-113m. ★★ D: Lewis the urge to kill his family. Cold, uninvolvTeague. Charlie Sheen, Michael Biehn, ing, and (needless to say) strange little film, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Rick Rossovich, written, directed and edited by Kanew. [R]▼ Cyril O’Reilly, Bill Paxton, Dennis HaysNature’s Mistakes SEE: Freaks bert, Paul Sanchez. Middle Eastern terrorNaughty Girl SEE: Mam’zelle Pigalle ists are mere putty in the hands of U.S. Navy’s Naughty Marietta (1935) 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: elite commando unit (SEa, Air, Land); ‘‘inW. S. Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, spired’’ by the actual team formed under Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Elsa LanJ.F.K.’s administration. G.I. Joe-level action chester, Douglass Dumbrille, Cecilia Paris name of the game here. Sheen’s character ker. First teaming of Eddy and MacDonald operates at the maturity level of Dennis the has her a French princess running off to Menace. [R] ▼●쩠 America, falling in love with Indian scout Navy vs. the Night Monsters, The (1966) Eddy. Agreeable operetta with Victor Herbert C-90m. BOMB D: Michael Hoey. Mamie score, including ‘‘The Italian Street Song,’’ Van Doren, Anthony Eisley, Pamela Mason, ‘‘Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,’’ and the immortal Bill Gray, Bobby Van, Walter Sande, Ed‘‘Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life.’’ ▼● ward Faulkner, Phillip Terry. 1) Look at Naughty Nineties, The (1945) 76m. ★★ the title. 2) Examine the cast. 3) Be aware D: Jean Yarbrough. Bud Abbott, Lou that the plot involves omniverous trees. 4) Costello, Alan Curtis, Rita Johnson, Henry Don’t say you weren’t warned.▼ Travers, Lois Collier, Joe Sawyer, Joe Nazarin (1958-Mexican) 92m. ★★★ D: Luis Kirk. Ordinary A&C comedy of riverboat Bun˜uel. Francisco Rabal, Rita Macedo, gamblers, sparked by duo’s verbal exchanges Marga Lopez, Ignacio Lopez Tarso, Ofelia (including ‘‘Who’s on First?’’) and slapGuilmain. Powerful and pointed (if relentstick finale.▼●쩠 lessly grim) drama about saintly priest Navajo Joe (1966-Italian-Spanish) C-92m. Rabal, and how hypocritical peasants deal ★1 with him as he tries to interpret the lessons ⁄2 D: Sergio Corbucci. Burt Reynolds, Aldo Sanbrell, Tanya Lopert, Fernando of Christ. ▼●쩠 Rey. Sole survivor of massacre swears Near Dark (1987) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kathrevenge on his enemies in this tepid ryn Bigelow. Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Western, of interest only for Reynolds’ Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, Jenette presence. Techniscope.▼쩠 Goldstein, Tim Thomerson. Better-thanNavigator, The (1924) 69m. ★★1⁄2 D: average vampire yarn actually plays more like Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp. Buster Keaa werewolf film. Cowboy Pasdar is literally ton, Kathryn McGuire, Frederick Vroom. bitten by Wright and joins a band of hillbilly Buster plays (yet again) a pampered milbloodsuckers who roam the West in a van. lionaire who—by sheer circumstance, with Stylishly directed horror film reunites three a dash of stupidity—winds up on a huge, cast members from ALIENS: Henriksen, Paxton, and Goldstein. [R] ▼●쩠 deserted ship with the woman he wants to marry. Many great gags and amusing seNecessary Roughness (1991) C-108m. ★1⁄2 quences, but this silent doesn’t have the moD: Stan Dragoti. Scott Bakula, Robert mentum of Buster’s best comedies. ▼●쩠 Loggia, Hector Elizondo, Harley Jane Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey, The Kozak, Larry Miller, Sinbad, Fred Dalton Thompson, Rob Schneider, Jason Bateman. (1988-New Zealand) C/B&W-92m. ★★★ D: Vincent Ward. Hamish McFarlane, Bruce A 34-year-old quarterback at a Texas colLyons, Chris Haywood, Marshall Napier, lege reeling from NCAA penalties disNoel Appleby, Paul Livingston, Sarah Pierse. covers that his cute no-nonsense prof is Engrossing, very imaginative tale of psychic closet football junkie. Formulaic enough to boy in tiny medieval English village who, insult anyone’s intelligence, with a cast of to protect villagers from the plague, leads quirky teammates transparently contrived a tunneling expedition—which emerges in (swimsuit model Kathy Ireland is the squada modern city in 1988. Directed and written ron’s placekicker). Beware of Bill Conti’s feel-good score. [PG-13]▼●쩠 with great clarity, the film has much of the feel of a genuine medieval fable. BeautiNecromancy (1972) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Bert fully produced on a low budget. [PG]▼쩠 I. Gordon. Orson Welles, Pamela Franklin, [ 972 ]

Michael Ontkean, Lee Purcell, Harvey the two stars (and a strong supporting cast) make the most of it. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Jason. High priest Welles tries to manipuNeighbors (1981) C-94m. BOMB D: John late Franklin into becoming a witch. G. Avildsen. John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Mindless, poorly crafted thriller was origiCathy Moriarty, Kathryn Walker, Laurennally released without its nude coven scenes, Marie Taylor, Tim Kazurinsky. Appallif anybody cares. Some prints run 75m. ingly unfunny and tiresome ‘‘comedy’’ Video titles: THE WITCHING and ROSEbased on Thomas Berger’s novel about a MARY’S DISCIPLES. [PG]▼ ★★1 middle-class milquetoast whose suburban ⁄2 Ned Kelly (1970-British) C-100m. existence is shaken by the arrival of biD: Tony Richardson. Mick Jagger, Clarissa zarre and destructive neighbors. ScreenKaye, Mark McManus, Frank Thring. Amplay credited to Larry Gelbart. Pointless; bitious telling of the life and adventures of sadly, Belushi’s last film. [R]▼● Australia’s most famous outlaw, emphasizing Neil Simon’s Odd Couple II SEE: Odd the Irish-British conflict at the heart of his Couple II, The story. Many good songs on the soundtrack, Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) Cwritten by Shel Silverstein. Retitled NED 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Demme. Baby KELLY, OUTLAW. [PG]▼쩠 boomers in general and Young fans in parNed Kelly (2003-Australian-British) Cticular will savor this sublime concert film, 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregor Jordan. Heath Ledger, shot during two 2005 performances at Orlando Bloom, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush, Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. Young and Rachel Griffiths, Laurence Kinlan, Philip his band members perform songs both old Barantini, Joel Edgerton, Kiri Paramore. and new. What makes the film especially When he responds to brutal mistreatment poignant is the knowledge that the folk from Protestant ‘‘policemen,’’ Irish Cathorocker penned his newer compositions after lic farmer Ned Kelly is thrown into prison; learning he had a brain aneurysm, for which after serving his time, it doesn’t take much he successfully underwent surgery. [PG]쩠 to transform him into an outlaw who beNell (1994) C-113m. ★★ D: Michael Apted. comes a folk hero to all the oppressed immiJodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Natasha Richgrants of Australia during the late 1800s. ardson, Richard Libertini, Nick Searcy, Ledger’s sturdy performance anchors this Robin Mullins, Jeremy Davies. The death well-crafted but dour film. Same story was of a hermit woman brings a small-town done in 1970 with Mick Jagger. Super 35. Southern doctor into the backwoods, where [R] ▼쩠 he discovers she had a daughter who’s been 1 ★ Needful Things (1993) C-120m. ⁄2 D: raised completely apart from civilization. Fraser C. Heston. Max von Sydow, Ed Harris, He becomes fascinated—and so does a reBonnie Bedelia, Amanda Plummer, J. T. search scientist at a nearby university, who Walsh, Ray McKinnon, Duncan Fraser, wants to ‘‘capture’’ the woman. Intriguing Valri Bromfield. Bottom-of-the-barrel bore premise goes flat as the story loses focus, and about a devilish old man (von Sydow) who the characters’ motivations and relationships opens a curiosity shop in a small Maine grow fuzzy. Foster gives a bravura perfortown, with predictably horrific results. mance but it’s hard to forget it is a perforScripted by W. D. Richter, based on the mance. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 best-seller by (who else?) Stephen King. Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud (1995-French[R] ▼●쩠 Italian-German) C-106m. ★★★ D: Claude Negatives (1968-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Sautet. Emmanuelle Be´art, Michel Serrault, Peter Medak. Peter McEnery, Diane Cilento, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Claire Nadeau, FranGlenda Jackson, Maurice Denham, Steven c¸oise Brion, Michel Lonsdale. Subtle, beauLewis, Norman Rossington. Strange movie tifully acted story of a 25-year-old woman in about unmarried couple who dress up like debt and stuck in a nowhere marriage, who notorious Dr. Crippen and his wife for kicks; meets an elegant and instantly infatuated man he later switches his characterization to some 40 years her senior who offers to pay Baron von Richtofen. Jackson is good, but her bills and give her a job typing his memdirection is too mannered. [R]▼ oirs. Sautet proves that in his 70s he’s still ★★★ D: Negotiator, The (1998) C-138m. as effective as ever in painting the difficulF. Gary Gray. Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin ties and heartbreak of human relationships. Spacey, David Morse, Ron Rifkin, John ▼쩠 Spencer, J.T. Walsh, Regina Taylor, Siobhan Nelson Affair, The (1973-British) C-118m. ★★1 Fallon, Paul Giamatti. One of Chicago’s top ⁄2 D: James Cellan Jones. Glenda police hostage negotiators (Jackson) is Jackson, Peter Finch, Michael Jayston, framed for embezzling money from his Anthony Quayle, Margaret Leighton, Domiunion’s pension fund—and has a murder nic Guard, Nigel Stock, Barbara Leighpinned on him, to boot. His only chance is Hunt. Handsome retelling of Lord Nelsonto take hostages and clear himself with the Lady Hamilton affair, making the ‘‘Lady’’ help of another crack negotiator (Spacey). a slut; interesting but claustrophobic—even Highly watchable, if not 100% credible, but climactic sea battle was shot indoors! Brit[ 973 ]

ish title: A BEQUEST TO THE NATION. wealthy, aging widower Alterio and alienPanavision. [PG] ated 13-year-old Torrent. Helped immeaNemesis (1993) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Albert surably by Arminan’s precise script and direction. [PG]▼ Pyun. Olivier Gruner, Tim Thomerson, Marjorie Monaghan, Merle Kennedy, Brion Nest, The (1988) C-88m. ★★ D: Terence James, Deborah Shelton, Cary-Hiroyuki H. Winkless. Robert Lansing, Lisa LangTagawa, Nicholas Guest, Jackie Earle lois, Franc Luz, Terri Treas, Stephen DaHaley. In 2027, tough cop Gruner, who’s vies, Diana Bellamy, Nancy Morgan. Trihad many body parts replaced with mefling, ever so familiar chronicle of a failed chanical duplicates, fights a group of scientific experiment resulting in the creation androids (here called ‘‘cyborgs’’) intent on of large, hungry cockroaches. [R]▼쩠 conquering world. Just another amalgam of Nesting, The (1981) C-104m. ★★ D: Arideas borrowed from better movies. Gruner mand Weston. Robin Groves, Christopher has some appeal, though. Followed by two Loomis, Michael David Lally, John Carradirect-to-video sequels. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 dine, Gloria Grahame, Bill Rowley. Gothic Nenette et Boni (1996-French) C-103m. novelist moves into eerie Victorian man★★★ D: Claire Denis. Alice Houri, Gregoire sion to which she’s mysteriously drawn. Colin, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Vincent Gallo, Starts off interestingly but wanders and Jacques Nolot. Arresting, emotionally involvdrags on to unsatisfying finish. Aka MASing chronicle of two children of divorced parSACRE MANSION. [R]▼ ents: Nenette (Houri), who is 15 and very Net, The (1995) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irwin pregnant, and lonely 18-year-old Boni Winkler. Sandra Bullock, Jeremy Northam, (Colin), who is erotically obsessed with a Dennis Miller, Diane Baker, Wendy Gabaker’s wife. A potent exploration of a zelle, Ken Howard, Ray McKinnon. The brother-sister bond and how a dysfunctional techno-thriller as plodding Sandra Bullock family damages its youngest and most vulvehicle: She plays a mousy, vulnerable nerable members.▼ computer whiz. When bad guys need a disc Neon Bible, The (1995-U.S.-British) Cshe possesses, they stop at nothing—including deleting, then manipulating her identity 92m. ★★ D: Terence Davies. Gena Rowlands, Denis Leary, Diana Scarwid, Jacob on official computer records. Anyone who’s Tierney, Leo Burmester, Frances Conroy, ever seen a real thriller will be ahead of this Peter McRobbie. Slow-as-molasses Truman story at every turn. Later a cable TV series. Capote–like reminiscence about a young Followed by a direct-to-video sequel in 2005. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 boy coming of age in the American South and his eccentric, melancholy Aunt Mae Network (1976) C-121m. ★★★★ D: Sid(Rowlands, who is good as always). Despite ney Lumet. William Holden, Faye Dunits abundant atmosphere and good intenaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned tions, this cannot compare with Davies’ earBeatty, Beatrice Straight, Wesley Addy, lier works. He scripted, based on a novel by Darryl Hickman, Ken Kercheval, William John Kennedy Toole. J-D-C Scope.▼●쩠 Prince, Marlene Warfield. Paddy ChayefNeptune Disaster, The SEE: Neptune sky’s outrageous satire on television looks Factor, The less and less like fantasy as the years pass; Neptune Factor, The (1973-Canadian) uninhibited tale chronicles fourth-place netC-98m. ★★ D: Daniel Petrie. Ben Gazzara, work that will air anything for a big rating, Yvette Mimieux, Walter Pidgeon, Ernest including a patently insane, profanity-shoutBorgnine. Deep-sea-diving sub races to ing ‘‘mad prophet of the airwaves’’ (Finch). save three men trapped by an earthquake Entire cast explodes, particularly Dunaway in ocean floor laboratory. Soggy underwaas ruthless programmer, Holden as consciter yarn lifts its plot almost in toto from entious newsman, Duvall as sharklike v.p., MAROONED. Aka AN UNDERWATER and Beatty as evangelistical board chairODYSSEY and THE NEPTUNE DISASman. Well-deserved Oscars went to Finch TER. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 (posthumously), Dunaway, Straight, and Neptune’s Daughter (1949) C-93m. ★★★ Chayefsky. [R]▼●쩠 D: Edward Buzzell. Esther Williams, Red Nevada Smith (1966) C-135m. ★★★ D: Skelton, Keenan Wynn, Betty Garrett, RiHenry Hathaway. Steve McQueen, Karl cardo Montalban, Mel Blanc. Musical roMalden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy, mance with Esther a bathing-suit designer, Suzanne Pleshette, Raf Vallone, Pat Hingle, Skelton a no-account mistaken for polo Howard da Silva, Martin Landau. Good star by Garrett. Bubbly fun, with AcadWestern story. Smith swears revenge for emy Award–winning song: ‘‘Baby It’s Cold senseless murder of his parents at the hands Outside.’’▼●쩠 of outlaw gang. Based on character from Nest, The (1980-Spanish) C-109m. ★★★ THE CARPETBAGGERS. Remade as a D: Jaime De Arminan. Hector Alterio, TVM in 1975. Panavision.▼●쩠 Ana Torrent, Luis Politti, Agustin Gonzalez, Never a Dull Moment (1968) C-100m. ★★ D: Jerry Paris. Dick Van Dyke, Edward Patricia Adriani. Diverting but predictable drama detailing the relationship between G. Robinson, Dorothy Provine, Henry Silva, [ 974 ]

Joanna Moore, Tony Bill. Tired Disney NeverEnding Story, The (1984-West Gercomedy belies title, as TV performer Van man-British) C-92m. ★★★ D: Wolfgang Dyke gets involved with gangsters; even Petersen. Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Robinson’s performance is lifeless.▼쩠 Tami Stronach, Moses Gunn, Patricia Hayes, Never Back Down (2008) C-113m. ★★ D: Sydney Bromley, Gerald McRaney; voice of Jeff Wadlow. Sean Faris, Djimon Hounsou, Alan Oppenheimer. Magical, timeless fantasy Amber Heard, Cam Gigandet, Evan Peters, built around young Oliver visualizing what Leslie Hope. Faris plays a hardheaded high he’s reading from a mystical book: boy warrior school jock whose single-parent family Hathaway is the only hope of saving the emmoves from Iowa to Orlando, where it seems pire of Fantasia from being swallowed up by every teen lives in nouveau riche decadence. The Nothing. Amazing, unique effects, charHappily, he stumbles into an underground acters, and visual design (and a not-so-subtle mixed–martial arts world and starts training message that Reading Is Good). Followed by at a gym run by spiritual loner Hounsou. two live-action sequels and an animated TV Wildly improbable plot piles cliche´ on cliche´ movie and series. U.S. version was cut by but should entertain its target action audience. 7m. Technovision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Nemesis Gigandet can glare with the best of NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapthem. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ter, The (1990-U.S.-German) C-89m. ★1⁄2 Never Been Kissed (1999) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Miller. Jonathan Brandis, Kenny D: Raja Gosnell. Drew Barrymore, David Morrison, Clarissa Burt, John Wesley Arquette, Michael Vartan, Molly Shannon, Shipp, Martin Umbach. Mom’s dead, dad’s John C. Reilly, Garry Marshall, Leelee Sobusy, and the swim coach says he suffers bieski, Sean Whalen, Jordan Ladd, Jessica from a ‘‘high wimp factor.’’ So, it’s back to Alba, James Franco. Twenty-five-year-old Fantasia (a magic land) for the young boy newspaper copy editor gets her first chance as who loses himself in a storybook, where a a reporter by going undercover and prechild empress (as childlike as Drew Barrytending to be a 17-year-old high school stumore) is in danger. Poky and cheesy, though dent. All this does is bring back vivid kids might take to some of the animal sidememories of her nerdy school days, while kicks. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel. the assignment remains vague and unfulfilled. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Star vehicle, if ever there was one, is buoyed Never Fear (1950) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ida Lupby Barrymore’s charm, but burdened with a ino. Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Hugh muddled and barely believable story. Super O’Brian, Eve Miller, Lawrence Dobkin. 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Young dancer Forrest’s life comes apart when ★★★ D: Never Cry Wolf (1983) C-105m. she develops polio. Sincere drama scripted by Carroll Ballard. Charles Martin Smith, Brian Lupino and her then-husband, Collier Young. Dennehy, Zachary Ittimangnaq, Samson Aka THE YOUNG LOVERS. ▼쩠 Jorah. Smith plays real-life Canadian auNever Forever (2007-U.S.-South Korean) thor Farley Mowat who braved the Arctic, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gina Kim. Vera Farmiga, C-101m. alone, to study behavior of wolves . . . Jung-Woo Ha, David Lee McInnis. A couand wound up learning as much about himple’s inability to conceive a child is the only self. Uneven, but filled with striking moments contentious issue in their otherwise happy and passages, plus a wonderful performance marriage. Farmiga’s oddly curious solution by Smith. There’s also the irony of a Walt is risky at best. Film rests on the relationDisney production in which the leading ship between Farmiga and Jung-Woo, character takes to eating mice! Two decades whose likability as a mismatched pair later, Smith directed THE SNOW WALKER, makes it worth watching. [R]쩠 based on a Mowat short story. [PG] ▼●쩠 Never Give a Inch SEE: Sometimes a Never Die Alone (2004) C-88m. ★★ D: ErGreat Notion nest Dickerson. DMX, David Arquette, MiNever Give a Sucker an Even Break chael Ealy, Reagan Gomez-Preston, Clifton (1941) 71m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Edward Cline. W. Powell, Jennifer Sky, Drew Sidora, Antwon C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Leon Errol, Susan Tanner, Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, Aisha Tyler. Miller, Franklin Pangborn, Margaret DuNarrated by a shot-to-death corpse (all simimont. Completely insane comedy with Fields larities to SUNSET BLVD. end here), off-the(in his last starring film) playing himself; cuff drug melodrama from a Donald Goines no coherent plot, but a lot of funny scenes. novel traces the semi-rise but unambiguous Dumont plays ‘‘Mrs. Hemoglobin.’’ Clifall of a dealer named King David (DMX), mactic chase is a classic, reused by Abbott who tricks his girlfriends into snorting truly and Costello in IN SOCIETY. Story by horrific substances. Arquette is the wannabe ‘‘Otis Criblecoblis.’’▼●쩠 journalist who, by stumbling onto David’s Never Let Go (1960-British) 90m. ★★ D: story, hopes to parlay it into the Bob WoodJohn Guillermin. Richard Todd, Peter Sellers, ward big time. Moderately watchable in its Elizabeth Sellars, Carol White, Mervyn Johns. tawdriness, but lacks the momentous central Sellers gives heavy-handed performance as figure it thinks it has and the commanding ruthless and sadistic racketeer in weak story lead actor it needs. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 [ 975 ]

about car thievery. Billed as his first dramatic memorably sexy villainess, Fatima Blush. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 role, it was a poor choice.▼쩠 Never So Few (1959) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Never Let Me Go (1953) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Sturges. Frank Sinatra, Gina LolloDelmer Daves. Clark Gable, Gene Tierney, brigida, Peter Lawford, Steve McQueen, Bernard Miles, Richard Haydn, Kenneth Richard Johnson, Paul Henreid, Brian More, Belita, Theodore Bikel. UnconvincDonlevy, Dean Jones, Charles Bronson. ing yet smooth account of Gable trying to WW2 action/romance tale; salty perforsmuggle ballerina-wife Tierney out of mances which make one forget the cliche´s Russia.▼ and improbabilities. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Never Never Land (1980-British) C-86m. ★★★ Never Steal Anything Small (1959) CD: Paul Annett. Petula Clark, Cath94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Lederer. James leen Nesbitt, John Castle, Anne Seymour, Cagney, Shirley Jones, Roger Smith, Cara Evelyn Laye, Roland Culver, Heather Williams, Nehemiah Persoff, Royal Dano, Miller. Nice little film about lonely child Horace McMahon. Odd musical comedy(Miller), her fascination with Peter Pan drama, with Cagney a waterfront union and connection with elderly Nesbitt. Best racketeer who’ll do anything to win union for the kids. [G] election. From Maxwell Anderson–Rouben Never on Sunday (1960-Greek) 91m. ★★★1 Mamoulian play The Devil’s Hornpipe. ⁄2 D: Jules Dassin. Melina Mercouri, CinemaScope.▼ Jules Dassin, Georges Foundas, Titos Never Talk to Strangers (1995-U.S.-CanaVandis, Mitsos Liguisos, Despo Diamandian) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Hall. Rebecca tidou. Charming idyll of intellectual boob De Mornay, Antonio Banderas, Dennis coming to Greece, trying to make earthy Miller, Len Cariou, Beau Starr, Tim Kelprostitute Mercouri cultured. Grand enterleher, Harry Dean Stanton. Criminal psytainment, with Oscar-winning title song by chologist falls for a charming, mysterious Manos Hadjidakis. Later a Broadway mustranger, while at the same time unexsical, Illya Darling.▼●쩠 plained, terrifying incidents begin ocNever Say Die (1939) 80m. ★★★ D: Elliott curring. Standard-issue thriller would be Nugent. Martha Raye, Bob Hope, Andy more at home on television. De Mornay Devine, Gale Sondergaard, Sig Ruman, also coexecutive-produced. [R]▼●쩠 Alan Mowbray, Monty Woolley. Bob Never to Love SEE: Bill of Divorcement, marries Martha at Swiss spa of Bad A (1940) Gaswasser, thinking he has a month Never Too Late (1965) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: to live. Good cast in lively, trivial romp. Bud Yorkin. Paul Ford, Connie Stevens, Cowritten by Preston Sturges. Filmed beMaureen O’Sullivan, Jim Hutton, Jane fore in 1924.▼쩠 Wyatt, Henry Jones, Lloyd Nolan. OccaNever Say Goodbye (1946) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: sionally amusing film version of hit BroadJames V. Kern. Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker, way play about impending parenthood of Lucile Watson, S. Z. Sakall, Forrest Tucker, middle-agers Ford and O’Sullivan. Older Donald Woods, Peggy Knudsen, Hattie Mcperformers are funny; Hutton, Stevens, Daniel, Patti Brady. Light, predictable comscript, and direction are not. Panavision.▼ edy with Flynn, the doting father of sevenNever Too Young To Die (1986) C-92m. year-old Brady, attempting to win back her ★1 ⁄2 D: Gil Bettman. John Stamos, Vanity, mother (Parker) on the first anniversary of Gene Simmons, George Lazenby, Peter their divorce. ▼ Kwong, Ed Brock, John Anderson, Robert Never Say Goodbye (1956) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Englund. Stamos, son of a spy, takes up D: Jerry Hopper. Rock Hudson, Cornell with Vanity, one of his father’s associates, Borchers, George Sanders, Ray Collins, to find out who murdered his dad. Pretty David Janssen, Shelley Fabares. Spotty awful, though Simmons scores a few points tearjerker of Hudson and Borchers, long for outrageousness in his portrayal of a separated, discovering one another again power-crazed hermaphrodite. [R]▼● and creating fit home for their child. ReNeverwas (2007) C-108m. ★★ D: Joshua make of THIS LOVE OF OURS. Clint Michael Stern. Aaron Eckhart, Ian McKelEastwood is cast as Rock’s lab assistant. len, Brittany Murphy, William Hurt, Nick Never Say Never Again (1983) C-137m. Nolte, Alan Cumming, Jessica Lange, Bill ★★1 ⁄2 D: Irvin Kershner. Sean Connery, Bellamy, Vera Farmiga, Michael Moriarty, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Max von Sydow, Cynthia Stevenson, Ryan Drescher. Fantasy Barbara Carrera, Kim Basinger, Bernie and reality fail to blend in this account of Casey, Alec McCowen, Edward Fox, psychiatrist Eckhart, who comes to work at Rowan Atkinson. Connery’s stylish perforthe facility where his father, a mentally ill mance and self-deprecating humor make his children’s book author, once was treated. return performance as James Bond (after 12 It’s no wonder that, despite its A-list cast, years) a real treat—but the film, a remake of this paper-thin fairy tale failed to earn U.S. THUNDERBALL, is uneven and overlong. theatrical distribution. Eckhart coproduced. Brandauer is a smooth villain, and Carrera a Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 [ 976 ]

Never Wave at a WAC (1952) 87m. ★★1⁄2 Jerry O’Connell, Charlie O’Connell, Tommy D: Norman Z. McLeod. Rosalind Russell, Lee, Vanilla Ice, Henry Rollins, David HasMarie Wilson, Paul Douglas, Arleen Wheselhoff, Kool Mo Dee, Tony Hawk, Horatio lan, Hillary Brooke, Louise Beavers, Frieda Sanz. A harassed teenage nerd (Qualls) is Inescort. Expanded from a TV play, this transformed into an intimidating new person farce involves socialite Russell joining the by a prison inmate (Griffin) and proceeds to WACs, forced to buckle down to hard live the cool life at a different high school. work; Wilson as dumb comrade-at-arms is Revenge/teensploitation comedy has enough most diverting.▼쩠 quirks to make one wonder what might have New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, been with a better script, better director, and The (1988) C-100m. ★★ D: Ken Annakin. better actors. [PG-13]▼쩠 Tami Erin, Eileen Brennan, Dennis Dugan, New Interns, The (1964) 123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dianne Hull, George DiCenzo, John Schuck, John Rich. Michael Callan, Dean Jones, Dick Van Patten. Dreary Americanization Telly Savalas, Inger Stevens, George Segal, of Astrid Lindgren’s popular books about Greg Morris, Stefanie Powers, Lee Pata plucky young girl—here, transformed rick, Barbara Eden. Follow-up to THE into a tiresome troublemaker. May enterINTERNS contains unusual hospital soap tain undiscriminating children; adults should opera with better than average cast and a avoid at all costs. [G]▼●쩠 nifty party sequence. New in Town (2009) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonas New Age, The (1994) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Tolkin. Peter Weller, Judy Davis, PatElmer. Rene´e Zellweger, Harry Connick, rick Bauchau, Corbin Bernsen, Jonathan Jr., Siobhan Fallon Hogan, J. K. Simmons, Hadary, Patricia Heaton, Samuel L. JackFrances Conroy, Mike O’Brien, Ferron Guerson, Audra Lindley, Paula Marshall, Adam reiro, James Durham, Barbara James Smith. West. Deadening deadpan satire, which its Hopelessly formulaic romantic comedy finds studio barely released, about a married coutough-as-nails businesswoman Zellweger sent ple who launch a born-to-go-bust boutique by a multinational company to a small town after they both lose their glitzy jobs on the to shut down the local factory. After butting same Recession-era day. Tolkin wrote THE heads with the union organizer (laconically PLAYER; perhaps this film would have played by Connick, Jr.) she predictably falls benefitted from Robert Altman’s wag-inin love and sets out to find a way to save the-moon viewpoint. Jackson’s sequence, in the plant. Familiar approach of NEW IN which he ‘‘motivates’’ some scam-artist TOWN is about as old hat as they come. [PG]쩠 telemarketers, is the only one with any real juice. [R]▼● New Jack City (1991) C-97m. ★★ D: New Best Friend (2002) C-91m. BOMB Mario Van Peebles. Wesley Snipes, Ice T, D: Zoe Clarke-Williams. Meredith Monroe, Allen Payne, Chris Rock, Mario Van PeeRachel True, Dominique Swain, Mia Kirshbles, Judd Nelson, Michael Michele, Bill ner, Taye Diggs, Scott Bairstow, Glynnis Nunn, Russell Wong, Vanessa Williams, O’Connor, Oliver Hudson, Eric Michael Cole. Nick Ashford, Thalmus Rasulala. N.Y.C. Interminable would-be thriller about a sociopolice detective hires two maverick expath working-class coed (Kirshner) detercops to bring down a Napoleonic drug lord mined to score with the rich and popular at an who’s made his fortune selling crack (and exclusive North Carolina college. Dreary teen whose role model, apparently, is the Al exploitation is full of RASHOMON-like Pacino character in SCARFACE!). Lots of flashbacks and lesbian sex scenes but is so emotional energy, and strong performances, anemic you’re unlikely to care. Terrible perbut its clearly stated anti-drug message is formances, with Diggs as a sheriff with an clouded by overblown melodrama—and intermittent Southern accent. [R]▼쩠 several climaxes too many. [R]▼●쩠 New Centurions, The (1972) C-103m. New Jersey Drive (1995) C-95m. ★★ D: ★★★ D: Richard Fleischer. George C. Scott, Nick Gomez. Sharron Corley, Gabriel CasStacy Keach, Jane Alexander, Rosalind seus, Saul Stein, Gwen McGee, Andre Cash, Scott Wilson, Erik Estrada, Clifton Moore, Donald Adeosun Faison. Two teenJames, Isabel Sanford, James B. Sikking, Ed agers are drawn into the underground world Lauter, William Atherton, Roger E. Mosof carjacking in Newark, N.J., and soon find ley. Fine, episodic adaptation by Stirling the full weight of the local police force comSilliphant of Joseph Wambaugh novel of ing down around them. Spike Lee executiverookie cops on modern-day L.A. police produced this gritty, well-meaning drama; unforce, ultimately pessimistic in outlook. fortunately, it never shifts into high gear. Great casting, performances; good storyCorley (in his film debut) once lived the life telling. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 he portrays on-screen. [R] ▼●쩠 New Guy, The (2002) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Ed New Kids, The (1985) C-90m. ★★ D: Decter. DJ Qualls, Eliza Dushku, Zooey Sean Cunningham. Shannon Presby, Lori Deschanel, Lyle Lovett, Eddie Griffin, Jerod Loughlin, James Spader, John Philbin, Eric Mixon, Parry Shen, Gene Simmons, M.C. Stoltz. Unexciting thriller about a brother Gainey, Geoffrey Lewis, Illeana Douglas, and sister (Presby, Loughlin), two nice [ 977 ]

kids who are harassed by meanie Spader Woody Herman & Band, Meade Lux Lewis, and his cronies. There’s no gratuitous gore, other jazz stars. Hackneyed fictionalizabut there are also no real chills. [PG]▼●쩠 tion of the birth of jazz, spanning 40 years, New Kind of Love, A (1963) C-110m. but there’s plenty of good music. Holiday ★★1 ⁄2 D: Melville Shavelson. Paul Newman, (cast as a maid!) does ‘‘Do You Know Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, Eva What It Means to Miss New Orleans’’ with Gabor, Maurice Chevalier, George Tobias, Armstrong and all-star band, and it’s subMarvin Kaplan, Robert Clary. Silly but enlime. Shelley Winters appears briefly as joyable fluff with sportswriter Newman and de Co´rdova’s secretary.▼쩠 fashion buyer Woodward tangling, and then New Rose Hotel (1999) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: falling in love, in Paris. The stars really put Abel Ferrara. Christopher Walken, Willem this one over; Chevalier appears as himself, Dafoe, Asia Argento, Yoshitaka Amano, title song sung by Frank Sinatra. ▼쩠 Annabella Sciorra, Gretchen Mol, John New Land, The (1972-Swedish) C-161m. Lurie, Ryuichi Sakamoto. Ludicrously ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jan Troell. Max von Sydow, Liv steamy sleaze in which a pair of industrial Ullmann, Eddie Axberg, Hans Alfredson, spies (Walken, Dafoe) attempt to entice a Monica Zetterlund, Per Oscarsson. Sequel brilliant geneticist (Amano) into switching to THE EMIGRANTS follows same charfirms by hiring a hooker (Argento) to seacters as they settle in Minnesota, up to the duce him. Meant to be a moody morality ends of their lives. Superior performances, tale, but comes off silly and pompous. photography, many stirring scenes. A real Based on a short story by sci-fi/cyberpunk winner; both films have been edited towriter William Gibson. Shot in 1997. [R] gether for TV, dubbed in English, and pre▼쩠 sented as THE EMIGRANT SAGA. See Newsfront (1978-Australian) C-106m. ★★★ also THE OX. [PG]▼● D: Phillip Noyce. Bill Hunter, Gerard KenNew Leaf, A (1971) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: nedy, Angela Punch, Wendy Hughes, Chris Elaine May. Walter Matthau, Elaine May, Haywood, John Ewart, Bryan Brown. EnJack Weston, George Rose, William Redjoyable, well-crafted tale of newsreel field, James Coco, Graham Jarvis, Doris filmmakers—centering on dedicated camRoberts, Renee Taylor, David Doyle. eraman Hunter—is a valentine to the movie Amusing comedy of destitute Matthau plannewsreel industry. Among highlights are ning to marry and murder klutzy May in actual late 1940s and 1950s newsreel footorder to inherit her fortune. Many funny age, nicely integrated into scenario. Cut by 6m. for initial U.S. release. [PG]▼●쩠 moments, and May is terrific, but it’s wildly uneven. Director/writer/star May disaNewsies (1992) C-125m. ★1⁄2 D: Kenny vowed finished film, which was reedited by Ortega. Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robothers. [G]▼ ert Duvall, Ann-Margret, Michael LerNew Life, A (1988) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: ner, Kevin Tighe, Charles Cioffi, David Alan Alda. Alan Alda, Ann-Margret, Hal Moscow, Luke Edwards, Max Casella. Linden, Veronica Hamel, John Shea, Mary Or, Howard the Paperboy. Ambitious musiKay Place, Beatrice Alda. Pleasant but pat cal about the 1899 strike by urchin peddlers comedy about a middle-aged couple’s trials of Pulitzer’s New York World and William and tribulations after divorcing. Alda (sportRandolph Hearst’s Journal. Done in by lacking a beard and curly hair) also wrote the luster score, and cramped production numbers script. [PG-13]▼● that seem cheap despite the film’s hefty proNewman’s Law (1974) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: duction budget. Duvall, looking like one of Richard Heffron. George Peppard, Roger the Smith Brothers, plays Pulitzer; Ann-MarRobinson, Eugene Roche, Gordon Pinsent, gret needlessly pads film’s bloated running Louis Zorich, Abe Vigoda. Honest cop time as musical performer who inexplicably Peppard, bounced from the force for alleged befriends the lads. Score by Alan Menken and corruption, investigates the case on his own. Jack Feldman. Directing debut for choreograDreary and predictable. [PG]▼ pher Ortega. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 New Moon (1940) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Newton Boys, The (1998) C-113m. ★★ Z. Leonard. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson D: Richard Linklater. Matthew McConEddy, Mary Boland, George Zucco, H. B. aughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent Warner, Grant Mitchell, Stanley Fields. D’Onofrio, Julianna Margulies, Dwight YoaNelson and Jeanette in old Louisiana, fallkam, Chloe Webb, Bo Hopkins. Lackadaisiing in love, singing ‘‘One Kiss,’’ ‘‘Softly cal true-life saga of four Texas brothers who as in a Morning Sunrise,’’ ‘‘Lover Come robbed banks across the country from 1919 Back to Me,’’ ‘‘Stout-Hearted Men.’’ Oscar to 1924 and lived to tell about it. Gen-X Hammerstein–Sigmund Romberg score sung auteur Linklater is largely unsuccessful at before in 1930 filming with Lawrence Tibmaking a period actioner; indifferent pacing bett and Grace Moore.▼● and superficial characterizations make this New Orleans (1947) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur ‘‘The Mild Bunch.’’ Best performance comes Lubin. Arturo de Co´rdova, Dorothy Patfrom Yoakam as a meek safecracking expert. rick, Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Terrific honkytonk score by a group called [ 978 ]

Bad Livers (!); if you stick it out, the end Darrell Hammond, Andrea Martin, Jack Oscredits feature interview footage of the real bourne. Twin sisters have grown apart— Newton Boys that’s more entertaining than one’s an uptight super-student, the other a anything that preceded it. Panavision. [PGclass-cutting slob—but they come together 13]▼●쩠 during an adventurous day in N.Y.C. as a New Waterford Girl (2000-Canadian) Cwould-be spy attempts to kidnap one of them. You get pretty much what you’d expect from 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allan Moyle. Liane Balaban, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Nicholas Campbell, this innocuous Olsen vehicle; Levy plays an Mary Walsh, Mark McKinney, Andrew overzealous truant officer on the trail of his prize prey, Mary-Kate. [PG] ▼쩠 McCarthy, Cathy Moriarty. Agreeable but uneven account of dreamy 15-year-old New York New York (1977) C-164m. ★1 Mooney Pottie (Balaban), who has artistic ⁄2 D: Martin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, aspirations and yearns for a life in Paris, Liza Minnelli, Lionel Stander, Georgie New York, or Barcelona . . . all of which Auld, Mary Kay Place, George Memmoli, makes her an odd duck to the natives in her Barry Primus, Dick Miller, Diahnne Abbott. provincial Nova Scotia hometown. On the Elaborate but off-putting musical drama money when zeroing in on Mooney and her loosely based on THE MAN I LOVE; frustrations, but the scenario often meansaxophonist De Niro and vocalist Minnelli ders, and some of the comic moments fall love and fight with each other right through flat. U.S. version runs 90m. ▼쩠 the Big Band era. Some people consider New Wave SEE: Nouvelle Vague this film extraordinary, but we’re not among New World, The (2005) C-149m. ★★1⁄2 D: them; kudos, though, to production deTerrence Malick. Colin Farrell, Christopher signer Boris Leven, music arranger Ralph Plummer, Q’Orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Burns, and the Kander-Ebb title song. IniAugust Schellenberg, Wes Studi, David tially released at 153m., then cut to 137m., Thewlis, Yorick van Wageningen, Ben Menand finally reissued in 1981 at current length delsohn, Raoul Trujillo, Brian F. O’Byrne, with splashy ‘‘Happy Endings’’ number Irene Bedard, John Savage, Noah Taylor, Jon(featuring Larry Kert) added. [PG]▼●쩠 athan Pryce, Ben Chaplin, Roger Rees. AmbiNew York Stories (1989) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 tious film about the settlement of Jamestown, D: Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Virginia, in 1607 and how Captain John Woody Allen. Nick Nolte, Rosanna ArSmith’s relationship with a local chief’s favorquette, Steve Buscemi, Peter Gabriel, Debite daughter, Pocahontas, changes the dynamorah Harry, Heather McComb, Talia Shire, ics between the natives and the new arrivals Giancarlo Giannini, Don Novello, Chris from Britain. Writer-director Malick’s third Elliott, Carole Bouquet, Woody Allen, Mia film in 30 years is exquisitely detailed, with Farrow, Mae Questel, Julie Kavner, Mayor a vivid sense of time and place and a wonEdward I. Koch, Adrien Brody, Illeana derfully fresh performance by 15-year-old Douglas, Kirsten Dunst. Three-part antholKilcher as Pocahontas . . . but it’s still a bit ogy film: Scorsese’s is an obvious, heavylike watching paint dry. At least it’s beautihanded tale of a macho artist (Nolte) and his ful paint. James Horner makes great use of assistant/lover (Arquette) who wants to fly Wagner themes in his score. Cut to 135m. the coop. Coppola’s is a cute but pointless after its initial release; longer version runs variation on the old children’s book Eloise 172m. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 about a little rich girl who lives in a N.Y.C. New Year’s Day (1989) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: hotel while her parents globetrot. Finally, Henry Jaglom. Henry Jaglom, Gwen Welles, we get to the good stuff, with Allen in great Maggie Jakobson, Melanie Winter, David form as a man literally haunted by his nagging mother (Questel, a howl). [PG] ▼●쩠 Duchovny, Milos Forman, Michael Emil, Tracy Reiner. Another personal, hit-andNext (2007) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Lee Tamahori. miss film from Jaglom, who plays a writer Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, attempting to reclaim the N.Y.C. apartment Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, Jose he’s sublet to Jakobson, Winter, and Zuniga, Jim Beaver, Jason Butler Harner, Welles. Typically, there is much talk about Michael Trucco, Peter Falk. Grade-B action relationships and sex (among other subfilm that somehow attracted A-list stars. jects); some of it illuminating, much of it Moore is an aggressive FBI agent pursuing pretentious. Odd casting: filmmaker Fora clairvoyant Vegas lounge magician who she is convinced is the only one who can man as the apartment house janitor. [R] ▼쩠 New York Confidential (1955) 87m. ★★1⁄2 foil a terrorist plot to nuke L.A. What, D: Russell Rouse. Broderick Crawford, RichDavid Copperfield had another gig? Cage ard Conte, Marilyn Maxwell, Anne Bancroft, gamely plays this stuff with a straight face, J. Carrol Naish. Energetic cast perks up forwhile the normally reliable Moore looks demula expose´-of-racketeer narrative. cidedly uncomfortable. Based on the Philip K. Dick story ‘‘The Golden Man.’’ HD New York Minute (2004) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 Dennie Gordon. Ashley Olsen, Mary-Kate Olsen, Eugene Levy, Andy Richter, Riley Next Best Thing, The (2000) C-108m. Smith, Jared Padalecki, Dr. Drew Pinsky, BOMB D: John Schlesinger. Madonna, Ru[ 979 ]

pert Everett, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Vartan, lard. Chicago cop Swayze, of Appalachian Josef Sommer, Lynn Redgrave, Malcolm descent, takes on Mr. Mob with the help Stumpf, Neil Patrick Harris, Illeana Douglas. of backwoods brother Neeson. High-conAwful soap opera about yoga instructor havcept, low-rent star vehicle. Would you stay ing a child with her best friend, who’s gay, in a hotel managed by Pollard? [R]▼●쩠 which works fine until she falls in love with Next One, The (1984) C-105m. ★★ D: another man. Unconvincing, even condeNico Mastorakis. Keir Dullea, Adrienne scending at times, despite its self-satisfied Barbeau, Jeremy Licht, Peter Hobbs. Dulscript. Everett keeps telling Madonna how lea, a Christ-like visitor from the future, beautiful she is, but it takes late ’40s-style washes up on a Greek island where widow Joan Crawford lighting to try to put that over. Barbeau, living with her young son, falls in Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 love with him. Mediocre sci-fi strains for Next Day Air (2009) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: significance. Filmed in 1981. Aka THE TIME TRAVELLER. ▼쩠 Benny Boom. Donald Faison, Mike Epps, Wood Harris, Omari Hardwick, Emilio RiNext Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) C-109m. ★★★ D: Paul Mazursky. Lenny vera, Darius McCrary, Cisco Reyes, Yasmin Deliz, Mos Def, Debbie Allen, Lobo Baker, Shelley Winters, Ellen Greene, ChrisSebastian, Malik Barnhardt. When delivery topher Walken, Lou Jacobi, Mike Kellin, man Faison, perpetually high on weed, unLois Smith, Dori Brenner, Antonio Fargas, wittingly delivers a large box full of cocaine Jeff Goldblum. Comic, poignant film about to the wrong apartment, two inept criminals Brooklyn boy Baker who moves to Greendecide to cash in on this surprise gift while wich Village in 1953 hoping to become an the intended recipient and his girlfriend actor. Wonderful period atmosphere and frantically try to track it down. Farcical characterizations; Winters is excellent as premise works in spite of director Boom’s Baker’s domineering mother. Look fast for efforts to insert pointless violence via quick Bill Murray in a bar. Semiautobiographical flashbacks that are jarringly out of place. A script by Mazursky. [R]▼쩠 game cast keeps it watchable. [R] Next Stop Wonderland (1998) C-104m. ★★★ D: Brad Anderson. Hope Davis, Alan Next Friday (2000) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve Carr. Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Justin Pierce, Gelfant, Holland Taylor, Jose Zuniga, Phil John Witherspoon, Don ‘‘D.C.’’ Curry, (Philip Seymour) Hoffman, Robert Klein, Jacob Vargas, Lobo Sebastian, Rolando Roger Rees. Unabashedly old-fashioned roMolina, Lisa Rodriguez, Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ mantic comedy about a recently jilted nurse Lister, Jr. Slacker/stoner (Cube) finds that (Davis) whose love life takes a new turn his problems are just beginning when, to when her meddling mother (Taylor, fun as escape the wrath of bully Lister, he is disever) secretly places a personals ad for her. patched from the ’hood to his uncle and Somewhere amidst a sea of overeager bachcousin in the ’burbs. Shrill, stupid sequel to elors is her Mr. Right (Gelfant), but their FRIDAY is a sloppy pastiche of crude lives seem to intersect without so much as comic skits filled with lame stereotypes. a meeting. Indie spin on SLEEPLESS IN Cube also scripted. Followed by FRIDAY SEATTLE has silly subplots but is bolAFTER NEXT. [R] ▼●쩠 stered by a wintry Boston locale, charm to Next Karate Kid, The (1994) C-104m. ★★ spare, and a wonderfully bittersweet performance from Davis. [R]▼●쩠 D: Christopher Cain. Noriyuki ‘‘Pat’’ Morita, Hilary Swank, Michael Ironside, ConNext Voice You Hear . . . , The (1950) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Wellman. James stance Towers, Chris Conrad. Harmless, formulaic KARATE KID sequel (fourth in Whitmore, Nancy Davis (Reagan), Lillian the series) with a twist: the ‘‘kid’’ is now a Bronson, Jeff Corey, Gary Gray. The voice girl (Swank), an alienated teen who is taught of God is heard nightly on the radio (but self-esteem and martial arts by the benevolent not by the audience) and has a profound impact on average American Whitmore, his Mr. Miyagi (Morita). [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ Next Man, The (1976) C-108m. wife and son. Ambitious if not terribly sucD: Richard C. Sarafian. Sean Connery, Corcessful message film produced by Dore Schary.▼ nelia Sharpe, Albert Paulsen, Adolfo Celi, Charles Cioffi. Good melodrama in which Niagara (1953) C-89m. ★★★ D: Henry scenery (N.Y.C., Bavaria, London, MoHathaway. Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, rocco, etc.) and violence are blended to Jean Peters, Casey Adams, Don Wilson, tell of international hit lady Sharpe falling Richard Allan. Black murder tale of couple in love with Saudi Arabian ambassador staying at Niagara Falls, the wife planning Connery as he tries to arrange peace with to kill husband. Produced and cowritten by Palestine. Video titles: DOUBLE HIT and Charles Brackett; good location work. THE ARAB CONSPIRACY. [R]▼쩠 ▼●쩠 Next of Kin (1989) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: John Niagara, Niagara (1998) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Irvin. Patrick Swayze, Liam Neeson, Adam Bob Gosse. Robin Tunney, Henry Thomas, Baldwin, Helen Hunt, Andreas Katsulas, Michael Parks, Stephen Lang, John MacKay. Bill Paxton, Ben Stiller, Michael J. PolA teenage girl with Tourette Syndrome [ 980 ]

meets her soulmate while they’re both shopDouglas McGrath. Charlie Hunnam, Jamie lifting. Any film that launches a ‘‘romance’’ Bell, Christopher Plummer, Jim Broadbent, on that note provides ample warning for Romola Garai, Tom Courtenay, Stella viewers who dare to continue. Tunney is Gonet, Timothy Spall, Anne Hathaway, Juunflinching in her performance as the gratliet Stevenson, Nathan Lane, Barry Humphingly foul-mouthed girl in this notably unries, Alan Cumming, Edward Fox, Sophie pleasant film that adds a novel spin to Thompson. Dickens’ colorful story of a lovers-on-the-lam cinema. [R] ▼ young man trying to make his way after the Nice Girl? (1941) 95m. ★★★ D: William death of his father is good, old-fashioned A. Seiter. Deanna Durbin, Franchot Tone, entertainment, with Hunnam an appealing Walter Brennan, Robert Stack, Robert hero, Bell a poignant sidekick, Plummer an Benchley. Little Deanna grows up in this unrepentant villain (Nicholas’ heartless cute comedy, with Tone and Stack develuncle), and the best character actors in Enoping amorous ideas about her. Songs: gland filling other key roles. Most inspired ‘‘Love At Last,’’ ‘‘Thank You America.’’ casting: American Lane and Dame Edna Video includes alternate ending. ▼ (Humphries) as the kindhearted owners of a Nice Girl Like Me, A (1969-British) traveling theater troupe. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 ★★ C-91m. D: Desmond Davis. Barbara Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) Ferris, Harry Andrews, Gladys Cooper, C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Sollett. Michael Bill Hinnant, James Villiers. Orphaned Cera, Kat Dennings, Aaron Yoo, Rafi GavFerris accidentally becomes impregnated ron, Ari Graynor, Alexis Dziena, Zachary twice by different men, is looked after by Booth, Jay Baruchel, Seth Meyers, Kevin caretaker Andrews, whom she really loves. Corrigan, John Cho, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Appealing, silly and predictable. [M/PG]▼ Frankie Faison, Devendra Banhart. HeartNice Girls Don’t Explode (1987) C-92m. sick N.J. high schooler Cera still carries a ★★ torch for Dziena but can’t pretend he isn’t D: Chuck Martinez. Barbara Harris, Michelle Meyrink, William O’Leary, Walattracted to Dennings, whom he chances to lace Shawn, James Nardini. Silly comedy meet during a night on the town in N.Y.C. (with a memorable title) about a girl who Alternates between sweet, sincere moments causes things to explode, especially when and self-conscious artificiality; at its best she gets amorous. Harris and Meyrink, as capturing the atmosphere of the City at mother and daughter who share this curse, night. Aimed squarely at a teenage audigive it their best, but the sparks don’t ence. Based on a novel by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. [PG-13]쩠 ignite. [PG]▼● Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed, Nick Carter series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s A (1958) 87m. ★★ D: Henry Levin. Tom Classic Movie Guide Ewell, Mickey Rooney, Mickey ShaughNick Carter in Prague SEE: Dinner for nessy, Dina Merrill. Cast is game, but story is Adele pure cornball about goofy crooks using their Nickel Mountain (1985) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: gains to buy a racehorse. CinemaScope. Drew Denbaum. Michael Cole, Heather Nicholas and Alexandra (1971-British) Langenkamp, Patrick Cassidy, Brian KerC-183m. ★★1⁄2 D: Franklin Schaffner. Miwin, Grace Zabriskie, Don Beddoe, Ed chael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Tom Baker, Lauter. Warm drama of unwed teenage Harry Andrews, Jack Hawkins, Laurence mother growing up in rural America, beOlivier, Michael Redgrave, Alexander friended by pathetic older man. WinKnox, Curt Jurgens, Irene Worth, John ning performance by Langenkamp. Adapted Wood, Brian Cox, Ian Holm. Lavishly filmed from John Gardner’s novel; filmed in 1983.▼ (with Oscar-winning art direction-set decoration and costumes), well-acted chronicle of Nickelodeon (1976) C-121m. ★★★ D: Peter Russian leaders, and revolution that turned Bogdanovich. Ryan O’Neal, Burt Reyntheir world upside down. Sure and steady, olds, Tatum O’Neal, Brian Keith, Stella but eventually tedious, despite cameos by Stevens, John Ritter, Jane Hitchcock, Harry Olivier et al. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Carey, Jr. Heartfelt valentine to early days Nicholas Nickleby (1947-British) 108m. of moviemaking, with O’Neal literally stum★★★ D: Alberto Cavalcanti. Derek Bond, bling into his job as director, Reynolds an Cedric Hardwicke, Alfred Drayton, Berovernight screen hero. Based on reminisnard Miles, Sally Ann Howes, Mary Merrall, cences of such veterans as Raoul Walsh and Sybil Thorndike, Cathleen Nesbitt. DickAllan Dwan, film unfortunately loses steam ens’s classic tale of young man’s struggle halfway through. Entertaining on the whole, to protect his family from scheming uncle sparked by fine cast; script by Bogdanovich and a cruel world is vividly brought to and W.D. Richter. Director’s version runs 5m. longer in b&w. [PG]쩠 life. Can’t compare with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 81⁄2-hour stage version— Nickel Ride, The (1975) C-99m. ★★ D: but still quite good. Some American prints Robert Mulligan. Jason Miller, Linda run 95m.▼ Haynes, Victor French, John Hillerman, Nicholas Nickleby (2002) C-132m. ★★★ D: Bo Hopkins. Uneven and generally ob[ 981 ]

scure little drama about a syndicate contact Monty Woolley, Ginny Simms, Jane Wyman (Miller) who keeps keys to L.A. wareman, Eve Arden, Mary Martin, Victor houses used by dealers in stolen goods. Francen, Alan Hale, Dorothy Malone. Music Panavision. [PG] only worthy aspect of fabricated biography Nick of Time (1995) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: John of songwriter Cole Porter, stiffly played Badham. Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, by Grant, who even sings ‘‘You’re The Charles S. Dutton, Courtney Chase, Marsha Top.’’ Martin re-creates ‘‘My Heart BeMason, Roma Maffia, Peter Strauss, Gloria longs to Daddy’’ in film’s highlight.▼●쩠 Reuben, Bill Smitrovich, G. D. Spradlin. Night and the City (1950) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Businessman arrives in L.A. with his young Jules Dassin. Richard Widmark, Gene daughter and within moments, she’s taken Tierney, Googie Withers, Hugh Marlowe, hostage while he’s instructed to commit Francis L. Sullivan, Herbert Lom, Mike murder! Watchable suspense yarn draws Mazurki, Kay Kendall. Interesting film you in, but hurls credibility roadblocks in noir portrait of assorted losers in the nethyour path at every turn. A game cast gives erworld of London, focusing on a young it 100 percent. Attempt to create heightened American hustler (Widmark) who’s dessuspense by playing out the story in ‘‘real perate to succeed. Marvelous showcase for time’’ (with endless closeups of clocks) Sullivan as an oily nightclub owner. Filmed doesn’t pay off at all. [R]▼●쩠 in England. Remade in 1992.▼쩠 Nico-Icon (1995-German) C/B&W-67m. Night and the City (1992) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 ★★★ D: Susanne Ofteringer. Fascinating D: Irwin Winkler. Robert De Niro, Jessica documentary about a compelling, sadly Lange, Cliff Gorman, Alan King, Jack Wartragic subject: Christa Pa¨ffgen, the beautiful den, Eli Wallach, Barry Primus, GeneKirkbut self-destructive German-born model and wood, Pedro Sanchez. De Niro is dynamic as singer who re-created herself as Nico, one of always, playing a hustler who tries promoting Andy Warhol’s ‘‘Superstars.’’ Nico was no a boxing match—setting himself up for percandidate for Mother-of-the-Year: she was a sonal and professional disaster at every turn. heroin addict who initiated her own son into Colorful N.Y.C. ambience and solid cast comusing the drug! Warhol’s interview, along bat the utter predictability of the story. Screenwith one of Nico filmed two years before her play by Richard Price (who also plays a death in 1988, are among the highpoints. Lou doctor), based on the 1950 film and its source novel by Gerald Kersh. [R]▼● Reed, Jackson Browne, and Paul Morrissey are among those seen on-camera in this Night at the Golden Eagle (2002) C-87m. ★1 trenchant documentary. ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Adam Rifkin. Donnie Montemarano, Nicotina (2003-Mexican) C-93m. ★★ D: Vinny Argiro, Natasha Lyonne, Ann MagHugo Rodrı´guez. Diego Luna, Marta Bela´usnuson, Vinnie Jones, Fayard Nicholas, Sam tegui, Lucas Crespi, Jesu´s Ochoa, Rafael InMoore, Kitten Natividad. Grim, distasteful cla´n, Rosa Marı´a Bianchi, Daniel Gime´nez melodrama set at an L.A. skid-row hotel, Cacho, Carmen Madrid. So-so crime caper/ mostly during one hot night. Despite some black comedy finds nerdy guy involved with good performances, the film is unconvincRussian mobsters after he mistakenly delivers ing and uninvolving. Stylized cinematograthe wrong computer disk, throwing several phy features coarse, solarized color. James characters’ lives into turmoil. Gimmicky Caan appears unbilled. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 movie shot (mostly) in real time also deals Night at the Museum (2006) C-108m. ★★★ with every aspect of cigarette addiction imagD: Shawn Levy. Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, inable. Unfortunately nothing else about this Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill film could be described as smokin’. [R] Cobbs, Jake Cherry, Ricky Gervais, Robin Night, The SEE: La Notte Williams, Steve Coogan, Kim Raver, PatNight After Night (1932) 70m. ★★ D: rick Gallagher, Paul Rudd. Divorced dad Archie Mayo. George Raft, Mae West, (and perpetual screwup) Stiller can’t afford to Constance Cummings, Wynne Gibson, Rosdisappoint his son again. Desperate for a job, coe Karns, Louis Calhern, Alison Skipworth. he tries out as night watchman at Manhattan’s Story of nightclub owner Raft’s infatuaMuseum of Natural History, unaware that the tion with ‘‘classy’’ Cummings is a crashexhibits come to life every night and cause all ing bore, but when Mae West comes on sorts of havoc. Engaging fantasy for kids, the screen lights up. It’s her film debut, based on Milan Trenc’s book, artfully employs an arsenal of special effects; the imagiand she’s in rare form.▼●쩠 Night Ambush (1957-British) 93m. ★★★ native story just happens to involve famous D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. figures in world history. Stiller has a funny Dirk Bogarde, Marius Goring, David Oxley, scene with a woman at an employment Cyril Cusack, Christopher Lee. Taut WW2 agency—nicely played by his mom, Anne actioner set in Crete, with fine British cast. Meara. Owen Wilson appears unbilled. FolOriginally released in England as ILL MET lowed by a sequel. Super 35. [PG]쩠 BY MOONLIGHT at 104m. VistaVision.▼ Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithNight and Day (1946) C-128m. ★★ D: sonian (2009) C-104m. ★★ D: Shawn Levy. Michael Curtiz. Cary Grant, Alexis Smith, Ben Stiller, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson, [ 982 ]

Hank Azaria, Robin Williams, Christopher real killer. Intelligent, imaginative horror epic, Guest, Alain Chabat, Ricky Gervais, Steve but as adapted by Barker from his novel Cabal, Coogan, Bill Hader, Jon Bernthal, Jay Baruthe complicated film never becomes fully inchel, Craig Robinson, Clint Howard. With a volving. Eye-popping apocalyptic climax. setup that makes the word ‘‘contrived’’ seem [R]▼●쩠 mild, onetime security guard Stiller—now inNight Caller (1975-French-Italian) C-91m. ★★ D: Henri Verneuil. Jean-Paul Belmondo, explicably a TV inventor/pitchman—comes to the rescue of his old friends, the exhibits at Charles Denner, Adalberto-Maria Meril, Lea the Museum of Natural History, when they’re Massari, Rosy Varte. Detective Belmondo shipped to cold storage underneath the Smithtackles both a bank robbery case and an obsonian in Washington, D.C. Hilarity ensues scene phone caller who murders women at the (it says here). Lazy writing and silly, selfend of the line. Action but little else. [R] indulgent ideas fill this moneyed sequel—but Night Caller from Outer Space (1965British) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Gilling. John if you’re under 10 years old it will probably play just fine. There are some funny moSaxon, Maurice Denham, Patricia Haines, ments, and Azaria is a hoot as the Pharaoh Alfred Burke, Jack Watson, Aubrey Morris. who sounds like movies’ original Im-ho-tep. Well-done sci-fi thriller of alien kidnapping Jonah Hill appears unbilled along with surhumans to take back to his home, a moon of prise guests. Super 35. [PG] Jupiter. U.S. theatrical title: BLOOD BEAST FROM OUTER SPACE. ▼●쩠 Night at the Opera, A (1935) 92m. ★★★★ D: Sam Wood. Groucho, Chico, Harpo Night Call Nurses (1972) C-85m. ★★ D: Marx, Kitty Carlisle, Allan Jones, Walter Jonathan Kaplan. Patti Byrne, Alana Collins, Woolf King, Margaret Dumont, Sigfried Mittie Lawrence, Dick Miller, Dennis Rumann. The Marx Brothers invade the Dugan, Stack Pierce. Kaplan’s feature deworld of opera with devastating results. Arguabut is typical drive-in sex comedy; lightbly their finest film (a close race with DUCK hearted and fast-paced, with good comic SOUP), with tuneful music and appealing roperformances by Dugan and the ubiquimance neatly interwoven. One priceless comtous Miller. Third in Roger Corman-proedy bit follows another: the stateroom scene, duced series; followed by THE YOUNG NURSES. [R]▼쩠 the Party of the First Part contract, etc. This is as good as it gets.▼●쩠 Nightcap SEE: Merci Pour le Chocolat Night at the Roxbury, A (1998) C-82m. Nightcomers, The (1972-British) C-96m. ★1 ★★ ⁄2 D: John Fortenberry. Will Ferrell, Chris D: Michael Winner. Marlon Brando, Kattan, Molly Shannon, Dan Hedaya, Loni Stephanie Beacham, Thora Hird, Harry Anderson, Elisa Donovan, Gigi Rice, RichAndrews, Verna Harvey, Christopher Ellis, ard Grieco, Dwayne Hickman, Colin Quinn, Anna Palk. Poor direction hurts attempt to Michael Clarke Duncan. The uncool Butabi chronicle what happened to the children in Brothers from Saturday Night Live get Henry James’ Turn of the Screw before (rather than rate) their feature film debut: a original story began. [R]▼●쩠 limp comedy about their attempt to wile Night Creature (1978) C-83m. BOMB themselves into the town’s trendiest nightD: Lee Madden. Donald Pleasence, Nancy spot. Talk about the last days of disco; five Kwan, Ross Hagen, Lesly Fine, Jennifer minutes of material gets stretched into Rhodes. Macho writer Pleasence lives on nearly an hour and a half. The two stars also Xanadu-like island retreat near Thailand, but scripted. Chazz Palminteri has a cameo. a prowling leopard is giving him the jitters. Grieco completists should be aware that he Low-grade thriller, minus the thrills. Aka plays himself. [PG-13]▼●쩠 OUT OF THE DARKNESS. [PG]▼ NightBefore,The (1988) C-85m. ★★ D:Thom Night Creatures (1962-British) C-81m. ★★1 Eberhardt. Keanu Reeves, Lori Loughlin, The⁄2 D: Peter Graham Scott. Peter Cushing, resa Saldana, Trinidad Silva, Suzanne Snyder, Yvonne Romain, Patrick Allen, Oliver Morgan Lofting, Gwil Richards, Michael Reed, Michael Ripper, Martin Benson, Greene. Mild (and all-too-familiar) comic misDavid Lodge. In 18th century England, adventures, as a high-school nerd tries to recountry parson is also the notorious ‘‘dead’’ member what happened to him the previous pirate leader of smugglers who pose as ghosts. Good fun with some scary moments. night on the way to the prom. [PG-13]▼쩠 Nightbreed (1990-U.S.-Canadian) C-99m. Remake of DR. SYN. Original British ★★1 ⁄2 D: Clive Barker. Craig Sheffer, Anne title: CAPTAIN CLEGG.쩠 Bobby, David Cronenberg, Charles Haid, Night Crossing (1981-British) C-106m. ★★1 Hugh Quarshie, Hugh Ross, Doug Bradley, ⁄2 D: Delbert Mann. John Hurt, Jane Catherine Chevalier, Bob Sessions, MalAlexander, Glynnis O’Connor, Doug Mccolm Smith, Oliver Parker, John Agar. MisKeon, Beau Bridges, Ian Bannen, Klaus taken for a serial killer, Sheffer is killed at Lowitsch, Kay Walsh. Unexceptional though the gates of mysterious Midian, ‘‘where the well-cast and not unexciting tale of two monsters go.’’ He returns from the dead to join families’ escape from East Berlin via hotthe monsters there, confusing girlfriend Bobby air balloon. A Walt Disney production, and enticing his psychiatrist Cronenberg, the based on a true story. [PG]▼쩠 [ 983 ]

Night Digger, The (1971-British) C-100m. Night Flier, The (1998) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★ Mark Pavia. Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle, D: Alastair Reid. Patricia Neal, Pamela Brown, Nicholas Clay, Jean Anderson, GraDan Monahan, Merton H. Moss. Blackham Crowden, Yootha Joyce. Odd, usually hearted tabloid reporter meets his match effective psychological thriller adapted from when he tracks a mysterious bloodsucking Joy Cowley novel by Roald Dahl. With the serial killer who flies a black Cessna plane unexpected arrival of young handyman, sad from crime scene to crime scene. Genuinely relationship between two country women creepy mood is bolstered by Ferrer’s enjoytakes turn for the better, until they discover ably hissable heavy. Not-bad directorial what he does on off-hours. Excellent perfordebut for Pavia until the film’s final third, mances, fine Bernard Herrmann score. Aka which descends into typical gorefest shtick. THE ROAD BUILDER. [R] Originally shown on cable, then released in Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, theaters. Aka STEPHEN KING’S THE NIGHT FLIER. [R]▼●쩠 The (1971-Italian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Emilio Miraglia. Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti, Night Flight From Moscow (1973-FrenchItalian-West German) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rod Murdock, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Umberto Raho. Dreadful horror whodunit Henri Verneuil. Yul Brynner, Henry Fonda, about British lord released from psychiatric Dirk Bogarde, Philippe Noiret, Virna Lisi, clinic following wife’s death, who begins to Farley Granger, Robert Alda, Marie Dubois, suspect she is still alive when her crypt is Elga Andersen. Espionage thriller about discovered empty. Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 the defection of Russian diplomat Brynner is Nightfall (1956) 78m. ★★★ D: Jacques compromised by the middling screenplay Tourneur. Aldo Ray, Brian Keith, Anne adapted from Pierre Nord’s cloak-and-dagBancroft, Jocelyn Brando, James Gregoger novel Le 13e Suicide. Originally titled ry, Frank Albertson. Fast-moving, wellTHE SERPENT. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 made story of innocent man wanted by Nightforce (1987) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Lawpolice for killing of friend, chased by rence D. Foldes. Linda Blair, James Van actual killers for stolen money he found.쩠 Patten, Richard Lynch, Chad McQueen, Nightfall (1988) C-82m. BOMB D: Paul Dean R. Miller, James Marcel, Claudia Mayersberg. David Birney, Sarah DougUdy, Bruce Fisher, Cameron Mitchell. las, Alexis Kanner, Andra Millian, Charles Cornball action film has Blair and fellow Hayward, Susie Lindeman, Starr Andreeff. youngsters organizing a commando misHopelessly muddled adaptation of Isaac sion to Central America to free a kidnapped daughter of a U. S. senator. [R]▼ Asimov’s classic short story about an alien world in a three-star solar system whose Night Full of Rain, A (1978-Italian) C-104m. ★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Giancarlo inhabitants face the coming darkness of nightfall (occurring only once every 1000 Giannini, Candice Bergen, Allison Tucker, years) with abject terror. Birney is miscast Jill Eikenberry, Michael Tucker, Anne in this cheesy production. Remade in 2000 Byrne. Wertmuller’s first English language as ISAAC ASIMOV’S NIGHTFALL. [PGeffort (shot in Rome and San Francisco) is 13]▼ unsatisfying fantasy drama about relationNight Falls on Manhattan (1997) Cship between journalist Giannini and femi113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Lumet. Andy Garcia, nist wife Bergen, who’s quite good. Full Richard Dreyfuss, Lena Olin, Ian Holm, title: THE END OF THE WORLD IN Ron Leibman, James Gandolfini, Colm OUR USUAL BED IN A NIGHT FULL OF RAIN. [R]▼ Feore, Shiek Mahmud-Bey, Paul Guilfoyle. Cop turned lawyer joins the D.A.’s staff in Night Game (1989) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter N.Y.C. and rises to the top by prosecuting a Masterson. Roy Scheider, Karen Young, headline-making case in which his father, a Richard Bradford, Paul Gleason, Carlin veteran detective, was shot. Then he has to Glynn. Texas police detective goes after a deal with the stickier issue of police corrupserial killer. What a shame to find good tion, which hits awfully close to home. Inactors and a talented director wasting their tense and watchable saga (adapted by time with such third-rate material. [R]▼● Lumet from Robert Daley’s novel Tainted Night Games (1980) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Evidence) suffers from one major flaw: its Vadim. Cindy Pickett, Joanna Cassidy, central character’s naı¨vete´. He’s constantly Barry Primus, Paul Jenkins, Gene Davis. Frigid shocked by what we in the audience already housewife will make it only with guy who know—or have guessed. Leibman is dynashows up at night in a bird suit. Vadim may be mite as the bombastic D.A. [R]▼●쩠 kidding, but it’s tough to tell. [R]▼ Night Fighters (1960-British) 85m. ★★1⁄2 Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Farrow. Edward G. RobinD: Tay Garnett. Robert Mitchum, Anne Heywood, Dan O’Herlihy, Cyril Cusack, son, Gail Russell, John Lund, Virginia Richard Harris, Marianne Benet. SporadiBruce, William Demarest. Intriguing story cally actionful tale of Irish Revolution, of magician who has uncanny power to with Mitchum joining the cause against his predict the future; script is corny at times. will. Original title: A TERRIBLE BEAUTY. Based on a story by Cornell Woolrich. [ 984 ]

Nighthawks (1981) C-99m. ★★★ D: Bruce professor loses family in fire, almost ruins Malmuth. Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee own life through drink and self-pity. RealWilliams, Lindsay Wagner, Persis Khamistic settings in modest production, with batta, Nigel Davenport, Rutger Hauer, Joe fine performance by Milland. Spinell, Catherine Mary Stewart. Exciting Night Is My Future (1948-Swedish) 87m. ★★1 story of two N.Y.C. street cops reassigned to ⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Mai Zetterling, special unit that’s tracking a ruthless internaBirger Malmsten, Olof Winnerstrand, tional terrorist (Hauer). On target from the first Naima Wifstrand, Hilda Borgstrom. Somscene to the fade-out, with plenty of hair-raisber, brooding tale of young Malmsten, ing moments along the way. [R]▼●쩠 blinded while in military service; he strugNight Heaven Fell, The (1958-French) gles for self-respect, and is befriended C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. Brigitte by housemaid Zetterling. Early, minor Bardot, Alida Valli, Stephen Boyd, Pepe Bergman. Aka MUSIC IN DARKNESS.▼ Nieto. Turgid drama of Bardot dallying with Night is the Phantom SEE: Whip and the Boyd, who’s planning to kill her uncle. Body, The Nightkill (1980-German) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: CinemaScope.▼쩠 Night in Casablanca, A (1946) 85m. ★★★ Ted Post. Jaclyn Smith, Mike Connors, James D: Archie Mayo. Groucho, Harpo, Chico Franciscus, Robert Mitchum, Fritz Weaver, Marx, Lisette Verea, Charles Drake, Lois Sybil Danning. Confused suspense drama inCollier, Dan Seymour, Sig Ruman. No volving a love triangle that ends in murder classic, but many funny sequences in latterand a cat-and-mouse game between a wealthy day Marx outing, ferreting out Nazi spies widow and a mysterious investigator. Filmed in Casablanca hotel.▼쩠 on location in Arizona by a German company. ▼ Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, A (1979) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Night Listener, The (2006) C-81m. ★★ D: Richard Jordan, David Niven, Oliver Patrick Stettner. Robin Williams, Toni ColTobias, Elke Sommer, Gloria Grahame, lette, Bobby Cannavale, Rory Culkin, Joe Hugh Griffith, Richard Johnson. AmeriMorton, John Cullum, Sandra Oh, Becky can ex-con Jordan, released from a BritAnn Baker. A radio host who spins stories ish prison, is coerced into taking part in an drawn from his experiences responds to a elaborate bank heist masterminded by young fan in a series of phone calls, but Niven. Grahame, seen briefly as Jordan’s soon begins to suspect that something is not brassy mom, is a joy to watch in one of her right with the boy and his overprotective last roles. Video titles: THE BIG SCAM mother. The nascent intrigue in this adaptaand THE MAYFAIR BANK CAPER.▼쩠 tion of Armistead Maupin’s novel never Night in Heaven, A (1983) C-80m. ★★ D: bears fruit here; a gloomy, unsatisfying film John G. Avildsen. Lesley Ann Warren, that thwarts a talented cast. Maupin cowrote the film. [R]쩠 Christopher Atkins, Robert Logan, Carrie Snodgress, Deborah Rush, Sandra Beall, Nightmare (1956) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Maxwell Alix Elias, Denny Terrio, Andy Garcia. Shane. Edward G. Robinson, Kevin McCarTeacher Warren lets her friends drag her to thy, Connie Russell, Virginia Christine, a male strip joint, where the star attraction Rhys Williams, Meade ‘‘Lux’’ Lewis, Billy (Atkins) is a student she’s flunking. OffMay. Location filming in New Orleans is beat romantic drama penned by Joan Tewkesa major asset of this moody psychological bury had real possibilities, but many of them drama about musician McCarthy, who has were apparently left on the cutting room floor an all-too-real nightmare in which he com(note brief running time). Still worth a peek for mits murder. Robinson sparks the proceedfine performance by Warren. [R]▼쩠 ings as a crafty homicide detective. Remake Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, A of FEAR IN THE NIGHT, based on a story (1988) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Richert. by William Irish (Cornell Woolrich). River Phoenix, Ann Magnuson, Meredith Nightmare (1964-British) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Salenger, Ione Skye, Louanne, Matthew Freddie Francis. David Knight, Moira RedL. Perry. Richert’s film of his own youthmond, Jennie Linden, Brenda Bruce, ful novel (Aren’t You Even Gonna Kiss Me George A. Cooper, Clytie Jessop, Irene Goodbye?) doesn’t work overall . . . but it Richmond. Linden returns to her family has something. Phoenix is a high school mansion, plagued by nightmares, and fears Romeo preparing for a fall from grace when that she may be turning into an insane killer, his more affluent friends prepare to leave for like her mother before her. Typical Hammer ritzier colleges; Magnuson’s cameo (as an Films it’s-all-a-plot plot in DIABOLIQUE amorous family friend) is a standout, but other vein is heightened by elegant camerawork performances fall short. Handsomely photoand good performances. Hammerscope. graphed by John Connor. [R]▼●쩠 ▼●쩠 Night Into Morning (1951) 86m. ★★★ D: Nightmare Alley (1947) 111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fletcher Markle. Ray Milland, John Hodiak, Edmund Goulding. Tyrone Power, Joan Nancy Davis (Reagan), Lewis Stone, Jean Blondell, Coleen Gray, Helen Walker, TayHagen, Rosemary DeCamp. Small-town lor Holmes, Mike Mazurki, Ian Keith, [ 985 ]

Julia Dean. Morbid but fascinating story intent on taking over both his mind and of carnival heel Power entangled with mindbody . . . so he can kill all the neighborhood reading Blondell, blackmailing psychiateens. Gruesome special effects dominate this slasher saga. [R]▼●쩠 trist Walker, other assorted sideshow weirdos in highly original melodrama. Compelling Nightmare on Elm Street 3, A: Dream Warriors (1987) C-96m. ★★★ D: Chuck look at carny life. Jules Furthman scripted, Russell. Heather Langenkamp, Patricia from William Lindsay Gresham’s novel.쩠 Nightmare Before Christmas, The (1993) Arquette, Larry Fishburne, Priscilla Pointer, C-75m. ★★★ D: Henry Selick. Voices of Craig Wasson, Robert Englund, Brooke Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine Bundy, Rodney Eastman, John Saxon, Dick O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Cavett, Zsa Zsa Gabor. When troubled Paul Reubens, Ken Page. Highly imaginateens in a psychiatric hospital begin to be tive, stop-motion animation feature about visited in their dreams by the chuckling, Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, who murderous shade of Freddy Krueger, Nancy tires of the old routine in Halloween Town (Langenkamp), the survivor of the first and becomes enamored of Christmas infilm and now a psychiatrist, helps another stead—unaware that his brand of Grand Gudoctor and the frightened teens battle ignol and the wintry holiday don’t really go Freddy. Well written and imaginatively together. Constantly surprising visuals and directed, this is the best of the Elm Street character delineation mesh with Danny Elffilms, and boasts some of the most starman’s lively score (he also provides Jack’s tling effects as well. [R]▼●쩠 beautiful singing voice). Produced by Tim Nightmare on Elm Street 4, A: The Dream Burton, who concocted the story and many Master (1988) C-92m. ★★ D: Renny of the designs years earlier. Released to theHarlin. Robert Englund, Rodney Eastman, aters in 3-D in 2006 and 2007. [PG]▼●쩠 Danny Hassel, Andras Jones, Tuesday Nightmare in Blood (1976) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 Knight, Toy Newkirk, Ken Sagoes, Brooke D: John Stanley. Jerry Walter, Dan CaldTheiss, Lisa Wilcox, Brooke Bundy. Rewell, Barrie Youngfellow, Kathleen Quinlan, vived by flaming dog urine (!), Freddy Kerwin Mathews. Horror film actor visitKrueger finally kills all the children of ing fan convention turns out to be a real those who originally burned him to death, vampire after all; low-budget spoof made and looks for new teens to terrorize, but in San Francisco will appeal particularly to he’s opposed by a ‘‘dream master,’’ his horror buffs for its many in-jokes. Technispiritual opposite. Series was showing its scope. [R]▼쩠 age by this point, with extravagant effects, Nightmare in Wax (1969) C-91m. ★★ D: a thin story, and far too many wisecracks. A Bud Townsend. Cameron Mitchell, Anne 1989 sequel and TV series followed. [R] Helm, Scott Brady, Berry Kroeger, Victo▼●쩠 ria Carroll. Paraphrase of HOUSE OF WAX Nightmare on Elm Street, A: The Dream has Mitchell as former movie makeup man Child (1989) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Stephen whose wax museum is full of actors ‘‘missHopkins. Robert Englund, Lisa Wilcox, Kelly Jo Minter, Erika Anderson, Whitby Hertford, ing’’ from the studio. [M]▼쩠 Nightmare of Terror SEE: Demons of the Danny Hassel. Fifth in the NIGHTMARE seMind ries, with everyone except Englund just going Nightmare on Elm Street, A (1984) through the paces. Here, scarred, dreamC-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wes Craven. John Saxon, haunting Freddy Krueger (Englund) uses the Ronee Blakley, Heather Langenkamp, unborn child of Wilcox to strike at her Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, friends. As usual, special effects are a highCharles Fleischer, Robert Englund. Sevlight but don’t save the film from being a eral teenagers discover they’re all having bore. Followed by FREDDY’S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE. [R]▼●쩠 nightmares about the same character, scarfaced Fred Krueger—a kind of ghost who Nightmares (1983) C-99m. ★★ D: Joseph can enter their dreams at will, and kill them Sargent. Cristina Raines, Timothy James, in macabre ways. It’s up to surviving teen William Sanderson, Emilio Estevez, Moon Nancy (Langenkamp) to try to stop him. Zappa, Lance Henriksen, Robin Gammell, Imaginative premise given routine treatRichard Masur, Veronica Cartwright, Bridment, but this box-office smash led to a gette Andersen, Albert Hague. Four-part handful of sequels and a TV series, film (originally made for TV) with Twilight Freddy’s Nightmares. [R]▼●쩠 Zone aspirations but uninspired writing, Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2, A: and mostly predictable outcomes. Hasn’t Freddy’s Revenge (1985) C-84m. ★★ D: anyone read O. Henry lately? Themes range Jack Sholder. Mark Patton, Kim Myers, from a knife-wielding loony on the loose Robert Rusler, Clu Gulager, Hope Lange, to a kid who becomes obsessed with beatMarshall Bell, Sydney Walsh, Robert ing a video arcade game. [R]▼쩠 Englund. Reworking of first film’s story Nightmaster SEE: Watch the Shadows (set five years later) has teenage boy plagued Dance by dreams of demonic Freddy, who is ’Night, Mother (1986) C-96m. ★★ D: Tom [ 986 ]

Moore. Sissy Spacek, Anne Bancroft. Unfilm bears little resemblance to popular TV happy young woman who lives with her serial in predictable yawner about ghosts mother decides to commit suicide; her mother and reincarnation in New England. Followspends the night trying to talk her out up to HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS of it. Well acted, directed, and edited, lacks everything that made first one so good. [PG] ▼● but still just a photographed stage drama, missing the electricity of a live perforNight of Love, A SEE: Manifesto mance . . . and without the element of Night of the Big Heat SEE: Island of the doubt about its conclusion that marked Burning Doomed Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Night of the Blood Monster (1970-Spanishplay. [PG-13]▼● Italian-West German) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Jess Night Moves (1975) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank (Jesus Franco). Christopher Lee, Arthur Penn. Gene Hackman, Jennifer WarMaria Schell, Leo Genn, Maria Rohm, Marren, Susan Clark, Edward Binns, Harris garet Lee. Lee is fine as Judge Jeffreys, a Yulin, Kenneth Mars, James Woods, Melabrutal magistrate presiding over ‘‘Bloody Asnie Griffith, Dennis Dugan, Max Gail. sizes’’ after the Monmouth Rebellion against L.A. detective Hackman puts aside his King James II, but movie itself is tedious marital woes to track nymphet Griffith to and grisly. Aka THE BLOODY JUDGE. Florida Keys. Complicated but underrated CinemaScope. [PG]쩠 psychological suspenser by Alan Sharp Night of the Comet (1984) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 leads to stunning climax. [R]▼●쩠 D: Thom Eberhardt. Catherine Mary Night Must Fall (1937) 117m. ★★★ D: Stewart, Kelli Maroney, Robert Beltran, Richard Thorpe. Robert Montgomery, RoGeoffrey Lewis, Mary Woronov, Sharon salind Russell, Dame May Whitty, Alan Farrell, Michael Bowen. World comes to Marshal, Kathleen Harrison, E. E. Clive, an end, leaving only a couple of California Beryl Mercer. Famous film of Emlyn Wilvalley girls behind! Smart satire, with clever liams’ suspenseful play. Young woman and occasionally chilling moments, but (Russell) slowly learns identity of mysteriplays all its cards too soon. [PG-13]▼쩠 ous brutal killer terrorizing the countryNight of the Demon SEE: Curse of the side. Montgomery has showy role in Demon sometimes stagy but generally effective Night of the Demons (1987) C-89m. ★1⁄2 film, with outstanding aid from Russell D: Kevin S. Tenney. Cathy Podewell, and Whitty. Screenplay by John Van DruAlvin Alexis, William Gallo, Mimi Kinten. Remade in 1964.▼ kade, Linnea Quigley, Lance Fenton. On Night Must Fall (1964-British) 105m. ★★1⁄2 Halloween night, wouldn’t you know it, D: Karel Reisz. Albert Finney, Susan Hampsome Typical Teenagers pick the wrong shire, Mona Washbourne, Sheila Hancock, possessed mortuary to party in. Everything Michael Medwin, Joe Gladwin, Martin about this amateurish movie is gratuitous, Wyldeck. Cerebral attempt to match flair including the movie itself. Good makeup, of original, this remake is too obvious though . . . especially the prosthetics on and theatrical for any credibility. Reisz Quigley! Aka HALLOWEEN PARTY. Followed by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 and Finney produced. Night My Number Came Up, The (1955Night of the Eagle SEE: Burn, Witch, British) 94m. ★★★★ D: Leslie Norman. Burn! Michael Redgrave, Sheila Sim, AlexanNight of the Following Day, The (1969) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hubert Cornfield. Marlon der Knox, Denholm Elliott, Ursula Jeans, Michael Hordern, George Rose, Alfie Bass. Brando, Richard Boone, Rita Moreno, PamFirst-rate suspense film will have you holdela Franklin, Jess Hahn, Gerard Buhr. ing your breath as it recounts tale of rouGood cast makes this sordid tale of young tine military flight, the fate of which may girl’s kidnapping somewhat more interestor may not depend on a prophetic dream. ing than it should be; pretty rough in Screenplay by R. C. Sherriff, from an spots. Filmed in France. [R]▼쩠 article by Victor Goddard.▼ Night of the Generals (1967-British) Night Nurse (1931) 72m. ★★★ D: William C-148m. ★1⁄2 D: Anatole Litvak. Peter Wellman. Barbara Stanwyck, Ben Lyon, O’Toole, Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Joan Blondell, Clark Gable, Charlotte Donald Pleasence, Joanna Pettet, ChristoMerriam, Charles Winninger. Excellent, pher Plummer, John Gregson, Philippe hard-bitten tale of nurse (Stanwyck) who Noiret. A WW2 whodunit, film has potencan’t ignore strange goings-on in home tial but gets lost in murky script, lifeless performances. A dud. Panavision. ▼● where she works. Blondell adds zingy support; one of Gable’s most impressive early Night of the Ghouls SEE: Revenge of appearances. Still potent today.▼●쩠 the Dead Night of Dark Shadows (1971) C-97m. Night of the Grizzly, The (1966) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Pevney. Clint Walker, BOMB D: Dan Curtis. David Selby, Lara Parker, Kate Jackson, Grayson Hall, John Martha Hyer, Keenan Wynn, Nancy Kulp, Karlen, Nancy Barrett. Ripoff exploitation Ron Ely, Regis Toomey, Jack Elam. Ac[ 987 ]

ceptable Western of rancher Walker overcoming all obstacles, even a persistent vicious bear, to Western life. Techniscope.▼ Night of the Hunter, The (1955) 93m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Laughton. Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, James Gleason, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce. Atmospheric allegory of innocence, evil, and hypocrisy, with psychotic religious fanatic Mitchum chasing homeless children for money stolen by their father. Mitchum is marvelously menacing, matched by Gish as wise matron who takes in the kids. Starkly directed by Laughton; his only film behind the camera. Screenplay credited to James Agee, from the Davis Grubb novel. Remade as a TVM in 1991 with Richard Chamberlain.▼●쩠 Night of the Iguana, The (1964) 118m. ★★★ D: John Huston. Richard Burton, Deborah Kerr, Ava Gardner, Sue Lyon, Skip Ward, Grayson Hall, Cyril Delevanti. Plodding tale based on Tennessee Williams play; alcoholic former clergyman Burton, a bus-tour guide in Mexico, is involved with Kerr, Gardner, and Lyon. Dorothy Jeakins won an Oscar for her costumes. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Night of the Juggler (1980) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Butler. James Brolin, Cliff Gorman, Richard Castellano, Abby Bluestone, Linda G. Miller, Julie Carmen, Barton Heyman, Mandy Patinkin. A sickie mistakenly kidnaps the daughter of an ex-cop (Brolin), who then leads a city-wide rampage to get her back. Fast-paced but wildly implausible movie paints a notably ugly portrait of N.Y.C. and its people. [R]▼ Night of the Laughing Dead SEE: Crazy House (1973) Night of the Lepus (1972) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: William F. Claxton. Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, Rory Calhoun, DeForest Kelley, Paul Fix, Melanie Fullerton. Rabbits weighing 150 pounds and standing four feet high terrorize the countryside; National Guard, not Elmer Fudd, comes to the rescue. [PG]

Edition’’ with new footage, dubbing, and music. ▼●쩠 Night of the Living Dead (1990) C-96m. ★★ D: Tom Savini. Tony Todd, Patricia Tallman, Tom Towles, McKee Anderson, William Butler, Katie Finnerman. Until near the end, this is a scene-for-scene remake of the disturbing original; it’s in color, with a tougher heroine and more potent violence, but it has almost none of the impact of the first version. Makeup expert Savini’s direction can’t overcome the extreme familiarity of the material. Romero scripted, none too well. [R]▼●쩠 Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006) C80m. BOMB D: Jeff Broadstreet. Brianna Brown, Joshua DesRoches, Johanna Black, Greg Travis, Ken Ward, Sid Haig. Pointless remake of the 1968 shocker that even 3-D couldn’t salvage in its theatrical presentation. A brother and sister drive to a cemetery where their aunt is supposed to be buried; instead, they encounter a pack of flesh-eating zombies, and all hell breaks loose. Undernourished low-budget horror outing foolishly includes scenes of George Romero’s original (seen on television), as if to underscore the gulf that separates the two films. [R]쩠 Night of the Quarter Moon (1959) 96m. ★1⁄2 D: Hugo Haas. Julie London, John Drew Barrymore, Nat King Cole, Dean Jones, James Edwards, Anna Kashfi, Agnes Moorehead, Jackie Coogan. Trite handling of miscegenation theme; good cast wasted. Retitled: FLESH AND FLAME. CinemaScope. Night of the Shooting Stars, The (1982Italian) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Omero Antonutti, Margarita Lozano, Claudio Bigagil, Massimo Bonetti, Norma Martel. Extraordinarily touching, involving, richly textured drama of a group of Tuscan villagers during WW2, in final days before liberation by Americans. With simple, lyrical images, the filmmakers unravel this life-affirming story of war’s absurdities—and hope, survival. [R]▼쩠 Night on Earth (1991) C-125m. ★★★ D: Jim Jarmusch. Winona Ryder, Gena Row쩠 Night of the Living Dead (1968) 96m. lands, Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller★★★1⁄2 D: George A. Romero. Duane Jones, Stahl, Rosie Perez, Isaach De Bankole´, Judith O’Dea, Russell Streiner, Karl HardBeatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni, Paolo man, Keith Wayne. Romero’s first feature Bonacelli, Matti Pellonpaa. Exhilirating is the touchstone modern horror film: seven five-part slice-of-life, each story unravelpeople barricade themselves inside a farming at the same time in L.A., N.Y.C., house while an army of flesh-eating zomParis, Rome, and Helsinki. All are set in bies roams the countryside. Once considered taxis, and spotlight brief but eloquent enthe ne plus ultra of gore, film is less counters between cab driver and passenstomach-churning by today’s standards, yet ger. The best of many highlights: the scene its essential power to chill remains undiin which black Brooklynite Esposito and minished despite scores of imitations. ShoeEast German refugee Mueller-Stahl reveal to each other their names. [R]▼●쩠 string production values merely add to authentic feel. Don’t watch this alone! Night Passage (1957) C-90m. ★★★ D: Remade in 1990 and 2006. Sequel: DAWN James Neilson. James Stewart, Audie MurOF THE DEAD. Also shown in computerphy, Dan Duryea, Brandon de Wilde, Dianne colored version. Beware ‘‘30th Anniversary Foster. Sound Western of Stewart working [ 988 ]

for railroad, brother Murphy belonging to D: George C. Wolfe. Richard Gere, Diane gang planning to rob train payroll; exciting Lane, Scott Glenn, Christopher Meloni, climactic shoot-out. Technirama.쩠 Viola Davis, Mae Whitman. Busy mother Night Patrol (1985) C-82m. BOMB D: of two, still smarting from her husband’s Jackie Kong. Linda Blair, Pat Paulsen, infidelity, agrees to look after her best Jaye P. Morgan, Jack Riley, Billy Barty, friend’s seashore bed-and-breakfast inn in Murray Langston, Pat Morita, Andrew Rodanthe, on the outer banks of North Car(Dice) Clay. Threadbare rip-off of POolina. Her only guest is a handsome doctor LICE ACADEMY combines Barty’s flatuwho’s come there to settle some unfinished lence with crude one-liners. See if you can business. Before long the man and woman— figure out why the opening sequence has both in need of nurturing—fall in love. Utsubtitles. [R]▼●쩠 terly contrived setup for an agreeableNight People (1954) C-93m. ★★★ D: Nunenough romantic drama adapted from Nichnally Johnson. Gregory Peck, Broderick olas Sparks’ novel. Gere and Lane are well Crawford, Anita Bjork, Rita Gam, Walter matched. James Franco appears unbilled. Abel, Buddy Ebsen, Max Showalter, Jill EsFilmmaking debut for renowned theater dimond, Peter Van Eyck. Keen Cold War rector Wolfe. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 time capsule, filmed on location in Berlin, Nights of Cabiria (1957-Italian) 117m. ★★★★ D: Federico Fellini. Giulietta Masina, finds intelligence officer Peck badgered by pushy fat-cat Crawford to somehow spring Francois Perier, Amedeo Nazzari, Franca the latter’s corpsman son, who’s been kidMarzi, Dorian Gray. Masina is a joy as napped by Russians and whisked away into waifish prostitute dreaming of rich, wontheir German zone. In her one Hollywood derful life but always finding sorrow. Bamovie Bjork (of MISS JULIE fame) is an sis for Broadway musical and film SWEET East German spy with some personal hisCHARITY. One of Fellini’s best, and a tory with Peck, whose casting here is tailormost deserving Oscar winner as Best Formade. Baseball fans may be tickled at the eign Film. Restored in 1998 to put back a scene where Ebsen listens to a real Yankees 7m. sequence Fellini was forced to cut after broadcast of the era, announced by Mel the premiere.▼쩠 Allen. CinemaScope. Night Song (1947) 101m. ★★ D: John Night Porter, The (1974-Italian) C-115m. Cromwell. Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, ★★ Ethel Barrymore, Hoagy Carmichael, JacD: Liliana Cavani. Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele queline White. Overlong, soapy drama of Ferzetti, Isa Miranda. Sleazy, bizarre drama, socialite Oberon falling in love with blind set in 1957, about a sado-masochistic relapianist Andrews. Barrymore is very good tionship between an ex-Nazi and the woman in the unusual role of comic relief. Artur he used to abuse sexually in a concentration Rubinstein and conductor Eugene Ormandy camp. [R]▼●쩠 appear in the climactic concert sequence, Night Shadows (1984) C-99m. ★★ D: John playing the concerto composed especially (Bud) Cardos. Wings Hauser, Bo Hopfor the film by Leith Stevens. kins, Lee Montgomery, Jennifer Warren, Night Stalker, The (1987) C-89m. ★★ D: Jody Medford, Cary Guffey. Yet another Max Kleven. Charles Napier, Michelle tale of toxic waste creating monsters that Reese, Katherine Kelly Lang, Robert terrorize small Southern town. Same old stuff, Viharo, Robert Zdar, Joey Gian, Leila with inferior special effects and makeup. Aka Carlin, Gary Crosby, James Louis Watkins, MUTANT. [R]▼쩠 Ola Ray, Tally Chanel, Joan Chen. Napier ★★★ Night Shift (1982) C-105m. D: Ron steps out impressively from supporting roles Howard. Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, to star as a down and out L.A. cop who Shelley Long, Gina Hecht, Pat Corley, goes after a serial killer preying on prostiBobby DiCicco, Nita Talbot, Richard tutes. Standard B movie was made in Belzer, Charles Fleischer, Shannen Doh1985. [R]▼쩠 erty. A nebbish takes a night job at the city Night Sun (1990-Italian-French-German) morgue, seeking peace and quiet, but his C-112m. ★★★ D: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. new assistant draws him into wild scheme Julian Sands, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nasto start a prostitution business! Delightful, tassja Kinski, Massimo Bonetti, Margarita good-natured comedy (despite seamy subLozano, Rudiger Vogler. Evocative film ject matter) written with verve by Lowell about an idealistic, sensitive young man Ganz and Babaloo Mandel. (Soundtrack (Sands), who wishes to find inner peace in features Rod Stewart singing ‘‘That’s What a world of temptation. Based on the TolFriends Are For,’’ years before it became a stoi story ‘‘Father Sergius’’; Sands’ voice hit.) Winkler has never been better; Keais dubbed into Italian by Giancarlo Giannini. ton’s smash debut performance made him Technovision.▼쩠 an instant star. Is this a great country or Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, The (1981) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ronald F. Maxwell. what? Look for Kevin Costner as an extra. Kristy McNichol, Mark Hamill, Dennis [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Nights in Rodanthe (2008) C-96m. Quaid, Sunny Johnson, Don Stroud, Arlen ⁄2 [ 989 ]

Dean Snyder. Kristy, the more ambitious half who escaped from the Nazis to London only of brother-sister country music duo, tries in to be kidnapped back to Berlin. Stylishly phovain to keep sibling Quaid out of romantic tographed (by Otto Kanturek), sharply scrapes. Poor beginning and conclusion somescripted by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, what redeemed by rather appealing middle. who also wrote Hitchcock’s THE LADY Inspired by title-named hit record. [PG]▼ VANISHES (which introduced the comic Night They Raided Minsky’s, The (1968) characters reprised here by Radford and C-99m. ★★★ D: William Friedkin. Jason RoWayne). Based on Gordon Wellesley’s novel bards, Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Forrest Report on a Fugitive. ▼● Tucker, Harry Andrews, Joseph Wiseman, Night Train to Venice (1995-German) CDenholm Elliott, Elliott Gould, Jack Burns, 98m. BOMB D: Carlo U. Quinterio. Hugh Bert Lahr, narrated by Rudy Vallee. Flavorful Grant, Tahnee Welch, Malcolm McDowell, period-piece about Amish girl (Ekland) who Kristina Soderbaum, Rachel Rice. Upon comes to N.Y.C., gets involved with burcompleting a book on neo-Nazis, writer lesque comic Robards and accidentally inGrant travels to Venice to meet with a pubvents the striptease. Many nice backstage and lisher—and is followed (and menaced) by onstage moments. Abruptness of Lahr’s role skinheads. If you’re looking for a boyishly is due to his death during filming. Produced charming Grant, look elsewhere; he’s a dull and cowritten by Norman Lear. [M/PG]▼쩠 dolt in this trashy film, made in 1993 and passed over for theatrical release. [R]▼● Night Tide (1963) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis Harrington. Dennis Hopper, Linda Lawson, Night Unto Night (1949) 85m. ★★ D: Don Gavin Muir, Luana Anders, Marjorie EaSiegel. Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, ton, Tom Dillon, H. E. West, Cameron. Broderick Crawford, Rosemary DeCamp, Lonely sailor Hopper falls for Lawson, Osa Massen, Art Baker, Craig Stevens. who works as a mermaid at the Santa Somber, unconvincing film about relationMonica pier, but learns she may be a killer— ship of dying scientist and mentally disand a descendant of the sirens. Odd, dreamy turbed widow. Finished in 1947 and shelved little drama is strangely compelling, though for two years. Reagan’s performance isn’t not a horror film, as often promoted. bad, but script is against him. Night Visitor, The (1970) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 Written by the director.▼●쩠 Night to Remember, A (1943) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Laslo Benedek. Max von Sydow, Liv D: Richard Wallace. Loretta Young, Brian Ullmann, Trevor Howard, Per Oscarsson, Aherne, Jeff Donnell, William Wright, SidRupert Davies, Andrew Keir. An inmate ney Toler, Gale Sondergaard, Donald Macplots to escape from an asylum for the Bride, Blanche Yurka. Sparkling comedycriminally insane for one night, to avenge mystery of whodunit author Aherne and himself on people who put him away. wife Young trying to solve murder.▼●쩠 Heavy in detail, but interesting. Filmed in Denmark and Sweden. [PG] ▼쩠 Night to Remember, A (1958-British) 123m. ★★★★ D: Roy (Ward) Baker. Kenneth Night Visitor (1989) C-94m. ★★ D: RuMore, David McCallum, Jill Dixon, Laupert Hitzig. Derek Rydall, Allen Garfield, rence Naismith, Frank Lawton, Honor Teresa Vander Woude, Elliott Gould, MiBlackman, Alec McCowen, George Rose. chael J. Pollard, Brooke Bundy, Richard Meticulously produced documentary-style Roundtree, Shannon Tweed. Teenage Rydall account of sinking of the ‘‘unsinkable’’ pasdiscovers his most hated teacher (Garfield) is a senger liner Titanic. Superb combination of Satanist and serial killer of prostitutes; when disaster spectacle and emotional byplay; a no one believes him, he turns to retired cop notable contrast to Hollywood’s Titanic Gould for help. Silly, unconvincing blend of films. Vivid adaptation by Eric Ambler of teenage comedy and thriller, helped by Walter Lord’s book. ▼●쩠 good performances. [R]▼쩠 Night Train (1940) SEE: Night Train Night Walker, The (1964) 86m. ★★★ D: to Munich William Castle. Barbara Stanwyck, RobNight Train (1959-Polish) 90m. ★★ D: ert Taylor, Lloyd Bochner, Rochelle HudJerzy Kawalerowicz. Lucyna Winnicka, son, Judi Meredith, Hayden Rorke. One of Leon Niemczyk, Teresa Szmigielowna, the better Castle horror films has Stanwyck Zbigniew Cybulski. Murky account of young as wealthy widow discovering cause of woman on a train, forced to share comrecurring dreams about lost husband. Efpartment with a doctor; their lack of comfective psychological thriller with good munication and presence of killer on train cast, unusual script by Robert Bloch. Title are film’s focal points.쩠 on-screen is WILLIAM CASTLE’S THE Night Train to Munich (1940-British) NIGHT WALKER. ▼ Night Warning (1982) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: 93m. ★★★ D: Carol Reed. Rex Harrison, Margaret Lockwood, Paul Von Hernried William Asher. Jimmy McNichol, Susan (Henreid), Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Tyrrell, Bo Svenson, Marcia Lewis, Julia Felix Aylmer, Roland Culver. Expert HitchDuffy. Explosive, tour-de-force acting by cockian thriller about British intelligence Tyrrell distinguishes this formula horror agent Harrison trying to rescue Czech scientist film. She’s a sexually repressed aunt, overly [ 990 ]

protective of her nephew McNichol, who Fracci, Jeremy Irons, Janet Suzman, Sian finally turns to murder. Aka BUTCHER Phillips. Handsome but disappointing BAKER NIGHTMARE MAKER. [R]▼쩠 chronicle of the homosexual relationship Night Watch (1973-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 between the legendary dancer Nijinsky (De D: Brian G. Hutton. Elizabeth Taylor, La Pena) and Ballet Russe impresario Sergei Laurence Harvey, Billie Whitelaw, Robert Diaghilev (Bates). Worthy subject matter Lang, Tony Britton. Woman (Taylor) bedefeated by soap-opera scenario, allegedly lieves she has witnessed a murder, but inauthentic characterizations. Fine perforcannot prove it. Tired plot based on Lumance by Bates, superb one by Badel as a wealthy patron. Irons’ film debut. [R]▼ cille Fletcher play. [PG]▼ Nightwatch (1998) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ole Nijinsky: The Diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky Bornedal. Nick Nolte, Patricia Arquette, (2001-Australian-German-Swedish-Dutch) Ewan McGregor, Josh Brolin, Lauren GraC-95m. ★★★ D: Paul Cox. Narrated by ham, Alix Koromzay, Lonny Chapman, John Derek Jacobi. Striking, sumptuous meshing C. Reilly, Brad Dourif. McGregor hires on as of words and images in which Nijinsky’s a part-time night watchman in spooky diary—written in 1919, as he suffered a morgue, while a serial killer is on a city-wide mental breakdown—is pictorialized by Cox rampage. Arquette is his girlfriend, Brolin his while read off-camera by Jacobi. The great daredevil buddy, and Nolte the police inspecdancer’s words express his deepest feelings tor on the case. Remake of writer-director and fears, yet the accompanying images are Bornedal’s own 1995 Danish hit, NATTEVso beautiful that the film may be appreciated AGTEN, is stylishly creepy, but weighs down for its visuals alone. Cox used a similar apin the final third. And remember: Don’t let proach in VINCENT. ▼쩠 that door close. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Nikki, Wild Dog of the North (1961) Night Watch (2004-Russian) C-114m. ★★ C-74m. ★★★ D: Jack Couffer, Don HalD: Timur Bekmambetov. Konstantin Khadane. Jean Coutu, Emile Genest, Uriel bensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri ZolotukLuft, Robert Rivard. Wolfdog Nikki is hin, Mariya Poroshina, Galina Tyunina, separated from his master, a Canadian Yuri Kutsenko. Russian horror/sci-fi drama trapper, and fends for himself in a variety of adventures. Exciting Disney film.▼쩠 focuses on the ‘‘Others,’’ a group that divided into forces of darkness and light cenNil by Mouth (1997-British) C-128m. ★★★ turies ago after signing a truce agreeing that D: Gary Oldman. Ray Winstone, Kathy the ‘‘dark’’ would control the night and the Burke, Charlie Creed-Miles, Laila Morse, ‘‘light’’ would patrol the day. Now, in MosEdna Dore, Chrissie Coterill, Jon Morrison. cow, the dark Others are out in force in the First-time director Oldman also scripted this form of vampires and must be kept in gritty, in-your-face, cine´ma ve´rite´–style check. Clearly shows the influence of portrait of a desperate, dysfunctional family American popcorn fare, with impressive in working-class South London, focusing special effects. Doesn’t measure up to simion an unhappily married couple (Winstone, lar Hollywood product but makes a game Burke). Often difficult to watch with its unattempt to play in the same sandbox. Folrelenting rage, despair, and (domestic) violowed by DAY WATCH. [R]쩠 lence, but it’s heartfelt and well acted Night We Never Met, The (1993) C-99m. (particularly by Burke). [R]▼쩠 ★★ D: Warren Light. Matthew Broderick, Nim’s Island (2008-U.S.-Australian) CAnnabella Sciorra, Kevin Anderson, Lou96m. ★★★ D: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin. ise Lasser, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Justine Abigail Breslin, Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler. Bateman, Michael Mantell, Christine BarWonderfully imaginative family film, from anski, Doris Roberts, Dominic Chianese, Wendy Orr’s novel about a father and Garry Shandling, Ranjit Chowdhry, Kathadaughter who live on an isolated island in rine Houghton, Tim Guinee. Disappointthe South Pacific. When he gets lost at sea, ing romantic comedy in which about-to-bethe only person who responds to her is her married yuppie Anderson time-shares his favorite adventure-book author—an agorarent-controlled N.Y.C. apartment with phobic woman who’s made her acquaintance Broderick and Sciorra; all are strangers, via e-mail. Ingenious visual presentation, with likable performances from all three and use the pad on alternate days. [R]▼● Nightwing (1979) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur stars, including Foster in a rare comedic Hiller. Nick Mancuso, David Warner, Kathrole. Super 35. [PG]쩠 ryn Harrold, Stephen Macht, Strother MarNina Takes a Lover (1994) C-100m. ★★ tin, Pat Corley. Warner is an oddball who D: Alan Jacobs. Laura San Giacomo, Paul comes to Arizona to kill vampire bats in Rhys, Michael O’Keefe, Cristi Conaway, their caves. Well . . . it’s a living. From a Fisher Stevens. Nina’s husband is out of Martin Cruz Smith novel. [PG]▼●쩠 town for a few weeks, and on the spur of Nijinsky (1980-British) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: the moment she takes a lover—a Welsh artHerbert Ross. Alan Bates, George De La ist. If this is what ‘‘woman’s pictures’’ have Pena, Leslie Browne, Ronald Pickup, Alan come to in the ’90s, heaven help the genre. Badel, Colin Blakely, Ronald Lacey, Carla Stevens steals every scene he’s in—and [ 991 ]

gives the film its only injection of life—as pair of scenes as a nervous, malaprop-spouting Nina’s friend’s lover. [R] ▼●쩠 Russian obstetrician are definite high point. Nine 1⁄2 Weeks (1986) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Based on popular 1994 French movie, NEUF MOIS. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Adrian Lyne. Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Margaret Whitton, David Margulies, $9.99 (2009-Australian-Israeli) C-78m. ★★★ Christine Baranski, Dwight Weist, Roderick D: Tatia Rosenthal. Voices of Geoffrey Cook. Saga of an obsessive sexual relationRush, Anthony LaPaglia, Samuel Johnson, ship; uninvolving and unerotic, not to menClaudia Karvan, Joel Edgerton, Barry Otto, tion degrading. Promises sexual fireworks, Leeanna Walsman. Several seriocomic stobut all it delivers is a big tease (some ries are woven together involving inhabitexplicit material was cut prior to release). ants of a Sydney apartment complex who Video version is more explicit, though not so are searching for meaning in their lives and much as European version. Followed by sevfinding it in unique ways. Most interesting eral direct-to-video sequels. [R] ▼●쩠 story revolves around lonely widower (Otto) Nine Hours to Rama (1963) C-125m. who allows a burnt-out guardian angel ★★1 (Rush) to share his flat. Title refers to one ⁄2 D: Mark Robson. Horst Buchholz, Jose Ferrer, Robert Morley, Diane Baker, young resident who finds happiness in a paHarry Andrews. Ambitious attempt to make perback book, called The Meaning of Life, meaningful story of events leading up to purchased for $9.99. Clever screenplay coassassination of Mahatma Gandhi; bogs written by director Rosenthal with acdown in trite script. Filmed on location in claimed Israeli writer Etgar Keret, based on India. CinemaScope. his short stories. Stop-motion animated film 1 ★★★ Nine Lives (2005) C-112m. ⁄2 D: Rodis decidedly not suitable for children. [R] rigo Garcı´a. Glenn Close, Robin Wright Nine Queens (2000-Argentinian) C-114m. ★★★ Penn, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek, Kathy D: Fabia´n Bielinsky. Ricardo Darı´n, Baker, Amy Brenneman, Elpidia Carrillo, Gasto´n Pauls, Leticia Bre´dice, Tomas Fonzi, Dakota Fanning, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Molly Celia Juarez. Entertaining Mamet-style Parker, Mary Kay Place, Amanda Seyfried, thriller about a young con man who teams Stephen Dillane, William Fichtner, Jason up with an old pro in present-day economiIsaacs, Joe Mantegna, Ian McShane, Sydney cally depressed Buenos Aires to try to sell a Tamiia Poitier, Aidan Quinn, Miguel Sandoforged set of rare stamps . . . but one of val. Exquisitely acted, perceptively told vithem may be trying to double-cross the gnettes about nine women, of all kinds, at other. Serpentine story will keep you guessemotional crossroads in their lives, from a ing until the end, and has a refreshing sense teenage girl who feels trapped by her needy of humor. Written by the director, in his parents to a woman trying to suppress her turfeature debut. Remade as CRIMINAL. bulent emotions while incarcerated. Each [R]▼쩠 segment is a perfect short story (written by Nines, The (2007) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: John the director), enacted in real time in one conAugust. Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Melissa tinuous camera shot, amazingly executed (on McCarthy, Elle Fanning, Dahlia Salem, David film, not digital video) by cinematographer Denman, Octavia Spencer, Ben Falcone. Xavier Pe´rez Grobet. [R]쩠 Reynolds plays a Hollywood star with a dysNine Lives of Fritz the Cat, The (1974) functional private life . . . and a TV series C-76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Taylor. Voices of producer . . . and a video-game inventor/famSkip Hinnant, Reva Rose, Bob Holt, Robert ily man in this triptych in which the three Ridgely, Pat Harrington. Animated sequel parts intriguingly overlap. Writer August to X-rated original finds Fritz in the ’70s, (who similarly explored multiple-viewpoint now on welfare with a nagging wife. He narrative in GO) makes his feature-directing smokes pot for escape, and imagines himdebut with this offbeat drama that boasts a self in eight other lives—including being an asnumber of interesting characters while protronaut, as an orderly to Adolf Hitler, and an viding a showcase for Reynolds. [R]쩠 aide to President Kissinger(!). Not as bold (or 976-Evil (1989) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert as memorable) as the first film, but certainly Englund. Stephen Geoffreys, Patrick lively, with some funny moments. [R]▼쩠 O’Bryan, Sandy Dennis, Jim Metzler, MaNine Months (1995) C-103m. ★★ D: Chris ria Rubell, Robert Picardo, Lezlie Deane, Columbus. Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore, J.J. Cohen, Darren Burrows. Snappy Jeff Goldblum, Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack, CARRIE-like outsider’s-revenge horror Robin Williams, Ashley Johnson, Emily flick. Introverted teenager Geoffreys calls Yancy, Kristin Davis. Farcical tale of a couple 976 number that provides him with satanic whose blissful five-year relationship is blindpowers. Story is confusing, and script too sided by unexpected pregnancy: He simply jokey, but as often as not, it delivers the can’t deal with it. Slick Hollywood concoction goods. Directorial debut for Englund, aka tries to coast on Grant’s boyish charm and Freddy Krueger of the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series. [R]▼●쩠 Moore’s radiant beauty, with Arnold adding bombastic comedy relief. But utter predictabil9 Songs (2005-British) C-71m. ★1⁄2 D: Miity and oafish silliness drain it dry. Williams’ chael Winterbottom. Kieran O’Brien, [ 992 ]

Margo Stilley. A British geologist and an 311m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bernardo Bertolucci. RobAmerican student hook up in London; in ert De Niro, Ge´rard Depardieu, Donald between attending rock concerts, they inSutherland, Burt Lancaster, Dominique dulge in sex. That’s the sum total of this Sanda, Stefania Sandrelli, Sterling Hayponderous, erotic drama featuring realistic, den. Sweepingly sexy, violent Bertolucci graphically depicted sex. Means to be proepic, with rapturous Vittorio Storaro cinefound, but the result is profoundly boring. matography, begins with the same-day birth Alternate version runs 64m. 쩠 of sons respectively sired by a landowner 1918 (1984) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Harriand a laborer who works his estate. The son. William Converse-Roberts, Hallie rest runs the gamut of 20th-century political Foote, Matthew Broderick, Rochelle Olibases, starting with the respective fascistic ver, Michael Higgins, Jeannie McCarthy, and socialistic leanings these two friendly Bill McGhee, Horton Foote, Jr. Stagy, protagonists develop on their road to middle PBSy Horton Foote drama concerns the age. Chain-sawed down to 243m. for an inicatastrophic late teens influenza epidemic tial U.S. release that pleased no one, this that hit America—and its tragic effect on a flawed, one-of-a-kind epic of great sweep, small Texas town. Will probably be seen humanity, and power doesn’t seem fully reto best advantage on the small screen; Hallie alized even at its original running time. Yet Foote (the playwright’s daughter) is excellent aiming for the fences, it reaches them often as a woman (based on her own real-life grandenough to have become one of its era’s most mother) whose husband and infant are both notable cult movies. [NC-17—edited from original R rating]▼●쩠 stricken. Produced for American Playhouse; followed by prequels ON VALENTINE’S Nineteen Nineteen (1985-British) C/B& W-99m. ★★ D: Hugh Brody. Paul Scofield, DAY and CONVICTS. 1918 and ON VALENTINE’S DAY were telecast as STORY Maria Schell, Frank Finlay, Diana Quick, OF A MARRIAGE.▼쩠 Clare Higgins, Colin Firth. Scofield and 1984 (1956-British) 91m. ★★★ D: Michael Schell are former patients of Sigmund Anderson. Edmond O’Brien, Michael RedFreud, who come together years later to grave, Jan Sterling, David Kossoff, Mervyn reminisce and remember. Slow and boring, Johns, Donald Pleasence. Thought-provoking wasting talents of a fine cast. version of George Orwell’s futuristic novel. 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1983-Italian) Lovers O’Brien and Sterling trapped in allC-84m. BOMB D: Enzo G. Castellari. powerful state, try valiantly to rebel against Vic Morrow, Christopher Connelly, Fred ‘‘Big Brother.’’ Remade in 1984.▼ Williamson, Mark Gregory, Stefania GiroNineteen Eighty-Four (1984-British) Clami. Bronx gang leaders vs. nasty corpo115m. ★★★ D: Michael Radford. John Hurt, ration agent Morrow. Gregory plays a Richard Burton, Suzanna Hamilton, Cyril character named Trash, which is the best Cusack, Gregor Fisher, James Walker, way to describe this movie. Filmed in the Phyllis Logan. Appropriately grim, wellBronx and Rome. Sequel: ESCAPE FROM THE BRONX. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 cast version of the Orwell classic, with Hurt as the government functionary who illegally 1969 (1988) C-93m. ★★ D: Ernest Thompfalls in love, Hamilton as his bedmate, and son. Robert Downey, Jr., Kiefer SutherBurton—excellent in his final feature—as land, Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley, Joanna the party official who somehow seems Cassidy, Winona Ryder. Sutherland is terhuman even when feeding his victims’ faces rific as a sensitive antiwar youth, and to the rats. Superior to the 1956 version, Hartley fine as his understanding mother, though the oppressive gloominess of the in this story of troubled times and troubled second half does wear you down. Seedily lives. But playwright Thompson’s earnest impressive production design. [R] ▼●쩠 directorial debut is disconnected and ulti1941 (1979) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven mately disappointing. [R] ▼●쩠 Spielberg. Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Nine to Five (1980) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Belushi, Treat Williams, Nancy Allen, RobColin Higgins. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, ert Stack, Tim Matheson, Toshiro Mifune, Dolly Parton, Dabney Coleman, Sterling Christopher Lee, Warren Oates, Bobby Hayden, Elizabeth Wilson, Henry Jones, DiCicco, Dianne Kay, Murray Hamilton, Lawrence Pressman, Marian Mercer. Three Lorraine Gary, Slim Pickens, Eddie Deezen, savvy secretaries have to contend with a John Candy, many others. Gargantuan comdoltish boss—and inadvertently find their edy from the bigger-is-funnier school of chance to take revenge. The first half of this filmmaking. Some excellent vignettes and comedy is dynamite, culminating in Tomdazzling special effects in freewheeling lin’s Disneyesque fantasy of murdering the story of war panic in L.A. following Pearl slavedriver, but film takes a disastrous turn, Harbor attack, but on the whole suffers from losing its bearings and momentum. Appealoverkill. Written by Bob Gale and Robert ing performances by the star trio help make Zemeckis. Alternate version runs 146m. Paup for the ultimate silliness. Parton’s first navision. [PG]▼●쩠 film. Later a TV series and a stage musical. [PG]▼●쩠 1900 (1977-Italian-French-German) C[ 993 ]

Ninety Degrees in the Shade (1964-Czech) Bressart, Alexander Granach, Richard 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jiri Weiss. Anne Heywood, Carle. Amid much outdated sociological James Booth, Donald Wolfit, Ann Todd. banter, a lighthearted Garbo still shines. Turgid account of Heywood, who works Lubitsch’s comedy pegged on tale of cold in food store, accused of theft; intertwined Russian agent Garbo coming to Paris, falling with passionate love episodes. Czech-made, in love with gay-blade Douglas. Supporting with British stars. CinemaScope. cast shows fine comedy flair. Script by Billy 95 Miles to Go (2006) C-77m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom Wilder, Charles Brackett, and Walter Reisch Caltabiano. Ray Romano, Tom Caltabiano. was basis for Broadway musical and film SILK STOCKINGS.▼●쩠 If you’ve ever wondered whether Everybody Loves Raymond’s easygoing star coNinth Configuration, The (1980) C-118m. ★★★1 median has a cranky, neurotic side off⁄2 D: William Peter Blatty. Stacy Keach, camera, this movie’s for you. Romano and Scott Wilson, Jason Miller, Ed Flanders, his pal/warm-up act Tom Caltabiano (a Neville Brand, Moses Gunn, George Di Raymond TV writer) drive from gig to gig Cenzo, Robert Loggia, Tom Atkins, Alejandro through Florida and Georgia while an intern Rey, Joe Spinell, Steve Sandor. In old castle captures their mundane adventure on video. used by U.S. government as asylum, new head There’s a certain fascination in a multimilshrink Keach quickly proves to be nuttier than lionaire stressing over having to foot his any of the patients. Hilarious yet thoughtbuddy’s room-service meal, but this comes provoking, with endlessly quotable dialogue across mostly as a vanity project for Caltaand an amazing barroom fight scene. Blatty biano (who coproduced with Romano). The also produced and adapted his novel Twinkle, nadir: Ray gets indigestion. [R] Twinkle, Killer Kane (this film’s title at one 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974) C-98m. point). Myriad versions run anywhere from BOMB D: John Frankenheimer. Richard 99m. to 140m.; above time is Blatty’s cut, and Harris, Chuck Connors, Edmond O’Brien, rating applies to this version only. Panavision. Bradford Dillman, Ann Turkel. Idiotic, [R]▼●쩠 poorly made gangster melodrama with saNinth Day, The (2004-German) C-93m. ★★★ tirical overtones: hit-man Harris is hired D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Ulrich Matthes, Auby mobster O’Brien to knock off rival gust Diehl, Bibiana Beglau, Germain Wagner, Dillman. The pits. Panavision. [PG]▼ Go¨tz Burger, Michael Ko¨nig, Hilmar Thate. 99 River Street (1953) 83m. ★★★ D: Phil Catholic priest (Matthes), incarcerated in DaKarlson. John Payne, Evelyn Keyes, Brad chau during WW2, is given nine days’ leave Dexter, Peggie Castle, Ian Wolfe, Frank and returns to his home in Luxembourg, Faylen. Rugged crime caper with Payne where the Nazis attempt to use him as a caught up in tawdry surroundings, trying political pawn. Stark, riveting drama about to prove himself innocent of murder charge. a principled, deeply religious man who Unpretentious film really packs a punch. maintains his integrity, humanity, and spiri99 Women (1969-Spanish-German-Britishtuality under the most trying circumstances. 1 ★ Italian) C-90m. ⁄2 D: Jess Franco. Maria The sheer horror of Dachau is vividly Schell, Luciana Paluzzi, Mercedes McCametched. Loosely based on the prison diary of Father Jean Bernard.쩠 bridge, Herbert Lom. Absurd drama about lesbianism in women’s prison. Aka ISLE Ninth Gate, The (1999-French-SpanishU.S.) C-133m. ★★ D: Roman Polanski. OF LOST WOMEN. X-rated and unrated versions available. SuperScope. [R] ▼쩠 Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, 92 in the Shade (1975) C-93m. ★★★ D: Emmanuelle Seigner, Barbara Jefford, Jack Thomas McGuane. Peter Fonda, Warren Taylor, Jose´ Lopez Rodero, James Russo. Oates, Margot Kidder, Burgess Meredith, Mercenary N.Y.C. rare-book sleuth Depp Harry Dean Stanton, Sylvia Miles, Elizacombs Europe for an ancient demonic tome. beth Ashley, William Hickey, Louise LaPart mystery, part travelogue, with traces of tham. National Book Award–nominated Polanski’s sardonic wit, but can’t hold a novel about rival fishing boat captains in satanic candle to his 1968 ROSEMARY’S Florida Keys; directed by the author. Wildly BABY. One scene is strikingly similar to a uneven but well cast and frequently hilarisequence in Kubrick’s EYES WIDE SHUT. Also shown at 127m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ous. [R]▼ Ninja III—The Domination (1984) CNitwits, The (1935) 81m. ★★★ D: George 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Firstenberg. Lucinda Stevens. Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey, Dickey, Jordan Bennett, Sho Kosugi, DaBetty Grable, Fred Keating, Evelyn Brent, vid Chung. Follow-up to REVENGE OF Erik Rhodes, Hale Hamilton, Willie Best. THE NINJA about an evil Ninja, ‘‘killed’’ Enjoyable comedy-musical-mystery with by the police, who forces his spirit on Wheeler and Woolsey seeking to uncover innocent Dickey. Lots of action; good of the identity of the Black Widow, a blackmailer-killer. Grable plays Wheeler’s girlits type. [R]▼ 1 ★★★ Ninotchka (1939) 110m. friend, a murder suspect. Based on a story ⁄2 D: Ernst Lubitsch. Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas, by Stuart Palmer.● Ina Claire, Bela Lugosi, Sig Ruman, Felix Nixon (1995) C-190m. ★★★ D: Oliver [ 994 ]

Stone. Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, PowWell-done but familiar yarn of con man ers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins, E. G. Garfield fleecing rich widow Fitzgerald, Marshall, David Paymer, David Hyde then falling in love for real. Pierce, Paul Sorvino, Mary Steenburgen, Nobody Loves Me (1994-German) C-104m. ★★1 J. T. Walsh, James Woods, Brian Bedford, ⁄2 D: Doris Do¨rrie. Maria Schrader, Pierre Kevin Dunn, Fyvush Finkel, Annabeth Sanoussi-Bliss, Michael von Au, Elisabeth Gish, Tony Goldwyn, Larry Hagman, Ed Trissenaar, Peggy Parnass. Quirky oddity Herrmann, Madeline Kahn, Saul Rubinek, about the trials of Fanny Fink (Schrader), a Tony Lo Bianco, Corey Carrier, Tony Plana, death-obsessed airport security officer who is Dan Hedaya, Michael Chiklis, John C. turning thirty. She says she doesn’t need a man, McGinley, John Diehl, Robert Beltran, Jobut is nonetheless desperate to find one. Her anna Going, George Plimpton, Donna Dixon, gay next-door neighbor (and kindred spirit) James Karen. Controversial, fragmented portells her she will soon be meeting the love of trait of the U.S. politician and president, preher life. Not without interest but too often as sented as a driven man beset by deep-rooted flaky and unglued as its main character. insecurities. Younger viewers might have a Nobody Runs Forever SEE: High Comhard time keeping track of the players, and missioner, The may fall prey to director-cowriter Stone’s exNobody’s Fault SEE: Little Dorrit pected, and outrageous, historical inventions. Nobody’s Fool (1986) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Overlong, to be sure, but still compelling, with Evelyn Purcell. Rosanna Arquette, Eric Hopkins’ persuasive lead performance, and Roberts, Mare Winningham, Jim Youngs, an array of fine supporting players, especially Louise Fletcher, Gwen Welles, Stephen Allen as Pat Nixon. Extended director’s cut Tobolowsky, Charlie Barnett, Lewis Arhas 28m. added. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 quette. Innocuous romantic comedy by Beth No Big Deal (1983) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobHenley about a flaky waitress in a small ert Charlton. Kevin Dillon, Christopher Southwestern town who’s become an outGartin, Mary Joan Negro, Jane Krakowski, cast (after having a baby out of wedlock), Tammy Grimes, Sylvia Miles. Fair drama and only begins to find herself when she about troubled, alienated, streetwise teen meets Roberts, who’s passing through town. Dillon and his attempt to fit in with his Very modest film that benefits from a peers. A decent effort at portraying adorelaxed and unmannered performance by lescent problems, but the result is a bit too Roberts. [PG-13]▼●쩠 pat. Interestingly, Miles is cast as a strict, Nobody’s Fool (1994) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: bureaucratic school principal.▼ Robert Benton. Paul Newman, Jessica Tandy, ★1 No Blade of Grass (1970) C-97m. ⁄2 D: Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Dylan Walsh, Cornel Wilde. Nigel Davenport, Jean WalPruitt Taylor Vince, Gene Saks, Josef Somlace, John Hamill, Lynne Frederick, Patmer, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Philip Bosco. rick Holt, Anthony May. Sober-sided film Picaresque look at a small-town ne’er-do-well trying to drive home ecology message is and his extended (dysfunctional) family of just an update of films like PANIC IN cronies; after turning his back on his real famYEAR ZERO, with family fleeing virusily years ago, he now finds himself spending stricken London for Scottish countryside, time with his grown-up son and his young facing panic and attack along the way. grandson. An irresistibly appealing Newman Based on John Christopher’s popular is surrounded by wonderful actors in this novel. Panavision. [R] charmingly unpredictable character study— Nobody Knows (2004-Japanese) C-141m. including Willis, as his friendly nemesis. Ben★★★ D: Hirokazu Kore-eda. Yuˆya Yagira, ton scripted, from Richard Russo’s novel. Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko ShimElizabeth Wilson appears unbilled as Newizu, Hanae Kan, You. Overlong but emoman’s ex-wife. [R]▼●쩠 tionally engaging drama based on a true Nobody’s Perfect (1968) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 1988 story of four young children left home D: Alan Rafkin. Doug McClure, Nancy alone in Tokyo by their mother, who simply Kwan, James Whitmore, David Hartman, disappears. Deliberate pacing may chalGary Vinson. Witless military service comlenge impatient viewers, but film’s simplicedy involving pat shenanigans of U.S. ity and almost complete focus on the kids submarine based in Japan, with every prehit the mark. Kore-eda shot this chronologidictable gimmick thrown in. Techniscope. cally over a period of one year. TwelveNobody’s Perfect (1989-Swiss-U.S.) Cyear-old Yagira became the youngest ever 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Kaylor. Chad Lowe, to receive the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Gail O’Grady, Patrick Breen, Kim FlowFilm Festival for his nuanced performance ers, Eric Bruskotter, Robert Vaughn. Shy as a boy who takes on responsibilities far guy at a new college wants to make friends beyond his years. [PG-13]쩠 with an attractive girl, but is too tongue-tied, Nobody Lives Forever (1946) 100m. ★★★ so at a friend’s urging, disguises himself as D: Jean Negulesco. John Garfield, Gerala girl and ends up his target’s roommate. dine Fitzgerald, Walter Brennan, Faye Emerson, George Coulouris, George Tobias. Little comedy based on the last line of [ 995 ]

SOME LIKE IT HOT is predictable but enrather than fight. Good acting by Sheen, tertaining. [PG-13]▼●쩠 who’s the only one on screen for most Nobody’s Perfekt (1981) C-95m. BOMB of film. Techniscope. [G]▼ D: Peter Bonerz. Gabe Kaplan, Alex Karras, Noel (2004) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chazz PalRobert Klein, Susan Clark, Paul Stewart, Alex minteri. Pene´lope Cruz, Susan Sarandon, Paul Rocco, Peter Bonerz. Entirely unfunny comWalker, Alan Arkin, Marcus Thomas, Chazz edy, made in Miami, about three misfits who Palminteri, Chantal Lonergan, Erika Rosendecide to fight City Hall when their car is baum. Ambitious tearjerker about the interactotalled in a pothole and—because of a looptions of fearful, vulnerable friends, lovers, hole—they can’t sue. Klein does awful imitacoworkers, and strangers on Christmas Eve: a tions of James Cagney and Bette Davis. An lonely book editor (Sarandon) whose mother inauspicious theatrical directing debut for is suffering from Alzheimer’s, a cop (Walker) Bonerz. [PG]▼ whose irrational jealousy is stifling his Sophia Nobody Waved Goodbye (1965-Canadian) Loren–esque fiance´e (Cruz), and a heartbro80m. ★★★ D: Don Owen. Peter Kastner, ken waiter (Arkin) with a strange reincarnaJulie Biggs, Claude Rae, Toby Tarnow, Chartion fantasy. Gets better as it goes along, as it mion King, Ron Taylor. Straightforward, perzeros in on issues relating to acceptance and ceptive account of alienated teenager Kastner. reconciliation. Robin Williams appears unA sequel, UNFINISHED BUSINESS, is set billed in a pivotal role. Super 35. [PG]쩠 20 years later, and details the plight of Kastner No End in Sight (2007) C-102m. ★★★★ D: and Biggs’s own teen offspring. Charles Ferguson. Narrated by Campbell No Country for Old Men (2007) C-122m. Scott. Masterful screen equivalent of the ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. Tommy myriad books that share on-the-record acLee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, counts from former military/policy players Woody Harrelson, Kelly Macdonald, Garret to explain how the Bush administration Dillahunt, Tess Harper, Barry Corbin, Steleaped before it looked in 2003 before inphen Root, Rodger Boyce, Ana Reeder, vading Iraq. A standout in what is already a Beth Grant, Gene Jones. Crackling tale of litany of Iraq-quagmire documentaries. The three men whose lives intersect in the early interviewees—many still bewildered by 1980s: a brutal, psychopathic killer (Bardem) how their former superiors arrogantly brushed on the loose, an ordinary guy (Brolin) who off or ignored experts with political/geoseizes a chance to get rich quick, and a lagraphic/linguistic experience in the region— conic West Texas sheriff (Jones) who doesn’t are photographed in like fashion to compacare for the way civilization is crumbling rably dramatic effect, compounding the before his very eyes. Creating tension from power of what they have to say.쩠 the first moments onward (and without the No Escape (1994) C-118m. ★★ D: Martin use of music), the Coens’ adaptation of CorCampbell. Ray Liotta, Lance Henriksen, Stumac McCarthy’s novel is a brooding tale of art Wilson, Kevin Dillon, Ian McNeice, Mifate set against a stark backdrop . . . but not chael Lerner, Ernie Hudson. Odd mix of high without irony and humor. Set on fire by tech and MOST DANGEROUS GAME finds Bardem’s Academy Award–winning perLiotta in a maximum security prison (year formance; brilliantly photographed by 2022) before escaping to a jungle colony Roger Deakins. Also won Oscars for Best where isolated inmates are left to die. Not the Picture, Best Director(s), and Best Adapted worst of its grungy ilk, but too protracted. Screenplay. Super 35. [R]쩠 Wilson is amusing as a key nemesis. Arriscope. [R]▼●쩠 No Deposit, No Return (1976) C-112m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Norman Tokar. David Niven, No Good Deed (2003-U.S.-German) C-97m. ★★ Darren McGavin, Don Knotts, Herschel BerD: Bob Rafelson. Samuel L. Jackson, nardi, Barbara Feldon, Brad Savage, Kim Milla Jovovich, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Doug Richards, Charlie Martin Smith, Vic Tayback, Hutchison, Joss Ackland, Grace Zabriskie, John Williams. Two neglected kids stage their Jonathan Higgins. Sorry attempt to update a own bogus kidnapping to stir up attention and Dashiell Hammett story (‘‘The House on enable them to join their mother in Hong Turk Street’’) with Jackson as a cop who Kong. OK Disney slapstick comedy. [G]▼쩠 stumbles into the hideout of a criminal gang No Down Payment (1957) 105m. ★★★ D: and becomes their prisoner as they plan a daring heist. Nothing rings true here. [R]▼쩠 Martin Ritt. Joanne Woodward, Jeffrey Hunter, Sheree North, Tony Randall, CamNo Greater Love (1959-Japanese) 208m. ★★★1 eron Mitchell, Patricia Owens, Barbara ⁄2 D: Masaki Kobayashi. Tatsuya NakaRush, Pat Hingle. Topical suburban soaper dai, Michiyo Aratama, Ineko Arima, Chiof intertwining problems of several young kage Awashima, Keiji Sada, Soˆ Yamamura, married couples. CinemaScope. Akira Ishihama, Eitaroˆ Ozawa, Shinji NambNo Drums, No Bugles (1971) C-85m. ara. South Manchuria, 1943: Kaji (Naka★★1⁄2 D: Clyde Ware. Martin Sheen. Nicely dai), a humane, married Japanese steel done drama, based on West Virginia legcompany employee who is about to be conend about conscientious objector during scripted into the military, is assigned to suCivil War who spends three years in a cave pervise a rural ore-mining operation whose [ 996 ]

No Looking Back (1998) C-96m. ★★ D: Edward Burns. Lauren Holly, Edward Burns, Jon Bon Jovi, Blythe Danner, Connie Britton. Working-class romantic triangle provides nice lead role for Holly as waitress with an OK but dead-end life with boyfriend Bon Jovi, thrown off balance by return of old sweetheart Burns. Attractive cast can’t overcome a very slight story; the strong soundtrack overpowers the script. [R] ▼●쩠 No Love for Johnnie (1961-British) 110m. ★★★ D: Ralph Thomas. Peter Finch, Stanley Holloway, Mary Peach, Mervyn Johns, Donald Pleasence, Dennis Price, Oliver Reed. Civilized study of politician who cares only about winning the election. CinemaScope.▼ Nomad (2005-Kazakhstan-French) C-110m. ★★ D: Sergei Bodrov, Ivan Passer. Kuno Becker, Jay Hernandez, Jason Scott Lee, Mark Dacascos; voice of Bai Ling. On the barren steppes of 18th-century Kazakhstan, while rival tribes battle for sovereignty, mystic warrior Oraz (Lee) rescues an infant descended from Genghis Khan who is destined to unite the nation as ‘‘Mansur’’ (GOAL!’s Becker). Historical epic has vicious sabers-on-horseback duels and good production design (real human extras—no CGI!) but plodding storytelling. Reputedly rocky production also had a third filmmaker: Talgat Temenov, who in this dubbed 2007 U.S. release is billed as ‘‘Local Director.’’ Original Kazakh-language version runs 112m. AKA: NOMAD: THE WARRIOR. Super 35. [R]쩠 Nomads (1986) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: John McTiernan. Lesley-Anne Down, Pierce Brosnan, Adam Ant, Anna-Maria Monticelli, Hector Mercado, Mary Woronov. Doctor (Down) treats an apparent madman, then undergoes a hallucinatory rerun of his recent experiences: he’s a French anthropologist who’s come to L.A. and has been drawn to a band of strange street people. Potentially interesting idea for a half-hour Twilight Zone but pretty deadly as a feature. Unpleasant, too. [R]▼●쩠 No Man Is an Island (1962) C-114m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Monks, Jr., Richard Goldstone. Jeffrey Hunter, Marshall Thomp쩠 1 Noises Off (1992) C-104m. ★★ ⁄2 D: Peter son, Barbara Perez, Ronald Remy, Paul Bogdanovich. Carol Burnett, Michael Caine, Edwards, Jr., Rolf Bayer, Vicente Liwanag. Denholm Elliott, Julie Hagerty, Marilu HenSpotty production values mar true story of ner, Mark Linn-Baker, Christopher Reeve, serviceman Hunter trapped on Guam during John Ritter, Nicollette Sheridan. Energetic the three years Japanese controlled area. ▼쩠 filming of Michael Frayn’s play, a clever variNo Man of Her Own (1932) 85m. ★★1⁄2 ation on a traditional British sex farce—with D: Wesley Ruggles. Clark Gable, Carole the added dimension of behind-the-scenes tuLombard, Dorothy Mackaill, Grant Mitchmult among the acting troupe. This kind of ell, Elizabeth Patterson, Lillian Harmer, door-slamming comedy doesn’t ever work on George Barbier. Snappy story of heel refilm—but Bogdanovich comes closer than formed by good girl, noteworthy for only anyone ever has before, with the help of a co-starring of Gable and Lombard (then not willing cast. [PG-13]▼●쩠 married).▼●쩠 No Kidding SEE: Beware of Children No Man of Her Own (1950) 98m. ★★1⁄2 No Looking Back (1980) SEE: Out of the D: Mitchell Leisen. Barbara Stanwyck, Blue (1980) John Lund, Jane Cowl, Phyllis Thaxter, [ 997 ] workers are Chinese POWs. Stirring epic mirrors age-old enmity between Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans while offering a deeply felt portrait of a man who must play a deadly balancing act as he struggles to maintain his values. Scripted by Kobayashi and Zenzo Matsuyama, based on a sixvolume novel by Jumpei Gomikawa. Aka THE HUMAN CONDITION I; followed by THE ROAD TO ETERNITY and A SOLDIER’S PRAYER. Grandscope. 쩠 No Highway in the Sky (1951) 98m. ★★★ D: Henry Koster. James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Jack Hawkins, Janette Scott, Elizabeth Allan, Ronald Squire, Niall MacGinnis, Kenneth More, Maurice Denham, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Offbeat, engrossing drama with Stewart as an engineer who desperately tries to convince others that aircraft can suffer from metal fatigue, and should be grounded after a given time. Dietrich is a glamorous passenger on the fateful flight. Based on a novel by Nevil Shute. Made in England, where it was released as NO HIGHWAY.▼ No Holds Barred (1989) C-91m. ★★ D: Thomas J. Wright. Hulk Hogan, Joan Severance, Kurt Fuller, Tiny Lister, Mark Pellegrino, Jesse (The Body) Ventura, Bill Henderson. For those who can’t get enough of Hulk Hogan, he appears here as a TV wrestling star who must defend himself after refusing a greedy businessman’s offer to switch networks. Aimed squarely at the legion of Hulkster fans. [PG-13]▼● Noise (2008) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Bean. Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Hurt, Margarita Levieva, Gabrielle Brennan, Maria Ballesteros, William Baldwin, Colleen Camp. A New Yorker, driven to distraction by the incessant noise of car alarms, starts vandalizing the cars and disabling the devices—in the guise of The Rectifier—but his vigilante tactics become so obsessive they disrupt his entire life. Darkly funny, thoughtful musing on righteous anger and the absurdity of modern life, though it can’t sustain its momentum from start to finish. Written by the director.

Richard Denning, Milburn Stone. Turgid list’s daughter, torn between two suitors, drama based on Cornell Woolrich tale of playboy and hard-working businessman. Stanwyck assuming another’s identity, later No Name on the Bullet (1959) C-77m. ★★★ being blackmailed by ex-boyfriend. Remade D: Jack Arnold. Audie Murphy, Charles in 1982 as I MARRIED A SHADOW and Drake, Joan Evans, Virginia Grey, Warren in 1996 as MRS. WINTERBOURNE. Stevens, Edgar Stehli, R. G. Armstrong, WilNo Man’s Land (1985-French-Swiss) Clis Bouchey, Karl Swenson, Charles Watts, 110m. ★★★ D: Alain Tanner. Hugues Quester, Jerry Paris, Whit Bissell. A quiet, cultured Myriam Mezieres, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, gunman (Murphy, in a fine performance) Betty Berr, Marie-Luce Felber. Sober, provocrides into a small town to kill someone, ative account of several characters involved though no one but he knows who his target is. with smuggling contraband across the FrenchGuilt and paranoia create their own victims. Swiss border, focusing on their motivations Slow, philosophical, and intelligent, this is and disillusionment. May be effectively conthe best of sci-fi director Arnold’s several trasted to Tanner’s earlier JONAH WHO Westerns. CinemaScope.▼쩠 WILL BE 25 IN THE YEAR 2000. None But the Brave (1965) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 No Man’s Land (1987) C-106m. ★★ D: D: Frank Sinatra. Frank Sinatra, Clint WalkPeter Werner. Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, er, Tommy Sands, Tony Bill, Brad DexLara Harris, Randy Quaid, Bill Duke, R.D. ter. Taut war drama focusing on crew of Call, M. Emmet Walsh. Rookie cop goes cracked-up plane and Japanese army patrol undercover to trap a wealthy young auto buff who make peace on a remote island during who operates a hot car ring, finds he likes his WW2. Panavision.▼●쩠 target, the target’s sister, and stealing Porsches. None But the Lonely Heart (1944) 113m. ★★1 Good premise largely botched. [R]▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Clifford Odets. Cary Grant, Ethel No Man’s Land (2001-Bosnian) C-97m. Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, Jane Wyatt, ★★★1 Dan Duryea, George Coulouris, June ⁄2 D: Danis Tanovic´. Brancko Djuric´, Rene Bitorajac, Filip Sˇovagovic´, Georges Duprez. Odets’ moody drama of a CockSiatidis, Katrin Cartlidge, Simon Callow, ney drifter features one of Grant’s most Serge-Henri Valcke. Riveting seriocomic war ambitious performances, and some fine parable about two soldiers, one Bosnian and moments, but suffers from censorship reone Serb, who are trapped together with anstrictions of the time, and misplaced WW2 other unfortunate man in a foxhole between rhetoric. Barrymore won Supporting Acenemy lines in 1993. As a result, no one is tress Oscar as Grant’s dying mother. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼● willing to take responsibility for their welfare or rescue, including the United Nations forces. None Shall Escape (1944) 85m. ★★★ D: Debuting writer-director Tanovic´ manages to Andre de Toth. Marsha Hunt, Alexander take a difficult, even remote subject and perKnox, Henry Travers, Richard Crane, Dorsonalize it—with the welcome addition of othy Morris, Trevor Bardette. Trial of Nazi dark humor—in this terrific film. Oscar winofficer reviews his savage career, in taut ner for Best Foreign Language Film. Super drama that retains quite a punch. Released 35. [R] ▼쩠 before, but set after, the end of WW2. No Nukes (1980) C-103m. ★★★ D: Julian No Mercy (1986) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Pearce. Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Schlossberg, Danny Goldberg, Anthony Jeroen Krabbe´, George Dzundza, Gary BasarPotenza. Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills aba, William Atherton, Ray Sharkey. Chicago & Nash, The Doobie Brothers, John Hall, cop Gere storms into Louisiana Bayou counGil Scott-Heron, Bonnie Raitt, Carly Simon, try seeking the killer of his partner, falls for Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Jesse Cajun beauty Basinger—who’s been ‘‘sold’’ Colin Young, Jane Fonda. Super Springto the kingpin perpetrator of the murder. Even steen joins several appealing, if long in the mindless melodramas have to make sense, at tooth, fellow rock stars to protest nuclear least on their own terms; this one’s pretty power. Pleasant, if not very magnetic, ridiculous. The two sexy stars don’t really concert film-documentary does boast chillclick. [R]▼●쩠 ingly hilarious clip from pro-nuke ‘‘Big No More Ladies (1935) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Picture’’ episode from early ’50s. Aka THE Edward H. Griffith. Joan Crawford, Robert MUSE CONCERT: NO NUKES. [PG] ▼ Montgomery, Charlie Ruggles, Franchot Noose Hangs High, The (1948) 77m. ★★1 Tone, Edna May Oliver, Gail Patrick. Craw⁄2 D: Charles Barton. Bud Abbott, Lou ford marries playboy Montgomery, tries to Costello, Joseph Calleia, Leon Errol, Cathy settle him down by making him jealous over Downs, Mike Mazurki, Fritz Feld. Mistaken her attention to Tone. Airy comedy. Joan Buridentity leads to complications with the boys field (Fontaine) made her film debut here. robbed of a large sum of money; typical A& No My Darling Daughter (1961-British) C, bolstered by presence of Errol. Highlight: ‘‘Mudder and Fodder.’’▼쩠 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ralph Thomas. Michael Redgrave, Michael Craig, Juliet Mills, Roger No Place Like Homicide! (1962-British) Livesey, Rad Fulton, Renee Houston. Gen87m. ★★ D: Pat Jackson. Kenneth Connor, erally funny film with Mills, rich industriaSidney James, Shirley Eaton, Donald [ 998 ]

Pleasence, Dennis Price, Michael Gough. his son is gay and determines to ‘‘straighten him out.’’ Shot on videotape. [PG]▼ At times strained satire about group of people gathered at haunted house for the Norman Loves Rose (1982-Australian) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henri Safran. Carol Kane, reading of a will. Remake of THE GHOUL. British title: WHAT A CARVE UP!▼쩠 Tony Owen, Warren Mitchell, Myra de ★★1 Nora Prentiss (1947) 111m. Groot, David Downer. OK comedy of ⁄2 D: Vincent Sherman. Ann Sheridan, Kent Smith, teenager Owen enamored with sister-inBruce Bennett, Robert Alda, Rosemary Delaw Kane. She becomes pregnant, and Camp, John Ridgely, Robert Arthur, Wanda who is the father? [R]▼ Hendrix. Proper married doctor Smith falls Norma Rae (1979) C-113m. ★★★ D: Marfor kicked-around singer Sheridan, leading tin Ritt. Sally Field, Ron Leibman, Beau to plenty of complications. Entertaining, alBridges, Pat Hingle, Barbara Baxley, Gail beit predictable, drama. Strickland, Lonny Chapman, Noble WillNorbit (2007) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian Robingham, Grace Zabriskie. Field is exbins. Eddie Murphy, Thandie Newton, cellent in Oscar-winning performance as Terry Crews, Clifton Powell, Cuba Goodreal-life poor Southern textile worker ing, Jr., Mighty Rasta, Eddie Griffin, Katt gradually won over toward unionization by Williams, Marlon Wayans. As in COMING N.Y.C. labor organizer. Entertaining, though TO AMERICA and the NUTTY PROFESnot entirely believable; haunting theme ‘‘It SOR vehicles Murphy plays several characGoes Like It Goes,’’ sung by Jennifer Warnes, ters: Norbit, a meek young man brought up also won an Oscar. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 by Chinese restaurant owner Mr. Wong and No Road Back (1957-British) 83m. ★★ D: stuck in a terrifying marriage with the hidMontgomery Tully. Sean Connery, Skip eously overweight Rasputia. All three are in Homeier, Paul Carpenter, Patricia Dainton, search of a script. Murphy shows his comeNorman Wooland, Margaret Rawlings. dic range but is let down by the material, Blind and deaf woman sacrifices everywhich includes all the fat jokes the writers thing for son, becomes involved with crimi(including Murphy and his brother Charles) nals—who then try to pin robbery on the could come up with. Prophetic ad line for innocent son. Plodding melodrama. the movie asked, ‘‘Have You Ever Made a No Room for the Groom (1952) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Douglas Sirk. Tony Curtis, Piper Really Big Mistake?’’ [PG-13]쩠 No Reservations (2007) C-104m. ★★★ D: Laurie, Spring Byington, Don DeFore, Scott Hicks. Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Jack Kelly. Harmless shenanigans of exEckhart, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Clarkson, G.I. Curtis returning home to find it filled Jenny Wade, Bob Balaban, Brian F. with in-laws. Norseman, The (1978) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: O’Byrne, Lily Rabe, John McMartin, Celia Weston. Light, frothy comedy-drama about Charles B. Pierce. Lee Majors, Cornel Wilde, a career-minded N.Y.C. chef who faces two Mel Ferrer, Jack Elam, Chris Connelly, Kathsimultaneous challenges: becoming the leen Freeman, Susie Coelho (Bono), Denny guardian of her 9-year-old niece (Breslin) Miller. Stodgy period adventure casts Majors and fending off competition in her restauas 11th-century Viking prince who sails to rant kitchen from a talented sous chef (EckNorth America in search of his father, a Norse hart) who develops amorous feelings king abducted by Indians. Panavision. [PG]▼ toward her. Attractive stars help keep this North (1994) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob Reiner. souffle´ from falling. Remake of the 2002 Elijah Wood, Bruce Willis, Jason Alexander, German film MOSTLY MARTHA. Super Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dan Aykroyd, Reba 35. [PG]쩠 McEntire, Kathy Bates, Abe Vigoda, John Normal Life (1996) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Ritter, Faith Ford, Richard Belzer, Jon Lovitz, McNaughton. Luke Perry, Ashley Judd, Alan Arkin, Alan Rachins, Matthew McCurDarwin Moxey, Tom Towles, Penelope ley, Alexander Godunov, Kelly McGillis, RoMilford. Fascinating true-crime story of a salind Chao, Ben Stein, Scarlett Johansson. straight-arrow suburban cop who becomes Eleven-year-old boy who’s convinced his the classic enabler to a drug-addicted shopfolks don’t appreciate him goes to court and aholic wife, leading him to a successful run wins the right to choose new parents, then as a bank robber! Perry and (especially) travels the world to find the ideal mom and Judd are terrific in this downbeat, straightdad. Wrong-headed movie never connects, forward, morbidly compelling tale of and leads to an unemotional and predictable twisted love. Made for theatrical release, definale. Reiner coscripted with Alan Zweibel, buted on cable TV. [R]▼●쩠 on whose novel this was based. [PG]▼● Norman . . . Is That You? (1976) C-91m. North Avenue Irregulars, The (1979) C★★ D: George Schlatter. Redd Foxx, Pearl 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Bilson. Edward HerrBailey, Dennis Dugan, Michael Warren, mann, Barbara Harris, Susan Clark, Karen ValTamara Dobson, Vernee Watson, Jayne entine, Michael Constantine, Cloris Leachman, Meadows. Leering comedy based on flop Patsy Kelly, Virginia Capers. Young priest Broadway show and revamped with black (Herrmann) enlists churchgoing ladies for stars: Foxx is distraught when he discovers crime-fighting brigade; innocuous Disney [ 999 ]

comedy starts well but reverts to formula, inFarnes, Mark Polish, Josh Barker, Graham cluding obligatory car pile-up finale. Fine acBeckel, Jon Gries, Ben Foster, Robin Sachs, tresses like Harris, Clark, and Leachman Marshall Bell, Kyle MacLachlan, Claire Forwasted. [G]▼쩠 lani. Third in the Polish Brothers’ Northwest North by Northwest (1959) C-136m. ★★★★ ‘‘trilogy’’ (following TWIN FALLS, IDAHO D: Alfred Hitchcock. Cary Grant, Eva and JACKPOT) is an allegory about the shutMarie Saint, James Mason, Leo G. Carroll, tering of a Montana town in 1955 to make Martin Landau, Jessie Royce Landis, Philip way for a dam. Fascinating at first, but both Ober, Adam Williams, Josephine Hutchinprecious and pretentious as angels and otherson, Edward Platt. Quintessential Hitchcock worldly characters take center stage; even the comedy-thriller, with bewildered ad-man imagery, though striking, becomes heavyGrant chased cross country by both spies handed after a while. Woods also coexecutive (who think he’s a double agent) and the produced. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 police (who think he’s an assassin). One North Sea Hijack SEE: ffolkes memorable scene after another, including North Shore (1987) C-96m. ★★ D: Wilnow-legendary crop-dusting and Mount liam Phelps. Matt Adler, Nia Peeples, John Rushmore sequences; one of the all-time Philbin, Gerry Lopez, Cristina Raines, Greggreat entertainments. Witty script by Ernest ory Harrison. The top young surfer in Arizona Lehman, exciting score by Bernard Herr(think about it) pits himself against the famed mann. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 title Oahu waves, as well as the family of the North Country (2005) C-126m. ★★ D: Niki native Hawaiian local he loves. Exceptional Caro. Charlize Theron, Frances McDorsurfing photography carries a generally dippy mand, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek, script only so far. [PG]▼쩠 Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins, Jeremy RenNorth Star, The (1943) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: ner, Michelle Monaghan, Rusty SchwimLewis Milestone. Anne Baxter, Dana Anmer, Jillian Armenante, Xander Berkeley. drews, Walter Huston, Ann Harding, Erich Single mom with two kids goes to work in von Stroheim, Jane Withers, Farley Granga Minnesota mine in 1989, where the sexual er, Walter Brennan. Dramatic battle seharassment is intense, but no other women quences in WW2 Russia marred by uninwant to rock the boat and risk their jobs. teresting stretches until German von StroDramatization of a landmark real-life case heim matches wits with village leader has good performances (especially TheHuston. Good performances all around; ron’s), but it’s no NORMA RAE: too pat, script by Lillian Hellman. Later edited to too obvious, and too long. Super 35. [R]쩠 82m. to deemphasize the good Russians North Dallas Forty (1979) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 and retitled ARMORED ATTACK. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 D: Ted Kotcheff. Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, Charles Durning, Dayle Haddon, G. D. SpradNorth to Alaska (1960) C-122m. ★★★ D: lin, Bo Svenson, Steve Forrest, John MatusHenry Hathaway. John Wayne, Stewart zak, Dabney Coleman. Seriocomic version of Granger, Ernie Kovacs, Fabian, Capucine, Peter Gent’s best-seller about labor abuse in Mickey Shaughnessy, Joe Sawyer, John the National Football League is the best gridQualen. Fast-moving actioner with delightiron film ever made and one of the best on ful tongue-in-cheek approach; prospectors any sport. Boasts Super Bowl–level perforWayne and Granger have their hands full mances for the most part. Scripted by its prodealing with latter’s kid brother Fabian, con ducer (Frank Yablans), director, and author. artist Kovacs, and gold-digging (in the other sense) Capucine. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Northern Lights (1979) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: North West Frontier SEE: Flame Over John Hanson, Rob Nilsson. Robert Behling, India Susan Lynch, Joe Spano, Henry Martinson, North West Mounted Police (1940) CMarianne Astrom-DeFina, Ray Ness, Helen 125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Ness. Incisive, unforgettable Americana Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Preston Foster, about the struggles of farmers in pre-WW1 Paulette Goddard, Robert Preston, George North Dakota, with Behling attempting to Bancroft, Akim Tamiroff, Lon Chaney, Jr., organize populist Nonpartisan League. Fine Robert Ryan. DeMille at his most ridiculous, with Cooper as Dusty Rivers, Goddard a first feature for Hanson and Nilsson.▼ Northern Pursuit (1943) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: fiery half-breed in love with Preston, Lynne Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Julie Bishop, Overman as Scottish philosopher in superHelmut Dantine, John Ridgely, Gene Lockficial tale of Texas Ranger searching for hart, Tom Tully. Flynn, a Mountie of Gerfugitive in Canada. Much of outdoor action man descent, pretends to have Nazi sympafilmed on obviously indoor sets. thies in order to learn the objectives of Northwest Passage (Book I—Rogers’ RanNazis operating in Canada, in this standard gers) (1940) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: King Vidor. but slickly done drama.▼ Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Bren★★ Northfork (2003) C-103m. nan, Ruth Hussey, Nat Pendleton, Robert D: Michael Polish. Nick Nolte, James Woods, Anthony Barrat, Addison Richards. Gritty, evocaEdwards, Daryl Hannah, Peter Coyote, Duel tive filming of Kenneth Roberts’ book [ 1000 ]

about Rogers’ Rangers and their stoic leader Italy, inquiring into the life of a long-dead (Tracy), enduring hardships and frustracomposer. The poet is so immersed in himtions while opening up new territory in self that he barely can communicate with Colonial America. Young and Brennan are those around him; then he meets a recluse greenhorns who learn hard knocks under (Josephson) who is certain that the end of taskmaster Tracy. The river-fording sequence the world is near. A provocative, insightful is a knockout.▼● epic, lovingly rendered by one of the cinema’s true poets.▼●쩠 Norwood (1970) C-96m. ★★ D: Jack Haley, Jr. Glen Campbell, Kim Darby, Joe Namath, Nostradamus (1994-British-German) C118m. ★★ D: Roger Christian. Tche´ky Carol Lynley, Pat Hingle, Tisha Sterling, Dom DeLuise, Billy Curtis. Ex-Marine Karyo, F. Murray Abraham, Rutger Hauer, Campbell hits the road for series of unreAmanda Plummer, Julia Ormond, Anthony lated adventures with service buddy NaHiggins. Cornball biographical drama about math, a midget, a Greenwich Village girl, a the fabled 16th-century astrologer-physician shiftless brother-in-law, a dancing chicken, (Karyo), who is seen prophesizing everyand a young girl with whom he falls in love. thing from Hitler’s rise to the Kennedy asEasy to take, but pointless. Look for Cass sassination—all the while retaining his Daley and Jack Haley (the director’s father) allure for the females of his own time. Best in a brief appearance. [G] watched when in a silly mood. [R]▼● No Sad Songs for Me (1950) 89m. ★★★ D: No Such Thing (2002-U.S.-Icelandic-GerRudolph Mate´. Margaret Sullavan, Wenman) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Hal Hartley. Robert dell Corey, Viveca Lindfors, Natalie Wood, John Burke, Julie Christie, Sarah Polley, Ann Doran. Moving account of dying mother Helen Mirren, Ilene Bergelson, Helgi BjornsSullavan preparing her family to go on son. Good cast is completely wasted in this without her. Ironically, Sullavan’s last film. embarrassing takeoff on Beauty and the Beast. Nosferatu (1922-German) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: A young TV journalist is sent to follow up F. W. Murnau. Max Schreck, Alexander an investigative news story on a murderous Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta monsterlike creature in Iceland after the origiSchroeder. Early film version of Dracula nal news crew disappears. Hartley goes astray is brilliantly eerie, full of imaginative here, with pretensions beyond anything he actouches that none of the later films quite tually manages to get on the screen. Christie recaptured. Schreck’s vampire is also the works far too infrequently to turn up in psyugliest in film history. The making of this chobabble such as this. [R]▼쩠 film is dramatized in SHADOW OF THE No Surrender (1985-British-Canadian) CVAMPIRE. Remade in 1979. ▼●쩠 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter K. Smith. Michael Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979-West GerAngelis, Ray McAnally, Avis Bunnage, ★★★1 man) C-107m. ⁄2 D: Werner Herzog. James Ellis, Bernard Hill, Mark MulholKlaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz, land, Joanne Whalley, Michael Ripper, Roland Topor. Spooky, funny, reverent reElvis Costello. Interesting parable of modern make of F. W. Murnau’s vampire masterBritish society and its problems, set in a repiece should please Dracula fans of all mote Liverpool nightclub where two warring persuasions. Kinski is magnificent as the sets of old folks come into conflict, paralleling good Count, and Adjani’s classic beauty is the troubles in Northern Ireland. Ambitious utilized to the hilt. English-language version, script by Alan Bleasdale tries to cover too which runs 96m., also exists. [PG] ▼●쩠 much ground, but McAnally stands out as ruthless Loyalist gunman. [R]▼ No Small Affair (1984) C-102m. ★★ D: Jerry Schatzberg. Jon Cryer, Demi Moore, Not Another Teen Movie (2001) C-89m. ★1 George Wendt, Peter Frechette, Elizabeth ⁄2 D: Joel Gallen. Chyler Leigh, Chris Daily, Ann Wedgeworth, Jeffrey Tambor, Evans, Jaime Pressly, Mia Kirshner, Eric Tim Robbins, Jennifer Tilly, Rick DucomChristian Olsen, Deon Richmond, Eric mun, Tate Donovan. Self-possessed, smartJungmann, Ron Lester, Randy Quaid, Paul assy, but virginal teenager becomes obsessed Gleason, Ed Lauter, Mr. T, Molly Ringwith an ‘‘older woman’’—struggling rock wald. On a wager, a high school hunk singer Moore—and will do just about any(Evans) sets out to woo a rebellious plain thing to make her like him. Some good moJane named Janey (Leigh) and transform ments here and there, but basically her into a prom queen. Barely funny parody unappealing characters torpedo its chances. lifts plotlines, characters, and entire scenes [R] ▼●쩠 from a variety of recent films. Loaded with Nostalghia (1983-Italian-Russian) C/B& in-jokes, sight gags, and (quite literally) W-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Andrei Tarkovsky. bathroom humor, but the results are tepid at Oleg Yankovsky, Erland Josephson, Domibest. Alternate version runs 101m. [R]▼쩠 ziana Giordano, Laura Del Marchi, Delia Not as a Stranger (1955) 135m. ★★★ D: Boccardo, Patrizia Terreno. Deeply perStanley Kramer. Olivia de Havilland, Frank sonal, stunningly directed tale of a Russian Sinatra, Robert Mitchum, Charles Bickford, poet (Yankovsky) and his beautiful translaGloria Grahame, Broderick Crawford, Lee tor (Giordano) who are trekking across Marvin, Lon Chaney, Henry (Harry) Mor[ 1001 ]

gan, Virginia Christine, Jerry Paris. Morton den than the emotionally vulnerable younger Thompson novel of Mitchum marrying woman can possibly realize. When Blanchett nurse de Havilland who supports him has a fling with one of her students, the stage through medical school despite oft-strained is set for high drama on all fronts. Playwright relationship. Glossy tribute to medical profesPatrick Marber (Closer) adapted Zoe¨ Hellsion contains excellent performances by all. er’s novel What Was She Thinking?: Notes Producer Kramer’s directorial debut.▼ on a Scandal, which was inspired by the Not Easily Broken (2009) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 real-life case of Mary Kay Letourneau. SenD: Bill Duke. Morris Chestnut, Taraji P. sational performances by both stars (and Nighy, as Blanchett’s husband). [R]쩠 Henson, Maeve Quinlan, Kevin Hart, Eddie Cibrian, Jenifer Lewis, Wood Harris, Albert Not for Publication (1984-U.S.-British) C-88m. ★★ D: Paul Bartel. Nancy Allen, Hall, Niecy Nash. Although there’s enough soap operatics to fill a Douglas Sirk ’50s David Naughton, Laurence Luckinbill, Almelodrama, this sincere story of a troubled ice Ghostley, Richard Paul, Barry Dennen, marriage still manages to engage. When Cork Hubbert, Paul Bartel. Unsuccessful Henson is hurt in an auto accident it puts attempt to replicate an old-fashioned screwadded pressure on her already wobbly relaball comedy. Allen leads double life as the tionship with well-meaning husband Cheststar reporter of a sleazy N.Y.C. tabloid and a nut. Adding to their woes is his budding worker in the reelection campaign of oddball ‘‘friendship’’ with her white physical theramayor Luckinbill. Along the way shy photogpist and her teenage son, and constant interrapher Naughton falls for her. [R]▼쩠 ference from Henson’s live-in mother. With Nothing but a Man (1964) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: a rare, male point of view and fine acting by Michael Roemer. Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, the leads, this recognizable human drama Julius Harris, Gloria Foster, Martin Priest, Leovercomes a rather pedantic plotline to onard Parker, Yaphet Kotto, Stanley Greene. make its points. Based on the novel by T. D. Quietly powerful look at blacks in the South, Jakes, who shows up in a brief cameo. [PGwith Dixon as a railroad worker who tries to 13]쩠 settle down for the first time in his life with Notebook, The (2004) C-124m. ★★★ D: Nick schoolteacher Lincoln, and has to deal with a Cassavetes. Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, level of prejudice—and self-denial—he’s James Garner, Gena Rowlands, James Marsnever faced before. Perceptive and honest, this den, Kevin Connolly, Joan Allen, Sam Shepfilm manages to make its points without meloard, David Thornton, Jamie Anne Brown, drama. A small gem. Look for Esther Rolle and Moses Gunn in small roles.▼●쩠 Heather Wahlquist, Obba Babatunde´. Emotional, richly romantic drama told in flashback, Nothing but the Best (1964-British) C-99m. ★★★1 as Garner reads nursing home patient Row⁄2 D: Clive Donner. Alan Bates, Denholm lands the star-crossed love story of a boy and Elliott, Harry Andrews, Millicent Martin, girl. Eventually, the modern story and the vinPauline Delany. Biting look at socialtage one intertwine. A rare, no-holds-barred climbing playboy Bates who commits murportrait of love and passion without cynicism der to get ahead in the world. Written or ‘‘ironic distance.’’ Gosling and McAdams by Frederic Raphael. are exceptionally good. Based on the novel by Nothing but the Night (1972-British) Nicholas Sparks. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13] ▼쩠 C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Sasdy. Christopher No-Tell Hotel, The SEE: Rosebud Beach Lee, Peter Cushing, Diana Dors, Georgia Hotel, The Brown, Keith Barron, Fulton Mackay, Notes From Underground (1995) C-88m. Gwyneth Strong. Uninvolving supernatu★★★ D: Gary Walkow. Henry Czerny, Sheryl ral thriller about a cult that attempts imLee. Biting adaptation of the Dostoyevsky nomortality by projecting their personalities vella features a soul-baring performance by into the bodies of children. Filmed by Czerny as Underground Man: a sarcastic Lee’s production banner in a failed attempt loner-loser who is at once miserable and to encourage more serious genre films. proud, brutal and deeply human. At the crux Aka THE DEVIL’S UNDEAD and THE of the narrative is his recollection of a party RESURRECTION SYNDICATE. [PG]▼ at school, where his presence was unNothing But the Truth (2008) C-107m. ★★★ wanted, and his attempt to connect with a D: Rod Lurie. Kate Beckinsale, Matt prostitute (Lee). Difficult to watch, at times, Dillon, Vera Farmiga, Edie Falco, Alan because of its stinging insights and emoAlda, David Schwimmer, Noah Wyle, Antional truths, but well worth the effort.▼쩠 gela Bassett, Courtney B. Vance, Peter CoyNotes on a Scandal (2006-U.S.-British) Cote, Jamey Sheridan. Washington reporter 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Eyre. Judi Dench, Beckinsale ‘‘outs’’ a CIA agent (Farmiga), Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, Andrew Simpwho happens to be a fellow mom at her son, Phil Davis, Michael Maloney, Juno daughter’s school. She’s willing to go to jail Temple, Julia McKenzie. Fascinating drama to protect her source, and does, but can’t about a spinster teacher (Dench) who adopts anticipate how great a toll it will take on her the new art instructor (Blanchett) at her life and her family. Potent topical drama school as a friend, which is more of a burinspired by the Judith Miller–Valerie Plame [ 1002 ]

affair of 2005 deals with intriguing, per(Rodrı´guez) has just returned from active sonal facets of a situation that’s usually exduty in Iraq, while various rivalries, unfinplored only for the principle involved. The ished business, and a mystery surrounding punch line packs a wallop. Famed First the patriarch (Molina) create emotional tuAmendment attorney Floyd Abrams, who mult in the household. Familiar setup yields argued for The New York Times’ Miller in a satisfying holiday concoction with comcourt, is very good here as the trial judge. edy, drama, and sentimentality all part of Written by the director. Super 35. [R]쩠 the mix—and an exceptionally good cast to Nothing But Trouble (1944) 69m. ★★ D: carry it off. Super 35. [PG-13] Sam Taylor. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Nothing Personal (1980-U.S.-Canadian) Mary Boland, Philip Merivale, David LeC-97m. ★1⁄2 D: George Bloomfield. Donland, Henry O’Neill. Lesser L&H vehicle ald Sutherland, Suzanne Somers, Lawrence with duo hired as servants, meeting young Dane, Roscoe Lee Browne, Dabney Coleboy king whose life is in danger. Boland is man, Saul Rubinek, Catherine O’Hara, John amusing as usual.▼쩠 Dehner, Chief Dan George. Sutherland is a Nothing but Trouble (1991) C-93m. professor attempting to stop a corporation from BOMB D: Dan Aykroyd. Chevy Chase, slaughtering baby seals, Somers a lawyer who Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Demi Moore, helps him. Inane romantic comedy. Look for Taylor Negron, Bertila Damas, Valri Bromappearances by Craig Russell, Tony Rosato, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy. [PG]▼ field. Chase and Moore, off on a weekend, get nabbed for speeding in a hellhole town Nothing Sacred (1937) C-75m. ★★★1⁄2 D: under the complete domination of ancient William Wellman. Carole Lombard, Fredric judge Aykroyd (unrecognizable under mounds March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger, of makeup); rest of film deals with their atSig Rumann, Frank Fay. Classic comedy about tempted escape. Stupefyingly unwatchable; hotshot reporter (March) who exploits VerAykroyd’s directorial debut (he also wrote it). mont girl’s ‘‘imminent’’ death from radium And yes, his nose is supposed to look like a poisoning for headline value in N.Y.C. Ben penis. Watch for Tupac Shakur as a ‘‘digital Hecht’s cynical script vividly enacted by underground member.’’ [PG-13] ▼●쩠 March and Lombard (at her best). Gersh★★ Nothing in Common (1986) C-118m. winesque music score by Oscar Levant. Trivia D: Garry Marshall. Tom Hanks, Jackie note: Connolly’s character is named Oliver Gleason, Eva Marie Saint, Hector Elizondo, Stone! Later a Broadway musical called Hazel Barry Corbin, Bess Armstrong, Sela Ward, Flagg. Remade as LIVING IT UP. ▼●쩠 John Kapelos, Jane Morris, Dan CastelNothing to Lose (1997) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: laneta, Tracy Reiner. Interminably long, Steve Oedekerk. Martin Lawrence, Tim highly uneven comedy-drama about a perRobbins, John C. McGinley, Giancarlo Espetual adolescent who’s forced to deal posito, Kelly Preston, Michael McKean, with his aging, unloving father when his Rebecca Gayheart, Samaria Graham, Irma mom leaves him flat. Some poignant, relevant P. Hall, Steve Oedekerk. Stunned to find his conclusions about love and responsibility (and wife in bed with his boss, Robbins drives some funny shots at the advertising business) away in a daze—only to be carjacked by are undermined by overlength and meandering out-of-work Lawrence. Having nothing to nature of film. Hanks is excellent; Gleason is lose, Robbins roars off into the desert with abrasive (in his last film appearance). Later his surprised passenger; this being a buddy a TV series. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 comedy, they try to help each other out. OK Nothing Lasts Forever (1984) C/B&Wcomedy, with a likable cast, is undercut by 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Schiller. Zach Galligan, predictability (and not exploiting the premise for its full comic value). [R]▼●쩠 Apollonia van Ravenstein, Lauren Tom, Dan Aykroyd, Imogene Coca, Eddie Fisher, No Time for Comedy (1940) 98m. ★★1⁄2 Sam Jaffe, Paul Rogers, Mort Sahl, Bill D: William Keighley. James Stewart, RosMurray, Anita Ellis. Strange, occasionally alind Russell, Genevieve Tobin, Charles entertaining comedy of aspiring artist Ruggles, Allyn Joslyn, Louise Beavers. Galligan’s experiences in a N.Y.C. of the Slick but dated adaptation of S. N. Behrfuture—and also on a trip to the moon. A man play about actress who tries to keep most unusual cast; much better seen than her playwright-husband from taking himself described. Written by first-time director too seriously. Smoothly done but artificial. Schiller, produced by Lorne Michaels, both Aka GUY WITH A GRIN. No Time for Love (1943) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: of TV’s Saturday Night Live. [PG] Nothing Like the Holidays (2008) C-98m. Mitchell Leisen. Claudette Colbert, Fred ★★★ D: Alfredo De Villa. Alfred Molina, MacMurray, Ilka Chase, Richard Haydn, Elizabeth Pen˜a, Freddy Rodrı´guez, Luis Paul McGrath, June Havoc. Cute but obviGuzma´n, Jay Hernandez, John Leguizamo, ous romance between famous magazine Debra Messing, Vanessa Ferlito, Melonie photographer Colbert and down-to-earth Diaz. Christmas brings a Puerto Rican famMacMurray. The stars give this a lift. ily together in the Humboldt Park section of No Time for Sergeants (1958) 119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Andy Griffith, Chicago. One of the three grown children [ 1003 ]

Myron McCormick, Nick Adams, Murray onetime drug dealer sired by a religious Hamilton, Don Knotts. Funny military commom, which allegedly led to tension beedy based on Ira Levin’s Broadway play tween spiritual living and the flashy plea(which got its start as a 1955 U.S. Steel Hour sures that money and available women can TV play). Griffith and McCormick repeat bring. Movie opened theatrically on the roles as hayseed inducted into service and his Martin Luther King birthday weekend—a harried sergeant. Griffith’s best comedy, with stretch. Christopher Jordan Wallace, the good support from Adams, and, in a small real-life son of Biggie and Faith Evans, role as a noncommissioned officer, Knotts. plays his father as a boy. Super 35. [R]쩠 Script by John Lee Mahin. Followed years Notorious Bettie Page, The (2006) C/B&Wlater by a TV series.▼● 100m. ★★★ D: Mary Harron. Gretchen Mol, Not of This Earth (1957) 67m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Bauer, Jared Harris, Sarah Paulson, Cara Roger Corman. Paul Birch, Beverly Garland, Seymour, David Strathairn, Lili Taylor, John Morgan Jones, William Roerick. Above par Cullum, Matt McGrath, Austin Pendleton, low-budget entry from Roger Corman with Norman Reedus, Dallas Roberts, Victor blank-eyed Birch as an alien vampire here Slezak, Jonathan Woodward, Max Casella. to get blood for his atomic war–ravaged Absorbing biopic about a nice, churchgoing home world. Good supporting cast; great girl from Nashville who rebounds from several bit by Dick Miller. Remade in 1988, 1996 ugly encounters with men, heads to N.Y.C. in (for TV), and 1997 (as STAR PORTAL). the 1940s, and becomes a pinup icon. Her Not of This Earth (1988) C-80m. ★★ D: naivete´ is contrasted with the sometimesJim Wynorski. Traci Lords, Arthur Robsordid world in which she works, posing for erts, Lenny Juliano, Ace Mask, Roger bondage photos and movies, which eventuLodge. Strictly standard remake of the 1957 ally run afoul of a U.S. Senate crackdown Roger Corman quickie, in which Roberts on smut. Mol is a pluperfect Page in this comes to earth in search of blood to relaid-back film that captures its era (and its plenish his dying planet’s population. Film’s mores) quite nicely. [R]쩠 chief interest is the casting of ex-porn Notorious C.H.O. (2002) C-95m. ★★★ D: queen Lords as a nurse. [R]▼●쩠 Lorene Machado. Margaret Cho. Lively, en★★ Not One Less (1999-Chinese) C-106m. tertaining concert film not only presents Cho’s D: Zhang Yimou. Wei Minzhi, Zhang Huike, hilarious one-woman show, as performed in Tian Zhenda, Gao Enman, Sun Zhimei. A Seattle, but takes us backstage and even introyoung student (Wei) is asked to act as teacher duces us to Margaret’s mother, who figures to her near-peers in a rural Chinese village so prominently in her monologues. A good after the regular schoolmaster leaves for a follow-up to I’M THE ONE THAT I WANT, month to tend to his ailing mother. The stipwith more of Cho’s uncensored comedy, tackulation: She must not permit any dropouts if ling sexual and gender issues for an audience packed with fans. ▼쩠 she wants to earn an extra 10 yuan in pay. Based-on-fact story results in a notably Notorious Gentleman (1945-British) 123m. ★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Rex Harrison, Lilli slight exercise for China’s top filmmaker. The actors are non-professionals, and show Palmer, Godfrey Tearle, Griffith Jones, it, in lifeless and repetitive scenes. [G]▼쩠 Margaret Johnston, Guy Middleton, Jean Notorious (1946) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Kent. Philandering life of irresponsible Hitchcock. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, playboy is told with wit and style in this Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine handsome production. British title: THE Konstantin, Reinhold Schunzel, Moroni RAKE’S PROGRESS. Olsen. Top-notch espionage tale by Ben Notorious Landlady, The (1962) 123m. ★★1 Hecht, set in post-WW2 South America, ⁄2 D: Richard Quine. Kim Novak, Jack with Ingrid marrying spy Rains to aid U.S. Lemmon, Fred Astaire, Lionel Jeffries, and agent Grant. Frank, tense, well acted, Estelle Winwood, Maxwell Reed. Lemmon with amazingly suspenseful climax (and entranced by houseowner Novak, decides to one memorably passionate love scene). Refind out if she really did kill her husband; set made for cable TV in 1992.▼●쩠 in London. Offbeat comedy-mystery written Notorious (2009) C-122m. ★★ D: George by Quine and Larry Gelbart.쩠 Tillman, Jr. Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Not Quite Jerusalem SEE: Not Quite Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Naturi Paradise Naughton, Antonique Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Not Quite Paradise (1986-British) C105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. Joanna John Ventimiglia. Overlong biopic of mysteriously assassinated-at-24 Brooklyn rap artist Pacula, Sam Robards, Todd Graff, Kevin Biggie Smalls (aka The Notorious B.I.G.) has McNally, Selina Cadell, Kate Ingram, the authorized feel that inevitably comes Libby Morris. Love on a kibbutz; pleaswith a movie listing Smalls’ mother (played ant, low-key story of volunteers from the here by Bassett) and Sean Combs (Luke) as U.S., England, and other nations adjusting producers. Movie reaps sporadic snap from to the hard life on an Israeli farm, where the dynamic performance of Woolard as the Yank Robards falls in love with sabra sometimes awkward, overweight kid and Pacula. Not much oomph but an OK, [ 1004 ]

old-fashioned romance. Originally titled: band is not portrayed as a one-dimensional monster. Filmed in Israel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 NOT QUITE JERUSALEM. [R]▼쩠 Nouvelle Vague (1990-French-Swiss) CNotre Musique (2004-French-Swiss) C88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Alain 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Sarah Adler, Delon, Domiziana Giordano, Roland AmsNade Dieu, Rony Kramer, Simon Eine, Jeantutz, Laurence Cote, Christophe Odent. Delon Christophe Bouvet, Jean-Luc Godard. Madand Giordano are cast as a handsome, ultradening yet fascinating Godardian foray into rich, powerful couple; the narrative focuses on the effect of violence on the human spirit, sexual and political issues that run through all divided into three sections: ‘‘Hell,’’ ‘‘Purof Godard’s films. This one’s strictly a matter gatory,’’ and ‘‘Heaven.’’ There’s plenty of of taste—and one’s tolerance for latter-day theoretical chatter in the skimpy narrative, Godard. Aka NEW WAVE.▼ set at a literary conference in war-ravaged Novel Affair, A (1957-British) C-83m. Sarajevo whose attendees include Godard ★★★ D: Muriel Box. Ralph Richardson, himself and a young Israeli journalist who is Margaret Leighton, Patricia Dainton, Carlo researching an article about a place ‘‘where Justini, Marjorie Rhodes, Megs Jenkins. reconciliation is possible.’’ Godard conAmusing tale of Leighton who writes a sexy trasts footage of real-life brutality with the novel, finding the fantasy come true. Nearly violence staged in Hollywood movies to eneveryone plays dual roles, in real life and tertain the masses.▼쩠 scenes from the novel! Original British Notting Hill (1999-British) C-123m. ★★★ title: THE PASSIONATE STRANGER. D: Roger Michell. Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, November (2005) C-78m. ★★ D: Greg HarHugh Bonneville, Emma Chambers, James rison. Courteney Cox, James Le Gros, MiDreyfus, Rhys Ifans, Tim McInnerny, Gina chael Ealy, Nora Dunn, Nick Offerman, McKee, Emily Mortimer. Bemused London Anne Archer, Matthew Carey, Robert Wu. bookshop owner chances to meet world-faArtsy indie about a traumatized woman mous movie star, and sparks fly . . . but their whose boyfriend has been murdered in a budding relationship is bumpier than either convenience-store robbery. A month later, could imagine. Enjoyable romantic comedy he telephones her . . . or maybe not. Cox is a complete contrivance, but so smoothly (bleakly deglamorized) passes through dedone, and so engagingly performed, that nial, despair, and acceptance as she, her you don’t much mind. Written by Richard mom (Archer), and her shrink (Dunn) try Curtis, whose script for FOUR WEDto figure out if she’s psychic, psychotic, or DINGS AND A FUNERAL made Grant a merely overmedicated. Bloody and befudstar. Alec Baldwin and Matthew Modine dling foray is derivative of both BLOWUP appear unbilled. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and RUN LOLA RUN. Slow end-title crawl 1 Not Wanted (1949) 94m. ★★ ⁄2 D: Elmer extends a slight film barely over an hour Clifton. Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Leo long. The director also edited. [R]쩠 Penn, Dorothy Adams. Well-intentioned acNovocaine (2001) C-95m. ★★ D: David count of unwed mother seeking affection and Atkins. Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carunderstanding; produced and coscripted by Ida ter, Laura Dern, Elias Koteas, Scott Caan, Lupino (who also apparently directed most of Keith David, Lynne Thigpen. Successful the film). Later expanded with unrelated matedentist who’s about to marry his hygienist rial (including childbirth footage) and released is fatally attracted to a new female patient, as an exploitation film, THE WRONG RUT and makes one misstep that quickly snow(aka SHAME and STREETS OF SIN). ▼쩠 balls into Big Trouble. Mix of film noir and Not With My Wife You Don’t! (1966) black comedy starts off well, but becomes C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Panama. Tony distinctly unpleasant, despite some clever Curtis, Virna Lisi, George C. Scott, Cartwists and good performances. Kevin Bacon roll O’Connor, Richard Eastham. Trivial appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 fluff about air force officer Curtis and Now About These Women SEE: All bored wife Lisi; pointless and aimless, These Women but attractive to the eye.▼ Now and Forever (1934) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Not Without My Daughter (1991) CHenry Hathaway. Gary Cooper, Carole ★★★ 114m. D: Brian Gilbert. Sally Field, Lombard, Shirley Temple, Sir Guy StandAlfred Molina, Sheila Rosenthal, Roshan ing, Charlotte Granville. Standard jewelSeth, Sarah Badel, Mony Rey, Georges thief-going-straight yarn; Lombard overCorraface. American woman accompanies shadowed by Cooper and Temple. Also her Iranian-born husband on a visit to his shown in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 homeland. Once there, he decides to stay, and Now and Forever (1983-Australian) C-93m. ★★ D: Adrian Carr. Cheryl Ladd, Robert she learns (to her horror) that in Iran she has no rights, as a wife or as a woman, so she must Coleby, Carmen Duncan, Christine Amor, find a way to flee the country with her daughter. Aileen Britton. Chic Ladd’s husband is unAbsorbing film based on real-life experience of faithful, then is falsely accused of rape and Betty Mahmoody; the drama works because sent to jail. This puts quite a strain on their Field is so believable, and because her husmarriage. Based on Danielle Steel’s novel. If [ 1005 ]

you like Harlequin romances . . . Panavisual design and eclectic cast make for some sion. [R]▼● twisted fun, although the director’s taste for Now and Then (1995) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: gallows humor and brutal violence isn’t for Lesli Linka Glatter. Christina Ricci, Thora everyone. Various pop culture celebrities turn Birch, Gaby Hoffman, Ashleigh Aston Moore, up in cameos. [R]▼● Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O’DonNowhere in Africa (2001-German) C-135m. ★★★★ D: Caroline Link. Juliane Kohler, Merab nell, Rita Wilson, Willa Glen, Bonnie Hunt, ¨ Janeane Garofalo, Lolita Davidovich, Cloris Ninidze, Matthias Habich, Sidede Onyulo, Leachman, Hank Azaria. Essentially a distaff Karoline Eckertz, Lea Kurka. A Jewish family version of STAND BY ME in which we get manages to get out of Germany in 1938, just in to know four friends during their last summer the nick of time, and moves to Kenya, where of adolescence in 1970. The film is bookthey must rebuild their lives from the ground ended by sequences of the friends reminiscing up. A sweeping, subtly powerful drama that at a baby shower 20 years later. Nicely done, manages to tell its story from three separate but covers awfully familiar territory; strongest points of view—the husband, wife, and asset is the lovely performances of its young daughter—as each one forges an individual restars. Moore also produced. Brendan Fraser lationship with a strange, new environment. appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Director Link adapted the autobiographical No Way Out (1950) 106m. ★★★ D: novel by Stefanie Zweig, and presents the Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Richard Widmark, story with compassion and a keen eye for Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney detail. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film. Arriscope.▼쩠 Poitier, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Bill Walker. Violent tale of racial hatred involving Nowhere to Go (1958-British) 97m. ★★★ bigot Widmark, who has gangster pals D: Seth Holt. George Nader, Maggie Smith, avenge his brother’s death by creating race Bernard Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Bessie Love. riots. Once-provocative film is still engrossUnsung, beautifully realized film noir stars ing but seems a bit artificial at times. Nader as a smooth Canadian burglar in EngFilm debuts of Poitier and Davis.▼쩠 land who hides out with Smith while on the No Way Out (1987) C-116m. ★★★ D: run. Brilliant deep-focus photography by Paul Roger Donaldson. Kevin Costner, Gene Beeson and a moody score by jazz trumpeter Hackman, Sean Young, Will Patton, HowDizzy Reece stand out. Smith’s film debut. ard Duff, George Dzundza, Jason Bernard, Metroscope. Iman, Fred Dalton Thompson, David Paymer. Nowhere to Hide (1987-Canadian) C-90m. ★★ Taut melodramatic thriller about a murder and D: Mario Azzopardi. Amy Madigan, cover-up within the inner circles of the federal Daniel Hugh Kelly, Robin MacEachern, government. Young is tantalizingly sexy as Michael Ironside, John Colicos. Obvious the woman involved with both CIA liaison thriller with Madigan cast as the wife of Costner and Secretary of Defense Hackman. Marine Kelly. He’s killed while investigatHard to tell at first that this is a remake of ing suspicious helicopter crashes . . . and THE BIG CLOCK, but it is—except for a she becomes a target. Madigan is much ludicrous (and totally unnecessary) ‘‘twist’’ better than the material. [R]▼쩠 ending. Script by Robert Garland, who also Nowhere to Run (1993) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: produced. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Robert Harmon. Jean-Claude Van Damme, No Way to Treat a Lady (1968) C-108m. Rosanna Arquette, Kieran Culkin, Ted ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jack Smight. Rod Steiger, Lee Levine, Joss Ackland, Tiffany Taubman. Remick, George Segal, Eileen Heckart, Embarrassingly awful Van Damme vehicle, Murray Hamilton, Michael Dunn, Barbara in which he’s an escaped con who comes to Baxley, Ruth White, Doris Roberts, David the aid of widow-in-distress Arquette and Doyle. Delicious blend of romantic comedy her two kids. Based on a story by Joe Eszand murder, with Steiger as flamboyant terhas and Richard Marquand; Eszterhas ladykiller, Segal as ‘‘Mo Brummel,’’ cop on also scripted. [R]▼●쩠 his trail, Remick as Segal’s new lady-friend Now, Voyager (1942) 117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: who could be next victim. Script by John Irving Rapper. Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Gay, from the William Goldman novel.▼쩠 Claude Rains, Gladys Cooper, Bonita GranNowhere (1997) C-85m. ★★ D: Gregg ville, John Loder, Ilka Chase, Lee Patrick, Araki. James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Mary Wickes, Janis Wilson. Vintage, firstBexton, Christina Applegate, Chiara Masclass soaper with Bette as sheltered spintroianni, Debi Mazar, Kathleen Robertson, ster brought out of her shell by psychiatrist Jordan Ladd, Sarah Lassez, Guillermo Diaz, Rains, falling in love with suave Henreid, Jeremy Jordan, Alan Boyce, Jaason Simhelping shy girl Wilson. All this set to mons, Ryan Phillippe, Heather Graham, beautiful, Oscar-winning Max Steiner muScott Caan, John Ritter, Beverly D’Angelo, sic makes for top entertainment of this Denise Richards, Rose McGowan, Mena kind. Olive Higgins Prouty’s best-seller was adapted by Casey Robinson.▼●쩠 Suvari. CALIGULA for the CLUELESS set. A herd of oversexed L.A. teens searches for Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972) true love in the wasteland of SoCal. Pop viC-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Butler. Kurt Rus[ 1006 ]

sell, Cesar Romero, Joe Flynn, Jim Backus, believe he’s going to murder his wife. Utterly William Windom, Michael McGreevy, unconvincing thriller, especially when it fiEd Begley, Jr. Follow-up to THE COMnally gets around to tying up its loose ends. PUTER WORE TENNIS SHOES has stuVisual stylistics are devoid of meaning here. dent Russell inventing an invisible spray, Bud Cort appears unbilled. Unrated version runs 100m. Panavision. [R]쩠 which of course is coveted by a gang of crooks. Some good special effects in this Nume´ro Deux (1975-French) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 so-so Disney comedy. [G]▼쩠 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Sandrine Battistella, Nuclear Run SEE: Chain Reaction (1980) Pierre Dudry, Alexandre Rignault, Rachel Nuclear Terror SEE: Golden Rendezvous Stefanopoli. Fascinating but self-conscious 1 ★★ Nude Bomb, The (1980) C-94m. ⁄2 D: and confusing aural and visual smorgasClive Donner. Don Adams, Andrea Howard, bord detailing the effects of capitalism on Vittorio Gassman, Dana Elcar, Pamela a modern family. Shot on videotape. ▼ Hensley, Sylvia Kristel, Robert Karvelas, Nuns on the Run (1990-British) C-90m. ★★1 Norman Lloyd, Rhonda Fleming, Joey ⁄2 D: Jonathan Lynn. Eric Idle, Robbie Forman. Secret Agent 86 from 1960s Get Coltrane, Camille Coduri, Janet Suzman, Smart sitcom returns in feature-length spoof Doris Hare, Lila Kaye, Robert Patterson. about a madman whose bombs will deGenial farce about two career henchmen, stroy the world’s clothing; coscripter Bill fed up with their violent young boss, who Dana has a funny bit as fashion designer try to make a score for themselves but bunJonathan Levinson Siegel. Agreeable timegle the job and hide out in a convent, disfiller. Shown on TV as THE RETURN OF guised as nuns. Idle and Coltrane are great, MAXWELL SMART. Followed by the TV and the film is genuinely funny at times— movie GET SMART, AGAIN! [PG]▼●쩠 enough to forgive its periodic lulls. Written Nudo di Donna (1981-Italian-French) Cby director Lynn. [PG-13]▼●쩠 105m. ★★★ D: Nino Manfredi. Nino Manfredi, Nun’s Story, The (1959) C-149m. ★★★1⁄2 Eleonora Giorgi, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Georges D: Fred Zinnemann. Audrey Hepburn, Peter Wilson. Suffering marital problems with wife Finch, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Dean of 16 years (Giorgi), Manfredi becomes infatuJagger, Mildred Dunnock. Tasteful filmated with a nude rearview photo and takes up ing of Kathryn Hulme book, with Hepburn with its model, who looks just like his wife! the nun who serves in Belgian Congo and Stunning location photography in Venice and a later leaves convent. Colleen Dewhurst, as solid cast highlight this social comedy.▼● a homicidal patient, is electrifying. Screenplay by Robert Anderson.▼●쩠 Number One (1969) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom Gries. Charlton Heston, Jessica Walter, Nunzio (1978) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul WilBruce Dern, John Randolph, Diana Muldaur. liams. David Proval, James Andronica, Heston turns in his loincloth for a jockTovah Feldshuh, Morgana King, Vincent strap in this ludicrous drama about a New Russo, Theresa Saldana, Monica Lewis. Orleans Saints quarterback who’s fighting Retarded Brooklyn grocery delivery boy advancing age; interesting subject matter Proval imagines he’s Superman, falls in deserves better treatment. [M/PG] love with bakery assistant Feldshuh. Mild Number One With a Bullet (1987) Cstory enhanced by Proval’s fine perfor101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Smight. Robert Carramance; script by Andronica, who plays his dine, Billy Dee Williams, Valerie Bertinelli, tough but loving brother. [R] Peter Graves, Doris Roberts, Bobby Di Nurse Betty (2000) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Neil Cicco. Carradine and Williams do well in LaBute. Morgan Freeman, Rene´e Zellweger, this otherwise standard actioner, cast as a Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Aaron Eckhart, pair of ‘‘odd couple’’ detectives out to Tia Texada, Crispin Glover, Pruitt Taylor dethrone a drug kingpin. [R]▼ Vince, Allison Janney, Kathleen Wilhoite, Number Seventeen (1932-British) 63m. Sheila Kelley. Strikingly original, darkly ★★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Leon M. Lion, comic (and perfectly cast) tale of sweet waitAnne Grey, John Stuart, Donald Calthrop, ress whose fondness for a soap-opera actor Barry Jones, Garry Marsh. Entertaining turns to obsession after she witnesses a traucomedy-thriller has tramp Lion stumbling matic event. Screenwriters John C. Richards upon a jewel thieves’ hideout. Exciting and James Flamberg create wonderfully surchase sequence involves a train and bus prising twists and turns—including some (though the ‘‘special effects’’ are pretty harsh moments of violence—yet tie everything up at the end. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 obvious). Screenplay by Hitchcock.▼쩠 Number 23, The (2007) C-97m. ★★ D: Joel Nurse Sherri SEE: Beyond the Living Schumacher. Jim Carrey, Virginia Madsen, Nutcracker, The (1993) C-92m. ★★ D: Logan Lerman, Danny Huston, Rhona Mitra, Emile Ardolino. Darci Kistler, Damian Michelle Arthur, Lynn Collins, Mark PelleWoetzel, Kyra Nichols, Bart Robinson Cook, grino, Ed Lauter. City dog catcher reads a Macaulay Culkin, Jessica Lynn Cohen; narbook that messes with his mind—because it rated by Kevin Kline. Much-too-stagy version seems to resemble his own life, it makes him of the famed, beloved ballet, set on Christmas obsess about the number 23 and drives him to Eve and telling the story of a little girl [ 1007 ]

(Cohen) who finds herself in a fantasy-world as a Dean Martin caricature). More interof oversized toys. Culkin (the film’s star atesting than funny, although ‘‘Alaskan Potraction) is nothing special as the Nutcracker lar Bear Heater’’ routine with Buddy Lester Prince. Adapted by Peter Martins, from the is a riot; Lewis buffs regard this as his New York City Ballet production. Aka masterpiece. Remade in 1996. ▼●쩠 GEORGE BALANCHINE’S THE NUTNutty Professor, The (1996) C-95m. ★★★ D: Tom Shadyac. Eddie Murphy, Jada PinCRACKER. [G]▼●쩠 Nutcracker Prince, The (1990-Canadian) kett, James Coburn, Dave Chappelle, Larry C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul Schibli. Voices of Miller, John Ales. Sherman Klump is a sweet Kiefer Sutherland, Megan Follows, Peter stumblebum of a science professor who’s O’Toole, Mike McDonald, Peter Boretski, grossly overweight; when he meets a beautiful Phyllis Diller. Young girl dreams of aiding teaching assistant, he’s motivated to try his toy soldiers in battle against evil Mouse lab experiments with DNA restructuring on King in this flat reworking of the classic himself and he’s transformed into a thin, story, set to Tchaikovsky music. Slowtestosterone-overloaded superstud. Eddie is paced low-budget animated feature based appealing and convincing as the prof, and on the E. T. A. Hoffmann book The Nuthilarious as his alter ego; through camera cracker and the Mouse King; a Disney magic (and the eye-popping, Oscar-winning wannabe that simply isn’t. [G]▼● makeup by Rick Baker and David Leroy Nutcracker, The Motion Picture (1986) Anderson) he also plays almost every memC-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carroll Ballard. Hugh ber of his family! One ingredient Jerry Bigney, Vanessa Sharp, Patricia Barker, Lewis never thought of: enough flatulence Wade Walthall, Russell Burnett, voice of jokes to last ten lifetimes. Followed by a sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Julie Harris. Much of this version of The Nutcracker, performed by the Pacific NorthNutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000) C-106m. ★★ D: Peter Segal. Eddie Murphy, west Ballet, is like a music video: quick cutting and close-ups of legs, faces, and Janet Jackson, Larry Miller, John Ales, Meelbows. Very annoying. But the Tchaikovlinda McGraw, Anna Maria Horsford, Richsky music is, of course, wonderful, as are ard Gant, Chris Elliott, Kathleen Freeman. Maurice Sendak’s sets and costumes. Professor Sherman Klump can’t marry his [G]▼쩠 sweetheart (Jackson) until he can get conNuts (1987) C-116m. ★★★ D: Martin Ritt. trol of his demonic inner voice: the crass Barbra Streisand, Richard Dreyfuss, MauBuddy Love. Slimmest possible excuse for reen Stapleton, Eli Wallach, Robert Webber, a sequel, though Murphy is brilliant as five James Whitmore, Karl Malden, Leslie Nielmembers of the Klump family. The comic sen, William Prince, Hayley Taylor Block. material is thunderously crude, however, Compelling drama about a belligerent and quickly runs out of steam. Director’s cut runs 109m. [PG-13]▼쩠 woman assigned a Legal Aid lawyer who must fight for her right to stand trial for manslaughter, when both the state and her O (2001) C-95m. ★★★ D: Tim Blake Nelown parents insist that she’s not in her right son. Mekhi Phifer, Josh Hartnett, Julia Stiles, mind. Peerless cast of pros, and nimble stagMartin Sheen, Rain Phoenix, Elden Henson, ing by Ritt, manage to make you forget that John Heard, Andrew Keegan. Potent modernthis was a stage play, until the climax, when day adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, with Streisand delivers a lengthy monologue—in Hartnett as the neglected son of a driven prep loving close-up (she also produced). Tom school basketball coach who turns his anger Topor adapted his play, with Darryl Ponictoward star player Phifer. Contemporary setsan and Alvin Sargent. Streisand also comting allows screenwriter Brad Kaaya to deal posed the score. [R]▼●쩠 with teen angst, racism—and violence—while Nutty, Naughty Chateau (1964-French) following the Bard’s timeless story of jealC-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim. Monica ousy and deceit. Fine performances all Vitti, Curt Jurgens, Jean-Claude Brialy, around. Completed in 1999, film’s release Sylvie, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Franc¸oise was postponed because of real-life school Hardy. Bizarre minor comedy involving shootings. [R]▼쩠 the strange inhabitants of a castle romping Oak, The (1992-French-Romanian) Cabout in 1750s styles; most diverting cast. 105m. ★★★ D: Lucian Pintilie. Maia Based on a Franc¸oise Sagan play. Franscope. Morgenstern, Razvan Vasilescu, Victor Nutty Professor, The (1963) C-107m. Rebenguic, Dorel Visan. Schoolteacher ★★★ Morgenstern sets out on a journey of selfD: Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Del Moore, Kathleen Freeman, discovery after her father (a former secretMed Flory, Howard Morris, Elvia Allman, police honcho) dies. Fascinating allegory– Henry Gibson. Jerry’s wildest (and most road movie mirroring the downfall of Comnarcissistic) comedy casts him as chipmunkmunism in Romania. A highly personal faced college professor who does Jekyllfilm, strikingly directed by Pintilie, who and-Hyde transformation into swaggering also scripted.▼ Buddy Love (whom some have interpreted Objective, Burma! (1945) 142m. ★★★1⁄2 D: [ 1008 ]

Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, William Prince, of adventures, and inadvertently become a James Brown, George Tobias, Henry Hull, singing sensation performing ‘‘old-timey’’ Warner Anderson. Zestful WW2 action film music in 1930s Mississippi. Delightfully ecwith Flynn and company as paratroopers incentric adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, vading Burma to wipe out important Japanese full of clever ideas, irresistible music, and post; top excitement. Screenplay by Ranald sharp dialogue. Screenplay by Ethan and Joel MacDougall and Lester Cole. Reworked as Coen; the title is derived from Preston DISTANT DRUMS, also directed by Walsh. Sturges’ SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. InnovaSome prints cut to 127m. Also shown in tive use of color by cinematographer Roger Deakins. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Object of Beauty, The (1991) C-97m. Observe and Report (2009) C-86m. ★1⁄2 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Lindsay-Hogg. John D: Jody Hill. Seth Rogen, Ray Liotta, Anna Malkovich, Andie MacDowell, Lolita DaFaris, Michael Pen˜a, Celia Weston, Dan vidovich, Rudi Davies, Joss Ackland, Bill Bakkedahl, Collette Wolfe, John Yuan, MatPaterson, Ricci Harnett, Peter Riegert. Jetthew Yuan, Patton Oswalt, Danny McBride, set couple, who thrive on living beyond Aziz Ansari. Delusional, bipolar mall cop their means, find themselves stranded in a Rogen decides to be all that he can be, by London hotel and decide to unload her covdating the cosmetics salesgirl he covets eted Henry Moore artifact—the one that may (Faris) and joining the local police departhave been stolen by the hotel’s newly hired ment, if they’ll have him. Flagrantly, proudly deaf-mute maid. Definitely offbeat, but never perverse comedy produced in an alternate really gets going; just enough style to keep it universe where the ravings of a nutcase are afloat, and the leads are well cast. [R]▼쩠 considered funny. Or, a queasy drama about Object of My Affection, The (1998) Ca loser who doesn’t realize how ill suited he 112m. ★★★ D: Nicholas Hytner. Jennifer is to exist alongside ‘‘normal’’ people. Or, Aniston, Paul Rudd, Alan Alda, Nigel Hawboth. Super 35. [R] thorne, John Pankow, Tim Daly, Allison Obsessed (1989-Canadian) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Janney, Steve Zahn, Amo Gulinello, Bruce D: Robin Spry. Kerrie Keane, Daniel Pilon, Altman, Joan Copeland. Young woman inSaul Rubinek, Lynne Griffin, Alan Thicke, vites a gay schoolteacher who’s just been Colleen Dewhurst. Good but slightly medumped by his boyfriend to move into her andering drama pitting Keane against spare room. They enjoy each other’s company Rubinek, the thoughtless hit-and-run driver so much that she proposes a long-term, nonwho killed her son. Well cast and engrosssexual ‘‘arrangement.’’ Appealing actors ing, marred slightly by tendency toward carry this longish, serpentine, unconventional sensationalism. [PG-13]▼● romantic comedy, written by Wendy WasserObsessed (2009) C-105m. ★★ D: Steve Shill. stein, from the novel by Stephen McCauley . . . Idris Elba, Beyonce´ Knowles, Ali Larter, though the supporting actors (Alda, Janney, Bruce McGill, Jerry O’Connell, Christine Hawthorne) threaten to steal it from the stars. Lahti, Matthew Humphreys. Elba is a top [R]▼●쩠 executive at a financial services company Oblomov (1980-Russian) C-146m. ★★★1⁄2 who makes the mistake of being courteous D: Nikita Mikhalkov. Oleg Tabakov, Yuri to the smoking-hot new office temp (Larter). Bogatryev, Elena Soloyei, Andrei Popov. With his beautiful wife (Knowles) busy at Thirtyish civil servant and absentee landhome with their young baby, Elba’s life belord, nicely played by Tabakov, retires to comes nightmarish, as the manipulative Lara listless existence in bed. Lyrical adaptater plays out her own version of FATAL tion of Ivan Goncharov’s 1858 novel; flashATTRACTION. Predictably unsurprising back sequences of Oblomov as a boy in his genre thriller has its share of loopy logic, mother’s arms are wonderful. Outstanding and isn’t helped by a surprisingly mediocre cinematography. Aka A FEW DAYS IN performance from Elba. Not a whole lot to obsess over here. Super 35. [PG-13] THE LIFE OF I. I. OBLOMOV. ▼쩠 Oblong Box, The (1969-British) C-91m. Obsession (1949) SEE: Hidden Room, The ★★ D: Gordon Hessler. Vincent Price, ChrisObsession (1976) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian topher Lee, Alastair Williamson, Hilary De Palma. Cliff Robertson, Genevieve Dwyer, Peter Arne, Maxwell Shaw, Sally Bujold, John Lithgow, Sylvia Kuumba WilGeeson. Price plays British aristocrat torliams, Wanda Blackman. Viewers who mented by disfigured brother who’s out for don’t remember Hitchcock’s VERTIGO revenge after briefly being buried alive. might enjoy this rehash by De Palma and Hammy performances, long drawn-out narwriter Paul Schrader. Robertson loses his wife rative, lackluster direction. [M]▼●쩠 and child to kidnappers, then miraculously O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) Cfinds wife ‘‘reborn’’ in another woman. Holds 107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joel Coen. George Clooney, up until denouement. Superb Bernard HerrJohn Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly mann score. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Hunter, Charles Durning, John Goodman, MiObsession (1980) SEE: Circle of Two chael Badalucco, Stephen Root, Daniel von O.C. & Stiggs (1987) C-109m. ★★ D: Bargen. Three escaped convicts share a series Robert Altman. Daniel H. Jenkins, Neill [ 1009 ]

Barry, Paul Dooley, Jane Curtin, Jon Cryer, Ray Walston, Louis Nye, Tina Louise, Martin Mull, Dennis Hopper, Melvin Van Peebles. Quirky (even by Altman standards) film recounts title teens’ summer adventures, which consist mainly of making life miserable for the Schwab family and the cutthroat insurance agent father (Dooley) who cut off Stiggs’ grandfather’s old-age policy. Not without its moments and Altman weirdos—including Hopper as a drug- and gun-dealing vet, Louise as the sexy school nurse, and Curtin as the drunken Schwab matriarch—but ultimately incoherent. Sat on the shelf for several years. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Ocean’s Eleven (1960) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Milestone. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Angie Dickinson, Richard Conte, Cesar Romero, Patrice Wymore, Joey Bishop, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Ilka Chase, Norman Fell. Fanciful crime comedy about 11-man team headed by Danny Ocean (Sinatra) attempting to rob five Vegas casinos simultaneously. Entire Rat Pack’s in it, but no one does much, including some surprise guests. There is a clever twist ending, though. Remade in 2001. Panavision.

▼●쩠

Ocean’s Twelve (2004) C-125m. ★1⁄2 D: Steven Soderbergh. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Vincent Cassel, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Robbie Coltrane, Eddie Izzard, Cherry Jones, Jeroen Krabbe´, Jared Harris. Sorry sequel has casino boss Garcia demanding that Ocean (Clooney) and his gang repay the money they stole from him . . . so they go to Europe to plan a heist or two. Lots of talk (meant to be cool but mostly incoherent) and little action, plus in-jokes and guest-star cameos to show how much fun everyone had making the film. Bruce Willis, Albert Finney, and Topher Grace appear unbilled. Followed by OCEAN’S THIRTEEN. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Octagon, The (1980) C-103m. ★★ D: Eric Karson. Chuck Norris, Karen Carlson, Lee Van Cleef, Art Hindle, Jack Carter. OK Kung Fu drama with Norris taking on all comers when hired by Carlson for protection from Ninja assassins. Fair of its kind, with aboveaverage production values. [R] ▼●쩠 Octaman (1971) C-90m. BOMB D: Harry Essex. Kerwin Mathews, Pier Angeli, Jeff Morrow, Jerry Guardino, Norman Fields. Rick Baker’s ‘‘octopus’’ creation almost— but not quite—makes this dreadful thriller about the title monster discovered on an expedition to Mexico tolerable. Angeli died during shooting.▼ October (1928-Russian) 103m. ★★★ D: Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Alexandrov. Nikandrov, N. Popov, Boris Livanov. Brilliant reconstruction of the Russian Revolution contains some of Eisenstein’s most striking use of montage, though most impressive sequences—such as the masterful massacre around the bridges of St. Petersburg—are in the film’s first half. Based on John Reed’s Ten Days That Shook the World, the film’s alternate title.

Ocean’s Eleven (2001) C-116m. ★★ D: Steven Soderbergh. George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Eddie Jemison, Bernie Mac, Shaobo Qin, Carl Reiner. Remarkably lifeless caper film, based in name only on the 1960 Rat Pack film, with ex-con Clooney masterminding a major Las Vegas heist and gathering ten other ‘‘specialists’’ to pull it off. It also turns out that his victim, casino mogul Garcia, is keeping company with Clooney’s ex-wife (Roberts). There’s nothing in the script to elicit interest in any of these characters, who succeed only in being ‘‘cool.’’ The real standout is old pro Reiner! Cameos include Angie Dickinson and Henry Silva, of the 1960 cast. Don Cheadle ▼●쩠 appears unbilled. Followed by two sequels. October Man, The (1947-British) 98m. ★★★ Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 D: Roy (Ward) Baker. John Mills, Joan Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) C-122m. ★★ D: Greenwood, Edward Chapman, Joyce Steven Soderbergh. George Clooney, Brad Carey, Kay Walsh, Felix Aylmer, Juliet Pitt, Matt Damon, Al Pacino, Andy Garcia, Mills. Stranger with history of mental disDon Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Ellen Barkin, orders is suspected of murder and must Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Carl Reiner, Elprove innocence, even to himself. Strong liott Gould, Eddie Jemison, Shaobo Qin, character study and good local atmosphere Vincent Cassel, David Paymer, Julian Sands, enhance suspenseful mystery written by Eddie Izzard, Bob Einstein. Suave con man Eric Ambler. British running time 110m.▼ Danny Ocean reunites his crew one more time October Sky (1999) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joe to pull off one more elaborate heist at a caJohnston. Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, sino, whose ruthless owner (Pacino) doubleLaura Dern, Chris Owen, William Lee Scott, crossed Danny’s mentor (Gould). Another Chad Lindberg, Natalie Canerday, Scott smart-alecky exercise in the art of cool, this Miles. Sincere, heartwarming drama based on breezy caper is so lightweight it threatens to the true story of Homer Hickam, Jr. (Gyllenevaporate before your eyes, but the addition haal), who grew up in an insular West Virof a snarling Pacino to the cast adds some ginia coal-mining town. When he sees Sputnik gravitas to the glossy proceedings. Super soaring across the nighttime sky in 1957, he 35. [PG-13]쩠 becomes obsessed with the idea of building [ 1010 ]

his own rocket and enlists his friends to share Odd Couple II, The (1998) C-96m. ★1⁄2 the dream . . . against the wishes of his father, D: Howard Deutch. Jack Lemmon, Walter a harsh man who’s the mine foreman. Rich Matthau, Christine Baranski, Barnard Hughes, performances, well-drawn characters, and an Jonathan Silverman, Jean Smart, Lisa Waltz, old-fashioned sense of can-do American spirit Mary Beth Peil, Jay O. Sanders, Rex Linn, make this something special. Written by Alice Ghostley, Florence Stanley, Estelle HarLewis Colick from Hickam’s book Rocket ris, Amy Yasbeck. Neil Simon wrote this Boys. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 sorry sequel reuniting Felix and Oscar after Octopussy (1983-British) C-130m. ★★★1⁄2 17 years when their children announce their D: John Glen. Roger Moore, Maud Adams, impending marriage. The two cronies meet up Louis Jourdan, Kristina Wayborn, Kabir in L.A., get lost while driving to the cereBedi, Steven Berkoff, Desmond Llewelyn, mony, and find themselves in a series of escaVijay Amritraj, Lois Maxwell. Grand escaplating mishaps. Sporadically funny one-liners ist fare as Moore, growing nicely into the can’t save this tired film. A real shame. Offirole of James Bond, matches wits with a cially titled NEIL SIMON’S THE ODD COUPLE II. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 handful of nemeses, including title-named character (Adams), whose motives—and Odd Job, The (1978-British) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 modus operandi—are more than a bit vague. D: Peter Medak. Graham Chapman, David Film throws in everything but the kitchen Jason, Diana Quick, Simon Williams, Edsink for the sake of an entertaining show. ward Hardwicke. British update of timePanavision. [PG]▼●쩠 worn premise (used as early as 1916 by Odd Angry Shot, The (1979-Australian) Douglas Fairbanks in FLIRTING WITH 1 ★★ C-92m. ⁄2 D: Tom Jeffrey. John HarFATE): an unhappy man, jilted by his greaves, Graham Kennedy, Bryan Brown, wife, hires a hit man to murder her, then John Jarratt. Interesting film about a group has a change of heart . . . but convincing of Australian professional soldiers stationed the hired killer is a formidable challenge! in Vietnam. Personal drama emphasized more Coscripted by Bernard McKenna and Chapman, of Monty Python fame.▼ than combat in poignant, sometimes broadly comic work about soldiers dealing with a war Odd Jobs (1984) C-88m. ★★ D: Mark they don’t think is really theirs.▼ Story. Paul Reiser, Robert Townsend, Scott Oddball Hall (1990) C-87m. ★★ D: JackMcGinnis, Paul Provenza, Julianne Philson Hunsicker. Don Ameche, Burgess Merlips, Leon Askin, Richard Dean Anderedith, Bill Maynard, Tullio Moneta, Tiny son. Lame comedy about five college stuSkefile. Four jewel thieves hole up in an dents working for a moving company over African town, posing as members of a the summer. Radio personality Don Imus has a cameo. [PG-13]▼쩠 fraternal order called The Oddballs, and waiting to collect on a heist they pulled off Odd Man Out (1947-British) 115m. ★★★★ years ago; a simpleminded native comes D: Carol Reed. James Mason, Robert Newalong seeking their help, and they mistake ton, Kathleen Ryan, Robert Beatty, Cyril him for an Oddball chieftain. Simplistic Cusack, F.J. McCormick, William Hartnell, farce is good-natured but heavy-handed; Fay Compton, Denis O’Dea, Dan O’Herlihy. the only thing missing is laughs. [PG]▼● Incredibly suspenseful tale of Irish rebel Odd Birds (1985) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeanne leader hunted by police after daring robbery. Collachia. Michael Moriarty, Donna Lai Watch this one! Scripted by R. C. Sherriff and Ming Lew, Nancy Lee, Bruce Gray, Karen F. L. Green, from the latter’s novel. Remade as THE LOST MAN. ▼●쩠 Maruyama, Scott Crawford. Awkward direction and uneven performances defeat Odd Obsession (1959-Japanese) C-96m. ★★1 this sensitive drama about a dreamy teen⁄2 D: Kon Ichikawa. Machiko Kyo, ager with braces who yearns for a career as Ganjiro Nakamura, Tatsuya Nakadai, Junko an actress, and her friendship with compasKano. Elderly, vain Nakamura tempts beausionate but disillusioned brother-teacher tiful wife (Kyo) into an affair with his Moriarty. Nice feel for the way real teen young doctor (Nakadai). Uneven soap opera; girls acted back in 1965, and for the pain of a few bright moments, but disappointing overbeing 15 and shy.▼ all. Original running time 107m. Remade in Odd Couple, The (1968) C-105m. ★★★ Italy in 1984 as THE KEY, which is also this D: Gene Saks. Jack Lemmon, Walter film’s alternative title (a literal translation of Matthau, John Fiedler, Herb Edelman, Monthe Japanese title, KAGI). Daieiscope.▼ ica Evans, Carole Shelley. Film version of Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) 95m. ★★★ Neil Simon stage hit about two divorced D: Robert Wise. Harry Belafonte, Robert men living together, sloppy Oscar (Matthau) Ryan, Shelley Winters, Ed Begley, Gloria and fussy Felix (Lemmon). Lemmon’s reGrahame. A smorgasbord trio of ‘‘types’’ alistic performance makes character melplots to rob an upstate N.Y. bank, but one ancholy instead of funny; other surefire of them is black Belafonte and another is a comic sequences remain intact. Later deracist played by Ryan—one of those prime veloped into two TV series. Followed by a sociopath portrayals on which the actor held sequel. Panavision. ▼●쩠 the patent. Tough, brutal, and a window to [ 1011 ]

Wise’s versatility, half a dozen years before Written by playwright Mark Medoff (who plays Sgt. Tiegher). [PG]▼● he directed THE SOUND OF MUSIC. John Lewis did the jazz score, and familiar faces Offence, The (1973-British) C-112m. ★★★ turn up in small parts, including Wayne D: Sidney Lumet. Sean Connery, Trevor Rogers, Robert Earl Jones, Zohra Lampert, Howard, Vivien Merchant, Ian Bannen, and a young Cicely Tyson as a bartender. Derek Newark. Intense drama about how Written by Nelson Gidding and Abraham London detective Connery’s frustrations Polonsky (who was blacklisted at the time cause him to beat a suspect to death; a fine and properly credited years later). ▼쩠 performance by Connery. [R]▼ Odessa File, The (1974-British) C-128m. Officer and a Gentleman, An (1982) ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Jon Voight, MaxC-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Taylor Hackford. Richimilian Schell, Maria Schell, Mary Tamm, ard Gere, Debra Winger, David Keith, Derek Jacobi, Klaus Lowitsch. Voight carLouis Gossett, Jr., Robert Loggia, Lisa ries this plodding adaptation of the FrederBlount, Lisa Eilbacher, Victor French, Grace ick Forsyth best-seller, set in 1963, about Zabriskie, David Caruso. Two misfits seek a German journalist who tracks down former direction in their dead-end lives—he by enNazis. OK time killer, no more. Music rolling in Naval Officer Candidate School, she score by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Panaby trying to snag him as a husband. Fourvision. [PG]▼●쩠 letter words and steamy sex scenes can’t camOde to Billy Joe (1976) C-108m. ★★ D: ouflage a well-worn Hollywood formula Max Baer. Robby Benson, Glynnis O’Conscript—with virtually every plot point telenor, Joan Hotchkis, Sandy McPeak, James graphed ahead of time! Made agreeable by an Best, Terence Goodman. Bobbie Gentry’s appealing cast, though even Gossett’s Oscar1967 song hit provides basis for standard winning performance as a drill instructor is rural romance that grows progressively rijust a reprise of earlier work like Jack Webb’s diculous. Benson and O’Connor, reunited in THE D.I. Film’s love song, ‘‘Up Where after JEREMY, still have appeal. [PG]▼쩠 We Belong,’’ also won an Oscar. [R]▼●쩠 Odyssey of the Pacific (1981-CanadianOffice Space (1999) C-89m. ★★ D: Mike French) C-100m. ★★ D: Fernando Arrabal. Judge. Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Mickey Rooney, Monique Mercure, JeanDavid Herman, Ajay Naidu, Diedrich Bader, Louis Roux, Guy Hoffman. Slight tale of Stephen Root, Gary Cole, Richard Riehle. FitRooney, a retired train engineer living near fully funny satire of office life in modernan abandoned railway station, befriending a day corporate America, with Livingston as a trio of homeless youngsters. Originally computer programmer who hates his job and titled THE EMPEROR OF PERU.▼ eventually finds a way to express his disdain Oedipus Rex (1967-Italian) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 for his company—and his boss (Cole). Dry D: Pier Paolo Pasolini. Franco Citti, Silvana and undernourished, though there are some Mangano, Alida Valli, Carmelo Bene, Julaughs along the way. Nevertheless, the film lian Beck. Pictorially arresting but dull, has acquired a huge following in the years disappointing adaptation of Sophocles’ Oedsince its original release. Live-action writipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, with ing and directing debut for Judge, creator of Citti, as Oedipus, murdering his father and the animated TV series Beavis and Buttmarrying his mother. Presented in both head and King of the Hill. [R]▼●쩠 contemporary and historical settings; that’s Official Story, The (1985-Argentina) Pasolini himself as the High Priest.▼●쩠 C-113m. ★★★★ D: Luis Puenzo. Norma Oedipus the King (1968-British) C-97m. Aleandro, Hector Alterio, Analia Castro, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Philip Saville. Christopher Plummer, Chunchuna Villafane. Aleandro is excepOrson Welles, Lilli Palmer, Richard Johntional as woman who lives the good life, son, Cyril Cusack, Roger Livesey, Donsheltered from political turmoil that surald Sutherland. Film version of Sophocles rounds her in Argentina . . . until she play is OK for students who have a test on begins to suspect that her adopted daughter it the next day, but others won’t appreciate may have been the offspring of a political this version. Static, despite that cast. [G] prisoner. One of those rare films that manOff Beat (1986) C-92m. ★★ D: Michael ages to make a strong political statement in Dinner. Judge Reinhold, Meg Tilly, Cleavant the midst of a crackling good story. Hard Derricks, Joe Mantegna, Jacques D’Amboise, to believe it was director Puenzo’s first James Tolkan, Amy Wright, John Turturro, feature film (he also scripted with Aida Anthony Zerbe, Julie Bovasso, Fred Gwynne, Bortnik). Oscar winner as Best Foreign Harvey Keitel, Austin Pendleton, Penn JilLanguage Film. A knockout.▼●쩠 lette, Bill Sadler, Christopher Noth. Library Off Limits (1953) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: George worker Reinhold, filling in for policeman Marshall. Bob Hope, Mickey Rooney, Marifriend at rehearsal for a dance recital, falls in lyn Maxwell, Eddie Mayehoff, Stanley Clemlove with female cop. Modest comedy works ents, Jack Dempsey, Marvin Miller, Tom hard to live up to its name but comes up Harmon, Carolyn Jones. Peppy but predictshort. Reinhold and Tilly are so low-key, they able comedy with fight manager Hope finding almost disappear! Great cast can’t save it. himself in the Army; he attempts to romance [ 1012 ]

Maxwell (whose nephew, Rooney, wants paced film rewards the viewer for being paHope to train him as a boxer).▼ tient. Joan Ackermann adapted her stage Off Limits (1988) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Chrisplay. [PG-13]쩠 topher Crowe. Willem Dafoe, Gregory Hines, Of Human Bondage (1934) 88m. ★★★ D: Fred Ward, Amanda Pays, Scott Glenn, Kay John Cromwell. Leslie Howard, Bette Davis, Tong Lim, David Alan Grier, Keith David. Frances Dee, Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Sluggish, predictable, unusually sordid meloAlan Hale, Reginald Owen. Smoothly drama about two pros in the U.S. Army’s filmed, well-acted version of W. Somerset Criminal Investigation Detachment (CID) Maugham’s story of doctor Howard’s strange who track down the ghoul murdering Vietinfatuation with a vulgar waitress (Davis). namese hookers in 1968 Saigon. Dafoe’s gooMany find Davis’ performance overdone, goo eyes at nun Pays are good for a few but by any standards it’s powerfully imunintentional chuckles; if you can’t guess the pressive, and put her on the map in Hollymurderer, get a new hobby. [R]▼●쩠 wood. Howard, lovely Johnson, others are Offside (2006-Iranian) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: superb. Remade in 1946 and 1964. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Jafar Panahi. Sima Mobarak Shahi, Safar Samandar, Shayesteh Irani, M. Kheyrabadi, Of Human Bondage (1946) 105m. ★★ D: Ida Sadeghi. A group of Iranian girls disguise Edmund Goulding. Paul Henreid, Eleanor themselves as men in order to attend a soccer Parker, Alexis Smith, Edmund Gwenn, game in which their national team is competJanis Paige, Patric Knowles, Henry Steing for the World Cup. In real time, the film phenson, Marten Lamont, Isobel Elsom, shows their arrest and their interactions with Una O’Connor. Henreid and Parker give it their captors and each other. Extraordinarily the old college try but are fatally miscast well-acted film that humorously and movin this bowdlerized adaptation of Somerset ingly demonstrates the struggles of a group Maugham’s steamy novel about the sadoof people eager to break free from the masochistic relationship between a clubshackles of a conservative government’s footed artist/medical student and a sluttish values. Not surprisingly, it was banned in waitress. Plush production can’t compenIran. [PG]쩠 sate for the dearth of erotic heat, which was 1 ★ Offspring, The (1986) C-99m. ⁄2 D: plentiful in the 1934 Bette Davis version. Jeff Burr. Vincent Price, Clu Gulager, Of Human Bondage (1964-British) 98m. ★★ Terry Kiser, Harry Caesar, Cameron MitchD: Ken Hughes. Kim Novak, Lauell, Rosalind Cash, Susan Tyrrell, Martine rence Harvey, Siobhan McKenna, Robert Beswick, Angelo Rossitto, Lawrence Tierney. Morley, Roger Livesey, Nanette Newman, Small-town historian Price spins a quartet of Brenda Fricker. Third and least successful horror tales, each of which took place in his filming of Maugham novel of doctor’s hamlet. None is worth listening to. Helluva passion for lowbrow waitress, marred by miscasting and general superficiality.▼ cast, however. Aka FROM A WHISPER TO A SCREAM. [R] ▼●쩠 Of Human Hearts (1938) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Off the Black (2006) C-90m. Clarence Brown. Walter Huston, James James Ponsoldt. Nick Nolte, Trevor MorStewart, Gene Reynolds, Beulah Bondi, gan, Sonia Feigelson, Sally Kirkland, RoseGuy Kibbee, Charles Coburn, John Carramarie DeWitt, Timothy Hutton, Noah dine, Ann Rutherford, Charley Grapewin, Fleiss, Michael Higgins, Jonathan TchaiGene Lockhart, Sterling Holloway, Ward kovsky. Nolte plays a boozing, aging baseBond. Odd blend of potent 19th-century ball coach who develops a relationship with Americana and mile-high corn, in tale of deda young player whom he convinces to pose icated preacher Huston who never estabas his son for an upcoming high school relished rapport with his son. When Abraham union. Slight, character-driven story gives Lincoln (Carradine) lectures Stewart about Nolte a prime acting opportunity and he hits neglecting his mother, it gets to be a bit it out of the park. The chemistry between much.▼ him and Morgan is tangible. Super 35. [R]쩠 Of Life and Love (1957-Italian) 103m. ★★1 Off the Map (2004) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: Aldo Fabrizi, Luchino Visconti, Campbell Scott. Joan Allen, Sam Elliott, Mario Soldati, Giorgio Pastina. Anna Valentina de Angelis, J.K. Simmons, Jim Magnani, Walter Chiari, Natale Cirino, True-Frost, Amy Brenneman. Beautifully Turi Pandolfini, Myriam Bru, Lucia Bose. realized story, set in the 1970s, about an Four satisfactory episodes, three of which individualistic, self-reliant New Mexico are based on Pirandello tales; fourth is family dealing with a precocious adolescent actual event in Magnani’s life (‘‘The Lapdaughter, a father who’s fallen into a stupor dog’’). Actually distilled from two Italian of depression, and the arrival of an agent episodic features from 1953 and 1954. from the Internal Revenue Service. Never Of Love and Desire (1963) C-97m. ★1⁄2 simplistic or superficial, filled with interestD: Richard Rush. Merle Oberon, Steve ing characters, telling visual and verbal deCochran, Curt Jurgens, John Agar, Steve tail, and wonderful performances, including Brodie. Beautiful settings (including Oberyoung de Angelis in her film debut. Slowly on’s lavish Mexican home) offset over[ 1013 ]

wrought sexual drama of neurotic woman Malkovich, Gottfried John, Armin Muellerwho plays with the affection of several Stahl, Marianne Sa¨gebrecht, Volker Spengler, men—including her own stepbrother. Heino Ferch, Dieter Laser. Seriocomic antiOf Love and Shadows (1994-SpanishNazi parable is not nearly as good as Schlo¨ndArgentinian) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Betty Kaplan. orff’s classic THE TIN DRUM, but it’s an Antonio Banderas, Jennifer Connelly, Steinteresting (if heavy-handed), horrific fairy fania Sandrelli, Diego Wallraft, Camillo tale about a childlike Frenchman (a miscast Gallardo. Young fashion journalist meets a Malkovich) who willingly goes to work for mysterious photographer and—well, more the Nazis after being captured during the than just film develops. Adapted from an Isawar and is used to ‘‘recruit’’ German chilbel Allende novel, this love story set against dren to join the army. Super 35.▼쩠 the backdrop of a Chilean military dictatorship Oh, Alfie SEE: Alfie Darling in 1973 is a complete misfire. Convoluted plot O Happy Day SEE: Seventeen and Anxious O’Hara’s Wife (1982) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: makes little sense, and there’s no chemistry between the attractive leads. [R]▼쩠 William S. Bartman. Edward Asner, MariOf Mice and Men (1939) 107m. ★★★★ D: ette Hartley, Jodie Foster, Perry Lang, Lewis Milestone. Lon Chaney, Jr., BurTom Bosley, Ray Walston, Allen Williams, gess Meredith, Betty Field, Charles BickMary Jo Catlett, Richard Schaal, Neford, Bob Steele, Noah Beery, Jr. Chaney hemiah Persoff. Only Asner is aware of gives best performance of his career as the presence of wife Hartley, who’s a feeble-brained Lennie who, with migrantghost. Earnest but forgettable. [PG]▼쩠 worker Meredith, tries to live peacefully on Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You ranch. John Steinbeck’s morality tale remains in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad (1967) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Quine. intact in sensitive screen version. The film’s action begins before the main title credits— Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse, Barbara an arty innovation for 1939. Script by Eugene Harris, Hugh Griffith, Jonathan Winters, LioSolow. Music by Aaron Copland. Remade in nel Jeffries, Cyril Delevanti. Impressive cast 1992 and for TV in 1968 and 1981.▼●쩠 tries to sustain black comedy about overpossOf Mice and Men (1992) C-110m. ★★★ D: essive widow (Russell) and weirdo son Gary Sinise. John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, (Morse) taking vacation on tropical island acAlexis Arquette, Sherilyn Fenn, Joe Morcompanied by coffin of her late husband. From the Arthur Kopit play.▼ ton, Richard Riehle, Casey Siemaszko, John Terry, Ray Walston, Noble Willingham. O. Henry’s Full House (1952) 117m. ★★1 More than respectable rendering of the ⁄2 D: Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, Steinbeck warhorse, with Malkovich and SinHenry King, Henry Koster, Jean Negulesco. ise respectively cast as Lennie and George— Fred Allen, Anne Baxter, Charles Laughton, the sweet simpleton and his weary protector. Marilyn Monroe, Gregory Ratoff, Jeanne Rescued from mothballs (and high school Crain, Oscar Levant, Jean Peters, Richard English) by the subtext of today’s homeless; Widmark, Farley Granger. Five seriocomic robust performances and impressive sunstories by O. Henry, introduced by John baked look (photographed by Kenneth MacSteinbeck: ‘‘The Clarion Call,’’ ‘‘Last Leaf,’’ Millan) make it worthwhile. Screenplay by ‘‘Ransom of Red Chief,’’ ‘‘Gift of the Magi,’’ Horton Foote. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and ‘‘Cop and the Anthem.’’ Dated overall but still has some effective moments. 쩠 Of Time and the City (2008-British) C/ B&W-74m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Terence Davies. ProOh, God! (1977) C-98m. ★★★ D: Carl foundly personal memory piece about Davies’ Reiner. George Burns, John Denver, Teri coming-of-age in Liverpool, his fascination Garr, Paul Sorvino, George Furth, Ralph with the cinema, his cynicism about British Bellamy, Barnard Hughes, David Ogden royalty and his own Catholicism, and dealStiers. God appears in person of Burns to ing with his homosexual feelings. He also summon Denver as His messenger, to tell ruminates on how one ages and processes the world that He’s alive and well. Film esthe passage of time. Loaded with footage chews cheap jokes to build a credible story of Liverpool, accompanied by period music with warm performances and upbeat message. and poetic narration. Beautifully done, and Followed by a pair of sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 tremendously moving.쩠 Oh God! Book II (1980) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Of Unknown Origin (1983-Canadian) Gilbert Cates. George Burns, Suzanne C-88m. ★★ D: George Pan Cosmatos. PePleshette, David Birney, Louanne, Howter Weller, Jennifer Dale, Lawrence Dane, ard Duff, Hans Conried, Wilfrid HydeKenneth Welsh, Louis Del Grande, Shannon White, Conrad Janis. Burns returns as title Tweed. N.Y.C. businessman, bacheloring it character; here, he enlists a child (Louanne) to temporarily, is driven to distraction by a giant remind the world that God is not dead. Conrodent on the loose in his apartment. Slightly trived sequel with just a trickle of laughs; better than simultaneously released ratPleshette, as usual, is wasted. [PG]▼쩠 themed DEADLY EYES. [R]▼쩠 Oh, God! You Devil (1984) C-96m. ★★ Ogre, The (1996-German-French-British) D: Paul Bogart. George Burns, Ted Wass, 1 ★★ C-117m. Ron Silver, Roxanne Hart, Eugene Roche, ⁄2 D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. John [ 1014 ]

Robert Desiderio, James Cromwell. Third goentirely successful, but still stylish, witty, round for Burns gives him dual role of God and colorful, as you’d expect from the team and the Devil, with Wass as struggling songthat brought you THE RED SHOES and writer and performer who sells his soul for TALES OF HOFFMAN. Redgrave, Quayle, success. Good cast and good-natured attitude and Rothenberger use their own singing can’t overcome blandness and predictability voices, by the way. CinemaScope. of this comedy. Written by Andrew BergOh! What a Lovely War (1969-British) C-139m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Attenborough. man. [PG]▼●쩠 Oh, Heavenly Dog! (1980) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Ralph D: Joe Camp. Chevy Chase, Benji, Jane Richardson, Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Seymour, Omar Sharif, Donnelly Rhodes, Vanessa Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, SusanRobert Morley, Alan Sues. Private eye nah York, Maggie Smith, Jack Hawkins, KenChase returns to earth in the form of a dog neth More, Corin Redgrave, Jane Seymour. to solve his own murder. Benji (in his third Actor Attenborough’s directing debut; imfilm) is as adorable as ever as Chase’s alter pressive but cumbersome series of vignettes ego. Filmed in England. Followed by on WW1, ranging from colorful musical numBENJI THE HUNTED. [PG]▼쩠 bers to poignant human sidelights. Adapted Oh in Ohio, The (2006) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: from stage show. Beautifully designed, wildly Billy Kent. Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Danny cinematic, but too drawn-out to make maximum antiwar impact. Panavision. [G]쩠 DeVito, Mischa Barton, Miranda Bailey, Liza Minnelli, Keith David, Robert John Burke. Oh, Woe Is Me SEE: He`las Pour Moi Cleveland high school science teacher feels Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) C-93m. ★★1 like less than a man since his wife has never ⁄2 D: John M. Stahl. June Haver, Mark experienced an orgasm. He finally seeks satisStevens, S. Z. Sakall, Charlotte Greenwood, faction elsewhere, and so does she—with the Gale Robbins, Jay C. Flippen. Chipper pehelp of a vibrator that soon becomes her best riod musical about song plugger who turns friend. Engaging, amusing adult comedy meserious composer’s works into popular anders more than it should but has its fair songs. Based on true story of Fred Fisher. share of funny moments and likable characSongs include title tune, ‘‘Peg o’ My ters. Heather Graham appears unbilled. [R]쩠 Heart,’’ ‘‘Dardanella.’’ Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Oil (1977-Italian) C-95m. BOMB D: Mircea D: Nunnally Johnson. Ginger Rogers, David Dragan. Stuart Whitman, Woody Strode, Niven, Dan Dailey, Barbara Rush, Tony RanRay Milland, George Dinica, William dall. Often bouncy sex farce revolving around Berger, Tony Kendall. A Sahara oilfield psychiatrist and his assorted patients. Randall’s ablaze. After the 28th shot of the fire, you’ll be ready to douse your TV set.▼ feature debut. CinemaScope. O’Horten (2008-Norwegian-German-French) Oklahoma! (1955) C-145m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fred C-90m. ★★★ D: Bent Hamer. Ba˚rd Owe, Zinnemann. Gordon MacRae, Shirley Jones, Ghita Nørby, Espen Skjønberg, Henny Charlotte Greenwood, Rod Steiger, Gloria Moan, Bjørn Floberg, Kai Remlov, Per JanGrahame, Eddie Albert, James Whitmore, sen. Railroad engineer Odd Horten (Owe) is Gene Nelson, Barbara Lawrence, Jay C. forced into retirement, which is troubling Flippen. Expansive film version of Rodgers for a simple man who’s devoted his whole and Hammerstein’s landmark 1943 Broadway life to the routine of his job. His newfound musical, filled with timeless songs (and the freedom—even his attempt to attend a farebeautiful voices of MacRae and Jones to sing well party—leads him into a series of mild them) . . . plus a fine supporting cast led by misadventures in the snowy landscape of incomparable Grahame as Ado Annie. Enough Norway. Benign, low-key comedy (with fine ingredients to make up for overlength of dramatic undertones) is not for viewers film. Songs include ‘‘Oh, What a Beautiful seeking excitement or compelling narrative Mornin’ ’’ and showstopping title tune. This storytelling . . . but if you appreciate offbeat was filmed in two versions, one in Todd-AO humor and quiet charm you’ll find much and the other in CinemaScope (made from ento savor here. Written by the director, who tirely separate ‘‘takes’’). Both appear on achieved the same droll results in his DVD. ▼●쩠 KITCHEN STORIES. [PG-13] Oklahoma Crude (1973) C-108m. ★★★ D: Oh . . . Rosalinda!! (1955-British) CStanley Kramer. George C. Scott, Faye Du101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Powell, Emeric naway, John Mills, Jack Palance, Harvey Pressburger. Michael Redgrave, Ludmilla Jason, Woodrow Parfrey. Old-fashioned, Tcherina, Anton Walbrook, Mel Ferrer, nonthink entertainment. Strong-willed, manDennis Price, Anthony Quayle, Annelise hating Dunaway determined to defend lone Rothenberger, singing voices of Sari Baraoil well from pressures of Palance, who repbas, Alexander Young, Dennis Dowling, resents big oil trust, hires drifter Scott to help Walter Berry. Johann Strauss’ opera Die her. Scott gives brilliant comic performance Fledermaus is updated to contemporary Viin mildly enjoyable film. Panavision. [PG]▼ enna but retains its elements of a masked Oklahoma Kid, The (1939) 80m. ★★★ D: ball, mistaken identity, flirtation, etc. Not Lloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Humphrey [ 1015 ]

Bogart, Rosemary Lane, Donald Crisp, HarBenn W. Levy and R. C. Sherriff. Remade in vey Stephens, Charles Middleton, Ward England in 1963. ▼●쩠 Bond. Cagney’s the hero, Bogey’s the villain Old Dark House, The (1963-British) in this sturdy Western about a cowboy seekC-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Castle. Robert ing redress for the lynching of his father. ClasMorley, Janette Scott, Joyce Grenfell, Tom sic scene has Cagney singing ‘‘I Don’t Want Poston, Mervyn Johns, Fenella Fielding, to Play in Your Yard.’’▼● Peter Bull. Uneven blend of comedy and Oklahoman, The (1957) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: chiller, with Poston at loose ends in eerie Francis D. Lyon. Joel McCrea, Barbara mansion. Released theatrically in b&w. Hale, Brad Dexter, Gloria Talbott, Verna Check out the 1932 version instead.쩠 Felton, Douglas Dick, Michael Pate. Town Old Dracula (1974-British) C-89m. ★1⁄2 doc McCrea tries to keep Indian Pate from D: Clive Donner. David Niven, Teresa getting rooked out of his land. Pretty rouGraves, Peter Bayliss, Jennie Linden, Linda tine, though Talbott cultists may want to see Hayden. Niven somehow maintains his digher play an Indian maiden the same year she nity in this one-joke Dracula spoof that has had the title role in DAUGHTER OF DR. him extracting samples from the necks of JEKYLL. Laundry note: Hale wears the various Playboy Bunnies in search of corsame outfit in a disturbingly high number of rect blood type to resurrect his departed scenes. CinemaScope.▼쩠 wife. British title: VAMPIRA. [PG] Old Acquaintance (1943) 110m. ★★★ D: Old Enough (1984) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marisa Vincent Sherman. Bette Davis, Miriam HopSilver. Sarah Boyd, Rainbow Harvest, Neill kins, Gig Young, John Loder, Dolores Barry, Danny Aiello, Susan Kingsley, RoxMoran, Phillip Reed, Roscoe Karns, Anne anne Hart, Fran Brill, Alyssa Milano, Anne Revere. Well-matched stars of THE OLD Pitoniak. Two adolescent girls from wildly MAID are reunited as childhood friends diverse socioeconomic backgrounds forge who evolve personal and professional ria tenuous friendship, then try to keep it valry that lasts 20 years. Davis is noble going through thick and thin. Boyd (the and Hopkins is bitchy in this entertaining rich one) has infinitely more screen appeal film. John Van Druten and Lenore Coffee than counterpart Harvest, which further scripted, from the former’s play. Remade undercuts an already too-mild comedy. as RICH AND FAMOUS.쩠 Funny subplot about sexy hairdresser who ★★1 ⁄2 D: Oldboy (2003-Korean) C-120m. lives in Harvest’s building. Written by Chan-wook Park. Min-shik Choi, Ji-tae Yu, first-time director Silver. [PG]▼ Hye-Jeong Kang, Dae-han Ji, Dal-su Oh, Oldest Profession, The (1967-FrenchByeong-ok Kim. A man, mysteriously imGerman-Italian) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Franco prisoned in a hotel room for 15 years, has Indovina, Mauro Bolognini, Philippe De only 5 days after release to find his captor Broca, Michel Pfleghar, Claude Autantand exact revenge. Extremely violent and Lara, Jean-Luc Godard. Elsa Martinelli, unpleasant—check out the live octopus this Jeanne Moreau, Raquel Welch, Anna poor guy has to digest in the sushi bar Karina, France Anglade, Jean-Pierre Le´aud. scene; however, Park’s action-packed opus Totally unfunny six-part story of prostituwill appeal to his faithful fans. Production tion through the ages. Original French values are top grade for this genre. Winner running time: 115m.▼● of the Grand Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Old Explorers (1990) C-100m. ★★ D: Festival. Super 35. [R]쩠 William Pohland. Jose Ferrer, James WhitOld Boyfriends (1979) C-103m. BOMB more, Jeffrey Gadbois, Caroline Kaiser, WilD: Joan Tewkesbury. Talia Shire, Richard liam Warfield, Christopher Pohland, Storm Jordan, Keith Carradine, John Belushi, Richardson, Dominique Berrand. Two elderly John Houseman, Buck Henry. Distressing pals—Ferrer and Whitmore—get together botch of an intriguing idea about woman once a week to spin tales and embark on who seeks out her former lovers in an flights of fancy. Imagining themselves as attempt to analyze her past. Shire is too famed adventurers (usually African explorer lightweight to carry the acting load, and Henry Stanley or Troy archaeologist Henry Belushi is totally wasted. Written by Paul Schliemann), they recount fictional quests for and Leonard Schrader. [R]▼● lost treasures and safaris to mythical lands. Old Curiosity Shop, The SEE: Mr. Quilp Extremely slow pace robs this interesting idea Old Dark House, The (1932) 71m. ★★★1⁄2 of its potential. [PG]▼● D: James Whale. Boris Karloff, Melvyn Old Fashioned Way, The (1934) 71m. Douglas, Charles Laughton, Gloria Stuart, ★★★1⁄2 D: William Beaudine. W. C. Fields, Lilian Bond, Ernest Thesiger, Raymond Judith Allen, Joe Morrison, Baby LeRoy, Massey, Eva Moore. Outstanding meloJack Mulhall, Oscar Apfel. Fields is in drama (with tongue-in-cheek) gathers stranded fine form managing troupe of old-time melotravelers in mysterious Welsh household, drama The Drunkard, encountering various where brutish butler Karloff is just one of troubles as they travel from town to town. many strange characters. A real gem, based on J. B. Priestley’s Benighted; screenplay by Baby LeRoy has memorable scene throwing [ 1016 ]

W. C.’s watch into a jar of molasses; also expressive score won an Oscar. Remade as a TVM in 1990 with Anthony Quinn.▼●쩠 contains Fields’ classic juggling routine.쩠 Old Gringo (1989) C-119m. ★★★ D: Luis Old Mother Riley Meets the Vampire Puenzo. Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck, Jimmy SEE: Mother Riley Meets the Vampire Smits, Patricio Contreras, Jenny Gago, Old School (2003) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd Jim Metzler, Gabriela Roel, Anne Pitoniak, Phillips. Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Pedro Armendariz, Jr. A youngish spinster, Vaughn, Jeremy Piven, Ellen Pompeo, Jua fiery young Mexican general, and an agingliette Lewis, Leah Remini, Perrey Reeves, American writer, Ambrose Bierce, cross Craig Kilborn, Harve Presnell, Snoop Dogg. paths amid the tumult of Pancho Villa’s reThree 30-something pals try to rekindle volution in 1913. Intense, epic scale drama their youth by opening an ‘‘unofficial’’ frahas its share of flaws, but its rich atmosphere ternity house. That’s the hook for this amusand superlative star performances make it ing film that never quite takes off, leaving well worth seeing. Director Puenzo and most of the laughs to individual moments Aida Bortnik wrote the screenplay, from involving Ferrell and Vaughn. Andy Dick Carlos Fuentes’ novel. [R]▼●쩠 and Seann William Scott turn up, presumOld Heidelberg SEE: Student Prince in ably as a favor to their ROAD TRIP direcOld Heidelberg, The tor. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Old Joy (2006) C-76m. ★★★ D: Kelly ReiOld Yeller (1957) C-83m. ★★★ D: Robert chardt. Will Oldham, Daniel London, Tanya Stevenson. Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker, Smith. Two old friends who haven’t seen Tommy Kirk, Kevin Corcoran, Jeff York, each other for a while set off for a weekend Beverly Washburn, Chuck Connors. Discamping trip in Oregon. One (Oldham) is ney’s first film about a boy and his dog, somewhat settled and about to become a fafrom Fred Gipson’s popular novel, is still ther; the other (London) is an aging hippie, one of the best. Atmospheric re-creation of still drifting through life. At first their converfarm life in 1869 Texas, where Kirk besations only accentuate how much they’ve comes attached to a yellow hunting dog. Sequel: SAVAGE SAM.▼●쩠 grown apart, but as they reach their destination, the serenity of the setting takes hold. Oleanna (1994) C-89m. ★★ D: David Subtle, graceful mood piece about friendship Mamet. William H. Macy, Debra Eisenand the way our environment affects who we stadt. Maddeningly uneven two-character are and how we live. Reichardt scripted with drama about a frustrated, self-involved male Jonathan Raymond (whose original short professor whose connection with a troubled, story was inspired by the photographs of Jusvulnerable female student leads to dire contine Kurland). 쩠 sequences. Potentially dynamic material Old Lady Who Walked in the Sea, The suffers from too much staginess and dra(1995-French) C-95m. ★★★ D: Laurent matic obviousness. Scripted by Mamet, based on his play.▼●쩠 Heynemann. Jeanne Moreau, Michel Serrault, Luc Thuillier, Geraldine Danon. Moreau’s Oliver! (1968-British) C-153m. ★★★1⁄2 D: star presence sparks this entertaining, often Carol Reed. Ron Moody, Oliver Reed, Shani outrageous comedy, in which she plays a vetWallis, Mark Lester, Jack Wild, Harry Seceran swindler-hustler-blackmailer named ombe, Hugh Griffith, Sheila White. Fine film Lady M—an aged, wrinkled version of Barof Lionel Bart’s hit stage musical of Dickens’ bara Stanwyck’s LADY EVE—who beOliver Twist about young boy (Lester) swept comes the mentor of a good-looking but into gang of youthful thieves led by scurrilous unrefined young beach boy (Thuillier). SerFagin (Moody). Colorful atmosphere; rousing rault is excellent as always as Moreau’s score including ‘‘Consider Yourself,’’ ‘‘As longtime partner-in-crime.▼ Long as He Needs Me.’’ Six Oscars including Old Maid, The (1939) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: EdBest Picture, Director, Art Direction, Scoring mund Goulding. Bette Davis, Miriam Hop(John Green), and a special prize to Onna kins, George Brent, Jane Bryan, Donald White for her spirited choreography. PanaviCrisp, Louise Fazenda, Jerome Cowan, sion. [G] ▼●쩠 James Stephenson. Soap opera par excelOliver & Company (1988) C-72m. ★★1⁄2 lence based on Zoe Akins play and Edith D: George Scribner. Voices of Joey LawWharton novel about the rivalry, romantic rence, Billy Joel, Cheech Marin, Richard and otherwise, between cousins Davis and Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sheryl Lee Hopkins. The two female stars create fireRalph, Dom DeLuise, Taurean Blacque, works as they enact this chronicle of love Robert Loggia, Bette Midler, Natalie Gregand hate in the 1860s–80s.▼●쩠 ory. Free adaptation of Dickens’ Oliver Old Man and the Sea, The (1958) C-86m. Twist in the cartoon world: homeless kitten ★★★ D: John Sturges. Spencer Tracy, Felipe falls in with the jaunty Dodger and his caPazos, Harry Bellaver. Well-intentioned nine pals, who work for Fagin, a human but uneven parable of aging fisherman’s nebbish in debt to the heartless Sikes. daily battle with the elements. Tracy is the Dodger (Joel) has the film’s best song, whole film, making the most of Heming‘‘Why Should I Worry?’’—but an excitable way’s un-filmic story; Dimitri Tiomkin’s Chihuahua voiced by Marin provides the big[ 1017 ]

gest laughs. Disney’s grittiest (grungiest?) anigory with surrealistic flavor about young cofmated feature is no classic, but it’s likeable fee salesman who pushes his way to the top enough. [G]▼●쩠 only to fall and rise again. Brilliant perforOliver’s Story (1978) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: John mances (several actors have multiple roles) Korty. Ryan O’Neal, Candice Bergen, throughout; incredible score by Alan Price. Written by David Sherwin. [R]▼●쩠 Nicola Pagett, Edward Binns, Ray Milland, Swoosie Kurtz, Charles Haid, Kenneth Olympia (1936-German) 220m. ★★★★ D: McMillan, Josef Sommer. Vapid sequel to Leni Riefenstahl. Two-part record of the LOVE STORY pits money against money 1936 Berlin Olympics, highlighted by truly this time around, as O’Neal romances heireyepopping cinematography, camera moveess to Bonwit Teller fortune. [PG]▼쩠 ment and editing. Of course, it’s all supOliver Twist (1948-British) 105m. ★★★★ D: posed to be a glorification of the Nazi David Lean. Alec Guinness, Robert Newton, state. Various edited versions exist (some John Howard Davies, Kay Walsh, Francis L. of which omit all footage of Hitler, who Sullivan, Anthony Newley, Henry Stephenappears throughout the original print).▼쩠 son. Superlative realization of Dickens tale of Omar Khayyam (1957) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: ill-treated London waif involved with archWilliam Dieterle. Cornel Wilde, Debra Paget, fiend Fagin (Guinness) and his youthful gang, John Derek, Raymond Massey, Michael Renheaded by the Artful Dodger (Newley). Later nie, Yma Sumac, Sebastian Cabot.Childish but musicalized as OLIVER! Original British spirited costumer set in medieval Persia; cast running time: 116m.▼●쩠 defeated by juvenile script. VistaVision.▼ Oliver Twist (2005-British-French-CzechOmega Code, The (1999) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Italian) C-130m. ★★★ D: Roman Polanski. Rob Marcarelli. Casper Van Dien, Michael Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Leanne Rowe, York, Catherine Oxenberg, Michael IronMark Strong, Jamie Foreman, Harry Eden, side, Jan Triska, Gregory Wagrowski. TV Edward Hardwicke, Ian McNeice, Gillian motivational guru Van Dien gets involved Hanna, Alun Armstrong. Stark, literate adwith wealthy businessman York, whose aptation (by Ronald Harwood) of the eventual plans to dominate the world are Charles Dickens classic, spotlighting young, tied in with secret messages encoded in the orphaned Oliver (Clark) and his escapades Torah. Financed by televangelist Paul among the criminal element of Victorian Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting NetLondon. Polanski offers a sobering portrait work, film did grass-roots box-office business of the muck and grime that engulf the poor until rank-and-file filmgoers saw it for what it in any era. Well done, but still no match for was: glorified direct-to-video cheese. FolDavid Lean’s 1948 masterpiece. Super 35. lowed in 2001 by MEGIDDO. [PG-13] ▼쩠 [PG-13]쩠 Omega Man, The (1971) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Olivier Olivier (1992-French) C-110m. Boris Sagal. Charlton Heston, Rosalind ★★★1 Cash, Anthony Zerbe, Paul Koslo, Lin⁄2 D: Agnieszka Holland. Francois Cluzet, Brigitte Rouan, Jean-Francois coln Kilpatrick, Eric Laneuville. Visually Stevenin, Gregoire Colin, Marina Golovine, striking but unsatisfying second filming of Emmanuel Morozof, Faye Gatteau, FredRichard Matheson’s sci-fi thriller I Am erick Quiring. Exceptional, fact-based acLegend. Heston is under siege by a race of count of a country couple whose young zombies spawned by apocalyptic germ warson mysteriously disappears. Six years later fare. Heston is superior to Vincent Price he ‘‘reappears,’’ but is no longer the special (who had role in THE LAST MAN ON child who was a joy to his family; now EARTH). Remade once again as I AM he’s a Parisian street hustler who claims to LEGEND. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 have forgotten his childhood. A fascinatOmen, The (1976) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Riching film, with characters who prove to be ard Donner. Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, far more intricate than they first appear. Billie Whitelaw, David Warner, Harvey Stephens, Patrick Troughton, Leo McKern. Holland also scripted. [R]▼● ★★ Olly, Olly, Oxen Free (1978) C-83m. Effective but sensationalistic horror piece on D: Richard A. Colla. Katharine Hepburn, the coming of the ‘‘Antichrist,’’ personified in Kevin McKenzie, Dennis Dimster, Peter young son of Peck and Remick, Americans Kilman. Hepburn plays a colorful junk living in England. Discreet use of gore and a dealer who befriends two young boys and now-famous decapitation, for those who like helps them realize their dream of hot-air that kind of thing. Jerry Goldsmith’s score ballooning. Kate’s always worth watching, won an Oscar. Followed by three sequels bebut except for airborne scenes, this film is ginning with DAMIEN—OMEN II. Remade in 2006. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 nothing special. Aka THE GREAT BALOmen, The (2006) C-110m. ★★ D: John LOON ADVENTURE. [G]▼쩠 O Lucky Man! (1973-British) C-178m. ★★★★ Moore. Julia Stiles, Liev Schreiber, Mia D: Lindsay Anderson. Malcolm McDowell, Farrow, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Roberts, Arthur Lowe, Ralph RichardMichael Gambon, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, son, Alan Price, Lindsay Anderson, Helen Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Marshall Cupp, Mirren, Mona Washbourne. Mammoth alleAmy Huck. Plodding remake finds a stone[ 1018 ]

faced Schreiber in Gregory Peck’s role of British gem showcasing the hilarious Bea an American diplomat who substitutes an Lillie as woman who decides to give her orphan for his own stillborn baby without prospective husband a trial run, with unextelling his wife, slowly coming to the realpected results. Drawing-room comedy par ization that the child is the Antichrist. Virtuexcellence. Leading-man Brook also dially identical copy of the 1976 horror hit rected, produced, and cowrote script (from (David Seltzer wrote the script for both verFrederick Lonsdale’s play)—the only time he ever worked behind the camera!▼●쩠 sions), this polished but pointless retread merely adds gory CGI effects and tasteless On Borrowed Time (1939) 99m. ★★★ D: references to 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and Harold S. Bucquet. Lionel Barrymore, other contemporary disasters. Farrow conCedric Hardwicke, Beulah Bondi, Una tributes the few genuinely scary moments Merkel, Ian Wolfe, Phillip Terry, Eily as Damien’s demonic nanny. [R] 쩠 Malyon. Engrossing fable of Death, Mr. On a Clear Day (2005-British) C-99m. ★★★ Brink (Hardwicke), coming for grandpa D: Gaby Dellal. Peter Mullan, Brenda Barrymore, finding himself trapped in tree Blethyn, Jamie Sives, Billy Boyd, Sean by Lionel and grandson Bobs Watson. McGinley, Ron Cook, Jodhi May, Benedict Engaging whimsy from the play by LawWong, Anne-Marie Timoney. A bluff workrence Edward Watkin.▼●쩠 ing man in his 50s, just fired from the shipOnce (2007-Irish) C-86m. ★★★ D: John Caryard where he’s worked for 36 years, comes ney. Glen Hansard, Marke´ta Irglova´. Dublin up with a crazy scheme to swim the English busker (Hansard) performs his own compoChannel. Haunted by the death of one son, sitions every night and attracts the attention distant from his other boy, this adventure beof a like-minded woman (Irglova´) who’s comes a metaphor for everyone around him also quite talented. The songs they sing— to take charge of their lives. A little obvious on the street, in rehearsal, and in recording in its message (and more than a bit reminisstudios—reflect the development of their recent of THE FULL MONTY), but well done. lationship over one week’s time. Disarming, Mullan is perfect in the lead. [PG-13]쩠 intimate, and utterly winning, this plays On a Clear Day You Can See Forever more like a cine´ma ve´rite´ romance than a 1 ★★ (1970) C-129m. musical, yet that’s what it is. Hansard and ⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Barbra Streisand, Yves Montand, Bob Irglova´ actually composed all the songs Newhart, Larry Blyden, Simon Oakland, Jack they perform; they won Best Original Song Nicholson. Colorful entertainment from Alan Oscar for ‘‘Falling Slowly.’’ [R]쩠 Jay Lerner–Burton Lane show about girl Once Around (1991) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: (Streisand) whose psychiatrist (Montand) disLasse Hallstro¨m. Richard Dreyfuss, Holly covers that she lived a former life, in 19thHunter, Danny Aiello, Gena Rowlands, century England. Sumptuous flashback Laura San Giacomo, Roxanne Hart, Danscenes outclass fragmented modern-day plot, ton Stone, Tim Guinee, Greg Germann, much of it apparently left on cutting-room Griffin Dunne. Repressed Bostonian Hunter floor. Glossy but never involving. Panaviis swept off her feet by amorous (and sion. [G]▼●쩠 obnoxious) supersalesman Dreyfuss, who On an Island With You (1948) C-107m. immediately alienates her close-knit fam★★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Esther Williams, ily, and puts her in the center of an emoPeter Lawford, Ricardo Montalban, Jimmy tional tug-of-war. Malia Scotch Marmo’s Durante, Cyd Charisse, Xavier Cugat, Leon script embraces both offbeat romantic comAmes, Marie Windsor. Splashy musical edy and intense family drama, some of it with navy man Lawford working as techniextremely moving, some of it off-base. As cal advisor on movie star Williams’ latest an acting showcase, however, it’s superb. film; he’s hopelessly in love with her, but Coproduced by costar Dunne; Hallstro¨m’s U.S. directorial debut. [R]▼●쩠 she’s engaged to costar Montalban. Durante Once a Thief (1965-U.S.-French) 107m. easily steals the show. ▼쩠 ★★ D: Ralph Nelson. Ann-Margret, Alain On Any Sunday (1971) C-91m. ★★★ D: Bruce Brown. Steve McQueen, Mert LawDelon, Van Heflin, Jack Palance, John will, Malcolm Smith. Fine documentary Davis Chandler, Jeff Corey, Tony Musante. on many aspects of motorcycling by Bruce When young ex-con tries to go straight, he Brown of ENDLESS SUMMER fame. Folfinds himself the pawn in another crime. lowed by a sequel. Followed in 2000 by ON Not at all interesting. Panavision. Once Before I Die (1965) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: ANY SUNDAY REVISITED. [G]▼쩠 On Any Sunday II (1981) C-90m. ★★ D: John Derek. Ursula Andress, John Derek, Rod Ed Forsyth, Don Shoemaker. UndistinLauren, Richard Jaeckel, Ron Ely. Brutal, offguished sequel to ON ANY SUNDAY, beat story of band of American soldiers in documenting the exploits of championship Philippines during WW2, trying to survive Japanese attack. Andress is only woman in motorcyclists. For cycle fans only. [PG]▼쩠 ★★★ group, and you can guess the rest.▼ On Approval (1943-British) 80m. D: Clive Brook. Beatrice Lillie, Clive Brook, Once Bitten (1985) C-93m. BOMB D: Googie Withers, Roland Culver. Minor Howard Storm. Lauren Hutton, Jim Carrey, [ 1019 ]

Karen Kopins, Cleavon Little, Thomas non, Hans Conried. Strange but intriguing Ballatore, Skip Lackey. Inept comedy about curio with status-seeking ex-burlesque queen vampiress (Hutton) who intrudes on amoRogers marrying secret Nazi bigwig Slezak . . . rous pursuits of some teenagers because she and radio commentator Grant coming to her needs the blood of a virgin to maintain her rescue. Some boring stretches do it in; howyouthful glow. Pretty anemic; Carrey is ever, the scenes in which the star duo are very restrained. [PG-13]▼●쩠 mistaken for Jews and almost sent to a concentration camp are fascinating.▼●쩠 Once in Paris . . . (1978) C-100m. ★★★ D: Frank D. Gilroy. Wayne Rogers, Gayle Once Upon a Horse (1958) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hunnicutt, Jack Lenoir, Clement Harari, Hal Kanter. Dan Rowan, Dick Martin, Tanya Lopert, Doris Roberts. Gilroy wrote Martha Hyer, Leif Erickson, Nita Talbot, this charming tale of Hollywood screenJohn McGiver, David Burns, James Gleason. writer who goes to Paris to work on script, Oddball Western spoof runs hot and cold, falls in love instead. Lovely location filmwith some nutty gags and enough spark to ing; Lenoir steals the film as Rogers’ allmake it worth watching. Old-time Western knowing chauffeur (which he actually was stars Bob Steele, Kermit Maynard, Tom prior to this picture). [PG]▼ Keene, Bob Livingston appear briefly as ★★ D: Once in the Life (2000) C-107m. themselves. CinemaScope. Laurence Fishburne. Laurence Fishburne, Once Upon a Time (1944) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Titus Welliver, Eamonn Walker, Dominic Alexander Hall. Cary Grant, Janet Blair, Chianese, Jr., Paul Calderon, Gregory Hines, James Gleason, Ted Donaldson, Art Baker. Annabella Sciorra, Michael Paul Chan, AnAmusing comedy-fantasy of entrepreneur dres ‘‘Dres’’ Titus. Well-acted but wearisome Grant promoting a dancing caterpillar; trivlook at N.Y.C. drug dealers and a crisis that ial fun. Based on a Norman Corwin radio tests friendship against the pressures of ‘‘the play, from Lucille Fletcher short story.쩠 life,’’ from which there is no escape. FishOnce Upon a Time in America (1984) burne’s directing debut; he also scripted, from C-139m. ★★★ D: Sergio Leone. Robert his one-act play Riff Raff. [R]▼쩠 De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McOnce Is Not Enough SEE: Jacqueline Govern, Tuesday Weld, Larry Rapp, Susann’s Once Is Not Enough William Forsythe, James Hayden, Treat Once More, With Feeling! (1960-British) Williams, Darlanne Fleugel, Burt Young, C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Donen. Yul Joe Pesci, Danny Aiello, Jennifer Connelly, Brynner, Kay Kendall, Maxwell Shaw, Brian Bloom, James Russo, T. Scott Mervyn Johns. Despite sparkling KenCoffey. Long, engrossing homage to the dall (her last film) as musical conductor gangster film, following the rise and fall of Brynner’s dissatisfied wife, this marital Jewish childhood pals on N.Y.C.’s Lower sex comedy fizzles. East Side. Shorn of 88m. for U.S. release, Once Upon a Crime (1992) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: story ceases to make sense at several points, Eugene Levy. John Candy, James Belushi, and characters appear and disappear with Cybill Shepherd, Sean Young, Richard amazing suddenness. Even so, Leone’s feel Lewis, Ornella Muti, Giancarlo Giannini, for this genre, compelling performances by George Hamilton, Joss Ackland, Elsa MartiDe Niro and Woods, and stunning art direcnelli. One of the loudest—and dumbest— tion make this well worth watching. Based on comedies of the early ’90s, about a group of Harry Grey’s novel The Hoods. Connelly’s strangers traveling through Europe who get feature film debut. Complete 227m. version is mixed up with a murder and a missing dachsquite a different film—and not without flaws hund. The real crime is the waste of a good of its own. (Even this long version is minus cast. Directed by SCTV performer Levy. several minutes of violent footage—notably Based on a forgettable 1964 film, AND from a key rape sequence—which exist in SUDDENLY IT’S MURDER! [PG]▼●쩠 European prints.) Director’s cut runs 229m. Once Upon a Forest (1993) C-80m. ★★ Originally released in U.S. at 139m. [R] D: Charles Grosvenor. Voices of Michael ▼●쩠 Crawford, Ben Vereen, Ellen Blain, Ben Once Upon a Time in China (1991-Hong Kong) C-134m. ★★★ D: Tsui Hark. Jet Li, Gregory, Paige Gosney, Elizabeth Moss, Janet Waldo, Susan Silo. Pro-social aniYuen Biao, Rosamund Kwan, Kent Cheung, mated tale of young ‘‘furlings’’ who leave Jacky Cheung, Yan Yee-Kwan. Jet Li became their forest home to find a cure for a friend a Hong Kong superstar in this influential marwho’s become ill breathing fumes from a tial-arts epic about legendary 19th-century chemical spill. Environmental message is Chinese folk hero Wong Fei Hung (the subimparted in a steady story with typically ject of over 100 Chinese movies, including cute characters, but there’s nothing terribly Jackie Chan’s DRUNKEN MASTER), a compelling about the film. [G] ▼●쩠 Confucian healer and kung fu master who Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942) 117m. clashes with Western interlopers as well as ★★1⁄2 D: Leo McCarey. Ginger Rogers, local criminal gangs. Crude dialogue and silly Cary Grant, Walter Slezak, Albert Dekker, comic relief take backseat to superbly choAlbert Basserman, Ferike Boros, Harry Shanreographed fight sequences showcasing Li’s [ 1020 ]

balletic, gravity-defying skills, notably in heavyhanded symbolism, but there are climactic duel utilizing giant ladders. Also some lovely moments. Freeman and released in a 100m. dubbed version. FolRoundtree are standouts. [PG]▼●쩠 lowed by five sequels. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Once Were Warriors (1994-New Zealand) Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) CC-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lee Tamahori. Rena ★★ 101m. D: Robert Rodriguez. Antonio BandOwen, Temuera Morrison, Mamaengaroa eras, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp, Mickey Kerr-Bell, Julian (Sonny) Arahanga, TaungRourke, Eva Mendes, Danny Trejo, Enrique aroa Emile, Clifford Curtis, Julian Arahanga. Iglesias, Marco Leonardi, Cheech Marin, Shattering drama about a poor, urbanized Ruben Blades, Willem Dafoe, Gerardo Vigil, Maori family, and the wife’s growing realizaPedro Armenda´riz. Rodriguez brings back tion that she can no longer endure her the guitar-toting gunfighter character from ‘‘macho’’ husband’s abuse—both physical EL MARIACHI, reprised by Banderas in and psychological. Striking and powerful film DESPERADO, with a bigger budget (for marks Tamahori’s directing debut; trenchant stuntmen and explosions, one presumes) but script by Riwia Brown, based on Alan Duff’s not much else. Incoherent script has Bandnovel, a best-seller in New Zealand. Not to be eras involved in a coup d’e´tat, but so many missed. Followed by WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN HEARTED. [R] ▼●쩠 characters are double-crossing each other it’s hard to keep track (or care), although Once You Kiss a Stranger (1969) C-106m. Depp is fun to watch as a corrupt CIA agent. BOMB D: Robert Sparr. Paul Burke, Shot on high-definition video by Rodriguez, Carol Lynley, Martha Hyer, Peter Lind who also wrote, scored, edited, production Hayes, Philip Carey, Stephen McNally, designed, and supervised the special effects! Whit Bissell. Thinly disguised remake of HD 24P Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, with Lynley Once Upon a Time in the Midlands as nut who pulls golfer Burke into bizarre (2002-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Shane ‘‘reciprocal murder’’ scheme. Slick but Meadows. Robert Carlyle, Rhys Ifans, Kathy empty-headed, laughable. [M/PG] Burke, Shirley Henderson, Ricky Tomlinson, On Dangerous Ground (1952) 82m. ★★★ D: Finn Atkins. Goofy homage to spaghetti Nicholas Ray. Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Westerns set in contemporary working-class Bond, Charles Kemper, Anthony Ross, Ed BeEngland. Volatile criminal Jimmy (Carlyle) gley, Ian Wolfe, Cleo Moore, Olive Carey. Efreturns home to win back his estranged girlfective mood-piece with hardened city cop friend and their daughter, but they’ve moved Ryan softened by blind girl Lupino, whose on. Often laugh-out-loud funny and perbrother is involved in rural manhunt. Bernard formed by a pitch-perfect cast, but eventually Herrmann’s score was reportedly his favorite work. Produced by John Houseman.▼●쩠 runs out of ideas. Final chapter in Meadows’ so-called Midlands trilogy, following TWENOn Deadly Ground (1994) C-101m. ★1⁄2 TYFOURSEVEN and A ROOM FOR D: Steven Seagal. Steven Seagal, Michael ROMEO BRASS. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968Lee Ermey, Shari Shattuck, Billy Bob Thornton. After the critical/popular success U.S.-Italian) C-165m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sergio Leone. Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, Clauof UNDER SIEGE, Seagal was allowed to dia Cardinale, Jason Robards, Gabriele Ferdirect this fast-fader about the raping of zetti, Paolo Stoppa, Frank Wolff, Jack Elam, Alaska’s interior by an oil company run by Woody Strode, Lionel Stander, Keenan evil Caine. Spiritual mumbo-jumbo halfway Wynn. Leone’s follow-up to his ‘‘Dollars’’ through looks like an outtake from THE trilogy is languid, operatic masterpiece. Plot, DOORS, and the star’s anticlimactic final admittedly lifted from JOHNNY GUITAR, speech (after the obligatory wrist-snapping) has landowner Cardinale waiting for the railhad fans bolting for the exits. Caine looks as road to come through, unaware she’s been if he’s undergone cosmetic surgery by Dwight targeted by hired killer Fonda (brilliantly cast Frye. Clairmont-Scope. [R]▼●쩠 as one of the coldest villains in screen hisOne, The (2001) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: JamesWong. tory). Exciting, funny, and reverent, with Jet Li, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo, Jason Stanow-classic score by Ennio Morricone; not to tham, James Morrison, Dylan Bruno, Richard be missed. Story by Leone, Bernardo BertoSteinmetz. Loud, wooden martial arts actioner lucci, and Dario Argento. Beware chopped-up plays like a video game. Li stars as a villain 140m. version. Techniscope. [M/PG] ▼●쩠 who’s been rampaging through parallel uniOnce Upon a Time . . . When We Were verses, killing his alter egos and absorbing Colored (1996) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim their energy; his last remaining opponent Reid. Al Freeman, Jr., Phylicia Rashad, is a nice-guy L.A. lawman. The climactic Paula Kelly, Leon, Richard Roundtree, Salli showdown is all too predictable. Super 35. Richardson, Isaac Hayes, Polly Bergen. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Well-meaning saga of a boy’s childhood in One and Only, The (1978) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 a tight-knit black community on the MissisD: Carl Reiner. Henry Winkler, Kim Darby, sippi Delta, spanning the 1940s to the early Gene Saks, Herve Villechaize, Harold ’60s. Sometimes suffers from schmaltz and Gould, William Daniels, Polly Holliday, [ 1021 ]

Ed Begley, Jr., Brandon Cruz, Charles ance by Adjani as young sexpot whose Frank, Mary Woronov. Winkler is a brash disturbed behavior masks elaborate recollege kid determined to make it in show biz, venge plan. Extremely well acted, especibut winds up a flamboyant wrestler. Some ally by Souchon as her likable beau truly funny moments build to gradual disenand Flon as his deaf aunt, but Adjani’s chantment with his basically obnoxious charcharacter is just too obnoxious to waracter. Written by Steve Gordon. [PG]▼쩠 rant much sympathy. Sebastien Japrisot’s One and Only, Genuine, Original Family screenplay (from his novel) retains unusual Band, The (1968) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Midevice of having several characters take turns narrating. [R]▼ chael O’Herlihy. Walter Brennan, Buddy Ebsen, Lesley Ann Warren, John Davidson, One Desire (1955) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Janet Blair, Kurt Russell. Musical family beHopper. Anne Baxter, Rock Hudson, Julie comes involved in 1888 Presidential camAdams, Natalie Wood, Betty Garde. Baxter’s paign; innocuous Disney entertainment with strong performance as woman in love with forgettable songs by the Sherman Brothers. gambler Hudson elevates standard soaper. Goldie (billed as Goldie Jeanne) Hawn debuts One Down Two to Go (1983) C-84m. in tiny part as giggling dancer. [G]▼●쩠 BOMB D: Fred Williamson. Fred Wil★★ One Crazy Summer (1986) C-93m. liamson, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Richard D: Savage Steve Holland. John Cusack, Roundtree, Paula Sills, Laura Loftus, Tom Demi Moore, Joel Murray, Curtis ArmSignorelli, Joe Spinell. Kung fu tournastrong, Bobcat Goldthwait, Tom Villard, ment promoter Roundtree is ripped off, William Hickey, Joe Flaherty. Holland’s and Williamson, Brown, and Kelly go into follow-up to BETTER OFF DEAD is anaction. Bottom-of-the-barrel blaxploitation actioner. [R]▼쩠 other loosely connected comedy (styled like a cartoon) about a teenage misfit spendone eight seven (1997) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing summer on Nantucket Island in New Kevin Reynolds. Samuel L. Jackson, John England. Some good sight gags and bright Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Gonzalez moments but no story or real characterizaGonzalez, Karina Arroyave, Jonah Rooney. tions to hang on to. [PG]▼●쩠 N.Y.C. high school teacher Jackson is One Cup of Coffee SEE: Pastime stabbed by a student, and relocates to L.A.’s One Dark Night (1983) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: San Fernando Valley. But conditions at the Tom McLoughlin. Meg Tilly, Robin Evans, school there are equally rough, and soon some Leslie Speights, Elizabeth Daily, Adam of his students turn up dead. Pretentious treatWest. Teenagers spend the night in a ment of a genuine problem: violence in Amermausoleum. You’ve seen it all before, and ican schools. A corny, obvious script doesn’t you don’t want to see it again. [PG]▼쩠 help, but the fine acting from all concerned One Day in September (1999-U.S.does. Title refers to California state penal code for murder. [R]▼●쩠 British) C/B&W-92m. ★★★ D: Kevin Macdonald. Narrated by Michael Douglas. ComOne-Eyed Jacks (1961) C-141m. ★★★ D: pelling, if slick, Oscar-winning documentary Marlon Brando. Marlon Brando, Karl Malrecollection of the 1972 Munich Olympics, den, Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnduring which Palestinian terrorists took hosson, Slim Pickens, Timothy Carey, Elisha tage a group of Israeli athletes, with tragic Cook, Jr., Margarita Cordova. Fascinating consequences. The event comes alive via but flawed psychological Western with outfootage and interviews (including one with law Brando seeking revenge on former the lone surviving terrorist), but style somefriend Malden, now a sheriff. Visually times outweighs substance, as when heavy striking, and a rich character study, but metal rock music accompanies images of the overlong. Brando’s only directorial effort. hostages’ blood-soaked corpses. [R]▼쩠 VistaVision.▼●쩠 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich One False Move (1992) C-105m. ★★★ D: Carl Franklin. Bill Paxton, Cynda Wil(1971-British-Norwegian) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Casper Wrede. Tom Courtenay, Espen liams, Billy Bob Thornton, Michael Beach, Skjonberg, James Maxwell, Alfred Burke, Jim Metzler, Earl Billings, Natalie CanerEric Thompson. Another instance where day, Robert Ginnaven, Robert Anthony a novel was just too difficult to film; Bell, Kevin Hunter. Savvy L.A. cops end Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s story of a priup in Dirt Road, Ark., awaiting three soner in Siberian labor camp only occasionsquabbling killers who are wanted for a ally works on the screen. Good photogrisly drug ripoff. Exceptionally trim—a graphy by Sven Nykvist; script by Ronnasty story (with a good romantic twist) meald Harwood. [G]▼● thodically tracking its way toward an imOne Deadly Summer (1983-French) Cpending blood bath. Thornton scripted with 133m. ★★★ D: Jean Becker. Isabelle Adjani, Tom Epperson. [R]▼●쩠 Alain Souchon, Francois Cluzet, Manuel One Fine Day (1996) C-108m. ★★★ D: MiGelin, Jenny Cleve, Suzanne Flon, Michel chael Hoffman. Michelle Pfeiffer, George Galabru, Maria Machado. Overlong but Clooney, Mae Whitman, Alex D. Linz, engrossing drama with astonishing performCharles Durning, Jon Robin Baitz, Ellen [ 1022 ]

Greene, Joe Grifasi, Pete Hamill, Anna must for the curious—others beware. Look Maria Horsford, Sheila Kelley, Robert sharp for Rebecca De Mornay as a restauKlein, Amanda Peet, Bitty Schram, Holland rant patron. Originally 107m., completely Taylor, Rachel York. A rarity in the ’90s: a recut by Coppola in 2003, incorporating 7m. genuinely nice movie about two harried and of previously unused footage. [R]▼●쩠 self-absorbed New Yorkers who meet by Onegin (1999-British) C-106m. ★★★ D: Marchance while taking care of their young tha Fiennes. Ralph Fiennes, Liv Tyler, Toby children during an impossibly hectic career Stephens, Lena Headey, Martin Donovan, day. He’s a hotshot newspaper columnist, Alun Armstrong, Harriet Walter, Irene Worth, she’s with an architectural firm. Cute, funny Jason Watkins, Francesca Annis. Visually romantic comedy will surely strike many beautiful, sensitively directed love story, set in chords with parents. Pfeiffer (never more 1820s St. Petersburg and based on Pushkin’s likeable) also produced. [PG]▼●쩠 Eugene Onegin, about an aristocratic bachelor One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) who inherits a country estate and becomes C-133m. ★★★★ D: Milos Forman. Jack involved in a paradoxical relationship with a Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif, daughter of his new neighbor. Many nice, William Redfield, Michael Berryman, Pesubtle touches, though Tyler is miscast. Directer Brocco, Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, tor Martha is the sister of Ralph (who also Christopher Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Vinexecutive-produced); brother Magnus Fiennes cent Schiavelli, Sydney Lassick, Louisa composed the music and sister Sophie Fiennes Moritz. Ken Kesey’s story is a triumph of has a cameo.▼쩠 the human spirit; a feisty misfit (Nicholson) One Girl’s Confession (1953) 74m. ★★ D: enters an insane asylum and inspires his felHugo Haas. Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, Glenn low patients to assert themselves, to the chaLangan, Russ Conway. Cleo steals from her grin of strong-willed head nurse (Fletcher). loutish guardian, then serves jail sentence The first film since IT HAPPENED ONE knowing the loot is waiting for her. Typical NIGHT to win all five top Oscars: Best PicHugo Haas production, with intriguing premise ture, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay but flimsy development. Moore is presented as (Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman). Lloyd’s (unbelievably) chaste—but our first look at her film debut. [R]▼●쩠 is in an alluring low-cut bathing suit. Thanks, One Foot in Heaven (1941) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 Hugo. D: Irving Rapper. Fredric March, Martha One Good Cop (1991) C-114m. ★★ D: Scott, Beulah Bondi, Gene Lockhart, ElisHeywood Gould. Michael Keaton, Rene abeth Fraser, Harry Davenport, Laura Hope Russo, Anthony LaPaglia, Kevin Conway, Crews, Grant Mitchell. Superior acting in Rachel Ticotin, Tony Plana, Benjamin honest, appealing story of minister and Bratt, Charlaine Woodard. Superficial look wife facing various problems as church at dedicated N.Y.C. cop (and happily marlife and 20th century America clash. Very ried man) who—faced with the prospect of entertaining, with memorable scene of minfatherhood—is forced to examine his goals ister March going to his first movie (a and his morality. Mix of urban grittiness William S. Hart silent). and heart-tugging sentiment doesn’t work, 1 ★★ One Foot in Hell (1960) C-90m. ⁄2 D: especially with its many convenient draJames B. Clark, Alan Ladd, Don Murray, matic turns and shortcuts. Those three litDan O’Herlihy, Dolores Michaels, Barry tle girls are adorable, though. [R]▼●쩠 Coe, Larry Gates, Karl Swenson. AmbiOne Hour Photo (2002) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: tious but peculiar production of sheriff Mark Romanek. Robin Williams, Connie seeking retribution against small town for Nielsen, Michael Vartan, Gary Cole, Dylan negligent death of his wife; cowritten by Smith, Eriq LaSalle, Erin Daniels. Suburban Aaron Spelling. CinemaScope. family leaves its snapshots with Sy, ‘‘the One for the Book SEE: Voice of the Photo Guy,’’ a friendly fellow at the local Turtle, The chain store, little dreaming that Sy has be★★ One From the Heart (1982) C-99m. come obsessed with them. Impressive feaD: Francis Coppola. Frederic Forrest, Teri ture by music video veteran Romanek (who Garr, Raul Julia, Nastassia Kinski, Lainie also wrote the original screenplay), built on Kazan, Harry Dean Stanton, Allen Goorwitz the sturdy foundation of Williams’ persua(Garfield), Luana Anders. Lavishly prosive and finely tuned performance. [R]▼쩠 duced but practically plotless romantic comOne Hour With You (1932) 80m. ★★★1⁄2 edy about a couple (Forrest, Garr) who D: Ernst Lubitsch, George Cukor. Mauquarrel, then seek out other partners (Kinski, rice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, GenJulia). Dean Tavoularis’ stylized Las Veevieve Tobin, Roland Young, Charlie gas set and the cinematography by Vittorio Ruggles. Chic romance of happily married Storaro and Ronald V. Garcia are astoncouple upset by arrival of flirtatious Tobin. ishing! Unfortunately, pretty images do Chevalier is delightful as always, talking not a film make. Tom Waits songs fill the (and singing) directly to the camera. Remake soundtrack while the actors play out one of Coppola’s most surreal entertainments. A of Lubitsch’s 1924 THE MARRIAGE CIR[ 1023 ]

CLE; started by Cukor, completed by Lubthose adorable puppies, but the results are spotty at best. [G]▼쩠 itsch with Cukor as his assistant. ●쩠 One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Koster. Deanna C-79m. ★★★ D: Wolfgang Reitherman, Durbin, Leopold Stokowski, Adolphe Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi. Voices Menjou, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette, of Rod Taylor, Lisa Davis, Cate Bauer, Mischa Auer, Frank Jenks, Billy Gilbert. Ben Wright, Fred Warlock, J. Pat O’Malley, Superior blend of music and comedy as Betty Lou Gerson. Likable, low-key DisDeanna pesters conductor Stokowski to ney cartoon feature set in England, about give work to her unemployed father and the theft and recovery of some adorable musician friends. Brimming with charm— dalmatian puppies by a flamboyant villainand beautiful music, with Charles Previn’s ess named Cruella De Vil. The story’s told score earning an Oscar.▼● from a doggy point-of-view, which is just 100 Rifles (1969) C-110m. ★★ D: Tom one ingredient of the film’s great appeal. Gries. Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, Burt Followed 42 years later by a direct-to-video Reynolds, Fernando Lamas, Dan O’Herlihy, sequel. Remade in 1996.▼●쩠 Hans Gudegast (Eric Braeden). Overripe 101 Dalmatians (1996) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Western saga has deputy Brown going Stephen Herek. Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, after Reynolds, fleeing with shipment of Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright, Hugh guns into Mexico, but meeting and falling Laurie, Mark Williams, John Shrapnel. Refor guerrilla leader Welch. Reynolds easmake of the Disney animated favorite starts ily steals film. [PG]▼쩠 out charmingly well, with Daniels and RichOne Is a Lonely Number (1972) C-97m. ardson a perfect pair (along with their dogs ★★★ D: Mel Stuart. Trish Van Devere, Pongo and Perdita), and Close a flamboyMonte Markham, Janet Leigh, Melvyn antly funny Cruella De Vil. But once the Douglas, Jane Elliott, Jonathan Lippe. Symdalmatian puppies are stolen and Cruella’s pathetic performance by Van Devere helps bumbling henchmen take over, this John this better-than-usual soaper about life of Hughes’s script becomes yet another heavyan attractive divorcee; good supporting work handed HOME ALONE retread, full of meby Douglas and Leigh. [PG] chanical slapstick gags. Followed by a seOne Last Thing . . . (2006) C-93m. ★★ D: quel. Panavision. [G] ▼●쩠 Alex Steyermark. Cynthia Nixon, Michael One Hundred and One Nights (1995Angarano, Sunny Mabrey, Nelust Wyclef French-British) C-101m. ★★★ D: Agne`s Jean, Matt Bush, Gideon Glick, Johnny Varda. Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, Messner, Gina Gershon. Inoffensive but arHenri Garcin, Julie Gayet, Mathieu Demy, tificial comedy-drama about a 16-year-old Emmanuel Salinger. Playful valentine to the boy who’s dying and announces his official cinema, brimming with ideas and clever homwish: to spend a weekend alone with his ages to films and filmmakers. Piccoli stars as fantasy woman, a supermodel whose bikini Simon Cine´ma, a 100-year-old living symbol poster adorns his bedroom wall. Some likof film history. An array of international film able performances keep this from becoming personalities briefly appear, including Anouk saccharine, but can’t invest it with any form Aime´e, Fanny Ardant, Jean-Paul Belmondo, of reality. Ethan Hawke appears unbilled.쩠 Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, Robert De One Little Indian (1973) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Niro, Ge´rard Depardieu, Harrison Ford, Gina Bernard McEveety. James Garner, Vera Lollobrigida, Jeanne Moreau, and Hanna Miles, Clay O’Brien, Pat Hingle, Andrew Schygulla. Among the highlights: Piccoli and Prine, Jodie Foster. Garner is AWOL cavDepardieu amusingly recall their various cinalry corporal escaping through desert with ematic death scenes, and Deneuve and a young Indian boy and a camel. Unusual French-speaking De Niro picturesquely float Disney comedy-drama. [G]▼쩠 on a boat in a lake. Full title is ONE HUNOne Magic Christmas (1985) C-88m. DRED AND ONE NIGHTS OF SIMON ★★★ D: Phillip Borsos. Mary Steenburgen, CINE´MA. ▼쩠 Gary Basaraba, Harry Dean Stanton, Ar102 Dalmatians (2000) C-100m. ★★ D: thur Hill, Elizabeth Harnois, Robbie MagKevin Lima. Glenn Close, Ge´rard Depardieu, wood, Michelle Meyrink, Elias Koteas, Jan Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans, Tim McInnerny, Rubes, Sarah Polley, Graham Jarvis. Wife Ben Crompton, Carol Macready, Ian Richand mom enduring hard times has lost the ardson, Timothy West; voice of Eric Idle. Christmas spirit, but Santa Claus and guardExcruciatingly shrill Disney sequel about ian angel conspire with her daughter to the further adventures of Cruella De Vil show her the light. Entertaining Disney (Close) as she continues her evil quest to family fare, though pretty serious at acquire a Dalmatian-skin coat, this time times . . . and Stanton is the unlikeliest with the help of a nefarious fur designer guardian angel in movie history! Made in (Depardieu). Close’s high-camp perforCanada. [G]▼●쩠 mance and wardrobe are fun for a while, One Man Force (1989) C-89m. ★★ D: and young children are sure to take to all Dale Trevillion. John Matuszak, Ronny [ 1024 ]

Cox, Charles Napier, Sharon Farrell, Sam do his job despite the intrusions of girlfriend Blyth, a United Nations envoy.▼ Jones, Richard Lynch, Stacey Q. Formula One Missed Call (2008-U.S.-Japaneseaction vehicle for former football player German) C-87m. BOMB D: Eric Valette. Matuszak, who plays an L.A. cop who goes Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns, Azura off the deep end when drug dealers murder Skye, Ana Claudia Talanco´n, Ray Wise, his partner. Matuszak died suddenly before Johnny Lewis, Jason Beghe, Margaret Cho, this film’s release. [R]▼●쩠 Meagan Good. What if you received a mesOne Man Jury (1978) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: sage on your cell phone from your future Charles Martin. Jack Palance, Christopher self, with the date and time of your death? Mitchum, Pamela Shoop, Angel TompNo need to stay awake nights wondering, as kins, Joe Spinell, Cara Williams. DIRTY this film lets you know how some college HARRY rip-off with Palance as vigilante students deal with just such a predicament. cop who administers his own brand of Another Americanized remake of a Japaviolent justice on some particularly renese horror film (Takashi Miike’s CHApulsive felons. [R]▼ 1 ★★ KUSHIN ARI) with a good cast wasted. So ⁄2 D: One Man’s Hero (1999) C-121m. bad that the title invites pithy putdowns; it’s Lance Hool. Tom Berenger, Daniela Romo, just too easy. [PG-13]쩠 Stephen Tobolowsky, Joaquim de Almeida, One More Saturday Night (1986) C-95m. Mark Moses, James Gammon, Patrick BerBOMB D: Dennis Klein. Tom Davis, Al gin. When his men are sent to prison just Franken, Moira Harris, Frank Howard, Bess before the outbreak of the MexicanMeyer, Dave Reynolds. Unfunny comedy American war, Berenger attempts to free written by and starring the nerdy duo from them and is attacked by the U.S. Army. TV’s Saturday Night Live. Unlike one of their The fleeing squadron is then captured by TV skits, this feature, about various goings-on guerrilla forces, but they form a bond and during a Saturday evening in Minnesota, runs decide to fight together. Obviously a labor an hour and a half. Forget it. [R]▼● of love for star/producer Berenger, and One More Time (1970) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: based on a true story, but more earnest than Jerry Lewis. Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, exciting. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Jr., Esther Anderson, Maggie Wright. One Man’s Way (1964) 105m. ★★★ D: Sequel to SALT AND PEPPER is even Denis Sanders. Don Murray, Diana Hyland, worse, with Sammy essentially imitating Veronica Cartwright, Ian Wolfe, Virginia Jerry Lewis (who directed) as he and Christine, Carol Ohmart, William Windom. Lawford struggle to survive after losing Tasteful fictionalized biography of Northeir nightclub—and Lawford assumes his man Vincent Peale, his religious convictwin brother’s identity. Excruciatingly bad; tions and preaching; Murray is earnest in of interest as the only feature Lewis ever lead role.▼ directed in which he didn’t star. [PG]쩠 One Million B.C. (1940) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: One More Train to Rob (1971) C-108m. Hal Roach, Hal Roach, Jr. Victor Mature, ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew V. McLaglen. George Carole Landis, Lon Chaney, Jr., John HubPeppard, Diana Muldaur, John Vernon, bard, Mamo Clark, Jean Porter. Bizarre France Nuyen, Steve Sandor. Peppard seeks caveman saga told in flashback is real curio, revenge on former robbery partner who made on a big scale. Excellent special efsent him to jail. Unremarkable Western fects—from prehistoric monsters to an has some flavor, nice supporting cast of erupting volcano—which have turned up as familiar faces. [PG] stock footage in countless cheapies. LongOne Night at McCool’s (2001) C-100m. time rumors that D. W. Griffith directed ★★ D: Harald Zwart. Liv Tyler, Matt Dillon, parts are not true. Remade in 1966 as ONE John Goodman, Paul Reiser, Michael DougMILLION YEARS B.C.● las, Reba McEntire, Richard Jenkins, AnOne Million Years B.C. (1966-British) drew Silverstein (Andrew Dice Clay), Leo C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Chaffey. Raquel Rossi, Eric Schaeffer. One-note black comWelch, John Richardson, Percy Herbert, edy about three men obsessed with a beautiRobert Brown, Martine Beswick. Hammer ful vixen (Tyler)—one poor sucker who remake of 1940 prehistoric adventure sees her for what she is, one who worships boosted fur-bikinied Welch to stardom; her as a goddess, and one who’s only interwatchable saga with spectacular Ray Harested in kinky sex. Some funny moments, ryhausen dinosaurs and percussive score by but mostly obvious and repetitive. [R]▼쩠 Mario Nascimbene.▼●쩠 One Night in the Tropics (1940) 82m. ★★1 One Minute to Zero (1952) 105m. ★★ ⁄2 D: A. Edward Sutherland. Allan Jones, D: Tay Garnett. Robert Mitchum, Ann Nancy Kelly, Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Blyth, William Talman, Richard Egan, Robert Cummings, Leo Carrillo, Mary Charles McGraw, Margaret Sheridan, EdBoland. Ambitious but unmemorable musiuard Franz. Romance and war combine cal with songs by Jerome Kern, Oscar uneasily in this muddled Korean War meloHammerstein and Dorothy Fields, from drama. Mitchum is a colonel attempting to Earl Derr Biggers’ gimmicky story Love [ 1025 ]

Insurance (filmed before in 1919 and 1924). rector Johnson plays Benson’s alumni big brother. [PG]▼쩠 Abbott and Costello, in film debut, have secondary roles to Jones-Kelly-Cummings One Plus One SEE: Sympathy for the love triangle, but get to do a portion of Devil their ‘‘Who’s on First?’’ routine.▼쩠 One Potato, Two Potato (1964) 92m. ★★ ★★★1 One Night Stand (1997) C-103m. D: ⁄2 D: Larry Peerce. Barbara Barrie, Mike Figgis. Wesley Snipes, Nastassja KinBernie Hamilton, Richard Mulligan, Robski, Kyle MacLachlan, Ming-Na Wen, Robert ert Earl Jones, Harry Bellaver, Faith Downey, Jr., John Calley, Glenn Plummer, Burwell, Tom Ligon. Frank study of interAmanda Donohoe, John Ratzenberger, Julian racial marriage, beautifully acted by BarSands, Thomas Haden Church, Donovan rie and Hamilton. Perceptive script by RaLeitch, Ione Skye, Xander Berkeley. Flashy phael Hayes and Orville H. Hampton. but empty drama about a TV commercials One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977French) C-105m. ★★ D: Agne`s Varda. Thedirector (Snipes) caught up in a plastic, unfeeling world, whose life is in for quite a rese Liotard, Valerie Mairesse, Ali Raffi, jolt upon renewing a friendship with seriRobert Dadies, Francis Lemaire. Simplisously ill Downey and having a chance entic, sugar-coated feminist story paralleling counter with Kinski. Figgis turns up as a the lives of two women from the early ’60s hotel clerk. [R] ▼●쩠 to 1976. An honest attempt to examine the One Night With the King (2006) C-122m. meaning of womanhood, but awfully super★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael O. Sajbel. Tiffany Dupont, ficial.▼ Luke Goss, John Rhys-Davies, John Noble, One Spy Too Many (1966) C-102m. ★★ Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, James Callis, Jonah D: Joseph Sargent. Robert Vaughn, David Lotan, Peter O’Toole, Omar Sharif. Old TesMcCallum, Rip Torn, Dorothy Provine, tament romantic thriller about a Jewish orLeo G. Carroll. Torn tries to take over the phan forced to hide her heritage when she’s world, with Vaughn and McCallum to the chosen as queen to Persian king Xerxes. rescue. Forgettable feature, edited from Large-scale, rich-looking production, shot in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. TV series. India, is packed with tasty biblical intrigue One Summer Love (1976) C-98m. ★★ D: and treachery. But it also features bad acting Gilbert Cates. Beau Bridges, Susan Sarand dialogue, both High British and Valley andon, Mildred Dunnock, Ann WedgeGirl, with Dupont like totally wrong as a worth, Michael B. Miller, Linda Miller. woman torn between love and loyalty. PreAmbitious but muddled drama of Bridges, viously filmed as ESTHER AND THE just out of a mental hospital, attempting to KING. O’Toole is seen for barely 30 sectrace his family; Sarandon, who sells candy onds as the prophet Samuel. [PG]쩠 in a movie theater, takes a liking to him. . . . . . . One of Our Aircraft Is Missing Screenplay by N. Richard Nash; originally released as DRAGONFLY. [PG]▼ (1942-British) 106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Godfrey 1001 Arabian Nights (1959) C-75m. ★★1⁄2 Tearle, Eric Portman, Hugh Williams, BerD: Jack Kinney. Voices of Jim Backus, nard Miles, Hugh Burden, Emrys Jones, Kathryn Grant (Crosby), Dwayne Hickman, Googie Withers, Joyce Redman, Pamela Hans Conried, Herschel Bernardi, Alan Brown, Peter Ustinov, Hay Petrie, Roland Reed. Elaborate updating of Arabian Nights Culver, Robert Helpmann, John Longden. tales featuring nearsighted Mr. Magoo has Thoughtful study of RAF bomber crew who a nice score, pleasing animation.▼ bail out over the Netherlands and seek to 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, The (1960-West return to England. Powell and Pressburger German-French-Italian) 105m. ★★★ D: Fritz scripted, from the latter’s story. Powell Lang. Dawn Addams, Peter van Eyck, Gert makes an appearance as a dispatcher. Some Frobe, Wolfgang Preiss, Werner Peters, AnU.S. prints run 82m.▼쩠 drea Checchi. Fast-paced, witty thriller, inOne of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing (1976) tricately plotted but crystal clear: using the C-93m. BOMB D: Robert Stevenson. Peter secrets of the original Dr. Mabuse, a Ustinov, Helen Hayes, Clive Revill, Derek modern-day criminal genius blackmails the Nimmo, Joan Sims. The Disney studio’s wealthy, resorting to murder as necessary. answer to insomnia, a boring film about Lang’s last film as director, marking a spy with secret formula hidden in dinosaur strong return to form. Beware of alternate bone, and a group of nannies determined versions still in circulation: THE SECRET to retrieve stolen skeleton. Filmed in OF DR. MABUSE and THE DIABOLIEngland. [G]▼ CAL DR. MABUSE. ▼쩠 One on One (1977) C-98m. ★★★ D: Lamont One Touch of Venus (1948) 81m. ★★1⁄2 Johnson. Robby Benson, Annette O’Toole, D: William A. Seiter. Ava Gardner, RobG. D. Spradlin, Gail Strickland, Melanie ert Walker, Dick Haymes, Eve Arden, Griffith. Benson cowrote this sincere, upOlga San Juan, Tom Conway. Young man beat film about naive basketball player in love with department-store window statue who tries to buck corrupt world of college of Venus doesn’t know what to do when she athletics, and sadistic coach Spradlin. Dimagically comes to life. Amusing, but misses [ 1026 ]

the bull’s-eye, despite its having been a hit on shipboard romance of fugitive Powell and Broadway. Lovely Kurt Weill–Ogden Nash fatally ill Francis, splendidly acted, with score includes ‘‘Speak Low.’’ Also shown in good support by MacMahon and McHugh computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 as con artists. Robert Lord won an Oscar One Tough Cop (1998) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: for his original story. Remade as ’TIL WE Bruno Barreto. Stephen Baldwin, Chris MEET AGAIN. Penn, Gina Gershon, Mike McGlone, Paul One Wild Moment (1977-French) C-88m. ★★ D: Claude Berri. Jean-Pierre Marielle, Guilfoyle, Amy Irving, Victor Slezak, Luis Guzman. Baldwin is miscast as renegade Victor Lanoux, Agnes Soral, Christine 1980s N.Y.P.D. detective Bo Dietl who, in Dejoux, Martine Sarcey. Lightweight, unthis hackneyed, highly fictionalized account satisfying sex farce about two middle-aged of his exploits—based on his ‘‘autobiobuddies (Marielle, Lanoux) who vacation graphical novel’’—stands up to the nasty with their sexy teen daughters (Soral, Feds when they pressure him to rat out his Dejoux). Not nearly as clever as other boyhood best friend, who’s now a mob Berri comedies. Remade as BLAME IT ON RIO. Panavision. [R]▼ boss. Filled with graphic violence and fourletter words. [R]▼●쩠 One Woman or Two (1985-French) C★★ One-Trick Pony (1980) C-98m. D: 97m. ★1⁄2 D: Daniel Vigne. Ge´rard DeRobert M. Young. Paul Simon, Blair pardieu, Sigourney Weaver, Dr. Ruth WestBrown, Rip Torn, Joan Hackett, Mare heimer, Michel Aumont, Zabou. PaleonWinningham, Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), tologist Depardieu discovers the fossil reLou Reed, The B-52’s, Harry Shearer, mains of the first Frenchwoman; crass ad The Lovin’ Spoonful, Sam and Dave, Tiny exec Weaver is intent on exploiting this to Tim. Aging rock star tries to salvage marhype perfume. An utterly silly BRINGriage while trying to weather changes in ING UP BABY derivation, with its two stars wasted. [PG-13]▼ audience tastes. Good premise, impressive supporting cast undermined by haphazard One Woman’s Story SEE: Passionate construction, lack of Simon’s appeal as a Friends, The leading man. Scripted and scored by SiOn Golden Pond (1981) C-109m. ★★★ D: mon; one of those Hare Krishnas is Daniel Mark Rydell. Katharine Hepburn, Henry Stern. [R]▼●쩠 Fonda, Jane Fonda, Doug McKeon, Dabney One True Thing (1998) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Coleman, William Lanteau. Fonda, in his Carl Franklin. Meryl Streep, Rene´e Zelllast feature, is no less than brilliant as weger, William Hurt, Tom Everett Scott, crochety retired professor Norman Thayer, Lauren Graham, Nicky Katt, James EckJr., angry at being 80 years old and scared house, Gerrit Graham, Diana Canova. Exof losing his faculties. Hepburn fine as his ceptional, moving family drama about a devoted, all-knowing wife who shares his young woman forced to temporarily move summers at Maine lakefront home; Jane is back in with her parents and come to terms his alienated daughter. Sometimes simwith both her mother (an expert homemaker plistic comedy-drama, scripted by Ernest to whom she’s never related) and her literThompson from his play, gets a heavy dose ary lion of a father (whom she’s always of Star Quality. Fonda, Hepburn, and writer idolized). Superb acting and the constant Thompson all won Academy Awards for their work. Remade for TV in 2001. [PG]▼●쩠 ring of truth distinguish this adaptation by Karen Croner of Anna Quindlen’s bestOn Guard (1997-French-German) C-128m. ★★★ selling novel. [R]▼●쩠 D: Philippe de Broca. Daniel Auteuil, One, Two, Three (1961) 108m. ★★★★ D: Fabrice Luchini, Vincent Perez, Marie GilBilly Wilder. James Cagney, Arlene Franlain, Yann Collette, Jean-Franc¸ois Ste´venin, cis, Horst Buchholz, Pamela Tiffin, Lilo Didier Pain, Philippe Noiret. A faithful Pulver, Howard St. John, Hans Lothar, swordsman rescues an infant princess from Leon Askin, Red Buttons. Hilarious Wildthe grasp of her sinister relative; the baby’s er comedy about Coke executive in confather was also the swordsman’s mentor. temporary West Berlin freaking out when Deliciously old-fashioned popcorn movie the boss’s visiting daughter secretly weds full of derring-do, and set in the France of a Communist. Cagney is a marvel to watch Louis XIV. Auteuil is well cast as the hero; in this machine-gun-paced comedy, his Errol Flynn would be proud. Originally tilast film appearance until 1981’s RAGtled LE BOSSU, and filmed several times TIME. Andre Previn’s score makes inspired before. Opened in the U.S. in 2002. Panause of Khachaturian’s ‘‘Sabre Dance.’’ vision. ▼쩠 The script, by Wilder and I.A.L. DiaOn Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969mond, was inspired by a Ferenc Molnar British) C-140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter R. Hunt. one-act play. Panavision. ▼●쩠 George Lazenby, Diana Rigg, Gabriele One Way Passage (1932) 69m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ferzetti, Telly Savalas, Bernard Lee, Lois Tay Garnett. Kay Francis, William PowMaxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Catharina ell, Aline MacMahon, Warren Hymer, Von Schell (Catherine Schell), Bessie Love, Frank McHugh, Herbert Mundin. Tender Joanna Lumley. Usual globe-hopping Bond [ 1027 ]

vs. Blofeld plot with novel twist: agent Only the Best SEE: I Can Get It for You Bond ends up marrying Italian contessa Wholesale (Rigg)! Lazenby, first non-Connery Bond, Only the French Can SEE: French is OK, but incredible action sequences Cancan take first chair; some 007 fans consider Only the Lonely (1991) C-102m. ★★★ D: this the best of the series. Panavision. Chris Columbus. John Candy, Maureen [M/PG]▼●쩠 O’Hara, Ally Sheedy, James Belushi, AnOnibaba (1964-Japanese) 103m. ★★★ D: thony Quinn, Kevin Dunn, Milo O’Shea, Kaneto Shindoˆ. Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Bert Remsen, Joe V. Greco, Macaulay Yoshimura, Kei Sato, Jukichi Uno. In warCulkin, Kieran Culkin. Chicago cop, who torn medieval Japan, a widow and her still lives with his mom, falls in love—and mother-in-law ambush and kill soldiers to has to overcome both his mother’s resissell their armor, until the younger woman tance and his feelings of guilt over leaving falls for one of them. Visceral, erotic, and her. Sweet, sentimental update of MARTY genuinely creepy folk tale is not for the shines with performances that are right onsqueamish, but is expertly made, hightarget, including O’Hara’s first since 1973’s lighted by stunning Tohoscope cinematogTHE RED PONY. [PG-13]▼●쩠 raphy. ▼쩠 Only the Strong (1993) C-96m. ★★ D: Onion Field, The (1979) C-127m. ★★★ D: Sheldon Lettich. Mark Dacascos, Stacey Harold Becker. John Savage, James Woods, Travis, Geoffrey Lewis, Paco Christian Prieto, Franklyn Seales, Ted Danson, Ronny Cox, Todd Susman, Jeffrey Anderson Gunter. Ex– Dianne Hull, Christopher Lloyd, Priscilla Green Beret, his old Miami high school now Pointer, Pat Corley. Heart-wrenching true threatened by a drug lord, turns a dozen of the story about a cop who cracks up after joint’s worst malcontents into crimebusters by witnessing his partner’s murder and fleeteaching them a rhythmic, Brazilian form of ing; adapted by author Joseph Wambaugh martial arts called capoeira. Real-life martial without any studio interference. Well acted arts champ Dacascos is appealing in a can’tand impassioned, but never quite peaks. act kind of way. Dopey but inoffensive; at its best in potently choreographed fight scenes. [R]▼●쩠 [PG-13]▼●쩠 Onionhead (1958) 110m. ★★ D: Norman Taurog. Andy Griffith, Felicia Farr, Walter Only the Valiant (1951) 105m. ★★ D: Matthau, Erin O’Brien, Joe Mantell, Ray Gordon Douglas. Gregory Peck, Barbara Danton, James Gregory, Joey Bishop, RosPayton, Ward Bond, Gig Young, Lon coe Karns, Claude Akins, Peter Brown, Chaney, Jr., Neville Brand, Jeff Corey. UnTige Andrews. Muddled mishmash with usually brutal Western tale of hard-bitten Griffith joining the Coast Guard pre-WW2 Army officer Peck assembling a detail of misand becoming a ship’s cook. Tries desperfit cavalrymen to hold off rampaging Indians. ately to be a comedy, romance, and drama ▼●쩠 all at once, with elements of NO TIME Only Thrill, The (1998) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: FOR SERGEANTS and MISTER ROBPeter Masterson. Diane Keaton, Sam Shepard, Diane Lane, Robert Patrick, Tate DonoERTS, but is only sentimental and silly.▼ Only Angels Have Wings (1939) 121m. van, Sharon Lawrence, Stacey Travis. A ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Howard Hawks. Cary Grant, fine cast can’t save this drab tearjerker about Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita the thwarted affair between a widowed seamHayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Sig Ruman, stress and a small-town Texas shopkeeper John Carroll, Allyn Joslyn, Noah Beery, that begins in 1966, spans three decades, Jr. Quintessential Howard Hawks movie, and begins to repeat itself when their grown full of idealized men and women (and children fall in love. Stagy, contrived, and what men and women!) in this look at never plausible, with some hilariously unrelationships among mail pilots stationed convincing old-age wigs and makeup efin South America—and how things heat fects. [R]▼쩠 up when a showgirl (Arthur) is tossed into Only Two Can Play (1962-British) 106m. ★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Peter Sellers, Mai the stew. An important star-boosting showcase for Hayworth, too. Jules Furthman Zetterling, Virginia Maskell, Richard Attenborough, Kenneth Griffith. Well-intentioned scripted, from a story by Hawks.▼쩠 Only Game in Town, The (1970) C-113m. filming of Kingsley Amis novel That Un★★★ D: George Stevens. Elizabeth Taylor, certain Feeling (adapted by Bryan Forbes), Warren Beatty, Charles Braswell, Hank striving for quick laughs rather than satire. Henry, Olga Valery. Romance of chorus Sellers is librarian flirting with society girl and gambler takes place in Las Vegas, woman Zetterling.▼ but was shot in Paris and suffers for it; Only When I Larf (1968-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Basil Dearden. Richard Attenrestriction of action to indoor scenes slows pace of this pleasant adaptation of Frank borough, David Hemmings, Alexandra D. Gilroy’s play. Beatty is excellent. Stewart, Nicholas Pennell. Fun con-game Stevens’ final film. [M/PG]▼ film finds three confidence men scheming [ 1028 ]

to sell militant African diplomat scrap metal in ammunition cases. [G] Only When I Laugh (1981) C-120m. ★★★ D: Glenn Jordan. Marsha Mason, Kristy McNichol, James Coco, Joan Hackett, David Dukes, John Bennett Perry, Kevin Bacon. Bittersweet Neil Simon comedy about alcoholic actress Mason struggling to stay off the bottle and her relationship with teenaged daughter McNichol. Fine performances by the leads, superior ones by Coco as a gay failed actor and Hackett as an aging Park Avenue beauty. Screenplay by Simon, loosely based on his play The Gingerbread Lady. [R]▼● Only You (1992) C-85m. ★★ D: Betty Thomas. Andrew McCarthy, Kelly Preston, Helen Hunt, Daniel Roebuck, Denny Dillon, Kid Creole and The Coconuts. McCarthy, dumped by his dishy girlfriendof-the-moment, meets sexy Preston and winds up taking her on his vacation jaunt to an idyllic beach resort . . . but are looks really everything? Pleasant-enough romantic comedy, with a capable and attractive cast, gets just too predictable to sustain itself. Reni Santoni appears unbilled. Released direct to video. Clairmont-Scope. [PG-13]▼● Only You (1994) C-108m. ★★★ D: Norman Jewison. Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey, Jr., Bonnie Hunt, Joaquim De Almeida, Fisher Stevens, Billy Zane, Adam LeFevre, John Benjamin Hickey, Siobhan Fallon, Phyllis Newman. Likable confection about a young woman who spends her whole life searching for her perfect mate—whose name was conjured up in childhood on a Ouija board; fate and happenstance bring her to Europe to meet her ‘‘other half.’’ Tomei’s earnest and appealing performance makes the far-fetched story work. Director Jewison provides a dreamy travelogue of Italy (photographed by Sven Nykvist, no less) as her backdrop. Like so many contemporary romantic comedies, this one invokes an earlier one (ROMAN HOLIDAY) to justify its existence. [PG]▼●쩠 On Moonlight Bay (1951) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Del Ruth. Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Billy Gray, Mary Wickes, Leon Ames, Rosemary DeCamp. Turn-of-thecentury, folksy musical based on Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories with tomboy (Day) and next door neighbor (MacRae) the wholesome young lovers. Sequel: BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON.

and emotionally distanced from his father, and learns that his mother (Davis, who is superb) is a schizophrenic. The scenario details how he is affected by her illness, her personality, and her fate.▼ On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who . . . (1968-Italian) C-93m. BOMB D: Pasquale Festa Campanile. Tony Curtis, Monica Vitti, Hugh Griffith, John Richardson, Ivo Garrani, Nino Castelnuovo. Weak comedy about Vitti’s chastity belt was held back from release for a long time, and no wonder. Aka THE CHASTITY BELT. [R] On Our Merry Way (1948) 107m. ★★ D: King Vidor, Leslie Fenton. Burgess Meredith, Paulette Goddard, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Fred MacMurray, William Demarest, Dorothy Lamour, Victor Moore, Harry James, Eduardo Ciannelli, Dorothy Ford, Hugh Herbert. Silly multi-episode comedy, with a buoyant Meredith posing as an inquiring reporter and asking people what impact a baby has had on their life. Strained slapstick throughout. Protracted sequence, with Stewart and Fonda as laconic musician pals, was written by John O’Hara. Aka A MIRACLE CAN HAPPEN.▼쩠 On the Avenue (1937) 89m. ★★★ D: Roy Del Ruth. Dick Powell, Madeleine Carroll, Alice Faye, Ritz Brothers, Alan Mowbray, Billy Gilbert, Cora Witherspoon, Joan Davis, Sig Rumann. Tasteful, intelligent musical of socialite Carroll getting involved with stage star Powell. One good Irving Berlin song after another: ‘‘I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm,’’ ‘‘This Year’s Kisses,’’ ‘‘Let’s Go Slumming,’’ ‘‘The Girl on the Police Gazette.’’▼쩠 On the Beach (1959) 133m. ★★★★ D: Stanley Kramer. Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, John Tate, Guy Doleman. Thoughtful version of Nevil Shute’s novel about Australians awaiting effects of nuclear fallout from explosion that has depopulated the rest of the world. Good performances by all, including Astaire in his first dramatic role. Screenplay by John Paxton. Remade for cable TV in 2000. ▼●쩠 On the Double (1961) C-92m. ★★★ D: Melville Shavelson. Danny Kaye, Dana Wynter, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Margaret Rutherford, Diana Dors. Danny’s resemblance to English general makes him valuable as a WW2 spy. At one point he does a Marlene Dietrich imitation! Repeats dual▼●쩠 On My Own (1992-Italian-Canadianidentity gimmick from Kaye’s earlier ON 1 ★★★ Australian) C-93m. ⁄2 D: Antonio THE RIVIERA with equally entertaining Tibaldi. Judy Davis, Matthew Ferguson, results. Panavision. David McIlwraith, Nicolas Van Burek, On the Edge (1985) C-92m. ★★ D: Rob Michele Melega, Colin Fox, Jan Rubes. Nilsson. Bruce Dern, Bill Bailey, Jim Complex, deeply felt, hauntingly powerful Haynie, John Marley, Pam Grier. Wellcoming-of-age drama about 15-year-old Fermeaning but predictable, ultimately disapguson, who attends a boys’ prep school. pointing tale of middle-aged Dern, who atHis parents are divorced; he’s physically tempts to redeem his life by competing in a [ 1029 ]

grueling footrace. Available in unrated verges the span between sequences of astrosion. [PG-13]▼쩠 naut endurance tests and other space-flight On the Line (2001) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Eric maneuvers. CinemaScope. Bross. Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, EmmanuOn the Town (1949) C-98m. ★★★★ D: elle Chriqui, Dave Foley, Jerry Stiller, GQ Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen. Gene Kelly, (Gregory Qayium), James Bulliard, Tamala Frank Sinatra, Vera-Ellen, Betty Garrett, Jones, Richie Sambora, Dan Montgomery, Ann Miller, Jules Munshin, Alice Pearce, Al Green. Nice guy meets a cute girl on the Florence Bates. Three sailors have 24 hours Chicago el, fails to get her name or phone to take in the sights and sounds of N.Y.C. number, then mounts a campaign to find her. Exuberant MGM musical, innovatively Intended to showcase *NSYNC’s Bass, shot on location all over the City, isn’t who’s likable enough, but this is a simplistic much in terms of plot and discards some of five-minute concept stretched to feature the best songs from the Betty Comden– length. (In fact, it’s a remake of a short subject Adolph Green–Leonard Bernstein show on by the same writers.) Bass’ onscreen friends which it’s based . . . but it’s still terrific (including *NSYNC’s Fatone) are obnoxious; entertainment. Highlight: ‘‘New York, even Stiller and Foley flounder with unNew York.’’ Oscar winner for Roger funny material. [PG] ▼쩠 Edens and Lennie Hayton’s musical scorOn the Nickel (1980) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing. An impressive directing debut for Ralph Waite. Donald Moffat, Ralph Waite, Kelly and Donen.▼●쩠 Penelope Allen, Hal Williams, Jack Kehoe. On the Waterfront (1954) 108m. ★★★★ Odd, sentimental film about bums Moffat D: Elia Kazan. Marlon Brando, Karl Maland Waite and their experiences on L.A.’s den, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henskid row. Directed, scripted, and produced ning, Eva Marie Saint, Leif Erickson, Tony by Waite, light years away from The Galento, John Hamilton, Nehemiah Persoff. Waltons. [R]▼ Budd Schulberg’s unflinching account of 1 ★★ On the Right Track (1981) C-98m. ⁄2 N.Y.C. harbor unions (suggested by artiD: Lee Philips. Gary Coleman, Lisa Eilcles by Malcolm Johnson), with Brando bacher, Michael Lembeck, Norman Fell, unforgettable as misfit, Steiger his crafty Maureen Stapleton, Bill Russell, Herb brother, Cobb his waterfront boss, and Edelman. Coleman is a lovable 10-yearSaint the girl he loves. That classic scene old shoeshine boy who lives out of a train in the back of a taxicab is just as moving as station locker and predicts horserace winever. Winner of eight Oscars: Best Picture, ners like the hero of THREE MEN ON A Director, Actor (Brando), Supporting AcHORSE; Stapleton is on hand as a bag tress (Saint), Story & Screenplay, Cinelady. Coleman’s theatrical starring debut matography (Boris Kaufman), Art Direcis hardly feature-film material. [PG]▼ tion-Set Decoration (Richard Day), and On the Riviera (1951) C-90m. ★★★ D: Editing (Gene Milford). Leonard BernWalter Lang. Danny Kaye, Gene Tierney, stein’s music is another major asset. Film Corinne Calvet, Marcel Dalio, Jean Murat. debuts of Saint, Martin Balsam, Fred Bouncy musicomedy with Danny in dual Gwynne, and Pat Hingle. Adapted as a role as entertainer and French military hero. Broadway show decades later.▼●쩠 ‘‘Ballin’ the Jack,’’ other songs in lively On the Yard (1979) C-102m. ★★ D: Rafilm. Gwen Verdon is one of chorus girls. phael D. Silver. John Heard, Thomas D. Remake of Maurice Chevalier’s FOLIES Waites, Mike Kellin, Richard Bright, Joe BERGERE.쩠 Grifasi, Lane Smith. Convict Heard makes On the Road Again SEE: Honeysuckle a fatal mistake by mixing it up with jailRose house kingpin Waites. So-so prison pic1 ★★★ On the Ropes (1999) C-94m. ⁄2 D: Nature seems hardly worth the effort, though nette Burstein, Brett Morgen. Compelling Kellin is memorable as an aging loser documentary about a former boxer named trying to get paroled. [R]▼ Harry Keitt who works with young people On Valentine’s Day (1986) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 at a Brooklyn gym, hoping to give them D: Ken Harrison. William Conversefocus and purpose as well as a possible caRoberts, Hallie Foote, Michael Higgins, reer after they’re showcased at the Golden Steven Hill, Rochelle Oliver, Richard Gloves. The film follows three of his prote´Jenkins, Carol Goodheart, Horton Foote, ge´s—a promising young woman who’s Jr., Matthew Broderick. Literate but unbeen dealt a bad hand, a cocky young man memorable account of the various goingswho thinks he knows the answers, and a real on in a small Texas town in 1917. Interestcomer who’s too easily seduced by the lure ingcharacterizations, good performances, of fame and fortune. Rich, real, often but doesn’t add up to much. Semiautobioheartbreaking . . . a must-see. ▼쩠 graphical screenplay by Horton Foote. FolOn the Threshold of Space (1956) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert D. Webb. Guy Madison, lowed by CONVICTS; both are prequels to 1918. Produced for PBS’s American Virginia Leith, John Hodiak, Dean Jagger, Warren Stevens. Capable cast merely bridPlayhouse, where it was telecast (along [ 1030 ]

Open Season (1996) C-97m. ★★★ D: Robert Wuhl. Robert Wuhl, Rod Taylor, Helen Shaver, Gailard Sartain, Maggie Han, Steven C. White, Timothy Arrington, Barry Flatman, Dina Merrill, Saul Rubinek, Tom Selleck, Alan Thicke, Jimmie Walker, Joe Piscopo. Smart, funny satire of television and our competitive society. Wuhl plays a nerdy but straight-arrow worker bee at a ratings company who through personal integrity and candor has a knack for getting himself into trouble; then he stumbles into a job in public broadcasting. Fine supporting cast, including Taylor in a pungent performance as a messianic programming chief. Filmed in 1993. [R] ▼● Open Season (2006) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jill Culton, Roger Allers. Voices of Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Gary Sinise, Debra Messing, Billy Connolly, Jon Favreau, Georgia Engel, Jane Krakowski, Gordon Tootoosis, Patrick Warburton. A grizzly bear lives a pampered existence with a female park ranger who’s adopted him until a hyperactive mule deer comes into his life. When he’s returned to the woods his only goal is to get back to his comfy home . . . but it isn’t going to be easy. Expressive characters, great comedy timing, and entertaining voice work get this off to a great start, but the simple story stretches out longer than it should. Followed by a DVD sequel. [PG]쩠 Open Water (2004) C-80m. ★★★ D: Chris Kentis. Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis. Young couple gets away from the stress of daily life with a last-minute vacation south of the border. After a scuba expedition they’re somehow left behind by their excur▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Kevin Open Range (2003) C-138m. sion boat and must find a way to survive on Costner. Robert Duvall, Kevin Costner, Antheir own, in the middle of the ocean, withnette Bening, Michael Gambon, Michael out food or water, surrounded by sharks. Jeter, Diego Luna, James Russo, Abraham Intense drama eschews Hollywood cliche´s Benrubi, Dean McDermott, Kim Coates, for a perceptive study of chance, fate, and Cliff Saunders. In 1882, some cattle drivers emotions stripped raw. Debut feature for run afoul of a local despot who’s declared writer-director-editor-cocinematographer war on ‘‘freegrazers.’’ Instead of moving Kentis. His wife, Laura Lau, produced and on, the highly moral Duvall and partner also did camerawork. Followed by an inCostner decide to stay and fight for what’s name-only direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼쩠 right. The story is as simple as a Roy Rogers Open Your Eyes (1998-Spanish-FrenchB movie, writ large, and while some of the Italian) C-119m. ★1⁄2 D: Alejandro Amena´dialogue tends toward declarations, it’s a bar. Pene´lope Cruz, Eduardo Noriega, classical Western, carefully crafted and Chete Lera, Fele Martı´nez, Najwa Nimri. A moving at a deliberate pace as it follows all handsome young man falls in love, but his of the genre’s rituals. Duvall is a pleasure jealous former girlfriend deals him a cruel to watch. Production design and use of the blow. Murky psychological thriller bounces Alberta landscape are first-rate. Based on a from present-day reality to a nightmarish novel, The Open Range Men, by Lauran vision of the past and present. The hero bePaine. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 comes a tortured soul, but why do we in the Open Season (1974-Spanish) C-103m. audience have to suffer too? Original title: BOMB D: Peter Collinson. Peter Fonda, ABRE LOS OJOS. Remade in 2001 as VAJohn Phillip Law, Richard Lynch, William NILLA SKY. [R]▼쩠 Holden, Cornelia Sharpe. Sordid mixture Operation Amsterdam (1960-British) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael McCarthy. Peter of violence and sex as three Vietnam War buddies hunt humans. Video title: RECON Finch, Eva Bartok, Tony Britton, AlexanGAME. Panavision. [R]▼ der Knox, Malcolm Keen. Standard war[ 1031 ] with 1918) as STORY OF A MARRIAGE. [PG]▼쩠 Open City (1945-Italian) 105m. ★★★★ D: Roberto Rossellini. Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero, Maria Michi, Vito Annicchiarico, Nando Bruno, Harry Feist. Classic Rossellini account of Italian underground movement during Nazi occupation of Rome; powerful moviemaking gem with excellent performances from a memorable cast. Cowritten by Rossellini, Federico Fellini, and Sergio Amidei. Aka ROME, OPEN CITY.▼●쩠 Open Doors (1990-Italian) C-109m. ★★★ D: Gianni Amelio. Gian Maria Volonte, Ennio Fantastichini, Renzo Giovampietro, Renato Carpentieri, Tuccio Musumeci. Stimulating drama about jurist Volonte, presiding over a murder trial in Fascist Italy. A thoughtful look at the personal implications of judging others, of what it means to condemn another to death even if he is obviously guilty. It also focuses on the need to probe for truth and justice in spite of political repression. [R]▼ Opening Night (1977) C-144m. ★★★ D: John Cassavetes. Gena Rowlands, John Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart, Zohra Lampert. Fascinating if you appreciate Cassavetes’ style (he also wrote it); interminable if you don’t. Rowlands is an actress facing a midlife crisis triggered by the death of an adoring fan while her play is trying out in New Haven. Blondell fine as the sympathetic authoress, Cassavetes himself no less interesting as Rowlands’ costar. Look for Peter Falk, Peter Bogdanovich, and Seymour Cassel.

time suspense fare as British expedition Operation Overthrow SEE: Power Play Operation Pacific (1951) 111m. ★★★ D: tries to sneak a cache of diamonds out of Holland before Nazis can get to them.▼쩠 George Waggner. John Wayne, Patricia Operation Condor SEE: Armour of God Neal, Ward Bond, Scott Forbes. Overzealous 2: Operation Condor submariner Wayne is ultradedicated to his Operation Crossbow (1965) C-116m. navy command; the WW2 action scenes are ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. George Peptaut, and Neal makes a believable love interest.▼●쩠 pard, Sophia Loren, Trevor Howard, Tom Courtenay, Jeremy Kemp, Anthony Quayle, Operation Petticoat (1959) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 John Mills, Sylvia Syms, Richard Todd, D: Blake Edwards. Cary Grant, Tony CurLilli Palmer. Fine ‘‘impossible mission’’ tis, Dina Merrill, Gene Evans, Arthur tale of small band of commandos out to O’Connell, Richard Sargent, Virginia Gregg, destroy Nazi secret missile stronghold durRobert F. Simon, Gavin MacLeod, Madlyn ing WW2. Sensational ending, and the pyRhue, Marion Ross, Nicky Blair. Hilarirotechnics are dazzling. Scripted by Robert ous comedy about submarine captain Grant Imrie (Emeric Pressburger), Derry Quinn, who’s determined to make his injured ship and Ray Rigby. Retitled THE GREAT SPY seaworthy again, and con artist Curtis who MISSION. Panavision.▼●쩠 wheels and deals to reach that goal. Some Operation Daybreak (1976) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 truly memorable gags; Grant and Curtis D: Lewis Gilbert. Timothy Bottoms, Marare a dynamite team in this happy film. tin Shaw, Joss Ackland, Nicola Pagett, Remade for TV in 1977.▼●쩠 Anthony Andrews, Anton Diffring. WellOperation St. Peter’s (1968-Italian) Cmade but uninspiring account of Czech 100m. ★★ D: Lucio Fulci. Edward G. underground’s attempt to assassinate ReinRobinson, Lando Buzzanca, Jean-Claude Brihard ‘‘Hangman’’ Heydrich, Hitler’s rightaly. Average heist film with a twist: attempt hand man, during WW2. Retitled PRICE to steal Michelangelo’s Pieta` from Vatican— OF FREEDOM. [PG]▼ it’s tough to fence. Techniscope. [G] Operation Double 007 SEE: Operation Operation Thunderbolt (1977) C-125m. ★★★ D: Menahem Golan. Yehoram Gaon, Kid Brother Operation Dumbo Drop (1995) C-107m. Klaus Kinski, Assaf Dayan, Shai K. Ophir, ★★1⁄2 D: Simon Wincer. Danny Glover, Ray Sybil Danning. Stunning retelling of the Liotta, Denis Leary, Doug E. Doug, Corin famed raid by Israeli commandos on July Nemec, Dinh Thien Le, Tcheky Karyo, 4, 1976, to rescue 104 hijacked passengers Hoang Ly, James Hong. In the midst of the from a plane at Entebbe in Uganda. The Vietnam War, a new, by-the-book captain stamp of official Israeli approval given this (Liotta) arrives in a strategic village to take film and dedicated performances by a basithe place of Glover, but finds himself on an cally Israeli cast make this one outshine unlikely adventure to replace the hamlet’s both star-laden American-made dramatizaall-important elephant. Surprisingly flat tions, RAID ON ENTEBBE and VICTORY AT ENTEBBE. [PG]▼쩠 until the climax, when things finally pick up. Also an odd choice of setting and subOpium Connection, The SEE: Poppy Is ject for a Disney family film . . . which Also a Flower, The explains the lack of swearing and the tonOpportunists, The (2000) C-89m. ★★ D: ing-down of Leary’s conniving character. Myles Connell. Christopher Walken, Peter Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 McDonald, Cyndi Lauper, Vera Farmiga, Operation Kid Brother (1967-Italian) CDonal Logue, Jose Zuniga, Tom Noonan, 104m. ★1⁄2 D: Alberto De Martino. Neil Anne Pitoniak, Kate Burton. Walken plays a Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Adolfo Celi, perpetual screw-up who’s persuaded to particBernard Lee, Anthony Dawson, Lois Maxipate in a robbery that’s a ‘‘sure thing’’ . . . well. Screen debut of Sean Connery’s brother even though he served time for his last atin James Bond spinoff is a disaster, in tale of tempt. Low-key to the point of catatonia, master criminal (Celi)’s plan to blackmail this formulaic yarn gets its only juice from Allied governments into controlling half of Walken; Lauper is good as his independentworld’s gold supply. Aka: OPERATION minded girlfriend. [R] DOUBLE 007; video title: SECRET Opportunity Knocks (1990) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 AGENT 00. Techniscope.▼ D: Donald Petrie. Dana Carvey, Robert Operation M SEE: Hell’s Bloody Devils Loggia, Todd Graff, Julia Campbell, Milo Operation Mad Ball (1957) 105m. ★★ D: O’Shea, James Tolkan, Doris Belack, Sally Richard Quine. Jack Lemmon, Kathryn Gracie, Del Close. Innocuous comedy about Grant (Crosby), Mickey Rooney, Ernie a con artist who assumes someone else’s Kovacs, Arthur O’Connell, James Darren, identity and falls into a plum job with a Roger Smith. Weak service comedy about bathroom-fixture tycoon, who happens to crafty soldiers planning wild party off have a cute daughter. First starring showbase. Dull stretches, few gags. O’Connell case for Saturday Night Live comic Carvey comes off better than supposed comedians lets him do his dialect shticks, but never in film.쩠 catches fire. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [ 1032 ]

Opposite of Sex, The (1998) C-105m. ★★★ briefly. Kevin Kline and Ben Stiller are unbilled. [PG-13]▼쩠 D: Don Roos. Christina Ricci, Martin DonOrca (1977) C-92m. ★★ D: Michael Anovan, Lisa Kudrow, Lyle Lovett, Johnny derson. Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Galecki, William Scott Lee, Ivan Sergei. Will Sampson, Peter Hooten, Bo Derek, Bold, clever black comedy about a truculent Keenan Wynn, Robert Carradine. Killer 16-year-old girl who runs away from home whale avenges himself on bounty hunter to stay with her gay half-brother, willfully Harris and crew for killing pregnant mate. disrupts his relationships, and sets his life For undiscriminating action fans whose idea into a spin. Writer-director Roos creates a of entertainment is watching Bo getting her gallery of unusual and interesting characters, leg bitten off. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 but it’s a tie who has the smartest, funniest Orchestra Conductor, The (1980-Polish) lines—Ricci, as the smart-alecky heroine/narC-101m. ★★ D: Andrzej Wajda. John rator, or Kudrow, as the brother’s sour confiGielgud, Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Seweryn, dante. Not for all tastes. [R]▼●쩠 Jan Ciercierski. Uneven drama about aged Opposite Sex, The (1956) C-117m. ★★★ Polish conductor Gielgud returning to his D: David Miller. June Allyson, Joan hometown. Excellent cast is defeated by a Collins, Dolores Gray, Ann Sheridan, Ann superficially philosophical script. Video Miller, Leslie Nielsen, Jeff Richards, Agtitle: THE CONDUCTOR.▼ nes Moorehead, Charlotte Greenwood, Joan Orchestra Rehearsal (1979-Italian) C-72m. Blondell, Sam Levene, Alice Pearce, Bar★★1 ⁄2 D: Federico Fellini. Baldwin Baas, bara Jo Allen, Carolyn Jones, Alan MarClara Colosimo, Elizabeth Lubi, Ronoldo shal, Dick Shawn, Jim Backus, Harry James, Bonacchi, Ferdinando Villella. HeavyArt Mooney, Dean Jones. Well-heeled muhanded allegory that examines an orchessical remake of Clare Boothe Luce’s THE tra as microcosm of troubled world; occaWOMEN has stellar cast, but still pales sional moments of wit and insight, but next to brittle original (Shearer, Crawford, overall a disappointment. Made for Italian Russell, etc.). Major difference: music television. Music by Nino Rota. [R] ▼●쩠 and men appear in this expanded version. Orchestra Wives (1942) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: CinemaScope.▼● Archie Mayo. George Montgomery, Ann Opposite Sex (And How to Live With Rutherford, Glenn Miller and his Band, Them), The (1993) C-86m. BOMB D: Lynn Bari, Carole Landis, Cesar Romero, Matthew Meshekoff. Arye Gross, Courteney Virginia Gilmore, Mary Beth Hughes, The Cox, Kevin Pollak, Julie Brown, Mitchell Nicholas Brothers, Jackie Gleason, Henry Ryan, Phil Bruns, Mitzi McCall, B. J. (Harry) Morgan. Hokey storyline (with Ward, Jack Carter, Kimberlin Brown, hotshot trumpeter Montgomery impetuously Kimber Sissons, Andrea Evans. Painfully marrying moony-eyed fan Rutherford) strained comedy about courtship rituals serves as a nice showcase for Miller’s between a Jewish jock male and a WASP band, and features such hits as ‘‘Serenade female with hoity-toity friends. Complete in Blue,’’ ‘‘At Last,’’ and ‘‘I’ve Got a Gal with annoying first-person, eyes-into-thein Kalamazoo,’’ featuring Tex Beneke, camera chat-ups to us by all four leads. Sat The Modernaires, and a snazzy dance rouon the shelf, unreleased, roughly dating tine by The Nicholas Brothers. That’s young back to the Polk Administration. [R]▼● Jackie Gleason as the band’s bass player Optimists, The (1973-British) C-110m. . . . and look fast for Dale Evans as Ruth★★★ D: Anthony Simmons. Peter Sellers, erford’s soda-fountain pal.▼●쩠 Donna Mullane, John Chaffey, David Daker. Ordeal by Innocence (1984) C-87m. ★1⁄2 Entertaining comedy-drama of London busker D: Desmond Davis. Donald Sutherland, (street entertainer) Sellers and the two tough Faye Dunaway, Christopher Plummer, little kids he takes in hand. Songs by Lionel Sarah Miles, Ian McShane, Diana Quick, Bart include effective ‘‘Sometimes.’’ AlterAnnette Crosbie. Agatha Christie mystery nate version runs 94m. [PG]쩠 has American Sutherland as amateur sleuth Orange County (2002) C-81m. ★★ D: Jake in 1950s English hamlet. Cast wasted, logic Kasdan. Colin Hanks, Jack Black, Catherabsent in utterly pointless film. Score by Dave ine O’Hara, Schuyler Fisk, John Lithgow, Brubeck. Made in England. [PG-13]▼● Harold Ramis, Jane Adams, Garry Marshall, Order, The (2003) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian Dana Ivey, Chevy Chase, Lily Tomlin, Helgeland. Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, George Murdock, Leslie Mann. Southern CalMark Addy, Benno Fu¨rmann, Peter Weller, ifornia teen forsakes his fun-in-the-sun life to Francesco Carnelutti, Mattia Sbragia, Giulia become a writer, hoping to be accepted at Lombardi. Young priest Ledger is sent to Stanford University, but his wildly dysfuncRome to probe the mysterious death of his tional family (including a perpetually stoned mentor and discovers an ancient Catholic ritual brother) keeps getting in the way. Lumpy, involving ‘‘Sin Eaters,’’ an order of immortal goofball comedy suddenly turns serious and renegade priests who consume people’s sins. sincere toward the end—to no great effect. Boring, bloody, and often risible EXORCIST Written by Mike White, who also appears wannabe; another directing misfire for Oscar[ 1033 ]

winning screenwriter Helgeland. Super 35. a major dope-smuggling operation. Exciting chase sequences, realistic ending. [PG]▼쩠 [R]▼쩠 Order of Death SEE: Corrupt Organizer, The (1963-Italian) 126m. ★★★ Order of Myths, The (2008) C-78m. ★★★ D: Mario Monicelli. Marcello Mastroianni, D: Margaret Brown. Mobile, Alabama, hosts Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Bernard the oldest Mardi Gras in the U.S.—but to Blier. Serious look at labor union efforts in this day there are two parallel celebrations, Italy, with Mastroianni giving low-keyed one white and one black. Filmmaker Brown performance in title role.▼ (who grew up there) explores the history of Orgazmo (1997) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Trey Parthe city and reveals how age-old events still ker. Trey Parker, Dian Bachar, Robyn resonate there, even as eager participants Lynne Raab, Michael Dean Jacobs, Ron Jergear up for the biggest event(s) of the year. emy, Andrew W. Kemler, David Dunn, Matt A disarming and revealing slice of life that Stone. Surprisingly slick—and undeniably proves regionalism is alive and well in funny—low-budget farce about a young MorAmerica.쩠 mon on a mission who winds up being reOrdet (1955-Danish) 125m. ★★★★ D: Carl cruited to star in a porno movie being shot in Dreyer. Henrik Malberg, Emil Hass ChrisL.A. Written by Parker, and featuring his pal tensen, Preben Lerdorff Rye. Two rural Stone (together, the creators of South Park); families, at odds with each other over raunchy and offensive, but also surprisingly religious differences, are forced to come to conventional in its storytelling. Unrated 95m. grips with their children’s love for each version also available. [NC-17] ▼쩠 other. Arguably Dreyer’s greatest film, Oriental Dream SEE: Kismet (1944) but certainly the movies’ final word on the Original Fabulous Adventures of Baron struggle between conventional Christianity Munchausen, The SEE: Fabulous Baron and more personalized religious faith. Munchausen, The Original Gangstas (1996) C-98m. ★★ D: Truly awe-inspiring, with a never-to-beforgotten climactic scene. Based on a play Larry Cohen. Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, by Kaj Munk, filmed before in 1943.▼쩠 Pam Grier, Paul Winfield, Isabel Sanford, Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000-U.S.Oscar Brown, Jr., Richard Roundtree, Ron Irish-British) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Thaddeus O’Neal, Christopher B. Duncan, Eddie Bo O’Sullivan. Kevin Spacey, Linda Fiorentino, Smith, Jr., Dru Down, Robert Forster, Charles Helen Baxendale, Stephen Dillane, Peter MulNapier, Wings Hauser. Fast-paced but very lan, David Hayman, Patrick Malahide, Gerard violent action thriller marks a return to the McSorley, Colin Farrell. Smug Irish criminal blaxploitation films of the ’70s, reuniting Spacey likes to steal and takes pleasure not many of the genre’s top stars. When a gang only in outwitting the police but in humiliatshoots the father of a former bad boy turned ing them as well. The main character is so good guy, he enlists the services of his exarrogant and unlikable that it isn’t fun to buddies to rid the town of this new urban watch him taunt authority. Fiorentino and terror. Serviceable but hardly inspired; it’s still Spacey fumble with their brogues in this othfun to see these actors doing what comes naterwise forgettable film. Loosely based on the urally. [R]▼●쩠 life of Martin Cahill, whose story was told in Original Kings of Comedy, The (2000) C1998’s THE GENERAL. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Spike Lee. Steve Harvey, Ordinary People (1980) C-123m. ★★★★ D: D. L. Hughley, Cedric The Entertainer, BerRobert Redford. Donald Sutherland, Mary nie Mac. Lee’s straightforward filmization of Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. a concert in Charlotte, N.C., by four leading Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah black stand-up comics. Uncensored, funny Manoff, James B. Sikking. Superb adaptation riffs abound, mostly on the differences beof Judith Guest’s novel about a well-to-do famtween blacks and whites, but the film could’ve ily’s deterioration after the death of the eldest benefited from some tightening. Harvey is son, told mostly from the point of view of his hands down most hilarious, whether spoofing guilt-ridden younger brother. Intelligent, meticTITANIC or praising the virtues of oldulously crafted film, an impressive directorial school ’70s soul music. [R]▼쩠 debut for Redford, who won an Academy Original Sin (2001-U.S.-French) C-112m. ★1 Award, and young Hutton, who took the Best ⁄2 D: Michael Cristofer. Angelina Jolie, Supporting Actor prize. Other Oscars for Antonio Banderas, Thomas Jane, Pedro screenwriter Alvin Sargent and for Best Picture Armendariz, Gregory Itzin, Allison Mackie, ofthe Year. McGovern’s film debut.[R]▼●쩠 Joan Pringle, Cordelia Richards, Jack ThompOrganization, The (1971) C-107m. ★★★ son, James Haven. Overdone, laughably bad D: Don Medford. Sidney Poitier, Barbara adaptation of the Cornell Woolrich novel McNair, Sheree North, Gerald S. O’LoughWaltz Into Darkness (previously filmed by lin, Raul Julia, Fred Beir, Allen Garfield, Franc¸ois Truffaut as MISSISSIPPI MERRon O’Neal, Dan Travanty (Daniel J. TraMAID). Banderas plays a rich Cuban at the vanti), Max Gail. Poitier, in his third and final beginning of the 20th century who disappearance as Virgil Tibbs (from IN THE covers his young bride isn’t exactly what HEAT OF THE NIGHT), tries to bust open he thought. Of interest only for steamy sex [ 1034 ]

scenes between Jolie and Banderas. Also filmed before in 1915 and again in 1933 and 1955.▼●쩠 available in unrated version. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Orpheus (1949-French) 95m. ★★★ D: Jean Orlando (1993-British) C-93m. ★★★ D: Cocteau. Jean Marais, Francois Perier, MaSally Potter. Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Loria Casare´s, Marie Dea, Juliette Greco, thaire Bluteau, John Wood, Charlotte VaRoger Blin. Compelling cinematic allelandrey, Heathcote Williams, Quentin Crisp, gory set in modern times with poet Marais Peter Eyre, Ned Sherrin, Jimmy Somerville. encountering Princess of Death, exploring Well, it’s certainly unique: the story of sometheir mutual fascination. Heavy-handed at one who lives four hundred years (Swinton, times, but still quite special. Remade by in a stunning performance)—first as a man, Jacques Demy as PARKING. Original French running time: 112m.▼쩠 and later as a woman—evolving from a young nobleman in the era of Queen ElizaOsama (2003-Afghani-Dutch-Irish-JapaneseIranian) C-82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Siddiq Barmak. beth I (Quentin Crisp portrays the monarch!) to a highly sensitized contemporary woman Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar, of the 20th century. Set in, on, and around Mohamad Nader Khadjeh, Hamida Refah, various continents, time frames, and locales, Khwaja Nader. When the repressive Taliban this adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s 1928 book regime shuts down the small Afghan hospital (scripted by the director) is highly recomat which a 12-year-old girl assists her widmended for fans of the offbeat. Swinton’s owed mother, any chance of eking out a living young daughter, Jessica, portrays Orlando’s is cut off. Women are now forbidden to go daughter at the finale. [PG-13]▼●쩠 outdoors unescorted by a male relative, so Orphanage, The (2007-Mexican-Spanish) the child is disguised as a boy named C-106m. ★★★ D: Juan Antonio Bayona. Bele´n Osama; then the real dangers begin. HarRueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Prı´ncep, Montrowing drama achieves poignancy and serrat Carulla, Andre´s Gertru´dix, Edgar Vivar, power through its straightforward depiction Geraldine Chaplin. A woman and her husof one person’s destiny. Written, edited, and band move into the seaside mansion where coproduced by the director. First film made she spent part of her childhood when it was in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban; an orphanage. Their loving (adopted) son in fact, the first film made since the Taliban Simon has always had ‘‘imaginary’’ friends, rose to power and destroyed the Afghan film industry. [PG-13] ▼쩠 but in this strange new environment ‘‘they’’ turn violent and abduct the boy. Gothic Oscar, The (1966) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Russhocker builds suspense and terror in classical sell Rouse. Stephen Boyd, Elke Sommer, fashion, as this densely plotted story Eleanor Parker, Milton Berle, Joseph Cotten, unfolds—with unusual parallels to James Jill St. John, Ernest Borgnine, Edie Adams, Barrie’s Peter Pan. Bayona’s directorial Tony Bennett, Jean Hale. Shiny tinsel view debut; coproduced by Guillermo del Toro. of Hollywood and those competing for Panavision. [R]쩠 Academy Awards; Parker as love-hungry 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Alan J. Orphans (1987) C-120m. talent agent comes off best. Loosely based Pakula. Albert Finney, Matthew Modine, on Richard Sale novel, with many guest Kevin Anderson. Young punk brings a stars thrown in. Some of the dialogue is so well-heeled drunk home one night, planbad it’s laughable.▼ ning to fleece him, but soon learns that his Oscar (1991) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Lan‘‘victim’’ is no dummy; in fact, he quickly dis. Sylvester Stallone, Ornella Muti, Don takes over the lives of the hot-tempered Ameche, Peter Riegert, Tim Curry, Vinmugger and his slow-witted younger brother. cent Spano, Marisa Tomei, Eddie Bracken, Lyle Kessler’s script (from his own play) Linda Gray, Chazz Palminteri, Kurtwood fails to adapt its stage conventions to the Smith, Yvonne De Carlo, Ken Howard, new medium . . . but the performances are William Atherton, Martin Ferrero, Harry so powerful, and the material so emotional, Shearer, Richard Romanus, Kirk Douglas. that it’s still worthwhile. Besides, Finney Stallone is surprisingly enjoyable in a comic can do no wrong. [R]▼●쩠 change-of-pace, playing 1930s gangster AnOrphans of the Storm (1922) 125m. ★★★ gelo ‘‘Snaps’’ Provolone, who’s trying to D: D. W. Griffith. Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, go straight, despite the domestic and fiJoseph Schildkraut, Morgan Wallace, Lucille nancial chaos that surrounds him. Farcical LaVerne, Sheldon Lewis, Frank Puglia, comedy, complete with mistaken identities Creighton Hale, Monte Blue, Louis Wolheim. and slamming doors, offers showcases for Griffith’s epic about sisters cruelly separated, Palminteri as Snaps’ henchman, Curry as a one blind and raised by thieves, one innocent priggish speech teacher, Bracken as a stutand plundered by lecherous aristocrats. Imtering stoolie, and Shearer and Ferrero as plausible plot segues into French Revolution, the Finuccis but never quite takes wing. with lavish settings and race-to-the-rescue cliBased on a French play, filmed before in 1967 with Louis de Funes. [PG]▼●쩠 max. For all its creaky situations, and extreme length, still dazzling. Based on a 19th-century Oscar and Lucinda (1997-Australian) CFrench play, The Two Orphans, which was 132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gillian Armstrong. Ralph [ 1035 ]

Fiennes, Cate Blanchett, Ciara´n Hinds, Tom Ludlum thriller about a controversial talkWilkinson, Josephine Byrnes, Richard Roxshow host who’s recruited by the CIA to burgh, Billie Brown. Odd romance of two expose some friends who are supposedly Australian misfits in the mid 1800s: scarred Soviet agents. Consistently interesting but and tormented clergyman’s son Fiennes and aloof and cold, despite a top-notch cast. independent Victorian heiress Blanchett, Peckinpah’s final film. [R]▼●쩠 both of whom are gambling fanatics. The Otello (1986-Italian) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: wager of their lives becomes surreal, as an Franco Zeffirelli. Placido Domingo, Katia iron-and-glass church is transported by sea Ricciarelli, Justino Diaz, Petra Malakova, and overland into the wilderness. EccentricUrbano Barberini. Beautifully filmed verity upstages romance and passion in this sion of the Verdi opera, with Domingo in fine adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel. Reminisvoice in the title role; he is more than ably cent of Herzog’s FITZCARRALDO. Paassisted by Ricciarelli as wife Desdemona and navision. [R]▼●쩠 Diaz as the evil, manipulative Iago. Nearly Oscar Wilde (1960-British) 96m. ★★★ D: flawless in all respects; a must for opera Gregory Ratoff. Robert Morley, Phyllis buffs. [PG]▼●쩠 Calvert, John Neville, Ralph Richardson, Othello (1952-Italian) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Orson Dennis Price, Alexander Knox. Morley is Welles. Orson Welles, Micheal MacLiamideally cast as famed 19th-century playmoir, Suzanne Cloutier, Robert Coote, Miwright and wit, in film that focuses on his chael Lawrence, Fay Compton, Doris traumatic trials and eventual conviction for Dowling. Riveting, strikingly directed versodomy. Released at the same time as sion of the Shakespeare play with Welles THE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE with in the title role, lied to by Iago (MacLiamPeter Finch. moir) into thinking that wife Desdemona Osmosis Jones (2001) C-95m. ★★ D: Bobby (Cloutier) has been unfaithful. Shot, inFarrelly, Peter Farrelly; animation directors credibly, between 1949 and 1952, because Piet Kroon, Tom Sito. Bill Murray, Elena of budget difficulties; one of the most Franklin, Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott; fascinating (and underrated) attempts at voices of Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, Shakespeare ever filmed. Joseph Cotten David Hyde Pierce, Ron Howard, Brandy appears as a Senator, Joan Fontaine as a Norwood, William Shatner, Kid Rock, Ben Page. Reconstructed (with its music score Stein. A slovenly zoo attendant who neglects rerecorded) for 1992 reissue. Aka THE his daughter takes even worse care of his TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO: THE MOOR body; inside his system, a maverick blood cell OF VENICE. ▼●쩠 named Osmosis disobeys orders and tries to Othello (1965-British) C-166m. ★★★★ defeat an invading virus. Ingenious, wellD: Stuart Burge. Laurence Olivier, Frank designed animated film, full of clever ideas Finlay, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, about the workings of the human body, is all Derek Jacobi, Edward Hardwicke, Mike but undone by a live-action framing story Gambon, John McEnery. Brilliant transabout Bill Murray’s character, who is simply ferral to the screen of Shakespeare’s immordisgusting. Clairmont-Scope. [PG] ▼쩠 tal story of the Moor of Venice. Burge ★★★ O.S.S. (1946) 107m. D: Irving Pichel. directed the filming, Olivier staged the proAlan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric duction. Panavision.▼쩠 Knowles, Richard Benedict, Richard Webb, Othello (1995-U.S.-British) C-125m. ★★★ Don Beddoe, Onslow Stevens. Brisk WW2 D: Oliver Parker. Laurence Fishburne, Kenespionage film; Ladd is part of the Office neth Branagh, Ire`ne Jacob, Nathaniel Parker, of Strategic Services team sent to demolish Michael Maloney, Anna Patrick, Nicholas France’s railroad—and one key tunnel.▼ Farrell, Indra Ove, Michael Sheen, Pierre VaOssessione (1942-Italian) 140m. ★★★1⁄2 D: neck, Gabriele Ferzetti, Andre Oumansky, Luchino Visconti. Massimo Girotti, Clara Philip Locke, John Savident. Though not as Calamai, Juan deLanda, Elio Marcuzzo. brilliantly cinematic as Welles’ version, ParVisconti’s first feature triggered the great ker’s film may be more accessible to modern era of Italian neorealism, transplanting audiences, as the dialogue is delivered in a James Cain’s The Postman Always Rings naturalistic fashion. Fishburne is very good in Twice quite successfully to Fascist Italy; the title role, bringing out the warrior Moor’s however, as an unauthorized version of the essential innocence and passion, but Branagh book, it was not permitted to be shown in is brilliant as the witty, scheming Iago; Jacob, the U.S. until 1975. Heavy going at times, as Desdemona, is less satisfactory. Overall, an but fascinating nonetheless. Filmed earlier intelligent, respectable adaptation. [R] ▼●쩠 in France, twice later in the U.S.▼쩠 Other, The (1972) C-100m. ★★★ D: RobOsterman Weekend, The (1983) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Peckinpah. Rutger Hauer, ert Mulligan. Uta Hagen, Diana Muldaur, Chris Udvarnoky, Martin Udvarnoky, John Hurt, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Hopper, Norma Connolly, Victor French, Portia Chris Sarandon, Meg Foster, Helen Shaver, Nelson, John Ritter. Eerie tale of supernatCassie Yates, Burt Lancaster. Intriguing, sometimes confusing adaptation of Robert ural, with twin brothers representing good [ 1036 ]

and evil. Stark, chilling mood tale adapted heartfelt saga based on the life of John Groby Thomas Tryon from his novel. [PG]▼쩠 berg, a dedicated young man who leaves his Other Boleyn Girl, The (2008-U.S.fiance´e in the 1940s to bring religious teachBritish) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Justin Chadwick. ings to the people of Tonga in the South PaNatalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric cific. Corny and two-dimensional at times, Bana, Kristin Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance, but the film’s sincerity ultimately wins out. David Morrissey, Jim Sturgess, Benedict Although the protagonist is a missionary for Cumberbatch, Oliver Coleman, Ana Torthe Mormon church, the film does not prosrent, Eddie Redmayne, Juno Temple. Imelytize. [PG]▼쩠 poverished family’s scheme to curry favor Other Side of Midnight, The (1977) with England’s King Henry VIII by foisting C-165m. BOMB D: Charles Jarrott. Marietheir daughter Anne (Portman) on him France Pisier, John Beck, Susan Sarandon, backfires when he shows more interest in Raf Vallone, Clu Gulager, Christian Marher sister Mary (Johansson) . . . at least, at quand, Michael Lerner, Howard Hesseman. first. Absorbing historical drama is exTrashy Sidney Sheldon novel gets the treattremely well acted, with Bana an uncharacment it deserves in ponderous story, set teristically subdued Henry VIII, but looks from 1939–1947, about a woman who parcheap at times, and lacks a certain punch. lays her body into film stardom. Dull, as Peter Morgan streamlined Philippa Gregory’s opposed to lively, drek. [R]▼쩠 best-selling novel, which also was filmed in Other Side of Paradise, The SEE: Fox2003 for British TV. [PG-13]쩠 trot Other Love, The (1947) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Other Side of the Bed, The (2002-Spanish) Andre de Toth. Barbara Stanwyck, David C-109m. ★★★ D: Emilio Martı´nez-La´zaro. ErNiven, Richard Conte, Maria Palmer, Joan nesto Alterio, Paz Vega, Guillermo Toledo, Lorring, Gilbert Roland, Richard Hale, Natalia Verbeke, Alberto San Juan, Marı´a EsLenore Aubert. Dying Stanwyck decides teve, Ramo´n Barea, Nathalie Poza. The to live wild life with gambler Conte, ungnarled sex lives of two couples unravel and aware that doctor Niven loves her. Not then come together again in this colorful muconvincing, but enjoyable. sical, a big hit in Spain. Everyone talks a lot Other People’s Money (1991) C-101m. and sings about sex, both straight and gay. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Jewison. Danny DeVito, Frolicsome, with dance numbers and (mild) Gregory Peck, Penelope Ann Miller, Piper sex scenes galore. It’s fairly pointless but Laurie, Dean Jones, Tom Aldredge, R. D. good-natured fun. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Call. Ruthless Wall Street predator known Other Side of the Mountain, The (1975) as Larry the Liquidator sets his sights on C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Peerce. Marilyn acquiring—and destroying—the New EnHassett, Beau Bridges, Belinda J. Montgland wire and cable company run in tradigomery, Nan Martin, William Bryant, tional and familial style by Peck . . . but Dabney Coleman, Dori Brenner, Griffin he doesn’t count on having to battle a Dunne. Pleasantly performed but undistinlawyer as smart (or as appealing) as Miller, guished true-life tragedy about skier Jill who just happens to be Peck’s daughter. A Kinmont, once a shoo-in for the Olympics great vehicle for DeVito, though lacking until a sporting accident left her paralyzed the bite (and the ethnicity) of Jerry Sternfrom the shoulders down. Followed by 1978 sequel. [PG]▼ er’s off-Broadway play. Slick and engaging, but never really satisfying. [R]▼●쩠 Other Side of the Mountain Part 2, The (1978) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Peerce. Others, The (2001-Spanish-U.S.) C-101m. ★★★ D: Alejandro Amena´bar. Nicole KidMarilyn Hassett, Timothy Bottoms, Nan man, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher EcclesMartin, Belinda J. Montgomery, Gretchen ton, Elaine Cassidy, Eric Sykes, Alakina Corbett, William Bryant. Smooth continuMann, James Bentley, Rene´e Asherson. Enation of story of crippled skier Jill Kinmont grossing ghost story set on the Channel Islands (Hassett), who finds true love with trucker in 1945. A troubled woman whose husband Bottoms. Timothy’s real-life father James has never returned from the war tries to mainplays his dad in this film. [PG]▼ tain her creepy old house while protecting— Other Sister, The (1999) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 or is it overprotecting?—her two young chilD: Garry Marshall. Juliette Lewis, Diane dren. A new household staff may be part of Keaton, Tom Skerritt, Giovanni Ribisi, the solution, or just another manifestation of Poppy Montgomery, Sarah Paulson, Linda the problem. In the tradition of THE Thorson, Juliet Mills, Hector Elizondo. SenHAUNTING (1963), this eerie film builds timental but unfocused film about a mentension by showing virtually nothing, but firtally challenged girl and her first attempts ing our imagination. Written by the director. to free herself from a smothering mother. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Appealing performances by Lewis and RibOther Side of Heaven, The (2001) Cisi (as her boyfriend) help make up for the 1 ★★ 113m. wandering nature of the screenplay, though ⁄2 D: Mitch Davis. Christopher Gorham, Anne Hathaway, Joe Folau, Miriit would be hard not to shed a tear by the ama Smith, Nathaniel Lees. Old-fashioned, end. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [ 1037 ]

Otley (1969-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Dick Germa´n Jaramillo, Anderson Ballesteros, Juan Clement. Tom Courtenay, Romy SchneiDavid Restrepo, Manuel Busquets, Wilmar ´ lvarez. A middleder, Alan Badel, James Villiers, Leonard Agudelo, Juan Carlos A Rossiter, Fiona Lewis, Freddie Jones, Ronaged writer returns to his birthplace of Medelald Lacey. Static spy spoof about petty thief lin, Colombia, and begins an affair with a and beautiful secret agent is helped a bit by teenaged boy from the streets in the midst of Courtenay and Schneider, but otherwise has the city’s social and moral chaos. Fascinating little to recommend it. [M/PG] subject matter, well filmed by Schroeder (in Our Brand Is Crisis (2005) C-87m. ★★★ high-definition video). Undeniably powerful D: Rachel Boynton. Savvy documentary ofat times, but the points about a culture of fers a revealing exploration of ‘‘foreign poldeath are repeated so often that it all loses icy for profit,’’ spotlighting the manner in steam by the end. Screenplay by Fernando which consulting firms market political canVallejo, based on his novel. [R]▼쩠 didates across the globe. The emphasis is on Our Little Girl (1935) 63m. ★★1⁄2 D: John a U.S.-based firm (one of whose partners is Robertson. Shirley Temple, Rosemary James Carville) hired to help a less-thanAmes, Joel McCrea, Lyle Talbot, Erin forthcoming candidate win a presidential O’Brien-Moore. Usual Temple plot of Shirelection in Brazil. While its message isn’t ley bringing separated parents McCrea and new, the film is a worthy companion piece Ames together again. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ to such classics of the genre as THE WAR ROOM.쩠 Our Man Flint (1966) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Our Daily Bread (1934) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Daniel Mann. James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, King Vidor. Karen Morley, Tom Keene, Gila Golan, Edward Mulhare, Benson Fong, John Qualen, Barbara Pepper, Addison Gianna Serra. One of the countless James Richards, Harry Holman. Landmark experiBond spoofs, this saga of the man from ment by always innovative filmmaker Z.O.W.I.E. starts briskly, becomes forced Vidor, who stepped outside the studio sysafter a while. Coburn makes a zesty hero, tem to make this bold, back-to-the-soil Golan an attractive decoration; look for drama about communal living. UnfortuJames Brolin as a technician. Followed by nately, the acting—especially by leading a sequel (IN LIKE FLINT) and a TVM in man Keene—is so pedestrian as to sabotage 1976. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 the film. Climactic irrigation sequence is Our Man in Havana (1960-British) 107m. ★★1 justly famous, however.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Carol Reed. Alec Guinness, Burl Our Dancing Daughters (1928) 83m. ★★★ Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ernie Kovacs, Noel D: Harry Beaumont. Joan Crawford, Johnny Coward, Ralph Richardson, Jo Morrow. Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, Nils Asther, Weak satirical spy spoof, adapted by Graham Anita Page, Kathlyn Williams, Edward NuGreene from his novel. Guinness is vacuum gent. One of the best Jazz Age silents, with cleaner salesman who becomes British secret absurdly melodramatic story: flapper Joan agent in Cuba. CinemaScope.쩠 loses Johnny to Anita Page, who’s been Our Miss Brooks (1956) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Al pushed into marriage against her will. CrystalLewis. Eve Arden, Gale Gordon, Nick lization of the Roaring ’20s. Silent film with Adams, Robert Rockwell, Richard Crenna, synchronized music track (and even an occaDon Porter, Jane Morgan. Fairly amusing sional bit of off-screen dialogue).▼● feature based on beloved TV series has Our Hitler (1980-German) C-420m. ★★ Arden’s Brooks trying to snag Rockwell’s D: Hans-Jurgen Syberberg. Heinz Schubert, Mr. Boynton and interest Adams in jourPeter Kern, Hellmut Lange, Rainer von Arnalism. Crenna’s screeching serenade, ‘‘It’s Magic,’’ is a high point.▼ tenfels, Martin Sperr. Frightfully pretentious, stage-influenced 7-hour rationalization of HitOur Modern Maidens (1929) 75m. ★★★ ler’s rise to power would probably play better D: Jack Conway. Joan Crawford, Rod La if shown in four parts, as it was on German Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Anita Page, TV. A stimulating intellectual exercise for Josephine Dunn, Edward Nugent, Albert some, a laxative for most; distributed in the Gran. Entertaining silent jazz-age saga about U.S. by Francis Ford Coppola.쩠 a young ‘‘modern’’ (Crawford) who disdains Our Hospitality (1923) 74m. ★★★★ D: conventional morality and tries to help the Buster Keaton, Jack Blystone. Buster career of her fiance´ (Fairbanks) by coming on Keaton, Natalie Talmadge, Joe Keaton, to worldly diplomat La Rocque. Special treat Joe Roberts. Buster goes to the South to for film buffs: Doug Jr. does impressions of claim a family inheritance, and falls in love John Barrymore, John Gilbert, and his own with the daughter of a longtime rival clan. father! This late-silent release has a synchroSublime silent comedy, one of Buster’s nized music score, with crowd noises and best, with a genuinely hair-raising finale. sound effects. Crawford and Fairbanks were Incidentally, Buster married his leading married in real life at this time.▼● lady in real life.▼●쩠 Our Mother’s House (1967-British) COur Lady of the Assassins (2000-French105m. ★★★ D: Jack Clayton. Dirk Bogarde, Spanish) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barbet Schroeder. Margaret Brooks, Louis Sheldon-Williams, [ 1038 ]

John Gugolka, Pamela Franklin, Mark LesKerwin. Crusading military research medico ter. Children’s scheme to carry on normally Hoffman must stop a deadly virus that’s somewhen their mother dies works well until their how made its way from Africa to the U.S.— worthless father shows up. Fine perforlittle dreaming that his Army superiors have an mances from all in offbeat film. agenda of their own. Dynamite suspense thril★★★ Our Relations (1936) 74m. ler with a surprising sense of humor goes alD: Harry Lachman. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Alan most completely awry in the second half, Hale, Sidney Toler, Daphne Pollard, Betty turning Hoffman into a kind of superhero and Healy, James Finlayson, Arthur Housman, everyone else into a caricature or stick figure. Iris Adrian, Lona Andre. Stan and Ollie get What a shame! J.T. Walsh appears unbilled. into snowballing comedy of errors with their [R]▼●쩠 long-lost twins. Lots of fun; best scenes in Outcast, The (1962-Japanese) 118m. ★★★1⁄2 Hale’s beer garden.▼● D: Kon Ichikawa. Raizo Ichikawa, Shiho Our Time (1974) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Fujimura, Hiroyuki Nagato, Rentaro Mikuni. Hyams. Pamela Sue Martin, Parker SteSchoolteacher Ichikawa hides his identity venson, Betsy Slade, George O’Hanlon, as member of an outcast class until a writer Jr., Karen Balkin. Nice nostalgic tale of he greatly respects is murdered. Intense young love, set in a Massachusetts girls’ drama is well made, fascinating. school in 1955. Bad color photography Outcast of the Islands (1951-British) 102m. ★★★ mars otherwise effective comedic and draD: Carol Reed. Ralph Richardson, matic elements. [PG]▼ Trevor Howard, Robert Morley, Wendy Our Town (1940) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sam Hiller, Kerima, George Coulouris, Wilfrid Wood. William Holden, Martha Scott, Hyde-White. Compelling adaptation of JoFrank Craven, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, seph Conrad story set on Malayan island, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Stuart where a desperate, misguided man turns to Erwin. Sensitive adaptation of Thornton crime and soon becomes the object of Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play about massive manhunt. Screenplay by William small New England town with human drama Fairchild. Good job all around. Some prints and conflict in every family. Splendid score run 94m. by Aaron Copland and production deOutcasts of Poker Flat, The (1952) 81m. ★★ D: Joseph M. Newman. Anne Baxter, sign by William Cameron Menzies. Screenplay by Wilder, Harry Chandlee, and Frank Miriam Hopkins, Dale Robertson, Cameron Craven. Craven, Doro Merande, Arthur Mitchell, John Ridgely. Obvious, uninAllen, and Scott (in her film debut) recrespired remake of Bret Harte tale of social ate their Broadway roles.▼쩠 rejects trapped together in cabin during Our Very Own (1950) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: David snowstorm. Filmed before in 1937. Miller. Ann Blyth, Farley Granger, Jane Out Cold (1989) C-89m. ★★ D: Malcolm Wyatt, Donald Cook, Ann Dvorak, Natalie Mowbray. John Lithgow, Teri Garr, Randy Wood, Martin Milner. Melodramatic acQuaid, Bruce McGill, Lisa Blount, Alan Blucount of Blyth’s shock upon discovering menfeld, Morgan Paull, Barbara Rhoades, she is an adopted child. ▼ Tom Byrd, Fran Ryan. Lithgow plays a meek Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945) butcher who wrongly believes he has killed 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Roy Rowland. Edward G. his partner after discovering him frozen to Robinson, Margaret O’Brien, James Craig, death in the freezer. A wonderfully adept cast Frances Gifford, Agnes Moorehead, Jackie tries to pull off this black comedy, but the ‘‘Butch’’ Jenkins, Morris Carnovsky. Senscript knocks their efforts out cold. Aka sitive portrayal of American life in WisconSTIFFS. [R]▼●쩠 sin town with uncharacteristic Robinson as Out Cold (2001) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Brendan O’Brien’s kind, understanding Norwegian Malloy, Emmett Malloy. Jason London, Lee father. Screenplay by Dalton Trumbo from Majors, A.J. Cook, Willie Garson, Caroline Dhavernas, Derek Hamilton, Flex Alexander, George Victor Martin’s novel. ▼ Outback (1971-U.S.-Australian) C-114m. Zach Galifianakis, Victoria Silvstedt. Cliche´s ★★★ D: Ted Kotcheff. Gary Bond, Donald and all-around idiocy dominate this crude upPleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay, Jack dating of a 1960s beach-party movie. A seedy Thompson. Intriguing film about sensitive Alaska ski resort is a haven for brainless schoolteacher whose personality disintegrates snowboarding stoners, but a greedy land deafter interaction with rough, primitive men in veloper (Majors) wants to transform it into an upscale vacation spot. [PG-13]▼쩠 Australian outback. Alternate version runs 99m. Unlikely to be endorsed by Australian Outfit, The (1973) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: John tourist commission. Original title: WAKE IN Flynn. Robert Duvall, Karen Black, Joe FRIGHT. [R] Don Baker, Robert Ryan, Timothy Carey, Outbreak (1995) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: WolfRichard Jaeckel, Sheree North, Marie Windgang Petersen. Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, sor, Jane Greer, Henry Jones, Joanna Cassidy, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba GoodElisha Cook, Jr., Anita O’Day. Engagingly ing, Jr., Donald Sutherland, Patrick Dempsey, trashy mob melodrama, with ex-con Duvall Zakes Mokae, Dale Dye, Jim Antonio, Lance tackling the syndicate responsible for his [ 1039 ]

brother’s death. Solid supporting cast helps. John ‘‘Bud’’ Cardos. Urbano Barberini, Jack Based on a novel by Donald E. Westlake Palance, Rebecca Ferrati, Donna Denton, (writing as Richard Stark). [PG]▼ Nigel Chipps, Russel Savadier. Worthless seOut for Justice (1991) C-91m. ★★ D: quel to GOR (which wasn’t any good in the John Flynn. Steven Seagal, William Forfirst place). Earthman hero is magically transsythe, Jerry Orbach, Jo Champa, Shareen ported back to the barbaric planet Gor, where Mitchell, Sal Richards, Gina Gershon, Jay he’s soon branded an assassin by evil priest Acovone. As if he doesn’t have enough trouPalance and wicked queen Denton. Lots of ble snapping wrists when he stops by his swords, no sorcery. Based on the John Norman novel. Filmed in 1987. [PG-13]▼ scum-infested deli, cop Seagal’s main target is childhood buddy Forsythe—from the old Outlaws Is Coming, The (1965) 89m. ★★1 Brooklyn neighborhood. Some may consider ⁄2 D: Norman Maurer. The Three Stooges, this one a Seagal stretch, but don’t warm up Adam West, Nancy Kovack, Mort Mills, the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award just Don Lamond, Emil Sitka, Joe Bolton, yet. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Henry Gibson. The Stooges’ last feature Outland (1981) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter is one of their best, with some sharp Hyams. Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Fransatire and good Western atmosphere as the ces Sternhagen, James B. Sikking, Kika boys, their cowardly friend (West), and Markham, Clarke Peters, John Ratzenberger. Annie Oakley (Kovack) combat an army HIGH NOON on Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, of gunslingers and a genteel crook. Local as 21st-century marshal Connery discovers that TV kiddie-show hosts cast as outlaws, Gibson as a hip Indian.▼쩠 this outer-space mining planet is riddled with corruption—and he’s the only one willing to Outlaw Territory (1953) C-79m. ★★1⁄2 D: do anything about it. Slickly made, but predictJohn Ireland, Lee Garmes. Macdonald Carey, able and unpleasant in tone. Script by director Joanne Dru, John Ireland, Don Haggerty, Hyams. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Peter Ireland, Frank Ferguson. Carey is hired Outlaw, The (1943) 116m. ★★★ D: Howkiller who runs afoul of marshal Ireland, and ard Hughes. Jane Russell, Jack Buetel, arouses the interest of cafe-owner Dru, against Walter Huston, Thomas Mitchell, Mimi her better judgment. (Ireland and Dru were Aguglia, Joe Sawyer. Notorious ‘‘sex Westmarried in real life.) Routine Western shot in ern’’ (and Russell’s ballyhooed screen debut) 3-D; original title: HANNAH LEE.▼ is actually compelling—if offbeat—story Out of Africa (1985) C-161m. ★★★1⁄2 D: of Billy the Kid, with principal honors Sydney Pollack. Meryl Streep, Robert Redgoing to Huston as Doc Holliday. Filmed ford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael in 1941 and directed mostly by Howard Kitchen, Malick Bowens, Joseph Thiaka, Hawks, though Hughes’ interest in Russell’s Stephen Kinyanjui, Michael Gough, Subosom is more than evident. Some prints zanna Hamilton, Rachel Kempson, Grarun 95m. and 103m.▼●쩠 ham Crowden. Exquisite, intelligent romanOutlaw Blues (1977) C-100m. ★★★ D: tic drama based on life of Karen Blixen, Richard T. Heffron. Peter Fonda, Susan who married for convenience, moved from Saint James, John Crawford, James CallaDenmark to Nairobi, and fell in love with han, Michael Lerner. Ex-convict Fonda is a British adventurer and idealist (before gainpromoted into a country star by back-up ing latter-day fame as author Isak Dinesen). singer Saint James, to the consternation of Pollack’s film brilliantly captures time and star Callahan, who had stolen Fonda’s place, with superb performances by Streep song. Saint James is good in her first and Brandauer, sumptuous photography major movie role; the picture is fun when by David Watkin, and a rich score by John it isn’t too silly. [PG]▼쩠 Barry. Film’s only fault is overlength— Outlaw Gun SEE: Minute to Pray, a and biggest challenge is asking us to acSecond to Die, A cept Redford as an Englishman. Oscars Outlaw Josey Wales, The (1976) Cinclude Best Picture, Director, Screenplay 135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clint Eastwood. Clint (Kurt Luedtke, who synthesized five books Eastwood, Chief Dan George, Sondra into one seamless script), Cinematography, and Music Score. [PG]▼●쩠 Locke, Bill McKinney, John Vernon, Paula Trueman, Sam Bottoms, Richard Farnsworth. Out of Bounds (1986) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Long, violent Western begins near the end of Richard Tuggle. Anthony Michael Hall, the Civil War; Eastwood is a peaceful farmer Jenny Wright, Jeff Kober, Glynn Turman, who turns vigilante when Union soldiers Raymond J. Barry, Pepe Serna, Meat Loaf. murder his family. He in turn has a price on Iowa farm kid comes to L.A. and within his head, propelling cat-and-mouse chase 24 hours is hunted by the police (for murders odyssey. Clint took over direction from he didn’t commit) and a scuzzy drug dealer Philip Kaufman, who also cowrote the (whose stash he mistakenly took from the screenplay. Followed by THE RETURN airport). Outlandish teen thriller might be retitled OUT OF BRAINS. [R]▼● OF JOSEY WALES—without Eastwood. Out of It (1969) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul WilPanavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Outlaw of Gor (1989) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: liams. Barry Gordon, Jon Voight, Lada [ 1040 ]

Edmund, Jr., Gretchen Corbett, Peter Grad. play The Gentle People, with racketeer Generally amusing film about high school Garfield terrorizing Brooklyn fishermen intellectual (Gordon) bucking high school Qualen and Mitchell—and falling in love athlete (Voight). A throwback to the days with the latter’s daughter (Lupino). Scripted when life was an Archie comic book. by Robert Rossen, Jerry Wald, and Rich[M/PG] ard Macauley. Out of Season (1975-British) C-90m. ★★ Out of the Frying Pan SEE: Young and D: Alan Bridges. Vanessa Redgrave, Cliff Willing Robertson, Susan George, Edward Evans, Out of the Past (1947) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Jarvis. Mood-triangle affair: dark Jacques Tourneur. Robert Mitchum, Jane stranger returns to English seaside resort Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, 20 years after affair with woman who now Richard Webb, Steve Brodie, Virginia has grown daughter. Hints of incest and unHuston, Paul Valentine, Dickie Moore. resolved ending. Aka WINTER RATES. Mitchum finds he can’t escape former life [R]▼ when one-time employer (gangster DougOut of Sight (1966) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Lennie las) and lover (Greer) entangle him in web Weinrib. Jonathan Daly, Karen Jensen, of murder and double-dealings. Classic Robert Pine, Carole Shelayne, Gary Lewis example of 1940s film noir, with dialogue and The Playboys, The Turtles, Freddie and a particular standout. Script by Geoffrey The Dreamers, Dobie Gray. A butler and a Homes (Daniel Mainwaring), from his blonde band together to halt a spy organizanovel Build My Gallows High. Remade as tion’s conspiracy against rock groups. IdiAGAINST ALL ODDS. Also shown in otic combination beach party–spy movie computer-colored version.▼●쩠 that fails in both departments. Techniscope. Out of Time (2003) C-105m. ★★ D: Carl Out of Sight (1998) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: SteFranklin. Denzel Washington, Eva Mendes, ven Soderbergh. George Clooney, Jennifer Sanaa Lathan, Dean Cain, John Billingsley, Lopez, Ving Rhames, Steve Zahn, Dennis Robert Baker, Alex Carter, Nora Dunn. Chief Farina, Albert Brooks, Don Cheadle, Cathof police in a small Florida town has been erine Keener, Nancy Allen, Viola Davis, playing around with a married vixen—and Isaiah Washington. Career criminal becomes a key suspect when foul play rears Clooney busts out of Florida prison and its head. Every move he makes to cover his uses federal agent Lopez as a shield; though tracks only puts him in greater jeopardy, espethey go separate ways, they’ve obviously cially when his ex-wife, detective Mendes, is fallen in love and have a need to reconnect, assigned to the case. This film noir wannabe despite their conflicting views of the law. Inwould have been told effortlessly in the 1940s teresting Elmore Leonard crime caper and ’50s but seems heavy-handed and overly (adapted by Scott Frank), with a heavy dose contrived here. Lathan is a fine femme fatale of humor, has an appealing cast but needs a but Washington is the last person you’d cast shot of adrenaline. Michael Keaton and Samas a patsy. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 uel L. Jackson appear unbilled. [R] ▼●쩠 Out of Towners, The (1970) C-97m. ★1⁄2 Out of the Blue (1980) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Arthur Hiller. Jack Lemmon, Sandy DenDennis Hopper. Linda Manz, Sharon Farnis, Sandy Baron, Anne Meara, Ann Prentiss, rell, Dennis Hopper, Raymond Burr, Don Graham Jarvis, Ron Carey, Phil Bruns, Carlos Gordon. Manz, daughter of ex-biker HopMontalban, Billy Dee Williams, Paul Dooley, per and junkie Farrell, cannot cope with Dolph Sweet, Robert Walden, Richard Liberthe problems of her elders, with tragic tini. Excruciating Neil Simon script about sturesults. Taut, low-key drama; could be pidly stubborn Lemmon and wife Dennis retitled ‘‘Child of Easy Rider.’’ TV title: having everything imaginable go wrong on NO LOOKING BACK. [R]▼쩠 trip to N.Y.C. More harrowing than funny, Out of the Dark (1988) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: with curiously unsympathetic leading characMichael Schroeder. Cameron Dye, Lynn ters. Remade in 1999. [G]▼●쩠 Danielson, Tracey Walter, Silvana Gallardo, Out-of-Towners, The (1999) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Karen Black, Bud Cort, Starr Andreeff, D: Sam Weisman. Goldie Hawn, Steve Geoffrey Lewis, Paul Bartel, Divine, Lainie Martin, Mark McKinney, John Cleese, Kazan, Tab Hunter. A clown-masked killer Gregory Jbara, Ernie Sabella, Josh Mostel, murders the employees of an L.A. telephone Joe Grifasi, John Pizzarelli. It’s one calamsex-talk service, one by one. Good cast and ity after another when a middle-aged Ohio sense of humor relieve heavy-handed visual couple travels to N.Y.C. so he can go on a approach to the material. [R]▼● job interview. Less abrasive and farcical Out of the Darkness (1978) SEE: Night than Neil Simon’s 1970 original, this has its Creature fair share of laughs, with Cleese well cast as Out of the Fog (1941) 93m. ★★★ D: Anatole a haughty hotel manager . . . but it’s MarLitvak. Ida Lupino, John Garfield, Thomas tin’s fine performance that really stands out. Mitchell, Eddie Albert, George Tobias, That’s Hawn’s real-life son (Oliver HudLeo Gorcey, John Qualen, Aline Macson) in the film’s opening scenes. [PG-13] Mahon. Fine filmization of Irwin Shaw ▼●쩠 [ 1041 ]

Out on a Limb (1992) C-93m. BOMB D: having a fling with the same man, after he Francis Veber. Matthew Broderick, Jeffapparently dies in a mysterious explosion rey Jones, Heidi Kling, John C. Reilly, . . . then things really get going! Bright Marian Mercer, Larry Hankin. Obnoxious script by Leslie Dixon is a perfect showcomedy with Broderick cast as a yuppie case for Midler and Long. [R]▼●쩠 who comes to the aid of his kid sister in Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick, a small town inhabited by one too many The (1988-Canadian) C-96m. ★★★ D: Alscrewballs. As illogical as it is crude, and lan A. Goldstein. Saul Rubinek, Jan Rubes, desperately unfunny. [PG]▼● Noam Zylberman, Susan Douglas Rubes, Outpost in Malaya (1952-British) 88m. Fairuza Balk, Nigel Bennet. Pleasing tale of ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Claudette Colbert, bright 12-year-old Zylberman, growing up Jack Hawkins, Anthony Steel, Jeremy Spenin a small Canadian town in the early 1960s, cer. Mostly about marital disharmony on a who’s caught between his own dreams and rubber plantation. Original title: PLANTdesires and his family’s traditional Jewish ER’S WIFE. values. Despite its cop-out ending, this inOutrage (1950) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ida Lupino. telligent little comedy-drama is perfect fare Mala Powers, Tod Andrews, Robert Clarke, for preteens. [G]▼ Raymond Bond, Lillian Hamilton, Hal Outside Man, The (1973) C-104m. ★★★ March, Jerry Paris. Innocent young Powers D: Jacques Deray. Jean-Louis Trintignant, is sexually molested, and then further vicAnn-Margret, Angie Dickinson, Roy timized by her gossipy, narrow-minded Scheider, Michel Constantin, Georgia neighbors. The scenario’s sugary optiEngel, Ted de Corsia, John Hillerman, mism—specifically relating to a sympaAlex Rocco, Talia Shire. Okay Frenchthetic preacher—is much too pat, but American actioner, made in L.A., as interLupino (who also coscripted) deserves an A esting for its cast as its offbeat quality. for effort in tackling a then-touchy theme. Hired killer Trintignant kills gang boss Outrage, The (1964) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: MarTed de Corsia, then must elude Scheider, tin Ritt. Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinwho’s out to eliminate him. Ann-Margret’s son, Claire Bloom, Laurence Harvey, Wilplunging neckline and a shootout around liam Shatner, Albert Salmi. Western rede Corsia’s bier (he’s embalmed in a sitmake of RASHOMON is pretentious fizzle, ting position) are worth looking at, also Engel’s dumb housewife. [PG]▼ with Newman hamming it as Mexican bandit who allegedly rapes Bloom while husOutside Ozona (1998) C-100m. ★★ D: J.S. band Harvey stands by. Robinson as Cardone. Robert Forster, Sherilyn Fenn, philosophical narrator is best thing about Kevin Pollak, Penelope Ann Miller, David film. Also shown in computer-colored Paymer, Meat Loaf, Swoosie Kurtz, Taj version. Panavision.▼쩠 Mahal, Lois Red Elk. Various characters’ Outrage (1993-Italian-Spanish) C-108m. lives intersect during an eventful day and ★1 ⁄2 D: Carlos Saura. Francesca Neri, Antoevening as a long-dormant serial killer benio Banderas, Lali Ramon, Walter Vidarte, gins to strike again, a radio d.j. vents his Coque Malla, Achero Manas, Rodrigo frustrations on the air, and several others Valverde. When reporter Banderas falls for take to the road. Only fitfully interesting, circus performer Neri, they have a brief despite a good cast. [R]▼ fling at happiness. Unfortunately, a (predictOutside Providence (1999) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 able) rape scene, which is horrifyingly D: Michael Corrente. Shawn Hatosy, Jon graphic, and a subsequent shooting spree Abrahams, Alec Baldwin, George Wendt, relegate this to the ranks of only diehard Tommy Bone, Jonathan Brandis, Jack Banderas fans. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Fever, Adam Lavorgna, Jesse Leach, GaOutrageous! (1977-Canadian) C-100m. ★★★ briel Mann, Kristen Shorten, Amy Smart, D: Richard Benner. Craig Russell, Hollis Richard Jenkins. Unremarkable coming-ofMcLaren, Richert Easley, Allan Moyle, age saga set in 1970s New England, with Helen Shaver. Excellent comedy-drama Hatosy as a rowdy blue-collar teen who about a very odd couple: gay hairdresser winds up going away to prep school and and a pregnant mental patient. McLaren’s falling in love. Notable mainly for casting effective emoting is outshone by female of Baldwin as an Archie Bunker type, at impersonator Russell’s flamboyant playing which he’s only marginally convincing. and imitations of Garland, Davis, Bankhead, Screenplay by Corrente and Bobby and etc. Followed ten years later by TOO Peter Farrelly (based on the latter’s novel). OUTRAGEOUS! [R]▼쩠 [R]▼쩠 Outrageous Fortune (1987) C-100m. ★★★ Outsider, The (1961) 108m. ★★★ D: DelD: Arthur Hiller. Bette Midler, Shelley bert Mann. Tony Curtis, James Franciscus, Long, Peter Coyote, Robert Prosky, John Bruce Bennett, Gregory Walcott, Vivian Schuck, George Carlin, Anthony Heald, Nathan. Thoughtful biopic with Curtis giving Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Chris McDonald, Robert one of his best performances as a reluctant Pastorelli. Raucously funny tale of a feAmerican hero: Ira Hamilton Hayes, the Pima male odd couple who learn they were both Indian who was one of the marines to raise [ 1042 ]

the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima. Hayes’ plight is also does an unbilled bit as skipper of a garbage recounted in FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. scow. [PG] ▼●쩠 Outsider, The (1979) C-128m. ★★★ D: Overcoat, The (1959-Russian) 73m. ★★★★ Tony Luraschi. Craig Wasson, Patricia D: Alexei Batalov. Roland Bykov, Y. Quinn, Sterling Hayden, Niall Toibin, ElizTolubeyev. Charming, fully realized renabeth Begley, T. P. McKenna, Frank dition of Gogol’s oft-filmed story about Grimes. A young American raised on his lowly clerk and the effect a new overcoat grandfather’s stories of fighting ‘‘the Tans’’ has on his life. Runs full gamut of emoin Ireland goes there to join the IRA—and tions in simple, moving style; not shown is used for political and public-relations here until 1965.▼ purposes. No-frills narrative, authentic and Over Her Dead Body (1990) SEE: Enid interesting, filmed on location. Script by Is Sleeping director Luraschi. [R] Over Her Dead Body (2008) C-95m. ★1⁄2 Outsiders, The (1983) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Jeff Lowell. Eva Longoria Parker, Paul Francis Coppola. C. Thomas Howell, Matt Rudd, Lake Bell, Jason Biggs, Lindsay Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Sloane, Stephen Root. Killed in a freak acciRob Lowe, Diane Lane, Emilio Estevez, dent on her wedding day (by a decorative Tom Cruise, Leif Garrett, Tom Waits, ice sculpture), a would-be bride returns as a Sofia Coppola. Florid, highly stylized treatghostly presence one year later to prevent ment of S. E. Hinton’s best-selling book her fiance´ from finding happiness with anabout troubled teenagers in ’60s Oklahoma, other woman. Longoria Parker must have as seen through the eyes of a boy (Howell) been more desperate than the ‘‘Housewife’’ who likes poetry and Gone With the Wind. she plays on TV to think this would make a Ambitious film evokes GWTW and ’50s good starring vehicle. Derivative and formelodramas (right down to overstated mugettable; BLITHE SPIRIT it ain’t. Panavisic score by Carmine Coppola), but never sion. [PG-13]쩠 quite connects, despite some powerful moOvernight Delivery (1998) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 ments. Hinton makes a cameo appearance D: Jason Bloom. Paul Rudd, Christine Tayas a nurse. Revised by Coppola in 2005 lor, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Silverman, as THE OUTSIDERS: THE COMPLETE Buffy Sedlachek, Richard Cody, Gary NOVEL (114m., PG-13), with a new openWolf, Larry Drake. As Valentine’s Day aping and wrapup, plus Elvis-leaning pop reproaches, Rudd thinks he’s caught girlfriend placing the score. This version is definitely Taylor cheating on him. Witherspoon urges improved but still stumbles midway through. him to send a disgusting breakup letter, but Followed by another Coppola-Hinton projwhen he learns his girlfriend was faithful ect, RUMBLE FISH. Later a TV series. Paafter all, he has to find some way to keep the letter from winding up in her hands. navision. [PG]▼●쩠 Out to Sea (1997) C-106m. ★★ D: Martha Predictable but cute comedy; Witherspoon Coolidge. Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, is adorable. Made in 1996; released direct Dyan Cannon, Brent Spiner, Gloria De to video. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Haven, Elaine Stritch, Hal Linden, Donald Over the Brooklyn Bridge (1984) C106m. ★★ D: Menahem Golan. Elliott Gould, O’Connor, Edward Mulhare, Rue McClanahan, Alexandra Powers, Sean O’Brien, EsMargaux Hemingway, Sid Caesar, Burt telle Harris. A chronic con man fools his pal Young, Shelley Winters, Carol Kane. into joining him for a Caribbean cruise— Brooklyn Jewish restaurant owner Gould neglecting to inform him that he’s signed wants to borrow money from uncle Caesar them both on as dance hosts. The two likto open a fancy Manhattan eatery, but the able stars are cast adrift with a boatload family objects to his Catholic girlfriend of talented costars—and a stupid script that (Hemingway). Some good supporting should have been deep-sixed before they players (especially Caesar) cannot save ever set sail. O’Connor’s final film. [PGthis stupid comedy. That’s Sarah Michelle 13] ▼●쩠 Gellar playing Young’s daughter. Aka MY Overboard (1987) C-112m. ★★★ D: Garry DARLING SHIKSA. [R]▼ Marshall. Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, EdOver the Edge (1979) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ward Herrmann, Katherine Helmond, MiJonathan Kaplan. Michael Kramer, Pamchael Hagerty, Roddy McDowall. Cute ela Ludwig, Matt Dillon, Vincent Spano, comedy about a spoiled heiress who falls Tom Fergus, Andy Romano, Ellen Geer, off her yacht, suffers amnesia, and is Lane Smith, Harry Northup. Powerful, ‘‘claimed’’ at the hospital by her supposed disturbing chronicle of alienated youth in husband, a rough-hewn carpenter with a a suburban planned community; 14-yearpack of unruly kids. Lightweight and goodold rebels without causes who play with natured, with appealing performances by guns, deal and abuse drugs, taunt cops, the star duo. McDowall also served as execchug whiskey till they’re blotto. Perceputive producer; director Marshall has a tive script by Charlie Haas and Tim cameo as a drummer, and Hector Elizondo Hunter; stunning music score by Sol [ 1043 ]

Kaplan; taut direction. A winner. Dillon’s vival in famine-ravaged Sweden during the film debut. [PG]▼쩠 mid-1800s. Based on a true story; the plight Over the Hedge (2006) C-84m. ★★★ D: of their countrymen who chose to leave Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick. Voices of Sweden and settle in the U.S. is depicted in Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve CarJan Troell’s THE EMIGRANTS and THE ell, Wanda Sykes, William Shatner, Nick NEW LAND (which also starred von Nolte, Thomas Haden Church, Allison JanSydow and Ullmann). ▼ ney, Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Avril Ox-Bow Incident, The (1943) 75m. ★★★★ Lavigne, Omid Djalili. Funny CG-animated D: William A. Wellman. Henry Fonda, feature about a crafty, selfish raccoon who Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes, Andupes a group of hibernating forest animals thony Quinn, William Eythe, Henry (Harry) into helping him replace a winter’s stash of Morgan, Jane Darwell, Frank Conroy, food he stole from a mean ol’ bear. Simple Harry Davenport. The irony and terror of storyline is fleshed out with funny gags, acmob rule are vividly depicted in this unfortion set pieces, and character moments. Our gettable drama about a lynch mob taking favorite critter: Verne the turtle leader, the law into its own hands, despite protests voiced by Shandling. Based on the comic of some level-headed onlookers. Based on strip by Michael Fry and T. Lewis. [PG]쩠 Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s book; superb Over the Top (1987) C-93m. BOMB D: script by Lamar Trotti.▼●쩠 Menahem Golan. Sylvester Stallone, RobOxford Blues (1984) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert ert Loggia, Susan Blakely, Rick Zumwalt, Boris. Rob Lowe, Ally Sheedy, Julian Sands, David Mendenhall, Chris McCarty, Terry Amanda Pays, Michael Gough, Aubrey MorFunk. Mawkish, heavy-handed variation on ris, Gail Strickland, Alan Howard, Cary Elwes. THE CHAMP, with Stallone competing Lightweight remake of A YANK AT OXwith his fat-cat father-in-law for the custody FORD, with rough-edged Lowe pursuing ti(and affection) of his son. It all climaxes tled beauty Pays while building ‘‘character’’ at an arm-wrestling championship in Las on the rowing team. Boris’ wildly inconsisVegas. Stallone tries to underplay (speaking tent script is salvaged by engaging perforso quietly that you often can’t hear what mances. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 he’s saying), but when push comes to shove, he will drive his truck through a livPacific Heights (1990) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing room! Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 John Schlesinger. Melanie Griffith, MatOwl and the Pussycat, The (1970) C-95m. thew Modine, Michael Keaton, Mako, ★★★ Nobu McCarthy, Laurie Metcalf, Carl D: Herbert Ross. Barbra Streisand, George Segal, Robert Klein, Allen Garfield, Lumbly, Dorian Harewood, Luca Bercovici, Roz Kelly. Hit Broadway comedy about Sheila McCarthy, Dan Hedaya, Miriam semi-illiterate prostitute and stuffy intellectual Margolyes, Nicholas Pryor. Young couple sometimes substitutes bombast for wit, but the purchases a Victorian home in San Franlaughs are there. The Streisand-Segal pairing cisco, fixes it up and rents out two of its really works; adapted by Buck Henry from apartments, unaware that one of their tenBill Manoff’s play. Originally released at ants is a nut case. Likable and reasonably 98m. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 credible, but too often obvious—and never Owning Mahowny (2003-Canadian-British) really bothers to explain Keaton’s bizarre, C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Kwietniowski. destructive behavior. Cleverest touch: makPhilip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, ing Modine the weaker and Griffith the Maury Chaykin, John Hurt, Sonja Smits, Ian stronger of the twosome. Beverly D’Angelo Tracey, Roger Dunn. Nerdy assistant bank appears unbilled in key supporting role . . . manager in Toronto manipulates bank funds and Melanie’s mom, Tippi Hedren, plays a to feed his gambling addiction. His patient Beverly Hills matron. [R]▼●쩠 girlfriend tries to give him space, while an Pacifier, The (2005) C-91m. ★★ D: Adam Atlantic City casino manager tries to ‘‘read’’ Shankman. Vin Diesel, Lauren Graham, Faith this enigmatic new high-roller. Fascinating Ford, Brittany Snow, Max Thieriot, Chris Potlook at both the banking and gaming induster, Carol Kane, Brad Garrett, Morgan York, tries, based on a true story from the early Tate Donovan, Scott Thompson. Rugged 1980s. Every character, no matter how small, Navy SEAL Diesel is handed his toughest is interestingly written and colorfully played. assignment yet: babysitting five rowdy kids A great showcase for the gifted Hoffman. while their mother tries to unravel a mystery Maurice Chauvet adapted Gary Ross’ bestleft behind by her late husband, a scientist selling book Stung. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 working for the government. Some sweet Ox, The (1991-Swedish) C-91m. ★★★ D: moments are smothered by heavy-handed Sven Nykvist. Stellan Skarsgard, Ewa slapstick in this strained family comedy, Froling, Lennart Hjulstrom, Max von Sydow, this generation’s answer to KINDERGARLiv Ullmann, Erland Josephson. Acclaimed TEN COP. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 cinematographer Nykvist directed and coPack, The (1977) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert scripted this stark, compelling chronicle of a Clouse. Joe Don Baker, Hope Alexanderdesperately poor family’s struggle for surWillis, Richard B. Shull, R. G. Armstrong, [ 1044 ]

Ned Wertimer, Bibi Besch. Predictable cial more than a movie. Heavy-handed mesbut well-made story of resort islanders sage about the wonder of books might better terrorized by abandoned dogs who have be told by a book itself. [G]▼●쩠 become a bloodthirsty pack. Aka THE Page Turner, The (2006-French) C-85m. ★★1 LONG, DARK NIGHT. [R]▼ ⁄2 D: Denis Dercourt. Catherine Frot, ★★ Package, The (1989) C-108m. De´borah Franc¸ois, Pascal Greggory, Xavier D: Andrew Davis. Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, de Guillebon, Christine Citti, Clotilde MolTommy Lee Jones, John Heard, Dennis let, Jacques Bonnaffe´. A 10-year-old girl Franz, Pam Grier, Kevin Crowley, Reni who’s devoted herself to becoming a piano Santoni, Ike Pappas, Thalmus Rasulala. prodigy auditions for a prestigious music Slack political paranoia thriller with Hackconservatory, but is distracted by the presiman as a career Army sergeant who learns dent of the jury. Ten years later she insinuhe’s been used as a pawn in a conspiracy ates herself into the same woman’s home, plot engineered by Russian and American earns the family’s trust, and prepares to military dissidents. Hackman is always exact revenge. Absorbing and well acted worth watching, but the story loses ground but loses its grip as it heads toward its inevi(and credibility) just when it ought to be table denouement.쩠 peaking. [R]▼●쩠 Paid in Full (1950) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilPack Up Your Troubles (1932) 68m. liam Dieterle. Robert Cummings, Lizabeth ★★1 Scott, Diana Lynn, Eve Arden, Ray Col⁄2 D: George Marshall, Ray McCarey. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Mary Carr, lins, Stanley Ridges, John Bromfield, Frank James Finlayson, Charles Middleton, Grady McHugh. Kind-hearted Scott loves nice Sutton, Billy Gilbert. Daffy duo are drafted guy Cummings, but keeps her feelings to during WW1; after some Army shenaniherself because he naively desires to wed gans they try to locate relatives of late her selfish kid sister (Lynn). Turgid soaper, pal’s daughter. Good fun.▼쩠 with a based-on-fact scenario. Film debut Pad and How to Use It, The (1966) of Carol Channing, as a dress-shop patron. C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Hutton. Brian Paid in Full (2002) C-97m. ★★ D: Charles Bedford, Julie Sommars, James Farentino, Stone III. Wood Harris, Mekhi Phifer, Edy Williams. Peter Shaffer play The PriKevin Carroll, Esai Morales, Chi McBride, vate Ear is basis for sex romp involving Cam’ron, Elise Neal, Regina Hall. DryBedford’s attempt to become Sommars’ cleaning delivery boy becomes the king of lover. crack dealing in ’80s Harlem. Cautionary Paddy (1970-Irish) C-97m. ★★ D: Daniel tale has style and a propulsive old-school Haller. Milo O’Shea, Des Cave, Dearbhla soundtrack but suffers from too-familiar Molloy, Judy Cornwell, Donal LeBlanc. scripting (although based on a true story). Irish lover Cave tries to juggle varied sexRappers Busy Bee and Doug E. Fresh apual encounters with uninspired home life pear as themselves. Movie takes its title in ordinary comedy-drama. [PG]▼ from a rap by Eric B. and Rakim. [R]▼쩠 Padre Padrone (1977-Italian) C-114m. Pain in the A——, A (1974-French-Italian) ★★ D: Vittorio and Paolo Taviani. Omero C-90m. ★★★ D: Edouard Molinaro. Lino Antonutti, Saverio Marconi, Marcella MiVentura, Jacques Brel, Caroline Cellier, chelangeli, Fabrizio Forte. Sad, illiterate Nino Castelnuovo, Jean-Pierre Darras. Very Sardinian boy, brutalized by his peasant funny black comedy about the chance father, still grows up to master Greek and meeting of a hit man trying to make good Latin and graduate college. Even sadder on a contract and a pathetic would-be suistill, uninvolving and curiously forgettacide who’s likely to mess up the job. ble. Based on an autobiographical book by Wonderful performances by Ventura and Gavino Ledda.▼●쩠 Brel in adaptation of Francis Veber’s Pagan Love Song (1950) C-76m. ★★ D: stage hit, later Americanized as BUDDY Robert Alton. Esther Williams, Howard BUDDY. [PG]▼ Keel, Minna Gombell, Rita Moreno. Stale Painted Hills, The (1951) C-65m. ★★1⁄2 D: MGM musical; Keel goes to Tahiti, roHarold F. Kress. Lassie, Paul Kelly, Bruce mances Williams.▼ Cowling, Gary Gray, Art Smith, Ann Pagemaster, The (1994) C-75m. ★★ D: Doran. Nicely photographed adventure Maurice Hunt (animation), Joe Johnston drama set in the West during the 1870s. (live action). Macaulay Culkin, Christopher Lassie stars as Shep, a collie who is everLloyd, Ed Begley, Jr., Mel Harris; voices of loyal to her prospector owner, with the story Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, Frank involving greed and a gold strike.▼쩠 Welker, Leonard Nimoy. Phobically nerPainted Veil, The (1934) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: vous young boy seeks shelter from a storm Richard Boleslawski. Greta Garbo, Herin the local library, and is transported to an bert Marshall, George Brent, Warner Oland, animated world by living books who repreJean Hersholt, Cecilia Parker, Keye Luke. sent Adventure, Fantasy, and Horror. UninSet in mysterious Orient, film tells Somerset spired, often boring cartoon feature (with Maugham’s story of unfaithful wife mendlive-action framework) resembles a TV speing her ways. Mundane script uplifted by [ 1045 ]

Garbo’s personality, supported by Marshall Adaptation of the Broadway musical hit— as her husband, Brent as her lover. Remade with much of its original cast intact—virtuin 1957 (as THE SEVENTH SIN) and in ally defines the word ‘‘exuberance.’’ Day is 2006. ▼● a joy as the head of a factory grievance Painted Veil, The (2006-U.S.-Chinese) Ccommittee who unexpectedly falls in love ★★★1 125m. with the new foreman (Raitt, in his only ⁄2 D: John Curran. Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones, starring film). Richard Adler and Jerry Diana Rigg, Anthony Wong, Sally Hawkins. Ross’ songs include ‘‘Hey, There.’’ Dancer In 1920s London, a socially backward bacteriHaney stands out in her ‘‘Steam Heat’’ feaologist impulsively asks an attractive woman ture and in the energetic ‘‘Once a Year to marry him, and she agrees. When he Day’’ picnic number. Choreography by Bob Fosse.▼●쩠 learns that she’s been having an affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote Pajama Party (1964) C-85m. ★★ D: Don outpost in China where there’s been an outWeis. Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, break of cholera. Although intended as punDorothy Lamour, Elsa Lanchester, Harvey ishment, this experience gradually changes Lembeck, Jody McCrea, Buster Keaton, and deepens their relationship. Beautifully Susan Hart, Donna Loren. Fourth BEACH filmed (by Stuart Dryburgh) on location in PARTY movie moves indoors, changes diChina, this finely tuned drama becomes a rector and star (although Frankie Avalon deeply moving love story. Watts has never and Don Rickles do have cameos). Kirk been better; she and Norton coproduced. Explays Martian teenager who drops in and is cellent score by Alexandre Desplat. Ron Nysunderstandably perplexed. Just fair, though waner adapted the W. Somerset Maugham it’s always nice to see Keaton at work. Teri novel; filmed before in 1934 and 1957 (as Garr is one of the dancers buried in the THE SEVENTH SIN). Panavision. [PGsand. Went back outside for BEACH BLANKET BINGO. Panavision. ▼쩠 13] 쩠 Paint It Black (1989) C-101m. ★★ D: Tim Paleface, The (1948) C-91m. ★★★ D: NorHunter. Rick Rossovich, Sally Kirkland, man Z. McLeod. Bob Hope, Jane RusMartin Landau, Julie Carmen, Doug Savant, sell, Robert Armstrong, Iris Adrian, Robert Peter Frechette, Jason Bernard. MeanderWatson. Enjoyable comedy-Western, a ing, disappointing thriller with Rossovich spoof of THE VIRGINIAN, has timid Bob a sculptor who’s ripped off by his lover, backed up by sharpshooting Russell in gunart dealer Kirkland, then victimized by fighting encounters; Oscar-winning song weirdo Savant. Never released theatrically. ‘‘Buttons and Bows.’’ Remade as THE [R]▼● SHAKIEST GUN IN THE WEST. Sequel: SON OF PALEFACE. ▼●쩠 Paint Your Wagon (1969) C-166m. ★★★ D: Joshua Logan. Lee Marvin, Clint Pale Rider (1985) C-113m. ★★ D: Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg, Harve Presnell, Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Michael MorRay Walston, Tom Ligon, Alan Dexter. iarty, Carrie Snodgress, Christopher Penn, Splashy, expensive musical from LernerRichard Dysart, Sydney Penny, Richard Loewe play about gold-rush days in NoKiel, Doug McGrath, John Russell. EastName City, California, where prospectors wood Western starts out just fine, the saga of Marvin and Eastwood share one wife a Good Stranger coming to the aid of some (Seberg) whom they bought at auction. struggling miners, but winds up draggy, prePure entertainment; witty, often risque´ script tentious, and dull—with so much cloning of (by Paddy Chayefsky!). Presnell outshines SHANE as to be preposterous. Well crafted, cast of nonsingers with ‘‘They Call the but attempts to be mythical come off as Wind Maria.’’ Marvin, however, vocalizes heavy-handed and ridiculous. Panavision. his rendition of ‘‘Wand’rin’ Star.’’ Beware [R]▼●쩠 of shorter prints. Panavision. [M]▼●쩠 Palindromes (2005) C-100m. ★★ D: Todd SoPaisan (1946-Italian) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rolondz. Ellen Barkin, Stephen Adly-Guirgis, berto Rossellini. Carmela Sazio, Gar Jennifer Jason Leigh, Emani Sledge, Valerie Moore, Bill Tubbs, Harriet White, Maria Shusterov, Hannah Freiman, Rachel Corr, Will Michi, Robert van Loon, Dale Edmonds, Denton, Sharon Wilkins,Shayna Levine, Debra Carla Pisacane, Dots Johnson. Early RosselMonk, Richard Masur, Matthew Faber, Walter lini classic, largely improvised by a mostly Bobbie. Meditation on social hypocrisy— nonprofessional cast. Six vignettes depict tackling such issues as pregnancy and life in Italy during WW2; best has Ameriabortion—follows an adolescent girl who can nurse White searching for her lover in doesn’t want to give up her baby and runs battle-torn Florence. Written by Rossellini away from home. That the ‘‘girl’’ is played and Federico Fellini; Giulietta Masina has a by a variety of actresses of different sizes, bit part. Italian running time 115m.▼쩠 shapes, and races is just one aspect of this Pajama Game, The (1957) C-101m. very strange (yet often striking) film, which ★★★1⁄2 D: George Abbott, Stanley Donen. writer-director Solondz positions as a followDoris Day, John Raitt, Carol Haney, Edup to WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE. die Foy, Jr., Barbara Nichols, Reta Shaw. 쩠 [ 1046 ]

Pal Joey (1957) C-111m. ★★★ D: George yarn of group on a spree in resort town is mostly predictable.▼●쩠 Sidney. Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak, Barbara Nichols, Hank Henry, Bobby Palombella Rossa (1989-Italian) C-87m. ★★1 Sherwood. Sinatra is in peak form as a ⁄2 D: Nanni Moretti. Nanni Moretti, Macocky nightclub singer who makes a move riella Valentini, Silvio Orlando, Alfonso on every ‘‘dame’’ he meets—including inSantagata, Claudio Morganti, Asia Argento. nocent showgirl Novak—but meets his WaOff-the-wall satire about the choices, both terloo when wealthy, demanding Hayworth political and personal, one makes in life. agrees to bankroll his dream of running his The hero is Michele (Moretti), a comical own club. Almost complete rewrite of the communist politician/water polo player; 1940 Broadway show based on John most of the film is set during a competition O’Hara’s short stories, but entertaining just in which Michele constantly debates the the same, with a great Rodgers and Hart merits of his politics. A representative introscore including ‘‘Bewitched, Bothered, and duction to one of Italy’s most popular comic Bewildered’’ (with sanitized lyrics), ‘‘The actor–directors. ▼ Lady Is a Tramp.’’ Look fast for Robert Palookaville (1996) C-92m. ★★★ D: Alan Reed. ▼●쩠 Taylor. William Forsythe, Vincent Gallo, Pallbearer, The (1996) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adam Trese, Frances McDormand, Robert Matt Reeves. David Schwimmer, Gwyneth LuPone, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Kim Dickens, Paltrow, Barbara Hershey, Michael RapaBridgit Ryan. Charming, whimsical look at port, Toni Collette, Carol Kane, Michael a trio of lifelong friends and their amateur Vartan, Bitty Schram, Jean DeBaer. Friends foray into the world of petty crime. Set in star Schwimmer’s first film vehicle: a nerd New Jersey, this comically poignant tale has is recruited to be a pallbearer for a ‘‘friend’’ everyday characters, struggling to survive, he can’t quite remember. Soon he’s inwho get themselves into some genuinely volved with the dead fellow’s sexy mother suspenseful situations. A real sleeper, in(Hershey), even while pursuing a girl he spired by the Italian film BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET. [R]▼●쩠 had a crush on in high school (Paltrow). Protracted story is alternately touching and Panama Hattie (1942) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norinfuriating, as it slowly covers well-worn man Z. McLeod. Ann Sothern, Red Skelton, territory, with occasional moments of poiRags Ragland, Ben Blue, Marsha Hunt, Virgnancy. Schwimmer’s character is alarmingly ginia O’Brien, Alan Mowbray, Lena Horne, one-note. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dan Dailey, Carl Esmond. Cole Porter’s Palm Beach Story, The (1942) 87m. ★★★1⁄2 Broadway musical (which starred Ethel D: Preston Sturges. Claudette Colbert, Joel Merman) about nightclub owner in Panama McCrea, Rudy Vallee, Mary Astor, Sig falls flat on screen. Porter’s score mostly Arno, Robert Dudley, William Demarest, absent, but Lena sings ‘‘Just One of Those Jack Norton, Franklin Pangborn, Jimmy Things,’’ and sprightly Sothern sings ‘‘I’ve Conlin. Hilarious screwball comedy with Still Got My Health.’’▼ Claudette running away from hubby McPancho Villa (1972-Spanish) C-92m. ★★ Crea, landing in Palm Beach with nutty D: Eugenio Martin. Telly Savalas, Clint millionairess Astor and her bumbling brother Walker, Anne Francis, Chuck Connors, Vallee; overflowing with Sturges madness— Angel del Pozo, Luis Davila. Noisy but from the mystifying title sequence to the dull period piece has Savalas chewing up arrival of the Ale & Quail Club (not to scenery in title role, Walker playing gunmention the Wienie King!).▼●쩠 runner on his payroll, and Connors as Palmetto (1998-U.S.-German) C-113m. polo-playing military martinet. Hang on, ★★1 though, for smashing climax as two trains ⁄2 D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Woody Harrelson, Elisabeth Shue, Gina Gershon, Rolf collide head-on. [PG]▼●쩠 Hoppe, Michael Rapaport, Chloe Sevigny, Pandemonium (1982) C-82m. ★★ D: AlTom Wright. An exercise in formula film fred Sole. Tom Smothers, Carol Kane, noir with embittered Florida ex-newspaperMiles Chapin, Debralee Scott, Candy man Harrelson—just out of jail—a noneAzzara, Marc McClure, Judge Reinhold, too-bright patsy for crafty (and sexy) Shue, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman); guest who hires him to help her stage a phony stars, Tab Hunter, Donald O’Connor, Eve kidnaping. Stylish and steamy, with lots of Arden, Eileen Brennan. Sporadically funny twists and turns . . . but follows a much too spoof of slasher films, set in a school for familiar pattern. Based on the vintage novel cheerleaders. Some clever ideas (in keepJust Another Sucker by James Hadley ing with Canadian origin of many of those Chase. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 films, hero Smothers is a Mountie), but Palm Springs Weekend (1963) C-100m. too often just forced. Panavision. [PG]▼ ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Troy Donahue, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951Connie Stevens, Stefanie Powers, Robert British) C-123m. ★★ D: Albert Lewin. Conrad, Ty Hardin, Jack Weston, Andrew James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Duggan, Carole Cook, Jerry Van Dyke, Sheila Sim, Harold Warrender, Marius GorBilly Mumy. Cast tries to play teenagers; ing, Pamela Kellino (Mason). Sorry to say, [ 1047 ]

a big Technicolor bore, one of writer-directheir story. Screenplay by Richard Murphy. tor Lewin’s misfires, about a woman who ▼●쩠 Panic in Year Zero! (1962) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: destroys the lives of all the men around Ray Milland. Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, her; then mystical, otherworldly Mason Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel, Joan Freematerializes. Intriguing but unconvincing man, Richard Garland. Intriguing film about tale, inspired by the legend of The Flying L.A. family that escapes atomic bomb exDutchman, a man cursed to live for all eterplosion to find a situation of every-man-fornity until he can find a woman capable of himself. Loud, tinny music spoils much of loving him. Only real attribute is Gardner’s film’s effectiveness. CinemaScope.●쩠 breathtaking beauty.▼●쩠 ★★★★ Panic on the Trans-Siberian Express SEE: Pandora’s Box (1928-German) 109m. Horror Express D: G. W. Pabst. Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Panic Room (2002) C-112m. ★★★ D: David Franz (Francis) Lederer, Carl Goetz. Hypnotic Fincher. Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Jared silent film stars legendary Brooks as flower Leto, Dwight Yoakam, Kristen Stewart, Ann girl who becomes prote´ge´e—then wife—of Magnuson, Ian Buchanan, Patrick Bauchau. editor, with bizarre and unexpected conseSolid thriller wastes no time putting Foster quences. Striking sexuality and drama, with and daughter in peril—trapped in a steelBrooks an unforgettable Lulu. Scripters Pabst encased ‘‘safe room’’—inside their new Manand Laszlo Wajda adapted two plays by Frank hattan brownstone. Three creepy thieves inWedekind. ▼쩠 vade the house in search of money that’s Panga SEE: Curse III: Blood Sacrifice hidden (where else?) in that very room. SusPanic (2000) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Bropenseful from the word go, this entertaining mell. William H. Macy, Donald Sutherland, film leads to a disappointingly conventional, Neve Campbell, Tracey Ullman, John Ritviolent finale. Written by David Koepp; exter, Barbara Bain, David Dorfman. A hit cellent score by Howard Shore. Super 35. man with a guilty conscience undergoes [R] ▼쩠 therapy and, feeling estranged from his own Pan’s Labyrinth (2006-Spanish-Mexican) family, takes up with a sexy younger woman. C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Guillermo del Toro. Sort of. Low-key black comedy with FreudSergi Lo´pez, Maribel Verdu´, Ivana Baian overtones is fresh and interesting but ´ lex Angulo, Doug Jones, Ariadna quero, A never quite pays off. Excellent perforGil, Manolo Solo, Roger Casamajor. A dark mances all around. Writer-director Bromell fairy tale plays out against the backdrop of cut his teeth in episodic TV (Homicide, 1944 Spain. A monstrous Fascist captain Northern Exposure). U.S. debut on cable (Lo´pez) determines to flush out soldiers of TV. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 the resistance, as his pregnant wife arrives Panic in Needle Park, The (1971) C-110m. at his countryside headquarters with her ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jerry Schatzberg. Al Pacino, Kitty young daughter. The girl (Baquero) escapes Winn, Alan Vint, Richard Bright, Kiel Marthe brutality of her new environment by tin, Michael McClanathan, Warren Finnerty, drifting into a fantasy world where she is Marcia Jean Kurtz, Raul Julia, Joe Santos, given challenging tasks to perform by a Paul Sorvino. Easily the best of many drugmysterious faun. Unique fable blends fanabuse films made in the early 1970s. Spunky tasy and fearsome violence, ultimately small-time crook and decent young girl get merging the two stories together. Superbly hooked on heroin and go straight downhill. realized, this is a rare film that invites rePacino and Winn are tremendous. Screenpeated viewings to absorb all that writerplay by Joan Didion and John Gregory director del Toro has put into it. Oscar winDunne, from James Mills’ book; produced ner for Cinematography (Guillermo Naby Dominick Dunne. [PG—edited from varro), Makeup (David Martı´, Montse original R rating]▼●쩠 Ribe´), and Art Direction (Eugenio CabalPanic in the City (1968) C-97m. ★★ D: lero, Pilar Reveulta). Coproduced by AlEddie Davis. Howard Duff, Linda Cristal, fonso Cuaro´n. Original Spanish title: EL Stephen McNally, Nehemiah Persoff, Anne LABIRINTO DEL FAUNO. [R]쩠 Jeffreys, Oscar Beregi, Dennis Hopper. Blah Panther (1995) C-124m. ★★ D: Mario Van thriller with federal agent Duff attempting to Peebles. Kadeem Hardison, Bokeem Woodprevent some commie swine from setting off bine, Joe Don Baker, Courtney B. Vance, an atomic bomb in L.A. Watch for Mike FarTyrin Turner, Marcus Chong, Anthony rell as a hospital radiologist.▼쩠 Griffith, Bobby Brown, Nefertiti, James Panic in the Streets (1950) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Russo, Jenifer Lewis, Chris Rock, Roger Elia Kazan. Richard Widmark, Paul DougGuenveur Smith, Michael Wincott, Richard las, Barbara Bel Geddes, (Walter) Jack Dysart, M. Emmet Walsh, Dick Gregory, Palance, Zero Mostel. Taut drama involvJerry Rubin, James LeGros, Robert Culp, ing gangsters, one of whom is a carrier of Mario Van Peebles. Despite its impressive pneumonic plague, and the manhunt to find cast, an annoyingly simple-minded and (no him. Makes fine use of New Orleans locale; pun intended) whitewashed account of the Edward and Edna Anhalt won an Oscar for militant Black Panthers, who had had their [ 1048 ]

fill of the everyday oppression against Black Would-be spoof of schmaltzy novels substiAmerica and began confronting authority durtutes slapstick violence for actual laughs. ing the Vietnam era, becoming pivotal counThe stars are a real-life couple, but seem mismated in this film. [R]▼쩠 tercultural figures. Fascinating, politically loaded subject matter yearns for a more comPaper Chase, The (1973) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 plex, intelligent cinematic rendering. Scripted D: James Bridges. Timothy Bottoms, Lindby the director’s dad, Melvin, based on his say Wagner, John Houseman, Graham novel. [R] ▼●쩠 Beckel, Edward Herrmann, Craig Richard Paparazzi (2004) C-84m. BOMB D: Paul Nelson, James Naughton, Bob Lydiard, Abascal. Cole Hauser, Robin Tunney, DenDavid Clennon, Lenny Baker. Near-classic nis Farina, Daniel Baldwin, Tom Hollander, comedy-drama about pressures of freshKevin Gage, Blake Bryan, Tom Sizemore. man year at Harvard Law School; BotHot action-movie actor and all-around nice toms’ obsession with tyrannical professor guy (Hauser) turns real ugly when the Kingsfield (Houseman) becomes even more paparazzi—and one slimy photog in particcomplicated when he discovers his girl ular (Sizemore)—start hounding him and friend is Kingsfield’s daughter! Splendidly his family. Odious, self-righteous revenge adapted by Bridges from the John Jay thriller. Chris Rock has a cameo as a pizza Osborn, Jr., novel, with wonderful Gordelivery man. Matthew McConaughey and don Willis photography and peerless actVince Vaughn appear as themselves. Mel ing, led by Houseman’s Oscar-winning Gibson coproduced and is seen briefly as a performance in the role that made him a man in anger management therapy. Super ‘‘star’’ (and which he continued in the subse35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 quent TV series). Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Papa’s Delicate Condition (1963) C-98m. Paperhouse (1988-British) C-94m. ★★★ ★★1 ⁄2 D: George Marshall. Jackie Gleason, D: Bernard Rose. Charlotte Burke, Elliott Glynis Johns, Charlie Ruggles, Laurel Spiers, Glenne Headly, Ben Cross, Gemma Goodwin, Charles Lane, Elisha Cook, JuaJones, Sarah Newbold. Insightful fantasy nita Moore, Murray Hamilton. Amusing drama of girl on the verge of puberty who nostalgia of Corinne Griffith’s childhood; has vivid dreams that both reflect her own Gleason dominates everything as tipsy falife and seem to be affecting the life of a ther; set in 1900s. Oscar-winning song, boy she has never met—while awake. ‘‘Call Me Irresponsible.’’▼●쩠 Tense, even frightening, psychologically Paper, The (1994) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ron valid and well acted . . . but not to every Howard. Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, taste. Feature debut of music-video direcRobert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, Randy tor Rose. [PG-13]▼● Quaid, Jason Robards, Jason Alexander, Paper Lion (1968) C-107m. ★★★ D: Alex Spalding Gray, Catherine O’Hara, Lynne March. Alan Alda, Lauren Hutton, Alex Thigpen, Jack Kehoe, Roma Maffia, Clint Karras, David Doyle, Ann Turkel, John Howard, Geoffrey Owens, William Prince, Gordy, Roger Brown, Sugar Ray Robinson. Augusta Dabney, Bruce Altman. TwentyFunny film, loosely based on George four hours in the life of a N.Y. newspaper Plimpton’s book, about that writer’s expeand its harried editors, who are trying to riences when he becomes honorary memmanage their troubled private lives against ber of Detroit Lions football team. Even the unyielding demands of a deadline (and non-football fans should enjoy this one, a few small questions about ethics). Overespecially scenes with Karras (then a memthe-top, far-fetched, downright silly at ber of the team). Look for Roy Scheider times, but so adrenalized—barely stopin small role. Techniscope. [G]▼쩠 ping to take a breath—that it’s fun to Paper Mask (1991-British) C-105m. ★★★ watch just the same. Many N.Y. journalD: Christopher Morahan. Paul McGann, ists appear in cameo roles. Music by Amanda Donohoe, Frederick Treves, Tom Wilkinson, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Jimmy Randy Newman. [R] ▼●쩠 Paperback Hero (1973-Canadian) C-94m. Yuill. Taut chiller is a darkly cynical look ★★1 ⁄2 D: Peter Pearson. Keir Dullea, Elizaat the medical profession. McGann plays a beth Ashley, John Beck, Dayle Haddon. Local lowly hospital orderly who takes on the hockey hero/womanizer leads fantasy life as identity of a doctor who’s been killed in a town gunslinger. Interesting and well acted, car crash and gets a job the deceased had applied for in a busy emergency room. but ultimately a misfire. [R]▼ Paperback Romance (1994-Australian) Alternately tense, horrifying, and hilarious. ★★ C-93m. D: Ben Lewin. Gia Carides, An[R]▼ thony LaPaglia, Rebecca Gibney, Robyn Paper Moon (1973) 102m. ★★★★ D: Peter Nevin, Jacek Koman. Paper-thin black comBogdanovich. Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, edy about a disabled romance novelist (CarMadeline Kahn, John Hillerman, P. J. ides) who breaks her leg while stalking Johnson, Burton Gilliam, Randy Quaid. handsome, roguish jeweler LaPaglia. Thus, Unbeatable entertainment, harking back to he doesn’t realize that she’s handicapped; Damon Runyonesque 1930s, as con man she tells him she was in a skiing accident. O’Neal unwillingly latches onto young girl [ 1049 ]

(his real-life daughter) who’s pretty sharp heralso wrote the script. Originally 132m., then cut to 125m. and finally 116m.▼쩠 self. Tatum made her film debut here, and won an Oscar for her scene-stealing work; Paradise (1982) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Stuart Kahn is fun, too, as Trixie Delight. Script by Gillard. Willie Aames, Phoebe Cates, Tuvia Alvin Sargent from Joe David Brown’s Addie Tavi, Richard Curnock, Neil Vipond, Aviva Pray. Later a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 Marks. Silly BLUE LAGOON rip-off, with Paper Tiger (1975-British) C-99m. ★★ D: Aames and Cates discovering sex while Ken Annakin. David Niven, Toshiro Mistranded in the desert. Both, however, do fune, Hardy Kruger, Ando, Ivan Desny, look good sans clothes. [R]▼ Ronald Fraser. Lackluster tale of a plucky Paradise (1991) C-110m. ★★★ D: Mary kidnapped lad (Ando) and his English tutor Agnes Donoghue. Melanie Griffith, Don (Niven). Since the boy is the son of JapaJohnson, Elijah Wood, Thora Birch, Sheila nese ambassador Mifune, Niven sees the McCarthy, Eve Gordon, Louise Latham. chance to act out his many tales of heroism Poignant and appealing story of a boy that have impressed the youngster. Tepid (Wood) who’s sent to friends of his mother’s action involving political terrorism and in a quiet country town for the summer; Disney-style cuteness muck up the prothere he’s befriended by a precocious girl ceedings entirely. Panavision. [PG]▼ (Birch), and tries to learn what makes the Papillon (1973) C-150m. ★★★ D: Franklin married couple he’s staying with so cold to J. Schaffner. Steve McQueen, Dustin Hoffone another. Idyllic film takes perhaps too man, Victor Jory, Don Gordon, Anthony much time to reach its (inevitable) climax, Zerbe, George Coulouris, Robert Deman, Bill but offers many lovely moments. Birch is a Mumy, Gregory Sierra. Henri Charrie`re— standout. Directorial debut for screenwriter ‘‘the butterfly’’—(McQueen) is determined Donoghue, who adapted the 1988 French to escape from Devil’s Island, despite the film LE GRAND CHEMIN (THE GRAND HIGHWAY). [PG-13] ▼●쩠 odds, in this exciting adventure yarn. Extreme length and graphic realism work Paradise Alley (1978) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: against its total success. Script by Dalton Sylvester Stallone. Sylvester Stallone, Lee Trumbo and Lorenzo Semple, Jr., from Canalito, Armand Assante, Frank McRae, Charrie`re’s best-selling book; that’s Trumbo Anne Archer, Kevin Conway, Joyce Ingalls, cast as the Commandant. Music by Jerry Tom Waits, Ray Sharkey. Sly made his Goldsmith. Cut to 132m. after original release. directorial debut with this Damon RunPanavision. [PG—originally rated R]▼●쩠 yonesque story of three none-too-bright Paprika (2006-Japanese) C-90m. ★★★ D: brothers from the N.Y.C. tenements, one Satoshi Kon. Voices of Megumi Hayashiof whom hopes to make it big as a wresbara, Toˆru Furuya, Koˆuichi Yamadera, Kattler. Some nice moments lost in comicˆ htsuka. sunosuke Hori, Toru Emori, Akio O book-level dramatics. Director Stallone Vivid psychedelic images highlight this Japclearly admires his star (he also croons the anese anime in which machines invade and title song!). [PG]▼●쩠 record people’s dreams. Their creator is a Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Moore. Elvis Presley, colorless doctor with a freewheeling alter ego named Paprika who also dives into the Suzanna Leigh, James Shigeta, Donna Buttersubconscious. When one of the machines is worth, Marianna Hill, Irene Tsu, Julie Parrish, stolen in order to turn these dreams into Philip Ahn, Mary Treen. Rehash of Presley’s nightmares, the Doctor/Paprika must find a earlier BLUE HAWAII, with Elvis a pilot who way to harness the technology and rein it in. runs a charter service while romancing local Based on a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui. With dolls. Attractive fluff.▼쩠 its imaginative visuals, this is a trip worth Paradise Now (2005-Palestinian-Dutchtaking. [R]쩠 German-French) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hany Parade (1974-French-Swedish) C-85m. ★★ Abu-Assad. Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, D: Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, Karl KossLubna Azabal, Amer Hlehel, Hiam Abbass, mayr, Pia Colombo. Disappointing final Ashraf Barhoum. Gripping drama of two feature from the beloved French comic, young men living in the Palestine territory combining assorted provincial circus acts who try to reconcile their lives with family with Tati himself performing mime rouand friends; in 24 hours they will perpetrate tines. The result is a curio for sure, solely of a suicide-bombing mission in Tel Aviv. interest for fans of Tati. Shot mostly on Events do not play out as planned, but we in video. Originally made for television.▼● the audience are all too aware of the literal Paradine Case, The (1948) 116m. ★★1⁄2 time bomb ticking every minute. An excepD: Alfred Hitchcock. Gregory Peck, (Alida) tional film laced with humor and humanity. Valli, Ann Todd, Charles Laughton, Charles Written by the director and Bero Beyer. Coburn, Ethel Barrymore, Louis Jourdan, Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Leo G. Carroll, John Williams. Talk, talk, Paradise Road (1997-U.S.-Australian) C115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Glenn talk in complicated, stagy courtroom drama, set in England. Below par for Close, Pauline Collins, Cate Blanchett, Hitchcock; producer David O. Selznick Frances McDormand, Julianna Margulies, [ 1050 ]

Jennifer Ehle, Elizabeth Spriggs, Tessa Humphries, Wendy Hughes, Susie Porter, Sab Shimono. Beresford scripted and researched this heartfelt (though cliche´-ridden) based-on-fact account of a band of women who become united as they are held in a Japanese POW camp in Sumatra during WW2; they form a symphonic chorus and create beautiful harmony amid their misery. Not without many dramatically effective moments, but done in by repetition and predictability. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Parallax View, The (1974) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan J. Pakula. Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels, Walter McGinn, Hume Cronyn, Anthony Zerbe, Kenneth Mars. Director-photographer-production designer team later responsible for ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN gives this political thriller a brilliant ‘‘look’’ as reporter Beatty investigates a senator’s assassination. Frightening story unfolds with each piece of evidence he uncovers. Gripping to the very end. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Paranoiac (1963-British) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freddie Francis. Janette Scott, Oliver Reed, Liliane Brousse, Alexander Davion, Sheila Burrell, Maurice Denham. Murder, impersonation, insanity all part of thriller set in large English country estate. CinemaScope.

Chaney, Jr. Ironically titled M&L vehicle (they were already on the road to their breakup) is pleasant remake of RHYTHM ON THE RANGE, with Jerry as Manhattan millionaire who cleans up Western town in his own inimitable fashion. Written by Sidney Sheldon. VistaVision.▼쩠 Pardon Mon Affaire (1977-French) C105m. ★★★ D: Yves Robert. Jean Rochefort, Claude Brasseur, Guy Bedos, Victor Lanoux, Daniele Delorme, Anny Duperey. Sprightly comedy about efforts of happily married Rochefort to meet and court a dazzling model he spots in a parking garage. Another enjoyable French farce from director Robert. Sequel: WE WILL ALL MEET IN PARADISE. Later Americanized as THE WOMAN IN RED. [PG]▼● Pardon Mon Affaire, Too SEE: We Will All Meet in Paradise Pardon My Past (1945) 88m. ★★★ D: Leslie Fenton. Fred MacMurray, Marguerite Chapman, Akim Tamiroff, William Demarest, Rita Johnson, Harry Davenport. Excellent tale of unsuspecting look-alike for famous playboy, incurring his debts and many enemies; fine comedy-drama. Pardon My Sarong (1942) 84m. ★★★ D: Erle C. Kenton. Lou Costello, Bud Abbott, Lionel Atwill, Virginia Bruce, Robert Paige, William Demarest, Leif Erickson, Samuel ▼●쩠 Paranoid Park (2007-U.S.-French) CS. Hinds, Nan Wynn, Four Ink Spots, 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gus Van Sant. Gabe Nevins, Tip, Tap, Toe. A&C in good form as bus Jake Miller, Dan Liu, Taylor Momsen, drivers who end up on tropical island, inLauren McKinney, Grace Carter. Portland, volved with notorious jewel thieves. ▼쩠 Oregon, teenager Nevins seems barely inPardon Us (1931) 55m. ★★1⁄2 D: James terested in his pretty girlfriend or much of Parrott. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Wilanything else, other than skateboarding with fred Lucas, Walter Long, James Finlayson, his best friend. He finally starts to care when June Marlowe. L&H’s first starring feature police investigate a death in an industrial film is amusing spoof of THE BIG HOUSE area near a popular skate park. Film is simiand prison films in general; slow pacing is larly laid-back and artsy (parents are mostly its major debit, but many funny bits make it unseen, like a Peanuts comic strip, and as in a must for fans of Stan and Ollie.▼●쩠 Van Sant’s ELEPHANT, shower scenes Parenthood (1989) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: pop up), with its long passages playing out Ron Howard. Steve Martin, Mary Steenof sequential order. This may endear it to burgen, Dianne Wiest, Jason Robards, Rick fans of the director; others won’t see the Moranis, Tom Hulce, Martha Plimpton, point of it all. Based on a novel by Blake Keanu Reeves, Harley Kozak, Dennis Dugan, Nelson. [R]쩠 Leaf (Joaquin) Phoenix, Paul Linke. Insightful Parasite (1982) C-85m. BOMB D: Charles multi-character comedy about the trials and Band. Robert Glaudini, Demi Moore, Luca tribulations of parenthood, as seen from sevBercovici, James Davidson, Al Fann, Cherie eral points of view within the same large famCurrie, Vivian Blaine. In repressive nearily. Warm, winning, and truthful; Martin is future, scientist who’s developed voracious ideal in the lead, and surrounded by a perfect parasites flees with one inside him and ensemble. Screenplay by Lowell Ganz and (surprise, surprise) it gets loose. Set in Babaloo Mandel (from a story they concocted the California desert, with several revoltwith fellow parent Ron Howard). Later a TV series. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ing sequences copied from ALIEN. Filmed in 3-D, with blood and parasites thrust at Parents (1989) C-82m. ★★ D: Bob Balaban. the viewer. StereoScope. [R]▼●쩠 Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, Sandy DenParasite Murders, The SEE: They Came nis, Bryan Madorsky, Juno Mills-Cockell, From Within Kathryn Grody, Deborah Rush, Graham Pardners (1956) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Jarvis. Coal-black horror comedy set in Taurog. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lori the 1950s centers on a young boy who Nelson, Jackie Loughery, John Baragrey, worries about where his highly conformist Agnes Moorehead, Jeff Morrow, Lon parents get all that meat they eat . . . and [ 1051 ]

what goes on down in the basement. Well with Hope in France to buy a new screenacted but thinly plotted; a good sense of play. Features writer-director Sturges in a visual style and amusing production desmall acting role. Technirama.▼쩠 sign can’t keep it afloat. Feature directing Paris Honeymoon (1939) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: debut for actor Balaban. [R]▼●쩠 Frank Tuttle. Bing Crosby, Shirley Ross, ★★★ Parent Trap, The (1961) C-124m. Edward Everett Horton, Akim Tamiroff, D: David Swift. Hayley Mills, Maureen Ben Blue, Rafaela Ottiano, Raymond O’Hara, Brian Keith, Charlie Ruggles, Una Hatton. Texan Crosby visits France planMerkel, Leo G. Carroll, Joanna Barnes, ning to marry Ross, but meets native Cathleen Nesbitt, Nancy Kulp, Frank Franciska Gaal and falls in love with her. DeVol. Hayley plays twins who’ve never Paris Is Burning (1990) C-78m. ★★★1⁄2 D: met until their divorced parents send them Jennie Livingston. Funny, revealing, and to the same summer camp; after initial compact documentary about N.Y.C. ‘‘drag rivalry they join forces to reunite their balls’’—in which black and Latino men mom and dad. Attempt to mix slapstick don ‘‘vogue-ing’’ disguises as everything and sophistication doesn’t work, but overfrom flamboyant queens to businessmen or all it’s fun. Erich Kastner’s story filmed members of the military. Fresh and unconbefore as 1954 British film TWICE UPON descending, with a powerful element of A TIME. Hayley starred—as mom—in tragedy near the end. ▼●쩠 1986 and 1989 TV sequels. Remade in Paris, je t’aime (2006-French) C-120m. ★★1 1998.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Bruno Podalyde`s, Gurinder Chadha, Parent Trap, The (1998) C-128m. ★★★ D: Gus Van Sant, Joel and Ethan Coen, Walter Nancy Myers. Lindsay Lohan, Dennis Salles and Daniela Thomas, Christopher Quaid, Natasha Richardson, Elaine HenDoyle, Isabel Coixet, Nobuhiro Suwa, Syldrix, Lisa Ann Walter, Simon Kunz, Polly vain Chomet, Alfonso Cuaro´n, Richard LaHolliday, Maggie Wheeler, Ronnie Stevens. Gravenese, Olivier Assayas, Olivier Schmitz, Delightful remake of the 1961 Disney hit Wes Craven, Tom Tykwer, Ge´rard Depardieu about eleven-year-old girls who’ve been and Fre´de´ric Auburtin, Alexander Payne. raised separately, meet each other for the Florence Muller, Bruno Podalyde`s, Leı¨la Bekfirst time at summer camp, and contrive to hti, Marianne Faithfull, Steve Buscemi, Catabring their parents back together—though lina Sandino Moreno, Barbet Schroeder, Mom lives in London and Dad in CaliforSergio Castellitto, Miranda Richardson, nia’s Napa Valley. Nicely updated to the Leonor Watling, Juliette Binoche, Willem 1990s without losing the appeal of the origiDafoe, Hippolyte Girardot, Paul Putner, Nick nal. Joanna Barnes, who played the ‘‘other Nolte, Ludivine Sagnier, Bob Hoskins, Fanny woman’’ in the 1961 movie, appears here as Ardant, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lionel Dray, that character’s mother. Lohan’s film debut. Aı¨ssa Maı¨ga, Elijah Wood, Olga Kurylenko, [PG]▼●쩠 Emily Mortimer, Rufus Sewell, Natalie PortParis Blues (1961) 98m. ★★★ D: Martin man, Melchior Beslon, Ben Gazzara, Gena Ritt. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Rowlands, Margo Martindale. Series of ‘‘litDiahann Carroll, Sidney Poitier, Louis tle romances’’ set in 18 distinct Parisian Armstrong, Serge Reggiani. Film improves neighborhoods. Altogether it doesn’t amount with each viewing; offbeat account of muto much, but a handful of the vignettes are sicians Newman and Poitier in Left Bank well told and amusing: Craven’s graveyard Paris, romancing tourists Woodward and set piece with Mortimer and Sewell, who Carroll. Great Duke Ellington score, inare about to marry; the Coens’ funny skit cluding explosive ‘‘Battle Royal’’ number; with Buscemi as an innocent bystander in a must for jazz fans.▼ the Paris Metro; a bittersweet slice of life Paris Does Strange Things SEE: Elena with Rowlands and Gazzara (written by and Her Men Rowlands); Payne’s musing on loneliness Paris Express, The (1953-British) C-80m. with a perfectly cast Martindale. [R]쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: Harold French. Claude Rains, Paris, Texas (1984-German-French-British) Marta Toren, Marius Goring, Anouk (Aime´e), C-150m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. Harry Dean Herbert Lom, Lucie Mannheim, Felix Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell, Aylmer, Ferdy Mayne, Eric Pohlmann. A Aurore Clement, Hunter Carson, Bernhard clerk embezzles money, hoping to use it Wicki. Man who’s been lost four years tries for travel, but gets into more of an advento put his life back together—and win back ture than he bargained for. Middling crime his wife and son. Oblique, self-satisfied, and yarn based on a Georges Simenon novel. slow, like most of Sam Shepard’s writing, but Original British title: THE MAN WHO distinguished by fine performances and rich Southwestern atmosphere by Wenders and WATCHED TRAINS GO BY.▼쩠 Paris Holiday (1958) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: cinematographer Robby Mu¨ller. This won Gerd Oswald. Bob Hope, Fernandel, Anita raves from many critics, so it may be a matter of personal taste. [R]▼●쩠 Ekberg, Martha Hyer, Preston Sturges. Mixture of French and American farce Paris 36 (2008-French-German-Czech) Chumor makes for uneven entertainment, 120m. ★★★ D: Christophe Barratier. Ge´rard [ 1052 ]

Jugnot, Clovis Cornillac, Nora Arnezeder, rannical tobacco czar to the nth degree. CarKad Merad, Pierre Richard, Bernard-Pierre roll O’Connor and Vincent Gardenia have Donnadieu, Maxence Perrin, Franc¸ois Morel. small roles.▼쩠 Atmospheric, beautifully crafted musical saParting Glances (1986) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: lutes the romantic ideal of 1930s Paris just Bill Sherwood. John Bolger, Richard as politics and WW2 are about to change it Ganoung, Steve Buscemi, Adam Nathan, forever. Three workers try to save the local Patrick Tull, Kathy Kinney. Two longtime vaudeville theater, and their jobs, by buying gay roommates spend their final 24 hours it and reinventing the aging palace as an together before one leaves N.Y.C. on a job entertainment mecca. As in LES CHORtransfer. Earnest, intelligent drama is OK ISTES, Barratier blends coldhearted reality within its modest framework; subsidiary and stylish musical sequences. And don’t characters—one of them dying of AIDS miss the Busby Berkeley tribute. French (and played by Buscemi, in an eye-opening title: FAUBOURG 36. Panavision. [PG-13] performance)—are more compelling than Paris Trout (1991) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: the two protagonists. This was Sherwood’s only feature; he died of AIDS in 1990.▼쩠 Stephen Gyllenhaal. Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey, Ed Harris, Ray McKinnon, Partners (1982) C-98m. BOMB D: James Tina Lifford, Darnita Henry, Eric Ware. Burrows. Ryan O’Neal, John Hurt, KenJarring drama, set in the late 1940s, about neth McMillan, Robyn Douglass, Jay the mind and soul of an unrepentant racist, Robinson, Denise Galik, Rick Jason. with Hopper (never better) as a Southerner Foolish, offensive parody of CRUISING, who kills a 12-year-old black girl and with straight cop O’Neal impersonating cannot comprehend how he can be conhomosexual while investigating gay murder. demned for his action. Probing, bristling Hurt is wasted as O’Neal’s partner, who script by Pete Dexter, based on his Nareally is gay. Screenplay by Francis (LA tional Book Award–winning novel. This deCAGE AUX FOLLES) Veber. Undistinbuted in the U.S. on cable TV. [R]▼● guished feature debut for TV comedy diParis Was Made for Lovers SEE: Time rector Burrows. [R]▼쩠 for Loving, A Parts: The Clonus Horror (1978) C-90m. ★★ D: Robert S. Fiveson. Tim Donnelly, Paris—When It Sizzles (1964) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Quine. William Holden, Dick Sargent, Peter Graves, Paulette Breen, Audrey Hepburn, Noel Coward, Gregoire David Hooks, Keenan Wynn. Cleanly made Aslan. Labored, unfunny comedy defeats programmer about an insidious government a game cast, in story of screenwriter and plan to start cloning the population. Watchsecretary who act out movie fantasies in able but uninspired. Video title: THE CLONUS HORROR. [R]▼쩠 order to finish script. Paris locations, cameos by Marlene Dietrich and other stars Part 2, Sounder (1976) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: don’t help. Remake of Julien Duvivier’s LA William A. Graham. Harold Sylvester, ` HENRIETTE (1952). ▼쩠 FEˆTE A Ebony Wright, Taj Mahal, Annazette Chase, ★★★ D: Samuel Park Row (1952) 83m. Darryl Young. Excellent follow-up to Fuller. Gene Evans, Mary Welch, Herbert SOUNDER, retaining the dignity and human Heyes, Tina Rome, Forrest Taylor. Good, values in the continuing tale of a proud tough little film with newsman Evans startfamily of Depression-era Southern shareing his own paper, rivaling newspaper croppers. [G] magnate Welch in 1880s N.Y.C. Written by Part 2, Walking Tall (1975) C-109m. ★★ the director, a former newspaperman. D: Earl Bellamy. Bo Svenson, Luke Askew, ★1 Parnell (1937) 119m. ⁄2 D: John Stahl. Robert DoQui, Bruce Glover, Richard Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Edna May Oliver, Jaeckel, Noah Beery, Jr. Tepid follow-up Edmund Gwenn, Alan Marshal, Donald to ultraviolent movie about club-swinging Crisp, Billie Burke, Donald Meek. BiograTennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser. Svenson phy of popular and powerful Irish nationalnow takes the role of the one-man crusader ist leader of the late 1800s whose career against organized crime, but makes him was destroyed by the exposure of adulterous come off like a standard TV hero rather affair. Plodding film fails to realize great than a real-life character. Aka WALKING story potential; this was (understandably) a TALL, PART TWO. Sequel: FINAL notorious flop in 1937. CHAPTER—WALKING TALL. [PG]▼쩠 Parrish (1961) C-140m. ★1⁄2 D: Delmer Party, The (1968) C-99m. ★★★ D: Blake Daves. Claudette Colbert, Troy Donahue, Edwards. Peter Sellers, Claudine Longet, Karl Malden, Dean Jagger, Connie SteMarge Champion, Denny Miller, Gavin vens, Diane McBain, Sharon Hugueny, MacLeod, Steve Franken, Carol Wayne. Sylvia Miles, Madeleine Sherwood. Slurpy Side-splitting gags highlight loosely strucsoaper is so bad that at times it’s funny; tured film about chic Hollywood party emotionless Donahue lives with his mother attended by bumbling Indian actor (Sell(Colbert, in her last theatrical film) on Jagers). Doesn’t hold up to the very end, but ger’s tobacco plantation and falls in love has some memorable set pieces. Panavision. with three girls there. Malden overplays ty▼●쩠 [ 1053 ]

Party Girl (1958) C-99m. ★★★ D: NichoClemens, Michael Lonsdale, Marcel Bozlas Ray. Robert Taylor, Cyd Charisse, Lee zuffi. Trashy WW2 story of Basque guide J. Cobb, John Ireland, Kent Smith. Crooked Quinn helping chemist Mason and his famlawyer (Taylor) and showgirl (Charisse) ily escape over the Pyrenees with Nazi try to break free from Chicago mob life. fanatic McDowell in hot pursuit. McDowCharisse has a couple of torrid dance ell’s campy performance must be seen to numbers; Ray’s stylish treatment has won be disbelieved. Technovision. [R] this film a following. Tony Martin (the Passage to India, A (1984-British) C-163m. ★★★ star’s husband) sings the title song. CineD: David Lean. Judy Davis, Victor maScope. ▼●쩠 Banerjee, Peggy Ashcroft, James Fox, Alec ★★1 Party Girl (1995) C-98m. ⁄2 D: Daisy Guinness, Nigel Havers, Richard Wilson, von Scherler Mayer. Parker Posey, Omar Antonia Pemberton, Michael Culver, Art Townsend, Sasha von Scherler, Guillermo Malik, Saeed Jaffrey. Meticulous adaptaDiaz, Anthony DeSando, Donna Mitchell, tion of E. M. Forster novel set in the late Liev Schreiber, Nicole Bobbitt. Slim, low1920s, about an East/West culture clash, budget film is fun, with Posey perfectly cast as a young, headstrong British woman as a young N.Y.C. career woman without a goes to India for the first time, accompacareer. Deciding she should be doing somenied by the mother of her fiance´. Not a thing more with her life than just throwing great movie, but so rich in flavor, nuance, wild parties, she seeks job fulfillment (with and the sheer expressiveness of film that it admittedly no skills), and the N.Y. Public offers great satisfaction, despite its shortLibrary system will never be the same comings (and extreme length). Ashcroft again. Posey is trendy and insouciant, likwon Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her able and hilarious, and supporting cast fine performance as Mrs. Moore. Maurice scores as well—including the director’s Jarre also got an Oscar for his anachronistic score. Lean’s last film. [PG]▼●쩠 mother as Posey’s godmother. Best bit: the Dewey Decimal Record-Spinning System! Passage to Marseille (1944) 110m. ★★1⁄2 Later a TV series. [R]▼●쩠 D: Michael Curtiz. Humphrey Bogart, Party Monster (2003) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: FenClaude Rains, Michele Morgan, Philip ton Bailey, Randy Barbato. Macaulay Culkin, Dorn, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Seth Green, Wilson Cruz, Chloe¨ Sevigny, NaGeorge Tobias, Helmut Dantine, John tasha Lyonne, Diana Scarwid, Dylan McDerLoder, Victor Francen, Vladimir Sokolmott, Marilyn Manson, Mia Kirshner, Wilmer off, Edward (Eduardo) Ciannelli, Hans Valderrama, John Stamos. Culkin gives a manConried. WW2 Devil’s Island escape film nered, thoroughly annoying performance in an marred by flashback-within-flashback conadult ‘‘comeback’’ vehicle—his first film in 9 fusion. Not a bad war film, just too talky; years—about Michael Alig, a real-life club a disappointment considering the cast. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 kid who became king of N.Y.C.’s drug-fueled nightlife in the late ’80s and early ’90s before Passed Away (1992) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: he was arrested for murder. There may be an Charlie Peters. Bob Hoskins, Jack Warinteresting cautionary tale to be told about den, William Petersen, Helen Lloyd Breed, the era (indeed, the directors made a 1998 Maureen Stapleton, Pamela Reed, Tim documentary with the same title), but this amCurry, Peter Riegert, Blair Brown, Patrick ateurish, shot-on-video excursion into trendy Breen, Nancy Travis, Teri Polo, Frances depravity certainly isn’t it. [R] ▼쩠 McDormand. Likable if lightweight black Party’s Over, The (1966-British) 94m. comedy about the death of a patriarch ★★ D: Guy Hamilton. Oliver Reed, Ann (Warden) and how it affects the various Lynn, Clifford David, Louise Sorel, Eddie members of his colorful family. Pleasantly Albert. Sordid drama of wealthy American offbeat, with a very appealing cast, though girl becoming involved with group of aimHoskins is never quite convincing as an less London youths, with tragic results. American. Peters also scripted. [PG-13]▼ Pascali’s Island (1988-British) C-104m. Passenger, The (1975-Italian) C-126m. ★★1 ★★1 ⁄2 D: James Dearden. Ben Kingsley, ⁄2 D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Jack NichCharles Dance, Helen Mirren, George olson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Murcell, Sheila Allen, Nadim Sawalha. A Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, Ambrose Bia. largely ignored Turkish spy for the colEnigmatic narrative about dissatisfied TV relapsing Ottoman Empire forms a duplicitous porter on assignment in Africa who exchanges alliance with a mysterious Brit to rob the identities with an Englishman who has died Greek island of Nisi of an archeological suddenly in a hotel room. Some found this treasure. Well-acted drama isn’t wholly brilliant; judge for yourself. Original PG-rated successful, but it certainly holds your inU.S. version runs 118m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 terest. Scripted by the director. [PG-13]▼● Passenger 57 (1992) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Passage, The (1979-British) C-99m. ★1⁄2 Hooks. Wesley Snipes, Bruce Payne, Tom D: J. Lee Thompson. Anthony Quinn, Sizemore, Alex Datcher, Bruce GreenJames Mason, Malcolm McDowell, Patriwood, Robert Hooks, Elizabeth Hurley, cia Neal, Kay Lenz, Christopher Lee, Paul Michael Horse, Ernie Lively. Snipes is a [ 1054 ]

crack anti-terrorist expert planning early Passione d’Amore (1981-Italian-French) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ettore Scola. Bernard retirement when he is thrust into the middle of an airline hijacking perpetrated by Giraudeau, Laura Antonelli, Valerie D’ vile arch-criminal (Payne). Watchable acObici, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Massimo tion fare has a few too many coincidences Girotti, Bernard Blier. Hideous D’Obici but delivers both on the ground and in the air, pursues handsome cavalry officer Giraudeau, thanks largely to the two charismatic oppowho’s in love with gorgeous Antonelli. nents. Costar Robert Hooks, who plays FBI Intriguing Beauty and the Beast story is agent Henderson, is the director’s father. Panot completely convincing—and far from navision and J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Scola’s best work. Later musicalized for Passengers (2008) C-93m. ★★ D: Rodrigo Broadway by Stephen Sondheim, as Passion. Aka PASSION OF LOVE.▼ Garcı´a. Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, David Morse, Andre Braugher, Clea DuPassion Fish (1992) C-135m. ★★★ D: John Vall, Dianne Wiest, William B. Davis. Grief Sayles. Mary McDonnell, Alfre Woodard, therapist Hathaway, counseling a batch of David Strathairn, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Anoddly argumentative plane crash survivors, gela Bassett, Nora Dunn, Sheila Kelley, develops a special interest in euphoric stockMary Portser, Maggie Renzi. Bitchy soap broker Wilson. When her patients start vanopera actress is paralyzed in an accident, ishing from the sessions, she suspects the and returns to her family home in Louisiairline of a murderous cover-up, but . . . ana where she can be miserable to her Scareless, suspenseless, only mildly intriheart’s content—until her newest nurse/ guing romantic thriller is a middling muddle companion (Woodard) stands up to her. of conspiracy paranoia, otherworldliness, Funny, affecting, and satisfying entertainand kissing. Not recommended for those ment—if a wee bit long. McDonnell’s with a fear of flying. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 natural aloofness is put to perfect use by Passing of Evil, The SEE: Grasshopper, writer-director Sayles, who’s given her the The part of a lifetime. [R]▼●쩠 Passion (1982-French-Swiss) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Passion Flower Hotel, The SEE: BoardD: Jean-Luc Godard. Isabelle Huppert, ing School Hanna Schygulla, Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Passion in the Desert (1998-British) CRadziwilowicz, Laszlo Szabo. Characters 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lavinia Currier. Ben Daniels, named Isabelle, Hanna, Michel, Jerzy and Michel Piccoli, Paul Meston, Kenneth ColLaszlo are connected with the making of a lard, Nadi Odeh, Auda Mohammed Badoul. film called PASSION, which seems to be Unusual drama, from Balzac novella, of more the visualization of a Rembrandt or French army captain (Daniels) and a painter Delacroix than an actual movie. Meanwhile, in his charge (Piccoli) who get stranded in the extras are treated like cattle, and the the Egyptian desert during 1798 Napoleonic moviemaking art is tainted by commerce. campaign. The officer eventually comes faceTruffaut’s DAY FOR NIGHT celebrates to-face with a leopard, and their unorthodox the joy of filmmaking; this is, in its own relationship forms the crux of this story. Imway, an anti-movie. [R]▼쩠 pressively crafted (cinematographer Alexei Passionada (2003) C-108m. ★★ D: Dan IreRodionov also shot ORLANDO), though not land. Jason Isaacs, Sofia Milos, Emmy Rosfor all tastes. Shot in 1995. [PG-13]▼쩠 sum, Theresa Russell, Seymour Cassel, Passion of Anna, The (1969-Swedish) Lupe Ontiveros, Chris Tardio. Flavorful but C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Liv unmemorable romantic comedy about three Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, generations of women in a close-knit PortuErland Josephson, Erik Hell. Stark drama, guese fishing town in Massachusetts. The beautifully acted, about von Sydow, living attractive Milos plays a recent widow relucalone on a barely populated island, and tantly drawn into romance with a handsome relationship with widow Ullmann, archiBritisher who neglects to tell her certain tect Josephson, and wife Andersson. Suthings about himself. Easy on the eyes, and perior cinematography by Sven Nykvist. to be commended for focusing on love Original title was simply—and more accuramong adult characters (a rarity nowadays), ately—A PASSION. [R]▼쩠 but little more than a quick diversion. PanaPassion of Beatrice, The SEE: Beatrice vision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Passion of Evil, The SEE: Grasshopper, Passionate Friends, The (1949-British) 91m. The ★★1 Passion of Joan of Arc, The (1928-French) ⁄2 D: David Lean. Ann Todd, Trevor Howard, Claude Rains, Betty Ann Davies, Isabel 117m. ★★★★ D: Carl Theodor Dreyer. Maria Dean, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Predictable love Falconetti, Eugene Sylvain, Maurice Schutz. triangle among the upper classes, enhanced by Joan of Arc’s inquisition, trial, and burning strong cast and Lean’s craftsmanship. Based at the stake; the scenario is based on transcript on H. G. Wells novel. Originally released in of historical trial. Masterfully directed, with U.S. as ONE WOMAN’S STORY. groundbreaking use of close-ups; Falconetti Passionate Stranger, The SEE: Novel glows in the title role. Photographed by RuAffair, A dolph Mate´.▼쩠 [ 1055 ]

Passion of Love SEE: Passion d’Amore Richard Eyre. Denholm Elliott, Emlyn WilPassion of Mind (2000) C-105m. ★★ D: liams, Connie Booth, Joan Greenwood, Dave Alain Berliner. Demi Moore, Stellan SkarsAtkins. Tepid, disappointing tale of roguish ga˚rd, William Fichtner, Sinead Cusack, Elliott, approaching old age, who finds Peter Riegert. Romantic piffle about a woman himself incarcerated in a home for senile who’s either a Provence widow who dreams senior citizens. Williams scores as an elshe’s a glamorous New York literary agent . . . derly homosexual bent on reliving his youth. Pastime (1991) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robin B. or vice versa. Matters are complicated when she falls in love with two very different Armstrong. William Russ, Glenn Plummer, men. Indie vehicle for Moore is sleek and Scott Plank, Noble Willingham, Jeffrey watchable but plays like an International Tambor, Dierdre O’Connell, Ricky Paull Foods Coffee version of THE DOUBLE Goldin. Quiet character study set in the LIFE OF VERONIQUE. Also similar to world of minor-league baseball, circa 1957, JULIA AND JULIA, although in this verfocusing on a 41-year-old relief pitcher sion scripter Ron Bass actually bothers to whose platitudes and gung-ho attitude aliensolve the mystery. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 ate him from his younger, cockier teamPassion of the Christ, The (2004) Cmates. Well-acted but drowsy little film 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Mel Gibson. Jim Caviezel, 126m. does manage to catch the ambience of Monica Bellucci, Claudia Gerini, Maia Morsmall-time baseball. Real-life major-league genstern, Sergio Rubini, Mattia Sbragia, greats Ernie Banks, Bob Feller, Harmon Hristo Naumov Shopov, Luca De Dominicis. Killebrew, Bill Mazeroski, Don Newcombe, Chronicle of the last 12 hours in the life of and Duke Snider appear in minor roles. Jesus Christ dwells, in excruciating detail, on Film’s climax shot at now-demolished his suffering (or ‘‘Passion’’). Despite its direct Comiskey Park in Chicago. Aka ONE CUP and often powerful approach, the nearOF COFFEE. [PG]▼●쩠 obsessive visceral display—which was absoPast Midnight (1992) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: lutely director-cowriter Gibson’s intention— Jan Eliasberg. Rutger Hauer, Natasha Richbecomes narrow and repetitive, particularly ardson, Clancy Brown, Guy Boyd, Ernie since it is virtually devoid of any historical Lively, Tom Wright, Paul Giamatti. Rocontext. Also, the use of subtitled Latin and mantic thriller of social worker becoming Aramaic languages does not make the narraobsessed with her paroled killer client. tive seem any more authentic than other sinHauer (who’s Dutch) and Richardson cere interpretations of this story. However, a (who’s British) sport pretty fair American film that speaks so strongly to those who accents playing two Oregonians. A theatrishare its beliefs is difficult to judge objeccal film that premiered on cable TV instead. [R]▼●쩠 tively. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Passion Play SEE: Love Letters (1983) Pat and Mike (1952) 95m. ★★★ D: George Passions SEE: Grasshopper, The Cukor. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Passport to Pimlico (1949-British) 85m. Aldo Ray, William Ching, Jim Backus, ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Cornelius. Stanley HolloCarl (‘‘Alfalfa’’) Switzer, Charles Buchinski way, Margaret Rutherford, Betty Warren, (Bronson), William Self, Chuck Connors. Hermione Baddeley, Barbara Murray, BaHepburn is Pat, top female athlete; Tracy sil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Paul Dupuis, is Mike, her manager, in pleasing comedy, Michael Hordern. Salty farce of ancient treaty not up to duo’s other films. Ray is good as enabling small group of Brits to form their thick-witted sports star. Written by Ruth own bounded territory in the middle of LonGordon and Garson Kanin; many sports don. Screenplay by Cornelius and T.E.B. notables appear briefly. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Clarke.▼쩠 Pass the Ammo (1988) C-97m. BOMB Patch Adams (1998) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: David Beaird. Bill Paxton, Linda Tom Shadyac. Robin Williams, Daniel LonKozlowski, Tim Curry, Annie Potts, Dendon, Monica Potter, Philip Seymour Hoffnis Burkley, Glenn Withrow, Anthony man, Bob Gunton, Josef Sommer, Irma P. Geary, Richard Paul. Shrill, heavy-handed Hall, Frances Lee McCain, Harve Presnell, spoof of televangelists that blunts its satiric Peter Coyote, Michael Jeter, Harold Gould, edge by making its ‘‘heroes’’ (a young Ellen Albertini Dow, Richard Kiley, Barry couple out to rob the church) so thorShabaka Henley. Pleasant movie based on oughly disreputable. This subject cries for the true story of a man who wants despera better comedy. [R]▼● ately to be a doctor and help people but Password Is Courage, The (1963-British) rejects the sober protocol of medical school 116m. ★★★ D: Andrew L. Stone. Dirk in favor of clowning and making a personal Bogarde, Maria Perschy, Alfred Lynch, connection with patients. A natural role for Nigel Stock, Reginald Beckwith, Richard Williams if there ever was one but the story, Marner. Bogarde tops a fine cast in droll heroes, and villains are all set up a little too account of British soldier’s plot to escape obviously for us to derive real satisfaction from WW2 prison camp. Metroscope. at the end. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Past Caring (1985-British) C-77m. ★★ D: Patch of Blue, A (1965) 105m. ★★★ D: [ 1056 ]

Guy Green. Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Bloodgood, Clancy Brown, Jay Tavare, NaElizabeth Hartman, Wallace Ford, Ivan thaniel Arcand, Ralf Moeller, Kevin Loring. Dixon, John Qualen, Elisabeth Fraser. SenYoung Norse boy is left behind after Viksitive drama of blind girl (Hartman) falling ings fight some local Indians. Fifteen years in love with black man (Poitier); well acted, pass as he is brought up by the tribe and not too sticky. Winters won Oscar as Hartthen must lead them in a new battle when man’s harridan mother. Panavision.▼●쩠 the bloodthirsty Norsemen return and start Paternity (1981) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: David slaughtering everyone in their way. UltraSteinberg. Burt Reynolds, Beverly violent tale puts action ahead of accuracy D’ Angelo, Norman Fell, Paul Dooley, Elizand doesn’t seem to have much of a point abeth Ashley, Lauren Hutton, Juanita other than to show inventive ways heads Moore, Mike Kellin. Bachelor Burt, the can be lopped off. Grainy cinematography manager of Madison Square Garden, yearns doesn’t help this B movie trying to pass to be a papa, so he hires waitress-music itself off as something more. Gruesome student D’Angelo as surrogate mother. Prestuff well worth missing. Based on the 1988 dictable comedy with lethargic perforNorwegian film. Unrated version runs mances. Actor-comic Steinberg’s directo107m. Super 35. [R]쩠 rial debut. [PG]▼● Pathology (2008) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Marc Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) CSchoelermann. Milo Ventimiglia, Michael ★★1 122m. Weston, Alyssa Milano, Lauren Lee Smith, ⁄2 D: Sam Peckinpah. James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Johnny Whitworth, John de Lancie, Keir Katy Jurado, Chill Wills, Jason Robards, O’Donnell, Buddy Lewis, Larry Drake, Dan Bob Dylan, Rita Coolidge, Jack Elam, R. G. Callahan, Mei Melanc¸on. Take FLATLINArmstrong, Slim Pickens, Harry Dean StanERS, add a little SAW, throw in David Croton, L. Q. Jones, Barry Sullivan, Elisha nenberg’s CRASH and you have the recipe Cook, Jr. Revisionist look at Sheriff Garrett for this graphic, woefully inadequate horror (Coburn) and his pursuit of ex-crony Billy oddity. A brilliant young pathology intern is the Kid (Kristofferson) is an interesting failsucked into a world of drugs and bizarre ure, largely because there isn’t enough consexual practices when his new colleagues trast in the two low-key lead performances. enlist his help to commit ‘‘perfect murFirst released in a studio-butchered 106m. ders.’’ Even genre fans might cringe at the version, then revised in 1988 at 122m. A slice-and-dice antics and kinky sex. Super third version (assembled by Paul Seydor for 35. [R]쩠 the 2006 DVD) was trimmed back to 115m., Paths of Glory (1957) 86m. ★★★★ D: Stanley reinstating some ’73 footage removed in ’88. Kubrick. Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meeker, AdCasual moviegoers may prefer the 2006 verolphe Menjou, George Macready, Wayne sion, a balance of tightness and coherency Morris, Richard Anderson, Timothy Carey, with fleeting bursts of greatness . . . but angry Suzanne Christian, Bert Freed. During purists will argue forever over the inclusion WW1, French general Macready orders his of Dylan’s lyrics to ‘‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s men on a suicidal charge; when they fail, he Door’’ over a major death scene. Panavision. picks three soldiers to be tried and executed [R]▼●쩠 for cowardice. Shattering study of the insanPather Panchali (1955-Indian) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 ity of war has grown even more profound D: Satyajit Ray. Kanu Banerji, Karuna with the years; stunningly acted and directed. Banerji, Subir Banerji, Runki Banerji, Uma Calder Willingham, Jim Thompson, and KuDas Gupta, Chunibala Devi. Unrelenting brick adapted Humphrey Cobb’s novel— study of a poverty-stricken Indian family based on fact.▼●쩠 in Bengal. Grippingly realistic, with Karuna Patrick (1978-Australian) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: and Subir Banerji outstanding as the mother Richard Franklin. Susan Penhaligon, Robert and her young son Apu. Ray’s feature Helpmann, Robert Thompson, Rod Mullinar, debut, and the first of his ‘‘Apu’’ trilogy. Bruce Barry, Julia Blake. Patrick’s in a comaMusic by Ravi Shankar.▼쩠 tose state after violently murdering his mum, Pathfinder (1988-Norwegian) C-88m. but his psychokinetic powers are still intact, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Nils Gaup. Mikkel Gaup, Nils as the hospital staff soon discovers in this Utsi, Svein Scharffenberg, Helgi Skulason, tacky thriller. [PG]▼쩠 Sara Marit Gaup, Sverre Porsanger. A Patriot, The (1986) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank teenage boy agrees to lead a group of cutHarris. Gregg Henry, Simone Griffeth, throats to the hiding place of his fellow Michael J. Pollard, Jeff Conaway, Leslie villagers, but takes them on a wild goose Nielsen, Stack Pierce, Glenn Withrow. chase instead. Stunning realization of an Underwater action dominates this low-key ancient folk tale from Lapland is the first action film. Dishonorably discharged Henry film ever made in the Lapp language—and is recruited to retrieve a stolen nuclear a whale of an adventure, too. Remade in warhead and redeem himself. [R]▼●쩠 2007. Panavision.▼ Patriot, The (1998) C-90m. BOMB D: Pathfinder (2007) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Marcus Dean Semler. Steven Seagal, Gailard SarNispel. Karl Urban, Russell Means, Moon tain, L.Q. Jones, Camilla Belle, Dan Beene, [ 1057 ]

Ron Andrews. A paunchy, sleepy-eyed Seathan the similar EXECUTIVE SUITE. gal plays a peaceful, bespectacled, pony-tailed Scripted by Rod Serling from his 1956 Rocky Mountain doctor who’s kind to kids, Kraft TV Theatre production (which also starred Sloane and Begley).▼쩠 animals and local Native Americans, but will snap your spine and shove the stem of a wine Patton (1970) C-169m. ★★★★ D: Franklin glass into your skull if he has to. Of course, Schaffner. George C. Scott, Karl Malden, he’s the perfect man to combat a neo-Nazi Stephen Young, Michael Strong, Frank militia using chemical warfare. Rock bottom, Latimore, James Edwards, Lawrence Dobirresponsible star vehicle dumbs down and kin, Michael Bates, Tim Considine. Milebloodies up serious subject matter for the stone in screen biographies; Scott unforgetyahoo crowd. Premiered in the U.S. on cable. table as eccentric, brilliant General George Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Patton, whose temper often interferes with Patriot, The (2000) C-164m. ★★★ D: Rohis command during WW2. Malden equally land Emmerich. Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger, impressive as General Omar Bradley in Joely Richardson, Chris Cooper, Jason Isaacs, intelligently written, finely wrought bioTom Wilkinson, Donal Logue, Rene Auberjographical war drama. Winner of seven nois, Tche´ky Karyo, Adam Baldwin, Trevor Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor, Morgan. A former hero of the French and InDirector, Screenplay (Francis Ford Coppola dian Wars, widowed with seven children, reand Edmund H. North). Scott reprised the fuses to fight in the Continental Army in 1776; role 16 years later in a TVM, THE LAST he’s seen the horror of war firsthand and wants DAYS OF PATTON. Dimension-150. [M/PG]▼●쩠 to protect his family. But after his eldest son enlists, fate and circumstance force him into the Patty Hearst (1988) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul fray. Gibson gives a charismatic performance Schrader. Natasha Richardson, William Forin this entertaining, old-fashioned period saga, sythe, Ving Rhames, Dana Delany, Franexquisitely filmed (by Caleb Deschanel) in ces Fisher, Jodi Long, Olivia Barash. Stillborn South Carolina. But Robert Rodat’s script and dramatization of the newspaper heiress’s kidEmmerich’s direction are too often heavynapping and subsequent brainwashing by the handed, especially in their cartoonish treatment Symbionese Liberation Army. Film never reof ‘‘bad guy’’ Isaacs. Also available in 175m. covers from a deadly opening half hour that version. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 attempts to convey, from victim’s point of Patriot Games (1992) C-116m. ★★★ D: view, the effects of highly orchestrated psyPhillip Noyce. Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, chological torture. Richardson makes a Patrick Bergin, Thora Birch, Sean Bean, strong impression, despite having almost Richard Harris, James Earl Jones, James nothing to work with. Screenplay by Nicholas Kazan. [R]▼● Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, Polly Walker. Edgeof-the-seat thriller has ex-CIA agent Jack Paul and Michelle (1974-British) C-103m. Ryan (Ford) intervening in a terrorist attack— BOMB D: Lewis Gilbert. Sean Bury, Anicee inspiring an Irish radical (Bean) to swear venAlvina, Keir Dullea, Catherine Allegret, Rongeance on him and his family. Ford’s an ideal ald Lewis. Why anyone would even want a hero in this adaptation of Tom Clancy’s book, sequel to FRIENDS requires investigation; with Archer and Birch rounding out the kind further antics of those lovable teeny-boppers of family you want to root for—and do. Only have about as much bearing on real life as the climactic chase doesn’t ring true. Alec anything Dullea encountered while going Baldwin previously played Ryan in THE through the 2001 space-warp. [R]▼ HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. Followed by Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009) C-91m. ★★ CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. PanaD: Steve Carr. Kevin James, Jayma Mays, vision. [R]▼●쩠 Keir O’Donnell, Bobby Cannavale, Stephen Patsy, The (1964) C-101m. ★★ D: Jerry Rannazzisi, Shirley Knight, Adam Ferrara, Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Ina Balin, Everett Raini Rodriguez, Gary Valentine. Hapless, Sloane, Keenan Wynn, Peter Lorre, John overweight N.J. mall security guard— Carradine, Neil Hamilton, Nancy Kulp. who’s developed a crush on a cute girl who When a top comedian is killed in a plane works at a sales kiosk—steps up to bat crash, his sycophants try to groom a when a wily bad guy and his team take over bellhop (guess who?) into taking his place. the mall. Straightforward vehicle for the likForced, unfunny combination of humor and able James (who cowrote the script) hasn’t pathos, much inferior to somewhat similar that many laughs but is innocuous enough ERRAND BOY. Lorre’s last film. ▼●쩠 to amuse kids and undemanding adults. ★★★1 Patterns (1956) 83m. ⁄2 D: Fielder [PG]쩠 Cook. Van Heflin, Everett Sloane, Ed BegPaulie (1998) C-91m. ★★★ D: John Roberts. ley, Beatrice Straight, Elizabeth Wilson. Gena Rowlands, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Trenchant, masterfully acted drama of greed Marin, Bruce Davison, Trini Alvarado, Jay and abuse of power in corporate America, Mohr, Buddy Hackett, Hallie Kate Eisenabout an all-powerful company head berg, Matt Craven, Bill Cobbs. Satisfying, (Sloane) who makes life miserable for huenjoyable family film. A caged parrot in the manistic underling Begley. Much better basement of a scientific institution relates [ 1058 ]

his colorful life story—passing from one Paymer, Bill Duke, Jack Conley, William owner to the next—to a friendly (and Devane, Kris Kristofferson, John Glover, lonely) janitor. A sweet-natured film that Lucy Alexis Liu. A slick robber is doubledares not to be stupid; adults should enjoy it crossed and becomes so determined to exact along with their kids. Mohr, who plays the revenge on his betrayer (Henry) and the sleazy Benny, is also the voice of Paulie. crime syndicate to which he belongs that he Written by Laurie Craig. [PG]▼●쩠 takes on all comers, no matter how great the Pauline & Paulette (2001-Belgian-Frenchodds. Brutal story grows more ridiculous Dutch) C-78m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lieven Debwith each new plot turn. Based on The rauwer. Dora van der Groen, Ann Petersen, Hunter, the same Richard Stark (Donald E. Julienne De Bruyn, Rosemarie Bergmans, Westlake) novel as POINT BLANK. James Idwig Stephane. Charming, sentimental look Coburn appears unbilled. Director’s cut at two sisters, the mentally retarded Pauline runs 90m. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 (van der Groen), and Paulette (Petersen), a Paycheck (2003) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: John charismatic fabric shop owner and amateur Woo. Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Aaron opera diva whom Pauline idolizes. When fate Eckhart, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe brings the two together under one roof, PauMorton, Michael C. Hall. Computer whiz lette tries to shove Pauline out of her life. Affleck makes big bucks by regularly solvWinner of five Belgian Plateau Awards, the ing top-secret problems for companies, then film features outstanding performances by having his memory of the entire operation two legendary Belgian actresses and marks erased. But when he tackles his biggest job the feature debut of cowriter/director Debyet, for a giant corporation run by Eckhart, rauwer. [PG]▼쩠 things don’t go as planned. As Affleck seeks Pauline at the Beach (1983-French) Crevenge—and answers—after having three 94m. ★★★ D: Eric Rohmer. Amanda Langyears’ worth of memory wiped out, the story let, Arielle Dombasle, Pascal Greggory, line grows more and more outlandish. Slick, Feodor Atkine, Simon de la Brosse, Rosette. entertaining-enough escapism if you’re not Witty, entertaining comedy of morals and too demanding. Based on a Philip K. Dick manners that contrasts the hypocrisy of story. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 adult relationships and the straightforwardPayday (1973) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Daryl ness of young people, as seen when a Duke. Rip Torn, Ahna Capri, Elayne teenage girl (Langlet) spends the summer Heilveil, Cliff Emmich, Michael C. Gwynne. with her sexy, self-possessed older cousin Acerbic, colorful portrait of life on the road (Dombasle). The third of Rohmer’s ‘‘Comewith a smug, self-centered country music dies and Proverbs’’ series. [R]▼●쩠 star, a hellion who counts on his manager to Pavilion of Women (2001-Chinese) C‘‘fix’’ any problems that crop up along the 119m. ★1⁄2 D: Yim Ho. Luo Yan, Willem way. Biting, original screenplay by Don Dafoe, Shek Sau, John Cho, Yi Ding, Koh Carpenter. One of those prototypical earlyChieng Mun, Anita Loo. Lumbering epic 1970s movies that makes modern American set in 1938 China about free love vs. feudalcinema seem bland. [R]▼쩠 ism. A faithful wife falls for an American Pay It Forward (2000) C-122m. ★★ D: priest while her son longs for his father’s Mimi Leder. Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, new concubine. Has the distinction of being Haley Joel Osment, Jay Mohr, James Caviethe first adaptation of a Pearl S. Buck novel zel, Jon Bon Jovi, Angie Dickinson. A teacher to feature an Asian cast, but its lush producassigns his students to do something to change tion values can’t compensate for a soapy the world, which inspires Osment to help script and flat performances. Try not to gigthree people, unselfishly. His mom, a single gle when a lustful Yan and Dafoe go for a parent with a drinking problem, doesn’t unliteral roll in the hay. Shot on location in derstand her son’s actions until she meets the China. [R]▼쩠 teacher—and a romance is kindled. WellPawnbroker, The (1965) 116m. ★★★★ D: meaning film doesn’t deliver on its very real Sidney Lumet. Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzpromise; the conclusion is especially unsatisgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Sanchez, fying. Osment is exceptional. Based on a novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde. [PG-13]▼쩠 Thelma Oliver, Juano Hernandez, Raymond St. Jacques. Important, engrossing Payment on Demand (1951) 90m. ★★★ D: film; Steiger is excellent as Sol Nazerman, Curtis Bernhardt. Bette Davis, Barry Sula Jewish pawnbroker in Harlem who lives livan, Peggie Castle, Jane Cowl, Kent in a sheltered world with haunting memoTaylor, Betty Lynn, John Sutton, Frances ries of Nazi prison camps. Notable editing Dee, Otto Kruger. Well-handled chronicle by Ralph Rosenblum and music by Quincy of Davis-Sullivan marriage, highlighting Jones. Edward Lewis Wallant’s novel was events which lead to divorce.쩠 adapted by David Friedkin and Morton PCU (1994) C-80m. ★★ D: Hart Bochner. Fine.▼●쩠 Jeremy Piven, Chris Young, David Spade, Payback (1999) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian Megan Ward, Jon Favreau, Jessica Walter, Helgeland. Mel Gibson, Gregg Henry, Sarah Trigger, Jake Busey, George Clinton Maria Bello, Deborah Kara Unger, David and Parliament Funkadelic. Political cor[ 1059 ]

rectness is out of control at Port Chester December 7, 1941: a big Hollywood movie. University which leads to the inevitable Occasional silliness and anticlimactic renderclash between a cadre of overly militant stuing of Doolittle’s raid on Tokyo are offset by dent groups and a coed group of dormies thrilling (and horrifying) depiction of the who revel in their political incorrectness. infamous bombing attack on Pearl. Oscar This campus comedy gets failing grades. winner for Sound Editing. R-rated director’s [PG-13]▼●쩠 cut runs 184m. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Peaceful Warrior (2006-U.S.-German) CPearl of Death, The (1944) 69m. ★★★ D: 120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Victor Salva. Nick Nolte, Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Scott Mechlowicz, Amy Smart, Tim DeKay, Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, Miles Mander, Paul Wesley, Ashton Holmes, Agnes BruckRondo Hatton, Dennis Hoey, Richard ner, Bart Conner, Ray Wise. An arrogant Nugent. Deft Sherlock Holmes entry has Berkeley gymnast with an eye on the Olymthe sleuth searching for six busts of Napopics crashes his motorcycle, ruining his leg leon, one of which contains the Borgia and his life. Coached and rewired by a pearl, before all the owners are murdered grizzled—and maddeningly nameless— by ‘‘The Creeper’’ (Hatton). Suspenseful service station mechanic-cum-guru, he learns story inspired Universal to recast Hatton in two more films as ‘‘The Creeper.’’▼쩠 to overcome himself and live in the Now. Metaphysical KARATE KID is a faithful adPebble and the Penguin, The (1995-U.S.Irish) C-74m. ★1⁄2 No director credited. aptation of Dan Millman’s 1980 semiautobiographical novel, but it’s unapologetically Voices of Martin Short, James Belushi, Tim crammed with platitudes. Not a movie for Curry, Annie Golden, Angelyne Ball, B.J. people who like things explained. PanaviWard, Hamilton Camp, Will Ryan; narrated sion. [PG-13]쩠 by Shani Wallis. Nice-guy penguin ends up Peacemaker (1990) C-90m. ★★ D: Kevin on an aquatic globe-trotting odyssey with a S. Tenney. Robert Forster, Lance Edwards, gruff sidekick named Rocko, all for the love Hilary Shepard, Robert Davi, Bert Remof a lady who’s coveted by an evil penguin sen. Yet another alien cop after alien rival. Some movies have the smell of doom villain movie, pitting Forster against Edall over them; this animated feature for kids wards, with novel twist: both claim to be from the Don Bluth studio (with songs by the cop, causing Earthwoman Shepard any Barry Manilow) is one of them. [G]▼●쩠 number of problems. Lots of stunts and Pecker (1998) C-87m. ★★★ D: John Waters. action, but also lots of absolutely awful Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor, wisecracks. Written by the director. [R]▼● Mary Kay Place, Martha Plimpton, Brendan ★★1 Peacemaker, The (1997) C-123m. ⁄2 D: Sexton III, Patricia Hearst, Jean Schertler, Mimi Leder. George Clooney, Nicole KidBess Armstrong, Mink Stole. Pecker (Furman, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Marcel Iures, long) is a happy-go-lucky guy who loves Alexander Baluev, Rene Medvesek, Gary taking pictures of life as he sees it. When a Werntz, Randall Batinkoff, Michael BoatN.Y.C. art gallery owner ‘‘discovers’’ his man. A nuclear explosion in Russia—which work and he’s embraced by the art scene, he turns out to be a terrorist act—triggers imloses his anonymity, and many of his most mediate response by a U.S. government cherished friendships. Another slice of Baltroubleshooter team led by an inexperienced timore life from Waters, perhaps his cheeriKidman and a cocky, shoot-from-the-hip est yet, with doggedly likable characters in field agent (Clooney). Good action scenes some of the unlikeliest settings. [R] ▼●쩠 are set in the midst of a confusing, barely Pedestrian, The (1974-German) C-97m. ★★★1 believable yarn, which yields diminishing ⁄2 D: Maximilian Schell. Gustav Ruresults as one climax after another piles up. dolf Sellner, Peter Hall, Maximilian Schell, Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Gila von Weitershausen. Excellent awardPearl, The (1948) 77m. ★★★ D: Emilio winner examines death and guilt, when Fernandez. Pedro Armendariz, Maria Elena successful industrialist Sellner is revealed Marques. Mexican-filmed John Steinbeck to have been a Nazi officer who particitale of poor fisherman whose life is unpated in the slaughter of a Greek village. happily altered by finding valuable pearl; Veteran actresses Elisabeth Bergner, Frana bit heavy-handed. Beautifully photoc¸oise Rosay, Lil Dagover and Peggy Ashgraphed by Gabriel Figueroa.▼ croft appear in one scene. [PG]▼ Pearl Harbor (2001) C-183m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiPeeper (1975) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Hyams. chael Bay. Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Michael Caine, Natalie Wood, Kitty Winn, Beckinsale, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Alec BaldThayer David, Liam Dunn, Dorothy Adams. win, Jon Voight, Mako, Tom Sizemore, Tepid take-off of ’40s detective dramas with Dan Aykroyd, Colm Feore, James King, Caine becoming involved with a weird family Ewen Bremner, William Lee Scott, Michael while trying to locate the long-lost daughter Shannon, Catherine Kellner, Cary-Hiroyuki of his client. Best bit: the opening credits, Tagawa, Scott Wilson, Jennifer Garner. Part recited by Bogart impersonator Guy Marks. old-fashioned silver-screen romance, part Aka FAT CHANCE. Panavision. [PG]쩠 boys’ adventure, part massive re-creation of Peeping Tom (1960-British) C-101m. ★★★ [ 1060 ]

D: Michael Powell. Carl Boehm, Moira can help her: investigative reporter WashShearer, Anna Massey, Maxine Audley, ington. Well cast (with Julia a perfect pick Brenda Bruce, Martin Miller. Sensational for the lead) and well crafted, though the film—denounced in 1960—went on to desuspense starts to peter out toward the finvelop a fervent following; personal feelish. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ings will dictate your reaction to story of Pelle the Conqueror (1988-Danish-Swedpsychopathic murderer who photographs ish) C-150m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bille August. his victims at the moment of death. OrigiMax von Sydow, Pelle Hvenegaard, Erik nally released in the U.S. at 86m. Director Paaske, Kristina To¨rnqvist, Morten JorPowell plays the father of Boehm in the gensen. Wonderful 19th-century drama home-movie sequences. ▼●쩠 about a humble old widower (von Sydow) Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) C-90m. and his young son Pelle (Hvenegaard), ★★1 ⁄2 D: Tim Burton. Pee-wee Herman Swedish immigrants in Denmark. They (Paul Reubens), Elizabeth Daily, Mark are simple folk with simple, modest dreams, Holton, Diane Salinger, Tony Bill, Cassanyet they must valiantly struggle for surdra Peterson, James Brolin, Morgan Fairvival in a world rife with everyday cruelchild, Jan Hooks, Phil Hartman. A live-acties and injustices. The life-sustaining tion cartoon (directed by former animator closeness between father and son is espeBurton) featuring the cartoonish Pee-wee, cially poignant. Martin Andersen Nexo’s a nine-year-old boy in a grown-up’s body. four-volume novel (only a fraction of which Some real laughs and clever ideas as Peeis depicted here) was adapted by the wee searches for his stolen bicycle, but not director. Oscar winner as Best Foreign enough to sustain a feature-length film. Best Film. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sequence: the tour of the Alamo. Wonderful Pendulum (1969) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: George music by Danny Elfman. [PG]▼●쩠 Schaefer. George Peppard, Jean Seberg, Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) C-104m. Richard Kiley, Charles McGraw, Made★★1 ⁄2 D: Francis Coppola. Kathleen Turner, leine Sherwood, Robert F. Lyons, Marj Nicolas Cage, Barry Miller, Catherine Dusay, Isabel Sanford, Dana Elcar. HalfHicks, Joan Allen, Kevin J. O’Connor, baked whodunit has intriguing aspects but Jim Carrey, Lisa Jane Persky, Barbara leaves too many loose ends, as police Harris, Don Murray, Maureen O’Sullivan, captain Peppard is suddenly accused of Leon Ames, Helen Hunt, John Carradine, murder. Smoothly done, with flashy role Sofia Coppola, Sachi Parker. 43-year-old for Sherwood as mother of young crimiwoman, on the verge of divorce, magically nal, good score by Walter Scharf, but no travels back in time to her senior year in high great shakes. [M]▼● school and has to deal with (among other Penelope (1966) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur things) her boyfriend and future husband. Hiller. Natalie Wood, Ian Bannen, Dick Turner’s radiant star power bolsters this pleasShawn, Peter Falk, Jonathan Winters, Lila ant, often wistful film, whose script leaves Kedrova, Lou Jacobi, Jerome Cowan. Nefar too many plot threads dangling. Cage’s glected Nat robs her husband’s bank of annoying performance as the boyfriend is an$60,000 in this quite unfunny comedy; Winother debit. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ters’ bit lasts only three minutes. Panavision. Peking Opera Blues (1986-Hong Kong) Penelope (2008-U.S.-British) C-103m. ★★★ C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tsui Hark. Lin ChingD: Mark Palansky. Christina Ricci, James Hsia, Sally Yeh, Cherie Chung, Mark McAvoy, Catherine O’Hara, Peter Dinklage, Cheng, Po-chih Leong. Marvelously enterRichard E. Grant, Reese Witherspoon, Simon taining adventure yarn, set in 1913 China, Woods, Ronni Ancona, Russell Brand. which follows three women who become Modern-day fairy tale about a girl who— entangled with revolutionary guerrillas. due to an ancient family curse—is born with Dazzling mix of comedy, drama, action, a pig snout for a nose. Her mother—afraid and incredible stunts, all set at a breathless of scandal and humiliation—raises her in pace by Hark. Proves you can make ’em isolation. Now, at age 28, she interviews like they used to, but not (perhaps) in prospective husbands, who will receive a America.▼쩠 handsome dowry if they can stand looking Pelican Brief, The (1993) C-141m. ★★★ D: at Penelope. Slim but funny and sweet, for Alan J. Pakula. Julia Roberts, Denzel Washnoncynics and the young at heart. Clearly ington, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony filmed in England with a mixed cast of Goldwyn, James B. Sikking, William AthAmericans and Brits doing U.S. accents. erton, Robert Culp, Stanley Tucci, Hume Witherspoon (who coproduced) has a small Cronyn, John Lithgow, Anthony Heald, role as a street-savvy woman who befriends Cynthia Nixon, Jake Weber. Entertaining Penelope. Super 35. [PG]쩠 thriller based on John Grisham’s best-sellPenitentiary (1979) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jamaa ing book about a law student whose theory Fanaka. Leon Isaac Kennedy, Thommy (or brief) about the conspiracy behind the Pollard, Hazel Spears, Badja Djola, Gloria assassination of two Supreme Court justices Delaney, Chuck Mitchell. Predictable but places her in jeopardy. The only person who impassioned prison film, produced, directed [ 1061 ]

and written by Fanaka, about a young baby after their unborn baby dies. A black man (Kennedy) wrongly accused and wonderful tearjerker; scripted by Morrie imprisoned who improves his lot by boxRyskind, from Martha Cheavens’ story. ing. Hard-hitting look at corruption, vioAlso shown in computer-colored version. lence and homosexuality of daily prison ▼●쩠 life. Followed by several sequels. [R]▼쩠 Penthouse (1933) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: W. S. Penitentiary II (1982) C-103m. BOMB Van Dyke. Warner Baxter, Myrna Loy, D: Jamaa Fanaka. Leon Isaac Kennedy, Charles Butterworth, Mae Clarke, C. Henry Ernie Hudson, Mr. T., Glynn Turman, Gordon. Terrific comedy-melodrama, with Peggy Blow, Malik Carter, Cephaus Jaxon, Baxter as criminal lawyer who enlists the Marvin Jones. Atrocious, disappointing sehelp of sprightly call-girl Loy to nail a quel, with Kennedy back in prison and crime kingpin. A neglected gem. Remade the ring. Leon Isaac plays ‘‘Too Sweet,’’ as SOCIETY LAWYER. ● the villain’s name is ‘‘Half Dead,’’ the People Against O’Hara, The (1951) 102m. ★★1 viewer is ‘‘Ripped Off.’’ [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: John Sturges. Spencer Tracy, Pat Penitentiary III (1987) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: O’Brien, Diana Lynn, John Hodiak, Eduardo Jamaa Fanaka. Leon Isaac Kennedy, AnCiannelli, Jay C. Flippen, James Arness, thony Geary, Steve Antin, Ric Mancini, Arthur Shields, William Campbell. MidKessler Raymond, Jim Bailey. An improvedling drama, with Tracy a noted criminal ment over number II—but that’s not saying lawyer who repents for unethical behavior very much. Here, Kennedy is back in jail, during a case. Look fast for Charles Bronson as one of Campbell’s brothers.● where both warden and mob kingpin want him for their boxing teams. Silly and mindPeople I Know (2003) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Dan less time killer. [R]▼ Algrant. Al Pacino, Ryan O’Neal, Kim BaPenn & Teller Get Killed (1989) C-90m. ★★ singer, Te´a Leoni, Richard Schiff, Robert D: Arthur Penn. Penn Jillette, Teller, Caitlin Klein, Bill Nunn, Mark Webber, Paulina Clarke, David Patrick Kelly, Jon Cryer, Porizkova, Andrew Davoli, David Marshall Christopher Durang, Leonardo Cimino, Celia Grant, Jon Hendricks. Tedious portrait of a McGuire. The bad boys of magic, guesting once-powerful N.Y.C. press agent who’s opon a nationally televised talk show, touch erating on fumes, with one remaining client, off gore galore when partner Penn specumovie star O’Neal, who has him do his dirty lates how much fun life might be if some work. Story lurches into unexpected territory viewer would attempt to kill him. Barely as Pacino steps on the wrong toes in a world released effort does have the courage of where high-level politics and show business some sicko comic convictions. [R]▼● collide. Even Pacino can’t bring life to this Pennies From Heaven (1936) 81m. ★★1⁄2 film. Scripted by playwright Jon Robin Baitz. D: Norman Z. McLeod. Bing Crosby, Completed in 2001. [R]쩠 Edith Fellows, Madge Evans, Donald Meek, People Next Door, The (1970) C-93m.★★ Louis Armstrong. Minor but pleasant Crosby D: David Greene. Deborah Winters, Eli vehicle about a self-styled troubadour and Wallach, Julie Harris, Stephen McHattie, drifter who befriends orphaned girl (FelHal Holbrook, Cloris Leachman, Rue lows) and her grandfather (Meek). Bing’s McClanahan, Nehemiah Persoff. JP Millrendition of title tune is classic.▼쩠 er’s adaptation of his TV play has dated Pennies From Heaven (1981) C-107m. pretty badly; Wallach and Harris’ hand★★★ D: Herbert Ross. Steve Martin, Berwringing concern over their junkie teenage nadette Peters, Christopher Walken, Jesdaughter now seems stiff, and Winters’ sica Harper, Vernel Bagneris, John Mcoveracting just the opposite. Good cast Martin, Jay Garner, Tommy Rall. A unique, and intentions, but there are many other, remarkable film, parts of which are greater better films on the topic. [R]▼ than the whole. Dennis Potter adapted his People That Time Forgot, The (1977own British TV miniseries about a sheetBritish) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Connor. music salesman during the Depression Patrick Wayne, Doug McClure, Sarah Dougwhose restless, unhappy life is sharply conlas, Dana Gillespie, Thorley Walters, Shane trasted with cheery songs of the day. StunRimmer. OK sequel to THE LAND THAT ning 1930s-style musical numbers (set to TIME FORGOT. Wayne leads a party back original recordings) clash with bleak, Edto mysterious island in 1919 to find friend ward Hopper–esque vision of the period. McClure, lost three years before. Based on The mixture is intellectually provocative, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ book, film has but troubling as entertainment. Beautifully some pretty fierce monsters, though special effects are erratic. [PG]▼쩠 photographed by Gordon Willis and dePeople Under the Stairs, The (1991) signed by Ken Adam. [R]▼●쩠 Penny Serenade (1941) 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Wes Craven. Brandon George Stevens. Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, Beulah Bondi, Edgar Buchanan, Ann Doran, A. J. Langer, Ving Rhames, Sean Whalen. Eva Lee Kuney. Quintessential soap opera, Hoping to help his ailing mother and prewith Dunne and Grant as couple who adopt vent their eviction from a ghetto slum, [ 1062 ]

13-year-old Adams finds himself trapped in Pepi (Maura), an heiress/rape victim who the bizarre home of their insane, murderous becomes an advertising executive; meanlandlords, McGill and Robie. Very strange horwhile, housewife Luci (Siva), whose husror movie (with occasional comedy touches) band had raped Pepi, leaves him and turns out to be a social parable about the exploicommences a lesbian relationship with Bom tation of the Have-Nots by the Haves. Ambi(Gara), a rock singer. Raunchy and outratious but extremely uneven. [R]▼●쩠 geous, but poorly made and devoid of People Vs. Larry Flynt, The (1996) Claughs. Aka PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND THE 127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Milos Forman. Woody OTHER GIRLS and PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS LIKE MOM.▼ Harrelson, Courtney Love, Edward Norton, Brett Harrelson, Donna Hanover, James Peppermint Soda (1977-French) C-97m. ★★★ Cromwell, Crispin Glover, Vincent SchiaD: Diane Kurys. Eleanore Klarwein, velli, James Carville, Richard Paul, Oliver Odile Michel, Coralie Clement, MarieReed, Miles Chapin. Engrossing saga of an Veronique Maurin. Sensitive, keenly realunlikely American ‘‘hero’’: controversial, ized autobiographical (by Kurys, who self-proclaimed smut peddler Larry Flynt, also scripted) examination of early adoleswho starts Hustler magazine in the 1970s and cence, complete with disciplinarian teacher, quickly discovers that he must fight for freeparents’ divorce, menstrual cramps, first dom of speech in order to keep it on the love. Followed by COCKTAIL MOLOnewsstands. Harrelson is perfect as the mercuTOV; same theme reworked by Kurys 13 rial, unpredictable publisher, Love is just right years later in C’EST LA VIE. [PG]▼ as his loyal but unconventional wife, and NorPercy (1971-British) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph ton is excellent as his long-suffering lawyer. Thomas. Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott, Climactic showdown at the Supreme Court is Elke Sommer, Britt Ekland, Cyd Hayman, a dramatic powerhouse. Screenplay by Scott Janet Key. Bennett receives the world’s Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The real first penis transplant and, curious, sets out Flynt appears briefly as a Cincinnati judge. to learn about its previous owner. Some Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 interesting points could’ve been made, but People Will Talk (1951) 110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Thomas apparently thought he was making Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Cary Grant, Jeanne a Carry On film; too bad. Followed by Crain, Finlay Currie, Walter Slezak, Hume PERCY’S PROGRESS. [R]▼쩠 Cronyn, Sidney Blackmer, Margaret HamilPercy’s Progress SEE: It’s Not the Size ton. Genuinely offbeat, absorbing comedyThat Counts Perez Family, The (1995) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 drama of philosophical doctor Grant, who insists on treating his patients as human beD: Mira Nair. Marisa Tomei, Anjelica Husings; a small-minded colleague (Cronyn) is ton, Alfred Molina, Chazz Palminteri, Trini intimidated by his radical approach to docAlvarado, Celia Cruz, Diego Wallraff, Antoring and sets out to defame him. Fine cast gela Lanza, Ranjit Chowdhry, Ellen Clegin talky but most worthwhile film, which horne, Jose Felipe Padron, Lazaro Perez, features obvious parallels to the then-curVincent Gallo. Cuban plantation owner, imrent HUAC investigation and McCarthy prisoned for twenty years, is finally released witchhunt.▼쩠 in 1980 and allowed to join the boat migraPepe (1960) C-157m. BOMB D: George tion to Florida, where he yearns to see his Sidney. Cantinflas, Dan Dailey, Shirley wife and daughter; along the way he meets a Jones, 35 guest stars. Incredibly long, pointfiery young woman who has no ties but longs less film wastes talents of Cantinflas and for a better life in America. Meandering commany, many others (Edward G. Robinson, edy-drama has some pleasant and poignant Maurice Chevalier, etc.). This one’s only if moments, but never quite takes off. Strongest you’re desperate. Originally released at 195m. asset: Tomei’s strong, sexy (and convincing) CinemaScope. performance. Adapted by Robin Swicord from Christine Bell’s novel. [R] ▼●쩠 Pepe Le Moko (1937-French) 95m. ★★★★ D: Julien Duvivier. Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Perfect (1985) C-120m. ★1⁄2 D: James Gabriel Gabrio, Lucas Gridoux. Gabin is Bridges. John Travolta, Jamie Lee Curmagnetic (in role that brought him intertis, Jann Wenner, Anne De Salvo, Stefan national prominence) as gangster who eludes Gierasch, Laraine Newman, Marilu Henner, capture in Casbah section of Algiers, until he David Paymer. Rolling Stone reporter Trais lured out of hiding by a beautiful woman. volta is writing an expose´ of L.A. health Exquisitely photographed and directed; faithclubs but finds himself attracted to aerobics fully remade the following year as ALGIERS, instructor Curtis, whom he’s about to trash later musicalized as CASBAH. 9m. origiin print. A smug, overlong, misguided, misnally cut from U.S. release have now been cast movie, with hints of intelligent intenrestored. ▼쩠 tions; written by Bridges and reporter Aaron Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980-Spanish) C-80m. Latham. Real-life Rolling Stone editor Wen★1⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo ´ var. Carmen Maura, ner plays himself. Wait till you hear John Felix Rotaeta, Olvido Gara, Eva Siva. and Jamie Lee expound on Emersonian valAlmodo´var’s initial feature is the story of ues! Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 [ 1063 ]

Perfect Couple, A (1979) C-110m. ★★★ has to produce the mythical hunk and, well, let the hi-jinks begin! [PG]▼쩠 D: Robert Altman. Paul Dooley, Marta Heflin, Titos Vandis, Belita Moreno, Henry Perfect Murder, A (1998) C-105m. ★★★ D: Gibson, Dimitra Arliss, Alan Nicholls, Andrew Davis. Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Ted Neeley. Offbeat but endearing romanPaltrow, Viggo Mortensen, David Suchet, tic comedy about unlikely match-up (by Sarita Choudhury, Constance Towers, Nocomputer dating) of straitlaced Dooley, vella Nelson. Entertaining suspense yarn under the thumb of his overbearing father, which adds a few interesting twists to DIAL and singer Heflin, whose life is wrapped M FOR MURDER. Douglas is the coldup with her familial rock group. Enjoyable blooded husband who hires someone to kill music by Neeley’s ad hoc group Keepin’ his wife—but this time, the man he hires is ’em Off the Streets. [PG]쩠 her lover! The stars are perfectly cast, and Perfect Friday (1970-British) 94m. ★★★ the story unfolds in slick and skillful fashD: Peter Hall. Stanley Baker, Ursula ion. Paltrow is a perfect ’90s stand-in for Andress, David Warner, Patience Collier, T.P. Grace Kelly. [R]▼●쩠 McKenna. Staid bank employee Baker decides Perfect Score, The (2004) C-97m. ★★ D: to break loose, and plans daring heist, with Brian Robbins. Chris Evans, Erika Chrisbeautiful Andress and her oddball husband tensen, Bryan Greenberg, Scarlett JohansWarner in cahoots. Entertaining caper movie son, Darius Miles, Leonardo Nam, Matthew with some delicious twists. [R] Lillard. A perfect heist is the plan hatched Perfect Furlough, The (1958) C-93m. by six high school seniors looking to steal ★★1 the answers to the upcoming SAT. How ⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh, Keenan Wynn, Linda Cristal, fortunate the corporate headquarters of the Elaine Stritch, King Donovan, Troy DonEducational Testing Service is located in ahue. Diverting comedy of soldier Curtis their hometown! John Hughes’ films of the winning trip to France, romancing military ’80s did teen-angst comedy better, although psychiatrist Leigh. CinemaScope.▼ ringleader Evans underplays admirably. Perfect Holiday, The (2007) C-96m. ★★ D: Real-life NBA star Miles has a role that Lance Rivera. Morris Chestnut, Gabrielle mirrors his own career. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Union, Queen Latifah, Terrence Howard, Perfect Specimen, The (1937) 97m. ★★1⁄2 Malik Hammond, Charlie Murphy, Khail D: Michael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Joan Bryant, Faizon Love. Lightweight romantic Blondell, Hugh Herbert, Edward Everett comedy with fantasy overtones, about a diHorton, Dick Foran, May Robson, Bevvorced mom (Union) whose young daugherly Roberts, Allen Jenkins. Fairly amuster (Bryant) helps her connect with Mr. ing whimsy about super-rich Flynn, who’s Right—a would-be songwriter (Chestnut) kept locked up and sheltered by grandworking as a department-store Santa—just mother Robson until vivacious Blondell in time for Christmas. Murphy (Eddie’s comes crashing through his fence and they real-life brother) is a hoot as Union’s exgo off on a whirlwind courtship. Perfect Storm, The (2000) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 husband, a flamboyant rap singer. Super 35. [PG]쩠 D: Wolfgang Petersen. George Clooney, Perfectly Normal (1990-Canadian-British) Mark Wahlberg, John C. Reilly, Diane Lane, C-106m. ★★ D: Yves Simoneau. Robbie William Fichtner, John Hawkes, Allen Payne, Coltrane, Michael Riley, Deborah Duchene, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Karen Allen, Kenneth Welsh, Eugene Lipinski. Slight, Cherry Jones, Bob Gunton, Christopher Mcpeculiar comedy about ‘‘perfectly normal’’ Donald, Michael Ironside. Hard-luck skipper guy (Riley) who meets obnoxious restauraof a Gloucester, Mass., fishing boat rousts his teur (Coltrane) with a shady past. Using Rilcrew on short notice to go for a big haul . . . ey’s inheritance, they open an Italian bistro just as three brutal storms converge off the where the waiters sing opera. Mild farce coast. Adaptation of Sebastian Junger’s bestis too sluggish and awkward. Cowritten by selling book inspired by the real-life 1991 Lipinski. Inventive photography by Alain ‘‘storm of the century’’ is drenched with speDostie. Video version runs 106m. [R]▼ cial effects and noisy, exciting seagoing acPerfect Man, The (2005) C-100m. BOMB tion, but its characters and story points are D: Mark Rosman. Hilary Duff, Heather bathed in cliche´. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Locklear, Chris Noth, Mike O’Malley, CaroPerfect Stranger (2007) C-109m. ★★ D: line Rhea, Carson Kressley, Dennis DeYoung, James Foley. Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, GioAria Wallace, Vanessa Lengies, Ben Feldman. vanni Ribisi, Richard Portnow, Gary Dourdan, With a cast of TV stalwarts, including teen pop Florencia Lozano, Nicki Aycox, Kathleen star Duff, this treacly romantic comedy may Chalfant, Gordon MacDonald, Daniella Van find an audience on the small screen, but even Graas, Paula Miranda, Patti D’Arbanville, the most undemanding viewer might prefer Clea Lewis. Muckraking undercover reporter having dental work to sitting through this notBerry, frustrated by a setback on a major so-perfect movie. Hackneyed plot finds Duff story, takes on a more personal investigation inventing the so-called perfect guy for her after a girlhood friend of hers is murdered. loser-in-love mom. When the plan works, she Her high-tech pal Ribisi helps trace e-mails [ 1064 ]

★★1 that point to high-profile ad exec Willis as a ⁄2 D: Tom Tykwer. Ben Whishaw, Duslikely suspect, so Berry gets a job working for tin Hoffman, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurdhim, hoping to get close. She does. Slick thrilWood, Karoline Herfurth, David Calder, ler gets sicker as it goes along, leading up to Simon Chandler, Sian Thomas, Jessica a revelation you can’t see coming—because it Schwarz, Corinna Harfouch; narrated by doesn’t make much sense. The camera makes John Hurt. In 18th-century France, a mislove to Berry in this one. Super 35. [R]쩠 treated foundling has a wretched childhood. Perfect Strangers (1945) SEE: Vacation As an adult his amazing sense of smell leads From Marriage him to work for an Italian perfumer (HoffPerfect Strangers (1950) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: man), then to strange adventures as he obBretaigne Windust. Ginger Rogers, Densessively tries to create the ultimate scent. nis Morgan, Thelma Ritter, Margalo GillUnfortunately, this requires the murders of a more, Paul Ford, Alan Reed. Rogers and series of women for their aromatic essence. Morgan are jury members who fall in love; Strange not-quite-horror movie manages to engaging romance story. be both passionate and remote, engrossing Perfect Weapon, The (1991) C-85m. ★1⁄2 and uninvolving, as the lead character is D: Mark DiSalle. Jeff Speakman, John Dye, impossible to identify with. Lavishly proMako, James Hong, Mariska Hargitay, Dante duced. From a novel by Patrick Su¨skind. Basco, Seth Sakai. The Korean mob makes a Super 35. [R]쩠 very stupid move: they kill the Asian mentor Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the of an American ‘‘weapon’’ with revenge on Yik Yak, The (1984-French) C-88m. his mind. Indistinguishable from other marBOMB D: Just Jaeckin. Tawny Kitaen, tial-arts/vengeance sagas, which is certainly Brent Huff, Zabou, Bernadette Lafont, Jean the least of its problems; to keep things simRougerie. Idiotic adaptation of erotic French ple, Speakman’s character (a loner) is comic strip, seemingly a RAIDERS OF named Jeff. [R]▼● THE LOST ARK spoof, with virginal KiPerfect World, A (1993) C-137m. ★★ D: taen searching for her long-lost dad. Lots of Clint Eastwood. Kevin Costner, Clint Eastnudity, little else. Alternate director’s cut, wood, Laura Dern, T. J. Lowther, Keith called GWENDOLINE, runs 105m. PanaviSzarabajka, Leo Burmester, Paul Hewitt, sion. [R]▼●쩠 Bradley Whitford, Ray McKinnon, Jennifer Perils of Pauline, The (1947) C-96m. ★★★ Griffin, Bruce McGill. A prison escapee (CostD: George Marshall. Betty Hutton, ner) in 1963 Texas takes young boy along with John Lund, Constance Collier, Billy de him as hostage, though they quickly build a reWolfe, William Demarest. Lively, enterlationship; meanwhile, an iconoclastic Texas taining musical-comedy purports to be biRanger (Eastwood) tries to pick up the conography of silent-screen heroine Pearl vict’s trail. Something new in screen entertainWhite, but isn’t; energetic Hutton, good ment: A manhunt movie with no urgency and Frank Loesser songs, colorful atmosphere, no suspense. In its place are some interesting and presence of silent-film veterans make up for it . . . until sappy denouement.▼쩠 character vignettes and a lot of moral ambiguity. Costner, however, is commanding, in an Perils of Pauline, The (1967) C-99m. ★★ unusually forceful performance. Panavision. D: Herbert Leonard, Joshua Shelley. Pam[PG-13]▼●쩠 ela Austin, Pat Boone, Terry-Thomas, EdPerformance (1970-British) C-105m. ★★★ ward Everett Horton, Hamilton Camp. D: Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg. James Cutesy expanded TV pilot. Boone travels Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Michele the globe seeking childhood sweetheart Breton, Ann Sidney, John Burdon. PsychologAustin; overlong, mainly for kids. Period of Adjustment (1962) 112m. ★★★ ical melodrama about criminal on the lam hiding out with rock performer, and how their D: George Roy Hill. Tony Franciosa, Jane lives intertwine. Not for all tastes, but a bizarre Fonda, Jim Hutton, Lois Nettleton, John and unique film; Jagger’s performance of McGiver, Jack Albertson. Newlyweds ‘‘Memo from Turner’’ a highlight. [R—edited (Fonda and Hutton) try to help troubled from original X rating]▼●쩠 marriage of Nettleton and Franciosa, in Perfumed Nightmare, The (1977-Filipino) this heartwarming comedy based on a Tennessee Williams play. Engaging perC-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kidlat Tahimik. Kidlat Tahimik, Dolores Santamaria, Georgette formers make the most of both comic and Baudry, Katrin Muller, Harmut Lerch. Surtender moments.▼ real, whimsical, thoroughly original fable Permanent Midnight (1998) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 of an idealistic young Filipino (played by D: David Veloz. Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Hurley, the director), fascinated by American culMaria Bello, Owen Wilson, Lourdes Beneture and technology, and his awakening to dicto, Peter Greene, Cheryl Ladd, Fred Wilthe disadvantages of ‘‘progress’’ while in lard, Charles Fleischer, Janeane Garofalo, Paris. Crammed with striking images and Connie Nielsen, Sandra Oh. Adequate film of a dazzling soundtrack.▼ TV writer Jerry Stahl’s drug-abuse–packed Perfume: The Story of a Murderer memoirs, showing how—for a while—he (2006-German-French-Spanish) C-147m. was able to maintain professional productiv[ 1065 ]

ity while making a fool of himself at parties of Deneuve, Mastroianni, Gena Rowlands, Sean Penn, and Iggy Pop. [PG-13]쩠 and acting irresponsibly toward the British Persona (1966-Swedish) 81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: woman he marries (Hurley) so she can obIngmar Bergman. Bibi Andersson, Liv tain a U.S. visa. Bello plays the hotel bedUllmann, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Margaretha mate to whom he unloads his past in the Krook. Actress Ullmann withdraws and subplot that frames the story, and Stahl himbecomes mute, is cared for by nurse self appears as a doctor. Inevitably epiAndersson; their minds and personalities sodic. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ switch. Haunting, poetic, for discerning Permanent Record (1988) C-91m. viewers; also shown at 85m. and 90m.▼●쩠 D: Marisa Silver. Alan Boyce, Keanu Personal Best (1982) C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Reeves, Michelle Meyrink, Jennifer RuRobert Towne. Mariel Hemingway, Scott bin, Pamela Gidley, Michael Elgart, RichGlenn, Patrice Donnelly, Kenny Moore, Jim ard Bradford, Barry Corbin, Kathy Baker. Moody, Larry Pennell. Athletes Hemingway Teen drama packs a wallop in tale of and Donnelly have lesbian relationship while model student Boyce whose unexpected training for the 1980 Olympics. Annoying disuicide throws high school classmates and rection—too many close-ups of feet—but officials into turmoil: if he went that route, scores touchdowns galore when dealing with who’s safe? Subtle treatment by Silver of a feelings, and women’s relationship to manippressing social problem, aided by excelulative coach Glenn. Perceptive, sensitive perlent cast, especially Reeves as Boyce’s formance by Hemingway. Directing debut for underachieving pal. [PG-13]▼●쩠 top screenwriter Towne. [R]▼쩠 Permission to Kill (1975-British) C-96m. Personal Property (1937) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★ D: Cyril Frankel. Dirk Bogarde, Ava W. S. Van Dyke II. Jean Harlow, Robert Gardner, Bekim Fehmiu, Timothy Dalton, Taylor, Una O’Connor, Reginald Owen, Frederic Forrest. Fascinating expose´ of Cora Witherspoon. Taylor stiffly maneuspying as dirty business. Bogarde, spy vers through a series of masquerades, and chief of ‘‘Western Intelligence Liaison,’’ finally courts Harlow in this MGM fluff. tries to prevent Fehmiu, head of ‘‘National Remake of 1931 film THE MAN IN Freedom Party’’ from returning to his POSSESSION.▼ dictator-controlled country. Beautiful, exPersonal Services (1987-British) C-105m. citing production. [PG]▼ ★★1 ⁄2 D: Terry Jones. Julie Walters, Alec ★★★ D: N. Paul KenPerri (1957) C-75m. McCowen, Danny Schiller, Shirley Stelfox, worthy, Jr., Ralph Wright. Narrated by Victoria Hardcastle, Tim Woodward, Dave Winston Hibler. Unusual Disney film comAtkins. Naive working woman stumbles bines elements of BAMBI with True-Life nainto a career as a madam, and becomes ture photography, in a romanticized look at a bolder as business prospers. Bittersweet squirrel through the cycle of four seasons in comedy, based on the real experiences of the forest. Based on Felix Salten’s book.쩠 Cynthia Payne, is unabashedly adult, but Perry Mason series SEE: Leonard Maluneven in tone. Benefits from a terrific pertin’s Classic Movie Guide formance by Walters. Written by David LePersecution (1974-British) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: land. Payne’s earlier years are dramatized in Don Chaffey. Lana Turner, Trevor HowWISH YOU WERE HERE. [R]▼●쩠 ard, Ralph Bates, Olga Georges-Picot. Personals, The (1981) C-88m. ★★★ D: Overwrought, disjointed thriller with Lana Peter Markle. Bill Schoppert, Karen Landry, as monstrous cat-loving mother of Bates, Paul Eiding, Michael Laskin, Vickie Dakil. whom she torments his entire life. Slow, Sweet, lovable—but also honest, realistic— unpleasant, and unintentionally hilarious. little comedy about what happens when Aka THE TERROR OF SHEBA and THE recently divorced, slightly balding SchopGRAVEYARD. [PG]▼ pert places a personal ad. Perhaps a bit too Persepolis (2007-French-U.S.) C/B&Wmuch extraneous footage, but still it works 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent nicely, and ‘‘Shelly’’ is a riot. Filmed Paronnaud. Voices of Catherine Deneuve, independently, in Minneapolis. [PG]▼ Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Personal Velocity (2002) C-86m. ★★★ D: Abkarian, Gabrielle Lopes, Franc¸ois Jerosme. Rebecca Miller. Kyra Sedgwick, Parker Remarkable animated feature from Satrapi’s Posey, Fairuza Balk, David Warshofsky, autobiographical graphic novels about growBrian Tarantina, Tim Guinee, Wallace ing up in Iran under the shah’s regime in the Shawn, Joel De La Fuente, Ron Leibman, 1970s (from a child’s-eye point of view), Ben Shenkman, Lou Taylor Pucci, Seth Gilthen enduring the dehumanizing effect subliam, David Patrick Kelly, Patti D’Arbansequent governments have on a comfortable ville; narrated by John Ventimiglia. Three way of life. Handsomely stylized film uses vignettes about women at turning points in animation as few artists ever have to tell a their lives: Sedgwick has to decide whether highly personal story; starkly dramatic yet or not to walk out on an abusive marriage; also disarmingly funny. One of a kind. Posey puts her marriage at risk while adEnglish-language version features the voices vancing her career; Balk chooses to help an [ 1066 ]

aimless young man, but pays a price for to Never Neverland. Bronson makes the her concern. Miller (daughter of playwright role of Peter all her own in this charming Arthur) adapted her own short stories for fantasy.▼쩠 this insightful and satisfying film; shot on Peter Pan (1953) C-77m. ★★★ D: Hamildigital video. [R]▼쩠 ton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred JackPersuasion (1995-British-U.S.-French) Cson. Voices of Bobby Driscoll, Kathryn Beaumont, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, 107m. ★★★ D: Roger Michell. Amanda Root, Ciara´n Hinds, Susan Fleetwood, Corin Heather Angel, Paul Collins, Candy CanRedgrave, Fiona Shaw, John Woodvine, dido, Tom Conway. Delightful Walt Disney Phoebe Nicholls, Samuel West, Sophie cartoon feature of the classic James M. BarThompson, Judy Cornwell, Felicity Dean. A rie story, with Peter leading Wendy, Miyoung woman has never recovered from her chael, and John Darling to Neverland, break with a dashing but impoverished sailor where they do battle with Captain Hook and whom she was advised to turn away. Seven his band of pirates. Musical highlight: years later, they meet again in the midst of a ‘‘You Can Fly,’’ as the children sail over tumultuous period in which her family tries to the city of London. Followed in 2002 by adjust to poverty. A lovingly crafted, beautiRETURN TO NEVER LAND. ▼●쩠 fully acted adaptation of Jane Austen, this film Peter Pan (2003-U.S.-Australian) C-113m. ★★ D: P.J. Hogan. Jason Isaacs, Jeremy demands patience but provides ample rewards. Impeccable yet understated period Sumpter, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Richard Bridetail brings early-19th-century England to ers, Olivia Williams, Lynn Redgrave, Ludilife. Made for British TV. [PG] ▼●쩠 vine Sagnier, Geoffrey Palmer, Harry Pest, The (1997) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul Newell, Freddie Popplewell; narrated by Miller. John Leguizamo, Jeffrey Jones, Saffron Burrows. Handsomely filmed adapEdoardo Ballerini, Freddy Rodriguez, Tammy tation of the James M. Barrie classic about Townsend, Joe Morton, Aries Spears. In a the boy who won’t grow up. Starts off manic performance that makes Jim Carrey promisingly, but adds new ideas that don’t look like Ben Kingsley, Leguizamo plays a necessarily benefit the story (do we really con artist with a unique talent for transneed to see Captain Hook’s severed arm?), forming himself into just about every type and winds up plodding instead of soaring. of persona. Soon he finds himself pursued Kids who’ve never experienced the magic by a variety of whacked-out bad guys. Poor of earlier stage, film, and TV productions showcase for star/cowriter Leguizamo. may think this is fine—but they don’t know what they’re missing. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 [PG-13]▼●쩠 Pete Kelly’s Blues (1955) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 Peter Rabbit and Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971-British) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Reginald D: Jack Webb. Jack Webb, Janet Leigh, Edmond O’Brien, Peggy Lee, Andy Devine, Mills. Beautiful ballet film with Royal Ballet Lee Marvin, Jayne Mansfield, Ella FitzCompany tells the adventures of several gerald, Martin Milner. Realistic to the creatures that live by the pond; interesting point of tedium. Re-creates the 1920s jazz version of Beatrix Potter tales. British title: age and musicians involved. Cast perks goTALES OF BEATRIX POTTER. [G]▼쩠 ings-on, despite Webb. Peggy Lee, in a rare Peter’s Friends (1992-British) C-100m. ★★★1 dramatic role, was nominated for an Acad⁄2 D: Kenneth Branagh. Kenneth Branemy Award. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 agh, Emma Thompson, Rita Rudner, StePete ’n’ Tillie (1972) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: phen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, Martin Ritt. Walter Matthau, Carol BurAlphonsia Emmanuel, Tony Slattery, Alex nett, Geraldine Page, Barry Nelson, Rene Lowe, Richard Briers. A collegiate musiAuberjonois, Lee H. Montgomery, Henry cal troupe’s weekend reunion, after ten Jones, Kent Smith. Slick comedy-drama years, sparks feelings of love, envy, anhas its moments as wry bachelor Matthau ger, and self-doubt. Glibly described as a laconically woos and marries Burnett. British BIG CHILL, it stands on its own, Later turn to melodrama doesn’t work, filled with honest humor, heartache, and however, and supporting characters Page finely etched performances. Thompson is a and Auberjonois don’t make sense. Enough standout as the group nerd, and Rudner good points for innocuous entertainment; (who also wrote this with real-life husband adapted by Julius J. Epstein from Peter de Martin Bergman) is very funny as a selfabsorbed Hollywood star. Thompson’s Vries’ Witch’s Milk. Panavision. [PG]▼ Peter Pan (1924) 102m. ★★★ D: Herbert mother, actress Phyllida Law, turns in a fine Brenon. Betty Bronson, Ernest Torrence, performance as the housekeeper.▼●쩠 Anna May Wong, Mary Brian, Virginia Pete’s Dragon (1977) C-134m. ★★ D: Browne Faire, Esther Ralston, Cyril ChadDon Chaffey. Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, wick, Philippe De Lacey. Delightful adaptaMickey Rooney, Red Buttons, Shelley Wintion of the James M. Barrie classic about ters, Sean Marshall, Jane Kean, Jim Backus, the boy who can fly and never wants to Jeff Conaway; voice of Charlie Callas. grow up, and his adventures as he soars Heavy-handed Disney musical about oraway with Wendy Darling and her brothers phaned boy and his only friend, a protec[ 1067 ]

tive dragon. Endearing animated ‘‘monster’’ Petty Girl, The (1950) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: almost makes up for the live actors’ tireHenry Levin. Robert Cummings, Joan Caulsome mugging. Another try for MARY field, Elsa Lanchester, Melville Cooper, POPPINS magic that doesn’t come close. Mary Wickes, Tippi Hedren. Mild comSome prints run 121m.; the 1985 reissue edy of pin-up artist George Petty (Cumwas further cut to 104m. [G]▼●쩠 mings) falling for prudish Caulfield; LanPete’s Meteor (1998-Irish) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: chester steals every scene she’s in. Petulia (1968) C-105m. ★★★★ D: Richard Joe O’Byrne. Brenda Fricker, Alfred Molina, Mike Myers, John Kavanagh, Ian Costello, Lester. Julie Christie, George C. Scott, Dervla Kirwan, Gavin Dowdall. Myers plays Richard Chamberlain, Shirley Knight, Ara dramatic part (with an Irish brogue) in this thur Hill, Joseph Cotten, Pippa Scott, Kathpeculiar, poorly written movie about three orleen Widdoes, Richard Dysart, Austin Penphaned kids being raised by their grandmother. dleton, Rene Auberjonois, The Grateful When a meteor lands in their backyard, they Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Comthink it’s been sent by their parents from the pany. Brilliant film, set against mid-’60s heavens, so they object when nerdy scientist San Francisco scene, about recently diMolina claims it for study. The film’s cenvorced doctor and his relationship with tral character, the oldest boy (Costello), is unhappily married kook. Terrific acting, so off-putting that he makes watching the especially by Scott and Knight, in one of film a trial. Released direct to video in 2002. decade’s top films; script by Lawrence B. [R] ▼쩠 Marcus. From John Haase’s novel Me and the Arch Kook Petulia. [R]▼쩠 Petrified Forest, The (1936) 83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Archie Mayo. Leslie Howard, Bette Peyton Place (1957) C-157m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Davis, Dick Foran, Humphrey Bogart, GenMark Robson. Lana Turner, Hope Lange, evieve Tobin, Charley Grapewin, Porter Arthur Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Lee Philips, Hall. Solid adaptation of Robert Sherwood Terry Moore, Russ Tamblyn, Betty Field, play, focusing on ironic survival of the David Nelson, Mildred Dunnock, Diane physically fit in civilized world. Bogart is Varsi, Barry Coe, Leon Ames, Lorne Greene. Duke Mantee, escaped gangster, who holds Grace Metalious’s once-notorious novel rewriter Howard, dreamer Davis, and others ceives Grade A filming. Soap opera of life hostage at roadside restaurant in Arizona. behind closed doors in a small New England Stagy, but extremely well acted and surtown boasts strong cast, fine Franz Waxman prisingly fresh. Howard and Bogart recrescore. Original running time: 162m. Sequel: ate their Broadway roles. Scripted by RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE. Later a hit Charles Kenyon and Delmer Daves. ReTV series. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 made as ESCAPE IN THE DESERT. Also Phaedra (1962-U.S.-French-Greek) 115m. ★★★ shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 D: Jules Dassin. Melina Mercouri, Petroleum Girls SEE: Legend of Frenchie Anthony Perkins, Raf Vallone, Elizabeth King, The Ercy. Mercouri, wife of shipping magnate Pet Sematary (1989) C-102m. BOMB D: Vallone, has an affair with stepson PerMary Lambert. Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, kins. Well acted and directed; inspired by Denise Crosby, Brad Greenquist, Michael Euripides’ Hippolytus. Lombard, Blaze Berdahl, Miko Hughes. Phantasm (1979) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Don Couple is shocked to discover that danger Coscarelli. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornlurks for their kids just outside a newly bury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester, Angus purchased rural home; aside from a spooked Scrimm. Two dull brothers take on a flying adjacent pet cemetery, they somehow failed object that punctures skulls and a creepy to notice that semis roar down their frontcemetery worker whose ties are so thin he yard highway every 90 seconds or so. A belongs playing ‘‘Louie, Louie’’ at a 1964 prom. Followed by three sequels. [R]▼●쩠 box-office hit whose contempt for its audience was sensed even by undiscriminating moviePhantasm II (1988) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Don goers. Stephen King, who has a cameo as a Coscarelli. James Le Gros, Reggie Banminister, scripted from his own best-seller. nister, Angus Scrimm, Paula Irvine, SamFollowed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 antha Phillips, Kenneth Tigar. BiggerPet Sematary II (1992) C-100m. BOMB D: budgeted sequel to the 1979 cult success Mary Lambert. Edward Furlong, Anthony is similar—psychic teenagers experiencing Edwards, Clancy Brown, Jared Rushton, recurring nightmarish visions of The Tall Darlanne Fluegel, Sarah Trigger, Lisa Waltz, Man (Scrimm)—only with more graphic Jason McGuire. The son of an accidentally and unrelenting gore. [R]▼● killed horror-movie actress discovers the Phantasm III (1994) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Don pet cemetery that brings the dead back to Coscarelli. Reggie Bannister, A. Michael life, causing the same kind of gore and Baldwin, Angus Scrimm, Bill Thornbury, horror as in the first film. Brown is a hoot Gloria Lynne Henry, Kevin Connors, Cindy as a resurrected sheriff, but the movie is Ambuehl, John Chandler, Brooks Gardner. mean-spirited and gruesome, much worse More flying silver spheres, cannibal gnomes, than the original BOMB! [R]▼●쩠 stolen bodies, explosions, and The Tall [ 1068 ]

Man—still doesn’t make much sense. The Jane Farrar, Miles Mander, J. Edward end is especially unsatisfying, with limp Bromberg, Hume Cronyn, Fritz Leiber, humor, unnecessary sex scenes, and amateurLeo Carrillo, Steven Geray, Fritz Feld. ish acting. Followed by another video sequel. First talkie version of venerable melodrama [R]▼●쩠 often has more opera than Phantom, but Phantom, The (1996-U.S.-Australian) CRains gives fine, sympathetic performance as disfigured composer worshipping young 101m. ★★ D: Simon Wincer. Billy Zane, Kristy Swanson, Treat Williams, Catherine soprano Foster. Oscar winner for CinemaZeta Jones, James Remar, Cary-Hiroyuki tography (Hal Mohr and W. Howard Greene) and Art Direction.▼●쩠 Tagawa, Casey Siemaszko, Samantha Eggar, Patrick McGoohan. Lead-footed emulation of Phantom of the Opera, The (1962-British) C-84m. ★★ D: Terence Fisher. Herbert Saturday matinee serials, using Lee Falk’s masked comic-strip hero (‘‘the ghost who Lom, Heather Sears, Thorley Walters, Edwalks’’), who starred in a bona fide serial in ward DeSouza, Michael Gough, Miles 1943. His longtime attempt to vanquish a Malleson. Lom stars in this third screen society of evil puts him face-to-face with version of the story. It’s more elaborate megalomaniac Xander Drax (a campy Wilthan most Hammer horror films, but also liams). Well-meaning INDIANA JONES more plodding, with only occasional mowannabe has no energy and offers largements of terror. ▼●쩠 scale stunts without knowing how to stage Phantom of the Opera, The (1989) them! Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Dwight H. Little. Robert Phantom Lady (1944) 87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Englund, Jill Schoelen, Alex Hyde-White, Robert Siodmak. Ella Raines, Franchot Billy Nighy, Stephanie Lawrence, TerTone, Alan Curtis, Thomas Gomez, Elisha ence Harvey. Good-looking but gory, slowCook, Jr., Fay Helm, Andrew Tombes, moving remake, shot in Budapest but set Regis Toomey. First-rate suspense yarn of in London. Changes to Gaston Leroux’s innocent man (Curtis) framed for murder novel are no improvements; instead of a of his wife. Secretary Raines seeks real mask, the Phantom stitches dead flesh onto killer with help of Curtis’ best friend (Tone) his scarred face and has made a deal with the and detective (Gomez). Sexual innuendo devil. He’s still killing people to advance the in drumming scene with Cook is simply career of a chosen singer. No chandelier, eiastonishing—the solo was reportedly dubbed ther. Englund (‘‘Freddy Krueger’’) ranges by Buddy Rich. Based on a Cornell Woolfrom effective to hammy as the Phantom. [R]▼●쩠 rich novel; screenplay by Bernard C. Schoenfeld. ▼ Phantom of the Opera, The (1999-Italian) C-99m. ★★ D: Dario Argento. Julian Sands, Phantom of Liberty, The (1974-French) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. Jean-Claude Asia Argento, Andrea Di Stefano, Nadia RiBrialy, Adolfo Celi, Michel Piccoli, Monnaldi, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, Istvan ica Vitti. A dreamlike comedy of irony, Bubik. Argento’s gory and erotic take on composed of surreal, randomly connected the classic tale with Sands as the mysterious anecdotes. Highlighted is a dinner party, phantom, who, in this version, is abandoned in which the openness of eating and the in the sewer below the opera house as an privacy of defecating are reversed, and a infant and raised by a loving family of sequence in which adults fret over a young rats! The director’s daughter plays the girl’s disappearance—even though she rebeautiful young singer with whom he bemains present all along. [R]▼●쩠 comes obsessed. Disappointingly routine Phantom of Terror, The SEE: Bird With and unimaginative, with only a few of the the Crystal Plumage, The director’s expected flamboyant flourishes. Phantom of the Opera, The (1925) 98m. [R]▼쩠 ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Rupert Julian. Lon Chaney, Mary Phantom of the Opera, The (2004-British) Philbin, Norman Kerry, Snitz Edwards, C-142m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Schumacher. Gerard Gibson Gowland. Classic melodrama with Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson, MiChaney as the tortured composer who lives randa Richardson, Minnie Driver, Simon Calin the catacombs under the Paris Opera low, Ciara´n Hinds. Overproduced adaptation House, and kidnaps young Philbin as his of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical with singing prote´ge´e. Famous unmasking scene unnecessary additions: a superfluous flashback still packs a jolt, and the Bal Masque is framing device and a ‘‘backstory’’ for the especially impressive in two-color TechniPhantom. The singing is fine, Rossum posicolor. One of Chaney’s finest hours. Most tively glows as Christine, major numbers like prints are of the 1929 reissue version, but the ‘‘The Music of the Night’’ are beautifully original is available on DVD; running times done, but Webber and Schumacher subscribe vary. Remade several times, and transformed to the ‘‘more is more’’ school of entertaininto a Broadway musical.▼●쩠 ment, alas. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Phantom of the Opera (1943) C-92m. Phantom of the Paradise (1974) C-92m. ★★★ D: Arthur Lubin. Claude Rains, Su★★★ D: Brian De Palma. Paul Williams, sanna Foster, Nelson Eddy, Edgar Barrier, William Finley, Jessica Harper, George [ 1069 ]

Memmoli, Gerrit Graham. Effective rock science fiction about colony of super-inversion of . . . OPERA, with Finley out for telligent ants (normal-sized, for a change) revenge against producer (Williams, misrunning rampant at a lonely scientific outcast but not bad) who stole his songs. A flop post. Difficult, but not without its rewards. in its time—it was sold as a spoof—but [PG] ▼●쩠 now finding a cult; ironically, many of the Phat Beach (1996) C-99m. ★★ D: Doug ‘‘weird’’ rock performers (including GraEllin. Jermaine ‘‘Huggy’’ Hopkins, Brian ham as ‘‘Beef’’) seem pretty tame alongside Hooks, Eric Fleeks, Alma Collins, Claudia some of today’s artists. Williams also comKaleem, Jennifer Lucienne, Coolio, Gregg posed the score, and Sissy Spacek was the D. Vance, Tre Black, Tiny ‘‘Zeus’’ Lister, set decorator! [PG]▼●쩠 Jr. A wannabe writer (Hopkins) dreams of Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954) meeting the perfect girl at the beach, so he C-84m. ★★ D: Roy Del Ruth. Karl Malheads off to the surf with his best friend. den, Claude Dauphin, Patricia Medina, Hopkins’ earnest, charming performance Steve Forrest, Allyn Ann McLerie, Erin saves this from being a typical hit-the-beach O’Brien-Moore. Remake of MURDERS and hit-on-the-girls film. Coolio and Y?NIN THE RUE MORGUE suffers from Vee perform on-screen. [R]▼●쩠 Malden’s hamminess in the equivalent of Phat Girlz (2006) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Nnegest Lugosi’s role, plus little real atmosphere. Likke´. Mo’Nique, Jimmy Jean-Louis, GodOn the other hand, there is Merv Griffin as frey, Kendra C. Johnson, Jack Noseworthy, a college student! Originally in 3-D.▼ Joyful Drake, Eric Roberts. Self-indulgent, Phantoms (1998) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe sloppily made comedy about a full-figured Chappelle. Peter O’Toole, Joanna Going, wannabe fashion designer (Mo’Nique). As she Rose McGowan, Liev Schreiber, Ben Afstruggles to deal with her issues in a weightfleck, Clifton Powell, Nicky Katt. Sisters conscious culture, she is pursued by a hunky are frightened to find a Rocky Mountain Nigerian doctor who is attracted to plus-sized town totally deserted, except for a few dead women. Supposedly well-intentioned explobodies; sheriff Affleck shows up to help, ration of the importance of accepting who followed by scientist O’Toole. The answer you are and how you look is shrill, onenote, and wallows in nastiness. [PG-13]쩠 is a mysterious underground monster from the beginning of time: intelligent, deadly, Phenix City Story, The (1955) 100m. ★★★ and amorphous. Not-bad thriller with good D: Phil Karlson. John McIntire, Richard performances, astute use of locations, and Kiley, Kathryn Grant (Crosby), Edward some suspenseful scenes. Adapted from his Andrews. Fast-paced expose´ film, compactly own novel by Dean R. Koontz. Aka DEAN told, with realistic production, fine perforKOONTZ’S PHANTOMS. [R]▼●쩠 mances as lawyer returns to corrupt homePhantom Tollbooth, The (1969) C-90m. town, tries to do something about it. Some★★★ times shown without 13m. prologue. D: Chuck Jones, Abe Levitow (animation); David Monahan (live-action). Butch Phenomena SEE: Creepers Patrick, and voices of Hans Conried, Mel Phenomenon (1996) C-124m. ★★ D: Jon Blanc, Candy Candido, June Foray, Les Turteltaub. John Travolta, Kyra Sedgwick, Tremayne, Daws Butler. Unusual animated Forest Whitaker, Robert Duvall, Jeffrey Defeature (the first for both Jones and MGM), Munn, Brent Spiner, Richard Kiley, Tony based on Norton Juster’s book about Genaro, Sean O’Bryan, Ellen Geer. Intribored little boy who enters strange world guing, humanistic story has ordinary-guy Trawhere letters and numbers are at war. A volta struck by a bolt of light that transforms bit sophisticated for the Saturday matinee him into a genius . . . a ‘‘blessing’’ that turns crowd, and the songs are pretty icky, but out to be a curse. Unfortunately, it heads nostill quite worthwhile, especially for Jones where and takes its sweet time getting there. fans. [G]▼● Beautiful Northern California setting and Phar Lap (1983-Australian) C-108m. ★★★ lovely Thomas Newman score support TraD: Simon Wincer. Tom Burlinson, Martin volta’s empathic performance . . . all for Vaughan, Judy Morris, Ron Leibman, Cenaught. Long, slow, and squishy in the cenlia de Burgh, Vincent Ball. Entertaining ter. Remade for TV in 2003 but titled PHEchronicle of champion New Zealand–born NOMENON II. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 racehorse Phar Lap, who suddenly and mysPHFFFT (1954) 91m. ★★★ D: Mark Robteriously died in 1933 in America. Nicely son. Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon, Jack directed and acted; Down Under, the story Carson, Kim Novak, Donald Curtis. Saucy is now a legend. Reedited for U.S. release sex romp by George Axelrod, with Holliday from original 118m. Panavision. [PG]▼ and Lemmon discovering that they were Phase IV (1974) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Saul Bass. better off before they divorced.▼쩠 Nigel Davenport, Lynne Frederick, MiPhiladelphia (1993) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonchael Murphy, Alan Gifford, Helen Horton, athan Demme. Tom Hanks, Denzel WashRobert Henderson. Feature directing ington, Jason Robards, Mary Steenburgen, debut of famed title-maker Bass is visuAntonio Banderas, Ron Vawter, Robert ally stunning but rather incomprehensible Ridgely, Charles Napier, Lisa Summerour, [ 1070 ]

Joanne Woodward, Roger Corman, John Phoebe in Wonderland (2008) C-96m. ★★★ Bedford Lloyd, Anna Deavere Smith, TraD: Daniel Barnz. Elle Fanning, Felicity cey Walter, Obba Babatunde, Kathryn Witt, Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman, Bradley Whitford. Up-and-coming lawyer Campbell Scott, Bailee Madison, Austin Hanks is battling AIDS; when he’s fired Williams, Teala Dunn, Maddie Corman. from his prosperous Main Line Philadelphia Young girl seems to live in her own world, law firm (for trumped-up reasons), he debut finds a safe haven acting in a school cides to bring suit. The only lawyer who’ll production of Alice in Wonderland for an take his case: ambulance-chaser Washingartsy drama teacher (Clarkson). At the same ton, who doesn’t like gays. Well-meaning, time, her mother (Huffman) is torn between mainstream look at AIDS and American hotrying to finish a thesis on Alice and commophobia succeeds as a tract but falls short mitting to parenting. Ambitious drama plumbs as drama. Hanks is terrific in an Oscar-winsome remarkably deep emotions, especially ning performance, but we don’t know anyfor a film with a 9-year-old leading lady thing about him, or his lover (Banderas); his (Fanning, who’s amazing). Excellent score by Christophe Beck. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Norman Rockwellian family is (alas) too good to be true. That’s the Rev. Robert Phoenix (1997) C-107m. ★★ D: Danny Castle (subject of Demme’s documentary Cannon. Ray Liotta, Anjelica Huston, AnCOUSIN BOBBY) as Hanks’ father. Bruce thony LaPaglia, Daniel Baldwin, Jeremy Springsteen also won an Oscar for Best Piven, Kari Wuhrer, Xander Berkeley, Tom Song, ‘‘Streets of Philadelphia.’’ [PGNoonan, Giancarlo Esposito, Giovanni Rib13]▼●쩠 isi, Brittany Murphy. Gambling-addicted Philadelphia Experiment, The (1984) CArizona cop Liotta, deeply in debt to a 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stewart Raffill. Michael Pare´, bookie, hatches a heist with his three corNancy Allen, Eric Christmas, Bobby Di rupt cop buddies to rip off a local loan Cicco, Kene Holliday. Sailor on WW2 ship shark, but naturally things unravel in typical falls through a hole in time and winds up in B-movie fashion. Stylishly made neo-noir 1984. Just entertaining enough to cover proboasts a superior cast but is sunk by repelduction flaws and some gaping story holes. lent characters and a depressingly derivaFollowed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 tive, post-modern Tarantino-esque script. Philadelphia, Here I Come (1975) C-95m. Premiered on cable a year before 1998 the★★1 atrical release. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: John Quested. Donal McCann, Des Cave, Siobhan McKenna, Eamon Kelly, FidPhone Booth (2003) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Joel elma Murphy, Liam Redmond. Brian Friel Schumacher. Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, adapted his stage play about a young man Forest Whitaker, Radha Mitchell, Katie and his alter ego who debate whether or Holmes, Richard T. Jones, Keith Nobbs, Josh not he should leave his dreary Irish home Pais, Tia Texada, Paula Jai Parker. Farrell town and join an aunt in Philadelphia, U.S.A. gives a tour de force performance in this Filmed on location; fine performances. ▼쩠 extremely annoying film about a pushy, Philadelphia Story, The (1940) 112m. street hustler–style publicist who picks up a ★★★★ D: George Cukor. Cary Grant, Kathphone on 8th Avenue in Manhattan and arine Hepburn, James Stewart, Ruth Husfinds himself trapped there—literally and sey, John Howard, Roland Young, John psychologically—by a maniacal caller. Halliday, Virginia Weidler, Mary Nash, Larry Cohen’s story makes no sense whatHenry Daniell, Hillary Brooke. Talky but soever, so the film’s only value is as an brilliant adaptation of Philip Barry’s hit exercise, and on that level it runs out of Broadway comedy about society girl who steam pretty quickly. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 yearns for down-to-earth romance; Grant Phone Call From a Stranger (1952) 96m. ★★★ is her ex-husband, Stewart a fast-talking D: Jean Negulesco. Bette Davis, Shel(!) reporter who falls in love with her. ley Winters, Gary Merrill, Michael Rennie, Entire cast is excellent, but Stewart really Keenan Wynn, Evelyn Varden, Warren shines in his offbeat, Academy AwardStevens, Beatrice Straight, Craig Stevens. winning role. Donald Ogden Stewart’s script Engrossing narrative of Merrill, survivor also earned an Oscar. Later musicalized as of a plane crash, visiting families of variHIGH SOCIETY. Also shown in computerous victims.▼쩠 colored version.▼●쩠 Phynx, The (1970) C-92m. BOMB D: Philo Vance series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s Lee H. Katzin. A. Michael Miller, Ray Classic Movie Guide Chippeway, Dennis Larden, Lonny StePhobia (1980-Canadian) C-90m. BOMB vens, Lou Antonio, Mike Kellin, Joan D: John Huston. Paul Michael Glaser, Blondell, George Tobias, Richard Pryor. A Susan Hogan, John Colicos, David Bolt, way-off-base satire about a rock group Patricia Collins, David Eisner. Absolutely (Miller, Chippeway, Larden, Stevens) reterrible film about psychiatrist whose pacruited to spy behind Iron Curtain and the tients, suffering from various phobias, are kidnapping of America’s pop-culture hebeing murdered one by one. Relentlessly roes (in cameos, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, stupid, illogical, and unpleasant. [R]▼ Guy Lombardo, Joe Louis, Johnny Weiss[ 1071 ]

muller, Col. Sanders, Ruby Keeler, Xavier Cugat, Dick Clark, George Jessel, and many others). Diehards may want to see some of these stars, but it’s hardly worth it. [M/PG] Physical Evidence (1989) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Crichton. Burt Reynolds, Theresa Russell, Ned Beatty, Kay Lenz, Ted McGinley, Tom O’Brien. Boring drama with Reynolds going through the paces as a tough cop who’s been suspended from the force, and is now the prime suspect in a murder case. Russell is badly miscast as a public defender who takes up his cause. [R]▼●쩠 ␲ (1998) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Darren Aronofsky. Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Pamela Hart, Stephen Pearlman, Ajay Naidu. An obsessed math genius thinks the orderliness of numbers may be able to conquer the stock market or determine God’s identity, yet his own disordered life finds him at the brink of madness. Filmed in inky 16mm black and white for around $60,000, this attention-getter is a true original. Well acted by a no-name cast and, we hope, a harbinger of things to come from filmmaker Aronofsky. Cowritten by the director, Eric Watson, and leading actor Gullette. [R]

woman’s point of view. In the late 19th century, a Scottish woman, her illegitimate daughter (Paquin), and her beloved piano arrive in remote New Zealand for an arranged marriage to farmer Neill. Then headstrong Hunter (who has been mute since childhood) strikes a bargain with moody neighbor Keitel (a Maori convert) involving the piano that leads to eye-opening consequences for the entire community. Writerdirector Campion has fashioned a highly original fable, showing the tragedy and triumph erotic passion can bring to one’s daily life. Hunter and Paquin both won Oscars for their performances, Campion for her screenplay. [R] ▼●쩠 Piano Teacher, The (2001-French-Austrian) C-130m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Haneke. Isabelle Huppert, Benoıˆt Magimel, Annie Girardot, Anna Sigalevitch, Susanne Lothar. Magnificent, and decidedly adult, study of a middle-aged musician’s psyche and her disturbing personal and professional relationships. Huppert has the role of her career as a woman with unusual views on intimacy and sex; costar Magimel matches her intensity. Harrowing and haunting, but not en▼●쩠 tirely humorless. Scripted by the director, Piaf—The Early Years (1974-U.S.-French) from Elfriede Jelinek’s 1983 novel.▼쩠 C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy Casaril. Brigitte Picasso Mystery, The SEE: Mystery of Ariel, Pascale Christophe, Guy Trejan, Picasso, The Pierre Vernier, Jacques Duby, Anouk Ferjac. Picasso Summer, The (1969) C-90m. ★1⁄2 Maddeningly uneven depiction of the early D: Serge Bourguignon. Albert Finney, life and career of the legendary singer. Yvette Mimieux. Boring, rambling tale of Fascinating subject matter, good Ariel peryoung couple so enamored by paintings formance and great music, but melodrathat they take European vacation to find matic and sloppily directed. Based on the Picasso himself. Animated sequence midbest-selling book by Simone Berteaut, Piaf’s way can stand on its own. Based on the Ray half-sister (played here by Christophe). Bradbury story. [M/PG] Unreleased in America until 1982. [PG] Picasso Trigger (1989) C-99m. ★★ D: Pianist, The (2002-French-German-PolishAndy Sidaris. Steve Bond, Dona Speir, 1 ★★★ ⁄2 D: Roman PolanBritish) C-148m. John Aprea, Hope Marie Carlton, Harold ski. Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Diamond, Roberta Vasquez, Guich Koock, Frank Finlay, Maureen Lipman, Emilia Bruce Penhall. Harmless, low-budget James Fox, Ed Stoppard, Julia Rayner, Jessica Bond–like thriller with U.S. agent Bond Kate Meyer, Ruth Platt. Emotionally draintracking assassin Aprea, who uses fish ing story of Polish pianist Wladyslaw Szpil(from a painting he admires) as his emman and his too-fantastic-to-be-anythingblem. Sequel to HARD TICKET TO HAbut-true life during WW2, beginning in WAII and MALIBU EXPRESS has usual Warsaw during 1939. Devastating in its pormix of action and T&A, and some peculiar trayal of casual Nazi atrocities, but overgadgets (a killer crutch?). [R]▼쩠 whelming in its depiction of survival against Picking up the Pieces (2000) C-95m. ★★ D: all rational obstacles. Brody is splendid as Alfonso Arau. Woody Allen, Maria Grazia Szpilman, a difficult and essentially passive Cucinotta, Cheech Marin, David Schwimmer, role. Director Polanski revisits personal Kiefer Sutherland, Alfonso Arau, Sharon memories of his own life with this film. Stone, Andy Dick, Fran Drescher, Joseph GorScreenplay by Ronald Harwood, based on don-Levitt, Elliott Gould, Lupe Ontiveros, Lou Szpilman’s memoirs, published in 1946. Diamond Phillips, Pepe Serna, Kathy Kinney, Oscar winner for Best Director, Actor Tony Plana, Richard Sarafian, Danny de la (Brody), and Adapted Screenplay. [R] ▼쩠 Paz, Mia Maestro. A butcher who’s hacked his Piano, The (1993-New Zealand-French) Cwife into pieces flees to a New Mexico town, 121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jane Campion. Holly where the woman’s hand becomes a focal Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Papoint of worship—and ballyhoo. Whimsical quin, Kerry Walker, Genevie`ve Lemon, black comedy is an almost total misfire, but Tungia Baker, Ian Mune. Haunting, unpredictable tale of love and sex told from a the stellar cast maintains interest. Made for [ 1072 ]

theaters but U.S. debut was on cable. Univipeddler who also sells information. Story by sion. ▼쩠 Dwight Taylor; screenplay by the director. Pickle, The (1993) C/B&W-103m. ★1⁄2 Remade as THE CAPE TOWN AFFAIR. D: Paul Mazursky. Danny Aiello, Dyan ▼쩠 Cannon, Clotilde Courau, Shelley Winters, Pickwick Papers, The (1952-British) 109m. ★★★ Barry Miller, Jerry Stiller, Chris Penn, Little D: Noel Langley. James Hayter, James Richard, Jodi Long, Rebecca Miller, Stephen Donald, Hermione Baddeley, Kathleen HarTobolowsky, Caroline Aaron, Ally Sheedy, rison, Hermione Gingold, Joyce Grenfell, Spalding Gray, Griffin Dunne, Isabella RosAlexander Gauge, Lionel Murton, Nigel sellini, Dudley Moore, Donald Trump. MisPatrick, Harry Fowler, Donald Wolfit. Flafire about an aging, self-involved film director vorful adaptation of Dickens’ classic about (Aiello) who’s in desperate need of a hit, and observations of English society by members whose most recent credit is a sci-fi epic about of the Pickwick Club. ▼쩠 an overgrown pickle. The Turkey would be a Picnic (1955) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joshua more apt title for this opus, scripted by MazurLogan. William Holden, Rosalind Russell, sky, who also has a cameo. [R]▼●쩠 Kim Novak, Betty Field, Cliff Robertson, Pickpocket (1959-French) 75m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Arthur O’Connell, Verna Felton, Susan Robert Bresson. Martin Lasalle, Marika Strasberg, Nick Adams, Phyllis Newman, Green, Kassagi, Pierre Leymarie, Jean Pe´le´Elizabeth W. Wilson. Excellent film of gri, Dolly Scal, Pierre E´taix. A petty thief William Inge’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play finds himself inexorably attracted to a life about drifter (Holden) who stops over in of crime and spurns a woman’s love to beKansas, stealing alluring Novak from his come a professional pickpocket. One of old buddy Robertson (making his film Bresson’s great films, a brilliantly shot and debut). Russell and O’Connell almost walk edited minimalist portrait of the criminal as away with the film in second leads, and an existentialist. Paul Schrader borrowed supporting roles are expertly filled; adapted the moving finale for the end of AMERIby Daniel Taradash. Remade in 2000 for CAN GIGOLO.▼쩠 TV. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Pickup (1951) 78m. ★1⁄2 D: Hugo Haas. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975-Australian) C-110m. ★★★ D: Peter Weir. Rachel Beverly Michaels, Hugo Haas, Allan Nixon, Howland Chamberlin, Jo Carroll Dennison. Roberts, Dominic Guard, Helen Morse, Jacki First of writer-producer-director-actor Haas’ Weaver, Vivean Gray, Margaret Nelson, tawdry low-budget melodramas is a kind of Anne (Louise) Lambert. Moody, atmospheric poor man’s THE POSTMAN ALWAYS film set in 1900 about three schoolgirls and RINGS TWICE, with gold digger Michaels their teacher who mysteriously disappear durmarrying aging railroad inspector thinking ing an outing one sunny day. Eerie and richly he’s got lots of dough. Not as enjoyably textured by director Weir; based on a novel bad as Hugo’s later efforts. by Joan Lindsay. Reedited by Weir in 1998; Pick-up Artist, The (1987) C-81m. ★1⁄2 that version is about 7m. shorter. [PG]▼●쩠 D: James Toback. Molly Ringwald, Robert Picture Bride (1994-Japanese) C-95m. ★★★ Downey (Jr.), Dennis Hopper, Danny Aiello, D: Kayo Hatta. Youki Kudoh, Akira TakaMildred Dunnock, Harvey Keitel, Brian yama, Tamlyn Tomita, Cary-Hiroyuki ToHamill, Vanessa Williams, Victoria Jackson, gawa, Toshiro Mifune. A young Japanese Polly Draper, Robert Towne, Lorraine Bracwoman trying to leave her unhappy past behind co, Bob Gunton. Womanizing youth meets travels to Hawaii in the early 1900s as a ‘‘pichis match when he falls for the daughter ture bride,’’ but soon finds that her new married of a boozy gambler in hock to the mob. life is a lot different than she imagined it would Standard Toback lowlifes integrated into a be. Slow-moving but engrossing study of the conventionally romantic framework. Dismal, pioneer spirit in Hawaii. Mifune has a nice cameo as a silent-film narrator. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 dour, and deadeningly dull. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Pickup on 101 (1972) C-93m. ★★ D: John Picture Mommy Dead (1966) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bert I. Gordon. Don Ameche, Florea. Jack Albertson, Lesley Ann Warren, Martin Sheen, Michael Ontkean, Hal BayMartha Hyer, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Signe Hasso, lor, George Chandler. Coed who wants to Susan Gordon. Hokey melodrama with be liberated hits the road with rock musiHyer newly married to Ameche, battling cian and friendly hobo in this inoffensive stepdaughter Gordon, possessed by late melodrama. Video title: WHERE THE EAmother’s spirit.▼ GLE FLIES. [PG]▼ Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945) 110m. ★★★1 Pickup on South Street (1953) 80m. ★★★1⁄2 ⁄2 D: Albert Lewin. George Sanders, D: Samuel Fuller. Richard Widmark, Jean Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela LansPeters, Thelma Ritter, Richard Kiley, bury, Peter Lawford, Lowell Gilmore; narMurvyn Vye, Milburn Stone. Pickpocket rated by Cedric Hardwicke. Haunting Oscar Widmark inadvertently acquires top-secret Wilde story of man whose painting ages microfilm, and becomes target for espiowhile he retains youth. Young Lansbury is nage agents. Tough, brutal, well-made film, poignant, singing ‘‘The Little Yellow Bird’’ with superb performance by Ritter as street (and her real-life mother Moyna MacGill is [ 1073 ]

the Duchess). Sanders leaves indelible imPill, John Gallagher, Jr., Sean Hayes, SisQo, pression as elegant heavy. Several color inLillias White, Isiah Whitlock. Young woman serts throughout the film. Harry Stradling’s living in a N.Y.C. apartment with her new cinematography won an Oscar. Remade in boyfriend attempts to prepare Thanksgiving 1970 as DORIAN GRAY and for TV in dinner for her dysfunctional family, but it’s 1974, with Nigel Davenport. ▼●쩠 debatable as to who’s more nervous about Picture Perfect (1997) C-100m. ★★★ D: the impending get-together. Quirky and Glenn Gordon Caron. Jennifer Aniston, Jay funny, as you’d expect from the writer of Mohr, Kevin Bacon, Olympia Dukakis, IlWHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE and leana Douglas, Kevin Dunn, Faith Prince, coscenarist of ABOUT A BOY, here makAnne Twomey. Cute starring vehicle for ing his feature directing debut, though the Aniston, as an up-and-comer in the advertisbroader comedy doesn’t always work ing world who invents a fiance´ to become alongside the simpler, more truthful momore the kind of person her boss wants workments. Clarkson is a standout as the flaky ing for him. Then she has to hire a guy to act mother whose illness has made her even more mercurial than usual. [PG-13] ▼쩠 the part at a business dinner, and things get complicated. Barely credible romantic comPied Piper, The (1942) 86m. ★★★ D: edy is little more than an excuse to showcase Irving Pichel. Monty Woolley, Roddy Aniston’s appeal—but quite watchable on McDowall, Otto Preminger, Anne Baxter, that basis. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Peggy Ann Garner. Woolley, not very Picture Show Man, The (1977-Australian) fond of children, finds himself leading a C-99m. ★★ D: John Power. Rod Tayswarm of them on chase from the Nazis. lor, John Meillon, John Ewart, Harold Entertaining wartime film scripted by Hopkins, Patrick Cargill, Judy Morris. MeNunnally Johnson from a Nevil Shute novel. andering tale of a traveling showman in Remade for TV as CROSSING TO FREE1920s Australia who brings moving picDOM (1990, with Peter O’Toole). tures to small towns throughout the counPied Piper, The (1972-British) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Demy. Donovan, Dontry. A lovely idea (based on the memoirs of Lyle Penn) that has moments of charm and ald Pleasence, Michael Hordern, Jack Wild, period atmosphere, but no story, and not Diana Dors, John Hurt. Chilling story of much energy. Top-billed Taylor (an Aussie piper who rids evil hamlet of rats. While by birth) appears sporadically as Meillon’s originally conceived as children’s tale, dirival—from Texas! [PG] rector Demy succeeds in weaving grimy portrait of the Middle Ages. [G]쩠 Picture Snatcher (1933) 77m. ★★★ D: Lloyd Bacon. James Cagney, Ralph Bellamy, Pie in the Sky (1996) C-95m. ★★ D: Bryan Alice White, Patricia Ellis, Ralf Harolde. Gordon. Josh Charles, Anne Heche, John Fast, funny, exciting little film based on Goodman, Christine Lahti, Peter Riegert, Bob true story of daring photographer who got Balaban, Christine Ebersole, Wil Wheaton, taboo photo of woman in electric chair. Dey Young. Comedy about a helicopter traffic Remade as ESCAPE FROM CRIME.쩠 reporter who has as many problems sorting Picture This: The Times of Peter Bogout his love life as he does with freeway danovich in Archer City, Texas (1992) gridlock. Romantic tale boasts an attractive C-57m. ★★★ D: George Hickenlooper. Ab(and impressive) cast that it almost comsorbing documentary about filmmaker pletely wastes, although Heche is a wonderBogdanovich’s return to the scene of his fully affecting leading lady. Perfect video fodder for your next traffic jam. [R]▼●쩠 first great success, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, to make a sequel, TEXASVILLE. Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story (2000) C/B&W-76m. ★★★ D: Shelly Dunn Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, Timothy and Sam Bottoms, Polly Platt, Randy Quaid, Fremont, Vincent Fremont. Absorbing docand others recall how the first film affected umentary about the life and times of Brigid their lives (including some surprisingly Berlin (aka Brigid Polk), the daughter of concandid revelations)—and townspeople comservative Republican American aristocracy— pare Larry McMurtry’s locally based fiction her father was president of the Hearst to their perception of the truth.▼●쩠 Corporation—who became an Andy WarPiece of the Action, A (1977) C-135m. hol superstar in the 1960s. Revealing por★★1 trait of a rebellious daughter, obsessed with ⁄2 D: Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, James Earl Jones, Denise food and cleanliness, who becomes her parNicholas, Hope Clark, Tracy Reed, Titos ents’ worst nightmare. Archival footage and Vandis, Ja’net DuBois. Third Poitier-Cosby recorded telephone conversations between teaming casts them as con men obliged to Brigid and her disgusted patrician mother help social worker set ghetto kids on the right are fascinating. Among the talking heads track. Typical comic crime material offset are John Waters, Paul Morrissey, and (most by serious, preachy moments. [PG]▼쩠 intriguingly) Patty Hearst.▼쩠 1 ★★ Pieces of April (2003) C-80m. ⁄2 D: Pierrepoint (2005-British) C-95m. ★★★ D: Peter Hedges. Katie Holmes, Patricia Adrian Shergold. Timothy Spall, Juliet SteClarkson, Derek Luke, Oliver Platt, Alison venson, Eddie Marsan, Cavan Clerkin, [ 1074 ]

Christopher Fulford, Ian Shaw, Maggie Olexasperating, convolution about a young lerenshaw. Potent drama based on the life woman (Wu) who seeks revenge for wrongs of Albert Pierrepoint, the most efficient perpetrated against her calligrapher father, hangman in England, from the 1930s to the who painted elaborate words and characters 1950s. He views his work as a job and reon her body during an unconventional mains dispassionate—up to a point. Excepchildhood. Gorgeously shot by Sacha tional showcase for Spall, who imbues his Vierny, film belatedly hits its stride with character with a wide range of colors. Origiits heroine’s romance with a doomed lover nally shown at film festivals as THE LAST (McGregor), only to fade fatally during a HANGMAN. [R]쩠 grueling final half hour. Wu, though, is exPierrot le Fou (1965-French-Italian) Ctraordinary, both as a character and a photographic subject. Super 35.▼쩠 110m. ★★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina, Dirk Sanders, Pillow Talk (1959) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Raymond Devus, Samuel Fuller, Jean-Pierre Michael Gordon. Doris Day, Rock HudLe´aud. Belmondo and Karina run away son, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, Nick together to the South of France; he is Adams, Julia Meade, Allen Jenkins, Lee leaving his rich wife, she is escaping her Patrick, William Schallert, Frances Sternhainvolvement with gangsters. Complex, congen. Rock pursues Doris, with interference fusing, but engrossing drama, which exfrom Randall and sideline witticisms from udes an intriguing sense of spontaneity. Ritter. Imaginative sex comedy has two Allegedly shot without a script; also shown stars sharing a party line without knowing at 90m. and 95m. Techniscope.▼●쩠 each other’s identity. Fast-moving; plush Pigeon That Took Rome, The (1962) sets, gorgeous fashions. Oscar-winning 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Melville Shavelson. Charlton story and screenplay by Stanley Shapiro, Heston, Elsa Martinelli, Harry Guardino, Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene, and Maurice Richlin. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Baccaloni, Marietto, Gabriella Pallotta, Debbie Price, Brian Donlevy. Sometimes Pilot, The (1979) C-99m. ★★ D: Cliff amusing WW2 comedy of Heston, behind Robertson. Cliff Robertson, Diane Baker, enemy lines, using pigeons to send mesFrank Converse, Dana Andrews, Milo sage to Allies, romancing local girl in O’Shea, Ed Binns, Gordon MacRae. Airwhose home he is based. Panavision. line pilot who flies at the end of a bottle Piglet’s Big Movie (2003) C-75m. ★★ 1⁄2 D: discovers that his world is collapsing. PreFrancis Glebas. Voices of John Fielder, Jim dictable drama given a boost by Walter Cummings, Andre Stojka, Kath Soucie, Peter Lassally’s spectacular aerial photography Cullen, Tom Wheatley. Winnie the Pooh and John Addison’s soaring (and seemingly and his pals set off in search of a depressed misplaced) score. Video title: DANGER IN Piglet who has wandered into the woods THE SKIES. Panavision. [PG]▼ believing he is too small to be of use to his Pilot #5 (1943) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: George friends. Leisurely paced animated feature Sidney. Franchot Tone, Marsha Hunt, Gene based on A. A. Milne’s Pooh characters is Kelly, Van Johnson, Alan Baxter, Dick moderately entertaining for young audiSimmons. GI pilot Tone volunteers to take ences and tolerable enough for their parents. on a suicide mission. As he flies to his Laid-back theatrical release, produced by death, his buddies recall his troubled past Disney’s direct-to-video division, comes to (including his involvement with a Huey life during song sequences written and sung Long–like governor). Good cast uplifts soby Carly Simon. [G]▼쩠 so curio; it’s intriguing to see Kelly in a Pigskin Parade (1936) 93m. ★★★ D: David supporting part, as a morally bankrupt hotButler. Stuart Erwin, Patsy Kelly, Jack head. Watch for Peter Lawford at the openHaley, Johnny Downs, Betty Grable, Arline ing, and see if you can spot Ava Gardner. Judge, Dixie Dunbar, Judy Garland, An‘‘Pimpernel’’ Smith (1941-British) 122m. ★★★ D: Leslie Howard. Leslie Howard, thony (Tony) Martin, Elisha Cook, Jr., Grady Sutton, The Yacht Club Boys. EnterMary Morris, Francis L. Sullivan, Hugh taining college football musicomedy with McDermott. Zesty updating of THE SCARErwin the hayseed who becomes a gridiron LET PIMPERNEL to WW2, with Howard hero, Kelly the coach’s wife who knows more replaying the role of the savior of Naziabout the game than the coach (Haley). Cook hounded individuals. Retitled: MISTER appears as an anarchy-spouting campus radiV.▼ cal! Garland plays Erwin’s kid sister, in her Pineapple Express (2008) C/B&W-112m. ★★1 feature debut, and she swings ‘‘It’s Love I’m ⁄2 D: David Gordon Green. Seth Rogen, After.’’ Alan Ladd appears as a student, and James Franco, Gary Cole, Rosie Perez, Danny McBride, Kevin Corrigan, Craig Robsings with The Yacht Club Boys.▼●쩠 Pillow Book, The (1996-British-Dutchinson, Amber Heard, Ed Begley, Jr., Nora French) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter GreenaDunn, James Remar. Good-natured slacker way. Vivian Wu, Ewan McGregor, Yoshi (Rogen) witnesses a murder committed by a Oida, Ken Ogata, Hideko Yoshida, Judy local druglord (Cole) and clumsily leaves a Ongg, Ken Mitsuishi. Sensual, if dramatically joint at the scene that can be traced back to [ 1075 ]

its dealer (Franco). This impels Rogen and D: Blake Edwards. Peter Sellers, David Franco to take it on the lam, pursued by two Niven, Capucine, Robert Wagner, Claudia violent goons. Audacious comedy not only Cardinale, Brenda DeBanzie, John Lerevives the pothead movie but goes on to Mesurier, Fran Jeffries. Delightful caper spoof violent action films—in surprisingly comedy introduced bumbling Inspector vivid ways. Uneven but often ridiculously Clouseau to the world (as well as the funny, with Franco scoring a bull’s-eye as cartoon character featured in the opening the ultimate stoner. Written by Rogen and titles), so obsessed with catching notorious Evan Goldberg, from a story they cowrote jewel thief ‘‘The Phantom’’ that he isn’t with producer Judd Apatow. Unrated veraware his quarry is also his wife’s lover! sion runs 118m. Super 35. [R]쩠 Loaded with great slapstick and especially Pin˜ero (2001) C/B&W-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: clever chase sequence; beautiful European Leon Ichaso. Benjamin Bratt, Giancarlo Eslocations, memorable score by Henry Manposito, Talisa Soto, Nelson Vasquez, Micini. Remade in 2006. Followed by A chael Irby, Michael Wright, Rita Moreno, SHOT IN THE DARK. Technirama. ▼●쩠 Jaime Sanchez, Mandy Patinkin, Oscar Pink Panther, The (2006) C-93m. ★★ D: Colon, Miriam Cruz, Robert Klein, Griffin Shawn Levy. Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Dunne. Kinetic, nonlinear biography of Beyonce´ Knowles, Jean Reno, Emily Morti‘‘Nuyorican’’ writer-poet Miguel Pin˜ero, mer, Henry Czerny, Roger Rees, Kristin who used his prison experience to powerful Chenoweth. As maladroit, oblivious French effect in the award-winning play Short Eyes flic Inspector Clouseau, Steve Martin won’t in the 1970s, but couldn’t shake his drug make anyone forget Peter Sellers. Plot habit or chronic irresponsibility. Bratt is doesn’t amount to much: the Pink Panther magnetic and persuasive, but we still don’t diamond is lifted off the body of a soccer understand what made Pin˜ero so selfstar in front of thousands of spectators. Still, destructive. Film’s coproducer, Fisher Steat moments, the movie and Martin deliver vens, appears briefly. [R] ▼쩠 the goods (the star also cowrote the script). Pink Cadillac (1989) C-122m. ★★ D: What’s lacking is the wacky grace and Buddy Van Horn. Clint Eastwood, Bernaclever timing of Blake Edwards. There are dette Peters, Timothy Carhart, Tiffany Gail a few surprise cameos, however. Followed Robinson, Angela Louise Robinson, John by a sequel. [PG]쩠 Dennis Johnston, Geoffrey Lewis, William Pink Panther 2, The (2009) C-92m. ★1⁄2 Hickey, James (Jim) Carrey. Harmless but D: Harald Zwart. Steve Martin, John off-the-cuff throwaway comedy about a Cleese, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Andy bail-bond bounty hunter who helps the wife Garcia, Alfred Molina, Yuki Matsuzaki, of his latest target rescue her kidnapped Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Lily Tomlin, Jerbaby from the neo-Nazi associates of her emy Irons, Johnny Hallyday. Second outing weakling husband. No Edsel, but at two in Martin’s updating of Blake Edwards’ Inhours, seriously in need of a tuneup. Eastspector Clouseau character is burdened by wood’s uncharacteristically broad perforso much cement whimsy that you’d almost mance does more for the film than the film guess its comic stylings were directed by does for him. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Ethan Edwards from THE SEARCHERS. Pink Floyd—The Wall (1982-British) Fatigued farce deals with high-stakes serial C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Parker. Bob Geldof, thievery that begins with someone stealing Christine Hargreaves, James Laurenson, the Magna Carta and eventually involves Eleanor David, Bob Hoskins. Visualizathe Pope. Mortimer offers a sweet, light tion of Pink Floyd’s somber best-selling touch as Clouseau’s unconfident not-quitealbum, about a rock star’s mental breakgirlfriend, but most of the fine supporting down, is perhaps the longest rock video to cast is wasted. Cleese replaces Kevin Kline date, and certainly the most depressing. as Clouseau’s beleaguered superior, DreyMany of the images are hypnotic, but selffus. Martin coscripted. [PG]쩠 indulgence, and a relentlessly downbeat Pink Panther Strikes Again, The (1976theme, erode one’s interest after a while. British) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. Striking animated sequences by Gerald Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Colin Blakely, Scarfe, who also designed the film. Aka Leonard Rossiter, Lesley-Anne Down, Burt THE WALL. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Kwouk, Andre Maranne. Fifth PINK PANPink Jungle, The (1968) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 THER is one of the funniest. Sellers’ forD: Delbert Mann. James Garner, Eva Renzi, mer boss (Lom) goes crazy, threatens to George Kennedy, Nigel Green, Michael destroy the world with a ray-gun he has Ansara, George Rose. Offbeat blend of commandeered. Sellers’ hilarious Inspeccomedy and adventure with photographer tor Clouseau is backed up by better-thanGarner and model Renzi involved in diausual gags—with the usual number of mond smuggling in South America. Film pain-and-destruction jokes thrown in for shifts gears too often, but provides lightgood measure. Omar Sharif appears unbilled. Sequel: REVENGE OF THE PINK PANhearted entertainment. Techniscope.▼ THER. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Pink Panther, The (1964) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 [ 1076 ]

Pinky (1949) 102m. ★★★ D: Elia Kazan. cles, despite support from Raye and Brown; songs are nil, so is plot.▼●쩠 Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, Nina Mae McKinney, William LundiPipe Dreams (1976) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stegan. Pioneer racial drama of black girl phen Verona. Gladys Knight, Barry Hanpassing for white, returning to Southern kerson, Bruce French, Sherry Bain, Wayne home; still has impact, with fine support Tippit, Altovise Davis, Sally Kirkland. from Mmes. Waters and Barrymore.▼쩠 Singing star Knight makes acting debut in Pinocchio (1940) C-88m. ★★★★ D: Ben highly dramatic story set against Alaskan Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske. Voices of pipeline. Excellent location shooting. Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Cliff EdSoundtrack filled with songs by Knight wards, Evelyn Venable, Walter Catlett, and her group, the Pips. [PG]▼ Frankie Darro. Walt Disney’s brilliant, Pippi Longstocking (1997-Swedishtimeless animated cartoon feature, based Canadian) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clive Smith. on the Collodi story about an inquisitive, Voices of Catherine O’Hara, Dave Thomas, tale-spinning wooden puppet who wants Wayne Robson, Gordon Pinsent, Melissa more than anything else to become a real Altro. Faithful animated version of Astrid boy. Technically dazzling, emotionally rich, Lindgren’s story about the world’s strongest with unforgettable characters and some of girl, Miss Pippilotta Delicatessa Winthe scariest scenes ever put on film (Lampdowshade Mackrelmint Efraimsdottir Longwick’s transformation into a jackass, the stocking, age 9, as she encounters school, chase with Monstro the whale). A joy, no friends, the circus, and burglars, all for the matter how many times you see it. Songs first time. Nelvana studio’s bright artwork include Oscar-winning ‘‘When You Wish and the script’s cheerful characterizations will Upon a Star.’’ ▼●쩠 please fans, but the songs are dreary. FolPinocchio (2002-Italian) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: lowed by a direct-to-video sequel. [G]▼쩠 Roberto Benigni. Roberto Benigni, NicoPiranha (1978) C-92m. ★★★ D: Joe Dante. letta Braschi, Mino Bellei, Carlo Giuffre´, Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Kevin Peppe Barra, Franco Javarone, Max CavalMcCarthy, Keenan Wynn, Dick Miller, lari. A carved wooden puppet comes to life Barbara Steele, Belinda Balaski, Bruce as a mischievous boy who can’t resist tempGordon, Paul Bartel. Fast-paced, funny tation of any kind. Benigni’s interpretation spoof of JAWS and countless 1950s sciof the beloved 1885 story by Carlo Collodi fi films; in-jokes and campy supporting emerges as a test of one’s tolerance for the cast will make it particular fun for film bombastic comic actor. This was a big hit in buffs. Written by John Sayles (who also Italy . . . but then, so was Mussolini. U.S. plays a small role). Followed by a sequel. Remade for TV in 1996. [R]▼쩠 version was cut to 100m. and dubbed with Breckin Meyer (as Benigni) and a host of Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981Italian-U.S.) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: James Camstars (Glenn Close, Queen Latifah, Eddie Griffin, Cheech Marin, John Cleese, Eric eron. Tricia O’Neil, Steve Marachuk, Lance Idle, Regis Philbin, James Belushi, Topher Henriksen, Ricky G. Paul, Ted Richert, LesGrace, David Suchet). Italian title: THE lie Graves. A sequel in name only, this silly ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO. Panavihorror film is set at a Club Med–type resort sion. [G] ▼쩠 where human mating rituals are interrupted Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night by the spawning ritual of mutated flying fish (1987) C-87m. ★★ D: Hal Sutherland. crossed with grunions, which are oversize, Voices of Edward Asner, Tom Bosley, deadly killers. You’d have to be psychic to Lana Beeson, Linda Gary, Jonathan Harhave spotted any talent from director Cameron in this debut picture. [R]▼●쩠 ris, James Earl Jones, Ricky Lee Jones, Don Knotts, William Windom. Uninspired Pirate, The (1948) C-102m. ★★★ D: continuation of the Pinocchio story: now a Vincente Minnelli. Judy Garland, Gene real boy, Pinocchio is guided by ‘‘Gee Kelly, Walter Slezak, Gladys Cooper, RegWhillikers,’’ a wooden bug come to life, inald Owen, George Zucco, The Nicholas and they enjoy many adventures which Brothers. Judy thinks circus clown Kelly parallel the Disney classic. Fully animated is really Caribbean pirate; lavish costumby Filmation Studios, but an embarrassing, dancing and Cole Porter songs (includment next to the 1940 gem. [G]▼● ing ‘‘Be a Clown’’) bolster stagy plot. Pinocchio in Outer Space (1964-U.S.Kelly’s dances are exhilarating, as usual. Based on S. N. Behrman play.▼●쩠 French) C-65m. ★★ D: Ray Goossens. Voices of Arnold Stang, Jess Cain. WatchPirate Movie, The (1982-Australian) able cartoon adventure for kids, with C-99m. BOMB D: Ken Annakin. Kristy McNichol, Christopher Atkins, Ted Hamilunmemorable songs.▼쩠 Pin Up Girl (1944) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce ton, Bill Kerr, Maggie Kirkpatrick, Garry Humberstone. Betty Grable, Martha Raye, McDonald. Appalling ‘‘update’’ of GilJohn Harvey, Joe E. Brown, Eugene Palbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance lette, Mantan Moreland, Charlie Spivak not only trashes the original but fails on its Orchestra. One of Grable’s weaker vehiown paltry terms—as a teenybopper comedy [ 1077 ]

with bubblegum music. Parodies (and steals charm out of its three lead characters, who from) so many other films it should have been were so much fun to watch in the first called THE RIP-OFF MOVIE. [PG]▼쩠 movie. Some good action/stunt set pieces Pirates (1986-French-Tunisian) C-124m. can’t compensate for this cheerless, seem★★1 ⁄2 D: Roman Polanski. Walter Matthau, ingly endless voyage. Geoffrey Rush apDamien Thomas, Richard Pearson, Cris pears unbilled. Oscar winner for Visual Campion, Charlotte Lewis, Olu Jacobs, Effects. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Roy Kinnear, Ferdy Mayne, Tony Peck. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of Rich-looking, robust pirate comedy, filmed the Black Pearl (2003) C-143m. ★★1⁄2 D: on a grand scale (in widescreen), with Gore Verbinski. Johnny Depp, Geoffrey plenty of broad comedy, a delightful perforRush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, mance by Matthau, a rousing score by PhilJonathan Pryce, Jack Davenport, Kevin R. ippe Sarde . . . and a certain lack of story. McNally, Zoe Saldana. Besotted pirate Jack It’s still fun. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼ Sparrow attempts to regain control of his Pirates of Blood River, The (1962ship, the Black Pearl, in spite of a ghostly British) C-87m. ★★ D: John Gilling. curse that’s been placed on its crew. StylKerwin Mathews, Glenn Corbett, Christoishly designed and shot, with rollicking perpher Lee, Marla Landi, Oliver Reed, formances, this depends more on special Andrew Keir, Peter Arne. Earnest but effects than the fabled stunt work of classic hackneyed account of Huguenots fighting pirate films (although there’s a nice homage off buccaneers. Hammerscope.쩠 to THE CRIMSON PIRATE). Fans of the Pirates of Penzance, The (1983) C-112m. original Disneyland attraction will also ★★★ D: Wilford Leach. Kevin Kline, Angela enjoy the references that dot the film . . . but Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, there’s no reason for it to be quite so long or Rex Smith, Tony Azito. Joseph Papp’s hit plot-heavy. Followed by two sequels. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 stage revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan perennial is transferred to film with the Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A Vegoriginal cast (plus Lansbury) and director— gieTales Movie, The (2008) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 who decided to make no bones about its D: Mike Nawrocki. Voices of Phil Vischer, theatricality! Not for G&S purists, perhaps, Mike Nawrocki, Cam Clarke, Yuri Lowenbut fun. Splendid production design by thal, Alan Lee, Cydney Trent. Elliot (aka Elliot Scott. Panavision. [G]▼● Larry the Cucumber), Sedgewick (aka Mr. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Lunt), and George (aka Pa Grape) are em(2007) C-168m. ★1⁄2 D: Gore Verbinski. ployees of a dinner theater who dream of Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando putting on a show about pirates, then find Bloom, Keira Knightley, Jack Davenport, Bill themselves magically transported to the Nighy, Jonathan Pryce, Lee Arenberg, Mac17th century, becoming pirates on a mission kenzie Crook, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Chow Yunto rescue a royal family from an evil tyrant. Fat, Naomie Harris, Keith Richards. Seven Well-made but lackluster animated feature leagues of boredom. Will (Bloom), Elizabeth may entertain small children with slapstick (Knightley), and a resurrected Captain Baraction and corny puns. Christian messages bossa (Rush) unite to rescue Jack (Depp) and themes are more muted than in other from Davy Jones’ locker and embark on an VeggieTales stories. [G]쩠 epic battle against Jones and the evil East Pit and the Pendulum (1961) C-80m. ★★★1 India Trading Company. Convoluted and ⁄2 D: Roger Corman. Vincent Price, interminable sequel is just another soulless John Kerr, Barbara Steele, Luana Anders, ‘‘product,’’ offering precious little joie de Antony Carbone. Slick horror tale set right vivre or entertainment, despite the almost after Spanish Inquisition. Price thinks he is nonstop action. Even the Rolling Stones’ his late father, the most vicious torturer durRichards as Depp’s even more grungy faing bloody inquisition. Beautifully staged; ther can’t liven things up. Super 35. [PGwatch out for that incredible pendulum . . . 13]쩠 and bear with slow first half. The second Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s of Corman’s Poe adaptations, scripted by Chest (2006) C-151m. ★★ D: Gore VerbinRichard Matheson. Panavision. ▼●쩠 ski. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Pit and the Pendulum, The (1991) C97m. ★★★ D: Stuart Gordon. Lance HenrikKnightley, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Bill Nighy, Jack Davenport, Mackenzie Crook, Lee Arsen, Rona De Ricci, Jonathan Fuller, Franenberg, Kevin R. McNally, Jonathan Pryce, ces Bay, Mark Margolis, Jeffrey Combs, Naomie Harris. Will Turner (Bloom) is sent Oliver Reed. In 1492, Torquemada (Henrikto find Capt. Jack Sparrow (Depp) and resen), Spain’s Grand Inquisitor, is haunted trieve a valuable compass he uses, for reaby his lust for a baker’s wife accused of sons much too complicated to explain here. witchcraft. Strong, well-researched script Davy Jones (Nighy) is also on the prowl for (by Dennis Paoli) owes little to Poe, but is Sparrow with the crew of his ghostly ship vividly realized by Gordon; graphic scenes and its pirates-in-purgatory. Lumbering seof torture are appropriate here, and Henrikquel has no real tale to tell and drains the sen’s intense performance is mesmerizing. [ 1078 ]

The best film to come from the folks at Private-eye takes job bodyguarding tycoon’s Full Moon. Shot in Spain. Available in an mistress. OK for those who’ll sit through unrated version. [R]▼●쩠 any film of this genre, but no big deal. TechPitch Black (2000-U.S.-Australian) Cniscope. 107m. ★★ D: David Twohy. Radha Mitchell, P.K. and the Kid (1982) C-89m. ★★ D: Vin Diesel, Cole Hauser, Keith David, Lou Lombardo. Paul Le Mat, Molly RingLewis Fitz-Gerald, Claudia Black, Rhiana wald, Alex Rocco, Fionnula Flanagan, Griffith. Ambitious but formulaic sci-fi/horCharles Hallahan, Bert Remsen, Esther ror film set in the future, with a motley Rolle, Leigh Hamilton. Stillborn tale of planeload of passengers crash-landing on a arm wrestling (made several years before remote planet. Not only do they have to the Sylvester Stallone classic OVER THE contend with a violent, amoral ex-con (the TOP, but released afterward) teams strongimposing Diesel) in their midst, but an unwristed Le Mat with runaway teen Ringwald known terror that’s magnified by the threat on the road to nowhere. With that cast of total darkness. Some exciting scenes and and a mood resembling Le Mat’s MELeffects, but weighed down by a feeling of VIN AND HOWARD, this should have de´ja` vu. Also available in unrated director’s been more interesting. [PG-13]▼● cut. Followed by THE CHRONICLES OF Place Called Glory, A (1966-German) RIDDICK. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 C-92m. ★★ D: Ralph Gideon (Sheldon Pitfall (1948) 84m. ★★★ D: Andre de Toth. Reynolds). Lex Barker, Pierre Brice, MariDick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt, anne Koch, Jorge Rigaud. German-made Raymond Burr, John Litel, Byron Barr. Western about a lawless town’s annual celeMarried man’s brief extramarital fling may bration, which includes a duel between two cost him his job and marriage. Intriguing duped gunslingers. Bizarre, yet interesting, film noir look at the American dream gone but hurt by poor dubbing. Techniscope.▼ sour, typefied by Powell’s character, who’s Place for Lovers, A (1968-Italian-French) got a house, a little boy, and a perfect C-90m. BOMB D: Vittorio De Sica. Faye wife—but feels bored and stifled.▼● Dunaway, Marcello Mastroianni, Caroline Pit Stop (1969) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Hill. Mortimer, Karin Engh. One well-known Brian Donlevy, Richard Davalos, Ellen critic called this ‘‘the most godawful piece McRae (Burstyn), Sid Haig, Beverly Washof pseudo romantic slop I’ve ever seen!’’ burn, George Washburn. Surprisingly enterLove story about American fashion detaining micro-budget drive-in fare about signer and Italian engineer marks career rivalry on the stock-car racing circuit, with low points for all concerned. [R] some genuinely hair-raising footage during Place in the Sun, A (1951) 122m. ★★★ D: figure-eight races.▼쩠 George Stevens. Montgomery Clift, Eliz★★ Pittsburgh (1942) 90m. D: Lewis Seiler. abeth Taylor, Shelley Winters, Keefe BrasMarlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Randolph selle, Raymond Burr, Anne Revere. AmbiScott, Frank Craven, Louise Allbritton, tious remake of Theodore Dreiser’s AN Thomas Gomez, Shemp Howard. Big John AMERICAN TRAGEDY derives most of loves the coal and steel business more its power from Clift’s brilliant performance, than he does Marlene, which leaves field almost matched by Winters as plain girl open for rival Scott. Slow-moving.▼쩠 who loses him to alluring Taylor. Depiction Pixote (1981-Brazilian) C-127m. ★★★★ D: of the idle rich, and American morals, Hector Babenco. Fernando Ramos da Silva, seems outdated, and Burr’s scenes as fiery Marilia Pera, Jorge Juliano, Gilberto Moura, D.A. are downright absurd. Everyone gets Jose Nilson dos Santos, Edilson Lino. ChillA for effort; six Oscars included Best Direcing drama about an abandoned 10-year-old tion, Screenplay (Michael Wilson, Harry street criminal who pimps, sniffs glue, and Brown), Score (Franz Waxman), Cinemamurders three people before the finale. tography (William C. Mellor), Film Editing, Haunting performance by the baby-faced and Costume Design.▼●쩠 da Silva; Pera equally superb as a prostitute. Places in the Heart (1984) C-111m. ★★★ Extraordinarily graphic film is not for the D: Robert Benton. Sally Field, Lindsay squeamish.▼쩠 Crouse, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, John Pizza Triangle, The (1970-Italian) C-99m. Malkovich, Danny Glover, Terry O’Quinn, ★★1 Bert Remsen, Ray Baker. Writer-director ⁄2 D: Ettore Scola. Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, Giancarlo Giannini. SceneBenton’s affectionate look at life in his stealing stars compete in this flamboyant hometown, Waxahachie, Texas, during the black comedy of two guys both in love Depression 1930s. A bit too calculated and with flower seller Vitti. Colorful photograpredictable, but Field is so good (as a young phy by Carlo Di Palma. Aka A DRAMA widow determined to survive as a cotton OF JEALOUSY. Panavision. [R] farmer), and film is so well made (beautifully P.J. (1968) C-109m. ★★ D: John Guillermin. shot by Nestor Almendros), it’s hard not to George Peppard, Raymond Burr, Gayle like. Field won Best Actress Oscar for her Hunnicutt, Brock Peters, Wilfrid Hydeperformance as did Benton for his original screenplay. [PG]▼●쩠 White, Coleen Gray, Susan Saint James. [ 1079 ]

Place Vendoˆme (1998-French) C-117m. Plan B (1997) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gary ★★★ Leva. Jon Cryer, Lisa Darr, Lance Guest, D: Nicole Garcia. Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Emmanuelle Seigner, Mark Matheisen, Sara Mornell. Amiable Jacques Dutronc, Bernard Fresson, Franc¸ois low-budget film about a group of friends, Berle´and. When the director of a jewelry their romantic snafus, and the roadblocks store dies, his alcoholic wife (Deneuve) bethey encounter in reaching their goals—to comes involved with stolen diamonds and become a published novelist, to find the perlinks to past betrayal and love. Quiet, very fect guy, to get that big break as an actor, deliberately paced story works both as lowto conceive a child. Likable performances, key thriller and character study, anchored reasonably credible situations and dialogue, by Deneuve’s excellent lead performance. but there are at least three endings. [R]▼ Widescreen.▼쩠 Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) Plague, The (1991-French-British-Argentine) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Hughes. Steve MarC-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Luis Puenzo. William tin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Michael Hurt, Sandrine Bonnaire, Jean-Marc Barr, McKean, Kevin Bacon, Dylan Baker, WilRobert Duvall, Raul Julia, Victoria Tennant. liam Windom, Edie McClurg, Ben Stein. Obvious, muddled adaptation (by director Bittersweet farce about a businessman tryPuenzo) of the Albert Camus novel, focusing to get home for Thanksgiving who ening on a dedicated doctor (Hurt), a French counters disaster at every turn and has to TV reporter (Bonnaire) and cameraman share most of it with a lout who becomes his (Barr), and various other characters whose steadfast companion. Martin mostly plays lives become intertwined during a deadly straight to the overbearing Candy, but writerplague in a South American city. A major director Hughes refuses to make either one a disappointment. Never released theatrically caricature—which keeps this amiable film in the U.S. [R]▼● teetering between slapstick shenanigans and Plague Dogs, The (1982) C-86m. ★★★ D: compassionate comedy. Hurt by an awful Martin Rosen. Voices of John Hurt, James music score. [R]▼●쩠 Bolam, Christopher Benjamin, Judy GeePlanet of Blood (1966) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: son, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Nigel Hawthorne, Curtis Harrington. John Saxon, Basil Patrick Stewart. Unusual animated advenRathbone, Judi Meredith, Dennis Hopper, ture, adapted from Richard Adams’s novel Florence Marly. Eerie space opera (utilizing about a pair of dogs who escape from anieffects footage cribbed from a big-budget mal experimentation lab and are hunted Russian film) about a space vampire brought down like criminals. A bit slow-moving but to Earth. Best thing is the bizarre climax, beautifully animated and most worthwhile; if you can wait that long. Originally titled QUEEN OF BLOOD.▼● a poignant plea for animal rights. For adults and older children only. A follow-up to Planet of Horrors SEE: Galaxy of Terror Planet of the Apes (1968) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 WATERSHIP DOWN from same producer-director.▼쩠 D: Franklin J. Schaffner. Charlton Heston, Plague of the Zombies, The (1966-British) Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly, Linda C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Gilling. Andre Morell, Diane Clare, Brook Williams, Jacqueline Harrison. Intriguing, near-classic sci-fi. Pearce, John Carson. Beautiful low-key Heston leads a group of surviving astrophotography and direction in fairly tense nauts in shocking future world where apes story of voodoo cult in Cornish village. are masters, humans slaves. Only liabilities: Minor but effective Hammer horror.▼●쩠 somewhat familiar plot, self-conscious Plainsman, The (1936) 113m. ★★★ D: humor; otherwise, a must-see. Michael WilCecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper, Jean son and Rod Serling scripted from Pierre Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford, Boulle’s novel, spawning four sequels and Porter Hall, Victor Varconi, Helen Burgess, two TV series. Won a special Oscar for John Miljan, Gabby Hayes, Paul Harvey, makeup created by John Chambers. ReFrank McGlynn, Sr. Typical DeMille homade in 2001. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 kum, a big, outlandish Western which Planet of the Apes (2001) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 somehow manages to involve Wild Bill D: Tim Burton. Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Hickok, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke George Custer and Abraham Lincoln in Duncan, Paul Giamatti, Estella Warren, adventure of evil Bickford selling guns to Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, David Warner, Kris the Indians. About as authentic as BLAZKristofferson, Glenn Shadix, Lisa Marie. ING SADDLES, but who cares—it’s still Entertaining if forgettable rethink of the good fun. Look for Anthony Quinn as a 1968 film, as an astronaut crash-lands on a Cheyenne warrior. Remade in 1966. ▼●쩠 strange planet ruled by apes, where humans Plainsman, The (1966) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: are slaves and regarded as scum. One ape, David Lowell Rich. Don Murray, Guy the daughter of a prominent senator, thinks Stockwell, Abby Dalton, Bradford Dillman, otherwise, and even agrees to help WahlLeslie Nielsen. Static remake of the Cooperberg escape. A good yarn with great producArthur vehicle is dull even on its own. tion design and impressive makeup by Rick [ 1080 ]

Baker. Finale, with Rod Serling overtones, rector, Film Editing (Claire Simpson), and Sound. [R]▼●쩠 is the major letdown. Charlton Heston is arresting in his unbilled appearance, and Platoon Leader (1988) C-100m. BOMB Linda Harrison (also from the original cast) D: Aaron Norris. Michael Dudikoff, Robappears briefly. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 ert F. Lyons, Michael De Lorenzo, Rick Planet of the Vampires (1965-Italian) Fitts, Jesse Dabson. Obnoxious, bloody PLATOON rip-off, about a group of AmerC-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mario Bava. Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Angel Aranda, Evi ican GIs battling the commies in SouthMarandi, Fernando Villena. Eerily photoeast Asia. Director Norris is the brother of Chuck. [R]▼● graphed, atmospheric science-fantasy of spaceship looking for missing comrades Playboy of the Western World, The (1962-Irish) C-100m. ★★★ D: Brian Deson misty planet where strange power controls their minds. Shown on TV as THE mond Hurst. Gary Raymond, Siobhan DEMON PLANET.▼●쩠 McKenna, Elspeth March, Michael O’Brian, Planet on the Prowl SEE: War Between Liam Redmond, Niall MacGinnis. Simple the Planets and eloquent, if a bit stagy, version of Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) 79m. J. M. Synge’s classic satire. Boyish, boastful BOMB D: Edward D. Wood, Jr. Gregory Christy Mahon (Raymond) charms a small Walcott, Tom Keene, Duke Moore, Mona Irish village with his tale of how he did in his dad.▼ McKinnon, Dudley Manlove, Joanna Lee, Tor Johnson, Lyle Talbot, Bela Lugosi, Playboys, The (1992) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vampira, Criswell. Hailed as the worst Gillies MacKinnon. Albert Finney, Aidan movie ever made; certainly one of the Quinn, Robin Wright, Milo O’Shea, Alan funniest. Pompous aliens believe they can Devlin, Niamh Cusack, Ian McElhinney, conquer Earth by resurrecting corpses from Niall Buggy, Adrian Dunbar. A young a San Fernando Valley cemetery. Lugosi woman scandalizes her provincial Irish vildied after two days’ shooting in 1956; his lage in the 1950s by having a child out of remaining scenes were played by a taller, wedlock, and refusing to name the father; younger man holding a cape over his face! the arrival of a traveling dramatic troupe So mesmerizingly awful it actually imstirs things up even more. Flavorful but proves (so to speak) with each viewing. heavy-handed tale; good performances And remember: it’s all based on sworn can only do so much with a script that’s so testimony! Followed by REVENGE OF predictable. [PG-13]▼●쩠 THE DEAD.▼●쩠 Play Dirty (1968-British) C-117m. ★★★ D: Planter’s Wife SEE: Outpost in Malaya Andre de Toth. Michael Caine, Nigel DavPlatinum Blonde (1931) 90m. ★★★ D: enport, Nigel Green, Harry Andrews, Aly Frank Capra. Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, Ben Ayed. British army captain leads group Robert Williams, Louise Closser Hale, Donof ex-cons into the North African camald Dillaway, Walter Catlett. Snappy compaign in WW2; film invites comparison edy about wisecracking reporter who marwith THE DIRTY DOZEN and holds its ries wealthy girl (Harlow) but can’t stand own quite well. Panavision. [M/PG]쩠 confinement of life among high society. Player, The (1992) C-123m. ★★★ D: RobDespite engaging presence of Harlow and ert Altman. Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Young, it’s Williams’ show all the way.▼쩠 Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter GalPlatinum High School (1960) 93m. ★★ D: lagher, Brion James, Cynthia Stevenson, Charles Haas. Mickey Rooney, Terry Moore, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dean Stockwell, RichDan Duryea, Yvette Mimieux, Conway ard E. Grant, Dina Merrill, Sydney PolTwitty, Jimmy Boyd. Limp attempt at sensalack, Lyle Lovett, Randall Batinkoff, Gina tionalism, with Rooney a father discovering Gershon. Sharp black comedy about a parathat his son’s death at school wasn’t accidental. noid young movie executive (Robbins) who is threatened by a disgruntled screenwriter— Retitled: TROUBLE AT 16.▼ 1 ★★★ Platoon (1986) C-120m. until he begins taking the law into his own ⁄2 D: Oliver Stone. Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, hands. Biting examination of Hollywood Charlie Sheen, Forest Whitaker, Francesco greed and power, with eternal renegade Quinn, John C. McGinley, Richard EdAltman near the top of his form (especially son, Kevin Dillon, Reggie Johnson, Keith during the eight-minute opening tracking David, Johnny Depp. Penetrating firstshot). Hilarious performances, scores of person account of life on the line as a star cameos (several by Altman alumni like young soldier in the Vietnam War. HarrowElliott Gould, Lily Tomlin, Sally Kellerman, ingly realistic and completely convincing, and Cher), many inside jokes . . . but a bit too though the motives and reactions of its much plot. Adapted by Michael Tolkin from main character (played by Sheen, based on his novel; Tolkin and his lookalike brother, writer-director Stone) are hard to relate Stephen, also appear as a pair of writers who meet with Robbins. [R]▼●쩠 to—leaving this otherwise excellent film with a certain degree of aloofness. AcadPlayers (1979) C-120m. BOMB D: Anemy Award winner for Best Picture, Dithony Harvey. Ali MacGraw, Dean-Paul [ 1081 ]

Martin, Maximilian Schell, Pancho Gonabsurdity of the story line. Why this movie zalez, Steve Guttenberg, Melissa Prophet. was ever made is truly a case for The XAspiring tennis pro has to choose between Files. [R]▼●쩠 forehand and foreplay when he falls for a Play It Again, Sam (1972) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 ‘‘kept’’ woman. There’s something wrong D: Herbert Ross. Woody Allen, Diane with any movie where Pancho Gonzalez Keaton, Tony Roberts, Jerry Lacy, Susan Anspach, Jennifer Salt, Joy Bang, Viva. gives the best performance. [PG]▼ Players (1980) SEE: Club, The Delightful adaptation of Woody’s own play Players Club, The (1998) C-104m. ★★ D: Ice about film buff coached by the ghost of Cube. LisaRaye, Bernie Mac, Monica CalBogart in fumbling attempts to impress girls houn, A. J. Johnson, Ice Cube, Alex Thomas, after his wife divorces him. More ‘‘convenFaizon Love, Charles O. Murphy, Adele Givtional’’ than other early Allen films, but just ens, Chrystale Wilson, Terrence Howard, as funny. [PG]▼●쩠 Larry McCoy, Dick Anthony Williams, Tiny Play It As It Lays (1972) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lister, Jamie Foxx, John Amos, Michael Frank Perry. Tuesday Weld, Anthony PerClarke Duncan. A college journalism major kins, Tammy Grimes, Adam Roarke, Ruth looks back on the sleazy events that took Ford, Eddie Firestone. Film version of place during her long employment at a black Joan Didion’s best-seller about neglected strip club, among them the lurid apartment wife of self-centered film director is helped parties that took place on the side. Not a bad by Weld-Perkins casting. Story is believhook, but the film is done in by its seen-itable enough, but rambles inconclusively. all-before limitations and pedestrian script. Look for Tyne Daly as a journalist. [R] Cube also wrote the screenplay. [R]▼●쩠 Play It to the Bone (1999) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 Playgirl After Dark SEE: Too Hot to D: Ron Shelton. Woody Harrelson, Antonio Handle (1960) Banderas, Lolita Davidovich, Tom SizePlaygirl Gang SEE: Switchblade Sisters more, Lucy Liu, Robert Wagner, Richard Playing by Heart (1998) C-120m. ★★ D: Masur, Willie Garson, Cylk Cozart, Aida Willard Carroll. Sean Connery, Gena RowTurturro, Jack Carter. Two boxer friends are lands, Gillian Anderson, Angelina Jolie, hired as last-minute substitutes on a primo Madeleine Stowe, Anthony Edwards, Ryan Las Vegas fight card, and express their Phillippe, Dennis Quaid, Ellen Burstyn, Jay doubts and fears while driving from L.A. to Mohr, Jon Stewart, Patricia Clarkson, NasVegas with their mutual ex-girlfriend. Retassja Kinski, Daniel von Bargen. Talky laxed pace of Shelton’s script challenges the film—with its heart in the right place— viewer to stay interested through the long about a handful of L.A. men and women road trip up to the stormy and eventful fight and their fouled-up relationships, ranging and its aftermath. Many sports and showfrom an older couple whose marriage is business celebrities appear as themselves. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 strained by an illness and a long-ago affair, to a woman who comes to terms with her Play Misty for Me (1971) C-102m. ★★★ son for the first time as he lies in a hospital D: Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Jesbed dying of AIDS. Attractive, well-cast, sica Walter, Donna Mills, John Larch, but dreary multistory mosaic, written by diIrene Hervey, Jack Ging, Johnny Otis, rector Carroll. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Well-done Playing for Keeps (1986) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: shocker of late night radio D.J. stalked by Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein. Daniel homicidal ex-fan Walter. Eastwood’s first film Jordano, Matthew Penn, Leon W. Grant, as director; his frequent director, Don Siegel, Mary B. Ward, Marisa Tomei, Jimmy Baio, plays Murphy the bartender. [R]▼●쩠 Harold Gould. After finishing high school, Play Time (1967-French) C-126m. ★★★★ D: a group of friends band together to save a Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, run-down hotel from a greedy developer in Jacqueline Lecomte, Valerie Camille, Leon an unfriendly town. A youth comedy from Doyen. M. Hulot (Tati) wanders through an the ’80s that’s aged; worth seeing only for a unrecognizable modern Paris of steel and young Marisa Tomei. Also notable as the glass skyscrapers. Sight and sound gags only directorial effort by the founders and abound in this superbly constructed film, honchos of Miramax. Beware of the frethe various episodes of which are linked by quently used montage! [PG-13]▼쩠 Hulot’s trying to keep an appointment. Art Playing God (1997) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Andy Buchwald provided dialogue for EnglishWilson. David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton, speaking scenes. Alternate version runs Angelina Jolie, Michael Massee, Peter Stor155m. 70mm Widescreen. ▼●쩠 mare, Gary Dourdan, John Hawkes, AnPlaza Suite (1971) C-115m. ★★★ D: Arthur drew Tiernan. Preposterous story of drugHiller. Walter Matthau, Maureen Stapleton, addicted ex-surgeon Duchovny hired by Barbara Harris, Lee Grant, Louise Sorel. gangster Hutton to be the personal emerOne of Neil Simon’s funniest plays well gency physician for his shot-up and slashed adapted to screen. Three separate stories cronies. The improvised medical treatment about people staying in certain room at is so completely laughable, it upstages the famed N.Y.C. hotel, with Matthau in [ 1082 ]

all three vignettes. Best one is the last, three girls seeking fun and romance in with Matthau as flustered father of a relucSpain. CinemaScope. tant bride. [PG]▼●쩠 Pledge, The (2001) C-124m. ★★★ D: Sean Pleasantville (1998) C/B&W-123m. ★★1⁄2 Penn. Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright Penn, D: Gary Ross. Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Benicio Del Toro, Vanessa Redgrave, Tom Joan Allen, William H. Macy, J. T. Walsh, Noonan, Patricia Clarkson, Michael O’Keefe, Reese Witherspoon, Don Knotts, Jane KaczAaron Eckhart, Costas Mandylor, Helen Mirmarek. A brother and sister are magically transren, Mickey Rourke, Sam Shepard, Lois ported into their TV set and the black-andSmith, Harry Dean Stanton, Pauline Robwhite world of a ’50s sitcom called Pleasanterts. Nevada police detective, on the day of ville, where everything is swell. Soon, they inhis retirement, becomes involved in the case filtrate this perfect environment with their of a little girl’s murder and promises her parworldly sensibilities, and the fac¸ade is easily ents that he will bring the killer to justice. cracked. Excellent performances and a strikAnother great Nicholson performance anchors ing visual design (the black-and-white world this fine-tuned film, which sidesteps formula and its people slowly acquire color) spark this in favor of nuance. Based on a novel by satire, which bites off more than it can chew, Friedrich Durrenmatt. Filmed twice before becoming slow and somber. Anyway, hooin Germany (in 1958 as IT HAPPENED IN ray for Don Knotts! Directing debut for BROAD DAYLIGHT and as a 1997 TV screenwriter Ross. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 movie) and in England (in 1995 as THE Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (1960) COLD LIGHT OF DAY). J-D-C Scope. [R]▼쩠 C-111m. ★★★ D: Charles Walters. Doris Day, David Niven, Janis Paige, Spring Plenty (1985) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred Byington, Richard Haydn, Patsy Kelly, Jack Schepisi. Meryl Streep, Charles Dance, Weston, Margaret Lindsay. Bright film Tracey Ullman, John Gielgud, Sting, Ian based on Jean Kerr’s stories about a drama McKellen, Sam Neill, Burt Kwouk. Filmcritic and his family. Doris sings title song; her ization of David Hare’s play about a Britkids are very amusing, as are Byington (the ish woman who (like Britain itself) experimother-in-law), Kelly (housekeeper), and esences her finest hours during WW2, pecially Paige as a temperamental star. Later working for the underground . . . and a TV series. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 never finds fulfillment or satisfaction the Please! Mr. Balzac (1956-French) 99m. rest of her life. Superlative performances ★★ D: Marc Allegret. Daniel Gelin, Brig(Gielgud is a particular delight as aging itte Bardot, Robert Hirsch, Darry Cowl. career diplomat) and moments of insight Low-brow THEODORA GOES WILD variand wit can’t overcome the fact that cenation, following Bardot’s plight after she tral character played by Streep is so tepens an anonymous, scandalous book. dious. Schepisi makes excellent use of widescreen. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Scripted by Allegret and Roger Vadim. Aka MADEMOISELLE STRIPTEASE and Plot Against Harry, The (1989) 80m. ★★★ PLUCKING THE DAISY. ▼쩠 D: Michael Roemer. Martin Priest, Pleasure Garden, The (1925-British) 68m. Ben Lang, Maxine Woods, Henry Nemo, ★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Virginia Valli, Jacques Taylor, Jean Leslie, Ellen HerCarmelita Geraghty, Miles Mander, John bert, Sandra Kazan. Amusing, perceptive Stuart, George Snell. Hitchcock’s first slice of N.Y.C. life about an aging racketeer, feature, shot in Munich; uneven account just sprung from prison, who finds the old of a pair of chorus girls, one (Valli) order changing, and his life coming apart at sweet and knowing, the other (Geraghty) a the seams. Sad-faced Priest is perfectly cast in waif who becomes a glamorous bitch. Forthis modest, location-filmed production, which gettable silent melodrama. was shot in 1969 but never released—until Pleasure of His Company, The (1961) film-festival showings in 1989 won critical acclaim and a distributor.▼쩠 C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Seaton. Fred Astaire, Lilli Palmer, Debbie Reynolds, Plots With a View SEE: Undertaking Tab Hunter, Gary Merrill, Charlie Ruggles. Betty Delightful fluff, from Samuel Taylor and Plough and the Stars, The (1936) 78m. ★★ Cornelia Otis Skinner’s play about charming D: John Ford. Barbara Stanwyck, Presex-husband who comes to visit, enchanting ton Foster, Barry Fitzgerald, Una O’Conhis daughter and hounding his wife’s new nor, J. M. Kerrigan, Bonita Granville, husband. Entire cast in rare form. Taylor also Arthur Shields. Dreary, theatrical filmizascripted. tion of Sean O’Casey’s play with Foster as Pleasure Seekers, The (1964) C-107m. Irish revolutionary leader and Stanwyck as ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Negulesco. Ann-Margret, long-suffering wife who fears for his life; Pamela Tiffin, Tony Franciosa, Carol script by Dudley Nichols. Lynley, Gene Tierney, Brian Keith, GardPloughman’s Lunch, The (1983-British) C-100m. ★★★ D: Richard Eyre. Jonathan ner McKay, Isobel Elsom. Glossy, semimusical remake of THREE COINS IN Pryce, Tim Curry, Rosemary Harris, THE FOUNTAIN (by same director) about Frank Finlay, Charlie Dore. Complex, [ 1083 ]

cynical condemnation of British manners, Horton, Ann-Margret, Mickey Shaughmorals and politics, centering on the activinessy, David Brian, Sheldon Leonard, ties of thoroughly self-centered radio reBarton MacLane, John Litel, Jerome Cowan, porter Pryce and others during the Falklands Fritz Feld, Jack Elam, Ellen Corby. Capra’s war. Quite perceptive, within the confines final film, a remake of his 1933 LADY of its viewpoint. [R]▼ FOR A DAY, is just as sentimental, but Plucking the Daisy SEE: Please! Mr. doesn’t work as well. Bette is Apple AnBalzac nie, a Damon Runyon character; Ford is Plumber, The (1980-Australian) C-76m. Dave the Dude, the racketeer who turns ★★★ her into a lady. Ann-Margret is appealing D: Peter Weir. Judy Morris, Ivar Kants, Robert Coleby, Candy Raymond. Obnoxin her first film. Panavision.▼●쩠 ious plumber tears apart bathroom of unPocket Money (1972) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: willing tenants; film’s single joke is stretched Stuart Rosenberg. Paul Newman, Lee Marno further than it will go in slight but amusvin, Strother Martin, Christine Belford, ing black comedy made for Australian Kelly Jean Peters, Fred Graham, Wayne television.▼쩠 Rogers, Hector Elizondo, Richard FarnsPlunkett & Macleane (1999-British) Cworth. Debt-ridden cowboy and shifty pal ★★★ D: Jake Scott. Robert Carlyle, 102m. get mixed up with crooked cattleman in Jonny Lee Miller, Liv Tyler, Michael Gammodern-day Western. Strangely tepid combon, Alan Cumming, Ken Stott, Claire edy is helped by good Laszlo Kovacs phoRushbrook. Rousing action-adventure about tography, nice bit by Peters. Marvin’s car is two of England’s most notorious 18ththe damnedest thing you’ll ever see. Screencentury highwaymen. Plays like BUTCH play by Terrence Malick. [PG]▼쩠 CASSIDY, with anachronistic hipster Poetic Justice (1993) C-110m. ★★ D: John humor and a bumping techno score from Singleton. Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Craig Armstrong. Don’t think too hard Regina King, Joe Torry, Maya Angelou, about this flashy import; just sit back and Tyra Ferrell, Roger Guenveur Smith, Q-Tip, enjoy the ride. As a bisexual dandy, CumTone Loc, Billy Zane, Lori Petty. Ambiming cuts quite a swath. The debuting directious but fatally pretentious saga of a meltor is Ridley Scott’s son. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ancholy South Central L.A. beautician Plymouth Adventure (1952) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 (Jackson), who has retreated from the world D: Clarence Brown. Spencer Tracy, Gene after her boyfriend’s murder; mailman ShaTierney, Van Johnson, Leo Genn, Dawn kur attempts to break through to her, with Addams, Lloyd Bridges, Barry Jones. predictable results. Implausibly, the poetry Superficial soap opera, glossily done, of this otherwise ordinary woman composes the cynical captain of the Mayflower (Tracy) actually is the work of Maya Angelou (who and the settlers who sailed from England to appears on-screen as Aunt June). Jackson is OK in her screen debut. [R]▼●쩠 New England in the 17th century. This won an Oscar for its special effects.▼ Point Blank (1967) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John ★★★ D: Mike Pocahontas (1995) C-82m. Boorman. Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, Gabriel, Eric Goldberg. Voices of Irene BeKeenan Wynn, Carroll O’Connor, Lloyd dard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Bochner, Michael Strong, John Vernon. Stiers, John Kassir, Russell Means, ChrisMarvin, shot and left for dead by unfaithful tian Bale, Linda Hunt, Billy Connolly, wife and mobster boyfriend, gets revenge two Frank Welker, Michelle St. John, James years later. Taut thriller, ignored in 1967, Apaumut Fall. More serious in tone than but now regarded as a top film of the decade. most Disney cartoon features, this one tells Based on the novel The Hunter by Donald of the brave and free-spirited woman who E. Westlake (writing as Richard Stark). Redefied her father—and her tribe—by falling made as PAYBACK in 1999. Panavision. in love with Capt. John Smith, part of a ▼●쩠 plundering party from England. EntertainPoint Break (1991) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing if not particularly memorable, with Kathryn Bigelow. Patrick Swayze, Keanu Pocahontas a strong and appealing characReeves, Gary Busey, Lori Petty, John ter, and her sidekicks, Meeko (a raccoon) McGinley, James LeGros, John Philbin, and Flit (a hummingbird), providing deSydney Walsh, Vincent Klyn, Julian Reyes, lightful comedy relief. Songs by Alan Tom Sizemore. Maverick FBI agent Reeves Menken and Stephen Schwartz include is sent undercover into Southern California’s one standout, ‘‘Colors of the Wind.’’ Both surfing community to investigate a baffling that song and Menken’s music score won series of perfect bank robberies. Incredible, Oscars. Special edition DVD includes one mind-numbing plotline redeemed by great additional song and runs 84m. Followed by surfing and skydiving scenes. Assured, fasta direct-to-video sequel. [G]▼●쩠 moving direction by Bigelow keeps this Pocketful of Miracles (1961) C-136m. movie hanging five, if not ten . . . though ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Capra. Bette Davis, Glenn Swayze is in desperate need of a hair stylist Ford, Hope Lange, Arthur O’Connell, here. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Thomas Mitchell, Peter Falk, Edward Everett Point of No Return (1993) C-109m. ★1⁄2 [ 1084 ]

D: John Badham. Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Poke´mon 3: The Movie (2001-JapaneseU.S.) C-90m. ★★ D: Kuniniko Yuyama, MiByrne, Dermot Mulroney, Anne Bancroft, Harvey Keitel, Miguel Ferrer, Olivia chael Haigney. Voices of Veronica Taylor, d’Abo, Richard Romanus, Lorraine TousEric Stuart, Rachael Lillis, Addie Blaustein, saint, Geoffrey Lewis, Calvin Levels. An Ikue Otani. Most coherent and colorful of the awful, slicked-up Hollywoodization of LA Poke´mon movies (admittedly, a small comFEMME NIKITA, with punkish criminal pliment). This time ‘‘unknown’’ Poke´mon Fonda recruited by the U.S. government to kidnap a mother and father, and use their shoot up a chi-chi Washington restaurant small daughter to paralyze a town and chal(with the Washington Post nowhere in lenge our young heroes Ash, Brock, and Misty. sight). Not a genuine emotion to be found Preceded by a short episode with little Pikachu until Mulroney shows up; even then, not and his Poke´-pals getting lost in the big city. many more. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Subtitled: SPELL OF THE UNKNOWN. FolPoint Zero SEE: Ski Bum, The lowed by POKE´MON 4EVER, then, in 2003, Poison (1991) C-85m. ★★★ D: Todd Haynes. POKE´MON HEROES. [G] ▼쩠 Edith Meeks, Larry Maxwell, Susan NorPolar Express, The (2004) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 man, Scott Renderer, James Lyons. JarD: Robert Zemeckis. Tom Hanks, Michael ring, disturbing film about what it means Jeter, Peter Scolari, Nona Gaye, Eddie Deezen, to be different, to be alienated from the Charles Fleischer, Steven Tyler; voice of mainstream, consisting of three skillfully Daryl Sabara. Boy who desperately wants to interwoven stories: a mock documentary see Santa Claus with his own eyes on a about a seven-year-old who’s shot and snowy Christmas Eve gets more than he killed his father, and summarily disapbargained for when he boards a railroad peared; a 1950s sci-fi movie parody, in which train that stops right in front of his house. a brilliant scientist ingests some serum and Expansion of Chris Van Allsburg’s beautibecomes disfigured; and the chronicle of a fully illustrated children’s book (set in the gay thief who arrives at a prison. Scripted by 1950s Midwest) retains a feeling of wonder Haynes, and inspired by the writings of Jean as the boy and newfound friends journey Genet. [NC-17]▼●쩠 to the North Pole. ‘‘Performance Capture’’ ★★ Poison Ivy (1992) C-89m. D: Katt Shea digital animation renders all the characters Ruben. Drew Barrymore, Sara Gilbert, Tom slightly unreal—the kids look like they’re Skerritt, Cheryl Ladd, Leonardo DiCaprio. wearing dentures—but aside from enabling Blah melodrama about a sluttish teen (BarryTom Hanks to play five roles it doesn’t more, who is well cast), and the insidious inseem to have been worth all the bother. Still fluence she has on the members of a wealthy, an entertaining-enough adventure for chiltroubled family: shy Gilbert, her alcoholic dad dren. Nice songs by Glen Ballard and Alan (Skerritt) and dying mom (Ladd), and even the Silvestri mix with vintage holiday favorites. pet pooch. More subtlety and character develAlso available as a 3-D DVD. Digital Wideopment would have helped. Followed by four screen. [G]▼쩠 DVD sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Pola X (1999-French-Swiss-German-JapaPoke´mon: The First Movie (1998-Japanese) nese) C-129m. ★★ D: Le´os Carax. GuilC-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Kuniniko Yuyama, Michael laume Depardieu, Katerina Golubeva, Haigney. Voices of Veronica Taylor, Philip Catherine Deneuve, Laurent Lucas, PataBartlett, Rachel Lillis, Eric Stuart, Addie chou, Petruta Catana, Mihaella Silaghi. Blaustein. Kids’ video game/TV show/card Young aristocrat (Depardieu), the author of game phenomenon hits the big screen with a cult novel, is engaged to a sweet, beautiful OK story about a mutated Poke´mon clone, woman, but then a second woman enters Mewtwo, who plans to take over the world. his life. She is crazed, semi-coherent, and Not very exciting, with barely adequate aniclaims to be his half sister. This psychologimation, but kids probably won’t mind. Subcal portrait is an exploration of obsession, title on-screen is MEWTWO STRIKES identity, and madness, but is way overlong BACK. Followed by four sequels. [G]▼쩠 and oozes pretension. Ambitious, but awPoke´mon the Movie 2000 (2000-Japanesefully hard to sit through. Based on an obU.S.) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Kuniniko Yuyama, scure Herman Melville novel, Pierre, or the Michael Haigney. Voices of Veronica TayAmbiguities.▼쩠 lor, Rachel Lillis, Addie Blaustein, Eric Stuart, Police (1984-French) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ed Paul. Sequel to hit movie is subtitled THE Maurice Pialat. Ge´rard Depardieu, Sophie POWER OF ONE. Once again, young Ash Marceau, Richard Anconina, Pascale Rocard, and his pals face off against a powerful Sandrine Bonnaire. Taut but repetitive drama enemy, a super-scientific Poke´mon collecabout the thin line separating cop and crimitor (and his CGI flying fortress) who unnal. Depardieu is a brutal, sex-obsessed, leashes a flying poke´menace. Lots of love-starved policeman attempting to break thunderbolts and effects animation, but no up a drug ring; he becomes involved with one to root for. You can skip the opening tough young Marceau, one of the dealers. short, PIKACHU’S RESCUE ADVEN▼ TURE. [G]▼쩠 Police Academy (1984) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1085 ]

Hugh Wilson. Steve Guttenberg, G. W. Police Academy VII: Mission to Moscow Bailey, George Gaynes, Kim Cattrall, (1994) C-83m. BOMB D: Alan Metter. Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, Andrew G. W. Bailey, George Gaynes, Michael Rubin, David Graf, Bruce Mahler, Leslie Winslow, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook, Easterbrook, Georgina Spelvin. Generally Claire Forlani, Ron Perlman, Christopher good-natured comedy (with typical ’80s Lee, Charlie Schlatter. They waited five doses of sexism and tastelessness) about a years to make another chapter in this mindgroup of weirdos and misfits who enroll in less series. It wasn’t worth the wait. [PG] big-city police academy. Winslow’s comic ▼●쩠 sound effects are perfect antidote for slow Police Force SEE: Police Story (1985) spots in script. Followed by far too many Police Story (1985-Hong Kong) C-89m. ★★★ sequels, a TV series, and an animated TV D: Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, Bridget series. [R] ▼●쩠 Lin, Maggie Cheung, Cho Yuen, Bill Tung, Police Academy 2: Their First AssignKenneth Tong. Lightning-paced kung fu ment (1985) C-87m. BOMB D: Jerry Paris. comedy about cop Chan, a one-man police Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, David Graf, force attempting to get the goods on some Michael Winslow, Bruce Mahler, Marion thugs. Crammed with incredible stuntwork; Ramsey, Colleen Camp, Howard Hesseman, a real popcorn movie that’s perfect for fans of Art Metrano, George Gaynes, Ed Herlihy. the genre. Aka JACKIE CHAN’S POLICE Dreadful follow-up to 1984 hit (with difSTORY and POLICE FORCE. Followed by ferent writers and director responsible). There three sequels. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 are Dragnet episodes with more laughs Police Story Part 2 (1988-Hong Kong) Cthan this movie. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 90m. ★★ D: Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, MagPolice Academy 3: Back in Training gie Cheung, Bill Thung, Lam Kowk-Hung, 1 ★ (1986) C-82m. ⁄2 D: Jerry Paris. Steve Crystal Kwok, Choh Yuen, Henny Ho. This Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, David Graf, sequel is a slight step down for Chan as his Michael Winslow, Marion Ramsey, LesHong Kong cop tries to stop a wave of lie Easterbrook, Art Metrano, Tim Kazurbomb threats. Some awesome stunts and insky, Bobcat Goldthwait, George Gaynes, fine comic touches, but not as well conShawn Weatherly. An improvement over structed as its predecessor. Followed by a #2, but that’s not saying much: just anthird installment. Technovision.▼●쩠 other collection of pea-brained gags and Police Story III: Supercop (1992-Hong amateurish performances. [PG]▼●쩠 Kong) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Tong. Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol Jackie Chan, Michelle (Yeaoh) Khan, Mag(1987) C-87m. BOMB D: Jim Drake. Steve gie Cheung, Yuen Wah, Bill Tung Piu, Ken Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, Michael WinsTsang. Third in series benefits greatly from low, David Graf, Tim Kazurinsky, Sharon presence of Khan, a fine action star in her Stone, Leslie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, own right. The two stars play cops teaming Lance Kinsey, G. W. Bailey, Bobcat up against drug smugglers. Highlights inGoldthwait, George Gaynes, Billie Bird. clude Khan jumping a motorcycle onto a More of the same, only worse. [PG]▼●쩠 moving train and Chan dangling from a caPolice Academy 5: Assignment Miami reening helicopter. Plot slows down at Beach (1988) C-90m. BOMB D: Alan Mytimes, but climactic action sequences make erson. Bubba Smith, George Gaynes, G.W. up for it. 1996 U.S. release version cut to Bailey, David Graf, Michael Winslow, Les91m. and redubbed in English with a new lie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, Janet music score. Aka SUPERCOP. Followed Jones, Matt McCoy. Gaynes is in Miami by POLICE STORY IV: CRIME STORY. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 to receive an award before his mandatory retirement; arch-rival Bailey comes along to Polish Wedding (1998) C-101m. ★★★ D: gum up the works. Fourth attempt to imTheresa Connelly. Gabriel Byrne, Lena Olin, prove on imperfection is no charm; what Claire Danes, Mili Avital, Daniel Lapaine, can you say about a sequel that Steve GutRade Serbedzija, Adam Trese, Ramsey Krull, tenberg won’t even appear in? [PG] ▼●쩠 Steven Petrarca. Picaresque slice of life about Police Academy 6: City Under Siege a Polish-American family in Detroit. The (1989) C-83m. BOMB D: Peter Bonerz. mother of the household (Olin) is an incrediBubba Smith, David Graf, Michael Winsble life force who is fiercely proud of her low, Leslie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, family; her husband (Byrne) has long since Lance Kinsey, Matt McCoy, Bruce Mahresigned himself to a passive role. But their ler, G.W. Bailey, George Gaynes, Kendaughter (Danes) is eager to experience life— neth Mars, Gerrit Graham. Those wacky perhaps too eager. First time writer-director cops are back to solve a crime wave perpeConnelly perfectly captures the look and feel trated by a trio that makes The Three of this unusual family and the suburban atmoStooges look like Nobel laureates. This sphere in which they live. [PG-13]▼●쩠 entry is only—repeat only—for those who Pollock (2000) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ed Harris. thought POLICE ACADEMY 5 was robbed Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Madiat Oscar time. [PG]▼●쩠 gan, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Jeffrey [ 1086 ]

Tambor, Bud Cort, John Heard, Stephanie class satire; housewife Francine Fishpaw Seymour, Tom Bower, Sada Thompson. (Divine), driven to the brink by nightmarVivid portrait of a tortured soul, groundbreakish husband, children, and mother, is ‘‘resing modern artist Jackson Pollock, superbly cued’’ by handsome drive-in owner Todd played by Harris, with Harden in an OscarTomorrow (Hunter). Less offensive than winning performance as Lee Krasner, who Waters’ underground films, but still not forsook her own career to shepherd his and for all tastes; Vincent Peranio’s sets are become his wife. First-time director Harris hilariously hideous. Released in ‘‘Odorama’’ manages to capture the wonder of a genius —with audience members given scratchand-sniff cards. [R]▼●쩠 at work. Difficult but rewarding. Screenplay by Barbara Turner and Susan J. Emshwiller, Pom-Pom Girls, The (1976) C-90m. ★★ D: from the book Jackson Pollock: An AmeriJoseph Ruben. Robert Carradine, Jennifer can Saga by Steven Naifeh and Gregory Ashley, Lisa Reeves, Michael Mullins, White Smith. [R]▼쩠 Bill Adler. Comedy about spoiled suburPollyanna (1960) C-134m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Daban teenagers who celebrate their senior vid Swift. Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, year having food fights, making love in Richard Egan, Karl Malden, Nancy Olson, the back of vans, and stealing a fire truck. Adolphe Menjou, Donald Crisp, Agnes Routinely good-natured mayhem. [PG— Moorehead. Disney’s treatment of Eleanor edited from original R rating]▼쩠 Porter story is first-rate, as ‘‘the glad girl’’ Pompatus of Love, The (1996) C-99m. ★★ spreads cheer to misanthropes of a New D: Richard Schenkman. Jon Cryer, Adrian England town, including her own Aunt Pasdar, Tim Guinee, Adam Oliensis, Mia Polly (Wyman). Fine direction and script Sara, Kristin Scott Thomas, Arabella Field, by Swift, excellent performances all around. Paige Turco, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, KrisMills was awarded a special Oscar for ten Wilson, Michael McKean, Fisher Stevens, Outstanding Juvenile Performance. First Jennifer Tilly, Roscoe Lee Browne, Jenny filmed in 1920 with Mary Pickford. ReMcCarthy. Yet another smug and talky enmade for TV in 1989 as POLLY.▼●쩠 semble comedy about self-absorbed guys Poltergeist (1982) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tobe struggling with life and love in the ’90s. Hooper. Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Though it’s an obvious labor of love for Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Oliver cowriters Schenkman, Cryer, and Oliensis, Robins, Heather O’Rourke, Zelda Rubinit’s just a passable example of a deadly substein, Richard Lawson, James Karen. A genre. Title takes its name from a song lyric young family finds its home invaded by in ‘‘The Joker,’’ which is sung here by the unfriendly spirits, who ‘‘kidnap’’ their original artist, Steve Miller, and also by Sheryl Crow. [R]▼●쩠 5-year-old girl! Sensationally scary ghost story co-written and co-produced by StePonette (1996-French) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: ven Spielberg. Paced like a roller-coaster Jacques Doillon. Victoire Thivisol, Matiaz ride, with dazzling special effects—and a Bureau Caton, Delphine Schiltz, Xavier refreshing sense of humor. Followed by Beauvois, Claire Nebout, Marie Trintignant. two sequels. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 Heart-rending, if unfulfilling, tale of a 4Poltergeist II (1986) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian year-old (Thivisol) who survives a car acciGibson. JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, dent in which her mother is killed. Poignant Heather O’Rourke, Oliver Robins, Zelda look at the death of a parent, as the young Rubinstein, Will Sampson, Julian Beck, girl tries to understand and cope with her Geraldine Fitzgerald. The Freeling family mom’s absence. Doillon, who also scripted, is terrorized again by otherworld creatures. truly captures life through the eyes of a Another pointless sequel made palatable by child, but there’s more emotion than subsome jolting state-of-the-art special effects stance, and the ending is a cop-out. Thiviand a still-very-likable family. Be warned sol’s amazingly naturalistic performance is that an actor receives billing as The Vomit the film’s greatest strength.▼●쩠 Creature. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Pontiac Moon (1994) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Poltergeist III (1988) C-97m. ★★ D: Gary Peter Medak. Ted Danson, Mary SteenburSherman. Tom Skerritt, Nancy Allen, Heather gen, Ryan Todd, Eric Schweig, Cathy MoriO’Rourke, Zelda Rubinstein, Lara Flynn arty, Max Gail, Lisa Jane Persky, J. C. Boyle, Kip Wentz, Richard Fire. O’Rourke Quinn, John Schuck, Don Swayze. Eccenmoves in with uncle Skerritt and aunt Allen— tric pop (Danson) takes 11-year-old son on and is still pursued by strange, evil forces. dusty road trip to coincide with Apollo XI Undistinguished and occasionally plodding; moon landing in July 1969. Think agoraeerily, young O’Rourke died four months bephobic mom (Steenburgen) will finally have the guts to leave the house and follow them? fore the film’s release. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Polyester (1981) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: John 11-year-olds may like this. Panavision. Waters. Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Mas[PG-13] ▼●쩠 sey, Mary Garlington, Ken King, David Pontius Pilate (1962-Italian-French) CSamson, Mink Stole, Stiv Bators. Waters’ 100m. ★★ D: Irving Rapper. Jean Marais, first mainstream feature is wacky middleJeanne Crain, Basil Rathbone, John Drew [ 1087 ]

Barrymore, Massimo Serato, Leticia Roman. ated characters. Walken (yet again) proAdequate retelling of events before and vides the film’s brightest moments as a after Christ’s crucifixion from viewpoint wealthy man who takes an interest in Callahan. Completed in 2001. [R]▼쩠 of Roman procurator. Dubbing and confused script hamper good intentions. BarryPoor Cow (1967-British) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 more plays Christ and Judas. CinemaScope. D: Kenneth Loach. Carol White, Terence Stamp, John Bindon, Kate Williams, Pony Express (1953) C-101m. ★★★ D: Jerry Hopper. Charlton Heston, Rhonda Queenie Watts, Malcolm McDowell. OK Fleming, Jan Sterling, Forrest Tucker. Exdrama about working-class loners, centeruberant action Western (set in 1860s) of ing on promiscuous White’s relationship the founding of mail routes westward, inwith husband (Bindon), a thief, and his volving historical figures Buffalo Bill and best friend (Stamp), whom she really loves. Wild Bill Hickok.▼ McDowell’s film debut; Loach’s feature diPony Express Rider (1976) C-100m. ★★★ rectorial debut. D: Robert Totten. Stewart Petersen, Henry Poor Little Rich Girl (1936) 72m. ★★★1⁄2 Wilcoxon, Buck Taylor, Maureen McCorD: Irving Cummings. Shirley Temple, mick, Joan Caulfield, Ken Curtis, Slim Alice Faye, Jack Haley, Gloria Stuart, Pickens, Dub Taylor, Jack Elam. Good Michael Whalen, Jane Darwell, Claude family outing with Peterson joining Pony Gillingwater, Henry Armetta. One of Express in 1861 to help find the man whom Shirley’s best films, a top musical on any he believes has killed his father. [G]▼ terms, with Temple running away from Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (2005) C-67m. home, joining vaudeville team of Haley and ★★1 ⁄2 D: Frank Nissen. Voices of Jim CumFaye, winning over crusty Gillingwater, mings, John Fiedler, Kath Soucie, Nikita eventually joining her father (Whalen) and Hopkins, Ken Sansom, Peter Cullen, Brenda lovely Stuart. Best of all is closing ‘‘Military Blethyn, Kyle Stanger. Depending on what Man’’ number. Also shown in computeryou bring to it, Disney’s trek back to A. A. colored version.▼● Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood will either be Pootie Tang (2001) C-81m. BOMB D: charmingly unpretentious in a minor key or a Louis C.K. Lance Crouther, Chris Rock, lost opportunity. Short running time helps, in Jennifer Coolidge, Robert Vaughn, Wanda any event, as the Wood crew takes off to find Sykes. Jumbled junk, spun off from skits on the supposedly frightening heffalump, which Rock’s HBO show, finds Crouther’s ‘‘folk is actually a baby-Dumbo type named Lumpy hero’’ compromised by evil mogul Vaughn, and no threat at all to finder Roo (who’s also a who wants to exploit Pootie’s sacred rep tot). Movie preaches tolerance to 4- and 5-yearby getting him to hawk unhealthy products. olds, close to the age peak of the target audiWithout extended credit sequences and ence. Features songs by Carly Simon. Folpainful interludes featuring Bob Costas in lowed by a direct-to-video sequel. [G] ▼쩠 faux interviews, this would barely run an Pool, The (2008) C-104m. ★★★ D: Chris hour and small change. Rock plays two Smith. Venkatesh Chavan, Jhangir Badshah, roles: a hanger-on and Pootie’s laborer dad, Ayesha Mohan, Nana Patekar. Two impoverkilled by a gorilla in a steel-mill mishap. ished young boys fend for themselves on the (Don’t ask—and don’t watch.) [PG-13]▼쩠 streets of Panjim, India, doing odd jobs to Pop & Me (2000) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Roe. survive, but one of them (Chavan) has higher Heartwarming—if slick—documentary of 29aspirations: he’s admired the serene swimyear-old Roe’s six-month journey around the ming pool at an estate on the hill overlooking world with his dad, Richard, interviewing fathe city. He tells his friend he’s going to swim thers and sons across the globe (including a in it—not by sneaking in, but by invitation. random encounter in Monaco with Julian Disarmingly simple film draws on the real Lennon, who comes clean about his famous lives and personalities of its youthful stars genes) and learning about their own relation(nonprofessionals working with documentary ship in the process. Real-life male weepie is filmmaker Smith) as its warmly humanistic perfect Father’s Day fare. [PG-13]▼쩠 story unfolds. A sleeper well worth disPopcorn (1991) C-93m. ★★ D: Mark covering. Herrier. Jill Schoelen, Tom Villard, Dee Wallace Stone, Tony Roberts, Ray Walston, Poolhall Junkies (2003) C-94m. ★★ D: Mars Callahan. Chazz Palminteri, Rick Elliott Hurst, Yvette Solar, Derek Rydall, Schroder, Rod Steiger, Michael Rosenbaum, Malcolm Danare, Bruce Glover. Film stuMars Callahan, Alison Eastwood, Christopher dents put on a round-the-clock fundraiser Walken, Anson Mount, Peter Mark Richman, of schlocky ’50s horror pics—and who Glenn Plummer, Peter Dobson, Ernie Reyes, should be haunting the premises and proJr. Callahan cowrote, directed, and stars in this jection booth but a ghoulish psychopathic highly forgettable film about a promising pool killer? Amusing idea, awkwardly executed, player who wants to go pro, but is steered though there are some knowing re-creations instead toward a life of hustling by his menof vintage b&w B’s. Stone, Roberts, and tor (Palminteri). The rest of the ‘‘story’’ is a Walston must have been hired for about a day’s shooting apiece. [R] ▼●쩠 mess, with no real focus and poorly deline[ 1088 ]

Pope Joan (1972-British) C-132m. BOMB Lynne Overman. Mild Fields, re-creating D: Michael Anderson. Liv Ullmann, Keir his stage role as Hudson’s ever-conniving Dullea, Robert Beatty, Jeremy Kemp, Olivia dad. Too much romantic subplot, not enough de Havilland, Patrick Magee, Maximilian of W. C.’s antics. The Great Man also Schell, Trevor Howard, Franco Nero, Nigel starred in a silent version, SALLY OF THE SAWDUST.쩠 Havers, Lesley-Anne Down, Andre Morell. Dim story of woman who, disguised as Poppy Is Also a Flower, The (1966) man, works her way up to the papacy, C-100m. BOMB D: Terence Young. Senta only to be destroyed when revealed. PerBerger, Stephen Boyd, E. G. Marshall, formers seem to be embarrassed, as well Trevor Howard, Eli Wallach, Marcello they should; screenplay by John Briley. Mastroianni, Angie Dickinson, Rita HayAlso shown in 112m. version. Reissued as worth, Yul Brynner, Trini Lopez, Gilbert THE DEVIL’S IMPOSTOR, with much Roland, Bessie Love. Incredibly bad antimaterial cut. Panavision. [PG]쩠 drug feature from story by Ian Fleming, Pope Must Die, The (1991-British) C-97m. originally produced as United Nations ★★1 project for TV. Acting is downright poor ⁄2 D: Peter Richardson. Robbie Coltrane, Beverly D’Angelo, Herbert Lom, Alex at times. Though never referred to that Rocco, Paul Bartel, Salvatore Cascio, way, title actually appears on-screen as Balthazar Getty, Peter Richardson, Robert POPPIES ARE ALSO FLOWERS. Aka THE OPIUM CONNECTION.▼쩠 Stephens, Annette Crosbie. So-so satire with Coltrane an honest small-town priest Popsy Pop SEE: Butterfly Affair, The Porgy and Bess (1959) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: who, via computer error, becomes the new pontiff and finds himself in conflict with Otto Preminger. Sidney Poitier, Dorothy cardinal Rocco and mobster Lom. OccaDandridge, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis, sionally clever but goes overboard once too Jr., Brock Peters, Diahann Carroll, Ivan often, descending into outright silliness. Dixon, Clarence Muse. Classic Gershwin Controversy over the title in U.S. release folk opera about love, dreams, and jealousy caused its distributor to rename it THE among poor folk of Catfish Row; a bit POPE MUST DIET(!) [R]▼● stiff, but full of incredible music: ‘‘SummerPope of Greenwich Village, The (1984) time,’’ ‘‘It Ain’t Necessarily So,’’ ‘‘I Got C-120m. ★★★ D: Stuart Rosenberg. Eric Plenty of Nothin’.’’ Davis shines as Sportin’ Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Daryl Hannah, Life. Music arrangers Andre Previn and Geraldine Page, Kenneth McMillan, Tony Ken Darby won Oscars. Final film of Musante, M. Emmet Walsh, Burt Young, producer Samuel Goldwyn. Todd-AO. Jack Kehoe, Philip Bosco, Val Avery, Joe Pork Chop Hill (1959) 97m. ★★★ D: Lewis Grifasi. Richly textured, sharply observant Milestone. Gregory Peck, Harry Guardino, film about a young hustler in N.Y.C.’s Little Rip Torn, George Peppard, James Edwards, Italy and his inability to separate himself Bob Steele, George Shibata, Biff Elliot, from a cousin (Roberts) who’s a perpetual Woody Strode, Robert Blake, Norman Fell, screw-up. Not so much a story as a collecMartin Landau, Bert Remsen, (Harry) Dean tion of character studies; Page stands out Stanton, Gavin MacLeod. Gritty Korean in great supporting cast, as harridan mother War combat film about the taking of a of crooked cop. Based on Vincent Patseemingly worthless hill, and the political rick’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 (and communications) problems that interPopeye (1980) C-114m. BOMB D: Robert fere with lieutenant Peck’s efforts to get the Altman. Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, job done. Impressive cast of stars-to-be. Ray Walston, Paul Smith, Paul Dooley, Based on a true story.▼●쩠 Richard Libertini, Wesley Ivan Hurt, Linda Porky’s (1981-Canadian) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hunt. The beloved sailorman (Williams, in Bob Clark. Dan Monahan, Mark Herrier, his starring debut) boards a sinking ship in Wyatt Knight, Roger Wilson, Kim Cattrall, this astonishingly boring movie. A game Scott Colomby, Kaki Hunter, Nancy Parcast does its best with Jules Feiffer’s unsons, Alex Karras, Susan Clark. A lusty, funny script, Altman’s cluttered staging, fun-loving bunch of high school guys in and some alleged songs by Harry Nilsson. South Florida circa 1954 discover that sex Tune in an old Max Fleischer cartoon inis great, revenge is sweet, and Jews are OK stead. Technovision. [PG]▼●쩠 after all. Some belly laughs. This raunchy, Popi (1969) C-115m. ★★★ D: Arthur low-budget comedy made a fortune—and spawned two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Hiller. Alan Arkin, Rita Moreno, Miguel Alejandro, Ruben Figueroa. Charming story Porky’s II: The Next Day (1983-Canadian) of poverty in the ghetto, focusing on one C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Bob Clark. Dan Monahan, man’s often zany antics in securing better Wyatt Knight, Mark Herrier, Roger Willife for his children. Odd ending for farson, Kaki Hunter, Scott Colomby, Nancy Parsons, Edward Winter. In-name-only sefetched story. [G]▼쩠 1 ★★ Poppy (1936) 75m. quel has same cast of kids in new (and ⁄2 D: A. Edward Sutherland. W. C. Fields, Rochelle Hudtamer) set of escapades—with no coherson, Richard Cromwell, Catherine Doucet, ency, and not even the raunchiness that [ 1089 ]

made the first film so popular. Sequel: PORmances and handsome production can’t KY’S REVENGE. [R]▼●쩠 overcome the dreariness of the material. A Porky’s Revenge (1985) C-91m. BOMB very odd, ‘‘Campionesque’’ prologue atD: James Komack. Dan Monahan, Wyatt tempts to set a contemporary tone for what Knight, Tony Ganios, Kaki Hunter, Mark is to follow. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Herrier, Scott Colomby. Will the gang throw Portrait of a Mobster (1961) 108m. ★★1⁄2 the big high school basketball game or won’t D: Joseph Pevney. Vic Morrow, Leslie they? Beware of high-school seniors with Parrish, Peter Breck, Ray Danton, Norpost-collegiate hairlines; these guys are startman Alden, Ken Lynch. Pretty good ganging to look older than the mid-’50s Bowery ster movie following the career of Dutch Boys. This Revenge is preferable to MontezuSchultz (Morrow), centering on his relama’s—but not by much. [R]▼●쩠 tionship with a woman who marries a Porridge SEE: Doing Time crooked cop. Danton reprises his role as Portnoy’s Complaint (1972) C-101m. Legs Diamond from an earlier film. BOMB D: Ernest Lehman. Richard BenPortrait of Jennie (1948) 86m. ★★★ D: jamin, Karen Black, Lee Grant, Jack William Dieterle. Jennifer Jones, Joseph Somack, Jeannie Berlin, Jill Clayburgh. Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, Lillian Gish, CeKaren Black’s excellent portrayal of ‘‘The cil Kellaway, David Wayne, Albert Sharpe, Monkey’’ is buried in otherwise incredibly Henry Hull, Florence Bates, Felix Bressart. inept filmization of Philip Roth’s novel Strange otherworldly girl Jones inspires about a not exactly warm relationship bepenniless artist Cotten. David O. Selznick tween Jewish boy and his mother. Terrible craftsmanship and a fine cast work wondirectorial debut by famed screenwriter ders with foolish story based on the Robert Lehman. Panavision. [R]▼ Nathan novella. Originally released with Port of Call (1948-Swedish) 95m. ★★ D: last reel tinted green and final shot in Ingmar Bergman. Nine-Christine Jonsson, Technicolor; the special effects earned an Bengt Eklund, Erik Hell, Berta Hall, Mimi Academy Award.▼쩠 Nelson. Slim, minor early Bergman drama Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, about troubled young outcast Jonsson and A (1979) C-98m. ★★★ D: Joseph Strick. her relationship with seaman Eklund. SetBosco Hogan, T. P. McKenna, John ting is a grim harbor slum, and film’s Gielgud, Rosaleen Linehan, Maureen Potultimately hopeful, upbeat tone just doesn’t ter, Niall Buggy, Brian Murray. Literate ring true.▼쩠 adaptation (by Judith Rascoe) of James Portrait in Black (1960) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 Joyce’s legendary first novel; it focuses on D: Michael Gordon. Lana Turner, Anthony Stephen Dedalus (Hogan), who questions his Quinn, Sandra Dee, John Saxon, Richard faith as he reaches manhood in turn-of-theBasehart, Lloyd Nolan, Ray Walston, Anna 20th-century Dublin. McKenna, Linehan, May Wong. Average murder/blackmail and Potter play, respectively, Simon and May mystery filled with gaping holes that proDedalus, and Dante; in ULYSSES, which ducer Ross Hunter tried to hide with Strick made a dozen years before, they apglamorous decor and offbeat casting.▼쩠 peared as Buck Mulligan, Nurse Callan, and Portrait of a Hitman (1977) C-86m. Josie Breen respectively. Filmed in Ireland. BOMB D: Allan A. Buckhantz. Jack ▼쩠 Palance, Richard Roundtree, Rod Steiger, Poseidon (2006) C-99m. ★★ D: Wolfgang Bo Svenson, Ann Turkel, Philip Ahn. Petersen. Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Richard Gangster Steiger hires ‘‘sensitive’’ hit man Dreyfuss, Jacinda Barrett, Emmy Rossum, Palance to kill Svenson, but there are comMı´a Maestro, Jimmy Bennett, Mike Vogel, plications: Svenson is a pal who once Andre Braugher, Kevin Dillon, Freddy Rosaved Palance’s life, and both of them are driguez, Fergie. When a ‘‘rogue wave’’ in love with Turkel. B movie has ragged overturns a luxury ocean liner, a random structure that makes it seem like an unfingroup of passengers bands together to find a ished feature. Originally titled JIM BUCK.▼ way to escape—and survive. Who will live? Portrait of a Lady, The (1996-British) CWho will die? Who will care? Well-paced 144m. ★★ D: Jane Campion. Nicole Kidremake of the 1972 hit has everything man, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey, money can buy, and the requisite moments Mary-Louise Parker, Martin Donovan, of suspense and action, but its characters are Shelley Winters, Richard E. Grant, Shelley flat and uninteresting. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Duvall, Christian Bale, Viggo Mortensen, Poseidon Adventure, The (1972) C-117m. ★★★ John Gielgud. Long, often boring, and strikD: Ronald Neame. Gene Hackman, ingly ineffectual adaptation of Henry Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol James’ novel about a young American Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, woman, determined to live an independent Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson, Leslie life in Europe during the late 1800s. For Nielsen, Pamela Sue Martin, Arthur O’Conreasons never made clear in the film, she nell, Eric Shea. Mindless but engrossing, decides to marry a man who turns out to be highly charged entertainment—the vanguard a spiteful, manipulative rotter. Good perforof the decade’s ‘‘disaster film’’ genre. [ 1090 ]

Luxury cruise ship capsized by tidal wave, Possession (1981-French-West German) C-127m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrzej Zulawski. Isabelle leaving small band of survivors to make way to top (bottom) of ship and hopefully Adjani, Sam Neill, Heinz Bennent, Margit escape. Introductory sequences are laughably Carstensen, Michael Hogben. Adjani ‘‘crebad, but one soon gets caught up in the ates’’ a monster, to the consternation of story and ignores script’s weaknesses. Oscarhusband Neill, lover Bennent—and the winning song: ‘‘The Morning After’’; also viewer. Confusing drama of murder, horror, earned a special Oscar for special effects. intrigue, though it’s all attractively directed. Sequel: BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADFilmed in English; hacked down to 81m. for American release. [R]▼쩠 VENTURE. Remade in 2006 and for TV in 2005. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Possession (2002) C-119m. ★★ D: Neil LaPosse (1975) C-94m. ★★★ D: Kirk Douglas. Bute. Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, JerKirk Douglas, Bruce Dern, Bo Hopkins, emy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Trevor Eve, James Stacy, Luke Askew, David Canary. Toby Stephens, Anna Massey, Graham CrowOffbeat but solid Western about a cynical den, Lena Headey, Tom Hollander. Two lawman who tries to fulfill political ambitions modern-day academics—an impulsive Amerby capturing an escaped robber, only to find ican man and a cool British woman—become the people are siding with the outlaw! Well unlikely partners in ferreting out a mystery photographed (by Fred Koenekamp) and well about a renowned romantic poet of the midperformed. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 1800s. The period story is beautifully acted Posse (1993-U.S.-British) C-109m. ★★ D: and staged, but the modern story is just the Mario Van Peebles. Mario Van Peebles, opposite—full of ludicrous dialogue and arch, Stephen Baldwin, Charles Lane, Tiny affected performances. Based on a novel by A. S. Byatt. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Lister, Jr., Big Daddy Kane, Billy Zane, Blair Underwood, Melvin Van Peebles, Salli Possession of Joel Delaney, The (1972) C-105m. ★★★ D: Waris Hussein. Shirley Richardson, Tone Loc, Pam Grier, Vesta Williams, Isaac Hayes, Robert Hooks, RichMacLaine, Perry King, Lisa Kohane, David ard Jordan, Paul Bartel, Stephen J. CanElliott, Michael Hordern, Miriam Colon, nell, Nipsey Russell, Reginald VelJohnson, Lovelady Powell. Uneven but satisfying Woody Strode, Aaron Neville, Warrington mix of horror and social commentary with and Reginald Hudlin. Noisy, violent, but unsympathetic, affluent Manhattanite Macpolitically correct Western about a mostly Laine threatened by mysterious transblack posse who do battle with a pompous, formations of her brother Joel (King). Offbeat throughout. [R]▼쩠 racist colonel, and a vicious white sheriff who wants to take over a peaceful black Possession of Nurse Sherri, The SEE: Befrontier settlement. Game attempt at a new yond the Living take on the Old West, but at its core it’s Postcards From the Edge (1990) C-101m. ★★★1 thoroughly conventional. Followed by a video ⁄2 D: Mike Nichols. Meryl Streep, sequel, LOS LOCOS: POSSE RIDES Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Quaid, Gene HackAGAIN. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 man, Richard Dreyfuss, Rob Reiner, Mary Posse From Hell (1961) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wickes, Conrad Bain, Annette Bening, Simon Herbert Coleman. Audie Murphy, John Callow, Gary Morton, CCH Pounder, Sidney Saxon, Zohra Lampert, Vic Morrow, Lee Armus, Robin Bartlett, Anthony Heald, Dana Van Cleef. Gunslinger Murphy, a loner, Ivey, Oliver Platt, Michael Ontkean, J.D. agrees to pursue four deadly outlaws after Souther. Brilliantly cinematic rendering of they’ve robbed a bank and kidnapped a Carrie Fisher’s novel about a young woman young woman, but he’s saddled with an infalling prey to drugs while trying to pursue experienced posse. Murphy vehicle is suran acting career—in the shadow of a famous prisingly thoughtful and well written. show-business mother. Vividly real, bitingly Possessed (1931) 76m. ★★★ D: Clarence funny. MacLaine and Streep both have showBrown. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Walstopping musical numbers. Fisher wrote the lace Ford, Skeets Gallagher, John Miljan. screenplay. [R]▼●쩠 Factory girl Crawford becomes the mistress Postman, The (1994-Italian-French) C113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Radford. Massimo of Park Avenue lawyer Gable. Fascinating feminist drama, crammed with symbolism Troisi, Philippe Noiret, Maria Grazia Cuciand featuring a radiant Crawford. Outrageous notta, Linda Moretti, Renato Scarpa. A movpre-Code script by Lenore Coffee.▼쩠 ing film detailing the friendship between Possessed (1947) 108m. ★★★ D: Curtis exiled Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and the Bernhardt. Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, Raysimple Italian man who delivers his mail mond Massey, Geraldine Brooks, Stanley every day. International talents combined to Ridges. Crawford gives fine performance in tell a universal story of how one person can intelligent study of woman whose subtle menaffect another, no matter how different their tal problems lead to ruin. Heflin and Massey life experiences may be. Noiret is masterful as are the men in her life; Brooks, as Massey’s always, and Troisi is understated and unfordaughter, is radiant in her film debut. Also gettable in his final film role; he died of heart shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 disease just 12 hours after the movie finished [ 1091 ]

shooting. Oscar winner for Original Dramatic musicians. Stewart called this his worst movie! Score (Luis Bacalov). Original title: IL POSTLook briefly for Art Carney as a radio INO. ▼●쩠 announcer.▼●쩠 Postman, The (1997) C-177m. ★1⁄2 D: Pourquoi Pas! SEE: Why Not! Kevin Costner. Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Powaqqatsi (1988) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larenz Tate, Olivia Williams, James Russo, Godfrey Reggio. Follow-up to KOYDaniel Von Bargen, Tom Petty, Scott BairsAANISQATSI is a visual collage in which tow, Roberta Maxwell, Joe Santos, Peggy scenes of various cultures around the world Lipton, Giovanni Ribisi, Shawn Hatosy. are edited together to show how Third Long, boring, pretentious allegory about an World societies have been exploited. Beauitinerant performer in the post-apocalyptic tifully photographed, but the result is somefuture who passes himself off as a U.S. mail how shallow—much like a coffee-table piccarrier. In that guise, he personifies hope for ture book—and not nearly as impressive as several isolated communities who’ve been its predecessor. Music is again by Philip beaten down by the cruel tactics of a demaGlass. Followed by NAQOYQATSI. [G] gogue (Patton, in a one-note performance). ▼쩠 A well-meaning (but complete) misfire. Powder (1995) C-111m. ★★ D: Victor That’s Costner’s son in the film’s final shot; Salva. Mary Steenburgen, Sean Patrick one daughter plays a mail carrier, the other Flanery, Lance Henriksen, Jeff Goldblum, sings ‘‘America the Beautiful.’’ Mary StuBrandon Smith, Bradford Tatum, Susan art Masterson appears unbilled. Panavision. Tyrrell, Missy Crider, Ray Wise. Rural teen [R] ▼●쩠 Flanery, whose skin is ghostly white and Postman Always Rings Twice, The whose nickname is Powder, is the local pa(1946) 113m. ★★★★ D: Tay Garnett. Lana riah; he’s scary, shy, brilliant, and seems to Turner, John Garfield, Cecil Kellaway, have electromagnetic powers (and an odd Hume Cronyn, Audrey Totter, Leon Ames, relationship to lightning storms). Suddenly Alan Reed, Wally Cassell. Garfield and he’s thrust into dealing with people and Turner ignite the screen in this bristling prejudices for the first time in his life. Comdrama of lovers whose problems just begin bines a zillion 1950s and 1960s B-movie when they do away with her husband themes (including reform school) into a (Kellaway). Despite complaints of changes contemporary fable. Earnest, but doesn’t add up to very much. [PG-13]▼●쩠 in James M. Cain’s original story (mostly for censorship purposes), the film packs a Power, The (1968) C-109m. ★★★ D: Byron real punch and outshines the more explicit Haskin. George Hamilton, Suzanne Pleshette, 1981 remake. Harry Ruskin and Niven Richard Carlson, Yvonne De Carlo, Earl HolBusch scripted (from Cain’s novel). Filmed liman, Gary Merrill, Ken Murray, Barbara twice before, in France and Italy. Also Nichols, Arthur O’Connell, Nehemiah Pershown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 soff, Aldo Ray, Michael Rennie. Research Postman Always Rings Twice, The (1981) team discovers one of their number is an evil 1 ★ C-123m. ⁄2 D: Bob Rafelson. Jack Nichsuper-genius with powerful ESP abilities who olson, Jessica Lange, John Colicos, Michael starts killing the others one by one. Can HamLerner, Christopher Lloyd, John P. Ryan, ilton identify the man with the power before Anjelica Huston. Exceedingly unpleasant the villain kills him too? Could you ever adaptation of James M. Cain’s Depressiondoubt George Hamilton? Good, underrated era novel about a drifter and a sensual young George Pal production. Panavision. ● woman who conspire to free her from her Power (1986) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Sidney loveless marriage. David Mamet’s screenLumet. Richard Gere, Julie Christie, Gene play may be more faithful to Cain than the Hackman, Kate Capshaw, Denzel Washing1946 version, but who cares? Despite its ton, E. G. Marshall, Beatrice Straight, Fritz much-touted sex scenes (more violent than Weaver, Michael Learned, J. T. Walsh, E. erotic), it’s dreary and forgettable. Moodily Katherine Kerr, Matt Salinger. Slick, sanctiphotographed by Sven Nykvist. [R]▼●쩠 monious story of ruthless political media maPostman’s Knock (1962-British) 87m. nipulator (Gere) who, it turns out, isn’t as smart ★★ D: Robert Lynn. Spike Milligan, Baras he thinks he is. Subject isn’t headline news bara Shelley, John Wood, Miles Malleson, anymore, but this movie treats it that way. Downright embarrassing at times. [R]▼●쩠 Ronald Adam, Wilfrid Lawson. Milligan is an overly efficient postal worker who Power and the Glory, The (1933) 76m. ★★★ upsets the equilibrium of the London post D: William K. Howard. Spencer Tracy, office—and some ambitious thieves. ScatColleen Moore, Ralph Morgan, Helen Vintered laughs in this heavy-handed comedy.쩠 son. Considered by many a precursor to Pot o’ Gold (1941) 86m. ★★ D: George CITIZEN KANE, Preston Sturges’ script Marshall. James Stewart, Paulette Goddard, tells rags-to-riches story of callous indusHorace Heidt, Charles Winninger, Mary trialist (Tracy) in flashback. Silent-star Moore Gordon, Jed Prouty. Very minor item about gives sensitive performance as Tracy’s wife. harmonica-playing, music-mad Stewart, and Power of One, The (1992) C-111m. ★★ his experiences with a band of struggling D: John G. Avildsen. Stephen Dorff, Armin [ 1092 ]

Mueller-Stahl, Morgan Freeman, John Gielgud, Fay Masterson, Marius Weyers, Tracy Brooks Swope, John Osborne, Daniel Craig. Precisely what you’d expect when the director of ROCKY and THE KARATE KID tackles a movie about apartheid. Rah-rah mawkishness tells of a white South African lad who promotes integration by getting into the boxing ring with his oppressed black buddies. Offensive trivialization of a great subject, but at least the first half offers Freeman and Mueller-Stahl as the youth’s mentors; when they’re written out of the script in hour two, film becomes an ordeal to watch. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Power Play (1978-Canadian-British) C102m. ★1⁄2 D: Martyn Burke. Peter O’Toole, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasence, Barry Morse, Jon Granik. Story of a military coup in a country that looks vaguely European but where everybody sounds British or Canadian. Flat, unsuspenseful drama. Aka OPERATION OVERTHROW. ▼쩠 Powerpuff Girls, The (2002) C-74m. ★★ D: Craig McCracken. Voices of Catherine Cavadini, Tara Strong, E. G. Daily, Roger L. Jackson, Tom Kane, Tom Kenny, Jennifer Hale. Heavy-handed expansion of the clever (and cleverly designed) animated TV series about three little girls, created by a well-meaning scientist, who have superhuman powers . . . and the evil, power-hungry Mojo Jojo, who tries to take over their city and terrorize its citizens. Fun ingredients of the series give way to violence and mayhem here. A Jimmy Durante caricature is an alltoo-brief novelty. Preceded by a funny Dexter’s Laboratory short subject. [PG] ▼쩠 P.O.W.: Prisoners of War SEE: Secret of Blood Island, The P.O.W. The Escape (1986) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Gideon Amir. David Carradine, Charles R. Floyd, Mako, Steve James, Phil Brock. Mindless, one-dimensional RAMBO variation, about some American P.O.W.s, headed by Col. Carradine, who battle their way to freedom as Saigon falls to the Commies. Formerly titled BEHIND ENEMY LINES. [R]

Mark Feuerstein. Two sisters grow up under the curse of their ancestor (a woman hanged as a witch): any man whom they truly love is doomed. Free-spirited Kidman ignores the threat and leaves their New England home. Bullock lives with her witchly aunts, all too aware of the prophecy . . . until circumstance brings the sisters back together to work some magic of their own. Extremely likable stars make this watchable, but it’s a lumpy brew. Based on a book by Alice Hoffman. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Practice Makes Perfect (1978-French) C-104m. ★★★ D: Philippe de Broca. Jean Rochefort, Nicole Garcia, Annie Girardot, Danielle Darrieux, Catherine Alric, Lila Kedrova, Jean Desailly. Funny, knowing comedy about bored, self-centered concert pianist, supposedly living ideal life, eventually receiving his retribution. Rochefort is perfectly cast as engaging womanizer.▼ Prairie Home Companion, A (2006) C105m. ★★★ D: Robert Altman. Meryl Streep, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Virginia Madsen, Tommy Lee Jones, Maya Rudolph, Marylouise Burke, L. Q. Jones, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, Tom Keith, The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band. The extended family involved in an oldfashioned radio variety show gathers for a final performance in this bit of whimsy inspired by Keillor’s real-life public radio program of the same name. Characters drift in and out, with vignettes ranging from surreal to slapstick, in a perfect melding of Keillor’s humor and Altman’s signature staging of ensemble scenes that seem both effortless and spontaneous. Fans will enjoy seeing performers and musicians who appear regularly on the weekly radio show. Keillor’s first screenplay; Altman’s final film. HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 Prancer (1989) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Hancock. Sam Elliott, Rebecca Harrell, Cloris Leachman, Rutanya Alda, Abe Vigoda, Ariana Richards, Michael Constantine. Eight-year-old farm girl Harrell, ▼● Powwow Highway (1989-British) C-90m. who marches to her own beat—and whose ★★★ D: Jonathan Wacks. Gary Farmer, A widowed father (Elliott) is knuckling under to Martinez, Amanda Wyss, Joanelle Romero, financial pressure—nurses a wounded reinSam Vlahos, Wayne Waterman, Margo deer she believes is one of Santa’s own. While Kane, Graham Greene, Wes Studi. Big, it occasionally is a bit too obvious and cute, amiable Cheyenne, on a ‘‘medicine’’ jourit’s a charming fantasy about a child’s undyney to New Mexico in a beat-up Buick, ing devotion to an animal. Followed by a gives a lift to a lifelong friend, an Indian direct-to-video sequel. [G] ▼●쩠 activist. Not a totally successful film, but Prayer for the Dying, A (1987-BritishU.S.) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Mike Hodges. unusual and satisfying, with a standout performance by Farmer, an immensely likable Mickey Rourke, Bob Hoskins, Alan Bates, actor who makes his character both enSammi Davis, Christopher Fulford, Liam Neeson, Alison Doody. Ponderous adaptadearing and ennobling. [R]▼쩠 Practical Magic (1998) C-104m. ★★ D: tion of Jack Higgins’ novel about an IRA Griffin Dunne. Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidhit man (Rourke, with a dubious Irish acman, Aidan Quinn, Stockard Channing, Dicent) who can’t escape his chosen calling, anne Wiest, Chloe Webb, Goran Visnjic, even when he tries to. Hoskins is badly misEvan Rachel Wood, Alexandra Artrip, cast as a priest who becomes entangled with [ 1093 ]

Rourke, while Bates chews it up as a flamRuben Blades, Maria Conchita Alonso, Bill Paxton, Kevin Peter Hall, Robert Davi, Adam boyant racketeer who doubles as a mortician. Baldwin, Kent McCord, Calvin Lockhart. Heavy going all the way. [R]▼●쩠 Fast-paced (if too derivative) sequel, minus Prayer of the Rollerboys (1991) C-94m. ★★1 Arnold. This time, cop Glover and cronies ⁄2 D: Rick King. Corey Haim, Patricia take on the title alien in 1997 L.A. Good Arquette, Christopher Collet, Julius Harris, production design and lots of hit-’em-acrossDevin Clark, Mark Pellegrino, Morgan Weisthe-face action, but don’t look for anything ser, Jake Dengel, J.C. Quinn. To save his kid resembling inventive dialogue or character debrother, orphan Haim goes undercover and velopment. Then again, you wouldn’t expect joins the Rollerboys, a gang of high-powered, either from a film with Morton Downey, Jr., racist-fascist punks whose leader (Collet) in its cast. Followed by ALIEN VS. PREDAmight be the great-grandson of Hitler. Set in a TOR. [R] ▼●쩠 future America in which anarchy and homePrefontaine (1997) C-106m. ★★ D: Steve lessness reign; provocative idea weakened by James. Jared Leto, R. Lee Ermey, Ed needlessly excessive violence—and a painO’Neill, Amy Locane, Lindsay Crouse, fully predictable ending. [R]▼●쩠 Laurel Holloman, Breckin Meyer, Brian Preacher’s Wife, The (1996) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 McGovern, Kurtwood Smith. Peter Anthony D: Penny Marshall. Denzel Washington, Jacobs. Steve Prefontaine, an athlete from Whitney Houston, Courtney B. Vance, GregCoos Bay, Oregon, attends college, where he ory Hines, Jennifer Lewis, Lionel Richie, Jusexcels in running, eventually going to the Mutin Pierre Edmund, Shari Headley, Cissy nich Olympics. Well-intentioned but TVHouston, Paul Bates, Loretta Devine, Toukie movie-like biopic fails to reveal why the Smith. Appropriately old-fashioned remake of runner is remembered today. Seems end1947’s THE BISHOP’S WIFE concerns a less, but well acted. Story also told in semi-addled angel sent down here to assist a WITHOUT LIMITS. [PG-13]▼●쩠 personally and professionally troubled clergyPrehistoric Women (1967-British) C-91m. man only to become smitten with the latter’s ★1⁄2 D: Michael Carreras. Michael Latimer, lovely spouse. Much too leisurely and long, Martine Beswick, Edina Ronay, Carol White, but a notable showcase for its stars, and a rare John Raglan, Stephanie Randall, Steven Bercontemporary Christmas movie to recapture koff. Idiotic Hammer adventure in which Great the spirit of vintage holiday classics. With White Hunter stumbles into lost Amazon civiHouston as the wife, the gospel numbers have lization where blondes have been enslaved by zing. [PG]▼●쩠 brunettes. Honest! Nevertheless, this does 1 ★ Preaching to the Choir (2006) C-103m. ⁄2 have a cult following, due to Beswick’s comD: Charles Randolph-Wright. Billoah Greene, manding, sensual performance as the tribe’s Darien Sills-Evans, Novella Nelson, Eartha leader. Released in Britain as SLAVE Kitt, Janine Green, Patti LaBelle, Adewale GIRLS, at 74m. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Marva Hicks, Tichina Prehistoric World SEE: Teenage Cave Arnold, Tim Reid, Ben Vereen. Amateurish Man movie aspires to be rousing entertainment but Prehysteria (1993) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Albert fails to rouse you out of your slumber in beBand, Charles Band. Brett Cullen, Colleen tween gospel numbers. Almost nonexistent Morris, Samantha Mills, Austin O’Brien, plot deals with the lifelong rivalry of two Tony Longo, Stuart Fratkin, Stephen Lee. A brothers, one a rap star named Zulu, the other family of raisin farmers (!) tries to protect a Harlem Baptist preacher. When Zulu’s life five unusual critters their dog has hatched is threatened due to bad business dealings, from eggs she stole from a greedy entrepretheir divergent paths cross in this hip-hop spirneur. An idea that will enchant children of itual comedy-musical. Nice to see Kitt still all ages—pet dinosaurs the size of cats— getting work, however. [PG-13]쩠 overcomes a routine script. Followed by Predator (1987) C-107m. ★★★ D: John two sequels. From Full Moon. [PG]▼● McTiernan. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Prelude to a Kiss (1992) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 Weathers, Elpidia Carrillo, Bill Duke, Jesse D: Norman Rene´. Alec Baldwin, Meg Ventura, Sonny Landham, Richard Chaves, Ryan, Kathy Bates, Ned Beatty, Patty R.G. Armstrong, Shane Black, Kevin PeDuke, Sydney Walker, Stanley Tucci, Richter Hall. Schwarzenegger and his superard Riehle, Rocky Carroll, Annie Golden. SWAT-team-for-hire are assigned by the It’s love at first sight for Baldwin and U.S. to a delicate rescue mission in South Ryan, and soon they’re wed—but on their American jungle . . . but Arnold and his men honeymoon, he gets the strange feeling soon find themselves battling a faceless, she’s not the person he fell in love with. ferocious enemy that’s picking them off one Winningly acted romantic comedy turns by one. Solid, suspenseful action film takes very, very odd, with a plot twist that’s time getting started, but emerges a grabber. hard to swallow, and even harder to find Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 endearing. A game attempt by all, includPredator 2 (1990) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steing featured character actor Walker. Craig phen Hopkins. Danny Glover, Gary Busey, Lucas adapted his own play, with Baldwin [ 1094 ]

re-creating his original N.Y. stage role and Heston would again play ‘‘Old Hickory’’ five years later in THE BUCCANEER. ▼ Walker repeating the part he played on Presidio, The (1988) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: tour. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Peter Hyams. Sean Connery, Mark HarPrelude to Murder SEE: Dressed to Kill mon, Meg Ryan, Jack Warden, Mark Blum, (1946) Dana Gladstone, Jenette Goldstein, Don Premature Burial, The (1962) C-81m. ★★ D: Roger Corman. Ray Milland, Hazel Calfa. San Francisco cop Harmon investigates a murder that took place on local military Court, Richard Ney, Heather Angel, Alan base, and clashes with an old nemesis, the Napier, John Dierkes. Title tells the story presidio’s chief provost Connery—whose in another of Corman’s Poe adaptations, daughter he’s attracted to. Strictly formula with Milland oddly cast as medical student stuff, though slickly done, with some good with phobia of accidental entombment. LavS.F. chase scenes. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ish (for this series), but not one of director’s Press for Time (1966-British) C-102m. best. Panavision.▼●쩠 ★★ D: Robert Asher. Norman Wisdom, Premonition, The (1976) C-94m. ★★ D: Angela Browne, Derek Bond, Derek FranRobert Allen Schnitzer. Sharon Farrell, Richcis. Bumbling son of a commoner is sent ard Lynch, Jeff Corey, Ellen Barber, Edby his government minister granddad to ward Bell. Muddled script works against work as a reporter on a provincial newseerie atmosphere in this supernatural tale paper. Wisdom has fun doing three roles; that stresses parapsychology as clue to infectious musical score by Mike Vickers.쩠 young girl’s disappearance. Mediocre rePressure Point (1962) 91m. ★★★ D: Husults. Filmed in Mississippi. [PG]▼쩠 bert Cornfield. Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, Premonition (2007) C-97m. ★★ D: Mennan Peter Falk, Carl Benton Reid, Mary MunYapo. Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, day, Barry Gordon, Howard Caine. IntelNia Long, Kate Nelligan, Courtney Taylor ligent drama, with Poitier the prison psyBurness, Shyann McClure, Amber Valletta, chiatrist trying to ferret out the problems Peter Stormare, Jude Ciccolella. Bullock is of his Nazi patient (Darin). Based on a true a standard-issue perfect housewife and case from Dr. Robert M. Lindner’s The mother who suddenly seems to be experiFifty-Minute Hour.▼쩠 encing another reality: she awakens to alterPrestige, The (2006) C-130m. ★★ D: Chrisnating universes every other day or so. Can topher Nolan. Hugh Jackman, Christian she convince everyone that husband McMaBale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Rebecca hon is in peril—or is she just losing her Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie, mind? Whatever Hitchcock could have Andy Serkis, Roger Rees, Ricky Jay, Eddone with this genre thriller is not apparent ward Hibbert, Daniel Davis, Christopher here, and neither Bullock nor the script are Neame. Airless, cheerless story of two maup to the task. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 gicians in London at the turn of the 20th Presenting Lily Mars (1943) 104m. ★★ century and how their rivalry develops into D: Norman Taurog. Judy Garland, Van an unhealthy obsession. Somehow Nolan Heflin, Fay Bainter, Richard Carlson, (who coscripted with his brother Jonathan, Spring Byington, Marta Eggerth, Marilyn from Christopher Priest’s novel) has manMaxwell, Ray McDonald, Leonid Kinskey, aged to make a film about magic and illuConnie Gilchrist, Bob Crosby, Tommy sion without a sense of wonder—or a drop Dorsey. Well, there she is, and there lies of humor. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 the script. Stale story of determined girl Presumed Innocent (1990) C-127m. ★★★ getting big chance on Broadway only comes D: Alan J. Pakula. Harrison Ford, Brian alive when Judy sings. From a Booth Dennehy, Raul Julia, Bonnie Bedelia, Paul Tarkington novel.▼●쩠 Winfield, Greta Scacchi, John Spencer, President’s Analyst, The (1967) C-103m. Joe Grifasi, Tom Mardirosian, Anna Ma★★★★ D: Theodore J. Flicker. James Coburn, ria Horsford, Sab Shimono, Christine Godfrey Cambridge, Severn Darden, Joan Estabrook, Michael Tolan, Jeffrey Wright. Delaney, Pat Harrington, Will Geer, WilSolid, well-cast screen version of Scott Turliam Daniels. Totally nutty, brilliantly maow’s crackling best-seller about a prosecuneuvered satire of many sacred cows, tor assigned to investigate the murder of a as Coburn is pursued by half the government sexy assistant prosecutor with whom he’d when he quits title job. The ending is a had an affair. Soon, he’s charged with the beauty. Screenplay by the director. Beware murder himself! Slow going at times, film edited video version. Panavision.▼●쩠 misses its potential for greatness but still President’s Lady, The (1953) 96m. ★★★ D: delivers many powerful moments. ScreenHenry Levin. Charlton Heston, Susan Hayplay by Pakula and Frank Pierson. [R] ward, John McIntire, Fay Bainter, Carl Betz. ▼●쩠 Heston as Andrew Jackson and Hayward the Preˆt-a`-Porter SEE: Ready to Wear lady with a past he marries work well toPretty Baby (1978) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: gether in this fictional history of 1800s Louis Malle. Keith Carradine, Susan SaranAmerica, based on the Irving Stone novel. don, Brooke Shields, Antonio Fargas, Fran[ 1095 ]

ces Faye, Gerrit Graham, Mae Mercer, O’Neill. Oddball arsonist Perkins enlists Diana Scarwid, Barbara Steele. Malle’s aid of sexy high-schooler Weld for scheme first American film is beautifully mounted he’s hatching, but soon discovers that she’s but distressingly low-keyed story of marriage got stranger notions than he does! Bright between a 12-year-old New Orleans prostitute screenplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. (from and an older photographer, set around time Stephen Geller’s novel, She Let Him Conof WW1. Shields is striking in title role, but tinue), sparked by Weld’s vivid performance. [R]▼쩠 Carradine is pretty lifeless. Designed and cowritten (with Malle) by Polly Platt; photoPretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996-Yugoslavian) C-125m. ★★★ D: Srdjan Dragojevic. graphed by Sven Nykvist. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ Pretty in Pink (1986) C-96m. D: Dragan Bjelogrlic, Nikola Pejakovic, VeliHoward Deutch. Molly Ringwald, Jon mir Bata Zivojinovic, Dragan Maksimovic. Cryer, Andrew McCarthy, Harry Dean Biting allegorical anti-war drama about two Stanton, Annie Potts, James Spader, Alexa young men, one Muslim, the other Serbian, Kenin, Andrew ‘‘Dice’’ Clay, Margaret who came of age together as best pals (deColin, Gina Gershon, Dweezil Zappa, picted in poignant flashbacks) and now find Kristy Swanson. A high school have-not themselves on opposite sides in the Bosnian finds herself in a quandary when one of the civil war—and inexorably heading toward ‘‘richies’’ asks her out; her fellow outcast a confrontation.▼쩠 and fanatical devotee (Cryer) isn’t too Pretty Woman (1990) C-117m. ★★★ D: happy, either. Credible look at growing Garry Marshall. Richard Gere, Julia Robpains by writer-producer John Hughes, erts, Ralph Bellamy, Jason Alexander, nicely acted, if a bit slow and self-serious. Laura San Giacomo, Hector Elizondo, Alex Stanton, as Molly’s dad, has never been so Hyde-White, Elinor Donahue, Larry Miller, tender on screen! [PG-13]▼●쩠 Jane Morris. Surprisingly successful variaPrettykill (1987) C-95m. BOMB D: tion on an old formula: wealthy, coldGeorge Kaczender. David Birney, Season blooded business tycoon Gere chances to Hubley, Susannah York, Yaphet Kotto, meet Hollywood Boulevard hooker RobSuzanne Snyder, Sarah Polley. Noxious exerts. He hires her to be his companion for a ploitation film about down on his luck cop week, spruces her up, and—well, you can and his girlfriend/hooker enmeshed in a figure out the rest. Light, charming, and case of a slasher who preys on prostitutes. thoroughly entertaining, with Roberts a Snyder gives an overwrought performance delight in a star-making role. Director’s cut runs 124m. [R]▼●쩠 as a sweet young thing with a dual personality (she lapses into her southern fried incesPrey for Rock & Roll (2003) C-103m. ★★1 tuous father’s voice at times!). [R]▼● ⁄2 D: Alex Steyermark. Gina Gershon, Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971) C-92m. Drea de Matteo, Marc Blucas, Shelly Cole, ★★★ Ivan Martin, Lori Petty, Sandra Seacat, AshD: Roger Vadim. Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Telly Savalas, John David Carley Drane, Shakara Ledard, Eddie Driscoll, son, Roddy McDowall, James Doohan, Texas Terri. All-femme grunge band fights Keenan Wynn, Amy (Aimee) Eccles, Barhard for its big break while enduring unrelentbara Leigh. Silly but enjoyable black ing personal tragedies. Star-producer Gercomedy; high school guidance-counselor/ shon’s feral, strikingly tattooed performance coach Hudson advises frustrated Carson in grounds the otherwise predictably gritty prosexual matters, while school is plagued ceedings. Based on an autobiographical with murders of pretty female students. play by West Coast musician-artist Cheri Written and produced by Gene RoddenLovedog. [R] ▼쩠 berry. [R] ▼ Price Above Rubies, A (1998) C-117m. ★★1 Pretty Persuasion (2005) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: Boaz Yakin. Rene´e Zellweger, Marcos Siega. Evan Rachel Wood, Ron Christopher Eccleston, Glenn Fitzgerald, Livingston, James Woods, Jane Krakowski, Allen Payne, Julianna Margulies, Kathleen Elisabeth Harnois, Selma Blair, Danny Chalfant, Edie Falco, John Randolph, Kim Comden, Robert Joy, Jaime King, Michael Hunter, Phyllis Newman. An unhappy HaHitchcock. Superficial, self-satisfied snipe sidic housewife in N.Y.C. yearns for sexual at privileged Beverly Hills kids and their liberation and the freedom to pursue a camessed-up parents, as seen through an unreer. This had critics divided, but offers a enlightening portrait of a teenage psychotruly three-dimensional heroine, and Zellpath (Evan Rachel Wood) who destroys weger is convincing. Worth a look for those everyone with whom she comes into conwho seek mature, alternative fare. [R]▼쩠 tact. Glib, just like Woods’ portrayal of the Priceless (2006-French) C-106m. ★★★ D: girl’s scummy, bigoted father. There’s no Pierre Salvadori. Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaone to root for in this poisonous cast of leh, Marie-Christine Adam, Vernon Dobtcheff, Jacques Spiesser. Charming comedy characters. Panavision. [R] 쩠 ★★★ Pretty Poison (1968) C-89m. set in the south of France, where a beautiful D: Noel Black. Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, gold digger (Tautou) mistakes a bartender Beverly Garland, John Randolph, Dick (Elmaleh) for a wealthy hotel guest and [ 1096 ]

sleeps with him. When her sugar daddy longtime lover Kenneth Halliwell in 1967. finds out, he dumps her, and the guileless Stunning performances by Oldman (as Elmaleh learns that he hasn’t a chance with Orton), Molina (as the tormented Halliwell), Tautou because he’s a poor working stiff. and Redgrave (as Orton’s agent) make up for Amusing and surprising twists follow in this some lags in Alan Bennett’s script. Unflinchentertaining yarn, which gives us a vicariing look at homosexuality in England during ous taste of how the super-rich enjoy the the ’50s and ’60s (when it was a crime), but good life in Biarritz. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 film offers no insight into Orton’s great theatPriceless Beauty (1988-Italian) C-97m. rical success. [R]▼●쩠 ★★ D: Charles Finch. Christopher LamPride (2007) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sunu Gonbert, Diane Lane, Francesco Quinn, J. C. era. Terrence Howard, Bernie Mac, KimQuinn, Claudia Ohana, Monica Scattini, berly Elise, Tom Arnold, Brandon Fobbs, Joaquin D’Almeida. Reclusive former rock Alphonso McAuley, Regine Nehy, Nate star, consumed by guilt over his brother’s Parker, Kevin Phillips, Scott Reeves, Evan death, finds a magic lamp in the ocean and Ross, Gary Anthony Sturgis. Howard plays inside it a beautiful genie who tries to real-life Philadelphia swim coach Jim Ellis, rebuild his self-esteem and capacity to who in the 1970s tried to turn around the love. Mediocre romance (starring then-reallives of some inner-city teenagers. Straightlife husband and wife Lambert and Lane) forward sports biopic has few surprises but struggles to be whimsical. [R]▼● keeps the cliche´s and preaching to a miniPrice of Freedom, The SEE: Operation mum. Howard (who coexecutive produced) Daybreak and Mac make charismatic leads. Evan Price of Glory (2000) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ross, who plays Reggie, is the son of Diana Ross. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Carlos Avila. Jimmy Smits, Jon Seda, Clifton Collins, Jr. (Clifton Gonzales GonzaPride and Glory (2008) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: les), Maria del Mar, Sal Lopez, Louis Gavin O’Connor. Edward Norton, Colin Mandylor, John Verea, Paul Rodriguez, Farrell, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich, JenniRon Perlman. Boxing saga centered around fer Ehle, John Ortiz, Shea Whigham, Frank a Latino family with Smits pushing his three Grillo, Lake Bell, Rick Gonzalez, Wayne Dusons toward a success that eluded him in vall, Carmen Ejogo, Ramon Rodriguez. Saga his fighting days. Earnest performances, and of a N.Y.C. police family that’s strained to some good action in the ring, but plays like the breaking point. Norton, assigned to a spea TV movie. [PG-13] ▼쩠 cial task force investigating the slaughter of Price of Milk, The (2000-New Zealand) four cops, discovers that his brother (EmC-87m. ★★ D: Harry Sinclair. Danielle merich) and brother-in-law (Farrell) were Cormack, Karl Urban, Willa O’Neill, Micomplicit. No earth-shattering surprises in chael Lawrence, Rangi Motu. On a New this brutal film, which plays out ritualistiZealand dairy farm, a happy bride-to-be starts cally, like an opera, but the drama is still doubting her loving fiance´. Things get even potent and the performances first-rate. weirder when she accidentally crashes her car Voight is especially good as the family painto an old Maori woman who survives withtriarch. [R]쩠 out a scratch. For a while this daffy fairy tale Pride and Prejudice (1940) 118m. ★★★★ plays like a cross between Bun˜uel and the D: Robert Z. Leonard. Greer Garson, LauBrothers Grimm but doesn’t sustain itself. rence Olivier, Edna May Oliver, Edmund Guaranteed to test your whimsy quotient. FeaGwenn, Mary Boland, Maureen O’Sullivan, turing a lush soundtrack by the Moscow SymKaren Morley, Melville Cooper, E. E. phony Orchestra. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Clive, Ann Rutherford, Marsha Hunt. OutPrice of Sugar, The (2007) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 standing adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel D: Bill Haney. Narrated by Paul Newman. about five husband-hunting sisters in 19thInteresting if overlong documentary offers century England. Excellent cast, fine pean admiring portrait of Father Christopher riod flavor in classic comedy of manners; Hartley, a priest who champions Haitian Aldous Huxley was one of the screenwritworkers employed on sugar plantations in ers. Cedric Gibbons and Paul Groesse’s art the Dominican Republic. Hartley comes direction deservedly earned an Oscar. Also across as equal parts compassionate saint shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 and smooth operator as he challenges a sysPride & Prejudice (2005-British) C-128m. ★★★ tem that sustains a repressive form of virtual D: Joe Wright. Keira Knightley, Matthew slavery. Newman’s measured narration is Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Suthereffectively understated.쩠 land, Tom Hollander, Judi Dench, Rosamund Prick Up Your Ears (1987-British) C-108m. Pike, Jena Malone, Kelly Reilly, Simon ★★★ D: Stephen Frears. Gary Oldman, Alfred Woods, Penelope Wilton, Rupert Friend. ViMolina, Vanessa Redgrave, Wallace Shawn, brant version of Jane Austen’s novel about Julie Walters, James Grant, Frances Barber, five sisters whose mother is desperate to see Lindsay Duncan, Janet Dale. Chillingly realisthem married off, and the reaction of Elizatic and evocative look at young British playbeth, the most independent-minded of the wright Joe Orton, who was murdered by his bunch, to a man she initially despises. Purists [ 1097 ]

will wince at liberties taken, but director Keith, Jorge Rivero, John Gielgud, Sarah Wright and screenwriter Deborah Moggach Miles. Literate account of the last years of have fashioned a lively romance with an D. H. Lawrence (McKellen)—‘‘the one earthy atmosphere not usually found in such who writes the dirty books’’—highlighted adaptations. Cast is tops, with Knightley enby his relationship with his wife (Suzman) chanting as Elizabeth, Macfadyen an estimaand the publication of Lady Chatterley’s ble Mr. Darcy. Ending revised for U.S. Lover. Slow moving but rewarding; 11 release. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 years earlier, Miles directed the screen Pride and the Passion, The (1957) Cversion of Lawrence’s THE VIRGIN AND THE GYPSY. [R]▼ 132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Kramer. Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren, Theodore Bikel, Priest’s Wife, The (1971-Italian-French) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Dino Risi. Sophia Loren, John Wengraf. Miscast actioner involving capture of huge cannon by British naval offiMarcello Mastroianni, Venantino Venantini, cer (Grant) in 19th-century Spain. Spectacle Jacques Stany, Pippo Starnazza, Augusto scenes—filmed on location—are impressive; Mastrantoni. Barely entertaining mixture but most of the film is ridiculous. From the of drama and humor with Loren as disilluC.S. Forester novel. VistaVision.▼●쩠 sioned singer who thinks she can convince 1 ★★ ⁄2 Pride of St. Louis, The (1952) 93m. priest (Mastroianni) to obtain release from D: Harmon Jones. Dan Dailey, Joanne his vow of celibacy and marry her. WeightDru, Richard Crenna, Hugh Sanders, Richier handling of subject matter can be heard ard Hylton, James Brown. Dailey does on radio talk shows; film seems designed well in this otherwise formula biography merely as vehicle for two stars. [PG] of brash, colorful Hall of Fame pitcher Primal Fear (1996) C-129m. ★★★ D: GregDizzy Dean. Watch for Chet Huntley as a ory Hoblit. Richard Gere, Laura Linney, baseball broadcaster.▼ John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McPride of the Marines (1945) 119m. ★★★1⁄2 Dormand, Edward Norton, Terry O’Quinn, D: Delmer Daves. John Garfield, Eleanor Andre Braugher, Steven Bauer, Joe Spano, Parker, Dane Clark, John Ridgely, RoseTony Plana, Stanley Anderson, Maura Tiermary DeCamp, Ann Doran, Ann Todd, ney, Jon Seda. Hotshot Chicago attorney Warren Douglas. Solid acting by Warner defends an altar boy accused of brutally Bros. stock company enhances true account murdering a much-loved archbishop—even of Marine blinded during Japanese attack, though all evidence seems to point to the with Garfield as injured Al Schmid, Clark young man’s guilt. Gere gives a solid peras sympathetic buddy. Screenplay by Alformance in one of his very best roles, as a bert Maltz.쩠 cocky lawyer who—for once—doesn’t have Pride of the Yankees, The (1942) 127m. all the answers. Newcomer Norton is also ★★★★ D: Sam Wood. Gary Cooper, Teresa very impressive. Film loses some of its imWright, Babe Ruth, Walter Brennan, Dan pact by going on too long and by following Duryea, Ludwig Stossel, Addison Richunrelated story tangents. Still, an intelligent, ards, Hardie Albright. Superb biography of absorbing drama. [R] ▼●쩠 baseball star Lou Gehrig, with Cooper Primary Colors (1998) C-143m. ★★★1⁄2 D: giving excellent performance; fine support Mike Nichols. John Travolta, Emma Thompfrom Wright as devoted wife. Truly memson, Kathy Bates, Adrian Lester, Billy Bob orable final sequence. Script by Jo Swerling Thornton, Maura Tierney, Larry Hagman, and Herman J. Mankiewicz, with OscarDiane Ladd, Paul Guilfoyle, Caroline Aaron, winning editing by Daniel Mandell. Also Rob Reiner, Ben Jones, Mykelti Williamson, shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Bonnie Bartlett, Tony Shalhoub, Allison JanPriest (1994-British) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Anney. Dynamic adaptation of political roman tonia Bird. Linus Roache, Tom Wilkinson, a` clef by Anonymous (Joe Klein) about a Cathy Tyson, Robert Carlyle, James Ellis, Southern governor’s Presidential race—and Lesley Sharp, Robert Pugh, Christine Trean idealistic staffer (Lester) who sees in him marco, Paul Barber, Rio Fanning. Provocaboth a true believer in people power and an tive drama about a man of the cloth who insatiable womanizer who’ll do anything to finds himself caught between sacred vows cover his tracks. Travolta is extraordinarily and his own personal beliefs, in particular good in a Bill Clinton–esque characterizahis closeted homosexuality. Deft blend of tion, and Nichols has cast every part around melodrama and tract that manages to deal him with an unerring eye. Bates is a powerwith homosexuality, abuse, incest, and the house as Travolta’s longtime political conpolitics of the Church with incisive rescience and troubleshooter. Smart, funny, sults—and even a dark sense of humor. foul-mouthed screenplay by Elaine May. Flawlessly acted. Written by Jimmy Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 McGovern. Originally shown at 105m. and Prime (2005) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ben Younger. trimmed for U.S. release. [R]▼●쩠 Meryl Streep, Uma Thurman, Bryan GreenPriest of Love (1981-British) C-125m. berg, Jon Abrahams, Zak Orth, Annie Parisse, ★★★ D: Christopher Miles. Ian McKellen, Doris Belack, Jerry Adler. A newly divorced Janet Suzman, Ava Gardner, Penelope 37-year-old woman embarks on a relation[ 1098 ]

ship with a 23-year-old man, unaware that jerky editing in the frequent action scenes. Loosely based on real events. Super 35. [R]쩠 he is the son of her longtime therapist. Cute comedy has funny and romantic moments, Primrose Path (1940) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregbut never quite catches fire. Bolstered by ory La Cava. Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, the performances of Streep and especially Marjorie Rambeau, Miles Mander, Henry Thurman, who has never been looser or Travers. Girl from wrong side of the tracks more appealing on-screen. Written by the falls in love with ambitious young McCrea; director. [PG-13] ▼쩠 starts engagingly, drifts into dreary soap Prime Cut (1972) C-86m. ★★★ D: Michael opera and melodramatics. Rambeau is excellent as Ginger’s prostitute mother.▼ Ritchie. Lee Marvin, Gene Hackman, Angel Tompkins, Gregory Walcott, Sissy Spacek, Prince & Me, The (2004) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 Janit Baldwin. Mob hijinks at a Kansas D: Martha Coolidge. Julia Stiles, Luke City slaughterhouse inspire well-cast, fastMably, Ben Miller, Miranda Richardson, moving, tongue-in-cheek trash that fans of James Fox, Eliza Bennett, Alberta Watson, sleazy crime melodramas should love. John Bourgeois. Wisconsin farm girl with Spacek’s first film. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 big plans is attracted to a handsome exchange Prime Gig, The (2001) C-97m. ★★ D: student who stumbles into her life . . . little Gregory Mosher. Vince Vaughn, Julia Ordreaming that he is the Prince of Denmark. mond, Ed Harris, Rory Cochrane, Wallace Amiable modern-day fairy tale goes on Shawn, Stephen Tobolowsky, George longer than it should given its formulaic Wendt, Jeannetta Arnette. Successful telenature, but the two leads are engaging and marketer Vaughn is recruited by Harris for attractive. Followed by two DVD sequels. his boiler-room operation and becomes ro[PG] ▼쩠 mantically involved with Ormond. InterestPrince and the Great Race SEE: Bush ing look at scam artists, but Vaughn’s Christmas ambivalent character flattens the film’s draPrince and the Pauper, The (1937) 120m. ★★★1 matic tension instead of heightening it. ⁄2 D: William Keighley. Errol Flynn, Good performances help. U.S. debut on Billy and Bobby Mauch, Claude Rains, Alan Hale, Montagu Love, Henry Stephencable TV. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, The (1969) son, Barton MacLane. Rousing filmization C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ronald Neame. Maggie of Mark Twain’s story of young look-alikes, Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, one a mistreated urchin, the other a prince, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson, Jane Carr. exchanging places. Top-billed Flynn, cast Oscar-winning showcase for Smith as ecas the boys’ rescuer, doesn’t appear until centric teacher in Edinburgh school who around the midway point. Great music score wields a spellbinding influence on her by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Remade as ‘‘girls.’’ Remarkable character study, CROSSED SWORDS. Also available in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 adapted by Jay Presson Allen from stage version of Muriel Spark’s novel; filmed Prince and the Pauper, The (1978) SEE: on location. Smith and Stephens were then Crossed Swords real-life husband and wife. Later remade Prince and the Showgirl, The (1957) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Laurence Olivier. Marias a TV miniseries. [M/PG]▼쩠 Primer (2004) C-78m. ★★★ D: Shane Carlyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thornruth. Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey dike. Jeremy Spenser, Richard Wattis. Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie CrawThoughtful but slow-moving comedy of ford. Quirky, original sci-fi thriller about a saucy American showgirl Monroe being couple of young corporate engineers (Carromanced by Prince Regent of Carpathia ruth, Sullivan) whose lives are altered when (Olivier) during the 1911 coronation of they accidentally invent a time-travel conGeorge V. Filmed in England, with detraption. Shot on a budget of 35¢ (actually lightful performances by Monroe and $7,000), and loaded with ideas and imaginaOlivier. Script by Terence Rattigan from tion; occasionally bogs down in technical his play The Sleeping Prince.▼●쩠 jargon, but still well worth watching—and Prince Jack (1984) C-100m. ★★ D: Bert pondering. Carruth also scripted, produced, Lovitt. Robert Hogan, James F. Kelly, edited, wrote the score, and was cocinemaKenneth Mars, Lloyd Nolan, Cameron tographer. [PG-13]쩠 Mitchell, Robert Guillaume, Theodore Primeval (2007) C-93m. ★★ D: Michael Bikel, Jim Backus, Dana Andrews. Yet Katleman. Dominic Purcell, Brooke Langton, another chronicle of life among the KenOrlando Jones, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Gideon nedys, here focusing mainly on the men Emery, Gabriel Malema, Linda Mpondo. and their personalities. Superficial at American reporters reluctantly trek to Africa best.▼ to capture a huge man-eating crocodile the Prince of Darkness (1987) C-110m. locals call Gustave, and become embroiled BOMB D: John Carpenter. Donald Pleasence, in a local war. Peculiar blend of JAWS and Lisa Blount, Jameson Parker, Victor Wong, a BLOOD DIAMOND–like subplot has its Dennis Dun, Susan Blanchard, Anne Howmoments, but is mostly routine, with herkyard, Alice Cooper. The anti-God entombs [ 1099 ]

wayward son Satan in a cannister of glop in an abandoned L.A. church; it’s up to priest Pleasence and the grad students of prof Wong to clean up the mess. Not for nothing is the religious sect involved called ‘‘Brotherhood of Sleep.’’ Panavision. [R]

sen. Emotionally powerful story (which unfortunately is true) about a cop in a N.Y.C. special investigations unit who blows the whistle on department corruption but finds himself more a victim than a hero. Standout performances by Williams, fellow cop Orbach, weasely prosecutor ▼●쩠 Prince of Egypt, The (1998) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 Tolkan, but film’s extreme length hurts D: Brenda Chapman, Steve Hickner, Simon overall impact; there are more details than Wells. Voices of Val Kilmer, Ralph Fienreally necessary to tell the story. Script by nes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Lumet and Jay Presson Allen. [R]▼●쩠 Goldblum, Danny Glover, Patrick Stewart, Prince of Tides, The (1991) C-132m. ★★★ Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, Martin Short. D: Barbra Streisand. Nick Nolte, Barbra Animated retelling of the story of Moses Streisand, Blythe Danner, Kate Nelligan, features some of the most spectacular aniJeroen Krabbe´, Melinda Dillon, George mation in the history of the medium, draCarlin, Jason Gould, Brad Sullivan. Nolte matic staging, and an ambitious song score is both compelling and believable as a man by Stephen Schwartz . . . but the parts are who keeps a lifetime of harrowing memogreater than the whole, and the story drags ries bottled up inside—until he’s forced to at times. An impressive achievement, but spill them to a psychiatrist in order to help liable to test the endurance of young chilsave his suicidal sister. How much you dren. Features Oscar-winning song ‘‘When like (or believe) Streisand’s performance You Believe.’’ Followed on video by JOas the doctor may affect your feelings about SEPH: KING OF DREAMS. [PG]▼●쩠 the film, but she’s certainly managed to Prince of Foxes (1949) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: tell a good story, rich in emotion. Gould Henry King. Tyrone Power, Wanda Hen(son of Streisand and Elliott Gould) plays drix, Orson Welles, Marina Berti, Everett Barbra’s teenage son. Screenplay by Pat Sloane, Katina Paxinou. Lavish, incrediConroy and Becky Johnston, from Conroy’s bly handsome costume epic of Renaissancesprawling novel. [R]▼●쩠 era Italy (filmed on location), with adventurer Princess and the Pirate, The (1944) Power defying all-powerful Cesare Borgia. C-94m. ★★★ D: David Butler. Bob Hope, Story elements—from Samuel Shellabarger Virginia Mayo, Walter Slezak, Walter novel—don’t match impact of Leon ShamBrennan, Victor McLaglen, Hugo Haas, roy’s sumptuous cinematography.쩠 Marc Lawrence. One of Bob’s wackiest; Prince of Pennsylvania, The (1988) he and glamorous Virginia are on the lam C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ron Nyswaner. Fred from pirate McLaglen, trapped by potentate Ward, Keanu Reeves, Bonnie Bedelia, Amy Slezak. Brennan is hilarious as a pirate; great closing gag, too. ▼●쩠 Madigan, Jeff Hayenga, Tracey Ellis. Extremely quirky character comedy of free Princess and the Warrior, The (2000spirit Reeves (with a strange half-Mohawk German) C-130m. ★★ D: Tom Tykwer. hairdo) ‘‘finding’’ himself while battling Franka Potente, Benno Furmann, Joachim with his equally wacko dad (Ward, in a marKrol, Marita Breuer, Jurgen Tarrach, Lars velous performance). Madigan is excellent Rudolph. Odd, off-putting fable about a as the older woman whom Reeves ronurse in a psychiatric hospital who has a mances; in-joke has her dressing up in a fateful encounter with a deeply troubled exFreddy Krueger mask for a fake kidnapsoldier and can’t get him out of her mind. ping. Writer Nyswaner (SMITHEREENS) Long, slow, sometimes downright silly. turns director; many striking scenes unfortuFilm’s occasional arresting images linger nately fail to grip as a whole. [R]▼●쩠 long after the story’s illogicality is forgotPrince of Players (1955) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 ten. Tykwer also scripted and collaborated D: Philip Dunne. Richard Burton, Maggie on the highly effective score. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 McNamara, Raymond Massey, Charles Bickford, John Derek, Eva Le Gallienne, Princess Bride, The (1987) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Mae Marsh, Sarah Padden. Burton is 19thD: Rob Reiner. Cary Elwes, Mandy Patincentury actor Edwin Booth, embroiled in kin, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, more offstage drama than on. ShakespearWallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, Fred ean excerpts thrown in; well performed by Savage, Robin Wright, Peter Falk, Peter earnest cast. Derek plays John Wilkes Cook, Carol Kane, Billy Crystal, Mel Booth. Script by Moss Hart. CinemaScope. Smith. Revisionist fairy tale/adventure about Prince of the City (1981) C-167m. ★★★ a beautiful young woman and her one true D: Sidney Lumet. Treat Williams, Jerry love, who must find and rescue her after a Orbach, Richard Foronjy, Don Billett, long separation. Some wonderful scenes Kenny Marino, Carmine Caridi, Bob Balaand character vignettes are periodically ban, James Tolkan, Lindsay Crouse, Matundermined by a tendency toward comic thew Laurance, Lee Richardson, Lane shtick (as in Crystal’s cameo appearance) Smith, Peter Michael Goetz, Lance Henrikand occasional incoherency (as in the open[ 1100 ]

ing scenes with Castilian-tongued Patinkin 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hayao Miyazaki. Voices of and marble-mouthed Andre the Giant). Best Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, of all: the swashbuckling sequences. Bonus Billy Bob Thornton, Gillian Anderson, Jada for old-movie buffs: watching Guest, as Count Pinkett Smith. Extraordinary animated Rugen, imitate Henry Daniell (from THE fable, full of astonishing sights; while the SEA HAWK). Screenplay by William Goldstory is difficult to follow at times, it’s man, from his novel. [PG]▼●쩠 worth the effort. Wounded by a dying boar Princess Caraboo (1994–U.S.-British) Cgod, a young man tries to get help from a 96m. ★★★ D: Michael Austin. Phoebe Cates, forest spirit. He’s aided by a girl who lives Jim Broadbent, Wendy Hughes, Kevin with wolf-gods, and opposed by a shrewd Kline, John Lithgow, Stephen Rea, Peter woman who is devoted to technology. Eyre, Jacqueline Pearce, Roger Lloyd Pack, Writer-director Miyazaki largely created his John Wells, John Lynch. Pleasing fairy tale– own mythology, and raises worthy queslike yarn about young ‘‘mystery woman’’ tions about mankind’s place in the natural Cates who is believed to be a princess from world. Complex, thoughtful animated movie a distant land, and is taken in by a wellaimed at adults rather than children. [PGmeaning British lady (Hughes) in the early 13]▼쩠 1800s. Based on a true story, believe it or Princess O’Rourke (1943) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: not; handsomely made, acted with gusto by Norman Krasna. Olivia de Havilland, Roba first-rate cast. Ideal family entertainment. ert Cummings, Charles Coburn, Jack CarPhotographed by the great Freddie Francis. son, Jane Wyman, Harry Davenport, Gladys [PG]▼●쩠 Cooper. Very dated comedy starts charmPrincess Comes Across, The (1936) 76m. ingly with pilot Cummings falling in love ★★★ with Princess de Havilland, bogs down in no D: William K. Howard. Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Douglass Dumbrille, longer timely situations, unbearably coy finale Alison Skipworth, William Frawley, Porinvolving (supposedly) F.D.R. himself. Krasna ter Hall, Sig Ruman, Mischa Auer. Lomwon Best Screenplay Oscar.쩠 bard, posing as royalty on ocean voyage, Princess Yang Kwei Fei (1955-Japanese) meets romantic MacMurray; together they C-91m. ★★★★ D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Machiko are involved in whodunit. And Fred sings Kyo, Masayuki Mori, So Yamamura, Eitaro ‘‘My Concertina.’’ Delightful blend of comShindo, Sakae Ozawa. Emperor Mori takes edy and mystery.▼쩠 country girl Kyo as his concubine. He is Princess Diaries, The (2001) C-115m. ★1⁄2 forced out of power by his greedy family: D: Garry Marshall. Julie Andrews, Anne she is killed, and he worships her statue. Hathaway, Hector Elizondo, Heather MaBreathtakingly beautiful, poetic love story/ fable/tragedy.▼ tarazzo, Mandy Moore, Caroline Goodall, Robert Schwartzman, Erik Von Detten, PatPrince Valiant (1954) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: rick Flueger, Sandra Oh, Mindy Burbano. Henry Hathaway. James Mason, Janet High school oddball/ugly duckling learns Leigh, Robert Wagner, Debra Paget, Sterling she’s a princess from her royal grandmother Hayden, Victor McLaglen, Donald Crisp, and blossoms under extensive tutelage (and Brian Aherne. Hal Foster’s famed comiceyebrow plucking). Cute premise is squanstrip character is the hero of this cardboard dered by a script that goes in a hundred costumer decked out in 20th Century-Fox directions—none of them remotely genuine— splendor, battling and loving in Middle Ages and never seems to end. Hathaway is appealEngland. Script by Dudley Nichols. CinemaScope.▼쩠 ing, Andrews’ touch of class is more than welcome, but the film is an ordeal. Larry Prince Who Was a Thief, The (1951) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph Mate´. Tony CurMiller appears unbilled. Based on a novel by Meg Cabot. Followed by a sequel. [G] ▼쩠 tis, Piper Laurie, Everett Sloane, Jeff Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Corey, Betty Garde. Juvenile costumer with Curtis fighting to regain his rightful The (2004) C-115m. ★1⁄2 D: Garry Marshall. Anne Hathaway, Julie Andrews, Hecseat on the throne; sparked by enthusiastic tor Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, John performances. Principal, The (1987) C-109m. ★★ D: Rhys-Davies, Chris Pine, Callum Blue, Kathleen Marshall, Raven Symone, Tom Christopher Cain. James Belushi, Louis Poston, Larry Miller, Caroline Goodall, Gossett, Jr., Rae Dawn Chong, Michael Spencer Breslin, Elinor Donahue, Paul WilWright, J.J. Cohen, Esai Morales, Troy liams. Unnecessary sequel to the 2001 hit Winbush. Following some drunken vanhas our plucky princess set to rule the kingdalism on his estranged spouse’s car, schooldom of Genovia only to find, thanks to one teacher Belushi is ‘‘promoted’’ to top job of the film’s many gimmicks, she must be at the district’s most crime-ridden school. married to assume the throne. A series of Unlikely mix of comedy and drama benesitcom scenarios played out over two hours. fits from likable performances and a reasonBrightened by the presence of Andrews and ably tense HIGH NOON finale between a game supporting cast. [G] ▼쩠 Belushi and the school’s leading thug. [R]▼●쩠 Princess Mononoke (1997-Japanese) C[ 1101 ]

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert SEE: Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Prison (1988) C-102m. ★★ D: Renny Harlin. Lane Smith, Viggo Mortensen, Chelsea Field, Andre De Shields, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Ivan Kane. The spirit of a prisoner who was executed 20 years ago seeks revenge on his one-time guard— who’s now the warden (Smith). OK special effects and location atmosphere are strongest assets of this cliche´d horror film. [R]

assi. Usual costume shenanigans: an evil count imprisons a man who has proof of the nobleman’s treachery. Based not on the expected Dumas novel, but on his Ten Years After. D’Artagnan and The Three Musketeers do not appear. Techniscope. Prisoner of the Mountains (1996-Russian) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sergei Bodrov. Oleg Menshikov, Sergei Bodrov, Jr., Jemal Sikharulidze, Susanna Mekhralieva, Alexei Jharkov. Simple, devastating account of two Russian soldiers captured by Chechen rebels and held in an impoverished mountain▼● Prisoner, The (1955-British) 91m. ★★★ D: top village. Film is based on a Tolstoy Peter Glenville. Alec Guinness, Jack Hawstory, but seems more pertinent in its preskins, Raymond Huntley, Wilfrid Lawson. ent-day setting. Director’s son portrays Grim account of cardinal in Iron Curtain the younger of the two prisoners, an imcountry undergoing grueling interrogation. pressionable soldier barely out of school. Guinness-Hawkins interplay is superb.▼쩠 Catch this one. ▼●쩠 Prisoner of Paradise (2003-CanadianPrisoner of War (1954) 80m. ★★ D: AnBritish-German-U.S.) C/B&W-96m. ★★★1⁄2 drew Marton. Ronald Reagan, Steve ForD: Malcolm Clarke, Stuart Sender. Narrated rest, Dewey Martin, Oscar Homolka, Robby Ian Holm. Fascinating documentary about ert Horton, Paul Stewart, Harry Morgan, Kurt Gerron, a popular German performer Stephen Bekassy. Sincere but two-dimenand filmmaker of the 1920s and ’30s (best sional drama exposing mistreatment of remembered as the nightclub owner in THE American POWs during Korean War. BLUE ANGEL) who stayed in Europe too Prisoner of Zenda, The (1937) 101m. ★★★★ D: John Cromwell. Ronald Colman, long and wound up at the ‘‘model’’ concentration camp in Theresienstadt, where he Madeleine Carroll, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., was commissioned to make one final moC. Aubrey Smith, Raymond Massey, Mary tion picture—for the Nazis. Extraordinary Astor, David Niven, Montagu Love, Alfootage from the period is augmented by exander D’Arcy. Lavish costume romance/ a handful of equally compelling interviews adventure with excellent casting; Colman with surviving friends and colleagues.쩠 is forced to substitute for lookalike cousin, Prisoner of Second Avenue, The (1975) King of Ruritanian country, but commoner C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Melvin Frank. Jack Colman falls in love with regal Carroll. Lemmon, Anne Bancroft, Gene Saks, ElizFairbanks nearly steals the show as villainabeth Wilson, Florence Stanley, M. Emous Rupert of Hentzau. Screenplay by John met Walsh. Neil Simon walks a tightrope L. Balderston, from Anthony Hope’s novel. between comedy and melancholia, and Previously filmed in 1914 and 1922, then never falls, thanks to warm performances again in 1952 and 1979. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 by Lemmon, as suddenly unemployed executive who has a nervous breakdown, and Prisoner of Zenda, The (1952) C-101m. ★★1 Bancroft, as his understanding wife. Look ⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Stewart Granger, for Sylvester Stallone as an alleged pickDeborah Kerr, Jane Greer, Louis Calhern, pocket, F. Murray Abraham as a cabbie. Lewis Stone, James Mason, Robert DougPanavision. [PG]▼●쩠 las, Robert Coote. Plush but uninspired Prisoner of Shark Island, The (1936) remake of the Anthony Hope novel, chron95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Warner Baxter, icling the swashbuckling adventures of Gloria Stuart, Claude Gillingwater, John Granger, a dead ringer for a small EuroCarradine, Harry Carey, Arthur Byron, pean country’s king. Stick with the Ronald Ernest Whitman, Francis McDonald. ExcelColman version; this one copies it scene lent film based on true story of Dr. Samuel for scene.▼●쩠 Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth’s Prisoner of Zenda, The (1979) C-108m. broken leg after Lincoln assassination and BOMB D: Richard Quine. Peter Sellers, was sentenced to life imprisonment. GripLynne Frederick, Lionel Jeffries, Elke ping story; Baxter superb, Carradine memoSommer, Gregory Sierra, Jeremy Kemp, rable as villainous sergeant, Whitman fine Catherine Schell. Famous swashbuckler is as Baxter’s black comrade. Scripted by played for laughs, but there aren’t any. Nunnally Johnson. Remade as HELLGATE A return to the kind of picture that helped and the TV movie THE ORDEAL OF DR. to destroy Sellers’ career. [PG]▼ MUDD.쩠 Prisoners of the Sun (1991-Australian) CPrisoner of the Iron Mask, The (1962109m. ★★★ D: Stephen Wallace. Bryan 1 ★★ Italian) C-80m. Brown, George Takei, Terry O’Quinn, John ⁄2 D: Francesco De Feo. Michael Lemoine, Wandisa Guida, Bach, Toshi Shioya, John Clarke, Deborah Andrea Bosic, Jany Clair, Giovanni MaterUnger, Russell Crowe. Gritty, gripping [ 1102 ]

post-WW2 drama, set on an Indonesian island where the Japanese had established a POW camp for Australian flyers. The war has ended, and truth-seeking military lawyer Brown must deal with bureaucracy, politics, and clashing cultures as he sets out to prosecute different Japanese charged with mistreating and murdering POWs. Incisive, well-acted tale. Aka BLOOD OATH. [R]

bumbling Scotland Yard sleuths—and Abbott and Costello incarnate—in this silly, well-mounted murder-in-an-old-dark-house mystery. One of the better Conway-Knotts comedies. [PG]▼●쩠 Private Fears in Public Places SEE: Coeurs Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, The (1977) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Cohen. Broderick Crawford, Dan Dailey, Jose ▼●쩠 Private Affairs of Bel Ami, The (1947) Ferrer, Rip Torn, Michael Parks, Raymond 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Albert Lewin. George St. Jacques, Ronee Blakley, Celeste Holm, Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Ann Dvorak, Howard da Silva, June Havoc, John Marley, Frances Dee, Albert Basserman, Warren Andrew Duggan, Lloyd Nolan. Sleazy bio of William, John Carradine. Delicious, literformer FBI chief makes for great camp with ate adaptation (by Lewin) of Guy de Mauits all-star lineup of real-life politicians—not passant’s ‘‘story of a rogue.’’ Sanders, who to mention that cast! [PG]▼ gets ahead by using his charm on prominent Private Function, A (1985-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Malcolm Mowbray. Michael Palin, women, denies himself the real love of Lansbury. Fine performances; beautifully photoMaggie Smith, Liz Smith, Denholm Elgraphed by Russell Metty.▼ liott, Richard Griffiths, John Normington, Private Benjamin (1980) C-110m. ★★★ Bill Paterson, Peter Postlethwaite. Droll, D: Howard Zieff. Goldie Hawn, Eileen very British comedy by Alan Bennett set in Brennan, Armand Assante, Robert Webber, post-WW2 England, where food rationing Sam Wanamaker, Barbara Barrie, Mary is still in force and a contraband pig beKay Place, Harry Dean Stanton, Albert comes the center of attention. Often funny, Brooks, Hal Williams, P. J. Soles, Sally but also cynical and cruel. Smith is hilarious Kirkland, Richard Herd, Gretchen Wyler, as the social-climbing wife of milquetoasty Craig T. Nelson. A bubbleheaded Jewish podiatrist Palin. [R]▼쩠 American Princess enlists in the Army, Private Hell 36 (1954) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don and after a disastrous initiation finds direcSiegel. Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howtion and self-esteem for the first time in ard Duff, Dean Jagger, Dorothy Malone. her life. Entertaining comedy with more Well-balanced account of guilt overcoming substance than one might expect; Goldie is two cops who retrieve stolen money but keep terrific in this tailor-made vehicle (which some for themselves. Interesting low-budgeter she produced). Later a TV series. [R] with first-rate cast, but gets awfully talky in the second half. Lupino also wrote and pro▼●쩠 duced the film with Collier Young.▼● Private Confessions (1997-Swedish) C127m. ★★★ D: Liv Ullmann. Pernilla AuPrivate Lessons (1981) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: gust, Max von Sydow, Samuel Froler, Anita Alan Myerson. Sylvia Kristel, Howard Bjork, Vibeke Falk, Thomas Hanzon. IntiHesseman, Eric Brown, Pamela Bryant, mate, compassionate autobiographical drama Ed Begley, Jr., Crispin Glover. Male ado(an extension of THE BEST INTENTIONS) lescent from wealthy family finds sexual scripted by Ingmar Bergman, which further delight with the maid, unaware that she examines the stormy relationship between has other plans for him. Surprise boxhis parents: a strict, detached Lutheran minoffice hit is pretty mild piece of sleaze. ister (Froler) and a dynamic, restless woman Written by humorist Dan Greenburg (who caught in an unhappy marriage (August). also appears as a desk clerk). Followed by Von Sydow brilliantly plays a fatherly an in-name-only sequel 13 years later. [R]▼●쩠 priest. An exploration of religion, faith, and loneliness. Edited from a Swedish TV Private Life of Henry VIII, The (1933miniseries.▼ British) 97m. ★★★★ D: Alexander Korda. Private Duty Nurses (1971) C-80m. Charles Laughton, Binnie Barnes, Robert BOMB D: George Armitage. Kathy CanDonat, Elsa Lanchester, Merle Oberon, non, Joyce Williams, Pegi Boucher, JoMiles Mander, Wendy Barrie, John Loder. seph Kaufmann, Herbert Jefferson, Jr., Sweeping historical chronicle of 16th-century Paul Hampton, Paul Gleason. Second of English monarch, magnificently captured Roger Corman’s five ‘‘nurse’’ pictures is by Oscar-winning Laughton in a multifacthe worst. Glum and humorless, it spends eted performance. Lanchester fine as Anne more time on then-new waterbeds than in of Cleves, with top supporting cast. Also the hospital; dull cast doesn’t help. Folshown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 lowed by NIGHT CALL NURSES. [R]▼쩠 Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Private Eyes, The (1980) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 (1970) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Billy Wilder. D: Lang Elliott. Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely, Genevieve Trisha Noble, Bernard Fox, John Fujioka, Page, Irene Handl, Stanley Holloway, Fred Stuthman. Conway and Knotts are Christopher Lee, Clive Revill. Atypical [ 1103 ]

but extremely personal Wilder film takes melancholy look at famed sleuth. Acting, photography, and score are tops in neglected film whose reputation should soar in future years. Intended as a 31⁄2-hour film; some deleted material can be seen on the DVD. Made in England. Panavision. [PG]

Betty Thomas. Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Mary McCormack, Fred Norris, Paul Giamatti, Gary Dell’Abate, Jackie Martling, Carol Alt, ‘‘Stuttering John’’ Melendez, Allison Janney, Michael Murphy, Reni Santoni, Edie Falco. Horatio Alger–like saga of radio phenomenon Howard Stern, who only ▼●쩠 achieves success on the air when he starts Private Lives (1931) 84m. ★★★ D: Sidney giving vent to his most outrageous ideas. This Franklin. Norma Shearer, Robert Montgompits him against one station management after ery, Una Merkel, Reginald Denny, Jean another. Highly entertaining, even to nonHersholt. Sparkling, witty adaptation of the Stern listeners, and evidence that (as Stern Noel Coward comedy about a divorced couhas said all along) he’s actually an ordinary ple (Shearer and Montgomery) who marry guy; the rest is a performance. Stern’s realothers and find themselves honeymooning life wife (at the time) plays an NBC switchat the same hotel.▼●쩠 board operator. [R]▼●쩠 Private Lives of Adam and Eve, The Private Property (2007-French-Belgian(1960) C/B&W-87m. BOMB D: Albert Luxembourg) C-95m. ★★★ D: Joachim LaZugsmith, Mickey Rooney. Mickey Rooney, fosse. Isabelle Huppert, Je´re´mie Renier, Mamie Van Doren, Fay Spain, Mel Torme, Yannick Renier, Kris Cuppens, Raphae¨lle Martin Milner, Tuesday Weld, Cecil KellaLubansu, Patrick Descamps. Huppert, bitway, Paul Anka, Ziva Rodann. Perfectly terly divorced, lives in a large Belgian farmawful fantasy about a stranded Nevada couhouse with her slacker twin sons, and is ple, Ad (Milner) and Evie (Van Doren), who openly sexual in their presence. Emotions dream that they are back in the Garden of flare when she decides to sell the house and Eden. Rooney chews the scenery as the Devil. open a bed-and-breakfast. Edgy study of exPrivate Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, treme dysfunction is provocative and feaThe (1939) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael tures Huppert as yet another character who Curtiz. Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Olivia de is psychologically unhinged.쩠 Havilland, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, VinPrivate Resort (1985) C-85m. BOMB D: cent Price, Henry Stephenson, Henry George Bowers. Rob Morrow, Johnny Depp, Daniell, James Stephenson, Ralph Forbes, Hector Elizondo, Dody Goodman, Tony Robert Warwick, Leo G. Carroll. ColorAzito, Emily Longstreth, Karyn O’ Bryan, ful, elaborate costume drama with outHilary Shapiro, Michael Bowen, Andrew standing performance by Davis as queen (Dice) Clay. Imbecilic sex comedy about a whose love for dashing Flynn is thwarted. couple of young fellows on the make at a Not authentic history, but good drama. resort hotel. Notable only for its two upNorman Reilly Raine and Aeneas Macand-coming stars. [R]▼●쩠 Kenzie adapted Maxwell Anderson’s Private School (1983) C-97m. BOMB D: play Elizabeth the Queen. Adult film Noel Black. Phoebe Cates, Betsy Russell, debut of Nanette Fabray (Fabares). Aka Matthew Modine, Michael Zorek, Fran ELIZABETH THE QUEEN. ▼쩠 Ryan, Julie Payne, Ray Walston, Sylvia Private Navy of Sgt. O’Farrell, The (1968) Kristel. Raunchy teenage hijinks at a C-92m. BOMB D: Frank Tashlin. Bob girls’ school, with ample nudity but no Hope, Phyllis Diller, Jeffrey Hunter, Gina brains in sight. Even voyeurs might have a Lollobrigida, Mylene Demongeot, John hard time sloshing through this heavyMyhers, Mako. Hope tries to import some handed, amateurish ‘‘comedy.’’ [R]▼●쩠 beautiful nurses to improve his men’s moPrivates on Parade (1982-British) Crale, gets Diller instead. Of the many terrible 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Blakemore. John Hope comedies of the 1960s, this may be the Cleese, Denis Quilley, Nicola Pagett, Patworst. Unfunny and offensive. [G]▼쩠 rick Pearson, Michael Elphick. Uneven adPrivate Parts (1972) C-87m. ★★★ D: Paul aptation of Peter Nichols’ British play about Bartel. Ann Ruymen, Lucille Benson, LauSADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit, South rie Main, John Ventantonio. Truly perEast Asia), based in Singapore in the late verse black-comedic suspense film about ’40s. Quilley is an aging queen who directs runaway teenage girl staying at her aunt’s and stars in their camp shows, Cleese his strange hotel where occupants are extremely thick-witted commander. Some funny musiweird. There’s a series of murders but the cal numbers mix awkwardly with satire— focus is more on sexual eccentricities and unexpected drama. [R] ▼●쩠 including voyeurism, narcissism, and transPrivate’s Progress (1956-British) 99m. vestism. If Andy Warhol’s CHELSEA ★★★ D: John Boulting. Richard AttenboGIRLS had been codirected by Alfred rough, Jill Adams, Dennis Price, TerryHitchcock and John Waters it would come Thomas, Ian Carmichael, Peter Jones, close to this directorial debut by Bartel. Christopher Lee. Prize collection of funny Clearly not for every taste. [R]▼쩠 Private Parts (1997) C-109m. ★★★ D: men, splendidly played by cast, involved in [ 1104 ]

★★★ Army shenanigans. Sequel: I’M ALL D: Mark Robson. Richard Widmark, RIGHT JACK.▼ Mai Zetterling, Nigel Patrick, Donald Private War of Major Benson, The (1955) Wolfit, Eric Pohlmann. Taut caper in postC-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Hopper. Charlton WW2 Berlin involving a planned heist of Heston, Julie Adams, William Demarest, gold from the air lift circuit. Tim Hovey, Sal Mineo, David Janssen, Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, The Tim Considine, Milburn Stone. Hovey is (2005) C-99m. ★★★ D: Jane Anderson. Julithe little boy at military school who charms anne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Laura rugged commander-turned-schoolmaster HesDern, Trevor Morgan, Ellary Porterfield, ton into sympathetic person. Remade as Simon Reynolds, Nora Dunn. Midwestern MAJOR PAYNE (1995).▼ woman raises ten kids in the 1950s, repeatPrivilege (1967-British) C-101m. ★★★ D: edly keeping the wolf from the door by winPeter Watkins. Paul Jones, Jean Shrimpton, ning slogan contests. Not a slice of rosyMarc London, Max Bacon, Jeremy Child. hued Americana but a pointed, often heartOverambitious yet effective account of 1970s rending look at a woman with indomitable England where all-powerful welfare state spirit who kept her family together in spite of manipulates masses through such media as her loose-cannon, ne’er-do-well husband and pop singers. Jones is good as disillusioned the condescending attitude of the men around teen-age idol.쩠 her. Moore is completely believable as the Prix de Beaute´ (1930-French) 94m. ★★1⁄2 can-do supermom; Harrelson is equally good D: Augusto Genina. Louise Brooks, Jean as her loving but self-destructive spouse. Bradin, Georges Charlia, Gaston Jacquet, Anderson adapted Terry Ryan’s memoir. A. Nicolle. Brooks is the whole show in [PG-13] 쩠 this, her first sound film (and last major Prizzi’s Honor (1985) C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: screen role). The story may be cliche´d—a John Huston. Jack Nicholson, Kathleen melodrama in which she’s cast as a typist Turner, Anjelica Huston, Robert Loggia, who becomes a beauty queen—but Brooks William Hickey, John Randolph, Lee Richis as lovely and sensuous as ever. The ardson, Michael Lombard, Lawrence Tierfinal sequence is truly memorable. Rene´ Clair, ney, Joseph Ruskin, Stanley Tucci. Delioriginally scheduled to direct, had a hand cious, very offbeat black comedy about a in the script. Aka MISS EUROPE.▼쩠 slow-witted hit man from a close-knit Mafia Prize, The (1963) C-136m. ★★★ D: Mark family who gets more than he bargained for Robson. Paul Newman, Elke Sommer, Edwhen he falls in love with Turner. Nicholward G. Robinson, Diane Baker, Kevin son is a joy to watch, matched by a superlaMcCarthy, Micheline Presle, Leo G. Cartive cast (Randolph is a treat as his father). roll. Irving Wallace novel is mere stepping Huston wrings every drop of irony from stone for glossy spy yarn set in Stockholm, Richard Condon and Janet Roach’s wry involving participants in Nobel Prize cerescreenplay (based on Condon’s novel). mony. Newman and Sommer make handBeautifully photographed by Andrzej Bartsome leads; Robinson has dual role. Fastkowiak. Anjelica Huston won Best Supportmoving fun; script by Ernest Lehman. ing Actress Oscar for her sly performance, directed by her father. [R]▼●쩠 Panavision.▼ Prize Fighter, The (1979) C-99m. ★★ D: Problem Child (1990) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Preece. Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Dennis Dugan. John Ritter, Michael OliDavid Wayne, Robin Clarke, Cisse Camver, Jack Warden, Amy Yasbeck, Gilbert eron, Mary Ellen O’Neill. If you like Knotts Gottfried, Michael Richards. Botched comic and Conway, you’ll probably get through twist on THE BAD SEED has Ritter as an this lame, kiddie-oriented comedy about a unlucky father who adopts devil-child Olidumb boxer and his smart-aleck manager, ver. A promising opening leads nowhere set in the 1930s. [PG]▼쩠 as bad performances and crude jokes Prizefighter and the Lady, The (1933) prevail. Followed by a sequel, a TV movie, ★★★ and an animated TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 102m. D: W. S. Van Dyke. Myrna Loy, Max Baer, Otto Kruger, Walter Problem Child 2 (1991) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Huston, Jack Dempsey, Primo Carnera, Jess Brian Levant. John Ritter, Michael Oliver, Willard, James J. Jeffries. Entertaining Jack Warden, Laraine Newman, Amy film breathes life into potential cliche´s; Yasbeck, Ivyann Schwan, Gilbert Gottfried, real-life boxing champ Baer plays a prizePaul Willson, Charlene Tilton, James fighter who falls for high-class gangster’s Tolkan, Martha Quinn. The sequel no one moll Loy. Exciting prizefight finale.● asked for has Ritter adopting a second Prize of Arms, A (1961-British) 105m. demon-child, this one female and hell-bent ★★1⁄2 D: Cliff Owen. Stanley Baker, Tom to give her stepbrother a run for his money. Bell, Helmut Schmid, John Phillips. HinAny parent who lets an impressionable dered by heavy British accents ruining child watch this stuff ought to have his or much dialogue, tale unfolds methodical plan her head examined! Followed by a 1995 for big heist of Army funds. TVM sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Prize of Gold, A (1955-British) C-98m. Prodigal, The (1955) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1105 ]

Richard Thorpe. Lana Turner, Edmund Purdom, James Mitchell, Louis Calhern, Audrey Dalton, Neville Brand, Taina Elg, Cecil Kellaway, Henry Daniell, Walter Hampden, Joseph Wiseman. Juvenile biblical semi-spectacle, with Turner the evil goddess of love corrupting Purdom; glossy MGM vehicle. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Producers, The (1968) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mel Brooks. Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Kenneth Mars, Dick Shawn, Lee Meredith, Christopher Hewett, Andreas Voutsinas, Estelle Winwood, Renee Taylor, Bill Hickey. Classic piece of insanity stars incomparable Mostel as hard-luck Broadway producer Max Bialystock, who cons meek accountant Wilder into helping him with outrageous scheme: selling 25,000% of a play that’s certain to flop, then heading to Rio with the excess cash. One of those rare films that gets funnier with each viewing, highlighted by legendary ‘‘Springtime for Hitler’’ production number. Brooks’ first feature earned him an Oscar for his screenplay. Listen for his voice dubbed into ‘‘Springtime for Hitler.’’ Later a Broadway musical, which, in turn, was filmed in 2005.

That version is also on DVD. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 Professional Gun, A SEE: Mercenary, The Professionals, The (1966) C-117m. ★★★ D: Richard Brooks. Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Ralph Bellamy, Claudia Cardinale. Bellamy employs four soldiers-of-fortune to rescue his wife from Mexican varmint Palance. Far-fetched story, but real action, taut excitement throughout; beautifully photographed by Conrad Hall. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Profile of Terror SEE: Sadist, The Profumo di Donna SEE: Scent of a Woman (1974) Program, The (1993) C-114m. ★★ D: David S. Ward. James Caan, Halle Berry, Omar Epps, Craig Sheffer, Kristy Swanson, Abraham Benrubi, Duane Davis, Andrew Bryniarski, Joey Lauren Adams. Ambitious but seriously flawed attempt to examine the problems of college football players, and expose abuses in contemporary university sports programs. Few of the characters are sympathetic, so it’s difficult to care about them or their plight. Notorious for studio deletion, after the film’s opening weeks, of ▼●쩠 a sequence involving jocks lying in the mid★★ Producers, The (2005) C-129m. D: dle of a busy street to prove their manliness. Susan Stroman. Nathan Lane, Matthew BrodThis came after one teenager was killed, and erick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Gary others seriously injured, allegedly imitating Beach, Roger Bart, Eileen Essell, David Hudthe sequence. [R]▼●쩠 dleston, Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, RichProject A (1983-Hong Kong) C-106m. ★★★ ard Kind, Debra Monk, Andrea Martin, D: Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, Brad Oscar. Broadway’s worst producer Samo Hung, Dick Wei, Isabella Wong. teams up with a naı¨ve bookkeeper to make Turn-of-the-century adventure finds Chan money by producing a surefire flop, Springin the Hong Kong coast guard battling pitime for Hitler. Valuable as a reproduction rates, teaming up with cop Yuen and thief of the 2001 Broadway musical with its stars Samo. Fantastic action comedy, with many Lane, Broderick, Beach, Bart (and in a bit moments reminiscent of Chan’s hero, Buster part, Oscar), but suffers as the stage show Keaton. The bicycle chase is a highlight. Condid by padding Brooks’ original 1968 sidered by some to be Chan’s best film. Folscreenplay and softening some of its perlowed by a sequel. Technovision.▼쩠 verse, politically incorrect flavor. First-time Project A, Part II (1987-Hong Kong) Cfilm director Stroman tries to achieve a 108m. ★★★ D: Jackie Chan. Jackie Chan, Broadway feeling, but the result is an odd Maggie Cheung, David Lam, Rosamund hybrid of a stage performance and a movie. Kwan, Carina Lau, Bill Tung Pui. Terrific If you do watch this, stay through the clossequel has Jackie dodging vengeful pirates ing credits. Brooks also dubs the same line from the first film while fighting corrupt in the ‘‘Springtime for Hitler’’ number that officials. Nice mix of farce and jaw-drophe did in the 1968 version. Panavision. ping action. Chan re-creates one of Buster [PG-13]쩠 Keaton’s most famous stunts at the end of Professional, The (1994-U.S.-French) Cthe film. Technovision.▼쩠 ★★ 109m. D: Luc Besson. Jean Reno, Gary Projected Man, The (1967-British) C-77m. ★★ Oldman, Natalie Portman, Danny Aiello, D: Ian Curteis. Bryant Haliday, Mary Ellen Greene. Hit man (Reno) allies with Peach, Norman Wooland, Ronald Allen, alienated young girl (Portman, in her film Derek Farr. Using a teleportation machine debut) and together they battle thugs and something like that in all the FLY movies, cops in N.Y.C. Well-directed U.S. debut for scientist accidentally disfigures himself and Frenchman Besson (LA FEMME NIKITA) gains the touch of death. Not bad but suffers from overly familiar, artificial situaunoriginal. Techniscope. tions and a bizarre, scenery-chewing perforProjectionist, The (1971) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 mance from Oldman. This was rereleased in D: Harry Hurwitz. Chuck McCann, Ina France in 1996 as LEON: VERSION INTEBalin, Rodney Dangerfield, Jara Kohout, GRALE, with 26m. of additional footage. Harry Hurwitz, Robert Staats. Independently [ 1106 ]

made film has ups and downs, but many martial arts. A goddess offers a young girl pearly moments in story of daydreaming (orphaned by a war) a life of wealth and projectionist McCann who envisions himhappiness, but she will lose every man she self a superhero, Captain Flash. Many film falls in love with unless a spell can be reclips imaginatively used: best of all is comversed that would make the dead return and ing-attractions trailer for the end of the snow fall in the spring. Not as easy as it world. [PG]▼쩠 sounds! Extravagantly pictorial fable (stunProject Moon Base (1953) 63m. ★★ D: ningly photographed by Peter Pau) melds Richard Talmadge. Donna Martell, Hayden lofty romance with high-flying martial arts, Rorke, Ross Ford, Larry Johns, Herb Jathough it is often marred by cheesy cobs. In the near future, three people make computer-generated effects and chucklethe first trip to the Moon from the American some overacting. A major box-office hit in space station circling the Earth, but one of Asia. Original running time 128m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 them is an enemy spy. Mediocre acting in this routine but scientifically accurate story. Promise at Dawn (1970-U.S.-French) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jules Dassin. Melina Famed sci-fi writer Robert A. Heinlein cowrote the movie; the low budget shows.▼쩠 Mercouri, Assaf Dayan, Francois Raffoul, Project X (1968) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Despo, Fernand Gravey, Perlo Vita (Jules Castle. Christopher George, Greta Baldwin, Dassin). Seventh teaming of Mercouri and Henry Jones, Monte Markham, Phillip Pine, husband Dassin, who produced, directed, Harold Gould. Offbeat but ultimately unwrote, and also does a bit role as Russian convincing mixture of time travel, biologisilent-film star Ivan Mousjoukine. It’s cal warfare, and psychology in tale of mostly Mercouri’s show, an uneven but future Earth civilization searching for sewell-acted chronicle of the life of writer Rocret germ formula. Their amnesiac secret main Gary and his resourceful actress agent has it; how to get it? mother. Dayan is good as the young adult Project X (1987) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: JonaGary. [PG]▼ than Kaplan. Matthew Broderick, Helen Promised Land (1988) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hunt, Bill Sadler, Johnny Ray McGhee, Michael Hoffman. Jason Gedrick, Kiefer Jonathan Stark, Robin Gammell, Stephen Sutherland, Meg Ryan, Tracy Pollan, Lang, Jean Smart, Dick Miller. Young Googy Gress, Deborah Richter, Sondra Seamilitary foul-up is assigned to top secret cat. Uneven but moody little sleeper, set in lab where he works with chimps—and the rural Northwest, about two casual high soon becomes enraged at the tests they’re school acquaintances whose lives intersect being subjected to. Watchable but patently tragically a couple of years after graduation. predictable story, with a finale vaguely Ryan is a standout as a tattooed, rod-packreminiscent of a 1960s Disney comedy. ing high school hellcat. Aka YOUNG HEARTS. [R]▼●쩠 The chimps (especially Willie, in the role of Virgil) are great, however. [PG]▼●쩠 Promise Her Anything (1966) C-98m. 1⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. Warren Beatty, Les★★ Promise, The (1979) C-98m. BOMB D: Gilbert Cates. Kathleen Quinlan, Stephen lie Caron, Bob Cummings, Hermione Collins, Beatrice Straight, Laurence LuckGingold, Lionel Stander, Keenan Wynn. inbill, William Prince. Boy loves girl. Limp premise of blue-moviemaker (Beatty) Girl loses face in car accident. Boy taking care of neighbor Caron’s baby. thinks girl dead. Girl gets new face from Filmed in England but supposed to be plastic surgeon. Boy falls for old girl’s Greenwich Village; screenplay by William new face. Viewer runs screaming from Peter Blatty. Look for Bessie Love as a room. Panavision. [PG]▼ pet shop customer, Donald Sutherland as Promise, The (1994-German-French-Swiss) a baby’s father.▼ C-119m. ★★★ D: Margarethe von Trotta. Promises (2001) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Justine Corinna Harfouch, Meret Becker, August Shapiro, B.Z. Goldberg, Carlos Bolado. ObZirner, Anian Zollner, Pierre Besson, Hans servant, deeply humanistic documentary Kremer. Pointed account of star-crossed Gerrecords the lives of seven Israeli and Palesman lovers, covering a 30-year time span, tinian children residing in and around Jerubeginning with their separation while trying salem. They live only minutes apart, yet to escape from East to West in 1961. Their their worlds and worldviews are vastly difrelationship mirrors German history during ferent. The highlight: Jewish twin boys this period and serves as a metaphor for a travel to a refugee camp and spend a day divided, and then reunified, nation. Another playing with their Palestinian counterparts. provocative, politically savvy drama from Here, the shared humanity of all the children—which transcends religious and culvon Trotta. [R]▼ Promise, The (2005-Chinese-U.S.) Ctural differences—shines through.▼쩠 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chen Kaige. Dong-Kun Promises in the Dark (1979) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerome Hellman. Marsha Mason, Jang, Hiroyuki Sanada, Cecilia Cheung, Nicholas Tse, Ye Liu, Hong Chen, Cheng Ned Beatty, Susan Clark, Michael BranQian. Odd mixture of fantasy-romance and don, Kathleen Beller, Paul Clemens, Don[ 1107 ]

ald Moffat. Unrelievedly depressing (though at a company retreat. Directorial debut for screenwriter Conrad. Panavision. [R]쩠 well-made) film about young girl (Beller) Proof (1992-Australian) C-91m. ★★★1⁄2 dying of cancer, and her compassionate D: Jocelyn Moorhouse. Hugo Weaving, doctor (Mason). Directorial debut of proGenevieve Picot, Russell Crowe, Heather ducer Hellman. [PG]▼쩠 Mitchell, Jeffrey Walker, Frank Gallacher. Promises! Promises! (1963) 75m. BOMB A blind cynic who impulsively shoots phoD: King Donovan. Jayne Mansfield, Matographs of everything is perversely marie McDonald, Tommy Noonan, Mickey nipulated by the housekeeper who’d like to Hargitay, Fritz Feld, T. C. Jones, Claude bed him; into their circle comes a far less Stroud, Marjorie Bennett, Eddie Quillan, complex dishwasher, who puts a fresh spin Eileen Barton, Imogene Coca. Dreadful on their sicko games. Assuredly made film comedy about couples Mansfield-Noonan is effectively cold, cut to the bone and and McDonald-Hargitay, and their sexual reminiscent of THE SERVANT. Moorshenanigans on a cruise. Notorious in its house also scripted. [R]▼●쩠 day for Jayne’s baring her bod, a first for its Proof (2005) C-99m. ★★★ D: John Madden. time. Still, beware: it is a truly bad movie. Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Mansfield was in real life married to Hargitay; Gyllenhaal, Hope Davis, Roshan Seth. A Noonan coproduced and coscripted.▼쩠 woman who cared for her father—a brilliant Prom Night (1980-Canadian) C-91m. ★★ mathematician and professor who went D: Paul Lynch. Leslie Nielsen, Jamie Lee crazy—during the last years of his life now Curtis, Casey Stevens, Antoinette Bower, questions her own sanity. Her meddlesome Robert Silverman. Killer menaces teens who sister wants her to move out of the family were responsible for the death of a little girl home and distance herself from the past, six years earlier. Not the worst of its type, while one of her father’s prote´ge´s is digging but that’s nothing to brag about. Remade in through his papers to find any hidden gems name only in 2008. Followed by several (or proofs) among his work. David Auburn’s sequels. [R]▼●쩠 challenging, provocative, and cerebral play (a Prom Night II SEE: Hello Mary Lou: Pulitzer Prize winner) is well translated to film Prom Night II by director Madden, with fine performances Prom Night (2008) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nelall around; adapted by Auburn and Rebecca son McCormick. Brittany Snow, Scott PorMiller. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ter, Jessica Stroup, Dana Davis, Collins Proof of Life (2000) C-136m. ★★1⁄2 D: Taylor Pennie, Kelly Blatz, James Ransone, BriHackford. Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, David anne Davis, Idris Elba, Mary Mara, Ming Morse, Pamela Reed, David Caruso, Anthony (Ming-Na) Wen, Jessalyn Gilsig, Linden Heald, Stanley Anderson, Gottfried John, Ashby, Johnathon Schaech. Three years after Alun Armstrong, Michael Kitchen, Margo a homicidally obsessive teacher (Schaech) Martindale. Entertaining if all-too-familiar murdered her family, a lovely high-schooler soap-opera/thriller set in Latin America. (Snow) is stalked by an unwanted admirer on Hostage-negotiator-for-hire Crowe comes to the night of her senior prom. A nominal the assistance of frantic wife Ryan when her remake of the post-HALLOWEEN slasher idealistic engineer husband is kidnapped by film, this better-than-average teen-skewing a cutthroat band of political ideologuesthriller relies on minimal graphic violence turned-drug lords. Caruso almost steals the to sustain suspense. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 film as a fellow negotiator. Super 35. [R] Promoter, The (1952-British) 88m. ★★★ ▼쩠 D: Ronald Neame. Alec Guinness, Glynis Prophecy (1979) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: John Johns, Valerie Hobson, Petula Clark, EdFrankenheimer. Talia Shire, Robert Foxward Chapman. Charming comedy about a worth, Armand Assante, Richard Dysart, likable but penniless young man who sees Victoria Racimo. Classical musician and how to get ahead in the world—and seizes her doctor husband fight off what appears to his opportunity. Script by Eric Ambler be a giant salami in upstate Maine after merfrom Arnold Bennett’s story The Card, cury poisoning turns animals into huge mualso its title in England.▼ tants and worse. Ridiculous horror film is ★★ D: StePromotion, The (2008) C-85m. good for a few laughs. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 ven Conrad. Seann William Scott, John C. Prophecy, The (1995) C-93m. ★★ D: GregReilly, Jenna Fischer, Lili Taylor, Bobby ory Widen. Christopher Walken, Elias KoCannavale, Fred Armisen, Gil Bellows, teas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Viggo Jason Bateman. Assistant supermarket manMortensen, Amanda Plummer. Seminarian ager Scott is aiming for a big promotion Koteas abandons the church during his own when a competitor (Reilly) arrives, seemordination to become . . . a homicide cop. ingly out of nowhere—but actually from Soon he’s investigating why Stoltz has murCanada. Low-key comedy with serious undered an eyeless hermaphrodite with the dertones examines the working-class Amerphysiological profile of an aborted fetus. ican dream gone somewhat sour. Bateman There’s either too much mumbo or too has one funny scene as an activities director much jumbo in this oddball horror pic. Give [ 1108 ]

it perverse points, though, for managing to Chiao, Bill Wallace. Dismal attempt to work in a Korean War subplot and for castbring Chan to the American market as a ing Walken as the Angel Gabriel. Followed N.Y.C. cop(!). Leaden directing, cold tone, by too many direct-to-video sequels. Super and lack of comedy smother Chan’s gifts; his 35. [R]▼●쩠 frustrations with this film led him to make ★★ the vastly superior POLICE STORY. ▼쩠 Proposition, The (1998) C-110m. D: Lesli Linka Glatter. Kenneth Branagh, WilProtector, The (2005-Thai) C-81m. ★★ D: liam Hurt, Madeleine Stowe, Blythe DanPrachya Pinkaew. Tony Jaa, Petchtai ner, Robert Loggia, Neil Patrick Harris, Wongkamlao, Bongkoj Khongmalai, NaJosef Sommer. Heavy-handed soap opera than Jones, Johnny Nguyen, Xing Jing, set in the 1930s gives Branagh a thankless Damian De Montemas. Wrongheaded mix role as a priest with more ties than one could of a kung fu movie and a boy-and-his-dog ever imagine to wealthy Boston bigwig story, this cheap-looking import from ThaiHurt who can’t give his wife the one thing land gets sappy when a young martial arts he wants most: a child. A fine cast flounders fighter has his beloved elephant stolen by with purple paperback fodder; sputteringly thugs and shipped to Australia. Following silly at times. [R]▼● the bad guys there, he hooks up with a ThaiProposition, The (2005-Australian-British) born Australian detective and does battle with evil gangs and others in an effort to C-104m. ★★ D: John Hillcoat. Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson, Danny Husretrieve his little Dumbo. Jaa, an internaton, John Hurt, David Wenham, Noah Taytional star, offers dazzling footwork, but lor, David Gulpilil, Leah Purcell, Richard that can’t make up for the sorry script. OrigWilson. Determined to bring law and order inal running time 108m. [R]쩠 to a wild Australia in the 1880s, British ofProtocol (1984) C-96m. ★★ D: Herbert Ross. ficer Winstone makes a Devil’s bargain with Goldie Hawn, Chris Sarandon, Richard RoPearce: he can save his life, and that of his manus, Andre Gregory, Gail Strickland, Cliff dimwitted younger sibling, if he will kill his De Young, Keith Szarabajka, Ed Begley, Jr., older brother, who raped and murdered a James Staley, Kenneth Mars, Jean Smart, Joel pregnant woman. Austere, violent, and relentBrooks, Daphne Maxwell, Amanda Bearse. lessly harsh, like the time and place it porKenneth McMillan. Or, Goldie Goes to Washtrays. Nick Cave’s screenplay challenges the ington: a contrived comedy vehicle for Hawn viewer to find humanity amidst the sturm as inadvertent heroine (and overnight celebrity) und drang; it ain’t easy. Super 35. [R]쩠 who’s rewarded with do-nothing government Proprietor, The (1996) C-113m. ★★ D: Isjob . . . but soon becomes a pawn for dealing mail Merchant. Jeanne Moreau, Sean with Middle Eastern potentate. Some funny Young, Sam Waterston, Austin Pendleton, moments give way to obvious satire and a Josh Hamilton, Nell Carter, Christopher Cahard-to-swallow finish in which Goldie makes like Capra’s Mr. Smith. [PG]▼●쩠 zenove, Pierre Vaneck, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Marc Tissot. Wildly uneven story set Proud and Profane, The (1956) 111m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Seaton. William Holden, in Paris and N.Y.C. finds author Moreau exploring two distinct cultures, past and Deborah Kerr, Thelma Ritter, Dewey Marpresent life experiences, and relationships tin, William Redfield, Ross Bagdasarian, old and new as she examines the meaning Marion Ross. Spotty WW2 romance story of her life and the importance of memories. has many parallels to FROM HERE TO It’s always nice to see Moreau in a major ETERNITY, but Kerr-Holden romance is role, but this muddled vehicle isn’t worthy never believable. VistaVision. of her. Rare directorial effort for producer Proud and the Beautiful, The SEE: Proud Merchant. Super 35. [R]▼● Ones, The (1953) Prospero’s Books (1991-British-Dutch) Proud Ones, The (1953-French-Mexican) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Greenaway. John 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Yves Allegret. Michele Gielgud, Michael Clark, Michel Blanc, Erland Morgan, Ge´rard Philipe, Victor Manuel Josephson, Isabelle Pasco, Tom Bell. Original, Mendoza, Michele Cordoue. Well-bred daring but unsatisfactory adaptation of ShakeMorgan and down-and-out doctor Philipe speare’s The Tempest, with almost all of the dicross paths in Vera Cruz, Mexico, in this alogue spoken by 87-year-old Gielgud (in the absorbing tale of love, religion, and the role of Prospero); the other actors are little effects of a deadly plague on the impovermore than extras, and there’s a mindboggling ished populace. Striking and atmospheric; amount of nudity. Crammed with stunning, based on Jean-Paul Sartre novel L’Amour layered imagery, beautiful production design Redempteur (set in China!). Original title: and cinematography—which tend to lessen LES ORGUEILLEUX. Aka THE PROUD the impact of the dialogue. Enjoyment will AND THE BEAUTIFUL.▼ depend on your tolerance for Greenaway’s Proud Rebel, The (1958) C-103m. ★★★ D: approach to the material. [R]▼● Michael Curtiz. Alan Ladd, Olivia de HavilProtector, The (1985-U.S.-Hong Kong) Cland, Dean Jagger, David Ladd, Cecil Kella91m. ★1⁄2 D: James Glickenhaus. Jackie way, Henry Hull, John Carradine, (Harry) Chan, Danny Aiello, Sandy Alexander, Roy Dean Stanton. Well-presented post–Civil War [ 1109 ]

study of two-fisted Southerner Ladd seeking scripted by Kidd and Helen Schulman, based on her novel. [R] ▼쩠 medical help for mute son (played by Ladd’s P.S. I Love You (2007) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: real-life son); de Havilland is the woman who Richard LaGravenese. Hilary Swank, Getames him. ▼●쩠 rard Butler, Kathy Bates, Lisa Kudrow, Providence (1977-British) C-104m. ★★ D: Gina Gershon, James Marsters, Harry ConAlain Resnais. Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, nick, Jr., Jeffrey Dean Morgan. After her Ellen Burstyn, David Warner, Elaine Stritch. young husband develops a brain tumor and Odd fantasy marked director Resnais’ dies, a grieving widow starts receiving a English-language debut. Writer Gielgud tries series of letters from him instructing her to complete his last novel, juxtaposes imaghow to get on without him. Since Butler ined thoughts about his family with real-life succumbs before the opening credits you encounters. Muddled drama by David Mercer; can rest assured their courtship and marinteresting Miklos Rozsa score. [R]▼ 1 ★★ riage are going to be told completely in Prowler, The (1951) 92m. ⁄2 D: Joseph flashbacks. Director and cowriter LaGraLosey. Van Heflin, Evelyn Keyes, John Maxvenese makes this a pleasant ride most of well, Katharine Warren. Fairly good thriller the way, even for reluctant male viewers. about sector car cop Heflin, who complains [PG-13]쩠 he’s had one too many ‘‘lousy breaks.’’ He Psychic, The (1978-Italian) C-89m. BOMB becomes obsessed with, and seduces, married D: Lucio Fulci. Jennifer O’Neill, Gabriele Keyes . . . and plots to do in her husband. Ferzetti, Marc Porel, Gianni Garko, Evelyn Prowler, The (1981) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: JoStewart. O’Neill has frightening premonitions seph Zito. Vicki Dawson, Christopher Goutof deaths in this low-grade thriller. Aka man, Cindy Weintraub, Farley Granger, SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK. [R]▼쩠 John Seitz. WW2 veteran kills ex-girlfriend Psychic Killer (1975) C-90m. BOMB D: and her new amour with a pitchfork, then Raymond Danton. Jim Hutton, Julie Adams, suddenly resumes his murderous ways 35 Paul Burke, Aldo Ray, Neville Brand, Whit years later. Illogically plotted, with grueBissell. Ugly, violent shocker of mental instisome special effects by Tom Savini. [R]▼쩠 tute patient who acquires psychic powers to Prozac Nation (2005-U.S.-German) C-95m. revenge himself on those who wronged him. ★★ D: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. Christina Ricci, Lots of cameos: Rod Cameron, Nehemiah Jason Biggs, Anne Heche, Michelle Williams, Persoff, Della Reese, others. [PG]▼쩠 Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Jessica Lange, NichoPsycho (1960) 109m. ★★★★ D: Alfred las Campbell, Jesse Moss, Zoe Miller, Sheila Hitchcock. Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Paterson. Ricci’s raw, intensely emotional Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John performance partly redeems this off-putting McIntire, Lurene Tuttle, Simon Oakland, adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestJohn Anderson, Mort Mills, Frank Albertson, selling memoir about a Harvard student’s Patricia Hitchcock. The Master’s most notoridownward spiral into drugs and clinical deous film is still terrifying after all these years, pression in the mid-1980s. Well-intentioned as larcenous Leigh picks the wrong place to but relentless downer of a film never really spend a night: The Bates Motel (12 cabins, 12 makes us care about the unsympathetic hervacancies . . . and 12 showers), run by a oine’s plight. Completed in 2001, released peculiar young man and his crotchety old to video in the U.S. four years later! Lou ‘‘mother.’’ Hitchcock’s murder set pieces are Reed has a cameo as himself. [R]쩠 so potent, they can galvanize (and frighten) Prudence and the Pill (1968-British) even a viewer who’s seen them before! BerC-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fielder Cook, Ronald nard Herrmann’s legendary (and endlessly Neame. Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Robimitated) score adds much to the excitement. ert Coote, Irina Demick, Joyce Redman, Script by Joseph Stefano from the Robert Judy Geeson, Keith Michell. Labored comBloch novel. Followed by three sequels (the edy treatment of modern sexual mores. last for cable TV) and a TV movie (BATES Niven thinks he can patch up his in-nameMOTEL) decades later, and remade in 1998. only marriage by substituting aspirin for ▼●쩠 his wife’s birth control pills. Good cast Psycho (1998) C-109m. BOMB D: Gus Van and performances, but weak script. [R] Sant. Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Julianne p.s. (2004) C-97m. ★★ D: Dylan Kidd. Laura Moore, Viggo Mortensen, William H. Macy, Linney, Topher Grace, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Robert Forster, Philip Baker Hall, Anne Gay Harden, Paul Rudd, Lois Smith. ThirtyHaney, Chad Everett, Rance Howard, Rita something Columbia University admissions Wilson, James Remar, James LeGros. Slow, officer Linney is stuck in a rut, until she stilted, completely pointless scene-for-scene comes into contact with a brash prospective remake of the Hitchcock classic (with a few student (Grace) who eerily resembles an old, awkward new touches to taint its claim as an long-deceased boyfriend. Linney and Harden exact replica). The result is an insult, rather are always watchable, but the characters are than a tribute, to a landmark film. [R]▼●쩠 caricatures and much of the dialogue is artiPsycho II (1983) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richficial, even unintentionally funny. Coard Franklin. Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, [ 1110 ]

Meg Tilly, Robert Loggia, Dennis Franz, England. Screenplay by Julian Halevy. Aka Hugh Gillin. Surprisingly good sequel, with THE DEATH WHEELERS. ▼쩠 Perkins in a wonderfully canny reprise of his Psychopath, The (1966-British) 83m. ★★★ role as Norman Bates—now being released D: Freddie Francis. Patrick Wymark, Marfrom asylum, supposedly rehabilitated, regaret Johnston, John Standing, Judy Huxturning to his mother’s creaky old mansion. table. A demented killer leaves dolls as his Director Franklin builds some terrific suscalling card at the scene of the murders; pense scenes, but finally goes for graphic well-made thriller from Robert Bloch script. violence toward the end, and tacks on a silly Techniscope. conclusion, undermining an otherwise firstPsycho Sisters SEE: So Evil, My Sister Psychotic SEE: Driver’s Seat, The rate shocker. [R] ▼●쩠 Psycho III (1986) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: AnPsych-Out (1968) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richthony Perkins. Anthony Perkins, Diana ard Rush. Susan Strasberg, Jack Nicholson, Scarwid, Jeff Fahey, Roberta Maxwell, Adam Roarke, Dean Stockwell, Max Julien, Hugh Gillin, Lee Garlington. Pointless seBruce Dern, Henry Jaglom, The Strawquel plays Norman Bates strictly for laughs, berry Alarm Clock, The Seeds, Garry Marbut maintains a slasher-film mentality. No shall. Deaf runaway Strasberg comes to suspense, just some gratuitous blood and Haight-Ashbury looking for missing brother unpleasantness. Perkins’ directorial debut. Dern, falls in with rock band led by ponyGood night, Norman. Followed by a TV tailed Nicholson. Any serious intentions have long since vanished; gloriously goofy movie prequel in 1990. [R]▼●쩠 Psycho a Go-Go! SEE: Blood of Ghastly dialogue (‘‘Warren’s freakin’ out at the galHorror lery!’’) and psychedelic Laszlo Kovacs camPsycho Beach Party (2000-U.S.-Australian) erawork make this—depending on your age and sensibilities—either amusing nostalgia C-95m. ★★ D: Robert Lee King. Lauren Ambrose, Thomas Gibson, Nicholas Brendon, or a campy embarrassment. Produced by Matt Keeslar, Andrew Levitas, Amy Adams, Dick Clark!▼●쩠 Nick Cornish, Charles Busch, Kathleen RobP.S. Your Cat is Dead! (2003) C-92m. ★1⁄2 ertson, Beth Broderick, Kimberley Davies. D: Steve Guttenberg. Steve Guttenberg, Campy spoof of beach movies mixes ’50s Lombardo Boyar, Cynthia Watros, Shirley values with ’70s slasher films and is only Knight, A. J. Benza, Paul Dillon, Tom Wright. partly successful. Teenage heroine Ambrose Screen version of James Kirkwood’s 1972 seems virtuous but harbors multiple personalinovel and 1975 play is obviously a labor of ties. Busch adapted his 1987 off-Broadway love for debuting director Guttenberg, but hit but film version seems forced and oversome things are better left on the page. Dated long. ▼쩠 premise has down-on-his-luck actor slowly Psycho-Circus (1967-British-West German) ‘‘coming out’’ to a burglar in a home invaC-65m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Moxey. Christopher sion that has life-changing repercussions for Lee, Heinz Drache, Margaret Lee, Suzy all involved. Claustrophobic, one-set film feaKendall, Leo Genn, Cecil Parker, Klaus tures stereotypes that seem badly dated. The Kinski. Confused (due to distributor cuts) only character we can work up any sympathy for is the cat, which is never seen.▼쩠 Edgar Wallace–based story of murderer stalking odd assortment of characters in big PT 109 (1963) C-140m. ★★ D: Leslie H. top. Is it hooded Gregor the lion-tamer? Martinson. Cliff Robertson, Ty Hardin, Short running time gives film old-style seJames Gregory, Robert Culp, Grant Wilrial-type pacing. Original title: CIRCUS OF liams, Lew Gallo, Errol John, Michael Pate, Robert Blake, Biff Elliot, Norman Fell. FEAR.▼쩠 Psycho Killers SEE: Mania Gung-ho WW2 action yarn based on President John F. Kennedy’s experiences in the Psychomania (1963) 93m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Hilliard. Lee Philips, Shepperd Strudwick, Pacific as a PT boat captain. Very much of Jean Hale, Lorraine Rogers, Margot Hartits time; it was released in June of the year man, Kaye Elhardt, James Farentino, Dick JFK died. Panavision.▼● Van Patten, Sylvia Miles. War hero turned PT Raiders SEE: Ship That Died of painter, suspected of murdering two beauShame, The tiful young women, undertakes his own P2 (2007) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Franck Khalfoun. investigation. Exploitive independent proRachel Nichols, Wes Bentley, Philip Akin, duction filmed in Connecticut. Originally Stephanie Moore, Miranda Edwards. Derivatitled VIOLENT MIDNIGHT.▼쩠 tive thriller is more PU than P2, taking a wellPsychomania (1973-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 worn psycho-on-the-loose plot and setting it D: Don Sharp. George Sanders, Nicky in an underground N.Y.C. office garage on Henson, Mary Larkin, Patrick Holt, Beryl Christmas Eve. Workaholic woman is the last Reid. Pact with Devil brings British moto leave and finds herself stuck with a creepy torcycle gang back from the grave. Lots psychotic security guard. He proceeds to terof weird violence as undead bikers blaze a rorize her as she is forced to run around kamikaze trail of destruction across prepunk wearing a wet white slip for most of the [ 1111 ]

movie. Follows a bloody path to its inevitacommitment enters the picture. Then quite ble conclusion. Super 35. [R]쩠 by chance she finds herself simultaneously Puberty Blues (1981-Australian) C-86m. attracted to a guy and a girl, little dreaming ★★1 that they are a couple that’s just broken up. ⁄2 D: Bruce Beresford. Neil Schofield, Jad Capelja, Geoff Rhoe, Tony Hughes, Inventive and funny, with appealing performances. Written by the director.쩠 Sandy Paul. Teenage growing pains, told (refreshingly) from the girls’ point of view; simPufnstuf (1970) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hollingsple, honest, but somewhat familiar. Based on worth Morse. Jack Wild, Billie Hayes, a best-selling Australian book by two former Martha Raye, ‘‘Mama’’ Cass Elliott, Billy surfing groupies. Panavision. [R]▼ Barty, Angelo Rossitto, Johnny Silver. ★★1 Public Access (1992) C-86m. ⁄2 D: OK theatrical feature based on Sid and Bryan Singer. Ron Marquette, Dina Brooks, Marty Krofft’s TV series H.R. Pufnstuf, Burt Williams, Larry Maxwell, Charles Kawith Wild as young boy brought by a vanaugh, Brandon Boyce. Eerie tale of a magic flute to Oz-like kingdom ruled by stranger who starts his own cable-TV callbumbling witches. Fine for kids; Hayes is fun as ‘‘Witchiepoo.’’ [G]▼ in show, ostensibly to investigate what’s wrong with ‘‘our town.’’ Debut for THE Pulp (1972) C-95m. ★★★ D: Michael USUAL SUSPECTS director Singer is a Hodges. Michael Caine, Mickey Rooney, suspenseful, disquieting film marred by a Lionel Stander, Lizabeth Scott, Nadia total lack of motivation for the main characCassini, Al Lettieri, Dennis Price. Rooney, ter. Fine music score by John Ottman, who a retired expatriate Hollywood actor, hires also edited the picture. [R]▼●쩠 paperback writer Caine to ghost his autoPublic Enemy, The (1931) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: biography. Uneven, but good fun and well acted, especially by Rooney. [PG]▼쩠 William Wellman. James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Eddie Woods, Beryl Mercer, Donald Pulp Fiction (1994) C-154m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Cook, Joan Blondell, Mae Clarke. ProhiQuentin Tarantino. John Travolta, Samuel bition gangster’s rise and fall put Cagney on L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, the map, and deservedly so; he makes up for Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Maria de film’s occasional flaws and dated notions. Still Medeiros, Ving Rhames, Eric Stoltz, Ropretty powerful, this is the one where Cagney sanna Arquette, Christopher Walken, Bruce smashes a grapefruit in Clarke’s face. Screened Willis. Audacious, outrageous look at honor for decades at 82m., restored to full length for among lowlifes, told in a somewhat radical DVD. ▼●쩠 style overlapping a handful of separate stoPublic Eye, The (1972-British) C-95m. ries. Jackson and Travolta are magnetic as a ★★1 ⁄2 D: Carol Reed. Mia Farrow, Topol, pair of hit men who have philosophical deMichael Jayston, Margaret Rawlings, Anbates on a regular basis; Willis is compelnette Crosbie, Dudley Foster. Stuffy husling as a crooked boxer whose plan to take band hires private-eye to watch his wife, it on the lam hits a few detours. (In fact, but the sleuth falls for her. Fair expansion there are no slackers in this cast.) This voluof Peter Shaffer’s play. Farrow is good, ble, violent, pumped-up movie isn’t for but Topol’s grin is flashed once too often. every taste—certainly not for the squeaPanavision. [G] mish—but it’s got more vitality than almost Public Eye, The (1992) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: any other film of 1994. Tarantino is featured Howard Franklin. Joe Pesci, Barbara on-screen as Jimmie of Toluca Lake. Roger Hershey, Stanley Tucci, Jerry Adler, Jared Avary gets costory credit with Tarantino Harris, Dominic Chianese, Richard Foronjy, (they won the Original Screenplay Oscar). Richard Riehle, Gerry Becler, Bob Gunton, Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Del Close, Nick Tate. Intriguing mood Pulse (1988) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Goldpiece with a perfect Pesci role: a 1940s ing. Joey Lawrence, Cliff De Young, photographer who roams the streets of Roxanne Hart, Charles Tyner, Myron N.Y.C. at night in search of dramatic Healey. What’s got into the appliances in photo opportunities. An encounter with the home of Lawrence and his family? beautiful Hershey leads only to trouble, Scary, tense film, written by the director, however. Great atmosphere and style are a cut above the usual sci-fi/horror thriller undone by an ungainly script and an unconbut seriously damaged by a lack of any vincing romantic subplot. Script by director explanation for its outrageous premise (a Franklin, inspired by famed real-life pholiving, evil short circuit). Excellent special effects. [PG-13]▼●쩠 tographer Weegee, some of whose shots are used in the film. [R]▼● Pulse (2001-Japanese) C-118m. ★★★ D: KiPuccini for Beginners (2007) C-82m. ★★★ yoshi Kurosawa. Haruhiko Katoˆ, Kumiko D: Maria Maggenti. Elizabeth Reaser, JusAso, Koyuki, Kurume Arisaka, Masatoshi tin Kirk, Gretchen Mol, Jennifer Dundas, Matsuo. A group of college students in Japan Julianne Nicholson, Tina Benko. Clever, install an Internet program that invokes murcontemporary romantic comedy about a derous ghosts. Plot seemed less hackneyed woman who has a tendency to drive her when it premiered in Japan four years before girlfriends away whenever the prospect of hitting U.S. screens; it remains significantly [ 1112 ]

more original than American Internet-related drama chronicling the plight of the mother horror films. Kurosawa effectively focuses on of eight children, who discovers her third the fear and melancholy resulting from the husband has been unfaithful. Fine perforurban isolation that the Internet promotes. A mances all around, with Bancroft a standbit overlong and redundant, but philosophiout. Script by Harold Pinter, from the Penelope Mortimer novel. ▼ cal, atmospheric, genuinely scary horror films are few and far between. Aka KAIRO Pumpkinhead (1988) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: and THE CIRCUIT.쩠 Stan Winston. Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, Pulse (2006) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim Sonzero. John DiAquino, Kimberly Ross, Joel Kristen Bell, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Hoffman, Cynthia Bain, Kerry Remsen, Milian, Rick Gonzalez, Jonathan Tucker, Florence Schauffler, Buck Flower, Tom Samm Levine, Ron Rifkin. Ghostly creaWoodruff, Jr. Makeup expert Winston made tures emerge from computers and other mahis directorial debut with this interesting chines to drain the will to live (or horror film set in the backwoods. When something) from human victims, driving his young son is accidentally killed by them to suicide or turning them into soot. ‘‘city folk,’’ a storekeeper unleashes a This naturally leads to the collapse of civilipowerful, fiendish demon on the interlopzation. Unexpectedly epic-minded horror ers. When he changes his mind, he finds movie is occasionally eerie, but more often he has no more control over the monstrous dull and nearly incomprehensible. Cowritkiller. Slides into the routine at times, but a ten by Wes Craven. Remake of 2001 Japanice try. Followed by two direct-to-video sequels. [R]▼●쩠 nese film. Unrated version runs 90m. Followed by two DVD sequels. Super 35. Pump Up the Volume (1990) C-100m. ★★1 [PG-13]쩠 ⁄2 D: Allan Moyle. Christian Slater, Pumping Iron (1977) C-85m. ★★★ D: Ellen Greene, Annie Ross, Samantha George Butler, Robert Fiore. Arnold Mathis, Scott Paulin, Lala, Cheryl Pollak, Schwarzenegger, Louis Ferrigno, Matty Mimi Kennedy, Seth Green. Slater is terrific and Victoria Ferrigno, Mike Katz. Fascias Hard Harry, a high school kid by day who nating documentary about men’s bodyruns a pirate radio station by night, stirring building, centering on Schwarzenegger and up passions among his young listeners and his pursuit of yet another Mr. Olympia enraging the adult population in the process. title. Schwarzenegger exudes charm and Though uneven, this does have some pertiregisters strong screen presence; his main nent things to say that you don’t always find in a youth-appeal film. [R]▼●쩠 rival is Ferrigno, pre-Incredible Hulk. Followed by a distaff sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 Punch-Drunk Love (2002) C-95m. ★★ D: Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985) Paul Thomas Anderson. Adam Sandler, ★★★ C-107 min. D: George Butler. PoutyEmily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, lipped sexpot Rachel McLish, manlike AusLuis Guzman, Mary Lynn Rajskub. A paratralian Bev Francis, and two dozen more lyzingly asocial, dysfunctional man encounfemale bodybuilders compete in a Vegas ters a woman who is smitten with him and nonevent where winners are offered a isn’t sure how to respond. An ill-timed choice of ‘‘cash, check, or chips.’’ Funny, phone-sex call only complicates his life. if suspiciously stagy look at the profession Anderson’s cockeyed, fairy-tale version of a buoyed by some hilariously incompetent romantic comedy is extremely strange, offjudges and an ‘‘in it for the money’’ emcee putting, and weird for the sake of being job by smiling George Plimpton.▼●쩠 weird, though its leading actors certainly Pumpkin (2002) C-121m. BOMB D: Adam can’t be faulted. (Sandler, discarding his Larson Broder, Tony R. Abrams. Christina goofball persona, is quite good.) AnderRicci, Hank Harris, Brenda Blethyn, Domison’s audaciousness is intriguing at first, but nique Swain, Marisa Coughlan, Sam Ball, like his choice of music on the soundtrack, Harry Lennix, Nina Foch, Caroline Aaron, awfully hard to take. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Lisa Banes, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Amy Punchline (1988) C-128m. ★★★ D: David Adams. A dippy, pampered college girl, Seltzer. Sally Field, Tom Hanks, John caught up in sorority life, finds herself atGoodman, Mark Rydell, Kim Greist, Pam tracted to a disabled boy who’s been brought Matteson, Taylor Negron, Barry Neikrug, to campus as a ‘‘special’’ athlete. Oddball Mac Robbins, Max Alexander, Paul Kozfilm wants to have it both ways, making fun lowski, Barry Sobel, Damon Wayans. of its characters (and sentimental movies in Well-written, well-cast movie about aspirgeneral), then trying to tug at our heartstrings. ing stand-up comics, focusing on brash Strange, to say the least—and interminable. young Hanks, who’s got real talent but [R]▼쩠 also a knack for pushing people away, and Pumpkin Eater, The (1964-British) 110m. Field, a housewife and mom who feels ★★★ D: Jack Clayton. Anne Bancroft, Peter driven to become a comedienne. Seltzer’s Finch, James Mason, Cedric Hardwicke, serious script is compassionate and believAlan Webb, Richard Johnson, Maggie able and manages to avoid cliche´s and Smith, Eric Porter. Intelligent if overlong easy answers. Field and (especially) Hanks [ 1113 ]

are first-rate; actor-turned-director Rydell Nazi Germany, pitting the kindly old creais perfect as the unctuous nightclub owner/ tor of living puppets (Rolfe) against Naentrepreneur. Director Paul Mazursky also zis who want to create an army of zombies. appears in the opening scene. [R]▼●쩠 Minor but OK little thriller. [R]▼●쩠 Punisher, The (1989-U.S.-Australian) CPuppet Masters, The (1994) C-109m. ★★ ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Orme. Donald Sutherland, 92m. D: Mark Goldblatt. Dolph Lundgren, Louis Gossett, Jr., Jeroen Krabbe´, Eric Thal, Julie Warner, Keith David, Will Kim Miyori, Nancy Everhard, Brian Rooney, Patton, Richard Belzer, Tom Mason, YaBryan Marshall, Barry Otto, Zoshka Mizak. phet Kotto. U.S. security agency, headed by A cop whose family was wiped out by shrewd, sardonic Sutherland, discovers that gangsters retaliates: he wipes out gangthe Midwest has been invaded by alien parsters (125 in five years, and still counting). asites who control the actions of human beCop Gossett and, especially, gangster Krabbe´ ings. Good script and performances are come close to rising above silly script, hampered by unimaginative direction. Movie adapted from a Marvel Comics character imitations of Robert A. Heinlein’s classic created by Gerry Conway. Went straight to 1950 sci-fi novel took the edge off this offivideo in U.S. two years after being made. cial adaptation before it reached the screen. Shot in Australia but set in U.S. Remade in Aka ROBERT A. HEINLEIN’S THE PUP2004. [R]▼●쩠 PET MASTERS. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Punisher, The (2004) C-124m. BOMB D: Puppetoon Movie, The (1987) C-80m. Jonathan Hensleigh. Thomas Jane, John ★★1 ⁄2 No director credited. Arnold Leibovit Travolta, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Will Patcompiled this collage of George Pal’s aniton, Roy Scheider, Laura Harring, Ben Foster, mated short subjects from the 1930s and Samantha Mathis, James Carpinello, Eddie ’40s. Some of them (JOHN HENRY AND Jemison, John Pinette. Excruciating adaptaTHE INKY-POO, TUBBY THE TUBA, tion of the Marvel comic book about a reJASPER IN A JAM) are terrific, but they’re tired FBI agent (Jane) who seeks revenge better seen one or two at a time. Still, there’s on the mobster (Travolta) and his circle who some delightful entertainment here.▼●쩠 slaughtered his family. Formulaic idea is Purchase Price, The (1932) 68m. ★★ D: powered by repeated scenes of sadism and William A. Wellman. Barbara Stanwyck, torture, with ham-handed performances as George Brent, Lyle Talbot, Hardie Albright, icing on the cake. Unbelievable, in every David Landau, Murray Kinnell, Leila Bensense of the word. Filmed before with nett. Pre-Code Warner Bros. film about Dolph Lundgren. Alternate version runs nightclub singer Stanwyck, who’s seen and 140m. Followed by PUNISHER: WAR done it all, taking it on the lam and becomZONE. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ing—of all things—a mail-order bride for a ★1 Puppetmaster (1989) C-90m. ⁄2 D: Danaive North Dakota farmer. Starts out vid Schmoller. Paul LeMat, Irene Miracle, snappy, winds up silly, though Stanwyck is Matt Roe, William Hickey, Kathryn O’Realways worth watching.▼쩠 illy, Robin Frates, Merrya Small. Psychics Pure Country (1992) C-112m. ★★ D: drawn to a remote hotel find a malignant Christopher Cain. George Strait, Lesley associate has committed suicide. They’re then Ann Warren, Isabel Glasser, Kyle Chanstalked by five living puppets left there in dler, John Doe, Rory Calhoun, Molly Mc1939 by famous, mystical puppeteer Toulon Clure. Tuckered-out country star revisits (Hickey)—plus another menace. Clumsy, his rural roots, falls for a redheaded rodeo talky script helped by (too scant) special aspirant who doesn’t realize who he is. effects by David Allen Productions. FolStrait showcase is mostly pure tedium, lowed by several sequels. [R]▼●쩠 though film picks up some in hour two ★★ D: Puppet Master II (1990) C-90m. with the appearance of Glasser and (as her David Allen. Elizabeth Maclellan, Collin pop) cowboy vet Calhoun. [PG]▼●쩠 Bernsen, Steve Welles, Gregory Webb, CharPure Formality, A (1994-Italian-French) lie Spradling, Jeff Weston, Nita Talbot. The C-108m. ★★ D: Giuseppe Tornatore. Ge´rard living puppets bring Toulon, inexplicably cosDepardieu, Roman Polanski, Sergio Rubini, tumed as the Invisible Man, back from the Nicola DiPinto, Paolo Lombardi. Police dead; then, seeking brains for his life-giving inspector Polanski, investigating a justelixir, they terrorize a group of paranormal committed murder, interrogates worldresearchers investigating the old hotel. Slowfamous novelist Depardieu, who can’t repaced thriller is an inauspicious directorial member what he was doing that afternoon. debut for effects maestro Allen. [R]▼●쩠 Maddeningly tedious film is shot in widePuppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge ★★ screen but mostly confined to a dark, leaky (1991) C-86m. D: David De Coteau. room; directed to the hilt. Not quite what Guy Rolfe, Richard Lynch, Ian Abercromyou expect from the maker of CINEMA bie, Kristopher Logan, Aron Eisenberg, PARADISO. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼● Walter Gotell, Sarah Douglas, Matthew Pure Hell of St. Trinian’s, The (1960Faison, Michelle Bauer. The mild best in this low-budget series (so far) is set in British) 94m. ★★ D: Frank Launder. Cecil [ 1114 ]

Parker, Joyce Grenfell, George Cole, Min Than, Bernard Lee, Maurice Denham, Thorley Walters. Absence of Alastair Sim Brenda De Banzie, Lyndon Brook. Abfrom series lessens glow; outrageous girls’ sorbing Eric Ambler–scripted drama of school is visited by sheik seeking harem.▼ love, loss, and survival during WW2, chartPure Luck (1991) C-96m. ★★ D: Nadia ing the plight of disaffected pilot Peck, Tass. Martin Short, Danny Glover, Sheila whose wife was killed on the night of their Kelley, Sam Wanamaker, Scott Wilson, wedding during a London air raid.쩠 Harry Shearer. A business magnate’s acciPurple Rain (1984) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: dent-prone daughter disappears while vacaAlbert Magnoli. Prince, Apollonia Kotero, tioning in Mexico, and the father sends Morris Day, Olga Karlatos, Clarence Wildetective Glover to find her—accompanied liams III, Jerome Benton, Billy Sparks, by a man as unlucky as the woman he’s out The Revolution, The Time. Prince’s film to find. Short’s perpetual pratfalls are good debut is about a young Minneapolis black for a few laughs, but otherwise this is pretty who struggles to gain acceptance for his weak. American remake of French farce LE own brand of futuristic (and sexy) rock CHEVRE. [PG]▼● music . . . but it’s not autobiographical. Purlie Victorious SEE: Gone Are The Right. Dynamic concert sequences are unDays dercut by soppy storyline and sexist, unappealing characters—especially Prince’s. Purple Heart, The (1944) 99m. ★★★ D: Lewis Milestone. Dana Andrews, Farley Oscar-winning song score includes title Granger, Sam Levene, Richard Conte, Tala tune, ‘‘When Doves Cry.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Birell, Nestor Paiva, Benson Fong, MarPurple Rose of Cairo, The (1985) C-82m. ★★★1 shall Thompson, Richard Loo. Absorbing ⁄2 D: Woody Allen. Mia Farrow, Jeff tale of U.S. air force crew shot down Daniels, Danny Aiello, Dianne Wiest, Van during Tokyo raid receives strong performJohnson, Zoe Caldwell, John Wood, Milo ances by good cast. Produced and coO’Shea, Edward Herrmann, Karen Akers, Deborah Rush, Michael Tucker, Glenne written by Darryl F. Zanuck.▼쩠 Purple Hearts (1984) C-115m. ★★ D: Headly. Bittersweet comedy-fantasy about a Sidney J. Furie. Cheryl Ladd, Ken Wahl, SteDepression-era movie fan whose latest idol phen Lee, David Harris, Lane Smith, Annie walks right off the screen and into her life! FarMcEnroe, Paul McCrane, James Whitmore, row and Daniels’ wonderful performances Jr., Lee Ermey. Navy medic falls in love with help offset the cold cleverness of Allen’s script. feisty nurse in Vietnam. What starts out as The finale is a heartbreaker. [PG]▼●쩠 good bread-and-butter story gets worse as it Purple Taxi, The (1977-French-Italiangoes along toward silly conclusion. Overlong, Irish) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Yves Boisset. Charto boot. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 lotte Rampling, Philippe Noiret, Agostina Purple Noon (1960-French-Italian) CBelli, Peter Ustinov, Fred Astaire, Edward 118m. ★★★ D: Rene´ Clement. Alain Delon, Albert. Confusing, overblown drama about Marie Laforet, Maurice Ronet, Frank Latiexpatriates in Ireland, with Astaire miscast more, Ave Ninchi. Marvelously photographed as eccentric doctor who drives title vehi(in southern Italy, by Henri Decae), tautly dicle. Based on Michel Deon’s best-selling novel. Originally 120m. [R]▼ rected suspenser about Delon, who envies playboy-friend Ronet and schemes to murder Pursued (1947) 101m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. him and assume his identity. Based on PatriTeresa Wright, Robert Mitchum, Judith cia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. Anderson, Dean Jagger, Alan Hale, Harry That’s Romy Schneider among the friends Carey, Jr., John Rodney. Grim, passionate stopping by cafe in opening scene. Remade Western noir, a family saga of love, hate, as THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY; also revenge, and a hint of incest. Mitchum is an see THE AMERICAN FRIEND and RIPorphan raised by Anderson; he falls in love LEY’S GAME. ▼●쩠 with foster sister Wright, complicated by his Purple People Eater (1988) C-87m. ★1⁄2 having killed her murderous brother. StunD: Linda Shayne. Ned Beatty, Shelley ning photography by James Wong Howe. Winters, Neil (Patrick) Harris, Peggy Lip▼●쩠 ton, Chubby Checker, Little Richard, James Pursuit of D. B. Cooper, The (1981) Houghton, Thora Birch, Molly Cheek. C-100m. ★★ D: Roger Spottiswoode. RobCorny, unimaginative (if harmless) chilert Duvall, Treat Williams, Kathryn Harrold, dren’s picture based on the famous novelty Ed Flanders, Paul Gleason, R. G. Armsong hit of 1958, with the title character strong. What may have happened to the (looking like a kid in a Halloween costume) ‘‘legendary’’ D. B. Cooper (Williams, in a coming to Earth to form a rock band with disappointing performance), who hijacked a neighborhood teens. The song’s original plane in 1972 and bailed out with $200,000, writer-performer, Sheb Wooley, appears as never to be heard from again. Who cares? Lackluster comedy-chase story, with Duvall a trapeze teacher. [PG] ▼● Purple Plain, The (1954-British) C-102m. wasted as one of Cooper’s pursuers. Film ★★★ D: Robert Parrish. Gregory Peck, Win was plagued with problems, multiple direc[ 1115 ]

tors, hastily refilmed ending—and it shows. ning’s pint-sized Lizabeth Scott homage. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 [PG]▼● Pushing Hands (1992-U.S.-Taiwanese) CPursuit of Happiness, The (1971) C-98m. ★★★ 100m. ★★★ D: Ang Lee. Sihung Lung, Lai D: Robert Mulligan. Michael SarraWang, Bo Z. Wang, Deb Snyder, Haan Lee, zin, Barbara Hershey, Robert Klein, Sada Emily Liu. Cultures clash and a family is Thompson, Arthur Hill, E. G. Marshall, strained to the breaking point when a ChiBarnard Hughes, Rue McClanahan. Direcnese-American brings his father, a tai chi tor Mulligan has made lots of overrated master who speaks no English, to live with films, but never got enough credit for this his American wife and son in a N.Y.C. subsympathetic tale of young man sent to jail urb. Writer-director Lee’s first feature is more for his attitude in court than any particu(like his later work) a keenly observed slice lar offense. Good performances. Watch for of life, with both humor and humanity. William Devane, Charles Durning. [PG]▼ Lung, who plays the father, took similar Pursuit of Happyness, The (2006) Croles in Lee’s follow-up films, THE WED117m. ★★★ D: Gabriele Muccino. Will DING BANQUET and EAT DRINK MAN Smith, Thandie Newton, Jaden Christopher WOMAN.▼●쩠 Syre Smith, Brian Howe, James Karen, Dan Pushing Tin (1999) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Castellaneta, Kurt Fuller. Chris Gardner’s Newell. John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, life in San Francisco is falling apart in the Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Jake Weber, early 1980s: his marriage is running on Vicki Lewis. Seriocomic slice of life about fumes, his income from selling medical the high-pressure world of air-traffic conequipment is meager, and before long he’s trollers. Best-of-the-best Cusack gets caught out on the street with his 5-year-old son. in a macho competition with the new guy, The opportunity to turn his life around with Zen cowboy Thornton. MASH-like enseman unpaid internship at a major brokerage ble film starts off extremely well, with strong firm presents itself, but it means living day performances and snappy repartee, but to day, hour to hour, under almost unbearcrash-lands in its second half, becoming a able stress. Smith gives a powerful, empadull domestic romantic comedy about Cuthetic performance in this remarkable true sack trying to win back his estranged wife. story of a man who refuses to give up, Blanchett’s quite good in an underwritten though his all-too-believable ordeal is often role as a Longuyland housewife. First feadifficult to watch. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ture script by Cheers creators Glen and Les Pursuit of the Graf Spee (1956-BritCharles. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ ish) C-119m. ⁄2 D: Michael Powell, Pushover (1954) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Emeric Pressburger. John Gregson, AnQuine. Fred MacMurray, Kim Novak, Phil thony Quayle, Peter Finch, Ian Hunter, Carey, Dorothy Malone, E. G. Marshall. Bernard Lee, Patrick Macnee, Christopher MacMurray is cop who falls in love with Lee. Taut documentary-style account of gangster moll Novak; good cast covers WW2 chase of German warship by British familiar ground.▼쩠 forces. Original title: THE BATTLE OF Putney Swope (1969) C/B&W-85m. ★★★ THE RIVER PLATE. VistaVision.▼ D: Robert Downey. Arnold Johnson, Pepi ★★1 ⁄2 D: Pursuit to Algiers (1945) 65m. Hermine, Ruth Hermine, Allen Garfield, Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Antonio Fargas. Hilarious, but dated, story Bruce, Marjorie Riordan, Rosalind Ivan, of blacks taking over Madison Avenue ad Martin Kosleck, John Abbott. Lesser Sheragency, instituting considerable changes. lock Holmes entry is still diverting tale of Best bit: series of commercial spoofs. Farheir to an Eastern throne on a perilous gas, as The Arab, steals the film. Actor Mediterranean voyage.▼쩠 billed as ‘‘Mel Brooks’’ is not the Brooks Push (2009) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul McGuiwe know and love. [R]▼쩠 gan. Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Djimon Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) C-104m. Hounsou, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis, Ming★★ D: Jerry Schatzberg. Faye Dunaway, Na, Neil Jackson, Maggie Siff. Hiding out Barry Primus, Viveca Lindfors, Barry in a seamy Hong Kong, American expatriMorse, Roy Scheider, Barbara Carrera. Puzates Evans and a miniskirted Fanning join zling is the word for this confusing story of forces to battle an evil U.S. agency led by fashion model trying to put together the pieces Hounsou and his goons. Now pay attention: of her unhappy life. [R] Evans is a ‘‘mover’’ (with telekinetic powPuzzle of the Red Orchid, The (1962ers), Fanning is a ‘‘watcher’’ (more like a German) 94m. ★★ D: Helmut Ashley. Chris‘‘sketcher’’ who interprets the future on a topher Lee, Marisa Mell, Klaus Kinski, sketch pad), while Evans’ girlfriend Belle Fritz Rasp, Adrian Hoven. Moderate Edgar and Hounsou are ‘‘pushers’’ (mind controlWallace entry; Scotland Yard and F.B.I. lers). Belle has escaped a government lab track down international crime syndicate. with a potent serum everyone is after, which Retitled: THE SECRET OF THE RED leads to plenty of action. Outrageously abORCHID.▼쩠 struse script; almost worth seeing for FanPygmalion (1938-British) 95m. ★★★★ D: [ 1116 ]

Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard. Leslie Howard, Wendy Hiller, Wilfrid Lawson, Marie Lohr, David Tree. Superlative filmization of the witty G. B. Shaw play which became MY FAIR LADY. Howard excels as the professor, with Hiller his Cockney pupil. Shaw’s screenplay won an Oscar, as did its adaptation by Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis, and W. P. Lipscomb. Edited by David Lean.▼●쩠 Pyrates (1991) C-95m. BOMB D: Noah Stern. Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Bruce Martyn Payne, Kristin Dattilo, Buckley Norris. Photography student Bacon and cellist Sedgwick meet, and the sex between them is so intense that they literally start fires. Crudely scripted, ineptly directed; see this only if you’re interested in Bacon and Sedgwick’s buns. (In real life they’re husband and wife.) Set in Chicago, this film gives new meaning to the term ‘‘Windy City.’’ [R]▼ Pyro (1964-Spanish) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julio Coli. Barry Sullivan, Martha Hyer, Sherry Moreland, Soledad Miranda. Strange chiller of man burned in fire seeking revenge on ex-girlfriend who started it.▼●쩠 Pyromaniac’s Love Story, A (1995) C94m. ★★ D: Joshua Brand. William Baldwin, John Leguizamo, Sadie Frost, Erika Eleniak, Michael Lerner, Joan Plowright, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mike Starr, Julio Oscar Mechoso. A bakery burns to the ground, the work of an unknown arsonist, and the act evokes such unique emotions among a varied group of romantics that just about everyone claims responsibility for the deed—except the real culprit. Minor attempt at generating the same loopy romantic spirit as films like MOONSTRUCK. Feature directing debut for Brand, who cocreated the TV series St. Elsewhere and Northern Exposure. [PG] ▼●쩠 Pyx, The (1973-Canadian) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Harvey Hart. Karen Black, Christopher Plummer, Donald Pilon, Lee Broker, Yvette Brind’Amour. Excellent blend of horror, science-fiction, and detective thriller with a mystical theme. Police sergeant Plummer investigates prostitute Black’s death, finds a devil cult, numerous decadent suspects, and a new twist on Catholic guilt. Aka THE HOOKER CULT MURDERS. Panavision. [R]▼쩠

ty’s eccentric performance as the loser who knows where the beast resides and intends to cash in on it. Aka THE WINGED SERPENT. [R] ▼●쩠 Q & A (1990) C-132m. ★★ D: Sidney Lumet. Nick Nolte, Timothy Hutton, Armand Assante, Patrick O’Neal, Lee Richardson, Luis Guzman, Charles Dutton, Jenny Lumet, Paul Calderon, Leonard Cimino. Wetbehind-the-ears Assistant D.A. (Hutton) is assigned to investigate an incident in which veteran street cop Nolte killed a Puerto Rican druggie . . . and soon finds himself waist-deep in corruption. Gritty, graphic, well-acted story gets slower as it goes along, dragging toward an increasingly predictable conclusion. Lumet scripted from Edwin Torres’ novel. Ruben Blades’ ‘‘Don’t Double-Cross The Ones You Love’’ bids fair to become the worst movie song of the ’90s. [R] ▼●쩠 Quackers SEE: Loose Shoes Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970-Irish) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Waris Hussein. Gene Wilder, Margot Kidder, Eileen Colgen, Seamus Ford. Delightfully offbeat love story. Quackser Fortune follows the horses around Dublin selling their manure for gardening. The day the horses are replaced by cars he falls in love with an American coed. Original in every way. Screenplay by Gabriel Walsh. Reissued as FUN LOVING. [PG]▼●쩠 Quadrophenia (1979-British) C-115m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Franc Roddam. Phil Daniels, Mark Wingett, Philip Davis, Leslie Ash, Garry Cooper, Sting. Superior mixture of early ’60s ‘‘Angry Young Man’’ drama and rock movie tells of teenage gang battles between Mods and Rockers on the English seaside. A real sleeper. Inspired by The Who’s record album. Sting makes an impressive acting debut. [R]▼●쩠 Quai des Orfe`vres (1947-French) 106m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Henri-Georges Clouzot. Louis Jouvet, Suzy Delair, Bernard Blier, Simone Renant, Charles Dullin, Henri Arius, Pierre Larquey. When a wealthy ‘‘dirty old man’’ is murdered, there is no shortage of suspects. A police procedural layered with telling character portraits, from a poor simp (Blier) who’s suspicious of his coquettish wife, a music-hall singer (Delair), to a dour police detective (Jouvet). Clouzot’s staging of key scenes—an argument during a musical rehearsal, a long scene in the back of a theater Q (1982) C-93m. ★★★ D: Larry Cohen. while chorus girls are dancing—is masterful, David Carradine, Michael Moriarty, Richard as is the overall look of this b&w gem. Title Roundtree, Candy Clark, John Capodice, refers to the location of Paris’ police headJames Dixon, Malachy McCourt. Through quarters. Originally shown in the U.S. as JENNY LAMOUR. ▼쩠 plot tissue that discourages elaboration, a prehistoric Aztec deity finds itself flying out of its Quality Street (1937) 84m. ★★★ D: George nest atop a Manhattan skyscraper to rip the Stevens. Katharine Hepburn, Franchot Tone, heads off rooftop sunbathers and other asFay Bainter, Eric Blore, Cora Witherspoon, sorted victims; somehow, all this is integrated Estelle Winwood, Bonita Granville, Joan Foninto a standard N.Y.C. cop story. Spirited, octaine, William Bakewell. Hepburn is radiant casionally hilarious trash sparked by Moriarin delicate adaptation of James Barrie’s whim[ 1117 ]

sical play: ‘‘old maid’’ masquerades as her ing, Jack Raine, Dirk Bogarde, Cecil Parown niece in order to win back the love of a ker, Honor Blackman. Superb movie with man who hasn’t seen her in 10 years. Filmed Somerset Maugham introducing four of his before in 1927, with Marion Davies. ▼●쩠 tales, each with different casts and moods. Quantez (1957) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harry Its success prompted a sequel, TRIO.▼ Keller. Fred MacMurray, Dorothy Malone, Quartet (1981-British-French) C-101m. ★★★ D: James Ivory. Alan Bates, Maggie Sydney Chaplin, John Gavin, John Larch, Michael Ansara. Above-par Western inSmith, Isabelle Adjani, Anthony Higgins, volving robbery gang heading for Mexico Pierre Clementi, Daniel Mesguich, Virginie border, encountering stiff opposition along Thevenet, Suzanne Flon. Adjani is taken the way. CinemaScope. in by Bohemian Bates and victimized wife Quantum of Solace (2008-U.S.-British) CSmith when her husband (Higgins) is im106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marc Forster. Daniel Craig, prisoned; Bates seduces her into becoming Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi his lover. Expertly acted drama of decaDench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, dence and change; based on a book by Jean Rhys. [R]▼쩠 Jeffrey Wright. In this direct sequel to CASINO ROYALE (2006), a brooding James Quatermass and the Pit: Five Million Bond hunts down the man who caused the Years to Earth (1968-British) C-98m. ★★★ woman he loved to betray him. In so doing he D: Roy Ward Baker. James Donald, Baruncovers a vast conspiracy led by business bara Shelley, Andrew Keir, Julian Glover, mogul Amalric, who’s plotting to gain control Maurice Good, Duncan Lamont. Workers of a prized natural resource. 007 has been unearth spaceship and remains of alien crew reshaped for a BOURNE audience, turning in modern-day London. Good cast, great the formerly suave, witty spy into a one-man script complications, and suspense in fine demolition derby. Hyperactive editing renders example of what can be done on a meager much of the action senseless, though admitbudget. Only subject matter will turn some tedly the film remains watchable throughout. viewers off. Superior to the earlier QUATSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 ERMASS films, known in the U.S. as THE Quarantine (2008) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: John CREEPING UNKNOWN and ENEMY Erick Dowdle. Jennifer Carpenter, Jay HerFROM SPACE. Followed by THE QUATnandez, Johnathon Schaech, Columbus Short, ERMASS CONCLUSION. ▼●쩠 Greg Germann, Steve Harris, Dania Ramirez, Quatermass Conclusion, The (1980Doug Jones, Denis O’Hare, Bernard White, British) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Piers Haggard. Rade Sherbedgia, Marin Hinkle. TV news John Mills, Simon MacCorkindale, Barcrew, shadowing an L.A. fire brigade on the bara Kellerman, Margaret Tyzack, Brewgraveyard shift, answers a routine call that ster Mason. Mills is fine as heroic Professor quickly escalates into horrific violence. ForcBernard Quatermass (of earlier screen and ibly locked inside an apartment building, all television adventures) in this entertaining fall victim one by one to a plague of bloody though poorly produced sci-fi adventure. He madness. New twist on the living dead is wellcomes to the rescue when a death beam acted scary stuff, but this remake of the 2007 from outer space evaporates the world’s Spanish thriller [REC], nauseatingly experiyoung. Made for British TV. Original title: enced entirely through a shaky video lens, QUATERMASS.▼ desperately calls for Dramamine. [R]쩠 Quatermass 2: Enemy from Space (1957Quare Fellow, The (1962-Irish) 85m. ★★★1⁄2 British) 84m. ★★★ D: Val Guest. Brian DonD: Arthur Dreifuss. Patrick McGoohan, levy, Michael Ripper, Sidney James, Bryan Sylvia Syms, Walter Macken, Dermot Kelly, Forbes, John Longden, Vera Day, William Jack Cunningham, Hilton Edwards. IrishFranklin. Even better than the original, THE made adaptation of Brendan Behan play QUATERMASS XPERIMENT: THE deals with new prison guard, well played CREEPING UNKNOWN, this tense, scary by McGoohan, who changes mind about science-fiction thriller concerns a secret capital punishment. Finely acted; excelalien invasion and BODY SNATCHERSlent script by director Dreifuss.쩠 like takeovers of human beings. Donlevy Quarrel, The (1991-Canadian) C-88m. is stern as Prof. Quatermass. Followed by ★★1 ⁄2 D: Eli Cohen. R. H. Thompson, Saul QUATERMASS AND THE PIT: FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH.▼●쩠 Rubinek. A pair of former friends, both Jews, meet by accident and pass the day Quatermass Xperiment, The: The Creeping Unknown (1956-British) 82m. ★★★ D: discussing the implications of the Holocaust and how it has altered their lives. Val Guest. Brian Donlevy, Margia Dean, Provocative subject matter, based on a Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth. A spacestory by Chaim Grade, but the result is as ship returns to Earth with only one man left static as it is thoughtful.▼쩠 on board; infested by an alien entity, he Quartet (1948-British) 120m. ★★★★ D: gradually transforms into a hideous monKen Annakin, Arthur Crabtree, Harold ster. Tense, imaginative, adult; well acted French, Ralph Smart. Basil Radford, by all concerned. Based on hit BBC-TV Naunton Wayne, Mai Zetterling, Ian Flemserial by Nigel Kneale. Followed by three [ 1118 ]

★★★1 sequels, beginning with QUATERMASS 2: ⁄2 D: Jon Amiel. Vittorio Duse, Joseph ENEMY FROM SPACE. ▼쩠 Long, Anita Zagaria, Eileen Way, Vittorio Queen, The (2006-British-French-ItalianAmandola, Ian Hawkes, Tat Whalley. ExU.S.) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Frears. traordinary and unusual film, better seen Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromthan described, about an Italian couple who well, Helen McCrory, Alex Jennings, Roger lead a pleasantly quixotic life in England runAllam, Sylvia Syms, Mark Bazeley. Intrining a family cafe´. Tony Grisoni’s original guing look inside the private life of Enscreenplay embraces elements of romance, gland’s royal family as Queen Elizabeth II humor, melodrama, mysticism, and fantasy in contends with the death of Princess Diana, a heady mix. Remarkable first feature for diwhile her new, ‘‘modernist’’ Prime Minisrector Amiel, who did The Singing Detective for British TV. [PG]▼ ter, Tony Blair (Sheen), tries to persuade her that her stoic silence is out of step with Queen of Outer Space (1958) C-79m. ★★ the public’s grief. Perceptive, persuasive, D: Edward Bernds. Zsa Zsa Gabor, witty, and poignant, Peter Morgan’s script Eric Fleming, Laurie Mitchell, Patrick humanizes the public figures it portrays, Waltz, Paul Birch, Lisa Davis, Dave while actual TV news footage sets the stage Willock. Manned rocketship from Earth is for the events being dramatized. Mirren’s abducted to Venus, where the planet is ruled flawless, Oscar-winning performance sets a entirely by women. Silly, to say the least, standard met by all of her costars. Evocative but at least some of the laughs were intenand imaginative score by Alexandre Destional. Zsa Zsa, incidentally, does not play the title character! CinemaScope.▼쩠 plat. A follow-up to Frears’ and Morgan’s British TV movie THE DEAL (2003), in Queen of Spades, The (1949-British) 95m. ★★★1 which Sheen first played Blair. [PG-13]쩠 ⁄2 D: Thorold Dickinson. Anton WalQueen Bee (1955) 95m. ★★★ D: Ranald brook, Edith Evans, Ronald Howard, Mary MacDougall. Joan Crawford, Barry SulliJerrold, Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Dawvan, Betsy Palmer, John Ireland, Fay Wray, son. Exquisite production of an unusual, Tim Hovey. Crawford in title role has macabre Alexander Pushkin story about an field-day maneuvering the lives of all in impoverished Russian officer (Walbrook, in her Southern mansion, with husband Sula rich performance) who will do anything to livan providing the final ironic twist.▼쩠 learn the mystical secret of winning at cards Queen Christina (1933) 97m. ★★★★ D: known only by an imperious old woman. Rouben Mamoulian. Greta Garbo, John Brilliant use of chiaroscuro lighting and atmosphere in this sleeper set in 1806. ▼쩠 Gilbert, Ian Keith, Lewis Stone, C. Aubrey Smith, Gustav von Seyffertitz, RegiQueen of the Damned (2002-AustralianU.S.) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Rymer. nald Owen. Probably Garbo’s best film, with a haunting performance by the radiant Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Marguerite Mostar as 17th-century Swedish queen who rereau, Vincent Perez, Paul McGann, Lena linquishes her throne for her lover, Gilbert. Olin, Christian Manon. Vampire Lestat Garbo and Gilbert’s love scenes together awakens after a long deep sleep and goes are truly memorable, as is the famous final public in the world of rock music, where he shot. Don’t miss this one.▼●쩠 seems to blend in perfectly! But his posturQueen Margot (1994-French-Germaning angers the man who ‘‘made’’ him, inItalian) C-143m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Patrice Che´reau. trigues a young woman who’s drawn to his Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Jeanworld, and lines him up as the perfect mate Hugues Anglade, Vincent Perez, Virna Lisi, for the queen of the undead (played by popJean-Claude Brialy, Dominique Blanc, Pasmusic star Aaliyah, who died before the cal Greggory, Claudio Amendola, Miguel film’s release). Dopey but amusing. Based Bose´, Asia Argento, Barbet Schroeder. on one of Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles novels. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Enormous production, based on a Dumas novel, of the events surrounding notorious Queen of the Nile (1962-Italian) C-85m. ★★ D: Fernando Cerchio. Jeanne Crain, St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre in 16thcentury France. Young Margot (Adjani) is Vincent Price, Edmund Purdom, Amedeo forced to marry Henri de Navarre (Auteuil) Nazzari. Dull account of court life in 2000 by her scheming mother, Catherine de MeB.C. Egypt. Not even campy. SuperCinescope.▼쩠 dici (Lisi), with unexpected and terrible consequences. Excellent film (produced by Queen’s Guards, The (1960-British) C110m. ★★ D: Michael Powell. Daniel MasClaude Berri) boasts strong performances in every role, sumptuous decor, and surprisingly sey, Robert Stephens, Raymond Massey, erotic love scenes. Intricate, intelligent and Ursula Jeans. Tedious, patriotic chronicle often moving epic. Scripted by Daniele of young Massey distinguishing himself in Thompson and director Che´reau. Previously service, saving family name; humdrum filmed in 1954, with Jeanne Moreau. Original film. CinemaScope. French version runs 166m. [R]▼●쩠 Queens Logic (1991) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Queen of Blood SEE: Planet of Blood Steve Rash. Kevin Bacon, Linda FiorenQueen of Hearts (1989-British) C-112m. tino, John Malkovich, Joe Mantegna, Ken [ 1119 ]

Olin, Tony Spiridakis, Tom Waits, Chloe Webb, Jamie Lee Curtis, J. J. Johnson, Kelly Bishop, Ed Marinaro. Title refers not to royalty, but to the N.Y.C. borough. Robust performances half-spark a BIG CHILL–type reunion pic, as old pals and their mates reunite for a wedding. Actor Spiridakis penned the so-so script. Unusually fine rock-oldie score helps. [R]▼●쩠 Quemada! SEE: Burn! Querelle (1982-German) C-120m. BOMB D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Brad Davis, Franco Nero, Jeanne Moreau, Gunther Kaufmann, Hanno Poschl. Or, ‘‘A Guy in Every Port.’’ Davis is the French sailor whose venture into an infamous whorehouse in Brest permits him to discover his true homosexual nature. Fassbinder’s final film was rejected even by his admirers; gamy but slickly produced adaptation of Jean Genet novel induces boredom and giggles in equal measure. Technovision. [R]▼쩠 Quest, The (1986-Australian) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian Trenchard-Smith. Henry Thomas, Tony Barry, Rachel Friend, Tamsin West, Dennis Miller, Katya Manning. Abortive Australian attempt to capitalize on young Thomas’ success as the star of E.T.; here he plays a precocious child who, along with a couple of pals, visits an aboriginal burial ground where a Loch Ness–style monster lives. Competently made but uninteresting. [PG]▼ Quest, The (1996) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: JeanClaude Van Damme. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Roger Moore, James Remar, Jack McGee, Janet Gunn, Aki Aleong, Louis Mandylor. Epic martial-arts story with highkicking Van Damme as N.Y.C. pickpocket whose efforts to elude the police lead him to the Far East and into the most exclusive and prestigious fight in the ‘‘world.’’ Besides Jean-Claude, film features 15 of the world’s greatest martial arts champions. A passable but uninspired directing debut for the star, who also gets story credit. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Quest for Camelot (1998) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frederick Du Chau. Voices of Jessalyn Gilsig, Cary Elwes, Gary Oldman, Eric Idle, Don Rickles, Jane Seymour, Celine Dion, Bryan White, Pierce Brosnan, Gabriel Byrne, Jaleel White, Bronson Pinchot, John Gielgud. Pretty good Disney-derivative cartoon, about the plucky daughter of a slain knight who wants to follow in her father’s footsteps—and does just that when King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur, is stolen. Too dark and violent for very young kids, but agreeable enough. Familiar story path, with romance, songs, and comic relief. [G]

living 80,000 years ago is attacked by apes and wolves and loses its fire, essential for survival. They don’t know how to make fire, so three of their own trek off to find it again. Not the epic intended, but still funny, tense, touching—and fascinating. Special languages devised by Anthony Burgess, and body languages and gestures by Desmond Morris; the makeup earned an Academy Award. Filmed in Kenya, Scotland, Iceland, and Canada. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Quest for Love (1971-British) C-90m. ★★★ D: Ralph Thomas. Tom Bell, Joan Collins, Denholm Elliott, Laurence Naismith, Lyn Ashley, Juliet Harmer, Neil McCallum, Simon Ward. Intriguing sci-fi story of man who accidentally passes into another dimension on Earth almost identical to ours, with some strange differences. Based on John Wyndham’s short story.▼ Quick and the Dead, The (1995) C-105m. ★★ D: Sam Raimi. Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobin Bell, Roberts Blossom, Kevin Conway, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Pat Hingle, Gary Sinise, Olivia Burnette, Fay Masterson, Bruce Campbell. Female stranger comes to the town of Redemption to enter its annual quick-draw competition; her real motive is to seek revenge on the town’s evil boss, Herod (Hackman), for what he did to her family years ago. Sluggish Western tries to turn Stone into The Man With No Name, but even on a parody level, it doesn’t work; endless closeups of her beautiful face reveal nothing. One would expect more razzle-dazzle from director Raimi. Woody Strode appears briefly as a coffin maker in the opening scene; this was his final film. [R]▼●쩠 Quick Before It Melts (1964) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delbert Mann. George Maharis, Robert Morse, Anjanette Comer, James Gregory, Yvonne Craig, Doodles Weaver, Howard St. John, Michael Constantine. Trivia involving Maharis and Morse in the Antarctic; they have bright idea of bringing in a planeload of girls, with predictable results. Panavision. Quick Change (1990) C-88m. ★★★ D: Howard Franklin, Bill Murray. Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards, Bob Elliott, Philip Bosco, Phil Hartman, Kurtwood Smith, Jamey Sheridan, Kathryn Grody, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub. Very low-key but funny outing for Murray as a malcontent who stages a clever bank robbery—disguised as a clown—but can’t seem to get out of N.Y.C. with his accomplices, Davis and Quaid. It’s possible that only New Yorkers will truly appreciate the anti-City sentiments (and often hilarious vi▼●쩠 Quest for Fire (1981-French-Canadian) gnettes) that permeate the film. Jay Cron1 ★★★ C-97m. ley’s novel was previously filmed in 1985 ⁄2 D: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Everett McGill, Rae Dawn Chong, Ron as HOLD-UP, with Jean-Paul Belmondo. Perlman, Nameer El Kadi. Peaceful tribe [R]▼●쩠 [ 1120 ]

Quick Gun, The (1964) C-87m. ★★ D: boring secrets and acting stranger than the Sidney Salkow. Audie Murphy, Merry AnAddams Family. Film doesn’t know if it ders, James Best, Ted de Corsia, Frank wants to be a psychological thriller, a lesFerguson, Raymond Hatton. Formula Murphy bian drama, a dysfunctional family story, or Western, with Audie redeeming himself by a teen movie. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 combating town outlaws. Techniscope. Quiet American, The (1958) 120m. ★★1⁄2 Quick, Let’s Get Married (1971) C-96m. D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Audie Murphy, BOMB D: William Dieterle. Ginger RogMichael Redgrave, Claude Dauphin, Giorers, Ray Milland, Barbara Eden, Michael gia Moll, Bruce Cabot. Sanitized version Ansara, Walter Abel, Elliott Gould. of the Graham Greene novel, with the Bordello madam Rogers and adventurer book’s ‘‘un-American’’ feeling eliminated; Milland perpetrate ‘‘miracle’’ hoax on gullnaive American Murphy arrives in Saigon ible prostitute (Eden). Gould makes inauspiwith his own plan to settle country’s conflicts. cious film debut as deaf mute. This More a murder mystery than the political embarrassment was filmed in 1964. Aka thriller intended. Remade in 2002. 쩠 SEVEN DIFFERENT WAYS. Quiet American, The (2002-AustralianQuicksand (1950) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irving U.S.) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phillip Noyce. MiPichel. Mickey Rooney, Jeanne Cagney, chael Caine, Brendan Fraser, Do Thi Hai Barbara Bates, Peter Lorre, Taylor Holmes, Yen, Rade Sherbedgia, Tzi Ma, Robert Wally Cassell, Jimmy Dodd. Minor film Stanton, Holmes Osborne, Pham Thi Mai noir about auto mechanic Rooney, who is Hoa, Quang Hai, Ferdinand Hoang. Remake hot for trampy Cagney, and what happens of Graham Greene’s novel about a love trianwhen he ‘‘borrows’’ $20 from his boss’ gle, set in 1952 Saigon, between a cynical cash register. Lorre is wonderfully menacBritish journalist, his young Vietnamese mising as a sleazy penny arcade owner.▼●쩠 tress, and an American who is not all that Quicksand (2002-British-French-German) he seems to be. Handsomely mounted, with C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Mackenzie. Michael excellent performances by Caine and Fraser, Keaton, Michael Caine, Judith Godre`che, but the central romance and political deRade Serbedgia, Matthew Marsh, Xander tails—more faithful to Greene than Joseph Berkeley, Kathleen Wilhoite, Rachel FerL. Mankiewicz’s 1958 version—are surprisjani. U.S. bank executive Keaton is in Nice ingly uninvolving. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 to investigate a movie company’s finances Quiet Days in Hollywood (1996-Germanand instead becomes a fugitive accused of U.S.) C-91m. BOMB D: Josef Rusnak. Bill murder. Caine plays an egocentric movie Cusack, Peter Dobson, Meta Golding, Chad star caught up in the plot. Modestly enterLowe, Stephen Mailer, Daryl (‘‘Chill’’) taining thriller with good locations; Caine is Mitchell, Hilary Swank, Natasha Gregson amusing as the aging idol. Released direct Wagner, Jake Busey. Messy mishmash of to video in the U.S. [R] ▼쩠 loosely connected vignettes linking various Quicksilver (1986) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom L.A. characters (from waitress to showbiz Donnelly. Kevin Bacon, Jami Gertz, Paul exec, movie star to junkie), all of whom have Rodriguez, Rudy Ramos, Andrew Smith, sex on the brain. Of interest for the presence Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Larry Fishburne, Louis of Swank, as a pop culture–obsessed hooker. Anderson. The lives of big-city bicycle mesAka THE WAY WE ARE. [R]▼쩠 sengers (confusingly shot in three different Quiet Earth, The (1985-New Zealand) cities), and one white-collar dropout in particC-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Geoff Murphy. Bruno ular. Low-gear all the way. [PG]▼●쩠 Lawrence, Alison Routledge, Peter Smith. ★★ Quid Pro Quo (2008) C-82m. D: Carlos Intriguing (and extremely good-looking) Brooks. Nick Stahl, Vera Farmiga, Jacob end-of-the-world saga; not entirely sucPitts, Aimee Mullins, James Frain, Kate cessful but well worth a look. [R]▼●쩠 Burton, Jessica Hecht, Dylan Bruno, Pablo Quiet Man, The (1952) C-129m. ★★★★ D: Schreiber. Paraplegic radio personality Stahl John Ford. John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, begins a highly charged relationship with a Barry Fitzgerald, Victor McLaglen, Mildred mystery woman (Farmiga) who’s obsessed Natwick, Arthur Shields, Ward Bond, Ken with losing the ability to walk. Idiosyncratic Curtis, Mae Marsh, Jack MacGowran, Sean exploration of memory and guilt is ambiMcClory, Francis Ford. American boxer tious but slow moving, and not satisfying Wayne returns to his native Ireland and falls in love with a spirited lass (O’Hara) dramatically. [R]쩠 Quiet, The (2005) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Jamie —but has to deal with local customs (inBabbit. Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Edie cluding the payment of a dowry) and the Falco, Martin Donovan, Shawn Ashmore, young woman’s bullheaded brother (McLagKaty Mixon, David Gallagher, Shannon len). Boisterous blarney, with beautiful Marie Woodward. Dull, weird, and pointTechnicolor scenery, and equally beautiful less story of a deaf girl, orphaned by the music by Victor Young. This film was death of her father, who moves in with her clearly a labor of love for Ford and his godparents and their scheming daughter. Irish-American stars. Maurice Walsh’s story She soon discovers the whole crew is harwas scripted by Frank Nugent. Oscar win[ 1121 ]

ner for Best Director and Cinematography Gonza´lez all but steals the film as the beatific (Winton C. Hoch and Archie Stout).▼●쩠 uncle. Writing-directing partners Glatzer and Quiet Room, The (1996-Australian) C-91m. Westmoreland were inspired by real-life ★★★1 events in their community. HD Widescreen. ⁄2 D: Rolf de Heer. Celine O’Leary, Paul Blackwell, Chloe Ferguson, Phoebe [R]쩠 Ferguson. Revealing and compelling porQuintet (1979) C-110m. ★★ D: Robert trait of the disintegration of a marriage as Altman. Paul Newman, Bibi Andersson, seen completely through the eyes and mind Fernando Rey, Vittorio Gassman, Nina of a seven-year-old girl. Writer-director de Van Pallandt, Brigitte Fossey, David Heer vividly captures the truth about the Langton. Pretentious, unappealing story experience through the self-imposed silence about cutthroat game of survival in a froof a wise child who clearly sees through zen city of the future. Not as puzzling as it adult evasiveness and lies. [PG]▼ is ponderous. [R]▼쩠 Quigley Down Under (1990) C-119m. Quiz Show (1994) C-130m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rob★★★ D: Simon Wincer. Tom Selleck, Laura ert Redford. John Turturro, Rob Morrow, San Giacomo, Alan Rickman, Chris HayRalph Fiennes, Paul Scofield, David Paywood, Ron Haddrick, Tony Bonner, Jemer, Hank Azaria, Christopher McDonald, rome Ehlers, Conor McDermottroe, Roger Johann Carlo, Elizabeth Wilson, Allan Ward, Ben Mendelsohn. Selleck is excelRich, Mira Sorvino, George Martin, Paul lent as a self-assured sharpshooter who travels Guilfoyle, Griffin Dunne, Timothy Busto Australia to work for despotic land baron field, Jack Gilpin, Bruce Altman, Carole Rickman—and takes an instant dislike to him, Shelley, Illeana Douglas, Calista Flockhart. spawning a deadly game of cat-and-mouse in Engrossing story of the TV quiz show scandal which only one will be left alive. Expertly of the late 1950s, focusing on a hotheaded filmed on exquisite locations, with its good sore loser (Turturro, in a sensational perforqualities outweighing occasional dips in intermance) and his successor on Twenty-One: inest. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 stant hero Charles Van Doren (Fiennes), scion Quiller Memorandum, The (1966-British) of a socially prominent, intellectual family. Overlength is its only weakness—but it never C-105m. ★★★ D: Michael Anderson. George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max von Sydow, ceases to be real (if not always exactly truthSenta Berger, George Sanders, Robert ful). Scofield is a joy to watch as the elder Helpmann, Robert Flemyng. Good Harold Van Doren, and director Martin Scorsese is Pinter script about American secret agent well cast as the cold-blooded sponsor of the who investigates neo-Nazi movement in show. That’s film director Barry Levinson as modern-day Berlin. A relief from most spy TV host Dave Garroway; look sharp for an unfilms of the ’60s. Based on novel The Berlin billed Ethan Hawke in a Columbia University Memorandum by Elleston Trevor (using classroom. [PG-13]▼●쩠 pseudonym Adam Hall). Panavision. ▼쩠 Quo Vadis (1951) C-171m. ★★★ D: MerQuills (2000) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip vyn LeRoy. Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Kaufman. Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Peter Ustinov, Leo Genn, Patricia Laffan, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Finlay Currie, Abraham Sofaer, Buddy Baer. Whitelaw, Patrick Malahide, Amelia WarGargantuan MGM adaptation of Henryk ner. The Marquis de Sade (Rush, in a deliSienkiewicz’ novel set during the reign of cious performance) is imprisoned in a Nero; Roman soldier Taylor has to figure out French asylum, and a laundress (Winslet) how to romance Christian Kerr without both smuggles his notorious manuscripts to an of them ending up as lunch for the lions. eager publisher. When this proves to be an Meticulous production includes fine location embarrassment to Napoleon, a brutal doctor shooting and Miklos Rozsa score based on (Caine) is dispatched to keep him in line. music of the era. Remade for Italian TV in 1985. ▼●쩠 Handsome, witty, and ribald . . . then it turns grim and nasty, leaving a bad taste behind. Doug Wright adapted his play. [R]▼쩠 Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002-AustralianBritish) C-94m. ★★★ D: Phillip Noyce. EvQuincean˜era (2006) C-90m. ★★★ D: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland. Emily erlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura MoRios, Jesse Garcia, Chalo Gonza´lez, J. R. naghan, David Gulpilil, Kenneth Branagh, Cruz, Araceli Guzma´n-Rico, Jesus Castan˜osDeborah Mailman, Jason Clarke, Ningali Chima, David W. Ross, Jason L. Wood. Lawford, Myarn Lawford. Amazing true Disarming slice-of-life set in L.A.’s Echo story set in 1931 Australia, as three halfPark community, where a 14-year-old girl caste aboriginal girls are taken from their about to have her traditional rite-of-passage mothers—as the law dictates—and transparty can’t explain how she got pregnant . . . ferred to a camp 1,500 miles away, where and her uncompromising father (a neighborthey will be Anglicized and trained for dohood pastor) doesn’t believe she’s innocent. mestic work. When they escape and head Meanwhile her cousin, already a family outhome, the bureaucrat who’s in charge of abocast, takes up with an upscale gay couple rigines (Branagh) does everything in his that’s moved into the changing neighborhood. power to capture them, but he doesn’t reckon [ 1122 ]

on their cunning and determination. Told with in gold from DC-3 wrecked during WW2. restraint, this emotional story is underplayed, Video title: TREASURE OF THE YANbut the final real-life footage packs a punch. KEE ZEPHYR. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Music by Peter Gabriel. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 Race to Witch Mountain (2009) C-99m. ★★1 Rabbit, Run (1970) C-94m. ★★ D: Jack ⁄2 D: Andy Fickman. Dwayne Johnson, Smight. James Caan, Carrie Snodgress, Alexander Ludwig, AnnaSophia Robb, Carla Anjanette Comer, Jack Albertson, Melodie Gugino, Ciara´n Hinds, Tom Everett Scott, Johnson, Henry Jones, Carmen Matthews, Cheech Marin, Garry Marshall. Speedy but Nydia Westman, Josephine Hutchinson, routine revamping of Disney’s 1970s notKen Kercheval, Arthur Hill. Brilliant cast, quite franchise (ESCAPE TO WITCH brilliant book (by John Updike), but dull MOUNTAIN, RETURN FROM WITCH film about former high school athlete who MOUNTAIN, and some made-for-TV refinds that life is tougher than being on the makes in the 1990s) begins with the artist playing field. Panavision. [R] previously known as The Rock driving a Rabbit Test (1978) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joan cab in Vegas. Then, it quickly evolves into Rivers. Billy Crystal, Alex Rocco, Joan a yarn of flying saucers, teen space aliens, a Prather, Doris Roberts, George Gobel, Imocute astrophysicist, a government heavy gene Coca, Paul Lynde. Rivers’ only film to who actually is overweight, underworld date is like low-budget Mel Brooks: wacky thugs, a country bar band, mouthy dweebs comedy surrounding slim plot about first at a sci-fi convention . . . and, oh yeah, pregnant man. Some wild ideas, mostly in Witch Mountain. Affable (if forgettable) enbad taste. Many guest-star cameos (includtertainment for kids. Kim Richards and Ike ing Rivers as a nurse). [PG]▼● Eisenmann, who starred in the 1970s films, make cameo appearances. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Rabid (1977-Canadian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Cronenberg. Marilyn Chambers, Race With the Devil (1975) C-88m. ★1⁄2 Frank Moore, Joe Silver, Patricia Gage, D: Jack Starrett. Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, Susan Roman. Motorcyclist Chambers has Loretta Swit, Lara Parker, R. G. Armplastic surgery after an accident, develops strong. Two vacationing couples are puran insatiable hankering for human blood. sued by local Satanists after witnessing a Good of its type; well directed by cult favorite human sacrifice. It takes quite a human sacCronenberg. Porn star Chambers removes her rifice to sit through this hybrid car-chase/ horror film. [PG]▼쩠 clothes—but nothing more. [R]▼쩠 Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977) Rachel and the Stranger (1948) 79m. ★★★ C-75m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Melendez. Voices of D: Norman Foster. Loretta Young, Duncan Watson, Greg Felton, Stuart BrotWilliam Holden, Robert Mitchum, Tom man, Gail Davis, Liam Martin. Third anTully, Sara Haden. Charming pioneer love imated feature based on Charles Schulz’s story of a farmer, his indentured servant Peanuts comic strip is set in summer camp, wife, and the farmer’s wandering minstrel highlighted by treacherous raft race. Mildly friend who visits their homestead. Three atentertaining, but lacks punch. [G]▼● tractive stars at their prime. Originally reRacers, The (1955) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry viewed at 93m. Also shown in computercolored version.▼● Hathaway. Kirk Douglas, Bella Darvi, Gilbert Roland, Lee J. Cobb, Cesar Romero, Katy Rachel Getting Married (2008) C-113m. ★★★ Jurado. Hackneyed sports-car racing yarn, not D: Jonathan Demme. Anne Hathaway, salvaged by Douglas’ dynamics or European Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Debra Winger, location shooting. CinemaScope.▼ Tunde Adebimpe, Mather Zickel, Anisa Race the Sun (1996) C-105m. ★★ D: Charles George, Anna Deavere Smith. Emotionally T. Kanganis. Halle Berry, James Belushi, charged drama, shot like a cine´ma ve´rite´ docuKevin Tighe, Bill Hunter, Eliza Dushku, J. mentary, about a troubled young woman Moki Cho, Casey Affleck, Steve Zahn. An (Hathaway) who’s temporarily sprung from a idealistic teacher (Berry) and gruff mechanic rehab facility in order to attend her sister’s wed(Belushi) team up to mentor eight povertyding at the family’s home . . . but Hathaway stricken kids who build a solar-powered car is a raw nerve who sets off sparks willy-nilly, and take it to a racing competition across Ausrepeatedly undermining her sister (DeWitt) tralia. Cliche´s abound in this ‘‘feel-good’’ and her long-suffering father (Irwin). She also film, and the leads are annoying, but the kids has unfinished business with her divorced are charming (in particular, Cho). Exotic lomother (Winger). Superb performances miticales help. Written by Barry Morrow (RAIN gate against the sometimes annoying ambiMAN). [PG]▼●쩠 ance, but it’s all masterfully orchestrated by Race to the Yankee Zephyr (1981-AusDemme, who finds the resonance in the debut screenplay of Jenny Lumet (Sidney’s daughtralian-New Zealand) C-108m. ★★ D: David Hemmings. Ken Wahl, Lesley Ann Warter). [R]쩠 ren, Donald Pleasence, George Peppard, Rachel Papers, The (1989-British) C-95m. 1⁄2 D: Damian Harris. Dexter Fletcher, ★★ Bruno Lawrence. Addle-brained drama about good guys Wahl and Pleasence and nemesis Ione Skye, Jonathan Pryce, James Spader, Peppard attempting to recover $50 million Bill Paterson, Lesley Sharp, Michael [ 1123 ]

Gambon. Young Britisher relentlessly puras his overbearing father and Francis his sues an American girl, with the help of his friend. Slick production adapted from Rod computer. Skye shines (in a role similar to Serling teleplay. Robert Blake, Dean Jones, the one she had in SAY ANYTHING . . .) and Rod Taylor have small roles. but this is really a showcase for Fletcher. Racket, The (1951) 88m. ★★★ D: John Sporadically charming, adapted by firstCromwell. Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, time director Harris from Martin Amis’ Lizabeth Scott, Ray Collins, William novel. [R]▼쩠 Talman, Robert Hutton, William Conrad, Rachel, Rachel (1968) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Don Porter. Police officer Mitchum and Paul Newman. Joanne Woodward, James gangster Ryan spend almost as much time Olson, Kate Harrington, Estelle Parsons, Donfighting their corrupt superiors as they do ald Moffat, Terry Kiser. Beautifully sensitive, each other. Unusual film noir with strong mature film about spinster schoolteacher tryperformances (especially Ryan’s) and biing to come out of her shell. Woodward is zarre ending; based on play previously filmed superb; husband Newman’s directorial debut. by producer Howard Hughes in 1928. CoScreenplay by Stewart Stern, from a novel by scripted by W. R. Burnett; some scenes were Margaret Laurence. [R]▼쩠 directed by Nicholas Ray. Also shown in 1 ★★ Rachel River (1987) C-90m. ⁄2 D: computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Sandy Smolan. Zeljko Ivanek, Pamela Racket Busters (1938) 71m. ★★ D: Lloyd Reed, Craig T. Nelson, James Olson, Alan Bacon. George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, North, Viveca Lindfors, Jo Henderson, Gloria Dickson, Allen Jenkins, Walter Abel, Jon De Vries, Richard Jenkins. OccasionHenry O’Neill, Penny Singleton. Mobster ally contrived but mostly intelligent chroniBogie’s going to take over the trucking cle of Reed, a rural Minnesota mother and business, but Brent doesn’t want to coopradio journalist, and the various people who erate. Standard programmer moves along inhabit her town. Thoughtful performances well; cowritten by Robert Rossen. overcome the occasional insipidness. Rad (1986) C-91m. BOMB D: Hal NeedScreenplay by Judith Guest; a PBS Ameriham. Bart Connor, Lori Laughlin, Talia can Playhouse theatrical production. [PGShire, Jack Weston, Ray Walston. Connor 13]▼ is supposed to take his SATs, but wouldn’t Racing Stripes (2005) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: you know it, there’s a big BMX race on Frederik Du Chau. Bruce Greenwood, Haythe same Saturday? ‘‘Rad’’ is short for den Panettiere, M. Emmet Walsh, Wendie radical—as in ‘‘Radical, man’’—which Malick; voices of Frankie Muniz, Whoopi this trash definitely is not: Didn’t we see Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, Mandy Moore, this same plot in late ’50s hot-rod and late ’70s roller-disco movies? [PG]▼● Snoop Dogg, Jeff Foxworthy, Joe Pantoliano, Fred Dalton Thompson, David Spade, Radio (2003) C-109m. ★★ D: Mike Tollin. Michael Clarke Duncan, Steve Harvey, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ed Harris, Debra Winger, Joshua Jackson. A zebra falls off a truck and Alfre Woodard, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brent ends up in the rural household of widowed Sexton, Chris Mulkey, Sarah Drew. South Greenwood and his adolescent daughter Carolina high school football coach takes an (Panettiere), who longs to race him. Barninterest in a mentally challenged young man yard animals speak, BABE-style, which who’s been mistreated by some of the footgives work to a condo-mixer cast of voiceball players. Nicknamed Radio, he blosover talent, including Spade as a fecessoms under the coach’s influence, but some craving horsefly named ‘‘Scuzz.’’ To quote people in his close-knit community don’t Gig Young in THEY SHOOT HORSES, cotton to this relationship. Although ‘‘inDON’T THEY?, ‘‘Yowza!’’ [PG] ▼쩠 spired’’ by a true story, the film feels pat Racing With the Moon (1984) C-108m. and hollow, despite good performances by ★★★ D: Richard Benjamin. Sean Penn, Gooding and Harris. Brief footage of the Elizabeth McGovern, Nicolas Cage, John real coach and his prote´ge´ at the very end of Karlen, Rutanya Alda, Carol Kane, Crispin the film has more meaning—and impact— Glover, Michael Madsen, Dana Carvey. than anything in the movie itself. [PG] ▼쩠 Teenage romance set in small California Radioactive Dreams (1986) C-98m. ★★ town just as the young man is about to go D: Albert Pyun. John Stockwell, Michael off to fight in WW2. Appealing stars and Dudikoff, Lisa Blount, George Kennedy, loving eye for 1940s detail make up for Don Murray, Michele Little. So-so postslow pace. That bowling alley is a gem! apocalypse drama about Stockwell and [PG]▼●쩠 Dudikoff, who’ve come to maturity in a bomb Rack, The (1956) 100m. ★★★ D: Arnold shelter. They’ve read all of Raymond ChanLaven. Paul Newman, Wendell Corey, dler’s Philip Marlowe books and have taken Walter Pidgeon, Edmond O’Brien, Anne on the private eye’s personality. Nicely Francis, Lee Marvin, Cloris Leachman. filmed, but it doesn’t hold up. [R]▼● Newman is pensively convincing as KoRadio Days (1987) C-85m. ★★★ D: Woody rean War veteran—brainwashed as a P.O.W. Allen. Mia Farrow, Seth Green, Julie —now on trial for treason, with Pidgeon Kavner, Josh Mostel, Michael Tucker, Di[ 1124 ]

anne Wiest, Wallace Shawn, Tito Puente, Wenders (film’s associate producer); plot Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Tony Roberts, is only hinted at in this meditation on the Diane Keaton, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Kenneth bleakness of modern life.쩠 Mars, Mercedes Ruehl, Rebecca Schaeffer, Ra Expeditions, The (1971-Norwegian) Todd Field, Larry David. Richly nostalgic C-93m. ★★★ D: Lennart Ehrenborg. Narreminiscence (narrated by Woody) about rated by Thor Heyerdahl and Roscoe Lee growing up in 1940s Queens, mixing family Browne. Exciting documentary about modvignettes with incidents about radio perern adventurer Heyerdahl’s determination formers from that medium’s golden age. to cross the Atlantic in a papyrus boat, to The narrative never really gels, though it’s prove theory that such a voyage was made always enjoyable to watch . . . especially thousands of years ago. Fine follow-up to with Allen’s eye for detail and ear for diaKON-TIKI. [G] logue. Beautifully photographed by Carlo Di Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dick Richards. Alan Arkin, Palma and designed by Santo Loquasto; filled with wonderful vintage music. Look Sally Kellerman, Mackenzie Phillips, Alex sharp for William H. Macy. [PG] ▼●쩠 Rocco, Charlie Martin Smith, Harry Dean Radio Flyer (1992) C-120m. ★★ D: RichStanton. Appealing but aimless film about ard Donner. Lorraine Bracco, John Heard, a pair of women who force nebbish Arkin Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello, Adam Baldto drive them to New Orleans from L.A. Retiwin, Ben Johnson. Two young, devoted tled RAFFERTY AND THE HIGHWAY brothers must find a way to survive their HUSTLERS for TV. Panavision. [R]▼ mother’s marriage to an abusive drunk; Rage (1966-U.S.-Mexican) C-103m. ★1⁄2 their salvation is escape into a secret world, D: Gilberto Gazcon. Glenn Ford, Stella where they hatch a master plan for their Stevens, David Reynoso, Armando SilRadio Flyer wagon. Spielberg-like view of vestre, Ariadna Welter. Overstated drama childhood seems to suggest fantasy as a of misanthropic doctor Ford who contracts solution to child abuse! Despite moving rabies and races clock across Mexican desperformances from the two boys, this conert to get help. cept just doesn’t work. Tom Hanks appears Rage (1972) C-104m. ★★ D: George C. unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Scott. George C. Scott, Richard Basehart, Radio Inside (1994) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: JefMartin Sheen, Barnard Hughes, Nicolas frey Bell. William McNamara, Elisabeth Beauvy, Paul Stevens. When peaceful Shue, Dylan Walsh, Ilse Earl, Pee Wee rancher Scott’s young son is killed by Love, Ara Madzounian, Steve Zurk. A chemical testing, he seeks revenge on those young man, trying to cope with the death of responsible for accident. Good photograhis father and his own aimlessness, goes to phy, but Scott’s transition from nice-guy live with his brother and soon falls for the to killer isn’t convincing. Scott’s directorial debut. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 brother’s girlfriend. Gentle tale with some good performances, especially by McNaRage: Carrie 2, The (1999) C-104m. ★★ mara. ▼● D: Katt Shea. Emily Bergl, Jason London, Radioland Murders (1994) C-112m. ★1⁄2 Dylan Bruno, J. Smith-Cameron, Amy IrD: Mel Smith. Brian Benben, Mary Stuart ving, Zachery Ty Bryan, John Doe, Gordon Masterson, Ned Beatty, Scott Michael Clapp, Rachel Blanchard, Mena Suvari. Campbell, Brion James, Michael Lerner, Years after CARRIE, another teenaged outMichael McKean, Jeffrey Tambor, Stephen sider in the same town is picked on by cruel Tobolowsky, Christopher Lloyd, Larry fellow students, and again unleashes her Miller, Anita Morris, Corbin Bernsen, Bobtelekinetic powers in climactic revenge. cat Goldthwait, Robert Walden, Rosemary Well-acted but routine movie clumsily Clooney, Dylan Baker, Billy Barty, Tracy linked to the original. Irving’s character, the Byrd, Candy Clark, Anne De Salvo, Jennifer only one from the original, is synthetically Dundas, Bo Hopkins, Robert Klein, Harvey injected into the plot. [R]▼●쩠 Korman, Joey Lawrence, Peter MacNicol, Rage in Harlem, A (1991) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 Jack Sheldon. Frenetic, wearisome farce D: Bill Duke. Forest Whitaker, Gregory about backstage murders on opening night Hines, Robin Givens, Danny Glover, Zakes of a Chicago radio network in 1939. Many Mokae, Badja Djola, John Toles-Bey, Ron talented performers are given nothing to do. Taylor, Stack Pierce, George Wallace, T. Executive producer George Lucas apparK. Carter, Willard E. Pugh, Samm-Art ently concocted this story years earlier. ArWilliams, Tyler Collins, Screamin’ Jay riscope. [PG]▼●쩠 Hawkins. Smooth operator from MissisRadio On (1979-British) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: sippi (Givens) comes to Harlem to unload Chris Petit. David Beames, Lisa Kreuzer, a stash of gold, and hooks up with a naive, Sting. Downbeat, rambling story of disc nerdy mama’s boy (Whitaker) who sees jockey who travels across Britain because himself as her protector. Earnest attempt of the mysterious circumstances of his to recreate author Chester Himes’ 1950s brother’s recent death. Written and directed Harlem milieu doesn’t quite come together by Petit, disciple of German director Wim in spite of some good performances. Can’t [ 1125 ]

hold a candle to COTTON COMES TO ern, Howard E. Rollins, Jr., Mary SteenHARLEM (though the cop characters burgen, James Olson, Brad Dourif, KenGravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed reappear neth McMillan, Mandy Patinkin, Donald in this story). [R]▼●쩠 O’Connor, Pat O’Brien, Debbie Allen, Rage in Heaven (1941) 83m. ★★ D: W. S. Moses Gunn, Norman Mailer, Jeff DanVan Dyke II. Robert Montgomery, Ingrid iels, John Ratzenberger, Samuel L. Jackson, Bergman, George Sanders, Lucile Watson, Fran Drescher, Michael Jeter. E. L. DocOscar Homolka, Philip Merivale, Matthew torow’s semi-fictional mosaic of 1906 Boulton. Disappointing adaptation of James America is glorious until Michael Weller’s Hilton novel about mentally disturbed steel script narrows its focus to just one story mill owner who plots unusual murderthread: a black man’s fanatical pursuit of revenge scheme; set in England. justice. While the initial momentum is lost, Rage to Live, A (1965) 101m. ★★ D: Walter there’s still much to enjoy: fine perforGrauman. Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillmances (including Cagney’s last in a theatman, Ben Gazzara, Peter Graves, Bethel rical film, after a 20-year hiatus), and Randy Leslie, James Gregory, Carmen Mathews, Newman’s delightful score. Jeff Daniels’ Ruth White. Turgid adaptation of John film debut. Later a Broadway musical. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼●쩠 O’Hara novel charting the premarital and extramarital affairs of emotionally and Raid, The (1954) C-83m. ★★★ D: Hugo physically needy Pleshette. Panavision. Fregonese. Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Raggedy Ann and Andy (1977) C-85m. Richard Boone, Lee Marvin, Tommy ★1 Rettig, James Best, Peter Graves, Claude ⁄2 D: Richard Williams. Voices of Didi Conn, Mark Baker, Fred Stuthman, Joe SilAkins. Well-handled (and true) story of ver. Slow-moving, uninvolving children’s Confederate prisoners escaping from jail cartoon with endless songs by Joe Raposo in upper New England, with Bancroft and that stop action dead in its tracks. Appealing Rettig on their trail. characters with nowhere to go; only highlight Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) C-115m. ★★★★ D: Steven Spielberg. Harrison Ford, is Camel with Wrinkled Knees singing ‘‘Song Blue.’’ Panavision. [G]▼ Karen Allen, Wolf Kahler, Paul Freeman, ★★★ Raggedy Man (1981) C-94m. Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm D: Jack Fisk. Sissy Spacek, Eric Roberts, Elliott, Anthony Higgins, Alfred Molina. William Sanderson, Tracey Walter, Sam A roller-coaster ride of a movie, rekinShepard, Henry Thomas, Carey Hollis, Jr. dling the spirit of Saturday matinee serials A young divorced woman with two chilbut outdoing them for genuine thrills and dren tries to forge a life for herself and her chills. Ford plays Indiana Jones, an archaefamily in a small Texas town during WW2. ologist-adventurer who goes globe-trotting Absorbing slice-of-life Americana with a in search of a unique religious artifact and misconceived melodramatic finale. Direcruns into bloodcurdling danger every step torial debut for art director Fisk, who’s of the way. Perhaps a bit too much at Spacek’s husband. [PG]▼●쩠 times, but why carp? Conceived by SpielRaging Bull (1980) C/B&W-128m. ★★★★ berg and George Lucas, with Philip KaufD: Martin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, Cathy man; scripted by Lawrence Kasdan. ViMoriarty, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Nichosual effects, editing, sound effects editing, las Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, John Turtand art direction–set decoration all earned urro. Extraordinarily compelling look at Oscars. Followed by three INDIANA JONES prizefighter Jake La Motta, whose leading films and TV series The Young Indiana opponent outside the ring was always himJones Chronicles. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 self. That such an unappealing man could Raid on Rommel (1971) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: inspire so vivid a portrait is a tribute to the Henry Hathaway. Richard Burton, John collaboration of Scorsese, De Niro, and Colicos, Clinton Greyn, Wolfgang Preiss. writers Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin. Poor excuse to utilize old desert footage There’s not a false note in characterization (mostly from TOBRUK) and new faces in or period detail. De Niro and editor Thelma worn-out WW2 actioner. Techniscope. Schoonmaker won richly deserved Acad[PG] ▼●쩠 emy Awards. [R]▼●쩠 Railroaded! (1947) 72m. ★★★ D: Anthony Raging Moon, The SEE: Long Ago Mann. John Ireland, Sheila Ryan, Hugh Tomorrow Beaumont, Ed Kelly, Jane Randolph, Keefe Ragman’s Daughter, The (1972-British) Brasselle. Another tight, well-made, low★★★ C-94m. D: Harold Becker. Simon budget film noir by Anthony Mann. Ireland Rouse, Victoria Tennant, Patrick O’Conis a ruthless gangster who framed Ryan’s nell, Leslie Sands. Stylishly filmed kitchenbrother for murder; Beaumont is a cop sink drama written by Alan Sillitoe. Rouse searching for answers. ▼●쩠 is a young thief who falls in love with beauRailroad Man, The SEE: Man of tiful Tennant. Becker’s first feature. Iron (1956) Ragtime (1981) C-155m. ★★★ D: Milos Rails & Ties (2007) C-101m. ★★★ D: Alison Forman. James Cagney, Elizabeth McGovEastwood. Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, [ 1126 ]

Miles Heizer, Marin Hinkle, Eugene Byrd, Alexandro Jodorowsky. Peter O’Toole, Omar Bonnie Root, Margo Martindale. Railroad enSharif, Christopher Lee, Jude Alderson, Jane gineer (Bacon) runs his train into a woman Chaplan. Impenetrable parable about an ecwho has driven her car onto the tracks. She centric prince (and heir to a fortune) who wanted to commit suicide, but her 10-year-old lives underground, aided and abetted by a son, left to fend for himself, seeks out the colorful thief. There may be some point to engineer, whom he blames for his mother’s all of this, but it would require too much demise. Instead he finds a safe haven with time to figure out. There’s a reason this film Bacon’s loving wife (Harden). Utterly connever made it to theaters, despite its cast and director.▼ trived story is made tangible and moving by sensitive handling and a sure-footed cast. DiRainbow Warrior (1994-U.S.-New Zealand) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Tuchner. recting debut for actress Eastwood, Clint’s daughter; her brother Kyle Eastwood coJon Voight, Sam Neill, Bruno Lawrence, composed the score. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Kerry Fox, John Callen, Stacey Pickren. Railway Children, The (1970-British) True story of 1985 bombing of a C-109m. ★★★ D: Lionel Jeffries. Dinah Greenpeace boat in New Zealand and the Sheridan, Bernard Cribbins, William Merensuing investigation. Complex tale of invyn, Iain Cuthbertson, Jenny Agutter, Gary ternational conflict/intrigue is uninvolving. Warren. Charming story of youthful trio Neill gives a standout performance as a police superintendent. [PG]▼● whose one goal is to clear their father of false espionage prison sentence. Lovely Raining Stones (1993-British) C-90m. ★★★ Yorkshire locales add to overall effectiveD: Kenneth Loach. Bruce Jones, Julie ness. From the novel by E. Nesbit. [G]▼쩠 Brown, Ricky Tomlinson, Tom Hickey, Rain (1932) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Milestone. Gemma Phoenix. Riveting drama focusing Joan Crawford, Walter Huston, William on a struggling out-of-work laborer (Jones) Gargan, Guy Kibbee, Walter Catlett, Beuin grimy Manchester, England, a good lah Bondi. Considered a flop in 1932, this Catholic who does whatever he can to version of Maugham’s story looks better scrape together enough money to support today. Crawford is good as South Seas his wife and daughter. When faced with island trollop confronted by fire-and-brimpurchasing his child’s communion dress, he stone preacher Huston. Director Milestone unknowingly borrows its cost from a vidoes gymnastics with camera during stagcious, usurious loan shark. With telling ier scenes; an interesting antique. Previously irony, Loach vividly captures the frustrations and anger of honest workingfolk. ▼쩠 filmed as SADIE THOMPSON, then again as DIRTY GERTIE FROM HARLEM Rainmaker, The (1956) C-121m. ★★★ D: U.S.A. and MISS SADIE THOMPSON. Joseph Anthony. Burt Lancaster, KathaSome prints run 77m.▼쩠 rine Hepburn, Wendell Corey, Lloyd BridgRain (2001-New Zealand) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: es, Earl Holliman, Cameron Prud’homme, Christine Jeffs. Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki, Wallace Ford. Lancaster is in top form as a Sarah Peirse, Marton Csokas, Alistair Browncharismatic con man who offers hope to a ing, Aaron Murphy. Interesting mood piece Southwestern town beset by drought, and about an adolescent girl trying to find her a woman whose life is at a crossroads. way as her parents grow apart during a seaHepburn is wonderful. N. Richard Nash side summer in the early 1970s. Knowing play was later musicalized on Broadway as look at a young girl’s sexual awakening 110 in the Shade. VistaVision.▼●쩠 while she noses into her mother’s infidelity. Rainmaker, The (1997) C-135m. ★★★ D: Keenly observed drama will be too low key Francis Ford Coppola. Matt Damon, Danny for some tastes; a sudden burst of melodrama DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mickey toward the end is jarring. Jeffs adapted KirRourke, Mary Kay Place, Danny Glover, sty Gunn’s novel.▼쩠 Teresa Wright, Johnny Whitworth, Dean Rainbow, The (1989-British) C-104m. Stockwell, Virginia Madsen, Roy Scheider, ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Russell. Sammi Davis, Amanda Randy Travis, Andrew Shue. Solid, sureDonohoe, Paul McGann, Christopher Gafooted adaptation of John Grisham’s bestble, David Hemmings, Glenda Jackson. seller about an idealistic lawyer, fresh from Director Russell’s most restrained film in school, who goes to work for a shameless years (a relative term) is a prequel to his hit ambulance-chaser, but focuses on the case adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in most important to him: exposing an insurLove, with Davis as a sheltered young ance company’s refusal to pay a claim for a schoolteacher who’s taken under the wing young man who is dying of leukemia. Cast (sexually and otherwise) of worldly Doto perfection, and filmed on location in nohoe. Many beautiful and striking moMemphis . . . the finale, though, seems curiments don’t quite jell, but still worth ously subdued. Officially titled JOHN watching. Jackson appears as the mother of GRISHAM’S THE RAINMAKER. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 the character she played in WOMEN IN Rain Man (1988) C-133m. ★★★ D: Barry LOVE. [R]▼● Rainbow Thief, The (1990) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Levinson. Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, [ 1127 ]

Valeria Golino, Jerry Molen, Jack MurDaniels, Frederic Forrest, Graham Greene, dock, Michael D. Roberts, Bonnie Hunt. Linda Hunt, Carolyn McCormick, Austin Young, self-centered hotshot goes home to Pendleton, Alyssa Rallo, Ali Thomas, Steve the Midwest for his father’s funeral, and Zahn, Robert Earl Jones. Unique futuristic learns not only that he’s been cut out of his drama, told in documentary style and set inheritance, but that he has a grown brother in an America in which abortion is illegal. who’s autistic, and who’s been kept in an Young Thomas is incarcerated for aborting institution for most of his life. The balance her pregnancy, and her mother (Buckley) of the film details the growing relationship is also put behind bars, convicted under between the two men. Top-drawer perforNew York State’s new Unborn Child Kidmances from Hoffman, as the idiot savant, napping Act. Chilling (and politically loaded) tale. [PG-13] ▼ and Cruise, as his selfish sibling, make this a must-see, even though the story meanders Raise the Red Lantern (1991-China-TaiwanHong Kong) C-125m. ★★★★ D: Zhang and becomes predictable. Director Levinson is the psychiatrist near the end. Winner of Yimou. Gong Li, Ma Jingwu, He Caifei, Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor Cao Cuifeng, Jin Shuyuan, Kong Lin, (Hoffman), and Screenplay (Ronald Bass Ding Weimin, Cui Zhihgang. Striking look and Barry Morrow). [R] ▼●쩠 at the life of a young concubine in 1920s Rain People, The (1969) C-102m. ★★★ D: China, as university-educated girl (Gong Francis Ford Coppola. James Caan, ShirLi) is sent to feudal nobleman’s palatial ley Knight, Robert Duvall, Marya Zimmet, home to become his newest wife. The reTom Aldredge, Laurie Crewes. Pregnant lationships between her and her predeLong Island housewife, unable to take cessors—all of whom live on the premises— married life, flees husband and picks up and the interaction among the women, the simple-minded football player on the road. servants, and their master are brilliantly Strong acting and direction triumph over played out. An extraordinary view of sex, weak script in film whose subject matter loyalty, intrigue, and female bonding. Dewas years ahead of its time. [R]▼쩠 liberately paced, but worth watching for the Rains Came, The (1939) 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: changes in emotion that register on actress Clarence Brown. Myrna Loy, Tyrone Gong Li’s face alone. Screenplay by Ni Power, George Brent, Brenda Joyce, Nigel Zhen, from a novel by Su Tong.▼●쩠 Bruce, Maria Ouspenskaya, Joseph SchildRaise the Titanic! (1980-British) C-112m. ★1 kraut, Mary Nash, Jane Darwell, Marjorie ⁄2 D: Jerry Jameson. Jason Robards, RichRambeau, Henry Travers, H. B. Warner, ard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer, Laura Hope Crews. Louis Bromfield novel Alec Guinness, J. D. Cannon. Long, dull reduced to Hollywood hokum, with married adaptation of Clive Cussler’s best-seller socialite Loy setting out to seduce dedicated about intrigue leading to the biggest salIndian surgeon Power. Outstanding earthvage job of all time. Silly plotting and quake and flood scenes; the special effects laughable dialogue undermine excitement earned an Academy Award. Remade as of climactic ship-raising. Technovision. THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR.▼쩠 [PG]▼●쩠 Rains of Ranchipur, The (1955) C-104m. Raise Your Voice (2004) C-106m. ★★ D: ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean Negulesco. Lana Turner, RichSean McNamara. Hilary Duff, Rita Wilson, ard Burton, Fred MacMurray, Joan CaulDavid Keith, Jason Ritter, Oliver James, field, Michael Rennie, Eugenie Leontovich. Rebecca De Mornay, John Corbett, James Superficial remake of THE RAINS CAME; Avery. Arizona teen with an overprotective story of wife of Englishman having affair with father gets accepted at an esteemed L.A. Hindu doctor. CinemaScope. music conservatory for the summer. Upon Raintree County (1957) C-168m. ★★★ D: arrival, absolutely nothing surprising ever Edward Dmytryk. Elizabeth Taylor, Monthappens (unfriendly roommate, cool young gomery Clift, Eva Marie Saint, Lee Marvin, professor, bitchy rival for the cute British Nigel Patrick, Rod Taylor, Agnes Mooreclassmate . . .). Did we mention the climachead, Walter Abel, DeForest Kelley. Hutic recital? Duff’s fans may enjoy this; othmongous MGM attempt to outdo GWTW, ers have been warned. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 with Clift as a small-town Hoosier who Raising Arizona (1987) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: makes the mistake of marrying Southern Joel Coen. Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, belle Taylor before the outbreak of the Civil Trey Wilson, John Goodman, William ForWar. Solid acting and memorable Johnny sythe, Sam McMurray, Frances McDorGreen score help compensate for rambling, mand, Randall (Tex) Cobb, M. Emmet over-long script; Clift was disfigured in Walsh. Formidably flaky comedy about an near-fatal car accident during production, odd couple (chronic convenience-store roband his performance understandably suffers ber Cage and former law-enforcement offor it. Roadshow version runs 183m. MGM ficer Hunter) who decide to kidnap one of Camera 65.▼● a set of quintuplets, since they can’t have a Rain Without Thunder (1992) C-86m. child of their own. Aggressively wacked★★★ D: Gary Bennett. Betty Buckley, Jeff out sense of humor may not be for all [ 1128 ]

tastes, but it’s a heady mix of irony and sense in their constrained existence. Reslapstick. Look out for those chase scenes! made for TV in 1989 and in 2008. ▼●쩠 Written by Ethan and Joel Coen; spry cineRally ’Round the Flag, Boys! (1958) matography by Barry Sonnenfeld and music C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leo McCarey. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Joan Colby Carter Burwell. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ★★ D: Brian Raising Cain (1992) C-95m. lins, Jack Carson, Dwayne Hickman, TuesDe Palma. John Lithgow, Lolita Davidovich, day Weld, Gale Gordon. Disappointing Steven Bauer, Frances Sternhagen, Gregg film of Max Shulman’s book about small Henry, Tom Bower, Mel Harris, Teri Auscommunity in uproar over projected missile base. CinemaScope.쩠 tin, Gabrielle Carteris, Barton Heyman. Lithgow is the whole show here—literally— Rambling Rose (1991) C-112m. ★★★ D: with more roles than you can count in this Martha Coolidge. Laura Dern, Robert over-the-top thriller about a pair of twin Duvall, Diane Ladd, Lukas Haas, John brothers who’ll stop at nothing to procure Heard, Kevin Conway, Robert J. Burke, children for their father’s scientific experiLisa Jakub, Evan Lockwood. Evocative ments. Tongue-in-cheek De Palma exercise tale set in 1930s Georgia, with Dern as an (with nods to Hitchcock, Welles, and Mioversexed lost soul of a girl who comes to chael Powell) is laced with satire, but the work for a genteel family headed by Duvall chills—and chuckles—don’t add up to and Ladd. Colorful, nicely detailed, and much. Not for the faint-hearted. [R]▼●쩠 well acted, with many pleasant surprises Raising Helen (2004) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Garry along the way. Ladd and Dern were the Marshall. Kate Hudson, John Corbett,JoanCufirst real-life mother and daughter to be sack, Hayden Panettiere, Spencer Breslin, Abinominated for Oscars in the same year. gail Breslin, Helen Mirren, Sakina Jaffrey, Screenplay by Calder Willingham from his Kevin Kilner, Felicity Huffman, Amber Valautobiographical novel. [R]▼●쩠 letta, Joseph Mazzello, Paris Hilton, Bernie Rambo (2008-U.S.-German) C-91m. ★1⁄2 Hiller. A busy, single executive assistant to a D: Sylvester Stallone. Sylvester Stallone, Julie demanding boss inherits three children when Benz, Matthew Marsden, Graham McTavish, her sister dies. Totally unprepared and inexpeRey Gallegos, Jake La Botz, Paul Schulze, rienced (unlike her other sister, quintessential Ken Howard. Stallone is a bit long in the homemaker Cusack), she tries to cope with tooth to be reprising his Rambo character, sudden motherhood while making a living. but here he is in the series’ fourth installHudson is well cast in this sentimental slice of ment (and first in two decades). This time Hollywood hokum; it’s pleasant but all too pat. around, everybody’s favorite whacked-out Larry Miller and Hector Elizondo appear unVietnam veteran–action hero emerges from billed. [PG-13]▼쩠 a peaceful retirement in Thailand to rescue Raising the Wind (1961-British) C-91m. some captured missionaries and doctors in ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gerald Thomas. James Robertson Myanmar (Burma). Needlessly bloody and Justice, Leslie Phillips, Sidney James, Paul unintentionally laughable. Stallone also coMassie, Kenneth Williams. Zany shenaniscripted. Super 35. [R]쩠 gans of eccentric group of students at a Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) C-95m. ★★ D: George P. Cosmatos. SylLondon school of music; well paced. Raising Victor Vargas (2003) C-88m. ★★★ vester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Charles D: Peter Sollett. Victor Rasuk, Judy Marte, Napier, Julia Nickson, Steven Berkoff, Donna Maldonado, Wilfree Vasquez, AltaMartin Kove. Comic-book action saga of gracia Guzman. Disarmingly intimate portrait one-man army who goes to Cambodia in of a self-styled teenage stud on N.Y.C.’s search of American MIAs and finds he’s Lower East Side who pursues a snobby girl been duped by Uncle Sam. Never boring with such tenacity that he wears down her but incredibly dumb; if one were to take it resistance. A richly detailed slice of life, seriously, it would also be offensive, as it filmed with such intimacy (often in tight exploits real-life frustrations of MIA famiclose-up) that you’d swear the conversations lies and Vietnam vets. Followed by RAMwere overheard instead of staged. WriterBO III. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 director Sollett does wonders with a mostly Rambo III (1988) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter nonprofessional cast. Expanded remake of Macdonald. Sylvester Stallone, Richard Sollett’s short subject FIVE FEET AND RISCrenna, Marc de Jonge, Kurtwood Smith, ING. Remarkably photographed by Tim Orr Spiros Focas, Sasson Gabai. A definite im(GEORGE WASHINGTON). [R]▼쩠 provement over PART II, this one remains Raisin in the Sun, A (1961) 128m. ★★★★ firmly footed in the genre of Idiot Action D: Daniel Petrie. Sidney Poitier, Claudia Movies, as our brawny hero goes behind RusMcNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Ivan sian-dominated battle lines in Afghanistan Dixon, John Fiedler, Louis Gossett. Lorto rescue his friend and former superior raine Hansberry play receives perceptive (Crenna) from a prison fortress. Lots of exhandling by outstanding cast in drama of plosions to keep things lively—and some black Chicago family’s attempts to find (unintentionally?) hilarious dialogue too. [ 1129 ]

Followed 20 years later by RAMBO. J-D-C dai, Akira Terao, Jinpachi Nezu, Daisuke Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Ryu, Mieko Harada, Peter, Hisashi Igawa. Ramona (1936) C-90m. ★★ D: Henry King. Beautifully filmed adaptation of ShakesLoretta Young, Don Ameche, Kent Taypeare’s King Lear, with Nakadai as a warlor, Pauline Frederick, Jane Darwell, Kathlord who turns over his domain to his erine DeMille. Oft-told tale doesn’t wear eldest son, inducing a power struggle by well, with aristocratic Spanish girl Young his two younger sons. Slowly paced and and outcast Indian Ameche in love and overly expository at the start, epic picks up shunned by society. Settings are picturesque. with two superb battle scenes. Harada is Rampage (1963) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil Karlexcellent in supporting role as the most son. Robert Mitchum, Elsa Martinelli, Jack evil of women, getting her just desserts in Hawkins, Sabu, Cely Carillo, Emile Genest. violent fashion. Oscar winner for Costume German gamehunter (Hawkins), his mistress Design. [R]▼●쩠 (Martinelli), and hunting guide (Mitchum) Rancho Deluxe (1975) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: form love triangle, with men battling for Frank Perry. Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, Elsa. Elmer Bernstein’s score is memorable. Elizabeth Ashley, Charlene Dallas, Clifton Rampage (1992) C-97m. ★★ D: William James, Slim Pickens, Harry Dean Stanton, Friedkin. Michael Biehn, Alex McArthur, Richard Bright, Patti D’Arbanville. Off-beat Nicholas Campbell, Deborah van Valkenpresent-day comedy centers on two casual burgh, John Harkins, Art La Fleur, Billy cattle rustlers; cult favorite written by Thomas Green Bush, Royce D. Applegate, Grace McGuane (92 IN THE SHADE), with music Zabriskie, Carlos Palomino, Andy Romano. by Jimmy Buffett (who also appears in the A prosecutor has to prove that a serial film). [R]▼●쩠 killer’s unspeakably heinous crimes were the Rancho Notorious (1952) C-89m. ★★★ D: product of a legally sane mind. Very rough, Fritz Lang. Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennot for the squeamish, and not for too many nedy, Mel Ferrer, Lloyd Gough, Gloria others, either. Shot in 1987. McArthur is Henry, William Frawley, Jack Elam, George exceptionally creepy as the killer. [R]▼● Reeves. Entertaining, unusual Western with Rampage at Apache Wells (1966-German) Kennedy looking for murderer of his sweetC-90m. ★★ D: Harold Philipps. Stewart heart, ending up at Marlene’s bandit hideGranger, Pierre Brice, Macha Meril, Harout. Colorful characters spice up routine story by Daniel Taradash.▼● old Leipnitz. Granger stars as Old Shatterhand, who fights for rights of Indians taken Random Harvest (1942) 126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: in by crooked white men. Adequate acting Mervyn LeRoy. Ronald Colman, Greer but atrocious dubbing. Ultrascope. Garson, Philip Dorn, Susan Peters, Henry Ramparts of Clay (1971-French-Algerian) Travers, Reginald Owen, Bramwell Fletcher, C-85m. ★★★ D: Jean-Louis Bertucelli. Leila Margaret Wycherly, Ann Richards. ColSchenna. Intriguing film about Tunisian man is left an amnesiac after WW1, and woman, disillusioned with her way of life, saved from life in a mental institution by who becomes involved with strike between vivacious music-hall entertainer Garson. a wealthy company and poor villagers. James Hilton novel given supremely enterVery strong for patient, critical viewers; taining MGM treatment, with Colman and for others, boredom. [PG]▼ Garson at their best. Screenplay by ClauRampo (1994-Japanese) C-100m. ★★★ D: dine West, George Froeschel, and Arthur Kazuyoshi Okuyama. Naoto Takenaka, Wimperis.▼●쩠 Michiko Hada, Masahiro Motoki, Mikijiro Random Hearts (1999) C-133m. ★1⁄2 D: Hira. Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Sydney Pollack. Harrison Ford, Kristin Rampo hears of a bizarre murder that is Scott Thomas, Charles S. Dutton, Bonnie eerily close to the plot of one of his banned Hunt, Dennis Haysbert, Sydney Pollack, murder thrillers. When he meets the widow Paul Guilfoyle, Peter Coyote, Bill Cobbs, of the murdered man, he discovers her to Richard Jenkins, Edie Falco. Sub-par politibe exactly like his fictional heroine. This cal movie, sub-par D.C. cop movie and subelegant and lush film was reshot (more than par romance get bludgeoned into one in this 60 percent new footage) after producer critical/commercial flop about a police serOkuyama was dissatisfied with first director geant and congresswoman who discover Rentaro Mayuzumi’s efforts. Aka THE that their mates—recently killed in the same airliner crash—were having an affair. MYSTERY OF RAMPO. [R]▼쩠 Ramrod (1947) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andre de Gloomy, lugubrious, heavily altered adaptaToth. Veronica Lake, Joel McCrea, Artion of Warren Adler’s novel suffers from leen Whelan, Don DeFore, Preston Foster, one of the rare constipated Ford perforCharles Ruggles, Donald Crisp, Lloyd Bridgmances. Every once in a while it wakes up es. Fairly good Western of territorial dislong enough to remember it’s an Internal pute between ranch-owner Lake and her Affairs movie and that a few heads have to father (Ruggles). Good supporting cast.▼ be bashed. [R]▼쩠 Ran (1985-Japanese-French) C-161m. Ransom! (1956) 109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alex Segal. ★★★1⁄2 D: Akira Kurosawa. Tatsuya NakaGlenn Ford, Donna Reed, Leslie Nielsen, [ 1130 ]

Juano Hernandez, Alexander Scourby, JuaShowcase for Bruce Lee’s handsome son is nita Moore, Robert Keith. Brooding narramore like ENTER THE LIZARD, though tive of business tycoon Ford’s efforts to resits script is freewheeling enough to include cue his son who’s been kidnapped. Remade stopoffs in a nude modeling class, an abanin 1996. doned bowling alley, and Beijing’s TiananRansom (1975) SEE: Terrorists, The men Square. A bounty of bullets, but the Ransom (1977) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard only love scene backs its standard gauzy Compton. Oliver Reed, Deborah Raffin, navel-‘n’-nipple expedition with a strident Stuart Whitman, Jim Mitchum, John Ireguitar and an unfortunately named tune: ‘‘I land, Paul Koslo. Pretty good programmer Can’t Find My Way.’’ Mancuso’s amusing about a town’s efforts to catch a killer. bad guy is a standout. [R]▼●쩠 Originally titled ASSAULT ON PARARappin’ (1985) C-92m. ★★ D: Joel Silberg. DISE, then MANIAC.▼ Mario Van Peebles, Tasia Valenza, Charles Ransom (1996) C-120m. ★★★ D: Ron HowFlohe, Leo O’Brien, Eriq La Salle, Richie ard. Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise, Abanes, Kadeem Hardison, Harry Goz. Delroy Lindo, Lili Taylor, Brawley Nolte, Just what the world needs, another breakLiev Schreiber, Evan Handler, Donnie dancing–rap music musical. This one chronWahlberg, Dan Hedaya. Gripping thriller icles the plight of breakdancer/ex-con Van about a ragged team of kidnappers who Peebles and his conflicts with street gangster Flohe and contractor Goz. [PG]▼쩠 snatch the son of a self-made millionaire; soon, what should have been a standard kidRapture (1965-French) 104m. ★★★ D: John nap-and-ransom transaction becomes a danGuillermin. Melvyn Douglas, Dean Stockgerous game of cat and mouse between the well, Patricia Gozzi, Gunnel Lindblom, tycoon and the cocky ringleader. Plenty of Leslie Sands. Intensive, sensitive account twists and turns in this remake of the 1956 of Gozzi’s tragic romance with Stockwell, film of the same name. That’s Nick Nolte’s a man on the run. CinemaScope. son as the victim. Coscenarist Richard Price Rapture, The (1991) C-102m. ★★★ D: appears briefly as Sinise’s partner in an Michael Tolkin. Mimi Rogers, Patrick Bauchau, David Duchovny, Kimberly Culearly scene. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★ Rapa Nui (1994) C-107m. ⁄2 D: Kevin lum, Will Patton, James Le Gros. Beautiful, Reynolds. Jason Scott Lee, Esai Morales, hedonistic young woman with droning, Sandrine Holt, Zac Wallace, George Hendead-end job opts for super-Fundamentalist are, Eru Potaka-Dewes. Lumbering, highly religious fanaticism. Singular drama about romanticized saga of Easter Island (‘‘Rapa one woman’s literal ascension to heaven Nui’’), the remote southern Pacific outpost features swinging group sex, one genuinely whose mammoth human-faced statues have shocking maternal act, and a straight-faced long baffled historians. Set in 1680, prior to cameo by at least one Horseman of the Dutch colonization, with hero Lee (of the Apocalypse. Not for every taste, this muchLong Ear tribe) and villain Morales (of the debated film truly rushes in where virtually Short Ears) as rivals since boyhood, now no others have dared to tread. Scripted by facing civil war. Climactic endurance test— first-time director Tolkin. Rogers gives a four-barrelled performance. [R]▼●쩠 a grueling race on land and sea—resembles one of those splashy MTV ‘‘sports’’ events. Rare Breed, The (1966) C-108m. ★★★ D: Panavision. [R]▼● Andrew V. McLaglen. James Stewart, MauRape of Europa, The (2006) C/B&Wreen O’Hara, Brian Keith, Juliet Mills, Jack 117m. ★★★ D: Richard Berge, Nicole NewnElam, Ben Johnson, Don Galloway. Cowham, Bonni Cohen. Narrated by Joan Allen. hand Stewart is changed by British Fascinating documentary compels attention O’Hara’s conviction that her Hereford bull, and interest as an examination of Adolf Hitnew to Texas, will produce better cattle. ler’s obsession with claiming Europe’s art Keith (in red wig and beard) has a grand masterworks during WW2. Filmmakers celtime as a Scottish rancher. Odd part-comebrate incidents of ingenious heroism— edy Western on the unusual subject of imnotably the bold removal and concealment proving cattle breeds. Hampered only by of Louvre treasures in France just prior to too much obvious studio shooting. Panathe German Occupation—and recount the vision. ▼쩠 remarkable efforts of the Monuments Men, Rascal (1969) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman a unit of U.S. Army specialists charged with Tokar. Steve Forrest, Bill Mumy, Pamela locating and recovering art seized by the Toll, Bettye Ackerman, Elsa Lanchester, Nazis. Inspired by an authoritative book of Henry Jones. Disney adaptation of Sterthe same title by Lynn H. Nicholas.쩠 ling North’s well-regarded autobiographiRape of Malaya SEE: Town Like Alice, A cal novel about his boyhood friendship Rapid Fire (1992) C-95m. ★★ D: Dwight with raccoon; reworked to Disney formuH. Little. Brandon Lee, Powers Boothe, la, with pleasant but predictable results. [G] Nick Mancuso, Raymond J. Barry, Kate ▼쩠 Hodge, Tzi Ma, Tony Longo, Michael Rashomon (1950-Japanese) 88m. ★★★★ Paul Chan, Dustin Nguyen, John Vickery. D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, [ 1131 ]

Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Takashi Locke stumbles across a half-man, halfShimura. Kurosawa’s first huge interrat—then tries to parlay him into show-biz national success is superlative study of success. Locke’s directorial debut is technitruth and human nature; four people incally competent, but film plays like an E.T./ volved in a rape-murder tell varying ELEPHANT MAN derivation that’s no accounts of what happened. The film’s longer fresh. Barely released. [PG-13]▼ very title has become part of our language. Ratcatcher (1999-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Oscar winner as Best Foreign Film. ReLynne Ramsay. William Eadie, Tommy Flanmade as THE OUTRAGE.▼●쩠 agan, Mandy Matthews, Michelle Stewart, Rasputin (1985-Russian) C-107m. ★★★ D: Lynne Ramsay, Jr., Leanne Mullen. ImpresElem Klimov. Alexei Petrenko, Anatoly sive feature writing-directing debut for RamRomashin, Velta Linei, Alice Freindlikh. say, who spins an oddly whimsical tale against Complex, impressive drama with Petrenko the bleakest of backdrops, a dirt-poor Scottish appropriately (and at times brilliantly) oily neighborhood. A 12-year-old boy is accidenas the famed mad monk. A good film tally involved in another lad’s death; supwhich might have been great if so many pressing this knowledge adds to his existing hands had not tinkered with it. It allegedly anxieties, living with a drunken dad and a was completed in 1977, screened at the worn-down mother. Distinctive but terribly Moscow Film Festival in 1981 (at 148m.), downbeat.▼쩠 and barred from the West until 1985. Rat Race, The (1960) C-105m. ★★★ D: Sovscope.▼ Robert Mulligan. Tony Curtis, Debbie Rasputin and the Empress (1932) 123m. Reynolds, Jack Oakie, Kay Medford, Don ★★★ D: Richard Boleslavsky. John, Ethel, Rickles, Joe Bushkin. Comedy-drama of and Lionel Barrymore, Ralph Morgan, Diwould-be musician (Curtis) and dancer ana Wynyard, Tad Alexander, C. Henry (Reynolds) coming to N.Y.C., platonically Gordon, Edward Arnold, Jean Parker. Good sharing an apartment, and falling in love. drama that should have been great, with all Nice comic cameos by Oakie and Medthree Barrymores in colorful roles, unfoldford. Script by Garson Kanin, from his play. ing story of mad monk’s plotting against Rat Race (2001) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Russia. Contrary to expectations, it’s LioZucker. Whoopi Goldberg, Jon Lovitz, nel, not John, who plays Rasputin. The Rowan Atkinson, Cuba Gooding, Jr., John three Barrymores’ only film together; Ethel’s Cleese, Kathy Najimy, Breckin Meyer, Amy talkie debut. Wynyard’s first film.▼●쩠 Smart, Seth Green, Vince Vieluf, Lanai ChapRasputin—the Mad Monk (1966-British) man, Paul Rodriguez, Wayne Knight, Dave ★★ C-92m. D: Don Sharp. Christopher Thomas, Kathy Bates, Dean Cain. Game Lee, Barbara Shelley, Richard Pasco, Franattempt to recapture the spirit of IT’S A cis Matthews. Confused historical drama MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD, with Las of ‘‘monk’’ who actually controlled RusVegas casino owner Cleese enticing a group sia before Revolution. Script uncommonly of disparate people to participate in a race: bad; Lee’s performance manages to redeem the first to get to a New Mexico railroad film. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 depot locker will claim two million dollars. 1 ★★★ Ratatouille (2007) C-111m. ⁄2 D: Brad Not every comic detour pays off, but there Bird. Voices of Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, are many laugh-out-loud gags and inspired Lou Romano, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, moments (especially with Atkinson and Peter O’Toole, Brad Garrett, Janeane GaroLovitz). Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 falo, Will Arnett, James Remar, John RatRats, The SEE: Deadly Eyes zenberger, Brad Bird. Animated charmer Rat’s Tale, A (1997-German) C-89m. ★★ about Remy, a highly cultivated rat with a D: Michael F. Huse. Lauren Hutton, Bevgenius for cooking, who is separated from erly D’Angelo, Jerry Stiller, Josef Ostendhis family in the French countryside and orf; voices of Dee Bradley Baker, Lynsey lands in a Parisian restaurant. There he Bartilson. A colony of rats living underteams up with a lowly kitchen assistant to ground in N.Y.C. is threatened by a greedy become the toast of the town. A few londeveloper who wants to tear down their gueurs in the story are compensated by wharf—and in the meantime is using a toxic stunning evocation of character and envipesticide. Furry marionettes star in this ronment; director-writer Bird and Pixar’s English-language version of a German film meticulous attention to detail make this a with a handful of live actors and occasional feast for the eyes. Fine voice work, with special effects. Amusing for young children, Oswalt an endearing Remy and O’Toole a but its pacing and European sensibility may treat as formidable food critic Anton Ego. not suit some fidgety viewers. Based on the Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature award-winning book by Tor Seidler. [G]▼● Film. PixarVision. [G]쩠 Rattle of a Simple Man (1964-British) Ratboy (1986) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Sondra 96m. ★★★ D: Muriel Box. Harry H. Corbett, Locke. Sondra Locke, Robert Townsend, Diane Cilento, Thora Hird, Michael MedChristopher Hewett, Larry Hankin, Gerrit Graham, Louie Anderson. Window dresser win. Pleasant saucy sex comedy of timid [ 1132 ]

soul Corbett spending the night with Cilento to win a bet; set in London.▼ Ravagers (1979) C-91m. BOMB D: Richard Compton. Richard Harris, Ann Turkel, Ernest Borgnine, Art Carney, Anthony James, Woody Strode, Alana Hamilton. This instant tax loss finds Harris searching for civilization in 1991 after most human life has been wiped out. Instead, he finds Borgnine. Panavision. [PG] Raven, The (1935) 62m. ★★★ D: Louis Friedlander (Lew Landers). Karloff (Boris Karloff), Bela Lugosi, Irene Ware, Lester Matthews, Samuel S. Hinds. Momentous teaming of horror greats with Lugosi as doctor with Poe obsession, Karloff a victim of his wicked schemes. Hinds is subjected to torture from ‘‘The Pit and the Pendulum’’ in film’s climax. Great fun throughout.

dirty laundry—and bust a major crime ring. Sense of humor helps . . . but not enough. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Raw Edge, The SEE: Babysitter, The (1975) Rawhide (1951) 86m. ★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Hugh Marlowe, Dean Jagger, Edgar Buchanan, Jack Elam, George Tobias, Jeff Corey. Taut Western saga about a motley gang of no-goods holding Power and Hayward prisoner at a stagecoach way station. Straightforward and unspectacular but well done, with a crackerjack cast and striking use of Lone Pine locations. Remake of 1935 gangster saga SHOW THEM NO MERCY!

▼쩠

Rawhide Years, The (1956) C-85m. ★★ D: Rudolph Mate´. Tony Curtis, Colleen ▼●쩠 Miller, Arthur Kennedy, William Demarest, Raven, The (1943-French) SEE: Le Corbeau William Gargan. Youthful Curtis perks Raven, The (1963) C-86m. ★★★ D: Roger this routine fare of gambler trying to clear Corman. Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter himself of murder charge. Lorre, Hazel Court, Jack Nicholson, Olive Raw Meat (1972-British) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sturgess. Funny horror satire finds magiGary Sherman. Donald Pleasence, David cians Price and Lorre challenging powerLadd, Sharon Gurney, Christopher Lee, hungry colleague Karloff. Climactic sorNorman Rossington, Clive Swift. Entercerer’s duel is a highlight. Screenplay by taining though overdone horror tale of deRichard Matheson, ‘‘inspired’’ by the Poe scendants of people trapped in an abandoned poem. Panavision.▼●쩠 underground tunnel preying as cannibals Ravenous (1999) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Antonia on modern-day London travelers. Good Bird. Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeffrey atmosphere; filmed at the Russell Square staJones, David Arquette, Jeremy Davies, John tion. Originally titled DEATH LINE. [R]쩠 Spencer, Stephen Spinella, Neal McDonough, Raw Wind in Eden (1958) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 Joseph Running Fox, Sheila Tousey. In 1847, D: Richard Wilson. Esther Williams, Jeff cavalry officer Pearce is sent to a remote CaliChandler, Rossana Podesta, Carlos Thompfornia fort, where a stranger (Carlyle) stumbles son, Rik Battaglia. Plane carrying rich out of the wintry darkness with a horrifying couple on way to yachting party crashes on tale of cannibalism, a tale that isn’t over isolated island. Entertaining adventure yarn yet . . . Unique blend of comedy, Western, is mixed with romance and jealousy. Filmed horror, and satire is, obviously, not for every in Italy. CinemaScope. ‘‘taste.’’ Grisly and off-putting, but ambitious Ray (2004) C-153m. ★★★ D: Taylor Hackand intelligent as well. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 ford. Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, ReRavishing Idiot (1964-French-Italian) gina King, Clifton Powell, Aunjanue Ellis, 110m. ★★ D: Edouard Molinaro. Anthony Harry Lennix, Terrence Dashon Howard, Perkins, Brigitte Bardot, Gregoire Aslan, Larenz Tate, Bokeem Woodbine, Sharon Andre´ Luguet. Perkins, disenchanted with Warren, Curtis Armstrong, Richard Schiff, capitalism, is recruited by a Soviet spy to C. J. Sanders, David Krumholtz. The genupilfer a secret NATO file. Silly, mostly inely remarkable story of Ray Charles is unfunny Cold War comedy.▼쩠 told within the framework of a conventional Raw Deal (1948) 78m. ★★★ D: Anthony Hollywood biopic, anchored by flashbacks Mann. Dennis O’Keefe, Claire Trevor, to emotional touchstones in Charles’ boyhood Marsha Hunt, Raymond Burr, John Ireand spiked by his sensational record hits. Foxx land. Beautifully made, hard-boiled story is uncannily perfect (lip-synching Charles’ reof O’Keefe escaping from jail and taking cordings), and the women (Washington as his out revenge on slimy Burr, who framed wife, Ellis as his first vocalist and mistress, him; what’s more, he gets caught between King as her replacement—the first Raelette— love of two women. Tough and convincing, and Warren as his mother) are superb. Won with Burr a sadistic heavy.▼●쩠 two Oscars, for Best Actor and Sound MixRaw Deal (1986) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: John ing. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Irvin. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Razorback (1984-Australian) C-95m. Harrold, Darren McGavin, Sam WanaBOMB D: Russell Mulcahy. Gregory Harmaker, Paul Shenar, Steven Hill, Joe rison, Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Chris Regalbuto, Robert Davi, Ed Lauter, Blanche Haywood. Ludicrous horror film about a Baker. Stupid action movie about brawny ex-Fed who helps an old pal clean some giant pig terrorizing the Australian coun[ 1133 ]

tryside. Inauspicious feature debut by music they become partners in crime. Fetishistic video director Mulcahy. Panavision. [R]▼ psychosexual heist thriller doesn’t have a Razor’s Edge, The (1946) 146m. ★★★1⁄2 likable character in the mix but is so full D: Edmund Goulding. Tyrone Power, Gene of unexpected twists and turns you’ll get Tierney, John Payne. Anne Baxter, Clifhooked. Cassel and Devos are frighteningly ton Webb, Herbert Marshall, Lucile Watgood as the kinky outcasts. Audiard also son, Frank Latimore. Slick adaptation of cowrote. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Maugham’s philosophical novel, with MarReady to Rumble (2000) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: shall as the author, Power as hero seeking Brian Robbins. David Arquette, Oliver Platt, true meaning of life, Baxter in OscarScott Caan, Bill Goldberg, Rose McGowan, winning role as a dipsomaniac, Elsa LanJoe Pantoliano, Martin Landau, Diamond chester sparkling in bit as social secretary. Dallas Page, Caroline Rhea. Lowbrow timeScreenplay by Lamar Trotti. Long but waster about simpleminded wrestling addicts engrossing; remade in 1984.▼●쩠 Arquette and Caan, who believe the ‘‘sport’’ Razor’s Edge, The (1984) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 is for real, and try to help salvage the career D: John Byrum. Bill Murray, Theresa Rusof their disgraced favorite wrestler (Platt, emsell, Catherine Hicks, Denholm Elliott, barrassingly miscast). Our ‘‘heroes’’ are James Keach, Peter Vaughan, Brian Doyleportable-toilet maintenance workers, which Murray, Saeed Jaffrey. Ambitious, if allows for plenty of bathroom humor. Made anachronistic, remake of 1946 film with in conjunction with WCW (World Champienough plot for five movies. Young Ameronship Wrestling); a number of its stars appear in cameos. [PG-13]▼쩠 ican survives WW1 and begins to question meaning of his life—while his closest Ready to Wear (Preˆt-a`-Porter) (1994) Cfriends go through personal crises of their 133m. BOMB D: Robert Altman. Marcello own. It’s hard to read much spiritual thought Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Kim Basinger, on Murray’s deadpan face, but he gives it Julia Roberts, Tim Robbins, Anouk Aime´e, a good try (and cowrote script with direcStephen Rea, Forest Whitaker, Lauren Bacall, tor Byrum). Russell comes off best in the Linda Hunt, Sally Kellerman, Tracey Ullman, showy role previously played by Anne Danny Aiello, Teri Garr, Rupert Everett, Baxter. Warts and all, it’s still an interestRichard E. Grant, Lili Taylor, Jean-Pierre ing film. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cassel, Jean Rochefort, Michel Blanc, Lyle Reach for the Sky (1956-British) 123m. Lovett, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Sam Robards, Ute ★★1 ⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. Kenneth More, Lemper, Chiara Mastroianni, Harry BelaMuriel Pavlow, Alexander Knox, Sydney fonte, Cher. Mind-numbingly awful Altman Tafler, Nigel Green. Sensibly told account collage about the fashion industry as it deof British pilot Douglas Bader, who overscends on Paris for the annual runway shows. comes the loss of his legs in a crash to No plot, no momentum, no point to any of continue his flying career. British running this; a particularly egregious waste of Loren time: 135m.▼ and Mastroianni (who reprise the striptease Reader, The (2008-U.S.-British-German) from YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW). Most telling comment is made C-124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Daldry. Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena within the film itself: characters keep stepOlin, Bruno Ganz, Matthias Habich, Suping in dog poop. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 sanne Lothar, Karoline Herfurth, Alexandra Ready, Willing and Able (1937) 95m. ★★ Maria Lara, Volker Bruch, Burghart D: Ray Enright. Ruby Keeler, Lee Dixon, Klaussner. In 1950s Germany, a naı¨ve 15Allen Jenkins, Louise Fazenda, Carol year-old boy (Kross) has a chance encounHughes, Ross Alexander, Winifred Shaw, ter with an older woman who becomes his Teddy Hart. Undistinguished Warner Bros. lover; later he learns that she was a guard at musical about college girl who impersona concentration camp. The relationship still ates British star in order to land Broadway colors his life, as we see in modern-day role. Notable only for introduction of ‘‘Too scenes with Fiennes as the boy grown up. Marvelous for Words,’’ with a production David Hare adapted Bernhard Schlink’s number featuring a giant typewriter!쩠 semi-autobiographical novel that tackles the Real Blonde, The (1998) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 moral dilemmas facing the generation of D: Tom DiCillo. Matthew Modine, Catherine Germans who grew up in the years followKeener, Daryl Hannah, Maxwell Caulfield, ing WW2. Meticulously made and utterly Elizabeth Berkley, Marlo Thomas, Bridgette fascinating. Winslet won Best Actress Wilson, Kathleen Turner, Christopher Lloyd, Oscar for her performance. Striking score Dave Chappelle, Daniel Von Bargen, Denis by Nico Muhly. [R]쩠 Leary, Buck Henry, Steve Buscemi, AlexanRead My Lips (2001-French) C-115m. ★★★ dra Wentworth. N.Y.C. slice-of-life about a D: Jacques Audiard. Vincent Cassel, Emwannabe actor and his girlfriend, a makeup manuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet, Olivier artist to a top fashion model. Attempts to Perrier, Olivia Bonamy, Bernard Alane. A tackle such issues as illusion vs. reality, superpartially deaf, ignored female office worker ficiality, sexual role-playing and the worlds of hires a thuggish ex-con as her assistant and modeling and soap operas. A mixed bag with [ 1134 ]

good individual scenes and performances. short subjects, but still presents the world’s How well you respond may depend on your greatest put-on artist in a compatible vetolerance for Modine’s character, who’s a hicle, as a shifty opportunist who sets out jerk. [R]▼●쩠 to make a filmed record of a typical AmeriReal Cancun, The (2003) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: can family. Written by Brooks, Monica Johnson, and Harry Shearer. [PG]▼쩠 Rick De Oliveira. Reality TV in movie form: a diverse group of young people are Real McCoy, The (1993) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: chosen to spend spring break at a Mexican Russell Mulcahy. Kim Basinger, Val Kilresort, and cameras observe their interaction mer, Terence Stamp, Gailard Sartain, Zach (and massive intake of liquor). One straightEnglish, Raynor Scheine. Lame, completely arrow, non-drinking boy becomes the film’s inept caper film with Basinger cast as a cat focal point. Slickly produced and edited, the burglar/ex-con who wants to go straight, but results are surprisingly entertaining, although is forced into pulling off one last heist when her son is kidnapped. [PG-13]▼●쩠 parents may want to shoot themselves—or their kids—after seeing it. Produced by the Real Men (1987) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Dennis creators of The Real World, Mary-Ellis Feldman. James Belushi, John Ritter, BarBunim and Jonathan Murray. [R]▼쩠 bara Barrie, Bill Morey, Iva Andersen, 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Real Genius (1985) C-104m. Mark Herrier. Unfunny spy satire with CIA Martha Coolidge. Val Kilmer, Gabe Jarret, agent Belushi recruiting reluctant Ritter as a Michelle Meyrink, William Atherton, Joncourier. Barely released to theaters, and athan Gries, Patti D’Arbanville. Idealistic with good reason. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 whiz-kid is recruited by self-styled genius Real Women Have Curves (2002) C-86m. ★★ (Atherton) to join his college think tank— D: Patricia Cardoso. America Ferrera, only to find that its members are being exLupe Ontiveros, Ingrid Oliu, George Lopez, ploited, co-opted, and generally burned out. Brian Sites, Soledad St. Hilaire, Jorge CervPotentially clever satire turns into just another era, Jr., Felipe De Alba. Quiet character youth/revenge comedy with caricatures instudy of a Mexican-American teenage girl stead of characters. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 about to graduate from high school and the Real Glory, The (1939) 95m. ★★★ D: life decisions she must make. Ontiveros is Henry Hathaway. Gary Cooper, David excellent as a domineering, neurotic mother, Niven, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen, Kay and Ferrera is good as the young woman in Johnson, Broderick Crawford, Vladimir Sotransition, but the film tries to deal with too koloff, Henry Kolker. Cooper’s fine as Army much at once and becomes muddled and unfocused. [PG-13] ▼쩠 medic who solves all of Philippines’ medical and military problems almost single-handedly Re-Animator (1985) C-86m. ★★★ D: Stuart after destructive Spanish-American War. ExGordon. Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, cellent action scenes.▼쩠 Barbara Crampton, Robert Sampson, DaReality Bites (1994) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ben vid Gale. Knockout horror thriller and Stiller. Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben black comedy about H. P. Lovecraft’s Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, character Herbert West (Combs), an uppity Swoosie Kurtz, Joe Don Baker, John Mahoyoung medical student who develops a ney, Harry O’Reilly, Susan Norfleet, David serum to bring the dead back to life. Debut Pirner, Keith David, Kevin Pollak, Karen film director Gordon goes entertainingly Duffy, David Spade, Rene´e Zellweger. An over the line, especially in an off-color scene incisive examination of Generation X, involving heroine Crampton and a lustful whose young people are confused, and resevered head. Major defect: Richard Band’s pelled by the world being handed to them; music score, which is too reminiscent of Beron the other hand, a traditional love triangle, nard Herrmann’s classic PSYCHO sound with Ryder trying to choose between straighttrack. Lengthened (and toned down) by Gorarrow Stiller and laid-back superdude Hawke don for video. Followed by BRIDE OF RE(who’s so cool he doesn’t unwrap a candy bar ANIMATOR. [R was surrendered] ▼●쩠 before biting off a piece). Generally well Reaping, The (2007) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Stedone, with Ryder especially appealing, and phen Hopkins. Hilary Swank, David MorGarofalo a standout as her best friend. Derissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen buting director Stiller features his mom, Anne Rea, William Ragsdale, John McConnell. Meara, as a newspaperwoman, and his sister, Dopey supernatural ‘‘thriller’’ finds Swank as Amy, as Ryder’s ‘‘Psychic Phone Partner.’’ a disillusioned former missionary who tries to Written by Helen Childress (who has a bit as discredit unexplained biblical phenomena. a waitress). Jeanne Tripplehorn has unbilled She comes upon a town where the river has cameo. [PG-13]▼●쩠 turned bloodred and is being inundated with Real Life (1979) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alwhat appear to be the ‘‘ten plagues’’ of the bert Brooks. Albert Brooks, Charles GroOld Testament. Well-worn premise and indin, Frances Lee McCain, J. A. Preston, different acting sink this enterprise before Matthew Tobin. Writer-director-comedian we can even ask, ‘‘What the devil is going Brooks’ first feature doesn’t sustain its on here?’’ or more important, ‘‘Who cares?’’ Super 35. [R]쩠 comic premise as well as his hilarious [ 1135 ]

Reap the Wild Wind (1942) C-124m. Tiresome, justifiably obscure time-capsule ★★★ featuring Stallone, pre–ROCKY stardom, as D: Cecil B. DeMille. Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond an alienated political radical (an interesting Massey, Robert Preston, Susan Hayward, contrast to Rambo). Original title: NO Charles Bickford, Hedda Hopper, Louise PLACE TO HIDE. [PG]▼ Beavers, Martha O’Driscoll, Lynne OverRebel (1985-Australian) C-91m. ★★ D: man. Brawling DeMille hokum of 19thMichael Jenkins. Matt Dillon, Debbie century salvagers in Florida, with Goddard Byrne, Bryan Brown, Bill Hunter, Ray as fiery Southern belle, Milland and Wayne Barrett, Julie Nihill, Kim Deacon. Odd fighting for her, Massey as odious villain. mixture of drama and music in this tale of Exciting underwater scenes, with the special traumatized AWOL American GI Dillon, effects earning an Oscar. Milland good in who attaches himself to Sydney cabaret off-beat characterization.▼●쩠 performer Byrne during WW2. Plenty of Rear Window (1954) C-112m. ★★★★ D: Alflash and style, little substance; and Dillon fred Hitchcock. James Stewart, Grace Kelly, is fatally miscast. Panavision. [R]▼● Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Rebel Rousers (1970) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Burr, Judith Evelyn, Ross Bagdasarian. One Martin B. Cohen. Cameron Mitchell, Jack of Hitchcock’s most stylish thrillers has phoNicholson, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, (Harry) tographer Stewart confined to wheelchair in Dean Stanton. Architect Mitchell isn’t his apartment, using binoculars to pass the pleased when Dern holds drag-race to see time ‘‘spying’’ on courtyard neighbors, and who will ‘‘win’’ Mitchell’s pregnant girldiscovering a possible murder. Inventive Corfriend. Nicholson, decked out in outranell Woolrich story adapted by John Michael geous striped pants, steals the show in this Hayes. Stewart, society girlfriend Kelly, and amusing time capsule. Filmed in 1967. Aka no-nonsense nurse Ritter make a wonderful REBEL WARRIORS. [R] ▼●쩠 trio. Remade for TV in 1998 with Christopher Rebel Warriors SEE: Rebel Rousers Reeve. ▼●쩠 Rebel Without a Cause (1955) C-111m. ★★★★ D: Nicholas Ray. James Dean, NataReason to Live, a Reason to Die, A (1974-Italian-French-German-Spanish) Clie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann ★★ 92m. Doran, William Hopper, Rochelle HudD: Tonino Valerii. James Coburn, Telly Savalas, Bud Spencer, Robert Burton. son, Corey Allen, Edward Platt, Dennis Union Colonel Coburn and seven condemned Hopper, Nick Adams. This portrait of youthmen attempt to recapture a Missouri fort from ful alienation spoke to a whole generation and brutal Confederate Major Savalas. So-so remains wrenchingly powerful, despite some Western, aka MASSACRE AT FORT HOLdated elements. The yearning for self-esteem, MAN. Techniscope. [PG]▼ the barrier to communication with parents, the Rebecca (1940) 130m. ★★★★ D: Alfred comfort found in friendships, all beautifully Hitchcock. Laurence Olivier, Joan Fonrealized by director Ray, screenwriter Stewart taine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Stern, and a fine cast (far too many of whom Nigel Bruce, Reginald Denny, C. Aubrey met early ends). This was Dean’s seminal perSmith, Gladys Cooper, Florence Bates, formance and an equally impressive showcase for young Mineo. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Leo G. Carroll, Melville Cooper. Hitchcock’s first American film is sumptuous Rebound (2005) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve David O. Selznick production of Daphne Carr. Martin Lawrence, Wendy Raquel du Maurier novel of girl who marries BritRobinson, Breckin Meyer, Horatio Sanz, ish nobleman but lives in shadow of his forOren Williams, Patrick Warburton, Megan mer wife. Stunning performances by FonMullally, Eddy Martin, Steven Christopher taine and Anderson; haunting score by Parker, Laura Kightlinger. Hotshot but disFranz Waxman. Screenplay by Robert E. graced college basketball coach gets a Sherwood and Joan Harrison. Academy chance at redemption by guiding the ragtag Award winner for Best Picture and Cinehoopsters at the middle school he attended matography (George Barnes).▼●쩠 years ago. Slick, minimally humorous vehiRebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938) cle for coexecutive producer/star Lawrence 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allan Dwan. Shirley Temis beyond predictable. Tragically, teenaged ple, Randolph Scott, Jack Haley, Gloria costar Tara Correa, who plays ‘‘Big Mac’’ Stuart, Phyllis Brooks, Helen Westley, in her film debut, was killed just three Slim Summerville, William Demarest. Conmonths after this film’s release. [PG]▼쩠 trived but entertaining, with surefire eleRecess: School’s Out (2001) C-84m. ★1⁄2 ments from earlier Temple movies tossed D: Chuck Sheetz. Voices of James Woods, into simple story of Scott trying to make Andy Lawrence, Pam Segall, Dabney ColeShirley a radio star. No relation to Kate man, Melissa Joan Hart, Jason Davis, April Douglas Wiggin’s famous story. Also Winchell, Peter MacNicol, Ashley Johnson. Disney’s Saturday-morning TV cartoon exshown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 1 ★ Rebel (1974) C-80m. ⁄2 D: Robert Allen panded to feature length, with no additional Schnitzer. Antony Page, Sylvester E. Stalproduction values. Young T.J. and the Relone, Rebecca Grimes, Henry G. Sanders. cess gang spend their summer vacation in[ 1136 ]

vestigating some shady characters who have at a ‘‘typical’’ American family. Henry Gartaken over the school building and are conson and R. W. Soderberg adapted Elizabeth structing a strange ray gun. Psychedelic end S. Holding’s novel The Blank Wall. Remade as THE DEEP END. ▼ title sequence featuring Robert Goulet singing ‘‘Green Tambourine’’ is the creative Reckoning, The (1969-British) C-111m. ★★1 highlight of the picture. [G]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Jack Gold. Nicol Williamson, Reckless (1935) 96m. ★★ D: Victor FlemRachel Roberts, Paul Rogers, Ann Bell. ing. Jean Harlow, William Powell, Franchot Contrived, latter day ‘‘angry young man’’ Tone, May Robson, Ted Healy, Nat Penfilm, with Williamson (excellent as usual) dleton, Rosalind Russell, Henry Stephenson, as brooding businessman incapable of Leon Waycoff (Ames), Allan Jones, Mickey living in harmony with society, out to Rooney, Farina (Allen Hoskins). Big cast, big avenge long-ago slight to his father. [R] production, musical numbers—all can’t save Reckoning, The (2003-British-Spanish) C112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul McGuigan. Paul Bettany, script of chorus girl tangling up several people’s lives. Tired and phony.▼● Willem Dafoe, Simon McBurney, Gina McReckless (1984) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Kee, Brian Cox, Tom Hardy, Stuart Wells, Foley. Aidan Quinn, Daryl Hannah, KenMatthew Macfadyen, Jared Harris, Vincent neth McMillan, Cliff DeYoung, Lois Smith, Cassel. A priest in 1380 England runs for Adam Baldwin, Dan Hedaya, Jennifer his life after committing a crime and joins a Grey. Rebellious teenager from wrong side troupe of traveling actors. The newest vilof tracks takes up with straight-arrow coed, lage on their journey is reeling from a notowho finds in him a sense of danger and rious murder, which inspires the troupe and excitement missing from her comfortable fires the priest’s need for redemption. Interexistence. Nothing here we haven’t seen in esting story leaves its principal villain (Cas1950s films about alienated youth—except sel) offscreen far too long, but benefits from for some very contemporary sex scenes— Bettany’s strong performance. Super 35. done with sincerity and a pulsing rock sound[R]▼쩠 track. Quinn’s film debut. [R]▼● Recon Game SEE: Open Season (1974) Reckless (1995) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Norman Recruit, The (2003) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rene. Mia Farrow, Scott Glenn, Mary-Louise Roger Donaldson. Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Parker, Tony Goldwyn, Stephen Dorff, EiBridget Moynahan, Gabriel Macht, Karl leen Brennan, Giancarlo Esposito. It’s Pruner, Eugene Lipinski. College computer Christmas Eve, and a ditsy, seemingly happy whiz is recruited to join the CIA by veteran wife (Farrow) is informed by her suddenly Pacino, who warns him that no one is to be remorseful husband that he has taken out a trusted and nothing is as it seems—especially contract on her life. A potentially clever during his intense training period at The spoof of middle-class marital relations and Farm in Langley, Virginia. Good story with phony holiday cheer quickly descends into a endless twists and moments of nail-biting meandering, thoroughly ridiculous comedyexcitement, pumped up by dynamic star of-the-absurd. Farrow’s character babbles performances . . . but the final story turn is on incessantly; it’s no wonder she drives so unexpected, and so unlikely, that it comes as a letdown. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 men—as well as the audience—crazy. Adapted by Craig Lucas from his play. Red (1994-Swiss-French-Polish) C-99m. ★★★ [PG-13]▼ D: Krzysztof Kieslowski. Ire`ne Jacob, Reckless Kelly (1993-Australian-U.S.) CJean-Louis Trintignant, Frederique Feder, 94m. ★★ D: Yahoo Serious. Yahoo Serious, Jean-Pierre Lorit, Juliette Binoche, Julie Melora Hardin, Alexei Sayle, Hugo WeavDelpy, Benoit Regent, Zbigniew Zamaing, Kathleen Freeman, John Pinette. Modchowski. Final film in Kieslowski’s ‘‘Three ern descendant of Australia’s legendary Colors’’ trilogy which, like BLUE and Robin Hood–like outlaw Ned Kelly (who WHITE, can stand alone with its selftravels around on a sputtering, klunky mocontained story. Fashion model Jacob meets torcycle) goes to L.A. to raise money to embittered, retired judge Trintignant by acsave his family’s island hideout, and gets cident, then develops relationship with him mixed up with moviemakers. Engagingly and enters his cloistered, secret world. Set in silly at the start, with some very funny sight Geneva, this is a tale of several intertwining gags, but increasingly tiresome as it moves lives: a look at communication—and lack stateside. Serious also directed, cowrote, of same—in modern society. Acclaimed, and (according to the credits) performed his but not for all tastes. This final chapter is own stunts. Super 35. [PG]▼ subtitled ‘‘Fraternity.’’▼●쩠 Reckless Moment, The (1949) 82m. ★★★1⁄2 Red (2008) C-93m. ★★ D: Trygve Allister D: Max Opuls (Ophuls). James Mason, Joan Diesen, Lucky McKee. Brian Cox, Tom Bennett, Geraldine Brooks, Henry O’Neill, Sizemore, Robert Englund, Amanda PlumShepperd Strudwick. Mason blackmails promer, Noel Fisher, Kyle Gallner, Shiloh Fertective mother Bennett, whose teenage daughnandez, Richard Riehle, Kim Dickens. ter has been involved in a man’s death. NoirThree punk teens harass middle-aged Cox, ish melodrama is also a slyly subversive look and one of them shoots and kills his beloved [ 1137 ]

dog. Starts off promisingly as a morality whose devotion to the purity of martial arts is tale but deteriorates into an obvious, violent put to the test when he’s swept into a world revenge saga. Cox is a quietly powerful of corruption involving fight promoters, a presence. Based on a book by Jack Ketmovie star, and his sleazy producer. Striking chum. [R]쩠 if densely plotted storyline takes place in a ★1 Redacted (2007) C-90m. ⁄2 D: Brian De typically unique Mamet environment. EjioPalma. Patrick Carroll, Rob Devaney, Danfor is terrific as usual. Super 35. [R]쩠 iel Stewart Sherman, Izzy Diaz, Mike FiRed Circle, The SEE: Le Cercle Rouge gueroa, Ty Jones, Qazi Freihat, Kel O’Neill. Red Corner (1997) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon Misguided attempt by De Palma (who made Avnet. Richard Gere, Bai Ling, Bradley CASUALTIES OF WAR on a much bigger Whitford, Byron Mann, Peter Donat, Robert scale) to tell stories of the Iraq war through Stanton, Tsai Chin, James Hong, Tzi Ma. the eyes of various media outlets. The focus American lawyer, representing cable/satelis on a group of out-of-control U.S. soldiers lite TV interests in China, is framed for who eventually rape and murder a teenage murdering a sexy model with whom he girl with cameras rolling. Unsavory aspects slept one night. His chances for justice are of the story overwhelm it, while the unislim until the female lawyer assigned to his formly amateurish acting completely decase (Ling) is bold enough to help him fight feats whatever message was intended. [R]쩠 the system and figure out who’s really beRed and the Black, The SEE: Le Rouge hind this crime. Repetition and elements of et le Noir illogic and predictability weaken an otherwise interesting yarn. [R]▼●쩠 Red Badge of Courage, The (1951) 69m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: John Huston. Audie Murphy, Red Danube, The (1949) 119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Mauldin, Douglas Dick, Royal Dano, George Sidney. Walter Pidgeon, Ethel BarJohn Dierkes, Arthur Hunnicutt, Tim Durymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury, rant, Andy Devine. Narrated by James Janet Leigh. Louis Calhern, Francis L. Whitmore. Yankee soldier Murphy flees Sullivan. Meandering drama of ballerina under fire and is guilt stricken over his Leigh pursued by Russian agents, aided by apparent lack of courage. Stephen Crane’s amorous Lawford; heavy-handed at times. Red Dawn (1984) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: John Civil War novel receives both epic and personal treatment by director Huston. Milius. Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Sweeping battle scenes and some truly Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Powers frightening Rebel cavalry charges highBoothe, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanlight this study of the fine line between ton, Jennifer Grey. Small-town teens becowardice and bravery. Many memorable come guerrilla fighters when Commies vignettes: scene of Yankee general promisinvade U.S. Good premise gunned down ing to share supper with half a dozen differby purple prose and posturing—not to mention violence. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ent platoons after the upcoming battle is a classic. Heavily re-edited after oddly negaRed Desert (1964-French-Italian) C-118m. ★★ D: Michelangelo Antonioni. Monica tive previews; the film’s troubled production is recounted in Lillian Ross’ book Vitti, Richard Harris, Rita Renoir, Carlo Picture. Remade for TV in 1974.▼쩠 Chionetti. Vague, boring tale of Vitti alienRed Ball Express (1952) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: ated from her surroundings and on the verge Budd Boetticher. Jeff Chandler, Alex Nicol, of madness. Antonioni’s first color film does Charles Drake, Hugh O’Brian, Jack Kelly, have its followers, though. ▼●쩠 Jacqueline Duval, Sidney Poitier, Jack WarRed Doors (2006) C-91m. ★★ D: Georgia den. Pretty good WW2 story about real-life Lee. Jacqueline Kim, Freda Foh Shen, Kathy truck convoy that was hurriedly created to Shao-Lin Lee, Elaine Kao, Mia Riverton, Sebring supplies to Patton’s Army deep inside bastian Stan, Jayce Bartok, Rossif Sutherland, German-held territory in France. Screenplay Tzi Ma. Quirky slice of life about a suburban Chinese-American family; the mother is steby John Michael Hayes.▼ 1 ★★ Red Beard (1965-Japanese) 185m. reotypically flighty, the father is suicidal, sad⁄2 D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo dened by the passage of time, and each Kayama, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Reiko Dan, daughter is in the process of ending or beginKyoko Kagawa, Terumi Niki. Tough but kind ning a relationship. Well-intentioned but doctor Mifune takes intern Kayama under his sketchy meditation on the different paths indiwing in charity clinic. Unoriginal drama is viduals take to find happiness. What is meant also way overlong. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 to be funny and endearing often comes off as ★★★ Redbelt (2008) C-99m. D: David slight and silly. [R]쩠 Mamet. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alice Braga, Tim Red Dragon (1986) SEE: Manhunter Allen, Emily Mortimer, Rodrigo Santoro, Red Dragon (2002) C-124m. ★★ D: Brett Joe Mantegna, Ricky Jay, David Paymer, Ratner. Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Max Martini, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ray ManRalph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, cini, Jose Pablo Cantillo, John Machado, Mary-Louise Parker, Philip Seymour HoffJ. J. Johnston, Jack Wallace. Absorbing man, Anthony Heald, Bill Duke, Ken Leung, drama about a jiu-jitsu instructor (Ejiofor) Stanley Anderson, Azura Skye, Frankie Fai[ 1138 ]

son, John Rubinstein, Lalo Schifrin. Needless Ebsen. Musical Western spoof gets A for efremake of MANHUNTER, based on Thomas fort—with strikingly stylized color sets, offHarris’ novel. FBI agent (Norton) captures beat casting—but falls short of target.▼●쩠 Hannibal Lecter, then is forced to consult with Redhead and the Cowboy, The (1950) the carnivorous inmate as he tries to find a 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Leslie Fenton. Glenn Ford, crafty serial killer. Slick production, with an Rhonda Fleming, Edmond O’Brien, Morexceptionally good cast, can’t disguise a potris Ankrum. Action-packed Civil War Westboiler script that’s all too obvious. (Gee, do ern with dance-hall girl Fleming acting as you think the bad guy will go after Norton’s Confederate courier; along the way, she family?) Screenplay by Ted Tally, who also gets apolitical cowboy Ford involved in adapted THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. her cause. Frank Whaley and Mary Beth Hurt appear Red-Headed Stranger (1986) C-105m. ★1 unbilled; Ellen Burstyn’s voice is uncredited. ⁄2 D: William Wittliff. Willie Nelson, Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Morgan Fairchild, Katharine Ross, Royal Red Dust (1932) 83m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Victor Dano, Sonny Carl Davis. Limp drama, Fleming. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary screenwriter Wittliff’s directorial debut, Astor, Donald Crisp, Gene Raymond, Tully about a preacher (Nelson), his wayward Marshall, Willie Fung. Robust romance of Inwife (Fairchild, in an awful performance), dochina rubber worker Gable, his floozie gal a ‘‘good woman’’ (Ross), and some hooliHarlow, and visiting Astor, who is married to gans that have overridden his town. Adapted Raymond, but falls for Gable. Harlow has fine from Willie’s 1975 album . . . and proof that comic touch. Tart script by John Lee Mahin. hit records don’t necessarily make good Remade as MOGAMBO. Also shown in movies. Shot in 1984. [R]▼● computer-colored version. Panavision. ▼● Red-Headed Woman (1932) 79m. ★★★ Red Dust (2004-British-South African) CD: Jack Conway. Jean Harlow, Chester 111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Hooper. Hilary Swank, Morris, Una Merkel, Lewis Stone, May Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jamie Bartlett, Nomhle´ Robson, Leila Hyams, Charles Boyer. HarNkyonyeni, Ian Roberts, Greg Latter, Malow has never been sexier than in this wonga Dominic Tyawa, Marius Weyers. precensorship story (by Anita Loos) of a An apartheid drama with a twist: apartheid gold-digging secretary who sets out to corhas ended, and N.Y. lawyer Swank returns ral her married boss (Morris).▼●쩠 to her native South Africa to represent a rising Redhead From Wyoming, The (1952) black politician (Ejiofor) who was beaten and C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lee Sholem. Maureen tortured while in custody years earlier. SomO’Hara, Alexander Scourby, Alex Nicol, Jack ber drama, based on a novel by Gillian Slovo, Kelly, William Bishop, Dennis Weaver. explores the possibility of and need for forSaucy Western pepped up by exuberant giveness in order to heal South Africa’s O’Hara as girl who falls in love with sheriff while protecting local cattle rustler. ▼쩠 wounds. Well meaning but lacks dramatic spark and fire. Panavision. [R]쩠 Red Heat (1988) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Walter ★★★ D: Wes CraRed Eye (2005) C-85m. Hill. Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Belushi, ven. Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Peter Boyle, Ed O’Ross, Larry Fishburne, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, Jack Scalia, Robert Gina Gershon, Richard Bright, Oleg Vidov, Pine. Craven returns to form with this tight, Pruitt Taylor Vince. Grim-faced Soviet cop knowingly hokey thriller that actually thrills tracks a scummy Russian drug dealer to Chiwhile maintaining a sense of humor about cago, where he’s partnered with belligerent itself. McAdams exudes star quality as a hotel Belushi from the Chicago P.D. Cheerless, manager on an early morning flight terrorized foul-mouthed action film with two of the least by the deliciously evil Murphy. Part of the fun appealing characters imaginable as the good is experiencing how masterfully the director guys. This was the first American production manipulates the audience using familiar conallowed to shoot scenes in Moscow’s Red Square (. . . but why?). [R] ▼●쩠 ventions. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker Red House, The (1947) 100m. ★★★ D: (1994-Hong Kong) C-116m. ★★★ D: He Delmer Daves. Edward G. Robinson, Lon Ping. Hing Jing, Wu Gang, Zhao Xiaorui, McCallister, Allene Roberts, Judith AnGao Yang. Evocative, romantic tale, beautiderson, Rory Calhoun, Julie London. Ona fully directed and photographed and set in the Munson. Title refers to strange old house early 20th century. The heroine is a young containing many mysteries, providing conwoman (Jing) who wears men’s clothes and stant fear for farmer Robinson. Exciting successfully operates her family’s fireworks melodrama with fine cast.▼쩠 manufacturing business. Her priorities begin Redline (2007) C-95m. BOMB D: Andy to change when she is attracted to a goodCheng. Nadia Bjorlin, Eddie Griffin, Angus looking, wandering artist (Gang). [R]▼●쩠 Macfadyen, Tim Matheson, Nathan PhilRed Garters (1954) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: George lips, Jesse Johnson, Denyce Lawton. Real Marshall. Rosemary Clooney, Jack Carson, estate developer Daniel Sadek financed, coGuy Mitchell, Pat Crowley, Gene Barry, Cass wrote, produced, and provided his exotic Daley, Frank Faylen, Reginald Owen, Buddy car collection for this slow and curious [ 1139 ]

FAST AND THE FURIOUS wannabe. Tony Gaudio’s Technicolor camerawork Gorgeous woman who happens to be an ace and a justly famous score by Aaron Copdriver gets caught up in the world of illegal land. Remade for TV in 1973. ▼●쩠 drag racing competitions in which filthyRed River (1948) 133m. ★★★★ D: Howard rich men with nothing better to do wager Hawks. John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, big bucks on the outcome. When she’s not Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, John Ireland, pushing the pedal to the metal, she fronts a Noah Beery, Jr., Paul Fix, Coleen Gray, band singing lyrics like, ‘‘I want to be your Harry Carey, Jr., Harry Carey, Sr., Chief car so you can ride me tonight.’’ Steer clear Yowlachie, Hank Worden. One of the greatof this one. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 est American adventures is really a Western Red Line 7000 (1965) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY: Clift (in his Howard Hawks. James Caan, Laura Devon, first film) rebels against tyrannical guardian Gail Hire, Charlene Holt, John Robert Wayne (brilliant in an unsympathetic role) Crawford, Marianna Hill, James Ward, during crucial cattle drive. Spellbinding phoNorman Alden, George Takei. Attempt by tography by Russell Harlan, rousing Dimitri director Hawks to do same kind of expert Tiomkin score; an absolute must. Alternate adventure pic he’d done for 40 years is 125m. version uses Brennan’s narration in sabotaged by overly complex script and place of diary pages, which Hawks preindifferent acting, but is a faster and less ferred. Screenplay by Borden Chase and pretentious racing-car drama than GRAND Charles Schnee, from Chase’s Saturday PRIX. Originally ran 127m. ▼● Evening Post story. If you blink, you’ll miss Red Menace, The (1949) 87m. ★1⁄2 D: R.G. Shelley Winters dancing with Ireland Springsteen. Robert Rockwell, Hanne around a campfire. Remade for TV in 1988 with James Arness. ▼●쩠 Axman, Betty Lou Gerson, Barbara Fuller. War vet Rockwell is duped by the Commies. Red Road (2006-British-Scottish-Danish) C113m. ★★★ D: Andrea Arnold. Kate Dickie, McCarthyesque propaganda is now an unintentionally funny antique. Narrated by ‘‘Lloyd Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Natalie G. Davies, member of the City Council, Los Press, Andrew Armour. A woman who works as a security officer in Glasgow, intently surAngeles, California.’’ ▼● 1 ★★ Red Mountain (1951) C-84m. veying a bank of video monitors for criminal ⁄2 D: William Dieterle. Alan Ladd, Lizabeth Scott, activity, recognizes a man she thought was John Ireland, Arthur Kennedy. When Congone from her life, then contrives a way to federate raider Quantrill (Ireland) tries to meet him. Why? And will the answer to that establish his own empire in the West durquestion explain why she is so emotionally ing the Civil War, it’s up to Southern rebel remote? Intriguing drama takes its time playLadd and neutral Kennedy to stop him. ing out but never loses its hold on the audiRed Planet (2000) C-106m. ★★ D: Antony ence. Arnold’s feature directing debut is the Hoffman. Val Kilmer, Carrie-Anne Moss, first of three films to be made based on charTom Sizemore, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, acters created by Anders Thomas Jensen and Terence Stamp. Utterly ordinary sci-fi saga Lone Scherfig. Coproduced by Lars von Triabout a mission to Mars in the year 2050. er’s Zentropa Entertainments5.쩠 No-nonsense commander Moss is left alone Red Rock West (1993) C-98m. ★★★ D: on her ship while her contentious crew John Dahl. Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, checks on a terraforming project on Mars to Lara Flynn Boyle, Timothy Carhart, J.T. create food and oxygen. Looks good, but Walsh, Dan Shor, Dwight Yoakam. Rockcovers awfully familiar dramatic turf. Pasolid little thriller, crammed with twists, navision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 turns and suspense, about honest, unemRed Planet Mars (1952) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: ployed Cage, who’s mistaken for a contract Harry Horner. Peter Graves, Andrea King, killer hired to do in seductive, adulterous Marvin Miller, Herbert Berghof, House Boyle. Nothing that occurs is logical or Peters, Jr., Vince Barnett. Outrageous sci-fi probable, but the film is so good (and so of scientist deciphering messages from funny) that you are willing to go along for Mars which turn out to be from God. Hilarithe ride. Hopper aficionados will savor his ously ludicrous anti-Communist propaperformance as ‘‘Lyle, from Dallas,’’ the smarmiest of psychos, who is the real hit ganda (Red Planet Mars, get it?).▼● man. This debuted on cable TV. [R]▼●쩠 Red Pony, The (1949) C-89m. ★★★ D: Lewis Milestone. Myrna Loy, Robert Reds (1981) C-200m. ★★★ D: Warren Mitchum, Peter Miles, Louis Calhern, Beatty. Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, EdShepperd Strudwick, Margaret Hamilton, ward Herrmann, Jerzy Kosinski, Jack NicholBeau Bridges. John Steinbeck adapted his son, Paul Sorvino, Maureen Stapleton, own stories into this warmhearted screenNicolas Coster, Gene Hackman, William play about a farm boy who learns about Daniels, Max Wright, M. Emmet Walsh, Ian responsibility when he’s given his own Wolfe, Bessie Love, George Plimpton, Dolph pony. Keen observations of family dynamSweet, Josef Sommer. Sprawling, ambitious ics (with Calhern a delight as Loy’s garrufilm about American idealist/journalist John lous father) make this a standout, along with Reed’s involvement with Communism, the [ 1140 ]

Russian Revolution, and a willful, freeRed Sorghum (1987-Chinese) C-91m. ★★★1 thinking woman named Louise Bryant. Pro⁄2 D: Zhang Yimou. Gong Li, Jiang vocative political saga is diffused, and overWen, Liu Ji, Teng Rijun, Qian Ming. come at times, by surprisingly conventional, Evocative, beautifully filmed combination often sappy approach to the love story (clidrama/black comedy/fairy tale/epic which maxed by Bryant’s Little Eva–like journey to chronicles a most untraditional union beRussia over the ice floes). Interesting but tween a pair of rural lovers during the 1920s. wildly overpraised film won Oscars for The years pass, a new decade arrives, and Beatty as Best Director (he also produced with it come Japanese invaders. A triumph for director Yimou. CinemaScope.▼ and coscripted), Stapleton as Best Supporting Actress, Vittorio Storaro for Best CineRed Sun (1972-Italian-French-Spanish) C-112m. ★★ D: Terence Young. Charles matography. [PG]▼●쩠 Red Scorpion (1989) C-102m. BOMB D: Bronson, Ursula Andress, Toshiro Mifune, Joseph Zito. Dolph Lundgren, M. Emmet Alain Delon, Capucine. East meets West Walsh, Al White, T.P. McKenna, Carmen in this odd story of samurai warrior pursuArgenziano, Brion James, Regopstann. ing valuable Japanese sword stolen from Bottom-of-the-barrel actioner with Lundtrain crossing American West. Intriguing gren a Soviet officer sent to Africa to elements, and refreshingly tongue-in-cheek, murder a rebel leader. Followed by directbut a misfire. [PG]▼쩠 to-video sequel. [R] ▼●쩠 Red Tent, The (1971-Italian-Russian) Red Shoes, The (1948-British) C-133m. C-121m. ★★★ D: Mickail K. Kalatozov. ★★★★ Sean Connery, Claudia Cardinale, Hardy D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring, Kruger, Peter Finch, Massimo Girotti, Luigi Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann, Leonide Vannucchi, Mario Adorf. Top-notch advenMassine, Albert Basserman, Ludmilla ture saga for kids and adults alike, based on Tcherina, Esmond Knight. A superb, styltrue story of explorer General Nobile (Finch) ized fairy tale. Young ballerina is torn whose 1928 Arctic expedition turns into disasbetween two creative, possessive men, one ter. Exciting scenes of survival against elea struggling composer, the other an automents, dramatic rescue, marred by awkward cratic dance impresario. Landmark film flashback framework. Connery appears only for its integration of dance in storytelling, in a few scenes. [G]▼●쩠 and a perennial favorite of balletomanes. Red Tide, The SEE: Blood Tide Brian Easdale’s score and Hein Heckroth Red Tomahawk (1967) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: R. and Arthur Lawson’s art direction-set decG. Springsteen. Howard Keel, Joan Cauloration won Oscars, and Jack Cardiff’s field, Broderick Crawford, Scott Brady, cinematography should have. Shearer is Wendell Corey, Richard Arlen, Tom Drake, exquisite in movie debut.▼●쩠 Ben Cooper, Donald Barry. Captain Keel Red Skies of Montana (1952) C-99m. saves town from Sioux in routine Western ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph M. Newman. Richard with many likable performers in the cast. Widmark, Jeffrey Hunter, Constance Smith, Red Violin, The (1998-Canadian-Italian) Richard Boone, Richard Crenna, Charles C-131m. ★★ D: Franc¸ois Girard. Carlo CecBuchinsky (Bronson). Trite account of chi, Irene Grazioli, Jean-Luc Bideau, Jason forest-fire fighters, salvaged by spectacuFlemyng, Greta Scacchi, Sylvia Chang, lar fire sequences. Samuel L. Jackson, Colm Feore, Monique Red Sky at Morning (1970) C-112m. Mercure, Don McKellar, Sandra Oh. Multi★★★ episode film follows the fate of a cursed D: James Goldstone. Richard Thomas, Catherine Burns, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Richviolin from 17th-century Italy to 18thard Crenna, Claire Bloom, John Colicos, century Vienna, 19th-century England, Harry Guardino, Strother Martin, Nehemiah 20th-century China and present-day MonPersoff. Unspectacular but pleasing adaptreal. The stories are mostly downbeat and/ tation of Richard Bradford’s novel about or frustrating, and the wrapup segment with adolescence in New Mexico during WW2. appraiser Jackson is hard to swallow. ColorComparable to SUMMER OF ’42, and in ful locales and intriguing premises maintain many ways better; Thomas is superb. [PG] minimal interest throughout. McKellar, who plays Jackson’s cohort in the final episode, Red Sonja (1985) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Fleischer. Brigitte Nielsen, Arnold Schwaralso coscripted with the director. Oscarzenegger, Sandahl Bergman, Paul Smith, winning score by John Corigliano.▼쩠 Ernie Reyes, Jr., Ronald Lacey, Pat Roach. Reefer Madness (1936) 67m. BOMB D: Spectacularly silly sword-and-sorcery saga Louis Gasnier. Dave O’Brien, Dorothy with female lead, based on pulp writings Short, Warren McCollum, Lillian Miles, of Robert E. Howard (of CONAN fame). Carleton Young, Thelma White. The grandMight amuse juvenile viewers, but only point daddy of all ‘‘Worst’’ movies; one of that of interest for adults is deciding who gives era’s many low-budget ‘‘Warning!’’ films the worse performance, Nielsen or villainess depicts (in now-hilarious fashion) how one Bergman. Schwarzenegger has a brief guest puff of pot can lead clean-cut teenagers spot. Technovision. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 down the road to insanity and death. Miles’ [ 1141 ]

frenzied piano solo is a highlight, but in this ert Keith, Marvin Kaplan. Sassy shenanimore enlightened age, overall effect is a little gans with lawyer–mayoral candidate Powell sad. Later a stage musical, which was filmed becoming involved with spunky, idealistic for cable TV in 2005. Originally titled THE zookeeper’s daughter Allyson during conBURNING QUESTION, then TELL YOUR troversial political campaign. Powell and CHILDREN; beware shorter prints. Also Allyson were real-life Mr. and Mrs. at this shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 time. Spring Byington provides the voice of Reel Paradise (2005) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allyson’s mother. Steve James. Famed film exhibitor John Reform School Girl (1957) 71m. BOMB Pierson and wife-partner Janet spend a year D: Edward Bernds. Gloria Castillo, Ross on Fiji’s remote Taveuni showing free films Ford, Edward Byrnes, Ralph Reed, Luana to the locals—from classics to JACKASS: Anders, Jack Kruschen, Sally Kellerman. THE MOVIE, though their precocious son Hokey time capsule about a pretty teen thinks JACKASS is a classic. Not in the from ‘‘the other side of the tracks’’ (Cassame league as James’ earlier documentatillo). After a fatal car mishap, she ends up ries (HOOP DREAMS, STEVIE), yet its in reform school. Will she or won’t she meanderings aren’t without interest. The squeal on the party responsible for her dilemma? Remade for cable TV in 1994.▼ family absorbs as much of the local (anti– New York) culture as the culture absorbs Reform School Girls (1986) C-94m. ★1⁄2 from the movies. Must viewing for buffs, in D: Tom DeSimone. Linda Carol, Wendy any event. [R]쩠 O. Williams, Pat Ast, Sybil Danning, CharRef, The (1994) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ted lotte McGinnis, Sherri Stoner, Denise Demme. Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Gordy, Tiffany Schwartz. Comic strip– Spacey, Robert J. Steinmiller, Jr., Glynis styled spoof of women’s prison films offers Johns, Raymond J. Barry, Richard Bright, some knowing winks (director DeSimone Christine Baranski, Bill Raymond, Bob also made 1982’s THE CONCRETE JUNRidgely, B. D. Wong. A cocky cat burglar GLE), but the level of exaggeration is a on the lam holds a squabbling yuppie couturnoff, such as imagining veteran rock ple hostage on Christmas Eve and quickly singer Williams as a teenager. Carol is the learns he’s gotten himself into a no-win sitinnocent young girl learning the ropes in uation. This caustic comedy is meatier than prison, while chubby Ast, an Andy Warhol you might expect, with top-notch perforfilm graduate, was born to play a prison mances by Spacey and Davis, but it gets matron—yet even her campy acting becomes monotonous. [R]▼●쩠 unexpectedly serious—then silly and illogical. Still worth a look. Director Demme is Regarding Henry (1991) C-107m. ★★ D: Jonathan’s nephew. [R]▼●쩠 Mike Nichols. Harrison Ford, Annette Reflecting Skin, The (1990-British-CanaBening, Bill Nunn, Mikki Allen, Donald dian) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip Ridley. Viggo Moffat, Nancy Marchand, Elizabeth WilMortensen, Lindsay Duncan, Jeremy Cooper, son, Robin Bartlett, John Leguizamo. HighSheila Moore, Duncan Fraser, David Longpowered lawyer suffers brain injury and worth. Weird, jarring chiller, set in rural Idaho has to start his life all over again—learning in the early ’50s, about a boy (Cooper) who’s to walk, talk, and ultimately, return to his convinced that the young widow who lives family and job. Potentially interesting story next door is a vampire. He’s especially disis given polished presentation, but is so traught when his older brother becomes her placid, and so unrealistic—even trivializlover. Offbeat to say the least, and not for all ing the recovery process—it never achieves tastes, but still worth a look.▼● any emotional impact. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Reflection of Fear, A (1973) C-89m. Regeneration (1915) 72m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Raoul ★★1 ⁄2 D: William A. Fraker. Robert Shaw, Walsh. Rockcliffe Fellowes, Anna Q. Nilsson, Mary Ure, Sally Kellerman, Sondra Locke, William Sheer, Carl Harbaugh, James Marcus, Signe Hasso. Muddled story of beautiful Maggie Weston. Still stirring and cinematigirl who becomes the crucial link in chain cally impressive early gangster film (and social of violence and murder. [PG]▼ tract) charting the plight and fate of Owen (FelReflections in a Golden Eye (1967) lowes), a surly, charismatic Irish hood, and how his life is affected by Mamie Rose (NilsC-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Huston. Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, Brian Keith, Julie son), a young woman who deserts her upperHarris, Robert Forster, Zorro David. Kinky class roots for life as ‘‘a settlement worker in version of Carson McCullers’ novel about hothe gangster’s district.’’ This vividly realistic mosexual army officer in the South. Not really melodrama, which portrays the effect of povvery good, but cast, subject matter, and Huserty on the human spirit, was filmed on locaton’s pretentious handling make it fascinating tion in N.Y.C.’s Bowery.▼●쩠 on a minor level. Panavision.▼쩠 Regeneration (1997-British-Canadian) CReformer and the Redhead, The (1950) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gillies MacKinnon. Jonathan 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Panama, Melvin Pryce, James Wilby, Jonny Lee Miller, StuFrank. June Allyson, Dick Powell, David art Bunce, David Hayman, Tanya Allen, Wayne, Cecil Kellaway, Ray Collins, RobJohn Neville, James McAvoy. Famed WW1 [ 1142 ]

poet and decorated British war hero Siegyears before roosts inside Sarrazin, in modfried Sassoon is declared mentally unstable erately gripping version of Max Ehrlich’s and sent to a military psychiatric hospital book, adapted by the author. [R]▼● after publishing a denouncement of the war. Reindeer Games (2000) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Strong acting and superb cinematography John Frankenheimer. Ben Affleck, Gary enhance this talky, stagy adaptation of Pat Sinise, Charlize Theron, Dennis Farina, Barker’s prize-winning novel. Pryce is exJames Frain, Donal Logue, Danny Trejo, ceptional as an army doctor who tries to Isaac Hayes, Gordon Tootoosis, Clarence heal the soldiers’ wounded psyches. Aka Williams III, Ashton Kutcher. After five BEHIND THE LINES. [R]▼쩠 years in prison, a car thief assumes the idenReggae Sunsplash (1980-German-Jamaitity of his cell-mate and takes up with his can) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stefan Paul. Bob comrade’s gorgeous pen-pal girlfriend. Marley, Peter Tosh, Third World, Burning Soon he finds himself in a quicksand pit of Spear. OK documentary, filmed at the ’79 crime. Ridiculous story isn’t believable for Sunsplash II Festival in Montego Bay, one minute, especially with the shallow perbenefits from commanding presences of formances of its usually capable cast (who Marley and company.▼ all seem to be playing ‘‘grown-up’’ parts Reign of Fire (2002-British-Irish-U.S.) Cfrom an old movie script). Also available in 124m. director’s cut. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 101m. ★★ D: Rob Bowman. Christian Bale, Matthew McConaughey, Izabella Scorupco, Reivers, The (1969) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gerard Butler, Scott James Moutter, David Mark Rydell. Steve McQueen, Sharon FarKennedy, Alexander Siddig, Ned Dennehy, rell, Will Geer, Michael Constantine, Rupert Alice Krige. Bleak tale takes place, for the Crosse, Mitch Vogel, Lonny Chapman, Juano most part, in the year 2020, when the world Hernandez, Clifton James, Ruth White, Dub has been decimated by fire-breathing dragons. Taylor, Allyn Ann McLerie, Diane Ladd; narOne enclave, holed up in a British castle, tries rated by Burgess Meredith. Picaresque film desperately to survive; then along comes an from Faulkner novel about young boy (Vogel) American military man with a mission in 1905 Mississippi who takes off for adven(McConaughey) and his troops, who favor an turous automobile trip with devil-may-care aggressive rather than passive approach. It’s McQueen and buddy Crosse. Completely hard to care about anyone in this dour story. winning Americana, full of colorful episodes, Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 equally colorful characters. Screenplay by IrReign of Terror (1949) 89m. ★★★ D: ving Ravetch (who also produced) and Harriet Frank, Jr. Panavision. [M]▼쩠 Anthony Mann. Robert Cummings, Arlene Dahl, Richard Hart, Richard Basehart, ArRelative Values (2000-British) C-88m. ★★ nold Moss, Beulah Bondi. Vivid costume D: Eric Styles. Julie Andrews, Edward Atdrama set during French Revolution, with terton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, William Baldvaluable diary eluding both sides of battle. win, Sophie Thompson, Colin Firth, Stephen Moss is particularly good as the elegantly, Fry. The mother of an English aristocrat eloquently evil Foucher. Stunningly phoschemes to break up his engagement to a sexy tographed by John Alton; every shot is a Hollywood movie star in this bland adaptation painting! Aka THE BLACK BOOK. ▼쩠 of Noel Coward’s drawing-room comedy. Reign Over Me (2007) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: The cast is game, headed by Andrews in her Mike Binder. Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, first big-screen role in almost a decade, but Jada Pinkett Smith, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burthe direction is unimaginative and the farcirows, Donald Sutherland, Robert Klein, Mecal plot (hinging on 1950s British class dislinda Dillon, Mike Binder, Jonathan Banks, tinctions) makes much ado about very little. U.S. debut on cable TV. [PG]▼ Rae Allen. Prosperous N.Y.C. dentist (Cheadle) spots his old college roommate Relentless (1948) C-93m. ★★★ D: George (Sandler) on the street one day and presses Sherman. Robert Young, Marguerite Chaphim for a reunion. It turns out that Sandler has man, Willard Parker, Barton MacLane, become an inscrutable, obsessive-compulsive Akim Tamiroff, Mike Mazurki. Good, solid hermit since his wife and daughters died on Western story of a man who must catch a one of the ill-fated flights on 9/11. Writerwily horse thief in order to prove his own director Binder (who plays Sugarman) tries innocence. Young produced this, uncredto cover too much ground, cluttering the ited, with his Father Knows Best partner central story with superfluous characters Eugene Rodney. Relentless (1989) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: William and trying to create a parallel character portrait for Cheadle . . . but Sandler’s dramatic Lustig. Judd Nelson, Robert Loggia, Leo performance is genuinely impressive. HD Rossi, Meg Foster, Patrick O’Bryan, Ken Lerner, Mindy Seeger, Angel Tompkins. NelWidescreen. [R]쩠 Reincarnation of Peter Proud, The (1975) son gives his one memorable performance to C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: J. Lee Thompson. Midate, as a serial killer. Otherwise thoroughly chael Sarrazin, Jennifer O’Neill, Margot routine, and that goes double for the finale. Kidder, Cornelia Sharpe, Paul Hecht, Tony Followed by three sequels, beginning with DEAD ON: RELENTLESS II. [R]▼●쩠 Stephano. The soul of a man murdered [ 1143 ]

Relic, The (1997) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Remains of the Day, The (1993) C-135m. ★★★1 Hyams. Penelope Ann Miller, Tom Size⁄2 D: James Ivory. Anthony Hopkins, more, Linda Hunt, James Whitmore, ClayEmma Thompson, James Fox, Christopher ton Rohner, Chi Muoi Lo, Thomas Ryan, Reeve, Peter Vaughan, Hugh Grant, MiRobert Lesser, Lewis Van Bergen, Conchael Lonsdale, Tim Pigott-Smith, Patrick stance Towers, John Kapelos, Audra LindGodfrey. HOWARDS END leads are reley. As a big natural history museum hosts united as servants at a baronial English a glittering reception, a monster runs amok country home—Hopkins a self-sacrificing in the shadows. Yes, it’s ‘‘ALIEN in a mubutler who serves with the utmost discreseum,’’ but not bad. The monster, done both tion, and Thompson an efficient and bright ‘‘live’’ and by computer graphics, is espehead housekeeper. The two collide over cially impressive, but the explanation for it work—and especially over overtures of rois laughable. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 mance. Looming over these personal stories Religulous (2008) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry is the (fascinating) larger tale of the misCharles. Documentary (of sorts) follows talk guided lord of the manor (Fox), who is show host/comedian/devout atheist Bill Mahexcitedly making alliances with Nazi symer’s quest to expose the lies and contradictions pathizers. Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel was inherent in organized religion. Provocative, adapted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and often entertaining film provides some valid though film can’t quite dispel its literary insights but never cuts deep enough, content origin, even almost-great Merchant-Ivory is to score laughs off easy interview targets (as better than most anything else around. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 well as snippets from Hollywood movies) and becoming as didactic as the religious Remains to Be Seen (1953) 89m. ★★★ D: fundamentalism it abhors. [R]쩠 Don Weis. Van Johnson, June Allyson, Reluctant Astronaut, The (1967) C-101m. Angela Lansbury, Louis Calhern, Dorothy ★★ Dandridge. Disarming comedy based on D: Edward Montagne. Don Knotts, Leslie Nielsen, Joan Freeman, Arthur Howard Lindsay–Russel Crouse play, with O’Connell, Jesse White. Featherweight Allyson a singer and Johnson the apartmentcomedy dealing with hicksville alumnus house manager involved in swank East Side Knotts becoming title figure; predictable N.Y.C. murder; script by Sidney Sheldon. and often not even childishly humorous. Remarkable Andrew, The (1942) 80m. ★★1 For kids only.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Stuart Heisler. William Holden, Reluctant Debutante, The (1958) C-94m. Ellen Drew, Brian Donlevy, Montagu Love, ★★1 George Watts, Brandon Hurst, Gilbert ⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, John Saxon, Sandra Dee, Emery, Rod Cameron, Richard Webb, FranAngela Lansbury. Bright drawing-room ces Gifford. Far-fetched but well-played comedy which Harrison, Kendall, and fantasy in which small-town bookkeeper Lansbury make worthwhile: British parHolden is falsely accused of embezzlement; ents must present their Americanized daughthe ghost of Pres. Andrew Jackson (Donter to society. Remade as WHAT A GIRL levy), among other pillars of U.S. history, WANTS. CinemaScope. ▼● comes to his rescue. Script by Dalton Reluctant Dragon, The (1941) C/B&WTrumbo, based on his novel. 72m. ★★★ D: Alfred L. Werker (live-action). Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, The (1959) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Levin. ClifRobert Benchley gets a tour of the Walt Disney studio in this pleasant feature that ton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Charles incorporates a number of first-rate cartoon Coburn, Ray Stricklyn, Jill St. John, Ron sequences (Baby Weems, The Reluctant Ely, David Nelson. Prodded along by Dragon), offers some interesting glimpses Webb’s brittle manner, period tale unfolds of studio at work. Clarence ‘‘Ducky’’ Nash of Pennsylvania businessman who leads and Florence Gill do cartoon voices, Ward dual life, with two families (17 kids in all). Kimball animates Goofy, Frances Gifford CinemaScope. shows Benchley around, and young Alan Rembrandt (1936-British) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ladd appears as one of the story men. Alexander Korda. Charles Laughton, Elsa Opens in b&w, turns to beautiful TechniLanchester, Gertrude Lawrence, Edward color hues. ▼쩠 Chapman, Roger Livesey, Raymond HuntReluctant Saint, The (1962-U.S.-Italian) ley, John Clements, Marius Goring, Abraham 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Dmytryk. MaxiSofaer. Handsome bio of Dutch painter, full milian Schell, Ricardo Montalban, Lea of visual tableaux and sparked by Laughton’s Padovani, Akim Tamiroff, Harold Goldexcellent performance. One of Gertrude Lawrence’s rare film appearances. ▼●쩠 blatt, Mark Damon. Loosely biographical account of St. Joseph of Cupertino, a 17thRemember Me, My Love (2003-Italian) century Franciscan whose modest upbringC-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gabriele Muccino. Faing and simple intellect would never have brizio Bentivoglio, Laura Morante, Nicoforetold the religious life he would lead (or letta Romanoff, Monica Bellucci, Silvio the great number of miracles he would Muccino, Gabriele Lavia, Enrico Silvestrin. perform). Unusual fare; worth a look. Italian domestic drama centered on life, [ 1144 ]

loves, and longings of a family in emotional ‘‘Thou shalt not get away with it’’) . . . then crisis. The father carries on with a former he’s trained for job by inscrutable Korean Siflame, the daughter wants to be a scantily nanju master (Grey). Comes close to scoring clad star on a sleazy TV show, the wife bull’s-eye but misfires too many times—and wants to resume her dormant acting career, goes on too long. [PG-13]▼●쩠 etc. Soapy and overheated at times, but Renaissance (2006-French-British-Luxemhuman qualities come through in this somebourg) C/B&W-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christian times touching story from the director of the Volckman. Voices of Daniel Craig, Catherine superior THE LAST KISS. Super 35. ▼쩠 McCormack, Romola Garai, Jonathan Pryce, Remember My Name (1978) C-96m. ★★★ Ian Holm. The imagery is the star of this D: Alan Rudolph. Geraldine Chaplin, Annoir-ish animated action yarn set in Paris thony Perkins, Moses Gunn, Berry Berenin 2054; the storyline, which is difficult to son, Jeff Goldblum, Timothy Thomerson, follow, involves a cop who sets out to find a Alfre Woodard, Dennis Franz. Dreamlike kidnapped genetics researcher who apparfilm presents fragmented story of woman ently has pieced together the ‘‘protocol for returning from prison, determined to disrupt immortality.’’ The motion-capture animaher ex-husband’s new life. Moody, provoction is stark and occasionally stunning, ative film definitely not for all tastes; strikmaking the film look like a graphic novel ing blues vocals on soundtrack by Alberta come to life . . . but after a while it grows Hunter. Produced by Robert Altman. tiresome, as the visuals outweigh the story Woodard’s film debut. [R] and characterizations. Super 35. [R]쩠 Remember the Day (1941) 85m. ★★★ D: Renaissance Man (1994) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry King. Claudette Colbert, John Payne, Penny Marshall. Danny DeVito, Gregory John Shepperd (Shepperd Strudwick), Ann Hines, James Remar, Cliff Robertson, Lillo Todd, Douglas Croft, Jane Seymour, Anne Brancato, Jr., Stacey Dash, Kadeem HardiRevere. Pleasant, tug-at-your-heartstrings son, Richard T. Jones, Khalil Kain, Peter Americana, told in flashback, about the Simmons, Greg Sporleder, Mark Wahlberg, effect teacher Colbert has on a student Ben Wright, Ed Begley, Jr., Isabella Hoff(Croft, who grows up to be presidential mann. A man whose life and career have hit nominee Shepperd). Payne is the fellow a stone wall gets hired to teach some of the teacher with whom Colbert falls in love. Army’s least intelligent recruits some basics Remember the Night (1940) 94m. ★★★ D: of reading. Overlong, overtly corny ‘‘feelMitchell Leisen. Barbara Stanwyck, Fred good’’ movie, bolstered by sincere and persuaMacMurray, Beulah Bondi, Elizabeth sive performances. Also stands as the kindest Patterson, Sterling Holloway. Beautifully portrait of the U.S. Army in recent history. Aka BY THE BOOK. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 made, sentimental story of prosecutor MacMurray falling in love with shoplifter Renaldo and Clara (1978) C-292m. Stanwyck during Christmas court recess; BOMB. D: Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan, Sara builds masterfully as it creates a very speDylan, Sam Shepard, Ronee Blakley, Roncial mood. Script by Preston Sturges.▼ nie Hawkins, Joni Mitchell, Harry Dean Remember the Titans (2000) C-113m. Stanton, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Neuwirth, Joan ★★★ D: Boaz Yakin. Denzel Washington, Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Mick Ronson, RoWill Patton, Donald Faison, Wood Harris, berta Flack. Self-important, poorly made Ryan Hurst, Ethan Suplee, Nicole Ari Parfictionalized account of Dylan’s Rolling ker, Hayden Panettiere, Kip Pardue, Craig Thunder Revue. Dylan plays Renaldo; Kirkwood, Kate Bosworth, Ryan Gosling. his wife Sara is Clara. Pretentious and obCorny but crowd-pleasing tale of a black noxious. Dylan later cut it to 122m.; what’s man who’s named to replace a wellleft is mostly concert footage, but it doesn’t respected football coach at a Virginia high help much. Sam Shepard’s first film. [R] Rendez-vous (1985-French) C-82m. ★★★ D: school in the early 1970s . . . and how that coach gets his team to break down racial Andre´ Te´chine´. Juliette Binoche, Lambert Wilbarriers and work together. Pat and manipuson, Wadeck Stanczak, Jean-Louis Trintilative, but still effective thanks in large part gnant, Olimpia Carlisi, Dominique Lavanant. to the power of Washington’s performance. Stylish melodrama perceptively investigates Based on a true story. Director’s cut runs the borderline between play-acting and real 120m. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 life as stage actress (Binoche) becomes inRemo Williams: The Adventure Bevolved with obsessive live-sex show star Wilgins . . . (1985) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Guy son and his mentor, a renowned director Hamilton. Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford (Trintignant). Morbid mood and extreme sex Brimley, J. A. Preston, George Coe, Charles scenes may repel some audiences; stunning Cioffi, Kate Mulgrew, Michael Pataki, Wilwidescreen cinematography by Renato Berta. liam Hickey. Bubble-gum action-adventure CinemaScope.▼●쩠 yarn based on the popular Destroyer books Rendezvous in Paris (1996-French) C100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Clara Bellar, by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy, with Ward a N.Y.C. cop recruited by secret sociAntoine Basler, Aurore Rauscher, Serge ety out to avenge society’s wrongs (motto: Renko, Michael Kraft, Benedicte Loyen. [ 1145 ]

Three thoroughly enchanting tales of love, lumbus. Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Rotrust and ambivalence, set in the lush urban sario Dawson, Jesse L. Martin, Wilson landscape of Paris. Whether it be a young Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, Tracie woman deciding if her boyfriend can be Thoms, Taye Diggs, Sarah Silverman, Anna trusted, an ‘‘almost’’ affair between an enDeavere Smith. Close friends in N.Y.C.’s gaged female student and another man, or East Village are being evicted from their a joyless painter and his potentially amorous apartment, and as their lives are further encounters, these tales are simply told, with complicated (by crisscrossing relationships, a complexity just below the surface that AIDS, drugs, and other ills) they cling to completely captivates.▼ one another for support. Long-awaited film Rendition (2007) C-122m. ★★ D: Gavin version of Jonathan Larson’s 1996 Pulitzer Hood. Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon, Prize–winning musical play, a modern spin Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard, on La Boheme. Preserves the performances Omar Metwally, Igal (Yigal) Naor, Zineb of many original cast members and has Oukach, Moa Khouas, J. K. Simmons, Bob some vibrant musical moments, but can’t Gunton. Gyllenhaal, a C.I.A. analyst in make up its mind if it’s a real movie (though North Africa, is troubled by the U.S. govtoward the end there are fade-outs at the ernment’s clandestine interrogation (torture) close of scenes!). Attempts to ‘‘open up’’ methods—especially since the foreign-born the play fall flat, and second half drags. A mixed bag. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 alleged terrorist ‘‘rendered’’ here looks to be an upstanding American citizen. WithRent-a-Cop (1988) C-96m. BOMB D: erspoon plays the (thankless) smaller role Jerry London. Burt Reynolds, Liza Minof the suspect’s anxious wife back home. nelli, James Remar, Richard Masur, Dionne Meanwhile, a Third World Romeo-andWarwick, Bernie Casey, Robby Benson, MiJuliet love story takes up an inordinate chael Rooker. Chicago dick Reynolds is susamount of screen time. Topical action film pended after his botched hotel drug bust tries to be both cerebral and exciting, but the leaves half a dozen dead; Minnelli’s eyewitcentral theme gets buried. U.S. filmmaking ness hooker helps him track down the bulletdebut for Hood, South African director of happy killer responsible. Burt seems fatigued the Oscar-winning TSOTSI. Super 35. [R]쩠 but is at least easier to take than his costar’s Renegade Girls SEE: Caged Heat lounge-act prostie. [R]▼●쩠 Renegades (1989) C-106m. ★★ D: Jack Rentadick (1972-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Sholder. Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Jim Clark. James Booth, Julie Ege, RonPhillips, Jami Gertz, Rob Knepper, Bill ald Fraser, Donald Sinden, Michael BenSmitrovich, Floyd Westerman. An undertine, Richard Briers, Spike Milligan. Out cover cop and a Lakota Indian put aside their of the nether-land between The Goon Show differences to team up and chase down a and Monty Python comes this romp writcriminal who’s done them both wrong. Yet ten by Python pals John Cleese and another buddy/cop movie which is just an exGraham Chapman, spoofing formula pricuse to keep stuntmen gainfully employed . . . vate-eye flicks. An experimental nerve gas though it does give Sutherland and Phillips a that paralyzes from the waist down has chance to use the gunslinging technique they been stolen and Rentadick, Inc. is hired learned in YOUNG GUNS. [R]▼●쩠 to track down the culprits.▼ Rennie’s Landing SEE: Stealing Time Rent-a-Kid (1995-U.S.-Canadian) C-89m. ★★1 Reno 911!: Miami (2007) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: Frank Gerber. Leslie Nielsen, Robert Ben Garant. Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Christopher Lloyd, Matt McCoy, Sherry Birdsong, Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Miller, Amos Crawley, Cody Jones, Tabitha Kenney-Silver, Thomas Lennon, Wendy Lupien, Tony Rosato. When the head of McLendon-Covey, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yaran orphanage takes a vacation, dad Nielsen brough. If you’ve heard of Comedy Central’s takes over with a scheme to raise money by inept crew of cops and are curious to see if renting out children. While predictable, this they might be the subject for your coming silly premise is surprisingly and sensitively Master’s or Ph.D. thesis, this off-the-cuff fearealized when three children are rented by a ture (without the cable commercials that keep hip ’90s couple thinking about adopting. A their bits aptly bite-sized) will serve as an decent family film. [G]▼● intro. The Reno sheriff’s department, in Rented Lips (1987) C-82m. ★★ D: Robert Miami for a convention, is called upon to Downey. Martin Mull, Dick Shawn, Jenprotect the city when the regular cops are nifer Tilly, Robert Downey, Jr., Mel quarantined amid a bioterrorism attack. SlapWelles, Shelley Berman, Edy Williams, dash film never saw a fat joke or masturbation June Lockhart, Kenneth Mars, Eileen Brenjoke it didn’t like, though cameos by Paul nan, Pat McCormick, Michael Horse. Rudd and especially Dwayne (The Rock) Highly uneven comedy, written and proJohnson are funnier than most of the rest. duced by Mull, about a pair of down-onCoproduced by Danny DeVito, who also aptheir-luck educational filmmakers (with films pears. Unrated version also available. [R]쩠 like ‘‘Aluminum, Your Shiny Friend’’ to Rent (2005) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Cotheir credit) who become involved with a [ 1146 ]

porno film crew. Cast of old pros and Thom J. Sharp. AIRPLANE-style spoof of familiar faces helps. [R]▼ THE EXORCIST, with Blair herself as a Repentance (1987-Russian) C-155m. ★★ housewife possessed anew by the same D: Tengiz Abuladze. Avtandil Makharadze, demon she was rid of as a child. Too few Zeinab Botsvadze, Ketevan Abuladze, gags, too many targets, and a poor finale. Edisher Giorgobiani, Kakhi Kavsadze. A Blair and Nielsen (as the exorcist) are good. beloved city father dies, but why is his Written by director Logan. [PG-13]▼●쩠 body mysteriously—and continuously— Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) C-98m. ★★★ exhumed? This allegory about small town D: Darren Lynn Bousman. Anthony smallmindedness and political repression Stewart Head, Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, offers a critical look at the Stalin era, but the Sarah Brightman, Terrance Zdunich, Bill result bogs down into a talkfest, and is much Moseley, Ogre, Paris Hilton, Joan Jett. In too obvious and boring. Completed in 1984; the year 2056 a population desperate for the final part of a trilogy, following THE organ replacements turns to Big Brother–ish PLEA (1968) and THE WISHING TREE corporation GeneCo and its despotic leader (1977). [PG]▼●쩠 Rotti Largo (Sorvino) to survive. Largo has Replacement Killers, The (1998) C-86m. blackmailed his onetime romantic rival ★★1⁄2 D: Antoine Fuqua. Chow Yun-Fat, (Head) into becoming a ‘‘repo man,’’ harMira Sorvino, Michael Rooker, Ju¨rgen Provesting organs as he struggles to shield his chnow, Kenneth Tsang, Til Schweiger. teenage daughter (Vega) from the grim world Chow’s American debut is a disappointingly outside her home. Imaginative rock opera routine action yarn about a hired assassin with horror movie trappings and comic-book who—after failing to kill a cop, as ordered— storytelling blended into the mix. Story becomes a target himself. Not bad, but nothdoesn’t hold up to the very end but it’s still a ing special; hardly a star-making vehicle for wild ride. Based on a stage piece by Darren this established Hong Kong favorite. Unrated Smith and Terrance Zdunich (who also apversion runs 96m. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 pears as the singing narrator). [R]쩠 Replacements, The (2000) C-118m. ★★ D: Reprieve SEE: Convicts 4 Howard Deutch. Keanu Reeves, Gene Reprise(2006-Norwegian-Swedish) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joachim Trier. Espen Klouman Hackman, Brooke Langton, Orlando Jones, Jon Favreau, Jack Warden, Rhys Ifans, MiHøiner, Anders Danielsen Lie, Christian Ruchael Jace, Faizon Love, Brett Cullen. Silly, beck, Odd Magnus Williamson, Pa˚l Stokka, by-the-numbers sports comedy about a bunch Viktoria Winge, Silje Hagen. Visually kinetic of has-beens, eccentrics, and losers who are saga of two self-absorbed boyhood friends recruited by coach Hackman as replacement who share a passion for an elusive Norweplayers in the wake of a pro-football strike. gian author and aspire to become successful Tired and obvious. If you really want to see novelists themselves. How they deal with Hackman play a coach, rent the basketball success and failure, socially and professiondrama HOOSIERS. [PG-13]▼쩠 ally, and how fate deals with them (as in1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Alex Repo Man (1984) C-92m. toned by an omnipresent narrator) is the Cox. Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, crux of this bold, nonlinear feature inspired, Vonetta McGee, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardit would seem, by JULES AND JIM. This son, Tracey Walter, Susan Barnes, Fox received critical acclaim in some circles but Harris, The Circle Jerks. Instant cult-movie it’s hard to care about these characters. Feaabout a new-wave punk who takes a job ture debut for director and cowriter Trier. [R]쩠 repossessing cars. Mixes social satire and science-fiction with engaging results, though Reptile, The (1966-British) C-90m. ★★★ a little of this film goes a long way. D: John Gilling. Noel Willman, Jennifer Stanton is perfect as a career repo man Daniels, Ray Barrett, Jacqueline Pearce. who shows Estevez the ropes. [R]▼●쩠 Hammer chiller about village girl with strange Report to the Commissioner (1975) power to change into snake. Excellent direc1 ★★ tion, sympathetic characterizations.▼●쩠 C-112m. ⁄2 D: Milton Katselas. Michael Moriarty, Yaphet Kotto, Susan Blakely, Reptilicus (1962) C-90m. BOMB D: SidHector Elizondo, Tony King, Michael McGuney Pink. Carl Ottosen, Ann Smyrner, Mimi ire, Dana Elcar, Robert Balaban, William DeHeinrich, Asbjorn Andersen, Marla Behrens. vane, Stephen Elliott, Richard Gere, Vic The tail of a prehistoric monster—recently Tayback, Sonny Grosso. Rookie cop Moriarty discovered—spawns the full-sized beast. accidentally kills undercover cop Blakely and Only good for laughs as script hits every becomes embroiled in department-wide conceivable monster-movie cliche´, right to the final shot. Filmed in Denmark.▼쩠 cover-up. Brutal melodrama ranges from realistic to overblown; taut but not always conRepulsion (1965-British) 105m. ★★★★ D: vincing. Script by Abby Mann and Ernest Roman Polanski. Catherine Deneuve, Ian Tidyman. Gere’s film debut. [PG]▼ Hendry, John Fraser, Patrick Wymark, 1 ★ Repossessed (1990) C-84m. ⁄2 D: Bob Yvonne Furneaux, James Villiers. PoLogan. Linda Blair, Ned Beatty, Leslie lanski’s first English-language film is exNielsen, Anthony Starke, Lana Schwab, cellent psychological shocker depicting [ 1147 ]

mental deterioration of sexually repressed (Bale), a German-born American who came girl left alone in her sister’s apartment for of age in the Black Forest during WW2 and several days. Hasn’t lost a bit of its imexperienced firsthand the destruction of his pact; will leave you feeling uneasy for hometown by American warplanes. Dengler days afterward. Screenplay by Polanski later emigrated to the U.S., became a fighter and Gerard Brach.▼●쩠 pilot, and was shot down in 1965 during Requiem for a Dream (2000) C-102m. ★★ a top-secret bombing raid over Laos. His D: Darren Aronofsky. Ellen Burstyn, Jared obsession to fly results in his being tortured Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, and abused as a prisoner of war. An edgeChristopher McDonald, Louise Lasser, of-your-seat POW story, this also serves as Keith David, Sean Gullette. While a young a commentary about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. [PG-13]쩠 man slides deeper into a life of drugs, his mother, living on her own in a Brooklyn Rescuers, The (1977) C-76m. ★★★ D: apartment, drifts into a dream world after Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lounsbery, getting hooked on diet pills. Burstyn is Art Stevens. Voices of Bob Newhart, Eva great, and Aronofsky uses attention-getting Gabor, Geraldine Page, Joe Flynn, Jeavisuals to tell his story, but his characters’ nette Nolan, Pat Buttram, Jim Jordan, John descent into hell is difficult to watch (to McIntire. Engaging, well-plotted Disney say the least). You’d expect no less from a animated feature about Bernard and Bianca, collaboration between Aronofsky and Humembers of the all-mouse Rescue Aid Sobert Selby, Jr.; it’s based on the latter’s ciety, and their efforts to save a little girl novel. Perhaps the only film to ever credit a who’s been kidnaped. Highlighted by some Refrigerator Puppeteer! Originally shown in great supporting characters, including Orunrated version. [R]▼쩠 ville the Albatross (voiced by radio’s FibRequiem for a Gunfighter (1965) C-91m. ber McGee, Jim Jordan), Evinrude the ★1 dragonfly, and the villainess Madame ⁄2 D: Spencer G. Bennet. Rod Cameron, Stephen McNally, Mike Mazurki, Olive SturMedusa. Followed by a sequel. [G]▼●쩠 gess, Tim McCoy, John Mack Brown, Bob Rescuers Down Under, The (1990) C-74m. ★★★ D: Hendel Butoy, Mike Gabriel. Voices Steele, Lane Chandler, Raymond Hatton. Veteran cast is sole virtue of low-budget of Bob Newhart, Eva Gabor, George C. Scott, Western. Cameron impersonates a judge to John Candy, Tristan Rogers, Adam Ryen, ensure that justice is done at murder trial. Frank Welker. Entertaining—if plotty— Techniscope. sequel to the 1977 Disney animated feature, Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962) 100m. with amorous mice Bernard and Bianca, the ★★★ D: Ralph Nelson. Anthony Quinn, unlikely agents from the Rescue Aid Society, Jackie Gleason, Mickey Rooney, Julie Hartraveling to Australia to help a young boy in ris, Nancy Cushman, Madame Spivy, Castrouble. Animation buffs will notice considersius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Grim account able computer-assisted animation, especially of fighter, Quinn, whose ring career is the villain’s demon tractor. [G]▼●쩠 over, forcing him into corruption and degReservation Road (2007) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 radation. His sleazy manager Gleason, D: Terry George. Joaquin Phoenix, Mark sympathetic trainer Rooney, and Harris as unRuffalo, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino, realistic social worker are all fine. Adapted Elle Fanning, John Slattery. A perpetual by Rod Serling from his great teleplay; screwup (Ruffalo) who craves his young original running time 87m.▼쩠 son’s love and respect swerves on a ConnectiRequiem for Dominic (1990-Austrian) cut road one evening and strikes a boy dead ★★1 C-90m. ⁄2 D: Robert Dornhelm. Felix right in front of his family—then drives away Mitterer, Viktoria Schubert, August Schbefore anyone can identify him. Balance of molzer, Angelica Schutz, Antonia Rados, the story explores the anguish of the bereaved Nikolas Vogel. True story about Romanianparents—and the driver’s overpowering, parborn Austrian who returns to his homeland alyzing guilt. Intelligent, well-acted adaptato be with his best friend, who’s now tion of John Burnham Schwartz’s novel accused of committing 80 murders. Set at (which he wrote with George) . . . but emothe beginning of the anti-Communist movetionally demanding and tough to watch. ment in late 1989. Sometimes powerful, [R]쩠 highly political film; director Dornhelm was Reservoir Dogs (1992) C-99m. ★★★ D: a childhood friend of the accused man deQuentin Tarantino. Harvey Keitel, Tim picted in the story.▼● Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Rescue, The (1986) SEE: Let’s Get Harry Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Randy Brooks, Rescue Dawn (2007) C-126m. ★★★ D: Kirk Baltz, Eddie Bunker, Quentin Tarantino; Werner Herzog. Christian Bale, Steve Zahn, voice of Steven Wright. Precocious ‘‘shock’’ Jeremy Davies, Galen Yuen, Abhijati debut from writer-director-costar Tarantino ‘‘Meuk’’ Jusakul, Chaiyan ‘‘Lek’’ Chunechoes THE ASPHALT JUNGLE and THE suttiwat. Gripping reworking of Herzog’s KILLING: Post-mortem dissection of a 1997 documentary LITTLE DIETER fatally bungled jewel robbery boasts at NEEDS TO FLY, about Dieter Dengler least one unwatchably graphic torture scene [ 1148 ]

and the 1992 movie year’s No. 1 mortality Restless Years, The (1958) 86m. ★★ D: rate. Flashy—maybe too flashy—but funHelmut Kautner. John Saxon, Sandra Dee, damentally a story well told; nearly every Margaret Lindsay, Teresa Wright, James performance is better than expected, with Whitmore, Luana Patten, Virginia Grey, Tierney in his best role since the ’40s. Jody McCrea. Overblown relic of its era, an Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Edward Anhalt–scripted PEYTON PLACE Resident Evil (2002-German-U.S.-French) clone, in which illegitimate Dee is overproC-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul Anderson. Milla Jotected by neurotic mom Wright. Trouble vovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, comes when sensitive outsider Saxon— James Purefoy, Colin Salmon, Martin Crewes. from ‘‘the wrong side of the tracks’’—takes Bloody, barely coherent high-tech horror an interest in her. CinemaScope. Restoration (1995) C-117m. ★★★ D: Mifilm involving commandos who infiltrate The Hive, a top-secret underground rechael Hoffman. Robert Downey, Jr., Sam search lab. Their mission: to battle a superNeill, David Thewlis, Polly Walker, Meg computer gone awry and a mutant virus that Ryan, Ian McKellen, Hugh Grant, Hugh has transformed the lab’s workers into McDiarmid. In 1600s England, a young flesh-eating zombies. This time killer recalls doctor torn between duty and debauchery a host of other horror films, from ALIEN to opts for the latter when he becomes a court DAWN OF THE DEAD. Based on a popufavorite of King Charles II and a dummy lar video game. Followed by three sequels. bridegroom for one of the king’s mistresses. [R]▼쩠 Vivid period piece with contemporary parResident Evil: Apocalypse (2004-Germanallels depends on Downey to draw us in— French-British) C-94m. BOMB D: Alexanand he’s excellent. Opulent production and der Witt. Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, an earnest cast buoy this film through its Oded Fehr, Jared Harris, Thomas Kretschmetamorphosis from costume romp to somann, Sophie Vavasseur, Mike Epps, Iain cial drama, though it does sag during the Glen. Tiresome follow-up to RESIDENT second half. Oscar winner for Art Direction EVIL plays more like a remake as the Tand Costume Design. Filmed in England virus strikes again. As a result, the undead and Wales. [R]▼●쩠 are out and about preying on the uninfected Resurrecting the Champ (2007) C-111m. ★★★ D: Rod Lurie. Samuel L. Jackson, Josh population of Raccoon City. Jovovich agrees to find a scientist’s daughter on the condition Hartnett, Kathryn Morris, Alan Alda, Teri that he will lead them out of town before a Hatcher, David Paymer, Peter Coyote, nuclear bomb is dropped. Only for fanatics of Harry J. Lennix. Engrossing drama, loosely the video game. Followed by two sequels. based on fact, about a discontented Denver Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 sportswriter who gets a career boost by proResident Evil: Extinction (2007-Canadianfiling a onetime heavyweight contender now British) C-94m. ★★ D: Russell Mulcahy. Milla barely scraping by as a homeless drunk. Jovovich, Oded Fehr, Ali Larter, Iain Glen, Movie intelligently deals with issues of perAshanti, Mike Epps. Third episode in sci-fi sonal and professional integrity, with vivid franchise finds the biogenetically enhanced character turns by Alda, Hatcher, and CoyAlice (Jovovich) aiding a dwindling group ote, but the main event is Jackson’s knockof non-zombies in a wasteland overrun with out performance as a bloodied-but-unbowed virus-infected flesh-eaters. Routine postapocaex-boxer whose story may be too good to lyptic action-adventure, recalling many ROAD be true. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 WARRIOR knock-offs of the 1980s. FolResurrection (1980) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: lowed by a CGI DVD sequel. Super 35. Daniel Petrie. Ellen Burstyn, Sam Shep[R]쩠 ard, Richard Farnsworth, Roberts Blossom, Respiro (2002-Italian-French) C-90m. ★★★ Clifford David, Pamela Payton-Wright, Eva D: Emanuele Crialese. Valeria Golino, LeGallienne. Beautifully realized story Vincenzo Amato, Francesco Casisa, Veronica (by Lewis John Carlino) about a woman D’Agostino, Filippo Pucillo, Muzzi Loffredo. who returns to life from the brink of death Thoughtful, colorful account of a peasant with amazing healing powers. Burstyn’s family in a small Italian fishing village, focusmoving performance is the centerpiece of ing on an earthy, moody wife-mother (Gola wonderful and underrated film. [PG]▼ ino); her family thinks she has a mental Resurrection Syndicate, The SEE: Nothproblem, but perhaps her dead-end lifestyle ing but the Night Retreat, Hell! (1952) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jois to blame for her acting out. Memorable finale caps this compelling drama about inseph H. Lewis. Frank Lovejoy, Richard dividuals who are trapped and stifled by Carlson, Russ Tamblyn, Anita Louise. Grim drama chronicling the Marine withdrawal their environment. [PG-13]▼쩠 Restless Breed, The (1957) C-81m. ★★ from Korea’s Changjin Reservoir in the D: Allan Dwan. Scott Brady, Anne Banwake of a massive Chinese offensive.▼ croft, Jim Davis, Scott Marlowe, Evelyn Return, The (1980) C-91m. BOMB D: Rudie. Usual Western fare of Brady out to Greydon Clark. Jan-Michael Vincent, Cybill get his father’s killer.▼● Shepherd, Martin Landau, Raymond Burr, [ 1149 ]

Neville Brand, Brad Rearden, Vincent Christopher Lee, Kim Richards, Ike EisenSchiavelli. Deadeningly dull story of a mann, Denver Pyle, Jack Soo, Dick Bakalyan. ‘‘close encounter’’ and how it affects two Sequel to ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNchildren and an old man in a small New TAIN has Davis and Lee kidnapping EisenMexico town. Inept from start to finish. mann, hoping to put his special powers to Retitled THE ALIEN’S RETURN.▼ evil use. Good fun from Disney. Followed Return, The (2003-Russian) C-105m. ★★★ three decades later by RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN. [G]▼●쩠 D: Andreı¨ Zvyagintsev. Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Natalia Vdovina, Konstantin Return of a Man Called Horse, The (1976) C-129m. ★★★ D: Irvin Kershner. Lavronenko, Galina Petrova. A father who has been away for 12 years mysteriously Richard Harris, Gale Sondergaard, Geofreappears and takes his two sons to a remote frey Lewis, Bill Lucking, Jorge Luke, Enrique island, where the supposed vacation turns Lucero. Excellent sequel has Harris returning into a test of their manhood and maturity. from England to right wrongs done the Yellow Absorbing and strikingly well made, this is Hand Sioux by whites. Sun Vow ceremony a coming-of-age story like no other. Despite now performed by dozen braves. Magnificent its clear Russian roots, the film deals with score by Laurence Rosenthal; followed by universal themes.▼쩠 TRIUMPHS OF A MAN CALLED HORSE. Return, The (2006) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Asif Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Kapadia. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter Return of Captain Invincible, The (1983O’Brien, Adam Scott, Kate Beahan, J. C. Australian-U.S) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philippe MacKenzie, Erinn Allison, Sam Shepard. Mora. Alan Arkin, Christopher Lee, Kate Young woman with a self-mutilation disorFitzpatrick, Michael Pate. Bizarre, campy der, haunted by a waking dream she’s had comedy about drunken, derelict ex-superhero since age 11, digs into her rural roots to persuaded to come out of retirement sounds decipher enigmatic visions of bloody murbetter than it works. Oddly placed musical der. Constantly thwarted by tight-lipped numbers seem to aim for ROCKY HORROR townspeople, she discovers that La Salle, ambiance. Aka LEGEND IN LEOTARDS. Texas, seems to be the next town over from Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Silent Hill. To say more would spoil the Return of Count Yorga, The (1971) Ctotal lack of surprise in this would-be super97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bob Kelljan. Robert Quarry, natural thriller. Shepard (as the girl’s father) Mariette Hartley, Roger Perry, Yvonne Wiltries to ground the film, but both he and der. The Count goes out for more blood, Gellar are wasted. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 wreaking havoc on nearby orphanage. Returner (2002-Japanese) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 [PG]▼쩠 D: Takashi Yamazaki. Takeshi Kaneshiro, Return of Doctor X, The (1939) 62m. ★★ Anne Suzuki, Goro Kishitani, Kirin Kiki, D: Vincent Sherman. Humphrey Bogart, Yukio Okamoto, Mitsuro Murata, Kisuke Rosemary Lane, Dennis Morgan, John Litel, Iida. Winsome young time traveler from Huntz Hall, Wayne Morris. Only Bogart as a 2084 tries to alter her war-ravaged future, creepy lab assistant makes this low-grade scihelped only by a cool, all-but-invincible fi yarn worth viewing. Despite the title, not a sequel to DOCTOR X.쩠 Tokyo hit man. The plot—a remix of TERMINATOR, THE MATRIX, THE ABYSS, Return of Don Camillo, The (1965-Italian) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Julien Duvivier. Fernandel, even E.T.—is buoyed by fine CGI, plenty of gunplay and kickboxing, and two engaging, Gino Cervi, Charles Vissieres, Edouard energetic lead characters. Longish and familDelmont. Fernandel is again the irresponiar, but fun. [R] ▼쩠 sible smalltown Italian priest involved in Return From the Ashes (1965-British) more projects of goodwill. 105m. ★★★ D: J. Lee Thompson. MaximilReturn of Frank James, The (1940) ian Schell, Samantha Eggar, Ingrid Thulin, C-92m. ★★★ D: Fritz Lang. Henry Fonda, Herbert Lom, Talitha Pol. Engrossing meloGene Tierney, Jackie Cooper, Henry Hull, drama of a philandering husband taking up John Carradine, J. Edward Bromberg, Donwith his stepdaughter when his wife is ald Meek. Fonda reprises role from 1939 supposedly killed. Stars lend credibility to JESSE JAMES in story of attempt to avenge far-fetched proceedings. Panavision. his brother Jesse’s death; colorful producReturn From the Past (1967) C-84m. tion was Tierney’s film debut.▼●쩠 BOMB D: David L. Hewitt. Lon Chaney, Return of Jesse James, The (1950) 75m. ★★1 John Carradine, Rochelle Hudson, Roger ⁄2 D: Arthur Hilton. John Ireland, Ann Gentry. Veteran stars wasted in utter monDvorak, Henry Hull, Hugh O’Brian, Reed strosity; five tales of supernatural told here Hadley. Compact budget Western dealing are five too many. Original titles: GALwith rumors that lookalike for outlaw is LERY OF HORROR, DR. TERROR’S notorious gunslinger.▼쩠 GALLERY OF HORRORS, THE BLOOD Return of Martin Guerre, The (1982French) C-111m. ★★★ D: Daniel Vigne. SUCKERS. Totalvision.▼쩠 Return From Witch Mountain (1978) Ge´rard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, Roger ★★★ C-95m. Planchon, Maurice Jacquemont, Bernard D: John Hough. Bette Davis, [ 1150 ]

Pierre Donnadieu. Blockbuster art house Billy the Kid, The Dalton Gang, The Younger hit, based on fact, about a 16th-century Brothers, and a particularly nasty Sundance peasant who returns to his wife and family Kid (Ryan) in this routine Western. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 a much better person than the misfit he was seven years earlier; could it be that he’s Return of the Dragon (1973-Hong Kong) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee, really an impostor? No artistic groundbreaker, but a solid romance and history Chuck Norris, Nora Miao. Country hick lesson, well acted by the two leads. AlterLee visits relatives who run Chinese restaunate version runs 123m. Remade in 1993 as rant in Italy and helps fight off gangsters SOMMERSBY. ▼●쩠 trying to take over. Many fine comic and Return of Maxwell Smart, The SEE: action sequences, including final battle with Nude Bomb, The Chuck Norris in Roman Colosseum. This Return of Mr. Moto, The (1965-British) was made before (but released after) EN71m. ★1⁄2 D: Ernest Morris. Henry Silva, TER THE DRAGON, which was Lee’s Terrence Longdon, Suzanne Lloyd, Marne final completed film. Aka WAY OF THE DRAGON. Widescreen. [R]▼●쩠 Maitland, Martin Wyldeck. Silva is miscast as the Oriental sleuth in a drab, lifeReturn of the Fly (1959) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: less update involving an international crime Edward L. Bernds. Vincent Price, Brett Halsyndicate out to control world oil producsey, David Frankham, John Sutton, Dan tion (no, it’s not OPEC).쩠 Seymour, Danielle De Metz. Adequate seReturn of October, The (1948) C-98m. quel to THE FLY proves ‘‘like father, like ★★ son.’’ Youth attempts to reconstruct his late D: Joseph H. Lewis. Glenn Ford, Terry Moore, Albert Sharpe, James Gleason, father’s teleportation machine and likewise Steve Dunne. Moore is wholesome girl gets scrambled with an insect. Followed six who thinks her horse (October) is a reincaryears later by CURSE OF THE FLY. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 nation of her favorite uncle, much to her relatives’ consternation. Weird comedy writReturn of the Jedi (1983) C-131m. ★★★1⁄2 ten by Norman Panama and Melvin Frank. D: Richard Marquand. Mark Hamill, HarriReturn of Sabata, The (1972-Italianson Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, 1 ★ Spanish) C-106m. ⁄2 D: Frank Kramer Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, Sebas(Gianfranco Parolini). Lee Van Cleef, Reiner tian Shaw, Ian McDiarmid, David Prowse, Schone, Annabelle Incontrera, Jacqueline Alec Guinness, Kenny Baker, Denis LawAlexandre, Pedro Sanchez (Ignazio Spalla). son, Warwick Davis; voices of James Earl Last of the spaghetti Western series—and Jones, Frank Oz. Third installment in the not a moment too soon—finds Van Cleef STAR WARS saga is a sheer delight, chasing down some baddies who bilked following the destiny of Luke Skywalker him out of $5,000. Techniscope. [PG]▼쩠 as his comrades reunite to combat a powReturn of Superfly, The (1990) C-95m. erful Death Star. Some routine perfor★1 ⁄2 D: Sig Shore. Nathan Purdee, Margamances are compensated for by ingenious ret Avery, Leonard Thomas, Christopher new characters and Oscar-winning special Curry, David Groh, Samuel L. Jackson. Beeffects. More sentimental and episodic than lated (and unnecessary) sequel with Purdee its predecessors, but carried out in the best replacing Ron O’Neal as Priest; he’s now tradition of Saturday matinee serials, from an ex-drug dealer who goes up against his which it draws its inspiration. Full title onvicious, violent former cronies. Only interscreen is: STAR WARS EPISODE VI: REest is Curtis Mayfield’s reworking of his origTURN OF THE JEDI. Special edition inal SUPERFLY score to incorporate rap released in 1997 features enhanced effects music. [R]▼ and 4m. of additional footage. Followed by Return of Swamp Thing, The (1989) two Ewok adventures for TV and the preC-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim Wynorski. Dick Durock, quel STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE Heather Locklear, Louis Jourdan, Sarah PHANTOM MENACE. J-D-C Scope. [PG] Douglas, Daniel Taylor. The vegetable man ▼●쩠 superhero learns that mad scientist Jourdan, Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: John De Bello. Anthony who’s been blending people with animals, has similar designs on his chirpy stepdaughStarke, George Clooney, Karen Mistal, ter Locklear. Oafish spoof sequel to straight Steve Lundquist, Charlie Jones, John Astin. original can’t find a style and wastes time Sequel to ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOwith two unfunny little boys. The comic MATOES!, this is a mild improvement. In books are much better. [PG-13]▼●쩠 a tomato-fearing world, mad scientist Astin Return of the Bad Men (1948) 90m. ★★1⁄2 is turning tomatoes into people and viceD: Ray Enright. Randolph Scott, Robert versa; our hero falls for an attractive oneRyan, Anne Jeffreys, George ‘‘Gabby’’ time tomato. Long, silly, but has its moHayes, Jacqueline White, Steve Brodie, ments. Notable for early screen appearance Lex Barker. Newly settled Oklahoman Scott by Clooney. Followed by KILLER TOMAgets one female outlaw (Jeffreys) to go TOES STRIKE BACK. [PG]▼●쩠 straight, but has a tougher time dealing with Return of the Living Dead, The (1985) [ 1151 ]

C-90m. ★★ D: Dan O’Bannon. Clu Gulager, gags are funny. Best part of this diamondJames Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, heist farce is the opening title, animated by Beverly Randolph, John Philbin. What starts Richard Williams and Ken Harris. Immediate out as a spoof of George Romero’s zombie sequel—THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES films (with wonderful comic performance AGAIN—is much better. Panavision. [G] by Karen as supervisor of medical ware▼●쩠 house) loses its footing when the tone, and Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel, The the violence, turn serious. Directing debut (1938-British) 88m. ★★ D: Hans Schwartz. for sci-fi screenwriter O’Bannon. Followed Barry K. Barnes, Sophie Stewart, Margaretta by two sequels and two direct-to-video seScott, James Mason, Francis Lister, Anquels. [R]▼●쩠 thony Bushell. Far below stunning origiReturn of the Living Dead Part II (1988) nal, with lower production values and C-89m. ★★ D: Ken Wiederhorn. James less-than-stellar cast in costumer set in Karen, Thom Mathews, Michael Kenwor1790s London and Paris. Original British thy, Marsha Dietlein, Dana Ashbrook, Surunning time: 94m. zanne Snyder. Awkward title identifies Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980) Cthis as a sequel not to the George Romero 106m. ★★★ D: John Sayles. Mark Arnott, zombie classics but rather the 1985 comGordon Clapp, Maggie Cousineau, Adam edy offshoot. Inquisitive kids release deadly Lefevre, Bruce MacDonald, Jean Passagas from a misplaced military canister, nante, Maggie Renzi, David Strathairn. A causing corpses from a nearby cemetery simple low-budget film about a weekend to rise and wreak havoc. [R]▼●쩠 reunion of good friends who shared the ’60s Return of the Living Dead III (1993) Cradical college life and have since gone in 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Yuzna. Mindy Clarke, different directions. Credible, winning perJ. Trevor Edmond, Kent McCord, Sarah formances (including one by director-writer Douglas, James T. Callahan, Mike Moroff, Sayles, as Howie) enhance a script that Sal Lopez. A very different approach from seems to tell the story of an entire generathe first two entries results in a serious thriltion. Filmed with then unknown actors for a ler about a teenager who uses the zombie reported budget of $60,000! An interesting precursor to THE BIG CHILL. [R]▼쩠 gas to resurrect his girlfriend, with horrendous results. An intelligent, gruesomely Return of the Seven (1966) C-96m. ★★ imaginative, and tragic love story, but it D: Burt Kennedy. Yul Brynner, Robert doesn’t know when to quit. [R]▼●쩠 Fuller, Warren Oates, Jordan Christopher, Return of the Magnificent Seven SEE: Claude Akins, Emilio Fernandez. The Return of the Seven gang has reformed for more protection in Return of the Musketeers, The (1989this drab sequel to THE MAGNIFICENT British-French-Spanish) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: SEVEN; it was a lot more fun when Eli Richard Lester. Michael York, Oliver Reed, Wallach was the heavy. Followed by GUNS Frank Finlay, C. Thomas Howell, Kim OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. Aka RECattrall, Richard Chamberlain, Philippe TURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. Noiret, Roy Kinnear, Geraldine Chaplin, Panavision.▼●쩠 Christopher Lee, Eusebio Lazaro, JeanReturn of the Soldier, The (1981-British) Pierre Cassel, Billy Connolly. Twenty years C-101m. ★★ D: Alan Bridges. Alan Bates, after the death of Milady de Winter, Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson, Annd’Artagnan (York) tries to reunite the reMargret, Ian Holm, Frank Finlay. A shellmaining musketeers to save Queen Anne shocked soldier comes home from WW1 from the machinations of the devious Carwith no memory of the last 20 years, but dinal Mazarin (deliciously played by Noiret). feels a vague dissatisfaction with his life, as Lester’s follow-up to his two ’70s classics personified by wife Christie. Top cast in this is only partially successful, straining for a adaptation of Rebecca West’s first novel, jaunty charm that just isn’t there, but actubut it’s slow going, and ultimately not that ally gets better as it goes along. Released interesting.▼쩠 directly to cable-TV in the U.S. in 1991. Return of the Street Fighter (1974-Japanese) C-76m. ★★ D: Shigehiro Ozawa. ShinSadly, Roy Kinnear, who played Planchet in all three films, died in an equestrian accident ichi ‘‘Sonny’’ Chiba, Yoko Ichiji, Masafumi during production. Based on the Alexandre Suzuki, Donald Nakajima, Milton Ishibashi. Dumas novel Twenty Years Later. [PG]▼● After refusing to carry out a hit for the mob, Return of the Pink Panther, The (1975Chiba is targeted for execution himself. British) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. First sequel in the series is just a routine Peter Sellers, Christopher Plummer, Catherine continuation of the original—a me´lange of Schell, Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Peter Arne, hilariously bad dubbing and brutal martial Gregoire Aslan, Andre Maranne, Victor Spinarts action—highlighted by a vicious fight etti. Fourth PANTHER film, and first with in a steam bath. Followed by THE STREET Sellers since A SHOT IN THE DARK. InspecFIGHTER’S LAST REVENGE. Actiontor Clouseau is a superb comedy character, but scope. [R]▼●쩠 director-writer Edwards thinks big, violent Return of the Tall Blond Man With One [ 1152 ]

Black Shoe, The (1974-French) C-84m. Spencer Breslin, Russi Taylor, Roger Rees, ★★1 Clive Revill. Sequel to Disney’s PETER ⁄2 D: Yves Robert. Pierre Richard, Mireille Darc, Michel Duchaussoy, Jean PAN is set in wartorn London, where WenRochefort, Jean Carmet. Sequel to the dy’s sober daughter Jane is kidnapped by 1972 hit reunites the principals for a lesser Captain Hook and whisked away to Never if still entertaining sendup of the spy game. Land. Peter Pan comes to her rescue and Spy chief Rochefort wants violinist Richmust restore her sense of childhood imagiard killed, but the tall blond avoids danger nation in order to fly her home. Minorwithout even realizing what’s happening. league Disney feature was produced by the Nice shots of Rio and a fairly deft James TV animation department for video release, Bond takeoff help offset slow buildup.▼ but deemed worthy of theatrical showings instead. OK but strictly for kids. [G]▼쩠 Return of the Texan (1952) 88m. ★★ D: Delmer Daves. Dale Robertson, Joanne Return to Oz (1985) C-110m. ★★ D: Dru, Walter Brennan, Richard Boone, Walter Murch. Nicol Williamson, Jean Robert Horton. Flabby Western about Marsh, Fairuza Balk, Piper Laurie, Matt Robertson et al. fighting to save his ranch. Clark. Distressingly downbeat sequel to Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre THE WIZARD OF OZ, with Dorothy SEE: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The fleeing a spooky sanitarium in Kansas to Next Generation return to her beloved land—only to find Return of the Vampire, The (1943) 69m. evil rulers now in charge. Many colorful ★★ D: Lew Landers. Bela Lugosi, Frieda characters, but few engender any warmth or Inescort, Nina Foch, Roland Varno, Miles feeling. Best moments involve Will Vinton’s Mander, Matt Willis. Lugosi plays a vamClaymation effects, where rock faces come pire in wartorn London (with a werewolf to life. Best sequence: final showdown with assistant!) in limp attempt to capitalize on the Nome King. Inauspicious directing debut previous success as Dracula. Final scene is for celebrated sound technician Murch (who memorable, though.▼●쩠 cowrote script). [PG]▼●쩠 Return to Boggy Creek (1977) C-87m. Return to Paradise (1953) C-100m. ★★ D: ★★ D: Tom Moore. Dawn Wells, Dana Mark Robson. Gary Cooper, Roberta Haynes, Plato. More sightings of monsters in this Barry Jones, Moira MacDonald. Lackluster sequel to THE LEGEND OF BOGGY South Sea tale of beach bum Cooper in love CREEK, but this time two children are with native girl; loosely based on James involved. G-rated nonsense may intrigue Michener’s story. Filmed in Samoa.▼ young viewers. Followed by THE BARReturn to Paradise (1998) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 BARIC BEAST OF BOGGY CREEK D: Joseph Ruben. Vince Vaughn, Anne PART II, which is actually the third Heche, Joaquin Phoenix, David Conrad, Boggy Creek film. [G]▼ Jada Pinkett Smith, Vera Farmiga. Two Return to Macon County (1975) C-90m. years after a wild, carefree trip to Malaysia, ★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Compton. Don Johnson, a woman tracks down two young men in Nick Nolte, Robin Mattson, Robert Viharo, N.Y.C. and tells them that if they don’t reEugene Daniels, Matt Greene. Unworthy turn, the friend they made during their trip follow-up to MACON COUNTY LINE, will be hanged for possession of hashish as youngsters get mixed up in drag races, that really belonged to them. A rare contemsex, the law, violence and murder, in porary film about responsibility, and a crisis about that order. Nolte’s first film. [PG]▼ of conscience, is weakened by the introducReturn to Me (2000) C-116m. ★★★ D: Bontion of a love story. Still interesting, hownie Hunt. David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, ever, with strong performances all around. Carroll O’Connor, Robert Loggia, Bonnie Remake of the 1990 French film FORCE Hunt, David Alan Grier, Joely Richardson, MAJEURE. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 James Belushi, Eddie Jones, William Bronder. Return to Peyton Place (1961) C-122m. ★★ D: Jose Ferrer. Carol Lynley, Jeff ChanThoroughly engaging romantic comedydrama about a man who loses his wife, then dler, Eleanor Parker, Mary Astor, Robert chances to meet a woman whose life has Sterling, Luciana Paluzzi, Brett Halsey, been saved by a heart transplant. Sincere Gunnar Hellstrom, Tuesday Weld, Bob performances by the leads and a joyous enCrane. Muddled follow-up to PEYTON semble (including O’Connor as Driver’s PLACE suffers from faulty direction, and, Irish grandfather and Loggia as her Italian save for stalwarts Astor and Parker, misuncle) make this heartwarmer a pleasure to casting. Followed by TV movie MURDER watch. Impressive feature directing debut IN PEYTON PLACE. CinemaScope. ▼쩠 for Hunt, who costars and wrote the script Return to Salem’s Lot, A (1987) C-96m. ★★ D: Larry Cohen. Michael Moriarty, with Don Lake (who plays the hair transplant man). [PG]▼쩠 Ricky Addison Reed, Samuel Fuller, AnReturn to Never Land (2002) C-72m. drew Duggan, Evelyn Keyes, Jill Gatsby, ★★1⁄2 D: Robin Budd. Voices of Harriet June Havoc, Ronee Blakley, James Dixon, Owen, Blayne Weaver, Corey Burton, Jeff David Holbrook, Tara Reid. Anthropologist Bennett, Kath Soucie, Dan Castellaneta, Moriarty, trying to befriend his estranged [ 1153 ]

son, is lured to a small Maine town where giving a fine performance as high-school–age the populace—almost all vampires—want Robards, and West equally good as his him to write their history. Typically cheap, Aryan chum. Screenplay by Harold Pinter; oddball Cohen film, which he cowrote, has veteran art director Trauner, who designed little to do with Stephen King’s novel or the the film, has a small role as a porter. Panavision. [PG-13]▼ TV movie based on it. [R]▼ Return to Snowy River (1988-Australian) Reunion in France (1942) 104m. ★★ D: C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Geoff Burrowes. Tom Jules Dassin. Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Burlinson, Sigrid Thornton, Brian Dennehy, Philip Dorn, Reginald Owen, Albert BasserNicholas Eadie, Bryan Marshall. Follow-up mann, John Carradine, Henry Daniell. to THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER is Glossy romance, with Frenchwoman Crawnot nearly as good. Young Burlinson must ford believing fiance´ Dorn is a Nazi collabagain prove his worth as he battles villainorator; she hides (and falls for) American ous Eadie, who’s become engaged to his flyer Wayne. Propaganda elements date beloved (Thornton). All those shots of badly. Watch for Ava Gardner as a salesgirl. ▼쩠 galloping horses, however, are still eyepopping. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Reveille With Beverly (1943) 78m. ★★ D: Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991) C-100m. Charles Barton. Ann Miller, William BOMB D: William A. Graham. Brian Wright, Dick Purcell, Franklin Pangborn, Krause, Milla Jovovich, Lisa Pelikan, Larry Parks. Miller plays a versatile disk Garette Patrick Ratliff, Courtney Barilla. jockey throwing ‘‘big show’’ for serThe two-year-old son of LAGOON 1’s vicemen. Jazz fans will shoot that rating deceased parents is rescued by a ship carhigher, since guest stars include Frank Sinarying a widow and her year-old daughter; tra, Mills Brothers, Bob Crosby, Count circumstances (read: cholera) force the Basie, and Duke Ellington. trio onto another tropical island, so the Revenge (1971-British) SEE: Inn of the kids can eventually partake in PG-13 pruFrightened People rience. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Revenge (1979) SEE: Blood Feud Return to the Lost World (1994-Canadian) Revenge (1986) C-100m. BOMB D: ChrisC-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Timothy Bond. John Rhystopher Lewis. Patrick Wayne, John CarraDavies, David Warner, Eric McCormack, dine, Bennie Lee McGowan. Boring, filmed Nathania Stanford, Darren Peter Mercer, sequel to the videotaped horror opus Tamara Gorski. In this sequel to THE BLOOD CULT details the further goings-on LOST WORLD (1993), shot at the same of a Tulsa, Oklahoma, devil-worship cult time in 1991, bad Belgians begin to exploit led this time by (who else?) Carradine, The Lost World, so Challenger and friends that preys on students for human sacrifices. come to the rescue. Long, weary sequel has Strictly for fans of mindless violence; never even fewer dinosaurs than the first film, if released theatrically. Director Lewis is that’s possible. An insult to Conan Doyle. (gulp!) Loretta Young’s son. [R]▼쩠 Good performances by Rhys-Davies and Revenge (1990) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Tony Warner are lost in this world. [PG]▼● Scott. Kevin Costner, Anthony Quinn, MadeReturn to Treasure Island (1954-Australeine Stowe, Sally Kirkland, Tomas Milian, lian) SEE: Long John Silver Joaquin Martinez, James Gammon, Miguel Reuben, Reuben (1983) C-101m. ★★★ D: Ferrer, Joe Santos, John Leguizamo. Navy Robert Ellis Miller. Tom Conti, Kelly pilot Costner (yes, Tony—we know you diMcGillis, Roberts Blossom, Cynthia Harris, rected TOP GUN) visits power-broker pal E. Katherine Kerr, Joel Fabiani, Kara Quinn at his posh Mexican estate; soon he Wilson, Lois Smith. Boozy Scottish poet and Stowe (Quinn’s young Mrs.) are enjoying (an amalgam of Dylan Thomas and Brendan a closet quickie, in both senses of the term. Behan) sponges off hospitable women in New Ponderous mix of the slick and the sordid England college town—then falls in love with died at the box office; the second half— beautiful young student McGillis (in her film source of the film’s title—is especially debut). Deliciously witty script by Julius J. tough to endure. Director’s cut runs 100m. Epstein (adapted from writings of Peter Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 DeVries) and fine performances help offRevenge of Dracula, The SEE: Dracula set general feeling of anachronism about vs. Frankenstein (1971) the film . . . and a curious finale. [R]▼ Revenge of Frankenstein, The (1958British) C-91m. ★★★ D: Terence Fisher. Reunion (1989-French-German-British) C★★★ 110m. D: Jerry Schatzberg. Jason RoPeter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Eunice bards, Christian Anholt, Samuel West, AlexGayson, Michael Gwynn, Lionel Jeffries, ander Trauner, Franc¸oise Fabian, Maureen John Welsh. Sequel to THE CURSE OF Kerwin, Barbara Jefford. Elderly Jewish man FRANKENSTEIN is quite effective with journeys back to Stuttgart, Germany, to the good doctor still making a new body seek out boyhood friend he hasn’t seen from others, ably assisted by hunchback since leaving for the U.S. in 1933. Much of dwarf and young medical student. Thoughtthe film is told in flashback, with Anholt provoking script has fine atmosphere, espe[ 1154 ]

cially in color. Followed by THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN. ▼●쩠 Revenge of the Creature (1955) 82m. ★★ D: Jack Arnold. John Agar, Lori Nelson, John Bromfield, Nestor Paiva, Robert B. Williams. OK sequel to CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON destroys much of that film’s mystery and terror by removing Gill Man from Amazonian home and placing him in Florida oceanarium. Originally in 3-D. Clint Eastwood has his first screen role as lab technician.▼●쩠 Revenge of the Dead (1958) 69m. BOMB D: Edward D. Wood, Jr. Duke Moore, Kenne Duncan, Paul Marco, Tor Johnson, John Carpenter, Valda Hansen, Jeannie Stevens, Criswell. Long-lost sequel to BRIDE OF THE MONSTER (and to a lesser extent, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE) doesn’t reach the same heights of lunacy, but is still dreadful enough to tickle any bad-movie fan. ‘‘Ghosts’’ have been sighted in East L.A., so cops Moore and Marco are once more shoved into action; the trail leads to phony mystic Dr. Acula (Duncan, who really looks like he’s in a trance). The incomparable Criswell again narrates the proceedings, this time from a coffin. Sat unreleased for 25 years because Wood couldn’t pay the lab bill! Retitled NIGHT OF THE GHOULS.▼●쩠 Revenge of the Nerds (1984) C-90m. ★★ D: Jeff Kanew. Robert Carradine, Anthony Edwards, Timothy Busfield, Andrew Cassese, Curtis Armstrong, Larry B. Scott, Julie Montgomery, Michelle Meyrink, Ted McGinley, Matt Salinger, John Goodman, Bernie Casey, Jamie (James) Cromwell. Geeky college freshmen, tired of being humiliated by the campus jocks and coed cuties, form their own fraternity, leading to allout war. As raunchy teen comedies go, not bad, helped by two leads’ likable performances. Followed by several sequels. [R]

joy it, otherwise beware. A follow-up to ENTER THE NINJA, followed by NINJA III—THE DOMINATION. [R]▼쩠 Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) C99m. ★★ D: Blake Edwards. Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Robert Webber, Dyan Cannon, Burt Kwouk, Robert Loggia, Paul Stewart, Andre Maranne, Graham Stark, Ferdy Mayne. Sellers’ final go-round as bumbling Inspector Clouseau is one of the dullest, until a bright wrap-up in Hong Kong with some good sight gags and plenty of spark from Cannon. The ‘‘plot’’ has Clouseau supposedly murdered, allowing him to find ‘‘killer’’ incognito. Followed by TRAIL OF THE PINK PANTHER. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Revenge of Ukeno-Jo, The SEE: Actor’s Revenge, An Revengers, The (1972) C-112m. BOMB D: Daniel Mann. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Susan Hayward, Woody Strode, Roger Hanin, Rene Koldehoff. Rancher goes after those who massacred his family. Hayward (in her final theatrical feature) is the only good thing about this terrible Western. Panavision. [PG] Revengers’ Comedies, The SEE: Sweet Revenge (1999) Reversal of Fortune (1990) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Barbet Schroeder. Glenn Close, Jeremy Irons, Ron Silver, Annabella Sciorra, Uta Hagen, Fisher Stevens, Jack Gilpin, Christine Baranski, Stephen Mailer, Felicity Huffman. Tantalizing and complex film, embracing drama and very black comedy, sparked by Irons’ devastating Oscarwinning performance as the aristocratic, enigmatic Claus von Bu¨low, who was accused of attempting to murder his socialite wife Sunny. Silver is perfectly cast as reallife Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who agreed to take on the challenge of reversing the jury’s decision. Teasingly ▼●쩠 ambiguous, and one of the most strikingly Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Parastructured narrative films ever made. ★1 dise (1987) C-98m. ⁄2 D: Joe Roth. Scripted by Nicholas Kazan from DershowRobert Carradine, Curtis Armstrong, Larry itz’s book. Julie Hagerty has small, unbilled B. Scott, Timothy Busfield, Courtney role. [R]▼●쩠 Thorne-Smith, Andrew Cassese, Donald Revolution (1985) C-123m. BOMB D: Gibb, Ed Lauter, Anthony Edwards, Jamie Hugh Hudson. Al Pacino, Donald Suther(James) Cromwell. Sequel, set at a fraterland, Nastassja Kinski, Joan Plowright, nity gathering in Ft. Lauderdale, is strictly Dave King, Annie Lennox, Steven Berkoff, by-the-numbers; once again the geeky ‘‘heJesse Birdsall, Graham Greene, Robbie roes’’ manage to triumph over their beefier Coltrane. Only a half-dozen or so movies (but not brainier) college counterparts . . . have dealt more than superficially with the but this is a lot less fun than the original. Revolutionary War; thanks to this megaEdwards, Carradine’s costar in the first picbomb, it may be 2776 until we get another ture, makes a token appearance. Followed one. Pacino, two centuries too contempoby 1992 TV sequel. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ★★ rary to be convincing, is the trapper whose Revenge of the Ninja (1983) C-88m. boat and son are conscripted by the ContiD: Sam Firstenberg. Sho Kosugi, Keith nental Army; Kinski is the headstrong rebel Vitali, Virgil Frye, Arthur Roberts, Mario from a family of Tories. Ludicrous script Gallo. Good ninja Kosugi takes on evil and acting sink some splendid production ninja Roberts, a heroin smuggler/kidnapper/killer. Kung fu aficionados should envalues. Reedited by Hudson, with new nar[ 1155 ]

ration by Pacino, in 2009; this version runs as greed for larger share of reward money 115m. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 goads them into conflict. CinemaScope. Revolutionary, The (1970) C-100m. ★★★ Rhapsody (1954) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Paul Williams. Jon Voight, Jennifer Charles Vidor. Elizabeth Taylor, Vittorio Salt, Seymour Cassel, Robert Duvall. Tight, Gassman, John Ericson, Louis Calhern, well-written study of a college youth who Michael Chekhov. Three-cornered roslowly gets drawn into role of political mance among rich Taylor, violinist Gassrevolutionary with near-tragic results. Hans man, and pianist Ericson: melodic Koning adapted his novel. [PG]▼ interludes bolster this soap opera. Script by Fay and Michael Kanin.▼ Revolutionary Road (2008-U.S.-British) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Mendes. Leonardo Rhapsody in August (1991-Japanese) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Akira Kurosawa. Sachiko DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates, Michael Shannon, Kathryn Hahn, David HarMurase, Richard Gere, Hisashi Igawa, bour, Dylan Baker, Richard Easton, Zoe Narumi Kayashima. Thoughtful but (by Kazan, Jay O. Sanders, Max Casella. Inhis standards) minor Kurosawa, about the tense adaptation of Richard Yates’ novel painful memories of a Japanese grandabout a young couple whose love cannot mother who recalls the bombing of Nagaovercome a feeling of discontent creeping saki at the end of WW2. Gere, in a gloriinto their supposedly ideal existence in the fied cameo, doesn’t seem too out of place suburbs of N.Y.C. in the 1950s. Gloomy, to as a Japanese-American member of the old say the least. Superior acting by the entire woman’s extended clan. The director manensemble (including the two stars, reunited ages a few memorable visual touches, but for the first time since TITANIC in 1997) talky film never quite recovers from its nearly static opening. [PG]▼●쩠 and meticulous craftsmanship can’t compensate for lack of character development Rhapsody in Blue (1945) 139m. ★★★ D: that one might find in the book. And where Irving Rapper. Robert Alda, Joan Leslie, do the couple’s kids disappear to all the Alexis Smith, Oscar Levant, Charles Cotime? Super 35. [R]쩠 burn, Julie Bishop, Albert Basserman, Revolution Will Not Be Televised, The Morris Carnovsky, Herbert Rudley, Rose(2002-Irish-Dutch-U.S.-German-Finnishmary DeCamp, Paul Whiteman, Hazel British) C-74m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kim Bartley, DonScott, Al Jolson. Hollywood biography of nacha O’Briain. A European film crew on George Gershwin is largely pulp fiction, but location in Caracas is amazed to find itself comes off better than most other composer amidst a violent uprising that temporarily biopics, capturing Gershwin’s enthusiasm ousts Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. for his work, and some of his inner conSharp editing and pointed narration strongly flicts. Highlight is virtually complete perforsuggest covert U.S. involvement in the atmance of title work.▼● tempted coup of the charismatic Chavez, Rhinestone (1984) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Bob who is always center stage in this surprisClark. Sylvester Stallone, Dolly Parton, ingly enjoyable documentary. Sound bites Richard Farnsworth, Ron Leibman, Tim contributed by Colin Powell, George Tenet, Thomerson. Parton bets that she can turn and Jesse Helms. Aka CHAVEZ: INSIDE anyone into a country singer—even N.Y.C. THE COUP. cabdriver Stallone. Contrived, cornball comRevolver (2005-British-French) C-115m. edy with acres of unfunny dialogue. Pana★★ D: Guy Ritchie. Jason Statham, Ray Livision. [PG]▼●쩠 otta, Vincent Pastore, Andre´ Benjamin, TerRhinoceros (1974) C-101m. BOMB D: ence Maynard, Francesca Annis, Andrew Tom O’Horgan. Zero Mostel, Gene WilHoward, Mark Strong. Gambler spends der, Karen Black, Robert Weil, Joe Silver, seven years in prison perfecting his game; Marilyn Chris. Eugene Ionesco entry in when he gets out he defeats (and humiliates) ‘‘Theater of the Absurd’’ makes sorry trana casino boss, who puts out a hit on him. sition from stage to screen as clerk Wilder Two strangers come to his aid and the ultirefuses to conform by turning into a pachymate con is on—but who’s conning who? derm. The performers try. An American So confusing it would take a book called Film Theater Production. [PG]▼쩠 Revolver for Dummies to figure it out. RitRhubarb (1951) 95m. ★★★ D: Arthur Lubin. chie throws in all the visual gimmicks he Ray Milland, Jan Sterling, Gene Lockhart, can. After a dismal reception in England, he William Frawley, Elsie Holmes, Taylor recut the film for long-delayed U.S. release Holmes, Leonard Nimoy. Eccentric Lockin 2007, to no avail. Super 35. [R]쩠 hart owns the Brooklyn Loons baseball Reward, The (1965) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: team; he dies and leaves the club to his Serge Bourguignon. Max von Sydow, Yvette spunky pet cat. Spirited comedy, based on a Mimieux, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Gilbert famous story by H. Allen Smith.쩠 Roland, Emilio Fernandez, Henry Silva, Rhythm on the Range (1936) 85m. ★★1⁄2 Rodolfo Acosta. Promising premise and D: Norman Taurog. Bing Crosby, Frances good cast led astray in static Western: Farmer, Bob Burns, Martha Raye, Lucille group of bounty hunters turn on each other, Gleason, Samuel S. Hinds, Louis Prima, Leo[ 1156 ]

nid Kinskey. Spoiled N.Y.C. society girl runs Richard Pryor Here and Now (1983) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Pryor. The coaway on the eve of her wedding and heads West, tangling with ranch hand Crosby along median’s fourth concert film is his least the way. Engaging, featherweight musical satisfying to date, though hecklers in comedy includes Bing’s beautiful rendition of the audience are as much to blame as ‘‘I Can’t Escape From You.’’ Extended perforany defects in Pryor’s material. Some amusmance of Johnny Mercer’s ‘‘I’m an Old Cowing bits on drunks and dopeheads, plus hand (from the Rio Grande)’’ features an some biting digs at the Reagan White unbilled Louis Prima and the Sons of the PioHouse. Filmed on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. [R]▼●쩠 neers (including Roy Rogers). Remade as PARDNERS. ▼쩠 Richard Pryor Is Back Live in Concert (1979) C-78m. ★★ D: Jeff Margolis. Pryor’s Rhythm on the River (1940) 92m. ★★★ D: Victor Schertzinger. Bing Crosby, still funny, but much of the material is Mary Martin, Basil Rathbone, Oscar Levant, ripped off from RICHARD PRYOR—LIVE Oscar Shaw, Charley Grapewin, William IN CONCERT, released earlier that year. Frawley, Lillian Cornell, Wingy Manone. Richard Pryor—Live in Concert (1979) Breezy musical has Crosby ghostwriting C-78m. ★★★ D: Jeff Margolis. Pryor on music for Rathbone and meeting up with race, sex, machismo, death, filmed in Martin, never dreaming that she’s been hired performance in Long Beach, California. to ghostwrite the lyrics. First-rate songs by The comedian, uncensored, is at his raunJohnny Burke and James Monaco; director chy best.▼●쩠 Schertzinger contributed ‘‘I Don’t Want to Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip Cry Any More.’’ Billy Wilder cowrote the (1982) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Layton. Pryor story. ▼●쩠 on Africa, sex, lawyers, his wife, sex, Rhythm Romance SEE: Some Like It Italian mobsters, more sex, and—inevitHot (1939) ably—freebasing. Some of it’s funny, some Rhythm Thief (1995) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Matisn’t, but the audience is always shown thew Harrison. Jason Andrews, Eddie Dandoubled over with laughter. [R]▼●쩠 iels, Kevin Corrigan, Kimberly Flynn, Sean Richard’s Things (1980-British) C-104m. ★★ Hagerty, Mark Alfred, Christopher Cooke, D: Anthony Harvey. Liv Ullmann, Bob McGrath. At once intriguing and preAmanda Redman, Tim Pigott-Smith, Eliztentious ultra-low-budget portrait of aloof abeth Spriggs, David Markham. Widow but agonized Andrews, who lives on Ullmann is seduced by her late husband’s N.Y.C.’s grimy Lower East Side and earns girlfriend. Dreary drama, with a catatonic his keep by selling tapes of illicitly recorded performance by Liv. Screenplay by Fredrock music. Original and provocative at eric Raphael, based on his novel. Made for times, but too often revels in its artiness. British TV. [R]▼ Filmed in 11 days, for $11,000.쩠 Richard III (1955-British) C-155m. ★★★1⁄2 Rich and Famous (1981) C-117m. ★★ D: D: Laurence Olivier. Laurence Olivier, George Cukor. Jacqueline Bisset, Candice John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Claire Bergen, David Selby, Hart Bochner, SteBloom, Alec Clunes, Cedric Hardwicke, ven Hill, Meg Ryan, Matt Lattanzi, MiStanley Baker, Pamela Brown, Michael chael Brandon. Muddled, misguided remake Gough. Elaborate if stagy version of Shakeof OLD ACQUAINTANCE, with Bisset speare’s chronicle of ambitious 15th-century and Bergen as women who maintain a British king and his court intrigues. Some prints run 139m. VistaVision.▼●쩠 stormy friendship for more than 20 years, despite rivalries in love and career. Idiotic Richard III (1995-U.S.-British) C-104m. ★★★ dialogue and Bisset’s sexual ruminations D: Richard Loncraine. Ian McKellen, weaken what should have been a strong Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert contemporary version of John Van DruDowney, Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin ten’s story. Bisset’s company produced. Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, John Wood, Among guests at Malibu party are Marsha Jim Carter, Adrian Dunbar, Edward HardHunt, Christopher Isherwood, and Roger wicke, Tim McInnerny, Bill Paterson, DonVadim; later party offers glimpses of ald Sumpter, Dominic West. Ingenious Ray Bradbury, Nina Foch, and Frances resetting of Shakespeare’s drama of multiBergen (Candice’s mother). Cukor’s last ple murders and political intrigue in 1930s England, during a Fascist coup. McKellen film; Meg Ryan’s first. [R]▼●쩠 Rich and Strange (1932-British) 83m. dominates the screen as the devil incarnate, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Alfred Hitchcock. Henry Kendall, with a persona for every occasion. Visually Joan Barry, Betty Amann, Percy Marmont, compelling, often shocking (with glamour, Elsie Randolph. Kendall and Barry, marsex, drugs, and violence), and yet doesn’t ried and bored are given money and travel fully capture the power of McKellen’s (and around the world; he has affair with a Richard Eyre’s) stage production, on which ‘‘princess,’’ while she becomes romantiit is based. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 cally attached to an explorer. Fragmented, Rich Girl (1991) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel offbeat drama (until the finale).▼●쩠 Bender. Jill Schoelen, Don Michael Paul, [ 1157 ]

★★1 Sean Kanan, Ron Karabatsos, Paul Gleason, ⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Jane Powell, Bentley Mitchum. Extremely mild timeDanielle Darrieux, Wendell Corey, Vic filler about ‘‘poor little rich girl’’ Schoelen Damone, Fernando Lamas, Marcel Dalio, leaving her life of ease in her daddy’s Una Merkel, Richard Anderson. Frivolous Bel-Air mansion and trying to make it on MGM musical with Powell in Paris, sighther own, eventually hooking up with a seeing and romancing, meeting mother blue-collar rock singer. [R]▼● Darrieux. Cowritten by Sidney Sheldon.▼● Ri¢hie Ri¢h (1994) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: DonRicochet (1991) C-97m. ★★ D: Russell ald Petrie. Macaulay Culkin, John LarroMulcahy. Denzel Washington, John Lithquette, Edward Herrmann, Jonathan Hyde, gow, Ice T, Kevin Pollak, Lindsay Wagner, Christine Ebersole, Stephi Lineburg, MiMary Ellen Trainor, Josh Evans, Victoria chael McShane, Chelcie Ross, Ben Stein. Dillard, John Amos. Street cop (Washington) Amusing kids’ film with Culkin as the comicbecomes a citywide hero when he brings book character Richie Rich, the world’s down bad-guy Lithgow—little dreaming that wealthiest boy—which naturally makes him the psycho spends every waking moment in the target of a scheming bad guy (Larroprison planning his revenge. Slick, wellquette). Hyde is excellent as the boy’s very cast, occasionally ugly urban thriller grows proper valet/companion, and Herrmann and more tiresome and predictable as it goes Ebersole are endearing as Richie’s parents. along. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Avoids some of the formulaic crudity of John Ricochets (1986-Israeli) C-90m. ★★★ D: Hughes movies, but weakens during the proEli Cohen. Roni Pincovich, Shaul Mizrahi, tracted action finale. Followed by a direct-toAlon Aboutboul, Dudu Ben-Ze’ev, Boaz video sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 Ofri. Gritty, uncompromising look at a group Rich in Love (1993) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: of Israeli soldiers living and dying in occupied Bruce Beresford. Albert Finney, Jill ClayLebanon, focusing on the experiences of burgh, Kathryn Erbe, Kyle MacLachlan, one young officer. Made as an Israeli Army Piper Laurie, Ethan Hawke, Suzy Amis, training film and shot on location; neverAlfre Woodard. The people behind DRIVtheless, an eloquent anti-war drama. ING MISS DAISY have taken Josephine Riddle of the Sands, The (1979-British) Humphreys’ novel and tried hard to weave C-102m. ★★ D: Tony Maylam. Simon another evocative Southern tale; they don’t MacCorkindale, Michael York, Jenny really succeed, but there are many fine Agutter, Alan Badel, Jurgen Andersen, moments. Film centers on teenager (Erbe, Olga Lowe, Wolf Kahler. Sailing off the in an award-calibre performance) trying to coast of Germany in 1901, yachtsman hold her extended family together; among MacCorkindale stumbles onto what seems the members are her idle father (another to be a plan to invade England, and sumgreat Finney portrayal), absent mother, and mons old chum York to help him out. nutty sister. Beautiful touches both in script Erskine Childers’ novel is considered the and visualization are offset by unfocused, prototype of the modern spy thriller, but this meandering story. [PG-13]▼● adaptation is just too slow and stiff to be Rich Kids (1979) C-101m. ★★★ D: Robert really effective. Good to look at, though. M. Young. Trini Alvarado, Jeremy Levy, Released in the U.S. in 1984. Panavision.▼ John Lithgow, Kathryn Walker, David Ride a Crooked Trail (1958) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Selby, Terry Kiser, Paul Dooley, Olympia D: Jesse Hibbs. Audie Murphy, Gia Scala, Dukakis, Jill Eikenberry. Alvarado and Walter Matthau, Henry Silva, Joanna Levy are upper class N.Y.C. kids who Moore. Murphy plays a thief mistaken for a become best friends as her parents are lawman in this otherwise average Borden dissolving their marriage. Effect of divorce Chase–scripted Western. Worth watching is focal point for this fine acting showcase, for Matthau’s zesty performance as a bomwhich also makes good use of N.Y.C. locabastic, alcoholic judge. CinemaScope. tions. Produced by Robert Altman. [PG]▼ Ride a Wild Pony (1976-Australian) Rich Man’s Wife, The (1996) C-94m. C-91m. ★★★ D: Don Chaffey. Michael BOMB D: Amy Holden Jones. Halle Berry, Craig, John Meillon, Robert Bettles, Eva Christopher McDonald, Clive Owen, Peter Griffith, Graham Rouse. Genial, atmospheric Greene, Charles Hallahan, Frankie Faison, Disney story about an irresistible pony and Clea Lewis. Abandoned Berry somehow gets the two children—son of poor farm family picked up by a shady character following a and crippled rich girl—who vie for its love vacation tiff with her husband. This leads to and ownership. Sentimental tale adapted a murder-blackmail situation conceived by a from James Aldridge’s A Sporting Propofilmmaker who’s seen STRANGERS ON A sition. [G]▼ TRAIN one too many times. Lots of uninRide Back, The (1957) 79m. ★★★ D: tentional yuks, but nothing else to recomAllen H. Miner. Anthony Quinn, Lita Milan, mend this D.O.A. release. [R]▼●쩠 William Conrad, Ellen Hope Monroe, Louis Richthofen and Brown SEE: Von RichTowers. Well-handled account of sheriff thofen and Brown Rich, Young and Pretty (1951) C-95m. and prisoner who find they need each [ 1158 ]

other’s help to survive elements and Indian paign of a female presidential candidate attacks.▼쩠 who is not to their liking. Bright premise, Ride Beyond Vengeance (1966) C-100m. thoroughly stale result. Originally titled ★★1 THE AMERICAN WAY, at 105m. [R]▼● ⁄2 D: Bernard McEveety. Chuck Connors, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hays, Joan Ride the High Country (1962) C-94m. ★★★★ Blondell, Gloria Grahame, Gary Merrill, D: Sam Peckinpah. Randolph Scott, Bill Bixby, James MacArthur, Claude Joel McCrea, Mariette Hartley, Ron Starr, Akins, Paul Fix, Ruth Warrick, Arthur Edgar Buchanan, R. G. Armstrong, Warren O’Connell, Frank Gorshin, Jamie Farr. Oates, John Anderson, L. Q. Jones, James Good supporting cast makes the most of Drury. Literate, magnificent Western about stereotyped roles in flashback account of two aged gunfighter pals who reflect on the Connors’ sundry encounters with outlaws.쩠 paths their lives have taken while guarding Ride Clear of Diablo (1954) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 gold shipment. Considered by some to be D: Jesse Hibbs. Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, Peckinpah’s finest film; breathtaking wideSusan Cabot, Abbe Lane, Russell Johnson, screen photography (by Lucien Ballard) and Jack Elam, Denver Pyle. Cheerful gunscenery, and flawless performances, with Buslinger Duryea takes a liking to Murphy, chanan notable as a drunken judge. Written a newly minted deputy seeking the cattle by N. B. Stone, Jr. Hartley’s first film, Scott’s rustlers who killed his family. Unassuming, last. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 intelligent Western is a good showcase for Ride the Pink Horse (1947) 101m. ★★★1⁄2 its likable stars.▼ D: Robert Montgomery. Robert Montgom1 Ride ’Em Cowboy (1942) 86m. ★★ ⁄2 D: ery, Wanda Hendrix, Thomas Gomez, AnArthur Lubin. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, drea King, Fred Clark, Art Smith, Rita Dick Foran, Anne Gwynne, Johnny Mack Conde, Grandon Rhodes. Strong film noir Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, Douglass Dumbrille. of Montgomery coming to small New MexiGood combination of Western, comedy, can town during fiesta to blackmail gangand musical in A&C vehicle, with Ella and ster Clark, but romantic Hendrix and FBI the Merry Macs singing tunes including agent Smith keep getting in his way. Taut ‘‘A Tisket A Tasket,’’ Foran crooning script by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer ‘‘I’ll Remember April.’’▼●쩠 (from the Dorothy B. Hughes novel); super Ride in the Whirlwind (1965) C-83m. performance by Gomez as friendly carny. ★★1 Remade for TV as THE HANGED MAN ⁄2 D: Monte Hellman. Cameron Mitchell, Jack Nicholson, Tom Filer, Millie Perkins, (1964). Ride the Wild Surf (1964) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 Katherine Squire, Rupert Crosse, Harry Dean Stanton. Nicholson coproduced and D: Don Taylor. Fabian, Tab Hunter, Barwrote the screenplay for this offbeat Western bara Eden, Anthony Hayes, James Mitchum, about three cowboys who find themselves Shelley Fabares. Formula beach boys tale, wrongly pursued as outlaws. Neither as set in Hawaii; Jan and Dean sing the title arty nor as intriguing as THE SHOOTING, song. It’s not Shakespeare, but it is a cut which was filmed simultaneously.▼●쩠 above the usual BEACH PARTY shenaniRide Lonesome (1959) C-73m. ★★★ D: gans, and the surfing footage is great.▼쩠 Budd Boetticher. Randolph Scott, Karen Ride to Glory SEE: Deserter, The Steele, Pernell Roberts, James Best, Lee Ride to Hangman’s Tree, The (1967) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Al Rafkin. Jack Lord, Van Cleef, James Coburn. Typically interesting Boetticher chamber-Western (with a James Farentino, Don Galloway, Melodie Burt Kennedy script) about a tight-lipped Johnson, Richard Anderson, Robert Yuro. bounty hunter who acquires unwanted comFormula Universal backlot Western, of outpanions while bringing in a wanted criminal. laws in old West. Unusually good supporting cast, including Ride with the Devil (1999) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 Coburn in his film debut. CinemaScope.쩠 D: Ang Lee. Skeet Ulrich, Tobey Maguire, Rider on the Rain (1970-French) C-115m. James Caviezel, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, ★★★1⁄2 D: Rene ´ Clement. Charles Bronson, Simon Baker, Jeffrey Wright, Jewel, Tom Marlene Jobert, Jill Ireland, Annie Cordy. Wilkinson, Jonathan Brandis, Tom Guiry, Chilling suspense piece about mysterious Mark Ruffalo. A different take on the Civil man who winds up using Jobert as accomWar, focusing on the Bushwhackers, Southplice when she discovers what he is up to. ern guerrilla forces made up largely of Best sequence: long, rainy prologue. Story young men who stage daring raids on Union and screenplay by Sebastien Japrisot. farms and towns along the Kansas/Missouri [PG]▼쩠 border. Interesting subject matter is diffused Riders of the Storm (1986-British) C-92m. by overlong, sometimes unfocused treat★1⁄2 D: Maurice Phillips. Dennis Hopper, ment, though the time and place are well Michael J. Pollard, Eugene Lipinski, James drawn. Pop singer Jewel makes an impresAubrey, Nigel Pegram. Unsatisfactory sive acting debut. 2.35 Research PLC. [R] chronicle of Vietnam vets who run a pirate ▼쩠 television station and jam right-wing broadRidicule (1996-French) C-102m. ★★★ D: casts; they attempt to sabotage the camPatrice Leconte. Charles Berling, Jean [ 1159 ]

Rochefort, Fanny Ardant, Judith Godreche, class adolescence in 1960s Connecticut, and Bernard Giraudeau. Spirited tale of an earhaving her dreams of college—and a writnest young landowner who tries to obtain an ing career—sidetracked by having a baby audience with King Louis XVI in order to and marrying Mr. Wrong. Barrymore (alget grant money for swamp drainage. He ways watchable, even as an unsympathetic soon discovers that the only way to be precharacter) and a strong cast almost succeed sented at court is to display a ready (and in covering the many holes in the script— but ultimately cannot. [PG-13] ▼쩠 preferably savage) wit—which, to everyone’s surprise, he is willing and able to do. Riding Shotgun (1954) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fine performances in this unusual and origiAndre de Toth. Randolph Scott, Wayne nal period piece. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Morris, Joan Weldon, Joe Sawyer, James Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles Millican, Charles Buchinsky (Bronson), Fritz (2005 - Hong Kong-Chinese-Japanese) CFeld. Typical, undemanding Scott Western of man seeking to clear his reputation.쩠 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zhang Yimou. Ken Takakura, Shinobu Terajima, Kiichi Nakai, Li Riding the Bullet (2004-U.S.-CanadianGerman) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Mick Garris. JonaJiamin, Qiu Lin, Jiang Wen, Yang Zhenbo. Deceptively simple, profoundly moving tale than Jackson, Erika Christensen, David of elderly Takakura, a Japanese fisherman Arquette, Cliff Robertson, Barbara Hershey, who does not express himself easily and is Barry W. Levy, Matt Frewer, Jeff Ballard. long estranged from his son. Upon learning While hitchhiking across Maine on Hallowhis offspring is terminally ill, he heads to een night in 1969 to visit his ill mother, a China to follow through on his son’s atdeath-obsessed college student experiences tempt to film a rural mask-opera singer, sinister hallucinations and is picked up by a which proves to be no easy task. Wise, poiman who may be the Grim Reaper himself. gnant film offers a tailor-made role for TaGory, cliche´-ridden snoozefest based on kakura, best known for playing Yakuza Stephen King’s ‘‘e-book’’ story is for the movie gangsters and loners. [PG]쩠 author’s hard-core fans only, though it plays Riding Giants (2004) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: like a parody of his work. Aka STEPHEN Stacy Peralta. Superior examination of surf KING’S RIDING THE BULLET. [R] ▼쩠 culture and the desire to confront the biggest Riding the Rails (1997) C-75m. ★★★1⁄2 D: waves imaginable. Effective interviews with Michael Uys, Lexy Lovell. Acclaimed doclegends like Greg Noll illuminate the quest umentary about the thousands of young for the ultimate ride and make it palatable to people who left home to hop freight trains people who might think some of these guys during the Great Depression—some seeking are just nuts. Remarkable new sequences adventure, some hoping to make a living, are interspersed with vintage footage for an some with nowhere else to go. Fascinating experience that lifts this well above other interviews with octogenarian survivors of that surfing documentaries. The director of school of hard knocks; debunks most of the DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS outdoes him‘‘romance’’ of hobo life.▼쩠 self with this epic look at the big waves and Riffraff (1935) 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: J. Walter their conquerors. [PG-13] 쩠 Ruben. Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy, Una 1 ★★ Riding High (1950) 112m. Merkel, Joseph Calleia, Victor Kilian, ⁄2 D: Frank Capra. Bing Crosby, Coleen Gray, Charles Mickey Rooney. Comedy-drama doesn’t Bickford, Margaret Hamilton, Frances always work, but worth viewing for stars Gifford, James Gleason, Raymond Walburn, playing married couple in fishing business who end up on wrong side of law.▼ William Demarest, Ward Bond, Clarence Muse, Percy Kilbride, Gene Lockhart, Riffraff (1947) 80m. ★★★ D: Ted Tetzlaff. Douglass Dumbrille, Harry Davenport, Pat O’Brien, Anne Jeffreys, Walter Slezak, Charles Lane, Frankie Darro. Musical rePercy Kilbride, Jerome Cowan, George make of BROADWAY BILL follows it so Givot, Jason Robards (Sr.). Fast-paced closely that stock footage with some of the story of O’Brien foiling villains’ attempts actors in their original parts is included from to take over oilfield in Panama.▼● 1934 film. Crosby is racehorse owner Riff Raff (1991-British) C-96m. ★★★ D: whose nag has yet to come through. OK Ken Loach. Robert Carlyle, Emer McCourt, songs, Capra touch make this pleasing if Ricky Tomlinson, Jimmy Coleman, George unmemorable entertainment. Oliver Hardy Moss, David Finch. Probing, bitingly funny is fun in rare solo appearance. Joe Frisco comedy about the ongoing struggle between appears as himself.▼●쩠 the classes in England, examining the plight Riding in Cars With Boys (2001) C-122m. of a blue-collar type (Carlyle), newly ar★★ D: Penny Marshall. Drew Barrymore, rived in London, who signs on at a construcSteve Zahn, Brittany Murphy, James tion site. Some of the regional accents and Woods, Adam Garcia, Lorraine Bracco, dialects are so indecipherable that subtitles Sara Gilbert, Desmond Harrington, Peter have been added! Screenplay by Bill Jesse, Facinelli, Rosie Perez, Maggie Gyllenhaal. an ex-construction worker.▼ Well-acted but uneven film inspired by Rififi (1955-French) 115m. ★★★★ D: Jules Beverly Donofrio’s memoir of a workingDassin. Jean Servais, Carl Mohner, Magali [ 1160 ]

Noel, Robert Manuel, Perlo Vita (Jules pilot Chuck Yeager. Writer-director KaufDassin). The granddaddy of all caper/heist man draws all his characters as cartoons movies, centering on quartet of French (including Lyndon Johnson) except for the jewel thieves who find each other more pilots—and puts thrillingly realistic recredangerous than the cops. The burglary ations of space flights against broadly carisequence itself is famous for being in catured scenes on Earth. A real curio of a complete silence. Scripted by director Dasfilm, with some astonishing performances, sin, Rene Wheeler, and Auguste LeBreton, exhilarating moments, but a curious overfrom LeBreton’s novel.▼쩠 all air of detachment. Long, but never borRight At Your Door (2007) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 ing. Winner of four Oscars, including Best D: Chris Gorak. Mary McCormack, Rory Editing, Sound, and Original Score (Bill Cochrane, Tony Perez, Scotty Noyd, Jr., Max Conti). The real Chuck Yeager has a cameo Kasch, Jon Huertas. When a dirty bomb is role as a bartender. [PG]▼●쩠 unleashed in L.A., panic ensues and a man Rikki and Pete (1988-Australian) C-107m. ★★1 must quarantine his home to prevent contami⁄2 D: Nadia Tass. Stephen Kearney, nation. As the crisis escalates he becomes Nina Landis, Tetchie Agbayani, Bill Hunincreasingly worried about locating his ter, Bruno Lawrence, Bruce Spence, Dorwife, who is AWOL from her office. Seems othy Allison. Pete is a misfit with a penalmost like a stage play or a Twilight Zone chant for gimmicky inventions, Rikki is his episode that has been stretched to feature sister who’s still trying to find herself; tolength. Though overlong this modest film gether they flee to a remote mining village builds tension throughout, since its premise where their lives take some unexpected is (sad to say) so plausible. [R]쩠 turns. Follow-up to the delightful MALRight Cross (1950) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: John COLM by the same writing-directing team Sturges. June Allyson, Dick Powell, Lio(Tass and writer/cinematographer David nel Barrymore, Ricardo Montalban. Fairly Parker) hasn’t the same sweetness or consiscompact account of boxing world, with tency, but it’s admirably quirky, and Parsportswriter Powell and fighter Montalban ker’s Rube Goldberg–ish devices are fun. in love with Allyson. One of Marilyn [R]▼●쩠 Monroe’s early films. Ring, The (1927-British) 73m. ★★★ D: AlRighteous Kill (2008) C-100m. ★★ D: Jon fred Hitchcock. Carl Brisson, Lillian HallAvnet. Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Carla Davies, Ian Hunter, Harry Terry, Gordon Gugino, Curtis (50 Cent) Jackson, Donnie Harker, Billy Wells, Tom Helmore. Boxers Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, John LeguiBrisson and Hunter battle over their love zamo, Trilby Glover, Melissa Leo, Oleg for the same woman. Standard scenario is Taktarov, Barry Primus, Rob Dyrdek, Alan uplifted by Hitchcock’s keen eye for detail Rosenberg. Overly busy whodunit storyline and imaginative use of visuals to communifollows manhunt to identify a serial killer cate feelings and points of view. Written by who only murders sleazy types ‘‘who deHitchcock and Alma Reville.▼쩠 serve it,’’ and whose m.o. suggests that he Ring, The (2002) C-115m. ★★ D: Gore Vermay be a cop. Pairing of De Niro and Pacbinski. Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, ino as longtime partners on the NYPD gives David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, this film its raison d’eˆtre; their commanding Lindsay Frost, Pauley Perrette, Amber Tampresence and effortless teamwork make this blyn, Sara Rue, Daveigh Chase, Adam Brody. movie watchable. Super 35. [R]쩠 Teenage friends watch a videotape that supRight Hand Man, The (1987-Australian) posedly causes the viewer to die. (Wouldn’t C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Di Drew. Rupert Everyou?) The aunt of one victim, newspaper reett, Hugo Weaving, Catherine McClements, porter Watts, determines to find out the truth Arthur Dignam, Jennifer Claire. Well-made about the tape and its origins. Opens with a but only occasionally involving drama about bang, but drags us on a long, winding (and the various troubles of aristocrat Everett, ultimately pointless) investigative path before and what happens when he hires stagereaching its silly conclusion. Based on the coach driver Weaving. Has its moments, Japanese movie hit RINGU. Followed by a but ultimately peters out. [R]▼ sequel. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Right Stuff, The (1983) C-193m. ★★★ D: Ring Two, The (2005) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip Kaufman. Sam Shepard, Scott Hideo Nakata. Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, Glenn, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid, Fred David Dorfman, Elizabeth Perkins, Gary Ward, Barbara Hershey, Kim Stanley, Cole, Sissy Spacek, Ryan Merriman. FleeVeronica Cartwright, Kathy Baker, Paing Seattle for the small town of Astoria, mela Reed, Donald Moffat, Levon Helm, Oregon, Watts discovers that the coldScott Wilson, David Clennon, William hearted ghost of a loveless child is still after Russ, Jeff Goldblum, Harry Shearer. Offher and her son, as well as anyone else beat look at the birth of America’s space hanging around. Slow and overlong, but program and the first astronauts, adapted often delivers the spooky goods, and direcfrom Tom Wolfe’s best-selling book, and tor Nakata—who made the Japanese tethered to the story of iconoclastic test RINGU—uses misty Pacific Northwest lo[ 1161 ]

cations well. Entire cast is good, especially set at the Clyde Beatty circus; interesting for acting appearance by Spillane. Beatty young Dorfman, but not everything makes plays himself. CinemaScope.쩠 sense. This is not a remake of the Japanese Ring of Fire (1961) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ansequel to RINGU. Unrated version also drew L. Stone. David Janssen, Joyce Tayavailable. [PG-13] ▼쩠 lor, Frank Gorshin, Joel Marston, Doodles Ring-a-Ding Rhythm! (1962-British) 78m. ★★ Weaver. Assistant sheriff is held hostage D: Richard Lester. Helen Shapiro, Craig by trio of young hoods. Highlight of film Douglas, Felix Felton, Arthur Mullard, is climactic holocaust, including footage of John Leyton, Chubby Checker, Del Shana real Oregon forest fire. non, Gary ‘‘U.S.’’ Bonds, Gene Vincent, Ringu (1998-Japanese) C-95m. ★★★ D: Gene McDaniels, Acker Bilk, The TemHideo Nakata. Nanako Matsushima, Miki perance Seven. Shapiro and Douglas— Nakatani, Hiroyuki Sanada, Yuko Takeuwhose characters are called Helen and chi, Hitomi Sato, Yoichi Numata. After the Craig—organize a rock ’n’ roll and Dixiemysterious death of her niece, a reporter land jazz show. Of interest only for the investigates—and views—a ‘‘cursed’’ vidappearances of Bonds, Vincent, and comeotape that purportedly kills all those who pany—although there’s not one memorawatch it exactly seven days later. Stark cineble song performed. Lester’s first feature. matic technique suits this subtle, unsettling, British title: IT’S TRAD, DAD! 1 ★★ and genuinely spooky psychological thrilRinger, The (2005) C-94m. ⁄2 D: Barry ler, in the best tradition of metaphysical W. Blaustein. Johnny Knoxville, Brian Cox, Japanese ghost stories, which builds a reKatherine Heigl, Geoffrey Arend, Edward lentless sense of mounting dread. Based on Barbanell, Bill Chott, Leonard Flowers, Lea novel by Koˆji Suzuki (‘‘the Stephen King onard Earl Howze, Jed Rees. What if a guy, of Japan’’), this became a phenomenon strapped for money, went in on a scheme in Asia, inspiring two sequels, a prequel, a to pass himself off as a drooling, mentally Korean version and an American remake, challenged adult so he can enter (and rig) the THE RING. ▼쩠 Special Olympics? Give the filmmakers (inRio Bravo (1959) C-141m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Howcluding the Farrelly Brothers, who produced) ard Hawks. John Wayne, Dean Martin, credit for pulling this off and delivering a film Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter with smiles and heart. Knoxville puts his Brennan, Ward Bond, John Russell, Claude Jackass persona on hold, working alongside Akins, Bob Steele. Sheriff Wayne tries to actual Special Olympics participants, who prevent a killer with connections from esnaturally get the last laugh. A generally entercaping from the town jail, with only a taining, and surprising, comedy. Super 35. drunken Dino, leggy Angie, gimpy Bren[PG-13]쩠 nan, and lockjawed Ricky to help him. Ringmaster (1998) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Neil Quintessential Hawks Western, patronized Abramson. Jerry Springer, Jaime Pressly, by reviewers at the time of its release, is William McNamara, Molly Hagan, Michael now regarded as an American classic; overDudikoff, Ashley Holbrook, Michael Jai long, but great fun. Written by Leigh White. A mom and daughter share a husBrackett and Jules Furthman. Followed by band/stepfather in a trailer park, but instead EL DORADO; sort of remade as ASof duking it out in secret, they apply to vent SAULT ON PRECINCT 13.▼●쩠 their spleens on Springer’s TV show, sharRio Conchos (1964) C-107m. ★★★ D: Goring adjacent hotel accommodations with don Douglas. Richard Boone, Stuart Whitother profiled subjects. Surprisingly well acted man, Tony Franciosa, Edmond O’Brien, under the circumstances, this otherwise listless Jim Brown. Post–Civil War Texas is the junk lacks focus and is thoroughly done in by setting for this action-filled Western centerSpringer’s sanctimoniousness. Tries to do for ing around a shipment of stolen rifles, and the host’s career what PRIVATE PARTS did Boone taking on Franciosa. Brown is notafor Howard Stern’s and can’t even pull off ble in his film debut, and there’s a zesty that modest feat. [R]▼●쩠 performance by O’Brien. CinemaScope.▼ Ring of Bright Water (1969-British) Rio Grande (1950) 105m. ★★★ D: John C-107m. ★★★ D: Jack Couffer. Bill Travers, Ford. John Wayne, Maureen O’Hara, Ben Virginia McKenna, Peter Jeffrey, Jameson Johnson, Harry Carey, Jr., Victor McLaglen, Clark, Helena Gloag. Fine children’s film Claude Jarman, Jr., Chill Wills, J. Carrol should be a treat for adults, too; modest Naish, Grant Withers, Pat Wayne. The last story of man’s love for his pet otter is of director Ford’s Cavalry trilogy (following intelligently and believably told. Nice FORT APACHE and SHE WORE A YELacting and photography. [G]▼쩠 LOW RIBBON), and the most underrated: a Ring of Fear (1954) C-93m. ★★ D: James vivid look at the gentlemanly spirit of the Edward Grant. Clyde Beatty, Pat O’Brien, Cavalry during post–Civil War days . . . and Mickey Spillane, Sean McClory, Marian the difficult relationship between an estranged Carr, John Bromfield. Offbeat murder yarn father (commander Wayne) and his son (new [ 1162 ]

recruit Jarman). Beautifully shot by Bert was made before as THE AMERICAN FRIEND. U.S. debut on cable TV. [R]▼쩠 Glennon and Archie Stout, with lovely theme by Victor Young, songs by Sons of the PioRipped Off (1971-Italian) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 neers (including Ken Curtis). Also shown in D: Franco Prosperi. Robert Blake, Ernest computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Borgnine, Gabriele Ferzetti, Catherine Spaak, ★★★ Rio Lobo (1970) C-114m. Tomas Milian. Boxer Blake, framed for the D: Howard Hawks. John Wayne, Jorge Rivero, murder of his corrupt manager, is hounded Jennifer O’Neill, Jack Elam, Chris Mitchum, by detective Borgnine and protected by Mike Henry, Susana Dosamantes, Victor victim’s daughter (Spaak). OK of its type; French, Sherry Lansing, Bill Williams, aka THE BOXER, MURDER IN THE David Huddleston, Jim Davis, Robert RING, and COUNTER PUNCH. [R]▼쩠 Donner. Hawks’ final film is a lighthearted Riptide (1934) 90m. ★★★ D: Edmund GouldWestern in the RIO BRAVO mold, with ing. Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, the Duke as ex-Union colonel out to settle Herbert Marshall, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, some old scores. Youthful costars are Skeets Gallagher, Ralph Forbes, Lilyan Tashweak, but stays on track thanks to snappy man, Helen Jerome Eddy. Silly but enterdialogue, crisp action, and riotous pertaining story of vivacious Shearer marrying formance by Elam as shotgun-toting old stodgy British Lord (Marshall), then becomlooney. Future Paramount studio head Laning involved in scandal with Montgomery. sing’s last film as an actress; George PlimpDon’t miss opening scene where stars are ton has a one-line bit that served as the basis dressed as giant insects for costume party! of a TV special. [G]▼●쩠 That’s Walter Brennan as a chauffeur; Bruce Rio Rita (1942) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: S. Sylvan Bennett is an extra at the bar at Cannes.▼ Simon. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Kathryn Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, The Grayson, John Carroll, Tom Conway, Barry (1960) 101m. ★★★ D: Budd Boetticher. Nelson. Vintage Broadway musical brought Ray Danton, Karen Steele, Elaine Stewup to date, with Nazis invading Western art, Jesse White, Simon Oakland, Robert ranch where Bud and Lou work; some good Lowery, Warren Oates. Snappy chronicle music helps this one. Previously filmed in of Depression-days gangster, well balanced 1929 with Wheeler and Woolsey.▼● between action gun battles and Danton’s Riot (1969) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Buzz Kulik. romancing flashy dolls (like young Dyan Jim Brown, Gene Hackman, Ben Carruthers, Cannon). Outstanding photography by Mike Kellin, Gerald O’Loughlin. UnsurLucien Ballard.▼● prising but extremely violent prison film; Rise: Blood Hunter (2007-U.S.-New Hackman in stereotyped characterization. Zealand) C-94m. BOMB D: Sebastian GuProduced by William Castle. [PG—edited tierrez. Lucy Liu, Michael Chiklis, James from original R rating]▼ D’Arcy, Carla Gugino, Elden Henson, Julio Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) 80m. ★★★ D: Oscar Mechoso, Simon Rex, Allan Rich, Don Siegel. Neville Brand, Emile Meyer, Fran Kranz, Mako, Marilyn Manson, Nick Frank Faylen, Leo Gordon, Robert Osterloh. Lachey, Robert Forster. Reporter Liu, inRealistic, powerful prison drama still packs vestigating a potentially hot story, stumbles a punch. Among the contemporary themes onto a cult of murderous vampires. Slick but in this 1954 film is ‘‘media manipulation,’’ staggeringly dumb, with a near-incoherent with prisoners trying to use press for storyline; Liu wears a constant scowl, and leverage.▼ Forster cameos as ‘‘Lloyd from Fresno.’’ Unrated version runs 122m. [R]쩠 Riot on Sunset Strip (1967) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur Dreifuss. Aldo Ray, Mimsy Rise of Louis XIV, The (1966-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: Roberto Rossellini. JeanFarmer, Michael Evans, Laurie Mock, Tim Rooney, Bill Baldwin. Weak exploitation of Marie Patte, Raymond Jourdan, Silvagni, real-life mid-’60s riots on the Strip concerns Katharina Renn, Dominique Vincent, Pierre cop Ray’s enraged response when his daughBarrat. Attractive, but somewhat pedantic ter gets involved with drugs and hippies. effort to show colorful court of not-quite Ripley’s Game (2003-Italian-British) Cstraitlaced Louis XIV. Objective, almost 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Liliana Cavani. John Malkovdocumentary-like, but final effect is uninich, Dougray Scott, Ray Winstone, Lena volving. Made for French TV. Aka THE Headey, Chiara Caselli. Tom Ripley, now livTAKING OF POWER BY LOUIS XIV. ing as a gentleman of leisure in Italy, sets up a ▼쩠 benign neighbor (Scott) to become an assassin Rising of the Moon, The (1957-Irish) because of a thuggish associate’s need for a 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Introduced by killer who can’t be traced. Malkovich is fine, Tyrone Power. Cyril Cusack, Maureen though his Ripley isn’t as intriguing or ambiguConnell, Noel Purcell, Frank Lawton, Jimmy ous as he’s portrayed in PURPLE NOON or O’Dea. Trio of flavorful stories about Irish THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. Starts well life: ‘‘Majesty of the Law,’’ ‘‘A Minute’s but eventually becomes a much-too-convenWait,’’ ‘‘1921,’’ as performed by Dublin’s tional thriller. Filmed on colorful Italian and renowned Abbey Players. German locations. Patricia Highsmith’s novel Rising Sun (1993) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip [ 1163 ]

Kaufman. Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Tim Curry, Dorothy Cunningham, Carl Harvey Keitel, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Bradshaw. Dr. Grey doesn’t realize what Kevin Anderson, Mako, Ray Wise, Stan she’s getting herself into when she heads Egi, Stan Shaw, Tia Carrere, Steve Busfor Jamaica to care for a young man who’s cemi. L.A. cop Snipes and Japan expert convinced he’s turning into a zombie. Lame Connery investigate a homicide case that remake of I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE implicates a powerful Japanese corporation is tolerable only when sticking to the plot, and a U.S. senator. Stripped-down version which isn’t often enough. Stephen Toboof Michael Crichton’s detailed and controlowsky appears unbilled. Filmed in 2001, versial novel (adapted by Crichton and released direct to DVD five years later! Aka Kaufman) is alternately compelling, confusTALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS RITUAL. [R]쩠 ing, obvious, and silly, with credibility strained to the breaking point. [R]▼●쩠 Rituals (1978-Canadian) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Risk, The (1960-British) 81m. ★★★ D: Roy Peter Carter. Hal Holbrook, Lawrence Dane, Boulting, John Boulting. Tony Britton, Peter Robin Gammell, Ken James, Gary Reineke. Cushing, Ian Bannen, Virginia Maskell, DonRipoff of DELIVERANCE with Holbrook ald Pleasence, Thorley Walters, Kenneth Grifand four fellow M.D.s terrorized during fith, Spike Milligan. Tense drama of spies wilderness vacation. Unpleasant, to say the chasing scientist who has secret formula to least. Reissued as THE CREEPER. [R]▼ combat plague. Good direction, cast. OrigiRitz, The (1976) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard nal British title: SUSPECT.▼쩠 Lester. Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, Jerry Risky Business (1983) C-96m. ★★★ D: Paul Stiller, Kaye Ballard, F. Murray Abraham, Brickman. Tom Cruise, Rebecca De Mornay, Treat Williams, Paul Price, George Coulouris, Curtis Armstrong, Bronson Pinchot, Raphael Bessie Love, John Ratzenberger. Brisk filmSbarge, Joe Pantoliano, Nicholas Pryor, ing of Terrence McNally’s farce about a Janet Carroll, Richard Masur, Kevin Anschnook fleeing his murderous brother-in-law derson, Megan Mullally. Piquant, original by hiding in gay baths suffers from feeling comedy about a reticent teenager who goes that it’s all a photographed stage performance. a bit wild while his parents are out of town, Moreno is memorable recreating her Tonyand becomes involved—in more ways than winning role as no-talent entertainer Googie one—with a prostitute. Brickman’s darkly Gomez. Filmed in England. [R]▼●쩠 satiric script is balanced by Cruise’s utterly Rivals (1972) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Krishna likable (and believable) performance in the Shah. Robert Klein, Joan Hackett, Scott lead. [R] ▼●쩠 Jacoby. A remarriage forces young child to Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1986-British) try and murder the new rival for his mother’s affections. Offbeat, to say the least. [R]▼ C-95m. ★★★ D: Alan Clarke. Siobhan Finneran, Michelle Holmes, George CostRiver, The (1951-Indian) C-99m. ★★★★ D: igan, Lesley Sharp, Willie Ross, Patti Jean Renoir. Patricia Walters, Nora SwinNicholls, Kulvinder Ghir. Rita and Sue, burne, Arthur Shields, Radha, Adrienne two plain-looking, slightly overweight Corri, Esmond Knight; narrated by June working class teens, babysit for Bob and Hillman. Immensely moving, lyrical adaptahis frigid wife . . . and soon, Rita, Sue tion of Rumer Godden novel about English and Bob are making three-way whoopee. A children growing up in Bengal. One of the shamelessly funny, profane, well-acted great color films, a total triumph for cinesleeper that’s definitely not for all tastes. matographer Claude and director Jean Renoir. Scripted by Godden and Renoir.▼●쩠 Some of the sex scenes—particularly those in Bob’s car—are a riot. [R]▼● River, The (1984) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Rite, The (1969-Swedish) 76m. ★★★ D: IngRydell. Sissy Spacek, Mel Gibson, Shane mar Bergman. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar BjornBailey, Becky Jo Lynch, Scott Glenn, strand, Anders Ek, Erik Hell. Penetrating Don Hood, Billy Green Bush, James four-character drama, crammed with symTolkan. Close-knit family struggles to make bolism, about a trio of actors—a woman, good on their farm, which is constantly her husband, and her lover—who have been threatened by river that flows alongside. accused of performing a provocative mime Spacek’s a perfect farm woman (and mother) act in public, and come before a judge. but Gibson’s character is so coldly stubborn Strange, disturbing, sexually frank, and that it’s hard to empathize. Beautifully shot uniquely Bergmanesque, with an antiby Vilmos Zsigmond. [PG-13]▼●쩠 censorship point of view. Starkly directed River Niger, The (1976) C-105m. ★★★ D: and photographed (by Sven Nykvist); a Krishna Shah. James Earl Jones, Cicely showcase for all four performers. This was Tyson, Glynn Turman, Lou Gossett, Roger E. Mosley, Jonelle Allen. Intelligent, movBergman’s first film for television.▼ Rites of Summer SEE: White Water ing story (based on 1972 Tony Award– Summer winning play) of black family trying to Ritual (2006) C-106m. ★★ D: Avi Nesher. come to terms with the world and themJennifer Grey, Craig Sheffer, Daniel Laselves. Touching and convincing. [R]▼쩠 paine, Kristen Wilson, Gabriel Casseus, River of Darkness SEE: Eureka (1983) [ 1164 ]

River of Death (1989) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Leo Rossi, Jim Metzler, Dennis Hopper. Steve Carver. Michael Dudikoff, Donald Gripping story of teenagers who don’t know Pleasence, Herbert Lom, Cynthia Erland, how to react when one of their friends Robert Vaughn, L. Q. Jones, Sarah Maur murders a girl from their clique and leaves Thorp. Complicated jungle yarn involving a her body along the riverbank. Absorbing, lost city, mad Nazi scientist Vaughn, vengeful if not perfect, study of contemporary kids Nazi war criminal Pleasence, hero Dudikoff, and their feelings of alienation from grownand the usual hangers-on. Absurd adventure ups, from society, and from responsibility . . . from Alistair MacLean’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 with a wild performance by Glover as their River of No Return (1954) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 self-styled ringleader. Best of all is Hopper, D: Otto Preminger. Robert Mitchum, Mariperfectly cast as a leftover biker and druggie lyn Monroe, Rory Calhoun, Tommy Rettig, who can’t relate to the kids’ lack of values. Murvyn Vye, Douglas Spencer. Mitchum Disturbing and thought-provoking—all the rescues Calhoun and Monroe from leaky more so when you learn that the story was raft; Calhoun returns the favor by stealing based on a real-life incident! [R]▼●쩠 his horse and abandoning them (and MitRiver Wild, The (1994) C-108m. ★★★ D: chum’s young son) to hostile Indians. DiaCurtis Hanson. Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, logue leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s David Strathairn, Joseph Mazzello, John C. worth watching Mitchum and Monroe at Reilly, Elizabeth Hoffman, Victor H. Galloher most beautiful—not to mention some way, Benjamin Bratt. Exciting, wellgorgeous locations (seen to best advantage wrought adventure yarn about a woman takin CinemaScope).▼●쩠 ing her young son and nearly estranged husRiver Rat, The (1984) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: band on a whitewater raft ride—and falling Tom Rickman. Tommy Lee Jones, Nancy prey to a pair of bad guys on the lam. Lea Owen, Brian Dennehy, Martha PlimpStreep’s complete credibility, as a wife, ton. Occasionally perceptive drama about mom, and rafting expert, keeps this afloat, ex-con Jones, falsely imprisoned for muralong with good performances and vivid action scenes. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 der, and his arrival home after 13 years in the slammer. Works best when focusing Rize (2005) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: David LaChaon his relationship with his 12-year-old pelle. Enlightening documentary examines daughter (Plimpton), but spins out of conthe evolution of Krumping, an energetic trol when dealing with a search for hidden hip-hop-derived style of dancing that money. Directorial debut for screenwriter emerged from the 1992 L.A. riots. Profiles Rickman (COAL MINER’S DAUGHsome of the leaders of this movement and TER). [PG]▼● spotlights some of their competitive danceRiver Runs Through It, A (1992) C-123m. offs, also revealing the often abysmal, dys★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Redford. Craig Sheffer, functional home lives that generate a Brad Pitt, Tom Skerritt, Emily Lloyd, yearning for self-expression and release. A Brenda Blethyn, Edie McClurg, Stephen crowd pleaser at several film festivals. FeaShellen, Vann Gravage, Nicole Burdette, ture debut for well-regarded photographer Susan Traylor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt; narand music video director LaChapelle, who ration (uncredited) by Robert Redford. A expanded this from a short called preacher (Skerritt) teaches his sons about KRUMPED that debuted at Sundance in 2004. [PG-13] ▼쩠 life, grace, and love through the art of fly-fishing in their native Montana, but as Roadblock (1951) 73m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold the boys grow up and follow very different Daniels. Charles McGraw, Joan Dixon, paths they find that fishing is the one bond Lowell Gilmore, Louis Jean Heydt, Milburn that still draws them together. Respectful Stone. Insurance investigator’s growing atadaptation of Norman Maclean’s autobiotachment to a money-hungry woman leads graphical novella. Beautifully filmed in him to crime. Typical film noir formula, Montana, with Oscar-winning cinematograsmoothly executed. phy by Philippe Rousselot . . . but the pace is Road Builder, The SEE: Night Digger, deliberate, the emotions muted, and the result The is a bit sleepy at times. [PG]▼●쩠 Roadgames (1981-Australian) C-100m. ★★1 River’s Edge, The (1957) C-87m. ★★★ D: ⁄2 D: Richard Franklin. Stacy Keach, Allan Dwan. Ray Milland, Anthony Quinn, Jamie Lee Curtis, Marion Edward, Grant Debra Paget, Byron Foulger. Melodrama Page, Bill Stacey. Adequate thriller about about heel (Milland), his ex-girlfriend truckdriver Keach pursuing a murderer. (Paget), and her husband (Quinn) trying to Curtis is a hitchhiker he picks up. Not bad. cross Mexican border with suitcase of Director Franklin, an avowed Hitchcock dismoney. Ray has never been nastier. Cinemaciple, went on to make PSYCHO II. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Scope.쩠 River’s Edge (1986) C-99m. ★★★ D: Tim Road Home, The (1999-China) C/B&W89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zhang Yimou. Zhang Ziyi, Hunter. Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye Leitch, Roxana Zal, Daniel RoeSun Honglei, Zheng Hao, Zhao Yuelin, Li buck, Tom Bower, Constance Forslund, Bin, Chang Guifa, Sung Wencheng, Liu Qi. [ 1165 ]

A businessman returns to his rural native bard, Charles Butterworth, Patsy Kelly, village upon the death of his father and reGeorge E. Stone. Offbeat comedy of young calls how his parents met: his father came man, wrongfully committed to an insane asyto the village as the new schoolteacher, and lum, escaping and joining up with traveling his mother was instantly smitten. A pleasant carnival; some bright moments in inconsebut minor film for a great filmmaker, quential film. Cowritten by Harry Langdon. buoyed by an appealing performance by ▼쩠 Zhang Ziyi (playing the mother as a girl). Roadside Prophets (1992) C-96m. ★★★ Panavision. [G]▼쩠 D: Abbe Wool. John Doe, Adam Horovitz, Road House (1948) 95m. ★★★ D: Jean David Carradine, John Cusack, Bill Cobbs, Negulesco. Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, CeJennifer Balgobin, David Anthony Marleste Holm, Richard Widmark, O. Z. Whiteshall, Stephen Tobolowsky, Timothy Leary, head, Robert Karnes. Psychotic roadhouse Arlo Guthrie, Ellie Raab, Don Cheadle. owner Widmark deludes himself into thinkConstruction worker Doe, whose best friend ing he ‘‘owns’’ singer Lupino; when she is his motorcycle, rides from L.A. to seek falls for his childhood friend and employee the ‘‘legendary’’ city of El Dorado in Ne(Wilde), sparks fly in this entertaining melovada. His purpose: to dispose of the ashes drama. Ida even gets to sing, introducing the of an acquaintance, who died while playing standard ‘‘Again.’’▼쩠 a video game. Along the way he gains a Road House (1989) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: traveling companion (Horovitz) and meets Rowdy Herrington. Patrick Swayze, Kelly various characters who are leftovers from the Lynch, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara, Marshall 1960s counterculture. A bit too selfTeague, Kevin Tighe, Kathleen Wilhoite, consciously hip but a wry, potent look at The Jeff Healey Band. Bouncer Swayze— modern-day alienation and how yesterday’s an N.Y.U. philosophy major, no less—is pop culture becomes today’s nostalgia. [R]▼●쩠 hired to clean house at a hellhole Midwest saloon and tangles with local kingpin GazRoad to Bali (1952) C-90m. ★★★ D: zara. One broken limb won’t suffice when Hal Walker. Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, 27 will do; brain-dead yahoo fare is fun Bing Crosby, Murvyn Vye, Ralph Moody. for a while. Followed by a direct-to-video Only color ROAD film has lush trappings, sequel. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 many guest stars and good laughs, as Bob Roadhouse 66 (1984) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: John and Bing save Dorothy from evil princess Mark Robinson. Willem Dafoe, Judge Reinand jungle perils. Carolyn Jones has a bit.▼쩠 hold, Kaaren Lee, Kate Vernon, Stephen Elliot, Alan Autry. Predictable, paperRoad to Corinthe, The (1967-FrenchGreek-Italian) C-97m. ★★★ D: Claude Chathin nonsense about upper-class Reinhold and hitchhiker Dafoe and their troubles in brol. Jean Seberg, Maurice Ronet, Christian a small Arizona town after their car breaks Marquand, Michel Bouquet, Saro Urzi, down. Pretty boring stuff. [R]▼쩠 Claude Chabrol, Romain Gary. Sly spy 1 ★ Roadie (1980) C-105m. ⁄2 D: Alan Ruspoof about the wife of a NATO agent in dolph. Meat Loaf, Kaki Hunter, Art CarGreece who’s framed for his murder and ney, Gailard Sartain, Alice Cooper, Blondie, goes on the run to catch the real killer. Roy Orbison, Hank Williams, Jr., Ramblin’ Meanwhile, she’s also trying to find out Jack Elliot. Fat roadie (Loaf) and skinny who’s smuggling black boxes into the counaspiring groupie (Hunter) spend nearly two try that are jamming American radar instalhours of screen time trying to meet Cooper. lations. James Bond/Hitchcock pastiche Talented director Rudolph turns into a Hal works as both an entertaining espionage Needham clone with loud, excruciatingly thriller and a surreal satire of the genre. dopey comedy. [PG]▼쩠 Originally released in the U.S. in an 85m. Road Killers, The (1995) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: version called WHO’S GOT THE BLACK Deran Sarafian. Christopher Lambert, Craig BOX? ▼쩠 Sheffer, David Arquette, Josh Brolin, MiRoad to El Dorado, The (2000) C-89m. ★★ chelle Forbes, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, AdriD: Eric ‘‘Bibo’’ Bergeron, Don Paul. enne Shelly. HOT RODS TO HELL redux, Voices of Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, updated to the dysfunctional ’90s: a group Rosie Perez, Armand Assante, Edward of vacationers (led by stone-faced Lambert), James Olmos, Jim Cummings. Two conon a road trip through the Nevada desert, artist pals in the 16th century find themare terrorized by a gang of psychos (led by selves on an accidental journey to the legSheffer in a hilarious hippie wig). Enjoyendary city of gold with a map in their ably trashy drive-in fodder—but since there hands. Beautifully designed and staged, but are no more drive-ins, this one went straight relentlessly mediocre, with one-note humor to video. Filmed in 1993 under the title and forgettable Elton John–Tim Rice songs. Great animation doesn’t matter if you don’t ROADFLOWER. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 1 ★★ care about the characters. [PG]▼쩠 Road Show (1941) 87m. ⁄2 D: Hal Roach, Gordon Douglas, Hal Roach, Jr. Road to Eternity, The (1959-Japanese) Adolphe Menjou, Carole Landis, John Hub183m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Masaki Kobayashi. Tat[ 1166 ]

suya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Kokinji Yvonne De Carlo. Typically funny ROAD Katsura, Jun Tatara, Michio Minami, Ryopicture, with Bing selling Bob to slavehei Uchida, Kei Sato, Kenjiro Uemura, Keiji trader in mysterious Morocco, both going Sada, Minoru Chiaki. In this second in Koafter princess Lamour. Bing sings ‘‘Moonbayashi’s three-part epic (following NO light Becomes You.’’▼●쩠 GREATER LOVE and succeeded by A Road to Nashville (1967) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: SOLDIER’S PRAYER), military conscript Robert Patrick. Marty Robbins, Doodles Kaji (Nakadai) is seen in training and evenWeaver, Connie Smith, Richard Arlen. tually in battle. While surrounded by hostilInept promoter tries to line up talent for ity and violence, he strains to preserve his Country-Western jamboree. The music’s humanity. Highlights include Kaji’s poinot bad when the plot gets out of the way. gnant one-night reunion with his wife (AraTechniscope.▼쩠 tama) and an unforgettable final, extended Road to Perdition (2002) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 battle sequence. Scripted by Kobayashi and D: Sam Mendes. Tom Hanks, Paul NewZenzo Matsuyama, based on a six-volume man, Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Stannovel by Jumpei Gomikawa. Aka THE ley Tucci, Daniel Craig, Tyler Hoechlin, HUMAN CONDITION II. Grandscope. 쩠 Liam Aiken, Dylan Baker, Ciara´n Hinds. Road to Glory, The (1936) 95m. ★★★ D: A Midwestern hit man finds himself in an Howard Hawks. Fredric March, Warner untenable situation with his surrogate faBaxter, Lionel Barrymore, June Lang, Gregther, a powerful underworld boss, and flees ory Ratoff, Victor Kilian. Solid production, to Chicago with his wide-eyed 12-year-old direction, and acting make more of script (coson during the depths of the Great Depreswritten by William Faulkner) than is really sion. A good yarn played out on a grand there. Hardened officer Baxter finds his father scale, with dynamic performances, impres(Barrymore) serving in his unit in WW1 sive production design by Dennis Gassner, France. Romantic subplot involves officer Oscar-winning cinematography by Conrad March and nurse Lang. Unrelated to sameL. Hall, and the emotional pull of a story titled film directed by Hawks in 1926. Reabout fathers and sons. Further enhanced by make of 1932 French film LES CROIX DE Thomas Newman’s beautiful score. ScreenBOIS, using some of its battle footage. play by David Self, from the graphic novel Road to Guantanamo, The (2006-British) by Max Allan Collins, illustrated by Rich★★★ D: Michael Winterbottom, Mat C-95m. ard Piers Rayner. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Whitecross. Riz Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Road to Rio (1947) 100m. ★★★ D: NorWaqar Siddiqui, Arfan Usman, Shahid Iqbal, man Z. McLeod. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Sher Khan, Jason Salkey, James Buller. Four Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sondergaard, Frank British Pakistanis—young men who have reFaylen, The Wiere Brothers. Bob and Bing turned to Karachi on a lark—find that the are musicians trying to wrest Dorothy from country of their childhood is no more. sinister aunt Sondergaard. Very funny outing While touring in neighboring Afghanistan, in series. Songs: ‘‘But Beautiful,’’ ‘‘You they’re mistaken for Taliban fighters and Don’t Have to Know the Language,’’ become prisoners of war, ending up at the sung with guests The Andrews Sisters.▼쩠 notorious Cuban prison for weeks, then Road to Salina (1971-French-Italian) Cmonths, then years. Unusual political thril★★1⁄2 D: Georges Lautner. Mimsy Far96m. ler poses as a documentary, complete with mer, Robert Walker, Rita Hayworth, Ed interviews with the ‘‘survivors.’’ HarBegley, Bruce Pecheur. Enjoyably trashy tale rowing film blames America for its unnecabout wanderer who returns to his mother’s essary military intervention in the Middle diner and spends much time making love with East and fictionally shows some tragic rea girl who might be his sister. And if that isn’t percussions of Bush and Blair’s steadkinky enough for you, Rita does the frug with fastness. [R]쩠 Ed Begley! Panavision. [R]▼ Road to Hong Kong, The (1962) 91m. Road to Singapore (1940) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Panama. Bob Hope, Bing Victor Schertzinger. Bing Crosby, Dorothy Crosby, Joan Collins, Dorothy Lamour, Lamour, Bob Hope, Charles Coburn, Judith Robert Morley, Walter Gotell, Peter Sellers. Barrett, Anthony Quinn, Jerry Colonna, Final ROAD picture was the first in a decade, Monte Blue, Arthur Q. Bryan. Bing and and while it’s fun it lacks the carefree spirit Bob swear off women, hiding out in Singaof its predecessors; Bob and Bing are con pore; then they meet saronged Lamour. men who become involved in international First ROAD film is not the best, but still intrigue—and space travel! Sellers has a fun. ▼●쩠 hilarious cameo; Lamour appears briefly as Road to Utopia (1946) 90m. ★★★ D: herself. Look fast for the Bob Crosby Band. Hal Walker. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, DorFilmed in England.▼●쩠 othy Lamour, Hillary Brooke, Douglass Road to Morocco (1942) 83m. ★★★ D: Dumbrille, Jack LaRue, Jim Thorpe. Bob David Butler. Bing Crosby, Dorothy Laand Bing in the Klondike with usual quota mour, Bob Hope, Dona Drake, Anthony Quinn, Vladimir Sokoloff, Monte Blue, of gags, supplemented by talking animals, [ 1167 ]

Dorothy’s song ‘‘Personality,’’ Robert Benchley’s dry commentary.▼●쩠 Road to Wellville, The (1994) C-117m. ★★ D: Alan Parker. Anthony Hopkins, Bridget Fonda, Matthew Broderick, John Cusack, Dana Carvey, Michael Lerner, Colm Meaney, John Neville, Lara Flynn Boyle, Traci Lind, Camryn Manheim, Norbert Weisser, Carole Shelley. Disappointing adaptation of T. Coraghessan Boyle’s comic novel, following the plight of a couple (Fonda, Broderick) after they converge on a turn-of-the-century spa operated in Battle Creek, Michigan, by health zealot John W. Kellogg (the real-life inventor of corn flakes). Maddeningly uneven, with plot threads constantly being picked up and dropped. Carvey is especially wasted as Kellogg’s oddball son. Only Hopkins’ delightful, over-the-top performance as John W. makes this worth watching. [R]▼●쩠 Road to Zanzibar (1941) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Victor Schertzinger. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Una Merkel, Eric Blore. Weaker ROAD series entry, still amusing, with Bob and Bing circus performers traveling through jungle with Lamour and Merkel, looking for diamond mine.

Hedren and husband Marshall to finish. Comedy-adventure about wife and children visiting eccentric scientist husband in jungle after being separated for years is also pro-preservation-of-African-wildlife statement. Nice try, but no cigar. Of additional interest today for early appearance of Hedren’s daughter Griffith. Panavision. [PG] Roaring Timber SEE: Come and Get It Roaring Twenties, The (1939) 104m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. James Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, Gladys George, Jeffrey Lynn, Frank McHugh, Joe Sawyer. Army buddies Cagney, Bogart, and Lynn find their lives intertwining dramatically after WW1 ends. Cagney becomes big-time prohibition racketeer in largely hackneyed script punched across by fine cast, vivid direction. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Robbery (1967-British) C-114m. ★★★ D: Peter Yates. Stanley Baker, Joanna Pettet, James Booth, Frank Finlay, Barry Foster, William Marlowe. Another study of the British Royal Mail robbery; few surprises, but generally exciting, well handled.▼ Robe, The (1953) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Koster. Richard Burton, Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, Michael Rennie, Richard Boone, ▼●쩠 ★★★ Road Trip (2000) C-91m. Jay Robinson, Dawn Addams, Dean Jagger, D: Todd Phillips. Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Jeff Morrow, Ernest Thesiger. Earnest but epAmy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, DJ Qualls, Raisodic costume drama from Lloyd C. Douglas chel Blanchard, Anthony Rapp, Fred Ward, novel about Roman centurion who presides Tom Green, Andy Dick, Horatio Sanz. A over Christ’s crucifixion. Burton’s Oscarcollege student in upstate N.Y. has to head nominated performance seems stiff and superoff an incriminating videotape accidentally ficial today, while Mature (as his slave Desent to his girlfriend in Austin, Texas . . . so metrius) comes off quite well! Famed as he and three others set off on a frantic road first movie in CinemaScope, though it was trip. Likable teen comedy has the requisite simultaneously shot ‘‘flat.’’ Sequel: DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS. ▼●쩠 number of gross-out gags and female nudity to please its intended audience . . . but by Roberta (1935) 106m. ★★★ D: William A. any standards, it’s pretty funny. Hollywood Seiter. Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger directing debut for Phillips, who made the Rogers, Randolph Scott, Helen Westley, documentary FRAT HOUSE. Also available Claire Dodd, Victor Varconi, Candy Canin unrated version. Followed by a DVD sedido. The story of this famous Jerome quel. [R]▼쩠 Kern–Otto Harbach musical creaks and Road Warrior, The (1981-Australian) Cgroans, but ‘‘supporting’’ characters Astaire 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Miller. Mel Gibson, and Rogers make up for it in their exuberBruce Spence, Vernon Wells, Mike Preston, ant dance numbers. You can try counting Virginia Hey, Emil Minty, Kjell Nilsson. how many times Scott says ‘‘swell,’’ or Sequel to MAD MAX finds Max, now a try to spot young Lucille Ball in fashionloner, reluctantly helping tiny oil-producing show sequence to get through the rest. community defend itself against band of deSongs include ‘‘I Won’t Dance,’’ ‘‘Lovely praved crazies thirsty for precious fuel. Far to Look At,’’ ‘‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes,’’ less original script-wise, but trend-setting and ‘‘Yesterdays.’’ Based on the Alice Duer visual design and some of the most unbelievMiller novel Gowns By Roberta. Remade as able car stunts ever filmed make this equal to, LOVELY TO LOOK AT.▼●쩠 if not better than, the first one. Original title: Robert A. Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters MAD MAX 2; followed by MAD MAX BESEE: Puppet Masters, The YOND THUNDERDOME. Panavision. [R] Robert et Robert (1978-French) C-105m. ★★★ D: Claude Lelouch. Charles Denner, ▼●쩠 Roar (1981) C-102m. ★★ D: Noel MarJacques Villeret, Jean-Claude Brialy, Macha shall. Tippi Hedren, Noel Marshall, John Meril, Germaine Montero, Regine. WinMarshall, Melanie Griffith, Jerry Marshall, ning comedy about a friendship between Kyalo Mativo. Accident-ridden production two lonely bachelors named Robert, one that took 11 years and $17 million for an eccentric, impatient cab driver, the other [ 1168 ]

a shy, indecisive apprentice traffic cop. Villeret really scores as the latter.▼ Robin and Marian (1976) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lester. Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Robert Shaw, Richard Harris, Nicol Williamson, Denholm Elliott, Kenneth Haigh, Ian Holm, Ronnie Barker, Victoria Abril. Middle-aged Robin Hood returns to Sherwood Forest after years in exile, rekindles romance with Maid Marian and faces final challenge against arch-enemy Sheriff of Nottingham. Arid, uninvolving film strips beloved characters of all their magic. ‘‘Revisionist’’ script by James Goldman. [PG]▼●쩠 Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) C-123m. ★★★ D: Gordon Douglas. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, Peter Falk, Barbara Rush, Victor Buono, Sig Ruman, Allen Jenkins, Hans Conried, Jack LaRue, Edward G. Robinson. Rat Pack’s final fling is amusing transposition of the merrie legend to 1928 Chicago, with gangleader Sinatra surprised to find he’s something of a local hero. No classic, but good-looking and easy to take; Crosby is adroit as gang’s elder statesman. Cahn-Van Heusen songs include ‘‘My Kind of Town,’’ ‘‘Style,’’ ‘‘Mr. Booze.’’ Panavision.▼●쩠 Robin Hood (1973) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wolfgang Reitherman. Voices of Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Monica Evans, Peter Ustinov, Terry-Thomas, Andy Devine, Roger Miller, Pat Buttram, George Lindsey, Carole Shelley. Undistinguished Disney cartoon feature is pleasant enough for kids, but lacks story strength (and heart). Animals fill traditional Robin Hood roles, with Phil Harris’ Little John a virtual reprise of his Baloo the Bear from THE JUNGLE BOOK. Disney’s live-action THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRIE MEN was much better. [G]

Nick Brimble, Jack Wild. A Robin Hood for the ’90s, light years removed from the romantic vision of Errol Flynn . . . but this gritty, pumped-up version can stand on its own, if you’re willing to stick with it through a lumpy first hour, and can accept a very American Costner in the lead. Rough, tough, and rousing at times, with Rickman’s off-the-wall approach to the Sheriff of Nottingham a real surprise. Extended edition runs 150m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Robinson Crusoe (1952) SEE: Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe (1998) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Rod K. Hardy, George Miller. Pierce Brosnan, William Takaku, Polly Walker, Ian Hart, James Frain, Damian Lewis. Flat retelling of the Defoe classic with Brosnan playing the shipwrecked survivor. Visually appealing, and the actors try, but film lacks an emotional punch. Brosnan’s real-life son Sean plays a cabin boy. Shot in 1994; never released theatrically in the U.S. Full onscreen title is DANIEL DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Robinson Crusoeland SEE: Utopia Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Byron Haskin. Paul Mantee, Vic Lundin, Adam West. Surprisingly agreeable reworking of the classic Defoe story, with Mantee as stranded astronaut, at first accompanied only by a monkey. ‘‘Friday’’ turns out to be a similarly trapped alien. Beautifully shot in Death Valley by Winton C. Hoch; film’s intimate nature helps it play better on TV screens than most widescreen space films. Techniscope.▼●쩠 RoboCop (1987) C-103m. ★★★ D: Paul Verhoeven. Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Daniel O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer, Robert DoQui, Ray Wise, Felton Perry, Paul McCrane, Del Zamora. The setting: Detroit, in the near ▼●쩠 Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Cfuture. A cop who dies in the line of duty 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mel Brooks. Cary Elwes, is transformed into an ultrasophisticated Richard Lewis, Roger Rees, Amy Yasbeck, cyborg by the corporation which now runs David Chappelle, Mark Blankfield, Tracey the police department. Only hitch: this Ullman, Eric Allan Kramer, Megan Cava‘‘perfect’’ cop still seeks revenge on the sadisnagh, Mel Brooks, Dom DeLuise, Dick Van tic creeps who killed him. Sharp, slick, slamPatten, Matthew Porretta, Isaac Hayes, Robbang action entertainment, with fantastic stopert Ridgely, Chuck McCann, Clive Revill. motion animation supervised by Phil Tippett Disappointingly mild Brooks parody with (ED 209 is a wow!) . . . but its view of life Elwes as the hero of Sherwood Forest, and in the future is unremittingly bleak and ugly. Rees a hilarious Sheriff of Rottingham. Followed by two sequels, an animated and a (Brooks himself plays Rabbi Tuchman, a live-action TV series. Also shown in unrated variation on Friar Tuck.) Laughs come in version. [R]▼●쩠 fits and starts, but the film has no momenRoboCop 2 (1990) C-118m. ★1⁄2 D: Irvin tum and no memorable set pieces. Cameos Kershner. Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Danby Brooks regulars help a bit; DeLuise is iel O’Herlihy, Belinda Bauer, Tom Noonan, hilarious as The Godfather. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Gabriel Damon, Felton Perry, Robert Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) DoQui, Willard Pugh, Patricia CharbonC-138m. ★★★ D: Kevin Reynolds. Kevin neau. Appallingly (and unnecessarily) mean, Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizaugly sequel in which coldblooded corporation beth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater, Alan czar O’Herlihy and drug kingpin Noonan Rickman, Geraldine McEwan, Michael threaten to end Robo’s existence—while the McShane, Brian Blessed, Michael Wincott, laboratory whizzes cook up a bigger, ‘‘better’’ [ 1169 ]

cyborg cop to take his place. Offensively vioAbsorbing tale of Rob Roy MacGregor, a lent and humorless. Phil Tippett’s stop-motion lowborn man of high ideals in early 1700s animation is the film’s only asset. [R] ▼●쩠 Scotland who refuses to sacrifice his integrity RoboCop 3 (1993) C-105m. ★★ D: Fred to save his skin—or his family’s. Beautiful Dekker. Robert John Burke, Nancy Allen, scenery and rugged action (including several Rip Torn, John Castle, Jill Hennessy, CCH sword fights) complement an intelligent script. Pounder, Mako, Robert DoQui, Remy Ryan, Deliberately paced, with solid performances Bruce Locke. When the evil corporation OCP from Neeson and Lange, and a delicious, uses a policelike group to force impoverished scene-stealing turn by Roth as a smarmy bad Detroit citizens out of their homes, Robocop guy. Never quite rousing but always enter(Burke) leaves the force and joins the rebeltaining. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 lion. The script (by Frank Miller and the direcRob Roy, the Highland Rogue (1954) Ctor) is smug but crude; though it lacks the first 85m. ★1⁄2 D: Harold French. Richard Todd, sequel’s violence, it’s also short on spectacle. Glynis Johns, James Robertson Justice, Filmed in 1991. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Michael Gough, Finlay Currie, Jean TaylorRobo Man SEE: Who? Smith. Disney’s dreariest British film casts Robot Carnival (1987-Japanese) C-91m. Todd as leader of Scottish clan planning ★★★ D: Katsuhiro Otomo, Atsuko Fukushima, uprising against England’s King George in Kouji Morimoto, Kiroyuki Kitazume, Mao 18th century. Turgid and unrewarding. Story told much better in 1995 version. ▼쩠 Lamdo, Hidetoshi Ohmori, Yasuomi Umetsu, Hiroyuki Kitakubo, Takashi Nakamura. Nine Rocco and His Brothers (1960-Italian) 180m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Luchino Visconti. Alain animators collaborated to create eight short stories on the subject of robots:there’s comic book Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot, fantasy, romance, comedy, and spectacle. Not Katina Paxinou, Claudia Cardinale, Roger all the stories hit the bull’s-eye, but the best are Hanin, Suzy Delair. Sweeping chronicle quite good: ‘‘Presence,’’ about a man falling in of familial loyalty and the tainting of innolove with his female robot, and ‘‘Nightmare,’’ cence, chronicling the plight of idealistic, in which a drunk awakens to find his city oversaintly Rocco (Delon) after he and his run by mechanical creatures.▼● mother and brothers leave their rural southRobot Monster (1953) 63m. BOMB D: ern Italian community and settle in Milan. Phil Tucker. George Nader, Gregory Moffett, Stunningly photographed by Giuseppe Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, John Mylong. Rotunno. Restored to its original running Gorilla in diving helmet wipes out entire Earth time in 1991; beware many shorter, visually inferior versions. ▼●쩠 population save one family and Nader, then spends most of film’s running time lumbering Rock, The (1996) C-136m. ★★ D: Michael around Bronson Canyon trying to find them. Bay. Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, One of the genuine legends of Hollywood: Michael Biehn, William Forsythe, David embarrassingly, hilariously awful . . . and dig Morse, John Spencer, John C. McGinley, that bubble machine with the TV antenna! Tony Todd, Bokeem Woodbine, Danny Originally in 3-D (except for the dinosaur Nucci, Vanessa Marcil, Anthony Clark, Claire stock footage from ONE MILLION B.C. and Forlani. Big, loud, often dumb action/susLOST CONTINENT). ▼●쩠 pense yarn about a disgruntled Marine general Robots (2005) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Wedge. who takes over Alcatraz, threatening to oblitVoices of Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, erate San Francisco with high-tech poison gas. Robin Williams, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Enter FBI biochemist Cage and long-imprisDrew Carey, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, oned British agent Connery—the only man Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest, Paul Giamatti, who ever escaped from The Rock—to lead a Jennifer Coolidge, Dan Hedaya, James Earl rescue team onto the island. Plenty of kinetic Jones, Natasha Lyonne. Naive son of a humaction and destruction, as well as contrivances ble dishwasher sets off for Robot City to purand story holes. David Marshall Grant apsue his dream of being an inventor; there he pears unbilled. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 learns that his hero, industrialist Bigweld, has Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958) C-103m. ★★★ been usurped by a greedy capitalist who inD: Frank Tashlin. Jerry Lewis, Marilyn tends to make older robots obsolete. Inventive Maxwell, Connie Stevens, Baccaloni, RegCG-animated film has dazzling production inald Gardiner, James Gleason, Hans design (by children’s book author-illustrator Conried. Good-natured schnook Jerry beWilliam Joyce, who also coproduced); the comes full-time baby-sitter for movie sexscript is less magical, with an alarming numsiren Maxwell, who doesn’t want her public ber of derrie`re jokes, but still entertaining, to know she’s had triplets. Loose remake with a lively voice cast, including various ceof Preston Sturges’s THE MIRACLE OF lebrity cameos. [PG] ▼쩠 MORGAN’S CREEK, with many funny Rob Roy (1995-U.S.-Scottish) C-139m. moments. That’s Lewis’ son Gary playing ★★★ D: Michael Caton-Jones. Liam Neeson, Jerry as a boy in the musical flashback sequence. VistaVision.▼ Jessica Lange, John Hurt, Tim Roth, Eric Stoltz, Andrew Keir, Brian Cox, Brian Rock-a-Doodle (1992) C-77m. ★★ D: Don McCardie, Gilbert Martin, Vicki Masson. Bluth. Voices of Glen Campbell, Christopher [ 1170 ]

Plummer, Phil Harris, Sandy Duncan, Eddie to earn money and crack open the music Deezen, Charles Nelson Reilly, Sorrell establishment. Superior reggae score feaBooke, Ellen Greene, Toby Scott Granger. A turing Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, Third World and Gregory Isaacs.▼쩠 cocky cock heads for Vegas after suffering a severe blow to his ego, finds success as a Rocketeer, The (1991) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: nightclub superstar in the Elvis mode. Kiddie Joe Johnston. Bill Campbell, Jennifer cartoon is missing the essential components to Connelly, Alan Arkin, Timothy Dalton, make it more than passable entertainment for Paul Sorvino, Terry O’Quinn, Ed Lauter, six-year-olds. [G]▼●쩠 James Handy, Tiny Ron, Melora Hardin. Rock All Night (1957) 63m. ★★ D: Roger Campbell plays a rough-and-ready 1930s Corman. Dick Miller, Russell Johnson, pilot who stumbles onto a sought-after Jonathan Haze, Abby Dalton, The Platters, secret weapon: an air-pack that turns him Robin Morse. AIP quickie about a pair of into a rocket-man. Film captures the look killers taking refuge in a bar and terrorizof the ’30s, as well as the gee-whiz innoing captive customers. OK Corman potcence of Saturday matinee serials, but it’s boiler with better-than-average performtalky—and takes too much time to get ances, and dig this—Johnson’s one of the where it’s going. Dalton has fun as a villain bad guys and Miller’s the hero!▼ patterned after Errol Flynn. Film buffs will Rock & Rule (1983) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: get a kick out of the Rondo Hatton–esque Clive A. Smith. Voices of Don Francks, bad guy (courtesy of makeup whiz Rick Paul Le Mat, Susan Roman, Sam Langevin, Baker). Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Catherine O’Hara. Animated rock fable, Rocket Gibraltar (1988) C-100m. ★★★ D: with innovative, often dazzling visuals and Daniel Petrie. Burt Lancaster, Suzy Amis, a solid score (featuring Lou Reed, Debbie Patricia Clarkson, Frances Conroy, Sinead Harry, Cheap Trick, Earth, Wind and Fire, Cusack, John Glover, George Martin, Bill Iggy Pop, and others) . . . but story leaves Pullman, Kevin Spacey, Macaulay Culkin. something to be desired. A triumph of techA family gathers to celebrate patriarch nique for Canada’s Nelvana animation studio, Lancaster’s 77th birthday; his grown-up and certainly worth a look. [PG]▼●쩠 children love him but don’t really under★★ Rock Around the Clock (1956) 77m. stand what he’s going through, while his D: Fred F. Sears. Bill Haley and His grandchildren make a more emotional conComets, The Platters, Tony Martinez and nection to the old man . . . and vow to His Band, Freddie Bell and His Bellboys, carry out his unusual final wish. Lancaster’s Alan Freed, Johnny Johnston. Premise is presence gives the film authority, and a talslim (unknown band brought to N.Y.C. ented ensemble lends credibility to Amos where they become famous) but picture is Poe’s script. Culkin is wonderful as Lancasnow a time-capsule look at the emergence ter’s canny five-year-old grandson. Filmed at beautiful locations on Long Island. [PG]▼쩠 of rock ’n’ roll. Bill Haley and the Comets perform ‘‘See You Later Alligator,’’ ‘‘RazRocket Man, The (1954) 79m. ★★ D: zle Dazzle,’’ and the title song; the Platters Oscar Rudolph. Charles Coburn, Spring chip in with ‘‘Only You’’ and ‘‘The Great Byington, Anne Francis, John Agar, George Pretender.’’ Remade as TWIST AROUND ‘‘Foghorn’’ Winslow, Beverly Garland. THE CLOCK.▼쩠 Campy fantasy of Winslow possessing a Rocker, The (2008) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter space gun that turns crooked people honest. Cattaneo. Rainn Wilson, Christina Applegate, Coscripted by Lenny Bruce—so it’s no wonTeddy Geiger, Josh Gad, Emma Stone, Jeff der the villain is a politician, who’s portrayed Garlin, Jane Lynch, Jason Sudeikis, Will as a drunken, cigar-chomping chiseler. Arnett, Howard Hesseman, Fred Armisen, RocketMan (1997) C-94m. BOMB D: StuBradley Cooper, Lonny Ross, Jonathan Glaart Gillard. Harland Williams, Jessica ser, Jane Krakowski, Pete Best. Drummer Lundy, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, of about-to-be-famous heavy metal band is James Pickens, Jr., Beau Bridges, Peter Onorunceremoniously dumped in favor of record ati. Goofball computer expert Williams is the company exec’s nephew. After 20 years of only possible choice to replace an ailing crewwallowing in anonymity he hooks up with man on the first manned expedition to Mars. some kick-ass high school rockers. Starts Predictable ‘‘comic’’ complications ensue, off abysmally, improves as it goes along, including painfully overstated farting-in-abut then there’s that formulaic, barely credispacesuit jokes. Apparently, someone felt ble finale. Gets much of its mileage from Williams was both hilarious and endearing, Wilson’s amusing Jack Black imitation. but we beg to differ. [PG]▼●쩠 [PG-13]쩠 Rocket Science (2007) C-101m. ★★ D: JefRockers (1978-Jamaican) C-100m. ★★★ frey Blitz. Reece Daniel Thompson, Anna D: Theodoros Bafaloukos. Leroy Wallace. Kendrick, Nicholas D’Agosto, Vincent PiRichard Hall, Monica Craig, Marjorie azza, Margo Martindale, Aaron Yoo, Josh Norman, Jacob Miller. Winningly funky Kay, Steve Park, Denis O’Hare, Lisbeth though predictable comedy/drama about Bartlett. Highly idiosyncratic (and unfoRastafarian drummer Wallace’s efforts cused) coming-of-age saga about a stut[ 1171 ]

★★★ tering high school student who’s persuaded D: Allan Arkush. P. J. Soles, Vincent to join the debate team by a beautiful girl Van Patten, Clint Howard, Dey Young, who offers to mentor him. Pointed, often The Ramones, Mary Woronov, Paul Bartel, poignant observations about under- and Alix Elias. A 1950s movie gone berserk. overachievers dot this unpredictable film, A rock-crazy teenager marshals her fellow which has its supporters. Scripted by firststudents to rebel against the repression of time feature director Blitz, who made the hit new principal Miss Togar. An irresistible, documentary SPELLBOUND. [R]쩠 high-energy comedy set to a nonstop soundRockets Galore! SEE: Mad Little Island track of Ramones music (and a few oldies). Rocketship X-M (1950) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Soles is wonderful as the group’s number one Kurt Neumann. Lloyd Bridges, Osa Massen, fan, Riff Randell. The songs include ‘‘TeenHugh O’Brian, John Emery, Noah Beery, age Lobotomy,’’ ‘‘Blitzkrieg Bop,’’ ‘‘I Jr. Slightly better than average production Wanna Be Sedated,’’ and ‘‘Sheena Is a Punk of spaceship to moon that is thrown offRocker.’’ Followed by ROCK ’N’ ROLL course to Mars. Nice photography, good HIGH SCHOOL FOREVER. [PG]▼●쩠 acting. Video version contains new special Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) 89m. ★★ D: effects shot in 1976.▼●쩠 Richard Bartlett. Sal Mineo, John Saxon, Rocket to the Moon SEE: Cat-Women of Luana Patten, Edward C. Platt, Fay Wray, the Moon Rod McKuen, Shelley Fabares, George WinsRocking Horse Winner, The (1949-British) low. Prototype of rock ’n’ roll entries of 1950s 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Pelissier. Valerie revolving around high school rock group’s Hobson, John Howard Davies, John Mills, effort to win big-time musical contest.▼ Ronald Squire, Hugh Sinclair, Charles GoldRock, Rock, Rock! (1956) 83m. ★★ D: ner, Susan Richards. Truly unique, fascinating Will Price. Tuesday Weld, Teddy Randazzo, drama based on D. H. Lawrence story; small Alan Freed, Frankie Lymon and The Teenboy has knack for picking racetrack winners, agers, The Moonglows, Chuck Berry, The but complications set in before long. BeautiFlamingos, Johnny Burnette Trio, LaVern fully done. Screenplay by the director.▼쩠 Baker, Cirino and The Bowties. Weld, in Rock My World (2002-Canadian) C-106m. her film debut and barely out of her training ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney J. Furie. Peter O’Toole, Joan bra, must raise $30 to buy a strapless evePlowright, Alicia Silverstone, Jaimz Woolning dress for a prom! Filmed on a budget vett, Keram Malicki-Sa´nchez, Christopher of $6.95—and it shows. But the rock ’n’ Bolton, Lochlyn Munro. Not-bad comedy rollers, particularly Chuck Berry, are lively. set in England (but shot and financed in Lymon and The Teenagers sing ‘‘I’m Not a Canada) went straight to video in the U.S. Juvenile Delinquent.’’ Weld’s singing voice but is far more engaging than its theatrical was dubbed by Connie Francis. One of the fate would indicate. An aristocratic British teens is young Valerie Harper.▼쩠 couple rent their country mansion to a rock Rockshow (1980-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 band and wind up posing as the butler and No director credited. Paul McCartney, cook when the motley crew finally shows Linda McCartney, Jimmy McCulloch, Joe up. Watching the interplay develop between English, Denny Laine. Adequate concert these very different generations and cultures film of Paul McCartney and Wings on is fun and the music is surprisingly catchy. tour. Effect of Dolby sound recording will Plowright and O’Toole elevate this lightbe lost on the small screen. [G]▼ weight material, making for a couple of Rock Star (2001) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen harmless hours in front of the telly. Aka Herek. Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Aniston, GLOBAL HERESY. [R] 쩠 Jason Flemyng, Timothy Olyphant, Timothy RocknRolla (2008-U.S.-British) C-114m. Spall, Dominic West, Stephan Jenkins, Jason ★★1 ⁄2 D: Guy Ritchie. Gerard Butler, Tom Bonham, Heidi Mark, Dagmara Dominczyk, Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Mark Strong, Rachel Hunter. In the early 1980s, a wideIdris Elba, Tom Hardy, Karel Roden, Toby eyed young man fronts a band that slavishly Kebbell, Jeremy Piven, Chris ‘‘Ludacris’’ imitates his favorite heavy-metal group, and Bridges, Jimi Mistry. Jack-of-all-trades Butthen gets an offer to take their lead singer’s ler and partner Elba borrow money from place. It seems too good to be true, and he crime kingpin Wilkinson to clinch a deal, comes to learn that it is, but that lesson is which sets off a domino-like series of events obvious to us early on. Simplistic storyline involving a Russian speculator (Roden), his undermines sincere, likable performances slick accountant (Newton), and assorted other by Wahlberg and Aniston (as his girlfriend colorful characters. Clever, intricate tapestry and manager). Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 of criminal activity with a lethal sense of Rockula (1990) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Luca humor. Writer-director Ritchie tries to reBercovici. Dean Cameron, Tawny Fere, create a vintage Ritchie movie; less spontaneSusan Tyrrell, Bo Diddley, Thomas Dolby, ous and more deliberate than his breakToni Basil. Teen vampire Cameron is unthrough films, but still enjoyable. HD able to lose his virginity because of a Widescreen. [R]쩠 Rock ’n’ Roll High School (1979) C-93m. centuries-old curse. Pretty stale stuff; of [ 1172 ]

interest only for—but not redeemed by— even though it strains credibility; contrived, the presence of Diddley. [PG-13]▼● to be sure, but also curiously endearing. A Rocky (1976) C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John G. number of ESPN-type TV personalities appear as themselves. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Avildsen. Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Rocky Horror Picture Show, The (1975British) C-95m. ★★★ D: Jim Sharman. Tim Thayer David. This story of a two-bit fighter who gets his ‘‘million-to-one shot’’ for fame, Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, and self-respect, in a championship bout is Richard O’Brien, Jonathan Adams, Meatloaf, impossible to dislike, even though it’s just an Little Nell (Campbell), Charles Gray, Patricia old B movie brought up to date. Knowing that Quinn. Outrageously kinky horror movie the film was a similar do-or-die project for spoof, spiced with sex, transvestism, and rock writer-star Stallone added to its good vibes. music, about a straight couple, Janet and Brad Oscar winner for Best Picture, Director, Edit(Sarandon, Bostwick), stranded in an old dark ing (Richard Halsey, Scott Conrad). Followed house full of weirdos from Transylvania. by five sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 Music and lyrics by O’Brien; songs include Rocky II (1979) C-119m. ★★★ D: Sylvester ‘‘Time Warp,’’ ‘‘Dammit Janet,’’ and ‘‘Wild Stallone. Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt and Untamed Thing.’’ British running time: Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith. Of100m. Followed by SHOCK TREATMENT. ficially a sequel, this slightly silly film is more [R] ▼●쩠 of a rehash, but the climactic bout (and Rocky Mountain (1950) 83m. ★★★ D: Wilbuildup to it) hits home. [PG] ▼●쩠 liam Dieterle. Errol Flynn, Patrice Wymore, 1 Rocky III (1982) C-99m. ★★ ⁄2 D: Sylvester Scott Forbes, Guinn Williams, Dick Jones, Stallone. Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Howard Petrie, Slim Pickens, Chubby JohnYoung, Burgess Meredith, Carl Weathers, Mr. son, Buzz Henry, Sheb Wooley, Peter Coe, T. Here, the Italian Stallion is trained by Apollo Yakima Canutt. Solid, unpretentious WestCreed after being dethroned by obnoxious ern (from an Alan LeMay story) about a Clubber Lang (Mr. T). Stallone’s got a winning Confederate troop led by Flynn that saves a formula, but enough already. [PG]▼●쩠 stagecoach from Indian attackers but may Rocky IV (1985) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sylvester not be able to save itself. Filmed in New Mexico. ▼쩠 Stallone. Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Carl Weathers, Talia Shire, Burt Young, BriRodan (1956-Japanese) C-70m. ★★ D: gitte Nielsen, Michael Pataki, James Brown. Ishiro Honda. Kenji Sawara, Yumi Totally artificial (and unnecessary) sequel has Shirakawa, Akihiko Hirata, Akio Kobori. Rocky doin’ what a man’s gotta do—avengColossal pterodactyl hatches in mine, later ing a friend’s demise and fighting for the goes on destructive rampage in Fukuoka. U.S.A. (and world peace) against a superhuColorful comic book stuff, all too typical man Russian champ. Still, Stallone knows of Toho Studios’ monster formula.▼●쩠 how to press all the right buttons, especially Roger & Me (1989) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Miin a great training montage. [PG] ▼●쩠 chael Moore. Inspired, darkly ironic Rocky V (1990) C-104m. ★★ D: John G. documentary-style film about one man’s atAvildsen. Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt tempts to track down General Motors chairYoung, Sage Stallone, Burgess Meredith, man Roger Smith, to show him what his Tommy Morrison, Richard Gant. The onefactory closing did to the town of Flint, Michtime champ has hit rock bottom (again). He igan, where 30,000 jobs were lost. Filmwinds up in his old neighborhood, broke and maker/narrator Moore creates an irresistible ostracized (again). He trains a young boxer blend of documentary and humorous essay in who turns ingrate, and in spite of his own this unique piece of Americana. Followed in brain damage (from the fight in ROCKY IV) 1992 by Moore’s 24m. short, PETS OR is willing to risk everything on another bout. MEAT: THE RETURN TO FLINT. [R] Again. You pays your money, and you gets ▼●쩠 what you expects in this Stallone screenplay, Roger Dodger (2002) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: but the thrill is gone. Stallone’s real-life son Dylan Kidd. Campbell Scott, Jesse Eisenplays Rocky, Jr. Followed by ROCKY BALberg, Isabella Rossellini, Elizabeth Berkley, BOA. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Jennifer Beals, Ben Shenkman, Mina Badie, Rocky Balboa (2006) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Stack. Arsenic-drenched portrait of a Sylvester Stallone. Sylvester Stallone, Burt misanthrope who fancies himself a lady-killer Young, Milo Ventimiglia, Geraldine Hughes, and decides to show his impressionable teenJames Francis Kelly III, Tony Burton, A. J. age nephew the ropes in N.Y.C. Scott’s perBenza, Henry G. Sanders, Antonio Tarver. formance is a tour de force from his first Title character, now a 60-ish widower and moment on-screen, and he’s in fine company restaurant owner who’s alienated from his with his self-assured female costars, but direccorporate yuppie son (Ventimiglia), decides to tor Kidd’s relentless, self-consciously clever reenter the ring one last time (unless, of script leaves an unpleasant aftertaste. [R] course, screenwriter Stallone concocts yet an▼쩠 other sequel) to battle the current heavyweight Rogue Cop (1954) 92m. ★★★ D: Roy Rowchamp. Not as bad as it might have been, land. Robert Taylor, Janet Leigh, George [ 1173 ]

Raft, Steve Forrest, Anne Francis, Robert F. Somehow neither one of them figures out Simon, Robert Ellenstein, Alan Hale, Jr., that the game’s entrepreneur (Reno) will litVince Edwards. Dynamic account of crooked erally kill for good TV ratings. Remake of a cop Taylor caught between loyalty to his not-so-hot movie manages to be even worse brother and his gangster cohorts. Also shown than the original. Laughably dumb. Video in computer-colored version. version is rated R. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Rogue’s March (1952) 84m. ★★ D: Allan Roller Boogie (1979) C-103m. BOMB D: Davis. Peter Lawford, Richard Greene, Mark L. Lester. Linda Blair, Jim Bray, Janice Rule, Leo G. Carroll. ProgrammerBeverly Garland, Roger Perry, Mark Godcostumer set in India (via stock footage dard, Sean McClory. Blair, Bray, and friends and rear projection scenes), with Lawford join forces to thwart evil Goddard from trying to redeem himself with regiment. closing local roller skating rink. Made to Role Models (2008-U.S.-German) C-99m. cash in on roller-disco fad, with amateurish ★★1 ⁄2 D: David Wain. Seann William Scott, script and performances. [PG]▼쩠 Paul Rudd, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Bobb’e Rollercoaster (1977) C-119m. ★★ D: James J. Thompson, Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch, Goldstone. George Segal, Richard Widmark, Ken Marino, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Ken Timothy Bottoms, Henry Fonda, Harry Jeong, David Wain. While Scott is content Guardino, Susan Strasberg, Helen Hunt, to work as a mascot for an energy drink, his Dorothy Tristan, Craig Wasson, William coworker Rudd feels as if he’s stuck in a Prince, Robert Quarry. Silly disaster-type rut. When the two get in trouble with the film almost redeemed by Segal’s winning law, they are given the choice of doing comperformance as civic inspector who tries to munity service by mentoring kids or going nail extortionist (Bottoms) before he saboto prison. For the sake of society, they tages another amusement park. Overlong, should have chosen the hoosegow. Admitbut at least home viewers won’t have to tedly formulaic and juvenile, relying heavwatch it in ‘‘Sensurround.’’ Hunt’s film ily on dirty jokes; a talented cast helps mask debut. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 the film’s shortcomings. Lynch is a standRolling Thunder (1977) C-99m. ★★ D: out. Unrated version runs 101m. [R]쩠 John Flynn. William Devane, Tommy Lee Roll Bounce (2005) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: MalJones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Dabney colm D. Lee. Bow Wow, Chi McBride, Mike Coleman, Lisa Richards, Luke Askew. DeEpps, Wesley Jonathan, Kellita Smith, Meavane comes home after eight years as P.O.W. gan Good, Nick Cannon, Jurnee Smollett, in Vietnam, sees his family murdered, and Wayne Brady, Tim Kazurinsky. A group of cold-bloodedly goes for revenge. Intriguing skate-loving teenagers on Chicago’s South aspects of story (by Paul Schrader) and main Side have to prove themselves to the snobs on characters thrown off-course by graphic viothe other side of town when their local skatlence and vigilante melodramatics. [R]▼● ing rink closes, all while facing the joys and Rollover (1981) C-118m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan J. pains of growing up. As fad-based comingPakula. Jane Fonda, Kris Kristofferson, of-age movies go, this is a notch or two Hume Cronyn, Josef Sommer, Bob Gunton, below SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER and Martha Plimpton. Laughably pretentious, an improvement over ROLLER BOOGIE. barely comprehensible drama about petroDespite cliche´s, its ’70s atmosphere, enerchemical heiress (and former film star) getically filmed roller-skating sequences, Fonda, banker-troubleshooter Kristofferson, and surprisingly engaging characters make and their high-financial dealings. Cronyn it an entertaining diversion. Super 35. [PGexcels as a cunning banker. A rare example 13]쩠 of financial science fiction. [R] ▼쩠 Rollerball (1975) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Romance (1930) 76m. ★★ D: Clarence Jewison. James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Brown. Greta Garbo, Lewis Stone, Gavin Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn, Ralph RichGordon, Elliott Nugent, Florence Lake, ardson. Great-looking but disappointing drama Clara Blandick. Garbo is miscast in this of the 21st century; Caan is the champ at a viostatic, hokey early talkie about an Italian lent sport in a society where violence has opera star who philosophizes about love and been outlawed. Filmed in Munich and Lonhas a relationship with an inexperienced don, adapted by William Harrison from his young priest (limply played by Gordon).▼ story Roller Ball Murders. Remade in 2002. Romance (1999-French) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: [R]▼●쩠 Catherine Breillat. Caroline Ducey, Sagamore Rollerball (2002-U.S.-German-Japanese) Ste´venin, Franc¸ois Berle´and, Rocco Siffredi, C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: John McTiernan. Chris Reza Habouhossen. Notorious French film Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, Rebecca from writer-director Breillat about a woman Romijn-Stamos, Naveen Andrews, Oleg who, rejected by her lover, goes on a sexual Taktarov, David Hemblen, Paul Heyman. odyssey that leads her down some very Reckless Klein follows his high school footstrange paths. Novelty of a sexual film from ball teammate (LL Cool J) to a Middle Easta woman’s point of view quickly wears off; ern country to play rollerball, a violent arena game that’s more a circus than a sport. it’s startlingly explicit but strangely un[ 1174 ]

erotic—and, more important, dull. Alternate the film worthwhile. Sequel: THE JEWEL OF THE NILE. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 84m. video version is rated R. ▼쩠 Roman de Gare (2007-French) C-104m. Romance & Cigarettes (2007) C-106m. ★★★ ★★1 D: Claude Lelouch. Fanny Ardant, Do⁄2 D: John Turturro. James Gandolfini, minique Pinon, Audrey Dana, Myriam Boyer, Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Steve BusMichele Bernier, Boris Ventura Diaz. Lecemi, Bobby Cannavale, Mandy Moore, louch returns to the style and sophistication Mary-Louise Parker, Christopher Walken, of earlier film successes with this entertainAida Turturro, Barbara Sukowa, Elaine ing cinematic puzzle in which things and Stritch, Eddie Izzard, Amy Sedaris, Cady people are not always what they seem to be. Huffman, Tonya Pinkins, David Thornton. Plotlines converge, involving the relationBawdy, highly personal movie from writership between a novelist and her ghostwriter coproducer-director Turturro is an urban and a hairdresser and a stranger who could musical-romance-comedy-drama, unlike anybe a serial killer—or not. Magic, illusion, thing you’ve ever seen. Blue-collar couple and lies are at the core of this elegant mysGandolfini and Sarandon are going through tery, which mixes humor and intrigue in one hell of a midlife crisis, thanks to Ganequal doses. In order to keep us guessing, dolfini’s adultery. Cast belts out songs, Lelouch cast two unknowns in leading karaoke-style (from Tom Jones to Bruce roles. HD Widescreen. [R] Springsteen). Wildly uneven but endearing Roman Holiday (1953) 119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: love letter to Queens, N.Y. A must for Kate William Wyler. Audrey Hepburn, GregWinslet completists. Panavision. [R]쩠 ory Peck, Eddie Albert, Tullio Carminati. Romance of a Horsethief (1971-U.S.Hepburn got first break and an Oscar as Yugoslavian) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Abraham princess, yearning for normal life, who Polonsky. Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Jane runs away from palace, has romance with Birkin, Oliver Tobias, Lainie Kazan, David reporter Peck. Screenplay by John Dighton Opatoshu. Wily Jewish horsetraders scheme and Ian McLellan Hunter, from an Oscarto outwit Cossack captain Brynner and his winning story (written by blacklisted Dalmen, in a Polish village circa 1904. A heartton Trumbo and credited for almost 40 felt endeavor for director Polonsky and years to Hunter, who acted as his ‘‘front’’). actor-screenwriter Opatoshu that just Utterly charming. Remade for TV in 1987 doesn’t come off. [PG]▼쩠 with Catherine Oxenberg and Tom Conti. Romance of Rosy Ridge, The (1947) ▼●쩠 105m. ★★★ D: Roy Rowland. Van Johnson, Romanoff and Juliet (1961) C-103m. Thomas Mitchell, Janet Leigh, Marshall ★★★ D: Peter Ustinov. Peter Ustinov, SanThompson, Selena Royle, Charles Dingle, dra Dee, John Gavin, Akim Tamiroff, Rik Dean Stockwell, Guy Kibbee, Jim Davis. Von Nutter. Ustinov wrote, directed, and Heartfelt post–Civil War tale, set in a Misstars in this cold war satire with offspring souri farm community whose residents are of U.S. and Russian ambassadors falling still fighting the war. Farmer Mitchell casts in love. Italian locations substitute for mythsuspicious eye on charming stranger Johnical country which Ustinov rules. son, who is courting his daughter (Leigh, in Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, The (1961) her film debut). Fascinating, humanist script C-104m. ★★★ D: Jose Quintero. Vivien by soon-to-be-blacklisted Lester Cole (based Leigh, Warren Beatty, Lotte Lenya, Jill on a story by MacKinlay Kantor). St. John, Jeremy Spenser, Coral Browne, Romance on the High Seas (1948) C-99m. Cleo Laine, Bessie Love, Jean Marsh. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. Jack Carson, Janis Middle-aged actress retreats to Rome, buying Paige, Don DeFore, Doris Day, Oscar a fling at romance from gigolo Beatty. Lenya, Levant, S. Z. Sakall, Fortunio Bonanova, as Leigh’s waspish friend, comes off best. Eric Blore, Franklin Pangborn. Sparkling, Adapted from Tennessee Williams novella. trivial romantic musical set on an ocean Remade for cable TV in 2003.▼쩠 voyage, with Doris’ star-making feature Romantic Comedy (1983) C-103m. ★1⁄2 film debut, singing ‘‘It’s Magic,’’ ‘‘Put ’em D: Arthur Hiller. Dudley Moore, Mary in a Box.’’ Easygoing fun.▼●쩠 Steenburgen, Frances Sternhagen, Janet Romancing the Stone (1984) C-105m. Eilber, Robyn Douglass, Ron Leibman. ★★★ D: Robert Zemeckis. Kathleen Turner, Faithful adaptation of Bernard Slade’s Michael Douglas, Danny DeVito, Zack paper-thin play looks even worse on screen, Norman, Alfonso Arau, Manuel Ojeda. despite a perfect cast. Moore is a playwright Very likable high-adventure hokum about who tries to stifle his feelings for his female mousy writer of romantic fiction who finds writing partner over many years’ time. Title herself up to her neck in trouble in Cosounds suspiciously like a generic prodlombia, with only a feisty American soldieruct—like Canned Peas or Toilet Tissue. of-fortune as her ally. Silly story never Hold out for brand names. [PG]▼쩠 stops moving—with some terrific action Romantic Englishwoman, The (1975and stunts—but it’s Turner’s enormously British) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. appealing performance that really makes Michael Caine, Glenda Jackson, Helmut [ 1175 ]

Berger, Beatrice Romand, Kate Nelligan, Pickles, Vondie Curtis Hall, M. Emmet Nathalie Delon, Michel Lonsdale. Caine, a Walsh, Miriam Margolyes, Diane Venora, successful novelist married to Jackson, invites Harold Perrineau, Paul Rudd. Arrestingly Berger into their home to generate material original, post-modern MTV-style ’90s version for a screenplay he’s writing. Underrated of Shakespeare’s tragic love story, set in comedy-drama by Tom Stoppard and Thomas Miami. The words are all authentic, the imWiseman from Wiseman’s novel; stylish ages dizzyingly clever, but the conceit and believable. [R]▼ wears thin after a while. What keeps it alive Rome Adventure (1962) C-119m. ★★★ D: is the earnestness of the two youthful leads, Delmer Daves. Troy Donahue, Angie Dickwhose passion for one another is tangible inson, Rossano Brazzi, Suzanne Pleshette, and appealing. Postlethwaite also scores Constance Ford, Chad Everett, Al Hirt, strongly as Friar Lawrence. Officially tiHampton Fancher. Plush soaper with tled—with no apparent irony—WILLIAM Pleshette as schoolteacher on Roman fling SHAKESPEARE’S ROMEO & JULIET. to find romance, torn between roue´ (Brazzi) Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and architect (Donahue). As Troy’s misRomeo Is Bleeding (1993) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 tress, Dickinson has some rare repartee. D: Peter Medak. Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Lush Max Steiner score. Donahue and Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis, Roy Scheider, David Proval, Will Patton, Larry Pleshette married two years later.▼●쩠 Romeo and Juliet (1936) 126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joshua, James Cromwell, Julia Migenes, George Cukor. Norma Shearer, Leslie HowDennis Farina, Ron Perlman. Nasty, ard, John Barrymore, Edna May Oliver, hopped-up contemporary film noir about a Basil Rathbone, C. Aubrey Smith, Andy crooked cop who’s ordered by a crimeDevine, Reginald Denny, Ralph Forbes. family kingpin to bump off a sexy hit Well-acted, lavish production of Shakeswoman. Film’s standout virtue—and it’s a peare’s play about ill-fated lovers. Howard doozy—is Olin’s robust performance as a and Shearer are so good that one can sadistic dominatrix who ends up strangling forget they are too old for the roles. Not her assailant between her thighs and tying the great film it might have been, but a him down to electrified bedsprings. Outvery good one.▼●쩠 landish, sometimes funny, but confuses ovRomeo and Juliet (1954-British) C-140m. ercooked with hard-boiled. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Renato Castellani. Laurence HarRomeo Must Die (2000) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: vey, Susan Shentall, Flora Robson, Mervyn Andrzej Bartkowiak. Jet Li, Aaliyah, Delroy Johns, Bill Travers, Sebastian Cabot; inLindo, Henry O, Isaiah Washington, Russell troduced by John Gielgud. Sumptuously Wong, DMX, D.B. Woodside, Anthony Anphotographed in Italy, this pleasing version derson. If there’s a Romeo, there must be a Juof Shakespeare’s tragedy has the virtue of liet, and this Oakland-set bone-crusher deals good casting.▼● with two warring gang families (one AfricanRomeo and Juliet (1966-British) C-126m. American, one Chinese) whose straight-and★★1⁄2 D: Paul Czinner. Margot Fonteyn, narrow offspring want no part of the inevitable Rudolf Nureyev, David Blair, Desmond mayhem. Martial arts star Li’s English-lanDoyle, Julia Farron, Michael Somes. Anyguage starring debut has toned down the bruone interested in dance will want to see tality to fashion a movie of slightly broader this filmed record of the Royal Ballet proappeal. OK but overelaborate and overlong. duction, but actually, it doesn’t adapt very Directorial debut for renowned cinematographer Bartkowiak. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 well to film; zoom lens is poor substitute for immediacy of live performance.▼쩠 Rome, Open City SEE: Open City Romero (1989) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Romeo and Juliet (1968-British-Italian) C-138m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Franco Zeffirelli. LeonDuigan. Raul Julia, Richard Jordan, Ana ard Whiting, Olivia Hussey, Milo O’Shea, Alicia, Eddie Velez, Alejandro Bracho, Michael York, John McEnery, Pat HeyTony Plana, Lucy Reina, Harold Gould, wood, Robert Stephens; narrated by LauAl Ruscio, Robert Viharo. Absorbing birence Olivier. One of the best cinematic ography of El Salvador’s Archbishop Osversions of Shakespeare’s immortal tale of car Romero, chronicling his transformation two young lovers kept apart by their famifrom passive cleric to eloquent defender of lies. Unique for its casting leads who were his church and people. Thoughtfully dionly 17 and 15, respectively, this exquirected with a good script by John Sacret sitely photographed film (by Pasquale de Young and a quietly powerful performance Santis, who won an Oscar) has a hauntingly by Julia. The initial feature film financed beautiful musical score by Nino Rota and by officials of the United States Roman Oscar-winning costumes by Danilo Donati. Catholic Church. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [PG—edited from original G rating]▼●쩠 Romper Stomper (1992-Australian) C-92m. ★★★ D: Geoffrey Wright. Russell Crowe, DanRomeo & Juliet (1996) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Baz Luhrmann. Claire Danes, Leonardo Diiel Pollock, Jacqueline McKenzie, Alex Scott, Caprio, Brian Dennehy, John Leguizamo, Leigh Russell, Daniel Wyllie, James McPete Postlethwaite, Paul Sorvino, Christina Kenna. Lashing out at Asians in their neighbor[ 1176 ]

hood, a gang of white supremacist Melbourne Payne. Routine urban B musical about a teenskinheads is gradually reduced to a handful. age white male, his forbidden Hispanic girlWell-observed story is extremely tense, with friend, drug pushers, and a form of ‘‘combat strong doses of violence and sex. Reminiscent dancing’’—the last employing martial-arts of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, Wright’s footwork, but without the bone crushing. Sole feature debut is vividly directed and well distinction: that it was directed by veteran acted, but whittling the story down to a sexual Wise, who won an Oscar for the thematically triangle is a letdown. Very successful (and similar WEST SIDE STORY. [R]▼●쩠 controversial) in its native Australia.▼●쩠 Rookie, The (1990) C-121m. ★1⁄2 D: Clint Romulus, My Father (2007-Australian) CEastwood. Clint Eastwood, Charlie Sheen, 1 ★★ 104m. ⁄2 D: Richard Roxburgh. Eric Bana, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, Tom Skerritt, Franka Potente, Marton Csokas, Kodi SmitLara Flynn Boyle, Pepe Serna, Mara CorMcPhee, Russell Dykstra, Jacek Koman, day. Formula filmmaking that even bored Alethea McGrath. A close-knit community of its intended audience. Cop Eastwood chews immigrants in Victoria gets too close, as a stogies for breakfast, while new partner jealous Romanian husband goes mental Sheen is a rich kid who (from evidence while his German wife is AWOL with ansupplied here) apparently enjoys collecting other bloke, their little boy tossed and torn facial contusions. Still, there’s one good among them all. 1960s melodrama is visufreeway crackup, the you-asked-for-it teamally beautiful and convincingly acted, with ing of Julia and Braga as Germans, and the assured direction by Roxburgh (in the sight of handcuffed Clint performing under actor’s debut behind the camera) . . . but this extreme pressure during Braga’s bondage abusive, violent gut-wrencher is often too rape of him. (Maybe she saw TIGHTROPE.) much to bear. Adapted from Raimond GaiPanavision. [R]▼●쩠 ta’s 1998 memoir. [R]쩠 Rookie, The (2002) C-127m. ★★★ D: John Romy and Michele’s High School ReLee Hancock. Dennis Quaid, Rachel Grif1 ★★ union (1997) C-91m. ⁄2 D: David Mirfiths, Jay Hernandez, Beth Grant, Angus T. kin. Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow, Janeane Jones, Brian Cox, Rick Gonzalez, Royce Garofalo, Alan Cumming, Julia Campbell, D. Applegate. High school teacher/baseball Mia Cottet, Kristin Bauer, Camryn Manheim. coach inspires his ragtag team to win, and Best-friend airheads decide to attend their 10they in turn egg him on to follow his longtime year high school reunion in Tucson . . . then dream of pitching in the major leagues. Uprealize that they’d better put on airs if they’re beat, feel-good movie about following your going to impress all the A-list snobs who used dreams and tying up loose ends in your life. to make their lives a living hell. Flighty comBased on the true story of Jim Morris, who edy has lulls to match its laughs, but beneappears briefly as an umpire. Panavision. fits from airtight performances by the two [G]▼쩠 gaudy, likable leads. Followed by a madeRookie of the Year (1993) C-103m. ★★★ D: for-TV prequel. [R]▼●쩠 Daniel Stern. Thomas Ian Nicholas, Gary ★★ D: John FranRonin (1998) C-121m. Busey, Albert Hall, Amy Morton, Dan Hedkenheimer. Robert De Niro, Jean Reno, Naaya, Bruce Altman, Eddie Bracken, Daniel tascha McElhone, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Jonathan Stern, Robert Gorman. Amiable film for Pryce, Sean Bean, Skipp Sudduth, Michael kids about a boy who, after breaking his (Michel) Lonsdale, Jan Triska, Katarina Witt. arm, turns out to have an incredible fastball A group of mercenaries is brought together in pitch, which earns him a spot as the new star France to secure a mysterious package for pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Benign (almost a high-powered client—but a double-cross to a fault), sometimes broad comedy/fantasy leads to a guessing game of whom can be has a paper-thin plot, but makes all the right trusted. Great car chases (from the director moves to entertain the youthful audience of GRAND PRIX) are the only draw in this it’s aiming for. First-time feature director otherwise flat, self-serious espionage yarn. Stern gives himself the silliest part in the film, Dialogue about Japanese Ronin doesn’t as a dimwitted pitching coach. John Candy even apply to these characters! Cowriter appears unbilled as an excitable Cubs broadRichard Weisz is in fact David Mamet. caster. Similar in premise to a 1954 film, Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 ★★1 ROOGIE’S BUMP. [PG]▼●쩠 Roof, The (1956-Italian) 98m. ⁄2 D: Room at the Top (1959-British) 118m. ★★★★ Vittorio De Sica. Gabriella Pallotta, Giorgio D: Jack Clayton. Laurence Harvey, Simone Listuzzi, Gastone Renzelli, Maria Di Rollo. Signoret, Heather Sears, Hermione Baddeley, Thoughtful neorealist account of a simple Donald Wolfit, Ambrosine Philpotts, Donald young married couple in overcrowded postHouston, Wendy Craig. Brilliant drama of WW2 Rome, and their attempt to find a Harvey sacrificing Signoret’s love to get home for themselves. Original title: IL ahead by marrying factory boss’ daughter. TETTO.▼ ★1⁄2 D: Robert Trenchant and powerful adaptation of John Rooftops (1989) C-95m. Braine novel won Oscars for Signoret and Wise. Jason Gedrick, Troy Beyer, Eddie Velez, Tisha Campbell, Alexis Cruz, Allen screenwriter Neil Paterson. Followed by [ 1177 ]

LIFE AT THE TOP and MAN AT THE aptation (Ruth Prawer Jhabvala), art direction, and costume design.▼●쩠 TOP.▼●쩠 Room for One More (1952) 98m. ★★★ D: Rooster Cogburn (1975) C-107m. ★★ D: Norman Taurog. Cary Grant, Betsy Drake, Stuart Millar. John Wayne, Katharine HepLurene Tuttle, George Winslow, John burn, Anthony Zerbe, Strother Martin, RichRidgely. Grant and Drake are softhearted ard Jordan, John McIntire, Richard Farnscouple who can’t resist adopting needy worth. Reprising Wayne’s character from kids. Sentimental comedy retitled THE TRUE GRIT and teaming him with HepEASY WAY; basis for later TV series.쩠 burn was an obvious attempt to spark an Room for Romeo Brass, A (2000-British) AFRICAN QUEEN–type hit, but starpower C-90m. ★★★ D: Shane Meadows. Paddy is all this film has going for it. Dull story has Considine, Andrew Shim, Frank Harper, unlikely duo going after men who murdered Ladene Hall, Vicky McClure, Ben MarKate’s father. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 shall, Julia Ford, James Higgins, Bob HosRoosters (1993) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert M. kins, Darren O. Campbell. Poignant and Young. Edward James Olmos, Sonia Braga, scary story of Romeo and Gavin, two 12Maria Conchita Alonso, Danny Nucci, year-old boys whose friendship is put to the Sarah Lassez. Leaden-paced drama of irretest when they meet a childlike man with a sponsible ex-con Olmos, who’s consumed violent temper who becomes obsessed with by his machismo, and what happens when Romeo’s older sister. Unique mix of he returns to his family in the rural Southcoming-of-age dramedy and psychological west. Uninvolving and at times downright suspense is buoyed by Meadows’ sensitive boring, despite all of the characters’ simdirection and an intense De Niro–esque permering emotions. An American Playhouse coproduction. [R]▼쩠 formance from Considine in his debut film. Second part of Meadows’ Midlands trilogy Roots of Heaven, The (1958) C-131m. ★★1 (TWENTYFOURSEVEN, ONCE UPON ⁄2 D: John Huston. Errol Flynn, Juliette A TIME IN THE MIDLANDS). [R] Greco, Trevor Howard, Eddie Albert, Orson Roommates (1995) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Welles, Herbert Lom, Paul Lukas. Turgid Yates. Peter Falk, D. B. Sweeney, Julianne melodramatics set in Africa, with conMoore, Ellen Burstyn, Jan Rubes, Frankie glomerate cast philosophizing over sanctity Faison, Noah Fleiss, Joyce Reehling, Ernie of elephants; loosely based on Romain Sabella, William H. Macy. A movie best Gary novel. CinemaScope. described as ‘‘nice,’’ about a crotchety, Rope (1948) C-80m. ★★★ D: Alfred Hitchworking-class Polish immigrant who raises cock. James Stewart, John Dall, Farley his grandson when the boy is orphaned, and Granger, Cedric Hardwicke, Joan Chandler, remains a dominant figure in his life even Constance Collier, Douglas Dick. Two after the young man is married and a father young men kill prep-school pal, just for himself. Falk is in fine form in this mildly the thrill of it, and challenge themselves entertaining story, based on coscreenwriter by inviting friends and family to their Max Apple’s own experiences. [PG] ▼●쩠 apartment afterward—with the body hidRoom Service (1938) 78m. ★★★ D: Wilden on the premises. Hitchcock’s first color liam A. Seiter. Groucho, Chico and Harpo film was shot in ten-minute takes to proMarx, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Frank Albertvide a seamless flow of movement, but it son, Donald MacBride. Broadway farce about remains today what it was then: an interdestitute producers trying to keep their play esting, highly theatrical experiment. Inafloat—and avoid being evicted from their spired by the real-life Leopold-Loeb murder hotel room—is transformed by scenarist Morcase, which later was depicted in COMrie Ryskind into a vehicle for the Marx Bros. PULSION and SWOON. Patrick HamilMore conventional than their earlier outings, ton’s play was adapted by Hume Cronyn and scripted by Arthur Laurents.▼●쩠 but still has a lot of funny material (and, thankfully, no intrusive songs). Remade as a Rope of Sand (1949) 104m. ★★★ D: musical, STEP LIVELY. Also shown in William Dieterle. Burt Lancaster, Paul computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Henreid, Corinne Calvet, Claude Rains, Peter Room with a View, A (1986-British) Lorre, Sam Jaffe, John Bromfield, Mike Mazurki. Sturdy cast in adventure tale of C-115m. ★★★ D: James Ivory. Maggie Smith, Helena Bonham Carter, Denholm Elsmooth thief trying to regain treasure he liott, Julian Sands, Daniel Day-Lewis, Simon hid away, with various parties interfering. Callow, Judi Dench, Rosemary Leach, Rupert Rory O’Shea Was Here (2004-IrishGraves. Elegant and witty adaptation of E. British-French) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Damien M. Forster novel about British manners and O’Donnell. James McAvoy, Steven Robertmores, and a young woman’s awakening exson, Romola Garai, Gerard McSorley, Tom periences during a trip (chaperoned, of course) Hickey, Brenda Fricker, Alan King, Ruth to Florence. Splendid performances, fine atMcCabe, Anna Healy. Sensitive, seriocomic tention to detail; only fault is its deliberate Irish drama about a bad-boy quadriplegic pace, which allows interest level to lag from (McAvoy) living in a home for the disabled, time to time. Won Oscars for screenplay adwho befriends a young man with cerebral [ 1178 ]

palsy and convinces him that they should get Rose and the Sword, The SEE: Flesh + Blood (1985) their own apartment. They’re assisted by an Rosebud (1975) C-126m. BOMB D: Otto unlikely and beautiful young female caretaker Preminger. Peter O’Toole, Richard Atten(Garai). The leads (especially Garai) are all borough, Cliff Gorman, Claude Dauphin, terrific in this tearjerker, but they can’t quite John V. Lindsay, Peter Lawford, Raf transcend the familiar CUCKOO’S NEST Vallone, Isabelle Huppert, Kim Cattrall. trappings. Original U.K. title: INSIDE I’M Nadir for director Preminger and usually DANCING. Panavision. [R] 쩠 ★★ competent performers. Arab terrorists kill D: W. S. Van Rosalie (1937) 122m. crew of yacht ‘‘Rosebud’’ and kidnap five Dyke. Eleanor Powell, Nelson Eddy, Frank wealthy young ladies aboard. O’Toole and Morgan, Edna May Oliver, Ray Bolger, Attenborough (to say nothing of former Ilona Massey, Billy Gilbert. Elephantine N.Y.C. Mayor Lindsay) are embarrassingly MGM musical about romance between West bad. Panavision. [PG]▼ Point cadet and mythical-kingdom princess. Rosebud Beach Hotel, The (1984) C-87m. Living proof that money alone can’t make ★1 ⁄2 D: Harry Hurwitz. Colleen Camp, a good movie. Cole Porter score includes Peter Scolari, Christopher Lee, Fran Dres‘‘In the Still of the Night.’’▼ cher, Monique Gabrielle, Eddie Deezen, Rosalie Goes Shopping (1989-German) Chuck McCann. Idiotic, fifth-rate comedy C-94m. ★★★ D: Percy Adlon. Marianne about buffoon Scolari, who with girlfriend Sa¨gebrecht, Brad Davis, Judge Reinhold, Camp operates a resort hotel and hires happy William Harlander, Erika Blumberger, hookers as bellgirls. Camp’s bright presence Patricia Zehentmayr, Alex Winter. Bavarianraises the rating of this from BOMB. Origiborn Sa¨gebrecht has settled with American nally titled THE BIG LOBBY; aka THE NOhusband Davis in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and TELL HOTEL. [R]▼쩠 they have more children than you can count; Rose for Everyone, A (1965-Italian) she’s become obsessed with spending C-107m. ★★ D: Franco Rossi. Claudia money and having possessions, and deCardinale, Nino Manfredi, Mario Adorf, vises an ingenious plan to beat the bill Akim Tamiroff. Brazilian locale with collector. Delightfully loopy comedy (writNEVER ON SUNDAY plot. Girl brings ten by the director, Eleanor Adlon and happiness to many men and takes active Christopher Dorherty). [PG]▼ interest in their private lives as well as Rosa Luxemburg (1986-German) C-116m. their sexual lives. Nice locales, banal story. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Margarethe von Trotta. Barbara Rose Garden, The (1989-U.S.-West GerSukowa, Daniel Olbrychski, Otto Sander, man) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fons Rademakers. Adelheid Arndt, Jurgen Holtz, Doris SchLiv Ullmann, Maximilian Schell, Peter ade. Sukowa offers a towering performance Fonda, Jan Niklas, Kurt Hubner. Attorney in this compelling, multileveled biography Ullmann defends Schell on charges of atof the dedicated, idealistic democratic tacking an elderly man whom he recogsocialist/pacifist/humanist who played a nized as the commandant of a Nazi concenprominent role in German politics in the tration camp in which his family was early years of the century. Extremely prokilled. Story is earnest and compassionate vocative and well directed.▼ but uninspired; benefits from fine perforRosary Murders, The (1987) C-101m. mances by Ullmann and an almost unrec★★ D: Fred Walton. Donald Sutherland, ognizable Schell. [PG-13]▼● Charles Durning, Belinda Bauer, Josef Roseland (1977) C-103m. ★★★ D: James Sommer, James Murtaugh, John Danelle, Ivory. Teresa Wright, Lou Jacobi, GeralAddison Powell, Kathleen Tolan. Mass killer dine Chaplin, Helen Gallagher, Joan Copeof Motown priests and nuns confesses to land, Christopher Walken, Lilia Skala, David Sutherland, who obviously can’t inform Thomas. Trilogy set in N.Y.C.’s venerthe cops. Despite a script cowritten by Elable Roseland Ballroom examines bittermore Leonard, Sutherland’s performance is sweet lives of people who gravitate there. the sole reward. Starts promisingly but soon First story is weakest, but other two are fizzles. Filmed on location in Detroit. See I absorbing and beautifully performed, with CONFESS instead. [R]▼● Copeland and Skala as standouts. [PG]▼쩠 Rose, The (1979) C-134m. ★★ D: Mark Rose-Marie (1936) 110m. ★★★ D: W. S. Rydell. Bette Midler, Alan Bates, Frederic Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton, Barry Primus, Eddy, Reginald Owen, Allan Jones, James David Keith. Spin-off of the Janis Joplin Stewart, Alan Mowbray, Gilda Gray. Don’t saga equates show biz with hell, then conexpect the original operetta: story has opcentrates on giving the audience too much era star Jeanette searching for fugitive of the latter. Midler (in her starring debut) brother Stewart, as Mountie Nelson purand Forrest deliver dynamic performances, sues the same man. The two fall in love, but film leaves a lot to be desired. Imsing ‘‘Indian Love Call,’’ among others. pressive photography by Vilmos ZsigDavid Niven appears briefly as Jeanette’s mond. [R]▼●쩠 unsuccessful suitor. Retitled INDIAN [ 1179 ]

LOVE CALL; previously filmed in 1928, heels for cocky punk Power (a clone of then again in 1954.▼● Nicky Arnstein). Faye gets to sing Brice’s Rose Marie (1954) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: signature song, ‘‘My Man,’’ but Jolson, esMervyn LeRoy. Ann Blyth, Howard Keel, sentially playing himself, steals the show Fernando Lamas, Bert Lahr, Marjorie Main, performing ‘‘Mammy,’’ ‘‘California, Here I Come,’’ and other classics.▼쩠 Joan Taylor, Ray Collins. More faithful to original operetta than 1936 version, but Rose Tattoo, The (1955) 117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: not as much fun. Mountie Keel tries to Daniel Mann. Anna Magnani, Burt Lan‘‘civilize’’ tomboy Blyth, but falls in love caster, Marisa Pavan, Ben Cooper, Virwith her instead. Adventurer Lamas comginia Grey, Jo Van Fleet. Magnani shines pletes the triangle. Lahr sings ‘‘I’m the in Oscar-winning role as earthy, deluded Mountie Who Never Got His Man’’ in comic widow in Gulf Coast city who’s romanced highlight. CinemaScope.● by rambunctious truck driver Lancaster. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) C-136m. ★★★★ Flavorful adaptation of Tennessee Williams D: Roman Polanski. Mia Farrow, John play; cinematographer James Wong Howe also won an Oscar. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Elisha Rosetta (1999-Belgian-French) C-95m. ★★ Cook, Jr., Patsy Kelly, Charles Grodin. D: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne. Classic modern-day thriller by Ira Levin, Emilie Dequenne, Fabrizio Rongione, Anne perfectly realized by writer-director PoYernaux, Olivier Gourmet, Florian Delain. lanski: Farrow is unsuspecting young wife Unrelenting, cinema ve´rite´-style portrait of whose husband becomes involved with a teenaged girl who is desperate to escape Satanists and their diabolical plans. Listen the harshness of her life. She gets a job, but closely for Tony Curtis’ voice in a phone has no idea how to deal with the world conversation. Gordon won Best Supporting around her—except for the desperate surActress Oscar. Followed by a made-for-TV vival techniques she has taught herself. sequel, LOOK WHAT’S HAPPENED TO With its hand-held camera and fly-on-theROSEMARY’S BABY (1976, aka ROSEwall storytelling approach, the film paints a MARY’S BABY II). [R] ▼●쩠 vivid picture, but it’s tough to watch, and Rosemary’s Disciples SEE: Necromancy tougher still to pierce the emotional shell of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead its main character. Top prize-winner at the Cannes Film Festival. [R]▼ (1990) C-118m. ★★ D: Tom Stoppard. Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard DreyRosewood (1997) C-142m. ★★1⁄2 D: John fuss, Joanna Roth, Iain Glen, Donald SumpSingleton. Jon Voight, Ving Rhames, Don ter, Joanna Miles, Ian Richardson. Oldman Cheadle, Bruce McGill, Loren Dean, Esther and Roth are engaging as the puckish inciRolle, Michael Rooker, Elise Neal, Catherdental characters from Hamlet who wander ine Kellner. Fact-based story of two neighinto a series of (mostly verbal) adventures boring Florida towns, circa 1922–23, and in and around the royal castle. Full of the festering racism that threatens to explode delicious wordplay and some imaginative into violence and destroy a law-abiding black visual ideas, but there’s a basic lifelesscommunity in the process. Rhames (in his ness to this film, proving that it should have biggest role to date) is an outsider who ralremained on stage. Playwright Stoppard’s lies the protest. Well acted and crafted, but feature film directing debut, an adaptation turns overly melodramatic. Undoubtedly the of his own play. [PG]▼●쩠 most repugnant depiction of Southern ‘‘redRosenstrasse (2003-German) C-136m. ★★ necks’’ since DELIVERANCE. PanaviD: Margarethe von Trotta. Katja Riemann, sion. [R]▼●쩠 Maria Schrader, Martin Feifel, Ju¨rgen Rosie! (1967) C-98m. ★★★ D: David LowVogel, Jutta Lampe, Doris Schade, Fedja ell Rich. Rosalind Russell, Sandra Dee, van Hueˆt, Carola Regnier. Schrader, a JewBrian Aherne, Audrey Meadows, James ish New Yorker, travels to Germany to meet Farentino, Vanessa Brown, Leslie Nielsen, the elderly woman who sheltered her Margaret Hamilton. One of Russell’s best mother during WW2. Worthy film brings to late-career performances as madcap grandlight a long-forgotten act of heroism against mother, whose children want her money Nazi tyranny, when Aryan women mounted now. Based on a play by Ruth Gordon. a protest in Berlin after the SS arrested their Techniscope. Jewish husbands—but the result plays like Rotten to the Core (1965-British) 90m. ★★★ a soap opera. A major disappointment. D: John Boulting. Anton Rodgers, Super 35. [PG-13] 쩠 Eric Sykes, Charlotte Rampling, Ian Bannen, Rose of Washington Square (1939) 86m. Avis Bunnage, Victor Maddern. Well★★1⁄2 D: Gregory Ratoff. Tyrone Power, handled caper of ex-con trio joining forces Alice Faye, Al Jolson, William Frawley, with crook to carry off large-scale robbery. Joyce Compton, Hobart Cavanaugh, Louis Panavision. Rough Cut (1980) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: DonPrima, Horace McMahon, Moroni Olsen. So-so musical with Faye as a thinly disald Siegel. Burt Reynolds, Lesley-Anne guised Fanny Brice, who falls head over Down, David Niven, Timothy West, Pat[ 1180 ]

rick Magee, Al Matthews, Joss Ackland, likes to gamble, but because he knows how Roland Culver. Handsome but uneven rogood he is. Provocative, interesting, but mantic caper uses its stars’ charm and never entirely engaging—with enough cardchemistry to offset weaknesses in script. playing jargon to last a lifetime. Super 35. World-class jewel thief Reynolds falls in [R]▼●쩠 love with beautiful woman who’s been set Round Midnight (1986-U.S.-French) Cup to snag him for Scotland Yard. Filmed 131m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Dexin England and Holland. Troubled David ter Gordon, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Gabrielle Merrick production went through four diHaker, Sandra Reaves-Phillips, Lonette rectors, and scripter Larry Gelbart used a McKee, Herbie Hancock, Bobby Hutcherpseudonym; hastily refilmed ending is chief son, Wayne Shorter, John Berry, Martin giveaway. [PG]▼● Scorsese, Philippe Noiret. A boozy AmeriRoughly Speaking (1945) 117m. ★★★ D: can jazzman working in 1950s Paris is Michael Curtiz. Rosalind Russell, Jack virtually adopted by a fan, and their unCarson, Robert Hutton, Jean Sullivan, Alan usual relationship causes them both to thrive. Hale, Donald Woods, Ray Collins, Mona A loving homage to jazz musicians and Freeman, Craig Stevens. Heartfelt biopic their world (inspired by the lives of Bud about spunky Louise Randall Pierson (RusPowell and Lester Young), with a once-insell), her two very different husbands, and a-lifetime performance by real-life tenorher plight through the ups and downs of the sax great Gordon. Music director—and 20th century, all the way to WW2. Russell Oscar winner—Herbie Hancock and his and Carson, as her easygoing husband numcolleagues not only create great jazz right ber 2, are tops. Pierson scripted, based on on-screen but also help establish a perfect her bestseller.쩠 ambiance. Written by Tavernier and David Rough Magic (1995-French-British) CRayfiel; designed by premier art director Alexandre Trauner. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 104m. ★★ D: Clare Peploe. Bridget Fonda, Russell Crowe, Jim Broadbent, D. W. MofRoustabout (1964) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: John fett, Kenneth Mars, Paul Rodriguez, Andy Rich. Elvis Presley, Barbara Stanwyck, Romano, Richard Schiff, Euva Anderson, Leif Erickson, Joan Freeman, Sue Ane Michael Ensign. Odd little road movie, with Langdon. Elvis is a free-wheeling singer Fonda a magician’s assistant in 1950s L.A. who joins Stanwyck’s carnival, learns the who hides out in Mexico with several men meaning of hard work and true love. in pursuit. Thrust of story concerns ‘‘miraStanwyck and supporting cast make this a cle elixirs,’’ a Mayan shaman (female), and pleasing Presley songer, with ‘‘Little farcical situations south of the border. An Egypt’’ his one outstanding tune. Raquel uneasy mix of genres, faintly reminiscent of Welch has a bit, and Teri Garr is one THE BIG STEAL. [PG-13]▼쩠 of the dancers. Techniscope.▼쩠 Rough Night in Jericho (1967) C-97m. Rover, The (1967) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Ter★★ D: Arnold Laven. Dean Martin, George ence Young. Anthony Quinn, Rosanna Peppard, Jean Simmons, John McIntire, Schiaffino, Rita Hayworth, Richard JohnSlim Pickens, Don Galloway. Gory Westson, Ivo Garrani, Mino Doro. Quinn stars ern casts Martin as total villain who owns as 18th-century pirate whose escape from the town. Attractive cast can’t fight cliFrench authorities is sidetracked by relache´s. Techniscope.▼쩠 tionship with innocent, feeble-minded girl. Rounders, The (1965) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Plodding film from Joseph Conrad story; made in Italy, barely released here.▼ Burt Kennedy. Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Sue Ane Langdon, Hope Holiday, Chill Rover Dangerfield (1991) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 Wills, Edgar Buchanan, Kathleen Freeman. D: Jim George, Bob Seeley. Voices of Agreeable comedy-Western from Max Rodney Dangerfield, Susan Boyd, Ronnie Evans’ novel about two cowboys and an Schell, Ned Luke, Shawn Southwick, Dana ornery horse was one of the sleepers of its Hill. A wisecracking dog thrives on his year; nothing much happens, but cast and life in Las Vegas, until fate sends him to a scenery make it a pleasant way to kill an farm in the middle of nowheresville. The hour-and-a-half. Panavision.▼ idea of Dangerfield-style one-liners being Rounders (1998) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: John spoken by a cartoon dog is fun for a while, Dahl. Matt Damon, Edward Norton, but the film wavers uneasily between adult Gretchen Mol, John Turturro, John Malkoand juvenile appeal. Animation fans should vich, Famke Janssen, Martin Landau, Micheck out the incredible opening shot. chael Rispoli, Josh Mostel, Tom Aldredge, Dangerfield wrote, produced, and even contributed lyrics to the songs. [G]▼● Michael Lombard, Mal Z. Lawrence. Young poker whiz (Damon) tries to give up Rowdyman, The (1971-Canadian) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Carter. Gordon Pinsent, Frank the game and focus on being a law student. When his longtime pal—aptly nicknamed Converse, Will Geer, Linda Goranson, Worm (Norton)—is released from prison, Ted Henley. Pinsent is the whole show in he soon finds himself caught up again in the this occasionally intriguing but ultimately allure of high-stakes games, not because he superficial drama about a hard-living wom[ 1181 ]

anizer and his fate after accidentally causing the death of a childhood pal. Filmed in Newfoundland; Pinsent also scripted. Roxanne (1987) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred Schepisi. Steve Martin, Daryl Hannah, Rick Rossovich, Shelley Duvall, John Kapelos, Fred Willard, Max Alexander, Michael J. Pollard, Damon Wayans, Matt Lattanzi, Kevin Nealon. Martin fashioned this update of Cyrano de Bergerac as a vehicle for himself, with Hannah as the object of his affection and Rossovich as the empty-headed hunk for whom he ‘‘fronts.’’ Extremely likable and sweetnatured romantic comedy set in a sleepy ski town. Peters out somewhere along the line, unfortunately. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Roxie Hart (1942) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: William Wellman. Ginger Rogers, Adolphe Menjou, George Montgomery, Lynne Overman, Nigel Bruce, Phil Silvers, Spring Byington, Iris Adrian, George Chandler. Fast-moving spoof of Roaring ’20s, with Ginger as publicity-seeking dancer on trial for murder, Menjou her overdramatic lawyer. Hilarious antics make up for dry spells; scripted and produced by Nunnally Johnson. Previously filmed in 1927 as CHICAGO, also the title of the later Broadway and movie musical.

William Eythe, Vincent Price, Mischa Auer. Comedy of manners about Catherine the Great of Russia promoting favored soldier Eythe to high rank; started by Lubitsch, ‘‘finished’’ by Preminger. Remake of Lubitsch’s 1924 FORBIDDEN PARADISE. Royal Tenenbaums, The (2001) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wes Anderson. Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Seymour Cassel; narrated by Alec Baldwin. Ne’er-do-well Hackman abandoned his wife and three genius children long ago, but now feels the need to make up for lost time—especially since he’s flat broke. Rambling comedy has the same likable, eccentric qualities as the filmmakers’ BOTTLE ROCKET and RUSHMORE and benefits from Hackman’s savvy performance, but strains for effect and essentially has no story. Written by Anderson and Owen Wilson. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Royal Wedding (1951) C-93m. ★★★ D: Stanley Donen. Fred Astaire, Jane Powell, Peter Lawford, Sarah Churchill, Keenan Wynn, Albert Sharpe. Pleasant MGM musical (written by Alan Jay Lerner) about brother and sister team who take their show to London at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding, and find romance ▼쩠 Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954-French) of their own. Highlights: Astaire’s dancing C-152m. ★★ D: Sacha Guitry. Claudette on the ceiling and partnering with a hatColbert, Orson Welles, Jean-Pierre Aumont, rack, and his dynamite duet with Powell, Edith Piaf, Ge´rard Philipe, Jean Marais, ‘‘How Could You Believe Me When I Sacha Guitry, Micheline Presle, Daniel Said I Loved You (When You Know I’ve Gelin, Danielle Delorme. Impressive cast Been a Liar All My Life)?’’ Burton Lane/ in static, leaden-paced chronicle of the Alan Jay Lerner score also includes ‘‘Too Golden Age of the French monarchy. Guitry Late Now.’’ Donen’s first solo directing plays Louis XIV; also seen are D’Artagnan, credit.▼●쩠 Mme. de Pompadour, Moliere, Marie AnR.P.M. (1970) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Stanley toinette, etc. Released in U.S. in 1957. Kramer. Anthony Quinn, Ann-Margret, Look fast for Brigitte Bardot. Retitled: AFGary Lockwood, Paul Winfield, Graham FAIRS IN VERSAILLES.▼ Jarvis, Alan Hewitt. Old-fashioned liberal Royal Flash (1975-British) C-98m. ★★★ Quinn becomes head of university, then D: Richard Lester. Malcolm McDowell, authorizes a police bust of radicals to save Alan Bates, Florinda Bolkan, Oliver Reed, institution (Revolutions Per Minute, get Britt Ekland, Lionel Jeffries, Tom Bell, it?). Inept Erich Segal script, equally bad Alastair Sim, Michael Hordern, Joss AckKramer direction give film certain camp land, Christopher Cazenove, Bob Hoskins. value, but otherwise, look out. [R]▼ Comic swashbuckler with McDowell forced Rubin and Ed (1992) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: to impersonate a Prussian nobleman and Trent Harris. Crispin Glover, Howard marry Ekland. Zippy Lester entry with a Hesseman, Karen Black, Michael Green, fine cast; script by George MacDonald Brittney Lewis. Weird odyssey of two men Fraser, from his novel. [PG]▼쩠 on a mission to bury a frozen cat. This is Royal Hunt of the Sun, The (1969-British) one road movie Hope and Crosby never C-118m. ★★★ D: Irving Lerner. Robert thought of—with good reason. Glover once Shaw, Christopher Plummer, Nigel Davenmade an infamous appearance on David port, Michael Craig, Leonard Whiting, Letterman’s TV show playing the same James Donald. Colorful tale of Spanish excharacter he does here. Letterman kicked plorer Pizzaro and his quest for gold in him off the show; you can simply stop South America; from acclaimed stage play watching. [PG-13]▼ by Peter Shaffer, adapted by Philip Yordan. Ruby (1977) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis Franscope. [G]▼쩠 Harrington. Piper Laurie, Stuart Whitman, 1 ★★ Royal Scandal, A (1945) 94m. Roger Davis, Janit Baldwin, Crystin Sin⁄2 D: Ernst Lubitsch, Otto Preminger. Tallulah claire, Paul Kent. Complex plot has longBankhead, Charles Coburn, Anne Baxter, dead gangster’s spirit possessing deaf-mute [ 1182 ]

girl, sending her on a killing spree at Williams, Andrea Martin, Cliff DeYoung. drive-in theater (which specializes in hor‘‘Cheech and Roberts’’ lacks zing as a ror movies) run by ex-gang members. A comedy-team concept; so does hippie-dippy few moments, comic and horrific, stand out in political farce about a pair of long-haired ’60s generally uneven supernatural thriller. Some burnouts who return to N.Y.C. after 20 years in prints run 85m, with a hastily added epilogue. a Central American commune. Henry scrapes That version is credited to pseudonymous diup a few chuckles in his only scene. [R]▼● rector Allen Smithee. [R]▼쩠 Rude Boy (1980-British) C-133m. ★★★ D: Ruby (1992) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: John MacJack Hazan, David Mingay. The Clash, kenzie. Danny Aiello, Sherilyn Fenn, Arliss Ray Gange, John Green, Barry Baker, Howard, Tobin Bell, David Duchovny, Terry McQuade, Caroline Coon. Angry Richard Sarafian, Joe Cortese, Marc Lawyoung rebel Gange is hired by the punk rence. OK speculation about the life and rock group The Clash as a roadie. Gritty, motives of lowlife Jack Ruby, the mob realistic, documentary-like character study; errand boy, FBI informant, and nightclub excellent concert footage. Punk rock fans owner who killed JFK assassin Lee Harwill not be disappointed: others, beware. vey Oswald. Aiello is good and period Most U.S. prints run 120m. [R]▼쩠 re-creations are adequate, but film suffers Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer: The from too many lawyer-dictated characterMovie (1998) C-83m. ★★ D: Bill Kowalizations (Frank Sinatra becomes singer chuk. Voices of John Goodman, Eric Idle, ‘‘Tony Montana’’). [R] ▼●쩠 Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Ruby & Quentin (2003-French-Italian) CSimmons, Whoopi Goldberg. Old-fashioned, 84m. ★★★ D: Francis Veber. Ge´rard Deparinnocuous animated feature about that reindieu, Jean Reno, Jean-Pierre Malo, Richard deer with the very shiny nose is aimed at Berry, Andre´ Dussollier, Ticky Holgado, very young children and adds some new plot Le´onor Varela, Aure´lien Recoing, Michel Autwists and characters to the old story, inmont. A hard-boiled criminal (Reno) won’t cluding a fox (Idle), a polar bear (Newhart) crack under police pressure, so they ‘‘sic’’ and an evil ice queen (Goldberg). The anitheir secret weapon on him: a congenital idiot mation is rudimentary, but the movie is a who could drive anyone crazy. Typically gentle antidote to the plethora of hyperkifunny Veber farce, with a surprisingly thin netic contemporary cartoons. [G]▼쩠 Depardieu playing the grinning idiot for all Rudo y Cursi (2008-Mexican) C-102m. ★★★ it’s worth. Aka TAIS-TOI! Technovision. D: Carlos Cuaro´n. Gael Garcı´a Bernal, Ruby Gentry (1952) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: King Diego Luna, Guillermo Francella, Dolores Vidor. Jennifer Jones, Charlton Heston, Heredia, Adriana Paz, Jessica Mas. Two Karl Malden, Josephine Hutchinson. Turbrothers (Garcı´a Bernal and Luna) from a gid, meandering account of easy-virtue rural village in Mexico are recruited by an Southerner Jones marrying wealthy Malden oily agent/promoter to play professional socto spite Heston, the man she loves.▼쩠 cer in Mexico City. How these competitive, ★★★ D: Ruby in Paradise (1993) C-115m. none-too-bright siblings deal with sudden Victor Nunez. Ashley Judd, Todd Field, fame, fortune, and a myriad of temptations is Bentley Mitchum, Allison Dean, Dorothy all part of the fun. Broadly entertaining comLyman. Fine independent effort about a edy turns traditional rags-to-riches stories young woman who leaves her Tennessee (and morality plays) inside out, and serves as home for a new life in the beach community a great showcase for its two dynamic stars, of Panama City in West Florida. Though reunited with the cowriter of their breakout ´ TAMBIE´N. P.S. Rudo too often self-consciously ‘‘poetic,’’ this is hit, Y TU MAMA a refreshingly low-key character study with means tough; Cursi means corny. [R] none of the easy emotional payoffs of typiRudy (1993) C-112m. ★★★ D: David Ancal Hollywood films. The acting is fine, spaugh. Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, Robert with Judd (sister of singer Wynonna) outProsky, Charles S. Dutton, Lili Taylor, Jon standing in the lead role. Director Nunez Favreau, Jason Miller, Vincent (Vince) also wrote the screenplay. [R]▼ Vaughn. Rock-solid, immensely entertainRuby’s Dream SEE: Dear Mr. Wonderful ing based-on-fact account of Rudy Ruettiger (Astin), a working-class boy intent on Ruckus (1982) C-91m.★★ D: Max Kleven. Dirk Benedict, Linda Blair, Ben Johnson, realizing his dream of playing football at Matt Clark, Richard Farnsworth. Slick but old Notre Dame—despite his uninspiring ordinary drive-in fare about a shell-shocked academic record and unimposing athletic Vietnam vet who becomes object of masability. Few surprises, but it’s well acted (with sive manhunt in sleepy Alabama town. special kudos to Dutton), and a real crowdSame basic story as later FIRST BLOOD, pleaser. Director Anspaugh and screenwriter but less pretentious. [PG]▼쩠 Angelo Pizzo previously worked together on Rude Awakening (1989) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: HOOSIERS. [PG]▼●쩠 Aaron Russo, David Greenwalt. Cheech Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book Marin, Eric Roberts, Julie Hagerty, Robert (1994) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephen Sommers. Carradine, Buck Henry, Louise Lasser, Cindy Jason Scott Lee, Cary Elwes, Lena Headey, [ 1183 ]

Sam Neill, John Cleese, Jason Flemyng, Stesentimental, and Sarandon stands out as the fan Kalipha, Ron Donachie. Agreeably oldegocentric Coco La Bouche. Followed by fashioned ‘‘boys adventure’’–style adaptation RUGRATS GO WILD. [G]▼쩠 of Kipling’s stories produced under the DisRugrats Movie, The (1998) C-79m. ★★1⁄2 ney banner (but with few Disney touches). D: Norton Virgien, Igor Kovalyov. Voices of Lee is simply terrific as Mowgli, the boy E.G. Daily, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, raised in the Indian jungle who’s brought back Cheryl Chase, Tara Charendoff, Melanie Charto ‘‘civilization’’ by the daughter of a British toff, Jack Riley, Joe Alaskey, Phil Proctor, Miregiment officer. Sumptuously filmed, with an chael Bell, Tress MacNeille, Busta Rhymes, exciting climax involving a lost city filled Tim Curry, Whoopi Goldberg, David Spade, with treasure, but somehow never as compelMargaret Cho. Theatrical spinoff of the populing as it ought to be. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 lar TV cartoon puts Tommy and his infant Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle friends into a nonstop adventure, which beBook: Mowgli & Baloo (1997) C-88m. gins with the arrival of a new baby brother ★1 ⁄2 D: Duncan McLachlan. James Wiland escalates as the kids get lost in the woods. liams, Bill Campbell, Roddy McDowall, Clever and funny, with some likable songs, David Paul Francis, Gulshan Grover, Dyrk though even at 79m. it seems padded . . . and Ashton. Bland, unimaginative story of a loud. Followed by RUGRATS IN PARIS: jungle boy pursued by a circus animal proTHE MOVIE. [G] ▼●쩠 curer, saved again and again by his animal Ruins, The (2008) C-90m. ★★ D: Carter friends. Some stereotypical characters borSmith. Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn der on racism; a family film that could give Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson, ‘‘wholesome’’ a bad name. Hard to believe Dimitri Baveas, Sergio Caldero´n. LITTLE Kipling would want his name on it. Filmed SHOP OF HORRORS meets THE DEin Sri Lanka. Technovision. [PG]▼●쩠 SCENT as two young couples on vacation in Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) 92m. ★★★★ Mexico decide to add a little culture to their D: Leo McCarey. Charles Laughton, Mary trip by exploring an off-the-map Mayan ruin Boland, Charlie Ruggles, ZaSu Pitts, Rowith their new European friends. Little do land Young, Leila Hyams. Laughton is they know that the ruins are hidden for a marvelous as butler won in poker game by very good reason. Gory scenes will have uncouth but amiable westerner Ruggles and you squirming in your seat, although watchsocially ambitious wife Boland; ZaSu is ing the characters take themselves too serispinster he falls in love with. A completely ously is more funny than scary. Adapted winning movie. Harry Leon Wilson’s story by Scott B. Smith from his novel. Unrated was filmed before in 1918 and 1923, then version runs 93m. Panavision. [R]쩠 remade as FANCY PANTS.▼● Rules of Attraction, The (2002) C-110m. ★★ D: Rugrats Go Wild (2003) C-80m. BOMB D: Roger Avary. James Van Der Norton Virgien, John Eng. Voices of E.G. Beek, Ian Somerhalder, Shannyn Sossamon, Daily, Christine Cavanaugh, Kath Soucie, Jessica Biel, Kip Pardue, Thomas Ian NichoLacey Chabert, Tim Curry, Bruce Willis, las, Kate Bosworth, Fred Savage, Eric Stoltz, Chrissie Hynde, Nancy Cartwright, Cheryl Clifton Collins, Jr., Faye Dunaway, Swoosie Chase, Tara Strong, Melanie Chartoff, Jack Kurtz, Clare Kramer. Repellent look at amoral Riley, Tress MacNeille, Michael Bell, Flea, college kids whose sole interests are sex, LL Cool J. Headache-inducing hybrid of two drugs, and booze. The scummiest of them all popular animated TV series, Rugrats and The is Sean Bateman (Van Der Beek), who falls Wild Thornberrys, as the cast of the former in love with the one woman he can’t have washes ashore on an island where the natural(Sossamon). Writer-director Avary, Quentin ists of the latter show have set up camp. UnTarantino’s partner in crime on PULP FICimaginative feature plays like a distended TV TION, uses a take-no-prisoners approach to episode, and not a terribly good one at that. Bret Easton Ellis’ book, a prequel to AmeriChief novelty is Willis providing the voice of can Psycho. Yuccchhhh. [R] ▼쩠 Spike the dog, who normally doesn’t talk. Rules of Engagement (2000) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 Digital Widescreen. [PG] ▼쩠 D: William Friedkin. Tommy Lee Jones, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) CSamuel L. Jackson, Guy Pearce, Ben Kings78m. ★★★ D: Stig Bergqvist, Paul Demeyer. ley, Bruce Greenwood, Blair Underwood, Voices of E.G. Daily, Christine Cavanaugh, Philip Baker Hall, Anne Archer, Dale Dye. Cheryl Chase, Kath Soucie, Jack Riley, MelaHeld responsible for a Middle East embassy nie Chartoff, Susan Sarandon, Michael Bell, massacre in which scores of civilians (and John Lithgow, Debbie Reynolds, Casey so-called civilians) were killed, Marine ofKasem, Tim Curry, Dan Castellaneta. Funny ficer Jackson calls upon just-retired colfollow-up to THE RUGRATS MOVIE is league Jones to defend him in a courtsharper in every department. The babies join martial after he’s left out to dry. Watchable their folks in Paris and rescue Chuckie’s but sometimes silly melodrama finds time widower dad from marrying an evil Eurofor a client-defendant fistfight, and offers a theme-park executive. Animation and settings are colorful, story is both funny and truly novel movie villain: a dastardly gov[ 1184 ]

ernment official. Story’s punchline has no Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark punch. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Ruffalo, Richard Jenkins, Christopher McRules of the Game, The (1939-French) Donald, Mena Suvari. While home for her 106m. ★★★★ D: Jean Renoir. Marcel Dalio, sister’s wedding, Aniston becomes conNora Gregor, Mila Pare´ly, Jean Renoir, Gasvinced that her late mother, grandmother ton Modot, Roland Toutain, Paulette Dubost, MacLaine, and future techno-magnate CostJulien Carette, Odette Talazac. Sublime, endner inspired the Charles Webb novel that lessly imitated film about romantic intrigues became THE GRADUATE. Premise is icky at a French country estate, both upstairs and (Aniston goes on a fling with a guy she downstairs. Renoir, who costars as Octave, initially thought was her father!) without uses the fac¸ade of light comedy to satirize being pointed. MacLaine gives it a shot with (and skewer) the bourgeoisie—their follies, acerbic but unfunny rejoinders. If THE rituals, and class distinctions—as Europe was GRADUATE didn’t still ‘‘live,’’ this would about to go up in flames. His light touch and be pretty close to grave robbing. Kathy extraordinarily fluid staging and camerawork Bates appears unbilled. [PG-13]쩠 are what make the film still seem so poignant, Rumor of Angels, A (2002) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 funny, and fresh. Vilified on its initial release, D: Peter O’Fallon. Vanessa Redgrave, Ray it was severely cut, then rediscovered decades Liotta, Catherine McCormack, Trevor Morlater and justly hailed as a masterpiece. Regan, Ron Livingston, George Coe, Michelle constructed in the 1960s. ▼●쩠 Grace. Twelve-year-old boy spending the Ruling Class, The (1972-British) C-154m. summer in Maine with his too-busy father ★★★1 and stepmother forms a bond with an odd⁄2 D: Peter Medak. Peter O’Toole, Alastair Sim, Arthur Lowe, Harry Andrews, Coral seeming older lady who helps him unlock Browne, Michael Bryant, Carolyn Seymour, traumatic events in his life, and vice-versa. Nigel Green, William Mervyn, James Villiers. Nice, sweet story that took nearly 20 years to Hilarious, irreverent black comedy by Peter get made plays a little too much like a HallBarnes about heir to British lordship (O’Toole) mark Hall of Fame TV movie but simply who thinks he’s Jesus Christ. Overflowing soars whenever Redgrave is on-screen, as she with crazy ideas, people bursting into song, takes somewhat familiar material and lifts it boisterously funny characterizations, and oneup several notches, making this definitely and-only Sim as befuddled bishop. Some worth a look. Hawk-Scope. [PG-13]▼쩠 prints run 130m; the ‘‘uncut’’ version reRumpelstiltskin (1987) C-84m. ★★ D: Daleased in 1983 runs 141m. [PG]▼●쩠 vid Irving. Amy Irving, Billy Barty, Clive Rumble Fish (1983) 94m. ★★ D: Francis Revill, Priscilla Pointer, John MoulderCoppola. Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Brown, Robert Symonds. Threadbare muLane, Dennis Hopper, Diana Scarwid, Vinsical adaptation of the Grimms’ fairy tale, cent Spano, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Penn, with Irving and Barty well cast in the Larry Fishburne, Tom Waits, Sofia Coppola. leads. Likely to bore even the small-fry. Ambitious mood piece from S. E. Hinton’s Filmed in Israel, this was a family affair: young-adult novel about alienated teenager writer-director Irving is Amy’s brother, who lives in the shadow of his older brother. and Pointer (who plays the Queen) is her mother. [G]▼쩠 Emotionally intense but muddled and aloof; highly stylized, in looks (filmed mostly in Run (1990) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Geoff Burblack & white) and sounds (with impressionrowes. Patrick Dempsey, Kelly Preston, istic music score by Stewart Copeland). DilKen Pogue, Alan C. Peterson, Marc Strange, lon’s third Hinton film, Coppola’s second Christopher Lawford. Law student becomes (following THE OUTSIDERS). [R]▼●쩠 the object of a citywide chase when he acciRumble in the Bronx (1996-U.S.-Hong dentally kills the loutish son of the town’s Mr. Kong) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Tong. Hood while blowing time in a gambling club. Jackie Chan, Anita Mui, Bill Tung, FranSheer speed compensates for lack of distinccoise Yip, Marc Akerstream, Garvin Cross, tion. Dempsey’s ‘‘what-me-worry?’’ quotient Morgan Lam, Kris Lord. Jackie visits his is relatively subdued. Not to be confused with uncle in America, and agrees to help the Kurosawa’s RAN. [R]▼● woman who’s buying the uncle’s market to Runaway (1984) C-100m. ★★ D: Michael fend off a local gang. Chan’s breakthrough Crichton. Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, film for the U.S. market is slim on story Gene Simmons, Kirstie Alley, Stan Shaw, (and even slimmer on credibility). From the Joey Cramer, G. W. Bailey. Futuristic comic’60s-style dubbing to the characterizations, book nonsense that actually takes itself serieverything is tacky but Jackie; still, he’s so ously. Selleck plays a cop who specializes in engaging he makes up for all the rest, with a tracking down robots that have gone ‘‘bad.’’ nonstop array of eye-popping stunts. The Simmons (from rock group KISS) is ultraskyline of Vancouver makes a shabby and bad-guy who uses robots and other high-tech rather silly substitute for the Bronx. Edited devices to carry out his evil deeds. Special for U.S. release. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 effects are good, but characters are cold and Rumor has it . . . (2005-U.S.-German) Cstory is for the birds. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 97m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob Reiner. Jennifer Aniston, Runaway Bride (1999) C-116m. ★★★ D: [ 1185 ]

Garry Marshall. Julia Roberts, Richard Gere, ance, William Hickey, Tim Ryan, Chris Joan Cusack, Hector Elizondo, Rita Wilson, Young, Alexander Godunov, Mitchell Paul Dooley, Christopher Meloni, Donal Laurence, Lawrence Tierney, Dawan Scott. Logue, Sela Ward. Slick romantic comedy An ancient stone, buried in North America about a newspaper columnist who becomes by Norsemen, is unearthed, and promptly intrigued by a small-town Maryland woman turns an archaeologist into an elaborate but who repeatedly leaves grooms at the altar. unconvincing monster, who slaughters a Reteaming of the stars and director of lot of people with no apparent goal in mind. PRETTY WOMAN delivers the goods, with Handsome production has some interesting Gere in particular more engaging than he’s moments, but the routine plot weighs it down. ever been onscreen. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 Adapted by the director from the novella by Mark E. Rogers. [R]▼● Runaway Jury (2003) C-127m. ★★★ D: Gary Fleder. John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Run Fatboy Run (2007-U.S.-British) C100m. ★★★ D: David Schwimmer. Simon Hoffman, Rachel Weisz, Bruce Davison, Bruce McGill, Jeremy Piven, Nick Searcy, Pegg, Thandie Newton, Hank Azaria, Dylan Jennifer Beals, Bill Nunn, Nora Dunn, StanMoran, Matthew Fenton, Harish Patel, ley Anderson, Cliff Curtis, Joanna Going, LeSimon Day, India de Beaufort, Ruth Sheen. land Orser, Orlando Jones, Celia Weston. Lovable loser leaves his pregnant fiance´e at Entertaining if longish adaptation of John the altar. Five years later he realizes the Grisham’s novel about a New Orleans lawerror of his ways and tries to win her back yer (Hoffman) whose client is suing a major from her slick new boyfriend—or at least gun manufacturer, claiming culpability for earn her respect—by impulsively deciding her husband’s murder. A cold-blooded jury to compete in a London marathon for which consultant (Hackman) is working the other he’s ill-prepared. Pegg (who wrote this with side, and there’s a wild card, juror Cusack, Michael Ian Black) somehow takes this fawho seems to have his own agenda. Finale miliar material, punctuated with the most doesn’t have the emotional punch it should, obvious gags, and makes it work. Feature but it’s such a treat to watch these actors at directing debut for Friends star Schwimwork it almost doesn’t matter. Dylan Mcmer. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Dermott and Luis Guzman appear unbilled. Run for Cover (1955) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Nicholas Ray. James Cagney, Viveca ★★★ Runaway Train (1985) C-111m. Lindfors, John Derek, Jean Hersholt, D: Andrei Konchalovsky. Jon Voight, Eric Ernest Borgnine. Offbeat Western has Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay, Kyle Heffner, ex-con Cagney becoming sheriff, while John P. Ryan, T. K. Carter, Kenneth Mchis embittered young companion (Derek) Millan, Stacey Pickren. A rare bird, this grows restive and antagonistic. Interesting film: an existential action movie! Hartouches cannot overcome familiar storydened criminal and young accomplice esline. Retitled: COLORADO. VistaVision. cape from prison and hide out on a train Run for the Sun (1956) C-99m. ★★★ D: that’s barreling through Alaska without an Roy Boulting. Richard Widmark, Jane engineer. Tough, violent, with hair-raising Greer, Trevor Howard, Peter Van Eyck, action footage and a superb characterizaCarlos Henning. Third version of THE tion by Voight in his most atypical role to MOST DANGEROUS GAME has author date. Based on a screenplay by Akira Widmark and magazine writer Greer Kurosawa. [R]▼●쩠 stumbling onto strange Mexican plantation Rundown, The (2003) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: run by mysterious Howard and Van Eyck. Peter Berg. The Rock, Seann William Scott, Engrossing, extremely well made film. SuRosario Dawson, Christopher Walken, perScope 235. Ewen Bremner, Jon Gries, William LuckRun Lola Run (1998-German) C-88m. ★★1 ing, Ernie Reyes, Jr., Stuart Wilson. The ⁄2 D: Tom Tykwer. Franka Potente, MoRock is a ‘‘retrieval expert’’ for a loan shark ritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup, Armin but wants to get out of the business and Rohde, Joachim Kro´l, Nina Petri. Hyperkiopen a restaurant; first he has to bring back netic, flashy concept film about a young his boss’s wayward son from some hellhole woman who tries to save her boyfriend, in the Amazon jungle. There he gets mixed who botched a drug deal, by finding up in a treasure hunt and runs afoul of an 100,000 marks in 20 minutes’ time. Style evil mine owner (Walken, playing another definitely outranks substance in this visually one of his patented eccentric slimeballs). arresting film, which presents three different This cheerfully derivative adventure is scenarios of what might happen, but it’s wearying after a while. [R]▼쩠 mindlessly entertaining but might have been better with a less campy approach and fewer Runner Stumbles, The (1979) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Stanley Kramer. Dick Van Dyke, slo-mo body-slammin’ fights and stunts. There’s an amusing cameo in the opening Kathleen Quinlan, Maureen Stapleton, Ray scene. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Bolger, Tammy Grimes, Beau Bridges. Runestone, The (1992) C-105m. ★★ D: Sober adaptation of Milan Stitt’s Broadway Willard Carroll. Peter Riegert, Joan Severplay, based on true story of small-town [ 1186 ]

priest accused of murdering young nun for FBI after 17 years—now with two kids in whom he’d shown unusual affection. Aloof tow, whose lives are stifled for the sake of and unconvincing, with Van Dyke unbearsheer survival. Quiet and believable throughably stiff as the clergyman. [PG]▼ out, with superior performances by all. WritRunning (1979-Canadian) C-103m. ★1⁄2 ten by Naomi Foner. [PG-13]▼●쩠 D: Steven Hilliard Stern. Michael DougRunning Scared (1986) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: las, Susan Anspach, Lawrence Dane, EuPeter Hyams. Gregory Hines, Billy Crysgene Levy, Charles Shamata. Douglas—32, tal, Steven Bauer, Darlanne Fluegel, Joe out of work and father of two daughters— Pantoliano, Dan Hedaya, Jonathan Gries, wants to run in the Olympics. A few yocks Tracy Reed, Jimmy Smits. Two longtime in this absurdly melodramatic jock drama, Chicago street cops (who act more like but not enough of them. [PG] Dead End Kids) decide maybe it’s time to Running Brave (1983-Canadian) C-105m. retire—but there’s one more scuzzbag to ★★1 track down first. Crystal lights up the ⁄2 D: D. S. Everett (Donald Shebib). Robby Benson, Pat Hingle, Claudia Cron, screen, and there’s a great car chase on the Jeff McCracken, August Schellenberg, Chicago El tracks, but otherwise this is Graham Greene. Story of real-life Olympretty blah. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 pic champion Billy Mills, who left the Running Scared (2006-U.S.-CanadianSioux reservation to find his destiny as a German) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Wayne Kramer. runner—and win a gold medal at the 1964 Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Vera FarTokyo Olympics. Modestly entertaining, miga, Karel Roden, Chazz Palminteri, but too corny and simplistic. [PG]▼●쩠 Johnny Messner. When the thuggish RusRunning Free (2000) C-82m. ★★ D: Sergei sian meth dealer next door is shot by his Bodrov. Chase Moore, Jan Decleir, Arie Verphysically abused stepson (Bright), Mob veen, Maria Geelbooi; narration by Lukas flunky Walker must retrieve the missing Haas. Anemic kiddie flick about a lonely foal gun or sleep with some Jersey fishes. The who befriends a plucky orphan in the South 10-year-old boy is then subjected to more African desert; a reminder that good horse acts of violence and scenes of depravity— movies are a rare breed. Exotic cinematogsome completely gratuitous—than most raphy can’t make up for awkward narration movies are ever asked to handle. Not withand editing, not to mention a less-thanout style, but violent and sordid. Super 35. [R]쩠 rousing storyline. Bodrov’s first Englishlanguage film is a real comedown from PRISRunning Time (1997) 70m. ★★★ D: Josh ONER OF THE MOUNTAINS. Produced by Becker. Bruce Campbell, Jeremy Roberts, Jean-Jacques Annaud (THE BEAR), who also Anita Barone, Stan Davis, Gordon Jennison, wrote the story. Super 35. [G]▼쩠 Art LeFleur. Smart, classical heist-goneRunning Man, The (1963-British) C-103m. wrong thriller made in the all-in-one-take ★★★ method of ROPE. Shot entirely on real locaD: Carol Reed. Laurence Harvey, Lee Remick, Alan Bates, Felix Aylmer, Eleations in the L.A. area, in gritty black and nor Summerfield, Allan Cuthbertson. Harwhite. Well acted, suspenseful, both realisvey fakes his death to collect insurance tic and romantic.▼쩠 money, but pursuing insurance investigaRunning Wild (1973) C-103m. ★★★ D: tor Bates forces him and wife Remick to Robert McCahon. Lloyd Bridges, Dina go on the lam in Spain. Entertaining but Merrill, Pat Hingle, Morgan Woodward, not suspenseful enough. Panavision. Gilbert Roland, Lonny Chapman, R. G. Running Man, The (1987) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Armstrong. Good family-oriented drama D: Paul Michael Glaser. Arnold Schwarzeabout a news photographer (Merrill) who negger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet protests treatment of wild horses while Kotto, Jim Brown, Richard Dawson, Jesse doing a story in Colorado. Beautiful sceVentura, Mick Fleetwood, Dweezil Zappa. nery complements solid script. [G]▼ It’s 2019, and the U.S. is a totalitarian Running with Scissors (2006) C-121m. ★★ state; framed mass murderer Arnie is orD: Ryan Murphy. Annette Bening, Gwydered to take part in a Most Dangerous neth Paltrow, Jill Clayburgh, Brian Cox, JoGame–type TV show where convicted felseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec ons get their one chance for freedom. Baldwin, Joseph Cross, Gabrielle Union, Relentlessly trashy picture gets big boost Kristin Chenoweth, Dagmara Doninczyk, from Dawson’s sleazy portrayal of the Beth Grant, Colleen Camp, Patrick Wilson. game-show host. Based on a novel by RichHighly uneven adaptation of Augusten Burard Bachman (Stephen King). [R]▼●쩠 roughs’ bestselling memoir about growing Running on Empty (1988) C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 up crazy—with a flamboyant, theatrical D: Sidney Lumet. Christine Lahti, River mother and a bizarre surrogate family Phoenix, Judd Hirsch, Martha Plimpton, headed by a crackpot psychiatrist (Cox). Jonas Arby, Ed Crowley, L.M. Kit CarAfter a sharp, funny opening it turns dark, son, Steven Hill, Augusta Dabney. Intwisted, and claustrophobic. Use of ’70s/ tense, moving story of onetime student ’80s pop recordings in the foreground radicals who are still on the run from the (rather than the background) of the sound[ 1187 ]

track is distracting, to say the least. Great performance piece for Bening, as the selfabsorbed mom, and Clayburgh, as Cox’s addled but good-hearted wife. Feature debut for writer-director Murphy, creator of TV’s Nip/Tuck. Super 35. [R]쩠 Run of the Arrow (1957) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Samuel Fuller. Rod Steiger, Sarita Montiel, Brian Keith, Ralph Meeker, Jay C. Flippen, Charles Bronson, Olive Carey, Colonel Tim McCoy. Confederate soldier (played by Steiger with a broad Irish brogue!) cannot accept surrender to the North, aligns himself instead with Sioux Indians after submitting to a grueling test of endurance. Intriguing if not entirely satisfying, with choppy continuity. Angie Dickinson reportedly dubbed Montiel’s voice. Video title: HOT LEAD. RKO-Scope.▼ Run of the Country, The (1995-U.S.British) C-109m. ★★ D: Peter Yates. Albert Finney, Matt Keeslar, Victoria Smurfit, Anthony Brophy, David Kelly, Dearbhla Molloy, Carole Nimmons, Vinnie McCabe, Clark Trevor. OK, plot-heavy, Irish family drama about the testy relationship between a widowed cop and his university-aged son who eventually gets involved with a woman who threatens dad’s plans. Film takes half its length to decide what it wants to be about. Super 35. [R]▼● Run Silent Run Deep (1958) 93m. ★★★ D: Robert Wise. Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Jack Warden, Brad Dexter, Nick Cravat, Mary LaRoche, Don Rickles, Eddie Foy III. Battle of wills between officers Gable and Lancaster on WW2 submarine is basis for interesting drama. Script by John Gay, from a novel by Commander Edward L. Beach. One of the great WW2 ‘‘sub’’ pictures.▼쩠 Run, Stranger, Run SEE: Happy Mother’s Day Love, George Runteldat (2002) C-103m. ★★ D: David Raynr. Martin Lawrence returns to his stand-up beginnings in this comedy concert, filmed in Washington, D.C. He announces he intends to deal with his life problems (drugs, etc.), but largely avoids accepting responsibility. Despite the rolling-in-theaisles response of the audience, it’s only occasionally funny; it lacks focus and a sense of purpose. (‘‘Runteldat’’ seems to mean ‘‘run tell that,’’ though its application is unclear.) Full title on-screen is MARTIN LAWRENCE LIVE: RUNTELDAT. [R]

Zanuck. Jason Patric, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sam Elliott, Max Perlich, Gregg Allman, Tony Frank, William Sadler. Gritty adaptation of Kim Wozencraft’s novel about a young woman recruited to be an undercover narc in 1970s Texas, joining a man who’s already a bit too strung out to be completely effective. First-time director Zanuck skillfully creates an oppressively seedy atmosphere, but can’t compensate for the fact that the story—if not the entire premise—of the film is unconvincing. Patric’s performance is a standout, ditto Eric Clapton’s striking score. [R]▼●쩠 Rush Hour (1998) C-98m. ★★★ D: Brett Ratner. Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, Elizabeth Pen˜a, Tom Wilkinson, Philip Baker Hall, Mark Rolston, Tzi Ma, Rex Linn, Chris Penn, Ken Leung, Barry Shabaka Henley. Enjoyable action no-brainer with Hong Kong detective Chan coming to L.A. to help his friend, the Chinese consul, rescue his kidnapped daughter. The FBI doesn’t want an outsider on the case, however, so they give him to cocky L.A. cop Tucker to baby-sit. Combination of buddy movie, fish-out-of-water comedy, and urban action thriller works well if you don’t demand a lot of logic. Followed by two sequels. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Rush Hour 2 (2001) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brett Ratner. Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Zhang Ziyi, Roselyn Sanchez, Harris Yulin, Alan King, Kenneth Tsang, Jeremy Piven, Saul Rubinek. Sequel coasts on the formula—and goodwill—of the original, with the stars’ personalities carrying a wafer-thin plot. Tucker vacations in Hong Kong and gets involved with Chan’s investigation of a crimelord (Lone), which leads them to L.A. and Las Vegas. Some good stunt sequences sprinkled in among the comedy. Don Cheadle appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Rush Hour 3 (2007) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brett Ratner. Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Max von Sydow, Hiroyuki Sanada, Youki Kudoh, Yvan Attal, Noe´mie Lenoir, Jingchu Zhang, Tzi Ma, Dana Ivey, Julie Depardieu, Henry O. An ambassador is gunned down in L.A. while Chan is guarding him. Tucker (now directing traffic) insists on joining him on a trek to Paris to uncover the plot behind this assassination, which is linked to the deadly Chinese Triads. Chan’s agile antics and likability and Tucker’s machine-gun bursts of dialogue mesh well for a third time, though it all becomes out▼쩠 Run Wild, Run Free (1969-British) Clandishly silly by the climax. Philip Baker 1 ★★ 100m. ⁄2 D: Richard C. Sarafian. John Hall and Roman Polanski (!) appear unMills, Mark Lester, Sylvia Syms, Gordon billed. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Jackson, Bernard Miles, Fiona Fullerton. Rushmore (1998) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wes Good cast helps leisurely, but better-thanAnderson. Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, usual children’s film about young mute Olivia Williams, Seymour Cassel, Brian Cox, and his love for a white colt; nice subdued Mason Gamble, Sara Tanaka, Stephen photography by Wilkie Cooper. [G] McCole, Connie Nielsen, Luke Wilson, AnRush (1991) C-120m. ★★ D: Lili Fini drew Wilson. The saga of a bona fide oddball [ 1188 ]

who thrives on life at Rushmore prep school Arkin and Winters. Script by William Rose in Houston, but complicates his life by fallfrom Nathaniel Benchley’s novel The Offing in love with a first-grade teacher (WilIslanders. Alan Arkin’s starring film debut. Panavision. ▼●쩠 liams) and befriending a local tycoon (Murray) who feels a kinship with this Russicum SEE: Third Solution, The Russkies (1987) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Rick young iconoclast. A genuine original, full of keen observational humor and detail, with Rosenthal. Whip Hubley, Leaf (Joaquin) characters that always ring true. RemarkPhoenix, Peter Billingsley, Stefan DeSalle, able debut performance by Schwartzman Susan Walters, Patrick Kilpatrick, Vic Pol(son of Talia Shire), and a perfect showcase izos, Charles Frank, Susan Blanchard, Carole for Murray. Written by Anderson and Owen King, Summer Phoenix. Feeble reworking of Wilson. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE Russia House, The (1990) C-123m. ★★ RUSSIANS ARE COMING about Soviet D: Fred Schepisi. Sean Connery, Michelle sailor Hubley, washed ashore in Florida, Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox, Klaus and the trio of youngsters who befriend him. Maria Brandauer, John Mahoney, Michael Well meaning in its message of fellowship, Kitchen, J. T. Walsh, Ken Russell, David but slight. [PG]▼●쩠 Threlfall, Ian McNeice, Christopher LawRustlers’ Rhapsody (1985) C-88m. ★★ ford. John le Carre´ yarn (adapted by Tom D: Hugh Wilson. Tom Berenger, G. W. Stoppard) contends that the business of Bailey, Marilu Henner, Andy Griffith, Ferspying is alive and well—in spite of nando Rey, Sela Ward, Patrick Wayne. glasnost. Connery plays a British pubGood-natured but only sporadically funny lisher drawn into espionage by a Soviet send-up of Saturday matinee Westerns. If woman (Pfeiffer), who acts as emissary the old cowboy movies were this dull, they for a volatile friend. Alternately tedious never would have survived. [PG]▼●쩠 and intriguing, but it never catches fire. Rust Never Sleeps (1979) C-103m. ★★★ Fox is a standout as a British intelligence D: Bernard Shakey (Neil Young). Raggedofficer. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 out but rousing record of Neil Young in Russian Ark (2002-Russian-German) Cconcert, with 16 well-performed tunes by 95m. ★★★ D: Alexander Sokurov. Sergei rockdom’s most lovable downer. My My, Dreiden, Maria Kuznetsova, Leonid MozgoHey, Hey. [PG]▼쩠 voy, David Giorgobiani, Alexander Chaban, Ruthless (1948) 104m. ★★★ D: Edgar G. Maxim Sergeyev. Remarkable technical tour Ulmer. Zachary Scott, Louis Hayward, de force is the first feature-length film shot Diana Lynn, Sydney Greenstreet, Lucille in one single take, a steadicam shot moving Bremer, Martha Vickers, Raymond Burr. through more than 30 rooms of St. PetersScott steps on everyone to become big shot burg’s Hermitage museum (with some in this engrossing drama. Greenstreet is especially good as Southern tycoon.쩠 2,000 extras), as director Sokurov tries to tie three centuries of Russian history toRuthless Four, The (1968-Italian-German) gether. The result is an almost surreal jourC-96m. ★★★ D: Giorgio Capitani. Van ney through the ages. A must-see for Heflin, Gilbert Roland, George Hilton, anyone interested in cinema’s seemingly Klaus Kinski, Sarah Ross. Good Western limitless possibilities. ▼쩠 explores the complicated relationships of Russian Roulette (1975) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: four dubious partners in a Nevada gold Lou Lombardo. George Segal, Cristina mine. Apart from the action, it’s a pleaRaines, Bo Brundin, Denholm Elliott, Gorsure just to watch Heflin and Roland. Aka don Jackson, Peter Donat, Louise FletchEVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, EACH er, Val Avery. Assassins threaten to kill ONE FOR HIMSELF, and SAM COOSoviet premier Kosygin during his trip to PER’S GOLD. Techniscope. [M/PG] ▼쩠 Vancouver; Segal is assigned to capture Ruthless People (1986) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: elusive troublemaker thought to be the Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. hit-man in this violent, unsatisfying thrillDanny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reiner. Filmed in Canada. [PG]▼ hold, Helen Slater, Anita Morris, Bill PullRussians Are Coming, The Russians Are man, William G. Schilling, Art Evans. Wealthy DeVito plans to murder his obComing, The (1966) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Jewison. Carl Reiner, Eva Marie noxious wife—unaware that at that moSaint, Alan Arkin, Brian Keith, Jonathan ment she’s being kidnapped, and equally Winters, Paul Ford, Theodore Bikel, Tessie unaware that his paramour plans to take O’Shea, John Phillip Law, Ben Blue, Anhim for his dough. Clever farce written by drea Dromm, Dick Schaal, Parker Fennelly, Dale Launer has lots of laughs, bright Doro Merande, Johnnie Whitaker, Michael performances, but turns sour: these really are unpleasant people! [R]▼●쩠 J. Pollard. Popular comedy about Russian submarine that lands off New England RV (2006) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barry Sonnencoast was incredibly overrated in 1966; feld. Robin Williams, Jeff Daniels, Cheryl now it’s merely a TV sitcom saved by Hines, Kristin Chenoweth, Joanna ‘‘JoJo’’ pretty photography and good comic bits by Levesque, Josh Hutcherson, Will Arnett, [ 1189 ]

Tony Hale. Beleaguered husband and dad takes his fractured family on a camping trip in an unwieldy recreational vehicle—and tries to sneak in some work for his demanding boss on the q.t. Obvious in every way but still pretty funny at times. Daniels and Chenoweth are a hoot as a dense downhome couple that Williams and family encounter on the road and can’t get rid of. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Ryan’s Daughter (1970-British) C-194m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: David Lean. Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard, Sarah Miles, Christopher Jones, John Mills, Leo McKern, Barry Foster. Simple love story blown up to gargantuan proportions in western coastal Ireland, where young girl (Miles) marries simple, plodding schoolteacher (Mitchum) and has affair with British soldier (Jones) stationed in town. Elephantine production overpowers Robert Bolt’s thin story, admittedly beautiful scenes dwarfing what plot there is. Mills won Oscar in supporting role as the town idiot, as did—most deservedly— cinematographer Freddie Young. Re-edited after film’s debut; original running time 206m. Super Panavision 70. [PG]▼●쩠

actual story resolution is unfortunately abrupt. Screenplay by Peter Viertel, Joan Harrison, and Dorothy Parker.▼●쩠 Saboteur, Code Name Morituri, The (1965) 123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bernhard Wicki. Marlon Brando, Yul Brynner, Janet Margolin, Trevor Howard, Wally Cox, William Redfield, Carl Esmond. Brando highlights great cast in study of anti-Nazi German who helps British capture cargo ship. Cast and Conrad Hall’s photography are only assets; script degenerates. Originally released as MORITURI.▼쩠 Sabrina (1954) 113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Billy Wilder. Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, William Holden, John Williams, Francis X. Bushman, Martha Hyer, Nancy Kulp. Samuel Taylor’s play Sabrina Fair is good vehicle for Hepburn as chauffeur’s daughter romanced by aging tycoon Bogart to keep her from his playboy brother (Holden). Offbeat casting works in this fun film. Screenplay by Ernest Lehman, Billy Wilder, and Taylor. Remade in 1995. ▼●쩠 Sabrina (1995) C-127m. ★★★ D: Sydney Pollack. Harrison Ford, Julia Ormond, Greg Kinnear, Nancy Marchand, John Wood, Richard Crenna, Angie Dickinson, Lauren Holly, Saadia (1953) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Albert Lewin. Dana Ivey, Miriam Colon, Elizabeth Franz, Cornel Wilde, Mel Ferrer, Rita Gam, Cyril Fanny Ardant, Paul Giamatti. Enjoyable (if Cusack, Richard Johnson. Misfire; inteloverlong) remake of the 1954 movie about a lectual story of modernistic Moroccan ruler chauffeur’s daughter with a lifelong crush on and doctor vying for love of superstitious the handsome younger brother in the wealthy native dancing girl. household where her father works. When he ★★ Sabata (1969-Italian-Spanish) C-107m. finally shows some interest in her, his older sibD: Frank Kramer (Gianfranco Parolini). ling tries to woo her away—for strictly busiLee Van Cleef, William Berger, Franco ness reasons. Credible cast (including Kinnear Ressel, Linda Veras, Pedro Sanchez (Ignazio in an impressive film debut), sure-handed diSpalla). First of three spaghetti Westerns rection and a very funny script by Barbara is the best, though that isn’t saying much. Benedek and David Rayfiel. The Paris scenes are especially lovely. [PG] ▼●쩠 Van Cleef plays a gambler hired by a trio of nasty businessmen to steal $100,000. Sacco and Vanzetti (1971-French-Italian) C-120m. ★1⁄2 D: Giuliano Montaldo. Gian Needless to say, the transaction becomes trickier than they expected. Sequel: ADIOS, Maria Volonte, Riccardo Cucciolla, Milo SABATA. Techniscope. [PG]쩠 O’Shea, Cyril Cusack, Rosanna Fratello, Sabotage (1936-British) 76m. ★★★ D: AlGeoffrey Keen. Classic tale of American fred Hitchcock. Sylvia Sidney, Oscar miscarriage of justice cries for cinematic Homolka, John Loder, Desmond Tester, treatment, but this version makes South Joyce Barbour. Elaborately detailed thriller Braintree, Massachusetts, look like a town about woman who suspects that her kindly in a Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western. husband (Homolka), a movie theater manJoan Baez sings title song. [PG]▼쩠 ager, is keeping something from her. Full of Sacred Ground (1983) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: intriguing Hitchcock touches. Based on JoCharles B. Pierce. Tim McIntire, Jack seph Conrad’s Secret Agent, originally retitled Elam, Serene Hedin, Mindi Miller, Eloy A WOMAN ALONE for the U.S. ▼●쩠 Phil Casados, L. Q. Jones. Fair drama of Saboteur (1942) 108m. ★★★ D: Alfred turmoil resulting when mountain man Hitchcock. Robert Cummings, Priscilla McIntire, his Apache wife and baby settle Lane, Norman Lloyd, Otto Kruger, Alan on holy Paiute burial ground. [PG]▼ Baxter, Alma Kruger, Dorothy Peterson, Sacred Hearts (1985-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 Vaughan Glaser. Extremely offbeat warD: Barbara Rennie. Anna Massey, Katrin time Hitchcock yarn about a munitions Cartlidge, Oona Kirsch, Fiona Shaw, Anne worker who’s falsely accused of sabotage and Dyson, Gerard Murphy, Murray Melvin. Reforced to take it on the lam. Full of quirky pressive, tyrannical Sister Thomas (Massey) touches, unusual supporting characters, and ignores the questions, feelings, and fears of some outstanding set pieces, including faher young charges in a convent as the bombs mous Statue of Liberty finale . . . though explode around them in WW2 Britain. Some[ 1190 ]

times quietly stimulating but also slow and Safe (1995) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd predictable; occasional bits of humor help.쩠 Haynes. Julianne Moore, Xander Berkeley, Sacrifice, The (1986-Swedish-French) Peter Friedman, James Le Gros, Mary C-145m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrei Tarkovsky. Erland Carver, Jessica Harper, Brandon Cruz. Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Valerie MaireWell-to-do L.A. housewife becomes allersse, Allan Edwall, Gundun Gisladottir. A catagic to her own environment when almost clysmic event occurs during the birthday overnight everyday household chemicals festivities of intellectual Josephson, who as a and substances turn into toxins. Intriguing result becomes compelled to perform an act allegorical approach to society’s ills—based of faith. Slow, overly intense, but beautifully on a factual case—never really jells, and filmed (by Sven Nykvist) examination of the second half, set at a New Mexico retreat, need for, and lack of, spirituality in modern grows tiresome. Notable mainly for society. Decidedly not for all tastes. TarkovMoore’s terrific performance. [R]▼●쩠 sky’s final film. [PG] ▼●쩠 Safe at Home! (1962) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: WalSaddest Music in the World, The (2004ter Doniger. Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Canadian) C/B&W-99m. ★★ D: Guy Maddin. William Frawley, Patricia Barry, Don Collier, Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Maria Bryan Russell. Kid is pressured into lying to de Madeiros, David Fox, Ross McMillan, Little League pals about friendship with M& Darcy Fehr. Deliriously bizarre film pays M. The stoic poetry of Jack Webb’s acting homage to 1930s moviemaking with a twisted pales beside that of Maris’ in this kiddie timesensibility: Rossellini (in a platinum wig) capsule; leads, cameos by Whitey Ford and plays the legless boss of a popular brewery Ralph Houk make it a must for Yankee that sponsors an international competition fans . . . if no one else. ▼쩠 to find the saddest music in the world. The Safe Conduct (2002-French) C-163m. ★★★1 big-money prize inspires cutthroat competi⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Jacques Gamtion from all the competing countries. Intenblin, Denis Podalyde`s, Christian Berkel, tionally blurs the line between melodrama Marie Gillain, Charlotte Kady, Marie Desand camp, with dreamlike images and ideas granges, Maria Pitarresi, Thierry Gibault. typical of Maddin’s work. [R] ▼쩠 Long, ambitious, and heroic film about two ★★★ Saddle the Wind (1958) C-84m. men who struggle to maintain their integrity D: Robert Parrish. Robert Taylor, Julie Lonwhile working in the French film industry don, John Cassavetes, Donald Crisp, Charles during WW2, under the supervision of the McGraw, Royal Dano. Well-acted WestGermans. Real names and incidents are ern of turned-good rancher (Taylor) fated to used in this panoramic and surprisingly hushoot it out with brother (Cassavetes). If morous story of courage and absurdity in a you’ve ever wondered what a Western writtime of cowardice and crisis. Written by ten by Rod Serling would be like, here’s Tavernier and Jean Cosmos, based on the your chance. CinemaScope.쩠 recollections of Jean Aurenche and Jean Sadie McKee (1934) 92m. ★★★ D: ClarDevaivre. Super 35.▼쩠 ence Brown. Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Safecracker, The (1958-British) 96m. ★★ Gene Raymond, Edward Arnold, Esther RalD: Ray Milland. Ray Milland, Barry Jones, ston, Leo G. Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, Gene Jeannette Sterke, Ernest Clark, Melissa Austin. Solidly entertaining film follows serStribling, Victor Maddern. Contrived story pentine story of working-girl Crawford and of burglar who almost goes straight, later the three men in her life: smooth-talking Rayforced to use his talents for war effort. Safe Men (1998) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: John mond, tipsy millionaire Arnold, earnest employer Tone. Beautifully paced, handsomely Hamburg. Sam Rockwell, Steve Zahn, Mifilmed. Song: ‘‘All I Do Is Dream of You,’’ chael Lerner, Harvey Fierstein, Mark Ruffalo, plus amusing rendition of ‘‘After You’ve Josh Pais, Paul Giamatti, Christina Kirk, Allen Gone’’ by Austin, Candy Candido. ▼●쩠 Swift. Amusing if flyweight low-budget comSadist, The (1963) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: James edy about a couple of guys—who’ve never Landis. Arch Hall, Jr., Helen Hovey, Richmade good at anything—who are mistaken ard Alden, Marilyn Manning. Taut little B for ace safecrackers by small-time hood Lerpicture about a psychotic punk who terrorner, who puts them to work. Colorful charizes three innocent people at a roadside gas acterizations by Lerner, Fierstein, and station. Hall is distressingly believable as Giamatti add zip to this offbeat concoction the psycho. Imaginatively shot by Vilmos set in Providence, R.I. Feature debut for writer-director Hamburg. [R] ▼●쩠 (billed as William) Zsigmond. Retitled PROFILE OF TERROR.▼쩠 Safe Passage (1994) C-98m. ★★ D: Robert Sad Sack, The (1957) 98m. ★★ D: George Allan Ackerman. Susan Sarandon, Sam ShepMarshall. Jerry Lewis, Phyllis Kirk, David ard, Nick Stahl, Marcia Gay Harden, Robert Wayne, Peter Lorre, Gene Evans, Mary Sean Leonard, Sean Astin, Matt Keeslar, JefTreen. Disjointed comedy vaguely based frey DeMunn, Philip Bosco, Jason London, on George Baker comic strip of Army Rutanya Alda. Self-consciously predictable, misfit. Lorre appears as Arab in last part of TV movie-ish portrait of a dysfunctional film. VistaVision▼ family, with Sarandon (solid as usual) as a [ 1191 ]

woman, estranged from her husband, who’s Sahara (2005-U.S.-British-Spanish-German) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Breck Eisner. Matthew placed her life on hold while raising seven sons. The family pulls together when it McConaughey, Pene´lope Cruz, Steve Zahn, learns that one of the boys may have been William H. Macy, Delroy Lindo, Lambert killed. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wilson, Glynn Turman, Rainn Wilson. Dirk ★★ Safe Place, A (1971) C-94m. Pitt (McConaughey) and his lifelong ex–Navy D: Henry Jaglom. Tuesday Weld, Jack Nicholson, SEAL pal Al (Zahn) set off in search of a Orson Welles, Philip Proctor, Gwen Welles. Civil War ironclad that they believe made its Spaced-out, water-logged fantasy of weird way to the River Niger. Along the way girl who lives in dream world where she they’re joined by a World Health Organizacan never grow up. [PG]쩠 tion doctor who’s trying to contain a possible Safety Last (1923) 78m. ★★★ D: Fred plague in the country of Mali, where all three Newmeyer, Sam Taylor. Harold Lloyd, discover they’re facing formidable opposition. Mildred Davis, Bill Strothers, Noah Young. Old-fashioned high adventure adapted from Crackerjack silent comedy about go-getter one of Clive Cussler’s popular Pitt novels has Harold determined to make good in the big lots of action but an inconsistent tone and too city includes his justly famous buildingmuch plot. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 climbing sequence—still hair-raising after Sail a Crooked Ship (1962) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: all these years.▼쩠 Irving S. Brecher. Robert Wagner, Ernie KoSafety of Objects, The (2003) C-120m. vacs, Dolores Hart, Carolyn Jones, Frankie ★★1 ⁄2 D: Rose Troche. Glenn Close, Dermot Avalon, Frank Gorshin, Harvey Lembeck. Mulroney, Jessica Campbell, Patricia ClarkBungled crime-caper comedy has hilarious son, Joshua Jackson, Moira Kelly, Robert moments, but not enough to make it a winner. Based on a Nathaniel Benchley novel. ▼ Klein, Timothy Olyphant, Mary Kay Place, Kristen Stewart, Alex House. Ambitious adSailor Beware (1951) 108m. ★★★ D: Hal aptation (by Troche) of A. M. Homes’ collecWalker. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Corinne tion of short stories about suburban families Calvet, Marion Marshall, Robert Strauss, whose lives are linked by one tragic incident. Vince Edwards; guest, Betty Hutton. HilariClose is a mother clinging to her son, who’s ous adventures of Martin & Lewis in the on life support; Mulroney has run out on his Navy. Induction scenes, boxing sequence are job but can’t tell his family; Place is a restless highlights in one of the team’s funniest outwife and mother who fancies a fling. Superior ings. James Dean can be glimpsed in the boxacting gives this uneven film a built-in level ing scene. Remake of THE FLEET’S IN.쩠 of interest, but as the pieces of its puzzle come Sailor From Gibraltar, The (1967-British) together they don’t create a satisfying whole. 89m. ★★ D: Tony Richardson. Jeanne MoShot in 2001. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 reau, Ian Bannen, Vanessa Redgrave, Zia Saga of Gosta Berling, The SEE: AtoneMohyeddin, Hugh Griffith, Orson Welles, ment of Gosta Berling, The Umberto Orsini, Eleanor Bron, John Hurt. Saga of the Viking Women and Their Uneven adaptation of Marguerite Duras’ Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea novel has Moreau (who even gets to warSerpent, The SEE: Viking Women and ble a song) as the mythical nymphomaniac the Sea Serpent wandering the seas in search of reunion Sahara (1943) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zoltan Korda. with her dream sailor. Boasts an intriguing Humphrey Bogart, Bruce Bennett, J. Carrol cast, but Richardson’s handheld camera and Naish, Lloyd Bridges, Rex Ingram, Richard other 1960s techniques have badly dated. Nugent, Dan Duryea, Kurt Kreuger. Excellent Sailor of the King (1953-U.S.-British) actioner of British-American unit stranded in 83m. ★★★ D: Roy Boulting. Jeffrey HuntSahara desert in the path of Nazi infantry; er, Michael Rennie, Wendy Hiller, Bernard Bogie’s the sergeant, with fine support by Lee, Peter Van Eyck. Solid WW2 naval acNaish and Ingram. Based on the 1937 Russian tion story, based on C. S. Forester novel film THE THIRTEEN (and reminiscent of Brown on Resolution, with Hunter rising to THE LOST PATROL); also made as NINE challenge when opportunity arises to attack MEN and LAST OF THE COMANCHES; German raider. British title: SINGLE imitated many other times. Remade for cableHANDED. Filmed before in 1935.쩠 TV in 1995 with James Belushi. ▼●쩠 Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, The (1976-British) C-104m. ★★★ D: Sahara (1984) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrew V. McLaglen. Brooke Shields, Lambert Lewis John Carlino. Sarah Miles, Kris Wilson, Horst Buchholz, John Rhys-Davies, Kristofferson, Jonathan Kahn, Margo Ronald Lacey, John Mills, Steve Forrest, Cunningham, Earl Rhodes. A troubled, Perry Lang, Cliff Potts. Tacky modern variaimpressionable boy tries to deal with his tion on THE PERILS OF PAULINE with widowed mother’s love affair with an amiaBrooke filling in for her late father in free-forble sailor, and falls under the influence of all auto race across North African desert in the a morbid young friend. Passionate love 1920s, being kidnapped by handsome desert scenes and a bizarre ending highlight this sheik. Any resemblance to a good movie is unusual film, beautifully shot by Douglas just a mirage. J-D-C Scope. [PG] ▼ Slocombe on English seacoast locations. [ 1192 ]

Adapted by the director from a novel by any film in his camera. Despite impressive Yukio Mishima. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 location footage and a downbeat concluSaint, The series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s sion, this (barely released) film seems slick and old-Hollywood. [R]▼● Classic Movie Guide Saint, The (1997) C-116m. ★★ D: Phillip Saint Ralph (2005-Canadian) C-98m. ★★★ Noyce. Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade D: Michael McGowan. Adam Butcher, Serbedzija, Valery Nikolaev, Henry GoodCampbell Scott, Jennifer Tilly, Gordon man, Alun Armstrong, Emily Mortimer. Pinsent, Shauna MacDonald, Tamara Hope, Spy for hire and master of disguises Simon Frank Crudele, Michael Kanev. In Hamilton, Templar agrees to steal a fusion formula for Ontario, ambitious 14-year-old Catholic a controversial Russian leader—but falls in schooler Ralph Walker (Butcher) sets his love with the beautiful professor who sights on winning the 1954 Boston Marathon, cooked up the recipe. Fanciful, globe-trothoping to awaken his comatose mother ting action adventure is fun at first but through the miracle of his victory. Neither throws credibility out the window early on, snow nor sleet nor a sternly disapproving and only gets dumber. And how many endheadmaster can knock him off track. Scott ings are we supposed to sit through? Bears and Tilly are outstanding as his skeptical but little resemblance to Leslie Charteris’ hero. supportive coaches in this comic, touching, Listen for the voice on the radio in the final pint-sized CHARIOTS OF FIRE. Based on a true story; written by the director. [PG-13]쩠 scene, if you make it that far. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Salaam Bombay! (1988-Indian-British) C-113m. ★★★ D: Mira Nair. Shafiq Syed, Saint Ex (1995-British) C/B&W-86m. ★★★ D: Anand Tucker. Bruno Ganz, Miranda Sarfuddin Quarrassi, Raju Barnad, Raghubir Richardson, Janet McTeer, Ken Stott, Brid Yadav, Aneeta Kanwar. Gut-wrenching Brennan, Eleanor Bron, Katrin Cartlidge, chronicle of young country boy Syed and Anna Calder-Marshall. A self-described his various experiences among the street ‘‘work of imagination,’’ poetic and surreal, hustlers, drug peddlers, and prostitutes of freely inspired by the life of Antoine de Bombay. Unravels as a novel, with a galSaint-Exupe´ry. Not your standard screen bilery of vividly drawn supporting characters. Fine feature debut for director Nair.▼●쩠 ography, as the dramatic narrative is interspersed with interviews of real people who Salamander, The (1981-U.S.-BritishItalian) C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Zinner. knew the famed aviator and author of The Little Prince. A telling and heartfelt tale of Franco Nero, Anthony Quinn, Martin Balsam, a fascinating man. Richardson plays the Sybil Danning, Christopher Lee, Cleavon Litspirited and independent-minded woman tle, Paul Smith, Claudia Cardinale, Eli Walwho is the love of his life. [PG]▼ lach. Colonel Nero attempts to prevent a Saint Jack (1979) C-112m. ★★★ D: Peter fascist coup d’etat in Italy. A cornball script Bogdanovich. Ben Gazzara, Denholm Elsinks this potentially intriguing drama, from a liott, James Villiers, Joss Ackland, RodMorris West novel.▼쩠 ney Bewes, George Lazenby, Lisa Lu, Peter Sallah (1965-Israeli) C-105m. ★★★ D: Bogdanovich. Absorbing character study of Ephraim Kishon. Haym Topol, Geula Noni, an amiable, ambitious pimp who thrives in Gila Almagor, Arik Einstein, Shraga FriedSingapore during early 1970s. Fine perman, Esther Greenberg. Topol is amusing formances from Gazzara and Elliott, exas an Oriental Jew who emigrates to Israel cellent use of location milieu. From a Paul with his wife and seven children and is forTheroux novel. [R]▼쩠 ever scheming to improve his lot. A modest, Saint Joan (1957) 110m. ★★ D: Otto lighthearted, thoroughly enjoyable satire.▼ Preminger. Jean Seberg, Richard Widmark, Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975Richard Todd, Anton Walbrook, John GielItalian) C-117m. BOMB D: Pier Paolo gud, Felix Aylmer, Harry Andrews, Barry Pasolini. Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Jones, Finlay Currie, Bernard Miles, Margot Umberto P. Quinavalle, Aldo Valletti, Grahame. Big-scale filming of Shaw’s play Caterina Boratto. Controversial, disturbing sounded large thud when released; some good adaptation of de Sade’s novel, set during acting, but Seberg (who won her first film role WW2 in Italy, where Fascist rulers brutalize after a nationwide search) not suited to film’s and degrade adolescents. Sadism, scatology, tempo, throws production askew. Script by and debauchery galore; Pasolini, whose Graham Greene. Also shown in computer-collast film this is, wallows in his own sensationalism.▼●쩠 ored version. ▼● Saint of Fort Washington, The (1993) CSalome (1953) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: William 108m. ★★ D: Tim Hunter. Matt Dillon, Dieterle. Rita Hayworth, Stewart Granger, Danny Glover, Rick Aviles, Nina SiemasCharles Laughton, Judith Anderson, Cedric zko, Ving Rhames, Joe Seneca. Sincere but Hardwicke, Maurice Schwartz. Great cast undistinguished portrayal of N.Y.C.’s homestruggles with unintentionally funny script less, with Glover showing the ropes to new in biblical drama of illustrious dancer who friend Dillon, a mentally impaired youth offers herself to spare John the Baptist. who snaps photographic studies without Filmed before with Nazimova in 1923.▼쩠 [ 1193 ]

Salome’s Last Dance (1988-British) C-90m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ken Russell. Glenda Jackson,Stratford Johns, Nickolas Grace, Imogen Millais-Scott, Douglas Hodge. As Oscar Wilde lounges in a brothel (the same one where his subsequent arrest would lead to his downfall), the proprietor stages a production of the playwright’s title work, with Salome, Herod, John the Baptist and Co. all strutting their stuff. Typical Russell litmus test for one’s tolerance of the outrageous, butwittier and less oppressive than some of the director’s other historical pageants. Grace’s weak Wilde aside, the actors do remarkably well under the circumstances. [R]

D.J. Caruso. Val Kilmer, Vincent D’Onofrio, Adam Goldberg, Luis Guzman, Doug Hutchison, Anthony LaPaglia, Glenn Plummer, Peter Sarsgaard, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West, B.D. Wong, R. Lee Ermey, Shirley Knight, Meat Loaf, Danny Trejo. Dreadful film noir–ish thriller with Kilmer as a druggie who’s actually a rat for the LAPD . . . or is he? Cluttered story about chance and revenge has more scummy characters than any audience should have to encounter in one movie. [R]▼쩠 Salty O’Rourke (1945) 99m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Alan Ladd, Gail Russell, William Demarest, Stanley Clements, Bruce Cabot, ▼●쩠 Salon, The (2007) C-99m. ★★ D: Mark Spring Byington. Lively tale of smooth Brown. Vivica A. Fox, Darrin Henson, Kym con man Ladd aiming to clean up with Whitley, Dondre Whitfield, De’Angelo Wiljockey Clements, who turns out to be a son, Monica Calhoun, Taral Hicks, Garrett large headache. Schoolteacher Russell steps Morris, Brooke Burns, Terrence Howard. in to foil Ladd’s plans. Preachy variation on BARBERSHOP about Salute of the Jugger SEE: Blood of Hethe employees of an inner-city Baltimore roes, The women’s hair salon. While servicing their Salut l’Artiste (1974-French) C-102m. ★★★ customers they gossip, complain, and argue; D: Yves Robert. Marcello Mastroianni, then they learn the government wants to Jean Rochefort, Franc¸oise Fabian, Carla demolish the shop and replace it with a muGravina. Light comedy about second-rate nicipal parking lot. Not so much a movie as actors Mastroianni and Rochefort; the fora soapbox for its characters, too many of mer scampers about while going nowhere; them stereotypes; the street wino is particuthe latter opts out for an ad executive job. larly annoying. Fox coproduced; Brown, Amusing, with first-rate cast and perforwho also scripted, was the cowriter of mances.▼ BARBERSHOP. Based on Shelly Garrett’s Salvador (1986) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Oliver play Beauty Shop. [PG-13]쩠 Stone. James Woods, James Belushi, MiSalsa (1988) C-97m. ★★ D: Boaz Davidchael Murphy, John Savage, Elpedia Carson. Robby Rosa, Rodney Harvey, Magali rillo, Tony Plana, Colby Chester, Cindy Alvarado, Miranda Garrison, Moon Orona, (Cynthia) Gibb, John Doe. Uneven but Angela Alvarado, Celia Cruz, Tito Puente. compelling drama based on real experiAll flash and no substance in this DIRTY ences of journalist Richard Boyle in strifeDANCING–inspired feature-length music ridden El Salvador in 1980–81. Effective video with a Latin beat. Rosa (of the pop propaganda, often potent drama; it takes group Menudo) stars as a young auto retime to grab hold because lead characters pairman who’d much rather be shaking his Woods and Belushi are such incredible body to salsa. Main problem: Where’s sleazeballs. Woods’ dynamic performance the script? [PG]▼●쩠 makes up for a lot; his first visit to confesSalt and Pepper (1968-British) C-101m. sion in 32 years is a memorably funny ★★1 scene. Screenplay by Boyle himself and di⁄2 D: Richard Donner. Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Michael Bates, Ilona rector Stone. [R]▼●쩠 Rodgers, John LeMesurier. Soho nightclub Salvation! (1987) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Beth B. owners find trouble when two baddies turn Stephen McHattie, Dominique Davalos, up at their club. Contrived, broad comedy. Exene Cervenka, Viggo Mortensen, Rockets Redglare, Billy Bastani. Satire of false Sequel: ONE MORE TIME. [G]쩠 1 ★★★ Salt of the Earth (1953) 94m. TV evangelist (McHattie) who gets involved ⁄2 D: Herbert Biberman. Juan Chacon, Rosaura in a sex incident, was released right after the Revueltas, Will Geer, Mervin Williams, Jim & Tammy Bakker scandal. UnfortuFrank Talavera, Clinton Jencks, Virginia nately, underground filmmaker Beth B directs Jencks. Earnest film about Latino mine in the manner of an incoherent music video, workers in New Mexico who go on strike— swamping McHattie’s convincing central in spite of the tremendous hardships it performance (resembling a young John Carcauses. This film is particularly impressive radine). [R]▼ considering its history—made under diffiSalvatore Giuliano (1962-Italian) 125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Francesco Rosi. Frank Wolff, cult conditions (and on a shoestring), with many nonprofessional actors, by blacklisted Salvo Randone, Federico Zardi, Pietro filmmakers. Produced by Paul Jarrico and Cammarata, Fernando Cicero. Vivid, docuwritten by Michael Wilson, two of Hollymentary-like drama, told in flashback, dewood’s more prominent blacklistees.▼●쩠 picts the career of an infamous post-WW2 Salton Sea, The (2002) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Sicilian criminal who rose through the ranks [ 1194 ]

of organized crime, becoming a Mafia Sammy Going South SEE: Boy Ten Feet chieftain. This fact-based tale intricately Tall, A weaves a story of political and governmenSamson and Delilah (1949) C-128m. ★★★ tal bureaucracy; it resulted in a real-life inD: Cecil B. DeMille. Victor Mature, Hedy vestigation of Mafia activities in Italy. Lamarr, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Remade as THE SICILIAN.쩠 Henry Wilcoxon, Olive Deering, Fay Holden, Salzburg Connection, The (1972) C-92m. Russell (Russ) Tamblyn, George Reeves, ★1⁄2 D: Lee H. Katzin. Barry Newman, Tom Tyler, Fritz Leiber, Mike Mazurki. With Anna Karina, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Karen expected DeMille touches, this remains a treJensen, Joe Maross, Wolfgang Preiss. Termendously entertaining film. Mature is surrible film version of Helen MacInnes’ bestprisingly good as Samson, though his famous seller about American lawyer on vacation fight with lion is hopelessly phony; also diffiin Salzburg who gets mixed up with spies; cult to swallow idea of Lansbury being Lairritating use of slow-motion and freezemarr’s older sister. Sanders supplies biggest frame gimmicks. Brandauer’s debut and surprise by underplaying his role as the Saran. only film appearance until MEPHISTO. This won Oscars for its Art Direction-Set [PG]▼ Decoration and Costumes. Remade for TV Samar (1962) C-89m. ★★ D: George Montin 1984 (with Mature as Samson’s father) gomery. George Montgomery, Gilbert Roand 1996.▼●쩠 land, Ziva Rodann, Joan O’Brien, Nico Sam’s Son (1984) C-104m. ★★ D: MiMinardos, Mario Barri. Ordinary actioner chael Landon. Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, has Roland as head of prison compound on Timothy Patrick Murphy, Hallie Todd, a Philippine island who rejects inhumane Alan Hayes, Jonna Lee, Michael Landon. treatment of prisoners and leads them on Landon wrote, directed, and appears briefly escape route.▼쩠 in this autobiographical saga about an unSame Old Song (1997-French-Swiss-British) derdog kid, who’s a champion javelin C-120m. ★★★ D: Alain Resnais. Pierre Arthrower, and his loving but frustrated father, diti, Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Andre who never got to pursue his dreams. WalDussollier, Agnes Jaoui, Lambert Wilson, lach’s performance as the father is major asset Jane Birkin. Resnais adds a distinctly personal of this sometimes syrupy film. [PG]▼● sensibility to this intricately plotted, tongueSam’s Song (1969) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Jordan in-cheek confection about a group of overinLeondopoulos (John Shade, John C. Broddulgent middle-class Parisians who conerick). Robert De Niro, Jennifer Warren, stantly break into lip-synched song as a way Jered Mickey, Martin Kelley, Viva. Dreary of expressing themselves. Bacri and Jaoui film about film editor’s weekend with scripted this affectionate homage to Dennis friends on Long Island, interesting only Potter (THE SINGING DETECTIVE, for early De Niro performance. Extensive PENNIES FROM HEAVEN). Winner of reshooting includes new characters played seven Ce´sar awards.▼쩠 by Lisa Blount and Sybil Danning; film Same Time, Next Year (1978) C-117m. was reissued in 1979 as THE SWAP. ★★★ D: Robert Mulligan. Ellen Burstyn, Video title: LINE OF FIRE. [R]▼쩠 Alan Alda. Bernard Slade’s two-character Samurai Cowboy (1993-Canadian) CBroadway play makes pleasing film, with 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Keusch. Hiromigo Alda and Burstyn as adulterous couple who Go, Catherine Mary Stewart, Matt McCoy, share one weekend a year for 26 years; warm, Conchata Ferrell, Robert Conrad. A Japahuman comedy-drama reflects changes in nese businessman, enthralled with classic American life and attitudes since early ’50s in American Western movies, buys a ranch in likable fashion. [PG]▼●쩠 Montana and attempts to live his dream of Sam Marlowe, Private Eye SEE: Man becoming a cowboy. Although hampered by a with Bogart’s Face, The predictable plot and many formula characters, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987-British) Japanese pop star Go’s ingratiating perforC-100m. ★★ D: Stephen Frears. Shashi mance enhances this likable tale.▼ Kapoor, Claire Bloom, Ayub Khan Din, Sam Whiskey (1969) C-96m. ★★ D: ArFrances Barber, Roland Gift, Wendy Ganold Laven. Burt Reynolds, Clint Walker, zelle, Suzette Llewellyn. The curious lives Ossie Davis, Angie Dickinson, Rick Davis, of a couple with an open sexual relationWilliam Schallert, Woodrow Parfrey. Modship are thrown into disarray by the arrival estly mounted, uninteresting Western wastof his father, a powerful reactionary politiing talents of good cast. Schemer Whiskey cal figure from India who cannot undercoerced into organizing heist of golden stand their lifestyle—or what has happened bullion. For Western aficionados and Reynto the traditional British way of life he olds addicts only. [M/PG]쩠 used to enjoy. Disturbing but monotonous San Antonio (1945) C-111m. ★★★ D: David look at social and sexual anarchy in EnButler. Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, S. Z. gland, written by Hanif Kureishi, who Sakall, Victor Francen, Florence Bates, John previously collaborated with director Frears Litel, Paul Kelly. Elaborate Western has preon MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE.▼● dictable plot but good production values as [ 1195 ]

good guy Flynn tangles with cunning villains ism (and a few parallels to Vietnam). Francen and Kelly while romancing singer Splendidly photographed by Joseph MacSmith. Screenplay by The Searchers novelist Donald. Panavision.▼●쩠 Alan LeMay and W. R. Burnett.▼쩠 Sandpiper, The (1965) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sanctuary (1961) 100m. ★★ D: Tony RichVincente Minnelli. Elizabeth Taylor, Richardson. Lee Remick, Yves Montand, Bradford ard Burton, Eva Marie Saint, Charles Dillman, Harry Townes, Odetta, Howard St. Bronson, Robert Webber, Torin Thatcher, John, Jean Carson, Reta Shaw, Strother MarMorgan Mason, Tom Drake. Ordinary tritin. Flat melodrama about a Southern goverangle love affair. Beatnik Taylor in love nor’s daughter (Remick) and her plight after with Burton, who is married to Saint. she’s raped by bootlegger Montand. Awkward Nothing new, but beautiful California Big adaptation (by James Poe) of William FaulkSur settings help; so does Oscar-winning ner’s novels Sanctuary (previously filmed as theme, ‘‘The Shadow of Your Smile.’’ THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE) and ReWritten by Dalton Trumbo and Michael quiem for a Nun and Ruth Ford’s stage adaptaWilson. Panavision.▼쩠 tion of the latter. CinemaScope. Sandpit Generals, The SEE: Wild Pack, Sanders (1963-British) C-83m. ★★ D: LawThe rence Huntington. Richard Todd, Marianne Sandra (1965-Italian) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Koch, Albert Lieven, Vivi Bach, Jeremy Luchino Visconti. Claudia Cardinale, Jean Lloyd. Loose adaptation of Edgar Wallace Sorel, Michael Craig, Marie Bell, Renzo novel Sanders of the River follows police Ricci, Amalia Troiani. A small-town Italian inspector’s investigation of murder in an beauty returns home with her American African hospital and discovery of hidden husband to attend a ceremony in memory of silver mine. British title DEATH DRUMS her Jewish father, who died in a concentraALONG THE RIVER. Todd repeated role tion camp, setting off a series of emotional of Harry Sanders in 1964 COAST OF entanglements with her unfaithful mother SKELETONS. Techniscope. and incestuous brother. Well acted but awSanders of the River (1935-British) 98m. fully soapy and melodramatic for Visconti. ★★★ D: Zoltan Korda. Paul Robeson, LesSands of Beersheba (1966) 90m. ★★ D: lie Banks, Nina Mae McKinney, Robert Alexander Ramati. Diane Baker, David Cochran, Martin Walker. Dated adventure Opatoshu, Tom Bell, Paul Stassino. Slugstory (by Edgar Wallace) about river patrol gish account of the Arab-Israeli conflict, officer maintains interest today, particuinvolving a non-Jewish American whose larly for Robeson’s strong presence and fiance´ died in the 1948 Palestinian war, an African location shooting. A fascinating Israeli gunrunner, a Jew-hating Arab terrelic of the sun-never-sets school of British rorist, and the latter’s father who’s tired of imperialism. Sanders character revived all the bloodshed. The issues remain compelling, but the film is mostly a bore.▼ in 1960s’ SANDERS (DEATH DRUMS ALONG THE RIVER) and COAST OF Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) 110m. ★★★ SKELETONS.▼●쩠 D: Allan Dwan. John Wayne, John Agar, Sandlot, The (1993) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adele Mara, Forrest Tucker, Arthur Franz, David Mickey Evans. Tom Guiry, Mike Julie Bishop, Richard Jaeckel, Wally CasVitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, sell, Richard Webb. Enormously popular Marty York, Brandon Adams, Denis Leary, WW2 saga, with Wayne in one of his best Karen Allen, James Earl Jones, Maury Wills, roles as a tough Marine top-sergeant. Story Art La Fleur. Innocuous film for kids about a and characters are pretty two-dimensional, ’60s sandlot baseball team, their acceptance of and a bit worn from having been copied so the new kid on the block, and their ongoing many times since, but it’s still good enterbattle with a ferocious neighboring dog. No tainment; use of authentic combat footage real insight or resonance here (and incredibly is striking. Wayne’s first Oscar-nominated condescending, heavy-handed narration)— performance. The three surviving Marine but a pleasant enough time-filler for younger vets who raised the American flag on Mt. viewers. Arliss Howard and Brooke Adams Suribachi have small parts. Also shown in appear unbilled. Followed by two direct-tocomputer-colored version.▼●쩠 video sequels. J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 Sands of the Kalahari (1965-British) C119m. ★★★ D: Cy Endfield. Stuart Whitman, Sand Pebbles, The (1966) C-179m. ★★★ D: Robert Wise. Steve McQueen, Richard Stanley Baker, Susannah York, Harry AnAttenborough, Richard Crenna, Candice drews, Theodore Bikel, Nigel Davenport. Bergen, Mako, Marayat Andriane, Simon Well-done story of plane crash survivors Oakland, Larry Gates, Gavin MacLeod. struggling through desert and battling simian McQueen gives one of his finest perforinhabitants (and each other). Panavision. mances as cynical sailor on U.S. gunboat San Francisco (1936) 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: W. cruising China’s Yangtze River in 1926. S. Van Dyke II. Clark Gable, Jeanette Long but generally compelling drama mixes MacDonald, Spencer Tracy, Jack Holt, traditional action and romance with some Jessie Ralph, Ted Healy, Shirley Ross, pointed notions about American imperialAl Shean. Top-grade entertainment with [ 1196 ]

extremely lavish production. Jeanette overWendy Crewson, Eric Lloyd, David Krumdoes it a bit as the belle of San Francisco, holtz, Peter Boyle, Larry Brandenburg, but the music, Tracy’s performance, and Mary Gross, Paige Tamada. Neglectful diearthquake climax are still fine. Originally vorced dad inadvertently frightens Santa off had footage of Golden Gate Bridge under his roof and, when he puts on the deceased construction; other rhythmically edited shots St. Nick’s suit, begins to turn into Santa of S.F. were changed for later reissue. Claus himself—first on the outside, and Script by Anita Loos. Also shown in then, more significantly, on the inside. computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Clever script by Steve Rudnick and Leo Sanjuro (1962-Japanese) 96m. ★★★ D: Akira Benevenuti takes a potential one-joke idea Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakaand develops it in interesting and unexdai, Takashi Shimura, Yuzo Kayama, Reiko pected ways, effectively infusing heart and Dan. Sequel to YOJIMBO has shabby, sentiment into its 1990s sensibility. Impreswandering samurai Mifune aiding nine sive screen debut for Allen. Followed by bumbling younger warriors in exposing two sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 corruption among the elders of their clan. Santa Clause 2, The (2002) C-104m. ★★★ Satirical comic-book actioner features a D: Michael Lembeck. Tim Allen, Elizabeth typically deadpan Mifune performance. Mitchell, David Krumholtz, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Spencer Tohoscope.▼●쩠 San Quentin (1937) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lloyd Breslin, Liliana Mumy, Art LaFleur, Aisha Bacon. Pat O’Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Tyler, Kevin Pollak, Jay Thomas, Michael Ann Sheridan, Veda Ann Borg, Barton Dorn, Molly Shannon. Sequel finds the MacLane. Warner Bros. formula prison human-turned-Santa learning that unless he film; convict Bogart’s sister (Sheridan) loves finds a wife, he’ll cease to exist. Revisiting O’Brien, who’s captain of the guards. Machis former home, he falls in love with the Lane is memorable as tough prison guard.쩠 unlikeliest candidate—and in the process Sansho the Bailiff (1954-Japanese) 125m. helps straighten out his troubled teenage son. ★★★★ D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Kinuyo Tanaka, Sweet, noncynical Disney film is played with Kisho Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitaro conviction and charm; good family entertainment. [G]▼쩠 Shindo, Ichiro Sugai. Epic, poetic drama of 11th-century Japan, focusing on the Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause, The (2006) C-98m. ★★ D: Michael Lembeck. tribulations of a family. Kindly father, a provincial governor, is exiled; children Tim Allen, Martin Short, Elizabeth Mitch(Hanayagi, Kagawa) become slaves; mother ell, Eric Lloyd, Judge Reinhold, Wendy (Tanaka) is sold as a prostitute. Haunting, Crewson, Alan Arkin, Spencer Breslin, Liliwith stunning direction and cinematography ana Mumy, Ann-Margret, Abigail Breslin, (by Kazuo Miyagawa). Original running time Art LaFleur, Aisha Tyler, Kevin Pollak, Jay 130m. Aka THE BAILIFF. ▼●쩠 Thomas, Peter Boyle, Zach Mills. Third Santa Claus (1985) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: time’s not the charm for this Disney series, Jeannot Szwarc. Dudley Moore, John as Santa (Allen) is forced to bring his Lithgow, David Huddleston, Burgess Merearthly in-laws (Arkin and Ann-Margret) to edith, Judy Cornwell, Jeffrey Kramer, the North Pole for a visit without revealing Christian Fitzpatrick, Carrie Kei Heim. his identity, while jealous Jack Frost (Short) Story of how Santa came to be starts out so tries to hijack Christmas for his own greedy wonderfully—with eye-filling looks at his purposes. All this negativity doesn’t make for much fun. Allen coproduced. [G]쩠 North Pole toy factory, reindeer, and sleigh—that it’s too bad the rest of the film Santa Fe (1951) C-89m. ★★ D: Irving (with contemporary tale of humbug kid Pichel. Randolph Scott, Janis Carter, Jeand greedy toy magnate) can’t measure rome Courtland, Peter Thompson, John up. Still entertaining, just a bit less magiArcher, Warner Anderson, Roy Roberts, cal than it should have been. Referred to as Jock Mahoney. Routine account of brothSANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE everywhere ers in post–Civil War days, on opposite but on-screen! J-D-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 sides of the law.▼쩠 Santa Claus Conquers the Martians Santa Fe Passage (1955) C-90m. ★★ D: (1964) C-80m. BOMB D: Nicholas WebWilliam Witney. John Payne, Faith Doster. John Call, Leonard Hicks, Vincent mergue, Rod Cameron, Slim Pickens. RouBeck, Donna Conforti. Absurd low-budget tine wagon train westward; Indian attacks, fantasy (with a Milton Delugg score!) about love among the pioneers, etc. Santa and two Earth children being abSanta Fe Satan SEE: Catch My Soul Santa Fe Trail (1940) 110m. ★★ D: Miducted to Mars to help solve some of their domestic problems—like kids watching too chael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilmuch TV. One of the Martian tykes is land, Raymond Massey, Ronald Reagan, Pia Zadora! Aka SANTA CLAUS DEAlan Hale, Guinn Williams, William FEATS THE ALIENS.▼쩠 Lundigan, Ward Bond, Van Heflin, Gene Santa Clause, The (1994) C-97m. ★★★ D: Reynolds, John Litel, Charles Middleton. John Pasquin. Tim Allen, Judge Reinhold, Lopsided picture can’t make up its mind [ 1197 ]

about anything: what side it’s taking, what Frederick Valk, Peter Bull, Anthony Quayle, it wants to focus on, etc. Worthless as hisMichael Gough, Megs Jenkins, Christopher tory, but amid the rubble are some good Lee. Lavish, tearful romance with Greenwood action scenes as Jeb Stuart (Flynn) and cotorn between royal responsibility and love for horts go after John Brown (Massey). young rogue. British title: SARABAND FOR DEAD LOVERS. ▼ Reagan plays Flynn’s West Point classmate and romantic rival, George Armstrong CusSaraband (2003-Swedish) C-107m. ★★★ D: ter(!). Also shown in computer-colored verIngmar Bergman. Liv Ullmann, Erland Josion.▼●쩠 sephson, Bo¨rje Ahlstedt, Julia Dufvenius. Santa Sangre (1989-Italian-Mexican) Ullmann and Josephson return as Marianne ★★ C-121m. D: Alejandro Jodorowsky. Axel and Johan, the dysfunctional couple they creJodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Sabrina Denated so unforgettably in SCENES FROM A nison, Guy Stockwell, Thelma Tixou, Adan MARRIAGE, reunited thirty years after their Jodorowsky, Faviola Elenka Tapia. Grodivorce and involved in family turmoil. A tesque story about an entertainer whose act prominent subplot involving Johan’s son consists of performing as the arms for his and granddaughter is less effective, but it’s armless mother; he’s also an unwilling a joy to see the two stars together; their murderer. Made in luxurious color with scenes have the rich, deep emotional comdreamy art direction, this lacks the intelplexity that characterizes Bergman’s best lectual charge of Jodorowsky’s earlier films. films. Another quibble: the antiseptic digital Filmed in English. [Shown both in NC-17 cinematography leaves one yearning for the and R-rated versions]▼● raw quality that 16mm afforded its predeSantee (1973) C-93m. ★★ D: Gary Nelcessor. Originally made for Swedish television. Bergman’s final film as director. [R]쩠 son. Glenn Ford, Michael Burns, Dana Wynter, Jay Silverheels, Harry Townes, Saracen Blade, The (1954) C-76m. ★1⁄2 John Larch, Robert Wilke, Robert DonD: William Castle. Ricardo Montalban, ner. Bounty hunter Ford, whose boy has Betta St. John, Rick Jason, Carolyn Jones, been murdered, adopts son of outlaw he Whitfield Connor. Pretty bad 13th-century stuff, with young man avenging death of has just killed. OK Western. [PG]▼쩠 1 ★★ Saphead, The (1921) 78m. father. Unbelievable script traps cast. ⁄2 D: Herbert Blache´. Buster Keaton, William H. Sarafina! (1992-U.S.-British-French) C115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Darrell James Roodt. Whoopi Crane, Carol Holloway, Edward Connelly, Irving Cummings, Beulah Booker. Buster Goldberg, Leleti Khumalo, Miriam Makeba, (in his feature-film debut) is shoehorned John Kani, Mbongeni Ngema. Wobbly film into a pleasant but conventional plot about a version of the anti-apartheid musical stage wealthy boob whose impending marriage hit about a young South African black girl is imperiled when he’s framed for a stock inspired by teacher Goldberg, who’s courtswindle. Keaton is fine but not allowed to ing trouble by deviating from the curriculum express his unique comic personality. Based mandated by the white power structure. on a Broadway play that was filmed once Arguably the most violent musical ever before as THE LAMB (1915) with Douglas (taking what was abstract on stage and Fairbanks. Villain Cummings later became literalizing it), a key indication of the a top director at 20th Century-Fox.▼●쩠 film’s uncertain style. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Sapphire (1959-British) C-92m. ★★★ D: Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (2005) Basil Dearden. Nigel Patrick, Yvonne C-70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Liam Lynch. Sarah SilMitchell, Michael Craig, Paul Massie, Berverman, Brian Posehn, Bob Odenkirk, nard Miles, Earl Cameron, Rupert Davies, Laura Silverman, Steve Agee. If all of the Yvonne Buckingham. When music student is world’s invisible social tensions coalesced murdered, it is discovered she was passing into a cheerfully offensive, politically incoras white. Considered daring in its day, still rect comedian with a surprisingly cute absorbing today—both as entertainment and voice, you’d have Sarah Silverman. It’s social comment. Fine performances. Story hard to know what to make of such a creaand screenplay by Janet Green (with additure, but one thing seems certain: by joking tional dialogue by Lukas Heller).▼ about taboo issues that many choose to igSaps At Sea (1940) 57m. ★★★ D: Gordon nore (9/11, the Holocaust, Jesus, JewDouglas. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, James ishness, AIDS, race, and sex), she forces Finlayson, Ben Turpin, Richard Cramer, the audience to think about them. OftenHarry Bernard. L&H comedy is short and hilarious concert film is needlessly intersweet: Ollie has breakdown working in rupted by several poorly produced musical numbers.쩠 horn factory, tries to relax on a small boat with Stan . . . and that’s impossible. Cramer Saratoga (1937) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Conis a memorable heavy. Harry Langdon was way. Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Lionel one of the writers.▼● Barrymore, Frank Morgan, Walter Pidgeon, ★★★ Saraband (1948-British) C-95m. Una Merkel, Cliff Edwards, George Zucco, D: Basil Dearden. Stewart Granger, Joan Hattie MacDaniel, Margaret Hamilton. Greenwood, Flora Robson, Franc¸oise Rosay, Harlow’s last film—she died during produc[ 1198 ]

tion—has stand-in Mary Dees doing many Kent Taylor, John Cardos, Greydon Clark, scenes, but comes off pretty well, with Jean Regina Carrol, William Bonner. Renegade as granddaughter of horse-breeder Barrycyclists on the loose down the highway. Change the channel. [R]▼●쩠 more, Gable an influential bookie.▼● Saratoga Trunk (1945) 135m. ★1⁄2 D: Satan’s Skin SEE: Blood on Satan’s Claw, Sam Wood. Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, The Flora Robson, Jerry Austin, John Warburton, Satisfaction (1988) C-92m. BOMB D: Florence Bates. Elaborate but miscast, overJoan Freeman. Justine Bateman, Liam long version of Edna Ferber’s novel of New Neeson, Trini Alvarado, Britta Phillips, Orleans vixen Bergman and cowboy Cooper. Julia Roberts, Scott Coffey. Bubble-gum Unbearable at times. Made in 1943.▼쩠 theatrical release about a four-girl/one-guy Satan Bug, The (1965) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 garage band that gets its first break rocking D: John Sturges. George Maharis, Richard in a wealthy summer resort town. With the Basehart, Anne Francis, Dana Andrews, entire band shacked up in a single room, Edward Asner, Frank Sutton, John Larfigure out where sole male member Coffey kin, Henry Beckman. Overlooked little sleeps—or how he sleeps. Duds like this suspense gem, loosely based on Alistair were more fun in the 1950s. Retitled GIRLS OF SUMMER. [PG-13]▼●쩠 MacLean novel, detailing nerve-racking chase after lunatic who’s stolen flasks conSaturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960-British) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Karel Reisz. taining horribly lethal virus from government lab. Taut script (by Edward Anhalt and Albert Finney, Shirley Anne Field, Rachel James Clavell) and direction, stunning phoRoberts, Norman Rossington. Grim yet tography by Robert Surtees. Panavision. ▼● refreshing look at angry young man, who Satanic Rites of Dracula, The SEE: Count in a burst of nonconformity alters the lives Dracula and His Vampire Bride of girlfriends Field and Roberts. Superbly Satan Met a Lady (1936) 75m. ★★ D: enacted. Script by Alan Sillitoe, from his William Dieterle. Bette Davis, Warren novel. One of the first and best of Britain’s William, Alison Skipworth, Arthur Treach‘‘angry young men’’ dramas of the ’60s. er, Winifred Shaw, Marie Wilson, Porter ▼●쩠 Hall. Dashiell Hammett’s Maltese Falcon Saturday Night Fever (1977) C-119m. ★★★ D: John Badham. John Travolta, Karen incognito; far below 1941 remake. William is private eye, Davis the mysterious Lynn Gorney, Barry Miller, Joseph Cali, client, Skipworth the strange woman searchPaul Pape, Donna Pescow, Julie Bovasso, ing for priceless artifact (here, a ram’s Denny Dillon, Robert Costanza, Fran horn). Filmed in 1931 and 1941 as THE Drescher. Travolta’s first starring film is MALTESE FALCON.▼쩠 thoughtful study of Brooklyn youth who Satan Never Sleeps (1962) C-126m. ★★ finds only meaning in his life when dancing D: Leo McCarey. William Holden, Clifton at local disco. Film pulses to dynamic Bee Webb, France Nuyen, Athene Seyler, MarGees music score (‘‘Night Fever,’’ ‘‘How tin Benson, Edith Sharpe. Dreary goings-on Deep Is Your Love,’’ ‘‘Staying Alive,’’ of two priests holding fast when Commuetc). Plethora of street language may offend nist China invades their territory. McCarey’s some, but not in ‘‘alternate’’ 108m. PGlast film. CinemaScope.쩠 rated version, where dialogue and certain Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977) C-92m. ★★ scenes have been changed or dropped enD: Greydon Clark. Kerry Sherman, John tirely. Later a Broadway musical. Sequel: STAYING ALIVE. [R] ▼●쩠 Ireland, Yvonne DeCarlo, Jacqueline Cole, Jack Kruschen, John Carradine, Sydney Saturday’s Children (1940) 101m. ★★1⁄2 Chaplin. Amusing drive-in fodder about a D: Vincent Sherman. John Garfield, Anne busload of high school cheerleaders who Shirley, Claude Rains, Lee Patrick, George fall into clutches of a demonic cult. Humor Tobias, Roscoe Karns, Dennie Moore, Elisand a cast full of old pros help, but this film abeth Risdon. N.Y.C.-based story of poor, is too tame to be really effective. [R]▼쩠 hardworking Shirley, her dreamer-boySatan’s Claw SEE: Blood on Satan’s Claw, friend Garfield, and what happens when The they marry. Rains steals film as Shirley’s sacrificing father. Based on Maxwell AnSatan’s Harvest (1970) C-104m. ★★ D: Douglas K. Stone (George Montgomery). derson play previously filmed in 1929 and George Montgomery, Tippi Hedren, Matt (as MAYBE IT’S LOVE) in 1935. Saturday’s Hero (1951) 111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Monro, Davy Kaye, Brian O’Shaughnessy. American detective Montgomery inherits David Miller. John Derek, Donna Reed, South African ranch and discovers it to be Sidney Blackmer, Alexander Knox. headquarters for a drug smuggling operaFootball player Derek wins a college tion. Colorful scenery, tepid story.▼ scholarship, then discovers he isn’t exSatan’s Playthings SEE: In the Devil’s pected to spend much time in class. Pretty Garden good attack on collegiate sports remains Satan’s Sadists (1970) C-88m. BOMB D: fairly timely; Reed is fine as love interest. Al Adamson. Russ Tamblyn, Scott Brady, Look quickly for Aldo Ray (in film debut). [ 1199 ]

Saturday the 14th (1981) C-75m. ★1⁄2 D: Scott, Trish Van Devere, John David CarHoward R. Cohen. Richard Benjamin, Paula son, Lee H. Montgomery. Scott produced, Prentiss, Severn Darden, Jeffrey Tambor, directed, starred in and even distributed this Kari Michaelson, Kevin Brando, Rosemary farrago about the eventual incest between DeCamp. Limp horror film parody, with mother and son after they, along with dad, Benjamin and Prentiss moving into a weird have been stranded on an island for years. house and dealing with an assortment of Not very stimulating. Panavision. [R]▼ menacing types. A follow-up came along Savage Messiah (1972-British) C-100m. ★★★ seven years later. [PG]▼쩠 D: Ken Russell. Dorothy Tutin, Scott Saturday the 14th Strikes Back (1988) Antony, Helen Mirren, Lindsay Kemp, C-78m. BOMB D: Howard R. Cohen. Peter Vaughan. Thoughtful, if intense chronJason Presson, Ray Walston, Avery Schreiber, icle of the platonic affair between sculptor Patty McCormack, Julianne McNamara, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (Antony), who died Rhonda Aldrich, Leo V. Gordon. Follow-up in WW1 at age 24, and Sophie Brzeska to 1981 turkey is even worse, if that seems (Tutin). A convincing, impressive ‘‘portrait of an artist as a young man.’’ [R]▼ imaginable: a schlocky, amateurish spoof of horror films with a bevy of monsters Savage Nights (1992-French) C-126m. ★★★ attacking Presson on his birthday. [PG]▼쩠 D: Cyril Collard. Cyril Collard, Romane Saturn 3 (1980-British) C-88m. ★★ D: Bohringer, Carlos Lopez, Corine Blue, Stanley Donen. Farrah Fawcett, Kirk DougClaude Winter, Maria Schneider. Rude, solas, Harvey Keitel, Douglas Lambert. Flashy cially irresponsible, in-your-face AIDS but empty-headed outer-space opus, with movie with raw, subjective power. Collard, Douglas and Fawcett menaced by Keitel and who in real life succumbed to the disease just his sex-starved robot Hector; good-looking three days before his film swept France’s package with nothing inside. [R]▼●쩠 Ce´sar Awards, plays a bisexual moviemaker/ Savage, The (1952) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: George musician who reacts to his biological death Marshall. Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, warrant by sleeping around unprotected Peter Hanson, Joan Taylor, Ted de Corsia. with sassy teenager Bohringer and rugby Heston is sincere and energetic as white player Lopez, who are both messed up on man raised by the Indians and forced to their own. Occasionally ugly, but can’t be choose sides when skirmishes break out. dismissed. Imagine these characters taking Savage Attraction SEE: Hostage (1983) over the Dean, Wood, and Mineo roles in Savage Eye, The (1960) 68m. ★★★ D: Ben REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.▼ Maddow, Sidney Meyers, Joseph Strick. BarSavage Pampas (1966-Spanish) C-100m. ★★ bara Baxley, Herschel Bernardi, Gary Merrill, D: Hugo Fregonese. Robert Taylor, Jean Hidey. Documentary-style drama of diRon Randell, Ty Hardin, Rosenda Montevorcee Baxley trying to start life anew in ros. Remake of 1946 Argentinian film L.A.; contrived but intriguing.▼쩠 PAMPA BARBARA. Taylor is rugged army Savage Grace (2008) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Tom captain combating outlaw Randell whose Kalin. Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, gang is made up of army deserters. Adequate Eddie Redmayne, Elena Anaya, Unax actioner. Superpanorama 70.▼쩠 Ugalde, Bele´n Rueda, Hugh Dancy. Creepy Savages, The (2007) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: chronicle of socially ambitious Barbara Tamara Jenkins. Laura Linney, Philip SeyDaly’s marriage to arrogant Brooks Baekemour Hoffman, Philip Bosco, Peter Friedland, the Bakelite plastics heir, and their man, David Zayas, Gbenga Akinnagbe, troubled relationship with their son Tony. Cara Seymour, Margo Martindale, Debra Six vignettes, set in various locations Monk. A brother and sister who aren’t espearound the globe, span the years 1946 to cially close must come together when their 1972—though no one seems to age except long-estranged father is left alone, in need the boy. Off-putting portrait of a decadent of constant care. In dealing with this sudden life offers no illumination or reward for challenge they also have to contend with watching. Based on the book by Natalie unfinished business in their own relationRobins and Steven M. L. Aronson.쩠 ship. He’s a serious-minded theater profesSavage Innocents, The (1960-Italiansor with a hard outer shell; she’s a neurotic would-be playwright who’s still trying to French-British) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nicholas Ray. Anthony Quinn, Yoko Tani, Peter find her way in life. Three great actors— O’Toole, Marie Yang, Anna May Wong. Linney, Hoffman, and Bosco—sink their Striking but uneven film about conflict of teeth into Jenkins’ beautifully nuanced, civilization vs. simple ways of Eskimo heart-rending screenplay. [R]쩠 people. Quinn gives remarkable perforSavage Sam (1963) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: mance as native Eskimo; beautiful docuNorman Tokar. Brian Keith, Tommy Kirk, mentary-type location photography comKevin Corcoran, Dewey Martin, Jeff York, bined with studio work. O’Toole’s voice Royal Dano, Marta Kristen. Sequel to Disis dubbed. Super Technirama 70. ney’s OLD YELLER has Keith and counSavage Is Loose, The (1974) C-114m. try neighbors trying to rescue children BOMB D: George C. Scott. George C. who’ve been kidnapped by Indians. Savage [ 1200 ]

Sam, canine son of Old Yeller, helps track won’t explain how she’s gotten pregnant down the tribe. Colorful but uneven.▼쩠 at the age of 48). Romantic and cultural Savage Seven, The (1968) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: complications abound in this heartfelt and Richard Rush. Robert Walker, Jr., Larry genuinely funny film, an impressive debut Bishop, Adam Roarke, Max Julien, Duane feature for writer-director Wu. [R]쩠 Eddy, Joanna Frank, Penny Marshall. Saving Grace (1986) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Below-par motorcycle melodrama that lives Robert M. Young. Tom Conti, Fernando up to its title but nothing else.▼ Rey, Erland Josephson, Giancarlo Giannini, Savannah Smiles (1982) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 Donald Hewlett, Edward James Olmos, D: Pierre DeMoro. Mark Miller, Donovan Patricia Mauceri. Youthful Pope Conti, Scott, Bridgette Andersen, Peter Graves, Chris overwhelmed by meaningless duties and a Robinson, Michael Parks. A rich little girl general feeling of uselessness, sneaks in(Andersen) runs away from home and reforms cognito out of the Vatican and into a small criminals. Fair morality tale for kids, written Italian village that has lost its spirit. by leading actor Miller. [PG]▼●쩠 If you’re going to spin a whopper like Saved! (2004) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Danthis, don’t pace it so slowly that the nelly. Jena Malone, Mandy Moore, Maaudience has too much time to ponder the caulay Culkin, Patrick Fugit, Heather improbabilities. Technovision. [PG]▼● Matarazzo, Eva Amurri, Martin Donovan, Saving Grace (2000-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 Mary-Louise Parker, Chad Faust, Valerie D: Nigel Cole. Brenda Blethyn, Craig FerBertinelli. Malone plays a senior at a Chrisguson, Martin Clunes, Tche´ky Karyo, Jamie tian high school who has never questioned Foreman, Bill Bailey, Valerie Edmond, Leslie her faith, until her boyfriend tells her he Phillips, Phyllida Law. A newly impoverished thinks he’s gay. When her prayer-inspired widow with a green thumb is prevailed upon solution to the problem makes her an outby her gardener to use her skills to grow marcast, she sees her friends (especially class ijuana, with surprising results. Impish comleader Moore) and even her mother in a edy is great fun until the climax, when it brand-new light. Satire of religious hypocbecomes silly and loses all connection to risy by first-time feature director Dannelly reality. Ferguson (who plays the gardener) cowrote and coproduced. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 and cowriter Michael Urban loses its footing after a promising start but benefits from Saving Private Ryan (1998) C-169m. ★★★1 a talented ensemble. Later a stage musical. ⁄2 D: Steven Spielberg. Tom Hanks, Ed[PG-13]▼쩠 ward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Jeremy Davies, Save the Last Dance (2001) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vin Diesel, Adam Goldberg, Barry Pepper, GiThomas Carter. Julia Stiles, Sean Patrick ovanni Ribisi, Matt Damon, Dennis Farina, Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro Starr, Ted Danson, Harve Presnell, Dale Dye, Bryan Terry Kinney, Bianca Lawson, Vince Green, Cranston, David Wohl, Paul Giamatti, Ryan Garland Whitt. By-the-numbers tale of whiteHurst,Harrison Young.Trenchant WW2drama bread teen Stiles, a wannabe professional balleabout an Army captain (Hanks) assigned to rina, who moves to Chicago to live with her take his squad of seven men into France, locate estranged jazz musician father after her motha private whose three brothers have been killed er’s death. She becomes involved with in combat . . . and give him a ticket home. ConThomas, and discovers the liberating force of ventional elements in the script are balanced by hip-hop. Attractive performances elevate this a genuinely complex examination of heroism cliche´d teen culture/romantic drama. [PGin the field, and overpowered by the most real13]▼쩠 istic, relentlessly harrowing battle footage ever Save the Tiger (1973) C-101m. ★★ D: John committed to a fiction film. Spielberg (aided G. Avildsen. Jack Lemmon, Jack Gilford, immeasurably by cameraman Janusz KaminLaurie Heineman, Norman Burton, Patriski and a superb creative team) has created the cia Smith, Thayer David, Lara Parker. ultimate vision of war as hell on earth. Oscars Pretentious Steve Shagan script about dress include Best Director, Cinematography, Editmanufacturer trying to reconcile heroing (Michael Kahn). [R]▼●쩠 worship of his childhood with degradaSaving Shiloh (2006) C-90m. ★★ D: Sandy tions he submits himself to in business Tung. Scott Wilson, Gerald McRaney, world. Film purports to be totally honest, Jason Dolley, Ann Dowd, Kyle Chavarria, but phoniness comes through; David has Jordan Garrett, Taylor Momsen, Bonnie best scenes as professional arsonist. LemBartlett, Kari. Third in the SHILOH series mon won Best Actor Oscar. [R]▼●쩠 finds McRaney replacing Michael Moriarty, Saving Face (2005) C-97m. ★★★ D: Alice along with a new young lead (Dolley) and a Wu. Michelle Krusiec, Joan Chen, Lynn new dog. This time the cute beagle and his Chen, Jin Wang, Guang Lan Koh, Jessica human friend learn more about their curHecht, Ato Essandoh, David Shih, Brian mudgeon of a neighbor Judd (Wilson) while Yang. Entertaining, well-observed comedy collecting clues to solve a murder. Same about Chinese-American doctor Krusiec pleasant-natured entertainment as the first (who can’t admit that she’s a lesbian) and two films, but not as good as its intentions. her tradition-bound mother Joan Chen (who [PG]쩠 [ 1201 ]

Saving Silverman (2001) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Dennis Dugan. Jason Biggs, Amanda Peet, Steve Zahn, Jack Black, Amanda Detmer, R. Lee Ermey, Neil Diamond. Dreadful exercise in Farrelly-esque gross-out fare about two dudes (Black, Zahn) who kidnap their best pal’s bitchy girlfriend to prevent him from getting married. Funny premise is botched by violent slapstick and an unrelenting mean streak. A giddy wrap-up featuring Neil Diamond, in his first screen appearance since THE JAZZ SINGER (1980), barely redeems this from complete BOMB-dom. R-rated version also available. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Savior, The (1998) C-103m. ★★★ D: Peter Antonijevic. Dennis Quaid, Nastassja Kinski, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Sergej Trifunovic, Natasa Ninkovic. Earnest drama about a man who, after a personal tragedy, joins the Foreign Legion and winds up as a cold-blooded fighting machine. But when he comes upon a young woman about to give birth in Bosnia, he takes care of her and soon becomes emotionally attached to both the mother and infant. Quaid is excellent. Super 35. [R]

same time, they have kidnapped a brain surgeon and are forcing her to try to save his sorry carcass. Weak story and acting help sink this: Soomekh’s performance as the medic is horrid (and not in the good sense). Unrated version runs 113m. ‘‘Director’s Cut’’ runs 120m. [R]쩠 Saw IV (2007) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Darren Lynn Bousman. Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Lyriq Bent, Athena Karkanis, Justin Louis, Simon Reynolds, Donnie Wahlberg, Angus Macfadyen, Shawnee Smith, Bahar Soomekh, Dina Meyer. Jigsaw is dead, but his ingenious torture devices mysteriously continue, with law enforcement agents Mandylor and Patterson on the trail. We also learn how and why a successful architectural engineer morphed into this Satan. Decent rebound from its lackluster predecessor, this entry is less claustrophobic than usual, though many performances are typically subpar—which is almost part of the perverse appeal. [R]쩠 Saw V (2008) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: David Hackl. Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Julie Benz, Carlo Rota, Mike Butters, Meagan ▼●쩠 Saw (2004) C-103m. ★★★ D: James Wan. Good, Greg Bryk, Donnie Wahlberg, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Danny Glover. Rival law enforcement inLeigh Whannell, Michael Emerson, Tobin vestigators Mandylor (about as expressive Bell, Ken Leung, Makenzie Vega, Shawnee as a mummy) and Patterson (still grimly Smith, Dina Meyer. Two strangers (Elwes, ultra-determined) try to thwart the neverWhannell) awaken to find themselves held ending killings of Jigsaw, who, for a corpse, prisoner by an unknown maniac in an abanhas plenty of screen time in this deadly dull doned warehouse bathroom. The psychopath fifth installment. The now-standard ‘‘strangenjoys devising gruesome torture games for ers imprisoned in a dank warehouse maze unsuspecting victims, while cops Glover and of torture games’’ subplot is weaker than Leung seek to end his sadistic crime spree. ever (even the gross-out factor is, relatively Unpleasant but intense, effective thriller in the speaking, quite tame). This entry is almost a SE7EN vein. Scripted by Whannell from a total buzz-killer. Unrated version runs 96m. story he devised with the director. Timid or [R]쩠 squeamish viewers may not want to watch Sawdust and Tinsel (1953-Swedish) 92m. ★★★★ this alone . . . or ever. Followed by four D: Ingmar Bergman. Harriet Anderssequels. [R] ▼쩠 son, Ake Gronberg, Anders Ek, Gudrun Saw II (2005) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Darren Brost, Hasse Ekman, Annika Tretow. Lynn Bousman. Donnie Wahlberg, ShawSparks fly in this beautiful, allegorical nee Smith, Tobin Bell, Franky G, Glenn film set in a small-time circus and focusing Plummer, Dina Meyer, Emmanuelle Vauon the relationship between circus owner gier, Beverley Mitchell, Erik Knudsen, Tim Gronberg and his oversexed mistress (AnBurd. Sadistic sequel finds fiendish masterdersson). A key credit in Bergman’s demind ‘‘Jigsaw’’ holding a group of strangveloping maturity as a filmmaker. Aka THE ers captive in a spooky, booby-trapped NAKED NIGHT.▼●쩠 house. Plenty of gore for fans, as the victims Saxon Charm, The (1948) 88m. ★★★ D: race the clock while a lethal gas fills their Claude Binyon. Robert Montgomery, Susan lungs. Wahlberg is the lead cop on the case, Hayward, John Payne, Audrey Totter, Harry but can he match wits with this twisted Morgan, Cara Williams, Harry Von Zell, Heather Angel. Well-acted but unconvincmadman? Unrated edition is 95m. [R] ▼쩠 Saw III (2006) C-108m. ★★ D: Darren Lynn ing study of ruthless producer, with MontBousman. Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus gomery miscast in lead role. Still interesting, Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Mpho Koaho, with fine work from playwright Payne, Dina Meyer, Barry Flatman, Lyriq Bent, J. wife Hayward, and chanteuse Totter. LaRose, Costas Mandylor, Alan Van Sprang, Say Amen, Somebody (1982) C-100m. ★★★★ D: George T. Nierenberg. Willie Donnie Wahlberg. The blade has begun to dull on this franchise as a feeble Jigsaw (Bell) Mae Ford Smith, Thomas A. Dorsey, Saluses his prote´ge´e (Smith) to carry out his maslie Martin, The Barrett Sisters, The O’Neal ter plan of torturing the privileged. At the Brothers. Wonderful documentary about [ 1202 ]

gospel music and two of its shining stars, Brown, Danny DeVito; voice of Mel Blanc. ‘‘Mother’’ Willie Mae Ford Smith and TREASURE ISLAND goes West in this ‘‘Professor’’ Thomas Dorsey, that brings weak adaptation, with a hammy Kirk as oneus into their lives as well as their careers legged cutthroat; songs turn up when you least and demonstrates the power of music sung expect them. Filmed in Yugoslavia. [G] Scalphunters, The (1968) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 from the heart. A genuine treat. [G]▼●쩠 Say Anything . . . (1989) C-100m. ★★★ D: Sydney Pollack. Burt Lancaster, ShelD: Cameron Crowe. John Cusack, Ione ley Winters, Ossie Davis, Telly Savalas, Skye, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor, Amy Armando Silvestre, Nick Cravat, Dabney Brooks, Pamela Segall, Jason Gould, LoColeman. Western comedy about a fur trapper ren Dean, Bebe Neuwirth, Eric Stoltz, and his highly educated slave has its moChynna Phillips, Joanna Frank. Satisfying ments, but isn’t funny enough, nor exciting teenage comedy-drama about a self-assured enough, nor pointed enough to qualify as allout success. Cast helps. Panavision.▼쩠 loner who goes after the Class Brain, and finds her surprisingly human. Amusing, enScam (1993) C-101m. ★★ D: John Flynn. dearing, and refreshingly original; written by Christopher Walken, Lorraine Bracco, Mifirst-time director Crowe. Cusack’s real-life guel Ferrer, Martin Donovan, Daniel Von sister Joan plays his sister here, and Lois Bargen. Con artist Bracco and greedy exChiles has a cameo as Skye’s mother; both fed Walken form a stormy alliance to scam appear unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 a bundle in underworld cash. This would-be Say Hello to Yesterday (1971-British) erotic thriller was made for theatrical release but premiered on cable. [R]▼ C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Alvin Rakoff. Jean Simmons, Leonard Whiting, Evelyn Laye, John Scamp, The SEE: Strange Affection Scandal (1989) C-106m. ★★★ D: Michael Lee, Jack Woolgar, Constance Chapman. Ridiculous plot concerning 40-year-old Caton-Jones. John Hurt, Joanne WhalleySimmons’ affair with 22-year-old WhitKilmer, Bridget Fonda, Ian McKellen, Lesing. Symbolic touches by director Rakoff lie Phillips, Britt Ekland, Daniel Massey, further shroud purpose of film. [PG]▼ Roland Gift, Jeroen Krabbe´. Absorbing Say It Isn’t So (2001) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: James look at the people behind Britain’s incrediB. Rogers. Heather Graham, Chris Klein, ble government-sex scandal of the early Orlando Jones, Sally Field, Richard Jenkins, ’60s, with Whalley-Kilmer just right as John Rothman, Brent Briscoe, Sarah Silimpressionable showgirl Christine Keeler, verman. Agreeably unambitious Klein falls and Hurt outstanding as Stephen Ward, the for the new hairdresser in town (Graham)— social gadfly and sexual provocateur who only to learn, after mutually satisfying sexual introduces Keeler to Cabinet Minister John activity, that she’s his sister. Even the Farrelly Profumo (whose wife, incidentally, was Brothers’ names in the credits—as produca former film star, Valerie Hobson). ers—couldn’t keep this gross-out comedy Fascinating and credible; a good job by from flopping. Film is only for those who first-time director Michael Caton-Jones. want to experience Field as they’ve never Screenplay by Michael Thomas. Original seen or even imagined before; the crude 114m. British version was trimmed to avoid humor extends even to her. [R]▼쩠 an X-rating in the U.S. Both versions are Sayonara (1957) C-147m. ★★★1⁄2 D: available on video. [R]▼●쩠 Joshua Logan. Marlon Brando, Ricardo Scandal at Scourie (1953) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Montalban, Miiko Taka, Miyoshi Umeki, D: Jean Negulesco. Greer Garson, Walter Red Buttons, Martha Scott, James Garner. Pidgeon, Donna Corcoran, Agnes MooreRomantic James Michener tale of Korean head, Arthur Shields. Tepid Garson-Pidgeon War pilot Brando falling in love with Japentry set in Canada, involving Protestant anese entertainer Taka; extremely well couple who shock community when they acted, with Oscar-winning support from plan to adopt a Catholic child. Buttons and Umeki, and statuettes also Scandal in Paris, A (1946) 106m. ★★★ D: going to the art direction-set decoration. Douglas Sirk. George Sanders, Carole Landis, Theme song by Irving Berlin. Paul Osborn Akim Tamiroff, Signe Hasso, Gene Lockhart, wrote the screenplay. Technirama.▼●쩠 Alan Napier, Alma Kruger. Stylish (though Say One for Me (1959) C-119m. ★1⁄2 D: studio-bound) 18th-century story based on Frank Tashlin. Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosthe memoirs of the notorious Frenchman by, Robert Wagner, Ray Walston, Les Eugene Vidocq, whose life of crime reaches Tremayne, Connie Gilchrist, Stella Stevens, a crossroads when he encounters a young Frank McHugh, Joe Besser, Sebastian woman who idolizes him. Witty script was Cabot. Bing plays a Broadway priest who tailor-made for Sanders. Aka THIEVES’ gets mixed up with a chorus girl (Debbie) HOLIDAY.▼쩠 and a TV charity show. Terribly contrived; Scandalous (1984) C-94m. ★★ D: Rob no memorable music. CinemaScope. Cohen. Robert Hays, John Gielgud, PaScalawag (1973) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Kirk Dougmela Stephenson, Jim Dale, M. Emmet las. Kirk Douglas, Mark Lester, Don Stroud, Walsh, Bow Wow Wow. Featherbrained Neville Brand, Lesley-Anne Down, Phil farce about investigative TV reporter who [ 1203 ]

runs afoul of team of con artists as he tries (if yucky) special effects. Followed by several sequels. [R]▼●쩠 to extricate himself from murder charge. Scanners II: The New Order (1991Alternately stupid and obnoxious, with Canadian) C-105m. ★★ D: Christian Duguay. Gielgud presumably having fun as a disDavid Hewlett, Deborah Raffin, Yvan Ponguise-happy sharpster. [PG]▼● ★★★ D: ton, Isabelle Mejias, Tom Butler, Raoul Scandalous John (1971) C-113m. Trujillo. Would-be despotic police officer Robert Butler. Brian Keith, Michele Carey, conspires with scientist to trap ‘‘scanners’’ Rick Lenz, Harry Morgan, Simon Oakland, (people with strong ESP abilities), but comAlfonso Arau, Bill Williams, Bruce Glover, plications arise when they confront a scanJohn Ritter, Iris Adrian. Spirited Disney comner with principles. OK for what it is. David edy-Western chronicling what happens when Cronenberg had no connection with this seelderly, lovably ornery rancher Keith refuses quel to his 1981 film. [R]▼● to sell his land to a developer. Keith’s crafty Scanners III: The Takeover (1992performance as a modern-day Don Quixote Canadian) C-101m. BOMB D: Christian gives this one a lift. Panavision. [G]▼ ★★★ Duguay. Liliana Komorowska, Valerie D: Phil Scandal Sheet (1952) 82m. Valois, Daniel Pilon, Collin Fox, Claire Karlson. Broderick Crawford, Donna Reed, Cellucci, Michael Copeman, Steve ParJohn Derek, Rosemary DeCamp, Henry rish. A new drug turns good ‘‘scanners’’ bad, O’Neill, Henry (Harry) Morgan. Engrossing and makes Komorowska into yet another melodrama about an ambitious editor who actelekinetic megalomaniac. Poorly acted, cidentally kills his ex-wife, then finds his ace badly written, plodding trifle reduces evil reporters investigating the story. Based on a to mere cruelty, and Cronenberg’s original Samuel Fuller novel. ideas to absurdity. Awful. [R]▼● Scanner Cop (1994-Canadian-U.S.) CScanners: The Showdown (1994) C-95m. 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pierre David. Daniel Quinn, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Steve Barnett. Daniel Quinn, PatDarlanne Fluegel, Richard Grove, Mark rick Kilpatrick, Khrystyne Haje, Stephen Rolston, Richard Lynch, Hilary Shepard, Mendel, Robert Forster, Brenda Swanson, James Horan, Gary Hudson, Luca BercoJerry Potter, Jewel Shepard. Evil scanner vici, Brion James. Rookie Quinn, a powerKilpatrick returns to L.A. with a new ful telepath (scanner) since childhood, uses power—he can suck the life out of other his powers, which might destroy him, to scanners—and a lust for revenge on scanner track a renegade scientist who’s causing orcop Quinn, who sent him to prison. Effecdinary people to kill cops. Despite logic and tive, entertaining sequel to SCANNER COP acting lapses, an entertaining entry—and delivers its goods with solid B-movie skill. welcome change of direction—in the Aka SCANNER COP II: VOLKIN’S RESCANNERS series. [R]▼● VENGE. [R]▼● Scanner Cop II: Volkin’s Revenge SEE: Scapegoat, The (1959-British) 92m. ★★1⁄2 Scanners: The Showdown D: Robert Hamer. Alec Guinness, Bette ★★★ D: Scanner Darkly, A (2006) C-100m. Davis, Nicole Maurey, Irene Worth, Peter Richard Linklater. Keanu Reeves, Robert Bull, Pamela Brown, Geoffrey Keen. DeDowney, Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona cent acting rescues a fuzzy script. French Ryder, Rory Cochrane, Melody Chase, gentleman murders his wife, tries to inSean Allen, Natasha Valdez, Chamblee Fervolve his British lookalike in scheme. Davis guson. In a run-down future, three aging has small but impressive role as the guilty slackers share an Orange County tract Guinness’ dope-ridden mother. Adapted by house: surfer dude Harrelson, armed and Hamer and Gore Vidal from a Daphne du paranoid Downey, and tire jockey Reeves, Maurier novel. who’s got a secret . . . he’s a narc. Every Scaramouche (1952) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: day he dons a scramble suit to hide his ID George Sidney. Stewart Granger, Eleanor and ferret out bad guys who peddle brainParker, Janet Leigh, Mel Ferrer, Henry Wilrotting Substance D. Bleak cautionary tale coxon, Lewis Stone, Nina Foch, Richard Anabout loss of self, rendered in eye-popping derson, Robert Coote. Excellent cast in rotoscoped animation that dimensionalizes rousing adaptation of Sabatini novel of illusdeluded abusers who are way more than trious ne’er-do-well who sets out to avenge dazed and confused. Adapted by Linklater friend’s death, set in 18th-century France. Imfrom Philip K. Dick’s novel. [R]쩠 peccably done. Highlight is climactic sword Scanners (1981-Canadian) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 duel—the longest in swashbuckling history. D: David Cronenberg. Jennifer O’Neill, Screenplay by Ronald Millar and George Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, LawFroeschel. Filmed before in 1923.▼●쩠 rence Dane, Charles Shamata. Title refers Scarecrow (1973) C-115m. ★★★ D: Jerry to superbrains who can read minds and Schatzberg. Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, cause others’ heads to explode; here, a Dorothy Tristan, Eileen Brennan, Ann ‘‘good’’ scanner helps doctors track down Wedgeworth, Richard Lynch. Drifter Hacka bad one. Rather plodding treatment of man, who wants to start car-wash busiinteresting idea, aided somewhat by great ness, meets drifter Pacino, who has aban[ 1204 ]

doned his wife. Moody, not altogether tious navel-gazing from the actress daughter successful tale benefits from top perforof Italian horror-meister Dario Argento. All mances and photography (by Vilmos Zsigabout a 26-year-old drug-fueled pregnant mond), plus good use of locations. Panastarlet who travels from N.Y.C. to L.A. to vision. [R]▼●쩠 Amsterdam in search of her American lover, ★★1 Scared Stiff (1953) 108m. only to be pursued by men and women who ⁄2 D: George Marshall. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lizawill stop at nothing to rape her. Cult film’s beth Scott, Carmen Miranda, Dorothy Mabiggest revelation is how willing the smollone. Usual Martin and Lewis hijinks with dering Argento is to get naked.쩠 duo on spooky Caribbean island inherited Scarlet Empress, The (1934) 110m. ★★★ by Scott; Jerry and Carmen make a wild D: Josef von Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich, team. Remake of Bob Hope’s THE John Lodge, Louise Dresser, Sam Jaffe, GHOST BREAKERS.▼●쩠 C. Aubrey Smith, Edward Van Sloan. Scared to Death (1947) C-65m. ★1⁄2 D: Von Sternberg tells the story of Catherine Christy Cabanne. Bela Lugosi, Douglas Fowthe Great and her rise to power in uniquely ley, Joyce Compton, George Zucco, Nat Penornate fashion, with stunning lighting and dleton, Angelo Rossitto, Molly Lamont. camerawork and fiery Russian music. It’s Lugosi’s only color film is a dreadful, cheaply a visual orgy; dramatically uneven, but made chiller. A beautiful murder victim chroncinematically fascinating.▼쩠 icles how she came to meet her demise. Lugosi Scarlet Hour, The (1956) 95m. ★★ D: plays Leonide, a hypnotist.▼●쩠 Michael Curtiz. Carol Ohmart, Tom Tryon, 1 Scarface (1932) 90m. ★★★ ⁄2 D: Howard Jody Lawrence, James Gregory, Elaine Hawks. Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Stritch, E. G. Marshall, Edward Binns. Raft, Boris Karloff, Karen Morley, Vince Sluggish study of marital discord leading Barnett, Osgood Perkins, C. Henry Gordon. to murder. VistaVision. Scarlet Letter, The (1926) 80m. ★★★ D: Powerful gangster film is the most potent of the 1930s, with Muni delivering emoVictor Seastrom. Lillian Gish, Lars Hantionally charged performance as Caponelike son, Henry B. Walthall, Karl Dane, Wilmobster with more than just a soft spot for liam H. Tooker, Marcelle Corday. Excellent, his sister (Dvorak). Raw, harsh, and brimthough liberal, adaptation of Hawthorne ming with unsubtle symbolism; five writclassic about Hester Prynne (Gish) who ers include Ben Hecht and W. R. Burnett. bears scar of adultery in Salem, having had Filmed in 1931, release delayed by censors. clandestine affair with minister Hanson. The full title is SCARFACE, THE SHAME Filmed several times in the silent era, and in OF THE NATION. Remade in 1983.▼●쩠 1934, 1973, 1979 (for TV), and 1995. Scarlet Letter, The (1934) 70m. ★★ D: Scarface (1983) C-170m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian De Palma. Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Robert G. Vignola. Colleen Moore, HarPfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robdie Albright, Henry B. Walthall, Cora Sue ert Loggia, Miriam Colon, F. Murray Collins, Alan Hale, Virginia Howell, Abraham, Paul Shenar, Harris Yulin. 1932 William Farnum, Betty Blythe. Slow, gangster movie updated by making lead poorly directed, though not uninteresting character a Cuban refugee in Miami, and version of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel. changing profession from bootlegging to Moore is miscast as Hester Prynne; Walthall drug-dealing . . . but this film wallows in repeats his role from the 1926 version as excess and unpleasantness for nearly three Roger Prynne. A real curio. ▼쩠 hours, and offers no new insights except Scarlet Letter, The (1973-German) Cthat crime doesn’t pay. At least the 1932 90m. ★★★ D: Wim Wenders. Senta Berger, movie moved. Even so, this has become a Lou Castel, Hans-Christian Blech, Yella pop-culture phenomenon, with Pacino’s Tony Rottlander, Yelina Samarina, William LayMontana an underdog hero! Screenplay by ton. Absorbing version of the oft-filmed Hawthorne classic, with Berger as Hester Oliver Stone. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Scarlet Blade, The SEE: Crimson Blade, Prynne, Blech as Roger Prynne, and Castel The as Rev. Dimmesdale. While it lacks the Scarlet Claw, The (1944) 74m. ★★★1⁄2 D: spontaneity of Wenders’ other early films, Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel there is much to ponder and relish here: in Bruce, Gerald Hamer, Arthur Hohl, Miles particular, Wenders’ portrayal of the imMander, Ian Wolfe, Paul Cavanagh, Kay migrant New England settlers. Remade in 1995. Filmed in Spain.▼ Harding. The ominous marshes of a FrenchCanadian village provide the setting for Scarlet Letter, The (1995) C-135m. gruesome mutilation murders in this excelBOMB D: Roland Joffe´. Demi Moore, Gary lent Sherlock Holmes mystery, moodily Oldman, Robert Duvall, Joan Plowright, photographed by George Robinson. Clearly Robert Prosky, Edward Hardwicke, Roy Dotrice, Dana Ivey, George Aguilar, Amy the best of the series.▼쩠 1 ★ Scarlet Diva (2001-Italian) C-91m. ⁄2 D: Wright, Diane Salinger, Eric Schweig; Asia Argento. Asia Argento, Jean Shepard, voice of Jodhi May. Hokey adaptation of Vera Gemma, Fabio Camilli. Lurid, pretenNathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel throws [ 1205 ]

in everything from witch hunts to Indian Richter, Veronica Cartwright; voice of Vitaattacks to a controversial happy ending—all min C. Distressingly flat, unentertaining seto no avail. Moore is woefully miscast as quel finds Faris and friends invited to spend Hester Prynne (though she sure fills a weekend as an experiment in haunted manPuritan frock), Oldman gives a histrionic sion. Filmmakers must have felt that one performance, while Duvall is simply incomcrummy remake of THE HAUNTING just prehensible. ‘‘Erotic’’ love scenes are espewasn’t enough. [R]▼쩠 cially embarrassing, in soft focus with Scary Movie 3 (2003) C-84m. ★★ D: David phallic candles and a chirpy Disney bird Zucker. Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Simon (credited as Rudy the Robin) who sings for Rex, Leslie Nielsen, Regina Hall, Camryn sexual freedom! J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Manheim, Anthony Anderson, Queen Latifah, Scarlet Pimpernel, The (1935-British) Jeremy Piven, Eddie Griffin, Pamela Ander95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Harold Young. Leslie Howson, Jenny McCarthy, George Carlin, Darrell ard, Merle Oberon, Raymond Massey, Hammond, Denise Richards, D.L. Hughley, Nigel Bruce, Bramwell Fletcher, Anthony Drew Mikuska, Jianna Ballard. An imBushell, Joan Gardner, Melville Cooper. provement over the second installment— Excellent costumer with Howard leading what wouldn’t be?—as SIGNS, THE RING, double life, aiding innocent victims of and 8 MILE are all spoofed. Faris, now a TV French revolution while posing as foppish reporter, and Hall are the only returning cast member of British society. Baroness Orczy’s members (though they play new characters, if novel was scripted by Robert E. Sheranyone’s keeping track). Scattershot laughs, wood, Sam Berman, Arthur Wimperis, as you’d expect from the director and cowriter and Lajos Biro; produced by Alexander of AIRPLANE! and NAKED GUN (Nielsen Korda. Remade for TV in 1982. Also appears here as the president of the U.S.) shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 but hardly inspired. Many pop culture figScarlet Street (1945) 103m. ★★★ D: ures appear in cameos. Unrated version also Fritz Lang. Edward G. Robinson, Joan available. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Bennett, Dan Duryea, Margaret Lindsay, Scary Movie 4 (2006) C-83m. ★★ D: David Rosalind Ivan. Meek, henpecked Robinson Zucker. Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig is pulled into world of crime and deception Bierko, Leslie Nielsen, Charlie Sheen, Bill by seductive Bennett and her manipulative Pullman, Carmen Electra, Anthony Anderson, boyfriend Duryea. Stars and director of Cloris Leachman, Chris Elliott, Molly ShanTHE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW keep non, Michael Madsen, Simon Rex, Kevin it interesting, but don’t match earlier film. Hart, Shaquille O’Neal, Dr. Phil McGraw, Dudley Nichols adapted this remake of Jean James Earl Jones. This time the parodists pair Renoir’s LA CHIENNE. Also shown in Faris (sending up THE GRUDGE) and computer-colored version. ▼쩠 Bierko (spoofing Tom Cruise in WAR OF Scars of Dracula (1970-British) C-94m. ★★★ THE WORLDS) with THE VILLAGE, D: Roy Ward Baker. Christopher Lee, DenSAW, and a dollop of BROKEBACK nis Waterman, Jenny Hanley, Christopher MOUNTAIN. Hall is back as Faris’ (extraMatthews, Wendy Hamilton. Good fang work neous) sidekick and Nielsen returns briefly as young couple tangles with Dracula in as the U.S. President. Mining adolescent search of the young man’s missing brother. ‘‘comedy’’ from recent movie hits is wearing awfully thin. [PG-13]쩠 Last of Hammer’s period Draculas; followed by DRACULA A.D. 1972. [R]▼●쩠 Scavenger Hunt (1979) C-117m. BOMB Scary Movie (2000) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Michael Schultz. Richard Benjamin, Keenen Ivory Wayans. Jon Abrahams, CarJames Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gormen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth, Anna Faris, don, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Kurt Fuller, Regina Hall, Lochlyn Munro, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, RichCheri Oteri, Dave Sheridan, Marlon Wayans, ard Mulligan, Tony Randall, Dirk BeneShawn Wayans, Rick Ducommun, David L. dict, Willie Aames, Stephanie Faracy, Meat Lander. L-o-o-o-o-o-w-brow spoof of the Loaf, Carol Wayne, Arnold SchwarzeSCREAM trilogy and TV hits of the late negger. Vincent Price dies, and his rela’90s. Ribald, raunchy, and raucous, with tives and servants are practically forced to gags that would embarrass a frat boy; the kill each other for his inheritance by colfact that the MPAA gave this an R surprised lecting commodes, wild animals, etc. in even Hollywood. Costars Shawn and Maran allotted time. Hard to believe a comedy lon were among the six writers; director with so much talent could misfire so greatly, Keenen has a small part. Followed by three but it does; only Mulligan manages to get some laughs. [PG]▼ sequels. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Scary Movie 2 (2001) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Scene of the Crime (1949) 94m. ★★ D: Keenen Ivory Wayans. Shawn Wayans, Roy Rowland. Van Johnson, Arlene Dahl, Marlon Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Gloria DeHaven, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Chris Masterson, Kathleen Robertson, Chris John McIntire, Donald Woods, Norman Elliott, James Woods, Tim Curry, Tori SpellLloyd, Jerome Cowan. Bland, talky film noir ing, David Cross, Natasha Lyonne, Andy in which hard-boiled L.A. cop Johnson sets [ 1206 ]

out to solve the murder of his ex-partner, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar, Philip who might have been on the take. S. (Seymour) Hoffman, Richard Venture, Scene of the Crime (1986-French) C-90m. Bradley Whitford, Rochelle Oliver, Frances ★★★ Conroy. Timid prep school student earns D: Andre´ Te´chine´. Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Wadeck Stanczak, Nichmuch-needed money on a long weekend olas Giraudi, Victor Lanoux, Jean Boustaking a job as companion to crusty, blind, quet, Claire Nebout. Stylish, Chabrolhard-drinking ex-Army colonel—little dreamlike drama about an unhappy young boy ing the colonel has his own agenda. Enjoy(Giraudi), his equally unhappy mother able (if barely believable) story galvanized (Deneuve), and what results when escaped by Pacino’s bravura, Oscar-winning perforconvict Stanczak invades their lives. Entermance. Bo Goldman’s script is seriously taining, perceptive, if occasionally uneven exweakened by a story appendage that plays amination of repression and desperation.▼쩠 like leftover material from DEAD POETS Scenes From a Mall (1991) C-87m. ★★ SOCIETY. Based on the 1974 Italian film D: Paul Mazursky. Bette Midler, Woody PROFUMO DI DONNA. [R] ▼●쩠 Allen, Bill Irwin, Daren Firestone, ReScent of Green Papaya, The (1993becca Nickels, Paul Mazursky. Affluent French-Vietnamese) C-104m. ★★★ D: Hung L.A. couple, celebrating their anniversary, Tran Anh. Tran Nu Yen-Khe, Lu Man San, spend the day together at a mall, where Truong Thi Loc, Nguyen Anh Hoa, Vuong various revelations cause their marriage to Hoa Hoi. Thoughtful, carefully observed unravel. Bette and Woody make a terrific drama about a ten-year-old servant girl who couple, but after a promising start the comes to work in a Saigon household in seriocomic script takes some strange turns 1951; the scenario details her relationships and leaves reality behind. Fans of the with the various household members and stars should take a look, but this one ranks concludes a decade later with her growing as a major disappointment. [R]▼●쩠 into a beautiful young woman. Unhurried in Scenes From a Marriage (1973-Swedish) its execution and filled with lingering shots, C-168m. ★★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Liv the film is as captivating as its title.▼●쩠 Ullmann, Erland Josephson, Bibi Andersson, Schindler’s List (1993) C/B&W-195m. ★★★★ D: Steven Spielberg. Liam Neeson, Jan Malmsjo, Anita Wall. Passionate, probing and honest look at a marriage, its Ben Kingsley, Ralph Fiennes, Caroline disintegration, and the relationship that Goodall, Jonathan Sagalle, Embeth Dafollows. Ullmann and Josephson are remarkvidtz, Malgoscha Gebel, Shmulik Levy, able throughout this intimate and often Mark Ivanir, Beatrice Macola. Staggering painful portrait, originally made as six TV adaptation of Thomas Keneally’s best-seller episodes and edited into feature-length by about the real-life Catholic war profiteer writer-director Bergman. The characters are who initially flourished by sucking up to the seen 30 years later in SARABAND. OrigiNazis, but eventually went broke saving the nal version runs 299m. [PG]▼쩠 lives of more than 1,000 Polish Jews by Scenes From the Class Struggle in Bevemploying them in his factory, manufacturing crockery for the German army. Filmed erly Hills (1989) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul Bartel. Jacqueline Bisset, Ray Sharkey, almost entirely on location in Poland, in Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley, gritty b&w, but with a pace to match the Jr., Wallace Shawn, Arnetia Walker, Paul most frenzied Spielberg works, this looks Bartel, Paul Mazursky, Rebecca Schaeffer. and feels like nothing Hollywood has ever Bizarre, scattershot sex romp with various made before. The three central characters characters of various classes playing musical rate—and receive—unforgettable perforbeds in Beverly Hills. Tries to be outrageous mances: Neeson, who’s towering as Oskar and irreverent while satirizing L.A. types and Schindler; Kingsley, superb as his Jewish lifestyles, but mostly inane, veering uncomaccountant (and conscience); and Fiennes, fortably between drama and farce. The best who’s frightening as the odious Nazi comthing about this is its title. [R]▼● mandant. Outstanding screenplay by Steven Scent of a Woman (1974-Italian) C-104m. Zaillian and cinematography by Janusz ★★★ D: Dino Risi. Vittorio Gassman, Kaminski. Spielberg’s most intense and Alessandro Momo, Agostina Belli. Blind, personal film to date. Seven Oscars include arrogant army captain Gassman galavants Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, through Italy, sensing the presence of atArt Direction, Cinematography, Editing, tractive women along the way; hapless and Original Score (John Williams). [R] private Momo is his guide on this fateful ▼●쩠 trip. Gassman shines in this sharply obSchizopolis (1997) C-99m. ★★★ D: Steven served black comedy-drama, based on a Soderbergh. Steven Soderbergh, Betsy novel by Giovanni Arpino. Remade in the Brantley, David Jensen. Giddy me´lange of U.S. in 1992. Original Italian title: PROsurrealism, satire, silliness, and old-fashFUMO DI DONNA. [R]▼ ioned underground filmmaking written, diScent of a Woman (1992) C-157m. ★★1⁄2 rected by, and starring Soderbergh. A D: Martin Brest. Al Pacino, Chris O’Donnell, broad-ranging jab at modern society and its [ 1207 ]

ills, its tone is arch, its technique one of nie`le Dubroux, Bernard LeCoq. The non sequiturs, and its audience likely to be always-watchable Huppert plays a well-tosmall. But if you latch onto it early enough, do 40-ish woman who, against her better you may find (as we did) that it’s fun—and judgment, falls into an obsessive relationfunny—to watch.▼쩠 ship with a young stud (Martinez) whom ★★1 Schlock (1971) C-80m. she meets at a bar in Paris. Candid examina⁄2 D: John Landis. Saul Kahan, Joseph Piantadosi, Eliza tion of relationships is unmemorable, but benGarrett, John Landis. Landis’ first film efits from star charisma. Based on the novel is enjoyable spoof of B horror flicks; by Yukio Mishima. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 director (in gorilla suit by Rick Baker) School of Rock, The (2003) C-108m. ★★★1 plays missing link on the loose in small ⁄2 D: Richard Linklater. Jack Black, town. Many in-jokes for film buffs. Aka Joan Cusack, Mike White, Sarah Silverman, THE BANANA MONSTER. [PG]▼쩠 Joey Gaydos, Jr., Maryam Hassan, Kevin School Daze (1988) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clark, Rebecca Brown, Robert Tsai, Caitlin Spike Lee. Larry Fishburne, Giancarlo Hale, Aleisha Allen, Miranda Cosgrove, Esposito, Tisha Campbell, Kyme, Joe SenAmy Sedaris. Perpetual screw-up Black, eca, Art Evans, Ellen Holly, Ossie Davis, who fancies himself a hard-core rocker, preBill Nunn, Branford Marsalis, Kadeem tends to be roommate White and takes a Hardison, Spike Lee, Darryl M. Bell, Joie substitute-teaching job at a tony private Lee, Tyra Ferrell, Jasmine Guy, Gregg school. There he finds the raw material for Burge, Kasi Lemmons, Samuel L. Jackson, his dream band: a roomful of musically talPhyllis Hyman. Comedy-cum-fantasy about ented kids. Writer-costar White tailored this life on a black college campus in the script for Black, who’s simply perfect. CuSouth, where one self-serious student acsack is hilarious as his uptight principal. tivist fights a lonely battle not only against Delightful comedy hits all the right notes— the administration, but the pervasive mindfor audiences of all ages. Frank Whaley aplessness of his fellow students, most of pears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 whom are wrapped up in fraternity and School That Ate My Brain, The SEE: sorority nonsense. Writer-director-costar Zombie High School Ties (1992) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobLee offers much entertainment and some provocative ideas, though he doesn’t follow ert Mandel. Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, up on his initial premise until the anticliChris O’Donnell, Randall Batinkoff, Anmactic final scene. [R]▼●쩠 drew Lowery, Cole Hauser, Amy Locane, School for Scoundrels (1960-British) 94m. Zeljko Ivanek, Kevin Tighe, Ed Lauter, ★★★ D: Robert Hamer. Ian Carmichael, Peter Donat, Michael Higgins, Ben Affleck, Terry-Thomas, Janette Scott, Alastair Sim, Anthony Rapp. In the 1950s, a Jewish Dennis Price, Peter Jones, Edward Chapman. student (well played by Fraser) with workingWimpy Carmichael, about to lose the girl of class roots wins a football scholarship to a his dreams to pushy Thomas, attends the title snooty prep school, where he’s victimized institute, where he learns ‘‘one-upmanship’’ by anti-Semitism. Youth-oriented film and ‘‘gamesmanship.’’ Clever, funny, veddy tackles an important subject, but it’s strained and obvious. [PG-13]▼●쩠 British satire. Full title on-screen is SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS OR HOW TO WIN Science of Sleep, The (2006-French-Italian) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michel Gondry. Gael WITHOUT ACTUALLY CHEATING. Remade in 2006. ▼쩠 Garcı´a Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain School for Scoundrels (2006) C-101m. ★★ Chabat, Miou-Miou, Pierre Vaneck, Emma D: Todd Phillips. Billy Bob Thornton, Jon de Caunes, Aure´lia Petit. Bernal’s charisHeder, Jacinda Barrett, Michael Clarke matic performance (in English) anchors this Duncan, Luis Guzma´n, David Cross, Horafanciful film about a childlike man who tio Sanz, Sarah Silverman, Matt Walsh, lives in a constant state of confusion about Todd Louiso, Dan Fogler, Bob Stephenson, what’s real and what’s happening in his Ben Stiller. Nerdy guy who lets people step dreams. When he falls in love with his atall over him is recruited by a mysterious tractive next-door neighbor, his anxiety entrepreneur who runs a class for worms in about their uncertain relationship blurs the need of turning. But our would-be hero isn’t line even more. Gondry’s script meanders, prepared for his ‘‘teacher’’ to start playing but his constantly imaginative visual touches dirty tricks on him. Most contemporary help to compensate. [R]쩠 comedies are too crude for our taste, but this Scissors (1991) C-105m. ★★ D: Frank De one is terminally bland and never takes off Felitta. Sharon Stone, Steve Railsback, as it repeatedly promises to do. Remake of Ronny Cox, Michelle Phillips. Sexually the 1960 British comedy. Unrated version traumatized Stone is driven mad—a` la runs 107m. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 GASLIGHT—by objects that seemingly School of Flesh, The (1998-French) Ccome to life in her apartment. Unfortu1 ★★ 107m. nately, Stone is forced to carry off these ⁄2 D: Benoit Jacquot. Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Martinez, Vincent Linhistrionics in a generally lifeless, slowdon, Marthe Keller, Franc¸ois Berle´and, Damoving production. Interesting idea could [ 1208 ]

have been better executed (no pun infinds himself caught in the system. Good tended). [R]▼● action, dialogue amid familiar trappings. Scooby-Doo (2002) C-87m. ★★ D: Raja [PG]▼●쩠 Gosnell. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Scorpion King, The (2002) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, D: Chuck Russell. The Rock (Dwayne Rowan Atkinson, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Isla Johnson), Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Michael Fisher, Sugar Ray. Hanna-Barbera’s TV Clarke Duncan, Grant Heslov, Peter Facicartoon canine gets the big-screen treatment nelli, Ralf Moeller, Bernard Hill, Roger as Scooby and pals try to solve a mystery on Rees. Follow-up to the two MUMMY movSpooky Island. Flat comic whodunit with a ies features wrestler The Rock as a warrior computer-generated title character; a mild who accepts the task of assassinating a dediversion for kids and older fans of the vinsert despot (Brand). An entertaining oldtage series. Followed by a sequel. [PG] ▼쩠 fashioned B movie writ large, with nonstop Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004) action, special effects, muscular heroes, and C-91m. ★★ D: Raja Gosnell. Freddie Prinze, beautiful women. The Rock is quite good as Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, an action star, but even at this running time Linda Cardellini, Seth Green, Alicia Silthe story seems padded out. Followed by a verstone, Peter Boyle, Tim Blake Nelson. It DVD sequel. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 is what it is. [PG] ▼쩠 Scotland, Pa. (2002) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scoop (2006-British-U.S.) C-96m. ★★★ D: Billy Morrissette. James LeGros, Maura Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Scarlett JoTierney, Christopher Walken, Kevin Corrihansson, Hugh Jackman, Ian McShane, Rogan, James Rebhorn, Tom Guiry, Amy Smart, mola Garai, Fenella Woolgar, Charles Andy Dick, Timothy Speed Levitch, Geoff Dance, John Standing, Richard Johnson, AnDunsworth. Joe McBeth (LeGros) is stuck in thony Head, Julian Glover, Margaret Tyzack. a go-nowhere fast-food job in 1970s PennsylLarkish comedy-fantasy-mystery plays like an vania, until his wife hatches a scheme to murafterpiece to MATCH POINT, also set in der the boss and climb the ladder of success. London. A famous reporter returns from the Modern-day Macbeth has many clever ideas, dead to tip off college journalist Johansson enthusiastic performances and ingenious prothat wealthy, well-connected Jackman may duction design, but runs out of steam as the be a serial killer. She enlists the help of story grows dark and nasty. Walken is a welstage magician Allen to get close to Jackcome comedic presence as Inspector McDuff. man and break the case. Endearingly silly Written by debuting director Morrissette; Tierney is his wife. [R]▼쩠 and off the cuff, but you may have to be a Woodyphile to truly enjoy it. Allen is in Scott Joplin (1977) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jergood comic form as a walking showemy Paul Kagan. Billy Dee Williams, Clifton business cliche´. [PG-13]쩠 Davis, Godfrey Cambridge, Art Carney, Scorchy (1976) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Hikmet Seymour Cassel, Eubie Blake, Margaret Avedis. Connie Stevens, Cesare Danova, Avery, Sam Fuller. Well-made, colorful William Smith, Marlene Schmidt, Normann but down-beat life story of famed ragtime Burton, Joyce Jameson, Greg Evigan. composer. Made for TV, then given fitful Tawdry actioner with Stevens as Seattle theatrical release. Best sequence: the barrelundercover cop who sets out to bust highhouse piano ‘‘duel.’’ [PG]▼ level drug ring. Plenty of action and gore. Scott of the Antarctic (1948-British) C[R]▼ 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Frend. John Mills, Score, The (2001) C-120m. ★★★ D: Frank Derek Bond, Harold Warrender, James Oz. Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, MarRobertson Justice, Reginald Beckwith, lon Brando, Angela Bassett, Gary Farmer, Kenneth More, John Gregson, Christopher Paul Soles, Jamie Harrold. A master thief Lee. Unrelenting docudrama of determined who lives a double life as a Montreal jazz British explorer Robert Falcon Scott club owner decides to pull one more job, (Mills), highlighting the details of his last then settle down, but an eager young cohort expedition to the South Pole. This saga of spells trouble from the start. Deliberate, albravery and endurance features an espemost laconic in its pacing, this caper never cially moving finale. Music by Vaughan loses its grip. Worth watching for the cast Williams, who later used part of this score alone; Brando, in his final screen role, is in his seventh symphony. ▼쩠 great fun in a colorful performance as De Scoundrel in White SEE: High Heels Niro’s client/fence. Jazz singers Cassandra (1972) Wilson and Mose Allison appear briefly. Scout, The (1994) C-107m. ★★ D: Michael Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Ritchie. Albert Brooks, Brendan Fraser, Di1 ★★ Scorpio (1973) C-114m. ⁄2 D: Michael anne Wiest, Anne Twomey, Lane Smith, Winner. Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Gayle Michael Rapaport, Barry Shabaka Henley, Hunnicutt, Paul Scofield, John Colicos, J. Tony Bennett, George Steinbrenner, Marcia D. Cannon, Joanne Linville. Tough espioRodd. Woefully disappointing baseball nage film of CIA agent in trouble, and yarn, with Brooks as a hard-luck N.Y. Yanhired killer who wants to go straight but kees scout who finds a powerhouse pitcher [ 1209 ]

and batter . . . with some serious psychological problems. Funny at first, with Brooks in good form; then takes a sharp left turn toward drama and never recovers. Brooks cowrote the final screenplay (based on an article by Roger Angell) with partner Monica Johnson. Many ballplayers and sportscasters appear as themselves. [PG-13] ▼

Scream, Blacula, Scream! (1973) C-95m. ★★ D: Bob Kelljan. William Marshall, Don Mitchell, Pam Grier, Michael Conrad, Richard Lawson. Poor sequel to BLACULA finds black vampire recalled from eternal rest and forced to go out and nibble again in contemporary black U.S. [PG]▼쩠 Screamers (1995-Canadian) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 ●쩠 D: Christian Duguay. Peter Weller, Roy Du★★★ Scream (1996) C-110m. D: Wes Crapuis, Jennifer Rubin, Andy Lauer, Charles ven. Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Powell, Ron White, Michael Caloz, Liliana Barrymore, Rose McGowan, Matthew LilKomorowska. 2078: War has devastated a lard, Jamie Kennedy, Courteney Cox, David distant planet; the few human survivors are Arquette, Liev Schreiber, Linda Blair. Murpitted against ‘‘Screamers,’’ self-evolving derer, obsessed with horror movies, begins robots programed to kill. Now the Screamers slaughtering teens in a small city just a year are able to look exactly like human beings. after Campbell’s mother was murdered— Intelligent sci-fi action thriller is undermined and the killer seems to be targeting people by a bad ending. Cowritten by Dan O’Banshe knows. Well-drawn characters, susnon; based on the short story ‘‘Second Varipenseful situations, several plot twists and ety’’ by Philip K. Dick. Followed by a DVD entertaining movie references highlight this sequel 14 years larter. [R]▼●쩠 snappy horror thriller, one of Craven’s best. Screaming Mimi (1958) 79m. ★★ D: Gerd Henry Winkler appears unbilled. Followed Oswald. Anita Ekberg, Phil Carey, Harry by two sequels. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Townes, Gypsy Rose Lee, Romney Brent, Scream 2 (1997) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wes Red Norvo. Lurid low-budget melodrama Craven. David Arquette, Neve Campbell, about a woman who cracks up after being Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie assaulted, takes a job as exotic dancer in Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Elise Neal, Jerry Lee’s nightclub but remains under the inO’Connell, Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett, fluence of a possessive psychiatrist. Strange, Liev Schreiber, Lewis Arquette, Duane Markinky film that sounds more interesting tin, Rebecca Gayheart, Portia de Rossi, Omar than it really is. Epps, David Warner, Heather Graham, Kevin Scream of Fear (1961-British) 81m. ★★★ Williamson. Valiant survivor Campbell is in D: Seth Holt. Susan Strasberg, Christocollege when STAB, a movie based on the pher Lee, Ann Todd, Ronald Lewis. Only murder spree depicted in SCREAM, is rewheelchair-bound Strasberg sees her father’s leased—and more murders begin. As good a corpse—while stepmom Todd insists he’s sequel as the filmmakers could have done; on a trip. Good Hammer thriller written it’s only the climactic showdown that disapby Jimmy Sangster. Original British title: points. As in the first film, there are plenty TASTE OF FEAR.▼쩠 of slashes and scares, as well as humor. Screwed (2000) C-82m. BOMB D: Scott Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Alexander, Larry Karaszewski. Norm Mac1 ★★ Scream 3 (2000) C-116m. ⁄2 D: Wes donald, Dave Chappelle, Elaine Stritch, Craven. David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Danny DeVito, Daniel Benzali, Sherman Courteney Cox Arquette, Patrick Dempsey, Hemsley, Sarah Silverman. Title describes Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen, Matt Keeslar, your inevitable state if you waste just two Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, Parker minutes watching this woeful attempt to rePosey, Deon Richmond, Patrick Warburton, vive screwball slapstick. Chauffeur MacLiev Schreiber, Jamie Kennedy, Kelly Ruthdonald works for a stingy baking tycoon erford, Josh Pais, Heather Matarazzo, Roger (Stritch) who won’t even buy him a uniCorman. ‘‘Finale’’ of the SCREAM trilogy, form—so he decides to kidnap her attackset in Hollywood on the soundstages of mode pet dog and hold it for ransom. Movie STAB 3: RETURN TO WOODSBORO. tries everything—even making DeVito a Several actors (Posey, Keeslar, etc.) play mortician who’s also vice-president of Jack ‘‘stars’’ who are portraying your SCREAM Lord’s fan club—but fizzles for the durafavorites. Wonder who’s trying to slice tion. Directing debut for the writers of ED them up, one by one? Fun for fans, with WOOD and THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY some choice cameos. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 FLYNT. [PG-13]▼쩠 Scream and Scream Again (1970-British) 1 ★★ Screw Loose (1999-Italian) C-85m. ★★ D: C-95m. ⁄2 D: Gordon Hessler. Vincent Ezio Greggio. Ezio Greggio, Mel Brooks, Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Judy Julie Condra, Gianfranco Barra, Randi InHuxtable, Alfred Marks, Peter Sallis. Disgerman. Heavy-handed farce about an inept tinguished cast does their darnedest to enbusinessman who promises his dying father liven (no pun intended) tired, confusing that he’ll find the American who saved his plot concerning mad scientist’s organ/limbs life during WW2. Brooks hams it up, but experiments and race of emotionless beings the results are only sporadically funny. Shot he creates. [M/PG]▼●쩠 [ 1210 ]

in both English- and Italian-language versions. [R]▼쩠 Scrooge (1935-British) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Edwards. Sir Seymour Hicks, Donald Calthrop, Robert Cochran, Mary Glynne, Oscar Asche, Maurice Evans. Faithful adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with an impressive Sir Seymour (who also cowrote the script) as Scrooge. Dickens’ era brought colorfully to life.▼쩠 Scrooge (1970-British) C-118m. ★★★ D: Ronald Neame. Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, Edith Evans, Kenneth More, Laurence Naismith, Michael Medwin, David Collings, Gordon Jackson, Roy Kinnear, Kay Walsh. Handsome musicalization of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with Finney genially hamming it up in the title role and Guinness a surprisingly fey Marley’s Ghost. Leslie Bricusse’s score is pretty forgettable, save effervescent ‘‘Thank You Very Much’’; lovely sets by Terry Marsh and evocative title design by Ronald Searle. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Scrooged (1988) C-101m. ★★ D: Richard Donner. Bill Murray, Karen Allen, John Forsythe, John Glover, Bobcat Goldthwait, David Johansen (Buster Poindexter), Carol Kane, Robert Mitchum, Nicholas Phillips, Michael J. Pollard, Alfre Woodard, Mabel King, John Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray. Ostensibly a hip, funny rereading of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, with Murray as a venal TV executive. The laughs are mild and widely scattered, and toward the end the film seems to want us to take its brotherhood message seriously. Or does it? Features a variety of ‘‘guest stars.’’ [PG-13]

Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Gary Stevens, William H. Macy, Kingston DuCoeur, Eddie Jones, Ed Lauter, Michael O’Neill, Royce D. Applegate, Annie Corley, Sam Bottoms; narrated by David McCullough. Astonishing true story of three men whom fate drew together in the depths of the Great Depression: a go-getting entrepreneur with a hole in his life (Bridges), an overweight jockey who’s led a hardscrabble existence (Maguire), and a loner with a gift for training horses (Cooper), even a down-and-out nag like Seabiscuit. Writer-director Ross’ distillation of Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling book makes all the right moves, then keeps selling the story as if it needed to be driven across. Still a beautifully crafted film. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Sea Chase, The (1955) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Farrow. John Wayne, Lana Turner, Tab Hunter, David Farrar, Lyle Bettger, James Arness, Claude Akins. Strange WW2 film, with Wayne as German (!) captain of fugitive ship with unusual cargo, assorted crew, plus passenger/girlfriend Turner. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Sea Devils (1953-British) C-91m. ★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Yvonne De Carlo, Rock Hudson, Maxwell Reed, Denis O’Dea, Michael Goodliffe, Bryan Forbes. Smuggler Hudson becomes involved in the activities of British spy De Carlo in this unmemorable programmer set in the Napoleonic era. Filmed on and around the Channel Islands.▼ Sea Gull, The (1968-British) C-141m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Sidney Lumet. James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret, David Warner, Harry Andrews, Eileen Herlie, ▼●쩠 Scrubbers (1982-British) C-90m. ★★ D: Denholm Elliott. Tasteful but reverentially Mai Zetterling. Chrissie Cotterill, Amanda slow-moving transcription of Chekhov play. York, Elizabeth Edmonds, Kate Ingram, Signoret’s accent becomes rather disconKathy Burke. Life in a teenage girls’ borstal certing among British players, all trying to (reform school), complete with heartbreak, be 19th-century Russians. [G] cruelty, lesbianism, suicide. Harrowing Sea Gypsies, The (1978) C-101m. ★★★ D: but repetitious, and the hows and whys of Stewart Raffill. Robert Logan, Heather the girls’ anger is never explored. [R]▼ Rattray, Mikki Jamison-Olsen, Shannon Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay! (1948) C-95m. Saylor, Cjon Damitri Patterson. Nice fam★★ D: F. Hugh Herbert. June Haver, Lon ily adventure has Logan sailing round the McCallister, Walter Brennan, Anne Reworld with daughters, journalist Jamisonvere, Natalie Wood. Any film with a title Olsen, and little stowaway Patterson, learnlike that can’t be all good, and it isn’t; ing to survive when shipwrecked in Alaska. McCallister’s life is devoted to two mules. Fine location filming. [G]▼ Marilyn Monroe can be glimpsed in a Sea Hawk, The (1940) 127m. ★★★★ D: canoe—it’s her first film appearance. Michael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Brenda MarScum (1979-British) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan shall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Flora Clarke. Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, John Robson, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una Judd, Phil Daniels, John Blundell, Ray O’Connor, Gilbert Roland, Edgar BuBurdis, Julian Firth. The horrors of a borstal chanan. Top-notch combination of classy (British reform school). Harrowing but faWarner Bros. costumer and Flynn at his miliar; the accents are almost unintelligible. dashing best in adventure on the high seas; An earlier TV version was commissioned, lively balance of piracy, romance, and then banned by the BBC. Alternate version swordplay, handsomely photographed and runs 78m. [R]▼쩠 staged, with rousing Erich Wolfgang KornSeabiscuit (2003) C-140m. ★★★ D: Gary gold score. Has nothing to do with the SaRoss. Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris batini novel, which was filmed faithfully in [ 1211 ]

1924. Restored for video, with additional David Wechsler and a special prize for Jandl final scene intended for British audiences, for outstanding juvenile performance. Also in which Queen Elizabeth I offers moraleshown in computer-colored version.▼ building war-time message. Beware of Search and Destroy (1981) C-93m. ★★ D: shorter prints. Also shown in computerWilliam Fruet. Perry King, Tisa Farrow, colored version.▼●쩠 Don Stroud, Park Jong Soo, George KenSea Inside, The (2004-Spanish-Frenchnedy. Undistinguished actioner about forItalian) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alejandro Almer South Vietnamese official Soo seeking mena´bar. Javier Bardem, Bele´n Rueda, Lola revenge against American G.I.s King and Stroud. Filmed in 1978. [PG]▼쩠 Duen˜as, Mabel Rivera, Celso Bugallo, Clara Segura. A man who has lived as a quadriSearch and Destroy (1995) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: plegic for 28 years battles for the right to David Salle. Griffin Dunne, Illeana Dougdie, but his family—and even a lawyer who las, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, agrees to represent him—goes through a vaJohn Turturro, Rosanna Arquette, Ethan riety of emotions about his struggle and its Hawke, Martin Scorsese. A badly-in-hock possible outcome. Imaginatively told, with worm on the outer limits of show biz an extraordinary performance by Bardem. schemes to obtain financing for his dream Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language movie project, an adaptation of the popFilm. Scripted by the director and Mateo psychologist rantings of a men’s-movement Gil, based on the life of Ramo´n Sampedro. guru. Despite a black-comedy dream cast Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 and participation by executive producer Sea Killer SEE: Beyond the Reef Scorsese (who directed the thematically Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964-British) comparable THE KING OF COMEDY), 115m. ★★★★ D: Bryan Forbes. Kim Stanthis diffuse film grows progressively out of ley, Richard Attenborough, Patrick Magee, control before collapsing entirely. Directorial debut for N.Y. artist Salle. [R] ▼●쩠 Nanette Newman, Judith Donner, Gerald Sim, Maria Kazan, Margaret Lacey. GripSearchers, The (1956) C-119m. ★★★★ D: ping drama of crazed medium Stanley inJohn Ford. John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, volving husband Attenborough in shady Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood, project. Brilliant acting, direction in this John Qualen, Harry Carey, Jr., Olive Carey, must-see film. Forbes adapted Mark McAntonio Moreno, Henry Brandon, Hank Shane’s novel and coproduced the film Worden, Ken Curtis, Lana Wood, Dorothy with Attenborough. Remade in Japan in Jordan, Pat Wayne. Superb Western saga of 2000 as SE´ANCE. ▼쩠 Wayne’s relentless search for niece (Wood) Sea of Grass, The (1947) 131m. ★★1⁄2 D: kidnapped by Indians, spanning many years. Elia Kazan. Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Color, scenery, photography all splendid, with Tracy, Melvyn Douglas, Phyllis Thaxter, moving, insightful Frank Nugent script to Robert Walker, Edgar Buchanan, Harry match (based on Alan LeMay’s novel). And Carey. Plodding drama from Conrad Richwho could ever forget that final shot? Remade ter story of farmer-rancher feud over New and imitated many times since (CARAVANS, Mexico grasslands. Walker stands out in WINTERHAWK, GRAYEAGLE, etc.). VistaVision. ▼●쩠 hardworking but unsuccessful cast.▼ Sea of Love (1989) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Search for One-Eyed Jimmy, The (1996) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam Henry Kass. John TurHarold Becker. Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin, John Goodman, Michael Rooker, William turro, Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Buscemi, Hickey, Richard Jenkins, Christine EstaMichael Badalucco, Ray ‘‘Boom Boom’’ brook, Barbara Baxley, Patricia Barry, SamMancini, Anne Meara, Jennifer Beals, Nichouel L. Jackson, Jacqueline Brookes, John las Turturro, Aida Turturro, Holt McCallany, Spencer. Streetwise cop, going through Sam Rockwell, Tony Sirico. Oddball story of mid-life crisis, falls in love with a suspect a documentary filmmaker, fresh out of colwhile investigating a serial murder case. lege, who returns to his old Brooklyn neighTough, smart, sexy urban thriller with a dyborhood and finds cinematic inspiration as his namite script by Richard Price, a perfect camera follows the trail of a missing local role for Pacino, and a steamy showcase for lowlife. Funny premise, fine cast, but never lives up to its promise. A must for Turturro Barkin. [R]▼●쩠 Sea of Sand SEE: Desert Patrol fans, however, as most of the family turns up Search, The (1948) 105m. ★★★★ D: Fred here. Filmed in 1993. [R]▼● Zinnemann. Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Search for Signs of Inteligent Life in Aline MacMahon, Jarmila Novotna, Wenthe Universe, The (1991) C-120m. ★★★ dell Corey. Poignant drama of American D: John Bailey. Clever re-creation of Lily soldier Clift caring for concentration camp Tomlin’s 1985 one-woman Broadway show. survivor Jandl in postwar Berlin, while the Her characterizations run the gamut from boy’s mother desperately searches all Disbag lady (narrating the proceedings) to teen placed Person’s Camps for him. Beautipunk to New Age Woman, with much of fully acted and directed; won a Best Story the material in a feminist vein. Written by Academy Award for Richard Schweizer and longtime Tomlin collaborator Jane Wagner. [ 1212 ]

(The title is misspelled on purpose.) See try workers who each year come to the city also LILY TOMLIN, a 1986 documentary for their fling with Baxter and Lansbury. chronicling Tomlin and Wagner’s preparaBased on Ray Lawlor’s play, Summer of tion for the show. [PG-13]▼쩠 the 17th Doll. Search for the Mother Lode: The Last Sea Wall, The SEE: This Angry Age Sea Wife (1957-British) C-82m. ★★★ D: Great Treasure SEE: Mother Lode Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) CBob McNaught. Richard Burton, Joan Col1 ★★★ ⁄2 D: Steven Zaillian. Joe Man110m. lins, Basil Sydney, Ronald Squire, Cy tegna, Max Pomeranc, Joan Allen, Ben Grant. Disarming yarn of Burton and ColKingsley, Laurence Fishburne, Michael lins surviving a torpedoed ship. He falls in Nirenberg, Robert Stephens, David Paymer, love with her, not knowing she’s a nun. Set during WW2. CinemaScope.▼쩠 William H. Macy, Dan Hedaya, Anthony Heald, Josh Mostel, Tony Shalhoub, Austin Sea Wolf, The (1941) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pendleton. Compelling, surefooted drama, Michael Curtiz. Edward G. Robinson, John based on a true story: A father discovers Garfield, Ida Lupino, Alexander Knox, that his 7-year-old son has a genius for Gene Lockhart, Barry Fitzgerald, Stanley chess, and enters him in competition, losing Ridges. Bristling Jack London tale of brusight of what this does to the boy’s psytal but intellectual sea captain Robinson che—and his pure enjoyment of the game. battling wits with accidental passenger Knox, Poignant, heart-rending at times (especially as brash seaman Garfield and fugitive Lupino for any parent) and exceptionally well done. try to escape. Script by Robert Rossen. Screenplay by first-time director Zaillian, Originally released at 100m. Remade many from the book by Fred Waitzkin, who’s the times (BARRICADE, WOLF LARSEN, real-life chess whiz’s father. [PG]▼●쩠 etc.), as well as several silent versions. Searching Wind, The (1946) 108m. ★★1⁄2 Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ D: William Dieterle. Robert Young, Sylvia Sea Wolves, The (1980-British-U.S.) Sidney, Ann Richards, Dudley Digges, C-120m. ★★★ D: Andrew V. McLaglen. Douglas Dick, Albert Basserman. Talky but Gregory Peck, Roger Moore, David Niven, historically fascinating drama, scripted by Trevor Howard, Barbara Kellerman, PatLillian Hellman and based on her play, about rick Macnee. You may have to be over 30 a deluded U.S. ambassador (Young) in Euto like this true story of a retired British rope in the years before WW2. Socialite Richcavalry unit undertaking an espionage opards is his wife, journalist Sidney the woman eration in WW2, but it’s both action filled he really loves. Hellman’s scenario mirrors, and funny. The target: a German radio and condemns, the international politics that transmitter on a ship in an Indian port. allowed Hitler to come to power. Moore can’t shake his Bond image, and Sea Serpent, The (1986-Spanish) C-92m. Peck struggles with his British accent, ★1 so nothing is to be taken very seriously. ⁄2 D: Gregory Greens. Timothy Bottoms, Taryn Power, Jared Martin, Ray Milland, Script by Reginald Rose. [PG]▼쩠 Gerard Tichy, Carole James. In order to Sebastian (1968-British) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 clear his name, discredited captain BotD: David Greene. Dirk Bogarde, Susantoms searches for sea monster that has nah York, Lilli Palmer, John Gielgud, been roused from the deep by A-bomb Margaret Johnston, Nigel Davenport. Flashy tests. Childish sci-fi with a monster debut cluttered espionage film of counterinpicted by puppets! Shot in 1984. Milland’s telligence agent Bogarde, who deciphers last film. ▼ codes for England, becoming enmeshed in Sea Shall Not Have Them, The (1954international battle of wits. Intriguing, colBritish) 91m. ★★ D: Lewis Gilbert. Michael orful, but a bit trying; look for Donald Redgrave, Dirk Bogarde, Anthony Steel, Nigel Sutherland in a small role.▼ Patrick, Nigel Green, Rachel Kempson. British Second Best (1994-British-U.S.) C-105m. ★★★ D: Chris Menges. William Hurt, John bomber plane is forced down in the ocean during WW2; a rescue attempt is made.▼ Hurt, Chris Cleary Miles, Keith Allen, Jane Seaside Swingers (1965-British) C-94m. Horrocks, Prunella Scales, Alan Cumming, ★1 ⁄2 D: James Hill. John Leyton, Mike Jodhi May. Pensive drama with Hurt excelSarne, Freddie and The Dreamers, Ron lent in an unusual role: an unmarried, termiMoody, Liz Fraser. Group of teenagers nally shy, 42-year-old postmaster in a small working at seaside resort prepare for major Welsh town who attempts to adopt a deeply talent contest which is to be the highlight troubled 10-year-old boy (Miles). [PGof the summer season. Should have given 13]▼● them all the hook. Techniscope.▼ Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Season of Dreams SEE: Stacking Wide World (1965-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Season of Passion (1959-Australian) 93m. D: Lindsay Shonteff. Tom Adams, Veron★★1⁄2 D: Leslie Norman. Anne Baxter, John ica Hurst, Peter Bull, Karel Stepanek, John Mills, Angela Lansbury, Ernest Borgnine, Arnatt. Snappy James Bondish entry, with virJanette Craig. Tasteful study of human tue of satirical performance by Adams; he relationships; Mills and Borgnine are counprevents the Russians from stealing scientist [ 1213 ]

Stepanek’s anti-gravity invention. Original Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo, British title: LICENSED TO KILL. Sequel: The SEE: Rudyard Kipling’s The Second WHERE THE BULLETS FLY. ▼ Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo Seconds (1966) 106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Second Chance (1953) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph Mate´. Robert Mitchum, Linda Frankenheimer. Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, Darnell, Jack Palance, Reginald Sheffield, John Randolph, Will Geer, Jeff Corey, Roy Roberts, Dan Seymour, Fortunio Murray Hamilton, Wesley Addy. FrusBonanova, Milburn Stone. Two runaways— trated middle-aged businessman is transgambler’s girlfriend Darnell and tainted formed into new identity (Hudson) but prizefighter Mitchum—fall in love in Mexfinds himself at odds with old and new life ico. Complications arise when Palance arconflicts. Fascinating from start to finish, rives with orders to kill Darnell. OK with good performances, striking cameramelodrama, made in 3-D.▼● work by James Wong Howe; script by Second Chorus (1940) 83m. ★★ D: H. C. Lewis John Carlino. On video only in the Potter. Fred Astaire, Paulette Goddard, original European version which features just over 1m. of additional footage. ▼●쩠 Artie Shaw and His Orchestra, Charles Butterworth, Burgess Meredith. Routine musiSecond Sight (1989) C-84m. BOMB D: cal comedy with Astaire and Meredith as Joel Zwick. John Larroquette, Bronson musicians who want to join Shaw’s band; Pinchot, Bess Armstrong, Stuart Pankin, they both have designs on Goddard. Not John Schuck, James Tolkan, William Prince, enough music and hardly any dancing, but Christine Estabrook, Cornelia Guest. Superwhat’s there is fun. Fred and Paulette dance psychic Pinchot and an otherworldly entity to ‘‘(I Ain’t Hep to That Step but I’ll) Dig assist ex-cop Larroquette’s Second Sight DeIt.’’ ▼쩠 tective Agency; if that’s not enough, there’s a Second Coming of Suzanne, The (1974) cute-’n’-perky nun as love interest! No psyC-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Barry. Sondra chic was needed to gauge how long this one Locke, Paul Sand, Jared Martin, Richard would last in theaters. [PG]▼● Dreyfuss, Gene Barry, Penelope Spheeris. Second Thoughts (1983) C-98m. BOMB Pretentious time capsule about an egocenD: Lawrence Turman. Lucie Arnaz, Craig tric counterculture filmmaker (Martin) who Wasson, Ken Howard, Anne Schedeen, recruits the title character (Locke) to star in Arthur Rosenberg, Peggy McCay. Dreary, his latest epic, a re-creation of the story of laughably unrealistic account of lawyer Christ! At its very best, this is very bad Arnaz divorcing banker Howard and, to Fellini; writer-director Barry is the son of her regret, taking up with idealistic Wasson, Gene (who executive-produced). Strictly for who is still living in the 1960s. [PG]▼ Dreyfuss completists. Aka SUZANNE.▼쩠 Second Time Around, The (1961) C-99m. ★★1 Second-Hand Hearts (1981) C-102m. ⁄2 D: Vincent Sherman. Debbie ReynBOMB D: Hal Ashby. Robert Blake, Barolds, Andy Griffith, Steve Forrest, Juliet bara Harris, Collin Boone, Amber Rose Prowse, Thelma Ritter, Isobel Elsom. Mild Gold, Bert Remsen, Shirley Stoler. Blake, comic Western with widow Debbie moving beer-bellied and jowly, is Loyal Muke to Arizona, becoming sheriff, tangling with (rhymes with Puke), middle-aged drifter, suitors Griffith and Forrest. CinemaScope. who married Dinette Dusty (Harris) while Second Woman, The (1951) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: in a drunken stupor. Pointless, confusing, James V. Kern. Robert Young, Betsy Drake, overblown, a comedy that is embarrassingly John Sutton, Florence Bates, Morris Carunfunny. Even the usually reliable Harris novsky, Henry O’Neill, Jean Rogers. Atmocan’t salvage this mess. Filmed in 1979 as spheric psychological drama with architect THE HAMSTER OF HAPPINESS. [PG] Young becoming increasingly unstable as a Secondhand Lions (2003) C-107m. ★★★ D: result of his fiance´e’s death on the eve of Tim McCanlies. Michael Caine, Robert Dutheir wedding. Is he a danger to himself and vall, Haley Joel Osment, Kyra Sedgwick, his new girlfriend Drake?▼쩠 Nicky Katt, Michael O’Neill, Deirdre O’ConSecret Admirer (1985) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: nell, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Josh Lucas, Adrian David Greenwalt. C. Thomas Howell, Lori Pasdar. A negligent mother deposits her son Loughlin, Kelly Preston, Dee Wallace Stone, with his eccentric great-uncles, who live as Cliff De Young, Leigh Taylor-Young, Fred recluses on a quiet Texas property. The boy Ward, Casey Siemaszko, Corey Haim. soon discovers that there’s more to his new Comedy of errors about an unsigned love guardians than meets the eye, especially letter that causes chain of confusion among when Caine starts spinning tales about their some teenagers and their parents. Cute farce globe-trotting adventures as young men. with some appealing performers, but surLikable, old-fashioned fairy-tale yarn is elerenders to the obvious too often. Nice score by Jan Hammer. [R]▼●쩠 vated by the sheer presence of its two veteran stars, and young Osment, who holds Secret Agent, The (1936-British) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfred Hitchcock. John Gielgud, his own alongside them. If you buy into this, you’ll forgive its flaws. Written by the Madeleine Carroll, Robert Young, Peter director. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 Lorre, Percy Marmont, Lilli Palmer. Strange [ 1214 ]

blend of comedy and thriller elements disturbed, guilt-ridden, and jealous man which don’t quite mesh; Carroll and Gielwhose young, sexy wife (Bellman) is a gud are secret agents who pose as man and constant pain to him. Film, set in part on wife while on assignment in Switzerland to long train journey, gives new meaning to kill enemy spy. One of Hitchcock’s oddest the term ‘‘jumping back and forth in time’’; films. ▼●쩠 result is appalling, incomprehensible mishSecret Agent, The (1996-British) C-95m. mash. Only film to be directed by esteemed BOMB D: Christopher Hampton. Bob Hoswriter Dennis Potter, suggested by his novel kins, Patricia Arquette, Ge´rard Depardieu, Ticket to Ride. Buffs may enjoy McNeice George Spelvin, Jim Broadbent, Christian and Harries as throwbacks to Basil Radford Bale, Eddie Izzard, Elizabeth Spriggs, Juand Naunton Wayne. Secret Fury, The (1950) 86m. ★★★ D: lian Wadham, Peter Vaughan. Stultifying adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel Mel Ferrer. Claudette Colbert, Robert Ryan, about Verloc (Hoskins), an anarchist who Jane Cowl, Paul Kelly, Vivian Vance, actually is a secret agent for the Russian Philip Ober. Unknown person tries to drive government in late 19th-century London; Claudette crazy to prevent her marriage to his wife (Arquette) has no idea of his activiRyan. Exciting whodunit with twist ending. Secret Garden, The (1949) 92m. ★★★ D: ties. Guaranteed to drive you to slumber land despite its cast (including an unbilled Fred M. Wilcox. Margaret O’Brien, HerRobin Williams). Aka JOSEPH CONbert Marshall, Dean Stockwell, Gladys RAD’S THE SECRET AGENT. [R] ▼●쩠 Cooper, Elsa Lanchester. Young girl who Secret Agent 00 SEE: Operation Kid comes to live at run-down Victorian esBrother tate finds abandoned garden, devotes herself Secretary (2002) C-112m. ★★★ D: Steven to it and eventually changes the lives of Shainberg. James Spader, Maggie Gylleneveryone living there. Vividly atmospheric haal, Jeremy Davies, Patrick Bauchau, Stefilm with some color sequences. Based on phen McHattie, Oz Perkins, Jessica Tuck, the classic children’s book by Frances HodgAmy Locane, Lesley Ann Warren. Intrison Burnett. Remade as a TV movie in guing black comedy about the relationship 1987 and as a feature in 1993, as well as a Broadway musical.▼ between a young woman, recently released from a mental institution, and her new boss, Secret Garden, The (1993) C-101m. ★★★ a lawyer who thrives on sadomasochism. D: Agnieszka Holland. Kate Maberly, HeyOften fascinating exploration of obsessive don Prowse, Andrew Knott, Maggie Smith, (some might say sick) behavior and two Laura Crossley, John Lynch, Walter Sparpeople’s struggle to find common ground. row, Ire`ne Jacob. Handsome remake of the Goes astray toward the end, but still a bold children’s classic, with Maberly as the 10and provocative film, with superb perforyear-old orphan who restores an abandoned mances by Gyllenhaal and Spader. [R] ▼쩠 garden in her uncle’s eerie Victorian manor. Secret Beyond the Door (1948) 98m. ★★ Well crafted, but doesn’t sustain the drama D: Fritz Lang. Joan Bennett, Michael of its story as well as the 1949 version. Redgrave, Anne Revere, Barbara O’Neil, Francis Ford Coppola was executive proNatalie Schafer. Tedious Lang misfire along ducer. [G]▼●쩠 lines of Hitchcock’s SUSPICION, with Secret Heart, The (1946) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bennett believing her husband is a deRobert Z. Leonard. Claudette Colbert, Walmented murderer.▼ ter Pidgeon, June Allyson, Lionel BarrySecret Bride, The (1935) 64m. ★★1⁄2 D: more, Robert Sterling, Patricia Medina, William Dieterle. Barbara Stanwyck, WarMarshall Thompson. Narrated by Hume ren William, Glenda Farrell, Grant MitchCronyn. This is Allyson’s film, as young ell, Arthur Byron. State Attorney General girl obsessed with dead father, unable to William secretly weds governor’s daughter accept stepmother Colbert. Film creates Stanwyck, and summarily learns that her eerie mood, and acting is good, but it’s offfather may be taking bribes from a convicted beat and not for all tastes. embezzler. Tidy, well-acted drama. Secret Honor (1984) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Secret Ceremony (1968-British) C-109m. Robert Altman. Philip Baker Hall. Rich★★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. Elizabeth Taylor, ard Nixon, with a Chivas Regal assist, Mia Farrow, Robert Mitchum, Pamela paces around his study in a near-psychotic Brown, Peggy Ashcroft. Farrow resembles rail against Hiss, Castro, Ike, Kissinger, Taylor’s dead daughter, Taylor resembles and anyone named Kennedy. Hall’s oneFarrow’s dead mother, and their meeting has man stage show is fluidly filmed and strange results. Excellent psychological outrageously conceived—a titillating onedrama. [R]▼ of-a-kind for anyone who rooted for KhrushSecret Friends (1992-U.S.-British) C-97m. chev in the Kitchen Debates. Aka LORDS BOMB D: Dennis Potter. Alan Bates, Gina OF TREASON.▼쩠 Bellman, Frances Barber, Tony Doyle, Secret Invasion, The (1964) C-95m. ★★★ Joanna David, Colin Jeavons, Ian McNeice, D: Roger Corman. Stewart Granger, Mickey Davyd Harries. Amnesiac Bates is a deeply Rooney, Raf Vallone, Henry Silva, Edd [ 1215 ]

Byrnes, Mia Massini. Good action, locaLydia Jordan, Cassidy Hinkle. Intelligent, abtion photography, and direction in story of sorbing scenes from a marriage about a subBritish Intelligence using criminals to work urban dentist couple with three daughters. behind enemy lines in WW2 Yugoslavia. Scott suspects his wife is having an affair, Panavision.쩠 and his decision not to confront her results Secret Life of an American Wife, The in his summoning up visions of his most difficult patient (Leary). Benefits from two (1968) C-92m. ★★ D: George Axelrod. Walter Matthau, Anne Jackson, Patrick terrific lead performances and wry direction O’Neal, Edy Williams, Richard Bull, Paul from Rudolph. Only sign of halitosis: a little Napier. Talky, generally unfunny farce Leary, as Scott’s ranting, chain-smoking id, about neglected wife who decides to pose goes a long way. Based on the Jane Smiley as a call girl with one of her husband’s novella The Age of Grief, adapted by playclients—a screen lover (Matthau). Disapwright Craig Lucas. [R] ▼쩠 pointing next to the writer-director’s hilarSecret of Blood Island, The (1965-British) ious LORD LOVE A DUCK. [R]▼ C-84m. ★★ D: Quentin Lawrence. Barbara Secret Life of Bees, The (2008) C-110m. Shelley, Jack Hedley, Charles Tingwell, ★★★ D: Gina Prince-Bythewood. Queen LatPatrick Wymark. Woman agent Shelley ifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Aliparachutes into Malaya during WW2, ends cia Keys, Sophie Okonedo, Paul Bettany, up incognito in a prisoner-of-war camp. Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds, Hilarie Burton. Mindless timekiller. Video title: P.O.W.: Emotional journey set in the deep South of PRISONERS OF WAR.▼ 1964. An unloved girl flees from her abusive Secret of Dorian Gray, The SEE: Dorian father, with her black housekeeper in tow, Gray and finds refuge in the home of a warmSecret of Dr. Mabuse, The SEE: 1,000 hearted woman (Latifah) who lives with her Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, The two sisters and operates a thriving business Secret of My Success, The (1965-British) manufacturing honey. Here the two lost souls C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrew L. Stone. James discover an oasis that almost makes them forBooth, Shirley Jones, Stella Stevens, Honor get the brutality they’ve left behind—until Blackman, Amy Dalby, Lionel Jeffries. Film ugliness rears its head once more. Sue Monk certainly doesn’t succeed. Naive boy is taken Kidd’s novel is vividly brought to life by in by several crafty females on his road to writer-director Prince-Bythewood and an maturity. Picturesque settings, variety of charideal cast. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 acterizations by Jeffries. Panavision. Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The (1947) Secret of My Success, The (1987) C-110m. ★★1 C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Z. McLeod. ⁄2 D: Herbert Ross. Michael J. Fox, Helen Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Slater, Richard Jordan, Margaret Whitton, Fay Bainter, Ann Rutherford, Florence John Pankow, Fred Gwynne, Elizabeth Bates, Thurston Hall. Formula comedy Franz, Christopher Durang, Mercedes Ruehl. casts Danny as milquetoast who dreams of Naive but bright, ambitious young man from manly glory. Not much Thurber here, but the sticks hustles his way into the corporate daydream sequences are lots of fun, and so world of N.Y.C., deftly juggling the various is Kaye’s famous ‘‘Anatole of Paris’’ patcomplications he encounters. Likable comter number. Young Robert Altman, smiling edy goes on too long, gets most of its juice and smoking a cigarette, appears as an extra from Fox’s energetic and appealing perforin a nightclub scene with Kaye.▼●쩠 mance. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Secret Life of Words, The (2005-Spanish) Secret of NIMH, The (1982) C-82m. ★★★ ★★1 C-115m. D: Isabel Coixet. Sarah Pol⁄2 D: Don Bluth. Voices of Elizabeth ley, Tim Robbins, Javier Ca´mara, Sverre Hartman, Derek Jacobi, Dom DeLuise, Anker Ousdal, Eddie Marsan, Julie Christie, John Carradine, Peter Strauss. When her Daniel Mays, Leonor Watling. An emotionfamily homestead is threatened, a young widally remote young woman who works roowed mouse seeks help, and comes upon a botically at a factory job is ordered to take a secret society of superintelligent rats. Wellvacation by her boss. Instead, she volunteers animated adaptation of Robert C. O’Brien’s to serve as nurse to a severe-burn victim prize-winning children’s book, but not as in(Robbins) on an oil rig. The insular, isolated volving, or as well paced, as it ought to be. life on the rig—which has only a skeleton First feature from Don Bluth Productions, the crew in the wake of a terrible accident—suits studio founded by a group of former Disney her fine, but her patient persists in trying to artists. Shannen Doherty is the voice of one of get her to open up. Intriguing character study the mice children. Followed by a direct-tovideo sequel. [G]▼●쩠 with a great performance by Polley and agreeable sketches of the motley characters who Secret of Roan Inish, The (1994) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Sayles. Jeni Courtney, Eileen work on the rig. Written by the director.쩠 Secret Lives of Dentists, The (2002) CColgan, Mick Lally, Richard Sheridan, John 105m. ★★★ D: Alan Rudolph. Campbell Scott, Lynch. Gentle, charming tale of a girl who Hope Davis, Denis Leary, Robin Tunney, Jon is sent to live with her grandparents on the Patrick Walker, Kevin Carroll, Kate Clinton, west coast of Ireland and discovers the [ 1216 ]

myths and magic that have affected her 1981) organized as fund-raisers for Amfamily. A ‘‘small’’ story to be sure, but it nesty International. Almost as much gradually works its spell on you, with an music as comedy, but several funny bits admirably unsentimental tone (perfectly by Cook and the Python boys stand out, embodied in solemn young Courtney), including hilarious ‘‘Cheese Shop’’ routine. [R]▼● moody cinematography from Haskell Wexler, and remarkable ‘‘performances’’ Secret Rapture (1993-British) C-96m. ★★ from the seals and gulls that populate the D: Howard Davies. Juliet Stevenson, Jofilm. Adapted from Rosalie Frye’s novella anne Whalley-Kilmer, Penelope Wilton, Neil The Secret of Ron Mor Skerry by director Pearson, Alan Howard, Robert Stephens. DisSayles, who also edited. [PG] ▼●쩠 appointing psychological thriller about vulnerSecret of Santa Vittoria, The (1969) Cable Stevenson, who was extremely close to 140m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stanley Kramer. Anthony her just-deceased father, and who must conQuinn, Anna Magnani, Virna Lisi, Hardy tend with her shrill, tyrannical sister (WilKruger, Sergio Franchi, Renato Rascel, Eduton). Good cast flounders in David Hare’s ardo Ciannelli, Giancarlo Giannini, Valentina one-note script (based on his play); much Cortese. Entertaining comedy from Robert of its bite regarding greed and business-asCrichton’s novel of Italian town which hides usual amorality in Thatcherite England has a million bottles of wine from occupying been toned down. [R]▼● Germans in WW2. Story wanders, however, Secrets (1971) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Philip with needless subplots that make it overlong. Saville. Jacqueline Bisset, Per Oscarsson, Kruger excellent as civilized German officer. Shirley Knight Hopkins, Robert Powell, Panavision. [M/PG]▼쩠 Tarka Kings, Martin C. Thurley. A husSecret of the Grain, The (2007-French) Cband, wife, and daughter all have sexual 154m. ★★★ D: Abdellatif Kechiche. Habib experiences during the course of a day, Boufares, Hafsia Herzi, Faridah Benkhetwhich must remain secrets. Dull, someache, Abdelhamid Aktouche, Bouraouı¨a what pretentious film notable only for nude Marzouk, Hatika Karaoui, Alice Houri. RoBisset in passionate lovemaking scene. Rebust, often startlingly realistic slice of life leased in 1978. [R]▼ about a Tunisian immigrant who’s laid off Secrets & Lies (1996-British) C-142m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mike Leigh. Brenda Blethyn, from his longtime job at a French shipyard. We meet his large, boisterous family, inMarianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, cluding his ex-wife (who’s a wonderful Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook, Elizabeth cook), his longtime mistress, and her loving, Berrington, Michele Austin, Alison Steadself-possessed daughter. Through their conman. Another of filmmaker Leigh’s comversations, arguments, and everyday encounpelling portraits of ordinary people and the ters we assemble a richly detailed portrait of sometimes extraordinary circumstances of one man’s legacy to his real and extended their lives; here, a young black woman goes family—and where they stand in modern in search of her birth parents and discovers French society—as everyone pitches in to that her mother is a working-class white help him turn an abandoned freighter into a woman. Emotionally wrenching at times, restaurant. Overlong but rewarding. Written but also endearingly funny. Superlative perby the director. formances spark this long, deliberately paced, but rewarding slice of life. [R]▼●쩠 Secret of the Red Orchid, The SEE: Puzzle of the Red Orchid, The Secret Service of the Air (1939) 61m. ★★ Secret Places (1985-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Noel Smith. Ronald Reagan, John Litel, D: Zelda Barron. Marie-Theres Relin, Ila Rhodes, James Stephenson, Eddie Foy, Tara MacGowran, Claudine Auger, Jenny Jr., Rosella Towne. Reagan stars as Lt. Agutter, Cassie Stuart, Ann-Marie GwatBrass Bancroft, a pilot who joins the Sekin. Two schoolgirls from very different cret Service and exposes a smuggling ring. backgrounds form a friendship that leads Fast-paced Warner Bros. B entry, the to heartbreak on the eve of WW2; set in first of a series of four. small English village. Warm, often movSecret Six, The (1931) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: ing film that somehow falls short. Lead George Hill. Wallace Beery, Lewis Stone, roles are well played by Relin (daughter Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Johnny Mack of Maria Schell) and MacGowran (daughBrown, Ralph Bellamy, Marjorie Rambeau, John Miljan. Hard-boiled gangster saga ter of Jack MacGowran). [PG]▼ Secret Policeman’s Other Ball, The with powerhouse cast; sluggish at times, but (1982-British) C-91m. ★★★ D: Julien worth seeing for milk-drinking racketeer Temple, Roger Graef. John Cleese, Peter Beery, aristocratic crime lord Stone, mollCook, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, with-a-heart-of-gold Harlow, et al. Terry Jones, Pete Townshend, Sting, Phil Secrets of an Actress (1938) 71m. ★★ D: Collins, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Eleanor William Keighley. Kay Francis, George Bron, Pamela Stephenson, Alexei Sayle. Brent, Ian Hunter, Gloria Dickson, Isabel Poorly photographed but entertaining disJeans, Penny Singleton, Dennie Moore. tillation of two concerts (in 1979 and Run-of-the-mill romantic melodrama with [ 1217 ]

actress Francis attracting distraught Brent, Depp’s presence is the film’s major asset. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 an unhappily married architect. Secrets of Life (1956) C-75m. ★★★ D: Secret Yearnings SEE: Good Luck, James Algar. Narrated by Winston Hibler. Miss Wyckoff Disney True-Life Adventure features closeup Secuestro Express (2005-Venezuelan) C86m. ★★ D: Jonathan Jakubowicz. Mı´a Maelooks at plant life, insect life, sea creatures, and natural wonders like volcanoes. stro, Rube´n Blades, Carlos Julio Molina, Wonderful footage includes time-lapse phoPedro Perez, Carlos Madera, Jean Paul Lertography of plants set to a rousing bolero oux. Tarantinoesque film focuses on a young on the soundtrack.▼쩠 upper-middle-class couple kidnapped in broad Secrets of Women (1952-Swedish) 114m. daylight by three thugs who demand a ran★★★ som from the girl’s wealthy father. As they D: Ingmar Bergman. Anita Bjork, Karl-Arne Holmsten, Jarl Kulle, Maj-Britt are taken on a wild ride through the bowels Nilsson, Birger Malmsten, Eva Dahlbeck, of modern-day Caracas, they attempt to turn Gunnar Bjornstrand. Episodic early Bergthe tables on their abductors. If motion sickman drama about several women in a sumness is a problem, it might be wise to skip mer house who confide about their relationthis frenetic, fast-paced picture. Jakubowicz ships with their men. Final sequence, with shoots this like a video game, squandering Dahlbeck and Bjornstrand trapped in an an opportunity to say something serious elevator, is most fascinating.▼ about an ongoing crisis in many countries. Secret Things (2002-French) C-112m. ★1⁄2 [R]쩠 D: Jean-Claude Brisseau. Coralie Revel, SaSeduced and Abandoned (1964-Italian) brina Seyvecou, Roger Mirmont, Fabrice 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pietro Germi. Stefania Deville, Blandine Bury, Olivier Soler, ViviSandrelli, Saro Urzi, Lando Buzzanca, ane The´ophilde`s. A jaded exotic dancer beLeopoldo Trieste. Fast-paced, richly flafriends a shy young woman and both use vorful bedroom romp involving the fate of their seductive powers to rise in the business a Don Juan who manages to impregnate world, with unforeseen consequences. Laughhis fiance´e’s kid sister. A follow-up in ably pretentious treatise on love, voyeurism, spirit to Germi’s DIVORCE—ITALIAN and sexual politics grows more ludicrous as STYLE, this very funny film cleverly lamit goes on and, despite copious nudity, is poons sexual tradition. ▼쩠 never as shocking or as probing as it thinks Seducers, The SEE: Death Game it is.쩠 Seducing Dr. Lewis (2003-Canadian) C108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Franc¸ois Pouliot. RaySecret War of Harry Frigg, The (1968) ★★ C-110m. D: Jack Smight. Paul Newman, mond Bouchard, Dominic Michon-Dagenais, Sylva Koscina, Andrew Duggan, Tom Guy-Daniel Tremblay, Nadia Droun, Rita LaBosley, John Williams, Vito Scotti, James fontaine, Roc LaFortune, Re´al Bosse´, Guy Gregory. Noncom soldier selected to free Vaillancourt. Start with LOCAL HERO, five generals held captive during WW2 in throw in a little THE FULL MONTY, mix this slick but inane comedy, one of Newwith WAKING NED DEVINE and you have man’s few real losers. Techniscope.▼ the recipe for this harmless comic tale of a Secret Ways, The (1961) 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: small fishing village promised a much-desired Phil Karlson. Richard Widmark, Sonja Zienew factory if they can lure a full-time M.D. mann, Senta Berger, Charles Regnier. Much to their town. Filled with the usual assorton-location shooting helps strengthen caper ment of oddballs one finds in this type of with Widmark as grim American sent into film; the setting, Que´bec’s Harrington HarCommunist Hungary to plan escape of probour Island, is gorgeous. Original French title: LA GRANDE SE´DUCTION. ▼쩠 West refugee; from an Alistair MacLean novel. Seduction, The (1982) C-104m. BOMB Secret Weapon SEE: Sherlock Holmes D: David Schmoeller. Morgan Fairchild, and the Secret Weapon Michael Sarrazin, Vince Edwards, Andrew Secret Window (2004) C-95m. ★★ D: Stevens, Colleen Camp, Wendy Smith HowDavid Koepp. Johnny Depp, John Turturro, ard. A flashy L.A. TV newswoman is terrorMaria Bello, Timothy Hutton, Charles S. ized by a persistent fan. Preposterous, derivaDutton, Len Cariou, Joan Haney. A creepy tive film is neither suspenseful nor titillating, stranger knocks on the door of a writer’s despite its title and sexy star (in her first rural lakeside house and accuses him of plamovie vehicle). Super 35. [R]▼쩠 giarizing one of his stories. As the man’s Seduction of Joe Tynan, The (1979) threats grow more ominous, the writer beC-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Schatzberg. Alan gins to wonder if he’s going crazy—which Alda, Barbara Harris, Meryl Streep, Rip also concerns his ex-wife and the local sherTorn, Charles Kimbrough, Melvyn Dougiff. Writer-director Koepp’s adaptation of a las. Earnest but shallow drama (written by Stephen King novella repeatedly teases the Alda) about young senator who faces moral audience but offers very little suspense. The dilemmas while climbing political ladder ending isn’t much of a revelation, and even in Washington. Ludicrous resolution rethe significance of the title is trifling. ally hurts film as a whole. [R]▼● [ 1218 ]

Seduction of Mimi, The (1972-Italian) novel, about a plucky adolescent (Ludwig) C-89m. ★★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Giancarlo who learns on his 14th birthday that he’s Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Agostina destined to save the human race from the Belli, Elena Fiore. Mimi is actually a man forces of darkness. Adults are more likely to (Giannini) whose stubbornness and stupiddismiss this action-packed yet oddly uninity get him into trouble politically and volving trifle as a knockoff of the HARRY sexually. Climactic scene where he tries to POTTER films. Super 35. [PG]쩠 make love to an impossibly obese woman Seems Like Old Times (1980) C-102m. ★★★ is unforgettable. Entertaining film was later D: Jay Sandrich. Goldie Hawn, Chevy Americanized as WHICH WAY IS UP? Chase, Charles Grodin, Robert Guillaume, Released in the U.S. in 1974. [R]▼쩠 Harold Gould, George Grizzard, Yvonne Seed of Chucky (2004) C-87m. ★★ D: Don Wilder, T. K. Carter. Neil Simon’s homage to Mancini. Jennifer Tilly, Hannah Spearritt, 1930s screwball farces is quite enjoyable, John Waters, Redman, Keith-Lee Castle, with Goldie as a good-hearted lawyer whose Steve Lawton, Jason Flemyng, Tony Gardex-husband (Chase) disrupts her life and ner; voices of Billy Boyd, Brad Dourif. threatens the career of her new spouse Fifth in the CHILD’S PLAY puppet-horror (Grodin). Funny lines and situations all the franchise is the silliest yet, as Hollywood way up to pointless finale. Feature debut of decides to make a movie based on the (nowTV comedy director Sandrich. [PG]▼●쩠 deceased) Chucky and Tiffany legend. Son See No Evil (1971-British) C-89m. ★★★ Glen (voiced by LORD OF THE RINGS star D: Richard Fleischer. Mia Farrow, DoroBoyd) gets wind of it and comes to L.A. to thy Alison, Robin Bailey, Diane Graybring his parents back to life, and they wreak son, Lila Kaye. Terrifying chiller by Brian havoc on the production. Tilly plays herself, Clemens; blind girl slowly discovers that taking no prisoners in an over-the-top selfher uncle’s entire family has been murportrait that garners the movie’s only real dered and that the killer is silently stalking laughs. Series creator-writer Mancini directs her. Watch out for the boots. British title: BLIND TERROR. [PG]▼●쩠 for the first time and might want to hand himself a better script next time. [R] ▼쩠 See No Evil (2006) C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: GregSee Here, Private Hargrove (1944) 100m. ory Dark. Kane, Christina Vidal, Michael ★★★ D: Wesley Ruggles. Robert Walker, J. Pagan, Samantha Noble, Steven Vidler. Donna Reed, Keenan Wynn, Robert BenchFormulaic slasher pic aimed at genre fans ley, Bob Crosby, Grant Mitchell. Marion with an insatiable appetite for eye gouging Hargrove’s anecdotes of Army life make an and flesh ripping. World Wrestling Enteramusing, episodic film; Benchley hilaritainment superstar Kane (real name: Glen ous as Reed’s garrulous dad. Sequel: Jacobs) is suitably humongous as a hulking WHAT NEXT, CORPORAL HARGROVE? psycho who annihilates overage juvenile delinquents in a gone-to-seed hotel. [R]쩠 Seeing Other People (2004) C-90m. ★★★ D: Wally Wolodarsky. Jay Mohr, Julianne See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) C-103m. ★★ D: Arthur Hiller. Richard Pryor, Gene Nicholson, Lauren Graham, Bryan Cranston, Josh Charles, Jonathan Davis, Matt Davis, Wilder, Joan Severance, Kevin Spacey, Andy Richter, Helen Slater, Liz Phair, Alex Kirsten Childs, Alan North, Anthony Zerbe. Borstein, Mimi Rogers. Small-scale but smart, Wilder and Pryor are reteamed in this funny comedy, set in L.A., about a happy stupid comedy about a deaf man and a couple on the verge of getting married when blind man who inadvertently become murshe decides they ought to have sexual experider suspects and take it on the lam, hoping ences with other people before they tie the to catch the real killers. Five writers (inknot. Well cast and well written by the direccluding Wilder) are credited for this lator and Maya Forbes, sitcom veterans who are bored, foul-mouthed comedy; two such talented stars deserve better. [R]▼●쩠 married in real life. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Seekers, The (1954-British) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 See Spot Run (2001) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: John D: Ken Annakin. Jack Hawkins, Glynis Whitesell. David Arquette, Michael Clarke Johns, Noel Purcell, Inia Te Wiata, Laya Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Paul Sorvino, Joe ViterRaki. Adequate adventure drama, set in the elli, Angus T. Jones, Steven R. Schirripa, Anearly 1800s, as British sailor Hawkins, along thony Anderson. A bumbling mailman and with his new wife and best friend, settles in his would-be girlfriend’s son adopt a runaway New Zealand. The colorful location filming dog that turns out to be an FBI agent targeted (especially among the Maoris) is a plus. Origfor assassination by mobster Sorvino. Clumsy inal U.S. title: LAND OF FURY.▼ slapstick comedy for kids has only a few Seeker: The Dark is Rising, The (2007) funny moments and a main character who’s an imbecile. This represents the combined efC-99m. ★★ D: David L. Cunningham. Alexander Ludwig, Ian McShane, Frances Conforts of five writers! [PG]▼쩠 roy, Christopher Eccleston, Gregory Smith, See You in the Morning (1989) C-119m. ★★ D: Alan J. Pakula. Jeff Bridges, Alice Amelia Warner, James Cosmo, Wendy Crewson. Youngsters may appreciate this formulaic Krige, Farrah Fawcett, Linda Lavin, Drew fantasy-adventure, based on Susan Cooper’s Barrymore, Lukas Haas, David Dukes, Fran[ 1219 ]

ces Sternhagen, Theodore Bikel, George Semi-Pro (2008) C-91m. ★★ D: Kent AlHearn, Macaulay Culkin, Robin Bartlett. Bridterman. Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre´ ges and Krige follow a bumpy road to a second Benjamin, Maura Tierney, Andrew Daly, Will marriage (for both of them), trying to erase bad Arnett, Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, Jackie memories and lingering problems . . . and Earle Haley, David Koechner, Kristen Wiig, having to win over each other’s children. Ed Helms, Patti LaBelle, Tim Meadows. Overall intelligence, warmth, and gentility Retro-’70s comedy about a one-hit wonder cannot overcome a certain patness (and disco crooner (Ferrell) who buys a strugforced cuteness) in director Pakula’s script— gling Detroit basketball team. Installing or the greater problem of not knowing when himself as player, owner, and chief proto wrap things up. [PG-13]▼● moter, he attempts to make the team NBASeize the Day (1986) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: worthy with a little help from a fading vet Fielder Cook. Robin Williams, Joseph Wisehoopster (Harrelson) and a raw-talented upman, Jerry Stiller, Glenne Headly. Wiland-comer (Benjamin). Profane, silly movie liams is outstanding as Tommy Wilhelm, tries to do for basketball what SLAP SHOT pushing 40 and a failure by society’s standid for hockey . . . but Ferrell’s shtick is dards, who’s broke, much abused, and wearing thin by now. Super 35. [R]쩠 desperate for love. Wiseman and Stiller Semi-Tough (1977) C-108m. ★★★ D: Mioffer fine support as his coldhearted father chael Ritchie. Burt Reynolds, Kris Krisand a con man he naively trusts. A small tofferson, Jill Clayburgh, Robert Preston, masterpiece, like the Saul Bellow novel on Bert Convy, Lotte Lenya, Roger E. Mosley, which it’s based, with a faithful screenplay Richard Masur, Carl Weathers, Brian Denby Ronald Ribman. Plenty of familiar faces nehy, Ron Silver. Easygoing comedy about in small roles: Tony Roberts, Richard Shull, two football stars and their mutual girlfriend John Fiedler, Jo Van Fleet, William Hickey, wanders too much to hit any major targets Eileen Heckart, many others.▼●쩠 but has some funny moments. Reynolds’ Seizure (1974-Canadian) C-93m. ★★ D: charm makes up for film’s other deficienOliver Stone. Jonathan Frid, Martine cies. Adapted from Dan Jenkins’ novel by Beswick, Christina Pickles, Joe Sirola, Ring Lardner, Jr. (who took his name off Herve Villechaize, Mary Woronov, Troy the credits) and Walter Bernstein. Later a Donahue. Stone’s directorial debut is stylbrief TV series. [R]▼●쩠 ish but incoherent shocker in which novelSenator Was Indiscreet, The (1947) 74m. ★★★ ist Frid, his family and friends are forced D: George S. Kaufman. William to play games of death by trio of evil Powell, Ella Raines, Peter Lind Hayes, weirdos who may or may not be his nightArleen Whelan, Ray Collins, Hans Conried. mares come to life. [PG]▼쩠 Wit-playwright Kaufman’s only directorial Selena (1997) C-130m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregory fling turns out quite well, with Powell as Nava. Jennifer Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Senator whose diary causes embarrassment. Jon Seda, Constance Marie, Jacob Vargas, Entertaining satire.▼ Lupe Ontiveros, Jackie Guerra, Rebecca Lee Sender, The (1982-British) C-91m. ★★★ Meza. Glossy, congenially corny biography of D: Roger Christian. Kathryn Harrold, Zeljko the spirited young Tejano singer whose dreams Ivanek, Shirley Knight, Paul Freeman, Sean of showbiz fame were cut short by her murder Hewitt, Harry Ditson. Solid thriller about (just as she was about to win success as a crosstelepathic, suicidal Ivanek, unable to conover performer). Lopez offers a dynamic, startrol his powers, who transfers his nightmaking turn as Selena and Olmos also scores mares to psychiatrist Harrold and causes as her loving but possessive father. Ironically, havoc in a hospital. Very good of its type. [R]▼●쩠 thefilm does more tosolidifySelena’s celebrity than she was able to accomplish in her short Send Me No Flowers (1964) C-100m. ★★★ lifetime. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 D: Norman Jewison. Rock Hudson, Sellout, The (1952) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gerald Doris Day, Tony Randall, Clint Walker, Paul Mayer. Walter Pidgeon, John Hodiak, AuLynde, Hal March, Edward Andrews, Patricia drey Totter, Paula Raymond, Cameron Barry. Hypochondriac Rock, convinced he Mitchell, Karl Malden, Everett Sloane, has a short time to live, has Randall find new Thomas Gomez. Small-town newspaper husband for wife Doris. Funny script by Julius editor Pidgeon finds himself in over his J. Epstein; Lynde is a riot as aggressive cemehead when he tries to get the goods on tery plot salesman.▼●쩠 corrupt sheriff Gomez. OK expose´ drama. Seniors, The (1978) C-87m. ★★ D: Rod Seminole (1953) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Budd Amateau. Jeffrey Byron, Gary Imhof, Dennis Boetticher. Rock Hudson, Barbara Hale, Quaid, Lou Richards, Priscilla Barnes, Alan Anthony Quinn, Richard Carlson, Hugh Reed, Edward Andrews, Robert Emhardt, O’Brian, Russell Johnson, Lee Marvin, Alan Hewitt. Four collegians open a bogus sex James Best. Capable cast in unusual clinic, which mushrooms into a multimilliondrama about earnest cavalry lieutenant dollar business. Alternately silly and satirical, Hudson trying to help Indian tribe’s efforts with some innocuous nudity thrown in. Vetto remain free of white man law. eran character actors help a great deal. Writ[ 1220 ]

ten by Stanley (PILLOW TALK) Shapiro. Walter Lang. John Payne, Maureen O’Hara, Video title: THE SENIOR. [R]▼쩠 William Bendix, Cedric Hardwicke, Glenn Sense and Sensibility (1995) C-135m. Langan, Mischa Auer, Connie Marshall. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Ang Lee. Emma Thompson, Alan Maudlin yarn of dying actress O’Hara adoptRickman, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, James ing little girl to give husband Payne a Fleet, Harriet Walter, Gemma Jones, Elizacompanion when she is gone; no holds beth Spriggs, Robert Hardy, Greg Wise, Imbarred here. Remade as THE GIFT OF elda Staunton, Imogen Stubbs, Hugh LOVE and as a 1984 TV movie. Laurie, Emilie Franc¸ois, Tom Wilkinson. Sentinel, The (1977) C-93m. ★★ D: MiVivid, contemporary reading of Jane Auschael Winner. Cristina Raines, Ava Gardten’s novel about two newly impoverished ner, Chris Sarandon, Burgess Meredith, sisters—one impulsive and flirtatious, the Sylvia Miles, Jose Ferrer, Arthur Kenneother repeatedly thwarted and forced to supdy, John Carradine, Christopher Walken, press her feelings of love. Perfectly cast and Eli Wallach, Jerry Orbach, Jeff Goldblum, performed, a spirited and moving look at Beverly D’Angelo, Martin Balsam, Wilsocial mores and how disparate personaliliam Hickey, Tom Berenger. Slick but ties dealt with them in early 19th-century empty-headed shocker about N.Y.C. fashion England. Thompson won an Oscar for Best model who rents Brooklyn Heights brownScreenplay Adaptation. [PG]▼●쩠 stone, finds it’s full of demons and she’s to be Senseless (1998) C-93m. ★★ D: Penelope the next sentinel guarding the gateway to Hell. Spheeris. Marlon Wayans, David Spade, Good cast makes it somewhat endurable, but Matthew Lillard, Rip Torn, Brad Dourif, climax is awfully yucky. Freely based on JefTamara Taylor, Richard McGonagle. Emfrey Konvitz’ best-seller. [R]▼쩠 broiled in cutthroat competition for a job, Sentinel, The (2006) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clark college business major gets a dose of oneJohnson. Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, upmanship when he agrees to take an injecEva Longoria, Kim Basinger, Martin Donotion of sense-enhancing ‘‘green stuff’’ as van, Ritchie Coster, Blair Brown, David part of a campus lab experiment. Beware Rasche, Paul Calderon, Gloria Reuben. Decthose side effects, and beware a comedy orated Secret Service Agent—who’s having in which guinea pig Wayans outmugs even an affair with the First Lady—is blackmailed, another Marlon (Brando—when he played which leads another agent (and onetime mad Dr. Moreau). Torn is amusing as the friend) to believe he’s the ‘‘inside man’’ suskind of corporate smoothie he can now play pected of conspiring to kill the President. in his sleep. [R]▼●쩠 Slick action-thriller is lively and entertaining Sense of Loss, A (1972-U.S.-Swiss) until a crucial moment three-quarters of the C/B&W-135m. ★★★ D: Marcel Ophuls. way through, when it goes flat and credibility Thoughtful documentary about the continbecomes a serious issue. Director Johnson has uing, never-ending political conflict—and a small but significant role as one of Douglas’ violence—in Northern Ireland. Not up to fellow agents. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Ophuls’ previous film, THE SORROW Senza Pieta SEE: Without Pity AND THE PITY, but still heartbreaking in Separate Lies (2005-British) C-87m. ★★★ D: its most powerful moments.▼ Julian Fellowes. Tom Wilkinson, Emily WatSenso (1954-Italian) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: son, Rupert Everett, Hermione Norris, John Luchino Visconti. Alida Valli, Farley GrangWarnaby, Richenda Carey, Linda Bassett, er, Massimo Girotti, Heinz Moog. CareJohn Neville. The lives of a well-heeled barfully paced study of human emotions, chronrister (Wilkinson) and his wife (Watson) are icling the relationship between earthy, matedisrupted upon the arrival in their community rialistic Austrian officer Granger and his of good-looking, patronizing Everett. Adding aristocratic Italian mistress (Valli). An intrito the mix is a hit-and-run accident in which guing union of the neorealism of Visconti’s their housekeeper’s husband is killed. Razorearlier work and the lush romanticism often sharp drama explores the reasons why people found in his later films. Retitled WANTON lie to themselves and to those closest to them, CONTESSA. English-language version, tiand puts forth the notion that there is turmoil in tled THE WANTON COUNTESS, features even the most seemingly placid lives. The three dialogue by Tennessee Williams and Paul leads—particularly Wilkinson—are in fine Bowles!▼쩠 form. First-time director Fellowes scripted, Sensuous Nurse, The (1976-Italian) Cfrom Nigel Balchin’s 1951 novel A Way 78m. ★1⁄2 D: Nello Rossati. Ursula Andress, Through the Wood. [R]쩠 Jack Palance, Duilio Del Prete, Luciana Separate Lives (1995) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Paluzzi, Lino Toffolo, Mario Pisu. VolupDavid Madden. Linda Hamilton, James Betuous Ursula hires on to help hasten the lushi, Vera Miles, Elisabeth Moss, Drew demise of a wealthy vintner with a heart Snyder. Limp psychosexual thriller has decondition by keeping his pulse racing in tective (Belushi) on the trail of a murderer this smarmy sex comedy. Ursula does look who’s killing the patients of his sexy group great in the nude, however. [R]▼쩠 Sentimental Journey (1946) 94m. ★★ D: therapist (Hamilton)—while she’s con[ 1221 ]

vinced she’s committing them herself. PreChristopher Cain. Jon Voight, Trent Ford, dictable and bland. [R]▼ Tamara Hope, Jon Gries, Huntley Ritter, Separate Peace, A (1972) C-104m. BOMB Krisinda Cain, Shaun Johnston, Lolita DaD: Larry Peerce. John Heyl, Parker Stevenvidovich, Terence Stamp. Fictionalized son, William Roerick, Peter Brush, Victor Romeo and Juliet–style love story about a Bevine, Scott Bradbury. Supposedly senMormon boy and a Christian girl in 1857 sitive story of two roommates in a 1940s Utah set against the backdrop of a controprep school, taken from John Knowles’ versial, real-life (if little-known) incident in overrated novel, is enough to make anyone which 120 men, women, and children from gag. Story is morbid, acting amateurish, and her wagon train are ruthlessly murdered. Film direction has no feeling at all for the period. places blame for the massacre on Mormon A total bummer. Remade for cable TV in leaders, including Brigham Young (Stamp), 2003. [PG] ▼ although this is vehemently denied by the Separate Tables (1958) 99m. ★★★★ D: church. Low-budget (but handsome-looking) Delbert Mann. Burt Lancaster, Rita Haydrama blends facts with Hollywood speculaworth, David Niven, Deborah Kerr, Wendy tion to create a fairly compelling tale. DirecHiller, Gladys Cooper, Cathleen Nesbitt, tor Cain coscripted; his son Dean has a cameo as Joseph Smith. [R]쩠 Rod Taylor, Felix Aylmer. Terence Rattigan’s pair of romantic playlets set at EnSeptember Storm (1960) C-99m. BOMB glish seaside resort are reworked here into D: Byron Haskin. Joanne Dru, Mark Stesuperb drama in the GRAND HOTEL vein; vens, Robert Strauss, Asher Dann, M. Lancaster and Hayworth are divorced couple Jean-Pierre Kerien, Vera Valmont. Schemtrying to make another go of it, Hiller is his ing fashion model joins a group of adventurers timid mistress, Niven a supposed war hero, searching for buried treasure off the coast of Kerr a lonely spinster dominated by mother Majorca. Film’s only novelty is that it was Cooper. Bouquets all around, especially to shot in 3-D CinemaScope. Oscar winners Niven and Hiller. Screenplay September 30, 1955 (1978) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 by Rattigan and John Gay.▼●쩠 D: James Bridges. Richard Thomas, Susan Separate Ways (1981) C-92m. ★★ D: HowTyrrell, Deborah Benson, Lisa Blount. ard Avedis. Karen Black, Tony LoBianco, Thomas Hulce, Dennis Quaid, Dennis ChristoArlene Golonka, David Naughton, Jack pher. Arkansas undergrad, well played by Carter, Sharon Farrell, William Windom, Thomas, goes off his nut when James Dean Robert Fuller, Noah Hathaway, Sybil dies, with tragic results for a girl friend. OrigiDanning. Low-budget U.S. answer to A nal, if excessively uneven drama, is worth conMAN AND A WOMAN has former racesideration for being one of the few films to deal car driver LoBianco suffering marital probat all seriously with the movie star mystique. lems with wife Black, exacerbated by her Original title: 9/30/55. [PG]▼● one-night stand with younger man NaughSeraphim Falls (2007) C-115m. ★★★ D: ton. Good cast is wasted. [R]▼쩠 David Von Ancken. Pierce Brosnan, Liam ★★ D: Woody September (1987) C-82m. Neeson, Michael Wincott, John Robinson, Allen. Denholm Elliott, Mia Farrow, Elaine Ed Lauter, Robert Baker, Jimmi Simpson, Stritch, Sam Waterston, Jack Warden, DiNate Mooney, Anjelica Huston, Kevin J. anne Wiest. Six people vent their angst O’Connor, Shannon Zeller, Xander Berkeduring a weekend in the country. Intelliley, Angie Harmon, Wes Studi, Tom Noogent and well acted, but after a while it nan. Beautifully photographed (by John dawns on you that there’s no earthly reaToll) widescreen Western set a few years son to be interested in these people and after the Civil War about a colonel who their whining. Stritch is a standout as Mia’s embarks on a search for a man with whom flamboyant mom, and it’s hard to comhe must settle a score. Entertaining to see pletely dislike a film that plugs jazz pianist Neeson as a man on a mission and Brosnan Art Tatum so vigorously. Set in Vermont using his ingenuity to avoid capture in the but filmed completely on a soundstage. wide-open wilderness. Testosterone-heavy Writer-director Allen fared better with his scenario is entirely watchable and offers solid roles to its two stars. Panavision. [R]쩠 earlier drama, INTERIORS. [PG]▼●쩠 September Affair (1950) 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Serenade (1956) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: AnWilliam Dieterle. Joseph Cotten, Joan Fonthony Mann. Mario Lanza, Joan Fontaine, taine, Franc¸oise Rosay, Jessica Tandy, Robert Sarita Montiel, Vincent Price, Joseph Arthur, Fortunio Bonanova, Jimmy Lydon. Calleia, Vince Edwards. James M. Cain Trim romance of married man Cotten and novel becomes surface soaper of Lanza, pianist Fontaine who find that they’re listed as the prote´ge´ of swank Fontaine, manipudead in plane crash and now have chance to lated by manager Price and loved by earthy Montiel; spotty musical interludes.▼ continue their affair. Makes effective use of classical music and Walter Huston’s recording Serendipity (2001) C-91m. ★★★ D: Peter of ‘‘September Song’’ (which once again beChelsom. John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale, came a hit).▼● Jeremy Piven, Molly Shannon, Eugene Levy, September Dawn (2007) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Lucy Gor[ 1222 ]

don. A chance meeting in N.Y.C. leads to a Sergeant Steiner SEE: Breakthrough (1978) romantic evening for Cusack and Beckinsale, Sergeants 3 (1962) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: John but she chooses to leave it to fate to decide if Sturges. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy they should ever see each other again. Several Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, Joey Bishop, years later, on the eve of his wedding, Cusack Ruta Lee, Henry Silva. Second reworking decides he simply must find her. Endearing of GUNGA DIN is amusing, but not up to romantic comedy with appealing stars and 1939 original. This time it’s out West wonderful support from Piven and Levy. with the Rat Pack as cavalry sergeants. Buck Henry appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Davis can’t eclipse Sam Jaffe as Gunga Serenity (2005) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joss Din, though. Panavision.쩠 Whedon. Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Sergeant York (1941) 134m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Howard Hawks. Gary Cooper, Walter BrenJewel Staite, Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron nan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias, Stanley Glass, Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Krumholtz, Ridges, Margaret Wycherly, Ward Bond, Sarah Paulson, Michael Hitchcock. Five hunNoah Beery, Jr., June Lockhart. Excellent dred years in the future, a mercenary and his story of pacifist York (Cooper) drafted during crew on the ragtag airship Serenity battle the WW1, realizing purpose of fighting and bepowerful Alliance and try to deprogram a coming hero. Oscar-winning performance by teenage girl whose telepathic powers have Cooper in fine, intelligent film, balancing segbeen turned to the dark side. Whedon gives ments of rural America with battle scenes. fans of his canceled 2002 TV series Firefly John Huston was one of the writers. Also a chance to round out its unfinished story, available in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 while providing a self-contained continuity Serial (1980) C-86m. ★★★ D: Bill Persky. for newcomers. A sort of low-rent STAR Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, Sally KellerWARS with Fillion as the Han Solo–ish man, Bill Macy, Tom Smothers, Christoantihero, this feature has spunk and spirit pher Lee, Peter Bonerz, Jennifer McAlister, but goes on too long. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Nita Talbot, Stacey Nelkin, Barbara Rhoades, Sergeant, The (1968) C-107m. ★★ D: Pamela Bellwood. Trenchant satire on John Flynn. Rod Steiger, John Phillip Law, Marin County, Cal., and its residents’ obLudmila Mikael, Frank Latimore, Elliott session with various freakish fads, sexual Sullivan. Predictable drama, set in France, trends, and psychological mumbo-jumbo, about homosexual Army sergeant Steiger and with a Frank Capra–esque finale. Mull (in his desire for handsome private Law. Director his first starring role) plays the only sane Flynn has nice eye for detail, but overall, film one in the bunch. Adapted from Cyra doesn’t make much of an impression. [R]쩠 McFadden’s column and book. [R]▼●쩠 Sergeant DeadHead (1965) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Serial Mom (1994) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Norman Taurog. Frankie Avalon, Deborah Waters. Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Walley, Eve Arden, Cesar Romero, Fred Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard, Scott Wesley Clark, Buster Keaton, Gale Gordon, Harvey Morgan, Walt MacPherson, Justin Whalin, Lembeck. Bungling Army sergeant goes into Patricia Dunnock, Mink Stole, Mary Jo Catspace with a chimpanzee and undergoes perlett, Traci Lords, Patricia Hearst, Suzanne sonality change. Oh, that poor monkey. Also Somers. Beaming, cheerful Turner is the known as SERGEANT DEADHEAD, THE perfect mom to her suburban family; she’s ASTRONUT. Panavision. also a serial killer, bumping off anyone who Sergeant Rutledge (1960) C-111m. ★★★ offends her sense of family values. The main D: John Ford. Jeffrey Hunter, Woody Strode, target of this movie’s satirical barbs are those Constance Towers, Billie Burke, Carleton who would turn murderers into media heroes, Young, Juano Hernandez, Willis Bouchey, but it takes plenty of other potshots along the Mae Marsh, Hank Worden, Jack Pennick. Arway. Blander than most of Waters’ films, this resting story of a black U.S. Cavalry officer works only intermittently, despite a knockout on trial for rape and murder; his story is performance from Turner. [R]▼●쩠 pieced together in flashback during his Series 7: The Contenders (2001) C-88m. court-martial. Unusual subject matter for its ★★1⁄2 D: Daniel Minahan. Brooke Smith, time, solidly presented by Ford (with some Glenn Fitzgerald, Marylouise Burke, Mioccasionally awkward comic relief). Strode chael Kaycheck, Richard Venture, Merritt is commanding in the central role.▼쩠 Wever, Donna Hanover, Angelina Phillips. Sergeant Ryker (1968) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 Imagine a Survivor-type show where the D: Buzz Kulik. Lee Marvin, Bradford Dillcontestants literally have to kill each other! man, Vera Miles, Peter Graves, Lloyd Nolan, That’s the premise of this jet-black satire Murray Hamilton. Adapted from TV film The of reality TV. It’s all a bit too ironic and Case Against Sergeant Ryker, story concerns postmodern for its own good, but it’s still court-martial of Marvin in title role, an Army fun, in a sick vein, especially when we folsergeant during Korean War suspected of low Dawn (Smith, who’s terrific), the reignbeing a traitor; Miles is his wife and Dillman ing champion with ten kills who happens to the dynamic defense attorney. Aka TORN be pregnant and about to burst! [R]▼쩠 BETWEEN TWO VALUES. ▼ [ 1223 ]

Serpent, The SEE: Night Flight From (1985) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Kwapis. Caroll Moscow Spinney, Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Paul Bartel, Serpent and the Rainbow, The (1988) Sandra Bernhard, John Candy, Chevy Chase, C-98m. ★★ D: Wes Craven. Bill Pullman, Joe Flaherty, Waylon Jennings, Dave Thomas. Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield, Sweet, simple film about Sesame Street’s Brent Jennings, Theresa Merritt, Michael beloved Big Bird, who’s placed in foster Gough. Ambitious (by Craven standards) but home but tries to hitchhike back to Sesame gratuitous chiller about a real-life anthropoloStreet. Aimed solely at young children, who gist’s experiences with black magic and vooshould enjoy it—though for adults nothing doo in Haiti. Well done, but wallows in its can top Oscar the Grouch’s opening anatmosphere and special effects; however, Crathem. Cute songs throughout. [G]▼●쩠 ven fans will boost the rating by a star. Based Session 9 (2001) C-100m. ★★ D: Brad Anon the book by Wade Davis. [R]▼●쩠 derson. David Caruso, Peter Mullan, BrenSerpent of the Nile (1953) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: dan Sexton III, Stephen Gevedon, Paul William Castle. Rhonda Fleming, William Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas. A ragtag asbestosLundigan, Raymond Burr, Michael Ansara, removal team’s new job site is an immense, Julie Newmar. Antony and Cleopatra, abandoned insane asylum. Since the crew B-movie style; good for a few laughs, doesn’t get along well from the get-go, just anyway. Producer Sam Katzman used leftimagine the teasing, taunting, and tensions over sets from Rita Hayworth’s SALOME. unleashed in the dark corridors day after Serpent’s Egg, The (1978-German-U.S.) day. Genuinely spooky film unfortunately C-120m. ★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Liv suffers from underdeveloped characters. Ullmann, David Carradine, Gert Frobe, Written by the director and costar Gevedon. Heinz Bennent, Glynn Turman, James WhitClaustrophobics beware. HD 24P Widemore. Smorgasbord of depravities makes screen. [R] ▼쩠 story of Jewish trapeze artist in pre-WW2 Session With the Committee, A (1969) Germany an overwhelmingly unpleasant C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Del Jack. Peter Bonerz, movie experience. Sven Nykvist’s camBarbara Bosson, Garry Goodrow, Carl erawork is brilliant as usual, but Carradine is Gottlieb, Jessica Myerson, Christopher Ross, fatally miscast. [R]▼쩠 Melvin Stewart, Don Sturdy (Howard HesseSerpico (1973) C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sidney man). Filmed collection of live skits by L.A. Lumet. Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack comic troupe isn’t exactly ‘‘pure’’ cinema, Kehoe, Biff McGuire, Barbara Eda-Young, but has the same appeal as a good comedy record album. Plenty of laughs. [PG]▼ Cornelia Sharpe, Tony Roberts, James Tolkan, Lewis J. Stadlen, M. Emmet Walsh, Set It Off (1996) C-121m. ★★ D: F. Gary F. Murray Abraham, Kenneth McMillan. Gray. Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica Tough, exciting filmization of Peter Maas A. Fox, Kimberly Elise, Blair Underwood, book based on true-life accounts of N.Y.C. John C. McGinley, Anna Maria Horsford, undercover cop whose nonconformism—and Ella Joyce, Charlie Robinson, Chaz Lamar exposure of department corruption—isolate Shepard, Dr. Dre. Four black women from him from the force. Screenplay by Waldo Salt the L.A. projects decide to beat the system and Norman Wexler. Look for Judd Hirsch as by robbing banks, and end up testing their a cop. Followed by a TV movie and shortfriendship to deadly ends. Frustrating, overlived series. [R] ▼●쩠 directed film wants to be a hard-edged Servant, The (1963-British) 115m. ★★★1⁄2 urban drama but relies on pyrotechnics and D: Joseph Losey. Dirk Bogarde, James car chases for impact. Even worse is an Fox, Sarah Miles, Wendy Craig, Catherunnecessary romantic subplot between Pinine Lacey, Patrick Magee. Insidious story kett and suave banker Underwood. Latiof moral degradation as corrupt manserfah’s powerhouse performance as a gunvant Bogarde becomes master of employer toting lesbian gives the film a much needed Fox; superb study of brooding decadence. jolt of realism. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Scripted by Harold Pinter.▼쩠 Set-Up, The (1949) 72m. ★★★1⁄2 D: RobServing Sara (2002) C-99m. ★★ D: Reginald ert Wise. Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, Hudlin. Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, George Tobias, Alan Baxter, James EdBruce Campbell, Cedric the Entertainer, Vinwards, Wallace Ford. Gutsy account of cent Pastore, Amy Adams, Joe Viterelli, washed-up fighter refusing to give up or Terry Crews, Jerry Stiller. Lackluster comgo crooked; Ryan has never been better. edy about a N.Y.C. process server who Art Cohn’s pungent screenplay was inmakes a deal with his ‘‘mark’’ to find her spired by a narrative poem(!) by Joseph philandering husband and serve him with Moncure March. Photographed by Milton her divorce papers—in return for half of her Krasner. Played out in real time—as you’ll take. This takes them on a bumpy road to see by the clock shown in opening and Texas. It’s a long way from IT HAPPENED closing shots.▼●쩠 ONE NIGHT. Mike Judge appears unbilled Seven (1979) C-100m. ★★ D: Andy Sidaris. William Smith, Barbara Leigh, Guich as a motel clerk. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird Koock, Art Metrano, Martin Kove, Rich[ 1224 ]

ard Le Pore, Susan Kiger. Brawny Smith getic dance numbers that really stand out, is hired by U.S. intelligence to destroy with rare screen work by dancers Jacques Hawaiian crime syndicate, which he does D’Amboise and Marc Platt. The barn-raising with enthusiastic team of ‘‘specialists.’’ sequence is an absolute knockout. ScreenViolent, sexy, tongue-in-cheek action yarn play by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodincludes the ‘‘shooting the swordsman’’ rich, and Dorothy Kingsley, from a Stephen gag later immortalized in RAIDERS OF Vincent Benet story. Later a TV series THE LOST ARK. [R]▼ and a Broadway musical. CinemaScope. Se7en (1995) C-127m. ★★★ D: David ▼●쩠 Fincher. Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, The (1974Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Richard RoundBritish-Hong Kong) C-72m. ★★ D: Roy Ward tree, R. Lee Ermey, John C. McGinley, Julie Baker. Peter Cushing, David Chiang, Julie Araskog, Mark Boone Junior, John Cassini, Ege, Robin Stewart, Shih Szu, John ForbesReginald E. Cathey, Peter Crombie, HawRobertson. Vampire hunter Van Helsing thorne James, Michael Massee, Leland (Cushing) is in China in the late 19th century to Orser, Richard Portnow. Dedicated detecvanquish Dracula with the help of some karatetive (Freeman) breaks in his replacement chopping assistants. Odd blend of Kung Fu (Pitt) during his last week before retiring— action, supernatural, and Dracula themes rethen stumbles onto the trail of a serial killer portedly worked better in original 89m. verwho’s out to punish perpetrators of the sion called LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN seven deadly sins. Exceptionally wellVAMPIRES. Aka SEVEN GOLDEN crafted, intelligently written, and well-acted VAMPIRES—THE LAST WARNING! thriller . . . but also extremely unsettling, alPanavision. [R] ▼●쩠 most oppressive at times. Not much vio7 Capital Sins (1961-French-Italian) 113m. ★★ lence per se, but the film seems to wallow D: Jean-Luc Godard, Roger Vadim, Sylin the depths of human depravity it so pasvaine Dhomme, Edouard Molinaro, Philippe sionately decries. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 De Broca, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy. Seven Alone (1975) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Earl Marie-Jose Nat, Dominique Paturel, JeanBellamy. Dewey Martin, Aldo Ray, Anne Marc Tennberg, Perrette Pradier. Potpourri of Collings, Dean Smith, Stewart Petersen. directors and talents play out modern parables OK family-wilderness picture on true story concerning anger, envy, gluttony, greed, laof seven children who make perilous 2,000 ziness, lust, and pride. Aka SEVEN mile trek West during the 1800s after their DEADLY SINS and LES SEPT PECHES CAPITAUX. Dyaliscope.▼ parents die en route. [G]▼쩠 ★★★ Seven Angry Men (1955) 90m. Seven Chances (1925) 56m. ★★★1⁄2 D: D: Charles Marquis Warren. Raymond MasBuster Keaton. Buster Keaton, T. Roy sey, Debra Paget, Jeffrey Hunter, James Barnes, Snitz Edwards, Ruth Dwyer, Best, Dennis Weaver, Dabbs Greer, Ann Frankie Raymond, Jules Cowles. Buster Tyrrell. Good historical drama of John will inherit a fortune if he’s married by 7:00 Brown (Massey) and family fighting to that evening; a miscommunication with his free slaves during 1800s. Massey is fine in girlfriend leads to his pursuit by thousands lead role, which he previously played in of would-be brides. The highlight: a furious SANTA FE TRAIL. chase down a hill in which Buster dodges Seven Beauties (1976-Italian) C-115m. dozens of oversized boulders! One of Kea★★★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Giancarlo Gianton’s silent gems. That’s young Jean Arthur nini, Fernando Rey, Shirley Stoler, Elena as a switchboard operator who turns down Fiore, Enzo Vitale. Director-writer WertBuster’s marriage proposal. Remade as THE BACHELOR (1999). ▼●쩠 muller’s masterpiece follows a small-time Casanova through the horrors of WW2 Seven Cities of Gold (1955) C-103m. ★★1 battle and imprisonment in a concentration ⁄2 D: Robert D. Webb. Richard Egan, camp, where he learns to survive—at any Anthony Quinn, Jeffrey Hunter, Rita cost. Giannini is superb in this harrowing, Moreno, Michael Rennie. Average specunforgettable film. [R]▼쩠 tacle adventure has good cast and fair Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) direction. ‘‘Roughneck’’ learns ways of God in search for fabled Indian treasure C-103m. ★★★★ D: Stanley Donen. Howard in Western U.S. CinemaScope.▼ Keel, Jane Powell, Jeff Richards, Russ Tamblyn, Tommy Rall, Virginia Gibson, Seven Days in May (1964) 118m. ★★★ D: Julie Newmeyer (Newmar), Ruta Kilmonis John Frankenheimer. Burt Lancaster, Kirk (Lee), Matt Mattox. Rollicking musical perDouglas, Fredric March, Ava Gardner, fectly integrates song, dance, and story: Edmond O’Brien, Martin Balsam, George Keel’s decision to get himself a wife Macready, Whit Bissell, Hugh Marlowe. (Powell) inspires his rowdy brothers to Absorbing, believable story of military follow suit. Tuneful Johnny Mercer–Gene scheme to overthrow the government. Fine DePaul score (with Oscar-winning musical cast includes Lancaster as the general plandirection by Adolph Deutsch and Saul ning the coup and Douglas as the colonel Chaplin), but it’s Michael Kidd’s enerwho discovers the plot, March as U.S. [ 1225 ]

President; intelligent suspense in Rod seven bandits who held up Wells Fargo Serling screenplay from Fletcher Knebel station and killed his wife. Solid Western, and Charles W. Bailey novel. John Housefirst of seven from the Scott-Boetticher man made his screen acting debut in small team, with a script by Burt Kennedy. Marbut crucial role. Remade for cable as THE vin is terrific.쩠 ENEMY WITHIN. ▼●쩠 Seven Minutes, The (1971) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 Seven Days to Noon (1950-British) 93m. D: Russ Meyer. Wayne Maunder, Mari★★★★ D: John Boulting. Barry Jones, Olive anne McAndrew, Philip Carey, Yvonne Sloane, Andre Morell, Sheila Manahan, De Carlo, Jay C. Flippen, Edy Williams, Hugh Cross, Joan Hickson. Superbly paced John Carradine, Harold J. Stone. Host of thriller (from Paul Dehn and James Berfine character actors fail to save laughable nard’s Oscar-winning story) about scienadaptation of Irving Wallace’s best-seller tist threatening to explode bomb in London about pornography trial; interesting mainly if his demands are not met. Screenplay by as Meyer’s only ‘‘straight’’ film. Look for Roy Boulting and Frank Harvey. Tom Selleck as a publisher. [PG—edited Seven Different Ways SEE: Quick, Let’s from original R rating] Get Married Seven Notes in Black SEE: Psychic, The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) C-100m. ★★★ Seven-Per-Cent Solution, The (1976) CD: George Pal. Tony Randall, Barbara 113m. ★★★ D: Herbert Ross. Nicol WilliamEden, Arthur O’Connell, John Ericson, son, Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Kevin Tate, Argentina Brunetti, Noah Duvall, Laurence Olivier, Joel Grey, SamanBeery, Jr., Minerva Urecal, John Qualen, tha Eggar, Jeremy Kemp, Charles Gray, ReLee Patrick. Engaging fantasy of Western gine. Sherlock Holmes meets Sigmund Freud town brought to its senses by parables in this handsome, entertaining film adapted by performed by mysterious traveling circus; Nicholas Meyer from his novel. Shifts gears tour de force for Randall, who plays six roles. from serious drama to tongue-in-cheek advenWilliam Tuttle won special Oscar for makeup ture, but stays on target all the way. Nice creations. Based on Charles G. Finney’s score by John Addison. [PG]▼●쩠 novel The Circus of Dr. Lao.▼●쩠 Seven Pounds (2008) C-123m. ★1⁄2 D: GaSeven Golden Vampires—The Last briele Muccino. Will Smith, Rosario DawWarning! SEE: Seven Brothers Meet son, Michael Ealy, Barry Pepper, Woody Dracula, The Harrelson, Elpidia Carrillo, Robinne Lee, Seven Graves for Rogan SEE: Time to Bill Smitrovich, Joe Nunez, Tim Kelleher, Die, A (1983) Gina Hecht. IRS agent calls on various peo★★1 ⁄2 Seven Hills of Rome (1958) C-104m. ple to determine if they’re worthy of the D: Roy Rowland. Mario Lanza, Peggie Casgood deeds he intends to perform on their tle, Marisa Allasio, Renato Rascel, Rosella behalf. But why? Enervating film withholds Como. Formula vehicle for Lanza, as a telethe answers so long that it’s difficult to envision star who retreats to Rome and falls in gage with Smith’s tortured protagonist. As love; mellower than usual, with nice scethe answers become clear the film is more nery and supporting cast. Technirama.▼● off-putting than ever. Strange vehicle for Seven Hours to Judgment (1988) C-89m. the popular star. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ★★ D: Beau Bridges. Beau Bridges, Ron Seven Samurai (1954-Japanese) 141m. Leibman, Julianne Phillips, Reggie John★★★★ D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, son, Al Freeman, Jr. Bridges directs himTakashi Shimura, Yoshio Inaba, Ko Kiself in an earnest but farfetched revenge mura, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki. saga as the hapless judge whom nut case Classic film about 16th-century Japanese Leibman feels had been too lenient with village which hires professional warriors to the minority punks who killed Leibman’s fend off bandits. Kurosawa’s ‘‘far-east wife; Ron retaliates by kidnapping Beau’s Western’’ has served as model for many beautiful spouse (Phillips) and setting Bridfilms since, including American remake ges on a survival quest in a tough part of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (a title once town. [R]▼●쩠 given this film for U.S. release). The comSeven Little Foys, The (1955) C-95m. ★★★ plete 208m. version is even more impresD: Melville Shavelson. Bob Hope, sive for its humanity as well as its powerful Milly Vitale, George Tobias, Billy Gray, action sequences.▼●쩠 James Cagney. Pleasant biography of vaudeSeven Seas to Calais (1962-Italian) Cvillian Eddie Foy and his performing fami★★1⁄2 D: Rudolph Mate ´, Primo Zeglio. 102m. ly. Hope lively in lead role, Cagney guests Rod Taylor, Keith Michell, Irene Worth, as George M. Cohan; their table-top dance Anthony Dawson, Basil Dignam. Minor duet is the movie’s high point. Vistabut entertaining swashbuckler with Taylor Vision.▼쩠 as Sir Francis Drake. CinemaScope. Seven Men From Now (1956) C-78m. ★★★ Seven Sinners (1940) 87m. ★★★ D: Tay D: Budd Boetticher. Randolph Scott, Gail Garnett. Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Russell, Lee Marvin, Walter Reed, John Larch, Donald Barry. Scott tracks down Albert Dekker, Broderick Crawford, Anna [ 1226 ]

Lee, Mischa Auer, Billy Gilbert. Alluring quence is short and abrupt, and ends in a blackout. Final extended sequence is posiDietrich makes Wayne forget about the tively devastating . . . and it’s all based on a Navy for a while in this engaging actiontrue story! First in a trilogy, followed by love story with excellent supporting cast. BENNY’S VIDEO and 71 FRAGMENTS Remade as SOUTH SEA SINNER.▼●쩠 1 ★★ OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE.쩠 17 Again (2009) C-102m. ⁄2 D: Burr Seventh Cross, The (1944) 110m. ★★★ D: Steers. Zac Efron, Matthew Perry, Leslie Fred Zinnemann. Spencer Tracy, Signe Mann, Thomas Lennon, Melora Hardin, SterHasso, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Herling Knight, Michelle Trachtenberg, Hunter bert Rudley, Felix Bressart, Ray Collins, Parrish, Jim Gaffigan, Nicole Sullivan, MarAlexander Granach, Agnes Moorehead, garet Cho. Twenty years after a life-altering George Macready, Steven Geray, Kaaren decision, a former high school basketball star Verne, George Zucco. Seven men escape (Perry) is given the opportunity to become a from Nazi concentration camp and are purteenager again in order to change his future— sued by the Gestapo. Exciting film makes and his lousy marriage. Efron’s nuanced, intristrong statement about a cynic who regains guing performance (and a talented cast) make hope when others risk their lives to save him. this otherwise predictable and uneven film enTandy and Cronyn’s first film together. An joyable. Super 35. [PG-13] ★★★ early winner for Zinnemann.▼ 1776 (1972) C-141m. D: Peter H. 7th Dawn, The (1964-British) C-123m. Hunt. William Daniels, Howard da Silva, ★1 ⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. William Holden, Ken Howard, Donald Madden, Ron HolSusannah York, Capucine, Tetsuro Tamba, gate, David Ford, Blythe Danner, Roy Michael Goodliffe. Dreary tale of personal Poole, Virginia Vestoff, John Cullum. and political conflict among WW2 allies— America’s first Congress in struggle for now adversaries—in postwar Malaya.▼ independence from Britain provides frame7th Heaven (1927) 119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank work for this unique musical by Sherman Borzage. Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Ben Edwards and Peter Stone. Almost all of the Bard, David Butler, Marie Mosquini, Albert original Broadway cast remain, with DanGran. One of the most famous screen roiels as John Adams and da Silva as Benjamances of all time does not hold up as min Franklin leading the pack. Laserdisc perfectly as one would like; Gaynor won version ran 176m., incorporating footage difirst Academy Award as Diane, mistreated rector Hunt was forced to cut from original Paris waif redeemed and revived by cocky release; he then surpervised a revised edisewer-worker Chico (Farrell). His perfortion for DVD running 166m. Panavision. mance weakens film, as does terrible war [G]▼●쩠 subplot and finale. Still interesting, 1 7th Cavalry (1956) C-75m. ★★ ⁄2 D: Joseph though; beautifully filmed, with lovely H. Lewis. Randolph Scott, Barbara Hale, theme ‘‘Diane.’’ Gaynor received her Jay C. Flippen, Jeanette Nolan, Frank Oscar for this film, SUNRISE, and Faylen. Scott plays an officer who must STREET ANGEL. Also won Oscars for prove that he didn’t desert Custer at the Screenplay (Benjamin Glazer) and DirecLittle Bighorn battle.▼ tor. Remade in 1937.▼쩠 ★1 Seventh Coin, The (1992) C-95m. ⁄2 D: Seventh Heaven (1937) 102m. ★★ D: Henry Dror Soref. Alexandra Powers, Navin King. Simone Simon, James Stewart, Jean Chowdhry, Peter O’Toole, John RhysHersholt, Gregory Ratoff, Gale Sondergaard, Davies, Ally Walker, Julius Washington, J. Edward Bromberg, John Qualen. Famous Nicholas Kallsen. Teen-oriented action-adsilent film of poignant lovers in France venture film lacking action and adventure. doesn’t do as well this time, with Gallic O’Toole, believing he’s King Herod reinStewart and soggy script. carnated, pursues two youths who have a Seven Thieves (1960) 102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: precious coin which belonged to Herod. Henry Hathaway. Edward G. Robinson, Rod O’Toole looks and acts waxen. Remember: Steiger, Joan Collins, Eli Wallach, Alexander reading is fun. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Scourby, Michael Dante, Berry Kroeger, Seventh Continent, The (1989-Austrian) Sebastian Cabot. Taut caper of well-planned 1 ★★★ C-104m. ⁄2 D: Michael Haneke. Birgit Monte Carlo heist, with excellent cast giving Doll, Dieter Berner, Leni Tanzer, Udo Samel, credibility to far-fetched premise. CinemaSilvia Fenz, Robert Dietl, Elisabeth Rath, Scope.▼쩠 Georges Kern, Georg Friedrich. Haneke’s theSeventh Seal, The (1957-Sweden) 96m. ★★★★ atrical feature debut as writer-director is a disD: Ingmar Bergman. Max von Sydow, turbing account of middle-class malaise, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Nils Poppe, Bibi following the lives of an ordinary (albeit Andersson, Bengt Ekerot. Sydow, a disilemotionally disconnected) family: a huslusioned knight on his way back from the band, wife, and their young daughter. Crusades, tries to solve the mysteries of Starkly directed with Haneke initially, and life while playing chess game with Death, revealingly, filming his actors’ hands, feet, who has offered him a short reprieve. and torsos—but not their faces. Each seSpellbinding, one-of-a-kind masterpiece [ 1227 ]

helped gain Bergman international acman, and an unhappily married couple. claim. ▼●쩠 Mixed in are TV news reports involving Seventh Sign, The (1988) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: violence and conflict across the globe, and Carl Schultz. Demi Moore, Michael Biehn, Michael Jackson being accused of child Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Peter Friedman, Manny abuse. Not unexpectedly, these ‘‘fragJacobs, John Taylor, Lee Garlington, ments’’ are bookended by a tragedy. A celAkosua Busia, John Heard, Ian Buchanan. luloid treatise on the manner in which TV Pregnant Moore is convinced it’s apocanumbs the senses. Third in a trilogy, written lypse now and that boarder Prochnow wants by the director, following THE SEVENTH her baby for his end-of-the-world machiCONTINENT and BENNY’S VIDEO.쩠 nations. Could be; look out for dead ocean Seven-Ups, The (1973) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: life, icy deserts, and rivers running with Philip D’Antoni. Roy Scheider, Tony blood. Supernatural grab bag is directed LoBianco, Bill Hickman, Richard Lynch, with all the zeal one brings to a documenVictor Arnold. THE FRENCH CONNECtary on stock portfolios; result has an TION producer directed this unofficial sequel, extraordinarily high ‘‘oh, come on’’ with Scheider scoring as a tough cop. Action quotient. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 outweighs plot, and car chase is one of the Seventh Sin, The (1957) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: best yet filmed. Shot in N.Y.C. [PG]▼●쩠 Ronald Neame. Eleanor Parker, Bill Travers, Seven Waves Away SEE: Abandon Ship Franc¸oise Rosay, George Sanders, JeanSeven Ways From Sundown (1960) Pierre Aumont, Ellen Corby. Remake of C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harry Keller. Audie MurW. Somerset Maugham’s THE PAINTED phy, Barry Sullivan, Venetia Stevenson, VEIL has virtue of Parker’s earnest perforJohn McIntire, Kenneth Tobey. Murphy is mance as adulterous wife of a doctor who Texas ranger assigned to bring in seasoned redeems herself during an epidemic; set in killer Sullivan, with usual results. Hong Kong and inner China. CinemaScope. 7 Women (1966) C-87m. ★★ D: John Seventh Veil, The (1945-British) 95m. Ford. Anne Bancroft, Sue Lyon, Margaret ★★★1⁄2 D: Compton Bennett. James Mason, Leighton, Flora Robson, Mildred Dunnock, Ann Todd, Herbert Lom, Hugh McDerAnna Lee, Betty Field, Eddie Albert, Mike mott, Albert Lieven. Superb psychological Mazurki, Woody Strode. Flat soaper of drama of pianist Todd, left as ward to her dedicated missionaries in China in 1935, neurotic cousin Mason. Psychiatrist Lom menaced by warrior cutthroats. Despite uses hypnosis to enable Todd to regain her cast and director, a dull film. Ford’s last professional and personal sanity. All three feature. Panavision.● stars are first-rate in one of the key British Seven Year Itch, The (1955) C-105m. films of the forties. Muriel and Sydney ★★★ D: Billy Wilder. Marilyn Monroe, Box’s screenplay won an Oscar.▼● Tommy (Tom) Ewell, Evelyn Keyes, Sonny Seventh Victim, The (1943) 71m. ★★★ D: Tufts, Victor Moore, Oscar Homolka, CarMark Robson. Tom Conway, Kim Hunter, olyn Jones, Doro Merande, Robert Strauss. Jean Brooks, Evelyn Brent, Elizabeth RusWhile Ewell’s wife is vacationing in the sell, Hugh Beaumont, Erford Gage, Isabel country, wide-eyed Tom fantasizes about Jewell, Barbara Hale. Offbeat Val Lewton the sexpot who moves in upstairs. This film chiller of innocent Hunter stumbling onto entered the ranks of pop culture when MariN.Y.C. group of devil-worshipers. Genlyn stepped on a subway grating wearing a uinely eerie.▼●쩠 billowy white skirt . . . but writer-director 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The (1958) C-87m. Wilder had to skirt censorship issues in ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Nathan Juran. Kerwin Mathews, adapting George Axelrod’s Broadway play, Kathryn Grant (Crosby), Richard Eyer, and the results are much tamer than the origTorin Thatcher. Top-notch adventure/ inal (though still entertaining). Marilyn is fantasy pits hero Sinbad against unscrupudelightful. Clever titles by Saul Bass. lous magician (Thatcher) who has reduced CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Princess Grant to miniature size. Good Seven Years in Tibet (1997) C-136m. ★★★ pacing, eye-popping special effects by Ray D: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Brad Pitt, David Harryhausen (including famed duel with Thewlis, B. D. Wong, Mako, Danny Denzongskeleton), music score by Bernard Herrmann. pa, Victor Wong, Jamyang Jamtsho WangA winner all the way.▼●쩠 chuk. Long but absorbing tale of Austrian 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance mountaineer/adventurer Heinrich Harrer, (1994-Austrian-German) C-95m. ★★★ D: whose attempt to scale a formidable HimalaMichael Haneke. Gabriel Cosmin Urdes, yan mountain peak in 1939 is interrupted by Lukas Miko, Otto Gru¨nmandl, Anne BenWW2—and whose subsequent adventures nent, Udo Samel, Branko Samarovski, bring him to Tibet and the holy city of Llasa, Claudia Martini, Georg Friedrich. Chilling, normally closed to outsiders. There he meets challenging tapestry-like portrait of isolated, and is befriended by the 14-year-old Dalai alienated people whose lives are presented Lama. Pitt is excellent as Harrer, a difficult in snippets, including a scruffy runaway boy, a sullen orphaned girl, a solitary old character because he is selfish and arrogant— [ 1228 ]

until he learns humility in Tibet. Magnifinarrator—Carrie Bradshaw (Parker) is about cently filmed. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 to do the unthinkable and marry her longtime Severance (2006-British-German) C-96m. lover, Mr. Big (Noth), but the best laid ★★★ plans . . . Funny, insightful, and sexually D: Christopher Smith. Toby Stephens, Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim McInnerny, candid, this entertaining movie puts a 21stClaudie Blakley, Andy Nyman, Babou Ceecentury spin on female friendship in middle say, David Gilliam, Matthew Baker. A group age. Hudson is a welcome addition as a of British sales employees of a multinational new assistant who has the same dreams and weapons firm are traveling by chartered bus aspirations Parker did when she first came to a remote Eastern European location for a to N.Y.C. Written by the director, a series company retreat. Very quickly, however, all veteran; based on the book by Candace plans are off as the bickering bunch is Bushnell. Alternate version runs 157m. stranded in one very scary forest. With its Super 35. [R]쩠 sly wit and violent mayhem this corporateSex and the Other Man (1996) C-89m. ★1 slasher film scores by updating an age-old ⁄2 D: Karl Slovin. Stanley Tucci, Kari movie staple with diverting flair. [R]쩠 Wuhrer, Ron Eldard. Impotent Eldard disSevered Head, A (1971-British) C-96m. covers his sex-starved girlfriend (Wuhrer) ★★★ D: Dick Clement. Ian Holm, Lee about to hop into bed with her yuppie wimp Remick, Richard Attenborough, Claire boss (Tucci), and promptly goes bonkers. Bloom, Clive Revill, Jennie Linden. SoGood cast flounders in this poorly scripted, phisticated sex comedy-drama seemed out of sloppily directed psychodrama. [R]▼●쩠 step with the youthful ’70s, looks better today; Sex and the Single Girl (1964) C-114m. ★★1 vintner Holm is expected to keep a stiff ⁄2 D: Richard Quine. Natalie Wood, upper lip while wife Remick has an open Tony Curtis, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda, affair with her shrink (Attenborough). Mel Ferrer, Fran Jeffries, Edward Everett Sharp performances, thoughtful adaptaHorton, Larry Storch, Stubby Kaye, Count tion of the Iris Murdoch novel by Frederic Basie and Orchestra. Helen Gurley Brown’s Raphael. [R] book shoved aside, title used to exploit Sex and Death 101 (2007) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 fairly amusing tale of smut-magazine ediD: Daniel Waters. Simon Baker, Winona tor Curtis wooing notorious female psyRyder, Leslie Bibb, Mindy Cohn, Julie chologist Wood. Bacall and Fonda wrap it Bowen, Neil Flynn, Patton Oswalt, Frances up as a battling married couple. Coscripted Fisher. All heck breaks loose when a glitch by Joseph Heller.▼●쩠 in the earth’s computer hard drive informs a Sex Drive (2008) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Sean young man (Baker), via e-mail, of his past Anders. Josh Zuckerman, Clark Duke, and future sexual exploits. Problem is, he’s Amanda Crew, James Marsden, Seth Green, engaged to be wed and his fiance´e’s name David Koechner, Brian Posehn, Alice Grecis nowhere near the end of the list. What’s a zyn, Katrina Bowden. High school senior fellow to do? Thrown into this fantastical Zuckerman finally has the chance to lose his comic stew is a femme fatale serial killer virginity to a girl he met on the Internet. He (Ryder) bent on revenge against any male and his best friends (Duke, Crew) embark crossing her path. Rely on suspending dison a road trip to meet up with the girl and belief for this one; mindless but pleasant make all of his dreams come true—or so he enough. [R]쩠 thinks. Crude, predictable gags and situaSex and Lucı´a (2001-Spanish) C-128m. tions abound, though the cast does its best. ★★1 Unrated version runs 129m. [R]쩠 ⁄2 D: Julio Medem. Paz Vega, Trista´n Ulloa, Najwa Nimri, Daniel Freire, Elena Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (1991) C-96m. ★★1 Anaya, Javier Ca´mara. Sizzling Spanish im⁄2 D: John McNaughton. Eric Bogosian. port about a young waitress seeking solace Industrial-strength performance film of on a Mediterranean island after the loss of Bogosian’s one-man stage show, locking us her boyfriend, a writer. During her stay she in a room with ten insufferables it would rediscovers herself and uncovers a past relabe a pleasure to avoid. Keenly observed, tionship. Worth seeing just for Vega’s dazthough, with Bogosian a brilliant mimic; zling presence. At times too metaphysical film should benefit from at-home showings, but mostly just . . . well, physical. This film enabling viewers to absorb as much or little played unrated in theaters to avoid an inevias they want in a single sitting. [R]▼ table NC-17. HD 24P Widescreen. ▼쩠 Sex Is Comedy (2002-French-Portuguese) C-92m. ★★ D: Catherine Breillat. Anne ParilSex and the City (2008) C-145m. ★★★ D: Michael Patrick King. Sarah Jessica Parker, laud, Gre´goire Colin, Roxane Mesquida, AshKim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, ley Wanninger, Dominique Colladant, Bart Chris Noth, Candice Bergen, Jennifer HudBinnema. Turgid semi-autobiographical acson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason count of a filmmaker (Parillaud) and the Lewis, Mario Cantone, Joanna Gleason, Malproblems she encounters while shooting a colm Gets, Gilles Marini. Exuberant followdifficult sex scene with two performers who up to Darren Star’s hit TV series about four loathe each other. Mesquida, who plays the inseparable gal-pals. Their leader—and our actress, appeared in a similar sequence in [ 1229 ]

Breillat’s FAT GIRL; this film is an offshoot. Off-putting, barefaced Breillat ego trip, but still of interest as a peek into the filmmaking process, showing how a tyrannical, insecure director attempts to control her actors. [R] ▼쩠 Sex Kittens Go to College (1960) 94m. BOMB D: Albert Zugsmith. Mamie Van Doren, Tuesday Weld, Mijanou Bardot (Brigitte’s sister), Louis Nye, Martin Milner, Mickey Shaughnessy, Pamela Mason, (Norman) ‘‘Woo Woo’’ Grabowski, Jackie Coogan, John Carradine. Priceless title and cast fail to deliver in shockingly unfunny comedy; new head of college science department (Mamie, working very hard to convince us she’s a genius) turns out to be an ex-stripper. Finding a movie with worse direction would be almost as impossible as finding another movie with a night club jazz combo fronted by Conway Twitty! Don’t say you weren’t warned. Aka THE BEAUTY AND THE ROBOT. sex, lies, and videotape (1989) C-100m. ★★★ D: Steven Soderbergh. James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, Laura San Giacomo. A selfish, successful lawyer— whose wife has turned frigid and whose sister-in-law has become his lover—welcomes an old college friend for a visit, little dreaming the effect he’ll have on all of them. This intriguing, exceptionally well-acted first feature for writer-director Soderbergh took top prize at the Cannes Film Festival; its deliberate pace and talky nature are reminiscent of an Eric Rohmer film—and like one of his, it’s not to everyone’s taste. [R]

Gidley, David Barry Gray, Jack Noseworthy, Richard Portnow, Annie McEnroe, Natasha (Gregson) Wagner, Tobey Maguire, Gary Coleman. Self-described ‘‘serio-comedy about terrorism, beer, and talk shows’’ centers on a surly young rebel who becomes a nationwide hero after being held hostage for 36 days by convenience-store terrorists. Woefully self-deluding in terms of its own importance, strident film at least provides the catch phrase to summarize its worth: title stems from anti-hero Dorff’s constant spouting of ‘‘S.F.W.’’ (So [expletive] What?). [R]▼쩠 Sgt. Bilko (1996) C-94m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Lynn. Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, Glenne Headly, Daryl Mitchell, Max Casella, Eric Edwards, Dan Ferro, John Marshall Jones, Brian Ortiz, Pamela Segall, Catherine Silvers, Chris Rock, Richard Herd, Travis Tritt. Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko has a moneymaking scheme for every occasion at Fort Baxter, Kansas. His superior, Col. Hall (Aykroyd), looks the other way until the sergeant’s long-ago nemesis Major Thorn (Hartman) turns up and seeks revenge. Amiable recycling of the classic 1950s Nat Hiken TV comedy series, which starred Phil Silvers; that’s his daughter Catherine as the owlish, uptight Pentagon auditor. Martin remains a first-rate farceur and is surrounded by a highly capable comedy cast. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Schultz. Peter Frampton, The Bee Gees, George Burns, Frankie Howerd, Donald Pleasence, Sandy Farina, Dianne Steinberg, Billy ▼●쩠 Preston, Steve Martin, Earth, Wind & Fire. Sextette (1978) C-91m. BOMB D: Ken Attempt to link songs from The Beatles’ Hughes. Mae West, Tony Curtis, Ringo classic album into some sort of storyline Starr, Dom DeLuise, Timothy Dalton, just doesn’t work; sequences range from George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, Keith tolerable to embarrassing. As to The Bee Moon, Rona Barrett, Walter Pidgeon, Gees’ acting talent, if you can’t say someGeorge Raft. Astonishing is the only word thing nice . . . Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 for this comedy about a Hollywood glamor Shack Out on 101 (1955) 80m. ★★★ D: queen whose many ex-husbands keep popEdward Dein. Terry Moore, Frank Lovejoy, ping up during her latest honeymoon. NatuLee Marvin, Keenan Wynn, Whit Bissell. rally there’s curiosity value in seeing Lee Marvin is Slob in this trash classic octogenarian Mae still strutting her stuff, about the efforts of hash slinger Moore to but it wears out pretty fast. Her last movie, combat Communism while juggling the based on her play Sex. [PG]▼쩠 lecherous advances of nearly all her coSexy Beast (2001-British-Spanish) C-88m. ★★1 stars. Absolutely one of a kind, with most ⁄2 D: Jonathan Glazer. Ray Winstone, Ben of the action taking place on a single Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, shabby set (Wynn’s beanery).▼ ´ lvaro Cavan Kendall, Julianne White, A Shades of Fear (1993-British) C-92m. ★★ Monje, James Fox. A retired British gangD: Beeban Kidron. Rakie Ayola, John Hurt, ster, living the good life in Spain, is visited Jonathan Pryce, Vanessa Redgrave, Doroby a vicious hood who wants him to work thy Tutin. Flat, disappointing drama about a one more job. Stylish, brutal, modern-day young woman (Ayola) who aspires to begangster yarn has good performances—income a pilot and the various characters who cluding a bravura turn by Kingsley as the cross her path as she sails for England. ferocious visitor—but leaves a bad afterScripted by Jeanette Winterson, who wrote taste. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 the far superior ORANGES ARE NOT S.F.W. (1995) C-92m. BOMB D: Jefery THE ONLY FRUIT, the British telefilm Levy. Stephen Dorff, Reese Witherspoon, Jake Busey, Joey Lauren Adams, Pamela which helped establish Kidron’s reputation. [ 1230 ]

Original title: GREAT MOMENTS IN Lewis (Ackland), a confirmed bachelor, AVIATION. [R]▼쩠 and how he is changed when he falls in love Shadey (1985-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: with American divorce´e Bloom. Lovely perPhilip Saville. Antony Sher, Billie Whitelaw, formances by the stars; exceptional awardPatrick Macnee, Lesley Ash, Larry Lamb, caliber script by William Nicholson, who Bernard Hepton, Katherine Helmond. Occalater turned this into a stage play. Aka C. S. sionally funny but mostly uninvolving comLEWIS: THROUGH THE SHADOWLANDS. Remade in 1993. ▼ edy-fantasy-thriller about the title character (Sher), who is able to transmit to film viShadowlands (1993-British) C-130m. ★★★1 sions from his mind. He wants to use his ⁄2 D: Richard Attenborough. Anthony ability only for peaceful purposes—yet he Hopkins, Debra Winger, Edward Hardalso needs money for a sex-change operawicke, Michael Denison, Joseph Mazzello, tion. Helmond’s role is best, that of a hilariJohn Wood, Robert Flemyng, Peter Howell, ously unpredictable, looney Lady.▼ Peter Firth. Absorbing tale of British writer Shadow, The (1994) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: C. S. Lewis (The Lion, The Witch and the Russell Mulcahy. Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Wardrobe) whose comfortable if rigid life Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Boyle, Ian as an Oxford don in the 1950s is shaken by McKellen, Tim Curry, Jonathan Winters, his meeting with a forthright American Sab Shimono, Andre Gregory, James Hong, poet, Joy Gresham. Intelligent and moving, Arsenio ‘‘Sonny’’ Trinidad, Joseph Maher, with Hopkins in peak form and Winger his John Kapelos, Max Wright, Ethan Phillips, match; the supporting actors are equally Larry Joshua. Lamont Cranston, having good. Filmed on location at Oxford. lived a life of moral degradation, is ‘‘reAdapted by William Nicholson from his born’’ as a singleminded crimefighter with 1985 television script and subsequent play. the ability to cloud men’s minds. This adapPanavision. [PG]▼●쩠 tation of the venerable pulp novels and beShadow Magic (2000-Chinese-German) Cloved radio show (brought to the screen before 115m. ★★★ D: Ann Hu. Jared Harris, Xia in the late 1930s, and in a 1940 serial) comes Yu, Xing Yufei, Liu Peiqi, Lu Liping. In frustratingly close to working, but fails. Cranswhat could be called CHINESE PARAton is both inscrutable and uninteresting. Great DISO, the earliest days of China’s film inproduction design and wonderful effects get dustry are portrayed in this story of a lost in a movie that keeps the viewer at arm’s traveling Englishman. His show, called length throughout. And what a waste of a ‘‘shadow magic,’’ causes wonder and congreat supporting cast! [PG-13]▼●쩠 flict all around as it turns the camera’s eye ★★★ Shadowboxer (2006) C-93m. D: Lee on people who see themselves and their Daniels. Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding, Jr., country in a way they never have before. Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Ferlito, Joseph Delightful look at early-20th-century China Gordon-Levitt, Macy Gray. Hit woman and the culture-bridging effect only movies Mirren and her partner Gooding have an seem to achieve. Feature debut for N.Y.based director Hu. [PG]▼쩠 unusual personal and professional relationship, but he’s unprepared for her to make Shadow of a Doubt (1943) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 the decision she does when confronted with D: Alfred Hitchcock. Teresa Wright, Joan assignment that calls for her to shoot a seph Cotten, Macdonald Carey, Patricia pregnant young woman. The two stars are Collinge, Henry Travers, Wallace Ford, at their very best in this highly offbeat, bruHume Cronyn. Perceptive Americana intertally violent sleeper, best taken as stylized twined with story of young girl who slowly storytelling and not as a slice of real life. comes to realize her beloved Uncle Charley Panavision. [R]쩠 is really the Merry Widow murderer; Shadow Conspiracy (1997) C-103m. Cronyn steals film as nosy pulp-story fan, in BOMB D: George P. Cosmatos. Charlie his film debut. Scripted by Thornton WilSheen, Donald Sutherland, Linda Hamilton, der, Alma Reville, and Sally Benson from Stephen Lang, Ben Gazzara, Nicholas TurGordon McDonell’s story. Remade in 1958 turro, Sam Waterston, Charles Cioffi, Theo(as STEP DOWN TO TERROR) and for dore Bikel, Gore Vidal, Terry O’Quinn, TV in 1991.▼●쩠 Paul Gleason, Penny Fuller. White House Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) 97m. ★★★ whiz kid Sheen learns of a sinister conspirD: W. S. Van Dyke II. William Powacy in the highest levels of the government, ell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson, Donna Reed, but soon becomes a target of the sinister Sam Levene, Alan Baxter. Nick and Nora killer himself. Painfully obvious, wearily probe murder at a race track and run into derivative, and driven by ludicrous coincithe usual assortment of shady characters in dences. Panavision. [R]▼● this agreeable fourth entry in the series, Shadowlands (1985-British) C-90m. ★★★ notable for famed future acting teacher D: Norman Stone. Joss Ackland, Claire Stella Adler in a rare film role (as a gamBloom, David Waller, Rupert Baderman, bler’s moll). Look fast for Ava Gardner Rhys Hopkins. Poignant, wise, quietly rewalking by a car at the race track. ▼●쩠 warding drama about British writer C. S. Shadow of the Vampire (2000-U.S.-British) [ 1231 ]

C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: E. Elias Merhige. John Fred Gwynne, Julie Kavner, Madonna, Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Cary Elwes, John John Malkovich, Kenneth Mars, Kate Aden Gillet (Aden Gillett), Eddie Izzard, Nelligan, Donald Pleasence, Lily Tomlin, Udo Kier, Catherine McCormack. Colorful Philip Bosco, Robert Joy, Wallace Shawn, and amusing fiction about the making of Kurtwood Smith, Josef Sommer, David F.W. Murnau’s classically creepy German Ogden Stiers, John C. Reilly, W. (William) silent film NOSFERATU. Malkovich is H. Macy. A Kafkaesque nightmare, shrouded good as always as the fastidious filmmaker; in fog, is Woody-ized with only mildly comic Dafoe is exceptional as Max Schreck, an results. A strangler who strikes at night teractor (or is he?) cast as the vampire. Film rorizes a city—and a nebbish who’s caught has a unique look and feel. Screenplay by between conspiratorial factions in the town. Steven Katz. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 A galaxy of stars pop up in cameo roles, Shadow of the Wolf (1993-Canadian-French) which is more a distraction than an asset. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 C-112m. ★★ D: Jacques Dorfman. Lou Diamond Phillips, Toshiro Mifune, JenniShadows of the Peacock SEE: Echoes of fer Tilly, Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, DonParadise ald Sutherland. Overwrought adventure epic Shadows Run Black (1986) C-89m. ★1⁄2 set in the Arctic, in which a murder sets D: Howard Heard. William J. Kulzer, Elizthe stage for an Eskimo couple’s battle abeth Trosper, Shea Porter, George J. against the overwhelming odds of nature and Engelson, Dianne Hinkler. Routine slasher fate. Based on the best-selling Canadian film about cop tracking supposed vigilante novel Agaguk, this film looks expensive— killer who is preying on a high school ring and is—but despite the talent in front of dealing in drugs and prostitution. An early role for Kevin Costner. Filmed in 1981.▼쩠 the camera and behind it (including Oscarwinning cinematographer Billy Williams), Shadowzone (1990) C-89m. ★★ D: J. S. the scenery easily upstages the drama. Cardone. David Beecroft, Louise Fletcher, Super 35. [PG-13]▼● Shawn Weatherly, James Hong, Miguel Shadow of Zorro, The (1962-Italian) Nunez, Lu Leonard, Frederick Flynn. Experiments in human sleep have unlocked a C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Joaquin Romero Marchent. Frank Latimore, Maria Luz Galicia, Mario path to another dimension, and a monster Felciani, Marco Tulli. Clumsy film with invades an isolated underground governlackluster performance by Latimore in title ment lab in Nevada. Basically just another role of Don Jose, who combats outlaws ALIEN imitation, but it’s reasonably susmasked as Zorro. Aka ZORRO THE penseful, well produced on a low budget. AVENGER. Totalscope.▼ Written by the director.▼●쩠 Shadow on the Wall (1950) 84m. ★★★ D: Shadrach (1998) C-86m. ★★★ D: Susanna Patrick Jackson. Ann Sothern, Zachary Styron. Andie MacDowell, Harvey Keitel, Scott, Gigi Perreau, Nancy Davis (Reagan), John Franklin Sawyer, Monica Bugajski, Kristine Miller, John McIntire, Barbara Scott Terra, Darrell Larson, Deborah HedBillingsley. Clever noir-ish melodrama with wall, Daniel Treat; narrated by Martin young Perreau traumatized when she thinks Sheen. Nicely realized film set in Virginia she sees her beloved father (Scott) murder in 1935. A 99-year-old former slave walks her adulterous stepmother. Davis has one of hundreds of miles to the ramshackle propher best roles as a psychiatrist. erty now owned by Keitel and MacDowell so Shadow Play (1986) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Suhe can die on the land where he was born. san Shadburne. Dee Wallace Stone, Cloris Though he’s a stranger—and a strange presLeachman, Ron Kuhlman, Barry Laws, Al ence indeed—the family feels compelled to Strobel. Tepid chiller about playwright help him. Kudos to first-time director Styron; Stone, and the psychological problems she’s the film is adapted from a short story by her father William. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 been facing since her lover’s demise. Very Shaft (1971) C-100m. ★★★ D: Gordon minor fare. [R]▼ ★★★ Shadows (1960) 87m. Parks. Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn, D: John Cassavetes. Hugh Hurd, Lelia Goldoni, Ben Charles Cioffi, Christopher St. John, Drew Carruthers, Anthony Ray, Rupert Crosse, Bundini Brown, Gwenn Mitchell, LawTom Allen (Reese). Cassavetes’ first film as rence Pressman, Antonio Fargas. Slick, director, an improvisational, groundbreakupbeat entertainment has Ernest Tidyman’s ing, independently made effort about a black private-eye John Shaft hired to find light-skinned black girl (Goldoni) who bekidnapped daughter of Harlem ganglord. comes involved with a Caucasian (Ray). Heavy doses of sex and violence profesFormless, crude, but strikingly realistic, sionally packaged by director Parks. Isaac with great use of N.Y.C. locations. Look Hayes’ theme won Oscar. Followed by fast for Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Seytwo sequels and a TV series. Remade (very mour Cassel, and Bobby Darin. ▼●쩠 loosely) in 2000. [R]▼●쩠 ★★ Shadows and Fog (1992) 86m. D: Shaft (2000) C-98m. ★★★ D: John SingleWoody Allen. Woody Allen, Kathy Bates, ton. Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, John Cusack, Mia Farrow, Jodie Foster, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, [ 1232 ]

Dan Hedaya, Toni Collette, Richard Round1987 TV movie, THE RETURN OF THE tree, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Josef Sommer, SHAGGY DOG. Remade in 2006 and for Lynne Thigpen, Philip Bosco, Pat Hingle, TV in 1994. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Mekhi Phifer. Fiercely independent N.Y.C. detective (nephew of same-named John Shaggy Dog, The (2006) C-98m. ★★ D: Shaft, played by Roundtree) allows personal Brian Robbins. Tim Allen, Robert Downey, feelings to affect his behavior in dealing Jr., Kristin Davis, Danny Glover, Spencer with a smug, racist criminal (Bale) and a Breslin, Zena Grey, Jane Curtin, Philip Dominican drug lord (Wright). Jackson cuts Baker Hall, Craig Kilborn, Laura Kighta dashing figure in Armani, Isaac Hayes’s linger. Deputy D.A. Allen is so wrapped up in theme song still resonates, but there’s no his work he’s lost touch with his wife and sex in this slick update of the 1971 crime kids; then a bite from a mystical Tibetan thriller. Gordon Parks, who made the origisheepdog turns him into a canine! Five writers nal SHAFT, has a cameo. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 created this needlessly complicated remake of Shaft in Africa (1973) C-112m. ★★★ D: the 1959 Disney comedy and its 1976 sequel, John Guillermin. Richard Roundtree, Frank THE SHAGGY D.A. Takes a long time to Finlay, Vonetta McGee, Neda Arneric, Cy get to the Funny Stuff, and never pays off as Grant, Jacques Marin. Strong action vehiwell as it should. Adults will bemoan the cle for Roundtree finds detective Shaft waste of talent; kids may be less judgmental. Super 35. [PG]쩠 forced into helping African nation stop latter-day slave trading. Extremely tough Shaka Zulu SEE: Mark of the Hawk, The Shakedown (1950) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph and violent. Script by Stirling Silliphant. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Pevney. Howard Duff, Peggy Dow, Brian Shaft’s Big Score! (1972) C-104m. ★★★ Donlevy, Bruce Bennett, Peggie Castle, D: Gordon Parks. Richard Roundtree, Anne Vernon, Lawrence Tierney. FastMoses Gunn, Drew Bundini Brown, Jopaced but familiar chronicle of ambitious seph Mascolo, Kathy Imrie, Wally Taylor, photographer Duff, who uses any and all Joe Santos. Dynamic sequel to SHAFT means—starting with blackmail—to get (reteaming director Parks and writer Erahead. Look for Rock Hudson as a doorman. Shakedown (1988) C-90m. ★★★ D: James nest Tidyman) has private eye Roundtree running afoul of the underworld as he Glickenhaus. Peter Weller, Sam Elliott, investigates a friend’s murder. Sexy, vioPatricia Charbonneau, Blanche Baker, Anlent, with hair-raising chase finale; Parks tonio Fargas, Richard Brooks, Tom Waits, also did the music. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Kathryn Rossetter, Paul Bartel, John C. Shag (1988) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zelda Barron. McGinley. Entertaining actioner with public Phoebe Cates, Scott Coffey, Bridget Fonda, defender Weller and undercover cop Elliott Annabeth Gish, Page Hannah, Robert combining forces to rid N.Y.C. of drugs and Rusler, Tyrone Power, Jr., Jeff Yagher, corruption. Good of its kind, with oodles of Carrie Hamilton, Shirley Anne Field. sensational stuntwork to compensate for the dearth of originality. [R]▼●쩠 Southern belle high-school grad Cates is about to get married, so her three girlfriends Shake Hands With the Devil (1959) 110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. James Cagney, decide to take her on a ‘‘last fling’’ weekend to Myrtle Beach. Pleasant outing set in Don Murray, Dana Wynter, Glynis Johns, 1963 with an unusually appealing and talMichael Redgrave, Cyril Cusack, Sybil ented young cast. [PG]▼●쩠 Thorndike, Richard Harris. Gripping drama Shaggy D.A., The (1976) C-91m. ★★★ D: of war-torn Ireland in 1920s, with American Robert Stevenson. Dean Jones, Suzanne student trying to stay aloof, but, drawn by Pleshette, Tim Conway, Keenan Wynn, Jo circumstances, he joins rebel army led by Anne Worley, Dick Van Patten. Sequel to iron-willed Cagney. Strikingly filmed on location.▼ Disney’s SHAGGY DOG is winning slapstick romp, with Jones as helpless victim Shake, Rattle and Rock (1956) 72m. ★★ of transformations. Cast is peppered with a D: Edward L. Cahn. Touch (Mike) Conscore of movie veterans in supporting and nors, Lisa Gaye, Sterling Holloway, Fats bit parts. Followed by THE RETURN OF Domino, Joe Turner, Tommy Charles, MarTHE SHAGGY DOG. [G]▼●쩠 garet Dumont, Raymond Hatton. Sub-par Shaggy Dog, The (1959) 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: 1950s rock film with standard plot about Charles Barton. Fred MacMurray, Jean adults trying to put the lid on kids’ music, Hagen, Tommy Kirk, Annette Funicello, benefitting from presences of Domino, TurnTim Considine, Kevin Corcoran, Cecil er, and veteran character actors. Partially remade in 1994 for cable TV.▼ Kellaway, Alexander Scourby. Disney’s first slapstick comedy has fine fantasy premShaker Run (1985-New Zealand) C-90m. ★★ D: Bruce Morrison. Cliff Robertson, ise (a boy who turns into a sheepdog through ancient spell) but sluggish script. Leif Garrett, Lisa Harrow, Shane Briant, Some good gags, but not up to later Disney Ian Mune, Peter Rowell, Peter Hayden, standard. Jack Albertson has bit part as reBruce Phillips. Robertson adds character porter. Sequels: THE SHAGGY D.A. and a to this otherwise predictable (and implaus[ 1233 ]

ible) car chase drama. He’s a crusty Amerbased on a Louis L’Amour novel. Franscope. [M/PG]▼쩠 ican stunt driver, touring in New Zealand, who unknowingly becomes involved in a Shalimar (1978-Indian) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: plot to transport a stolen virus. ▼●쩠 Krishna Shah. Rex Harrison, Sylvia Miles, Shakespeare in Love (1998) C-122m. John Saxon, Dharmendra, Zenat Aman, ★★★1 Shammi Kapoor. Wily Harrison invites ⁄2 D: John Madden. Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Geoffrey Rush, Judi the world’s greatest thieves to try and steal Dench, Simon Callow, Colin Firth, Imelda the world’s most valuable ruby from his Staunton, Ben Affleck, Tom Wilkinson, custody—at the risk of their lives. This Martin Clunes, Antony Sher. Spirited, enwas filmed in both English and Hinditertaining speculation about a love affair language versions, but the results were so that inspired Will Shakespeare (Fiennes) to dull that the English print never made it to write Romeo and Juliet. Witty, sensual, and theaters. Video title: DEADLY THIEF.▼쩠 peopled with colorful characters. Climactic Shallow Grave (1994-Scottish) C-94m. ★★★ performance in the 16th-century theater is D: Danny Boyle. Kerry Fox, Christoas vivid a re-creation of theatergoing in pher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor, Ken Stott, Shakespeare’s time as anyone could hope Keith Allen, Colin McCredie. Three Edinfor. Screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom burgh roommates—a sardonic trio with an Stoppard. Rupert Everett appears unbilled iconoclastic worldview—take in a boarder. as Christopher Marlowe. Winner of seven When they find him dead, and a suitcase full Oscars including Best Picture, Screenplay, of money in his possession, their worst inActress (Paltrow), Supporting Actress stincts rise to the surface and involve them (Dench), Costumes (Sandy Powell), Score in a snowballing scheme to keep the cash. (Stephen Warbeck). Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 Razor-sharp thriller from screenwriter John Shakespeare Wallah (1965-Indian) 115m. Hodge and first-time feature director Boyle ★★★ is as cold as ice (and too mean-spirited for D: James Ivory. Shashi Kapoor, Felicity Kendal, Geoffrey Kendal, Laura Liddell, some tastes) but fascinating at the same Madhur Jaffrey, Utpal Dutt. Playboy time. A Scottish variation on BLOOD SIMKapoor, who has an actress-mistress, roPLE with stylistic ties to that flamboyant film. [R]▼●쩠 mances Felicity Kendal, a member of a two-bit English theatrical company touring Shallow Hal (2001) C-114m. ★★ D: Bobby Shakespeare in India. Simple, poignant Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. Gwyneth Paltrow, drama.▼쩠 Jack Black, Jason Alexander, Joe Viterelli, Shakes the Clown (1991) C-83m. BOMB Rene Kirby, Bruce McGill, Tony Robbins, D: Bobcat Goldthwait. Bobcat Goldthwait, Susan Ward, Zen Gesner, Brooke Burns, Julie Brown, Blake Clark, Adam Sandler, Rob Moran. Would-be stud Black pursues Tom Kenny, Sydney Lassick, Paul Dooley, women strictly for their looks, until selfFlorence Henderson, Tim Kazurinsky, La help guru Robbins hypnotizes him to see Wanda Page, Robin Williams. Excruciatonly their inner beauty. Thus, an obese Paling would-be-comic mishmash about an trow looks slim and beautiful in his eyes, alcoholic clown (Goldthwait) whose slowly and he falls madly in love with her. Lumdisintegrating ‘‘career’’ virtually collapses bering attempt at a message movie from the when he’s framed on a murder rap. Aimcreators of DUMB & DUMBER, with too less, crude, and headache-inducing, not few laughs—and too much hypocrisy—to even salvaged by Williams’ brief, unbilled score as either comedy or morality tale. [PG-13] ▼쩠 appearance as a mime teacher. Not the cultish black comedy one would like it to Shall We Dance (1937) 116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: be. Goldthwait also scripted. [R]▼●쩠 Mark Sandrich. Fred Astaire, Ginger RogShakiest Gun in the West, The (1968) ers, Eric Blore, Edward Everett Horton, C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Rafkin. Don Knotts, Ann Shoemaker, Jerome Cowan, Harriet Barbara Rhoades, Jackie Coogan, DonHoctor. Lesser Astaire-Rogers is still top ald Barry, Ruth McDevitt, Frank McGrath. musical, with Gershwin’s ‘‘Let’s Call The Remake of Bob Hope’s THE PALEFACE Whole Thing Off,’’ ‘‘They All Laughed,’’ provides Knotts with one of his better vehiand ‘‘They Can’t Take That Away From cles, as Philadelphia dentist who finds himself Me’’ holding together flimsy plot about out West, tangled up with gunslingers and dance team pretending to be wed.▼●쩠 beautiful Rhoades. Techniscope. ▼●쩠 Shall We Dance? (1996-Japanese) C-118m. ★★★1 Shalako (1968-British) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: Masayuki Suo. Koji Yakusho, Edward Dmytryk. Sean Connery, Brigitte Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Eriko Bardot, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Peter Watanabe, Akira Emoto, Yu Tokui, Hiromasa Van Eyck, Honor Blackman, Woody Strode, Taguchi, Reiko Kusamura. Beautifully realAlexander Knox, Valerie French. European ized film of middle-aged businessman (Yaaristocrats on hunting tour of New Mexico kusho), who secretly yearns to break out of during 1880s are menaced by Apaches. the rigid conformity of his daily life, encounSupposed potent casting of Connery and tering the world of ballroom dance. DeliberBardot can’t revive slow-moving Western, ately paced and laced with humor, with a [ 1234 ]

game cast. Ballerina-turned-actress Kusakari Bill, Carrie Fisher, Howard Hesseman. matches Yakusho’s fine performance. Written Muddy satire of morals and mores in Southby the director. Remade in 2004. [PG]▼●쩠 ern California, centered around restless Shall We Dance (2004) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: hairdresser and his demanding female cusPeter Chelsom. Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, tomers. Some bright moments lost in dreary Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Bobby Cancomedy-drama by Beatty and Robert Towne. navale, Lisa Ann Walter, Omar Benson Miller, Fisher’s film debut; Grant won Best Supporting Actress Oscar. [R]▼●쩠 Anita Gillette, Richard Jenkins, Nick Cannon. Adequate remake of the Japanese hit Shamus (1973) C-106m. ★★★ D: Buzz with Gere as a Chicago lawyer who’s deKulik. Burt Reynolds, Dyan Cannon, voted to his family but immersed in the baGiorgio Tozzi, John Ryan, Joe Santos. Excitnality of everyday life; on an impulse, he ing but mindless story of offbeat private-eye begins taking ballroom dancing lessons trying to crack bizarre case while recovering with sultry Lopez. Likable enough, but far from numerous beatings, jumpings, and other too predictable; lacks the heart and soul of heroic exploits. [PG]▼●쩠 the original. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Shane (1953) C-118m. ★★★★ D: George Shame (1949) SEE: Not Wanted Stevens. Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, Van Shame (1962) SEE: Intruder, The Heflin, (Walter) Jack Palance, Brandon de Wilde, Ben Johnson, Edgar Buchanan, Emile Shame (1968-Swedish) 103m. ★★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Liv Ullmann, Max von Meyer, Elisha Cook, Jr. Former gunfighter Sydow, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Sigge Furst, Ladd comes to defense of homesteaders and Birgitta Valberg, Hans Alfredson. Poweris idolized by their son. Palance is unforgettaful, brilliantly acted drama (written by the ble in role of creepy hired gunslinger. Classic director) examines how married concert viWestern is splendid in every way. Breathtakolinists are morally challenged by a civil ing cinematography by Loyal Griggs won an war that rages across their island. One of Oscar. Screenplay by A. B. Guthrie, Jr., from Bergman’s best. [R]▼쩠 the Jack Schaefer novel. Arthur’s final film. Shame (1988-Australian) C-90m. ★★ D: Shot in 1951. Later a brief TV series. ▼●쩠 Steve Jodrell. Deborra-Lee Furness, Tony Shanghai Express (1932) 80m. ★★★ D: Barry, Simone Buchanan, Gillian Jones, Josef von Sternberg. Marlene Dietrich, Peter Aanensen, Margaret Ford. Unusual, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, Clive watchable, but not terribly successful femBrook, Eugene Pallette, Louise Closser inist revenge piece, as femme motorcyclist/ Hale. Dated but prime Dietrich vehicle, lawyer takes on a village of goons who grandly photographed by Lee Garmes (who look the other way when a gang of teen won an Oscar). Marlene is Shanghai Lily, boys rapes a 16-year-old girl. Strange mix Brook her old flame, Oland a cruel war of genres—biker movie, neo-Western, and lord, Wong a spunky partisan, in Jules more—but no MAD MAX. Remade for Furthman–scripted yarn of train ride through U.S. TV. [R]▼● China during civil warfare. Remade as Shameless Old Lady, The (1965-French) PEKING EXPRESS.▼● 94m. ★★★ D: Rene Allio. Sylvie, Malka Shanghai Gesture, The (1941) 98m. ★★ Ribovska, Victor Lanoux, Etienne Bierry. D: Josef von Sternberg. Gene Tierney, Bertolt Brecht story charmingly brought to Walter Huston, Victor Mature, Ona Munson, the screen. Sylvie is terrific as old woman Maria Ouspenskaya, Phyllis Brooks, Alwho lives alone and follows a drab and bert Bassermann, Eric Blore, Mike Mazurki. uneventful routine until there is a strange Slow, overblown drama of Huston disturnabout in her relationships with others.▼ covering daughter Tierney in Asian gamShame of the Jungle (1975-French-Belgian) bling setup. Intriguing direction somehow C-73m. ★1⁄2 D: Picha, Boris Szulzinger. never makes it. The mural is by artist (and Voices of Johnny Weissmuller, Jr., John actor) Keye Luke!▼●쩠 Belushi, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Shanghai Knights (2003) C-114m. ★★ D: Christopher Guest, Andrew Duncan. RaunDavid Dobkin. Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, chy cartoon spoof of Tarzan films, created Aaron Johnson, Thomas Fisher, Aidan Gillen, by Belgian cartoonist Picha, then AmeriFann Wong, Donnie Yen, Gemma Jones. canized for U.S. release in 1979 by SaturInane follow-up to SHANGHAI NOON day Night Live writers Anne Beatts and sends Chan and Wilson to 1887 London to Michael O’Donoghue, with stars of that recover a precious royal seal that Chan’s show providing voices. Crass, unfunny, father was guarding in the Forbidden City of and unattractive, despite a promising start. China. The star teaming is no longer fresh, Original French-language version ran 85m. the story is as phony as the bogus Victorian [R—edited from original X rating]▼ settings, and the comedy is strained throughShaming, The SEE: Good Luck, Miss out this manufactured sequel. Chan’s action Wyckoff scenes are the only bright spots. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Shampoo (1975) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hal Ashby. Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Shanghai Noon (2000) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Tom Dey. Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Lucy [ 1235 ]

Liu, Brandon Merrill, Roger Yuan, Rafael Shape of Things, The (2003) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 Baez, Walton Goggins, Xander Berkeley, D: Neil LaBute. Rachel Weisz, Paul Rudd, Jason Connery. In 1881, a faithful servant Gretchen Mol, Frederick Weller. Nerdy colto Chinese princess follows her from the lege student falls in love with a feisty art Forbidden City to Nevada, where she’s major who persuades him to improve his been taken by kidnappers; along the way appearance. Their relationship also has an he forms a thorny partnership with a slick impact on his best friends, who have just outlaw who’s got the gift of gab. Enjoyable gotten engaged. LaBute adapted his stage if uneven Western comedy gets better as it play (with its original N.Y. cast), which goes along and Chan goes into action; still starts with a surprisingly light tone and then, no match for Jackie’s Asian starring vehiinevitably, turns sour. The story’s ‘‘lesson’’ cles. Followed by SHANGHAI KNIGHTS. is flawed at best, exposing only LaBute’s Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 certainty about the foulness of human nature. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Shanghai Surprise (1986) C-97m. BOMB D: Jim Goddard. Sean Penn, Madonna, Shape of Things to Come, The (1979Canadian) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: George McPaul Freeman, Richard Griffiths, Philip Sayer, Clyde Kusatsu, Kay Tong Lim. MisCowan. Jack Palance, Carol Lynley, John sionary Madonna hires adventurer Penn Ireland, Barry Morse, Nicholas Campbell, (her then real-life husband) to capture a Eddie Benton. Lackluster, low-budget recache of stolen opium (for medicinal purmake of H. G. Wells story has nothing in poses only) in 1937 China. It’s all stupefycommon with 1936 THINGS TO COME, ingly dull. As one critic noted, it’s tough as few survivors of Earth’s destruction are for Penn to succeed in the grand adventure now living in peril on the moon. Diehard movie tradition when the screen legend he sci-fi fans may want to take a look, but it’s most reminds you of here is Ratso Rizzo. hardly worth the trouble. [PG]쩠 Coexecutive producer George Harrison, Shark! (1969-U.S.-Mexican) C-92m. ★★ D: who appears briefly as a nightclub singer, Samuel Fuller. Burt Reynolds, Barry Sulliwrote the songs. [PG-13]▼●쩠 van, Arthur Kennedy, Silvia Pinal, Enrique Shanghai Triad (1995-Chinese-French) CLucero, Charles Berriochoa. Tired drama of ★★★ 109m. adventurers diving for shark-guarded treaD: Zhang Yimou. Gong Li, Li Baotian, Li Suejian, Shun Chun, Wang sure earned some infamy when a stunt diver Xiao Xiao. Absorbing tale of Chinese unwas killed by one of the beasts. Fuller disderworld in the 1930s, focusing on a boy owned this production, which was taken out who’s hired to be the silent servant of a of his hands and re-edited. Reissued as pampered nightclub queen—the mistress of MAN-EATER. [R—edited from original M rating]▼쩠 one of Shanghai’s gangland bosses. An intriguing companion piece to American gangShark Boy of Bora Bora SEE: Beyond ster movies, and another dazzling showcase the Reef for leading lady Gong Li. [R]▼●쩠 Sharks’ Treasure (1975) C-95m. ★★ D: Shanks (1974) C-93m. ★★★ D: William Cornel Wilde. Cornel Wilde, Yaphet Kotto, Castle. Marcel Marceau, Tsilla Chelton, PhilJohn Nellson, Cliff Osmond, David Canary, ippe Clay, Cindy Eilbacher, Helena KallianiDavid Gilliam. Old-fashioned adventure yarn otes, Larry Bishop. One of the strangest movies about diving for sunken treasure in the Caribever made: mute puppeteer Marceau is given bean is peppered with physical-fitness mesdevice by dying inventor (also Marceau) which sages from director-writer-starWilde. [PG]▼ can animate dead bodies. Relatively little diaShark Tale (2004) C-90m. ★★★ D: Vicky logue in this bizarre horror-fantasy; alternately Jenson, Bibo Bergeron, Rob Letterman. amusing and disturbing, with unique perforVoices of Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Rene´e mances by three top mimes. A real curio from Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Martin Castle; his final film as director. [PG] Scorsese, Peter Falk, Michael Imperioli, VinShaolin Soccer (2001-Hong Kong) Ccent Pastore, Doug E. Doug, Ziggy Marley. 111m. ★★ D: Stephen Chow. Stephen Chow, Amusing underwater CG animated feature Vicki Zhao, Ng Mang Tat, Patrick Tse Yin, about a cocky street character (bearing Cecilia Cheung, Karen Mok, Vincent Kok, Smith’s voice and persona) who has big Li Hui. Injured soccer player discovers a dreams and spins equally big lies. After savdown-and-out kung fu master (Chow) with ing the life of a fishy godfather’s wimpy a strong kick and decides to build a team son, the two improbable allies find themaround him. His goal: to beat the team selves in hot water—in more ways than one. coached by the man who caused his lameness Formulaic, but still fun, with enough clever so many years ago. Marriage of underdog ideas to amuse parents as well as kids. Film story with martial arts and special effects was buffs will enjoy Sykes, a puffer fish who a huge comedy hit in Hong Kong for writerhas Scorsese’s eyebrows as well as his director-star Chow, but loses something in voice. [PG] ▼쩠 translation, playing like a souped-up SON OF Sharky’s Machine (1981) C-119m. ★★ FLUBBER. Opened in Hong Kong at 97m., D: Burt Reynolds. Burt Reynolds, Rachel then expanded by Chow. [PG-13]쩠 Ward, Vittorio Gassman, Brian Keith, [ 1236 ]

Charles Durning, Bernie Casey, Henry broke up with him) and his mum. Clever and Silva, Earl Holliman, Richard Libertini, funny, whether you’re a fan of the zombie John Fiedler, Darryl Hickman, Hari Rhodes. genre or not. From the team responsible for Jarring, loud, and extremely bloody acthe British TV series Spaced. Written by the tioner; vice cop Reynolds’ vendetta director and leading actor Pegg. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 against underworld honcho Gassman intensifies after he falls for one of his Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) C$1000-a-night hookers (Ward). Action 142m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Darabont. Tim Robscenes are competently staged, but you’ll bins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, Wileventually become numbed by all the liam Sadler, Clancy Brown, Gil Bellows, sleaze; film’s weirdest aspect is its mainJames Whitmore, Mark Rolston, Jeffrey stream jazz score. Based on the William DeMunn, Paul McCrane. Straight-arrow Diehl novel, but won’t fool anyone who’s banker Robbins is railroaded for a double ever seen LAURA. [R]▼●쩠 murder and sent to prison for life in the Shatter SEE: Call Him Mr. Shatter late 1940s. Fellow lifer Freeman and his Shattered (1972) SEE: Something to Hide buddies eventually come to admire RobShattered (1991) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wolfbins’ moral code—and his ability to get gang Petersen. Tom Berenger, Bob Hosthings done, in spite of a heinous warden kins, Greta Scacchi, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, and brutal prison guard. Widely praised film Corbin Bernsen, Theodore Bikel. Man suris well crafted but terribly overlong, and vives catastrophic car accident, but as an am(like much of Stephen King’s non-horror nesiac; trying to piece his life back together, writing) hollow and predictable. First-time he uncovers growing evidence that things feature director Darabont adapted King’s were not quite right even before the crash. novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank ReExtremely well-made Hitchcock-like thriller demption. [R]▼●쩠 comes closer to hitting the mark than most She (1935) 95m. ★★★ D: Irving Pichel, such pretenders, but still falls short. ImplausiLansing C. Holden. Helen Gahagan, Ranbilities undo a capable cast. [R]▼●쩠 dolph Scott, Helen Mack, Nigel Bruce, Shattered (2007-U.S.-British) C-95m. Gustav von Seyffertitz. Escapist adventure BOMB D: Mike Barker. Pierce Brosnan, on a grand scale, from H. Rider Haggard’s Gerard Butler, Maria Bello, Claudette Mink, story of expedition seeking Flame of EterCallum Keith Rennie, Peter Keleghan. The nal Life, which has been given to one perfect couple (Butler and Bello) have their all-powerful woman. Gahagan’s cold perlives turned upside down when their young sonality is major drawback, but film is still daughter is kidnapped by sadistic Brosnan. fun, with outstanding Max Steiner score. They are then put through a series of twisted Some prints run 89m. Previously filmed in tests of love, trust, and betrayal to keep their 1917 and 1926, remade several times. Also available in computer-colored version. 쩠 child alive. Dull and pointless. [R]쩠 Shattered Glass (2003) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: She (1965-British) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobBilly Ray. Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsert Day. Ursula Andress, John Richardson, gaard, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Peter Cushing, Bernard Cribbins, ChrisMelanie Lynskey, Steve Zahn, Hank Azatopher Lee, Andre Morell. Effective refilmria, Mark Blum, Ted Kotcheff. Reporter ing of H. Rider Haggard’s fantasy of loveStephen Glass endears himself to his colstarved eternal queen, seeking the reincarleagues at The New Republic magazine as nation of her long-dead lover. The two leads he writes a series of colorful, amusing feacertainly are attractive. Followed by THE ture stories . . . until a rival discovers serious VENGEANCE OF SHE. Hammerscope. discrepancies in one of his pieces, and edi▼● tor Chuck Lane (Sarsgaard) is forced to She (1985-Italian) C-106m. BOMB D: confront Glass’ credibility. Based on a nowAvi Nesher. Sandahl Bergman, David Goss, famous journalistic scandal from 1998, this Quin Kessler, Harrison Muller, Elena well-made, entertaining film should have Wiedermann, Gordon Mitchell. Bottom-ofbeen a knockout, but the missing ingredient the-barrel remake, loosely based on the is a three-dimensional main character: Glass H. Rider Haggard novel, chronicling the remains a cipher. Directing debut for screenvarious adventures of the title character writer Ray. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 (Bergman). Shot in 1982. ▼ Shaun of the Dead (2004-British) C-97m. Sheba, Baby (1975) C-89m. ★★ D: William ★★★ Girdler. Pam Grier, Austin Stoker, D’Urville D: Edgar Wright. Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Martin, Rudy Challenger, Dick Merrifield. Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, JesMiddling black action-melodrama with sica Stevenson, Rafe Spall. Engaging comGrier as female private eye trying to help edy about a young working stiff (Pegg) who father and friend save their loan business. slowly—very slowly—begins to realize that Less sex and violence than usual, but weak London has been overrun by the walking dead. script and amateurish acting. [PG]▼쩠 His only ally is his no-account roommate, his She-Beast, The (1966-Italian-Yugoslavian) only thought, to rescue his girlfriend (who just C-74m. ★1⁄2 D: Michael Reeves. Barbara [ 1237 ]

Steele, John Karlsen, Ian Ogilvy, Mel Gay 90s spoof. Grant is invited by Mae to Welles, Jay Riley, Richard Watson. A come up and see her sometime—he does, witch killed by Transylvanian villagers in fireworks result. Mae sings ‘‘Frankie and 18th century comes back to life as modern, Johnny’’ and ‘‘Easy Rider’’ in her best attractive English girl on her honeymoon. film, which she coscripted from her Really tacky, though it has some laughs. Broadway hit.▼●쩠 Cromoscope.▼쩠 Sheena (1984) C-117m. BOMB D: John She Couldn’t Say No (1954) 89m. ★1⁄2 D: Guillermin. Tanya Roberts, Ted Wass, Lloyd Bacon. Robert Mitchum, Jean SimDonovan Scott, Elizabeth of Toro. Tanya mons, Arthur Hunnicutt, Edgar Buchanan, looks great as the queen of jungle jiggle, Wallace Ford, Raymond Walburn, Pinky but Mother Nature forgot to endow her with Tomlin. Silly fluff about wealthy, misa script. Supposed to be campy, but it’s guided young Simmons, who shows up in just plain awful. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Progress, Arkansas, with a scheme to Sheepman, The (1958) C-85m. ★★★ D: shower its citizens with free money; MitGeorge Marshall. Glenn Ford, Shirley chum is out of his element as the town MacLaine, Leslie Nielsen, Mickey Shaughdoctor. A real dud. ▼ nessy, Edgar Buchanan. Modest, entertainShe-Creature, The (1956) 77m. ★★ D: ing comedy-Western with Ford battling Edward L. Cahn. Marla English, Tom Nielsen for sheep herds and MacLaine, Conway, Chester Morris, Ron Randell, though not always in that order. Shaughnessy Frieda Inescort, Cathy Downs, El Brendel, is typically amusing. Written by genre vets Jack Mulhall, Frank Jenks. Bizarre blend William Bowers and James Edward Grant. of CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LACinemaScope. GOON and THE SEARCH FOR BRIDEY She Gets What She Wants SEE: Slap MURPHY. Evil hypnotist uses mesmerHer, She’s French ized assistant to call back the murderous She Hate Me (2004) C-138m. ★★1⁄2 D: ghost of the sea creature of which she is a Spike Lee. Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washreincarnation. Slow and preposterous but ington, Ellen Barkin, Monica Bellucci, Jim effectively moody, with one of Paul BlaisBrown, Ossie Davis, Jamel Debbouze, Brian dell’s more memorable monsters, which Dennehy, Woody Harrelson, Bai Ling, Lohe also plays. Really odd cast. Remade as nette McKee, Paula Jai Parker, Q-Tip, John CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION and Turturro, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sarita Choudagain for cable in 2001.쩠 hury, Joie Lee. Bright exec at a pharmaceuShe Dances Alone (1981-U.S.-Austrian) ticals firm blows the whistle on his crooked ★★★ C-87m. D: Robert Dornhelm. Kyra bosses, only to find himself the scapegoat Nijinsky, Bud Cort, Patrick Dupond, Sauncey for their shenanigans. Strapped for money, Le Sueur, Max von Sydow. Engrossing blend he accepts his ex-fiance´e’s cold-cash offer of reality and fiction, with Cort a director atto impregnate her and her lesbian lover. tempting to make a documentary about the Only Spike Lee could have concocted this late, legendary dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, starmishmash of sexual comedy, social comring Nijinsky’s plump, aging, single-minded mentary, and polemics. Some good scenes daughter Kyra. Her overwhelming presence and funny moments are offset by heavydominates this strikingly unusual film. Von handedness and speechifying. Cowriter MiSydow appears as himself, and that’s his chael Genet appears as Mackie’s brother. voice reading Nijinsky’s diary. [R]▼쩠 She-Devil (1989) C-99m. ★★ D: Susan Sheik, The (1921) 80m. ★★★ D: George Seidelman. Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr, Melford. Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, Ed Begley, Jr., Linda Hunt, Sylvia Miles, Adolphe Menjou, Walter Long, Lucien Elizabeth Peters, Bryan Larkin, A Martinez. Littlefield, George Waggner. Ayres, a ‘‘civWhen her slimeball husband walks out on ilized’’ woman, falls completely under the her, unliberated housewife Barr sets out to spell of desert chieftain Valentino. The methodically destroy his life—while creatsilent film that helped create the Valentino ing one for herself. Extremely disappointing legend is hokey and campy, but still entercomedy offers no surprises and no irony; taining. It’s easy to see why women went what it has is a magnificent comedic perforcrazy for the Latin star. Racist/imperialist mance by Streep as the glamorous, selfangle of the story is equally fascinating. absorbed romance novelist who lures Followed by SON OF THE SHEIK.▼쩠 Roseanne’s husband away. Based on Fay Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in Weldon’s novel The Life and Loves of a New York (1975) C-113m. BOMB D: She-Devil, which spawned a British miniseSidney J. Furie. Jeannie Berlin, Roy ries. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Scheider, Rebecca Dianna Smith, Janet She Done Him Wrong (1933) 66m. ★★★★ Brandt, Sid Melton. Dead is right. Gail D: Lowell Sherman. Mae West, Cary Grant, Parent’s sardonically funny novel about a Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Rochelle HudJewish American Princess trying to make son, Rafaela Ottiano, Louise Beavers. West repeats her stage role of Diamond Lil in good in N.Y.C. becomes an unbelievably [ 1238 ]

bad movie, that just goes on and on. day London; pleasing but subdued. Torrence is a most enjoyable Moriarty. Panavision. [PG] Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon Sheltering Sky, The (1990) C-137m. ★★ (1942) 68m. ★★★ D: Roy William Neill. Basil D: Bernardo Bertolucci. Debra Winger, Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Lionel Atwill, Kaaren John Malkovich, Campbell Scott, Jill BenVerne, William Post, Jr., Dennis Hoey, Mary nett, Timothy Spall, Eric Vu-An, Sotigui Gordon, Holmes Herbert. Holmes is hired to Koyate, Paul Bowles. Infuriatingly long, protect the inventor of a new bombsight from dense story of a married American couple the deadly clutches of Moriarty (Atwill). Exwho travel to North Africa in the late 1940s, citing entry with Hoey scoring as the comiwith a friend in tow, hoping for some sort cally maladroit Inspector Lestrade. Also of adventure to spark their odd, repressed shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 relationship. Paul Bowles’ novels are often Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman referred to as unfilmable, and this is cerSEE: Spider Woman, The tainly proof of that. Vividly atmospheric, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror well acted, and sexually explicit, but this is (1942) 65m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Rawlins. Basil a journey you may not want to take. Bowles Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Evelyn Ankers, narrates and appears on-screen as mysteriReginald Denny, Thomas Gomez, Henry ous man in bar. [R]▼●쩠 Daniell, Montagu Love. First entry in the Shenandoah (1965) C-105m. ★★★ D: AnUniversal Rathbone-Bruce series is probadrew V. McLaglen. James Stewart, Doug bly the least impressive, but still enjoyable McClure, Glenn Corbett, Patrick Wayne, once you accept the premise of Victorian Rosemary Forsyth, Katharine Ross, Tim Holmes (with a particularly risible haircut) McIntire, Paul Fix, Denver Pyle, George battling Nazi saboteurs in WW2 England. Kennedy, James Best, Harry Carey, Jr., Excellent supporting performances by GoDabbs Greer, Strother Martin. Rousing, mez (in his film debut) and Ankers. Aka well-acted saga of Virginia widower indifVOICE OF TERROR. ▼●쩠 ferent to War between the States until his Sherlock Holmes and the Woman in family is involved. Sentimental drama capGreen SEE: Woman in Green, The tures heartbreak of America’s Civil War. Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943) 68m. Basis for later Broadway musical. Ross’s ★★★ D: Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, film debut.▼●쩠 Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Milburn Stone, Shepherd of the Hills (1941) C-98m. Arthur Margetson, Halliwell Hobbes, Dennis ★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. John Wayne, Hoey. The deductive master and his blunBetty Field, Harry Carey, Beulah Bondi, dering companion check into a mansion for James Barton, Samuel S. Hinds, Marjorie convalescing war officers where a series of Main, Ward Bond, Marc Lawrence, John murders occurs. Very amusing entry replete Qualen. Beautifully mounted production with a strange clock tower, a subterranean of Harold Bell Wright story about Ozark crypt, and a human chessboard. Look for mountain folk, and a man who lives his Peter Lawford in a bit as a sailor.▼●쩠 life in the shadow of a curse: the promise Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) to kill the man who abandoned his mother. 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy William Neill. Basil Wayne is excellent, and surrounded by Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Marjorie Lord, fine character actors, with unusual roles Henry Daniell, George Zucco, John Archer, for Lawrence and Main. Fuzzy Knight sings Gavin Muir. Holmes and Watson are off to a sentimental song (‘‘Happy Hunting D.C. in search of some hidden microfilm in Ground’’) as he did in the not dissimilar this cheeky entry notable for its strong WW2 THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE. propaganda content and Watson’s fascinaExquisitely shot by Charles Lang, Jr., and tion with American bubble-gum.▼쩠 W. Howard Greene; filmed before in 1919 Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother SEE: and 1928, then remade in 1963.▼쩠 Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, The (1959Brother, The British) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Raoul Walsh. Sherlock, Jr. (1924) 45m. ★★★★ D: Buster Kenneth More, Jayne Mansfield, Henry Keaton. Buster Keaton, Kathryn McGuire, Hull, William Campbell, Bruce Cabot, Ward Crane, Joseph Keaton, Erwin ConRobert Morley. Innocuous Western spoof nolly. Keaton reached his pinnacle with this with Englishman More handed job of sherbrilliant and hilarious story of a hapless proiff in war-torn town, which he handles jectionist who walks right into the screen surprisingly well. CinemaScope.▼쩠 and takes part in the imaginary detective Sherlock Holmes series SEE: Leonard drama unfolding. Sublime study of film and Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide fantasy, which has undoubtedly influenced Sherlock Holmes (1932) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: countless filmmakers such as Woody Allen, William K. Howard. Clive Brook, Ernest Jacques Rivette, even Bun˜uel. ▼●쩠 Torrence, Miriam Jordan, Alan Mowbray, Sherman’s March (1986) C-157m. ★★★★ Herbert Mundin, Reginald Owen. Genteel, D: Ross McElwee. Totally unique docustylish approach to Holmes, set in modernmentary odyssey, as romantic sadsack [ 1239 ]

McElwee retraces the title Civil War trek ing of it all. Likable enough comedy-drama while simultaneously examining the mysgrows monotonous after a while; the stars are tique of Southern womanhood. Overlong by very appealing, however. Many famous faces appear at the finale. [PG-13]▼●쩠 a half hour, but the flesh-and-blood subjects end up getting to you the way people in She’s Out of Control (1989) C-95m. ★1⁄2 real life do; CRIMES OF THE HEART D: Stan Dragoti. Tony Danza, Catherine suffers terribly by comparison. Hilarious Hicks, Wallace Shawn, Dick O’Neill, Ami subplot involving Burt Reynolds. Followed Dolenz, Laura Mooney, Derek McGrath, Dana Ashbrook, Matthew Perry. Superficial by sequel, TIME INDEFINITE.▼쩠 SherryBaby (2006) C-96m. ★★★ D: Laurie expanded sitcom with Danza offering a oneCollyer. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Brad William note performance as a widower suffering Henke, Sam Bottoms, Kate Burton, Giananxiety pangs over the budding sexuality of carlo Esposito, Ryan Simpkins, Danny daughter Dolenz (whose real-life dad is exTrejo, Rio Hackford. Compelling film about Monkee Micky). This one seems as if it was a recent parolee trying to connect with her spit out of a computer. [PG]▼●쩠 young daughter, who’s now in the custody She’s So Lovely (1997-French-U.S.) Cof her brother and sister-in-law. Character 97m. ★★★ D: Nick Cassavetes. Sean Penn, study of a tough, drug-addicted woman Robin Wright Penn, John Travolta, Harry who’s trying to make her way back into a Dean Stanton, Debi Mazar, James Gandolfini, society just waiting for her to relapse and Gena Rowlands, Burt Young, Chloe Webb. return to prison. Scenes with her parole ofAn errant husband’s latest rage sends him to a ficer (Esposito) are particularly powerful as mental hospital. Meanwhile, his slightly mad Gyllenhaal proves she is one of her generawife remarries, gets her life in order, and tion’s finest actresses. Worth watching for raises three children. When husband number her superb, gut-wrenching performance. one is released ten years later, he sees no Written by the director. [R]쩠 reason why he and his ex shouldn’t pick up She’s All That (1999) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: just where they left off. This edgy, extremely Robert Iscove. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Rachael well acted comedy-drama could only have Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, Paul Walker, been written by John Cassavetes, and it was; Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Kevin Pollak, Anna Pahis son directed, and his widow (Rowlands) quin, Kieran Culkin, Elden Henson, Usher appears in a small role. 2.35 Research PLC. [R]▼●쩠 Raymond, Kimberly ‘‘Lil Kim’’ Jones, Tim Matheson, Debbi Morgan, Alexis Arquette, She’s the Man (2006) C-105m. ★★ D: Andy Clea DuVall, Chris Owen. High school hunk Fickman. Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, who’s just been dumped by his bitchy but Laura Ramsey, Robert Hoffman, Alex Breckpopular girlfriend accepts a bet that he can enridge, Jonathan Sadowski, Julie Hagerty, turn a geeky girl into prom queen. Naturally, Vinnie Jones, David Cross. Shallow timehe falls in love for real . . . and of course, the killer with the appealing Bynes. Farcical to a geeky girl (Cook) is already quite pretty. fault, this umpteenth cross-dressing story finds Fairly innocuous, predictable teen fare with a the new girl on campus disguising herself as likable cast. Sarah Michelle Gellar appears her AWOL brother in order to get closer to unbilled. [PG-13]▼●쩠 the ‘‘cool’’ jock who lusts after the bestShe’s Gotta Have It (1986) C/B&W-84m. looking girl in school. Cast looks like they ★★★ just jumped off the cover of Tiger Beat. D: Spike Lee. Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada TerScreenplay credit reads ‘‘inspired by rell, Spike Lee, Raye Dowell, Bill Lee, S. EpaTwelfth Night by William Shakespeare,’’ tha Merkerson. Breezy, funky film about a but unfortunately this film is to Shakespeare sexy, independent black woman and the three what Paris Hilton is to Meryl Streep. Or, no ‘‘macho’’ men who compete for her undivided great Shakes. [PG-13]쩠 attention. The acting is far from smooth; film’s She’s the One (1996) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edstreetwise charm compensates. Breakthrough ward Burns. Edward Burns, Jennifer Anisfilm for writer-director Lee, who also appears ton, Cameron Diaz, John Mahoney, Maxine as the iconoclastic Mars; his father, Bill Lee, Bahns, Mike McGlone, Leslie Mann, Anita wrote the music score. One charming sequence Gillette, Frank Vincent. Amusing comedy about a guy, still smarting from catching his is filmed in color. [R]▼●쩠 She’s Having a Baby (1988) C-106m. fiance´e cheating on him three years ago, ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Hughes. Kevin Bacon, Elizwho marries on impulse, while his cocky abeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin, Isabel married brother turns out to be a philanLorca, William Windom, Cathryn Damon, derer. Winning performances, funny lines Holland Taylor, James Ray, Dennis Duand situations abound, though it starts to go gan, John Ashton, Edie McClurg, Paul flat toward the finale. Writer-director Burns’ Gleason, Lili Taylor. Trials and tribulations second film, following THE BROTHERS of a young couple as they embark on marMcMULLEN. Original songs written and riage, domestic life, and impending parentperformed by Tom Petty. [R]▼●쩠 hood, as told by the young husband, who feels She’s Working Her Way Through College trapped from the start and questions the mean(1952) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: H. Bruce Humber[ 1240 ]

stone. Virginia Mayo, Ronald Reagan, Gene olas Bell, Googie Withers. Young piano Nelson, Don DeFore, Phyllis Thaxter, Patrice prodigy is pushed to the breaking point by Wymore, Roland Winters. Reworking of his smothering father. As a dysfunctional THE MALE ANIMAL diminishes the role of adult, he eventually finds peace in the very the professor (played by Reagan), showcasing thing that drove him to the edge: his music. Mayo instead, as a burlesque star who tries to He also finds love for the first time in his bury her past and pursue a college education. life. Arresting film based on the true story Pleasant but minor musical. of David Helfgott, with a great cast, led by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) Can astonishing Rush in his Oscar-winning performance. [PG-13]▼●쩠 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. John Wayne, Joanne Dru, John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Shine a Light (2008) C/B&W-122m. ★★★1⁄2 Carey, Jr., Victor McLaglen, Mildred NatD: Martin Scorsese. Mick Jagger, Keith wick, George O’Brien, Arthur Shields, FranRichards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood. cis Ford, Noble Johnson, Tom Tyler. Director Having documented legends like The Band Ford’s stock company in fine form. Wayne and Bob Dylan, Scorsese takes on the excellent as cavalry officer about to retire, un‘‘greatest rock band ever.’’ Capturing a willing to walk out on impending war with 2006 Rolling Stones concert in the rather Indians. Beautifully filmed in color by Oscarintimate setting of N.Y.C.’s Beacon Thewinning Winton C. Hoch, but a bit top-heavy atre, the director places his cameras seemwith climaxes. Second of Ford’s cavalry trilingly everywhere (manned by Robert ogy; followed by RIO GRANDE. ▼●쩠 Richardson’s team of A-list cinematograShillingbury Blowers, The (1980-British) phers) and brilliantly captures the raw en1 ★ C-82m. ⁄2 D: Val Guest. Trevor Howergy of this legendary band. A unique view ard, Robin Nedwell, Diane Keen, Jack Dougof the masters of one medium from the maslas, Sam Kydd, John LeMesurier. Dated trifle ter of another; if it doesn’t thrill baby boomabout cantankerous Howard and cronies reers then they can’t get no satisfaction from sisting attempts by young Nedwell to improve any filmed rock concert. [PG-13]쩠 the band in an Olde English village. Shine On Harvest Moon (1944) 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Butler. Ann Sheridan, Jack Shiloh (1997) C-93m. ★★ D: Dale Rosenbloom. Blake Heron, Michael Moriarty, Scott Carson, Dennis Morgan, Irene Manning, Wilson, Ann Dowd, J. Madison Wright, Rod S. Z. Sakall, Marie Wilson, The Step BrothSteiger, Bonnie Bartlett, Frannie. A beagle, ers. Lives of great entertainers Nora Bayes training to be a hunting dog, runs away from and Jack Norworth make for fairly enterits cruel owner and meets up with a lonely taining musical. Finale in color. preteen. Not your usual boy-and-his-dog tale Shiner (2001-British) C-99m. ★★ D: John (no one falls down a mine shaft), it chronicles Irvin. Michael Caine, Martin Landau, Frances Heron’s attempts to buy the dog from its masBarber, Claire Rushbrook, Frank Harper, ter. Good cast, solid family values, but lumAndy Serkis, Matthew Marsden, Gary Lewis. bering story never picks up. Followed by two Obvious yarn, with echoes of King Lear, sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 about a seedy London promoter who manShiloh 2: Shiloh Season (1999) C-96m. ★★ ages to stage a major boxing bout for his D: Sandy Tung. Michael Moriarty, Zachary son—only to see his dream of glory, and alBrowne, Scott Wilson, Rod Steiger, Bonnie most everything else he holds dear, crumble Bartlett, Ann Dowd, Frannie. The boy and to bits. Caine is always interesting to watch, his dog return in this sequel which deals but this is just a potboiler. Released direct to video in U.S. J-D-C Scope. [R] ▼쩠 with why people are bad and whether they can change. More life lessons explored by a Shining, The (1980) C-142m. ★★ D: Stanley game cast, but the story plods. Followed by Kubrick. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, SAVING SHILOH. [PG] ▼쩠 Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelshinbone alley (1971) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: son, Joe Turkel, Anne Jackson. Intriguing but John D. Wilson, David Detiege. Voices of ineffectual adaptation of Stephen King’s thrilEddie Bracken, Carol Channing, John Carradler about a man who becomes off-season careine, Alan Reed, Sr. Genuinely odd animated taker at isolated resort hotel—and almost feature based on a Broadway musical (by Joe immediately begins to lose his mind. NicholDarion and Mel Brooks) about Don Marquis’ son goes off the wall so quickly there’s no famous characters of archy, the lovesick, philtime to get involved in his plight. Some eerie osophical cockroach, and mehitabel, the obscenes, to be sure, but the film goes on forject of his affection, a hedonistic cat. Episodic, ever. Cut by Kubrick after premiering at to say the least, with some witty and tuneful 146m. Remade for TV in 1997. [R]▼●쩠 moments, and great vocal performances by Shining Hour, The (1938) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bracken and Channing. Not really for kids. Frank Borzage. Joan Crawford, Margaret Aka ARCHY AND MEHITABEL. [G]▼쩠 Sullavan, Robert Young, Melvyn Douglas, Shine (1996-Australian) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fay Bainter, Allyn Joslyn, Hattie McDaniel, Scott Hicks. Geoffrey Rush, Armin MuellerFrank Albertson. N.Y.C. nightclub perforStahl, Noah Taylor, Alex Rafalowicz, Sonia mer Crawford marries into Wisconsin farm Todd, Lynn Redgrave, John Gielgud, Nichfamily, leading to emotional fireworks. [ 1241 ]

Crawford and Sullavan (as her sister-inShip That Died of Shame, The (1955British) 91m. ★★★ D: Basil Dearden. Richlaw) provide interesting contrast in this overwrought soap opera. ▼쩠 ard Attenborough, George Baker, Bill Shining Star (1975) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Sig Owen, Virginia McKenna, Roland CulShore. Harvey Keitel, Ed Nelson, Cynthia ver, Bernard Lee, Ralph Truman. Crew of Bostick, Bert Parks, Jimmy Boyd, Michael British gunboat reteams after WW2 and uses Dante. Low key yarn about mob-domithe same vessel for smuggling purposes, nated recording company. Poor sound and until ‘‘it’’ begins to rebel at their increasingly photography. Saved—barely—by intrigugrimy exploits. Fine cast in offbeat drama. Retitled PT RAIDERS and cut to 78m.쩠 ing look behind the scenes of music business. Music by Earth, Wind and Fire. Shipwrecked (1990-Norwegian) C-91m. ★★★ Originally titled THAT’S THE WAY OF D: Nils Gaup. Stian Smestad, Gabriel THE WORLD.▼쩠 Byrne, Louisa Haigh, Trond Munch, Bjorn Shining Through (1992) C-127m. ★★1⁄2 Sundquist, Eva Von Hanno, Kjell Stormoen. D: David Seltzer. Michael Douglas, Melanie Young Smestad signs on a South Seas voyage Griffith, Liam Neeson, Joely Richardson, as cabin boy; just before pirate/passenger John Gielgud, Francis Guinan, Patrick WincByrne is about to take over the ship, a hurricane zewski, Sylvia Syms. Overlong, overbaked strands the lad on the very island where spy drama/romance set in WW2, with a very Byrne’s treasure booty is hidden. Enjoyable appealing Griffith as an outspoken young pirate yarn with an exciting HOME woman who falls in love with her boss (DougALONE–like finish when Smestad boobylas), and convinces him to let her take a dantraps the island against the invading pirates. A gerous assignment in Berlin—though she has Disney release. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 no espionage experience except what she’s Shiri (1999-Korean) C-125m. ★★★ D: Jeseen in movies. Lavish production and emgyu Kang. Suk-kyu Han, Min-sik Choi, pathic performance by Griffith make this palKang-ho Song, Yun-jin Kim. G-men partatable—but the story gets more implausible as ners, one of them a groom-to-be, race to it reaches its climax. Based on the novel by stop a chameleon assassin from blowing up Susan Isaacs. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Seoul in the name of reunification. This imiShip Ahoy (1942) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward tation John Woo actioner offers the usual Buzzell. Eleanor Powell, Red Skelton, Virexcessively bloody violence, sentimental ginia O’Brien, Bert Lahr, John Emery, melodrama, noisy gunplay, and laser-bright Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Frank Sinatra, visuals, but its credibility is elevated by Jo Stafford. Nonsensical plot of Skelton fiercely charged political motivations. A thinking U.S. agent is working for Axis; major Asian box-office hit. [R]▼쩠 shipboard yarn has some salty dancing and Shirley Valentine (1989-U.S.-British) singing, good Dorsey numbers featuring C-108m. ★★★ D: Lewis Gilbert. Pauline drummer Buddy Rich.▼● Collins, Tom Conti, Alison Steadman, Julia Ship of Fools (1965) 149m. ★★★★ D: StanMcKenzie, Joanna Lumley, Bernard Hill, Sylley Kramer. Vivien Leigh, Oskar Werner, via Syms. Collins repeats her London and Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Lee MarBroadway stage triumphs in the role of a saucy, vin, Jose Greco, George Segal, Elizabeth middle-aged, married woman who feels that Ashley, Michael Dunn, Charles Korvin, life has passed her by—until she gets the opLilia Skala. GRAND HOTEL at sea in portunity to travel to Greece, sans husband. pre-WW2 days. Superb cast including Leigh, Collins’ endearing performance (much of it in her last film, as disillusioned divorce´e, talking directly to the audience) makes this a Werner and Signoret as illicit lovers, Marmust, smoothing over lulls in Willy Russell’s vin as punchy baseball player. Penetrating adaptation of his own stage play. The same drama, when not a soaper. Script by Abby team made EDUCATING RITA. [R]▼●쩠 Mann from Katherine Anne Porter’s novel; Shivers SEE: They Came From Within won Oscars for Cinematography (Ernest Shoah (1985-French) C-503m. ★★★★ D: Laszlo) and Art Direction.▼●쩠 Claude Lanzmann. Remarkable documentary, Shipping News, The (2001) C-111m. ★★★ shown in two parts, each lasting about four D: Lasse Hallstro¨m. Kevin Spacey, Julianne and a half hours, chronicling the memories of Moore, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Pete those who lived through the Holocaust—both Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Gorvictims and oppressors. Lanzmann’s persisdon Pinsent, Jason Behr, Larry Pine, Jeannetta tent interview approach hammers away at deArnette, Marc Lawrence. A man beaten down tails in order to intensify our cumulative by life is brought—by circumstance—to his response . . . and we begin to see exactly how ancestral home of Newfoundland, where he the unthinkable became a reality. A unique begins to gain confidence in himself as the and eloquent film. ▼쩠 skeletons in his family closet emerge. An unShock (1946) 70m. ★★ D: Alfred L. Werker. beatable cast brings this sympathetic adaptaVincent Price, Lynn Bari, Frank Latimore, tion of E. Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize– Anabel Shaw, Michael Dunne, Reed Hadley. winning novel to life; the setting contributes as A woman becomes traumatized after witmuch as the actors. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 nessing a murder—and the psychiatrist who [ 1242 ]

takes her case just happens to be the killer. Charles Gray, Ruby Wax, Nell Campbell. Intriguing premise, so-so result.▼쩠 Dreary, disappointing spin-off from THE Shock (1979) SEE: Beyond the Door II ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, with Shock Corridor (1963) C/B&W-101m. same director and many cast members. Brad ★★★ D: Samuel Fuller. Peter Breck, Constance and Janet (played here by De Young and Towers, Gene Evans, James Best, Hari Harper) find themselves contestants (or Rhodes. Journalist Breck gets admitted to more appropriately, prisoners) on a TV mental institution to unmask murderer, but game show—spoofed far more successfully soon goes crazy himself. Powerful melodrama in MELVIN AND HOWARD. [PG]▼쩠 with raw, emotional impact. Fuller also proShock Waves (1975) C-86m. ★★ D: Ken duced and wrote the script; imaginative phoWiederhorn. Peter Cushing, Brooke Adams, tography by Stanley Cortez. Three sequences John Carradine, Fred Buch, Jack Davidare in color. ▼●쩠 son, Luke Halpin. On an island near Florida, Shocked SEE: Mesmerized pleasure boaters encounter a recluse (CushShocker (1989) C-110m. BOMB D: Wes ing), who turns out to be the creator and Craven. Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Cami guardian of underwater Nazi zombies, left over Cooper, Mitch Pileggi, Sam Scarber, from WW2. Oddball, partly effective lowHeather Langenkamp, Theodore Raimi, budgeter. Adams’ film debut. Aka DEATH Richard Brooks, Dr. Timothy Leary. TeenCORPS. [PG]▼쩠 ager Berg, son of policeman Murphy, is Shoeshine (1946-Italian) 93m. ★★★★ D: Vitpsychically linked to mass murderer, but torio De Sica. Rinaldo Smerdoni, Franco Inwhen the killer is executed, his spirit is terlenghi, Annielo Mele, Bruno Ortensi, free to inhabit a series of victims. WriterPacifico Astrologo. A brilliant, haunting director Craven attempted to create a new neorealist drama about two youngsters strugFreddy Krueger with this misbegotten gling to survive in war-scarred Italy; they farago, a waste of excellent special effects become involved with black marketeering and some good ideas. [R]▼●쩠 and are sent to reform school. This deservShocking Miss Pilgrim, The (1947) Cedly won a special Oscar—before Best Foreign Film prizes were awarded.▼쩠 85m. ★★ D: George Seaton. Betty Grable, Dick Haymes, Anne Revere, Allyn Joslyn, Shoes of the Fisherman, The (1968) Gene Lockhart, Elizabeth Patterson. LaC-157m. ★★ D: Michael Anderson. Anthony bored story of 1870s Boston woman in Quinn, Laurence Olivier, Oskar Werner, business world. Fair Gershwin score inDavid Janssen, Vittorio De Sica, Leo cludes ‘‘For You, For Me, For Evermore.’’ McKern, John Gielgud, Barbara Jefford. Pope Shockproof (1949) 79m. ★★★ D: Douglas Quinn, a Russian who spent 20 years as a politSirk. Cornel Wilde, Patricia Knight, John ical prisoner in Siberia, tries to fend off atomic Baragrey, Esther Minciotti, Howard St. war plus starvation in Red China for half a film John. Parole officer Wilde is lured into while correspondent Janssen tries to patch up love affair with parolee Knight which threathis petty marital problems the rest of the time. ens to destroy him. Stylish film noir, coFine cast is wasted in slapdash film version of written by Samuel Fuller, which unfortunMorris L. West’s best-seller, dully directed by Anderson. Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 ately cops out at the end. Shock to the System, A (1990) C-91m. Shogun Assassin (1981-Japanese-U.S.) ★★1 C-86m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kenji Misumi, Robert ⁄2 D: Jan Egleson. Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, Peter Riegert, Swoosie Houston. Tomisaburo Wakayama, Masahiro Kurtz, Will Patton, Jenny Wright, John Tomikawa, voices of Lamont Johnson, MarMcMartin, Barbara Baxley. Caine adds shall Efron. Coherent film brilliantly edited luster to this so-so black comedy as a out of two different features in Japanese harried ad executive who discovers how Sword of Vengeance series about samurai easy it is to kill anyone in his way after warrior who travels across countryside pushhe’s passed over for a promotion. Has its ing his young son in a baby cart, stopping moments as a topical look at greed, only to get involved in inordinate amounts corporate-style, but could have been far of combat. Americanized version, narrated by more pointed and involving. [R]▼●쩠 child, is absolutely stunning visual ballet of Shock Treatment (1964) 94m. ★★ D: Denis violence and bloodletting. Sort of a sequel Sanders. Stuart Whitman, Carol Lynley, to LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH. Roddy McDowall, Lauren Bacall, Olive DeerPanavision. [R]▼●쩠 ing, Ossie Davis, Donald Buka, Bert Freed, Shogun Assassin II SEE: Lightning Douglass Dumbrille. Out-of-work actor Swords of Death (Whitman) goes undercover at state mental Shoot (1976-Canadian) C-98m. BOMB asylum to discover whereabouts of murderer D: Harvey Hart. Cliff Robertson, Ernest McDowall’s supposed million-dollar stash. Borgnine, Henry Silva, James Blendick, Odd, unsatisfying melodrama. CinemaScope. Larry Reynolds, Les Carlson, Kate Reid, ★1⁄2 D: Shock Treatment (1981) C-94m. Helen Shaver. There’s a faint echo of Jim Sharman. Jessica Harper, Cliff De DELIVERANCE in this ludicrous tale of Young, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, gun-happy pals who allow the shooting of [ 1243 ]

one hunter to escalate into warfare. Supscam the rich; the catch is they may or may posedly anti-gun, the film is also apparnot be ‘‘giving to the poor’’ as they claim. ently anti-entertainment. [R]▼ Beckinsale is the innocent but brainy temp Shoot ’Em Up (2007) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Miwho assists them. Amiably frantic farce in chael Davis. Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, the spirit of 1960s Swinging London caper Monica Bellucci, Stephen McHattie, Greg comedies is lightweight fun. Original British Bryk, Daniel Pilon, Ramona Pringle, Julian running time 112m. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 Richings, Tony Munch. Mystery man Shooting Party, The (1984-British) C(Owen) who has an uncanny knack for kill98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alan Bridges. James Maing people with sharp carrots (!) delivers son, Dorothy Tutin, Edward Fox, Cheryl a woman’s baby during a shootout, then Campbell, John Gielgud, Gordon Jackson, protects the infant from a crazed hit man Aharon Ipale, Rupert Frazer, Robert Hardy, (Giamatti) with the help of a lactating Judi Bowker. Rewarding film about varied hooker (Bellucci). All of this somehow is personalities, intrigues, and conflicts that tied into a bone marrow–harvesting scheme crisscross during weekend shooting party in involving a corrupt presidential candidate. 1913. Mason, the weekend’s host, presides Insane plot is matched by cartoonish, overover all with grace, wit, and understanding. the-top action, tongue-in-cheek gore, and riA telling look at class structure and class diculous stylistics that try to make John consciousness; screenplay by Julian Bond from Isabel Colegate’s novel. ▼쩠 Woo look like Ozu. Despite the game efforts of the slumming cast, this sleazy film Shootist, The (1976) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: leaves a bad aftertaste. Super 35. [R]쩠 Don Siegel. John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, Ron Shooter (2007) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Antoine Howard, James Stewart, Richard Boone, Hugh Fuqua. Mark Wahlberg, Michael Pen˜a, O’Brian, Harry Morgan, Rick Lenz, John CarDanny Glover, Kate Mara, Elias Koteas, radine, Sheree North, Scatman Crothers. IntelRhona Mitra, Ned Beatty, Jonathan Walker, ligent story about a legendary gunfighter who Justin Louis, Tate Donovan, Rade Sherbedlearns he has cancer and tries to die in peace, gia, Levon Helm, Lane Garrison. Highly but cannot escape his reputation. A fitting (and trained military marksman (Wahlberg) lives poignant) valedictory to Wayne’s career. Miles in seclusion since a terrible incident that ocHood Swarthout and Scott Hale adapted Glencurred on duty three years earlier. Now he’s don Swarthout’s novel. [PG]▼●쩠 approached by a government official (Glover) Shoot Loud, Louder . . . I Don’t Unto help prevent a presidential assassination derstand (1966-Italian) C-100m. ★★ D: plot by figuring out all the angles. But things Eduardo De Filippo. Marcello Mastroianni, don’t go as planned, and Wahlberg is forced Raquel Welch, Guido Alberti, Leopoldo to become a one-man army. Good actionTrieste. Surrealistic but flat film in which thriller overplays its hand and becomes ludiMastroianni plays antique dealer whose crous in the final act. The ‘‘bad guys’’ act so life suddenly becomes very complex. Panbroadly you’d think they were playing in a Roy oramica.▼쩠 Rogers Western. Based on Stephen Hunter’s Shoot Out (1971) C-95m. ★★ D: Henry novel Point of Impact. Panavision. [R]쩠 Hathaway. Gregory Peck, Pat Quinn, RobShoot First (1952-British) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: ert F. Lyons, Susan Tyrrell, Jeff Corey, Robert Parrish. Joel McCrea, Evelyn Keyes, James Gregory, Rita Gam, Dawn Lyn. Herbert Lom, Marius Goring, Roland Culver, Same producer, director and screenwriter Laurence Naismith, Joan Hickson. Routine of TRUE GRIT in another Western about espionage tale with McCrea as an American cowboy and little girl. Formula doesn’t colonel in England, who believes he accidenwork; in spite of title, film has too much talk and not enough action. [PG]▼쩠 tally killed a man, and becomes involved with spies. Screenplay by Eric Ambler. Originally Shoot the Moon (1982) C-123m. ★★★ D: titled: ROUGH SHOOT. Alan Parker. Albert Finney, Diane Keaton, Karen Allen, Peter Weller, Dana Hill, Viveka Shooting, The (1967) C-82m. ★★★ D: Monte Hellman. Millie Perkins, Jack Nicholson, Will Davis, Tracey Gold, Tina Yothers, Leora Hutchins, Warren Oates. Cryptic, unconvenDana. Highly charged, emotional drama about tional Western with deceptively familiar rethe breakup of a marriage. The insights and venge ‘‘story.’’ Ultimately powerful film, emotional touchstones of Bo Goldman’s with offbeat performance by Nicholson as a script—and superlative acting—help make up hired gun . . . and an incredible, unexpected for strange gaps of logic and credibility. We finale. Filmed simultaneously with RIDE IN learn precious little about what makes the cenTHE WHIRLWIND.▼●쩠 tral characters tick; director Parker gives us Shooting Fish (1997-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 picture-postcard views of Marin County, CaliD: Stefan Schwartz. Dan Futterman, Stuart fornia, instead. [R]▼●쩠 Townsend, Kate Beckinsale, Claire Cox, DoShoot the Piano Player (1960-French) minic Mafham, Nickolas Grace, Peter Ca81m. ★★★★ D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Charles paldi, Annette Crosbie, Jane Lapotaire, Phyllis Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger, Logan. Smooth-talking American con artist Michele Mercier, Albert Remy. Atmoand British techno-geek team up in London to spheric early Truffaut gem. Aznavour is [ 1244 ]

marvelous as a former concert pianist who Shopworn Angel, The (1938) 85m. ★★★ traded in his fame and now plays in runD: H. C. Potter. Margaret Sullavan, James down Parisian cafe. His ambitious girlfriend Stewart, Walter Pidgeon, Hattie McDanwants him to resume his career, but he gets iel, Sam Levene, Nat Pendleton. Stewart involved with gangsters and murder inand Sullavan are always a fine pair, even stead. This film, more than any other, in this fairly routine soaper. Naive soldier reflects the influence of Hollywood lowfalls in love with loose-moraled actress, budget melodramas on Truffaut and his who gradually softens under his influence. cinematic style. Dyaliscope. ▼●쩠 Beautifully done, including Slavko VorkaShoot to Kill (1988) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: pich’s masterful opening WW1 montage. Roger Spottiswoode. Sidney Poitier, Tom Remake of 1929 film with Gary Cooper Berenger, Kirstie Alley, Clancy Brown, and Nancy Carroll; filmed again as THAT Richard Masur, Andrew Robinson, Kevin KIND OF WOMAN.▼쩠 Scannell, Frederick Coffin. Big-city cop Shortbus (2006) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: John (Poitier) is forced to team up with stubborn Cameron Mitchell. Sook-Yin Lee, Paul mountain guide (Berenger) to go into the Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Rawilds of the Pacific Northwest in search of phael Barker, Peter Stickles, Jay Brannan, a hunting party being led by the guide’s Justin Bond, Alan Mandell, Adam Hardgirlfriend (Alley)—and infiltrated by a ruthman, Ray Rivas. Married couples, gay couless killer whom Poitier is determined to ples, lonely singles, transsexuals, and others capture. Slick but highly improbable tale just off the street hang at a N.Y.C. club, strains credibility, but keeps its grip thanks Shortbus, in order to overcome their unique mostly to a riveting Poitier (his first starring (to say the least) sexual problems. Amidst role in ten years). Super 35 [R]▼●쩠 all the orgies and couplings (and that’s real Shop Around the Corner, The (1940) sex going on) there’s a surprising emotional 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ernst Lubitsch. Margaret undertone. The actors are all appealing, but Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Jobe warned: with its full-frontal, almost nonseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden, Felix Bressart, stop sexual content, this is not for everyone. William Tracy, Charles Smith. The ultimate Released without a rating in order to avoid an NC-17 tag. Written by the director.쩠 in sheer charm, a graceful period comedy about coworkers in a Budapest notions shop Short Circuit (1986) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: who don’t realize that they are lonelyhearts John Badham. Ally Sheedy, Steve Guttenpenpals. Superbly scripted by Samson Raphaberg, Fisher Stevens, G. W. Bailey, Auselson, from Nikolaus Laszlo’s play Parfumtin Pendleton, Brian McNamara, voice erie. Later musicalized as IN THE GOOD of Tim Blaney. State-of-the-art robot deOLD SUMMERTIME, brought to Broadway velops a mind of its own and decides that it as She Loves Me, remade as YOU’VE GOT doesn’t want to go ‘‘home’’ to weapons MAIL. Also shown in computer-colored vercompany from which it escaped. Sheedy is sion. ▼●쩠 cute as the animal-lover who becomes pro★★★ Shopgirl (2005-U.S.-British) C-116m. tective of ‘‘No. 5,’’ the equally cute robot. D: Anand Tucker. Steve Martin, Claire Danes, E. T. clone is good fodder for kids but too Jason Schwartzman, Bridgette Wilsonformula-bound for our taste. Followed by Sampras, Sam Bottoms, Frances Conroy, Rea sequel. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 becca Pidgeon. Stylish romantic comedy Short Circuit 2 (1988) C-110m. ★★ D: about a young woman, recently transplanted Kenneth Johnson. Fisher Stevens, Michael to L.A., who finds herself wooed in very difMcKean, Cynthia Gibb, Jack Weston, Dee ferent ways by a wealthy older businessman McCaffrey, David Hemblen, voice of Tim and a slobby young guy. Unique meditation Blaney. Innocuous (but overlong) sequel on loneliness and the yearning for physical has malaprop-prone Stevens and No. 5 and emotional contact—adapted by Martin (now called Johnny Five) out on their from his own novella—is witty, philosophiown, falling in with would-be toymaker cal, and melancholy, though more than a bit McKean and bad-guy Weston. Okay for self-conscious. Danes is marvelous in the kids, with some chuckles for adults here title role. Martin also coproduced. Panaviand there. [PG]▼●쩠 sion. [R]쩠 Short Cuts (1993) C-189m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobShop on Main Street, The (1965-Czech) ert Altman. Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davi128m. ★★★★ D: Jan Kadar, Elmar Klos. son, Jack Lemmon, Julianne Moore, Josef Kroner, Ida Kaminska, Han Slivkova, Matthew Modine, Anne Archer, Fred Ward, Frantisek Holly, Martin Gregor. Potent, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Penn, Lili Taypoignant drama set in WW2 Czechoslolor, Robert Downey, Jr., Madeleine Stowe, vakia, where an old Jewish woman loses Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, her small button shop, and depends on Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, man who takes it over to shield her from Annie Ross, Lori Singer, Lyle Lovett, Buck further persecution. Oscar winner as Best Henry, Huey Lewis, Robert DoQui, Darnell Foreign Film. Originally titled THE SHOP Williams, Michael Beach, Charles Rocket, ON HIGH STREET.▼●쩠 Dirk Blocker. Mordant mosaic of unpleas[ 1245 ]

★★★★ ant, unhappy lives in Southern California, D: Blake Edwards. Peter Sellers, adapted from the short stories of Raymond Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Herbert Carver. Altman paints on another oversized Lom, Tracy Reed, Burt Kwouk, Graham canvas, with a series of marginally interconStark, Andre Maranne, Turk Thrust (Bryan nected vignettes about various couples, parForbes). Second Inspector Clouseau coments, lovers, and friends (from a phone-sex edy is far and away the funniest, with the purveyor who feeds her baby while plying great detective convinced gorgeous Sommer her trade to a children’s party clown seized is innocent of murder despite all evidence by melancholia) . . . played by a virtual who’s to the contrary. Gaspingly hilarious farce who of contemporary talent. As a feat—a dinever slows down for a second, with memrectorial achievement—it’s something to beorable scene in a nudist colony. Script by hold and admire, but as entertainment it’s less Edwards and William Peter Blatty; fine rewarding. One of the stories depicted here Henry Mancini score. Series debuts of is expanded and retold in JINDABYNE. Lom, Kwouk, Stark, and Maranne; last Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Clouseau film (excluding 1968’s INSPECShort Cut to Hell (1957) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: TOR CLOUSEAU, made by other hands) James Cagney. Robert Ivers, Georgann Johnuntil THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANson, William Bishop, Murvyn Vye, Yvette THER in 1975. Panavision.▼●쩠 Vickers, Roscoe Ates. Generally taut, if uninShout, The (1978-British) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 spired remake of Graham Greene’s THIS D: Jerzy Skolimowski. Alan Bates, SuGUN FOR HIRE, about killer reevaluating sannah York, John Hurt, Robert Stephens, his situation. Only fling at directing by CagTim Curry. Well-filmed but obscure yarn ney, who also makes an on-camera introducabout an off-his-nut wanderer who domition. VistaVision. nates the household of a young married Short Eyes (1977) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: couple. Title refers to his aboriginal ability Robert M. Young. Bruce Davison, Jose to kill by shouting. Worth a look on a Perez, Nathan George, Don Blakely, Shawn slow evening. [R]▼ Elliott, Curtis Mayfield, Freddy Fender. Shout (1991) C-89m. BOMB D: Jeffrey Raw, uncompromisingly powerful story of Hornaday. John Travolta, James Walters, men in prison, from Miguel Pinero’s highly Heather Graham, Richard Jordan, Linda acclaimed play. Utterly realistic film was Fiorentino, Scott Coffey, Glenn Quinn, shot at N.Y.C.’s now-shuttered Men’s House Frank von Zerneck, Michael Bacall. Preof Detention, known as The Tombs. Title posterous ’50s twaddle about the birth of is prison slang for child molester (played rock ’n’ roll, with Travolta as a fugitive by Davison). Scripted by Pinero, who also hired as music teacher and bandmaster at appears as GoGo. Retitled: SLAMMER. an ill-defined Texas school for wayward [R]▼쩠 youths. Prisoner Walters and warden’s Short Fuse SEE: Good to Go daughter Graham are the kissy-facers who Short Time (1990) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregg form a forbidden alliance. WHEEZE would Champion. Dabney Coleman, Matt Frewer, have been a better title for this turkey. Teri Garr, Barry Corbin, Joe Pantoliano, Film debut of Gwyneth Paltrow. [PG-13] Xander Berkeley, Rob Roy, Jak-Erik ▼●쩠 Eriksen. Street-cop Coleman thinks he has Shout at the Devil (1976-British) C-119m. ★★1 a short time to live, and decides to get ⁄2 D: Peter R. Hunt. Lee Marvin, Roger himself killed on the job so his wife and Moore, Barbara Parkins, Ian Holm, Rene son will be taken care of financially. InKolldehoff. Plot-heavy action nonsense, credible action stunts commingle uneasily set in Mozambique, about a poacher, his with touches of sentiment in this middling daughter and an expatriate Englishman who comedy; Coleman is so good he almost eventually set out to blow up a German pulls it off singlehandedly. [PG-13]▼● battle cruiser at the outset of WW1. OccaShot at Glory, A (2002) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: sionally fun but overlong. Original British running-time: 144m. Panavision. [PG]▼● Michael Corrente. Robert Duvall, Michael Keaton, Ally McCoist, Brian Cox, Kirsty Show, The (1995) C/B&W-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mitchell, Cole Hauser, Morag Hood, Libby Brian Robbins. Craig Mack, Dr. Dre, Langdon. In Scotland, the coach of a secondNaughty by Nature, Run-DMC, Slick Rick, string soccer team (Duvall, with authentic Snoop Doggy Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound. Spotty burr) hopes his returning son-in-law, a superconcert and backstage documentary still has star player, will take his team to the top, but enough to satisfy fans of rap and hip-hop, the two are estranged and the team’s Americontrasting the younger breed—a couple of can owner wants to take it to Ireland. Handwhom have had serious scrapes with the somely shot on Scottish locations, and well law—with the wizened old-breed performers acted, but predictability—and too many offlike LL Cool J and members of Run-DMC. the-field entanglements—make it hard to Film’s non-linear structure comes off as more care what happens. Released in the UK in haphazard than creative. [R]▼●쩠 Show Boat (1936) 113m. ★★★ D: James 2001. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Shot in the Dark, A (1964) C-101m. Whale. Irene Dunne, Allan Jones, Helen [ 1246 ]

Morgan, Paul Robeson, Charles Winninger, Lee (the son of Bruce Lee) going up against Hattie McDaniel. Entertaining treatment Japanese mobsters. Poorly directed, acted, of Jerome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein II musiand (especially) scripted. [R]▼●쩠 cal (filmed before in 1929) mixes music, Shower (1999-Chinese) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sentiment, and melodrama, with enough Zhang Yang. Pu Cun Xin, Zhu Xu, Jiang Wu, great moments to make up for the rest: He Zheng. Bittersweet, thoroughly winning Robeson doing ‘‘Old Man River,’’ Mortale of a businessman (Pu) who pays a visit gan singing her unforgettable ‘‘Bill,’’ etc. to his father, the operator of a public bathOriginally an Edna Ferber novel; Hammerhouse that’s about to be torn down and restein also wrote the screenplay. Filmed placed by a high-rise; the old man also looks again in 1951.▼● after his sweet but slow-witted younger son. Show Boat (1951) C-107m. ★★★ D: George Zhang effectively contrasts the fast pace of Sidney. Kathryn Grayson, Ava Gardner, modern life with the value of tradition, as Howard Keel, Joe E. Brown, Marge and symbolized by the taking of a fast, imperGower Champion, Robert Sterling, Agnes sonal shower vs. luxuriating in a bath. [PG13]▼쩠 Moorehead, Leif Erickson, William Warfield. MGM’s Technicolor valentine to this Showgirls (1995) C-131m. BOMB D: Paul old-fashioned musical about life on a MisVerhoeven. Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle sissippi show boat; acted with sincerity, MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plumstylishly shot and staged. Gardner makes a mer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, Gina Rabeautiful and poignant Julie. Timeless Jevera, Lin Tucci, Greg Travis, Patrick rome Kern–Oscar Hammerstein II songs inBristow. Stupefyingly awful movie—whose clude ‘‘Bill’’ (lyrics by P. G. Wodehouse), creators swear to have made it with serious ‘‘Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man,’’ ‘‘Make Beintentions—about a young, hotheaded lieve,’’ ‘‘Old Man River.’’ ▼●쩠 drifter who hitches her way to Vegas, beShow Business (1944) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edcomes a ‘‘lap dancer,’’ and then a fullwin L. Marin. Eddie Cantor, Joan Davis, fledged showgirl, discovering that sex and George Murphy, Nancy Kelly, Constance career moves are hopelessly intertwined. Moore. If you like Cantor or Davis you’ll Part soft-core porn, part hokey backstage enjoy this vaudeville musical entirely supdrama, full of howlingly hilarious dialogue. ported by them. Followed by IF YOU Berkley sets the tone for her performance in KNEW SUSIE.▼● an early scene in which she expresses fury Showdown (1963) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: R. G. by vigorously spewing ketchup over her Springsteen. Audie Murphy, Kathleen Crowfrench fries. Written by Joe Eszterhas. Reley, Charles Drake, Harold Stone, Skip Holeased on video in alternate R-rated format meier, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones. Tough with 61 seconds cut, and 20 seconds of footWestern yarn with drifters Murphy and Drake age altered by using different camera angles. Super 35. [NC-17]▼●쩠 abducted by outlaw gang who force them to help convert stolen securities into cash. Show of Force, A (1990) C-93m. ★★ D: Showdown (1966) SEE: Tramplers, The Bruno Barreto. Amy Irving, Robert Duvall, Andy Garcia, Lou Diamond Phillips, Kevin Showdown (1973) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Seaton. Rock Hudson, Dean Martin, Susan Spacey, Joe Campanella, Erik Estrada, Clark, Donald Moffat, John McLiam, Ed Priscilla Pointer, Hattie Winston. Oddly Begley, Jr. Two friends in love with the stagnant political thriller about Puerto Rico’s same woman go their separate ways, until 1978 version of Watergate. Irving plays a Hudson (now a sheriff) is forced to hunt local TV reporter convinced that the F.B.I. down Martin (now a robber). Agreeable set up and killed two political radicals to but unexceptional Western yarn was Seaton’s earn voting support for the current goverfinal film. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼ nor. Garcia’s role is a glorified cameo; Showdown at Williams Creek (1991Phillips is surprisingly effective as a flamboyant villain. [R]▼●쩠 Canadian) C-97m. ★★★ D: Allan Kroeker. Tom Burlinson, Donnelly Rhodes, MiShow People (1928) 82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: King chelle Thrush, John Pyper Ferguson, Alex Vidor. Marion Davies, William Haines, Bruhanski, Raymond Burr. Compelling alDell Henderson, Paul Ralli, Harry Gribbon, legory of racism, exploitation, greed, and Polly Moran. Delightful silent comedy about survival in the Northwest Territory during a girl from the sticks who tries to crash the 19th century. The scenario, which unHollywood—and succeeds, but not as she ravels in flashback, details the journey of expected to. Davies’ best movie vehicle Irishman Burlinson from British army officonfirms her comic talent, and offers a cer to scruffy ‘‘squaw man’’ on trial for lively glimpse behind the scenes of moviemurder. Based on actual events. [R]▼쩠 making. Some amusing guest-star cameos Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991) C-76m. include director Vidor, who plays himself BOMB D: Mark L. Lester. Dolph Lundgren, in the closing scene.▼● Brandon Lee, Carey-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Tia Showtime (2002) C-95m. ★★ D: Tom Dey. Carrere, Toshiro Obata. Knuckleheaded Robert De Niro, Eddie Murphy, Rene Russo, martial-arts actioner, with Lundgren and Pedro Damia´n, Mos Def, Frankie R. Faison, [ 1247 ]

William Shatner, Nestor Serrano, Kadeem Down Under, gets a job as waiter in a MexiHardison. Veteran L.A. cop De Niro is puncan restaurant, winds up posing as the fiance´ ished for his reckless ways by being asof a wealthy heiress to thwart her powerful signed to work on a new reality TV show father. Cheech shows some charm, but you with Murphy, an eager but inexperienced know something’s up when the director partner (who’s also a wannabe actor). What takes his name off the project. Shot in New starts out as a satire of TV cop shows and Zealand. Video version runs 87m., and is rated R. [PG-13]▼●쩠 movies eventually becomes the very thing it’s spoofing. The stars have almost nothing Shrunken Heads (1994) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: to work with here. The star’s daughter, Richard Elfman. Aeryk Egan, Becky Drena De Niro, plays Russo’s assistant. Herbst, A. J. Damato, Bo Sharon, Darris Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Love, Bodhi Elfman, Meg Foster, Julius Shrek (2001) C-88m. ★★★ D: Andrew AdamHarris. Clever special effects enliven this son, Vicky Jenson. Voices of Mike Myers, run-of-the-mill Full Moon horror-comedy Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, in which Haitian voodoo master Harris reVincent Cassel, Jim Cummings, Kathleen vives three murdered kids, who seek reFreeman. An antisocial troll is joined by a venge against the trash responsible for their talkative donkey as he goes on a quest to save deaths. Title music composed by the direca beautiful princess. Funny spoof of fairy-tale tor’s brother, Danny Elfman. [R]▼● sagas with some good laughs, not all of them Shutter (2008) C-85m. ★★ D: Masayuki aimed at children. Computer-animated fable Ochiai. Joshua Jackson, Rachael Taylor, mixes heightened reality with fanciful deMegumi Okina, David Denman, John Hensigns; from Pacific Data Images, the folks sley, Maya Hazen, James Kyson Lee. who made ANTZ. Based on a children’s book Young married couple is shocked when by William Steig. Alternate version runs 91m. they find ghostly images on a roll of film Winner of the first Oscar for Best Animated they develop. Soon they are haunted by the Feature. Followed by a 3-D short, two sespirit of a Japanese girl the husband may quels, and a holiday TV special, Shrek the have known before. Original 2004 film was Halls. [PG] ▼쩠 a huge hit in its native Thailand; this remake Shrek 2 (2004) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew is set in Japan with American stars, and a Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon. Japanese cast and director. Attempt to duVoices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, plicate the success of movies like THE Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, GRUDGE and THE RING is defeated by Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Jennifer mundane plotting and dopey dialogue. AlSaunders, Conrad Vernon, Larry King, Joan ternate version runs 90m. [PG-13]쩠 Rivers. Sequel to the 2001 megahit tries to Shuttered Room, The (1967-British) devise enough story to justify another feaC-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Greene. Gig Young, ture, with middling results. Newlyweds Shrek Carol Lynley, Oliver Reed, Flora Robson. and Fiona visit her parents, who don’t know Young couple inherit old house in New their daughter has married an ogre. Then a England, threatened by local toughs and crafty Fairy Godmother does everything in unseen presence. Good cast deserves bether power to split up the couple so her son, ter material; even revelation is tame. Based Prince Charming, can claim Fiona as his on an August Derleth–H. P. Lovecraft story. Video title: BLOOD ISLAND.▼쩠 bride. Skillfully made, but pointless and short on laughs; Banderas comes off best as Shut Up & Sing (2006) C-93m. ★★★ D: a Zorro-like Puss in Boots. [PG]▼쩠 Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck. Fascinating Shrek the Third (2007) C-93m. ★★ D: documentary on the flare-up that occurred Chris Miller. Voices of Mike Myers, Eddie near the beginning of the Iraq war when Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, superstar country group The Dixie Chicks Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, told a foreign concert audience they were Eric Idle, Justin Timberlake, Seth Rogen, ashamed to be from the same state as PresiLarry King, John Krasinski, Ian McShane, dent George W. Bush. With cameras seemCheri Oteri, Regis Philbin, Amy Poehler, ingly following the trio 24 hours a day, we Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris. When the see the repercussions the statement had on king of Far Far Away dies, it’s up to the big their lives and careers. Remarkable not only green ogre to take his place, but he doesn’t for its political content but as a primer on want the job. So he, Donkey, and Puss in how a show-business career is made and Boots go off in search of the only other heir marketed. Like very few movies of its ilk, to the throne. Third trip to the well finds the this one shows us the ‘‘Chicks’’ machine at water stale and filled with silt . . . but kids work with an image transformation played out in extreme close-up. Backstage drama is may still be entertained. [PG]쩠 Shrieking, The SEE: Hex melded with several fine concert sequences. Shrimp on the Barbie, The (1990) C-86m. [R]쩠 ★1⁄2 D: Alan Smithee. Cheech Marin, Emma Shy People (1987) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrei Samms, Vernon Wells, Terence Cooper, Konchalovsky. Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Jeanette Cronin, Carole Davis. Marin goes Hershey, Martha Plimpton, Mare Winning[ 1248 ]

ham, Merritt Butrick, John Philbin, Don picture to show us how other countries deal Swayze, Pruitt Taylor Vince. N.Y.C. photowith the issue. In a heart-rending climax he journalist Clayburgh ventures into the Loutakes some of his interviewees to Cuba, of isiana bayous (dragging along rebellious all places, where they receive not only care daughter Plimpton and a totally inapprobut compassion. Moore makes no pretense priate wardrobe) to research a Cosmopolitan of fairness, objectivity, or thoroughness— article on a very distant branch of her but still strikes home in what may be his best film to date. [PG-13]쩠 family. Hodgepodge film is implausible, melodramatic, ridiculous—and fascinating. Sid and Nancy (1986) C-111m. ★★★ D: Recommended chiefly for Hershey’s rivetAlex Cox. Gary Oldman, Chloe Webb, ing performance (as the head of the backDrew Schofield, David Hayman, Debby woods clan), and for cinematographer Chris Bishop, Tony London, Perry Benson, GloMenges’ remarkable opening shot of Manria LeRoy, Courtney Love. Harrowing look hattan. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼● at the bizarre, self-destructive, and curiously Sibling, The SEE: So Evil, My Sister compelling relationship between British Sibling Rivalry (1990) C-88m. ★★ D: punk rock singer Sid Vicious (of The Sex Carl Reiner. Kirstie Alley, Bill Pullman, Pistols) and American groupie Nancy Carrie Fisher, Jami Gertz, Scott Bakula, Spungen in the 1970s. Director Cox achieves Sam Elliott, Ed O’Neill, Frances Sterna masterful level of docu-realism, then laces hagen, John Randolph, Paul Benedict, Bill it with allegorical dream images, with strikMacy, Matthew Laurance. Black comedy ing results. At the core of the film are two about a repressed woman, stuck in a teremarkable performances, by Oldman and dious marriage; at the urging of her sister, Webb, who don’t seem to be performing at she has a fling with a chance acquaintance— all: they are Sid and Nancy. A downer, to who dies after an afternoon of mad, passionbe sure, but fascinating. [R] ▼●쩠 ate sex. And that’s just the beginning of the Siddhartha (1973) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Constory. Some clever ideas get bogged down in rad Rooks. Shashi Kapoor, Simi Garewal, this heavy-handed film. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Romesh Shama, Pinchoo Kapoor, Zul VelSicilian, The (1987) C-115m. BOMB D: lani, Amrik Singh. Uneven version of HerMichael Cimino. Christopher Lambert, Termann Hesse novel follows Indian as he leaves ence Stamp, Barbara Sukowa, Giulia family to find more exciting life. Too arty, but Boschi, Joss Ackland, John Turturro, Richon-location photography by Sven Nykvist ard Bauer, Ray McAnally, Barry Miller, (Ingmar Bergman’s cinematographer) is often dazzling. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 Joe Regalbuto, Aldo Ray. Militantly lugubrious bio of Salvatore Giuliano, who took Sidecar Racers (1975-Australian) C-100m. ★★ on Church, State, and Mafia in an attempt D: Earl Bellamy. Ben Murphy, Wendy to promote Sicily’s secession from Italy in Hughes, John Clayton, Peter Graves, John the late 1940s. Gore Vidal contributed to Meillon, John Derum. Murphy becomes a the screenplay, credited to Steve Shagan. champion sidecar racer; the usual. [PG] Side Out (1990) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter The 146-minute director’s cut (★★) is available on cassette and actually seems shorter, Israelson. C. Thomas Howell, Peter Horton, thanks to more coherency and Sukowa’s Courtney Thorne-Smith, Harley Jane Kozak, strengthened role. Neither version, though, Christopher Rydell, Terry Kiser, Randy can overcome two chief liabilities: Cimino’s Stoklos, Sinjin Smith, Kathy Ireland. Colmissing sense of humor and Lambert’s lege kid comes to Southern California for a laughably stone-faced performance. Title summer job evicting tenants for his sleazy figure was previously the subject of Franuncle but instead winds up joining with cesco Rosi’s 1962 SALVATORE GIUone of his intended victims for the ultimate LIANO. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 beach volleyball match. Sand, surf, and Sicilian Clan, The (1969-French) C-121m. sun are the sole highlights of this no★★★ D: Henri Verneuil. Jean Gabin, Alain brainer which purports to be the first major Delon, Lino Ventura, Irina Demick, Amestudio film about volleyball. What’s next? deo Nazzari, Sydney Chaplin. Gangland Badminton? [PG-13]▼●쩠 family’s plans for jewel heist grow inSide Street (1949) 83m. ★★★ D: Anthony creasingly complex; crime caper on grandiose Mann. Farley Granger, Cathy O’Donnell, scale, totally implausible but great fun. James Craig, Paul Kelly, Edmon Ryan, Paul Gabin is smooth head of clan, Delon a young Harvey, Jean Hagen, Charles McGraw, Adele ambitious thief hired for the occasion. Jergens, Harry Bellaver, Whit Bissell. Story Panavision. [PG] of part-time postman Granger impulsively Sicko (2007) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael stealing a wad of money, and finding himMoore. Provocative expose´ of American self involved with gangsters and murder, is health care is alternately entertaining and bolstered by striking N.Y.C. locations and infuriating, focusing less on the uninsured stark cinematography by Joseph Ruttenthan on people who have supposed coverberg. The chase finale is a highlight.쩠 age. Moore lets various victims of the sysSidewalks of London (1938-British) 84m. ★★★ D: Tim Whelan. Charles Laughton, tem speak for themselves, then enters the [ 1249 ]

Vivien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Tyrone Guthrie, Larry Adler. Laughton is superb as a busker (street entertainer), with Leigh almost matching him as his protege´e, who uses and abuses all in her quest for success as a stage star (a character not unlike Scarlett O’Hara!). Top entertainment . . . until that ill-conceived final sequence. Original British title: ST. MARTIN’S LANE.▼쩠 Sidewalks of New York (2001) C-107m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Edward Burns. Edward Burns, Rosario Dawson, Heather Graham, Stanley Tucci, David Krumholtz, Dennis Farina, Brittany Murphy, Callie Thorne, Aida Turturro. Generally funny comedy about the romantic entanglements of a group of New Yorkers, some likable and others selfabsorbed. Has an unmistakable Woody Allen–ish feel, but Burns’ script is no match for Allen. Graham blatantly imitates Diane Keaton’s Annie Hall; her character is even named Annie. Tucci is on target as a smarmy, philandering dentist. [R]▼쩠 Sidewalk Stories (1989) 97m. ★★★ D: Charles Lane. Charles Lane, Nicole Alysia, Sandye Wilson, Darnell Williams, Trula Hoosier. Charming, Chaplinesque fantasy that, in its own modest way, boldly comments on the plight of the homeless in America. Lane stars as a homeless man struggling for survival on the streets of Greenwich Village who finds himself caring for a cute toddler whose father has been stabbed by muggers. There’s almost no dialogue; Marc Marder’s evocative score adds immeasurably to the film’s mood. Don’t miss this sweet, gentle sleeper. [R] Sideways (2004) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alexander Payne. Paul Giamatti, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, Sandra Oh, Marylouise Burke, Jessica Hecht. Giamatti gives another great—and thoroughly natural, totally believable—performance as a would-be author, passionate oenophile, and social misfit who takes a college pal off for a week in California wine country before he gets married. Along the way, this odd couple meets two attractive women who seem to return their interest. Told with wit, truth, compassion, and the eye for detail that marks all of Payne’s work. Oscar-winning screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor, adapted from Rex Pickett’s previously unpublished novel. [R]

charge (a cardboard Willis) is behaving like a tyrant, clashing with FBI man Washington and CIA agent Bening (both excellent). Well made and suspenseful. Super 35. [R]

▼●쩠

Siege of Syracuse (1962-Italian) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Pietro Francisci. Rossano Brazzi, Tina Louise, Enrico Maria Salerno, Gino Cervi. No less than Archimedes defends Syracuse from invading armada by use of giant mirrors that make ships burst into flames. Despite that, it’s routine. Dyaliscope. Siege of the Saxons (1963-British) C-85m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Nathan Juran. Janette Scott, Ronald Lewis, Ronald Howard, John Laurie, Mark Dignam. Colorful escapism about King Arthur’s daughter trying to protect her kingdom, and her right to marry the knight she chooses, from takeover by nefarious Edmund of Cornwall. Siegfried SEE: Die Nibelungen Siesta (1987) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Mary Lambert. Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Grace Jones, Julian Sands, Isabella Rossellini. Sky diver Barkin ends up dissheveled and semi-nude in Spain (by way of Death Valley); her subsequent odyssey has something to do with murder (which may actually be a fantasy) and a taxi driver with rusty teeth who keeps trying to rape her. So-called experimental film is a throwback to some of the more incomprehensible efforts of the 1960s. Music score by Miles Davis. Barkin and Byrne later married in real life. [R]▼● Signal 7 (1983) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Nilsson. Bill Ackridge, Dan Leegant, Bob Elross, Hagit Farber, John Tidwell, Herb Mills. Touching and revealing but rambling stream-of-consciousness tale of middleaged cabdrivers—their camaraderie, illusions, desperation. Ambitious but uneven; dedicated, appropriately, to John Cassavetes. Shot on video then transferred to 16mm. for theatrical release. ▼쩠 Sign of the Cross, The (1932) 124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cecil B. DeMille. Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert, Charles Laughton, Ian Keith, Vivian Tobin, Nat Pendleton, Joe Bonomo. Well-meaning but heavy-handed account of Christians seeking religious freedom in Rome under Emperor Nero. Very slow going, despite fine work by March as ▼쩠 Sidney Sheldon’s Bloodline SEE: BloodMarcus Superbus, Laughton as Nero, and line especially Colbert as alluring Poppaea. ReisSiege, The (1998) C-116m. ★★★ D: Edward sued in 1944 at 118m. with many cuts of Zwick. Denzel Washington, Annette Bensexy and sadistic scenes, and a nine-minute ing, Bruce Willis, Tony Shalhoub, Sami WW2 prologue added.▼쩠 Bouajila, Ahmed Ben Larby, Liana Pai, Sign of the Pagan (1954) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Valley, Jack Gwaltney, David Proval, Douglas Sirk. Jeff Chandler, Jack Palance, Lance Reddick. Terrorists set off bombs all Ludmilla Tcherina, Rita Gam, Jeff Morrow, over N.Y.C., crippling the city and leading Alexander Scourby. Uneven script hampers to the imposition of martial law—including story of Attila the Hun threatening Rome; concentration camps for all Arabs, foreignSirk’s stylish direction helps somewhat. ers and citizens alike. Soon the general in CinemaScope. [ 1250 ]

Sign of Zorro, The (1960) 91m. ★1⁄2 D: Norman Foster, Lewis R. Foster. Guy Williams, Henry Calvin, Gene Sheldon, Britt Lomond, George J. Lewis, Lisa Gaye. Several episodes of Disney’s Zorro TV show pasted together; clumsy continuity undermines what charm the series had to offer.▼ Sign o’ the Times (1987) C-85m. ★★★ D: Prince. Prince, Sheila E., Sheena Easton, Dr. Fink, Miko Weaver, Levi Seacer, Jr., Wally Safford, Gregory Allen Brooks, Boni Boyer. Mostly punchy Prince concert film, shot in Rotterdam and Minnesota, features 13 numbers, some overhead photography and lots of bump and grind from both sexes. Stolen to some degree by star drummer Sheila E.; otherwise ‘‘live’’ film features Sheena Easton’s rock video ‘‘U Got the Look.’’ [PG-13]▼쩠 Signpost to Murder (1965) 74m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Englund. Stuart Whitman, Joanne Woodward, Edward Mulhare, Alan Napier, Joyce Worsley, Murray Matheson. Escapee from prison for criminally insane seeks shelter in home of woman whose husband is away. Contrived plot mars thriller but strong performances help. Panavision. Signs (2002) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: M. Night Shyamalan. Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Cherry Jones, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin, Patricia Kalember. A minister who’s lost his way after the death of his wife discovers strange crop signs outside his home and soon finds his family threatened. Creepy movie about ultra-close encounters with invading aliens is thwarted by its own ambitions to tackle even bigger subjects like faith, fate, and the order of the universe. When it dwells on those matters it’s downright silly at times, but when it sticks to the scary stuff it makes you jump. Written by the director, who also plays Ray. [PG-13]

people, young and old, who’ve spent their lives working there try to figure out what to do next. An ideal showcase for Kennedy (in his first film in ten years) and a talented cast, but superlative acting cannot completely make up for an air of familiarity in Mark Malone’s script. A PBS American Playhouse production. [PG-13]▼● Silas Marner (1985-British) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Giles Foster. Ben Kingsley, Jenny Agutter, Patrick Ryecart, Jonathan Coy, Freddie Jones, Frederick Treves, Angela Pleasence. Solid, marvelously detailed version of the George Eliot novel with Kingsley quite moving as the title character, a weaver who becomes a recluse after he’s falsely accused of thievery and sent into exile. Reworked in 1994 as A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE. ▼쩠 Silence, The (1963-Swedish) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnel Lindblom, Hakan Jahnberb, Birger Malmsten. Stark, forceful symbolic narrative of two sisters who stop at a hotel in a North European city. One sister (Thulin) is a frustrated lesbian with no future, the other (Lindblom) a free-loving mother of a 10-yearold boy. The last in Bergman’s trilogy on faith, following THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY and WINTER LIGHT.▼●쩠 Silence (1974) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Korty. Will Geer, Ellen Geer, Richard Kelton, Ian Geer Flanders, Craig Kelly. Outdoor drama of autistic boy Flanders lost in the wilderness is a Geer family affair, interestingly done. Aka CRAZY JACK AND THE BOY. [G]▼ Silence of the Hams, The (1994) C-81m. BOMB D: Ezio Greggio. Dom DeLuise, Billy Zane, Joanna Pacula, Charlene Tilton, Martin Balsam, Stuart Pankin, John Astin, Phyllis Diller, Bubba Smith, Larry Storch, Rip Taylor, Shelley Winters. Zane is a rookie ▼쩠 Signs & Wonders (2000-French-U.S.) CFBI agent on the trail of a serial killer; DeLu108m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Nossiter. Stellan ise is the psychotic criminal he turns to for Skarsga˚rd, Charlotte Rampling, Deborah help. Lame comedy in the AIRPLANE! tradiKara Unger, Dimitris Katalifos, Ashley Remy. tion spoofs THE SILENCE OF THE Unusual drama about a crumbling American LAMBS and PSYCHO. Film buffs might marriage in Athens, Greece. After having an want to note cameos by such directors as Joe extramarital affair, a husband becomes blindly Dante and John Carpenter. Others might want determined to win back his wife, even though to avoid the movie altogether. [R]▼● she’s now romantically involved with a Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) C-118m. ★★★1 Greek political activist. Plays like an art⁄2 D: Jonathan Demme. Jodie Foster, house sociopolitical FATAL ATTRACAnthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn, Ted Levine, TION with multiple stalkers, but it’s Anthony Heald, Brooke Smith, Diane worth sticking with thanks to an intelliBaker, Kasi Lemmons, Charles Napier, gent script and intense performances from Tracey Walter, Roger Corman, Chris Isaak. Rampling and Skarsga˚rd as a couple on FBI trainee Foster is recruited to attempt to the brink. [R]▼쩠 get through to a brilliant psychotic crimiSigns of Life (1989) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John nal, ‘‘Hannibal the Cannibal’’ Lecter (HopDavid Coles. Arthur Kennedy, Kevin J. kins), in the hope that he may help catch a O’Connor, Vincent Phillip D’Onofrio, Miserial killer. Almost unbearably intense, chael Lewis, Beau Bridges, Kate Reid, brilliantly acted (by Foster and Hopkins), Kathy Bates, Mary-Louise Parker, Georand cannily put together—though the subgia Engel. A generations-old boat-building ject material is at times repellent. Based on business in Maine closes its doors, and the the Thomas Harris best-seller; the Hanni[ 1251 ]

bal character appeared in a previous Harris a map and drives her daughter straight into the adaptation, MANHUNTER. Oscar winner fog-laden, deserted ghost town it has become. for Best Picture, Actor (Hopkins), Actress Another video game becomes a hokey excuse (Foster), Director, and Adapted Screenplay for a two-hour-plus horror movie. Dialogue is (Ted Tally). Followed 10 years later by so laughable it might be advisable to watch HANNIBAL. [R]▼●쩠 SILENT HILL with the sound turned off. Silence of the North (1981-Canadian) CSuper 35. [R]쩠 94m. ★★ D: Allan Winton King. Ellen BurSilent Movie (1976) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mel styn, Tom Skerritt, Gordon Pinsent, Jennifer Brooks. Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom McKinney, Donna Dobrijevic, Colin Fox. DeLuise, Bernadette Peters, Sid Caesar, HarOK drama of independent-minded Burstyn old Gould, Ron Carey, guests Burt Reynolds, surviving in the Canadian wilderness. BeautiJames Caan, Liza Minnelli, Paul Newman, ful scenery; based on a true story. PanaAnne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau, Harry Ritz. vision. [PG]▼ Disappointing attempt to revive silent comedy, Silencers, The (1966) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: with Brooks as movie producer hoping for Phil Karlson. Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, comeback. Blackout gags range from very Daliah Lavi, Victor Buono, Robert Webber, funny to misfire. Results are only mild instead James Gregory, Arthur O’Connell, Cyd of the knockout they should have been. [PG] Charisse, Roger C. Carmel, Nancy Kovack. ▼●쩠 Donald Hamilton’s secret agent Matt Helm Silent Night, Bloody Night (1973) Cis pulled out of ‘‘retirement’’ to combat 87m. ★★ D: Theodore Gershuny. Patrick Buono’s efforts to destroy a U.S. atomic O’Neal, James Patterson, Mary Woronov, testing site. First of four theatrical Helms Astrid Heeren, John Carradine, Walter Abel. is far and away the best, with Stevens just Uneven low-budgeter about escaped killer wonderful as well-meaning klutz. Sequel: from insane asylum terrorizing small New EnMURDERERS’ ROW.▼●쩠 gland town, and inhabitants of mysterious old Silent Assassins (1988) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: mansion that’s up for sale. [R]▼쩠 Lee Doo-yong, Scott Thomas. Sam J. Jones, Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984) C-79m. Linda Blair, Jun Chong, Phillip Rhee, Bill BOMB D: Charles E. Sellier, Jr. Lilyan Erwin, Gustav Vintas, Mako, Rebecca FerChauvan, Gilmer McCormick, Toni Nero, ratti, Stuart Damon. Well-made actioner has Robert Brian Wilson, Britt Leach. Concommando Jones whip into action when a troversial—and worthless—splatter movie scientist is kidnapped by baddies for his secret about a psychotic (Wilson), dressed in a Santa biological-warfare formula. His helpers, suit, who commits brutal ax-murders. TheChong and Rhee, doubled as film’s producers aters that played this film were picketed; what and fight choreographers.▼ next—the Easter Bunny as a child molester? Silent Enemy, The (1958-British) 92m. ‘‘Uncut and uncensored’’ DVD runs 85m. ★★1 Followed by four sequels! [R]▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: William Fairchild. Laurence Harvey, Dawn Addams, John Clements, MiSilent Night, Deadly Night Part II (1987) chael Craig. British Naval frogmen, headed C-88m. BOMB D: Lee Harry. Eric Freeby Harvey, are assigned to combat enemy man, James L. Newman, Elizabeth Kaitan. counterpart during WW2; underwater seEmbarrassing (and unnecessary) follow-up quences well handled, with some preto the Santa Claus-killer film has hero’s THUNDERBALL gimmicks.▼ younger brother continuing the psychotic Silent Fall (1994) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Bruce carnage. About half the footage here is Beresford. Richard Dreyfuss, Linda Hamillifted from the original film (including a ton, John Lithgow, J.T. Walsh, Ben Faulkmemorable scene featuring Linnea Quigley); new scenes are perfunctory. [R]▼●쩠 ner, Liv Tyler. When an autistic youngster (Faulkner) is the only witness to his parents’ Silent Night, Deadly Night III—Better bloody double murder, controversial shrink Watch Out! (1989) C-91m. ★★ D: Monte Dreyfuss tries to unlock the boy’s mind in Hellman. Samantha Scully, Bill Moseley, an attempt to crack the case. Murky all the Richard Beymer, Robert Culp, Eric Da way, and predictable nearly all the way, exRe, Laura Herring. Shrewdly made sequel cept for an ill-advised ‘‘light’’ wrap-up pits now grown killer from Part II against that’ll make you take a loud fall out of your young blind woman linked to him by seat. Barely released. [R]▼●쩠 ESP. Well made, with touches of black Silent Hill (2006-U.S.-French) C-127m. comedy, but still only a slasher movie, less ★1 gruesome than most. Santa Claus is not the ⁄2 D: Christophe Gans. Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Alice Krige, heavy this time—he’s a victim. [R]▼● Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates, Tanya Silent Night, Deadly Night 4 (1990) CAllen, Jodelle Ferland, Colleen Williams. 90m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian Yuzna. Maud Adams, Don’t check this movie for parenting tips. Tommy Hinkley, Allyce Beasley, Clint When her little girl starts drawing strange imHoward, Neith Hunter, Jeanne Bates, Lauages and uttering the words ‘‘silent hill’’ as rel Lockhart. Investigating a strange death, she sleepwalks through recurring nightmares, a young woman would-be reporter becomes the mother actually finds the obscure place on involved with witches, large bugs, worms, [ 1252 ]

and Clint Howard. Though intelligent, it’s (released after his death), though it gives him gratuitously gruesome, dull, poorly acted, nothing to do. Shepard also wrote the script. and bizarrely anti-feminist. Christmas elePanavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ments are completely superfluous. Actual Silent World, The (1956-French) C-86m. ★★★ title on-screen is INITIATION: SILENT D: Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Louis Malle. NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4. [R]▼● Frederic Duman, Albert Falco, JacquesSilent Night, Deadly Night 5: The ToyYves Cousteau. Academy Award-winning maker (1991) C-90m. ★★ D: Martin Kitrosdocumentary account of an expedition above ser. Jane Higginson, William Thone, Tracy and—most memorably—below the sea’s Fraim, Mickey Rooney, Brian Bremer, Neith surface by Captain Cousteau and his divers Hunter, Clint Howard. Toys are out to kill a and crew. Beautifully photographed; Malle’s little boy at Christmastime, but who’s responfirst film. sible? Drunken toymaker Petto (Rooney) or Silk (2007-Canadian-Italian-Japanese) Chis odd son Pino? (The names are clumsy 109m. ★★ D: Franc¸ois Girard. Michael Pitt, clues.) Overplotted but OK horror thriller Keira Knightley, Koˆji Yakusho, Alfred with a lot of sex. No plot connection to Molina, Sei Ashina, Kenneth Welsh. Beauearlier films in series. [R]▼● tiful but bland period piece, based on popuSilent Night, Evil Night SEE: Black lar novel by Alessandro Baricco, about a Christmas 19th-century French merchant (Pitt) who falls Silent Partner, The (1978-Canadian) for a mysterious local beauty (Ashina) while C-103m. ★★★ D: Daryl Duke. Elliott Gould, bargaining for silkworms in Japan. UnfortuChristopher Plummer, Susannah York, Celine nately, he has a loving wife (Knightley) at Lomez, Michael Kirby, Ken Pogue, John home, so nothing good comes of this. MolCandy. Offbeat film about crafty bank teller ina adds a bit of life to ponderous proceedGould playing cat-and-mouse with psychotic ings as the merchant’s roguish boss, but robber Plummer. Well directed, with fine eye that’s not quite enough. Super 35. [R]쩠 for detail, but bursts of graphic violence are Silk Road, The (1992-Chinese-Japanese) jarring. Nice score by Oscar Peterson. ScreenC-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Junya Sato. Koichi Sato, play by Curtis Hanson. [R]▼●쩠 Toshiyuki Nishida, Tsunehiko Watase, Silent Rage (1982) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: MiDaijiro Harada, Takahiro Tamura. Extravchael Miller. Chuck Norris, Ron Silver, agant but hokey, overly melodramatic epic Steven Keats, Toni Kalem, William Finley, set in 11th-century China, about a young Brian Libby, Stephen Furst. Small-town man (Koichi Sato) who becomes involved Texas sheriff Norris versus sickie killer in various adventures and falls in love with Libby, a Frankenstein-like creation of scia princess. The much-hyped battle scenes ence. Ho-hum. [R]▼●쩠 are nicely done, but fall short next to those ★★★ D: Silent Running (1971) C-89m. in other films (for example, Kurosawa’s Douglas Trumbull. Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, KAGEMUSHA and RAN). [PG-13]▼● Ron Rifkin, Jesse Vint. Space-age ecology Silk Stockings (1957) C-117m. ★★★ D: tale of botanist’s fight on space station to Rouben Mamoulian. Fred Astaire, Cyd keep Earth’s final vegetation samples from Charisse, Janis Paige, Peter Lorre, George being destroyed. Interesting film marked Tobias, Jules Munshin, Joseph Buloff, directorial debut of special effects whiz Barrie Chase. Words, music, dance blend Trumbull (2001, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS). perfectly in stylish remake of Garbo’s Script by Deric Washburn, Michael Cimino, NINOTCHKA. This time Charisse is cold and Steven Bochco; unusual score by Peter Russian on Paris mission, Astaire the movie Schickele. [G]▼●쩠 producer man-about-town who warms her Silent Scream (1980) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Denny up. Score by Cole Porter includes ‘‘All of Harris. Rebecca Balding, Cameron MitchYou’’ and ‘‘Stereophonic Sound’’; Maell, Avery Schreiber, Barbara Steele, Yvonne moulian’s final film. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 De Carlo. Another illogical, obvious kidsSilkwood (1983) C-128m. ★★★ D: Mike caught-in-eerie-old-house melodrama. Some Nichols. Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, scares, but who cares? [R]▼쩠 Craig T. Nelson, Diana Scarwid, Fred Silent Tongue (1994) C-98m. BOMB D: Ward, Ron Silver, Charles Hallahan, Josef Sam Shepard. Richard Harris, Alan Bates, Sommer, Sudie Bond, Henderson ForRiver Phoenix, Dermot Mulroney, Sheila sythe, E. Katherine Kerr, Bruce McGill, Tousey, Jeri Arredondo, Tantoo Cardinal, David Strathairn, M. Emmet Walsh, Ray Bill Irwin, David Shiner, The Red Clay RamBaker, Tess Harper, Anthony Heald. Sublers. While his son goes delirious in the New perb performances, and vivid dramatizaMexico prairie, dragging around the corpse tion of workaday life in an Oklahoma of his halfbreed bride, Harris tries to negotinuclear-parts factory, give strength to a ate a deal for her sister from medicine show flawed film. Streep is outstanding as realproprietor Bates (who sired both girls). If you life Karen Silkwood, but anyone who folwonder how a movie with this cast could relowed news story knows how this film will main on the shelf for two years, proceed at your own peril. Phoenix’s penultimate film end, and that places a special burden on [ 1253 ]

such a long, slowly paced film. Script by Dobrowolska and Kants in 1940s AusNora Ephron and Alice Arlen. [R]▼●쩠 tralia. The catch: He is married to her Silverado (1985) C-132m. ★★★ D: Lawclose friend. Panavision. [PG]▼ rence Kasdan. Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Silver City (2004) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, John Cleese, Sayles. Chris Cooper, Danny Huston, RichRosanna Arquette, Brian Dennehy, Linda ard Dreyfuss, Maria Bello, James Gammon, Hunt, Jeff Goldblum, Ray Baker, Joe SenDaryl Hannah, Kris Kristofferson, Mary Kay eca, Lynn Whitfield, Jeff Fahey, Richard Place, Tim Roth, Thora Birch, David ClenJenkins, Sheb Wooley, James Gammon. non, Miguel Ferrer, Michael Murphy, Billy Sprawling, well-made Western about four Zane, Alma Delfina, Sal Lo´pez, Luis Saguar, unlikely comrades who join forces against Ralph Waite. Ensemble piece about a reportersome very bad guys. First major Hollywood turned-investigator who’s hired to see who Western in a long time is no classic but might be trying to sabotage the gubernatorial offers ample entertainment by throwing in campaign of Colorado’s favored son. A film everything but the kitchen sink—and never noir–ish mystery is the framework for Sayles’ stops moving. Just don’t think about it too attack on political corruption, corporate greed, hard. Script by Mark and Lawrence Kasdan, and the apathy and resignation of a generation fine score by Bruce Broughton. Super Techthat once tried to change the world. Cooper niscope. [PG-13]▼●쩠 does a slyly funny impression of Pres. George Silver Bears (1978) C-113m. ★★★ D: Ivan W. Bush, with a perfectly cast Murphy as his Passer. Michael Caine, Cybill Shepherd, kingmaker dad. Plottier than it needs to be, Louis Jourdan, Martin Balsam, Stephane and fairly obvious, but still entertaining and Audran, Tommy Smothers, David Warner, relevant. [R]▼쩠 Charles Gray, Jay Leno. Entertaining comSilver Dream Racer (1980-British) Cedy better suited to TV than theater screens; 111m. ★1⁄2 D: David Wickes. David Essex, fine cast in story of high-level chicanery Beau Bridges, Cristina Raines, Clarke Pein world silver market. Adapted from Paul ters, Harry H. Corbett, Diane Keen, Lee Erdman’s novel by Peter Stone; filmed in Montague, Sheila White. Hackneyed drama Switzerland and Morocco. [PG]▼ chronicling the trials of garage-mechanic★★ Silver Bullet (1985) C-95m. turned-motorcyclist Essex as he strives to win D: Daniel Attias. Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Megan the Big Race. Essex wrote and performed music score as well. Panavision. [PG]▼ Follows, Everett McGill, Terry O’Quinn, Robin Groves, Leon Russom, Bill SmitSilver Lode (1954) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Allan rovich, Lawrence Tierney; voice of Tovah Dwan. John Payne, Lizabeth Scott, Dan Feldshuh. What can it be that’s terrorizing Duryea, Dolores Moran, Emile Meyer, a small town by the light of the full moon? Harry Carey, Jr., Morris Ankrum, Stuart The answer is a werewolf, but it takes the Whitman, Alan Hale, Jr. A Western town’s folks in this movie a long time to figure respected citizen (Payne) is accused of that out. Well-acted but often stupid and thievery and murder on his wedding day by unbelievable horror tale from Stephen a slimy U.S. ‘‘marshal’’ (Duryea). So-so King’s novelette Cycle of the Werewolf. melodrama is a fascinating relic of its era as Aka STEPHEN KING’S SILVER BULboth a HIGH NOON variation and an obviLET. J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 ous allegory of HUAC/McCarthyist hypocSilver Chalice, The (1954) C-144m. ★★ risy. The action unfolds on July 4, and the D: Victor Saville. Virginia Mayo, Pier villain is named ‘‘McCarty’’!▼쩠 Angeli, Jack Palance, Paul Newman, WalSilver River (1948) 110m. ★1⁄2 D: Raoul ter Hampden, Joseph Wiseman, AlexanWalsh. Errol Flynn, Ann Sheridan, Thomas der Scourby, Lorne Greene, E. G. Marshall, Mitchell, Bruce Bennett, Tom D’Andrea, Natalie Wood. Newman’s screen debut is Barton MacLane, Monte Blue. Mediocre undistinguished in story of Greek who deFlynn vehicle: Ann and Errol marry out signs framework for cup used at Last Supper. West, he becomes corrupt.▼ This is the film Newman once apologized for Silver Streak (1976) C-113m. ★★★ D: in a famous Hollywood trade ad. From the Arthur Hiller. Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, Thomas Costain novel; Greene’s first film, Richard Pryor, Patrick McGoohan, Ned too. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Beatty, Ray Walston, Scatman Crothers, Silver City (1951) C-90m. ★★ D: Byron Clifton James, Richard Kiel, Fred WilHaskin. Edmond O’Brien, Yvonne De lard. Nutty blend of comedy, romance, Carlo, Richard Arlen, Gladys George, Barry action and suspense as mild-mannered ediFitzgerald. Capable cast is above this mishtor Wilder becomes involved in murder mash set in the mining area of the West, plot on cross-country train ride. Switch with usual rivalry over gals and ore. from comedy to violence is sometimes Silver City (1984-Australian) C-110m. jarring, but on the whole a highly enter★★1⁄2 D: Sophie Turkiewicz. Gosia Dobrotaining picture. One of the best Wilder/ wolska, Ivar Kants, Anna Jemison, Steve Pryor pairings. Imitation Hitchcock written Bisley, Debra Lawrence. Fair soaper about by Colin Higgins. [PG]▼●쩠 love affair between Polish immigrants Simba (1955-British) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: [ 1254 ]

105m. ★★ D: Ben Hopkins. Noah Taylor, Embeth Davidtz, Rutger Hauer, Ian Holm, Stuart Townsend, Sean McGinley, Terence Rigby, Amanda Ryan. Shunned by his Jewish community because of his claims that he has the ability to put a ‘‘curse’’ on crops and often talks to the Devil, Simon (Taylor) becomes the unlikely key player in the local tug-of-war to bring a railway station to a backwater village in the 1800s. Minor, offbeat directing debut for Hopkins; memorable only for a quirky lead performance by the talented Taylor and some fine supporting players. Simon of the Desert (1965-Mexican) 45m. ★★★★ D: Luis Bun˜uel. Claudio Brook, Silvia Pinal, Hortensia Santovena, Enrique Alvarez Felix. Hilarious parable about a bearded ascetic who plops himself atop a pillar to communicate with God better. Could only have been made by one filmmaker; even by Bun˜uel’s standards, the ending of this one is pretty wild.▼쩠 Simon Sez (1999) C-85m. BOMB D: Kevin Elders. Dennis Rodman, Xin-Xin Xiong, Dane Cook, Natalia Cigliuti, Filip Nicolic, Emma Sjoberg. Absolutely dreadful actioner with Rodman—the NBA’s most famous cross-dressing power forward—playing a James Bond–like Interpol agent who sets out to rescue a kidnapped heiress. Bottom of the barrel in all departments. [PG-13]▼쩠 Simpatico (1999) C-106m. ★★ D: Matthew Warchus. Nick Nolte, Jeff Bridges, Sharon Stone, Catherine Keener, Albert Finney, Shawn Hatosy, Kimberly Williams, Liam Waite. Bridges is a Kentucky millionaire horseman whose life comes apart when he hears from a boyhood pal (Nolte) who threatens to expose their dark, longtime secret. Film’s overheated tone seems unwarranted by the material itself, but it’s great fun watching old-pro Finney. Based on a play by Sam Shepard. [R]▼쩠 Simple Men (1992) C-105m. ★★★ D: Hal Hartley. Robert Burke, William Sage, Karen Sillas, Elina Lo¨wensohn, Martin ▼●쩠 S1MO / NE (2002) C-117m. ★★ D: Andrew Donovan, Mark Chandler Bailey. OrigiNiccol. Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Winona nal, ingratiating tale of brothers Burke and Ryder, Evan Rachel Wood, Jay Mohr, Pruitt Sage, who set out in search of their fugiTaylor Vince, Jason Schwartzman, Stanley tive father, a former Brooklyn Dodgers Anderson, Rachel Roberts. One-joke idea all-star shortstop who, in the 1960s, beabout a desperate filmmaker who, fed up with came a bomb-throwing anarchist. Infused temperamental stars, creates his new discovwith a wry sense of humor and consistent ery on a computer—and then can’t get anyoffbeat tilt, but the emotions underneath one to believe she doesn’t exist. Alas, no are genuine, and that’s what makes the one in the film is real, which makes it hard film so endearing. A PBS American Playto accept, even as satire. There are echoes house coproduction. [R]▼●쩠 of FROM NOON TILL THREE, MEET Simple Plan, A (1998) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: JOHN DOE, even THE RETURN OF Sam Raimi. Bill Paxton, Billy Bob ThornMARTIN GUERRE . . . but to no effect. ton, Bridget Fonda, Brent Briscoe, Gary Cole, From the writer of THE TRUMAN SHOW. Chelcie Ross, Jack Walsh, Becky Ann Baker. Elias Koteas and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos Wintry tale of three men—a family man, his slow-witted brother, and the latter’s redneck appear unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Simon Magus (2000-German-British) Cpal—who stumble onto a cache of money in a [ 1255 ] Brian Desmond Hurst. Dirk Bogarde, Virginia McKenna, Basil Sydney, Donald Sinden. Fine cast in story of young man arriving in Kenya only to find brother killed by Mau Maus. Some grisly scenes.▼ Simian Line, The (2001) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Linda Yellen. Lynn Redgrave, Jamey Sheridan, Harry Connick, Jr., Cindy Crawford, Samantha Mathis, William Hurt, Tyne Daly, Eric Stoltz, Dylan Bruno, Monica Keena, Jeremy Zelig. Small-scale film intertwines four couples’ lives at crossroads: Redgrave is insecure about her relationship with her muchyounger lover (Connick, Jr.), especially when a young couple moves in next door. What’s more, her house is haunted by ghosts of long ago (Mathis, Hurt). Highly uneven, with the mystical elements the weakest, but marked by fine performances from Redgrave, Connick, and a surprisingly good Crawford. [R]쩠 Simon (1980) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Marshall Brickman. Alan Arkin, Madeline Kahn, Austin Pendleton, Judy Graubart, William Finley, Fred Gwynne, Adolph Green. Uneven comedy about psychology professor (Arkin) who’s brainwashed by group of think-tank weirdos to believe he’s come from another planet. There’s a cruel edge to the humor, and signs of a serious film trying to break out, in screenwriter Brickman’s directorial debut. [PG]▼ Simon Birch (1998) C-113m. ★★★ D: Mark Steven Johnson. Ian Michael Smith, Joseph Mazzello, Ashley Judd, Oliver Platt, David Strathairn, Dana Ivey, Beatrice Winde, Jan Hooks, Jim Carrey. Fable set in the early 1960s about a young boy with arrested growth (real-life 11-year-old Smith) who believes he’s part of God’s plan, and is destined to be a hero. That destiny is hard to discern in his sad, often frustrated life; the bright spot is his friendship with Mazzello, who’s also an outsider as a bastard child in a small town. Well-made tearjerker loosely adapted from John Irving’s novel A Prayer for Owen Meany; manipulative, borderline mushy at times, but very well done. [PG]

downed airplane. Their decision to keep the ley Smith, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer, cash quickly snowballs into a whirlpool of Marcia Wallace, Tress MacNeille, Pamela tension that leads to other crimes. Thornton’s Hayden, A. (Albert) Brooks, Joe Mantegna, exceptional performance makes the film Tom Hanks. Springfield is quarantined under worth seeing, but the story—and its milda huge dome by the EPA (and President mannered characters’ sudden transformaSchwarzenegger), and eventually marked tion—simply doesn’t ring true. Adapted by for destruction, after Homer causes an enviScott B. Smith from his novel. [R]▼●쩠 ronmental disaster by dumping a massive Simple Story, A (1978-French) C-110m. amount of poop from his pet pig into the ★★★ local lake. Can he save the town and win D: Claude Sautet. Romy Schneider, Bruno Cremer, Claude Brasseur, Arlette back the affection of his fed-up family? Bonnard. Fortyish laborer examines her Long-running TV cartoon’s debut on the life after aborting a child and dropping her big—and ultrawide—screen is entertaining, lover. Schneider gives one of her best albeit not as sharply satirical as the best performances in this graceful drama.▼ episodes of the series. Digital Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 Simple Twist of Fate, A (1994) C-106m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gillies MacKinnon. Steve Martin, Sin, The SEE: Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff Gabriel Byrne, Catherine O’Hara, Stephen Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977Baldwin, Laura Linney, Byron Jennings, British) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam Wanamaker. Michael des Barres, Ed Grady, Kristoffer Patrick Wayne, Jane Seymour, Taryn Power, Tabori, Anne Heche. Circumstances drive a Margaret Whiting, Patrick Troughton. man to become a recluse and a miser, until Dreary followup to GOLDEN VOYAGE an orphaned toddler wanders into his life. OF SINBAD has unusually hackneyed script Martin produced, wrote, and starred in this (even for this kind of film), disappointing adaptation of George Eliot’s novel Silas Ray Harryhausen effects, and goes on forMarner, an odd choice of material that ever. For patient kids only. Taryn is Tyyields an interesting if never quite arresting rone Power’s daughter. [G]▼●쩠 story. Some of the most entertaining moSinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) ments are also the most incongruous, when C-86m. ★★★ D: Tim Johnson, Patrick Gilthe sober-faced lead character suddenly— more. Voices of Brad Pitt, Catherine Zetaand unexpectedly—becomes funny, a` la Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes, Steve Martin. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Dennis Haysbert, Timothy West, Adriano Simple Wish, A (1997) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Giannini. Entertaining animated blend of Michael Ritchie. Martin Short, Mara Wiladventure, fantasy, comedy, and romance as son, Kathleen Turner, Robert Pastorelli, bad-boy Sinbad takes on a noble mission to Amanda Plummer, Francis Capra, Ruby save his boyhood pal, the prince—whose Dee, Teri Garr. Amusing family film about fiance´e tags along for the ride. Pitt and Zetaa bungling male fairy godmother who tries Jones play bantering, bickering romantic leads to help a little girl whose wish is to see her with great verve, even if it’s hard to forget father get a part in a new musical play. whose voices we’re listening to. Pfeiffer is Short and Wilson are fun, Turner is over the also fun as Eris, the goddess of chaos. Slick top as a wicked witch, and the special efproduction needlessly injects computerfects are good . . . though the film never generated monsters into the already goodlooking 2-D world it’s created. [PG] ▼쩠 quite takes off. Highlight for grownups is the bogus Andrew Lloyd Webber–ish musiSinbad the Sailor (1947) C-117m. ★★★ D: cal play Two Cities which figures in the Richard Wallace. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., plot. (Director Ritchie wrote the songs with Maureen O’Hara, Anthony Quinn, Walter Lucy Simon.) [PG]▼●쩠 Slezak, George Tobias, Jane Greer, Mike Simply Irresistible (1999) C-96m. ★★ D: Mazurki, Sheldon Leonard. Tongue-inMark Tarlov. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean Patcheek swashbuckler, with lavish color rick Flanery, Patricia Clarkson, Dylan Baker, production. Great fun.▼● Christopher Durang, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Betty Sincerely Yours (1955) C-115m. BOMB Buckley, Amanda Peet. Old-fashioned, overD: Gordon Douglas. Liberace, Joanne Dru, cooked romantic comedy-fantasy about a Dorothy Malone, William Demarest, Richtalentless chef (Gellar) struggling to keep ard Eyer, Lurene Tuttle. Remake of George her late mother’s restaurant afloat, who is Arliss’ THE MAN WHO PLAYED GOD betransformed by a magical crab (!) into a comes a ludicrous vehicle for Liberace. master cook whose concoctions seem to Camp classic written by Irving Wallace, have special powers. Along the way, she with the star’s brother George serving as musical adviser.▼● becomes romantically involved with an executive (Flanery) who is setting up a gourSince You Went Away (1944) 172m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Cromwell. Claudette Colmet restaurant. Occasionally likable, but far too predictable. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 bert, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, ShirSimpsons Movie, The (2007) C-87m. ★★★ ley Temple, Monty Woolley, Hattie McD: David Silverman. Voices of Dan CastelDaniel, Agnes Moorehead, Craig Stevens, laneta, Julie Kavner,Nancy Cartwright, YeardKeenan Wynn, Nazimova, Robert Walker, [ 1256 ]

Lionel Barrymore. Tear-jerker supreme with rebel, a ‘‘nice’’ girl, an understanding teacher, Colbert at her valiant best. Story of family and jelly-spined administrators all locking suffering through WW2 with many tragehorns during pageant rehearsals. Threatens to dies and complications dates a bit, but still go over the brink throughout . . . and evenis very smooth film. Producer David O. tually does. [PG-13]▼● Selznick wrote the screenplay, from MarSing and Swing (1963-British) 75m. ★★ garet Buell Wilder’s book. Beautifully phoD: Lance Comfort. David Hemmings, Vetographed by Lee Garmes and Stanley ronica Hurst, Jennifer Moss, John Pike. Cortez. Max Steiner’s score won an OsVirtue of modest musical is Hemmings in car. Film debuts of Guy Madison (then an lead role of messenger boy who joins pals actual sailor, in the role of sailor Harold in combo; they record a song, and find Smith) and John Derek (an extra).▼●쩠 their musical career in full sway. OrigiSin City (2005) C-124m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank nally titled LIVE IT UP. Singapore (1947) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Miller, Robert Rodriguez. Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, RosaBrahm. Fred MacMurray, Ava Gardner, Rorio Dawson, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, land Culver, Richard Haydn, Spring ByingMickey Rourke, Carla Gugino, Elijah Wood, ton, Thomas Gomez, Porter Hall. Alluring Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Powers Boothe, drama of trader/pearl smuggler MacMurray Michael Clarke Duncan, Josh Hartnett, Rutger returning to Singapore after a five-year abHauer, Michael Madsen, Nick Stahl, Nicky sence, recalling his previous romantic relaKatt, Marley Shelton. Vignettes, both short and tionship with Gardner. He thinks she was long, from Frank Miller’s graphic novels about killed during a Japanese bombing attack, a violent, corrupt city full of hard-boiled charbut she really was a victim of amnesia. The acters (and naked women) are brought to life characters in this seem to be very loosely in a computer-enhanced film noir world. Stylmodeled after those in CASABLANCA. Remade as ISTANBUL.▼ ish, audacious, but completely artificial; the initial excitement of watching these images Singapore, Singapore (1968-French) Csoon dies off but the film refuses to do the 103m. ★★ D: Bernard Toublanc Michel. same. Miller fans and adolescent boys will Sean Flynn, Marika Green, Terry Downes, probably rate this much higher. Quentin TaranMarc Michel, Peter Gayford, Denis Berry. tino is billed as Special Guest Director. OnSo-so espionage tale interesting primarily screen title is FRANK MILLER’S SIN for Flynn (Errol’s son) playing a CIA CITY. Alternate version runs 147m. HD 24P agent looking into the disappearance of a Widescreen. [R]▼쩠 number of Marines in Singapore. Based on ★★1 Sinful Davey (1969-British) C-95m. ⁄2 Jean Bruce’s novel. Aka FIVE ASHORE D: John Huston. John Hurt, Pamela Franklin, IN SINGAPORE. Nigel Davenport, Ronald Fraser, Robert MorSing, Baby, Sing (1936) 87m. ★★★ D: Sidney ley, Fidelma Murphy, Maxine Audley, Brenda Lanfield. Alice Faye, Adolphe Menjou, GregFricker. Tale of 19th-century Scottish highory Ratoff, Ted Healy, Patsy Kelly, Tony wayman and his love for a ‘‘nice’’ girl is rather Martin. Pleasant musicomedy stolen by Menordinary, but does have pleasant performance jou as John Barrymore prototype involved by Franklin. Based on a true story. Anjelica with publicity-seeking Faye. Songs: ‘‘When Huston has a bit part. Panavision. [M/PG] Did You Leave Heaven?,’’ ‘‘You Turned the Sinful Life, A (1989) C-90m. ★★ D: WilTables on Me,’’ title tune. The Ritz Brothers liam Schreiner. Anita Morris, Rick Overton, are quite good in their feature-film debut. Sing Boy Sing (1958) 90m. ★★ D: Henry Dennis Christopher, Mark Rolston, Cynthia Szigeti, Blair Tefkin, Cynthia Songe. Ephron. Tommy Sands, Lili Gentle, EdVery offbeat comedy (filmed on a low, mond O’Brien, John McIntire, Nick Adams, low budget) about a former Sonny and Diane Jergens, Josephine Hutchinson, Jerry Cher dancer named Claire Vin Blanc who Paris, Regis Toomey. A teen idol and Elvis fights to keep her rather unusual child, Baby, Presley clone (Sands) is manipulated by his from being removed to a more ‘‘respectable’’ cold-hearted manager (O’Brien) and kept environment. Not for everyone, but it does apart from his roots. Muddled relic of its era, give Morris a great vehicle for her comedic which purports to expose the evils of rock ’n’ talent. Based on the play Just Like the Pom roll and showbiz (in between Sands’ endless Pom Girls, originally presented by L.A.’s musical numbers). CinemaScope. Singer Not the Song, The (1961-British) Groundlings comedy troupe. [R]▼● C-129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy (Ward) Baker. Dirk Sing (1989) C-97m. BOMB D: Richard Baskin. Lorraine Bracco, Peter Dobson, Bogarde, John Mills, Mylene Demongeot, Jessica Steen, Louise Lasser, George Eric Pohlmann. Offbeat, sluggish yarn set in DiCenzo, Patti LaBelle, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Mexico involving conflict of Catholic priest Title refers to a true-life, decades-old tradiand local bandit to control the town, with tion—a song-dance competition (or ‘‘Sing’’) Demongeot in love with the clergyman. between seniors and underclassmen in BrookCinemaScope.▼ lyn high schools. Script (by Dean Pitchford) Singing Detective, The (2003) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Keith Gordon. Robert Downey, Jr., is decades old, too: B-movie cliche´s about a [ 1257 ]

Robin Wright Penn, Mel Gibson, Jeremy Crowe. Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon, CampNortham, Katie Holmes, Carla Gugino, Adrien bell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Sheila Kelley, Brody, Jon Polito, Saul Rubinek, Alfre WoodJim True, Bill Pullman, James Le Gros, ard, Amy Aquino. A writer who’s hospitalized Devon Raymond, Camilo Gallardo, Ally with a horrific skin condition fantasizes about Walker, Jeremy Piven, Paul Giamatti, Tim his gumshoe alter ego and hallucinates a seBurton. Life in the Seattle singles scene; it ries of musical numbers that relate to his ain’t easy. Lively seriocomedy with some problems, both real and imagined. The late appealing performances (especially by Scott Dennis Potter reconceived his brilliant 1986 and Sedgwick), but never as solid—or as British miniseries as an American-based feainsightful—as you hope it will be. Film has ture film, and changed the time period from music, setting, and style galore, but also a the 1940s to the 1950s, but in compressing rather uneven script. Eric Stoltz (who has (and even lightening the tone of) the material appeared in all of the director’s films), Tom he lost some of its impact. The results are Skerritt, and Peter Horton have amusing uneven, though still often striking. Gibson cameos. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 also coproduced. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Single Standard, The (1929) 73m. ★★ D: Singing Nun, The (1966) C-98m. ★★ D: John S. Robertson. Greta Garbo, Nils Asther, Henry Koster. Debbie Reynolds, Ricardo John Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, Lane Montalban, Greer Garson, Agnes Moorehead, Chandler. Greta is a San Francisco debutante, Chad Everett, Katharine Ross, Ed Sullivan, a free soul who breaks convention and has an Juanita Moore, Tom Drake. Syrupy comicaffair with artist Asther. Pretty silly stuff, but book stuff based on real-life Belgian nun Garbo is as beautiful as ever. From an Adela whose devotion is split between religious work Rogers St. Johns novel.▼●쩠 and making hit records. Panavision. ▼●쩠 Single White Female (1992) C-107m. ★★1 Singin’ in The Rain (1952) C-102m. ★★★★ ⁄2 D: Barbet Schroeder. Bridget Fonda, D: Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen. Gene Kelly, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steven Weber, Peter Debbie Reynolds, Donald O’Connor, Jean Friedman, Stephen Tobolowsky, Frances Hagen, Cyd Charisse, Millard Mitchell, Bay, Rene Estevez, Ken Tobey. SelfDouglas Fowley, Madge Blake, Rita Moemployed N.Y. career woman (Fonda), reno. Perhaps the greatest movie musical her engagement kaput, ends up sharing her of all time, fashioned by Betty Comden and dream apartment with the Roommate from Adolph Green from a catalogue of Arthur Hell. PERSONA meets Roman Polanski’s Freed–Nacio Herb Brown songs. The setting entire oeuvre in well-acted thriller that’s is Hollywood during the transition to talkies, terrific for about an hour—until standard with Hagen giving the performance of a lifeslasher-pic silliness sets in. Screendom’s time as Kelly’s silent screen costar, whose first psychological probing to wrap up with voice could shatter glass. Kelly’s title number, a Chrissie Hynde vocal. Based on John O’Connor’s ‘‘Make ’Em Laugh,’’ are just Lutz novel SWF Seeks Same. Followed by a two highlights in a film packed with gems. direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Later a Broadway musical.▼●쩠 Sing, You Sinners (1938) 88m. ★★★ D: Single Girl, A (1995-French) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 Wesley Ruggles. Bing Crosby, Fred MacD: Benoit Jacquot. Virginie Ledoyen, Benoit Murray, Donald O’Connor, Elizabeth PatMagimel, Dominique Valadie, Vera Briole, terson, Ellen Drew, John Gallaudet. Gambling Michel Bompoil, Jean-Cretien Sibertin-Blanc. gay-blade Crosby can’t face responsibility, Bright, scintillating slice-of-life, told in real despite prodding of brother MacMurray. time, about a young woman (Ledoyen) Fine film with ‘‘I’ve Got a Pocketful of whose personal life is complicated to say Dreams’’ and memorable ‘‘Small Fry’’ the least, and who must contend with addinumber featuring young O’Connor. tional pressures in her new job as a roomSinister Invasion (1971-Mexican-U.S.) service waitress in a fancy hotel. Exudes C-90m. BOMB D: Jack Hill, Juan Ibanez. the freshness and spontaneity of the early Boris Karloff, Enrique Guzman, Christa French New Wave; 19-year-old Ledoyen Linder, Maura Monti, Yerye Beirute, Sergio (who seems like Anna Karina reborn) offers Kleiner. 19th-century scientist Karloff’s a star-making performance.▼쩠 experiments accidentally summon aliens who Single Handed SEE: Sailor of the King dominate a local Ripper-like killer. Cheap, Single Room Furnished (1968) C-93m. ★1⁄2 flaccid, ugly film, one of four Karloff D: Matteo Ottaviano (Matt Cimber). Jayne worked on simultaneously in 1968; unforMansfield, Dorothy Keller, Fabian Dean, tunately this was his last film work. Aka Billy M. Greene, Martin Horsey, Walter INCREDIBLE INVASION, INVASION SINIESTRA, and ALIEN TERROR. ▼ Gregg. Pathetic woman, twice impregnated and thrice deserted, decides to become prosSinister Urge, The (1960) 75m. BOMB titute. Mansfield’s last film, released after D: Edward D. Wood, Jr. Kenne Duncan, her death, opens with Walter Winchell tribDuke Moore, Carl Anthony, Jean Fontaine, ute and degenerates as she attempts to disDino Fantini, Jeanne Willardson. Dedicated cops Duncan and Moore set out to play serious acting talent.▼쩠 Singles (1992) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cameron smash the ‘‘smut picture racket,’’ which is [ 1258 ]

run by a brassy blonde who writes with a inson a missionary nurse involved in romance and native conflicts.쩠 four-foot quill pen. One of Wood’s leastknown works demonstrates with complete Sioux City (1994) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lou conviction how photos of plump women in Diamond Phillips. Lou Diamond Phillips, their underwear are the principal cause of Salli Richardson, Melinda Dillon, Lise Cutjuvenile deliquency. Aka THE YOUNG ter, Apesanahkwat, Gary Farmer, Ralph AND THE IMMORAL.▼●쩠 Waite, Tantoo Cardinal, Adam Roarke. Sink the Bismarck! (1960-British) 97m. ★★★ Overworked doctor Phillips, Lakota Indian by D: Lewis Gilbert. Kenneth More, Dana Wynbirth but adopted as a child by an affluent ter, Carl Mohner, Laurence Naismith, GeofJewish couple, goes on vacation and returns frey Keen, Karel Stepanek, Michael Hordern. to the reservation where he was born; there, Good WW2 film based on fact. Exciting sea he learns of the death of his real mother, battles as British navy starts deadly hunt for faces anti-Indian sentiment, and ultimately famed German war vessel. Script by Edconfronts the mysteries of his past. Sensitively mund H. North. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 handled drama is engrossing and suspenseful until the ridiculous finale. [PG-13]▼쩠 Sinner’s Holiday (1947) SEE: Christmas Eve Siren of Bagdad (1953) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sin Nombre (2009-U.S.-Mexican) C-96m. Richard Quine. Paul Henreid, Patricia Me★★★ D: Cary Joji Fukunaga. Paulina Gaitan, dina, Hans Conried, Charlie Lung. ComedyEdgar Flores, Kristyan Ferrer, Tenoch adventure of magician and friend trying to Huerta Mejı´a, Diana Garcı´a, Luis Fernando save dancing girls in slave market. Conried Pen˜a, He´ctor Jime´nez. Vivid, painfully beprovides film’s best moments. lievable drama about a Honduran girl who Sirens (1994-Australian-British) C-94m. ★★★ reluctantly joins her father and uncle in D: John Duigan. Hugh Grant, Tara Fitzboarding a train for Mexico as the first step gerald, Sam Neill, Elle Macpherson, Portia toward emigrating to the U.S. Meanwhile, a de Rossi, Kate Fischer, Pamela Rabe, Ben Mexican gang member whose leader has Mendelsohn, John Polson. Piquant social betrayed his trust joins the trek, though he comedy about a young, liberal British minknows he’s a marked man. Borders on meloister and his wife who drop in on scandalous drama, with almost Shakespearean overtones Australian artist Norman Lindsay (Neill), yet palpably real every step of the way. Imand find themselves seduced (somewhat) by pressive feature debut for writer-director Fuhis libertarian ways—and his three gorkunaga. Super 35. [R] geous, free-thinking models, who have no Sin Noticias de Dios SEE: Don’t Tempt Me qualms about posing nude. Some may be Sin of Harold Diddlebock, The (1947) attracted by the prospect of seeing su90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Preston Sturges. Harold permodel Macpherson naked, but she also Lloyd, Frances Ramsden, Jimmy Conlin, delivers a good performance. Droll and Raymond Walburn, Edgar Kennedy, Arline imaginative work by writer-director Duigan Judge, Lionel Stander, Rudy Vallee. Fascinat(who also appears onscreen as the earnest ing idea of updating Lloyd’s 1920s character minister). Artist Lindsay was portrayed by to show what’s happened to that go-getter James Mason in the 1969 film AGE OF CONSENT. [R]▼●쩠 doesn’t fulfill its promise. Aimless comedy can’t top opening sequence from THE Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980-British) 72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve Roberts. Trevor HowFRESHMAN (1925), despite enthusiasm of fine cast. Reedited to 79m. and reissued in ard, Patrick Magee, Denise Coffey, J. G. 1950 as MAD WEDNESDAY.▼쩠 Devlin, Sheila Reid, Harry Fowler. How★★★ Sin of Madelon Claudet, The (1931) ard is fine as an eccentric, alcoholic aristo73m. D: Edgar Selwyn. Helen Hayes, crat who attempts to exorcise a family Lewis Stone, Neil Hamilton, Robert Young, spirit from his domain. Strange but enterCliff Edwards, Jean Hersholt, Marie Pretaining, and veddy British. vost, Karen Morley, Charles Winninger, Sirocco (1951) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Curtis Bernhardt. Alan Hale, Frankie Darro. First-rate, fastHumphrey Bogart, Marta Toren, Lee J. Cobb, moving soaper in the MADAME X vein, Everett Sloane, Gerald Mohr, Zero Mostel, about a woman who sacrifices everything so Nick Dennis, Onslow Stevens, Ludwig Doher illegitimate son will have a good life. nath, Harry Guardino, Jeff Corey. Bogart’s Hayes won an Oscar portraying woman company producedthis slick if superficial parawho goes from bumpkin to Parisian sophisphrase of CASABLANCA with Bogie as a ticate to suffering mother to haggard streetgunrunner who’s the unofficial boss of Damaswalker—and she’s terrific.▼ cus in 1925, vying with French military officer Sins of Lola Montes, The SEE: Lola Montes Cobb for the affections of Toren. A strong supSins of Rachel Cade, The (1961) C-124m. porting cast adds flavor. ▼●쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. Angie DickinSister Act (1992) C-100m. ★★★ D: Emile son, Peter Finch, Roger Moore, Woody Ardolino. Whoopi Goldberg, Maggie Smith, Strode, Rafer Johnson, Juano Hernandez, Harvey Keitel, Bill Nunn, Kathy Najimy, Mary Wickes, Scatman Crothers. Turgid Wendy Makkena, Mary Wickes, Robert melodrama set in Belgian Congo with DickMiranda, Richard Portnow, Joseph Maher. [ 1259 ]

A Reno lounge singer, targeted for murdupe in drug-smuggling. Hurt by needder by her mobster boyfriend, hides out in lessly negative finale. Savage also coma convent—where she shakes things up as posed the score and sings several folk ballads pleasantly. [R]▼쩠 the new choir director. Crowd-pleasing comedy, cannily written (by Joseph Howard, aka Sister Kenny (1946) 116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: DudPaul Rudnick) and directed, with a plum part ley Nichols. Rosalind Russell, Alexander for Whoopi—though veteran character actress Knox, Dean Jagger, Philip Merivale, BeuWickes has many of the funniest lines. Follah Bondi, Dorothy Peterson. Russell shines lowed by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 in title role, as Australian nurse who initiSister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) Cated treatment for polio. Engrossing drama 106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Duke. Whoopi Goldis among the better Hollywood biopics. berg, Maggie Smith, Kathy Najimy, Barnard Scripted by Nichols, Knox, and Mary Hughes, Mary Wickes, James Coburn, MiMcCarthy, from Elizabeth Kenny’s autobiography And They Shall Walk.▼● chael Jeter, Wendy Makkena, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Robert Pastorelli, Thomas Gottschalk, Sister My Sister (1994-British) C-102m. ★★★ Jennifer Love Hewitt. Affable piffle unconD: Nancy Meckler. Julie Walters, Joely vincingly finds Goldberg back with the nuns, Richardson, Jodhi May, Sophie Thursfield. coaching students in a choral competition as Compelling psychological drama about a heavy Coburn plots to close their school. dour madame (Walters), obsessed with her Though someone involved apparently saw respectability, who controls her ungainly THE BELLS OF ST. MARY’S a few too daughter (Thursfield) and two maids (Richmany times, needless sequel does send you ardson, May); the latter are sisters who out with a smile, thanks to a smashing musical share a complicated emotional—and sexfinale and an end-credit sequence that’s the ual—bond. Strains among the characters best thing in the picture. Very slow going at build, leading to emotional fireworks. A first. [PG]▼●쩠 based-on-fact story that served as the basis Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The of Jean Genet’s The Maids. [R]▼쩠 (2005) C-119m. ★★★ D: Ken Kwapis. Amber Sisters, The (1938) 98m. ★★★ D: Anatole Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, Litvak. Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Anita Blake Lively, Jenna Boyd, Bradley Whitford, Louise, Ian Hunter, Donald Crisp, Beulah Nancy Travis, Rachel Ticotin, Mike Vogel, Bondi, Jane Bryan, Lee Patrick, Mayo Methot, Leonardo Nam. Story follows four best Laura Hope Crews, Dick Foran, Henry Travfriends spending their first summer apart from ers, Patric Knowles, Alan Hale. Davis, Louise, one another and sharing a magical pair of and Bryan are sisters whose marital problems jeans. Despite being of various shapes and are traced in this lavish film; Bette’s got the sizes, each of them fits perfectly into the most trouble, of course, with unreliable huspants, and as every girl has her turn with band Flynn in San Francisco, 1905.▼ them, life-changing events occur. Sweet but Sisters (1973) C-93m. ★★★ D: Brian not sappy; the four leads give excellent perDe Palma. Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, formances in a charming coming-of-age Charles Durning, Barnard Hughes, Wiltale. Based on the popular young-adult book liam Finley, Mary Davenport, Olympia Duby Ann Brashares. Followed by a sequel. kakis. De Palma’s first venture into HitchPanavision. [PG]▼쩠 cock territory, about separated Siamese Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The twins (Kidder), one of whom is a homicidal (2008) C-111m. ★★★ D: Sanaa Hamri. maniac, and the reporter (Salt) who—shades Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America of REAR WINDOW—thinks she witnessed Ferrera, Blake Lively, Rachel Nichols, Tom one of the slayings. Eerie, gory, tremenWisdom, Rachel Ticotin, Leonardo Nam, dously suspenseful, with one of Bernard Michael Rady, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Blythe Herrmann’s most chilling scores. Remade for DVD in 2007. [R]▼쩠 Danner. The four pals are now in college and their friendship has been strained, so when Sisters, The (2005) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur summer arrives they go their separate ways, Allan Seidelman. Maria Bello, Elizabeth no longer dependent on each other—and the Banks, Erika Christensen, Stephen Culp, fabled pair of jeans—to see them through, Tony Goldwyn, Mary Stuart Masterson, or so they think. Simple, straightforward seEric McCormack, Alessandro Nivola, Chris quel nearly matches the spirit and charm of O’Donnell, Rip Torn, Greg Foote. Chethe original, and even returns to picturekhov’s play Three Sisters ‘‘inspired’’ an postcard Greece; the four appealing acAmerican version (by Richard Alfieri), tresses are in fine form. Kyle MacLachlan which has now inspired this deadly film appears unbilled. [PG-13]쩠 about four siblings who just can’t seem to Sister-in-Law, The (1974) C-85m. ★★ D: get along. Talk about your dysfunctional Joseph Ruben. John Savage, W. G. Mcfamilies! The Russian setting of the original Millan, Anne Saxon, Meredith Baer, Jon has been replaced by a faculty lounge in a Oppenheim, Tom Mahoney. Interesting N.Y.C. university, where endless chunks of curio has Savage becoming involved with verbose dialogue are hurled at one another destructive title character as his brother’s by a starry, if uneven, cast. Most of the [ 1260 ]

drivel uttered by this assemblage of acaSituation, The (2007) C-106m. ★★ D: Philip demics wouldn’t get a passing grade. [R]쩠 Haas. Connie Nielsen, Damian Lewis, Mido ★1 Sister, Sister (1987) C-91m. ⁄2 D: Bill Hamada, Saı¨d Amadis, Nasser Memarzia, Condon. Eric Stoltz, Jennifer Jason Leigh, JuMahmoud El Lozy, John Slattery, Tom Mcdith Ivey, Dennis Lipscomb, Anne Pitoniak, Carthy, Driss Roukh. American journalist Benjamin Moulton. Leigh and Ivey are title (Nielsen) covers the war in Iraq and juggles siblings, two women with myriad problems romantic involvements with a U.S. intelliand repressions. They’ve converted their pargence officer (Lewis) and an Iraqi photograents’ mansion into a dreary guest house . . . pher (Hamada). Lackluster attempt to one which you will not want to visit. Thorinvolve us in a love triangle while poroughly unappealing. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 traying various points of view about the Sisters, or the Balance of Happiness ‘‘situation’’ in Iraq. First screenplay by (1979-German) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Margarethe journalist Wendell Steavenson isn’t nearly von Trotta. Jutta Lampe, Gudrun Gabriel, as interesting as the many documentaries Jessica Fruh, Rainer Delventhal, Konstantin covering the subject.쩠 Wecker. Slow but not unrewarding psychoSituation Hopeless—But Not Serious logical study of the complex relationship (1965) 97m. ★★ D: Gottfried Reinhardt. between two sisters; one, a successful execAlec Guinness, Michael Connors, Robert utive secretary, is supporting the other, a Redford, Anita Hoefer, Mady Rahl, Paul graduate student in biology.▼쩠 Dahlke. Odd little comedy, from a Robert Sister Streetfighter (1975-Japanese) CShaw novel, about German clerk Guinness 81m. ★1⁄2 D: Kazuhiko Yamaguchi. Etsuko holding two American (Redford, Connors) ‘‘Sue’’ Shiomi, Mie ‘‘May’’ Hayakawa, prisoners for years after WW2 has ended. Hiroshi ‘‘Harry’’ Kondo, Shinichi ‘‘Sonny’’ Interesting characterization by Guinness, Chiba, Sanae Obori, Tatsuya Nanjo. Shiomi but a flat film. Six Black Horses (1962) C-80m. ★★ D: kicks some major butt when her spy brother is captured by drug runners in Hong Kong. Harry Keller. Audie Murphy, Dan Duryea, The most outlandishly campy and carJoan O’Brien, George Wallace. O’Brien pays toonish of the STREET FIGHTER series, two men to take her across Indian lands, inthis is a crudely made concoction of sex and tending to murder gunman of duo who killed sadism, with Chiba only appearing in a few her husband. Mediocre Western with a Burt scenes. Actionscope. [R]▼●쩠 Kennedy script apparently left over from the Sitting Bull (1954) C-105m. ★★ D: Sidney Randolph Scott–Budd Boetticher series. Six Bridges to Cross (1955) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Salkow. Dale Robertson, Mary Murphy, J. Carrol Naish, Iron Eyes Cody, John Litel, Joseph Pevney. Tony Curtis, Julia (Julie) Bill (William) Hopper. Sluggish Western Adams, George Nader, Sal Mineo, Jay C. about cavalry major Robertson, who is Flippen. Entertaining tale of career criminal compassionate toward the Sioux and Curtis and the events leading up to a major clashes with his superiors over their disreheist; loosely based on the infamous Boston gard for Indian rights. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Brink’s truck robbery. Mineo’s film debut. Sitting Ducks (1980) C-90m. ★★★ D: Henry Six Days Seven Nights (1998) C-101m. ★★★ D: Ivan Reitman. Harrison Ford, Anne Jaglom. Michael Emil, Zack Norman, Patrice Townsend, Irene Forrest, Richard RoHeche, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline manus, Henry Jaglom. Energetic, funny Obradors, Temuera Morrison, Allison Jansleeper about timid Syndicate accountant ney, Douglas Weston, Danny Trejo, Taj Emil and womanizing pal Norman, who Mahal. Entertaining romantic comedy about take a day’s collections and rip off the Mob. a N.Y.C. career woman who’s forced to inEmil and Norman have comedy team potenterrupt an idyllic tropical vacation with her tial as the bickering buddies, Townsend boyfriend for a business side trip. Then her (then Mrs. Jaglom) is luscious as a woman charter plane crash-lands, and she’s stranded on a deserted island with her pilot—who’s they pick up. Lots of belly laughs. [R]▼쩠 1 ★★★ Sitting Pretty (1948) 84m. not exactly her type (and vice versa). An ⁄2 D: Walter Lang. Robert Young, Maureen O’Hara, obvious setup is played out with great verve Clifton Webb, Richard Haydn, Louise by the stars. Ford is especially loose and Allbritton, Ed Begley. Webb is perfect as funny. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 self-centered genius who accepts job as Six Degrees of Separation (1993) Cfull-time babysitter in gossip-laden subur111m. ★★★ D: Fred Schepisi. Stockard ban town. Highly entertaining, followed Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland, Ian by the MR. BELVEDERE comedies.▼ McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Bruce Davison, Sitting Target (1972-British) C-93m. ★1⁄2 Richard Masur, Anthony Michael Hall, D: Douglas Hickox. Oliver Reed, Jill St. Heather Graham, Eric Thal, Anthony Rapp, John, Ian McShane, Edward Woodward, Osgood Perkins, Catherine Kellner, Jeffrey Frank Finlay, Freddie Jones. Reed breaks Abrams, Kitty Carlisle Hart. Stylish, openedout of prison to settle two scores—one of up adaptation by John Guare of his stage sucthem with his cheating wife (St. John). cess about a handsome con man who conViolent, generally unpleasant film. [R] vinces well-off, gullible New Yorkers that he is [ 1261 ]

Sidney Poitier’s son. Impressively acted film Michael Rooker, Sarah Wynter, Wendy Crewflows smoothly in its first two acts, before the son, Ken Pogue, Christopher Lawford. Intersatire gives way to chest-thumping tragedy. esting sci-fi premise set in the near future, Dominant virtue is the widescreen snap Schepwhen cloning animals is common but cloning isi gives to the N.Y. settings, both indoors and human beings is illegal. After ordering a hit out. Based on a true incident. Many N.Y.C. soon helicopter pilot Schwarzenegger, megalociety types pop up in cameos. Super 35. maniac tycoon Goldwyn has a ‘‘copy’’ made; [R]▼●쩠 instead, there are two Arnolds on the loose, Six of a Kind (1934) 62m. ★★★ D: Leo seeking revenge. Entertaining if overly plotty McCarey. W. C. Fields, George Burns, Gracie film benefits from a sharp sense of humor. Allen, Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, Alison Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Skipworth. George and Gracie drive Mary 633 Squadron (1964-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 and Charlie crazy traveling westward on vacaD: Walter Grauman. Cliff Robertson, George tion; Fields as pool-playing sheriff adds to Chakiris, Maria Perschy, Harry Andrews. Preconfusion. Zany, wonderful nonsense.▼쩠 tentious WW2 aviation film about the group’s Six Pack (1982) C-110m. ★★ D: Daniel air mission to bomb German-run factory in Petrie. Kenny Rogers, Diane Lane, Erin Norway. Robertson and Chakiris are stiffGray, Barry Corbin, Terry Kiser, Bob lipped throughout; script by James Clavell and Hannah, Anthony Michael Hall. Stock car Howard Koch. Panavision. ▼●쩠 driver more or less inherits six orphans Sixth Man, The (1997) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: whose idea of good clean fun is stripping Randall Miller. Marlon Wayans, Kadeem down someone else’s auto. Not as bad as it Hardison, Kevin Dunn, Michael Michele, sounds, but it won’t make your day, eiDavid Paymer, Gary Jones. Disney couldn’t ther; Rogers’ theatrical debut. [PG]▼쩠 stop at remaking ANGELS IN THE OUTSix-Pack Annie (1975) C-88m. ★★★ D: GrayFIELD and THE ABSENT MINDED PROdon F. David. Lindsay Bloom, Jana Bellan, FESSOR: they had to combine them, in this Ray Danton, Joe Higgins, Stubby Kaye,Louisa cloying fantasy about a dead college basketMoritz, Richard Kennedy, Doodles Weaver, ball star who spurs his brother (Wayans) Bruce Boxleitner, Pedro Gonzalez-Gonzalez, and their team to gravity-defying court Sid Melton. Minor drive-in classic has busty feats. Your brain will need a liberal applicaBloom as a young girl who goes to Miami to tion of Ben-Gay after being pummeled by become a hooker to raise money to save her the idiocy of this foul-mouthed comedy. mom’s failing diner. Includes a very funny bit Wayans mugs outrageously, but he had to do something. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 by Kennedy as a drunk Texan. [R] 16 Blocks (2006-U.S.-German) C-102m. ★★★ Sixth Sense, The (1999) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: D: Richard Donner. Bruce Willis, Mos Def, M. Night Shyamalan. Bruce Willis, Toni David Morse, Jenna Stern, Casey Sander, Collette, Haley Joel Osment, Olivia WilCylk Cozart, David Zayas, Robert Racki. A liams, Donnie Wahlberg, Glenn Fitzgerald, burnt-out N.Y.C. cop is given the no-brainer Mischa Barton. Exceptional thriller about a job of escorting a witness from lockup to the dedicated child psychologist who faces his courthouse, but their 16-block journey is intergreatest challenge in reaching—and underrupted by assassins who want the witness dead. standing—a young boy who spends his life It turns out there are no clear-cut good guys or paralyzed by fear, because he lives in a world bad guys in this suspenseful yarn laced with of ghosts. Young Osment is extraordinarily incisive character snapshots and the irresistible good; the film is sinuous and creepy without ingredient of a man in need of redemption. Acbeing manipulative. Writer-director Shyation scenes are pulse-pounding, and the performalan also has a cameo as a doctor. [PG13] ▼쩠 mances first-rate. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Sixteen Candles (1984) C-93m. ★★ D: Sixty Six (2006-British) C-95m. ★★★ D: John Hughes. Molly Ringwald, Anthony MiPaul Weiland. Helena Bonham Carter, chael Hall, Michael Schoeffling, Paul Dooley, Eddie Marsan, Gregg Sulkin, Peter SerafiJustin Henry, Gedde Watanabe, Blanche nowicz, Catherine Tate, Stephen Rea, Ben Baker, Carlin Glynn, Edward Andrews, Billie Newton, Richard Katz, Geraldine SomerBird, Carole Cook, Max Showalter, John Cuville. A misfit lad with an eccentric family sack, Joan Cusack, Jami Gertz, Beth Ringrelates the misadventures leading up to his wald, Haviland Morris. A girl turns 16 and bar mitzvah in 1966—the same year Endreams of finding Mr. Right—little dreaming gland played Germany in the World Cup. that he’s already got his eye on her. ObserBilled, rather disarmingly, as ‘‘a true-ish vant, potentially winning comedy cluttered up story’’ based on director Weiland’s experiwith cheap jokes and offensive material. Reences. Slight but endearingly funny, welldeemed somewhat by Ringwald’s charming cast comedy of recognition. [PG-13]쩠 performance and Hall’s engaging portrayal of Six Weeks (1982) C-107m. ★★ D: Tony a would-be hustler. [PG]▼●쩠 Bill. Dudley Moore, Mary Tyler Moore, 6th Day, The (2000) C-124m. ★★★ D: Roger Katherine Healy, Shannon Wilcox, Bill Spottiswoode. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Calvert, Joe Regalbuto. Curiously unmovGoldwyn, Michael Rapaport, Robert Duvall, ing tearjerker about a politician who meets [ 1262 ]

a precocious young girl who’s dying of leukemia, and becomes involved with her mother. Genteel, well acted (Dudley is absolutely charming) but hollow; the characters just don’t ring true. Healy, in real life, is an award-winning ballerina. Dudley also composed the score. [PG]▼● Sizzle Beach, U.S.A. (1986) C-93m. BOMB D: Richard Brander. Terry Congie, Leslie Brander, Roselyn Royce, Kevin Costner. Ultra-low-budget beach-bimbo junk, of interest solely as the first film appearance of Costner. Made in 1974. [R]▼●쩠 Skateboard (1977) C-97m. ★★ D: George Gage. Allen Garfield, Kathleen Lloyd, Leif Garrett, Richard Van Der Wyk, Tony Alva, Antony Carbone. In trouble with his bookie, Garfield organizes local skateboarders into moneymaking team. Good premise given lackluster treatment. [PG]▼ Skatetown, U.S.A. (1979) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: William A. Levey. Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Ron Palillo, Ruth Buzzi, Dave Mason, Greg Bradford, Kelly Lang, Billy Barty, Dorothy Stratten. Comedy-fantasy for the light of heart and slow of brain, with occasionally amusing comedy bits spicing plotless look at the ultimate rollerdisco palace. Film’s only real distinction is that it’s better than ROLLER BOOGIE. Film debut of Patrick Swayze. [PG] Skeeter (1994) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clark Brandon. Tracy Griffith, Jim Youngs, Charles Napier, Jay Robinson, William Sanderson, Eloy Casados, John Putch, Saxon Trainor, Stacy Edwards, Michael J. Pollard, Buck Flower. Mysterious deaths around a dwindling desert community are traced to toxic waste and the crow-sized mosquitoes it has spawned. Good acting and imaginative, inventive direction result in a funny little thriller that almost overcomes its routine story.

story in his own words—and those of various friends, colleagues, and patrons, ranging from Philip Johnson to Dennis Hopper. Because Gehry is candid and at ease with Pollack, the film is both entertaining and illuminating. [PG-13]쩠 Ski Bum, The (1971) C-136m. BOMB D: Bruce Clark. Zalman King, Charlotte Rampling, Joseph Mell, Dimitra Arliss, Anna Karen. Deservedly obscure film version of Romain Gary’s novel about a ski bum who goes establishment, winds up a pawn in a shady business deal. Aka POINT ZERO. [R] ▼ Skidoo (1968) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Otto Preminger. Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin, John Phillip Law, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, George Raft, Cesar Romero, Mickey Rooney, Groucho Marx, Austin Pendleton. Avalon plays an up-and-coming gangster, Groucho a mob kingpin named ‘‘God,’’ and every single credit to the film is sung. Consequently, about one in a thousand will have the temperament to like this; everyone else will sit there dumbstruck. Music score by Harry Nilsson. Groucho’s final film. Panavision. [M] Ski Fever (1969) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Curt Siodmak. Martin Milner, Claudia Martin, Vivi Bach, Dietmar Schoenherr, Toni Sailor, Dorit Dom. American ski instructor giving lessons in Austria to finance his education is unpleasantly surprised to learn his duties include entertaining guests after hours. Why complain when most of them are good-looking girls? Claudia is Dean Martin’s daughter. [M] Skin Deep (1989) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blake Edwards. John Ritter, Vincent Gardenia, Alyson Reed, Joel Brooks, Julianne Phillips, Chelsea Field, Nina Foch, Denise Crosby, Michael Kidd, Sheryl Lee Ralph. Successful L.A. writer can’t keep his hedo▼●쩠 Skeleton Key, The (2005) C-104m. ★★ D: nistic life on track—not with diversions Iain Softley. Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, around like wine (he’s an alcoholic), John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant, women (he’s insatiable), and song (Cole Maxine Barnett. New Orleans nursing stuPorter’s a favorite). Spotty, often obvious dent Hudson gets a job at a decrepit house comedy from writer-director Edwards does in the bayous where she cares for mute, have some real laughs—and some unforgettable condoms. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 paralyzed Hurt and takes orders from his domineering sister Rowlands. Using a key Skin Game, The (1931-British) 86m. ★★ D: that opens every door, she finds hoodoo (not Alfred Hitchcock. Edmund Gwenn, Jill Esvoodoo) paraphernalia in the attic, and mysmond, John Longden, C. V. France, Helen terious events follow. Well produced and Haye, Phyllis Konstam. Gwenn adds the only occasionally suspenseful, but populated with spark of life to this dull adaptation of the unpleasant characters and a story that develGalsworthy play about rivalry between neighops too slowly. Another in a long line of boring landowners. Hitchcock claims he horror thrillers aimed at a female audience. didn’t make it by choice, and one can believe Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 it considering the many long, static dialogue Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006) C-83m. scenes; very atypical of the Master.▼쩠 ★★★ D: Sydney Pollack. Highly personal Skin Game (1971) C-102m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paul portrait of the innovative architect, seen Bogart. James Garner, Louis Gossett, Susan through the eyes of his longtime friend filmClark, Brenda Sykes, Edward Asner, Andrew maker Pollack. We get to see the artist at Duggan. Exceptional comedy about Garner work, collaborating with his team, at home and Gossett running con-game posing as masin the space he designed, and hear his life ter and slave in pre–Civil War era. Serious [ 1263 ]

undertones enhance this offbeat, entertaining Bobby Van sparkle in a specialty song-anddance routine.▼ film; Clark delightful as female con-artist who Ski Troop Attack (1960) 63m. ★★ D: joins duo. Scripter ‘‘Pierre Marton’’ is Peter Roger Corman. Michael Forest, Frank Stone. Remade for TV by Burt Kennedy as Wolff, Wally Campo, Richard Sinatra, James SIDEKICKS in 1974. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Chris Eyre. Hoffman, Sheila Carol, Roger Corman. WinSkins (2002) C-87m. try WW2 adventure with five U.S. soldiers Graham Greene, Eric Schweig, Gary Farmer, on skis behind enemy lines in Germany. OK Noah Watts, Lois Red Elk, Michelle Thrush, Corman low-budgeter. ▼쩠 Nathaniel Arcand, Chaske Spencer. Deeply Skull, The (1965-British) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: emotional film about two Oglala Sioux brothFreddie Francis. Peter Cushing, Patrick ers, raised in the dirt-poor region of Wounded Wymark, Christopher Lee, Nigel Green, Knee; one becomes a policeman, the other a Jill Bennett, Michael Gough, George hopeless, embarrassing drunk, but the bond Coulouris, Patrick Magee. Good cast lends between them remains strong. A moving needed support to questionable script story of love, guilt, and accountability. The (based on a Robert Bloch story) of skull film’s polemics are woven into an abof Marquis de Sade that has mysterious sorbing, personal story, and distinguished powers. Techniscope.▼쩠 by two exceptional lead performances. Skullduggery (1970) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Adapted from Adrian C. Louis’ novel by Gordon Douglas. Burt Reynolds, Susan Jennifer D. Lyne. [R] ▼쩠 Clark, Roger C. Carmel, Chips Rafferty, EdSkinwalkers (2007-U.S.-Canadian-German) ward Fox, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Pat Suzuki, C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: James Isaac. Jason Behr, Rhys Williams. In New Guinea, Reynolds Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Kim Coates, and Clark find gentle ape people called the Natassia Malthe, Matthew Knight, Sarah Tropi; their humanity has to be proved in Carter, Tom Jackson, Rogue Johnston, Barcourt to keep them from being slaughtered by bara Gordon, Shawn Roberts, Wendy developers. Unusual but unsuccessful story Crewson. Twelve-year-old Knight and his whose author had his name removed from mother are unaware that the other members the credits. Panavision. [M/PG]▼ of their family are ‘‘good’’ werewolves who Skulls, The (2000) C-106m. BOMB D: protect them. They battle a band of ‘‘bad’’ Rob Cohen. Joshua Jackson, Paul Walker, werewolves who are determined to kill the Hill Harper, Leslie Bibb, Christopher Mcboy, and the result is yet another hackneyed Donald, William Petersen, Craig T. Nelson, horror movie. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Steve Harris, Malin Akerman. Quickly Ski Party (1965) C-90m. ★★ D: Alan termed THE NUMBSKULLS, this Ivy Rafkin. Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, League groaner deals with an unnamed uniDeborah Walley, Yvonne Craig, Robert Q. versity (it might be Yale because it’s not Lewis, Bobbi Shaw, Aron Kincaid. BEACH Slippery Rock) and the power-mad chicaPARTY gang puts on some clothes in this nery of its secret organization. Insipid actone, but the shenanigans are the same. Guest ing, dialogue and situations abound, with star Lesley Gore sings ‘‘Sunshine, Lollipops the film asking us to believe that a treacherand Rainbows.’’ James Brown sings ‘‘I Got ous act could be covered up when it’s been You.’’ Panavision.쩠 videotaped and a couple dozen wellSkipped Parts (2000) C-93m. ★★ D: Tamra connected high-rollers know about it. FolDavis. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mischa Barton, lowed by two direct-to-video sequels. [PGBug Hall, R. Lee Ermey, Angela Feather13]▼쩠 stone, Peggy Lipton, Brad Renfro, Michael Sky Above The Mud Below, The (1961Greyeyes, Drew Barrymore. In 1963, a desFrench) C-90m. ★★★ D: Pierre-Dominique potic Southern millionaire sends his slutty Gaisseau. Narrated by William Peacock. daughter and her son packing for Wyoming, Academy Award–winning documentary showwhere they try to fit in—and he learns the ing variety of primitive life found within confacts of life from a girl who befriends him. fines of Dutch New Guinea.▼쩠 All-too-familiar territory gets uneven treatSky Bandits (1986-British) C-92m. BOMB ment; adapted by Tim Sandlin from his novel. D: Zoran Perisic. Scott McGinnis, Jeff Barrymore appears in several scenes as Hall’s Osterhage, Ronald Lacey. McGinnis and dream girl. Released direct to video. WideOsterhage are a poor man’s BUTCH screen. [R] ▼쩠 CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID Skirts Ahoy! (1952) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney in this dreary adventure of two Western Lanfield. Esther Williams, Joan Evans, Vivian buddies’ aerial exploits during WWI. Blaine, Barry Sullivan, Keefe Brasselle, Poorly cast and has nothing to offer but Billy Eckstine, Dean Miller, Margalo Gillhigh-flying special effects, designed by dimore, Jeff Donnell, Keenan Wynn. Chipper rector Perisic (who made Chris Reeve cast can’t buoy this musical of three WAVE ‘‘fly’’ in SUPERMAN). [PG] recruits and their romantic entanglements. Sky Blue (2003-Korean) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blaine virtually recreates her GUYS AND Moon-Saeng Kim. Voices of David Naughton, DOLLS character; Debbie Reynolds and Kirk Thornton, Catherine Cavadini. Decades [ 1264 ]

after a catastrophic worldwide environmental edith Phillips, Max Phipps, Bill Hunter, disaster, wealthy city-dwelling survivors go Simon Chilvers, Alex Scott. Yet another to war with the working-class outsiders over RAIDERS–INDIANA JONES variation, the mining of an energy source, which is about an aircraft that crashes through a also a deadly pollutant. Korean-made sci-fi time warp, a search for a special stone, anime feature is a dazzling visual tour-deand other assorted nonsense. Boring and force, filled with violent action and impresconfusing, but Hargreaves earns an A for sive animation, but is less successful as an effort. Panavision. [PG-13]▼ ecological cautionary tale. Sky Riders (1976) C-93m. ★★★ D: DougSky Captain and the World of Tomorrow las Hickox. James Coburn, Susannah York, ★★ (2004-U.S.-British-Italian) C-107m. D: Robert Culp, Charles Aznavour, Harry AnKerry Conran. Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, drews, John Beck. Lively thriller about a Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael political kidnapping, highlighted by specGambon, Bai Ling, Omid Djalili. Elaborate tacular sequences of hang-gliding. The aerial homage to Saturday matinee serials and their derring-do and the magnificent Greek scevision of the future, set in 1939. Law is a hero nery make this one worth sitting through. for hire, Paltrow a plucky reporter and exTodd-AO 35. [PG]▼ girlfriend, Ribisi his sidekick, and Jolie an Skyscraper Wilderness SEE: Big City exotic captain of an amphibious squadron. All (1937) the settings were rendered on a computer (deSky’s the Limit, The (1943) 89m. ★★★ D: signed by writer-director Conran) and look Edward H. Griffith. Fred Astaire, Joan great, but they only underscore the film’s artiLeslie, Robert Benchley, Robert Ryan, ficiality. Those old serials were energetic; this Elizabeth Patterson, Marjorie Gateson. film is inert. Ribisi and Jolie seem to be havFred’s a flier on leave who meets photoging the most fun. The late Laurence Olivier rapher Leslie; Benchley’s dinner speech, appears on a giant screen, reminiscent of the Astaire’s ‘‘One For My Baby’’ and ‘‘My Wizard of Oz. Law coproduced. [PG] ▼쩠 Shining Hour’’ make this worthwhile.▼● Sky High (2005) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Sky Terror SEE: Skyjacked Mitchell. Michael Angarano, Kurt Russell, Sky West and Crooked SEE: Gypsy Girl Kelly Preston, Danielle Panabaker, Kevin Slacker (1991) C-97m. ★★★ D: Richard Heffernan, Lynda Carter, Mary Elizabeth Linklater. Weird, unique social satire about Winstead, Bruce Campbell, Dave Foley, various contemporary drop-outs in Austin, Kevin McDonald, Steven Strait, Dee-Jay Texas, who—like the beatniks of the ’50s and Daniels, Nicholas Braun, Kelly Vitz, Will hippies of the ’60s—have formed their own Harris, Cloris Leachman. Teenaged son of subculture. They’re loaded with thoughts and two superheroes, The Commander and Jetideas, none of which they seem capable of stream, feels he can never measure up— acting upon. Shot in a free-form style, and especially when on his first day at Sky High featuring a large cast of nonprofessional he’s forced to admit that unlike his classactors. That’s writer-director Linklater as mates, he hasn’t yet acquired any super the young man in the taxi. [R]▼●쩠 powers. Benign film for kids is well acted Slackers (2002) C-87m. BOMB D: Dewey but doesn’t have much pizzazz, despite the Nicks. Jason Schwartzman, Devon Sawa, clever concept and visual effects. Carter is Jason Segel, Michael Maronna, James King, amusingly cast as high school principal Laura Prepon, Joe Flaherty, Mamie Van Powers. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Doren. Three college buddies have cheated Skyjacked (1972) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: John their way to senior year, but when nerdy Guillermin. Charlton Heston, Yvette MimiSchwartzman discovers their secret, he blackeux, James Brolin, Claude Akins, Jeanne mails them into setting him up with campus Crain, Susan Dey, Roosevelt Grier, Mariette beauty King. Repellent excuse for a comedy, Hartley, Walter Pidgeon, Ken Swofford, even by 21st-century teen-movie standards. A Leslie Uggams, Mike Henry, John Hillercouple of surprise movie-star cameos add nothman. Commercial flight hijacked to Russia. ing to the mix, though Van Doren’s scene is Entertaining for first half, even exciting; secmemorable—for all the wrong reasons. [R] ond half deteriorates. Good cast will distract ▼쩠 some from tedium elsewhere. Retitled: SKY Slam (1998) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marc TERROR. Panavision. [PG]●쩠 Levin. Saul Williams, Sonja Sohn, Bonz MaSkylark (1941) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mark lone, Beau Sia, Lawrence Wilson. ExtraordiSandrich. Claudette Colbert, Ray Milland, nary fly-on-the-wall filmmaking technique Brian Aherne, Binnie Barnes, Walter Abel, makes this story of a D.C. ghetto victim Ernest Cossart, Grant Mitchell. Sophisticated seem absolutely real from start to finish. romance with Aherne trying to take Claudette Sent to prison, he has an awakening there away from business-minded husband Miland realizes that he cannot endure, or conland. Stars are at their peak in this smooth done, the endless cycle of violence in his adaptation of Samson Raphaelson play. community, and uses his gift for poetry as Sky Pirates (1986-Australian) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Colin Eggleston. John Hargreaves, Meran outlet. Cowritten by its leading actors [ 1265 ]

(Williams, Sohn, Malone) with Levin and totally unfunny comedy, and a waste of talent on both sides of the camera. [PG]▼쩠 Richard Stratton. [R]▼●쩠 Slamdance (1987) C-100m. BOMB D: Slap Shot (1977) C-122m. ★★★ D: George Wayne Wang. Tom Hulce, Mary ElizaRoy Hill. Paul Newman, Michael Ontkean, beth Mastrantonio, Virginia Madsen, Harry Lindsay Crouse, Jennifer Warren, Melinda Dean Stanton, Millie Perkins, Don Opper, Dillon, Strother Martin, Jerry Houser, Adam Ant, John Doe. Underground carSwoosie Kurtz, (M.) Emmet Walsh, Kathryn toonist/painter Hulce, devoted to his exWalker, Paul Dooley. Newman is star of wife and young child, is framed—apparently bush-league hockey team that’s going noby the entire population of L.A.—for the where until they decide to play dirty. Uneven murder of party girl Madsen. Weird, withbut raucously funny at times, with very satisout compensating originality. Lifeless melofying wrapup. Andrew Duncan is hilarious drama deals only peripherally with the as local sports broadcaster; barbed (and very ‘‘club’’ scene; there is as much slamdancing profane) script by Nancy Dowd. Followed by in PYGMALION. [R]▼●쩠 two DVD sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Slam Dunk Ernest (1995) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Slapstick (Of Another Kind) (1984) John Cherry. Jim Varney, Cylk Cozart, MiC-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Steven Paul. Jerry Lewis, guel A. Nunez, Jr., Lester Barrie, Colin Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Jim Lawrence, Richard Leacock, Jay Brazeau, Backus, John Abbott, Pat Morita, Samuel Lossen Chambers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Fuller, Merv Griffin, Steven Paul; voice Likable dolt Ernest P. Worrell wants to play of Orson Welles. Lewis and Kahn give basketball with his coworkers; they let him birth to enormous, deformed twins (also play benchwarmer instead, until a pair of Lewis and Kahn) who are in reality alien magic shoes transforms him into a hoop messengers capable of solving the world’s star. Secondary characters are more interestproblems—as long as they’re not separated. ing than Varney in this direct-to-video reGiven that cast and a Kurt Vonnegut novel lease. For Ernest fans only. Followed by as source material, you’d think there’d be ERNEST IN THE ARMY. [PG]▼쩠 no way to screw it up, but writer/producer/ Slammer SEE: Short Eyes director/costar Paul manages; some funny ★★ Slams, The (1973) C-97m. things do survive (Fuller and the elder D: Jonathan Kaplan. Jim Brown, Judy Pace, RoLewis come off best), but overall, pretty appalling. Filmed in 1982. [PG]▼● land ‘‘Bob’’ Harris, Frank de Kova, Ted Cassidy. Mindless actioner has Brown in Slate, Wyn & Me (1987-Australian) C90m. ★★ D: Don McLennan. Sigrid ThornL.A. prison after stashing away a heroin cache and $1.5 million. Halfway through, ton, Simon Burke, Martin Sacks, Tommy comedy takes over for a fast pickup. [R] Lewis, Lesley Baker. Meandering drama Slander (1956) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Rowof brothers Burke and Sacks, who rob a land. Van Johnson, Ann Blyth, Steve bank, kill a cop . . . and kidnap Thornton, Cochran, Marjorie Rambeau, Richard Eyer. who witnesses their crime. Potentially inSlick, superficial ‘‘inside study’’ of the triguing tale falls flat after twenty minutes. smut magazines, focusing on their excluPanavision. [R]▼ sive on a TV personality. Slattery’s Hurricane (1949) 83m. ★★1⁄2 Slap Her, She’s French (2002-GermanD: Andre de Toth. Richard Widmark, Linda ★★ U.S.) C-93m. D: Melanie Mayron. Piper Darnell, Veronica Lake, John Russell, Gary Perabo, Jane McGregor, Trent Ford, Michael Merrill. Weather pilot Widmark, in midst McKean, Julie White, Brandon Smith, Jesse of storm, thinks back on his life; Darnell James. Ambitious Texas teen (McGregor) and Lake are his two loves. Interesting whose dream is to host Good Morning idea; coscripted by Herman Wouk, who America decides it would be a good move later expanded it into a novel. Slaughter (1972) C-92m. ★★ D: Jack to take in a foreign-exchange student—but the French girl (Perabo) who comes to live Starrett. Jim Brown, Stella Stevens, Rip with her family is not the meek young thing Torn, Don Gordon, Cameron Mitchell, she pretends to be. Heavy-handed comedy Marlene Clark, Robert Phillips. Stevens with little to recommend it except McGregand Torn are far too good for this violent or’s energetic performance as the picturetripe about ex-Green Beret Brown who perfect heroine. Aka SHE GETS WHAT goes after syndicate after it kills his parents. Sequel: SLAUGHTER’S BIG RIP-OFF. SHE WANTS. [PG-13]쩠 Todd-AO 35. [R]▼쩠 Slappy and the Stinkers (1998) C-78m. BOMB D: Barnet Kellman. B. D. Wong, Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) C-104m. ★★★ Bronson Pinchot, Jennifer Coolidge, Joseph D: George Roy Hill. Michael Sacks, Ron Ashton, Gary LeRoi Gray, David Dukes, Sam Leibman, Eugene Roche, Sharon Gans, McMurray. Inane story of a group of comValerie Perrine, John Dehner, Holly Near, pletely, irresponsibly unsupervised nerdy Perry King. Sometimes draggy, sometimes seven-year-olds rescuing a sea lion against his on-target, sprawling view of life through will. Along the way they torture the head of eyes of one Billy Pilgrim, professional their boarding school with their antics. A nobody who becomes ‘‘unstuck’’ in time. [ 1266 ]

Big-budget adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s abeth Allan, Mickey Rooney, George Sandbizarre fantasy novel is hard going for ers, Jane Darwell, Joseph Schildkraut. Rousthose unfamiliar with author’s point of view, ing drama of slave ship rebellion with fine gains through repeat viewings. [R]▼●쩠 atmosphere, good Beery-Rooney teaming, Slaughter in San Francisco (1981-Hong plenty of action. Story by William Faulkner. Slaves of New York (1989) C-125m. ★1⁄2 Kong) C-87m. BOMB D: William Lowe. Don Wong, Chuck Norris, Sylvia ChanD: James Ivory. Bernadette Peters, Adam ning, Robert Jones, Dan Ivan. Former cop Coleman Howard, Chris Sarandon, Mary Wong seeks vengeance on murderer of his Beth Hurt, Nick Corri, Madeleine Potter, partner; Norris, in a supporting role, is the Mercedes Ruehl, Betty Comden, Steve bad guy. Shoddy production will disapBuscemi, Michael Schoeffling, Tammy point chop-socky genre buffs. Filmed in Grimes, Charles McCaughan, Anthony 1973; released to take advantage of NorLaPaglia. Misguided filming of Tama ris’ subsequent popularity. Aka KARATE Janowitz’s bestselling collection of stories, COP and CHUCK NORRIS VS. THE KAset among the too-hip-for-words denizens of RATE COP. Widescreen. [R]▼ N.Y.C.’s downtown art world. As the cenSlaughter’s Big Rip-Off (1973) C-93m. tral character, the talented Peters seems all ★1⁄2 D: Gordon Douglas. Jim Brown, Ed wrong: too intelligent to spend most of the McMahon, Brock Peters, Don Stroud, Glofilm being humiliated by her boyfriend ria Hendry, Dick Anthony Williams, Art (Howard). Overlong and unfocused. JanoMetrano. Slaughter’s still playing cat and witz (who plays Abby) scripted. [R]▼●쩠 mouse with the Mob in this dreary actioner; Slayground (1984-British) C-89m. ★1⁄2 McMahon gives his role as the Syndicate D: Terry Bedford. Peter Coyote, Billie head better than it deserves. Todd-AO 35. Whitelaw, Philip Sayer, Bill Luhr, Mel Smith. [R]▼쩠 Dreary actioner about robber Coyote on the Slave, The (1963-Italian) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: lam from a hired killer. Whitelaw in particular Sergio Corbucci. Steve Reeves, Jacques is wasted as an amusement park owner. Based Sernas, Gianna Maria Canale, Claudio Gora. on a novel by Donald E. Westlake, writing as Interminable Italian spectacle. Son of Richard Stark. [R]▼쩠 Spartacus learns story of father, vows SLC Punk! (1999-U.S.-Australian) Cvengeance. Good photography only asset. 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Merendino. Matthew Aka SON OF SPARTACUS. CinemaScope. Lillard, Michael Goorjian, Annabeth Gish, Slave Girls SEE: Prehistoric Women Jennifer Lien, Christopher McDonald, Slave of the Cannibal God (1978-Italian) Devon Sawa, Adam Pascal, Til Schweiger. ★1 C-93m. ⁄2 D: Sergio Martino. Ursula Seriocomic coming of ager about punk Andress, Stacy Keach, Claudio Cassinelli, rocker Stevo and his best pal, Heroin Bob, Antonio Marsina, Franco Fantasia. Toowhose pursuit of ‘‘total chaos’’ is at odds glamorous Andress captured by natives with living in conservative Salt Lake City, and painted in preparation for sacrifice in a Utah, circa 1985. Writer-director Merenscene virtually identical to that directed by dino has real affection for the punk scene, ex-husband John Derek for current wife but it would’ve worked better without overBo years later in TARZAN, THE APE used gimmick of having the lead character MAN. Aka MOUNTAIN OF THE CANtalk directly to the camera. Charismatic performance from Lillard. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 NIBAL GOD. Techniscope. [R]▼쩠 Slavers (1978-German) C-102m. ★★ D: Sleazy Uncle, The (1991-Italian) C-105m. ★★1 Jurgen Goslar. Trevor Howard, Ron Ely, ⁄2 D: Franco Brusati. Vittorio Gassman, Britt Ekland, Jurgen Goslar, Ray Milland, Giancarlo Giannini, Andrea Ferreol, StefKen Gampu, Cameron Mitchell. Pulp-fiction ania Sandrelli, Beatrice Palme. Playfully stuff about slave trading in Africa during lecherous uncle (Gassman) is forced to the 19th century. Good cast saddled with seek temporary asylum with his rich, repressed nephew (Giannini). Predictably, second-rate script. [R]▼ 1 ★ Slaves (1969) C-110m. ⁄2 D: Herbert J. uncle Gassman’s outrageous antics—which Biberman. Stephen Boyd, Dionne Warrange from seducing Giannini’s mistress wick, Ossie Davis, Marilyn Clark, Gale and passing out his blood-test certificates Sondergaard, Shepperd Strudwick, Nancy to all the ladies (‘‘for your security’’) Coleman, Julius Harris, David Huddles—result in setting Giannini’s placid life ton. Strange cast in revisionist drama about on its ear. A little too laid back to achieve the farcical comedy attempted here.▼ Kentucky slave Davis standing up for his rights; might have meant something in the Sleeper (1973) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Woody ’60s, but now it’s just laughable, with Boyd Allen. Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, John properly embarrassed as Simon Legree–type Beck, Mary Gregory, Don Keefer, John ‘‘Massa.’’ Notable only as Sondergaard’s McLiam. Woody turns to slapstick in this first film after 20-year blacklist, courtesy engagingly silly tale of a man who’s frodirector-cowriter (and husband) Biberman. zen in 1973 and awakened 200 years later. Typical Allen combination of great jokes Slave Ship (1937) 92m. ★★★ D: Tay Garnett. Warner Baxter, Wallace Beery, Elizand duds, with more sight-gags than usual [ 1267 ]

and energetic score by the Preservation notch cinematography helps. The first New Zealand film ever to open in the U.S.▼쩠 Hall Jazz Band. Screenplay by Allen and Sleeping Tiger, The (1954-British) 89m. Marshall Brickman. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Victor Hanbury (Joseph Losey). Sleepers (1996) C-147m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barry Alexis Smith, Dirk Bogarde, Alexander Levinson. Kevin Bacon, Robert De Niro, Knox, Hugh Griffith, Patricia McCarron, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Billie Whitelaw. Well-done drama with Minnie Driver, Brad Renfro, Bruno Kirby, Knox a psychiatrist who takes low-life Vittorio Gassman, Billy Crudup, Ron Elcriminal Bogarde into his home, much to dard, Terry Kinney. Absorbing tale of the consternation of his wife (Smith, in one of young friends in N.Y.C.’s Hell’s Kitchen her best roles); the result is sexual and emowho wind up in reform school, where they tional fireworks. Losey’s first film made outendure a living hell at the hands of sadistic side the U.S., where he was blacklisted; this guards. Later in life, one of them (now accounts for the pseudonym.▼쩠 working for the D.A.) sows the seeds for Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) C-98m. revenge. Based on Lorenzo Carcaterra’s ★★ D: Joseph Ruben. Julia Roberts, Patpurportedly nonfiction book, the movie rick Bergin, Kevin Anderson, Elizabeth grabs and holds you but never quite conLawrence, Kyle Secor, Claudette Nevins. vinces; the resolution is too pat. Strong perPractically suspense-less thriller about a formances. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 young woman who flees from her brutal Sleeping Beauty (1959) C-75m. ★★★ D: husband and tries to start life anew in Clyde Geronimi. Voices of Mary Costa, Iowa. Unabashed star vehicle for Roberts Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, (complete with ‘‘cute’’ montage set to the Barbara Jo Allen (Vera Vague), Barbara oldie ‘‘Brown-Eyed Girl’’) is relentlessly Luddy. Walt Disney’s most expensive and predictable. [R]▼●쩠 elaborate animated feature (at the time) is Sleepless in Seattle (1993) C-104m. ★★★ actually a simple, straightforward telling of D: Nora Ephron. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, the classic fairy tale, with music adapted Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rosie O’Donfrom Tchaikovsky, and such memorable nell, Rob Reiner, Gaby Hoffmann, Victor characters as Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather Garber, Rita Wilson, Barbara Garrick, (the three good fairies) and the evil witch MaCarey Lowell, Calvin Trillin, Dana Ivey, leficent. Highlight: the final, fiery confrontaDavid Hyde Pierce. Woman who’s just gottion between Maleficent and Prince Phillip. ten engaged hears a widower on a call-in Strikingly designed (in widescreen) by artist radio show talking about his departed wife Eyvind Earle. Super Technirama 70. ▼●쩠 and becomes obsessed with meeting him, Sleeping Car, The (1990) C-87m. ★★ D: convinced that he may be her destiny. Sweet Douglas Curtis. David Naughton, Judie romantic comedy, with perfectly cast stars, Aronson, Kevin McCarthy, Jeff Conaway, though its repeated allusions to the old tearErnestine Mercer, John Carl Buechler, Dani jerker AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER make Minnick. Good-looking but heavily overyou wonder if the only way to generate oldstated horror film pitting Naughton and fashioned romance in a ’90s movie is to infriends against a vicious ghost haunting an voke a product of Hollywood’s Golden Age. old railway sleeping car, now used as an Coscripted by Ephron. [PG] ▼●쩠 apartment. [R]▼● Sleep, My Love (1948) 97m. ★★★ D: DougSleeping Car Murder, The (1965-French) las Sirk. Claudette Colbert, Robert Cum90m. ★★★ D: Costa-Gavras. Simone Sigmings, Don Ameche, Hazel Brooks, Rita noret, Yves Montand, Pierre Mondy, JeanJohnson, George Coulouris, Keye Luke, Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin, Michel Raymond Burr, Ralph Morgan. Familiar Piccoli, Catherine Allegret, Charles Denner. territory covered by excellent cast as Ameche Quick-paced, atmospheric police-chasingtries to drive wife Claudette crazy; Cummad-killer movie. Nice photography by mings saves her. From a Leo Rosten novel. Jean Tournier; original action good but Sleepover (2004) C-89m. ★★ D: Joe Nussdubbing hurts. Based on a Sebastien Japbaum. Alexa Vega, Mika Boorem, Jane Lynch, risot novel. Costa-Gavras’ directorial debut. Sam Huntington, Sara Paxton, Brie Larson, CinemaScope. Scout Taylor-Compton, Douglas Smith, Jeff Sleeping Dogs (1977-New Zealand) CGarlin, Steve Carell. OK, where have we 107m. ★★ D: Roger Donaldson. Sam Neill, seen this before? Young girls about to beIan Mune, Warren Oates, Nevan Rowe, come high school freshmen embark on an Donna Akersten, Ian Watkin, Bill Julliff, all-night scavenger hunt to beat their more Clyde Scott. Muddled thriller about apolitpopular rivals, but of course the real victory ical loner Neill unable to remain aloof is what they learn about themselves in the from repressive government and revolutionprocess. Mind-numbing fluff for anyone but aries during workers’ strike. Fascinating its target audience. [PG] ▼쩠 concept defeated by confusing direction, Sleepwalkers (1992) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: illogical plot development, insufficiently Mick Garris. Brian Krause, Ma¨dchen Amick, defined characters. Michael Seresin’s topAlice Krige, Jim Haynie, Cindy Pickett, [ 1268 ]

Lyman Ward, Ron Perlman, Dan Martin, Bancroft, Telly Savalas, Steven Hill, EdGlenn Shadix. A mother-and-son pair of ward Asner, Dabney Coleman. Interchange ‘‘sleepwalkers’’ move to a Norman Rockbetween stars is the whole film in an well–ish Midwestern town, looking for prey. interesting idea that doesn’t fulfill potenThe shape-changing Sleepwalkers live on the tial. Bancroft takes overdose of sleeping life force of teenage virgins, but the target pills and calls crisis clinic for help; college this time (Amick) is one tough cookie. student volunteer Poitier tries to keep her Stephen King’s script is thinly plotted and on phone while rescue is organized. Filmed confusing, but the movie is directed with on location in Seattle; written by Stirling flair and a nicely twisted sense of humor. Silliphant, music by Quincy Jones. PolExcellent effects. Cameos by Joe Dante, lack’s directorial debut.▼ John Landis, Clive Barker, Tobe Hooper, and Sleuth (1972) C-138m. ★★★★ D: Joseph L. King himself, as well as an unbilled one by Mankiewicz. Laurence Olivier, Michael Mark Hamill. Aka STEPHEN KING’S Caine. Lighthearted mystery tour de force ‘‘SLEEPWALKERS.’’ [R] ▼●쩠 for two stars, adapted by Anthony Shaffer Sleepwalking (2008-U.S.-Canadian) Cfrom his hit play about games-playing mys101m. ★★ D: William Maher. Nick Stahl, tery writer Olivier leading his wife’s lover AnnaSophia Robb, Charlize Theron, Den(Caine) into diabolical trap. But who gets the nis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Deborra-Lee last laugh on whom? Delicious from start to Furness, Mathew St. Patrick. Theron is a finish; remarkable production design by Ken struggling single mother (and poor role Adam. Mankiewicz’s last film. Remade in 2007. [PG] ▼●쩠 model) to a preteen daughter in a rural town. After they move in with her younger brother Sleuth (2007) C-86m. BOMB D: Kenneth (Stahl) things get even worse. Balance of Branagh. Michael Caine, Jude Law. Fabustory features the bonding of uncle and lously successful mystery novelist invites a niece, eking out a life in town and on the young man who’s been carrying on with his road until, eventually, the source of much of wife to his home, where he hopes to entrap the family’s pain is revealed. Unsurprising him—both physically and psychologically. melodrama lays it on thick. Coproducer Reinvention of Anthony Shaffer’s play Theron’s screen time is limited; Stahl is (filmed in 1972 with Caine—as the younger quite moving as an invisible member of character—and Laurence Olivier) by Harworking-class society. Super 35. [R]쩠 old Pinter has had every ounce of entertainSleep With Me (1994) C-86m. ★★ D: Rory ment drained from it. Unbelievably bad, Kelly. Craig Sheffer, Eric Stoltz, Meg Tilly, especially given the talent involved. Pinter Todd Field, Thomas Gibson, Parker Posey, appears as a talk-show guest on Caine’s television set. Panavision. [R]쩠 Adrienne Shelly, Susan Traylor, Tegan West, June Lockhart, Quentin Tarantino, Joey Sliding Doors (1998-U.S.-British) C-108m. ★★1 Lauren Adams. Forgettable three-sided ro⁄2 D: Peter Howitt. Gwyneth Paltrow, mance; as Stoltz and Tilly are about to be John Hannah, John Lynch, Jeanne Tripmarried, their best friend (Sheffer) declares plehorn, Zara Turner, Douglas McFerran, Paul his love for her. A self-indulgent study of Brightwell, Virginia McKenna. Likable roself-absorption. Scripted by six writers, mantic comedy explores—in parallel scenes— each of whom contributed a different secwhat happens when Paltrow catches her boytion of the film. The one standout scene friend sleeping with another woman, and what has Tarantino explaining his unique theory would have happened if she’d missed her about the subtext of TOP GUN. [R]▼●쩠 train and not walked in at that moment. The Sleepy Hollow (1999) C-105m. ★★ D: Tim doltish boyfriend (Lynch) and his extremely Burton. Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Mibitchy paramour (Tripplehorn) are overranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casstated, unsympathetic characters who bring per Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Richard down the otherwise bright proceedings. PalGriffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, trow, sporting a British accent, is delightful; Christopher Walken, Marc Pickering, Lisa so is Scotsman Hannah. Writing and directMarie, Christopher Lee, Alun Armstrong. ing debut for Howitt. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Convoluted and unsatisfying script defeats a Slight Case of Murder, A (1938) 85m. ★★★1 good-looking revision of the Washington Ir⁄2 D: Lloyd Bacon. Edward G. Robinving classic. Depp is fun as a bumbling conson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth stable who tries to use scientific methods to Donnelly, Willard Parker, John Litel, Edfigure out a series of killings in New York’s ward Brophy, Harold Huber, Bobby Jordan, Hudson Valley. Burton must have had fun Margaret Hamilton. Robinson’s in peak figuring out how many different ways he comedy form as gangster who goes straight could show beheadings . . . yet the film is when Prohibition ends. This hilarious adapanything but scary. Oscar-winning Art Directation of a play by Damon Runyon and tion by Rick Heinrichs and Peter Young. Howard Lindsay has brewer Robinson going Martin Landau appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 bankrupt in a rented summer house filled Slender Thread, The (1965) 98m. ★★1⁄2 with characters and corpses. Remake: STOP, YOU’RE KILLING ME.쩠 D: Sydney Pollack. Sidney Poitier, Anne [ 1269 ]

Slightly Dangerous (1943) 94m. ★★ D: Chamberlain, Gemma Craven, Annette CrosWesley Ruggles. Lana Turner, Robert bie, Michael Hordern, Margaret Lockwood, Young, Walter Brennan, Dame May Whitty, Christopher Gable, Kenneth More, Edith Eugene Pallette, Florence Bates, Alan Evans. Bright musical version of Cinderella Mowbray, Bobby (Robert) Blake. Slightly in which everyone (including veteran British ridiculous comedy of waitress Turner who actors) sings and dances; Craven is delightful claims to be daughter of wealthy industrialist. as Cindy. Songs by the Sherman Brothers. Good fun. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 Good cast in trivial piece of fluff. Slightly Scarlet (1956) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Slipping-Down Life, A (2004) C-111m. ★★ Allan Dwan. John Payne, Arlene Dahl, D: Toni Kalem. Lili Taylor, Guy Pearce, John Rhonda Fleming, Kent Taylor, Ted de Hawkes, Sara Rue, Irma P. Hall, Tom Bower, Corsia, Lance Fuller. Effective study (from a Shawnee Smith, Veronica Cartwright, MarJames M. Cain novel) of big-city corruption; shall Bell, Bruno Kirby, Clea DuVall. IntroPayne involved with dynamic sister duo verted young woman becomes obsessed (Fleming, Dahl). Arlene steals the show as with an iconoclastic singer-songwriter, and tipsy ex-con sister. SuperScope.▼쩠 even carves his name on her forehead. Slim (1937) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray Enright. Somehow this sparks an actual relationship Pat O’Brien, Henry Fonda, Stuart Erwin, between the two social misfits. Taylor’s raMargaret Lindsay, Dick Purcell, John Litel, diant performance is the main attraction here; Jane Wyman. Interesting story of men who otherwise, Kalem’s adaptation of Anne Tystring high-voltage wire, with Lindsay the ler’s Southern Gothic novel is slow going. girl who comes between tough veteran Pearce does his own singing, which is pretty O’Brien and novice Fonda. Good performgood. Filmed in 1998. [R]▼쩠 ances all around. A semi-remake of TIGER Slip Slide Adventures SEE: Water BaSHARK; remade as MANPOWER. bies, The Slipstream (1989-British) C-92m. ★★ D: Slime People, The (1962) 76m. BOMB D: Robert Hutton. Robert Hutton, Les TreSteven M. Lisberger. Bill Paxton, Bob mayne, Susan Hart, Robert Burton. Lumpy, Peck, Mark Hamill, Kitty Aldridge, Elealizardy people from beneath the Earth nor David, F. Murray Abraham, Ben Kingswall off Los Angeles with curtain of fog. ley, Robbie Coltrane. In the future, nature Movie talks itself to death.▼쩠 has rebelled, sending people scurrying to Sling Blade (1996) C-134m. ★★★1⁄2 D: live in valleys away from the high-speed Billy Bob Thornton. Billy Bob Thornton, slipstream (high winds) that dominates the Dwight Yoakam, J. T. Walsh, John Ritter, planet. Unfortunately this unusual setting Lucas Black, Natalie Canerday, James Hamphas little to do with standard story of ton, Robert Duvall, Rick Dial, Jim Jarmusch. adventurer Paxton, who swipes a captive Fascinating portrait of a mentally deficient from tough bounty hunter Hamill (delivering man sprung from prison 20 years after killing a top-notch performance). Just as story should his mother and her boyfriend; now he atbe building to a peak, it lurches into clumsy tempts to blend into ‘‘real life,’’ helped by a satire. This big-scale production never made boy who befriends him. Incredibly controlled it to theaters in the U.S. [PG-13]▼●쩠 performance by Thornton (who also wrote Slipstream (2007) C-96m. BOMB D: Anand directed) anchors this long but rewarding thony Hopkins. Anthony Hopkins, Stella tale, which leads to a somewhat inevitable Arroyave, John Turturro, Christian Slater, finale. Young Black is exceptional as ThornJeffrey Tambor, Michael Clarke Duncan, ton’s new friend, country singer Yoakam is Fionnula Flanagan, Camryn Manheim, S. first-rate as a short-fused bully, and Ritter is Epatha Merkerson, Christopher Lawford, terrific in a most unusual part. Oscar winner Kevin McCarthy. Self-consciously ‘‘experifor Best Screenplay Adaptation; based on mental’’ miasma from writer-director-actorthe short film SOME CALL IT A SLING composer Hopkins and his real-life spouse Arroyave—who costars as Gina—is only for BLADE. [R]▼●쩠 Slingshot, The (1993-Swedish) C-102m. the terminally curious. Hopkins plays a ★★1 ⁄2 D: Ake Sandgren. Jesper Salen, Stelscreenwriter who seems to be losing his grip lan Skarsga˚rd, Basia Frydman, Niclas on reality and is summoned to the Mojave De¨ lund, Ernst-Hugo Ja¨rega˚rd. Odd childO sert, where a movie shoot is going very awry. hood remembrance, from 78-year-old RoMoments of coherence are undermined by land Schutt’s autobiographical novel, about whiplash-inducing editing of Hopkins’ feverdream screenplay. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 a 10-year-old outcast in 1920s Sweden: Mom’s a Russian Jew, Dad’s a socialist, Slither (1973) C-97m. ★★★ D: Howard and young Roland (Selen) fashions slingZieff. James Caan, Peter Boyle, Sally shots from the condoms sold by mother on Kellerman, Louise Lasser, Allen Garfield, the black market. Perhaps tries to pack too Richard B. Shull. Engaging film is essenmuch material into one film, but this was a tially a massive shaggy dog joke; colorful great success in Sweden. [R] ▼● gallery of characters engaged in hunt for Slipper and the Rose, The (1976-British) elusive cache of money. Perhaps a bit too airy, but perfect TV fare. [PG]▼ C-146m. ★★★ D: Bryan Forbes. Richard [ 1270 ]

Slither (2006-U.S.-Canadian) C-95m. ★★★ D: James Gunn. Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Tania Saulnier, Brenda James, Don Thompson, Jenna Fischer, Rob Zombie, Lloyd Kaufman. Zombie movie connoisseurs will relish this gory, gross—and expertly devised—horrorcomedy involving a meteorite that lands near a small town and discharges a slimy, flesh-eating extraterrestrial. Crammed with equal doses of scares and chuckles; writer-director Gunn, who penned the remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD, references a slew of earlier films, from the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and THE BLOB to vintage David Cronenberg and John Carpenter. [R]쩠 Sliver (1993) C-109m. ★★ D: Phillip Noyce. Sharon Stone, William Baldwin, Tom Berenger, Polly Walker, Colleen Camp, Amanda Forman, Martin Landau, CCH Pounder, Nina Foch, Keene Curtis, Nicholas Pryor. Lonely Stone moves into a tall, slender, and luxurious Manhattan apartment building with a history of unusual deaths. Writer Berenger pursues her, though she’s more interested in Baldwin; however, she soon comes to suspect one of the two is a killer. Robert Evans’ handsomely produced sex-and-murder mystery (emphasis on sex) was severely damaged by reshooting (which changed identity of the killer), but Joe Eszterhas’ script was already pretentious and exploitive. From Ira Levin’s novel. Alternate unrated version runs 107m. Panavision. [R]

Wainwright III. Remarkably unappealing Neil Simon original about a boorish baseball star who falls in love with a singer. Dull and disjointed, full of mediocre music—in short, a mess! The team’s manager is played by film director (and former actor) Martin Ritt. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Slumber Party ’57 (1977) C-89m. BOMB D: William A. Levey. Noelle North, Bridget Hollman, Debra Winger, Mary Ann Appleseth, Rainbeaux Smith, Rafael Campos, Will Hutchins, Joyce Jillson, Joe E. Ross. Smutty, sloppily made schlock about a group of girls who swap tales about their sexual initiations, which are recreated in flashback. Of interest only for the appearance of Winger, in her film debut. [R]▼● Slumber Party Massacre (1982) C-78m. ★1⁄2 D: Amy Jones. Michele Michaels, Robin Stille, Michael Villela, Andre Honore, Debra Deliso, Gina Mari. Girls have overnight party, boys clown around, crazed killer does them all in. The screenplay, incredibly, is by feminist author Rita Mae Brown. If it’s supposed to be a parody, it’s about as clever as Hogan’s Heroes. Followed by two sequels. [R]▼쩠 Slumdog Millionaire (2008-British-U.S.) C-120m. ★★★★ D: Danny Boyle. Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Tanay Hemant Chheda, Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar, Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, Rubina Ali, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail. Young man ▼●쩠 ★★ Slow Burn (2007) C-93m. D: Wayne about to win a fortune on India’s version of Beach. Ray Liotta, LL Cool J (James Todd the game show Who Wants to Be a MillionSmith), Mekhi Phifer, Jolene Blalock, Chiaire? is accused of cheating. Then in flashwetel Ejiofor, Taye Diggs, Guy Torry, backs we learn how his tumultuous, often Bruce McGill, Frank Schorpion, Fisher Stetortured experiences as an orphan on the vens, Donny Falsetti, Barbara Alexander. streets of Bombay have enabled him to reConfusing drama centers around a district late to and answer all of the questions on attorney who gets caught up in a gangthe show. Through a cascade of images and related investigation, an interrogation with a sounds director Boyle immerses us in his shady street-smart leader, and a confrontacharacter’s world and takes us along on this tion with a manipulative but attractive assisremarkable, often painful, life journey, tant D.A., among others. As Liotta tries to moving from darkness to light for a truly piece together the puzzle the movie coljoyful finale. Simon Beaufoy wrote the lapses under the weight of its disjointed screenplay, inspired by the novel Q&A by story. Despite a good cast, this weak atVikas Swarup. Winner of eight Oscars: Best tempt at film noir doesn’t make much sense. Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography (Anthony Dod Mantle), EditCompleted in 2005. [R]쩠 Slow Dancing in the Big City (1978) ing (Chris Dickens), Sound, Score (A. R. C-101m. ★1⁄2 D: John G. Avildsen. Paul Rahman), and Song (‘‘Jai-Ho’’). Super 35. Sorvino, Anne Ditchburn, Nicolas Coster, [R]쩠 Anita Dangler, Hector Jaime Mercado. Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) C-91m. ★★★ Straight-faced romantic absurdity about D: Tamara Jenkins. Natasha Lyonne, Alan Jimmy Breslin-like columnist who falls for Arkin, Marisa Tomei, Kevin Corrigan, Jesailing ballerina who has been told she sica Walter, Carl Reiner, Rita Moreno, Eli should no longer dance; he also befriends Marienthal, David Krumholtz, Mena Suvari. a little Hispanic orphan/junkie. Shameless Keenly observed, semi-autobiographical climax will fry your brain cells with its baslice-of-life from novice director-writer Jenthos. [PG] kins, set in the 1970s, about the Abramowitz Slugger’s Wife, The (1985) C-105m. ★1⁄2 clan, ‘‘Jewish Joads’’ who move from one D: Hal Ashby. Michael O’Keefe, Rebecca low-rent living space to another as the poorest De Mornay, Martin Ritt, Randy Quaid, inhabitants of the title municipality. The focus Cleavant Derricks, Lisa Langlois, Loudon is on Lyonne, the only sane person in a [ 1271 ]

sweetly insane environment, as she attempts marketer puts military microchips into to deal with her sexual awakening. Razornew combat figures; all hell breaks loose sharp and right on the money. [R]▼●쩠 as they declare war on their ‘‘enemy’’ Small Back Room, The (1949-British) toys. Good premise is weakened by a pre106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Powell, Emeric dictable script. Computer animation is terPressburger. David Farrar, Jack Hawkins, rific, and director Dante throws in bonuses Kathleen Byron, Anthony Bushell, Mifor film buffs—using cast members from chael Gough, Leslie Banks, Robert MorTHE DIRTY DOZEN and THIS IS SPIley, Cyril Cusack, Renee Asherson. MaNAL TAP as voices, adopting the BRIDE ture, powerful story of crippled munitions OF FRANKENSTEIN music at a key moexpert Farrar, who’s frustrated by his infirment. Hartman’s final film. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 mity and mindless government bureaucracy during WW2. Robert Morley appears unSmall Time Crooks (2000) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 billed. ▼쩠 D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Tracey UllSmall Change (1976-French) C-104m. ★★★★ man, Hugh Grant, Elaine May, Michael RaD: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Geory Desmouceaux, paport, Jon Lovitz, Tony Darrow, Elaine Philippe Goldman, Claudio Deluca, Frank Stritch, George Grizzard. Unusually lightDeluca, Richard Golfier, Laurent Devlaeweight comedy from Allen about an ex-con minck. Thoroughly charming, intelligent dishwasher who convinces his wife (Ullfilm examines the lives of young children— man) to invest their life’s savings in a their joys, sorrows, frustrations, advenscheme to rob a bank. Instead, their ‘‘front’’ tures—in a small French village. Wise, for the robbery, a cookie store, becomes a perceptive, and witty. [PG]▼●쩠 success, and wealth goes to her head. Slight, Small Circle of Friends, A (1980) Coften unfocused, but entertaining, with en112m. BOMB D: Rob Cohen. Brad Davis, joyable performances and a rare screen appearance by May. [PG]▼쩠 Karen Allen, Jameson Parker, Shelley Long, John Friedrich, Gary Springer. CloySmall Town Girl (1936) 108m. ★★★ D: ingly cute by-the-numbers treatment of ’60s William Wellman. Janet Gaynor, Robert campus turmoil as an apparently moronic Taylor, Binnie Barnes, Lewis Stone, Andy me´nage a` trois tries to make it through HarDevine, James Stewart. Breezy romance vard. Almost makes one long for R.P.M. about Gaynor trapping Taylor into marriage [R] ▼●쩠 while he’s drunk, then working to win him Smallest Show on Earth, The (1957over when he’s sober. Small Town Girl (1953) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: British) 80m. ★★★ D: Basil Dearden. Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Margaret RuthLeslie Kardos. Jane Powell, Farley Grangerford, Peter Sellers, Bernard Miles, Leslie er, Ann Miller, S. Z. Sakall, Billie Burke, Phillips. Charming, often hilarious comBobby Van, Robert Keith, Nat King Cole, edy about a couple who inherit a runFay Wray. Bland MGM musical pairing down movie house and its three equally playboy Granger and apple-pie Powell, who run-down attendants (Sellers, Rutherford, meet when he’s thrown in jail by her father Miles). Lovely scene in which the three for speeding through town. Van’s human veterans express their love for silent pogo-stick number and Miller’s ‘‘I’ve Gotta films.▼쩠 Hear That Beat,’’ with Busby Berkeley’s disembodied orchestra, are highlights.▼● Small Faces (1995-Scottish-English) C108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gillies MacKinnon. Iain Small Town in Texas, A (1976) C-95m. ★★ Robertson, Joseph McFadden, J. S. Duffy, D: Jack Starrett. Timothy Bottoms, Laura Fraser, Garry Sweeney, Clare HigSusan George, Bo Hopkins, Art Hindle, gins, Kevin McKidd, Mark McConnochie. Morgan Woodward, John Karlen. Bottoms Grim look at a working-class family of seeks revenge against heinous sheriff Hopthree boys in 1968 Glasgow, focusing on kins, who framed him on a drug charge the youngest (Robertson), barely a teenager, and has stolen his wife (George). Not bad, and his indoctrination into gang warfare. but you know what to expect. Techniscope. Straightforward and powerful. Written by [PG]▼ the director and his brother, Billy MacKinSmall Voices (2003-Filipino) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 non. [R]▼● D: Gil Portes. Alessandra de Rossi, Dexter Small Soldiers (1998) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Doria, Gina Alajar, Amy Austria, Bryan HoDante. Kirsten Dunst, Gregory Smith, mecillo, Pierro Rodriguez. A new teacher in a Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman, Kevin Dunn, remote elementary school, not much older Denis Leary, David Cross, Ann Magnuthan her charges, attempts to organize a stuson, Wendy Schaal, Dick Miller, Robdent chorus despite opposition from impovert Picardo; voices of Tommy Lee Jones, erished parents and a disinterested faculty. Frank Langella, Ernest Borgnine, Jim Nothing startlingly new here, but fact-based Brown, Bruce Dern, George Kennedy, film succeeds as a heart-rending and heartClint Walker, Christopher Guest, Michael warming tale, with storytelling that’s earMcKean, Harry Shearer, Sarah Michelle nest to a fault. Smart Alec (1986) C-88m. ★★ D: Jim Gellar, Christina Ricci. Overeager toy [ 1272 ]

Wilson. Ben Glass, Natasha Kautsky, Hayward is excellent as an insecure nightAntony Alda, Lucinda Crosby, Kerry Remclub singer who gives up her career when sen, Orson Bean, David Hedison, Bill she weds soon-to-be radio star Bowman Henderson, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Dull, silly (but . . . and finds herself helplessly mired in not inaccurate) account of pint-sized eccentric alcoholism. This was Hayward’s breakGlass, an aspiring filmmaker, and his rethrough role after a decade in Hollywood, peated frustrations as he attempts to finance and it deservedly earned her her first Oscar his movie. Kautsky is most attractive as the nomination. Taut script by John Howard model he covets as his leading lady. Aka Lawson, from an original story by Dorothy Parker and Frank Cavett.▼쩠 THE MOVIE MAKER. ▼ Smart Money (1931) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: AlSmile (1975) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael fred E. Green. Edward G. Robinson, James Ritchie. Bruce Dern, Barbara Feldon, MiCagney, Margaret Livingstone, Evalyn chael Kidd, Geoffrey Lewis, Nicholas Knapp, Noel Francis. Known as Cagney Pryor, Colleen Camp, Joan Prather, Anand Robinson’s only costarring film, but nette O’Toole, Melanie Griffith, Maria Robinson really stars, as lucky barber who O’Brien. Hilarious, perceptive satire centerbecomes big-time gambler. Cagney is fine ing around the behind-the-scenes activity at as Robinson’s crony; watch for Boris a California ‘‘Young American Miss’’ Karloff in a bit as a shady gambler.쩠 beauty pageant, presented as a symbol for Smart People (2008) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Noam the emptiness of American middle-class exMurro. Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, istence. One of the unsung films of the Thomas Haden Church, Ellen Page, Ashton 1970s, written by Jerry Belson; Kidd is terHolmes, Christine Lahti. Curmudgeonly Enrific as the contest’s career-slumped choreglish lit professor Quaid, a widower, presides ographer. Later a Broadway musical. [PG] over a dysfunctional household including his ▼●쩠 supersmart teenage daughter, an alienated son, Smile (2005) C-107m. ★★ D: Jeffrey Kramer. and (lately) an adopted brother who acts like Sean Astin, Mika Boorem, Beau Bridges, Yi an overage adolescent. Then he strikes up a Ding, Linda Hamilton, Cheri Oteri, Essie hesitant relationship with a former student Shure, Jonathon Trent, Erik von Detten. who’s now a physician. Bittersweet comedyWildly uneven but well-meaning film (inspired drama isn’t uninteresting but the script feels by director Kramer’s daughter) about a girl undernourished. Super 35. [R]쩠 who leaves the comforts of Malibu High to Smashing the Crime Syndicate SEE: travel to China as part of the Doctor’s Gift proHell’s Bloody Devils gram (which receives some proceeds from the Smashing Time (1967-British) 96m. ★★1⁄2 film’s profits). There she meets a facially deD: Desmond Davis. Rita Tushingham, Lynn formed girl from a small village and helps to Redgrave, Michael York, Anna Quayle, make her ‘‘smile’’ again. Poorly structured Ian Carmichael. Two girls come to Lonscreenplay spends nearly an hour setting up don to crash big-time. Spoof of trendy the main action and dwells endlessly on an fashion/show biz world tries to turn Redgrave unnecessary subplot about the young high and Tushingham into Laurel and Hardy, schooler’s virginity. Reminiscent of a preachy after-school special. [PG-13]쩠 with middling results. Slapstick scenes only mildly funny.▼쩠 Smile Like Yours, A (1997) C-98m. Smash Palace (1981-New Zealand) CBOMB D: Keith Samples. Greg Kinnear, 100m. ★★★ D: Roger Donaldson. Bruno Lauren Holly, Joan Cusack, Jay Thomas, Lawrence, Anna Jemison, Greer Robson, France Nuyen, Christopher McDonald, DonKeith Aberdein, Desmond Kelly. Lawrence ald Moffat, Shirley MacLaine, Ben Stein. is more interested in his cars than wife He’s an engineer, she designs perfumes, and Jemison, who craves attention and affectogether they cannot conceive a child. The tion. Sometimes confusing and overly maladroit comic result is so strange that it melodramatic, but still worthwhile—particturns into its year’s definitive ‘‘what were they ularly when focusing on their 7-year-old thinking of?’’ movie. That’s ’60s star Nuyen daughter (Robson).▼●쩠 wielding fertility instruments straight from the Smash-up Alley (1972) C-83m. ★★ D: Chamber of Horrors. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Edward J. Lakso. Darren McGavin, RichSmiles of a Summer Night (1955-Swedish) 108m. ★★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Ulla ard Petty, Kathie Browne, Noah Beery, Jr., Pierre Jalbert, L. Q. Jones. Stock-car racer Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Margit Carlquist, Petty plays himself, McGavin is his father, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Jarl Lee, in this forgettable chronicle of their Kulle. One of the finest romantic comecareers. Aficionados of the sport may endies ever made, a witty treatise on manjoy it, however. Aka 43: THE PETTY ners, mores, and sex during a weekend at a STORY. [G]▼쩠 country estate in the late 19th century. Smash-up: The Story of a Woman (1947) Inspired the Broadway musical and sub★★★ 103m. sequent film A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (as D: Stuart Heisler. Susan Hayward, Lee Bowman, Marsha Hunt, Eddie well as Woody Allen’s A MIDSUMMER Albert, Carl Esmond, Carleton Young. NIGHT’S SEX COMEDY).▼●쩠 [ 1273 ]

Smiley Face (2007-U.S.-German) C-84m. Smilla’s Sense of Snow (1997-German★1 ⁄2 D: Gregg Araki. Anna Faris, Danny Swedish-Danish) C-121m. ★★ D: Bille AuMasterson, Adam Brody, Rick Hoffman, gust. Julia Ormond, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Jane Lynch, John Krasinski, Marion Ross, Harris, Robert Loggia, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Hitchcock, John Cho, Danny Trejo. Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Tom WilkinLoser goes from A to Z when she devours son. Disappointing adaptation of Peter her roomie’s maryjane-spiked cupcakes, proHoeg’s novel, with Ormond as an alienated pelling this slacker into an episodic series of woman who is devastated by death of pot-fueled misadventures. But this colorful, neighboring Inuit boy—and obsessed with technically adept comedy simply isn’t funny; uncovering details of his possible murder. a big disappointment from onetime indie Part soul-searching saga, action story, rowunderkind Araki. Roscoe Lee Browne narmance, and medical thriller . . . and none of it rates, as himself. Scott ‘‘Carrot Top’’ gels. Admittedly a great woman’s role, but Thompson has a three-second cameo. [R]쩠 it gets muddled in the execution. PanaviSmiling Fish and Goat On Fire (2000) Csion. [R]▼●쩠 90m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Jordan. Derick Martini, Smith! (1969) C-112m. ★★★ D: Michael Steven Martini, Christa Miller, Bill HenderO’Herlihy. Glenn Ford, Nancy Olson, Dean son, Rosemarie Addeo. Two L.A. brothers Jagger, Keenan Wynn, Warren Oates, Chief finally grow up when they meet their true Dan George. Offbeat Disney drama of loves. Made on a shoestring budget of stubborn, pro-Indian farmer Ford who steps $40,000, this practically plotless film may forward to help Indian accused of murder. have been a labor of love but it’s awfully Well done, with good characterizations, low octane. Subplot about an 80-year-old but low-key qualities soften impact. [G]▼ black man who worked on Paul Robeson Smithereens (1982) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: movies feels totally extraneous, though Susan Seidelman. Susan Berman, Brad Henderson is good in the role. Title relates Rinn (Rijn), Richard Hell, Roger Jett, Nada to the brothers’ nicknames given to them by Despotovitch, Kitty Summerall, Christotheir half–Native American grandmother. pher Noth. Gritty little character study of [R]▼쩠 selfish, self-assured, rootless hustler BerSmiling Lieutenant, The (1931) 88m. ★★★ man, and her vague dreams of success as a D: Ernst Lubitsch. Maurice Chevalier, punk-rock band manager. Solid characterClaudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins, Charlie izations and simple, fluid direction; the Ruggles, George Barbier, Hugh O’Connell, sequence with the hooker and her chicken Elizabeth Patterson. Utterly charming Lubsalad sandwich is memorable. [R]▼●쩠 itsch confection about a Viennese lieutenant Smoke (1995) C-112m. ★★★ D: Wayne who’s forced to marry the naive, mousy Wang. William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, StockPrincess of Flausenthurm (Hopkins) when ard Channing, Harold Perrineau, Jr., Forest in fact he’s in love with violinist Colbert. Whitaker, Victor Argo, Erica Gimpel, ClaPretty racy for its time. Highlight: the leadrice Taylor, Giancarlo Esposito, Ashley ing ladies singing ‘‘Jazz Up Your LinJudd. A tapestry of lives that intertwine gerie.’’ Based on the operetta The Waltz around a Brooklyn smoke shop; key figures Dream, which was filmed under that title in include the philosophical manager (Keitel), Germany in 1928.●쩠 a burnt-out novelist (Hurt), a worldly wise ★★★ D: Smilin’ Through (1932) 97m. teenager (Perrineau) whom Hurt more or Sidney Franklin. Norma Shearer, Fredric less adopts, and the boy’s actual father March, Leslie Howard, O. P. Heggie, (Whitaker), whom he hasn’t seen since inRalph Forbes. Sentimental romantic tale fancy. Another of Wang’s low-key, barely(with fantasy elements) about an embittered there narratives that won’t enchant every old man who lost his love on their wedding viewer, but does offer considerable pleaday but finds new reason to live when he sure. The actors are compelling and credimust raise his orphaned niece (who looks ble; several cast members appear in a exactly like his long-ago fiance´e). Polsecond film, BLUE IN THE FACE. Written ished MGM production gets a bit pokey by Paul Auster. [R]▼●쩠 midway through but leads to satisfying fiSmoke Signals (1998) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: nale. Director Franklin originally filmed this Chris Eyre. Adam Beach, Evan Adams, with Norma Talmadge in 1922; it was reIrene Bedard, Gary Farmer, Tantoo made in 1941.▼ Cardinal, Cody Lightning, Simon Baker, Smilin’ Through (1941) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michelle St. John, Tom Skerritt, Cynthia Frank Borzage. Jeanette MacDonald, Gene Geary. Two Coeur d’Alene Indians—tough, Raymond, Brian Aherne, Ian Hunter, Franbrooding Beach and likable, nerdy Adams— cis Robinson, Patrick O’Moore. Glossy travel from their Idaho reservation to Phoeremake of sentimental story about romance nix to retrieve the remains of the former’s and rivalry spreading over two generadead father, and discover some truths about tions; lacks conviction of 1932 version, themselves along the way. Amusing, quirky though MacDonald and Raymond are a road movie offers a refreshing Native good match (they married in real life). ▼ [ 1274 ]

American point of view, but is too schematic in setting up relationships and themes. However, it does have the memorable chant ‘‘John Wayne’s Teeth.’’ [PG-13]▼●쩠 Smokey and the Bandit (1977) C-96m. ★★★ D: Hal Needham. Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Mike Henry, Paul Williams, Pat McCormick. Box-office smash is one long comedy chase, as bootlegger Reynolds outraces Sheriff Gleason for nearly the entire film. Directorial debut of ace stuntman Needham is (expectedly) brimming with stunts. About as subtle as The Three Stooges, but a classic compared to the sequels and countless rip-offs which followed. [PG] ▼●쩠 Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) C-104m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Hal Needham. Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Dom DeLuise, Sally Field, Paul Williams, Pat McCormick, John Anderson. Strange sequel to 1977 hit has Bandit and friends agreeing to truck a pregnant elephant to Texas. Unfortunately, film has hardly any action, and its main character is portrayed as an embittered egomaniac. Some laughs, but not enough to overcome these obstacles. [PG]▼●쩠 Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983) C88m. BOMB D: Dick Lowry. Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Colleen Camp, Paul Williams, Pat McCormick, Mike Henry, Burt Reynolds. Desperate attempt to wring more laughs from this formula, with Gleason as a flustered red-neck sheriff and Reed as his latest nemesis. Originally filmed as SMOKEY IS THE BANDIT, with Gleason playing both roles; when preview audiences were confused, the film was reshot with Reed replacing the ‘‘second’’ Gleason. Panavision. [PG]

bounty hunters, but the story is a mess and director Carnahan seems to be in love with ludicrous, over-the-top violence. Matthew Fox is unrecognizable in a cameo as a security person. Super 35. [R]쩠 Smoky (1946) C-87m. ★★★ D: Louis King. Fred MacMurray, Anne Baxter, Burl Ives, Bruce Cabot, Esther Dale, Roy Roberts. First-rate family film from Will James story of man’s devotion to his horse. Previously filmed in 1933, then again in 1966. Smoky (1966) C-103m. ★★ D: George Sherman. Fess Parker, Diana Hyland, Katy Jurado, Hoyt Axton, Chuck Roberson. Third version of the horse opera about especially independent horse named Smoky who knows what he wants. Smooth Talk (1985) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joyce Chopra. Treat Williams, Laura Dern, Mary Kay Place, Levon Helm, Elizabeth Berridge. Disarmingly realistic depiction of teenage girl’s growing pains and family relations takes sharp left turn when Williams enters as mysterious (and alluring) stranger . . . and all but deadens rest of the film. Worth seeing if only for Dern’s fine performance. Impressive feature debut for documentary director Chopra; script by Tom Cole from a Joyce Carol Oates short story. Originally made for PBS’ American Playhouse. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Smorgasbord SEE: Cracking Up Smother (2008) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Vince Di Meglio. Diane Keaton, Dax Shepard, Liv Tyler, Ken Howard, Jerry Lambert, Selma Stern, Mike White. Cringe-inducing sitcomstyle movie about a 60-ish eccentric who leaves her husband and moves in with her carpet-salesman son and his schoolmarm spouse. Ensuing meddling and misunder▼●쩠 standings over the course of a painfully misSmokey Bites the Dust (1981) C-85m. erable week are almost totally funny-free BOMB D: Charles B. Griffith. Jimmy with way too many third-act Serious Scenes. McNichol, Janet Julian, Walter Barnes, Keaton makes a valiant but futile effort. Patrick Campbell, Kari Lizer, John Blyth [PG-13]쩠 Barrymore. Young McNichol kidnaps Snake Eyes (1998) C-99m. ★★ D: Brian De homecoming queen, much to the consterPalma. Nicolas Cage, Gary Sinise, Carla nation of her sheriff father. Poor excuse Gugino, Stan Shaw, Kevin Dunn, Mike for a movie, with all its car-chase action Starr. Slick, corrupt Atlantic City cop finds bodily lifted from such earlier films as himself in the midst of a multi-level conspirEAT MY DUST, GRAND THEFT AUTO, acy after a shooting at a heavyweight prizeTHUNDER AND LIGHTNING, and MOVfight. Slick, kinetic filmmaking technique ING VIOLATION. [PG]▼ (by De Palma and cinematographer Stephen Smokin’ Aces (2007) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe H. Burum) can only carry this unappealing Carnahan. Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, story so far. By the finale, it’s hard to care Alicia Keys, Peter Berg, Jason Bateman, Ben much about anyone—or anything—in the Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Common, picture. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Martin Henderson, Taraji P. Henson, Chris Snake People (1970-Mexican-U.S.) C-90m. Pine, Nestor Carbonell, Curtis Armstrong, BOMB D: Jhon Ibanez (Juan Ibanez and Alex Rocco, David Proval, Wayne Newton. Jack Hill). Boris Karloff, Julissa, Charles Good cast can’t save this unwieldy patch(Carlos) East, Ralph Bertrand, Tongolele. work of farce, action, and drama. Piven is a Police captain tries to investigate an island Vegas entertainer about to inform on the mob where voodoo, LSD, and snake-worshipers who is tracked by a horde of assassins, run rampant. Ludicrous horror film wastes bounty hunters, and unsavory characters. Karloff’s talent. One of the last four films Keys is solid in her screen debut as one of the Karloff made; he shot his scenes in 1968. [ 1275 ]

Original title: ISLE OF THE SNAKE ing as a garble-mouthed Irish gypsy fighter. Fresh, funny, and full of punch. [R]▼쩠 PEOPLE. Aka CULT OF THE DEAD. ▼쩠 Snake Pit, The (1948) 108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sneakers (1992) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Phil Anatole Litvak. Olivia de Havilland, Mark Alden Robinson. Robert Redford, Dan Stevens, Leo Genn, Celeste Holm, Glenn Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, Langan, Helen Craig, Leif Erickson, BeuRiver Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Stratlah Bondi, Lee Patrick, Natalie Schafer, hairn, Timothy Busfield, George Hearn, Ruth Donnelly, Frank Conroy, Minna Stephen Tobolowsky, James Earl Jones. Gombell, Ann Doran, Betsy Blair, Isabel High-tech caper yarn about an offbeat secuJewell. One of the first films to deal intelrity team that takes on a dangerous assignligently with mental breakdowns and the ment to steal a ‘‘black box’’ containing painstakingly slow recovery process. Gripvolatile security secrets. Redford is in fine ping film set in mental institution lacks form in a lighthearted leading-man role, and original shock value but still packs a good his ‘‘team’’ is fun, but why does this story punch, with de Havilland superb. Screentake so long to unravel—and why does it play by Frank Partos and Millen Brand, jettison every shred of believability toward from the Mary Jane Ward novel.▼●쩠 the end? [PG-13]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Snakes on a Plane (2006) C-105m. ⁄2 Sniper, The (1952) 87m. ★★★ D: Edward D: David R. Ellis. Samuel L. Jackson, JuliDmytryk. Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, anna Margulies, Nathan Phillips, Rachel Marie Windsor, Richard Kiley, Mabel Paige. Blanchard, Flex Alexander, Kenan ThompExcellent, realistically filmed drama of son, Lin Shaye, David Koechner, Bobby mentally deranged sniper (Franz) who can’t Cannavale, Todd Louiso. It isn’t like the old help himself from killing unsuspecting women. Fine performances by all.쩠 days when you called the box office to see what was playing and the response was, Sniper (1993) C-98m. ★★ D: Luis Llosa. ‘‘PHFFFT’’ or ‘‘ZOTZ!’’ Here you know Tom Berenger, Billy Zane, J.T. Walsh, what you’re getting, and for the lovers havAden Young, Ken Radley, Dale Dye, Riching taboo sex in the overly cramped jet lavaard Lineback. A tough Marine sergeant tory, it’s a lot more than chafed behinds. and a green Olympics marksman team up Why? Because an indicted thug tries to siin the Panamanian jungle to eliminate a lence a witness by crashing an entire pasrebel honcho and his drug lord bankroller. senger plane through hissing means. You Plodding film is as life affirming as a can bet FBI agent Jackson has conflicting broken septic tank, and about as useful; the ideas about this. The premise is fun, but slow-motion bullet trajectories are a little a premise is just about all there is. Super livelier than the actors. Followed by two direct-to-video sequels. [R]▼●쩠 35. [R]쩠 Snapper, The (1993-British) C-95m. ★★★ Snoopy Come Home (1972) C-70m. ★★★ D: Stephen Frears. Colm Meaney, Tina KelD: Bill Melendez. Voices of Chad Webber, legher, Ruth McCabe, Colm O’Byrne, David Carey, Stephen Shea, Bill Melendez. Eanna Macliam, Ciara Duffy, Joanne GerCharming Peanuts feature (the second) rard, Peter Rowen, Fionnula Murphy, Karen centering around Snoopy, the world’s most independent pooch. [G]▼●쩠 Woodley, Pat Laffan, Brendan Gleeson. Wonderful adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s Snow Angels (2008) C-106m. ★★ D: David novel about a working-class Irish family, Gordon Green. Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockand the teenage daughter who finds herself well, Michael Angarano, Deborah Allen, pregnant—with the circumstances too embarJeannetta Arnette, Griffin Dunne, Peter rassing to discuss. Vivid, funny, and believBlais, Brian Downey, Nicky Katt, Amy able, sparked by good performances— Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby, Tom Noonan. Life especially Meaney as the bewildered (but in a small American town is examined in basically good-hearted) father; he also apthis adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s best peared earlier in THE COMMITMENTS, seller about the intersecting fates of a young the first of Doyle’s Barrytown trilogy. Folman, his ex-babysitter, her soon-to-be exlowed by THE VAN. [R]▼●쩠 husband, and their daughter. Played out Snatch. (2000) C-102m. ★★★ D: Guy Ritagainst a snowy, frigid backdrop that serves chie. Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina, Vinto underscore the depressing story being nie Jones, Brad Pitt, Rade Sherbedgia, Jason told. Acting is first-rate but film only spoStatham, Alan Ford, Mike Reid, Robbie Gee, radically makes you care about these people. Super 35. [R]쩠 Lennie James, Stephen Graham, Jason Flemyng. Writer-director Ritchie’s follow-up to Snowball Express (1972) C-99m. ★★ D: LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING Norman Tokar. Dean Jones, Nancy Olson, BARRELS is a similarly energized, violent Harry Morgan, Keenan Wynn, Johnny farce about sleazy underworld types (involved Whitaker, Michael McGreevey. Jones plays in everything from a diamond heist to a bareN.Y. accountant who inherits battered hotel knuckle boxing match) whose agendas—and in Rockies and tries to convert it into ski bodies—collide. Populated by characters with lodge. Slapstick ski chase is highlight of names like Franky Four Fingers. Pitt is amusformula Disney comedy. [G]▼쩠 [ 1276 ]

Snow Cake (2006-British-Canadian) Cphotography by Robert Richardson. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 113m. ★★★ D: Marc Evans. Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss, Emily Snow Job (1972) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: George Hampshire, James Allodi, Callum Keith RenEnglund. Jean-Claude Killy, Danielle nie, David Fox, Jayne Eastwood. Solitary Gaubert, Cliff Potts, Vittorio De Sica. middle-aged man with a troubled past picks Heist film involving the taking of $250,000 up a young female hitchhiker while driving in loot. Although professional skier Killy across Canada; the out-of-left-field event is appropriate star for film set against the that happens next profoundly affects the rest Alps, he can’t act; neither can the beautiful of the story and the lives of all its characters. Gaubert. Panavision. [PG] Quirky, thoughtful drama is refreshing for Snows of Kilimanjaro, The (1952) C117m. ★★★ D: Henry King. Gregory Peck, its profound humanity. Weaver is tremendous as the hitchhiker’s autistic mother.쩠 Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Hildegarde Snow Creature, The (1954) 70m. ★1⁄2 D: Neff, Leo G. Carroll. Peck finds his forte W. Lee Wilder. Paul Langton, Leslie Denias renowned writer critically injured while son, Teru Shimada, Rollin Moriyama. Yeti on safari in Africa, trying to decide if he brought back from Himalayas languishes in found any meaning to his past; based on Hemingway story. ▼●쩠 customs while officials wrangle over whether it is cargo or a passenger. Dull film at least Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) C-83m. ★★★★ D: David Hand. Voices of has virtue of being made for adults, though only kids may like it now.▼쩠 Adriana Caselotti, Harry Stockwell, Lucille Snow Day (2000) C-89m. ★★ D: Chris LaVerne, Scotty Mattraw, Roy Atwell, Koch. Chris Elliott, Mark Webber, Jean Pinto Colvig, Otis Harlan, Billy Gilbert, Smart, Schuyler Fisk, Iggy Pop, Pam Grier, Moroni Olsen. Walt Disney’s groundbreakChevy Chase, John Schneider, Zena Grey, ing animated feature film—the first of its Emmanuelle Chriqui, Connor Matheus, J. kind—is still in a class by itself, a warm Adam Brown. A late-season snowstorm and joyful rendition of the classic fairy tale, closes upstate N.Y. schools, allowing for enhanced by the vivid personalities of the plot threads spotlighting local weatherman seven dwarfs. Only a real-life Grumpy Chase and two of his children: an adolescent could fail to love it. Songs include ‘‘Whistle boy who is smitten with his dream girl, and While You Work,’’ ‘‘Heigh Ho,’’ and ‘‘Some Day My Prince Will Come.’’▼●쩠 his kid sister, who takes on comically sadistic snowplow driver Elliott. Predictable family Snow White and the Three Stooges (1961) film, a Nickelodeon production. Fisk (who C-107m. BOMB D: Walter Lang. Three plays Webber’s tomboyish pal) is the Stooges, Patricia Medina, Carol Heiss, daughter of Sissy Spacek. [PG]▼●쩠 Buddy Baer, Guy Rolfe, Edgar Barrier. Snow Dogs (2002) C-99m. ★★ D: Brian LeBig mistake with skating star Heiss as vant. Cuba Gooding, Jr., James Coburn, Snow White, Three Stooges as . . . the Sisqo´, Nichelle Nichols, M. Emmet Walsh, Three Stooges. Comics aren’t given much Graham Greene, Brian Doyle-Murray, Joto do, despite title; rest of film is rather anna Bacalso, Jean-Michel Pare´. Miami stodgy. Even kids won’t be thrilled with it. CinemaScope.▼쩠 dentist goes to Alaska for the reading of his mother’s will and is persuaded to follow his Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997U.S.-British) C-101m. ★★★ D: Michael destiny by learning to race her team of sled dogs. Clumsy Disney film is aimed at kids Cohn. Sigourney Weaver, Sam Neill, Gil Belwho only respond to the broadest kind of lows, Taryn Davis, Brian Glover, David Concomedy. Gooding may set a new record for rad, Monica Keena. We’re not in Disneyland the most times a leading man falls down in here, kiddies. Extremely dark, rather bloody, one movie! [PG]▼쩠 live-action version of the Brothers Grimm Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) C-126m. fairy tale and an exercise in Gothic horror, ★★ D: Scott Hicks. Ethan Hawke, James with over-the-top Weaver as the evil stepCromwell, Richard Jenkins, James Rebmother. Filmed on location in various cashorn, Sam Shepard, Eric Thal, Max von tles in the Czech Republic and in Prague Sydow, Youki Kudoh, Rick Yune, Jan Government Park, doubling for the Black Rubes, Celia Weston, Max Wright, Zˇeljko Forest. Great (if sadistic) fun. Made for theIvanek, Daniel von Bargen. Ambitious but aters; debuted on cable in U.S. Aka THE unsuccessful adaptation of David GuterGRIMM BROTHERS’ SNOW WHITE. son’s best-selling novel. Flashback-laden ▼●쩠 story skips from the 1930s to the 1950s on Snow White in the Land of Doom SEE: an island in the Pacific Northwest where a Happily Ever After boy falls in love with a Japanese-American Soapdish (1991) C-95m. ★★ D: Michael girl. Equal parts murder mystery, forbidden Hoffman. Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robromance, history lesson (about racial prejuert Downey, Jr., Cathy Moriarty, Whoopi dice), and courtroom drama. Hawke is dull, Goldberg, Elisabeth Shue, Carrie Fisher, but von Sydow livens things up as an aged Garry Marshall, Teri Hatcher, Paul Johansbut clever attorney. Self-consciously arty son, Costas Mandylor, Stephen Nichols, [ 1277 ]

Kathy Najimy, Ben Stein. Farcical comedy Cheirel, Eugene Borden, Ann Codee, Egon about a soap opera queen who’s losing her Brecher, Helen Freeman. Famous Parisian grip—on the show, and her life. Field and detective is put to work during his holiday Kline are a treat to watch playing largerin the French countryside. Impressively made than-life characters, but Whoopi is wasted, B movie, something of a sleeper in its time, Downey is miscast, and the script (by Robsuffers only for lack of charisma on the part ert Harling and Andrew Bergman) thinks of its (mostly unknown) cast. ‘‘frantic’’ equals ‘‘funny.’’ Any one scene So Dear to My Heart (1949) C-84m. ★★★1 in TOOTSIE tops this hands down. Leeza ⁄2 D: Harold Schuster. Burl Ives, BeuGibbons’ best film work to date; John Tesh lah Bondi, Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten, also appears. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Harry Carey. Warm, nostalgic Disney film S.O.B. (1981) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Blake about young boy’s determination to raise a Edwards. Julie Andrews, William Holden, black sheep and bring him to State Fair comRichard Mulligan, Robert Preston, Robert petition. Brimming with period charm and atVaughn, Loretta Swit, Larry Hagman, Marisa mosphere; several animated sequences, too. Berenson, Robert Webber, Stuart Margolin, Songs include ‘‘Lavender Blue (Dilly Craig Stevens, Shelley Winters, Rosanna ArDilly).’’ Screenplay by John Tucker Battle, quette, Jennifer Edwards, Robert Loggia, John from Sterling North’s book Midnight and Pleshette, Larry Storch, Gene Nelson, Joe Jeremiah. ▼●쩠 Penny, Corbin Bernsen. A producer hatches a Sodom and Gomorrah (1963-Italian) scheme to turn his latest turkey into a hit: C-154m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. Stewart juice it up with pornography and have his Granger, Pier Angeli, Stanley Baker, Anouk wife-star (Andrews) bare her breasts. A glib Aime´e, Rossana Podesta. Lavish retelling of satire on modern-day Movieland (and writerlife in biblical twin cities of sin. Strong cast, director Edwards’ revenge for Hollywood’s vivid scenes of vice, gore, and God’s wrath, treatment of him in the early ’70s) throws in make this overly long tale of ancient Hebrews everything from black humor to slapstick, fairly entertaining.▼● with wildly uneven results. Holden’s last film. So Ends Our Night (1941) 117m. ★★★1⁄2 Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 D: John Cromwell. Fredric March, Margaret So big! (1932) 80m. ★★ D: William A. Sullavan, Frances Dee, Glenn Ford, Anna Wellman. Barbara Stanwyck, George Brent, Sten, Erich von Stroheim, Allan Brett. SupeDickie Moore, Guy Kibbee, Bette Davis, rior filmization of Erich Maria Remarque Mac Madison, Hardie Albright, Alan Hale. story of German (March) rejecting Nazi reign, Disappointing adaptation of Edna Ferber’s fleeing his country with hot pursuit by Axis saga of an orphaned girl who becomes a agents. Written by Talbot Jennings from Remarque’s novel Flotsam.▼쩠 schoolteacher in the midst of a farming community and raises her son to aspire to So Evil My Love (1948) 109m. ★★★ D: big things. Abrupt continuity and sudden Lewis Allen. Ray Milland, Ann Todd, aging of its lead character keep this from Geraldine Fitzgerald, Leo G. Carroll, Rayamounting to very much. Stanwyck and mond Huntley, Martita Hunt, Hugh Griffith. Davis are both in the final scene—but never Excellent study of corruption; scoundrel appear on screen together! Filmed before in Milland drags innocent Todd into larceny 1925, remade in 1953. at expense of Fitzgerald. So Evil, My Sister (1972) C-76m. ★★ D: So Big (1953) 101m. ★★★ D: Robert Wise. Jane Wyman, Sterling Hayden, Nancy Reginald LeBorg. Susan Strasberg, Faith Olson, Steve Forrest, Martha Hyer, Tommy Domergue, Sydney Chaplin, Charles Knox Rettig. Superficial but engrossing Edna Robinson, Steve Mitchell, Kathleen FreeFerber soaper/saga about teacher who man, John Howard. Gothic B-movie thriller brings up son to be self-sufficient. Filmed with veteran cast has Strasberg and Domerbefore in 1925 and 1932. gue as sisters playing cat-and-mouse with the police who are investigating the mysterSo Close (2002-Hong Kong) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cory Yuen. Shu Qi, Zhao Wei, Karen ious death of Strasberg’s husband. Several Mok, Song Seung Hun, Michael Wai, Yasuclever twists in the final reel are worth waiting aki Kurata, Derek Wan. Two sisters, ostenfor. Retitled PSYCHO SISTERS. Video title: sibly ultra-tech computer surveillance THE SIBLING. [R]▼ operators, are secretly—gasp!!—assassins Sofie (1992-Danish-Norwegian-Swedish) decimating a murderously corrupt corporaC-146m. ★★1⁄2 D: Liv Ullmann. Karen-Lise tion suit by suit. Fighting tooth and nail Mynster, Erland Josephson, Ghita Norby, with gun and sword, they’re countered by a Jesper Christensen, Torben Zeller, Stig Hoffclever policewoman similarly well versed in meyer. Ullman’s directorial debut (which martial arts. Super-flashy action set pieces she also coscripted) is a thoughtful but unfar outplay the draggy interpersonals in this even, Bergmanesque tale of a young Jew in chop-socky CHARLIE’S ANGELS wanlate 19th-century Copenhagen who is unable nabe. [R]▼쩠 to break free of family tradition, ruining her So Dark the Night (1946) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: one chance at true love. Beautifully detailed Joseph H. Lewis. Steven Geray, Micheline but episodic (especially in its second half) [ 1278 ]

and overlong. Mynster offers an effectively Nemec, Jack Palance, Tetsuya Bessho, Dorian subtle performance as Sofie.▼쩠 Harewood, Brenda Bakke. Futuristic sci-fi So Fine (1981) C-91m. ★★★ D: Andrew thriller with Matheson leading a save-theBergman. Ryan O’Neal, Jack Warden, planet mission to the sun to prevent a solar Mariangela Melato, Richard Kiel, Fred flare from destroying the earth. Fine special Gwynne, Mike Kellin, David Rounds. effects, quality acting, and suspenseful story Wacky comedy about professor-son of a in space, marred by earth antics of bad boy N.Y.C. garment manufacturer who is draBoyle who (preposterously) wants to sabotage gooned into the business and inadvertently the mission. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 succeeds with an idea for see-through jeans. Solaris (1972-Russian) C-165m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Film goes off in unexpected directions— Andrei Tarkovsky. Natalya Bondarchuk, some of them surprisingly silly—but reDonatas Banionis, Yuri Yarvet, Anatoly mains funny most of the time. Writer BergSolonitsin. Mind-bending, metaphysical man’s directorial debut. [R]▼● sci-fi about a psychologist who’s sent to a Soft Beds, Hard Battles SEE: Undercovspace station to investigate mysterious ers Hero deaths and discovers supernatural phenomSoft Fruit (2000-Australian-U.S.) C-101m. ena. Slow moving and occasionally pre★★ D: Christina Andreef. Jeanie Drynan, tentious, but hypnotic once one adjusts, Linal Haft, Russell Dykstra, Genevieve and an undoubted tour de force by TarLemon, Sacha Horler, Alicia Talbot. Four kovsky, who also cowrote the screenplay. grown children—three sisters and a brother Remade in 2002. Sovscope.▼●쩠 who’s just gotten out of jail—return home Solaris (2002) C-99m. ★★ D: Steven Soderto be with their mother, who’s dying of liver bergh. George Clooney, Natascha McElhone, cancer. Amiable enough mix of comedy and Jeremy Davies, Viola Davis, Ulrich Tukur. drama about an oddball family doesn’t add In the near future, psychologist Clooney is up to much. Scripted by the director. [R] ▼ summoned to a space station where the crew Soft Skin, The (1964-French) 120m. ★★★ has been acting strange, to say the least. D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Franc¸oise Dorleac, There he meets an eerie replica of his dead Jean Desailly, Nelly Benedetti. Moody tale of wife! Ice-cold adaptation (by Soderbergh) married businessman drawn into tragic affair of Stanislaw Lem’s science-fiction novel, with beautiful airline stewardess; smooth didistinguished by Philip Messina’s striking rection uplifts basic plot.▼●쩠 production design and a strong performance So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) by Clooney. All that’s missing is the ability C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Thomas Schlamme. Mike to care about his character. Filmed before in Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, 1972. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Amanda Plummer, Brenda Fricker, Debi Solas (2000-Spanish) C-98m. ★★★ D: BeMazar, Matt Doherty. A guy who’s always nito Zambrano. Ana Ferna´ndez, Marı´a Galiavoided commitment by finding absurd reaana, Carlos Alvarez-Novoa. A trio of lonely sons to break up with his girlfriends finally people—an embittered, alcoholic woman, meets Miss Right—and then comes to beher provincial mother, and a kind-hearted lieve that she’s a notorious axe murderess! neighbor widower—get a second chance at Myers is ingratiating and funny (especially life in this poignant film. All three lead perin a second role as his own contrary Scottish formances are terrific, and despite a somefather) but the film never shifts into high what rushed wrap-up, the film earns our gear. Cameos by such familiar comic peraffections honestly. As much a tribute to sonalities as Charles Grodin, Steven Wright, unconventional families as Almodo´var’s Phil Hartman, and Michael Richards seem ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER.▼쩠 mostly gratuitous. Alan Arkin appears unSoldier, The (1982) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: James billed. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Glickenhaus. Ken Wahl, Klaus Kinski, Solarbabies (1986) C-94m. BOMB D: William Prince, Alberta Watson, Jeremiah Alan Johnson. Richard Jordan, Jami Gertz, Sullivan. CIA superagent Wahl takes on Jason Patric, Lukas Haas, Charles Durning, Russian terrorists who have planted a plutoPeter DeLuise, Adrian Pasdar, Sarah Dougnium bomb in a Saudi Arabian oil field. las, Frank Converse, Terrence Mann, Kelly Cliche´d, violent drama. [R]▼ Bishop. Futuristic teen junk has Gertz and Soldier (1998) C-98m. ★★ D: Paul Anderher mostly male cohorts imprisoned by son. Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Connie Nazi-like Jordan inside a fortress; the group Nielsen, Sean Pertwee, Michael Chiklis, plots an escape with the help of ‘‘Bohdi’’ Gary Busey, Jason Isaacs, Jared Thorne, —an ancient mystical force. Appallingly Taylor Thorne. In the near future, Russell, bad stinker from (Mel) Brooksfilm that raised to be a soldier, is declared obsolete, barely got released. J-D-C Scope. [PGthought dead, and dumped on a planet used 13]▼●쩠 as a garbage heap. He’s befriended by peoSolar Crisis (1990-U.S.-Japanese) Cple who crash-landed there some time be1 ★★ 112m. fore; then his old fighting partners show up ⁄2 D: Alan Smithee (Richard Sarafian). Tim Matheson, Charlton Heston, to ‘‘cleanse’’ the planet. Russell is good, Peter Boyle, Annabel Schofield, Corin but the movie is derivative, the ‘‘science’’ [ 1279 ]

ludicrous, and the outcome highly predictdai, Yusuke Kawazu, Tamao Nakamura, able. Please come back, Shane. Panavision. Chishu Ryu, Taketoshi Naitoˆ, Reiko Hitomi, [R] ▼●쩠 Kyoˆko Kishida, Fujio Suga. Final installment Soldier Blue (1970) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph of Kobayashi’s three-part rumination on the Nelson. Candice Bergen, Peter Strauss, horrors of WW2 (after NO GREATER Donald Pleasence, John Anderson, Jorge LOVE and THE ROAD TO ETERNITY) is Rivero, Dana Elcar, James Hampton. Wellset in the waning days of the conflict. Here, meant attempt to dramatize U.S. mistreatKaji (Nakadai) and other soldiers and civilment of the Indians (and perhaps equate it ians struggle to stay alive in the desolate with Vietnam) wasn’t very good then and Manchurian countryside. Meanwhile, Kaji hasn’t improved; bulk of the film is still wonders if his beloved wife is still living, cutesy romance between two survivors of and if he will ever find her. The finale is Indian attack, climaxed by cavalry’s slaughhaunting . . . and fitting. Scripted by Kobayter of entire village in sequence that reashi, Zenzo Matsuyama, and Koichi Inamains almost unwatchable. Panavision. gaki, based on a six-volume novel by Jumpei [PG—edited from original R rating]▼●쩠 Gomikawa. Aka THE HUMAN CONDISoldier in Skirts SEE: Triple Echo TION III. Grandscope. 쩠 ★★★ Soldier in the Rain (1963) 88m. D: Soldier’s Story, A (1984) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 Ralph Nelson. Jackie Gleason, Steve D: Norman Jewison. Howard E. Rollins, McQueen, Tuesday Weld, Tony Bill, Tom Jr., Adolph Caesar, Dennis Lipscomb, Art Poston, Ed Nelson, John Hubbard, Adam Evans, Denzel Washington, Larry Riley, West. Strange film wavers from sentimental David Alan Grier, Robert Townsend, Patti drama to high comedy. Gleason is swinging LaBelle, Wings Hauser, Trey Wilson. Elecsergeant, McQueen his fervent admirer. trifying drama by Charles Fuller from his Script by Blake Edwards and Maurice RichPulitzer Prize–winning play (featuring most lin from William Goldman’s novel.▼쩠 of original Negro Ensemble Company cast) Soldier of Fortune (1955) C-96m. ★★★ D: about murder of a black officer at Southern Edward Dmytryk. Clark Gable, Susan Haymilitary post in the 1940s. A solid whoward, Michael Rennie, Gene Barry, Tom dunit plus a probing look at racism within Tully, Alex D’Arcy, Anna Sten. Gable is black ranks. It was inspired by Herman hired to find Susan’s husband (Barry) held Melville’s Billy Budd. Can’t completely captive in Hong Kong. Rennie is good as escape its stage origins but still a riveting police chief. Scripted by Ernest K. Gann, film. [PG]▼●쩠 from his novel. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Soldier’s Tale, A (1988) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Soldier of Orange (1979-Dutch) C-165m. Larry Parr. Gabriel Byrne, Marianne Basler, ★★★1 Judge Reinhold, Paul Wyett. Poignant, ⁄2 D: Paul Verhoeven. Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbe´, Peter Faber, Derek De Lint, thought-provoking WW2 story of a beautiEddy Habbema, Susan Penhaligon, Edward ful woman accused of being a German Fox. The lives of six wealthy, carefree Dutch collaborator by the French resistance. Byrne university students are irrevocably altered plays a British soldier who tries to protect when the Germans occupy their homeland in her. Reinhold is on screen for all of three minutes. [R]▼●쩠 1940. Superior drama, with Hauer coming into his own as a handsome aristocrat who Soldiers Three (1951) 87m. ★★★ D: Tay becomes involved in the Resistance. Based Garnett. Stewart Granger, Walter Pidon autobiographical novel by Erik Hazelhoff. geon, David Niven, Robert Newton, Cyril [R]▼●쩠 Cusack, Greta Gynt, Robert Coote, Dan Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, A (1998) O’Herlihy. Boisterous action-adventure with C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Ivory. Kris Kristoflight touch; GUNGA DIN–esque story has ferson, Barbara Hershey, Leelee Sobieski, three soldiering comrades in and out of Jesse Bradford, Anthony Roth Costanzo, spats with each other as they battle in Dominique Blanc, Jane Birkin. Picaresque 19th-century India. Loosely based on stostory of an expatriate American family livries by Rudyard Kipling. ing in Paris during the ’60s and ’70s, and Solid Gold Cadillac, The (1956) 99m. ★★★ what happens when they move back home. D: Richard Quine. Judy Holliday, Paul DougKristofferson is excellent as a macho novellas, Fred Clark, John Williams, Arthur ist, and Sobieski and Bradford are equally O’Connell, Hiram Sherman, Neva Patterson, good as his kids, who are going through Ray Collins; narrated by George Burns. Dazvarious teenage crises, but the film loses its zling Judy in entertaining comedy of small grip when it shifts to America and becomes stockholder in large company becoming cormuch more mundane. Based on an autobioporate heroine by trying to oust crooked graphical novel by Kaylie Jones, whose faboard of directors. George S. Kaufman–Hother was author James Jones. [R]▼●쩠 ward Teichman play adapted by Abe BurSoldiers of Fortune SEE: You Can’t Win rows. Jean Louis earned an Oscar for the costumes. Last scene in color. ▼쩠 ’Em All Soldier’s Prayer, A (1961-Japanese) 196m. Sol Madrid (1968) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian ★★★1⁄2 D: Masaki Kobayashi. Tatsuya NakaG. Hutton. David McCallum, Stella Ste[ 1280 ]

vens, Telly Savalas, Ricardo Montalban, drews. Splashy spectacle with alluring Gina Rip Torn, Pat Hingle, Paul Lukas, Michael and stoic Brynner frolicking in biblical Ansara. Old-fashioned but solid thriller days. Tyrone Power died during filming in about police, Mafia, and running heroin Spain, was replaced by Brynner who refrom Mexico. Panavision. filmed Power’s early scenes. Some long shots ★★ Solo (1996-U.S.-Mexican) C-94m. D: still show Power, not Brynner. Vidor’s Norberto Barba. Mario Van Peebles, Wilfinal film as director. Restored to 139m. on liam Sadler, Adrien Brody, Seidy Lopez, laserdisc. Super Technirama 70.▼●쩠 Abraham J. Verduzco, Barry Corbin. Solo So Long at the Fair (1950-British) 90m. ★★★ is an android who has a crisis of conscience D: Terence Fisher, Anthony Darnwhen he directly disobeys an order that would borough. Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, result in the murder of innocent people. This David Tomlinson, Honor Blackman, Cathsets him on a collision course with his creleen Nesbitt, Felix Aylmer, Andre Morell, ators, particularly a sadistic colonel. StanBetty Warren. Atmospheric drama set durdard action for nondiscerning fans of the ing 1889 Paris Exposition with English genre. Van Peebles is actually quite appealwoman searching for brother who’s mysteing in the lead. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 riously vanished. Worth a look for fans of So´lo Con Tu Pareja (1991-Mexican) C-94m. the offbeat. ★★★ D: Alfonso Cuaro ´ n. Daniel Gime´nez Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978) Cacho, Claudia Ramı´rez, Luis de Icaza, Astrid C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Lamont Johnson. Farrah Hadad, Dobrina Liubomirova, Isabel Benet. A Fawcett-Majors, Jeff Bridges, John Wood, womanizing Mexico City copywriter gets Tammy Grimes, John Glover, Patricia Elhis comeuppance when he is falsely diagliott. First starring feature for the ex-Charlie’s nosed as being H.I.V. positive, thanks to a Angel was redubbed ‘‘Somebody Killed spurned nurse who was one of his many Her Career’’ by industry wags, but in any conquests. Cowritten with his brother Carcase, this tepid comedy-mystery-romance los, Cuaro´n’s feature debut (not released in written by Reginald Rose has little to the U.S. until 2006) is a breezily dark sex recommend it. Filmed in Manhattan. [PG] comedy in the early-Almodo´var style, strikSomebody to Love (1995-French) Cingly shot by the director’s regular cinema103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alexandre Rockwell. Rosie tographer, Emmanuel Lubezki. Aka LOVE Perez, Harvey Keitel, Anthony Quinn, MiIN THE TIME OF HYSTERIA.쩠 chael DeLorenzo, Steve Buscemi, Samuel Soloist, The (2009-U.S.-British-French) CFuller, Stanley Tucci, Steven Randazzo, 117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joe Wright. Jamie Foxx, Sam Rockwell. Occasionally inspired but Robert Downey, Jr., Catherine Keener, Tom mostly meandering slice-of-life with Perez Hollander, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Nelsan Ellis, giving her all as a spirited taxi dancer who Rachael Harris, Stephen Root, Lorraine Toushas moved from Brooklyn to L.A. in the saint. Los Angeles Times columnist Steve hope of making it big in showbiz. Keitel is Lopez (Downey) writes a piece about street her middle-aged has-been actor/lover, Demusician Nathaniel Ayers (Foxx), whose Lorenzo the young man who falls for her mental illness has defeated his natural talent. and tries to impress her by becoming inHe feels compelled to help Ayers but doesn’t volved with mobster Quinn. Buscemi is outcomprehend the magnitude of the man’s standing as a transvestite taxi dancer. Watch problems, or how tough it is to be responsible for Quentin Tarantino as a bartender, Lelia for another human being. True story offers moGoldoni as a waitress. [R]▼●쩠 ments of soaring emotions (most of them inSomebody Up There Likes Me (1956) spired by Beethoven music), contrasted against 113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Wise. Paul Newthe squalor of homelessness in downtown L.A. man, Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen To its credit this isn’t a glib, feel-good movie— Heckart, Sal Mineo, Joseph Buloff, Robbut on the other hand it’s painfully difficult to ert Loggia, Steve McQueen. Top biograwatch. Panavision. [PG-13] phy of boxer Rocky Graziano’s rise from Solomon and Gaenor (1999-British) CN.Y.C. sidewalks to arena success with 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Morrison. Ioan Gruffudd, fine performance by Newman. Script by Nia Roberts, Sue Jones-Davies, William Ernest Lehman; cinematographer Joseph Thomas, Mark Lewis Jones, Maureen LipRuttenberg won an Oscar. Film debut of man, David Horovitch. Heartfelt, albeit preLoggia. Title song sung by Perry Como. dictable, Romeo and Juliet–style love story, ▼●쩠 set in poverty-stricken 1911 Wales, about a Some Call It Loving (1973) C-103m. forbidden romance between Roberts, the offBOMB D: James B. Harris. Zalman King, spring of rigid churchgoers, and Gruffudd, a Carol White, Tisa Farrow, Richard Pryor. Jewish fabric peddler who hides his religion Slow, pretentious fantasy transplanting the from his lover and her clan. [R]▼쩠 story of Sleeping Beauty (played by FarSolomon and Sheba (1959) C-120m. ★★★ row, Mia’s younger sister) to modern CaliD: King Vidor. Yul Brynner, Gina Lollofornia. As her Prince Charming, King gives brigida, George Sanders, Marisa Pavan, John Crawford, Alejandro Rey, Harry Ana sleepwalking nonperformance. Pryor’s [ 1281 ]

vulgar turn as a pathetic graffiti artist/wino Some Like It Hot (1939) 64m. ★★1⁄2 D: clashes with the rest of the picture. [R]▼ George Archainbaud. Bob Hope, Shirley Some Came Running (1958) C-136m. Ross, Una Merkel, Gene Krupa, Richard ★★★ Denning. Sideshow owner Hope takes adD: Vincente Minnelli. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Martha vantage of Ross to raise money for show. Hyer, Arthur Kennedy, Nancy Gates. Slick Airy comedy includes song ‘‘The Lady’s In adaptation of James Jones’ novel about Love With You.’’ Retitled RHYTHM ROdisillusionment in a small midwestern town MANCE; based on a play previously filmed in the late 1940s; more character study (in 1934) as SHOOT THE WORKS.▼ than narrative. MacLaine is especially good Some Like It Hot (1959) 119m. ★★★★ D: as luckless floozie who’s stuck on Sinatra; Billy Wilder. Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Elmer Bernstein’s music score also a Marilyn Monroe, Joe E. Brown, George standout. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Raft, Pat O’Brien, Nehemiah Persoff, Joan Some Girls (1988) C-94m. ★★ D: Michael Shawlee, Mike Mazurki. Legendary comHoffman. Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Conedy by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond about nelly, Sheila Kelley, Andre Gregory, Flortwo musicians who witness the St. Valeninda Bolkan, Lila Kedrova. Odd little tine’s Day Massacre and try to elude their comedy about American college student pursuers by joining an all-girl band headDempsey and the various complications ing for Miami. Sensational from start to when he spends Christmas in Quebec City finish, with dazzling performances by with girlfriend Connelly’s family. Gregory Lemmon and Curtis, a memorably comic rises above the material as Connelly’s turn by Monroe as Sugar Kane, and Oscareccentric father. [R]▼쩠 winning costumes by Orry-Kelly. Brown Some Girls Do (1969-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 has film’s now-classic closing line. Based D: Ralph Thomas. Richard Johnson, Daliah on a 1935 French movie, FANFARE D’ALavi, Beba Loncar, Robert Morley, Sydne MOUR. Basis for hit Broadway musical Rome, James Villiers. Brisk thriller inSugar.▼●쩠 volving Bulldog Drummond (played with Some May Live (1967) 105m. ★★ D: a lack of dash by Johnson) vs. long-time Vernon Sewell. Joseph Cotten, Martha Hyer, archenemy Carl Peterson (Villiers), who is Peter Cushing, John Ronane. Unexciting trying to sabotage Britain’s supersonic plane suspenser set in contemporary Saigon with plans. Morley is a delight as an eccentric Cotten a U.S. Intelligence officer setting a teacher of high cuisine. Sequel to DEADtrap for the espionage agent within his LIER THAN THE MALE (1967). [G] department. Retitled: IN SAIGON, SOME Some Kind of a Nut (1969) C-89m. BOMB MAY LIVE. D: Garson Kanin. Dick Van Dyke, Angie Some Mother’s Son (1996-U.S.-BritishDickinson, Rosemary Forsyth, Zohra LamIrish) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terry George. pert, Elliott Reid, Pippa Scott. Banker Helen Mirren, Fionnula Flanagan, Aidan Van Dyke loses his job when he grows a Gillen, David O’Hara, John Lynch, Tim beard. Pathetic ‘‘contemporary’’ comedy Woodward. Respectable but muted true-life dates more than Kanin’s films of the story about a hunger strike staged by a jailed ’30s and ’40s. [M/PG] IRA member in the early 1980s, with Mirren Some Kind of Hero (1982) C-97m. ★★ a prisoner’s mom who becomes involved in D: Michael Pressman. Richard Pryor, Marthe struggle upon realizing that she doesn’t got Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Ronny Cox, really have a choice. No match for IN THE Lynne Moody, Olivia Cole, Paul BenjaNAME OF THE FATHER, which treated min. Pryor rises above uneven, poorly comparable subject matter far more passiondirected comedy-drama about Vietnam vetately. Coproduced by Jim Sheridan; associateeran who’s in for a few surprises when he produced by Mirren. [R]▼● returns home after six years as a POW. Based Someone Behind the Door (1971-French) C-97m. ★★ D: Nicolas Gessner. Charles on a James Kirkwood novel. [R]▼●쩠 Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) C-93m. Bronson, Anthony Perkins, Jill Ireland, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Howard Deutch. Eric Stoltz, Lea Henri Garcin, Adriano Magestretti. NeuThompson, Mary Stuart Masterson, Craig ropsychiatrist (Perkins) turns an amnesiac Sheffer, John Ashton, Elias Koteas, Molly murderer (Bronson) into his tool for reHagan, Candace Cameron, Chynna Philvenge on his philandering wife; farfetched lips, Scott Coffey. Adorable tomboy Mastermelodrama. [PG]▼●쩠 son loves Stoltz, but it takes him the entire Someone Else’s America (1996-Britishfilm to realize she is better for him than the French) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Goran Paskaljevic. flashier Thompson. Deutch and producer Tom Conti, Maria Casares, Miki ManojJohn Hughes have, in effect, done a sexlovic, Sergei Trifunovic, Zorka Manojlovic. switch remake of their own PRETTY IN Spanish immigrant moves his blind mother PINK; the OK result has strong perforto Brooklyn in hopes of pursuing the Amermances by both female leads, and surican dream. His efforts to make it in the prises by not making Thompson a snooty Land of the Free are often amusing, and bitch. [PG-13]▼●쩠 well observed by Belgrade-born Paskal[ 1282 ]

jevic. Slight but charming character study ing long-running feud between outlaw Marthat speaks a universal language. Casares is tin and cavalry colonel Keith; ‘‘happy well remembered for such earlier films as ending’’ consists of Dino robbing a stageORPHEUS and THE TESTAMENT OF coach and mowing down hundreds of MexiORPHEUS. [R]▼ cans with a gatling gun—all to a peppy ★★ Someone Like You (2001) C-97m. Marvin Hamlisch score. Blecch. [PG] D: Tony Goldwyn. Ashley Judd, Hugh JackSomething for Everyone (1970) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold Prince. Angela Lansbury, man, Greg Kinnear, Marisa Tomei, Ellen Barkin, Catherine Dent, Peter Friedman. Michael York, Anthony Corlan, Heidelinde Dumped by her coworker boyfriend (KinWeis, Eva-Maria Meineke, Jane Carr. Very near), a TV talent booker (Judd) becomes black comedy about amoral, bisexual young obsessed with her own ‘‘new cow theory,’’ man (York) who manipulates staff and that men leave women like bulls go through family of impoverished Countess (Lansbury) herds of cows. She’s so consumed she doesn’t to his advantage. Intriguing but needlessly realize she’s falling for her hunky roommate protracted story; Broadway director Prince’s first film, made in Bavaria. [R]▼ (Jackman). Starts brightly with appealing performances but quickly turns formulaic, leadSomething for the Birds (1952) 81m. 1⁄2 D: Robert Wise. Patricia Neal, Victor ★★ ing to a lame finale. Based on the novel Animal Husbandry by Laura Zigman. Blink Mature, Edmund Gwenn, Larry Keating. and you’ll miss a cameo by Ashley’s mom, Mild romantic froth, with Mature and Neal Naomi Judd, as a makeup artist. [PG-13]▼쩠 on opposite sides of issue in lobbying for Someone to Love (1987) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 bird sanctuary protection. D: Henry Jaglom. Henry Jaglom, Andrea Something in the Wind (1947) 89m. ★★1⁄2 Marcovicci, Sally Kellerman, Orson Welles, D: Irving Pichel. Deanna Durbin, Donald Michael Emil, Oja Kodar, Dave Frishberg, O’Connor, Charles Winninger, Helena CarStephen Bishop, Ronee Blakley, Kathryn ter. Mild comedy of errors with Durbin as Harrold, Monte Hellman, Jeremy Kagan, female disk jockey who sings, too. Easy to Miles Kreuger. Jaglom is Danny, a filmtake, amusing.▼쩠 maker who’s seeking ‘‘someone to love.’’ Something Is Out There SEE: Day of the He throws a Valentine’s Day party where he Animals questions various friends on the subject . . . Something New (2006) C-99m. ★★★ D: and films their responses. Welles, in his last Sanaa Hamri. Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, screen appearance, is on hand to offer variMike Epps, Donald Faison, Blair Unous insights and profundities, and they’re derwood, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Alfre the best thing in this alternately boring and Woodard, Golden Brooks, Taraji P. Heninteresting experiment. [R]▼●쩠 son, Earl Billings, John Ratzenberger. HardSomeone to Watch Over Me (1987) Cworking black career woman finds herself 106m. ★★★ D: Ridley Scott. Tom Berenger, attracted to a white landscape architect—in Mimi Rogers, Lorraine Bracco, Jerry spite of her better judgment and the disapOrbach, John Rubinstein, Andreas Katsulas, proval of friends and family. Veteran TV Tony DiBenedetto, James Moriarty. Hapwriter-producer Kriss Turner offers a fresh pily married N.Y.C. cop becomes infatutake on romantic comedy and prejudice, ated with the wealthy and beautiful woman presenting an honest picture of successful he’s assigned to protect from a death threat. blacks who still have battles to fight on a daily Solid romantic thriller, compassionately basis. Pokes fun at stereotyping on both sides and believably told; director Scott’s warmest of the racial fence. Lathan and Baker couldn’t film to date (and just as stylish as ever). be more appealing. [PG-13]쩠 [R]▼●쩠 Something of Value (1957) 113m. ★★★ D: Somersault (2004-Australian) C-106m. Richard Brooks. Rock Hudson, Dana ★★★ D: Cate Shortland. Abbie Cornish, Sam Wynter, Sidney Poitier, Wendy Hiller, FredWorthington, Lynette Curran, Nathaniel erick O’Neal. Robert Ruark’s novel transDean, Erik Thomson, Leah Purcell, Hollie formed to screen, sharply detailing brutal Andrew, Olivia Pigeot. Raw, razor-sharp Mau Mau warfare in Kenya. Hudson and drama depicting the plight of an alluring Poitier are fine as British colonial farmer adolescent runaway (Cornish), a child in a and his childhood friend; Hiller memorawoman’s body who is lusted after by men, ble as widow struggling to retain dignity though too young and inexperienced to be and spirit.▼쩠 aware of her sexual power. Impressive Something’s Gotta Give (2003) C-128m. ★★★ debut feature for writer-director Shortland, D: Nancy Meyers. Jack Nicholson, Diane with Cornish offering a vivid, awardKeaton, Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand, Amanda Peet, Jon Favreau, Paul Michael Glacaliber performance.쩠 something big (1971) C-108m. BOMB D: ser, Rachel Ticotin. A self-styled Lothario Andrew V. McLaglen. Dean Martin, Brian with a penchant for younger women heads Keith, Honor Blackman, Carol White, Ben to his current girlfriend’s weekend home, Johnson, Albert Salmi, Paul Fix, Denver only to find her mother there; to his own Pyle. Repellent ‘‘comedy’’-Western detailamazement, he finds himself attracted to [ 1283 ]

her, even as she is pursued by a much his involvement in the family business (a younger man. Entertaining comedy for (and prosperous horse farm)—make it hard to about) grown-ups with delightful perfordo. The cast is amiable, the film is good mances by the two leads. Written by the looking, but Callie Khouri’s screenplay is director. Stay through the credits to hear unfocused and never gives us a handle on Jack sing ‘‘La Vie en Rose.’’ [PG-13] ▼쩠 Roberts’ character. Sedgwick gets a license Something Short of Paradise (1979) to steal (scenes, that is), with all the funniest C-91m. ★★ D: David Helpern, Jr. Susan lines in the picture. David Huddleston apSarandon, David Steinberg, Jean-Pierre pears unbilled. [R] ▼●쩠 Aumont, Marilyn Sokol, Joe Grifasi, RobSomething Wicked This Way Comes ert Hitt. Aptly titled romantic comedy pairs (1983) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Clayton. Jamovie theater manager Steinberg and magson Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, azine writer Sarandon, but offers little; Pam Grier, Royal Dano, Shawn Carson, Steinberg’s character is particularly obnoxVidal Peterson, Mary Grace Canfield, James ious in this blatant ANNIE HALL rip-off. Stacy; narrated by Arthur Hill. A mysteriFilm buffs will enjoy main-title sequence ous carnival pitches its tent outside an comprised of old movie ads. [PG]▼쩠 idyllic American town in the early part of ★★★ D: Something Special (1986) C-93m. the century and fulfills the dreams of its Paul Schneider. Pamela Segall, Patty Duke, citizens—for a heavy price. Told from a Eric Gurry, John Glover, Mary Tanner, young boy’s point of view, film has affectSeth Green, Jeb Ellis-Brown, John David ing moments, but never really hits its stride, Cullum, Corey Parker. Cute, original, genwith the ultimate ‘‘revelation’’ about Mr. erally pleasing little comedy-drama-fantasy Dark and his carnival no surprise at all. about a 14-year-old girl (Segall, in a spunky Disappointing Disney production of Ray performance) who wants to become a Bradbury’s classic story, scripted by the author. [PG]▼●쩠 male—and has her wish granted. Bogs down when the adults are around, but it’s Something Wild (1961) 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: still perfect fare for older kids. A shorter Jack Garfein. Carroll Baker, Ralph Meekversion, with tamer language, runs 86m. er, Mildred Dunnock, Martin Kosleck, Original title: WILLY MILLY. Aka I WAS Jean Stapleton. Bizarre study of rape victim A TEENAGE BOY. [PG-13]▼● Baker falling in love with would-be Something to Hide (1972-British) C-100m. attacker Meeker, coming to rational under★1 ⁄2 D: Alastair Reid. Peter Finch, Shelley standing with mother Dunnock. N.Y.C. Winters, Colin Blakely, Linda Hayden, location scenes perk melodramatic soaper. John Stride. All-out marital fighting match Something Wild (1986) C-113m. ★★ D: between memorably overwrought Winters Jonathan Demme. Jeff Daniels, Melanie and Finch deteriorates into unconvincing Griffith, Ray Liotta, Margaret Colin, Tracey melodrama concerning pregnant trollop Walter, Dana Preu, Jack Gilpin. StraightHayden and Finch’s eventual mental arrow businessman Daniels goes for a joybreakdown. Unpleasant. Retitled: SHATride with a flaky, sexy girl he chances to TERED.▼ meet, and in the course of a couple of days Something to Live For (1952) 89m. ★★1⁄2 she turns his life inside out. Many surprisD: George Stevens. Joan Fontaine, Ray ing twists and turns as this film veers from Milland, Teresa Wright, Douglas Dick, kooky comedy to violent melodrama, but Rudy Lee. Turgid melodrama trying to be end result isn’t satisfying, especially with another THE LOST WEEKEND. Fontaine tacked-on happy ending. Filmmakers John is alcoholic in love with Milland, but he’s Waters and John Sayles have amusing cammarried. eos as a used-car salesman and a motorcySomething to Sing About (1937) 93m. ★★ cle cop, respectively. [R]▼●쩠 D: Victor Schertzinger. James Cagney, Sometimes a Great Notion (1971) CEvelyn Daw, William Frawley, Mona Bar114m. ★★ D: Paul Newman. Paul Newman, rie, Gene Lockhart. Low-budget musical Henry Fonda, Lee Remick, Michael Sarradoesn’t live up to its title, with Cagney the zin, Richard Jaeckel, Linda Lawson. Disonly real asset in this lightweight story of a appointing film version of Ken Kesey’s N.Y. bandleader who goes to Hollywood. mammoth novel about modern-day logForgettable songs. Reissued at 82m. as gers in Oregon. Jaeckel’s performance is BATTLING HOOFER. Also shown in outstanding and movie has one great scene computer-colored version.▼●쩠 involving a drowning, but otherwise film Something to Talk About (1995) C-106m. is a letdown. Retitled NEVER GIVE ★★1 ⁄2 D: Lasse Hallstro¨m. Julia Roberts, A INCH (the family’s motto) for TV. Dennis Quaid, Robert Duvall, Gena RowPanavision. [PG]▼● lands, Kyra Sedgwick, Brett Cullen, Haley Somewhere I’ll Find You (1942) 108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wesley Ruggles. Clark Gable, Aull, Muse Watson, Anne Shropshire. A somewhat scattered Southern woman disLana Turner, Robert Sterling, Patricia Dane, covers her husband is playing around and Reginald Owen, Lee Patrick, Charles Dintries to cut him off, but strong ties—and gle, Sara Haden, Rags Ragland, Van John[ 1284 ]

son, Leonid Kinskey, Grady Sutton, Keye pent-up thoughts of revenge and closure. Luke. Turner and Gable are improbable as The Dardennes make brilliant use of handWW2 war correspondents, but their love held camera and natural locations to give scenes between battles are most convincing. the film a tangible sense of reality; naturalisFilm debut of Keenan Wynn.▼쩠 tic performances complete the picture. ▼쩠 Somewhere in the Night (1946) 108m. Sonatine (1994-Japanese) C-94m. ★★★ D: ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. John Hodiak, Takeshi Kitano. Beat Takeshi, Tetsu WataNancy Guild, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte, nabe, Aya Kokumai, Masanobu Katsumura, Josephine Hutchinson, Fritz Kortner, Sheldon Susumu Terashima. Well-observed portrait Leonard, Whit Bissell, Jeff Corey, Henry of a middle-aged gangster who’s looking to (Harry) Morgan. Satisfactory drama of amnehis future when he’s asked to settle a dissiac Hodiak trying to discover his true identity pute between two warring factions of yaand getting mixed up with mobsters and murkuza on Okinawa. Writer-director-star Kitano der; not up to later Mankiewicz efforts.쩠 (who acts under the name of Beat Takeshi) Somewhere in Time (1980) C-103m. ★1⁄2 isn’t timid about depicting violence, but he does it with style. [R] ▼●쩠 D: Jeannot Szwarc. Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, TeSongcatcher (2001) C-105m. ★★★★ D: resa Wright, Bill Erwin, George Voskovec, Maggie Greenwald. Janet McTeer, Aidan Tim Kazurinsky, W. (William) H. Macy, Quinn, Pat Carroll, Jane Adams, Gregory George Wendt. Superficial tearjerker about Cook, Iris DeMent, E. Katherine Kerr, Emmy unhappy playwright Reeve who falls in love Rossum, David Patrick Kelly, Taj Mahal. with a 70-year-old photograph of an actress Beautifully rendered tale of an independent(Seymour), then wills himself back in time minded musicologist (McTeer) who collects to meet her. Stilted dialogue, corny situafolk songs in Appalachia in the early 20th tions, pretty scenery (on Mackinac Island). century. Carroll is wonderful as the earth Script by Richard Matheson from his novel mother. Written by the director. [PG-13] Bid Time Return. [PG]▼●쩠 ▼쩠 Somewhere Tomorrow (1983) C-87m. Song for Martin, A (2001-Danish-German★★★ D: Robert Wiemer. Sarah Jessica ParSwedish) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bille August. ker, Nancy Addison, Tom Shea, Rick WeSven Wollter, Viveka Seldahl, Reine Bryber, Paul Bates, James Congdon. Offbeat nolfsson, Linda Ka¨llgren, Lisa Werlinder, drama about fatherless teen who, after Peter Engman, Klas Dahlstedt, Lo Wahl, seeing TOPPER on TV and bumping her Kristina To¨rnqvist. A woman begins a new head, meets the ghost of a boy who’s been life when she marries a famous composer, killed in a plane crash. Not without flaws, then struggles as he succumbs to Alzheibut still charming and moving. [PG]▼쩠 mer’s disease. Sensitive drama with fine Sommersby (1993-U.S.-French) C-113m. performances, but also a long, diligent haul ★★1 to a foregone conclusion with the inescap⁄2 D: Jon Amiel. Richard Gere, Jodie Foster, Bill Pullman, James Earl Jones, able effect of a TV movie.▼쩠 William Windom, Brett Kelley, Richard Song Is Born, A (1948) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hamilton, Maury Chaykin, Lanny Flaherty, Howard Hawks. Danny Kaye, Virginia Frankie Faison, Wendell Wellman, ClaMayo, Hugh Herbert, Steve Cochran, Felix rice Taylor, Ronald Lee Ermey. Gere reBressart; guest stars Benny Goodman, turns to his home in the postwar South, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Barnet, Lionel after six years’ imprisonment during the Hampton, Tommy Dorsey. A group of Civil War, but his wife can’t quite believe dowdy intellectuals need to learn about jazz he’s the same man she married. Sumptuto write an intelligent entry for their upcomously designed and photographed (in Viring encyclopedia. Watered-down remake of ginia), this is the kind of film that takes BALL OF FIRE (also directed by Hawks) you to another time and place, but despite does give Danny some good material, and strong performances, the characters remain enables a formidable array of jazz greats to aloof—and so does their plight. Executive do their stuff (including Benny Goodman, produced by Gere. Remake of the French made up as one of the bookish profs).▼● hit THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE. Song of Bernadette, The (1943) 156m. ★★★★ Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 D: Henry King. Jennifer Jones, WilSon, The (2002-Belgian-French) C-100m. liam Eythe, Charles Bickford, Vincent Price, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc DarLee J. Cobb, Anne Revere, Gladys Coodenne. Olivier Gourmet, Morgan Marinne, Isaper. Overlong but excellent story of relibella Soupart, Re´my Renaud, Nassim Hassani. gious French girl in 1800s who sees great Quiet, methodical man teaches carpentry to vision, incurs local wrath because of it. boys who have just been released from prison George Seaton adapted Franz Werfel’s bestor reform school, but he takes special interselling novel. Four Oscars include Best Acest in one teenager. The reason is revealed tress, Cinematography (Arthur Miller), to us gradually, like everything else in this Score (Alfred Newman). That’s Linda Darexceptional film. A powerful study of renell, unbilled, as the Virgin Mary.▼●쩠 pressed emotions and the reality behind Song of Love (1947) 119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clar[ 1285 ]

ence Brown. Katharine Hepburn, Paul series entry, still amiable and entertaining thanks to the stars’ chemistry.▼●쩠 Henreid, Robert Walker, Henry Daniell, Song Remains the Same, The (1976) Leo G. Carroll, Gigi Perreau, Tala Birell, C-136m. ★★ D: Peter Clifton, Joe MasHenry Stephenson. Classy production but sot. Amateurish mixture of fantasy sequences slow-moving story of Clara Schuman (Hepand documentary footage from Led Zeppeburn), her composer husband (Henreid), and lin’s 1973 tour is for fans only. Even without good friend Brahms (Walker).▼ the stereo sound, film will still clean out all Song of Norway (1970) C-142m. BOMB eight sinus cavities. [PG]▼쩠 D: Andrew L. Stone. Florence Henderson, Song to Remember, A (1945) C-113m. Toralv Maurstad, Christina Schollin, Frank ★★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Vidor. Cornel Wilde, Paul Porretta, Edward G. Robinson, Harry Muni, Merle Oberon, Stephen Bekassy, Secombe, Robert Morley, Oscar Homolka. Nina Foch, George Coulouris, Sig Arno. A poor biography of composer Edvard Colorful but superficial biography of Chopin Grieg, with weak and abridged versions (Wilde) with exaggerated Muni as his of his best music. Beautiful to look at, but a mentor, lovely Oberon as George Sand; dud. Super Panavision 70. [G]▼ good music, frail plot.▼● Song of Songs, The (1933) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Song Without End (1960) C-141m. ★★1⁄2 Rouben Mamoulian. Marlene Dietrich, Brian D: Charles Vidor, George Cukor. Dirk Aherne, Lionel Atwill, Alison Skipworth, Bogarde, Capucine, Genevieve Page, Hardie Albright, Helen Freeman. Naı¨ve Patricia Morison, Ivan Desny, Martita Hunt, country girl Dietrich falls in love with Lou Jacobi. Beautiful music (scoring won sculptor Aherne, for whom she poses in the an Oscar) submerged by dramatics of nude . . . but Atwill, a wealthy reprobate, composer Franz Liszt’s life. Bogarde tries; manages to marry her. Humdrum story settings are lavish. Vidor died during filmmade worthwhile by good performances. ing, Cukor completed picture. CinemaDietrich is luminous in her first Hollywood Scope.▼● film not directed by Josef von Sternberg.▼ Songwriter (1984) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alan Song of the Islands (1942) C-75m. Rudolph. Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, ★★★ D: Walter Lang. Betty Grable, Victor Melinda Dillon, Rip Torn, Lesley Ann Mature, Jack Oakie, Thomas Mitchell, Hilo Warren, Mickey Raphael, Rhonda Dotson, Hattie, George Barbier, Billy Gilbert. MaRichard C. Sarafian. Loose, friendly, ramture (with sidekick Oakie) visits idyllic bling film about a couple of country Pacific island and falls in love with Grable, singers—one of whom (Nelson) has bebut romance is hindered by feuding become an entrepreneur but calls on his old tween their fathers. Buoyant Technicolor partner Kris to help him outwit a greedy fluff, full of engagingly silly songs by Mack backer (played by film director Sarafian). Gordon and Harry Owens.▼● Doesn’t add up to much but certainly pleasSong of the South (1946) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 ant to watch, with top supporting cast and D: Wilfred Jackson (animation), Harve lots of music. [R]▼●쩠 Foster (live-action). Ruth Warrick, James Son In Law (1993) C-95m. ★★ D: Steve Baskett, Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten, Rash. Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Lane Lucile Watson, Hattie McDaniel, Glenn Smith, Cindy Pickett, Mason Adams, PatLeedy. Lonely, misunderstood little boy, rick Renna, Dennis Burkley, Dan Gauthier. living on a plantation in the Old South, Liberated college freshman brings her finds his only happiness in the tales spun dorm’s biggest goof home to the family by Uncle Remus. Sentimental but moving farm over Thanksgiving break, passing him story serves as framework for three terrific off as her fiance´ to discourage a hometown Disney cartoon sequences featuring Brer lout from proposing. Exactly what you Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear (based on would expect, even more so when Shore writings of Joel Chandler Harris). Superb teaches square-dancers the funky chicken. blend of live-action and animation, sincere Even on his best days Pauly Shore is an performances (Baskett earned a special acquired taste, but at least the film isn’t Academy Award for his), and tuneful songs mean-spirited. Gugino has an infectious including Oscar-winning ‘‘Zip a Dee Doo cackle. Brendan Fraser appears unbilled. Dah’’ make this a treat. Available only on [PG-13]▼●쩠 Japanese import laserdisc.● Sonny (2002) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nicolas Song of the Thin Man (1947) 86m. ★★1⁄2 Cage. James Franco, Brenda Blethyn, Mena D: Edward Buzzell. William Powell, Myrna Suvari, Harry Dean Stanton, Scott Caan, Loy, Keenan Wynn, Dean Stockwell, Philip Seymour Cassel, Brenda Vaccaro. Just out Reed, Patricia Morison, Gloria Grahame, of the army and looking for work, Franco’s Jayne Meadows, Don Taylor, Leon Ames. Sonny is reluctant to return to mom BleNick and Nora search for clues to a murder thyn’s family business: working out of a in the dark and mysterious atmosphere of New Orleans brothel. But though he fancies N.Y.C. jazz clubs. Eleven-year-old Stockrecent live-in Suvari, his natural talent as a well portrays Nick, Jr., in this sixth and final male stud is too impressive to ignore . . . [ 1286 ]

especially when so many other doors are chillers, with crisp acting, fine effects . . . and an unexpected finale.▼●쩠 slammed in his face. Overheated but compelling Southern Gothic tale gives Stanton Son of Dracula (1974-British) C-90m. ★1 his best role in years as a mysterious, mel⁄2 D: Freddie Francis. Harry Nilsson, Ringo ancholy hang-around friend, and Vaccaro a Starr, Rosanna Lee, Freddie Jones, Denvariation on her role in MIDNIGHT COWnis Price, Skip Martin. Offbeat but uninBOY. Look for a semi-disguised Cage in spired rock horror pic with seven tunes by one late barroom scene. This marks the Nilsson, who plays the title character. Ringo actor’s feature directing debut. [R]▼쩠 produced. Retitled: YOUNG DRACULA. Sonny and Jed (1973-Italian) C-98m. [PG] ★★ D: Sergio Corbucci. Tomas Milian, Son of Flubber (1963) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Telly Savalas, Susan George, Rosanna Janni, Robert Stevenson. Fred MacMurray, Nancy Laura Betti. Lighthearted spaghetti Western Olson, Keenan Wynn, Tommy Kirk, Elthat teams escaped convict, pillaging his way liott Reid, Joanna Moore, Leon Ames, Ed across Mexico, with free-spirited gal who Wynn, Charlie Ruggles, Paul Lynde, Jack wants to be an outlaw. Shiny-domed Telly is Albertson. Silly, disjointed sequel to THE determined lawman dogging their every ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR has new move. Techniscope. [R]▼ inventions—flubbergas, dry rain—and apSonny Boy (1990) C-98m. BOMB D: propriate slapstick highlights, to compenRobert Martin Carroll. David Carradine, sate for uneven script. Helped, too, by cast Paul L. Smith, Brad Dourif, Conrad Janis, full of old pros, especially Lynde as smug sportscaster.▼●쩠 Sydney Lassick, Alexandra Powers, Michael Griffin. Repulsive, socially unredeemable Son of Frankenstein (1939) 99m. ★★★ D: waste of celluloid detailing gruesome upRowland V. Lee. Basil Rathbone, Boris bringing of abused ‘‘sonny boy’’ who’s kidKarloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Josenapped by wacko couple Smith and his phine Hutchinson, Edgar Norton, Donnie ‘‘wife’’ Carradine (who plays the role in full Dunagan. Third in the series (after BRIDE) drag). Filmed for no apparent reason except finds late doctor’s son attempting to clear to offend and appall. Panavision. [R]▼● family name by making the Monster Son of a Gunfighter (1966-Spanish) ‘‘good.’’ He should live so long. Lavishly C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Paul Landres. Russ Tamblyn, made shocker is gripping and eerie, if a bit Kieron Moore, James Philbrook, Fernando talky, with wonderfully bizarre sets by Rey. Title tells all in oater peppered with Jack Otterson and Lugosi’s finest perforAnglo-Saxon actors and bits of the Old mance as evil, broken-necked blacksmith West. CinemaScope. Ygor. Karloff’s last appearance as the MonSon of Blob SEE: Beware! The Blob ster. Look fast for Ward Bond(!) as a Son of Captain Blood, The (1962-U.S.constable guarding Castle Frankenstein from Italian-Spanish) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Tulio angry villagers late in film. Sequel: THE Demicheli. Sean Flynn, Ann Todd, AlesGHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN.▼●쩠 sandra Panaro, Jose Nieto, John Kitzmiller. Son of Fury (1942) 98m. ★★★ D: John Interesting only in that Errol Flynn’s 23-yearCromwell. Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, old son plays the son of the character Errol George Sanders, Frances Farmer, Roddy portrayed in CAPTAIN BLOOD. Ann Todd McDowall, Kay Johnson, John Carradine, sparkles as the lad’s mother (Olivia de Elsa Lanchester, Harry Davenport, DudHavilland’s character in the original). Otherley Digges, Ethel Griffies. Good costumer wise, routine. Filmed in Spain, from a about aristocratic Sanders abusing nephew screenplay by Casey Robinson (who also Power, who flees to desert isle to plan penned the 1935 CAPTAIN BLOOD). revenge; Tierney’s on the island, too. ReCinemaScope.▼ made as TREASURE OF THE GOLDEN Son of Darkness: To Die For II (1991) CONDOR.▼쩠 Son of Godzilla (1967-Japanese) C-86m. C-95m. ★★ D: David F. Price. Rosalind ★1⁄2 D: Jun Fukuda. Tadao Takashima, Allen, Michael Praed, Scott Jacoby, Steve Bond, Amanda Wyss, Remy O’Neill, Devin Akira Kubo, Bibari Maeda, Akihiko Hirata, Corrie Sims. Busy plot: Vlad Tepesh is Kenji Sahara. Godzilla and son are threatened now Dr. Max Schreck, at a hospital in the by giant mantises and a huge spider in this mountains, in pursuit of heroine who has good-natured monster rally, but where’s Mrs. unknowingly adopted his half-vampire Godzilla when you really need her? Some of baby. Beautifully shot, and tries to be the same footage later seen in GODZILLA’S romantic—but it’s routine. [R]▼ REVENGE. Tohoscope.▼쩠 Son of Dracula (1943) 78m. ★★★ D: RobSon of Kong, The (1933) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: ert Siodmak. Lon Chaney, Jr., Robert Paige, Ernest B. Schoedsack. Robert Armstrong, Louise Allbritton, Evelyn Ankers, Frank CraHelen Mack, Victor Wong, John Marston, ven, J. Edward Bromberg, Samuel S. Hinds. Frank Reicher, Lee Kohlmar. DisappointMysterious gentleman named Alucard turns ing sequel to KING KONG, hurriedly put up in the Deep South to sample the local together—and it shows. Armstrong is back cuisine. One of Universal’s most atmospheric as Carl Denham, who retraces his steps [ 1287 ]

from the first film and discovers Kong’s cardo Darı´n, He´ctor Alterio, Norma Aleandro, cute li’l offspring. Mostly comedic film has Eduardo Blanco, Natalia Verbeke, Gimena some good moments, and Willis O’Brien’s No´bile. Health crisis forces fortyish man to effects are still superb.▼●쩠 deal with the past and face his future in a new, Son of Lassie (1945) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: S. mature way he once never dreamed possible. Sylvan Simon. Peter Lawford, Donald Crisp, Sophisticated, warm, funny and altogether June Lockhart, Nigel Bruce, William engaging film puts a human focus on trouSevern, Leon Ames, Fay Helm, Donald bled Argentina in a manner audiences anyCurtis, Nils Asther, Helen Koford (Terry where in the world can respond to. Touching Moore). War-themed sequel to popular film reunites THE OFFICIAL STORY’s LASSIE COME HOME with Lawford and Aleandro and Alterio in a wedding that’s Lockhart playing adult roles of McDowall hard to forget. Darı´n is splendid. Well worth and Taylor. Crisp and Bruce are now trainseeing. [R]▼쩠 ing dogs for the war effort and Lassie’s son Son of the Mask (2005) C-95m. BOMB D: (both roles played here by talented collie Lawrence Guterman. Jamie Kennedy, Alan Pal) accompanies pilot Lawford to NaziCumming, Bob Hoskins, Ben Stein, Traylor occupied Norway.▼쩠 Howard, Steven Wright, Kal Penn. Kennedy Son of Monte Cristo, The (1940) 102m. isn’t ready to be a father but conceives a baby ★★★ D: Rowland V. Lee. Louis Hayward, anyway, wearing a supernatural mask. It, in Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Florence turn, is coveted by a Norse god’s son (CumBates, Lionel Royce, Montagu Love, Clayton ming, in another of his leftover Paul Reubens Moore. Nothing new in big-scale swashbuckroles). The god himself is played by Hoskins, ler, but very well done with Hayward battling in layers of makeup, and by this time the Sanders and vying for Bennett’s hand. ▼●쩠 creaks are louder than anything in THE SON Son of Paleface (1952) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: OF THE SHEIK. So-called sequel to THE Frank Tashlin. Bob Hope, Jane Russell, MASK (1994) is raucous without mercy, and Roy Rogers, Douglass Dumbrille, Bill burdened by a charmless cast; it has to plunWilliams, Harry Von Zell, Iron Eyes Cody. der Chuck Jones’ cartoon ONE FROGGY One of Hope’s best; same basic set-up as THE EVENING to glean even a few good moments. [PG] ▼쩠 PALEFACE, but the presence of Rogers gives this one a satirical punch the original Son of the Pink Panther (1993) C-93m. ★1⁄2 doesn’t have. Full of director-cowriter TashD: Blake Edwards. Roberto Benigni, Herbert lin’s cartoonlike gags; the scene where Hope Lom, Claudia Cardinale, Burt Kwouk, Debrah and Trigger share the same bed is an unherFarentino, Robert Davi, Graham Stark, Jennialded comedy classic. ▼●쩠 fer Edwards, Anton Rodgers. Feeble attempt to Son of Rambow (2008-British-French) Crevive the series, with Benigni as the son of 95m. ★★★ D: Garth Jennings. Bill Milner, inept Inspector Clouseau, on the trail of a kidWill Poulter, Jules Sitruk, Jessica Stevenson, napped princess (Farentino) with plenty of misNeil Dudgeon, Ed Westwick. The setting is fired sight gags along the way. Lom, Cardinale, England in the early 1980s. A lonely, fatherKwouk, and Stark reprise their roles from past less boy (Milner) whose family is part of a entries, and Benigni’s enthusiasm helps, but strict religious sect finds an exhilarating outPeter Sellers is sorely missed. Opening animalet for his vivid imagination: making home tion/live-action credits with Bobby McFerrin’s movies with an unlikely new friend, a cheeky version of the Panther theme is best part of film. miscreant (Poulter) who happens to have a Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 video camera. Together they emulate the adSon of the Shark (1993-French) C-88m. ★★★1 ventures of Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo char⁄2 D: Agnes Merlet. Ludovic Vandenacter from FIRST BLOOD. Endearingly daele, Erick Da Silva, Sandrine Blancke, eccentric view of the pain and wonder of boyMaxime Leroux. Harrowing, sobering facthood from the Hammer & Tongs production based slice-of-life about two out-of-control team, with a larky music score by Joby Talpre-teen brothers (Vandendaele and Da Silva, bot. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 in dazzling performances), who’ve been abanSon of Satan SEE: Whip and the Body, doned by their mother and abused by their faThe ther. One minute they are childlike, the next they are hoodlums who terrorize their homeSon of Sinbad (1955) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Ted Tetzlaff. Dale Robertson, Sally Forrest, town. They are neither romanticized nor deLili St. Cyr, Vincent Price. Limp Arabian picted as villains or victims; the point is that Nights adventure has Sinbad, captured by there is no adult around to nurture their good caliph, forced to perform wonders to win instincts. A grimly realistic film, gutwrenching and heartbreaking. Panavision. ▼ freedom and save Baghdad from evil Tamerlane. Look fast for Kim Novak as Son of the Sheik, The (1926) 72m. ★★★ D: one of the ladies garbed in full-length George Fitzmaurice. Rudolph Valentino, hooded capes. SuperScope.▼ Vilma Banky, Agnes Ayres, Karl Dane, Bull Son of Spartacus SEE: Slave, The Montana. Sequel to THE SHEIK contains Son of the Bride (2001-Argentinian-Spanish) flavorful account of desert leader who falls in C-124m. ★★★ D: Juan Jose´ Campanella. Rilove with dancing-girl Banky. Handsomely [ 1288 ]

Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf, Andre´ Hennicke, Florian Stetter. Gripping true story set in 1943 Munich, based in part on newly discovered documents and testimoni▼●쩠 Sons and Lovers (1960-British) 103m. als. Siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, mem★★★1 bers of the White Rose student resistance ⁄2 D: Jack Cardiff. Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, Heather movement, are arrested after distributing Sears, William Lucas, Donald Pleasence, Eranti-Nazi leaflets. Film follows Sophie’s nest Thesiger. Grim D. H. Lawrence story of verbal sparring with a Gestapo interrogator sensitive youth Stockwell egged on by mother intent on breaking her spirit . . . but Sophie to make something of his life, away from is an intellectual of unusual poise. Imprescoalmining town and drunken father Howard. sive filmmaking, focusing on words and Script by Gavin Lambert and T.E.B. Clarke. ideas, made more vivid by the spare, drab Freddie Francis’ rich cinematography won an settings. Sophie’s story has been told in Oscar. CinemaScope. other films, including THE WHITE ROSE. Written by Fred Breinersdorfer.쩠 Sons of Katie Elder, The (1965) C-122m. ★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. John Wayne, Sophie’s Place SEE: Crooks and Coronets Dean Martin, Martha Hyer, Michael AnSo Proudly We Hail! (1943) 126m. ★★★ derson, Jr., Earl Holliman, Jeremy Slate, D: Mark Sandrich. Claudette Colbert, PauJames Gregory, George Kennedy, Paul lette Goddard, Veronica Lake, George Fix, Dennis Hopper, John Litel, Strother Reeves, Sonny Tufts, Barbara Britton, WalMartin. Typical Western with Duke, Holliter Abel. Flag-waving soaper of nurses in man, Anderson, and Martin the rowdy WW2 Pacific, headed by Colbert. Versasons of frontier woman Katie Elder, who tile cast, action scenes and teary romancset out to learn why she died broke. Film ing combine well in this woman’s service story. Dated but still entertaining.▼쩠 marked return to big screen for Wayne after first highly publicized cancer operation. Sorcerer (1977) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilLively fun. Music score by Elmer Bernliam Friedkin. Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou, Ramon Bieri, stein. Panavision.▼●쩠 1 ★★★ Sons of the Desert (1933) 69m. Peter Capell. Four fugitives in seedy Latin ⁄2 D: William A. Seiter. Stan Laurel, Oliver American town try to buy freedom by Hardy, Charley Chase, Mae Busch, Dorodriving trucks of nitroglycerine over bumpy thy Christy, Lucien Littlefield. L&H’s best roads to help put out oil fire. Expensive feature film; duo sneaks off to fraternal remake of THE WAGES OF FEAR never convention without telling the wives; then really catches hold in spite of a few the fun begins, with Chase as hilariously astounding scenes. Strange electronic score obnoxious conventioneer. Also shown in by Tangerine Dream. [PG]▼●쩠 computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Sorcerers, The (1967-British) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Son’s Room, The (2001-Italian-French) CD: Michael Reeves. Boris Karloff, Cather87m. ★★★ D: Nanni Moretti. Nanni Moretti, ine Lacey, Ian Ogilvy, Elizabeth Ercy, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca, Giuseppe Susan George. Interesting but flawed lowSanfelice, Silvio Orlando, Claudia Della budgeter. Husband-and-wife scientist team Seta, Stefano Accorsi, Sofia Vigliar. Quietly attempt to perfect domination-of-will techmoving examination of a family torn apart niques, persuade young man (Ogilvy) to by sudden tragedy. Moretti plays a mildjoin experiments. Downhill from there.▼ mannered analyst whose well-ordered life Sordid Lives (2001) C-111m. BOMB D: threatens to crumble under the pressure. SubDel Shores. Olivia Newton-John, Beau tle, perceptive, and moving. Moretti also Bridges, Delta Burke, Bonnie Bedelia, Beth coscripted.▼쩠 Grant, Ann Walker, Kirk Geiger, Leslie JorSophie’s Choice (1982) C-157m. ★★1⁄2 D: dan. More hick hijinks from writer-director Alan J. Pakula. Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Shores (author of DADDY’S DYIN’ . . . Peter MacNicol, Rita Karin, Stephen D. WHO’S GOT THE WILL?) about an ecNewman, Josh Mostel; narrated by Josef centric Texas family dealing with a variety Sommer. Streep’s Oscar-winning performof repressed emotions when their matriarch ance is the centerpiece (and raison d’eˆtre) dies. Horribly filmed, endless parade of earfor this slavishly faithful, but deadeningly piercing trailer-trash cliche´s and ‘‘meaningslow-moving, adaptation of William Styron’s ful’’ moments that are embarrassing. The book about a Polish woman’s attempt to performances, alas, match the subtlety of the justify her existence in America after surwriting. Shores adapted his own play. Now has a cult following.▼쩠 viving a living hell during WW2. Nestor Almendros’ camera is in love with Streep, Sorority Boys (2002) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Walbut her stunning characterization can’t carry lace Wolodarsky. Barry Watson, Harland the film alone. [R]▼●쩠 Williams, Michael Rosenbaum, Melissa SageSophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005miller, Heather Matarazzo, Kathryn StockGerman) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marc Rothemwood, James Daughton, Stephen Furst, Mark und. Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Gerald Metcalf, Peter Scolari, Wendie Jo Sperber, [ 1289 ] mounted silent film is first-rate adventure/romance, with tongue slightly in cheek. Valentino plays a dual role in this, his last film.

John Vernon. Crude comedy about three sexist Cheaply filmed but hilarious adaptation of frat boys forced into passing themselves off as Ring Lardner’s The Big Town. Morgan’s women and taking refuge in a sorority house. wife inherits money and they decide to go A more appropriate title would be SOME to N.Y.C., encountering its strange ways. LIKE IT STUPID. Aging baby boomers will Ingenious, offbeat script by Carl Foreman note the presence in the cast of several aging and Herbert Baker; radio/TV star Morgan graduates of ANIMAL HOUSE. [R]▼쩠 fares well in screen debut, helped by top Sorority Girl (1957) 60m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger supporting cast. Corman. Susan Cabot, Dick Miller, BarSotto, Sotto (1984-Italian) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 bara Crane, Fay Baker, June Kenney, D: Lina Wertmuller. Enrico Montesano, Barboura O’Neill. Lumbering tale of angst Veronica Lario, Luisa de Santis, Massimo and alienation, 1950s-style. The heroine Wertmuller. Obvious, but not unentertain(Cabot) is a wealthy but warped college ing, tale of Lario, who finds herself atcoed; she can’t fit in with the members of tracted to longtime best friend de Santis; her sorority, so she lashes out at everyone her husband (Montesano), a sexist animal around her. A female version of Calder with a fragile ego, then goes comically Willingham’s End as a Man, filmed that berserk. Incidentally, actor Wertmuller is the director’s nephew. [R]▼ same year as THE STRANGE ONE. Remade in 1994 as CONFESSIONS OF A Soul Food (1997) C-114m. ★★★ D: George SORORITY GIRL and in 2000 as CONTillman, Jr. Vanessa L. Williams, Vivica A. FESSIONS OF SORORITY GIRLS. ▼ Fox, Nia Long, Brandon Hammond, MiSorrento Beach SEE: Hotel Sorrento chael Beach, Mekhi Phifer, Irma P. Hall. Sorrow and the Pity, The (1970-Swiss) When Chicago-based black matriarch Hall, 260m. ★★★★ D: Marcel Ophuls. Incredibly the glue that holds her family together, falls ambitious documentary about France’s perill, grandson Hammond does his best to step formance during WW2 is a total success. Film in. A rare ’90s movie about family values never becomes dull, in spite of four-and-athat really works. Excellent ensemble cast half-hour length, even though bulk of footage in a poignant story that is honest and heartis devoted to interviews with those who lived warming. [R]▼●쩠 through the Nazi threat. A truly great film. Soul Man (1986) C-101m. ★★ D: Steve 1999 reissue runs 249m. [PG] ▼쩠 Miner. C. Thomas Howell, Arye Gross, ★★1 Sorrowful Jones (1949) 88m. Rae Dawn Chong, James Earl Jones, Melora ⁄2 D: Sidney Lanfield. Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, WilHardin, Leslie Nielsen, James B. Sikking, liam Demarest, Mary Jane Saunders, Bruce Max Wright, Jeff Altman, Julia Louis-DreyCabot, Thomas Gomez. Average racetrack fus, Ron Reagan. Young man desperate to comedy, actually a remake of LITTLE MISS go to Harvard Law School masquerades as MARKER and hardly as good.▼●쩠 a black in order to get minority scholarSorry, Haters (2006) C-86m. ★★ D: Jeff ship. Slick but distressingly superficial; if Stanzler. Robin Wright Penn, Abdellatif this is the 1980s version of social satire, ´ Kechiche, Sandra Oh, Aasif Mandvi, Elodie we’re all in trouble. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Bouchez, Fred Durst, Josh Hamilton. HotSoul Men (2008) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Malbutton film about a Muslim cabdriver in colm D. Lee. Samuel L. Jackson, Bernie Manhattan who becomes involved with a Mac, Sharon Leal, Sean Hayes, Adam passenger, an emotionally distraught busiHerschman, Affion Crockett, Jennifer Coonesswoman. Topical thriller attempts to deal lidge, John Legend, Isaac Hayes. Death of a with tensions and prejudices in post-9/11 Motown-type singing star inspires onetime N.Y.C. Good performances help, but Stanzbackup singer Mac to locate his estranged ler’s script goes wildly askew.쩠 partner (Jackson) and persuade him to travel Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) 89m. ★★★ cross-country to perform at a memorial conD: Anatole Litvak. Barbara Stanwyck, Burt cert at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Road Lancaster, Ann Richards, Wendell Corey, trip/reunion/buddy comedy is pretty thin but Ed Begley, Leif Erickson, William Conrad. it’s still fun to watch Jackson and Mac toOverly complicated adaptation of famous gether, especially when they sing and put radio thriller, but still a tense study of on their performance moves. Ends with woman overhearing murder plan on telefootage that pays tribute to Isaac Hayes and phone, discovering she’s to be the victim. especially Mac, both of whom died before Stanwyck won an Oscar nomination for her the film’s release. Super 35. [R]쩠 bravura performance; adapted—or rather, Soul of Nigger Charley, The (1973) expanded—by Lucille Fletcher, from her C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Larry Spangler. Fred Wilradio drama (which starred Agnes Mooreliamson, D’Urville Martin, Denise Nichohead). Remade for cable TV in 1989 with las, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Richard FarnsLoni Anderson.▼쩠 worth. Weak sequel to LEGEND OF NIGSo This Is New York (1948) 79m. ★★★ D: GER CHARLEY finds Charley trying to Richard Fleischer. Henry Morgan, Rudy free slaves held captive by former ConfedVallee, Bill Goodwin, Hugh Herbert, Leo erate Army officer in Mexico. Panavision. Gorcey, Virginia Grey, Dona Drake. [R] [ 1290 ]

Soul Plane (2004) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Jessy romanticizing in a positive sense experiTerrero. Tom Arnold, Kevin Hart, Method ences of black sharecropper family in 1930s Man, K. D. Aubert, Godfrey, Brian Hooks, —and the maturation of young Hooks. Full D. L. Hughley, Arielle Kebbel, Mo’Nique, of fine performances that make characters Ryan Pinkston, Missi Pyle, Sommore, Sofia utterly real. Mahal also composed the score. Vergara, Gary Anthony Williams, John WithScreenplay by Lonnie Elder III from William erspoon, Snoop Dogg. Young man who’s alArmstrong’s novel. Remade for TV in ways loved planes wins one hundred million 2003. Sequel: PART 2, SOUNDER. Panadollars in a lawsuit and starts his own allvision. [G]▼●쩠 black airline. Arnold and his all-white family Sounder, Part Two SEE: Part 2, Sounder wind up on the first flight. Slight plot supports Sound of Music, The (1965) C-174m. ★★★1 a nonstop string of (largely L.A.-centric) ⁄2 D: Robert Wise. Julie Andrews, jokes, some of them funny, most of them Christopher Plummer, Eleanor Parker, vulgar, many of them bouncing off, if not Peggy Wood, Richard Haydn, Anna Lee, reinforcing, stereotypes of black culture. Portia Nelson, Norma Varden, Marni How much you laugh is strictly a matter of Nixon. The children: Charmian Carr, personal taste. At least it’s short. Unrated Nicolas Hammond, Heather Menzies, version runs 92m. [R] ▼쩠 Duane Chase, Angela Cartwright, Debbie Souls at Sea (1937) 92m. ★★★ D: Henry Turner, Kym Karath. Call it corn if you Hathaway. Gary Cooper, George Raft, Franlike, but blockbuster Rodgers & Hammerces Dee, Olympe Bradna, Henry Wilcoxon, stein musical based on Austria’s real-life Harry Carey, Robert Cummings, Joseph Von Trapp family, who fled their homeSchildkraut, George Zucco, Virginia Weidler. land in 1938 to escape from Nazi rule, Fine actioner with Cooper and Raft strugpleased more people than practically any gling to save lives during ship tragedy; other film in history. Fine music, beautiful Cooper wrongly accused of irresponsibilscenery help offset coy aspects of script. ity. The stars make a good team here.▼ Five Oscars include Best Picture, DirecSouls for Sale SEE: Confessions of an tor, Score Adaptation (Irwin Kostal), EditOpium Eater ing (William Reynolds). Screenplay by Soul Survivors (2001) C-85m. BOMB D: Ernest Lehman, based on the Howard Steve Carpenter. Melissa Sagemiller, Casey Lindsay–Russel Crouse Broadway show. Affleck, Wes Bentley, Eliza Dushku, AnSongs include ‘‘Do Re Mi,’’ ‘‘Climb Ev’ry gela Featherstone, Luke Wilson. A young Mountain’’ and title tune. Todd-AO▼●쩠 woman and her three friends have one last Sound of Thunder, A (2005-U.S.-Germannight of celebration before going their sepaCzech) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Hyams. Edrate ways for college. Unfortunately, someward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben thing goes terribly wrong. Supernatural, Kingsley, Jemima Rooper, David Oyelowo, horror, teensploitation, reality/fantasy grab Wilfried Hochholdinger, August Zirner, bag set to pulsing music, this movie shameCorey Johnson. In Chicago, 2055, a comlessly steals ideas from good movies—and pany takes expeditions back in time to hunt bad ones too. So-called ‘‘Killer Cut’’ is dinosaurs. Precautions are taken, but (of rated R. [PG-13] ▼쩠 course) something goes wrong, and a tiny Soul to Soul (1971) C-95m. ★★★ D: Denis change in the past sends alterations down Sanders. Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina through time that our heroes try to set right. Turner, Santana, Roberta Flack, Les McMisguided expansion of Ray Bradbury Cann, Willie Bobo, Eddie Harris, The short story with mediocre effects and a conStaple Singers. Good documentary of Amerfusing script. It’s easy to see why this reican soul, jazz and gospel performers in a mained on the shelf so long. Filmed in concert commemorating the 14th anniver2002. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 sary of Ghanaian independence. Pickett is Soupc¸on (1979-French) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: in top form singing ‘‘Funky Broadway’’ Jean-Charles Tacchella. Jean Carmet, and ‘‘Land of 1,000 Dances.’’ [G]▼쩠 Marie Dubois, Alain Doutey, Rachel JenSound and the Fury, The (1959) C-115m. ★★1 evein, Jose Laccioni. Middle-aged couple ⁄2 D: Martin Ritt. Yul Brynner, Joanne (Carmet, Dubois) decide to separate after Woodward, Margaret Leighton, Stuart a quarter century of marriage. Spirited and Whitman, Ethel Waters, Jack Warden, Alattractively played, but still forgettable; a bert Dekker. Strange adaptation of Wildisappointment from the director of liam Faulkner novel becomes plodding tale COUSIN, COUSINE. of girl seeking independence from strict Soup for One (1982) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: family rule in the South. CinemaScope. Jonathan Kaufer. Saul Rubinek, Marcia Sound Barrier, The SEE: Breaking the Strassman, Gerrit Graham, Teddy PenderSound Barrier grass, Richard Libertini, Andrea Martin, Sounder (1972) C-105m. ★★★★ D: Martin Lewis J. Stadlen. Sometimes winning but Ritt. Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Kevin uneven account of single New Yorker Hooks, Carmen Mathews, Taj Mahal, James Best, Janet MacLachlan. Beautiful film, Rubinek searching for his dream girl. The [ 1291 ]

cast is game; solid work by 26-year-old diof-the-fittest yarn is an intellectually mudrector Kaufer. [R]▼ dled, Grade B DELIVERANCE, despite its Soup to Nuts (1930) 71m. ★★1⁄2 D: Benjacrisp direction. [R]▼●쩠 min Stoloff. Ted Healy, Charles WinSoutherner, The (1945) 91m. ★★★★ D: ninger, Frances McCoy, Lucile Browne, Jean Renoir. Zachary Scott, Betty Field, Stanley Smith, Hallam Cooley, Roscoe Beulah Bondi, J. Carrol Naish, Norman Ates, Billy Barty. Oddball early talkie Lloyd, Bunny Sunshine, Jay Gilpin, about a shopkeeper in trouble and some Estelle Taylor, Percy Kilbride, Blanche neighborhood firemen; written by carYurka. Superb drama of family struggling to toonist Rube Goldberg. Chief point of inmake farmland self-supporting against serious terest today is film debut of Healy’s odds. Renoir adapted George Sessions Perry’s novel Hold Autumn in Your Hand.▼쩠 sidekicks The Three Stooges, then actually four in number (Moe, Larry, Shemp, South: Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance Expedition (1919-British) 88m. ★★★1⁄2 and Fred Sanborn). They provide the movie’s highlight, doing their vaudeville rouD: Frank Hurley. Extraordinary document tine. 쩠 of the fabled 1915 Ernest Shackleton expeSource, The (1999) C-88m. ★★★ D: Chuck dition to Antarctica and the stranded crew’s Workman. Pop-style documentary on the efforts to save themselves. The story has Beat movement, drawing on archival footbeen recounted and dramatized since then, age of Jack Kerouac plus fresh material on but nothing can compare to this original, William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. straightforward account—with startlingly Audience-friendly rather than scholarly, clear footage that looks as if it was shot this this lively film serves as an excellent morning. ▼쩠 primer on this seminal movement in Southern Star, The (1969-British-FrenchAmerican culture. Key poems by KerU.S.) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Hayers. ouac, Burroughs, and Ginsberg are perGeorge Segal, Ursula Andress, Orson formed on-camera by a well-chosen Johnny Welles, Ian Hendry, Harry Andrews, Michel Depp, Dennis Hopper, and John Turturro, Constantin. Uneven combination comedyrespectively.▼쩠 adventure detailing multiparty chase for pos1 ★★ Sour Grapes (1998) C-92m. session of unusually large diamond boasts ⁄2 D: Larry David. Steven Weber, Craig Bierko, Matt beautiful locations in Senegal, Africa, but not Keeslar, Karen Sillas, Robyn Peterman, much else. Based on a Jules Verne novel. Viola Harris, Jennifer Leigh Warren. Bierko Techniscope. [M/PG] Southern Yankee, A (1948) 90m. ★★★ D: hits a $400,000 slot machine jackpot at a casino; Weber, his doctor cousin, thinks Edward Sedgwick. Red Skelton, Brian he’s due half the loot because he loaned him Donlevy, Arlene Dahl, George Coulouris, the necessary quarters. Occasionally very Lloyd Gough, John Ireland, Charles Dinfunny, the movie is undermined by overemgle, Joyce Compton. Hilarious Skelton comphatic ‘‘comedy’’ acting, unsympathetic edy set during Civil War with Red a bumcharacters, and a sitcom approach. Writerbling Yankee spy down South. Reminiscent director David cocreated Seinfeld, which exof silent comedies, since Buster Keaton devised many of the film’s gags.▼ plains both the good and the bad stuff here. [R]▼●쩠 Southland Tales (2007) C-144m. ★1⁄2 D: South Central (1992) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Kelly. Dwayne Johnson, Seann Steve Anderson. Glenn Plummer, Byron William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Keith Minns, LaRita Shelby, Carl Lumbly, Moore, Justin Timberlake, Nora Dunn, John Lexie D. Bingham, Christian Coleman. Larroquette, Bai Ling, Jon Lovitz, Cheri Oteri, Sobering, well-meaning drama of life and Amy Poehler, Lou Taylor Pucci, Miranda desperation in inner-city L.A. is similar in Richardson, Wallace Shawn, Holmes Ostheme to (but not nearly as effective as) borne, Kevin Smith, Christopher Lambert, BOYZ N THE HOOD. Plummer is aces Janeane Garofolo, Beth Grant, Zelda Rubinas an embattled street-gang veteran who stein, Curtis Armstrong, Will Sasso. Impresundergoes an odyssey of transformation, sive cast is wasted in an overlong, overwrought and determines to spare his young son wallow set in 2008 Southern California 3 years (Coleman) from the ravages of gang life. after a disastrous nuclear attack on Texas has Anderson scripted, based on the novel turned America into a police state. Focuses Crips by L.A. schoolteacher Donald Bakeer. on several people trying to survive in this The executive producer was Oliver Stone. postapocalyptic environment, including a [R]▼●쩠 B-action-film actor, a porn star turned TV Southern Comfort (1981) C-106m. ★★ D: commentator, and an L.A. police officer on Walter Hill. Keith Carradine, Powers a journey of self-discovery when his personBoothe, Fred Ward, Franklyn Seales, T. K. ality is split in two. Even more convoluted Carter, Lewis Smith, Les Lannom, Peter and disjointed than it sounds. Super 35. Coyote, Brion James. Macho National [R]쩠 Guardsmen patronize Cajuns in the LouisiSouth of Heaven, West of Hell (2000) Cana swamp, much to their regret. Survival127m. ★★ D: Dwight Yoakam. Dwight Yoa[ 1292 ]

kam, Vince Vaughn, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Carlson, Ivor Barnard. Author Bridget Fonda, Peter Fonda, Paul Reubens, James Hilton narrates saga (adapted by Bud Cort, Bo Hopkins, Matt Clark, Noble John Paxton) of earnest newspaper editor Willingham, Scott Wilson, Luke Askew, (Mills) determined to improve living condiMichael Jeter, Joe Ely, Warren Zevon. Stantions in factory town, sidetracked by mardard Western plot of redemption pits marriage to blindly ambitious woman (Scott). shal Yoakam against his former ‘‘foster Very young Juliet Mills has bit part.● family’’ of outlaws, led by Bible-toting paSoylent Green (1973) C-100m. ★★ D: triarch Askew. Cowriter/director/composer/ Richard Fleischer. Charlton Heston, Edstar Yoakam overreached in this overlong ward G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, story, and seems to have given his large Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock cast free rein. Executive produced by Buck Peters, Paula Kelly, Whit Bissell, Mike Owens. Runs 100m. on VHS. Panavision. Henry, Dick Van Patten. Well-intentioned [R]▼쩠 but cardboard adaptation of Harry HarriSouth of St. Louis (1949) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 son’s science-fiction classic Make Room! D: Ray Enright. Joel McCrea, Alexis Smith, Make Room! In the year 2022, Manhattan Zachary Scott, Dorothy Malone, Douglas has become an overcrowded hellhole; cop Kennedy, Alan Hale, Victor Jory. Three Heston, investigating murder of bigwig, ranching partners (McCrea, Scott, Kennestumbles onto explosive government sedy) fall into dispute over land, money, cret (which you’ll figure out long before Civil War gun-running, and women. Unhe does). Robinson is splendid in his final memorable Western has good cast, fast film; title refers to a precious foodstuff pacing, and Technicolor on its side.▼ made of soybeans and lentils. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 South Pacific (1958) C-151m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joshua Logan. Rossano Brazzi, Mitzi Spaceballs (1987) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mel Gaynor, John Kerr, Ray Walston, Juanita Brooks. Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Hall, France Nuyen, Tom Laughlin, voice Moranis, Bill Pullman, Daphne Zuniga, of Giorgio Tozzi. Disappointing filmization Dick Van Patten, George Wyner, Michael of great Rodgers & Hammerstein show; Winslow, Lorene Yarnell, John Hurt, adaptation of James Michener’s moving Ronny Graham, Rhonda Shear; voices of vignettes about WW2 life on Pacific island Joan Rivers, Dom DeLuise. Likably silly needs dynamic personalities to make it parody of STAR WARS (years after the fact) catch fire, and they aren’t here. Even lois basically a collection of jokes, both verbal cation filming is lackluster. Adequate but and visual. Enough of them are funny to hardly memorable. Songs include ‘‘Some make for pleasant, if not hilarious, fare. SurEnchanted Evening,’’ ‘‘There Is Nothing prisingly innocuous for Brooks and Co., Like a Dame.’’ Among the sailors and serwith Mel tackling two roles, including the diminutive Yogurt. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 vicemen you’ll spot John Gabriel, Ron Ely, Doug McClure, and James Stacy. Originally SpaceCamp (1986) C-107m. ★★ D: Harry shown at 171m. Remade in 2001 for TV. Winer. Kate Capshaw, Lea Thompson, Kelly Preston, Larry B. Scott, Leaf (JoaTodd-AO. ▼●쩠 South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut quin) Phoenix, Tate Donovan, Tom Skerritt, (1999) C-81m. ★★★ D: Trey Parker. Voices Barry Primus, Terry O’Quinn. Or, BRATS of Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Mary Kay IN SPACE, the story of some kids who Bergman, Isaac Hayes, George Clooney, wouldn’t rate at McDonald’s College of Brent Spiner, Minnie Driver, Dave Foley, Hamburger Knowledge, but somehow get Eric Idle, Mike Judge, Nick Rhodes, Stewchosen to train at NASA summer camp— art Copeland. The pint-sized, animated kids and accidentally get launched into space. of South Park, Colorado, are so fond of the There’s a cute robot, but other special effects are way below par. [PG]▼●쩠 new R-rated Terrance and Phillip movie that they start imitating its rude dialogue. Space Children, The (1958) 69m. ★★ D: This inspires the parents of South Park to Jack Arnold. Michel Ray, Peggy Webber, mount a campaign against the movie’s Adam Williams, Jackie Coogan, Johnny stars—and homeland, Canada. Sharp, funny Washbrook. Strange force brainwashes chil(and yes, foul-mouthed) satire, based on the dren into performing sabotage at Pacific irreverent TV series; sparked by great songs nuclear test site. Antiwar film isn’t up to by Parker and Marc Shaiman. [R]▼●쩠 Arnold’s other ’50s science-fiction classics, South Sea Woman (1953) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: but is sufficiently offbeat to warrant a peek. Arthur Lubin. Burt Lancaster, Virginia Space Chimps (2008) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Kirk Mayo, Chuck Connors, Arthur Shields, DeMicco. Voices of Andy Samberg, Cheryl Paul Burke. Murky tropical isle story of Hines, Jeff Daniels, Kristin Chenoweth, love and deceit with soldier Lancaster sparkKenan Thompson, Jane Lynch, Stanley Tucci, Patrick Warburton, Zack Shada, Omid Abing with Mayo.쩠 So Well Remembered (1947-British) 114m. tahi. Lame, unfunny animated tale has free★★★ D: Edward Dmytryk. John Mills, Marwheeling Ham III, grandson of the first tha Scott, Trevor Howard, Patricia Roc, chimp astronaut, sent into space along with [ 1293 ]

two other dimwitted simians on a mission to growing fungus, dubbed ‘‘Blood Rust.’’ eliminate the evil leader of another planet. Williams and Ellis track down the woman Paint-by-numbers CGI animation is flat and who is unknowingly spreading the deadly the lifeless script is full of hoary gags. Digistuff. Routine but competent. Moe plays a tal Widescreen. [G]쩠 cab driver. Regalscope. ★★1 Space Cowboys (2000) C-129m. Space Mission of the Lost Planet SEE: ⁄2 D: Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Tommy Vampire Men of the Lost Planet Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, James GarSpace Rage (1985) C-77m. BOMB D: ner, Marcia Gay Harden, James Cromwell, Conrad Palmisano. Richard Farnsworth, Blair Brown, William Devane, Loren Dean, Michael Pare´, John Laughlin, Lee Purcell, Courtney B. Vance, Rade Sherbedgia, BarLewis Van Bergen, William Windom. bara Babcock. Amiable yarn about onetime Meek space Western is set on a prison hotshot Air Force pilots who are recruited by planet. Farnsworth is ex-cop who straps on NASA—in desperation—to rescue a Russian his laser beam six-shooter to teach Pare´ satellite built with now-obsolete technology and the other outlaws a lesson; he should’ve turned the laser on this bomb instead! [R]▼ only they can comprehend. Barely believable but good-natured fun, especially for Space Raiders (1983) C-82m. ★★ D: Howfans of the stars. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 ard R. Cohen. Vince Edwards, David Spaced Invaders (1990) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Mendenhall, Patsy Pease, Thom ChrisPatrick Read Johnson. Douglas Barr, Royal topher, Luca Bercovici, Dick Miller. This Dano, Ariana Richards, J. J. Anderson, toothless adventure is another Roger CorGregg Berger, Kevin Thompson, Jimmy man-produced space opera using special efBriscoe. Martians, out to ‘‘kick some Earthfects footage and music from BATTLE ling butt,’’ fly into a Mayberry-type burg BEYOND THE STARS. Acceptable genre after mistaking a Halloween rebroadcast of fare for the undemanding viewer. [PG]▼ Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds for legitiSpaceship SEE: Creature Wasn’t Nice, The mate invasion orders. Have you ever noSpace Travellers SEE: Marooned ticed that Welles couldn’t get financing for Space Vampires SEE: Astro-Zombies, decades, but movies like this keep getting The Spanglish (2004) C-131m. ★★ D: James L. made? Criminally overlong. [PG]▼●쩠 Spacehunter: Adventures in the ForbidBrooks. Adam Sandler, Te´a Leoni, Paz Vega, ★1 den Zone (1983-Canadian) C-90m. ⁄2 Cloris Leachman, Shelbie Bruce, Sarah D: Lamont Johnson. Peter Strauss, Molly Steele, Ian Hyland, Thomas Haden Church. Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Andrea MarStrong-minded Mexican woman goes to work covicci. Title character roams a planet’s for a well-to-do L.A. family, causing reverbarren wasteland in order to rescue three berations within that dysfunctional clan— damsels in distress, who are being held and changing the life of her impressionable captive by a vicious mutant called Overyoung daughter. Sandler gives a mushy perdog. Boring and obnoxious, even in 3-D. formance as the father/husband (a star chef, Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 though we never get a sense of his mastery Space Jam (1996) C-87m. ★★★ D: Joe Pytka. in the kitchen), while Leoni is stunningly Bugs Bunny, Michael Jordan, Wayne Knight, strident as his wife. There are nuggets—a Theresa Randle, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, good scene here, a moment of sharp obserPatrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnvation there—in writer-director Brooks’ son, Patricia Heaton, Dan Castellaneta; voices script, but mostly it’s a mess. [PG-13] ▼쩠 of Danny DeVito, Billy West, Dee Bradley Spanish Prisoner, The (1998) C-112m. ★★1 Baker, Bob Bergen, Bill Farmer, June Foray. ⁄2 D: David Mamet. Campbell Scott, A ‘‘high-concept’’ movie that actually works: Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazbasketball superstar Jordan is sucked into zara, Ricky Jay, Felicity Huffman, Ed Looney Tune Land to help Bugs Bunny, O’Neill, J. J. Johnston. Naive young man, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Co. square off who’s developed a secret and highly valuagainst a group of space invaders in a do-orable program for a high-tech company, is die basketball game. Jordan is very engaging, concerned that he won’t be properly comthe vintage characters perform admirably (alpensated and thus is easy prey for those who though whoever ‘‘airbrushed’’ them had a would steal the secret. Too easy, if you ask us, heavy hand), and the computer-generated speand that’s the problem with this ice-cold but cial effects are a collective knockout. Bill intriguing Mamet screenplay: we didn’t buy it Murray appears unbilled, and many sports at crucial points in its serpentine story. Scott figures appear as themselves. [PG] ▼●쩠 and Martin are excellent; leading lady PidSpaceman in King Arthur’s Court, A geon is Mrs. Mamet. [PG]▼●쩠 SEE: Unidentified Flying Oddball Spanking the Monkey (1994) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: David O. Russell. Jeremy Davies, Space Master X-7 (1958) 71m. ★★ D: Edward Bernds. Bill Williams, Robert Ellis, Alberta Watson, Benjamin Hendrickson, Lyn Thomas, Paul Frees, Joan Barry, Carla Gallo, Matthew Puckett, Judette Jones. Thomas Browne Henry, Moe Howard. A Just your average black comedy about masturreturning satellite brings with it a fastbation and incest: Bright teenager is told by [ 1294 ]

his traveling-salesman father that he must sacshould we say, telepathetic—connection rifice a prestigious summer internship to stay with a deadly serpent. Grade Z junk; filmed home and tend to his bedridden mother. The in 1981. Aka DEATH BITE. [R]▼쩠 intimacy of having to take care of her every Spawn (1997) C-97m. ★★ D: Mark A. Z. need soon leads to unexpected behavior. DeDippe´. John Leguizamo, Michael Jai White, buting writer-director Russell shows assuredMartin Sheen, Theresa Randle, D. B. ness and maintains credibility throughout Sweeney, Nicol Williamson, Melinda Clarke, (thanks, too, to bull’s-eye performances), but Miko Hughes. Government assassin White is the tone of the film wavers uncomfortably killed by evil boss Sheen and goes to Hell, from comedy to drama. A film festival where a demon endows him with great powsleeper and audience favorite.▼●쩠 ers and returns him to Earth. Despite the Sparkle (1976) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam efforts of infernal clown Leguizamo, he beO’Steen. Philip M. (Michael) Thomas, Irene comes a hero. Baroque visual style is film’s Cara, Lonette McKee, Dwan Smith, Mary major virtue, but that can’t overcome the Alice, Dorian Harewood, Tony King. Rise of many faults, including a boring, familiar, singing group not unlike The Supremes sufand illogical plot. Love that cape, though. fers from cliche´ overdose, but benefits from From Todd McFarlane’s comic book. Dislick filmmaking, good musical numbers (by rector’s cut, rated R, has over a minute of Curtis Mayfield), vivid performance by additional footage. [PG-13]▼●쩠 McKee. Worth comparing to later (and simiSpawn of the North (1938) 110m. ★★★ D: lar) Broadway musical Dreamgirls. [PG]▼쩠 Henry Hathaway. George Raft, Henry Spartacus (1960) C-184m. ★★★1⁄2 D: StanFonda, Dorothy Lamour, Louise Platt, John ley Kubrick. Kirk Douglas, Laurence OlivBarrymore, Akim Tamiroff, Lynne Overier, Jean Simmons, Tony Curtis, Charles man. Action-packed film of Alaskan fisherLaughton, Peter Ustinov, John Gavin, Nina ies with good cast; Lamour surprisingly Foch, Herbert Lom, John Ireland, Charles good. Barrymore amusing as talky newspaMcGraw, Woody Strode, Joanna Barnes. perman. The special photographic and Epic-scale saga with Douglas as a rebellious sound effects earned a special Academy slave who leads a crusade for freedom Award. Remade as ALASKA SEAS.▼ against the forces of the Roman Empire. Speaking Parts (1989-Canadian) C-92m. ★★★ D: Atom Egoyan. Michael McManus, Overlength (particularly in fully restored version released in 1991) and some dramatic Arsine´e Khanjian, Gabrielle Rose, Tony weaknesses are offset by Alex North’s magNardi, David Hemblen, Patricia Collins, nificent score, staggering battle scenes, and Gerard Parkes. Fascinating account of launthe delicious performances of Olivier, dry worker Khanjian and her fixation on asLaughton, and especially Ustinov, who piring actor McManus, who finds himself in won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his an unusual relationship with screenwriter scene-stealing work. Oscars also went to Rose. Sinuous story about three lost souls Art Direction, Costume Design, and Ruswhose lives intersect, in person and on video. sell Metty’s Cinematography. Screenplay Very much of a piece with writer-director by Dalton Trumbo from the Howard Fast Egoyan’s other work.▼●쩠 novel. Cut for 1967 reissue. In restored Special (2008) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hal Haprint, Anthony Hopkins dubbed Olivier’s berman, Jeremy Passmore. Michael Rapavoice for notorious bathing scene with port, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Peck, Robert Curtis. Remade for cable TV in 2004. Super Baker, Jack Kehler, Alexandra Holden, Ian Technirama 70.▼●쩠 Bohen, Christopher Darga. Shy social misfit Spartan (2004) C-107m. ★★ D: David signs up for a clinical drug-testing program Mamet. Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. and becomes convinced that the pill he’s takMacy, Ed O’Neill, Kristen Bell, Saı¨d Taghing has given him super powers, just like his maoui, Linda Kimbrough, Tia Texada, Clark comic-book heroes. Slight, small-scale film Gregg, J.J. Johnston, Natalia Nogulich, Matt has surprisingly good visual effects and stunt Malloy, Alexandra Kerry. A military operawork, but its real strength is Rapaport’s contions specialist accustomed to following orvincing performance in the lead. Written by ders finds himself in unfamiliar territory when the directors, making their feature-film dehe has to think for himself—and use his buts. Released in the U.K. in 2006. [R]쩠 initiative—to rescue the kidnapped daughter Special Agent (1935) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wilof the President of the U.S. Writer-director liam Keighley. Bette Davis, George Brent, Mamet gives us a leading character who’s so Ricardo Cortez, Jack LaRue, Henry O’Neill. off-putting, in a plot so convoluted, that when Programmer about Brent using Davis to there’s finally some tension and excitement get low-down on racketeer Cortez. toward the end it’s too little, too late. David Special Day, A (1977-Italian-Canadian) Paymer appears unbilled. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ettore Scola. Sophia Spasms (1983-Canadian) C-87m. BOMB Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, John Vernon, D: William Fruet. Peter Fonda, Oliver Franc¸oise Berd, Nicole Magny. Two lonely Reed, Kerrie Keane, Al Waxman, Marilyn people chance to meet on an eventful day in Lightstone. Reed has a telepathic—or, 1938; Loren is frumpy housewife, Mastroianni [ 1295 ]

a troubled homosexual. Fine performances occupied Paris in 1941. Four expendables bolster this pleasant but trifling film.▼●쩠 are tried and ceremonially condemned for Special Delivery (1976) C-99m. ★★★ D: the murder of a young German naval cadet. Paul Wendkos. Bo Svenson, Cybill ShepSome interest. [PG] herd, Michael Gwynne, Tom Atkins, SorSpecial Treatment (1980-Yugoslavian) C-94m. ★★★ D: Goran Paskaljevic. Ljuba rell Booke, Jeff Goldblum, Vic Tayback, Deidre Hall, Gerrit Graham. Diverting Tadic, Dusica Zegarac, Danilo Stojkovic, Micomedy-action caper has Vietnam vets led by lena Dravic, Petar Kralj. Fanatical doctor Svenson robbing a bank. When only Svenson Tadic brings a group of alcoholics he’s been escapes, he has to contend with nutty artist treating to a brewery to show off his skills as Shepherd (who’s quite good) and killers after a healer; of course, his charges don’t remain he stuffs the loot into a mailbox. Aka DANsober for long. Strange, deadpan comedy is GEROUS BREAK. [PG]▼ occasionally slow but mostly funny. Species (1995) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Special Effects (1984) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Cohen. Zoe Tamerlis, Eric Bogosian, Donaldson. Ben Kingsley, Michael MadBrad Rijn, Kevin O’Connor, Bill Oland. sen, Forest Whitaker, Natasha Henstridge, Intriguing but uneven tale of a down-onAlfred Molina, Marg Helgenberger, Whip his-luck director who films the murder of a Hubley, Michelle Williams, Jordan Lund. young actress, and commences making a DNA-tampering scientists at a Utah facility movie about his deed. He even finds someone ultimately get theirs after creating a murderto star in his epic who resembles his victim; ous creature, complete with tentacles, who’s both are played by Tamerlis. [R]▼쩠 packaged like a blond centerfold. Fast and not Specialist, The (1975) C-93m. ★★ D: without entertainment value, but don’t look at Hikmet Avedis. Ahna Capri, John Anderyourself in the mirror too closely if you end son, Adam West, Alvy Moore, Christiane up defending it. Direction is somewhat sturSchmidtmer, Marlene Schmidt. Campy exdier than the script, which has its share of (we ploitation film has Capri well cast as a think) unintentional howlers. Followed by zaftig female version of usual macho killerthree sequels; the latter two are direct-tofor-hire. Writer-producer Schmidt (director video. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Avedis’ wife) plays West’s wife. [R]▼쩠 Species II (1998) C-95m. BOMB D: Peter Specialist, The (1994) C-109m. ★★ D: Luis Medak. Natasha Henstridge, Michael MadLlosa. Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, sen, Marg Helgenberger, Mykelti Williamson, James Woods, Rod Steiger, Eric Roberts, Justin Lazard, James Cromwell, George Mario Ernesto Sanchez. Explosives expert Dzundza, Richard Belzer. The first man on and freelance hit man Stallone, sullenly sufMars gets infested with alien DNA, and befering angst over his CIA activities, is apgins raping women who immediately, and proached by Stone, who wants him to kill fatally, give birth. Elsewhere, scientists Roberts, the man who murdered her parents have re-created the half-alien woman from years earlier. But Stallone has been targeted the first film, hoping she’ll be nice this time. by kinetic bad guy Woods and Cuban gangCompared to this clunker, the first looks like ster Steiger, Roberts’ father (who sounds a collaboration between Arthur C. Clarke like Ricky Ricardo and looks like Fred and Ray Bradbury. Peter Boyle appears unMertz). Woods, in a funny, dynamic perforbilled. [R]▼●쩠 mance, breezily walks off with the movie. Speechless (1994) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ron And he’s welcome to it. Some good stunts Underwood. Michael Keaton, Geena Davis, and good work by Stone help keep it Christopher Reeve, Bonnie Bedelia, Ernie watchable. [R]▼●쩠 Hudson, Charles Martin Smith, Gailard SarSpecials, The (2000) C-82m. ★★ D: Craig tain, Ray Baker, Mitchell Ryan, Harry Mazin. Rob Lowe, Jamie Kennedy, Thomas Shearer, Steven Wright. Keaton and Davis Haden Church, Paget Brewster, Judy Greer, fall in love, unaware that they work as speechJordan Ladd, Sean Gunn, John Doe, Kelly writers for opposing political candidates in a Coffield, James Gunn, Barry Del Sherman, tough Arizona senate race. Cheerful conMelissa Joan Hart. A squad of L.A. supertemporary comedy, with amusing digs at heroes loses morale when their lucrative politics and the news media. How well you action-figure deal goes awry. Wacko comic tolerate the ups and downs of the script and cheapie isn’t just a MYSTERY MEN reits protracted climax will depend on your tread, but never quite comes together defondness for the two stars. [PG-13]▼●쩠 spite game cast and f lashes of wit. Funniest Speed (1936) 70m. ★★ D: Edwin L. Marin. character is Minute Man; nobody gets his James Stewart, Wendy Barrie, Una Merkel, name right even though his superpower is Ted Healy, Weldon Heyburn, Ralph Morgan, Patricia Wilder. Stewart enhances this that he can shrink. [R]▼쩠 Special Section (1975-French) C-110m. star-building quickie (one of eight features ★★ D: Costa-Gavras. Louis Seigner, Michel he made in 1936) as a test-car driver who’s Lonsdale, Jacques Perrin, Bruno Cremer, developed a high-speed carburetor. Most Pierre Dux, Henri Serre. Overlong, excesof the racing action consists of blatant sively wordy drama of true happening in rear-projection and stock footage. [ 1296 ]

Speed (1994) C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jan De ruff, Brooks Benedict. Contrived but enBont. Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, Sanjoyable comedy has Harold trying to save dra Bullock, Jeff Daniels, Joe Morton, Alan N.Y.C.’s last horse-drawn trolley, run by Ruck, Glenn Plummer, Richard Lineback. his girlfriend’s grandfather, from extincIncredibly kinetic, supercharged action yarn tion. Vivid N.Y.C. location work includes about an elite SWAT-team cop (Reeves) hair-raising chase scene, and appealing who’s targeted by a psycho/mastermind cameo by Babe Ruth as himself.▼쩠 (Hopper), and led onto an L.A. city bus that’s Speed Zone! (1989) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim triggered to explode. If you’re going to make Drake. Peter Boyle, Donna Dixon, John a nonstop action movie, this is the way to do Candy, Eugene Levy, Tim Matheson, The it—with expert pacing, eye-popping stunts Smothers Brothers, Matt Frewer, Joe and special effects, and characters who make Flaherty, Shari Belafonte, Art Hindle, John sense. A bull’s-eye! Oscar winner for Best Schneider, Jamie Farr, Lee Van Cleef, Sound and Sound Effects Editing. Followed Michael Spinks, Brooke Shields, Alyssa by a sequel. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Milano, Carl Lewis. Yet another variation Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) C-121m. on the CANNONBALL RUN cross-country BOMB D: Jan De Bont. Sandra Bullock, road race, with Boyle as a sheriff who’s Jason Patric, Willem Dafoe, Temuera Mordetermined to stop the race before it berison, Brian McCardie, Christine Firkins, gins. Pointless, derivative, and unfunny, a Colleen Camp, Lois Chiles, Jeremy Hotz, particular waste of such talents as Candy, Bo Svenson, Glenn Plummer, Tim Conway. Levy, and Flaherty. You know you’re in Mind-numbingly stupid action yarn opens trouble when Brooke Shields gives the with a chase scene that makes no sense, and funniest performance in the film! [PG]▼● never improves. Bullock (whose character Spellbinder (1988) C-99m. ★★ D: Janet here is especially annoying) agrees to go on Greek. Timothy Daly, Kelly Preston, Rick a Caribbean cruise with boyfriend Patric, Rossovich, Diana Bellamy, Audra Lindley, an L.A.P.D. officer. When madman Dafoe Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Anthony Crivello, takes control of the ship, Patric feels it’s his Roderick Cook, Stefan Gierasch. L.A. lawduty to try and stop him. Did anyone read yer falls for a mysterious beauty, slowly the script before signing on for this one? learns she’s a witch, a member of a coven Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 that wants her back as a sacrifice. A whySpeed Racer (2008) C-129m. ★★ D: The Wabother? occult thriller: slick, empty, and chowski Brothers. Emile Hirsch, Christina extremely predictable. [R]▼ Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, MatSpellbound (1945) 111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Althew Fox, Roger Allam, Paulie Litt, Benno fred Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Fu¨rmann, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rain, Richard Peck, Leo G. Carroll, John Emery, MiRoundtree, Kick Gurry. Driving fast cars is all chael Chekhov, Wallace Ford, Rhonda Speed Racer (Hirsch) cares about—even after Fleming, Bill Goodwin, Regis Toomey. a crash takes his older brother’s life. A ruthAbsorbing tale of psychiatrist Bergman less corporate giant wants to sponsor him, trying to uncover Peck’s hangups; Dali but his heart is still with his Pop’s independream sequences, innovative (and Oscardent racing team. High-octane, CGI-crazy winning) Miklos Rozsa score help Hitchupdate of Tatsuo Yoshida’s 1960s TV series cock create another unique film. Based on has a thimbleful of story but takes more novel The House of Dr. Edwardes by Franthan two hours to tell! Racing scenes are cis Beeding; screenplay by Ben Hecht. In video games writ large, so unreal there’s no original theatrical prints, a key gunshot emotion attached to them. HD Widescreen. was shown in color.▼●쩠 [PG]쩠 Spellbound (2003) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: JefSpeedtrap (1977) C-98m. ★★ D: Earl Belfrey Blitz. Terrific documentary that follows lamy. Joe Don Baker, Tyne Daly, Richard eight very different young contestants who Jaeckel, Robert Loggia, Morgan Woodparticipate in the 1999 National Spelling ward, Timothy Carey. Private eye Baker is Bee. An enormously entertaining and often called in by the cops to trap an elusive car pointed examination of ideas about success thief, and teamed with policewoman Daly. and the American dream, with the final Good cast and predictable screeching tires spelling duel as riveting as anything to be can’t save muddled script. [PG]▼ found in a fiction film. [G] ▼쩠 Speedway (1968) C-94m. ★★ D: Norman Spencer’s Mountain (1963) C-119m. ★★ Taurog. Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra, Bill D: Delmer Daves. Henry Fonda, Maureen Bixby, Gale Gordon. Routine Presley tuner O’Hara, James MacArthur, Donald Crisp, with Elvis starring as a bighearted stockcar Wally Cox, Veronica Cartwright, Victor racer and Sinatra along for the ride as a tax French. Mawkish sudser about Wyoming inspector. Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough landowner Fonda who keeps promising to and other real-life auto racers are featured. build another family house. Good cast Panavision.▼●쩠 stuck with inferior script. Based on the Speedy (1928) 86m. ★★★ D: Ted Wilde. Earl Hamner, Jr. novel; later developed into The Waltons. Panavision.▼●쩠 Harold Lloyd, Ann Christy, Bert Wood[ 1297 ]

Spent (2000) C-91m. ★★ D: Gil Cates, Jr. tello, The Dream Boys, Jonathan Ross, and Jason London, Charlie Spradling, Phill Lewis, Jennifer Saunders. [PG]▼●쩠 Erin Beaux, James Parks, Richmond Arquette, Spider, The (1958) SEE: Earth vs the Barbara Barrie, Gilbert Cates, Rain Phoenix, Spider Margaret Cho. Ambitious but unconvincing Spider (2002-Canadian-British) C-90m. ★★ portrait of addiction, deception, and denial, D: David Cronenberg. Ralph Fiennes, Micentering on a hopeless young movie industry randa Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Bradley wannabe whose chronic gambling is getting Hall, Lynn Redgrave, John Neville, Gary out of hand. He’s surrounded by troubled Reineke. Intriguing but relentlessly downsouls, including a roommate (Parks) who rebeat film about a seriously disturbed man fuses to acknowledge his sexual preference paralyzed by memories of his childhood and a girlfriend (Spradling) who’s an alcowith an abusive father and a hardworking, well-meaning mother. We discover the holic. Aka $PENT. ▼쩠 Spetters (1980-Dutch) C-115m. ★★★ D: source of his misery through flashbacks, Paul Verhoeven. Hans van Tongeren, Toon but as the pieces come together they’re not Agterberg, Renee Soutendijk, Maarten terribly surprising. Richardson’s artful Spanjer, Marianne Boyer, Rutger Hauer. Adhandling of multiple roles is the film’s major olescent shenanigans and dreams in Holland; asset, and Fiennes is good as usual. Scripted teenagers sleep around and race their motorby Patrick McGrath, from his novel. [R]▼쩠 cycles while idolizing race champ Hauer. Spider Baby (1964) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Graphically sexual, with crisp direction by Hill. Lon Chaney, Jr., Sid Haig, Jill Banner, Verhoeven; luscious Soutendijk scores as an Mantan Moreland, Beverly Washburn, Carol ambitious hash-slinger. [R] ▼●쩠 Ohmart. Not bad little chiller about the antics ★1 Sphere (1998) C-133m. ⁄2 D: Barry Levinof a very unusual—and very sick—family. son. Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel At its best it’s both scary and funny. Chaney L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber, is the clan’s chauffeur and sings the title Queen Latifah. Failed sci-fi saga (from Misong! The full title is SPIDER BABY OR, chael Crichton novel) about a group of sciTHE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD. entists from different disciplines who are Aka THE LIVER EATERS. ▼●쩠 brought to a super-secret underwater site Spider-Man (2002) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam where the U.S. Navy has discovered a mysRaimi. Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirterious wreckage. What does it signify? sten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, Where did it come from and when? IntriRosemary Harris, J. K. Simmons, Gerry guing set-up leads nowhere, with increasBecker, Bill Nunn. Big-budget Hollywood ingly stupid behavior from the principals version of a Saturday matinee serial: High and ridiculous chapter headings that lend school nerd who’s never had the nerve to supposed import to each new sequence. A speak to the beautiful girl next door is bitten bust. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 by a spider and mutates into Spider-Man, Sphinx (1981) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Franklin crime fighter. Slick entertainment, with MaJ. Schaffner. Lesley-Anne Down, Frank guire a likable Peter Parker, but the carLangella, Maurice Ronet, John Gielgud, toony effects distance (rather than involve) Martin Benson, John Rhys-Davies. Harried us in his springy moments of action, and the Egyptologist Down continuously eludes story runs out of gas long before two hours death as she searches for a mystery tomb. are up. Lucy Lawless, Randy Savage, Bruce Awful script, mummylike performances, Campbell, and Stan Lee make brief appearimpressive Egyptian scenery. Adapted by ances. Based on characters created for MarJohn Byrum from Robin Cook novel. vel Comics by Lee and Steve Ditko. Panavision. [PG]▼ Followed by two sequels. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Spice World (1997-British) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Spider-Man 2 (2004) C-127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: D: Bob Spiers. The Spice Girls (Mel B, Sam Raimi. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Emma, Mel C, Geri, Victoria), Richard E. James Franco, Alfred Molina, Rosemary HarGrant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, George ris, J. K. Simmons, Donna Murphy, Daniel Wendt, Claire Rushbrook, Mark McKinney, Gillies, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, Willem Richard O’Brien, Barry Humphries, Jason Dafoe, Cliff Robertson, Bruce Campbell. A Flemyng, Naoki Mori, Meat Loaf, Bill Paterbrilliant scientist (the always masterful Molson, Jools Holland, Stephen Fry, Richard ina) loses control of his latest experiment, Briers. A fantasy look at several days in turns into the maniacal Dr. Octopus (or Doc the lives of the pop phenomenon The Spice Ock)—and blames Spider-Man for his tragic Girls and their existence with road manager failure. Possibly the best comic-book movie Grant, leading up to a concert at Albert Hall ever made, rich in emotion as well as big, in London. Amusing, vapid, sometimes exciting action sequences. What’s more, its silly but lively vignettes featuring the five visual effects are far superior to those in the flashy females who took the pop world by first SPIDER-MAN movie. Screenplay by storm in the late ’90s. Cameos by Elton Alvin Sargent, based on screen story by Alfred John, Bob Hoskins, Bob Geldof, Elvis CosGough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. [ 1298 ]

Oscar winner for Visual Effects. Alternate special effects are impressive but always in the service of the story. Super 35. [PG]쩠 version runs 136m. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Spider-Man 3 (2007) C-139m. ★★ D: Sam Spider Woman, The (1944) 62m. ★★★ D: Raimi. Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Franco, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Bruce, Gale Sondergaard, Dennis Hoey, Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Rosemary HarMary Gordon, Arthur Hohl, Alec Craig. A ris, J. K. Simmons, James Cromwell, Theresa mysterious villainess is responsible for a seRussell, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, Bruce Campries of deaths in which the victims are bell, Elizabeth Banks, Ted Raimi, Willem driven to suicide after being bit by poisonDafoe, Cliff Robertson. All the worst qualities ous spiders. Rip-roaring entry with thrills of a manufactured sequel converge here: dorky to spare; one of the best in the Sherlock Holmes series.▼쩠 Peter Parker’s relationship with Mary Jane goes on the rocks (so it can be fixed), villainous Spider Woman Strikes Back, The (1946) 59m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur Lubin. Brenda Joyce, Harry Osborn turns good while Spider-Man, infected by an alien fungus, turns bad, an esGale Sondergaard, Kirby Grant, Rondo caped convict is molecularly transformed into Hatton, Milburn Stone, Hobart Cavanaugh. Sandman (to provide another menace), and Pitiful waste of fine actress Sondergaard Peter acquires a ruthless rival at the Daily in campy thriller with zero relation to earlier Bugle (for even more villainy). Slickly made Sherlock Holmes feature. Spies (1928-German) 143m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fritz but often boring and ineffectual, leading up to a climax where—surprise!—Spidey cries real Lang. Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, tears. Special effects can’t save an inferior Willy Fritsch, Lupu Pick, Fritz Rasp. Siscript. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 lent spy-thriller still packs a wallop as governSpiders, The (1919-German) 137m. ★★★ D: ment agent Fritsch determines to thwart seemFritz Lang. Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Lil ingly-respectable Klein-Rogge, a wheelchairDagover, Georg John, Bruno Lettinger. Inbound master-fiend with an uncanny resemtrepid explorer/adventurer de Vogt—an early blance to Lenin! One of Lang’s early mastercross between Indiana Jones and James pieces, aka SPIONE. Restored in 2004, Bond—vies with evil Spider cult for mystic eclipsing 90m. prints that circulated for years. Incan diamond. First two chapters (‘‘The ▼●쩠 Golden Lake’’ and ‘‘The Diamond Ship’’) of Spies a` Go Go SEE: Nasty Rabbit, The Spies Like Us (1985) C-109m. ★★★ D: never completed four-part serial abound with lost civilizations, human sacrifice, pirate treaJohn Landis. Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, sure, and too many perils to count. Lang’s obSteve Forrest, Donna Dixon, Bruce Davisession with a diabolical underworld son, William Prince, Bernie Casey, Tom foreshadows his DR. MABUSE films. An exHatten, Matt Frewer. Chase and Aykroyd citing curio; the earliest of Lang’s films to surbecome government spies—never dreaming vive. German title: DIE SPINNEN. ▼●쩠 that they’ve been set up as decoys. EngagSpider’s Stratagem, The (1970-Italian) ingly silly comedy patterned after the Hope★★★ D: Bernardo Bertolucci. C-100m. Crosby ROAD pictures, with at least one Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Tino Scotti, pertinent cameo appearance and minor roles Pippo Campanini, Franco Giovanelli. Young filled by a number of film directors (Miman visits the provincial town where his chael Apted, Constantin Costa-Gavras, Joel anti-Fascist father was assassinated 30 years Coen, Sam Raimi, Martin Brest, Bob earlier, is rejected by the populace at every Swaim, Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen). turn. Exceedingly atmospheric puzzler, Written by Aykroyd, Lowell Ganz, and Babafrom a Jorge Luis Borges short story, boasts loo Mandel, from a story by Aykroyd and Dave Thomas. [PG]▼●쩠 some of the most beautiful color cinematography (by Vittorio Storaro) in memory.▼ Spike of Bensonhurst (1988) C-91m. ★★ Spiderwick Chronicles, The (2008) CD: Paul Morrissey. Sasha Mitchell, Ernest Borgnine, Anne DeSalvo, Sylvia Miles, 97m. ★★★ D: Mark Waters. Freddie Highmore, Mary-Louise Parker, Nick Nolte, Geraldine Smith, Maria Patillo, Talisa Soto. Sarah Bolger, Andrew McCarthy, Joan Blah Mafia comedy with Mitchell as an amPlowright, David Strathairn; voices of Seth bitious Brooklyn street kid who dreams of Rogen, Martin Short. Newly divorced becoming a boxing champ—and finds himwoman and her three kids move to a spooky self in trouble when he courts the daughter old family mansion where ghostly spirits preof the local mob boss (Borgnine). Ethnic stereotypes abound. [R]▼● vail. Then Jared, the most sensitive of the kids (Highmore), unearths a long-hidden book, a Spikes Gang, The (1974) C-96m. ★1⁄2 ‘‘field guide’’ compiled by their great-greatD: Richard Fleischer. Lee Marvin, Ron uncle Arthur Spiderwick, which contains the Howard, Charlie Martin Smith, Arthur secrets of the fairies and goblins that surround Hunnicutt, Noah Beery, Gary Grimes. Vetthem—and places the entire family in great eran gunfighter turns a trio of runaway boys peril. Highly imaginative, emotionally satisinto bank robbers; old-hat storyline has fying fantasy-adventure adapted from Tony humor, but not much else. [PG] DiTerlizzi and Holly Black’s books. The Spinal Tap SEE: This Is Spinal Tap [ 1299 ]

Spinout (1966) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman (especially little girls) is in full flower here. Taurog. Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, A wondrous work of art with an astonishing Diane McBain, Deborah Walley, Cecil array of gorgeous images and fantastically Kellaway, Una Merkel, Warren Berlinger, imagined creatures, this won an Oscar for Carl Betz. Typical Presley vehicle finds Best Animated Film. The English dubbing, the singer racing autos and wooing the produced by TOY STORY director John girls. Elvis’ songs (‘‘Beach Shack,’’ Lasseter, is outstanding. [PG] ▼쩠 ‘‘Adam and Evil,’’ ‘‘Smorgasbord’’) are Spirit Is Willing, The (1967) C-100m. ★1 far from his best. Panavision.▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: William Castle. Sid Caesar, Vera Spiral Road, The (1962) C-145m. ★1⁄2 Miles, Barry Gordon, John McGiver, Cass D: Robert Mulligan. Rock Hudson, Burl Daley, Mary Wickes, Jesse White, Harvey Ives, Gena Rowlands, Geoffrey Keen, Will Lembeck, Jay C. Flippen, Jill Townsend, Kuluva, Neva Patterson. Jan de Hartog’s John Astin, Doodles Weaver. Some good novel about love, leprosy, and lunacy in Java comedy performers are thrown away in makes for an interminable moviegoing expestupid comedy about Caesar and family’s rience. Hudson at his most wooden, Mullisummer house that happens to be haunted; gan’s direction at its most impersonal.쩠 based on Nathaniel Benchley’s The Visitors. 1 ★★★ Spiral Staircase, The (1946) 83m. ⁄2 Spirit of 76, The (1991) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: D: Robert Siodmak. Dorothy McGuire, Lucas Reiner. David Cassidy, Olivia d’Abo, George Brent, Ethel Barrymore, Kent Geoff Hoyle, Leif Garrett, Jeff McDonald, Smith, Rhonda Fleming, Gordon Oliver, Steve McDonald, Barbara Bain, Julie Brown, Elsa Lanchester, Rhys Williams, Sara Tommy Chong, Iron Eyes Cody, Devo, Carl Allgood. Superb Hitchcock-like thriller with Reiner, Rob Reiner, Moon Zappa. Three unforgettable performance by McGuire as time-travelers from 2176 trying to find the mute servant in eerie household which may true basis of America think they’ve arrived in be harboring a killer. Well scripted by Mel 1776, but it’s really 1976. Limp spoof of the Dinelli, adapting Ethel Lina White’s novel 1970s simply catalogues the fads, styles, and Some Must Watch. Remade in 1975.▼●쩠 fashions. Director and cowriter Reiner is Spiral Staircase, The (1975-British) CCarl’s son, Rob’s brother. Sofia Coppola ★★ did the costumes. [PG-13]▼쩠 89m. D: Peter Collinson. Jacqueline Bisset, Christopher Plummer, Sam WanaSpirit of St. Louis, The (1957) C-138m. ★★★ maker, Mildred Dunnock, Gayle Hunnicutt, D: Billy Wilder. James Stewart, PaJohn Phillip Law, Elaine Stritch. Stellar tricia Smith, Murray Hamilton, Marc cast gives Ethel Lina White’s mystery novel Connelly. Long but inventive presentation Some Must Watch another go in a of Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic somewhat mechanical fashion that can’t is mainly a tour de force by Stewart, touch the 1946 version.▼ backed by good Franz Waxman music score. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Spirit, The (2008) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank Miller. Gabriel Macht, Eva Mendes, ScarSpirit of the Beehive (1973-Spanish) lett Johansson, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Victor Erice. Fernando Paulson, Dan Lauria, Paz Vega, Eric BalFernan Gomez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torfour, Jaime King, Louis Lombardi. Graphic rent, Isabel Telleria. Torrent is unforgettanovelist Miller’s first solo foray into directble as a lonely little village girl who sees ing (after collaborating on SIN CITY) is an Boris Karloff’s FRANKENSTEIN in the awkward, annoyingly illogical live-action town hall and becomes entranced by the adaptation of Will Eisner’s celebrated monster. Her sister convinces her the moncomic strip about a deceased cop who rester is still alive, and she treks off into the turns to life as a masked vigilante. The stocountryside to find him. Delicate and ryline is a mishmash, the direction is haunting, a masterful piece of filmmaking. clunky, and you may well cringe at the sight ▼쩠 of Jackson (as The Octopus, the Spirit’s Spirit of the Dead SEE: Asphyx, The arch-nemesis) decked out in Nazi regalia. Spirits of the Dead (1968-French-Italian) Miller and Eisner fans will be sorely disapC-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Roger Vadim, Louis pointed. Miller also scripted. HD WideMalle, Federico Fellini. Brigitte Bardot, Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, Terence Stamp, screen. [PG-13]쩠 Spirited Away (2001-Japanese) C-125m. Peter Fonda, James Robertson Justice. Nar★★★1 ⁄2 D: Hayao Miyazaki. Voices of Darated by Vincent Price. Three separate Poe veigh Chase, Jason Marsden, Suzanne Plestales, impossible to describe, delightful to hette, Michael Chiklis, Lauren Holly, John watch, done with skill and flair by three top directors. [R]▼●쩠 Ratzenberger, Tara Strong. While moving to a new home in the suburbs, a sullen, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) Ceasily frightened 10-year-old and her par83m. ★★★ D: Kelly Asbury, Lorna Cook. ents discover a hillside tunnel that leads into Voices of Matt Damon, James Cromwell, an enchanted world. Japanese animation Daniel Studi. Autobiography of a wild horse maestro Miyazaki’s abiding interest in the who loves running free through the vast exsupernatural and the inner lives of children panse of the West, until he’s captured and [ 1300 ]

brought to a U.S. cavalry fort. There he Schaech, Matt Keeslar, Kelly Macdonald, meets his one human friend, a Lakota InEric Mabius. Amusing modern-day romandian. Beautifully designed, with superior tic comedy with a twist: a willing heroine animation (the horse characters all express can’t decide between two handsome guys themselves in pantomime) and many excitshe meets the same evening, so she winds ing moments; fine, vigorous family fare. up living with both of them. After such a Songs by Bryan Adams. Digital widespiky start, it’s too bad it winds up being so screen. [G]▼쩠 conventional . . . but the spirits are high Spite Marriage (1929) 75m. ★★★ D: Edand the cast is engaging. Almost benign for filmmaker Araki. [R]▼쩠 ward Sedgwick. Buster Keaton, Dorothy Sebastian, Edward Earle, Leila Hyams, Splendor in the Grass (1961) C-124m. ★★★ William Bechtel. Keaton’s last silent is also D: Elia Kazan. Natalie Wood, Warren one of his most underrated, a very funny Beatty, Pat Hingle, Audrey Christie, Sean film about a pants-presser who becomes inGarrison, Sandy Dennis, Phyllis Diller, Barfatuated with a stage actress. Plottier than bara Loden, Zohra Lampert, Gary Lockwood. usual for Buster, but full of great set pieces. Sentimental sudser by William Inge (who Remade as I DOOD IT.▼●쩠 won an Oscar) about emotionally broken girl ★★ D: John CromSpitfire (1934) 88m. (Wood) rebuilding her life; set in late 1920s well. Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young, Midwest. Film debuts of Beatty, Dennis, and Ralph Bellamy, Martha Sleeper, Sara Haden, Diller; look for Inge as the minister. Remade Sidney Toler, High Ghere (Bob Burns). for TV in 1981.▼●쩠 Bizarre, boring melodrama with Hepburn Split, The (1968) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Gordon sorely miscast in one of her oddest roles: Flemyng. Jim Brown, Diahann Carroll, Trigger, a spirited, single-minded but Julie Harris, Ernest Borgnine, Gene Hacksuperstition-laden Ozark tomboy who atman, Jack Klugman, Warren Oates, James tracts married engineer Young. This one’s Whitmore, Donald Sutherland. Cast is good, only for the curious.▼쩠 but it’s no match for routine, cliche´d story Spitfire (1942-British) 117m. ★★★ D: Lesof plot to rob L.A. Coliseum during a lie Howard. Leslie Howard, David Niven, Rams game. Only for those who love Rosamund John, Roland Culver, Anne Firth, caper movies. Panavision. [R] David Horne, J. H. Roberts, Derrick de Split Decisions (1988) C-95m. ★★ D: DaMarney, Bernard Miles, Patricia Medina. vid Drury. Gene Hackman, Craig Sheffer, Howard plays R.J. Mitchell, who develJeff Fahey, Jennifer Beals, John McLiam, oped the ace fighting-plane Spitfire which Eddie Velez, Carmine Caridi, James Tolkan. later became one of the Allies’ most valuViolent family drama set amidst the world able WW2 assets. Good biographical drama. of boxing and three generations of prizeHoward’s last screen appearance. Original fighters. Basically just another ROCKY title: THE FIRST OF THE FEW. U.S. ripoff, but Hackman, in a supporting role, version cut to 90m.▼쩠 stands out as usual. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Spitfire Grill, The (1996) C-116m. ⁄2 Split Image (1982) C-111m. ★★★ D: Ted D: Lee David Zlotoff. Alison Elliott, Ellen Kotcheff. Michael O’Keefe, Karen Allen, Burstyn, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton, Peter Fonda, James Woods, Elizabeth Kieran Mulroney, Gailard Sartain. Ex-conAshley, Brian Dennehy, Ronnie Scribner, vict Elliott arrives in the small, gossipPamela Ludwig, Michael Sacks, Peter driven town of Gilead, Maine, and goes to Horton. Solid drama of nice middle-class work for Burstyn at the title-named restauboy (superbly played by O’Keefe) who rant, hoping to rebuild her life. Sincere, falls for Allen and is brainwashed into joining well-acted story goes awry toward the end a cult headed by Fonda. Top performances by with contrivance and melodrama; still, ElDennehy as O’Keefe’s father, Woods as a deprogrammer. Panavision. [R]▼ liott and Burstyn give memorable performances. Written by the director. Later an Split Second (1992-U.S.-British) C-90m. 1⁄2 D: Tony Maylam. Rutger Hauer, Kim ★ off-Broadway musical. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Splash (1984) C-111m. ★★★ D: Ron Cattrall, Neil Duncan, Alun Armstrong, Howard. Daryl Hannah, Tom Hanks, John Pete Postlethwaite, Ian Drury, Robert EaCandy, Eugene Levy, Dody Goodman, ton, Michael J. Pollard. In London’s near Richard B. Shull, Shecky Greene, Howard future, tough cop Hauer is after the serial Morris. Entertaining comedy about a man killer who murdered his partner and is who falls in love with a mermaid, who’s saddled with new partner Duncan. The played to perfection by Hannah. Buoyant murderer is an ALIEN-like monster, the cast, winning gags make this a lot of fun, plot mushes together fantasy and sci-fi despite a tendency toward overlength. Script elements, and the movie is a derivative, by Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel, and tedious mess. Won’t someone rescue Hauer Bruce Jay Friedman. Followed by a TV from this kind of junk? [R]▼●쩠 movie sequel in 1988. [PG] ▼●쩠 Splitting Heirs (1993-U.S.-British) C-86m. ★★ D: Robert Young. Rick Moranis, Eric Splendor (1999) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregg Araki. Kathleen Robertson, Johnathon Idle, Barbara Hershey, Catherine Zeta [ 1301 ]

Jones, John Cleese, Sadie Frost, Stratford Spook Who Sat By the Door, The (1973) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Ivan Dixon. Lawrence Johns. A loser (Idle) learns he’s really a duke and tries to reclaim his title from the Cook, Paula Kelly, Janet League, J. A. bogus heir (Moranis). Strained comedy in Preston, Paul Butler. Cook, token black in the Monty Python tradition, filled with the CIA, uses his knowledge to organize puns, sight gags, and silliness—only some bands of teenaged guerrillas to bring of which is funny. Idle executive produced whitey to his knees. Offbeat but offensive, and coscripted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 and way too talky for cheap action fare. Spoiled Children (1977-French) C-113m. [PG]▼쩠 ★★★ D: Bertrand Tavernier. Michel Piccoli, Sporting Blood (1931) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christine Pascal, Michel Aumont, Gerard Charles Brabin. Clark Gable, Ernest TorJugnot, Arlette Bonnard, Georges Riquier, rence, Madge Evans, Lew Cody, Marie Gerard Zimmerman. Enticing, penetrating Prevost, J. Farrell MacDonald. Minor but tale which examines, among other issues, likable film about a thoroughbred horse the particular problems faced by artists— and its various owners; Gable is a toughin this case, a famous but blocked writerguy gambler (‘‘C’mere, woman,’’ he says director (Piccoli) who becomes involved to Evans, grabbing her for a clinch). Beauwith a younger woman (Pascal) and in a tifully photographed by Harold Rosson. tenants’ battle with his apartment building’s Spot SEE: Dogpound Shuffle abusive landlord. Fine performances. The Spring and Port Wine (1970-British) semi-autobiographical script was penned by C-101m. ★★★ D: Peter Hammond. James Tavernier with Pascal and Charlotte DuMason, Susan George, Diana Coupland, breuil. ▼ Marjorie Rhodes, Arthur Lowe. UnpretenSpoilers, The (1942) 87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray tious little gem about the generation gap in Enright. Marlene Dietrich, Randolph Scott, a lower-middle-class English family. Mason John Wayne, Margaret Lindsay, Harry has one of his better later roles as the strict Carey, Richard Barthelmess. Retelling of patriarch. famous Yukon tale has good cast but thuds Spring Break (1983) C-101m. BOMB D: out as average Western, with Dietrich as Sean S. Cunningham. David Knell, Steve stereotyped saloon gal. Previously filmed Bassett, Perry Lang, Paul Land, Richard in 1914, 1923, and 1930, then again in B. Shull, Corinne Alphen. Life among 1955.▼●쩠 the party-animals who trek to Fort LauderSpoilers, The (1955) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jesse dale during Easter vacation. Where are Hibbs. Anne Baxter, Jeff Chandler, Rory CalFrankie and Annette when you really need houn, Barbara Britton, Raymond Walburn. them? [R]▼● Fifth filming of Rex Beach’s Klondike acSpringfield Rifle (1952) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: tioner; elaborate fight scene, better than ever. Andre de Toth. Gary Cooper, Phyllis SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The Thaxter, David Brian, Lon Chaney, Jr., Paul (2004) C-87m. ★★★ D: Stephen Hillenburg. Kelly, Phil Carey, Guinn Williams. UnVoices of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, memorable Cooper fare, with Gary joining Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass, Mr. Lawup with outlaws to determine who’s stealing rence, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johansson, government arms.▼쩠 Jeffrey Tambor. Popular (and absorbent) TV Spring Forward (2000) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: cartoon character hits the big screen as he and Tom Gilroy. Ned Beatty, Liev Schreiber, starfish pal Patrick search for King Neptune’s Campbell Scott, Ian Hart, Peri Gilpin, Bill crown, which has been stolen by the nefarious Raymond, Catherine Kellner, Hallee Hirsh. Plankton as part of his diabolical Plan Z. The Quietly powerful chamber piece about a animation may just be serviceable, but the Connecticut parks maintenance man and his story and overall mood are unapologetically, new helper, a young hothead just out of contagiously goofy, and filled with moments prison. Perceptive drama in which each viof inspired silliness. Stay through the end gnette reveals another layer of the characters’ credits. David Hasselhoff appears (naturally) personalities as their friendship deepens from as himself. [PG] ▼쩠 one season to the next. Beatty and Schreiber Spontaneous Combustion (1990) C-97m. are simply great. Feature-film writing and ★1 ⁄2 D: Tobe Hooper. Brad Dourif, Cyndirecting debut for actor/playwright/theater director Gilroy. [R]▼쩠 thia Bain, Jon Cypher, William Prince, Dey Young, Melinda Dillon, Dale Dye, Spring Parade (1940) 89m. ★★★ D: Henry Dick Butkus, John Landis. Paranoia fuels Koster. Deanna Durbin, Robert Cummings, this misfired horror thriller dealing with Mischa Auer, Henry Stephenson, Butch spontaneous human combustion, allegedly and Buddy, Anne Gwynne. Delightful Ausa reality. Here, however, the blazing deaths trian fluff with Durbin romancing Cumare due to the FIRESTARTER-like mental mings, working for baker S. Z. Sakall, powers of Dourif, the result of yet another dancing with wacky Auer, and singing, of evil government experiment. Badly paced course.쩠 and ludicrous. Cowritten by the director. Springtime in the Rockies (1942) C-91m. ★★★ D: Irving Cummings. Betty Grable, [R]▼●쩠 [ 1302 ]

John Payne, Carmen Miranda, Cesar RoNielsen as Agent WD-40, locking horns mero, Charlotte Greenwood, Edward Everwith master criminal General Rancor (Grifett Horton, Jackie Gleason. Near-definitive fith). Steady stream of gags (ribbing every1940s Fox musical: Grable at her prettiest, thing from HOME ALONE to TRUE Miranda at her silliest (doing a Brazilian LIES), mostly silly, sometimes funny, too ‘‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’’), Technicolor often sloppy or misfired. Nielsen is much at its lushest, and Harry James and His Band better than the material. Many familiar faces at their best, with Helen Forrest introducing in surprise cameos. Best of all: Weird Al ‘‘I Had the Craziest Dream.’’ The ‘‘plot’’— Yankovic’s title sequence and song. Nielsen also coexecutive-produced. [PG-13]▼●쩠 about a bickering Broadway duo—is neither too tiresome nor too intrusive. Good fun all Spy in Black, The (1939-British) 82m. ★★★ the way. ▼● D: Michael Powell. Conrad Veidt, Sprung (1997) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Rusty CunSebastian Shaw, Valerie Hobson, Marius dieff. Tisha Campbell, Rusty Cundieff, Goring, June Duprez, Helen Haye, Cyril Paula Jai Parker, Joe Torry, John WithRaymond, Hay Petrie. Intriguing espioerspoon, Jennifer Lee, Clarence Williams nage melodrama set in WW1 Scotland III, Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley. Forwith Veidt as German naval officer/spy gettable and hopelessly predictable plot and Hobson a charming double agent. Nice about a young couple who try planning the surprise twists in story, with bittersweet perfect wedding for their friends. Unbelievromance worked in. That’s Bernard Miles able situations, incredibly hokey sentiment as the desk clerk in the opening scene. overcome this amateurish attempt at creating Scripted by Emeric Pressburger and Roa ’90s screwball comedy. Preston Sturges is land Pertwee; first collaboration of Powell probably spinning in his grave. [R] ▼●쩠 and Pressburger. Original U.S. title: U˚ kSpun (2003) C-96m. BOMB D: Jonas A BOAT 29.▼● erlund. Jason Schwartzman, John LeguiSpy Kids (2001) C-86m. ★★★ D: Robert zamo, Brittany Murphy, Mena Suvari, Rodriguez. Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Patrick Fugit, Peter Stormare, Alexis ArAlexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Alan Cumming, quette, Deborah Harry, Eric Roberts, Tony Shalhoub, Teri Hatcher, Cheech Marin, Mickey Rourke. Schwartzman enters a Robert Patrick, George Clooney. A brother whole new world when he meets junkie and sister discover that their parents are secret Murphy at the home of dealer Leguizamo. agents when Mom and Dad are kidnapped Music-video–style treatment of the drug and they must come to the rescue. Highculture is nonjudgmental, but so scummy flying, high-tech fantasy adventure has that it’s hard to find anything redeeming enough humor and imagination to entertain about the characters or the film itself. But if both parents and kids, with delightful perforyou really want to see Suvari sitting on the mances by Banderas and Cumming. Two neat toilet, this is the movie for you! Score by songs by Danny Elfman add to the fun. A rare Billy Corgan, who also appears in a cameo family film that’s cool without being crude. along with Ron Jeremy, Tony Kaye, China Rodriguez also scripted and edited. Followed Chow, and Rob Halford. [R]▼쩠 by two sequels. [PG]▼쩠 Spy Game (2001-U.S.-German) C-127m. Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams ★★ D: Tony Scott. Robert Redford, Brad (2002) C-99m. ★★★ D: Robert Rodriguez. Pitt, Catherine McCormack, Stephen Dillane, Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Larry Bryggman, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Daryl Sabara, Emily Osment, Matt O’Leary, David Hemmings, Charlotte Rampling. As Mike Judge, Ricardo Montalban, Holland Tayhe’s about to retire from the CIA, Redford lor, Christopher McDonald, Danny Trejo, learns that his onetime prote´ge´ is being held Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Alan Cumby a hostile government and determines to ming, Bill Paxton, Tony Shalhoub. Entersave him—which, due to political complicataining sequel focuses more on the kids, and tions, is not the Agency’s priority. The men’s their new, pint-sized competitors in the jurelationship is then traced in an ultimately nior spy game, as they try to unlock the wearying parade of flashbacks. Redford and secret of a mysterious island. Banderas has Pitt are in fine form and work well together, some very funny moments as the prideful but the movie rambles, and Scott’s hyperactive dad who also has to suffer from the medvisual style (replete with meaningless helicopdling of his know-it-all in-laws (perfectly ter shots) cannot compensate. Panavision. played by Taylor and Montalban). Rodri[R]▼쩠 guez again provides a panoply of outlandish Spy Hard (1996) C-81m. ★★ D: Rick special-effects creatures—with a nice nod Friedberg. Leslie Nielsen, Nicollette Sherito Ray Harryhausen. [PG] ▼쩠 dan, Charles Durning, Marcia Gay Harden, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Rodriguez. Antonio BandBarry Bostwick, Andy Griffith, John Ales, Elya Baskin, Mason Gamble, Carlos Laueras, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sachu, Stephanie Romanov, Clyde Kusatsu, bara, Ricardo Montalban, Holland Taylor, Julie Brown, Eddie Deezen, Julie Payne, Sylvester Stallone, Mike Judge, Matt Thom Sharp. Mild James Bond spoof with O’Leary, Emily Osment, Cheech Marin, [ 1303 ]

Courtney Jines, Bobby Edner, Ryan James for foreign powers); Berger is the enemy Pinkston. Juni (Sabara) is recruited by the femme fatale. President of the U.S. to rescue his sister Squanto: A Warrior’s Tale (1994) C101m. ★★★ D: Xavier Koller. Adam Beach, from the virtual-reality world created by the sinister Toymaker (Stallone). Helter-skelter Mandy Patinkin, Michael Gambon, Nathanstory is a thin, if amiable, excuse for the iel Parker, Eric Schweig, Donal Donnelly, kids to go through their paces in a videoStuart Pankin, Alex Norton, Irene Bedard. game environment. Stallone has fun with Thoughtful, painstakingly observed Disney multiple identities, and there are cameos by yarn which follows the plight of a 17thformer series costars (George Clooney, century American Indian (Beach) who is Tony Shalhoub, Alan Cumming, Steve Busabducted by British traders and taken back cemi, Danny Trejo, Bill Paxton) as well as to England. At the scenario’s core are Salma Hayek and Elijah Wood. The parents Squanto’s conflicts with (and spiritual simibarely appear in this one, but grandfather larities to) some reclusive monks. A film to Montalban is genuinely heroic. Rodriguez be savored by children and adults alike. [PG]▼●쩠 wrote, edited, photographed, coproduced, did the music and production design, and Square Dance (1987) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: was co-visual effects supervisor. [PG] ▼쩠 Daniel Petrie. Jason Robards, Jane AlexS*P*Y*S (1974) C-87m. BOMB D: Irvin ander, Winona Ryder, Rob Lowe, DeboKershner. Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, rah Richter, Guich Koock. Top-notch perZouzou, Joss Ackland, Shane Rimmer, formances bolster this much too leisurely Vladek Sheybal. Sutherland-Gould teamlook at a Texas teenage girl’s coming of ing fails to regenerate MASH electricity in age, as she leaves her dour grandfather’s a good director’s worst film. Laughless CIA farm to be with her feisty mom in Fort spoof about the defection of a Russian dancer Worth. Alexander (who coproduced with felis unworthy of anyone’s time. [PG]▼쩠 low actor Charles Haid) is a standout as the Spy Who Came In from the Cold, The mother; Lowe effects a real change of pace (1965) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Martin Ritt. Richard playing a retarded man befriended by Burton, Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter Ryder. Shown on TV as HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Van Eyck, George Voskovec, Sam Wanamaker, Cyril Cusack, Michael Hordern, Square Jungle, The (1955) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bernard Lee. John le Carre´’s potent account Jerry Hopper. Tony Curtis, Pat Crowley, of a Cold War spy’s existence—minus Ernest Borgnine, Paul Kelly, Jim Backus. glamorous trappings of movie cliche´. Overly familiar boxing yarn with Curtis Burton is excellent as embittered agent the fighter on the way up. Squeaker, The (1965-German) 95m. ★★1⁄2 at the end of his career. Scripted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper.▼●쩠 D: Alfred Vohrer. Heinz Drache, Eddi Spy Who Loved Me, The (1977) C-125m. Arent, Klaus Kinski, Barbara Rutting. Overly ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. Roger Moore, complex actioner with a variety of plots Barbara Bach, Curt Jurgens, Richard Kiel, spinning from action of underworld selling Caroline Munro, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxoff proceeds of diamond robbery. From an well, Desmond Llewelyn. Rousing, lavEdgar Wallace novel previously filmed ishly produced James Bond adventure in 1930 and 1937. Ultrascope.▼ with wily 007 joining forces with a seducSqueeze, The (1980-Italian) C-100m. ★1⁄2 tive Russian agent to quash arch-villain D: Anthony M. Dawson (Antonio MarStromberg’s (Jurgens) plans for world degheriti). Lee Van Cleef, Karen Black, Edstruction. At his best doing battle with a ward Albert, Lionel Stander, Robert Alda, persistent steel-toothed goon, menacingly Angelo Infanti. Good cast wasted in humplayed by seven-foot-two-inch Kiel. Grand drum caper film about a retired thief (Van fun for one and all; Carly Simon sings Cleef) breaking open one last safe. Filmed Marvin Hamlisch’s theme, ‘‘Nobody Does in N.Y.C. [R]▼ It Better.’’ Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Squeeze, The (1987) C-101m. BOMB D: Spy with a Cold Nose, The (1966-British) Roger Young. Michael Keaton, Rae Dawn C-93m. ★★ D: Daniel Petrie. Laurence Chong, Liane Langland, Leslie Bevis, John Harvey, Daliah Lavi, Lionel Jeffries, Davidson, Meat Loaf, Ronald Guttman. Eric Portman, Denholm Elliott, Colin Dreadful comedy, almost completely deBlakely, Paul Ford. Spoof on secret agent void of laughs, with Keaton as a con man movies. British agents plant bug in bullwho gets involved in murder and mayhem. dog Disraeli, gift to Russian ambassador. Davidson plays a slick but corrupt TV lottery host. [PG-13]▼● Cast tries to keep story afloat.▼ Spy With My Face, The (1966) C-88m. Squeeze (1997) C-89m. ★★ D: Robert Patton★★1⁄2 D: John Newland. Robert Vaughn, Spruill. Tyrone Burton, Eddie Cutanda, Senta Berger, David McCallum, Leo G. Phuong Van Duong, Geoffrey Rhue, RusCarroll. Another expanded Man From sell G. Jones, Leigh Williams. Three Boston U.N.C.L.E. TV series entry, with Vaughn ghetto youths are caught between the viomatching wits with his double (working lent gang and drug life on the streets and a [ 1304 ]

promise of hope and a better life found in wasted in this boring, ever so obvious their local youth center. The conflict the account of the various experiences and teens go through is well played out with troubles of a young teen (Follows), growterrific performances, especially Burton’s, ing up in the rural West in the early 1950s. but the dialogue is sometimes stilted and the More or less a clone of the far superior ending too pat. Great visual style; shot on DESERT BLOOM. Originally titled SEAlocation in Boston in 1995. [R]▼쩠 SON OF DREAMS. [PG]▼● Squid and the Whale, The (2005) C-88m. Stacy’s Knights (1983) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Noah Baumbach. Jeff Daniels, Jim Wilson. Andra Millian, Kevin Costner, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Eve Lilith, Mike Reynolds, Garth HowKline, Anna Paquin, William Baldwin. Intiard, Ed Semenza. Millian is Plain Jane mate look at a family coming apart at the struck with blackjack gambling fever who seams in 1980s Brooklyn. The two boys, recruits a squad of sharpies to break a aged 12 and 16, don’t know what to make casino after her young mentor (Costner) is of the rift in their parents’ relationship: he’s killed by the casino’s goons. Unexciting a self-absorbed novelist, given to opinionB-movie offers insight into the world of ated pronouncements and fierce competiprofessional gambling and features a flation; she’s a loving mother who’s coming vorful performance by Costner in his first into her own as a writer. Youthful angst leading role. (Wilson and screenwriter Miand the dissolution of a relationship have chael Blake later reteamed with Costner to seldom been better portrayed. Searing, make DANCES WITH WOLVES.) [PG] semiautobiographical drama written by ▼쩠 Baumbach. Everyone is good, but Daniels Stage Beauty (2004-U.S.-British-German) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Eyre. Billy Crudup, scores a knockout. Young Kline is the son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. [R]쩠 Claire Danes, Rupert Everett, Tom Wilkinson, Squirm (1976) C-92m. ★★★ D: Jeff LieberBen Chaplin, Hugh Bonneville, Richard Grifman. Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R. fiths, Edward Fox, Zoe¨ Tapper. In 17th-century A. Dow, Jean Sullivan, Peter MacLean. England, the most beautiful and celebrated acAbove-average horror outing builds to good tress on the stage is a man, Ned Kynaston shock sequences: when power line falls to (Crudup). When the whimsical King Charles II the ground on rainy Georgia night, it drives repeals the ban forbidding women from actlarge, slimy sandworms from the ground, ing, Kynaston is not just unemployable: he which terrorize small town. [PG—edited is crushed. Colorful, well-cast period piece from original R rating]▼쩠 doesn’t completely convince us that its cenSquizzy Taylor (1982-Australian) C-89m. tral character (and his sexual confusion) is ★★★ all that interesting. Screenplay by Jeffrey D: Kevin Dobson. David Atkins, Jacki Weaver, Alan Cassell, Michael Long, Kim Hatcher, from his play Compleat Female Stage Beauty. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Lewis, Steve Bisley. Atkins shines as the title character, a famous gangster in 1920s Stagecoach (1939) 96m. ★★★★ D: John Melbourne. Enjoyable, with the era colorFord. Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Andy Devine, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchfully re-created.▼ Sssssss (1973) C-99m. ★★★ D: Bernard ell, Louise Platt, George Bancroft, Donald L. Kowalski. Strother Martin, Dirk BeneMeek, Berton Churchill, Tim Holt, Tom dict, Heather Menzies, Richard B. Shull, Tyler, Chris-Pin Martin, Francis Ford, Jack Tim O’Connor, Jack Ging. Well-done Pennick. One of the great American films, horror tale of doctor who finds a way of and a landmark in the maturing of the transforming man into King Cobra. ExWestern, balancing character study (as disceptional job by makeup master John parate passengers travel together on the Chambers. [PG]▼쩠 same stagecoach) and peerless action (in a Stacey (1973) C-79m. ★1⁄2 D: Andy Sidaris. lengthy Indian attack, featuring Yakima Anne Randall, Alan Landers, James WestCanutt’s famous stuntwork). Also the film moreland, Cristina Raines, Anitra Ford, that propelled John Wayne to genuine starMarjorie Bennett. Voluptuous former Playdom. Mitchell won an Oscar as the drunken mate Randall stars as near-superwoman doctor, as did the music score. Script by private eye on absurdly complex case inDudley Nichols, from Ernest Haycox’s volving murder, blackmail, and a Mooniestory ‘‘Stage to Lordsburg’’ (whose plot is like cult. Very sexy and violent, but not reminiscent of Guy de Maupassant’s Boule de very good, with grating, obnoxious score Suif ). Filmed in Ford’s beloved Monument by jazz veteran Don Randi. Aka STACEY Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. Remade AND HER GANGBUSTERS. [R]▼ in 1966 and as a TVM in 1986. Also shown Stacking (1987) C-109m. ★★ D: Martin in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Rosen. Christine Lahti, Frederic Forrest, Stagecoach (1966) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: GorMegan Follows, Jason Gedrick, Ray Baker, don Douglas. Ann-Margret, Alex Cord, Peter Coyote, James Gammon, Kaiulani Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Bing CrosLee, Jacqueline Brookes, Irene Daily. Some by, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim fine performers (and performances) are Pickens, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn. [ 1305 ]

Colorful, star-studded Western is OK, but gay couple was all this film had going for can’t hold a candle to the 1939 masterit in 1969, and nothing has changed since piece. Overlong, with only occasional acthen, except heightened sophistication of tion scenes to liven it up. Wayne Newton audiences. A curio, to be sure. Dudley sings the title song! CinemaScope. Moore composed the score. Panavision. [R] ★★★★ Stage Door (1937) 90m. Stairway to Heaven SEE: Matter of Life D: Gregory La Cava. Katharine Hepburn, Ginger Rogand Death, A ers, Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds, Gail Stakeout (1987) C-115m. ★★★ D: John Patrick, Constance Collier, Lucille Ball, Badham. Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Eve Arden, Ann Miller, Ralph Forbes, Aidan Quinn, Madeleine Stowe, Dan Lauria, Franklin Pangborn, Jack Carson. Theatrical Forest Whitaker, Ian Tracey, Earl Billboarding house is setting for wonderful film, ings. While working with his partner on a from Edna Ferber–George S. Kaufman play. stakeout, cop Dreyfuss falls in love with the Dynamite cast includes Hepburn as rich girl woman he’s supposed to be watching. Wildly trying to succeed on her own, Menjou as improbable, and ultimately downright silly, propositioning producer, Leeds as hyperbut entertaining throughout, thanks to sharp sensitive actress, and several stars-to-be: dialogue and performances, and some big Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, and Eve Arden. laughs. Dreyfuss and Estevez make a great Scripted by Morrie Ryskind and Anthony team. Written by Jim Kouf. Followed by a sequel, ANOTHER STAKEOUT. [R]▼●쩠 Veiller.▼●쩠 Stage Door Canteen (1943) 132m. ★★1⁄2 Stakeout on Dope Street (1958) 83m. ★1⁄2 D: Frank Borzage. Cheryl Walker, WilD: Irvin Kershner. Yale Wexler, Jonathan liam Terry, Marjorie Riordan, Lon McHaze, Morris Miller, Abby Dalton, Herschel Callister, Margaret Early, Michael HarriBernardi. Trio of youths discover cache of son (Sunset Carson). Wartime story of heroin, believing their futures will now be romance between soldier and hostess at uncomplicated; good premise poorly N.Y.C.’s fabled canteen is filled with camexecuted. eos, walk-ons, speeches, and musical numStalag 17 (1953) 120m. ★★★★ D: Billy bers by an incredible battery of stars, inWilder. William Holden, Don Taylor, Otto cluding Katharine Hepburn, Harpo Marx, Preminger, Robert Strauss, Harvey LemPaul Muni, Helen Hayes, Benny Goodbeck, Richard Erdman, Peter Graves, Nevman, Count Basie, Edgar Bergen. Many ille Brand, Sig Ruman, Ross Bagdasarian, prints run 93m.▼●쩠 Gil Stratton, Jr. The pinnacle of all WW2 Stage Fright (1950) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: AlPOW films. Holden (in Oscar-winning perfred Hitchcock. Marlene Dietrich, Jane formance) is super-cynical sergeant susWyman, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, pected of being Nazi spy. Wilder brilliantly Kay Walsh, Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, blends drama with comedy to show monotSybil Thorndike, Patricia Hitchcock. Drama onous, anxiety-ridden life of POWs. Wonstudent Wyman turns undercover sleuth derful comic relief by Strauss and Lembeck when actress’ husband is murdered; some (repeating their Broadway roles), plus suexciting moments, but the Master misses on perb turn by Preminger as Nazi camp comthis one. Filmed in London with delightful mander. Scripted by Wilder and Edwin British supporting cast; Marlene sings ‘‘The Blum, from Donald Bevan and Edmund Trzcinski’s play. ▼●쩠 Laziest Gal in Town.’’▼●쩠 Stage Struck (1958) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: SidStalker (1979-Russian) C/B&W-160m. ★★★ ney Lumet. Henry Fonda, Susan Strasberg, D: Andrei Tarkovsky. Alexander KaidaJoan Greenwood, Christopher Plummer, novsky, Nikolai Grinko, Anatoli Solonitsin, Herbert Marshall. Faded remake of MORNAlice Friendlich. Stark, eerie, cerebral story ING GLORY retelling the ascent of Broadof title character, who guides intellectuals way-bound actress. Supporting cast hamGrinko and Solonitsin through the ‘‘Zone,’’ pered by unconvincing Strasberg in lead a mysterious, forbidden wasteland. Very role and by unreal theater world atmoslow but well acted and rewarding.▼쩠 sphere.▼● Stalking Moon, The (1969) C-109m. ★★ Stage to Thunder Rock (1964) C-82m. D: Robert Mulligan. Gregory Peck, Eva ★★ D: William F. Claxton. Barry Sullivan, Marie Saint, Robert Forster, Noland Clay, Marilyn Maxwell, Lon Chaney, Jr., Scott Russell Thorson, Frank Silvera. Army scout Brady, John Agar, Keenan Wynn, Allan helps white woman who has lived with the Jones. One of producer A. C. Lyles’ humApaches to escape with her young halfdrum Westerns with veteran stars; this one breed son, while boy’s father comes after has Sullivan as a sheriff who’s put in the them. Potentially interesting Western is position of having to arrest the outlaw famboth slick and dull; nice photography by Charles Lang. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 ily that raised him. Techniscope. Staircase (1969-British) C-100m. ★★ D: Stallion Road (1947) 91m. ★★ D: James Stanley Donen. Richard Burton, Rex HarV. Kern. Ronald Reagan, Alexis Smith, rison, Cathleen Nesbitt, Beatrix Lehmann. Zachary Scott, Peggy Knudsen, Patti Brady, Shock value of Burton and Harrison as a Harry Davenport. Dedicated veterinarian [ 1306 ]

Reagan and novelist friend Scott vie for Stander (2003-Canadian-German-South African) C-116m. ★★★ D: Bronwen Hughes. the affection of horse rancher Smith; lowkey drama written by Stephen Longstreet. Thomas Jane, Ashley Taylor, David O’Hara, Stamboul Quest (1934) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sam Dexter Fletcher, Deborah Kara Unger, Marius Wood. Myrna Loy, George Brent, Lionel AtWeyers. True account of South African police will, C. Henry Gordon, Mischa Auer. Exotic captain Andre Stander who, frustrated with combination of romance and intrigue with his unwilling involvement in apartheid, beGerman spy Loy falling in love with Americomes a notorious criminal, leading the can student Brent in WW1 Turkey. Herman Stander Gang on a string of daily robberies in Mankiewicz’s script based on true story also the early ’80s. Gripping story well told, with a filmed as FRAULEIN DOKTOR. strong performance by Jane in the title role. Stand Alone (1985) C-90m. ★★ D: Alan This might seem like hokum if it weren’t Beattie. Charles Durning, Pam Grier, James based on a true story. [R] ▼쩠 Keach, Bert Remsen, Barbara Sammeth, Stand-In (1937) 91m. ★★★ D: Tay GarLu Leonard, Luis Contreras. Vigilante nett. Leslie Howard, Humphrey Bogart, opus has miscast Durning as a war vet who Joan Blondell, Alan Mowbray, Marla Shelgoes after Latino thugs who are preying on ton, C. Henry Gordon, Jack Carson. Enhis neighborhood. Grier is wasted in a joyable spoof of Hollywood, with stuffy goody-two-shoes role. Spectacle of overbanker Howard sent to assess dwindling weight Durning running around in action fortunes of Colossal Pictures, becoming scenes is unintentionally funny. [R]▼ involved with perky stand-in Blondell and Stand and Deliver (1987) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 mercurial producer Bogart to save comD: Ramon Menendez. Edward James Olmos, pany from ruin. Sags in second half.▼쩠 Lou Diamond Phillips, Rosana de Soto, Standing in the Shadows of Motown Andy Garcia, Will Gotay, Ingrid Oliu, (2002) C-108m. ★★★ D: Paul Justman. NarVirginia Paris, Mark Eliot. Olmos gives a rated by Andre Braugher. Entertaining doctour-de-force performance in this outstandumentary about the unsung musicians ing drama as a tough, demanding teacher (known as The Funk Brothers) who helped who inspires his East L.A. barrio students to create the Motown sound in the 1950s, to pass an Advanced Placement Calculus ’60s, and ’70s, and played on countless hit Test . . . and that’s only the beginning of records. Newly staged concert sequences the story. Based on fact, with a screenplay with contemporary singers like Joan Osby director Menendez and Tom Musca. borne, Meshell Ndegeocello, Ben Harper, This American Playhouse feature is a Bootsy Collins, Montell Jordan, and Chaka triumph for all concerned. [PG]▼●쩠 Khan are intercut with interviews of the Standard Operating Procedure (2008) Cstill-vibrant players. Dramatic re-creations 116m. ★★★ D: Errol Morris. Documentarian of remembered moments are weak, but the Morris follows up his Oscar-winning THE music is irresistible. Based on Allan SlutFOG OF WAR with this disturbing examisky’s book. [PG] ▼쩠 nation of the wartime scandal at Iraq’s Abu Stand Up and Be Counted (1972) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Jackie Cooper. Jacqueline Bisset, Ghraib, the site of human torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners by a group of American Stella Stevens, Steve Lawrence, Gary soldiers. Participants indicted themselves by Lockwood, Lee Purcell, Loretta Swit, Hecrecording all their atrocities with video and tor Elizondo. Touted as first film about still cameras (although Morris also stages Women’s Lib; writer Bisset returns to home reenactments). Effective doc also features town, first becomes aware of abuses women several interviews with the military personnel must endure. Cardboard all the way; only who took part. Resembles nothing so much standout is Stevens’ comic performance. as a horror film. Beware of extremely graphic Script by Bernard Slade. [PG] Stand Up and Cheer (1934) 69m. ★★ D: images and re-creations that may be too Hamilton MacFadden. Warner Baxter, stomach-churning for some viewers. [R]쩠 Standard Time SEE: Anything But Love Madge Evans, James Dunn, Sylvia Froos, Stand by Me (1986) C-87m. ★★★ D: Rob John Boles, Shirley Temple, Ralph MorReiner. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey gan, Aunt Jemima, Mitchell and Durant, Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer SutherNick (Dick) Foran, Nigel Bruce, Stepin land, Casey Siemaszko, John Cusack, RichFetchit. Dismal musical fantasy about bigard Dreyfuss. Affectionate Americana time show producer Baxter being named looking back at boyhood friendship and Secretary of Amusement by the President, adventures in the 1950s (and narrated by to chase the country’s Depression blues. Dreyfuss, representing author Stephen King, Tough sledding until Shirley Temple shows whose novella ‘‘The Body’’ is the basis up with Dunn to perform ‘‘Baby Take a for this film). Irresistible and wholly beBow’’ (which helped make her a star). lievable performances from all four youthOriginally released at 80m. Also shown in ful leads. Only complaint: the high volume computer-colored version.▼쩠 of four-letter words, decidedly not characStand Up and Fight (1939) 97m. ★★ teristic of the 1950s. [R]▼●쩠 D: W. S. Van Dyke II. Wallace Beery, [ 1307 ]

Robert Taylor, Florence Rice, Charles and retitled THOSE WERE THE HAPPY TIMES. Todd-AO. [G]▼●쩠 Bickford, Charley Grapewin, Selmer JackStar Chamber, The (1983) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 son. OK Western with railroading pioneer D: Peter Hyams. Michael Douglas, Hal Taylor meeting crisis after crisis, battling Holbrook, Yaphet Kotto, Sharon Gless, stubborn stage-rider Beery. James M. Cain James B. Sikking, Joe Regalbuto, Don was one of the writers. Calfa, DeWayne Jessie, Jack Kehoe. Young Stanley (1972) C-106m. ★★ D: William judge, frustrated by having to turn rapists Grefe. Chris Robinson, Alex Rocco, Suand murderers free because of legal techsan Carroll, Steve Alaimo, Mark Harris, nicalities, is drawn into a secret judicial Paul Avery. Classic depiction of the Vietsociety. Well done, but too predictable, nam veteran as a one-dimensional psycho: and ultimately too unbelievable, to really Robinson cannot relate to any other human score. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 being; his only friends are poisonous snakes, Starcrash (1979-Italian) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: which he uses to gain revenge on anyone Lewis Coates (Luigi Cozzi). Marjoe Gortner, who mistreats him. WILLARD with snakes Caroline Munro, Christopher Plummer, instead of rats. [PG]▼쩠 David Hasselhoff, Robert Tessier, Joe Stanley & Iris (1990) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Spinell, voice of Hamilton Camp. GrinMartin Ritt. Jane Fonda, Robert De Niro, ning Gortner and sexy Munro are recruited Swoosie Kurtz, Martha Plimpton, Harley to save the universe from destruction by Cross, Jamey Sheridan, Feodor Chaliapin, bad-guy Spinell. Moronic sci-fi movie with Zohra Lampert, Loretta Devine, Julie Garvariable special effects; unless you’re a field. Beleagured working-class Fonda, still Munro fan, it’s only good for a few grieving over the loss of her husband laughs, nothing more. Aka FEMALE eight months before, chances to meet De SPACE INVADERS. [PG]▼쩠 Niro, a loner who harbors a terrible secret— Stardom (1999-Canadian-French) C-100m. he can’t read. She winds up tutoring him, and ★★★ D: Denys Arcand. Jessica Pare´, Dan they circle each other warily before deciding Aykroyd, Charles Berling, Thomas Gibson, if they’re in love. Story is flat and underdevelFrank Langella, Robert Lepage, Patrick oped, but the screen presence and charm of Huard. Trenchant look at our media culture two great stars make it worth watching. Paas an attractive young Canadian hockey navision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 player (Pare´) is transformed into a model Stanley and Livingstone (1939) 101m. and then a celebrity. Dead-on satire seen ★★★ D: Henry King. Spencer Tracy, Nancy through the ‘‘eyes’’ of superficial TV shows Kelly, Richard Greene, Walter Brennan, that cover the celebrity beat. Arcand Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Henry scripted with J. Jacob Potashnik. [R]▼쩠 Hull, Henry Travers, Miles Mander. ElabStardust (1975-British) C-107m. ★★★1⁄2 D: orate production with Tracy as determined Michael Apted. David Essex, Adam Faith, reporter who searches turn-of-the-20thLarry Hagman, Keith Moon, Dave Edcentury Africa for missing missionary (Hardmunds, Ines Des Longchamps, Edd Byrnes. wicke). Entertaining drama with beautifully Powerful sequel to THAT’LL BE THE understated performance by Tracy.▼ DAY follows amazing rise and fall of ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Stuart Star, The (1952) 89m. Beatles-like rock group and its lead singer Heisler. Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Nat(Essex). Candid, provocative, and utterly alie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watbelievable. [R] son, June Travis. An Oscar-winning actress Stardust (2007) C-125m. ★★★ D: Matthew tries to deal with the fact that her career is Vaughn. Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, over, her money is gone, and she must find Robert De Niro, Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, some way to put her life together. Modest Ricky Gervais, Jason Flemyng, Rupert Evfilm, shot on locations all around L.A., has erett, Peter O’Toole, Mark Strong, David many moments of truth (and a typically Kelly; narrated by Ian McKellen. To prove compelling performance by Davis) to make his love for the fairest maiden in the land up for its excesses. ▼쩠 (Miller), our wide-eyed young hero (Cox) Star! (1968) C-176m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert ventures into the forbidden kingdom of Wise. Julie Andrews, Richard Crenna, MiStormhold to bring back a fallen star. The chael Craig, Daniel Massey, Robert Reed, star has taken human form, however, and is Bruce Forsyth, Beryl Reid, Jenny Agutter, being sought by others in the kingdom Tony LoBianco, Conrad Bain, Roy whose motives are not so pure—including Scheider, Bernard Fox. Razzle-dazzle bioga malevolent witch (played with gusto by raphy of stage star Gertrude Lawrence Pfeiffer). Wondrously imaginative fantasy never rings true, but does have mammoth yarn, adapted from Neil Gaiman’s novel, production numbers worth seeing (especreates a world all its own and is dotted with cially in color). Julie tries, but never comes colorful characters, but goes on far too long. across; Massey is amusing if affected as Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 Noel Coward (his real-life godfather). After Stardust Memories (1980) 91m. ★★★ D: box office flop, film was trimmed to 120m. Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Charlotte [ 1308 ]

Rampling, Jessica Harper, Marie-Christine Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, Franklin Barrault, Tony Roberts, Daniel Stern, Amy Pangborn. Two remakes haven’t dimmed Wright. Woody plays a character not unthe glow of this drama about a selflike himself who’s persuaded to attend a destructive actor and the young movie hopefilm-seminar weekend, at which he’s ful he marries. March and Gaynor are at hounded by fans, favor-seekers, groupies, stutheir best and 1930s flavor (captured in dio executives, relatives, and lovers. Pointed, early Technicolor) is a plus; screenplay by seriocomic look at fame and success— Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Robthough many viewers found it simply narcisert Carson was inspired in part by 1932 sistic. Look sharp for Sharon Stone on passfilm WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? Oscaring train; Louise Lasser and Laraine Newman winner for original story (by Carson and appear unbilled. [PG] ▼●쩠 director Wellman) and W. Howard Greene’s Star 80 (1983) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Bob cinematography.▼●쩠 Fosse. Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, Star Is Born, A (1954) C-170m. ★★★★ D: Cliff Robertson, Carroll Baker, Roger Rees, George Cukor. Judy Garland, James Mason, David Clennon, Josh Mostel, Sidney Miller, Charles Bickford, Jack Carson, Tom NooJordan Christopher, Keenen Ivory Wayans, nan. Powerful semi-musical remake of the Stuart Damon, Ernest Thompson. Straight1937 classic, with Garland and Mason at forward telling of a lurid tale: innocent their peaks as doomed Hollywood star Dorothy Stratten’s mental seduction by couple, she on the way up, he down. small-time hustler Paul Snider, who proIncisive script by Moss Hart; great Harold moted her career as a Playboy centerfold Arlen–Ira Gershwin songs include spelland movie starlet, then murdered her in a binding ‘‘The Man That Got Away’’ and rage of jealousy. Extremely well-crafted, the showstopping ‘‘Born in a Trunk’’ sewell-acted movie that leaves viewer with quence by Leonard Gershe. Badly cut to nothing but a feeling of voyeurism—and 154m. after premiere engagements of no redeeming insights. Fosse’s final film. 181m.; restored in 1983 to present length See also TV movie version DEATH OF A using still photos to cover missing bits of CENTERFOLD. [R]▼●쩠 footage. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Stargate (1994-French-U.S.) C-119m. Star Is Born, A (1976) C-140m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★1⁄2 D: Roland Emmerich. Kurt Russell, Frank Pierson. Barbra Streisand, Kris James Spader, Viveca Lindfors, Jaye DaKristofferson, Gary Busey, Oliver Clark, vidson, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, Leon Paul Mazursky, Marta Heflin, M.G. Kelly, Rippy, John Diehl, Carlos Lauchu, Djimon Sally Kirkland, Robert Englund. By-now (Hounsou), French Stewart, Rae Allen, familiar story is given an unconvincing Richard Kind. A scholar of ancient lantreatment, with change of setting to the guages and hieroglyphics (Spader) is reworld of rock music. Only comes to life cruited to help the military penetrate the during Streisand’s vibrant numbers, which mystery of a stone gateway which, in fact, transcend script and surrounding drama; leads to other planets in our universe. Intershe and Paul Williams won an Oscar for song esting odyssey, impressively mounted and ‘‘Evergreen.’’ Screenplay by Pierson, Joan Didion, and John Gregory Dunne. ▼●쩠 jammed with visual effects, but loses its way dramatically. Davidson (of CRYING Star Kid (1998) C-101m. ★★ D: Manny GAME fame) is featured as a sort of fey Coto. Joseph Mazzello, Joey Simmrin, Ming the Merciless. Followed by a madeDanny Masterson, Richard Gilliland, Cofor-TV movie, a TV series, and a DVD rinne Bohrer, Ashlee Levitch. A lonely boy movie. Alternate version runs 128m. Panafinds a ‘‘cyborsuit’’—superpowered alien vision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 armor—in a junkyard, and has fun trying it Starhops (1978) C-92m. ★★ D: Barbara out. Comic book–like but occasionally enPeeters. Dorothy Buhrman, Sterling Frazier, tertaining. [PG]▼●쩠 Jillian Kesner, Peter Paul Liapis, Paul Ryan, Star Knight (1986-Spanish) C-90m. ★1⁄2 Anthony Mannino, Dick Miller. Ultra-lowD: Fernando Colomo. Klaus Kinski, Harbudget formula film about three car hops vey Keitel, Fernando Rey, Maria Lamor, who try to salvage a failing drive-in. Not Miguel Bose`. Infantile fantasy about a bad of its type; screenplay by Stephanie spaceship that lands in a Spanish lake in Rothman. [R]▼ medieval times and is thought to be a Star in the Dust (1956) C-80m. ★★ D: dragon. Keitel (Bronx accent intact) is the Charles Haas. John Agar, Mamie Van Doren, only cast member who isn’t dubbed. OK Richard Boone, Leif Erickson, Coleen Gray, special effects. Originally titled: THE KNIGHT OF THE DRAGON.▼●쩠 James Gleason. Intriguing cast is wasted in this trite tale of sheriff Agar forced to fight Starlift (1951) 103m. ★★ D: Roy Del his townfolk to retain law and order. Look for Ruth. Janice Rule, Dick Wesson, Ron Clint Eastwood as a ranch hand. Hagerthy, Richard Webb. Flimsy account 1 ★★★ Star Is Born, A (1937) C-111m. of GI romancing an actress, allowing for ⁄2 D: William Wellman. Fredric March, Janet scenes of movie stars entertaining troops. Gaynor, Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Cameos by Warner Bros. people like [ 1309 ]

Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Ruth Roman, Doris doesn’t offer much involvement. Powell plays Day, Gordon MacRae, etc.쩠 a lawyer who enjoys solving cases more than Starlight Hotel (1987-New Zealand) Ctrying them in court.▼● 93m. ★★★ D: Sam Pillsbury. Peter Phelps, Stars and Bars (1988) C-94m. BOMB D: Greer Robson, Marshall Napier, The WizPat O’Connor. Daniel Day-Lewis, Harry ard, Alice Fraser, Patrick Smyth. Nice Dean Stanton, Martha Plimpton, Matthew little film about the exploits of troubled Cowles, Joan Cusack, Maury Chaykin, Deirteen Robson and psychologically scarred dre O’Connell, Will Patton, Steven Wright, WW1 vet Phelps. A friendly film about a Keith David, Laurie Metcalf, Glenne Headly, most unlikely friendship. Warrick Attewell’s Spalding Gray, Rockets Redglare. A comcinematography is a standout. [PG]▼● plete misfire, with Day-Lewis thoroughly Starlight Slaughter SEE: Eaten Alive! wasted as a British art expert who treks to Star Maker, The (1939) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy America to purchase a Renoir, and instead Del Ruth. Bing Crosby, Louise Campbell, tangles with hick Stanton and other assorted Laura Hope Crews, Ned Sparks, Ethel Grifeccentrics. Overbaked, unfunny, and embarrassing. [R]▼● fies, Billy Gilbert. Crosby plays Gus Edwards, vaudeville impresario who turned talented Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) C-89m. 1⁄2 D: Henry Koster. Clifton Webb, Rob★★ youngsters into stars. Pleasant musical doesn’t always stick to facts. Originally 94m. ert Wagner, Ruth Hussey, Debra Paget, Star Maker, The (1995-Italian) C-117m. Finlay Currie. Diverting, fictionalized bi★★ D: Giuseppe Tornatore. Sergio Castelography of bandmaster John Philip Sousa, litto, Tiziana Bodato, Franco Scaldati, Leowell played by Webb, with standard march poldo Trieste, Clelia Rondinella, Tano tunes worked into plot nicely. ▼ Cimarosa, Jane Alexander. CINEMA PAStars Fell on Henrietta, The (1995) CRADISO’s Tornatore offers up the flip side 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Keach. Robert Duof that beloved film in this period piece vall, Aidan Quinn, Frances Fisher, Brian about a self-described talent scout who tours Dennehy, Lexi Randall, Kaytlyn Knowles, Sicily selling screen tests and the pipe dream Billy Bob Thornton, Victor Wong, Paul of a movie career to naive locals who fall prey Lazar, Spencer Garrett, Park Overall, Dylan to his sales pitch. Maybe PARADISO is just Baker. Old-fashioned (and a tad contrived) too tough an act to follow, but this one doesn’t folktale set in the Depression-era Texas dust even come close. Tornatore coscripted, from bowl stars Duvall as a wily old oil prospechis story. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 tor who charms a cotton farmer and his wife Starman (1984) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: John into believing their land is a valuable rig. Carpenter. Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Suffers mainly from overlength. A real labor Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel. of love from the people at Malpaso, Clint Extremely pleasant, genteel sci-fi about Eastwood’s production company. Expert castalien who lands on earth, abducts young ing and superb contributions from cinematogwidow to help him travel cross-country so rapher Bruce Surtees and production designer he can rendezvous with spaceship. Her toughHenry Bumstead (plus a lush score by David est problem: he’s made himself look just like Benoit) keep things enjoyable. That’s director her late husband, and she finds herself atKeach’s wife Jane Seymour in the opening tracted to him. Familiar, derivative storyline is saloon shot, and Fisher and Eastwood’s daughter as Mary. Panavision. [PG]▼● given solid boost by two lead performances. Later a TV series. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Starship Invasions (1977-Canadian) C87m. ★1⁄2 D: Ed Hunt. Robert Vaughn, Star Maps (1997) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Miguel Arteta. Douglas Spain, Efrain Figueroa, KanChristopher Lee, Daniel Pilon, Helen Shavdeyce Jorden, Martha Velez, Lysa Flores. Ocer, Henry Ramer. Abducted by good aliens casionally potent but uneven allegorical drama to help battle bad aliens who are trying to about an 18-year-old with movie-star aspiratake over earth, UFO expert Vaughn helps tions who returns from Mexico to L.A. and save the day with his pocket calculator. goes to work for his father as a male prostitute Good cast wasted in film boasting the worst in a ring which is fronted by the selling of special effects since PLAN 9 FROM ‘‘star maps’’ of celebrity homes. Done in by OUTER SPACE. [PG]▼ its preachy tone and lack of depth. [R]▼● Starship Troopers (1997) C-129m. ★★★ D: Star of India (1954-British) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 Paul Verhoeven. Casper Van Dien, Dina D: Arthur Lubin. Cornel Wilde, Jean WalMeyer, Denise Richards, Jake Busey, Neil lace, Herbert Lom. So-so costumer, overly Patrick Harris, Clancy Brown, Seth Gilliam, earnest. Wilde is Gallic nobleman trying Patrick Muldoon, Michael Ironside, Rue to reestablish his rightful inheritance. McClanahan. A gung-ho WW2 movie transplanted to the future, when high school kids Star of Midnight (1935) 90m. ★★ D: Stephen Roberts. William Powell, Ginger Rogers, Paul are encouraged to become ‘‘citizens’’ by enKelly, Gene Lockhart, Ralph Morgan, Leslie listing in the army and serving the state. Little Fenton, J. Farrell MacDonald. Flip, but not do they dream that they’ll be engaged in a terribly funny, comedy-mystery in the THIN full-scale war against marauding insects. MAN vein, with a convoluted story that With Verhoeven at the helm, you know this [ 1310 ]

won’t be subtle, but it’s so sharp, energetic, and (at times) funny that it transcends being a ‘‘giant bug’’ movie. Not for the squeamish, with its graphic dismemberment of humans and insects, but robust entertainment just the same. Based on the novel by Robert A. Heinlein. The incredible creature animation was supervised by Phil Tippett. Tippett directed the 2004 sequel, which debuted on cable TV. A second sequel was released direct to DVD. [R] ▼●쩠 Stars in My Crown (1950) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Joel McCrea, Ellen Drew, Dean Stockwell, Alan Hale, Lewis Stone, Ed Begley, Amanda Blake, James Arness, Juano Hernandez. Gentle, moving story of a quiet but persuasive minister in rural 19th-century America; episodic film creates warm feeling for characters and setting. Prime Americana from Joe David Brown’s popular novel. Also interesting for preGunsmoke casting of Arness and Blake.▼ Starsky & Hutch (2004) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd Phillips. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Juliette Lewis, Snoop Dogg, Fred Williamson, Amy Smart, Carmen Electra, Jason Bateman, Chris Penn, Brande Roderick, Molly Sims. Comedic take on the 1970s TV cop show pairs straight-arrow cop with a new partner who’s more of a slacker. Their goal: nailing slick drug dealer Vaughn. Stiller and Wilson do what Stiller and Wilson usually do; Snoop Dogg is the freshest member of the cast as Huggy Bear, the local mover and shaker. Plenty of ’70s music and fashions on hand; the only thing missing is laughs. Even some star cameos are bungled. Will Ferrell appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Stars Look Down, The (1939-British) 110m. ★★★★ D: Carol Reed. Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood, Edward Rigby, Emlyn Williams, Nancy Price, Cecil Parker, Linden Travers. Classic adaptation of A. J. Cronin’s novel (coscripted by the author) about Welsh coal miners struggling against dangerous working conditions, and Redgrave as a collier’s son who intends to run for office. Gripping all the way.▼쩠 Star Spangled Girl (1971) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Jerry Paris. Sandy Duncan, Tony Roberts, Todd Susman, Elizabeth Allen. Very unfunny Neil Simon comedy about the saccharinesweet girl-next-door who falls in with two ultraradical campus newspaper editors. [G]

dio switchboard operator (Betty Hutton) and gate guard (Victor Moore); the latter has told his son (Eddie Bracken), a sailor, that he’s the studio’s boss. Better numbers include ‘‘(That Old) Black Magic,’’ ‘‘Time to Hit the Road to Dreamland.’’▼●쩠 Starstruck (1982-Australian) C-95m. ★★★ D: Gillian Armstrong. Jo Kennedy, Ross O’Donovan, Pat Evison, Margo Lee, Max Cullen, John O’May, Geoffrey Rush. Bright little musical comedy about a teenage boy who’s determined to promote his cousin to singing stardom as a new-wave rocker . . . no matter what it takes. Amiable tongue-incheek outing pokes fun at Hollywood musicals and media hype. Original Australian running time 102m. [PG]▼●쩠 Starter for Ten (2006-U.S.-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom Vaughan. James McAvoy, Alice Eve, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Tate, Dominic Cooper, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charles Dance, Lindsay Duncan. Working-class boy with a thirst for knowledge manages to get into college in the mid-1980s, where he finds he still has a lot to learn about dealing with real-life issues like friendship, loyalty, and the opposite sex. Pleasant if bland and derivative, until the final act. David Nicholls adapted his novel. [PG-13]쩠 Starting Out in the Evening (2007) C110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Andrew Wagner. Frank Langella, Lauren Ambrose, Lili Taylor, Adrian Lester, Jessica Hecht, Michael Cumpsty, Joel West. Aging, widowed literary lion is approached by a grad student who’s writing a thesis about him. He attempts to rebuff her but she ingratiates herself, becomes important to him—and in the process, opens up old emotional wounds. Meanwhile, his 40-ish daughter (Taylor) tries to get her life on track. Mature, nuanced drama is anchored by Langella’s masterful performance, complemented by director Wagner’s keen, almost tactile, observations of a fast-fading Manhattan milieu. Wagner and Fred Parnes adapted Brian Morton’s novel. Impressively photographed by Harlan Bosmajian. [PG-13]쩠 Starting Over (1979) C-106m. ★★★ D: Alan J. Pakula. Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, Candice Bergen, Charles Durning, Frances Sternhagen, Austin Pendleton, Mary Kay Place, Wallace Shawn, Daniel Stern, Anne De Salvo, Charles Kimbrough. Likable comedy about divorced man who falls in love but can’t erase feelings for his ▼쩠 Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) 99m. ★★★ ex-wife; top performances but unfortunately, D: George Marshall. Bing Crosby, Ray story goes awry toward conclusion for a Milland, Bob Hope, Veronica Lake, Dorolackluster turn of events and denouement. thy Lamour, Susan Hayward, Dick PowScripted by James L. Brooks, from the Dan ell, Mary Martin, Alan Ladd, Paulette Wakefield novel. Look quickly for Kevin Goddard, Cecil B. DeMille, Arthur Treacher, Bacon as a young husband. [R]▼●쩠 Preston Sturges, Eddie Anderson, Robert Star Trek (2009) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: J. J. Preston, William Bendix, many others. ParAbrams. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard amount’s silly but agreeable star-packed Nimoy, Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl WW2 extravaganza, filled with songs and Urban, Zoe¨ Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, sketches. There’s a slight plot, about a stuAnton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, [ 1311 ]

Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison, Faran Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) C-117m. ★★★ D: Tahir, Clifton Collins, Jr., Tyler Perry. EnerStuart Baird. Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, getic, inventive prequel to Gene RoddenberBrent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, ry’s landmark TV series imagines how the Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Tom Hardy, crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise came together— Ron Perlman, Shannon Cochran, Dina Meyer, and how a fiery, rule-breaking James T. Kirk Jude Ciccolella, Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton. (Pine) and a half-Vulcan, half-human Spock Satisfying if formulaic series entry has Riker (Quinto) became lifelong friends. Opens with and Troi celebrating their marriage when the a big action sequence, then Roberto Orci and Enterprise crew is confronted with a dual chalAlex Kurtzman’s screenplay carefully devellenge: facing a villain who is an evil clone of ops its characters and their relationships, Captain Picard and examining an adversarial never allowing visual effects to overpower the prototype of the android Data. Entertaining, content. Nimoy makes a welcome return as though the conclusion is never in doubt; Stewthe older Spock. Soaring score by Michael art’s commanding performance anchors the Giacchino. Panavision. [PG-13] film. Spiner gets costory credit—and sings a Star Trek: First Contact (1996) C-110m. few bars of ‘‘Blue Skies.’’ Whoopi Goldberg ★★★ D: Jonathan Frakes. Patrick Stewart, appears unbilled. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Star Trek—The Motion Picture (1979) Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina C-132m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Wise. William Sirtis, Alfre Woodard, James Cromwell, Alice Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Krige, Robert Picardo. Capt. Picard lives his Stephen Collins, Persis Khambatta, James worst nightmare as the villainous Borg (who Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, almost overtook him in a two-part TV epiGeorge Takei, Majel Barrett, Grace Lee Whitsode) land on earth with domination their ney, Mark Lenard. The crew of the Enterprise goal. The solution: the crew travels back in is reunited to combat a lethal force field time to 2063 to make sure a cockeyed scienheaded toward Earth. Slow, talky, and derivatist (Cromwell) fulfills his role in history with tive, somewhat redeemed by terrific special a precedent-setting rocket flight. Story goes effects and majestic Jerry Goldsmith score; on a bit, following two concurrent threads, but still, mainly for purists. Video version— series fans will have no complaints. Krige generally considered an improvement—runs is a standout as the seductive Borg Queen. 143m. Director’s edition released in 2002 is Feature directing debut for Frakes, better 136m. and rated PG. Followed by many known as Riker. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 sequels—and several new TV series! Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Star Trek Generations (1994) C-118m. ★★★ D: David Carson. Patrick Stewart, WilStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) C-113m. ★★★ D: Nicholas Meyer. William Shatner, Malcolm McDowell, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, liam Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Michael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina Kelley, Ricardo Montalban, James Doohan, Sirtis, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, BarWalter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle bara March, Gwyneth Walsh, Alan Ruck. Nichols, Kirstie Alley, Bibi Besch, MerThe old guard gives way to the new, as ritt Butrick, Paul Winfield. Kirk and the Capt. Kirk (Shatner) passes the baton to a new Enterprise crew must do battle with the Starfleet commander, Capt. Picard (Stewart). nefarious villain of 1967’s ‘‘Space Seed’’ epiEpisodic adventure yarn plays like an elonsode. A bit hokey and pretentious at times, but gated segment of the Next Generation TV a likable adventure overall, with nice touches series; not inspired, perhaps, but entertaining of warmth and humor. Director’s edition runs just the same, with some impressive special 116m. Originally released without the ‘‘II’’ in its title. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 effects. Oddly enough, the weakest segment is the climactic teaming of Picard and Kirk, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) which seems like a leftover from an old SaturC-105m. ★★★ D: Leonard Nimoy. William day matinee serial. Whoopi Goldberg appears Shatner, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, unbilled as Guinan. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle NichStar Trek: Insurrection (1998) C-103m. ols, Christopher Lloyd, Robin Curtis, Merritt ★★★ D: Jonathan Frakes. Patrick Stewart, Butrick, Mark Lenard, Dame Judith AnderJonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, son, James B. Sikking, John Larroquette, RobMichael Dorn, Gates McFadden, Marina ert Hooks, Miguel Ferrer, Leonard Nimoy. Sirtis, F. Murray Abraham, Donna Murphy, Picking up where #2 left off, Kirk reassembles Anthony Zerbe, Gregg Henry, Daniel Hugh his crew and shanghais the Enterprise to try Kelly. Good entry in the long-running series and rescue Spock while both he and the rapidly has the crew befriending the eternally youthdestructing Genesis Planet are endangered by a ful residents of a Shangri-La–like planet Klingon warship (led by Lloyd, in an ineffecwhose existence is threatened by the vengeful tual performance). Subdued sci-fi outing very Ru’afo (Abraham). Picard (Stewart) even much in keeping with tone of the original TV series. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 has a dalliance with one of the women there (Murphy). Reliably entertaining for Star Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) Trek fans. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 C-119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Leonard Nimoy. Wil[ 1312 ]

liam Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest their subjects for more than a year to create Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walthis incredibly dramatic and resonant film, a ter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Jane Wyatt, cautionary tale for our time. Produced by Catherine Hicks, Mark Lenard, Robin CurD.A. Pennebaker. [R]▼쩠 tis, Robert Ellenstein, John Schuck, Brock Star Wars (1977) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peters. The Enterprise crew takes a sharp George Lucas. Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, left turn toward comedy in this uncharacCarrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, teristic—and very entertaining—movie. Story Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, voice of has the familiar characters time-traveling back James Earl Jones (as Darth Vader). Elaborate, to the 20th century in order to save the Earth imaginative update of Flash Gordon incrediof the future, with the help of some humpback bly became one of the most popular films of whales. Sheer novelty of the comic tone exall time. It’s a hip homage to B-movie ethics cuses some forays into the obvious; it’s all in and heroism in the space age, as a callow fun. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 youth (Hamill) becomes an interplanetary Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) hero with the help of some human and robot C-106m. ★★ D: William Shatner. William friends. R2-D2 and C-3P0 steal the show. Won Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, seven Oscars for various technical achieveJames Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle ments and John Williams’ rousing score. Full Nichols, George Takei, David Warner, Lautitle onscreen (on re-release prints) is STAR rence Luckinbill, Charles Cooper. The EnterWARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE. Folprise crew takes off on an emergency mission lowed by THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK when an apparent madman takes over a distant and RETURN OF THE JEDI. Special Edition planet and holds its interstellar ambassadors released in 1997 features souped-up special hostage; his motives, however, turn out to be effects and about 4m. of new footage. Paanything but terroristic. Dramatically shaky navision. [PG]▼●쩠 trek starts off with a case of the cutes, and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Mengets worse before it (finally) gets better. A ace (1999) C-133m. ★★★ D: George Lucas. weak entry in the series. Shatner’s featureLiam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portfilm directing debut; he also shares story man, Jake Lloyd, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank credit. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Oz, Pernilla August, Terence Stamp, Ian Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country McDiarmid, Hugh Quarshie, Ray Park, ★★★ D: Nicholas Meyer. (1991) C-109m. Ahmed Best, Brian Blessed, Sofia Coppola, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Keira Knightley. Qui-Gon Jinn (Neeson) and Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, his prote´ge´ Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor) try Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Kim Cattrall, to negotiate peace but find themselves in the Christopher Plummer, Mark Lenard, Grace midst of war instead; while attempting to proLee Whitney, Brock Peters, Kurtwood Smith, tect the Queen of Naboo (Portman), they stop Rosana DeSoto, David Warner, Iman, John over on the planet Tatooine, where they enSchuck, Michael Dorn, Christian Slater. The counter young Anakin Skywalker (Lloyd), Enterprise crew is assigned to negotiate truce who clearly has a special gift. The beginning of with Klingon leader, only to fall prey to a trap Lucas’ epic saga resembles his first STAR set by one of his renegade cohorts (Plummer, WARS film in both story and tone, with in a deliciously flamboyant performance). Enquantum leaps forward in special effects— tertaining saga cowritten by director Meyer. including computer-generated characters (like Nimoy helped concoct the story and also excomic-relief character Jar Jar Binks) who ecutive produced. Video version has 2m. of seem astonishingly real. Not a lot of heart, but additional footage. Super 35. [PG] ▼●쩠 certainly a lot of fun in Saturday matinee seStart the Revolution Without Me (1970) rial fashion. Followed by a sequel. Arriscope. ★★★ C-91m. D: Bud Yorkin. Gene Wilder, [PG]▼쩠 Donald Sutherland, Hugh Griffith, Jack Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones MacGowran, Billie Whitelaw, Victor Spi(2002) C-143m. ★★ D: George Lucas. Ewan netti, Ewa Aulin, Orson Welles. Madcap McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Chriscomedy involving two sets of mismatched tensen, Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jacktwins who meet just before French Reson, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Pernilla volution. Somewhat ignored in 1970, now August, Temuera Morrison, Jimmy Smits, has a deserved cult following; the cast, espeJack Thompson, Ahmed Best, Anthony cially Wilder, is hilarious. [PG] ▼쩠 Daniels, Kenny Baker. Ten years after EpiStartup.com (2001) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sode I, Anakin Skywalker is beginning to Chris Hegedus, Jehane Noujaim. Riveting resent his father figure, Obi-Wan Kenobi, cine´ma ve´rite´–style documentary about two and finds himself falling in love with boyhood friends—one a computer whiz, the Padme´, the former queen. Lavish producother a business brain—who join forces to tion showcases an overlong story that serves start an online service. The enterprise is mainly as a transition between Episodes I fraught with all the pitfalls that plague conand III in this ongoing saga. Wooden chartemporary business—from fund-raising to ethical issues. The filmmakers followed acterizations and dialogue don’t help . . . but [ 1313 ]

the computer-generated Yoda is terrific, and Ewell, Wally Cox. Remake of sprightly 1945 the coliseum action sequence (an homage to musical is pretty bad. Faye came out of retireRay Harryhausen) is a knockout. HD 24P ment to play Tiffin’s mother—a bad mistake. Widescreen. [PG]▼쩠 Ewell even sings to a pig! Third-rate AmeriStar Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith cana. CinemaScope.▼쩠 ★★★ (2005) C-140m. D: George Lucas. Ewan Statement, The (2003-Canadian-FrenchMcGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden ChrisBritish) C-120m. ★1⁄2 D: Norman Jewison. tensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Jeremy NorChristopher Lee,Jimmy Smits, FrankOz, Peter tham, Noam Jenkins, Charlotte Rampling, Mayhew, Temuera Morrison, Ahmed Best, Matt Craven, Alan Bates, John Neville, CiaKennyBaker, AnthonyDaniels, Keisha Castlera´n Hinds, David De Keyser, William Hutt. Hughes; voice of James Earl Jones. The Star Woefully artificial rendering of Brian Wars saga comes full circle as Anakin SkyMoore’s novel about a French Nazi collabowalker (Christensen), in a desperate attempt to rator who kills seven Jews in 1944 and protect his wife, Padme´ Amidala (Portman), spends the next five decades in hiding— succumbs to a persuasive Chancellor Palpatine with the help of the Catholic church. In and embraces the dark side of the Force. Long, 1992, a judge (Swinton) is handed the polituneven, but meticulously crafted entry in the ical hot potato of finding and prosecuting six-part story has some of the same faults as its him, but he proves to be as elusive as ever. immediate predecessors, but delivers an emoWhile based on historical truths, there isn’t tional wallop as it brings the ‘‘prequel trilogy’’ a convincing moment, despite a good cast to a conclusion. Yoda dominates every scene and location filming in France. Written by he’s in—and gives the best performance in the Ronald Harwood. [R]▼쩠 film! HD 24P Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 State of Grace (1990) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Star Wars: The Clone Wars SEE: Clone Phil Joanou. Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Gary Wars, The Oldman, Robin Wright, John Turturro, State and Main (2000) C-105m. ★★★ D: Burgess Meredith, John C. Reilly. Three David Mamet. Alec Baldwin, William H. strong actors play Irish-American mobMacy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sarah Jessters (inspired by real-life gang, the Westies) sica Parker, Rebecca Pidgeon, Charles contending with the police, the Mafia, and Durning, Patti LuPone, David Paymer, Julia Yuppie gentrification in N.Y.C.’s Hell’s Stiles, Ricky Jay, Michael Higgins, Clark Kitchen (a neighborhood now known as Gregg, J. J. Johnston. Writer-director Mamet Clinton!). Combination of moody stylishhas fun depicting the adventures of a desness and extreme violence nearly succeeds, perate film crew that moves into—and takes but script is more meandering than inciover—a small New England town. The obsive. This is basically Cagney terrain with servations are perceptive, and the perfora Scorsese-De Niro spin; Oldman and especially Harris sear the screen. [R]▼●쩠 mances delicious (especially Macy as the director who can talk anybody into anyState of Play (2009-U.S.-British-French) thing), though it may strike some that C-127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Macdonald. RusMamet has chosen too easy a target. [R]▼쩠 sell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, ★★★ State Fair (1933) 96m. Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jason D: Henry King. Janet Gaynor, Will Rogers, Lew Ayres, Sally Bateman, Jeff Daniels, Michael Berresse, Eilers, Norman Foster, Louise Dresser, Victor Harry Lennix, Josh Mostel, Michael Weston, Jory, Frank Craven. Not just a Rogers vehicle, Barry Shabaka Henley, Viola Davis. Colorful, but slice of life ’30s-style as farm family gets old-school D.C. newspaper reporter Crowe ready for annual outing to state fair: Mom’s tries to link two seemingly unrelated murders, entering bake-off contest, Dad the pig contest, then a third (involving a female aide to hotshot son and daughter looking for first love. Great Congressman Affleck—who happens to be atmosphere, good performances. Phil Stong’s Crowe’s old roommate) seems to indicate that novel has been remade twice (so far!). there’s a larger conspiracy afoot. Meanwhile ★★★ D: Walter State Fair (1945) C-100m. Crowe is paired up with blogger McAdams, Lang. Jeanne Crain, Dana Andrews, Dick who’s never done on-the-ground reporting Haymes, Vivian Blaine, Charles Winninger, before. Engrossing, well-cast thriller is also a Fay Bainter, Donald Meek, Frank McHugh, paean to the dying newspaper business—but Percy Kilbride. Remake of the 1933 film is drops the ball at the finale, which simply isn’t bright, engaging musical of family’s advensatisfying. Adapted from the acclaimed 2003 tures at Iowa State Fair; colorful, with fine BBC miniseries. Panavision. [PG-13] Rodgers and Hammerstein songs (their only State of Siege (1973-French) C-120m. ★★★ film score), including ‘‘That’s for Me,’’ D: Costa-Gavras. Yves Montand, Renato Sal‘‘Grand Night for Singing,’’ Oscar-winning vatori, O. E. Hasse, Jacques Weber, Jean-Luc ‘‘It Might As Well Be Spring.’’ Retitled IT Bideau, Evangeline Peterson. Highly controversial film, based on fact, about political asHAPPENED ONE SUMMER for TV. ▼●쩠 State Fair (1962) C-118m. BOMB D: sassination in Uruguay; interesting, but way Jose Ferrer. Pat Boone, Bobby Darin, Patoo one-sided to be truly effective.▼ mela Tiffin, Ann-Margret, Alice Faye, Tom State of the Union (1948) 124m. ★★★1⁄2 [ 1314 ]

D: Frank Capra. Spencer Tracy, Katharine Bob Gunton, Barton Heyman, Lily Knight, Hepburn, Angela Lansbury, Van Johnson, Jane Hoffman. Annoyingly uneven comedyAdolphe Menjou, Lewis Stone, Raymond drama about a strange young man (GorWalburn, Margaret Hamilton, Carl (Alfalfa) don) and his rather unusual invention, a Switzer, Charles Lane, Tor Johnson. ConTV which can supposedly tune in to heaven. temporary as ever, this literate comedySometimes genuinely touching and funny, drama (adapted from the Howard Lindbut long stretches are deadening and dull. say–Russel Crouse play) casts Tracy as an Gunton steals the film with his expert industrialist who struggles to keep his integperformance as a hilariously paranoid street rity as he’s swallowed into the political maevangelist. Written by leading actor Gorchinery of running for President. Hepburn is don and director Romanek. [R]▼●쩠 his wife and conscience, Lansbury a powerStation, The (1990-Italian) C-92m. ★★★ D: hungry millionairess backing the campaign, Sergio Rubini. Sergio Rubini, Margherita Van Johnson the sardonic campaign manBuy, Ennio Fantastichini. Engrossing ager. Great entertainment.▼●쩠 comedy-drama, with director Rubini starState of Things, The (1982-German) ring as an unpretentious rural railroad clerk. 120m. ★★★ D: Wim Wenders. Allen GoorHis peaceful life is disrupted by the arrival witz (Garfield), Samuel Fuller, Paul Getty of a beautiful woman on the lam from her III, Roger Corman, Patrick Bauchau. Fasbrutal boyfriend. The manner in which the cinating if uneven mystery from Wenders, three characters interrelate forms the crux centering on what happens as a film crew of this engaging, allegorical sleeper.▼ attempts to complete a remake of Corman’s Station Agent, The (2003) C-88m. ★★★ D: THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED on Tom McCarthy. Peter Dinklage, Patricia location in Portugal. Interesting as a peek Clarkson, Bobby Cannavale, Raven Goodbehind the scenes at the filmmaking prowin, Paul Benjamin, Michelle Williams, cess, and as an homage to Corman.▼● Richard Kind, Josh Pais. Refreshingly origiState Property (2002) C-88m. BOMB D: nal indie about three lonely people who beAbdul Malik Abbott. Beanie Sigel, Jay-Z, come friends in a quiet lakefront N.J. town: Damon Dash, Memphis Bleek, Omillio a dwarf who inherits (and moves into) a Sparks, Brother Newz, Oschino, Sundy Cardecrepit railroad depot, a young hotshot ter, Dee Lee, Tyran ‘‘Ty-Ty’’ Smith. Violent who operates the food wagon outside, and a junk about the rise (and inevitable fall) of a divorced woman who’s trying to get over cocky, brutal gangsta, a Philadelphia drug lord some emotional hurdles. A small, obsernamed Beans (Sigel). The characters endvant, eminently satisfying film. Writer and lessly utter the ‘‘f’’ and ‘‘n’’ words, and are as first-time director McCarthy tailored the leading roles for these three actors. [R]▼쩠 demeaning and stereotypical as those played decades earlier by Stepin Fetchit. [R]▼쩠 Stationmaster’s Wife, The (1977-German) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rainer Werner FassState Secret (1950-British) 104m. ★★★ D: Sidney Gilliat. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Glynis binder. Kurt Raab, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Johns, Herbert Lom, Jack Hawkins, Walter Gustal Bayrhammer, Bernhard Helfrich, Rilla. American doctor tries to flee Middle Udo Kier, Volker Spengler. Studied, stylEuropean country after he discovers its real ized look at a beautiful woman’s affairs leader has been assassinated and replaced and manipulation of her husband in prewith a double. Intelligent and witty suspense Hitler Germany. Some telling moments, yarn; screenplay by Gilliat, from a Roy Hugand fine performances, but awfully slow gins novel. Originally released in U.S. as THE going. Made for German television at 200m. GREAT MANHUNT. Released theatrically in U.S. in 1983.▼쩠 Stateside (2004-U.S.-German) C-97m. ★★ Station Six-Sahara (1964-British) 99m. ★1 D: Reverge Anselmo. Rachael Leigh Cook, ⁄2 D: Seth Holt. Carroll Baker, Peter Van Jonathan Tucker, Agnes Bruckner, Val KilEyck, Ian Bannen, Denholm Elliott, Biff mer, Joe Mantegna, Daniel Franzese, Carrie McGuire. Dreary yarn of five love-starved Fisher, Diane Venora, Ed Begley, Jr., Paul men who find something new to fight over Le Mat, Joanne Pankow, George DiCenzo. when sexpot Baker and her estranged husIll-fated love story between a young Marine band crash land at their desert oasis. and a schizophrenic musician who’s conWritten by Bryan Forbes and Brian Clemens. fined to a mental hospital. Though family Station West (1948) 80m. ★★★ D: Sidney and friends try to keep these two messed-up Lanfield. Dick Powell, Jane Greer, Tom kids apart, it doesn’t always work out that Powers, Steve Brodie, Gordon Oliver, Rayway. Strange, disjointed romance has lots of mond Burr, Agnes Moorehead, Burl Ives, loose ends with nothing tying them together. Guinn Williams, Regis Toomey. EnterImpressive cast members appear mostly in taining adaptation of Luke Short story about misbegotten cameos. Kilmer is a hoot as the undercover military intelligence officer D.I.; look for an unbilled Penny Marshall as Powell stirring up trouble in Western town a lieutenant. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 to find who’s behind series of gold robberies. Static (1985) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark RoScript (by Frank Fenton and Winston Miller) manek. Keith Gordon, Amanda Plummer, has sharp dialogue throughout. Originally [ 1315 ]

released at 92m. Also shown in computerStay Hungry (1976) C-103m. ★★★ D: Bob colored version.▼ Rafelson. Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, ArStatue, The (1970-British) C-84m. BOMB nold Schwarzenegger, R. G. Armstrong, D: Rod Amateau. David Niven, Virna Robert Englund, Helena Kallianiotes, Roger Lisi, Robert Vaughn, Ann Bell, John Cleese, Mosley, Scatman Crothers, Fannie Flagg, David Mills. Poor comedy concerning Joanna Cassidy, Richard Gilliland, Ed 20-foot statue (replica of Niven) with enorBegley, Jr., John David Carson, Joe Spinell. mous male organ. [R]▼ Charles Gaines novel about body-building Statutory Affair SEE: Lola (1969) in the ‘‘New South’’ is eccentric mixture Stavisky . . . (1974-French-Italian) Cof comedy and drama, but many fine scenes; 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Resnais. Jean-Paul happy performances from Field and Schwarzenegger make it worthwhile. [R]▼●쩠 Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Franc¸ois Pe´rier, Anny Duperey, Michel Lonsdale, Roberto Staying Alive (1983) C-96m. ★★ D: SylBisacco, Claude Rich, Ge´rard Depardieu. vester Stallone. John Travolta, Cynthia Stylish bio of French swindler of the early Rhodes, Finola Hughes, Steve Inwood, 1930s; pleasant cast, lavish photography (by Julie Bovasso, Frank Stallone. Sequel to Sacha Vierny), fine Stephen Sondheim score. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER is fashioned Screenplay by Jorge Semprun. [PG]▼쩠 by director/cowriter Stallone into a ROCKYStay (2005) C-99m. ★★ D: Marc Forster. type vehicle for Travolta, who juggles two Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Goswomen in his life while trying to score as a ling, Janeane Garofalo, B. D. Wong, Bob dancer on Broadway. Broadway show finale, Hoskins, Kate Burton, Michael Gaston, Mark Satan’s Alley (billed, with amazing accuracy, Margolis, Elizabeth Reaser, Amy Sedaris, as amusical trip through Hell) is a camp classic, Isaach De Bankole´. Shrink McGregor bebut neither the script nor the music (mostly by comes psychologically unhinged as he takes Sly’s brother Frank) are in a class with the origon a new patient, a deeply disturbed, suicidal inal 1977 film. Look closely for Patrick college student. Ambitious film plays with Swayze as a fellow terpsichorean. [PG]▼●쩠 concepts of time, reality, and the meaning Staying Together (1989) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: of sanity and insanity, as dead people come Lee Grant. Sean Astin, Stockard Chanalive and the past, present, and future ning, Melinda Dillon, Jim Haynie, Levon blend . . . but it’s all a jumble, despite some Helm, Dinah Manoff, Dermot Mulroney, arresting visuals. A disappointment from Tim Quill, Keith Szarabajka, Daphne Forster (MONSTER’S BALL, FINDING Zuniga. Close-knit small-town family, with NEVERLAND). You might add the Brookthree boys on the verge of manhood, gets lyn Bridge to the cast list. Super 35. [R]쩠 pulled in all directions. Pat comedy-drama Stay Alive (2006) C-85m. ★★ D: William has one too many subplots, though entire Brent Bell. Jon Foster, Samaire Armstrong, cast is good. [R]▼●쩠 Frankie Muniz, Sophia Bush, Adam GoldStay Tuned (1992) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter berg, Jimmi Simpson, Milo Ventimiglia. Hyams. John Ritter, Pam Dawber, Jeffrey Hard-core video gamers test an underground Jones, Eugene Levy, David Tom, Heather horror survival title, only to die gruesomely, McComb, Bob Dishy, Joyce Gordon, Erik one by one, exactly like their digital avatars. King, Salt ’n Pepa. Terminal couch potato The culprit: 17th-century Hungarian ‘‘Blood Ritter unwittingly makes a pact with DevCountess’’ Elizabeth Ba´thory, who haunts the ilish Jones, and finds himself and his wife game and hunts its players. Startling juxtaposucked into a TV world in which they’re sition of real life and realm life is the New part of the shows, from wrestling to privateOrleans–set thriller’s sole thrill, but it’s a good eye mysteries. Promising premise goes noone. As for the dramaturgy, Ba´thory—even if where in this dismal comedy; the only undead—should sue for defamation. Alternate chuckles come from quick spoofs of TV version runs 101m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 titles, and the only segment that works is Stay As You Are (1978-French) C-95m. an animated cartoon supervised by the great ★1⁄2 D: Alberto Lattuada. Marcello MaChuck Jones. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 stroianni, Nastassia Kinski, Francisco Steagle, The (1971) C-90m. ★★ D: Paul Rabal, Monica Randal, Giuliana Calandra. Sylbert. Richard Benjamin, Chill Wills, Yawner with a twist: Kinski, the teenaged Cloris Leachman, Jean Allison, Susan Tyrromance of middle-aged Mastroianni, may rell. Missile crisis causes professor to go berbe his illegitimate daughter. For those who serk and try living in lifestyles that previously were mental fantasies. Farfetched. [R]▼쩠 want to see Kinski during her nymphet stage; others beware.▼ Steal Big, Steal Little (1995) C-135m. ★★ Stay Away, Joe (1968) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: D: Andrew Davis. Andy Garcia, Alan Peter Tewksbury. Elvis Presley, Burgess Arkin, Rachel Ticotin, Joe Pantoliano, HolMeredith, Joan Blondell, Katy Jurado, land Taylor, Ally Walker, David Ogden Thomas Gomez, Henry Jones, L. Q. Jones. Stiers, Charles Rocket, Richard Bradford, Bad film, even for Presley, about contemKevin McCarthy. Amiable mess of a movie porary Indians. Reinforces stereotypes, fails with plot strands going in all directions; a to entertain. Panavision. [M/PG]▼●쩠 real shame, too, because there’s a nice feel [ 1316 ]

to this modern fable about twin brothers, wise, outstanding performance as the late friend, a troubled free spirit. [PG-13]▼●쩠 separated in childhood, who take different Stealing Time (2003) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Marc paths in life. One greedily pursues money Fusco. Charlotte Ayanna, Ethan Embry, Peter and power, the other grows up with a freeFacinelli, Scott Foley, Jennifer Garner, Paul spirited share-the-wealth ideal. Garcia has Dooley. Well-meaning but muddled account never been more engaging. Set and shot in of four recent college graduates, all anxious to Santa Barbara, California. [PG-13]▼●쩠 start their real-world lives, who deal with their Stealing Beauty (1996-French-Italian-British★★★ frustrations as they attempt to realize their D: Bernardo Bertolucci. U.S.) C-119m. dreams. Then one of them learns he is termiJeremy Irons, Liv Tyler, Joseph Fiennes, nally ill. Tries desperately to be philosophical Sinead Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Stefania and poignant but then, confusingly and anSandrelli, Jean Marais, D. W. Moffett, noyingly, morphs into a caper film . . . a bad Donal McCann, Jason Flemyng. 19-yearone at that! Aka RENNIE’S LANDING. [R] old American girl spends the summer at a ▼쩠 villa in Tuscany filled with wildly divergent Stealth (2005) C-121m. ★★ D: Rob Cohen. characters and discovers her own indepenJosh Lucas, Jessica Biel, Jamie Foxx, Sam dence as she affects the lives of all those Shepard, Richard Roxburgh, Joe Morton, around her. Bertolucci returns to his Italian Ian Bliss, Ebon Moss-Bachrach; voice of roots for this charming contemporary story. Wentworth Miller. It’s TOP GUN with Tyler is a star in the making here, and Irons is HAL-9000 as a pilot. Hotshot Navy pilots touching as a dying man who finds renewed Lucas, Biel, and Foxx are presented with life from this young visitor. Bertolucci cothe fourth member of their team: a plane scripted, from his story. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 that flies itself, so smart it has a personality. ★1 Stealing Harvard (2002) C-83m. ⁄2 D: When the aircraft ventures beyond its proBruce McCulloch. Tom Green, Jason Lee, gramming, highly predictable crises ensue. Leslie Mann, Megan Mullally, Dennis Farina, Expensive action thriller with lots of effects Tammy Blanchard, Richard Jenkins, Chris but hollow characters. Panavision. [PGPenn, John C. McGinley, Seymour Cassel, 13]▼쩠 Linda Cardellini. Engaged Lee’s $30,000 nest Steal This Movie (2000) C-111m. ★★ D: egg goes poof when he’s rudely reminded of Robert Greenwald. Vincent D’Onofrio, Janea years-ago offer to put trailer-dwelling niece ane Garofalo, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kevin Blanchard through school. Now, she’s bePollak, Donal Logue, Kevin Corrigan, Troy come Harvard material, and it’s up to Lee’s Garity, Joyce Gordon, Bernard Kay. Onepal Green to help him come up with the cash. dimensional portrait of celebrated 1960s/70s ‘‘Tom Green’’ and ‘‘Harvard’’ should never political activist Abbie Hoffman, founder of appear on the same marquee, though not the Yippie movement, who spent years hidevery movie can get Farina (as Lee’s future ing out from the Feds. D’Onofrio (who in-law) into a dress. He makes it look almost coexecutive produced) is good, but the film as off-the-rack as this script. [PG-13] ▼쩠 is disappointingly superficial. Garofalo and Stealing Heaven (1988-British-YugoTripplehorn are well cast as the women in slavian) C-115m. ★★★ D: Clive Donner. Hoffman’s life. Garity plays his real-life faKim Thomson, Derek de Lint, Denholm ther, Tom Hayden. [R]▼쩠 Elliott, Mark Jax, Bernard Hepton, KenSteamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) 71m. ★★★ D: neth Cranham, Angela Pleasence, Rachel Charles F. Riesner. Buster Keaton, Ernest Kempson. Beautifully photographed (if Torrence, Marion Byron, Tom Lewis, Tom somewhat anachronistic) period piece about McGuire. Buster plays a milquetoast who the real-life 12th-century lovers Abelard must prove his manhood to steamboat captain and He´loise. Intelligent treatment even infather (Torrence). Not one of Keaton’s best corporates discussions of theology in the silents, but there are great moments, and clascontext of this passionate romance. Threatsic, eye-popping cyclone finale.▼●쩠 ened with an X rating, film was trimmed Steamboat ’Round the Bend (1935) 81m. ★★★ to 108m. for U.S. release; both versions D: John Ford. Will Rogers, Anne Shirley, available on video. [R]▼● Irvin S. Cobb, Eugene Pallette, Berton Stealing Home (1988) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Churchill, John McGuire, Stepin Fetchit, Steven Kampmann, Will Aldis. Mark HarFrancis Ford, Pardner Jones, Charles Midmon, Jodie Foster, William McNamara, Blair dleton. Enjoyable Ford/Rogers period-piece Brown, Harold Ramis, Jonathan Silverman, of steamboat captain (Rogers) who pilots a Richard Jenkins, John Shea, Ted Ross, Helen ramshackle floating waxworks museum, Hunt, Thatcher Goodwin, Yvette Croskey. from which he also dispenses highly alcoHas-been baseball player is summoned home holic cure-all medicine. Shirley is particuto take care of the ashes of an old friend, larly good as swamp-girl taken in by Rogers. who killed herself. Story flashes back to his Churchill shines in comic role of river relationship with her at several ages. Earnest prophet ‘‘The New Moses.’’ Climactic but pat, semi-autobiographical script (by the steamboat race is a gem. Released posthudirectors) is helped immeasurably by Foster’s mously after Rogers’ tragic death.쩠 [ 1317 ]

Steamboy (2004-Japanese) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 cations in southern Africa, this failed to ˆ tomo. Voices of Anna PaD: Katsuhiro O extend Swayze’s meteoric success in quin, Alfred Molina, Patrick Stewart, Kari DIRTY DANCING. [R]▼●쩠 Wahlgren. Set in Victorian England, this Steele Justice (1987) C-95m. ★★ D: Robelaborate, overlong anime feature by the diert Boris. Martin Kove, Sela Ward, Ronny rector of AKIRA runs out of steam (no pun Cox, Bernie Casey, Joseph Campanella, intended) midway through. Youngster Ray Soon-Teck Oh, Jan Gan Boyd, Robert Steam is entrusted with a ‘‘steam ball,’’ an Kim, Peter Kwong, Shannon Tweed, Sarah incredible source of energy at the heart of Douglas. Howlingly absurd action-revenge a feud between his power-mad father and yarn with beefy Vietnam vet Kove investieccentric reclusive grandfather. It all comes gating the murder of a Vietnamese friend to a head during action-packed climax, and his family in L.A., and going after when father’s gargantuan Steam Tower runs former Viet general who’s now a druglord amok through London. Too much talk, not in America. Nagging doubts persist—do enough action, though there are compelling the filmmakers intend this to be so funny? visuals, elaborate production design, and first—but Kove’s impromptu wound-cauterizing rate animation. Original version (available in scene makes it all worthwhile. [R]▼● subtitled form) runs 140m. [PG-13]쩠 Steel Helmet, The (1951) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 Steaming (1985-British) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Samuel Fuller. Gene Evans, Robert HutJoseph Losey. Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah ton, Steve Brodie, James Edwards, Richard Miles, Diana Dors, Patti Love, Brenda Loo, Sid Melton. Evans is a gutsy American Bruce, Felicity Dean, Sally Sagoe. Dissergeant caught in dizzying turn of events in appointing adaptation of the Nell Dunn play, early days of Korean war; solid melodrama about the interactions of a group of women written by Fuller, with surprisingly contempoin a run-down London steam bath. Not all that rary view of war itself.▼쩠 bad, really, with collectively above-average Steel Magnolias (1989) C-118m. ★★★ D: performances, but sorely lacks the humor Herbert Ross. Sally Field, Dolly Parton, that made it work so well on stage. Director Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts, Tom Skerritt, Losey’s last film, and Dors’ as well. [R]▼ 1 ★★ Steel (1980) C-99m. Sam Shepard, Dylan McDermott, Kevin J. ⁄2 D: Steve Carver. Lee Majors, Jennifer O’Neill, Art Carney, O’Connor, Bill McCutcheon, Ann WedgeGeorge Kennedy, Harris Yulin, Terry Kiser, worth, Janine Turner. Slick comedy-drama Richard Lynch, Roger Mosley, Albert about several years in the lives of the Salmi, R. G. Armstrong. Fast-moving, women who congregate at Parton’s beauty entertaining time-killer about construction parlor in a small Louisiana town. No workers struggling to complete a skyscraper TERMS OF ENDEARMENT, but does on schedule. Filmed in Lexington, Ky. Aka provide solid entertainment. Written by LOOK DOWN AND DIE and MEN OF Robert Harling, who expanded his own oneSTEEL. [PG]▼ set play for the screen (and plays the minis1 ★ Steel (1997) C-97m. ⁄2 D: Kenneth Johnter here). Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 son. Shaquille O’Neal, Annabeth Gish, Judd Steelyard Blues (1973) C-93m. ★★★ D: Nelson, Richard Roundtree, Irma P. Hall, Ray Alan Myerson. Jane Fonda, Donald SuthJ., Charles Napier. Film version of DC Comerland, Peter Boyle, Garry Goodrow, Howics’ ‘‘Steel’’ with basketball great Shaq in the ard Hesseman, John Savage. Entertaining title role, as a tall superhero with a heart of comic concoction by David S. Ward about gold, wearing a funny metal suit and doing band of misfits who become involved in battle with stereotypical enemies of modern nutty project of rejuvenating abandoned civilization. As endearing as Shaq can be, airplane. Amiably antiestablishment film he should definitely not give up his day job. highlights Boyle as an ingenious fantasist named Eagle. [PG]▼쩠 [PG-13] ▼● Steel Bayonet (1957-British) 84m. ★★ D: Stella (1990) C-109m. ★★ D: John Erman. Michael Carreras. Leo Genn, Kieron Moore, Bette Midler, John Goodman, Trini AlvaMichael Medwin, Robert Brown. Military rado, Stephen Collins, Marsha Mason, Eiunit is ordered to defend deserted farmleen Brennan, Linda Hart, Ben Stiller, house/lookout base at all costs. Tame WW2 William McNamara. Update of the perenfilm set in Africa; watch for Michael Caine nial soaper STELLA DALLAS goes with as a German soldier. Hammerscope. the times on only one plot element: in this Steel Dawn (1987) C-100m. ★★ D: Lance version, Stella doesn’t marry the father of Hool. Patrick Swayze, Lisa Niemi, Chrisher child. Tolerable for a while, but hopetopher Neame, Brion James, Anthony lessly anachronistic. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Zerbe, John Fujioka, Brett Hool. FuturisStella Dallas (1937) 106m. ★★★ D: King tic rehash of SHANE has Swayze as the Vidor. Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne mysterious warrior who ends up protecting Shirley, Barbara O’Neil, Alan Hale, Tim pretty farmer Niemi (his real-life wife) Holt, Marjorie Main. Definitive soap opera and her cute son against evil Zerbe and his (from Olive Higgins Prouty’s novel) of henchmen. Filmed on attractive desert lowoman who sacrifices everything for her [ 1318 ]

daughter; Stanwyck gives one of her finest state of the women of Stepford, Connecticut. performances. Tearjerking score by Alfred Script by William Goldman from Ira Levin’s Newman. Filmed before in 1925; remade in best-seller. Seven-year-old Mary Stuart 1990 as STELLA. ▼●쩠 Masterson makes her film debut (playing St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: the daughter of real-life dad Peter MasterJoel Schumacher. Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, son). Followed by three inferior TV sequels Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Ally (REVENGE OF THE STEPFORD WIVES, Sheedy, Emilio Estevez, Mare WinningTHE STEPFORD CHILDREN, and THE ham, Martin Balsam, Jon Cutler, Joyce STEPFORD HUSBANDS) and a 2004 remake. [PG]▼●쩠 Van Patten, Andie MacDowell, Blake Clark, Matthew Laurance, Anna Maria Stepford Wives, The (2004) C-93m. ★★ D: Horsford. Slick vehicle for some charisFrankOz. Nicole Kidman,MatthewBroderick, matic young actors, as recent college grads Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walhaving a hard time coping with Real Life. ken, Roger Bart, David Marshall Grant, Jon Invites comparison to THE BREAKFAST Lovitz, Faith Hill, Mike White. Recently fired CLUB and THE BIG CHILL, but these workaholic TV exec Kidman moves with hus‘‘young adults’’ are pretty immature, and band Broderick and their kids to a Connecticut so is the film, written by director Schucommunity where everything seems perfect— macher. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 a little too perfect—especiallythe docile houseStep Brothers (2008) C-98m. ★★ D: Adam wives. Misguided remake of the 1975 movie McKay. Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richsubstitutes broad comedy for the eeriness that ard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen, Kathryn made the original (based on Ira Levin’s novel) Hahn, Adam Scott, Seth Rogen, Horatio so effective. What’s more, the concept was Sanz, Andrea Savage, Lurie Poston, Elizafresh back then; now the term ‘‘Stepford beth Yozamp. Ferrell and Reilly are 40wife’’ has entered the vernacular and there’s year-olds still living at home with their sinno suspense at all. Written by Paul Rudnick. gle parents; they suddenly become step[PG-13] ▼쩠 brothers when their respective mom and dad Stephanie Daley (2007) C-92m. ★★★ D: meet each other, marry, and move in Hilary Brougher. Tilda Swinton, Amber together—all before the opening credits! Tamblyn, Timothy Hutton, Denis O’Hare, Crux of the film has them trying to adjust Jim Gaffigan, Deirdre O’Connell, Halley Feifto each other while being threatened with fer, Kel O’Neill, Melissa Leo, Caitlin Van eviction. Dumb comedy milks its premise Zandt, Novella Nelson. When a 16-year-old for some occasional laughs. Unrated version girl is accused of killing her newborn baby runs 105m. Super 35. [R]쩠 during a ski trip, forensic psychologist Stepfather, The (1987) C-98m. ★★★ D: Swinton—who’s about to have her first Joseph Ruben. Terry O’Quinn, Jill Schoelen, child—is hired to determine whether the Shelley Hack, Stephen Shellen, Charles teenager was fully aware of what she did. Lanyer. Engrossing thriller has well-cast As Tamblyn recounts her experiences, O’Quinn as a meek-looking guy desperSwinton attempts to come to terms with her ately seeking to have the perfect little fears about her own pregnancy. Provocative family. He turns out to be a psycho who and satisfying drama, written by director marries widows and eventually erupts into Brougher, explores two women at different violence. Thoughtful screenplay by Donstages of their lives. The acting is superior. ald E. Westlake and taut direction by Ruben [R]쩠 highlight this sleeper. Story by Westlake, Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye SEE: Cat’s Eye Carolyn Lefcourt, and Brian Garfield. FolStephen King’s Graveyard Shift SEE: lowed by two sequels. [R]▼● Graveyard Shift Stepfather II (1989) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Jeff Stephen King’s Riding the Bullet SEE: Burr. Terry O’Quinn, Meg Foster, Jonathan Riding the Bullet Brandis, Caroline Williams, Mitchell LauStephen King’s Silver Bullet SEE: Silver rance, Henry Brown, Leon Martell, Renata Bullet Scott. Mad family killer O’Quinn escapes Stephen King’s ‘‘Sleepwalkers’’ SEE: from the booby hatch, sets himself up in subSleepwalkers urbia as a marriage counselor, and starts courtStephen King’s The Night Flier SEE: ing a potential new wife (Foster). Inferior Night Flier, The sequel is completely devoid of suspense and Stephen King’s Thinner SEE: Thinner Step Into Liquid (2003) C-88m. ★★★ D: looks cheap, but O’Quinn still manages to deliver a good performance. [R]▼●쩠 Dana Brown. Entertaining, eye-catching Stepford Wives, The (1975) C-115m. surfer documentary in which a bevy of ★★★ D: Bryan Forbes. Katharine Ross, beautiful bodies—a who’s who of contemPaula Prentiss, Peter Masterson, Nanette porary surfers—hit the waves at locations Newman, Patrick O’Neal, Tina Louise, Dee around the globe. Director is the son of Wallace, William Prince. Effective chiller Bruce Brown, who explored the subject in finds suburban housewives Ross and PrenTHE ENDLESS SUMMER and THE ENDLESS SUMMER II. 쩠 tiss trying to understand perpetually blissful [ 1319 ]

Step Lively (1944) 88m. ★★★ D: Tim Whelan. Frank Sinatra, George Murphy, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria DeHaven, Eugene Pallette, Anne Jeffreys, Walter Slezak. Brisk musical remake of ROOM SERVICE with producer Murphy wheeling and dealing to get his show produced. Engagingly frantic, with sharp dialogue, funny contribution by Slezak as the hotel manager. If you blink you’ll miss (brunette) Dorothy Malone as switchboard operator in lobby.▼쩠 Stepmom (1998) C-125m. ★★ D: Chris Columbus. Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts, Ed Harris, Jena Malone, Liam Aiken, Lynn Whitfield. Slick, big-studio, all-star treatment of life after divorce. Sarandon plays a woman who objects to the presence of her ex’s girlfriend in her children’s lives. Glossy melodrama with occasional touches of humor; the leads outshine the mawkish material. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Stepmother, The (1971) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Hikmet Avedis. Alejandro Rey, John Anderson, Katherine Justice, John D. Garfield, Marlene Schmidt, Claudia Jennings, Duncan McLeod. Rey is okay as anti-hero of this cheapie murder-suspenser in the Hitchcock mold. John Garfield’s son is unimpressive in support. Aka IMPULSION. [R]▼ Steppenwolf (1974) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred Haines. Max von Sydow, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clementi, Carla Romanelli, Alfred Bailloux. Literal adaptation of Herman Hesse’s unfilmable novel about a misanthropic writer and an enigmatic young woman. Visually jazzy, rarely boring, but a dead end. [R]

the dance teacher, whose style suggests Martha Graham trying to breakdance. Followed by a sequel. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13]쩠 Step Up 2 the Streets (2008) C-98m. ★★ D: Jon Chu. Briana Evigan, Robert Hoffman, Adam G. Sevani, Cassie Ventura, Danielle Polanco, Will Kemp, Channing Tatum. Troublesome tomboy Evigan (daughter of TV star Greg) enrolls at a performing arts school, where she assembles a dance crew made up of fellow outcasts, hoping to compete in an underground dance battle called the Streets. Story takes a distant backseat to the incredible dancing, culminating in an exciting finale. Tatum’s brief cameo is the only connection to STEP UP. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Sterile Cuckoo, The (1969) C-107m. ★★★ D: Alan J. Pakula. Liza Minnelli, Wendell Burton, Tim McIntire. Lonely Pookie Adams (Minnelli) forces herself on shy freshman Burton, who’s impelled to pay attention. Winning look at young love and sensitive feelings gives Liza a stand-out role, with Burton equally fine as naive boy who eventually outgrows her. Dory Previn’s song ‘‘Come Saturday Morning’’ is featured. Producer Pakula’s directorial debut. Based on a novel by John Nichols. [PG]▼● Stevie (1978-British) C-102m. ★★★ D: Robert Enders. Glenda Jackson, Mona Washbourne, Alec McCowen, Trevor Howard. Film version of Hugh Whitemore’s London stage play about British poetess Stevie Smith (Jackson), who lives with her maiden aunt (Washbourne). Finely wrought character study; excellent performances. [PG]▼ ▼●쩠 Stepping Out (1991) C-106m. ★★ D: Lewis Stevie (2003) C-145m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Steve Gilbert. Liza Minnelli, Shelley Winters, Bill James. Documentary from HOOP DREAMS Irwin, Ellen Greene, Julie Walters, Robyn director is just as powerful in its own way. Stevan, Jane Krakowski, Sheila McCarthy, Filmed over an extended period, it’s a poiAndrea Martin, Carol Woods, Nora Dunn. gnant portrait of a rural Illinois trouble magHarmless blue-haired musical soaper about a net to whom James, in earlier times, was smorgasbord group of Buffalo tap-dancing asan official Big Brother. Now the youth is pirants who bicker under Minnelli’s tutelage. awaiting sentencing for an alleged offense Richard Harris (not the actor) adapted his play, far more serious than his usual scrapes: sexglitzed up by director Gilbert. There’s a gratuually abusing his 8-year-old cousin. Best itous show-stopping piece at the end for Lizascene reunites Stevie with the first, and most watchers, while Winters has some genuinely loving, of his many foster-home parents affecting moments as the piano accompanist. (some of whom abused him). This is really a movie that leaves you wondering, ‘‘What [PG]▼● ★★ if . . . ?’’쩠 Step Up (2006) C-103m. D: Anne Fletcher. Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, St. Helens (1981) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ernest Rachel Griffiths, Mario, Drew Sidora, DaPintoff. Art Carney, David Huffman, Casmaine Radcliff, De’Shawn Washington, sie Yates, Ron O’Neal, Bill McKinney, Heavy D, Isaiah Washington. Monosyllabic Albert Salmi. Mount St. Helens is about to urban punk with some major dance erupt, and old codger Carney (named Harry moves—but little else—is busted vandalizTruman!) refuses to leave his home. Not ing a school of the arts, earning 200 hours too bad, with a fine Carney performance; based on a true story. [PG]▼쩠 of community service as a janitor at the scene of the crime. There he falls for a stuStick (1985) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Burt Reyndent ballerina and initiates an adagio both in olds. Burt Reynolds, Candice Bergen, and out of the rehearsal hall. Teen musical George Segal, Charles Durning, Jose culminates with the Big Show, combining Perez, Richard Lawson, Alex Rocco, hip-hop with ballet, like Eminem en pointe. Tricia Leigh Fisher, Dar Robinson. IncredDirector-choreographer Fletcher also plays ibly boring underworld melodrama about [ 1320 ]

an ex-con who sets out to avenge the like a playboy, kills for money. Repercusdeath of an old buddy and finds himself sions abound when he decides to quit his knee-deep in ugly drug dealers. Originally job. From the Harold Robbins novel. Look fast for Raul Julia in a party scene. [R]▼ set for release in 1984, then pulled back for some reshooting, which apparently Still Breathing (1998) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: didn’t help. Based on an Elmore Leonard James F. Robinson. Brendan Fraser, Joanna Going, Celeste Holm, Ann Magnuson, Lou novel. [R]▼● Stick It (2006) C-105m. ★★ D: Jessica BenRawls, Angus MacFadyen, Toby Huss, dinger. Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, Paolo Seganti, Michael McKean, Junior Vanessa Lengies, Nikki SooHoo, Maddy Brown, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. One of Curley, Kellan Lutz, John Patrick Amedori, those supposedly ‘‘magical’’ romances, in Jon Gries, Gia Carides, Polly Holliday, Julie which two complete opposites (San Antonio Warner, Annie Corley. The writer of puppeteer/dreamer Fraser and L.A. con artBRING IT ON makes her directing debut ist/cynic Going) eventually find each other. with this story of competition, dirty tricks, Two fine lead performances help lift this and behind-the-scenes juice in the world of above the routine and keep it from being teenage gymnastics. Peregrym is a washout overly syrupy. [PG-13]▼쩠 with personal problems who walked away Still Crazy (1998-U.S.-British) C-97m. ★★★ from a championship and now has nowhere D: Brian Gibson. Stephen Rea, Billy Conto go but back to training with Bridges. Difnolly, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy, fuse screenplay (by Bendinger) strays in too Juliet Aubrey, Helena Bergstrom, Bruce Robmany directions and stumbles to a ho-hum inson, Rachael Stirling. Amiable film about finish. [PG-13]쩠 the reunion of a 1970s rock band called Sticky Fingers (1988) C-97m. ★★ D: Catlin Strange Fruit and its star-crossed musicians, Adams. Helen Slater, Melanie Mayron, Daniwhose resentments and peccadilloes are still tra Vance, Eileen Brennan, Carol Kane, Lofresh after 20 years. Built on a surefire founretta Devine, Stephen McHattie, Christopher dation, the story has just enough twists to keep Guest, Gwen Welles. Dippy roommates find you guessing where it’s going and a gallery of themselves the custodians of a suitcase full of enjoyable performances. Bonus: the music is actually good. [R] ▼●쩠 drug money, which they proceed to ‘‘borrow’’ and spend. Earnest attempt at wacky, Still of the Night (1982) C-91m. ★★ D: female-slanted comedy goes completely Robert Benton. Roy Scheider, Meryl Streep, askew. Likable stars and a high energy level Jessica Tandy, Joe Grifasi, Sara Botsford, can’t keep it afloat. Scripted by director Josef Sommer. Yet another disappointing Adams and costar Mayron. [PG-13]▼● homage to Hitchcock in this tale of a psyStiffs SEE: Out Cold (1989) chiatrist attracted to a woman who may or Stiff Upper Lips (1998-British) C-94m. ★★ may not have murdered one of his patients. D: Gary Sinyor. Peter Ustinov, Prunella A cold film with more plot holes than one Scales, Georgina Cates, Samuel West, Sean would care to count. [PG]▼ Pertwee, Robert Portal, Brian Glover, Frank Still Smokin’ (1983) C-91m. BOMB D: Finlay. A high-born young woman falls in Thomas Chong. Cheech Marin, Thomas love with a handsome peasant. Anemic Chong, Hansman In’t Veld, Carol Van spoof of Merchant-Ivory films and the type Herwijnen, Shirleen Stroker, Susan Hahn. of fodder that turns up on Masterpiece TheRock bottom. Not even the most forgiving atre. Some easy laughs here and there, but C & C fans can justify this nonmovie that as parodies go this one is second-rate.▼쩠 climaxes a scant plot involving an AmStigmata (1999) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Rupert sterdam film festival with twenty minutes Wainwright. Patricia Arquette, Gabriel of laughless concert footage. An unreByrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Thomas leaseable film that somehow made it to Kopache, Rade Sherbedgia (Serbedzija), theaters—for five-day runs. [R]▼●쩠 Enrico Colantoni, Dick Latessa, Portia de Sting, The (1973) C-129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rossi. A lotta Sturm, a lotta Drang, but not George Roy Hill. Paul Newman, Robert much else in this EXORCIST derivation Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning, about a young woman who quite suddenly Ray Walston, Eileen Brennan, Harold suffers from bloody attacks (a` la stigmata) Gould, Dana Elcar, Jack Kehoe, Dimitra and hallucinations . . . and the Vatican sciArliss, Charles Dierkop, Sally Kirkland. entist/priest who comes to investigate. Two small-time Chicago con men try to put Loud, flamboyant (with meaningless close‘‘the sting’’ on a high-roller from N.Y.C. ups of coffee pouring, an egg frying, etc.), (Shaw) after he has one of their pals killed. but hopeless. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 This long but entertaining film won seven Stiletto (1969) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Bernard Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Kowalski. Alex Cord, Britt Ekland, Patand Screenplay (David S. Ward), and rick O’Neal, Joseph Wiseman, Barbara sparked national revival of Scott Joplin’s McNair, Roy Scheider, Charles Durning, ragtime music (arranged here by Oscar winM. Emmett Walsh. Weak Mafia meloner Marvin Hamlisch). Sequel: THE STING II. [PG] ▼●쩠 drama about handsome killer who lives [ 1321 ]

Sting II, The (1983) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Thompson. Charles Bronson, John HouseJeremy Paul Kagan. Jackie Gleason, Mac man, Jacqueline Bisset, Harry Guardino, Davis, Teri Garr, Karl Malden, Oliver Maximilian Schell, Harris Yulin, Dana Elcar, Reed, Bert Remsen. Even as recent sequels Elisha Cook, Michael Lerner, Daniel J. Trago, this tardy follow-up to the Oscar winner is vanti. Muddled yarn about would-be writer pretty limp. Gleason and Davis (in Newman’s Bronson who becomes a pawn for wealthy and Redford’s roles!) rig a boxing match deconniver Houseman and his beautiful associsigned to shaft Malden, with Reed (in Shaw’s ate (Bisset) and finds himself involved in murrole) as an unknowing cog in the scheme. der. Glossy but stupid. Look for Jeff Goldblum and Robert Englund as hoods. [PG]▼쩠 Despite the male milieu, only Garr delivers a lively performance. Oddly, David S. Ward St. Louis Blues (1958) 93m. ★★ D: Allen wrote this one, too. [PG]▼●쩠 Reisner. Nat ‘‘King’’ Cole, Eartha Kitt, Stingray (1978) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: RichRuby Dee, Pearl Bailey, Juano Hernandez, ard Taylor. Sherry Jackson, Christopher Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Mitchum, Bill Watson, Les Lannom, SonJackson. Treacly dramatics interspersed dra Theodore, Bert Hinchman. Low-grade with outstanding musical performances in mix of action, blood, and comedy as this so-called biography of W. C. Handy Mitchum and Lannom buy a Stingray, (Cole, in his lone starring role), who comunaware that it’s filled with stolen loot and posed the title tune. Billy Preston plays dope, prompting pursuit by murderous JackHandy as a boy. VistaVision. son. Filmed in and around St. Louis. Aka St. Louis Kid (1934) 67m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray ABIGAIL: WANTED. [PG]▼ Enright. James Cagney, Patricia Ellis, Allen ★★★1 Stir (1980-Australian) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Jenkins, Robert Barrat, Addison Richards. Stephen Wallace. Bryan Brown, Max Breezy Cagney vehicle casts him and Jenkins Phipps, Dennis Miller, Michael Gow, Phil as truckdriving buddies who have a knack Motherwell, Gary Waddell. Harrowing tale for getting into trouble—and wind up in of life in prison, focusing on the jailors’ the middle of a war between a dairy trust brutality and culminating in riots and deand angry farmers. struction. Excellent performances by all, St. Martin’s Lane SEE: Sidewalks of particularly Brown; a memorable first feaLondon ture for Wallace. Screenplay by Ben Jewson, Stolen Children (1992-Italian-French) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gianni Amelio. Enrico based on first-hand experience. Stir Crazy (1980) C-111m. ★★★ D: SidLo Verso, Valentina Scalici, Giuseppe Ieraciney Poitier. Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, tano, Florence Darel, Marina Golovine. A sisGeorg Stanford Brown, JoBeth Williams, ter and brother are dragged across half of Italy Miguelangel Suarez, Craig T. Nelson, Barry after their no-good mother is arrested; they’ve Corbin, Erland van Lidth de Jeude, Lee been neglected, and the girl knows more Purcell. Broadly funny film about two yoyos about the business of prostitution than any 11who bungle their way into prison. No great year-old should. Young military man Lo shakes in terms of script or direction; just Verso, charged with transporting these una lot of good laughs. Screenplay by Bruce wanted wards of the state, grows to care about Jay Friedman; lively score by Tom Scott. them. Stunning, simple film (a multi-award Later a brief TV series. [R]▼●쩠 winner in Europe) harks back to the Italian Stir of Echoes (1999) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Neo-realist school, with three unbeatable perDavid Koepp. Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, formances. Scripted by Sandro Petraglia, SteKevin Dunn, Illeana Douglas, Liza Weil, fano Rulli, and the director. Original title: IL Conor O’Farrell, Jenny Morrison, Zachary LADRO DI BAMBINI. ▼ David Cope. Working-class Chicagoan unStolen Hours, The (1963) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 dergoes hypnosis for a lark and suddenly D: Daniel Petrie. Susan Hayward, Michael finds himself haunted by visions and premoCraig, Diane Baker, Edward Judd, Paul nitions—just like his five-year-old son, who Rogers. Hayward takes Bette Davis’ DARK sees ghosts. Intriguing film plays with our VICTORY, transplants it to contemporary emotions and becomes increasingly unEngland, in tale of woman with fatal illness pleasant as it goes along. Koepp adapted trying to get as much out of life as she can. Richard Matheson’s novel. Followed by a Original is far superior in all departments.▼ direct-to-DVD sequel. [R]▼●쩠 Stolen Kisses (1968-French) C-87m. ★★★★ Stitches (1985) C-89m. BOMB D: Alan D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Jean-Pierre Le´aud, DelSmithee (Rod Holcomb). Parker Stevenphine Seyrig, Michel Lonsdale, Claude Jade, son, Geoffrey Lewis, Brian Tochi, Robin Harry Max, Daniel Ceccaldi. This alternately Dearden, Eddie Albert. Derivative comtouching and hilarious film about an inept but edy about medical students’ hijinks is not likable jerk-of-all-trades is possibly Truffaut’s titillating or funny enough to be diverting. best movie and one of the best treatments of Director Holcomb had his name removed young love ever put on the screen. Third in his from the credits after film was doctored Antoine Doinel series, followed by BED AND BOARD. [R]▼쩠 during postproduction. [R]▼ St. Ives (1976) C-93m. ★★ D: J. Lee Stolen Life, A (1946) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1322 ]

Curtis Bernhardt. Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, performances. May be too slow and introDane Clark, Walter Brennan, Charlie Rugspective for some viewers’ taste. Film debut gles, Bruce Bennett, Peggy Knudsen. A twin of Cain (the director’s stepson). [PG]▼쩠 takes her sister’s place as wife of the man they Stone Cold (1991) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Craig both love in this slick but far-fetched soaper R. Baxley. Brian Bosworth, Lance Henrikwith Bette in dual role; remake of 1939 film sen, William Forsythe, Arabella Holzbog, with Elisabeth Bergner. Only movie proSam McMurray. Football’s ‘‘Boz’’ infilduced by Davis.▼● trates a gang of Mississippi bikers whose Stolen Summer (2002) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: extortion antics have caught the attention Pete Jones. Aidan Quinn, Bonnie Hunt, of both the Feds and the Mob. Only some Kevin Pollak, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Mike amazing stunts save this silliness from the Weinberg, Adi Stein, Brian Dennehy. CathBOMB scrap heap. Written and executive olic boy in Chicago whose teacher keeps produced by Walter Doniger, who once diwarning him that he’s headed for Hell derected Mantle and Maris in SAFE AT cides to do something to earn himself a HOME! [R]▼●쩠 place in Heaven: converting a Jew to ChrisStone Cold Dead (1980-Canadian) C-97m. ★★1 tianity. Child’s-eye story of faith and toler⁄2 D: George Mendeluk. Richard Crenna, ance set in the 1970s is simple and sincere; Paul Williams, Linda Sorenson, Belinda J. it wears its heart on its sleeve but dares to Montgomery, Charles Shamata, George swim against the tide of cynicism. Produced Chuvalo. Cop Crenna versus mobster Wilby Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as part of liams. Compact little drama. [R]▼ their ‘‘Project Greenlight’’ endeavor to give Stoned (2006-British) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Stestruggling filmmakers a chance. [PG]▼쩠 phen Woolley. Leo Gregory, Paddy ConsidStomp the Yard (2007) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: ine, David Morrissey, Ben Whishaw, Monet Sylvain White. Columbus Short, Meagan Mazur, Tuva Novotny, Amelia Warner. Good, Ne-Yo, Darrin Henson, Brian J. White, Movie alleges that debauched and deposed Laz Alonso, Valarie Pettiford, Harry Lennix, Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones didn’t Chris Brown. DIRTY DANCING meets just drown in his swimming pool but was BOYZ N THE HOOD in this energetic musidrowned by his builder-turned-gofer. Mick cal drama in which a South L.A. youth disJagger, Keith Richards, and Anita Pallencovers talent for an old tradition when he berg are among the supporting characters. starts ‘‘stepping’’ after transferring to an AtThis can’t miss, you say? It does. For a lanta college. In doing so he becomes the biopic about early Brit rock see BACKfocus of a major competition between dueling BEAT, and for one about star resentment, fraternities. Story has a nice message but it’s see AUTO FOCUS. Focus is the problem Short’s high ‘‘stepping’’ style that carries the here, or lack of it. And a movie about the day—and the film. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Stones that’s missing Stones music is a fuzzy-brained concept to begin with.쩠 Stone Angel, The (2008-Canadian-British) C-115m. ★★ D: Kari Skogland. Ellen Stone Killer, The (1973) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Burstyn, Christine Horne, Cole Hauser, Michael Winner. Charles Bronson, Martin Wings Hauser, Ellen Page, Kevin Zegers, Balsam, David Sheiner, Norman Fell, Ralph Dylan Baker, Luke Kirby. Multigenerational Waite. Good action in thriller about hardtale based on a beloved 1964 Canadian headed cop trying to unravel chain of mystery novel casts Burstyn as a proud, stubborn 90that leads to elaborate plan using Vietnam vets year-old who evades her son’s plan to put to stage underworld massacre. Well made but pretty violent. [R]▼● her in a nursing home, instead heading up north to relive memories (in flashback) of Stone Reader (2003) C-128m. ★★★ D: her youth and marriage to a gruff husband Mark Moskowitz. Filmmaker Moskowitz, (played at different ages by father and son an avid reader, revisits a 1972 novel called Wings and Cole Hauser). Sheer scope of The Stones of Summer and determines to find the story, spanning several decades, eludes out what ever happened to its author, Dow writer-director Skogland, who employs a Mossman, who never published again despite rushed TV cutting style that truncates whatstrong reviews for his debut book. In his ever pleasures were found in Margaret Lausearch he talks to literary critics, teachers, rence’s book. Burstyn is in fine form. Super writers, and fellow readers, not just about the 35. [R]쩠 elusive Mossman but about the nature of Stone Boy, The (1984) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: books and how they affect their readers. An Chris Cain. Robert Duvall, Jason Presson, offbeat but fascinating odyssey, especially Glenn Close, Frederic Forrest, Wilford for book lovers. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Brimley, Gail Youngs, Cindy Fisher, Linda Stonewall (1995-U.S.-British) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 Hamilton, Dean Cain. Tragedy sends a simD: Nigel Finch. Guillermo Diaz, Fred Welple farming family into shock, and leaves ler, Brendan Corbalis, Bruce MacVittie, the youngest boy to sort out his problems Luis Guzman, Duane Boutte, Matthew Faber. on his own. Perceptive and poignant look at Historic look-back at the 1969 Greenwich the way people react to serious situations Village bar riot that sparked the gay rights in real life, with a gallery of outstanding movement, told as a fictitious personal story [ 1323 ]

about a young Puerto Rican drag queen (the instead of being mustered out he’s been terrific Diaz) who becomes politically con‘‘stop-lossed,’’ set for another tour of duty scious when he falls in love with an idealistic overseas. Moving story of young men torn midwestern hippie. Important subject matter apart (literally and figuratively) by a brutal deserved better, bigger-budgeted film, but this war and a hypocritical military agenda. is still an effective portrait of discrimination. Veers toward melodrama at times, but it still Director Finch died of AIDS shortly after the has the ring of truth. [R]쩠 film was completed. Isaiah Washington has a Stop Making Sense (1984) C-88m. ★★★★ bit part as a cop. [R]▼●쩠 D: Jonathan Demme. Brilliantly conceived, ★★★ Stony Island (1978) C-97m. shot, edited, and performed Talking Heads D: Andrew Davis. Richard Davis, Edward Stony concert film benefits from the presence of a Robinson, Ronnie Barron, George Englund, major filmmaker behind the camera, as well Gene Barge, Susanna Hoffs, Rae Dawn as the imagination of lead singer/mastermind Chong. Independent feature, filmed in ChiDavid Byrne. One of the greatest rock movies cago, about an integrated group of youthful ever made; video version runs 99m. and contains three extra tunes.▼쩠 rhythm and blues performers and the death of an older black musician, nicely played by Stop Me Before I Kill! (1961-British) 109m. ★★ Barge. Fine music sequences and use of urban D: Val Guest. Claude Dauphin, Diane locations make up for lack of character and Cilento, Roland Lewis, Franc¸oise Rosay. story development. Aka MY MAIN MAN Turgid dramatics: mentally unhinged man’s FROM STONY ISLAND. [PG] new marriage is threatened by his illness Stooge, The (1953) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norand his psychiatrist’s yen for his wife. man Taurog. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Originally titled THE FULL TREATMENT. Polly Bergen, Eddie Mayehoff, Marion Megascope. Marshall. Egocentric singer (Martin) learns Stop! or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Roger Spottiswoode. Sylthe hard way just how important his stooge (Lewis) is to his success. Martin & Lewis go vester Stallone, Estelle Getty, JoBeth Wildramatic with middling results. Completed in liams, Roger Rees, Martin Ferrero, Gailard Sartain, Dennis Burkley, Ving Rhames. 1951, not released for two years.▼쩠 1 ★ Stoogemania (1985) C-83m. ⁄2 D: Chuck Cop Stallone is joined by his loud-mouthed, Workman. Josh Mostel, Melanie Chartoff, gun-toting mamma (Getty), and they erase Sid Caesar, Josh Miner, Thom Sharp. Wellcrime from the streets of L.A. One-joke acmeaning but completely unfunny tale of one tion-comedy which quickly wears thin; GetHoward F. Howard, whose passion for The ty’s character, meant to be funny, comes off Three Stooges has overtaken his life. Incorpoas thoroughly obnoxious. [PG]▼●쩠 rates real footage of the Stooges, and while Stop the World—I Want to Get Off most of it is far from their best, it’s still vastly (1966-British) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip superior to the new material in this feature. Saville. Tony Tanner, Millicent Martin, For those who care, some of the Stooge footLeila Croft, Valerie Croft. One of proage is computer-colored. [PG]▼ ducer Bill Sargent’s photographed stage Stoolie, The (1974) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: John presentations, this one preserves Anthony G. Avildsen. Jackie Mason, Dan Frazer, Newley and Leslie Bricusse’s allegorical Marcia Jean Kurtz, Anne Marie. Flawed but musical about an everyman named Littlechap interesting little film, with Mason as a paid and his bouts with life and success. A bit police informer who absconds to Miami heavy-handed, though the score includes with $7,500 in an attempt to ‘‘retire.’’▼쩠 ‘‘What Kind Of Fool Am I?’’ Opens in Stop! Look! and Laugh! (1960) 78m. b&w, then changes to color. Remade as ★★1 SAMMY STOPS THE WORLD. ▼● ⁄2 D: Jules White. The Three Stooges, Paul Winchell, Jerry Mahoney, Knucklehead Stop, You’re Killing Me (1952) C-86m. ★★ Smiff, The Marquis Chimps, Officer Joe D: Roy Del Ruth. Broderick Crawford, Bolton. Original Stooges’ funniest sequences Claire Trevor, Virginia Gibson, Sheldon strung together by ventriloquist Paul WinLeonard, Margaret Dumont. Mild froth chell and dummies is aimed at children. based on Damon Runyon story of rackeMuch of it is familiar, but still amusing.▼쩠 teer Crawford going legitimate. Remake Stop-Loss (2008) C-112m. ★★★ D: Kimbof A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER. Stork Club, The (1945) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: erly Peirce. Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Walker. Betty Hutton, Barry FitzgerCiara´n Hinds, Timothy Olyphant, Victor ald, Don Defore, Andy Russell, Iris AdriRasuk, Rob Brown, Mamie Gummer, Josef an, Robert Benchley. Hat-check girl Hutton Sommer, Linda Emond, Alex Frost, Laurie mysteriously becomes wealthy in fanciful Metcalf. After losing some of his men in a musicomedy, mainly for Betty’s fans. She bloody ambush in Iraq, Army staff sergeant sings ‘‘Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief.’’▼쩠 Phillippe and other members of his squadStormbreaker SEE: Alex Rider, Operaron return home to Texas and find readtion Stormbreaker justing to ‘‘normal’’ life to be difficult—if Storm Center (1956) 85m. ★1⁄2 D: Daniel not impossible. Then Phillippe is told that Taradash. Bette Davis, Brian Keith, Kim [ 1324 ]

Hunter, Paul Kelly. Librarian becomes cenbusinessman (Jones) hopes to make a killter of controversy over censorship and ing in redevelopment. More atmosphere Communism. Not even Davis can uplift than story here, and told at a very delibercliche´s. An inauspicious directorial debut ate pace, but strong performances by all four by veteran screenwriter Taradash. leads and striking visual ideas by writer★★ Storm Fear (1955) 88m. director Figgis (and cinematographer Roger D: Cornel Wilde. Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, Dan Deakins) definitely compensate. Figgis is also Duryea, Lee Grant, Dennis Weaver, David credited with the music score. [R]▼●쩠 Stollery, Steven Hill. Wounded bank robber Stormy Weather (1943) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wilde and two partners take refuge in farm Andrew L. Stone. Lena Horne, Bill (Bohome of his honest but sickly brother Duryea. jangles) Robinson, Cab Calloway and His Snowstorm increases group tensions and susBand, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, pense. Well-developed characters in Horton Dooley Wilson, The Nicholas Brothers. Foote’s script are enhanced by good acting. This musical offers a legendary lineup of Based on the novel by Clinton Seeley. black performers, with Lena singing title Storm in a Teacup (1937-British) 87m. song, Fats performing ‘‘Ain’t Misbehavin’,’’ ★★★ D: Victor Saville, Ian Dalrymple. Viothers doing what they do best. Only probvien Leigh, Rex Harrison, Sara Allgood, lem: a silly storyline that improbably pairs Cecil Parker, Arthur Wontner, Ivor Barnard. Bojangles and Horne romantically. ▼●쩠 Witty social comedy, set in a provincial Story of Adele H, The (1975-French) CScottish village, with Harrison a journalist 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Isabelle Adwho reports on a pompous politician’s cruel jani, Bruce Robinson, Sylvia Marriott, Reubin treatment of a widow who is unable to afDorey, Joseph Blatchley, M. White. Underford a dog-license fee. At the same time, he stated drama of young woman (the daughter finds himself falling in love with the bureauof author Victor Hugo) obsessed with a solcrat’s daughter (Leigh).▼쩠 dier who does not return her love. Adjani’s Storm Over Asia (1928-Russian) 93m. performance is excellent, but film is curiously ★★★1⁄2 D: V. I. Pudovkin. Valeri Inkizhinov, unmoving. Shot in simultaneous English and A. Dedinstev, V. Tzoppi, Paulina BelinFrench-language versions. [PG]▼●쩠 skaya. Sweeping, visually stunning drama, Story of Alexander Graham Bell, The set in 1920, about a Mongolian trapper, (1939) 97m. ★★★ D: Irving Cummings. thrust out of his village after a dispute with Don Ameche, Loretta Young, Henry Fonda, an American fur trader, who becomes a Soviet Charles Coburn, Spring Byington, Gene partisan. Eventually, he’s discovered to be a Lockhart, Polly Ann Young. Ameche overdescendant of Genghis Khan, and is set up as acts at times in his famous title role, a puppet Mongolian ruler by the British army but entertaining version of inventor is given of occupation. Filmed in Central Asia; espeplush 20th Century-Fox presentation.▼ cially memorable are the sequence in which Story of a Love Story (1973-French) the trapper is almost shot and the finale. Aka C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Frankenheimer. THE HEIR TO GENGHIS KHAN. ▼쩠 Alan Bates, Dominique Sanda, Evans Evans, Storm Over the Nile (1955-British) Lea Massari, Michel Auclair, Laurence De C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zoltan Korda, Terence Monaghan. Writer Bates has an extramarital Young. Anthony Steel, Laurence Haraffair with Sanda—or is it his imagination? vey, James Robertson Justice, Mary Ure, Interesting premise, middling result. OrigiChristopher Lee. Remake of THE FOUR nally titled IMPOSSIBLE OBJECT; never released theatrically.▼ FEATHERS (also directed by Korda) with stock footage from the original lacks class Story of a Marriage, The SEE: On Valand flair, but story is still good; script by entine’s Day and 1918 R. C. Sherriff. CinemaScope. Story of a Three Day Pass, The (1967French) 87m. ★★★ D: Melvin Van Peebles. Storm Warning (1951) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Heisler. Ginger Rogers, Ronald Harry Baird, Nicole Berger, Christian Marin, Reagan, Doris Day, Steve Cochran, Hugh Pierre Doris. Flawed but impressive film Sanders, Lloyd Gough, Ned Glass. Feverish about affair between black American solbut engrossing story of a woman who disdier and white French girl. Also on tape as covers that her sister (Day) has married a LA PERMISSION. ▼쩠 loutish Ku Klux Klansman. Good cast, with Story of a Woman (1970) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Reagan in one of his better roles as a crusadLeonardo Bercovici. Bibi Andersson, Robing D.A.; cowritten by Richard Brooks.쩠 ert Stack, James Farentino, Annie Girardot, Stormy Monday (1988-British) C-93m. Didi Perego, Mario Nascimbene. Turgid ★★★ D: Mike Figgis. Melanie Griffith, tale of pianist who tries to remain faithful Tommy Lee Jones, Sting, Sean Bean, James to her husband, even though she’s still Cosmo, Mark Long, Brian Lewis. Exhung up on old flame; Bibi is wasted. [R] tremely stylish film noir about the converStory of Boys and Girls, The (1991-Italian) gence of four characters in the economically C-92m. ★★★ D: Pupi Avati. Lucretia della depressed city of Newcastle, where Sting Rovere, Davide Bechini, Valeria Bruni runs a jazz club, and a ruthless American Tadeschi, Lina Bernardi, Anna Bonaiuto, [ 1325 ]

Alessandro Haber, Enrico Maria Modungo. between nutty, sensuous Schygulla and A country beauty invites her fiance´’s eleher daughter (Gruhn as a pre-teen, then gant Bolognese family to a 20-course banHuppert). Ferreri presents a liberated alterquet in Italy’s Emilia Romagna farmland native for relating as a wife, mother, in 1936. Easygoing, keenly observed comdaughter, woman; however, the result is edy of culture clashing, whose subliminal mostly rambling, boring. effect isn’t completely apparent until the Story of Qiu Ju, The (1992-Chinese) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Zhang Yimou. Gong film’s conclusion. Have a snack handy.▼ Story of Dr. Wassell, The (1944) C-140m. Li, Lei Lao Sheng, Liu Pei Qi, Ge Zhi ★★1 Jun, Ye Jun, Yang Liu Xia. Exceptional ⁄2 D: Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper, Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, Dennis O’Keefe, drama about a naive but determined ChiPaul Kelly, Philip Ahn, Barbara Britton. nese farm woman (Li), who demands to Story of real-life dedicated Navy doctor receive an explanation and simple apology who saved fighting men in Java during after her husband is beaten up by the WW2; slow-moving adaptation of the James obstinate chief of her village. This deft, ironic Hilton book. Far from top-grade DeMille or story of a woman’s search for justice examCooper. ▼ ines government bureaucracy and how regulaStory of Esther Costello, The (1957tions and rules often have little to do with the real needs of people. [PG]▼●쩠 British) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Miller. Joan Crawford, Rossano Brazzi, Heather Sears, Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Lee Patterson, Fay Compton, Bessie Love, Men, The (1952) C-83m. ★★★ D: Ken Ron Randell. Socialite rehabilitates impoverAnnakin. Richard Todd, Joan Rice, Peter ished blind and deaf girl and promotes charity Finch, James Hayter, James Robertson Jusfund in her name. Interesting look at charity tice, Martita Hunt, Hubert Gregg, Michael huckstering but melodrama is overwrought Hordern. Zesty, colorful retelling of the and often unintentionally funny.▼ familiar story, filmed in England by Walt Story of G.I. Joe, The (1945) 109m. Disney with excellent cast. Not as per★★★1⁄2 D: William Wellman. Burgess Mersonality oriented as other versions, but just edith, Robert Mitchum, Freddie Steele, as good in its own way.▼●쩠 Wally Cassell, Jimmy Lloyd. Meredith is Story of Ruth, The (1960) C-132m. ★★1⁄2 superb as war correspondent Ernie Pyle D: Henry Koster. Elana Eden, Stuart Whitliving with Yank soldiers on front lines to man, Tom Tryon, Peggy Wood, Viveca report their stories; Mitchum’s first outLindfors, Jeff Morrow. Static biblical standing film role as soldier. Full title: non-epic retelling story of woman renouncERNIE PYLE’S STORY OF G.I. JOE. ▼쩠 ing her ‘‘gods’’ when she discovers true faith. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Story of Gilbert and Sullivan, The SEE: Great Gilbert and Sullivan, The Story of Seabiscuit, The (1949) C-93m. ★★ Story of Gosta Berling, The SEE: AtoneD: David Butler. Shirley Temple, Barry ment of Gosta Berling, The Fitzgerald, Lon McCallister, Rosemary DeStory of Louis Pasteur, The (1936) 85m. Camp, Donald MacBride, Pierre Watkin. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Dieterle. Paul Muni, Technicolor hokum with Fitzgerald as the Josephine Hutchinson, Anita Louise, Dontoora-loora trainer who convinces Charles ald Woods, Fritz Leiber, Porter Hall, Akim S. Howard (Watkin) that the title horse has Tamiroff. The achievements of the famous real possibilities. Temple is Fitzgerald’s French scientist are chronicled in this enniece, whose brother was killed in a racing grossing film. Muni gives Oscar-winning accident. Never a great film, this is now performance; writers Sheridan Gibney and rendered meaningless (if not downright luPierre Collings also won.▼● dicrous) by Laura Hillenbrand’s book and Story of Mankind, The (1957) C-100m. the 2003 adaptation, SEABISCUIT. ▼쩠 ★★ D: Irwin Allen. Ronald Colman, Cedric Story of the Weeping Camel, The (2004Hardwicke, Vincent Price; guest stars Hedy German-Mongolian) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ByLamarr, Groucho, Harpo, Chico Marx, ambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni. FascinatVirginia Mayo, Agnes Moorehead, Franing docudrama about a family of shepherds cis X. Bushman, Charles Coburn, Marie in a remote part of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert Windsor, John Carradine, Dennis Hopper. who assist their camel herd in giving birth. Ambitious in concept, laughable in juvenile When one of the animals has a difficult deresults. Henrik Van Loon book of highlights livery she rejects the colt, forcing the family of man’s history becomes string of cliche´d to resort to a traditional ritual and find a costume episodes, badly cast, and packed musician who can get the camel to nurse her with stock footage; the Marxes don’t even baby. Masterfully filmed, using real people appear together! Colman’s last film. in real situations, even though it’s a ‘‘story’’ being enacted by its participants. [PG] 쩠 Story of Piera, The (1983-Italian-French) C-105m. ★★ D: Marco Ferreri. Isabelle Story of Three Loves, The (1953) C-122m. ★★★ Huppert, Hanna Schygulla, Marcello MaD: Vincente Minnelli, Gottfried Reinstroianni, Bettina Gruhn, Tanya Lopert. hardt. Pier Angeli, Moira Shearer, Ethel Odd chronicle of the lifelong relationship Barrymore, Kirk Douglas, Farley Granger, [ 1326 ]

Leslie Caron, James Mason, Agnes MooreMoore. Two-part film offers some wry obserhead, Zsa Zsa Gabor. Bittersweet trio of vations about everyday cruelty in typical Solove stories, told as flashbacks involving londz fashion, but little resonance. In passengers on ocean liner. ‘‘Fiction,’’ writing student Blair breaks off Story of Us, The (1999) C-95m. ★★ D: Rob with her disabled boyfriend/college classmate Reiner. Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tim and sleeps with her angry black teacher. In Matheson, Rob Reiner, Rita Wilson, Julie ‘‘Non-Fiction,’’ a blowhard would-be docuHagerty, Jayne Meadows, Tom Poston, Betty mentary filmmaker chronicles a typical affluWhite, Red Buttons. A couple on the verge ent suburban N.J. family, little suspecting the of splitting reflect on their 15-year mardrama that’s unfolding right under his nose. riage—and try to understand where it went Film’s conclusion leaves us wanting. [R]▼쩠 wrong. Sympathetic portrayal of married Storyville (1992) C-112m. ★1⁄2 D: Mark life has likable performances on its side, Frost. James Spader, Joanne Whalleybut its moments of keen observation are too Kilmer, Jason Robards, Piper Laurie, Charoften undercut by annoying, sitcom-style lotte Lewis, Michael Warren, Michael dialogue that bears no relation to real life. Parks, Chuck McCann, Charles Haid, Chino Paul Reiser appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Fats Williams, Woody Strode, Jeff Perry. Story of Vernon & Irene Castle, The Young, obscenely wealthy Louisiana congressional candidate Spader discovers skel(1939) 93m. ★★★ D: H. C. Potter. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver, etons deeply hidden in his family’s closet. Walter Brennan, Lew Fields. Fred and GinGood performances can’t save this muddled ger take an unusual turn, downplaying their and obtuse contemporary drama; the murusual breezy comedy to portray America’s der, mayhem, and mistresses are more than anyone will care about. [R]▼●쩠 hugely popular early-20th-century husbandand-wife dance team. Many fine period Stowaway (1936) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: William dance numbers and songs. This was the last A. Seiter. Robert Young, Alice Faye, ShirAstaire–Rogers film until THE BARKley Temple, Eugene Palette, Helen Westley, LEYS OF BROADWAY ten years later. Arthur Treacher. Predictable yet engaging Incidentally, that’s young Marge Champion shipboard story with Faye and Young ro(then known as Marjorie Belcher) as mancing, Temple the incurably curious Irene’s girlfriend.▼●쩠 child. Shirley even speaks Chinese! Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Story of Will Rogers, The (1952) C-109m. ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. Will Rogers, Jr., Straight on Till Morning (1972-British) C-96m. ★★ D: Peter Collinson. Rita TushJane Wyman, Carl Benton Reid, James Gleason, Mary Wickes, Eddie Cantor. One of few ingham, Shane Briant, Tom Bell, Annie show biz biographies that rings true, with Ross, Claire Kelly. Offbeat thriller, but Rogers Jr. faithfully portraying his father, not terribly effective. Naive Tushingham rodeo star turned humorist; Wyman is his lovjourneys from Liverpool to London to find ing wife, Cantor appears as himself. a willing male to impregnate her, meets Story of Women (1988-French) C-110m. ladykiller Briant. The title, if you don’t ★★★ D: Claude Chabrol. Isabelle Huppert, know, is derived from Peter Pan. Video Francois Cluzet, Marie Trintignant, Nils titles: TILL DAWN DO US PART and Tavernier, Louis Ducreux. Huppert gives DRESSED FOR DEATH. [R]▼쩠 one of her best performances as a woman Straight Out of Brooklyn (1991) C-91m. ★★1 who builds a thriving career as an abortion⁄2 D: Matty Rich. George T. Odom, ist in Vichy France—and becomes the last Ann D. Sanders, Lawrence Gilliard, Jr., of her sex to be guillotined in her country. Barbara Sanon, Reana E. Drummond, Mark Ironic, fact-based story provides Chabrol Malone. Sobering look at a working-class with one of his best subjects; the director is black family’s dead-end existence in the in top form here. ▼쩠 housing projects of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a Story on Page One, The (1959) 123m. young man’s foolish scheme to turn their ★★★ D: Clifford Odets. Rita Hayworth, lives around. Ambitious and interesting Anthony Franciosa, Gig Young, Mildred first feature for teenaged writer-director Dunnock, Hugh Griffith, Sanford Meisner, Rich (who also appears on-screen as the Robert Burton. Lovers Hayworth and Young talkative Larry). Extremely rough-edged, are accused of killing Rita’s husband, hire but redeemed by some fine performances— Franciosa to represent them in court. Odets’ and searing emotions. [R]▼●쩠 stark film has high tension and sincere Straight Story, The (1999) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 performances, although Dunnock’s Mama D: David Lynch. Richard Farnsworth, Sissy portrayal is a bit much. CinemaScope. Spacek, Harry Dean Stanton, Jane Galloway Heit, Everett McGill, Jennifer EdwardsStorytelling (2002) C-88m. ★★ D: Todd Solondz. Selma Blair, Leo Fitzpatrick, Aleksa Hughes. Wonderful, deceptively simple slice Palladino, Robert Wisdom, Noah Fleiss, Paul of Americana (based on a true story) about a Giamatti, John Goodman, Julie Hagerty, Lupe 73-year-old Iowa man who drives a lawnOntiveros, Jonathan Osser, Franka Potente, mower some 300 miles to see his ailing Steve Railsback, Xander Berkeley, Crista brother, with whom he hasn’t spoken in a [ 1327 ]

decade. Its measured pace and episodic quallivan, Susan Barnes, Cameron Dye, Miity may not appeal to everyone, but its charm chael Greene, Brendan Hughes. A couple and belief in the basic decency of people of effective moments cannot uplift this make it very special indeed. Farnsworth unrewarding sci-fi entry about aliens who shines in the leading role. Director Lynch’s come to earth, taking teen Skye and grandmost benign film. Written by Mary Sweeney mother O’Sullivan hostage. [PG-13] ▼● and John Roach. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 Strange Affair, The (1968-British) CStraight Talk (1992) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Bar106m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Greene. Michael net Kellman. Dolly Parton, James Woods, York, Jeremy Kemp, Susan George, Jack Griffin Dunne, Michael Madsen, Deirdre Watson, Nigel Davenport, George A. CooO’Connell, John Sayles, Teri Hatcher, Spalper, Barry Fantoni. Pretty good police ding Gray, Jerry Orbach, Philip Bosco, melodrama about young recruit York’s dalCharles Fleischer, Jay Thomas. New-in-town lying with sexy hippie and superior Kemp’s Dolly is mistaken for the just-hired psychofailure to get needed conviction; George logist at a Chicago radio station, but is a hit steals the show in one of her first film on the air with her down-home advice. appearances. Techniscope. [R] About as credible as Parton’s romance with Strange Affair of Uncle Harry, The (1945) costar Woods, who despite his billing was 80m. ★★★ D: Robert Siodmak. George completely missing from the film’s coming Sanders, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ella Raines, attraction. [PG]▼●쩠 Sara Allgood, Moyna MacGill, Samuel S. Straight Through the Heart (1983-German) Hinds. Engrossing melodrama about mildC-91m. ★★★ D: Doris Do¨rrie. Beate Jensen, mannered Sanders falling in love, but unSepp Bierbichler, Gabrielle Litty, Nuran able to break from grip of domineering Filiz. Highly original, sharply observed tale sister (Fitzgerald). Vivid, if not always of a rather peculiar young girl (nicely believable, with unfortunate ending deplayed by Jensen) and her relationship with manded by 1940s censorship. Produced by divorced, lonely, middle-aged dentist Bierlongtime Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison. bichler. An impressive initial feature from Originally titled UNCLE HARRY.▼● Do¨rrie (the director of MEN . . .). Strange Affection (1957-British) 84m. ★★ Straight Time (1978) C-114m. ★★★ D: D: Wolf Rilla. Richard Attenborough, Colin Ulu Grosbard. Dustin Hoffman, Theresa Petersen, Jill Adams, Terence Morgan. Russell, Harry Dean Stanton, Gary Busey, A teacher decides to take in a boy who’s M. Emmet Walsh, Sandy Baron, Kathy been accused of murdering his drunkard Bates, Rita Taggart. Hoffman knocks heads father. Decent British drama. Original with slimy parole officer Walsh following British title: THE SCAMP. his release from prison and begins a downStrange Bedfellows (1965) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 ward slide. Engrossing if not particularly D: Melvin Frank. Rock Hudson, Gina distinguished melodrama gets a real shot in Lollobrigida, Gig Young, Terry-Thomas, the arm from terrific supporting performances. Nancy Kulp. Hudson ambles through anHoffman started directing the film himself, other marital mix-up comedy, this one with then turned it over to Grosbard. Based on the fiery Gina and lots of slapstick. Mild novel No Beast So Fierce by Edward Bunker, entertainment; filmed in London. ▼쩠 who also appears in film as Mickey. [R]▼쩠 Strange Behavior (1981-New Zealand) Straight to Hell (1987) C-86m. BOMB C-98m. ★★ D: Michael Laughlin. Michael D: Alex Cox. Sy Richardson, Joe StrumMurphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor, Fiona mer, Dick Rude, Courtney Love, Dennis Lewis, Arthur Dignam, Scott Brady, Hopper, Elvis Costello, Grace Jones, Jim Charles Lane. This shocker about grisly Jarmusch, The Pogues. ‘‘Self-indulgent’’ murders in a small Midwestern town (shot in is an understated way of describing this New Zealand!) got inexplicably good reviews spaghetti Western spoof, written by cult in many quarters. You may rightly wonder director Cox and costar Rude. Has the what all the shouting was about. Originally insistent air of a hip in-joke, except that it titled DEAD KIDS. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 isn’t funny. In fact, it’s awful. [R]▼쩠 ★★1 Strange Brew (1983) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: ⁄2 D: WilStrait-Jacket (1964) 89m. Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis. Dave Thomas, liam Castle. Joan Crawford, Diane Baker, Rick Moranis, Max von Sydow, Paul Leif Erickson, Anthony Hayes, Howard Dooley, Lynne Griffin, voice of Mel St. John, Rochelle Hudson, George KenBlanc. Uneven but likably goofy film about nedy. Crawford served 20 years for axe Bob and Doug, the beer-guzzling McKenmurders; now, living peacefully with zie Brothers introduced on the SCTV show. daughter Baker, murders start again and Lags at times, but keeps coming up with she’s suspected. Crawford’s strong porfunny scenes, especially when playing with trayal makes this one of best in the BABY the conventions of moviemaking. The stars JANE genre of older-star shockers; script also directed and cowrote the film, the by Robert Bloch.▼●쩠 first in Hoserama. Loosely based on, beStranded (1987) C-80m. ★★ D: Tex Fuller. Ione Skye, Joe Morton, Maureen O‘Sullieve it or not, Hamlet. Moranis and Thomas [ 1328 ]

later did variations on these characters—as moose—in BROTHER BEAR. [PG]▼●쩠 Strange Cargo (1940) 113m. ★★★ D: Frank Borzage. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Albert Dekker, Paul Lukas, Eduardo Ciannelli. Intriguing allegorical film of prisoners escaping from Devil’s Island with Christ-like presence of Hunter. Not for all tastes, but there are fine, realistic performances and flavorful Franz Waxman score.▼쩠 Strange Case of Madeleine SEE: Madeleine Strange Days (1995) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kathryn Bigelow. Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Vincent D’Onofrio, Glenn Plummer, Brigitte Bako, Richard Edson, William Fichtner, Josef Sommer, Chris Douridas, Todd Graff. Dazzling but uneasy mixture of futuristic action and social relevance. Fiennes is a hustler selling mental recordings of real-life experiences, to which some become addicted; then he stumbles into a murky murder conspiracy involving his clients. Bombastic and overambitious, but manages to capture, in fits, the addictive thrill of virtual reality. (An interracial romance between Fiennes and Bassett doesn’t ring true in the end.) Cowritten by Jay Cocks and James Cameron. Super 35. [R]

her to unravel the mystery behind that incident and seek revenge. Perhaps the definitive Hillary Brooke movie. ▼쩠 Strange Interlude (1932) 110m. ★★★ D: Robert Z. Leonard. Norma Shearer, Clark Gable, May Robson, Maureen O’Sullivan, Robert Young, Ralph Morgan, Henry B. Walthall, Alexander Kirkland. Talky Eugene O’Neill play becomes marathon of inner thoughts revealed only to audience in chronicle of Gable, Shearer, et al. growing old without resolving their problems. Engrossing film, with Shearer at her radiant best. ▼쩠 Strange Invaders (1983) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Laughlin. Paul LeMat, Nancy Allen, Diana Scarwid, Michael Lerner, Louise Fletcher, Wallace Shawn, Fiona Lewis, Kenneth Tobey, June Lockhart. Affectionate spoof of ’50s sci-fi films (with a touch of ’80s New Wave), about a Midwestern town overtaken by aliens. Has a wonderful feel to it but suffers from weak writing and lethargic pacing. Evocative score by John Addison. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Strange Lady in Town (1955) C-112m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Greer Garson, Dana Andrews, Cameron Mitchell, Lois Smith, Walter Hampden, Nick Adams. Unsuccessful grand-scale soaper-Western. Set in 1880s, Garson is the doctor coming to Santa Fe, involved with Andrews, perplexed by outlaw ▼●쩠 Strange Door, The (1951) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: brother Mitchell. CinemaScope. Joseph Pevney. Charles Laughton, Boris Strange Love of Martha Ivers, The (1946) Karloff, Sally Forrest, Richard Stapley, Mi116m. ★★★ D: Lewis Milestone. Barbara chael Pate, Alan Napier, Paul Cavanagh. Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas, Lizabeth Scott, Van Laughton camps it up in this heavy-handed, Heflin, Judith Anderson, Darryl Hickman. obvious adaptation of a Robert Louis SteGripping melodrama, with Stanwyck bound venson story about a sadistic squire and his to her husband by crime she committed long ago. Douglas’ film debut.▼●쩠 nefarious schemes. Karloff has a thankless role as a servant named Voltan.▼●쩠 Strange One, The (1957) 100m. ★★★ D: Strange Fascination (1952) 80m. ★★ D: Jack Garfein. Ben Gazzara, George PepHugo Haas. Hugo Haas, Cleo Moore, Mona pard, Pat Hingle, Mark Richman, GeofBarrie, Rick Vallin, Karen Sharpe. A confrey Horne, James Olson. Bizarre military cert pianist’s career—and luck—fall apart school account of far-out Gazzara’s peculiar because of his obsessive love for a young hold over various underclassmen. Reblonde. Starts interestingly but descends markably frank version of Calder Willinginto hollow melodrama. Produced, directham’s End as a Man, scripted by the ed, and written by Haas. author; also filmed as SORORITY GIRL. Film debuts of Gazzara and Peppard.▼쩠 Strange Illusion (1945) 80m. ★★ D: Edgar G. Ulmer. James Lydon, Sally Eilers, WarStrange Planet (1999-Australian) C-92m. ★★ D: Emma-Kate Croghan. Claudia Karren William, Regis Toomey. Intriguing but unconvincing melodrama, a B-movie van, Naomi Watts, Alice Garner, Tom Long, update of Hamlet, with teenaged Lydon Aaron Jeffery, Felix Williamson, Hugo having doubts about smooth-talker (William) Weaving, Rebecca Frith. Scattershot account who’s wooing his widowed mother (Eilers). of a year in the lives of three twentysomeTypically bizarre Ulmer touches in this thing female friends and three equivalent low-budget quickie.▼쩠 males. Attempts to offer a profound take on ★★★ Strange Impersonation (1946) 68m. the transitory nature of relationships among D: Anthony Mann. Brenda Marshall, Wilcontemporary young people, but the result is liam Gargan, Hillary Brooke, George Chansuperficial. Notable for Watts’ eye-opening dler, Ruth Ford, H. B. Warner, Lyle Talbot. performance as the most sensitive of the Marshall gives a first-rate performance in women.▼쩠 this grade-B film noir about a research sciStranger, The (1946) 95m. ★★★ D: Orson entist whose face is horribly disfigured in a Welles. Orson Welles, Loretta Young, Edso-called accident. Plastic surgery enables ward G. Robinson, Richard Long, Martha [ 1329 ]

Wentworth. Fine study of escaped Nazi England. Warm, compassionate perforwar criminal Welles sedately living in small mances. Original British title: HUNTED. Connecticut town, about to marry unsusStranger in the House SEE: Black Christpecting Young. Robinson nicely understates mas role as federal agent out to get him. Also Stranger in Town, A (1943) 67m. ★★★ D: shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Roy Rowland. Frank Morgan, Richard CarlStranger, The (1967-Italian-French) Cson, Jean Rogers, Robert Barrat, Porter 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Luchino Visconti. Marcello Hall, Chill Wills, Donald MacBride, John Mastroianni, Anna Karina, Bernard Blier, Hodiak. Enjoyable Capra-esque tale about a Georges Wilson, Bruno Cremer. Excellent Supreme Court justice (Morgan) who gets adaptation of Albert Camus’ existential mixed up in a small town’s corrupt politics novel about a man who feels completely while on a fishing vacation. Highly amusing isolated from society. Mastroianni is persecond feature that skillfully satirizes serious fectly cast in lead. issues and features a gang of crooked politiStranger, The (1987-U.S.-Argentine) cos worthy of a Preston Sturges film.쩠 C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adolfo Aristarain. BonStranger in Town, A (1966-Italian-U.S.) nie Bedelia, Peter Riegert, Barry Primus, C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Vance Lewis (Luigi Vanza). David Spielberg, Marcos Woinski. Clever Tony Anthony, Frank Wolff, Yolanda if occasionally shallow thriller about BedeModio, Gia Sandri. Poor imitation of lia, who observes killings . . . and gets Sergio Leone Western finds Anthony bloodamnesia while the culprits are out to get bathing a murderous bandit into submission. her. Fairly entertaining most of the way, but Sequel: THE STRANGER RETURNS. [R] could have been much better. Filmed in Stranger Is Watching, A (1982) C-92m. ★★ Buenos Aires. [R]▼ D: Sean S. Cunningham. Kate Mulgrew, Stranger, The (1994) SEE: Kabloonak Rip Torn, James Naughton, Shawn Von Stranger Among Us, A (1992) C-109m. Schreiber, Barbara Baxley, Stephen Joyce. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Sidney Lumet. Melanie Griffith, Psychopath Torn kidnaps TV newscaster Eric Thal, John Pankow, Tracy Pollan, Mulgrew and young Von Schreiber, holdLee Richardson, Mia Sara, Jamey Sheriing them hostage in catacombs beneath dan, Jake Weber, James Gandolfini, Burtt Grand Central Station. Convoluted thrillHarris. N.Y.C. cop Griffith goes to live er from the director of FRIDAY THE 13TH. [R]▼쩠 among Brooklyn’s Hasidic community of religious Jews in order to find the ‘‘insider’’ Stranger on the Prowl (1953-Italian) 82m. ★★1 who murdered one of them. Intriguing at ⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. Paul Muni, Vittorio first, but the story gets stalled along the way Manunta, Joan Lorring, Aldo Silvani. Murky and never gets back on track, especially in drama of Muni a fugitive on the run who the far-fetched finale. Griffith is surprisingly tries to set a young would-be crook straight. credible as a policewoman. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) 64m. ★★★ Stranger and the Gunfighter, The (1976D: Boris Ingster. Peter Lorre, John 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Italian-Hong Kong) C-107m. McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, Charles WalAnthony Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). dron, Elisha Cook, Jr. Reporter’s testimony Lee Van Cleef, Lo Lieh, Patty Shepard, has convicted Cook in brutal murder case, Julian Ugarte, Karen Yeh. Lively, lowbut the newspaperman has second thoughts. grade tongue-in-cheek actioner has hardExcellent sleeper, with one nightmare mondrinking cowboy joining forces with kung tage that’s a knockout.▼● fu expert to recover missing fortune, with Stranger Returns, The (1968-U.S.-Italian) portions of the map tattooed on the posteriC-90m. BOMB D: Vance Lewis (Luigi ors of assorted lovelies. Amusing mix of Vanza). Tony Anthony, Dan Vadis, Daniele spaghetti Western and karate thriller. PanaVargas, Marco Gugielmi, Jill Banner. Sevision. [PG]▼● quel to A STRANGER IN TOWN has Stranger at My Door (1956) 85m. ★★1⁄2 Anthony chasing solid gold stagecoach full D: William Witney. Macdonald Carey, of thieves. Worthless. [R] Patricia Medina, Skip Homeier, Louis Jean Strangers (1953) SEE: Voyage in Italy Strangers, The (2008) C-90m. ★★ D: Heydt, Stephen Wootton, Slim Pickens. Offbeat Western about clergyman jeopardBryan Bertino. Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, izing his family’s safety when he tries to Glenn Howerton. Couple about to embark reform an outlaw. Solid performances in on a road trip spend the night at his father’s this original script by Barry Shipman. Highcabin deep in the woods. A knock on the lighted by some truly remarkable scenes door in the middle of the night is the first with an untamed horse. step into a nightmarish experience in which Stranger in Between (1952-British) 84m. they are emotionally and physically tor★★★ D: Charles Crichton. Dirk Bogarde, mented by three masked figures who offer Elizabeth Sellars, Kay Walsh, Jon Whiteley, no explanation for their attacks. Not terribly Geoffrey Keen. Modest but very entertainscary, in spite of insistent bursts of music ing film about orphan boy who grows to and loud effects on the soundtrack . . . but even worse, it’s pointless. Super 35. [R]쩠 understand murderer as both flee police in [ 1330 ]

Strangers in Good Company (1991Canadian) C-100m. ★★★ D: Cynthia Scott. Alice Diablo, Constance Garneau, Winifred Holden, Cissy Meddings, Mary Meigs, Catherine Roche, Michelle Sweeney, Beth Webber. Slow-paced but rewarding study of a group of women temporarily stuck in the Canadian wilderness when their bus breaks down. All the actresses play themselves in this unusual film from the National Film Board of Canada. It’s mainly talk, as we learn about the hopes and sorrows of women who share their feelings during an interlude in their lives. [PG]▼쩠 Strangers in the Night (1944) 56m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Mann. William Terry, Virginia Grey, Helene Thimig, Edith Barrett, Anne O’Neal. An eccentric old woman harbors a dark secret in her hilltop home on the California coast, and lures a wounded soldier (just back from combat) there on the promise of meeting her beautiful daughter. Intriguing story idea gets silly by the end, but it’s still a pretty good B, full of the shadowy staging favored by young director Mann. Strangers Kiss (1984) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Matthew Chapman. Peter Coyote, Victoria Tennant, Blaine Novak, Dan Shor, Richard Romanus, Linda Kerridge. Interesting, offbeat little film about the making of a low-budget movie, circa 1955, and the off-camera relationship between lead actors Novak and Tennant. Novak also cowrote screenplay with director Chapman, inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s KILLER’S KISS. [R]▼ Strangers on a Train (1951) 101m. ★★★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock, Marion Lorne. Walker gives his finest performance as psychopath involved with tennis star Granger in ‘‘exchange murders.’’ Lorne is unforgettable as doting mother; so is merry-go-round climax. First-class Hitchcock, based on a Patricia Highsmith novel and coscripted by Raymond Chandler. Remade as ONCE YOU KISS A STRANGER and the inspiration for THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN. British version of film, now available, runs almost two minutes longer, has a different ending and franker dialogue in the first scene where Granger and Walker meet.

better known is a mystery. Phil Stong helped adapt his own novel for director Vidor. Strangers When We Meet (1960) C-117m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Richard Quine. Kirk Douglas, Kim Novak, Ernie Kovacs, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Virginia Bruce, Kent Smith. Expensive soaper with attractive stars; both are married, but fall in love with each other. Script by Evan Hunter, from his novel. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Strangers With Candy (2006) C-86m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Paul Dinello. Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, Dan Hedaya, Deborah Rush, Ian Holm, Elizabeth Harnois, Joseph Cross, Kristen Johnston, Justin Theroux. Jerri Blank (Sedaris), a 47-yearold juvenile delinquent, gets out of prison and returns to high school. Prequel to the cult TV comedy show feels like a half-hour episode stretched to feature length, and the formula wears thin. Still, writer-performers Sedaris, Colbert, and Dinello create a satisfying amount of genuinely tasteless hilarity as they inject the proceedings with their bizarre sensibilities and off-kilter comic timing. A number of famous faces appear in cameo roles. [R]쩠 Stranger Than Fiction (2006) C-113m. ★★★ D: Marc Forster. Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Tony Hale, Tom Hulce, Linda Hunt, Kristin Chenoweth. Buttoneddown IRS auditor (Ferrell) suddenly becomes aware that his life is being narrated—but only he can hear the woman’s voice. Then the author (Thompson), who’s been suffering from writer’s block, discovers that the character she’s created is real, and she holds his life in her hands. Clever concept by writer Zach Helm is fully realized by a fine cast and creative visual interpretation by Forster. Ferrell is good in a seriocomic role. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Stranger Than Paradise (1984) 90m. ★★★ D: Jim Jarmusch. John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson, Cecillia Stark. Simple story of a nondescript young man, his doltish best friend, and his 16-year-old female cousin who comes to America from Hungary. Critically acclaimed comedy-road movie is, at its worst, a bit slow; at its best, original, ingratiating, and extremely funny. Independently filmed and developed from a 30m. short. Screenplay by Jarmusch, music by Lurie. [R]▼●쩠 ▼●쩠 Stranger Wore a Gun, The (1953) CStranger’s Return, The (1933) 89m. ★★★1⁄2 83m. ★★ D: Andre De Toth. Randolph Scott, D: King Vidor. Lionel Barrymore, Miriam Claire Trevor, Joan Weldon, George MaHopkins, Franchot Tone, Stuart Erwin, cready, Alfonso Bedoya, Lee Marvin, ErIrene Hervey, Beulah Bondi. A young nest Borgnine, Pierre Watkin, Roscoe Ates. woman, recently separated from her husScott works as a spy for Quantrill’s Raiders band, leaves the city to stay at her grandfabut severs his ties after they murder and ther’s farm. Here she finds her roots, as plunder their way through Lawrence, Kanwell as a kindred spirit in neighboring sas; he soon discovers that it won’t be easy farmer Tone, a college graduate. Why this to escape his past. Poorly developed story rich, mature, beautifully made film isn’t relies on a sturdy cast to get by. Bedoya [ 1331 ]

is spectacularly unfunny as a comic-relief arrives for an extended vacation. Brown is villain. One of the first 3-D films, full of fine, and Fonda completely winning in this action aimed directly at the camera. ▼쩠 studied, sometimes ponderous story of the Strange Shadows in An Empty Room need to face emotions head-on, no matter (1977) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Martin Herbert where they may lead. [R]▼●쩠 (Alberto DeMartino). Stuart Whitman, Strategic Air Command (1955) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Mann. James Stewart, John Saxon, Martin Landau, Tisa Farrow, Gayle Hunnicutt, Carole Laure. Far-fetched, June Allyson, Frank Lovejoy, Barry Sulviolent film has police detective Whitman livan, Bruce Bennett, Rosemary DeCamp. searching for his sister’s murderer. Tawdry Film only gets off the ground when Stewstuff; filmed in Montreal as BLAZING art does, as baseball player recalled to air MAGNUMS (a far more appropriate title). force duty; Allyson is his sugary wife. Panavision. [R]▼ VistaVision.▼● Strange Vengeance of Rosalie, The (1972) Stratton Story, The (1949) 106m. ★★★1⁄2 C-107m. ★★ D: Jack Starrett. Bonnie D: Sam Wood. James Stewart, June Allyson, Bedelia, Ken Howard, Anthony Zerbe. Frank Morgan, Agnes Moorehead, Bill Offbeat story of Indian girl who holds man Williams, Jimmy Dykes, Bill Dickey. Stewcaptive in rambling house. Far-fetched tale art is fine as Monty Stratton, the baseball goes way off-base. [PG] player whose loss of one leg did not halt his Strange Wilderness (2008) C-85m. BOMB career; well played by good cast, including D: Fred Wolf. Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, ballplayers Dykes and Dickey. Oscar winJonah Hill, Kevin Heffernan, Peter Dante, ner for story (Douglas Morrow); screenplay Ashley Scott, Harry Hamlin, Robert Patrick, by Morrow and Guy Trosper. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Joe Don Baker, Justin Long, Jeff Garlin, Ernest Borgnine, Blake Clark, Oliver HudStrawberry and Chocolate (1994-Cuban) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tomas Gutierrez Alea, son. Painfully unfunny farce about producers of a ratings-challenged wildlife TV Juan Carlos Tabio. Jorge Perugorria, Vladiseries who desperately seek Bigfoot in the mir Cruz, Mirta Ibarra, Francisco Gattorwilds of Ecuador. You can’t help feeling ono, Marilyn Solaya. Entertaining and embarrassed for Zahn, as the clueless host, sympathetic account of the unlikely friendwhen a wild turkey chomps on his private ship between David, a heterosexual and departs and won’t let go. Shelved for nearly voted Communist who knows nothing of two years before a fleeting theatrical run. the arts (and is depressed over being Panavision. [R]쩠 dumped by his girlfriend), and homosexual, Strange Woman, The (1946) 100m. ★★1⁄2 cultured Diego, who’s full of life and doesn’t D: Edgar G. Ulmer. Hedy Lamarr, George care much for politics. Controversial in its Sanders, Louis Hayward, Gene Lockhart, home country, but notable too as the first Hillary Brooke. Lamarr offers one of her Cuban film ever nominated for a Best Foreign best performances as a shrewish young Film Oscar. [R] ▼●쩠 woman in 19th-century Maine who affects Strawberry Blonde, The (1941) 97m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. James Cagney, Olivia the lives of three very different men. Nicely directed by Ulmer; a rare instance in which de Havilland, Rita Hayworth, Alan Hale, he was allowed a Grade-A cast.▼쩠 Jack Carson, George Tobias, Una O’ConStrangler, The (1964) 89m. ★★★ D: Burt nor, George Reeves. Cagney’s dynamic in Topper. Victor Buono, David McLean, entertaining turn-of-the-century story of Ellen Corby, Jeanne Bates, Wally Campo, dentist infatuated with gold-digger HayJames (B.) Sikking. Buono gives fine perworth, and his subsequent marriage to de formance as mother-dominated mad killer Havilland. Remade in 1948 as ONE SUNwho strangles women and pitches a city into DAY AFTERNOON, the title of the 1933 frenzy. Inspired by the real-life Boston Gary Cooper film of which this is a remake.▼ Strangler killings.▼쩠 Stranglers of Bombay, The (1960-British) Strawberry Statement, The (1970) C81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terence Fisher. Andrew 103m. ★★ D: Stuart Hagmann. Bruce Cruickshank, Marne Maitland, Guy Rolfe, Davison, Kim Darby, Bob Balaban, James Paul Stassino, Jan Holden. Grisly story of Kunen, Jeannie Berlin, Bud Cort, David fanatical Indian cult attempting to drive Dukes, James Coco, Bert Remsen. ClutBritish from trading station. Good cast tered adaptation of James Kunen’s book helped by tense direction. Megascope.쩠 about Columbia University’s riots tries to Strapless (1989-British) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: be too many things at once—comedy, soDavid Hare. Blair Brown, Bruno Ganz, cial commentary, musical. Good perforBridget Fonda, Hugh Laurie, Alan Howmances. Script by Israel Horovitz (who ard, Billy Roch, Camille Coduri, Alexanalso plays Dr. Benton). [R]▼ dra Pigg, Michael Gough, Gary O’Brien. Straw Dogs (1971) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: American doctor Brown, living and workSam Peckinpah. Dustin Hoffman, Susan ing in London, hits 40 and finds herself at George, Peter Vaughan, T. P. McKenna, a crossroads, just as her 25-year-old sister Peter Arne. One of the most controversial [ 1332 ]

violence-themed films of its day. Hoffman Chiba, Gerald Yamada, Doris Nakajima, portrays American mathematician whose Tony Cetera, Teijo Shikeharo. Japan’s anpacifism is put to supreme test when he and swer to Bruce Lee, Shinichi ‘‘Sonny’’ British wife George move to isolated village Chiba, who takes on both the Mafia and and are menaced by local hooligans. Yakuza in this cult film notable for the level Screenplay by Peckinpah and David Zelag of its bone-crunching, blood-spurting vioGoodman from Gordon Williams’ novel lence. Staged with more skill than most The Siege of Trenchers Farm. David Warkung fu epics, the plentiful fight scenes rener appears unbilled. Filmed in England. quired four action directors. Title sequence Original running time: 118m. [R]▼●쩠 for U.S. version designed by Jack Sholder, Stray Dog (1949-Japanese) 122m. ★★★★ who later directed THE HIDDEN. OrigiD: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, nally rated X, then re-rated R after being cut Takashi Shimura, Keiko Awaji. Classic Japto 75m. Unrated version released on video. anese film noir, most effective as a look at Followed by RETURN OF THE STREET life in post-WW2 Tokyo. Mifune does well FIGHTER. Actionscope. [X]▼●쩠 as a detective whose gun is stolen; he sets Street Fighter (1994) C-97m. BOMB D: out on an odyssey to reclaim his weapon, Steven E. de Souza. Jean-Claude Van and to seek out a killer. Although not as Damme, Raul Julia, Ming-Na Wen, Damian well known as RASHOMON, this film is Chapa, Kylie Minogue, Simon Callow, just as important to career of Kurosawa and Roshan Seth, Wes Studi, Andrew Bryniarthe growth of Japanese cinema.▼●쩠 ski, Adrian Cronauer. ‘‘Allied Nations’’ Strayed (2003-French) C-95m. ★★★ D: Andre´ commando Van Damme and his action Te´chine´. Emmanuelle Be´art, Gaspard Ulliel, team battle high-tech warlord Julia (looking Gre´goire Leprince-Ringuet, Cle´mence Meyer, depressingly gaunt in his final theatrical Jean Fornerod, Samuel Labarthe. In 1940, as film) who’s holding hostages ransom for the Nazis advance into Paris, a bourgeois $20 billion, and conducting mutation experwidow (Be´art) and her two children flee to the iments in his mad-scientist lab. Callow, a countryside, where they meet a resourceful, costar of FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUilliterate 17-year-old (Ulliel), who teaches NERAL, plays a prissy A.N. undersecretary them how to survive and further affects their in the worst movie to date inspired by a lives. Intense drama offers an intimate acvideo game. Plays more like FOUR HUNcount of the chaos of war and how it affects DRED FUNERALS AND NO SEX. Folboth individuals and families. ▼쩠 lowed by STREET FIGHTER II: THE Streamers (1983) C-118m. ★★★ D: Robert ANIMATED MOVIE and a 2009 sequel. Altman. Matthew Modine, Michael Wright, Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Mitchell Lichtenstein, David Alan Grier, Street Fighter’s Last Revenge, The Guy Boyd, George Dzundza. A couple of (1974-Japanese) C-79m. ★★ D: Shigehiro days in an army barracks at the dawn of Ozawa. Shinichi ‘‘Sonny’’ Chiba, Etsuko America’s involvement in Vietnam becomes ‘‘Sue’’ Shiomi, Masafumi Suzuki, Frankie a parable about manhood, death and relationBlack, Reiko Ike, Willy Dosey. Chiba swears ships between the races. Overlong and devengeance on the mob after doing a job for pressing but still worthwhile, with fine them and getting double-crossed when it’s performances in meaty roles. Screenplay by payoff time. Third entry in the ultraviolent David Rabe, from his play. [R]▼● series offers more of the same, although Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951) 122m. Chiba is fashioned as a Bondian secret agent ★★★★ type this time around. Highlight: a character D: Elia Kazan. Marlon Brando, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden. Stungets knocked into a coffin and sent through a ning production of Tennessee Williams’ crematory! Followed by SISTER STREETplay, with Brando as the animalistic StanFIGHTER. Actionscope. [R]▼●쩠 ley Kowalski and Leigh as his wistful, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chunneurotic sister-in-law, Blanche Dubois, Li (2009-U.S.-Japanese-Canadian) C-96m. pressed together in a grim New Orleans BOMB D: Andrzej Bartkowiak. Kristin tenement. Oscars went to Leigh, Hunter, Kreuk, Chris Klein, Neal McDonough, Miand Malden for their flawless performances, chael Clarke Duncan, Robin Shou, Moon as well as for the art direction-set decoraBloodgood, Edmund Chen, Josie Ho. Pointtion—but it’s Brando who left an indelible less new film version of the popular video mark on audiences. Highly influential jazz game series finds pretty martial arts–trained score by Alex North. Rereleased in 1993 Asian-American Chun-Li (Kreuk) spurred with 4m. of footage that was censored in into action in Bangkok after her father is 1951, playing up the sexual tension between kidnapped. She uses all her wiles to snuff Blanche and Stanley and Stella’s carnal atout the main bad guy, local crime lord traction to her husband. Remade twice for McDonough, and his henchmen, led by the imposing Duncan. The 1987 game inspired TV.▼●쩠 Street Fight SEE: Coonskin a 1994 film version, which is CITIZEN Street Fighter, The (1974-Japanese) CKANE compared to this inept action vehicle, 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Shigehiro Ozawa. Sonny where even the centerpiece fight sequences [ 1333 ]

are lamely choreographed and hopelessly Schatzberg. Christopher Reeve, Kathy contrived. When Interpol agent Klein yells, Baker, Mimi Rogers, Morgan Freeman, ‘‘Bomb! Get out now!’’ it would be wise to Jay Patterson, Andre Gregory, Anna Maheed his advice. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ria Horsford. Out-of-favor writer for a Street Gang SEE: Vigilante slick Manhattan magazine pitches a highStreet Justice (1989) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Richprofile study of N.Y.C pimpdom; unable ard S. Sarafian. Michael Ontkean, Joanna to find a cooperative subject, he fakes the Kerns, Catherine Bach, J.D. Cannon, Jeanstory, which boomerangs when the D.A. ette Nolan, Richard Cox, William Windom, concludes the story is about a real-life Sandra Currie. Standard Western plot transmurder suspect. Intriguing idea, based on posed to modern city setting: loner hero screenwriter David Freeman’s own expericleans up corrupt town dominated by ruthence at New York magazine, but just misses; less, wealthy family. Slow, unconvincing, powerhouse performances by pimp Freeand instantly forgettable. [R]▼ man and hooker Baker make up for Reeve’s Street Kings (2008) C-108m. ★★ D: David blandness in the lead. [R]▼●쩠 Ayer. Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Streets of Fire (1984) C-93m. ★★★ D: Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Martha HigarWalter Hill. Michael Pare´, Diane Lane, eda, Cedric ‘‘The Entertainer’’ Kyles, Jay Rick Moranis, Amy Madigan, Willem Mohr, John Corbett, Terry Crews, Naomie Dafoe, Deborah Van Valkenburgh, RichHarris, Common, Cle Sloan, The Game, ard Lawson, Rick Rossovich, Bill Paxton, Amaury Nolasco, Daryl Gates. Violent L.A. Lee Ving, Robert Townsend, Elizabeth police (i.e., racial) drama makes old Joseph Daily, Marine Jahan, Ed Begley, Jr., Olivia Wambaugh fodder seem positively quaint: Brown, Matthew Laurance, The Blasters. Reeves is a very tough, alcoholic psychoFemale rock star is kidnapped by sadistic cop who is at the center of numerous gang/ bikers, and her embittered ex-boyfriend revenge/corruption/internal affairs maneuagrees to bring her back—for a price. This vers/conspiracies. Action-packed and some‘‘rock ’n’ roll fable’’ is actually a 1950s B what entertaining (James Ellroy concocted movie brought up to date with pulsating rock the story and coscripted), but awfully farscore (principally by Ry Cooder), state-of-thefetched. Reeves seems to put more sweat art visuals, and a refusal to take itself too into portraying emotional depth than into seriously. Unfortunately, near the climax the chasing bad guys. Super 35. [R]쩠 glitter gives out and we’re left with the Street of Shame (1956-Japanese) 96m. story—which can’t carry film to a really satis★★★1 fying conclusion. Stunningly photographed ⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Machiko Kyo, Ayako Wakao, Aiko Mimasu, Michiyo (mostly on a soundstage, believe it or not) by Andrew Laszlo. [PG]▼●쩠 Kogure. The stories of various prostitutes in Dreamland, a Tokyo brothel, are sensiStreets of Gold (1986) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: tively handled in Mizoguchi’s last comJoe Roth. Klaus Maria Brandauer, Adrian pleted film. Kyo is particularly memorable Pasdar, Wesley Snipes, Angela Molina, as a tough, cynical lady of the night; her Elya Baskin, Rainbow Harvest, John scene with her father is a highlight.▼쩠 Mahoney. Former Russian boxing champ, Street of Sorrow, The SEE: Joyless now a dishwasher in Brooklyn, trains two Street, The street kids for U.S. boxing team—hoping Streets (1990) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Katt Shea to beat his former Russian coach. WellRuben. Christina Applegate, David Menmeaning ‘‘feel-good’’ movie along ROCKY denhall, Eb Lottimer, Patrick Richword, lines; utterly ordinary but for Brandauer’s Alan Stock, Alexander Folk, Mel Castelo, performance. [R]▼● Kay Lenz. Serious, well-made story of Streets of Laredo (1949) C-92m. ★★ D: runaways living in Venice, California, is Leslie Fenton. William Holden, Macdonald compromised by concurrent story of psyCarey, Mona Freeman, William Bendix, chotic cop who’s a serial killer of prostiStanley Ridges, Alfonso Bedoya. Muddled tutes. Applegate is excellent as illiterate Western of outlaws Carey, Holden, and heroine. Understated but shockingly vioBendix, and how the latter two come to be lent at times. [R]▼ Texas Rangers; in fact, this is a remake of Street Scene (1931) 80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: King THE TEXAS RANGERS. Fans of THE Vidor. Sylvia Sidney, William Collier, Jr., TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE David Landau, Estelle Taylor, Walter Millwill appreciate Bedoya’s characterization. er, Beulah Bondi. Heartbreakingly realisStreets of Sin SEE: Not Wanted tic account of life in N.Y. tenements, and Streetwalkin’ (1984) C-85m. BOMB D: Joan younger generation’s desperation to get Freeman. Melissa Leo, Dale Midkiff, Anout. Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer Prize–winning tonio Fargas, Julie Newmar, Leon Robinson, play (adapted by him) enhanced by fine Annie Golden. Ultra-slick, sleazy, hopelessly performances, George Barnes’ striking predictable trash about hooker-with-a-heartcamerawork, Alfred Newman’s classic muof-gold and her sadistic, unbelievably stusic score.▼쩠 pid pimp. [R]▼ Street Smart (1987) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Street With No Name, The (1948) 91m. ★★★ [ 1334 ]

D: William Keighley. Mark Stevens, Richard miners’ strike in the Australian coal fields Widmark, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Lawrence, during the 1930s, culminating with the Ed Begley, Donald Buka. Fine movie based workers—many of them Communist Party on actual F.B.I. case of agent uncovering members—barricading themselves in their head of city mob. Suspense well handled. mine. Seems a bit romanticized but still Follow-up to THE HOUSE ON 92nd taut, perceptive, and extremely well made. STREET. Remade as HOUSE OF BAMStrike It Rich (1990-British) C-87m. ★1⁄2 BOO. ▼쩠 D: James Scott. Robert Lindsay, Molly Strictly Ballroom (1992-Australian) CRingwald, John Gielgud, Max Wall, Simon 94m. ★★★ D: Baz Luhrmann. Paul Mercurio, de la Brosse. Second film version of Graham Tara Morice, Bill Hunter, Barry Otto, Pat Greene novella Loser Takes All, about an Thompson, Gia Carides, Peter Whitford, obscure conglomerate accountant talked John Hannan. Spirited, allegorical musical into honeymooning beyond his means in about a young, competitive ballroom dancer Monte Carlo following a chance encounter (Mercurio) who outrages his mother, and with the firm’s Grand Old Man. The leads the ‘‘establishment,’’ by insisting on dancin DRIVING MISS DAISY have more sexing his own provocative steps; he takes on ual chemistry than postnuptial Lindsay and a new ugly-duckling partner (Morice) who Ringwald; sole compensations are Gielgud blooms under his tutelage. This crowdand ’50s production design. [PG] ▼● pleaser sacrifices credibility for caricaStrike Up the Band (1940) 120m. ★★1⁄2 ture but despite its rough edges emerges a D: Busby Berkeley. Mickey Rooney, Judy winner. [PG]▼●쩠 Garland, Paul Whiteman, June Preisser, Strictly Business (1991) C-83m. ★★ D: William Tracy, Larry Nunn, Margaret Kevin Hooks. Tommy Davidson, Joseph Early, Ann Shoemaker. Rooney is leader of C. Phillips, Anne Marie Johnson, David high school band hoping to compete in Paul Marshall Grant, Halle Berry, Jon Cypher, Whiteman’s nationwide radio contest. TypiSam (Samuel L.) Jackson, Kim Coles, cal Mickey-Judy fare, with good songs: James McDaniel, Paul Provenza, Annie ‘‘Our Love Affair’’ and an extended finale Golden, Sam Rockwell. Corporate man-onfeaturing the Gershwins’ title tune. George the-move with a ‘‘yuppie-plus’’ girlfriend Pal contributes a unique segment featuring falls for a pretty show-biz hopeful, then enlists a symphony performed by animated pieces the aid of an indolent mailroom employee to of fruit (an idea apparently hatched by loosen up his act, and increase his funk quoVincente Minnelli).▼●쩠 tient. Silly, simplistic comedy. Director Hooks Striking Distance (1993) C-101m. ★★ D: appears in a small role. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Rowdy Herrington. Bruce Willis, Sarah JesStrike (1924-Russian) 73m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sica Parker, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Sergei Eisenstein. Grigori Alexandrov, Brion James, Robert Pastorelli, Timothy Maxim Strauch, Mikhail Gomarov, AlexBusfield, John Mahoney, Andre Braugher, ander Antonov, Judith Glizer. Eisenstein’s Jodi Long. Slick but empty, overly familiar debut feature is a still-powerful, vivid acthriller about maverick Pittsburgh river cop count of a 1912 factory workers strike in Willis, who bucks the status quo within his Czarist Russia and its violent suppression. department, and becomes a pawn in a case An appropriate prelude to POTEMKIN; involving a serial killer. [R]▼●쩠 some prints run 82m.▼쩠 Stripes (1981) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ivan Strike! (1998) SEE: All I Wanna Do Reitman. Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, WarStrike (2007-German-Polish) C/B&W-104m. ren Oates, P. J. Soles, Sean Young, John ★★1 ⁄2 D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Katharina Candy, John Larroquette, Judge Reinhold, Thalbach, Andrzej Chyra, Dominique HorTimothy Busfield, Bill Paxton. Loser Murwitz, Andrzej Grabowski, Dariusz Kowalray joins the Army in this predictable service ski, Krzysztof Kiersznowski, Ewa Telega. comedy, which somehow pulled in millions at Fact-based account of Agnieszka Kowalska the box office. Sometimes funny, but emi(Thalbach), a relentless, tough-minded Gdansk nently forgettable. Ramis, who plays Murray’s dockworker whose struggle for workers’ buddy, also coscripted. Brief appearances by rights resulted in the birth of Poland’s SoliJoe Flaherty and Dave Thomas. Extended edidarity movement. The character is a standtion runs 122m. [R]▼●쩠 in for Anna Walentynowicz, a colleague of Stripped to Kill (1987) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 Lech Walesa (Chyra) during the formation D: Katt Shea Ruben. Kay Lenz, Greg of Solidarity. Dramatically uneven, but still Evigan, Norman Fell, Pia Kamakahi, Tracey effective in showing how individual acts of Crowder, Debby Nassar. Who’s killing the conscience occasionally lead to enormous classy strippers of L.A.? It’s up to policesocial or cultural change.쩠 woman Lenz to find out, by posing as a stripStrikebound (1983-Australian) C-100m. per herself. Stylish, inventive Roger Corman ★★★ D: Richard Lowenstein. Chris HayB production hampered by too many strip numbers. Followed by a 1989 sequel. [R]▼쩠 wood, Carol Burns, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rob Steele, Nik Forster. Documentarylike Stripper, The (1963) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frankchronicle, based on actual incidents, of a lin Schaffner. Joanne Woodward, Richard [ 1335 ]

Beymer, Claire Trevor, Carol Lynley, RobStrongest Man in the World, The (1975) C-92m. ★★ D: Vincent McEveety. Kurt ert Webber, Gypsy Rose Lee, Louis Nye, Michael J. Pollard. Aging stripper falls in Russell, Joe Flynn, Eve Arden, Cesar Rolove with teen-age boy in this OK filmizamero, Phil Silvers, Dick Van Patten, Harold tion of William Inge’s play A Loss of Gould, James Gregory. Third of Disney’s Roses. Director Schaffner’s first movie. cookie-cutter student comedies with Russell CinemaScope.▼ and pals again discovering a magic formula— Striptease (1996) C-115m. BOMB D: Anthis one for super-strength—and battling drew Bergman. Demi Moore, Armand Ascrooks who want to get their hands on it. sante, Burt Reynolds, Ving Rhames, Robert Good opening and closing, but even kids may Patrick, Paul Guilfoyle, Rumer Willis, Franfind it draggy midway through. [G]▼쩠 ces Fisher. Unspeakably dreary—not to Strong Man, The (1926) 78m. ★★★ D: mention dreadful—movie (based on Carl Frank Capra. Harry Langdon, Priscilla BonHiaasen’s novel) about a woman who’s lost ner, Gertrude Astor, Brooks Benedict, Arcustody of her young daughter to her sleazethur Thalasso, Robert McKim, William V. ball ex-husband and becomes a stripper in Mong. Baby-faced Langdon’s best movie order to raise money fast for a court appeal. (and Capra’s feature-film debut) casts him Then she becomes entangled with a horny as a WW1 veteran who comes to America congressman. Not funny enough, or dramatic in search of the girl he corresponded with enough, or sexy enough, or bad enough, to during the war. Many fine set pieces make qualify as entertainment in any category. this a memorable comedy; the star never fared as well again.▼●쩠 That’s Moore’s real-life daughter playing her little girl. Unrated video version includes 2m. Strong Medicine (1979) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: of additional footage. [R] ▼●쩠 Richard Foreman. Kate Mannheim, Scotty ★1 Stroke of Midnight (1991) C-91m. ⁄2 Snyder, Bill Raymond, Harry Roskolenko, D: Tom Clegg. Rob Lowe, Jennifer Grey, Ron Vawter, Carol Kane, Raul Julia, Buck Andrea Ferreol, Elizabeth Vitali, Rebecca Henry, Wallace Shawn. Alternately fasciPotok, Sacha Brignet. Direct-to-video dud nating, boring, surreal chronicle of the variabout completely self-absorbed fashion moous activities and adventures of a mad, gul Lowe’s search for a ‘‘new face’’ to manic, eccentric woman. Foreman is an inrepresent his line of clothes; of course, novative theater director; ultimately, this he’s barely aware of aspiring shoe defilm is an acquired taste. signer Grey, who works for him. Poorly Stroszek (1977-German) C-108m. ★★★ D: executed Cinderella yarn—replete with Werner Herzog. Bruno S., Eva Mattes, magic shoes. Unfortunately, there’s no Clemens Scheitz. Berlin street singer and magic in this movie. [PG]▼● former mental patient Bruno S. joins with Stroker Ace (1983) C-96m. BOMB D: whore (Mattes) and aging eccentric (Scheitz) Hal Needham. Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, to travel to the gold-paved streets of AmerJim Nabors, Loni Anderson, Parker Steica the promised-land—which turns out to venson, Bubba Smith, John Byner, Frank be dreary, rural Wisconsin. Most effective O. Hill. One of Burt’s worst has him as as tragicomic, ultimately bitter ridicule of American society.▼쩠 champion race-car driver and pea-brain who delights in tormenting his sponsor Stuart Little (1999) C-92m. ★★★ D: Rob (Beatty) and leering at buxom Anderson. Minkoff. Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, JonaLame ‘‘good old boy’’ hijinks, punctuated than Lipnicki, Jeffrey Jones, Julia Sweeney, with TV stock footage of race-car crackups! Allyce Beasley, Brian Doyle-Murray, Dabney Note: Jim Nabors sings, too. [PG]▼쩠 Coleman, Estelle Getty; voices of Michael J. Stromboli (1949-Italian) 81m. ★1⁄2 D: RoFox, Nathan Lane, Chazz Palminteri, Jennifer berto Rossellini. Ingrid Bergman, Mario Tilly, Bruno Kirby, David Alan Grier, Steve Vitale, Renzo Cesana, Mario Sponza. RamZahn. Cute family film loosely based on bling dreariness with refugee Bergman E. B. White’s much-loved book about a marrying fisherman Vitale; even an eruptmouse, adopted by a human family, who ing volcano doesn’t jar this plodding film, falls prey to the plotting of a jealous which was boycotted in the U.S. because housecat. Sincere human performances and Bergman had left her husband for Rosselremarkable computer animation of Stuart lini. Original 107m. version is now availmake this entertaining for young and old able, but is little improvement over U.S. alike. Followed by a sequel and a direct-tovideo animated feature. [PG]▼쩠 release (which was edited by Alfred Werker and has a different ending).▼ Stuart Little 2 (2002) C-72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Stronger Than the Sun (1980-British) Minkoff. Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, Jonathan Lipnicki; voices of Michael J. Fox, NaC-101m. ★★★ D: Michael Apted. Francesca Annis, Tom Bell. Annis is excellent as than Lane, Melanie Griffith, James Woods, a nuclear power plant worker who attempts Steve Zahn. Stuart is feeling a bit lonely to expose a radioactive leak. Timely drama until he rescues a bird named Margalo from bears a striking resemblance to the Karen an attacking falcon and takes her into the Silkwood story. Little home. Not much of a story here— [ 1336 ]

more a series of vignettes—but the characpictures has a promising start, then simply ters are appealing, the animation is skillful, falls apart; ending is particularly bad. and Lane’s dialogue as Snowbell the cat is Plagued by production problems, as indihilarious, all of which makes up for the cated by producing credit for the ubiquifilm’s shortcomings. Good entertainment tous and nonexistent Allen Smithee (Michael Ritchie here). [R]▼●쩠 for kids. [PG] ▼쩠 Stuart Saves His Family (1995) C-95m. Student Nurses, The (1970) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 ★★ D: Harold Ramis. Al Franken, Laura San D: Stephanie Rothman. Elaine Giftos, Karen Giacomo, Vincent D’Onofrio, Shirley Carlson, Brioni Farrell, Barbara Leigh, Knight, Harris Yulin, Lesley Boone, John Reni Santoni, Richard Rust. First of five Link Graney, Julia Sweeney. Feature-film ‘‘nurse’’ movies produced by Roger Corman vehicle for Stuart Smalley, writer-performer is easily the best, with good cast, comparaFranken’s endearingly dippy self-affirmatively thoughtful script (cowritten by Rothtion advocate from Saturday Night Live TV man), along with expected sex and action; skits (‘‘I’m good enough, I’m smart most interesting subplot concerns guilt by enough, and doggone it, people like me’’). young activist nurse after she accidentally Unfortunately, this purported comedy about shoots a cop. Followed by PRIVATE DUTY NURSES. [R]▼쩠 Stuart’s attempts to wrest himself from his dysfunctional family (and the blight caused Student Prince, The (1954) C-107m. ★★ by his alcoholic father) becomes deadly seD: Richard Thorpe. Ann Blyth, Edmund rious! [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Purdom, John Ericson, Louis Calhern, EdStuck (2008-U.S.-Canadian) C-85m. ★★★ mund Gwenn. Romberg music, dubbed D: Stuart Gordon. Stephen Rea, Mena Suvoice of Mario Lanza chief assets in venvari, Russell Hornsby, Rukiya Bernard, erable operetta about heir to throne sent to Carolyn Purdy-Gordon. Often shockingly Heidelberg for one last fling, where he hilarious black comedy, loosely based on a falls in love with barmaid Blyth. Filmed notorious real-life incident, about a downbefore (sans music) in 1919 and 1927. CinemaScope.▼● sized white-collar drone (Rea) who has a close encounter with an oncoming car, then Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, The (1927) 105m. ★★★★ D: Ernst Lubitsch. remains painfully stuck in the windshield while left to die in a garage by the monRamon Novarro, Norma Shearer, Jean strously self-absorbed driver (Suvari). As Hersholt, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Philippe Rea struggles to survive the mishap (and de Lacy, Edgar Norton, George K. ArSuvari’s attempts to finish him off), this inthur, Edythe Chapman. Silent version of geniously nasty small-budget indie slyly Sigmund Romberg’s famed operetta has suggests that the last best hope for a hardyouthful prince Novarro breaking out of luck loser is to be placed in a situation his cloistered life—for the first time—and where there’s nothing left to lose. [R]쩠 attending Heidelberg University, where he Stuck on You (2003) C-118m. ★1⁄2 D: falls in love with a commoner, pretty barBobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly. Matt maid Shearer. This is Lubitsch at his best, Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Cher, an absolute delight from start to finish, and Wen Yann Shih, Pat Crawford Brown, Ray truly the kind of charmer ‘‘they just don’t ‘‘Rocket’’ Valliere, Seymour Cassel, Mimake anymore.’’ Also known as OLD chael Callan, Griffin Dunne, Rhona Mitra, HEIDELBERG. Previously filmed in 1919; Jessica Cauffiel. Inscrutable Farrelly Brothremade (with music) in 1954.▼● ers comedy about conjoined twins, one of Student Teachers, The (1973) C-79m. ★★1 whom yearns to pursue an acting career in ⁄2 D: Jonathan Kaplan. Susan Damante, Hollywood. This rara avis is a one-joke Brooke Mills, Bob Harris, John Cramer, movie where even the one joke isn’t very Dick Miller, Don Steele, Robert Phillips, good. As usual, the filmmakers make fun of Charles Dierkop. Antics at Valley High people with disabilities and warmly emSchool, with both feminist and ‘‘alternate brace them at the same time. Various celeblearning center’’ concepts mixed into the rities appear in cameos, most notably Meryl usual sexploitation package. Freewheeling Streep. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 direction by Kaplan; followed by SUMStud, The (1978-British) C-95m. BOMB MER SCHOOL TEACHERS. [R]▼ D: Quentin Masters. Joan Collins, Oliver Studs Lonigan (1960) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: IrTobias, Sue Lloyd, Mark Burns, Walter ving Lerner. Christopher Knight, Frank Gotell, Emma Jacobs. A waiter works his Gorshin, Venetia Stevenson, Carolyn Craig, way up in the world (so to speak) by Jack Nicholson, Dick Foran. Interesting if sleeping with the boss’ wife. Idiotic softcore not altogether successful adaptation of James porn written by Jackie Collins (Joan’s sister). T. Farrell’s ‘‘notorious’’ novel about a Followed by THE BITCH. [R]▼쩠 restless, sexually active young man in 1920s Student Bodies (1981) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Chicago. Good period atmosphere, but script Mickey Rose. Kristen Riter, Matthew makes unfortunate compromises with 1960 Goldsby, Richard Brando, Joe Flood, Joe taste and censorship. Nicholson is one of Talarowski. Spoof of HALLOWEEN-type Studs’ cronies; Foran is impressive as Studs’ [ 1337 ]

father. Scripted and produced by Philip books by James Marshall and Harry AlYordan. Basis for a 1979 TV miniseries.▼쩠 lard); the tone of the film is admirably conStudy in Terror, A (1965-British) C-94m. sistent and often quite funny. As usual ★★★ Landis features cameos by other directors, D: James Hill. John Neville, Donald Houston, Georgia Brown, John Fraser, including Robert Wise, Gillo Pontecorvo, Anthony Quayle, Barbara Windsor, Robert Costa-Gavras, Atom Egoyan, Norman Morley, Cecil Parker, Frank Finlay, Kay Jewison, and David Cronenberg. And yes, Walsh, Judi Dench. Compact little thriller that’s Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan) as pits Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripthe museum curator. Remember, trust in the Lloyd. [PG]▼●쩠 per; violent, well paced, and well cast. For another version of Holmes vs. the Ripper, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, The (1967) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Corman. Jason see MURDER BY DECREE.▼● Stuff, The (1985) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Robards, Jr., George Segal, Ralph Cohen. Michael Moriarty, Andrea MarMeeker, Jean Hale, Clint Ritchie, Frank covicci, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino, Scott Silvera, Joseph Campanella, Bruce Dern. Bloom, Danny Aiello, James Dixon, AlThis had the makings of a good film, but exander Scourby, Russell Nype, Brian they blew it, with Robards (as Al Capone) Bloom, Rutanya Alda. The new dessert and Segal (doing a Jimmy Cagney imitasensation that’s sweeping the country turns tion) overacting as they’ve never done beout to be deadly stuff indeed. Typically fore. So much shooting throughout film slapdash Larry Cohen production has some that final massacre seems tame by comengaging performances, and the spirit of parison. Many familiar faces appear silly ’50s science-fiction films, but doesn’t throughout: Harold Stone, Kurt Krueger, always come off—as horror or comedy. It Milton Frome, Mickey Deems, John Agar, does have its moments, however—and a Reed Hadley, Alex D’Arcy, etc. Pay close bunch of familiar ‘‘Commercial Spokesattention and you’ll see Jack Nicholson, persons.’’ [R]▼쩠 too! Panavision.▼쩠 Stunt Man, The (1980) C-129m. ★★★★ D: Sub-A-Dub-Dub SEE: Hello Down There Richard Rush. Peter O’Toole, Steve RailsSubject Was Roses, The (1968) C-107m. ★★★ D: Ulu Grosbard. Patricia Neal, Jack back, Barbara Hershey, Chuck Bail, Allen Goorwitz (Garfield), Adam Roarke, Alex Albertson, Martin Sheen, Don Saxon, Elaine Rocco, Sharon Farrell, Philip Bruns. An Williams, Grant Gordon. Frank D. Gilroy’s outrageous black comedy in which reality Pulitzer Prize–winning play about young and make-believe blur. Fugitive Railsback veteran’s strained relationship with his parstumbles onto a movie set, where he accients makes a generally good film. This was dentally causes the death of their ace stunt Neal’s first film after her near fatal stroke. man; director O’Toole offers to hide him Sheen and Oscar winner Albertson refrom the police—if he’ll replace the stunt created their Broadway roles. Gilroy adapted man. Crammed with first-rate action and his own play for the screen. [G] ▼ sly wit, plus a mesmerizing performance Submarine Command (1951) 87m. ★★1⁄2 by O’Toole as the Christ-like Eli Cross. D: John Farrow. William Holden, Nancy Attention must be paid, but the rewards Olson, William Bendix, Don Taylor. Preare more than ample. Dazzlingly scripted (by dictable but acceptable post-WW2 account Lawrence B. Marcus from Paul Brodeur’s of naval military life; Olson is wholesome novel) and directed; amusing score by Domlove interest. Submarine Patrol (1938) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: inic Frontiere. Filmed in 1978. [R]▼●쩠 ★★1 Stunts (1977) C-89m. ⁄2 D: Mark L. John Ford. Richard Greene, Nancy Kelly, Lester. Robert Forster, Fiona Lewis, JoPreston Foster, George Bancroft, Slim anna Cassidy, Darrell Fetty, Bruce GlovSummerville, John Carradine, J. Farrell er, James Luisi. When a stunt man dies MacDonald, Maxie Rosenbloom, Jack Penwhile making a film, his brother (Forster) nick, Elisha Cook, Jr. Routine actioner takes his place in order to probe the ‘‘acciwith tough captain Foster revitalizing dent.’’ Engaging B movie with terrific beat-up Splinter Fleet ship and demoralaction scenes and a wild helicopter-andized crew for duty in WW1. car finale. Retitled WHO IS KILLING Submarine X-1 (1968-British) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 THE STUNTMEN? [PG]▼쩠 D: William Graham. James Caan, Rupert DaStupids, The (1996) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: John vies, David Summer, William Dysart, NorLandis. Tom Arnold, Jessica Lundy, Bug man Bowler. After losing submarine in battle Hall, Alex McKenna, Mark Metcalf, Matt with German ship, naval officer Caan gets Keeslar, Frankie Faison, Christopher Lee, second chance in daring raid with midget Jenny McCarthy. Likably goofy film for subs. Standard WW2 fare. [G]쩠 kids about a lunkhead family that someSubspecies (1991) C-90m. ★★ D: Ted how gets involved in espionage and an illeNicolaou. Michael Watson, Laura Tate, gal weapons scheme. The cast is ideal, Anders Hove, Michelle McBride, Irina straight-facedly portraying these wellMovila, Ivan J. Rado, Angus Scrimm. meaning morons (from the children’s Nasty vampire is after some American [ 1338 ]

girls but has to contend with his goodvampire brother. Actually shot in Transylvania on picturesque locations, but the director has no idea how to set up shock scenes. Followed by four sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Substance of Fire, The (1996) C-101m. ★★★ D: Daniel Sullivan. Ron Rifkin, Tony Goldwyn, Timothy Hutton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Lee Grant, Eric Bogosian, Elizabeth Franz, Gil Bellows, Roger Rees, Ronny Graham, Adolph Green, George Morfogen, Debra Monk, Viola Davis. Literate, intelligent adaptation of Jon Robin Baitz’ Off-Broadway play about a brilliant but inordinately arrogant—and deeply troubled—Holocaust survivor (Rifkin). Now a book publisher, he’s obsessed with publishing an extensive history of Nazi medical experiments, rather than a potentially lucrative novel that may save his company from financial ruin. Not surprisingly, he has alienated his three grown children. Extremely well acted, especially by Rifkin (who created his role onstage). Baitz scripted. [R] ▼●쩠 Substitute, The (1996) C-114m. ★★ D: Robert Mandel. Tom Berenger, Diane Venora, Ernie Hudson, Glenn Plummer, William Forsythe, Richard Brooks, Cliff De Young. The CIA goes to high school in this preposterous but entertaining action story of agent Berenger who substitutes for teacher/ girlfriend Venora when her leg is broken by a gang member. When he’s not disciplining students, this substitute is busy exposing and fighting drug smugglers. Mindless diversion. Followed by three sequels. [R]

stressed-out suburban family. Hogan is surprisingly likable as a vigilante/crusader in this comic vehicle which he coexecutiveproduced. [PG]▼●쩠 Suburbans, The (1999) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Donal Lardner Ward. Donal Lardner Ward, Amy Brenneman, Craig Bierko, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Tony Guma, Bridgette Wilson, Ben Stiller, Jerry Stiller, Robert Loggia. Pointless trifle about a onehit-wonder band from the 1980s attempting to revitalize their career. Not even the Stillers can make it work. [R]▼쩠 Suburbia (1983) SEE: Wild Side, The subUrbia (1996) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Linklater. Giovanni Ribisi, Steve Zahn, Amie Carey, Samia Shoaib, Ajay Naidu, Nicky Katt, Jayce Bartok, Parker Posey, Dina Spybey. Knowing, laced-in-acid sonof-SLACKER, depicting a group of aimless, alienated 20-year-olds who hang out in a generic suburban parking lot, where various frictions and jealousies emerge—especially upon the appearance of one of their old pals, who has become a rock star. Collectively well acted and pungently scripted by Eric Bogosian (based on his play), though its stage origins weigh it down a bit. [R]▼● Subway (1985-French) C-104m. ★★ D: Luc Besson. Isabelle Adjani, Christopher Lambert, Richard Bohringer, Michel Galabru, Jean-Hugues Anglade. Dripping in new wave style and attitude, this (literally) underground fable, set in the Paris me´tro, where various lives intertwine, is utterly aimless and pointless. Intrigues and amuses at first, and then just runs out of steam. ▼●쩠 Subterfuge (1968-British) C-92m. ★★ D: Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 Peter Graham Scott. Gene Barry, Joan Subway to the Stars (1987-Brazilian) Collins, Richard Todd, Suzanna Leigh, C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carlos Diegues. GuilMichael Rennie. American agent Barry is herme Fontes, Milton Goncalves, Taumaforced into helping British Intelligence in turgo Ferreira, Ze Trindade, Ana Beatriz this routine espionage drama.▼ Wiltgen. Gritty, grim account of young Subterraneans, The (1960) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 sax player Fontes and his experiences as D: Ranald MacDougall. Leslie Caron, he roams the back streets of Rio in search George Peppard, Janice Rule, Roddy of his missing girlfriend. Has its moments McDowall, Anne Seymour, Jim Hutton, of insight, but overall too meandering. Scott Marlowe. Glossy, superficial study [R]▼ of life and love among the beatniks, with Success, The (1963-Italian) 103m. ★★★ D: pure cornball stereotype performances; Dino Risi. Vittorio Gassman, Anouk Aime´e, MGM was not the studio for this one. Jean-Louis Trintignant. Intelligent delinScript by Robert Thom, from the Jack eation by Gassman as businessman overKerouac novel. Music by Andre Previn, whelmed by success urge makes this drama who also appears on screen along with worthy. such jazz artists as Gerry Mulligan, CarSuccess (1979) SEE: American Success men McRae, Art Pepper, Art Farmer, Company, The Shelly Manne. CinemaScope. Success Is the Best Revenge (1984-British) Suburban Commando (1991) C-90m. C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerzy Skolimowski. Mi★★1 ⁄2 D: Burt Kennedy. Hulk Hogan (Terry chael York, Joanna Szerbic, Michael Bollea), Christopher Lloyd, Shelley Duvall, Lyndon, George Skolimowski, Michel PicLarry Miller, William Ball, JoAnn Dearing, coli, Anouk Aime´e, John Hurt. Intriguing Jack Elam, Roy Dotrice, Michael Faustino. if uneven yarn about a Polish director Engaging film for kids about outer-space (York) in exile in London and his rebellious warrior who comes to earth for some r&r, teen son (Lyndon), who is anxious to exand gets involved in the lives of a somewhat plore his heritage. Skolimowski—himself [ 1339 ]

an exile—explores the meaning of living Locke plays a woman taking out murderous in a country other than one’s own, but he revenge on men (and one lesbian!) who raped fared better with previous film, MOONher and her sister years ago. Michael V. LIGHTING.▼● Gazzo appears unbilled. Followed by THE Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me (1972DEAD POOL. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 French) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Suddenly (1954) 77m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Bernadette Lafont, Claude Brasseur, Charles Allen. Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden, James Denner, Guy Marchand, Philippe Le´otard. Gleason, Nancy Gates, Willis Bouchey, Kim Delightful black comedy of female murderer Charney, Paul Frees, Christopher Dark, who relates her sordid past to criminology Charles Smith. Sinatra leads trio of paid asstudent, gradually entices him just as she sassins who take over house in small town did her former ‘‘victims.’’ Lafont ideal in where the President will pass on his way to a leading role. [R] fishing trip. White-knuckle thriller, written by Such Good Friends (1971) C-100m. ★★★ Richard Sale, with Sinatra excellent in thorD: Otto Preminger. Dyan Cannon, James oughly detestable role; rest of cast equally Coco, Jennifer O’Neill, Ken Howard, Nina fine. ‘‘Suddenly,’’ incidentally, is the name Foch, Laurence Luckinbill, Louise Lasser, of the town. Also shown in computerBurgess Meredith, Sam Levene. Tart black colored version.▼●쩠 comedy about man going to hospital, Suddenly, Last Summer (1959) 114m. ★★★1 prompting wife (Cannon) to reexamine their ⁄2 D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Elizarelationship and learn about his romantic beth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomsideline activities. Fine ensemble acting ery Clift, Mercedes McCambridge, Albert buoys acidly funny script (by Elaine May, Dekker. Fascinating if talky (though who used a pseudonym); from the Lois cleaned-up) Tennessee Williams yarn about Gould novel. [R] wealthy Southern matriarch (Hepburn), her Sudan (1945) C-76m. ★★ D: John Rawsupposedly mad niece (Taylor) and a neurolins. Maria Montez, Jon Hall, Turhan Bey, surgeon (Clift); grandly acted. Adaptation Andy Devine, George Zucco, Robert Warby Gore Vidal. Remade for TV in 1992 with wick. Queen Montez escapes evil prime Maggie Smith.▼●쩠 minister Zucco with help of Hall and Bey Sudden Terror (1970-British) C-95m. ★★ in colorful but empty adventure-romance. D: John Hough. Mark Lester, Lionel Jeffries, Montez and Hall’s last pairing. Susan George, Tony Bonner, Jeremy Kemp. Sudden Death (1995) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Adequate variation on boy-who-cried-wolf Peter Hyams. Jean-Claude Van Damme, theme: prankish youngster witnesses murder Powers Boothe, Raymond J. Barry, Whittni of visiting dignitary, but can’t convince others. Wright, Ross Malinger, Dorian Harewood, Almost ruined by self-conscious direction. Paul Mochnick, Kate McNeil, Michael GasOriginally titled EYEWITNESS. [PG] ▼쩠 ton, Audra Lindley. Sardonic mastermind Suez (1938) 104m. ★★★ D: Allan Dwan. Boothe holds the Vice President hostage in Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Annabella, a private box during Stanley Cup hockey Henry Stephenson, Maurice Moscovich, playoffs in Pittsburgh, demanding a few bilJoseph Schildkraut, Sidney Blackmer, lion, or he’ll blow up the whole arena. But J. Edward Bromberg, Sig Ruman, Nigel fire inspector Van Damme is on the job, and Bruce, Miles Mander, George Zucco, Leon Boothe has unwisely captured our hero’s Ames. Power is 19th-century French ardaughter . . . DIE HARD clone bludgeons chitect (and dreamer) Ferdinand de Lesseps, credulity to death early on, and the movie who pursues a single-minded goal of buildnever recovers, despite plenty of action and ing the Suez Canal; his real problem is effects. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 choosing between aristocratic Loretta and Sudden Fear (1952) 110m. ★★★ D: David down-to-earth Annabella. Entertaining and Miller. Joan Crawford, Jack Palance, Gloelaborate hokum which apparently bears ria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Touch (Mike) no resemblance to history. Connors, Virginia Huston. Wealthy playSugar (2009) C-118m. ★★★ D: Anna Boden, wright Crawford discovers new husband Ryan Fleck. Algenis Perez Soto, Rayniel RuPalance (an actor whom she once fired) is fino, Andre Holland, Michael Gaston, Jaime planning to kill her; she uses her writing Tirelli, Jose´ Rijo, Ann Whitney, Richard Bull, skills to concoct a scheme to make him trip Ellary Porterfield. Illuminating portrait of a himself up. Solid suspense thriller with 19-year-old baseball player from the Dominimany neat twists.▼●쩠 can Republic nicknamed Sugar (Perez Soto), Sudden Impact (1983) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: who leaves his family and friends to come to Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Sondra America, where he is assigned to a team in Locke, Pat Hingle, Bradford Dillman, Paul Iowa as his first step toward the major Drake, Jack Thibeau, Albert Popwell. Fourth leagues. A poignant look at cultural disorienDIRTY HARRY vehicle relies on durable tation, this leisurely, very low-key character formula, as maverick cop gives us vicarious study isn’t really a sports movie—although it pleasure of doing in society’s scum, but this does offer a revealing look at the business end entry is longer, and sillier, than need be. of American baseball. Real-life Dominican[ 1340 ]

born major leaguer Rijo plays Alvarez. SecBen Johnson, Michael Sacks, William ond feature for the writing-directing team that Atherton, Steve Kanaly, Louise Latham. made HALF NELSON. Super 35. [R] Perfect entertainment, based on fact, about Sugar and Spice (2001) C-81m. ★★ D: a young fugitive couple fleeing to SugarFrancine McDougall. Marley Shelton, land, Texas, to reclaim their son (whom James Marsden, Mena Suvari, Marla Sokothey refuse to give up for adoption), and loff, Rachel Blanchard, Melissa George, Althe cops who pursue them throughout Texas. exandra Holden, Sara Marsh, Sean Young. Spielberg’s first theatrical feature, written Five high school cheerleader pals rally by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 around their squad captain when she becomes pregnant (by the school’s new hotSugar Town (1999-U.S.-British) C-92m. ★★★ shot quarterback) . . . and stage a robbery in D: Allison Anders, Kurt Voss. Ally order to help her out. Only mildly amusing, Sheedy, Rosanna Arquette, John Taylor, Jade though the cast is enthusiastic, and Marsden Gordon, Michael Des Barres, Larry Klein, is fun as an egocentric doofus. Alternate Beverly D’Angelo, Vincent Berry, Richmond version runs 84m. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Arquette, Lucinda Jenney, Martin Kemp. Sugarbaby (1985-German) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 Amusing mosaic of L.A. life featuring a D: Percy Adlon. Marianne Sa¨gebrecht, handful of characters whose lives dovetail: Eisi Gulp. It’s love at first sight for chubby a music-world wannabe who’ll do anything mortuary attendant Sa¨gebrecht and subwayto get ahead, an uptight single woman who train driver Gulp in this droll romantic attracts the wrong guys like a magnet, and a satire. Players and story are offbeat, but band made up of washed-up ’80s rock stars, the avant-garde lighting effects and camto name a few. Slight, made on a shoestring, era movements by cinematographer Jobut sharp and well observed; good cast inhanna Heer become annoying. Remade as cludes a number of real-life musicians. Written by the directors. [R]▼ BABYCAKES for American TV.▼ Sugar Cane Alley (1984-French) C-107m. Suicide Kings (1998) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: ★★★1⁄2 D: Euzhan Palcy. Darling Legitimus, Peter O’Fallon. Christopher Walken, Denis Garry Cadenat, Routa Seck, Joby Bernabe, Leary, Henry Thomas, Sean Patrick Francisco Charles. Beautifully made, heartFlanery, Jay Mohr, Jeremy Sisto, Johnny felt drama about an 11-year-old boy and his Galecki, Laura San Giacomo, Laura Harris, all-sacrificing grandmother, surviving in a Cliff De Young, Brad Garrett. Intriguing Martinique shantytown during the 1930s. premise: a group of spoiled rich kids abduct Rich, memorable characterizations; a humana smooth underworld character and hold ist drama of the highest order. [PG]▼●쩠 him hostage to gain leverage in the kidSugarfoot (1951) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edwin naping of Thomas’ sister. But during one L. Marin. Randolph Scott, Adele Jergens, long night, the mobster (Walken, in fine Raymond Massey, S. Z. Sakall, Arthur form) sizes up his captors and plays on their Hunnicutt. Above-par Scott Western. Randy weaknesses. Well-thought-out chamber piece, is ex-Rebel officer who encounters his old with some good story twists and first-rate adversary in Arizona. performances; too bad the wrapup isn’t as strong as the rest of the film. [R]▼●쩠 Sugar Hill (1974) C-91m. ★★ D: Paul Maslansky. Marki Bey, Robert Quarry, Sullivans, The (1944) 111m. ★★★ D: Lloyd Don Pedro Colley, Richard Lawson, Betty Bacon. Anne Baxter, Thomas Mitchell, Anne Rees, Zara Cully. Bey stars as Selena Royle, Ward Bond, Bobby Driscoll, ‘‘Sugar’’ Hill, who avenges the mob’s Addison Richards. Homey, patriotic but rubout of her fiance´, conjuring up black fictionalized story of the real-life Sullivan zombies from the grave. Outlandish blend brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, who fought toof blaxploitation, revenge, and voodoo/ gether in WW2. Knowing the outcome of horror elements. [PG]▼ this story makes it very sad to watch. The Sugar Hill (1994) C-123m. ★★ D: Leon Sullivans are played by Edward Ryan, John Ichaso. Wesley Snipes, Michael Wright, Campbell, James Cardwell, John Alvin, and Theresa Randle, Clarence Williams III, Abe George Offerman, Jr. Aka THE FIGHTING SULLIVANS. ▼쩠 Vigoda, Larry Joshua, Ernie Hudson, Leslie Uggams, Khandi Alexander, Raymond Sullivan’s Travels (1942) 90m. ★★★★ D: Serra, Joe Dallesandro, Vondie Curtis-Hall. Preston Sturges. Joel McCrea, Veronica So-what crime melodrama featuring Snipes Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, and Wright as Roemello and Raynathan Margaret Hayes, Porter Hall, Eric Blore, Skuggs, drug-dealing siblings in Harlem. UnRobert Greig, Jimmy Conlin, Al Bridge, like the more zealous Raynathan, the solitary, Franklin Pangborn. Tired of making fluff, soulful Roemello yearns for a career change. movie director McCrea decides to do a ‘‘seShades of SUPERFLY! Dense and preposrious’’ film; to research it, he sets out with terous; you’ll be as bored with the film as 10¢ in his pocket to experience life in ‘‘the Roemello is with his life. [R]▼●쩠 real world.’’ Slapstick and sorrow blend Sugarland Express, The (1974) C-109m. seamlessly in this landmark Hollywood sat★★★1⁄2 D: Steven Spielberg. Goldie Hawn, ire, which grows more pertinent with each [ 1341 ]

Summer Heat (1987) C-90m. ★★ D: Michie Gleason. Lori Singer, Anthony Edwards, Bruce Abbott, Kathy Bates, Clu Gulager. How soon will sultry farm wife Singer, neglected by husband Edwards, succumb to the charms of hired hand Abbott? Not long enough for you to want to sit through this bore. Summer Heat, indeed . . . [R]▼● Summer Holiday (1948) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rouben Mamoulian. Mickey Rooney, Walter Huston, Frank Morgan, Agnes Moorehead, Butch Jenkins, Selena Royle, Marilyn Maxwell, Gloria De Haven, Anne Francis. Lavish musical remake of AH, WILDERNESS! with Rooney (who played the younger brother in 1935) as the young man coming of age. Extremely goodlooking film, with exquisite use of Technicolor, but dramatically unexceptional—and not nearly as good as the earlier film. This version was made in 1946. ▼● Summer Holiday (1963-British) C-107m. ★★ D: Peter Yates. Cliff Richard, Lauri Peters, David Kossoff, Ron Moody, The Shadows, Melvyn Hayes, Una Stubbs, Teddy Green, Jeremy Bulloch. Richard, Hayes, Green, and Bulloch travel through Europe on a bus in this silly but cheerful musical; inauspicious directorial debut by Yates. CinemaScope.쩠 Summer House, The (1993-British) C82m. ★★★ D: Waris Hussein. Jeanne Moreau, Joan Plowright, Julie Walters, Lena Headey, David Threlfall, Maggie Steed, John Wood, Catherine Schell. An actors’ field day, as flamboyant Moreau comes to stay with her girlhood friend Walters (now a frumpy housewife in 1950s Croydon) when her strangely reticent daughter is about to be married—to the twit next door. Plowright is wonderful as the idiot-groom’s aged mother; her scenes with Moreau are a real treat. Based on the novel The Clothes in the Wardrobe by Alice Thomas Ellis. Made for British television.▼● Summer Interlude SEE: Illicit Interlude Summer Love (1958) 85m. ★★ D: Charles Haas. John Saxon, Molly Bee, Rod McKuen, Judi Meredith, Jill St. John, George Winslow, Fay Wray, Edward Platt, Shelley Fabares, Troy Donahue. Sequel to ROCK, PRETTY BABY has Saxon et al. hired to perform at summer resort camp; perky performances. ▼쩠 Summer City (1976-Australian) C-83m. Summer Lovers (1982) C-98m. ★★ D: ★★ Randal Kleiser. Peter Gallagher, Daryl D: Christopher Fraser. John Jarratt, Mel Gibson, Phil Avalon, Steve Bisley, Hannah, Valerie Quennessen, Barbara James Elliot, Debbie Forman. Slight, lowRush, Carole Cook. This one’s a matter of budget rock ’n roll road movie detailing tolerance: Any movie that makes you think the escapades of four buddies who head seriously about having a me´nage a` trois on out of Sydney for a surfing weekend. The a Greek island can’t be all bad, but here’s a shy, quiet one is played by Mel Gibson— film that’s on an even lower intellectual it’s his screen debut. Aka COAST OF level than you’d expect from the director of TERROR.▼쩠 THE BLUE LAGOON. Bouncy rock Summer Fling SEE: Last of the High soundtrack. [R] ▼●쩠 Kings, The Summer Magic (1963) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1342 ] passing year. A unique achievement for writer-director Sturges. ▼●쩠 Summer (1986-French) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Marie Riviere, Lisa Heredia, Vincent Gauthier, Beatrice Romand, Carita. Sensitive but whiny Riviere, abandoned by friends on the eve of a group vacation, goes it alone with initially lonely results. Seemingly more improvised than the other Rohmers, this demands viewer patience and some tolerance of Riviere’s ‘‘difficult’’ personality, but patience is rewarded. Finale is quite moving, in what emerges as one of the director’s better efforts, from his series ‘‘Comedies and Proverbs.’’ [R]▼●쩠 Summer and Smoke (1961) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Glenville. Geraldine Page, Laurence Harvey, Una Merkel, John McIntire, Pamela Tiffin, Rita Moreno, Thomas Gomez, Earl Holliman, Casey Adams, Lee Patrick. Spinster Page is in love with young doctor Harvey, but he’s understandably not interested; vivid adaptation of Tennessee Williams play, set in 1916 in small Mississippi town, with torrid performances making up for frequent staginess. Atmospheric score by Elmer Bernstein. Panavision.▼● Summer Camp Nightmare (1987) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Bert L. Dragin. Chuck Connors, Charles Stratton, Adam Carl, Harold Pruett, Melissa Brennan, Tom Fridley, Nancy Calabrese. Synthetic update of LORD OF THE FLIES has young Fascist Stratton staging a small-scale revolution by having kids take over two adjoining summer camps, imprisoning the adults. Stratton good in difficult role, but plot gimmicks fail to convince, especially the kids’ quickie descent into barbarism. Based on William Butler’s novel The Butterfly Revolution. [PG-13]▼● Summer Catch (2001) C-104m. ★★ D: Mike Tollin. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Jessica Biel, Matthew Lillard,Brian Dennehy, Fred Ward, Jason Gedrick, Brittany Murphy, Bruce Davison, Marc Blucas, Wilmer Valderrama. Substandard comedy/romance/coming-of-age story set in Cape Cod, with underprivileged baseball player Prinze falling for local rich girl, then having to deal with her snobby father, while tending his budding career. Takes itself too seriously, though Lillard adds welcome comedy relief. Beverly D’Angelo and John C. McGinley appear unbilled. [PG-13]

James Neilson. Hayley Mills, Burl Ives, a working stiff’s refusal to let some arrogant Dorothy McGuire, Deborah Walley, Eddie fat cats spoil his family’s vacation in Florida. Hodges, Una Merkel. Disney’s rehash of Candy proves he can be endearing in a realMOTHER CAREY’S CHICKENS has istic characterization—and still be funny. McGuire as widow who raises family on a [PG]▼●쩠 shoestring in rambling Maine house. Burl Summer School (1987) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: sings ‘‘The Ugly Bug Ball.’’ Pleasant but Carl Reiner. Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, forgettable.▼쩠 Robin Thomas, Dean Cameron, Gary Riley, Summer Night, with Greek Profile, AlShawnee Smith, Courtney Thorne-Smith. mond Eyes and Scent of Basil (1987Harmon is delinquent high school teacher Italian) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Lina Wertmuller. forced to spend his vacation trying to eduMariangela Melato, Michele Placido, Rocate group of delinquent students. Not bad berto Herlipzka, Massimo Wertmuller. as these films go: decent acting, OK pacMelato’s presence, in a sexual cat-anding, some good laughs . . . with extra mouse tale, might lead one to expect anchuckles for fans of TEXAS CHAINSAW other SWEPT AWAY, but this is light MASSACRE and those movie-critic TV years removed: a relentlessly heavy-handed shows. Director Reiner has a cameo as Harmon’s predecessor. [PG-13]▼●쩠 comedy about a rich, sexy Italian capitalist who abducts a notorious terrorist and tries to Summer School Teachers (1975) C-87m. ★★ give him a taste of his own medicine . . . D: Barbara Peeters. Candice Rialson, until she finds herself attracted to him. This Pat Anderson, Rhonda Leigh-Hopkins, Dick ‘‘night’’ seems like it will never end!▼쩠 Miller. Well-paced, episodic film of three Summer of ’42 (1971) C-102m. ★★★ D: girls’ romantic adventures while teaching Robert Mulligan, Jennifer O’Neill, Gary high school. A followup to THE STUGrimes, Jerry Houser, Oliver Conant, KathDENT TEACHERS. [R]▼ erine Allentuck, Christopher Norris, Lou Summer Stock (1950) C-109m. ★★★ D: Frizell. Enticing if unprofound nostalgia Charles Walters, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, by Herman Raucher about teenager Grimes Eddie Bracken, Marjorie Main, Gloria De with crush on young war bride O’Neill. Haven, Phil Silvers, Hans Conried. KelCaptures 1940s flavor, adolescent boyhood, ly’s theater troupe takes over Judy’s farm, quite nicely. Michel Legrand won an Osshe gets show biz bug. Thin plot, breezy car for the score. Followed by CLASS OF Judy, frantic Silvers, chipper De Haven. ’44. [PG—originally rated R]▼●쩠 Judy sings ‘‘Get Happy,’’ Kelly dances on newspapers.▼●쩠 Summer of Sam (1999) C-142m. ★★ D: Spike Lee. John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Summer Storm (1944) 106m. ★★★ D: Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Anthony Douglas Sirk. George Sanders, Linda LaPaglia, Ben Gazzara, Bebe Neuwirth, Patti Darnell, Edward Everett Horton, Sig Ruman, LuPone, Mike Starr, Michael Rispoli, John Anna Lee, Sarah Padden, Frank Orth. Savage, Michael Badalucco, Jimmy Breslin, Darnell has one of her best roles as beautiSpike Lee. Mosaic of Italian-American charful woman who brings tragedy to all inacters living in the Bronx during the steamy volved with her, including herself; from summer of 1977, when the serial killer Chekhov’s story ‘‘The Shooting Party.’’ known as Son of Sam terrorized N.Y.C., Summer Story, A (1988-British) C-95m. ★★★ firing both passions and paranoia. InterestD: Piers Haggard. Imogen Stubbs, ing, mostly unpleasant slice of life/period James Wilby, Ken Colley, Sophie Ward, piece goes on much too long . . . and gets Susannah York, Jerome Flynn. Beautipretty sleazy. Cowriters Michael Imperioli fully made romantic drama, circa 1902, and Victor Colicchio appear as Midnight set and filmed entirely in rural southwestand Chickie, respectively. [R]▼쩠 ern England. Young London lawyer Wilby Summer of ’64 SEE: Girls on the Beach, and farm girl Stubbs fall deeply in love; he The soon must make decisions of the mind and Summer Place, A (1959) C-130m. ★★★ heart that could change their lives forever. D: Delmer Daves. Richard Egan, Dorothy The two leads are superb. Penelope MortiMcGuire, Sandra Dee, Arthur Kennedy, Troy mer adapted John Galsworthy’s story ‘‘The Donahue, Constance Ford, Beulah Bondi. Apple Tree.’’ [PG-13]▼ Lushly photographed (by Harry Stradling) Summertime (1955) C-99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: soaper of adultery and teenage love at resort David Lean. Katharine Hepburn, Rossano house on Maine coast. Excellent Max Steiner Brazzi, Isa Miranda, Darren McGavin, Mari score (the theme was a big hit); based on the Aldon, Andre Morell. Lilting film of spinster Sloan Wilson novel.▼●쩠 vacationing in Venice, falling in love with Summerplay SEE: Illicit Interlude married man. Hepburn’s sensitive portrayal Summer Rental (1985) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: is one of her best. Screenplay by Lean and Carl Reiner. John Candy, Karen Austin, H.E. Bates, from Arthur Laurents’ play Richard Crenna, Rip Torn, John LarroThe Time of the Cuckoo. Beautifully filmed quette, Richard Herd, Lois Hamilton, Caron location by Jack Hildyard.▼●쩠 mine Caridi. Breezy, low-key comedy about Summertime Killer (1973-French-Italian[ 1343 ]

Spanish) C-109m. ★★ D: Antonio Isasi. characters speak to the camera. Scripted by David Stevens, based on his play. ▼●쩠 Karl Malden, Christopher Mitchum, Raf Sun Also Rises, The (1957) C-129m. ★★★ Vallone, Claudine Auger, Olivia Hussey. D: Henry King. Tyrone Power, Ava GardVaried cast in OK revenge meller about a ner, Mel Ferrer, Errol Flynn, Eddie Alman pursuing his father’s murderers. Lots bert, Gregory Ratoff, Juliette Greco, Marof action, if not much continuity. [PG]▼ cel Dalio, Henry Daniell, Robert Evans. HeSummertree (1971) C-88m. ★★ D: Anmingway story of expatriates in Parisian thony Newley. Michael Douglas, Jack War1920s has slow stretches; worthwhile for outden, Brenda Vaccaro, Barbara Bel Gedstanding cast, especially Flynn as a souse. Eudes, Kirk Callaway, Bill Vint, Rob Reiner. ropean and Mexican locations add flavor to Highly acclaimed (if overrated) off-Broadtale of search for self-identity. Remade way play by Ron Cowen fails as a film; (poorly) for TV in 1984. CinemaScope.쩠 Douglas plays a young music student who Sunburn (1979) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard clashes with parents over Vietnam War. C. Sarafian. Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Charles [PG]▼ Grodin, Art Carney, Joan Collins, Alejandro Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973) Rey, William Daniels. Insurance investiC-93m. ★★★ D: Gilbert Cates. Joanne Woodgator Grodin has Farrah pose as his wife in ward, Martin Balsam, Sylvia Sidney, Dori order to crack a murder/suicide case in AcaBrenner, Ron Rickards. Sensitive character pulco. Sloppily made film benefits from apstudy of frigid woman (Woodward) obsessed pealing performances. Eleanor Parker, Keenan by her childhood, upset by her own aloofness Wynn, and John Hillerman get co-starring billtowards others; Balsam equally good as uning but barely appear at all. [PG]▼ derstanding husband. [PG]▼ Sunchaser, The (1996) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Summer With Monika (1953-Swedish) Michael Cimino. Woody Harrelson, Jon 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Harriet Seda, Anne Bancroft, Alexandra Tydings, Andersson, Lars Ekborg, John HarryMatt Mulhern, Talisa Soto, Richard Bauer, son, Georg Skarstedt, Dagmar Ebbesen, Lawrence Pressman, Harry Carey, Jr., Brett Ake Gronberg. A brief affair between Harrelson. Brilliant but insensitive doctor two working-class youngsters, aggressive Harrelson is taken captive by sensitive but Andersson and boyish Ekborg, results in the dying gang banger Seda, and is forced to birth of their baby and marriage. Simple drive into the Southwest in search of a lake storyline has been filmed before and since, of spiritual renewal. Misbegotten mess tries but rarely with such sensitivity. Video title: to touch all trendy bases, scrambling AmeriMONIKA.▼ can Indian mysticism, ‘‘New Age’’ theories Sum of All Fears, The (2002) C-124m. and buddy-movie cliche´s into the format of 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Phil Alden Robinson. Ben Affleck, a road movie. Harrelson and Seda are good, Morgan Freeman, James Cromwell, Liev Bancroft is wasted. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Schreiber, Alan Bates, Bridget Moynahan, Sunday (1997) C-93m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Philip Baker Hall, Ron Rifkin, Bruce McGill, Nossiter. David Suchet, Lisa Harrow, Jared Ciara´n Hinds, Marie Matiko, Colm Feore, Harris, Larry Pine, Joe Grifasi, Arnold BarJosef Sommer, Michael Byrne. Follow-up to kus. Moving drama of a former corporate CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER with executive—now homeless—crossing paths Affleck taking over from Harrison Ford as in Queens, N.Y., with an out-of-work acJack Ryan. Convoluted tale has a fascist tress. What unfolds is essentially a twousing the new president of Russia to draw character story of middle-aged romance, the U.S. into war, in an attempt to destroy with harsh reminders of ‘‘real life’’ all both countries and establish a united Europe around. Suchet and Harrow make flawless as the new world power. Tries to have it leads, though film is admittedly not for all both ways, with a story rooted in reality— tastes.▼쩠 but hinging on coincidences and improbaSunday, Bloody Sunday (1971-British) bilities. Affleck acquits himself adequately C-110m. ★★★ D: John Schlesinger. Glenda as Tom Clancy’s CIA agent hero, surJackson, Peter Finch, Murray Head, Peggy rounded here by a top-notch cast. PanaAshcroft, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, vision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Vivian Pickles, Frank Windsor, Bessie Sum of Us, The (1994-Australian) C/B& Love, Jon Finch. Glenda loves Murray, but W-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kevin Dowling, Geoff Peter loves Murray, too. Murray loves both, Burton. Jack Thompson, Russell Crowe, in very good, adult script by Penelope GilliJohn Polson, Deborah Kennedy, Mitch Maatt. Schlesinger’s direction less forceful than thews, Joss Moroney, Julie Herbert. Sincere usual, also less effective. Head’s bland portale about the relationship between a young, trayal offsets brilliant work by Jackson and gay man (Crowe) and his devoted, widowed Finch. A mixed bag. Look for Daniel Dayfather (Thompson), who is refreshingly tolLewis as a young vandal. [R]▼●쩠 erant of his son’s lifestyle. Two solid perforSunday in New York (1963) C-105m. ★★★ D: Peter Tewksbury. Cliff Robertson, mances help put this one over, but it’s almost undone by the annoying device of having the Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor, Robert Culp, Jim [ 1344 ]

Backus. Entire cast bubbles in this Norman among idle rich in Torino, falls in love with Krasna sex romp of virginal Fonda diswealthy Bisset. Good whodunit makes intercovering N.Y.C. and love. Peter Nero’s esting observation about social structure. [R] Sundown (1941) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry score is perky. Sunday in the Country, A (1984-French) Hathaway. Gene Tierney, Bruce Cabot, 1 ★★★ C-94m. George Sanders, Harry Carey, Joseph Calleia, ⁄2 D: Bertrand Tavernier. Louis Ducreux, Sabine Azema, Michel Dorothy Dandridge, Reginald Gardiner. TierAumont, Genevieve Mnich, Monique ney is surprisingly cast as native girl who Chaumette, Claude Winter. An elderly assists British troops in Africa during WW2; widowed French impressionist who never fairly interesting, lushly photographed by quite made the grade indulges in title gathCharles Lang, but it never scores. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 ering with offspring who never quite fulfilled his expectations. Painterly, lovingly Sundowners, The (1950) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: acted drama owes not a little to Jean ReGeorge Templeton. Robert Preston, Cathy noir’s A DAY IN THE COUNTRY and is Downs, Robert Sterling, John Barrymore, no less affecting for that. Among the best Jr., Jack Elam, Chill Wills. Preston shines imports of the mid-1980s. [G]▼쩠 in this Western about brothers on opposite 1 ★ Sunday Lovers (1980) C-127m. ⁄2 D: sides of the law. Filmed in Texas; written Bryan Forbes, Edouard Molinaro, Dino by Alan LeMay (The Searchers). ▼쩠 Risi, Gene Wilder. Roger Moore, Lynn Sundowners, The (1960) C-133m. ★★★★ Redgrave, Priscilla Barnes, Lino Ventura, D: Fred Zinnemann. Deborah Kerr, RobRobert Webber, Ugo Tognazzi, Sylva ert Mitchum, Peter Ustinov, Glynis Johns, Koscina, Gene Wilder, Kathleen Quinlan. Dina Merrill, Chips Rafferty, Michael AnLove and sex in four countries. British derson, Jr., Lola Brooks, Wylie Watson, segment, with Moore, is old-hat farce. Mervyn Johns. First-rate film of Australian French vignette, with Ventura, is intrifamily who travel to allow the husband to guing but doesn’t go anywhere. Italian skit shear sheep at various ranches. Entire cast is broadly funny at times. American conexcellent, Kerr especially fine. Isobel Lentribution, written by, directed by, and starring nart adapted Jon Cleary’s novel. WonderWilder, is a pretentious fable of a sanitarium fully filmed on location by Jack Hildyard. patient, and embarrassingly bad. [R] ▼●쩠 Sundays and Cybele (1962-French) 110m. Sundown, the Vampire in Retreat (1991) ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Serge Bourguignon. Hardy KruC-104m. ★★ D: Anthony Hickox. David ger, Nicole Courcel, Patricia Gozzi, DanCarradine, Morgan Brittany, Bruce Campiel Ivernel. Intelligently told account of bell, Jim Metzler, Maxwell Caulfield, Debshell-shocked Kruger finding source of comorah Foreman, M. Emmet Walsh, John munication with the world via orphaned Ireland, John Hancock, Dabbs Greer, Bert waif Gozzi, with tragic results. Splendidly Remsen. Overplotted vampire comedyrealized, Oscar winner as Best Foreign drama set in present-day American West, Language Film. Filmed in Franscope.▼ as a family happens upon a town populated Sunday’s Children (1992-Swedish) Cby bloodsuckers trying—but failing—to 118m. ★★★ D: Daniel Bergman. Henrik ‘‘go straight.’’ Unpleasantly smug, with Linnros, Thommy Berggren, Lena Endre, nothing to be smug about. Panavision.▼쩠 Jakob Leygraf, Malin Ek, Birgitta Valberg, Sunflower (1969-Italian) C-101m. ★★ Borje Ahlstedt. Bergman (son of Ingmar) D: Vittorio De Sica. Sophia Loren, Marcello expertly directs his father’s evocative, autoMastroianni, Ludmilla Savelyeva, Anna biographical script about a young boy called Carena. Weak love story of woman who Pu (Linnros) and his connection to his minsearches for her lost lover. Sophia is wasted ister father and other family members; also in this soppy tale. Original title: I GIRASOLI. [G]▼쩠 depicted is the adult Pu’s disquieting relationship with his elderly dad. A deeply perSunnyside (1979) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Timosonal film; Bergman’s family history also is thy Galfas. Joey Travolta, John Lansing, explored in FANNY AND ALEXANDER, Stacey Pickren, Andrew Rubin, Michael THE BEST INTENTIONS, and PRIVATE Tucci, Talia Balsam, Joan Darling. John CONFESSIONS. ▼ Travolta’s brother made bid for stardom in Sunday Too Far Away (1975-Australian) this cliche´-ridden picture about a street kid C-95m. ★★★ D: Ken Hannam. Jack Thompwho wants to end local gang warfare and leave that life behind. Sorry, Joey. [R]▼ son, John Ewart, Reg Lye. The rivalries and problems of macho sheep shearers, Sunny Side of the Street (1951) C-71m. ★1 focusing on gutsy Thompson, a champion ⁄2 D: Richard Quine. Frankie Lane, Terry Moore, Jerome Courtland, Audrey Long. of his trade. Simple and solid.▼ Sunday Woman, The (1976-Italian) CMoore has fickle notions over aspiring 110m. ★★★ D: Luigi Comencini. Marcello Laine in this low-grade musical, with such Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Louis guest stars as Billy Daniels, Toni Arden. Trintignant, Aldo Reggiani, Pino Caruso. Sunnyside Up (1929) 122m. ★★★ D: David Detective Mastroianni investigates murder Butler. Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, El [ 1345 ]

Brendel, Marjorie White, Joe Brown, Frank (von Stroheim), who shelters hack screenRichardson, Jackie Cooper. Charming anwriter (Holden) as boyfriend. Bitter, funny, tique, quite impressive for early-talkie musifascinating; Gloria’s tour de force. Three cal. Fluffy story of tenement girl Gaynor Oscars include Best Screenplay (Wilder, falling in love with wealthy Farrell sufficient Charles Brackett, D. M. Marshman, Jr.) excuse for DeSylva-Brown-Henderson songs: and Score (Franz Waxman). Later a Broad‘‘I’m a Dreamer,’’ ‘‘If I Had a Talking Picture way musical.▼●쩠 of You,’’ title tune, and bizarre production Sunset Park (1996) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve number to ‘‘Turn on the Heat.’’▼ Gomer. Rhea Perlman, Fredro Starr, Carol ★★★★ Sunrise (1927) 110m Kane, Terrence Dashon Howard, Camille D: F. W. Murnau. George O’Brien, Janet Gaynor, Saviola, De’Aundre Bonds, James Harris, Bodil Rosing, Margaret Livingston, J. FarAnthony Hall. Feisty N.Y.C. teacher Perlrell MacDonald. Exquisite silent film is man, hoping to make enough money to rejust as powerful today as when it was tire to St. Croix, becomes the coach of an made, telling simple story of farmer who all-black high school basketball team. The plans to murder his wife, led on by another premise is contrived, and the Great Teacher woman. Triumph of direction, camerawork, story is a cliche´ by now, but the acting is art direction, and performances, all hauntgood and the characters well drawn. Perlingly beautiful. Screenplay by Carl Mayer, man’s husband Danny DeVito was one of the producers. [R]▼●쩠 from Hermann Suderman’s story. Cinematographers Karl Struss and Charles Rosher Sunshine (1999-Hungarian-British-GermanCanadian) C-182m. ★★ D: Istvan Szabo. won Oscars, as did the film for ‘‘artistic quality of production.’’ Gaynor also won Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Best Actress Oscar (shared for her perforWeisz, Jennifer Ehle, Molly Parker, Deborah mances in 7TH HEAVEN and STREET (Kara) Unger, James Frain, John Neville, MirANGEL). Remade in Germany as THE iam Margolyes, David De Keyser, William JOURNEY TO TILSIT. Full title on-screen Hurt, Bill Paterson. Ambitious but trite, ramis SUNRISE—A SONG OF TWO HUbling soap opera chronicling a HungarianMANS. ▼●쩠 Jewish family over three generations, beginSunrise at Campobello (1960) C-143m. ning in mid-19th century. Fiennes plays three ★★★ D: Vincent J. Donehue. Ralph Bellaroles; the middle one, a world-champion my, Greer Garson, Hume Cronyn, Jean fencer and self-hating Jew, is the most intriHagen, Ann Shoemaker, Alan Bunce, Tim guing. Themes are worthy, but results are Considine, Zina Bethune, Frank Ferguson, obvious and overwrought. Scripted by Lyle Talbot. Sincere story of President Szabo and Israel Horovitz. [R]▼쩠 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, his battles in Sunshine (2007-U.S.-British) C-107m. ★★1 politics and valiant struggle against polio. ⁄2 D: Danny Boyle. Cillian Murphy, Well acted; Bellamy (re-creating his TonyChris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, winning stage role) and Garson are the Hiroyuki Sanada, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Roosevelts. Script by Dore Schary, from his Benedict Wong, Mark Strong; voice of hit play. ▼●쩠 Chipo Chung. Intriguing sci-fi story set in Sunset (1988) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Blake 2057, almost entirely on sophisticated Edwards. Bruce Willis, James Garner, Malspaceship Icarus II as it travels toward our colm McDowell, Mariel Hemingway, Jenimperiled sun. Brilliant, multicultural crew nifer Edwards, Kathleen Quinlan, Patricia faces unforeseen dilemmas, crises, and Hodge, Richard Bradford, M. Emmet some heated (and entertaining) personality Walsh, Joe Dallesandro. Cowboy star Tom clashes. Frequent collaborators Boyle and Mix (Willis) joins forces with legendary screenwriter Alex Garland have concocted marshal Wyatt Earp (Garner) to solve a a cinematic voyage that initially impresses serpentine whodunit involving the seamier but falters toward a far-fetched denouement. side of Tinseltown. Appallingly abysmal Hawk-Scope. [R]쩠 murder-mystery set in late 1920s HollySunshine Boys, The (1975) C-111m. ★★★ wood; unpleasant and unbelievable from D: Herbert Ross. Walter Matthau, George the word go. Willis registers zero playBurns, Richard Benjamin, Lee Meredith, ing one of movie’s most magnetic stars, Carol Arthur, Howard Hesseman, Ron while Garner saves this piece of junk from Rifkin, Fritz Feld, Jack Bernardi, F. Murbeing a total BOMB with his effortless ray Abraham. Two cranky ex-vaudevillians charisma. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 are persuaded to reteam for a TV special in Sunset Blvd. (1950) 110m. ★★★★ D: Billy this popular Neil Simon comedy, from his Wilder. Gloria Swanson, William Holden, Broadway play. Some of the ‘‘humor’’ is Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred abrasive, but Matthau and Oscar-winning Clark, Jack Webb, Hedda Hopper, Buster Burns are masters at work. This was Keaton, Cecil B. DeMille, Anna Q. Nilsson. George’s first starring film role since HOLegendary Hollywood black comedy about NOLULU in 1939. Remade for TV in 1997. faded silent-film star Norma Desmond [PG] ▼●쩠 (Swanson), living in the past with butler Sunshine Cleaning (2009) C-102m. ★★★ D: [ 1346 ]

Christine Jeffs. Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, 88m. BOMB D: Bob Clark. Jon Voight, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevack, Steve Zahn, Justin Chatwin, Scott Baio, Vanessa Angel, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins, Jr., Skyler Shaye, Gerry Fitzgerald, Leo FitzEric Christian Olsen, Paul Dooley, Kevin gerald, Myles Fitzgerald, Whoopi Goldberg. Chapman, Judith Jones. In Albuquerque, Sequel to BABY GENIUSES casts Voight as N.M., struggling single mom Adams starts a a media mogul out to brainwash children via business mopping up crime scenes—though a tot-aimed TV network. He wants to use she has no experience in this highly specialthem to take over the world, but a band of ized field—and recruits her slacker sister tykes catches on and sets out to stop him. (Blunt) to help out. Likable comedy-drama Gimmick has kids speaking to each other, about siblings whose lives have been thanks to creepy computer-generated lip shaped and shadowed by the early death of movement. Crude humor makes this not just their mother. The two stars are perfectly bad but insulting. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 cast and aided by a handpicked ensemble. Superbad (2007) C-112m. ★★★ D: Greg Impressive debut script by Megan Holley. Mottola. Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, ChristoSuper 35. [R] pher Mintz-Plasse, Bill Hader, Seth Rogen, Sun Shines Bright, The (1953) 90m. ★★★ Martha MacIsaac, Emma Stone, Aviva, Joe D: John Ford. Charles Winninger, Arleen Lo Truglio, Kevin Corrigan. Nerdy friends Whelan, John Russell, Stepin Fetchit, Hill and Cera are desperate to have Milburn Stone, Russell Simpson, Francis girlfriends—and maybe sex itself—before Ford, Grant Withers, Slim Pickens, Mae going to college. They get the chance when Marsh, Jane Darwell, Clarence Muse, Jack they’re invited to a party by a hot girl from Pennick, Patrick Wayne. This was director their high school, but naturally, complicaFord’s favorite film, a picaresque remake tions arise. Raunchy comedy features an alof JUDGE PRIEST with Winninger involved most endless torrent of vulgar (and very in political contest in small Southern town. funny) language . . . but it’s also an apt, Fine array of Ford regulars in character occasionally even sensitive study of young, roles. Video and TV version is 100m. print confused desires and the inevitable embarprepared by Ford but never released.▼ rassments that go along with them. Screen★★★ Sunshine State (2002) C-141m. play by Rogen and Evan Goldberg; D: John Sayles. Edie Falco, Jane Alexander, coproduced by Judd Apatow. 119m. unrated version also available. [R]쩠 Ralph Waite, Angela Bassett, James McDaniel, Mary Alice, Bill Cobbs, Gordon Superchick (1973) C-94m. ★★ D: Ed Clapp, Mary Steenburgen, Timothy Hutton, Forsyth. Joyce Jillson, Louis Quinn, Tom Wright, Marc Blucas, Perry Lang, MiThomas Reardon, Tony Young, John guel Ferrer, Charlayne Woodard, Clifton Carradine, Uschi Digard, Mary Gavin James, Alan King. Rich, Saylesian slice of (Candy Samples). Silly but harmless drivelife set on a Florida island where longtime in fodder has Jillson (better known as an residents, from both the black and white astrologer) as blonde, free-loving stewardess communities, are forced to deal with ‘‘prog(juggling boyfriends in several cities) who’s ress’’ as developers see nothing but dollar so desirable she adopts a mousey brunette disguise to get her work done. [R]▼쩠 signs. A mosaic of character studies, brought to life by wonderful actors. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Supercop SEE: Police Story III: Supercop Super Cops, The (1974) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 Sun Valley Serenade (1941) 86m. ★★★ D: H. Bruce Humberstone. Sonja Henie, John D: Gordon Parks. Ron Leibman, David Payne, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, MilSelby, Sheila Frazier, Pat Hingle, Dan ton Berle, Lynn Bari, Joan Davis, Dorothy Frazer. Fast, funny, tough telling of the Dandridge, The Nicholas Brothers. Light exploits of the Batman and Robin team of musicomedy with Henie a war refugee, Payne David Greenberg (Leibman) and Robert her foster parent, traveling with the Miller Hantz (Selby) who used unorthodox methods band and manager Berle to Sun Valley. Songs: to stop the drug market in Brooklyn’s black ‘‘It Happened In Sun Valley,’’ ‘‘In the Bedford-Stuyvesant area. Filmed on location, Mood,’’ ‘‘Chattanooga Choo-Choo,’’ ‘‘I with Greenberg and Hantz in bits. [PG] Know Why (And So Do You).’’▼● Supercross (2005) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Steve Super, The (1991) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Rod Boyum. Steve Howey, Mike Vogel, Cameron Daniel. Joe Pesci, Vincent Gardenia, Richardson, Sophia Bush, Aaron Carter, Madolyn Smith-Osborne, Ruben Blades, Channing Tatum, Robert Patrick, Robert CarStacey Travis, Carole Shelley, Paul Benradine. Also known as SUPERCROSS THE jamin, Kenny Blank. N.Y.C. slumlord Pesci MOVIE (for those who need things spelled is forced to move in with his tenants. A out), this film presents a thin plot about two worthy idea, and Pesci is watchable as disparate brothers who are suddenly thrust always, but the execution is all wrong: the into the world of hyper-competitive uberscenario disastrously veers to comedy when bike championships after the mysterious it shouldn’t, and the sentimental elements death of their father. One of the boys is are utterly unbelievable. [R]▼●쩠 sponsored, which allows plenty of opportuSuperbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) Cnity to hawk everything from motor oil to [ 1347 ]

tires. Product placement never had it so Tracy Morgan, Simon Rex, Dan Castellaneta, good. A lame-brained ESPN program passPamela Anderson, Keith David, Regina Hall, ing for a movie. [PG-13]쩠 Craig Bierko, John Getz, Charlene Tilton, Superdad (1974) C-96m. BOMB D: VinRobert Hays, Li’l Kim. After being bitten by cent McEveety. Bob Crane, Kurt Russell, a genetically altered dragonfly, high school Barbara Rush, Joe Flynn, Kathleen Cody, outcast Bell develops super powers. Like Dick Van Patten, Joby Baker, B. Kirby, Spider-Man, he makes himself a suit and atJr. (Bruno Kirby), Ed Begley, Jr. Disney tempts to save the world, only to be congeneration gap comedy is superbad. Crane fronted by a villain named The Hourglass competes with daughter’s fiance´ in effort (McDonald). Parodying films from BATto prove future son-in-law worthy. [G]▼쩠 MAN BEGINS to FANTASTIC FOUR, Superdude SEE: Hangup this spoof’s low-grade humor may make Superfly (1972) C-96m. ★★★ D: Gordon you cringe at times but it does provide some Parks Jr. Ron O’Neal, Carl Lee, Sheila laughs—amidst a barrage of flatulence Frazier, Julius W. Harris, Charles Mcjokes and pop-culture references. Alternate version runs 86m. [PG-13]쩠 Gregor. Morally dubious but undeniably exciting tale of Harlem drug dealer out for Superman (1978) C-143m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richthe last killing before he quits the busiard Donner. Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidness. Film was accused of glorifying der, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Ned drug pushers. Benefits from excellent Beatty, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Curtis Mayfield score. Sequels: SUPERFLY Glenn Ford, Valerie Perrine, Phyllis T.N.T. and THE RETURN OF SUPERThaxter, Jeff East, Trevor Howard, SusanFLY. [R]▼쩠 nah York, Maria Schell, Terence Stamp, Superfly T.N.T. (1973) C-87m. BOMB Sarah Douglas, Harry Andrews, Lise D: Ron O’Neal. Ron O’Neal, Roscoe Lee Hilboldt, Larry Hagman, John RatzenBrowne, Sheila Frazier, Robert Guillaume, berger. Dynamic, grandly entertaining saga Jacques Sernas, William Berger, Roy of the Man of Steel, tracing his life from Bosier. Confused, sloppily constructed and Krypton to Smallville to Metropolis, mixexecuted B film about black ex-drug pusher, ing equal parts sincerity, special effects dissatisfied with idyllic existence in Eu(which earned a special Oscar), and sendrope, deciding to aid official from African up. Great fun. The network TV version country (Browne). Followed years later added 49m. of outtakes—including camby THE RETURN OF SUPERFLY. [R]▼ eos by Noel Neill and Kirk Alyn as Lois Super Fuzz (1981-U.S.-Italian) C-94m. Lane’s parents. 2001 video release runs ★1 ⁄2 D: Sergio Corbucci. Terence Hill, 151m. Followed by three sequels. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Ernest Borgnine, Joanne Dru, Marc Lawrence, Julie Gordon, Lee Sandman. Rookie Superman II (1981) C-127m. ★★★ D: Miami cop Hill is exposed to radiation, Richard Lester. Christopher Reeve, Margains superpowers and takes on mobster got Kidder, Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Lawrence. Pretty poor, including the speJackie Cooper, Valerie Perrine, Susannah cial effects. Also known as SUPERYork, Clifton James, E. G. Marshall, Marc SNOOPER. Originally 106m. [PG]▼쩠 McClure, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas, Supergirl (1984-British) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Jack O’Halloran. Screw the Superman Jeannot Szwarc. Faye Dunaway, Helen legend, forget logic, and full speed ahead: Slater, Peter O’Toole, Peter Cook, Brenda that’s the attitude of this flashy sequel, Vaccaro, Mia Farrow, Simon Ward, Marc wherein three villains from Krypton, with McClure, Hart Bochner, Maureen Teefy, powers just like Superman’s, threaten the Matt Frewer. This comic-book movie is a Earth—while Lois Lane and the Man of superdrag: long, dull, heavy-handed. Slater Steel fall in love. Full of great effects and is cute but bland in title role; Dunaway is a entertainingly played, but lacking the sense predictably campy villainess. Also available of awe and wonder of the original film, in 138m. director’s cut and 124m. European adding cruelty and violence instead. Reversion. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 leased in Europe in 1980. In 2006, Richard Supergrass, The (1985-British) C-105m. Donner supervised a recut for DVD, using ★★ D: Peter Richardson. Adrian Edmondfootage he shot before the producers reson, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson, placed him with Lester. Overall story is the Dawn French, Keith Allen, Nigel Planer, same, but there are many different scenes, Robbie Coltrane. To impress a girl, Edincluding one with Brando. The tone of this mondson innocently brags that he’s a bigversion is at once less comic and more epic. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 time drug dealer—much to his regret. InSuperman III (1983) C-123m. ★1⁄2 D: offensive comedy. [R]▼ Superhero Movie (2008) C-82m. ★★ D: Richard Lester. Christopher Reeve, RichCraig Mazin. Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, ard Pryor, Annette O’Toole, Jackie Cooper, Christopher McDonald, Leslie Nielsen, Marc McClure, Annie Ross, Pamela StepKevin Hart, Marion Ross, Brent Spiner, Robhenson, Robert Vaughn, Margot Kidder. ert Joy, Jeffrey Tambor, Nicole Sullivan, Appalling sequel trashes everything that [ 1348 ]

Superman is all about for the sake of cheap laughs and a costarring role for Pryor, as computer operator who unwittingly gives villainous Vaughn a chance to conquer the Man of Steel. Director Lester’s opening slapstick ballet is a funny set piece, but doesn’t belong in this movie. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) C-90m. ★★ D: Sidney J. Furie. Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Jon Cryer, Sam Wanamaker, Mark Pillow, Mariel Hemingway, Margot Kidder, Jim Broadbent. Superman does his bit for world peace by ridding the globe of nuclear weapons—which inspires Lex Luthor to become a black-market arms profiteer. He also challenges Superman by creating Nuclear Man. Disappointing fantasy adventure is pretty ordinary, with secondrate special effects. Sincere performances help a lot. Reeve receives costory credit on this one (along with 2nd unit directing). JD-C Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 Superman and the Mole-Men (1951) 58m. ★★ D: Lee Sholem. George Reeves, Phyllis Coates, Jeff Corey, Walter Reed, J. Farrell MacDonald, Stanley Andrews. Reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane go to small town to see the world’s deepest oil well; instead, they discover that ‘‘molemen’’ have climbed out of the well, from their home at the center of Earth. This very low-budget feature served as a pilot for the long-running TV series Adventures of Superman, but it’s more serious (and less fun) than the subsequent show—and we don’t even get to see Superman fly! But it’s still great to watch Reeves as the Man of Steel. Edited down and retitled ‘‘The Unknown People’’ to run as a TV Superman two-parter.

sen. Super, indeed! This overblown, effectsladen turkey chronicles the convoluted story of the title boys from Brooklyn (Hoskins, Leguizamo), plumber-siblings who go up against the villainous King Koopa (Hopper), a semi-human dinosaur who instigates the kidnapping of Daisy (Mathis), a princess who possesses a magical meteorite fragment. This listless film has far less appeal than the video game that inspired it. [PG]▼●쩠 Supernatural (1933) 64m. ★★1⁄2 D: Victor Halperin. Carole Lombard, Randolph Scott, Vivienne Osborne, H. B. Warner, Alan Dinehart, Beryl Mercer, William Farnum. Interesting little thriller—most unusual for its time—about a woman on Death Row who upon her execution transfers her personality to an innocent victim.▼ Supernaturals, The (1986) C-85m. BOMB D: Armand Mastroianni. Maxwell Caulfield, Talia Balsam, Bradford Bancroft, LeVar Burton, Bobby DiCicco, Scott Jacoby, Nichelle Nichols. Ludicrous fantasy has butch drill sergeant Nichols (better known as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek) leading young troops on maneuvers, accidentally stumbling on Rebel ghosts from the Civil War who are seeking revenge. Boring tale has the production values of a home movie; never released theatrically. [R]▼ Supernova (2000) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Thomas Lee. James Spader, Angela Bassett, Lou Diamond Phillips, Robert Forster, Robin Tunney, Peter Facinelli. Alan Smithee gets competition that neither he nor the industry needs; Lee is a pseudonym for director Walter Hill, who took his name off this costly but listlessly derivative space adventure. Story deals with a hospital ship rescuing a battered freighter that has sent out a distress call in ‘‘black hole’’ territory. Spader and Phillips are so pumped up that you wonder ▼●쩠 Superman Returns (2006) C-154m. ★★★ where they’re getting the celestial weightD: Bryan Singer. Brandon Routh, Kate Bosroom time. Video version is rated R. Super worth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Frank Langella, Eva Marie Saint, Parker Super Size Me (2004) C-100m. ★★★ D: MorPosey, Kal Penn, Sam Huntington, James gan Spurlock. Arresting ‘‘personal documenKaren, Peta Wilson, Jack Larson, Noel tary’’ in the Michael Moore vein: Spurlock Neill. Superman has disappeared for five decides to monitor the results of eating three years. Now he returns to Earth, only to find meals a day for a month at McDonald’s. Even that Lois Lane has given birth to a child— his doctors are surprised by the effect on his and Lex Luthor is a free man. Traditionalsystem. In fact, the film is about much more ist’s view of the Man of Steel emphasizes than a wacky experiment; it’s a wide-ranging romance and keeps campiness to a miniindictment of Americans’ poor eating habits, mum. Newcomer Routh is an appealing Sucorporate (and even civic) complicity in our perman and Clark Kent. Fun to watch until fast-food culture, and the alarming epidemic the third act, which drags. Through movie of obesity that has resulted. Surprisingly enmagic Marlon Brando reappears as Supertertaining and informative. Alternate PG man’s father, Jor-El, in footage derived version also available. [PG-13] ▼쩠 from 1978’s SUPERMAN. HD WideSupersnooper SEE: Super Fuzz Superstar (1999) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Bruce screen. [PG-13]쩠 Super Mario Bros. (1993) C-104m. ★1⁄2 McCulloch. Molly Shannon, Will Ferrell, D: Rocky Morton, Annabel Jankel. Bob Elaine Hendrix, Tom Green, Harland WilHoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopliams, Mark McKinney, Glynis Johns, Emmy per, Samantha Mathis, Fisher Stevens, Laybourne. One-note comedy in which Richard Edson, Fiona Shaw, Lance HenrikShannon re-creates her Saturday Night Live [ 1349 ]

character of Mary Katherine Gallagher, a Averback. Tony Curtis, Brian Keith, Erdorky, self-deluded Irish Catholic schoolgirl nest Borgnine, Suzanne Pleshette, Ivan who wears the unsexiest white underwear, Dixon, Bradford Dillman, Tom Ewell, Don dreams of fame, and pursues the most popuAmeche, Arthur O’Connell, John Fiedler. lar boy in class (Ferrell). Little improveAwful title obscures surprisingly strong ment over such SNL-derived feature films satire about strained relations between redas IT’S PAT and A NIGHT AT THE ROXneck town and nearby Army base eventuBURY. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ally reaching the breaking point. No real Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy ‘‘good guys’’ in this unusual film; not Warhol (1991) C-87m. ★★★ D: Chuck without flaws, but certainly worth a look. Workman. Tom Wolfe, Sylvia Miles, DaLater ripped off by TANK. [M/PG]▼쩠 vid Hockney, Taylor Mead, Dennis HopSure Fire (1993) C-86m. ★★★ D: Jon Jost. per, and a Campbell’s Soup spokesman Tom Blair, Kristi Hager, Robert Ernst, Kate are just some of the many who offer comDezina, Philip R. Brown. Provocative tale of ment on N.Y.C.’s life of the party—and smug, hot-shot entrepreneur (Blair), who conif Workman can’t find much old footage of cocts a scheme to build summer houses in his subject conjugating nouns and verbs, it Utah for city-dwelling Californians. Another may not exist. Inevitably entertaining, impressive, visually arresting feature from acthough Warhol seems no less enigmatic at claimed independent filmmaker Jost. ▼쩠 the conclusion.▼쩠 Sure Thing, The (1985) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Super Troopers (2002) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Reiner. John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Jay Chandrasekhar. Jay Chandrasekhar, Brian Anthony Edwards, Boyd Gaines, Tim RobCox, Daniel von Bargen, Marisa Coughlan, bins, Lisa Jane Persky, Viveca Lindfors, Jim Gaffigan, Erik Stolhanske, Steve Lemme, Nicollette Sheridan. Amusing film updates Kevin Heffernan, Paul Soter. A bumbling IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT as two colgroup of Vermont state troopers get a seclege students who don’t get along find ond chance to save their jobs from being themselves traveling cross-country together. taken over by the local police when they Utterly predictable, but cute. [PG-13]▼●쩠 stumble onto a drug ring. Gleefully raunchy Surf Ninjas (1993) C-86m. BOMB D: comedy is just a string of gags but a lot Neal Israel. Ernie Reyes, Jr., Rob Schneiof them surprisingly hit. First Hollywood der, Nicolas Cowan, Leslie Nielsen, Tone feature from comedy troupe Broken Lizard Loc, Ernie Reyes, Sr., Keone Young, Kelly plays like an anarchic cross between the Hu, John Karlen. Fast-talking Southern CalFarrellys and Monty Python. [R]▼쩠 ifornia surf dudes travel to a distant Asian Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971) kingdom to regain their throne as lost crown C-92m. ★★★ D: Burt Kennedy. James princes. Are you following this so far? If Garner, Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Elam, you care what happens next, this may be Harry Morgan, John Dehner, Joan Blondell, your kind of movie. [PG]▼●쩠 Dub Taylor, Ellen Corby, Henry Jones, Surf Party (1964) 68m. BOMB D: Maury Marie Windsor, Dick Curtis, Chuck ConDexter. Bobby Vinton, Jackie De Shannors, Grady Sutton. Engaging comedynon, Patricia Morrow, Kenny Miller. TeenWestern, not a sequel to SHERIFF deagers meet and mate in Malibu. Waterspite director and cast. Con artist Garner logged. ▼ tries to profit from mining dispute by passSurf’s Up (2007) C-85m. ★★★ D: Ash Braning off bumbling Elam as notorious gunnon, Chris Buck. Voices of Shia LaBeouf, slinger. Seemingly endless list of character Jeff Bridges, Zooey Deschanel, James actors adds sparkle, with Elam giving his Woods, Jon Heder, Diedrich Bader, Mario most side-splitting performance as ‘‘Swifty’’ Cantone. A surfing penguin from Shiverpool, Morgan; his final line is a gem. [G]▼쩠 Antarctica, heads to a sunny tropical island to Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) 1 compete in a championship contest. Cleverly C-93m. ★★★ ⁄2 D: Burt Kennedy. James made in the style of a behind-the-scenes Garner, Joan Hackett, Walter Brennan, documentary, this charming animated comHarry Morgan, Jack Elam, Bruce Dern, edy boasts striking visuals (the big-wave Henry Jones, Gene Evans. Delightful Westsurfing sequences are knockouts) and a ern parody in which no-fisted Garner tames funky, laid-back quality. Bridges’ perforlawless town by using his wits, breaking mance as Geek is perfectly in tune with all all the rules—and kicking virtually every of this. [PG]쩠 Western cliche´ in the pants. Brennan is Surf II (1984) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Randall wonderful spoofing his Old Man Clanton Badat. Eddie Deezen, Linda Kerridge, Cleacharacter from MY DARLING CLEMvon Little, Peter Isaacksen, Lyle Waggoner, ENTINE, but Hackett’s wealthy klutz, Eric Stoltz, Morgan Paull, Ruth Buzzi, Carol Elam’s inept deputy, and Dern’s bratty Wayne, Terry Kiser. Creditable cast washes killer are also fine. Written and produced by ashore in ’80s spoof of ’70s gore films and William Bowers. [G]▼●쩠 ’60s surfer films (with appropriate oldies on Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody the soundtrack). Deezen’s always good for a Came? (1970) C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hy [ 1350 ]

few laughs, but the film’s best joke is its title: uses women, then tosses them away, but a there never was a SURF I. [R]▼ young artist ventures into a relationship Surprise Package (1960-British) 100m. with him just the same, certain that this time ★★1 it will be different. McElhone makes an im⁄2 D: Stanley Donen. Yul Brynner, Mitzi Gaynor, Barry Foster, Eric Pohlmann, Noel pressive film debut as the willing ‘‘victim,’’ Coward, George Coulouris. Versatile Brynbut it’s Hopkins’ charismatic performance ner tries screwball comedy, not doing too as the ego-driven artist that makes this badly as devil-may-care gambler planning worth seeing. One must be willing to accept big-time robbery; Gaynor is sprightly leada lack of European accents—and the absence of genuine Picasso art. [R]▼● ing lady. Script by Harry Kurnitz, from the Art Buchwald novel.▼ Surviving the Game (1994) C-96m. ★1⁄2 Surrender (1987) C-95m. ★★ D: Jerry D: Ernest Dickerson. Rutger Hauer, Ice-T, Belson. Sally Field, Michael Caine, Steve Gary Busey, F. Murray Abraham, Charles Guttenberg, Peter Boyle, Jackie CooS. Dutton, John C. McGinley, Jeff Corey. per, Julie Kavner, Louise Lasser, Iman. Only the absence of Maria Conchita Alonso Attractive cast injects little energy into this keeps this umpteenth variation of THE tired, familiar comedy about confused Field, MOST DANGEROUS GAME from having oft-married Caine, and their complicated the definitive schlock action cast, as desticourtship. Even Caine’s charm cannot save tute Ice-T is unwittingly hired to perform it. Scripted by the director. [PG]▼● vague duties at a secluded woodsy resort, Surrogate, The (1984-Canadian) C-95m. only to learn he’s the prey of high-roller ★★1 hunters. Sub-routine chase pic is Confusion ⁄2 D: Don Carmody. Art Hindle, Carole Laure, Shannon Tweed, Michael Ironside, City all the way; it’s difficult to believe that Jim Bailey, Marilyn Lightstone, Jackie Burthe same plot could be recycled less than a roughs. Clever whodunit has handsome year after John Woo’s far more stylish HARD TARGET. [R]▼●쩠 couple (Tweed and Hindle) reluctantly turning to sex surrogate Laure to help with their mariSurvivors, The (1983) C-102m. ★★ D: tal problems. Solid Canadian cast punches Michael Ritchie. Walter Matthau, Robin home contrived script in which nearly every Williams, Jerry Reed, James Wainwright, character (including top female impersonator Kristen Vigard, Anne Pitoniak, John GoodBailey, as Tweed’s best friend) appears to be man. Two disparate men lose their jobs a psychotic suspect. [R]▼ and find their lives intertwined when they Survival Run (1980) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: identify a robber and are told that they’ll Larry Spiegel. Peter Graves, Ray Milland, be ‘‘fixed.’’ One (Williams) decides to arm Vincent Van Patten, Pedro Armendariz, himself to the teeth in this combination black Jr., Alan Conrad. Graves, Milland, and comedy and social satire. Likable stars do company stalk teenagers stranded in the their best with scattershot script credited to Michael Leeson. [R]▼●쩠 desert. The object is murder; the film is dreadful. [R]▼ Susana (1951-Mexican) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luis 1 ★ Survive! (1976-Mexican) C-86m. ⁄2 D: Bun˜uel. Rosita Quintana, Fernando Soler, Rene Cardona (Sr.). Pablo Ferrel, Hugo Victor Manuel Mendoza, Matilde Palou. Stiglitz, Luz Maria Aguilar, Fernando A voluptuous orphan of the storm, engagLarranga, Norma Lazareno. Survivors of a ingly played by Quintana, undermines the South American plane crash are forced to loving fabric of the family that rescues cannibalize each other in order to stay her. Well handled and staged by Bun˜uel, until the cop-out finale.▼쩠 alive. Based on a true incident, but do you really care? Same story retold in U.S. Susan and God (1940) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: film ALIVE. [R]쩠 George Cukor. Joan Crawford, Fredric Surviving Christmas (2004) C-92m. BOMB March, Ruth Hussey, John Carroll, Rita D: Mike Mitchell. Ben Affleck, James GandolHayworth, Nigel Bruce, Bruce Cabot, Rose fini, Christina Applegate, Catherine O’Hara, Hobart, Rita Quigley, Marjorie Main, GloJosh Zuckerman, Bill Macy, Jennifer Morria De Haven. Crawford is satisfying as rison, Udo Kier, Stephanie Faracy, Stephen woman whose religious devotion loses her Root, David Selby. Self-involved businessthe love of her family. Gertrude Lawrence man (Affleck) without domestic ties suddenly fared better on stage. Screenplay by Anita yearns for an ideal family Christmas . . . so Loos, based on Rachel Crothers’ play.▼ he purchases kin for the holidays. Scrooge Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise (1931) 76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Z. Leonard. Greta is proven right with this awful, lowbrow mess of a comedy. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Garbo, Clark Gable, Jean Hersholt, John Surviving Picasso (1996) C-125m. ★★★ D: Miljan, Alan Hale. A young woman flees James Ivory. Anthony Hopkins, Natascha from her loutish father—who wants to McElhone, Julianne Moore, Joss Ackland, marry her off—and finds refuge with Gable, Joan Plowright, Peter Eyre, Jane Lapotaire, but circumstances keep them apart until the Joseph Maher, Diane Venora, Bob Peck, final clinch. Contrived melodrama made comPeter Gerety, Dominic West, Susannah pelling by the ever-mesmerizing Garbo.▼ Harker, Dennis Boutsikaris. Pablo Picasso Susannah of the Mounties (1939) 78m. [ 1351 ]

★★1

⁄2 D: William A. Seiter. Shirley TemEsterman is quite good as one of the sisters. [R] ▼쩠 ple, Randolph Scott, Margaret Lockwood, J. Farrell MacDonald, Moroni Olsen, VicSuspicion (1941) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alfred tor Jory. Mountie Scott raises orphan ShirHitchcock. Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine, ley in this predictable but entertaining TemCedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame ple vehicle. Also shown in computerMay Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, colored version.▼쩠 Leo G. Carroll. Fontaine won Oscar for Susan Slade (1961) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: portraying wife who believes husband Grant Delmer Daves. Troy Donahue, Dorothy is trying to kill her. Suspenser is helped McGuire, Connie Stevens, Lloyd Nolan, by Bruce as Cary’s pal, but finale (imposed Brian Aherne, Bert Convy, Kent Smith. by the Production Code) leaves viewer Slick soaper, beautifully photographed by flat. Scripted by Samson Raphaelson, Lucien Ballard. McGuire pretends to be Joan Harrison, and Alma Reville (Hitchmother of daughter’s (Stevens) illegitimate cock’s wife), from Before the Fact by child. Donahue is Connie’s true love.쩠 Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley). Remade Susan Slept Here (1954) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: as a TVM in 1987. Also shown in comFrank Tashlin. Dick Powell, Debbie Reynputer-colored version.▼●쩠 olds, Anne Francis, Glenda Farrell, Alvy Suspiria (1977-Italian) C-98m. ★★★ D: Moore. Screenwriter Powell agrees to look Dario Argento. Jessica Harper, Stefania after high-spirited delinquent Reynolds in Casini, Joan Bennett, Alida Valli, Flavio this ‘‘cute’’ sex comedy, which has the Bucci, Udo Kier. Terrifying tale of Amerdistinction of being the only film in history ican student (Harper) attending European ever narrated by an Oscar statuette!▼● ballet school that turns out to be a witches’ Suspect, The (1944) 85m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robcoven. Often dumb plot is enriched and ert Siodmak. Charles Laughton, Ella Raines, overcome by brilliant camerawork, atmoDean Harens, Molly Lamont, Henry Daniell, sphere, music score and performance (by Rosalind Ivan. Superb, Hitchcock-like Argento and rock group Goblin). Originally thriller of henpecked London tobacconist cut to 92m. for U.S. release. Followed by Laughton planning to get his wife out of the INFERNO. Technovision. [R] ▼●쩠 way so he can pursue lovely Raines. Suture (1993) 93m. ★★★ D: Scott McSuspect (1960) SEE: Risk, The Gehee, David Siegel. Dennis Haysbert, Mel Suspect (1987) C-121m. ★★★ D: Peter Harris, Dina Merrill, Sab Shimono, Michael Yates. Cher, Dennis Quaid, Liam Neeson, Harris, David Graf, Fran Ryan, John Ingle. John Mahoney, Joe Mantegna, Philip Unique, off-the-wall tale of Vincent (Michael Bosco, E. Katherine Kerr. Dedicated public Harris), who is suspected of murdering his defender (Cher) battles a nearly hopeless case, father; he hatches a scheme to fake his own representing a deaf derelict accused of murdeath, substituting the body of his estranged der, with the unexpected help of one of her half-brother, Clay (Haysbert), as his corpse. jurors (Quaid). Entertaining film manages to Although these men remark on their unoverride its many implausibilities, with Cher canny physical resemblance, Vincent is turning in a fine and utterly believable perforwhite and Clay is black: a joke which only mance. [R]▼●쩠 the audience is in on. A novel and percepSuspect Zero (2004) C-99m. ★★ D: E. Elias tive film about identity. An impressive Merhige. Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, debut for writer-director-producer duo Carrie-Anne Moss, Harry Lennix, William McGehee and Siegel. Super 35.▼●쩠 Mapother. Troubled FBI agent (Eckhart), just Suzanne SEE: Second Coming of Sutransferred to the New Mexico office, suspects zanne, The Suzy (1936) 99m. ★★ D: George Fitzthat the man they’re trying to track down for a string of disappearances and murders is not maurice. Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Cary exactly what he seems. Complex premise, Grant, Lewis Stone, Benita Hume. Fine reminiscent at times of RED DRAGON, with cast sinks in this soapy romantic spy drama striking visual style, is hindered by the opset in WW1, with Grant as French flier who pressive nature of the material and the fact falls in love with Harlow. Brightest moment that there’s no one to care about. [R]▼쩠 has Cary crooning ‘‘Did I Remember?’’▼ Suspended Animation (2003) C-114m. Svengali (1931) 82m. ★★★ D: Archie ★1 Mayo. John Barrymore, Marian Marsh, ⁄2 D: John D. Hancock. Alex McArthur, Laura Esterman, Sage Allen, Rebecca HarDonald Crisp, Carmel Myers, Bramwell rell, Fred Meyers, Maria Cina, Jeff Puckett. Fletcher, Luis Alberni. Absorbing tale of Hollywood animation filmmaker on a winartist’s obsession with young girl, Trilby, ter vacation is held captive, MISERY-style, who becomes singing artist under his hypby a pair of crazed sisters. He escapes and notic spell. Prime Barrymore in interesting returns to Malibu, obsessed with the (now production with bizarre Paris sets by Anton supposedly dead) women who caused his Grot, memorable visual effects. Followed by THE MAD GENIUS.▼●쩠 ordeal. Well produced, but the story is unpleasant and suffers from a rotten ending. Svengali (1955-British) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Most of the characters lack appeal, though Noel Langley. Hildegarde Neff, Donald [ 1352 ]

Wolfit, Terence Morgan, Noel Purcell, Swann in Love (1984-French) C-110m. ★★1 Alfie Bass. Lacks flair of earlier version of ⁄2 D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Jeremy Irons, du Maurier’s novel about mesmerizing Ornella Muti, Alain Delon, Fanny Ardant, teacher and his actress-pupil Trilby. Robert Marie-Christine Barrault, Nathalie Juvet. Newton, originally cast as Svengali, quit in Lavish but lifeless telescoping of Proust’s mid-production but can still be seen in some Remembrance of Things Past with Irons long shots.▼쩠 surprisingly stiff as French aristocrat obSwamp Thing (1982) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: sessed with scandalous, lower-class Muti Wes Craven. Louis Jourdan, Adrienne in 1885 Paris. Redeemed somewhat by the Barbeau, Ray Wise, David Hess, Nicholas latter and Delon (as a homosexual baron), a Worth. Research scientist continues to love sexy under-the-covers love scene, and Sven Nykvist photography. [R]▼쩠 Barbeau from afar even after a chemical turns him into walking vegetation. This Swan Princess, The (1994) C-90m. ★★ D: was better as a DC comic, though Jourdan’s Richard Rich. Voices of Jack Palance, villainous camping in this sweet-natured Howard McGillin, Michelle Nicastro, Liz monster pic is almost on a level with VinCallaway, John Cleese, Steven Wright, cent Price’s standard routine. Followed by Sandy Duncan. Charmless, by-the-numbers THE RETURN OF SWAMP THING and animated fantasy about Prince Derek and a cable TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 Princess Odette, who seem fated to wed; Swamp Water (1941) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean barriers arise when they quarrel, and a sorRenoir. Dana Andrews, Walter Brennan, cerer transforms the princess into a swan. Anne Baxter, Walter Huston, Virginia Partially based on the fable that inspired Gilmore, John Carradine, Ward Bond, Swan Lake. Too imitative of Disney’s Guinn Williams, Eugene Pallette, Joe BEAUTY AND THE BEAST for its own Sawyer, Mary Howard. Renoir’s first good. In fact, the film was made by former American film is moody but erratic thriller Disney animators. Followed by two seset in the Okefenokee. Trapper Andrews quels. [G]▼●쩠 finds fugitive Brennan hiding in the Swap, The SEE: Sam’s Song swamp, tries to clear him of murder rap Swarm, The (1978) C-116m. BOMB D: without letting on that he knows the man’s Irwin Allen. Michael Caine, Katharine whereabouts. Powerhouse cast, handsome Ross, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, production, weakened by cornball diaRichard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havillogue and miscasting of Brennan. Remade land, Fred MacMurray, Ben Johnson, as LURE OF THE WILDERNESS. Lee Grant, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke Astin, Swamp Women (1955) C-73m. ★1⁄2 D: Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman. This forRoger Corman. Carole Mathews, Marie Windmula disaster film from Irwin Allen porsor, Beverly Garland, Touch (Michael) Contrays killer bee invasion with no sting at nors, Jil Jarmyn, Susan Cummings. Heavyall; succeeds only in wasting a lot of talhanded nonsense with New Orleans policeented actors. For masochists only: runs even woman Mathews going undercover, hooking longer (156m.) on DVD. Panavision. [PG] up with notorious trio of female crooks who ▼●쩠 escape from jail and head out after stolen diaSwashbuckler (1976) C-101m. BOMB monds. Fans of Windsor and Garland will not D: James Goldstone. Robert Shaw, James want to miss it. Retitled: SWAMP DIAEarl Jones, Peter Boyle, Genevieve Bujold, MONDS, CRUEL SWAMP.▼쩠 Beau Bridges, Geoffrey Holder, Avery Swan, The (1956) C-112m. ★★★ D: Charles Schreiber, Anjelica Huston. Poorly conVidor. Grace Kelly, Alec Guinness, Louis structed, bubble-headed picture—laced with Jourdan, Agnes Moorehead, Jessie Royce kinky PG sex scenes—would make Errol Landis, Brian Aherne, Leo G. Carroll, Flynn turn over in his grave. Incredible waste of talent. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Estelle Winwood. Mild Molnar comedy of manners has attractive cast but not Swastika Savages SEE: Hell’s Bloody much sparkle. Jourdan good as Kelly’s Devils suitor, but she’s promised to prince GuinS.W.A.T. (2003) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Clark ness. Filmed before in 1925 and (as ONE Johnson. Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, ROMANTIC NIGHT) in 1930. CinemaMichelle Rodriguez, James Todd Smith aka Scope.▼● LL Cool J, Josh Charles, Jeremy Renner, Swanee River (1939) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Van Holt, Olivier Martinez. Slick, if Sidney Lanfield. Don Ameche, Al Jolson, not especially original, cops-and-robbers Andrea Leeds, Felix Bressart, Russell Hicks. action yarn about maverick L.A.P.D. serBio of Stephen Foster where every song he geant Jackson being hired to train an elite writes is cued by a line of dialogue; cliche´s S.W.A.T. team. He deliberately recruits the fill the movie, but it’s fun on that level. force’s misfits and square pegs, who meet Jolson is terrific as E. P. Christy; minstrel their match in a wily French criminal (Marnumbers are exceptionally well done. Other tinez). The pulsating music is wall-to-wall, Foster bios are HARMONY LANE and I and the action, while not always brilliantly DREAM OF JEANIE. staged, is just good enough. Steve Forrest, [ 1353 ]

star of the vintage TV series of the same the movies, still is powerful drama. name, has a cameo. A hip-hop song sung Newman returns to Southern town with over the closing credits is called ‘‘Samuel dissipated movie queen Page, causing corJackson.’’ Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 rupt town ‘‘boss’’ Begley (who won an Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Oscar) to have him fixed proper. Glossy ★★ Fleet Street (1936-British) 68m. production with cast on top of material. D: George King. Tod Slaughter, Bruce SeScripted by Brooks. Newman, Page, Sherton, Stella Rho, Eve Lister, Ben Soutten, wood, and Torn reprised their Broadway D.J. Williams. Not many chills in this performances. Remade for TV in 1989 with Elizabeth Taylor. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 adaptation of the George Dibdin-Pitt play (later one of the sources for the Broadway Sweet Body of Deborah, The (1969-Italianmusical Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim French) C-105m. BOMB D: Romolo and Hugh Wheeler), but it does contain a Guerrieri. Carroll Baker, Jean Sorel, Evequintessential eye-rolling performance by lyn Stewart, Luigi Pistilli, Michel Bardinet. Britain’s master of grand guignol, Tod Convoluted soaper about murder, suicide, Slaughter, playing the sadistic barber who blackmail, and other sordid goings-on. This dumps his customers into the cellar and ‘‘body’’ really sags. Techniscope. [R] turns them into meat pies. Photographed by Sweet Candy SEE: Candy Stripe Nurses Ronald Neame. Not released in the U.S. Sweet Charity (1969) C-153m. ★★★ D: until 1939.▼쩠 Bob Fosse. Shirley MacLaine, John McSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Martin, Ricardo Montalban, Sammy Davis, Fleet Street (2007) C-117m. ★★★ D: Tim Jr., Chita Rivera, Paula Kelly, Stubby Burton. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham CarKaye, Ben Vereen, Lee Roy Reams. Fine, ter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha overlooked adaptation of the Broadway Baron Cohen, Jayne Wisener, Jamie Campmusical written by Neil Simon, and based bell Bower, Edward Sanders, Laura Michelle on Fellini’s NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, about Kelly. Stylized adaptation of the legendary prostitute-with-heart-of-gold who falls in Stephen Sondheim–Hugh Wheeler musical love with naive young man who doesn’t about a barber seeking revenge against 19thknow about her ‘‘work.’’ Cy Coleman– century London society because of the judge Dorothy Fields score includes ‘‘Big Spenwho unjustly imprisoned him—and stole his der,’’ ‘‘If They Could See Me Now,’’ wife and young daughter. Burton’s naturally rousing ‘‘Rhythm of Life.’’ Script by Pemorbid sensibilities mesh well with Sondter Stone. Fosse’s debut as film director. heim’s dark, brooding score. The result— Look for Bud Cort and Kristoffer Tabori whose textual changes will certainly pain as flower children. Also shown in 145 and Broadway purists—may not be as powerful 147m. versions—one with a happy ending, as the original, but it actually works as a film. one not! Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Depp and Bonham Carter (who, like the Sweet Country (1986) C-150m. BOMB entire cast, do their own singing) bring D: Michael Cacoyannis. Jane Alexander, gravity and wit to their roles, and the physiFranco Nero, Carole Laure, Joanna Pettet, cal production is grimly spectacular. Oscar Irene Papas, Randy Quaid, Jean-Pierre winner for Best Art Direction (Dante FerAumont. Grueling, heavy-handed drama retti and Francesca Lo Schiavo). Not for the of a family’s reactions to the 1973 Chilean squeamish. [R]쩠 revolution. Notable for idiotic miscasting Sweet and Lowdown (1999) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 (Laure and Pettet as Papas’ daughters; Quaid D: Woody Allen. Sean Penn, Samantha Moras a lip-smacking, lecherous soldier named ton, Uma Thurman, Brian Markinson, AnRaoul). Quite a comedown for ZORBA thony LaPaglia, James Urbaniak, Gretchen THE GREEK director Cacoyannis, who Mol, John Waters, Brad Garrett. A Woody includes tasteless sexploitation footage for good measure. Filmed in Greece. [R]▼● Allen diversion about a fictional jazz guitarist of the 1930s, Emmet Ray (brilliantly Sweet Dreams (1985) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: played by Penn), who’s a musical genius Karel Reisz. Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, but a rotten human being. Morton is a standAnn Wedgeworth, David Clennon, James out as a naive (and mute) woman with Staley, Gary Basaraba, John Goodman, whom he has an unlikely relationship. P.J. Soles. Flavorful look at 1950s country Music is great, period flavor impeccable, singing star Patsy Cline can’t escape de´ja` but the story wanders. Howard Alden douvu from so many other show-biz biopics. bles Penn’s guitar playing. Allen appears Focuses mainly on Cline’s marriage to on-screen as one of the experts recalling ne’er-do-well Harris, which also has a Emmet Ray’s career. [PG-13]▼쩠 too-familiar ring. Made worthwhile by truly Sweet Bird of Youth (1962) C-120m. fine performances (including Wedgeworth ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Brooks. Paul Newman, as Patsy’s mother) and a lot of wonderful Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, music (Lange lip-syncs to Cline’s original recordings). [PG-13]▼●쩠 Rip Torn, Mildred Dunnock, Madeleine Sherwood, Philip Abbott, Corey Allen. Sweet Ecstasy (1962-French) 75m. ★1⁄2 D: Tennessee Williams’ play, cleaned up for Max Pecas. Elke Sommer, Pierre Brice, [ 1354 ]

Christian Pezy, Claire Maurier. Silly soaper Mary Kay Place, Fred Ward, Jean Smart, about life among the wealthy, beautiful, Ethan Embry, Melanie Lynskey, Courtney decadent, selfish young on the Riviera. Gains, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Dakota FanSommer is a cynical sexpot with an endning. Rising N.Y.C. fashion designer is enless supply of false eyelashes. Cinemagaged to the mayor’s son—but returns Scope.▼쩠 home to Alabama to get her estranged husSweetest Thing, The (2002) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 band to sign their divorce papers, which D: Roger Kumble. Cameron Diaz, Christina he’s put off for seven years. Once there she Applegate, Selma Blair, Thomas Jane, Jason feels pangs of homesickness and an unexBateman, Parker Posey, Georgia Engel. plainable attraction to her slothful ex. Lazy Loopy comedy—scripted by South Park romantic comedy doesn’t bother to flesh out writer and standup comic Nancy M. Pimenany of its characters or explain their motivatal—tracks the misadventures of three overtions; even as fluff, it falls short. Only Withsexed girlfriends who make Betty and erspoon’s sunny presence keeps this one Veronica seem like eggheads. Attempt to afloat. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 put good-looking women into the kind of Sweetie (1989-Australian) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 raunchy comedy usually associated with D: Jane Campion. Genevieve Lemon, Karen guys is wildly uneven, but hard to dislike. Colston, Tom Lycos, Jon Darling, DoroJohnathon Schaech (Applegate’s real-life thy Barry. New Zealander Campion’s offhusband) appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 beat account of an unbalanced, demanding Sweethearts (1938) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: W. young woman (Lemon), and her relationS. Van Dyke II. Jeanette MacDonald, Nelship with her weak, obsessive sister (Colson Eddy, Frank Morgan, Florence Rice, ston) and her parents. Some brilliant Ray Bolger, Mischa Auer. Enjoyable but directorial touches, but too many sequences overlong; Nelson and Jeanette are stage simply don’t work. Unsettling, occasionally depressing, and not for all tastes. [R]▼●쩠 stars of Victor Herbert operetta who are manipulated by their producer (Morgan) Sweet Kill SEE: Arousers, The into having a marital spat. Handsome color Sweet Land (2005) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ali production filled with Herbert melodies. Selim. Elizabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, Alan Cinematographer Oliver Marsh won an Cumming, John Heard, Alex Kingston, Ned Oscar.▼● Beatty, Lois Smith, Patrick Heusinger, SteSweet Hearts Dance (1988) C-101m. phen Pelinski, Paul Sand. Beautifully realized ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Greenwald. Don Johnson, depiction of rural post-WW1 Minnesota and Susan Sarandon, Jeff Daniels, Elizabeth the German mail-order bride who causes a Perkins, Kate Reid, Justin Henry, Holly stir in the close-knit Norwegian community. Marie Combs, Heather Coleman. ComedyReaser is exceptional, but whole cast shines drama, set in a small Vermont town, about (including Smith, 50 years after her film the breakup of a marriage between two debut in EAST OF EDEN) in this moving high-school sweethearts—just as their drama of immigration, love, and hardship. longtime friend is embarking on a serious Scripted by the director; based on Will relationship. Engaging cast, led by JohnWeaver’s short story ‘‘A Gravestone Made of Wheat.’’ [PG]쩠 son in a very appealing performance, but after a while you wish the two lead characSweet Liberty (1986) C-107m. ★★ D: ters would just get on with it. Written by Alan Alda. Alan Alda, Michael Caine, Ernest Thompson. [R]▼●쩠 Michelle Pfeiffer, Bob Hoskins, Lise Sweet Hereafter, The (1997-Canadian) Hilboldt, Lillian Gish, Saul Rubinek, Lois C-110m. ★★★ D: Atom Egoyan. Ian Holm, Chiles. Amiable but aimless comedy of Sarah Polley, Bruce Greenwood, Tom college professor who becomes involved McCamus, Arsine´e Khanjian, Alberta Watwith a movie troupe as his historical novel son, Gabrielle Rose, Maury Chaykin, David is filmed. Ingratiating cast maintains some Hemblen. Tenacious lawyer comes to a Calevel of interest, with funny turns by Caine nadian town that’s been shattered by a as a cocky leading man and Hoskins as an schoolbus accident in which many of its eager-to-please screenwriter. But deep down children were killed. He tries to convince inside, it’s really shallow. [PG]▼●쩠 the parents to hire him to sue whoever may be Sweet Lies (1986) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Nathalie responsible—if, indeed, anyone is. MeanDelon. Treat Williams, Joanna Pacula, Juwhile, he tries to deal with his fragmented lianne Phillips, Laura Manszky, Norbert relationship with his own drug-addicted Weisser, Bernard Fresson. Boring romandaughter. Egoyan brings his quiet, elliptical tic comedy with Williams sorely miscast approach to Russell Banks’ novel and creas an insurance-company detective involved ates a haunting film that’s hard to forget . . . in sexual shenanigans with a trio of women while on assignment in Paris. [R]▼ though not for every taste. Holm is simply superb. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Sweet Lorraine (1987) C-91m. ★★★ D: ★★ Sweet Home Alabama (2002) C-109m. Steve Gomer. Maureen Stapleton, Trini AlD: Andy Tennant. Reese Witherspoon, Josh varado, Lee Richardson, John Bedford Lloyd, Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Candice Bergen, Giancarlo Esposito, Edith (Edie) Falco, Todd [ 1355 ]

Graff, Evan Handler, Freddie Roman. The Neill, Helena Bonham Carter, Kristin Scott Lorraine is a cozy little Catskill hotel that’s Thomas, Liz Smith, Rupert Graves, Martin way past its prime; Stapleton is its proprieClunes, Steve Coogan, Charlotte Coleman, tress, Alvarado her granddaughter who spends John Wood. Two suicidal souls vow to a summer working in its kitchen. There’s a avenge the people who wronged them in this wealth of atmosphere and some sturdy charactwist on STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. terizations in this warm, friendly, very personal Quirky comedy has moments, but too few, slice-of-life sleeper. [PG-13]▼쩠 though the lead actors seem to delight in this Sweet Love, Bitter (1967) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: (uneven) blend of slapstick and mayhem. Herbert Danska. Dick Gregory, Don MurBased on the plays by Alan Ayckbourn. U.S. ray, Diane Varsi, Robert Hooks, John Randebut on cable TV. Original British title: THE REVENGERS’ COMEDIES. [PG-13]▼쩠 dolph. Intriguing film about the unlikely friendship between a great jazz musician Sweet Ride, The (1968) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: (Gregory) who’s seen better days and a Harvey Hart. Tony Franciosa, Michael Sarcollege professor who’s hit the skids (Murrazin, Jacqueline Bisset, Bob Denver, Miray). Loosely based on the life of jazz legchael Wilding, Michele Carey, Warren end Charlie ‘‘Bird’’ Parker; dated in some Stevens. Absurd claptrap about a tennis ways, but also a fascinating artifact of its bum, a surfer, and a beautiful girl; some of time. Its comments on race relations are still the Malibu scenery is nice. Panavision. [R] Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1943) C-74m. ★★1⁄2 as potent as ever.▼ Sweet Nothing (1996) C-90m. ★★ D: Gary D: Irving Cummings. Betty Grable, RobWinick. Michael Imperioli, Mira Sorvino, ert Young, Adolphe Menjou, Reginald Paul Calderon, Lisa Langford. Tragic story Gardiner, Virginia Grey, Phil Regan. Pleasof a family affected by the horrors of drugs. ant musical of ex-burlesque star and exFather looking to make a better life for his pose´ reporter. Menjou steals film as editor wife and kids gets in way over his head in the of Police Gazette. Previously filmed as seedy world of crack, becoming both a user LOVE IS NEWS; remade again as THAT and a seller. Grim film offers unappealing WONDERFUL URGE. characters and storyline, showing the harSweet 16 (1981) C-90m. ★★ D: Jim Sotos. rowing effects of drug addiction on innocent Bo Hopkins, Susan Strasberg, Don Stroud, lives. Made in 1993, before Sorvino’s OscarDana Kimmell, Aleisa Shirley, Don Shanks, winning turn in MIGHTY APHRODITE, but Steve Antin, Logan Clarke, Patrick Macnee, released (just barely) after. [R]▼ Michael Pataki, Larry Storch, Henry WilSweet November (1968) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: coxon, Sharon Farrell. Standard terror film Robert Ellis Miller. Sandy Dennis, Anthony (with good cast) set in Texas about a rash Newley, Theodore Bikel, Burr DeBenning, of murders occurring as Shirley’s 16th Sandy Baron, Marj Dusay, Martin West. birthday approaches. Identity of the vengeKooky Dennis takes a new lover every month, ful murderer is quite predictable; integrahelping insecure men find confidence, then tion of a racial prejudice (persecuting sending them away; her plans go awry when Indians) subplot doesn’t work. Hopkins one of them (Newley) insists on marrying her. plays his slightly slow-witted Southern sheriff role for the umpteenth time. [R]▼ Some touching moments in this likable (if implausible) comedy-drama by Herman Sweet Sixteen (2002-British-German-Spanish) C-106m. ★★★ D: Ken Loach. Martin CompRaucher. Remade in 2001.▼쩠 Sweet November (2001) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: ston, Annmarie Fulton, William Ruane, MiPat O’Connor. Keanu Reeves, Charlize chelle Abercromby, Michelle Coulter, Gary Theron, Jason Isaacs, Greg Germann, Liam McCormack, Tommy McKee. Another gritty, Aiken, Lauren Graham, Frank Langella, grimly realistic slice of life from Loach, this Ray Baker, Robert Joy. Kooky San Franone about 15-year-old Liam (Compston), a cisco woman persuades uptight, careercareer-criminal-in-training, and his dysfuncdriven man to spend one month with her so tional Glasgow family; he loves (and is proshe can transform him into more of a human tective of) his mother, who is completing a being . . . as she has for many guys before stretch in the pen. Occasionally rambles, but him. Harmless fluff is neither spontaneous still a sobering look at the forces that connor convincing enough, though Reeves and tribute to a young man’s dead-end exisTheron give it their best shot. Remake of tence. The dialogue is laced with profanity, and the Scottish accents are so thick that the the 1968 movie. [PG-13]▼쩠 film is English-subtitled.▼쩠 Sweet Revenge (1977) C-90m. BOMB D: Jerry Schatzberg. Stockard Channing, Sam Sweet Smell of Success (1957) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 Waterston, Franklin Ajaye, Richard DoughD: Alexander Mackendrick. Burt Lancasty. Public defender Waterston falls in love ter, Tony Curtis, Marty Milner, Sam with a car thief (Channing) in this turkey, Levene, Barbara Nichols, Susan Harrison, originally called DANDY, THE ALLJoe Frisco, Chico Hamilton Quintet. SearAMERICAN GIRL. Panavision. [PG] ing Clifford Odets–Ernest Lehman script Sweet Revenge (1999-British-French-U.S.) about ruthless, all-powerful columnist J. J. C-90m. ★★ D: Malcolm Mowbray. Sam Hunsecker (Lancaster) and a smarmy press [ 1356 ]

agent (Curtis) who’ll do anything to curry C-114m. ★★ D: Beeban Kidron. Rachel his favor. Vivid performances, fine jazz Weisz, Vincent Perez, Ian McKellen, Kathy score by Elmer Bernstein, outstanding Bates, Joss Ackland, Tony Haygarth, Zoe¨ camerawork by James Wong Howe that Wanamaker, Tom Bell. Nineteenth-century perfectly captures N.Y.C. nightlife. Later a melodrama of a silent servant girl who falls Broadway musical. ▼●쩠 in love with the sole survivor of a shipSweet Sweetback’s Baad Asssss Song (1971) wreck, a Ukrainian emigrant. This tragic roC-97m. ★★★ D: Melvin Van Peebles. Melmance is the talk of the entire disapproving vin Van Peebles, Rhetta Hughes, Simon town. Gorgeous scenery and storms galore Chuckster, John Amos. Van Peebles procan’t save this sluggish, shallow film ‘‘induced, directed, financed, wrote, scored, and spired by’’ the haunting Joseph Conrad novel Amy Foster. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 stars in this angry, violent, reverse-racist blaxploitation drama as a superstud who runs, Swimfan (2002) C-86m. ★★ D: John Polruns, runs from the police. Visually exciting, son. Jesse Bradford, Erika Christensen, Shiri surprisingly effective. Controversial (and XAppleby, Kate Burton, Clayne Crawford, rated) when first released. Van Peebles’ son Jason Ritter, Kia Joy Goodwin, Dan HedMario chronicled the making of this film in aya, Michael Higgins. Waterlogged teenage BAADASSSSS! [R]▼●쩠 version of FATAL ATTRACTION with Sweet Talker (1990-Australian) C-88m. Christensen as a new girl in town who sets ★★1 her sights on high school swimming cham⁄2 D: Michael Jenkins. Bryan Brown, Karen Allen, Chris Haywood, Bill Kerr, pion Bradford—who already has a girlBruce Spence, Bruce Myles, Paul Chubb, friend—and doesn’t take rejection well. Even Peter Hehir, Justin Rosniak. Amiable if as a formula film this falls short, becoming thoroughly familiar tale of a con man who outlandish, with laughable plot turns and comes to a remote Australian coastal town dialogue. J-D-C Scope. [PG-13] ▼쩠 to sell his bill of goods, falls in love, and Swimmer, The (1968) C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: has second thoughts about going through with Frank Perry. Burt Lancaster, Janet Landgard, the con. Pleasant, picturesque, and predictable. Janice Rule, Tony Bickley, Marge Champion, Bill Fiore, Kim Hunter, Joan Rivers. Brown cowrote the story. [PG]▼●쩠 Sweet Violent Tony SEE: Cuba Crossing Middle-aged man swims from pool to pool Sweet William (1980-British) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 on journey home during hot afternoon; D: Claude Whatham. Sam Waterston, Jenny each pool evokes past moments and events. Agutter, Anna Massey, Geraldine James, Fascinating, vastly underrated film adapted Daphne Oxenford, Rachel Bell, Arthur Lowe, from John Cheever short story; Lancaster Tim Pigott-Smith. Waterston is charming as is superb, and location filming in Connectan erratic ALFIE-like bigamist who seduces icut perfectly captures mood. Script by Agutter in this OK entertainment. [R]▼ Eleanor Perry. [M/PG]▼●쩠 Swept Away (2002-British) C-89m. ★★ D: Swimming Pool (2003-French-British) CGuy Ritchie. Madonna, Adriano Giannini, 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Franc¸ois Ozon. Charlotte Jeanne Tripplehorn, Bruce Greenwood, ElizaRampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance, beth Banks, David Thornton, Michael Beattie, Marc Fayolle, Jean-Marie Lamour, Mireille Yorgo Voyagis. Tame remake of Lina WertMosse´. A creatively and emotionally blocked muller’s fiery SWEPT AWAY . . . with Gianmystery writer (Rampling) vacations in her nini doing a creditable job in the part created editor’s French villa, then the editor’s sexy, by his father, and Madonna (directed by her uninhibited daughter (Sagnier) shows up, real-life husband) giving one of her better perleading to unexpected consequences for formances as the spoiled rich bitch who’s cast both of them. Intriguing psychological charaway with him on a deserted island. Illacter study develops a sinuous, tantalizing advised music-video–style sequences only mood, then turns to literal melodrama and remind us that it is Madonna, which doesn’t never quite recovers. Rampling and Sagnier help us believe in her character. Not a disare very good—and very sexy. Unrated vergrace, as media coverage indicated, but utsion also available. [R] ▼쩠 terly unmemorable. [R] ▼쩠 Swimming to Cambodia (1987) C-87m. ★★★ Swept Away . . . by an unusual destiny D: Jonathan Demme. Spalding Gray in the blue sea of August (1974-Italian) talks for nearly an hour and a half—about C-116m. ★★★★ D: Lina Wertmuller. Gianlife in general, and about his experiences carlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato. A slovin Cambodia, where he spent some time enly sailor is cast adrift on an island with while appearing in a minor role in THE his employer, a rich, selfish woman. Cut KILLING FIELDS. There is no reason off from society, he reverses their roles, why a lengthy monologue should become stripping her of pride and vanity, and consuch a fascinating film—but it does, thanks trolling her completely. This fascinating to Gray’s storytelling skills, and Demme’s and provocative adult film put writer-director artful (and subtle) direction. An unusual Wertmuller on the map in this country. Reand rewarding experience. Followed by made in 2002. [R]▼●쩠 MONSTER IN A BOX.▼● Swept From the Sea (1998-U.S.-British) Swimming Upstream (2003-Australian) [ 1357 ]

C-97m. ★★ D: Russell Mulcahy. Geoffrey man. Brassy, artificial yarn of good-girl Rush, Judy Davis, Jesse Spencer, Tim Draxl, Ann-Margret posing as swinger to impress Deborah Kennedy, David Hoflin, Craig girlie magazine editor Franciosa. Swingers (1996) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Doug Horner, Brittany Byrnes, Mitchell Dellevergin. Fact-based story of two Australian teenLiman. Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron age swimmers and their working-class family. Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Alex Desert, In the 1950s, a piano-playing mama’s boy Deena Martin, Katherine Kendall, Brooke (Spencer) is coaxed by his boorish father into Langton, Heather Graham. Slight but enterstriving for glory in the pool. Then Dad untaining look at single life in L.A. from a fathomably pushes his other son (Draxl) to guy’s point of view. Main character is a rival his sibling in increasingly competitive comedian who broke up with his girlfriend races. Rush and Davis predictably shine as six months earlier and hasn’t yet gotten over the parents in an abusive marriage, but film is her. Some pointed jabs at L.A. life distinoverly melodramatic. Scripted and coexecuguish this contemporary urban tale, a kind tive produced by Anthony Fingleton, from of hip update of AMERICAN GRAFFITI. the memoir he coauthored with his sister, Leading actor Favreau wrote the script; direcDiane. Original Australian running time tor Liman also photographed it. [R] ▼●쩠 114m. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Swing High, Swing Low (1937) 95m. ★★ Swimming With Sharks (1994) C-93m. D: Mitchell Leisen. Carole Lombard, Fred ★★ MacMurray, Charles Butterworth, Jean D: George Huang. Kevin Spacey, Frank Whaley, Michelle Forbes, Benicio Del Dixon, Dorothy Lamour, Harvey Stephens, Toro, Jerry Levine, T. E. Russell, Roy Anthony Quinn. Musical drama with cornDotrice. Young man signs on as the new assisball plot of musician MacMurray’s rise tant to venal Hollywood exec Buddy Ackerand fall. Redeemed somewhat by good man and learns new facets of the word cast, glossy production. From the stage ‘‘abusive’’ . . . until the day he exacts re- play Burlesque, made before as THE venge on his tormentor. Dark, ‘‘inside’’ DANCE OF LIFE and remade as WHEN MY BABY SMILES AT ME.▼쩠 comedy is a one-joke idea (written by firsttime director Huang, who—not surprisSwingin’ Summer, A (1965) C-80m. ★1⁄2 ingly—toiled as an underling in the film D: Robert Sparr. James Stacy, William biz), but Spacey’s performance as the modernWellman, Jr., Quinn O’Hara, Martin West, day monster is galvanizing. He alone makes Allan Jones, Raquel Welch. The Righteous the film worth seeing. Incidentally, Spacey Brothers, The Rip Chords, Gary Lewis and also coproduced the picture. [R]▼●쩠 The Playboys, Jody Miller. Typically thin Swim Team (1979) C-92m ★1⁄2 D: James storyline (about three guys who open a dance Polakoff. James Daughton, Stephen Furst, hall) as an excuse for music numbers by Richard Young, Jenny Neumann, guest various guest stars. Techniscope.▼ star Buster Crabbe. Can the Whalers reSwing Kids (1993) C-112m. ★★ D: Thomas verse their seven-year losing streak as a Carter. Robert Sean Leonard, Christian swim team? Can you sit through this terriBale, Frank Whaley, Barbara Hershey, Tushka Bergen, David Tom, Julia Stemble movie to find out? [PG]▼ Swindle, The (1955-Italian) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: berger, Jayce Bartok, Noah Wyle. This Federico Fellini. Broderick Crawford, Giuyear’s NEWSIES, and poor Bale is in lietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Franco Faboth. Transparent Yank actors struggle brizi. Absorbing Fellini tale, which he through a THREE COMRADES kind of coscripted, about a trio of small-time crooks yarn about the Nazi persecution of German who go about fleecing peasants in Italy, teens who openly embrace American swing each planning for a better life. The spotlight music—taboo, because it employs so many is on the eldest, a world-weary loser nicely black musicians. Singularly weird enough played by Crawford. Not among the directo carry a mild fascination, but it’s the tor’s best; still an intriguing portrait of hope kind of film that needs daring flamboyance and desperation. Aka THE SWINDLERS. to have a prayer of coming off. EyeOriginal title: IL BIDONE. ▼쩠 massaging production design by Allan CamSwindle, The (1997-French) C-101m. ★★★ D: eron. Kenneth Branagh appears unbilled in Claude Chabrol. Isabelle Huppert, Michel Sera key role as a Nazi. [PG-13]▼●쩠 rault, Franc¸ois Cluzet, Jean-Franc¸ois Balmer, Swing Shift (1984) C-100m. ★★ D: JonaJackie Berroyer. Absorbing comedy/caper than Demme. Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, film with Huppert and Serrault perfectly cast Christine Lahti, Ed Harris, Fred Ward, as a pair of con artists who may or may not Sudie Bond, Holly Hunter, Patty Maloney, be scheming to cheat each other. The crux of Roger Corman, Belinda Carlisle. Misfired the story is set at a Swiss dentists’ convention, attempt to fashion fictional story around where Huppert hooks up with enigmatic Clureal-life situation of housewives who bezet. Slick, engaging entertainment.▼쩠 came factory workers during WW2. All ★★ Swinger, The (1966) C-81m. D: George the women are interesting (especially Lahti, Sidney. Ann-Margret, Tony Franciosa, Robin a wonderful performance), but the men ert Coote, Horace McMahon, Nydia Westare shallow and poorly defined—and con[ 1358 ]

sequently, so is the film. Pseudonymous credited opening narration by Orson Welles. ▼ screenplay credit for ‘‘Rob Morton’’ masks several top writers, with half-an-hour reSwiss Family Robinson (1960) C-128m. ★★★1 portedly shot by another director at pro⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. John Mills, Doroducer Hawn’s insistence. [PG]▼●쩠 thy McGuire, James MacArthur, Janet ★★★★ Swing Time (1936) 103m. Munro, Sessue Hayakawa, Tommy Kirk, D: George Stevens. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, VicKevin Corcoran. Rollicking entertainment tor Moore, Helen Broderick, Eric Blore, Disney-style, with shipwrecked family buildBetty Furness. One of the best Astaireing island paradise, neatly dispatching Rogers films, with stars as dance team Hayakawa and his pirate band. Pure escapwhose romance is hampered by Fred’s ism, larger than life. Panavision.▼●쩠 engagement to girl back home (Furness). Swiss Miss (1938) 72m. ★★ D: John Fine support by Moore and Broderick, unBlystone. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Della forgettable Jerome Kern–Dorothy Fields Lind, Walter Woolf King, Eric Blore, Adia songs ‘‘A Fine Romance,’’ ‘‘Pick YourKuznetzoff, Charles Judels. Contrived roself Up.’’ Oscar-winning ‘‘The Way You mantic story with music tries hard to subLook Tonight.’’ Astaire’s Bojangles promerge L&H, but Stan and Ollie’s scenes duction number is a screen classic.▼●쩠 save film, especially when Ollie serenades Swing Vote (2008) C-119m. ★★★ D: Joshua his true love with Stan playing tuba.▼ Michael Stern. Kevin Costner, Kelsey Switch (1991) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: Blake EdGrammer, Paula Patton, Dennis Hopper, wards. Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, JoBeth Nathan Lane, Stanley Tucci, Madeline CarWilliams, Lorraine Bracco, Tony Roberts, roll, George Lopez, Mare Winningham, Perry King, Bruce Martyn Payne, Catherine Judge Reinhold. Sharp, funny, relevant Keener, Te´a Leoni. Inferior ripoff of comedy about a quirk of fate that leaves the GOODBYE, CHARLIE about a philanderdetermination of a U.S. presidential caming male who’s shot by a vindictive conpaign in the hands of one not-so-solid quest and returns to earth as a woman. Oldcitizen—an irresponsible, beer-swilling sinhat premise with precious few opportunities gle dad (Costner). His young daughter takes to exploit Edwards’ flair for cartoonish the situation much more seriously than he physical humor. Barkin is sole saving grace, does, especially as a media circus mushfar better than anything else in the film. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 rooms around them . . . and he gradually undergoes an awakening. Genuinely CaSwitchback (1997) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeb praesque movie has a terrific cast that Stuart. Dennis Quaid, Danny Glover, R. Lee makes the most of the screenplay by direcErmey, Jared Leto, Ted Levine. DIE HARD/ tor Stern and Jason Richman. Many newsFUGITIVE screenwriter Stuart debuts as dicasters and celebrities appear in cameos. rector of this thriller about the kidnapping Worth comparing to THE GREAT MAN of an FBI agent’s son, and the pursuit of the VOTES (1939). Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 serial killer who has him. Preposterous plot 1 ★ Swing Your Lady (1938) 79m. ⁄2 D: devices are overshadowed by excellent cast. Ray Enright. Humphrey Bogart, Frank You really care what happens to these people. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 McHugh, Louise Fazenda, Nat Pendleton, Penny Singleton, Allen Jenkins, Ronald Switchblade Sisters (1975) C-91m. ★★ D: Reagan, Weaver Bros. and Elviry. Bogart Jack Hill. Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, Monpromotes wrestler Pendleton; embarrassing ica Gayle, Kitty Bruce, Marlene Clark, comedy is easily his worst starring effort. Michael Miller. Pretty good cheapie about Reagan appears briefly as a sportswriter. a female gang, although feminism clearly Swiss Conspiracy, The (1975-U.S.-Gertakes a back seat to action. Predates the man) C-88m. ★★ D: Jack Arnold. David cycle of gang films by four years; Bruce is Janssen, Senta Berger, John Ireland, John Lenny’s daughter. Originally released as Saxon, Elke Sommer, Ray Milland, Anton THE JEZEBELS (the gang’s name); reisDiffring. Confusing cat-and-mouse intrigue sued as PLAYGIRL GANG. [R]▼●쩠 set in Switzerland, where Janssen is hired Switching Channels (1988) C-105m. ★★★ to protect valued bank customers with large D: Ted Kotcheff. Kathleen Turner, Burt Reysecret accounts. [PG]▼쩠 nolds, Christopher Reeve, Ned Beatty, Henry Swiss Family Robinson (1940) 93m. ★★★ Gibson, George Newbern, Al Waxman, Ken D: Edward Ludwig. Thomas Mitchell, Edna James, Joe Silver, Charles Kimbrough, Tony Best, Freddie Bartholomew, Tim Holt, Rosato. TV reporter Turner tries to quit her Terry Kilburn. Mitchell decides to move job to marry wealthy Reeve, but her boss family to Australia for a purer life, but (and ex-husband) Reynolds isn’t going to shipwreck strands them on a remote island give her up so easily. Surprisingly good where his three spoiled sons learn honest valremake of THE FRONT PAGE/HIS GIRL ues. Excellent adaptation of Johann Wyss FRIDAY updated to the satellite-television book boasts impressive special effects, era, but less effective in its use of satire and strong performances, and much darker eleoccasional melodrama than its classic prements than the later Disney version. Undecessors. All three stars are terrific. [PG]▼● [ 1359 ]

★★1 Swoon (1992) 92m. ★★★ D: Tom Kalin. ⁄2 D: Cornel Wilde. Cornel Wilde, Jean Daniel Schlachet, Craig Chester, Ron Wallace, Brian Aherne, George Baker. Vawter, Michael Kirby, Michael Stumm, Camelot comes alive, minus music, with Valda Z. Drabla, Natalie Stanford. Improfuse action and splendid scenery. Some pressive low-budget stunt of a movie about may find Wilde’s approach too juvenile, Chicago’s legendary Leopold-Loeb ‘‘thrill’’ overly sincere, and Aherne a bit too cavakilling, with added subtext about the clilier. Originally titled LANCELOT AND GUINEVERE. Panavision.▼쩠 mate of homophobia that figured in the jury’s reaction to one of the century’s most Sword of the Conqueror (1961-Italian) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Carlo Campogalliani. Jack heinous crimes. Daring and original (though with severe dramatic limitations) and a Palance, Eleonora Rossi-Drago, Guy Madfascinating companion piece to Hollywood’s ison, Carlo D’Angelo. Flabby epic not ROPE and COMPULSION; moody use of livened by cast or sets; set in 6th-century Byzantine empire days. CinemaScope.▼ black-and-white.▼●쩠 Sword and the Rose, The (1953) C-93m. Sword of the Ninja SEE: Challenge, The ★★★1 (1982) ⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Richard Todd, Glynis Johns, James Robertson Justice, Sword of The Valiant (1985-British) Michael Gough, Jane Barrett. Colorful filmC-101m. ★★ D: Stephen Weeks. Miles ing of When Knighthood Was in Flower, O’Keeffe, Cyrielle Claire, Leigh Lawson, with Johns as Mary Tudor, who uses wiles Sean Connery, Trevor Howard, Peter Cushand power to kindle romance with Todd— ing, Ronald Lacey, Lila Kedrova, John but runs afoul of villainous Duke (Gough). Rhys-Davies. Connery (as the Green Knight) Rich period flavor, fine performance by may only be on-screen for a few scenes, but Justice as King Henry VIII. Filmed in he adds zest to this lumbering account of a England by Walt Disney.▼● chivalrous young squire (a wooden O’Keeffe) Sword and the Sorcerer, The (1982) who must solve a riddle in one year or die. C-100m. ★★ D: Albert Pyun. Lee Horsley, Remake of GAWAIN AND THE GREEN Kathleen Beller, Simon MacCorkindale, KNIGHT by the same filmmakers . . . and not George Maharis, Richard Lynch, Richard much of an improvement! Filmed in 1982. JMoll, Robert Tessier, Nina Van Pallandt, D-C Scope. [PG]▼쩠 Anna Bjorn, Jeff Corey. Aided by resurSwordsman of Siena, The (1961-Italian) C97m. ★★ D: Etienne Perier. Stewart Granger, rected warlock Maharis, nasty Lynch enslaves the kingdom, and it’s up to sword-swinging Sylva Koscina, Christine Kaufmann, Tullio Horsley to save the day. Strictly second-rate Carminati, Gabriele Ferzetti. Predictable in scripting, acting, and production, with just swashbuckler about 16th-century adventurer enough bloodletting to please undemanding with mixed loyalties who becomes involved fans of this kind of stuff. [R]▼●쩠 in Spanish underground movement. Good Swordfish (2001) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Domicast saddled with tired script. CinemaScope. nic Sena. John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Sydney SEE: Hard Eight Halle Berry, Don Cheadle, Vinnie Jones, Sydney White (2007) C-108m. ★★ D: Joe Sam Shepard, Drea de Matteo, Rudolf MarNussbaum. Amanda Bynes, Sara Paxton, tin, Zach Grenier. Notorious computer Matt Long, John Schneider, Jack Carpenter, hacker Jackman is shanghaied by master Jeremy Howard, Crystal Hunt. Contempocriminal Travolta to do his bidding in this rary take on Snow White and the Seven action-crime caper, framed in flashback. Dwarfs. Freshman Bynes is rejected from Some terrific post-MATRIX action moments her deceased mother’s sorority by its presiand stunt set pieces are the only saving grace, dent (Paxton), who’s also the most popular as it becomes silly and unreasonably fargirl on campus. The outcast is then taken in fetched. Derivation of the title is never fully by an unofficial fraternity consisting of explained, but we’d like to think it’s from seven ‘‘dorks.’’ Soon she finds herself chalthe Marx Brothers’ HORSE FEATHERS. lenging her own university’s elitist Greek Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 system, increasing her popularity and findSword in the Stone, The (1963) C-75m. ing her very own Prince Charming. Harm★★1 ⁄2 D: Wolfgang Reitherman. Voices of less, somewhat amusing, but best suited to Ricky Sorenson, Sebastian Cabot, Karl loyal fans of Bynes. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Swenson, Junius Matthews. One of DisSylvester (1985) C-102m. ★★ D: Tim ney’s weakest animated features follows a Hunter. Richard Farnsworth, Melissa Gilyoung boy named Wart, who is destined to bert, Michael Schoeffling, Constance Towers, become King Arthur—with the considerable Pete Kowanko, Arliss Howard, James Gamhelp of Merlin the Magician. Mildly entermon. Seemingly surefire story of a girl and taining and fast moving, but dialogue heavy, her horse can’t clear the hurdles because lead and full of ‘‘modern’’ references that remove character isn’t terribly likable. Some nice ridmuch of the magic and wonder from T. H. ing sequences but uneven narrative (by Carol Sobieski) weighs it down. [PG] ▼●쩠 White’s story. Highlight: wizard’s duel Sylvia (1965) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Dougbetween Merlin and Madame Mim. ▼●쩠 Sword of Lancelot (1963-British) C-116m. las. Carroll Baker, George Maharis, Jo[ 1360 ]

anne Dru, Peter Lawford, Viveca Lindfors, PLUS ONE and running somewhat longer, Edmond O’Brien, Aldo Ray, Ann Sothern. is still extant.▼●쩠 Baker’s prelude to HARLOW is much Synanon (1965) 107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard better, despite overuse of flashbacks and Quine. Chuck Connors, Stella Stevens, rambling episodes; she plays a bad girl Alex Cord, Richard Conte, Eartha Kitt, turned good with melodrama unfolding Edmond O’Brien, Chanin Hale, Alejandro as detective Maharis investigates her life. Rey. Potentially powerful study of dopeSylvia (1985-New Zealand) C-98m. ★★★ addiction treatment via the Synanon House D: Michael Firth. Eleanor David, Nigel methods bogs down in pat romantic tale Terry, Tom Wilkinson, Mary Regan, Joseph with stereotyped performances. George, Eileen Glover. David gives a strong Syncopation (1942) 88m. ★★ D: William performance as famed educator Sylvia Dieterle. Adolphe Menjou, Jackie Cooper, Ashton-Warner, who struggled in the early Bonita Granville, George Bancroft, Ted 1940s to buck New Zealand’s educational North, Todd Duncan, Frank Jenks, Rex establishment with innovative reading Stewart, Connee Boswell, Hall Johnson methods for Maori children. Adapted from Choir. Promising but pedestrian story of her works Teacher and I Passed This Way. early jazz travels from New Orleans to ChiShirley MacLaine’s otherwise unbearable cago, focusing on trumpeter Cooper (who’s TWO LOVES, based on an Ashton-Warner dubbed by Bunny Berigan). Good music semiautobiographical story, makes an throughout; at the very end, there’s a jam interesting cross reference. [PG]▼ session featuring Benny Goodman, Charlie Sylvia (2003-British) C-105m. ★★★ D: Barnet, Gene Krupa, Harry James, Jack Christine Jeffs. Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Jenny, Joe Venuti, and Alvino Rey. Craig, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner, Michael Synecdoche, New York (2008) C-124m. Gambon, Amira Casar. Incisive portrait of ★★ D: Charlie Kaufman. Philip Seymour Sylvia Plath, the celebrated American poet Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Wilof the 1950s and ’60s, whose life was interliams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Dimittently lifted out of a suicidal fog by her anne Wiest, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope love for British poet Edward ‘‘Ted’’ Davis, Tom Noonan. A tormented stage diHughes. Not destined to be a feel-good film, rector whose private life is disintegrating this relies largely on Paltrow to give the channels his frustrations into a massive thecharacter color and shading, and she does. atrical project. Screenwriter Kaufman (in Danner, Paltrow’s real-life mother, plays his directorial debut) incorporates many of her mother here. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 his darkly comic, non-sequitur trademarks ★★★ D: George Sylvia Scarlett (1935) 94m. at first, then grows melancholy and downCukor. Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, beat as his hero confronts the futility of his Brian Aherne, Edmund Gwenn, Natalie quest to understand what his life is all about. Paley, Dennie Moore. Offbeat, charming Clever and original but wearying, not unlike comedy-drama; Hepburn and ne’er-do-well its main character. The cast is uniformly father Gwenn take to the road when he fine. Super 35. [R]쩠 gets in trouble. She disguises as a boy as Syriana (2005) C-128m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Stephen they travel with Cockney Grant in touring Gaghan. George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jefshow. Most unusual film made interesting frey Wright, Chris Cooper, William Hurt, by performances of Hepburn and Grant Mazhar Munir, Tim Blake Nelson, Amanda in their first film together. Also shown Peet, Christopher Plummer, Alexander Sidin computer-colored version.▼●쩠 dig, David Clennon, Robert Foxworth, Max Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002Minghella, Jamey Sheridan, Nicky Henson, Korean) C-121m. ★★1⁄2 D: Park Chan-wook. Jayne Atkinson, Viola Davis. Complex, inSong Kang-ho, Shin Ha-gyun, Bae Du-na, Im triguing drama follows multiple storylines inJi-eun, Han Bo-bae, Kim Se-dong, Lee Daevolving characters who affect and are affected yeon. A deaf-mute’s harebrained kidnapping by the politics of the Middle East, U.S. oil plot to pay for a kidney transplant for his interests, and government corruption on all dying sister spins out of control into a sides. ‘‘Labyrinthine’’ doesn’t begin to debloody cycle of retribution. First of the discribe this, a rare political thriller with smarts rector’s ‘‘revenge trilogy’’ is a stylish blend and a conscience; extremely well made, with of surreal imagery, pitch-black humor, nara terrific cast. Gaghan’s script was ‘‘sugrative confusion, and stomach-turning viogested’’ by Robert Baer’s book See No Evil. lence. Superbly made, but morally dubious Clooney won a Supporting Actor Oscar. and not for the squeamish. Followed by OLDSuper 35. [R]쩠 BOY and LADY VENGEANCE. Original Syrian Bride, The (2004-Israeli-Frenchrunning time 129m. Super 35. [R]쩠 German) C-97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Eran Riklis. Sympathy for the Devil (1970-French) Hiyam Abbass, Makram J. Khoury, Clara C-92m. ★★ D: Jean-Luc Godard. Muddled Khoury, Ashraf Barhoum, Eyad Sheety, documentary which utilizes the Rolling Evelyne Kaplun, Julie-Anne Roth. ContemStones as a catchall for interspersed study of revolution. Godard’s cut, titled ONE plative, multilayered exploration of the state [ 1361 ]

of the Middle East, centering on events preceding an arranged marriage between a Syrian television actor and a Druze from the Golan Heights; the nuptials will result in the bride’s permanent separation from her family. This compassionate film is loaded with recognizable, fully fleshed-out characters, and deals insightfully with feelings and issues both personal and political. Written by the director and Suha Arraf. Super 35. 쩠 System, The SEE: Girl-Getters, The

(an uncharismatic Brosnan) and his exploits as he takes on some shady businessmen attempting to build a chemical plant in an Irish village. [R]▼●쩠 Tag: The Assassination Game (1982) C-92m. ★★ D: Nick Castle. Robert Carradine, Linda Hamilton, Kristine De Bell, Bruce Abbott, Michael Winslow, Frazer Smith. A role-playing game, played by college students with toy guns, turns deadly when one player (Abbott) becomes unhinged and substitutes real bullets. Short Table for Five (1983) C-122m. ★★★ D: on sense and suspense, with some uninRobert Lieberman. Jon Voight, Richard tended laughs along the way. Aka EVERYBODY GETS IT IN THE END. [PG]▼ Crenna, Marie-Christine Barrault, Millie Perkins, Roxana Zal, Robby Kiger, Son Hoang Tailor of Panama, The (2001-U.S.-Irish) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Boorman. Pierce Bui, Kevin Costner. Solid (and unabashed) tearjerker with Voight as a divorced man who Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis, tries to make up for being an absentee father Catherine McCormack, Brendan Gleeson, by taking his three children on a cruise to Leonor Varela, Harold Pinter, Mark MarEurope—little dreaming how tough an experigolis, Daniel Radcliffe. A rotter from the ence it will turn out to be. Curl up and have a British secret service is relocated to Panama good cry. [PG]▼●쩠 City, where he aligns himself with a wellTaboo (1999-Japanese) C-100m. ★★★ D: connected (but double-dealing) tailor to get Nagisa Oshima. Beat Takeshi (Takeshi Kithe lay of the land. Genuinely nasty espiotano), Ryuhei Matsuda, Shinji Takeda, Tadanage tale/character study is novel at first but nobu Asano, Koji Matoba, Masato Ibu. The eventually becomes off-putting. Rush is exaustere atmosphere of a mid-19th-century tremely good. John le Carre´ adapted his book samurai warrior academy is rattled to its core with director Boorman and Andrew Davies. upon the arrival of a new student (Matsuda), a Panavision. [R]▼쩠 multitalented young fighter who also is effemTai-Pan (1986) C-127m. ★1⁄2 D: Daryl inate and flirtatious. Provocative drama exDuke. Bryan Brown, Joan Chen, JohnStanton, plores the essence of machismo and the Tim Guinee, Bill Leadbitter, Russell Wong, nature of sexuality in a repressed society. Kyra Sedgwick, Bert Remsen, Janine Turner. Originally titled GOHATTO.▼쩠 Spectacularly silly adventure yarn based on Tabu—A Story of the South Seas (1931) James Clavell’s sprawling novel about 19th82m. ★★★1⁄2 D: F.W. Murnau. Anna Chevacentury trade baron who establishes his headlier, Matahi, Hitu, Jean, Jules, Kong Ah. quarters in Hong Kong. So much story is teleFascinating melding of ethnographic docuscoped, and so many accents are poor and plot mentary and narrative, about pearl fisherpoints handled with sledgehammer subtlety man Matahi and his ill-fated love for young that there’s nothing left to do but treat the Chevalier, who’s been deemed by the gods as whole thing as a goof—or skip it altogether. taboo to all men. Shot in Tahiti in 1929, proActually filmed in China, if that matters. J-Dduced and scripted by Murnau and Robert C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 Flaherty; the latter left the project in mid-proTais-Toi! SEE: Ruby & Quentin duction because of differences in opinion with Take, The (1974) C-93m. ★★ D: Robert Murnau—who died in a car accident just prior Hartford-Davis. Billy Dee Williams, Edto the film’s premiere. Floyd Crosby’s cinedie Albert, Vic Morrow, Frankie Avalon, matography won an Academy Award.▼●쩠 Albert Salmi. Tepid action pic concerns Tadpole (2002) C-78m. ★★★ D: Gary Winpolice lieutenant Williams’ efforts to stop ick. Sigourney Weaver, John Ritter, Bebe syndicate chief Morrow while accepting Neuwirth, Aaron Stanford, Robert Iler, Adam bribe money on the side. Surprisingly neat LeFevre, Ron Rifkin, Kate Mara. A fresh cameo by Avalon as a cheap crook. [PG] comic look at a younger-man-older-woman Take a Girl Like You (1970-U.S.-British) relationship. Stanford hits just the right note C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Miller. Hayley as a self-possessed, preppie high school stuMills, Oliver Reed, Noel Harrison, Sheila dent who rejects the youth and naivete´ of Hancock, John Bird, Aimi MacDonald, girls his age—because he’s got a crush on Ronald Lacey, Penelope Keith. Hayley’s a his worldly stepmother (Weaver). Clever young schoolteacher intent on staying vircomedy set in N.Y.C., with touches of ginal until her wedding day. Reed and French farce, is short and sweet. Shot on Harrison are intent on proving otherwise. digital video. [PG-13]▼쩠 Pleasant fare with good cast. Based on a Taffin (1988-British) C-96m. ★★ D: FranKingsley Amis novel. [R]▼ cis Megahy. Pierce Brosnan, Ray McAnally, Take a Hard Ride (1975) C-109m. ★★ D: Alison Doody, Jeremy Child, Patrick Anthony Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). Bergin. Dull thriller about a bill collector Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, Fred William[ 1362 ]

son, Catherine Spaak, Jim Kelly, Dana produced by Luc Besson. Unrated version runs 93m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Andrews, Barry Sullivan, Harry Carey, Jr. Oddball Western filmed in Canary Islands. Take the High Ground! (1953) C-101m. ★★★ Brown must carry large bankroll across D: Richard Brooks. Richard Widmark, Mexican border, attracts a colorful band of Karl Malden, Elaine Stewart, Steve For‘‘comrades’’ for his journey, runs afoul of rest, Carleton Carpenter, Russ Tamblyn, bandit Van Cleef. Good personalities wasted Jerome Courtland. Taut account of infanin blah script. [PG]▼쩠 try basic training with on-location filming Take a Letter, Darling (1942) 93m. ★★★ at Fort Bliss, Texas, helping. Take the Lead (2006) C-117m. ★1⁄2 D: Liz D: Mitchell Leisen. Rosalind Russell, Fred MacMurray, Constance Moore, Robert Friedlander. Antonio Banderas, Rob Benchley, Macdonald Carey, Dooley WilBrown, Alfre Woodard, Yaya DaCosta, son, Cecil Kellaway. Witty repartee as John Ortiz, Laura Benanti, Jonathan Malen. advertising exec Roz hires MacMurray as Hackneyed cross between Dancing With the secretary, but relationship doesn’t end there. Stars and TO SIR, WITH LOVE, not to Benchley is wry as Russell’s game-playing mention other big-hearted teacher-in-thebusiness partner. ghetto films . . . yet it’s based on a true ★★★ Take Down (1978) C-107m. story. Kinda. Dance instructor Pierre DuD: Kieth Merrill. Edward Herrmann, Kathleen Lloyd, laine (Banderas) comes to an inner-city high Lorenzo Lamas, Maureen McCormick, Nick school to teach its most hardened kids ballBeauvy, Kevin Hooks, Stephen Furst. Serioroom dancing. Before you can say Lamcomic look at high school wrestling, fobada, he’s got gangbangers cha-cha-cha-ing cusing on rebellious student Lamas and like hip-hop reincarnations of Fred and Ginreluctant coach Herrmann. Well done.▼ ger. Some of the dancing is good, but the Take Her, She’s Mine (1963) C-98m. ★★ storytelling is stale. Dulaine inspired the far D: Henry Koster. James Stewart, Sandra more engaging documentary MAD HOT Dee, Audrey Meadows, Robert Morley, BALLROOM. [PG-13]쩠 Philippe Forquet, John McGiver, Bob DenTake the Money and Run (1969) C-85m. ★★★ D: Woody Allen. Woody Allen, Janet ver, Irene Tsu. Obvious family comedy with Stewart the harried father of wild Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, Jacquelyn Hyde; teen-age daughter Dee. Predictable gags narrator, Jackson Beck. Woody’s first film don’t help. Script by Nunnally Johnson, as director/writer/star is full of funny from the Broadway hit by Phoebe and ideas, telling documentary-style, life story Henry Ephron; later ripped off by THE of compulsive thief. Nonstop parade of IMPOSSIBLE YEARS. Look for James jokes; some work, some don’t, but the Brolin in airport scene. CinemaScope. ones that do are a riot! Louise Lasser Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) seen briefly. [M/PG]▼●쩠 C-93m. ★★★ D: Busby Berkeley. Frank Take This Job and Shove It (1981) Sinatra, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Betty C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gus Trikonis. Robert Garrett, Edward Arnold, Jules Munshin, RichHays, Art Carney, Barbara Hershey, David ard Lane, Tom Dugan. Contrived but colorful Keith, Tim Thomerson, Martin Mull, Eddie turn-of-the-century musical, with Williams Albert, Penelope Milford. Hays returns to taking over Sinatra and Kelly’s baseball team. his hometown with orders from his con‘‘O’Brien to Ryan to Goldberg’’ and Kelly’s glomerate to modernize an old-fashioned ‘‘The Hat My Father Wore on St. Patrick’s brewery . . . but being with his old cronies, Day’’ are musical highlights.▼●쩠 and one-time girlfriend, effects a change of Take Me to Town (1953) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: attitude. Unpretentious film named after ’70s Douglas Sirk. Ann Sheridan, Sterling Hayhit record by Johnny Paycheck has Caden, Philip Reed, Lee Patrick, Lane Chandpraesque flavor at times, but eventually setler, Lee Aaker. Unpretentious Americana of tles for obvious formula schtick. [PG]▼쩠 saloon singer Sheridan on the lam, finding Taking Care of Business (1990) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. James Belushi, love with widowed preacher Hayden and his three children. Charles Grodin, Anne DeSalvo, Loryn ★★ Taken (2008-French) C-91m. Locklin, Stephen Elliott, Hector Elizondo, D: Pierre Morel. Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Veronica Hamel, Mako, Gates McFadden, Janssen, Xander Berkeley, Leland Orser, John de Lancie, Terrence McNally. At the Jon Gries, David Warshofsky, Katie Cassidy, outset of a weekend business trip, Grodin Holly Valance. Former CIA op Neeson has loses his pocket organizer, which holds the given up his career to make up for being an keys to his very existence; escaped convict absentee father to his now-teenaged daughter. Belushi finds the combination wallet and When she’s abducted while visiting Paris he appointment book, and assumes Grodin’s springs into action, using all his ‘‘special identity for an eventful weekend. Cute comskills’’ to find her, even if it requires leaving edy, with Belushi’s most appealing role to date . . . but goes on a bit too long. [R]▼●쩠 a trail of carnage in his wake. Slick, visceral, and never dull, this action yarn starts well but Taking Lives (2004) C-103m. ★★★ D: D.J. becomes utterly preposterous. Cowritten and Caruso. Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer [ 1363 ]

Sutherland, Gena Rowlands, Olivier Martibakov, R. Lee Ermey. Disappointing film nez, Tche´ky Karyo, Jean-Hugues Anglade, based on the life of Wilhelm Furtwa¨ngler, Paul Dano, Marie-Jose´e Croze. Tough thriller conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic during gives Jolie a perfect part as a cool, collected the Nazi era who was investigated in postwar FBI profiler who’s called to Montreal to help Germany. Ronald Harwood adapted his play, solve the latest in a series of brutal murders. exploring the dilemma of artists in a time of Her utter professionalism may be compropolitical upheaval and turmoil, but it’s too mised by her attraction to eyewitness Hawke. stagy to really work as a film. Uninspired Not for the squeamish, this film offers surdirection by Szabo´, who dealt with similar themes in the superior MEPHISTO. ▼쩠 prises, genuine shocks, and of course some red herrings to keep you off-balance. Jon BoTalented Mr. Ripley, The (1999) C-139m. ★★1 kenkamp adapted Michael Pye’s novel. Direc⁄2 D: Anthony Minghella. Matt Damon, tor’s cut runs 109m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Cate Blanchett, Taking of Beverly Hills, The (1991) CPhilip Seymour Hoffman, Jack Davenport, 118m. ★★ D: Sidney J. Furie. Ken Wahl, Matt James Rebhorn, Sergio Rubini, Philip Baker Frewer, Harley Jane Kozak, Robert Davi, Lee Hall, Celia Weston, Lisa Eichhorn. An unVing James, Branscombe Richmond, Lyman scrupulous (and penniless) young man acWard, Michael Bowen, William Prince, Ken cepts a job from an American millionaire to Swofford, George Wyner. The owner of find his wastrel son in Italy and convince L.A.’s pro football team masterminds a him to come home. Instead, Tom Ripley false toxic spill, which allows his flunkies to (Damon) befriends the young man and asloot the estates of Beverly Hills’ rich-andpires to live his carefree life . . . at any famous while the owners are temporarily price. Two-thirds of a really good movie; whisked away to shelter. Quarterback Wahl Minghella’s free adaptation of Patricia ends up literally lobbing a few bombs in this Highsmith’s novel goes adrift toward the speedy stupidity, which languished unreleased end. Attractive cast and gorgeous views of for well over a year. Look for Pamela AnderItaly compensate. Worth comparing to earson as a cheerleader. Panavision. [R]▼● lier version of same story, PURPLE Taking Off (1971) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Milos NOON. Dennis Hopper plays Tom Ripley Forman. Lynn Carlin, Buck Henry, Linnea in THE AMERICAN FRIEND. John MalHeacock, Audra Lindley, Paul Benedict, kovich assumes the role in RIPLEY’S GAME. [R]▼쩠 Georgia Engel, Vincent Schiavelli. Forman’s first American film is beguilingly funny look Talent for Loving, A (1969) C-110m. ★★ at American life-styles from two generations’ D: Richard Quine. Richard Widmark, Topol, point of view, centering on runaway girl Cesar Romero, Genevieve Page, Judd Ham(Heacock) who drives parents (Carlin, ilton, Caroline Munro. Rambunctious WestHenry) into new experiences of their own. ern concerning a professional gambler Carly Simon seen as one of auditioning trapped into marrying within rich Mexican singers. Screenplay by Forman, John Guare, family cursed by the Aztecs with a talent Jean-Claude Carrie`re, and John Klein. Anfor loving. From Richard Condon’s novel. other of the auditioning singers is Bobo Video title: GUN CRAZY. [PG]▼ (Kathy) Bates! [R] Talent for the Game (1991) C-91m. ★1⁄2 Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The D: Robert M. Young. Edward James (1974) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Sargent. Olmos, Lorraine Bracco, Jamey Sheridan, Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Terry Kinney, Jeffrey Corbett. Cliche´Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, ridden story of California Angels baseball Dick O’Neill, Jerry Stiller, Tony Roberts, scout Olmos, who discovers a superior Lee Wallace, Doris Roberts, Kenneth pitching talent on an Idaho farm. Kinney is McMillan, Julius Harris, James Broderick, slimy as a billionaire who buys the team. Sal Viscuso. Ruthless Shaw and three cohorts This struck out in its scant theatrical rehijack N.Y.C. subway train, hold passengers lease and went right to the showers—er, for one million in cash—to be delivered in the video shelves. [PG]▼●쩠 one hour! Outstanding thriller, laced with Tale of Africa, A SEE: Afurika Monocynical comedy, bursts with heart-stopping gatari excitement, terrific performances, and firstTale of a Vampire (1992-British-Japanese) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Shimako Sato. Julian Sands, rate editing. Crackerjack Peter Stone screenplay greatly improves John Godey’s bestSuzanna Hamilton, Kenneth Cranham, Marseller; pulsating score by David Shire. Reian Diamond, Michael Kenton. London: made for TV in 1998. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Lonely vampire Sands becomes attracted to Taking of Power by Louis XIV, The librarian Hamilton, who resembles his lost (1966-French) SEE: Rise of Louis XIV, love . . . but mysterious Cranham is keeping The an eye on both of them. Horror thriller emphaTaking Sides (2002-French-German-British) sizes romance; it’s good looking and well ★★ C-108m. D: Istva´n Szabo´. Harvey Keiacted, but ponderous and pretentious. [R]▼ tel, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Moritz Bleibtreu, Tale of Despereaux, The (2008) C-93m. ★★ Birgit Minichmayr, Ulrich Tukur, Oleg TaD: Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen. Voices of [ 1364 ]

Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Richardson, Peter Cushing, Joan Collins, Emma Watson, Dustin Hoffman, Robbie ColRichard Greene, Patrick Magee, Ian Hentrane, Christopher Lloyd, Kevin Kline, Tracey dry, Nigel Patrick. Five stories of terror Ullman, Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella, involving deceit, mayhem, and a few wellWilliam H. Macy, Stanley Tucci, Frances timed laughs. Nothing extraordinary, howConroy, Ciara´n Hinds. Unusually brave little ever; based on the old E. C. comics. Followed mouse embarks on an adventure that changes by VAULT OF HORROR. [PG]▼쩠 the lives of an unhappy rat, a homely serTales From the Crypt, Part II SEE: Vault vant girl, and a princess. Visually attractive, of Horror but a confusing and slowly paced animated Tales From the Crypt Presents Bordello film with little of interest for grown-ups. of Blood SEE: Bordello of Blood Even the all-star voice cast sounds bored. Tales From the Crypt Presents Demon Based on the book by Kate DiCamillo. DigKnight (1995) C-92m. ★★ D: Ernest Dickital Widescreen. [G]쩠 erson. Billy Zane, William Sadler, Jada PinTale of Springtime, A (1989-French) kett, Brenda Bakke, CCH Pounder, Thomas C-112m. ★★★ D: Eric Rohmer. Anne Haden Church, Charles Fleischer, Dick Teyssedre, Hugues Quester, Florence Darel, Miller. Tepid terror tale of a dashing demon Eloise Bennett, Sophie Robin. Typically and avenging angel vying for the souls of a refreshing, perceptive Rohmer concoction, band of outsiders (town drunkard, lonely about high school philosophy teacher prostitute, etc.). Tries for tongue-in-cheek Teyssedre; she meets and befriends young humor but only supplies some gross-out Darel, who tries to match her up with her father. gore and a fair share of t&a. Based on the Not his best work, but a little Rohmer goes a HBO TV series. [R]▼●쩠 long way. The first of the filmmaker’s ‘‘Tales Tales From the Crypt Presents Ritual of the Four Seasons,’’ followed by A TALE SEE: Ritual OF WINTER.▼쩠 Tales From the Darkside: The Movie Tale of Two Cities, A (1935) 128m. ★★★★ (1990) C-93m. ★★ D: John Harrison. DebD: Jack Conway. Ronald Colman, Elizaorah Harry, Matthew Lawrence, Christian beth Allan, Edna May Oliver, Reginald Slater, Robert Sedgwick, Julianne Moore, Owen, Basil Rathbone, Blanche Yurka, David Johansen (Buster Poindexter), WilIsabel Jewell, Walter Catlett, Henry B. liam Hickey, James Remar, Rae Dawn Walthall, H. B. Warner, Donald Woods. Chong, Robert Klein, Steve Buscemi. Boy Dickens’ panorama of the 1780s French imprisoned by suburban cannibal Harry Revolution becomes an MGM blockbuster, tells her three horror stories—about a walkwith Colman as carefree lawyer awakened ing mummy, a supernatural cat, and a vow to responsibility, aiding victims of the Reign made to a gargoyle—to stave off being of Terror. Stage star Blanche Yurka creates served as a main course. Good production a memorable Mme. Defarge in her film values, but the stories are tepid; only the third debut. Tremendous cast in a truly lavish one, by Michael McDowell, has a kick (the production. Written for the screen by W. P. first two are by Arthur Conan Doyle and SteLipscomb and S. N. Behrman. Also shown phen King). Connection to TV series of the same name is tenuous at best. [R]▼●쩠 in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Tale of Two Cities, A (1958-British) 117m. Tales From the Hood (1995) C-98m. ★★★ ★★★ D: Ralph Thomas. Dirk Bogarde, DorD: Rusty Cundieff. Corbin Bernsen, Laothy Tutin, Cecil Parker, Stephen Murray, mont Bentley, De’Aundre Bonds, Rosalind Athene Seyler, Christopher Lee, Donald Cash, Rusty Cundieff, Anthony Griffith, Pleasence, Ian Bannen. Faithful retelling David Alan Grier, Brandon Hammond, Wings of Dickens story in this well-made British Hauser, Sam Monroe, Paula Jai Parker, Joe production, with Bogarde a good Sydney Torry, Clarence Williams III, Tom Wright. Carton. Remade again for TV in 1980.▼ Four horror stories with African-American Tale of Winter, A (1992-French) C-114m. themes are told to three black hoodlums by ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Rohmer. Charlotte Ve ´ ry, a bizarre mortician (Williams). The first (a Fre´de´ric Van Den Driessche, Michel Voletti, walking corpse) and the third (vengeful dolls) Herve´ Furic, Ava Loraschi, Christiane are standard plots with a racial twist, but the Desbois. Hairdresser Ve´ry has an affair second (boy terrorized by monster at his door) with an itinerent cook at a beachside reand the fourth (gang member subjected to besort. They lose touch, and she has his havior modification) are something different. child. She’s romanced by two very differGood direction, colorful acting, and nifty ent suitors, but can’t decide upon the one effects put this above average for horror with whom to settle. Bittersweet allegory anthologies of any color. Spike Lee was the about not accepting second-best in love; executive producer. [R]▼●쩠 however, it’s difficult to sympathize with Tales of Beatrix Potter SEE: Peter RabVe´ry’s flaky character. The second of bit and Tales of Beatrix Potter Rohmer’s ‘‘Tales of the Four Seasons.’’▼ Tales of Hoffmann, The (1951-British) CTales From the Crypt (1972-British) 127m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Powell, Emeric C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freddie Francis. Ralph Pressburger. Moira Shearer, Robert Rounse[ 1365 ]

ville, Leonide Massine, Robert Helpmann, (to say the least), energetically vulgar, and Pamela Brown. Jacques Offenbach’s fantasy poorly made. [R]▼●쩠 opera of student who engages in bizarre Talking Picture, A (2003-Portuguesedreams, revealing three states of his life. French-Italian) C-95m. ★★★ D: Manoel de Striking and offbeat film, not for all tastes. Oliveira. Leonor Silveira, Filipa de AlBeware of 118m. prints. Famous score conmeida, John Malkovich, Irene Papas, Cathducted by Sir Thomas Beecham. ▼●쩠 erine Deneuve, Stefania Sandrelli, Luı´s Tales of Manhattan (1942) 118m. ★★★ D: Miguel Cintra. Unique, compelling exercise Julien Duvivier. Charles Boyer, Rita Hayin cinematic philosophizing by 95-year-old worth, Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Charles master de Oliveira. A history teacher sails Laughton, Edward G. Robinson, Ethel Wato Bombay with her precocious young ters, Paul Robeson, Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ daughter, showing her some of the world’s Anderson, Thomas Mitchell, Cesar Rogreat sights and explaining the wars that mero, George Sanders. Charming film about have been fought over them. Along the the effect a dress tailcoat has on its variway, the solicitous ship’s captain (Malkovous owners; five episodes, alternately amusich) leads a high-minded conversation with ing, poignant, ironic. Our favorite: downthree striking women from different counand-out Robinson attending 25th class retries who discuss their views of modern civunion. Pictorially stylish throughout; photoilization. Unexpected turn of events makes graphed by Joseph Walker. Video version de Oliveira’s ultimate point about the state has 9m. W. C. Fields episode deleted from of the world post 9/11. 쩠 original theatrical release.▼ Talk of Angels (1998) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tales of Ordinary Madness (1983-Italian) Nick Hamm. Polly Walker, Frances C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: Marco Ferreri. Ben GazMcDormand, Vincent Perez, Franco Nero, zara, Ornella Muti, Susan Tyrrell, Tanya Marisa Paredes, Penelope Cruz, Rossy de Lopert, Roy Brocksmith. Pretentious swill Palma. An Irish governess for a wealthy about poet Gazzara who boozes endlessly Spanish family falls in love with their marand meets the oddest assortment of women. ried anarchist son. Strong supporting cast Gazzara, and especially Tyrrell, have never and sumptuous period detail can’t quite been worse. Based on stories by Charles make up for lackluster script and lethargic Bukowski.▼●쩠 lead performances from Walker and Perez. ★★★ D: Tales of Terror (1962) C-90m. McDormand is good in a small role as a Roger Corman. Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, repressed lesbian. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Basil Rathbone, Debra Paget, Maggie Talk of the Town, The (1942) 118m. Pierce, Leona Gage, Joyce Jameson. Four ★★★★ D: George Stevens. Jean Arthur, Edgar Allan Poe stories distilled by Richard Ronald Colman, Cary Grant, Glenda FarMatheson into three-part film, with Lorre’s rell, Edgar Buchanan, Charles Dingle, Rex comic performance as vengeful husband Ingram, Emma Dunn, Tom Tyler, Lloyd walling up adulterous wife the standout. Bridges. Intelligent comedy with brilliant Price appears in all three segments. Notable cast; fugitive Grant hides out with unsusfor its odd widescreen and color effects. pecting professor Colman and landlady Panavision.▼●쩠 Arthur, and tries to convince legal-minded Tales That Witness Madness (1973Colman there’s a human side to all laws. ★1 British) C-90m. ⁄2 D: Freddie Francis. Splendid film written by Irwin Shaw and Kim Novak, Georgia Brown, Joan Collins, Sidney Buchman.▼●쩠 Jack Hawkins, Donald Houston, Peter McTalk Radio (1988) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: OliEnery, Suzy Kendall, Donald Pleasence. ver Stone. Eric Bogosian, Alec Baldwin, Absurd collection of four lame Twilight Ellen Greene, Leslie Hope, John C. McZone–like stories. A waste of time and talGinley, John Pankow, Michael Wincott. ent. [R]▼ Eric Bogosian’s one-set play (written with Talion SEE: Eye for an Eye, An (1966) Ted Savinar) is fleshed out for this feature ★★★ Talk About a Stranger (1952) 65m. film about an abrasive talk-show host who D: David Bradley. George Murphy, Nancy puts down his many callers but can’t get Davis (Reagan), Billy Gray, Kurt Kasznar, his own life together. Well acted, exLewis Stone. A lonely boy tries to prove tremely well shot and directed, but one’s reclusive neighbor Kasznar killed his dog. enjoyment may depend on one’s tolerance Good use of California orchard locations, for this kind of talk-radio host. Stone and well-judged direction, and John Alton’s Bogosian collaborated on the screenplay, moody photography result in a fine little B which also incorporated elements of Steven that deserves to be better known. Singular’s book Talked to Death: The Life Talkin’ Dirty After Dark (1991) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Topper Carew. Martin Lawrence, and Murder of Alan Berg. [R]▼●쩠 Talk to Her (2002-Spanish) C-112m. ★★★★ John Witherspoon, Phyllis Yvonne StickD: Pedro Almodo´var. Javier Ca´mara, Darı´o ney, Jedda Jones, ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, Jr., DarGrandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores, ryl Sivad. A night in the life of a black L.A. comedy club, on-stage and off; broad Geraldine Chaplin, Mariola Fuentes. One-of[ 1366 ]

a-kind film about two comatose women and this spotty satire. Screenplay by Richard Curtis. [R]▼●쩠 the men who love them, in very different ways. Tall in the Saddle (1944) 87m. ★★★ D: Superb, haunting meditation on love, desire, Edwin L. Marin. John Wayne, Ella Raines, and loneliness could only have been made by Ward Bond, Gabby Hayes, Elisabeth RisAlmodo´var. A silent-film segment is outradon, Raymond Hatton, Paul Fix, Audrey geous and unforgettable. Sad, funny, shocking, Long. Fast-paced, entertaining Western beautifully filmed and acted. A masterpiece. with Wayne a cowhand who becomes inAlmodo´var won an Oscar for Best Original volved in affairs of rancher Raines. Also Screenplay. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Talk to Me (2007) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kasi Tall Men, The (1955) C-122m. ★★ D: Lemmons. Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Raoul Walsh. Clark Gable, Jane Russell, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Robert Ryan, Cameron Mitchell, Juan Mike Epps, Vondie Curtis Hall, Martin Garcia, Harry Shannon, Emile Meyer, Mae Sheen. Cocky convict ‘‘Petey’’ Greene tries Marsh. Large-scale Western with Gable to parlay his stint as a prison d.j. into a and Mitchell as ex-Rebels who sign on for bona fide radio career in Washington, D.C., Ryan’s cattle drive, and in short order all during the turbulent 1960s. Buttoned-down three are fighting Indians, blizzards, and radio exec Ejiofor resists him at first and each other (over Russell, of course). Pretty then realizes he can hitch his wagon to this dull. CinemaScope.▼쩠 budding star. ‘‘Inspired by’’ real-life charTall Story (1960) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joshua acters, screenplay follows current events Logan. Anthony Perkins, Jane Fonda, Ray and changing times, but loses its focus— Walston, Marc Connelly, Anne Jackson, and momentum—along the way, though Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Patterson, Bob Cheadle’s electrifying performance makes Wright, Bart Burns, Gary Lockwood. Fastthis worth seeing. Super 35. [R]쩠 moving froth about man-hungry coed Fonda Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky (in film debut) falling in love with college Bobby (2006) C-108m. ★★ D: Adam basketball star Perkins. Based on Howard McKay. Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Sacha Lindsay–Russel Crouse play.▼● Baron Cohen, Gary Cole, Michael Clarke Tall T, The (1957) C-78m. ★★★ D: Budd Duncan, Leslie Bibb, Jane Lynch, Amy Boetticher. Randolph Scott, Richard Boone, Adams, Andy Richter, Molly Shannon, Maureen O’Sullivan, Henry Silva, Skip Greg Germann, David Koechner, Pat HinHomeier, John Hubbard, Arthur Hunnicutt. gle, Rob Riggle. Silly saga of a boy who’s Scott becomes involved with kidnapped always wanted to ‘‘go fast’’ and finally gets O’Sullivan, and tries to undermine unity his chance, but as a NASCAR champion his of outlaw gang holding them prisoner. Solid ego expands to the size of the Goodyear Western all the way, scripted by Burt Kenblimp. Broad comedy has a big following, nedy from an Elmore Leonard story.▼쩠 but Ferrell (who coscripted with McKay) Tall Tale (1995) C-96m. ★★ D: Jeremiah keeps hitting the same notes—and yes, he Chechik. Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, runs around in his underwear. Various ceRoger Aaron Brown, Nick Stahl, Scott Glenn, lebrities and race-car personalities appear as Stephen Lang, Jared Harris, Catherine O’Hara, themselves. Unrated version runs 121m. Moira Harris, Joseph Grifasi, John P. Ryan, Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Scott Wilson. Misfired revisionist take on tallTall Blond Man With One Black Shoe, tale heroes Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John The (1972-French) C-90m. ★★★ D: Yves Henry, and Calamity Jane, who (in an exRobert. Pierre Richard, Bernard Blier, Jean tended dream sequence) enter the life of an Rochefort, Mireille Darc, Jean Carmet. unhappy young boy whose farmer father is Engaging French farce with rival secret being threatened by an evil land developer. agents making life a shambles for the Tall Follows a Wizard of Oz story structure, but its Blond Man (Richard) who’s been innodark, neurotic tone obliterates the occasional cently pegged a spy. Followed by REmoments of wonder. O’Hara has little more TURN OF . . . in 1974 and an American than a cameo as Calamity Jane; Burgess remake (THE MAN WITH ONE RED Meredith and William H. Macy appear unSHOE) in 1985. [PG]▼ billed. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Tall Guy, The (1989-British) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 Tall Target, The (1951) 78m. ★★★ D: D: Mel Smith. Jeff Goldblum, Emma Anthony Mann. Dick Powell, Paula RayThompson, Rowan Atkinson, Emil Wolk, mond, Adolphe Menjou, Marshall ThompGeraldine James, Kim Thomson, Anna son, Ruby Dee, Will Geer. Gripping susMassey. Quirky comedy of downtrodden pense as detective Powell follows tip that American actor living in London, playing Abraham Lincoln is going to be assassisecond banana to a vile star comedian (Atnated during 1861 train ride. Interestingly, kinson) in a West End revue. Love, allerPowell’s character is named John Kennedy! gies, naked strangers, and the lead in a Tamahine (1963-British) C-85m. ★★ D: wickedly inspired musical version of The Philip Leacock. Nancy Kwan, John Fraser, Elephant Man ensue. Goldblum is great in Dennis Price, Coral Browne, Dick Dentley, [ 1367 ]

Derek Nimmo, Justin Lord, Michael Walter Brennan, Leslie Nielsen, Mala PowGough, James Fox, Allan Cuthbertson. Cuers, Fay Wray, Sidney Blackmer, Mildred rious British comedy trifle, about a sheltered Natwick, Louise Beavers. Unpretentious if but uninhibited Polynesian girl upsetting the cutesy romantic corn of country girl Reynorder of an upper-crust men’s university, olds falling in love with pilot Nielsen whom might have been retitled Tamahine, Tell Me she’s nursed back to health after plane True, since it plays just like a Tammy crash. Followed by two sequels and a TV series. CinemaScope.▼쩠 movie. Cute but forgettable, notable only for its fine British cast. CinemaScope. Tammy and the Doctor (1963) C-88m. ★★1 Tamango (1957-French) C-98m. ★★★ D: ⁄2 D: Harry Keller. Sandra Dee, Peter John Berry. Dorothy Dandridge, Curt JurFonda, Macdonald Carey, Beulah Bondi, gens, Jean Servais, Roger Hanin, Guy Margaret Lindsay, Reginald Owen, Adam Mairesse, Alex Cressan. Stirring historical West. Sugary fluff involving homespun drama in which newly enslaved black AfriTammy (Dee) courted by a doctor (Fonda, can Cressan stirs revolt while being transin his film debut); supporting cast adds touching cameos.▼쩠 ported to Cuba aboard a slave ship. Dandridge is excellent in the complex role Tammy and the Millionaire (1967) C-87m. ★★ D: Sidney Miller, Ezra Stone, Leslie of a slave who is ship captain Jurgens’ mistress. Way ahead of its time, and ripe for Goodwins. Debbie Watson, Frank McGrath, rediscovery. Based on a novelette by ProsDenver Pyle, George Furth, Donald Woods, per Merime´e. CinemaScope.▼ Dorothy Green. Four episodes of the TV Tamarind Seed, The (1974) C-123m. series spliced into low-grade feature, dilut★★★ D: Blake Edwards. Julie Andrews, ing the fuzzy folksy charm of backwoods Omar Sharif, Anthony Quayle, Daniel girl trying to better the world. O’Herlihy, Sylvia Sims, Oscar Homolka. Tammy Tell Me True (1961) C-97m. ★★ Well-mounted espionage/romance story D: Harry Keller. Sandra Dee, John Gavin, set in London, Paris, and Barbados; shows Virginia Grey, Beulah Bondi, Cecil Kellwhat a capable director can do with sappy away, Edgar Buchanan. Tired romance of girl coming to college for first time, makes material. Panavision. [PG]▼ Taming of the Shrew, The (1967-U.S.name for herself by helping dean of Italian) C-126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Franco Zeffirelli. women. Script and acting very uneven.쩠 Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Vernon Tampopo (1986-Japanese) C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 Dobtcheff, Michael Hordern, Natasha Pyne, D: Juzo Itami. Ken Watanabe, Tsutomu Michael York, Cyril Cusack, Alan Webb, Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji YaVictor Spinetti. Colorful version of Shakeskusho. Funny, original comedy-satire about peare’s romp is well served by Richard one of everybody’s favorite subjects: food. and Elizabeth, good supporting cast, lovely The scenario, which unravels as a series of photography, and fine musical score by vignettes, concerns a truck driver who helps a Nino Rota. Shakespeare purists may object, widow make her noodle shop a viable business. A clever, irreverent delight.▼●쩠 but Zeffirelli has succeeded in making a film instead of a photographed stage play. T&A Academy SEE: H.O.T.S. Scripted by Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Paul Tango (1998-Argentinian-Spanish) C` ngel Dehn, and Zeffirelli. Panavision. ▼●쩠 114m. ★★★ D: Carlos Saura. Miguel A T.A.M.I. Show, The (1964) 100m. ★★★ Sola`, Cecilia Narova, Mia Maestro, Juan D: Steve Binder. The Rolling Stones, Carlos Copes, Julio Bocca, Juan Luis GaliJames Brown, Chuck Berry, Marvin Gaye, ardo. Mesmerizing film, not unlike Saura’s The Supremes, Jan and Dean, Gerry & The earlier CARMEN, in which the planning of Pacemakers, Smokey Robinson & The a performance blurs the line between drama Miracles, Lesley Gore, Billy J. Kramer & and real life. A middle-aged choreographer The Dakotas. Historic rock and r&b conplans an ambitious tango piece, which (to cert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium the dismay of his backers) will also trace was covered by television cameras and the recent history of Argentina. He also bekinescoped onto film by whiz-kid Binder. comes involved with his leading dancer, Invaluable document of music history, with until now the girlfriend of his principal great early Mick Jagger and electrifying backer. Long, but full of incredible mofootwork by Brown. (Two of those go-go ments and superlative dance numbers; sinudancers are Teri Garr and Toni Basil!) ously photographed by Vittorio Storaro. Univision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Originally 113m., with Beach Boys sequence that was later cut (although they’re Tango & Cash (1989) C-98m. ★★ D: still visible in the finale). Title stands for Andrei Konchalovsky. Sylvester Stallone, Teenage Awards Music International. FolKurt Russell, Teri Hatcher, Jack Palance, lowed by THE BIG T.N.T. SHOW; see Brion James, James Hong, Marc Alaimo. Rumored $55 million budget must have also THAT WAS ROCK.▼ Tam Lin SEE: Ballad of Tam Lin, The gone for male hairstyling in congenitally Tammy and the Bachelor (1957) C-89m. derivative narc caper about two competi★★★ D: Joseph Pevney. Debbie Reynolds, tive cops who take on Mr. Big. Surpris[ 1368 ]

ingly tolerable, though, with a nifty prison knack of bedding women at will, Dex is break sequence and a pleasingly relaxed flustered when he actually falls in love with Stallone. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 one. Smart and original, anchored by Logue’s Tango Bar (1988-Puerto Rican-Argentinian) engaging performance. Leading lady GoodC-90m. ★★★ D: Marcos Zurinaga. Raul Juman cowrote the screenplay with director lia, Valeria Lynch, Ruben Juarez. PercepGoodman, who’s also her sister, and Duncan tive, entertaining ‘‘political musical’’ about North, the model for Dex. [R]▼쩠 a tango dancer who left Argentina when the Tap (1989) C-110m. ★★★ D: Nick Castle. military coup occurred and is now reunited Gregory Hines, Suzzanne Douglas, Sammy with her longtime partner Julia after ten years Davis, Jr., Savion Glover, Joe Morton, in exile. Serves as both an anthology of the Dick Anthony Williams, Terrence McNally, tango and a tale of Argentina’s recent political Sandman Sims, Bunny Briggs, Steve Conhistory. Crammed with clips of film and TV dos, Jimmy Slyde, Pat Rico, Arthur Dunpersonalities, from Fred Astaire to Fred can, Harold Nicholas, Etta James. Slight, Flintstone, doing the tango.▼ old-fashioned but engaging story of a man Tango Lesson, The (1997-U.S.-Frenchwho shuns his tap-dancing heritage for the Argentinean) C/B&W-101m. ★★★ D: Sally good life and easy money he can make pullPotter. Sally Potter, Pablo Veron, Carlos ing jewel robberies . . . until the call of the Copello, Olga Besio, Caroline Iotti, Gustap is just too strong. A loving tribute to tap, tavo Naveira. A middle-aged British filmwith some clever contemporary touches by maker named Sally (played by Potter) writer-director Castle (whose same-named promises to cast in a movie a distinguished father was a top choreographer). Hines has Argentinean tango dancer named Pablo never been better; Davis is a standout as (Veron, who is the same) if he only will Little Mo (in his final feature film), and the give her dance lessons. Film charts their challenge dance with old-time hoofers is a special treat. [PG-13]▼●쩠 evolving relationship. Striking, provocative (not to mention highly risky and deeply perTape (2001) C-86m. ★★★ D: Richard Linklater. sonal) film which blends fiction and reality. Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Robert Sean LeNicely photographed (mostly in black-andonard. Highly effective three-character, one-set white) by Robby Mu¨ller. [PG]▼ piece takes place in a dingy hotel room, and Tank (1984) C-113m. ★★ D: Marvin focuses on the interaction of a hyper, ill-manChomsky. James Garner, G.D. Spradlin, nered slacker–drug dealer (Hawke), his old C. Thomas Howell, Shirley Jones, Jenilee school friend (Leonard), who has become a Harrison, James Cromwell, Dorian Harefilmmaker, and a woman they once knew wood. One-dimensional rehash of SUPbut have not seen in years (Thurman). POSE THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOScripted by Stephen Belber, based on his BODY CAME? turns that film’s shades of play, and shot on digital video. [R] ▼쩠 gray into simplistic good-guy/bad-guy story. Tapeheads (1988) C-97m. ★★ D: Bill Teenage son of career military man is Fishman. John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Doug wrongfully jailed by vindictive redneck McClure, Connie Stevens, Clu Gulager, Mary sheriff; Dad goes to rescue him with the Crosby, Katy Boyer, Lyle Alzado, Jessica help of his own Sherman tank. Odd to Walter, Susan Tyrrell, Junior Walker, Sam find Garner in such a cornball movie. Moore. Energetic but pretentious and silly ac[PG]▼●쩠 count of Cusack and Robbins’ escapades and Tank Girl (1995) C-104m. ★★ D: Rachel adventures as they try to make it in the L.A. Talalay. Lori Petty, Ice-T, Naomi Watts, music world. Too clever for its own good. Don Harvey, Jeff Kober, Reg E. Cathey, Robbins coscripted and wrote the song ‘‘ReScott Coffey, Malcolm McDowell, Ann Cupave America,’’ which later turned up in his sack, Brian Wimmer, Iggy Pop, James film BOB ROBERTS. [R]▼●쩠 Hong. In the waterless future of 2033, Taps (1981) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harold tough, smart-mouthed survivor Petty joins Becker. Timothy Hutton, George C. Scott, forces with mutated kangaroos to combat Ronny Cox, Sean Penn, Tom Cruise, evil McDowell, who schemes to corner the Brendan Ward. Hutton leads fellow stuworld’s water. Aggressively trendy, selfdents in armed takeover of their military consciously hip, with animated interludes academy, hoping their ‘‘clout’’ will keep and attitude to spare, this might have worked it from being torn down. Earnest perforhad it been well directed—but it’s not. Petty mances help carry this film, which plays is a lot of fun, though. Based on the British all its cards too soon, leaving a lot of dead comic book. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 space before its predictable outcome. Penn’s Tao of Steve, The (2000) C-90m. ★★★ D: film debut. [PG]▼쩠 Jenniphr Goodman. Donal Logue, Greer Tarantula (1955) 80m. ★★★ D: Jack ArGoodman, Kimo Wills, Ayelet Kaznelson, nold. John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. CarDavid Aaron Baker, Nina Jaroslaw. Likable roll, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott, Eddie comedy about layabout Dex (Logue), a selfParker. Scientist Carroll’s new growth forstyled ladies’ man who follows the Tao of mula works a little too well, and pretty soon Steve, a code for being cool. Having the there’s a humongous spider chewing up the [ 1369 ]

countryside. One of the best giant-insect against black African leader—one, a paid films, with fast pacing, convincing special assassin, the other a desperate down-andeffects, and interesting subplot detailing forouter who kidnaps him for ransom. Origimula’s effect on humans. That’s Clint Eastnal title: TIGERS DON’T CRY; aka THE wood as the jet squadron leader in final LONG SHOT, AFRICAN RAGE, and FATAL ASSASSIN. [PG]▼쩠 sequence.▼●쩠 Taras Bulba (1962) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: J. Targets (1968) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Peter Lee Thompson. Tony Curtis, Yul Brynner, Bogdanovich. Boris Karloff, Tim O’Kelly, Christine Kaufmann, Sam Wanamaker, Nancy Hsueh, James Brown, Sandy Baron, George Macready. Cardboard costumer of Arthur Peterson, Peter Bogdanovich. Kar16th-century Ukraine, centering on Cosloff (as more or less himself) intends to resack life and fighting. Nice photography tire, claiming his films can’t compete with (on location in Argentina) by Joe MacDonthe horrors of everyday life; meanwhile, ald and fine musical score by Franz WaxO’Kelly proves it by going out and shooting man. The Gogol novel was previously everybody in sight. Bogdanovich’s first feafilmed in 1936 in France (TARASS ture is incredibly suspenseful, with sweatBOULBA) and in 1939 in England (THE inducing climax at drive-in theatre; excelREBEL SON). Panavision.▼●쩠 lent photography by Laszlo Kovacs. Some Target (1985) C-117m. ★★ D: Arthur Penn. prints still have brief gun-control prologue, Gene Hackman, Matt Dillon, Gayle Hunniwhich was added after Robert Kennedy’s cutt, Victoria Fyodorova, Josef Sommer, assassination. That’s Mike Farrell as victim in phone booth. [R]▼쩠 Guy Boyd, Herbert Berghof. Ordinary guy and his teenage son are suddenly plunged Tarnation (2004) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan into world of international intrigue when Caouette. Alternately fascinating, frustrating, wife/mom is kidnapped while vacationing and uncomfortable to watch, this nakedly perin Paris. Some good action scenes help, but sonal cinematic diary of a young gay filmstory is so farfetched, key scenes so badly maker’s challenge living with a mentally ill written, and film so overlong that it has to mother documents his entire life from photos, count as a misfire. Reteaming of Hackman Super 8 films, answering-machine messages, and director Penn certainly promised better. clippings, and scraps to piece together the [R]▼●쩠 extraordinary puzzle of a difficult youth. Target (1995-Indian) C-122m. ★★★ D: SanCaouette’s eventual redemption makes the dip Ray. Om Puri, Mohan Agashe, Anian journey worthwhile, though it’s still more a Srivastava, Baroon Champa Chakravarty. therapy session than a documentary. PrimiIntimate story of working-class life in India, tively edited using Apple computer’s iMovie directed by the son of Satyajit Ray from his program. Caouette claims the film was made late father’s screenplay. A gangato, a hunter for $218, but you could have fooled us; it of the lowest caste (Puri), is hired by a rich looks as if it could have cost twice that! (In and nasty landowner (Agashe) to lead his truth, many thousands of dollars in music next safari. The hunter has to live with the and clip clearances were required to release landowner’s oppressed peasants, and before the movie.) ▼쩠 long he rebels. Stunning countryside locaTarnished Angels, The (1958) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 tions shot by Barun Raha, who worked on D: Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson, Dorothy the elder Ray’s last three films. Malone, Robert Stack, Jack Carson, Robert Target Earth (1954) 75m. ★★1⁄2 D: SherMiddleton, Troy Donahue, William Schallert. man Rose. Richard Denning, Virginia Grey, Compelling adaptation of William Faulkner’s Kathleen Crowley, Richard Reeves, Whit Bisfatalistic drama Pylon, set in 1930s, with Hudsell, Robert Roark, Steve Pendleton. People in son as newspaperman drawn to barnstorming deserted city trapped by invading robot force. pilot Stack—his curious life-style and ethics, Competently acted movie starts off beautifully his put-upon wife, and his frustrated mechanic. CinemaScope.▼ but bogs down too soon.▼●쩠 Target: Embassy SEE: Embassy Tartars, The (1961-Italian) C-83m. ★★ D: Target: Harry (1969) C-81m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Orson Welles, Victor MaHenry Neill (Roger Corman). Vic Morture, Folco Lulli, Liana Orfei. Welles’ row, Suzanne Pleshette, Victor Buono, performance as Burundai, head of Tartar Cesar Romero, Stanley Holloway, Charlotte invasion of Volga River, plus appearance Rampling, Michael Ansara, Ahna Capri. of Mature, are only distinguishing features Humdrum redoing of THE MALTESE of otherwise routine spectacle. Totalscope. FALCON, with the three stars mirroring Tarzan series SEE: Leonard Maltin’s Bogart, Astor, and Greenstreet. Originally Classic Movie Guide shot for TV. Aka HOW TO MAKE IT. [R] Tarzan (1999) C-88m. ★★★ D: Kevin Lima, Target of an Assassin (1976-South African) Chris Buck. Voices of Tony Goldwyn, MinC-102m. ★★ D: Peter Collinson. Anthony nie Driver, Glenn Close, Rosie O’Donnell, Quinn, John Phillip Law, Simon Sabela, Brian Blessed, Nigel Hawthorne, Lance HenMarius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo. Fairish riksen, Wayne Knight. Vibrant animated thriller story about two men who conspire Disney take on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic [ 1370 ]

character, with brilliant staging, terrific songs 72m. ★★ D: Kurt Neumann. Johnny Weiss(by Phil Collins), and likable characters (espemuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield, cially Jane, colorfully and amusingly voiced Acquanetta, Edgar Barrier, Tommy Cook. by Driver). Storyline, involving a greedy, hotTarzan and Boy take on a murder cult, and headed hunter, almost seems too convenalmost pay with their lives. The series was tional—and predictable—for all the visual inbecoming increasingly silly, though it’s still novations and superior efforts that surround it. fun by Saturday matinee standards.쩠 Oscar winner for Best Song, ‘‘You’ll Be in Tarzan and the Lost City (1998-AustraMy Heart.’’ Followed by a direct-to-video selian-U.S.-German) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Carl quel and a TV series. Later a Broadway musiSchenkel. Casper Van Dien, Jane March, cal. [G]▼쩠 Steven Waddington, Winston Ntshona, RaTarzan and His Mate (1934) 105m. ★★★1⁄2 pulana Seiphemo, Ian Roberts. Tarzan reD: Cedric Gibbons, Jack Conway. Johnny turns to Africa on eve of his wedding to Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Neil Jane; she follows, and together they fight off Hamilton, Paul Cavanagh, Forrester Harvey. mercenaries trying to plunder the ‘‘mythic Jane’s jilted fiance (Hamilton) returns to the city’’ of Opar. Lousy film—even by jungle jungle with a rapacious ivory poacher and adventure standards. Van Dien equates jawtries to get Tarzan to lead them to the elephant clenching with acting, and he must be the graveyard, but the native couple is having too shortest Lord of the Apes on record. Oddly, much fun swinging. Opulent, action-packed the producer of this also made the classy entry codirected by MGM’s famed art direcGREYSTOKE. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 tor Gibbons, and notable for pre-Code sexual Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957-British) candor and a distinct lack of clothes. Beware C-84m. ★★ D: H. Bruce Humberstone. 95m. prints. ▼●쩠 Gordon Scott, Yolande Donlan, Robert Tarzan and the Amazons (1945) 76m. Beatty, Betta St. John, Wilfrid Hyde-White, ★★1 George Coulouris. Color and widescreen ⁄2 D: Kurt Neumann. Johnny Weissmuller, Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield, Henry spruce up this entry about the passengers of Stephenson, Maria Ouspenskaya, Barton a plane that crashes in the jungle, who are MacLane. Archeologists seeking to plunpursued by savage Oparians. But Tarzan der Amazon treasures have to deal with still speaks in monosyllables, and the story Tarzan first in this amusing nonsense highis pretty slow going. RKO-Scope. lighted by the diminutive Ouspenskaya as Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948) 68m. ★★1 the Amazon Queen!쩠 ⁄2 D: Robert Florey. Johnny Weissmuller, Tarzan and the Great River (1967) Brenda Joyce, Linda Christian, John Lan★1 C-99m. ⁄2 D: Robert Day. Mike Henry, enz, George Zucco, Fernando Wagner. Jan Murray, Manuel Padilla, Jr., Diana Tarzan comes to the aid of a native (stunMillay, Rafer Johnson. Childish entry about ning Christian) who’s being forced to wed an Amazonian despot, although borschta phony island ‘‘God’’ by evil high-priest belt comedian Murray is good for a few Zucco. Outlandish, often campy outing (unintentional) laughs. Location filming in filmed in Mexico. Weissmuller hung up South America adds little. Panavision. his loincloth after this.쩠 Tarzan and the Green Goddess (1938) Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953) 76m. ★1 72m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward Kull. Herman Brix ⁄2 D: Kurt Neumann. Lex Barker, Joyce (Bruce Bennett), Ula Holt, Frank Baker, MacKenzie, Raymond Burr, Monique Van Don Castello, Lewis Sargent. More juveVooren, Tom Conway. Boring hokum about nile jungle escapades, with an educated ivory poachers led by seductive Van Vooren. Ape Man. Derived from 1935’s THE NEW Barker’s last appearance as Tarzan. Burr is an exceptionally good heavy.쩠 ADVENTURES OF TARZAN serial, produced by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ own comTarzan and the Slave Girl (1950) 74m. ★★ pany and filmed on location in Guatemala. D: Lee Sholem. Lex Barker, Vanessa Brown, Robert Alda, Hurd Hatfield, ArContains footage not used in serial.▼쩠 ★★ Tarzan and the Huntress (1947) 72m. thur Shields, Anthony Caruso, Denise D: Kurt Neumann. Johnny Weissmuller, Darcel. When a tribe of lion worshippers Brenda Joyce, Johnny Sheffield, Patricia kidnaps Jane (Brown) and alluring halfMorison, Barton MacLane. Familiar bunbreed Darcel, it’s Tarzan, Cheetah, and gle in the jungle about Tarzan fighting a friends to the rescue.쩠 zoologist (Morison) who’s trying to make Tarzan and the Trappers (1958) 74m. ★1 off with a menagerie. Weissmuller was ⁄2 D: Charles Haas, Sandy Howard. Gortired by this time, and so were the plots.쩠 don Scott, Eve Brent, Rickie Sorensen, Tarzan and the Jungle Boy (1968) C-99m. Leslie Bradley. Cheaply made hokum about ★1⁄2 D: Robert Day. Mike Henry, Alizia evil white hunters on an expedition to find Gur, Ronald Gans, Rafer Johnson, Ed a lost city filled with treasure. Edited toJohnson, Steven Bond. A tedious search gether from three episodes of a Tarzan TV series that never got off the ground.▼쩠 for the son of a drowned geologist, though Henry isn’t bad as the Ape Man. Panavision. Tarzan and the Valley of Gold (1966) Tarzan and the Leopard Woman (1946) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Day. Mike Henry, [ 1371 ]

David Opatoshu, Manuel Padilla, Jr., Nancy Jarmyn, James Edwards, Woody Strode. Kovack, Don Megowan. Ex-football star The jungle do-gooder helps a medic fight Henry takes over the loincloth (after doffsuperstitious natives and a conniving witch ing his suit and tie!) in a hunt for kidnapers doctor. Cheesy series entry with the cast and jewel thieves. This Tarzan-for-the-60’s stomping around a studio jungle set. is pretty good, if you can accept the Ape Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959Man as a jungle James Bond. Excellent British) C-88m. ★★★ D: John Guillermin. location filming in Mexico. Panavision. Gordon Scott, Anthony Quayle, Sara Shane, Tarzan Escapes (1936) 89m. ★★★ D: RichNiall MacGinnis, Scilla Gabel, Sean ard Thorpe. Johnny Weissmuller, MauConnery. Honorable attempt to upgrade reen O’Sullivan, John Buckler, Benita the series’ quality, with Tarzan on the trail Hume, William Henry, Herbert Mundin. of diamond-hunting scoundrels (including Graphically violent (for its time), and ena young Connery). A superior action yarn ergetically directed, this entertaining entry shot on location in Africa, more adult than has Tarzan captured by a hunter who wants most of its predecessors. Tarzan has a to put him on exhibition in England. This much expanded vocabulary in this one. film was completely reshot and reworked Tarzan’s Hidden Jungle (1955) 73m. ★★ when the original version proved too poD: Harold Schuster. Gordon Scott, Vera tent and blood-curdling for preview audiMiles, Peter Van Eyck, Jack Elam, Rex ences; as a result there are some plot holes Ingram. Scott’s debut as Tarzan is a comin what might have been the best Tarzan petent, if unexciting, outing focusing on movie of all.▼●쩠 his battle with evil hunter Elam who tries Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939) 90m. ★★★ D: to butcher half the animal kingdom. Richard Thorpe. Johnny Weissmuller, MauTarzan’s Jungle Rebellion (1970) C-92m. ★1 reen O’Sullivan, Johnny Sheffield, Ian ⁄2 D: William Witney. Ron Ely, Manuel Hunter, Frieda Inescort, Laraine Day, Henry Padilla, Jr., Ulla Stromstedt, Sam Jaffe, Wilcoxon. The jungle lovers find a child William Marshall, Lloyd Haynes. Compiwhose parents were killed in a plane crash lation of a two-part episode from the NBC and fight his greedy relatives to adopt him in TV series is substandard in all departthis diverting entry. This was to be O’Sulliments. [G] van’s final appearance as Jane, but the end Tarzan’s Magic Fountain (1949) 73m. ★★1 was reshot so she could return (in TAR⁄2 D: Lee Sholem. Lex Barker, Brenda ZAN’S SECRET TREASURE).▼●쩠 Joyce, Evelyn Ankers, Albert Dekker, Alan Tarzan Goes to India (1962-British) Napier, Charles Drake, Henry Brandon. C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Guillermin. Jock Barker’s first series entry, and one of his Mahoney, Mark Dana, Simi, Leo Gordon, most endurable, as Tarzan finds a secret valJai. At the request of a dying maharajah, ley where nobody ages—unless they leave. Tarzan tries to save a herd of elephants (Sound a bit like LOST HORIZON?) Too imperiled by the construction of a dam. bad the rest of the Barker films weren’t as Location shooting helps. CinemaScope. good. Elmo Lincoln, the screen’s first TarTarzan of the Apes (1918) 55m. ★★1⁄2 D: zan, has a bit part.쩠 Scott Sidney. Elmo Lincoln, Enid Markey, Tarzan’s New York Adventure (1942) True Boardman, Kathleen Kirkham, Gor72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Johnny don Griffith. The very first Tarzan film is Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Johnny a surprisingly watchable and straightforSheffield, Virginia Grey, Charles Bickford, ward telling of the Greystoke tale, though Paul Kelly, Russell Hicks, Chill Wills. Lincoln looks like he’s about 50 years old, When Boy is snatched from the jungle by with a beer belly to boot.▼ nasty circus owners, Tarzan swings into acTarzan’s Deadly Silence (1970) C-99m. tion across the seas and over the Brooklyn ★1 ⁄2 D: Robert L. Friend, Lawrence Dobkin. Bridge to retrieve him. Seems pretty origiRon Ely, Manuel Padilla, Jr., Jock Mahoney, nal until you realize that KING KONG was Woody Strode, Gregorio Acosta. A manimade a decade earlier! Still, an amusing acal soldier plans to capture an African entry; Tarzan’s first encounter with indoor village with his private army; a two-part TV plumbing is truly memorable. O’Sullivan’s episode released as a feature. [G] final appearance in the series. ▼●쩠 Tarzan’s Desert Mystery (1943) 70m. Tarzan’s Peril (1951) 79m. ★★1⁄2 D: By★★1 ⁄2 D: William Thiele. Johnny Weissron Haskin. Lex Barker, Virginia Huston, muller, Nancy Kelly, Johnny Sheffield, George Macready, Douglas Fowley, DorOtto Kruger, Joseph Sawyer, Lloyd Corothy Dandridge, Alan Napier. White gunrigan, Robert Lowery. Tarzan vs. Nazis, runners out to get Tarzan try to stir up take two, with some evil Arabs and prehistrouble between warring tribes in this fairly toric creatures (including a giant spider) respectable entry with an interesting supporting cast. Dandridge is excellent, if thrown in for good measure.쩠 wasted in a small role.쩠 Tarzan’s Fight for Life (1958) C-86m. ★★ D: H. Bruce Humberstone. Gordon Tarzan’s Revenge (1938) 70m. ★★ D: D. Scott, Eve Brent, Rickie Sorensen, Jil Ross Lederman. Glenn Morris, Eleanor [ 1372 ]

Holm, George Barbier, C. Henry Gordon, tion, humor, and charm—and nearly forced Hedda Hopper, George Meeker. Olympic editors of this book to devise a rating decathlon champ Morris cavorts capably lower than BOMB. Forget about Weissenough in this adventure about an evil muller comparisons: O’Keeffe makes Elmo African ruler who covets perky Holm (a Lincoln look like Edwin Booth. [R]▼●쩠 champion swimmer herself). No other Tarzan the Fearless (1933) 85m. ★1⁄2 D: Tarzan film had the Ape Man off screen Robert Hill. Buster Crabbe, Jacqueline for such long stretches, however.▼쩠 Wells (Julie Bishop), E. Alyn Warren, Tarzan’s Savage Fury (1952) 80m. ★★ D: Edward Woods, Philo McCullough, Matthew Cyril Endfield. Lex Barker, Dorothy Hart, Betz, Frank Lackteen, Mischa Auer. FeaPatric Knowles, Charles Korvin, Tommy ture version of a crude serial about a scienCarlton. Slackly handled entry about diatific expedition to find the lost city of mond thieves who trick Tarzan into being Zar. Crabbe’s Tarzan is even more tightlipped than Weissmuller’s.▼쩠 their guide.쩠 Tarzan’s Secret Treasure (1941) 81m. Tarzan the Magnificent (1960-British) ★★1 C-88m. ★★★ D: Robert Day. Gordon Scott, ⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Johnny Weissmuller, Maureen O’Sullivan, Johnny ShefJock Mahoney, Betta St. John, John field, Reginald Owen, Barry Fitzgerald, Carradine, Alexandra Stewart, Lionel Tom Conway. Melodramatic entry about Jeffries, Earl Cameron. Tarzan captures a greedy gold seekers who try to dupe Tarzan murderer and faces numerous perils trying into helping them. Tarzan and Jane’s to escort him to the police through the treehouse has become pretty elaborate by jungle. Similarly mature follow-up to TARnow.▼●쩠 ZAN’S GREATEST ADVENTURE, with Tarzan’s Three Challenges (1963) C-92m. a strong supporting cast. Ironically, villain ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Day. Jock Mahoney, Woody Mahoney would take over the lead role Strode, Ricky Der, Tsuruko Kobayashi, from Scott in the next entry. Earl Cameron. Tarzan protects a young Tarzan Triumphs (1943) 78m. ★★★ D: heir to the throne in Thailand from his William Thiele. Johnny Weissmuller, Franmalevolent uncle in this picturesque entry ces Gifford, Johnny Sheffield, Stanley that includes a wicked machete fight. The Ridges, Sig Ruman. First of the series athletic Mahoney became deathly ill while made by RKO features stunning Gifford filming in India—which is all too obvious (who earlier starred as Edgar Rice Burfrom his dramatic weight loss during the roughs’ JUNGLE GIRL in a Republic secourse of the picture. Dyaliscope. rial) as the princess of a lost city invaded Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) 99m. ★★★ by Nazi paratroopers. WW2 propaganda D: W. S. Van Dyke. Johnny Weissmuller, all the way, with Tarzan an incongruous Maureen O’Sullivan, C. Aubrey Smith, participant, but still an entertaining and Neil Hamilton, Doris Lloyd. British genenergetic programmer. Cheetah’s curtaintry meets jungle savagery when the daughclosing bit with the Nazis’ short-wave radio is not to be missed.쩠 ter of an English hunter is captured by Tarzan and decides she prefers his primal Task Force (1949) 116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delmer charms to those of her upper-crust fiance´. Daves. Gary Cooper, Jane Wyatt, Wayne The original Weissmuller-MGM Tarzan Morris, Walter Brennan, Julie London, entry is a little starchy, but still holds up Bruce Bennett, Stanley Ridges, Jack Holt. thanks to a plush production and vivid atWell-made but unremarkable story of a mosphere (with jungle footage provided by Naval officer’s career, tracing aircraft carTRADER HORN). Also shown in a comrier development. Originally shown with some scenes in color.▼쩠 puter-colored version.▼●쩠 Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959) C-82m. Taste of Cherry, A (1997-Iranian) C-98m. ★★★1 BOMB D: Joseph Newman. Denny Miller, ⁄2 D: Abbas Kiarostami. Homayon ErsJoanna Barnes, Cesare Danova, Robert hadi, Abdolrahman Bagheri, Afshin KhorsDouglas, Thomas Yangha. Take one blond hid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi. Fascinating UCLA basketball star (Miller), the profilm about a brooding man who rides around duction values of a pep rally, steal Johnny Tehran in a Range Rover trying to find Weissmuller’s famous yell and (tinted) footsomeone who will accept a generous fee to age of him swinging through the trees, add a bury him after he commits suicide. The pseudo African jazz score by Shorty Rogman’s encounters with several diverse caners, and you get a cheesy, inept effort by didates flesh out his haunting and original MGM to reuse safari footage from KING story, which disappoints only at the very SOLOMON’S MINES for the umpteenth end. A contemplation of humanity quite untime. like any other captured on film. Written by Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) C-112m. the director. [PG]▼쩠 BOMB D: John Derek. Bo Derek, RichTaste of Fear SEE: Scream of Fear ard Harris, Miles O’Keeffe, John Phillip Taste of Honey, A (1961-British) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Tony Richardson. Rita TushingLaw, Wilfrid Hyde-White. Deranged ‘‘remake’’ of original Tarzan film lacks acham, Robert Stephens, Dora Bryan, Mur[ 1373 ]

ray Melvin, Paul Danquah. Homely young James Cagney, Loretta Young, George E. girl who has affair with black sailor and Stone, Dorothy Burgess, Guy Kibbee, Leila becomes pregnant is cared for by homoBennett, Cotton Club Orchestra. Hokey sexual friend. Shelagh Delaney’s London but colorful Depression melodrama of warand Broadway stage hit is poignant and ring N.Y.C. cab drivers, with Cagney fine uncompromising film with fine, sensitive as a hotheaded hack. Yes, that’s George performances. Screenplay by Delaney and Raft as his dance-contest rival. Nothing can Richardson. ▼ top Jimmy’s opening bit in Yiddish! Taste of Others, The (2000-French) CTaxi (2004) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Tim Story. Queen 112m. ★★★ D: Agnes Jaoui. Jean-Pierre Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, Henry Simmons, JenniBacri, Anne Alvaro, Agnes Jaoui, Gerard fer Esposito, Gisele Bu¨ndchen, Ann-Margret, Lanvin, Christiane Millet, Brigitte Catillon, AnaCristina De Oliveira, Christian Kane. HotAlain Chabat. Sharply observed romantic shot cabbie teams up with an incompetent comedy that offers food for thought on the hot-dog cop in this weak action-comedy. Latipassions and yearnings of contemporary fah and Fallon are strangers-turned-buddies middle-aged men and women, spotlighting out to catch a team of bank robbers (who a wealthy, ill-mannered—and married— happen to look like supermodels). Not a good businessman (Bacri) who is drawn to a vain, showcase for the Queen or for former Saturattractive actress (Alvaro); a secondary reladay Night Live member Fallon. Produced by tionship involves the businessman’s bodyLuc Besson, based on the 1998 French film of guard (Lanvin) and a barmaid (Jaoui). Bacri the same name, which he wrote and coproand Jaoui scripted; they’re married in real duced. Extended version runs 112m. Super life. Super 35.▼쩠 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970-British) Taxi Blues (1990-Russian-French) CC-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Sasdy. Christopher 110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pavel Lounguine. Piotr Lee, Geoffrey Keen, Gwen Watford, Linda Mamonov, Piotr Zaitchenko, Vladimir Hayden, Roy Kinnear, Ralph Bates. Fourth Kachpour, Natalia Koliakanova, Hal Singer. in Hammer series (after DRACULA HAS Controversial, laced-in-acid tragicomedy RISEN FROM THE GRAVE) with Lee as chronicling the relationship between a brutfamed vampire out to avenge death of ish, narrow-minded Moscow cabdriver and Black Magic wizard by affluent thrill an alcoholic Jewish musician: characters seekers in Victorian England. Not bad, but who become symbols of the Old and New what was point of having Dracula in film? Russia. Lounguine deservedly earned the Beginning and end best parts. Sequel: best director prize at the Cannes Film FestiSCARS OF DRACULA. [PG]▼쩠 val for this important, provocative film. ▼쩠 Tatie Danielle (1991-French) C-110m. ★★★ Taxi Driver (1976) C-113m. ★★ D: MarD: Etienne Chatiliez. Tsilla Chelton, Cathtin Scorsese. Robert De Niro, Cybill Sheperine Jacob, Isabelle Nanty, Neige Dolsky, herd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Jodie Eric Prat, Laurence Fevrier. Chelton plays Foster, Albert Brooks, Leonard Harris, Joe an elderly, extremely unpleasant and maSpinell, Martin Scorsese. To some, Scorsese nipulative widow who wreaks havoc on and writer Paul Schrader’s perception of hell— the people caring for her as she mourns the as a crazed taxi driver’s vision of N.Y.C.—was loss of her husband. Another delight from brilliant. To us, this gory, cold-blooded story of the director of LIFE IS A LONG QUIET sick man’s lurid descent into violence is ugly RIVER, but this time the comedy is a good and unredeeming. (It’s undeniably influential deal blacker. Renowned stage actress to a generation of filmmakers; some scenes and Chelton is wonderful as a woman so mean images have become iconic.) Judge for yourthe movie’s ads proclaimed her ‘‘the real self. Searing performances and Bernard HerrTerminator.’’▼● mann’s final music score are among film’s few Tattered Dress, The (1957) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: virtues. [R]▼●쩠 Jack Arnold. Jeff Chandler, Jeanne Crain, Taxing Woman, A (1987-Japanese) CJack Carson, Gail Russell, George Tobias. 126m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Juzo Itami. Nobuko Slowly paced but watchable account of lawMiyamoto, Tsutomu Yamazaki. Disarmyer Chandler defending society couple acing contemporary comedy about a tireless, cused of murder; Crain is his sympathetic single-minded investigator for the Japawife. CinemaScope. nese Revenue Service, and her confrontaTattoo (1981) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Bob Brooks. tion with a hotshot businessman who thinks Bruce Dern, Maud Adams, Leonard Frey, he knows all the angles when it comes to Rikke Borge, John Getz, Peter Iachangelo. cheating the government. Somewhat overMentally ill tattoo-artist Dern kidnaps long, but delightful, with a winning perfashion model Adams so he can use her body formance by Miyamoto (writer-director as a canvas. Improbable, sleazy meloItami’s wife) in the lead. Followed by a drama; screenplay by Joyce Bun˜uel (Luis’s sequel.▼●쩠 daughter-in-law) from a story by director Taxing Woman’s Return, A (1988-Japanese) C-127m. ★★★ D: Juzo Itami. Nobuko Brooks. [R]▼ Taxi! (1932) 70m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Del Ruth. Miyamoto, Rentaro Mikuni, Masahiko [ 1374 ]

Tsugawa, Tetsuro Tamba, Toru Masuoka, introducing North (TV’s Dennis the Menace Takeya Nakamura, Hosei Komatsu, Mihoko all grown up) to sex, while a psychopathic Shibata. Miyamoto ‘‘returns’’ as the dedikiller (James) threatens both their lives. John cated tax investigator; here, she takes on a Cassavetes’ and Gena Rowlands’ mommies gaggle of industrialists, politicians, mobhave cute cameos as disapproving bystanders in a restaurant scene. [R]▼●쩠 sters, and other assorted hypocrites who’ve conspired to grossly inflate Tokyo’s real Teachers (1984) C-106m. ★★ D: Arthur estate values. On-the-mark satire is as Hiller. Nick Nolte, JoBeth Williams, Judd pointed and knowing as it is funny.▼ Hirsch, Ralph Macchio, Lee Grant, Richard Taxi to the Dark Side (2007) C-106m. Mulligan, Allen Garfield, Royal Dano, Laura ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Alex Gibney. Historically imporDern, Morgan Freeman, William Schallert, tant, imperatively queasy documentary beCrispin Glover, Zohra Lampert, Art Metrano. gins with the 2002 detention, torture, and ‘‘Outrageous’’ blend of comedy-drama set in death of an Afghanistan taxi driver in Ameriurban high school (and filmed in Columbus, can custody at Bagram prison—despite scant Ohio). Seemingly patterned after Paddy evidence of his linkage to al-Qaeda or the Chayefsky’s THE HOSPITAL and NETTaliban (he was never, in fact, charged). WORK but nowhere near as good. Slick, well From here, it’s noted, there was a predictcast, but dramatically disjointed and obvious ably scant leap to further prisoner abuses at every turn. [R]▼●쩠 at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib that Teacher’s Pet (1958) 120m. ★★★ D: George rocked the world. A wide array of interSeaton. Clark Gable, Doris Day, Gig Young, viewees includes guards, fellow prisoners, Mamie Van Doren, Nick Adams, Charles reporters, Bush administration personnel, Lane. Self-educated city editor Gable clashes and more. Masterful achievement took the with journalism teacher Day in this airy, Oscar for Best Documentary. [R]쩠 amusing comedy. Young is memorable as Taxman, The (1999) C-100m. ★★ D: Avi Doris’ intellectual boyfriend. Written by Fay Nesher. Joe Pantoliano, Robert Townsend, and Michael Kanin. VistaVision. ▼●쩠 Wade Dominguez, Michael Chiklis, ElizaTeacher’s Pet (2004) C-73m. ★★★ D: Timothy beth Berkley, Fisher Stevens, Casey SieBjo¨rklund. Voices of Nathan Lane, Kelsey maszko, Mike Starr. Investigator for the Grammer, Shaun Fleming, Debra Jo Rupp, N.Y. state tax office becomes obsessed with David Ogden Stiers, Jerry Stiller, Paul Reua trail he’s certain leads to big-time criminal bens, Megan Mullally, Rob Paulsen, Wallace activities involving Russian immigrants in Shawn, Estelle Harris, Jay Thomas. LightningBrighton Beach. Rare leading role for Panpaced, irreverently funny film based on the toliano, who’s in fine form, but story lags Disney animated TV series about a dog who and characters are not fully drawn. Based disguises himself as a boy in order to attend on a true story written by a former tax invesschool with his master. They’re separated tigator. [R]▼쩠 during summer vacation, until Pet sees a Taza, Son of Cochise (1954) C-79m. ★★1⁄2 mad doctor on TV who says he can transD: Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson, Barbara form an animal into a human being— Rush, Gregg Palmer, Bart Roberts (Rex permanently. Lane, Grammer, and company Reason), Morris Ankrum, Joe Sawyer. Acsing some clever new songs written by the tually two sons: one wants to live peacefully show’s creators. Designed by Gary Basewith the white man, the other thinks Geronman in a style somewhere between underimo has a better idea. Sirk’s only Western is ground comics and pop art. Officially titled DISNEY’S TEACHER’S PET. [PG]▼쩠 uneven follow-up to BROKEN ARROW— with Jeff Chandler popping in just long Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) C-95m. ★1⁄2 enough to die—but sweeping action scenes D: Kevin Williamson. Helen Mirren, Katie and sympathetic treatment of Indians help. Holmes, Barry Watson, Marisa Coughlan, Originally in 3-D. Liz Stauber, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael McKean, Molly Ringwald, Vivica A. Fox. Tea and Sympathy (1956) C-122m. ★★★ D: Vincente Minnelli. Deborah Kerr, John When they confront a coldhearted teacher Kerr, Leif Erickson, Edward Andrews, who can destroy their college dreams, three Darryl Hickman, Dean Jones, Norma Crane. high school students accidentally knock her Glossy but well-acted version of Robert out, then tie her to her bed in order to talk Anderson play about prep school boy’s her into changing her ways. Preposterous affair with a teacher’s wife, skirting hopremise is devoid of story, interest or susmosexual issues. Both Kerrs give sensitive pense, with only Mirren’s icy, sarcastic perportrayals; they and Erickson re-create their formance to recommend it. Williamson Broadway roles. Scripted by the play(making his directing debut) scripted, but wright. CinemaScope.▼● this is a far cry from SCREAM. Lesley Ann Teacher, The (1974) C-98m. ★★ D: Hikmet Warren appears unbilled. [PG-13]▼쩠 Avedis. Angel Tompkins, Jay North, AnTea for Two (1950) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: thony James, Marlene Schmidt, Sivi Aberg, David Butler. Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Barry Atwater, Med Flory. Trashy but Gene Nelson, Patrice Wymore, Eve Arden, enjoyable film has ‘‘older’’ woman Tompkins Billy De Wolfe, S. Z. Sakall, Bill Goodwin, [ 1375 ]

Virginia Gibson. Pleasant but unexceptional once by awkward dialogue and miscasting of musical very loosely based on the stage play the very sexy Bellucci. Director’s ‘‘extended’’ No, No, Nanette (which was filmed before in cut runs 146m. Panavision. [R] ▼쩠 1930 and 1940). Day bets uncle Sakall she Tea with Mussolini (1999-Italian-British) can answer no to every question for the length C-117m. ★★★ D: Franco Zeffirelli. Cher, of a weekend—in order to win her chance to Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Lily Tomlin, Baird Wallace, Charlie Lucas, star in a Broadway show.▼●쩠 Teahouse of the August Moon, The (1956) Massimo Ghini, Paolo Seganti, Paul Checquer. C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Daniel Mann. Marlon A boy whose mother has died and whose father Brando, Glenn Ford, Machiko Kyo, Eddie has all but abandoned him is raised by a group Albert, Paul Ford, Henry (Harry) Morgan. of eccentric British women in 1930s Florence. Outstanding comedy scripted by John PatThe coming of war has great impact on the rick from his hit play of Army officers women—known as the Scorpioni—and their involved with Americanization of postflamboyant American counterparts in the WW2 Okinawa. A warm and memorable artsy expatriate community, but cannot sever film. Paul Ford recreates his Broadway role ties between the young man and his ‘‘surroand nearly steals the show. Based on book gate mothers.’’ Entertaining if not always foby Vern J. Sneider. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 cused comedy-drama based on director Team America World Police (2004) CZeffirelli’s own experiences as a youth; coscripted by John Mortimer. [PG]▼쩠 96m. ★1⁄2 D: Trey Parker. Voices of Trey Parker, Matt Stone. Blundering (if wellTed & Venus (1991) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Bud meaning) squad of Americans fight terrorCort. Bud Cort, James Brolin, Kim Adism around the world but meet their match ams, Carol Kane, Rhea Perlman, Woody in North Korean leader Kim Jung Il. The Harrelson, Martin Mull, Timothy Leary, South Park boys run aground in a pointless Cassandra Peterson, Gena Rowlands. Cort’s film enacted by marionettes (a spoof of Gerry directing debut is a hard-to-take tale of an Anderson’s Thunderbirds series of old). Unobnoxious Southern California misfit who like their sharp, on-target TV scripts and prerelentlessly pursues his ‘‘dream woman.’’ vious films, this one repeatedly swings and Cameos by familiar faces add little to this modest production. [R]▼쩠 misses at such easy targets as politically outspoken actors. Even the songs are uninspired. Teddy Bears’ Picnic (2002) C-80m. BOMB Heavy-handed, sour, and, worst of all, not D: Harry Shearer. John Michael Higgins, funny. One scene of wild puppet sex will Ming-Na, Henry Gibson, David Rasche, Robprobably rate an asterisk in film histories. Unert Mandan, Morgan Fairchild, Michael Mcrated version runs 98m. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Kean, Harry Shearer, Justin Kirk, George Tears of the Black Tiger (2000-Thailand) Wendt, Kenneth Mars, Bob Einstein, John C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wisit Sasanatieng. ChartO’Hurley, Howard Hesseman, Fred Willard, chai Ngamsan, Stella Malucchi, Supakorn Annabelle Gurwitch, Joyce Hyser, Kurtwood Kitsuwon, Arawat Ruangvuth, Sombatl, Smith, Larry Miller. Wretched botch by actor/ Pairoj Jaisingha. Boy from the wrong side writer/director/producer Shearerostensibly satof the tracks falls in love with an upperirizing northern California rustic retreat of the class girl; he grows up to be a notorious rich and powerful (here called Zambesi Glen). bandit called the Black Tiger, while her faReal disappointment considering the comic talther plans to marry her off to the policeman ent involved. Alan Thicke and Peter Marshall in charge of capturing Tiger and his gang. play themselves. ▼쩠 Campy, candy-colored, and very bloody, Teenage Cave Man (1958) 66m. ★★ D: this Thai cowboy soap opera with songs Roger Corman. Robert Vaughn, Darrah Marpays homage to classic Westerns (mostly shall, Leslie Bradley, Frank De Kova. Spaghetti) and the highly stylized films of Vaughn, light years away from THE Seijun Suzuki. Fun for a while, but its exYOUNG PHILADELPHIANS or S.O.B., is treme artificiality becomes self-conscious the title character, a prehistoric adolescent and exhausting. Alternate version runs hankering for greener pastures, in this AIP 101m. 쩠 quickie with predictable ‘‘surprise’’ ending. Tears of the Sun (2003) C-118m. ★★★ D: Superama. ▼쩠 Antoine Fuqua. Bruce Willis, Monica BelTeenage Doll (1957) 68m. ★★ D: Roger lucci, Cole Hauser, Eamonn Walker, Nick Corman. June Kenney, Fay Spain, RichChinlund, Fionnula Flanagan, Malick Bowens, ard Devon, Dorothy Neumann. Title dish Tom Skerritt, Chad Smith. Stoic Navy SEAL doesn’t want to spend school nights at commander Willis and his squadron are sent home in her room, gets involved with to evacuate a female doctor from a Nigerian punk peers. This above-average sleazy B village, but she opens his eyes to the terrorism won’t obscure memory of Dreyer and Ozu, but is true to its era.▼쩠 the people around her have been subjected to. Eventually Willis must decide whether to help. Teenage Dream SEE: Flying Well-made action film bears a message that Teen-age Millionaire (1961) C/B&W-84m. doing the right thing isn’t a political decision BOMB D: Lawrence Doheny. Jimmy Clanbut a humanist one. Undermined more than ton, ZaSu Pitts, Rocky Graziano, Diane Jer[ 1376 ]

gens, Chubby Checker, Jackie Wilson, Dion, 86m. BOMB D: Tom Graeff. David Love, Marv Johnson, Bill Black, Jack Larson, Vicki Dawn Anderson, Harvey B. Dunn, Bryant Spencer, Sid Gould, Maurice Gosfield. DeadGrant, Tom Lockyear (Tom Graeff). Ridicuening musical about teenager Clanton, with a lous sci-fi about alien youths who bring monhuge inheritance, who becomes a pop star. ster to Earth, shown as the shadow of a The rock acts are unusually and annoyingly lobster! Very, very cheap; but still a camp tame here. classic. Besides directing and playing a small Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) part, Graeff wrote, produced, photographed, C-93m. ★★ D: Steve Barron. Judith Hoag, and edited! ▼쩠 Elias Koteas, Sam Rockwell; voices of Teenage Zombies (1957) 73m. BOMB D: Robbie Rist, Kevin Clash, Brian Tochi, Jerry Warren. Don Sullivan, Katherine VicDavid McCharen, Corey Feldman. Four mutor, Steve Conte, Paul Pepper, Bri Murphy, tated turtles who live in the sewers of N.Y.C. Mitzi Albertson. Victor captures teenagers with their ninja master (an oversized rat from snooping around her island, imprisons them Japan) befriend a plucky TV reporter and help for experiments. Typically awful Warren crack an insidious crime wave. The wackedhorror film with long stretches in which out comic book creation of Kevin Eastman nothing happens . . . and incidentally, no and Peter Laird (which led to a hit animated teenage zombies! Remade as FRANKENTV series) should have inspired a much better STEIN ISLAND.▼쩠 movie. Badly written, flatly directed, and Teen Witch (1989) C-105m. ★★ D: Dorian murky-looking, it jump-starts every now and Walker. Robyn Lively, Dan Gauthier, then—but not often enough. Strongest asset is Joshua Miller, Dick Sargent, Zelda Rubinthe design and articulation of the Turtles by stein, Lisa Fuller, Shelley Berman. Teen Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Followed by comedy with a moral, about a girl who, three sequels. [PG] ▼●쩠 one week before her sixteenth birthday, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The learns that she’s a descendant of some Secret of the Ooze (1991) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: bona fide Salem witches . . . and uses her Michael Pressman. Paige Turco, David Warnewfound magical powers to snare a footner, Ernie Reyes, Jr., Michelan Sisti, Leif Tilball hero as boyfriend. Some nice ideas, but den, Kenn Troum, Mark Caso, Kevin Clash, mostly falls flat. Berman is funny as a stuffy Raymond Serra, Vanilla Ice. The evil ShredEnglish teacher who becomes a victim of the teenage witch’s black magic. [PG-13]▼쩠 der finds one remaining container of the ooze that caused the turtles to mutate in the first Teen Wolf (1985) C-91m. ★★ D: Rod place. Brainless sequel aims lower than first Daniel. Michael J. Fox, James Hampton, film, and strips the half-shell heroes of any Scott Paulin, Susan Ursitti, Jerry Levine, personality (even having them call each other Jim MacKrell. Teenager with usual growing by nicknames—Raf instead of Raphael, pains discovers that he’s also a were wolf— Donny instead of Donatello). Appearance by and that this finally makes him popular at Vanilla Ice, performing a ninja turtle rap song, school. Pleasant at best, but anemic comedy is the nadir. [PG]▼●쩠 has nowhere to go. Best moments come Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) from TV comedy writer-producer (and former C-96m. ★★ D: Stuart Gillard. Elias Koteas, comic) Jay Tarses as Fox’s athletic coach. Paige Turco, Stuart Wilson, Sab Shimono, Followed by an animated TV series and TEEN WOLF TOO. [PG]▼●쩠 Vivian Wu, Mark Caso, Matt Hill, Jim Raposa, David Fraser, James Murray. The Teen Wolf Too (1987) C-95m. BOMB D: guys bolt the sewer for feudal Japan to help Christopher Leitch. Jason Bateman, Kim rebel villagers conquer an evil lord. SEVEN Darby, John Astin, Paul Sand, James SAMURAI it ain’t (nor Russ Meyer’s THE Hampton, Mark Holton. Limp comedy, SEVEN MINUTES, either), but those who chronicling the adventures of the Teen still care will find a more mellowed-out Wolf’s cousin (Bateman), makes the origiTurtles saga, complete with a lecture by Ranal seem like Preston Sturges in his prime. phael on the dangers of violence. Like toExcruciating. [PG]▼쩠 tally Woodstock, dude! [PG]▼●쩠 Teeth (2008) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mitchell LichTeenage Psycho Meets Bloody Mary, tenstein. Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh The SEE: Incredibly Strange Creatures Pais, Hale Appleman, Ashley Springer, ViWho Stopped Living and Became Mixedvienne Benesch, Lenny von Dohlen, Nicole Up Zombies, The Swahn, Julia Garro, Adam Wagner. Dawn Teen-age Rebel (1956) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ed(Weixler) is an active church member and mund Goulding. Ginger Rogers, Michael helps guide young people around her to reRennie, Betty Lou Keim, Mildred Natwick, main abstinent until marriage. However, as Rusty Swope, Warren Berlinger, Lilli Genshe is faced with her own budding sexuality, tle, Louise Beavers, Irene Hervey. Pat yet she discovers that she isn’t like the other provocative film of divorce´e Rogers, now girls; she has something known as vagina remarried, trying to reestablish understanddentata. Kitschy and not for the faint of ing with her daughter. CinemaScope. heart. The ultimate in female empowTeenagers From Outer Space (1959) erment, though it may leave some men [ 1377 ]

scarred for life. The director is the son of James Coco, Kay Thompson, Fred Wilartist Roy Lichtenstein. [R]쩠 liamson, Nancy Marchand, Anne Revere. Telefon (1977) C-102m. ★★★ D: Don Siegel. Moving story of three misfits who decide Charles Bronson, Lee Remick, Donald to live together: facially scarred Minnelli, Pleasence, Tyne Daly, Patrick Magee, Alan epileptic Howard, wheelchair-bound homoBadel, Sheree North. Slick espionage thriller sexual Moore. Moments of comedy, melofrom Walter Wager’s ingenious novel; drama, compassion expertly blended by PreBronson is Russian agent sent to stop crazy minger in one of his best films; adapted defector from triggering hypnotized spies from her novel by Marjorie Kellogg. [PG] Tell No One (2006-French) C-126m. ★★★ to commit sabotage throughout U.S. Daly is terrific as wisecracking computer expert. D: Guillaume Canet. Franc¸ois Cluzet, Script by Stirling Silliphant and original Andre´ Dussollier, Marie-Jose´e Croze, Krisdirector Peter Hyams. [PG]▼쩠 tin Scott Thomas, Nathalie Baye, Franc¸ois Telephone, The (1988) C-82m. BOMB Berle´and, Jean Rochefort, Gilles Lellouche, D: Rip Torn. Whoopi Goldberg, Severn Marina Hands, Philippe Lefebvre, Olivier Darden, Amy Wright, Elliott Gould, John Marchal. The police have never stopped Heard. Goldberg may have hit rock botbeing suspicious of pediatrician Cluzet tom with this clinker in which she’s cast as since the mysterious death of his wife eight an out-of-work actress with major psychoyears ago—even though he was cleared— logical problems. The star sued to prevent so when a new body is dug up near the this version from being released. Terrible crime scene he becomes their leading susscript by Harry Nilsson and Terry Southern. pect. At the same time, he is given reason Hang up on this wrong number. Actor to believe his wife may be alive after all. Torn’s directing debut. [R]▼● Complex but exciting thriller is packed with Telling Lies in America (1997) C-101m. plot twists and action, expertly handled by ★★★ actor-turned-director Canet, who coscripted D: Guy Ferland. Kevin Bacon, Brad Renfro, Maximilian Schell, Calista Flockthis adaptation of Harlan Coben’s American hart, Paul Dooley, Jonathan Rhys Myers, novel (and appears briefly in flashbacks as Luke Wilson. Evocative and well-done Joe the sleazy Philippe Neuville). Super 35. 쩠 Eszterhas-scripted memoir, set in Cleveland Tell-Tale Heart, The (1963-British) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ernest Morris. Laurence Payne, during the early 1960s, about a Hungarianborn teen (Renfro), an outsider trying to find Adrienne Corri, Dermot Walsh, Selma Vaz his place in pre-Beatles rock ’n’ roll Dias. Atmospheric Edgar Allan Poe yarn America. Bacon is the standout here, offerabout a meek librarian who becomes obing an award-calibre performance as the sessed, sexually and otherwise, with his boy’s mentor, a slick, payola-taking disc pretty new neighbor—but she shows more jockey. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 of an interest in his charming and goodlooking best friend.▼쩠 Tell It to the Judge (1949) 87m ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Foster. Rosalind Russell, Robert Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969) Cummings, Gig Young, Marie McDonC-96m. ★★★ D: Abraham Polonsky. Robald, Harry Davenport, Douglass Dumbrille. ert Redford, Katharine Ross, Robert Blake, Flyweight marital farce with Russell and Susan Clark, Barry Sullivan, Charles Cummings in and out of love every ten McGraw, John Vernon. Massive manhunt minutes; enjoyable if you like the stars.▼ for Indian who killed in self-defense pretends Tell Me a Riddle (1980) C-90m ★★1⁄2 D: to be more important than it is, but is so Lee Grant. Melvyn Douglas, Lila Kedrova, well crafted the preaching can be overlooked. Brooke Adams, Dolores Dorn, Bob Elross, Moodily photographed by Conrad Hall. The Joan Harris, Zalman King. Thoughtful but blacklisted Polonsky’s first film since FORCE static filmization of Tillie Olsen’s novella OF EVIL 21 years before. Panavision. [PG—originally rated M]▼● chronicling the relationship between a dying woman and her husband of 40 years. Well Temp, The (1993) C-96m. ★★ D: Tom acted by Douglas and Kedrova; Grant’s Holland. Timothy Hutton, Lara Flynn first feature as director. That’s Peter CoyBoyle, Faye Dunaway, Dwight Schultz, ote as the young Douglas. [PG]▼쩠 Oliver Platt, Steven Weber, Colleen Flynn, Tell Me Lies (1968-British) C-118m. ★★ Scott Coffey, Dakin Matthews. Another D: Peter Brook. Glenda Jackson, The ‘‘(Fill in the blank) From Hell’’ movie— Royal Shakespeare Company, Kingsley this one suggesting what Eve Harrington Amis, Stokely Carmichael, Paul Scofield. might have been like with a psychotic Strange, unsuccessful combination of songs, streak and a penchant for office work instead skits, and newsreel footage attacking U.S. of backstage-Broadway groupiedom. Surprisinvolvement in Vietnam wasn’t even liked ingly bearable until office casualties sparked by doves. Interesting now merely as hisby schemer Boyle’s temporary employment torical document. become way too silly. [R]▼●쩠 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon Tempest (1959-Italian) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alberto Lattuada. Silvana Mangano, Van (1970) C-112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Otto Preminger. Liza Minnelli, Ken Howard, Robert Moore, Heflin, Viveca Lindfors, Geoffrey Horne, [ 1378 ]

Oscar Homolka, Robert Keith, Agnes Mol, Justin Theroux, A. D. Miles, Oliver Platt, Moorehead, Finlay Currie, Vittorio GassKen Marino, Rob Corddry, Kerri Kenneyman, Helmut Dantine. Turgid, disjointed Silver, Liev Schreiber, Ron Silver, Bobby costumer set in 18th-century Russia, loosely Cannavale, Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben based on Pushkin novel about peasant upGarant, Jason Sudeikis. Smugly unfunny rising to dethrone Catherine the Great collection of go-nowhere skits relating to (Lindfors). Technirama. the Ten Commandments, hosted by Rudd Tempest (1982) C-140m. ★★ D: Paul (the film’s coproducer), who plays an unMazursky. John Cassavetes, Gena Rowhappily married man. Many talented perlands, Susan Sarandon, Vittorio Gassman, formers are stuck on the same sinking ship, Raul Julia, Molly Ringwald, Sam Robards, steered by Wain and Marino of The State. Paul Stewart. Aimless comedy, loosely based This breaks the Eleventh Commandment: on Shakespeare’s play, has Cassavetes as a Thou Shalt Not Make a Crummy Movie. [R]쩠 N.Y.C. architect who tries to solve his midlife crisis by moving to a Greek island with his Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny (2006) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Liam Lynch. Jack Black, teenage daughter. Appealing cast, beautiful scenery, some engaging scenes . . . but they Kyle Gass, J. R. (Jason) Reed, Ronnie don’t quite add up. [PG]▼쩠 James Dio, Paul F. Tompkins, Troy Gentile, Tempter, The (1974-Italian) C-96m. Dave Grohl, Amy Adams. Wacky fantasyBOMB D: Alberto de Martino. Carla comedy about the formation of Black and Gravina, Mel Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Gass’ singing team Tenacious D and their George Coulouris, Alida Valli, Umberto search for a magical guitar pick. Broad, Orsini. Frenzied but pointless rip-off of silly, with an animated segment and occaTHE EXORCIST with Gravina as Ferrer’s sional gag cameos. Lightly likable throughdemonized daughter. Blecch. Aka THE out, but probably best left to fans of the act. ANTICHRIST. [R]▼쩠 Gentile is almost eerie in his replication of Temptress, The (1926) 117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Black as a boy. [R]쩠 Fred Niblo. Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Tenant, The (1976-French-U.S.) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Roman Polanski. Roman Polanski, Roy D’Arcy, Marc MacDermott, Lionel Barrymore, Virginia Brown Faire. Garbo’s Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van second American film is dated curio about Fleet, Shelley Winters, Bernard Fresson, wicked woman who drives men to death Lila Kedrova, Claude Dauphin. Unique, and destruction, only to have her own life bizarrely cast horror film about a timid ruined by falling in love with Moreno. clerk who rents an apartment whose previAdapted from Blasco-Ibanez; some prints ous inhabitant attempted suicide. Critically run 95m.쩠 drubbed upon release but a latter-day cult Temptress Moon (1996-Hong Kongitem. Fine photography by Sven Nykvist. [R]▼쩠 Chinese) C-127m. ★★ D: Chen Kaige. Gong Li, Leslie Cheung, Zhou Yemang, Kevin Tenants, The (2006) C-97m. ★★ D: Danny Lin, He Saifei, Zhang Shi. Elaborate epic, Green. Dylan McDermott, Snoop Dogg, set in and around Shanghai in the 1920s, Rose Byrne, Seymour Cassel, Niki J. Crawabout the long and involved relationship beford, Aldis Hodge. Grim drama, set in tween a boy and girl raised together in an Brooklyn during the early 1970s, about a ancestral palace—and their renewed relaliberal—and very naı¨ve—Jewish writer tionship in adult life after the former bewho is the lone resident of a graffiti-strewn comes an underworld character. There’s tenement. As he obsessively pounds away opium, blackmail, implied incest, you name on his typewriter, attempting to complete a it—but so little cohesion that the U.S. disbook, he befriends a Jekyll-and-Hyde–like tributor had to affix the equivalent of a baseblack man, a wannabe novelist who is at ball scoreboard at the movie’s beginning so once friendly and uncompromisingly hosthat audiences would know what was haptile. Intriguing story is based on a novel pening. [R]▼쩠 by Bernard Malamud, but what might have 10 (1979) C-122m. ★★ D: Blake Edwards. been a potent exploration of race relations is Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Bo Derek, ponderous and melodramatic. [R]쩠 Robert Webber, Dee Wallace, Sam Jones, Ten Canoes (2006-Australian-Italian) C/ B&W-92m. ★★★ D: Rolf de Heer, Peter Brian Dennehy, Max Showalter, Don Calfa, Nedra Volz, James Noble, Doug Djigirr. Crusoe Kurddal, Jamie Dayindi Sheehan. Middle-aged songwriter finds Gulpilil Dalaithngu, Richard Birrinbirrin, himself hung up on sex, especially when he Peter Minygululu, Frances Djulibing; narsets eyes on beautiful Derek. Blake Edrated by David Gulpilil Ridjimiraril Dawards’ idea of a real sophisticated movie; laithngu. Absorbing, beautifully filmed twosporadically funny but tiresome, glib, and part story. The first, shot in b&w, involves pompous. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 an Aborigine tribesman who covets one of Ten, The (2007) C-96m. BOMB D: David the wives of his older brother; the second, Wain. Paul Rudd, Famke Janssen, Winona in color, illustrates a story he is told that Ryder, Jessica Alba, Adam Brody, Gretchen mirrors his yearning. First feature made in [ 1379 ]

an Aboriginal language, executed with the unstable wife of psychiatrist Robards; assistance of the Ramingining people, many Fontaine is her chic sister; set in 1920s of whom appear on-screen. Super 35.쩠 Europe. CinemaScope. Tender Mercies (1983) C-92m. ★★★ D: Ten Commandments, The (1923) 146m. ★★★ D: Cecil B. DeMille. Theodore RobBruce Beresford. Robert Duvall, Tess erts, Charles de Roche, Estelle Taylor, Harper, Allan Hubbard, Betty Buckley, Richard Dix, Rod La Rocque, Leatrice Ellen Barkin, Wilford Brimley, Lenny Von Joy, Nita Naldi, Agnes Ayres. Biblical Dohlen, Paul Gleason. Winning but exstory, told in compact form (but on a tremely low-key film about a country singer gargantuan scale—with several scenes in who finds the inspiration to put his life back two-color Technicolor) is only first portion together when he meets an attractive young of this silent film. The rest is a modernwidow and her little boy. Duvall’s Oscarday parable involving two brothers, one a winning performance is the real attraction saint, the other a sinner—and it’s anything here, though the whole cast is excellent; Horbut subtle. Still, it’s good entertainment in ton Foote’s screenplay (also an Oscar winner) the best DeMille style. Remade in 1956, for is not so much a story as a series of vignettes. TV in 2006, and as an animated feature Incidentally, Duvall wrote two of his own songs for the film. [PG] ▼●쩠 in 2007.▼쩠 Ten Commandments, The (1956) C-220m. Tender Scoundrel (1966-French-Italian) ★★★★ C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Jean Becker. Jean-Paul D: Cecil B. DeMille. Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter, Edward Belmondo, Nadja Tiller, Robert Morley, G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Debra Genevieve Page. Dumb story of delightful Paget, John Derek, Cedric Hardwicke, H.B. rogue and ladies’ man who is constantly Warner, Henry Wilcoxon, Nina Foch, Maron the hustle. Techniscope. tha Scott, Judith Anderson, Vincent Price, Tender Trap, The (1955) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Carradine, Woodrow (Woody) Strode. Charles Walters. Frank Sinatra, Debbie ReynVivid storytelling at its best. Biblical epic olds, Celeste Holm, David Wayne, Carolyn follows Moses’ life from birth and abanJones, Lola Albright, Tom Helmore, James donment through manhood, slavery, and Drury. Silly romp of swinging, set-in-histrials in leading the Jews out of Egypt. ways N.Y.C. bachelor Sinatra, who meets his Few subtleties in DeMille’s second hanmatch in determined, marriage-minded Reyndling of this tale (first filmed in 1923) but olds. A real time capsule of 1950s attitudes few lulls, either. Parting of the Red Sea, toward men, women, and sex. Impeccable writing of the holy tablets are unforgettable support from Holm and Wayne; memorable highlights. Oscar-winning special effects. Cahn–Van Heusen title tune. Julius J. EpVistaVision.▼●쩠 stein adapted the Max Shulman and Robert Ten Days That Shook the World SEE: Paul Smith play. CinemaScope. ▼쩠 October Tenebrae SEE: Unsane Ten Days Wonder (1972-French) C-101m. Ten From Your Show of Shows (1973) ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Orson Welles, 92m. ★★★★ D: Max Liebman. Sid Caesar, Anthony Perkins, Marlene Jobert, Michel Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Piccoli, Guido Alberti. Ellery Queen meets Morris, Louis Nye. Incomparable collecClaude Chabrol in erratic but moody mystion from early ’50s TV show displaying tery concerning Perkins’ love affair with comic genius of four stars, working with stepmother Jobert. Film doesn’t work, but classic material by Mel Brooks, among is often fascinating to watch. [PG]▼쩠 others. Ten skits include FROM HERE Tender Comrade (1943) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: TO ETERNITY spoof, silent-movie sendup, Edward Dmytryk. Ginger Rogers, Robert Swiss clock, and final, unbearably funny Ryan, Ruth Hussey, Patricia Collinge, takeoff on This Is Your Life. A must. [G]▼ Mady Christians, Kim Hunter, Jane DarTen Gentlemen From West Point (1942) well. Rogers and friends live communally 102m. ★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. George while their men are out fighting the war, a Montgomery, Maureen O’Hara, John Sutsituation that caused this Dmytryk-Dalton ton, Laird Cregar, Victor Francen, Harry Trumbo collaboration to be labeled as ComDavenport, Ward Bond, Tom Neal, Ralph munist propaganda by HUAC in later years. Byrd, Douglass Dumbrille. Early years of Some unbearable—and ironically, proWest Point, with focus on vicious comAmerican—speechifying, but occasionally mander Cregar and other assorted milfascinating as social history.▼ itary film cliche´s; somehow, it’s still enterTender Flesh SEE: Welcome to Arrow taining. Beach 10 Items or Less (2006) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brad Silberling. Morgan Freeman, Paz Vega, Tender Is the Night (1962) C-146m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry King. Jennifer Jones, Jason Bobby Cannavale, Anne Dudek, Kumar PalRobards, Jr., Joan Fontaine, Tom Ewell, lana, Leonardo Nam, Jennifer Echols. Slight Jill St. John, Paul Lukas. Sluggish, unbut disarming character study of a movie actor flavorful version of F. Scott Fitzgerald who goes to a supermarket to research a role novel with Jones unsatisfactory as mentally and winds up spending the day with checker [ 1380 ]

Vega. Something of a lark for writer-director by entire cast and location filming inseparable with film’s total effect. [PG]▼● Silberling and actor-producer Freeman, who’s Ten Seconds to Hell (1959-U.S.-British) seldom given a chance to be this lighthearted 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. Jeff Chandler, on-screen. His charm and charisma (and some Jack Palance, Martine Carol, Robert Cornthsly in-jokes about Hollywood) make this waite, Dave Willock, Wesley Addy. Chandler worth seeing. [R]쩠 and Palance are almost believable as Germans Ten Little Indians (1966-British) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Pollock. Hugh O’Brian, involved in defusing bombs in Berlin, while competing for Carol’s affection. Also shown Shirley Eaton, Fabian, Leo Genn, Stanley in computer-colored version. Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Daliah Tentacles (1977-Italian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: OliLavi, Dennis Price. Fair remake of Agatha ver Hellman (Ovidio Assonitis). John Huston, Christie’s whodunit AND THEN THERE Shelley Winters, Henry Fonda, Bo Hopkins, WERE NONE, with suspects trapped in Delia Boccardo, Cesare Danova. Giant octoremote Alpine mansion. Originally released pus threatens a seaside community in this with gimmick of murder-minute for audirip-off of JAWS. Some unexpected casting ence to guess killer. Remade again in 1975 and the spectacle of having killer whales and 1989.▼쩠 emerge the heroes save the picture from Ten Little Indians (1975-British) C-98m. ★1 total decay. Technovision. [PG]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: Peter Collinson. Oliver Reed, Elke Ten Tall Men (1951) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sommer, Herbert Lom, Richard AttenWillis Goldbeck. Burt Lancaster, Jody Lawborough, Charles Aznavour, Stephane rance, Gilbert Roland, Kieron Moore. Audran, Gert Frobe, Adolfo Celi; voice of Tongue-in-cheek Foreign Legion tale, with Orson Welles. Third rendering of Agatha dynamic Lancaster pushing the action along. Christie whodunit, set this time in Iran. Tenth Avenue Angel (1948) 74m. BOMB Great plot cannot survive such tired retellD: Roy Rowland. Margaret O’Brien, Aning. [PG]▼ gela Lansbury, George Murphy, Phyllis Ten Little Indians (1989) C-98m. BOMB Thaxter, Warner Anderson, Rhys Williams, D: Alan Birkinshaw. Donald Pleasence, Barry Nelson, Connie Gilchrist. Capable Frank Stallone, Sarah Maur Thorp, Brenda cast is lost in terrible, syrupy script about 8Vaccaro, Herbert Lom, Warren Berlinger, year-old tenement girl O’Brien, her attachPaul L. Smith, Moira Lister. Producer ment to ex-con Murphy, and how she learns Harry Alan Towers’ third redo of the Chrisvarious, obvious lessons about faith. Filmed tie classic is his worst yet. This time he in 1946. isolates an uninteresting cast in an African 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Csafari camp in the 1930s, and boringly ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gil Junger. Heath Ledger, 97m. plods through this once-intriguing, nowJulia Stiles, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Larisa weary plot. [PG]▼● Oleynik, David Krumholtz, Andrew KeeTennessee’s Partner (1955) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 gan, Susan May Pratt, Larry Miller, Daryl D: Allan Dwan. John Payne, Rhonda Flem‘‘Chill’’ Mitchell, Allison Janney, David ing, Ronald Reagan, Coleen Gray, Morris Leisure, Letters to Cleo, Save Ferris. OverAnkrum. Offbeat little Western with Payne protective dad rules that his pretty, popular excellent in an unusual ‘‘heel’’ characterdaughter Bianca can only date when his ization, Reagan accidentally becoming his hostile older daughter Katerina does. Sevpal. Based on a Bret Harte story. Filmed eral guys interested in Bianca therefore hire in SuperScope.▼쩠 someone to pursue her doggedly unfriendly Ten North Frederick (1958) 102m. ★★★ sister. Cute teen-comedy takeoff of The D: Philip Dunne. Gary Cooper, Diane Varsi, Taming of the Shrew set at Padua High Suzy Parker, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Tom School. Janney is great fun as Ms. Perky. Tully, Ray Stricklyn, Stuart Whitman, Bar[PG-13] ▼●쩠 bara Nichols. Grasping wife (Fitzgerald) 10:30PM Summer (1966-U.S.-Spanish) Cprods her husband (Cooper) into big-time 85m. ★★ D: Jules Dassin. Melina Mercouri, politics, with disastrous results. He finds Romy Schneider, Peter Finch, Julia´n Mateos, personal solace in love affair with much Isabel Maria Pe´rez, Beatriz Savo´n. A couple younger woman (Parker). Good perfortraveling in a foreign country encounters mances in somewhat soapy adaptation of problems and complications in their relaJohn O’Hara novel. CinemaScope.▼ tionship. Largely unknown, all but forgotten 10 Rillington Place (1971-British) C-111m. Dassin film made in Spain is typical of simi★★★ D: Richard Fleischer. Richard Attenlarly pretentious and mostly incoherent ’60s borough, Judy Geeson, John Hurt, Pat fare. Mercouri is watchable as always; her Heywood, Andre Morell, Bernard Lee. scenes with Schneider pop off the screen. Low-key presentation of famous John Scripted by Dassin and Marguerite Duras, Christie–Timothy Evans murder case that from her novel.쩠 rocked Great Britain in the late 1940s. No 10,000 BC (2008) C-109m. ★★ D: Roland overt editorializing but psychological unEmmerich. Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, dertone exists; outstanding performances Cliff Curtis, Joel Virgel, Affif Ben Badra, [ 1381 ]

Mo Zinal, Nathanael Baring, Mona HamBeal, James Drury, R. G. Armstrong, Ben mond, Marco Khan; narrated by Omar ShaJohnson, L. Q. Jones. Dreadful Disney rif. Tale of prehistoric life follows a small film based on true story of Major John group who leave their tribe of mammoth Wesley Powell’s exploration of Colorado hunters in an effort to rescue others captured River in 1869; cast is drowned in cliche´s, while action is sparse. Forget it.▼ by slavers. This leads them to a preEgyptian city of ruthless pyramid-builders Teorema (1968-Italian) C-98m. ★★ D: Pier and much adventure. Earnest, well proPaolo Pasolini. Terence Stamp, Silvana duced on rugged locations with occasionMangano, Massimo Girotti, Anna Wiazemally good effects, but for the most part as sky, Laura Betti, Andres Jose Cruz. Pointed ludicrous as other films of this type. Feabut obvious, occasionally hokey political/ tures cinema’s first superfluous saber-tooth sexual fable, with Stamp cast as a young tiger. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 stranger who may be Christ—or Satan. He Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957) C-114m. leaves an irrevocable impression on a bour★★ D: Richard Thorpe. Dean Martin, Anna geois family by sleeping with its every memMaria Alberghetti, Eva Bartok, Dewey ber. Reworked as DALLAS DOLL, with Martin, Walter Slezak, Paul Henreid, Sandra Bernhard in the Stamp role!▼쩠 Jules Munshin, Marcel Dalio, Dean Jones. Tequila Sunrise (1988) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dean’s first film without Jerry Lewis Robert Towne. Mel Gibson, Michelle seemed to spell doom for his career; it’s Pfeiffer, Kurt Russell, Raul Julia, J.T. a lightweight but overlong musical romance Walsh, Arliss Howard, Ann Magnuson, with Dino as a playboy hotel-manager in Arye Gross. Lifelong friends, one a supRome. CinemaScope. posedly retired drug dealer, the other a Tenth Victim, The (1965-Italian) C-92m. fast-rising L.A. cop, are forced to con★★★ D: Elio Petri. Marcello Mastroianni, front each other, both in business and Ursula Andress, Elsa Martinelli, Salvo in vying for the affections of a sleek Randone, Massimo Serato. Cult sci-fi of restaurant owner. All three leads exude confuturistic society where violence is chansiderable charisma, but after a snappy start neled into legalized murder hunts. Here, the script leads them nowhere. Veteran diUrsula hunts Marcello. Intriguing idea, rector Budd Boetticher plays a judge. Diswell done. Based on Robert Sheckley’s appointing result for writer-director Towne. [R]▼●쩠 story ‘‘The Sixth Victim.’’▼쩠 Ten ’til Noon (2007) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scott Teresa (1951) 102m. ★★ D: Fred ZinneStorm. Alfonso Freeman, Rick D. Wassermann. Pier Angeli, John Ericson, Patricia man, Rayne Guest, Jenya Lano, Thomas Collinge, Richard Bishop, Peggy Ann GarKopache, Daniel Hagen, Dylan Kussman, ner, Ralph Meeker, Bill Mauldin, Edward Jennifer Hill, George Williams, Daniel NaBinns, Rod Steiger. Ambitious but slowthan Spector, Jason Hamer, Paul J. Alessi. moving psychological drama of a sensitive Low-rent, Tarantinoesque crime thriller young man (Ericson), saddled with a with a gimmick. A man is awakened by a mother from hell, who meets and marries a gun-wielding assassin who tells him he’s sweet young Italian (Angeli) while fighting going to die in 10 minutes. We then live in Italy during WW2. Steiger plays a psythe same tense 10 minutes with a series of chiatrist in his screen debut. See if you can interlocking characters. The conclusion spot Lee Marvin as a GI on board the ship isn’t as satisfying as the buildup, but Paul returning to the U.S. Osborne’s script has some clever ideas. [R] Teresa’s Tattoo (1993) C-95m. BOMB D: Ten to Midnight (1983) C-100m. ★★ D: Julie Cypher. C. Thomas Howell, Nancy J. Lee Thompson. Charles Bronson, AnMcKeon, Lou Diamond Phillips, Casey Siedrew Stevens, Gene Davis, Lisa Eilbacher, maszko, Jonathan Silverman, Adrienne Wilford Brimley, Geoffrey Lewis. HandShelly, Diedrich Bader, Anthony Clark, some psycho-killer does his woman-killing Tippi Hedren, k.d. lang, Joe Pantoliano, in the nude, but runs afoul of police detective Mary Kay Place, Mare Winningham, Nanette Bronson, whose daughter he terrorizes. Fabray, Majel Barrett. Moronic kidnappers’ Kicked off the force for falsifying evidence equally moronic hostage accidentally drowns, against the killer, Bronson goes on his usual and guess who’s her double? A brainy docDeath Wish rampage. Ultraviolent, kinkiertoral candidate in applied mathematics. The laughs are nil in this alleged comedy, with a than-average Bronson vehicle. [R] ▼●쩠 Ten Wanted Men (1955) C-80m. ★★ D: name cast going slumming. Melissa EthBruce Humberstone. Randolph Scott, Joceridge (who did the original songs) appears elyn Brando, Richard Boone, Skip Homeier, as a hooker. Kiefer Sutherland appears unLeo Gordon, Donna Martell. Conventional billed as a cop. [R]▼ Western programmer with cattleman Scott’s Terminal, The (2004) C-128m. ★★★ D: Stedream of law and order smashed by ambiven Spielberg. Tom Hanks, Catherine Zetations of ruthless rival Boone.▼●쩠 Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Ten Who Dared (1960) C-92m. BOMB Luna, Barry Shabaka Henley, Kumar PalD: William Beaudine. Brian Keith, John lana, Zoe¨ Saldana, Eddie Jones, Jude Cicco[ 1382 ]

lella, Michael Nouri, Benny Golson. GoodTerminator, The (1984) C-108m. ★★★1⁄2 hearted man from Eastern Europe lands at D: James Cameron. Arnold SchwarzenegKennedy Airport just as turmoil in his counger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton, Paul try causes his passport to be suspended. As Winfield, Lance Henriksen, Rick Rossovich, a result, he’s forced to live inside the airEarl Boen, Dick Miller, Bill Paxton. A port, where he makes friends and becomes cyborg is sent here from the future to kill a the beˆte noir of uptight security official seemingly innocent woman. Schwarzenegger Tucci. Spielberg takes a page from Frank is perfectly cast as violence-prone robot Capra’s LADY FOR A DAY and asks us to who cannot be stopped. Terrific action accept a sweet, optimistic fable—not easy picture never lets up for a minute—a model for some people to do in this day and age. for others to follow. Director Cameron [PG-13] ▼쩠 cowrote with producer Gale Anne Hurd Terminal Bliss (1992) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jor(inspired by the works of Harlan Ellison). dan Alan. Timothy Owen, Luke Perry, Estee Followed by three sequels and a TV series Chandler. Modern teen-angst drama of disafspinoff. [R]▼●쩠 fected rich kids as they betray each other, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) seduce one another’s girlfriends, act selfC-136m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Cameron. Arnold indulgent, and seem bored by life. Major atSchwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward traction here is Beverly Hills 90210 heartthrob Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen, Joe Perry—though he poses no major threat to Morton, S. Epatha Merkerson, Castulo James Dean. Made in 1987. [R]▼● Guerra, Danny Cooksey, Jenette Goldstein, Terminal Choice (1985-Canadian) C-97m. Xander Berkeley. A ‘‘kinder, gentler’’ cyborg ★1 ⁄2 D: Sheldon Larry. Joe Spano, Diane from the future returns, this time to protect the Venora, David McCallum, Robert Joy, soon-to-be savior of humanity from destrucDon Francks, Nicholas Campbell, Ellen tion by a rival terminator. Box-office smash Barkin. Deadly doings at a hospital; good has special effects to knock your socks off cast wasted in this unsavory thriller. (especially the ‘‘liquid metal’’), and action to Also known as DEATHBED. [R]▼ spare, but like so many sequels, lacks the Terminal Island (1973) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: freshness of the first film and gives us no one Stephanie Rothman. Phyllis Elizabeth to root for. Oscar winner for Best Makeup, Davis, Don Marshall, Barbara Leigh, Sean Sound, Sound Effects Editing, and Visual EfKenney, Roger Mosley, Tom Selleck, Jo fects. Some versions feature additional footMorrow. Cynical exploitation film about age. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 futuristic offshore California penal colony Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) where murderers are sent in lieu of abolished C-110m. ★★★ D: Jonathan Mostow. Arnold death penalty. Reissued a decade later to Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, capitalize on the presence of several future David Andrews, Kristanna Loken, Mark stars, including Magnum P.I.’s Selleck and Famiglietti, Christopher Lawford. A sleek, Mosley. [R]▼쩠 sexy new terminator (Loken) returns to kill a ★★★ Terminal Man, The (1974) C-107m. now-grown-up John Connor (Stahl), but a TD: Mike Hodges. George Segal, Joan 101 (Schwarzenegger) is on her trail. Not as Hackett, Richard A. Dysart, Jill Clayburgh, innovative as the original, or as overblown as Donald Moffat, Matt Clark, James (B.) the sequel, this one simply entertains, with Sikking, Ian Wolfe, Steve Kanaly, Lee lots of large-scale action and special effects. DeBroux. Cold but engrossing thriller has Its weakest moments: trying to play off Arcomputer scientist Segal coming under innold’s ‘‘I’ll be back’’ catchlines. Stan Winfluence of computers in his brain which ston’s robotic creations are as impressive as ever. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 cause violence. Well acted; based on the Michael Crichton novel. [PG]▼ Terminator Salvation (2009) C-114m. ★★★ Terminal Station SEE: Indiscretion of D: McG. Christian Bale, Sam Worthingan American Wife ton, Anton Yelchin, Moon Bloodgood, ★★★ D: Terminal Velocity (1994) C-103m. Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jane AlexDeran Sarafian. Charlie Sheen, Nastassja ander, Helena Bonham Carter, Jadagrace Kinski, James Gandolfini, Christopher Mcberry, Michael Ironside, Ivan Gvera, Terry Donald, Gary Bullock, Melvin Van Peebles, Crews; voice of Linda Hamilton. In the year Hans R. Howes. Hotshot skydiving instruc2018 a handful of surviving humans wage tor Sheen is horrified when, on her first war with the machines that rule the planet, jump, his student Kinski plummets to her run by a network known as Skynet. John death—or does she? While trying to prove Connor (Bale) is part of the armed resiswhat really happened, he’s plunged into intance trying to destroy this army of trigue, danger, and romance. Fast paced and terminators—but he doesn’t know what to witty, this is a bright variation on Hitchcock make of a superstrong stranger (Worthingthemes that, blessedly, never pretends to ton) who shows up with no memory of take itself very seriously. Sheen is miscast, where he came from. Viscerally exciting (if but Kinski is terrific; so are the action sometimes ear-splitting) blend of action and scenes. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 science fiction has visual effects to spare but [ 1383 ]

boils down to an epic battle between the Terror By Night (1946) 60m. ★★1⁄2 D: good guys and the bad. Super 35. [PG-13] Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, Nigel Termini Station (1989-Canadian) C-105m. Bruce, Alan Mowbray, Dennis Hoey, Re★★ nee Godfrey, Mary Forbes. Sherlock Holmes D: Allan King. Colleen Dewhurst, Megan Follows, Gordon Clapp, Debra dodges death at every turn while guarding McGrath, Leon Pownall, Elliott Smith, a priceless diamond on a bullet-train en Norma Dell’Agnese, Hanna Lee. Dreary, route from London to Edinburgh. Lesser, unenlightening portrait of an angst-ridden later entry does give Mowbray a fine supfamily: the father was killed in what may porting role. Also shown in computercolored version.▼●쩠 have been a suicide, the mother has become an alcoholic, the son a self-absorbed heel, Terror Castle SEE: Horror Castle the daughter a grim-faced prostitute. TenTerror From Under the House SEE: Inn nis, anyone?▼ of the Frightened People Term of Trial (1962-British) 113m. ★★1⁄2 Terror Hospital SEE: Beyond the Living D: Peter Glenville. Laurence Olivier, Simone Terror House (1972) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Bud Signoret, Sarah Miles, Terence Stamp, Townsend. Linda Gillin, Arthur Space, Roland Culver, Hugh Griffith. Talky story John Neilson, Mary Jackson, Michael of schoolmaster charged with assault by Macready. A young woman gets more young Miles, and subsequent trial’s effect than she bargained for when she wins a on Olivier’s wife, Signoret. Despite fine ‘‘vacation’’ trip to an old mansion. Precast, a wearisome film. Miles’ film debut. dates other cannibalism efforts, and doesn’t Terms of Endearment (1983) C-132m. ★★★★ take itself that seriously—but still not very D: James L. Brooks. Shirley MacLaine, good. Aka CLUB DEAD, THE FOLKS AT Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, John LithRED WOLF INN, and TERROR AT RED gow, Jeff Daniels, Lisa Hart Carroll, Danny WOLF INN. Some prints run 83m. Video DeVito. Wonderful mix of humor and hearttitle: TERROR ON THE MENU. [PG— ache follows the relationship of a mother edited from original R rating]▼쩠 and daughter over the years. Consistently Terror in a Texas Town (1958) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph H. Lewis. Sterling Hayden, offbeat and unpredictable, with exceptional performances by all three stars; first-time Sebastian Cabot, Carol Kelly, Eugene Mardirector Brooks also wrote the screenplay tin, Ned Young, Victor Millan. Offbeat from Larry McMurtry’s novel. Won Oscars Western drama about Scandinavian whaler for MacLaine, Nicholson, Screenplay, (Hayden) who comes to his father’s farm in Director, and Best Picture. Sequel: THE Texas, finds town terrorized by Cabot, EVENING STAR. [PG]▼●쩠 who’s forcing everyone to sell their oil-rich land. Incredible final showdown.▼쩠 Terrible Beauty, A SEE: Night Fighters Terror, The (1963) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Terror in the Aisles (1984) C/B&W-85m. ★1 Corman. Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson, ⁄2 D: Andrew J. Kuehn. Nancy Allen, Sandra Knight, Dick Miller. Engaging Donald Pleasence. Endless collage of film chiller nonsense with Karloff the mysterious clips from almost 75 terror movies, from owner of a castle where eerie deeds occur; ALIEN to WAIT UNTIL DARK, with the set on Baltic coast in 1800s. This is the kitchen sink in between. There’s silly comlegendary Corman quickie for which all of mentary from Allen and Pleasence, sitting Karloff’s scenes were shot in less than in a simulated movie house, and just too three days as the sets (from THE RAVEN) much footage for it all to make any sense. For diehard genre addicts only. [R]▼ were being torn down around them! Vistascope.▼●쩠 Terror in the Wax Museum (1973) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Georg Fenady. Ray Milland, Terror at Red Wolf Inn SEE: Terror House Broderick Crawford, Elsa Lanchester, MauTerror at the Opera (1987-Italian) C-107m. rice Evans, Shani Wallis, John Carradine, ★★1⁄2 D: Dario Argento. Cristina Marsillach, Louis Hayward, Patric Knowles, Mark EdIan Charleson, Urbano Barberini, Daria wards. Low-grade murder mystery takes litNicolodi, Corallina G. Tassoni. Horror tle advantage of wax museum horror potenopus about a young diva who’s being stalked tial; a good cast wasted. If you look closely by a madman. As customary with Argento, you can see the ‘‘wax figures’’ moving. [PG] ▼ this is stylish but nonsensical, with some over-the-top gore, backed up by a screechTerror in Toyland SEE: You Better ing rock score and insane camera calisWatch Out thenics. Also available in unrated version. Terrorist, The (1999-Indian) C-95m. ★★★ Aka OPERA. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 D: Santosh Sivan. Ayesha Dharkar, ParmTerror Beneath the Sea (1970-Japanese) eshwaran, Vishnu Vardhan, Bhanu Prakash, C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Hajimo Sato. Peggy Neal, K. Krishna, Sonu Sisupal, Vishwas. ConAndrew Hughes, Shinichi (Sonny) Chiba, templative, multilayered portrait of the title Mike Daneen, Eric Nielson. Mad scientist character (Dharkar), a 19-year-old fighter in creates monsters from human prisoners in a guerilla war against an unnamed enemy an underwater city. The usual.▼쩠 who is recruited as a suicide bomber. Her [ 1384 ]

mission is to assassinate a politician, and it documentary chronicling the life of Jacques is guaranteed to end in her death. The film’s Verge`s, a lawyer who fought for the Free strength is that she is depicted insightfully, French during WW2 and later became notorias a human being, rather than as a oneous for defending such war criminals and terdimensional villain or heroine. Well worth rorists as Klaus Barbie, Slobodan Milosevic, seeing.▼쩠 and Carlos the Jackal. He also wed one of his Terrorists, The (1975-British) C-97m. ★1⁄2 clients: Djamila Bouhired, an Algerian who D: Caspar Wrede. Sean Connery, Ian planted bombs during the French-Algerian McShane, Jeffrey Wickham, Isabel Dean, war. Schroeder poses some provocative John Quentin. Muddled thriller about poquestions about his subject’s convictions litical terrorism and airline hijacking is and motivations. Does he have a political agenda, or is he merely an egomaniac?쩠 indifferently acted by Connery and McShane, amateurishly directed, and tediously Terror Train (1980-Canadian) C-97m. ★★ unspooled. Pity, because premise is sound D: Roger Spottiswoode. Ben Johnson, Jamie and photography (by Sven Nykvist) is Lee Curtis, Hart Bochner, David Coppersmashing. Original British title: RANSOM. field, Derek Mackinnon, D. D. Winters Filmed in Norway. [PG]▼쩠 (Vanity), Timothy Weber. Fraternity hires a Terrornauts, The (1967-British) C-75m. train for a night-long graduation costume ★1⁄2 D: Montgomery Tully. Simon Oates, party only to have an ex-member, emotionZena Marshall, Charles Hawtrey, Patricia ally scarred by an initiation prank, come Hayes, Stanley Meadows, Max Adrian. aboard, disguised and uninvited, to seek reAlien forces kidnap an entire building on venge. Stylish photography—by John (A Earth, people and all. Based on Murray CLOCKWORK ORANGE) Alcott, of all Leinster’s novel The Wailing Asteroid, this people—and novelty of killer donning the sci-fi film is hampered by low budget.▼ costume of each successive victim lift this Terror of Dr. Hichcock SEE: Horrible above most of the others in this disreputable Dr. Hichcock, The genre. [R]▼●쩠 Terror of Frankenstein (1975-SwedishTerrorVision (1986) C-85m. BOMB D: Irish) C-91m. ★★★ D: Calvin Floyd. Leon Ted Nicolaou. Diane Franklin, Mary Vitali, Per Oscarsson, Nicholas Clay, Stacey Woronov, Gerrit Graham, Chad Allen, Dorning, Jan Ohlsson. Literate, well-made Bert Remsen, Alejandro Rey, Randi adaptation of the classic story, definitely Brooks, Sonny Carl Davis. Inept direction worth a look for horror buffs. This is and overacting sink this cartoonish tale of the most faithful of all film versions of a family and friends’ reactions when a Mary Shelley’s novel. Original title: VICmonster from outer space emerges from TOR FRANKENSTEIN. ▼쩠 their TV set. Watch the old Outer Limits Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975-Japanese) episode instead. [R]▼ C-83m. ★1⁄2 D: Ishiro Honda. K. Sasaki, Terror Within, The (1988) C-88m. ★★ D: Tomoko Ai, Akihiko Hirata, Kenji SaThierry Notz. Andrew Stevens, Starr hara. Mechagodzilla is restored by villains Andreeff, Terri Treas, George Kennedy, and sent to destroy Godzilla again, aided John LaFayette, Tommy Hinkley. Grim by the remote-controlled Titanosaurus. Colhorror/sci-fi concoction set after plague orful and full of brawling monsters. Tohohas wiped out 99 percent of humanity. An scope. ▼●쩠 underground medical center is attacked by Terror of Sheba, The SEE: Persecution hybrid monsters born of human women Terror of the Tongs (1961-British) C-79m. and bent on creating more of the same. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Anthony Bushell. Geoffrey Toone, Low-budget Roger Corman production is a Burt Kwouk, Brian Worth, Christopher cross between ALIEN and THE DAY THE Lee, Richard Leech. Atmospheric British WORLD ENDED, with a routine, predictthriller of captain searching for killers of able plot. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼쩠 daughter; eventually breaks entire Tong Terror Within II, The (1992) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrew Stevens. Andrew Stevens, society in Hong Kong. Good acting but may be a little gruesome for some viewers. Stella Stevens, Chick Vennera, R. Lee Released theatrically in b&w.쩠 Ermey, Burton ‘‘Bubba’’ Gilliam, Clare Terror of Tiny Town, The (1938) 63m. Hoak. More monsters vs. more scientists ★1 in underground bunker after catastrophic ⁄2 D: Sam Newfield. Billy Curtis, Yvonne Moray, Little Billy, John Bambury. If plague. Debuting director (and star) Steyou’re looking for a midget musical Western, vens, looking like Rambo, fogs the cheap look no further. A typical sagebrush plot is sets and shows a few good ideas, but his enacted (pretty badly) by a cast of little own absurd story sinks it all. That’s his people, and the indelible impression is that mom in a costarring part. [R]▼ of characters sauntering into the saloon Tess (1979-French-British) C-170m. ★★★1⁄2 under those swinging doors!▼쩠 D: Roman Polanski. Nastassia Kinski, Peter Terror on the Menu SEE: Terror House Firth, John Bett, Tom Chadbon, Rosemary Terror’s Advocate (2007-French) C-137m. Martin, Leigh Lawson, Sylvia Coleridge. ★★★ D: Barbet Schroeder. Forceful, unsettling Handsome, evocative adaptation of Thomas [ 1385 ]

Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, with TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS OR DO NOT ASK ME WHY. ▼쩠 Kinski in her star-making performance as the strong-willed girl from a poor family Testimony (1987-British) C/B&W-157m. ★★ whose fortunes rise and fall when she D: Tony Palmer. Ben Kingsley, Teris foisted onto polite society. Long but ence Rigby, Ronald Pickup, John Shrapengrossing. Oscar winner for Cinematonel, Sherry Baines, Robert Stephens, graphy, Costume Design, and Art DirecMurray Melvin, Robert Urquhart. Ambition. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 tious, overlong biopic of composer Dmitri Tess of the Storm Country (1960) C-84m. Shostakovich focuses on his political prob★★1 lems in the Soviet Union. Kingsley brings ⁄2 D: Paul Guilfoyle. Diane Baker, Jack Ging, Lee Philips, Archie Duncan, Nancy depth to the leading role, and Nic Knowland Valentine, Bert Remsen, Wallace Ford. Leiprovides fabulous widescreen camerawork surely reworking of Grace Miller White in b&w (with flashes of color), but these novel set in Pennsylvania Dutch country. attributes cannot overcome a turgid narraHere, Tess (Baker) becomes immersed in a tive. Panavision.쩠 dispute between farmers, Mennonites, and Test of Love, A (1984-Australian) C-93m. ★★★ chemical plant operators who are polluting D: Gil Brealey. Angela Punch McGrethe environment. Previously filmed in 1914, gor, Drew Forsythe, Wallas Eaton, Simon 1922, and 1932. CinemaScope. Chilvers, Liddy Clark, Tina Arhondis. MovTestament (1983) C-89m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lynne ing, inspirational, if a bit too predictable Littman. Jane Alexander, William Devane, story of a young teacher (Punch McGregor), Roxana Zal, Ross Harris, Lukas Haas, and her attempts to reach a disabled girl Philip Anglim, Lilia Skala, Leon Ames, (Arhondis, whose performance is truly wonRebecca De Mornay, Mako, Lurene Tuttle, derful). Based on a true story; originally Kevin Costner. Admirably understated titled ANNIE’S COMING OUT. [PG]▼ drama about a small town contending with Test Pilot (1938) 118m. ★★★ D: Victor nuclear holocaust, focusing on one tightFleming. Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Spenknit family. Restrained and effective, with cer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Samuel S. a heartrending performance by Alexander. Hinds, Marjorie Main, Gloria Holden, Louis Screenplay by John Sacret Young, from a Jean Heydt. Blend of romantic comedy story by Carol Amen. Originally made for and drama doesn’t always work, but with PBS’ American Playhouse. [PG]▼●쩠 those stars it’s well worth watching. Tracy Testament of Dr. Mabuse, The (1932steals film as Gable’s mechanic/pal in story German) 121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. Ruof daredevils who try out new aircraft. dolf Klein-Rogge, Otto Wernicke, Gustav Based on a Frank ‘‘Spig’’ Wead story.▼ Diessl, Karl Meixner. Criminal mastermind Tex (1982) C-103m. ★★★ D: Tim Hunter. controls his underworld empire even while Matt Dillon, Jim Metzler, Meg Tilly, Bill confined to an insane asylum! Fabled charMcKinney, Frances Lee McCain, Ben acter from Lang’s silent-film epic returns Johnson, Emilio Estevez, Jack Thibeau. in less stylized but no less entertaining First of S. E. Hinton’s young-adult best crime story—which even incorporates susellers to reach the screen (via the Disney pernatural elements. Film was a subject of company) is an understated but likable tale controversy during Nazi era. Lang returned of a boy whose mother has died, whose to this character once more for THE 1,000 father is away, whose brother is trying to EYES OF DR. MABUSE in 1960, but other raise him with no money and little patience hands remade this script in 1962. Aka THE . . . and whose self-esteem is nil. StraightLAST WILL OF DR. MABUSE. Some forward little drama. Hinton has a cameo as a teacher. [PG]▼●쩠 prints run 75m. Retitled THE CRIMES OF DR. MABUSE.▼쩠 Texas (1941) 93m. ★★★ D: George MarTestament of Orpheus, The (1959-French) shall. William Holden, Glenn Ford, Claire Trevor, George Bancroft, Edgar Buchan80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean Cocteau. Jean Cocteau, Edouard Dermit, Henri Cremieux, Jean-Pierre an. High-level Western of two friends, one Le´aud, Alice Saprich, Franc¸oise Christophe, a rustler, the other a cattleman, competing for Trevor’s affection.▼쩠 Yul Brynner, Daniel Ge´lin, Maria Casares, Franc¸ois Perier, Charles Aznavour, Pablo PiTexas Across the River (1966) C-101m. ★★★ casso, Luis Miguel Dominguin, Lucia Bose´, D: Michael Gordon. Dean Martin, Alain Jean Marais, Brigitte Bardot, Roger Vadim, Delon, Joey Bishop, Rosemary Forsyth, Claudine Auger. Cocteau’s deeply personalPeter Graves, Tina Marquand (Aumont), ized farewell is a catalogue of his philosophies Andrew Prine, Michael Ansara, Dick (Richand phantasies. Occasionally too artsy, his ard) Farnsworth. Diverting takeoff on cowreverie has no storyline per se, just a succesboy-and-Indian films, with Bishop hilarious sion of astonishingly dreamy images with a as a deadpan Indian and Marquand cute as a seemingly impossible cast. A few moments young Indian maiden. Techniscope.▼● are in startling color. Third in his Orphic Texas Carnival (1951) C-77m. ★★ D: Trilogy after THE BLOOD OF A POET Charles Walters. Esther Williams, Howand ORPHEUS. Full title on screen is THE ard Keel, Red Skelton, Ann Miller, Keenan [ 1386 ]

Wynn, Tom Tully, Red Norvo. Emptier whose ending can’t come quickly enough. Unrated version runs 96m. Super 35. [R]쩠 than usual, this flabby MGM musical about Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next penniless carny mistaken for millionaire Generation (1997) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Kim leaves fine cast high and dry with no fresh Henkel. Rene´e Zellweger, Matthew Mcmaterial.▼● Conaughey, Robert Jacks, Tonie Perenski, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The (1974) Lisa Newmyer, Tyler Cone, John Harrison. C-83m. ★★★ D: Tobe Hooper. Marilyn More Texas teenagers are menaced by a Burns, Gunnar Hansen, Edwin Neal, Allen backwoods family of murderous maniacs. Danzinger, Paul A. Partain, William Vail. Though a semi-remake of the first film, it’s Travelers in rural Texas encounter crazed nowhere near as interesting or scary—no family of bizarros who have a committed chainsaws, no cannibalism. Writer-director though unusual sense of what cuts of meat Henkel tries for profundity at the end and you need for good barbecue. Sweatblows it, but it’s clear why Zellweger and inducing, claustrophobic, unrelenting susthe scenery-devouring McConaughey went pense-comic-horror film. Classic and on to bigger things. Aka RETURN OF THE influential—and nowhere nearly as violent TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE; that as it’s reputed to be. Narrated by an unbilled version runs 94m. [R]▼쩠 John Larroquette. Remade in 2003. FolTexas Detour (1978) C-92m. ★★ D: Hikmet lowed by three sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Avedis. Patrick Wayne, Mitch Vogel, LindTexas Chainsaw Massacre, The (2003) C1 say Bloom, R. G. Armstrong, Priscilla ★ 98m. ⁄2 D: Marcus Nispel. Jessica Biel, Barnes, Cameron Mitchell. Typical lowJonathan Tucker, Erica Leerhsen, Mike grade action picture about a macho stunt Vogel, Eric Balfour, Andrew Bryniarski, R. driver. [R]▼ Lee Ermey, David Dorfman; narrated by Texas Lady (1955) C-86m. ★★ D: Tim John Larroquette. Teenagers in Texas are Whelan. Claudette Colbert, Barry Sullivan, attacked by an inbred family of cannibals. Greg Walcott, Horace McMahon, John This remake is intense but completely lacks Litel. Genteel oater with Colbert lovely as the leavening sense of humor that enhanced crusading newspaper editor in old West. the original. Once it kicks into gear, it’s Mediocre script. SuperScope.▼ brutally unrelenting toward its unappealing Texas Rangers, The (1936) 95m. ★★★ D: characters—and the audience. Followed by King Vidor. Fred MacMurray, Jack Oakie, the ‘‘prequel’’ THE TEXAS CHAINSAW Jean Parker, Lloyd Nolan, Edward Ellis. MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING. [R]▼쩠 Fine, elaborate Western of three comrades Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The (1986) who split up; MacMurray and Oakie beC-95m. BOMB D: Tobe Hooper. Dennis come rangers, Nolan an outlaw. Remade Hopper, Caroline Williams, Bill Johnson, as STREETS OF LAREDO; sequel: THE Jim Siedow, Bill Moseley. Hooper returns TEXAS RANGERS RIDE AGAIN.▼쩠 with a mind-numbing, pretentious sequel. Texas Rangers, The (1951) C-74m. ★★ Hopper plays a nutty ex-Texas Ranger D: Phil Karlson. George Montgomery, Gale obsessed with revenge against the crazed Storm, Jerome Courtland, Noah Beery, Jr. family of Texas cannibals, while deejay Aimless Western involving Texas law enWilliams is simply looking to save her own forcers against gang of outlaws.▼ skin when the cannibals go after her following Texas Rangers, The (2001) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 a broadcast that angers them. Frenetic overactD: Steve Miner. James Van Der Beek, ing and unfunny attempts at black humor sink Dylan McDermott, Usher Raymond, Ashton this mess. Followed by LEATHERFACE: Kutcher, Robert Patrick, Rachael Leigh Cook, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III. Alfred Molina, Tom Skerritt, Leonor Varela, [R]▼●쩠 Randy Travis, Matt Keeslar, Jon Abrahams, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The BeginVincent Spano, Oded Fehr, Joe Spano. Young ning, The (2006) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonathan man joins the recently formed Texas Rangers Liebesman. Jordana Brewster, Taylor Handto avenge the death of his family and becomes ley, Diora Baird, Matthew Bomer, Lee an aide to the unit’s enigmatic leader (McTergesen, R. Lee Ermey, Andrew BryniarDermott). Beautifully mounted widescreen ski; narrated by John Larroquette. When the Western isn’t bad, but its story is superficial ideas for endless sequels wear out, bring on and derivative. Of the young stars, Van Der the prequels! This one creates a backstory Beek fares best, while Molina has fun as a for the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface, set sneering villain. This sat on the shelf for in the 1970s. Two teen brothers and their almost two years. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 girlfriends go on a final fling before shipTexasville (1990) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter ping off to Vietnam, get caught up in the Bogdanovich. Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepinfamous house of horrors and face-lifts herd, Annie Potts, Timothy Bottoms, Cloris after a car accident brings them to the attenLeachman, Randy Quaid, Eileen Brennan, tion of the evil local sheriff. There is nothWilliam McNamara, Angie Bolling. Mildly ing to suggest the ’70s period; it’s all about diverting sequel to THE LAST PICTURE graphic violence. This is one ‘‘beginning’’ SHOW, from Larry McMurtry’s novel, [ 1387 ]

revealing that time has turned a number of Naylor (Eckhart, in a dynamic performance), the leading characters into Texas caricawho’s the unapologetic spokesman for the totures. No real plot to speak of, just a series bacco industry in Washington, D.C. A trip to of vignettes, some better than others. Potts California gives the divorced dad a chance stands out as Bridges’ brassy wife, with to spend time with (and explain himself to) Shepherd trying to assert the seriousness his inquisitive and impressionable son. Imof her underwritten role by wearing no pressive feature debut for director Reitman makeup and looking as bad (realistic?) as (son of Ivan), who also adapted Christopher possible in every single shot. [R]▼●쩠 Buckley’s book. Panavision. [R]쩠 Texican, The (1966) C-91m. ★★ D: LesThank Your Lucky Stars (1943) 127m. ★★★ ley Selander. Audie Murphy, Broderick D: David Butler. Eddie Cantor, DenCrawford, Diana Lorys, Luz Marquez, Annis Morgan, Joan Leslie; guest stars Humtonio Casas, Antonio Perel. Routine Spanishphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Olivia de made Western pits ex-lawman Murphy Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Ida against ruthless frontier town boss Crawford. Lupino, Ann Sheridan, etc. Very lame Techniscope.▼쩠 plot (Cantor plays both himself and lookaThank God, It’s Friday (1978) C-90m. like cabbie) frames all-star Warner Bros. BOMB D: Robert Klane. Donna Summer, show, with Davis singing ‘‘They’re Either Valerie Landsburg, Terri Nunn, Chick VenToo Young Or Too Old,’’ Flynn delightnera, Ray Vitte, Jeff Goldblum, Paul Jabara, fully performing ‘‘That’s What You Jolly Debra Winger, Andrea Howard, The ComWell Get,’’ other staid stars breaking loose. modores (with Lionel Richie). Perhaps the ▼●쩠 worst film ever to have won some kind of That Certain Age (1938) 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Oscar (for Summer’s hit song, ‘‘Last Dance’’), Edward Ludwig. Deanna Durbin, Melvyn this one-night-in-the-life-of-a-disco comedy is Douglas, Jackie Cooper, Irene Rich, Nancy about as monotonous and uninventive as Carroll, John Halliday, Jack Searl. Deanna disco music itself. [PG]▼쩠 develops crush on her parents’ houseguest, Thanks a Million (1935) 87m. ★★★ D: sophisticated Douglas, leaving boyfriend Roy Del Ruth. Dick Powell, Ann Dvorak, Cooper out in the cold—and saddled with Fred Allen, Patsy Kelly, Alan Dinehart, responsibility for putting on amateur show. Margaret Irving, Paul Whiteman and OrchesSilly script made bearable by stars. ▼ tra, Yacht Club Boys. Very entertaining That Certain Feeling (1956) C-103m. musical of crooner Powell running for govBOMB D: Norman Panama, Melvin Frank. ernor, with help of wisecracking manager Bob Hope, Eva Marie Saint, George SandAllen, sweetheart Dvorak, and blustery ers, Pearl Bailey, Al Capp, Jerry Mathers. politician Raymond Walburn. Good fun, Incredibly bad Hope comedy with Bob as with several breezy tunes and specialties neurotic cartoonist; Sanders gives only life by Whiteman and Yacht Club Boys. Script to stale film. Pearl sings title song. Vistaby Nunnally Johnson. Remade as IF I’M Vision. That Certain Woman (1937) 93m. ★★1⁄2 LUCKY. Thanks for the Memory (1938) 77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edmund Goulding. Bette Davis, Henry D: George Archainbaud. Bob Hope, Shirley Fonda, Ian Hunter, Donald Crisp, Anita Ross, Charles Butterworth, Otto Kruger, Louise, Minor Watson, Sidney Toler. ReRoscoe Karns, Hedda Hopper, Patricia Wilmake of Goulding’s early talkie THE der, Laura Hope Crews, Eddie Anderson. TRESPASSER (with Gloria Swanson) feaPaper-thin romantic comedy (from a play tures Bette as a gangster’s widow who’s by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich) trying to start life afresh and finds herself in reteams Hope and Ross, who sang the title a romantic triangle with weak-willed playtune in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1938. boy Fonda and lawyer Hunter. Well-acted soaper.▼ Here, they’re newlyweds who face a crisis: he’s got to stop partying and finish his novel. That Championship Season (1982) CSong highlight: ‘‘Two Sleepy People.’’▼ 110m. ★★ D: Jason Miller. Bruce Dern, Thank You All Very Much (1969-British) Stacy Keach, Robert Mitchum, Martin ★★★ D: Waris Hussein. Sandy C-105m. Sheen, Paul Sorvino, Arthur Franz. DisapDennis, Ian McKellen, Eleanor Bron, John pointing adaptation of Miller’s Pulitzer Standing. Absorbing study of unwed mother Prize–winning play (which took 10 years who decides to have her baby. Realistic to reach the screen), about the 24th annual and touching. [M/PG] reunion of a high school basketball squad Thank You for Smoking (2006) C-92m. and their paternalistic coach. Whatever ★★★ made it work on stage is missing here; the D: Jason Reitman. Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Adam Brody, Katie Holmes, movie never catches fire, and its characCameron Bright, Robert Duvall, William H. ters come off more as caricatures. Remade Macy, Rob Lowe, David Koechner, Sam for TV in 1999. [R]▼쩠 Elliott, J. K. Simmons, Kim Dickens. SpotThat Cold Day in the Park (1969) C-113m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Altman. Sandy Dennis, Mion satire of American culture and the phenomenon of spinmeisters, focusing on Nick chael Burns, Susanne Benton, John Gar[ 1388 ]

field, Jr., Luana Anders, Michael Murphy. Strange, plodding film with frustrated spinster taking in young man she sees in the park. What follows is bizarre and unmoving; a far cry from Altman’s later work. Filmed in Canada. [R]▼ That Darn Cat! (1965) C-116m. ★★★ D: Robert Stevenson. Hayley Mills, Dean Jones, Dorothy Provine, Roddy McDowall, Neville Brand, Elsa Lanchester, William Demarest, Frank Gorshin, Ed Wynn. Long but entertaining suspense comedy from Disney, about a cat that leads FBI man Jones on trail of kidnapped woman. Slapstick scenes and character vignettes highlight this colorful film. Remade in 1997.

Allgood, Gladys Cooper, Henry Wilcoxon, Heather Angel. Olivier and Leigh—both breathtakingly beautiful—enact ill-fated historical romance of Lord Admiral Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton in Americanmade film intended to spur pro-British feelings. P.S.: It was Winston Churchill’s favorite movie. Aka LADY HAMILTON. ▼● That Kind of Woman (1959) 92m. ★★★ D: Sidney Lumet. Sophia Loren, Tab Hunter, George Sanders, Jack Warden, Keenan Wynn, Barbara Nichols. Soldier Hunter and dishy Loren are attracted to each other on a train, but she’s the mistress of elegant fatcat Sanders. Surprisingly adult comedy-drama for its era; excellent performances from all but Hunter, and even he’s ▼●쩠 1 ★ That Darn Cat (1997) C-89m. ⁄2 D: Bob better than usual. Well shot by Boris KaufSpiers. Christina Ricci, Doug E. Doug, man. Remake of THE SHOPWORN ANDean Jones, George Dzundza, Peter Boyle, GEL, scripted by Walter Bernstein. Michael McKean, Bess Armstrong, Dyan That Lady (1955) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: TerCannon, John Ratzenberger, Megan Cavaence Young. Olivia de Havilland, Gilbert nagh, Estelle Parsons, Rebecca Schull. ReRoland, Paul Scofield, Dennis Price, Chrismake of the 1965 film follows basically the topher Lee. Unemotional costumer set in same plot, but without the same results; 16th-century Spain, with de Havilland a every change is for the worse. Even the cat widowed noblewoman involved in court is boring. Director Spiers hammers every intrigue. Scofield’s film debut. Cinemajoke flat, so his talented cast is helpless, Scope. though Ricci and McKean have some good That Lady in Ermine (1948) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 moments. Doug is funny, but seems to D: Ernst Lubitsch. Betty Grable, Douglas come from a different, broader movie. [PG] Fairbanks, Jr., Cesar Romero, Walter Abel, Reginald Gardiner, Harry Davenport. Enter▼●쩠 That Forsyte Woman (1949) C-114m. taining if overblown musical of mythical ★★1 European kingdom where Grable is a just⁄2 D: Compton Bennett. Errol Flynn, Greer Garson, Walter Pidgeon, Robert married princess; her ancestors magically Young, Janet Leigh, Harry Davenport. come to life as Fairbanks’ conquering army Rather superficial adaptation of John Galsdescends on her castle. Lubitsch died during worthy novel of a faithless woman (Garson) production, which was completed by Otto who finds herself attracted to her niece’s Preminger. Script by Samson Raphaelson. fiance´; good-looking, but no match for the That’ll Be the Day (1974-British) C-90m. ★★★ D: Claude Whatham. David Essex, later BBC-TV series The Forsyte Saga.▼ That Funny Feeling (1965) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 Ringo Starr, Rosemary Leach, James Booth, D: Richard Thorpe. Sandra Dee, Bobby Billy Fury, Keith Moon. Compelling story Darin, Donald O’Connor, Nita Talbot, Larry traces British working-class youth (Essex) Storch, Leo G. Carroll, Robert Strauss. from adolescence to early adulthood in the Funny only if you adore Darin and Dee, and 1950’s, as his growing frustrations find even then story of footloose playboy and maid their eventual outlet in rock music. First who pretends she lives in his apartment half of dynamic story, continued in STARwears thin.쩠 DUST, where character’s resemblance to That Hagen Girl (1947) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Lennon crystallizes. [PG]▼●쩠 Peter Godfrey. Ronald Reagan, Shirley That Lucky Touch (1975-British) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: Christopher Miles. Roger Moore, Temple, Rory Calhoun, Lois Maxwell, Dorothy Peterson, Charles Kemper, Conrad Janis, Susannah York, Shelley Winters, Lee J. Penny Edwards, Jean Porter, Harry DavenCobb, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Raf Vallone, port. Obvious but fascinating time capsule Sydne Rome, Donald Sinden. Tepid roabout small-town small-mindedness, with mantic farce with Moore cast as an arms teen Temple ostracized because gossips think dealer; York is the feisty journalist who she’s illegitimate. Of interest for the casting of conflicts with him. Moore sleepwalks Temple and Reagan (playing a lawyer who through this. Of note only as Cobb’s last movie (and he’s the best thing in it). [PG]▼ supposedly is Shirley’s father), and as a portrait of a time in which illegitimate children That Man Bolt (1973) C-105m. ★★ D: were victimized because of the circumHenry Levin, David Lowell Rich. Fred stances of their births. Williamson, Byron Webster, Teresa Graves, That Hamilton Woman (1941) 128m. Jack Ging, Miko Mayama. Scenic actioner, ★★★ D: Alexander Korda. Vivien Leigh, filmed in Hong Kong, Las Vegas and Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray, Sara L.A., mixes kung fu, some comedy and [ 1389 ]

two songs by Graves. Plot has Williamson Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli, Ray Bolger. as international courier of syndicate money. Too many mediocre selections, flat intro[R]▼쩠 ductions by five guest hosts . . . but there’s That Man From Rio (1964-French) Cstill much to enjoy in this dance compila114m. ★★★ D: Philippe De Broca. Jeantion, from Fred and Ginger’s ‘‘Pick YourPaul Belmondo. Franc¸oise Dorleac, Jean self Up’’ to WEST SIDE STORY. Added Servais, Adolfo Celi, Simone Renant. Encurio: a Bolger number cut from THE gaging spoof of Bond-type movies features WIZARD OF OZ. 1980s selections that Belmondo as hero, chasing double-crosser end the film seem lumbering and ludicrous and thief in search for Brazilian treasure. compared to the marvels of movement that Nice cinematography by Edmond Se´chan precede them. Part Widescreen. [G]▼●쩠 complements fast-moving script. Enjoyed That’s Entertainment! (1974) C-132m. ★★★★ great international success and spawned D: Jack Haley, Jr. Hosted by Fred Asmany imitations.▼ taire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Peter LawThat Naughty Girl SEE: Mam’zelle ford, Liza Minnelli, Donald O’Connor, Pigalle Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Frank That Night (1992) C-90m. ★★ D: Craig BoSinatra, James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor. lotin. Juliette Lewis, C. Thomas Howell, Stars host nostalgia bash with scenes from Eliza Dushku, Helen Shaver, J. Smith-Camnearly 100 MGM musicals. There are many eron, John Dossett, Katherine Heigl. Young cherished moments with the above-named suburban girl (Dushku) worships fiery teen stars plus unexpectedly delightful numbers Lewis, who embarks on an ill-fated rowith Esther Williams, Clark Gable (singing mance with sensitive bad-boy Howell. Disand dancing!), Jimmy Durante, and Eleanor appointing view of adolescent angst and a Powell, whose challenge dance with Astaire child’s initial experience with grown-up is unforgettable. Only complaint: why emotions; about as subtle as a blaring shorten the final AMERICAN IN PARIS boom-box. [PG-13]▼● ballet? Followed by two sequels. Part WideThat Night in Rio (1941) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: screen. [G]▼●쩠 Irving Cummings. Alice Faye, Don That’s Entertainment, Part 2 (1976) C-133m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gene Kelly. Fred Astaire Ameche, Carmen Miranda, S. Z. Sakall, J. Carrol Naish, Curt Bois, Leonid Kinsky, and Gene Kelly host this inevitable sequel Frank Puglia. Standard 20th Century-Fox and do some engaging song-and-dance musical of mistaken identities, uses Miwork. Film hasn’t cohesion or momentum randa to best advantage; Maria Montez has of its predecessor, but the material is irresista tiny role. Filmed before as FOLIES BERible. This time, comedy and drama are inGE`RE, and again as ON THE RIVIERA. 쩠 cluded along with musical numbers—Tracy That Obscure Object of Desire (1977and Hepburn, Marx Brothers, etc. Most imagSpanish-French) C-103m. ★★★ D: Luis inative segment of all is wonderful title seBun˜uel. Fernando Rey, Carole Bouquet, quence by Saul Bass. Cut to 126m. after initial Angela Molina, Julien Bertheau, Andre showings. Part Widescreen. [G]▼●쩠 Weber. Bun˜uel’s last film is as audacious That’s Entertainment! III (1994) C108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bud Friedgen, Michael J. as any of his classics; wealthy sadomasochist Rey falls hard for a young maid, and Sheridan. Hosted by June Allyson, Cyd she’s only too happy to make him ‘‘suffer.’’ Charisse, Lena Horne, Howard Keel, Gene Bun˜uel’s bizarrest stroke is having BouKelly, Ann Miller, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey quet and Molina alternate playing the girl! Rooney, Esther Williams. Yet another collecShot in French, with Rey dubbed by Michel tion of marvelous musical moments from the Piccoli. Based on a Pierre Louys novel; MGM library, spiked by some never-beforefilmed several times, most notably as THE seen footage eliminated from the finished DEVIL IS A WOMAN (1935). [R]▼●쩠 films, including a discarded Fred Astaire That Old Feeling (1997) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: dance routine (shown in split-screen with its Carl Reiner. Bette Midler, Dennis Farina, retake), Judy Garland singing Irving BerPaula Marshall, Gail O’Grady, David lin’s ‘‘Mr. Monotony,’’ Cyd Charisse and Rasche, Jamie Denton, Danny Nucci. Silly Joan Crawford singing and dancing to the but likable comedy about long-feuding exsame prerecorded number, Lena Horne spouses who meet after 12 years at their singing ‘‘Ain’t It the Truth’’ from CABIN daughter’s wedding—and to their own IN THE SKY, and much, much more. shock and amazement, start having an afVideo release has expanded versions of fair. This seems to have a ricochet effect some numbers cut for the theatrical print. Part Widescreen. [G]▼●쩠 on everyone around them, in French farce fashion. Not the most believable movie ever That Sinking Feeling (1979-Scottish) made, but it’s fun; Midler and Farina make C-92m. ★★★ D: Bill Forsyth. Robert Bua great couple. [PG-13]▼●쩠 chanan, John Hughes, Billy Greenlees, That’s Dancing! (1985) C/B&W-105m. Gordon John Sinclair, Janette Rankin. For★★1⁄2 D: Jack Haley, Jr. Narrated and hosted syth’s initial feature is a witty little comby Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mikhail edy about a gang of bored teens unable to [ 1390 ]

find work in dreary Glasgow. Their leader D: Ernst Lubitsch. Merle Oberon, Melcomes up with a scheme to boost their vyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Alan morale: pilfering sinks from a warehouse. Mowbray, Olive Blakeney, Harry DavenReleased in U.S. after the success of Forport, Sig Rumann, Eve Arden. Chic little syth’s subsequent films (GREGORY’S Lubitsch comedy about married couple with GIRL, LOCAL HERO). [PG]▼● problems, and their absurd pianist friend. That’s Life! (1986) C-102m. ★★★ D: Blake Stolen hands down by Meredith as the musiEdwards. Jack Lemmon, Julie Andrews, cal malcontent. Filmed before (in 1925) by Sally Kellerman, Robert Loggia, Jennifer Lubitsch as KISS ME AGAIN. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Edwards, Rob Knepper, Matt Lattanzi, Chris Lemmon, Cynthia Sikes, Emma WalThat Was Then, This Is Now (1985) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Cain. Emilio ton, Felicia Farr. Deeply felt observation of an affluent family and its members’ Estevez, Craig Sheffer, Kim Delaney, Barpersonal crises— including Lemmon’s anxbara Babcock, Jill Schoelen, Frank Howiety over turning 60 and his loving wife’s ard, Larry B. Scott, Ramon Sheen, Morgan fear that she may have cancer. Far from Freeman. Delinquent kid, alienated from perfect, but mostly believable and quite society, clings to his relationship with adopmoving. Filmed at Edwards’ and wife Antive brother—and freaks out when the older drews’ actual Malibu home, with most of boy takes on a girlfriend, whom he sees as their (and Lemmon’s) real-life family ona threat. Estevez wrote the script, from screen . . . including at least one pet! PanaviS. E. Hinton’s young-adult novel, but its sion. [PG-13]▼●쩠 intense emotions probably read better than That’s My Boy (1951) 98m. ★★ D: Hal they play out on screen. A variable film with some strong moments. [R]▼●쩠 Walker. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Marion Marshall, Eddie Mayehoff, Ruth Hussey, Theater of Blood (1973-British) C-104m. ★★★ Polly Bergen, John McIntire. Ex-football D: Douglas Hickox. Vincent Price, star Mayehoff wants klutzy son Lewis to Diana Rigg, Robert Morley, Ian Hendry, follow in his footsteps, induces Martin to Harry Andrews, Coral Browne, Robert coach him. Supposed comic idea is played Coote, Michael Hordern, Jack Hawkins, straight, with very few laughs, maudlin Diana Dors, Dennis Price, Milo O’Shea. situations . . . yet it was considered quite A one-joke film, albeit a great joke: hammy funny in 1951 when M&L were in their Shakespearean actor Price vows revenge heyday. Later a TV series.쩠 on critics who’ve blasted him, murders That’s The Way of the World SEE: Shining them one by one by recreating famous Star death scenes from the plays. Somewhat that thing you do! (1996) C-110m. ★★★ D: spoiled by incredibly gory killings; great Tom Hanks. Tom Everett Scott, Johnathon cast has fun with it, though. [R]▼●쩠 Schaech, Steve Zahn, Ethan Embry, Liv Theatre of Death (1967-British) C-90m. ★★1 Tyler, Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Bill ⁄2 D: Samuel Gallu. Christopher Lee, Cobbs, Obba Babatunde, Giovanni Ribisi, Julian Glover, Lelia Goldoni, Jenny Till, Alex Rocco, Chris Isaak, Kevin Pollak, Evelyn Laye, Ivor Dean. Vampire-like murClint Howard. Likable yarn, set in 1964, ders revolving around Paris’ Grand Guignol about some young people in Erie, Pa., who stage sensation and its beautiful young form a band that, improbably, soars to sucstarlet under sinister hypnotic trance. Solid, cess with a hit record. Sunny attitude and low-budget mystery-thriller benefits from appealing cast make this hard to resist, even believable performances. Aka BLOOD if it turns out to be a ‘‘lite’’ version of THE FIEND. Techniscope.▼쩠 COMMITMENTS. Hanks also wrote the Thelma & Louise (1991) C-128m. ★★★ script and some of the songs. Hanks’ wife, D: Ridley Scott. Susan Sarandon, Geena Rita Wilson, has an amusing cameo as a Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, cocktail waitress, and his long-ago Bosom Christopher McDonald, Stephen TobolowBuddies TV costar Peter Scolari plays a sky, Brad Pitt, Timothy Carhart, Lucinda television host. Alternate version runs Jenney. Female friends leave responsibili155m. [PG]▼●쩠 ties (as well as husband and boyfriend) behind That Touch of Mink (1962) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 to take a short trip, but an unexpected incident D: Delbert Mann. Cary Grant, Doris Day, turns them into fugitives from the law. DyGig Young, Audrey Meadows, John Astin, namic star duo—and Callie Khouri’s OscarDick Sargent. Attractive cast in silly piece winning feminist script—give this a lot of of fluff with wealthy playboy Grant pursujuice, though it still covers all-too-familiar road-movie territory. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ing Day. Amusing at times, but wears thin; Astin is memorable as a creep with Thelma Jordon SEE: File on Thelma designs on poor Doris, and there’s a clever Jordon, The sequence featuring Mickey Mantle, Roger Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser Maris, Yogi Berra, and umpire Art Passa(1988) C/B&W-90m. ★★★ D: Charlotte Zwerin. Comprehensive documentary portrait rella. Panavision.▼●쩠 ★★★ That Uncertain Feeling (1941) 84m. of the legendary, innovative jazz pianist-com[ 1391 ]

poser, crammed with footage of Monk in perogy has led to the reanimation of dinosaurs, formance. Much of the material was shot police officer Goldberg teams up with a during the late 1960s by Christian Blackwood. talking Tyrannosaurus Rex to solve a murder. Executive producer is Clint Eastwood; reCheesy production and low-key performances leased the same year as the latter’s Charlie hinder this aimless tale. Children may like the Parker biography, BIRD. [PG-13]▼●쩠 cookie-loving dino. Plans for wide theatrical Them! (1954) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Dougrelease were (understandably) scrubbed; it went to video instead. [PG]▼●쩠 las. James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow SteTheory of Flight, The (1998-British) C100m. ★★ D: Paul Greengrass. Helena Bonvens. First-rate ’50s sci-fi about giant ant mutations running wild in the Southwest. ham Carter, Kenneth Branagh, Gemma Intelligent script (by Ted Sherdeman, from Jones, Holly Aird, Ray Stevenson. A perGeorge Worthing Yates’ story) extremely petual screwup who feels he has something well directed, with memorable climax in to express but no clue how to do it is punL.A. sewers. Fess Parker has small but ished for his last stunt by having to perform memorable role. Look fast for Leonard community service. His assignment: to Nimoy at a teletype machine.▼●쩠 spend time with a brilliant but hostile young 1 ★★ Them (2006-French-Romanian) C-76m. ⁄2 woman in a wheelchair suffering from D: David Moreau, Xavier Palud. Olivia Bomotor neuron disease, whose one dream is namy, Michae¨l Cohen, Adriana Moca, Maria to have sex. Frightfully contrived from the Roman, Camelia Maxim. Clementine and word go, this forced piece of whimsy never takes off, despite two gifted stars. [R]▼● Lucas, a schoolteacher and a writer, revel in their peaceful rural weekend far from There Goes My Baby (1994) C-99m. ★★★ Bucharest . . . until they’re awakened by D: Floyd Mutrux. Dermot Mulroney, Rick shadowy, mysterious home invaders way Schroder, Kelli Williams, Noah Wyle, Jill worse than giant ants. Simple, tense, terse Schoelen, Kristin Minter, Lucy Deakins, two-character thriller has a cold, cold heart, Seymour Cassel, Paul Gleason, Andrew and rates kudos for scant grue. But the disRobinson, Mark Ruffalo; narrated by Anne appointing Big Reveal is just a variation on Archer. It’s 1965 and a group of high school the same-old same-old, brandishing a dull seniors pause on the brink of Real Life. If it and rusty cutting edge. Written by the direcsounds a lot like AMERICAN GRAFFITI, tors. Digital Video Widescreen. [R]쩠 you’re right . . . but this film takes place in Then She Found Me (2008) C-100m. ★★★ 1965, not 1962. In the interim, JFK has been D: Helen Hunt. Helen Hunt, Colin Firth, assassinated, the Civil Rights movement is Bette Midler, Matthew Broderick, Ben boiling, and Vietnam has become a divisive Shenkman, John Benjamin Hickey, Lynn issue. Writer-director Mutrux effectively Cohen. Hunt’s adoptive mother dies and her blends nostalgia and political awareness in feckless husband opts out of their marriage. this entertaining film. Made in 1990. [R] At her most vulnerable, and desperate to ▼●쩠 have a baby, two new people enter her life: There Goes the Bride (1979-British) a garrulous TV talk show host who claims C-88m. BOMB D: Terence Marcel. Tom to be her birth mother (Midler, who’s perSmothers, Twiggy, Martin Balsam, Sylvia fect) and a wounded single father (Firth) Syms, Michael Witney, Hermione Baddeley, who’s attracted to her. There’s nary a false Broderick Crawford, Phil Silvers, Jim Backus. move in this smart, funny, timely comedyAddle-brained father-of-the-bride Smothers drama, a notable feature directorial debut throws the wedding party into a tizzy when he for Hunt, who also helped to adapt Elinor has a fling with 1920’s-flapper model, Twiggy, Lipman’s novel. Hunt’s ob-gyn is played by whom he has conjured up and only he can see. author Salman Rushdie. [R]쩠 Unfunny slapstick that comes alive for about Theodora Goes Wild (1936) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 45 seconds when Smothers and Twiggy do an D: Richard Boleslawski. Irene Dunne, Melon-target, extravagantly staged Astaire-Rogers vyn Douglas, Thomas Mitchell, Thurston routine. Based on Ray Cooney’s and John Hall, Rosalind Keith, Spring Byington. Chapman’s 1974 West End farce. [PG] ▼쩠 Dunne’s first starring comedy is a delightThere Goes the Neighborhood (1992) ful story about small-town woman who C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Bill Phillips. Jeff Daniels, writes scandalous best-seller and falls in Catherine O’Hara, Hector Elizondo, Rhea love with sophisticated New Yorker who Perlman, Judith Ivey, Harris Yulin, Jonaillustrated the book. Lots of funny twists than Banks, Dabney Coleman, Chazz in this engaging farce, scripted by Sidney Palminteri, Mary Gross. Feeble comedy in Buchman from a Mary McCarthy story.▼쩠 which various greedy characters attempt to Theodore Rex (1996) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonadig up a fortune buried in the basement of than Betuel. Whoopi Goldberg, Armin a suburban house. Strong cast deserves Mueller-Stahl, Juliet Landau, Bud Cort, Stebetter material than this. [PG-13]▼● phen McHattie, Richard Roundtree, Jack Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (1993) Riley; voices of George Newbern, Carol C/B&W-104m. ★★★ D: Steven M. Martin. Kane. Set in the future, when DNA technolA fascinating chronicle of the life and times [ 1392 ]

of Leon Theremin, the Russian-born genius C-119m. ★★ D: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farwho invented the first electronic musical inrelly. Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Ben strument (which was adopted by Hollywood Stiller, Lee Evans, Chris Elliott, Lin Shaye, for use in movie soundtracks during the 1940s Jeffrey Tambor, Markie Post, Keith David, and ’50s). Music history meets political and Jonathan Richman, Sarah Silverman, Richard pop-culture history in this endlessly surprising Jenkins, Brett Favre. Hugely popular comedy documentary, more interesting for the material about a guy who’s never stopped loving the it offers than for the brilliance of its presentagirl he almost got to take to the high school tion. Comic highlight: a passionate if incoherprom—until a painful accident interfered. ent interview with Beach Boy Brian Wilson, The ultimate in sophomoric comedy, revelwho used the theremin on his hit record ing in politically incorrect gags, but it drags ‘‘Good Vibrations.’’ [PG]▼●쩠 on for two hours. Only the very appealing There’s a Girl in My Soup (1970-British) Mary (Diaz) keeps it afloat. Extended version runs 130m. [R] ▼●쩠 C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Roy Boulting. Peter Sellers, Goldie Hawn, Tony Britton, Nicky There Was a Crooked Man . . . (1970) C-118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Henson, Diana Dors, Nicola Pagett, Christopher Cazenove. Middle-aged Sellers gropKirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Hume Cronyn, ing for youth, woos kookie Hawn. Silly Warren Oates, Burgess Meredith, John Randolph, Michael Blodgett, Arthur O’Constory, just a few real laughs. [R]▼쩠 There’s Always Tomorrow (1956) 84m. nell, Martin Gabel, Alan Hale, Victor French, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Douglas Sirk. Barbara Stanwyck, Barbara Rhoades, Lee Grant. Bawdy, enterFred MacMurray, Joan Bennett, William taining Western-comedy-prison-film with Reynolds, Pat Crowley, Gigi Perreau, Jane Douglas as cocky inmate at territorial prison Darwell. MacMurray is in a rut, at work and circa 1883 who matches wits with progressive at home, making him particularly susceptible warden Fonda towards one goal: escape. Powto old-flame Stanwyck, who comes back into erhouse cast, handsome production. Written his life. Sudsy but well-acted soap opera, by David Newman and Robert Benton. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 filmed before in 1934. Therese (1986-French) C-91m. ★★★ D: There Will Be Blood (2007) C-158m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paul Thomas Anderson. Daniel Alain Cavalier. Catherine Mouchet, Aurore Prieto, Sylvie Habault, Ghislane Mona, Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O’Connor, Helene Alexandridis. Stark, stylistically Ciara´n Hinds, Dillon Freasier, Sydney directed, fact-based story of a dreamy, McCallister, David Willis, David Warshofintense 15-year-old girl (Mouchet) and her sky, Colton Woodward. Day-Lewis domidesire to become a Carmelite nun, to be nates this riveting film as a turn-of-the-20thwedded to Christ. Winner of six Ce´sar century oilman who talks his way into a Awards, including Best Picture. Remake of California community, determined to conthe 1938 film THERESE MARTIN. ▼쩠 trol its rich oil interests. At first we think The´re`se Raquin (1953-French-Italian) he’s just a slickster, but as layer after layer 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Marcel Carne´. Simone Si103m. of truth is revealed we see his utter amoralgnoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Sylvie, ity. He meets his match in a local preacher Roland Lesaffre, Maria Pia Casilio, Marcel (Dano) who’s just as greedy and ambitious Andre´, Paul Frankeur. Complications ensue as he is. Fascinating piece, loosely based when weary Signoret, saddled with a smallon Upton Sinclair’s book Oil!, captures the minded husband and a mother-in-law from particulars of a time and place, but it’s Dayhell, begins an affair with earthy truck Lewis’ character (with a voice borrowed driver Vallone. Melodrama of passion and from John Huston) that stands out. Chilling obsession has the right pedigree—Carne´ score by Jonny Greenwood creates a feeling and Charles Spaak adapted E´mile Zola’s of dread right from the start. Written by the novel—but lacks the necessary fire to make director. Day-Lewis and cinematographer it memorable.쩠 Robert Elswit earned Academy Awards. Panavision. [R]쩠 There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Walter Lang. These Are the Damned (1962-British) Ethel Merman, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Con96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Losey. Macdonald nor, Marilyn Monroe, Johnnie Ray, Mitzi Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors, Gaynor, Hugh O’Brian, Frank McHugh. Alexander Knox, Oliver Reed, James Gaudy (and seemingly interminable) hoVilliers. Odd film chronicling American kum about a show-biz family, built around Carey’s confrontation with a Teddy Boy catalog of Irving Berlin songs. Entertaining motorcycle gang in Weymouth—after which if not inspired, with several expensive numthe scenario becomes a Twilight Zone– bers designed to fill the wide screen. Merman like sci-fi drama! Original British title: and Dailey are fine, Marilyn’s at her sexiest, THE DAMNED. Hammerscope. and O’Connor is in top form throughout. These Three (1936) 93m. ★★★★ D: WilThen there’s Johnnie Ray deciding to become liam Wyler. Miriam Hopkins, Merle Obera priest. . . . CinemaScope.▼●쩠 on, Joel McCrea, Catherine Doucet, Alma There’s Something About Mary (1998) Kruger, Bonita Granville, Marcia Mae [ 1393 ]

Jones, Margaret Hamilton, Walter Brennan. Ed Asner. Weak follow-up to IN THE Penetrating drama of two young women HEAT OF THE NIGHT finds black detective (Oberon, Hopkins) running school, ruined Virgil Tibbs (now married and living in San by lies of malicious student Granville; loosely Francisco) investigating murder of girl, with based on Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s priest-friend Landau implicated. Followed by THE ORGANIZATION. [PG]▼쩠 Hour. Superb acting by all, with Granville chillingly impressive; scripted by the playThey Call Me Trinity (1971-Italian) wright. Remade in 1961 by same director as C-109m. ★★1⁄2 D: E. B. Clucher (Enzo THE CHILDREN’S HOUR. ▼● Barboni). Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Far★★1 These Wilder Years (1956) 91m. ley Granger, Gisela Hahn, Stephen Zacharias, ⁄2 D: Roy Rowland. James Cagney, Barbara Dan Sturkie. Wild spoof of THE MAGStanwyck, Walter Pidgeon, Betty Lou Keim, NIFICENT SEVEN made international suDon Dubbins, Edward Andrews, Dean perstars of Hill and Spencer; they play Jones, Tom Laughlin. Unusual to see Cagney half-brothers who try to help Mormon setin this kind of soap opera, about a man who tlement protect itself from the inevitable wants to find his illegitimate son, and beband of Mexican marauders. Virtually noncomes involved with teenage unwed mother stop slapstick spiced with gentle ribbing of (Keim) through intervention of foundling the spaghetti Western genre; good fun. home director Stanwyck. Look for young MiSequel: TRINITY IS STILL MY NAME. Techniscope. [G]▼●쩠 chael Landon in pool room. They (2002) C-89m. ★★ D: Robert Harmon. They Came From Beyond Space (1967Laura Regan, Marc Blucas, Ethan Embry, British) C-85m. BOMB D: Freddie FranJon Abrahams, Dagmar Dominczyk, Jay cis. Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Brazeau. Bland, predictable horror entry in Mohyeddin, Bernard Kay, Michael Gough. which psychology student Regan is terrorized Hutton is free to combat spacemen beby mysterious, spiderlike creatures that thrive cause the silver plate he carries inside his in the dark. Uplifted a bit by its striking finale. skull makes him immune to their powers. ‘‘Presented’’ by Wes Craven. Super 35. Based on Joseph Millard’s The Gods Hate [PG-13] ▼쩠 Kansas. ▼쩠 They All Died Laughing SEE: Jolly Bad They Came From Within (1975-Canadian) Fellow, A C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: David Cronenberg. Paul They All Kissed the Bride (1942) 85m. Hampton, Joe Silver, Lynn Lowry, Allen ★★1 ⁄2 D: Alexander Hall. Joan Crawford, Magicovsky, Barbara Steele, Susan Petrie. Melvyn Douglas, Roland Young, Billie Bizarre, sexually oriented parasites run Burke, Allen Jenkins. Good stars in fairly rampant through dwellers in high-rise amusing film of man being arrested for apartment building with plenty of gory kissing bride at wedding.▼ violence quick to ensue. First ‘‘major’’ They All Laughed (1981) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 film by cult favorite Cronenberg sets the D: Peter Bogdanovich. Audrey Hepburn, disgusting pattern for most of his subBen Gazzara, John Ritter, Colleen Camp, sequent pictures. Originally titled SHIDorothy Stratten, Blaine Novak, Patti HanVERS, then THE PARASITE MURDERS. sen, George Morfogen, Sean Ferrer, Glenn [R]▼●쩠 Scarpelli, Elizabeth Pena. Quirky romanThey Came to Cordura (1959) C-123m. ★★1 tic comedy, long on style, short on sub⁄2 D: Robert Rossen. Gary Cooper, Rita stance, follows the adventures and amours Hayworth, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Richof four private detectives. Spotlights some ard Conte, Michael Callan, Dick York. sharp-looking ladies, makes excellent use Soapy oater set in 1916 Mexico. Cooper is of N.Y.C. locations, but personal taste will Army officer accused of cowardice, sent have to judge its degree of success. Ferrer is to find five men worthy of Medal of Honor. the son of Hepburn and Mel Ferrer. Stratten Hayworth is shady lady he meets on the way. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 was killed prior to film’s release. [PG]▼●쩠 They Call Me Bruce? (1982) C-88m. ★1⁄2 They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968D: Elliot Hong. Johnny Yune, Ralph Spanish-French-Italian) C-128m. ★★ D: AnMauro, Pam Huntington, Margaux Hemtonio Isasi. Gary Lockwood, Elke Sommer, ingway. Unfunny, frequently obnoxious Lee J. Cobb, Jack Palance. Big heist is kung fu parody with Korean comedian small potatoes as armed robbers plot to Yune a doltish cook who is constantly intercept Vegas gambling money. Technimistaken for Bruce Lee. About two-thirds scope. [R] of the gags are based on TV commercials. They Died With Their Boots On (1941) 138m. ★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Aka A FISTFUL OF CHOPSTICKS and followed by THEY STILL CALL ME Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, CharBRUCE. [PG]▼쩠 ley Grapewin, Gene Lockhart, Anthony They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970) Quinn, Stanley Ridges, Sydney Greenstreet, C-108m. ★★ D: Gordon Douglas. Sidney Regis Toomey, Hattie McDaniel, Walter Poitier, Barbara McNair, Martin Landau, Hampden. Sweeping Hollywood version of David Sheiner, Anthony Zerbe, Jeff Corey, Little Bighorn battle, with Flynn flamboyant [ 1394 ]

as Custer. Fine vignettes amidst episodic actually director Carpenter. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 buildup to exciting Last Stand climax. This They Live by Night (1949) 95m. ★★★1⁄2 being Errol and Olivia’s final film together D: Nicholas Ray. Farley Granger, Cathy lends poignance to their farewell scene. SuO’Donnell, Howard da Silva, Jay C. perb score by Max Steiner. Also shown in Flippen, Helen Craig. Director Ray’s first computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 film is sensitive, well-made story of young They Drive by Night (1940) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 lovers who are fugitives from the law. Set D: Raoul Walsh. George Raft, Ann Sheriin 1930s, it avoids cliche´s and builds condan, Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Gale siderable impact instead. Based on Edward Page, Alan Hale, Roscoe Karns. MarvelAnderson’s Thieves Like Us, remade in ous melodrama of truck-driving brothers, 1974 under that name. Also shown in Bogie and Raft, battling the dangers of the computer-colored version.▼●쩠 open road as well as a murder frame-up They Loved Life SEE: Kanal by Lupino. Unforgettable dialogue by Jerry They Made Me a Criminal (1939) 92m. Wald and Richard Macaulay. Partial re★★1 ⁄2 D: Busby Berkeley. John Garfield, working of BORDERTOWN. Also shown Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, May Robin computer-colored version.▼●쩠 son, Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, They Gave Him a Gun (1937) 94m. ★★1⁄2 Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Barbara PepD: W. S. Van Dyke II. Spencer Tracy, per, Ward Bond, Ann Sheridan. Garfield Gladys George, Franchot Tone, Edgar takes it on the lam when he thinks he’s Dearing, Charles Trowbridge, Cliff Edkilled a reporter, stays out West with Robwards, Mary Lou Treen. Gun-shy hayseed son and Dead End Kids. Enjoyable, with Tone, who was taught ‘‘thou shalt not Rains miscast as a Dick Tracy type. Rekill,’’ changes dramatically when he fights make of THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN. in WW1. Tracy is his devoted pal, who ▼●쩠 later tries to save him from a life of crime. They Made Me a Fugitive (1947-British) Dramatically obvious, and falls apart with ★★★ D: Cavalcanti. Trevor How103m. the entrance of nurse George; still, the ard, Sally Gray, Griffith Jones, Rene Ray, opening montage is striking, and the warMary Merrall, Charles Farrell. Dilettante related scenes exceptional. crook is double-crossed by his boss and They Got Me Covered (1943) 95m. ★★ seeks revenge while on the lam from poD: David Butler. Bob Hope, Dorothy lice. Potent (yet little-known) British film Lamour, Lenore Aubert, Otto Preminger, noir packs a real punch, with no holds Eduardo Ciannelli, Marion Martin, Donbarred in terms of brutality (and refusal to ald MacBride, Walter Catlett, Donald provide a pat, happy ending). Strikingly Meek. Spy yarn (by Harry Kurnitz) set in photographed by Otto Heller. Look sharp Washington was topical at the time, awkand you’ll spot young Peter Bull and Seward now; not up to Hope standards.▼●쩠 bastian Cabot. Originally cut when reThey Knew What They Wanted (1940) leased in U.S. as I BECAME A CRIMINAL; 96m. ★★★ D: Garson Kanin. Carole Lomalso trimmed for British reissue. Finally rebard, Charles Laughton, William Gargan, stored on video in 1999.▼쩠 Harry Carey, Frank Fay. Laughton and They Met in Bombay (1941) 93m. ★★1⁄2 Lombard are excellent in this flawed adapD: Clarence Brown. Clark Gable, Rosatation by Robert Ardrey of Sidney Howard’s lind Russell, Peter Lorre, Jessie Ralph, play (filmed twice before). He’s an Italian Reginald Owen, Eduardo Ciannelli. Two grape-grower in California who conducts jewel thieves team up in ordinary romantic correspondence with waitress and asks her comedy-actioner, spiced by Lorre as moneyto marry him. Fay is too sanctimonious for hungry cargo-ship captain. Look for Alan words as local priest. Watch for Karl MalLadd in a small role.▼ den and Tom Ewell as rowdy guests at the They Might Be Giants (1971) C-86m. pre-wedding party.▼ ★★★ D: Anthony Harvey. Joanne WoodThey Live (1988) C-97m. ★★ D: John ward, George C. Scott, Jack Gilford, LesCarpenter. Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg ter Rawlins, Al Lewis, Rue McClanahan, Foster, George ‘‘Buck’’ Flower, Peter JaTheresa Merritt, Eugene Roche, James son, Raymond St. Jacques, Jason Robards Tolkan, Kitty Winn, Sudie Bond, F. MurIII, Larry Franco. Lonely drifter arrives in ray Abraham, Paul Benedict, M. Emmet L.A., discovers that consumerist society Walsh. Fun yarn of slightly daffy gentleis being dominated by aliens, whose human (Scott) who believes he is Sherlock man disguises and subliminal advertising Holmes, and his psychiatrist tagalong messages are visible only through special (Woodward) whose real name is Dr. Watson. glasses. Satiric sci-fi adventure begins well, Alternate version on DVD runs 91m. [G] degenerates into standard urban action piece, ▼쩠 not helped by awful alien makeup. ScreenThey Only Kill Their Masters (1972) writer ‘‘Frank Armitage’’ (working from a C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Goldstone. James short story by Ray Faraday Nelson) is Garner, Katharine Ross, Hal Holbrook, [ 1395 ]

Harry Guardino, June Allyson, Christobig-brother figure for orphan Mendenhall. [PG]▼ pher Connelly, Tom Ewell, Peter Lawford, Edmond O’Brien, Arthur O’Connell, Ann They Went That-A-Way and That-A-Way (1978) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Edward Montagne, Rutherford. Great cast in complicated modern-day whodunit set in coastal CaliStuart E. McGowan. Tim Conway, Chuck fornia town; tries for Dashiell Hammett McCann, Richard Kiel, Dub Taylor, Reni feeling, doesn’t quite make it. Policeman Santoni. Lame prison escape comedy (with Garner tries to solve murder of pregnant script by Conway) puts Conway and woman, with formidable Doberman pinscher McCann through lackluster routines as a road-company Laurel and Hardy. [PG]▼쩠 figuring prominently. Not bad, but a letdown. [PG]▼쩠 They Were Expendable (1945) 135m. ★★★★ They Passed This Way SEE: Four Faces D: John Ford. Robert Montgomery, West John Wayne, Donna Reed, Jack Holt, Ward They’re Playing With Fire (1984) C-96m. Bond, Louis Jean Heydt, Marshall ThompBOMB D: Howard (Hikmet) Avedis. Eric son, Leon Ames, Cameron Mitchell, RusBrown, Sybil Danning, Andrew Prine, Paul sell Simpson, Jack Pennick, Robert Barrat, Clemens, K. T. Stevens. What starts off as Tom Tyler. One of the finest (and most rehash of Brown’s PRIVATE LESSONS underrated) of all WW2 films, based on quickly turns into sick, ugly slasher film. the true story of America’s PT boat squadDanning (as a college English professor!) ron in the Philippines during the early days lures Brown into helping her with a let’sof the war. Moving, exquisitely detailed kill-Mom-and-make-off-with-my-inheriproduction (photographed by Joseph Autance plot—except that someone else is gust) under Ford’s distinctive hand, with killing everybody in sight. Not even Dannreal-life Naval officer Montgomery a coning’s formidable nude scenes are reason vincing lead. Screenplay by Frank ‘‘Spig’’ enough to sit through this slop. [R]▼쩠 Wead. Also shown in computer-colored They Saved Hitler’s Brain (1963) 74m. version.▼●쩠 BOMB D: David Bradley. Walter StockThey Who Dare (1953-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Milestone. Dirk Bogarde, er, Audrey Caire, Carlos Rivas, John Holland, Dani Lynn, Marshall Reed, Nestor Denholm Elliott, Akim Tamiroff, Eric Paiva. Daughter of kidnapped scientist traces Pohlmann, David Peel. Effective WW2 him to isle of Mandoras, where Nazis still actioner with good character delineation, flourish under the leadership of Hitler’s tracing commando raid on German-constill-living head. Unbelievably muddled plot trolled Aegean air fields. results from intercutting 1950s studio potThey Won’t Believe Me (1947) 95m. ★★★1 boiler, beautifully photographed by Stanley ⁄2 D: Irving Pichel. Susan Hayward, Cortez (MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS) Robert Young, Jane Greer, Rita Johnson, with super-cheap 1960s footage involving Tom Powers, Don Beddoe, Frank Fergucompletely different cast. Originally titled son. Fine James Cain–type melodrama about MADMEN OF MANDORAS.▼쩠 a philanderer who gets involved with three They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) women, leading to tragedy (and a terrific C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sydney Pollack. Jane twist ending). Young excels in his unsymFonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, pathetic role; Johnson does wonders with her scenes as his wife.▼● Gig Young, Red Buttons, Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Dern, Allyn Ann McLerie, Michael They Won’t Forget (1937) 95m. ★★★★ D: Conrad, Al Lewis, Severn Darden, Art MeMervyn LeRoy. Claude Rains, Gloria trano, Paul Mantee. 1930s marathon dance Dickson, Otto Kruger, Allyn Joslyn, Elisha becomes microcosm of life, with myriad of Cook, Jr., Edward Norris. Electrifying drama subplots, characters’ lives intertwining. begins when pretty high school student is Fonda is self-destructive girl who attracts murdered in Southern town. A man is aimless Sarrazin with tragic results; Young arrested, and a big-time Northern lawyer won Oscar as oily promoter of grueling takes the case, but everyone seems more ‘‘contest.’’ Fascinating. Based on Horace interested in exploiting personal interests McCoy’s novel; script by James Poe and than in seeing justice triumph. No punches Robert E. Thompson. Panavision. [M/ are pulled in this still-powerful film. Lana PG]▼●쩠 Turner plays the unfortunate girl, in her They Still Call Me Bruce (1987) C-91m. first important role. Script by Robert ★1 Rossen and Aben Kandel, from the book ⁄2 D: Johnny Yune, James Orr. Johnny Yune, David Mendenhall, Pat Paulsen, Death in the Deep South by Ward Greene; Joey Travolta, Robert Guillaume, Bethany based on notorious 1913 incident later dramWright, Carl Bensen. In-name-only sequel atized for TV as THE MURDER OF to THEY CALL ME BRUCE has at least MARY PHAGAN.▼ one thing in common with its predecessor: Thief, The (1952) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Russell it’s awful. This time Yune plays a Korean Rouse. Ray Milland, Rita Gam, Martin searching for the American GI who saved Gabel, Harry Bronson. Spy yarn set in him years ago, winding up instead as a N.Y.C. with a difference: no dialogue. [ 1396 ]

Gimmick grows wearisome, script is tame.▼쩠 Thief (1981) C-122m. ★★★ D: Michael Mann. James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Robert Prosky, Tom Signorelli, Dennis Farina, William L. Petersen. Arresting drama about a professional thief, inventively realized by writerdirector Mann (in his feature debut). Caan is excellent as the man with one drive: survival. Stylishly photographed (by Donald Thorin) and scored (by Tangerine Dream). [R]▼●쩠 Thief, The (1997-Russian) C-94m. ★★★ D: Pavel Chukhrai. Vladimir Mashkov, Ekaterina Rednikova, Misha Philipchuk. Intimate character study set in post WW2 Russia: an abandoned single mother and her adorable 6-year-old son fall for a swarthy military officer, not knowing he’s really a petty thief. A powerful tragedy, simply and beautifully told, with superlative performances from its three leads, particularly Mashkov, who exudes the sexy malevolence of a young Robert Mitchum. [R]▼●쩠 Thief and the Cobbler, The SEE: Arabian Knight Thief of Bagdad, The (1924) 155m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Raoul Walsh. Douglas Fairbanks, Julanne Johnston, Anna May Wong, Sojin, Snitz Edwards, Charles Belcher, Brandon Hurst. Fairbanks is unusually balletic (and ingratiating as ever) in this elaborate Arabian Nights pantomime, designed to instill a true sense of wonder. Quite long, but never dull; one of the most imaginative of all silent films, with awesome sets by William Cameron Menzies. Remade three times (so far).

knowledge he’s learned. Slick but curiously unappealing film written by firsttime director Stewart. Reworked slightly for video, with potentially X-rated shots added. [R]▼●쩠 Thief of Paris, The (1967-French) C119m. ★★★ D: Louis Malle. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Genevieve Bujold, Marie Dubois, Francoise Fabian, Julien Guiomar. Solid comedy-drama with personal setbacks turning Belmondo to thievery for revenge on society; soon he finds that robbery has become his whole life. Thief Who Came to Dinner, The (1973) C-105m. ★★ D: Bud Yorkin. Ryan O’Neal, Jacqueline Bisset, Warren Oates, Jill Clayburgh, Charles Cioffi, Ned Beatty, Austin Pendleton, Gregory Sierra, Michael Murphy, John Hillerman. Disappointing caper comedy (considering cast and director) about a computer expert who becomes a jewel thief in Houston’s top social circles. Clayburgh (pre-stardom) has small but telling role as O’Neal’s ex-wife; script by Walter Hill. [PG]▼ Thieves (1977) C-92m. BOMB D: John Berry. Marlo Thomas, Charles Grodin, Irwin Corey, Hector Elizondo, Mercedes McCambridge, John McMartin, Gary Merrill, Ann Wedgeworth. Pretentious, boring adaptation of Herb Gardner’s play about crazy couple trying to recapture their innocence in a corrupt N.Y.C. Corey (as Thomas’ cabbie father) adds only life to so-called comedy. Bob Fosse has a brief role. [PG] Thieves (1996) SEE: Les Voleurs Thieves’ Highway (1949) 94m. ★★★ D: Jules Dassin. Richard Conte, Valentina ▼●쩠 Thief of Bagdad, The (1940-British) Cortese, Lee J. Cobb, Barbara Lawrence, Jack Oakie, Millard Mitchell, Joseph PevC-106m. ★★★★ D: Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan, Michael Powell. Sabu, John Justin, ney. Tough postwar drama of a returning June Duprez, Conrad Veidt, Rex Ingram, vet seeking to avenge his trucker/father’s Miles Malleson, Mary Morris. Remarktreatment at the hands of a crooked fruit able fantasy of native boy Sabu outdoing dealer in San Francisco. Masterfully dievil magician Veidt in Arabian Nights fable rected; script by A. I. Bezzerides, from his with incredible Oscar-winning Technicolor novel. Only the ending seems pat.쩠 photography by Georges Perinal and Osmond Thieves’ Holiday SEE: Scandal in Paris, Borradaile, special effects, and art direcA tion. Ingram gives splendid performance Thieves Like Us (1974) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 as a genie; vivid score by Miklos Rozsa. D: Robert Altman. Keith Carradine, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck, Bert Remsen, ▼●쩠 Thief of Baghdad (1961-Italian) C-90m. Louise Fletcher, Ann Latham, Tom Skerritt. ★★ D: Arthur Lubin. Steve Reeves, Giorgia Three misfits escape from prison camp in Moll, Arturo Dominici, Edy Vessel. Reeves 1930s South, go on a crime spree; the searches for enchanted blue rose so he can youngest (Carradine) falls in love with a marry Sultan’s daughter. Nothing like Sabu simple, uneducated girl (Duvall). Despite version, but occasionally atmospheric. Cinfamiliar trappings, Altman digs deep into emaScope. ▼ period atmosphere and strong characterizaThief of Hearts (1984) C-100m. ★★ D: tions; this film gets better every time you Douglas Day Stewart. Steven Bauer, Barlook at it. Remake of THEY LIVE BY bara Williams, John Getz, David Caruso, NIGHT. Scripted by Calder Willingham, Christine Ebersole, George Wendt. While Joan Tewkesbury, and Altman. [R]▼●쩠 ransacking a house Bauer steals woman’s Thin Air (1969-British) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: diaries, reads them through, and then deGerry Levy. George Sanders, Maurice termines to woo her—using the ‘‘secret’’ Evans, Patrick Allen, Neil Connery, [ 1397 ]

Hilary Dwyer, Robert Flemyng. Paratists at lonely Arctic outpost dig up alien chutists keep disappearing, due to unseen (Arness) from the permafrost and must fight forces; routine sci-fi with little to refor their lives when it’s accidentally thawed. commend it. Original British title: THE Tense direction (often credited to producer BODY STEALERS (INVASION OF THE Howard Hawks), excellent performances, BODY STEALERS). [G]▼ eerie score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Screenplay Thin Blue Line, The (1988) C-96m. ★★★★ by Charles Lederer. Watch out for 81m. D: Errol Morris. Remarkable, perhaps even reissue prints. Remade in 1982. Also shown landmark, documentary, as Morris sets out in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 to prove that a convicted hitchhiker did not Things Are Tough All Over (1982) kill a Dallas policeman in 1976—and that C-92m. ★★ D: Tom Avildsen. Cheech the lowlife who fingered him (and who Marin, Thomas Chong, Shelby Fiddis, wound up on Death Row for a subsequent Rikki Marin, Evelyn Guerrero. Besides their murder) did. Very subjective but totally standard characterizations, the boys play convincing, so much so that the case was two Arab brothers whose paths cross C & reopened after film’s premiere, and the C’s as the latter drive a ritzy car to defendant was exonerated. Philip Glass’ California, one that happens to have $5 score adds to hypnotic effect. ▼●쩠 million hidden inside. Superb makeup and Thing, The (1982) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: John mimicry give evidence to the team’s genuCarpenter. Kurt Russell, A. Wilford Brimine talent, but the laughs just aren’t there ley, Richard Dysart, Richard Masur, Donmost of the time. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ald Moffat, T.K. Carter, David Clennon. Things Change (1988) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Remake of 1951 film about Antarctic outDavid Mamet. Don Ameche, Joe Mantegna, post terrorized by an alien organism. More Robert Prosky, J. J. Johnson, Ricky Jay, faithful to the original story, but nonstop paMike Nussbaum, Jack Wallace, Dan Conrade of slimy, repulsive special effects turns way, William H. Macy, J. T. Walsh, Felicity this into a freak show and drowns most of the Huffman. Simple Italian shoemaker (Ameche) suspense. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 agrees to take the rap for a Chicago mob Thing About My Folks, The (2005) Cmurder for a fee, but the man assigned to 1 ★★ 97m. baby-sit him for a weekend (Mantegna) de⁄2 D: Raymond De Felitta. Peter Falk, Paul Reiser, Olympia Dukakis, Elizacides to take the old man on a final fling beth Perkins, Mackenzie Connolly, Lydia before he goes to jail. Slight, sometimes flat Jordan, Ann Dowd, Claire Beckman. Concomic fable by Mamet and Shel Silverstein fronted with the sudden news that his father is buoyed by some wonderful vignettes and intends to divorce his mother, after decades endearing performances by the stars. Ameche is a joy to watch. [PG]▼●쩠 of marriage, Reiser takes his dad (Falk) on a road trip to take his mind off his troubles. Things to Come (1936-British) 92m. ★★★ Along the way, father and son bond for the D: William Cameron Menzies. Raymond first time, and the younger man learns a lot Massey, Cedric Hardwicke, Ralph Richabout what makes his old man tick. Laborardson, Maurice Braddell, Edward Chapof-love project was written by Reiser with man, Ann Todd. Stunning visualization of Falk in mind, and it shows: Falk gives an H. G. Wells’ depiction of the future. irresistible performance in this predictable Massey portrays leader of new world, Richbut likable comedy-drama. [PG-13] 쩠 ardson despotic wartime ruler. Aloof but Thing Called Love, The (1993) C-116m. always interesting, enhanced by Menzies’ ★★1 sets. Vibrant music by Arthur Bliss; Wells ⁄2 D: Peter Bogdanovich. River Phoenix, Samantha Mathis, Dermot Mulroney, Sanhimself wrote the screenplay. Originally redra Bullock, K. T. Oslin, Anthony Clark, leased at 108m. 1979 movie THE SHAPE Trisha Yearwood, Barry Shabaka Henley. OF THINGS TO COME, though taking the Ordinary drama about country singer–songactual title of Wells’ book, has nothing in writer Mathis, who yearns to make it in common with this film.▼쩠 Nashville, and her experiences as she strives Things To Do in Denver When You’re for success. At its best when depicting the Dead (1995) C-124m. ★★ D: Gary Fleder. friendship and rivalry among struggling artAndy Garcia, Gabrielle Anwar, Christopher ists. Of interest mostly as one of Phoenix’s Walken, Christopher Lloyd, William Forlast films; he’s good as a sulky but talented sythe, Treat Williams, Bill Nunn, Steve Bussinger who covers up his emotions. Direccemi, Jack Warden, Fairuza Balk, Bill Cobbs, tor’s cut runs 118m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Marshall Bell, Glenn Plummer, Sarah TrigThing From Another World, The (1951) ger, Jenny McCarthy, Don Cheadle. An87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Christian Nyby. Kenneth other entry in the post-Tarantino, faux-hip Tobey, Margaret Sheridan, Robert Corncrime genre, with Garcia as a reformed thwaite, Douglas Spencer, James Arness, crook who agrees to stage an assault to plaDewey Martin, William Self, George cate his evil, now-wheelchaired mentor Fenneman. Classic blend of science-fiction Walken. Naturally the plans go horribly and horror, loosely based on John W. wrong. Stylized, violent, and absolutely Campbell, Jr.’s Who Goes There? Scienempty, though Williams’ psycho is his best [ 1398 ]

part in years, and Buscemi’s hit man has a between a movie and a vanity production great name: Mr. Shhh. [R] ▼●쩠 as director/cowriter/executive producer/star/ Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) Cmusic supervisor Lawrence plays a young 119m. ★★★ D: Susanne Bier. Halle Berry, man seemingly irresistible to women. He Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny, Alison boasts to a friend that he can bed a beautiful Lohman, John Carroll Lynch, Paula Newbut hard-to-get woman they encounter, leadsome, Omar Benson Miller, Alexis Lleweling to a comedic FATAL ATTRACTION: lyn, Micah Berry. When her husband dies she’s harder to get rid of than she ever was unexpectedly, Berry reaches out to his lifeto get! Lawrence’s first foray behind the long best friend—a druggie she never scenes is amusing only in spots. Super 35. wanted anything to do with. He moves into [R] ▼●쩠 her guest room, but when he begins to take The Thin Man series SEE: Leonard Malher husband’s place in the eyes of her kids tin’s Classic Movie Guide Thin Man, The (1934) 93m. ★★★★ D: she feels great resentment toward him. Interesting adult drama about grief, forgiveW. S. Van Dyke. William Powell, Myrna ness, and healing, if a bit tidy in its plotting. Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Especially good showcase for Del Toro, Minna Gombell, Cesar Romero, Natalie who’s never played such a warm, sympathetic Moorhead, Edward Ellis, Porter Hall. Nick character before. U.S. filmmaking debut for and Nora investigate the disappearance of an Danish director Bier. Super 35. [R]쩠 inventor in this classic blend of laughs and Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at suspense which marked the first pairing of Her (2001) C-109m. ★★★ D: Rodrigo what was to become one of the movies’ great Garcı´a. Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, Calista romantic teams. Shot in just two weeks by Flockhart, Kathy Baker, Amy Brenneman, director Woody ‘‘One-Shot’’ Van Dyke and Valeria Golino, Holly Hunter, Matt Craven, cinematographer James Wong Howe, this has Gregory Hines, Miguel Sandoval, Noah gone on to become the sophisticated comedyFleiss, Danny Woodburn, Penelope Allen, mystery par excellence, inspiring five sequels Roma Maffia, Elpidia Carrillo. Anthology as well as countless imitations. Frances of five intersecting stories about a diverse Goodrich and Albert Hackett adapted Dashiell Hammett’s novel.▼●쩠 group of women and the physical and emotional toll everyday life takes on them. InThin Man Goes Home, The (1944) 100m. ★★★ trospective, absorbing and beautifully acted, D: Richard Thorpe. William Powell, this is a ‘‘woman’s picture’’ in the best Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson, Gloria De sense. U.S. debut on cable TV. [PG-13]▼쩠 Haven, Anne Revere, Helen Vinson, Harry Thing That Couldn’t Die, The (1958) Davenport, Leon Ames, Donald Meek, 69m. ★★ D: Will Cowan. Andra Martin, Edward Brophy. Nick takes the family on William Reynolds, Robin Hughes, Caroa vacation to Sycamore Springs to visit his lyn Kearney, Jeffrey Stone. You never parents, but naturally winds up embroiled know what a dowsing rod will find. In this in a murder case. Leisurely entry, with even more comedy than usual.▼●쩠 thriller, one finds the still living, decapitated head of a 15th-century devil worshipThinner (1996) C-92m. ★★ D: Tom Holper who’s looking for his body. Cheap, and land. Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, looks it, but Hughes is good in title role. Lucinda Jenney, Joy Lenz, Michael ConThing With Two Heads, The (1972) stantine, Sam Freed, Kari Wuhrer, John C-93m. ★★ D: Lee Frost. Ray Milland, Horton, Daniel Von Bargen. Overweight Rosey Grier, Don Marshall, Roger Perry, Maine lawyer Burke accidentally kills an old Chelsea Brown. Fantastic tale of bigot gypsy woman, so her even older father (Conwho finds his head transplanted onto black stantine) puts a curse on him; he starts losing man’s body. Played partially for laughs, weight, and can’t stop. Though well made, which helps a little. [PG]▼쩠 with good performances and astonishingly Think Dirty (1970-British) C-94m. ★1⁄2 convincing makeup by Greg Cannom, the D: Jim Clark. Marty Feldman, Shelley leading characters are unsympathetic and the Berman, Judy Cornwell, Julie Ege, Patsituation unrelentingly grim. From the novel rick Cargill, Jack Watson. Leering, obnoxby Stephen King (writing as ‘‘Richard Bachious comedy-fantasy with adman Feldman man’’), who has his usual cameo. Aka STEhaving to use sex to promote a cereal on PHEN KING’S THINNER (which he is). TV; meanwhile, his prudish wife is mount[R]▼●쩠 ing a campaign to purify the airwaves. Thin Red Line, The (1964) 99m. ★★★ D: Original British title: EVERY HOME Andrew Marton. Keir Dullea, Jack Warden, SHOULD HAVE ONE.▼ James Philbrook, Kieron Moore. Gritty adThin Line Between Love and Hate, A aptation of James Jones’ novel about per(1996) C-108m. ★★ D: Martin Lawrence. sonal conflict during the bloody attack on Martin Lawrence, Lynn Whitfield, Regina Guadalcanal during WW2. Dullea is the King, Bobby Brown, Della Reese, Malinda sensitive, iconoclastic soldier and Warden Williams, Daryl M. Mitchell, Roger E. is the brutal sergeant who won’t leave him Mosley, Faizon Love. There is a thin line alone. Remade in 1998. CinemaScope. [ 1399 ]

Thin Red Line, The (1998) C-170m. ★★★ was tightened somewhat by coproducer D: Terrence Malick. Sean Penn, Adrien David O. Selznick. Also shown in comBrody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, Nick puter-colored version.▼●쩠 Nolte, Elias Koteas, John Cusack, Woody Third Man on the Mountain (1959) Harrelson, Jared Leto, Dash Mihok, Tim C-105m. ★★★ D: Ken Annakin. James Blake Nelson, John C. Reilly, John Savage, MacArthur, Michael Rennie, Janet Munro, George Clooney, John Travolta, Nick Stahl, James Donald, Herbert Lom, Laurence Shawn Hatosy. Ethereal, moodily philoNaismith. Fine Disney adventure about sophical interpretation of James Jones’ Swiss boy (MacArthur) determined to climb novel (previously filmed in 1964) about the the Matterhorn (here called the Citadel) taking of Guadalcanal during WW2, who learns more than just mountain-climbing sparked by intense character studies: a paciin his dogged pursuit. Look quickly to spot fistic soldier (Caviezel), his antagonistic serMacArthur’s mother, Helen Hayes, in a cameo as tourist.▼●쩠 geant (Penn), a captain who refuses to sacrifice his men without cause (Koteas), a Third Miracle, The (1999) C-119m. ★★★ lieutenant colonel who only wants to see D: Agnieszka Holland. Ed Harris, Anne results (Nolte). These powerful portraits are Heche, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Michael Risthe glue that holds the film together when it poli, Charles Haid, James Gallanders, Cabegins to wander. Those wanderings turned terina Scorsone, Barbara Sukowa. A priest many viewers off, but the film’s strengths who’s struggling with his faith is assigned outweigh its imperfections. Malick also to investigate a statue of the Virgin Mary scripted. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 that’s weeping blood; it’s a direct link to a Third Day, The (1965) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: beloved woman in a working-class commuJack Smight. George Peppard, Elizabeth nity whom many believe is worthy of nomiAshley, Roddy McDowall, Arthur O’Connation for sainthood. Consistently involving nell, Mona Washbourne, Herbert Marshall, and surprising, with fine performances. Based Robert Webber, Charles Drake, Sally on a novel by Richard Vetere. [R]▼쩠 Kellerman, Vincent Gardenia, Arte Johnson. Third Secret, The (1964-British) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Crichton. Stephen Boyd, Capable cast helps standard amnesia tale about Peppard’s inability to remember Jack Hawkins, Richard Attenborough, Diane events that have caused him to be accused Cilento, Pamela Franklin, Paul Rogers, of murder. Panavision. Alan Webb, Judi Dench. Episodic whodunit Third Generation, The (1979-German) with Boyd tracking down the murderer of C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rainer Werner Fasshis psychoanalyst; no surprises here. binder. Eddie Constantine, Hanna Schygulla, CinemaScope. 쩠 Volker Spengler, Margit Carstensen, Bulle Third Solution, The (1989-Italian) COgier, Udo Kier, Hark Bohm. Pitch-black 113m. ★1⁄2 D: Pasquale Squitieri. F. Murcomedy about upper-middle-class German ray Abraham, Treat Williams, Danny terrorists, their cops-and-robbers antics, Aiello, Rita Rusic, Robert Balchus, Rossano and how they provide excuse for governBrazzi, Nigel Court. Good cast is wasted ment oppression. Superb ensemble cast in in this overbaked spy melodrama, with one of Fassbinder’s best films.쩠 American Williams uncovering a plot to Third Key, The (1956-British) 96m. ★★★ foil the Pope’s scheduled visit to the SoD: Charles Frend. Jack Hawkins, John Stratviet Union. Original title: RUSSICUM. ton, Dorothy Alison, Geoffrey Keen, Ursula Panavision.▼● Howells. Exciting story of Scotland Yard, as Third Voice, The (1960) 79m. ★★★ D: HuInspector Hawkins and rookie sergeant (Stratbert Cornfield. Edmond O’Brien, Laraine ton) diligently pursue safecracking incident to Day, Julie London, Ralph Brooks, Roque its surprising conclusion. Original British title: Ybarra, Henry Delgado. Neat suspense THE LONG ARM.▼ film involving murder, impersonation, and Third Man, The (1949-British) 104m. double-crossing. CinemaScope. ★★★★ D: Carol Reed. Orson Welles, JoThirst (1949) SEE: Three Strange Loves seph Cotten, (Alida) Valli, Trevor Howard, Thirst (1979-Australian) C-98m. ★★★ D: Bernard Lee, Wilfrid Hyde-White. GraRod Hardy. Chantal Contouri, David ham Greene’s account of mysterious Harry Hemmings, Henry Silva, Max Phipps, ShirLime (Welles) in post-WW2 Vienna is a ley Cameron. Strange, stylish, chilling tale bona fide classic, with pulp-writer Cotten of secret society trying to brainwash Conon a manhunt for Harry. Anton Karas’ touri and transform her into a baronesszither rendition of ‘‘The Third Man Theme’’ vampire. Minimum of plot and characterizaadds just the right touch; cinematographer tion but maximum suspense in this wellRobert Krasker won an Oscar. Note: there directed shocker. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 are two versions of this film. The British Thirsty Dead, The (1975) C-90m. BOMB version features introductory narration by D: Terry Becker. John Considine, Jennifer director Reed; the American print is narBillingsley, Judith McConnell, Tani Guthrie. rated by Cotten, and runs 93m. Little of Guide abducts actress and friends to jungle substance was actually cut, but the film where strange tribe drinks human blood to [ 1400 ]

regain youth. Boring Philippine-made junk. to daughters of diplomats; after trading Aka BLOOD HUNT. [PG]▼쩠 bits of info they picked up from Daddy 13 SEE: Eye of the Devil during the holidays, the girls decide to go Thirteen (2003) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Catheroff and do spy stuff. Castle held a worldine Hardwicke. Holly Hunter, Evan Rachel wide talent search to find his ‘‘stars,’’ for Wood, Nikki Reed, Jeremy Sisto, Brady whom this was their first—and no doubt Corbet, Deborah Kara Unger, Kip Pardue, last—film. A side-splitting camp classic awaiting rediscovery.쩠 Sarah Clarke, D.W. Moffett. Searing look at life through the eyes of an impressionable 13 Ghosts (1960) C/B&W-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: teenage girl in L.A., as she’s led in the William Castle. Charles Herbert, Donald wrong direction by a ‘‘popular’’ classmate Woods, Martin Milner, Jo Morrow, Rosewho all but overtakes her existence. Hunter mary DeCamp, Margaret Hamilton, John is terrific as the girl’s single mom who’s Van Dreelen. Typically tongue-in-cheek simply struggling to keep her head above Castle spook opera, about nice, all-Ameriwater. Troubling but incredibly potent, and can family (with children named Buck and all too believable. Written by first-time diMedea!) that inherits a haunted house. rector Hardwicke (a noted production dePlenty of chills and chuckles, with Hamilton signer) and Reed, who plays the ‘‘bad’’ girl. cleverly cast as sinister housekeeper. Some Hunter coexecutive produced. [R]▼쩠 prints run 85m., minus footage of Castle Thirteen Chairs, The (1970-French-Italian) introducing ‘‘Illusion-O’’—movie patrons C-95m. ★★ D: Nicholas Gessner. Vittorio were given ‘‘ghost viewers’’ enabling them Gassman, Sharon Tate, Orson Welles, to see (or not see) the spirits. Remade in Vittorio De Sica, Terry-Thomas, Mylene 2001. ▼●쩠 Demongeot, Tim Brooke Taylor. Slight Thir13en Ghosts (2001) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: comedy about a search for 13 antique Steve Beck. Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Dachairs, inside one of which is hidden a forvidtz, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, tune. Of interest mainly for its cast, includAlec Roberts, JR Bourne, Rah Digga, F. ing Tate, who was murdered shortly after Murray Abraham. In-name-only remake of this was completed in 1969. Mel Brooks’ William Castle’s gimmick thriller puts a version of this same, oft-filmed story was widowed father, his two kids, and their called THE TWELVE CHAIRS. Original housekeeper in a diabolically designed house title: 12 + 1.▼ that’s one giant maze. What’s more, it houses Thirteen Conversations About One Thing 12 troubled, violent spirits. Neither scary nor (2001) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jill Sprecher. Matclever . . . a poor excuse for Halloween thew McConaughey, John Turturro, Alan fodder. [R] ▼쩠 Arkin, Clea DuVall, Amy Irving, Barbara 13 Going on 30 (2004) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gary Sukowa, David Connolly, Tia Texada, Winick. Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Frankie Faison, William Wise, Shawn ElGreer, Christa B. Allen, Andy Serkis, Kathy liott. Intriguing, moody film weaves a handful Baker, Phil Reeves, Alex Black, Alexandra of seemingly disconnected stories together, all Kyle. A 13-year-old girl with typical adoinvolving people whose lives are unfulfilled: lescent problems wishes she were a growncollege professor Turturro, insurance man up and magically awakens inside a 30-yearArkin, attorney McConaughey, house cleaner old body. Now she has to deal with a highDuVall. Intelligent and interesting, but not as powered job as a magazine editor and figure profound as it seems to think it is. Written by out why she’s no longer friendly with her the director and her sister Karen Sprecher. onetime soul mate, the boy who lived next [R]▼쩠 door. Variation on (rip-off of?) BIG is plotThirteen Days (2000) C-145m. ★★★ D: tier than it needs to be but is energized by Roger Donaldson. Kevin Costner, Bruce the irresistible charm of Garner, in her first Greenwood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker, Mistarring vehicle; Ruffalo is also good as her chael Fairman, Henry Strozier, Frank Wood, childhood pal grown up. [PG-13]▼쩠 Kevin Conway, Len Cariou, Christopher 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) 95m. ★★★ D: Lawford, Lucinda Jenney, James Karen, Ed Henry Hathaway. James Cagney, Annabella, Lauter. Absorbing dramatization of the 1962 Richard Conte, Frank Latimore, Walter Cuban missile crisis, and how President Abel, Melville Cooper, Sam Jaffe. Gripping John F. Kennedy dealt with the difficult dedocumentary-style WW2 story about the cisions at hand, with hostile opposition from training of new O.S.S. operatives, their first his military chiefs. Seen through the eyes of overseas assignments, and the ferreting-out JFK’s political advisor Kenny O’Donnell of a German enemy agent in their ranks. (Costner), who seems too good to be true. ▼쩠 Thirteenth Floor, The (1999-U.S.-German) [PG-13]▼쩠 13 Frightened Girls (1963) C-89m. C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Josef Rusnak. Craig Bierko, BOMB D: William Castle. Murray Hamilton, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Gretchen Mol, Vincent Joyce Taylor, Hugh Marlowe, Khigh Dhiegh. D’Onofrio, Dennis Haysbert, Steven Schub. One of Castle’s weirdest films (no mean Scientists create a virtual-reality 1937 L.A. so feat), set in Swiss boarding school catering realistic that even the ‘‘inhabitants’’ have their [ 1401 ]

own minds, and don’t realize they and everyhas been filming at seven-year intervals, thing around them exists only in a computer .. . beginning at age seven. A thoughtful, rethen murder links the worlds of the created and vealing look at lives lived, and dreams the creators. Well-produced sci-fi in film noir fulfilled and unfulfilled within the British style is interesting throughout, but too talky, class system. As with all prior entries, this and the basic idea is familiar. Based on the was originally produced for British TV. Folnovel Simulacron-3 by Daniel F. Galouye. Prelowed by 42 UP.▼쩠 viously filmed for German TV by Rainer Wer30-Foot Bride of Candy Rock, The (1959) ner Fassbinder. Super 35. [R].▼●쩠 75m. ★★ D: Sidney Miller. Lou Costello, 13th Letter, The (1951) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dorothy Provine, Gale Gordon, Charles Lane, Otto Preminger. Linda Darnell, Charles Jimmy Conlin, Peter Leeds. Lou Costello’s Boyer, Michael Rennie, Constance Smith, only starring film without Bud Abbott is Judith Evelyn. Interesting account of efnothing much, mildly entertaining, with Provine enlarged to gigantic proportions.▼ fect of series of poison pen letters on townsfolk, set in Canada. Remake of Henri 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968British) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph McGrath. Georges Clouzot’s LE CORBEAU. 13th Warrior, The (1999) C-102m. ★★★ D: Dudley Moore, Eddie Foy, Jr., Suzy KenJohn McTiernan. Antonio Banderas, Diane dall, John Bird. Man who has frittered away Venora, Dennis Storhoi, Vladimir Kulich, his life decides that within six weeks he Omar Sharif. In ancient times, exiled Arawants to be married and famous. Funny, but bian nobleman Banderas travels with some sometimes falls flat. Dudley also composed the score and cowrote the screenplay.▼ Norsemen to their homelands, there to face possibly supernatural nighttime marauders, 39 Steps, The (1935-British) 87m. ★★★★ who eat their victims. Sturdy, action-packed D: Alfred Hitchcock. Robert Donat, Madadventure with horror overtones, realistic eleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey but in the heroic tradition, shot on spectacuTearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie, Wylar Canadian locations. Based on Michael lie Watson. Classic Hitchcock mystery with Crichton’s novel Eaters of the Dead, itself overtones of light comedy and romance, as inspired by true travel writings and the meinnocent Donat is pulled into spy-ring acdieval tale of Beowulf. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 tivities. Memorable banter between Donat 13 West Street (1962) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Philip and Carroll, who thinks he’s a criminal, Leacock. Alan Ladd, Rod Steiger, Jeanne set style for sophisticated dialogue for years. Cooper, Michael Callan, Dolores Dorn. John Buchan’s novel was adapted by Early version of DEATH WISH has Ladd Charles Bennett and Alma Reville; addiout to get gang of hoodlums; taut actioner tional dialogue by Ian Hay. Remade twice with most capable cast. Based on novel and later adapted to the Broadway stage. The Tiger Among Us by Leigh Brackett. ▼●쩠 —30— (1959) 96m. ★1⁄2 D: Jack Webb. 39 Steps, The (1959-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 Jack Webb, William Conrad, David Nelson, D: Ralph Thomas. Kenneth More, Taina Whitney Blake, Louise Lorimer, Joe Flynn, Elg, Brenda de Banzie, Barry Jones, RegJames Bell. Hackneyed, overwritten tale of a inald Beckwith, Sidney James, James typical night on a big-city newspaper. Conrad Hayter. Young man is accidentally involved chews the scenery as city editor, but the in murder and espionage and ensnares the script’s the main villain, abetted by atrocious aid of disbelieving young woman. More music score. Title, by the way, is journalists’ and Elg are delightful in this replica of way of indicating ‘‘the end.’’▼ 1935 classic; though not nearly as good, 30 Days of Night (2007-U.S.-New Zealand) it’s still entertaining.▼ C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Slade. Josh HartThirty-Nine Steps, The (1978-British) nett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Sharp. Robert PowFoster, Mark Boone Junior, Mark Rendall, ell, David Warner, Eric Porter, Karen Amber Sainsbury, Manu Bennett. Barlow, Dotrice, John Mills, George Baker. Based Alaska, the northernmost point in the U.S., more on John Buchan’s book than Hitchundergoes 30 days without sun every year. cock adaptation, remake isn’t bad but lacks The residents take it in stride, until a horde panache; Powell plays innocent man purof ravenous vampires arrives one sunless sued by villains who believe he’s obtained day. Intensely grim, this well-crafted thriller details of their plot to hatch WW1. [PG] isn’t for the faint of heart, as it delivers yet ▼● another movie view of vampires. Huston is Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) 138m. ★★★ outstanding as the head bloodsucker. Based D: Mervyn LeRoy. Van Johnson, Robon the graphic novel by Ben Templesmith ert Walker, Spencer Tracy, Phyllis Thaxter, and Steve Niles (who cowrote the film). Scott McKay, Robert Mitchum, Don DeSuper 35. [R]쩠 Fore, Stephen McNally, Louis Jean Heydt, 35 Up (1991-British) C/B&W-122m. ★★★ Leon Ames, Paul Langton, Bill Williams. D: Michael Apted. Still compelling conExciting WW2 actioner of first American tinuation of 28 UP, in which Apted again attack on Japan with sturdy cast, guest peeks in on the lives of the subjects he appearance by Tracy as General Doolittle. [ 1402 ]

Script by Dalton Trumbo. Oscar-winning nally titled THE SEA WALL. Technirama. special effects.▼●쩠 This Boy’s Life (1993) C-115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: 36 Fillette (1988-French) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 Michael Caton-Jones. Robert De Niro, ElD: Catherine Breillat. Delphine Zentout, len Barkin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Etienne Chicot, Olivier Parniere, Jean-Pierre Blechman, Eliza Dushku, Chris Cooper, Le´aud. Annoyingly uneven account of a Carla Gugino, Zack Ansley, Tracey Ellis, restless, amply endowed 14-year-old (well Kathy Kinney, Gerrit Graham, Tobey Maplayed by Zentout): will she or won’t guire. Harrowing but utterly absorbing she lose her virginity while on vacation at story, set in the 1950s, of a young boy and the beach with her family? Some effective his footloose mother who wind up living in moments, but the film goes nowhere. ▼쩠 a remote part of Washington state with a 36 Hours (1964) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: George lout who both browbeats the youngster and Seaton. James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, beats him physically. Searing character Rod Taylor, Werner Peters, Celia Lovsky, study is a showcase for masterful perforAlan Napier. Intriguing WW2 yarn with mances (including an eye-opener for young Garner as captured spy brainwashed into DiCaprio), but what ultimately makes it thinking the war is over begins well, but work is learning that the story is true. peters out fast. Taylor as German officer is Screenplay by Robert Getchell, from Tobias interesting casting. Remade for cable TV Wolff’s memoir. Clairmont-Scope. [R] as BREAKING POINT in 1989 with Cor▼●쩠 bin Bernsen. Also shown in computer-colThis Christmas (2007) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: ored version. Panavision.▼쩠 Preston A. Whitmore II. Delroy Lindo, Idris Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Elba, Loretta Devine, Chris Brown, Keith Gould (1993-Canadian) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robinson, Mekhi Phifer, Regina King, Lupe Francois Girard. Colm Feore. As the title Ontiveros. Pleasant holiday-themed comedysays . . . and the result is an occasionally drama, with a fine ensemble breathing fresh illuminating but much too fragmented bio life into generic cliche´s and stock characters. of the famed reclusive concert pianist. PeoWhen members of an extended family ple who know Gould talk about him, key gather for their first Christmas reunion in scenes from his life are enacted and his four years, secrets are revealed, grievances works are performed, but it doesn’t quite are aired, and, of course, crises are resolved. add up, either as documentary or biography. Aptly cast as a would-be singer, Brown (a Girard scripted, with Don McKellar.▼쩠 real-life R&B artist) delivers a knockout ★★★★ 30 Years of Fun (1963) 85m. Comrendition of ‘‘Try a Little Tenderness’’ in a piled by Robert Youngson. Charlie Chaplin, key scene. Written by the director. [PG-13]쩠 Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Harry This Could Be the Night (1957) 103m. Langdon, Sydney Chaplin, Charley Chase, ★★1 ⁄ 2 D: Robert Wise. Jean Simmons, Paul etc. Without repeating from previous films, Douglas, Anthony Franciosa, Joan Blondell, Youngson presents hilarious silent comedy Neile Adams, ZaSu Pitts, J. Carrol Naish, footage. Included is rare sequence of Ray Anthony. Forced, frantic comedy of Laurel and Hardy performing together for prim teacher Simmons working as secretary the first time in 1917’s LUCKY DOG. to gangster Douglas, who runs a nightclub; This Above All (1942) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Franciosa is the young associate who roAnatole Litvak. Tyrone Power, Joan Fonmances her. CinemaScope.▼● taine, Thomas Mitchell, Nigel Bruce, Gladys This Earth Is Mine (1959) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 Cooper, Sara Allgood, Phillip Merivale, D: Henry King. Rock Hudson, Jean SimAlexander Knox. Fontaine, a daughter of mons, Dorothy McGuire, Claude Rains, the English aristocracy turned WAAF, falls Kent Smith, Anna Lee, Ken Scott. Disin love with blind date Power, a bloke in jointed soaper set in 1930s California vinecivilian clothes during wartime who’s obviyards about intertwining family romances, ously haunted by a Terrible Secret. Adapted focusing on Hudson-Simmons love story. by R. C. Sherriff from Eric Knight’s novel, CinemaScope. this soap opera/flag-waver suffers from misThis Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006) Ccasting of Power (making no attempt at En97m. ★★★ D: Kirby Dick. Smart, often hilarglishness), Fontaine’s speech making, and ious documentary focusing on the Motion overgenerous running time.쩠 Picture Association of America’s movie ratThis Angry Age (1958-Italian-U.S.) Cing system. Intertwining interviews with 111m. ★★ D: Rene´ Clement. Silvana former panelists, directors (including Kevin Mangano, Anthony Perkins, Alida Valli, Smith, John Waters, and Atom Egoyan), Richard Conte, Jo Van Fleet, Nehemiah and studio execs, director Dick explores the Persoff. Ludicrous mishmash set in Indoflaws in the system and accusations of cenChina with Van Fleet a stereotyped, domisorship tactics imposed by the mysterious nating mother who’s convinced that her board. Also an engrossing detective story, children (Perkins and Mangano) can make as the filmmaker hires a couple of detertheir rice fields a going proposition. Origimined female private eyes who use methods [ 1403 ]

Bogart would have loved in order to unThis Island Earth (1955) C-86m. ★★★ D: mask the tight-lipped board members. OrigJoseph Newman. Jeff Morrow, Rex Reason, inally slapped with an NC-17, this feature Faith Domergue, Russell Johnson, Lance was released unrated instead.쩠 Fuller, Douglas Spencer. Suspenseful, inThis Gun for Hire (1942) 80m. ★★★ D: telligent science fiction about scientists Frank Tuttle. Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, lured to mysterious project, only to find Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, Tully Marthey’ve been recruited—or more approprishall, Marc Lawrence, Pamela Blake. Ladd ately, shanghaied—by aliens to help came into his own as paid gunman seeking them defend their invasion-torn planet. revenge on man who double-crossed him, Thoughtful and exciting, with excellent viwith Lake as a fetching vis-a`-vis. Script by suals; based on Raymond F. Jones’ novel. W.R. Burnett and Albert Maltz, from Film is spoofed in MYSTERY SCIENCE Graham Greene’s novel A Gun For Sale. THEATER 3000: THE MOVIE. ▼●쩠 Remade in 1957 (as SHORT CUT TO This Is My Affair (1937) 101m. ★★★ D: HELL) and for cable TV in 1991 (with RobWilliam A. Seiter. Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Wagner).▼●쩠 ert Taylor, Victor McLaglen, Brian Donlevy, This Happy Breed (1944-British) C-110m. Sidney Blackmer, John Carradine, Sig ★★★1⁄2 D: David Lean. Robert Newton, Celia Ruman. Exciting film of undercover man Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Taylor joining gang of robbers on order from Holloway, Amy Veness, Alison Leggatt. President McKinley; Stanwyck is saloon Splendidly acted saga follows British family singer who loves Taylor (they married in real from 1919 to 1939 in this adaptation of life two years later). Noel Coward play. Scripted by director This is my Father (1999-Canadian-Irish) C-120m. ★★ D: Paul Quinn. Aidan Quinn, Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame, and coproducer Anthony Havelock-Allan. UnJames Caan, Stephen Rea, John Cusack, billed Laurence Olivier provides opening Moya Farrelly, Jacob Tierney, Colm Meaney, narration. ▼ Donal Donnelly, Brendan Gleeson. BurnedThis Happy Feeling (1958) C-92m. ★★★ out Chicago schoolteacher (Caan) travels to D: Blake Edwards. Debbie Reynolds, Curt his ancestral home in Ireland, with his teenJurgens, John Saxon, Alexis Smith, Esage nephew in tow, to unlock the mystery telle Winwood, Mary Astor, Troy Donahue, of his father’s identity. Played both in present Joe Flynn. Most engaging cast gives zip to day and flashback, the film aims high but simple yarn of Reynolds enthralled by acdoesn’t succeed, despite good performances tor Jurgens, but sparked by suitor Saxon; and period flavor. A labor of love for firstWinwood fine as eccentric housekeeper. time writer-director Quinn; brother Aidan CinemaScope.▼ stars, brother Declan photographed it, and sisThis Is Elvis (1981) C/B&W-101m. ★★1⁄2 ter Marian appears briefly. All three brothers executive-produced. [R]▼쩠 D: Malcolm Leo, Andrew Solt. David Scott, Paul Boensh III, Johnny Harra, Lawrence This Is My Life (1992) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Koller, Rhonda Lyn, Debbie Edge, Larry Nora Ephron. Julie Kavner, Samantha Raspberry, Furry Lewis. Unusual examinaMathis, Gaby Hoffmann, Carrie Fisher, tion of Elvis’ life combines documentary Dan Aykroyd, Bob Nelson, Caroline Aaron, footage with sequences of actors playing Danny Zorn, Joy Behar, Kathy Najimy. SinPresley at various stages of his life. The gle mom with two daughters pursues her film is both fascinating and phony, an dream of becoming a standup comic and, insightful portrayal of a tragic legend and virtually overnight, her career takes off— yet another excuse to rake in profits by leaving her girls in second place. Kavner is trading on his memory. Alternate versions perfect, the girls are adorable, and the story run 144m. and 246m. [PG]▼●쩠 is certainly credible—but somehow the film This is England (2007-British) C-103m. doesn’t quite deliver. Directing debut for ★★★1⁄2 D: Shane Meadows. Thomas Turwriter Ephron (who penned this script with goose, Stephen Graham, Jo Hartley, Joe sister Delia), based on Meg Wolitzer’s novel Gilgun, Andrew Shim, Vicky McClure, RoThis Is Your Life. [PG-13]▼● samund Hanson, Andrew Ellis, Perry BenThis Is Spinal Tap (1984) C-82m. ★★★ D: son, George Newton. It’s 1983 in ThatcherRob Reiner. Michael McKean, Christoera, bleak coastal England. Fatherless pher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, schoolboy Shaun (Turgoose) is a hapless Tony Hendra, June Chadwick, R.J. Parnell, 12-year-old who unexpectedly falls in with David Kaff, Fran Drescher. Admirably prethe local skinhead gang. Writer-director cise parody of a rock documentary, with Meadows (TWENTYFOURSEVEN) has Reiner as director Marty Di Bergi, who created a canvas of disenfranchised, nihilischronicles latest American tour of aging tic young people that rings all too true in British rock group that’s a working definistory, performance, and tone. Result is an tion of the term ‘‘loser.’’ Collaborative efexample of a genre that the cinema has fort improvised by Reiner and his cast of often excelled in: the loss of childhood colleagues; cunning satire through and innocence.쩠 through, though not always terribly funny. [ 1404 ]

Our favorite bit: the amplifier that goes to BLACK REBELS, the latter with incongruous R-rated footage added.▼쩠 ‘‘11.’’ Many familiar faces appear in cameos. P.S.: In the ’90s the ‘‘fictitious’’ group This Sporting Life (1963-British) 129m. ★★★1 reunited for a series of concerts and a TV ⁄2 D: Lindsay Anderson. Richard Harspecial. Rereleased in 1995 with many new ris, Rachel Roberts, Alan Badel, William scenes. [R]▼●쩠 Hartnell, Colin Blakely, Arthur Lowe. This Is the Army (1943) C-121m. ★★★ D: Yorkshire coal miner ‘‘betters’’ himself Michael Curtiz. George Murphy, Joan Lesby becoming professional rugby player. lie, Lt. Ronald Reagan, Sgt. Joe Louis, Powerful film (written by David Storey) Kate Smith, George Tobias, Alan Hale, about love, success, and disillusionment; Charles Butterworth, Dolores Costello, Una also serves to illustrate what a grueling Merkel, Stanley Ridges, Rosemary DeCamp, game rugby is. Film debut of Glenda JackFrances Langford, Irving Berlin, many othson. Originally 134m.▼●쩠 ers. Soldiers who staged Irving Berlin’s This Thing Called Love (1941) 98m. ★★★ WW1 musical Yip Yip Yaphank reunite to D: Alexander Hall. Rosalind Russell, Melhelp mount similar WW2 effort; corny but vyn Douglas, Binnie Barnes, Allyn Joslyn, enjoyable framework (with Warner Bros. Gloria Dickson, Lee J. Cobb. Adult comcast) for filmed record of legendary 1940s edy of newlyweds who set up three-month show, a topical melange of songs and trial run for their marriage. Stars’ expertise skits. P.S.: This is the film where George puts it over. Murphy plays Ronald Reagan’s father!▼쩠 This Time for Keeps (1947) C-105m. ★★1 This Land Is Mine (1943) 103m. ★★ D: ⁄2 D: Richard Thorpe. Esther Williams, Jean Renoir. Charles Laughton, Maureen Jimmy Durante, Lauritz Melchior, JohnO’Hara, George Sanders, Walter Slezak, nie Johnston, Xavier Cugat, Dame May Kent Smith, Una O’Connor, Philip Merivale, Whitty, Sharon McManus. Slight MGM George Coulouris, Nancy Gates. Meek musical with Johnston falling for aquacade French teacher Laughton, aroused by Nazi star Williams, neglecting to inform her that occupation, becomes hero. Patriotic warhe’s engaged.▼ time film is dated and disappointing today; This Woman Is Dangerous (1952) 100m. 1⁄2 D: Felix E. Feist. Joan Crawford, Dennis ★★ written by Dudley Nichols.▼● This Man Must Die (1970-French) CMorgan, David Brian, Richard Webb, Sherry ★★★1 115m. Jackson. In typical tough-girl role, Crawford ⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Michel Duchaussoy, Jean Yanne, Caroline Cellier, finds true love after countless mishaps, including an eye operation.쩠 Lorraine Rainer, Marc DiNapoli, Guy Marly. Outstanding film about man who This World, Then the Fireworks (1997) C-100m. ★★ D: Michael Oblowitz. Billy sets out to find the person who killed his young son in hit-and-run accident and the Zane, Gina Gershon, Sheryl Lee, Rue complications which ensue. This may be McClanahan, Seymour Cassel, Will Patton, the best of many fine Chabrol dramas; Richard Edson. Period noir drama set in the Yanne and Cellier are unforgettable, the ’50s about two devoted siblings, partners in photography beautiful. [PG]▼쩠 cons and murder, who seemingly find a way This Property Is Condemned (1966) out of their miserable lives when a repressed C-110m. ★★ D: Sydney Pollack. Natalie policewoman enters their world. Intriguing Wood, Robert Redford, Charles Bronson, title, nice period recreation, good perforKate Reid, Mary Badham, Robert Blake, mances, but we’ve been down this road too Alan Baxter, Dabney Coleman, Jon Promany times before—in better movies. Zane vost. Often absurd film version of Tennesalso coexecutive-produced. [R]▼● see Williams’ one-act play has doe-eyed Thomas and the Magic Railroad (2000Wood falling for Redford, the out-of-towner U.S.-British) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Britt Allcroft. staying in her mama’s boardinghouse. Except Alec Baldwin, Mara Wilson, Peter Fonda, for James Wong Howe’s photography, this is Didi Conn, Michael E. Rodgers, Russell trash without the style that often makes trash Means; voices of Eddie Glen, Colm Feore. enjoyable. Francis Ford Coppola was one of The world’s most famous choo-choo makes the screenwriters.▼●쩠 a movie boo-boo: a dull, dippy screen spinThis Rebel Age SEE: Beat Generation, The off for Thomas the Tank Engine, star of This Rebel Breed (1960) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: the children’s TV show. A foolish-looking Richard L. Bare. Rita Moreno, Mark Baldwin inherits the conductor role origiDamon, Gerald Mohr, Jay Novello, Eugene nated by Ringo Starr in a story about a Martin, Tom Gilson, Diane (Dyan) Cannon, threatening (loco) motive named Diesel 10. Al Freeman (Jr.). Above average drama Fonda is a dour grandpa. Grownups should about racial tensions in a multi-ethnic high pair this with EASY RIDER on a slow school, with Moreno well cast as a Latina night. [G]▼쩠 teen involved with an Anglo boy (which Thomas Crown Affair, The (1968) C102m. ★★★ D: Norman Jewison. Steve displeases her trouble-prone brother). Cannon is amusingly cast as a gang deb! RetiMcQueen, Faye Dunaway, Paul Burke, tled THREE SHADES OF LOVE and THE Jack Weston, Biff McGuire, Yaphet Kotto. [ 1405 ]

Glittery production complements story of supercool millionaire McQueen who plots perfect bank robbery, as insurance investigator Dunaway coldly determines to nab the gentleman-thief. Perfect nonthink entertainment; dazzling use of multi-image screens (designed by Pablo Ferro). Oscarwinning song, ‘‘The Windmills of Your Mind,’’ by Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Remade in 1999. [R]

interests. Film debut of Linda Evans. Music score by Max Steiner.▼쩠 Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies (1969-British-Italian-French) C122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Annakin. Tony Curtis, Susan Hampshire, Terry-Thomas, Eric Sykes, Gert Frobe, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Jack Hawkins. Slapstick adventures of participants in 1,500-mile car race to Monte Carlo during the 1920s. Some funny scenes, but backfires a bit too often. Cut for U.S. ▼●쩠 Thomas Crown Affair, The (1999) Crelease to 93m. Original British title: MONTE 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: John McTiernan. Pierce BrosCARLO OR BUST. Panavision. [G]▼쩠 nan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary, Ben Gazzara, Those Fantastic Flying Fools (1967) Frankie Faison, Fritz Weaver, Charles KeatC-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Sharp. Burl Ives, ing, Mark Margolis, Faye Dunaway. A Troy Donahue, Gert Frobe, Terry-Thomas, handsome, wealthy, jet-setting industrialist Hermione Gingold, Daliah Lavi, Lionel Jeffmoonlights as an art thief, and delights in ries. Lightweight tale of Victorian England playing cat-and-mouse with a beautiful inmoon race, loosely adapted from Jules Verne surance investigator. A distant cousin to the story (previously filmed as FROM THE 1968 version (despite the presence of DunaEARTH TO THE MOON). Original title: way, as Brosnan’s shrink), this is slick and BLAST-OFF. Panavision. ▼쩠 entertaining, but everyone seems to be Those Lips, Those Eyes (1980) C-107m. ★★★ working a bit too hard to make it look efD: Michael Pressman. Frank Langella, fortless. Brosnan also produced. PanaviGlynnis O’Connor, Thomas Hulce, Kevin sion. [R]▼●쩠 McCarthy, Jerry Stiller, Herbert Berghof. Thomasine & Bushrod (1974) C-95m. Stagestruck adolescent learns about love ★★1 ⁄2 D: Gordon Parks, Jr. Max Julien, the hard way while interning in Cleveland Vonetta McGee, George Murdock, Glynn summer stock during the early ’50s. Hulce is Turman, Juanita Moore. OK mixture of too nerdish in the key role, but Langella as black exploitation and Western action with down-on-his-luck actor, O’Connor as comcomedy, as a black ‘‘Bonnie and Clyde’’ pany’s resident dish, are both quite good. A team operate in 1911 Texas. Julien scripted sleeper, written by David Shaber. [R]▼ and co-produced, along with the classyThose Magnificent Men in Their Flying looking McGee. Shot in New Mexico. [PG] Machines (1965) C-132m. ★★★ D: Ken Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937) 80m. Annakin. Stuart Whitman, Sarah Miles, ★★1 ⁄2 D: Alfred E. Green. Judy Garland, James Fox, Alberto Sordi, Robert Morley, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Sinclair, Sophie Gert Frobe, Jean-Pierre Cassel, TerryTucker, C. Aubrey Smith, Frankie Darro, Thomas, Irina Demick, Benny Hill, Flora Henry Kolker, Helen Troy. Fairly good Robson, Sam Wanamaker, Gordon Jackracetrack story with jockey Rooney inson, Millicent Martin, Red Skelton, Tony volved in crooked deals, young Garland Hancock; narrated by James Robertson adding some songs. Mickey and Judy’s first Justice. Long but enjoyable film of great film together.▼● 1910 London-to-Paris airplane race involvThoroughly Modern Millie (1967) Cing international conflicts, cheating, and ro138m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Roy Hill. Julie mance. Skelton has funny cameo in Andrews, James Fox, Mary Tyler Moore, amusing prologue, tracing history of aviaCarol Channing, Beatrice Lillie, John tion. Clever title caricatures and designs by Gavin, Jack Soo, Pat Morita, Philip Ahn. Ronald Searle. Todd-AO.▼●쩠 Up to a point this Ross Hunter attempt to Thousand Acres, A (1997) C-105m. ★★ D: recapture some of Andrews’ Boy Friend Jocelyn Moorhouse. Michelle Pfeiffer, Jesmagic is successful, but after nearly two sica Lange, Jason Robards, Jennifer Jason and a half hours, one begins to yawn. Leigh, Colin Firth, Keith Carradine, Kevin 1920s farce has a fatal case of the cutes. Anderson, Pat Hingle, John Carroll Lynch, Elmer Bernstein’s score won an Oscar. Michelle Williams. When a stubborn, sinLater a Broadway musical. ▼●쩠 gle-minded widowed father decides to relinThose Calloways (1965) C-131m. ★★★ D: quish ownership of his farm to his three Norman Tokar. Brian Keith, Vera Miles, daughters, a family is abruptly torn apart, Brandon de Wilde, Walter Brennan, Ed and long-held secrets come out of the closet. Wynn, Linda Evans, Philip Abbott. Long, The only thing missing from this meloepisodic but rewarding Disney film about drama is character motivation, which prean eccentric New England man (Keith) sumably did exist in Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer and his family, focusing on his determined Prize–winning novel, a variation on King efforts to use nearby lake for bird sanctuLear. A hollow film notable only for the ary before it’s bought up by business strong performances of the two leading [ 1406 ]

women (whose companies jointly produced ile narrative dealing with trial of French the film). [R]▼●쩠 conscientious objector, with side plot of Thousand and One Nights, A (1945) German priest facing penalty for having C-93m. ★★★ D: Alfred E. Green. Cornel killed Frenchman during WW2. Based on Wilde, Evelyn Keyes, Phil Silvers, Adele a true story, and quite controversial when Jergens, Dusty Anderson, Dennis Hoey, released. Dyaliscope. Rex Ingram. Wilde is a genial, singing Thrashin’ (1986) C-90m. ★★ D: David Aladdin in this slice of Technicolor escapWinters. Josh Brolin, Robert Rusler, Pamism, with Silvers as his very contemporary ela Gilday, Brooke McCarter, Brett Marx, sidekick. Keyes is fun as the impish genie Sherilyn Fenn. Skateboard-riding youth who emerges from a magic lamp. Ingram gangs are pitted against each other in this (who played the genie in THE THIEF OF WEST SIDE STORY on wheels . . . miBAGDAD) has a throwaway role here as a nus the spirit and originality, not to mengiant. Look fast for Shelley Winters.▼ tion music. [PG-13]▼쩠 Thousand and One Nights, A (1968Threads (1984-British) C-110m. ★★★ D: Spanish) C-86m. ★★ D: Joe Lacy (Jose Mick Jackson. Karen Meagher, Reece Maria Elorrieta). Jeff Cooper, Raf Vallone, Dinsdale, Rita May, Nicholas Lane, VicLuciana Paluzzi, Perla Christal, Reuben toria O’Keefe. Britain’s answer to THE Rojo. Tongue-in-cheek Arabian Nights DAY AFTER is a powerful, if a bit overfantasy with the familiar tapestry: a flylong, drama about effect of nuclear holoing carpet, a handsome swordsman, a caust on working-class town of Sheffield, beautiful part-time genie, a sinister vizier. with the focus on a pair of families whose Not to be confused with the similarly son and daughter are about to wed. Unretitled Cornel Wilde movie of the ’40s. lentingly graphic and grim, sobering, and Thousand Clowns, A (1965) 118m. ★★★1⁄2 shattering—as it should be. Originally proD: Fred Coe. Jason Robards, Barbara Harduced for British television.▼ ris, Martin Balsam, Barry Gordon, Gene Threat, The (1949) 65m. ★★★ D: Felix Saks, William Daniels. Faithful adaptation Feist. Charles McGraw, Michael O’Shea, by Herb Gardner of his Broadway comedy Virginia Grey, Julie Bishop, Robert Shayne, about society dropout who’s being presAnthony Caruso. Thug McGraw escapes sured to drop in again for the sake of prison, kidnaps cop and D.A. who put him young nephew who lives with him. Peraway, plus singer he suspects of having fectly cast, filmed in N.Y.C., with Balsam’s squealed. Fast, rugged little ‘‘B’’ keeps Oscar-winning performance as Robards’ action hopping until tough conclusion.▼ brother.▼● Three Ages (1923) 63m. ★★★ D: Buster Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, The SEE: Keaton, Edward F. Cline. Buster Keaton, 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse, The Margaret Leahy, Wallace Beery, Joe RobThousands Cheer (1943) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 erts, Horace Morgan, Lillian Lawrence. D: George Sidney. Mickey Rooney, Judy Buster’s comic observations on the pursuit Garland, Gene Kelly, Red Skelton, Eleaof a mate in the Stone Age, the Roman nor Powell, Ann Sothern, Lucille Ball, Empire, and modern times. Entertaining siVirginia O’Brien, Frank Morgan, Kathryn lent comedy, with Keaton making a memoGrayson, Lena Horne, many others. Grayrable entrance atop a dinosaur.▼●쩠 son lives with officer-father John Boles at ¡Three Amigos! (1986) C-105m. ★★ D: Army base, falls for hotheaded private Kelly John Landis. Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and decides to prepare an all-star show Martin Short, Patrice Martinez, Alfonso for the soldiers. Dubious plot is an excuse Arau, Tony Plana, Joe Mantegna, Jon for specialty acts by top MGM stars.▼●쩠 Lovitz, Phil Hartman. Silent film Western Thousand Years of Good Prayers, A heroes are summoned to Mexico for what (2007) C-82m. ★★★ D: Wayne Wang. Faye they think will be a public appearance, find Yu, Henry O, Vida Ghahremani. Elderly out they’re really supposed to rid a village Chinese man comes to visit his daughter in of its bandit chieftain. Smarmy one-joke Spokane, Washington, but she regards his comedy has its moments but not too many; visit as something of a nuisance. While she buffs may be amused to note that villain is off at work, he strikes up a relationship Arau was one of the key bad guys in THE with an Iranian woman he meets at the park; WILD BUNCH. Coscripter Randy Newman in spite of their language barrier, the two wrote the songs. [PG]▼●쩠 senior citizens are able to communicate 3 Bad Men (1926) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John with a candor that’s absent from his relaFord. George O’Brien, Lou Tellegen, J. Fartionship with his daughter. Quiet but revealrell MacDonald, Tom Santschi, Frank Caming film adapted by Yiyun Li from her short peau. Three gruff outlaws become benevolent story. The two lead performers are perfect. protectors of young woman whose father Thou Shalt Not Kill (1961-Italian-French1 ★★ is killed during Western settlement period. Yugoslavian) 129m. ⁄2 D: Claude AutantBeautiful mixture of action, drama, comLara. Laurent Terzieff, Horst Frank, Suzanne Flon, Mica Orlovic. Too-often steredy, and sentiment in one of Ford’s best [ 1407 ]

silents. An obvious variation on 3 GODNunnally Johnson adapted Agnes Newton Keith’s autobiographical book.▼쩠 FATHERS. ▼쩠 Three Bites of the Apple (1967) C-105m. Three Cases of Murder (1955-British) ★1 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wendy Toye, David Eady, ⁄2 D: Alvin Ganzer. David McCallum, Sylva Koscina, Tammy Grimes, Harvey George More O’Ferrall. Alan Badel, Hugh Korman, Domenico Modugno, Aldo Fabrizi. Pryse, John Gregson, Elizabeth Sellars, Good scenery is only plus of flimsy comEmrys Jones, Orson Welles, Maxwell Reed, edy about McCallum’s attempts to avoid Richard Wattis; introduced by Eammon Anheavy taxation of money he’s won in a drews. Three offbeat murder stories; opener casino on the Riviera. Panavision. ‘‘In the Picture’’ is genuinely eerie, closer Three Brothers (1980-Italian-French) C‘‘Lord Mountdrago’’ (from Somerset 113m. ★★★ D: Francesco Rosi. Philippe Maugham story) has Welles in absorbing tale Noiret, Charles Vanel, Michele Placido, of a pompous British government official haunted by a rival.▼● Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Andrea Ferreol, Maddalena Crippa, Sara Tafuri, Marta Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) C-102m. ★★★ D: Jean Negulesco. Clifton Zoffoli. Wise, touching, but slow-moving account of three very different brothers who Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Louis return to the country village of their youth Jourdan, Maggie McNamara, Rossano for their mother’s funeral. The recollecBrazzi, Cathleen Nesbitt. Splashy romance tions of their elderly peasant father (Vanel) yarn made ultra-pleasing by Rome locaand scenes with his young granddaughter tions. Three women make wishes for (Zoffoli) are particularly moving. Adapted romance at Fountain of Trevi, spurring from Platonov’s The Third Son. [PG]▼쩠 several amorous adventures. Won Oscars Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, for Milton Krasner’s photography and the The (2005-U.S.-French) C-116m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jule Styne–Sammy Cahn title tune (sung by Tommy Lee Jones. Tommy Lee Jones, Frank Sinatra). Remade by same director as Barry Pepper, Julio Ce´sar Cedillo, Dwight THE PLEASURE SEEKERS; reworked for Yoakam, Melissa Leo, January Jones, TV in 1990 as COINS IN THE FOUNLevon Helm. When his Mexican comrade TAIN. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 is shot and killed and the local cops don’t Three Comrades (1938) 98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: care, Texas cowboy Jones makes good on a Frank Borzage. Robert Taylor, Margaret promise by taking the man’s dead body Sullavan, Franchot Tone, Robert Young, home, dragging along his killer for good Guy Kibbee, Lionel Atwill. Beautifully measure. Compelling modern-day Western poignant film of Erich Maria Remarque’s parable about friendship, morality, reckontale of post-WW1 Germany, and three ing, and forgiveness. Impressive work by life-long friends who share a love for dying Jones on both sides of the camera; this Sullavan. Excellent performances all around; coscripted by F. Scott Fitzgerald.▼쩠 marks his theatrical feature directing debut. Written by Guillermo Arriaga. Jones’ Three Days of the Condor (1975) C-117m. ★★★ daughter Victoria appears as Leticia. PanaD: Sydney Pollack. Robert Redford, vision. [R]쩠 Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Three Caballeros, The (1945) C-70m. Sydow, John Houseman, Carlin Glynn. ★★★ D: Norman Ferguson. Aurora MiRedford, a reader for U.S. intelligence randa, Carmen Molina, Dora Luz, voices office, learns more than he should, and of Sterling Holloway, Clarence Nash, Jose suddenly finds himself a hunted man. Oliveira, Joaquin Garay. Colorful Disney Dunaway is excellent as innocent woman pastiche that followed 1940s Good Neighwho shelters him. Good suspense yarn. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 bor Policy by saluting Latin America, through the eyes of Donald Duck. Filled Three . . . Extremes (2004-Hong Kongwith infectious music (including ‘‘Baia,’’ Korean-Japanese) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fruit ‘‘You Belong to My Heart’’), eye-popping Chan, Chan Wook-Park, Takashi Miike. visuals, amusing cartoon sequences, and Miriam Yeung, Bai Ling, Tony Ka-Fai clever combinations of live-action and aniLeung, Byung-Hun Lee, Lim Won-Hee, mation. Donald, Jose Carioca, and Panchito Kang Hye-Jeong, Kyoko Hasegawa, Atsuro perform title song in a dazzling display of Watabe. Three horror stories by Asian dicartoon wizardry. ▼●쩠 rectors. In ‘‘Dumplings,’’ a wealthy TV star Three Came Home (1950) 106m. ★★★1⁄2 comes to an apartment in a bad part of Hong D: Jean Negulesco. Claudette Colbert, Patric Kong to dine on very special dumplings. In Knowles, Florence Desmond, Sessue Hay‘‘Cut,’’ a Korean horror-movie director is akawa, Sylvia Andrew, Phyllis Morris. taken captive in his home by a clever Stunning performances by Colbert and stranger bent on murderous revenge. ‘‘Box’’ Hayakawa make this a must. British and concerns a successful writer who has strange American families living on Borneo durdreams of being buried in a box. First two seging WW2 are sent to prison camps by Japaments are graphically gory; the third is ellipnese, but cultured officer Hayakawa takes tical and puzzling, but is also the best. All three an interest in authoress Colbert. Producer stories are intelligent, intended for adults. Not [ 1408 ]

for every taste, but the adventurous will find McGill. Bumbling bank robber—who’s this worth checking out. The episodes were reonly pulling the heist to support his little ordered for U.S. release. Followed by a sequel daughter—takes a hostage with him, little that was released direct-to-DVD in the U.S. dreaming that the guy is a notorious holdup [R]쩠 man who’s just finished a long stretch in Three Faces of Eve, The (1957) 91m. prison. Fast-paced farce doesn’t quite ★★★1⁄2 D: Nunnally Johnson. Joanne Woodhang together, despite energetic perward, David Wayne, Lee J. Cobb, Nancy formances; Veber’s first American film Kulp, Vince Edwards; narrated by Alistair is a remake of his own French comedy LES FUGITIFS. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cooke. Academy Award tour de force by Woodward as young woman with multiple Three Girls About Town (1941) 73m. ★★1 personalities and three separate lives. Cobb ⁄2 D: Leigh Jason. Joan Blondell, Binnie is psychiatrist who tries to cure her. Johnson Barnes, Janet Blair, John Howard, Robert also produced and wrote the screenplay. Benchley, Eric Blore, Hugh O’Connell, Una CinemaScope.▼●쩠 O’Connor. Wacky but amusing comedy of Three Faces West (1940) 79m. ★★1⁄2 three sisters encountering a corpse in N.Y.C. D: Bernard Vorhaus. John Wayne, Sigrid hotel and the frantic consequences. Gurie, Charles Coburn, Spencer Charters, Three Godfathers (1936) 82m. ★★★ D: Roland Varno, Russell Simpson. Offbeat Richard Boleslawski. Chester Morris, Lewis WW2-era drama about Austrian refugees Stone, Walter Brennan, Irene Hervey, Wilheading for Oregon under Wayne’s sponsorlard Robertson, Sidney Toler. Little-seen ship. Gurie is hardly typical leading lady for and underrated version of Peter B. Kyne’s the Duke, but film’s odd mix of frontier and story (filmed twice before) about three bad Nazi elements makes it worth a look.▼쩠 guys who adopt a foundling in the desert. 3:15 (1986) C-95m. ★★ D: Larry Gross. Adam Beautifully shot and warmly acted. 3 Godfathers (1949) C-105m. ★★★ D: Baldwin, Deborah Foreman, Rene Auberjonois, EdLauter, Scott McGinnis, Danny De La John Ford. John Wayne, Pedro ArmendPaz, John Scott Clough, Mario Van Peebles. ariz, Harry Carey, Jr., Ward Bond, Mae Good cast in lackluster, low-budget teenage Marsh, Jane Darwell, Ben Johnson, Milgang film, filmed in 1984. [R]▼ dred Natwick. Sturdy, sentimental, someThree for Bedroom C (1952) C-74m. ★★ times beautiful rendition of Peter B. Kyne’s D: Milton Bren. Gloria Swanson, Fred oft-filmed saga of three bandits who Clark, James Warren, Steve Brodie, Hans ‘‘adopt’’ a baby born in the desert. Final Conried, Margaret Dumont. Sadly uneven scene doesn’t ring true, but Ford makes up comedy of romance between movie star for it in balance of film. Dedicated to the and scientist aboard transcontinental train director’s first star, Harry Carey, Sr. Reheading to L.A. A derailment for Swanson made for TV as THE GODCHILD and as a after her SUNSET BLVD. triumph.▼ Japanese animated feature, TOKYO GODThree for Jamie Dawn (1956) 81m. ★★ FATHERS.▼●쩠 D: Thomas Carr. Laraine Day, Ricardo Three Hours to Kill (1954) C-77m. ★★★ Montalban, Richard Carlson, June Havoc. D: Alfred L. Werker. Dana Andrews, Donna Diverting story poorly executed, about jury Reed, Dianne Foster, Stephen Elliott, Richmembers being pressured to swing a notard Webb, Carolyn Jones, Whit Bissell. guilty verdict for the defendant. Andrews plays stagecoach driver unjustly Three for the Road (1987) C-88m. ★1⁄2 accused of killing fiance´e’s brother; he reD: B. W. L. Norton. Charlie Sheen, Kerri turns to find real killer. Tight, well done. Green, Alan Ruck, Sally Kellerman, Blair 300 (2007) C-116m. ★★★ D: Zack Snyder. Tefkin, Raymond J. Barry, Alexa HamilGerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic ton. Anachronistic youth movie about the West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan, Mispoiled-brat daughter of a senator who chael Fassbender, Tom Wisdom, Andrew travels to boarding school with Sheen and Pleavin, Rodrigo Santoro, Stephen McHatRuck—and hits more than a few detours. tie. Frank Miller’s graphic novel becomes a Dull in the extreme. [PG]▼● living comic book, using cutting-edge comThree for the Show (1955) C-93m. ★★ D: puter technology. Butler is commanding as H. C. Potter. Betty Grable, Marge and Gower King Leonidas, who leads his elite corps of Champion, Jack Lemmon, Myron McCorSpartans into battle against Xerxes of Persia mick. Tuneful music is only thing that holds at Thermopylae in 480 B.C. Though greatly slight plot together in this dud remake of W. outnumbered they use cunning, strategy, and Somerset Maugham’s TOO MANY HUSsheer courage to hold off the invaders . . . BANDS. Some bright dance numbers clevwhile Leonidas’ wife fights a psychological erly staged for widescreen by Jack Cole. battle on the home front. Not a history lesson CinemaScope. ▼● but an adrenaline-pumped, larger-than-life inThree Fugitives (1989) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: terpretation of this famous battle, drenched in comic-book blood. Super 35. [R]쩠 Francis Veber. Nick Nolte, Martin Short, Sarah Rowland Doroff, James Earl Jones, 300 Spartans, The (1962) C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan Ruck, Kenneth McMillan, Bruce Rudolph Mate´. Richard Egan, Ralph Rich[ 1409 ]

ardson, Diane Baker, Barry Coe, David FarD: Richard Thorpe. Fred Astaire, Verarar, Donald Houston, Kieron Moore, Ellen, Red Skelton, Arlene Dahl, Keenan Laurence Naismith. Events leading up to Wynn, Gloria De Haven, Debbie Reynolds, heroic Greek stand against the Persian Carleton Carpenter. Standard MGM musiArmy at Thermopylae; strictly cardboard, cal about famous songwriters Kalmar and despite Mediterranean locations filmed in Ruby and their climb to fame; bouncy cast, widescreen by Geoffrey Unsworth. Howfine tunes, including ‘‘Who’s Sorry Now?,’’ ever, this did have a profound effect on ‘‘Thinking of You,’’ title song. Debbie Frank Miller, who later created the graphic plays Helen Kane, but the real Helen dubbed ‘‘I Wanna Be Loved by You.’’▼●쩠 novel 300. CinemaScope.쩠 Three in the Attic (1968) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Three Lives and Only One Death (1996French-Portuguese) C-123m. ★★★ D: Raoul Richard Wilson. Christopher Jones, Judy Pace, Yvette Mimieux, Maggie Thrett. Ruiz. Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Galiena, Silly tale of youth with so much style that Marisa Paredes, Melvil Poupaud, Chiara he works three girls at once until they get Mastroianni, Arielle Dombasle, Feodor Atwise and decide to lock him in and drain kine, Lou Castel. One of Mastroianni’s last him of his potency. [R]▼ films casts him in a quartet of roles: a travelThree in the Cellar SEE: Up in the Cellar ing salesman, an anthropology professor, a Three Into Two Won’t Go (1969-British) butler, and a wealthy industrialist. Clever, C-93m. ★★ D: Peter Hall. Rod Steiger, stimulating film is better seen than deClaire Bloom, Judy Geeson, Peggy Ashcroft, scribed, with plenty of surprises in store. Paul Rogers. Marriage of Steiger and Bloom Chiara Mastroianni (daughter of Marcello breaks up when he becomes infatuated and Catherine Deneuve) and Poupaud play with sexy hitchhiker Geeson. Originally the young couple who inherit the mansion an OK drama, but Universal shot extra where Marcello works as a butler.▼ footage and reedited original film to 100m. Three Lives of Thomasina, The (1964) for television. [R] C-97m. ★★★ D: Don Chaffey. Patrick 3-Iron (2004-South Korean-Japanese) CMcGoohan, Susan Hampshire, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber, Vincent Winter, 88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kim Ki-duk. Lee Seungyeon, Jae Hee, Kwon Hyuk-ho, Joo Jin-mo, Denis Gilmore, Laurence Naismith, Finlay Choi Jeong-ho. Eerie, captivating fable Currie. Charming Disney film made in Enabout a young transient who sneaks into and gland from Paul Gallico’s story about a lives in houses whose inhabitants are out of heartless veterinarian, his daughter’s devotown. He forms an unusual bond with a tion to her pet cat, and a mystical young woman who is patronized and battered by woman with life-giving ‘‘powers.’’ A winner. ▼●쩠 her husband. Quietly powerful film with a main character who doesn’t speak a word of 3 Men and a Baby (1987) C-102m. ★★★ dialogue. The title refers to his obsession D: Leonard Nimoy. Tom Selleck, with hitting golf balls. [R]쩠 Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, Nancy ★★★ D: David Three Kings (1999) C-115m. Travis, Margaret Colin, Philip Bosco, CeO. Russell. George Clooney, Mark Wahlleste Holm, Derek de Lint, Cynthia Harberg, Ice Cube, Spike Jonze, Nora Dunn, ris, Lisa & Michelle Blair. Enjoyable reJamie Kennedy, Mykelti Williamson, Cliff make of France’s big hit THREE MEN Curtis, Said Taghmaoui, Judy Greer. At the AND A CRADLE, about a trio of swingend of the Persian Gulf War, four renegade ing bachelor roommates who suddenly find U.S. soldiers try to pull off a heist of Kuthemselves custodians of an infant. Winwaiti gold, but find themselves getting inning performances all around help keep volved with innocent civilians who are this buoyant comedy on-track from start to being targeted by Saddam Hussein—and finish. Followed by 3 MEN AND A LITTLE LADY. [PG]▼●쩠 being left to fend for themselves by a retreating United States military. A gritty, vioThree Men and a Cradle (1985-French) lent action film with a brain and a point of C-106m. ★★★ D: Coline Serreau. Roland view. Scripted by the director. Super 35. Giraud, Michel Boujenah, Andre Dussolier, [R]▼쩠 Philippine Leroy Beaulieu, Dominique Three Little Girls in Blue (1946) C-90m. Lavanat, Marthe Villalonga. Very enter★★★ taining comedy about three swinging bachD: H. Bruce Humberstone. June Haver, George Montgomery, Vivian Blaine, Ceelors who find themselves stuck with a leste Holm, Vera-Ellen, Frank Latimore, baby, which one of them fathered. ComCharles Smith. Cheerful tale of three spunky passionate and funny; a real charmer. A sisters out to trap wealthy husbands; familbox-office sensation in France and winner iar plot with good tunes like ‘‘You Make of three Ce´sar awards. Remade in U.S. as 3 Me Feel So Young.’’ A remake of THREE MEN AND A BABY. [PG-13]▼●쩠 BLIND MICE and MOON OVER MIAMI, 3 Men and a Little Lady (1990) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Emile Ardolino. Tom Selleck, set in turn of the century Atlantic City. Holm’s film debut. Steve Guttenberg, Ted Danson, Nancy ★★★ Three Little Words (1950) C-102m. Travis, Robin Weisman, Christopher Caze[ 1410 ]

★★★ nove, Sheila Hancock, Fiona Shaw, John D: Stephen Herek. Charlie Sheen, Boswall, Jonathan Lynn, Sydney Walsh. Kiefer Sutherland, Chris O’Donnell, Oliver Pleasant (if unexceptional) follow-up to hit Platt, Tim Curry, Rebecca De Mornay, Gacomedy has the growing tyke’s mother brielle Anwar, Michael Wincott, Paul (Travis) deciding to marry British actor McGann, Julie Delpy, Hugh O’Conor. Once Cazenove, and move to England . . . forcing again, D’Artagnan (O’Donnell) and the the three bachelor fathers to prove that the Three Musketeers (Sutherland, Sheen, and prospective husband and father is really a Platt) meet for the first time, and cross rotter before it’s too late. [PG]▼●쩠 swords with the lackeys of scheming Three Musketeers, The (1921) 118m. ★★★ Cardinal Richelieu. Really just ‘‘Young D: Fred Niblo. Douglas Fairbanks, MargueSwords,’’ but it’s fast paced and entertainrite De La Motte, Adolphe Menjou, Barbara ing; lots of action, handsome Austrian locaLa Marr, Leon Barry, George Siegmann, tions and attractive costumes. Curry’s Eugene Pallette, Nigel de Brulier, Boyd Richelieu is broad, anachronistic—and absoIrwin, Mary MacLaren, Sidney Franklin, lutely delightful, the highlight of the film. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Charles Stevens. Robust period adventure with Fairbanks a hearty D’Artagnan, Alex3 Needles (2006-Canadian) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 andre Dumas’ swashbuckling hero who D: Thom Fitzgerald. Shawn Ashmore, joins the King’s Musketeers, becomes pals Stockard Channing, Tanabadee Chokpikulwith Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, and battong, Olympia Dukakis, Lucy Liu, Sandra tles evil in the court of Louis XIII. De BruOh, Ian Roberts, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Gary lier almost steals the film as Cardinal Farmer. Fitzgerald also scripted this threeRichelieu. Great fun! Followed by THE part opus, which attempts to humanize the IRON MASK. ▼●쩠 tragedy of the AIDS epidemic by portraying Three Musketeers, The (1935) 90m. ★★ individuals from different cultures who beD: Rowland V. Lee. Walter Abel, Paul come HIV-positive. The scenarios follow Lukas, Ian Keith, Onslow Stevens, Ralph Chinese farmers who are infected by tainted Forbes, Margot Grahame, Heather Angel. needles as they give blood, a Montreal porn Dullest version of Dumas story, with Abel actor, and three missionaries who come to miscast as D’Artagnan.▼● Africa to save the souls of those afflicted Three Musketeers, The (1939) 73m. ★★★ with the virus. Raw and poignant in its best D: Allan Dwan. Don Ameche, The Ritz moments, but also slow moving, unevenly Brothers, Lionel Atwill, Binnie Barnes, paced, and not as emotionally involving as it ought to be.쩠 Miles Mander, Gloria Stuart, Pauline Moore, John Carradine, Joseph Schildkraut. 3 Ninjas (1992) C-87m. ★★ D: Jon TurtelSpirited musical, generally faithful to taub. Victor Wong, Michael Treanor, Max Dumas story; Ameche flavorful as D’ArtaElliott Slade, Chad Power, Rand Kingsgnan, Barnes lovely as Lady DeWinter, Ritz ley, Alan McRae, Margarita Franco, PatBrothers funny substitutes for unsuspecting rick Laborteaux. Three young brothers musketeers.▼쩠 take their hard-earned ninja skills and put Three Musketeers, The (1948) C-125m. them to use against big-time baddies who are ★★1⁄2 D: George Sidney. Lana Turner, Gene out to kidnap them. Harmless Disney release Kelly, June Allyson, Van Heflin, Angela borrows ideas from every kiddie hit of its era. Lansbury, Robert Coote, Frank Morgan, A surprising box-office success. Followed by Vincent Price, Keenan Wynn, Gig Young. three sequels. [PG]▼●쩠 Oddball, lavish production of Dumas tale 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain with Kelly as D’Artagnan. Occasional bright (1998) C-93m. ★★ D: Sean McNamara. moments, but continual change of tone Loni Anderson, Hulk Hogan, Jim Varney, and Heflin’s drowsy characterization as Victor Wong, Mathew Botuchis, Michael J. Athos bog down the action. Lana makes a O’Laskey II, J. P. Roeske II, Chelsey Earlywine, Alan McRae. Latest adventures of stunning Lady DeWinter.▼●쩠 Three Musketeers, The (1974-British) the three would-be ninjas (with new cast C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Richard Lester. Oliver members) finds them putting their prowess Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlain, to work unexpectedly when Anderson and Michael York, Frank Finlay, Christopher Lee, a team of commando types take over an Geraldine Chaplin, Faye Dunaway, Charlton amusement park, holding the families inside Heston, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Roy Kinnear, hostage. OK kids’ fare. [PG]▼쩠 Spike Milligan. Delightful tongue-in-cheek 3 Ninjas Kick Back (1994) C-99m. ★★ D: version of Dumas classic, mixing swashbuckCharles T. Kanganis. Victor Wong, Max ling adventure and romance with broad slapElliott Slade, Sean Fox, Evan Bonifant, Carstick. One of Raquel Welch’s finest hours. oline Junko King, Dustin Nguyen, Alan Followed by THE FOUR MUSKETEERS, McRae, Margarita Franco, Jason Schombwhich was actually filmed simultaneously, ing, Angelo Tiffe, Sab Shimono, Joey Traand THE RETURN OF THE MUSKEvolta. More silliness aimed straight for the sub-teen crowd, as the three brothers (two TEERS (1989). [PG]▼●쩠 Three Musketeers, The (1993) C-105m. of them recast from the original film) sacri[ 1411 ]

fice a championship baseball game to fly to formances by Baldwin (who’s never been better) and Lynch. [R]▼●쩠 Japan to help their grandfather, who’s been targeted by an age-old rival. A few moralisThree on a Couch (1966) C-109m. ★1⁄2 tic lessons are sprinkled among the slapstick D: Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, and toilet humor. [PG]▼●쩠 Mary Ann Mobley, Gila Golan, Leslie ★1 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up (1995) C-85m. ⁄2 Parrish, James Best, Kathleen Freeman. D: Simon S. Sheen. Victor Wong, Charles For psychiatrist Leigh to marry him, Lewis Napier, Michael Treanor, Max Elliott Slade, has to play five roles; one of them is Chad Power, Crystle Lightning, Patrick ‘‘straight’’ but unintentionally funny, the Kirkpatrick. Rocky, Tum Tum, and Colt other four zany, but unintentionally unfunny. join their grandfather to help an Indian tribe The women are attractive. Three on a Match (1932) 64m. ★★★ D: whose land is being abused by a corrupt business tycoon (Napier). This artless blend Mervyn LeRoy. Warren William, Joan of juvenile slapstick and martial arts was Blondell, Bette Davis, Ann Dvorak, Humfilmed in 1992, before 3 NINJAS KICK phrey Bogart, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell, BACK, with the youthful star trio from the Dawn O’Day (Anne Shirley), Edward Arnold. first film intact, but only released (barely, at Fine, fast-moving (and surprisingly potent) that) in 1995. Followed by 3 NINJAS: pre-Code melodrama of three girls who renew HIGH NOON AT MEGA MOUNTAIN. childhood friendship, only to find suspense and [PG-13]▼●쩠 tragedy. Dvorak is simply marvelous. Remade Three Nuts in Search of a Bolt (1964) as BROADWAY MUSKETEERS. ▼●쩠 C/B&W-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Tommy Noonan. 3 Penny Opera, The (1931-German) Mamie Van Doren, Tommy Noonan, Ziva 112m. ★★★1⁄2 D: G. W. Pabst. Rudolph ForRodann, Paul Gilbert, John Cronin, Peter ster, Lotte Lenya, Carola Neher, Reinhold Howard, T. C. Jones, Alvy Moore, Marjorie Schunzel, Fritz Rasp, Valeska Gert. Fine Bennett. Neurotic stripper Mamie and her musical satire chronicling activities of dashtwo pals hire Noonan to act out their personing gangster Forster, his cohorts, and antagalities for shrink Rodann, so they can reonists, with Lenya outstanding as Pirate ceive psychoanalysis at a discount. Because Jenny. From Bertolt Brecht’s play, with of a couple of scenes in which Mamie plies music by Kurt Weill, adapted from John her trade, this was considered to be quite Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera. Remade many times since.▼●쩠 risque´ back in ’64; today it’s merely idiotic and would be hard-pressed to earn a PG-13 3 Ring Circus (1954) C-103m. ★★ D: Jorating. Some stripper and nudie sequences in seph Pevney. Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Jocolor although rest of film is b&w. Noonan anne Dru, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Wallace Ford, also coproduced and coscripted.▼쩠 Sig Ruman, Nick Cravat, Elsa Lanchester. Three O’Clock High (1987) C-101m. ★1⁄2 So-so Martin and Lewis comedy has them D: Phil Joanou. Casey Siemaszko, Anne as discharged servicemen up to trouble in a Ryan, Richard Tyson, Jeffrey Tambor, circus. Reissued in shorter version as JERPhilip Baker Hall, John P. Ryan, Stacey RICO, THE WONDER CLOWN. Remade Glick, Jonathan Wise. High school jouras ROUSTABOUT. VistaVision. Three Seasons (1999) C-113m. ★★★ D: Tony nalist is assigned to do a welcome-wagon profile on the new psycho in class, finds himself Bui. Don Duong, Nguyen Ngoc Hiep, Tran challenged by this behemoth to duke it out in Manh Cuong, Harvey Keitel, Zo¨e Bui, Nguthe parking lot after school. Steven Spielberg yen Huu Duoc. Absorbing multi-character prote´ge´ Joanou is to the camera what James story about modern-day Saigon, where a Brown is to shoes, but it’s a lot of energy poor boy struggles to survive on the streets, expended over nothing. Siemaszko is undera bicycle-taxi driver falls in love with a whelming in the lead. [PG-13]▼●쩠 prostitute, a young woman who harvests Three of Hearts (1993) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: flowers tries to connect with her mysterious Yurek Bogayevicz. William Baldwin, Kelly employer, and an American soldier (Keitel) Lynch, Sherilyn Fenn, Joe Pantoliano, Gail returns to make amends for his past. In any Strickland, Cec Verrell, Claire Callaway, other setting these stories might not have Marek Johnson, Monique Mannen, Tony the resonance they do. Impressive debut for Amendola, Tawny Kitaen. Original little Vietnamese-American writer-director Bui. film that begins with the end of a relation[PG-13]▼ ship between gay couple Lynch and Fenn Three Secrets (1950) 98m. ★★★ D: Robert and goes on to have the former hire a male Wise. Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ruth escort (Baldwin) to try to get her lover Roman, Frank Lovejoy, Leif Erickson. Sturdy back. Effective first half, with a strident melodrama; three women wait anxiously for Lynch getting to know the cocky gigolo; word of which one’s child survived plane unfortunately second half of film becomes crash. Remade for TV in 1999.▼ a more ordinary romantic tale, with the Three Shades of Love SEE: This Rebel stud falling for his prey. A conventional Breed gangster subplot doesn’t help. Still, good Three Sisters (1970-British) C-165m. ★★★★ use of N.Y.C. locations and excellent perD: Laurence Olivier, John Sichel. Lau[ 1412 ]

rence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Alan Bates, Bergman drama which foreshadows much Jeanne Watts, Louise Purnell, Derek Jacobi. of his future work. This one explores the Brilliant rendering of Chekhov play about dynamics of a three-cornered love relathree daughters of deceased Russian colotionship, from a distinctly female perspecnel living in provinces, circa 1900. Olivitive, and examines the possibility of two er’s vibrant production is definitive screen women having the same personality. Bergversion of this classic. Released here in man can be seen on camera as a train passenger. Aka THIRST.▼쩠 1974 by American Film Theater. [PG]▼쩠 Three Smart Girls (1936) 84m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Three Strangers (1946) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry Koster. Deanna Durbin, Binnie Jean Negulesco. Sydney Greenstreet, GerBarnes, Alice Brady, Ray Milland, Baraldine Fitzgerald, Peter Lorre, Joan Lorring, bara Read, Mischa Auer, Nan Grey, Charles Robert Shayne, Marjorie Riordan. GreenWinninger. Delightful musicomedy with street and Lorre team up with Fitzgerald as Deanna’s feature-film debut as matchpartners holding winning sweepstakes ticket making girl who brings parents back together. under unusual circumstances. Bizarre John Songs: ‘‘Someone to Care for Me,’’ ‘‘My Huston–Howard Koch script makes fasHeart Is Singing.’’ Sequel: THREE SMART cinating viewing. 3 Strikes (2000) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: D. J. Pooh. GIRLS GROW UP.▼●쩠 Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939) 90m. Brian Hooks, N’Bushe Wright, Faizon ★★★ Love, Starletta DuPois, George Wallace, D: Henry Koster. Deanna Durbin, Charles Winninger, Nan Grey, Helen ParDavid Alan Grier, Antonio Fargas, De’aunrish, Robert Cummings, William Lundigan. dre Bonds, Vincent Schiavelli, David LeiLittle Deanna still matchmaking for sisters, sure, Gerald S. O’Loughlin. Alleged comedy warming up stern father, singing ‘‘Beabout a newly minted ex-con (Hooks) with cause,’’ winning over everyone in sight.▼● two felony convictions to his name; he Threesome (1994) C-95m. ★★★ D: Andrew knows that a third will land him in jail for Fleming. Lara Flynn Boyle, Stephen Bald25 years, but he can’t seem to avoid trouble. win, Josh Charles, Alexis Arquette, Martha A must for fanciers of flatulence jokes and Gehman. Through computer error, college general idiocy. [R]▼쩠 student Flynn Boyle is assigned to room with 3:10 to Yuma (1957) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Delmer two guys—shy, intellectual Charles, who Daves. Van Heflin, Glenn Ford, Felicia may be gay, and in-your-face, sex-obsessed Farr, Leora Dana, Henry Jones, Richard Baldwin—resulting in various couplings and Jaeckel, Robert Emhardt. Extremely susemotional complications. Coming-of-age penseful Western, one of the best of the comedy-drama is at once intelligent and im1950s. Farmer Heflin, needing the money, pertinent; unlike many other Hollywood agrees to hold captured outlaw Ford until films, it does not cop out in its examination the train arrives, but Ford starts to psych of the issue of homosexuality. Fleming also him out. Gripping every step of the way, scripted. [R]▼●쩠 with memorable George Duning theme sung Three Stooges Go Around the World in by Frankie Laine. Script by Halsted Welles from an Elmore Leonard story. Remade in a Daze, The (1963) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman 2007. ▼●쩠 Maurer. Three Stooges, Jay Sheffield, Joan Freeman, Walter Burke, Peter Forster. Even 3:10 to Yuma (2007) C-117m. ★★★ D: those who dislike the Stooges may enjoy James Mangold. Russell Crowe, Christian this funny updating of Jules Verne’s tale, Bale, Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Gretchen replete with sight gags and world travel.▼쩠 Mol, Alan Tudyk, Logan Lerman, Dallas Three Stooges in Orbit, The (1962) 87m. Roberts, Vinessa Shaw, Luce Rains, Luke ★★1 Wilson. Farmer Bale, desperate for money ⁄2 D: Edward Bernds. The Three Stooges, Carol Christensen, Edson Stroll, Emil Sitka. (and for his older son’s respect), agrees to Nutty scientist Sitka invents a tanklike conhelp escort notorious outlaw Crowe to a traption that flies and floats. The Stooges train that will send him off to trial . . . but accidentally launch it and run headlong into the captor counts on his gang to rescue him. a few Martian invaders, with usual slapstick Well-filmed adaptation of Elmore Leoresults for younger audiences.▼쩠 nard’s story, expanded and altered from its Three Stooges Meet Hercules, The (1962) 1957 film version. The new ending is a 89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Bernds. The Three mixed blessing, and the story goes on longer Stooges, Vicki Trickett, Quinn Redeker, than it needs to, but it’s still very entertainGeorge N. Neise. Time machine takes the ing, with fine work from Bale, Fonda, and Stooges back to era of Roman legions; Foster, and a charismatic performance by they are trapped on galley ship, battle Crowe as the bad guy who can quote from Cyclops, and wind up with chariot chase. the Bible. Super 35. [R]쩠 Good slapstick for kids and fans.▼쩠 Three the Hard Way (1974) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 Three Strange Loves (1949-Swedish) 84m. D: Gordon Parks, Jr. Jim Brown, Fred ★★★ D: Ingmar Bergman. Eva Henning, Williamson, Jim Kelly, Sheila Frazier, Jay Birger Malmsten, Birgit Tengroth, Mimi Robinson, Alex Rocco, Corbin Bernsen. Nelson, Hasse Ekman. Interesting early Top black action cast in nonstop, nearly [ 1413 ]

bloodless thriller of white supremist Robterious man and his dog enter the life of a inson’s insane plot to eliminate blacks with Korean War widow who’s doing her best to a serum in the water supply. Produced by raise two sons on her own. Is there more to Harry Bernsen (Corbin’s father). [R]▼ this stranger than meets the eye? Flashback3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) C-125m. framed ’50s tale hints at fantasy but doesn’t BOMB D: Demian Lichtenstein. Kevin let it flow until the end—by which time it Costner, Kurt Russell, Courteney Cox, seems like an afterthought. Another purChristian Slater, Kevin Pollak, David Arported family film that moves like molasses quette, Jon Lovitz, Howie Long, Thomas and dwells on the melancholy. D. B. Sweeney appears unbilled. [PG] ▼●쩠 Haden Church, Bokeem Woodbine, Ice-T, David Kaye, Paul Anka. A gang of Elvis 3 Women (1977) C-125m. ★★★1⁄2 D: impersonators pulls off a heist in Las Vegas. Robert Altman. Sissy Spacek, Shelley Potentially clever idea degenerates into an Duvall, Janice Rule, Robert Fortier, Ruth overlong, bloody (and bloody awful) bore. Nelson, John Cromwell. Brilliant, moody, All the violence is mindless; all the plot thought-provoking film about a strange developments are brainless. Russell actually young girl (Spacek) who gets a job in an once played Presley, in the TV movie old-age convalescent home and attaches ELVIS. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 herself to coworker Duvall, who fancies Three Times (2005-Taiwanese) C-135m. herself a social butterfly. Their interrela★★★ tionship and involvement with a quiet, D: Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Mei Fang, Liao Su-jen, Di Mei, Chen embittered woman (Rule) form the ‘‘plot.’’ Shih-shan, Lee Pei-hsuan. The universality Hypnotic film for Altman fans, heavy going and timelessness of love and communicafor others; a completely unconventional movie. Panavision. [PG]쩠 tion are explored via three separate stories set in 1966, 1911, and 2005, and featuring 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The (1960-British) C-100m. ★★★ D: Jack Sher. Kerwin the same male and female leads (playing different characters). Although the last part Mathews, Jo Morrow, June Thorburn, Lee is its weakest, this languid and lyrical film, Patterson, Gregoire Aslan, Basil Sydney, which is shot in varying styles reflecting Peter Bull. Hero is washed overboard and each of its time periods, is an accomplished finds himself in the Land of Lilliput . . . and moving mood piece.쩠 but that’s just the beginning. Well-made Three to Tango (1999) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: adventure/fantasy designed for kids, fun for Damon Santostefano. Matthew Perry, Neve older viewers, too. Fine special effects by Campbell, Dylan McDermott, Oliver Platt, Ray Harryhausen, charming Bernard HerrBob Balaban, Cylk Cozart, John C. McGinley, mann score.▼●쩠 Deborah Rush. Architect Perry is given the job Three Young Texans (1954) C-78m. ★★ of spying on the mistress of his insanely jealD. Henry Levin. Mitzi Gaynor, Keefe ous—and rich—client, who mistakenly thinks Brasselle, Jeffrey Hunter, Harvey Stephens, he is gay, until they (predictably) fall in love. Dan Riss. Standard Western has Hunter Glossy comedy of mistaken sexual identity pulling railroad robbery to prevent crooks with TV-star cast manages a couple of from forcing his father to do same job, laughs but tries so hard to get them that it expected complications. hardly seems worth the effort. [PG-13]▼쩠 Threshold (1981-Canadian) C-97m. ★★★ Three Tough Guys (1974-Italian-U.S.) D: Richard Pearce. Donald Sutherland, C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Duccio Tessari. Lino John Marley, Sharon Ackerman, Mare Ventura, Fred Williamson, Isaac Hayes, Winningham, Jeff Goldblum, Michael LerPaula Kelly. Oddball but fast-moving ner, Allan Nicholls, Paul Hecht, Robert actioner, with tough priest Ventura and Joy. Excellent, surprisingly low-key drama ex-cop Hayes solving million-dollar bank about the first artificial heart transplant, robbery. Hayes, who also did the music, is with more humanism and offbeat touches nicely subdued as an actor. [PG] than you’d find in typical TV treatment of Three Violent People (1956) C-100m. this sort of thing. Goldblum and Winning★★1 ⁄2 D: Rudolph Mate´. Charlton Heston, ham score as, respectively, the biologist Anne Baxter, Gilbert Roland, Tom Tryon, who invents the artificial heart and its first Forrest Tucker, Elaine Stritch, Bruce recipient. Unreleased in the U.S. until Bennett, Barton MacLane. Adequately 1983, when Barney Clark’s real-life operapaced Western set in post–Civil War Texas; tion made headlines. [PG]▼ Heston, returning home with bride Baxter, Thrill of a Romance (1945) C-105m. ★★ is forced to fight carpetbaggers and deal D: Richard Thorpe. Van Johnson, Esther with wife’s shady past. VistaVision.▼쩠 Williams, Frances Gifford, Henry Travers, Three Wishes (1995) C-107m. ★★ D: MarSpring Byington, Carleton G. Young, Lauritz tha Coolidge. Patrick Swayze, Mary ElizaMelchior, Tommy Dorsey. Slight musicalbeth Mastrantonio, Joseph Mazzello, Seth romance with sweet Williams, abandoned Mumy, David Marshall Grant, Jay O. Sandby her businessman husband on their honers, Michael O’Keefe, John Diehl, Diane eymoon, falling for war hero Johnson. ▼ Venora, Colleen Camp, Bill Mumy. A mysThrill of It All, The (1963) C-108m. ★★★ [ 1414 ]

D: Norman Jewison. Doris Day, James Vaughn, Chase Offerle. A 17-year-old boy Garner, Arlene Francis, Edward Andrews, who still sucks his thumb struggles to find Reginald Owen, ZaSu Pitts, Elliott Reid. his way while grappling with the curious Enjoyable spoof of TV and commercials dynamics of his family. Perceptive, multiby Carl Reiner; good vehicle for Day as layered look at alienation and the challenges housewife-turned-TV-spokeswoman and that face both kids and their parents. DisGarner as her neglected husband. Reiner has armingly real, with a top-notch cast and a a particularly funny series of cameos.▼쩠 dynamite performance by Pucci. ImpresThrone of Blood (1957-Japanese) 108m. sive, stylish feature debut (in Widescreen) ★★★★ D: Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, for graphic designer, music video and comIsuzu Yamada, Takashi Shimura, Minoru mercial director Mills, who also adapted Chiaki. Graphic, powerful adaptation of Walter Kirn’s novel. Swinton coexecutiveMacbeth in a samurai setting. Gripping produced. Panavision. [R]쩠 finale, with Taketoki Washizu (the MacThumb Tripping (1972) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: beth character, masterfully played by Quentin Masters. Michael Burns, Meg FosMifune) attacked by arrows.▼●쩠 ter, Mariana Hill, Bruce Dern, Michael Through a Glass, Darkly (1961-Swedish) Conrad, Joyce Van Patten. Amusing as a 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Harriet period piece on the hippie era, with Burns Andersson, Gunnar Bjornstrand, Max von and Foster as hitchhikers who decide to Sydow, Lars Passgard. Four-character travel together and share experiences. [R]▼ drama about just-released mental patient, Thunder Alley (1967) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: her husband, her father, and her younger Richard Rush. Annette Funicello, Fabian, brother who spend summer together on seDiane McBain, Warren Berlinger, Jan Murcluded island. Moody, evocative story of inray, Maureen Arthur. Fabian’s inept stockcar sanity—well-deserved Oscar winner, one of driving gets him suspended from racing, but Bergman’s best. The first in the filmmaker’s unfortunately, the acting profession doesn’t ‘‘faith’’ trilogy, followed by WINTER have the same rules. Panavision.▼쩠 LIGHT and THE SILENCE.▼●쩠 Thunder and Lightning (1977) C-95m. Throw Momma From the Train (1987) ★★1 ⁄2 D: Corey Allen. David Carradine, C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Danny DeVito. Danny Kate Jackson, Roger C. Carmel, Sterling DeVito, Billy Crystal, Anne Ramsey, Kim Holloway, Ed Barth, Ron Feinberg. AmiGreist, Kate Mulgrew, Branford Marsalis, able moonshine picture with attractive pairRob Reiner, Bruce Kirby. Black comedy ing of Carradine and Jackson and lots of spin-off of Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON expected car smash-ups. [PG]▼쩠 A TRAIN, with DeVito (in an excellent Thunderball (1965-British) C-129m. ★★1⁄2 performance) as a childish man who tries D: Terence Young. Sean Connery, Claudine to persuade his writing professor (Crystal) Auger, Adolfo Celi, Luciana Paluzzi, Rik to ‘‘exchange murders’’ with him so he Van Nutter, Martine Beswick, Bernard Lee, can bump off his harridan of a mother Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, Roland (Ramsey, who’s incredible). Uneven and Culver. Fourth James Bond film isn’t as lively not as all-out funny as you might expect as the others. Plenty of gimmicks, and Oscarfrom the starring duo. Director DeVito has winning special effects, as world is threatened many offbeat ideas, and cinematographer with destruction, but film tends to bog Barry Sonnenfeld (who did those wild gags down—especially underwater. Celi makes a in RAISING ARIZONA) leaves a distincformidable Bond villain. Remade eighteen tive stamp on this film—particularly the years later—with Connery—as NEVER SAY runaway car sequence. Written by Stu SilNEVER AGAIN. Panavision.▼●쩠 ver. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Thunder Bay (1953) C-102m. ★★★ D: ★★1 ⁄2 D: Don Thumbelina (1994) C-86m. Anthony Mann. James Stewart, Joanne Bluth, Gary Goldman. Voices of Jodi BenDru, Gilbert Roland, Dan Duryea, Jay C. son, Gary Imhoff, Gino Conforti, Barbara Flippen, Henry (Harry) Morgan. ActionCook, Will Ryan, Charo, June Foray, Kenpacked account of oil-drillers vs. Louisineth Mars, Gilbert Gottfried, John Hurt, ana shrimp fishermen, with peppery cast.▼쩠 Carol Channing. Animated retelling of Thunder Birds (1942) C-78m. ★★ D: WilHans Christian Andersen’s classic fairy tale liam Wellman. Gene Tierney, Preston Foshas the digit-sized heroine evading the ter, John Sutton, Dame May Whitty, Reginald clutches of various toads, moles, and beetles Denny, Jack Holt, George Barbier. Ultrabefore she can proceed with her courtship patriotic time capsule is an ode to the WW2 with her dream lover, Prince Cornelius. flyer/flying instructor. Freewheeling veteran Pleasant enough diversion for the small fry, aviator Foster and intern-turned-trainee with a handful of sweetly romantic songs Sutton (who’s afraid of heights) compete from Barry Manilow. [G]▼●쩠 for the affection of flirtatious Tierney.쩠 Thumbsucker (2005) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Thunderbirds (1952) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Mike Mills. Lou (Taylor) Pucci, Tilda H. Auer. John Derek, John Barrymore, Swinton, Vincent D’Onofrio, Kelli Garner, Keanu Reeves, Benjamin Bratt, Vince Jr., Mona Freeman, Gene Evans. Fact-based [ 1415 ]

tale of Native Americans who fought in the ceedings as a refined blind woman who 45th Infantry Division during WW2. falls for Ladd and a stubbornly pacifistic government official. Thunderbirds (2004) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: JonaThunder in the Sun (1959) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 than Frakes. Bill Paxton, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Edwards, Genie Francis, Brady Corbet, D: Russell Rouse. Susan Hayward, Jeff Dominic Colenso, Ben Torgersen, Sophia Chandler, Jacques Bergerac, Blanche Yurka, Myles. Rehash of Gerry Anderson’s wellCarl Esmond, Fortunio Bonanova. Hayremembered British TV series of the ’60s ward is romanced by wagon train scout (which featured marionettes) is turned for Chandler and Bergerac, head of French some reason into a bloated live-action ‘‘famBasque immigrants on way to California. ily adventure’’ that’s as wooden as those pupThunder of Drums, A (1961) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 pets from the original show. Plot has the D: Joseph M. Newman. George Hamilton, heroic International Rescue family stranded Luana Patten, Richard Boone, Charles Bronin outer space as they try to save the world son, Richard Chamberlain, Slim Pickens. from The Hood (Kingsley). This one was in Better than average cast saves average and out of theaters faster than you could say story of new lieutenant having rough time in cavalry. CinemaScope. DVD. [PG] ▼쩠 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) CThunder on the Hill (1951) 84m. ★★★ D: Douglas Sirk. Claudette Colbert, Ann Blyth, 114m. ★★★ D: Michael Cimino. Clint Eastwood, Jeff Bridges, George Kennedy, Robert Douglas, Anne Crawford, Gladys Geoffrey Lewis, Catherine Bach, Gary Cooper. Nun Colbert can’t believe visitor Busey, Jack Dodson, Vic Tayback, Dub Blyth, about to be hanged, is murderess, sets Taylor, Bill McKinney. Thief Eastwood out to prove her innocent; Cooper fine as and drifter Bridges team up with Clint’s Mother Superior. Sincere, interesting drama. ex-partners (Kennedy and Lewis) to reThunder Over the Plains (1953) C-82m. ★★ trieve loot from previous robbery. ColorD: Andre de Toth. Randolph Scott, Lex ful, tough melodrama-comedy with good Barker, Phyllis Kirk, Henry Hull, Elisha characterizations; Lewis is particularly fine, Cook, Jr., Richard Benjamin, Charles but Bridges steals the picture. Cimino’s McGraw, Fess Parker. Routine Western directorial debut. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 set in post-Civil War Texas, with Scott as Thundercloud SEE: Colt .45 Army officer sent to prevent carpetbaggers from harassing all.쩠 Thunderhead—Son of Flicka (1945) C-78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Louis King. Roddy McThunder Road (1958) 92m. ★★★ D: ArDowall, Preston Foster, Rita Johnson, James thur Ripley. Robert Mitchum, Gene Barry, Bell, Diana Hale, Carleton Young. Good, Jacques Aubuchon, Keely Smith, James colorful attempt to repeat MY FRIEND Mitchum. Rural bootlegger takes on Feds FLICKA’s success; doesn’t match origiand the Mob in cult favorite that even nal, but it’s enjoyable. Followed by GREEN today continues to play in drive-ins; for GRASS OF WYOMING.쩠 many this remains the definitive moonshine Thunderheart (1992) C-118m. ★★★ D: picture. Jim Mitchum makes screen debut Michael Apted. Val Kilmer, Sam Shepplaying Bob’s brother; the elder Mitchum ard, Graham Greene, Fred Ward, Fred got a hit record out of the title tune, which Dalton Thompson, Sheila Tousey, Chief he also wrote!▼●쩠 Ted Thin Elk, John Trudell, Dennis Banks, THX 1138 (1971) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: George David Crosby. Part-Sioux FBI agent KilLucas. Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, mer is awakened to his heritage when he’s Maggie McOmie, Don Pedro Colley, Ian assigned to investigate a murder on an Wolfe. Futuristic tale in the 1984 vein about Oglala Sioux reservation. Engrossing thriller robotlike society where sex is forbidden and is notable for its keen attention to detail everyone looks the same. Dull script (by regarding Sioux customs and spirituality, Lucas and Walter Murch), but visually imand its enlightened point of view. Based pressive; Lucas’ first feature is expanded veron events which occurred in the 1970s at sion of prize-winning featurette he made at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, USC. Revised by the director (with no change where the film was shot. Coproduced by in running time) for 2004 reissue; that version Robert De Niro; before directing this, Apted is rated R. Techniscope. [PG]▼●쩠 made a documentary, INCIDENT AT Tiara Tahiti (1962-British) C-100m. ★★ OGLALA, about Indian activist Leonard D: William (Ted) Kotcheff. James Mason, Peltier. [R]▼●쩠 John Mills, Claude Dauphin, Herbert Lom. Thunder in the East (1953) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mild comedy-drama involving Mason and Charles Vidor. Alan Ladd, Deborah Kerr, Mills as former Army officers who have Charles Boyer, Corinne Calvet, Cecil an old grudge to settle; establishment of a Tahiti resort hotel sets wheels in motion.▼ Kellaway, John Williams. Adequate, politically loaded adventure with gunrunner Tic Code, The (2000) C-91m. ★★★ D: Gary Ladd caught amid tension and rebellion in Winick. Gregory Hines, Polly Draper, Chrisrural India. Kerr and Boyer uplift the protopher George Marquette, Desmond Robert[ 1416 ]

son, Carlos McKinney, Dick Berk, Tony it lacks is wit, sparkle, and a fresh script. Panavision. Shalhoub, Bill Nunn, Fisher Stevens, Carol . . . tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . (1970) Kane, Camryn Manheim. Sincere, wellC-100m. ★★ D: Ralph Nelson. Jim Brown, made drama about a boy with Tourette SynGeorge Kennedy, Fredric March, Lynn drome who finds release in playing jazz Carlin, Don Stroud, Clifton James, Janet piano and a soul mate in musician Hines. MacLachlan. Poor man’s IN THE HEAT Written by Draper, who plays the boy’s OF THE NIGHT with black man (Brown) mother, inspired by her experience with replacing white sheriff (Kennedy) in Southhusband Michael Wolff, the film’s comern town, flaring local hostilities. March poser and producer. Shot in 1997. [R]▼쩠 ★★★ adds film’s only spice as aging, cantankerTickets (2005-Italian-British) C-109m. ous mayor. Panavision. [PG] D: Ermanno Olmi, Abbas Kiarostami, Ken Tidal Wave (1975) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Shiro Loach. Carlo Delle Piane, Valeria Bruni TedMoriana, Andrew Meyer. Lorne Greene, eschi, Silvana De Santis, Filippo Trojano, Kiliu Kobayashi, Rhonda Leigh Hopkins, Martin Compston, Gary Maitland, William Hiroshi Fujioka. Laughable AmericanizaRuane. Trilogy of stories by three worldtion of big-budget (and much superior) renowned directors, set on a passenger train Japanese film, SUBMERSION OF JAen route to Rome and connected only by some PAN; epic special effects dwarfed by idirecurring characters: An elderly biochemist otic new footage with Greene, and horrible reflects on his life and his meeting earlier that dubbing. For diehard disaster buffs only. day with an attractive young woman; a young Panavision. [PG]▼ man performing civil service to avoid military Tideland (2006-Canadian-British) C-121m. duty has to escort a general’s overbearing BOMB D: Terry Gilliam. Jodelle Ferland, widow; and three unruly Scottish soccer fans Brendan Fletcher, Janet McTeer, Jennifer have a life-changing encounter with a family Tilly, Jeff Bridges, Dylan Taylor, Wendy Anof Albanian refugees. Though all three segderson, Sally Crooks. In a golden field of ments are different in mood and style, this Johnsongrass, inside a rotting farmhouse, a meditative, humorous, and poignant trip is very poor little girl’s junkie dad dies of an well worth taking. 쩠 overdose, like her recently deceased unstable Ticket to Heaven (1981-Canadian) Cmom. She escapes into the rabbit hole of her 107m. ★★★ D: Ralph L. Thomas. Nick imagination, guided by an all too bluntly refMancuso, Saul Rubinek, Meg Foster, Kim erenced volume of Alice in Wonderland. Cattrall, R. H. Thomson, Jennifer Dale, Wrongheaded and squirmy on every count— Guy Boyd. Mancuso, strung out from bad the child prepares her father’s lethal syringe relationship, is seduced into becoming a and later engages in premature sexual experi‘‘heavenly child’’ in a Moonie-like cult. mentation with a brain-damaged neighbor Pointed drama is frightening in its relevanboy. Depressing fairy tale is monumentally cy. Mancuso is excellent, Rubinek and awful. Adapted from the 2000 novel by Mitch Thomson lend fine support as his best Cullin. Super 35. [R]쩠 friend and a deprogrammer. [PG]▼쩠 Tiefland (1954-German) 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ticket to Tomahawk, A (1950) C-90m. Leni Riefenstahl. Leni Riefenstahl, Franz ★★★ D: Richard Sale. Dan Dailey, Anne Eichberger, Bernard Minetti, Maria KopBaxter, Rory Calhoun, Walter Brennan, penhofer, Luis Rainer. Blonde, dreamy Charles Kemper, Connie Gilchrist, Arthur shepherd Eichberger and arrogant marquis Hunnicutt, Mauritz Hugo, Chief YowlMinetti vie for Spanish dancer Riefenstahl. achie, Victor Sen Yung. Engaging comedyAtmospheric, visually poetic drama, even Western about stagecoach company that though the characters lack depth. Filmed hires gunslinger Calhoun to keep dreaded between 1942 and 1945; editing wasn’t railroad from running on time. Good fun; completed until 1954.▼쩠 one of the chorus girls with Dailey in a Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990-Spanish) musical number is Marilyn Monroe.▼ C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pedro Almodo´var. VicTickle Me (1965) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman toria Abril, Antonio Banderas, Francisco Taurog. Elvis Presley, Jocelyn Lane, Julie Rabal, Loles Leon, Julieta Serrano, Maria Adams, Jack Mullaney, Merry Anders, ConBarranco. Mental patient kidnaps a former nie Gilchrist. That’s the only way to get any porn star/junkie, slaps her around some, then laughs out of this one: Elvis works at all-girl ties her to a bed; actually, he just wants to dude ranch singing his usual quota of songs. get married and have kids. Potential NOW Written by Elwood Ullman and Edward nightmare comes off as surprisingly tame for Bernds, both of whom worked with The Three Almodo´var, though it still has his unpredictStooges in better days. Panavision.▼쩠 able black humor. Thought provoking and enTicklish Affair, A (1963) C-89m. ★★ D: ergetically performed. Two scenes (one a loud George Sidney. Shirley Jones, Gig Young, but fairly explicit sex scene) earned this an X Red Buttons, Carolyn Jones, Edgar Burating, so the distributor decided to release it chanan. Amiable film of Navy commander unrated instead. Later rerated for video. [NCYoung falling in love with widow Jones; all 17] ▼●쩠 [ 1417 ]

Tie That Binds, The (1995) C-98m. Vietnam battlefield known as Tigerland. BOMB D: Wesley Strick. Daryl Hannah, Farrell is excellent as an iconoclast who Keith Carradine, Moira Kelly, Vincent rocks the boat—hard—but cares about his comrades. [R]▼쩠 Spano, Julia Devin, Ray Reinhardt, Barbara Tarbuck. Two psychotic fugitives terrorize Tiger Makes Out, The (1967) C-94m. ★★1 the family that’s legally adopted their ⁄2 D: Arthur Hiller. Eli Wallach, Anne daughter after the youngster was taken into Jackson, Bob Dishy, John Harkins, David police custody following a foiled robbery Burns, Ruth White, Rae Allen, Charles attempt. This is what audiences get for havNelson Reilly. One-man crusader against ing made THE HAND THAT ROCKS society (Wallach) symbolically kidnaps subTHE CRADLE a hit; film (from the same urban housewife (Jackson). Originally a studio) is sleazy, insultingly derivative, and one-act, two-character play by Murray full of dangling plot issues. Directorial Schisgal, his expanded screenplay loses debut for screenwriter Strick. [R]▼●쩠 focus, relies on vivid N.Y. locations and Tiger and the Pussycat, The (1967-Italianfunny cameos by character actors. Dustin U.S.) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dino Risi. AnnHoffman’s film debut. Margret, Vittorio Gassman, Eleanor ParTiger of Eschnapur, The (1958-German) ker, Antonella Stani, Fiorenzo Fiorentini. C-101m. ★★ D: Fritz Lang. Debra Paget, Innocuous sex-comedy of middle-aged busiPaul Hubschmid, Walther Reyer, Rene´ nessman Gassman unintentionally getting Deltgen, Luciana Paluzzi. Exotic dancer involved with promiscuous young AnnPaget is desired by dastardly maharajah Margret. Italian and American players work Reyer, but she loves architect Hubschmid; well together.▼쩠 meanwhile, Reyer’s subjects are plotting Tiger and the Snow, The (2006-Italian) revolution. Slow-moving, disappointing C-114m. ★1⁄2 D: Roberto Benigni. Robert adventure-romance of interest mostly for Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean Reno, Emilia Lang’s participation. The first of the director’s Fox, Amid Farid, Giuseppe Battiston, Andrea Indian diptych, followed by THE INDIAN Renzi, Gianfranco Varetto, Tom Waits. LifeTOMB; both were originally edited down to loving Italian poetry teacher (Benigni, who 95m., dubbed and released as JOURNEY TO THE LOST CITY. 쩠 else?) longs for the woman of his dream— literally. When she is injured during a trip to Tigers Don’t Cry SEE: Target of an Baghdad, he goes there and repeatedly risks Assassin his life to save hers. Attempt by cowriterTiger Shark (1932) 80m. ★★★ D: Howard director Benigni to create a comedy-tragedy Hawks. Edward G. Robinson, Richard in the LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL mold falls flat: Arlen, Zita Johann, J. Carrol Naish, Vince the Iraq war is a superficial backdrop to roBarnett. Robinson gives rich, colorful permantic woes and his character’s constant formance as Portuguese tuna fisherman who rambling becomes insufferable. Final surmarries wayward girl out of pity, then sees prise twist is laughable . . . but not in a good her fall in love with his best friend—a way. Super 35.쩠 plot gambit Warner Bros. reused several Tiger Bay (1959-British) 105m. ★★★ D: J. times (SLIM, MANPOWER, etc.). AuLee Thompson. John Mills, Horst Buchholz, thentically filmed amid fisheries on MonHayley Mills, Yvonne Mitchell, Megs Jenterey coast. kins, Anthony Dawson. Lonely Cardiff child Tigers in Lipstick (1979-Italian) C-83m. ★★ witnesses a murder and is abducted by the D: Luigi Zampa. Ursula Andress, Laura Polish sailor-killer. A poignant, sensitive, Antonelli, Sylvia Kristel, Monica Vitti, and very different police chase story. Hayley Michele Placido, Roberto Benigni, Orazio steals the film in first major acting role.▼쩠 Orlando. Veteran comedy director Zampa Tiger by the Tail (1968) C-99m. ★★ D: pilots a fun but overly tame throwback to R. G. Springsteen. Christopher George, ’60s sex comedies that spotlights four beauTippi Hedren, Dean Jagger, Charo, Glenda tiful actresses (individually) in seven Farrell, Lloyd Bochner, Alan Hale, Skip separate segments, emphasizing aggresHomeier, R. G. Armstrong. Vietnam war sive women who take advantage of men. hero is accused of murdering his brother Best segment: ‘‘The Pickup,’’ in which and recruits his socialite girlfriend in hunt Antonelli is a frantic businesswoman who for the real killer. Overly talkative thriller. disrupts the life of an orchestra conductor. [M/PG] Originally titled: WILD BEDS. [R]▼ Tigerland (2000) C-109m. ★★★ D: Joel Tiger’s Tale, A (1987) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Schumacher. Colin Farrell, Matthew Davis, Peter Douglas. Ann-Margret, C. Thomas Clifton Collins, Jr., Thomas Guiry, Shea Howell, Charles Durning, Kelly Preston, Whigham, Russell Richardson, Cole Hauser, William Zabka, Ann Wedgeworth, James Michael Shannon. Gritty, original take on the Noble, Tim Thomerson, Steven Kampmilitary, the specter of the Vietnam war, and mann, Angel Tompkins. Unbelievable roits effect on raw recruits who train for combat mantic comedy about a high school senior duty. From Fort Polk, Louisiana, these diswho gets involved with his girlfriend’s parate young men move on to a simulated mother, a nurse named Rose Butts. Need [ 1418 ]

we say more? Debuting writer-director volume BORN YESTERDAY-like verbal Douglas (Kirk’s son) has bitten off more sparring with Keith, her police lieutenant than he can chew—or we can swallow. bodyguard, in this slack crime melodrama Ann-Margret is watchable, as always, but based on a flop Broadway play. A double miscast. [R]▼● dose of disappointment for Eddie G. fans: ★★1 Tiger Walks, A (1964) C-91m. His screen time is short, and he plays the ⁄2 D: Norman Tokar. Brian Keith, Vera Miles, uninteresting role of the prosecutor!▼ Pamela Franklin, Sabu, Kevin Corcoran, Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made Peter Brown, Una Merkel, Frank McHugh, (1994-Finnish-German-Brazilian) C-75m. ★★★ Edward Andrews, Jack Albertson. OddD: Mika Kaurismaki. Absorbing docuball Disney film about young girl (Frankmentary charting director Samuel Fuller’s lin) whose compassion for tiger which has ill-fated attempt to shoot a film in Brazil broken away from circus stirs controversy among the remote Karaja tribe in 1954. Fuland political wheeling-and-dealing. Surler is on hand, returning to the Karaja vilprisingly bitter portrait of small-town lage where he describes the events to America. Sabu’s last film.▼쩠 filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and screens footTiger Warsaw (1988) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: age he shot four decades earlier for villagAmin Q. Chaudhri. Patrick Swayze, Piper ers. A must for movie-history aficionados, Laurie, Lee Richardson, Mary McDonnell, and cultists of Jarmusch, the Kaurismaki Barbara Williams, Bobby DiCicco, Jenny brothers, and (especially) Fuller.▼●쩠 Chrisinger, Kaye Ballard. Muddled meloTill Dawn Do Us Part SEE: Straight drama about troubled ex-junkie Swayze on Till Morning and what happens when he comes home Till Human Voices Wake Us (2002Australian) C-97m. ★★ D: Michael Petroni. and attempts to sort out his life. Hokey and highly improbable. [R]▼●쩠 Guy Pearce, Helena Bonham Carter, Frank Tigger Movie, The (2000) C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gallacher, Lindley Joyner, Brooke Harman, Jun Falkenstein. Voices of Jim Cummings, Peter Curtin, Margot Knight. A boy’s idylJohn Fiedler, Nikita Hopkins, Ken Sansom, lic summer is jolted by the accidental death Peter Cullen, Kath Soucie; narrated by John of his best friend, a disabled girl. The boy Hurt. Tigger, who’s always boasted that grows up to be a psychiatrist and lives a ‘‘he’s the only one,’’ comes to feel the need solitary life until he chances to meet a vulfor family, and his friends in the Hundred nerable young woman. Intriguing at first, but Acre Wood try to help him. Cute movie once this lugubrious movie’s central idea beaimed squarely at young children; not in comes obvious—and it does—it’s a sleepy the same class as major Disney animated ride to the conclusion. The title comes from a T. S. Eliot poem. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 features, but serves its purpose well. Best of all are the songs by Disney veterans Richard Tillie and Gus (1933) 58m. ★★★1⁄2 D: B. and Robert M. Sherman and their imagiFrancis Martin. W.C. Fields, Alison native staging. [G]▼쩠 Skipworth, Baby LeRoy, Edgar Kennedy, Tight Little Island (1949-British) 82m. Jacqueline Wells (Julie Bishop), Clifford ★★★★ D: Alexander Mackendrick. Basil Jones, Barton MacLane, Clarence Wilson. Radford, Joan Greenwood, James RobertFields and Skipworth are perfectly matched son Justice, Jean Cadell, Gordon Jackson, as card hustlers in this very entertaining Wylie Watson, John Gregson; narrated by comedy, which also pits W.C. against Finlay Currie. Hilarious, fast-paced comBaby LeRoy for the first time. Nominal edy about WW2 ship sinking while loaded plot has them helping niece Wells win a with whiskey and the antics of local Scottish crucial riverboat race. islanders thirsting for its cargo. A solid Till Marriage Do Us Part (1974-Italian) hit. Scripted by Compton Mackenzie, the C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luigi Comencini. Laura author of the novel, who has a small role as Antonelli, Alberto Lionello, Michele Placido, Captain Buncher. British title: WHISKY Jean Rochefort, Karin Schubert. A naive GALORE! Followed by MAD LITTLE young woman unable to consummate her ISLAND.▼쩠 marriage seeks and finds sexual fulfillment Tightrope (1984) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard elsewhere. Light, forgettable farce featuring Tuggle. Clint Eastwood, Genevieve Bujold, Antonelli at her sexiest. [R]▼● Alison Eastwood, Jennifer Beck, Dan Till the Clouds Roll By (1946) C-137m. ★★1 Hedaya. New Orleans cop finds he has ⁄2 D: Richard Whorf. Robert Walker, much in common with the sex murderer Van Heflin, Lucille Bremer, Dorothy he’s pursuing. Intriguing Eastwood vehiPatrick, many guest stars including Judy cle undone by sleaziness—and darkness. Garland, Kathryn Grayson, Lena Horne, Tony Martin, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra, [R]▼●쩠 Tight Spot (1955) 97m. ★★ D: Phil Karlson. June Allyson, Angela Lansbury, Cyd Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Brian Charisse, Virginia O’Brien. Soggy biograKeith, Lorne Greene, Katherine Anderson. phy of songwriter Jerome Kern uplifted by Rogers, key witness at a N.Y.C. crime song numbers featuring some high-powered lord’s upcoming trial, does a lot of highMGM talent. Highlights include Lansbury’s [ 1419 ]

‘‘How D’Ya Like to Spoon With Me,’’ younger, retarded man (nicely played by Lena’s ‘‘Why Was I Born?,’’ Judy’s ‘‘Look Gibson). Pate wrote the screenplay from for the Silver Lining,’’ and mini-production Colleen McCullough’s first novel. Remade for TV in 1996 as MARY & TIM.▼쩠 of Show Boat.▼●쩠 Till the End of Time (1946) 105m. ★★★ D: Timbuktu (1959) 91m. ★★ D: Jacques TourEdward Dmytryk. Dorothy McGuire, Guy neur. Victor Mature, Yvonne De Carlo, Madison, Robert Mitchum, Bill Williams, George Dolenz, John Dehner, Marcia HenTom Tully, William Gargan, Jean Porter, derson, James Foxx. Mature plays advenRuth Nelson. Solid, sympathetic drama of turer involved in African story of plot to three returning WW2 veterans was released overthrow government. Script is below months before THE BEST YEARS OF average; cast is uneven. OUR LIVES; the focus is on Madison Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) Cfalling for troubled war widow McGuire. 76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tim Burton, Mike Johnson. Screenplay by Allen Rivkin, based on Niven Voices of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Busch’s novel They Dream of Home. Title Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul song (based on Chopin’s Polonaise in A-flat Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert FinMajor) was a big hit.▼● ney, Richard E. Grant, Christopher Lee, MiTill There Was You (1990-U.S.-Australian) chael Gough, Jane Horrocks, Deep Roy, C-94m. BOMB D: John Seale. Mark HarDanny Elfman. Victor Van Dort is supmon, Deborah Unger, Jeroen Krabbe´, Shane posed to endure an arranged marriage for Briant. Saxophone player Harmon is sumhis family’s sake, but somehow winds up moned to the South Pacific island of wed to a corpse who rises from her grave to Vanuatu by his brother, whose subsequent be betrothed! Settings and characters are a murder he predictably solves, after bungee treat for the eye and Elfman’s songs suit the jumping with the natives! Pretty scenery occasion, but the storyline is terribly discan’t save this one. [R]▼ jointed in this labor-of-love feature. What’s Tilt (1978) C-111m. ★★ D: Rudy Durand. more, the classic stop-motion animation Brooke Shields, Ken Marshall, Charles technique is so slick it looks like CG, which Durning, John Crawford, Gregory Walcott, rather defeats the idea. [PG]쩠 Geoffrey Lewis. Meandering tale of pinTim Burton’s The Nightmare Before ball wizard Shields and musician Marshall Christmas SEE: Nightmare Before traveling cross-country, eventually challengChristmas, The ing champion Durning. Only value of film Time After Time (1979) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 (aside from Durning) is dazzling point-ofD: Nicholas Meyer. Malcolm McDowell, view photography inside pinball machine. David Warner, Mary Steenburgen, Charles Recut by director Durand to 100m. [PG]▼ Cioffi, Kent Williams, Patti D’Arbanville, ’Til There Was You (1997) C-114m. ★★ Joseph Maher, Corey Feldman, Shelley D: Scott Winant. Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dylan Hack. Fanciful tale of H. G. Wells followMcDermott, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer ing Jack the Ripper from Victorian EnAniston, Craig Bierko, Nina Foch, Christine gland to 1979 America in his time machine. Ebersole, Michael Tucker, Steve Antin, Engaging premise eroded by story loopKen Olin, Susan Walters, Karen Allen. A holes and halfhearted attempts at social man and a woman’s lives mirror each other comment. Best is Steenburgen in an apfor over 20 years, and they even have sevpealing, star-making performance as Wells’ eral brief chance encounters. Of course, modern American girlfriend. Vivid score by Miklos Rozsa. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 when they finally do meet, it’s love at first sight. Cloying and excruciatingly overlong. Time After Time (1985-British) C-103m. ★★★ It doesn’t help that the actors don’t really D: Bill Hays. John Gielgud, Googie seem to believe in the material. Best moWithers, Helen Cherry, Ursula Howells, ments belong to Parker as a spoiled former Brenda Bruce, Freddie Jones, Fiona Walker, Trevor Howard. Very funny comedy about TV sitcom teen. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ’Til We Meet Again (1940) 99m. ★★1⁄2 Gielgud, living on an estate with his three D: Edmund Goulding. Merle Oberon, elderly sisters (named April, May, and George Brent, Pat O’Brien, Geraldine FitzBaby June)—their eccentricities, memogerald, Binnie Barnes, Frank McHugh, ries, and what happens when they are Eric Blore, George Reeves. Overblown visited by their manipulative, long-lost remake of ONE WAY PASSAGE recounts cousin (Withers). Great script by Andrew romance between suave crook Brent and Davies, from Molly Keane’s novel; hamfatally ill Oberon; McHugh repeats comedypered only by awkward direction. relief role from 1932 original. Time and Tide (2001-Hong Kong) C113m. ★★ D: Tsui Hark. Nicholas Tse, Wu Tim (1979-Australian) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Pate. Piper Laurie, Mel Gibson, Bai, Candy Lo, Cathy Chui, Anthony Wong, Alwyn Kurts, Pat Evison, Peter Gwynne, Joventino Couto Remotigue, Jr. Virtually Deborah Kennedy. Lush, well-meaning if indescribable plot about an aimless young a bit schmaltzy chronicle of the relationman who finds himself pitted against a ship between older woman (Laurie) and friend in gangland showdown is just an ex[ 1420 ]

cuse for action. Movie’s American advertisD: Nacho Vigalondo. Karra Elejalde, Caning declared, ‘‘You won’t be able to tell dela Ferna´ndez, Nacho Vigalondo, Ba´rbara who’s shooting at who,’’ and that’s the probGoenaga, Ion Inciarte. An otherwise ordilem: the adrenaline-pumped action scenes by nary man stumbles onto a time machine that past master Hark don’t carry the weight allows him to travel an hour into the past. they should because the story is so confusThis propels him into a surreal, frightening ing! Fans of pure action may feel otherwise. journey. Occasionally clever sci-fi thriller is Super 35. [R]▼쩠 akin to a puzzle that’s fun to put together— Time Bandits (1981-British) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 but too many pieces just don’t fit. [R]쩠 D: Terry Gilliam. Sean Connery, Shelley Time for Drunken Horses, A (1999Duvall, John Cleese, Katherine Helmond, Iranian) C-80m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bahman Ghobadi. Ian Holm, Michael Palin, Ralph RichardNezhad Ekhtiar-Dini, Amaneh Ekhtiar-Dini, son, Peter Vaughan, David Warner, Kenny Madi Ekhtiar-Dini, Ayoub Ahmadi, Jouvin Baker, David Rappaport. Six dwarfs, Younessi. Heartbreaking story about a family pursued by the Supreme Being (Richardson), of Kurdish orphans eking out an existence escort a young English schoolboy through and trying to raise money for an operation time. They meet Robin Hood (Cleese), Napoto save their dying brother. The everyday leon (Holm), King Agamemnon (Connery). struggle that these children go through just Imaginative, but not as funny or as thrilling to survive is starkly, movingly conveyed. as it should be. Look for young Jim BroadWritten by the director and shot in his native bent as a TV host. Written by Gilliam and village, with a cast of extraordinary nonprofessionals.▼ Palin, of Monty Python fame. British running time 116m. [PG]▼●쩠 Time for Killing, A (1967) C-88m. ★★ Timebomb (1991) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Avi D: Phil Karlson. Glenn Ford, Inger SteNesher. Michael Biehn, Patsy Kensit, Tracy vens, George Hamilton, Paul Petersen, Scoggins, Robert Culp, Raymond St. Max Baer, Timothy Carey, Kenneth Tobey, Jacques, Richard Jordan, Billy Blanks, Jim Dick Miller, (Harry) Dean Stanton. Civil Maniaci, Steven J. Oliver, Ray Mancini. War drama pits Union captain Ford against When mysterious people try to kill watchConfederate major Hamilton, when the latmaker Biehn, he finds to his surprise he has ter kidnaps his bride-to-be. Director Karlson the skills to defeat them. He then kidnaps has done some good minor films in the past; psychologist Kensit to try to find out who he this isn’t one of them. Look for young Harreally is. Intriguing premise effectively blends rison Ford. Also known as THE LONG sci-fi and spy elements, with good perforRIDE HOME. Panavision. mances a real plus, but soon the improbable Time for Loving, A (1971-British) C104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Miles. Mel Ferrer, overtakes the unlikely. [R] ▼● Timecode (2000) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Joanna Shimkus, Britt Ekland, Philippe Figgis. Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsga˚rd, Noiret, Susan Hampshire, Mark Burns, Lila Jeanne Tripplehorn, Salma Hayek, Julian Kedrova, Robert Dhery, Michel Legrand. SoSands, Holly Hunter, Steven Weber, Danny phisticated Jean Anouilh liaison trilogy in the Huston, Leslie Mann, Alessandro Nivola, LA RONDE style. Sometimes called PARIS Kyle MacLachlan, Glenne Headly. Unique WAS MADE FOR LOVERS. film shot digitally in four concurrent 90-minTime Guardian, The (1987-Australian) C-105m. ★★ D: Brian Hannant. Tom ute takes follows 20-odd L.A. characters as their unhappy lives crisscross, both personally Burlinson, Nikki Coghill, Dean Stockwell, and professionally. Sound levels direct our Carrie Fisher, Tim Robertson, Peter Merattention to the most significant quadrant at rill, Wan Thye Liew, Damon Sanders. Burany given time. As an experiment it’s fresh linson and Fisher are sent to the 1988 Ausand exciting; as entertainment it’s wildly untralian desert, where he teams up with even, although the largely improvised diageologist Coghill to battle an army of killer logue is at least an improvement over THE cyborgs from the 41st century. Confusing BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. [R]▼쩠 sci-fi adventure. Panavision. [PG]▼● Timecop (1994) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Time Indefinite (1993) C-117m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hyams. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mia Ross McElwee. Revealing, highly personal Sara, Ron Silver, Bruce McGill, Gloria visual diary in which McElwee offers a Reuben, Scott Bellis, Jason Schombing. In glimpse into the dynamics of his family: the the year 2004, a new law enforcement agency relationships between its members, the linking polices time-tripping criminals; top agent Van of the generations, and, most poignantly, the Damme is determined to nail the ringleader way it’s affected by marriage and death. of these thugs, an evil and ambitious senator McElwee’s unique cinematic sensibility adds (Silver). Thoroughly watchable adaptation of immeasurably to this impressive follow-up to the comic book series, but lacks the energy SHERMAN’S MARCH. ▼쩠 and imagination to be really satisfying. FolTime Limit (1957) 96m. ★★★ D: Karl lowed in 2003 by a direct-to-video sequel. Malden. Richard Widmark, Richard BasePanavision. [R]▼●쩠 hart, Dolores Michaels, June Lockhart, Rip Timecrimes (2008-Spanish) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 Torn, Martin Balsam, Carl Benton Reid, [ 1421 ]

James Douglas. Imaginative direction and and Hutton (whose performances are far acting spark this courtroomer concerning the from their best). Written and produced by trial of American military officer suspected of Anna Thomas. [PG-13]▼● collaborating with enemy while POW in Time of Favor (2000-Israeli) C-98m. ★★★ North Korea. Malden’s sole foray behind D: Joseph Cedar. Aki Avni, Tinkerbell, Assi the camera; Widmark coproduced. Dayan, Idan Alterman, Micha Selektar, Timeline (2003) C-116m. ★★ D: Richard Amnon Volf, Shimon Mimran. Religion and Donner. Paul Walker, Frances O’Connor, Gepolitics clash in this provocative melodramarard Butler, Billy Connolly, David Thewlis, thriller, most of which unfolds in a contempoAnna Friel, Neal McDonough, Matt Craven, rary West Bank settlement. Menachem (Avni), Ethan Embry, Michael Sheen, Lambert a soldier who commands a military unit comWilson, Marton Csokas, Rossif Sutherland. prised of yeshiva students, becomes involved Archeologists travel back in time to rescue with the rebellious daughter of a charismatic Walker’s father, who’s gotten stuck in the orthodox rabbi who commands that she in14th century in the midst of the Hundred stead wed a scholar—who happens to be Years’ War . . . but the time machine’s Menachem’s best friend. The love triangle is owner, a high-tech honcho, hasn’t told them routine, but the film offers a powerful and all they should know about the risks intimely examination of the fine line between volved in their adventure. Lively, noisy, religious devotion and fanaticism.▼쩠 convoluted story becomes so confusing it’s Time of Indifference (1964-Italian) 84m. difficult to know who’s who, let alone ★★ D: Francesco Maselli. Rod Steiger, what’s what. Based on a Michael Crichton Shelley Winters, Claudia Cardinale, Paulette novel. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Goddard, Tomas Milian. Turgid melodrama Time Lost and Time Remembered (1966of moral and social decay in Italy during British) 91m. ★★★ D: Desmond Davis. Sarah late 1920s, focusing on one nouveau-poor Miles, Cyril Cusack, Julian Glover, Sean family; from novel by Alberto Moravia.▼ Caffrey. Thoughtful study of Miles’ unTime of the Gypsies (1989-Yugoslavian) happy marriage to older man, emphasized C-142m. ★★1⁄2 D: Emir Kusturica. Davor by visit home where she discovers new set Dujmovic, Bora Todorovic, Ljubica Adzovic, of values. Original British title: I WAS Sinolicka Trpkova, Husnija Hasimovic. Fair HAPPY HERE. chronicle of the coming of age of a naive ★★★ Time Machine, The (1960) C-103m. young gypsy (Dujmovic) and his initiation D: George Pal. Rod Taylor, Alan Young, into the ways of petty crime. Sometimes efYvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, Tom fective, but way overlong and in no way as Helmore, Whit Bissell, Doris Lloyd. H. G. magical or memorable as Kusturica’s WHEN Wells’ fantasy reduced to comic book level, FATHER WAS AWAY ON BUSINESS. but still entertaining, with Taylor as singleHowever, he did earn the Best Director prize minded turn-of-the-20th-century London sciat the Cannes Film Festival. Shot in a Gypsy entist who invents time-travel device and has language called Romany, this may be the first vivid experiences in the future. Oscar-winning film ever to require subtitles in every country special effects. Remade in 1978 (for TV) and in which it plays! [R]▼● 2002. ▼●쩠 Time of Their Lives, The (1946) 82m. Time Machine, The (2002) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 ★★★ D: Charles Barton. Bud Abbott, Lou D: Simon Wells. Guy Pearce, Samantha Costello, Marjorie Reynolds, Binnie Barnes, Mumba, Orlando Jones, Mark Addy, Jeremy John Shelton, Gale Sondergaard, Jess BarkIrons, Phyllida Law, Sienna Guillory, Alan er. Most unusual film for A&C, and one of Young, Omero Mumba. Rethinking of the their best. Costello and Reynolds are killed H. G. Wells classic has absentminded profesduring Revolutionary times, and their ghosts sor Pearce traveling back in time to undo a haunt a country estate where (in the 20th tragedy involving his fiance´e, then hurtling century) Abbott and friends come to live. forward into the future, where the evil MorImaginative, funny, and well done.▼쩠 locks rule over the Eloi. The effects are imTime of the Wolf (2003-French-Austrianpressive, but the story doesn’t have the impact German) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Haneke. it should . . . and Pearce may not be the ideal Isabelle Huppert, Be´atrice Dalle, Patrice choice for an old-fashioned hero. Directed by Che´reau, Rona Hartner, Olivier Gourmet, H. G. Wells’ great-grandson! Young, who Maurice Be´nichou, Brigitte Rouan. In the costarred in 1960, has a tiny role here. Panavimidst of cataclysmic social collapse, a famsion. [PG-13]▼쩠 ★★ ily arrives at its country vacation home and Time of Destiny, A (1988) C-118m. plunges into a fight for survival when sudD: Gregory Nava. William Hurt, Timothy den personal tragedy strikes. About as bleak Hutton, Melissa Leo, Stockard Channing, as movies get, this despairing look at a Megan Follows, Francisco Rabal. Major world gone mad is not for every taste, but disappointment from the makers of EL it’s never boring. Huppert is superb, as NORTE. Plodding soaper, set in the WW2 usual, wrenching in her portrayal of a era, with tragedy and revenge coming between close friends and fellow GIs Hurt mother trying to keep her family together [ 1422 ]

against all odds. Written by the director. station in 2022 when Earth is under attack Super 35. [R] 쩠 by aliens, Hamill ends up in 1992, trying Time of Your Life, The (1948) 106m. to prevent the future war. Silly, poorly plot★★ D: H. C. Potter. James Cagney, Wilted, badly presented. [R]▼● liam Bendix, Wayne Morris, Jeanne CagTimes of Harvey Milk, The (1984) Cney, Broderick Crawford, Ward Bond, 87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Epstein. Narrated James Barton, Paul Draper, James Lydon, by Harvey Fierstein. Extremely moving Gale Page, Richard Erdman. Uninspired documentary about Harvey Milk, the first version of William Saroyan’s prizewinning gay supervisor elected in San Francisco; morality play about the various characters mayor George Moscone; and clean-cut, who populate Nick’s Saloon, Restaurant respectable supervisor Dan White, who and Entertainment Palace, which is actuassassinated them both. Eerie, fascinating, ally a waterfront dive. Interesting cast, but sad, funny; as dramatic and involving as it just doesn’t come together.▼쩠 the most carefully plotted fiction. This Time Out (2001-French) C-130m. ★★★1⁄2 deservedly earned a Best Documentary D: Laurent Cantet. Aure´lien Recoing, Karin Academy Award. See also MILK (2008). Viard, Serge Livrozet, Jean-Pierre Mangeot, ▼●쩠 Monique Mangeot, Nicolas Kalsch, Marie Times Square (1980) C-111m. BOMB Cantet, Felix Cantet. Wrenching slice of soD: Allan Moyle. Tim Curry, Trini Alvaracial realism about a suddenly unemployed do, Robin Johnson, Peter Coffield, Herhusband and father who pretends he has a bert Berghof, Miguel Pinero, Elizabeth new prestigious job and convinces his Pena. A pair of teenage runaways, one friends to make large investments that he (Alvarado) upper class, the other (Johnpockets in order to keep up the lie. Another son) ‘‘of the streets,’’ romp around a curivivid story about the workplace and the ecoously unmenacing Times Square. Illogical, nomic food chain from Cantet (HUMAN unrealistic scenario, frantic direction, muRESOURCES). His own kids appear in the sic score for the hard of hearing. Script by film. [PG-13]▼쩠 film critic Jacob Brackman. [R]▼쩠 Time Out for Love (1961-French-Italian) Time to Die, A (1983) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean Vale`re. Jean Seberg, Matt Cimber. Rex Harrison, Rod Taylor, Maurice Ronet, Micheline Presle, Franc¸oise Edward Albert, Jr., Raf Vallone, Linn Prevost. Sometimes-effective drama chronStokke. Deadening time-waster with WW2 icling the coming-of-age of young Seberg, veteran Albert seeking out the six killers of an American living in Paris, who falls in his wife. Based on a story by Mario Puzo, love with capricious Ronet.▼ and filmed in 1979. Originally titled SEVEN Time Regained (1999-French) C-161m. GRAVES FOR ROGAN. [R]▼ ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Raul Ruiz. Marcello Mazzarella, Time to Die, A (1991) C-93m. ★★ D: Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Be´art, VinCharles Kanganis. Traci Lords, Richard cent Perez, John Malkovich, Pascal Greggory, Roundtree, Jeff Conaway, Robert Miano, Marie-France Pisier, Christian Vadim, Arielle Jesse Thomas, Nitchie Barrett. By-theDombasle, Chiara Mastroianni, Elsa Zylbernumbers programmer with ex-porn queen stein. Complex, elegant adaptation of the final Lords cast as a freelance photographer volume of Proust’s Remembrance of Things attempting to make a home for her young Past, with the author reflecting on his life and son. Trouble comes her way when she art while on his deathbed. Difficult to follow at finds herself and her camera in the right times, but Ruiz creates a unique, free-floating place at the wrong time. [R]▼●쩠 visual and structural variation on Proust’s Time to Kill, A (1996) C-149m. ★★★ D: prose that uses the film frame to examine Joel Schumacher. Sandra Bullock, Samuel memory, fantasy, and mortality. Sumptuous L. Jackson, Matthew McConaughey, Kevin production; well acted by all. Screenplay by Spacey, Brenda Fricker, Oliver Platt, AshRuiz and Gilles Taurand. ▼쩠 ley Judd, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer SutherTimerider (1983) C-93m. ★★ D: William land, Patrick McGoohan, Kurtwood Smith, Dear. Fred Ward, Belinda Bauer, Peter Chris Cooper, Joe Seneca, Anthony Heald, Coyote, Ed Lauter, Richard Masur, Tracey Charles S. Dutton, Rae’ven Larrymore Walter, L. Q. Jones. Motocross bike racer Kelly, John Diehl. First-rate adaptation of is accidentally sent back in time to the Old John Grisham’s best-seller about a MissisWest, circa 1875 . . . and that’s where the sippi town rocked by a black man’s murder writers fell asleep. Good premise and of two white-trashers who raped his 10cast are left hanging as film crawls downyear-old daughter. Young attorney McCohill. Produced and cowritten by Michael naughey (in a star-making performance) Nesmith. [PG]▼●쩠 takes the man’s case and finds himself in Time Runner (1993-Canadian-U.S.) Cthe midst of a firestorm that threatens his 90m. BOMB D: Michael Mazo. Mark life and that of everyone around him. This Hamill, Rae Dawn Chong, Brion James, TIME flies by, thanks to crackerjack storyMarc Baur, Gordon Tipple, Allen Forget, Barry W. Levy. Fleeing an exploding space telling and a well-chosen cast. M. Emmet [ 1423 ]

Walsh appears unbilled. Panavision. [R]

ied in King Tut’s tomb, is unwrapped and wreaks havoc. Low-budget junk. [PG]▼ ▼●쩠 Time to Leave (2005-French) C-85m. ★★★ Time Warp SEE: Journey to the Center D: Franc¸ois Ozon. Melvil Poupaud, Jeanne of Time Moreau, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Daniel Time Without Pity (1957-British) 88m. ★★★ Duval, Marie Rivie`re, Christian Sengewald, D: Joseph Losey. Michael Redgrave, Louise-Anne Hippeau. Handsome, gay, 31Alec McCowen, Ann Todd, Peter Cushing, year-old fashion photographer (Poupaud), Leo McKern, Renee Houston, Lois Maxliving in a world of glamour and vanity, well, Joan Plowright. Tense thriller with gets a harsh dose of reality when he learns an anti-capital punishment point-of-view, he is terminally ill. How will he spend his as alcoholic Redgrave has 24 hours to prove remaining days? How will he deal with his son McCowen’s innocence on a murder rap. lover and the members of his family? SimScripted by Ben Barzman, from an Emlyn Williams play.▼쩠 ple, deeply felt film cuts to the heart of how individuals choose to live their lives in the Tin Cup (1996) C-133m. ★★ D: Ron Shelface of mortality. Moreau is luminous in her ton. Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, Don Johnfew scenes as the photographer’s beloved son, Cheech Marin, Linda Hart, Dennis grandmother. Written by the director. PanaBurkley, Rex Linn. Portrait of a run-down vision.쩠 golf pro, now operating a shabby Texas Time to Love and a Time to Die, A driving range, who’s inspired to compete in (1958) C-132m. ★★★ D: Douglas Sirk. the U.S. Open in order to impress a John Gavin, Lilo Pulver, Jock Mahoney, woman—the girlfriend of his longtime rival. Don DeFore, Keenan Wynn, Thayer David, Problem: he always wants to ‘‘go for it’’ inDana (Jim) Hutton, Klaus Kinski. Intensely stead of playing it safe. Costner and Russo are dramatic love story set against background appealing, but this long, redundant comedy of WW2. German soldier on furlough from has alarmingly little to say, and takes its sweet battle falls in love, inevitably must return time playing all 18 holes. Cowritten by director Shelton. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 to the trenches. Well-directed version of Erich Maria Remarque novel (with the author Tin Drum, The (1979-German) C-142m. ★★★★ D: Volker Schlondorff. David Bennent, in a small role). Hutton’s film debut. ¨ CinemaScope.▼ Mario Adorf, Angela Winkler, Daniel Ol★1 Time to Sing, A (1968) C-92m. ⁄2 D: brychski, Katharina Thalbach, Heinz Bennent, Arthur Dreifuss. Hank Williams, Jr., Ed Andrea Ferreol, Charles Aznavour. MesmerizBegley, Shelley Fabares, Charles Robining adaptation of the Gunter Grass novel. son, D’Urville Martin, Donald Woods, Three-year-old Oskar (David Bennent) ceases Clara Ward. Down-home tale of Williams to grow physically as the Nazis take power in suppressing love for singing to please uncleGermany and beats out his anger on his drum. guardian (Begley). Script aimed at 10-yearA ‘‘realistic fantasy’’ with superb acting, parold mentality, matched by Williams’ wooden ticularly by 12-year-old Bennent. Memorable performance. Panavision. [PG] sequence after memorable sequence; deTime Trackers (1989) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Howservedly won a Best Foreign Film Academy Award. [R]▼●쩠 ard R. Cohen. Ned Beatty, Wil Shriner, Kathleen Beller, Bridget Hoffman, Alex Tingler, The (1959) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilHyde-White, Lee Bergere, Robert Cornthliam Castle. Vincent Price, Judith Evelyn, waite. Tepid sci-fi tale about group from Darryl Hickman, Philip Coolidge, Patricia the future chasing down evil genius deterCutts. Preposterous but original shocker: mined to use time travel to alter history in coroner Price discovers that fear causes a his favor. Beatty is a 20th-century cop creepy-crawly creature to materialize on accidentally picked up along the way. Some people’s spines; it can be subdued only by laughs at the beginning, but spends far too screaming. This is the infamous picture that long (most of the film in fact) in medieval got moviegoers into the spirit with vibrating England. [PG]▼ gizmos under selected theater seats!—a Time Travelers, The (1964) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 gimmick director/producer Castle billed as D: Ib Melchior. Preston Foster, Philip Carey, ‘‘Percepto.’’ Also noteworthy as likely the Merry Anders, John Hoyt, Steve Franken. earliest film depicting an LSD trip. One critSpirited flashes of imagination heighten this ical sequence is in color.▼●쩠 sci-fi story about scientists who journey into Tin Men (1987) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Barry the future and find their actions there will afLevinson. Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito, fect the past. Not bad, with downbeat ending; Barbara Hershey, John Mahoney, Jackie one of the first American films photographed Gayle, Stanley Brock, Seymour Cassel, Bruno Kirby, J.T. Walsh, Michael Tucker. Writerby Vilmos Zsigmond.▼ Time Traveller, The SEE: Next One, The director Levinson returns to DINER territory Time Walker (1982) C-83m. BOMB D: (literally—it’s set in 1963 Baltimore) for a melTom Kennedy. Ben Murphy, Nina Axelrod, ancholy comedy-drama about a hustler (DreyKevin Brophy, James Karen, Shari Belafuss) and a loser (DeVito), both in the fonte-Harper, Antoinette Bower. Alien, buraluminum-siding business, whose lives con[ 1424 ]

verge after their cars meet in an accident. Some Titan Find SEE: Creature Titanic (1943-German) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Herfine comedy and pointed observations on human nature are undermined by unresolved bert Selpin, Werner Klingler. Sybille Schmitz, ideas and inconsistencies in the way the charHans Nielsen, Karl Scho¨nbo¨ck, Charlotte acters behave. Stand-up comic Gayle is hilariThiele, Otto Wernicke. Little-seen German ous as DeVito’s partner, who has Bonanza on drama about the doomed ocean liner was the brain. [R]▼●쩠 made during WW2, so a German officer is Tin Pan Alley (1940) 94m. ★★★ D: Walter depicted as the only brave, outspoken man on Lang. Alice Faye, Betty Grable, Jack Oakie, board, while the English owner pursues an John Payne, Esther Ralston, Allen Jenkins, ‘‘endless quest for profit.’’ Creditable disaster Nicholas Brothers, John Loder, Elisha film, although the script is no more inspired Cook, Jr. Predictable plot of struggling than later versions of the saga. Some shots pre-WW1 songwriters enlivened by Alfred were reused in A NIGHT TO REMEMBER. Newman’s Oscar-winning score and colorBanned in Germany in 1943 because the ful numbers including ‘‘Sheik of Araby’’ scenes of panic were considered too potent in the midst of wartime air raids. ▼쩠 with Billy Gilbert as sultan. Oakie is in top form. Remade as I’LL GET BY.▼ Titanic (1953) 98m. ★★★ D: Jean Negulesco. ★★★ D: Anthony Tin Star, The (1957) 93m. Clifton Webb, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Mann. Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Wagner, Richard Basehart, Audrey DalPalmer, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, John ton, Thelma Ritter, Brian Aherne. HollyMcIntire, Michel Ray. Fledgling sheriff Perwoodized version of sea tragedy centers on kins turns to bounty hunter Fonda to help shipboard story. Not bad, but events better combat outlaws preying on his town; solid, told in A NIGHT TO REMEMBER . . . and well-acted Western. Scripted by Dudley Nichmore spectacularly in the 1997 film. Oscarols. VistaVision.▼쩠 winning script by producer Charles Brackett, Walter Reisch, and Richard Breen.▼●쩠 Tintorera (1977-British-Mexican) C-91m. BOMB D: Rene Cardona, Jr. Susan George, Titanic (1997) C-194m. ★★★1⁄2 D: James Hugo Stiglitz, Andres Garcia, Fiona Lewis, Cameron. Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate WinsJennifer Ashley, Priscilla Barnes, Laura let, Billy Zane, Frances Fisher, Kathy Bates, Lyons. Can two Mexican shark hunters find David Warner, Danny Nucci, Victor Garber, satisfaction with an assortment of vacationing Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Bernard Fox, Jonbeauties from England and the U.S.? That’s athan Hyde, Bill Paxton, Suzy Amis. Sweepthe main issue of this listless JAWS rip-off, ing romance set against the backdrop of the loaded with gore and nude scenes. [R]▼쩠 R.M.S. Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912— Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957) 99m. ★★★ and framed by a modern-day story of a salD: Richard Thorpe. Dorothy Malone, Robvager who stumbles onto a heretofore unert Taylor, Gia Scala, Martin Gabel, Jack known survivor of the sinking (beautifully Lord. Neat account of Taylor tied in with played by 1930s leading lady Stuart). Spectacsmuggling syndicate in Madrid, romancing ular in every way, an eye-filling re-creation of Malone. Good Charles Lederer adaptation the sights and sounds of the grandest ship of of Irwin Shaw story. CinemaScope. its time, but what keeps it afloat are the mag’Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris netic performances of the young leads. Story(2007) C-100m. ★★★ D: Raymond De Felitta. telling savvy and momentum make up for Homegrown documentary about the filmsome banal dialogue. Some footage of the maker’s fascination with jazz singer Paris— actual Titanic wreckage is sprinkled into the and his quest to learn what kept him from opening sequence. Written by the director. achieving real success when he was so adWinner of 11 Oscars including Best Picture, mired by fellow musicians. Somewhat ragged Director, Visual Effects, Music (James cinematically, but when De Felitta captures Horner), Song (‘‘My Heart Will Go On’’), unguarded moments with his interviewees Cinematography (Russell Carpenter), Sound, their raw emotions sear the screen. Fascinatand Costumes (Deborah L. Scott). Cameron reing exploration of the many factors that make visited the ship’s watery grave with his 2003 up an artist’s life, for better or worse. Many IMAX documentary GHOSTS OF THE notable jazz figures appear on-screen.쩠 ABYSS. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Titan A.E. (2000) C-95m. ★★ D: Don Bluth, Titanic Town (1999-British-Irish) C-102m. ★★★ Gary Goldman. Voices of Matt Damon, Drew D: Roger Michell. Julie Walters, Ciara´n Barrymore, Bill Pullman, Janeane Garofalo, Hinds, Nuala O’Neill, Elizabeth Donagy, CiNathan Lane, John Leguizamo, Ron Perlman, aran McMenamin, Jaz Pollock, Doreen HepTone-Loc. Boring animated sci-fi adventure burn. Working-class Irish Catholic housewife set in the future. Young man with a chip on becomes a reluctant political activist (and oshis shoulder learns that he’s the only hope to tracizes herself from her own family) when save what’s left of the human race. Basic her backyard becomes a battleground between good vs. evil outer-space saga has great visual the British Army and the IRA. Distinguished effects but stock characters and situations— by its literate script, precise emotional tone, and the dullest voice performances in animaand supercharged performances from Walters tion history. CinemaScope. [PG]▼쩠 and newcomer O’Neill as a sparring mother [ 1425 ]

and daughter. Based on Mary Costello’s autobland characters and choppy, uninvolving biographical novel. fight scenes are likely to bore adults, includTitfield Thunderbolt, The (1953-British) ing those who loved the turtles in their heyday. Digital Widescreen. [PG]쩠 C-84m. ★★★ D: Charles Crichton. Stanley Holloway, George Relph, Naunton Wayne, T.N.T. Jackson (1974) C-73m. ★★ D: John Gregson, Godfrey Tearle, Edie Martin, Cirio Santiago. Jeanne Bell, Stan Shaw, Hugh Griffith, Sid James, Jack MacGowran. Pat Anderson, Ken Metcalf. OK FilipinoBoisterous Ealing comedy about villagers shot black actioner with statuesque former who are attached to their antiquated railway Playmate Bell as karate expert searching line and run it themselves in competition with for her missing brother and kicking the the local bus line. Lovely photography by hell out of anyone who gets in her way. A Douglas Slocombe. Script by T.E.B. Clarke.쩠 blaxploitation favorite, no doubt for the Tito and Me (1992-Yugoslavian-French) curious way Bell’s shirts get torn off at the start of every fight scene. [R]▼쩠 C-104m. ★★★ D: Goran Markovic. Dimitrie Vojnov, Lazar Ristovski, Anica Dobra, PeToast of New Orleans, The (1950) C-97m. ★★1 drag Manojlovic. Sweet, funny comedy⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Kathryn Grayson, reminiscence about Zoran (Vojnov), a Mario Lanza, David Niven, Rita Moreno, pudgy 10-year-old growing up in Belgrade J. Carrol Naish. Lanza plays fisherman transin 1954. He is obsessed with ‘‘Comrade formed into operatic star. Rest of cast good, and Lanza sings ‘‘Be My Love.’’▼●쩠 Tito,’’ his nation’s leader, just as a lovesick teen pines over a movie or rock star; the Toast of New York, The (1937) 109m. ★★★ heart of the film focuses on how Zoran D: Rowland V. Lee. Edward Arnold, comes to realize the folly of worshipping Cary Grant, Frances Farmer, Jack Oakie, false idols. This reportedly is the last film to Donald Meek, Clarence Kolb, Billy Gilcome out of war-torn Yugoslavia.▼쩠 bert, Stanley Fields. Arnold is in fine form Titus (1999) C-162m. ★★★ D: Julie Taymor. as rags-to-riches businessman Jim Fisk in Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan late 19th century. Grant is his partner in Cumming, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Angus hokey but entertaining biographical fiction; Macfadyen, Matthew Rhys, Harry Lennix, good showcase for spirited Farmer.▼●쩠 James Frain, Colm Feore, Laura Fraser, Tobacco Road (1941) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Geraldine McEwan, Osheen Jones. Potent, Ford. Charley Grapewin, Marjorie Rambeau, time-bending adaptation of Shakespeare’s Gene Tierney, William Tracy, Elizabeth Titus Andronicus, with Hopkins as a victoriPatterson, Dana Andrews, Slim Summerous Roman general whose rigid code of ville, Ward Bond, Grant Mitchell. Lightly honor and duty proves to be his downfall. entertaining but genuinely odd seriocomedy Lange is his prisoner, Tamora, queen of the about ‘‘quaint’’ Georgia backwoods comGoths, who plots revenge. Impressive work munity; worthwhile mainly to see Grapewin by innovative theater director Taymor, who repeating his stage role as cheerful ne’eralso wrote the screenplay as an examination do-well Jeeter Lester. Adapted (and saniof violence—its cause and effect—as it retized) by Nunnally Johnson from the lates to modern society. Lennix is a standout long-running Broadway play by Jack Kirkland, based on Erskine Caldwell’s novel.쩠 as Aaron, the Moor. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 T-Men (1947) 92m. ★★★ D: Anthony Mann. To Bed . . . or Not to Bed (1963-Italian) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gian Luigi Polidoro. AlDennis O’Keefe, Alfred Ryder, Charles McGraw, Wallace Ford, Mary Meade, June berto Sordi, Bernhard Tarschys, Inger Lockhart. Semidocumentary-style story of Sjostrand, Ulf Palme. Saucy sex romp. undercover treasury agents trying to get to Sordi expects to find free love on business the bottom of counterfeit ring. Vividly extrip to Stockholm, discovers home sweet citing; director Mann and cameraman John home is best. Retitled: THE DEVIL. Alton went out of their way to use unusual, To Begin Again (1982-Spanish) C-93m. ★★★ D: Jose Luis Garci. Antonio Ferrandis, effective lighting and compositions in this A-1 film.▼●쩠 Encarna Paso, Jose Bodalo, Agustin GonTMNT (2007) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Kevin Munroe. zalez, Pablo Hoyo. Distinguished—and dyVoices of Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, ing—professor Ferrandis revisits Spain, where Mako, Kevin Smith, Patrick Stewart. Those he journeys through his past and romances TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES old flame Paso. Sweetly sentimental; Oscar (who starred in three movies of the 1990s) winner for Best Foreign Film. [PG] To Be or Not to Be (1942) 99m. ★★★1⁄2 return, computerized this time around. The superheroes, having temporarily retired after D: Ernst Lubitsch. Jack Benny, Carole defeating arch-nemesis Shredder, must reLombard, Robert Stack, Lionel Atwill, Felix unite to battle a wealthy industrialist who has Bressart, Sig Ruman, Tom Dugan, Helmut collected an army of ancient monsters in an Dantine, Stanley Ridges. Benny has the role effort to take over the world. CGI has been of a lifetime as ‘‘that great, great actor’’ Joutilized effectively to create moody, comicseph Tura, whose Polish theater troupe is put book-urban scenery, and the cool-looking out of business by invading Nazis—until they monsters will probably appeal to kids. But become involved in espionage and find their [ 1426 ]

thespian skills being put to the ultimate test. To Commit a Murder (1967-French) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Edouard Molinaro. Louis Superb black comedy scripted by Edwin Justus Mayer; the opening gag with Dugan Jourdan, Senta Berger, Edmond O’Brien, is a gem. Lombard’s final film, released Bernard Blier, Fabrizzio Capucci. Playboy/ after her death. Remade in 1983.▼●쩠 writer Jourdan gets involved with a plot to ★★1 To Be or Not to Be (1983) C-108m. abduct French nuclear scientist; interesting ⁄2 D. Alan Johnson. Mel Brooks, Anne idea poorly handled.▼ Bancroft, Charles Durning, Tim Matheson, Today We Live (1933) 113m. ★★ D: HowJose Ferrer, James Haake, Christopher ard Hawks. Joan Crawford, Gary Cooper, Lloyd, George Gaynes, George Wyner, Jack Robert Young, Franchot Tone, Roscoe Riley, Lewis J. Stadlen. Remake of 1942 Karns. Stilted William Faulkner story of classic follows the original almost scene for WW1 romance and heroism; despite starscene, with Brooks and Bancroft—in fine studded cast, not much. Faulkner cowrote comic form—as stars of Polish theater who the screenplay. Torpedo attack scenes were become involved with invading Nazis. Offers directed by Richard Rosson. ▼쩠 more laughs than the original film, but less Todd Killings, The (1971) C-93m. ★★ D: substance; incessant schtick undermines occaBarry Shear. Robert F. Lyons, Richard sional attempts at poignancy. [PG] ▼●쩠 Thomas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Sherry Miles, Tobor the Great (1954) 77m. ★1⁄2 D: Lee Gloria Grahame, Edward Asner, Belinda Sholem. Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Montgomery, Meg Foster. Good cast in Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray. Scisleazy story of hip girl-getter Lyons actually entist allows his genius grandson to become involved in series of murders. Retitled A pals with the robot of the title, leading to DANGEROUS FRIEND. Panavision. [R]▼ complications when spies try to glom onto To Die For (1989) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Deran the plans; terrible acting and dialogue. A Sarafian. Brendan Hughes, Sydney Walsh, botched attempt at a heartwarming sci-fi Amanda Wyss, Scott Jacoby, Micah Grant, comedy-thriller.▼●쩠 Steve Bond. Dracula legend is updated to Tobruk (1967) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur modern-day, morally decadent L.A., but Hiller. Rock Hudson, George Peppard, the results are strictly second-rate. VamNigel Green, Guy Stockwell, Jack Watson, pire ‘‘Vlad Tepish’’ sets his sights on sexy Leo Gordon, Norman Rossington, Percy Herreal-estate agent Walsh—apparently unbert, Liam Redmond. WW2 actioner of Allies aware that realtors in L.A. are a bloodless trying to destroy Rommel’s fuel supply in the lot. Followed by SON OF DARKNESS: TO DIE FOR II. [R]▼● Sahara, bogs down in pretentiousness, much social comment, etc. Gordon also wrote the To Die For (1995) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gus screenplay. Techniscope.▼ Van Sant. Nicole Kidman, Matt Dillon, JoaToby Tyler, or Ten Weeks with a Circus quin Phoenix, Illeana Douglas, Casey Affleck, (1960) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Barton. Alison Folland, Dan Hedaya, Wayne Knight, Kevin Corcoran, Henry Calvin, Gene ShelKurtwood Smith, Holland Taylor, Susan don, Bob Sweeney, Richard Eastham, James Traylor, Maria Tucci, David Cronenberg. Drury. Likable Disney fare about a young Kidman is perfect as a tightly focused sicko boy who runs away to join the circus at the who’ll stop at nothing, including murder, to turn of the century.▼●쩠 reach her goal: a TV career. Based on the realTo Catch a Spy (1971-British-French) life case that inspired Joyce Maynard’s book, C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Dick Clement. Kirk Dougthis black comedy seems to make all the right las, Marlene Jobert, Trevor Howard, Tom moves, but plays out its story with a surprisCourtenay, Patrick Mower, Bernadette ing lack of irony; by the climax it has nothing Lafont, Bernard Blier. Feeble comedymore to offer. Douglas is a particular standout mystery of events resulting when Jobert’s as Kidman’s sister-in-law, who sees through new husband is arrested by the Russians as her artifice from the git-go. George Segal apa spy; Douglas is a mystery man, Courtenay pears unbilled, and the film’s screenwriter, a bumbling British agent. Also known as Buck Henry, plays a humorless schoolCATCH ME A SPY.▼쩠 teacher. [R]▼●쩠 To Catch a Thief (1955) C-106m. ★★★ D: To Die of Love (1972-French) C-110m. ★★1 Alfred Hitchcock. Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, ⁄2 D: Andre´ Cayatte. Annie Girardot, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Bruno Pradal, Franc¸ois Simon, Monique MelVanel, Brigitte Auber. The French Riviera inand, Nathalie Nell, Nicolas Dumayet. Giserves as picturesque backdrop for this rardot’s superb performance carries true story entertaining (if fluffy) Hitchcock caper with about French schoolteacher who was driven Grant as reformed cat burglar suspected in to suicide after she was forced to abandon 16new wave of jewel robberies. Chic and year-old student she loved. More interesting elegant in every way—and Kelly never for subject matter than for execution. [PG] looked more ravishing. Script (including To Each His Own (1946) 122m. ★★★ D: much-imitated fireworks scene) by John Mitchell Leisen. Olivia de Havilland, John Michael Hayes; Oscar-winning photograLund, Mary Anderson, Roland Culver, phy by Robert Burks. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Phillip Terry, Griff Barnett. Well-turned [ 1427 ]

soaper of unwed mother giving up baby, she hires to sculpt a statue of her late husband; charming comedy.쩠 lavishing love on him as his ‘‘aunt’’ without revealing truth. Fine support by Culver Together Brothers (1974) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 as aging Olivia’s beau. De Havilland won D: William A. Graham. Anthony Wilson, Best Actress Oscar. Lund’s film debut.▼ Ahmad Nurradin, Glynn Turman, Richard To Elvis, With Love SEE: Touched by Yniguez, Lincoln Kilpatrick, Owen Pace. Love Suspense thriller with five young blacks To Find a Man (1972) C-90m. ★★★ D: scouring ghetto for the killer of their poBuzz Kulik. Pamela (Sue) Martin, Darren liceman friend. Violent treatment balanced O’Connor, Lloyd Bridges, Phyllis Newman, by sensitive character studies. [PG] Tom Ewell, Tom Bosley. Solid comedyTogetherness (1970) C-103m. ★★ D: Ardrama about two high-schoolers’ attempts thur Marks. George Hamilton, Peter Lawto find an abortionist. Study of friendships ford, John Banner, Olinka Berova, Jesse is good, and exceedingly fine acting of White. American playboy Hamilton woos youthful leads is a definite plus. [PG] Communist athlete Berova in this dated To Forget Venice (1979-Italian) C-110m. comedy filmed in Greece. [PG] ★★ D: Franco Brusati. Erland Josephson, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996) Mariangela Melato, Elenora Giorgi, David C-92m. ★★★ D: Michael Pressman. Peter Pontremoli. Two pairs of homosexuals Gallagher, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, (male and female) come to grips with each Bruce Altman, Kathy Baker, Wendy Crewson, other at the country estate of a dying opera Freddie Prinze, Jr., Laurie Fortier. Straightforstar. So-so drama managed an Oscar nomward tearjerker—with ample comedy leavenination for Best Foreign Film.▼ ing—about a man unable and unwilling to let Together? (1979-Italian) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: go of his wife’s memory two years after her Armenia Balducci. Jacqueline Bisset, Maxisudden death; his sister-in-law fears that his milian Schell, Terence Stamp, Monica inertia and melancholy threaten his teenage Guerritore. Bisset and neurotic lover Schell daughter at a crucial time in her life. Well argue, eat, argue, talk about sex, argue, acted all around. Based on a play by Michael have sex, argue some more. And the viewer Brady, adapted and coproduced by David E. Kelley (Pfeiffer’s husband). [PG-13]▼●쩠 gets a migraine. Originally titled I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU NOT. [R]▼ To Have and Have Not (1944) 100m. ★★★1 Together (2000-Swedish-Swiss-Italian) C⁄2 D: Howard Hawks. Humphrey Bo106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lukas Moodysson. Lisa Lindgart, Walter Brennan, Lauren Bacall, Hoagy gren, Michael Nyqvist, Gustaf Hammarsten, Carmichael, Dan Seymour, Marcel Dalio, Jessica Liedberg, Ola Norell. Amusing flashDolores Moran, Sheldon Leonard. Hemback to 1975 as a group of supposedly likeingway’s ‘‘worst novel’’ forms the basis minded people live as a collective under one for Hawks’ version of CASABLANCA: roof. Long-suffering Goran (Hammarsten) tough skipper-for-hire Bogart reluctantly discovers that theories of free love, harbecomes involved with French Resistance, mony, and anticommercialism don’t always less reluctantly woos even tougher Bacall apply in the day-to-day life at Tillsammans (in her film debut). Their legendary love (Swedish for ‘‘together,’’ the name of the scenes make the movie, but there are also commune). Likable, often perceptive social solid performances, taut action, and a couple comedy; written by the director. [R]쩠 of songs. (Andy Williams was hired to dub Together (2002-Chinese-South Korean) CBacall’s singing, but that’s her voice, after all.) 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Chen Kaige. Tang Yun, Super dialogue by William Faulkner and Jules Liu Peiqi, Chen Hong, Wang Zhiwen, Chen Furthman; remade as THE BREAKING Kaige, Cheng Qiang, Zhang Qing. CrowdPOINT and THE GUN RUNNERS. Also pleasing story of a 13-year-old violin prodigy shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 who is taken to Beijing by his father, who will To Hell and Back (1955) C-106m. ★★★ sacrifice anything to make sure his son gets D: Jesse Hibbs. Audie Murphy, Marshall the best teacher and the greatest opportunities. Thompson, Charles Drake, Jack Kelly, Paul In time, the boy must make his own choice Picerni, Gregg Palmer, Brett Halsey, David between what he’s being told and what he Janssen, Art Aragon, Rand Brooks, Denver really feels. Expertly made, the story builds to Pyle, Susan Kohner. Murphy (the most decan emotional crescendo—aided in no small orated soldier of WW2) stars in very good way by its musical score. The leading actor is war film based on his autobiography, with in fact a musical virtuoso. Director Chen (who excellent battle sequences depicting Murphy’s cowrote the film with Xue Xiaolu) also costoften breathtaking heroic exploits. Cliche´s in ars as the well-to-do piano teacher. [PG]▼쩠 script are overcome by Murphy and cast’s Together Again (1944) 100m. ★★★ D: easygoing delivery. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Charles Vidor. Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, To Joy (1950-Swedish) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ingmar Charles Coburn, Mona Freeman, Elizabeth Bergman. Stig Olin, Maj-Britt Nilsson, John Patterson. Little bit of nothing carried off Ekman, Margit Carlquist, Victor Seastrom beautifully by Dunne, widow mayor of small (Sjo¨stro¨m), Birger Malmsten. Early Bergman town, and Boyer, suave New Yorker whom drama offers a thematic prelude of what was [ 1428 ]

to come from the filmmaker. Otherwise, it’s a and deliriously imaginative use of color, modest, occasionally insightful chronicle of widescreen, and sound make this Suzuki’s Olin and Nilsson’s failing marriage.▼쩠 pulp masterpiece, replete with songs, choreoTo Kill a Clown (1972) C-104m. ★★ D: graphed gunfights, and a parody of a Western George Bloomfield. Alan Alda, Blythe saloon brawl. Nikkatsu-Scope. ▼쩠 Danner, Heath Lamberts, Eric Clavering. Tokyo Joe (1949) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Couple whose marriage is on the rocks get Heisler. Humphrey Bogart, Florence Marly, trapped on island off New England coast Sessue Hayakawa, Alexander Knox, Jeby crippled, deranged Vietnam veteran. rome Courtland. Lesser Bogart film about Weird mixture of traditional chiller film American in postwar Tokyo pulled into elements and topical considerations. [R]▼ smuggling and blackmail for the sake of his ex-wife and child.▼●쩠 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) 129m. ★★★★ D: Robert Mulligan. Gregory Peck, Tokyo Olympiad (1965) C-170m. ★★★★ D: Mary Badham, Philip Alford, John Megna, Kon Ichikawa. Once compromised by edBrock Peters, Robert Duvall, Frank Overton, ited versions that diminished its power, epic Rosemary Murphy, Paul Fix, Collin Wilcox, documentary about the 1964 Olympics is Alice Ghostley, William Windom; narrated artistically mentionable in the same breath by Kim Stanley. In a small Alabama town in as Leni Riefenstahl’s OLYMPIA—and withthe 1930s, lawyer Atticus Finch (Peck) deout the Hitler baggage. Though Ichikawa had fends a black man (Peters) accused of raping over a hundred Tohoscope cameras at his a white woman. Their father’s innate decency disposal, result is less a reportorial chronicle affects his two motherless children as they than a sensory agony/ecstasy portrayal set learn about life, especially about that spooky against panoramic crowd shots. Broad house in the neighborhood. Peck won a welljumpers compete on a messy, muddy track deserved Best Actor Oscar; screenwriter Horand a lonely runner from Chad (a country ton Foote received one as well. This outstandthen making its Olympics debut) finds ing film only gains in stature as time passes. himself . . . somewhere . . . in downtown Tokyo. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 One of the best of the 1960s. From the semiautobiographical novel by Harper Lee. Duvall Tokyo Pop (1988) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fran makes his screen debut as Boo Radley. ProRubel Kazui. Carrie Hamilton, Yutaka duced by Alan J. Pakula, with a memorable Tadokoro, Taiji Tonoyama, Tetsuro Tamba, score by Elmer Bernstein. ▼●쩠 Masumi Harukawa. Trifling if occasionTo Kill a Priest (1988-U.S.-French) Cally amusing tale of what happens when 117m. ★★ D: Agnieszka Holland. Ed Harris, punk rocker Hamilton treks off to Japan in Christopher Lambert, David Suchet, Joss search of celebrity. The West-meets-East Ackland, Tim Roth, Joanne Whalley, Petheme has possibilities, but the result is ter Postlethwaite, Timothy Spall, Cherie curiously slight (despite Hamilton’s winLunghi. Well-intentioned but inept drama ning performance). By the way, she’s the about ill-fated Polish priest Lambert (a daughter of Carol Burnett. [R]▼● character based on Father Jerzy Popieluszko, Tokyo Sonata (2009-Japanese-Dutch-Hong who supported the country’s trade unionKong) C-121m. ★★★ D: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. ists and paid for his activism with his life); Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoˆko Koizumi, Yuˆ Koyhere he tangles with bullying secret policeman anagi, Kai Inowaki, Haruka Igawa, Kanji Harris. Director Holland may be a Polish Tsuda, Koˆji Yakusho. Subtly devastating exile, but the film only superficially explores rumination on the emptiness of contempothe plight of her country. Panavision. [R]▼● rary middle-class life, centering on a proud Tokyo Decadence (1992-Japanese) Ccorporate administrator (Kagawa) who’s 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ryu Murakami. Miho Nidownsized from his job but is unable to tell kaido, Tenmei Kano, Yayoi Kusama, Sahis loved ones. Meanwhile, his wife and yoko Amano. So-so account of the various sons are dealing with their own issues. Kurexperiences of a young, wide-eyed Tokyo osawa (best known for his horror films and hooker (Nikaido), whose specialty is sadothrillers) effectively delineates the distances masochism and whose clients are upperclass between his characters and the fragile bonds businessmen. Initially works as a look at how that keep them connected. [PG-13] kinky sexual desires result from take-no-prisTokyo Story (1953-Japanese) 134m. ★★★★ oners attitudes in the workplace; it eventually D: Yasujiro Ozu. Chishu Ryu, Chieko becomes repetitive and muddled. Scripted by Higashiyama, So Yamamura, Haruko SugiMurakami, based on his novel.▼●쩠 mura, Setsuko Hara. An elderly couple (Ryu, Tokyo Drifter (1966-Japanese) C-83m. Higashiyama) visit their children in Tokyo, ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Seijun Suzuki. Tetsuya Watari, who are too busy living their lives and treat Ryuji Kita, Hideaki Esumi, Michio Hino, them tactlessly. Quietly powerful story of old Tamio Kawachi, Hideaki Nitani, Chieko age, the disappointments parents experience Matsubara. Spectacularly stylized, tonguewith their children, and the fears the young in-cheek thriller about a hit man who is behave of time passing. A masterpiece. Not trayed by his boss and takes on rival gangshown in the U.S. until 1972.▼쩠 sters and an army of assassins. Audacious Tol’able David (1921) 94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Henry [ 1429 ]

King. Richard Barthelmess, Gladys Hulette, Seldes, Rachael Leigh Cook, Lanny FlahErnest Torrence, Warner Richmond, Walter erty. Umpteenth, by-the-numbers retelling of P. Lewis. A mild-mannered boy is forced to the Mark Twain classic The Adventures of take his brother’s place delivering the mail— Tom Sawyer, with Taylor Thomas and Renfro and dealing with a trio of heinous criminals both doing well as the title duo. Might amuse who’ve moved into their rural community. kids who are completely unfamiliar with the Beautifully crafted Americana, shot on locastory. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 tion in Virginia. The finale is a rip-roaring piece Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) C-84m. ★★ of movie storytelling. Remade in 1930.▼●쩠 D: Phil Roman. Voices of Richard Kind, To Live (1994-Chinese) C-132m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Dana Hill, Anndi McAfee, Charlotte Rae, Zhang Yimou. Ge You, Gong Li, Niu Ben, Tony Jay, Henry Gibson, Rip Taylor, Michael Guo Tao, Jiang Wu, Ni Dahong, Liu TianBell, Sydney Lassick, David L. Lander. Tom chi, Zhang Lu, Xiao Cong, Dong Fei. Anand Jerry, suddenly homeless, hook up with a other stirring production from director/ little girl who’s trying to escape from the actress team of Zhang Yimou and Gong Li, clutches of a cruel guardian. Flat attempt to put although this time the female role is less the lively cat & mouse duo into a feature-length powerful, and less pivotal, than the male story, with more lulls than highlights, and a lead. Film follows married couple as their score that’s not only unmemorable but irrelefortunes rise and fall, through several devant. Released in the U.S. in 1993. [G]▼●쩠 cades of Chinese life, from 1940s onward. Tom & Viv (1994-British-U.S.) C-125m. ★★1 Viewer gets history lesson as time passes, ⁄2 D: Brian Gilbert. Willem Dafoe, Michildren grow, and freedoms are supranda Richardson, Rosemary Harris, Tim pressed. Ge You is outstanding as simple Dutton, Nickolas Grace, Philip Locke. Intriyet unstereotypical patriarch; only flaw is that guing (but only partially successful) chroniepisodic story eventually develops Edna Fercle of the relationship between poet T. S. ber–ish soap opera quality. Based on the Eliot (Dafoe) and his wife, loony socialite novel Lifetimes by Yu Hua. ▼●쩠 Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Richardson), whose To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) C-116m. psychological affliction was improperly di★1⁄2 D: William Friedkin. William L. agnosed. Well acted by the two leads, but Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra the drama comes in fits and starts. Lacks the Feuer, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Dean necessary passion to make you care about Stockwell, Robert Downey, Dwier Brown. the characters and their union. Based on a Gritty movie equivalent of TV’s Miami Vice play by Michael Hastings, who coscripted. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 makes it hard to root for anyone, since the good guys are as sleazy as the bad guys! PetTomb of Ligeia, The (1964-British) C81m. ★★★ D: Roger Corman. Vincent Price, ersen plays hotshot Secret Service agent going after slimy counterfeiter—but for a crack fedElizabeth Shepherd, John Westbrook, Richeral agent he acts pretty dumb! One spectacuard Johnson, Derek Francis. Price’s late wife lar car chase is not enough to counteract bad seems to be manifesting herself all over the taste the film leaves behind. [R]▼●쩠 place, both as a cat and in new bride ShepTo Love a Vampire SEE: Lust for a herd. Super-stylish chiller with superb location Vampire work. The last of Corman’s eight Poe adaptaTollbooth (1994) C-108m. ★★★ D: Salome tions; screenplay by Robert Towne. Filmed in Widescreen Colorscope.▼●쩠 Breziner. Fairuza Balk, Lenny Von Dohlen, Will Patton, Seymour Cassel, James Wilder, Tomboy (1985) C-92m. BOMB D: Herb William Katt, Louise Fletcher. Clever, huFreed. Betsy Russell, Jerry Dinome (Gerard morously macabre sleeper about a young Christopher), Kristi Somers, Richard Erdman, woman (Balk) who for years has been Cynthia Ann Thompson. Bottom-of-the-barrel awaiting the return of her missing father. formula teenage sex tease film. Role reversal She refuses to sleep with the man she loves is stressed as Russell is an automotive wiz (Von Dohlen) until her father shows up; the determined to outrace and win the romantic plot is set into motion when Boyfriend sets favor of handsome Dinome. [R]▼쩠 out to track down Dad. Cassel appears in Tomb Raider SEE: Lara Croft Tomb two roles and offers a riveting performance Raider as the father.▼● Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951-British) 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Gordon Parry. John HowTomahawk (1951) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Sherman. Yvonne De Carlo, Van Heflin, ard Davies, Robert Newton, Diana WynPreston Foster, Jack Oakie, Alex Nicol, yard, Hermione Baddeley, Kathleen ByTom Tully, Rock Hudson. Colorful Western ron, James Hayter, John Charlesworth, spiked with sufficient action to overcome John Forrest, Michael Hordern, Max Bybland account of friction between Indians graves. Well-acted film of Victorian Enand the Army.▼ gland school life with exceptional British Tom and Huck (1995) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: cast and good direction. Noel Langley scripted, from Thomas Hughes’ novel.▼쩠 Peter Hewitt. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Brad Renfro, Eric Schweig, Charles Rocket, Tombstone (1993) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Amy Wright, Micheal McShane, Marian George P. Cosmatos. Kurt Russell, Val Kil[ 1430 ]

mer, Michael Biehn, Powers Boothe, Robert ventures and bawdy experiences in 18thBurke, Dana Delany, Sam Elliott, Stephen century England; rowdy, randy, and comLang, Terry O’Quinn, Joanna Pacula, Bill pletely disarming. Academy Award winner Paxton, Jason Priestley, Michael Rooker, Jon as Best Picture, it also won Oscars for RichTenney, Dana Wheeler Nicholson, Billy Zane, ardson, who directed with great flair and Buck Taylor, Harry Carey, Jr., Thomas Haden imagination, screenwriter John Osborne, Church, Pedro Armendariz, Jr., Frank Stalwho caught the gritty flavor of the period lone, Billy Bob Thornton, Charlton Heston; to perfection, and composer John Addison, narrated by Robert Mitchum. Wyatt Earp whose infectious score suits the picture to a (Russell) attempts to leave his violent days tee. Film debuts of Lynn Redgrave and behind him, moving to Tombstone with his David Warner. Richardson cut the film by two brothers . . . but the murderous gang seven minutes for its 1989 reissue.▼●쩠 called The Cowboys (whose members inTommy (1975-British) C-111m. ★★★ D: clude the Clantons) dictates otherwise. Not-Ken Russell. Roger Daltrey, Ann-Margret, bad Western saga, with a forceful perforOliver Reed, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Keith mance by Russell, and a likably eccentric one Moon, Robert Powell, Tina Turner, Jack by Kilmer as the tubercular Doc Holliday. Nicholson. Energetic rendering of The Who’s Delany, however, is positively goofy as Wybest-selling rock opera, with standout musical att’s love interest, and the story goes on way performances by Clapton, John (who sings past the O.K. Corral shootout, with a series ‘‘Pinball Wizard’’), and Turner. [PG] ▼●쩠 of redundant gun battles and showdowns. Tommy Boy (1995) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter The real Earp’s fifth cousin, Wyatt Earp, Segal. Chris Farley, David Spade, Brian plays Billy Claiborne. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Dennehy, Bo Derek, Dan Aykroyd, Julie Tomcats (2001) C-92m. BOMB D: GregWarner, Sean McCann, Zack Grenier. Just ory Poirier. Jerry O’Connell, Shannon Elizout of college, perpetual foul-up Farley reabeth, Jake Busey, Horatio Sanz, Jaime turns home to work in his father’s factory Pressly, Travis Fine, Joseph D. Reitman, and witness his dad’s marriage to Derek. Bill Maher, David Ogden Stiers, Bernie Dad’s sudden death forces Farley to try and Casey, Dakota Fanning. After their pal’s save the business—with the help of cowedding, a band of male chauvinist morons worker Spade. Utterly predictable comedy creates a ‘‘kitty’’ to be won by the last of with scattershot laughs; Farley and Spade their lot to avoid wedding bells. Busey, one don’t quite have the finesse of Wheeler and of the two remaining bachelors, once deWoolsey. Rob Lowe appears unbilled as flowered and dumped Elizabeth; his competiDerek’s ‘‘son.’’ [PG-13]▼●쩠 tor (O’Connell) schemes to get them hitched. Tomorrow (1972) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Trashy, poorly made comic dud is strictly Anthony. Robert Duvall, Olga Bellin, Sudie for the litter box. Comic nadir: the plight of Bond, Richard McConnell, Peter Masterson, the cancerous testicle. [R]▼쩠 William Hawley. Overlooked Faulkner story ★★★1 ⁄2 Tom, Dick and Harry (1941) 86m. about a handyman who cares for and evenD: Garson Kanin. Ginger Rogers, George tually falls in love with an abandoned Murphy, Alan Marshal, Burgess Meredith, pregnant woman. Bellin is excellent, Duvall Joe Cunningham, Jane Seymour, Phil Silastonishingly good in best-ever screen prevers. Spirited comic dilemma as wide-eyed sentation of the author’s work. Screenplay Ginger chooses among three anxious suitby Horton Foote. [PG]▼쩠 ors: sincere Murphy, wealthy Marshal, Tomorrow at Ten (1963-British) 80m. nonconformist Meredith. Silvers has hi★★1 ⁄2 D: Lance Comfort. John Gregson, larious role as obnoxious ice-cream man. Robert Shaw, Alec Clunes, Alan Wheatley. Written by Paul Jarrico. Remade as THE Taut drama involving kidnapper who dies, GIRL MOST LIKELY.▼●쩠 leaving boy in house (whereabouts unknown) Tom Horn (1980) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: William with time bomb set to explode. Wiard. Steve McQueen, Linda Evans, Tomorrow Is Forever (1946) 105m. ★★★ Richard Farnsworth, Billy Green Bush, D: Irving Pichel. Claudette Colbert, Orson Slim Pickens, Elisha Cook. McQueen’s nextWelles, George Brent, Lucile Watson, Richto-last film is beautifully shot, otherwise ard Long, Natalie Wood. Weepy rehash of deadly Western about the final days of Enoch Arden, with Welles as man listed real-life Wyoming bounty hunter. See also dead in WW1 returning decades later with MR. HORN, a TVM with David Carradine new face to find wife Colbert remarried to in the title role. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★★ Brent. Bravura work by Welles; good supTom Jones (1963-British) C-129m. port by Wood as his adopted daughter. ▼ D: Tony Richardson. Albert Finney, SuTomorrow Never Comes (1977-Canadiansannah York, Hugh Griffith, Edith Evans, British) C-109m. ★★ D: Peter Collinson. Joyce Redman, Diane Cilento, Joan GreenOliver Reed, Susan George, Raymond Burr, wood, David Tomlinson, Peter Bull, David John Ireland, Stephen McHattie, Donald Warner; narrated by Michael MacLiamPleasence. Young man goes bananas when he moir. High-spirited adaptation of the Henry Fielding novel about a young man’s misadlearns his girlfriend has been unfaithful, lead[ 1431 ]

ing to violent standoff with police in busy reone of the chorines. Same real-life story was sort town. Uninvolving melodrama. [PG]▼쩠 later the basis for MRS. HENDERSON Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) C-119m. PRESENTS. ▼쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Roger Spottiswoode. Pierce BrosTonight at 8:30 (1952-British) C-81m. ★★★ nan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, Teri D: Anthony Pelissier. Valerie HobHatcher, Joe Don Baker, Ricky Jay, Go¨tz son, Nigel Patrick, Jack Warner, Kay Walsh, Otto, Judi Dench, Desmond Llewelyn, VinTed Ray, Martita Hunt, Stanley Holloway, cent Schiavelli, Geoffrey Palmer, Samantha Betty Ann Davies. Three Noel Coward oneBond. James Bond goes after a megalomaact plays ideally transferred to film. Original niacal media magnate (Pryce) whose tentBritish title: MEET ME TONIGHT. acles reach around the globe, and whose Tonka (1958) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis R. wife was a former flame of 007. Along the Foster. Sal Mineo, Philip Carey, Jerome way, he teams up with Asian action-film Courtland, Rafael Campos, H. M. Wynant, star Yeoh, who proves a compatible screen Joy Page. Mineo stands out in this modest companion. The action never flags, though Disney film about an Indian brave’s atit becomes somewhat mechanical after a tachment to a wild horse, lone ‘‘survivor’’ while. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 of Little Bighorn battle, which he captures ★★★ Tomorrow, the World! (1944) 95m. and tames. Weak resolution and cut-rate D: Leslie Fenton. Fredric March, Betty version of Custer’s Last Stand detract Field, Agnes Moorehead, Skippy Homeier, from promising story. Retitled A HORSE Joan Carroll. Homeier re-creates his knockNAMED COMANCHE.▼ out Broadway performance as a GermanTony Rome (1967) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gorraised child adopted by his American uncle, don Douglas. Frank Sinatra, Jill St. John, who soon discovers that the boy is a rabid Richard Conte, Sue Lyon, Gena Rowlands, Nazi with a sinister mindset. Still-potent and Simon Oakland, Jeffrey Lynn, Lloyd Bochthoughtful drama about tolerance. Scripted ner. Good cast in moderately diverting detecby Ring Lardner, Jr., and Leopold Atlas tive caper. Private eye Rome (Sinatra) hired from the play by James Gow and Armand by millionaire (Oakland) to find out why his D’Usseau.▼쩠 daughter would wind up drunk and unconTom Sawyer (1973) C-104m. ★★★ D: Don scious in low-class Miami hotel. Sequel: Taylor. Johnnie Whitaker, Celeste Holm, LADY IN CEMENT. Panavision.▼●쩠 Warren Oates, Jeff East, Jodie Foster. Too Bad She’s Bad (1955-Italian) 95m. ★★ Well-crafted musical remake of Tom SawD: Alessandro Blasetti. Sophia Loren, yer, the boy wonder of Hannibal, Mo., Vittorio De Sica, Marcello Mastroianni, and his friends Huckleberry Finn and Becky Lina Furia. Unremarkable little comedy Thatcher. Songs by Richard M. and Robabout life and love among happy-go-lucky ert B. Sherman. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 crooks, set in Rome.쩠 tom thumb (1958) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Too Beautiful for You (1989-French) Pal. Russ Tamblyn, June Thorburn, Peter C-91m. ★★ D: Bertrand Blier. Ge´rard Sellers, Terry-Thomas, Alan Young, JesDepardieu, Josiane Balasko, Carole Bousie Matthews, Bernard Miles. Excellent quet, Roland Blanche, Francois Cluzet. Car children’s picture with Tamblyn as tiny dealer Depardieu cheats on beautiful, cultured tom thumb, taken in by kindly couple but wife Bouquet; the object of his affection is exploited by villainous Terry-Thomas and his plain, pudgy temporary receptionist (Balhenchman Sellers. Charming Puppetoons asko). Starts off brightly, but then goes absolutely nowhere. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 sequences, Oscar-winning special effects, perfect Peggy Lee–Sonny Burke score. Too Hot to Handle (1938) 105m. ★★★ D: Filmed in England.▼●쩠 Jack Conway. Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Toni (1935-French) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean Walter Pidgeon, Leo Carrillo, Johnny Hines, Renoir. Charles Blavette, Celia Montalvan, Virginia Weidler. Gable and Pidgeon are Jenny Helia, Max Dalban. Italian quarry rival newsreel photographers vying for aviworker Blavette lives with Montalvan, but atrix Loy in this fast-paced action-comedy; falls in love with farm girl Helia—who in Gable’s scene faking enemy attack on China turn is wooed away by swaggering foreis a gem.▼쩠 man Dalban. Renoir coscripted this simToo Hot to Handle (1960-British) C-92m. ★★ ple, touching drama, which he filmed in a D: Terence Young. Jayne Mansfield, style that influenced the Italian Neorealist Leo Genn, Carl Boehm, Christopher Lee, movement of the 1940s.▼ Barbara Windsor. Seamy study of chanTonight and Every Night (1945) C-92m. teuse Mansfield involved with one man ★★★ D: Victor Saville. Rita Hayworth, too many in the nightclub circuit. Aka Janet Blair, Lee Bowman, Marc Platt, PLAYGIRL AFTER DARK.▼쩠 Leslie Brooks, Professor Lamberti, FlorToo Late Blues (1962) 100m. ★★ D: John ence Bates. Entertaining wartime musical Cassavetes. Bobby Darin, Stella Stevens, of British theater that never misses a perJohn Cassavetes, Rupert Crosse, Vincent formance, despite bombings and personal Edwards, Cliff Carnell, Seymour Cassel. hardships. Try spotting Shelley Winters as Somewhat pretentious drama about jazz [ 1432 ]

musician Darin becoming involved with first, so as to inherit a fortune from their selfish Stevens. Score by David Raksin, father; trouble is they’re both gay. Few with on-camera performances ‘‘doubled’’ laughs in this dopey comedy that didn’t stay long in theaters. [R]▼● by such jazz greats as Benny Carter, Shelly Manne, and Jimmy Rowles. Too Much, Too Soon (1958) 121m. ★★ ★★★ Too Late the Hero (1970) C-133m. D: Art Napoleon. Dorothy Malone, Errol D: Robert Aldrich. Michael Caine, Cliff Flynn, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Ray Danton, Robertson, Henry Fonda, Ian Bannen, Harry Neva Patterson, Martin Milner, Murray Andrews, Denholm Elliott, Ronald Fraser. Hamilton. But not enough, in sensationalistic Two reluctant soldiers (Robertson, Caine) tale of Diana Barrymore’s decline. Flynn sent on suicide mission on Pacific island steals the show as John Barrymore. during WW2; turns into battle of wits Too Outrageous! (1987-Canadian) Cbetween them and Japanese officer. Action100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Benner. Craig packed film builds to pulsating finale. MetroRussell, Hollis McLaren, David McIlwraith, scope. [R]▼쩠 Ron White, Lynne Cormack, Michael J. Toolbox Murders, The (1978) C-93m. Reynolds. Russell shines in this disap★1 ⁄2 D: Dennis Donnelly. Cameron Mitchpointing sequel to OUTRAGEOUS! as feell, Pamelyn Ferdin, Wesley Eure, Nicholas male impersonator Robin Turner, who’s Beauvy, Aneta Corsaut, Tim Donnelly, Evebecome a smash in N.Y.C.—but will he lyn Guerrero. A film that delivers exactly go mainstream? Unfortunately, the scewhat its title promises: graphic slayings of nario is too hackneyed to make you care. young women by means of various pieces of Best moments are his impersonations of hardware. Yecch. Remade in 2005. [R] ▼쩠 Streisand, Mae West, etc. [R] Toolbox Murders (2005) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Too Scared to Scream (1985) C-104m. ★1 Tobe Hooper. Angela Bettis, Brent Roam, ⁄2 D: Tony Lo Bianco. Mike Connors, Juliet Landau, Greg Travis, Marco RodriAnne Archer, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Ian guez, Sara Downing, Adam Gierasch, Sheri McShane, Ruth Ford, John Heard, Carrie Moon, Adam Weisman, Rance Howard. A Nye, Maureen O’Sullivan, Murray Hamblack-garbed maniac is murdering one and ilton. Good cast stuck in dreary film all in a creepy old L.A. apartment building. about attempts to catch a psycho killer. Will Bettis, who’s just moved into this house Filmed in 1982. [R]▼ of horrors, track him down . . . or become a Too Soon to Love (1960) 85m. ★★ D: victim? Decent production values do little to Richard Rush. Jennifer West, Richard elevate this predictable 1970s-style gorefest, Evans, Warren Parker, Ralph Manza, Jack which is in fact a remake of a 1978 movie. Nicholson. Mildly interesting period piece Released theatrically overseas in 2004, but about illicit teenage love, pregnancy, and direct-to-video in the U.S. [R] ▼쩠 abortion. An early credit for Nicholson and writer-director Rush.쩠 Too Many Girls (1940) 85m. ★★★ D: George Abbott. Lucille Ball, Richard Toots (2007) C-84m. ★★★ D: Kristi JacobCarlson, Eddie Bracken, Ann Miller, Hal son. Delightful documentary about legendLeRoy, Desi Arnaz, Frances Langford. ary N.Y.C. restaurateur Toots Shor made by Engaging Rodgers-Hart musical comedy his granddaughter, with the help of an oral with winning cast, sharp dialogue. Four history he recorded late in life. His unique boys are hired to keep an eye on footloose approach to running a watering hole for ceLucy at Pottawatomie College in Stopgap, lebrities and sports figures is lovingly reNew Mexico. Stagy presentation of mucalled by such famous patrons as Walter sical numbers seems to work fine here; Cronkite, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Frank Van Johnson is very noticeable as one of the Gifford, and a host of other sports stars and chorus boys (it was his film debut, as well journalists. A wonderfully evocative poras Arnaz and Bracken’s). Incidentally, this trait of a colorful period in New York nightlife.쩠 is where Lucy and Desi met.▼●쩠 ★★★ Too Many Husbands (1940) 84m. D: Tootsie (1982) C-116m. ★★★★ D: Sydney Wesley Ruggles. Jean Arthur, Fred MacPollack. Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange, Murray, Melvyn Douglas, Harry DavenTeri Garr, Dabney Coleman, Charles port, Dorothy Peterson, Edgar Buchanan. Durning, Sydney Pollack, George Gaynes, Jean is married to Douglas when husband Geena Davis, Estelle Getty, Christine Eber#1 (MacMurray), thought dead, turns sole. Smashing comedy about an obnoxious up. Excellent comedy from W. Somerset N.Y. actor who finally lands a job—disMaugham’s play Home and Beauty. Reguised as a woman—and soon finds himself made as THREE FOR THE SHOW.쩠 a better person female than he ever was Too Much Sun (1991) C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: male! Farcical premise becomes totally Robert Downey. Robert Downey, Jr., Laura credible thanks to razor-sharp script (credErnst, Jim Haynie, Eric Idle, Ralph Macited to Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal, chio, Andrea Martin, Leo Rossi, Howard from Gelbart and Don McGuire’s story), Duff, Jennifer Rubin. Farce about compefine direction, and superlative performances tition of brother and sister to have a child all around—including director Pollack’s as [ 1433 ]

Hoffman’s harried agent. Lange won Best Sandrich. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Supporting Actress Oscar. Bill Murray apEdward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, pears unbilled. Film debut of Geena Davis. Eric Blore, Erik Rhodes. What can we Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 say? Merely a knock-out of a musical with Topaz (1969) C-127m. ★★★ D: Alfred Astaire and Rogers at their brightest doing Hitchcock. John Forsythe, Frederick Staf‘‘Cheek to Cheek,’’ ‘‘Isn’t This a Lovely ford, Dany Robin, John Vernon, Karin Day to Be Caught in the Rain,’’ ‘‘Top Hat, Dor, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Claude White Tie, and Tails,’’ and the epic Jade, Roscoe Lee Browne. French Intelli‘‘Piccolino,’’ and other Irving Berlin songs, gence agent Stafford works with American as the duo goes through typical mistakenofficial Forsythe to dig out info on Rusidentity plot. Wonderful support from rest sia’s involvement in Cuba. Whirlwind plot of cast; that’s Lucille Ball as the flower circles globe, maintains intrigue level; good, shop clerk. Scripted by Dwight Taylor and not great Hitchcock, scripted by Samuel Allan Scott, from a play by Alexander Taylor from Leon Uris’ best-seller. Video Farago and Aladar Laszlo. Originally 101m.; some prints are 93m.▼●쩠 release includes not one but two alternate endings Hitchcock shot and then decided Topkapi (1964) C-120m. ★★★★ D: Jules not to use! [M/PG]▼●쩠 Dassin. Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov, Topaze (1933) 78m. ★★★ D: Harry D’AbbaMaximilian Schell, Robert Morley, Akim die D’Arrast. John Barrymore, Myrna Loy, Tamiroff, Despo Diamantidou. First-rate Albert Conti, Luis Alberni, Reginald Mason, entertainment of would-be thieves who Jobyna Howland. Delightful film adapted plan perfect crime in Constantinople from Marcel Pagnol’s play about an impeccamuseum; lighthearted caper has inspired bly honest but naive schoolteacher in France many imitations. Filmed in Istanbul, with who unwittingly becomes a dupe for wealthy Ustinov’s delightful performance copping baron’s business scheme. Barrymore is peran Academy Award. Written by Monja fect. Remade as I LIKE MONEY.▼● Danischewsky, from Eric Ambler’s novel Top Banana (1954) C-100m. ★★★ D: AlThe Light of Day; memorable score by fred E. Green. Phil Silvers, Rose Marie, Manos Hadjidakis.▼●쩠 Danny Scholl, Judy Lynn, Jack Albertson, To Please a Lady (1950) 91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joey Faye, Herbie Faye. Fascinating curio Clarence Brown. Clark Gable, Barbara is literally a filmed version of Silvers’ Stanwyck. Adolphe Menjou, Roland WinBroadway hit about a Milton Berle–like TV ters, Will Geer, Emory Parnell, Frank Jenks. comic. Full of burlesque chestnuts, and Unremarkable love story of reporter Stanfilmed (believe it or not) in 3-D. Current wyck and race-car driver-heel Gable. ▼쩠 prints run 84m., with some musical numTop o’ the Morning (1949) 100m. ★★1⁄2 bers deleted. ▼ D: David Miller. Bing Crosby, Barry FitzTop Dog (1995) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Aaron gerald, Ann Blyth, Hume Cronyn, John Norris. Chuck Norris, Erik Von Detten, MiMcIntire, Eileen Crowe. Crosby-Fitzgerald chele Lamar Richards, Carmine Caridi, malarkey is wearing thin in this fanciful Herta Ware, Clyde Kusatsu, Francesco musical of Bing searching for thief hiding Quinn, Timothy Bottoms, Reno the Dog. the Blarney Stone. When terrorists threaten to blow up San Topper (1937) 97m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Norman Z. Diego, heroic cop Norris is forced to collabMcLeod. Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, orate with a canine partner who seems to Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowoutsmart him every step of the way. Not bray, Eugene Pallette, Arthur Lake, Hedda much plot here, and needless to say, the dog Hopper. Delightful gimmick comedy with steals the show. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 ghosts Grant and Bennett dominating life Top Gun (1986) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tony of meek Young; sparkling cast in adaptaScott. Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val tion of Thorne Smith novel, scripted by Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Jack Jevne, Eddie Moran, and Eric Hatch. Michael Ironside, John Stockwell, Barry Followed by two sequels, a TV series, and Tubb, Rick Rossovich, Tim Robbins, James a 1979 TV remake starring Kate Jackson Tolkan, Meg Ryan, Adrian Pasdar. Young and Andrew Stevens. Also shown in comstuds vie for glory, on the ground and in puter-colored version (the first b&w film to the air, at elite naval aviation training school. be ‘‘colorized,’’ in 1985).▼●쩠 Contrived beyond belief, with dogfights that Topper Returns (1941) 88m. ★★★ D: play like video games, and total lack of sexRoy Del Ruth. Joan Blondell, Roland ual chemistry between the two leads . . . but Young, Carole Landis, Billie Burke, Denslickly calculatedto please ’80s audiences nis O’Keefe, Patsy Kelly, Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ (and fans of ever-smiling Cruise). Edwards, Anderson. Topper helps ghostly Blondell as Cruise’s sidekick, steals the show. Giorgio solve her own murder in the last of this series, Moroder and Tom Whitlock won an Oscar with hilarious results. Also shown in comfor the song ‘‘Take My Breath Away,’’ perputer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Topper Takes a Trip (1939) 85m. ★★★ D: formed by Berlin. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 Top Hat (1935) 99m. ★★★★ D: Mark Norman Z. McLeod. Constance Bennett, [ 1434 ]

Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowfalls for daughter of nobility. Rare Englishbray, Verree Teasdale, Franklin Pangborn. language effort by Mexico’s top director; Cary Grant is missing (except in a flashback), a shame it isn’t better. Beautifully photographed by Gabriel Figueroa.▼쩠 but rest of cast returns for repeat success as Young is frustrated on Riviera vacation Torchlight (1984) C-90m. ★★ D: Tom by ghostess Bennett. Also shown in comWright. Pamela Sue Martin, Steve Railsback, Ian McShane, Al Corley, Rita puter-colored version.▼ Top Secret! (1984) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim Taggart. Married couple Martin and RailsAbrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. back’s world is wrecked when he becomes Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, Christopher a cocaine addict. Below-average morality Villiers, Jeremy Kemp, Michael Gough, tale: its message may be important, but its dramatics are muddled. [R]▼● Omar Sharif, Peter Cushing. Likably silly comedy from the writing-directing team Torch Song (1953) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles that brought you AIRPLANE!, about an Walters. Joan Crawford, Michael WildElvis-like rock star who becomes embroiled ing, Marjorie Rambeau, Gig Young, Henry in espionage work while touring East Ger(Harry) Morgan, Dorothy Patrick, Benny many—with Nazis as bad guys and French Rubin, Nancy Gates. Crawford is hard as resistance fighters as allies! Lots of laughs nails as a Broadway musical star who but no real momentum—and where’s the chews up people for lunch—until she meets ending? [PG]▼●쩠 blind pianist Wilding, who isn’t cowed by Top Secret Affair (1957) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: her. Glossy, often hilariously cliche´d drama H. C. Potter. Susan Hayward, Kirk Douglas, reminds us that It’s Lonely At the Top. Paul Stewart, Jim Backus, John Cromwell. There’s one absurd musical number in John P. Marquand’s Melville Goodwin, which Crawford appears in blackface! Her U.S.A. becomes fair comedy, with most ‘‘clumsy’’ dance partner in the opening credit going to Hayward as fiery publisher number is director Walters, a former dancer who knows all about the past of Senate and choreographer. ▼●쩠 appointee (Douglas). Torch Song Trilogy (1988) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 Topsy-Turvy (2000-British) C-160m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paul Bogart. Anne Bancroft, Matthew D: Mike Leigh. Jim Broadbent, Allan CorBroderick, Harvey Fierstein, Brian Kerwin, duner, Lesley Manville, Eleanor David, Karen Young, Charles Pierce. Fierstein Ron Cook, Timothy Spall, Kevin McKidd, rewrote (and considerably compressed) his Martin Savage, Shirley Henderson, Wendy landmark Broadway play about a drag Nottingham, Charles Simon, Alison Steadqueen, and lost something in the process. man. Fascinating, intimate portrait of GilChanging sensibilities in the AIDS era also bert and Sullivan, and the time in which affect the original material, though there they lived, focusing on their peccadilloes are still fine moments. Fierstein reprises his and personalities, and the process of turning stage performance as Arnold Beckoff, and their latest ideas into the operetta masterBancroft scores strongly as his mother. [R]▼●쩠 piece The Mikado. Broadbent and Corduner are superb in the leads, and Spall makes a Torchy Blane series SEE: Leonard Malwonderful Mikado. Overflowing with pertin’s Classic Movie Guide sonal and period detail (including OscarTorment (1944-Swedish) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: winning Costume Design and Makeup), this Alf Sjoberg. Mai Zetterling, Stig Jarrel, long but rewarding film gets better and betAlf Kjellin, Olof Winnerstrand. Schoolter as it goes along. Released in the U.S. in boy Kjellin and girl he falls in love with 1999. Their story also told in THE GREAT (Zetterling) are hounded by sadistic teacher GILBERT AND SULLIVAN. [R]▼쩠 Jarrel. Moody and evocative, with a Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970-U.S.-Japanese) script by Ingmar Bergman. Also known as C-143m. ★★★ D: Richard Fleischer, Toshio FRENZY. ▼쩠 Masuda, Kinji Fukasaku. Martin Balsam, Tormented (1960) 75m. BOMB D: Bert Soh Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph I. Gordon. Richard Carlson, Juli Reding, Cotten, Tatsuya Mihashi, E. G. Marshall, Susan Gordon, Lugene Sanders, Joe Turkel, James Whitmore, Wesley Addy, Leon Ames, Lillian Adams. Low-budget hogwash of George Macready. Events leading up to (wellguilt-ridden pianist dubious over his forthstaged) Pearl Harbor attack, from both Americoming marriage to society woman. Weak can and Japanese points of view. Wellghost story.▼쩠 documented screenplay shows major and Torn Apart (1989) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack minor blundering on both sides, then recreates Fisher. Adrian Pasdar, Cecilia Peck, Barry attack with frightening realism. Well-made Primus, Machram Huri, Arnon Zadok, film creates incredible tension. Oscar-winning Margit Polak. Boy and girl grow up tospecial effects. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 gether and fall in love—but he’s Jewish, Torch, The (1950-Mexican) 90m. ★★ D: she’s Arab, and the setting is Israel. A new Emilio Fernandez. Paulette Goddard, Pedro slant on Romeo and Juliet with a topical Armendariz, Gilbert Roland, Walter Reed. backdrop, this humanist drama has convincMexican revolutionary captures town and ing performances and a timely message. [ 1435 ]

Peck is the daughter of Gregory Peck. [R]

ing up beautiful co-eds in this bloody potboiler. [R]▼쩠 Torn Between Two Values SEE: SerTortilla Flat (1942) 105m. ★★★ D: Victor geant Ryker Fleming. Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, Torn Curtain (1966) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim TamiAlfred Hitchcock. Paul Newman, Julie Anroff, Sheldon Leonard, Donald Meek, John drews, Lila Kedrova, David Opatoshu, Qualen, Allen Jenkins. Steinbeck’s salty Ludwig Donath. Oddly unmoving Hitchnovel of California fishing community cock Cold War thriller about American scienvividly portrayed by three top stars, stolen tist (Newman) pretending to be defector. Slick by Morgan as devoted dog lover. Also but empty film. ▼●쩠 shown in computer-colored version.▼● Torpedo Bay (1963-Italian-French) 91m. Tortilla Heaven (2007) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: ★★1 ⁄2 D: Charles Frend. James Mason, Lilli Judy Hecht Dumontet. Jose´ Zu´n˜iga, Miguel Palmer, Gabriele Ferzetti, Alberto Lupo, Sandoval, Olivia Hussey, Elpidia Carrillo, Geoffrey Keen. British and Italian naval Alexis Cruz, Judy Herrera, Marcelo Tubert, crews meet on neutral territory during Irene Bedard, Lupe Ontiveros, Del Zamora, WW2; modest but fairly interesting drama. George Lopez. Isidor (Zu´n˜iga) makes the 1 ★ Torque (2004) C-81m. ⁄2 D: Joseph Kahn. best tortillas in Falfu´rrias, New Mexico, Martin Henderson, Ice Cube, Monet Mazur, population 73. Then one day the image of Adam Scott, Matt Schulze, Jaime Pressly, Jay Jesus miraculously appears on one of his Hernandez, Will Yun Lee, Fredro Starr, Justortillas. Anemic farce goes nowhere . . . tina Machado, Faizon Love. Ultra-cool biker and takes a long time getting there. [PG-13] returns to his home turf, where he leads two Tortilla Soup (2001) C-110m. ★★★ D: rival gangs and the FBI on a frantic chase. Marı´a Ripoll. Hector Elizondo, Jacqueline Music-video–style biker movie is fast and Obradors, Tamara Mello, Nikolai Kinski, loud, but ultra-dumb, often laughable. Even Joel Joan, Paul Rodriguez, Elizabeth Pen˜a, Ice Cube is reduced to cliche´ here. Thanks Raquel Welch, Constance Marie. Engaging to aggressive product placement a climactic remake of EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN catfight turns out to be a battle between Pepsi reset in L.A., with Elizondo as a stern but and Mountain Dew! Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 loving patriarch with three quite different Torrent (1926) 87m. ★★★ D: Monta Bell. Ridaughters—and a penchant for communicardo Cortez, Greta Garbo, Gertrude Olmcating through cooking. Good cast makes stead, Edward Connelly, Lucien Littlefield, the most of the material; Pen˜a is especially Tully Marshall, Mack Swain. Garbo stars in good as a schoolteacher who blossoms as her first American film as a Spanish peasant she falls in love. [PG-13]▼쩠 girl who becomes a famous prima donna after Torture Chamber of Baron Blood, The being deserted by nobleman Cortez, whose SEE: Baron Blood life is ruled by his mother. A still entertaining Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism, The tale of lost love, based on a Blasco-Ibanez (1967-German) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harald novel. Reinl. Christopher Lee, Lex Barker, Karin Torrents of Spring (1990-Italian-French) Dor, Carl Lange, Vladimir Medar. A resC-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerzy Skolimowski. urrected Lee seeks revenge on Barker and Timothy Hutton, Natassja Kinski, Valeria Dor; after luring them to his castle they are Golino, William Forsythe, Urbano Barmentally and physically tortured. Based on berini, Francesca De Sapio, Jacques Herlin. Poe’s Pit and the Pendulum. Atmospheric, No disgrace, but an almost inevitably stilted but not for the squeamish. Aka THE film version of an Ivan Turgenev story. BLOOD DEMON and CASTLE OF THE Russian Hutton (!), engaged to German WALKING DEAD (running 75m.). TechniGolino, gets roving glands for married Kinski, scope. ▼쩠 who’s negotiating to purchase his estate. Torture Garden (1967-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Freddie Francis. Jack Palance, Nicely shot (with a good duel scene), but Hutton’s regal bearing falls apart whenever he’s Burgess Meredith, Beverly Adams, Peter asked to open his mouth. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cushing, Barbara Ewing, Michael Bryant, Torrid Zone (1940) 88m. ★★★1⁄2 D: William Maurice Denham. Anthology horror film reKeighley. James Cagney, Ann Sheridan, Pat volving around sideshow weirdo Dr. Diabolo O’Brien, Andy Devine, Helen Vinson, Jerome (Meredith) with power to let curious visitors Cowan, George Tobias, George Reeves. see and experience their near-future. Good South-of-the-border comedy, action and cast and production, but stories uneven; first romance with nightclub star Sheridan helpand last tales best. Written by Robert Bloch. ▼쩠 ing plantation owner O’Brien keep Cagney from leaving. Zesty dialogue (scripted by Torture Zone SEE: Fear Chamber, The Richard Macauley and Jerry Wald) in this To Sir, With Love (1967-British) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: James Clavell. Sidney Poitier, variation on THE FRONT PAGE. ●쩠 Torso (1974-Italian) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Sergio Judy Geeson, Christian Roberts, Suzy KenMartino. Suzy Kendall, Tina Aumont, John dall, Faith Brook, Geoffrey Bayldon, PaRichardson, Luc Merenda. A killer is carvtricia Routledge, Adrienne Posta, Lulu, [ 1436 ]

▼쩠

Michael Des Barres. Excellent film of novtop violence for which director Verhoeven ice teacher Poitier assigned to roughhouse is known. Dazzling, Oscar-winning special London school, gradually earning respect effects throughout. Later ‘‘inspired’’ a cable TV series. [R]▼●쩠 from his students. Well acted, with nice work by British newcomers; Lulu also sings hit title To the Devil—A Daughter (1976-BritishGerman) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Sykes. song. Written and produced by Clavell, from E. R. Braithwaite’s novel. Followed Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor by a made-for-TV sequel in 1996.▼●쩠 Blackman, Denholm Elliott, Nastassja To Sleep With Anger (1990) C-102m. Kinski, Michael Goodliffe. Occult novel★★★ ist Widmark is enlisted to help young girl D: Charles Burnett. Danny Glover, Paul Butler, Mary Alice, Carl Lumbly, (Kinski) who’s being pursued by defrocked Vonetta McGee, Richard Brooks, Sheryl priest Lee for satanic ritual. Hammer Films Lee Ralph, Ethel Ayler, Julius Harris, Sy adaptation of Dennis Wheatley book is well Richardson, Jimmy Witherspoon. Evocative made but lacks punch. Aka CHILD OF domestic drama about the effect storyteller/ SATAN. [R]▼쩠 trickster Glover has on the various members To the Ends of the Earth (1948) 109m. ★★★1 of a black family. More than just a portrait of ⁄2 D: Robert Stevenson. Dick Powell, contemporary black society, it’s a story of Signe Hasso, Ludwig Donath, Vladimir cultural differences between parents and Sokoloff, Edgar Barrier. Fast-moving thriller children, of how individuals learn (or don’t of government agent tracking down narlearn) from experience, and of how there cotics smuggling ring has good acting and should be no place for those who cause vioironic ending. lence and strife. Scripted by Burnett; coexeTo the Victor (1948) 100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Delmer cutive produced by Glover. Screen couple Daves. Dennis Morgan, Viveca Lindfors, Lumbly and McGee are also married in real Victor Francen, Eduardo Ciannelli, Anlife. [PG]▼● thony Caruso, Tom D’Andrea, William Total Eclipse (1995-U.S.-French) C-110m. Conrad, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Buloff, BOMB D: Agnieszka Holland. Leonardo Bruce Bennett. Thought-provoking postDiCaprio, David Thewlis, Romane BohWW2 drama about an apolitical black marringer, Dominique Blanc, Felicie Pasotti keter (Morgan) who becomes involved with Cabarbaye, Nita Klein, James Thieree, a mystery woman (Lindfors) whose life is Christopher Hampton. Really bad film in danger. Richard Brooks’ script attempts about 19th-century French poets Arthur to deal with issues relating to war, peace, Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine morality, and responsibility, but too many (Thewlis) plays like a homosexual version dull stretches do this in. Strikingly photoof AMADEUS. Well intentioned and based graphed on location in Paris and especially on fact, but just awful. Hampton adapted at Normandy’s Omaha Beach. the script from his own play. Pick up a couToto the Hero (1991-Belgian-Frenchple of poetry books instead. [R] ▼●쩠 German) C-90m. ★★★ D: Jaco van Dormael. 1 ★★ ⁄2 Totally F***ed Up (1993) C-85m. Michel Bouquet, Mireille Perrier, Jo De D: Gregg Araki. James Duval, Roko Belic, Backer, Gisela Uhlen, Peter Bohlke, Susan Behshid, Jenee Gill, Gilbert Luna, Thomas Godet, Sandrine Blancke. OrigiLance May, Alan Boyce, Craig Gilmore. nal, immensely clever journey through the Jarring, Godardian portrait of a group of life of a character named Thomas, who is bored, alienated L.A. teens. They hang out shown (through constant cross-cutting) as and talk about sex, relationships, and their a child, adult, and elderly man. The young parents; their language is littered with such boy imagines that he’ll grow up to be Toto words as ‘‘grossomatic’’ and ‘‘gagorama.’’ the Hero, a secret agent; instead, he’ll And . . . they’re gay, so there is no shortage have to cope with his ultimate ordinariof venom vented against homophobia. Not ness, his memories, and his dreams. A bad, but still a come-down from Araki’s unique blend of comedy, tragedy, and breakthrough film, THE LIVING END. mystery, especially notable for its discernAraki also scripted, edited, photographed ing—and unflinching—look at childhood. and coproduced.▼쩠 Writer-director van Dormael, a former cirTotal Recall (1990) C-109m. ★★★ D: Paul cus clown, makes his feature directing debut. [PG-13]▼● Verhoeven. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Ronny Cox, MiTo Trap a Spy (1966) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don chael Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mel Johnson, Medford. Robert Vaughn, Luciana Paluzzi, Jr. Schwarzenegger learns he’s a victim of Patricia Crowley, Fritz Weaver, William mind-tampering in this 21st-century tale—and Marshall, Ivan Dixon, David McCallum. Adonce he discovers his true identity, journeys to equate action/spy yarn, expanded from iniMars to help fight a power-hungry madman tial segment of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. there. Riveting yarn (based on Philip K. TV series, with Napoleon Solo (Vaughn) Dick’s short story ‘‘We Can Remember It for attempting to thwart the assassination of an You Wholesale’’) offers endless twists and African head of state. McCallum, Vaughn’s intriguing ideas . . . and the kind of over-thecostar on the show, only appears briefly. [ 1437 ]

Touch, The (1971-U.S.-Swedish) C-112m. ‘‘normal’’ life for themselves. Good per★1 formances, anyway. [R]▼ ⁄2 D: Ingmar Bergman. Elliott Gould, Bibi Andersson, Max von Sydow, Sheila Touched by Love (1980) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Reid. Bergman’s first English-language film Gus Trikonis. Deborah Raffin, Diane Lane, should be called THE TETCHED, in view Michael Learned, Cristina Raines, Mary of the fact that Andersson leaves doctorWickes, Clu Gulager, John Amos, Clive husband von Sydow for boorish Gould. Shalom. Sentimental drama, based on nursThe two Bergman regulars are fine, but ing trainee Lena Canada’s memoir, of ceGould is miscast and dialogue embarrassrebral palsy victim’s pen-pal relationship ingly awkward. [R]▼ with Elvis Presley. Fine performances by Touch (1997) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Paul Lane and Raffin. Originally titled TO ELVIS, WITH LOVE. [PG]▼ Schrader. Bridget Fonda, Christopher Walken, Skeet Ulrich, Tom Arnold, Gina GerTouchez Pas au Grisbi (1954-French) 94m. ★★★1 shon, Lolita Davidovich, Paul Mazursky, ⁄2 D: Jacques Becker. Jean Gabin, Rene´ Janeane Garofalo, John Doe, Conchata FerDary, Jeanne Moreau, Dora Doll, Gaby Basrell, Mason Adams, Anthony Zerbe, LL set, Denise Clair, Michel Jourdan, Daniel Cool J, Tamlyn Tomita, Don Novello. SatirCauchy, Lino Ventura. An elegant French ical fable about a young ex-monk who has gangster who’s pulled off a daring heist forthe ability to effect miracle healings—while sakes his plan to keep the loot under wraps in suffering stigmata: bleeding as Christ did on order to save the life of his impetuous best the cross. This causes no small furor among friend. As much an observation about a cerexploiters like Walken and fanatics like Artain way of life as it is a crime thriller; nold. Interesting and well cast (with Arnold unpretentious and skillfully made, with a a standout as the religious zealot), but awtypically commanding performance by the fully subdued; it’s a film that leaves you incomparable Gabin. Aka GRISBI. ▼쩠 wanting. Based on an Elmore Leonard Touching the Void (2003-British) C-106m. ★★★ novel, scripted by Schrader. [R]▼●쩠 D: Kevin Macdonald. Nicholas Aaron, Touchables, The (1968-British) C-97m. Richard Hawking, Brendan Mackey, Joe BOMB D: Robert Freeman. Judy Huxtable, Simpson, Simon Yates. Amazing docudrama Esther Anderson, Marilyn Richard, Kathy of two climbers and their perilous journey up Simmonds. Dreary tale of four girls and a the Siula Grande peak in the Peruvian Andes guy who try to kidnap pop singing idol. in 1985. After reaching the top they are sepaTerrible. [PG—edited from original R rated upon descent; one is left for dead by his rating] partner but miraculously survives to tell the Touch and Die (1991) C-108m. BOMB tale. Using actors and bridging techniques of D: Piernico Solinas. Renee Estevez, Marfictional action pictures, film cuts between intin Sheen, David Birney, Franco Nero. terviews with survivors Simpson and Yates The Rome bureau chief of an American newsand highly accomplished re-creations to prespaper finds lots of bodies with their hands ent a real-life story that has every bit of suschopped off as he follows the trail of plupense, adventure, and drama any Hollywood tonium thieves. Sheen tries to keep real-life production could aspire to. Based on the book by Simpson. ▼쩠 daughter Estevez locked in her hotel room, to keep her out of trouble (and off-screen), Touch of Class, A (1973) C-105m. ★★ D: which may be a wise choice. Extremely Melvin Frank. George Segal, Glenda Jackconfusing globe-trotting thriller. [R]▼ son, Paul Sorvino, Hildegard Neil, Cec Touch and Go (1980-Australian) C-92m. Linder, K Callan, Mary Barclay. Undeni★★ D: Peter Maxwell. Wendy Hughes, able chemistry of Segal and Jackson can Chantal Contouri, Carmen Duncan, Jeanie only occasionally breathe life into this stale Drynan, Liddy Clark. Sexy female Robin comedy about married man who intends Hoods steal for worthy causes. A wellnothing more than having a carefree affair, meaning comedy-caper film that is slight only to fall genuinely in love. Jackson won and forgettable.▼ Best Actress Oscar. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 Touch and Go (1986) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Touch of Evil (1958) 108m. ★★★★ D: Orson Robert Mandel. Michael Keaton, Maria Welles. Charlton Heston, Orson Welles, Conchita Alonso, Ajay Naidu, Maria Tucci, Janet Leigh, Joseph Calleia, Akim TamirMax Wright, Jere Burns, Lara Jill Miller. off, Marlene Dietrich, Dennis Weaver, Self-centered hockey star becomes involved Valentin de Vargas, Mort Mills, Victor with delinquent kid and his mother. Aptly Milian, Joanna Moore, Zsa Zsa Gabor. titled film has persuasive performances but Narc Heston and corrupt cop Welles tangle unconvincing storyline. [R]▼● over murder investigation in sleazy MexiTouched (1983) C-93m. ★★ D: John Flynn. can border town, with Heston’s bride Leigh Robert Hays, Kathleen Beller, Ned Beatty, the pawn of their struggle. Fantastic, justiGilbert Lewis, Lyle Kessler. Uninspired, fiably famous opening shot merely compoorly scripted latter-day DAVID AND mences stylistic masterpiece, dazzlingly LISA with Hays and Beller escaping from photographed by Russell Metty. Great Latin mental institution and trying to build a rock score by Henry Mancini; neat unbilled [ 1438 ]

cameos by Joseph Cotten, Ray Collins, and dummies in Connors’ ‘‘museum’’ are especially Mercedes McCambridge. Reconstrangely lifelike, aren’t they? Not so much structed according to Welles’ notes in 1998, that the idiots he lures there ever catch on. at 111m. Beware 95m. version. ▼●쩠 A couple of genuine scares, but mostly Touch of Pink (2004-Canadian-British) Cboring thriller. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★ 91m. D: Ian Iqbal Rashid. Jimi Mistry, Tous les Matins du Monde (1991-French) Kyle MacLachlan, Kristen Holden-Reid, C-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alain Corneau. JeanSuleka Mathew, Brian George, Veena Sood, Pierre Marielle, Ge´rard Depardieu, Anne Raoul Bhaneja. Strained attempt to re-create Brochet, Guillaume Depardieu, Caroline the fluffy style of an early-’60s bedroom comSihol, Carole Richert, Myriam Boyer, edy that might have starred Cary Grant and Michel Bouquet. Exquisitely detailed hisDoris Day (like, say, THAT TOUCH OF torical biography examining the relationMINK). The twist is that the leading man is ship between Sainte Colombe (Marielle), gay, a fact he is trying to hide from his the obsessive, almost mystical 17th-century visiting mother, a devout Muslim who tries baroque composer and cellist, and his to set him up with a girl in time to attend a protege´, Marin Marais (Ge´rard Depardieu), big family wedding. What’s more, the ghost a man of far less elevated artistic aspiraof Cary Grant appears to offer advice on life tions, who was a celebrated court comand love to our hapless hero. MacLachlan poser at Versailles. Both stars are excellent, tries his best, but his impression of the peerwith Depardieu’s son Guillaume effectively less Grant just doesn’t cut it, and neither playing the young Marin Marais. Exemdoes this well-meaning film. [R] ▼쩠 plary use of music on the soundtrack. Tough Enough (1983) C-106m. ★★ D: Screenplay by the director and Pascal Richard Fleischer. Dennis Quaid, Carlene Quignard, based on the latter’s novel. A Watkins, Stan Shaw, Pam Grier, Warren smash hit in France, where it won seven Oates, Bruce McGill, Wilford Brimley, Fran Ce´sar awards. Video title: ALL THE Ryan. Numerous problems plagued producMORNINGS OF THE WORLD.▼●쩠 tion of this predictable tale of would-be Tovarich (1937) 98m. ★★★ D: Anatole Country-Western singer Quaid entering Litvak. Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer, Tough Man amateur boxing competitions Basil Rathbone, Anita Louise, Melville for exposure. Insipid ROCKY rip-off Cooper, Isabel Jeans, Morris Carnovsky. wastes good cast. Shot in 1981. [PG] ▼쩠 Boyer and Colbert, royal Russians, flee Tough Guys (1986) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff the Revolution with court treasury but nothKanew. Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, ing for themselves; they’re finally reduced Charles Durning, Alexis Smith, Dana to working as servants. Enjoyable but dated Carvey, Darlanne Fluegel, Eli Wallach, romantic comedy set in Paris. Based on a Monty Ash, Billy Barty. A couple of forFrench play Americanized by Robert E. mer crooks—who staged America’s last Sherwood. train robbery 30 years ago—are finally To Walk With Lions (1999-CanadianBritish-Kenyan) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carl sprung from prison and gamely try to adjust to 1980s life. Watching Burt and Kirk (in Schultz. Richard Harris, John Michie, Kerry this tailor-made comedy) is a joy, but the Fox, Ian Bannen, Hugh Quarshie, Honor film gets more childish and predictable as it Blackman, Geraldine Chaplin. Fact-based goes along. Still watchable but what a account of Tony Fitzjohn, an aimless young shame! Panavision. [PG]▼● man who becomes the prote´ge´ of George Tough Guys Don’t Dance (1987) C-110m. Adamson (a perfectly cast Harris), the ★★1 ⁄2 D: Norman Mailer. Ryan O’Neal, fiercely dedicated ‘‘lion man’’ who teaches Isabella Rossellini, Debra Sandlund, Wings lions born in captivity how to survive in the Hauser, Lawrence Tierney, Penn Jillette, wild. Some of the supporting characters are Frances Fisher, John Bedford Lloyd, Clarunderwritten, and the scenes in which the ence Williams III. Genuinely odd film noir humans and lions interact are pasted tocum black-comedy adapted by Mailer from gether, but the film is engaging when exhis own novel, with O’Neal as a loser who ploring Adamson’s spiritual connection to may have committed murder—but can’t the animals. This BORN FREE follow-up remember. Peopled exclusively by weird did not earn a U.S. theatrical release. Super characters who speak in purple prose . . . 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 but it does have its moments, and a lively Toward the Unknown (1956) C-115m. ★★1 performance by Tierney as O’Neal’s no⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. William Holden, nonsense father who wants to ‘‘deep-six Lloyd Nolan, Virginia Leith, Charles the heads.’’ Filmed in Provincetown, MasMcGraw, James Garner, Murray Hamilton, L.Q. Jones, Paul Fix, Karen Steele. sachusetts. [R]▼●쩠 Tourist Trap (1979) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: David Intelligent narrative about test pilots, Schmoeller. Chuck Connors, Jon Van Ness, focusing on a tarnished air officer (HoldJocelyn Jones, Robin Sherwood, Tanya en) eager to regain the respect of his men. Roberts, Keith McDermott. Here’s an origiGarner’s film debut. Towelhead (2008) C-124m. ★★★ D: Alan nal idea for a horror movie: those life-size [ 1439 ]

Ball. Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette, Maria romantic comedy, lurches into French farce, Bello, Peter Macdissi, Summer Bishil, Euthen lumbers along to a point beyond comgene Jones, Matt Letscher, Chase Ellison. A prehension. The cast tries its best. Cowritten 13-year-old girl leaves her mercurial mother by Buck Henry, who appears as a divorce to live with her uptight, culturally conflicted lawyer. Filmed mostly in 1998. [R]▼쩠 Lebanese father in the suburbs of Houston, Town Called Hell, A (1971-British-Spanish) Texas. Exploring her newfound sexuality, C-95m. BOMB D: Robert Parrish. Robert the girl flirts with danger at every turn, incitShaw, Telly Savalas, Stella Stevens, Maring and inviting the attentions of next-door tin Landau, Fernando Rey. A manhunt for neighbor Eckhart. Provocative, darkly funny Mexican revolutionary Shaw. The pits. adult fare, intended to shock and amuse in Originally titled A TOWN CALLED BASTARD. Franscope. [R]▼쩠 equal measure, explores sexual abuse, cultural stereotypes, and adolescent angst, yet Town Is Quiet, The (2001-French) C133m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Gue´diguian. Ariane somehow avoids being exploitive. Bishil is perfect in a remarkable film debut. Alicia Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Ge´rard Erian’s novel was adapted by first-time diMeylan, Jacques Boudet, Christine Bru¨cher, rector Ball (who wrote AMERICAN Jacques Pieiller. Slow-paced, dark, but interBEAUTY). Super 35. [R]쩠 esting tale of life in Marseilles, a workingTowering Inferno, The (1974) C-165m. class French city that has seen better days— ★★1 as have many of the inhabitants depicted ⁄2 D: John Guillermin, Irwin Allen. Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William here. Beautifully atmospheric and certainly reHolden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan alistic, film demands more than many viewers Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer may want to give; those who like gritty Jones, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, human drama will probably find this a satisRobert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory fying way to spend a couple of hours. ▼쩠 Sierra, Dabney Coleman. All-star idiocy Town Like Alice, A (1956-British) 107m. ★★1 about a burning skyscraper. Purports to ⁄2 D: Jack Lee. Virginia McKenna, Peter pay tribute to firemen but spends most of Finch, Maureen Swanson, Vincent Ball. its time devising grisly ways for people to Taut WW2 tale, well acted, about Japandie. The pyrotechnics are gripping, but the ese oppression of female British POWs movie is just another cold-blooded Hollyin Malaysia. Based on Nevil Shute’s novel, wood ‘‘product.’’ Oscar-winner for Cinelater remade as TV miniseries. Retitled: matography, Editing and Song (‘‘We May RAPE OF MALAYA.▼● Never Love Like This Again’’). Panavision. Town Tamer (1965) C-89m. ★★ D: Les[PG]▼●쩠 ley Selander. Dana Andrews, Terry Moore, Tower of Evil SEE: Horror on Snape Pat O’Brien, Lon Chaney (Jr.), Bruce Island Cabot, Lyle Bettger, Coleen Gray, Barton Tower of London (1939) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: MacLane, Richard Arlen, Richard Jaeckel, Rowland V. Lee. Basil Rathbone, Boris Sonny Tufts. As title indicates, Andrews Karloff, Barbara O’Neil, Ian Hunter, Vincleans up community, and among the rubble cent Price, Nan Grey, Leo G. Carroll, are some veteran actors. Routine Western John Sutton, Miles Mander, Donnie Dunahas minor nostalgia value, in light of the gan. Muddled historical melodrama (not a cast. Techniscope. horror film, as many believe), with RathTown That Dreaded Sundown, The (1977) bone as unscrupulous, power-hungry RichC-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles B. Pierce. Ben ard III and Karloff as his dutiful executioner Johnson, Andrew Prine, Dawn Wells, ChrisMord. Court intrigue leads to uninspired tine Ellsworth, Charles B. Pierce. OK thriller battle scenes. Remade in 1962.▼쩠 made from true story of a hooded killer Tower of London (1962) 79m. ★1⁄2 D: who terrorized town of Texarkana in the Roger Corman. Vincent Price, Michael mid-’40s. Ben Johnson’s presence gives it Pate, Joan Freeman, Robert Brown. Resome stature. Panavision. [R]▼ make of 1939 film has Price, who played Town Without Pity (1961) 105m. ★★1⁄2 Duke of Clarence first time around, tackD: Gottfried Reinhardt. Kirk Douglas, E. ling role of Richard III in a flat, papierG. Marshall, Christine Kaufmann, Robert maˆche´ production.▼●쩠 Blake, Richard Jaeckel, Frank Sutton, BarTower of Terror SEE: In the Devil’s bara Rutting. Courtroom drama of G.I.s Garden accused of raping German girl. Decent Town & Country (2001) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: cast, but could have been better handled. Peter Chelsom. Warren Beatty, Diane KeaTitle song, sung by Gene Pitney, was a big ton, Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Andie hit. Filmed in Germany.▼쩠 MacDowell, Nastassja Kinski, Jenna ElfTo Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, man, Josh Hartnett, Charlton Heston, MarJulie Newmar (1995) C-108m. ★1⁄2 D: ian Seldes, Katherine Towne. Two couples Beeban Kidron. Patrick Swayze, Wesley celebrate their long-term marriages—just as Snipes, John Leguizamo, Stockard Chanboth relationships start to come apart. A ning, Arliss Howard, Chris Penn, Melinda train wreck of a movie that starts out as Dillon, Blythe Danner, Beth Grant, RuPaul, [ 1440 ]

Naomi Campbell, Quentin Crisp, Julie Toy Soldiers (1991) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Newmar. Incredibly tiresome tale of three Daniel Petrie, Jr. Sean Astin, Wil Wheaself-proclaimed drag queens heading for ton, Keith Coogan, Andrew Divoff, Louis Hollywood whose car breaks down in a small Gossett, Jr., Denholm Elliott, T. E. Rusrural town. There they befriend—and ensell, George Perez, Mason Adams, R. Lee liven—the local female population. Robin Ermey, Tracy Brooks Swope. Prep school Williams appears in one scene, unbilled, populated by wealthy misfit kids is taken and provides easily the film’s funniest moover by Colombian terrorists—who haven’t ments. [PG-13]▼●쩠 counted on the youngsters’ ingenuity or Toxic Avenger, The (1985) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 determination. Mindless movie takes a D: Michael Herz, Samuel Weil. Andree seemingly idiotic premise and makes it Maranda, Mitchell Cohen, Jennifer Bapentertaining, with likable kids and Gibraltartist, Cindy Manion, Robert Prichard, Mark like Gossett as their father-figure dean. Jerry Orbach appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Torgi, Marisa Tomei. Funny spoof about 90-pound weakling Torgi, who is transToy Story (1995) C-80m. ★★★ D: John Lasformed into a monster who only does good seter. Voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, deeds. Not without violence and gore but Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, still entertaining; recommended mostly for John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, John Morfans of the genre. Followed by three seris, Erik Von Detten, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee quels. [R]▼●쩠 Ermey. A boy’s favorite toy, a cowboy doll Toy, The (1982) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard named Woody, feels threatened (and rightly Donner. Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, so) by the arrival of a new birthday present, Scott Schwartz, Teresa Ganzel, Ned Beatty, a high-tech spaceman model advertised on Wilfrid Hyde-White, Annazette Chase. TV. Clever, incredible-looking animated Stultifying remake of the Pierre Richard film, produced entirely on computer. A comedy LE JOUET with Pryor as penniless grownup story masquerading as a kid’s writer hired by zillionaire Gleason as playfilm, this story of friendship, fickleness, and thing for spoiled son Schwartz. A few the need for acceptance features a colorful good gags are lost in a sea of you-can’tcast of characters led by Woody and his buy-friends-you-gotta-earn-them lectures, rival, Buzz Lightyear. The ‘‘acting’’ of the not to mention dubious taste. [PG]▼●쩠 two leads—their facial expressions and body Toys (1992) C-121m. ★1⁄2 D: Barry Levinlanguage—is as good as anything ever seen son. Robin Williams, Michael Gambon, in a conventional animated cartoon. PreJoan Cusack, Robin Wright, LL Cool J, sented by Disney, but produced by the innoDonald O’Connor, Arthur Malet, Jack Warvative Pixar studio. Director Lasseter den, Debi Mazar, Jamie Foxx, Blake Clark, received a special Oscar for this animation Art Metrano, Yeardley Smith. Appallingly milestone. Followed by a sequel. [G]▼●쩠 bad movie about one man’s lifelong Toy Story 2 (1999) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John dream—a whimsical toy factory—turned Lasseter. Voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, into a nightmare by his brother, a military Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles, martinet with outsized ambitions. This was Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzendirector-cowriter Levinson’s longtime pet berger, Annie Potts, Wayne Knight, John project! Aside from Ferdinando Scarfiotti’s inMorris, Laurie Metcalf, Estelle Harris, R. Lee genious production design (worth seeing at Ermey, Jodi Benson. One of the few sequels least for a few minutes) and some sweet to live up to—and top—the original: a clever moments at the outset, this is a heavyand engaging tale of cowboy doll Woody handed mess. [PG-13]▼●쩠 falling into the hands of a sleazy toy dealer. Toys in the Attic (1963) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Shows the relationship of toys and their George Roy Hill. Dean Martin, Geraldine owners in a canny but heartwarming way, Page, Yvette Mimieux, Wendy Hiller, Gene with great gags, a heart-rending song, Tierney, Larry Gates, Nan Martin. Timid ‘‘When She Loved Me’’ by Randy Newadaptation (by James Poe) of Lillian Hellman (sung by Sarah MacLachlan), and man play about man returning home to spectacular staging by the computer-animaNew Orleans with childlike bride; Page tion folks at Pixar. Followed by a Buzz and Hiller are Martin’s overprotective Lightyear TV series and video feature. [G] sisters. Panavision.▼ ▼쩠 Toy Soldiers (1984) C-91m. ★★ D: David Toy Tiger (1956) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry Fisher. Jason Miller, Cleavon Little, RoHopper. Jeff Chandler, Laraine Day, Tim dolfo De Anda, Terri Garber, Tracy ScogHovey, Cecil Kellaway, Richard Haydn, gins, Willard Pugh, Mary Beth Evans, David Janssen. Pleasant remake of MAD Tim Robbins. Fast-paced but forgettable ABOUT MUSIC with Hovey ‘‘adopting’’ adventure has a plot resembling HIGH Chandler as his father to back up tales to RISK (which also starred Little): Miller school chums about a real dad. and Little help kids rescue their young Traces of Red (1992) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: friends from captivity in rebellion-torn Latin Andy Wolk. James Belushi, Lorraine Bracco, American nation. [R]▼쩠 Tony Goldwyn, William Russ, Michelle [ 1441 ]

Joyner, Joe Lisi. Tawdry/silly West Palm even, one minute bold and powerful (espeBeach melodrama with so many suspects cially with Polish actress Bachleda) and the that its red herring line has been expanded next incredibly banal. Based on a New York Times article. Super 35. [R]쩠 to include blush, burgundy, and mauve. Belushi and Goldwyn are cops all but tripping Trader Horn (1931) 120m. ★★★ D: W. S. over the female corpses, with Bracco a rich Van Dyke II. Harry Carey, Edwina Booth, widow in an array of unflattering fashions. Duncan Renaldo, Olive Golden (Carey), Narrated by Belushi’s corpse a` la SUNSET Mutia Omoolu, C. Aubrey Smith. Early BLVD., but sorely missing anything retalkie classic filmed largely in African sembling Billy Wilder’s touch. [R]▼●쩠 jungles still retains plenty of excitement Trackdown (1976) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richin tale of veteran native dealer Carey encountering tribal hostility. Remade in 1973.▼ ard T. Heffron. Jim Mitchum, Karen Lamm, Anne Archer, Erik Estrada, Cathy Lee CrosTrader Horn (1973) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Reza by, Vince Cannon. Montana rancher Mitchum S. Badiyi. Rod Taylor, Anne Heywood, comes to L.A. in search of his runaway Jean Sorel, Don Knight, Ed Bernard, Stack sister, who’s fallen into seamy street life. Pierce. Laughable remake of 1931 version Not much depth but lots of action. [R] has Taylor famed explorer and trader of ★★ Track of the Cat (1954) C-102m. African interior, accompanied by young D: William Wellman. Robert Mitchum, Tewidow. Obvious use of stock footage and resa Wright, Tab Hunter, Diana Lynn, the fact that cast never leaves backlot ruin Beulah Bondi, Philip Tonge, William Hopall notion of believability. [PG] Trading Hearts (1988) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: per, Carl (Alfalfa) Switzer. Tennessee Williams meets American Gothic in this Neil Leifer. Raul Julia, Beverly D’Angelo, unusually harsh drama about a household Jenny Lewis, Parris Buckner. Poor basefilled with bitterness, regret, and envy, and ball romance in which precocious 11-yearhow the hunt for a killer cougar changes the old Lewis tries to manipulate her mother dynamics of the family. A. I. Bezzerides (D’Angelo), a show-biz failure, into marriage adapted the story by Walter Van Tilburg with broken-down ballplayer Julia. Look for Clark; William Clothier’s ‘‘colorless’’ palformer N.Y.C. mayor Ed Koch in a bit as a ette and daring camera angles are the film’s Florida tourist; scripted by Frank DeFord, strongest assets.▼쩠 who can be seen as a bartender. [PG]▼● Track of the Vampire SEE: Blood Bath Trading Mom (1994) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Tia Tracks (1976) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Henry Brelis. Sissy Spacek, Anna Chlumsky, Jaglom. Dennis Hopper, Taryn Power, Dean Aaron Michael Metchik, Asher Metchik, Stockwell, Topo Swope, Michael Emil, Maureen Stapleton, Merritt Yohnka, Andre Zack Norman. Hopper escorts dead Vietnam the Giant. Three siblings who can’t stand buddy across the country by train, eventually their mother (Spacek) cast a spell which goes bonkers. We’ve seen it before and almakes her—and all memory of her—disapmost always in less muddled fashion. Emil’s pear, then go to the Mommy Market to find and Norman’s characters later got their own a replacement mom. A flat and lifeless tale feature, SITTING DUCKS.▼●쩠 with poor production values. Spacek has a Track 29 (1988-British) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: field day as three wildly different moms, Nicolas Roeg. Theresa Russell, Gary but a couple of humiliation scenes made us Oldman, Christopher Lloyd, Colleen Camp, wince. Brelis adapted the screenplay, based Sandra Bernhard, Seymour Cassel, Leon on her mother’s story ‘‘The Mummy Market.’’ Filmed in 1992. [PG]▼●쩠 Rippy, Vance Colvig. Bizarre black comedy about a love-starved woman, her nerdy Trading Places (1983) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 husband who’s obsessed with model trains, D: John Landis. Dan Aykroyd, Eddie and a stranger who claims to be her long Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, lost son! Even allowing for the usual ecDenholm Elliott, Jamie Lee Curtis, Paul centricities of director Roeg and writer Gleason, Kristin Holby, Jim Belushi, AlDennis Potter, this is pretty weird and not fred Drake, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Bill terribly entertaining. Filmed in North CaroCobbs. Fine cast breathes life into timelina. [R]▼ worn comedy premise (remember those Three Trade (2007-U.S.-German) C-120m. ★★ D: Stooges shorts?) testing heredity vs. enviMarco Kreuzpaintner. Kevin Kline, Alicia ronment by switching a ‘‘have’’ (preppie Bachleda, Paulina Gaitan, Kathleen Gati, Aykroyd) and a ‘‘have-not’’ (street hustler Pasha D. Lychnikoff, Anthony Crivello, Linda Murphy). Murphy, in his second film, is a Emond, Zack Ward, Cesar Ramos, Marco comic powerhouse, and makes up for direcPe´rez, Tim Reid. A 13-year-old girl is abtor Landis’ indulgences—like a subplot inducted by members of a sex-trafficking ring. volving a horny gorilla. [R]▼●쩠 As her older brother follows her trail, he Traffic (1972-French) C-89m. ★★ D: hooks up with a Texas cop (Kline) who has Jacques Tati. Jacques Tati, Maria Kimberly, his own reasons for investigating this outfit. Marcel Fraval, H. Bostel, Tony Kneppers. Downbeat drama exposes a shocking, Initially enjoyable outing with M. Hulot shameful situation, but it’s maddeningly un(Tati) trying to transport car from France [ 1442 ]

to Dutch auto show bogs down in aimless sequent CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 side trips. Bright spots overwhelmed by general lethargy. [PG]▼쩠 Train, The (1964) 133m. ★★★★ D: John Traffic (2000) C-147m. ★★★ D: Steven Frankenheimer. Burt Lancaster, Paul ScoSoderbergh. Michael Douglas, Catherine field, Jeanne Moreau, Michel Simon, SuZeta-Jones, Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, zanne Flon, Wolfgang Preiss, Albert Remy. Luis Guzman, Dennis Quaid, Steven Bauer, Gripping WW2 actioner of French ResisTomas Milian, Erika Christensen, Miguel Fertance trying to waylay train carting French rer, Albert Finney, Topher Grace, Benjamin art treasures to Germany. High-powered excitement all the way.▼●쩠 Bratt, Amy Irving, James Brolin, Clifton Collins, Jr., D. W. Moffett, Peter Riegert, Jacob Training Day (2001) C-120m. ★★ D: AnVargas, Rena Sofer, Viola Davis. Absorbing toine Fuqua. Denzel Washington, Ethan look at U.S./Mexico drug scene from sevHawke, Scott Glenn, Tom Berenger, Harris eral points of view: battle-hardened cops on Yulin, Raymond J. Barry, Cliff Curtis, Dr. both sides of the border, the unsuspecting Dre, Snoop Dogg, Macy Gray, Eva Mendes, wife of a wealthy druglord, disaffected teenNick Chinlund. Rookie cop (Hawke) is partagers who seek escape, and the man who’s nered with a corrupt veteran narcotics detecjust been named America’s drug czar, who tive (Washington) and learns more than he refuses to acknowledge the problem within ever wanted to know about the mean streets of his own family. Soderbergh also photoL.A. Starts off strongly, then gets dumber and graphed, under a pseudonym. Salma Hayek dumber, abandoning credibility for meloappears unbilled. Loosely based on a British drama, coincidences, and a cartoonlike climax. TV miniseries. Oscar winner for Best DirecRedeemed partially by Washington’s magtor, Supporting Actor (Del Toro), Adapted netic, Oscar-winning performance. ClairmontScreenplay (Stephen Gaghan), and Film EdScope. [R]▼쩠 iting (Stephen Mirrione). [R]▼쩠 Train of Life (1998-French-Belgian-Dutch) Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981-Italian) C-103m. ★★★ D: Radu Mihaileanu. Lionel C-116m. ★★ D: Bernardo Bertolucci. Ugo Abelanski, Rufus, Clement Harari, MarieTognazzi, Anouk Aime´e, Laura Morante, Jose Nat, Agathe de la Fontaine. Energetic Victor Cavallo, Ricardo Tognazzi. Disapfable set in 1941, in which the inhabitants pointing drama about cheese manufacturer of a small Central European Jewish village, Tognazzi coping with son’s alleged kidall too aware of their imminent demise, plot napping by political terrorists. Bertolucci to foil the Nazis by staging their own deporseems to be commenting on modern social tation to Russia. Comedic and dramatic eleand familial stresses and upheavals, but ments occasionally clash, and some of the his message is incredibly muddled. [PG]▼ subplots are inconsequential, but it still Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice, works. Released in the U.S. after LIFE IS The SEE: Othello (1952) BEAUTIFUL and JAKOB THE LIAR, but Trail of the Lonesome Pine, The (1936) this was actually the first to go into producC-99m. ★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. Sylvia tion. Widescreen. [R]▼ Sidney, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, Train Robbers, The (1973) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 Fred Stone, Fuzzy Knight, Beulah Bondi, D: Burt Kennedy. John Wayne, AnnSpanky McFarland, Nigel Bruce. Classic Margret, Rod Taylor, Ben Johnson, Chrisstory of feuding families and changes that topher George, Ricardo Montalban, Bobby come about when railroad is built on their Vinton, Jerry Gatlin. Interesting little land. Still strong today, with fine perforchamber-Western, reminiscent of Kennedy’s mances, and Fuzzy Knight’s rendition of early Randolph Scott scripts. Outlaw’s ‘‘Melody from the Sky.’’ First outdoor film widow hires Wayne and his pals to locate in full Technicolor. Previously filmed in buried gold so she can return it and clear 1915.▼ family name. Low-key film emphasizes Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) C-97m. character instead of action; relaxed per★★ D: Blake Edwards. Peter Sellers, David formances, twist ending. Panavision. [PG] Niven, Herbert Lom, Richard Mulligan, ▼●쩠 Joanna Lumley, Robert Wagner, Capucine, Trainspotting (1996-British) C-94m. ★★★ Robert Loggia, Harvey Korman, Burt D: Danny Boyle. Ewan McGregor, Ewen Kwouk, Graham Stark, Peter Arne. AtBremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, tempt to fashion a new Pink Panther film, Robert Carlyle, Kelly Macdonald. Fascinating despite the death of series star Sellers, look at the drug underground in Edinburgh, using previously unseen footage and new Scotland, as seen through the eyes of linking material. It almost works—until McGregor, who’s part of that world but still the seams begin to show, as reporter Lumley somehow able to distance himself from his seeks out people who knew Clouseau for a friends’ bizarre behavior. Alternately hilarious TV story. Lom does have a sidesplitting and harrowing, with some startling surrealistic scene in which he tries to eulogize his moments, this was an enormous hit in the long-time nemesis—and can’t stop laughU.K. but suffered some backlash in the U.S. ing. Filmed at the same time as subfor its supposed condoning of drugs—which [ 1443 ]

is simply not true. Adapted by John Hodge Smith, Andrew Robinson, Tony Pierce, from Irvine Welsh’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 Dawn Ann Billings, Helen Hunt, Megan Traitor (2008) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeffrey Ward, Stephen Macht, Telma Hopkins, R. A. Nachmanoff. Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Mahailoff. Time travel gets a workout here: Neal McDonough, Saı¨d Taghmaoui, Jeff taken from 1992 to 2352, Jack Deth (ThomDaniels, Alyy Khan, Archie Panjabi, Loerson) is then sent to 2005 to destroy those rena Gale. Is he or is he not a traitor to his pesky (and obscurely defined) Trancers at country? Witnessing a life-altering terrorist their source. The series continues to be act in his youth makes Cheadle prime turnwatchable, and Robinson provides a swell villain, but the end is a mess. [R]▼●쩠 coat material and the FBI continuously dogs his tail in an effort to find out. StraightforTransamerica (2005) C-103m. ★★★ D: ward espionage drama attempts to seriously Duncan Tucker. Felicity Huffman, Kevin explore religious fervor as it applies to acts of Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Elizabeth Pen˜a, terrorism and suicide bombers. Documentary Graham Greene, Burt Young, Carrie Presstyle makes it intelligent and realistic but ton. A transsexual on the verge of having not terrifically entertaining. Nachmanoff’s final surgery to become a woman learns she screenplay is based on a story he cowrote has a teenage son—in a N.Y.C. jail. Withwith Steve Martin. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 out revealing her identity she bails out the Tramplers, The (1966-Italian) C-105m. young hustler, and the ultimate odd couple ★★ (she is a fussbudget, he is a disaffected kid D: Albert Band. Joseph Cotten, Gordon Scott, James Mitchum, Ilaria Occhini, who hides his emotions) embarks on a Franco Nero. Foreign-made Western set cross-country trip. Comedy-drama of in post–Civil War South, with Cotten the consciousness-raising and forgiveness bedomineering father; all just an excuse for comes a somewhat conventional road gunplay. Aka SHOWDOWN.▼ movie but is elevated by Huffman’s astonTramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) 62m. ★★1⁄2 ishing, nuanced performance as Bree. Debut D: Harry Edwards. Harry Langdon, Joan feature for writer-director Tucker. [R]쩠 Crawford, Edwards Davis, Carlton Griffin, Transformers, The (1986) C-86m. BOMB Alec B. Francis, Brooks Benedict, Tom MurD: Nelson Shin. Voices of Orson Welles, ray. Langdon made his feature debut in this Robert Stack, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Idle, tale of a hobo who enters a cross-country Judd Nelson, Lionel Stander. Obnoxious walking race to raise money for his father and animated feature about the title good guys, impress the pretty daughter (Crawford) of a who defend the universe against an evil shoe manufacturer. Frank Capra was one of planet (which has a voice of its own . . . the writers of this cute comedy featuring provided by Orson Welles). Deafening rock some impressive stunt sequences.▼쩠 score doesn’t help. Little more than a feaTrancers (1985) C-76m. ★★★ D: Charles ture-length toy commercial. Reworked in live action in 2007. [PG]▼●쩠 Band. Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Art La Fleur, Biff Manard, Anne Seymour, Transformers (2007) C-143m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Herd, Richard Erdman. ComeMichael Bay. Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, dian Thomerson is cleverly cast as a lowJosh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Rachael budget version of Harrison Ford from Taylor, Anthony Anderson, Jon Voight, BLADE RUNNER, sent back in time 300 John Turturro, Michael O’Neill, Kevin years to 1985 L. A. to inhabit the body of Dunn, Julie White, Bernie Mac; voices of one of his ancestors and change history to Mark Ryan, Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, prevent a totalitarian state from coming Robert Foxworth. After buying a beat-up into power. Sci-fi satire is most amusing used car that turns into an Autobot, a nerdy and visually arresting. Also known as FUteen (LaBeouf) finds himself at the center of TURE COP (1985). Followed by a slew of an epic battle to save Earth from transsequels. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 forming alien robots—and manages to win Trancers II (1991) C-86m. ★★ D: Charles the hottest babe in school to boot. SlamBand. Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Megan bang actioner based on the popular series of Ward, Biff Manard, Richard Lynch, Martine toys is surprisingly well done for a summer Beswicke, Jeffrey Combs, Alyson Croft, blockbuster—by Michael Bay, no less— Telma Hopkins, Art La Fleur, Barbara with dazzling special effects, though by the Crampton. A cop from the future whose time the big climactic battle comes along mind wound up in our time in the first film we just don’t care anymore. Supposed 11thfinds that his job isn’t through as more zomgrader Fox looks more like a candidate for bie-like Trancers are on the loose. What’s the Pussycat Dolls. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 more, he has to contend with two wives, Transmutations SEE: Underworld (1985) one from the present, one from the future. Transporter, The (2002-French) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cory Yuen. Jason Statham, Shu Badly structured, but scrupulously faithful to a superior original. Too cheap for its amQi, Franc¸ois Berle´and, Matt Schulze, Ric bitions. [R]▼●쩠 Young. Serviceable action yarn with calm, Trancers III (1992) C-83m. ★★ D: C. Courcool Statham (in his starring debut) as a tney Joyner. Tim Thomerson, Melanie driver-for-hire who’ll take anything any[ 1444 ]

where, so long as it’s on his terms. When he Tediously unfunny horror-movie spoof that discovers that the ‘‘package’’ in his trunk is wastes a lot of talent. Shot in Yugoslavia, and a young Asian woman, he breaks his own should have stayed there. [PG]▼●쩠 code and frees her, involving himself in a Trap, The (1959) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norfierce underworld brouhaha. Some terrific man Panama. Richard Widmark, Lee J. chase scenes staged by Hong Kong veteran Cobb, Tina Louise, Earl Holliman, Carl Yuen (including a finale involving trucks) Benton Reid, Lorne Greene. Turgid drama highlight this no-brainer. Coproduced and set in Southwest desert town, with gangcowritten by Luc Besson. Followed by two sters on the lam intimidating the few townspeople.▼ sequels. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Transporter 2 (2005-French) C-87m. ★★ Trap, The (1966-British) C-106m. ★★★ D: Louis Leterrier. Jason Statham, AlessanD: Sidney Hayers. Rita Tushingham, Olidro Gassman, Amber Valletta, Kate Nauta, ver Reed, Rex Sevenoaks, Barbara Chilcott, Matthew Modine, Jason Flemyng, Keith Linda Goranson. Fur trapper Reed, having David, Hunter Clary, Franc¸ois Berle´and. missed annual wife auction after three winShiny sequel about a ‘‘chauffeur’’ who ters in the snow, settles for orphaned mute downshifts, improvises, and kickboxes his Rita. Vivid 1890s tale, well photographed by Robert Krasker. Panavision.▼ way through Miami to rescue a little kid whose abduction sparks a more sinister plot. Trapeze (1956) C-105m. ★★★ D: Carol Bullet-headed thriller often soars with its Reed. Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, Gina Audis and Uzis into the half-past ludicrous, Lollobrigida, Katy Jurado, Thomas Gomez, breaking speed limits and bones in spiffy Johnny Puleo. Moody love triangle with a action scenes by Hong Kong vet Cory Yuen European circus background; aerialists Lan(who directed the first entry). But as the caster and Curtis vie in the air and on the bad guy dutifully reminds us, ‘‘Wit is not a ground for Gina’s attention. Nice aerial stuntrequirement of the job.’’ Coproduced and work by various big top professionals. Cinemacowritten by Luc Besson. Followed by a Scope. ▼● sequel. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Trapped (2002) C-105m. ★★ D: Luis ManTransporter 3 (2008-French) C-104m. ★★ doki. Charlize Theron, Courtney Love, StuD: Olivier Megaton. Jason Statham, Natalya art Townsend, Kevin Bacon, Pruitt Taylor Rudakova, Franc¸ois Berle´and, Robert KnepVince, Dakota Fanning, Colleen Camp. A per, Jeroen Krabbe´, Alex Kobold, David perfect couple and their asthmatic daughter Atrakchi, Yann Sundberg. Gassed up on are terrorized by sleazy kidnappers: Theron adrenaline, and with a bracelet bomb for is held by Bacon at home while Townsend cruise control, dapper driver Frank Martin is locked in his convention hotel room by delivers another package . . . this time, the Love. Unconvincing thriller confuses maabducted daughter of a beleaguered pronipulation with drama. [R] ▼쩠 environment Ukrainian statesman. Slickly Trapped Ashes (2006-U.S.-Japaneselubed slot car race across Europe offers Canadian) C-104m. ★★ D: Sean S. Cunningbreath-holding stunt work beyond the imham, Joe Dante, John Gaeta, Monte Hellpossible, once again staged by Cory Yuen, man, Ken Russell. Jayce Bartok, Amelia but this underplotted slugfest is running on Cooke, Lara Harris, Scott Lowell, Luke fumes. Cowritten by producer Luc Besson. MacFarlane, Miche`le-Barbara Pelletier, TahSuper 35. [PG-13]쩠 moh Penikett, Rachel Veltri, John Saxon, Transsiberian (2008-Spanish-British-GermanHenry Gibson, Dick Miller. A haunted house Lithuanian) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brad Anderset on a studio tour mysteriously ensnares a son. Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Ben motley group of visitors, who tell tales of Kingsley, Kate Mara, Eduardo Noriega, personal terror to pass the time until they’re Thomas Kretschmann. Mortimer (typically released. Old-school horror anthology of solid) and husband Harrelson have comfour bookended vignettes is an affectionate pleted a humanitarian mission in China (if highly grisly) homage to EC Comics and when they board the Trans-Siberian Express Amicus Studios, but its time has passed. for the long train journey to Moscow. Creepiest sight is helmer Russell in ghastly Among the backpackers and shady characdrag. [R]쩠 ters they befriend a bohemian couple (NoTrapped in Paradise (1994) C-112m. ★★ riega, Mara) who lead them astray in more D: George Gallo. Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz, ways than one. Stark landscapes and brutal Dana Carvey, John Ashton, Ma¨dchen surprises await. Uneven action-melodrama Amick, Donald Moffat, Richard Jenkins, has its moments and gets a boost from Florence Stanley, Angela Paton, Vic Manni, Kingsley’s colorful performance as a RusFrank Pesce, Sean McCann, Richard B. sian cop. Super 35. [R]쩠 Shull. Two larcenous siblings just sprung Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) C-94m. from jail trick their ambivalent brother into BOMB D: Rudy DeLuca. Jeff Goldblum, joining them on a trip to the small town of Joseph Bologna, Ed Begley, Jr., Carol Kane, Paradise, Pennsylvania, where there’s a Jeffrey Jones, John Byner, Geena Davis, Mibank just waiting to be robbed. Trouble is, chael Richards, Norman Fell, Teresa Ganzel. the townspeople are so darned nice it seems [ 1445 ]

wrong to take advantage of them . . . especially at Christmastime. Promising idea is flattened out by vaguely drawn characters and a lack of energy. Panavision. [PG-13]

shady scheme. Deliberately paced film never really gets going, leaves viewer in midair like final tossed coin. Anthony Powell earned an Oscar for his costumes. Panavision. [PG]▼● ▼●쩠 ★★1 Trauma (1993-U.S.-Italian) C-86m. ⁄2 T. R. Baskin (1971) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: D: Dario Argento. Christopher Rydell, Asia Herbert Ross. Candice Bergen, Peter Boyle, Argento, Laura Johnson, James Russo, Brad James Caan, Marcia Rodd, Erin O’Reilly, Dourif, Frederic Forrest, Piper Laurie. Howard Platt. Beautiful young small-town Corny theatrics and campy bloodletting efgirl tries to make it in Chicago, finds fectively blend in this shocker about a trauproblems in the big city. Wildly uneven matized teen (Asia Argento, the director’s comedy-drama has a few nice scenes, daughter) and a hooded killer who is sawing good acting by Caan in small role. Written off the heads of his victims. Not a typical and produced by Peter Hyams. [PG] Argento gorefest, but the filmmaker’s fans Treasure Island (1934) 105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: shouldn’t be disappointed. Unrated video Victor Fleming. Wallace Beery, Jackie version runs 106m. Technovision. [R] Cooper, Lewis Stone, Lionel Barrymore, Otto Kruger, Nigel Bruce, Douglass Dumb▼●쩠 Traveling Executioner, The (1970) C-95m. rille. Stirring adaptation of Robert Louis ★1 Stevenson pirate yarn of 18th-century En⁄2 D: Jack Smight. Stacy Keach, Marianna Hill, Bud Cort, Graham Jarvis, James J. gland and journey to isle of hidden bounty; Sloyan. Story of a man’s love for an electric Beery is a boisterous Long John Silver in chair (spiritual) and love for a woman prisfine film with top production values. Only oner (sexual) may or may not be intended flaw is a stiff Cooper as Jim Hawkins. Also for laughs; either way, film is dull and the shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 usually fine Keach gives hammy perforTreasure Island (1950) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: mance. Panavision. [R] Byron Haskin. Bobby Driscoll, Robert Traveller (1997) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack N. Newton, Basil Sydney, Walter Fitzgerald, Green. Bill Paxton, Mark Wahlberg, JuliDenis O’Dea, Ralph Truman, Finlay Currie. anna Margulies, James Gammon, Luke Vivid Disney version of Robert Louis SteAskew, Nikki Deloach, Danielle Wiener, venson’s classic, filmed in England, with Michael Shaner, Jo Ann Pflug. Laid-back Driscoll a fine Jim Hawkins and Newton look at a band of Irish-American gypsy con the definitive Long John Silver. Changes artists known as ‘‘travellers.’’ Paxton takes the novel’s original ending, but who’s quibon the son of an ousted ‘‘family’’ member bling? ▼●쩠 as his prote´ge´, teaching him various petty Treasure Island (1972-British) C-94m. ★★ scams, and finds himself falling for one of D: John Hough. Orson Welles, Kim his marks, bartender Margulies. Amiable Burfield, Walter Slezak, Lionel Stander. and well acted, though it doesn’t really add Weak retelling of classic tale finds very up to much. Paxton also coproduced. Dihammy Welles (who also coscripted) in recting debut for Clint Eastwood’s longtime the role of Long John Silver. [G]▼ cinematographer Green. [R]▼●쩠 Treasure of Jamaica Reef, The (1974) Travelling North (1987-Australian) CC-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Virginia Stone. Stephen 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carl Schultz. Leo McKern, Boyd, Chuck Woolery, Roosevelt Grier, Julia Blake, Henri Szeps, Graham Kennedy, David Ladd, Cheryl Stoppelmoor (Ladd). Michele Fawdon, Diane Craig. Irascible reA search for gold buried deep in the tiree falls in love with a divorcee, and they Caribbean. Of interest only for the presence move to an idyllic retirement home in North of Stoppelmoor/Ladd pre-Charlie’s Angels. Queensland, Australia . . . but their life toOriginally titled EVIL IN THE DEEP. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼쩠 gether is clouded almost immediately when he learns he has a serious heart condition. Treasure of Matecumbe (1976) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vincent McEveety. Robert FoxFine performances highlight this simple, straightforward adaptation of David Wilworth, Joan Hackett, Peter Ustinov, Vic liamson’s play—which, ultimately, may be Morrow, Jane Wyatt, Johnny Doran, Billy a bit too simple and straightforward. [PG‘‘Pop’’ Attmore. Two boys with treasure 13]▼ map are aided in their quest by Foxworth, Travels With Anita SEE: Lovers and Hackett, and Ustinov . . . and pursued by Liars bad-guy Morrow. Ustinov adds life to DisTravels With My Aunt (1972) C-109m. ney film, but the ‘‘quest’’ seems endless. ★★1 Filmed in the Florida Keys. [G]▼쩠 ⁄2 D: George Cukor. Maggie Smith, Alec McCowen, Lou Gossett, Robert SteTreasure of San Gennaro, The (1966phens, Cindy Williams. Stylish adaptaItalian-German-French) C-102m. ★★ D: Dino tion of Graham Greene book about straitRisi. Nino Manfredi, Senta Berger, Harry laced McCowen being swept into crazy Guardino, Claudine Auger, Toto`, Mario world of his aunt (Smith) who takes him Adorf. American Guardino and girlfriend all over Europe on what turns out to be Berger plan to rob the treasure of Naples’ [ 1446 ]

patron saint, San Gennaro, in typical caper film occasionally redeemed by good comic bits. Poorly dubbed. Filmed in Panoramica. Treasure of the Amazon, The (1985Mexican) C-104m. ★★ D: Rene Cardona, Jr. Stuart Whitman, Emilio Fernandez, Donald Pleasence, Bradford Dillman, Ann Sidney, John Ireland, Sonia Infante. Silly adventure film has Whitman leading South American expedition to recover treasure trove of diamonds. Mucho violence. ▼쩠 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 124m. ★★★★ D: John Huston. Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, Tim Holt, Bruce Bennett, Barton MacLane, Alfonso Bedoya. Excellent adaptation of B. Traven’s tale of gold, greed, and human nature at its worst, with Bogart, Huston, and Holt as unlikely trio of prospectors. John Huston won Oscars for Best Direction and Screenplay, and his father Walter won as Best Supporting Actor. That’s John as an American tourist near the beginning, and young Robert Blake selling lottery tickets. Also shown in computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Treasure Planet (2002) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Musker, Ron Clements. Voices of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray, David Hyde Pierce, Emma Thompson, Michael Wincott, Martin Short, Laurie Metcalf, Patrick McGoohan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Corey Burton. Entertaining, if uninspired (and somewhat cluttered) Disney cartoon version of Treasure Island in a futuristic, sci-fi setting. Jim Hawkins finds the map that leads to a distant planet where pirates hid a king’s ransom, but soon learns that many people are after that treasure, including his shipmate John Silver. It’s fun listening to Pierce, as an adventure-starved astrophysicist, Thompson, as a very British ship captain, and Short, as a screw-loose robot. [PG]▼쩠 Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A (1945) 128m. ★★★★ D: Elia Kazan. Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Ann Garner, Ted Donaldson, James Gleason, Ruth Nelson, John Alexander. Splendid, sensitive film from Betty Smith’s novel about a bright young girl trying to rise above the hardships of her tenement life in turn of the century Brooklyn, New York. Perfect in every detail. Dunn won an Oscar as the father, an incurable pipe dreamer; Garner received a special Academy Award for her performance. Screenplay by Tess Slesinger and Frank Davis. An impressive Hollywood directorial debut by Kazan. Remade for TV in 1974 with Cliff Robertson and Diane Baker.

just before the turn of the century. Simple, quietly beautiful epic; a work of art.▼●쩠 Trees Lounge (1996) C-94m. ★★★ D: Steve Buscemi. Steve Buscemi, Mark Boone Junior, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Michael Buscemi, Anthony LaPaglia, Elizabeth Bracco, Danny Baldwin, Carol Kane, Bronson Dudley, Debi Mazar, Michael Imperioli, Samuel L. Jackson, Seymour Cassel, Mimi Rogers, Steve Randazzo, Rockets Redglare. Colorful, credible slice-of-life set in and around a neighborhood bar in Long Island, N.Y., where a perpetual screw-up (Buscemi) interacts with various family members and fellow barflies. Impressive writing and directing debut for character actor Buscemi, who has a good eye and ear and creates a rich gallery of characters. [R]▼●쩠 Trekkies (1999) C-87m. ★★★ D: Roger Nygard. Former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Denise Crosby conducts this slightly condescending documentary examining the Trek fan phenomenon. Many of the actors associated with Trek are interviewed, as well as many die-hard Trekkies of varying degrees of obsession. While some are clearly ’round the bend in their fixation on the show, most are shown to be very bright, and live happy, productive lives, even if pointed ears and Klingons figure prominently in them. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel in 2004. [PG]▼●쩠 Trembling Before G-d (2001-Israeli-U.S.) C-84m. ★★★ D: Sandi Simcha Dubowski. Illuminating documentary exploring the sometimes difficult lives of ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish gays and lesbians. Film focuses on a number of people who struggle with both their religious and sexual identity in this cloistered world. Interesting, somewhat controversial, and quite different look at an unfamiliar facet of the Jewish experience.▼쩠 Tremors (1990) C-96m. ★★★ D: Ron Underwood. Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire, Bobby Jacoby, Charlotte Stewart, Tony Genaros, Victor Wong. Sharp, funny, and fast-paced, this is an effective updating of 1950s monster-movie themes. Bacon and Ward, amiable handymen, lead a misfit group in a desert valley battling against giant wormlike predators that burrow through the sand. Cast is good, the music appropriate, and special effects outstanding. A small winner all around. Followed by several video sequels and a TV series. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Trenchcoat (1983) C-91m. ★★ D: Michael ▼● Tuchner. Margot Kidder, Robert Hays, Tree of Hands SEE: Innocent Victim Daniel Faraldo, Gila von Weitershausen, Tree of Wooden Clogs, The (1978-Italian) David Suchet, Ronald Lacey. Another atC-185m. ★★★★ D: Ermanno Olmi. Luigi tempt by the Disney studio to change imOrnaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brigage finds amateur mystery writer Kidder noli, Antonio Ferrari. A year in the life of on vacation in Malta, suddenly involved in a community of peasants in Northern Italy, real murder and international intrigue with [ 1447 ]

undercover agent Hays. Forced mysterypears briefly as a director. Similar premise later utilized in THE JUROR. [R] ▼●쩠 comedy is reminiscent of the company’s juvenile outings of the ’50s and ’60s, but Trial of Billy Jack, The (1974) C-175m. has no Shaggy Dog to redeem it. [PG]▼ BOMB D: Frank Laughlin. Tom Laughlin, Trespass (1992) C-101m. ★★★ D: Walter Delores Taylor, Victor Izay, Teresa LaughHill. Bill Paxton, Ice T, William Sadler, lin, William Wellman, Jr., Sacheen LittleIce Cube, Art Evans, De’Voreaux White, feather. Further adventures of Mr. PeaceBruce A. Young, Glenn Plummer, Stoney through-Violence prove that Laughlin is Jackson, John Toles-Bey. Two white firemen the only actor intense enough to risk a get wind that ancient treasure is buried in a hernia from reading lines. Laughable until slummy building, little knowing that the strucfinal, nauseating massacre scene that ture they’ve invaded is headquarters for a renders film’s constant yammering about band of very tough drug pushers. Fast, furious, ‘‘peace’’ ludicrous. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 culturally disreputable entertainment filmed in Trials of Oscar Wilde, The (1960-British) potent cat-and-mouse style by director Hill— C-130m. ★★★ D: Ken Hughes. Peter Finch, his most entertaining movie in years. ExecuYvonne Mitchell, John Fraser, Lionel tive produced and written by Bob Gale and Jeffries, Nigel Patrick, James Mason. FasRobert Zemeckis. [R]▼●쩠 cinating, well-acted chronicle of Oscar Trial (1955) 105m. ★★★ D: Mark Robson. Wilde’s libel suit against the Marquis of Glenn Ford, Dorothy McGuire, John HoQueensberry and the tragic turn his life diak, Arthur Kennedy, Katy Jurado, Ratakes because of it. Finch is superb as the fael Campos. Intelligent filming of Don once brilliant wit; stylish widescreen phoMankiewicz novel, scripted by the author. tography by Ted Moore. Released at the Courtroomer involves Mexican boy accused same time as OSCAR WILDE with Robert of murder, but actually tied in with proMorley. Super Technirama 70.▼ vs. anti-Communist politics. Tribute (1980-Canadian) C-121m. ★★ D: Trial, The (1962-French-Italian-German) Bob Clark. Jack Lemmon, Robby Benson, 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Orson Welles. Anthony Lee Remick, Colleen Dewhurst, John Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Marley, Kim Cattrall, Gale Garnett. MawkElsa Martinelli, Orson Welles, Akim Tamish adaptation of Bernard Slade’s play about iroff. Gripping, if a bit confusing, adaptaa life-of-the-party type who’s dying of cancer tion of Kafka novel of man in nameless and wants to work out a relationship with his country arrested for crime that is never exestranged son. Badly directed, with sledgeplained to him. Not for all tastes.▼●쩠 hammer approach to sentiment. Worked much Trial and Error (1962-British) SEE: Dock better on stage (where Lemmon created the role). Scripted by Slade. [PG]▼● Brief, The Trial and Error (1997) C-98m. ★★★ D: Tribute to a Bad Man (1956) C-95m. ★★★ Jonathan Lynn. Michael Richards, Jeff DanD: Robert Wise. James Cagney, Don Dubiels, Charlize Theron, Rip Torn, Alexandra bins, Stephen McNally, Irene Papas, Vic Wentworth, Austin Pendleton, Lawrence Morrow, Royal Dano, Lee Van Cleef. Pressman, Max Casella. When button-down Cagney is the whole show in this Western lawyer Daniels can’t appear in court (beabout a resourceful, ruthless land baron cause of a bachelor party hangover), his best using any means possible to retain his vast possessions. CinemaScope.▼ friend, wannabe actor Richards, tries to help by taking his place . . . but when the case is Trick (1999) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jim Fall. ordered to proceed, Richards has to keep up Christian Campbell, John Paul Pitoc, Tori the ruse. Smart, funny farce with terrific Spelling, Steve Hayes, Clinton Leupp, Brad performances by the two leads and laughBeyer, Lorri Bagley. Shy, aspiring Broadout-loud situations; Theron is adorable as way composer meets the go-go boy of his the young woman who catches Daniels’ dreams one night but can’t find any place eye—even though he’s about to marry the for them to be alone together in all of Manboss’ daughter. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 hattan. Lightweight gay comedy-romance Trial by Combat SEE: Dirty Knight’s Work set in N.Y.C.’s West Village is sweet but Trial by Jury (1994) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Heyshort on plot. Campbell (brother of Neve) is wood Gould. Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Aran appealing, boyish lead. [R]▼쩠 mand Assante, Gabriel Byrne, William Trick Baby (1973) C-89m. ★★ D: Larry Hurt, Kathleen Quinlan, Margaret Whitton, Yust. Kiel Martin, Mel Stewart, Dallas Ed Lauter, Richard Portnow, Lisa Arrindell Edwards Hayes, Beverly Ballard. Con-man Anderson, Jack Gwaltney, Graham Jarvis, who passes for white uses trickery to cash William R. Moses, Stuart Whitman. Juror in on society. Usual black exploitation Whalley is terrorized by defendant in a murfilm. Retitled DOUBLE CON. [R]▼쩠 der case; meanwhile, D.A. Byrne tries to Trick or Treat (1986) C-97m. ★★ D: size up the jurors who’ll be deciding the Charles Martin Smith. Marc Price, Tony fate of this mobster. Improbable but still Fields, Lisa Orgolini, Doug Savant, Gene watchable, with an unusual part for Hurt as Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne. Hey kids, rock a strong-arm man. David Cronenberg ap’n’ roll really is the Devil’s music! Fan of [ 1448 ]

recently killed rocker conjures the dead Auger. Adequate WW2 spy yarn features star by playing his unreleased last album Plummer as real-life British safecracker backward—but finds his hero is evil and Eddie Chapman, who works both sides of the fence. A bit too long.▼● bent on the world’s destruction. Clever and well made, but story becomes terribly Triple Echo (1973-British) C-90m. ★★★ trite. Debuting director Smith has a cameo D: Michael Apted. Glenda Jackson, Oliver Reed, Brian Deacon, Jenny Lee Wright. as a high school teacher. [R]▼쩠 Trick or Treats (1982) C-91m. BOMB High-powered talent in sensitive story of D: Gary Graver. Jackelyn Giroux, David transvestite in English countryside during Carradine, Carrie Snodgress, Steve RailsWW2. Young Deacon, an army deserter, back, Peter Jason, Paul Bartel. Giroux is too is persuaded by lonely farm woman Jackold to be convincing as a terrorized babyson to pose as her sister, then tough tank sitter in this cheap horror spoof. Orson Sergeant Reed becomes involved. Retitled SOLDIER IN SKIRTS. [R]▼ Welles is credited as consultant; Graver is better known as the cameraman Welles reTriplets of Belleville, The (2003-CanadianBelgian-French) C-80m. ★★★ D: Sylvain lied upon in his later film projects. [R]▼ Trigger Effect, The (1996) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 Chomet. Voices of Jean-Claude Donda, MiD: David Koepp. Kyle MacLachlan, Elisachel Robin, Monica Viegas, Miche`le Cauchebeth Shue, Dermot Mulroney, Richard T. teux. A bicycle racer falls into the clutches of Jones, Bill Smitrovich, Michael Rooker. the French Mafia; it’s up to his grandmotherMaddeningly uneven apocalyptic thriller trainer and three strange old women (once a about married suburbanites and their plight famed singing trio in the 1930s) to rescue in the wake of a gigantic, never-ending him. This eccentric, strikingly designed, alblackout. Intended as an examination of most dialogue-free hand-drawn animated feacontemporary insensitivity and alienation, ture is a triumph for Chomet and succeeds as and how society might unravel in the wake an homage to Jacques Tati, Buster Keaton, of such a catastrophe, but falls apart after a and Max Fleischer (whose cartoons are solid start. The finale is especially incongruevoked in the prologue, which features the ous. Feature directorial debut for screensong ‘‘Belleville Rendez-vous’’). Droll rather writer Koepp. [R]▼●쩠 than funny, and often bizarre, with a disapTrigger Happy SEE: Mad Dog Time pointing finale . . . but any film that offers Trinity Is STILL My Name! (1972-Italian) caricatures of Django Reinhardt and JoseC-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: E. B. Clucher (Enzo phine Baker has us rooting for it. [PG-13]▼쩠 Barboni). Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Harry Tripper, The (2007) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Carey, Jr., Jessica Dublin, Yanti Somer. Arquette. David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Sequel to THEY CALL ME TRINITY is Jaime King, Thomas Jane, Jason Mewes, Baleven funnier, as Trinity and Bambino mothazar Getty, Paul Reubens, Lukas Haas, Marsey their way through a clutch of archetypal sha Thomason, Richmond Arquette. A group Western situations with their usual aplomb; of modern-day, drug-addled hippies at a scene in a chic French restaurant is a hoot. Woodstock-like music festival are stalked by Later cut to 101m.; original Italian running a serial killer wearing a Ronald Reagan mask time 124m. Aka ALL THE WAY, TRINand his man-eating dogs (the meanest is ITY. Techniscope. [G]▼●쩠 named Nancy). Labor of love from first-time Trinity Rides Again SEE: Boot Hill director and cowriter Arquette (who distribTrinity: Tracking For Trouble SEE: uted it himself) looks and feels more like a Knock Out Cop, The grindhouse film than GRINDHOUSE, and ★★★ Trio (1950-British) 88m. D: Ken makes up for its meandering, redundant plot Annakin, Harold French. James Hayter, with enough gore, nudity, bizarre acid-trip seKathleen Harrison, Anne Crawford, Nigel quences, and political commentary to give Patrick, Jean Simmons, Michael Rennie. fans of the genre a good time. [R]쩠 Following the success of QUARTET, three Trippin’ (1999) C-92m. ★★ D: David Raynr more diverting Somerset Maugham stories, (Hubbard). Deon Richmond, Maia Campbell, ‘‘The Verger,’’ ‘‘Mr. Know-all,’’ and ‘‘SanDonald (Adeosun) Faison, Guy Torry, Countatorium.’’ All beautifully acted.▼ ess Vaughn, Michael Warren. Goofy teen Trip, The (1967) C-85m. ★★ D: Roger comedy about a Walter Mitty–esque high Corman. Peter Fonda, Susan Strasberg, school senior who could win his dream girl if Bruce Dern, Dennis Hopper, Salli Sachse, he started taking the future seriously. Likable Dick Miller, Luana Anders, Michael Nader, cast can’t compensate for cliche´d material and Peter Bogdanovich. TV commercial direcgratuitous t&a quotient. Features a pointless cameo by Naomi Campbell. [R]▼쩠 tor Fonda takes his first LSD trip. Definitely a relic of its era, with a screenplay Trip to Bountiful, The (1985) C-106m. ★★★ D: Peter Masterson. Geraldine Page, by Jack Nicholson.▼●쩠 Triple Cross (1966-French-British) CJohn Heard, Carlin Glynn, Richard Bradford, ★★ 126m. Rebecca De Mornay, Kevin Cooney. LeiD: Terence Young. Christopher Plummer, Yul Brynner, Romy Schneider, surely, richly textured filmization of Horton Trevor Howard, Gert Frobe, Claudine Foote’s 1953 television play (later done on [ 1449 ]

Broadway) about a widow, living unhappily flighty sister all fall in love with her! Sorvino is with her son and daughter-in-law, determined delightful in this rendition of the 1732 play by to make her way home to Bountiful, Texas, Pierre Marivaux, but like most stage farces it for one last look. Page won well-deserved doesn’t really work onscreen. Peploe coOscar for her heartbreaking performance, but scripted with husband Bernardo Bertolucci and Marilyn Goldin. [PG-13]▼쩠 entire cast is excellent. Fine filmmaking debut Triumph of the Spirit (1989) C-121m. for stage director Masterson. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ D: Robert M. Young. Willem Dafoe, Tristana (1970-French-Spanish) C-98m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. Catherine Deneuve, Edward James Olmos, Robert Loggia, Fernando Rey, Franco Nero, Jesus FerWendy Gazelle, Kelly Wolf, Costas Mannandez, Lola Gaos, Vincent Solder. Dendylor, Kario Salem. Hard-hitting, hearteuve plays a young woman who goes to live breaking, based-on-fact account of Salamo with her guardian Rey after her mother dies. Arouch (Dafoe), Greek-Jewish boxer who He falls in love with her but faces competiis deported with his family to Auschwitz tion from Nero. One of Bun˜uel’s most serene, during WW2. Sometimes too grim, but serious yet perverse studies of Catholicism, it’s a story that needs to be told and reold age, death, desire, and deformity. Beautimembered. Filmed on location. [R]▼●쩠 fully filmed in Toledo, Spain. Released in Triumph of the Will (1935-German) 110m. ★★★★ D: Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl’s Europe at 105m. [PG]▼● Tristan and Isolde (1979) SEE: Lovespell infamous documentary on Hitler’s 1934 NurTristan + Isolde (2006) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 D: emberg rallies is rightly regarded as the greatKevin Reynolds. James Franco, Sophia est propaganda film of all time. Fascinating Myles, Rufus Sewell, David Patrick O’Hara, and (of course) frightening to see.▼쩠 Henry Cavill, JB Blanc, Jamie King, Richard Triumphs of a Man Called Horse (1983Dillane. Ireland and England—they just can’t U.S.-Mexican) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: John Hough. get along. England’s Lord Marke (Sewell, risRichard Harris, Michael Beck, Ana De ing above the material) is betrayed by adopSade, Vaughn Armstrong, Anne Seymour, tive son Tristan (Franco), who sneaks off for Buck Taylor. Limp sequel to THE REillicit trysts with his onetime Irish rescuer and TURN OF A MAN CALLED HORSE Marke-betrothed Isolde (Myles); these two with Beck, as Harris’ half-breed son, youngsters just can’t stop themselves. The attempting to shelter Sioux from greedy kind of movie Hollywood could do in its sleep white settlers. Fans of the two earlier during the Golden Age now benefits, at least HORSES will be disappointed. [PG]▼ moderately, from novelty value. Franco Trixie (2000) C-116m. ★1⁄2 D: Alan Rubroods too much, but Myles has regal bearing. dolph. Emily Watson, Dermot Mulroney, Respectable without being exceptional in Nick Nolte, Nathan Lane, Brittany Murany way. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 phy, Lesley Ann Warren, Will Patton, SteTristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story phen Lang. A dimwitted young woman (2006-British) C-91m. ★★★ D: Michael given to malapropisms takes a job doing Winterbottom. Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, undercover security at a lakeside resort, Jeremy Northam, Raymond Waring, Dylan where she uncovers a shady development Moran, Keeley Hawes, Kelly Macdonald, deal involving a local bigwig (Patton) and Shirley Henderson, Stephen Fry, Naomie a bombastic senator (Nolte). Seriocomic Harris, Ian Hart, Roger Allam, Gillian Anfilm noir is stylized to the point where derson, Benedict Wong, Greg Wise, Ronni it bears no relation to any recognizable reality. In other words, a fizzle. [R]▼쩠 Ancona. Laurence Sterne’s ribald, unconventional 18th-century novel The Life and Trog (1970-British) C-91m. BOMB D: Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is Freddie Francis. Joan Crawford, Michael the springboard for this very funny deconGough, Kim Braden, David Griffin, John struction of a movie in production, dealing Hamill. Missing Link discovered by anthrowith everything from actors’ egos to location pologist Crawford naturally gets loose and liaisons. Coogan and Brydon’s straight-faced does its thing. Do yours—don’t watch it. rivalry bookends the film, right through the Sadly, Crawford’s last film. [PG]▼●쩠 closing credits. Score makes wonderful use Trojan Eddie (1996-British-Irish) Cof classical and contemporary source music, 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gillies Mackinnon. Richard especially Nino Rota’s theme from Fellini’s Harris, Stephen Rea, Brendan Gleeson, AMARCORD. HD 24P Widescreen. [R]쩠 Sean McGinley, Angeline Ball, Brid BrenTriumph of Love (2001-Italian-British) Cnan. Rea is a spieler who can sell anything 107m. ★★ D: Clare Peploe. Mira Sorvino, Ben to anyone but whose life has otherwise been Kingsley, Fiona Shaw, Jay Rodan, Ignazio in shambles; he finds himself caught in the Oliva, Rachael Stirling, Luis Molteni. A prinmiddle when the young wife of his thuggish cess in disguise insinuates herself into the boss (Harris) runs off with her lover (who is household of a philosopher who harbors treEddie’s assistant). Harris and Rea offer fine, mendous resentment toward her because her understated performances in this odd, intrifather had no right to the throne. In due course, guing mood piece.▼쩠 she makes the man, his handsome son, and his Trojan Horse, The (1962-Italian) C-105m. [ 1450 ]

★★1

⁄2 D: Giorgio Ferroni. Steve Reeves, Ellen Burstyn, David Bauer, Laurence John Drew Barrymore, Hedy Vessel, Juliette Ligneres, Phil Brown. Director Strick is Mayniel. Above-average production valgenerally more successful with Henry Miller ues and Barrymore’s presence in role of than he’s been with James Joyce, thanks to Ulysses inflates rating of otherwise stale Torn’s earthy portrayal of the loose-living version of Homer’s epic. Techniscope.▼쩠 expatriate author amidst a string of amoTrojan Women, The (1972-Greek-U.S.) rous adventures in ’20s Paris. Slapdash but C-105m. ★★ D: Michael Cacoyannis. invigorating; Burstyn makes a strong imKatharine Hepburn, Irene Papas, Genevieve pression in tiny role as Henry’s wife. [X]▼ Bujold, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Magee, Tropic Thunder (2008) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Blessed. Euripides’ tragedy about the Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert plight of the women of Troy after its army is Downey, Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan, Jay defeated gets a surprisingly flat (albeit faithBaruchel, Danny McBride, Brandon T. ful) rendering here, although any film which Jackson, Bill Hader, Brandon Soo Hoo, brings together four such great actresses can’t Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise. Holbe totally dismissed. [PG]▼쩠 lywood movie troupe heads to Vietnam to Troll (1986) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: John Buechler. make a wartime action yarn but nothing Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, Noah goes quite right. How could it with star and Hathaway, Jenny Beck, Sonny Bono, June director egos running rampant and a violent Lockhart, Anne Lockhart, Brad Hall, Julia drug cartel operating in their midst? ScatterLouis-Dreyfus. If your idea of entertainshot comedy opens with four mock trailers ment is seeing Sonny Bono metamorphose that are funnier than the movie itself. Black into an apartment of foliage, this is the is wasted here but Downey shines in an movie for you. Angelic tyke is possessed outrageous turn as a white Aussie actor by a troll, who takes over her body and who’s playing a black man—and never starts turning the neighbors into seed goes out of character. Cruise, in heavy pods that eventually turn into new trolls. makeup, plays a loathsome Jewish studio Too close to GREMLINS; some viewers exec, which is good for a few laughs but may get off on hearing June Lockhart (like so much else here) goes on too long. swear. Sequel: TROLL II. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Cowritten by Stiller. Tobey Maguire and Troll in Central Park, A (1994) C-76m. Kevin Pollak appear unbilled. Unrated ver★★ sion runs 121m. Super 35. [R]쩠 D: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman. Voices of Dom DeLuise, Cloris Leachman, Phillip Tropic Zone (1953) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Lewis Glasser, Tawney Sunshine Glover, Hayley R. Foster. Ronald Reagan, Rhonda FlemMills, Jonathan Pryce, Charles Nelson Reilly. ing, Estelita, Noah Beery (Jr.). Blah actioner Good-hearted troll falls from favor in Troll set in South America with Reagan fighting Land and is banished to . . . N.Y.C.! There his the good cause to save a banana plantation green thumb helps beautify Central Park and from outlaws. the lives of those around him, including two Trouble Along the Way (1953) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Curtiz. John Wayne, Donna neglected kids. Amiable and good-looking cartoon feature will appeal mainly to the small Reed, Charles Coburn, Sherry Jackson, fry. DeLuise is fun in the title role. [G]▼●쩠 Marie Windsor, Tom Tully, Leif ErickTron (1982) C-96m. ★★ D: Steven Lisson, Chuck Connors. Unusually sentimenberger. Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, tal Wayne vehicle casts him as divorced David Warner, Cindy Morgan, Barnard man trying to maintain custody of his Hughes, Dan Shor. A computer whiz is daughter (Jackson); he earns back selfsucked inside a powerful computer, where he respect by coaching football team for small Catholic school.▼●쩠 must fight for his life in a giant video-game competition. State-of-the-art special effects Trouble at 16 SEE: Platinum High School are stunning, but the story runs out of steam Trouble Bound (1993) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: too soon, with only Bridges’ charisma to keep Jeffrey Reiner. Michael Madsen, Patricia it afloat. Disappointing Disney production. Arquette, Florence Stanley, Seymour CasSuper Panavision 70. [PG]▼●쩠 sel, Billy Bob Thornton. Ex-con Madsen Troop Beverly Hills (1989) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 and ‘‘college’’ girl Arquette are on the run D: Jeff Kanew. Shelley Long, Craig T. in this Mafia mess which features gamblers, Nelson, Betty Thomas, Mary Gross, Stephdrug dealers, hit people, strippers, and a anie Beacham, Audra Lindley, Edd Byrnes, corpse who talks. The two leads save this from being a total loss. [R]▼●쩠 Ami Foster, Jenny Lewis. Sometimesamusing comedy about a spoiled, wealthy Trouble Every Day (2001-French) C-89m. Beverly Hills housewife who leads her BOMB D: Claire Denis. Vincent Gallo, daughter’s Girl Scout troop on unique outTricia Vessey, Beatrice Dalle, Alex Descas, ings on which everyone learns about selfFlorence Loiret, Nicolas Duvauchelle. So esteem—and Gucci loafers. Predictable, bad it’s almost funny. Atrocious French but undemanding fun. [PG] ▼●쩠 concoction deals with experiments gone terTropic of Cancer (1970) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 ribly wrong that seem to be turning ‘‘norD: Joseph Strick. Rip Torn, James Callahan, mal’’ people into cannibals, who give new [ 1451 ]

meaning to the idea of eating after sex. One hurricane through her attempts to help othof those woebegone cinematic mistakes that ers. Pointing out that even a year later not make you wonder, ‘‘What were they thinkmuch had been done to improve the lives of ing?’’ Tindersticks’ score and title song are the storm’s poorest victims, this film makes so good they belong in another movie. salient points about human spirit and sur1 ★★ Trouble in Mind (1985) C-111m. vival in the wake of complete governmental ⁄2 D: Alan Rudolph. Kris Kristofferson, Keith meltdown.쩠 Carradine, Lori Singer, Genevieve Bujold, Trouble With Angels, The (1966) C-112m. ★★1 Joe Morton, Divine, George Kirby, John ⁄2 D: Ida Lupino. Rosalind Russell, Considine. Highly stylized, highly indiHayley Mills, June Harding, Binnie Barnes, vidualistic melodrama set in the near future, Mary Wickes, Gypsy Rose Lee, Camilla with Kristofferson as idealistic ex-cop, fresh Sparv. Cutesy study of Pennsylvania confrom a stretch in jail, who gets involved vent school, with students Mills and Harwith some young innocents who’ve just ding driving mother superior Russell to come to the big city. Odd, unusual, with distraction. Episodic, occasionally touch1940s film noir feeling but so determinedly ing comedy. Sequel: WHERE ANGELS vague and unreal that it also comes off GO . . . TROUBLE FOLLOWS.▼●쩠 rather cold. Still, it’s an eyeful, and recTrouble With Girls (and How to Get Into ommended for fans of the offbeat and It), The (1969) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Rudolph in particular. Title song sung by Tewksbury. Elvis Presley, Marlyn Mason, Marianne Faithful. [R]▼● Nicole Jaffe, Sheree North, Edward AnTrouble in Paradise (1932) 83m. ★★★★ drews, John Carradine. Vincent Price, Joyce D: Ernst Lubitsch. Miriam Hopkins, Kay Van Patten, Dabney Coleman, John RubinFrancis, Herbert Marshall, Charlie Ruggles, stein, Duke Snider. One of the better PresEdward Everett Horton, C. Aubrey Smith, ley vehicles has Elvis as manager of a Robert Grieg, Leonid Kinskey. Sparkling Chautauqua company (medicine show) in Lubitsch confection about two thieves the 1920s; nice feeling for the period. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 (Marshall and Hopkins) who fall in love, but find their relationship threatened when Trouble With Harry, The (1955) C-99m. ★★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Edmund Gwenn, he turns on the charm to their newest (female) victim. This film is a working definiJohn Forsythe, Shirley MacLaine, Mildred tion of the term ‘‘sophisticated comedy.’’ Natwick, Mildred Dunnock, Jerry Mathers, Script by Samson Raphaelson and Grover Royal Dano. Offbeat, often hilarious black Jones.●쩠 comedy courtesy Mr. Hitchcock and scripter Trouble in the Glen (1954-British) C-91m. John Michael Hayes about bothersome corpse ★★ causing all sorts of problems for peaceful D: Herbert Wilcox. Margaret Lockwood, Orson Welles, Forrest Tucker, Victor neighbors in New England community. McLaglen. Scottish-based drama of feud Gwenn is fine as usual, MacLaine appealing over closing of road that has been used for in her first film. Beautiful autumn locations, a long time. Average-to-poor script benewhimsical score (his first for Hitch) by Berfits from Welles.▼ nard Herrmann. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Troublemaker, The (1964) 80m. ★★ D: Trouble With Spies, The (1987) C-91m. Theodore Flicker. Tom Aldredge, Joan BOMB D: Burt Kennedy. Donald SutherDarling, Theodore Flicker, Buck Henry, land, Ned Beatty, Ruth Gordon, Lucy Godfrey Cambridge, Al Freeman, Jr. TerGutteridge, Michael Hordern, Robert Morribly dated, independently made comedy ley, Gregory Sierra. Awful spy comedy about a country bumpkin’s adventures in about incompetent British and Soviet secret N.Y.C.; interesting as an artifact of its agents. Good actors wasted; this one’s as time, made by the talented improvisational bad as they come. Filmed in 1984. [PG]▼ comedy troupe known as The Premise. Trout, The (1982-French) C-105m. ★★ D: Joseph Losey. Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Trouble Man (1972) C-99m. ★★ D: Ivan Dixon. Robert Hooks, Paul Winfield, Ralph Spiesser, Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Pierre CasWaite, William Smithers, Paula Kelly, Jusel, Daniel Olbrychski, Alexis Smith, Craig lius W. Harris. Hooks is superslick black Stevens. Elaborate but muddled account of troubleshooter caught in gang warfare. country girl Huppert and her encounters, Cliche´-ridden script includes about four sexual and otherwise, in the world of high hundred killings, glorifying underworld life. finance. Moreau is wasted as the wife of Well made but tasteless. [R]쩠 businessman Cassel; Smith and Stevens Trouble the Water (2008) C-96m. ★★★ D: appear in cameos. Original title: LA Carl Deal, Tia Lessin. Harrowing and resoTRUITE. Also released at 116m. [R]▼쩠 nant documentary about the human toll of Troy (2004-British-Maltese) C-162m. ★★★1⁄2 New Orleans’ disastrous Hurricane Katrina. D: Wolfgang Petersen. Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, With remarkable footage taken during the Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, storm by one survivor (an aspiring rapper Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Peter O’Toole, who was eventually relocated to the SuperRose Byrne, Saffron Burrows, Julie Christie. dome), the film tells the larger story of the When callow Trojan prince Paris (Bloom) [ 1452 ]

steals the beautiful Helen from under the nose to right wrongs; the other goes into politics, of her husband, Menelaus, greedy King Agalooking for any angle that can get him ahead. memnon (a ferocious Cox) seizes the opportuNo surprises, thus little impact. Stubbs’ Britnity to declare war on Troy. Achilles (Pitt) is ish accent (in the role of senator Widmark’s his greatest asset, but the almost superhuman daughter) also gets in the way. Widmark’s final film. [R]▼●쩠 warrior follows his own agenda. Spectacular production offers battle scenes unlike any ever True Confessions (1981) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 staged before—both epic-scale and man-toD: Ulu Grosbard. Robert De Niro, Robert man—but it’s the well-defined characters Duvall, Charles Durning, Ed Flanders, Bur(and a gallery of strong performances) that gess Meredith, Rose Gregorio, Cyril Cusack, make this so compelling. Impressive adaptaKenneth McMillan, Dan Hedaya, Jeanette tion of Homer’s The Iliad by David Benioff. Nolan. Methodically slow, complex, and proDirector’s cut runs 192m. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 vocative film (adapted by John Gregory Truce, The (1997-Italian-French-Swiss-GerDunne and Joan Didion from Dunne’s novel) man-British) C-117m. ★★★ D: Francesco about the uneasy bond and surprising similariRosi. John Turturro, Massimo Ghini, Rade ties between two brothers, one a hardened Serbedzija, Stefano Dionisi, Teco Celio, police detective, the other a power-wielding Roberto Citran. Moving adaptation of Primo monsignor in the Catholic Church. A meaty Levi’s autobiography, which follows the aubut somehow unsatisfying film (based on a thor’s liberation from Auschwitz and his emotrue case previously filmed as a TVM, WHO tional reawakening as he struggles to get IS THE BLACK DAHLIA?) with two charhome to Turin, Italy. Episodic structure diacteristically fine performances by De Niro lutes some of the dramatic impact, but there and Duvall. [R]▼●쩠 are many powerful, affecting moments, and True Crime (1999) C-127m. ★★★ D: Clint Turturro is beautifully understated. An inEastwood. Clint Eastwood, Isaiah Washingteresting companion piece to the documenton, Denis Leary, Lisa Gay Hamilton, tary THE LONG WAY HOME. [R]▼쩠 James Woods, Bernard Hill, Diane Venora, Truck Stop Women (1974) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 Michael McKean, Michael Jeter, Mary D: Mark Lester. Lieux Dressler, Claudia McCormack, Hattie Winston, Francesca Jennings, Dennis Fimple, Jennifer Burton. Fisher-Eastwood, Sydney Poitier, Frances Sloppy but good-natured exploitation fare Fisher, Christine Ebersole, Anthony Zerbe, about women who run truck stop as front William Windom, Lucy Alexis Liu. Formufor prostitution and truck hijacking activilaic but gripping story about a burnt-out reties. Business is so good the Mob tries to porter who becomes convinced that a man move in. Jennings is a standout in this due to die at San Quentin that night is innoraucous sleaze romp. Techniscope. [R]▼ cent. Bouncing back and forth between the Truck Turner (1974) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonstory of the reporter—who’s looking for reathan Kaplan. Isaac Hayes, Yaphet Kotto, demption—and the stoic prisoner doesn’t alAlan Weeks, Annazette Chase, Sam Laws, ways work, but the suspense is undeniable. Nichelle Nichols. Extremely violent black Woods is dynamite as Eastwood’s sharpexploiter, with Hayes only distinguishing tongued editor. Eastwood’s wife, Dina Ruiz, feature as a skip-tracer (a detective who hunts ex-companion (Fisher), and young daughter bail jumpers). His original score is familiar. all appear. [R]▼●쩠 [R]▼쩠 True Grit (1969) C-128m. ★★★ D: Henry True Believer (1989) C-103m. ★★★ D: JoHathaway. John Wayne, Glen Campbell, seph Ruben. James Woods, Robert Downey, Kim Darby, Jeremy Slate, Robert Duvall, Jr., Yuji Okumoto, Margaret Colin, Kurtwood Strother Martin, Dennis Hopper, Jeff Corey. Smith, Tom Bower, Charles Hallahan. Woods Film version of Charles Portis’s wonderful gives his usual dynamic performance as a novel about an over-the-hill marshal who once-idealistic lawyer, a radical hero of the helps 14-year-old track down her father’s ’60s who’s lost his scruples—until his herokiller. Not as good as the book, but Wayne’s worshipping clerk (Downey) goads him into Oscar-winning performance and rousing taking the near-hopeless case of an Asianlast half hour make it fine screen enterAmerican who was apparently railroaded into tainment. Sequel: ROOSTER COGBURN. prison eight years before. Contrived, but enFollowed by a TV movie in 1978 with Wartertaining all the way. Followed by a TV seren Oates and Lisa Pelikan. [G—edited from original M rating]▼●쩠 ries, Eddie Dodd. [R]▼●쩠 True Colors (1991) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: True Identity (1991) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Herbert Ross. John Cusack, James Spader, Charles Lane. Lenny Henry, Frank LanImogen Stubbs, Mandy Patinkin, Richard gella, Charles Lane, Andreas Katsulas, Widmark, Dina Merrill, Philip Bosco, Paul Michael McKean, James Earl Jones, MelGuilfoyle. Well-acted but thoroughly obvin Van Peebles. Aspiring black actor recvious story of friendship, ethics, and beognizes a supposedly dead mob boss on an trayal, following two law-school roommates airplane and disguises himself as an Italianwho take different paths in life: one goes to American hit man in order to save his skin. work for the Justice Department, determined Familiar premise with a somewhat unfa[ 1453 ]

miliar variation. Serves as a passable show(JESSE JAMES) understandably lacks its case for Brit wit Henry and his great gift of star power, but there are enough offbeat mimicry. [R]▼● Ray touches to keep things interesting True Lies (1994) C-141m. ★★★ D: James (along with some stock footage from the Cameron. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie original). Screenplay by Walter Newman. CinemaScope.쩠 Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere, Art Malik, Charlton Heston, Eliza Truly Madly Deeply (1991-British) CDushku, Grant Heslov, Jane Morris. In107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Minghella. Juliet your-face entertainment from the SchwarzeStevenson, Alan Rickman, Bill Paterson, negger/Cameron team, with Arnold as a spy Michael Maloney, Christopher Rozycki, in a super-secret, high-tech government Keith Bartlett, David Ryall, Stella Maris. agency whose wife thinks he’s just a nerdy Young woman, unable to get over the computer salesman. With humor and action death of her musician lover, gets the shock in equal doses, this film makes all the right of her life when he turns up in her moves—until it gets bogged down in plot apartment—a ghost, to be sure, but seem(and a general putdown of women) midway ingly alive. Minghella conceived this as a through. A slam-bang action finale brings it vehicle for Stevenson, and that it is (though back on-course, as credibility is gleefully it also serves as a showcase for Rickman, in tossed aside. Cameron also scripted, based an uncharacteristic low-key role); charmon a French film, LA TOTALE. Super 35. ingly quirky at times, but unable to sustain [R] ▼●쩠 its offbeat premise to the very end.▼●쩠 True Love (1989) C-104m. ★★★ D: Nancy Truman Show, The (1998) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 Savoca. Annabella Sciorra, Ron Eldard, D: Peter Weir. Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Aida Turturro, Roger Rignack, Star Jasper, Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Michael J. Wolfe, Kelly Cinnante. RefreshHolland Taylor, Brian Delate, Paul Giamatti, ing, low-budget slice-of-life sleeper about an Harry Shearer. Truman Burbank lives a seemItalian wedding in the Bronx. There’s tons of ingly ideal existence in a tranquil seaside comatmosphere, and the script (by Savoca and munity. What he doesn’t know is that his life her husband, Richard Guay) is never conis a giant 24-hour-a-day TV show, orchesdescending. Fine performances with Sciorra trated by electronic mastermind/artist Harris in and Eldard perfectly cast as no-nonsense a completely controlled environment. Satire bride and immature groom. [R] ▼●쩠 of our voyeuristic, consumer-driven society True Romance (1993) C-118m. ★★1⁄2 D: scores some points and offers Carrey a change Tony Scott. Christian Slater, Patricia Arof pace, but after the premise is established quette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Brad it doesn’t know where to go. Perhaps that’s Pitt, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, because it’s a short-story idea, not a feature Bronson Pinchot, Michael Rapaport, Saul film; The Twilight Zone used to do this kind Rubinek, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore, Samof thing—better—in half-hour segments. uel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini. A ’90s [PG] ▼●쩠 twist on the young-lovers-on-the-lam genre, Trumps SEE: Enormous Changes at the with hedonism, highly stylized (but potent) Last Minute violence, and colorful supporting characters Trunk to Cairo (1966-Israeli) C-80m. ★1 the main ingredients. Oldman, as a drug ⁄2 D: Menahem Golan. Audie Murphy, dealer in dreadlocks, is the standout in a George Sanders, Marianne Koch, Hans first-rate cast. Hopper plays the most ‘‘norVon Bosodi, Joseph Yadin. Murphy, in rare mal’’ person in the movie! Written by Quennon-Western role, plays still another secret tin Tarantino. Also available in unrated agent in Cairo to investigate Sanders’ attempt 120m. version. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 to build a rocket bound for the moon. True Stories (1986) C-89m. ★★ D: DaTrust (1991) C-105m. ★★★ D: Hal Hartley. vid Byrne. David Byrne, John Goodman, Adrienne Shelly, Martin Donovan, Merritt Swoosie Kurtz, Annie McEnroe, Spalding Nelson, John McKay, Edie Falco, Marko Gray, Alix Elias, Pops Staples. Smarmy, Hunt. A pregnant high-school senior is pseudo-hip tour of modern-day Texas by dumped by a football star who fears for his Talking Heads’ Byrne; is there anything easier pending college scholarship. When her dad to satirize than eccentric Lone Star crazies? drops dead at the news, she finds a dubiPhotography, likable Goodman performance, ous savior: a bookish fellow who can’t and a couple of numbers make this worth a even clean a bathroom to his own dad’s look if you’re curious; mostly, though, it’s satisfaction. Drollness on-screen can somedepressing. Playwright Beth Henley had a times be had cheaply, but a perfect cast is part in the screenplay. [PG]▼●쩠 tougher to bankroll; this original has both, True Story of Jesse James, The (1957) enough to defuse the smugness that seems C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nicholas Ray. Robert to linger in its soul. [R]▼● Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Hope Lange, Agnes Trust Me (1989) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bobby Moorehead, Alan Hale (Jr.), John CarradHouston. Adam Ant, David Packer, Talia ine, Alan Baxter, Frank Gorshin. Remake Balsam, William DeAcutis, Joyce Van Patof 1939 Tyrone Power/Henry Fonda classic ten, Barbara Bain. Some scattershot laughs [ 1454 ]

cannot sustain this satire of the art scene. 106m. ★★ D: Kiefer Sutherland. Vincent Ant plays a gallery owner who will do all Gallo, Mykelti Williamson, Kiefer Sutherhe can to see artist Packer dead—so the land, Kevin Pollak, Kim Dickens, Grace Philvalue of his work will increase. Bright lips, Max Perlich, Rod Steiger, Martin Sheen. idea, uneven result. [R]▼ A robbery goes awry, resulting in murder, and ★★ Trust the Man (2006) C-103m. D: Bart the four criminals take two ordinary people Freundlich. David Duchovny, Julianne captive to evade Utah police. Well acted, but Moore, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal, there’s nothing at all new here, and it’s preEva Mendes, Ellen Barkin, Garry Shandtentious to boot. Sutherland’s feature debut as a director. [R] ▼●쩠 ling, James Le Gros, Dagmara Dominczyk, Jim Gaffigan. Being the misadventures of Truth or Dare (1991) C/B&W-118m. ★★★ two Manhattan couples having relationship D: Alek Keshishian. Madonna. Reproblems. The women (mostly) have their vealing backstage/performance film, very feet on the ground, while the men are utterly much in the mold of DONT LOOK BACK, infantile. Romantic comedy with echoes of examines the phenomenon we know as . . . vintage Woody Allen films (and a rosy view Madonna. Authorized account, iron-fist comof N.Y.C.) has occasional bright spots but missioned by its subject, is simultaneously mostly lurches from one episode to another. candid and manipulated, but the dynamics beUnsatisfying, to put it mildly. Bob Balaban tween Madonna and members of her family appears unbilled. [R]쩠 (and a couple of hilarious what-me-worry Truth About Cats & Dogs, The (1996) cameos by her then-squeeze Warren Beatty) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Lehmann. Uma are compelling. An important film even if you Thurman, Janeane Garofalo, Ben Chaplin, don’t care for Madonna; overlength makes the Jamie Foxx, James McCaffrey. Cute comfinal half-hour a mild ordeal. (The video offers edy about a guy who falls in love with a additional footage!) Video title: MADONNA TRUTH OR DARE. [R]▼●쩠 radio talk-show host (Garofalo) before he even meets her; she, on the other hand, is Trygon Factor, The (1967-British) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Cyril Frankel. Stewart Granger, self-conscious about her looks and has her knockout neighbor, a prototypical dumb Susan Hampshire, Robert Morley, Cathblonde (Thurman), take her place. Enjoyable leen Nesbitt, James Robertson Justice. romantic comedy with Cyrano overtones Impossible-to-follow Scotland Yard whostays afloat with three engaging performances dunit. Centers around bizarre old English (plus one terrific dog) but stretches credibility family and series of interesting murders. to the limit. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Try Seventeen SEE: All I Want Truth About Charlie, The (2002) CTsotsi (2005-South African-British) C-94m. ★★★1 104m. ★★ D: Jonathan Demme. Mark Wahl⁄2 D: Gavin Hood. Presley Chweneyagae, berg, Thandie Newton, Tim Robbins, Terry Pheto, Kenneth Nkosi, Mothusi Magano, Joong-Hoon Park, Ted Levine, Lisa Gay Zenzo Ngqobe, Zola, Rapulana Seiphemo, Hamilton, Christine Boisson, Stephen DilNambitha Mpumlwana. A young, steelylane, Simon Abkarian, Charles Aznavour, eyed, amoral hoodlum who lives in a JohanAnna Karina, Agne`s Varda, Magali Noe¨l. nesburg shantytown shoots a woman, steals Pallid remake of CHARADE, set again in her car, and then discovers her baby in the Paris, has Newton as the damsel in distress, backseat. How a hardened criminal gets in Wahlberg as her gallant new friend, and touch with his own humanity is the crux of Robbins as all-too-suspicious government this crowd-pleasing drama, adapted by Hood official. Instead of playing the story with from Athol Fugard’s novel. The characters conviction, the film distances us by calling speak an argot made up of many languages, attention to itself with dizzying camincluding English and Afrikaans, and the erawork, cacophonous music, and indulgent film is fueled by pulsating South African references to French New Wave cinema, music. Newcomer Chweneyagae is superb in including appearances by three of its leadthe leading role. Oscar winner as Best Foring lights (Aznavour, Karina, and Varda). eign Language Film. Super 35.쩠 Four writers are credited with complicating Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) C-111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Francis Ford Coppola. Peter Stone’s 1963 screenplay; one of them (Peter Joshua) is a pseudonym for Stone, Jeff Bridges, Joan Allen, Martin Landau, who earned the credit for supplying the Frederic Forrest, Mako, Dean Stockwell, original plot. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Elias Koteas, Nina Siemaszko, Christian Truth About Spring, The (1965-British) Slater, Corky Nemec, Marshall Bell, Don C-102m. ★★★ D: Richard Thorpe. Hayley Novello, Peter Donat, Dean Goodman, Patti Mills, John Mills, James MacArthur, LioAustin. Smart, sassy, stylish film about Presnel Jeffries, Harry Andrews, Niall Macton Tucker, who tried to build ‘‘the car of the Ginnis, David Tomlinson. Skipper Mills future’’ in the 1940s, only to be crushed by introduces daughter Hayley to first boythe Big Three automakers and their political friend, MacArthur, in enjoyable film geared cronies. Told with great flair by Coppola for young viewers. (who obviously felt a kinship with the inTruth or Consequences, N.M. (1997) Cdomitable, family-minded visionary), filled [ 1455 ]

with fine performances, especially Landau in Rex Bromfield, and Al Waxman—and the lack of directorial cohesion shows. [PG]▼ a poignant characterization as Tucker’s unTully (2002) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hilary Birlikely partner. Lloyd Bridges (Jeff’s dad) apmingham. Anson Mount, Julianne Nicholpears unbilled as an adversarial senator. son, Glenn Fitzgerald, Catherine Kellner, Lively score by Joe Jackson. Technovision. Bob Burrus, Natalie Canerday, John Diehl. [PG]▼●쩠 Low-budget indie based on Tom McNeal’s Tuck Everlasting (1980) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 short story ‘‘What Happened to Tully,’’ this D: Frederick King Keller. Margaret Chamoverly talky movie manages to avoid meloberlain, Paul Flessa, Fred A. Keller, James drama, for the most part, with a touching McGuire, Sonia Raimi, Bruce D’Auria. story of how a woman’s death affects her Lovely, sweet, entertaining fable about famrancher husband and their two sons. Fine ily, invulnerable to pain, aging, and death, performances, especially from Mount, who and the young girl who learns their secret. has real acting chops. [R]▼쩠 Perfect for children who prefer books to Tulsa (1949) C-90m. ★★★ D: Stuart Heisler. video games. Produced independently in upSusan Hayward, Robert Preston, Pedro state New York; based on Natalie Babbitt’s Armendariz, Lloyd Gough, Chill Wills, Ed award-winning novel. Remade in 2002. ▼ Begley, Jimmy Conlin. Bouncy drama of Tuck Everlasting (2002) C-90m. ★★★ D: Jay cattlewoman Hayward entering the wildcat Russell. Alexis Bledel, Sissy Spacek, William oil business to avenge the death of her faHurt, Jonathan Jackson, Scott Bairstow, Ben ther, losing her values along the way as she Kingsley, Amy Irving, Victor Garber; narrated becomes blinded by her success.▼쩠 by Elisabeth Shue. Genteel adaptation of NataTumbleweeds (1925) 81m. ★★★1⁄2 D: King lie Babbitt’s novel about a well-to-do teenage Baggot. William S. Hart, Barbara Bedford, girl, living a cloistered life in the early 20th cenLucien Littlefield, J. Gordon Russell, Richtury, whose world is opened up by a chance ard R. Neill. One of the screen’s most famous meeting with a boy and his backwoods family. Westerns, with Hart deciding to get in on They have discovered the secret for eternal life, the opening of the Cherokee Strip in 1889, but what seems to be a blessing is in fact a kind particularly if pretty Bedford is willing to of curse. Entertaining for young people, but marry him and settle there. Land rush lacks the dramatic punch that might have made scene is one of the great spectacles in siit an even better movie. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 lent films. Above running time does not ★1 Tuff Turf (1985) C-112m. ⁄2 D: Fritz include a poignant eight-minute introducKiersch. James Spader, Kim Richards, Paul tion Hart made to accompany 1939 reissue Mones, Matt Clark, Claudette Nevins, Robert of his classic. ▼●쩠 Downey (Jr.), Olivia Barash, Jack Mack & the Tumbleweeds (1999) C-102m. ★★★ D: Gavin Heart Attack. Old-fashioned, unrealistic trouO’Connor. Janet McTeer, Kimberly J. Brown, bled-teen melodrama with overtones of WEST Jay O. Sanders, Lois Smith, Laurel Holloman, SIDE STORY, set in a fantasy version of the Michael J. Pollard, Noah Emmerich, Gavin San Fernando Valley. Pre-SEX, LIES AND O’Connor. Exceptional performances eleVIDEOTAPE Spader, as preppie newcomer, vate this somewhat familiar tale of a traileris mannered, but Richards is good. [R]▼●쩠 trash Southern belle with a penchant for hook★★1 ⁄2 D: Tugboat Annie (1933) 87m. ing up with crummy men, dragging her young Mervyn LeRoy. Marie Dressler, Wallace daughter along as she moves from town to Beery, Robert Young, Maureen O’Sullivan, town. McTeer is terrific in the lead, matched Willard Robertson, Frankie Darro. Marie by Brown as the girl, with cowriter-director is skipper of the tugboat Narcissus, Beery O’Connor first rate as a truck driver who her ne’er-do-well husband in this ramcomes into their lives. [PG-13]▼쩠 bling, episodic comedy drama; inimitable Tune, The (1992) C-72m. ★★★ D: Bill stars far outclass their wobbly material. Plympton. Offbeat, original cartoon feaFollowed by TUGBOAT ANNIE SAILS ture from award-winning short-subject anAGAIN (1940), and a 1950s TV series. 쩠 imator Plympton follows the trials and Tugboat Annie Sails Again (1940) 77m. ★★ tribulations of a songwriter searching for D: Lewis Seiler. Marjorie Rambeau, Alan that elusive hit. Maureen McElheron’s Hale, Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan, Clarence clever songs provide the tone for a series Kolb, Charles Halton. Airy comedy with of imaginative vignettes. Unconventional predictable plot about Annie’s job in jeopardy. in every way (including its colored-pencil Rambeau takes up where Marie Dressler visuals, executed almost singlehandedly left off; Reagan saves the day for her. by Plympton) but a quiet treat, especially Tulips (1981-Canadian) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: for animation buffs.▼쩠 Stan Ferris. Gabe Kaplan, Bernadette PeTune In Tomorrow . . . (1990) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon Amiel. Barbara Hershey, Keanu ters, Henry Gibson, Al Waxman, David Boxer. Weak romance, with Kaplan and Reeves, Peter Falk, Bill McCutcheon, PaPeters each attempting to commit suicide, tricia Clarkson, Richard Portnow, Jerome then meeting and falling in love. ‘‘Stan Dempsey, Richard B. Shull. Oddball movie Ferris’’ is a pseudonym for Mark Warren, set in 1951 New Orleans. Reeves plays an [ 1456 ]

impressionable young man who falls in others will. Followed by a direct-to-video sequel. [PG] ▼●쩠 love with his sexy aunt (Hershey), while Turbulence (1997) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robfalling under the spell of Falk, a wildly ert Butler. Ray Liotta, Lauren Holly, Breneccentric writer for a radio soap opera who dan Gleeson, Ben Cross, Rachel Ticotin, draws on real life in ways his young prote´ge´ Jeffrey DeMunn, John Finn, Catherine cannot conceive of. Funny, funky, original; Hicks, Hector Elizondo. As a 747 roars not always on target, but there are inspired through a rising storm, stewardess Holly moments. Falk is a howl. Familiar faces apfaces serial killer Liotta—alone. Though pear in amusing cameos. Music by Wynton undeniably silly (a slasher movie on a Marsalis, who also appears on camera. Based plane?), this often delivers the goods on Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel Aunt Julia and through sheer brassiness, and Liotta has a the Scriptwriter. [PG-13]▼●쩠 high old time as the nutzoid killer. Followed Tunes of Glory (1960-British) C-106m. ★★★★ by two direct-to-video sequels. Super 35. D: Ronald Neame. Alec Guinness, [R] ▼●쩠 John Mills, Susannah York, Kay Walsh, Turistas (2006) C-94m. ★★ D: John StockDennis Price, John Fraser, Duncan Macrae, well. Josh Duhamel, Melissa George, Olivia Gordon Jackson, Allan Cuthbertson. EnWilde, Desmond Askew, Beau Garrett, grossing clash of wills in peacetime Scottish Max Brown, Agles Steib, Miguel Lunardi. Highland regiment as popular, easygoing A group of backpacking, bikini-wearing, Lt. Col. (Guinness) is replaced by stiffbeer-swilling young tourists are marooned necked martinet (Mills). Outstanding perin a remote Brazilian jungle village, where formances by both men, each in a role they soon find organ donations are not a more naturally suited to the other! Impresvoluntary practice. Low-budget horror item sive bagpipe-driven score by Malcolm Arpresents its main villain as a sort of modernnold. Scripted by James Kennaway, from day Robin Hood who takes from the rich his novel. York’s film debut. ▼●쩠 and gives to the poor, medically speaking. Tunnel of Love, The (1958) 98m. ★★★ D: Largely exploitative film does have its moGene Kelly. Doris Day, Richard Widmark, ments, just not too many of them. Unrated Gig Young, Gia Scala. Bright comedy of version runs 102m. Super 35. [R]쩠 married couple Widmark and Day endurTurkey Shoot SEE: Escape 2000 ing endless red tape to adopt a child. Good Turk 182! (1985) C-98m. ★★ D: Bob cast spices adaptation of Joseph Fields– Clark. Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich, Kim Peter de Vries play. CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 Cattrall, Robert Culp, Darren McGavin, Tunnelvision (1976) C-67m. ★★ D: Neal Steven Keats, James Tolkan, Peter Boyle, Israel, Brad Swirnoff. Phil Proctor, HowPaul Sorvino, Dick O’Neill. Contrived atard Hesseman, Ernie Anderson, Edwina tempt at Capra-esque comedy. Young Anderson, James Bacon, Gerrit Graham, Brooklynite turns into super-graffiti artist Betty Thomas, Chevy Chase, Roger Boto protest N.Y.C.’s lack of support for his wen, Al Franken, Tom Davis, William brother, an injured fireman. Hutton’s broodSchallert, Laraine Newman, Ron Silver. ing persona doesn’t suit this comic setting. Crude, uneven parody of what TV proPanavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 gramming will be like in the future. Of Turner & Hooch (1989) C-97m. ★★ D: interest only for appearances by now faRoger Spottiswoode. Tom Hanks, Mare mous performers. [R]▼쩠 Winningham, Craig T. Nelson, Reginald Tupac: Resurrection (2003) C-111m. ★★★ VelJohnson, Scott Paulin, J.C. Quinn, John D: Lauren Lazin. You don’t have to be a McIntire, Beasley. Detective Hanks’ only devotee of rap music to be intrigued by this means of catching some murderers is by introspective documentary about Tupac extracting their identity from the sole Shakur, the gangsta rapper who was murmurder witness: a dog named Hooch. dered in 1996. Tupac himself narrates (his Hanks (who plays a neatness freak) and words are culled from interviews) and the Hooch (a lovably ugly dog who makes a result is a multidimensional portrait of the mess of everything) squeeze all the humor world of rap and how one complex, controthey can out of a paper-thin script—but versial personality is victimized by fame. even they can’t make up for a bummer of Afeni Shakur, Tupac’s mother, is one of the an ending. [PG] ▼●쩠 executive producers. [R]▼쩠 Turning, The (1992) C-91m. ★★ D: L. A. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997Puopolo. Karen Allen, Raymond J. Barry, U.S.-Japanese) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: David WinMichael Dolan, Tess Harper, Gillian Anning. Jason David Frank, Steve Cardenas, derson. A disturbed young man arrives in Catherine Sutherland, Johnny Yong Bosch, his small Virginia hometown and tries to Nakia Burrise, Hilary Shepard Turner, prevent his parents’ divorce, which leads Blake Foster. The Mighty Morphin Power instead to violence. Meant to show how Rangers are back in this cheesy feature, and loveless homes can irrevocably scar childoing battle against the evil Divatox. Kids dren, but leaden paced and boring. [R]▼쩠 may like the gadgets and gimmicks, but few Turning Point, The (1952) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1457 ]

William Dieterle. William Holden, Alexis drama about a tough cookie who ekes out a Smith, Edmond O’Brien, Ed Begley, Tom living hustling pool games for money, with Tully, Don Porter, Ted de Corsia, Neville some help from an old friend (Torn) who Brand, Carolyn Jones. Tough script by runs a billiard parlor. She also has a secret Warren Duff sparks this gritty if familiar relationship with the son she gave up in drama. O’Brien is a crime-buster investiinfancy, who lives with his father and stepgating big-city corruption; Holden, his boymother, and schemes to find a way they can hood friend, is a cynical reporter. Scenario run off together. Interesting characterizawas inspired by the Kefauver Committee tions and a great part for Janssen mark this hearings into organized crime. small-scale indie; writing and directing Turning Point, The (1977) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 debut for actor Eigeman, who has a small role near the end of the film. [R]쩠 D: Herbert Ross. Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Leslie Turtle Beach (1992-Australian) C-85m. Browne, Tom Skerritt, Martha Scott, MarBOMB D: Stephen Wallace. Greta Scacchi, shall Thompson. Two friends who started Joan Chen, Jack Thompson, Art Malik, in ballet are reunited after many years; Norman Kaye, Victoria Longley, Martin Bancroft is now a star ballerina, MacLaine Jacobs. Photojournalist/mom Scacchi ankles a Midwestern housewife/dance teacher Australia for Malaysia to cover Chen and the whose daughter (Browne) is embarking on Vietnamese boat people, leaving herself open her own ballet career. Promising idea bogs to charges of parental neglect. Not so much down in cliche´s, with supposedly liberated edited as patched, and even drably shot by the treatment of women’s relationships exemgreat Russell Boyd. This unredeemed stinker plified by wild catfight. Those few dance was barely released in the U.S. [R] Turtle Diary (1985-British) C-97m. ★★★ sequences presented intact give film its only value. Written by Arthur Laurents; D: John Irvin. Glenda Jackson, Ben Kingsphotographed by Robert Surtees. Baryshley, Richard Johnson, Michael Gambon, nikov’s film debut. [PG]▼●쩠 Harriet Walter, Rosemary Leach, Eleanor Turning to Stone (1985-Canadian) C-98m. Bron, Nigel Hawthorne. Deliciously origi★★★ D: Eric Till. Nicky Guadagni, Shirley nal (if low-key) fable of two repressed peoDouglas, Anne Anglin, Jackie Richardple who are drawn together—and ultimately son, Bernard Behrens. Riveting psychofreed—by an unusual common interest: logical drama about Guadagni, a nice young they both become concerned about the fate girl who’s busted for smuggling drugs, and of captive giant turtles at the zoo. Witty, her adjustment to unhappy realities of life decidedly offbeat script by Harold Pinter behind bars. For once, a nonexploitation (who does a cameo as a bookstore customer), women’s prison drama. Fine performances based on Russell Hoban’s novel. Johnson, all around; expert script by Judith Thompson. who plays Jackson’s jovial next-door neighbor, also produced the film. [PG]▼● Turn It Up (2000) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert Adetuyi. Pras, Ja Rule, Vondie Curtis Hall, Tuvalu (2000-German) C-87m. ★★★ D: Tamala Jones, Jason Statham. An aspiring Veit Helmer. Denis Lavant, Chulpan Hamarapper is held back by his criminal best pal tova, Philippe Clay, Terrence Gillespie, Djoko and reunited with his estranged musician Rossich (Rosic). Gloriously odd, wildly whimfather. Contrived, gratuitously violent B sical creation, a virtually silent film with a movie manages to rip off both Jimmy Caghand-tinted look. This fairy tale takes place ney and blaxploitation. In his first leadingat a once-grand, now-crumbling bathhouse man role, Pras (of Fugees fame) has all the that stands in the middle of nowhere. The charisma of a shipping crate. Not even owner’s son (Lavant) struggles to keep the music cameos from DJ Scribble and Faith operation alive, for the sake of his blind faEvans raise the pulse of this cliche´d bloodther, even as developers threaten to destroy bath. Turn it off! Super 35. [R]▼쩠 it. A dreamlike movie filled with charm and Turn of the Screw, The (1992-Britishinvention, though it may be too bizarre for ★★ French) C-95m. some viewers. Filmed in Bulgaria. CinemaD: Rusty Lemorande. Patsy Kensit, Stephane Audran, Julian Scope. [R]▼쩠 Sands, Clare Szekores, Joseph England, Tuxedo, The (2002) C-98m. BOMB D: Marianne Faithfull. Sands hires governess Kevin Donovan. Jackie Chan, Jennifer Love Kensit to look after his deceptively sweetHewitt, Jason Isaacs, Debi Mazar, Ritchie looking niece and nephew, who reside in Coster, Romany Malco, Mia Cottet, Peter a country manor. Wooden adaptation (by Stormare, Colin Mochrie, James Brown. director Lemorande) of the Henry James Dreadful concoction casts Chan as a cabbiemasterpiece. Filmed far more successfully turned-chauffeur who must take the place of as THE INNOCENTS. ▼● his new boss, a dashing government spy; Turn the River (2008) C-92m. ★★★ D: when he dons the secret agent’s specially Chris Eigeman. Famke Janssen, Jaymie designed tuxedo, he acquires superhuman Dornan, Rip Torn, Matt Ross, Lois Smith, skills. Boneheaded movie replaces (or augMarin Hinkle, Terry Kinney, John Juback, ments) Chan’s dazzling martial arts skills Jordan Bridges, Ari Graynor. Intimate with special effects; what’s more, the [ 1458 ]

script’s t&a ‘‘humor’’ is a poor fit for the to reinvent himself doesn’t sit well with his ever-likable star. Hewitt is incredibly obparents. Uncomfortably raw at times (like noxious as Jackie’s new partner. Bob BalaCuesta’s earlier film, L.I.E.) but sharply obban appears unbilled. [PG-13] ▼쩠 served, with exceptional performances from TV Set, The (2007) C-88m. ★★★ D: Jake the three young leads. [R]쩠 Kasdan. David Duchovny, Sigourney Weaver, 12 Angry Men (1957) 95m. ★★★★ D: Ioan Gruffudd, Judy Greer, Fran Kranz, LindSidney Lumet. Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, say Sloane, Justine Bateman, Lucy Davis, Ed Begley, E. G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, M. C. Gainey, Philip Baker Hall, Andrea Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Martin, Willie Garson, Kathryn Joosten. DuGeorge Voskovec, Robert Webber, Edward chovny plays a TV writer-producer who has Binns, Joseph Sweeney. Brilliant film about created a personal, and well-regarded, script one man who tries to convince 11 other for a potential series. But casting and shooting jurors that their hasty guilty verdict for a that pilot while appeasing the ‘‘network boy on trial should be reconsidered. Formisuits’’ are no easy tasks if you want to hang dable cast (including several characteron to your soul. Amusing if low-key satire stars-to-be); Lumet’s impressive debut film. has the feel of being made by people who Script by Reginald Rose, from his television know this path all too well. Written by the play. Remade for TV in 1997 and as 12 in director. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 Russia in 2007. ▼●쩠 Twelfth Night (1996-British) C-134m. Twelve Chairs, The (1970) C-94m. ★★★ D: ★★1 ⁄2 D: Trevor Nunn. Imogen Stubbs, HelMel Brooks. Ron Moody, Frank Langella, ena Bonham Carter, Toby Stephens, Nigel Dom DeLuise, Mel Brooks, Bridget Brice, Hawthorne, Ben Kingsley, Richard E. Robert Bernal. Impoverished Russian noGrant, Mel Smith, Imelda Staunton, Nichobleman Moody seeks one of 12 dining las Farrell, Stephen Mackintosh. Shakechairs, now scattered, with jewels sewn speare’s farce gets transported here to the into seat. DeLuise hilarious as his chief 1890s, with Stubbs donning male disguise rival. Unsympathetic characters hamper in the court of a duke after she’s separated film’s success, though mastermind Brooks from her brother in a shipwreck. For a surstill provides many laughs. Filmed in Yuprising amount of its long running time, the goslavia; versions of this same story have film plays the story straight, only to loosen been made in Hollywood, Germany, Argentina, England, and Cuba! [G]▼●쩠 up some in the later scenes—particularly those involving Malvolio. Lackluster, but Twelve Monkeys (1995) C-131m. ★★1⁄2 D: easy to take. Stephens (who plays Orsino) is Terry Gilliam. Bruce Willis, Madeleine the son of actors Maggie Smith and Robert Stowe, Brad Pitt, Christopher Plummer, Stephens. [PG]▼●쩠 Frank Gorshin, David Morse, Jon Seda. In 12 (2007-Russian) C-154m. ★★★ D: Nikita the bleak world of the near-future, a prisMikhalkov. Sergey Makovetsky, Nikita oner is sent back in time to the 1990s to Mikhalkov, Sergey Garmash, Valentin Gaft, discover the source of a plague that killed Alexey Petrenko, Yuri Stoyanov, Sergey billions and forced society to move underGazarov, Mikhail Efremov, Alexey Gorbuground. Plays with present/past/future tense nov, Sergey Artsybashev, Victor Verzhbitsky, in ways both clever and confusing; the kind Roman Madianov, Alexander Adabashian, of movie that leaves you with plenty to talk Apti Magamaev. The fate of a Chechen youth about afterward. Inspired by Chris Marker’s on trial for murdering his adoptive father is 1962 short film, LA JETE´E. [R]▼●쩠 passionately debated by eleven jurors who Twelve O’Clock High (1949) 132m. ★★★★ want to convict him and the one holdout D: Henry King. Gregory Peck, Hugh Maramong the group. Mikhalkov’s expanded and lowe, Gary Merrill, Millard Mitchell, Dean updated adaptation of Reginald Rose’s Jagger, Paul Stewart. Taut WW2 story of screenplay for Sidney Lumet’s 1957 classic U.S. flyers in England, an officer replaced 12 ANGRY MEN is long and talky but sufor getting too involved with his men perbly acted. Absorbing both as drama and (Merrill) and his successor who has same as a metaphor for the breakup of post-Soviet problem (Peck). Jagger won Oscar in supRussian society. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 porting role; Peck has never been better. Twelve and Holding (2006) C-94m. ★★★ Written by Sy Bartlett and Beirne Lay, Jr., from their novel. Later a TV series.▼●쩠 D: Michael Cuesta. Conor Donovan, Jesse Camacho, Zoe Weizenbaum, Linus Roache, 12:08 East of Bucharest (2006-Romanian) C-89m. ★★★ D: Corneliu Porumboiu. MirAnnabella Sciorra, Jeremy Renner, Jayne Atkinson, Marcia Debonis, Tom McGowan, cea Andreescu, Teo Corban, Ion Sapdaru. Mark Linn-Baker, Tony Roberts, Michael Smart, funny, engaging comedy finds a history Fuchs. Searing and provocative look at the teacher, a senior citizen, and a TV commentapainful adolescence of three friends: a boy tor spending the bulk of a Christmastime local with a twin brother trying to deal with the broadcast debating whether a revolution acfallout of a family tragedy, a girl with a tually occurred in their small town 16 years distracted mother who wants to assert her earlier. With echoes of everyone from Billy sexuality, and an obese boy whose attempt Wilder to Milos Forman, this sharply effec[ 1459 ]

tive film deals with Romanian politics by emchecks into rehab after an alcohol-induced acphasizing the human factor. Impressive cident. She gradually conforms to the profeature debut for writer-director Porumboiu. 쩠 gram after the institution’s seen-it-all patients 12 + 1 SEE: Thirteen Chairs, The swing their hatchets at the chip on her shoul12 Rounds (2009) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Renny der. After a strong beginning, film takes a Harlin. John Cena, Aidan Gillen, Ashley Scott, quick nosedive by going for too many cheap Steve Harris,Brian White, Gonzalo Menendez. belly-laughs. Helping to a point are generally Utterly preposterous but enjoyably fast-paced strong performances, including Bullock’s best thriller finds World Wrestling Entertainment to date. [PG-13]▼쩠 star Cena cast as a hard-charging New Orleans 28 Days Later (2002-British-U.S.) C-112m. ★★★ cop forced into a series of beat-the-clock, lifeD: Danny Boyle. Cillian Murphy, Naoor-death challenges by a vengeful arms dealer mie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, (Gillen) who has kidnapped the cop’s sweetChristopher Eccleston, Noah Huntley. Truly heart (Scott). Director Harlin keeps pedal to frightening film that begins with an incident metal throughout, so that nothing—not even at a laboratory where animals are being used Cena’s obvious limitations as an actor—ever for medical research and leads to a deadly decelerates the high-velocity spectacle. Clever virus spreading like wildfire throughout Enuse of N.O. locations (many still bearing gland. Twenty-eight days later, it’s up to a marks of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina) is a plus. handful of still-healthy individuals to band Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 together—and avoid contact with their rabid Twentieth Century (1934) 91m. ★★★★ D: fellow humans before it’s too late. Grim, unHoward Hawks. John Barrymore, Carole comfortably believable, and scary as hell. Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Also released theatrically with alternate, more Etienne Girardot, Ralph Forbes, Charles downbeat, ending. Written by Alex Garland. Levison (Lane), Edgar Kennedy. Super Followed by 28 WEEKS LATER. [R]▼쩠 screwball comedy in which egomaniacal 28 Up (1985-British) C/B&W-133m. ★★★ Broadway producer Barrymore makes shopD: Michael Apted. Unique documentary in girl Lombard a star; when she leaves him, which Apted interviews a diverse group of he does everything he can to woo her back individuals at ages 7, 14, 21, and 28. A oneon lengthy train trip. Barrymore has never of-a-kind portrayal of dreams, aspirations, been funnier, and Connolly and Karns are and realities; fascinating to see the subjects aces as his long-suffering cronies. Matchliterally age before your eyes. Raise this less script by Ben Hecht and Charles rating to ★★★1⁄2 if viewed in separate installMacArthur, from their play; later a hit Broadments—the way it was originally made for way musical, On the Twentieth Century.▼쩠 TV. Followed by 35 UP.▼쩠 Twenty Bucks (1993) C-90m. ★★ D: Keva 28 Weeks Later (2007-British-U.S.) CRosenfeld. Linda Hunt, Brendan Fraser, 99m. ★★ D: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. RobElisabeth Shue, Steve Buscemi, Christopher ert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Lloyd, Spalding Gray, David Rasche, Harold Perrineau, Catherine McCormack, George Morfogen, Concetta Tomei, ShohMackintosh Muggleton, Imogen Poots, Idris reh Agdashloo, Gladys Knight, William H. Elba, Raymond Waring. Sequel to 28 DAYS Macy, Diane Baker, David Schwimmer, LATER takes place in London months after Jeremy Piven, Kevin Kilner, Matt Frewer, the virus outbreak, as the city is ready to be Nina Siemaszko, Kamal Holloway. Intrigurepopulated under the supervision of U.S.ing concept—a $20 bill passes from hand to led NATO forces. Carlyle is reunited with hand, and is briefly in the possession of a his children (Muggleton, Poots) but lies to diverse group of people—but the result is them about the fate of their mother, whom slight and forgettable. Based on an unsold he left for dead amid a horde of flesh-eating script written by Endre Boehm in 1935; this zombies. Visceral and more graphic than the updated version was scripted by his son Lesearlier film, this may satisfy bloodthirsty fans, but it grows tiresome, and its metaphoric relalie. Chloe Webb appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 1 ★★ 20 Dates (1999) C-88m. tionship to the Iraqi occupation is a one-note ⁄2 D: Myles Berkowitz. Wannabe filmmaker Berkowitz idea. Better than many sequels, it still suffers in comparison to the original. [R]쩠 concocts the idea of filming 20 dates—as the hook to make a movie and as a means of 25th Hour, The (1967-French-ItalianYugoslavian) C-119m. ★★ D: Henri Verneuil. finding love. Contemporary comedy, told in documentary style, is original and fun to Anthony Quinn, Virna Lisi, Michael Redwatch, with a resolution neither Berkowitz grave, Gregoire Aslan, Marcel Dalio, Serge nor the audience could have foreseen. [R]▼ Reggiani. Story of Rumanian peasant’s Nazi28 Days (2000) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Betty enforced 8-year separation from his beautiful Thomas. Sandra Bullock, Viggo Mortensen, wife is indifferently done, in spite of capable Dominic West, Diane Ladd, Elizabeth Peracting by stars. Franscope. kins, Steve Buscemi, Alan Tudyk, Azura Skye, 25th Hour (2002) C-134m. ★★1⁄2 D: Spike Michael O’Malley, Reni Santoni, Marianne Lee. Edward Norton, Philip Seymour HoffJean-Baptiste, Margo Martindale. Drunken man, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson, Anna N.Y. writer with an equally boozy boyfriend Paquin, Brian Cox, Tony Siragusa, Levani [ 1460 ]

Outchaneichvili, Tony Devon. A convicted Justin Brady, Jimmy Hynd, Karl Collins, JoManhattan drug dealer (Norton) confronts the hann Myers, Anthony Clarke. Poignant, hardchoices he has made in life on his last day hitting little drama about an idealistic 1980s before serving a 7-year prison sentence. Amburnout (Hoskins) who tries to encourage the bitious attempt to fuse intimate character studaimless, angry young men in his workingies with a larger examination of post-9/11 class town by setting up a boxing club. What N.Y.C. never quite succeeds, despite powerful might have been a standard, cliche´d story is moments and good acting, especially by Noruplifted by a solid script (by Meadows and ton and Pepper. David Benioff adapted his Paul Fraser), good performances, and plenty own novel. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 of grit. The first in Meadows’ so-called Mid2046 (2004-Hong Kong-Chinese) C-130m. lands trilogy. Followed by A ROOM FOR ★★★1 ROMEO BRASS and ONCE UPON A ⁄2 D: Wong Kar Wai. Tony Leung, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, Takuya Kimura, Faye TIME IN THE MIDLANDS. [R]▼● Wong, Maggie Cheung, Chen Chang. A 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) 82m. ★★★ writer is penning a science-fiction novel preD: Nathan Juran. William Hopper, Joan sumably titled 2046, which also happens to be Taylor, Frank Puglia, Thomas Browne Henry, the number of the hotel room next door to John Zaremba, Tito Vuolo, Bart Bradley him, where many events unfold in this dense, (Braverman). First spaceship to Venus crashes atmospheric film about sexual relationships. into the sea off Sicily, with two survivors: In the film/novel a mysterious train takes its pilot Hopper and a fast-growing Venusian passengers to the year 2046 (the year China monster that just wants to be left alone (but has set for the end of Hong Kong’s current fights back when frightened). Climax takes state of independence), but whether in the place in the Colosseum in Rome. Intelligent past, present, or future, the protagonist must script, fast pace, and exceptional special efdeal with love, loss, and regret. A sinuous, fects by Ray Harryhausen make this one of romantic, elliptical film that seems to exist in the best monster-on-the-loose movies ever. a dream state. Leung plays a darker version of Unnamed monster is known as ‘‘the Ymir’’ the character he introduced in IN THE to its fans. Also shown in a computer-colored MOOD FOR LOVE. Panavision. [R]쩠 version. ▼●쩠 24 Hour Party People (2002-British) CTwentynine Palms (2003-French-German) 113m. ★★★ D: Michael Winterbottom. Steve C-119m. BOMB D: Bruno Dumont. Katia Coogan, Lennie James, Shirley Henderson, (Yekaterina) Golubeva, David Wissak. Paddy Considine, Andy Serkis, Sean Harris, Smarmy, ultra-pretentious ‘‘road’’ picture John Simm, Chris Coghill. Smart, sharp, with dialogue that sounds like it was refunny, evocative film about the punk rock corded from a cell phone is a ZABRISKIE scene in Manchester, England, in the early (WITHOUT A) POINT for a new generation. 1970s, and one of its progenitors—who disPhotographer and his unemployed girlfriend, armingly tells his own story to us on camera ostensibly scouting locales for a photo shoot, (even commenting on the film itself). Enterdrive endlessly through the California desert, taining even if you don’t know much about frequently stopping for sexual favors on picthe subject. Coogan is dynamic in the leadturesque rocky slopes or in nondescript motel ing role. [R] ▼쩠 rooms until their idyllic interludes turn graphiTwenty-four Hours to Kill (1965-British) cally violent because . . . well, that’s art. TV C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Bezencenet. Mickey viewing could actually improve film as nothRooney, Lex Barker, Walter Slezak, Miing much happens for chunks of time, making chael Medwin, Helga Somerfeld, Wolfit ideal to watch while paying bills, sorting gang Lukschy. OK suspenser with Rooney laundry, talking to friends or writing your memoirs. Widescreen.▼쩠 marked for execution by Slezak’s smuggling ring when his plane is forced to land 29th Street (1991) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: George in Beirut for 24 hours. Techniscope.▼ Gallo. Danny Aiello, Anthony LaPaglia, Lai24 Hour Woman, The (1999) C-95m. ★★ D: nie Kazan, Frank Pesce, Donna Maghani, Nancy Savoca. Rosie Perez, Marianne JeanRick Aiello, Vic Manni, Ron Karabatsos, Baptiste, Patti LuPone, Karen Duffy, Diego Robert Forster, Pete Antico, Joe Franklin. Serrano, Wendell Pierce, Aida Turturro, RoRichly seasoned look at N.Y.C. Italiansana De Soto, Chris Cooper. Producer of a Americans through the eyes of Frank Pesce, morning TV show discovers she’s pregnant, who sees his life as blessed with luck, even and begins to deal with the conflicts facing a though it presents itself in strange ways; the career woman who’s also trying to start a story is told in flashback on the night of New family. Meanwhile, a mother of three returns York State’s first lottery drawing. Aiello and to the workforce as her new assistant. CrediLaPaglia are dynamite as father and son, and ble and energetic, but the ‘‘lesson’’ it teaches that’s the real Frank Pesce as older brother is obvious from the start. A disappointment Vito; he also cowrote the story, based on his from talented filmmaker Savoca. [R]▼ life. Directing debut for MIDNIGHT RUN screenwriter Gallo. [R]▼●쩠 TwentyFourSeven (1997-British) 96m. ★★★ D: Shane Meadows. Bob Hoskins, Danny Twenty-one (1991-British) C-101m. ★★ Nussbaum, James Hooton, Darren Campbell, D: Don Boyd. Patsy Kensit, Jack Shep[ 1461 ]

herd, Patrick Ryecart, Maynard Eziashi, Superb Disney fantasy-adventure on grand Rufus Sewell, Sophie Thompson. One Brit’s scale, from Jules Verne’s novel. 19thjog around the sexual track before reaching century scientist Lukas and sailor Douglas the age of . . . guess. Her array of beaus get involved with power-hungry Captain includes one junkie, and one married jerk who Nemo (Mason) who operates futuristic subopenly hustles her at his own wedding. Infemarine. Memorable action sequences, fine rior to DARLING and THE GRASSHOPcast make this a winner. Won Oscars for PER, of an earlier generation; Kensit’s firstArt Direction and Special Effects. First person monologues are unusually frank but filmed in 1916. Remade in 1997 as both a not as captivating as intended. [R]▼● miniseries and made-for-TV movie. Cinema21 (2008) C-122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Luketic. Scope. ▼●쩠 Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bos20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1933) 81m. ★★★ worth, Laurence Fishburne, Aaron Yoo, D: Michael Curtiz. Spencer Tracy, Liza Lapira, Jacob Pitts, Jack McGee, Josh Bette Davis, Arthur Byron, Lyle Talbot, WarGad. Working-class whiz kid (Sturgess) ren Hymer, Louis Calhern, Grant Mitchell, who’s wondering how he’s going to pay his Sheila Terry. Still-powerful prison drama has way through M.I.T. is recruited by professor only teaming of Tracy and Davis. He’s a hardSpacey to join his elite team: a small group ened criminal, she’s his girl. Based on Warden of supersmart students who’ve learned how Lewis E. Lawes’ book. Remade as CASTLE to count cards and beat the blackjack tables ON THE HUDSON. in Las Vegas. Entertaining wish-fulfillment 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) C-103m. yarn, taken from a true story, starts to de★★★ D: Henry Hathaway. Van Johnson, Vera flate toward the climax when—inevitably— Miles, Cecil Parker, Patricia Laffan, Maurice Sturgess goes riding for a fall. Based on Denham, Estelle Winwood. Absorbing susBen Mezrich’s book Bringing Down the penser filmed in London has blind playwright House. HD Widescreen. [PG-13]쩠 Johnson determined to thwart crime plans he ★★★ 21 Grams (2003) C-125m. D: Alejandro has overheard. CinemaScope. Gonza´lez In˜a´rritu. Sean Penn, Benicio Del Twice in a Lifetime (1985) C-111m. ★★★ Toro, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, D: Bud Yorkin. Gene Hackman, AnnMelissa Leo, Clea DuVall, Danny Huston, Margret, Ellen Burstyn, Amy Madigan, Paul Calderon. Three disparate people—an Ally Sheedy, Brian Dennehy, Stephen ex-con who has found religion, a woman Lang, Darrell Larson. Middle-aged man who has lost her family, and a professor falls in love with younger woman and given a second chance at life—are brought must endure the pain he causes not only together through unforeseen circumstances. his wife but also his children—especially Arresting drama told in fragmented, nonlinhis oldest daughter. Realistic look at the ear fashion (not surprising from the creators way different people react to situation keeps of AMORES PERROS, director In˜a´rritu this film away from cliche´ and predictabiland writer Guillermo Arriaga) that does not ity; superior acting, especially by Hackquite illuminate the heavy material as much man, Burstyn, and Madigan (as the angry as the filmmakers would like to think. Beaudaughter) make it special. Written by Cotifully acted by the three leads. [R] ▼쩠 lin Welland. [R]▼●쩠 Twenty Plus Two (1961) 102m. ★★ D: Twice-Told Tales (1963) C-119m. ★★★ Joseph M. Newman. David Janssen, Jeanne D: Sidney Salkow. Vincent Price, SebasCrain, Dina Merrill, Agnes Moorehead, tian Cabot, Mari Blanchard, Brett Halsey, Brad Dexter. Poor production values deRichard Denning. Episodic adaptation of tract from potential of yarn with private Hawthorne stories has good cast, imaginaeye Janssen investigating a murder, entive direction, and sufficient atmosphere to countering a neat assortment of people. keep one’s interest. One of the TALES is 27 Dresses (2008) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anne an abbreviated HOUSE OF THE SEVEN Fletcher. Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, GABLES, which also starred Price in the Malin Akerman, Edward Burns, Judy Greer, 1940 version.▼●쩠 Melora Hardin, Brian Kerwin. Having Twice Upon a Time (1983) C-75m. ★★★1⁄2 played the role of bridesmaid in far too D: John Korty, Charles Swenson. Voices of many weddings, Heigl finally decides to tell Lorenzo Music, Judith Kahan Kampmann, her boss (Burns) that she loves him. Just Marshall Efron, James Cranna, Julie Payne, then, he meets and falls in love with her Hamilton Camp, Paul Frees. Captivating, beautiful sister (Akerman) and Heigl is left hilarious animated feature done in a pseudo– to plan her dream wedding for her sibling. cut-out style called ‘‘Lumage.’’ Evil bosses Heigl and Marsden are fun to watch in this of the Murkworks intend to blanket the amiable (if conventional) film. Panavision. world with perpetual nightmares; only a [PG-13]쩠 looney (and indescribable) bunch of would20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) ★★★★ be heroes can stop them. Too complex and D: Richard Fleischer. Kirk C-127m. fast-paced for small children, but a real treat Douglas, James Mason, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, Robert J. Wilke, Carleton Young. for everyone else. Never given a full theat[ 1462 ]

rical release, despite having George Lucas with assistance of older expert Rains. Look for Linda Evans in a bit part. Panavision. as executive producer. [PG]▼● Twilight of the Golds (1997) C-93m. ★★★ Twice Upon a Yesterday (1998-SpanishD: Ross Marks. Jennifer Beals, Faye DunBritish) C-96m. ★★ D: Maria Ripoll. Douglas away, Brendan Fraser, Garry Marshall, Henshall, Lena Headey, Pene´lope Cruz, GusSean O’Bryan, Jon Tenney, Rosie O’Dontavo Salmeron, Eusebio Lazaro, Mark Strong, nell. Reality-based film focuses on the ensuCharlotte Coleman, Elizabeth McGovern. ing turmoil after a geneticist’s pregnant wife Scotsman Henshall torpedoes his longtime reundergoes genetic testing. Thought-provoking lationship with Headey through his constant drama, outstanding cast; Fraser is particularly philandering. Then two garbage men with captivating as gay Uncle David. Based on magical powers enable him to go back in an off-Broadway play. Debuted on cable time and make things right. Odd, underTV before theatrical release. [PG-13]▼●쩠 nourished little film doesn’t make the most Twilight People, The (1972-U.S.-Filipino) of its premise. [R]▼쩠 C-84m. BOMB D: Eddie Romero. John Twilight (1998) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Ashley, Pat Woodell, Charles Macaulay, Benton. Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, Pam Grier, Jan Merlin, Eddie Garcia. InGene Hackman, Reese Witherspoon, Stockcredibly inept rip-off of ISLAND OF LOST ard Channing, James Garner, Giancarlo SOULS has former SS doctor performing Esposito, Liev Schreiber, Margo Martinhideous experiments resulting in beings dale, John Spencer, M. Emmet Walsh. half-human, half-creature. Will put insomNewman does a favor for old friend Hackniacs to sleep. Aka BEASTS. [PG]▼쩠 man and finds himself waist-deep in murTwilight’s Last Gleaming (1977-U.S.-Gerder and intrigue, as skeletons tumble out man) C-146m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. of the closet. Old-fashioned private-eye Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Charles yarn, set in L.A. Newman is in fine form, Durning, Melvyn Douglas, Paul Winfield, surrounded by a great cast, but the film Burt Young, Joseph Cotten, Roscoe Lee lacks spark, momentum, and an original Browne, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Richard point of view. Benton cowrote this with Jaeckel, Vera Miles, Leif Erickson, Charles Richard Russo, but this is no match for McGraw, John Ratzenberger. Unstable Air their earlier collaboration (with Newman), Force officer seizes missile installation, NOBODY’S FOOL. [R]▼●쩠 threatens to start World War 3 unless U.S. ★★★ D: Catherine Twilight (2008) C-121m. comes clean on its former Vietnam policy. Hardwicke. Kristen Stewart, Robert PattinOK if overlong; based on Walter Wager’s son, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth novel Viper Three. [R]▼● Reaser, Cam Gigandet, Ashley Greene, Anna Twilight Time (1983-U.S.-Yugoslavian) Kendrick, Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner, KelC-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Goran Paskaljevic. Karl lan Lutz, Jackson Rathbone, Michael Welch, Malden, Jodi Thelen, Damien Nash, Mia Justin Chon, Jose Zuniga, Rachelle Lefevre, Roth, Pavle Vujisic, Dragon Maksimovic. Edi Gathegi. Adroit adaptation of the first Sincere but unsuccessful film about an old book in Stephenie Meyer’s wildly popular man saddled with the upbringing of two series of novels about Bella (Stewart), a grandchildren in rural Yugoslavia. Malden’s misfit teen who’s just moved to Forks, performance is first-rate, but uneasy blend Washington, to live with her divorced dad. of American and Yugoslav elements and There she falls under the spell of mysterious snail’s pace all but sink it. [PG] fellow student Edward Cullen (Pattinson), Twilight Zone—The Movie (1983) Cwho turns out to be a vampire. Blending the 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Landis, Steven Spielromantic with the supernatural, and taking berg, Joe Dante, George Miller. Vic Moritself seriously at every turn, this film row, Scatman Crothers, Bill Quinn, Selma touches all the bases—and neatly sets up its Diamond, Kathleen Quinlan, Jeremy Licht, sequel. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Kevin McCarthy, William Schallert, John Twilight for the Gods (1958) C-120m. Lithgow, Abbe Lane, Bill Mumy, John Lar★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Pevney. Rock Hudson, roquette, narrated by Burgess Meredith. Dan Cyd Charisse, Arthur Kennedy, Leif ErAykroyd and Albert Brooks provide enterickson, Charles McGraw, Ernest Truex, taining prologue for four unusual tales Richard Haydn, Wallace Ford. Ernest K. (three actual remakes from Rod Serling’s Gann book, adapted by the author, becomes classic TV series), but none of them proturgid soaper of people on run-down vessel vides all-important moment of revelation that heading for Mexico, their trials and tribumade the show so memorable . . . and more lations to survive when ship goes down. tellingly, none improves on the original. Twilight of Honor (1963) 115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Best—final segment, remake of ‘‘Nightmare Boris Sagal. Richard Chamberlain, Nick at 20,000 Feet,’’ with Lithgow as terrified Adams, Joan Blackman, Claude Rains, airline passenger, though even this episode Joey Heatherton, James Gregory, Pat Buttis more explicit (and therefore less intriram, Jeanette Nolan. Routine drama of guing) than ’60s TV version. [PG]▼●쩠 struggling lawyer who takes on murder case Twin Dragons (1992-Hong Kong) C-89m. [ 1463 ]

★★★

D: Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark. Jackie Chan, Graham as the mom-to-be in the opening scene. [PG] ▼●쩠 Maggie Cheung, Teddy Robin (Kwan), Nina Li Chi, Alfred Cheung, Lai Ying Chow, Kirk Twins of Evil (1971-British) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 Wong. Separated at birth, twin Jackies unexD: John Hough. Peter Cushing, Madeleine pectedly meet in Hong Kong; one’s a famous Collinson, Mary Collinson, Luan Peters, conductor, the other a race car mechanic whose Dennis Price, Isobel Black, Harvey Hall. One best friend has just been kidnapped; the twins of the twins is a vampire, but nobody can are mentally linked, Corsican Brothers–style. tell which is which. Engaging Hammer chiller Fast-paced action comedy with great stunts is makes inspired use of Playboy’s first one of Jackie’s best vehicles, if silly at times. twin playmates. Follow-up to VAMPIRE Reedited and redubbed for 1999 U.S. theatriLOVERS and LUST FOR A VAMPIRE [R]▼● cal release from the 100m. original. Directors Lam and Hark have cameos, as does John Twin Town (1997-British) C-101m. ★★ D: Woo. Original title: SEUNG LUNG WUI. Kevin Allen. Llyr Evans, Rhys Ifans, DoTechnovision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 rien Thomas, Dougray Scott, Biddug WilTwin Falls, Idaho (1999) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 liams, Ronnie Williams, Rachel Scorgle. D: Michael Polish. Michael Polish, Mark Black comedy—more nasty than funny— Polish, Michele Hicks, Jon Gries, Patrick about brothers who seek revenge on a bigBauchau, Lesley Ann Warren, Garrett Morris, wig roofing contractor after their handyman William Katt, Holly Woodlawn. Dreamy, father takes a fall. Executive-produced by oddball tale of Siamese twins, one of whom the makers of TRAINSPOTTING, this feafalls in love with a down-on-her-luck prostitures the same brand of cheeky humor, and tute (Hicks). Surprisingly poignant film a rare look at life on the fringe in the U.K. about family ties never opts for the gro(Swansea, Southwest Wales), but it stalls tesque and has a refreshing sense of deadmidway from absurd plotting and never repan humor. Ambitious debut from the covers; we’re left with irritating characters Polish brothers, who wrote and costar. Only who have unintelligible dialects. The direcproblem is overlength. [R]▼쩠 tor cameos as a local TV host. [R]▼● Twinkle and Shine SEE: It Happened to Twist, The (1976-French) C-105m. ★1⁄2 Jane D: Claude Chabrol. Bruce Dern, Stephane Twinkle, Twinkle, Killer Kane SEE: Audran, Ann-Margret, Sydne Rome, JeanNinth Configuration, The Pierre Cassel, Curt Jurgens, Maria Schell, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) Charles Aznavour. Undistinguished chroniC-135m. ★1⁄2 D: David Lynch. Sheryl Lee, cle of the infidelities of various boring Ray Wise, Kyle MacLachlan, Ma¨dchen upper-class characters. Lackluster direction, Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Phoebe Auguswith a superior cast wasted. Originally tine, David Bowie, Eric DaRe, Miguel titled FOLIES BOURGEOISES, and filmed in both English and French versions.▼ Ferrer, Pamela Gidley, Heather Graham, Chris Isaak, Moira Kelly, Peggy Lipton, Twist (1992-Canadian) C/B&W-78m. ★★★ James Marshall, Ju¨rgen Prochnow, Harry D: Ron Mann. Entertaining documentary Dean Stanton, Kiefer Sutherland, Lenny about the early years of rock ’n’ roll, culmiVon Dohlen, Grace Zabriskie, Frank Silva, nating with the popularity of the Twist, the Victor Rivers, Calvin Lockhart. Prototypidance craze which swept the nation during cally weird, but also strangely indifferent, the early 1960s. Interesting as a cultural prequel to the cult TV series, chronicling the document (showing how whites co-opted final week in the life of murdered teen Laura black music and styles), and great fun as a Palmer (Lee). Lee is rather affecting under the trip down memory lane.▼●쩠 circumstances, but film was understandably Twist All Night (1961) 78m. BOMB D: hissed at the Cannes Film Festival and greeted William Hole, Jr. Louis Prima, June Wilby moviegoer ennui here at home. Two surkinson, Sam Butera and The Witnesses, real set pieces (one in a bar, the other in a Gertrude Michael, David Whorf. Stupid traffic jam) may make it worthwhile for comedy about Prima’s attempts to keep his Lynch completists. The director appears as nightclub going; sexy Wilkinson is his FBI Bureau Chief Gordon Cole. [R]▼●쩠 girlfriend. Sometimes shown with a nineTwins (1988) C-112m. ★★★ D: Ivan Reitminute color prologue, TWIST CRAZE, man. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny directed by Allan David. Aka THE CONTIDeVito, Kelly Preston, Chloe Webb, BonNENTAL TWIST. nie Bartlett, Marshall Bell, Trey Wilson, Twist and Shout (1984-Danish) C-99m. ★★★ Hugh O’Brian, Nehemiah Persoff, David CaD: Bille August. Adam Tonsberg, ruso, Maury Chaykin. Entertaining comedy Lars Simonsen, Ulrikke Juul Bondo, Caabout genetically designed twins (Schwarzenmilla Soeberg, Thomas Nielsen. Funny, egger and DeVito!) who discover each other’s endearing, pleasantly nostalgic tale of a existence at the age of 35. Effectively blends pair of teen buddies in the era of The sentiment and roughhouse humor, with the Beatles’ heyday. One (Simonsen) is domitwo mismatched stars packing extra punch in nated by his stern, manipulative father, their delightful performances. That’s Heather while the other (Tonsberg) experiences the [ 1464 ]

joy and pain of love. Sequel to August’s Seymour Hoffman, Jeremy Davies, Todd earlier ZAPPA. [R]▼쩠 Field, Zach Grenier, Jake Busey. A wild Twist Around the Clock (1961) 86m. ★★ ride of a movie, dealing with storm chasers D: Oscar Rudolph. Chubby Checker, Dion, who want to learn all they can about tornaThe Marcels, Vicki Spencer, Clay Cole, does—by getting inside them. The plot and John Cronin, Mary Mitchell. Agent Crocharacterizations are best described as lame, nin tries to book Twist performers; of but the special effects are so convincing, course, by the finale, the dance is the rage and the storms so incredible, that they carry of America. Dion performs ‘‘The Wanyou along (no pun intended) from one kiderer’’ and ‘‘Runaround Sue.’’ Remake of netic burst to another. Great fun. Written by ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK.▼쩠 Michael Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Twisted (1992) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Adam Holender. Lois Smith, Christian Slater, Twist of Sand, A (1968-British) C-90m. ★★ Tandy Cronyn, Brooke Tracy, Dina MerD: Don Chaffey. Richard Johnson, Honor rill, Dan Ziskie, Karl Taylor, Noelle ParBlackman, Jeremy Kemp, Peter Vaughan, ker, John Cunningham, J. C. Quinn. Roy Dotrice. Ex-submarine commander Sadistic teenage genius Slater, already a Johnson leads crew of smugglers on expemurderer, sets his sights on babysitter dition for diamonds in ordinary programmer. Smith, a recovering mental patient. Made Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971-Italian) C-90m. ★★★ D: Mario Bava. Claudine in 1986. Talky, slow, unconvincing and extremely unpleasant. Aka TWISTED: A Auger, Claudio Volonte, Luigi Pistilli, STEP BEYOND INSANITY. [R]▼ Leopoldo Trieste, Isa Miranda, Laura Betti. Twisted (2004) C-97m. ★★ D: Philip KaufThe ne plus ultra of Bava’s colorful horror man. Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Andy movies, this influenced such later films as Garcia, David Strathairn, Russell Wong, CamHALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH. ryn Manheim, Bill Duke, Mark Pellegrino, People in an isolated house are killed one Titus Welliver, D.W. Moffett, Richard T. by one in gruesome, imaginative ways. Jones, Leland Orser. Hotshot San Francisco Those who love Bava don’t love him for cop, an orphan who was raised by her dad’s his stories, but for his extraordinary masex-partner (now the city police commissioner), tery of cinema technique, vividly displayed earns a promotion to homicide inspector, but here. Aka LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, finds herself the chief suspect in a string of PART II (though it has no connection with brutal murders. There’s no one to root for Part I), BAY OF BLOOD, and CARin this collection of bruised and off-putting NAGE—with good reason. Panoramica. characters, least of all Judd (in yet another [R] ▼쩠 Ashley-in-jeopardy vehicle), who releases her Two Against the World (1936) 57m. ★★ inner demons in the worst possible ways. VeD: William McGann. Humphrey Bogart, ronica Cartwright appears unbilled. [R]▼쩠 Beverly Roberts, Linda Perry, Carlyle Twisted Obsession (1989-Spanish-French) Moore, Jr., Henry O’Neill, Claire Dodd. Re1 ★ C-103m. ⁄2 D: Fernando Trueba. Jeff make of FIVE STAR FINAL set in radio Goldblum, Miranda Richardson, Anemstation is more contrived, not as effective. one, Daniel Ceccaldi, Dexter Fletcher, Liza Retitled: ONE FATAL HOUR. Walker. Laughable, would-be erotic thriller, Two Bits (1995) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: James with Goldblum a writer in Paris who gets Foley. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Al mixed up with a strange British director Pacino, Jerry Barrone, Patrick Borriello, and his seductive 16-year-old sister. PreAndy Romano, Donna Mitchell, Mary Lou tentious, enervated Eurotrash like this gives Rosato, Joe Grifasi, Joanna Merlin; narrated ‘‘art’’ movies a bad name . . . but where by Alec Baldwin. Poignant memoir of else could you see Goldblum playing an growing up in South Philadelphia during irresistible stud? Originally titled THE MAD the Depression, as seen through the eyes of young Gennaro (Barrone, in his movie MONKEY. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★ Twister (1988) C-94m. ⁄2 D: Michael debut), who lives with his widowed mother Almereyda. Harry Dean Stanton, Suzy and his talkative grandfather (Pacino)— Amis, Crispin Glover, Dylan McDermott, who insists he’s going to die any day now. Jenny Wright, Lois Chiles. Squirrelly clan Beautifully acted by the leads, written with comedy assembles some unlikely siblings feeling by producer Joseph Stefano, but too at the old man’s mansion; try imagining slow and delicate to realize its full potential. Stanton as any extended group’s patriarch! Still worth seeing for a handful of crystalFilm’s eccentricity is more off-putting than line moments. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 whimsical; Amis and Glover as siblings Two Brothers (2004-French-British) Cwould be a challenge to any parent’s re108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Jacques Annaud. Guy productive tract. Based on Mary Robison’s Pearce, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Freddie Highwell-regarded novel OH!. [PG-13]▼●쩠 more, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Moussa Twister (1996) C-114m. ★★★ D: Jan De Maaskri, Vincent Scarito, Maı¨ Anh Leˆ, Oanh Bont. Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Nguyen. Two Asian tiger cubs are separated; Jami Gertz, Lois Smith, Alan Ruck, Philip fate takes them on unpredictable paths and [ 1465 ]

introduces them to humans both kind and other in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. Entercruel. The animal footage is much more comtaining and stylish, with fine performances, manding than the story in this strange, offbut more than a little contrived. Written by the director. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 kilter family film that contrasts the purity of the jungle with the difficulties of ‘‘civiTwo Deaths (1995-British) C-102m. ★★ D: lized’’ life. Moments of magisterial beauty Nicolas Roeg. Michael Gambon, Sonia are offset by Disney-esque animal slapstick Braga, Patrick Malahide, Ion Caramitru, and broadly sketched, ill-defined human Nickolas Grace. Bizarre drama about a doccharacters. HD 24P Widescreen. [PG] ▼쩠 tor (Gambon) who has various guests in his Two Can Play That Game (2001) C-90m. home for an elegant dinner party while, out★★ D: Mark Brown. Vivica A. Fox, Morris side, a revolution rages and the streets are Chestnut, Anthony Anderson, Wendy Raquel filling with blood. Braga is the host’s mysteRobinson, Tamala Jones, Bobby Brown, rious, silent housekeeper. Potentially intriMo’Nique Imes Jackson, Gabrielle Union, guing drama is done in by its obvious Ray Wise. Sassy, self-possessed business symbolism and leaden pace. [R]▼●쩠 exec Fox dispenses advice to her girlfriends Two English Girls (1971-French) C-108m. ★★★1 on a regular basis, so when her boyfriend ⁄2 D: Franc¸ois Truffaut. Jean-Pierre (Chestnut) strays one night, she’s ready Le´aud, Kika Markham, Stacey Tendeter, with a foolproof 10-day plan to teach him a Sylvia Marriott, Marie Mansart, Philippe lesson. Fun for a while, but Fox’s game Leotard. Profoundly moving tale of a young playing (and talking directly to the camera) writer (Le´aud), and his lengthy love affair soon grows tedious. Anderson adds comic with two sisters. Fine performances and energy every time he’s on screen. Film ends superb Nestor Almendros cinematography; with a novel twist: outtakes that aren’t directed with great feeling by Truffaut. In funny. [R] ▼쩠 1984, he added additional footage, inTwo Daughters (1961-Indian) 114m. ★★★1⁄2 creasing the running time to 132m.—and D: Satyajit Ray. Anil Chatterjee, Chandana this version rates ★★★★, one of Truffaut’s Bannerjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Das greatest achievements.▼●쩠 Gupta, Sita Mukherji. A pair of episodes, Two Evil Eyes (1990-Italian) C-115m. 1⁄2 D: George Romero, Dario Argento. ★ adapted from the writings of Rabindranath Tagore, one good and the other superb. The ‘‘The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar’’: former concerns the curious relationship Adrienne Barbeau, Ramy Zada, Bingo between a postmaster and an orphan girl; O’Malley, Jeff Howell, E. G. Marshall. the latter is the funny, gentle chronicle of ‘‘The Black Cat’’: Harvey Keitel, Madewhat happens when a student rejects the leine Potter, John Amos, Sally Kirkland, woman his mother has chosen for his wife, Kim Hunter, Holter Ford Graham, Martin deciding instead to marry the local tomboy. Balsam. A pair of Poe stories poorly adapted Ray scripted both stories. Originally released by two leading horror directors. In the in India as part of a trilogy, running 171m.▼ first, by Romero, a greedy wife and un★★★ 2 Days in Paris (2007-French) C-96m. scrupulous doctor leave a man hovering in D: Julie Delpy. Julie Delpy, Adam Goldlimbo between life and death. In the secberg, Daniel Bru¨hl, Marie Pillet, Albert ond, by Argento, a self-obsessed photoDelpy. First-time director Delpy gets a grapher kills his mistress’ black cat, then boost from her own screen chemistry with seals the woman behind a wall with ancostar Goldberg, as they play a N.Y.C.other feline. The second is slightly more successful than the first. [R]▼●쩠 based couple using travel to mend their relationship. The two end up feeling smothered Two-Faced Woman (1941) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: in Paris-bred Delpy’s apartment when they’re George Cukor. Greta Garbo, Melvyn not running into another of her former squeezes Douglas, Constance Bennett, Roland Young, (who seem to loom around every corner). Robert Sterling, Ruth Gordon, Frances Small-scale but breezy, smart, and assured Carson. Garbo’s last film, in which MGM comedy milks Goldberg’s increasingly funny tried unsuccessfully to Americanize her fits of exasperation. Delpy’s real-life parents personality. Attempted chic comedy of erplay themselves. Delpy wrote, coproduced, rors is OK, but not what viewer expects from the divine Garbo. Constance Bennett is much edited, and composed the score. [R]쩠 2 Days in the Valley (1996) C-107m. ★★★ more at home in proceedings, stealing the D: John Herzfeld. Danny Aiello, James film with her hilarious performance.▼ Spader, Eric Stoltz, Greg Cruttwell, Jeff Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll, The (1960Daniels, Teri Hatcher, Glenne Headly, Peter British) C-88m. ★★ D: Terence Fisher. Horton, Marsha Mason, Paul Mazursky, Paul Massie, Dawn Addams, Christopher Charlize Theron, Keith Carradine, Louise Lee, David Kossoff, Francis De Wolff, Fletcher, Austin Pendleton, Lawrence TierNorma Marla. Uneven, sometimes unintenney. Wry crime thriller with gnarled plot tionally funny reworking of Stevenson story involving a murder for hire, a betrayed stresses Mr. and Mrs. relationship, plus fact crook, his slick partner, a dogged cop, a that doctor himself is a weakling (and Hyde deadly wife, and others caroming off each is suave and handsome!). Unfortunately, di[ 1466 ]

alogue and situations are boring. Look for by Christopher Challis, on luscious French locations. Panavision.▼●쩠 Oliver Reed as a bouncer. Megascope. ▼쩠 Two for the Seesaw (1962) 119m. ★★1⁄2 Two Family House (2000) C-107m. ★★★ D: Robert Wise. Robert Mitchum, Shirley D: Raymond De Felitta. Michael Rispoli, MacLaine, Edmon Ryan, Elisabeth Fraser. Kelly Macdonald, Katherine Narducci, Well-acted but dated drama about the evolvKevin Conway, Matt Servitto, Michele Saning relationship between two imperfect, vultopietro, Louis Guss, Rosemary DeAngelis, nerable people: wandering Nebraska lawyer Victor Arnold, Dominic Chianese, Richard Mitchum and eccentric ‘‘born victim’’ MacB. Shull. Charming fable about an ItalianLaine. Based on the William Gibson play. American ne’er-do-well who bucks his wife Panavision. ▼● and family to pursue a dream of operating a 2 Friends (1986-Australian) C-76m. ★★1⁄2 bar in Staten Island during the 1950s. Along D: Jane Campion. Kris Bidenko, Emma the way he becomes involved with a feisty Coles, Kris McQuade, Peter Hehir, Kerry young (and pregnant) Irish woman. WarmDwyer, Stephen Leeder, Deborah May, hearted tale written by the director, based Tony Barry, Steve Bisley. Campion’s debut on his own family lore; a welcome, nonfeature, produced for Australian television, cliche´d look at this ethnic group. [R]▼쩠 is the slice-of-life portrait of a friendship 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: between two adolescent girls, and the subtle John Singleton. Paul Walker, Tyrese, Eva changes in their relationship. Not without Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris ‘‘Ludacris’’ inspired moments, but lacks the assurance Bridges, James Remar, Thom Barry, Miof Campion’s later work. The scenario unchael Ealy, Devon Aoki. All but abandonravels in reverse time, a dramatic structure ing the street-racing milieu of THE FAST that seems more gimmicky than inspired. AND THE FURIOUS (except for a highReleased in the U.S. in 1996.▼쩠 energy opening sequence), this sequel takes Two Gentlemen Sharing (1969-British) Walker to Florida, where he’s recruited as C-92m. ★★ D: Ted Kotcheff. Robin Philan undercover fed to help capture a drug lips, Judy Geeson, Hal Frederick, Esther lord who hires fast drivers. Enough action to Anderson, Norman Rossington. Unusual please undiscriminating fans, but the script story of mixed racial couples is done more leaves a lot to be desired. Followed by THE with the sensational in mind than honest FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO portrayal. [R] DRIFT. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Twogether (1994) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrew Two Flags West (1950) 92m. ★★ D: RobChiaramonte. Nick Cassavetes, Brenda ert Wise. Joseph Cotten, Linda Darnell, Bakke, Damian London, Jeremy Piven, Jim Jeff Chandler, Cornel Wilde, Dale RobertBeaver. Overlong, uninvolving ‘‘relationson, Jay C. Flippen, Noah Beery, Jr. Very ship drama’’ in which a couple finds love uneven Civil War Western. Battle scenes and fights a lot, in Venice Beach, California. of good quality mixed with unappealing The bodies look good, and there are a couscript and weak performances. ple of hot scenes, but there’s nothing much Two for the Money (2005) C-122m. ★★ D: else to recommend in this independently D. J. Caruso. Al Pacino, Matthew McComade feature. The leading man is John Casnaughey, Rene Russo, Jeremy Piven, Armand savetes and Gena Rowlands’ son. [R]▼ Assante, Jaime King, Kevin Chapman, Carly Two Girls and a Guy (1998) C-92m. Pope. Hotshot hustler who promotes sports ★★ D: James Toback. Robert Downey, Jr., gambling over phone lines recruits a former Heather Graham, Natasha Gregson Wagner, football player to join his team, and fashions Angel David, Frederique Van Der Wal. him as a prote´ge´—with many strings Two women— each of whom believes she attached. Although ‘‘inspired by a true has found the perfect lover—discover that story,’’ this needlessly convoluted yarn they’re both in love with the same man. goes on too long and takes far too many Virtually a one-set (Downey’s N.Y.C. loft) detours to score. Pacino is compelling to film, it’s well played by the three leads but watch, as always, but his character is alterremains more of an actor’s dream than a nately inscrutable and infuriating. Super 35. movie. Manages to be fairly funny and [R]▼쩠 scathing in equal parts; also contains one Two for the Road (1967-British) C-112m. serious though dimly lit sex scene. Wagner ★★★ D: Stanley Donen. Audrey Hepburn, is the daughter of Natalie Wood. [R]▼●쩠 Albert Finney, Eleanor Bron, William DanTwo Hands (1999-Australian) C-90m. ★★ iels, Claude Dauphin, Nadia Gray, Jacqueline D: Gregor Jordan. Heath Ledger, Bryan Bisset. Beautifully acted film of bickering Brown, Rose Byrne, Susie Porter, Steve couple Hepburn and Finney stopping to Vidler, David Field, Tom Long, Tony Forreminisce about their 12 years of marriage, row, Mariel McClorey. Minor crime trying to work to save their happiness. Perthriller/comedy-of-errors involving an amceptive, winning film, well directed by bitious but irresponsible young hotshot Donen. Lovely theme by Henry Mancini; (Ledger) who becomes a courier for a Sydscript by Frederic Raphael. Photographed ney mobster and screws up his first assign[ 1467 ]

ment. Tries to be outrageous but only interNATOWN; the old indecipherable plot roumittently succeeds; it also spotlights a hero tine that worked for THE BIG SLEEP who is impossible to root for. Released di(1946) doesn’t cut it here. Faye Dunaway rect to DVD in the U.S. in 2005. [R]쩠 makes a brief (and welcome) contribution; Two-Headed Spy, The (1958-British) 93m. Tom Waits appears unbilled as a policeman. ★★★ D: Andre de Toth. Jack Hawkins, Gia Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Scala, Alexander Knox, Felix Aylmer, DonTwo-Lane Blacktop (1971) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 ald Pleasence, Michael Caine, Laurence D: Monte Hellman. James Taylor, Warren Naismith. Exciting true story of British Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson, David spy (Hawkins) who operated in Berlin durDrake, Richard Ruth, Alan Vint. Cult film ing WW2 is loaded with heart-stopping about race across the Southwest between tension and suspense. Fine performances a ’55 Chevy and a new GTO has intense all around; one of Caine’s earliest roles. direction to compensate for low-key script; ★1 200 Cigarettes (1999) C-101m. ⁄2 D: Oates’ performance is about as good as Risa Bramon Garcia. Ben Affleck, Casey you’ll ever see and should have had the Affleck, Jennifer Albano, Dave Chappelle, Oscar. Quintessential movie of its time, Guillermo Diaz, Angela Featherstone, Janewith aimless characters who only know one ane Garofalo, Gaby Hoffmann, Kate Hudthing: the need to race their cars. Watch for son, Catherine Kellner, Courtney Love, Harry Dean Stanton as a hitchhiker. TechniBrian McCardie, Jay Mohr, Nicole Parker, scope. [R]▼●쩠 Martha Plimpton, Christina Ricci, Paul Two Lovers (2009-U.S.-French) C-109m. ★★★1 Rudd, David Johansen, Elvis Costello. It’s ⁄2 D: James Gray. Joaquin Phoenix, New Year’s Eve 1981, in N.Y.C.’s East VilGwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, Isabella lage, with an assortment of young people tryRossellini, Elias Koteas, Moni Moshonov, ing (not too hard) to reach a loft party thrown Julie Budd, Nick Gillie. Fragile young man by frantic Plimpton. Merits some sort of (Phoenix) lives with his parents in a clausprize for Most Obnoxious Ensemble . . . and trophobic Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, apartsorely lacks a coherent script. [R]▼●쩠 ment. Just after meeting a nice, ‘‘safe’’ 200 Motels (1971) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Frank woman (Shaw) who’s interested in him— Zappa, Tony Palmer. Frank Zappa, Mothers and happens to be the daughter of his faof Invention, Theodore Bikel, Ringo Starr, ther’s new business partner—he encounters Keith Moon. Visual, aural assault disguised a beautiful but troubled neighbor and falls as movie; completely berserk, freeform film recklessly in love with her, despite the fact (shot on videotape in England) featuring bithat she doesn’t return his feelings. Inzarre humor of Zappa and the Mothers. tensely felt, emotionally direct drama from Some of it ingenious, some funny, but not cowriter-director Gray invokes the spirit of enough to maintain entire film. Funny, raunvintage American and European films. chy animation sequence. [R] ▼● Wonderfully observed, it makes great use Two If by Sea (1996) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Bill of its locations and offers its stars a terrific showcase. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 Bennett. Denis Leary, Sandra Bullock, Stephen Dillane, Yaphet Kotto, Wayne RobTwo Loves (1961) C-100m. ★★ D: Charles son, Jonathan Tucker, Mike Starr, Michael Walters. Shirley MacLaine, Laurence HarBadalucco. Alternately boring and grating vey, Jack Hawkins, Juano Hernandez, Nobu comedy about a pair of low-class lovers on McCarthy. Plodding sudser set in New Zeathe lam after he’s stolen a valuable painting. land with spinster teacher MacLaine trying to Leary cowrote this unsatisfying ‘‘romantic’’ decide between suitors Harvey and Hawkins. caper which changes moods with each CinemaScope. scene. Bullock’s charm emerges unscathed. Two-Minute Warning (1976) C-115m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Larry Peerce. Charlton Heston, [R]▼●쩠 ★★ D: Two Jakes, The (1990) C-137m. John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Jack Nicholson. Jack Nicholson, Harvey Bridges, Marilyn Hassett, David Janssen, Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Jack Klugman, Gena Rowlands, Walter Wallach, Ruben Blades, Frederic Forrest, Pidgeon, Brock Peters, David Groh, MitchDavid Keith, Richard Farnsworth, Tracey ell Ryan, Pamela Bellwood, Andy Sidaris, Walter, Joe Mantell, James Hong, Perry Vincent Baggetta, Robert Ginty. Pointless Lopez, Rebecca Broussard, Luana Anders. story of attempt to catch sniper in packed Belated sequel to CHINATOWN set in football stadium. Usual me´lange of hack1948 L.A., with oil having replaced water neyed characters in this contrived Hollyas the natural resource of choice. Jake Gittes wood product. Merv Griffin sings the investigates complex case of adultery and national anthem! Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 shady real estate dealings by Keitel (excelTwo-Moon Junction (1988) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 lent, as the other Jake) and cheating wife D: Zalman King. Sherilyn Fenn, Richard Tilly. Ponderous and convoluted beyond beTyson, Louise Fletcher, Burl Ives, Kristy lief (though never boring), film will make McNichol, Millie Perkins, Don Galloway, no sense to anyone who’s never seen CHIHerve Villechaize, Dabbs Greer, Screamin’ [ 1468 ]

Jay Hawkins. Or, Sorority Girl Goes to persuade God to give the human race another chance—using two pretty unapNympho. Well-bred Dixie beauty gets an pealing subjects (an inventor-turned-bank itch south of the navel to take off with a robber and a not-so-innocent bank teller) traveling carny hunk; rich grandma Fletcher as guinea pigs. Just awful. [PG]▼●쩠 and sheriff Ives conspire to halt the union. Two of Us, The (1968-French) 86m. ★★★1⁄2 Camp fest is just funny and sexy enough D: Claude Berri. Michel Simon, Alain to maintain interest; McNichol has a lively Cohen, Luce Fabiole, Roger Carel, Paul cameo as a bisexual cowgirl. The title may Preboist, Charles Denner. Charming film be a pun. Followed by a sequel. [R]▼●쩠 about growing relationship between young Two Mrs. Carrolls, The (1947) 99m. ★★1 Jewish boy sent away from WW2 Paris ⁄2 D: Peter Godfrey. Humphrey Bogart, and blustery, anti-Semitic guardian who Barbara Stanwyck, Alexis Smith, Nigel lives in the country. Warm, funny, beautiBruce, Isobel Elsom. Shrill murder drama fully acted.▼쩠 with Bogie as psychopathic artist who paints Two on a Guillotine (1965) 107m. ★★1⁄2 wives as Angels of Death, then kills them; D: William Conrad. Connie Stevens, Dean Stanwyck registers all degrees of panic as Jones, Cesar Romero, Parley Baer, Virthe next marital victim. Filmed in 1945. ginia Gregg. To receive inheritance from Also shown in computer-colored version.▼ her late father (Romero), a stage illusionist, Two Much (1996-U.S.-Spanish) C-118m. ★1 Connie must spend a week in his spooky ⁄2 D: Fernando Trueba. Antonio Banmansion. Familiar plot with some scares. deras, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Panavision. Danny Aiello, Joan Cusack, Eli Wallach, Two or Three Things I Know About Her Austin Pendleton, Gabino Diego, Alan (1967-French) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Rich, Phil Leeds, Vincent Schiavelli. Miami Godard. Marina Vlady, Anny Duperey, Roger scam artist Banderas falls for the sister of Montsoret, Jean Narboni, Juliet Berto, Claude his new finace´e and pretends to be his own Miller. Masterly dissection of marriage, matetwin brother in order to pursue her. Wouldrialism, and suburban anomie, depicting a day be screwball comedy is filled with embarin the life of an attractive French housewife rassing dialogue, which cast struggles to who goes into Paris once a week for a little surmount by overacting. A fiasco . . . and an casual prostitution in order to maintain her unfortunate English-language debut for the bourgeois lifestyle. Stylish and penetrating director of the Oscar-winning BELLE sociological study, with great photography EPOQUE. Based on a novel by Donald E. by Raoul Coutard. Techniscope.▼쩠 Westlake. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Two People (1973) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: RobTwo Mules for Sister Sara (1970) C-105m. ert Wise. Peter Fonda, Lindsay Wagner, ★★★ D: Don Siegel. Clint Eastwood, ShirEstelle Parsons, Alan Fudge, Geoffrey ley MacLaine, Manolo Fabregas, Alberto Horne, Frances Sternhagen. Soapy, but Morin, Armando Silvestre. Engaging story oddly affecting drama about Army deserter of drifter Eastwood helping nun MacLaine returning home to face the consequences across Mexican desert, becoming wary of and fashion model with whom he falls in her un-pious nature. Beautifully shot (by love. Beautiful photography by Gerald Gabriel Figueroa), well-acted, good fun, Hirschfeld and likable performance by marred by needlessly violent massacre Wagner in her first major role. [R] climax. Albert Maltz wrote the screenplay, Two Rode Together (1961) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 from a story by Budd Boetticher. PanaD: John Ford. James Stewart, Richard vision. [M/PG]▼쩠 Widmark, Linda Cristal, Shirley Jones, Two Ninas (2001) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Neil Andy Devine, John McIntire, Mae Marsh, Turitz. Ron Livingston, Amanda Peet, Cara Henry Brandon, Anna Lee. Fair Western Buono, Bray Poor, Linda Larkin, John with Stewart as cynical marshal hired to Rothman, Jill Hennessy. Diverting comedy rescue pioneers captured by the Comanches about a guy who, having reached a selfyears ago; Widmark is cavalry officer who professed dead end with the opposite sex, accompanies him.▼● winds up in serious relationships with two Two Small Bodies (1993) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: women at the same time—both of them Beth B. Fred Ward, Suzy Amis. Suspicious, named Nina! Made on a shoestring, but neurotic cop Ward investigates the mysterifresh and funny; written by the director. ous disappearance of the two children of Filmed in 1998. [R]▼쩠 cocktail waitress Amis, who seems strangely Two of a Kind (1983) C-87m. BOMB D: ambivalent over the tragedy. Eerie, effecJohn Herzfeld. John Travolta, Olivia Newtive two-character psychodrama; however, ton-John, Charles Durning, Oliver Reed, both characters are so unlikable that the film Beatrice Straight, Scatman Crothers, Castulo occasionally becomes difficult to watch.▼ Guerra, Ernie Hudson, Kathy Bates; voice 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968-British) of Gene Hackman. Puerile fantasy-romance C-139m. ★★★★ D: Stanley Kubrick. Keir with a script that must have been scrawled Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood, on a gum wrapper. A quartet of angels try Daniel Richter; voice of HAL: Douglas [ 1469 ]

Rain. A unique masterpiece, immensely inFord. Overly ambitious attempt to intellecfluential; Kubrick starkly depicts several entualize Irwin Shaw novel, revolving around counters mankind has with never-glimpsed problems of people involved in moviealiens, from the dawn of Man four million making in Rome. Reunites much of the years ago to the title year, when an alien artitalent from THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIfact is found on the Moon. An expedition FUL, footage from which is used as the tracking its radio signal is launched to Jupiter, film-within-a-film here. CinemaScope. ▼● with mysterious, haunting results. A visual Two Weeks in September (1967-French) feast, film also boasts distinction of having put C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Serge Bourguignon. BriRichard Strauss into the Top 40 with ‘‘Also gitte Bardot, Laurent Terzieff, Michael Sprach Zarathustra.’’ Cut by 17 minutes after Sarne, James Robertson Justice. Bardot, premiere, by Kubrick himself, to present mistress to older man, has fling with younlength. Oscar-winning special effects. Screenger lover, can’t decide between the two. play by Arthur C. Clarke and the director, Location shooting in London and Scotland from Clarke’s The Sentinel. Followed by 2010 enhances OK story. Franscope.▼쩠 in 1984. Super Panavision 70. [G]▼●쩠 Two Weeks Notice (2002) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 2010 (1984) C-114m. ★★★ D: Peter Hyams. D: Marc Lawrence. Sandra Bullock, Hugh Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Grant, Alicia Witt, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein, Bob Balaban, Keir Dullea, Madolyn Smith, Heather Burns, David Haig, Dorian Missick. Dana Elcar, Elya Baskin, Savely Kramarov; Community activist and lawyer (Bullock) is voice of Douglas Rain. Ambitious sequel hired by a charming, wealthy playboy (Grant) to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY written by whose development project was formerly one director Hyams from the follow-up novel by of her targets. She winds up running his life Arthur C. Clarke (who has a cameo on Washfor him, but only when she tires of that (and ington park bench). Scheider is perfect Evserves notice) does she begin to realize how eryman who journeys into space on joint much she cares about him. A contrivance American-Soviet mission to solve mystery from the word go, this paper-thin romantic of what went wrong on original Discovery comedy is still enjoyable because of the two flight. More concrete and therefore less stars’ charming performances. [PG-13] ▼쩠 mystical than 2001, with an ending that’s Two Women (1960-Italian) 99m. ★★★★ D: much too literal, but still an entertaining Vittorio De Sica. Sophia Loren, Raf Vallone, journey, with state-of-the-art visual effects Eleanora Brown, Jean-Paul Belmondo. by Richard Edlund. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Loren deservedly won Oscar for heart2000 Years Later (1969) C-80m. ★★ D: rending portrayal of Italian mother who, Bert Tenzer. Terry-Thomas, Edward Evalong with young daughter, is raped by Allied erett Horton, John Abbott, Pat Harrington, Moroccan soldiers during WW2. How they Lisa Seagram, Monti Rock III, Rudi Gernsurvive is an intensely moving story. reich. Amusing story of 20th-century man Screenplay by Cesare Zavattini from an Alexploiting a Roman soldier who comes back berto Moravia novel. Loren remade this in 1989 as a two-part Italian TVM.▼●쩠 to life after 2000 years. [R] Two Way Stretch (1960-British) 87m. Two Years Before the Mast (1946) 98m. ★★★ D: Robert Day. Peter Sellers, Wilfrid ★1⁄2 D: John Farrow. Alan Ladd, Brian Hyde-White, Lionel Jeffries, Liz Fraser, Donlevy, William Bendix, Esther Fernandez, Maurice Denham, Bernard Cribbins, David Howard da Silva, Barry Fitzgerald, Albert Lodge. Wry shenanigans of Sellers et al. Dekker, Darryl Hickman. Badly scripted story as prisoners who devise a means of escapof Richard Henry Dana’s (Donlevy) crusade ing to commit a robbery and then return to to expose mistreatment of men at sea. Da Silva is standout as tyrannical captain.▼ safety of their cells.▼쩠 Two Weeks (2006) C-102m. ★★ D: Steve Tycoon (1947) C-128m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Stockman. Sally Field, Ben Chaplin, Tom Wallace. John Wayne, Laraine Day, Cedric Cavanaugh, Julianne Nicholson, Glenn HowHardwicke, Judith Anderson, James Gleason, erton, Clea DuVall, James Murtaugh, Michael Anthony Quinn, Grant Withers. Wayne plays Hyatt, Susan Misner, Jenny O’Hara. Four determined railroad builder in this overlong, squabbling siblings reunite at their dying mothbut well-acted drama with fine cast. ▼쩠 er’s house but the quick stay they were exTyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls SEE: pecting turns into an agonizing two weeks. It Daddy’s Little Girls talks and walks like a Lifetime TV movie, unTyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail (2009) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Tyler Perry. Tyler Perry, easily blending comicmoments with agonizing scenes of a cancer-ridden Field. The star is exDerek Luke, Keshia Knight Pulliam, David pert, as always, in a story that may feel much Mann, Tamela Mann, Ion Overman, Viola Davis, Sofia Vergara. Adapting yet another more comfortable on the small screen. [R]쩠 Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) of his popular stage plays, writer-director C-107m. ★★★ D: Vincente Minnelli. Kirk Perry again stars as Madea, the trash-talking, Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Chaquick-tempered matriarch of an extended Atrisse, George Hamilton, Claire Trevor, lanta family, for his customary mix of broad Daliah Lavi, Rossana Schiaffino, Constance comedy, sudsy sentimentality, violent slap[ 1470 ]

stick, and spiritual uplift. Movie lurches clumsily between parallel plotlines: While Madea’s sassy, self-absorbed antics dismay loved ones and anger law-enforcement officials, a sincere assistant DA (Luke) tries to help a fallenfrom-grace former classmate (Pulliam, all grown up since The Cosby Show), greatly annoying his snooty fiance´e (Overman). Madea is more obnoxious than usual, but undeniably funny in a verbal showdown with TV’s Dr. Phil. Other TV personalities appear as themselves. [PG-13]쩠 Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion SEE: Madea’s Family Reunion Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns SEE: Meet the Browns Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys (2008) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tyler Perry. Alfre Woodard, Sanaa Lathan, Rockmond Dunbar, KaDee Strickland, Cole Hauser, Taraji P. Henson, Robin Givens, Tyler Perry, Kathy Bates, Sebastian Siegel. Polished but over-the-top soaper involving the conflicts and interactions between two Southern families, one black and the other white, spotlighting the deep friendship of the matriarchs (Woodard and Bates, both well cast). Entertaining enough on a nonthink level, but don’t look for subtlety or depth here. Aka THE FAMILY THAT PREYS. [PG-13]쩠 Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? SEE: Why Did I Get Married? Tyson (2009) C-90m. ★★★ D: James Toback. Emotionally punchy, predominantly talking-head portrait of onetime heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, terrifyingly invincible in his prime but shockingly beatable once he lost the fire in his belly and personal demons wore him down. Given his past fascination, in print and on-screen, with actor-athlete Jim Brown, Toback was probably the best imaginable auteur to get Tyson to open up so dramatically and disturbingly about his three-year stretch in prison, his inability to trust, his disastrous marriage to actress Robin Givens, and his horrific public outbursts both in and out of the ring. And yet Tyson reveals a tender side that’s as compelling as it is surprising. A keen companion to Barbara Kopple’s 1993 documentary FALLEN CHAMP: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MIKE TYSON. [R]

at the end. Still pretty entertaining. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 UFOria (1986) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Binder. Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton, Fred Ward, Harry Carey, Jr., Beverly Hope Atkinson. Amiable if sometimes uneasy mix of MELVIN AND HOWARD and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND with Williams as a kooky grocery store cashier who believes she has received a message from outer space and will become a female Noah on UFO ark. Made in 1980, this finally found a distributor (and an audience). [PG]▼ Ugetsu (1953-Japanese) 96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Machiko Kyo, Masayuki Mori, Kinuyo Tanaka, Sakae Ozawa. Eerie ghost story set in 16th-century Japan tells of two peasants who leave their families; one seeks wealth in the city and the other wishes to become a samurai warrior. This superbly photographed film was a Venice Film Festival prize winner. Full title UGETSU MONOGATARI.▼●쩠 Ugly American, The (1963) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: George H. Englund. Marlon Brando, Sandra Church, Pat Hingle, Eiji Okada, Arthur Hill, Kukrit Pramoj, Jocelyn Brando. Brando is American ambassador to Asian country; his arrival stirs up pro-communist elements, leading to havoc. Political revelations of U.S. power struggle aren’t meat for exciting film. Adapted by Stewart Stern from the William J. Lederer–Eugene Burdick book.▼쩠 Ugly Dachshund, The (1966) C-93m. ★★ D: Norman Tokar. Dean Jones, Suzanne Pleshette, Charlie Ruggles, Kelly Thordsen, Parley Baer. Silly, featherweight Disney comedy about husband and wife who train their respective dogs for competition at dog show. Fun for kids, but too contrived and silly for anyone else to enjoy.▼쩠 UHF (1989) C-97m. ★★ D: Jay Levey. ‘‘Weird Al’’ Yankovic, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, David Bowe, Stanley Brock, Anthony Geary, Trinidad Silva, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, John Paragon, Fran Drescher, Sue Ane Langdon, Emo Philips. Music video parodist Yankovic’s starring feature debut casts him as the manager of a small-time TV station who inadvertently hits it big with his unconventional programming ideas. Story is threadbare, but some of the spoofs of commercials, movies, U-Boat 29 SEE: Spy in Black, The and TV shows are fun. Yankovic scripted with director Levey. [PG-13]▼●쩠 U-571 (2000) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Mostow. Matthew McConaughey, Bill PaxUlee’s Gold (1997) C-111m. ★★★ D: Victor ton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi, Jake Weber, Nun˜ez. Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, David Keith, T.C. Carson, Jack Noseworthy, Jessica Biel, J. Kenneth Campbell, Christine Thomas Guiry, Erik Palladino, Dave Power, Dunford, Steven Flynn, Dewey Weber, Will Estes. WW2 submarine crew has to find Tom Wood, Vanessa Zima. A small gem a way to board and overtake a German Ufrom writer-director Nun˜ez about a taciturn boat and bring back a crucial secret-code beekeeper in northern Florida whose ortransmitter. It turns out to be more difficult dered life is disrupted when his son sends than they expect. Agreeably old-fashioned an SOS from prison. His wife is in trouble, WW2 submarine drama starts with a bang and while Fonda has had no use for her and holds interest throughout, but fizzles out since she abandoned her two daughters [ 1471 ]

(whom he is raising) he tries to help—and ULYSSES AGAINST THE SON OF HERCULES. 쩠 gets caught in a quagmire involving his Ulzana’s Raid (1972) C-103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: son’s former partners in crime. Slow and Robert Aldrich. Burt Lancaster, Bruce steady, like the leading character, but reDavison, Jorge Luke, Richard Jaeckel, Joawarding, with Fonda a tower of strength in quin Martinez, Lloyd Bochner, Karl Swenthe best part he’s ever had. [R]▼●쩠 son, Richard Farnsworth. Lancaster is a Ultimate Gift, The (2006) C-117m. ★1⁄2 savvy, straight-talking Indian scout who D: Michael O. Sajbel. Drew Fuller, James leads cavalry lieutenant Davison (still wet Garner, Abigail Breslin, Ali Hillis, Lee behind the ears) and his company on a disMeriwether, Brian Dennehy, Bill Cobbs. A couraging pursuit of an Apache chief. Gritty spoiled trust-fund brat finds his world Western tale written by Alan Sharp, with turned upside down when his recently dejarring bursts of violence. [R]▼●쩠 ceased grandfather leaves him a series of Umberto D (1952-Italian) 89m. ★★★★ D: tasks he must accomplish in order to collect Vittorio De Sica. Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia his inheritance. On his journey, he has a Casilio, Lina Gennari. Ex-bureaucrat on a variety of experiences—predominantly an meager fixed pension is about to be forced encounter with a young single mother and out into Rome streets with only his beher leukemia-stricken daughter—that help loved mongrel to comfort him. De Sica is him learn important life lessons about hard said to have considered this his greatest work, love, Christianity, and the value of work, and he may have been right; subplot money. Well-meaning film becomes sanctiabout Battisti’s relationship with an unmarmonious, and its rhetorical methods are so ried, pregnant woman is as touching as preovert (and often shameless) that it fails to dominant storyline. Shattering, all the way up charm, move, or persuade. From the novel to the tear-jerking conclusion.▼●쩠 by Jim Stovall. [PG]쩠 Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The (1964Ultimate Solution of Grace Quigley, The French) C-91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Demy. SEE: Grace Quigley Catherine Deneuve, Nino Castelnuovo, Ultimate Warrior, The (1975) C-94m. Anne Vernon, Marc Michel, Ellen Farnen. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Clouse. Yul Brynner, Max Haunting music (score by Michel Legrand, von Sydow, Joanna Miles, William Smith, lyrics by Demy) and gorgeous photograStephen McHattie, Lane Bradbury. Rouphy make this an outstanding romantic tine acting and directing spoil potentially drama. All dialogue is sung. Followed by intriguing futuristic sci-fi. In the 21st cenTHE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT. tury, Brynner and von Sydow control a de▼●쩠 creasing band of people fighting for Umbrella Woman, The SEE: Good Wife, whatever is left in N.Y.C. following ecologThe ical disasters. [R]▼쩠 Unaccompanied Minors (2006) C-89m. Ulysses (1954-Italian) C-104m. ★★ D: ★★ D: Paul Feig. Lewis Black, Wilmer Mario Camerini. Kirk Douglas, Silvana Valderrama, Tyler James Williams, Dyllan Mangano, Anthony Quinn, Sylvie, Rossana Christopher, Brett Kelly, Gina Mantegna, Podesta. Hokey, lumbering costumer with Quinn Shephard, Paget Brewster, Rob Douglas as Ulysses, on his Odyssey home Corddry, Dominique Saldana, Jessica Walto Penelope after the Trojan War. Watch ter, Teri Garr, Rob Riggle, Michelle SanKirk speak in dubbed Italian, then English. dler, David Koechner, Kevin McDonald, Seven writers are credited for this, includBruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney. Six diing Ben Hecht and Irwin Shaw.▼쩠 verse kids, all heading from one divorced Ulysses (1967) 124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joseph Strick. parent to another, are stranded at a MidBarbara Jefford, Milo O’Shea, Maurice western airport on Christmas Eve, where Roeves, T. P. McKenna, Martin Dempsey, they wreak havoc and make life miserable Sheila O’Sullivan. Idea of putting James for Black, who’s in charge of ‘‘passenger Joyce’s massive novel on the screen seemed relations.’’ Low-grade time-filler for kids daring in 1967, but now seems like a stupid has neither wit nor subtlety in its shallow stunt. Lots of good prose makes it to the bag of tricks. Inspired by a story by Susan screen, but end result is interesting curio, Burton first heard on the NPR show This not a film. Shot on location in Ireland; American Life. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Strick far more successfully filmed Joyce’s Unbearable Lightness of Being, The A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A (1988) C-171m. ★★★★ D: Philip KaufYOUNG MAN in 1979. Panavision.▼●쩠 man. Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche, Ulysses Against Hercules (1961-Italian) Lena Olin, Derek de Lint, Erland JosephC-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Mario Caiano. Georges son, Pavel Landovsky, Donald Moffat. Marchal, Michael Lane, Alessandra Panaro, Extraordinarily well-made adaptation of Gianni Santuccio. Childish blend of myth the acclaimed novel by Milan Kundera about and muscleman antics with Hercules (Lane) a young Czech doctor of the 1960s who has a sent to punish Ulysses (Marchal); special way with women (lots of women) and an effects of bird-men not up to snuff. Aka aversion to politics but who finds himself [ 1472 ]

caught up in his country’s political turmoil— pursued by a strange man who runs a comicand a crisis of commitment with the women art gallery and is trying to convince him that in his life. Kaufman and Jean-Claude Carhe has extrasensory abilities. Somber, pinrie`re’s adaptation unfolds just like a good drop drama from the writer-director of THE book, taking its time but never meandering as SIXTH SENSE, inspired by comic-book– it paints a vivid picture of the character’s life style fiction, is like a shaggy-dog joke that and times. Sensual, intelligent, and beautifully doesn’t seem worth the effort once you hear the punchline. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 acted by the three leads; strikingly photographed by Sven Nykvist. [R]▼●쩠 Uncanny, The (1977-British-Canadian) C-85m. ★★ D: Denis Heroux. Peter Cushing, Unbecoming Age (1992) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Deborah Ringel, Alfredo Ringel. Diane Ray Milland, Susan Penhaligon, Joan GreenSalinger, John Calvin, Wallace Shawn, Colwood, Alexandra Stewart, Chloe Franks, leen Camp, George Clooney, Shera Danese, Donald Pleasence, Samantha Eggar, John Nicholas Guest, Priscilla Pointer. Salinger Vernon. Lackluster trilogy of ‘‘super-natural’’ turns 40; depressed and bored, she blows tales built around author Cushing’s assertion that cats are conspiring against mankind.▼ ‘‘magic bubbles’’ which allow her to forget her age and recapture her youthful vigor. Cute Un Carnet de Bal (1937-French) 109m. ★★★★ romantic comedy–fantasy works most of the D: Julien Duvivier. Marie Bell, Franway before it runs out of steam. Video title: coise Rosay, Louis Jouvet, Harry Baur, THE MAGIC BUBBLE. ▼쩠 Pierre-Richard Willm, Raimu, Pierre Unbelievable Truth, The (1990) C-90m. Blanchar, Fernandel, Robert Lynen, Roger ★★ Legris. Wealthy widow travels to various D: Hal Hartley. Adrienne Shelly, Robert Burke, Christopher Cooke, Julia McNeal, locales, intent on looking up the former Mark Bailey, Gary Sauer, Katherine Maybeaux who filled her dance card (‘‘carnet field, Edie Falco. Tall, mysterious man rede bal’’). What she finds surprises her, and turns to his hometown after a stint in prison, viewer is treated to a number of poignant causing a variety of reactions from the lovignettes (some ahead of their time) acted cals. Small, independently made black comby the cream of 1930s France. Hugely sucedy may not be to everyone’s taste, but it cessful, this was the inspiration for all the has its moments. Burke went on to replace episodic films that followed. (Duvivier even Peter Weller as Robocop. [R]▼●쩠 reworked it in Hollywood in 1941 as Unborn, The (1991) C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: RodLYDIA.) Coscripted by the director, from man Flender. Brooke Adams, Jeff Hayenga, his story. Music by Maurice Jaubert. Uncertain Glory (1944) 102m. ★★ D: James Karen, K Callan, Jane Cameron, Kathy Cameron, Kathy Griffin, Lisa Kudrow. Raoul Walsh. Errol Flynn, Jean Sullivan, Young wife with a history of miscarriages is Paul Lukas, Lucile Watson, Faye Emerconvinced that mysterious doctor (Karen) has son, Douglass Dumbrille, Dennis Hoey, inseminated her with mutated sperm. The reSheldon Leonard. Wavering script about sult: a monstrous fetus which is so tough it French philanderer Flynn deciding to give his life for his country.▼ outlives an attempted abortion. Convincing performances place this horror tale a notch Unchained (1955) 75m. ★★ D: Hall Bartabove its exploitive subject matter. 1994 selett. Elroy ‘‘Crazylegs’’ Hirsch, Barbara quel: THE UNBORN II. [R]▼●쩠 Hale, Chester Morris, Todd Duncan, Unborn, The (2009) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: David Johnny Johnston, Peggy Knudsen, Jerry S. Goyer. Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Paris. Fair drama of life at prison farm at Cam Gigandet, Meagan Good, Idris Elba, Chino, California; highlighted by Alex Jane Alexander, James Remar, Carla Gugino. North–Hy Zarek theme song: ‘‘Unchained When she isn’t taking showers or scampering Melody.’’ Saxophonist Dexter Gordon is about in scanty underthings, Yustman desperseen briefly as a musician (though his playately seeks an explanation for creepy visitaing was dubbed by Georgie Auld). tions by a twin brother who died at birth. Uncle Buck (1989) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Steeped in Jewish mysticism, and featuring Hughes. John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean one of the very few on-screen exorcisms Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffman, Macaulay performed by a rabbi (Oldman), writerCulkin, Elaine Bromka, Garrett M. Brown, director Goyer’s low-voltage shocker is Laurie Metcalf, Jay Underwood. Ne’er-dooften inadvertently comical enough to qualwell bachelor Candy has to look after his ify as camp. Even so, some viewers may brother’s kids for a couple of days . . . and be seriously offended by this supernatural surprise! The perpetual foul-up turns out to drama’s exploitation of the Holocaust as a be a caring and responsible uncle. Comedy plot device. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 with serious and sentimental strains gives Unbreakable (2000) C-107m. ★★ D: M. Candy one of his better vehicles, though Night Shyamalan. Bruce Willis, Samuel L. writer-director Hughes’ inconsistencies keep Jackson, Robin Wright Penn, Charlayne it from scoring a bull’s-eye. Followed by a TV series. [PG]▼●쩠 Woodard, Spencer Treat Clark, James Handy, Eamonn Walker, Leslie Stefanson. Sullen seUncle Harry SEE: Strange Affair of Uncle curity guard Willis, on the verge of divorce, is Harry, The [ 1473 ]

Uncle Joe Shannon (1978) C-115m. Mille, C. Aubrey Smith, Porter Hall, BOMB D: Joseph C. Hanwright. Burt Mike Mazurki. Gargantuan DeMille colonYoung, Doug McKeon, Madge Sinclair, ists-vs.-Indians nonsense, one of his most ludicrous films but still fun.▼쩠 Jason Bernard, Bert Remsen, Allan Rich. Slobbering, self-indulgent film (written Undead, The (1957) 75m. ★★★ D: Roger by Young) about down-and-out trumpet Corman. Richard Garland, Pamela Dunplayer and young boy who tries to resist his can, Allison Hayes, Mel Welles, Billy ‘‘charm.’’ Several hands from ROCKY— Barty, Richard Devon, Bruno VeSota. One including Young—were hoping to dupliof Corman’s best early films, coscripted cate that film’s success. Maynard Ferguson by Charles Griffith. A scientist, investigatdubbed Young’s trumpet licks. [PG] ing the possibility of reincarnation, manUncle Nino (2003) C-104m. ★★ D: Robert ages to transport himself back into the Shallcross. Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, Dark Ages. Lots of atmosphere and black humor, with a neat twist ending.▼ Pierrino Mascarino, Trevor Morgan, Gina Mantegna, Duke Doyle, Daniel Adebayo, Undefeated, The (1969) C-119m. ★★ D: Gary Houston, Chelcie Ross. Mascarino is Andrew V. McLaglen. John Wayne, Rock the title character, a kindhearted Old World Hudson, Tony Aguilar, Roman Gabriel, eccentric who unexpectedly visits his dysBruce Cabot, Lee Meriwether, Ben Johnson, functional suburban American relatives and, Merlin Olsen, Michael (Jan-Michael) Vinpredictably, transforms their lives. Means to be cent, Harry Carey, Jr., Royal Dano, Richard as zesty as Mama’s homemade tomato sauce, Mulligan, James McEachin, Gregg Palmer, but lacks originality; it plays like a wellKiel Martin. Aside from interesting Waynemeaning after-school TV special. This ran for Hudson teaming and the presence of foota year in a Grand Rapids, Michigan, movie ball stars Gabriel and Olsen, this routine theater before opening nationally in 2005. Western has little to offer. Post-Civil War Gina Mantegna is Joe’s daughter. [PG]쩠 tale casts two stars as Union and ConfederUn Coeur en Hiver (1992-French) C-105m. ate colonels. Best line: ‘‘The conversation ★★★1⁄2 D: Claude Sautet. Daniel Auteuil, sorta dried up.’’ Panavision. [G]▼●쩠 Emmanuelle Be´art, Andre´ Dussollier. FasUnder Capricorn (1949-British) C-117m. ★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Ingrid Bergman, cinating study of what happens when two longtime business partners in the classical Joseph Cotten, Michael Wilding, Margamusic world find their ‘‘friendship’’ split ret Leighton, Cecil Parker. Stuffy costumer apart by the appearance of a beautiful set in 19th-century Australia; Bergman is young woman. All three stars shine in this frail wife of hardened husband Cotten; talky, offbeat tale of love and music (speWilding comes to visit, upsetting everycifically Ravel). An original film, admitthing. Leighton excellent in supporting role. tedly not for all tastes.▼쩠 One of Hitchcock’s few duds.▼●쩠 Uncommon Valor (1983) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 Underclassman (2005) C-94m. BOMB D: D: Ted Kotcheff. Gene Hackman, Robert Marcos Siega. Nick Cannon, Shawn AshStack, Fred Ward, Reb Brown, Randall more, Roselyn Sanchez, Kelly Hu, Ian ‘‘Tex’’ Cobb, Patrick Swayze, Harold Gomez, Hugh Bonneville, Cheech Marin. Sylvester, Tim Thomerson, Michael DudiPause here for a Jack Webb ‘‘uh-huh’’: Inkoff. Formula action film about a retired stead of being canned when he precipitates Army officer who gathers motley crew of half a mile’s worth of car-chase damages, Vietnam vets to invade Laos in search of his barely-literate cop Cannon is assigned to son, still Missing in Action. Solid perforpose incognito as a student at a swanky prep mances make this watchable. [R]▼●쩠 school that’s been victimized by a car-theft Unconditional Love (2003) C-124m. ★1⁄2 ring. Few cliche´s are missed, including D: P.J. Hogan. Kathy Bates, Rupert Everett, Cannon’s inevitable yen for the campus Meredith Eaton, Dan Aykroyd, Jonathan Spanish instructor (Sanchez). Script is in Pryce, Lynn Redgrave, Peter Sarsgaard, serious stupor, as if it has spent a month in Stephanie Beacham, Richard Briers, Julie Ana locked room with some of Cheech’s old drews, Barry Manilow. Quirky tale about a stash. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 housewife, abandoned by her husband, who’s Under Cover (1987) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: John mourning the death of her favorite singer. She Stockwell. David Neidorf, Jennifer Jason finds herself on a journey to England (and, of Leigh, Barry Corbin, Kathleen Wilhoite, course, self-discovery), where she meets the David Harris. Neidorf is an out-of-town cop dead crooner’s secret gay lover (Everett). operating undercover with female narc Leigh Nothing quite works in this disappointing to catch the drug pushers who killed another mess of a movie, despite a good cast. Cowritcop on the case. Best known as the pilot ten by the director. Made in 2001; U.S. debut ‘‘Cougar’’ in TOP GUN, Stockwell here makes an uninspired directorial debut. [R]▼ on cable TV. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Unconquered (1947) C-146m. ★★1⁄2 D: Undercover Blues (1993) C-89m. ★★ D: Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper, Paulette Herbert Ross. Kathleen Turner, Dennis Goddard, Howard da Silva, Boris Karloff, Quaid, Fiona Shaw, Stanley Tucci, Larry Cecil Kellaway, Ward Bond, Katherine DeMiller, Obba Babatunde, Tom Arnold, Park [ 1474 ]

Overall, Ralph Brown, Jan Triska, Richard Hackman, Joanna Cassidy, Ed Harris, JeanJenkins, Saul Rubinek, Dave Chappelle. Louis Trintignant, Richard Masur, Rene Paper-thin comedy-romance-thriller about Enriquez, Hamilton Camp. First-rate politisupercool married ex-spies Jeff and Jane cal thriller about journalists on the line in Blue, parents of a baby girl, who tangle with Managua, Nicaragua, 1979, how their lives various heavies in New Orleans. Quaid and intertwine, and how two of them risk their Turner are no William Powell and Myrna professionalism by becoming involved in the Loy, and this is no THIN MAN. Tucci, revolutionary conflict. One of those rare films however, is hilarious as thug named Muerte. that manages to combine real-life politics [PG-13] ▼●쩠 and realistic romance with a no-nonsense ★★ Undercover Brother (2002) C-84m. D: story. Trio of stars are superb; so is Jerry Malcolm D. Lee. Eddie Griffin, Chris KatGoldsmith’s music. Only problem: It goes tan, Denise Richards, Aunjanue Ellis, Dave on too long. Screenplay by Ron Shelton and Clayton Frohman. [R]▼●쩠 Chappelle, Chi McBride, Neil Patrick Harris, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Noseworthy, Underground (1941) 95m. ★★★ D: VinJames Brown, Robert Townsend. When an cent Sherman. Jeffrey Lynn, Philip Dorn, African-American general and potential Kaaren Verne, Mona Maris, Frank Reicher, presidential candidate (Williams) mysteriMartin Kosleck. Gripping story of German ously announces that he’s opening a fried underground movement, with Dorn shielding chicken franchise, one man is chosen to find his activities from loyal soldier-brother Lynn. out why: a bro with a fro in the know (GrifKosleck is definitive Nazi swine.▼쩠 fin). Loopy comedy has some real laughs, Under Milk Wood (1972-British) C-90m. ★★ but its gags fall flat far too often. Based on D: Andrew Sinclair. Richard Burton, an Internet series. Not solid. [PG-13]▼쩠 Elizabeth Taylor, Peter O’Toole, Glynis Undercover Man, The (1949) 85m. ★★★ D: Johns, Sian Phillips, Vivien Merchant. Joseph H. Lewis. Glenn Ford, Nina Foch, Rather obscure Dylan Thomas, not in terms of James Whitmore, Barry Kelley, Howard St. his work but in the film’s ambitions. Beautiful John. Realistic drama of mob leader (loosely images, but rather overbearing technique based on Al Capone) being hunted down by weighs down the acting. [PG]▼쩠 Secret Service men who hope to nail him on Under My Skin (1950) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean tax-evasion charge. Whitmore’s film debut. Negulesco. John Garfield, Micheline Presle, Undercovers Hero (1974-British) C-95m. Luther Adler, Orley Lindgren, Noel Drayton. BOMB D: Roy Boulting. Peter Sellers, Pensive study of troubled, crooked jockey Lila Kedrova, Curt Jurgens, Beatrice Garfield, attempting to reform for the sake Romand, Jenny Hanley, Rex Stallings. of son Lindgren and pretty widow Presle. Inept WW2 ‘‘comedy,’’ with Sellers in six Based on Ernest Hemingway’s My Old Man; roles, including Hitler; a total dud. Made remade for TV in 1979 under that title.쩠 in 1973, barely released here. British title: Underneath (1995) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: SteSOFT BEDS, HARD BATTLES. [R] ven Soderbergh. Peter Gallagher, Alison ElUndercurrent (1946) 116m. ★★1⁄2 D: liott, William Fichtner, Adam Trese, Joe Vincente Minnelli. Katharine Hepburn, RobDon Baker, Paul Dooley, Elisabeth Shue, Anert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, Edmund Gwenn, janette Comer, Shelley Duvall, Joe Chrest. Marjorie Main, Jayne Meadows, Clinton Ne’er-do-well returns home to Austin to atSundberg. Stale melodramatics of newly tend his mother’s wedding, and foolishly tries married Hepburn, whose husband (Taylor) to pick up the pieces of his life before he left is bitterly estranged from his brother; howtown. Soon he’s pursuing his ex-girlfriend, ever, there’s more to the story than she realannoying her gangsterish boyfriend, and izes. Saved only by the fine cast and usual cooking up a robbery scheme. Remake of the high MGM production quality. ▼쩠 film noir favorite CRISS CROSS is stylish, Underdog (2007) C-82m. ★★ D: Frederik Du intriguing, but awfully low-key. A must for Chau. Peter Dinklage, James Belushi, Patrick fans of flashbacks. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Warburton, Alex Neuberger, Taylor MomUnder Satan’s Sun (1987-French) C-97m. ★★★ sen, John Slattery, Samantha Bee; voices D: Maurice Pialat. Ge´rard Depardieu, of Jason Lee, Amy Adams, Brad Garrett. Sandrine Bonnaire, Maurice Pialat, Alain Ordinary pup is given superpowers by a Artur, Yann Dedet. A very demanding and mad scientist who wants to use the dog for difficult film, not for all tastes but most his own evil purposes. Live-action version rewarding to those who can relate to the of the popular 1960s TV cartoon series subject: the questions, conflicts, and tornever takes off; CGI flying effects can’t ments of rural priest Depardieu. Adapted make up for stock villains and subpar plotfrom a book by Georges Bernanos, author ting. Contrived and inane; uninspired voice of Diary of a Country Priest. Video title: casting of Lee as Underdog doesn’t help. UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN.▼ Where is Wally Cox when we really need Under Siege (1992) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: him? Super 35. [PG]쩠 Andrew Davis. Steven Seagal, Tommy Under Fire (1983) C-128m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lee Jones, Gary Busey, Erika Eleniak, Roger Spottiswoode. Nick Nolte, Gene Patrick O’Neal, Nick Mancuso, Andy Ro[ 1475 ]

mano, Colm Meaney. DIE HARD at sea, ‘‘The root word of funeral is fun.’’ Origiwith cook Seagal playing tiger-and-mouse nally titled PLOTS WITH A VIEW. Super with thugs plotting to steal nuclear arms 35. [R]쩠 from aboard a 900-foot Navy battleship. SeaUnder the Boardwalk (1989) C-104m. ★1 gal’s best film to date; Jones and Busey are ⁄2 D: Fritz Kiersch. Richard Joseph Paul, better villains than film deserves. Worth it just Danielle Von Zerneck, Steve Monarque, to see Steve in a chef’s cap. Followed by two Keith Coogan, Roxana Zal, Hunter Von sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Leer, Tracey Walter, Dick Miller, Sonny Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) CBono, Elizabeth Kaitan. Surfers from the 100m. ★★ D: Geoff Murphy. Steven Seagal, San Fernando Valley (‘‘Vals’’) square off Eric Bogosian, Katherine Heigl, Morris against Venice locals (‘‘Lokes’’), with Chestnut, Everett McGill, Brenda Bakke, Romeo-and-Juliet-like conflict of Val boy Peter Greene, Andy Romano, Nick Manwho loves Loke girl. Anemic teen picture cuso, Royce D. Applegate, Kurtwood is a major waste of time. Oddest element: Smith, Afifi. Bad guys take over a crossjargon-spouting narrator is 20 years in the future. [R]▼● continental train to seize control of a satellite particle-beam weapon; then they Under the Cherry Moon (1986) 98m. ★1⁄2 D: Prince. Prince, Jerome Benton, threaten to blow up the Eastern seaboard. But they didn’t reckon with Casey the Cook Kristin Scott Thomas, Steven Berkoff, Fran(Seagal). Elaborately produced and well cesca Annis, Emmanuelle Sallet, Alexandra directed, but still just another connect-theStewart, Victor Spinetti. Supremely silly vandots action thriller. [R]▼●쩠 ity film with Prince self-cast as American gigUnder Suspicion (1992-U.S.-British) olo/entertainer in the south of France who has C-99m. ★★ D: Simon Moore. Liam Neeson, a devastating effect on women (yes, it’s a Laura San Giacomo, Kenneth Cranham, science-fiction story). Stylish-looking fairy Alphonsia Emmanuel, Maggie O’Neill, tale/fable, filmed in black & white, is a triMartin Grace, Stephen Moore. Brighton, umph of self-adoration, and overall embarEngland, 1959: Ex-cop turned seedy private rassment. Some music throughout, but in eye Neeson becomes chief suspect in a murfragmented scenes. Kristin Scott Thomas’ film debut. [PG-13]▼●쩠 der, and must (surprise!) set out to prove his innocence. Dour-looking and sluggishly Under the Gun (1989) C-89m. ★★ D: paced film is helped by Neeson, good as James Sbardellati. Sam Jones, Vanessa always, and Cranham—playing his only Williams, John Russell, Michael Halsey, ally on the police force. San Giacomo is Sharon Williams, Bill McKinney, Rockne unfortunately miscast as a femme fatale, Tarkington, Don Stark, Nick Cassavetes. mistress of a world-renowned artist; she Cop Jones teams up with lawyer Williams seems absurd in the role and entire producto go after plutonium thief who ordered the tion suffers. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 death of Jones’ brother. Acceptable but Under Suspicion (2000-U.S.-French) Cfamiliar odd-couple crime melodrama; at 1 ★★ 110m. ⁄2 D: Stephen Hopkins. Gene least it keeps moving. [R]▼● Hackman, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Under the Hula Moon (1995) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jeff Celentano. Stephen Baldwin, ´ ngel Monica Bellucci, Nydia Caro, Miguel A Sua´rez, Isabel Algaze. In Puerto Rico, police Emily Lloyd, Christopher Penn, Musetta captain Freeman calls in political bigshot Vander, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Edie McClurg, Hackman for questioning, but takes his time Carel Stuycken, R. Lee Ermey. An escaped revealing that he’s a suspect in a series of convict holes up with his long-estranged rapes and murders. Hopkins uses some brother, a dreamer/schemer who lives in the imaginative techniques, and the two leads are desert trying to make his fortune manufacexcellent, as usual, but overall it’s routine and turing a revolutionary sunscreen. Baldwin familiar. Freeman and Hackman executive and Lloyd are an endearingly loopy couple ` produced. Remake of the superior GARDE A in this off-kilter comedy. Written by the diVUE (1981). [R]▼쩠 rector. [R]▼● Undertaking Betty (2003-U.S.-BritishUnder the Rainbow (1981) C-98m. German) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nick Hurran. BOMB D: Steve Rash. Chevy Chase, Brenda Blethyn, Alfred Molina, Naomi Carrie Fisher, Eve Arden, Joseph Maher, Watts, Christopher Walken, Lee Evans, Adam Arkin, Mako, Pat McCormick, Billy Robert Pugh, Jerry Springer, Miriam MarBarty. Even by today’s standards this is an golyes. Intermittently funny farce involving astoundingly unfunny and tasteless comedy mortician/wannabe ballroom dancer Molabout spies, undercover agents, and midgets ina, who’s long had a crush on kindhearted who cross paths in a hotel during filming but unhappily married Blethyn. He agrees of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Is this film the Wicked Witch’s revenge? [PG]▼ to help stage her ‘‘demise’’ so she may avoid the embarrassment of divorcing her Under the Roofs of Paris (1930-French) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Rene´ Clair. Albert Prejean, philandering husband. Walken is a riot as an oddball rival undertaker who stages outPola Illery, Gaston Modot, Edmond Grelandish themed funerals while proclaiming, ville, Paul Olivier. Mime and song, with a [ 1476 ]

minimum of dialogue, tell the story in this Obvious sex comedy owes most of its wonderful film about two ordinary Parisians enjoyment to Lemmon as love-hungry landinvolved with the same woman. A lord trying to romance tenant Lynley who’s living with her fiance´ (Jones).▼쩠 groundbreaking link between silent and sound cinema; Lazare Meerson’s sets are Undertow (2004) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: David outstanding. Written by Clair.▼쩠 Gordon Green. Jamie Bell, Josh Lucas, Devon Under the Same Moon (2008-U.S.-Mexican) Alan, Dermot Mulroney, Kristen Stewart, Shiri C-109m. ★★★ D: Patricia Riggen. Adrian Appleby, Pat Healy, Bill McKinney. Two Alonso, Kate del Castillo, Eugenio Derbez, teenaged brothers live with their widowed faMaya Zapata, Carmen Salinas, America ther on a dreary pig farm in the American Ferrera, Jesse Garcia, Los Tigres del Norte. South; their lives are abruptly altered by the A mother is separated from her young son arrival of their manipulative ex-con uncle. when they try to cross the U.S. border. After Atmospheric but flawed drama of family four years she’s working in L.A., still hopsecrets and jealousies; story takes too long ing to save enough to bring him to America, to develop, and when it does the result is while he’s being raised by his grandmother. strictly standard. Coproduced by Terrence Circumstances cause him to make the jourMalick. [R]▼쩠 ney on his own, and he meets both kind Under Two Flags (1936) 96m. ★★★ D: and cruel people along the way. Amazing Frank Lloyd. Ronald Colman, Claudette performance from young Alonso anchors Colbert, Victor McLaglen, Rosalind Rusthis movie, which flirts with cliche´ but sell, Gregory Ratoff, Nigel Bruce, Herbert scores a bull’s-eye emotionally. Aka LA Mundin, John Carradine, J. Edward BromMISMA LUNA. [PG-13]쩠 berg. Debonair legionnaire Colman is caught Under the Sand (2001-French) C-95m. between two women (aristocratic Russell ★★★ D: Franc¸ois Ozon. Charlotte Rampling, and camp follower Colbert), and the envy Bruno Cremer, Jacques Nolot, Alexandra of jealous commandant McLaglen in this Stewart, Pierre Vernier, Andre´e Tainsy. Hapunbelievable but entertaining Foreign Legion pily married, middle-aged woman (Rampling) story, from the book by Ouida (filmed before goes into denial after her husband mysteriin 1916 and 1922). Originally ran 110m. Underwater! (1955) C-99m. ★★ D: John ously disappears while they are vacationing at the beach. This introspective, quietly powSturges. Jane Russell, Gilbert Roland, Richerful drama presents a vivid exploration of ard Egan, Lori Nelson, Jayne Mansfield. the psychology of heartbreak and grief. Standard skin-diving fare, with Roland and Rampling has never been better. ▼쩠 Egan seeking out treasure in the deep. Russell Under the Sun of Satan SEE: Under in a bathing suit is the main attraction. SuperScope.▼● Satan’s Sun Under the Tuscan Sun (2003) C-115m. Underwater Odyssey, An SEE: Neptune ★★★ Factor, The D: Audrey Wells. Diane Lane, Sandra Oh, Raoul Bova, Lindsay Duncan, Vincent Underworld (1985-British) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Riotta, Elden Henson, Mario Monicelli. D: George Pavlou. Denholm Elliott, Steven While traveling through Tuscany, an AmerBerkoff, Larry Lamb, Miranda Richardson, ican divorce´e, still dazed by the collapse of Art Malik, Nicola Cowper, Ingrid Pitt. Fair her marriage, impulsively decides to buy a thriller about mutants who live underground house and settle there, even though she and who kidnap pretty hooker Cowper in order doesn’t know a soul. A perfect showcase for to obtain from Dr. Elliott the drug that will Lane, whose winning, empathic perforkeep them alive. Retired gunman Lamb is mance allows us to share her experiences. hired by gang boss Berkoff to rescue her. Video title: TRANSMUTATIONS. [R]▼● Everything looks and feels right in this entertaining fictionalization of Frances Mayes’ Underworld (2003-British-German-Hunbest-selling memoir by director-screenwriter garian-U.S.) C-121m. ★★ D: Len Wiseman. Wells. Jeffrey Tambor appears unbilled. Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael [PG-13] ▼쩠 Sheen, Shane Brolly, Erwin Leder, Bill Nighy. Under the Volcano (1984) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 In the foreboding setting of a dark city, war is D: John Huston. Albert Finney, Jacqueline raging between vampires and lycans (known to Bisset, Anthony Andrews, Ignacio Lopez us as werewolves) . . . but bloodsucker BeckTarso, Katy Jurado, James Villiers. Sominsale finds herself attracted to, and protecber but striking adaptation of Malcolm tive of, Speedman, who doesn’t realize his Lowry’s novel about alcoholic diplomat in own lycanthropic fate. Should be fun, but it’s Mexico during the late 1930s; rich in atinexplicably dull, even with razzle-dazzle acmosphere and texture, with a great perfortion scenes and effects, and Beckinsale fails mance by Finney. Screenplay by Guy Gallo; to deliver as a sexy, leather-clad vampire. music by Alex North. [R]▼●쩠 Unrated version runs 134m. Followed by a Under the Yum Yum Tree (1963) C-110m. prequel and a sequel. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 ★★1⁄2 D: David Swift. Jack Lemmon, Carol Underworld: Evolution (2006) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Len Wiseman. Kate Beckinsale, Scott Lynley, Dean Jones, Edie Adams, Imogene Coca, Paul Lynde, Robert Lansing. Speedman, Tony Curran, Derek Jacobi, Bill [ 1477 ]

Nighy, Steven Mackintosh, Shane Brolly, gilist (Snipes), a lifer doing time for murder. Brian Steele, Zita Go¨ro¨g, Michael Sheen. MoThe two stars are excellent. Followed by notonous sequel is about what you’d expect, three direct-to-video sequels. Super 35. [R] with vampire-warrior Beckinsale and half▼쩠 vampire/half-werewolf pal Speedman battling Une Femme Douce (1969-French) C-87m. ★★★ vampire Curran, who is intent on liberating his D: Robert Bresson. Dominique Sanda, beastly, imprisoned werewolf brother. Loud, Guy Frangin, Jane (Jeanne) Lobre. Sanda gory, and boring. Super 35. [R]쩠 gives a remarkable performance in her film Underworld Informers (1965-British) debut as a gentle soul who marries a tyranni105m. ★★★ D: Ken Annakin. Nigel Patrick, cal pawnbroker with tragic results. Bresson’s Catherine Woodville, Margaret Whiting, first color film is a depressing but hypnotic Colin Blakely, Harry Andrews, Frank Finportrait of loneliness and alienation. Based lay. Tight, taut crime tale as Scotland on a Dostoyevsky story. ▼ Yard inspector Patrick must clear his name Unfaithful (2002) C-123m. ★★1⁄2 D: Adrian by bringing in notorious gangland leaders. Lyne. Richard Gere, Diane Lane, Olivier Vivid atmosphere, fine acting by all. OrigMartinez, Erik Per Sullivan, Dominic Chiinal British title: THE INFORMERS. anese, Kate Burton, Chad Lowe, Zˇeljko IvaUnderworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009) Cnek, Gary Basaraba, Margaret Colin. Devoted 93m. ★★ D: Patrick Tatopoulos. Michael wife and mom Lane becomes sexually atSheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra, Steven tracted to a charming Frenchman she chances Mackintosh, Kate Beckinsale. Prequel to to meet. Against her better judgment, she UNDERWORLD (2003) and UNDERputs her marriage on the line, leaving the next WORLD: EVOLUTION (2006) should satmove to husband Gere. Deftly directed, with isfy fans—if no one else. It plays like a period careful observation of life’s ordinary details, swashbuckler while depicting first skirand well acted, but steers off course and drags mishes in the centuries-long war between to a doleful conclusion. Remake of Claude aristocratic vampires and rampaging wereChabrol’s LA FEMME INFIDE`LE. [R]▼쩠 wolves. Series regulars Sheen (leader of the Unfaithfully Yours (1948) 105m. ★★★★ D: werewolves) and Nighy (lord of the vamPreston Sturges. Rex Harrison, Linda Darpires) are in fine form, but series devotees can nell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence, Kurt debate whether Mitra (as Nighy’s rebellious Kreuger, Lionel Stander, Robert Greig, Edgar daughter and Sheen’s secret lover) is an efKennedy, Julius Tannen, Al Bridge. Brilliant fective substitute for the nearly-absent BeckSturges comedy of symphony conductor insale, the leather-clad vampire-warrior in Harrison, who suspects his wife of infidelity previous two UNDERWORLD monster raland considers three courses of action (inlies, who appears only fleetingly at the very cluding murder) during concert. Great end of this one. Super 35. [R]쩠 moments from Vallee and Kennedy; often side-splittingly funny. Remade in 1984.▼●쩠 Underworld U.S.A. (1961) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Samuel Fuller. Cliff Robertson, Dolores Unfaithfully Yours (1984) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dorn, Beatrice Kay, Robert Emhardt, Larry Howard Zieff. Dudley Moore, Nastassja Gates. Robertson sees his father murdered Kinski, Armand Assante, Albert Brooks, and develops lifetime obsession to get even Cassie Yates, Richard Libertini, Richard B. with the mob responsible. One of director Shull. Remake of Preston Sturges’ wonderful Fuller’s most visually striking films; unfortufilm about an orchestra conductor who susnately, his script goes astray and doesn’t fulpects his wife of having an affair—and plans fill initial promise.▼ to murder her. Pretty funny, with a perfect Undiscovered (2005) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Meiert cast, but loses steam somewhere along the Avis. Pell James, Steven Strait, Kip Pardue, way. Certainly no match for the witty Shannyn Sossamon, Ashlee Simpson, Carrie original. [PG]▼●쩠 Fisher, Peter Weller, Fisher Stevens, Stephen Unfaithful Wife, The SEE: La Femme Moyer. Young people trying to make it in Infidele show business have to deal with the dilemma Unfinished Business (1984-Canadian) of selling out or trying to remain true to themC-99m. ★★★ D: Don Owen. Isabelle Mejias, selves. Tired script goes nowhere, and dull Peter Spence, Leslie Toth, Peter Kastner, dialogue can’t put life into these cliche´s. AcJulie Biggs, Chuck Shamata. Appealing claimed music-video director Avis makes the sequel to Owen’s NOBODY WAVED action literally difficult to watch. Super 35. GOODBYE. It’s 20 years later: Kastner and [PG-13]▼쩠 Biggs, now divorced, have a rebellious offUndisputed (2002) C-94m. ★★★ D: Walter spring of their own, 17-year-old Mejias. Hill. Wesley Snipes, Ving Rhames, Peter Falk, Story focuses on her problems and anxieties Michael Rooker, Jon Seda, Wes Studi, Fisher as she approaches adulthood. Stevens, Dayton Callie, Amy Aquino. Simple, Unfinished Life, An (2005) C-107m. ★★★ D: solid (albeit by-the-numbers) boxing meloLasse Hallstro¨m. Robert Redford, Jennifer drama in which a Mike Tyson–like champLopez, Morgan Freeman, Josh Lucas, Camturned-convict (Rhames), jailed on a rape ryn Manheim, Becca Gardner, Damian charge, butts heads with the prison’s top puLewis. Needing to escape from her abusive [ 1478 ]

boyfriend, and with no money, Lopez and her for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Sup11-year-old daughter go to the only place porting Actor (Hackman), Best Film Editthey can: the Wyoming farm of her father-ining (Joel Cox). Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 law (Redford), who still blames her for the Unguarded Moment, The (1956) C-95m. ★★1 death of his son. Also living on the farm is ⁄2 D: Harry Keller. Esther Williams, ranch hand Freeman, who was mauled by a George Nader, John Saxon, Edward Andrews, bear a year earlier. Warmhearted, embracing Les Tremayne, Jack Albertson. Mild drama story about family ties and the need for forof schoolteacher whose emotional stability giveness. It’s a treat to watch Redford and is endangered by lusting pupil. Film noteFreeman as two old codgers with an unshakworthy only for Williams’ nonaquatic role; able bond of friendship. Completed in 2003. based on a story by Rosalind Russell! Unholy, The (1988) C-100m. ★★ D: Camilo Panavision. [PG-13] 쩠 Unforgettable (1996) C-111m. ★1⁄2 D: John Vila. Ben Cross, Hal Holbrook, Jill CarDahl. Ray Liotta, Linda Fiorentino, Peter roll, William Russ, Trevor Howard, Ned Coyote, Christopher McDonald, Kim CatBeatty, Claudia Robinson, Nicole Fortier. trall, Kim Coates, David Paymer, Duncan Ambitious horror film puts priest Cross to Fraser, Caroline Elliott. Police department the test when archbishop Holbrook assigns medical examiner who was accused of murhim to cast out the devil from a New dering his wife is obsessed with finding out Orleans church. Veteran Philip Yordan’s the truth. When he meets a lab scientist (Fiorscript (cowritten by film’s designer Ferentino) who has discovered a way of transfernando Fonseca) is weird but unconvincing. ring memory by injection, he experiments on Special effects are arresting, but highlight is himself, hoping to learn how and why his Fortier as the supersexy demon. [R]▼● wife was killed. A solid premise (along the Unholy Rollers (1972) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: lines of a ’50s sci-fi film) is dissipated by Vernon Zimmerman. Claudia Jennings, plodding treatment and a script that becomes Louis Quinn, Betty Anne Rees, Roberta ludicrous. A disappointment from director Collins. Behind-the-scenes life on roller Dahl. Unendurable is more like it. [R]▼●쩠 derby circuit, Roger Corman–style; raunUnforgettable Summer, An (1994-Frenchchy low-budgeter offers some fun. [R]▼ 1 ★★ Rumanian) C-82m. ⁄2 D: Lucian Pintilie. Unhook the Stars (1996-French-U.S.) CKristin Scott Thomas, Claudiu Bleont, Olga 103m. ★★★ D: Nick Cassavetes. Gena RowTudorache, George Constantin, Ion Pavlands, Marisa Tomei, Ge´rard Depardieu, lescu, Marcel Iures, Razvan Vasilescu. AtMoira Kelly, Jake Lloyd, David Thornton, mospheric 1920s tale of Rumanian military David Sherrill, Clint Howard. Wonderful officer’s wife, whose devotion to her family showcase for Rowlands as a widow with and concern for others causes nothing but grown children who comes to the rescue of a strife. Ironic and sadly pertinent story set preflaky young neighbor and looks after her little dominately on remote border post where boy one day; soon the two develop a strong peasant Bulgarians, Macedonians, and Rubond based on their genuine need for each manians reside amidst constant tension and other. Lovely film cowritten by Cassavetes, turmoil. Scott Thomas is excellent.▼● son of Rowlands and John Cassavetes. DeparUnforgiven, The (1960) C-125m. ★★★ D: dieu (who coproduced the film) has the only John Huston. Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepunderwritten part in the picture. [R] ▼●쩠 burn, Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Charles Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979) CBickford, Lillian Gish, Doug McClure, 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Russ Mayberry. Dennis Joseph Wiseman, Albert Salmi. Western Dugan, Jim Dale, Ron Moody, Kenneth More, set in 1850s Texas tells of two families at John LeMesurier, Rodney Bewes, Shelia odds with Indians over Hepburn, whom White. Innocuous Disney update of Mark the latter claim as one of theirs. Gish and Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King ArBickford are outstanding in stellar-cast story, thur’s Court, with young Dugan (and a lookawith rousing Indian attack climax. Panalike robot) catapulted back to medieval vision.▼●쩠 times. Retitled A SPACEMANIN KING ARUnforgiven (1992) C-127m. ★★★ D: Clint THUR’S COURT. [G]▼●쩠 Eastwood. Clint Eastwood, Gene HackUninvited, The (1944) 98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: man, Morgan Freeman, Richard Harris, Lewis Allen. Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, DonJaimz Woolvett, Saul Rubinek, Frances ald Crisp, Gail Russell, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Fisher, Anna Thomson, Anthony James. Dorothy Stickney, Barbara Everest, Alan NaElegiac anti-Western about a one-time mad pier. Eerie ghost suspenser about Russell diskiller, long since reformed, who comes turbed by dead mother’s specter; Milland and out of ‘‘retirement’’ to make one more hit Hussey, new owners of haunted house, try to because he needs the money for his famsolve mystery. Notrick ending inthisingenious ily. Powerful examination of morality and film, which introduced Victor Young’s melody hypocrisy in the Old West—and the im‘‘Stella by Starlight.’’ Spooky cinematography pact of killing (and being killed)—but by Charles Lang, Jr. Scripted by Dodie Smith marred by a midsection that plods. Exquiand Frank Partos, from Dorothy Macardle’s novel.▼● sitely shot by Jack N. Green. Oscar winner [ 1479 ]

Uninvited, The (2009) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: The United States of Leland, The (2004) C104m. ★★★ D: Matthew Ryan Hoge. Don Guard Brothers. Emily Browning, Elizabeth Banks, Arielle Kebbel, David Strathairn, Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Chris Klein, Jena Maya Massar, Kevin McNulty, Jesse Moss, Malone, Lena Olin, Kevin Spacey, Michelle Dean Paul Gibson. Two teenage sisters—one Williams, Martin Donovan, Ann Magnuson, a waifish ex-mental patient (Browning), the Kerry Washington, Sherilyn Fenn, Matt Malother a smart-mouthed wild child (Kebbel)— loy, Ron Canada. Strikingly original mood suspect the worst when, all too soon after piece/morality play about a quiet teenage boy their mother’s death, their father (Strathairn) (Gosling) consumed by the unhappiness of becomes romantically involved with their the world. He commits an unthinkable crime late mom’s former nurse (Banks). Supernatuthat even he can’t explain, and it has reperral manifestations only serve to intensify cussions on everyone around him, young and their suspicions. Based on A TALE OF TWO old alike, who are all trying to cope with their SISTERS, a 2003 South Korean horror own problems. Told in a mosaic form, flashmovie, this familiar but effectively atmoing back and forth in time. Written by the director. [R]▼쩠 spheric thriller gets a big boost from a genuinely surprising plot twist in the final reel. Universal Soldier (1992) C-104m. ★★ D: Directed by British siblings Charles and Roland Emmerich. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Thomas Guard, who bill themselves as The Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker, Ed O’Ross, Guard Brothers. [PG-13]쩠 Jerry Orbach, Leon Rippy, Tico Wells, Union City (1980) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Ralph Moeller. Van Damme and Lundgren— Reichert. Dennis Lipscomb, Deborah Harry, well, it’s not exactly Tracy and March in Irina Maleeva, Everett McGill, Pat Benatar, INHERIT THE WIND. Hunks are well Tony Azito. Harry (of the rock group cast as rival cyborgs (in a runaway governBlondie) makes her dramatic debut as the wife ment experiment, natch) whose human comof neurotic businessman Lipscomb, who beats ponents hated each other during Vietnam. a vagrant to death. Low-budget film noir Has the requisite number of explosions. The is enhanced by Lipscomb performance and director slyly keeps the grocery store Muzak moody, quirky direction. [PG]▼●쩠 going during Lundgren’s one big emoting ★★★ Union Pacific (1939) 135m. scene—right after he eats raw meat from a D: Cecil B. DeMille. Barbara Stanwyck, Joel Mcbin. Followed by a sequel and two cable TV movies. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 Crea, Robert Preston, Akim Tamiroff, Brian Donlevy, Anthony Quinn, Lynne Overman, Universal Soldier: The Return (1999) C82m. ★★ D: Mic Rodgers. Jean-Claude Van Evelyn Keyes, Fuzzy Knight, J. M. Kerrigan, Regis Toomey. Brawling DeMille saga about Damme, Michael Jai White, Heidi Schanz, building the first transcontinental railroad; Xander Berkeley, Daniel von Bargen, Kiana McCrea the hero, Donlevy the villain, StanTom. The muscles from Brussels is back and wyck (with Irish brogue!) caught between must stop an out-of-control super-cyborg McCrea and likable troublemaker Preston. Acfrom world domination. Derivative but not tion scenes, including spectacular train wreck, boring rehash of the original. Features two Indian attack, and subsequent cavalry rescue tough heroines, Schanz and ESPN fitness via railroad flat cars are highlights. ▼●쩠 guru Tom, but if you’re threatened by the enUnion Station (1950) 80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rulightened sexual politics, there’s also a gratudolph Mate´. William Holden, Nancy Olson, itous brawl at a nudie bar. In his acting debut, Barry Fitzgerald, Jan Sterling, Allene RobWCW superstar Bill Goldberg proves he has erts, Lyle Bettger. Dated police techniques, all the dramatic range of Foghorn Leghorn. plus general implausibility, detract from well[R]▼●쩠 made film about manhunt for kidnapper Unknown (2006) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Simon (Bettger) of young blind woman (Roberts).▼ Brand. Jim Caviezel, Greg Kinnear, Bridget United 93 (2006-U.S.-French-British) CMoynahan, Joe Pantoliano, Barry Pepper, Jeremy Sisto, Peter Stormare, Chris Mulkey, 111m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paul Greengrass. David Alan Basche, Richard Bekins, Susan BlomKevin Chapman, Mark Boone (Junior), maert, Ray Charleson, Christian Clemenson, Clayne Crawford, David Selby. A group of Khalid Abdalla, Lewis Alsamari, David strangers wake up in a locked warehouse Rasche, Chip Zien, Denny Dillon, Rebecca with a dead security guard, unaware of who Schull, Gregg Henry. Harrowing dramatizathey are and how they got there. Reasonably tion of the flight that was hijacked on Sepengaging, unpredictable mystery with a solid tember 11, 2001, as terrorists attempted to fly cast, but it comes across as little more than a the plane into the Capitol in Washington, puree of recent indie hits (MEMENTO, D.C. Film follows the parallel drama of how SAW). Simultaneously released in theaters flight controllers and military personnel first and on cable. Super 35.쩠 realized something was wrong and then tried Unknown Woman, The (2006-Italianto deal with it. Several key people on the French) C-118m. ★★★ D: Giuseppe Tornaground portray themselves in this impeccatore. Xenia Rappoport, Michele Placido, bly crafted, emotionally charged drama, Claudia Gerini, Pierfrancesco Favino, Marwritten by the director. Super 35. [R]쩠 gherita Buy, Alessandro Haber, Piera Degli [ 1480 ]

Esposti, Clara Dossena, Angela Molina. Offhis film is a gem. Clayburgh is magnificent in title role. [R]▼쩠 beat mystery involves a Russian woman with a checkered background who insinuates herUnreasonable Man, An (2007) C-122m. ★★★1 self into the ordered lives of an upwardly⁄2 D: Henriette Mantel, Steve Skrovan. mobile Italian family. Her job as a nanny to Fascinating, aptly titled documentary on pitheir young daughter eventually unlocks seoneering consumer activist Ralph Nader folcrets about everyone. Clearly inspired by lows a remarkable arc: from his challenge to Hitchcock, Tornatore constructs a classic Goliath-like General Motors as a young man puzzle; the head-scratching pieces all add up out of nowhere to a presidential run in 2000 to an absorbing thriller that successfully that lost him many former allies, because takes the CINEMA PARADISO writerthey think the votes he won cost Al Gore the director into brand-new territory. One of Ennio election. Though the film ultimately comes Morricone’s best scores in recent years.쩠 down on its protagonist’s side by a margin a Unlawful Entry (1992) C-111m. ★★★ D: little larger than the one that separated Gore Jonathan Kaplan. Kurt Russell, Ray Liotta, and Bush, it’s hard hitting both pro and con, Madeleine Stowe, Roger E. Mosley, Ken as it should be. Lots of supportive, disilluLerner, Deborah Offner, Carmen Argensioned, and angry voices get their due; there’s ziano, Dick Miller, Djimon (Hounsou). A even rich footage from the episode Nader break-in at the home of Russell and Stowe hosted of Saturday Night Live.쩠 leads to their befriending lonely LAPD offiUnremarkable Life, An (1989) C-92m. ★1 cer Liotta. But the disturbed cop develops a ⁄2 D: Amin Q. Chaudhri. Patricia Neal, fixation on the wife—and we’re into another Shelley Winters, Mako, Rochelle Oliver, urban paranoia thriller. It has the genre’s Charles Dutton, Lily Knight, Jenny Chriusual contrivances and plot holes, but it’s singer. A hokey script does in this dud tense and exciting, with a terrific perforabout two aging, very different sisters who mance by Liotta. [R]▼●쩠 live under the same roof and share memoUnleashed (2005-French-British) C-102m. ries and disagreements, especially when ★★1⁄2 D: Louis Leterrier. Jet Li, Morgan FreeMako starts wooing Neal. Neal and Winman, Bob Hoskins, Kerry Condon, Michael ters try their best, but this is no WHALES OF AUGUST. [PG]▼●쩠 Jenn, Vincent Regan, Dylan Brown, Phyllida Law. Li is kept on a leash—literally—and is Unsane (1982-Italian) C-101m. ★★ D: Dario raised by Glasgow gangster Hoskins since Argento. Anthony Franciosa, John Saxon, childhood to become his personal attack dog. Daria Nicolodi, Giuliano Gemma, Mirella He escapes and tries to start a new life with D’Angelo, John Steiner. Not as interesting the aid of a blind piano tuner (Freeman), but is as most of horror stylist Argento’s thrillforced to confront his violent past. Typically ers, story is about novelist Franciosa becomslick and brutal Euro-actioner from writering the subject of death threats. Extremely producer Luc Besson has a ludicrous premise bloody but featuring some arresting camamped up with exhilarating fight scenes choerawork by Luciano Tovoli, who also reographed by martial arts master Yuen Wo photographed THE PASSENGER. OrigiPing. European title: DANNY THE DOG. nally titled: TENEBRAE. Video version runs 91m. [R]▼●쩠 Also available in an unrated version. Super 35. [R]쩠 Unseen, The (1945) 81m. ★★ D: Lewis Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971Allen. Joel McCrea, Gail Russell, Herbert British) C-102m. ★★★ D: John Mackenzie. Marshall, Phyllis Brooks, Isobel Elsom, David Hemmings, Carolyn Seymour, DougNorman Lloyd. Man who made THE UNlas Wilmer, Hamilton Dyce, Anthony INVITED with Gail Russell tries similar Haygarth, Donald Gee. Nifty little sleeper venture but doesn’t succeed. Governess Ruswith Hemmings as new boys’ school teacher sell haunted again by strange mystery, but who is promptly informed by his class that film haunted by very weak ending. Screenthey murdered his predecessor, and that play by Raymond Chandler and Hagar he’d better stay in line . . . or else. Creepy, Wilde. chilling mystery, loaded with twists and Unsinkable Molly Brown, The (1964) stylishly photographed by Geoffrey UnsC-128m. ★★★ D: Charles Walters. Debbie worth. Title refers to the last three names on Reynolds, Harve Presnell, Ed Begley, Jack the roll . . . but Zigo is always absent. [PG] Kruschen, Hermione Baddeley, Audrey ChrisUnmarried Woman, An (1978) C-124m. tie, Martita Hunt, Harvey Lembeck. Big, ★★★★ splashy, tuneful adaptation of Broadway muD: Paul Mazursky. Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy, Cliff Gorsical. Debbie is energetically entertaining as man, Pat Quinn, Kelly Bishop, Lisa Lucas, backwoods girl who knows what she wants, Michael Tucker, Jill Eikenberry. Intellieventually gets to be wealthiest woman in gent, compassionate look at how a woman Denver in the late 1800s. Based on a true copes when her husband walks out on her. story! Meredith Willson score includes ‘‘I Mazursky (who also wrote script) pulls no Ain’t Down Yet,’’ ‘‘Belly Up to the Bar, punches and makes no compromises—his Boys.’’ Panavision.▼●쩠 characters are living, breathing people and Unstrung Heroes (1995) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1481 ]

Diane Keaton. Andie MacDowell, John TurLhermitte. Utterly predictable romantic drama. [R]▼쩠 turro, Michael Richards, Maury Chaykin, NaUntil the End of the World (1991) than Watt, Kendra Krull, Joey Andrews, Celia C-158m. ★★ D: Wim Wenders. William Weston, Anne DeSalvo, Candice Azzara. A Hurt, Solveig Dommartin, Sam Neill, Max boy’s adventures growing up in an off-center von Sydow, Jeanne Moreau, Rudiger Vogler, Jewish family of the early ’60s with a nutty inErnie Dingo, Chick Ortega, Eddy Mitchell. In ventor father, a loving mother (who takes ill), the near future, Dommartin joins Hurt on a and two highly eccentric uncles. The characters mysterious global mission, which leads to the are colorful, and the performances are firstcreation of a device that will enable blind rate, but the film never quite gels. Young Watt people to see. Intended as the ‘‘ultimate road is a real find. Freely adapted from the autobiomovie,’’ but the story doesn’t take off until graphical book by Franz Lidz. [PG]▼●쩠 almost halfway through, and the characters Unsuitable Job for a Woman, An (1981★★★ and themes remain a jumble. Even the locaBritish) C-94m. D: Christopher Petit. tions (fifteen cities on four continents) can’t Pippa Guard, Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freehelp. There are some sparks from von Sydow, man, Dominic Guard, Elizabeth Spriggs. interesting high-definition TV effects, and an Moody, entertaining film noir thriller about eclectic, all-star soundtrack, but it’s still a a woman detective (P. Guard) and her major disappointment. [R]▼● investigation of an unusual murder case Until They Sail (1957) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: after her boss commits suicide. Based on a Robert Wise. Paul Newman, Joan Fonnovel by P. D. James.▼ taine, Jean Simmons, Sandra Dee, Piper Unsuspected, The (1947) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Laurie, Charles Drake, Patrick Macnee, Michael Curtiz. Claude Rains, Joan CaulDean Jones. Soaper courtroom story set in field, Audrey Totter, Constance Bennett, WW2 New Zealand, with sisters (FonHurd Hatfield. Predictable melodrama with taine, Simmons, Laurie, and Dee) involved good cast; superficially charming radio in love, misery, and murder. From James star Rains has murder on his mind, with Michener story. CinemaScope.▼ niece Caulfield the victim. Untouchables, The (1987) C-119m. ★★★★ ★★★ Untamed (1955) C-111m. D: Henry D: Brian De Palma. Kevin Costner, Sean King. Tyrone Power, Susan Hayward, Agnes Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Moorehead, Richard Egan, Rita Moreno, John Robert De Niro, Richard Bradford, Jack Justin. Quite vivid account of Boer trek Kehoe, Brad Sullivan, Billy Drago, Patricia through hostile South African country, with Clarkson. High-energy entertainment that Power romancing Hayward. CinemaScope. packs a wallop: writer David Mamet’s update Untamed Heart (1993) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: of the well-remembered TV series tells how Tony Bill. Christian Slater, Marisa Tomei, an earnest but naive federal agent named Rosie Perez, Kyle Secor, Willie Carson. Eliot Ness learns (the hard way) to deal with Multiple-hankie romantic tale about two both underworld crime and police corruptroubled adults. Waitress Tomei can’t seem tion in Prohibition-era Chicago. Fluidly to keep a boyfriend, while shy busboy (and often flamboyantly) filmed, with powSlater is a well-meaning orphan with a erhouse performances by Connery (in his heart ailment. Solid production and good Oscar-winning role), as a seasoned street performances (especially from the two cop, and De Niro, as a grandiose Al Capone. stars) go a long way to offset the basically Climactic shoot-out, with echoes of POhokey story. Romantics of all ages are sure TEMKIN, will have you on the edge of to enjoy this. [PG-13]▼●쩠 your seat! Photographed by Stephen H. Untamed Youth (1957) 80m. BOMB D: Burum, with a rich music score by Ennio Howard W. Koch. Mamie Van Doren, Morricone. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Lori Nelson, John Russell, Don Burnett, Untraceable (2008) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eddie Cochran, Lurene Tuttle, Robert Foulk, Gregory Hoblit. Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Yvonne Lime, Jeanne Carmen, The HollyColin Hanks, Joseph Cross, Mary Beth wood Rock and Rollers. Side-splitting camp Hurt, Perla Haney-Jardine. Formulaic but masterpiece has sisters Mamie and Lori raileffective thriller about a computer-savvy roaded onto yucky prison work farm owned psycho who devises the ultimate killer app: by hissably slimy Russell. You know someOn his website, he offers downstreaming thing’s wrong when Mamie sings four video of captives tormented by torture desongs and Cochran only one. Best line: vices that grow increasingly more painful, ‘‘Don’t hit me in the mouth again! You’ll and eventually lethal, as voyeurs worldwide break my dental plate!’’ click to watch. Not for the squeamish. Until September (1984) C-95m. ★★ D: About as satisfying as a better-than-average Richard Marquand. Karen Allen, Thierry episode of a TV police-procedural drama. Lhermitte, Christopher Cazenove, MarieLane is persuasive as the FBI agent on the Christina Conti, Nitza Saul, Hutton Cobb. killer’s trail. Super 35. [R]쩠 Temporarily stranded in Paris, Allen falls Unvanquished, The SEE: Aparajito in love with handsome (and married) banker Unzipped (1995) C/B&W-72m. ★★★ D: [ 1482 ]

Douglas Keeve. Lively, if selective, docuPfeiffer, Miguel Sandoval, Noble Willmentary about N.Y. fashion designer Isaac ingham, James Karen. Ambitious young Mizrahi, which begins with him mired in a woman goes to work for veteran newsman creative slump and ends with a 1994 show at a Miami TV station, where he shapes that trumpets his ‘‘Eskimo line.’’ Benefits and prods her into a good reporter. As their from the ceaseless effervescence of its subpersonal relationship blossoms, they both ject, whose oft-demonstrated tastes in movknow it’s time for her to move on—and up ies and television extend to Bette Davis (in the television ladder. Paraphrase of A BABY JANE mode), Loretta Young, and STAR IS BORN has everything but Pfeiffer his beloved Mary Tyler Moore. [R] ▼●쩠 saying ‘‘This is Mrs. Norman Maine’’ at Up (2009) C-96m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pete Docter. the end, but it still works because of the Voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, thousand-watt charisma of its leads. ScreenJordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo, John Ratzenplay by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, of all people. [PG-13]▼●쩠 berger, Elie Docter. Wonderfully imaginative Pixar animated film about an old man Up From the Beach (1965) 99m. ★★1⁄2 D: who, just as life seems to be shutting him Robert Parrish. Cliff Robertson, Red Butdown, embarks on a great adventure, the tons, Francoise Rosay, Irina Demick, Markind he’s dreamed about since he was a ius Goring, Slim Pickens, James Robertson boy. He hoists his house in the air with Justice, Broderick Crawford. Static film of balloons and heads for South America and American sergeant Robertson involved with the spot he and his wife always dreamed French civilians in love and war during of visiting—accompanied by a well-meaning Normandy invasion. CinemaScope. boy from an Explorer troop. Sweet, touching, Uphill All the Way (1985) C-86m. BOMB exciting, funny, and constantly surprising, D: Frank Q. Dobbs. Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, with great character design and attention to Burl Ives, Glen Campbell, Trish Van detail. Michael Giacchino’s score perfectly Devere, Burt Reynolds, Frank Gorshin, supports a wide range of emotions. Written Sheb Wooley. Teaming of singing stars by Docter and Bob Peterson (who codirected Tillis and Clark as inept robbers in the Old and supplies the voice of Dug) from their West probably sounded like fun on paper story with Tom McCarthy. [PG] but emerges as a mirthless chase film. Up and Down (2004-Czech) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 Cameo contributions of pals Reynolds and Campbell add little. [PG]▼ D: Jan Hrˇebejk. Petr Forman, Emı´lia Va´sˇa´ryova´, Jan Trı´ska, Ingrid Timkova´, Kristyna Up in Arms (1944) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Elliott Lisˇka Bokova´, Jirı´ Macha´cˇek. A couple of Nugent. Danny Kaye, Dana Andrews, Consmall-time smugglers discover an abandoned stance Dowling, Dinah Shore, Louis Calhern, baby, triggering a series of alternately funny Lyle Talbot, Margaret Dumont, Elisha Cook, and tragic consequences among a disparate Jr. Danny’s first feature film (about a hypogroup of people trying to sort out life in the chondriac in the Army) doesn’t wear well, complicated new ways of the Czech Repubbiggest asset being vivacious Dinah Shore; lic. Well-made, quirky tale spins its web Virginia Mayo is one of the chorus girls. Only against the changing social, economic, and those great patter songs—including ‘‘The political landscape of a country that is learnLobby Number’’ and ‘‘Melody in 4F’’—hold ing to start over. Super 35. [R]쩠 up. Based on The Nervous Wreck, filmed before with Eddie Cantor as WHOOPEE!▼ Up at the Villa (2000-U.S.-British) C-115m. ★★ D: Philip Haas. Kristin Scott Thomas, Sean Up in Central Park (1948) 88m. ★★ D: Penn, Anne Bancroft, James Fox, Jeremy DaWilliam A. Seiter. Deanna Durbin, Dick vies, Derek Jacobi, Massimo Ghini. AwkHaymes, Vincent Price, Albert Sharpe, ward adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham Tom Powers. Disappointing screen vernovella set in 1938 Florence. Thomas takes sion of Broadway musical hit (minus many pity on Austrian immigrant Davies and iniof its songs) about an Irish colleen in turntiates one night of sex, but the young man of-the-20th-century N.Y.C. who helps exshoots himself when she refuses to extend pose the crooked Tammany Hall tactics of the relationship. Davies’ dreadful perforBoss Tweed (Price).▼ mance would be enough to sink most movies Up in Smoke (1978) C-86m. ★★★ D: Lou by itself, but there’s also a lack of chemistry Adler. Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Stacy between Thomas and Penn (as a roving-eyed Keach, Tom Skerritt, Edie Adams, Strother American adventurer). As their social circle’s Martin. This silly pothead comedy breaks resident gossip, Bancroft is broad enough to down all resistance with its cheerful vifit right in with the ‘‘Florence set’’ in the gnettes about two dummies in search of more entertaining TEA WITH MUSSO‘‘good grass.’’ Nothing great, but undeniLINI. [PG-13]▼쩠 ably funny; this was Cheech and Chong’s Up Close & Personal (1996) C-124m. ★★★ first movie. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 D: Jon Avnet. Robert Redford, Michelle Up in the Cellar (1970) C-92m. ★★★ D: Pfeiffer, Stockard Channing, Joe Mantegna, Theodore J. Flicker. Wes Stern, Joan Collins, Kate Nelligan, Glenn Plummer, James RebLarry Hagman, Judy Pace. Above-average horn, Scott Bryce, Raymond Cruz, Dedee story of alluring youth who knows how to [ 1483 ]

turn women on. Flicker’s screenplay is excepberg, Jeff East, Blaine Novak, James B. Sikktionally sharp. Made to cash in on success of ing, John Hillerman. Silly comedy—though THREE IN THE ATTIC, and was in fact far from the worst of its kind—about four retitled THREE IN THE CELLAR. [R]▼ college losers (played by graduates of PORUpper Hand, The (1966-French) C-86m. KY’S and ANIMAL HOUSE) who battle ★★1 dastardly preppies and gung-ho military ca⁄2 D: Denys de la Patelliere. Jean Gabin, George Raft, Gert Frobe, Nadja Tiller. dets to win a raft race. Plenty of skimpily Labored international underworld yarn, with clad girls, plus a genuinely funny charade wooden performances by cast involved in scene. [R]▼● gold smuggling. Franscope. Up the Down Staircase (1967) C-124m. ★★1 ★★★ Up Periscope (1959) C-111m. ⁄2 D: D: Robert Mulligan. Sandy Dennis, Gordon Douglas. James Garner, Edmond Patrick Bedford, Eileen Heckart, Ruth O’Brien, Andra Martin, Alan Hale, CarleWhite, Jean Stapleton, Sorrell Booke, Roy ton Carpenter, Frank Gifford. Garner is Poole, Ellen O’Mara. Film version of Bel Navy lieutenant transferred to submarine Kaufman’s bestseller about N.Y.C. public during WW2, with usual interaction among schools is too slickly handled to be taken crew as they reconnoiter Japanese held seriously, but generally entertaining. Good island. WarnerScope.▼●쩠 acting, especially by O’Mara as pathetic Upside of Anger, The (2005) C-118m. ★★★ student.▼쩠 D: Mike Binder. Joan Allen, Kevin Costner, Up the River (1930) 92m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Erika Christensen, Evan Rachel Wood, Keri Ford. Spencer Tracy, Claire Luce, Warren Russell, Alicia Witt, Mike Binder, Dane Hymer, Humphrey Bogart, William ColChristensen. Allen gives another knockout lier, Sr. Silly but disarmingly funny comperformance in this absorbing slice of life edy about a pair of habitual convicts, played about a woman whose husband walks out on by Tracy (dynamic in his feature-film deher, leaving her to cope with four daughters but) and Hymer, and their efforts to help and an enormous well of anger. Costner is fellow inmate Bogart (in his second feaquite good as an ex–baseball-player-turnedture), who’s fallen in love with female radio-personality who insinuates himself into prisoner Luce. Notable for its confluence her life. Writer-director Binder plays Costof great talents at the beginnings of their ner’s producer. Filmed in England, though it careers—but it’s also fun to watch.쩠 takes place in the U.S. Super 35. [R]쩠 Up the Sandbox (1972) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Upstairs and Downstairs (1961-British) Irvin Kershner. Barbra Streisand, David C-100m. ★★★ D: Ralph Thomas. Mylene Selby, Jane Hoffman, John C. Becher, Demongeot, Michael Craig, Anne Heywood, Jacobo Morales, Barbara Rhoades, Stockard James Robertson Justice, Daniel Massey, Channing, Isabel Sanford, Conrad Bain, Claudia Cardinale. Witty study of human Paul Dooley, Anne Ramsey. Uneasy mixnature: Craig married boss’ daughter (Heyture of naturalism and fantasy somewhat wood) and they must entertain firm’s cliredeemed by Streisand’s performance, some ents. Traces chaos of party-giving, and odd funny sequences, and genuine feeling for assortment of servants who come and go. plight of neglected young mother in N.Y.C. [R]▼●쩠 Up the Academy (1980) C-88m. ★★ D: Robert Downey. Ron Leibman, Wendell Up Tight (1968) C-104m. ★★★ D: Jules Brown, Ralph Macchio, Tom Citera, Tom Dassin. Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, Poston, Stacey Nelkin, Barbara Bach, LeonFrank Silvera, Julian Mayfield, Roscoe ard Frey, Robert Downey, Jr. Crude, tasteLee Browne, Max Julien. Tough remake less but occasionally lively comedy about of THE INFORMER, ghetto-style. Black misadventures in a boys’ military school. revolutionaries betrayed by one of their Leibman had his name taken off credits own. [PG—originally rated M] and advertising, but film isn’t that bad. Up to His Ears (1965-French-Italian) Aka MAD MAGAZINE PRESENTS UP C-108m. ★★★ D: Philippe De Broca. JeanTHE ACADEMY, although for cable TV Paul Belmondo, Ursula Andress, Maria release all references to Mad and Alfred E. Pacome, Valerie Lagrange, Jess Hahn. Neuman were excised. Macchio’s film debut. Wealthy young man decides to end his Panavision. [R]▼쩠 troubles by hiring a killer to do him in, Up the Creek (1958-British) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: then changes his mind. Energetic comedy Val Guest. David Tomlinson, Wilfrid Hyderuns hot and cold, but has many delicious White, Peter Sellers, Vera Day, Michael moments. Beware of 94m. version. Goodliffe. Broad naval spoof a` la MISTER Uptown Girls (2003) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: ROBERTS, which leans too much on slapBoaz Yakin. Brittany Murphy, Dakota Fanstick rather than barbs; Hyde-White is best as ning, Marley Shelton, Donald Faison, Jesse nonplussed admiral. Previously filmed as OH, Spencer, Austin Pendleton, Heather Locklear, Fisher Stevens. Would-be fairy tale about the MR. PORTER. Hammerscope. ▼ ★★ Up the Creek (1984) C-95m. spoiled daughter of a rock star who suddenly D: Robert Butler. Tim Matheson, Jennifer Runyon, discovers she’s broke and is forced to take Stephen Furst, Dan Monahan, Sandy Helher first job ever—as nanny to a precocious [ 1484 ]

8-year-old girl whose mother ignores her. structure, a strong cast and a superb perforMurphy and Fanning are well cast and give mance by Futterman. Shear’s feature directthe film its spark, but the muddled script ing debut; he also coscripted. ▼쩠 wavers uneasily between comedy and drama, Urban Legend (1998) C-99m. ★★ D: Jamie settling too often for formulaic glibness. Blanks. Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Rebecca [PG-13] ▼쩠 Gayheart, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Michael Uptown Saturday Night (1974) C-104m. Rosenbaum, Loretta Devine, Joshua Jackson, ★★1⁄2 D: Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier, Bill John Neville, Robert Englund, Danielle Harris, Cosby, Harry Belafonte, Calvin Lockhart, Brad Dourif, Tara Reid. College friends are Flip Wilson, Richard Pryor, Rosalind Cash, stalked by an unknown murderer, who kills Roscoe Lee Browne, Paula Kelly. Undethem one by one in the style of famous urban niably entertaining, this film still looks legends. Clever premise is undercut by stanlike an Amos ’n Andy script dusted off. Broad, dard presentation and a truly rotten ending. silly comedy about two pals (Poitier, Cosby) Just another SCREAM clone, but a bit more who try to retrieve a stolen winning lottery entertaining than most. Followed by two sequels. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 ticket and get involved with an underworld kingpin (Belafonte, in an uproarious GodfaUrban Legends: Final Cut (2000) C-98m. ther parody). A pair of follow-ups: LET’S BOMB D: John Ottman. Jennifer Morrison, DO IT AGAIN and A PIECE OF THE ACMatthew Davis, Hart Bochner, Loretta DeTION. [PG]▼쩠 vine, Eva Mendes, Joseph Lawrence, Anson Up Your Alley (1989) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mount, Jessica Cauffiel, Anthony AnderBob Logan. Murray Langston, Linda Blair, son, Michael Bacall, Marco Hofschneider. Bob Zany, Kevin Benton, Ruth Buzzi, Rivalry between student filmmakers—some Glen Vincent, Jack Hanrahan, Melissa with mysterious pasts—seems to lead to a Shear, Johnny Dark, Yakov Smirnoff. Amseries of murders. Only tenuously linked to bitious low-budget comedy with dramatic the first film, this mostly avoids the ‘‘urban underpinnings. Reporter Blair pretends to legends’’ premise, and also avoids being be homeless to write a story about cynical worth your time. Just another slasher movie, street person Langston, and his innocent defanged by oversensitivity to violence and friend Zany. Gags too often undermine gore. Rebecca Gayheart appears unbilled. Folsensitive and serious moments. Cowritten lowed by URBAN LEGENDS: BLOODY MARY. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 by director Logan and star Langston (a.k.a. The Unknown Comic). [R]▼● Used Cars (1980) C-113m. ★★★ D: Robert Uranus (1991-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: Zemeckis. Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, Gerrit Claude Berri. Philippe Noiret, Ge´rard Graham, Frank McRae, Deborah Harmon, Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Michel Joseph P. Flaherty, David L. Lander, MiBlanc, Ge´rard Desarthe, Michel Galabru, chael McKean, Andrew Duncan, Wendie Fabrice Luchini, Daniel Prevost. CommuJo Sperber. Outrageous comedy about used nists and anti-communists, collaborators car dealer rivalry that leads to spectacular and ex-resisters lobby for power in a French and outlandish customer-getting schemes. village formerly held by the Nazis. Less Hilarious script by Bob Gale and Bob politically ambiguous than muddled, and Zemeckis revels in bad taste, but does it so perhaps overplotted—but a potent showcase good-naturedly it’s difficult to resist. And for some powerhouse French actors.▼ remember, $50 never killed anybody. Urban Cowboy (1980) C-135m. ★★★ D: [R]▼●쩠 James Bridges. John Travolta, Debra Winger, Used People (1992) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Scott Glenn, Madolyn Smith, Barry Corbin, Beeban Kidron. Shirley MacLaine, Kathy Brooke Alderson, Mickey Gilley, Charlie Bates, Jessica Tandy, Marcello Mastroianni, Daniels Band, Bonnie Raitt. A young hardhat Marcia Gay Harden, Sylvia Sidney, Joe new to Pasadena, Texas, gravitates to the inPantoliano, Mathew Branton, Bob Dishy, credible honky-tonk named Gilley’s, with its Charles Cioffi, Louis Guss, Doris Robeasy women, macho ambience, and mechanierts. When her husband dies, a middlecal bull, perfecting an ‘‘image’’ of manhood aged Jewish woman (MacLaine) finds herself that doesn’t quite work out in real life. An being courted—persistently—by an Italian evocative slice of life adapted from Aaron man (Mastroianni) who’s admired her from Latham’s magazine story by Latham and diafar for more than 20 years! Heavily plotted rector Bridges. Later a Broadway musical. Pafamily saga (adapted by actor Todd Graff navision. [PG] ▼●쩠 from a series of his plays) offers many ★★★ Urbania (2000) C-103m. D: Jon Shear. touching and amusing—if never quite conDan Futterman, Alan Cumming, Matt vincing—vignettes, with an all-star lineup Keeslar, Josh Hamilton, Lothaire Bluteau, of actors (again, not terribly convincing, but Samuel Ball, Barbara Sukowa, Paige Turco, fun to watch). [PG-13]▼● Gabriel Olds. Unusual, surreal drama of a Ushpizin (2004-Israeli) C-90m. ★★★ D: gay New Yorker trying to cope with daily Giddi Dar. Shuli Rand, Michal Bat-Sheva life—and the meaning of life—after apparRand, Shaul Mizrahi, Ilan Ganani, Avraham ently losing his lover. Film has an enigmatic Abutboul, Yonathan Danino, Daniel Dayan. [ 1485 ]

Compassionate, folksy comedy—a boxAdams, John Marley, James Blendick, office smash in Israel—about a childless Ben Gordon, Jane Malett, Tony Rosato. Orthodox Jewish husband and wife (played Social worker Hays declares war on the by real-life spouses) who are struggling figas, electric and phone companies in this nancially as they celebrate the Sukkoth holiundercooked satiric comedy. [PG]▼● day with some loutish houseguests. Made Utopia (1951-French) 82m. ★1⁄2 D: Leo by secular filmmakers in collaboration with Joannon. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Suzy members of Jerusalem’s Orthodox commuDelair, Max Elloy. L&H’s final film sadnity; together, they offer an insider’s view dles the great comics with poor script and of Orthodox Jewish customs while presproduction, despite decent premise of the enting characters whose experiences are duo inheriting a uranium-rich island. Aka universal. Shuli Rand, who plays the husATOLL K and ROBINSON CRUSOEband, wrote the screenplay—with the apLAND. Original European running time 98m. ▼쩠 proval of his rabbi. Film’s title translates to ‘‘holy guests.’’ [PG]쩠 Utu (1983-New Zealand) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: U.S. Marshals (1998) C-133m. ★★★ D: StuGeoff Murphy. Anzac Wallace, Bruno Lawart Baird. Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley rence, Tim Elliott, Kelly Johnson, Wi Kuki Snipes, Robert Downey, Jr., Kate Nelligan, Kaa. Maori tribesman (and British army Joe Pantoliano, Ire`ne Jacob, Daniel Roesubordinate) in New Zealand goes on buck, Tom Wood, Latanya Richardson, Mia ritualistic rampage after his family chael Paul Chan. The take-charge marshal is wiped out in a senseless raid. Down(Jones) from THE FUGITIVE and his team beat, dull, and full of stereotypical charare back on the job when a criminal suspect acters—without the compensating power flees after a plane carrying him and other of Australia’s not dissimilar THE CHANT prisoners crash-lands. The search is helped/ OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH. Original runhampered by the addition of a Federal agent ning time 118m; this review is based on the (Downey, Jr.). Action thriller scarcely takes shorter U.S. version. [R]▼쩠 a breath; falters toward the finale and U Turn (1997) C-125m. ★★ D: Oliver doesn’t know when to quit, but still enterStone. Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jennifer taining. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Lopez, Powers Boothe, Claire Danes, JoaU.S.S. Teakettle SEE: You’re in the Navy quin Phoenix, Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Now Voight, Abraham Benrubi, Julie Hagerty, Usual Suspects, The (1995) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 Bo Hopkins, Laurie Metcalf, Liv Tyler. D: Bryan Singer. Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Young punk heading for Vegas is forced to Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, stop in a one-horse Arizona town when his Pete Postlethwaite, Kevin Spacey, Suzy car breaks down; he quickly finds himself Amis, Benicio Del Toro, Giancarlo Espoin a nightmare world where everything that sito, Dan Hedaya, Paul Bartel. Five crimican go wrong does. You know what you’re nals of slightly different stripes are busted in for when an animal is killed during the and put in a police lineup for a crime they main titles; it only gets worse. A sturdy cast didn’t commit. They soon discover that does its best with this predictable, savagely unpleasant pulp nonsense. [R]▼●쩠 fate—and perhaps more earthly forces— brought them together. Terrific cast makes U2: Rattle and Hum (1988) C/B&W-99m. ★★1 the most of Christopher McQuarrie’s intri⁄2 D: Phil Joanou. Title Irish rock band guing, Oscar-winning, but convoluted was the late ’80s’ most celebrated, but script. (If you think about it, the final twist scattershot documentary never really exnegates the entire film!) Highly praised, but plains why to the unknowing or unconto our minds, too ‘‘clever’’ for its own verted. Music compensates to some degree, good. Spacey won an Oscar as Best Supwith some of the best numbers fortunately porting Actor. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 weighted near the end; a side trip to Elvis’ U.S. vs. John Lennon, The (2006) C/B&WGraceland seems out of place. For no ★★★ 99m. apparent reason, first half is in grainy b&w, D: John Scheinfeld, David Leaf. Provocative look at how the U.S. governsecond is in color. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ment targeted ex-Beatle John Lennon in the Utz (1992-British-German-Italian) C-94m. ★★ early 1970s because his great popularity D: George Sluizer. Armin Mueller-Stahl, made his anti-Vietnam stance seem to be a Brenda Fricker, Peter Riegert, Paul Scothreat. Historical footage is linked by interfield, Gaye Brown, Miriam Karlin. Good views with Yoko Ono and leading cultural cast does its best in this overly sedate acicons of the era, from Angela Davis and count of an elderly, dying man (MuellerBobby Seale to Walter Cronkite and SenaStahl) and his lifelong obsession with coltor George McGovern. Ono’s obvious delecting porcelain figurines. The point—the votion to Lennon comes through and ultimate meaninglessness of materialism— provides a revealing portrait of a woman is obvious. Scripted by Hugh Whitemore; based on Bruce Chatwin’s novel.▼ who’s been demonized for years. [PG-13]쩠 Utilities (1981-Canadian) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Harvey Hart. Robert Hays, Brooke Vacancy (2007) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nimro´d [ 1486 ]

Antal. Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, informer Joseph Valachi (Bronson). Lots Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry, Scott G. Anof blood. From the book by Peter Maas. derson, Mark Casella, David Doty. An es[PG—edited from original R rating]▼쩠 tranged couple’s car breaks down in a Valdez Horses, The SEE: Chino desolate area, forcing them to spend the Valdez Is Coming (1971) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: night at a motel run by creepy Whaley, who Edwin Sherin. Burt Lancaster, Susan Clark, looks like he’d make a good roommate for Jon Cypher, Barton Heyman, Richard JorNorman Bates. They soon discover they dan, Frank Silvera, Hector Elizondo. OK have checked into a room with hidden camintellectual Western with Lancaster a eras used to make snuff films and realize Mexican-American deputy sheriff forced they are intended to star in the next producto confront ruthless land baron after trigtion. Tight, economic thriller is helped by gering local hostilities. Shot in Spain; director Antal’s inventive approach to basifirst film for noted Broadway director cally sleazy material. Saul Bass–inspired Sherin. Based on a novel by Elmore Leotitle and end credit sequences are a highnard. [PG]▼●쩠 light. Followed by DVD sequel. Super 35. Valentin (2003-Argentinian-Dutch) C-86m. ★★★ [R]쩠 D: Alejandro Agresti. Julieta Cardinali, Vacation From Marriage (1945-British) Carmen Maura, Jean Pierre Noher, Mex Urtizberea, Rodrigo Noya. With his womaniz92m. ★★★ D: Alexander Korda. Robert Donat, Deborah Kerr, Glynis Johns, Ann ing father and absent mother separated, an Todd, Roland Culver, Elliot Mason. Donat 8-year-old ‘‘cupid,’’ living with his grandand Kerr sparkle in story of dull couple sepmother, must use all his wits to solve his arated by WW2, each rejuvenated by wardysfunctional family’s problems. Story set time romance. Johns is perky as Kerr’s in Buenos Aires in the late 1960s is charmmilitary friend. Clemence Dane won an ing and slight, sort of an edgy THE Oscar for her original story. British version, COURTSHIP OF EDDIE’S FATHER with titled PERFECT STRANGERS, ran 102m. Argentinian seasoning. Noya, in the title role, Vagabond (1985-French) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 avoids the kid actor ‘‘cutes’’ and scores with D: Agne´s Varda. Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha a winning performance. Writer-director Meril, Stephane Freiss, Elaine Cortadellas, Agresti also plays the imperfect dad who Marthe Jarnias, Yolande Moreau. Hauntdiscovers that his son comes in handy when it comes to attracting women. [PG-13]쩠 ing drama about young drifter who wanders about hitching a ride here, sleeping there, Valentine (2001) C-126m. ★1⁄2 D: Jamie and how those she encounters respond to Blanks. Marley Shelton, David Boreanaz, her. A simple, powerful, superbly directed Denise Richards, Jessica Capshaw, Jessica film about chance meetings, missed opporCauffiel, Daniel Cosgrove, Fulvio Cecere, tunities, and the price one must pay for Johnny Whitworth, Katherine Heigl, Hedy one’s choices. ▼●쩠 Burress. Four gorgeous friends receive omiVagabond King, The (1956) C-86m. ★★ nous valentines—and then someone starts D: Michael Curtiz. Kathryn Grayson, Oreste, murdering them. Could it be that geek they Rita Moreno, Cedric Hardwicke, Walter spurned back in junior high? Handsome but Hampden, Leslie Nielsen; narrated by Vindismayingly routine retro-slasher shies away cent Price. Bland remake of Rudolf Friml’s from both gore and sex. Loosely based on the novel by Tom Savage. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 operetta (filmed before in 1930), about poetscoundrel Franc¸ois Villon. Oreste was Valentino (1951) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: Lewis touted as new musical star in 1956, but Allen. Anthony Dexter, Eleanor Parker, didn’t quite make it. Story, sans music, Richard Carlson, Patricia Medina, Joseph filmed in 1927 (THE BELOVED ROGUE) Calleia, Dona Drake, Lloyd Gough, Otto and 1938 (IF I WERE KING). VistaVision. Kruger. Undistinguished, superficial biograVagrant, The (1992-U.S.-French) C-91m. phy of famed star of American silent films. ★1⁄2 D: Chris Walas. Bill Paxton, Michael Valentino (1977) C-127m. ★1⁄2 D: Ken Ironside, Marshall Bell, Mitzi Kapture, Russell. Rudolf Nureyev, Leslie Caron, Colleen Camp, Patrika Darbo, Mark McMichelle Phillips, Carol Kane, Felicity Clure, Stuart Pankin, Teddy Wilson, Derek Kendal, Seymour Cassel, Peter Vaughan, Mark Lochran. A timid, rising executive Anton Diffring. Typically excessive, visu(Paxton) buys a house where an ugly, ally flamboyant Ken Russell ‘‘biography’’ diseased hobo has been living, then finds offers little insight on great screen lover, himself terrorized by the bum. Misfired and suffers further from Nureyev’s awkcomic satire. Executive produced by Mel ward performance. But any film that casts Brooks. [R]▼ Huntz Hall as movie mogul Jesse Lasky Valachi Papers, The (1972-Italian) Ccan’t be all bad. [R]▼● 125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Terence Young. Charles Valentino Returns (1987) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 Bronson, Lino Ventura, Jill Ireland, JoD: Peter Hoffman. Frederic Forrest, Veseph Wiseman, Walter Chiari, Amedeo ronica Cartwright, Barry Tubb, Jenny Wright, Nazzari. Sloppy but engrossing account of David Packer, Seth Isler, Miguel Ferrer. MeMafia life as seen through eyes of famed andering drama of young Tubb and his no[ 1487 ]

account father, frustrated mother, and his desing performances by Camp and Forrest as peration to experience sex. Great atmosphere, Foreman’s hippieish parents, but film never so-so result. Set in 1950s California. Screenreally goes anywhere. [R]▼●쩠 play by Leonard Gardner (who plays Lyle), Valley of Decision, The (1945) 119m. ★★★ based on his short story. [R]▼● D: Tay Garnett. Greer Garson, Greg★1 Valerie (1957) 84m. ⁄2 D: Gerd Oswald. ory Peck, Donald Crisp, Lionel Barrymore, Sterling Hayden, Anita Ekberg, Anthony Preston Foster, Marsha Hunt, Gladys Steel, Malcolm Atterbury. Unmemorable Cooper, Reginald Owen, Dan Duryea, Jesaccount (via flashbacks) of facts leading sica Tandy, Barbara Everest, Marshall up to the wounding of Hayden’s wife, and Thompson, Dean Stockwell. Polished adapdeath of her parents. tation of Marcia Davenport’s novel about Valet, The (2006-French) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: labor and class struggles in 1870 Pittsburgh, Francis Veber. Gad Elmaleh, Daniel Auand a star-crossed relationship between a teuil, Kristin Scott Thomas, Alice Taglioni, housemaid (Garson) and the son of a steel Richard Berry, Virginie Ledoyen, Miche`le mill owner (Peck). ▼ Garcia, Michel Jonasz, Dany Boon, Michel Valley of Gwangi (1969) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Aumont. Business tycoon Auteuil is photoJames O’Connolly. James Franciscus, Gila graphed in a compromising moment with Golan, Richard Carlson, Laurence Naismith, his mistress, a top model (Taglioni), so to Dennis Kilbane. Standard reworking of throw his wife off his trail, he hires a nerdy King Kong theme; adventurers in Mexico parking valet (Elmaleh) to pretend to be the stumble upon prehistoric monster, hit on model’s real boyfriend. Complications idea to display their find in a traveling snowball for all concerned in this slick circus, make money. Script and producVeber farce; not one of his best but still tion have holes, but film is sparked by Ray diverting. Technovision. [PG-13]쩠 Harryhausen special effects. Based on a story by Willis O’Brien.▼●쩠 Valiant (2005-U.S.-British) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gary Chapman. Voices of Ewan McValley of Mystery (1967) C-94m. ★★ D: Gregor, Ricky Gervais, Tim Curry, Jim Josef Leytes. Richard Egan, Peter Graves, Broadbent, Hugh Laurie, John Cleese, John Joby Baker, Lois Nettleton, Harry Hurt, Pip Torrens, Rik Mayall, Olivia WilGuardino, Julie Adams, Fernando Lamas, liams. Cute CG-animated feature about a Leonard Nimoy. Lackluster melodrama in small but plucky bird who joins the elite which a plane crash-lands in the South Royal Homing Pigeon Service working for American jungle. Expanded from a TV Britain during WW2. Before they’re really pilot. ready, he and other new recruits are asValley of the Dolls (1967) C-123m. BOMB signed a vital mission to deliver a message D: Mark Robson. Barbara Parkins, Patty without running afoul of enemy falcons. EnDuke, Sharon Tate, Susan Hayward, Paul tertaining yarn for younger kids, with smart Burke, Tony Scotti, Martin Milner, Lee gags to amuse adults as well (opening b&w Grant, Joey Bishop, George Jessel. Scatnewsreel is called BIRDS ON THE tered unintentional laughs do not compenMARCH). [G]쩠 sate for terribly written, acted, and directed Valkyrie (2008-U.S.-German) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 adaptation of Jacqueline Susann novel about D: Bryan Singer. Tom Cruise, Kenneth Brathree young women in show biz. Author nagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Susann has a bit role as a reporter. Look Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence for Richard Dreyfuss in a quick backstage Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Kevin McNally, Chrisbit. Remade as a TV movie in 1981. Panatian Berkel, David Bamber, Tom Hollander, vision.▼●쩠 Ian McNeice, Christian Oliver. Cruise plays Valley of the Eagles (1951-British) 85m. ★★1 German hero Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, ⁄2 D: Terence Young. Jack Warner, John central figure in the daring scheme to assasMcCallum, Nadia Gray, Anthony Dawson, sinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Pulling off the Mary Laura Wood, Christopher Lee, Njama actual killing is simple compared to the inWiwstrand. Above-par chase tale of Swedfighting among the politicians and military ish scientist tracking down his wife and asbureaucrats who launch this conspiracy. sistant who stole his research data and After so many vivid WW2 movies in recent headed for the north country.▼ years this one rings hollow at first; finally Valmont (1989-French-British) C-137m. ★★1 hits its stride about halfway through the pro⁄2 D: Milos Forman. Colin Firth, Anceedings. [PG-13]쩠 nette Bening, Meg Tilly, Fairuza Balk, Sian ★★1 Valley Girl (1983) C-95m. ⁄2 D: MarPhillips, Jeffrey Jones, Henry Thomas, tha Coolidge. Nicolas Cage, Deborah Fabia Drake, Ian McNeice. Ah, the bedhopForeman, Colleen Camp, Frederic Forrest, ping of Choderlos de Laclos’s Les Liaisons Elizabeth Daily, Lee Purcell. Refreshingly Dangereuses! Meticulous retelling of the nonexploitative punker-suburbanite rosexual shenanigans of 18th-century French mance is several cuts above most contemaristocrats. Youthful cast makes this seem porary teen pics, but the result is still more mischievous than other versions . . . distressingly mild. Attractive leads, amusbut that playfulness also softens some of its [ 1488 ]

bite. Elderly Drake, who died shortly after pire Griffith looks for the talisman that will film’s release, steals every scene she’s in. allow his kind to exist in daylight. Like Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 many Carpenter movies, it begins well, then Vamp (1986) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard crashes in a heap by the end. Based on the Wenk. Chris Makepeace, Sandy Baron, novel Vampire$ by John Steakley. Aka Robert Rusler, Dedee Pfeiffer, Gedde JOHN CARPENTER’S VAMPIRES. FolWatanabe, Grace Jones, Billy Drago. Funlowed by two direct-to-video sequels. Panavision. [R] ▼●쩠 loving college guys run afoul of a female vampire in this dreary and distasteful horVampire’s Kiss (1989) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: ror outing. Starts out promisingly, with Robert Bierman. Nicolas Cage, Maria tongue-in-cheek, but soon drops the light Conchita Alonso, Jennifer Beals, Elizatouch in favor of the kinky. [R]▼●쩠 beth Ashley, Kasi Lemmons, Bob Lujan, Vampira SEE: Old Dracula Jennifer Lundy. N.Y. literary agent, ReaganVampire Circus (1971-British) C-87m. era trendy, is convinced that he’s been ★★1 ⁄2 D: Robert Young. John Moulder bitten by a you-know-what. Cage’s conBrown, Adrienne Corri, Laurence Payne, versation-piece performance is so over the Thorley Walters, Lynne Frederick, David top that it’s conceivable the actor was Prowse. Very weird Hammer horror with bitten in real life. Amusing at times, also unique gimmick; 19th-century European cirtasteless, with a pointed office-harassment subplot. [R]▼●쩠 cus travels from town to town for good reason: most everyone is a vampire—including Vampyr (1932-French-German) 73m. ★★★ the animals! Last-minute cuts muddled the D: Carl Theodor Dreyer. Julian West (Baron film considerably, but still well worth a Nicolas de Gunzburg), Sybille Schmitz, look. [PG—edited from original R rating]● Maurice Schutz, Henriette Gerard. Dreyer’s Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) C-102m. ★★ stylized use of light, shadow, and camera D: Wes Craven. Eddie Murphy, Angela angles takes precedence over the plot in Bassett, Allen Payne, Kadeem Hardison, this chilling vampire-in-a-castle tale. Based John Witherspoon, Zakes Mokae, Joanna on the novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Cassidy, Simbi Khali. Sleek Caribbean Fanu; filmed several times later. Originally vampire Murphy, to perpetuate his race, made in French, German, and English needs to persuade Brooklyn cop Bassett that versions.▼●쩠 she’s his soul mate. Oddball film has MurVan, The (1976) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam phy cracking jokes, but he’s thoroughly Grossman. Stuart Getz, Deborah White, evil; on the other hand, it’s not scary enough Danny DeVito, Harry Moses, Marcie Barkin, to work as a horror film . . . and it’s overBill Adler, Stephen Oliver. Shy Getz uses long, to boot. [R]▼●쩠 his fancy new van to seduce pretty girls. Vampire Lovers, The (1970-British) CInnocuous idiocy of the California youth genre. Aka CHEVY VAN. [R]▼쩠 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy Ward Baker. Ingrid Pitt, Pippa Steele, Madeleine Smith, Peter Van, The (1996-British) C-105m. ★★ D: Cushing, George Cole, Dawn Addams, Stephen Frears. Colm Meaney, Donal Kate O’Mara. Rather erotic Hammer chiller O’Kelly, Ger Ryan, Caroline Rothwell, about lesbian vampires faithfully adapted Brendan O’Carroll, Stuart Dunn. Slight, disfrom Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, filmed appointing farce in which unemployed pals many times before and since. Followed by attempt to bring in the bucks by operating a LUST FOR A VAMPIRE and TWINS OF hamburger business out of a van. The third EVIL. [R]▼●쩠 (and by far least impressive) of Roddy Vampire Men of the Lost Planet (1970) Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy, following THE C-85m. BOMB D: Al Adamson. John COMMITMENTS and THE SNAPPER. Carradine, Robert Dix, Vicki Volante, Joey [R]▼● Benson, Jennifer Bishop. Scientist traces Van Gogh (1991-French) C-155m. ★★★ epidemic of vampire attacks on earth to D: Maurice Pialat. Jacques Dutronc, Alexstrange, distant planet, with the aid of andra London, Ge´rard Sety, Bernard Le stock footage from other movies. A real Coq, Corinne Bourdon. Highly subjective mish-mash, released theatrically as HORROR chronicle focusing on Van Gogh’s final OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS, CREAmonths. Unlike other films, he’s clearly deTURES OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, picted as not being deranged; the result is a HORROR CREATURES OF THE PREHISsolid, austere work which steers clear of TORIC PLANET, and SPACE MISSION OF any sort of sensationalism or melodrama. THE LOST PLANET. [PG]▼쩠 Dutronc offers a thoughtful lead perforVampires (1998) C-107m. ★★ D: John Carmance. [R]▼쩠 penter. James Woods, Daniel Baldwin, Van Helsing (2004) C-132m. BOMB D: Sheryl Lee, Thomas Ian Griffith, MaximilStephen Sommers. Hugh Jackman, Kate ian Schell, Tim Guinee, Mark Boone, Jr., Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David WenGregory Sierra. Under directions from the ham, Shuler Hensley, Elena Anaya, Will Vatican, Woods and his team kill pesky Kemp, Kevin J. O’Connor, Alun Armstrong, vampires in the Southwest, while head vamJosie Maran, Robbie Coltrane. Working for a [ 1489 ]

secret organization bent on destroying evil, lenger from Denver to San Francisco, Gabriel Van Helsing is sent to Transylvania Newman—for no apparent reason—decides for his most difficult assignment: killing Count to do it in 15 hours. Naturally, the cops are Dracula. He also has to deal with Frankensoon in hot pursuit, but Barry gets some stein’s monster and The Wolf Man. After a help from blind d.j. Super Soul (Little). Exb&w prologue that pays homage to classic istential chase thriller was a big drive-in hit, Universal horror films, this noisy, interminaand remains a cult favorite, but is pretty ble, video-game–like movie discards all semmuch a disappointment. Exceptional rock blance of story or characterization. Even the score. British version, also on DVD, runs charismatic Jackman is rendered dull. Edward 106m. Remade for TV in 1997 with Viggo Van Sloan, R.I.P. [PG-13]▼쩠 Mortensen. [PG]▼●쩠 Vanilla Sky (2001) C-136m. ★★ D: CamVanishing Prairie, The (1954) C-75m. ★★★ eron Crowe. Tom Cruise, Pene´lope Cruz, D: James Algar. Narrated by Winston Cameron Diaz, Kurt Russell, Jason Lee, Hibler. Disney’s second True-Life AdvenNoah Taylor, Timothy Spall, Tilda Swinton, ture feature provides astonishing footage Michael Shannon, Alicia Witt, Johnny Gaof animal life in the great plains, including lecki. A man who seems to have it all is the birth of a buffalo calf. Fine presentavictimized by a jealous lover after he spends tion with little Disney gimmickry; Acadthe night with an alluring—and intriguing— emy Award winner.▼쩠 woman he’s just met. From that moment on, Vanishing Wilderness (1974) C-93m. ★★★ his life becomes a nightmare. Remake of the D: Arthur Dubs, Heinz Seilmann. Cowboy Spanish OPEN YOUR EYES (which also actor/singer Rex Allen narrates this stunstarred Cruz) combines dreams within ningly photographed wildlife documentary dreams, causing its main character to wonwhich covers virtually all of North America— der what’s real, and what might have been. from the alligators of the Everglades to the The stars look great, and Diaz is terrific, polar bears of the Arctic. Topnotch but for but is there a point? Crowe scripted this excessive narration and heavenly choirs punctuating each scene. [G]▼ unfortunate misfire. Steven Spielberg appears briefly. [R]▼쩠 Vanity Fair (2004-U.S.-British) C-141m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mira Nair. Reese Witherspoon, Bob Vanishing, The (1988-French-Dutch) C101m. ★★★ D: George Sluizer. BernardHoskins, Rhys Ifans, Gabriel Byrne, Romola Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna Garai, Jim Broadbent, Eileen Atkins, GeralTer Steege. Disturbing psychodrama of a dine McEwan, James Purefoy, Jonathan Rhys man’s obsession with discovering what hapMeyers, Robert Pattinson. Good-looking propened to his girlfriend, who inexplicably vanduction of Thackeray’s novel about Becky ishes at a vacation rest stop. The viewer, too, Sharp, a poor girl who will stop at nothing to becomes involved as the abductor recounts improve her position in society in 19thhis steps leading up to the crime. A thriller century England. Generally well done, but without blood that maintains an uneasy tenoverlong and heavy-handed at times. Withsion from the beginning through its haunting erspoon’s star quality definitely buoys the (if implausible) climax. Sluizer also directed proceedings. Filmed before in 1923, 1932, the American remake.▼●쩠 and 1935 (as BECKY SHARP). Super 35. Vanishing, The (1993) C-110m. ★★ D: [PG-13] ▼쩠 George Sluizer. Jeff Bridges, Kiefer SuthVantage Point (2008) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Pete erland, Nancy Travis, Sandra Bullock, Park Travis. Dennis Quaid, Sigourney Weaver, Overall, Maggie Linderman, Lisa Eichhorn, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, Bruce McGill, George Hearn, Lynn Hamilton. SutherEdgar Ramirez, Saı¨d Taghmaoui, Ayelet land’s girlfriend disappears at a gas staZurer, Zoe Saldana, William Hurt, James Le tion, and after three years of searching for Gros, Eduardo Noriega, Richard T. Jones. her he’s become a man obsessed. MeanIn true RASHOMON fashion, the assassinawhile, her wily abductor (Bridges) considtion of a U.S. President in a foreign country ers revealing himself. Well-performed but is told from eight different perspectives (a unpleasant film can’t hold a candle to Sluiznews crew, a tourist, a terrorist, a secret er’s 1988 original. [R]▼●쩠 service agent, et al.). Tedious at first, with Vanishing American, The (1955) 90m. stilted dialogue and laughable B-movie his★★ trionics threatening to sink the ambitious D: Joseph Kane. Scott Brady, Audrey Totter, Forrest Tucker, Gene Lockhart, enterprise, but as film progresses the mysJim Davis, Jay Silverheels. Mild, minor tery deepens and a couple of twists make film about landgrabbers trying to take Navthe effort pay off. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ajo territory; loosely based on Zane Grey Van Wilder SEE: National Lampoon’s novel, filmed before in 1925. Van Wilder Vanishing Point (1971) C-99m. ★★ D: Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj SEE: NaRichard C. Sarafian. Barry Newman, Cleational Lampoon’s Van Wilder 2: The von Little, Dean Jagger, Paul Koslo, Robert Rise of Taj Donner, Severn Darden, Gilda Texter, VicVanya on 42nd Street (1994) C-120m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Wallace Shawn, toria Medlin. Told to drive a Dodge Chal[ 1490 ]

Phoebe Brand, George Gaynes, Jerry Mayer, with an actress (Balibar) who has returned Andre Gregory, Julianne Moore, Larry Pine, to Paris to star in a Pirandello play in which Brooke Smith, Lynn Cohen, Mahdur Jaffrey. the script mirrors the offstage goings-on. Malle’s final feature is a riveting, highly cineRich, carefully observed movie for grownmatic ‘‘filmed theater’’ piece, which examups. [PG-13]▼쩠 ines the illusion that is the theater. Actors Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter (1986) come to a crumbling midtown Manhattan C-90m. BOMB D: Robert Burge. Paul stage to rehearse David Mamet’s adaptation Sorvino, Cassandra Edwards, Abe Vigoda, of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya; Gregory is the Ina Balin, June Wilkinson, William Mardirector, Shawn is taking the leading role (in shall, Lorne Greene, Gary Raff. Bank exwhich he is superb), and all of them remain in ecutive Sorvino is the father of eight. His street clothes as the rehearsal subtly becomes wife gives him an ultimatum: Get a vasecthe play, which intertwines with ‘‘real life.’’ tomy, or it’s bye-bye sex life. Utterly As stunningly original as Malle’s MY DINinane comedy that’s almost (but not quite) NER WITH ANDRE (which also featured too stupid to be offensive. [PG-13]▼ Shawn and Gregory). [PG]▼●쩠 Vatel (2000-French-British) C-117m. ★★★ Varan, the Unbelievable (1958-JapaneseD: Roland Joffe´. Ge´rard Depardieu, Uma 1 ★ ⁄2 D: Ishiro Honda, U.S.) 70m. Thurman, Tim Roth, Julian Glover, Julian Jerry Baerwitz. Myron Healey, Tsuruko Sands, Timothy Spall, Arielle Dombasle, Kobayashi, Kozo Nomura, Ayumi Sonoda. Hywel Bennett, Richard Griffiths, Murray Typical Japanese rubber monster film exLachlan Young. Richly textured study of cept that creature defies clear definition. Franc¸ois Vatel, who works as master stewIt’s vaguely reptilian, but some insist ard for a retired French general in 1671. it’s a giant squirrel, since in Japanese When King Louis XIV comes to visit, Vatel prints it flies like a flying squirrel. Regardmust stage a magnificent feast and spectacle less, it stomps cities and scares the masses. so the King will relieve his master of his Unbelievable is key word. Tohoscope. ▼쩠 debts . . . but Louis has his own agenda. Variety Girl (1947) 97m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Tom Stoppard adapted Jeanne Labrune’s Marshall. Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, screenplay; based on a true story of court DeForest Kelley, William Demarest, Frank intrigue, this also serves as a contemporary Faylen, Frank Ferguson. Hatcher and San parable about personal integrity. Sumptuously filmed. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 Juan head for Hollywood with hopes of stardom; flimsy excuse for countless ParaVatican Affair, The (1969-Italian) C-94m. ★★ mount guest stars, including Gary Cooper D: Emilio Miraglia. Walter Pidgeon, and Ray Milland. Bob Hope and Bing Ira Furstenberg, Klaus Kinski, Tino Carraro. Crosby come off best in amusing golfing Pidgeon masterminds Vatican robbery in scene. Puppetoon segment in color.▼ routine heist film. Colorscope. [M/PG] Variety Lights (1950-Italian) 93m. ★★1⁄2 Vault of Horror (1973-British) C-87m. ★★1 D: Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada. ⁄2 D: Roy Ward Baker. Daniel Massey, Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, Anna Massey, Terry-Thomas, Glynis Johns, Giulietta Masina, John Kitzmiller, Dante Curt Jurgens, Dawn Addams, Tom Baker, Maggio, Checco Durante. Fellini’s first Denholm Elliott, Michael Craig, Edward film (though codirected) is a rather ordinary Judd. Five horror tales interwoven by thin tale of the lovely Del Poggio struggling connecting thread, dealing with murder, through small-town music halls to become a torture, bloodthirsty vampires, voodoo; star. Some funny and touching scenes featuradapted from old E. C. Comics. Fine cast ing the usual Fellini eccentrics.▼●쩠 with so-so material. Follow-up to TALES Varsity Blues (1999) C-104m. ★1⁄2 D: FROM THE CRYPT; reissued as TALES Brian Robbins. James Van Der Beek, Jon FROM THE CRYPT, PART II. [PG]▼쩠 Voight, Paul Walker, Ron Lester, Scott Caan, Vegas Vacation (1997) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ali Larter, Amy Smart. Cliche´-ridden, MTVStephen Kessler. Chevy Chase, Beverly produced high school pigskin drama about a D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Ethan Embry, reluctant second-string quarterback (Van Der Marisol Nichols, Miriam Flynn, Shae Beek) and his nefarious steroid-distributing D’Lyn, Siegfried & Roy, Wallace Shawn, coach (Voight, who seems to think he’s doing Sid Caesar, Julia Sweeney, Christie BrinkEugene O’Neill). Veers between leering low ley. Just what you’d expect, as the Griswold comedy and heavy-handed melodrama. Lester family goes to Las Vegas, where Chase rises above his exploitative role as an overlocks horns with a spiteful blackjack dealer weight lineman. [R]▼●쩠 (Shawn), D’Angelo is wooed by Wayne Va Savoir (2001-French-Italian) C-150m. Newton, son Embry is mistaken for a high ★★★ D: Jacques Rivette. Jeanne Balibar, Serroller, and daughter Nichols is influenced gio Castellitto, Marianne Basler, Jacques by her cousin, an exotic dancer. Quaid Bonnaffe´, He´le`ne de Fougerolles, Bruno steals every scene he’s in. That’s producer Todeschini, Catherine Rouvel, Claude Berri. Jerry Weintraub as slick gambler Jilly from Laid-back comedy follows the romantic enPhilly. [PG]▼●쩠 tanglements of six characters, beginning Velocity SEE: Wild Ride, The [ 1491 ]

Velocity of Gary, The (1999) C-98m. ★1⁄2 Christopher Lee, Douglas Wilmer, Tsai D: Dan Ireland. Salma Hayek, Vincent Chin, Horst Frank, Maria Rohm, Howard D’Onofrio, Thomas Jane, Chad Lindberg, Marion Crawford. Third entry in low-budget Olivia d’Abo, Shawn Michael Howard, series that keeps Sax Rohmer stories in Ethan Hawke. Sloppy, stilted soap opera, period. This time evil genius is out to set amid the N.Y.C. porno–drag queen subdestroy world police organization, and culture, involving a love triangle between discredit arch-nemesis Nayland Smith (Wilbisexual porn actor D’Onofrio, aimless husmer) with a double. Good cast working tler Jane, and frenzied waitress Hayek. below capabilities; lousy script. Followed by BLOOD OF FU MANCHU. ▼ AIDS (though never named) plays a key role in the story, which labors to be hip but Vengeance of She, The (1968-British) C-101m. ★★ D: Cliff Owen. John Richardis only affected and muddled. ClairmontScope. [R]▼쩠 son, Olinka Berova, Edward Judd, Colin Velvet Goldmine (1998-U.S.-British) CBlakely. Not a sequel, but more like a remake 117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Todd Haynes. Ewan Mcof Hammer’s 1965 version of Haggard’s Gregor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Toni Collette, SHE; here, the spirit of Ayesha takes over Christian Bale, Eddie Izzard, Emily Woof, young Berova. Pretty boring. [G]▼●쩠 Michael Feast. Opulent, glittery paean to early Vengeance Valley (1951) C-83m. ★★ D: ’70s glam rock (and youth-culture head movRichard Thorpe. Burt Lancaster, Robert ies like QUADROPHENIA and PERFORWalker, Joanne Dru, Sally Forrest, John MANCE) is such a triumph of style and Ireland, Carleton Carpenter, Hugh O’Brian. excess it’s easy to overlook the film’s Sex in the West with Lancaster and Walker clunky CITIZEN KANE narrative structure as battling brothers, Dru and Forrest their and emotionally aloof characters. Rhys women. Walker plays slimy villain with Meyers is effectively snotty as a bisexual gusto.▼●쩠 David Bowie–esque pop star, but Collette is Vengo (2001-French-Spanish) C-90m. ★★ a standout as his neglected party-girl wife. D: Tony Gatlif. Antonio Canales, Orestes Sandy Powell’s inventive, androgynous Villasan Rodriguez, Antonio Perez Dechent, Bobote, Juan Luis Corrientes. A proud Andacostumes are great. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Velvet Touch, The (1948) 97m. lusian gypsy tries to put an end to the blood ⁄2 D: John Gage. Rosalind Russell, Leo Genn, feud between his family and a rival clan. Claire Trevor, Sydney Greenstreet, Leon Things get complicated when his mentally reAmes, Frank McHugh, Martha Hyer. Sattarded nephew is targeted for death. Works isfying murder mystery about a stage acmarginally as an ode to Spanish flamenco tress who commits perfect crime; good Leo dancing, but as a vendetta drama it’s monotonous and melodramatic. Super 35.▼쩠 Rosten script with a nifty ending. ▼● Velvet Vampire, The (1971) C-80m. ★★ Venice/Venice (1992) C-108m. ★★ D: D: Stephanie Rothman. Michael Blodgett, Henry Jaglom. Nelly Alard, Henry Jaglom, Celeste Yarnall, Sherry Miles, Jerry DanSuzanne Bertish, Melissa Leo, Daphna iels. Stylish transfer of vampire legend to Kastner, David Duchovny, Diane Salinwestern U.S. with Yarnall as sexy bloodger, Zack Norman, John Landis. Jaglom sucker. Later reissued as CEMETERY pretentiously parodies himself, playing a GIRLS. [R]▼●쩠 ‘‘maverick’’ American filmmaker at the Venetian Affair, The (1967) C-92m. ★★ D: Venice Film Festival; Alard is cast as a Jerry Thorpe. Robert Vaughn, Elke Sommer, French journalist who becomes involved Felicia Farr, Karl Boehm, Luciana Paluzzi, with him. Annoyingly self-absorbed, but Boris Karloff, Edward Asner. Limp spy veoccasionally effective when depicting the hicle not far removed from Vaughn’s Man artificial emotion at the festival. The title from U.N.C.L.E. TV series. International inrefers to Venice, Italy, and Venice, California. ▼쩠 trigue isn’t too intriguing in this one; Karloff is good in a supporting role. Panavision. Venom (1982-British) C-98m. ★★ D: Piers Venetian Woman, The (1986-Italian) Haggard. Klaus Kinski, Nicol Williamson, C-84m. ★★★ D: Mauro Bolognini. Laura Oliver Reed, Sarah Miles, Sterling Hayden, Antonelli, Jason Connery, Monica GuerriCornelia Sharpe, Susan George, Michael tore, Claudio Amendola, Annie-Belle. DisGough. World’s deadliest snake terrorizes a armingly straightforward 16th-century sex London town house—in the midst of a hoscomedy-drama of Connery (son of Sean tage crisis. Not a horror movie, as its title Connery and Diane Cilento) arriving in would indicate, and pretty short on thrills. Venice and juggling affairs with lovely but Unusually strong cast for such an unexceptional film. [R] ▼쩠 frustrated older women. Exquisite art direction, gorgeous Antonelli, and clever musical Venom (2005) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim Gillespie. score by Ennio Morricone heighten this litAgnes Bruckner, Jonathan Jackson, Laura tle gem. Original Italian title: LA VENRamsey, D. J. Cotrona, Rick Cramer, Meagan EXIANA. Good, Bijou Phillips, Method Man. A Creole Vengeance of Fu Manchu, The (1967healing woman accidentally releases superBritish) C-91m. ★★ D: Jeremy Summers. naturally poisonous reptiles whose bites kill, [ 1492 ]

then reanimate, a redneck tow-truck driver. revealed to the authorities. Staunton is exHe spends the rest of the movie decimating a traordinary in another of Leigh’s kitchensmall town’s denizens, primarily dopey high sink dramas that depicts a society that—for schoolers in an old dark house on the bayou. all its faults, some quite serious—was more Slavish imitation of I KNOW WHAT YOU civilized than ours. [R]쩠 DID LAST SUMMER—by its creators—is Verboten! (1959) 93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Samuel practically a remake (crowbar instead of Fuller. James Best, Susan Cummings, Tom fishhook) with voodoo thrown in. Standard Pittman, Paul Dubov, Dick Kallman, Steslaughterfest is merely SNAKES ON A ven Geray. American soldier falls in love PLANTATION. Super 35. [R]쩠 with embittered German girl in occupied Venus (2006-British) C-94m. ★★★ D: Roger Berlin after WW2. High-pitched drama, flamboyantly directed by Fuller.▼● Michell. Peter O’Toole, Leslie Phillips, Jodie Whittaker, Richard Griffiths, Vanessa Verdict, The (1946) 86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Don Redgrave. O’Toole has his best film role Siegel. Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet, in decades as an aged actor who forms an Joan Lorring, George Coulouris, Arthur unlikely relationship with a friend’s roughShields, Rosalind Ivan, Holmes Herbert. hewn 19-year-old niece. Hanif Kureishi’s Greenstreet and Lorre make the most of screenplay examines mortality and the grathis ‘‘perfect crime’’ yarn, with Greenstreet dations of passion in surprising ways, but it as Scotland Yard inspector who’s ‘‘retired’’ is O’Toole who makes it special, with a after he sends innocent man to gallows. Diperformance of subtlety and consummate rector Siegel’s first feature. Remake of THE skill that, inevitably, draws on our own CRIME DOCTOR (1934). knowledge of his cinematic legacy. [R]쩠 Verdict, The (1974) SEE: Jury of One Verdict, The (1982) C-129m. ★★★★ D: Venus Beauty Institute (1999-French) C105m. ★★ D: Tonie Marshall. Nathalie Sidney Lumet. Paul Newman, Charlotte Baye, Bulle Ogier, Mathilde Seigner, AuRampling, Jack Warden, James Mason, drey Tautou, Robert Hossein, Samuel Le Milo O’Shea, Edward Binns, Julie Bovasso, Bihan, Jacques Bonnaffe. Baye plays an atLindsay Crouse, Roxanne Hart, James tendant at a fashionable Paris salon whose Handy. Newman gives one of his finest percustomers believe that treatments and formances as Boston lawyer who’s hit beauty products will make them desirable— bottom, until a medical negligence case though she herself has never found happigives him a chance to restore his selfness. Interesting to a point but dry and suesteem—while fighting for the kind of perficial—though it won four Ce´sar Awards, justice he still believes in. Director Lumet including Best Picture. That’s the filmuses silence as eloquently as dialogue, and maker’s mother, Micheline Presle, playing turns a story with more than a few loopholes her Aunt Maryse, alongside Emmanuelle into an emotionally charged experience. Look Riva. [R]▼쩠 carefully for Bruce Willis as a courtroom Venus in Furs (1970-British-Italian-Gerspectator. Screenplay by David Mamet, 1 ★ man) 86m. ⁄2 D: Jess Franco. James from Barry Reed’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 Darren, Barbara McNair, Maria Rohm, Verne Miller (1987) C-92m. BOMB D: Klaus Kinski, Dennis Price, Margaret Lee. Rod Hewitt. Scott Glenn, Barbara Stock, Musician is baffled to see a woman who Thomas G. Waites, Lucinda Jenney, Sonny had previously washed ashore in a mutiCarl Davis, Diane Salinger, Andrew Roblated state; poor mystery. [R]▼쩠 inson. Dumb drama with Glenn in a oneVera Cruz (1954) C-94m. ★★★ D: Robert note performance as a real-life ex–South Aldrich. Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Dakota sheriff who became a notorious Darcel, Cesar Romero, George Macready, Ergangster during the 1920s and ’30s. All attinest Borgnine, Charles Bronson. Lumbering tude and posturing. [R]▼● yet exciting Western set in 1860s Mexico Veronica Guerin (2003-Irish-British) Cwith Cooper and Lancaster involved in plot to 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joel Schumacher. Cate seize a stagecoach filled with Emperor MaxiBlanchett, Gerard McSorley, Ciara´n Hinds, milian’s gold. SuperScope.▼●쩠 Brenda Fricker, Barry Barnes, Joe Hanley, Vera Drake (2004-British-French) C-125m. David Murray, Gerry O’Brien, Colin Far★★★ D: Mike Leigh. Imelda Staunton, Phil rell. Disappointing drama about the fearless Davis, Peter Wight, Adrian Scarborough, real-life newspaper reporter who continually Heather Craney, Daniel Mays, Alex Kelly, put herself in harm’s way in order to expose Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Jim Broadthe drug lords who bred so many adolescent bent, Allan Corduner, Ruth Sheen. Vivid addicts. Blanchett is as watchable as ever, re-creation of English working-class life in but it’s hard to muster (or maintain) empa1950, centered on an upbeat middle-aged thy for the wantonly reckless Guerin. As a woman who works hard, takes good care of final touch, this Hollywood-produced film her family, and puts on the kettle for a fresh turns sanctimonious toward the end. Joan pot of tea to solve any problem . . . until a Allen played a fictionalized Guerin in crisis erupts that even she can’t handle so WHEN THE SKY FALLS. Super 35. [R] easily: her secret life as an abortionist is ▼쩠 [ 1493 ]

Veronika Voss (1982-German) 105m. ★★★ major assets are the performances by GrifD: Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Rosel Zech, fiths, as the clumsy but good-hearted AnnieHilmar Thate, Cornelia Froboess, AnneMary, and Pryce, as her quietly diabolical father. It’s hard to top that opening shot!▼쩠 marie Duringer, Doris Schade, Volker Spengler. Interesting saga of faded ’40s Very Bad Things (1998) C-100m. ★★ D: movie star Zech, allegedly a friend of Peter Berg. Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, Goebbels, who ten years after the war’s Daniel Stern, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Jon Favend is a morphine addict. Good, but not great, reau, Jeremy Piven, Leland Orser. Black— Fassbinder; the last of his trilogy about postmake that really black—comedy about a war Germany, following THE MARRIAGE guy who goes to Las Vegas with four pals OF MARIA BRAUN and LOLA. [R]▼쩠 for a bachelor party. The scene turns ugly Vertical Limit (2000) C-123m. ★★ D: Martin very fast, leaving the friends to deal with a Campbell. Chris O’Donnell, Robin Tunney, couple of crimes and raging guilt as the Scott Glenn, Bill Paxton, Izabella Scorupco, wedding draws nearer. Extreme, to say the Nicholas Lea, Temuera Morrison, Stuart Willeast, but true to its dark mandate, which is son. Over two hours of people dangling from awfully grim. Feature writing and directing rope over cliffs, with explosions, avalanches, debut for actor Berg. [R] ▼●쩠 and some exposition in between. O’Donnell Very Brady Sequel, A (1996) C-89m. ★★★ plays a young climber who must launch a D: Arlene Sanford. Shelley Long, Gary dangerous rescue mission up K2 to save his Cole, Tim Matheson, Christopher Daniel sister. Spectacular scenery (shot mostly in Barnes, Christine Taylor, Paul Sutera, JenNew Zealand) and a few good action set nifer Elise Cox, Henrietta Mantel, Jesse pieces might stop you from cutting this Lee, Olivia Hack, John Hillerman. With a loose. [PG-13]▼쩠 better script than the first BRADY movie, Vertical Ray of the Sun, The (2001-Frenchthis silly/funny follow-up has the ’70s timeVietnamese) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tran Anh warp family thrown asunder when a man Hung. Tran Nu Yen Khe, Nguy Nhu Quynh, claiming to be Carol’s first husband shows Le Khanh, Ngo Quang Hai, Chu Hung. In up. Further problems arise when Greg and modern-day Hanoi, three sisters prepare a meMarsha find themselves unsettlingly atmorial banquet to honor the anniversary of tracted to one another! Full of the same douboth their parents’ deaths. Despite the Cheble-entendre sexual gags as the first film, khovian setup, this is another sensual tone plus wonderful musical moments and a poem with nominal plotting from the director handful of gag cameos. [PG-13]▼●쩠 of THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA; cinVery Important Person SEE: Comingematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bin shoots with Out Party hothouse radiance. Frequently intoxicating . . . Very Long Engagement, A (2004-French) but also slow-going. [PG-13]▼쩠 C-133m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Audrey Vertigo (1958) C-128m. ★★★★ D: Alfred Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Je´roˆme Kircher, DoHitchcock. James Stewart, Kim Novak, minique Bettenfeld, Jodie Foster, Jean-Pierre Barbara Bel Geddes, Tom Helmore, Henry Darroussin, Denis Lavant, Clovis Cornillac, Jones, Ellen Corby, Raymond Bailey, Lee Chantal Neuwirth, Dominique Pinon, Marion Patrick. One of Hitchcock’s most discussed Cotillard, Andre´ Dussollier, Ticky Holgado, films. Retired police detective Stewart, Jean-Paul Rouve, Julie Depardieu, Tche´ky who has a fear of heights, is hired by old Karyo, Michel Vuillermoz, Jean-Claude school chum in San Francisco to keep an Dreyfus. During WW1, a young woman reeye on his wife (Novak), eventually falls fuses to believe that her fiance´ has died, in love with his quarry . . . and that’s just despite circumstantial evidence to the conthe beginning; to reveal more would be trary; she will not rest until she finds him. unthinkable. Alec Coppel and Samuel TayFull of dazzling visuals (many recreating lor scripted, from the novel D’entre les famous French photographs) and moments morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas of charm and humor, as well as grim depicNarcejac. Haunting, dreamlike thriller, with tions of war, but goes on much longer than riveting Bernard Herrmann score to match; a it should. Based on the novel by Se´bastien genuinely great motion picture that demands Japrisot. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 multiple viewings. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Very Private Affair, A (1962-FrenchItalian) C-95m. ★★ D: Louis Malle. BriVery Annie-Mary (2001-British-WelshFrench) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sara Sugarman. gitte Bardot, Marcello Mastroianni, Gregor Rachel Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Ioan Grufvon Rezzori, Eleonore Hirt, Dirk Sanders. fudd, Matthew Rhys, Kenneth Griffith, Ruth Rather remote romantic drama in which Madoc, Joanna Page. Alternately charming Bardot plays a famous movie star (from and curious concoction from writer-director Geneva) who is robbed of her privacy and Sugarman. The baker in the small Welsh town retreats from the world. Mastroianni is her of Ogw is also the resident ladies’ man and mom’s former lover, a theater director star tenor . . . but he oppresses his simplenow protecting Bardot. Flashy ending minded daughter, who yearns to break free. filmed against backdrop of the Spoleto FesFull of quirky characters and incidents, but its tival. Originally titled: LA VIE PRIVE´E. ▼ [ 1494 ]

Very Special Favor, A (1965) C-104m. the script. Predates the father-son ‘‘come★★1 dies’’ of the 1980s.▼ ⁄2 D: Michael Gordon. Rock Hudson, Leslie Caron, Charles Boyer, Walter Vice Versa (1988) C-100m. ★★★ D: Brian Slezak, Dick Shawn, Larry Storch, Nita Gilbert. Judge Reinhold, Fred Savage, Talbot, Jay Novello. Too-often blah, forced Corinne Bohrer, Swoosie Kurtz, David comedy of Boyer asking Hudson to romance Proval, Jane Kaczmarek, William Prince, daughter Caron.쩠 Gloria Gifford. An ill-gotten mystical Thai Very Thought of You, The (1998-British) skull enables a department store workaholic C-88m. ★★★ D: Nick Hamm. Monica Potter, and his 11-year-old son to become each Joseph Fiennes, Rufus Sewell, Tom Holother. Not up to BIG, but better than it lander, Ray Winstone. Cute romantic comedy ought to be; Reinhold and Savage appear to about an American woman who impulsively be having a whale of a time in their roles. packs up and flies to England, where she si[PG]▼●쩠 multaneously shakes up the lives of three men. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) C-97m. ★★★ Nicely done. Original British title: MARD: Woody Allen. Javier Bardem, Pene´lTHA, MEET FRANK, DANIEL AND ope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall, LAURENCE. [PG-13]▼쩠 Patricia Clarkson, Kevin Dunn, Chris Messina, V for Vendetta (2006-British-German-U.S.) Zak Orth, Carrie Preston, Pablo Schreiber. While summering with family friends in C-132m. ★★★ D: James McTeigue. Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, SteBarcelona, two American girls are apphen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Ruproached by a sexy artist who asks them to pert Graves, Sine´ad Cusack, Eddie Marsan. spend a weekend with him. One is outraged, In the near future, England chafes under an the other intrigued, but what happens next Orwellian government led by Hurt. Society’s is completely unpredictable. A light, funny savior: masked rebel V (Weaving), who, inconcoction by Woody Allen filled with atvoking the spirit of Guy Fawkes, launches the tractive people and equally attractive postmovie by blowing up Old Bailey to the card scenery. Blithely entertaining, with a strains of Tchaikovsky. Portman is quite good terrific showcase part for Cruz, who won as the man’s captive, even sporting a symBest Supporting Actress Oscar as Bardem’s fiery ex-wife. [PG-13]쩠 bolic Joan of Arc cut in the movie’s second half. Uncommonly provocative for a majorVictim (1961-British) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Basil studio movie, though cloaked in comic-book Dearden. Dirk Bogarde, Sylvia Sims, Denambiance. Based on the Vertigo/DC Comics nis Price, Nigel Stock, Peter McEnery, graphic novel by Alan Moore, illustrated by Donald Churchill, Anthony Nicholls, HilDavid Lloyd. Written and produced by The ton Edwards, Norman Bird. Fine thriller Wachowski Brothers. Super 35. [R]쩠 with lawyer Bogarde risking reputation by Vibes (1988) C-99m. ★★ D: Ken Kwapis. trying to confront gang of blackmailers who Cyndi Lauper, Jeff Goldblum, Julian Sands, caused death of his onetime lover. ConsidGoogy Gress, Peter Falk, Michael Lerner, ered daring at the time for treatment of hoRamon Bieri, Elizabeth Pena, Bill Mcmosexuality. Screenplay by Janet Green Cutcheon, Karen Akers, Park Overall, Steve and John McCormick. ▼●쩠 Buscemi. Unsatisfactory romantic advenVictor Frankenstein SEE: Terror of ture comedy about psychics Lauper (in her Frankenstein Victors, The (1963) 156m. ★★★ D: Carl first starring role) and Goldblum, and their quest for a supposed city of gold in the Foreman. George Hamilton, George Pepmountains of Ecuador. Unfortunate misfire pard, Vince Edwards, Eli Wallach, Melina from comedy writers Lowell Ganz and BaMercouri, Romy Schneider, Jeanne Mobaloo Mandel. [PG]▼쩠 reau, Peter Fonda, Senta Berger, Elke Vice Squad (1982) C-97m. ★★ D: Gary A. Sommer, Albert Finney. Sprawling WW2 Sherman. Season Hubley, Gary Swanson, drama of Allied soldiers on the march Wings Hauser, Pepe Serna, Beverly Todd. through Europe, focusing on their loving Hooker helps Hollywood cops catch sadisand fighting. Good cast and direction overtic pimp who sexually mutilates other proscome Foreman’s ambling script. Origititutes. Both dull and sleazy, but Hauser is nally released at 175m. Panavision. Victor/Victoria (1982) C-133m. ★★★1⁄2 D: undeniably a great movie villain. [R]▼●쩠 Vice Versa (1948-British) 111m. ★★★ D: Blake Edwards. Julie Andrews, James GarPeter Ustinov. Roger Livesey, Kay Walsh, ner, Robert Preston, Lesley Ann Warren, David Hutcheson, Anthony Newley, James Alex Karras, John Rhys-Davies, Graham Robertson Justice, Petula Clark, Patricia Stark, Peter Arne. Down-and-out singer AnRaine, Joan Young. Entertaining comedy drews masquerades as a man and becomes the about Victorian stockbroker Livesey and toast of Paris cabarets in the 1930s, to the his schoolboy son Newley, who change delight of her gay mentor (Preston) and the places after wishing on a magic stone. confusion of an American admirer (Garner). Parts of it are silly, but much of it is Sophisticated, often hilarious comedy, with inspired and hilarious. Justice is great as a Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse earning hypocritical headmaster; Ustinov also wrote Oscars for their song score and adaptation. [ 1495 ]

Edwards’ screenplay is based on VIKTOR loves. The cast is engaging, and the fashions UND VIKTORIA, a 1933 German film (reare fun, but this retro fairy tale plays like a made in 1936 as FIRST A GIRL with Jessie bland 1960s Hollywood movie, except for Matthews). Later a Broadway musical. PaMyers, whose cross-eyed comic shtick navision. [PG] ▼●쩠 seems to belong in an entirely different film. ★1 Victory (1981) C-110m. ⁄2 D: John George Kennedy appears unbilled. Super Huston. Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Max von Sydow, Pele, Daniel Massey, View to a Kill, A (1985-British) C-131m. ★★ Carole Laure. POWs get a chance to escape D: John Glen. Roger Moore, ChristoGerman prison camp but stick around to pher Walken, Tanya Roberts, Grace Jones, finish soccer game—just as it would have Patrick Macnee, Patrick Bauchau, Fiona happened in real life. Only Pele’s celeFullerton, Alison Doody, Desmond Llebrated kicks save this silly bore from a welyn, Robert Brown, Lois Maxwell, WalBOMB rating. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 ter Gotell, Dolph Lundgren. One of the Victory at Sea (1954) 108m. ★★★ Proweakest James Bond films saddles 007 duced by Henry Salomon. Narrated by with a bland villain (Walken, who wants Alexander Scourby. Briskly edited version to destroy California’s lucrative Silicon of popular TV documentary series, highValley), a monotonous villainess (Jones), lighting Allied fight during WW2. Exceland a wimpy leading lady (Roberts). And lent photography. Rousing score by Richard it goes on forever. Only some spectacular Rodgers and Robert Russell Bennett. ▼ stunt sequences keep it alive. (Oh, yes, Victory through Air Power (1943) Cthere’s also a gorgeous Russian spy—played 63m. ★★★ D: H.C. Potter; animation direcby Fullerton—who disappears too soon.) tors Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney, James Moore’s final appearance as 007. Panavision. Algar. Narrated by Art Baker. Fascinating [PG]▼●쩠 time capsule produced by Walt Disney to Vigil (1984-New Zealand) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 support Major Alexander P. de Seversky’s D: Vincent Ward. Bill Kerr, Fiona Kay, theory that the U.S. could win WW2 if it Gordon Shields, Penelope Stewart, Frank relied more on air power. Opens with an Whitten. Ward’s first feature is an apt animated history of aviation, then turns to predecessor to his NAVIGATOR. It’s a its propagandistic theme. A unique film in grim, thinly scripted, but visually arresting Disney’s career that shows how effectively account of how a young farm girl reacts to his artists could use the medium of animathe arrival of a stranger upon the death of tion to do more than simply entertain. De her father.▼ Seversky is also quite effective as host.쩠 Vigilante (1982) C-90m. BOMB D: WilVideodrome (1983-Canadian) C-90m. ★★ liam Lustig. Robert Forster, Fred WilD: David Cronenberg. James Woods, Sonliamson, Richard Bright, Rutanya Alda, ja Smits, Deborah Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Willie Colon, Joe Spinell, Carol Lynley, Les Carlson, Jack Creley, Lynne Gorman. Woody Strode. Forster is driven to join Genuinely intriguing story premise—about DEATH WISH–type vigilantes after his pirate cable-TV programmer (Woods, in a family is viciously attacked by degenerate dynamic performance) who’s mesmerized punks. Script is full of holes, and so is by bizarre, untraceable transmissions that some of the cast after various bloody athave hallucinatory power. Unfortunately, tacks. Truly distasteful. Unrated director’s story gets slower—and sillier—as it goes cut runs 89m. Originally titled STREET along, with icky special effects by Rick GANG. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Baker. [R]▼●쩠 Vigilante Force (1976) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: View From the Bridge, A (1962-French) George Armitage. Kris Kristofferson, Jan★★★ 110m. D: Sidney Lumet. Raf Vallone, Michael Vincent, Victoria Principal, BerMaureen Stapleton, Carol Lawrence, Jean nadette Peters, Brad Dexter, David Doyle, Sorel, Morris Carnovsky, Harvey Lembeck, Andrew Stevens. Vietnam vet Kristofferson, Vincent Gardenia. Effective adaptation of hired to help restore order when small Arthur Miller drama set near Brooklyn California town is overrun by workers from waterfront, involving dock worker Vallone’s nearby oilfields, succeeds but then takes rejection of wife Stapleton and suppressed over town himself. Minor but interesting, love of niece Lawrence; Sorel is smuggledfast-paced film. [PG] in immigrant Lawrence loves.▼ Vigil in the Night (1940) 96m. ★★★ D: View from the Top (2003) C-87m. ★★ D: George Stevens. Carole Lombard, Brian Bruno Barreto. Gwyneth Paltrow, Christina Aherne, Anne Shirley, Julien Mitchell, RobApplegate, Mark Ruffalo, Candice Bergen, ert Coote, Brenda Forbes, Rhys Williams, Kelly Preston, Rob Lowe, Mike Myers, Chad Peter Cushing. Compelling drama of proEverett, Stephen Tobolowsky. A poor girl purvincial hospital life in England, with outsues her dream by becoming a flight attendant, standing work by Lombard as dedicated with stewardess-turned-airline-owner Bergen nurse, Shirley as her flighty sister, Aherne as her role model. Eventually she has to choose between a career and the man she as doctor. Potentially corny script made [ 1496 ]

credible and exciting by good cast, fine dicomes an idyllic coastal town, causing ten rection pulling viewer into the story. women to give birth to children who turn Viking Queen, The (1967-British) C-91m. out to be mind-controlling demons! Carpen★★ ter’s remake of the 1960 film is, naturally, D: Don Chaffey. Don Murray, Carita, Donald Houston, Andrew Keir, Adrienne more explicit and more violent, with some Corri, Niall MacGinnis, Wilfrid Lawson. new characters who don’t make much sense Empty-headed Hammer Films costumer of (especially Alley), but the premise is still early England under Roman rule, with potent enough to pull you in. Panavision. plenty of gore as anarchists incite a violent [R] ▼●쩠 uprising among the people. Murray and fine Village of the Giants (1965) C-80m. British actors are lost.▼●쩠 BOMB D: Bert I. Gordon. Tommy Kirk, Vikings, The (1958) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Johnny Crawford, Beau Bridges, Ronny Richard Fleischer. Kirk Douglas, Tony Howard, Tisha Sterling, Tim Rooney, Joy Curtis, Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh, AlHarmon. Poor special effects are just one exander Knox, Frank Thring; narrated by problem with this silly film about teenagOrson Welles. Big-name cast and oners growing to tremendous heights. Based location photography in Norway and Brittany on H. G. Wells story, refilmed by Gordon in 1976 as FOOD OF THE GODS.▼쩠 are only standouts in routine Viking adventure, sweepingly photographed by Jack Villain (1971-British) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: MiCardiff. Technirama.▼●쩠 chael Tuchner. Richard Burton, Ian McViking Women and the Sea Serpent Shane, Nigel Davenport, Joss Ackland, (1957) 66m. BOMB D: Roger Corman. Fiona Lewis, Donald Sinden, Cathleen NesAbby Dalton, Susan Cabot, Brad Jackson, bitt. Nasty, stomach-churning melodrama Richard Devon, Jonathan Haze. The title about British underworld, taken from James ladies are held captive on an island. The Barlow’s novel The Burden of Proof. Burton original title of this Grade-Z hokum is THE plays vicious homosexual thug only a mother SAGA OF THE VIKING WOMEN AND (Nesbitt) could love. Panavision. [R] Villain, The (1979) C-89m. ★★ D: Hal THEIR VOYAGE TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT SEA SERPENT(!) By any Needham. Kirk Douglas, Ann-Margret, Arname, it stinks.▼쩠 nold Schwarzenegger, Paul Lynde, Foster Village, The (2004) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: M. Brooks, Ruth Buzzi, Jack Elam, Strother Night Shyamalan. Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Martin. Lynde plays an Indian chief named Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Nervous Elk, and so it goes. Combination Bryce Dallas Howard, Brendan Gleeson, Western spoof/Road Runner cartoon makes Cherry Jones, John Christopher Jones, Celia CAT BALLOU look subtle, but may make Weston, Judy Greer, Jayne Atkinson, Fran you laugh if it hits you in a silly frame of Kranz, Michael Pitt, Jesse Eisenberg, Frank mind. [PG]▼●쩠 Collison. Somber, straight-faced story about Villa Rides! (1968) C-125m. ★★ D: Buzz a sequestered community that lives a simple, Kulik. Yul Brynner, Robert Mitchum, ascetic life, surrounded by woods where Charles Bronson, Herbert Lom, Jill Ire‘‘those we don’t speak of’’ pose a constant land, Alexander Knox, Fernando Rey. Witthreat. One young man (Phoenix) proposes less retelling of Villa’s Mexican campaign, venturing through the woods to ‘‘the towns’’ with broadened focus on cohort Bronson, to get badly needed medicine, but the elders captured pilot Mitchum. Rare chance to will not hear of it. Evolves into a self-parody see Brynner with hair; screenplay by Robat some point before becoming downright ert Towne and Sam Peckinpah. John Ireridiculous. Impressive only as a showcase land has an unbilled cameo near the end. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 for newcomer Howard (daughter of Ron). [PG-13]▼쩠 Vincent (1987-Australian) C-99m. ★★★ D: Village of the Damned (1960-British) 78m. Paul Cox. Engrossing, thoughtfully directed ★★★ D: Wolf Rilla. George Sanders, Bardocumentary look at the life and letters of bara Shelley, Michael Gwynne, Martin SteVincent van Gogh. A rare and revealing phens, Laurence Naismith, John Phillips, celluloid examination of an artist and his Richard Vernon. Fine adaptation of John creativity. The voice of John Hurt is heard Wyndham novel (The Midwich Cuckoos) as van Gogh. Cox later used a similar apabout blackout in English village followed proach in NIJINSKY: THE DIARIES OF by birth of strange, emotionless children. VASLAV NIJINSKY. Originally titled Eerie, well-made chiller, followed by CHILVINCENT—THE LIFE AND DEATH OF DREN OF THE DAMNED. Remade in VINCENT VAN GOGH.▼쩠 1995.▼●쩠 Vincent & Theo (1990-British-FrenchVillage of the Damned (1995) C-98m. Italian-Netherlands) C-138m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ★★1⁄2 D: John Carpenter. Christopher Reeve, Robert Altman. Tim Roth, Paul Rhys, JoKirstie Alley, Linda Kozlowski, Michael hanna Ter Steege, Wladimir Yordanoff, Jip Pare´, Mark Hamill, Meredith Salenger, Wijngaarden, Anne Canovas, Hans Kesting, Constance Forslund, Buck Flower, Thomas Jean-Pierre Cassel. Evocative, emotionally Dekker, Lindsey Haun. A strange mist overpowerful look at the symbiotic relationship [ 1497 ]

between Vincent van Gogh (Roth) and his Brian Keith, May Winn, Warner Anderson, brother Theo (Rhys). A far cry from the Lita Milan, Richard Jaeckel, James Weststandard Hollywood bios of tortured artists, erfield, Jack Kelly. Ford is a Civil War vetwith typically unconventional Altman direceran who takes up the good fight against a tion and excellent performances by the leads. bitter, greedy rancher (Robinson), his schemBeautiful photography by Jean Lepine and ing wife (Stanwyck), and slimy brother art direction by Stephen Altman (the direc(Keith). Some good action sequences hightor’s son). Originally a four-hour miniseries light this standard horse opera. Cinemafor European TV. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Scope. ▼●쩠 Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Others Violent Ones, The (1967) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: ★★★★ (1974-French) C-118m. D: Claude Fernando Lamas. Fernando Lamas, Aldo Sautet. Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, Ray, Tommy Sands, David Carradine, Lisa Serge Reggiani, Ge´rard Depardieu, StephGaye, Melinda Marx. Junk about lawman ane Audran. Melancholy, enormously satLamas’ problems in getting Mexican comisfying life-goes-on drama about longtime munity to refrain from lynching his prismale buddies who pursue their respective oners when they are suspected of raping vocations during the week—medicine, boxand murdering Marx.▼ ing, factory ownership, etc.—then team Violent Saturday (1955) C-91m. ★★★ D: up for food and drink on idyllic country Richard Fleischer. Victor Mature, Richard weekends. Montand stands out in a dream Egan, Stephen McNally, Virginia Leith, French cast as a going-broke boss in perilTommy Noonan, Lee Marvin, Margaret ous romantic and physical shape.▼● (Maggie) Hayes, J. Carrol Naish, Sylvia Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: Sidney, Ernest Borgnine, Brad Dexter. 30 Days and 30 Nights—Hollywood to The Effective study of repercussion on small Heartland (2008) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ari SanArizona town when bank robbers carry out del. Vince Vaughn, Keir O’Donnell, Justin a bloody holdup. CinemaScope. Long, Ahmed Ahmed, Peter Billingsley, Violets Are Blue . . . (1986) C-88m. ★★ John Caparulo, Bret Ernst, Sebastian ManiD: Jack Fisk. Sissy Spacek, Kevin Kline, scalco. Vaughn leads a troupe of comics on Bonnie Bedelia, John Kellogg, Jim Standa 30-day tour across America in this docuford, Augusta Dabney. Romantic drama mentary/concert film, which sheds light on about onetime high school sweethearts, rewhat the middle of the country finds funny united after many years, who try to pick up and what this band of performers learns where they left off—though he’s married about the U.S. A nice idea and some very and settled in their hometown and she’s funny individual bits make this a passably single and a globetrotting photojournalist. Pleasant, attractive, but dull. [PG-13]▼● entertaining journey. [R]쩠 Vindicator, The (1986-Canadian) C-88m. Violette (1978-French) C-122m. ★★ D: ★★ Claude Chabrol. Isabelle Huppert, StephD: Jean Claude Lord. Terri Austin, Richard Cox, Pam Grier, Maury Chaykin, David ane Audran, Jean Carmet, Jean Francoise McIlwraith. Updating of FRANKENSTEIN Garreaud, Bernadette Lafont. Slow-moving saga concerns infighting among scientists account, based on true incident of 14-yearworking on cyborg experiments. Highlights: old girl who led double life and poisoned an impressive metallic monster design by her parents, killing her father. Huppert Stan Winston plus tough-girl troubleshooter sleepwalks through the role, and Chabrol role for guest star Grier. Originally titled: lacks his usual directorial flair. Full title VIOLETTE NOZIERE. [R]▼쩠 FRANKENSTEIN ’88. [R]▼ Violated (1984) C-88m. BOMB D: RichV.I.P.s, The (1963-British) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 ard Cannistraro. J. C. Quinn, John Heard, D: Anthony Asquith. Elizabeth Taylor, D. Balin, April Daisy White, Kaye Dowd. Richard Burton, Louis Jourdan, Margaret Dreary exploitation film about N.Y.C. busiRutherford, Rod Taylor, Maggie Smith, nessmen who prey on young party girls. Orson Welles, Linda Christian, Elsa MartWhite is a rape victim befriended by cop inelli, Dennis Price, David Frost, Michael Quinn, who goes after the big boys. ConHordern, Robert Coote. Glossy GRAND tains a brief, standout performance by HOTEL plot, set in London airport. EveryHeard as a fidgety intermediary who hires one is terribly rich and beautiful; if you Quinn as a hit man. [R]▼ like watching terribly rich, beautiful peoViolent City SEE: Family, The (1970) ple, fine. If not, it’s all meaningless. RuthViolent Enemy, The (1968-British) C-94m. erford (who won an Oscar for this) is ★★★ D: Don Sharp. Tom Bell, Susan Hampexcellent, and so is Maggie Smith. Written shire, Ed Begley, Jon Laurimore, Michael by Terence Rattigan. Panavision.▼●쩠 Standing, Noel Purcell. Intense drama of Virgin and the Gypsy, The (1970-British) IRA plot to blow up British power plant, C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Christopher Miles. Joand various motives involved. anna Shimkus, Franco Nero, Honor BlackViolent Men, The (1955) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: man, Mark Burns, Maurice Denham, Fay Rudolph Mate´. Glenn Ford, Barbara StanCompton, Kay Walsh. D. H. Lawrence’s nowyck, Edward G. Robinson, Dianne Foster, vella comes to screen as interesting, atmo[ 1498 ]

spheric, but unbelievable love story. Priest’s Turner, Kirsten Dunst, Hannah Hall, Chelse daughter falls for vagabond gypsy and suffers Swain, A. J. Cook, Leslie Hayman, Josh consequences. Miles later directed Lawrence Hartnett, Michael Pare´, Scott Glenn, Danny biopic, PRIEST OF LOVE. [R]▼ DeVito, Hayden Christensen; narrated by Virginia City (1940) 121m. ★★1⁄2 D: MiGiovanni Ribisi. In 1970s suburbia, four chael Curtiz. Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, lovely sisters head toward a sorry fate as a Randolph Scott, Humphrey Bogart, Frank quartet of neighborhood boys become obMcHugh, Alan Hale, Guinn Williams, John sessed with them. First-time writer-director Litel. Follow-up to DODGE CITY has big Coppola adapted Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel, cast in lush Civil War Western, but tale of but for all its atmosphere and good perforrebel spy Hopkins posing as dance hall girl mances (especially Woods and Turner as doesn’t live up to expectations; Bogart misthe girls’ uptight, overprotective parents) it cast as slimy Mexican bandido.▼쩠 never quite comes together. [R]▼쩠 Virginian, The (1929) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: VicVirgin Territory (2006-Italian-Britishtor Fleming. Gary Cooper, Richard Arlen, French-Luxembourgian) C-97m. ★★ D: David Walter Huston, Mary Brian, Chester ConkLeland. Hayden Christensen, Mischa Barlin, Eugene Pallette. Owen Wister’s pionton, Anna Galiena, Matthew Rhys, Craig eering 1902 novel becomes stiff but interParkinson, Tim Roth. Roguish Christensen, esting Western, salvaged in good climactic escaping his debtors, hides out as a deafshoot-out; Huston is slimy villain, and Coomute gardener in a convent, while nasty per has one of his better early roles. Famous Roth assails his beloved Barton. Randy line: ‘‘If you want to call me that, smile.’’ Renaissance sex comedy, deflatingly set Filmed before in 1914. Remade in 1946 and amidst the Black Plague, claims inspiration 2000 (for cable TV); also a hit TV series in from Boccaccio’s Decameron. But a pop the 1960s.▼ score, lush Roberto Cavalli costumes, and Virginian, The (1946) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: even lusher historical babes sidle it closer to Stuart Gilmore. Joel McCrea, Brian Donlevy, A KNIGHT’S TALE. Much bawd (even a Sonny Tufts, Barbara Britton, Fay Bainter, pole dance!) but little wit. Written by the Henry O’Neill, William Frawley, Vince director. [R]쩠 Barnett, Paul Guilfoyle. Remake of ’29 Viridiana (1961-Spanish) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: classic Western follows story closely. Good, Luis Bun˜uel. Francisco Rabal, Silvia Pinal, not great, results due to story showing its Fernando Rey, Margarita Lozano. Powerage. McCrea is hero, Donlevy the villain, ful psychological study of novice nun Pinal, Tufts a good-guy-turned-bad.▼ who loses her innocence when forced by Virgin of Nuremburg, The SEE: Horror Mother Superior to visit nasty uncle Rey. Castle Near-perfect direction by a master filmVirgin Queen, The (1955) C-92m. ★★★ maker; solid performances by all.▼쩠 D: Henry Koster. Bette Davis, Richard Todd, Virtuosity (1995) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Brett Joan Collins, Herbert Marshall, Jay Robinson, Leonard. Denzel Washington, Kelly Lynch, Dan O’Herlihy, Rod Taylor. Davis is in full Russell Crowe, Stephen Spinella, William authority in her second portrayal of Queen Forsythe, Louise Fletcher, William FichtElizabeth I, detailing her conflicts with Walter ner, Costas Mandylor, Kevin J. O’Connor, Raleigh. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Traci Lords. In the near future, control of Virgin Soldiers, The (1969-British) C-96m. the police has unwisely been given over to ★★★ D: John Dexter. Hywel Bennett, Nigel computer-driven technology, and both the Patrick, Lynn Redgrave, Nigel Davenport, programming nerds and their cold-blooded Rachel Kempson, Tsai Chin, Jack Shepherd, bosses are out of control. Ex-cop and curDavid Bowie. Smooth comedy-drama about rent convict Washington is the only one British recruits in Singapore; title refers to who can track down a computer-generated their lack of experience in battle as well as bad guy who’s been ‘‘sampled’’ from the in bed. Solid Carl Foreman production, world’s worst serial killers! Ugly, to say the adapted by John Hopkins from Leslie least, although it’s built on a foundation of Thomas’ novel. Followed by STAND UP, some interesting ideas. Super 35. [R] ▼●쩠 VIRGIN SOLDIERS in 1977. [R]▼ Virus (1980-Japanese) C-155m. ★★1⁄2 D: Virgin Spring, The (1960-Swedish) 88m. Kinji Fukasaku. Sonny Chiba, Chuck Con★★★ nors, Glenn Ford, Stephanie Faulkner, Masao D: Ingmar Bergman. Max von Sydow, Birgitta Valberg, Gunnel Lindblom, Birgitta Kusakari, Isao Natsuki, Stuart Gillard, Olivia Pettersson. Brooding medieval fable of a Hussey, George Kennedy, Henry Silva, Bo deeply religious farming family whose daughSvenson, Cecil Linder, Robert Vaughn. Manter is raped and murdered by vagrants. Fascikind is destroyed by a plague and nuclear nating, beautifully made, an Oscar winner for war—except for 858 men and eight women. Best Foreign Film. Remade as—or, more apBeautiful sequences filmed in the Antarctic, propriately, ripped off by—LAST HOUSE adequate special effects, but overlong and meON THE LEFT.▼●쩠 andering. Allegedly the biggest budgeted JapVirgin Suicides, The (2000) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 anese film to date. [PG]▼쩠 D: Sofia Coppola. James Woods, Kathleen virus (1999-U.S.-Japanese-German) C[ 1499 ]

99m. BOMB D: John Bruno. Jamie Lee matic script; results are interesting if not Curtis, William Baldwin, Donald Sutheralways successful. Bowdlerized version of land, Joanna Pacula, Marshall Bell, Julio Friedrich Durrenmatt’s play. Remade in Oscar Mechoso, Sherman Augustus, Cliff 1992 as HYE´NES. CinemaScope. Curtis. In the eye of a hurricane, the crew of Visit, The (2000) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jordan a tugboat boards an abandoned Russian ship Walker-Pearlman. Hill Harper, Obba Babapossessed by what seems to be living alien tunde, Rae Dawn Chong, Billy Dee Wilelectricity. This ‘‘creature’’ apparently conliams, Marla Gibbs, Phylicia Rashad, Talia siders people just another virus to be wiped Shire, David Clennon, Glynn Turman, Efrain out. Drearily routine, with borrowed ideas Figueroa, Amy Stiller. Prisoner dying of and stereotyped characters, though Curtis AIDS tries to gain redemption by connecting and Pacula try. From the comic book creagain with his family, which has largely igated by Chuck Pfarrer. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 nored him during his incarceration. Based on Vision Quest (1985) C-105m. ★★ D: Hara play (inspired in turn by a true story), film is old Becker. Matthew Modine, Linda Fiorsomewhat stagy but often powerful tale of a entino, Michael Schoeffling, Ronny Cox, man who comes to terms with himself and Harold Sylvester, Roberts Blossom, Charles his life just as it is about to end. Fine perforHallahan, Daphne Zuniga, Forest Whitaker, mances by Harper and particularly Williams Raphael Sbarge. Muddled, overlong growmake this worth watching. [R]▼쩠 ing-pains movie with too many familiar Visiting Hours (1982-Canadian) C-103m. elements. Modine is a high-school wresBOMB D: Jean Claude Lord. Michael Irontler with a philosophical bent; Fiorentino is side, Lee Grant, Linda Purl, William Shatner, a tough-talking older woman who turns Harvey Atkin, Helen Hughes. Awful prohim on. Based on a novel by Terry Davis. grammer, set in a hospital with demented Madonna appears briefly onscreen singing Ironside stalking TV journalist Grant, who ‘‘Crazy for You.’’ [R]▼●쩠 hopefully was well paid for this junk. Visions of Eight (1973) C-110m. ★★ D: [R]▼쩠 Juri Ozerov, Mai Zetterling, Arthur Penn, Visitor, The (1979-Italian) C-90m. ★★ D: Michael Pfleghar, Kon Ichikawa, Milos Michael J. Paradise (Giulio Paradisi). Mel Forman, Claude Lelouch, John Schlesinger. Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen, John Seemingly good idea of having eight difHuston, Joanne Nail, Shelley Winters, Sam ferent directors give eight different views Peckinpah. Filmed Stateside by the BEof 1972 Olympics results in strangely disYOND THE DOOR folks, this passable timeappointing film, considering all the talent killer wastes a good cast in yet another involved; with possible exception of SchleOMEN rip-off; too bad Huston or Peckinpah singer’s final chapter on the marathon, none couldn’t have directed as well. Alternate of the episodes is memorable. [G] ▼ version runs 108m. [R]▼쩠 Visions of Light: The Art of CinematoVisitor, The (2008) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: graphy (1993-U.S.-Japanese) C/B&WTom McCarthy. Richard Jenkins, Haaz 90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Arnold Glassman, Todd Sleiman, Danai Gurira, Hiam Abbass, MarMcCarthy, Stuart Samuels. Contemporary ian Seldes, Michael Cumpsty, Richard Kind. lens masters (E.T.’s Allen Daviau, RAGBracingly original film from the writerING BULL’s Michael Chapman) discuss director of THE STATION AGENT about their own work and pay tribute to pioneer a lonely widower (Jenkins) who plods along cinematographers of the past (BIRTH OF as a professor in Connecticut, but begins to A NATION’s Billy Bitzer, CITIZEN embrace life anew after he chances to meet KANE’s Gregg Toland). More than 100 films a charismatic Syrian musician (Sleiman) in are excerpted, from critical and commercial Manhattan. Minimalist filmmaking at its hits to offbeat pictures and B movies. Interestbest, a combination character study—with ingly, many of the most absorbing and amusing brilliant and nuanced performances—and anecdotes concern sixties films (IN COLD commentary on the perils and pleasures of BLOOD, THE GRADUATE, ROSElife in today’s American melting pot. AlterMARY’S BABY), a decade full of remarknate version runs 108m. [PG-13]쩠 able innovation and experimentation in Visitors, The (1972) C-88m. BOMB D: filmmaking. Part Widescreen. ▼●쩠 Elia Kazan. Patrick McVey, Patricia Joyce, Visit, The (1964-German-French-Italian) James Woods, Chico Martinez, Steve Rails100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bernhard Wicki. Ingrid back. Deplorable story of two Vietnam vets Bergman, Anthony Quinn, Irina Demick, who, upon release from prison for sex crime, Paolo Stoppa, Hans-Christian Blech, Roinvade the house of third vet who testified at their trial. Woods’ film debut. [R]▼ molo Valli, Valentina Cortese, Eduardo Ciannelli. Intriguing but uneven film paraVisitors, The (1993-French) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 ble of greed and evil; wealthy Bergman D: Jean-Marie Poire´. Jean Reno, Christian returns to European home town, offering a Clavier, Vale´rie Lemercier, Marie-Anne Chafantastic sum to the people there if they zel, Christian Bujeau, Isabelle Nanty, Ge´rard will legitimately kill her first seducer Se´ty. Rollicking time-travel saga of 12th(Quinn). Actors struggle with melodracentury knight (Reno) and his loyal-but-dim [ 1500 ]

squire (Clavier) who find themselves in the Gordon Douglas. Evel Knievel, Gene Kelly, contemporary French countryside, trying to Lauren Hutton, Marjoe Gortner, Red Buttons, make sense of their descendants, indoor Eric Olson, Leslie Nielsen, Cameron Mitchell, plumbing, and the like. Broad hijinks should Frank Gifford, Albert Salmi, Dabney Colebe a big hit with the kids. A smash in French man. The senses reel at this hilariously inept cinemas, where it played as LES VISIattempt to turn the infamous stunt driver into TEURS. Remade as JUST VISITING. Fola movie hero. The Bad Guys plan to have lowed by THE CORRIDORS OF TIME: Evel ‘‘accidentally’’ killed in Mexico, so they THE VISITORS II. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 can use his truck to smuggle drugs back into Visit to a Chief’s Son (1974) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 the U.S.! Don’t miss opening scene, in which D: Lamont Johnson. Richard Mulligan, Our Hero sneaks into orphanage at midnight Johnny Sekka, John Philip Hogdon, Jesse to distribute Evel Knievel plastic model kits— Kinaru, Chief Lomoiro, Jock Anderson. whereupon one little boy miraculously throws away his crutches! Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 OK family drama about a self-centered father and son who become humanized on Viva Las Vegas (1964) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: an African safari. [G] George Sidney. Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Visit to a Small Planet (1960) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Cesare Danova, William Demarest, Jack CarNorman Taurog. Jerry Lewis, Joan Blackter. Elvis and Ann-Margret are well teamed in man, Earl Holliman, Fred Clark, John this popular Presley vehicle, with Elvis a race Williams, Jerome Cowan, Lee Patrick, Gale car driver. Songs include ‘‘The Lady Loves Gordon, Buddy Rich. Gore Vidal satiric Me,’’ ‘‘What’d I Say?,’’ ‘‘I Need Somebody play becomes talky Lewis vehicle with Jerry to Lean On,’’ ‘‘Come On, Everybody,’’ and the alien who comes to Earth to observe classic title tune. Panavision.▼●쩠 man’s strange ways. Viva Maria! (1965-French-Italian) CVital Signs (1990) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: Marisa 119m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Brigitte BarSilver. Adrian Pasdar, Diane Lane, Jimmy dot, Jeanne Moreau, George Hamilton, Smits, Norma Aleandro, Jack Gwaltney, Gregor Von Rezzori, Paulette Dubost. RolLaura San Giacomo, Jane Adams, Tim Ranlicking tale of two beautiful entertainers/ som, Bradley Whitford, Lisa Jane Persky, revolutionaries in Mexico has inconsistent William Devane, James Karen, Telma Hopfirst half, then takes off for hilarious finkins. Third-year medical students experience ish. Lots of fun. Panavision.▼쩠 the usual cliche´s: performing rounds, underViva Max! (1969) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jerry cutting rivals, questioning authority, and Paris. Peter Ustinov, Pamela Tiffin, Jonasneaking an occasional quickie in the hosthan Winters, John Astin, Keenan Wynn, pital linen closet. Watchable, but of abHarry Morgan, Alice Ghostley, Kenneth solutely no distinction; stick with THE NEW Mars, Ann Morgan Guilbert, Paul Sand. INTERNS, where you can at least compare Mildly amusing yarn of eccentric Mexican the acting styles of Dean Jones and Telly Sageneral recapturing Alamo, sending equally valas. Smits effectively projects quiet authorinept American militia to rout him out. ity as the surgeon instructor. [R]▼●쩠 Forced humor doesn’t always work, but Vitus (2006-Swiss) C-123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: not bad; Astin is excellent as Ustinov’s loyal sergeant. [G]▼ Fredi M. Murer. Bruno Ganz, Fabrizio Borsani, Teo Gheorghiu, Julika Jenkins, Urs Viva Villa! (1934) 115m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jack Jucker, Eleni Haupt, Daniel Rohr. Moving Conway. Wallace Beery, Leo Carrillo, Fay and involving family drama of a boy genius Wray, Donald Cook, Stuart Erwin, George being pushed into the life of a piano prodigy E. Stone, Henry B. Walthall, Joseph by his demanding parents. Instead of folSchildkraut, Katherine DeMille. Viva Beery, lowing their wishes he sets off on his own in one of his best films as the rowdy rebel course with the help of his eccentric grandwho led the fight for Madero’s Mexican father. Story should appeal to young and old Republic. Ben Hecht’s script plays with alike with its focus on what is truly imporfacts, but overall, film is entertaining.▼● tant in life. Stirring musical sequences add Viva Zapata! (1952) 113m. ★★★★ D: Elia to the many pleasures of a film as beautiKazan. Marlon Brando, Jean Peters, Anthony fully crafted as a Swiss watch. [PG]쩠 Quinn, Joseph Wiseman, Margo, Mildred Vivacious Lady (1938) 90m. ★★★ D: George Dunnock. Vibrant film about Mexican peasStevens. James Stewart, Ginger Rogers, ant’s rise to a position of leadership and James Ellison, Beulah Bondi, Charles Copower. Brando is perfect in title role, Quinn burn, Frances Mercer, Grady Sutton, Jack equally fine in Oscar-winning performance as Carson, Franklin Pangborn, Hattie McDanhis brother. Script by John Steinbeck.▼● iel, Willie Best. Overlong but entertaining Vivement Dimanche! SEE: Confidentially comedy of professor Stewart marrying Yours nightclub singer Rogers, trying to break the Vivre Sa Vie SEE: My Life to Live news to his conservative family and fiance´e V.I. Warshawski (1991) C-89m. BOMB back home. Bondi is fun in amusing variaD: Jeff Kanew. Kathleen Turner, Jay O. Sanders, Charles Durning, Angela Goetion on her usual motherly role.▼ Viva Knievel! (1977) C-104m. BOMB D: thals, Nancy Paul, Frederick Coffin, Charles [ 1501 ]

McCaughan, Stephen Meadows, Wayne Maurizio Nichetti, Angela Finocchiaro, Knight, Stephen Root. Wretchedly scripted, Mariella Valentini, Patrizio Roversi, Remo directed, and photographed assemblage of Remotti, Renato Scarpa. Italian comedian characters taken from Sara Paretsky’s series and cowriter/codirector Nichetti again satiof novels. Turner is a tough Chicago private rizes the frenzy and soullessness of moddetective (and closet fashion plate) investiern life (as he did in THE ICICLE THIEF), gating the murder of a hockey player who’d this time playing a naive movie soundonce caught her fancy. On paper, the star and effects technician. When he meets a woman her character should have melded; slipshod with a hilariously naughty profession, roproduction helps render this a hall-of-fame mance blossoms—until this lover of carboo-boo. [R]▼●쩠 toons starts turning into an animated Voice of Terror SEE: Sherlock Holmes character himself! A decidedly adult tale of and the Voice of Terror childlike love, this comic spree never enVoice of the Turtle, The (1947) 103m. tirely takes flight, though its title translates ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Irving Rapper. Ronald Reagan, Elas ‘‘I Want to Fly.’’ [R]▼● eanor Parker, Eve Arden, Wayne Morris, Volunteers (1985) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: NichKent Smith. Delightful wartime comedy of olas Meyer. Tom Hanks, John Candy, Rita what happens when dreamy young actress Wilson, Tim Thomerson, Gedde Watanabe, Parker (who’s been hurt once too often in George Plimpton. Dismal, grimy-looking love) meets soldier-on-leave Reagan. Arden is comedy about spoiled playboy who accidenat her peak as Parker’s flighty friend. John tally joins Peace Corps and tries running van Druten adapted his own Broadway hit. things his way in Thailand. Candy has a few Retitled ONE FOR THE BOOK. good moments but not enough. Hanks and Voices (1979) C-107m. ★★ D: Robert Wilson later married. [R]▼●쩠 Markowitz. Michael Ontkean, Amy Irving, Volver (2006-Spanish) C-121m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Alex Rocco, Barry Miller, Herbert Berghof, Pedro Almodo´var. Pene´lope Cruz, Carmen Viveca Lindfors. Aspiring rock singer falls Maura, Lola Duen˜as, Blanca Portillo, Yohana for deaf woman (well played by Irving) Cobo, Chus Lampreave, Antonio de la Torre, who, never having heard him sing, is able Carlos Blanco, Isabel Dı´az, Nieves Sanz Esto return his love. Sincerely intentioned cobar. A woman who works hard to be a drama is ultimately compromised by Hollygood wife, mother, sister, niece, and neighbor wood formulas. Musical score by Jimmy encounters more trouble than even she is acWebb. [PG]▼쩠 customed to. Her aged aunt seems to be havVoices of Sarafina! (1989) C-85m. ★★★1⁄2 ing visions, while her sister is talking to their D: Nigel Noble. Miriam Makeba, Mbongeni mother, who died in a fire years ago. Lively, Ngema. Powerful, profound documentary colorful Almodo´var mixture of comedy, of young, black South African actors perdrama, emotion, and mysticism clicks with its forming in the Broadway musical Saraopening shot and never lets up. The writerfina, which chronicles the involvement of director also gives Cruz an extraordinary black schoolchildren in the 1976 Soweto screen showcase. Panavision. [R]쩠 uprising. Also details their relationship Von Richthofen and Brown (1971) C-97m. with Ngema, the show’s controversial ★★ D: Roger Corman. John Phillip Law, writer-director. Finale, in which exiled Barry Primus, Peter Masterson, Karen South African singer Makeba appears backHuston, Hurd Hatfield, Robert La Tourneaux. stage after a performance, is especially Weak historical drama of ‘‘Red Baron’’ of moving. The show itself was filmed with WW1 fame and aerial dogfights with his Whoopi Goldberg in 1992.▼ assorted enemies. Aerial work is excellent; Volcano (1969) SEE: Krakatoa, East of it’s the ground work which crashes. Aka Java BATTLE OF THE ACES. [PG]쩠 Volcano (1997) C-102m. ★★★ D: Mick Von Ryan’s Express (1965) C-117m. ★★★ Jackson. Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, D: Mark Robson. Frank Sinatra, Trevor Gaby Hoffmann, Don Cheadle, Jacqueline Howard, Raffaella Carra, Brad Dexter, Sergio Kim, Keith David, John Corbett, Michael Fantoni, Edward Mulhare, James Brolin, Rispoli, John Carroll Lynch. Strange rumAdolfo Celi, John Leyton, Vito Scotti. Exblings underground in L.A. attract the attenciting WW2 saga with Sinatra a POW colonel tion of the head of the Office of Emergency who leads daring escape by taking over freight Management (Jones) and a scientist from train that is transporting prisoners. Strong Cal Tech (Heche)—who discover a volcasupporting cast helps. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 nic eruption that can’t be stopped. Good, Voodoo Bloodbath SEE: I Eat Your Skin solid disaster movie with credible characters Voyage, The (1973-Italian) C-95m. ★★ D: and first-rate special effects. A few sly inVittorio De Sica. Sophia Loren, Richard side jokes will add to the fun for L.A. viewBurton, Ian Bannen, Barbara Pilavin, Annaers—as compensation for seeing their home bella Incontera, Paolo Lena. Listless adaptaturf treated so badly. [PG-13]▼●쩠 tion of Pirandello story about star-crossed Volere Volare (1991-Italian) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Maurizio Nichetti, Guido Manuli. lovers Burton and Loren, forbidden to marry [ 1502 ]

and shadowed by tragedy. Attractive stars Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Robert Sterling, and surroundings, but a draggy film. [PG] Barbara Eden, Michael Ansara, Peter Lorre, Voyage in Italy (1954-Italian) 97m. ★★★ D: Frankie Avalon, Henry Daniell, Regis Roberto Rossellini. Ingrid Bergman, Toomey. Entertaining, colorful nonsense George Sanders, Paul Muller, Maria Mauabout conflicts aboard massive atomic subban, Natalia Ray. Beautiful, meditative tale marine, with Pidgeon the domineering adof married couple Bergman and Sanders miral trying to keep the Earth from being trying to reconcile their faltering relationfried by a burning radiation belt. No deep ship while driving through Italy. Received thinking, just fun. Later a TV series. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 dreadful reviews when first released, but was rediscovered (and labelled a masterVoyage to the End of the Universe (1963-Czech) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack Pollack piece) by French filmmakers and critics. Originally released in U.S. as STRANG(Jindrich Polak). Dennis Stephans, Francis ERS. ▼ Smolen, Dana Meredith, Irene Kova, Rodney Voyage of the Damned (1976-British) Lucas, Otto Lack. Twenty-fifth-century C-134m. ★★★ D: Stuart Rosenberg. Faye space crew is threatened by mysterious, raDunaway, Oskar Werner, Max von Sydow, dioactive dark star. Surprise ending is no Orson Welles, Malcolm McDowell, Lynne surprise. Originally titled IKARIE XB 1, Frederick, James Mason, Lee Grant, Wendy running 90m. CinemaScope. Hiller, Jose Ferrer, Luther Adler, KathaVoyage to the Planet of Prehistoric rine Ross, Sam Wanamaker, Denholm ElWomen (1968) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Derek liott, Nehemiah Persoff, Julie Harris, Maria Thomas (Peter Bogdanovich). Mamie Van Schell, Ben Gazzara. Absorbing fact-based Doren, Mary Marr, Paige Lee, Aldo Roman, drama. In 1939 a ship full of GermanMargot Hartman. Astronauts land on Venus Jewish refugees bound for Havana, denied and kill the creature worshiped by the permission to land anywhere, was forced planet’s gill-women. Actually a 1962 to return to Germany. Picture almost disRussian picture, PLANET OF STORMS, solves into separate stories, but von Sydow framed with new footage conceived (and as ship’s captain holds it together. Originarrated) by Bogdanovich in 1966. Still an nally released at 158m. [PG]▼쩠 awful movie, but of definite curio interest to Voyager (1991-German-French-Greek) Cfilm buffs. Also see next entry. ▼쩠 117m. ★★★ D: Volker Schlo¨ndorff. Sam Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1966) Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa, 80m. ★1⁄2 D: Jonathan Sebastian (Curtis Dieter Kirchlechner, Traci Lind, DeborahHarrington). Basil Rathbone, Faith DomLee Furness, August Zirner, Thomas Heinze. ergue, Marc Shannon, Christopher Brand. In the 1950s, American construction engiSlow, ponderous saga of an expedition to neer Shepard—an inveterate, nearly rootVenus in the year 2020; made up mostly of less traveler—meets a man with a link to footage from handsome Russian epic his pre-WW2 student days in Europe; soon PLANET OF STORMS, involving a roafter, he encounters young German beauty bot, dinosaurs, other monsters, and hidDelpy and they take a romantic journey to den, intelligent Venusians. Rathbone’s her home in Athens. Adult tale is quite scenes were shot on the sets for PLANET leisurely paced but well acted and directed. OF BLOOD, made at the same time.▼쩠 Long-awaited adaptation of Max Frisch’s Vulgar (2002) C-91m. BOMB D: Bryan 1957 Swiss-German best-seller, Homo Johnson. Brian Christopher O’Halloran, Jerry Faber; not without flaws, but more interLewkowitz, Matthew Maher, Ethan Suplee, esting and thought-provoking than most Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Bryan Johnson. contemporary films. [PG-13]▼● Children’s party clown eking out meager exisVoyage to the Beginning of the World tence opts to try entertaining adults as a gag, (1997-Portuguese-French) C-95m. ★★★ D: but instead is brutally attacked (and worse) Manoel de Oliveira. Marcello Mastroianni, by weirdos. Co-executive produced by Smith. Jean-Yves Gautier, Leonor Silveira, Diogo Crap. [R]▼쩠 Doria, Isabel de Castro, Jose Pinto, Isabel Vulture, The (1967-British-Canadian) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Lawrence Huntington. RobRuth. Touching, reflective road movie from octogenarian director de Oliveira about an ert Hutton, Akim Tamiroff, Broderick aged filmmaker named Manoel (MastroiCrawford, Diane Clark, Phillip Friend, anni, in his final screen role) who looks Patrick Holt, Linda Bell. Disappointing, unback on his life as he visits various locales satisfying sci-fi horror with laughable mad from his past in the company of several scientist (Tamiroff) who becomes half-man, colleagues. Loaded with insights about life half-bird and avenges death of his ancestor. and memory, women and sexual attraction, Released theatrically in b&w.▼ sinning and confessing sins, and the passage of time. Aka JOURNEY TO THE BEGINW (1974) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Quine. NING OF THE WORLD.▼쩠 Twiggy, Michael Witney, Dirk Benedict, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) John Vernon, Eugene Roche, Alfred Ryder. C-105m. ★★★ D: Irwin Allen. Walter Twiggy struggles through story in which [ 1503 ]

sadistic Benedict, her ex-husband convicted Clark. Joe Don Baker, Stella Stevens, of her supposed murder, menaces her and George Kennedy, Jeff Altman, Anthony new husband Witney. Flamboyant but unJames, Andrew (Dice) Clay. A dedicated successful thriller, retitled I WANT HER cop goes after the dreaded ‘‘lawnmower DEAD. [PG]▼ killer’’ who last terrorized a town 10 years ★★1 W. (2008) C-131m. ago. Heavy-handed spoof of HALLOWEEN⁄2 D: Oliver Stone. Josh Brolin, James Cromwell, Elizabeth type horror films works hard for laughs but Banks, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeffrey Wright, delivers very few. [R—edited from origiThandie Newton, Toby Jones, Ellen Burstyn, nal PG rating]▼● Scott Glenn, Stacy Keach, Bruce McGill, Waco (1966) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: R.G. SpringIoan Gruffudd, Dennis Boutsikaris, Noah steen. Howard Keel, Jane Russell, Brian Wyle, Jesse Bradford, Colin Hanks, Jason Donlevy, Wendell Corey, Terry Moore, Ritter, Rob Corddry, Marley Shelton. SurJohn Smith, John Agar, Gene Evans, Richprisingly sympathetic look at the life of ard Arlen, Ben Cooper, Jeff Richards. George W. Bush, who failed at everything Gunfighter Keel comes to clean up town, until the age of 40 and never succeeded at but former girl friend Russell is now marpleasing his father, even after ascending to ried to Reverend Corey. Nice veteran cast, the Presidency of the United States. Brolin but film is only for Western addicts. (as W.), Cromwell (as the elder Bush), and Techniscope. Dreyfuss (as Dick Cheney) stand out in a Wages of Fear, The (1952-French-Italian) vast ensemble bringing recent history to 156m. ★★★1⁄2 D: H. G. Clouzot. Yves life, but the film can’t effectively cover all Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck, the things it wants to and never gets inside Vera Clouzot, Folco Lulli, William Tubbs. its central character’s head. It doesn’t so Marvelous, gritty, and extremely suspensemuch end as stop. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 ful epic set in South America, chronicling Wabash Avenue (1950) C-92m. ★★★ D: the personalities of and relationships among Henry Koster. Betty Grable, Victor Mature, four men involved in long-distance driving Phil Harris, Reginald Gardiner, James Barof trucks filled with nitroglycerine. Beton, Margaret Hamilton. Bright, colorful ware: many other shorter versions exist. Remade as SORCERER.▼●쩠 period piece with scoundrel Mature trying to break up romance between saloon-owner Wagner (1983-British-Hungarian-Austrian) C-300m. ★★ D: Tony Palmer. Richard Harris and his musical star, Grable. Enjoyable remake of Grable’s 1943 vehicle Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, Gemma CraCONEY ISLAND. ven, Laszlo Galffi, John Gielgud, Ralph Wackiest Ship in the Army?, The (1960) Richardson, Laurence Olivier, Ronald C-99m. ★★★ D: Richard Murphy. Jack Pickup, Joan Plowright, Arthur Lowe, Lemmon, Ricky Nelson, John Lund, Chips Franco Nero. Glossy but uninspired biograRafferty, Tom Tully, Joby Baker, Warren phy of the composer, monotonously acted by Berlinger. Comedy-drama sometimes has Burton. Overlong, to state the obvious. Originally a nine-hour British TV series.▼쩠 you wondering if it’s serious or not; it succeeds most of the time. Offbeat WW2 Wagon Master (1950) 86m. ★★★ D: John story about broken-down sailing ship used Ford. Ben Johnson, Joanne Dru, Harry as decoy doesn’t make fun of the war, for Carey, Jr., Ward Bond, Alan Mowbray, Jane a change, and is entertaining. Later a TV Darwell, James Arness, Jim Thorpe, Russell series. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Simpson, Hank Worden, Francis Ford. Good Wackness, The (2008) C-99m. ★★★ D: JonFord Western about two roaming cowhands athan Levine. Ben Kingsley, Josh Peck, who join a Mormon wagon train heading Famke Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary-Kate for Utah frontier. Fine showcase for young Olsen, Jane Adams, Method Man, Aaron stars Johnson and Carey. Beautifully filmed. Yoo, Talia Balsam, David Wohl, Bob Inspired the later Wagon Train TV series. Dishy, Joanna Merlin. The summer of 1994 Also shown in computer-colored version.▼● is no picnic for high school senior Peck, a Wagons East (1994) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter gangsta wannabe who sells grass in N.Y.C. Markle. John Candy, Richard Lewis, John His parents are always at each other’s C. McGinley, Ellen Greene, Robert Picardo, throats and he’s never had a girlfriend. A Ed Lauter, Rodney A. Grant, William Sandsympathetic, hippie-esque shrink (Kingsley) erson, Melinda Culea, Russell Means, Charles who trades psychiatric advice for weed says Rocket. Candy (who died near the end of what he really needs is sex. Then Kingsley’s the film’s production) plays an incompetent stepdaughter (Thirlby) unexpectedly shows wagonmaster who leads a group of pioneers interest in Peck. Shrill at first but quick to who are sick of the wild and woolly West, and warm up, Levine’s well-wrought screenplay have decided to head back East. Astoundingly dodges coming-of-age cliche´s even as it unfunny, even sad—given knowledge of covers familiar ground, and it’s not afraid to Candy’s fate. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 be uncynical. Kingsley is incredibly good. Wagons Roll at Night, The (1941) 84m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ray Enright. Humphrey Bogart, Super 35. [R]쩠 Wacko (1981) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Greydon Sylvia Sidney, Eddie Albert, Joan Leslie, [ 1504 ]

Sig Ruman, Cliff Clark, Charley Foy, Frank and each other. Amiable cast serves up a Wilcox. KID GALAHAD in circus trapfew crudely funny bits, but this plotless sepings is OK, thanks to cast: Bogie’s the ries of gross-out gags just may put you on a circus manager, Sidney his star, Albert the hunger strike. Unrated version runs 94m. hayseed turned lion tamer.▼ Followed by a DVD sequel. [R] ▼쩠 ★★★ Wag the Dog (1997) C-97m. D: Barry Waiting for Guffman (1997) C-84m. ★★1⁄2 Levinson. Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, D: Christopher Guest. Christopher Guest, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara, Andrea Martin, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Parker Posey, Lewis Arquette, Matt Keeslar, Macy, Suzie Plakson, Woody Harrelson. A Bob Balaban, Paul Dooley, Paul Benedict, desperate White House team, eager to fend Larry Miller, Brian Doyle-Murray. Slight but off impending negative publicity about the amusing mock documentary about the President, hires a political fixer (De Niro) mounting of a musical show celebrating the who recruits a hotshot Hollywood producer 150th anniversary of Blaine, Missouri. Guest (Hoffman) to stage a nonexistent war, simplays the outlandish Corky St. Clair, who diply to distract the public. Pungent (and unrects the town’s amateur talent in a show he expectedly timely) satire grows a bit selfhopes will take him (and them) to Broadway. satisfied after a while, but it’s full of funny, Engaging performers make this fun. Written clever scenes. Hoffman is a standout in this by Guest and costar Levy. [R]▼●쩠 first-rate cast. Screenplay by David Mamet Waiting for the Light (1990) C-94m. ★★1 and Hilary Henkin; based on the novel ⁄2 D: Christopher Monger. Shirley American Hero by Larry Beinhart. Craig T. MacLaine, Teri Garr, Clancy Brown, VinNelson appears unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 cent Schiavelli, John Bedford Lloyd, Jeff Wah-Wah (2006-British-French-South AfMcCracken, Jack McGee, Colin Baumrican) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard E. Grant. gartner, Hillary Wolf. Shirley is the whole Gabriel Byrne, Miranda Richardson, Emily show in this slimly plotted comic fable as Watson, Julie Walters, Nicholas Hoult, Zena, beloved great-aunt of Wolf and Celia Imrie, Julian Wadham, Fenella Baumgartner, and what happens when one Woolgar, Zachary Fox. Actor Grant’s debut of her magic tricks causes a ‘‘miracle’’ as film as writer-director is an autobiographiAmericans are panicking during the 1962 cal story of growing up in Swaziland during Cuban missile crisis. [PG]▼●쩠 the waning days of British colonial rule in Waiting for the Moon (1987) C-85m. ★1⁄2 the late 1960s. A boy’s happy world is shatD: Jill Godmilow. Linda Hunt, Linda tered when his mother walks out and his Bassett, Bruce McGill, Jacques Boudet, father takes to the bottle . . . and that’s just Andrew McCarthy, Bernadette Lafont. Spirfor starters. Uneven, crammed with inciitless, sleep-inducing account of the comdent, but buoyed by outstanding perforplex relationship between an ailing Gertrude mances and Grant’s obvious passion for the Stein (Bassett) and her companion, Alice material. His real-life daughter Olivia plays B. Toklas (Hunt). Slow, occasionally conthe boy’s first girlfriend. First feature ever fusing, and very disappointing. A PBS given permission to be filmed in Swaziland. American Playhouse presentation. [PG]▼쩠 Super 35. [R]쩠 Waiting to Exhale (1995) C-121m. ★★ D: Waist Deep (2006) C-96m. ★★ D: Vondie Forest Whitaker. Whitney Houston, Angela Curtis Hall. Tyrese Gibson, Meagan Good, Bassett, Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon, Larenz Tate, H. Hunter Hall, Kimora Lee Gregory Hines, Dennis Haysbert, Mykelti Simmons, The Game, Kasi Lemmons. DurWilliamson, Michael Beach, Leon, Wendell ing a virulent South L.A. heat wave, a suPierce, Donald Adeosun Faison. Four black permarket security guard gets carjacked at a women can’t seem to find decent men in their stoplight, with his son still in the backseat. lives; this may be because most men are jerks. It isn’t a random act; it’s revenge . . . but for A cinematic equivalent to easy-listening soul what? Unlikeliness abounds in this by-theradio, this grows increasingly dreary as it numbers bullet-riddled and profane urban eases along its redundant path. Based on the crime drama. Subtext weakly encourages a popular novel by Terry McMillan. Omnipresrally against street violence, but it’s really ent music supervised by Kenneth ‘‘Babyonly about running, driving, and shooting. face’’ Edmonds. Wesley Snipes and Kelly Super 35. [R]쩠 Preston appear unbilled. [R]▼●쩠 Waiting . . . (2005) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob Waitress! (1982) C-93m. BOMB D: SamMcKittrick. Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Jusuel Weil, Michael Herz. Carol Drake, June tin Long, David Koechner, Luis Guzman, Martin, Renata Majer, Jim Harris, David Chi McBride, John Francis Daley, Kaitlin Hunt, Calvert DeForest. If watching a chef Doubleday, Alanna Ubach, Dane Cook, Jorspit in soup is your idea of fun, then you dan Ladd, Wendy Malick. A day in the life might find a couple of laughs in this moof a popular chain restaurant called Shenanironic comedy set in a restaurant. [R]▼쩠 ganZ, where the foul-mouthed/bored/stoned/ Waitress (2007) C-104m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Adrienne angry/horny employees amuse themselves Shelly. Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl by dishing out lewd abuse to the customers Hines, Adrienne Shelly, Eddie Jemison, Jer[ 1505 ]

emy Sisto, Andy Griffith. Delightful film hanced rather than literalized—to depict a about a woman who works at a small-town young man’s stream-of-consciousness exSouthern diner and deals with her problems periences as he discusses philosophy with a by inventing new and fanciful pies. She can’t variety of people he encounters. An unusuescape from her self-centered pig of a husally apt melding of style and substance, this band, especially now that she’s pregnant; then film also dares to be boring at times. Toshe meets the handsome new ob-gyn in town. ronto Film Festival notes praised the film’s Writer-director-costar Shelly creates a tangiability to create ‘‘metaphysical nausea,’’ ble environment and suffuses her film with which may or may not be a worthy goal. warmth, honesty, and humor. Russell is reEthan Hawke, Julie Delpy, and Steven Sodmarkably good, and Griffith is great in a plum erbergh appear in animated form. [R] ▼쩠 supporting role. Sadly, Shelly died before the Waking Ned Devine (1998-British-French) film’s release. [PG-13]쩠 C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kirk Jones. Ian Bannen, Wait Until Dark (1967) C-108m. ★★★ D: David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan, Susan Terence Young. Audrey Hepburn, Alan Lynch, James Nesbitt, Maura O’Malley, Arkin, Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist, Robert Hickey, Paddy Ward. Slight comedy Jr., Jack Weston, Samantha Jones. Solid about a tiny Irish village (pop. 52) turned shocker with Hepburn as blind woman left asunder when one of its aged residents wins alone in apartment, terrorized by psychotic the lottery—and his neighbors try to conArkin and henchmen looking for heroin trive a way to share the wealth. The whimsy they think is planted there. Memorable is laid on a bit heavily, to say the least, but nail-biter, flashy role for Arkin; based on it’s still fun, especially with old pros like Frederick Knott’s Broadway hit.▼●쩠 Bannen, Kelly, and Flanagan on hand. Panavision. [PG] ▼●쩠 Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1989Belgian-Italian-French) C-100m. ★★ D: Waking the Dead (2000) C-105m. ★★★ D: Dominique Deruddere. Joe Mantegna, Keith Gordon. Billy Crudup, Jennifer ConOrnella Muti, Faye Dunaway, Michael nelly, Hal Holbrook, Molly Parker, Janet Bacall, Daniel Wilson, Alex Vincent, Burt McTeer, Paul Hipp, Sandra Oh, Lawrence Young. A boy recalls turbulent times in Dane, Ed Harris. Arresting film jumps back 1920s Colorado with his father, an Italianand forth in time to tell story of a straightAmerican bricklayer (who thinks the world arrow, blue-collar young man who feels that owes him a living) and his long-suffering public service is his destiny . . . but is wife. Competent but unremarkable adaptahaunted by his undying love for a freetion of John Fante’s novel. [PG]▼ thinking woman. Uneven but intensely Wake in Fright SEE: Outback emotional, and beautifully acted by Crudup Wake Island (1942) 87m. ★★★ D: John and Connelly (who never had such a great Farrow. Brian Donlevy, Robert Preston, Macpart before). Robert Dillon adapted Scott Spencer’s novel. [R]▼쩠 donald Carey, Albert Dekker, Walter Abel, Barbara Britton, William Bendix, Rod CamWaking Up in Reno (2002) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: eron. Stirring war film of U.S.’s fight to hold Jordan Brady. Billy Bob Thornton, Charlize Pacific island at outbreak of WW2. Nothing Theron, Natasha Richardson, Patrick Swayze, new here, but exciting and well done.▼쩠 Holmes Osborne, Chelcie Ross, Pene´lope Wake Me When It’s Over (1960) C-126m. Cruz, Tony Orlando. Two couples on their ★★★ way to a monster-truck show in Nevada get D: Mervyn LeRoy. Dick Shawn, Ernie Kovacs, Margo Moore, Jack Warden, Don romantically entangled in ways they will reKnotts. Entertaining comedy of hustling gret. Picture BOB & CAROL & TED & Shawn making the most of being stationed ALICE GO TO THE OZARKS, with Jerry in the Far East by building a fancy hotel with Springer Show–type screaming and revelaArmy supplies. Kovacs lends good support. tions. Audiences in the mood for a redneck CinemaScope. love quadrangle may get some laughs out Wake of the Red Witch (1949) 106m. of this. Cowritten by Brent Briscoe, who ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Ludwig. John Wayne, appears as a sheriff. [R] ▼쩠 Gail Russell, Luther Adler, Gig Young, Walkabout (1971-Australian) C-95m. ★★★ Adele Mara, Eduard Franz, Henry Daniell, D: Nicolas Roeg. Jenny Agutter, Lucien Paul Fix. Rivalry between East Indies magJohn, David Gulpilil, John Meillon. Lost in nate and adventuresome ship’s captain over the wilderness of Australia, a child (John) pearls and women. Film is a bit confused, and an adolescent (a ravishing Agutter) rely but nicely photographed by Reggie Lanning. on young aborigine Gulpilil in order to surIncidentally, Wayne took the name of his vive. Roeg, in his first solo outing as director, production company, Batjac, from this also beautifully photographed this mind-masfilm’s shipping firm. Also shown in comsaging cult favorite; lush score by John Barry. puter-colored version.▼●쩠 John is Roeg’s son and later worked with his Waking Life (2001) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richfather using the name Luc Roeg. Expanded by 5m. for its 1996 rerelease. [PG]▼●쩠 ard Linklater. Bold, innovative film uses a striking visual style—animation based on Walk, Don’t Run (1966) C-114m. ★★★ D: live-action video, but heightened and enCharles Walters. Cary Grant, Samantha [ 1506 ]

Eggar, Jim Hutton, John Standing, Miiko ous, panicked, and desolate. Amusing look Taka, Ted Hartley. Enjoyable fluff about at the joy and strain of friendship (not to Eggar unwittingly agreeing to share her mention dating and therapy), with fine performances all around. [R]▼●쩠 apartment with businessman Grant and athlete Hutton during the Tokyo Olympics. Walking Dead, The (1995) C-89m. ★★ D: Stars are most agreeable in this remake of Preston A. Whitmore II. Allen Payne, Eddie THE MORE THE MERRIER. Grant’s last Griffin, Joe Morton, Vonte Sweet, Roger film as an actor. Panavision.▼●쩠 Floyd, Bernie Mac. Predominantly black Walker (1987) C-90m. BOMB D: Alex Vietnam Marines have ended up serving for Cox. Ed Harris, Marlee Matlin, Richard reasons beyond love of the Corps: better Masur, Rene´ Auberjonois, Peter Boyle, housing, lost jobs, legal flight from murder Miguel Sandoval, Gerrit Graham. Juvecharges, impressing women. Filmmakers nile, intentionally anachronistic comic histry to stylize both the combat and stateside tory of William Walker, American soldier scenes, but their ambitions outpace their of fortune (previously played by Marlon abilities. Griffin stands out with his comic commentary throughout the film. [R] ▼● Brando in BURN!) who became president of 19th-century Nicaragua thanks to an Walking Stick, The (1970-British) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Till. Samantha Eggar, David assist from Cornelius Vanderbilt. Matlin’s follow-up to her Oscar is actually an ingloHemmings, Emlyn Williams, Phyllis Calrious cameo; the sorry screenplay is by Rudy vert, Ferdy Mayne, Francesca Annis. PoWurlitzer. A self-indulgent mess. [R]▼쩠 tentially interesting story of beautiful polio Walker, The (2007-U.S.-British) C-108m. victim coerced into assisting her worth★★ D: Paul Schrader. Woody Harrelson, less lover in a robbery is just too low-key Kristin Scott Thomas, Ned Beatty, Lily to be consistently absorbing. Eggar’s perTomlin, Lauren Bacall, Mary Beth Hurt, formance helps. Panavision. [PG] Walking Tall (1973) C-125m. ★★ D: Willem Dafoe, Moritz Bleibtreu. An escort for some of Washington D.C.’s finest sociPhil Karlson. Joe Don Baker, Elizabeth ety women gets caught up in a scandalHartman, Gene Evans, Rosemary Murphy, tinged murder mystery. Very dark, rarely Noah Beery, Felton Perry. Sickeningly vioinvolving drama could have been the gay lent actioner about determined Southern sherflip side of Schrader’s AMERICAN GIGiff’s one-man war against corruption. Huge OLO but never settles on exactly what it theatrical success, based on real-life exploits wants to be. Fine cast tries valiantly but of baseball-bat–wielding Buford Pusser; Harrelson’s monotonous delivery grates on muscular performance by Baker. Followed the nerves after a while. Bacall is amusing by a pair of sequels, a 1978 TVM with Brian in her limited screen time. Written by the Dennehy (A REAL AMERICAN HERO) director. Super 35. [R]쩠 and a series. Remade in 2004. [R]▼●쩠 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) Walking Tall (2004) C-86m. ★★ D: Kevin C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jake Kasdan. John C. Bray. The Rock, Johnny Knoxville, Neal Reilly, Jenna Fischer, Kristen Wiig, RayMcDonough, Kristen Wilson, Ashley Scott, mond J. Barry, Tim Meadows, Chris Parnell, Khleo Thomas, John Beasley, Barbara TarMatt Besser, Harold Ramis, Margo Martinbuck, Michael Bowen. The Rock returns dale, David Krumholtz, John Michael Higgins, home after eight years in the service and Frankie Muniz, Craig Robinson, Ed Helms. learns that the town is ‘‘owned’’ lock, stock, Reilly gives a sweet, earnest performance— and barrel by an old schoolmate (McDoand does his own singing—in this uneven, nough) who’s opened a casino. With the sometimes hilarious comedy chronicling the help of a four-by-four and a trusted friend rise, fall, and redemption of a legendary (Knoxville) he determines to set things singer-songwriter. Spot-on spoof of biopic straight. Buford Pusser is nowhere in sight, cliche´s (particularly WALK THE LINE and but his vigilante break-everything-in-sight RAY) and various pop music styles is too spirit lives on in this yahoo action yarn based often crude and juvenile. Coproduced (and on the 1973 hit. Followed by two direct-tocowritten) by Judd Apatow. Many music video sequels. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 stars appear in cameos. Jack Black, Paul Walking Tall—Final Chapter SEE: Final Rudd, Justin Long, and Jason Schwartzman Chapter—Walking Tall play The Beatles; Jane Lynch and Jonah Walking Tall, Part Two SEE: Part 2, Hill also appear unbilled. Unrated DVD Walking Tall runs 120m. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 Walk in the Clouds, A (1995) C-103m. ★★★ Walking and Talking (1996) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alfonso Arau. Keanu Reeves, Aitana D: Nicole Holofcener. Catherine Keener, Sa´nchez-Gijo´n, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Anne Heche, Todd Field, Liev Schreiber, Giannini, Angelica Aragon, Evangelina EliKevin Corrigan, Randall Batinkoff, Joseph zondo, Freddy Rodriguez, Debra Messing. A Siravo, Allison Janney. Two longtime best young man just back from WW2 overseas friends are closing in on thirty; that’s bad duty helps out a beautiful woman by preenough, but when Keener learns of Heche’s tending to be her husband, in order to smooth impending marriage, she feels happy, jealover the expected fireworks when her father [ 1507 ]

learns she’s pregnant. Of course, he not only in 1930s New Orleans, loosely based on falls in love with her but with her family and Nelson Algren novel, of Harvey seeking their idyllic Napa Valley homestead. Blatantly lost love Capucine, now a member of old-fashioned and romantic, even corny, with bordello run by lesbian Stanwyck. Memhousehold scenes reminiscent of the director’s orable titles by Saul Bass; fine score by Elmer Bernstein.▼쩠 LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE. If you’re willing to buy into it, it actually Walk Proud (1979) C-102m. ★★ D: Robworks—until the climax. Based on a 1942 ert Collins. Robby Benson, Sarah Holcomb, Italian film, QUATTRO POASSI FRA LE Domingo Ambriz, Pepe Serna, Trinidad NUVOLE. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 Silva. Sincerely intentioned but not very Walk in the Shadow (1966-British) 93m. forceful gang picture about a Chicano (Ben★★★ son) who falls for a WASP beauty who D: Basil Dearden. Patrick McGoohan, Janet Munro, Paul Rogers, Megs Jenkins. goes to his high school. [PG] Walk the Line (2005) C-136m. ★★★ D: Fine courtroom melodrama, as emotions flare after a girl’s drowning. James Mangold. Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Walk in the Spring Rain (1970) C-100m. Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert ★★1 ⁄2 D: Guy Green. Anthony Quinn, InPatrick, Dallas Roberts, Dan John Miller, grid Bergman, Fritz Weaver, Katherine Larry Bagby, Shelby Lynne, Tyler Hilton. Crawford. Happily married Bergman has Solid, straightforward biopic of Johnny extramarital affair in this low-key romanCash and the woman who, in spite of many tic drama. One expects more from such a and varied detours, was destined to be his cast. Scripted and produced by Stirling wife, June Carter. Story follows Cash from Silliphant. Panavision. [M/PG]▼ his hardscrabble childhood and early enWalk in the Sun, A (1945) 117m. ★★★1⁄2 counter with tragedy through young manD: Lewis Milestone. Dana Andrews, Richhood, musical success, and a long battle ard Conte, Sterling Holloway, George Tyne, with addiction. A premier performance John Ireland, Herbert Rudley, Norman Lloyd, piece for Phoenix and Witherspoon, who Lloyd Bridges, Huntz Hall. Human aspect of are utterly convincing—and do their own war explored as American battalion attacks singing as well. Witherspoon won a Best Nazi hideout in Italy; good character studies Actress Oscar for her work. Director Manof men in war. Adapted by Robert Rossen gold wisely tells much of the story in closefrom Harry Brown’s novel.▼●쩠 ups. Shooter Jennings plays his father WayWalk Like a Dragon (1960) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: lon; coproducer James Keach has a cameo James Clavell. Jack Lord, Nobu McCarthy, as a prison warden. Extended cut runs James Shigeta, Mel Torme, Josephine Hutch153m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 inson, Rodolfo Acosta. Offbeat Western Walk the Proud Land (1956) C-88m. ★★★ drama of Lord saving McCarthy from life D: Jesse Hibbs. Audie Murphy, Anne of prostitution, taking her back to San Bancroft, Pat Crowley, Charles Drake, Francisco, overcoming expected obstacles. Jay Silverheels. Sturdy scripting makes Walk Like a Man (1987) C-86m. BOMB this oater attractive; Murphy is Indian agent D: Melvin Frank. Howie Mandel, Christotrying to quell strife between redskins and pher Lloyd, Cloris Leachman, Colleen settlers, with the capture of Geronimo his Camp, Amy Steel, Stephen Elliott, George major feat. CinemaScope.▼ DiCenzo. Mandel is returned to civilization Walk to Remember, A (2002) C-101m. ★★1 after being raised by wolves, with the ex⁄2 D: Adam Shankman. Mandy Moore, pected slapstick results. Puerile comedy with Shane West, Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah, a cast that deserves much better. [PG]▼쩠 Lauren German, Clayne Crawford, Al ThompWalk on the Moon, A (1999) C-107m. son, Paz de la Huerta. Pop star Moore does a ★★1 ⁄2 D: Tony Goldwyn. Diane Lane, Liev creditable job as a high school misfit who Schreiber, Anna Paquin, Viggo Mortensen, doesn’t care about being popular, and lives by Tovah Feldshuh, Bobby Boriello. A family the ideals espoused by her widowed father, a spends the summer of 1969 at a bungalow minister in their small Southern town. Badcolony in the Catskills, where the young boy West is attracted to her in spite of—not wife is drawn into an affair with ‘‘the blouse because of—her sincerity and soon falls under man.’’ Meanwhile, her teenage daughter is her spell. Earnest hybrid of teen movie and on the verge of a first love—and aching to tearjerker, with spiritual values rarely found in attend a rock concert nearby called Woodthis kind of film; based on Nicholas Sparks’ best-selling novel. Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 stock. Well-observed script by Pamela Gray follows a fairly predictable path, but Lane is Walk With Love and Death, A (1969) miscast as a young Jewish hausfrau. Julie C-90m. ★★ D: John Huston. Anjelica Kavner’s distinctive voice is unbilled. CoHuston, Assaf Dayan, Anthony Corlan, produced by Dustin Hoffman. [R] ▼●쩠 John Hallam, Robert Lang, Michael Gough. Walk on the Wild Side (1962) 114m. Fine period flavor but little else of note in ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Dmytryk. Laurence Harstory of young love set against turmoil of vey, Capucine, Jane Fonda, Anne Baxter, 14th-century France. Anjelica Huston’s film Barbara Stanwyck. Lurid hodgepodge set debut; father John has small role. [M/PG] [ 1508 ]

Wall, The (1982-British) SEE: Pink Young hotshot who’s going nowhere in a Floyd—The Wall N.Y. brokerage firm manages to buttonWallace & Gromit in The Curse of the hole the highest roller on Wall Street (DougWere-Rabbit (2005-British-U.S.) C-82m. las, in an Oscar-winning performance) and ★★★ D: Nick Park, Steve Box. Voices of win his confidence—but he sells his soul, Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham so to speak, in return for admittance to that Carter, Peter Kay, Nicholas Smith, Liz high-powered world of wheeling and dealSmith, Geraldine McEwan. Cheese-loving ing. Modern-day morality tale by cowriterinventor Wallace and his long-suffering cadirector Stone (whose father was a broker, nine pal Gromit retain all the quirky, invenand to whom the film is dedicated) is short tive, distinctly British humor of Park’s three on subtlety but completely absorbing, esaward-winning shorts in this delightful claypecially in the wake of the real-life ‘‘inanimated feature. Our heroes play humane sider trading’’ scandal of 1986. Stone, pest-control experts who meet their match Monique Van Vooren, and Liliane Monin an oversized rabbit that terrorizes the tevecchi can be glimpsed. [R]▼●쩠 local British gardens. Wallace also finds Waltz Across Texas (1982) C-99m. ★★1 love in the person of Lady Campanula Tot⁄2 D: Ernest Day. Terry Jastrow, Anne tington, who becomes his benefactor. EnArcher, Richard Farnsworth, Noah Beery, gagingly silly British stereotypes are played Mary Kay Place, Josh Taylor, Ben Piazza. to a fare-thee-well by Sallis, Bonham Carter, Oilman Jastrow and geologist Archer fall in Fiennes, and other voice actors. Oscar winlove. Predictable, but far from unpleasant. ner as Best Animated Feature. [G]▼쩠 The leads are husband and wife off-screen; Wall•E (2008) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Andrew they wrote the story, coproduced the film. [PG]▼쩠 Stanton. Fred Willard; voices of Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, John RatzenWaltz of the Toreadors (1962-British) C-105m. ★★★ D: John Guillermin. Peter berger, Kathy Najimy, Sigourney Weaver. On a future Earth, humans are long gone Sellers, Dany Robin, Margaret Leighton, and only one robotic creature, trained to John Fraser. Jean Anouilh’s saucy sex gather and compact garbage, is left: romp gets top notch handling with Sellers WALL•E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter as the retired military officer who still can’t Earth-Class). Then a flying robot named keep his eye off the girls.▼●쩠 Eve shows up to evaluate the planet, and Waltz With Bashir (2008-Israeli-Frencha smitten WALL•E follows her onto her German) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ari Folman. spacecraft, which exposes him to human beVoices of Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny ings for the first time. With an irresistible Dayag, Shmuel Frankel, Prof. Zahava Solomain character, a dynamite opening semon, Ron Ben-Yishai, Dror Harazi. War vet quence, exceptional production design and with selective amnesia about being a young imagination, this Pixar animated film starts soldier in Israel’s 1982 Beirut invasion emout great but becomes heavy-handed in its barks on a series of investigative interviews message. Nevertheless, it won the hearts of to recapture the truth regarding his role in audiences—and a Best Animated Feature a Palestinian refugee massacre. Gruesome, Academy Award. Pixarvision. [G]쩠 sometimes shocking memoir of ‘‘the terrible Wall of Noise (1963) 112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richsilence of death’’ is eerie, surreal, and one ard Wilson. Suzanne Pleshette, Ty Hardin, of a kind, rendered in consistently inventive Dorothy Provine, Ralph Meeker, Simon animation, neither cartoon nor documenOakland, Murray Matheson. Turgid racetary, yet both. Title refers to Lebanon’s astrack drama with adultery, not horses, sassinated Christian president. [R]쩠 the focal point. Wanda (1971) C-101m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Barbara Walls of Glass (1985) C-86m. ★★1⁄2 D: Loden. Barbara Loden, Michael Higgins, Scott Goldstein. Philip Bosco, Geraldine Charles Dosinan, Frank Jourdano. TouchPage, Linda Thorson, Olympia Dukakis, ing, original little drama about passive Brian Bloom, Steven Weber, Louis Zorich, woman (Loden) who takes up with two-bit William Hickey. Intriguing if uneven charthief Higgins. Well acted. [PG]쩠 acter study with Bosco nicely cast as a Wanda Nevada (1979) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: middle-aged, sonnet-spouting N.Y.C. cab Peter Fonda. Peter Fonda, Brooke Shields, driver who hates his job and yearns for Fiona Lewis, Luke Askew, Ted Markland, success as an actor. Occasionally slow, Severn Darden, Paul Fix, Henry Fonda. but still effective. [R]▼ Fonda wins Shields in a poker game, and Wall Street (1987) C-124m. ★★★ D: Olithey set out to prospect for gold in the ver Stone. Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Grand Canyon. If this film were any more Daryl Hannah, Hal Holbrook, Martin laid-back it would be nonexistent. Peter and Sheen, Terence Stamp, Sean Young, SylHenry’s only film together. [PG]▼ via Miles, James Spader, John McGinley, Wanderers, The (1979) C-113m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Saul Rubinek, Franklin Cover, James Philip Kaufman. Ken Wahl, John Friedrich, Karen, Richard Dysart, Josh Mostel, MilKaren Allen, Toni Kalem, Alan Rosenberg, lie Perkins, Cecilia Peck, Grant Shaud. Linda Manz, Erland van Lidth de Jeude, [ 1509 ]

Olympia Dukakis. Impressionistic look at young people, diluted by overlength, a lack Bronx-Italian high school life in 1963 isn’t of focus, and an overabundance of dramatic always consistent in tone, but there are dozclimaxes. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ens of privileged moments. Understandably, War (2007) C-103m. ★★ D: Philip G. Atit’s become a cult favorite. [R]▼●쩠 well. Jet Li, Jason Statham, John Lone, Wannsee Conference, The (1984-GermanDevon Aoki, Luis Guzma´n, Saul Rubinek. While a maverick FBI agent (Statham) tries Austrian) C-87m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Heinz Schirk. Dietrich Mattausch, Gerd Bockmann, Friedto settle an old score with an infamous hit rich Beckhaus, Gunter Spoerrie, Martin man (Li), the killer—borrowing a page Luttge, Peter Fritz. Fascinating, chilling from Akira Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO (and recreation of the infamous meeting, held Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest)—plays in a Berlin suburb in January 1942, in two rival Asian gangs against each other in which Nazi bigwigs discussed implemena San Francisco turf war. Teaming of action tation of the Final Solution. Participants stars Li and Statham raises high expectaplot the destruction of millions with a tions that are frustratingly unfulfilled by a casual air, which only adds to the terror. standard-issue crime drama laced with uninBased on minutes taken at the conference; spired martial artistry. Super 35. [R]쩠 film’s length matches the event’s actual War and Peace (1956-U.S.-Italian) Crunning time. Same topic covered in a 208m. ★★1⁄2 D: King Vidor. Audrey HepTVM, CONSPIRACY.▼● burn, Henry Fonda, Mel Ferrer, Vittorio Want a Ride, Little Girl? SEE: Impulse Gassman, John Mills, Herbert Lom, Oscar (1974) Homolka, Anita Ekberg, Helmut Dantine, ★★★ Wanted (2008) C-110m. D: Timur BekBarry Jones, Milly Vitale, Jeremy Brett, mambetov. James McAvoy, Morgan FreeWilfrid Lawson, Mai Britt. Tolstoy’s man, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp, Thomas sprawling novel fails to come alive in this Kretschmann, Common, Kristen Hager, Marc overlong, oversimplified adaptation. StarWarren, David Patrick O’Hara. Nebbishy studded cast and spectacular battle scenes office drone McAvoy is suddenly—and (directed by Mario Soldati) cannot comdramatically—recruited to join a secret sopensate for clumsy script (by six writers, ciety of assassins led by Freeman after his including Vidor) and some profound misfather (who was part of the team) is killed. casting. Filmed far more successfully in 1968. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Flamboyant, in-your-face action filled with innovative visual flourishes from Russian War and Peace (1968-Russian) C-373m. ★★★★ director Bekmambetov, in his Hollywood D: Sergei Bondarchuk. Ludmila debut. Ace-high action thriller never runs Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tihonov, Hira out of steam. Based on the comic books by Ivanov-Golovko, Irina Gubanova, Antonia Mark Millar and J. G. Jones. Super 35. Shuranova. Sergei Bondarchuk. Even in [R]쩠 theaters, poor English dubbing hurt this Wanted: Babysitter SEE: Babysitter, definitive film version of Tolstoy’s novel. The (1975) Even so, it should be seen for production Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987) C-104m. values alone; a dazzling film. Oscar winner BOMB D: Gary Sherman. Rutger Hauer, for Best Foreign Film. Originally shown in Gene Simmons, Robert Guillaume, Mel U.S. in two parts; released in the USSR in Harris, William Russ, Susan McDonald, 1966–67 in four parts, totaling 507m. Jerry Hardin. Hauer plays Nick Randall, Sovscope 70.▼쩠 grandson of fellow bounty hunter Josh, the War at Home, The (1996) C-123m. ★★ character Steve McQueen played in the D: Emilio Estevez. Emilio Estevez, Kathy identically named TV series. Link is menBates, Martin Sheen, Kimberly Williams, tioned, then ignored, in routine cheapo Corin Nemec, Carla Gugino, Renee Esabout the CIA’s pursuit of an Arab terrorist. tevez. Stagey adaptation by James Duff of his own play Homefront, about recently reBravura grenade-in-mouth finale. [R]▼●쩠 Wanton Contessa SEE: Senso turned Vietnam vet Estevez trying to move Wanton Countess, The SEE: Senso on with his life but haunted by his experiWar, The (1994) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon ence in combat. His family is unable to deal Avnet. Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, Mare with the fact that the boy they sent off to Winningham, Lexi Randall, Christine Bawar never came home. Great acting, esperanski, Gary Basaraba, Raynor Scheine, Lacially by Bates, but good intentions outweigh results. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 toya Chisholm, Charlette Julius. Growing up isn’t easy for a brother and sister in 1970 War Between Men and Women, The Mississippi; their father means well, but (1972) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Melville Shavelhasn’t been stable since returning from son. Jack Lemmon, Barbara Harris, Jason Vietnam, and his attempts to teach them Robards, Herb Edelman, Lisa Gerritsen, tolerance and peaceful ways are hard to abLisa Eilbacher, Severn Darden. Fans of sorb when they’re constantly bullied by a James Thurber won’t think much of this family of mean-spirited kids who live mixture of famed writer-cartoonist’s matenearby. Well-intentioned message film for rial and Hollywood schmaltz, but film occa[ 1510 ]

sionally makes for pleasant comedyhappy soldier Saxon who tries to help an orphan boy. Redford’s film debut.쩠 romance. Harris comes off best. Material had previously inspired a TV series, My War, Inc. (2008) C-107m. ★★ D: Joshua World—And Welcome To It. [PG]▼ Seftel. John Cusack, Hilary Duff, Marisa War Between the Planets (1965-Italian) Tomei, Joan Cusack, Ben Kingsley, Dan AykC-80m. BOMB D: Anthony Dawson (Anroyd, Lubomir Neikov, Ben Cross. Would-be tonio Margheriti). Jack Stuart (Giacomo satire of the war in Iraq features Cusack as Rossi-Stuarti), Amber Collins (Ombretta an assassin-for-hire who takes an assignment Colli), Peter Martell, Halina Zalewska. Alien from the former Vice President of the U.S. planet is on collision course with earth, but (Aykroyd) to rub out the oil minister of a valiant efforts by scientific forces snatch vicMiddle Eastern country. His ‘‘cover’’ is a tory from the jaws of boredom. Fun only if trade show where the main distraction is the you like spaghetti sci-fi. Made at same time wedding of a bratty pop star (Duff). Selfas other losers such as WAR OF THE satisfied poke at contemporary events has a PLANETS, WILD WILD PLANET, etc. good cast and attitude to spare but its targets Aka PLANET ON THE PROWL. ▼쩠 are painfully obvious—and so is its approach. Wardance (2007) C-107m. ★★★ D: Sean Cowritten by John Cusack. [R]쩠 Fine, Andrea Nix Fine. Compassionate, upWar, Italian Style (1966-Italian) C-84m. ★★ D: Luigi Scattini. Buster Keaton, Franco lifting documentary account of Ugandan orphans who only have known lives of war and Ciccio, Martha Hyer, Fred Clark. and strife. They reside in a DP camp, where Sloppy, meandering spy satire set in WW2 they prepare to vie for a National Music Italy, redeemed barely by Keaton’s apCompetition trophy. Despite their horror pearance. Unfortunately, this was his final stories, the youngsters show astounding refilm. Techniscope. silience, and the film is a primer on the Warlock (1959) C-121m. ★★★ D: Edward power of music to elevate the spirit. Only Dmytryk. Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, flaw: it’s a tad overlong. [PG-13]쩠 Anthony Quinn, Dorothy Malone, Dolores War Game, The (1967-British) 47m. ★★★ Michaels, Wallace Ford, Tom Drake, RichD: Peter Watkins. Fascinating, frightening ard Arlen, DeForest Kelley, Regis Toomey. simulated documentary, which vividly proPhilosophical vigilante ‘‘sheriff’’ Fonda is jects the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. hired to clean up the crime-infested Western Originally produced for television by the town of Warlock. This sets off a complex BBC and British Film Institute, but deemed storyline involving, among others, crippled to be too incendiary for home audiences. It Quinn, guilt-ridden Widmark, and embitdid open theatrically, and earned a Best tered Malone. Literate, allegorical adult Documentary Academy Award.▼쩠 Western examines the lynch-mob mentality WarGames (1983) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: and the meaning of machismo. Forgotten, John Badham. Matthew Broderick, Dabney but worthy of rediscovery. Scripted by RobColeman, John Wood, Ally Sheedy, Barry ert Alan Aurthur. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Corbin, Juanin Clay, Maury Chaykin, MiWarlock (1991) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steve chael Madsen, John Spencer. FAIL SAFE Miner. Julian Sands, Lori Singer, Richard for the Pac-Man generation: a pop movie E. Grant, Mary Woronov, Richard Kuss, about a computer whiz-kid who taps into Allan Miller, Kevin O’Brien, Anna Levine, government early-warning system and David Carpenter. A warlock escapes from nearly starts WW3. Entertaining to a point, 1691 Boston to 1991 L.A., with a local but gets more contrived as it goes along, witch-hunter in full time-warp pursuit; obleading to finale straight out of an old B ject of their squabble is the Grand Grimoire, movie. Incidentally, it’s easy to see why this or Satan’s bible. More fun might have ensued was so popular with kids: most of the adults had they ended up on a dusty street with, say, in the film are boobs. Followed by a DVD Henry Fonda, but it’s worth half-a-star just to see the ever-intense Grant in a rare (for him) sequel in 2008. [PG]▼●쩠 War Gods of the Deep (1965-U.S.-British) heroic role. Followed by two sequels. [R] C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jacques Tourneur. Vin▼●쩠 cent Price, Tab Hunter, David Tomlinson, Warlock: The Armageddon (1993) CSusan Hart, John LeMesurier. Gill-men 98m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony Hickox. Julian Sands, invade remote seacoast town. Actually, Christopher Young, Paula Marshall, Steve two films in one: establishing menace, Kahan, Charles Hallahan, R. G. Armstrong, first half has odd, almost poetic feel to it, Nicole Mercurio, Craig Hurley, Bruce but second half deteriorates, with shoddy Glover, Zach Galligan, Joanna Pacula. Evil underwater city. Tourneur’s final feature. warlock Sands is (literally) reborn, even British title: THE CITY UNDER THE though there is nothing connecting this SEA. Colorscope.▼쩠 entry with the first, other than Sands himself War Hunt (1962) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Denis and his role as a wicked, flying sorcerer— Sanders. John Saxon, Robert Redford, this time trying to unleash his father (Satan) Charles Aidman, Sydney Pollack. Wellupon the world. Weak, jokey film has only done Korean War story focusing on killSands’ sardonic performance and some [ 1511 ]

good effects to recommend it. Followed by Keenan Wynn, Lillian Gish, Eleanor Para direct-to-video sequel. [R]▼●쩠 ker, Sam Wanamaker, Stefanie Powers, War Lord, The (1965) C-123m. ★★★ D: George Sanders, George Grizzard, Steve Franklin Schaffner. Charlton Heston, RoseAllen, Carroll O’Connor, Joan Collins, mary Forsyth, Richard Boone, Maurice Walter Pidgeon. Exciting action-filled meloEvans, Guy Stockwell, Niall McGinnis, drama about cop’s attempt to clear his James Farentino, Henry Wilcoxon, Miname after killing a supposedly innocent doctor. 쩠 chael Conrad. Intriguing, generally welldone adaptation of Leslie Stevens’ The Warning Sign (1985) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Lovers, with Heston as feudal knight invokHal Barwood. Sam Waterston, Kathleen ing little-known law allowing him to have Quinlan, Yaphet Kotto, Jeffrey De Munn, another man’s bride on their wedding night. Richard Dysart, G. W. Bailey, Jerry Hardin, Title and medieval setting would seem to indiRick Rossovich, Cynthia Carle. Selfcate sweeping spectacle . . . which this cerimportant, would-be CHINA SYNDROME tainly isn’t. Panavision.▼●쩠 about disastrous results of chemical spill at Warlords of Atlantis (1978-British) C-96m. research lab that’s secretly been working ★★1 ⁄2 D: Kevin Connor. Doug McClure, on germ warfare for the government. Peter Gilmore, Shane Rimmer, Lea BroUnpleasant and ineffectual. Screenwriter die, John Ratzenberger, Cyd Charisse, DanBarwood’s directing debut. [R]▼쩠 iel Massey. Monsters and mayhem abound War of the Buttons (1994-British-Frenchin this palatable Saturday matinee item Japanese) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Roberts. with McClure joining British scientists in Gregg Fitzgerald, John Coffey, Liam Cunsearch for underwater city. ningham, Johnny Murphy, Colm Meaney, Warlords of the 21st Century (1982) Jim Bartley, Gerard Kearney, Anthony C-91m. ★★ D: Harley Cokliss. Michael Cunningham. The children of two neighBeck, Annie McEnroe, James Wainwright, boring Irish towns gradually escalate their John Ratzenberger, Bruno Lawrence. Rouquarrels to outright—if painless—warfare. tine action film set after WW3 in time of This pleasant comedy-drama tries to say an oil shortage. Wainwright (as the ruthsomething about war, but the point is obless, right-wing military villain) virtually scured as the story begins to focus on two repeated his role in the contemporary-set particular boys. Based on the 1912 Louis Robin Williams comedy THE SURVIPergaud novel La Guerre des Boutons, preVORS. Filmed in New Zealand; originally viously filmed in 1938 and 1962. [PG]▼● titled BATTLETRUCK. [PG]▼ War of the Colossal Beast (1958) 68m. ★1 War Lover, The (1962-British) 105m. ⁄2 D: Bert I. Gordon. Sally Fraser, Roger ★★1 Pace, Dean Parkin, Russ Bender, Charles ⁄2 D: Philip Leacock. Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner, Shirley Anne Field, Gary Stewart. Sequel to THE AMAZING COCockrell, Michael Crawford, Al Waxman. LOSSAL MAN finds our oversized hero John Hersey’s thoughtful novel becomes alive but not well; his face is a mess, and superficial account of egocentric, psychotic so is his mind, leading to the inevitable WW2 pilot McQueen, who becomes unlow-budget rampage. Forget it. Last shot is in color.▼쩠 hinged when copilot Wagner begins a romantic relationship with Field. Worth seeing for War of the Gargantuas, The (1966-U.S.McQueen’s edgy, riveting presence.▼●쩠 Japanese) C-93m. BOMB D: Ishiro Honda. Warm December, A (1973) C-100m. ★★ Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno, Kipp HamilD: Sidney Poitier. Sidney Poitier, Esther Anton, Yu Fujiki. Japan is menaced by a mean, derson, Johnny Sekka, Yvette Curtis. George green ‘‘gargantua’’ (humanoid giant), with a Baker, Earl Cameron. Story of Poitier’s love friendly brown gargantua trying to make for Anderson, who is dying of sickle cell anepeace. Strange, even by Japanese monstermovie standards. Tohoscope.▼ mia, isn’t as sappy as it might be, but isn’t particularly good, either. Anderson is attracWar of the Roses, The (1989) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Danny DeVito. Michael Douglas, tive. Made in England. [PG] ▼쩠 Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Marianne ★★★ D: Shohei Imamura. Japanese) C-114m. Sa¨gebrecht, Sean Astin, Heather Fairfield, Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baisho, G. D. Spradlin, Peter Donat, Dan CastelManasaku Fuwa, Isao Natsuyagi, Kazuo Kilaneta, Danitra Vance. When Douglas and tamura. Clever, sweetly funny comedyTurner can’t agree on a property settlement drama about middle-aged Yakusho, trapped in their divorce proceedings, war breaks out and victimized by the modern rat race, who in (and over) their exquisitely appointed becomes involved with a beautiful—and house. As a satire on yuppie materialism, most unusual—woman in a small fishing this very black comedy scores a bull’svillage. Offbeat but profound film stresses eye—for about an hour. Then it continues the importance of enjoying life and exercisfor nearly an hour more as the couple grows ing free will.▼쩠 increasingly vicious and irrational, literally Warning Shot (1967) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: destroying their home. Some people loved Buzz Kulik. David Janssen, Ed Begley, this film (the stars are perfect), so obviously [ 1512 ]

it’s a matter of taste. DeVito’s odd point of view and wild camera angles are an asset throughout. [R]▼●쩠 War of the Satellites (1958) 66m. ★★ D: Roger Corman. Dick Miller, Susan Cabot, Richard Devon, Robert Shayne, Eric Sinclair. Ruthless combination of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and KRONOS has unseen aliens warning Earth to cease their space exploration, brainwashing scientist Devon to make sure it’s done. The day after the U.S. Explorer satellite went up, Corman told a studio he could have a film ready in two months . . . and he did. Not so hot, but any movie with Dick Miller as a heroic scientist can’t be all bad. War of the Wildcats SEE: In Old Oklahoma War of the Worlds, The (1953) C-85m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Byron Haskin. Gene Barry, Les Tremayne, Ann Robinson, Robert Cornthwaite, Henry Brandon, Jack Kruschen; narrated by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Vivid, frightening adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel about a Martian invasion, transplanted from 19th-century England to contemporary USA. Dramatically sound and filled with dazzling, Oscar-winning special effects; superior scifi, produced by George Pal. Later a TV series. Remade three times in 2005 as WAR OF THE WORLDS, H. G. WELLS’ THE WAR OF THE WORLDS and H. G. WELLS’ WAR OF THE WORLDS.▼●쩠 War of the Worlds (2005) C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Steven Spielberg. Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Miranda Otto, Justin Chatwin, Tim Robbins, Rick Gonzalez, Lisa Ann Walter, Amy Ryan; narrated by Morgan Freeman. Divorced, beer-swilling New Jersey construction worker with two kids realizes that all hell is breaking loose and hits the road, hoping to dodge the chaos of an alien invasion and reach his ex-wife’s family home in Boston. Update of H. G. Wells’ novel never names Mars as the source of the invaders, but wastes no time getting started, throwing action and special effects sequences at the viewer almost nonstop . . . but it ends with a whimper, not a bang, muting the entire experience. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson, stars of the 1953 version, make a welcome cameo. [PG-13]

Warrior, The (2001-British-French-German) C-86m. ★★★ D: Asif Kapadia. Irfan Khan, Puru Chibber, Anupam Shyam, Noor Mani, Damayanti Marfatia, Aino Annuddin. Minimalist fable involving the title character (Khan), one of a band of killers who slaughters innocent villagers on the order of his boss, a brutal Indian warlord. His life changes dramatically when he decides to quit his job and seek spiritual redemption. Harsh, ironic reworking of a samurai/Western morality tale, stunningly filmed in the deserts and mountains of Northwestern India. Released in the U.S. in 2005. [R]▼쩠 Warrior and the Sorceress, The (1984) C-76m. ★1⁄2 D: John Broderick. David Carradine, Luke Askew, Maria Socas, Anthony DeLongis, Harry Townes, William Marin. Copycat version of both A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS and YOJIMBO transplants story of a lone fighter playing both ends against the middle to a mythical kingdom on a planet circling two suns. Lovely leading lady Socas plays the entire film topless; you also might note the very convincing makeup effects on a pretty dancer who has four breasts. [R]▼●쩠 Warrior Queen (1987) C-69m. BOMB D: Chuck Vincent. Sybil Danning, Donald Pleasence, Richard Hill, Josephine Jacqueline Jones, Tally Chanel, Stasia Micula (Samantha Fox). Ridiculous made-in-Italy exploitation film emphasizes sex in recreating the decadence of ancient Pompeii. Pleasence is at his hammy worst as the mayor whose wife (porn star Fox) has eyes for other men. Relies extensively on footage from the ’60 LAST DAYS OF POMPEII for an apocalyptic climax. Unrated 79m. video version has more sex scenes. [R]▼● Warriors, The (1955-British) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Henry Levin. Errol Flynn, Joanne Dru, Peter Finch, Patrick Holt, Yvonne Furneaux, Michael Hordern, Christopher Lee. Flynn’s final swashbuckler casts him as British prince protecting French conquests (and lovely Dru) from attacks by Finch and his supporters. Well made but awfully familiar. British title: THE DARK AVENGER. CinemaScope.▼ Warriors, The (1979) C-90m. ★★★ D: Walter Hill. Michael Beck, James Remar, Thomas Waites, Dorsey Wright, Brian Tyler, ▼쩠 War Party (1989) C-97m. ★★ D: Franc Deborah Van Valkenburgh, Mercedes Ruehl. Roddam. Billy Wirth, Kevin Dillon, Tim Comic-book plot about N.Y.C. gang crossing Sampson, Jimmie Ray Weeks, M. Emmet rival turfs to get ‘‘home’’ is redeemed by Walsh, Dennis Banks, Kevyn Major Howlightning pace, tough action sequences, creard, Bill McKinney. Reenactment of a ative use of color. Notorious for the number hundred-year-old battle between Blackfoot of violent incidents it allegedly instigated in Indian tribe and U.S. Cavalry turns into theaters, but worthy of some respect. Script the real thing once again when one white by Hill and David Shaber; photographed by youth brings a loaded gun to the festiviAndrew Laszlo. Director’s cut runs 93m. ties. Basically an excuse for a cowboys [R]▼●쩠 and Indians movie, this intriguing premise Warriors of Virtue (1997) C-103m. ★1⁄2 becomes just another botched opportunity D: Ronny Yu. Angus Macfadyen, Mario Yefor Hollywood to shed light on the probdidia, Marley Shelton, Jack Tate, Chao-Li lems of the American Indian. [R]▼● Chi, Doug Jones, Michael John Anderson. In[ 1513 ]

coherent kiddie kung fu movie about an American boy (Yedidia, who’s the spitting image of Elijah Wood) who gets hold of a secret Chinese manuscript that transports him to a mystical wonderland where kangaroo warriors fight against evil. Yu’s English filmmaking debut is a big disappointment after his fantastical (and very adult) Hong Kong sword and sorcery epics THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR, Parts 1 and 2. Macfadyen chews scenery as the villain, acting like the errant offspring of Ming the Merciless and Little Richard. Panavision. [PG]

this deeply troubled family. Panavision.

▼쩠

Wasabi (2002-French-Japanese) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ge´rard Krawczyk. Jean Reno, Michel Muller, Ryoko Hirosue, Carole Bouquet, Ludovic Berthillot, Yan Epstein, Michel Scourneau. Minor but diverting comedy-action yarn about a cop (Reno) with a penchant for punching out people who’s called to Japan. It seems the love of his life—who walked out on him 19 years ago—has died, leaving him a fortune, a daughter he never knew about, and a platoon of hit men on his trail. Reno is his usual charismatic self in a hand-tailored role, and ▼●쩠 the action is sharply staged. Written and proWar Room, The (1993) C-95m. ★★★ D: duced by Luc Besson. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 D. A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus. CompelWash, The (2001) C-96m. ★★ D: DJ Pooh. ling documentary which follows the behindSnoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, George Wallace, the-scenes machinations of Bill Clinton’s Angell Conwell, Tommy ‘‘Tiny’’ Lister, Jr., 1992 presidential campaign. No great inAlex Thomas. With director Pooh citing Misights or revelations, but still an inherently chael Schultz’s CAR WASH as a direct ininteresting (and very entertaining) look at fluence, you know what you’re going to get in political kingmaking, done in classic cinthis agreeable but ragged yarn about rente´ma ve´rite´ style. Chief political strategist owing roomies working at the same cleansing James Carville (the ‘‘Ragin’ Cajun’’) has facility. Look for: full-figured women in bikimore on-screen charisma than many Hollynis sudsing up cars, an obese cop who’s made wood stars.▼●쩠 fun of, and someone having intestinal probWar Wagon, The (1967) C-101m. ★★★ lems when there are houseguests. Any movie D: Burt Kennedy. John Wayne, Kirk Dougthat gives you cameos by Shaquille O’Neal, las, Howard Keel, Robert Walker, Keenan Tommy Chong, and Pauly Shore is going the Wynn, Bruce Cabot, Joanna Barnes, Bruce extra mile. [R]▼쩠 Dern. Amiable tongue-in-cheek Western, Washington Square (1997) C-115m. ★★★ with ex-con Wayne seeking to settle a score D: Agnieszka Holland. Jennifer Jason with villainous Cabot by plundering his Leigh, Albert Finney, Ben Chaplin, Maggie gold-laden stagecoach—with the help of Smith, Judith Ivey, Betsy Brantley, Jennifer Douglas (who’s been hired to kill Wayne Garner, Peter Maloney. Spirited adaptation on Cabot’s behalf) and a motley band of of the Henry James novel about the awkassociates. Keel is hilarious as wiseward, plain-Jane daughter of a wealthy, domicracking Indian. Panavision.▼●쩠 neering doctor, who is suddenly courted by a ★★1 ⁄2 D: War Within, The (2005) C-93m. poor but handsome fortune hunter in 19thJoseph Castelo. Ayad Akhtar, Firdous century N.Y.C. Like a number of celebrated Bamji, Nandana Sen, Sarita Choudhury, period stories filmed in the 1990s, this one Charles Daniel Sandoval, Varun Sriram, features a pointed contemporary feminist senJohn Ventimiglia, Mike McGlone. Introsibility. Filmed before as THE HEIRESS. spective account of how a good-natured Pa[PG] ▼●쩠 kistani student has been politicized and Wasn’t That a Time! SEE: Weavers, The: transformed into a suicide bomber. He Wasn’t That a Time! comes to the U.S., where his eventual target Wasp Woman, The (1960) 66m. ★★1⁄2 D: is N.Y.C.’s Grand Central Station. WellRoger Corman. Susan Cabot, Fred (Anmeaning attempt to explore the psychology thony) Eisley, Barboura Morris, Michael of its main character; while the story is all Mark, William Roerick. Enjoyable Corman too believable, it runs out of dramatic steam. cheapie about cosmetics magnate Cabot, Coscripted by Akhtar, Castelo, and Tom fearful of aging, using royal jelly from wasps Glynn. [R]쩠 to become young and beautiful. She also periWar Zone, The (1999-British-Italian) Codically turns into a wasp-monster that must 98m. ★★★ D: Tim Roth. Ray Winstone, kill. Minor camp classic; an unauthorized Tilda Swinton, Lara Belmont, Freddie Cunsemi-remake, EVIL SPAWN, was made for liffe, Colin Farrell. Roth’s directorial debut video in 1987. Remade for TV in 1996.▼쩠 is an ultra-realistic, deeply affecting portrait Wassup Rockers (2006) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 D: of incest in a working-class British family. Larry Clark. Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco With devastating candor, he charts the unPedrasa, Eddie Velasquez, Yunior Usvaldo folding events as 15-year-old Cunliffe susPanameno, Eddie Velazquez, Luis Rojaspects that his father (Winstone) is acting Salgado, Carlos Velasco, Iris Zelaya, Laura inappropriately with his older sister (BelCellner, Jessica Steinbaum. Lighter in tone, mont). Sometimes difficult to watch, as more accessible, and less explicit than Roth pulls no punches in his portrayal of Clark’s previous forays into the world of [ 1514 ]

troubled youth (KIDS, BULLY, KEN dog are pursued by a monster who’s the PARK), this story of seven Latino skateresult of the same experimentation that boarders examines their lives not only in created the canine. More a remake of than a their home base of South Central L.A. but sequel to WATCHERS, and a better movie, in the suburban environs of Beverly Hills. though still no world-beater. Followed by two sequels. [R]▼●쩠 When they meet two rich white girls they find themselves skating down the streets Watch It (1993) C-102m. ★★★ D: Tom and backyards of the wealthy in sequences Flynn. Peter Gallagher, Suzy Amis, John that almost seem like an homage to THE C. McGinley, Jon Tenney, Cynthia SteSWIMMER. While raw and undisciplined, venson, Lili Taylor, Tom Sizemore, Terri film offers an interesting perspective on Hawkes, Jordana Capra. Drifter Gallagher class and race and serves as a showcase for returns to Chicago and moves in with smarmy, a good young cast. [R]쩠 womanizing cousin Tenney and his crude, imWatched! (1972) C-95m. ★1⁄2 D: John mature housemates. He falls for (but cannot Parsons. Stacy Keach, Harris Yulin, Brigid make a commitment to) veterinarian Amis, Polk, Denver John Collins. Keach plays a who’s had rotten luck with men. Despite former government lawyer who went unsome plot implausibilities and a cop-out endderground, befriending dopers. Yulin is ing, a perceptive and ingratiating film. Flynn chief of the narcotics squad, using lots of also scripted. [R]▼● surveillance filming in his war of wills Watchmen (2009) C-161m. ★★ D: Zack with Keach. Haphazard structure of this Snyder. Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Patlow-budget film relies upon Keach’s nearly rick Wilson, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie one-man show, expressing the personal Earle Haley, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, transition out of 1960s culture. [R]▼ Matt Frewer, Stephen McHattie, Robert WisWatcher, The (2000) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe den. Slick, superficially faithful but heavyCharbanic. James Spader, Marisa Tomei, handed adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Keanu Reeves, Ernie Hudson, Chris Ellis, Gibbons’ celebrated graphic novel, set in a Robert Cicchini. The millionth serial killer bleak, alternate 1985 where the newest genmovie in a decade offers little in the way of eration of vigilante superheroes has been novelty (not that this would be anyone’s wish). retired by an act of Congress. Only the very FBI agent Spader has gotten so worn out trying naked Dr. Manhattan (Crudup) is still at to track down woman-preying Reeves that work, as he holds the power to stave off he’s relocated from L.A. to Chicago and put impending nuclear war—but he has been himself in the care of psychoanalyst Tomei. drained of his humanity and can’t even re(Guess who ends up being victimized?) late to his girlfriend anymore. And so it Empty thriller directed by— surprise!—a forgoes. Deliberately extreme violence and mer maker of rock videos. [R]▼쩠 sexuality seem pointless in this highly stylWatcher in the Woods, The (1980) C-84m. ized but overlong comic book saga. Haley’s ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Hough. Bette Davis, Carroll performance as Rorschach is the lone standBaker, David McCallum, Lynn-Holly Johnout. Extended version runs 186m. Super 35. son, Kyle Richards, Ian Bannen, Richard [R]쩠 Pasco. All-American family takes over BritWatch on the Rhine (1943) 114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ish country house, where young Johnson is Herman Shumlin. Bette Davis, Paul Lukas, tormented by the spirit of owner Davis’ Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lucile Watson, Beulah long-missing daughter. Not bad, with atBondi, George Coulouris, Donald Woods, mospheric photography by Alan Hume, Henry Daniell. Fine filmization of Lillian but awfully familiar. First shown with an Hellman’s timely WW2 play of German abrupt conclusion, then with special effects Lukas and wife Davis pursued and harried sequence that made things worse, then reby Nazi agents in Washington. Lukas gives worked again and improved (by Vincent the performance of his career, which won McEveety)—for 1981 rerelease! Original him an Oscar; Bette somewhat overshadrunning time 100m. [PG]▼●쩠 owed. Script by Dashiell Hammett. ▼쩠 Watchers (1988-U.S.-Canadian) C-92m. Watch the Shadows Dance (1987★1 ⁄2 D: Jon Hess. Corey Haim, Michael Australian-Canadian) C-87m. ★★ D: Mark Ironside, Barbara Williams, Lala, Duncan Joffe. Tom Jennings, Nicole Kidman, JoFraser, Dale Wilson, Blu Mankuma. Young anne Samuel, Vince Martin, Craig Pearce, Haim is befriended by a super-intelligent Doug Parkinson. Low-grade actioner indog (the product of military research), but volving a group of students who participate soon both are pursued by a swift, deadly in a violent fantasy war game, with predictmonster. Awful adaptation of Dean R. able results. Of interest solely for the presKoontz’s novel, with a ludicrous monster. ence of Kidman, cast as one of the players. Aka NIGHTMASTER. [R]▼쩠 Followed by three sequels. [R]▼●쩠 Watchers 2 (1990-U.S.-Canadian) C-97m. Water (1985-British) C-95m. BOMB D: ★★ D: Thierry Notz. Marc Singer, Tracy Dick Clement. Michael Caine, Brenda Scoggins, Tom Poster, Jonathan Farwell, Vaccaro, Leonard Rossiter, Valerie Perrine, Mary Woronov. Singer and a super-intelligent Jimmie Walker, Billy Connolly, Dennis [ 1515 ]

Dugan. Inept comedy of errors concerns a ethnic rehabilitation center. Things haven’t Caribbean British colony where the local changed too much since THE MEN, but pogovernor (Caine) juggles greedy U.S. oil tentially maudlin situations are handled with interests, a comical rebellion, and other directness, grace, and great humor, and the assorted looneys as a valuable mineral entire cast—particularly Snipes and Forwater is discovered. Rossiter is funny as a sythe—is excellent. Jimenez, himself paradiplomat sent from England to calm the lyzed since an accident in 1984, also wrote the screenplay. [R]▼●쩠 situation, and Maureen Lipman is terrific in a nasty caricature of Prime Minister Waterhole #3 (1967) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Thatcher; Vaccaro is miscast in strained William Graham. James Coburn, Carroll Carmen Miranda impression. Pointless O’Connor, Margaret Blye, Claude Akins, cameos by Dick Shawn, Fred Gwynne, film’s Bruce Dern, Joan Blondell, James Whitmore. executive producer George Harrison, Eric Amusing Western comedy of three confederClapton, and Ringo Starr. [PG-13]▼쩠 ates who rob Army of a fortune in gold and Water (2005-Canadian-Indian) C-117m. bury it in desert waterhole. Produced by Blake ★★1 Edwards. Techniscope. ▼●쩠 ⁄2 D: Deepa Mehta. Lisa Ray, Seema Biswas, Sarala, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The Waheeda Rehman, Raghuvir Yadav, Vinay (2007-U.S.-British) C-111m. ★★★ D: Jay Pathak, Rishma Malik. 1930s-set drama Russell. Emily Watson, Alex Etel, Ben about a group of widows living a life of Chaplin, David Morrissey, Priyanka Xi, poverty at a temple while struggling for inMarshall Napier, Brian Cox. The boy-anddependence from British Colonial rule. his-pet formula gets a different spin as the Tragic story focuses on one girl in particupet is the mythical title character, who lar, forced into prostitution by her superiors, grows up to be the Loch Ness monster! Unwho tries to have a relationship with a usual family fare set in WW2 Scotland, young man she is forbidden to see. Wellwhere a lonely boy whose father has gone off meaning, deliberately paced film sheds light to war finds his only real companionship in a on a little-known aspect of Indian life but creature who hatches from an egg he chances fails to set off much dramatic spark despite to find. Alternately fanciful and dark, with exquisite filming by Toronto-based director a winning young hero in Etel (who was so Mehta. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 memorable in MILLIONS). Based on a book Water Babies, The (1978-British-Polish) by Dick King-Smith, who also wrote the C-92m. ★★ D: Lionel Jeffries. James Mason, novel that became BABE. Super 35. [PG]쩠 Billie Whitelaw, Bernard Cribbins, Joan Waterland (1992-British) C-95m. ★★★ D: Greenwood, David Tomlinson, Tommy Stephen Gyllenhaal. Jeremy Irons, Sinead Pender, Samantha Gates. Combination live Cusack, Ethan Hawke, John Heard, Grant action and animated film for children, framWarnock, Lena Headey, David Morrissey, ing its fairy-tale undersea adventure with Peter Postlethwaite. Arresting film about a virtually unrelated story and characters in desperate, middle-aged high school history Dickensian London. Inoffensive for children, teacher who’s led a life of emotional upbut downright boring at times. Aka SLIP heaval, and seems trapped by his past—all SLIDE ADVENTURES.▼쩠 of which affects the way he relates to his Waterboy, The (1998) C-88m. ★★★ D: students. Peter Prince’s screenplay effecFrank Coraci. Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, tively interprets Graham Swift’s seemingly Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler, Jerry Reed, unfilmable novel. Irons is ideally cast and Larry Gilliard, Jr., Blake Clark, Clint Howard, offers a peerless performance. The director’s Rob Schneider. Dimwitted Cajun boy, sheldaughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal, appears in a small role. Technovision. [R]▼●쩠 tered by his smothering mama (Bates), lives only to serve—as a much-abused waterboy Waterloo (1971-Italian-Russian) C-123m. ★★ for football teams. But when a downtrodden D: Sergei Bondarchuk. Rod Steiger, coach (Winkler) discovers that the waterboy Christopher Plummer, Orson Welles, can, when properly motivated, run and Jack Hawkins, Virginia McKenna, Dan tackle with great force, he turns him into a O’Herlihy, Michael Wilding. Cumbersome football star. Likable, crowd-pleasing comhistorical film centering around Napoleon’s edy with heart. Sandler gets strong support defeat at Waterloo. Tremendous action but here from Winkler and Bates. Director Cormuddled plot. The original Russian version aci plays Roberto in the closing scenes; varran nearly four hours. Panavision. [G]▼ ious sports figures appear as themselves. Waterloo Bridge (1931) 81m. ★★★ D: Sandler coscripted. [PG-13]▼●쩠 James Whale. Mae Clarke, Kent Douglass Waterdance, The (1992) C-106m. ★★★ (Douglass Montgomery), Doris Lloyd, D: Neal Jimenez, Michael Steinberg. Eric Frederick Kerr, Enid Bennett, Bette Davis, Stoltz, Wesley Snipes, William Forsythe, Ethel Griffies. Excellent early-talkie version Helen Hunt, Elizabeth Pena, Grace Zabriskie. of Robert E. Sherwood play, a tearjerker roFine, affecting story of a young novelist mance with an exceptional performance by (Stoltz) who becomes paraplegic after a hikClarke as an American chorus-girl-turneding accident and learns to adjust in a multiprostitute in WW1 London. Has a pre-Code [ 1516 ]

grittiness missing from its glossier, more famous 1940 remake; remade again in 1956 as GABY. One of Davis’ earliest screen roles.쩠 Waterloo Bridge (1940) 103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mervyn LeRoy. Vivien Leigh, Robert Taylor, Lucile Watson, Virginia Field, Maria Ouspenskaya, C. Aubrey Smith. Sentimental love story, well-acted, of soldier and ballet dancer meeting during London air raid, falling in love instantly. Cleaned-up version of the Robert E. Sherwood play, with beautiful performance by lovely Leigh. Screenplay by S.N. Behrman, Hans Rameau, and George Froeschel. First filmed in 1931, remade as GABY. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Watermelon Man (1970) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Melvin Van Peebles. Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D’Urville Martin, Kay Kimberly, Mantan Moreland, Erin Moran. Provocative seriocomedy about bigoted white man who suddenly turns black and sees his life go upside down. Worth seeing, although Herman Raucher’s one-joke script makes its point and then has nowhere to go. [R]

Stuart. Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Luther Ingram, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Richard Pryor, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, BarKays, Kim Weston, The Emotions, Johnnie Taylor. Exciting, vibrant documentary with music, centering around L.A. community of Watts, and the black experience. Pryor’s monologues are exceptionally good. Reissued in 2003 at 104m., with new footage of Hayes. [R]쩠 Wavelength (1983) C-87m. ★★ D: Mike Gray. Robert Carradine, Cherie Currie, Keenan Wynn. Cheap science-fiction film about aliens on Earth and a government coverup steals liberally from earlier pictures for ideas. Best thing is a varied musical score by Tangerine Dream. [PG]▼● Waxwork (1988) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Anthony Hickox. Zach Galligan, Deborah Foreman, David Warner, Michelle Johnson, Patrick Macnee, Dana Ashbrook, Miles O’Keeffe, John Rhys-Davies. Garbled, peculiar comedy-horror thriller set in evil magician’s waxworks exhibit, with apocalyptic battle between humans and most of the famous monsters of history—Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, a werewolf, Phantom of the ▼●쩠 Watership Down (1978-British) C-92m. Opera, Audrey II, etc. Followed by WAX★★★1⁄2 D: Martin Rosen. Voices of John WORK II: LOST IN TIME. [R]▼●쩠 Hurt, Richard Briers, Ralph Richardson, Way Ahead, The (1944-British) 91m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Carol Reed. David Niven, StanDenholm Elliott, Harry Andrews, Joss Ackland; narrated by Michael Hordern. ley Holloway, James Donald, John LauStylish animated-cartoon from Richard Adrie, Leslie Dwyer, Hugh Burden, Jimmy ams’ best-selling book about a family of Hanley, Billy Hartnell, Raymond Huntrabbits seeking a safe place to live, enley, Reginald Tate, Leo Genn, Penelope countering many perils along the way; not Dudley Ward, Rene´e Asherson, Raymond a kiddie film. Bird character voiced by Zero Lovell, Peter Ustinov, Trevor Howard. Mostel provides only comic relief in this Exhilarating wartime British film showing sometimes grim cartoon. Excellent score by how disparate civilians come to work toAngela Morley and Malcolm Williamson. gether as a fighting unit; full of spirit and One of the best non-Disney animated feacharm, with an outstanding cast, and fine tures ever made. [PG]▼●쩠 script by Eric Ambler and Peter Ustinov. Waterworld (1995) C-135m. ★★★ D: Kevin Film debut of Trevor Howard. Originally Reynolds. Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, released in the U.S. in a shortened, more Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Miserious version called THE IMMORTAL chael Jeter, Sab Shimono, Robert Joy, BATTALION (with an introduction by jourR. D. Call, Zakes Mokae, Leonardo Cimnalist Quentin Reynolds). Original British running time 116m.▼쩠 ino, Gerard Murphy, Neil Giuntoli, Jack Black. Notoriously expensive movie can’t Way and the Body, The SEE: Whip and live up to its price tag but does offer great the Body, The action scenes and an interesting futuristic Way Down East (1920) 119m. ★★★ D: D. premise. In a world engulfed by water, the W. Griffith. Lillian Gish, Richard Bartheldrifters and scavengers are pitted against mess, Lowell Sherman, Burr McIntosh, Kate bad guys called Smokers. Costner, known Bruce, Mary Hay, Creighton Hale. The as The Mariner, is a hardened (and remarkultimate stage melodrama—with a city ably resourceful) survivor who readies himslicker despoiling the innocence of a virself for the ultimate Smoker showdown ginal heroine, who then must pay the with a woman and child in tow. Full of eyeprice. Executed with conviction by Grifpopping stunts and set pieces, and anchored fith and a fine cast, building up to famous by Costner’s forceful and physical perforclimax with Gish drifting away on the ice mance. Too poky at times and not fully floes. Often shown in shorter versions; fleshed out at the conclusion, but still solid restored to 148m. by the Museum of Modentertainment. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ern Art in 1985. Remade in 1935.▼●쩠 Watts Monster, The SEE: Dr. Black, Way Home . . . , The (2002-South Korean) Mr. Hyde C-88m. ★★★ D: Jeong-Hyang Lee. Kim EulWattstax (1973) C-98m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mel boon, Yu Seung-ho, Min Kyung-hoon, Yim [ 1517 ]

Eun-kyung, Dong Hyo-hee. Sweet fable Way to the Stars, The (1945-British) 109m. ★★★★ D: Anthony Asquith. John about a demanding, fast food/video game– loving seven-year-old city boy and the culMills, Michael Redgrave, Douglass Montture shock he experiences after being left in gomery, Rosamund John, Stanley Holloway, the care of his mute, old-world grandmother Trevor Howard, Felix Aylmer, Bonar in a rural mountain village. Simple, but never Colleano. Excellent drama about a British simplistic, tale of generational bonding exairfield and the men stationed there, focusudes warmth and compassion without ever ing mainly on personal relationships in wallowing in sentimentality. [PG]▼쩠 wartime. Jean Simmons appears briefly as Wayne’s World (1992) C-95m. ★★ D: a singer. Script by Terence Rattigan and Penelope Spheeris. Mike Myers, Dana Anatole de Grunwald. Originally released Carvey, Rob Lowe, Tia Carrere, Brian Doylein U.S. as JOHNNY IN THE CLOUDS. Murray, Lara Flynn Boyle, Kurt Fuller, ColWayward Bus, The (1957) 89m. ★★ D: leen Camp, Donna Dixon, Meat Loaf, Ed Victor Vicas. Joan Collins, Jayne MansO’Neill. Hit movie based on silly skit from field, Dan Dailey, Rick Jason. Low-brow TV’s Saturday Night Live. Myers and Carvey version of John Steinbeck novel about interare funny as the self-styled party dudes with action of passengers on bus in California. their own cable TV show, and leading lady CinemaScope. Carrere is certainly a ‘‘babe,’’ but the story Way . . . Way Out (1966) C-106m. has too many slow spots and muffed jokes. BOMB D: Gordon Douglas. Jerry Lewis, Even casting Lowe as a slimeball doesn’t pay Connie Stevens, Robert Morley, Dennis off—because he’s still so dull. Our advice: Weaver, Howard Morris, Brian Keith, Dick party elsewhere. Followed by a sequel. Super Shawn, Anita Ekberg, James Brolin. One 35. [PG-13] ▼●쩠 of Jerry’s worst. Plot concerns comedian’s Wayne’s World 2 (1993) C-94m. ★★ D: trip to the moon with sexy astronaut SteStephen Surjik. Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, vens; hopefully they took the film’s negaTia Carrere, Christopher Walken, Kim Bative along. CinemaScope. singer, Ralph Brown, Ed O’Neill, Harry Way We Are, The SEE: Quiet Days in Shearer, James Hong, Drew Barrymore, Hollywood Way West, The (1967) C-122m. ★1⁄2 D: Chris Farley. The Party Boys return with Wayne organizing a Waynestock music fesAndrew V. McLaglen. Kirk Douglas, Robert tival, and Garth being seduced by Honey Mitchum, Richard Widmark, Lola Albright, Horne´e (Basinger, in a tailor-made role she Michael Witney, Stubby Kaye, Sally Field, plays to the hilt). Tired gags from first film Jack Elam. Despite cast, this version of A. B. run throughout, but occasional bits and Guthrie, Jr.’s epic novel fails completely. cameos (especially from ‘‘the better actor’’) McLaglen’s lackluster direction partially to make it worthy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 blame, but big problem is script, which may Way of the Dragon SEE: Return of the hold all-time record for undeveloped subplots. Dragon Mitchum is good through it all; Sally Field’s Way of the Gun, The (2000) C-119m. ★★ D: first feature. Panavision.▼쩠 Christopher McQuarrie. Ryan Phillippe, BeWay We Were, The (1973) C-118m. ★★★ nicio Del Toro, James Caan, Juliette Lewis, D: Sydney Pollack. Barbra Streisand, Robert Taye Diggs, Nicky Katt, Dylan Kussman, Redford, Bradford Dillman, Murray HamilScott Wilson, Kristin Lehman, Geoffrey ton, Patrick O’Neal, Viveca Lindfors, Lois Lewis, Sarah Silverman. Two young crimiChiles, Allyn Ann McLerie, Herb Edelman, nals decide to kidnap a surrogate mother James Woods, Connie Forslund, Sally Kirkwho’s supposedly carrying the child of a land, George Gaynes, Susie Blakely, Dan millionaire, and find themselves in way Seymour. First-class love story about political over their heads. Dense, often muddled, exactivist Streisand and her opposite, Waspish tremely violent film has some visceral acJoe College–type Redford, from late ’30s to tion set pieces but—in spite of some early ’50s. Prerelease cutting excised meatiest pretentious narration—no discernible point. sequence on blacklist era in Hollywood, alas, Directing debut for THE USUAL SUSleaving Hamilton and Lindfors with bit parts, PECTS screenwriter McQuarrie. [R] ▼쩠 and some confusion in last portion of plot. Still Way Out West (1937) 65m. ★★★1⁄2 D: James quite good, with literate Arthur Laurents script W. Horne. Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Sharon from his own novel. Marvin Hamlisch’s score Lynn, James Finlayson, Rosina Lawrence, and title song (lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Stanley Fields, Vivien Oakland. Stan and Ollie Bergman) won Oscars—and look sharp at are sent to deliver mine deed to daughter of late Beverly Hills movie screening for a Hamlisch cameo. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 prospector, but crooked Finlayson leads them to wrong girl. One of their best features; moves W. C. Fields and Me (1976) C-111m. ★★★ well without resorting to needless romantic D: Arthur Hiller. Rod Steiger, Valerie Perrine, subplot. Another bonus: some charming muJohn Marley, Jack Cassidy, Paul Stewart, Bersical interludes, and the boys perform a wonnadette Peters, Billy Barty. Story of comediderful soft-shoe dance. Also shown in an’s romance with Carlotta Monti is a cut computer-colored version.▼●쩠 above most Hollywood bios, thanks to Steig[ 1518 ]

er’s excellent performance, authentic atmoinson, Antonella Lualdi, Jean-Paul Belsphere, good cast. Has little relation to the mondo, Jacques Dacqmine. Non-conformist truth, but still entertaining. [PG] Belmondo insinuates himself into a famiWe All Loved Each Other So Much ly’s graces, delighting in breaking down (1974-Italian) C/B&W-124m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Ettheir standards, with murders resulting. tore Scola. Nino Manfredi, Vittorio GassTalky but intriguing drama. Aka LEDA and ´ DOUBLE TOUR. 쩠 man, Aldo Fabrizi, Stefania Sandrelli, A Stefano Satta Flores, Giovanna Ralli. SpirWeb of the Spider (1970-Italian) C-94m. ★★ ited, wistful comedy of three friends (GassD: Anthony Dawson (Antonio Marman, Manfredi, Satta Flores) who each love gheriti). Anthony Franciosa, Michele MerSandrelli over the course of three decades. cier, Peter Carsten, Karen Field, Silvano The latter, an actress, plays a bit role in Tranquilli. Overly familiar thriller about LA DOLCE VITA; the shooting of Anita the skeptic who accepts a wager that he Ekberg’s Trevi Fountain scene is re-created, cannot survive the night alone in a haunted complete with Mastroianni and Fellini! A house. Franciosa and associates try vainly loving homage to Fellini, De Sica, and postto give it a fresh twist. Previously made by war Italian cinema.▼●쩠 the same director as CASTLE OF TER★★★ We Are Marshall (2006) C-124m. D: ROR. Techniscope.▼쩠 McG. Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Wedding, A (1978) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Fox, David Strathairn, Anthony Mackie, Ian Altman. Carol Burnett, Desi Arnaz, Jr., Amy McShane, Kate Mara, January Jones, KimbStryker, Vittorio Gassman, Geraldine erly Williams-Paisley, Robert Patrick, Brian Chaplin, Mia Farrow, Paul Dooley, Lillian Geraghty. True story of tragic November Gish, Lauren Hutton, John Cromwell, Pat 1970 airplane crash that took the lives of McCormick, Howard Duff, Pam Dawber, the Marshall University football team, their Dennis Christopher, Peggy Ann Garner, Nina coaches, and key boosters as they were reVan Pallandt, Dina Merrill, John Considine, turning from a game. Dealing with the West Viveca Lindfors, Dennis Franz. Unfocused Virginia town’s devastation and reluctance to look at family intrigues surrounding a noustart over again, a new coach is recruited to veau riche wedding; some amusing moments do just that a year later. Highly dramatic telland pointed characterizations, but doesn’t ing could have dissolved into sports movie quite gel. Panavision. [PG]▼쩠 cliche´s but wisely focuses on the human eleWedding Banquet, The (1993-U.S.-Taiment and the inherent need to move on with wanese) C-108m. ★★★ D: Ang Lee. Winston life when it seems most challenging. McCoChao, May Chin, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Sinaughey, as the new coach, Fox, as a guilthung Lung, Ah-Leh Gua, Tien Pien. Gay plagued assistant coach who traded his seat Taiwanese-American Chao tries to fool his on the fateful flight, and Strathairn, as the parents via a fake wedding, with unexuniversity president, are outstanding in this pected complications. Top-notch comedy worthwhile film. Super 35. [PG]쩠 which knowingly and poignantly examines 1 ★★★ ⁄2 Weather Man, The (2005) C-102m. the meaning of cultural identity and childD: Gore Verbinski. Nicolas Cage, Michael parent relationships. Neatly scripted by Lee, Neil Peng, and James Schamus. [R]▼●쩠 Caine, Hope Davis, Michael Rispoli, Nicholas Hoult, Gemmenne de la Pen˜a, Gil Bellows, Wedding Bell Blues (1996) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Judith McConnell. Chicago TV weatherman D: Dana Lustig. Illeana Douglas, Paulina Poris a local celebrity but finds his ‘‘success’’ izkova, Julie Warner, John Corbett, Jonathan hollow and even alienating. He’s constantly at Penner, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Edson, odds with his ex-wife, loves his kids but Joe Urla, Stephanie Beacham, Carla Gugino, doesn’t know how to communicate with Leo Rossi, John Capodice, Victoria Jackson, them, and feels like an utter failure alongside Debbie Reynolds. A trio of roommates, each his father, an award-winning novelist who’s about to turn 30 and feeling pressure to marry, emotionally distant. Nobody plays lost souls splits for Las Vegas to find quickie husbands. quite like Cage, and he’s perfect in this melAttractive cast helps maintain interest in this ancholy, keenly observant view of the somewhat familiar ‘‘where-are-all-the-goodAmerican dream that unfolds like a good men?’’ saga. [R]▼●쩠 novel. Written by Steven Conrad. [R]쩠 Wedding Crashers (2005) C-119m. ★★★ Weavers, The: Wasn’t That a Time! D: David Dobkin. Owen Wilson, Vince (1982) C-78m. ★★★★ D: Jim Brown. Lee Vaughn, Christopher Walken, Rachel McHays, Pete Seeger, Fred Hellerman, RonAdams, Isla Fisher, Jane Seymour, Ellen Alnie Gilbert. Simply wonderful documenbertini Dow, Keir O’Donnell, Bradley tary about a reunion of the much-loved folkCooper, Ron Canada, Henry Gibson, Dwight singing quartet of the 1940s and ’50s, climaxed Yoakam, Rebecca De Mornay. D.C. law partby footage of their Carnegie Hall concert. ners and pals Wilson and Vaughn systematiIrresistible film built on the foundation of cally crash weddings of all kinds in search of Lee Hays’ wit and indomitable spirit.▼● free food, good parties, and vulnerable Web of Passion (1959-French) C-101m. women. Then, at an exclusive celebration for ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Madeleine Robthe daughter of a government official (Wal[ 1519 ]

ken), Wilson falls in love with the sister of the in sad tale of girl impregnated by brother’s bride. Comic complications ensue, many of drunken pal during WW2 and her father’s them predictable, some needlessly drawn out, efforts to save the family’s honor. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 but this often-raunchy comedy is played with such gusto that the overall results are hilariWedding March, The (1928) 113m. ★★★★ ous. Expect some fun cameos. Also available D: Erich von Stroheim. Erich von Stroheim, Fay Wray, ZaSu Pitts, George Fawcett, in longer unrated version. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Wedding Date, The (2005) C-88m. ★1⁄2 Maude George, George Nicholls, Cesare D: Clare Kilner. Debra Messing, Dermot Gravina. A roguish Viennese prince (played Mulroney, Amy Adams, Jack Davenport, to perfection by von Stroheim) agrees to Sarah Parish, Jeremy Sheffield, Peter Egan, marry for money and position to help his Holland Taylor. Tense New Yorker Messfamily, then falls in love with a poor but ing hires an A-list male escort (Mulroney) beautiful girl. A masterpiece, blending roto accompany her to her half-sister’s Lonmance and irony, with an unforgettable don wedding, all to make the ex-fiance´ who finale . . . though what we see is just the dumped her jealous. The sibling has a dark first half of the film von Stroheim comside, their parents are sweet, the ex probably pleted (the second no longer exists). One sequence in two-color Technicolor. ▼ needs professional help, while Mulroney doesn’t register much emotion at all. Given Wedding Night, The (1935) 84m. ★★1⁄2 all this, it’s no surprise that director Kilner D: King Vidor. Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, has a tough time finding a consistent tone Ralph Bellamy, Walter Brennan, Helen for this failed comedy. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Vinson, Sig Ruman. Study of romance ★★ Wedding Daze (2008) C-90m. D: Miand idealism; unbelievable love yarn but chael Ian Black. Jason Biggs, Isla Fisher, entertaining. Producer Samuel Goldwyn’s Joanna Gleason, Edward Herrmann, Matt third and final attempt to make Anna Sten a new Garbo.▼쩠 Malloy, Audra Blaser, Joe Pantoliano, Rob Corddry, Jay O. Sanders, Michael Weston, Wedding Party, The (1969) 92m. ★1⁄2 D: Margo Martindale, Mark Consuelos, Ebon Cynthia Munroe, Brian De Palma, WilMoss-Bachrach. Proposing to an attractive ford Leach. Jill Clayburgh, Charles Pfluger, stranger (Fisher) is possibly the most ratioValda Satterfield, Raymond McNally, Jennal decision Anderson (Biggs) has made renifer Salt, John Braswell, Judy Thomas, cently. After she (surprisingly) says yes, Robert De Niro, William Finley. Talky, they go about meeting each other’s crazy corny, boring comic oddity detailing events family and friends. Thin, occasionally outpreceding marriage of Clayburgh and rageous comedy may best be appreciated by Pfluger; the bride and her family are boorish, dedicated fans of writer-director Black and and the groom grows ever more reluctant. followers of The State and Stella. Released Self-consciously directed; of interest only direct to DVD in the U.S. [R]쩠 for De Palma’s participation, and initial Wedding Gift, The (1993-British) C-87m. screen appearances of Clayburgh and De ★★★ D: Richard Loncraine. Julie Walters, Niro (spelled ‘‘DeNero’’ in the credits). Jim Broadbent, Thora Hird, Sian Thomas, Shot in 1963, and barely released.▼쩠 Andrew Lancel, Anastasia Mulroney, JoWedding Planner, The (2001) C-102m. ★★ anna McCallum. Spirited spin on ‘‘diseaseD: Adam Shankman. Jennifer Lopez, Matof-the-week’’ stories, with marvelous perthew McConaughey, Bridgette Wilsonformances by Walters and Broadbent as a Sampras, Justin Chambers, Judy Greer, loving couple whose sense of humor helps Alex Rocco, Joanna Gleason, Charles Kimthem deal with her mysterious and debilitatbrough, Kevin Pollak, Fred Willard, Kathy ing ailment. Based on the true story of a Najimy. Lopez is a wedding planner whose woman who decided to find her husband a fast-track lifestyle doesn’t allow her time new mate before she died. Alternately hufor a personal life. She finds herself atmorous and heart-rending; well worth a tracted to a doctor (McConaughey) who is look. Based on the memoir by Denis Longotherwise engaged, but guess who’s been den. Made for British TV, where it was hired to plan his nuptials? Occasional bright shown as WIDE-EYED AND LEGLESS. moments are done in by long, deadening stretches, a serious lack of chemistry be[PG-13]▼●쩠 Wedding in Blood (1973-French-Italian) Ctween the leads, and a predictable finale. 98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Claude Chabrol. Stephane AudPanavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 ran, Michel Piccoli, Claude Pieplu, Clothilde Wedding Singer, The (1998) C-96m. ★★★ Joano, Eliana de Santis. Piccoli and Audran, D: Frank Coraci. Adam Sandler, Drew Bareach married to another, are having an affair. rymore, Angela Featherstone, Allen Covert, How soon will they murder their spouses? Matthew Glave, Christine Taylor, Kevin And get caught? Medium Chabrol. [PG]▼ Nealon, Christina Pickles, Billy Idol. SanWedding in White (1972-Canadian) Cdler plays a genuinely sweet guy whose life ★★★ 106m. is shattered when his fiance´e stands him up D: William Fruet. Donald Pleasence, Carol Kane, Doris Petrie, Doug at the altar—but finds consolation in the McGrath, Leo Phillips. Fine performances friendship of a waitress who he discovers is [ 1520 ]

about to marry a real jerk. Sandler has never thy, Jonathan Silverman, Terry Kiser, Barry Bostwick, Troy Beyer, Tom Wright, Steve been more appealing, or Barrymore more James. Witless sequel to a movie that didn’t adorable. Entertaining romantic comedy set exactly cry out for a followup. Insurance in 1985 marred only by moments of crude execs McCarthy and Silverman are susdialogue that don’t seem absolutely necespected of embezzlement, and can only save sary. Steve Buscemi and Jon Lovitz appear their skins with the help of their ‘‘dead unbilled. Later a Broadway musical. Unbody’’ buddy Bernie (Kiser). After this derated version runs 100m. [PG-13]▼●쩠 bacle, let’s hope Bernie is allowed to rest in Wednesday’s Child SEE: Family Life peace. [PG]▼●쩠 We Don’t Live Here Anymore (2004) C★★1 Weekend at Dunkirk (1965-France-Italy) ⁄2 D: John Curran. Mark Ruffalo, 101m. C-101m. ★★ D: Henri Verneuil. Jean-Paul Laura Dern, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts. Belmondo, Catherine Spaak, Georges Geret, Two unhappy couples become sexually inJean-Pierre Marielle, Pierre Mondy. Dull war tertwined while keeping secrets from each film, based on well-known French novel, other, which isn’t healthy for any of them. about four French soldiers on the Dunkirk Well-observed, well-acted but rather oneBeach around evacuation time early in dimensional (and depressing) slice of life set WW2. Franscope. in a small New England town. Adapted from Week-end at the Waldorf (1945) 130m. two of Andre Dubus’ short stories. Super 35. ★★★ D: Robert Z. Leonard. Ginger Rogers, [R]▼쩠 1 ★★ Lana Turner, Walter Pidgeon, Van JohnWeeds (1987) C-115m. ⁄2 D: John Hanson, Edward Arnold, Phyllis Thaxter, cock. Nick Nolte, Rita Taggart, Lane Smith, Keenan Wynn, Robert Benchley, Leon William Forsythe, John Toles-Bey, Joe Ames, Porter Hall, George Zucco, Xavier Mantegna, Ernie Hudson, Anne Ramsey, Cugat. Several ‘‘typical’’ days in the life Charlie Rich. San Quentin lifer/aspiring of the fabled Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Ultraplaywright is near-miraculously sprung from glossy MGM remake of GRAND HOTEL prison when a newspaper critic lobbies for weaves disparate characters’ lives together. his release, and goes on to form a ‘‘Barbed No resonance whatsoever, but good, slick Wire Theatre’’ acting troupe of ex-cons. entertainment, with Rogers and Pidgeon Odd, original mix of comedy and drama standing out in the attractive cast.▼ based on Rick Cluchey’s real-life experiences Week-end in Havana (1941) C-80m. ★★★ with the San Quentin Drama Group. Earnest, D: Walter Lang. Alice Faye, Carmen Miwell acted but never quite gels. [R]▼● randa, John Payne, Cesar Romero, Cobina Wee Geordie (1956-British) C-93m. ★★★1⁄2 Wright, Jr., George Barbier, Leonid KinD: Frank Launder. Bill Travers, Alastair skey, Sheldon Leonard, Billy Gilbert. TypiSim, Norah Gorsen, Molly Urquhart, Francally entertaining, Technicolored 20th Cencis De Wolff. Flavorful romp with Travers tury-Fox musical fluff with Payne showing a Scottish hammer thrower who goes to Faye a good time in Havana for business the Olympics. Despite predictable sight purposes only, but falling in love with her gags and romance, film makes one relish instead. Miranda adds her usual zest.▼쩠 each situation. Weekend Pass (1984) C-92m. BOMB D: Weekend (1967-French-Italian) C-103m. Lawrence Bassoff. Patrick Hauser, D. W. ★★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. Mireille Darc, Brown, Chip McAllister, Peter Ellenstein, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valerie Hilary Shapiro, Pamela G. Kay. IntoleraLagrange, Jean-Pierre Le´aud. Mind-exble drive-in comedy lifts its premise from panding anti-Western diatribe about one ON THE TOWN: having completed basic woman’s road to guerrillahood is among training, four stereotypical naval recruits Godard’s more fully realized works, with a set off for 72 ‘‘wild’’ hours in L.A. 92 long traffic-jam sequence that is justifiminutes of mine sweeping would be more ably regarded as one of the great set pieces entertaining. [R]▼●쩠 in screen history. An essential ’60s timeWeekend Warriors (1986) C-85m. ★1⁄2 capsule entry.▼쩠 D: Bert Convy. Chris Lemmon, Vic TayWeekend at Bernie’s (1989) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 back, Lloyd Bridges, Graham Jarvis, DanD: Ted Kotcheff. Andrew McCarthy, Joniel Greene, Marty Cohen, Brian Bradley. athan Silverman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Low-level, sloppily made comedy about Terry Kiser, Don Calfa, Louis Giambalvo. some goof-offs who join the National Two young hustlers, far down on the corGuard, and their subsequent hijinks. Conporate ladder, win an invitation to their vy’s debut as director. [R]▼ boss’ sumptuous beach house for the weekWeek’s Vacation, A (1980-French) Cend . . . only to find him dead upon ar102m. ★★★ D: Bertrand Tavernier. Nathalie rival. Slim but agreeably silly farce, written Baye, Gerard Lanvin, Michel Galabru, by Robert Klane. Followed by a sequel. Philippe Noiret, Philippe Leotard. Subtle [PG-13]▼●쩠 drama of schoolteacher Baye briefly esWeekend at Bernie’s II (1993) C-89m. caping her problems by visiting her parBOMB D: Robert Klane. Andrew McCarents in Lyons. Sensitive depiction of [ 1521 ]

inter-personal relations is director Taverntogether. A talented cast is wasted here. [PG-13]쩠 ier’s strong suit. Panavision. [R] Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990) Wee Willie Winkie (1937) 99m. ★★★ D: C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Jim Abrahams. Winona John Ford. Shirley Temple, Victor McRyder, Jeff Daniels, Laila Robins, Dinah Laglen, C. Aubrey Smith, June Lang, MiManoff, Thomas Wilson Brown, Joan chael Whalen, Cesar Romero, Constance McMurtrey, Frances Fisher, Graham Beckel, Collier, Douglas Scott. Shirley and her Robin Thomas, Robby Kiger, Sachi Parwidowed mother come to live at a British ker, Stephen Tobolowsky. Small Ohio town Army outpost in India, where the moppet goes berserk anticipating return of sexy works hard to win over her crusty grandfaand mysterious hometown girl Roxy Carther, the Colonel (Smith), and is quickly michael, who’s been away in Hollywood adopted by a soft-hearted sergeant (Mcliving a life of luxury. Teenage beatnik Laglen). One of Shirley’s best vehicles, Ryder—moody, brilliant, alienated, intu‘‘inspired’’ (it says here) by the Rudyard itive, and adopted—starts fantasizing that Kipling story. Beware 77m. prints. Also Roxy is actually her mother. Flat, disshown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 jointed satiric comedy with Ryder the sole Weight of Water, The (2002-French-U.S.) bright spot. [PG-13]▼●쩠 C-113m. ★★ D: Kathryn Bigelow. Catherine Welcome Home, Soldier Boys (1972) McCormack, Sarah Polley, Sean Penn, Josh C-91m. ★★ D: Richard Compton. Joe Don Lucas, Elizabeth Hurley, Ciara´n Hinds, KaBaker, Paul Koslo, Alan Vint, Elliott Street, trin Cartlidge, Vinessa Shaw. Weighty adJennifer Billingsley, Billy ‘‘Green’’ Bush, aptation of Anita Shreve’s best-seller that Geoffrey Lewis, Francine York. Sensaparallels events 100 years apart: the mystetionalistic melodrama about four ex-Green rious, brutal murder of two young women Berets who adjust to civilian life by gangon an island off New Hampshire, and a raping a girl and burning down a town. modern-day sailing party including a photoYet another one-dimensionally violent dejournalist (McCormack) who’s investigatpiction of Vietnam veterans. [R] ing the case and her moody poet husband Welcome Stranger (1947) 107m. ★★★ D: (Penn). The story’s ultimate revelations Elliott Nugent. Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzdon’t bring any understanding of the congerald, Joan Caulfield, Wanda Hendrix, temporary characters or their problems, alFrank Faylen, Elizabeth Patterson. Enterthough the acting is certainly good. [R] ▼쩠 taining musical of Crosby filling in for vacaWeird Science (1985) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: tioning doctor in small community, getting John Hughes. Anthony Michael Hall, Kelly involved with local girl. ▼ LeBrock, Ilan Mitchell-Smith, Bill Paxton, Welcome to Arrow Beach (1974) C-99m. Suzanne Snyder, Judie Aronson, Robert ★★ D: Laurence Harvey. Laurence Harvey, Downey (Jr.), Robert Rusler. Two nerdy Joanna Pettet, Stuart Whitman, John Ireland, teens use computer to conjure up woman Meg Foster, Jesse Vint, Gloria LeRoy. Harof their dreams (sexy LeBrock), but writervey’s final film (edited by phone from his director Hughes doesn’t follow through on deathbed) is strange but watchable shocker. his own premise! Appalling excuse for He plays a war veteran who returns to Calicomedy; tasteless and endless, unredeemed fornia and kills passersby to feed his newly by Hughes’s sharp teenage dialogue and acquired taste for human flesh. Good cast Hall’s engaging performance. Later a cable helps, especially spellbinding Foster in an TV series. [PG-13]▼●쩠 early role. Retitled: TENDER FLESH. [R] Welcome Home (1989) C-96m. ★★ D: ▼ Franklin J. Schaffner. Kris Kristofferson, Welcome to Collinwood (2002) C-86m. ★★ JoBeth Williams, Sam Waterston, Brian D: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Luis GuzKeith, Thomas Wilson Brown, Trey Wilman, Michael Jeter, Patricia Clarkson, Anson. Please, not again. Presumed dead Air drew Davoli, Isaiah Washington, William Force officer Kristofferson, 17 years in H. Macy, Sam Rockwell, Gabrielle Union, Cambodia with a new wife and two chilJennifer Esposito, George Clooney. Redren, returns home to remarried spouse make of BIG DEAL ON MADONNA number one and their teenage son. ToleraSTREET set in a grimy, ethnic Cleveland bly sincere at best, embalmed at worst. suburb has flavor but no fizz. The single Director Schaffner’s final film. [R]▼ funniest moment replicates the highlight of Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins (2008) the classic Italian film. Clooney (who proC-114m. ★★ D: Malcolm D. Lee. Martin duced the film with Steven Soderbergh) has Lawrence, James Earl Jones, Margaret a minor part as a safecracking expert. WritAvery, Joy Bryant, Cedric the Entertainer, ten by the directors. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Nicole Ari Parker, Michael Clarke Duncan, Welcome to 18 (1987) C-89m. ★★ D: Terry Mike Epps, Mo’Nique, Damani Roberts. Carr. Courtney Thorne-Smith, Mariska HarBroad, witless comedy in which out-ofgitay, Jo Ann Willette, Cristen Kaufman, touch L.A. talk show host Lawrence returns John Putch. Tired teen titillation yarn about to his Georgia home for a family getthree girlfriends who spend their first sum[ 1522 ]

mer out of high school experiencing life in ally cowed by his wife, who’s sent to the French equivalent of Siberia: a northern the fast lane in Nevada. Attractive newcomprovince that his fellow Southerners have ers (including brunette Hargitay, daughter ridiculed and demonized. When he moves of Jayne Mansfield) muddle through preachy, there (leaving his family behind) he learns plot-heavy nonsense. [PG-13]▼ that the rumors of poor weather and backWelcome to Hard Times (1967) C-105m. ★★★ D: Burt Kennedy. Henry Fonda, Janice ward citizens are false, though he does have to acclimate to the openhearted people . . . Rule, Keenan Wynn, Janis Paige, John Anand their very strange dialect. Great enterderson, Aldo Ray, Warren Oates, Fay Spain, tainment and a smash hit in France. Edgar Buchanan, Lon Chaney, Jr., Elisha Director-costar Boon also cowrote the Cook, Jr. Intriguing, symbol-laden account screenplay. Aka WELCOME TO THE of run-down Western town victimized by STICKS. Super 35. outlaw Ray, with Fonda finally forced to Welcome to the Dollhouse (1996) C-87m. shoot it out to save what’s left. Adapted by ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Todd Solondz. Heather MataKennedy from E. L. Doctorow novel. 1 ★★ razzo, Brendan Sexton, Jr., Daria Kalinina, Welcome to L.A. (1977) C-106m. ⁄2 Matthew Faber, Angela Pietropinto, Eric D: Alan Rudolph. Keith Carradine, Sally Mabius. The pain of puberty has never been Kellerman, Geraldine Chaplin, Harvey Keiportrayed so unflinchingly; smart-buttel, Lauren Hutton, Viveca Lindfors, Sissy ordinary Matarazzo has to deal with her inSpacek, Denver Pyle, John Considine, Richcredibly un-nurturing suburban family ard Baskin. This chronicle of lost, lonely (which dotes on her ‘‘adorable’’ younger Southern Californians who can only consister), and worse, the pranks and sexual nect for fleeting moments between the threats of virtually her entire junior high sheets is occasionally intriguing, but pales school. Amid this dire lack of support and beside some of Rudolph’s later, better work. warmth is a heroine of enormous pluck and A major debit: Baskin’s music, which cunning. While viewer may wince as nuquickly becomes monotonous. Produced merous unpleasant situations play out, there by Robert Altman. [R]▼ is also terrific satire (and guffaws) as life Welcome to Mooseport (2004) C-110m. in the Seventh-Grade-From-Hell is depicted ★★★ D: Donald Petrie. Gene Hackman, Ray with dead-on clarity. Strong performances; Romano, Marcia Gay Harden, Maura Tiersharply scripted by the director. [R]▼●쩠 ney, Christine Baranski, Fred Savage, Rip Welcome to the Sticks SEE: Welcome to Torn, June Squibb, Wayne Robson. Easythe Ch’tis going hardware store owner in a Maine vilWelcome to Woop Woop (1997-Australage where everybody knows everybody lian-British) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephan Elelse finds himself running for mayor—and liott. Johnathon Schaech, Rod Taylor, Susie competing for the affection of his longtime Porter, Dee Smart, Barry Humphries, Richard girlfriend—with the cocky former President Moir, Paul Mercurio, Rachel Griffiths, Magof the U.S., who’s just moved to town. Amigie Kirkpatrick, Tina Louise. American con able comedy offers Hackman a good comartist (Schaech) flees to the Outback, where edy vehicle and Romano a tailor-made role. he meets a man-hungry hitchhiker who Edward Herrmann appears unbilled. [PGdrags him off to the very remote municipal13]▼쩠 ity of Woop Woop. Native Australian TayWelcome to Sarajevo (1997-British-U.S.) lor is outrageous as Schaech’s dictatorial, C-101m. ★★★ D: Michael Winterbottom. unbalanced, Rodgers & Hammerstein–lovStephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson, Marisa ing father-in-law. Raucous, raunchy farce Tomei, Emira Nusevic, Kerry Fox, Goran from the director of THE ADVENTURES Visnjic, Emily Lloyd. Achingly realistic, OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DEunsentimental look at reporters covering the SERT. 2.35 Research PLC. [R]▼ Bosnian war in Sarajevo. One British TV Well-Digger’s Daughter, The (1941reporter becomes especially outraged by the French) 142m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Marcel Pagnol. plight of orphaned children and finds his Raimu, Fernandel, Josette Day, Charpin, casual promise to a young girl—that he will George Grey. Naive Day is seduced and lead her to safety—being put to the test. abandoned—with child—and peasant faBased on a true story, and told with a comther Raimu isn’t very pleased. Both touchpelling blend of genuine and staged footage. ing and hilarious.▼ Difficult to watch at times, but rewarding. Wendell Baker Story, The (2007) CSuper 35. [R]▼●쩠 102m. ★1⁄2 D: Andrew Wilson, Luke WilWelcome to the Ch’tis (2008-French) Cson. Luke Wilson, Eva Mendes, Seymour ★★★1⁄2 D: Dany Boon. Kad Merad, 106m. Cassel, Eddie Griffin, Kris Kristofferson, Dany Boon, Zoe´ Fe´lix, Philippe Duquesne, Harry Dean Stanton, Owen Wilson, Jacob Line Renaud, Michel Galabru, Ste´phane Vargas, Angela Alvarado, Buck Taylor, Freiss, Guy Lecluyse, Anne Marivin, PatAzura Skye, Will Ferrell. Woebegone vanrick Bosso. Crowd-pleasing comedy with ity film for writer-star-codirector Wilson, heart about a post-office manager, perenniplaying a cocky Texan who takes his girl[ 1523 ]

friend (Mendes) for granted until he’s brother and father, both dedicated policethrown in prison and she wises up. When he men, he’s forced to take sides. Writergets out he tries to go straight, working at a director Gray offers another story of fate, state home for the elderly run by a slimy writ large. Not as operatic as LITTLE crook (Owen W.). Nice supporting roles for ODESSA or THE YARDS but considerably Cassel, Stanton, and Kristofferson aren’t admore effective, with pulse-pounding action equate compensation for sitting through this scenes. Former N.Y.C. Mayor Ed Koch plays himself! [R]쩠 tedious trifle. Made in 2003. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 We’re Back: A Dinosaur’s Story (1993) C-72m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dick Zondag, Ralph ZonWendigo (2002) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Larry Fessenden. Patricia Clarkson, Jake Weber, dag, Phil Nibbelink, Simon Wells. Voices Erik Per Sullivan, John Speredakos, Chrisof John Goodman, Charles Fleischer, Felictopher Wynkoop. Eerie, well-made chiller ity Kendal, Rhea Perlman, Martin Short, in which a N.Y.C. couple (Clarkson, Weber) Walter Cronkite, Julia Child, Kenneth Mars, and their eight-year-old son (Sullivan) head Jay Leno. Amiable children’s animated feaoff for a weekend in the country, and a car ture about a quartet of dinosaurs given the accident involving a deer sets off a disopportunity to visit modern-day N.Y.C., turbing chain of events. Hampered only by where they help two troubled kids—but fall a formulaic ending. The title refers to a Naprey to a devilish circus proprietor. Mostly tive American spirit that plays a key role in fun, though slow at times, and the freakshow the story. [R]▼쩠 subplot is a bit eerie for younger kids. ExecuWendy and Lucy (2008) C-80m. ★★★ D: tive-produced by Steven Spielberg, the Kelly Reichardt. Michelle Williams, Will same year he made another well-known film about dinosaurs. [G]▼● Patton, John Robinson, Larry Fessenden, Will Oldham, Walter Dalton. Slice of life We’re No Angels (1955) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 about a young woman on the road with her D: Michael Curtiz. Humphrey Bogart, Aldo dog who gets stuck in a sleepy Oregon Ray, Peter Ustinov, Joan Bennett, Basil town. Like Reichardt’s OLD JOY, this is Rathbone, Leo G. Carroll. Mild entertainan exercise in minimalist filmmaking—but ment as three escapees from Devil’s Island vivid, immediate, and heartbreaking. Based find refuge with French family and extrion a story by coscreenwriter Jon Raymond. cate them from various predicaments. Remade in 1989. VistaVision.▼●쩠 Williams gives an honest, finely tuned performance. [R]쩠 We’re No Angels (1989) C-106m. ★1⁄2 D: Went to Coney Island on a Mission from Neil Jordan. Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, God . . . Be Back by Five (2000) C-92m. Demi Moore, Hoyt Axton, Bruno Kirby, ★★★ Ray McAnally, James Russo, Wallace D: Richard Schenkman. Jon Cryer, Rick Stear, Rafael Baez, Ione Skye, Frank Shawn, John C. Reilly. Lumbering comWhaley, Peter Gerety, Dominic Chianese. edy about a couple of dimwitted convicts Two friends spend a day wandering around who inadvertently escape from prison and the boardwalk at Coney Island in search of a find refuge pretending to be priests visiting childhood pal who dropped out of sight years a nearby shrine. De Niro, who also served as ago. Moving series of vignettes about executive producer, mugs as never before, dreams gone astray; Schenkman (who coplaying Leo Gorcey to Penn’s Huntz Hall. wrote the script with Cryer) makes perfect Handsome production design is no compensause of his Coney Island locations. [R]▼쩠 tion for a lugubrious script by David Mamet, We of the Never Never (1983-Australian) ‘‘suggested by’’ the play that was filmed be★★★ C-132m. D: Igor Auzins. Angela Punch fore in 1955. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 McGregor, Arthur Dignam, Tony Barry, We’re Not Dressing (1934) 77m. ★★★ D: Tommy Lewis, Lewis Fitz-Gerald. True Norman Taurog. Bing Crosby, Carole Lomstory based on memoirs of first white bard, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Ethel woman to travel into Australian wilderness Merman, Leon Errol, Ray Milland. Musiknown as the Never Never is visually cal Admirable Crichton with rich-girl stunning but never develops narrative moLombard falling in love with sailor Crosby mentum or dramatic punch. Still, it’s a when entourage is ship-wrecked on desert isle. Merman is man-chasing second fidpleasure to look at. Technovision. [G]▼쩠 We Own the Night (2007) C-117m. ★★★ dle, with Burns and Allen on tap as local D: James Gray. Joaquin Phoenix, Mark expeditionists. Great fun; Bing sings ‘‘Love Thy Neighbor.’’▼●쩠 Wahlberg, Robert Duvall, Eva Mendes, Danny Hoch, Tony Musante, Antoni CorWe’re Not Married! (1952) 85m. ★★★ D: one, Moni Moshonov, Oleg Taktarov, Alex Edmund Goulding. Ginger Rogers, Fred Veadov. Phoenix, the black sheep of his Allen, Victor Moore, Marilyn Monroe, family, lives the high life in 1970s N.Y.C., Paul Douglas, David Wayne, Eve Arden, managing a hot Brooklyn nightclub for his Louis Calhern, Zsa Zsa Gabor, James Russian boss, and ignoring other criminal Gleason, Jane Darwell, Eddie Bracken, Mitzi activities taking place under his nose. But Gaynor. Fine froth served up in several epiwhen the same Russian family threatens his sodes as five married couples discover their [ 1524 ]

weddings weren’t legal. Segments vary in taken on the persona of Freddy and is acting quality but the cast generally delivers the out the events in Wes Craven’s new NIGHTgoods. Written and produced by Nunnally MARE script as he writes them. And the Johnson. Lee Marvin has a bit. ▼쩠 script doesn’t look like it will have a happy Werewolf, The (1956) 83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fred ending. . . . Langenkamp, Wes Craven, and F. Sears. Steven Ritch, Don Megowan, others associated with the NIGHTMARE Joyce Holden, Eleanore Tanin, Harry Lauter. ON ELM STREET series play themselves A stranger in a mountain town is revealed in this complex, sophisticated thriller. to be a werewolf, created by unscrupulous Scary, intelligent, and witty, but it’s also scientists seeking a cure for radiation poitoo long, and the last twenty minutes are a soning. Surprisingly tense, with attractive bit of a letdown. Followed by FREDDY VS. JASON. [R]▼●쩠 use of Big Bear Lake locations, and a good performance by Ritch.쩠 Westerner, The (1940) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory (1961William Wyler. Gary Cooper, Walter BrenItalian-Austrian) 84m. BOMB D: Richard nan, Fred Stone, Doris Davenport, Forrest Benson (Paolo Heusch). Carl Schell, BarTucker, Chill Wills, Dana Andrews, Tom bara Lass, Curt Lowens, Maurice Marsac. Tyler, Lillian Bond. Excellent tale of land Superintendent at school for problem girls disputes getting out of hand in the old doubles as a werewolf. Strictly bottomWest, with Brennan’s mercurial Judge Roy of-the-barrel.▼쩠 Bean winning him his third Oscar. TuckWereWolf of London (1935) 75m. ★★1⁄2 er’s film debut. Also shown in computercolored version.▼●쩠 D: Stuart Walker. Henry Hull, Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews, Spring ByWestern Union (1941) C-94m. ★★★ D: ington. The first film about werewolves is Fritz Lang. Robert Young, Randolph Scott, dated but still effective. Scientist Hull stumDean Jagger, Virginia Gilmore, John bles onto curse of lycanthropy and terrorizes Carradine, Slim Summerville, Chill Wills, London as a mad killer. Oland is fun as mysBarton MacLane. Big-scale Western, in terious man who warns Hull of impending gorgeous Technicolor, focuses on renegade doom.▼●쩠 attempts to thwart Western Union on the last Werewolf of Washington, The (1973) leg of its westward expansion in the 1860s. C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Milton Moses Ginsberg. Entertaining, if not terribly inspired.▼ Dean Stockwell, Biff McGuire, Clifton We Still Kill the Old Way (1967-Italian) James, Beeson Carroll, Thayer David, Jane C-92m. ★★ D: Elio Petri. Irene Papas, House, Michael Dunn. Juvenile attempt to Gian Maria Volonte, Luigi Pistilli. Crimes mix Watergate horrors with the more tradiof honor in old Sicily purport to show tional kind. For the curious only. [PG]▼쩠 old-world Mafia methods; actually nothing Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 more than a small revenge film. West Point Story, The (1950) 107m. ★★1⁄2 (2000) C-105m. ★★ D: Patrick Lussier. Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Plummer, D: Roy Del Ruth. James Cagney, Virginia Justine Waddell, Gerard Butler, Colleen Mayo, Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, Gene Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Esposito, Danny MasNelson, Alan Hale, Jr., Jack Kelly, Roland terson, Jeri Ryan, Lochlyn Munro, Sean Winters. Silly but watchable musical about Patrick Harris, Omar Epps, Shane West. a Broadway director staging a revue at West Miller heads to New Orleans to save a sweet Point. Wait till you hear ‘‘The Military young thing from the charms of cinema’s Polka.’’ Cagney hoofs in several numbers with Day and Mayo.▼쩠 most famous bloodsucker (Butler). Perhaps the only film in history that manages to get West Side Story (1961) C-151m. ★★★★ D: its producer’s name, lead character and reRobert Wise, Jerome Robbins. Natalie lease date all in the official title, this Wood, Richard Beymer, George Chakiris, modern-day take on the vampire classic Rita Moreno, Russ Tamblyn, Tucker Smith, shows why some characters are best left in David Winters, Tony Mordente, Simon their own era. Has a few good moments and Oakland, John Astin. Vivid film adaptabetter performances than you might expect. tion of the landmark Broadway musical, Followed by two direct-to-video sequels. updating Romeo and Juliet story to youthgang atmosphere of late 1950s N.Y.C. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 Wes Craven Presents: They SEE: They Wood and Beymer lack charisma, but evWes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) Cerything surrounding them is great: Rob112m. ★★★ D: Wes Craven. Robert Enbins’ choreography, Leonard Bernstein– glund, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes, Stephen Sondheim score (including ‘‘MaDavid Newsom, Sara Risher, Robert Shaye, ria,’’ ‘‘America,’’ and ‘‘Something’s ComWes Craven, John Saxon, Jeffrey John ing’’). Script by Ernest Lehman, from Davis. Actress Heather Langenkamp, havArthur Laurents’ play. Winner of 10 Acading nightmares about the fictional murderer emy Awards including Best Picture, DiFreddy Krueger, gradually learns that the rection, Supporting Actor and Actress NIGHTMARE movies were protecting the (Chakiris, Moreno), Cinematography, Cosworld from a monstrous demon, who has tumes, Art Direction-Set Decoration, Edit[ 1525 ]

ing, Scoring; Robbins earned a special award for his choreography. Super Panavision 70.▼●쩠 Westward Ho the Wagons! (1956) C90m. ★★ D: William Beaudine. Fess Parker, Kathleen Crowley, Jeff York, David Stollery, Sebastian Cabot, George Reeves, Juliette Compton, Iron Eyes Cody. Lackluster pioneer saga has Disney polish but no excitement as wagon train travels West. Four Mouseketeers from the Mickey Mouse Club appear—Karen Pendleton, Cubby O’Brien, Tommy Cole, and Doreen Tracy. CinemaScope.▼ Westward the Women (1951) 118m. ★★★ D: William Wellman. Robert Taylor, Denise Darcel, Beverly Dennis, John McIntire, Hope Emerson, Lenore Lonergan, Julie Bishop, Marilyn Erskine. Intriguing Western with Taylor heading wagon train full of females bound for California to meet mail-order husbands. Based on a story by Frank Capra. Also shown in computercolored version.▼ Westworld (1973) C-88m. ★★★ D: Michael Crichton. Richard Benjamin, Yul Brynner, James Brolin, Norman Bartold, Alan Oppenheimer, Victoria Shaw, Steve Franken. Adult vacation resort of the future offers opportunity to live in various fantasy worlds serviced by robots. Benjamin chooses old-time Western town, but begins to fear when the robots begin malfunctioning. Engaging story by Crichton; followed by FUTUREWORLD. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Wetherby (1985-British) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: David Hare. Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Judi Dench, Ian Holm, Tim McInnerny, Suzanna Hamilton, Tom Wilkinson. Uninvited guest shows up for dinner at a Yorkshire schoolteacher’s, then returns the next day to blow his brains out. Writer David Hare’s first film as director has some excellent performances and occasionally biting dialogue but is far too self-consciously gloomy. Richardson, radiant as the younger Redgrave in the flashbacks, is real-life daughter of Vanessa and director Tony Richardson. [R]

topher Meloni, A.D. Miles, Molly Shannon, Gideon Jacobs, Ken Marino, Michael Ian Black. It’s late August, 1981, on the final day of summer camp in Maine. Garofalo plays camp director trying (not too hard) to have some semblance of regimen as the counselors and campers—all of them either oversexed or undersexed—prepare to depart. Send-up of 1970s/’80s teen flicks is subversive fun, with a lot of heart amid the satire. Made by several members of MTV sketch-comedy group, The State. [R]▼쩠 We Were Soldiers (2002) C-137m. ★★ D: Randall Wallace. Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear, Sam Elliott, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, Barry Pepper, Don Duong, Ryan Hurst, Marc Blucas, Clark Gregg, Desmond Harrington, Dylan Walsh. Lt. Col. Hal Moore (Gibson) leads U.S. forces into their first battle in Vietnam in November 1965, and while the results are bloody, he inspires his men to fight with honor and promises he will leave none behind. Gibson is square jawed, almost corny (like the film itself—especially in home-front scenes), but an old-fashioned war film would have made its point without so much graphic violence. Based on the book We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young by Moore and Joseph Galloway. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 We Were Strangers (1949) 106m. ★★★ D: John Huston. Jennifer Jones, John Garfield, Pedro Armendariz, Gilbert Roland, Ramon Novarro. Intense, intriguing political drama of Garfield and Jones joining with the Cuban underground in a plot to overthrow the government. Well directed by Huston; Garfield is fine, but Roland steals the film as one of the revolutionaries. Scripted by Huston and Peter Viertel.쩠 We Will All Meet in Paradise (1977French) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Yves Robert. Jean Rochefort, Claude Brasseur, Guy Bedos, Victor Lanoux, Daniele Delorme, Daniel Gelin. The trials and hangups of four boyish middle-aged Frenchmen. Cheerful but slight sex comedy; follow-up to PARDON MON AFFAIRE, and not as good. Aka PARDON MON AFFAIRE, TOO. Panavision. [PG]▼ ▼쩠 We Think the World of You (1988-British) Whale Rider (2003-New Zealand) C-101m. 1⁄2 D: Niki Caro. Keisha Castle-Hughes, ★★★ ★★★ C-94m. D: Colin Gregg. Alan Bates, Gary Oldman, Frances Barber, Liz Smith, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis. Max Wall, Kerry Wise. In 1950s London, Contemporary retelling of an ancient Maori middle-aged Bates becomes entwined in legend in which a young girl must go against the lives of imprisoned boyfriend Oldman’s all odds—and tradition—to prove to her grandworking-class family, and Oldman’s pet father that she is a natural leader. Film’s title dog in particular. Diverting comedy-drama indicates where the picture is headed, but that of unrequited love, adapted by Hugh doesn’t diminish its inspirational tone. PowStoddart from Joseph R. Ackerley’s semiered by a thrilling debut performance by autobiographical novel. A must for animal Castle-Hughes, who never strikes a false note. lovers . . . and romantics. [PG]▼● Shot on the East Coast of New Zealand’s Wet Hot American Summer (2001) CNorth Island, this is a family film in the best 97m. ★★★ D: David Wain. Janeane Garofalo, sense of the term, with standout cinematograDavid Hyde Pierce, Michael Showalter, Marphy and musical score. Based on the book by guerite Moreau, Paul Rudd, Zak Orth, ChrisWiti Ihimaera. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 [ 1526 ]

Whales of August, The (1987) C-90m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Lindsay Anderson. Bette Davis, Lillian Gish, Vincent Price, Ann Sothern, Harry Carey, Jr., Margaret Ladd, Tisha Sterling, Mary Steenburgen. Two elderly sisters live together in a cottage in Maine, with ever-patient Gish forced to care for blind and irascible Davis . . . who may be turning senile. Sothern is their ebullient friend and neighbor, Carey their veteran handyman, and Price a courtly Russian e´migre´ who works his charms on the ladies; they’re all terrific, but Gish and Davis dominate the film, a lifetime of movie memories in each classic face. An exquisitely delicate film, adapted by David Berry from his play, and beautifully directed by Anderson (in his American debut). Tisha Sterling, Sothern’s real-life daughter, plays Sothern as a young woman in opening scene. Gish’s and Sothern’s last film.▼●쩠 What SEE: Whip and the Body, The What? (1973-Italian) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roman Polanski. Sydne Rome, Marcello Mastroianni, Hugh Griffith, Romolo Valli, Guido Alberti, Roman Polanski. Ribald comedy about gorgeous innocent who stays at mansion of eccentric millionaire and can’t understand all the commotion she causes. Change-of-pace for Polanski is agreeable, if not outstanding; good cast— especially underrated Rome—keeps things bubbling. Later cut to 94m. and reissued as DIARY OF FORBIDDEN DREAMS. Todd-AO 35. [R]▼ What About Bob? (1991) C-99m. ★★★ D: Frank Oz. Bill Murray, Richard Dreyfuss, Julie Hagerty, Charlie Korsmo, Kathryn Erbe, Tom Aldredge, Susan Willis, Roger Bowen, Fran Brill, Doris Belack. Phobic patient Murray pursues pompous psychiatrist Dreyfuss to his vacation retreat, where he ingratiates himself with the shrink’s family—and drives the doctor crazy. Very funny outing, with Murray and Dreyfuss approaching the relationship of the Road Runner and the Coyote. Only at the very end does it succumb to silliness. [PG]

Parkinson, Tim Hayes, Lucas Papaelias, Katheryn Winnick. Young woman without much of a future meets a seemingly friendly couple (Ivey and Raymond) at a gas station and soon becomes part of their surprising, somewhat seedy lifestyle. Best not to know too much about this extremely low-budget film and let it take you into its well-defined world of trailer trash roaming the South. Very explicit sexual situations (not to mention rough, digital camerawork) make this drama an acquired taste, but Ivey has the role of a lifetime and she runs with it. [R]▼쩠 What a Way to Go! (1964) C-111m. ★★★ D: J. Lee Thompson. Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings, Dick Van Dyke, Reginald Gardiner, Margaret Dumont, Fifi D’Orsay. Lavish, episodic black comedy by Betty Comden and Adolph Green stars MacLaine as jinx who marries succession of men, each of whom promptly dies, leaving her even wealthier than before. Series of movie parodies is amusing, and performances are uniformly charming, especially Newman as obsessed painter and Kelly as egotistical film star. Based on a story by Gwen Davis. One of the dancers on boat deck is Teri Garr. CinemaScope.쩠 What a Woman! (1943) 94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Irving Cummings. Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, Willard Parker, Alan Dinehart, Ann Savage. Literary agent Russell sells film rights to spicy novel, and unwillingly becomes involved with its bookish author (Parker) in this lightweight comedy vehicle. What Became of Jack and Jill? (1972British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Bill Bain. Vanessa Howard, Paul Nicholas, Mona Washbourne, Peter Copley, Peter Jeffrey. Game attempt at detailing modern day, no-holds-barred love affair twisted by intrusion of grandmother; defeated by smug script, odd point of view. [PG] What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966) C-119m. ★★★ D: Blake Edwards. James Coburn, Dick Shawn, Sergio Fantoni, ▼●쩠 What a Carve Up! SEE: No Place Like Aldo Ray, Harry Morgan, Carroll O’ConHomicide! nor, Leon Askin, Giovanna Ralli. A not What a Girl Wants (2003) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 too funny but quite pleasant film about D: Dennie Gordon. Amanda Bynes, Colin group of misfit American soldiers trying to Firth, Kelly Preston, Eileen Atkins, Anna tame wacky Italian town into surrender. Chancellor, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver James, Written by William Peter Blatty; O’ConChristina Cole. Teenage girl (Bynes), raised nor’s blustery performance led to his being by her bohemian mother in N.Y.C., travels to cast in All in the Family. Panavision.▼쩠 England to meet her father, a British lord, for What Doesn’t Kill You (2008) C-100m. ★★★ the first time. While her arrival disrupts his D: Brian Goodman. Mark Ruffalo, campaign to run for Parliament, he wants her Ethan Hawke, Amanda Peet, Will Lyman, to stay—unlike his scheming fiance´e and her Brian Goodman, Donnie Wahlberg, Angela snooty daughter. Cute comedy for adolescents Featherstone. Two boys grow to manhood showcases the perky TV star and an expert in South Boston doing errands for a local cast of adults. Remake of THE RELUCracketeer, but when one of them tries to go straight for the sake of his family he faces TANT DEBUTANTE. Super 35. [PG] ▼쩠 1 ★★ What Alice Found (2003) C-96m. the greatest challenge of his life. Strong per⁄2 D: A. Dean Bell. Judith Ivey, Bill Raymond, formances by Hawke and especially Ruffalo Emily Grace, Jane Lincoln Taylor, Justin make this tough movie well worth seeing. [ 1527 ]

Cowritten by Wahlberg, Paul T. Murray, with Sokoloff, he asks her platonic next-door and first-time director Goodman, who also neighbor (West) to intervene and supply him costars as Pat Kelly—and lived this story. romantic ‘‘material.’’ As reward, he’ll set up Super 35. [R]쩠 his newfound cohort with his school-dish What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? (1970) cousin (O’Keefe)—who, in typical bad★★★ C-90m. movie fashion, is much less attractive than D: Allen Funt. Amusing risque´ Candid Camera effort. Accent is on sex, and the next-door gal-pal. Movie is a bust down some of the reactions to stunts, and queries, are the middle, but director Raynr has some fun hilarious. Look for Richard Roundtree! [R— around the edges. [PG-13]▼쩠 edited from original X rating]▼ What Happened Was . . . (1993) C-91m. ★★★ What Dreams May Come (1998) C-113m. D: Tom Noonan. Tom Noonan, Karen BOMB D: Vincent Ward. Robin Williams, Sillas. Revealing, extremely well-acted twoCuba Gooding, Jr., Annabella Sciorra, Max character drama follows what happens to von Sydow, Rosalind Chao, Matt Salinger, two lonely, mismatched coworkers as they Werner Herzog, Lucinda Jenney. Off-putting experience their first date. Original film is gobbledygook about a man who loses his set in real time, on one set; anyone who’s kids in a car accident, then dies himself, and ever gone on a first date will surely relate to tries to reach out to his loving, grieving wife this material. Actor Noonan also scripted on earth. Despite its pedigree (a novel by and made his directorial debut with this impressive film. [R]▼● Richard Matheson, a good director and cast), this film fails to evoke any tangible emotions. What Happens in Vegas (2008) C-99m. ★★1 It just doesn’t work. Its elaborate (in fact, ⁄2 D: Tom Vaughan. Cameron Diaz, overelaborate) special effects won an Oscar. Ashton Kutcher, Rob Corddry, Lake Bell, Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Jason Sudeikis, Treat Williams, Deirdre Whatever (1998) C-112m. ★★★ D: Susan O’Connell, Michelle Krusiec, Zach GalifiSkoog. Liza Weil, Chad Morgan, Kathryn anakis, Queen Latifah, Dennis Farina, DenRossetter, Frederic Forrest, Gary Wolf, Dan nis Miller. Super-organized Diaz, dumped by Montano. Sensitive, at times disturbing, her fiance´, and irresponsible Kutcher, fired by portrait of a teenage girl (Weil) coming of his father from the family business, both seek age circa 1981, dealing with sex, drugs, and escape in Las Vegas—and wind up married her reckless party-girl best friend (Morgan). to one another after a drunken evening. But Has the texture of a Joyce Carol Oates short dissolving the union becomes a challenge story and features a terrific performance by when a judge orders them to live together for Weil. Written by the director. Good period six months. About what you’d expect, espesoundtrack featuring Iggy Pop, Blondie, The cially as the duo engage in dirty tricks, but as Ramones, and The Pretenders. [R] ▼● the film goes on it becomes more benign and What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? entertaining—boosted by the two stars’ engaging personalities. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 (1969) C-101m. ★★★ D: Lee H. Katzin. Geraldine Page, Ruth Gordon, Rosemary What Have I Done to Deserve This? Forsyth, Robert Fuller, Mildred Dunnock. (1985-Spanish) C-100m. ★★★ D: Pedro Eccentric Page stays wealthy by murderAlmodo´var. Carmen Maura, Chus Lamping her housekeepers, stealing their savings. reave, Veronica Forque, Kiti Manver. OffGordon hires on as next ‘‘victim,’’ trying to the-wall black comedy about an off-the-wall solve missing-persons mystery. Played to the housewife (delightfully played by Maura) hilt; most enjoyable. [M/PG]▼쩠 and her various trials and escapades. A What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? fresh, original film, featuring a feminist ★★★1 (1962) 132m. ⁄2 D: Robert Aldrich. heroine of classic proportions.▼●쩠 Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Victor Buono, What Just Happened (2008) C-104m. ★★★ Marjorie Bennett, Anna Lee. Far-fetched, D: Barry Levinson. Robert De Niro, Sean thoroughly engaging black comedy of two Penn, Catherine Keener, John Turturro, former movie stars; Joan’s a cripple at the Robin Wright Penn, Stanley Tucci, Kristen mercy of demented sister Baby Jane HudStewart, Michael Wincott, Bruce Willis. son (Davis). Bette has a field day in her Hotshot producer De Niro attempts to mainmacabre characterization, with Buono a tain appearances while juggling demands of perfect match. Triggered a decade-long studio heads, wobbly investors, ex- (or soon spate of older female stars in horror films. to be ex-) wives and childish, tantrumScript by Lukas Heller, from Henry Farcausing stars in this darkly funny tale that rell’s novel. Remade for TV in 1991 with answers the question, ‘‘What does a proVanessa and Lynn Redgrave.▼●쩠 ducer do?’’ Cutting so close to the bone it Whatever It Takes (2000) C-94m. ★★ D: could only have been scripted by one who David Raynr (Hubbard). James Franco, Marla has walked the walk, this was based on proSokoloff, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Shane West, ducer Art Linson’s autobiographical book. Aaron Paul, Richard Schiff, Julia Sweeney. Should hold special appeal for those who Latest screen variation on Cyrano de Bergerac appreciate Hollywood’s ability to take itself is just one more teen-comedy-of-the-week. to task while providing a few, albeit uncomWhen dumb jock Franco can’t get to first base fortable, laughs. Super 35. [R]쩠 [ 1528 ]

What Lies Beneath (2000) C-126m. ★★1⁄2 of battling Army men Flagg and Quirt in WW1 France.▼쩠 D: Robert Zemeckis. Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid, Miranda Otto, What Price Hollywood? (1932) 88m. ★★★ James Remar, Joe Morton, Amber Valletta, D: George Cukor. Constance Bennett, LowWendy Crewson. Happily married woman ell Sherman, Neil Hamilton, Gregory senses the presence of a ghost in her idyllic Ratoff, Brooks Benedict. Soused movie Vermont home—could her husband have director Sherman helps waitress Bennett anything to do with it? Slickly made, with fulfill her ambition to become a movie plenty of scares, but after a red-herring substar—while he sinks into alcoholic ruin. plot is over, the ultimate story twist doesn’t Surprisingly sharp-eyed look at Hollywood— make sense . . . and there are at least three both comic and dramatic—that served as endings! Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 inspiration for later A STAR IS BORN. What Love Is (2007) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Mars From a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns.▼● Callahan. Cuba Gooding, Jr., Matthew LilWhat Price Murder (1958-French) 105m. ★★1 lard, Sean Astin, Mars Callahan, Andrew ⁄2 D: Henri Verneuil. Henri Vidal, Mylene Daly, Gina Gershon, Anne Heche, Tamala Demongeot, Isa Miranda, Alfred Adam. Jones, Shiri Appleby, Jud Tylor, Terrence Well-turned murder mystery of hubby and ‘‘T.C.’’ Carson. On Valentine’s Day, Goodsecretary planning to do away with wife. ing is dumped by his live-in lover. He comWhat’s Cooking? (2000-U.S.-British) C109m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gurinder Chadha. Alfre miserates with four of his pals, each of whom is a stereotype; they’re eventually joined by Woodard, Mercedes Ruehl, Joan Chen, Kyra five equally one-dimensional women. This Sedgwick, Julianna Margulies, Dennis Haysloud, trite mess of a movie appears to have bert, A Martinez, Lainie Kazan, Maury been edited with a hacksaw. It holds your Chaykin, Victor Rivers, Douglas Spain, Esinterest . . . but not for the right reasons. Caltelle Harris, Will Yun Lee. Mosaic of four lahan also scripted, and casts himself as the ethnic families—black, Asian, Latino, Jewmost grounded of the men; Lillard chews the ish—preparing for Thanksgiving in L.A., scenery as the most misogynistic. [R]쩠 and dealing with a variety of domestic criWhat Planet Are You From? (2000) Cses. Soapy at times, but the film has heart 1 ★★ 105m. and occasional insights; bolstered by an ex⁄2 D: Mike Nichols. Garry Shandling, Annette Bening, Greg Kinnear, Ben cellent cast. [PG-13]▼쩠 Kingsley, Linda Fiorentino, John Goodman, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) CRichard Jenkins, Caroline Aaron, Judy 117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lasse Hallstro¨m. Johnny Depp, Greer, Nora Dunn, Ann Cusack, Camryn Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Mary Manheim, Cathy Ladman. Alien is sent to Steenburgen, Darlene Cates, Laura Harrington, earth by his planet with the mandate to find a Mary Kate Schellhardt, Kevin Tighe, John C. woman who will bear his child. The last thing Reilly, Crispin Glover, Penelope Branning. the interplanetary visitor expects to experience Middling slice-of-life about a young man in a is genuine love and caring. If you’re a Shandead-end town saddled with the responsibility dling fan, you may cut this comedy more of caring for his retarded younger brother, and slack than others will; it’s low-key and depressed by his obese mother, who hasn’t left somewhat predictable, but surprisingly the house in seven years. You keep thinking good-natured. Shandling cowrote the script. something significant is going to happen, but Janeane Garofalo and Sarah Silverman apnothing ever does; still, there are some poignant pear unbilled. [R]▼쩠 vignettes and first-rate performances (espeWhat Price Glory (1926) 120m. ★★★ D: cially by newcomer Cates, as the mom). [PGRaoul Walsh. Victor McLaglen, Edmund 13]▼●쩠 Lowe, Dolores Del Rio, William V. Mong, What’s Good for the Goose (1969-British) Phyllis Haver, Leslie Fenton, Barry NorC-105m. BOMB D: Menahem Golan. Norton. Boisterous rivalry between Capt. Flagg man Wisdom, Sally Geeson, Sally Bazely, (McLaglen) and Sgt. Quirt (Lowe) centers Sarah Atkinson, Terence Alexander. Weak, on lovely Charmaine (Del Rio) when they unfunny, sex romp wherein the object is to go to France during WW1. Zesty comedy, score as often as possible. Skip it. [R]▼쩠 with plenty of fireworks for lip-readers, What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993) abruptly turns grim as focus shifts to horrors C-119m. ★★★ D: Brian Gibson. Angela of war, only to return to Flagg-Quirt hijinks Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Vanessa Bell for finale. Fine entertainment, from LauCalloway, Jenifer Lewis, Rae’ven Kelly, rence Stallings–Maxwell Anderson play; Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Chi (Chi two main characters reappeared in a handful McBride), Khandi Alexander, Penny Johnof follow-ups, none of them as good as this. son, Robert Guy Miranda, Pamela Tyson, Remade in 1952.▼쩠 Barry Shabaka Henley. Highly charged musiWhat Price Glory (1952) C-111m. ★★1⁄2 cal bio of singer Tina Turner, who joined r&b D: John Ford. James Cagney, Corinne musician Ike Turner as a naive teenager and Calvet, Dan Dailey, Robert Wagner, Marisa went on to become a dynamic performer—all Pavan, James Gleason. Classic silent film the while suffering various forms of abuse becomes shallow Cagney-Dailey vehicle at home. Vivid, immediate, and persuasive [ 1529 ]

(though Tina’s personality is never exWhat’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966) C-80m. ★★★ plored, and she’s painted as something of Compiled by Woody Allen. Japanese a saint), but the real attraction here is the version directed by Senkichi Taniguchi. phenomenal performances of Bassett and Tatsuya Mihashi, Miya Hana, Eiko WakaFishburne as Tina and Ike. Based on I, Tina bayashi, Tadao Nakamura, Woody Allen, by Turner and Kurt Loder. [R]▼●쩠 China Lee. Slick Japanese imitation James What’s New, Pussycat? (1965) C-108m. Bond movie (KAGI NO KAG, or KEY OF ★★ D: Clive Donner. Peter Sellers, Peter KEYS, released in 1964) is redubbed by O’Toole, Romy Schneider, Capucine, Paula Allen into one long, very funny joke. The Prentiss, Woody Allen, Ursula Andress. object of international intrigue is a valued Disturbed fashion editor O’Toole goes to egg-salad recipe, and the main characters are psychiatrist Sellers for help with his ronamed Phil Moscowitz, Terri Yaki, and Suki mantic problems, but Sellers is even crazier Yaki. Music by The Lovin’ Spoonful (who than he. Woody Allen’s first feature as actor also appear in the film). One of the new and writer, and like many of his comedies, voices is Louise Lasser. Tohoscope.▼●쩠 one sits through a lot of misfired gags to What the Bleep Do We Know!? (2004) get to a few undeniable gems. Hit title song C/B&W-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mark Vicente, by Burt Bacharach and Hal David.▼●쩠 Betsy Chasse, William Arntz. Marlee Matlin, What’s So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968) Elaine Hendrix, Barry Newman, Robert BaiC-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Seaton. George Pepley, Jr., Armin Shimerman, John Ross Bowie. pard, Mary Tyler Moore, Dom DeLuise, John Curious, ambitious narrative-documentary hyMcMartin, Don Stroud, Nathaniel Frey, Susan brid attempts to explore the physical, the metaSaint James, Charles Lane, Thelma Ritter. physical, and the nature of reality. As various Amiable attempt at old-fashioned Capraesque real-life experts discuss quantum physics, a comedy, with pixillated toucan spreading good fictional photographer (Matlin) sets out to feeling throughout N.Y.C. Doesn’t hit bull’sprobe the essence of her being. Some surrealeye, but has its moments. Written by Seaton istic animation sequences are thrown in for and Robert Pirosh. Look for Cleavon Little, good measure. Filled with imagination, good Moses Gunn. Techniscope. intentions, and plenty of New Age philosoWhat’s the Matter with Helen? (1971) phizing, this little film understandably became C-101m. ★★★ D: Curtis Harrington. Debbie a word-of-mouth success. The fictional seReynolds, Shelley Winters, Dennis Weaver, quences don’t work nearly as well as the Agnes Moorehead, Michael MacLiammoir. provocative nonfiction content. Followed Campy murder tale set in 1930s. Reynolds by a direct-to-video sequel, WHAT THE and Winters try to erase their sordid past, BLEEP DO WE KNOW?: DOWN THE start anew in Hollywood with school for talRABBIT HOLE. Aka WHAT THE #$*! ented kids. Good fun; Debbie ideal in period DO WE KNOW!? ▼쩠 setting. Written by Henry Farrell. [PG]▼쩠 What Time is it There? (2001-TaiwaneseWhat’s the Worst That Could Happen? French) C-116m. ★★ D: Ming-liang Tsai. 1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Sam Weisman. (2001) C-95m. Kang-sheng Lee, Shiang-chyi Chen, Yi-ching Martin Lawrence, Danny DeVito, John Lu, Tien Miao, Jean-Pierre Le´aud. Street Leguizamo, Glenne Headly, Carmen Ejogo, vendor falls for a girl on her way to Paris Bernie Mac, Larry Miller, Nora Dunn, Richand sets about changing all the clocks in his ard Schiff, William Fichtner, Ana Gasteyer, home city of Taipei to French time as he Siobhan Fallon. Uninspired comedy about a thinks only of her. Odd, extremely drawn-out thief who has the tables turned on him by premise shows off Tsai’s directorial talents his latest ‘‘victim,’’ crooked business tycoon but at the end is a bit of a ‘‘so-what.’’ Look DeVito—and swears vengeance at any cost. for legendary Truffaut star Le´aud playing Good cast does what it can with a mediocre himself.▼쩠 script, based on the comic crime novel by What Waits Below (1985) C-88m. ★★ D: Don Sharp. Robert Powell, Lisa Blount, Donald E. Westlake. [PG-13]▼쩠 ★★★ What’s Up, Doc? (1972) C-94m. Timothy Bottoms, Richard Johnson, Anne D: Peter Bogdanovich. Barbra Streisand, Ryan Heywood, Liam Sullivan. Disappointing O’Neal, Kenneth Mars, Austin Pendleton, fantasy thriller of archaeologists stumbling Madeline Kahn, Sorrell Booke, Michael upon a lost race of Lemurians living in Murphy, Liam Dunn, John Hillerman, M. South American caves. Effects aren’t very Emmet Walsh. Modern-day screwball comspecial; a good cast is wasted. [PG]▼ edy with impish Streisand making life misWhat Women Want (2000) C-126m. ★★★ erable for stuffy musicologist O’Neal and his D: Nancy Meyers. Mel Gibson, Helen Hunt, fiance´e (Kahn, in feature debut), becoming Marisa Tomei, Mark Feuerstein, Lauren Holly, involved in mixup over stolen jewels. Great Ashley Johnson, Alan Alda, Judy Greer, Valcomic chase scenes highlight overpowering erie Perrine, Delta Burke. Entertaining comedy farce, Bogdanovich’s bouquet to 1930s about a cocky, chauvinistic ad agency exec Hollywood (and BRINGING UP BABY in who magically acquires the ability to hear what particular). Look for John Byner and Randy women are thinking. He puts this to especially Quaid at the hotel banquet. [G]▼●쩠 good use with his new superior (Hunt), whose [ 1530 ]

job he was in line to get. Smart, likable film Montgomery are appealing screwball leads. lacks only a solid punchline. Bette Midler apWritten by Roddy Doyle. pears unbilled. [PG-13]▼쩠 When Comedy Was King (1960) 81m. ★★★★ Wheeler Dealers, The (1963) C-106m. Compiled by Robert Youngson. Char★★★ D: Arthur Hiller. Lee Remick, James lie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Garner, Jim Backus, Phil Harris, Shelley Hardy, Ben Turpin, Fatty Arbuckle, WalBerman, Chill Wills, John Astin, Louis lace Beery, Gloria Swanson. Second YoungNye. Funny, fast-moving spoof of Texas son compilation of silent comedy clips has millionaires who play with investments many classic scenes. Chaplin, Keaton, L & H, just for fun. Garner also catches Lee Remick Keystone Kops, Charley Chase, and others along the way. Panavision.▼ shine in this outstanding film.▼●쩠 Wheel of Fortune SEE: Man Betrayed, A When Did You Last See Your Father? Wheels of Terror SEE: Misfit Brigade, (2007-British) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Anand The Tucker. Jim Broadbent, Colin Firth, Juliet When a Man Loves a Woman (1994) CStevenson, Gina McKee, Matthew Beard, 125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Luis Mandoki. Andy Garcia, Sarah Lancashire, Elaine Cassidy. Firth atMeg Ryan, Ellen Burstyn, Tina Majorino, tends to his aged father, now a bedridden Mae Whitman, Lauren Tom, Philip Seymour invalid, but can’t help thinking about his Hoffman, Eugene Roche, Gail Strickland. teenage years when everything his father Wife and mother of two is forced to deal with did caused him embarrassment—including the fact that she’s an alcoholic . . . but her the old man’s womanizing. Well acted but husband soon learns that he has as much to bland and uninvolving. Based on Blake deal with as she does. Ryan gives a standout Morrison’s best-selling memoir. Panavision. [PG-13]쩠 performance in this surprisingly frank exploration of the trauma this kind of disease can When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970British) C-99m. ★★★ D: Val Guest. Victocause to a family. The film succeeds more as tract than entertainment, however. [R]▼●쩠 ria Vetri, Robin Hawdon, Patrick Allen, When a Stranger Calls (1979) C-97m. Drewe Henley, Imogen Hassall, Magda ★1⁄2 D: Fred Walton. Carol Kane, Charles Konopka, Patrick Holt. Fast-paced, enjoyable Durning, Colleen Dewhurst, Tony Beckprehistoric actioner with Vetri and Hawdon ley, Rachel Roberts, Ron O’Neal. Psycho lovers ostracized by respective tribes. Beautimurders two children after terrorizing their ful locations, very good special effects by Jim babysitter, returns seven years later to extend Danforth, and honorable attempt to simulate his crime. Unpleasant, improbable melodrama period, although Vetri (Playboy’s 1968 Playfalls apart after OK opening 11 minutes. mate of the Year—then known as Angela DoBased on a short subject called THE SITTER. rian) seems to have ordered her wardrobe Followed, over a decade later, by a TV sequel. from Frederick’s of Bedrock. Story by J. G. Remade in 2006. [R]▼●쩠 Ballard. Original U.S. release was cut by 3m. When a Stranger Calls (2006) C-87m. ★1⁄2 to earn G rating. [G]▼●쩠 D: Simon West. Camilla Belle, Tommy FlanWhen Do We Eat? (2006) C-93m. ★★ D: agan, Katie Cassidy, Tessa Thompson, Brian Salvador Litvak. Michael Lerner, Lesley Geraghty, Clark Gregg, Derek De Lint; voice Ann Warren, Jack Klugman, Meredith Scott of Lance Henriksen. Remake of 1979 movie Lynn, Shiri Appleby, Milli Avital, Ben in which a babysitter is haunted by repeated Feldman, Cynda Williams. Oy vey! Misbephone calls that grow more terrifying as she gotten, over-the-top ethnic comedy about a realizes they are coming from within the disastrous Passover Seder meal has lots of house. More graphic and obvious than its predysfunction and shouting but little heart. decessor and the 1993 TV movie follow-up The family gathering goes terribly awry WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK, when a troublemaking son slips a hallucinogeared to a generation that likes its horror in genic drug into dad’s drink, his wife invites nonstop vivid close-ups rather than gradually a mysterious man for dinner, and the kids revealed. Why this one-note concept has been run amok. Mildly amusing at times, but so so durable is a bigger mystery than anything frenetically paced you may find yourself thinking, ‘‘When do we leave?’’ [R]쩠 in the film. What’s next? WHEN A STRANGER E-MAILS? Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 When Eight Bells Toll (1971-British) C-94m. ★★ D: Etienne Perier. Anthony When Brendan Met Trudy (2000-IrishBritish) C-95m. ★★★ D: Kieron J. Walsh. Hopkins, Robert Morley, Nathalie Delon, Peter McDonald, Flora Montgomery, Marie Jack Hawkins, Ferdy Mayne, Corin RedMullen, Pauline McLynn, Maynard Eziashi. grave, Derek Bond. Alistair MacLean Charming bit of blarney about a pair of misadapted his best-seller of gold piracy at fit lovers: a straitlaced boys’ school teacher sea, but the production lacks flash and and a free-spirited woman who just happens finesse and Hopkins is too disagreeable a to be a cat burglar. Brendan’s other love is hero. Panavision. [PG] movies, which results in some clever homWhen Father Was Away on Business ages to BREATHLESS, THE SEARCH(1985-Yugoslavian) C-135m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ERS, and SUNSET BLVD. McDonald and Emir Kusturica. Moreno D’E Bartolli, Miki [ 1531 ]

Manojlovic, Mirjana Karanovic, Mustafa Clavel, Zinedine Soualem, Rene´e Le Calm, Nadarevic, Mira Furian, Andrew Kopperud. Olivier Py, Romain Duris. Sweet, deft look Captivating story about a family’s efforts to at a side of Paris rarely seen on-screen as get along when the head of the household is a young woman returns from vacation to sent to a labor camp for making an indisdiscover her cat has disappeared. She takes creet remark. Told mostly through the eyes off on a journey through city streets not of a six-year-old boy (D’E Bartolli), whose only to find her pet but, as it turns out, concerns and flights of fancy are irresistible. herself as well. A simple, welcome film Set in Sarajevo in the early 1950s. [R]▼쩠 about love and loneliness. [R]▼ When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989) When the Legends Die (1972) C-105m. ★★★1 ★★★ C-95m. ⁄2 D: Rob Reiner. Billy CrysD: Stuart Millar. Richard Widmark, tal, Meg Ryan, Carrie Fisher, Bruno Kirby, Frederic Forrest, Luana Anders, Vito Scotti, Steven Ford, Lisa Jane Persky, Michelle Herbert Nelson. Offbeat story of aging Nicastro, Harley Kozak. Delightful Woody rodeo cowboy who cannot accept fact that Allen-ish romantic comedy set in N.Y.C. years are creeping up on him, and young Indian he befriends. [PG]▼ about a man and woman who carve out a genuine friendship, and struggle to keep it When the North Wind Blows (1974) from becoming a romantic attachment. Full C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stewart Raffill. Henry of great dialogue and knowing remarks Brandon, Herbert Nelson, Dan Haggerty. about the way men and women view each A hermit trapper protects snow tigers in other. Screenplay by Nora Ephron (with Siberia. Beautiful scenery; OK fare for children. [G]▼ some distinctive Billy Crystalisms throughout). Director Reiner’s mother has the movWhen the Party’s Over (1992) C-114m. ★★1 ie’s single funniest line, at the end of the ⁄2 D: Matthew Irmas. Rae Dawn Chong, delicatessen scene. Later adapted for the Fisher Stevens, Sandra Bullock, Elizabeth stage. [R]▼●쩠 Berridge, Brian McNamara, Kris Kamm, When Lovers Meet SEE: Lover Come Michael Landes, Stephen Meadows. PerBack (1946) ceptive but seriously flawed, often confusWhen Night Is Falling (1995-Canadian) ing drama about making it in L.A., focusing ★★★ D: Patricia Rozema. Pascale C-96m. on three women and a gay male who share Bussie`res, Rachael Crawford, Henry Czerny, a house and are involved in each other’s Don McKellar, Tracy Wright. Though essenlives. Chong (as a manipulative yuppie tially soft-focus lesbian eye-candy, this is also careerist) and Bullock (as a cynical feminist artist) are standouts. [R]▼●쩠 a tremendously entertaining retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche. Camille (BusWhen the Sky Falls (2000-Irish-U.S.) C106m. ★1⁄2 D: John Mackenzie. Joan Allen, sie`res), a professor at a Calvinist college engaged to marry a fellow teacher of reliPatrick Bergin, Liam Cunningham, Pete gion (Czerny), falls for Petra (Crawford), an Postlethwaite, Kevin McNally, Jimmy Smalluninhibited circus performer. The scenes of horne. Allen plays a crusading Dublin jourcircus erotica resemble Red Shoe Diaries nalist whose articles about drug gangs put rather than Fellini, but the film’s attitude her life in jeopardy. Dull, plot-heavy film is refreshingly tongue-in-cheek. (Also, both (based on true story of reporter Veronica women are stunners and the story’s sweet.) Guerin) has a surprising lack of emotional [R]▼쩠 pull. U.S. debut on cable TV. Same story When Pigs Fly (1993-German-U.S.-Dutch) told in VERONICA GUERIN. ▼쩠 C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Sara Driver. Alfred MoWhen the Whales Came (1989-British) lina, Marianne Faithfull, Seymour Cassel, C-100m. ★★ D: Clive Rees. Paul Scofield, Rachel Bella, Maggie O’Neill, Freddie Helen Mirren, Helen Pearce, Max Rennie, Brooks. Charming, oddball film about a hipDavid Suchet, David Threlfall, Barbara ster musician who’s visited by a couple of Jefford, Jeremy Kemp. Dull dud set in ghostly spirits who need to settle accounts 1914 with Scofield, in a performance that’s in their lives. With his help, they do, and of not among his best, cast as a deaf old course, it helps him get his own act tohermit who loves birds; he lives alone on a gether. Supernatural comedy-drama is remote island and is befriended by youngvague about where it’s set; it was actually sters Rennie and Pearce (the latter a nonactor shot in Germany. Music by Joe Strummer; discovered on Britain’s Scilly Isles, where film was made). [G]▼● coexecutive-produced by Jim Jarmusch.▼ When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965) When Time Ran Out . . . (1980) C-121m. ★★ C-110m. D: Alvin Ganzer. Connie BOMB D: James Goldstone. Paul Newman, Francis, Harve Presnell, Herman’s HerJacqueline Bisset, William Holden, James mits, Louis Armstrong, Liberace, Sue Ane Franciscus, Edward Albert, Red Buttons, Langdon, Fred Clark, Sam the Sham. ReErnest Borgnine, Burgess Meredith, Valhash of GIRL CRAZY, turned into a dull entina Cortesa, Veronica Hamel, Alex guest-star showcase. Panavision. ● Karras, Barbara Carrera. WHEN IDEAS When the Cat’s Away (1996-French) RAN OUT, or, THE BLUBBERING INC-91m. ★★★ D: Ce´dric Klapisch. Garance FERNO: Irwin Allen’s shameless rehash [ 1532 ]

of all his disaster-movie cliche´s, set on a this George Pal production. Based on the Pacific island, is a monumental bore that even novel by Edwin Balmer and Philip Wylie. a volcanic eruption cannot save. Written by ▼●쩠 Carl Foreman and Stirling Silliphant—who When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder? were presumably well paid. Video version (1979) C-118m. ★1⁄2 D: Milton Katselas. runs 141m. Panavision. [PG] ▼쩠 Marjoe Gortner, Hal Linden, Lee Grant, When We Were Kings (1996) C-92m. Peter Firth, Candy Clark, Pat Hingle, Steph★★★1⁄2 D: Leon Gast. Muhammad Ali, anie Faracy, Audra Lindley, Bill McKinGeorge Foreman, Don King, James Brown, ney. Stagy, unpleasant film of Mark B. B. King, Spike Lee, Norman Mailer, Medoff’s play about a psycho terrorizing a George Plimpton. Highly entertaining, Oscardisparate group of people in roadside diner. winning documentary about the classic 1974 Has its moments, but not enough to justify ‘‘Rumble in the Jungle’’ matchup in Zaire nearly two hours of viewing. [R] of heavyweight champions Ali and ForeWhere Angels Fear to Tread (1991-British) man. Film chronicles the preparations for C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Sturridge. Hethe fight, and its postponement, enabling us lena Bonham Carter, Judy Davis, Rupert to learn more about The Greatest in his Graves, Giovanni Guidelli, Barbara Jefford, prime than a more conventional account Helen Mirren, Thomas Wheatley, Sophie could ever tell us. Full of fascinating obserKullman. Interesting drama of repressed vations from the participants as well as conand unleashed sexuality within the British temporary observers like Mailer, Plimpton, upper class, based on E. M. Forster’s first and Lee. Gast spent 23 years trying to bring novel. The story follows events after Britthis film to fruition; it was well worth the ish widow Mirren dallies with and weds a wait. [PG]▼●쩠 young Tuscan (Guidelli) while vacationing When Will I Be Loved (2004) C-81m. ★★ D: in Italy. Faithful to its source material, and James Toback. Neve Campbell, Fred Welthe performances (particularly Bonham Carler, Dominic Chianese, Karen Allen, Barry ter’s, as Mirren’s traveling companion) are Primus, Mike Tyson, Lori Singer, James first-rate, but the presentation is less inspired Toback. On-the-make N.Y.C. bitch Campthan one would like.▼●쩠 bell has taken up with obnoxious con man Where Angels Go . . . Trouble Follows Weller and becomes involved in an INDE(1968) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: James Neilson. CENT PROPOSAL–style scenario with ItalRosalind Russell, Stella Stevens, Binnie ian kazillionaire Chianese. Unlikable film is Barnes, Mary Wickes, Dolores Sutton, crammed with coldhearted characters who are Susan Saint James, Barbara Hunter; guest obsessed with big bucks, sleazy sex, and endstars Milton Berle, Arthur Godfrey, Van less hustling. Toback plays a Columbia UniJohnson, William Lundigan, Robert Tayversity professor; Singer, Tyson, and various lor. For Flying Nun fans only; contrived Toback buddies appear as themselves; and the comedy follow-up to THE TROUBLE film is book-ended by Campbell appearing WITH ANGELS with Mother Superior nude in a shower. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Russell pitted against young, progressive When Willie Comes Marching Home nun Stevens. [G]▼쩠 (1950) 82m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Dan Where Are the Children? (1986) C-92m. ★1 Dailey, Corinne Calvet, Colleen Townsend, ⁄2 D: Bruce Malmuth. Jill Clayburgh, William Demarest, Mae Marsh. Schmaltzy Max Gail, Harley Cross, Elisabeth Harnois, WW2 adventures of West Virginia youth Elizabeth Wilson, Barnard Hughes, FredDailey, including interlude with French eric Forrest. Clayburgh’s two children are underground leader Calvet.쩠 kidnapped—just as, nine years before, her When Wolves Cry SEE: Christmas Tree, first two kids (by a previous marriage) also The vanished. Creates some suspense but beWhen Women Had Tails (1970-Italian) comes more ludicrous as it unfolds. Despite a raging storm, the Cape Cod location is the C-110m. ★1⁄2 D: Pasquale Festa Campanile. Senta Berger, Giuliano Gemma, Frank most attractive aspect of the film. Based on Wolff, Lando Buzzanca, Aldo Giuffre. Mary Higgins Clark’s novel. [R]▼ Cute, harmless but unfunny slapstick comWhere Danger Lives (1950) 82m. ★★★ D: edy with Berger a most attractive caveJohn Farrow. Robert Mitchum, Faith Domwoman. Lina Wertmuller co-wrote the ergue, Claude Rains, Maureen O’Sullivan, screenplay. Sequel: WHEN WOMEN LOST Charles Kemper, Ralph Dumke, Billy THEIR TAILS. [R]▼ House, Jack Kelly. San Francisco doctor ★★★ When Worlds Collide (1951) C-81m. Mitchum falls for beautiful patient DomD: Rudolph Mate´. Richard Derr, Barbara ergue. When she kills her husband (Rains), Rush, Peter Hanson, Larry Keating, John she convinces the doctor that he did it, and Hoyt. Scientist tries to convince a doubting the two flee for Mexico. The doctor suffers world that Earth is in path of rogue planet. a concussion, barely able to function—and Convince yourself this could happen and then learns the woman is insane. Another you’ll have fun. Special effects (including film noir with Mitchum as a duped schnook submersion of Manhattan) won Oscar for who wises up too late, this is dreamlike, [ 1533 ]

almost hypnotic, with an especially dangerHayes, from Harold Robbins’ novel. Techniscope.▼ ous femme fatale. Decidedly peculiar but entertaining and involving.쩠 Where’s Charley? (1952) C-97m. ★★★ D: Where Does It Hurt? (1972) C-88m. David Butler. Ray Bolger, Allyn Ann McBOMB D: Rod Amateau. Peter Sellers, Jo Lerie, Robert Shackleton, Mary Germaine, Ann Pflug, Rick Lenz, Harold Gould, Hope Horace Cooper, Margaretta Scott. Bolger Summers, Eve Bruce, Kathleen Freeman. recreates Broadway role in musical adapAbysmal, tasteless ‘‘comedy’’ about hostation of CHARLEY’S AUNT, as Oxford pital run by corrupt Sellers, staffed by student whose face-saving impersonation money-hungry incompetents. [R] of dowdy dowager leads to endless comWhere Eagles Dare (1968) C-158m. ★★★1⁄2 plications. Frank Loesser score includes D: Brian G. Hutton. Richard Burton, Clint ‘‘Once in Love With Amy.’’ One of the Eastwood, Mary Ure, Michael Hordern, principal dancers is Jean Marsh. Filmed in Patrick Wymark, Robert Beatty, Ferdy England. Mayne, Anton Diffring, Donald Houston, Where’s Jack? (1969-British) C-119m. ★★1 Ingrid Pitt. Modern-day version of Repub⁄2 D: James Clavell. Tommy Steele, lic serial, with slam-bang cliff-hanger acStanley Baker, Fiona Lewis, Alan Badel, tion that never lets up. Burton and company Dudley Foster, Sue Lloyd, Noel Purcell. assigned to free American officer held Despite good cast and production values, captive in German mountain castle during surprisingly unengrossing historical advenWW2. Terrific; script by Alistair MacLean, ture tale of Britain’s most celebrated highfrom his best-selling novel. Panavision. wayman and escape artist, Jack Sheppard [M/PG]▼●쩠 (Steele), wanted by British government Where God Left His Shoes (2008) Cand notorious mercenary (Baker). [G] 101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Salvatore Stabile. John LegWhere’s Marlowe? (1999) C/B&W-97m. ★★ uizamo, Leonor Varela, David Castro, SaD: Daniel Pyne. Miguel Ferrer, John Livmantha M. Rose, Jerry Ferrara. Wellingston, Dante Beze (Mos Def), John Slattery, intentioned but rambling account of downAllison Dean, Clayton Rohner, Elizabeth on-his-luck boxer Leguizamo, an ex-con Schofield, Miguel Sandoval, Bill McKinney, and Desert Storm veteran. He and his famHeather McComb, Wendy Crewson, Lisa ily are evicted from their apartment and end Jane Persky. Ambitious little film about two up in a homeless shelter with Christmas just documentary filmmakers who latch on to a around the corner. Formulaic and longlow-level L.A. private detective; while trywinded, but director Stabile (who also ing to chronicle his day-to-day existence, scripted) does make excellent use of N.Y.C. they become involved in ways they never anlocations. ticipated. Some clever ideas get lost, though Where in the World is Osama Bin everyone gets an A for effort. [R]▼쩠 Laden? (2008) C-93m. ★★ D: Morgan Where’s Picone? (1984-Italian) C-122m. ★★★ Spurlock. Spurlock, who made his name D: Nanni Loy. Giancarlo Giannini, targeting the fast-food industry in SUPER Lina Sastri, Aldo Giuffre, Clelia RonSIZE ME, takes on the far-less-comical war dinelli, Carlo Croccolo. Giannini is hilarion terror when concerns for the kind of ous in a role tailor-made for his talent: a world his newborn child will face thrust him sleazy, two-bit, ultimately hapless coninto a Rambo-like quest to find and defeat niver who must live by his wits to survive 9/11 mastermind bin Laden. Broadly staged on the fringes of Neapolitan society. A ‘‘training’’ sequences and man-on-the-street biting black comedy about bureaucracy encounters in several Middle Eastern counand corruption Italian-style.▼ tries are uncomfortably played for laughs, Where’s Poppa? (1970) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: making Spurlock’s adventure seem more Carl Reiner. George Segal, Ruth Gordon, ego trip than serious journey. Call it MiTrish Van Devere, Ron Leibman, Rae Allen, Vincent Gardenia, Barnard Hughes, chael Moore lite. [PG-13]쩠 1 ★★ Where It’s At (1969) C-104m. Rob Reiner, Garrett Morris, Paul Sorvino. ⁄2 D: Garson Kanin. David Janssen, Robert Absurdist comedy has cult following, but Drivas, Rosemary Forsyth, Brenda Vaccaro, grisly subject matter makes it an acquired Don Rickles, Edy Williams. Pleasant but taste; Segal plays a repressed N.Y.C. lawundistinguished comedy about strained reyer whose senile mother dominates his lationship between Las Vegas casino owner life. Outlandish gags involve mugging, and his Princeton-graduate son. [R] rape, nursing homes, and other ills. OrigiWhere Love Has Gone (1964) C-114m. nal ending was too potent, and changed. ★★1 Script by Robert Klane, from his novel. ⁄2 D: Edward Dmytryk. Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Michael Connors, Jane Look for Penny Marshall as a courtroom Greer, Joey Heatherton, George Macready. spectator. Reissued as GOING APE. [R] Glossy drama of Heatherton killing mother ▼●쩠 Hayward’s lover; Davis is the domineering Where the Boys Are (1960) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 grandmother, Greer is a sympathetic proD: Henry Levin. Dolores Hart, George bation officer. Script by John Michael Hamilton, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Hutton, [ 1534 ]

Barbara Nichols, Paula Prentiss, Connie izations—is characteristic of Herzog, but Francis, Frank Gorshin, Chill Wills. Notthe result just doesn’t gel. [R]▼쩠 bad film about teenagers during Easter Where the Heart Is (1990) C-94m. ★★ D: vacation in Ft. Lauderdale. Connie FranJohn Boorman. Dabney Coleman, Uma cis, in her first film, is pretty good, and Thurman, Joanna Cassidy, Crispin Glover, sings the hit title tune; other young players Suzy Amis, Christopher Plummer, Maury seen to good advantage. Nichols is hilariChaykin, David Hewlett. Disappointing ous as usual as a flashy blonde. Ineptly farce about wealthy N.Y.C. demolitions remade in 1984. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 expert Coleman, who decides to teach his Where the Boys Are ’84 (1984) C-93m. family humility—and the value of money— BOMB D: Hy Averback. Lisa Hartman, by shutting them out and making them Lorna Luft, Wendy Schaal, Lynn-Holly homeless. Well-intended hodgepodge that’s Johnson, Russell Todd, Howard McGillin, too outlandish to be taken seriously. Scripted Louise Sorel, Alana Stewart. Tacky reby Boorman and his daughter, Telsche; make of 1960 film about four college girls some saw this as an update of the direc(three horny, one virginal) who descend tor’s earlier LEO THE LAST. [R]▼●쩠 on Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in search of Where the Heart Is (2000) C-120m. ★1⁄2 cheap sex. This Allan Carr production has D: Matt Williams. Natalie Portman, Ashley all the appeal of an oil slick. [R]▼ Judd, Stockard Channing, Sally Field, Joan Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) C-96m. Cusack, James Frain, Dylan Bruno. Billie BOMB D: Art Linson. Peter Boyle, Bill Letts’ novel probably made more sense than Murray, Bruno Kirby, Rene Auberjonois, this numbingly scattershot script about an R. G. Armstrong, Rafael Campos, Leonabandoned, ill-educated young woman (a ard Frey, Mark Metcalf, Craig T. Nelson. miscast Portman) and the circle of friends Intended celebration of notorious ‘‘Gonzo’’ who nurture her after she gives birth in a journalist Hunter S. Thompson will baffle Wal-Mart. A near-fatal twister? The baby’s those unfamiliar with his work and insult kidnapping? The rocky country-western cathose who are. Even Neil Young’s music reer of the baby’s father? Everything here is can’t save dreadful comedy. [R]▼쩠 given equal weight, and the episodic scenes Where the Bullets Fly (1966-British) pile up without any cumulative effect. FeaC-88m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Gilling. Tom Adture directing debut for the creator/producer ams, Dawn Addams, Tim Barrett, Miof such hit TV sitcoms as Roseanne and chael Ripper. Well-paced super spy satire Home Improvement. [PG-13]▼쩠 involving Adams tracking down special Where the Hot Wind Blows! (1958-Frenchfuel formula. Sequel to THE SECOND Italian) 120m. ★★ D: Jules Dassin. Gina BEST SECRET AGENT IN THE WHOLE Lollobrigida, Pierre Brasseur, Marcello WIDE WORLD. ▼ Mastroianni, Melina Mercouri, Yves MonWhere the Day Takes You (1992) C-105m. tand, Paolo Stoppa. Sure-fire cast is wasted ★★1 ⁄2 D: Marc Rocco. Dermot Mulroney, in pedestrian drama of hypocrisy in a small Robert Knepper, Sean Astin, Balthazar Italian town. Lollobrigida is poverty-stricken Getty, Will Smith, James Le Gros, Ricki wench who falls for engineer Mastroianni; Lake, Lara Flynn Boyle, Peter Dobson, Mercouri is judge’s wife in love with thug Kyle MacLachlan, Nancy McKeon, Adam Montand’s son. Aka THE LAW.▼쩠 Baldwin, Rachel Ticotin, Alyssa Milano, Where the Lilies Bloom (1974) C-96m. David Arquette, Leo Rossi, Stephen Tobo★★★ D: William A. Graham. Julie Gholson, lowsky, Laura San Giacomo. Alternately Jan Smithers, Matthew Burril, Helen Harslick and scuzzy look at homeless L.A. mon, Harry Dean Stanton, Rance Howard, street kids, as related by Mulroney (very Sudie Bond. Four Appalachian children good here) to prison psychologist San Giacarry on by themselves when their father como. Wavers in quality from the reasondies—and keep the news of his death a ably compelling to the overwrought; a film secret, so they won’t be taken away by the that shows us junkie Astin vomiting all over state. First-rate family drama scripted by himself can probably do without sappy muEarl Hamner, Jr. and filmed on location in sical montages. Christian Slater appears unNorth Carolina. [G]▼ billed. [R] ▼●쩠 Where the Money Is (2000) C-89m. ★★ D: Where the Eagle Flies SEE: Pickup on Marek Kanievska. Paul Newman, Linda Fior101 entino, Dermot Mulroney, Susan Barnes, Where the Green Ants Dream (1984★★1 Anne Pitoniak, Bruce MacVittie. Savvy German) C-100m. ⁄2 D: Werner Herzog. convalescent-home nurse Fiorentino senses Bruce Spence, Wandjuk Marika, Roy something about her newest patient, a mute Marika, Ray Barrett, Norman Kaye, Colstroke victim who’s just been transferred leen Clifford. Rambling account of a group from prison. She becomes convinced that with of wise, noble Australian aborigines who his bank-robbing background, he can help her must go up against a mining company set and her husband make some easy money. on bulldozing their sacred land in a quest for uranium. The theme—a clash of civilPotentially clever caper goes flat, in spite of [ 1535 ]

charismatic performances by Newman and Franc¸oise Dorleac, John Le Mesurier, Cyril Fiorentino. A real letdown. [PG-13]▼쩠 Cusack, Eric Pohlmann, Reginald Beckwith. Where the Red Fern Grows (1974) Well made mixture of dry comedy and C-98m. ★★★ D: Norman Tokar. James suspense in tale of doctor forced into spying. Whitmore, Beverly Garland, Jack Ging, Good cast names enhance already fine Lonny Chapman, Stewart Petersen. Apmovie. Panavision. pealing family drama about a boy’s devoWhere the Truth Lies (2005-CanadianBritish) C-117m. ★★ D: Atom Egoyan. tion to two hunting dogs, and how his experiences teach him about responsibility Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, Alison Lohman, and growing up. Set in 1930s Oklahoma. Rachel Blanchard, David Hayman, Maury Based on Wilson Rawls’ novel. Followed Chaykin, Kristin Adams, Sonja Bennett, years later by a sequel. Remade in 2003. Deborah Grover, Beau Starr, Don McKel[G]▼쩠 lar, Arsine´e Khanjian, David Hemblen. In Where There’s Life . . . (1947) 75m. ★★★ the 1970s a young female journalist is hired D: Sidney Lanfield. Bob Hope, Signe to help write the memoirs of a fading star Hasso, William Bendix, George Coulouris, who was half of a popular 1950s show busiVera Marshe, George Zucco, Dennis Hoey, ness team. Her task: to uncover the truth Harry Von Zell. Wacky comedy with fastabout a woman who was found dead in their talking Manhattan radio DJ Hope, just hotel room one fateful day. Would-be film about to be married, earmarked as new king noir (replete with graphic sex and nudity) is of Barovia, and tangling with the country’s torpedoed by a lack of chemistry between enemies, along with its top military authorthe stars and a bewilderingly bad perfority—who happens to be a woman. Bendix mance by Lohman. Egoyan adapted Rupert is fun as Hope’s forever-bellowing brotherHolmes’ novel, in which the characters in-law-to-be.▼쩠 more closely resemble Dean Martin and Where the River Runs Black (1986) Jerry Lewis. Also available in R-rated verC-100m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chris Cain. Charles sion on DVD. Panavision. 쩠 Durning, Alessandro Rabelo, Marcelo Where Time Began (1978-Spanish) CRabelo, Conchata Ferrell, Peter Horton, 86m. ★★ D: Piquer Simon. Kenneth More, Dana Delany. Orphaned boy raised in the Pep Munne, Jack Taylor. Mundane retellAmazon jungle is brought to civilization by ing of Jules Verne’s JOURNEY TO THE a well-meaning priest who knew his father. CENTER OF THE EARTH, with predictSlow-moving story starts well but loses its able parade of sea serpents, giant turtles, grip as it leaves behind mystical elements and dinosaurs. Aka THE FABULOUS and focuses more on child’s-eye view of JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. [G]▼쩠 good guys and bad guys. Filmed on location in Brazil. Super 35. [PG]▼● Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) C-94m. ★1⁄2 D: Hy Averback. Where the Rivers Flow North (1993) C106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jay Craven. Rip Torn, TanDoris Day, Robert Morse, Terry-Thomas, too Cardinal, Bill Raymond, Michael J. Steve Allen, Lola Albright, Jim Backus, Fox, Mark Margolis, Treat Williams, Amy Patrick O’Neal, Pat Paulsen, Ben Blue, Wright. Thoughtful tale of a man who holds Earl Wilson. Below average Doris Day out against authorities determined to buy his comedy centering around the massive Vermont property in order to erect a dam in N.Y.C. blackout on November 9, 1965. the late ’20s. It turns out that the holdout Panavision. [M/PG]▼ (Torn) has a hidden agenda, which is one Which Way Is Up? (1977) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 reason this story avoids becoming an idealD: Michael Schultz. Richard Pryor, Lonette ized good guys vs. bad guys cliche´. Fox McKee, Margaret Avery, Dolph Sweet, appears in a supporting role as a heavy. Morgan Woodward. Americanization of Craven also coscripted. ▼●쩠 Lina Wertmuller’s very funny THE SEWhere the Sidewalk Ends (1950) 95m. DUCTION OF MIMI doesn’t quite make ★★★ D: Otto Preminger. Dana Andrews, it. Pryor gets to play three roles—a cottonGene Tierney, Gary Merrill, Karl Malden, picking orange picker, a minister, and a Bert Freed, Tom Tully, Ruth Donnelly, Craig dirty old man—and gets the most laughs as Stevens, Neville Brand. While investigating a the latter. [R]▼쩠 homicide, brutal N.Y.C. cop (Andrews) inadWhich Way to the Front? (1970) C-96m. vertently kills a man, then tries to conceal BOMB D: Jerry Lewis. Jerry Lewis, John his own guilt while continuing his search for Wood, Jan Murray, Kaye Ballard, Robert murderer. Moody crime melodrama is a good Middleton, Paul Winchell, Sidney Miller, illustration of film noir. Fine characterizations, Gary Crosby. One of Jerry’s worst has him pungent script by Ben Hecht from William a 4-F millionaire playboy who enlists other Stuart’s novel Night Cry. Oleg Cassini (film’s 4-Fs to fight Hitler. His last completed costume designer and Tierney’s then-husfilm until HARDLY WORKING. Coscripted by Dick Miller. [G]▼ band) has a cameo.쩠 Where the Spies Are (1966-British) CWhiffs (1975) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Ted Post. 110m. ★★★ D: Val Guest. David Niven, Elliott Gould, Eddie Albert, Harry Guardino, [ 1536 ]

Godfrey Cambridge, Jennifer O’Neill, Alan tempts to invoke the spirit of both Neil LaManson. Gould is guinea pig for Army Bute and the Farrelly Brothers but fails. All Chemical Corps who has outlived his usethat saves this from a BOMB is the appealing Peet. [R]▼쩠 fulness . . . but the military isn’t rid of him so easily. Another sorry attempt to Whirlpool (1949) 97m. ★★★ D: Otto recapture the lunacy of MASH. PanaPreminger. Gene Tierney, Richard Conte, Jose Ferrer, Charles Bickford, Barbara vision. [PG]▼ While She Was Out (2008-U.S.-Canadian) O’Neil, Eduard Franz, Fortunio Bonanova, C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Susan Montford. Kim BaConstance Collier. Tense melodrama of nesinger, Craig Sheffer, Lukas Haas, Leonard farious hypnotist Ferrer using innocent TierWu. Emotionally battered suburban soccer ney to carry out his evil schemes. Script by mom (Basinger) finds more at the mall than Ben Hecht and Andrew Solt, from a Guy she went shopping for—namely, bad guys Endore novel.쩠 led by slimeball Haas. Nicely done noirish Whisky Galore! SEE: Tight Little Island thriller; less-is-more approach creates enough Whisperers, The (1966-British) 106m. ★★ tension at the start and finish to make up D: Bryan Forbes. Edith Evans, Eric for the see-it-coming middle. Basinger, who Portman, Nanette Newman, Avis Bunnage, executive produced with Guillermo del Toro, Gerald Sim, Ronald Fraser. Dame Edith is is solid to the end. Based on Edward Bryant’s the whole show in this mediocre meloshort story. [R]쩠 drama about dotty old lady who is sure she While the City Sleeps (1956) 100m. ★★★ is being spied upon; things get worse when D: Fritz Lang. Dana Andrews, Ida Lupino, her scummy son and husband drop by. Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Vincent Too restrained to be really absorbing, but Price, Thomas Mitchell, Sally Forrest, Howworth catching just for her performance; ard Duff, James Craig, John Barrymore, Jr., moody score by John Barry.▼ Mae Marsh. Veteran cast and intertwining Whispers (1990-Canadian) C-96m. ★★ D: storylines keep interest in account of newspaDouglas Jackson. Victoria Tennant, Chris per reporters and police on the track of a berSarandon, Jean LeClerc, Peter MacNeill, Linda Sorensen, Eric Christmas. Tennant serk killer. SuperScope.▼● While You Were Sleeping (1995) Cis forced to kill LeClerc when he attacks 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jon Turteltaub. Sandra Bulher—but he later turns up alive, puzzling lock, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher, Peter police detective Sarandon. Routine, preBoyle, Jack Warden, Glynis Johns, Micole dictable thriller, though LeClerc is amusMercurio, Jason Bernard, Michael Rispoli, ingly looney. From the best-seller by Dean Ally Walker, Monica Keena. Lonely ChiR. Koontz.▼● cago transit worker saves her dream man Whispers in the Dark (1992) C-102m. ★★1 from muggers, and when he falls into a ⁄2 D: Christopher Crowe. Annabella coma she passes herself off as his fiance´e; Sciorra, Jamey Sheridan, Alan Alda, Jill things get stickier as she’s welcomed into Clayburgh, Anthony LaPaglia, John Leguihis family, and grows close to his brother. zamo, Deborah Unger, Anthony Heald, Bullock’s first starring vehicle showcases Jacqueline Brookes. Psychiatrist Sciorra is her irresistible girl-next-door appeal, but troubled by her reaction to a female pathis pleasant, well-cast comedy suffers from tient, but her failure to respond effectively anemia. It’s a cute story, but it should have leads to problems for both of them—and been snappier (and shorter). [PG]▼●쩠 everyone around them. Intriguing, wellWhip and the Body, The (1963-Italian) cast thriller goes on too long, with more C-91m. ★★★ D: Mario Bava. Daliah Lavi, twists and turns than necessary, not all of Christopher Lee, Tony Kendall, Isli Oberon, them plausible. Standout performances by Harriet Medin, Luciano Pigozzi, Dean LaPaglia, as a determined cop, and Alda, Ardow. Soon after domineering Lee returns as Sciorra’s psychiatry mentor. [R]▼●쩠 to his castle home and resumes his sadoWhistle at Eaton Falls, The (1951) 96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Siodmak. Lloyd Bridges, masochistic relationship with sister-in-law Lavi, he’s murdered. But then he returns as a Dorothy Gish, Carleton Carpenter, Murghost—with a whip. Perhaps horror maestro ray Hamilton, Anne Francis, Ernest BorgBava’s best film, moody, beautiful and decepnine, Doro Merande, Arthur O’Connell. tively simple. Lee is excellent, despite being Set in New Hampshire, this documentarydubbed. Aka SON OF SATAN, THE WAY style film deals with labor relation probAND THE BODY, and NIGHT IS THE lems in a small town when new plant PHANTOM. Beware of shorter version called manager has to lay off workers. Gish is WHAT. 쩠 factory owner in interesting supporting role. Whipped (2000) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter M. Whistle Blower, The (1986-British) CCohen. Amanda Peet, Brian Van Holt, Judah 100m. ★★★ D: Simon Langton. Michael Domke, Zorie Barber, Jonathan Abrahams, Caine, James Fox, Nigel Havers, Felicity Callie Thorne. Leering, obnoxious battle-ofDean, John Gielgud, Gordon Jackson, Barry the-sexes comedy about a trio of chauvinist Foster. Deftly handled thriller about a pigs who all fall for the same foxy lady. Atmiddle-aged former intelligence officer (an [ 1537 ]

effectively subtle Caine), whose linguist cal Bronson role, good support from Warden and Novak. [PG]▼ son has a high-security government position . . . and is a bit too bright and idealisWhite Cargo (1942) 90m. ★★ D: Richard tic for his own good. A literate, multileveled Thorpe. Hedy Lamarr, Walter Pidgeon, story, adapted by Julian Bond from John Frank Morgan, Richard Carlson, Reginald Hale’s novel. [PG]▼●쩠 Owen. Lamarr, in one of her best-known Whistle Down the Wind (1961-British) roles, is the seductive Tondelayo who en99m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bryan Forbes. Hayley Mills, trances all at British plantation post in Alan Bates, Bernard Lee, Norman Bird, Africa, with Pidgeon the expeditionist who Elsie Wagstaffe. Fugitive murderer seekreally falls for her. Exotic love scenes, ing refuge in a North Country barn is discovcorny plot. Previously filmed in 1929.▼ ered by three children who think him to be White Chicks (2004) C-108m. ★★ D: Keenen Christ. Mills and Bates are excellent in this Ivory Wayans. Shawn Wayans, Marlon Waypoignant, believable, and well-produced story ans, Jaime King, Frankie Faison, Lochlyn of childhood innocence. Adapted from novel Munro, John Heard, Busy Philipps, Terry by Mary Hayley Bell (Hayley’s mother). Crews, Brittany Daniel, Eddie Velez, Jessica Forbes’ directorial debut.▼ Cauffiel, Maitland Ward, Anne Dudek, JenniThe Whistler series SEE: Leonard Malfer Carpenter. Two male, maverick FBI tin’s Classic Movie Guide agents go deep undercover, disguised as airWhite (1993-French) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: headed twin sisters, to flush out a criminal. Krzysztof Kieslowski. Zbigniew ZamachowThey’re black but the girls are white, and ski, Julie Delpy, Janusz Gajos, Jerzy Stuhr. that’s the central joke. Logic aside (and it Second of Polish director Kieslowski’s certainly is), this heavy-handed comedy is a ‘‘Three Colors’’ trilogy based on the ‘‘liberty, fragile excuse for the Wayans brothers to do equality, fraternity’’ symbolism of the blue, a series of broad, silly riffs, poking fun at white, and red French flag. This story constereotypical white people. Unrated version cerns a hapless Pole whose beautiful French runs 115m. [PG-13] ▼쩠 wife (Delpy) is divorcing him for no longer White Christmas (1954) C-120m. ★★ D: being able to perform in bed. Full of irony and Michael Curtiz. Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, subtle wit; the best of the trilogy. Kieslowski Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen, Dean Jagwrote the screenplay with frequent collaborager, Mary Wickes, Sig Ruman, Grady tor Krzysztof Piesiewicz. Title onscreen is Sutton. Nice Irving Berlin score is unforTHREE COLORS: WHITE.▼●쩠 tunately interrupted by limp plot of army White Balloon, The (1995-Iranian) C-85m. buddies Crosby and Kaye boosting popu★★★ D: Jafar Panahi. Aı¨da Mohammadkhani, larity of winter resort run by their exMohsen Kafili, Fereshteh Sadr Orfai, Anna officer Jagger. ‘‘What Can You Do With a Borkowska. It’s the Iranian New Year, and General’’ stands out as Berlin’s least mema young girl convinces her mother to give orable tune. Partial reworking of HOLIDAY her money to buy a goldfish; her trip to INN, not half as good. First film released in VistaVision.▼●쩠 make the purchase becomes a mini-odyssey in which she experiences wide-ranging emoWhite Cliffs of Dover, The (1944) 126m. ★★★ D: Clarence Brown. Irene Dunne, tions while mixing with characters who run the gamut from greedy to kind. This sweet Alan Marshal, Van Johnson, Frank Morlittle film offers an engaging picture of everygan, C. Aubrey Smith, Dame May Whitty, day humanity. ▼● Roddy McDowall, Gladys Cooper, Peter Whiteboyz (1999) C-97m. ★★ D: Marc Lawford. American Dunne marries Britisher Levin. Danny Hoch, Dash Mihok, Mark Marshal in patriotic WW1 romancer that Webber, Piper Perabo, Eugene Byrd, Bonz boasts wonderful cast (including young Malone, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Fat Joe, Elizabeth Taylor). Slick but shallow.▼ Dread Prez, Mic Geronimo, Doug E. Fresh. White Comanche (1968-Spanish) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Gilbert Kay (Jose Briz). Joseph Cotten, Hoch is terrific as a young man named Flip who’s convinced he’s black on the inside, William Shatner, Perla Cristal, Rossana and does his best to talk like an inner-city Yanni. Boring time-killer detailing the conflict rapper. This is especially tough for people between twin boys whose mother is Indian to understand in the middle of Iowa, where and whose father is white.▼쩠 he lives. Fresh and funny for a while, but White Countess, The (2005-U.S.-Britishsoon the idea is exhausted; its dramatic cliChinese-German) C-138m. ★★★ D: James max is all too predictable. [R]▼쩠 Ivory. Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, ★★ White Buffalo, The (1977) C-97m. D: Vanessa Redgrave, Lynn Redgrave, MadeJ. Lee Thompson. Charles Bronson, Jack leine Potter, Hiroyuki Sanada, John Wood, Warden, Will Sampson, Kim Novak, Clint Madeleine Daly, Allan Corduner. Shanghai, Walker, Stuart Whitman, Slim Pickens, 1936: former diplomat Fiennes, accustomed Cara Williams, John Carradine, Martin to his recent blindness, hopes to open a small, Kove. Wild Bill Hickok is haunted by the perfect bar. Impressed by exiled Russian image of a buffalo that symbolizes his fear Countess Sofia (Richardson), who has turned of death; strange, murky film, with atypito prostitution to help her impoverished—and [ 1538 ]

largely ungrateful—family, he wants her for Cochran. Cagney returned to gangster films, his hostess. Trying to live a reduced but eleolder but forceful as ever, as psychopathic gant life, he is oblivious to increasing war hood with mother obsession; Mayo is his netensions. Good but not great Merchant-Ivory glected wife, O’Brien the cop out to get him. production, unfortunately their last: producer ‘‘Top of the World’’ finale is now movie Ismail Merchant died before the film was relegend. Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Robleased. Richardson works here with her erts, from a Virginia Kellogg story. Also shown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 mother Vanessa and aunt Lynn. [PG-13]쩠 White Dawn, The (1974) C-109m. ★★1⁄2 White Hunter Black Heart (1990) C112m. ★★★ D: Clint Eastwood. Clint D: Philip Kaufman. Warren Oates, Timothy Bottoms, Lou Gossett, Simonie Kopapik. Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, George Dzundza, Rambling adventure about three whalers in Alun Armstrong, Marisa Berenson, Timo1896 who become lost in the Arctic and thy Spall, Mel Martin. Mature, intelligent their subsequent exploitation of the Eski(if somewhat one-note) adaptation of Peter mos who save them. Brilliant photography Viertel’s 1953 novel based on his experiby Michael Chapman. [PG] ▼●쩠 ences during the filming of THE AFRICAN White Dog (1982) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: SamQUEEN, and his closeup observations of its uel Fuller. Kristy McNichol, Paul Winmacho director, John Huston. Eastwood gives field, Burl Ives, Jameson Parker, Lynn an excellent performance as the contrary, selfMoody, Marshall Thompson, Paul Bartel, destructive (and fictionalized) filmmaker, who Dick Miller, Parley Baer. Young actress becomes obsessed with bagging an elephant takes in a white dog, unaware that it’s while on location in Africa. May not be combeen trained to attack black people on pelling if you’re not already interested in the sight; professional animal trainer Winfield subject, but convincingly recreates the time takes on challenge to retrain him. Interestand place. Scripted by Viertel, James Bridges, and Burt Kennedy. [PG]▼●쩠 ing but downbeat drama, undeserving of the controversy and preposterous charges White Lightning (1973) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 of racism that kept it from being released. D: Joseph Sargent. Burt Reynolds, JenniScript by director Fuller (who has a cameo fer Billingsley, Ned Beatty, Bo Hopkins, as Kristy’s agent) and Curtis Hanson, loosely Matt Clark, Louise Latham, Diane Ladd. based on the Romain Gary novel. [PG]쩠 Formula melodrama with moonshiner Burt White Fang (1972-Italian-Spanish-French) going after crooked sheriff who drowned C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lucio Fulci. Franco Nero, his brother; pleasant cast helps this OK Vima Lisi, Fernando Rey, Rik Battaglia, action pic. Young Laura Dern (Ladd’s Harry Carey, Jr. Scenic but needlessly daughter) is visible throughout; it’s her film debut. Sequel: GATOR. [PG]▼●쩠 violent tale of a boy and his dog in the wilds of Alaska, based on the Jack London White Line Fever (1975) C-92m. ★★★ D: adventure. [PG]▼ Jonathan Kaplan. Jan-Michael Vincent, Kay White Fang (1991) C-107m. ★★★ D: RanLenz, Slim Pickens, L. Q. Jones, Leigh dal Kleiser. Klaus Maria Brandauer, Ethan French, Don Porter, Martin Kove. A Hawke, Seymour Cassel, Susan Hogan, B picture that hits bull’s-eye. Vincent is a James Remar. Winning Disney version of young trucker who battles corruption on the Jack London perennial, with Hawke a the road and off, with a diesel truck as his ‘‘good buddy.’’ [PG]▼● young prospector in Alaska who hooks up with Brandauer and Cassel and befriends White Lions, The (1981) C-96m. ★★ D: the title wolf-dog. Fine fare for kids. PreMel Stuart. Michael York, Glynnis O’Conviously filmed in 1936 and 1972. Followed nor, Donald Moffat, J. A. Preston, Roger by a sequel. [PG]▼●쩠 E. Mosley. Slight tale of life in an African White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf wildlife preserve with naturalist York and (1994) C-106m. ★★ D: Ken Olin. Scott Bairhis family. Mainly for the kids. [PG] stow, Charmaine Craig, Alfred Molina, White Man’s Burden (1995) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 Geoffrey Lewis, Al Harrington, Anthony D: Desmond Nakano. John Travolta, Harry Michael Ruivivar, Victoria Racimo, Paul Belafonte, Kelly Lynch, Margaret Avery, Coeur. Tepid Disney follow-up to 1991 Tom Bower, Carrie Snodgress, Andrew film, with young prospector Bairstow workLawrence, Sheryl Lee Ralph. Flawed but ing the Alaskan gold mine of his predecesfascinating, politically loaded allegory, set sor (played in the original by Ethan Hawke) in a fictitious America in which blacks are and teaming up with wolf/dog White Fang. the wealthy, white-collar majority and Boy and pet then meet Haida Indian prinwhites comprise the unruly, ill-kempt lower cess and become involved with her tribal class. Travolta plays a factory worker who village. Lumpy blend of mysticism, vilis fired due to a misunderstanding and lainy, romance, and adventure, aimed at chooses to take desperate action against his kids. Hawke appears unbilled. [PG]▼●쩠 former boss (Belafonte). Designed to push 1 ★★★ White Heat (1949) 114m. the buttons of viewers of both races, but ⁄2 D: Raoul Walsh. James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, EdNakano (who also scripted) tends to genermond O’Brien, Margaret Wycherly, Steve alize a bit too often. [R]▼●쩠 [ 1539 ]

White Men Can’t Jump (1992) C-114m. goods. Followed by a direct-to-DVD se★★★ quel. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 D: Ron Shelton. Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, Rosie Perez, Tyra Ferrell, Cylk CoWhite of the Eye (1987-British) C-110m. ★★★ zart, Kadeem Hardison, Ernest Harden, Jr. D: Donald Cammell. David Keith, Smart, funny, highly profane comedy about Cathy Moriarty, Art Evans, Alan Rosenurban basketball hustlers Snipes and Harrelson. berg, Alberta Watson, Michael Greene, Writer-director Shelton really knows the terriMark Hayashi. Bizarre thriller set in a tory, and both stars look good on the court, small Arizona town about psycho Keith, though the film does become slightly redunwho’s (understandably) having marital dant after a point. Perez is fun as Woody’s girlsquabbles with wife Moriarty. Dazzling friend whose goal is to appear on Jeopardy! technique recalling the experimental films Some versions run 117m. [R] ▼●쩠 of the 1960s marks this disturbing picture, White Mischief (1988-British) C-106m. a smashing return to films for director ★★★ Cammell (PERFORMANCE, DEMON D: Michael Radford. Sarah Miles, Joss Ackland, John Hurt, Greta Scacchi, SEED) and Moriarty. [R]▼ Charles Dance, Susan Fleetwood, Jacqueline White Oleander (2002) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Pearce, Murray Head, Geraldine Chaplin, Peter Kosminsky. Alison Lohman, Robin Trevor Howard, Hugh Grant. Elegantly kinky Wright Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Rene´e Zelltale based on James Fox’s book about the weger, Billy Connolly, Svetlana Efremova, British colony living in Kenya’s Happy ValPatrick Fugit, Cole Hauser, Noah Wyle, ley during early days of WW2, and true story Taryn Manning. Moving adaptation of Janet of a husband’s response to the local stud stealFitch’s best-selling novel about a teenage girl ing his beautiful wife. Sensual and quietly who tries to wrest herself from the influence bizarre, with meticulous production detail and of her imprisoned mother, a free-spirited artist a fine cast, headed by Scacchi at her most with a cruel streak, as she moves from one stunning. [R]▼● foster home to another. Lohman is the focal White Nights (1957-Italian) 94m. ★★★ D: point in this well-cast film, which miracuLuchino Visconti. Maria Schell, Jean Marlously manages to avoid sentimentality while ais, Marcello Mastroianni, Clara Calamai. spinning its unpredictable story. Impressive Shy Mastroianni comes upon mysterious Hollywood feature debut for British TV and Schell, who’s been dumped by sailor boydocumentary director Kosminsky. Screenplay friend Marais (or so it seems). A captivatby Mary Agnes Donoghue. Incidentally, Zelling, elaborately plotted love story, and a weger shows Lohman footage of herself in key film in Visconti’s transition away from TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE neorealism. Based on a Dostoyevsky story. NEXT GENERATION. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Original running time 107m. Aka LE White Palace (1990) C-103m. ★★★ D: Luis NOTTI BIANCHE. ▼쩠 Mandoki. Susan Sarandon, James Spader, White Nights (1985) C-135m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jason Alexander, Kathy Bates, Eileen BrenTaylor Hackford. Mikhail Baryshnikov, nan, Spiros Focas, Gina Gershon, Steven Hill, Gregory Hines, Isabella Rossellini, Jerzy Rachel Levin (Chagall), Corey Parker, Renee Skolimowski, Helen Mirren, Geraldine Taylor. Superficial but entertaining story of a Page, John Glover. Prominent ballet star vulnerable yuppie who’s swept away by a sexy who defected from Russia to U.S. finds older woman . . . and then has to deal with the himself back in the U.S.S.R. after a forced reality of their enormous social and ethnic difplane landing . . . while American expaferences. Sarandon is ideal in a vivid and betriate tap dancer is used as bait to wear lievable performance. Reportedly, the down his resistance about fleeing the counimprobable conclusion was tacked on at the try again. Baryshnikov’s powerful preslast minute. Scripted by Ted Tally and Alvin ence (as actor and dancer) almost makes Sargent, from Glenn Savan’s novel. [R]▼●쩠 up for contrived story. Nicest surprise is White Rose, The (1983-German) C-108m. ★★★ D: Michael Verhoeven. Lena Stolze, surefooted performance by director Skolimowski as KGB agent. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Martin Benrath, Wulf Kessler, Werner White Noise (2005-Canadian-British) CStocker. Pointed, fascinating account of a 98m. ★1⁄2 D: Geoffrey Sax. Michael Keaton, group of Munich students who, in 1942, Deborah Kara Unger, Chandra West, Ian launched an anti-Nazi uprising. Based on McNeice, Sarah Strange, Nicholas Elia, Mike fact; Stolze also played her character in Dopud. Despairing over the sudden death of Percy Adlon’s THE FIVE LAST DAYS and his wife, Keaton is taken in by McNeice, later starred in Verhoeven’s not-dissimilar who’s developed the ability to see and hear THE NASTY GIRL.▼ messages from the dead amidst the static on White Sands (1992) C-101m. ★★ D: Roger his audio and video recorders. Before long, Donaldson. Willem Dafoe, Mary ElizaKeaton is obsessed with E.V.P. (Electronic beth Mastrantonio, Mickey Rourke, Sam Voice Phenomenon), to the detriment of his (Samuel L.) Jackson, M. Emmet Walsh, mental and physical well-being. DecentJames Rebhorn, Maura Tierney. Smalltown enough hook for a thriller leads us up a lawman finds a corpse, then starts snooping series of blind alleys and never delivers the around into what turns out to be some dirty [ 1540 ]

undercover-narc business involving the FBI. White Wilderness (1958) C-73m. ★★★ D: Competently performed (even by Rourke), James Algar. Narrated by Winston Hibler. but with little else to distinguish it from dozTypically good Disney True-Life feature ens of its ilk; Mastrantonio fares best as a takes a look at the Arctic region; highlight complex society type up to her neck in drugis extended sequence on lemmings and their dealing. Mimi Rogers, Fred Dalton Thompritualistic march off a cliff. Oscar winner as son, and John P. Ryan appear unbilled. PanaBest Documentary.▼쩠 vision. [R] ▼●쩠 White Witch Doctor (1953) C-96m. ★★1⁄2 White Sheik, The (1951-Italian) 86m. D: Henry Hathaway. Susan Hayward, Rob★★1 ⁄2 D: Federico Fellini. Alberto Sordi, ert Mitchum, Walter Slezak, Timothy Brunella Bova, Leopoldo Trieste, Giulietta Carey. Bakuba territory is scene of diverse Masina. Fellini’s first solo film as director interests of nurse Hayward who wants to is a minor chronicle of the adventures of a bring modern medicine to natives and adprovincial couple honeymooning in Rome venturers Mitchum and Slezak bent on and the wife’s involvement with a cartoon finding hidden treasure. hero, The White Sheik (Sordi). Remade, White Zombie (1932) 73m. ★★★ D: Victor more or less, as THE WORLD’S GREATHalperin. Bela Lugosi, Madge Bellamy, EST LOVER.▼쩠 Joseph Cawthorn, Robert Frazer, John White Sister, The (1933) 110m. ★★1⁄2 D: Harron, Brandon Hurst, Clarence Muse. Victor Fleming. Helen Hayes, Clark GaZombie master Lugosi menaces newlyweds ble, Lewis Stone, Louise Closser Hale, on Haitian sugar plantation; eerie, unique May Robson, Edward Arnold. Dated but low-budget chiller. Also shown in a cominteresting remake of 1923 silent with Lilputer-colored version. ▼●쩠 lian Gish and Ronald Colman. Hayes is Whity (1971-German) C-95m. ★★★ D: woman who enters convent when she thinks Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Ron Randell, her lover has been killed in the war. Fine Gunter Kaufmann, Hanna Schygulla, Katrin performances offset predictable story.▼ Schaake, Harry Baer, Ulli Lommel, Tomas White Sister (1973-Italian) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 Blanco, Stefano Capriati, Elaine Baker, D: Alberto Lattuada. Sophia Loren, Adriano Mark Salvage, Helga Ballhaus. For FassCelentano, Fernando Rey. Strange love binder completists comes this avant-garde story of hospital Mother Superior and selfhorse opera filmed in Spain on the sets of professed young Communist who helps Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns. Brun the wards. [R] movie stalwart Randell plays a sadistic White Squall (1996) C-127m. ★★★ D: Ridrancher whose depraved family (painted in ley Scott. Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, whiteface) includes a nympho wife, two John Savage, Scott Wolf, Jeremy Sisto, sons—one a transvestite, the other mentally Ryan Phillippe, David Lascher, Eric Miretarded—and a mulatto butler who’s really chael Cole, Jason Marsden, David Selby, his illegitimate son. One of a kind, brilliantly Julio Mechoso, Balthazar Getty, Zeljko Ivashot in widescreen by Michael Ballhaus, and nek, Ethan (Randall) Embry, James Rebhorn. featuring Fassbinder himself as a whipIn 1960, teenage boys—many of them miswielding barroom gambler. CinemaScope. 쩠 fits—sign on as shipmates and students with a Who? (1973-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jack ‘‘floating school’’ skippered by hard-nosed Gold. Elliott Gould, Trevor Howard, JoBridges, who wants them to learn to rely seph Bova, Ed Grover, James Noble, John both on themselves and each other. Put Lehne. Gould plays FBI agent investigatdown by some as a paraphrase of DEAD ing American scientist’s car crash in RusPOETS SOCIETY, this is an involving, sia, and subsequent reappearance with a well-acted coming-of-age drama on its own strangely restructured face. Intriguing if terms. Climactic storm sequence is genunot completely satisfying spy/sci-fi mix. inely gripping, but the finale seems someBased on the novel by Algis Budrys. Video how tacked on. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 title: ROBO MAN. [PG]▼쩠 White Warrior, The (1961-Italian) C-86m. ★1 Who Am I? SEE: Jackie Chan’s Who ⁄2 D: Riccardo Freda. Steve Reeves, Am I? Giorgia Moll, Renato Baldini, Gerard Who Dares Wins SEE: Final Option, The Herter. Tiring spectacle about tribal chieftain Who Done It? (1942) 75m. ★★★ D: Erle leading rebellion against advancing troops of C. Kenton. Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Czar, set in 19th century. Dyaliscope. ▼쩠 Patric Knowles, Louise Allbritton, WilWhite Water Summer (1987) C-90m. ★1 liam Gargan, William Bendix, Mary Wickes, ⁄2 D: Jeff Bleckner. Kevin Bacon, Sean Don Porter, Thomas Gomez, Jerome Cowan, Astin, Jonathan Ward, K.C. Martel, Matt Ludwig Stossel. One of A&C’s best finds the Adler, Caroline McWilliams, Charles boys as would-be radio writers who pretend Siebert. Feeble account of Bacon teaching to be detectives when the network’s president city lad Astin and his pals the ways of the is murdered, and everyone believes them— wilderness. Filmed in 1985 and barely including the killer! Great supporting cast is released theatrically. Aka RITES OF SUMtopped by Wickes as wise-cracking secreMER. Super 35. [PG]▼●쩠 [ 1541 ]

tary and Bendix as real cop who’s even Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Harris, Jack Wardumber than Lou.▼●쩠 den, David Burns, Gabriel Dell, Dom Who Done It? (1956-British) 85m. ★★1⁄2 DeLuise, Betty Walker. Muddled comedyD: Basil Dearden. Benny Hill, Belinda drama by Herb Gardner casts Dustin as Lee, David Kossoff, Garry Marsh, George successful rock composer-singer who finds Margo, Ernest Thesiger. Hill’s only star money doesn’t answer all of life’s quesvehicle movie is a Red Skelton–type comtions. Harris comes along late in film to edy about a novice private eye involved save this debacle with an outstanding perwith foreign spies. No double-entendre formance. [PG]▼ jokes, but lots of slapstick, much of it Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of labored and obvious. Best for kids.▼쩠 Europe? (1978) C-112m. ★★★ D: Ted Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? SEE: Who Kotcheff. George Segal, Jacqueline Bisset, Slew Auntie Roo? Robert Morley, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Philippe Who Fears the Devil SEE: Legend of Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Madge Ryan, Joss Hillbilly John, The Ackland, Nigel Havers. Slick comedy whoWho Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) Cdunit with self-explanatory title has lus103m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Zemeckis. Bob Hoscious views of European scenery and food, kins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, plus a magnificently funny role for Morley Stubby Kaye, Alan Tilvern, and the voices as the world’s premier gourmet. Script by of Charles Fleischer, Lou Hirsch, Mel Peter Stone, based on Nan and Ivan Lyons’ Blanc, Mae Questel, Tony Anselmo, June novel. [PG]▼ Foray, Wayne Allwine. Staggering specialWho Is Killing the Stuntmen? SEE: Stunts effects comedy places down-and-out 1940s Who Killed Mary What’s’ername? (1971) detective Hoskins on the trail of a murderer, C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ernie Pintoff. Red Butwith cartoon star Roger Rabbit (the chief tons, Alice Playten, Sylvia Miles, Sam suspect) at his side. Flaws in story and charWaterston, Dick Williams, Conrad Bain. acterization pale alongside the incredible Diabetic ex-boxer sets out to find a prostblend of live-action and animation, but the itute’s murderer when he becomes angered ultimate feat is making us believe that at everyone’s indifference. Whodunit isn’t Roger and his cartoon colleagues actually bad, but nothing special; acting is generexist. Extra fun: spotting the many cartoon ally good. [PG]▼ stars who make cameo appearances. Jessica Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965) 91m. Rabbit’s speaking voice was done by Kath★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Cates. Juliet Prowse, Sal leen Turner (unbilled) and her singing voice Mineo, Jan Murray, Elaine Stritch, Dan by Amy Irving. A coproduction of the SteTravanty (Daniel J. Travanti). Sleazy, leerven Spielberg and Walt Disney companies. ing low-budget suspenser about psychoAnimation director Richard Williams repathic busboy Mineo preying on discotheque ceived a special Academy Award; three hostess Prowse. A waste of talent. other Oscars included one for Special ViWho Killed the Electric Car? (2006) Csual Effects. [PG]▼●쩠 ★★★ 92m. D: Chris Paine. Narrated by Martin Who Has Seen the Wind (1977-Canadian) Sheen. Fine documentary about the mysteri1 ★★ ⁄2 D: Allan King. Brian PainC-100m. ous death of the once-highly-touted electric chaud, Douglas Junor, Gordon Pinsent, car, a product that threatened to revolutionize Chapelle Jaffe, Jose Ferrer, Helen Shaver. an industry and warm the hearts of environOK chronicle of young Painchaud and Junor’s mentalists. Instead, as this well-researched life in Saskatchewan during the Depresfilm suggests, there may have been sinister sion. Ferrer is amusing as a bootlegger.▼ corporate forces at work behind its virtual disWho is Cletis Tout? (2002-Canadian) Cappearance. In addition to exploring the un★★ 92m. D: Chris Ver Wiel. Christian plugging of a dream, Paine’s potent narrative Slater, Tim Allen, Richard Dreyfuss, Portia also puts a spotlight on the world’s energy de Rossi, Billy Connolly, Peter MacNeill, crisis and the urgent need for renewable Elias Zarou, RuPaul. A movie-buff hit man sources of fuel. Fascinating and important. (Allen) encourages his captive (Slater) to [PG]쩠 tell his story as if he’s pitching a script to a Whole Nine Yards, The (2000) C-99m. Hollywood producer: it’s the saga of a bank ★★1 ⁄2 D: Jonathan Lynn. Bruce Willis, Matheist, jailbreak, mob hit, and romance . . . thew Perry, Rosanna Arquette, Michael but it plays like a deflated balloon. WriterClarke Duncan, Amanda Peet, Natasha director Ver Wiel has seen a lot of movies, Henstridge, Kevin Pollak. Perry is broadly but can only come up with a pale imitation of funny as a miserably married dentist who a crime caper; his worst mistake is opening learns that his new neighbor is a notorious with a great movie scene, the finale of hit man. He figures to get something he BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S. Completed wants by ratting out the gunman to his forin 2000. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 mer Chicago gang . . . but quickly gets in Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is over his head. Farcical black comedy has He Saying Those Terrible Things About enough twists, turns, and laughs to overMe? (1971) C-108m. ★★ D: Ulu Grosbard. [ 1542 ]

come its basic silliness. Followed by a seley, Andy Bumatai, Eddie Deezen, Marquel. [R]▼●쩠 sha Warfield, Joe Spinell, Dan O’ Herlihy. Whole Ten Yards, The (2004) C-99m. Awful comedy about a couple of wiseguys BOMB D: Howard Deutch. Bruce Willis, who try to break into Palm Beach society. Matthew Perry, Amanda Peet, Kevin PolCrude, to say the least. [R]▼쩠 lak, Natasha Henstridge. The sequel for Whore (1991) C-85m. ★★ D: Ken Russell. which no one was clamoring reunites the Theresa Russell, Benjamin Mouton, Antocast of THE WHOLE NINE YARDS, a nio Fargas, Sanjay, Elizabeth Morehead, pleasant-enough film, and puts them in a Michael Crabtree, John Diehl, Jack Nance, frantically unfunny story about Willis (who’s Tom Villard, Ginger Lynn Allen. Reinsupposedly deceased) being forced back into venting the Wheel: The gist of this melodrama the crime game to help dentist Perry rescue is that streetwalking is a dead-end profession his kidnapped wife. Or something like that. with lots of sordid characters. Russell’s perPerry falls down and bumps into everything formance is so broad—but sometimes so imaginable, a valiant effort to find laughs in funny—that it’s difficult to gauge how good a script that has none to offer. That’s Willis’ or bad it is. Available on video in a 92m. daughter Tallulah as the foulmouthed Butuncut European release, in the 85m. NC-17 tercup Scout. [PG-13] ▼쩠 version released in U.S. theaters, in an 85m. Whole Town’s Talking, The (1935) 95m. ‘‘R’’ version—and in the same 85m. version ★★★ that’s been packaged for title-shy sellers as D: John Ford. Edward G. Robinson, Jean Arthur, Wallace Ford, Arthur Hohl, IF YOU CAN’T SAY IT, JUST SEE IT. Hardly worth the trouble. ▼● Edward Brophy, Arthur Byron, Donald Meek. Entertaining comedy with meek clerk Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) 129m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Mike Nichols. Elizabeth Robinson a lookalike for notorious gangster; fine performances by E. G. and ArTaylor, Richard Burton, George Segal, thur. Script by Jo Swerling and Robert Sandy Dennis. Two couples get together Riskin, from a W. R. Burnett novel.▼ for an all-night session of bitter converWhole Wide World, The (1996) C-105m. sation; Burton and Taylor’s finest hour ★★★ D: Dan Ireland. Vincent D’Onofrio, (together) in searing Edward Albee drama. Rene´e Zellweger, Ann Wedgeworth, Harve Taylor and Dennis won Oscars, as did Presnell, Benjamin Mouton, Michael Corbett. Haskell Wexler’s incisive b&w photography, Poignant, based-on-fact drama, set in Texas Richard Sylbert’s art direction, and Irene during the 1930s and charting the complex reSharaff’s costumes. Film broke Hollywood lationship between two independent-minded taboos for adult material, would cause lesser souls: pulp novelist Robert E. Howard, the furor today. Script by producer Ernest Lehman. Nichols’ first film as director.▼●쩠 obsessive, overbearing creator of Conan the Barbarian, and schoolteacher/aspiring writer Who Says I Can’t Ride a Rainbow? (1971) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: Edward Mann. Jack Novalyne Price, upon whose memoir this is based. Their dreams and realities are vividly Klugman, Norma French, Reuben Figueroa, etched in this extremely well acted film. David Mann, Morgan Freeman, Esther Rolle. Offbeat story of man who feels it is Clairmont-Scope. [PG]▼●쩠 Who’ll Stop the Rain (1978) C-126m. the children of the world who will deter★★★ D: Karel Reisz. Nick Nolte, Tuesday mine its future. Freeman’s film debut. [G] Weld, Michael Moriarty, Anthony Zerbe, Who’s Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963) Richard Masur, Ray Sharkey, David OpaC-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Daniel Mann. Dean Martoshu, Gail Strickland, Charles Haid. Robert tin, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carol BurStone’s National Book Award–winning Dog nett, Martin Balsam, Jill St. John, Richard Soldiers suffers from excessively genteel Conte, Louis Nye. Undemanding fluff about treatment in telling its truly mean story about TV star Martin being urged altar-ward by the smuggling of heroin from Vietnam to Calfiance´e Montgomery. Burnett, in her film ifornia. Strong performances in virtually every debut, is his psychiatrist’s nurse. Panavision. role. Aka DOG SOLDIERS. [R]▼●쩠 Whose Life Is It Anyway? (1981) CWholly Moses (1980) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: 118m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John Badham. Richard Gary Weis. Dudley Moore, Laraine NewDreyfuss, John Cassavetes, Christine Lahti, man, James Coco, Paul Sand, Jack Gilford, Bob Balaban, Kenneth McMillan, Kaki Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Hunter, Janet Eilber, Thomas Carter. SearKahn, David L. Lander, Richard Pryor, ing black comedy in which sculptor DreyJohn Ritter. Great cast flounders in this fuss is paralyzed from the neck down in an stale saga of ‘‘savior’’ Moore, who thinks auto accident, argues for his right to die. God has ordained him to lead the Jews out Remarkable performance by Dreyfuss, exof Egypt. Some amusing bits, notably by cellent ones by hospital chief of staff DeLuise; otherwise, an appalling waste. Cassavetes, doctor Lahti, judge McMillan, nurse trainee Hunter. From Brian Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Whoopee Boys, The (1986) C-88m. BOMB Clark’s hit play, with a script by the author D: John Byrum. Michael O’Keefe, Paul and Reginald Rose. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Rodriguez, Denholm Elliott, Carole ShelWho’s Got the Action? (1962) C-93m. [ 1543 ]

★★1

⁄2 D: Daniel Mann. Dean Martin, Lana of town. Derivative film is missing just two things: charm and humor. [PG]▼●쩠 Turner, Eddie Albert, Nita Talbot, Walter Matthau, Paul Ford, Margo, John McGiver, Who’s That Knocking at My Door (1968) 90m. ★★★ D: Martin Scorsese. Zina Jack Albertson. Strained froth of Turner combatting hubby Martin’s horse-racing Bethune, Harvey Keitel, Anne Collette, fever by turning bookie. Panavision.▼ Lennard Kuras, Michael Scala, Harry Who’s Got the Black Box? SEE: Road to Northup, Bill Minkin. Crude but fascinatCorinthe, The ing autobiographical drama from Scorsese, Who’s Harry Crumb? (1989) C-98m. ★★ his first feature, focusing on relationship D: Paul Flaherty. John Candy, Jeffrey Jones, between streetwise Keitel, hung up by his Annie Potts, Tim Thomerson, Barry Corbin, strict Catholic upbringing, and indepenShawnee Smith, Valri Bromfield, Renee dent young woman (Bethune). Keitel’s film Coleman, Joe Flaherty, Lyle Alzado, James debut. Also released as J.R.▼쩠 Belushi, Stephen Young. Candy is ideally Who’s the Man? (1993) C-85m. ★★ D: cast as an inept private detective attempting Ted Demme. Ed Lover, Doctor Dre, Badja to unearth a kidnapper in this uneven comedy. Djola, Cheryl ‘‘Salt’’ James, Jim Moody, Has some very funny moments, but too much Ice T, Andre B. Blake, Rozwill Young, outright silliness. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Colin Quinn, Bernie Mac, Denis Leary, Who Shot Patakango? (1990) C-102m. Kurt Loder, Richard Bright, Terrence Das★★ hon Howard, Queen Latifah. Nonsensical D: Robert Brooks. David Knight, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Otto, Aaron Ingram, airhead of a movie in which MTV rap veeBrad Randall, Allison Janney. Slight, meanjays Ed Lover and Doctor Dre play characdering account of life at a Brooklyn vocaters named Ed Lover and Doctor Dre, inept tional high school in 1957, a time when Harlem haircutters who somehow become blacks were moving from the South into N.Y.C. cops and battle a villainous real esNorthern inner cities and whites had not yet tate speculator. Loud, crude, and crammed fled to the suburbs. Brooks coscripted and with cameos by a variety of rap artists coedited with wife Halle; he also photo(Kriss Kross, B-Real, Humpty Hump). Not graphed, and she produced. Aka WHO without laughs, but more valuable as an artifact of the early ’90s. [R]▼●쩠 SHOT PAT? [R]▼●쩠 Who Slew Auntie Roo? (1971) C-89m. Who’s Your Caddy? (2007) C-92m. ★1⁄2 ★★ D: Curtis Harrington. Shelley Winters, D: Don Michael Paul. Antwan Andre ‘‘Big Mark Lester, Chloe Franks, Ralph RichBoi’’ Patton, Jeffrey Jones, Tamala Jones, ardson, Lionel Jeffries, Hugh Griffith. Sherri Shepherd, Faizon Love, Garrett MorSickie about daffy old lady who steers ris. Gangsta rapper C-Note (Patton) and his unwitting children into her lair. Made in posse seek membership in a snooty South England; intended to be a variation of HanCarolina country club, much to the chagrin sel and Gretel! Aka WHOEVER SLEW of its condescending president (Jones). PreAUNTIE ROO? [PG]▼쩠 dictably, crotches are pummeled, gas is Who’s Minding the Mint? (1967) C-97m. passed, and stereotypes run amok while this ★★★1⁄2 D: Howard Morris. Jim Hutton, flimsy farce alternates between crude slapDorothy Provine, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, stick and sappy sentiment. Failed bid for Bob Denver, Walter Brennan, Victor Buono, solo movie stardom for OutKast hip-hop artist Patton. [PG-13]쩠 Jack Gilford, Jamie Farr, Jackie Joseph. Hilarious comedy, neglected at time of reWho Was That Lady? (1960) 115m. ★★★ lease, is tremendous fun in the classic comedy D: George Sidney. Tony Curtis, Dean Martradition, with motley gang of thieves helptin, Janet Leigh, James Whitmore, John Mcing U.S. Mint worker Hutton replace money Intire, Barbara Nichols, Joi Lansing. Spicy he accidentally destroyed. Buono is especishenanigans move along at lively pace as ally funny as pompous ex-skipper.▼ Curtis and Martin pretend to be secret agents Who’s Minding the Store? (1963) C-90m. to confuse Tony’s jealous wife Leigh; script ★★1⁄2 D: Frank Tashlin. Jerry Lewis, Agby Norman Krasna, from his play.쩠 nes Moorehead, Jill St. John, John McGiver, Why Bother to Knock (1964-British) 88m. ★1 Ray Walston, Nancy Kulp, Francesca Bel⁄2 D: Cyril Frankel. Elke Sommer, Richlini. Jerry Lewis vehicle with bumbling idiot ard Todd, Nicole Maurey, Scot Finch. Trashy (guess who?) set loose in department store. smut about Todd traipsing around Europe Great supporting cast in stereotyped comic giving out keys to his pals, with the girls foil roles, plus one good inventive bit.▼ all turning up unexpectedly. CinemaScope. Who’s That Girl? (1987) C-94m. BOMB Why Did I Get Married? (2007) C-118m. ★★1 D: James Foley. Madonna, Griffin Dunne, ⁄2 D: Tyler Perry. Janet Jackson, Tyler Haviland Morris, John McMartin, Robert Perry, Sharon Leal, Malik Yoba, Jill Scott, Swan, Drew Pillsbury, John Mills. AtroRichard T. Jones. Appreciably more subcious attempt at screwball comedy with dued than his previous films, writer-director Dunne as the hapless hero whose life is Perry’s sudsy comedy-drama plays for turned inside out when he’s assigned to keeps even while it’s playing for laughs as escort Madonna (just sprung from jail) out four couples swap stories and air grievances [ 1544 ]

during their annual semi-therapeutic getGore Vidal alludes to ‘‘the United States of Amnesia.’’ [PG-13]쩠 together at a Colorado resort. Subtlety is in Why Worry? (1923) 63m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Fred short supply, but the ensemble is first-rate, Newmeyer, Sam Taylor. Harold Lloyd, and a few scenes have potent emotional imJobyna Ralston, John Aasen, Leo White, pact. [PG-13]쩠 James Mason. Hilarious story of millionWhy Do Fools Fall in Love (1998) Caire playboy Lloyd who stumbles into 112m. ★★ D: Gregory Nava. Halle Berry, revolution-ridden country and inadvertently Vivica A. Fox, Lela Rochon, Larenz Tate, becomes involved. Packed with belly-laugh Paul Mazursky, Pamela Reed, Alexis Cruz, sight gags.쩠 David Barry Gray, Miguel A. Nunez, Jr., Why Would Anyone Want to Kill a Nice Clifton Powell, Ben Vereen, Lane Smith. Girl Like You? (1969-British) C-99m. ★★ Disappointing account of ill-fated 1950s rock D: Don Sharp. Eva Renzi, David Buck, ’n’ roller Frankie Lymon (Tate), who ended Peter Vaughan, Paul Hubschmid, Sophie up a junkie and died of an overdose in 1968 Hardy, Kay Walsh. A young tourist on the at age 26, and the three very different women French Riviera thinks someone is trying to he allegedly married. Superficial, to say the kill her, but none of the local officials will least, and sometimes embarrassing. Little believe her. Familiar storyline handled in Richard (playing himself ) enlivens the proroutine fashion. ceedings whenever he is on-screen. [R] ▼●쩠 Why Would I Lie? (1980) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the Larry Peerce. Treat Williams, Lisa Eichhorn, ★★★ East? (1989-Korean) C-135m. D: Bae Gabriel Swann, Susan Heldfond, Anne Yong-kyun. Yi Pan-yong, Sin Won-sop, Byrne, Valerie Curtin, Jocelyn Brando, NiHuang Hae-jin, Ko Su-myong, Kim Haecolas Coster, Severn Darden. Irrational dud yong. Meditative, mind-expanding account about compulsive liar Williams, who tries to of an elderly, dying Zen master and his two unite Swann with ex-con mother Eichhorn. disciples, a monk and a boy; they retire to a Film is also odiously reactionary; the villainrural monastery, away from the ‘‘turbulence ess (Heldfond) is a one-dimensionally manipof life,’’ where the master attempts to guide ulative, man-hating feminist. [PG] the others toward a state of enlightenment. Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, The An unusual film, not for all temperaments, (1968) C-113m. BOMB D: George Marbut most rewarding if you can immerse shall. Elke Sommer, Bob Crane, Werner yourself in its flow. Premiered theatrically Klemperer, Joey Forman, John Banner, in the U.S. in 1993.▼●쩠 Maureen Arthur. Laughless dud about beau★★★ Why Not! (1979-French) C-93m. D: tiful East German Olympic hopeful who Coline Serreau. Sami Frey, Christine polevaults over Berlin Wall to freedom; Murillo, Mario Gonzalez, Michel Aumont, unengaging cast was mostly recruited from Nicole Jamet, Mathe Souverbie. Frey, Hogan’s Heroes. Murillo, and Gonzalez, trying to leave their Wicked Lady, The (1983-British) C-98m. pasts behind, are roommates—and share ★1⁄2 D: Michael Winner. Faye Dunaway, the same bed. Then Frey becomes inAlan Bates, John Gielgud, Denholm Elvolved with Jamet. Sometimes funny and liott, Prunella Scales, Oliver Tobias, Glynis touching, but not as involving as it should Barber, Joan Hickson, Marina Sirtis. Rebe. Original title: POURQUOI PAS! make of 1945 film about a scheming vixen Why Shoot the Teacher? (1977-Canadian) who becomes a ‘‘highwayman’’ by night; C-101m. ★★★ D: Silvio Narizzano. Bud hasn’t the panache to turn its campy mateCort, Samantha Eggar, Chris Wiggins, Gary rial into the romp it’s intended to be. Reineke, John Friesen, Michael J. ReynHeavy-handed stuff—including the periolds. Simple, warm, enjoyable story of odic nudity. [R] ▼ Cort’s experiences when he takes a teachWicked Stepmother (1989) C-92m. BOMB ing job in a small, isolated farming town D: Larry Cohen. Bette Davis, Barbara during the Depression.▼ Carrera, Colleen Camp, David Rasche, Why We Fight (2006-U.S.-British-Danish) Lionel Stander, Tom Bosley, Richard Moll, C/B&W-98m. ★★★ D: Eugene Jarecki. LowEvelyn Keyes. Complete mess, pieced tokey polemic (possibly too much so) takes off gether from a troubled (to say the least) from Frank Capra’s pugnacious WW2 docuproduction which Davis left after filming mentaries and President Eisenhower’s final for just one week. Resulting patchwork address that famously and presciently warned story has Bette as a witch who marries of the ‘‘military-industrial complex.’’ Film’s Stander and then, for some reason, turns thesis is that the brass and big munitions cominto Carrera. Notable only as a footnote in panies play a game of ‘‘risky synergy’’ and Davis’ career; this was her final film. [PGthat America has to drum up wars on which 13]▼ the dragon it has created can gorge. A few Wicked, Wicked (1973) C-95m. BOMB neoconservatives also get their say. Not a lot D: Richard L. Bare. Tiffany Bolling, Scott of revelations here, but the material and interBrady, David Bailey, Edd Byrnes. Disasviewees are interesting. Ever-reliable wag trous mystery-thriller centering around se[ 1545 ]

ries of hotel murders. Film was released in Wide Blue Road, The (1957-Italian) C-99m. ★★★1 Duo-vision split-screen process with two ⁄2 D: Gillo Pontecorvo. Yves Montand, things happening at once. Pity there was Alida Valli, Francisco Rabal, Umberto Spanot enough material for even one. [PG] daro, Peter Carsten, Federica Ranchi, Terence Wicker Man, The (1973-British) C-99m. Hill. Moving, robust slice of life about an ★★★1 insular Italian fishing village and one proud, ⁄2 D: Robin Hardy. Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Distubborn man who continues to engage in ane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, Lindsay Kemp. dynamite fishing (even though it’s illegal), Harrowing, absorbing thriller by Anthony which pits him against a coast guard Shaffer; not really a horror film as many lieutenant—and the community. Montand believe. Scot police sergeant Woodward was never more charismatic. Pontecorvo’s comes to small island investigating disapdebut film (which he cowrote with Franco pearance of a child, discovers a society of Solinas) pays homage to neorealism but charts its own course—in breathtaking color.▼쩠 modern pagans. Eerie and erotic, with seemingly authentic local color and folk Wide-Eyed and Legless SEE: Wedding music; a must-see. Shown only in trunGift, The cated versions for many years; beware the Wide Sargasso Sea (1993-U.S.-Australian) C-100m. ★★ D: John Duigan. Karina Lom87m. and 95m. prints, which may still be in circulation. Remade in 2006. [R]▼쩠 bard, Nathaniel Parker, Rachel Ward, Mi★1 Wicker Man, The (2006) C-102m. ⁄2 D: chael York, Martine Beswicke, Claudia Neil LaBute. Nicolas Cage, Ellen Burstyn, Robinson, Rowena King, Naomi Watts. In Kate Beahan, Frances Conroy, Molly Par1840s Jamaica, free-spirited Creole Antoiker, Leelee Sobieski, Diane Delano, Aaron nette (Lombard), heiress to a declining esEckhart, James Franco. Cop travels to an tate, marries proper Englishman Rochester isolated island after receiving word from his (Parker); at first entranced by her powerful ex that her child has disappeared and finds sensuality, he fears losing control, and the place populated by a quietly tyrannical coldly turns away from her, which leads to cult of women. Interesting (if misogynistic) tragedy. Though attractive, a failed attempt reimagining of the 1973 film’s concept is to build real drama out of humid tropical poorly executed: a mysterious, building passions. Based on Jean Rhys’ novel, this is dread has been replaced with the obvious a ‘‘prequel’’ to Charlotte Bronte¨’s Jane presence of an evil that the hero is too dumb Eyre. Also available in R-rated version. [NCto figure out. Cage is sometimes hilariously 17] ▼●쩠 hammy; only Burstyn, chillingly warm and Widow of Saint-Pierre, The (2000-French) civilized as the cult’s leader, emerges unC-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: Patrice Leconte. Juliette Biscathed. LaBute adapted Anthony Shaffer’s noche, Daniel Auteuil, Emir Kusturica, Philoriginal screenplay. Unrated 106m. version ippe Magnan, Michel Duchaussoy. Unusual has more gore and a shortened, improved story set in a remote French island off the ending. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 coast of Canada in 1850, where a condemned 1 ★ Wicker Park (2004) C-115m. ⁄2 D: Paul murderer cannot be put to death because there McGuigan. Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne, Matis no guillotine. While waiting for one to arthew Lillard, Diane Kruger, Christopher rive, the military commandant’s wife makes Cousins, Jessica Pare´, Vlasta Vrana, Amy the prisoner’s rehabilitation her pet project. InSobol. Adman Hartnett puts his life on hold teresting but unsatisfying morality tale, with as he becomes obsessed with a woman he Yugoslav director Kusturica a strong presence as the prisoner. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 spies in a restaurant; he thinks she’s his exlove, who unexpectedly departed a couple Widows’ Peak (1994-British) C-101m. ★★1 of years earlier. Muddled thriller is loaded ⁄2 D: John Irvin. Joan Plowright, Mia Farwith flashbacks and plot twists, too many of row, Natasha Richardson, Adrian Dunbar, Jim which make no sense whatsoever. Remake Broadbent, Britta Smith, Gerard McSorley. of the French film L’APPARTEMENT Fitfully amusing feminine slant on John (1996). Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Ford’s brand of Blarney, with sadsack Farrow Wide Awake (1998) C-90m. ★★★ D: M. butting heads with flashy WW1 widow RichNight Shyamalan. Joseph Cross, Timothy ardson, who’s moved to an Irish resort village Reifsnyder, Dana Delany, Denis Leary, in the mid 1920s. Inconsistent in tone, but Robert Loggia, Rosie O’Donnell, Camryn three strong leads make it watchable. [PG] Manheim, Dan Lauria, Julia Stiles. A 10▼●쩠 year-old Catholic school student has loving, Wife, The (1994) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Tom affluent parents, but since the recent death Noonan. Julie Hagerty, Tom Noonan, Walof his beloved grandfather, he’s been trying lace Shawn, Karen Young. Married New to figure out the meaning of life. Warm, Age therapists Noonan and Hagerty are visquirky, and sensitive comedy/drama/parable. ited one evening by one of their patients Young lead Cross and costar Loggia (as the (Shawn) and his seemingly emotionally disdeceased grandparent, in flashbacks) stand turbed wife (Young). Alternately pretenout in fine cast. Written by the director; shot tious and intriguing talkfest gets better as it in 1995. [PG]▼●쩠 goes along, but it’s nowhere near as impres[ 1546 ]

sive as Noonan’s previous film, WHAT leave the safety of the Central Park Zoo to HAPPENED WAS . . . . [R]▼●쩠 rescue the cub. Disney-released CG-animated Wifemistress (1977-Italian) C-110m. ★★1⁄2 feature can’t decide if it’s a zany comedy or a D: Marco Vicario. Marcello Mastroianni, drama with heart; it winds up being neither. Laura Antonelli, Leonard Mann, Annie-Belle, Shamelessly derivative of MADAGASCAR Gastone Moschin, William Berger. Antonelli, and FINDING NEMO. Highlight is stylized repressed by philandering husband Mastroopening in which the father tells his son of ianni, sets out to explore his secret lives past battles in the jungle, including a sincere after he is forced into hiding and experiences homage to earlier Disney classics. This is not destined to be one of them. [G]쩠 her own sexual awakening. Sometimes erotic but mostly murky comedy-drama. [R]▼ Wild America (1997) C-106m. ★★ D: WilWife vs. Secretary (1936) 88m. ★★1⁄2 D: liam Dear. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Devon Clarence Brown. Clark Gable, Jean HarSawa, Scott Bairstow, Frances Fisher, Jamey low, Myrna Loy, May Robson, George Sheridan, Tracey Walter, Don Stroud. HoBarbier, James Stewart, Hobart Cavanhum based-on-fact account of the three advenaugh. Perfect example of Hollywood gloss, turous Stouffer brothers, who trek across with three topnotch stars towering over America in 1967 to film wild animals in their inferior material. Harlow is particularly natural habitats. The cliche´d subplots do this good in tale of secretary who becomes one in, but it’s harmless enough fare for kids. invaluable to her boss (Gable), causing The eldest brother, Marty Stouffer (Bairstow), complications in both of their lives.▼쩠 grew up to become a noted wildlife documenWigstock: The Movie (1995) C-85m. ★★★ tary filmmaker. Danny Glover appears unD: Barry Shils. Campy documentary record billed. Clairmont-Scope. [PG] ▼●쩠 of Wigstock, the drag ball held in N.Y.C. Wild and Wonderful (1964) C-88m. ★★1⁄2 each Labor Day weekend. While famous D: Michael Anderson. Tony Curtis, Chrisdrag queens like RuPaul appear, the focus is tine Kaufmann, Larry Storch, Marty Ingels, just as much on lesser-known characters Jacques Aubuchon, Jules Munshin. Empty such as The Lady Bunny (Wigstock’s slapstick froth involving French poodle M.C.), Mistress Formica, and, best of all, movie star with Curtis and Kaufmann the Dueling (Tallulah) Bankheads.▼●쩠 romancing. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002Wild Angels, The (1966) C-93m. ★1⁄2 D: British-Danish) C-109m. ★★★ D: Lone ScherRoger Corman. Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, fig. Jamie Sives, Adrian Rawlins, Shirley Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, Buck Taylor, Henderson, Lisa McKinlay, Mads MikNorman Alden, Michael J. Pollard, Joan kelsen, Julia Davis, Susan Vidler. Winning Shawlee, Gayle Hunnicutt, Dick Miller. comedy-drama about a handful of life’s lost Predecessor of EASY RIDER without that souls, set in Glasgow. Wilbur (Sives) is forfilm’s class; Charles Griffith’s story of ever trying to do himself in, placing a terrible destructive motorcycle gang is OK after burden on his brother Harbour (Rawlins) to about 24 beers. Peter Bogdanovich worked keep a constant eye on him. Then a young extensively on this film: writing, editing, woman (Henderson) with a young daughter in second unit, etc.; he also can be glimpsed in one of the rumbles. Panavision.▼쩠 tow comes into their lives, causing surprising changes for all of them. A quirky sense of Wild at Heart (1990) C-127m. ★★ D: humor diverts us at first from the film’s seriDavid Lynch. Nicolas Cage, Laura Dern, ous goals and its good-hearted concern for Diane Ladd, Willem Dafoe, Isabella Rosevery character on-screen. The director cosellini, Harry Dean Stanton, Crispin Glover, scripted. HD 24P Widescreen. [R] ▼쩠 Grace Zabriskie, J.E. Freeman, Calvin Wilby Conspiracy, The (1975) C-101m. Lockhart, Marvin Kaplan, W. Morgan ★★★ D: Ralph Nelson. Sidney Poitier, MiSheppard, David Patrick Kelly, Freddie chael Caine, Nicol Williamson, Prunella Jones, John Lurie, Jack Nance, Sherilyn Gee, Persis Khambatta, Saeed Jaffrey, Fenn, Sheryl Lee, Pruitt Taylor Vince. He’s Rutger Hauer. Slick chase movie about Elvis, she’s Marilyn, they’re madly in love black African political activist and the reand on the lam: they hop in her convertible luctant white companion he drags with him and make an odyssey through Hell—or is it on cross-country flight from the law. MemoOz? Diehard fans of writer-director Lynch ries of Poitier’s earlier THE DEFIANT ONES may love this violent Southern Gothic keep focusing throughout, but the two stars melodrama (and there are great moments) maintain a light touch. Sinister Williamson but his utter absorption with ugliness makes steals it from them both. [PG]▼쩠 it tough to take. Formidable performances Wild, The (2006) C-94m. ★★ D: Steve all around, including real-life mother and ‘‘Spaz’’ Williams. Voices of Kiefer Sutherdaughter Ladd and Dern. Lynch based his land, James Belushi, Eddie Izzard, Janeane screenplay on a novel by Barry Gifford. Garofalo, William Shatner, Richard Kind, Rossellini’s character went on to get a Patrick Warburton, Laraine Newman. When movie all her own, PERDITA DURANGO his son is accidentally shipped off to the jun(1997). There, the role is played by Rosie gle, a lion and a quartet of misfit animals Perez. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 [ 1547 ]

Wild Beds SEE: Tigers in Lipstick Wild Bill (1995) C-97m. ★★ D: Walter Hill. Jeff Bridges, Ellen Barkin, John Hurt, Diane Lane, Keith Carradine, Christina Applegate, Bruce Dern, James Gammon, David Arquette, Marjoe Gortner, James Remar. Odd revisionist take on Wild Bill Hickok, told in episodic form that creates distance from— rather than understanding of—the legendary hell-raiser of the Old West. The title of the film really should be THE ASSASSINATION OF WILD BILL, because that’s what it’s all about. There are those opium dreams to break the monotony . . . Barkin is fun as Calamity Jane, but other characters are superficially drawn at best. [R]▼●쩠 Wild Bunch, The (1969) C-134m. ★★★★ D: Sam Peckinpah. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Jaime Sanchez, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins, Emilio Fernandez, Dub Taylor. Peckinpah’s best film won instant notoriety for its ‘‘beautiful’’ bloodletting, but seems almost restrained alongside today’s films. Aging outlaws with their own code of ethics find themselves passe in 1913 and decide to retire after one final haul. Acting, dialogue, direction, score, photography, and especially editing are world class; an authentic American classic. Reissued in 1981 at 142m., with two deleted sequences restored. European theatrical version running 144m. now available on video. Panavision. [R]

from Pittsburgh to Wyoming in 1880s. Magnificent scenery. [G]▼ Wild Drifter SEE: Cockfighter Wild Duck, The (1983-Australian) C-96m. ★1 ⁄2 D: Henri Safran. Liv Ullmann, Jeremy Irons, Lucinda Jones, John Meillon, Arthur Dignam, Michael Pate. Dreary, disappointing adaptation of the Ibsen play, centering on two days in the lives of the Ackland (anglicized from ‘‘Ekdal’’) family members and updating the story by 20-odd years. The question is: Why? Performances are OK, but it’s oh so slow and pretentious. [PG]▼ Wilde (1998-British) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Brian Gilbert. Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Tom Wilkinson, Vanessa Redgrave, Jennifer Ehle, Gemma Jones, Judy Parfitt, Michael Sheen, Zoe¨ Wanamaker, Orlando Bloom, Ioan Gruffudd. Profile of playwright/author Oscar Wilde is much gamier (to its arguable detriment) than the two 1960 biopics. Begins choppily, drags at the end, but generally compels in a long midsection that deals with events leading up to Wilde’s 1895 sodomy trial and conviction. Fry bears a striking resemblance to Wilde, while Wilkinson gives another in a string of rich performances as Wilde’s chief adversary, the Marquis of Queensbury. 2.35 Research PLC. [R]▼쩠 Wilder Napalm (1993) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Glenn Gordon Caron. Debra Winger, Dennis Quaid, Arliss Howard, M. Emmet Walsh, Jim Varney. Bizarre, almost incomprehensible account of brothers Quaid and ▼●쩠 Wildcats (1986) C-107m. ★★★ D: Michael Howard, who share a rare talent: when conRitchie. Goldie Hawn, Swoosie Kurtz, centrating deeply enough, they can make Robyn Lively, Brandy Gold, James Keach, objects burst into flames. Winger is cast as Jan Hooks, Bruce McGill, Nipsey Russell, Howard’s spirited wife. It’s no wonder that Mykel T. Williamson, Wesley Snipes, this barely watchable film remained unreleased for quite some time. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Woody Harrelson, M. Emmet Walsh, George Wyner, Ann Doran, Gloria Stuart, Wilderness Family, Part 2, The SEE: L.L. Cool J. Football-crazy phys-ed teacher Further Adventures of the Wilderness Hawn finally gets her wish—to coach a Family, The varsity team—at a rough inner-city high Wildflowers (1999) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: Meschool. Never strays from formula but manlissa Painter. Daryl Hannah, Clea DuVall, ages to deliver the laughs. Entertaining. Eric Roberts, Tomas Arana, Richard Hillman, Irene Bedard, John Doe, Alan Gelfant. [R]▼●쩠 ★★★ Wild Child, The (1970-French) 85m. Introspective drama about a teen (DuVall) D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Franc˛ois Truffaut, who grew up on a hippie commune and is Jean-Pierre Cargol, Jean Daste, Paul Ville. looking to find herself, and her obsession Initially absorbing true story of wild boy with a free-spirited older woman (Hannah) raised alone in French woods and the docwho may be her mother. Slow moving at tor who tries to civilize him. Simply told, times, but extremely involving when it stays deliberately old-fashioned in technique; film on track. Hannah coexecutive produced. loses steam half-way through. Truffaut is [R]▼쩠 ideal as the doctor. Set in 1700s. [G]▼●쩠 Wild for Kicks (1960-British) 92m. ★★ D: Wild Country, The (1971) C-100m. ★★1⁄2 Edmond T. Greville. David Farrar, Noelle D: Robert Totten. Steve Forrest, Vera Adam, Christopher Lee, Gillian Hills, Miles, Ronny Howard, Jack Elam, Frank Adam Faith, Shirley Anne Field, Peter deKova, Morgan Woodward, Clint HowMcEnery, Oliver Reed. Sultry teen Hills, ard. Standard Disney fare, adapted from with a bad attitude, resents her father’s Ralph Moody’s Little Britches, about joys pretty new French-born wife and summarily and hardships faced by family which moves gets into all sorts of mischief. Not very [ 1548 ]

good; of interest mainly as a period piece. immediately get into all sorts of trouble— Original British title: BEAT GIRL.▼쩠 from camping mishaps to antagonizing a Wild Geese, The (1978-British) C-134m. hostile biker gang. Silly, sometimes down★★1 right stupid slapstick comedy puts likable ⁄2 D: Andrew V. McLaglen. Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy actors into the kind of sappy vehicle that Kruger, Stewart Granger, Jack Watson, Frank Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster didn’t Finlay, Jeff Corey, Winston Ntshona. Silly but make until their 70s (see—or rather, don’t entertaining action yarn by Reginald Rose see—TOUGH GUYS). John C. McGinley with Burton miscast as leader of mercenaries appears unbilled, and there’s a surprise cameo near the end. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 who rescue kidnapped African leader. Better (and shorter) script would have helped. Sequel Wild Horse Hank (1979-Canadian) C94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Eric Till. Linda Blair, Mifollowed in 1985. [R]▼●쩠 Wild Geese II (1985-British) C-125m. ★★ chael Wincott, Al Waxman, Pace BradD: Peter Hunt. Scott Glenn, Barbara ford, Richard Crenna. Inoffensive adventure Carrera, Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier, of college student Blair trying to save Robert Webber, Robert Freitag, Kenneth horses from being butchered for dog food. Haigh. Cluttered action-adventure about a A bit overlong, and Blair walks through her role; still, older children may enjoy it.▼ much-wanted mercenary hired to spring arch-Nazi Rudolf Hess from Berlin’s Spandau Wild in the Country (1961) C-114m. ★★1 prison and the incidents this triggers. ⁄2 D: Philip Dunne. Elvis Presley, Hope Uncomfortable mix of straight action and Lange, Tuesday Weld, Millie Perkins, John tongue-in-cheek. [R]▼ Ireland, Gary Lockwood. Can you resist Elvis Wild Guitar (1962) 87m. BOMB D: Ray in a Clifford Odets script about a back-country Dennis Steckler. Arch Hall, Jr., Nancy hothead with literary aspirations? Cliche´d if Czar, William Watters (Arch Hall, Sr.), earnest, but an undeniable curiosity with some Cash Flagg (Ray Dennis Steckler). Guitargood performances, Elvis’ among them. playing, motorcycle-riding Hall is exploited That’s young Christina Crawford as Lockwood’s girlfriend. CinemaScope.▼쩠 by a deceitful record executive. Perfectly awful melodrama.▼쩠 Wild in the Sky (1972) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wild Heart, The (1950-British) C-82m. William T. Naud. Georg Stanford Brown, ★★ D: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger. Brandon de Wilde, Keenan Wynn, Tim Jennifer Jones, David Farrar, Cyril Cusack, O’Connor, James Daly, Dick Gautier, RobSybil Thorndike, Edward Chapman, George ert Lansing. Zany idea doesn’t quite come Cole, Hugh Griffith, Esmond Knight. Mudoff in story of three prisoners who hijack a dled tale of strange Welsh girl in late 19th B-52 bomber. Written by Naud, Gautier, century whose life is dominated by superand Peter Marshall. Original title: BLACK stitions; she marries minister but is stirred JACK. Wild in the Streets (1968) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 by lusty squire. Beautiful location photography by Christopher Challis. Reedited D: Barry Shear. Christopher Jones, Shelfrom 110m. British release called GONE ley Winters, Diane Varsi, Hal Holbrook, TO EARTH, which plays much better. Millie Perkins, Ed Begley, Richard Pryor, Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken (1991) Bert Freed. Dark satire about millionaire C-88m. ★★★ D: Steve Miner. Gabrielle singing idol/drug pusher who is elected Anwar, Michael Schoeffling, Cliff RobPresident after voting age is lowered to 14. ertson, Dylan Kussman, Kathleen York, Wildly overrated by some critics, film is Frank Renzulli. Absorbing Disney picture nonetheless enjoyable on a nonthink level. about real-life Sonora Webster, a strong[PG—originally rated R]▼●쩠 willed girl who joins a traveling show in Wild Is the Wind (1957) 114m. ★★1⁄2 D: the early 1930s and trains to become a George Cukor. Anna Magnani, Anthony ‘‘diving girl’’—sitting astride a horse as it Quinn, Anthony Franciosa, Dolores Hart, dives 40 feet into a tank of water. Simply Joseph Calleia. Turgid soaper set in the told, and well acted, with Robertson firstWest, with Quinn marrying the sister of rate as a road-company Buffalo Bill. Caphis dead wife, not able to separate the two. tures Depression-era flavor (and look) much Good acting helps script along. VistaVision. better than many more ambitious and exWild Life, The (1984) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Art pensive films. Incidentally, no horses were Linson. Christopher Penn, Ilan Mitchellsubjected to high dives in the making of the Smith, Eric Stoltz, Jenny Wright, Lea film. [G]▼●쩠 Thompson, Rick Moranis, Hart Bochner, Wild Hogs (2007) C-99m. ★★ D: Walt Michael Bowen, Randy Quaid, Sherilyn Becker. Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Fenn, Lee Ving, Nancy Wilson, Laura Lawrence, William H. Macy, Ray Liotta, Dern, Jack Kehoe, Robert Ridgely, Dean Marisa Tomei, Kevin Durand, M. C. Devlin, Ben Stein. Unfunny youth comedy Gainey, Jill Hennessy, Tichina Arnold, Steabout straight-arrow high school grad Stoltz phen Tobolowsky. Four middle-aged pals deciding to leave home and move into whose lives have stagnated decide to take ‘‘swinging singles’’ apartment. Meager ata road trip together on their Harleys and tempt to clone FAST TIMES AT RIDGE[ 1549 ]

MONT HIGH with same writer and ‘‘what is it?’’ question. For those who producer (doubling here as director), and have, it’s a ‘‘why is it?’’ question. By day, Christopher Penn trying to ape brother blond Siemaszko puppy-loves a high school Sean’s flaky character—unsuccessfully. jock—but by night, she dons a black wig Penn’s real-life dad, Leo Penn, plays his in the local brothel to entertain the same father here. [R]▼● unwitting dufus. Standard heavy breathing Wild Man Blues (1998) C-105m. ★★★ D: from director King, but with even more Barbara Kopple. Oscar-winning documenlung congestion than usual. [R]▼●쩠 tarian Kopple follows Woody Allen and his Wild Pack, The (1971) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: companion (later wife), Soon-Yi Previn, on Hall Bartlett. Kent Lane, Tisha Sterling, a 1996 European concert tour given by John Rubinstein, Butch Patrick, Mark de Allen and his New Orleans–style jazz band. Vries, Peter Nielsen. Fairly interesting A must for Woodyphiles, surprisingly redrama, set in Brazil, about day-to-day life vealing even in its most mundane moments; of a group of black and white orphans who others may find it less compelling. It also steal food; film won grand prize at Moshelps to like the traditional, even primitive, cow Film Festival. Originally titled THE style of music being played. [PG]▼● SANDPIT GENERALS. Video title: THE Wild McCullochs, The (1975) C-93m. ★★ D: DEFIANT. Panavision.▼ Max Baer. Forrest Tucker, Max Baer, Julie Wild Pair, The (1987) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Adams, Janice Heiden, Dennis Redfield, Don Beau Bridges. Beau Bridges, Bubba Smith, Grady, William Demarest. Forgettable QUIET Lloyd Bridges, Gary Lockwood, Raymond MAN rip-off has Tucker as self-made St. Jacques, Danny De La Paz, Lela Texas millionaire who tries to raise his sons Rochon, Ellen Geer. Trite police thriller, in his two-fisted image, with Baer eventuwith cop Smith and FBI agent Beau Bridally forced to prove he is ‘‘a man.’’ Yawn. ges teaming up to bring some drug dealing [PG]▼쩠 racists to justice. Utterly ordinary in all 1 ★★★ Wild One, The (1954) 79m. ⁄2 D: departments. Bridges’ first theatrical film Laslo Benedek. Marlon Brando, Mary Muras director. [R]▼● phy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin, Jay C. Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, The Flippen, Jerry Paris, Alvy Moore, Gil Strat(2005) C-83m. ★★★ D: Judy Irving. In San ton, Jr. The original motorcycle film with Francisco, a flock of colorful parrots, deBrando’s renowned performance as packscendants of escaped pets, make Telegraph leader terrorizing small town; dated, but Hill their base. Philosophical, unemployed well worth viewing. Script by John Paxton, Mark Bittner befriends the birds, naming based on a story by Frank Rooney; prothem and feeding them. Documentary foduced by Stanley Kramer.▼●쩠 cuses more on ingratiating Bittner than on ★1 Wild on the Beach (1965) 77m. ⁄2 D: the parrots, and at the end unexpectedly reMaury Dexter. Frankie Randall, Sherry veals itself as a true-life love story. CharmJackson, Jackie & Gayle, Sonny & Cher, ing, likeable film about charming, likeable Sandy Nelson. Randall and Jackson fight birds and people; a quiet little gem, full of over the rights to a beachhouse—and fall low-key surprises. [G]쩠 in love. Dreary comedy notable only for Wild Party, The (1929) 76m. ★★1⁄2 D: the appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Bono, and Dorothy Arzner. Clara Bow, Fredric March, as Cher’s screen debut. Shirley O’Hara, Marceline Day, Joyce Wild Orchid (1990) C-111m. BOMB D: Compton, Jack Oakie. Fascinating antique Zalman King. Mickey Rourke, Jacqueline about dishy new prof at all-girls’ school Bisset, Carre´ Otis, Assumpta Serna, Bruce and his on-again, off-again relationship Greenwood, Oleg Vidov, Milton Gonwith a sexy student who thinks college is calves. Prim lawyer Otis, employed by just a lark. Absolutely awful by any objecbanker Bisset, gets assaulted by Rio de tive standards, but great fun to watch.▼ Janeiro carny-time temptation: semi-public Wild Party, The (1975) C-95m. ★★ D: fornicators, limousine raunch, and the sight James Ivory. James Coco, Raquel Welch, of earringed Rourke in deep bronze Perry King, Tiffany Bolling, David Dukes, makeup. Notorious simulated sex scene Royal Dano, Dena Dietrich. Uneven evocaused a stir, but it’s all for naught; this cation of 1920s Hollywood with Coco as a picture is enough to make any two bananas Fatty Arbuckle-type comedian who throws roll over in Carmen Miranda’s grave. Fola lavish party to try and save his failing lowed by a sequel. Unrated version runs career. Film has definite assets (notably its 116m. [R] ▼●쩠 performances) but just doesn’t come off. Wild Orchid 2: Two Shades of Blue Based on the narrative poem by Joseph (1992) C-107m. BOMB D: Zalman King. Moncure March; cut by its distributor, Nina Siemaszko, Wendy Hughes, Tom later restored by Ivory to 107m. [R]▼쩠 Skerritt, Robert Davi, Brent Fraser, ChrisWild Racers, The (1968) C-79m. ★1⁄2 D: topher McDonald, Liane Curtis, Joe DalDaniel Haller. Fabian, Mimsy Farmer, Judy lesandro, Lydie Denier. For viewers who haven’t seen ORCHID 1, the title demands a Cornwall, David Landers. Dumb racer [ 1550 ]

Fabian loves his work and one-night stands; traveling to California, guided by road Farmer is his latest challenge. bum Parks. Wild Reeds (1994-French) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 Wild Side, The (1983) C-96m. BOMB D: D: Andre´ Te´chine´. Elodie Bouchez, Gael Penelope Spheeris. Chris Pederson, Bill Morel, Staphane Rideau, Frederick Gorny, Coyne, Jennifer Clay, Timothy Eric O’Brien, Michele Moretti. Richly evocative film, set Andrew Pece, Don Allen. Perfectly awful in 1962, about four young people in rural drama about alienated suburban teenagers, France (where the kids listen to American angry kids who cut their hair instead of Top 40 songs!) coming of age and exploring growing it long and live in abandoned, rattheir sexuality. The ideological and emoinfested crash pad. Tries to ‘‘make a statetional turbulence caused by the Algerian ment’’ while wallowing in gratuitous violence. Aka SUBURBIA. [R]▼쩠 war is felt in a quiet boarding school with the arrival of a new French-Algerian stuWild Strawberries (1957-Swedish) 90m. ★★★★ dent, whose radical politics throw things D: Ingmar Bergman. Victor Sjostrom, into disarray. A multilayered story, masterIngrid Thulin, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar fully directed. Winner of four Ce´sar Awards Bjornstrand, Folke Sundquist, Bjorn Bjelincluding Best Picture. ▼●쩠 venstam. Elderly Stockholm professor reWild Ride, The (1960) 63m. ★1⁄2 D: Harviews the disappointments of his life, while vey Berman. Jack Nicholson, Georgianna traveling by car to receive an honorary Carter, Robert Bean. Amateurish lowdegree. Superb use of flashbacks and brilbudgeter about a hedonistic hot-rodder liant performance by Sjostrom make this who’s as casual about killing people as he Bergman classic an emotional powerhouse. is about stealing his buddy’s girlfriend. Still a staple of any serious filmgoer’s education.▼●쩠 Worth seeing only if you’re curious about this early Nicholson performance. Revised Wild Thing (1987) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Max for 2000 release as VELOCITY. ▼쩠 Reid. Rob Knepper, Kathleen Quinlan, Wild River (1960) C-110m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Robert Davi, Maury Chaykin, Betty BuckElia Kazan. Montgomery Clift, Lee Remick, ley. Misguided mishmash about a boy Jo Van Fleet, Albert Salmi, Jay C. Flippen, whose parents are murdered and who grows James Westerfield. Clift plays Tennessee up into a ‘‘wild thing’’ who protects street Valley Authority official trying to conpeople from the likes of arch-villain Davi. vince elderly Van Fleet to sell her property One would like to think that screenwriter for new projects. Kazan’s exquisite evocaJohn Sayles had more in mind for this fable than what turned out on screen. [PG-13] ▼ tion of 1930s Tennessee—and moving romance between Clift and Remick—give this Wild Things (1998) C-108m. ★★★ D: John film its strength. Bruce Dern makes his McNaughton. Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, film debut in supporting role. Screenplay Neve Campbell, Theresa Russell, Denise by Paul Osborn, from a novel by William Richards, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Robert Bradford Hine and Borden Deal. CinemaWagner, Bill Murray, Carrie Snodgress. In Scope. South Florida, high school counselor Dillon Wildrose (1984) C-95m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John is accused of rape by rich teenage sexpot Hanson. Lisa Eichhorn, Tom Bower, Jim Richards and her tattooed trailer-trash classCada, Cinda Jackson, Dan Nemanick, Bill mate Campbell. Cop Bacon suspects there’s Schoppert. Eichhorn excels in this vivid tale a plot behind it, and he’s right: this raunchy, of a female iron pit worker, both strong and entertaining neo-noir has more twists than insecure, who must deal with the resenta pretzel factory. Gorgeously photographed ment of her male co-workers—as well as (by Jeffrey L. Kimball) and well played, it a romance. Filmed in Minnesota, with the never takes itself too seriously. Murray is a landscape and its inhabitants carefully, alhoot as an ambulance-chasing shyster. Folmost lovingly, etched.▼ lowed by two in-name-only direct-to-video Wild Rovers (1971) C-109m. ★★★1⁄2 D: sequels. Unrated version runs 115m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Blake Edwards. William Holden, Ryan O’Neal, Karl Malden, Lynn Carlin, Tom Wild Thornberrys Movie, The (2002) C108m. ★★★ D: Jeff McGrath, Cathy MalkaSkerritt, Joe Don Baker, Rachel Roberts, Moses Gunn. Underrated Western about two sian. Voices of Lacey Chabert, Tom Kane, cowpokes who become fugitives after they Tim Curry, Lynn Redgrave, Jodi Carlisle, rob a bank on whim. Choppy script seems Danielle Harris, Flea, Rupert Everett, Marunimportant in light of Holden’s performance, isa Tomei, Alfre Woodard, Brock Peters, incredibly lyrical scenes. Edwards’ origiBrenda Blethyn, Obba Babatunde´, Kevin nal 136m. version has finally been restored Michael Richardson. Eliza Thornberry and released, which may boost the film’s thrives on life in the African wild with her maligned reputation. Panavision. [PG]▼● documentary-filmmaker parents, especially Wild Seed, The (1965) 99m. ★★★ D: Brian after she discovers she can talk to animals— Hutton. Michael Parks, Celia Kaye, Ross but her grandmother insists she be sent to Elliott, Woodrow Chambliss, Eva Novak. boarding school in England. Handsome, Arty yet gripping story of runaway Kaye well-written feature based on the hip, funny [ 1551 ]

(and environmentally conscious) TV series, ond floor of Glover’s home resembles Norwith good songs by Paul Simon and Peter man Bates’ digs, writer/director Morgan has Gabriel. Followed by RUGRATS GO obviously studied his Hitchcock. Not without WILD. Digital Widescreen. [PG] ▼쩠 style but stretched beyond all limits, film isn’t Wild West (1992-British) C-85m. ★★1⁄2 D: quite bad enough to make you use ‘‘rats!’’ as David Attwood. Naveen Andrews, Sarita an expletive. ‘‘Pleh!’’ is more like it. Bruce Choudhury, Ronny Jhutti, Ravi Kapoor, Davison, who starred in the original film, has Ameet Chana. A Pakistani living in a Lonan unbilled cameo. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 don suburb encounters typical (and not-soWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer typical) problems when he tries to put toNight’s Dream SEE: Midsummer Night’s gether a country-western band. Funny and Dream, A (1999) colorful film plays on its offbeat characters William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and backdrop to dodge the fact that the story SEE: Romeo & Juliet (1996) is actually the same old breaking-into-showWilliam Shakespeare’s The Merchant of biz warhorse.▼ Venice SEE: Merchant of Venice, The Wild Westerners, The (1962) C-70m. Willie and Joe Back at the Front SEE: ★1 ⁄2 D: Oscar Rudolph. James Philbrook, Back at the Front Nancy Kovack, Duane Eddy, Guy MitchWillie and Phil (1980) C-115m. ★★★ D: ell. Humdrum account of marshal and new Paul Mazursky. Michael Ontkean, Margot wife overcoming obstacles to bring gold Kidder, Ray Sharkey, Jan Miner, Tom east for Yankee cause.▼ Brennan, Julie Bovasso, Louis Guss, KathWild, Wild Planet (1965-Italian) C-93m. leen Maguire, Kaki Hunter, Larry Fishburne, ★1 ⁄2 D: Anthony Dawson (Antonio MarNatalie Wood. Affectionate, perceptive, gheriti). Tony Russel, Lisa Gastoni, Massimo underrated retelling of JULES AND JIM. Serato, Franco Nero, Carlo Giustini. FeOntkean and Sharkey meet after a screenmale alien uses robots to gain control of ing of the Truffaut classic, become fast earth scientists by shrinking them. Fairly pals, then friends and lovers of free-spirited good ending does not redeem lackluster Kidder. A wistful tale of how chance enfilm. Made at same time as WAR OF THE counters alter lives, how camaraderie bePLANETS and other losers.● tween friends is everlasting, how men Wild Wild West (1999) C-107m. ★1⁄2 D: always do the asking but women do the deciding. [R]▼● Barry Sonnenfeld. Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, Ted LevWillie Dynamite (1974) C-102m. ★★★ D: ine, M. Emmett Walsh, Bai Ling, FrederGilbert Moses. Roscoe Orman, Diana ique van der Wal, Musetta Vander. Rehash Sands, Thalmus Rasulala, Roger Robinof 1960s TV series finds special agents son, George Murdock. Good black actioner James West (Smith) and inventor Artemus set in N.Y.C., with Orman as a pimp out Gordon (Kline) on a special mission for to topple big-shot Robinson, an outrageous President Grant to capture nefarious bad homosexual. Sands is fine in her last film. [R]▼쩠 guy Arliss Loveless (Branagh). Overstuffed with visual gimmickry, but leaden in every Willow (1988) C-125m. ★★★ D: Ron Howway. You can hear the banter landing with a ard. Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, Warthud every few minutes. [PG-13]▼●쩠 wick Davis, Jean Marsh, Patricia Hayes, Wild, Wild Winter (1966) C-80m. ★★ D: Billy Barty, Pat Roach, Kevin Pollak. RolLennie Weinrib. Gary Clarke, Chris Noel, licking fantasy-adventure, from a story by Steve Franken, Don Edmonds. Light-headed George Lucas (not hard to guess, since it ski-slope musical froth, with guest stars follows a definite STAR WARS formula) Jay and The Americans, The Beau Brumabout a little person (Davis) who takes on mels, Dick and Dee Dee. Techniscope. the challenge of shepherding an abandoned Willard (1971) C-95m. ★★ D: Daniel baby to its place of destiny—where it will Mann. Bruce Davison, Elsa Lanchester, destroy the evil powers of Queen Bavmorda Ernest Borgnine, Sondra Locke, Michael (Marsh). Plenty of action, humor, and eyeDante, J. Pat O’Malley, Jody Gilbert, Joan filling special effects, though a bit intense at Shawlee. Touching story of a boy and his times for the youngsters at whom it’s tarrats captured public’s fancy at the box geted. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 office, but film’s lack of style prevents it Will Penny (1968) C-108m. ★★★1⁄2 D: from being anything more than a secondTom Gries. Charlton Heston, Joan Hackett, rate thriller. Remade in 2003. Sequel: BEN. Donald Pleasence, Lee Majors, Bruce Dern, [PG]▼● Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens, Anthony Zerbe, Willard (2003) C-100m. ★★ D: Glen MorClifton James. One of the best films on the gan. Crispin Glover, R. Lee Ermey, Laura cowboy/loner ever to come out of HollyElena Harring, Jackie Burroughs. As if eating wood. Heston’s character is one of great Ernest Borgnine in the ’71 version weren’t strength; supporting actors are exceptional. enough of a feast, those pesky rodents are back. Written by director Gries. Memorable score Glover is the put-upon misfit who finds rats to by David Raksin.▼●쩠 be his only friends. Given how much the secWill Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) [ 1552 ]

C-94m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Tashlin. Tony series of interrelated episodes, leading to Randall, Jayne Mansfield, Betsy Drake, memorable shootout among rock-strewn Joan Blondell, John Williams, Henry Jones, hills. First-rate in every way, this landMickey Hargitay. Guest star, Groucho mark film was largely responsible for reMarx. Clever satire uses George Axelrod newed popularity of Westerns in the 1950s. play about ad man who tries to persuade Script by Robert L. Richards and Borden glamorous star to endorse Stay-Put LipChase, from a story by Stuart N. Lake. stick as springboard for scattershot satire Beautifully photographed by William Danon 1950s morals, television, sex, busiiels; remade for TV in 1967.▼●쩠 ness, etc. Director-writer Tashlin in peak Wind, The (1928) 88m. ★★★★ D: Victor form. CinemaScope.▼●쩠 Seastrom. Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, MonWilly McBean and His Magic Machine tagu Love, Dorothy Cumming, Edward Earle, (1965-Japanese) C-94m. ★★1⁄2 D: Arthur William Orlamond. Virgin Virginian Gish Rankin, Jr. Voices of Larry Mann, Billie battles the elements in a barren dustbowl Richards, Alfie Scopp, Paul Ligman. Puppet town—marrying on the rebound a man who novelty item about mad professor and his disgusts her, shooting the lout who rapes time machine; OK for kids.▼ her. Probably Gish’s greatest vehicle—and Willy Milly SEE: Something Special one of the last great silents—with a splenWilly Wonka and the Chocolate Factory didly staged climactic desert storm se(1971) C-98m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mel Stuart. Gene quence. Written by Frances Marion, from Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Dorothy Scarborough’s novel. ▼● Kinnear, Aubrey Woods, Michael Bollner, Wind, The (1987) C-92m. BOMB D: Ursula Reit. Adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Nico Mastorakis. Meg Foster, Wings book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Hauser, David McCallum, Robert Morley, has all the ingredients of classic fantasy. Steve Railsback. Good cast is wasted in oldEnigmatic Wilder gives kids a tour of his fashioned thriller about mystery writer Foster mystery-shrouded candy factory, but cruel terrorized by Hauser in her spooky house in edge taints film’s enjoyment. Anthony Greece. Unconvincing structure has hero Newley–Leslie Bricusse score includes Railsback injected artificially into the story in later reels. Released direct to video.▼쩠 ‘‘Candy Man.’’ Scripted by Dahl, with eyepopping sets by Harper Goff. Remade in Wind (1992) C-125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Carroll 2005 as CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOBallard. Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey, LATE FACTORY. [G]▼●쩠 Cliff Robertson, Jack Thompson, Stellan Wimbledon (2004-British) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 Skarsgard, Rebecca Miller, Ned Vaughn. D: Richard Loncraine. Kirsten Dunst, Paul Enjoyable if overly formulaic tale of comBettany, Sam Neill, Jon Favreau, Bernard petitive yacht racing, about young people Hill, Eleanor Bron, Austin Nichols, Robert determined to build their own craft and Lindsay, Celia Imrie, James McAvoy. Oldreclaim the America’s Cup from Australia. fashioned romantic movie about two tennis Story takes a back seat to the sailing sechampions, one past his prime (Bettany), quences, breathtakingly photographed by the other a rising star (Dunst), who fall for John Toll. [PG-13]▼●쩠 each other while competing at the WimbleWind Across the Everglades (1958) don tournament. Bettany is endearing and C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Nicholas Ray. Burl Ives, his chemistry with Dunst bolsters a pleasant Christopher Plummer, Gypsy Rose Lee, but predictable script. Several famous tennis George Voskovec, Tony Galento, Emmett stars make cameos. Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Kelly, Chana Eden, MacKinlay Kantor. Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! (2004) Oddball cast in even odder story of boozy C-96m. ★★1⁄2 D: Robert Luketic. Kate Bosturn-of-the-century Florida game warden worth, Topher Grace, Josh Duhamel, Ginnifer (Plummer) who takes it upon himself to rid Goodwin, Nathan Lane, Sean Hayes, Gary the area of poachers. Matchup of director Cole, Kathryn Hahn. Cute comedy about a Ray and writer-producer Budd Schulberg starstruck girl from West Virginia who wins a makes this a genuine curio. Peter Falk date with her favorite Hollywood heartthrob, makes his film debut in a small role. much to the dismay of her best friend (Grace), Wind and the Lion, The (1975) C-119m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Milius. Sean Connery, Candice who’s never had the nerve to tell her he loves her. Slight at best, but put over by a winning Bergen, Brian Keith, John Huston, Geoffrey cast that plays it for real, with no cynicism in Lewis, Steve Kanaly, Vladek Sheybal. Milius sight. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 brings modern sensibilities to an old-fashWinchester ’73 (1950) 92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: ioned adventure-romance, with uneven results. Anthony Mann. James Stewart, Shelley Connery is Moroccan sheik who kidnaps Winters, Dan Duryea, Stephen McNally, American woman and her children, sparking Charles Drake, Millard Mitchell, John international incident in which Teddy RooseMcIntire, Will Geer, Jay C. Flippen, Rock velt (Keith) becomes involved. Loosely based Hudson, Anthony (Tony) Curtis. Excepon a true incident. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 tional Western story of Stewart tracking Wind Chill (2007) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gregory down a man—and his stolen rifle—through Jacobs. Emily Blunt, Ashton Holmes, Martin [ 1553 ]

Donovan, Ned Bellamy, Chelan Simmons. WW2, two Marines are given the job of proOld-fashioned supernatural chiller in which tecting a pair of Navajo code talkers (Beach, two college students sharing a ride home for Willie) at all costs during the bloody battle of Christmas take a shortcut, break down on the Saipan. Opportunity to learn about the Navajoside of the road, and have a series of ghostly inspired code operation is squandered, as encounters. Director Jacobs eschews CGI Cage’s shell-shocked character takes center ghost effects for character development, good stage instead. Cliche´d dialogue with homesick performances, and slow-building, eerily evocsoldiers is the only respite from endless shots ative scares (turning the song ‘‘Rockin’ of gruesome combat violence. Director’s cut runs 153m. Super 35. [R] ▼쩠 Around the Christmas Tree’’ into an effective harbinger of dread). Falls apart in its last third, Wind That Shakes the Barley, The (2006but it’s easy to forgive a movie that in its first Irish-British-German-Italian-Spanish-French) hour actually makes your spine tingle. Super C-127m. ★★★ D: Kenneth Loach. Cillian 35. [R]쩠 Murphy, Padraic Delaney, Liam CunningWind in the Willows, The (1997-British) ham, Orla Fitzgerald, Mary O’Riordan, C-83m. ★★★ D: Terry Jones. Steve Coogan, Mary Murphy, Laurence Barry. Simple, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Antony Sher, Nicol powerful slice of Irish history, set in the Williamson, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Berearly 1920s, dramatizes the transformation nard Hill, Julia Sawalha. Charming, veddy of a young doctor (Murphy) from passive British adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s citizen to Irish Republican Army guerrilla classic children’s story in which Rat, Badger, warrior. Scenario, penned by frequent and Mole team up to save their wealthy, reckLoach collaborator Paul Laverty, reflects less friend Toad from losing his estate. Benethe belief that those who are subjugated fits from creative reteaming of many Monty must acknowledge their plight, organize Python members; Jones not only wrote and themselves, and fight their oppressors . . . no matter the personal toll.쩠 directed but plays Toad with wild comic abandon. Williamson lends excellent support Windwalker (1980) C-108m. ★★1⁄2 D: as the blustery Badger. James Acheson’s cosKieth Merrill. Trevor Howard, Nick Ratumes and production design are wittily on mus, James Remar, Serene Hedin, Dusty target. Kids and adults alike should enjoy this. Iron Wing McCrea. Indian patriarch HowAka MR. TOAD’S WILD RIDE. [G]▼쩠 ard returns to life to save his family from Window, The (1949) 73m. ★★★ D: Ted the vengeance of his son, a twin who was Tetzlaff. Bobby Driscoll, Barbara Hale, Arstolen at birth and raised by an enemy tribe. thur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman. Curious casting of Howard; however, the Sleeper film less impressive now than in Utah scenery is glorious in this unusual West1949; still good, with young Driscoll earning ern. Filmed in the Cheyenne and Crow lana special Academy Award for his perforguages, and subtitled. [PG]▼쩠 mance as a little boy who witnesses a murder Wind Will Carry Us, The (1999-Iranianand is unable to convince his parents he’s not French) C-118m. ★★★ D: Abbas Kiarostami. lying. Parents’ dialogue weakens credibility, Behzad Dourani. An engineer from Tehran but suspense still mounts; extremely well photravels to a remote mountain village in Iratographed (by William Steiner) and staged. nian Kurdistan, claiming to be an archaeoloBased on a story by Cornell Woolrich. Regist looking for buried treasure. In reality, made as THE BOY CRIED MURDER and he is part of a film crew that is secretly CLOAK AND DAGGER (1984).▼ planning to record a local funeral ceremony Windows (1980) C-96m. BOMB D: Gorritual surrounding a 100-year-old woman don Willis. Elizabeth Ashley, Talia Shire, who is dying. Slow, haunting, and poetic Joseph Cortese, Kay Medford. Homicidal meditation on mortality features some surlesbian Ashley is in love with mousy neighprisingly humorous moments; breathtakbor Shire, who is in turn in love with bland ingly filmed in the tiny village of Siah detective Cortese. Reactionary, offensive Dareh, whose residents make up most of the thriller whose only element of mystery is cast. Written by the director.쩠 why it was ever filmed. Directing debut for Windy City (1984) C-102m. ★★ D: Armyan gifted cinematographer Willis. [R] Bernstein. John Shea, Kate Capshaw, Josh Mostel, Jim Borrelli, Jeffrey DeMunn, Windrider (1986-Australian) C-92m. ★★1⁄2 D: Vincent Monton. Tom Burlinson, NiLewis J. Stadlen. Promising but uneven cole Kidman, Charles Tingwell, Jill Perryfilm flashes back to last hurrah for some man, Simon Chilvers. Windsurfer Burlinson youthful pals whose lives haven’t turned and rock star Kidman become romantiout quite as they’d hoped or planned. Writer cally involved. Occasionally appealing, but Bernstein (making directorial debut) inslight and forgettable. [R]▼ vades BIG CHILL/SECAUCUS 7 territory Windtalkers (2002) C-134m. ★★ D: John with extremely mixed results. [R]▼● Woo. Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Christian Wing Commander (1999) C-99m. ★1⁄2 D: Slater, Peter Stormare, Noah Emmerich, Mark Chris Roberts. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Saffron Ruffalo, Brian Van Holt, Roger Willie, FranBurrows, Matthew Lillard, Tche´ky Karyo, ces O’Connor, Martin Henderson. During Ju¨rgen Prochnow, David Suchet, David [ 1554 ]

Warner. In a 27th-century space war beslapstick comedy, with no sense of period tween humans and aliens, the outcome turns detail, then abruptly changes to drama for out to depend on a single fighter pilot. Wellbalance of film. Very mixed bag; film produced, with lots of CGI effects, but inbuffs will have fun watching Bond play stantly forgettable trifle based on a com‘‘John Dodge,’’ spoofing director Ford.▼쩠 puter game. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wings of the Dove, The (1997-BritishWinged Migration (2001-French-GermanU.S.) C-101m. ★★1⁄2 D: Iain Softley. Helena Spanish-Italian-Swiss) C-91m. ★★★ D: Jacques Bonham Carter, Linus Roache, Alison Elliott, Perrin. The producer of MICROCOSMOS Charlotte Rampling, Elizabeth McGovern, turns director to explore birds in flight, using Michael Gambon, Alex Jennings. Exquisite revolutionary filming techniques to make us but emotionally uneven film (from the Henry feel as if we’re right alongside them (not to James novel) about a young woman torn bemention above, below, behind, and in front). tween her love for a working man (Roache) The film homes in on various species as they and her desire for wealth and position . . . migrate on a seasonal basis in order to surcomplicated by her growing friendship with vive, often spanning oceans and entire cona rich, guileless American woman (Elliott). tinents. Impressive and eye-opening, though Sophisticated and intelligent, but the characwithout a narrative thrust one’s interest can ters’ vacillations and ambiguous feelings lag at times. [G]▼쩠 make it difficult to empathize with anyone. Winged Serpent, The SEE: Q Venice has never been portrayed so beautiWings (1927) 139m. ★★1⁄2 D: William A. fully, or romantically. Gambon and McGovern have thankless roles. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 Wellman. Clara Bow, Charles ‘‘Buddy’’ Rogers, Richard Arlen, Jobyna Ralston, Gary CooWinner, The (1997) C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Alex per, El Brendel. One of the most famous silent Cox. Rebecca De Mornay, Vincent D’Onofilms is, alas, not one of the best, despite rosefrio, Michael Madsen, Billy Bob Thornton, colored memories. Story of two all-American Delroy Lindo, Frank Whaley, Richard Edson. boys (in love with the same girl) who enlist When word gets out that a loner (D’Onofrio) in the Army Air Corps during WW1 is much wins consistently, every Sunday night at a too thin to sustain such a long movie. What’s low-rent Las Vegas casino, the leeches begin important here are the combat flying seto gather around him, including a sexy nightquences, among the best in Hollywood hisclub singer, an opportunistic thief from out of tory. First Oscar winner as Best Picture.▼● town, and his own homicidal brother. InterestWings of Courage (1995) C-40m. ★★ D: ing fable with a first-rate cast. De Mornay also Jean-Jacques Annaud. Craig Sheffer, Elizabeth coexecutive-produced. Debuted on cable TV McGovern, Tom Hulce, Val Kilmer, Ken before theatrical run. ▼● Pogue, Ron Sauve, Molly Parker. Beautiful Winner Take All (1932) 68m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roy scenery aside, this is a lumbering, boring trueDel Ruth. James Cagney, Virginia Bruce, life adventure in which pioneer aviator Henri Marian Nixon, Guy Kibbee, Alan Mowbray, Guillaumet (Sheffer) must fight for survival in Dickie Moore. Minor but engaging Cagney the Andes after his plane is forced down while vehicle with Jimmy as a thick-witted, cocky on a mail run circa 1930. Dramatically speakprizefighter torn between good-girl Nixon and ing, it’s about as lively as a 1930s Monogram fickle society-girl Bruce. Look fast for George programmer. Of note as the first fiction film Raft as night club bandleader. Winning (1969) C-123m. ★★★ D: James made in IMAX 3-D. Annaud coscripted. [G]▼ Wings of Desire (1988-West GermanGoldstone. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, French) C/B&W-130m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Wim Richard Thomas, Robert Wagner, David Wenders. Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Sheiner, Clu Gulager. Above average racing Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk. Hauntstory of man who will let nothing stand in the ing, lyrical, fascinating meditation/fairy tale way of track victory. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 about a pair of angels who wander through Winning Team, The (1952) 98m. ★★1⁄2 the streets of West Berlin. They observe life D: Lewis Seiler. Doris Day, Ronald Reagan, around them and ponder what it would be like Frank Lovejoy, Eve Miller, James Millican, to be human. Scripted by Wenders and Peter Rusty Tamblyn. Biography of baseball Handke and inspired in part by some Rainer pitching great Grover Cleveland Alexander Maria Rilke poems. A must-see. Sequel: focuses on his relationship with supportive FARAWAY, SO CLOSE! Remade as CITY wife whose ‘‘teamwork’’ helps Alexander through problems with alcoholism and lack of OF ANGELS. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wings of Eagles, The (1957) C-110m. confidence. Reagan is fine as the Hall of Fame ★★1 ⁄2 D: John Ford. John Wayne, Maureen hurler and film boasts good reenactments of O’Hara, Dan Dailey, Ward Bond, Ken Alexander’s legendary 1926 World Series heCurtis, Edmund Lowe, Kenneth Tobey, roics. Cameo appearances by real-life big Sig Ruman. Biography of Frank ‘‘Spig’’ leaguers Bob Lemon, Peanuts Lowrey, Hank Wead, pioneer WW1 aviator who later Sauer, Gene Mauch, and others.▼●쩠 turned to screenwriting (including AIR Win, Place or Steal (1975) C-81m. ★★ D: MAIL and THEY WERE EXPENDABLE Richard Bailey. Dean Stockwell, Russ for Ford) after an accident; first half is Tamblyn, Alex Karras, McLean Steven[ 1555 ]

son, Alan Oppenheimer, Kristina Holland. Zorilla. Christian Vadim, Dizzy Gillespie, OK racetrack caper comedy, with Tamblyn Helene de Saint-Pere, Eusebio Poncela, and Karras doing a Laurel and Hardy. Fernando Guillen. Disjointed, turgid acAka THE BIG PAYOFF. [PG]▼ count of jazz pianist Vadim and his torrid Winslow Boy, The (1948-British) 117m. affair with deceitful de Saint-Pere. Of in★★★1 ⁄2 D: Anthony Asquith. Robert Donat, terest solely for Gillespie’s bright presence Margaret Leighton, Cedric Hardwicke, as an aging, expatriate American jazzman. Francis L. Sullivan, Frank Lawton, Basil Winter Kills (1979) C-97m. ★★1⁄2 D: WilRadford, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Ernest liam Richert. Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Thesiger. Superior courtroom melodrama Anthony Perkins, Sterling Hayden, Eli Walfrom Terence Rattigan’s play, headed by lach, Belinda Bauer, Richard Boone, Ralph Donat as barrister defending innocent NaMeeker, Dorothy Malone, Toshiro Mifune, val cadet (Neil North) accused of school Tomas Milian, Elizabeth Taylor. Younger theft. Script by Rattigan and Anatole de brother of an assassinated U.S. President Grunwald. Remade in 1999.▼ tries to solve the case, opens up several Winslow Boy, The (1999) C-110m. ★★★ D: cans of political worms. A failure in 1979, David Mamet. Nigel Hawthorne, Rebecca it was reedited in 1983 (with original ending Pidgeon, Jeremy Northam, Gemma Jones, restored) and newly appreciated as a black Guy Edwards, Matthew Pidgeon, Colin comedy, which not everybody recognized Stinton, Aden Gillett. Absorbing remake of the first time around. Still wildly uneven, the Terence Rattigan play about a boy in but worth a look, if only for Huston’s won1910 England who’s expelled from school derful performance as Bridges’ kingpin fafor a petty theft. His father determines to ther. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 clear his good name—nearly sacrificing his Winter Light (1963-Swedish) 80m. ★★★1⁄2 family in the process. As much about social D: Ingmar Bergman. Ingrid Thulin, Gunnar mores and conventions as the case itself, Bjornstrand, Max von Sydow, Gunnel Lindthis even-handed film benefits from a superblom, Allan Edwall. A difficult film for nonlative performance by Hawthorne as the Bergman buffs, this look at a disillusioned head of the Winslow household. Neil North, priest in a small village is the second of Bergwho plays the First Lord of the Admiralty, man’s trilogy on faith (the first, THROUGH was the boy in the 1948 movie. [G]▼쩠 A GLASS DARKLY; the third, THE SI★★ D: Winter a` Go-Go (1965) C-88m. LENCE). Powerful, penetrating drama.▼●쩠 Richard Benedict. James Stacy, William Winter Meeting (1948) 104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Wellman, Jr., Beverly Adams, Jill Donohue, Bretaigne Windust. Bette Davis, Janis Julie Parrish. Lowbrow shenanigans at a ski Paige, James (Jim) Davis, John Hoyt, Florresort run by Stacy for the young, affluent set. ence Bates. Sluggish script of disillusioned Winter Guest, The (1997-British-U.S.) poetess who loves embittered war hero, C-110m. ★★★ D: Alan Rickman. Phyllida Law, prevents well-acted film from achieving Emma Thompson, Gary Hollywood, Arlene greater heights. Notable as only romantic Cockburn, Sheila Reid, Sandra Voe, Douglas lead for Jim Davis, better known for his Murphy, Sean Biggerstaff. A Scottish seaside Westerns and TV series Dallas.▼ town is frozen over—as is the ocean itself— Winter of Our Dreams, The (1981on a wintry day during which four relationships Australian) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Duigan. are explored: a young widow and her mother, Judy Davis, Bryan Brown, Cathy Downes, who’s trying to break through her daughter’s Baz Luhrmann, Peter Mochrie, Mervyn defensive shield; the widow’s teenage son, Drake. Davis is fine as a lonely prostitute who experiences his first sexual encounter; who becomes involved with dissatisfied booktwo older women whose hobby is attending shop-owner Brown, married to Downes. funerals; and a couple of boys playing hooky. Intriguing drama is a bit disjointed, particAn incredibly quiet, concentrated film— ularly near the finale.▼ which, perhaps, goes on too long. Based on a Winter Passing (2006) C-98m. ★1⁄2 D: Adam play, coadapted by Rickman (making his feaRapp. Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Daniel ture directing debut). Law and Thompson are Larson, Will Ferrell, Deirdre O’Connell, Rareal-life mother and daughter. [R]▼●쩠 chel Dratch, Amy Madigan, Mandy Siegfried, Winterhawk (1976) C-98m. ★★ D: Charles Amelia Warner, Dallas Roberts, Sam BotB. Pierce. Michael Dante, Leif Erickson, toms. Uninvolving misfire about an actress Woody Strode, Denver Pyle, Elisha Cook Jr., who is offered big bucks to produce long-lost L. Q. Jones, Arthur Hunnicutt, Dawn Wells. love letters written by her reclusive novelist Well-meaning but overly melodramatic story father to her deceased mother. When she of Blackfoot Indian brave (Dante) who comes travels back home she discovers there are to white man for smallpox serum, is attacked new influences in his life she never knew instead, and gets revenge by kidnapping two about. Snail-paced drama can’t gather drawhite youngsters. Quite violent at times. matic momentum as talented actors fail to Techniscope. [PG]▼ gel as a believable family. Normally reliable Winter in Lisbon (1990-Spanish-FrenchHarris chews the scenery and Deschanel Portuguese) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Jose Antonio [ 1556 ]

mumbles. This winter takes a looooooong John Huston. Brad Dourif, Daniel Shor, Amy time to pass. [R]쩠 Wright, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, Winter People (1989) C-110m. ★★ D: Mary Nell Santacroce. Brilliant translation of Ted Kotcheff. Kurt Russell, Kelly McGillis, Flannery O’Connor’s peculiar hell-andLloyd Bridges, Mitchell Ryan, Amelia Bursalvation tale. Flawless cast, led by Dourif nette, Eileen Ryan, Jeffrey Meek. Turgid as obsessed preacher of The Church Without tale of backwoods clans and a blood feud Christ, inhabits Southern Gothic world as that flares up when McGillis bears a child though born in it. Huston (who bills himself with the wrong father. Set in the 1930s, here as Jhon Huston) appears as a preacher. Screenplay by Benedict Fitzgerald. [PG]▼쩠 but extremely odd by any period’s standards; how it came to be made in 1989 is Wise Guys (1986) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: Brian anyone’s guess. Overwrought, to say the De Palma. Danny DeVito, Joe Piscopo, least. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Harvey Keitel, Ray Sharkey, Dan Hedaya, Winter Rates SEE: Out of Season Captain Lou Albano, Julie Bovasso, Patti Winter Solstice (2005) C-93m. ★★★ D: LuPone. Whimsical black comedy (that’s Josh Sternfeld. Anthony LaPaglia, Aaron what we said) about two losers who work Stanford, Mark Webber, Michelle Mofor small-time hood in Newark, N.J. When naghan, Allison Janney, Brendan Sexton III, their efforts to double-cross him fail, he sets Ron Livingston. Subdued but well-observed them up to kill each other. Unsuccessful slice of life about a widower and his two change of pace for director De Palma is an sons, one of whom is itching to set off on almost total misfire; buoyed only by DeVito’s comic energy. [R]▼쩠 his own. Looks, glances, and body language tell as much as dialogue in this simple film Wishful Thinking (1999) C-90m. ★★ D: about a family still reeling from loss yet Adam Park. Jennifer Beals, James Le Gros, inextricably tied to one another. LaPaglia Drew Barrymore, Jon Stewart, Eric Thal, is terrific as always; he also coexecutiveMel Gorham. A N.Y.C.-based movie about produced. Debut feature for writer-director relationships, told in overlapping ‘‘chapSternfeld. [R]쩠 ters,’’ as paranoiacally jealous Le Gros keeps Winter’s Tale, The (1968-British) Cfinding ways to drive his lover (Beals) ★★ 151m. away . . . with a little help from his lovesick D: Frank Dunlop. Laurence Harvey, Jane Asher, Diana Churchill, Moira Redfriend Barrymore. Makes clever use of footmond, Jim Dale. Filmed record of 1966 age from an old Steve Cochran movie. Edinburgh Festival presentation of ShakeNever released theatrically. [R]▼쩠 speare’s play is as static as a photographed Wishmaster (1997) C-90m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert stage play can be. Kurtzman. Tammy Lauren, Andrew Divoff, Wired (1989) C-108m. BOMB D: Larry Chris Lemmon, Wendy Benson, Tony Peerce. Michael Chiklis, Ray Sharkey, Crane, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd, Robert J. T. Walsh, Patti D’Arbanville, Lucinda Englund, Ted Raimi. An evil djinn (genie to Jenney, Alex Rocco, Gary Groomes, Jere you) is freed from captivity in a gem and Burns, Billy Preston. The film fiasco of its sets out to grant (backfiring) wishes while year, a numbingly wrongheaded adaptation of seeking Lauren, because granting her Bob Woodward’s best-selling cautionary bio wishes will enable him to destroy the of John Belushi—complete with a cab-driving world . . . or something. The mythology guardian angel (Sharkey). Chiklis looks a little is too complex, the story too thin, and the like Belushi but conveys none of his comic plentiful gore mostly gratuitous. Followed by three direct-to-video sequels. [R] ▼●쩠 genius in some clumsy Saturday Night Live recreations. Walsh, as Woodward, is an unWish You Were Here (1987-British) C-92m. ★★★ D: David Leland. Emily Lloyd, intentional howl with the decade’s most constipated performance. Sole cast surviTom Bell, Clare Clifford, Barbara Durkin, vor: D’Arbanville as Cathy Smith, the Geoffrey Hutchings, Charlotte Barker, woman who administered the star’s fatal Chloe Leland, Jesse Birdsall, Geoffrey Durdrug overdose. [R]▼● ham, Pat Heywood. A troubled teenage Wisdom (1986) C-109m. BOMB D: Emilio girl expresses herself by being sexually Estevez. Emilio Estevez, Demi Moore, outrageous—without understanding what Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, William the consequences might be. Bittersweet Allen Young, Richard Minchenberg, Ernie film set in early 1950s England with a Brown. Recent grad Estevez can’t find work knockout performance by 16-year-old because of a long-ago felony on his record; Lloyd. Strong directing debut for screenfrustration launches him and girlfriend Moore writer Leland, who based his central charon a cross-country series of bank heists to aid acter on Cynthia Payne, the young madam the American farmer’s plight. Robert Wise depicted in PERSONAL SERVICES, which assisted Estevez on the direction, which is he wrote. [R]▼●쩠 certainly more competent than his wretched Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap, The (1947) 78m. ★★1⁄2 D: Charles Barton. Bud script; film has one of the most self-defeating Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Main, wrapups you’ll ever see. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★★ Wise Blood (1979) C-108m. George Cleveland, Gordon Jones, William ⁄2 D: [ 1557 ]

Ching, Peter Thompson, Glenn Strange, Veronica Cartwright, Richard Jenkins, Keith Audrey Young. Unusual Western spoof for Jochim, Carel Struycken. Lively, colorful A&C, inspired by real-life law: Lou is acfantasy about three man-hungry women in cused of killing a man, and is required to picture-postcard New England town who, take care of his wife (Main) and children unaware of their witchly powers, conjure (seven). He then becomes sheriff, conup the ultimate man: the devil. Magnetic vinced that no one will dare kill him. Some performances and handsome production slow spots, but overall, fun.▼쩠 keep it entertaining throughout, though it Witchboard (1985) C-98m. ★★ D: Kevin careens wildly from sensual fantasy to S. Tenney. Todd Allen, Tawny Kitaen, black-comic farce to full-throttle horror, Stephen Nicholas, Kathleen Wilhoite, Burke and ends up not making a lot of sense. Byrnes, Rose Marie, Susan Nickerson. StanBuoyed by an infectious John Williams dard low-budget horror film with a few twists. score. Loosely based on John Updike’s novel. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 An evil spirit, contacted by means of a Ouija board (a ‘‘witchboard’’), impersonates the Witches of Salem, The SEE: Crucible, ghost of a small boy to kill its victims. Well The (1956) plotted but routinely directed and acted. FolWitchfinder General, The SEE: Conlowed by a whole bunch of sequels connected queror Worm only by the Ouija board. [R]▼●쩠 Witching, The SEE: Necromancy Witchcraft (1964-British) 79m. ★★ D: Don Witch Without a Broom, A (1968-Spanish) Sharp. Lon Chaney (Jr.), Jack Hedley, Jill C-78m. ★1⁄2 D: Joe Lacy (Jose Maria E. Dixon, Viola Keats. Standard plot of witch Lorrieta). Jeffrey Hunter, Maria Perschy, cult happenings in English village after Perla Cristal, Gustavo Rojo. Jeff finds grave of 300-year-old witch is unearthed.쩠 himself bewitched by a 15th-century apWitchery (1989-Italian) C-96m. BOMB prentice sorceress who takes him on an D: Martin Newlin (Fabrizio Laurenti). Linda odyssey from the Stone Age to a futuristic Blair, David Hasselhoff, Catherine HickMartian jaunt. Pointless fantasy.▼ land, Annie Ross, Hildegard Knef, Leslie With a Friend Like Harry . . . (2000Cumming, Rick Farnsworth. Competently French) C-117m. ★★★ D: Dominik Moll. made but ponderous, underplotted horror Laurent Lucas, Sergi Lopez, Mathilde Seigtale of people isolated at old hotel on island, ner, Sophie Guillemin. Hitchcockian thriller killed one by one by vengeful witch Knef. (in the best sense of that term) in which a Horror scenes emphasize torture. Uncomchance encounter with a barely remembered fortable, predictable, and boring. Filmed in high school classmate causes great consterMassachusetts.▼쩠 nation for a family on vacation as he insinuWitches, The (1990-British) C-91m. ★★★ ates himself into their lives. Wickedly funny D: Nicolas Roeg. Anjelica Huston, Mai and scary at the same time; a psychological Zetterling, Jasen Fisher, Rowan Atkinson, exercise in suspense. Winner of four Ce´sar Bill Paterson, Jane Horrocks, Jenny RunAwards, including Best Actor for Lopez. acre, Brenda Blethyn. A young boy’s seaSuper 35. [R]▼쩠 side vacation turns into a nightmare when With a Song in My Heart (1952) C-117m. ★★★ D: Walter Lang. Susan Hayward, Rory he discovers that the hotel is also hosting a convention of witches! Roald Dahl stories Calhoun, David Wayne, Thelma Ritter, can be cruel, and this is no exception, but Robert Wagner, Una Merkel. Well-intenas a far-flung child’s-eye fantasy it’s pretty tioned schmaltz based on events in life of good. Zetterling is wonderful as the boy’s singer Jane Froman with Hayward earnest loving grandmother; Jim Henson’s Creature as songstress struggling to make comeback Shop provided the incredible-looking after crippling plane crash. Alfred Newman witches—and mice. This was Henson’s won an Oscar for Scoring.쩠 final feature-film project. [PG]▼●쩠 With Byrd at the South Pole (1930) Witches’ Brew (1980) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: 82m. ★★★ D: (none credited). The title Richard Shorr, Herbert L. Strock. Lana tells all in this fascinating document of Turner, Richard Benjamin, Teri Garr, KathU.S. Navy Rear-Admiral Richard E. Byrd, ryn Leigh Scott, Jordan Charney. College his crew, and their journey by sea from prof Benjamin’s wife Garr resorts to witchN.Y.C. to the Antarctic, culminating with craft in order to further his career. Turner his Polar flight. Film plays as part histori(in her final film) is good as the veteran cal record, part promotional film hyping witch who has selfish reasons for helping Byrd (complete with rah-rah narration in Benjamin’s cause. After a dull first half, this the final sequence). Despite this, it’s still a comic remake of BURN, WITCH, BURN remarkable film. William Van der Veer finally hits its stride. Originally done as and Joseph T. Rucker’s stunning cinematography earned an Academy Award.▼●쩠 WEIRD WOMAN. Based on the book Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. [PG]▼ With Friends Like These . . . (1999) C105m. ★★★ D: Philip F. Messina. Robert Witches of Eastwick, The (1987) C-118m. ★★★ D: George Miller. Jack Nicholson, Costanzo, Adam Arkin, Amy Madigan, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, David Strathairn, Laura San Giacomo, Jon [ 1558 ]

Tenney, Elle Macpherson, Lauren Tom, Followed by a DVD sequel. Super 35. [PG13]▼쩠 Beverly D’Angelo, Michael McKean, Jason Alexander, Bill Murray, Martin Scorsese, Without Apparent Motive (1972-French) C-102m. ★★ D: Philippe Labro. Jean-Louis Garry Marshall. Close friends who are character actors find themselves in a fiercely Trintignant, Dominique Sanda, Sacha competitive situation when word gets out Distel, Carla Gravina, Paul Crauchet, Laura that Martin Scorsese is casting a new film Antonelli, Jean-Pierre Marielle. Powerhouse on Al Capone. How much does friendship European cast can’t do much for Ed McBain count at a time like this? Affectionate, seriotale about detective Trintignant’s attempts comic look at working actors, with a fine to solve series of unpredictable killings; ensemble. Written by the director. Made for Erich Segal plays an astrologer. [PG] Without a Trace (1983) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: theaters, debuted on cable TV. [R]▼ With Honors (1994) C-103m. ★★ D: Alek Stanley R. Jaffe. Kate Nelligan, Judd Keshishian. Joe Pesci, Brendan Fraser, Hirsch, David Dukes, Stockard Channing, Moira Kelly, Patrick Dempsey, Josh HamilJacqueline Brookes, Kathleen Widdoes, ton, Gore Vidal, Deborah Fortson, Marshall Caroline Aaron, Dan Lauria, W. (William) Hambro. Homeless Pesci trades pages for H. Macy. Story of one woman’s ordeal food after callow Ivy Leaguer Fraser meets when her six-year-old son disappears while him in Irene Dunne screwball style when walking to school one morning. Genteel, wellhis thesis falls through a grate into the Harmade film keeps an arm’s-length emotionally, vard boiler room where Pesci resides. Comespecially in Nelligan’s cold portrayal of the edy-drama might be insulting if it had just a mother. The resolution is not to be believed. little more sting, but it’s a fizzle almost from Based on a real-life N.Y.C. incident that had the beginning. [PG-13]▼●쩠 a much different outcome. Directorial debut Withnail & I (1987-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 of producer Jaffe. [PG]▼쩠 D: Bruce Robinson. Richard E. Grant, Without Limits (1998) C-117m. ★★★ D: Paul McGann, Richard Griffiths, Ralph Robert Towne. Billy Crudup, Donald SuthBrown, Michael Elphick. ‘‘I’’ is a young erland, Monica Potter, Jeremy Sisto, Matlonghair, living in London in the last months thew Lillard, Billy Burke, Dean Norris, of 1969; Withnail is his eccentric, selfJudith Ivey. Second screen bio of the late absorbed roommate. Both are unemployed University of Oregon runner Steve Prefonactors, children of their times, who endure taine is more polished than 1997’s PREa disastrous vacation in the country. DirecFONTAINE, especially in its re-creation of tor Robinson wrote this autobiographical competition scenes. Produced by Tom film, which has its amusing moments but Cruise, this barely released sleeper benefits eventually becomes monotonous. Best from Sutherland’s excellent performance as laugh: consultant credit for ‘‘Richard coach Bill Bowerman. Another plus: outStarkey, M.B.E.’’ Fellow Beatle George standing—and non-cliche´d—use of period Harrison coexecutive-produced the film. music. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 [R]▼●쩠 Without Love (1945) 111m. ★★★ D: HarWithout a Clue (1988-British) C-106m. old S. Bucquet. Spencer Tracy, Katharine ★★1⁄2 D: Thom Eberhardt. Michael Caine, Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Keenan Wynn, Carl Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Jones, Lysette AnEsmond, Patricia Morison, Felix Bressart, thony, Paul Freeman, Nigel Davenport, Gloria Grahame. Tracy and Hepburn have Pat Keen, Peter Cook. Mild farce built on never been livelier, but script (by Donald the premise that Sherlock Holmes was a Ogden Stewart, from Philip Barry’s play) fictional creation of wily Dr. John Watlets them down in story of inventor and son, who is forced to hire a second-rate widow who marry for convenience, later actor (Caine) to impersonate the now fafall in love. Wynn and Ball are excellent second leads.▼●쩠 mous and sought-after detective. Scattered laughs, engaging performances by star duo. Without Pity (1948-Italian) 94m. ★★★ D: [PG] ▼●쩠 Alberto Lattuada. Carla Del Poggio, John Without a Paddle (2004) C-99m. ★★ D: Kitzmiller, Giulietta Masina, Folco Lulli, Steven Brill. Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, Pierre Luigi. Moving neorealist classic about Dax Shepard, Ethan Suplee, Abraham Bena black G.I. (Kitzmiller) and his love afrubi, Rachel Blanchard, Burt Reynolds, Chrisfair with a prostitute (Del Poggio) in libertina Moore, Bonnie Somerville, Ray Baker. ated WW2 Italy. Superb supporting perAnemic summertime comedy about three formance by Masina; film was cowritten boyhood pals who reunite to take the river by her husband, Federico Fellini. Origijourney they always promised themselves nally titled: SENZA PIETA. they’d take, to search for the lost treasure Without Reservations (1946) 107m. ★★★ of D. B. Cooper. Derivative mishmash of D: Mervyn LeRoy. Claudette Colbert, John slapstick and sentiment gets what mileage it Wayne, Don Defore, Anne Triola, Frank can from its three likable stars. Reynolds’ Puglia, Phil Brown, Thurston Hall, Louella presence is surely intended to evoke memoParsons, Dona Drake. Authoress Colbert ries of DELIVERANCE . . . but doesn’t. meets perfect man to play hero in movie [ 1559 ]

version of her new book: soldier Wayne. Asians, or African-Americans. Stormare and Engaging comedy-romance, with some Mantegna mug furiously, to little effect. amusing swipes at Hollywood, several sur[PG-13]쩠 prise guest stars. Look fast for Raymond Witness (1985) C-112m. ★★★ D: Peter Burr during dance scene. ▼●쩠 Weir. Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef ★★★ Without Warning! (1952) 77m. Sommer, Lukas Haas, Jan Rubes, Alexander D: Arnold Laven. Adam Williams, Meg RanGodunov, Danny Glover, Patti LuPone, dall, Edward Binns, Harlan Warde, John Viggo Mortensen. A big-city cop on the lam Maxwell, Angela Stevens, Byron Kane, hides out on an Amish farm, where he and Charles Tannen, Robert Shayne. Creepy a young widow are attracted to each other. character actor Williams shines in a rare Entertaining film is marred by jarring shifts in starring role as a shy, lonely gardener with a tone, especially toward the end. Oscar winner penchant for plunging his shears into bottlefor writers Earl W. Wallace, William Kelley, Pamela Wallace. [R]▼●쩠 blonde bombshells who remind him of his former wife. Low-budget noir is a taut and Witness for the Prosecution (1957) 114m. ★★★★ trim little crime thriller, stylishly shot by D: Billy Wilder. Marlene Dietrich, Joseph F. Biroc, which presents an evocaTyrone Power, Charles Laughton, Elsa tive look at a seedy ’50s L.A. and such Lanchester, John Williams, Henry Daniell, vanished parts of the city as Chavez Ravine Una O’Connor, Ian Wolfe. Fantastically before it was cleared to make way for effective London courtroom suspenser from Dodger Stadium.쩠 Agatha Christie play. Dietrich is peerless Without Warning (1980) C-89m. ★1⁄2 D: as wife of alleged killer (Power). Laughton Greydon Clark. Jack Palance, Cameron at his best as defense attorney, and Lanchester Mitchell, Martin Landau, Ralph Meeker, delightful as his long-suffering nurse. Power’s Tarah Nutter, Sue Ane Langdon, Neville last completed film. Scripted by Wilder and Harry Kurnitz. Remade as a TVM.▼●쩠 Brand, Larry Storch. Very silly horror film. Alien launches carnivorous disks at Witness to Murder (1954) 83m. ★★★ D: various citizens. A few scattered laughs Roy Rowland. Barbara Stanwyck, George and shudders, some intense acting, and a Sanders, Gary Merrill, Jesse White, Claude flagrantly bad job by Landau as a militant Akins. Stanwyck sees ex-Nazi neighbor ex-sergeant named Fred Dobbs. Aka IT Sanders strangle a woman, but can’t conCAME WITHOUT WARNING. [R] vince detective Merrill. However, Sanders Without You I’m Nothing (1990) C-94m. believes her. . . . Unconvincing and rather ★★1 shrill, but suspenseful and well acted, with ⁄2 D: John Boskovich. Sandra Bernhard, John Doe, Steve Antin, Lu Leonard, striking photography (by John Alton). Wives and Lovers (1963) 103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ken Foree, Cynthia Bailey, Djimon Hounsou. Adaptation of Bernhard’s one-woman John Rich. Janet Leigh, Van Johnson, off-Broadway show, in which she takes on a Shelley Winters, Martha Hyer, Ray Walston, number of roles in order to examine AmeriJeremy Slate. Surface, slick entertainment; can pop culture, and the challenge of survivnewly famous writer Johnson, wife Leigh ing in modern society. She’s definitely an and child move to suburbia. Literary agent acquired taste, but the material does hit its Hyer on the make almost causes divorce; targets more often than not—especially Winters is wise-cracking neighbor. Script when Sandra does her take on Diana Ross. by Edward Anhalt, from Jay Presson AlVideo version runs 89m. [R]▼●쩠 len’s play. Wiz, The (1978) C-133m. ★★ D: Sidney With Six You Get Eggroll (1968) C-95m. ★★ D: Howard Morris. Doris Day, Brian Lumet. Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Keith, Pat Carroll, Barbara Hershey, George Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Carlin, Alice Ghostley, Vic Tayback, Jamie Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Farr, William Christopher. Oft-told tale of a Horne, Richard Pryor. Diana Ross weeps widow and widower who try to move their and whines her way through modern black children under the same roof. Amiable but variation on THE WIZARD OF OZ, from slow on laughs. Day’s last film to date. Pathe Broadway show by William F. Brown navision. [G]▼쩠 and Charlie Smalls. Some good musical Witless Protection (2008) C-97m. BOMB numbers, fine supporting cast, but dreary D: Charles Robert Carner. Larry the Cable finale—and drearier performance by Ross— Guy (Dan Whitney), Ivana Milicevic, Jenny really weigh it down. Music arranged and conducted by Quincy Jones. [G]▼●쩠 McCarthy, Yaphet Kotto, Eric Roberts, Peter Stormare, Joe Mantegna. Another rattletrap Wizard, The (1989) C-99m. ★★ D: Todd vehicle for comic Whitney’s redneck characHolland. Fred Savage, Luke Edwards, ter. This time, Larry is a small-town deputy Jenny Lewis, Beau Bridges, Christian sheriff who kidnaps a beautiful government Slater, Will Seltzer, Jackey Vinson, Wendy witness (Milicevic) from the crooked FBI Phillips, Sam McMurray. A road movie agents assigned to ‘‘protect’’ her. Not just for kids, with Savage, his traumatized unfunny but offensive whenever good-ol’-boy brother Edwards, and Lewis pursued across Larry makes snide remarks about Arabs, the Southwest by various relatives and [ 1560 ]

other grown-ups. Limp, overplotted comconjure up Hitler’s armies. Turgid, unappealing film for adults or children. [PG]▼●쩠 edy suffers from heavy product plugs. ROCKY-like finish, dealing with Edwards’ Wolf (1994) C-122m. ★★★ D: Mike Nichvideo-game wizardry, may thrill preteens ols. Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, but few others. Look for Tobey Maguire in James Spader, Kate Nelligan, Christopher a bit part. [PG]▼●쩠 Plummer, Richard Jenkins, Eileen Atkins, Wizard of Baghdad, The (1960) C-92m. David Hyde Pierce, Om Puri, Ron Rifkin, ★★ D: George Sherman. Dick Shawn, DiPrunella Scales, David Schwimmer, Allison ane Baker, Barry Coe, John Van Dreelen, Janney. Thoughtful, imaginative werewolf Robert F. Simon, Vaughn Taylor. Blah tale in a modern urban setting, with Nicholsatire on costumers, with Shawn a lazy son as a genteel book editor who’s bitten by genie. CinemaScope. a wolf—just as he’s going through a perWizard of Loneliness, The (1988) Csonal and professional crisis. Literate, intri111m. ★★ D: Jenny Bowen. Lukas Haas, guing, though perhaps too slowly paced Lea Thompson, John Randolph, Anne (and genteel) for rabid horror fans. Written Pitoniak, Dylan Baker, Lance Guest, by Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick, with Jeremiah Warner. Top-notch acting (espemakeup effects by Rick Baker. [R]▼●쩠 cially by precocious young star Haas) fails Wolf at the Door (1987-French-Danish) to save a haphazardly constructed adaptaC-90m. ★★★ D: Henning Carlsen. Donald tion of John Nichols’ novel about a youngSutherland, Max von Sydow, Valerie Morea, ster growing up with his grandparents in Sofie Grabol, Fanny Bastin, Merete VoldNew England during WW2. His aunt stedlund. Sutherland is more subdued as Gau(Thompson in an unusual character role) guin than Anthony Quinn was in LUST FOR carries a dark secret that leads to a meloLIFE; generally interesting bio covers the dramatic climax. A coproduction of PBS’ middle period of the artist’s life, when he American Playhouse. [PG-13]▼● returned to Paris from Tahiti—then struggled Wizard of Oz, The (1939) C/B&W-101m. to raise the money to go back. Arouses your ★★★★ D: Victor Fleming. Judy Garland, interest in the subject. [R] ▼ Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Frank Wolf Creek (2005-Australian) C-99m. ★1⁄2 Morgan, Billie Burke, Margaret HamilD: Greg McLean. John Jarratt, Cassandra ton, Charley Grapewin, Clara Blandick, Magrath, Kestie Morassi, Nathan Phillips, The Singer Midgets. A genuine American Gordon Poole, Guy O’Donnell. Yet another classic, based on L. Frank Baum’s story of would-be BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, this a Kansas girl who goes ‘‘Over the Raineven played in competition at Sundance and bow’’ to a land of colorful characters and Cannes but isn’t nearly as special as its Fest spirited adventure. A perfect cast in the cred would indicate. Three backpacking perfect fantasy, with Harold Arlen and E. friends are stranded in the dark, deserted, Y. Harburg’s unforgettable score. Just as remote area of the Outback known as Wolf good the fifteenth time as it is the first Creek. A seemingly friendly local truck time. Won Oscars for ‘‘Over the Raindriver offers assistance, but unfortunately bow’’ and Herbert Stothart’s scoring, plus he isn’t that nice and tows them to . . . a special miniature award for Judy. Preterror! Just another graphic showcase for viously filmed in 1925; remade as THE gore and degradation. 104m. version also available. [R]쩠 WIZ (set in N.Y.C.), OZ (Australia), and for TV in 2005 with the Muppets. A pair Wolfen (1981) C-115m. ★★★ D: Michael of sequels: JOURNEY BACK TO OZ and Wadleigh. Albert Finney, Diane Venora, RETURN TO OZ.▼●쩠 Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines, Tom Wizard of Speed and Time, The (1988) Noonan, Dick O’Neill. Detective Finney C-95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Mike Jittlov. Mike Jittlov, tracks mysterious beasts (werewolves?) that Paige Moore, Richard Kaye, David Conare terrorizing N.Y.C. Surreal, allegorical rad, John Massari, Steve Brodie, Frank mystery is satisfying—and could have been LaLoggia, Philip Michael Thomas. A young great. Hines stands out as coroner; Gerry special-effects whiz and his pals buck the Fisher’s ingenious cinematography is also Hollywood system and try to make a movie. noteworthy. Based on the novel by Whitley This completely self-referential low-budget Streiber. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 comedy scores big points for gumption Wolf Lake (1978) C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Burt and enthusiasm, which helps make up for Kennedy. Rod Steiger, David Huffman, some amateurish qualities. Best of all are Robin Mattson, Jerry Hardin, Richard Herd, Jittlov’s eye-popping, one-of-a-kind visual Paul Mantee. Dull revenge film. Steiger effects. Expanded from a popular short (intense as ever) and four old army budsubject of the same name. [PG]▼● dies stay at hunting lodge run by Huffman, Wizards (1977) C-80m. ★1⁄2 D: Ralph a Vietnam deserter who fled to Canada. Bakshi. Voices of Bob Holt, Jesse Wells, Steiger lost his son in the Vietnam war and Richard Romanus, David Proval, Mark tries to take out his grief (violently) on Hamill. Animated sci-fi tale of future world Huffman, with tragic results. Also known as THE HONOR GUARD. [R]▼ after devastation, with warring factions that [ 1561 ]

Wolf Larsen (1975-Italian) C-92m. ★★ D: Stephen McNally, Peggy Dow, John Litel, Giuseppi Vari. Chuck Connors, Barbara Joe Besser. Overdone dramatics do in this Bach, Giuseppi Pambieri. Tired new versoaper about a factory owner (Lupino) sion of Jack London’s SEA WOLF with whose greedy new husband (McNally) atConnors chewing up scenery as the sadistempts to kill her. She sets out to nail him, tic sea captain. Video titles: LEGEND OF and is helped by war-veteran drifter Duff. SEA WOLF and LARSEN, WOLF OF Woman in Question, The (1950-British) 89m. ★★★ D: Anthony Asquith. Jean Kent, THE SEVEN SEAS.▼쩠 Wolf Man, The (1941) 70m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Dirk Bogarde, John McCallum, Susan George Waggner. Lon Chaney, Jr., EveShaw, Hermione Baddeley, Charles Victor. lyn Ankers, Claude Rains, Maria OusAs a cop investigates the slaying of a forpenskaya, Ralph Bellamy, Patric Knowles, tune teller, the various suspects’ conflicting Warren William, Bela Lugosi, Fay Helm. perceptions of the deceased emerge. Nifty One of the finest horror films ever made: whodunit, much of which is told in flashLarry Talbot (Chaney) is bitten by wereback; Kent is excellent as many different wolf Lugosi, survives to carry the curse versions of the murder victim. Retitled: himself. Outstanding cast includes Rains FIVE ANGLES ON MURDER. ▼ as Chaney’s oblivious father, Ankers as perWoman in Red, The (1984) C-87m. ★★★ plexed girl friend, Ouspenskaya as wizened D: Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder, Kelly Legypsy woman who foretells his fate and atBrock, Gilda Radner, Joseph Bologna, tempts to care for him. Literate and very Charles Grodin, Judith Ivey. Broad reengrossing, with superb makeup by Jack make of French farce PARDON MON AFPierce, atmospheric music (re-used in many FAIRE with happily married Wilder going other Universal chillers) by Charles Previn ga-ga over beautiful LeBrock. Stevie Wonder and Hans J. Salter. Written by Curt Siodscore includes Oscar-winning ‘‘I Just Called to Say I Love You.’’ [PG-13]▼●쩠 mak. Sequel: FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLF MAN.▼●쩠 Woman in the Dunes (1964-Japanese) Wolverine SEE: X-Men Origins: 123m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Hiroshi Teshigahara. Eiji Wolverine Okada, Kyoko Kishida, Koji Mitsui, Hiroko 1 ★★ Woman Chaser, The (2000) 90m. Ito, Sen Yano. Entomologist Okada be⁄2 D: Robinson Devor. Patrick Warburton, Emily comes trapped in a sandpit and the prisNewman, Eugene Roche, Lynette Bennett, oner of Kishida. Moving, memorable Joe Durrenberger, Pat Crowder. Film noir– allegory, with striking direction and cinematography (by Hiroshi Segawa).▼쩠 ish takeoff set in early ’60s L.A. A frustrated used-car salesman puts all his efforts Woman in the Moon (1929-German) 156m. ★★ D: Fritz Lang. Klaus Pohl, Willy into making a movie; when it blows up in his face he seeks revenge on those unlucky Fritsch, Gustav von Wangenheim, Gerda enough to get in his way. Debuting filmMaurus, Fritz Rasp. This lesser Lang efmaker Devor manages to make this look as fort, his last silent film, is about a spaceif it could have been released on the bottom ship and its trip to the moon. It’s slow and half of a 1960 double bill, right down to its way overlong, and it pales beside his brilliant METROPOLIS.▼쩠 nostalgic black-and-white look. Wry fun for film fans with a pitch-perfect lead perforWoman in the Window, The (1944) 99m. ★★★1 mance by Warburton. [R]▼ ⁄2 D: Fritz Lang. Joan Bennett, EdWoman Hunt (1972-U.S.-Philippine) Cward G. Robinson, Dan Duryea, Ray81m. BOMB D: Eddie Romero. John Ashmond Massey, Dorothy Peterson. Highley, Sid Haig, Laurie Rose, Lisa Todd, grade melodrama about Robinson meeting Eddie Garcia, Pat Woodell. Wretched subject of alluring painting (Bennett), beknock-off of THE MOST DANGEROUS coming involved in murder and witnessing GAME, using kidnapped women as prey. his own investigation. Surprise ending tops Todd’s dull performance as a black-leatherexciting film. Nunnally Johnson scripted. clad lesbian sadist wouldn’t even amuse Look for Our Gang alumni Bobby Blake her Hee Haw fans. [R]▼ (as Robinson’s son) and Spanky McFarland Woman in Green, The (1945) 68m. ★★★ (as a scout in the newsreel). Also shown in D: Roy William Neill. Basil Rathbone, computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 Nigel Bruce, Hillary Brooke, Henry Daniell, Woman Is a Woman, A (1961-French) Paul Cavanagh, Matthew Boulton, Eve C-83m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jean-Luc Godard. JeanAmber. Blackmail, hypnotism, and murdered Paul Belmondo, Jean-Claude Brialy, Anna women with their right forefingers missing Karina, Noel Pacquin. Pert stripper Karina are the disparate elements in this solid Sherwants a baby; boyfriend Brialy is not interlock Holmes outing, with sleek Brooke and ested in fatherhood, so she approaches his suave Daniell a formidable pair of foes for best friend (Belmondo). Occasionally spirHolmes and Watson. Also shown in comited, self-indulgent trifle. Franscope. ▼쩠 puter-colorized version.▼●쩠 Woman Next Door, The (1981-French) Woman in Hiding (1949) 92m. ★★ D: MiC-106m. ★★★ D: Franc˛ois Truffaut. Ge´chael Gordon. Ida Lupino, Howard Duff, rard Depardieu, Fanny Ardant, Henri [ 1562 ]

★★1 Garcin, Michele Baumgartner, Veronique ⁄2 D: Basil Dearden. Sean Connery, Silver. Depardieu’s new neighbor is exGina Lollobrigida, Ralph Richardson, lover Ardant. Though now married, they reJohnny Sekka, Alexander Knox. Muddled vive their relationship. Somber, compassionsuspenser of Connery and Lollobrigida plotate study of human nature and emotions, ting the ‘‘perfect murder’’ of old Richardson with ironic results.▼ nicely acted by the two leads. [R]▼●쩠 Woman Obsessed (1959) C-102m. ★★1⁄2 D: Woman of the Rumor, The (1954-Japanese) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Kenji Mizoguchi. Henry Hathaway. Susan Hayward, Stephen Boyd, Barbara Nichols, Dennis Holmes, TheKinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiko Kuga, Tomoemon odore Bikel, Ken Scott. Energetic stars try Otani, Eitaro Shindo. Melodramatic achard in Canadian ranch-life soaper of widow count of Geisha house operator Tanaka, Hayward who marries Boyd, with predictable whose lover really prefers her daughter. clashing and making up. CinemaScope. Minor Mizoguchi. Woman of the Year (1942) 112m. ★★★1⁄2 Woman of Affairs, A (1928) 96m. ★★★ D: Clarence Brown. Greta Garbo, John GilD: George Stevens. Spencer Tracy, Kathabert, Lewis Stone, John Mack Brown, Dougrine Hepburn, Fay Bainter, Dan Tobin, las Fairbanks, Jr., Hobart Bosworth, Dorothy Reginald Owen, Roscoe Karns, William Sebastian. Smooth, entertaining late-silent Bendix. First teaming of Tracy and Hepwith Garbo as reckless socialite who underburn is a joy; Kate’s a world-famed polititakes serious burden of making good her late cal commentator brought down to earth by husband’s thefts. Fine cast; story is diluted sports reporter Tracy, whom she later weds. from Michael Arlen’s The Green Hat.▼● Unforgettable scene of Hepburn trying to ★★ Woman of Desire (1993) C-97m. D: understand her first baseball game. OscarRobert Ginty. Jeff Fahey, Bo Derek, Steven winning screenplay by Ring Lardner, Jr., Bauer, Robert Mitchum. Wannabe erotic thriland Michael Kanin; later a hit Broadway ler with down-and-out Fahey being set up for musical. Remade for TV in 1976. Also the murder of playgirl Derek’s wealthy boyshown in computer-colored version. ▼●쩠 friend Bauer during a yacht trip—although sly Woman on Pier 13, The SEE: I Married lawyer Mitchum has his doubts in court. This a Communist went straight to video with an unrated 99m. Woman on the Beach, The (1947) 71m. ★1⁄2 D: Jean Renoir. Robert Ryan, Joan version (more Bo nudity). [R]▼●쩠 Woman of Distinction, A (1950) 85m. Bennett, Charles Bickford, Nan Leslie, ★★★ D: Edward Buzzell. Rosalind Russell, Walter Sande, Irene Ryan. Overheated Ray Milland, Edmund Gwenn, Janis Carmelodrama wastes clever gimmick: Coast ter, Francis Lederer. Minor but very enGuard officer isn’t completely convinced joyable slapstick, as visiting professor his lover’s husband is really blind. Loaded Milland causes scandal involving college with laughable dialogue and sledgehamdean Russell. Energetic cast puts this over; mer music cues; easy to see why this was brief guest appearance by Lucille Ball.▼● Renoir’s American swan song. ★★★ Woman of Paris, A (1923) 91m. D: Woman on Top (2000) C-85m. ★★ D: Fina Charles Chaplin. Edna Purviance, Adolphe Torres. Pene´lope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Menjou, Carl Miller, Lydia Knott, Charles Harold Perrineau, Jr., Mark Feuerstein, John French. French girl Purviance is set to de Lancie, Anne Ramsay, Ana Gasteyer. marry her sweetheart (Miller), but a misBrazilian woman who’s a magnificent cook understanding causes her to move to Paris, decides to come out from her restaurateurwhere she becomes the mistress of wealthy husband’s shadow. She moves to San FranMenjou. Chaplin’s one attempt to make a cisco and quickly becomes a sensation with serious film (without himself as star) was a cooking show on TV. Strained fairy-tale quite sophisticated for its time, and reromantic comedy exists solely as a vehicle for the charming Cruz. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 mains interesting, even moving, today. It was a box-office flop in 1923; Chaplin Woman Rebels, A (1936) 88m. ★★★ D: reedited it, but waited until 1977 to reissue Mark Sandrich. Katharine Hepburn, Herit, with his newly composed music score. bert Marshall, Elizabeth Allan, Donald Chaplin does a cameo as a railway porter, Crisp, Doris Dudley, David Manners, Lubut he’s virtually unrecognizable.▼●쩠 cile Watson, Van Heflin. Hepburn is marWoman of Rome (1954-Italian) 93m. ★★ velous as young girl whose experiences in D: Luigi Zampa. Gina Lollobrigida, Daniel Victorian England lead to her crusading Ge´lin, Franco Fabrizi, Raymond Pellegrin, for Women’s Rights. Well-mounted soap Pina Piovani. Overbaked melodrama of opera remains surprisingly timely.쩠 beautiful young Lollobrigida, her complex Woman’s Face, A (1941) 105m. ★★★ D: relationship with her mother, and the varied George Cukor. Joan Crawford, Melvyn men with whom she becomes involved in Douglas, Conrad Veidt, Osa Massen, Regpre-WW2 Rome. Alberto Moravia coinald Owen, Albert Bassermann, Marjorie scripted this severely watered-down adaptaMain, Donald Meek, Connie Gilchrist, Henry Daniell, Richard Nichols. Crawford tion of his novel.▼ Woman of Straw (1964-British) C-117m. has one of her most substantial roles in this [ 1563 ]

exciting yarn of a scarred woman whose women; some funny moments, some perlife changes when she undergoes plastic ceptive comments, but with that cast and surgery. Taut climax spotlights villain director, it should have been much better. Veidt. Originally filmed in 1938 in Swe▼쩠 den, as EN KVINNAS ANSIKTE, with Woman Under the Influence, A (1974) C-147m. ★★ D: John Cassavetes. Peter Ingrid Bergman; script by Donald Ogden Stewart and Elliot Paul. Also shown in Falk, Gena Rowlands, Katherine Cassavetes, computer-colored version.▼●쩠 Lady Rowlands, Fred Draper. Typically Woman’s Secret, A (1949) 85m. ★★1⁄2 D: overlong, overindulgent Cassavetes film, Nicholas Ray. Maureen O’Hara, Melvyn vaguely delineating relationship of woman Douglas, Gloria Grahame, Bill Williams, who’s cracking up and her hardhat husVictor Jory. Intriguing flashback drama of band, who can’t handle it. Strong perforwoman coming to hate singer she built up mances by Rowlands and Falk are chief virtue of this one. [R]▼●쩠 to success; good performances by two female stars. Just a bit too sloppy. Produced Wombling Free (1978-British) C-96m. ★1 and scripted by Herman J. Mankiewicz, ⁄2 D: Lionel Jeffries. David Tomlinson, from a Vicki Baum novel.▼ Frances De La Tour, Bonnie Langford, Woman’s Tale, A (1991-Australian) CBernard Spear, Yasuko Nagazumi, John Junkin. Silly kiddie pic has the Wombles 93m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Paul Cox. Sheila Florance, Gosia Dobrowolska, Norman Kaye, Chris (actors in creature suits) cleaning up after Haywood, Ernest Gray, Myrtle Woods, Bruce man’s litter and leading a protest against polMyles. 78-year-old woman dying of cancer is lution. They’re invisible to mankind except determined to live her final days with the for a little girl (Langford) who believes. Obsame dignity she displayed her entire life. jectionable use of stereotypes; best segment Simple tale—beautifully directed—is hearthas big production-number tributes to Gene breakingly real. Distinguished by the extraorKelly and Fred Astaire. Based on a BBCdinary and courageous performance of Sheila TV series and later adapted as a U.S. series with Frank Gorshin.▼ Florance, whose own illness while making the film paralleled that of her character. (She died Women, The (1939) 132m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George two days after receiving Australia’s Academy Cukor. Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, RosaAward as Best Actress.) The kind of movie lind Russell, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine, Pauthat, while painful to watch at times, can also lette Goddard, Lucile Watson, Marjorie Main, illuminate our lives. [PG-13]▼● Virginia Weidler, Phyllis Povah, Ruth Hussey, Woman’s World (1954) C-94m. ★★★ D: Mary Beth Hughes, Virginia Grey, Hedda Jean Negulesco. Clifton Webb, June AllyHopper, Butterfly McQueen. All-star (and allson, Van Heflin, Arlene Dahl, Lauren Bafemale) cast shines in this hilarious adaptation call, Fred MacMurray, Cornel Wilde, Elliott of Clare Boothe play about divorce, cattiReid. Slick look at diverse personalities in ness, and competition in circle of the world of big business as automobile ‘‘friends.’’ Crawford has one of her best mogul Webb decides to meet the wives of roles as bitchy homewrecker. Fashion show the men he’s considering for a big promosequence is in color; script by Anita Loos tion. CinemaScope.▼ and Jane Murfin. Remade in 1956 (as THE Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004) C-98m. OPPOSITE SEX) and in 2008. ▼●쩠 ★★1 ⁄2 D: Michael Schultz. Kimberly Elise, Women, The (2008) C-114m. ★★1⁄2 D: Loretta Divine, Debbi Morgan, Michael Diane English. Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Boatman, Clifton Powell, Idalis De Leon, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Bishop T. D. Jakes, Sean Blakemore, JorSmith, Carrie Fisher, Cloris Leachman, dan Moseley. Evangelical preacher Bishop Debi Mazar, Bette Midler, Candice Bergen, T. D. Jakes portrays himself in this earnest India Ennenga, Jill Flint, Ana Gasteyer, Joadaptation of his self-help novel and play anna Gleason, Lynn Whitfield. Ryan has a about the downward spiral and redemption of seemingly perfect marriage, and a tight cira young black woman who ends up on death cle of female friends, but her world unravels row. Straightforward morality tale dealing when she learns that her husband is playing with sexual abuse, drug addiction, and povaround with a perfume salesgirl from Saks. erty sometimes comes off like a heavyUpdate of Clare Boothe Luce’s play and the handed sermon, but is distinguished by Elise’s 1939 movie manages to retain the bones of poignant and impassioned performance. Althe original, but has a tougher time creating ternate version runs 101m. [R] ▼쩠 a stylized modern reality for its backdrop. Woman Times Seven (1967) C-99m. ★★★ Uneven but entertaining, with plenty of sharp D: Vittorio De Sica. Shirley MacLaine, dialogue. Writer-director English does a Peter Sellers, Rossano Brazzi, Vittorio creditable job, given the nearly impossible Gassman, Lex Barker, Elsa Martinelli, Robtask of remaking a classic. [PG-13]쩠 ert Morley, Patrick Wymark, Adrienne Women in Cages (1972-U.S.-Philippine) Corri, Alan Arkin, Michael Caine, Anita C-78m. BOMB D: Gerry De Leon. Judy Ekberg, Philippe Noiret. A seven-episode Brown, Pam Grier, Roberta Collins. Lurid film with MacLaine showing seven types of prison melodrama, with the emphasis on [ 1564 ]

sadism, has the switcheroo of Grier cast as who adds to his chaos. A midlife cominglesbian guard who tortures prisoners in her of-age story that benefits from its freshly gothic chamber, known as ‘‘The Playobserved academic milieu and a strong cast; pen.’’ Video title: WOMEN’S PENITENDouglas is excellent in a change-of-pace TIARY III. [R]▼쩠 role. Steve Kloves adapted Michael ChaWomen in Limbo SEE: Limbo (1972) bon’s novel. Bob Dylan’s soundtrack song Women in Love (1969-British) C-129m. won an Oscar. Super 35. [R]▼쩠 ★★★1⁄2 D: Ken Russell. Alan Bates, Oliver Wonderful Country, The (1959) C-96m. ★★1 Reed, Glenda Jackson, Eleanor Bron, Jen⁄2 D: Robert Parrish. Robert Mitchum, nie Linden, Alan Webb. Fine adaptation Julie London, Gary Merrill, Pedro Armenof D. H. Lawrence novel about two interdariz, Jack Oakie, Albert Dekker. Broodesting love affairs. Tends to bog down ing Western involving Mitchum running toward the end, but acting and direction guns along Mexico-Texas line, romancing are really impressive, as is memorable London; script by Robert Ardrey. nude wrestling scene. Jackson won her first Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni RiefenOscar for this performance. Followed in 1989 stahl, The (1993-German-Belgian-British) by Russell’s THE RAINBOW, a ‘‘prequel’’ C/B&W-182m. ★★★ D: Ray Muller. Thorin which Jackson plays the mother of her ough, compelling portrait of Riefenstahl, infamous director of Nazi propaganda character in this film. [R]▼●쩠 Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966) films TRIUMPH OF THE WILL and C-87m. ★1⁄2 D: Arthur C. Pierce. Wendell OLYMPIA, that serves as an investigation Corey, Keith Larsen, John Agar, Irene of her life (traced via film clips, and interTsu, Merry Anders, Adam Roarke, Stuart views made with the filmmaker in her early Margolin. One of many studio-bound scinineties). Was she a woman of evil—an fi pix from the ’60s, a strange lot indeed. opportunist and a collaborator in her dealSpaceship crashes on mysterious planet full ings with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party? of prehistoric inhabitants. There’s a twist Or was she a feminist pioneer, an apolitical ending, if you stick around for it.▼ artist who became an innocent victim of Women on the Verge of a Nervous circumstance? Ultimately, the film is most Breakdown (1988-Spanish) C-88m. ★★★1⁄2 effective as a portrait of denial and an analD: Pedro Almodo´var. Carmen Maura, Anysis of any filmmaker’s responsibility retonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Maria Bargarding the power of the moving image. ranco, Rossy De Palma. Witty, outrageous, ▼●쩠 and highly stylized comedy about charmWonderful Ice Cream Suit, The (1999) ingly off-kilter actress Maura and how she C-77m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Gordon. Joe Manresponds when suddenly abandoned by her tegna, Esai Morales, Edward James longtime lover. A real audience-pleaser, Olmos, Clifton Gonzales Gonzales, Gregwith plenty of laughs; crammed with a ory Sierra, Liz Torres, Sid Caesar, Howcolorful array of supporting characters (most ard Morris, Lisa Vidal, Pedro Gonzales memorably a taxi driver with a bleachedGonzales. Well-meaning, upbeat adaptablond pompadour whose car is a combination of Ray Bradbury’s short story and tion drugstore/bar). [R]▼●쩠 play about five L.A. Latinos who share the Women’s Penitentiary I SEE: Big Doll price of a beautiful white suit which, they House, The believe, will help them realize their Women’s Penitentiary II SEE: Big Bird dreams. The flavor never seems genuine, Cage, The and the treatment is heavy-handed, but Women’s Penitentiary III SEE: Women there is still a magic to the story. Released direct to video. [PG] ▼● in Cages Women’s Prison (1955) 80m. ★★ D: Lewis Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, Seiler. Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling, Cleo The (1962) C-129m. ★★★ D: Henry Levin, Moore, Audrey Totter, Phyllis Thaxter, George Pal. Laurence Harvey, Claire Howard Duff, Mae Clarke, Gertrude MiBloom, Karl Boehm, Oscar Homolka, chael, Juanita Moore. Campy 1950s proMartita Hunt, Jim Backus, Yvette Mimieux, grammer, with Lupino as a vicious prison Barbara Eden, Walter Slezak, Russ Tamsuperintendent riding herd over a cast that blyn, Buddy Hackett, Beulah Bondi, Terryno B-movie lover could resist. Thomas. Fanciful adaptations of Grimm Women Without Men SEE: Blonde Bait tales offset by OK look at famed brothers’ Wonder Boys (2000) C-112m. ★★★ D: Curlives. Best of all are Puppetoons sequences tis Hanson. Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, in toy shop, Hackett battling fire-breathing Frances McDormand, Robert Downey, Jr., dragon. Colorful George Pal entertainment, Katie Holmes, Richard Thomas, Rip Torn, with Oscar-winning costumes by Mary Wills, Philip Bosco, Jane Adams. Intelligent, lowwas originally shown in Cinerama.▼● key comedy about the bond that develops beWonderland (1988) SEE: Fruit Machine, tween a college professor (Douglas), whose The personal and professional life is floundering, Wonderland (1999-British) C-108m. ★★ and a strange but gifted student (Maguire), D: Michael Winterbottom. Shirley Hender[ 1565 ]

son, Gina McKee, Molly Parker, Ian Hart, John Simm, Stuart Townsend, Kika Markham, Jack Shepherd. Dreary slice-of-life drama set in London over a long weekend, examining three unhappy generations of a single family. The mise-en-sce`ne is impeccable, the situations completely believable, but the results are less than compelling. Super 35.▼쩠 Wonderland (2003) C-104m. BOMB D: James Cox. Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Blake Nelson, Dylan McDermott, Josh Lucas, Eric Bogosian, Christina Applegate, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Janeane Garofalo, Franky G., Carrie Fisher, Faizon Love, Ted Levine, Paris Hilton. Tedious look at events leading up to the grisly 1981 murders on L.A.’s Wonderland Avenue involving former porn film star John C. Holmes (Kilmer) and assorted other lowlifes. Sordid, violent, and filled with characters it’s impossible to care about. [R] ▼쩠 Wonder Man (1945) C-98m. ★★★ D: H. Bruce Humberstone. Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Vera-Ellen, Donald Woods, S. Z. Sakall, Allen Jenkins, Ed Brophy, Steve Cochran, Otto Kruger, Natalie Schafer. Kaye’s fun as twins, the serious one forced to take the place of his brash entertainer brother when the latter is killed. Big, colorful production with Oscar-winning special effects.▼●쩠 Wonders of Aladdin, The (1961-U.S.Italian) C-93m. ★★ D: Henry Levin, Mario Bava. Donald O’Connor, Noelle Adam, Vittorio De Sica, Aldo Fabrizi. Few wonders to behold in this mild children’s fantasy. CinemaScope.▼ Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) C-92m. ★★ D: Michael Winner. Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, Art Carney, Phil Silvers, Teri Garr, Ron Leibman. Fine cast struggles through inept spoof of 1920s Hollywood. Dog comes off better than dozens of veteran stars who make pointless cameo appearances (from Rhonda Fleming to the Ritz Brothers). [PG]

bridegroom (Diggs) whose two best pals (Epps, Jones) come to his rescue; in flashbacks we learn how they became friends in their formative years. The predictability of their story is partially offset by the film’s charm and humor. [R]▼●쩠 Wooden Horse, The (1950-British) 101m. ★★★ D: Jack Lee. Leo Genn, David Tomlinson, Anthony Steel, Peter Burton, David Greene, Anthony Dawson, Bryan Forbes, Peter Finch. Sturdy, exciting POW drama of men determined to tunnel their way out of Nazi prison camp using an exercise vaulting horse for cover. Based on Eric Williams’ novel The Tunnel Escape.▼ Woods, The (2006-U.S.-British) C-91m. BOMB D: Lucky McKee. Agnes Bruckner, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel Nichols, Lauren Birkell, Emma Campbell, Marcia Bennett, Gordon Currie, Jude Beny, Bruce Campbell. Alienated teen Bruckner, burdened with an unfeeling mother, is dispatched to a woodsy all-girls academy that has a mysterious history and a staff and student body who are all creepy or cruel. One-note horror film is thoroughly unpleasant, when it’s not dull or idiotic. A real ordeal to sit through. Released direct to DVD in the U.S. [R]쩠 Woodsman, The (2004) C-87m. ★★★ D: Nicole Kassell. Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Eve, Mos Def, David Alan Grier, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Shannon, Hannah Pilkes, Carlos Leon. Just released from prison, child molester Bacon tries to acclimate to ‘‘normal’’ life (getting a job, having a relationship with a woman, trying to make peace with his family), but his biggest problem is battling his own demons. Provocative adult drama doesn’t make its lead character sympathetic but does try to paint a threedimensional portrait. Bacon and real-life spouse Sedgwick are exceptionally good; the climactic scene in a park is spinetingling. Cowritten by first-time feature director Kassell and Steven Fechter from the latter’s play. Bacon also coexecutiveproduced. [R] ▼쩠 Woodstock (1970) C-184m. ★★★★ D: Mi쩠 Woo (1998) C-83m. BOMB D: Daisy V. S. chael Wadleigh. Joan Baez, Richie HaMayer. Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidvens, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Jefferson son, Duane Martin, Dave Chappelle, MiAirplane, Joe Cocker, Sly and the Family chael Ralph, LL Cool J, Foxy Brown, Aida Stone, Ten Years After, Santana, Country Turturro, Billy Dee Williams. Misbegotten Joe and the Fish, John Sebastian, The attempt at screwball comedy in which neuWho, Jimi Hendrix, Arlo Guthrie. 1970 rotic Manhattanite Pinkett Smith leads Oscar winner as Best Documentary brildorky law student Davidson on an all-night liantly captures unique communal experiblind date from hell. Substitutes stupid slapence of outdoor rock festival, along with stick and misogynist, homophobic potshots great performances which highlighted unfor wit and charm. Wants to be a ’90s usual weekend bash. Among highlights: BRINGING UP BABY but ends up a subCocker, Sly Stone, Ten Years After, The Who. Makes exceptional use of multiscreen par HOUSE PARTY. [R]▼●쩠 Wood, The (1999) C-106m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rick images and a ‘‘surround sound’’ mix. MarFamuyiwa. Omar Epps, Sean Nelson, Taye tin Scorsese was one of the editors. Forty Diggs, Trent Cameron, Richard T. Jones, minutes of previously unseen footage were Duane Finley, Malinda Williams, Lisarae. added in 1994, featuring Janis Joplin, Jimi So-so comedy about a reluctant, AWOL Hendrix, Canned Heat, and Jefferson Air[ 1566 ]

plane, among others. The video title is WOODSTOCK: THREE DAYS OF PEACE & MUSIC (THE DIRECTOR’S CUT). Part Widescreen. [R]▼●쩠 Woody Guthrie: Hard Travelin’ (1984) C/B&W-74m. ★★★★ D: Jim Brown. Fascinating, beautifully made documentary about the wiry little drifter who is now recognized as one of the greatest American songwriters. Hosted by his son, Arlo, the film traces Woody’s life from birth to his tragically lingering death. Interviewees include friends, like Pete Seeger, Herta Ware, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and those who were influenced by Woody, such as Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and Hoyt Axton. It leaves you singing, and wanting more.▼ Wordplay (2006) C-94m. ★★★ D: Patrick Creadon. Entertaining documentary about the New York Times crossword puzzle and Will Shortz, its longtime editor. Amusing and affectionate look at the gold standard of puzzles, its creators, and loyal fans (with on-screen graphics that cleverly simulate the process of puzzle solving), culminating in 2005’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Famous crossword devotees interviewed include Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, and Bob Dole. [PG]쩠 Words and Music (1948) C-119m. ★★1⁄2 D: Norman Taurog. Mickey Rooney, Tom Drake, June Allyson, Ann Sothern, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Lena Horne, Vera-Ellen, Cyd Charisse, Allyn Ann McLerie, Mel Torme, Betty Garrett, Perry Como, Janet Leigh. Sappy, Hollywoodized biography of songwriters Rodgers (Drake) and Hart (Rooney) is salvaged somewhat by their wonderful music, including Kelly and Vera-Ellen’s dance to ‘‘Slaughter on Tenth Avenue.’’

Weaver, Melanie Griffith, Alec Baldwin, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, Nora Dunn, Oliver Platt, James Lally, Kevin Spacey, Robert Easton, Olympia Dukakis, Ricki Lake, David Duchovny. Cute comedy about a naive but ambitious secretary who tries to outfox her wily boss by closing a big deal— with the help of a man she just happens to fall in love with. Star-making showcase for Griffith also gives Ford an ideal opportunity to play light comedy and Weaver a sly supporting role as the villainess. Carly Simon’s music was scored by Rob Mounsey; her song ‘‘Let the River Run’’ won an Oscar. Later a TV series. [R]▼●쩠 Working Girls, The (1973) C-81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stephanie Rothman. Sarah Kennedy, Laurie Rose, Lynne Guthrie, Solomon Sturges, Mary Beth Hughes, Cassandra Peterson. One of the better drive-in comedies, with three attractive girls struggling to make a success of themselves in a male-oriented world; Kennedy and Sturges (Preston’s son) make an endearing couple. A staple of cable-TV because of nifty striptease performed by Peterson (better known as TV’s Elvira). [R]▼쩠 Working Girls (1986) C-90m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lizzie Borden. Louise Smith, Ellen McElduff, Amanda Goodwin, Marusia Zach, Janne Peters, Helen Nicholas. Beautifully realized, on-target account of a day in a N.Y.C. brothel; the sex is more humorous and businesslike than erotic, and the profession is depicted as an economic alternative to other traditional ‘‘women’s’’ work. First-rate all the way.▼쩠 Work Is a 4-Letter Word (1967-British) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peter Hall. David Warner, Cilla Black, Elizabeth Spriggs, Zia Mohyeddin, Joe Gladwyn. Zany, but hit▼●쩠 Word Wars (2004) C-76m. ★★★ D: Eric and-miss comedy based on the play Eh? Chaikin, Julian Petrillo. Very enjoyable cine´ma about young man who raises giant mushve´rite´–style documentary about professional rooms that produce euphoria when eaten. Scrabble players. Follows four competitors— Warner is well cast. [M/PG] each one uniquely eccentric—as they work World According to Garp, The (1982) their way toward the one big-money tournaC-136m. ★★★★ D: George Roy Hill. Robin ment of the year. No screenwriter could inWilliams, Mary Beth Hurt, Glenn Close, vent better characters or a more unusual John Lithgow, Hume Cronyn, Jessica saga. Told with visual pizzazz and a clever Tandy, Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Plummer, Warren Berlinger, Brandon Maggart. Dazmusic score by Thor Madsen. 쩠 Working Class Goes to Heaven, The zling (if somewhat loose) adaptation of (1972-Italian) C-126m. ★★★ D: Elio Petri. John Irving’s novel, about an unusual young Gian Maria Volonte´, Mariangela Melato, man’s journey through life—an adventure Salvo Randone, Gino Pernice, Luigi Dibshaped in large part by his unorthodox erti. A hardworking lathe operator is laid off (and unmarried) mother. Absorbing, sureafter losing a finger on the assembly line, footed odyssey through vignettes of social then becomes the leader of a strike that observation, absurdist humor, satire, and takes some very unexpected twists and melodrama; beautifully acted by all, espeturns. Superbly directed, thought-provoking cially Close (in her feature debut) as Garp’s critique of capitalism, with some surprismother and Lithgow as a transsexual. Script ingly funny and sensuous touches. Music by by Steve Tesich. Director Hill has cameo Ennio Morricone. Originally released in the as pilot who crashes into Garp’s house; U.S. as LULU THE TOOL. novelist Irving plays wrestling match referee. [R]▼●쩠 Working Girl (1988) C-113m. ★★★ D: Mike Nichols. Harrison Ford, Sigourney World Apart, A (1988) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: [ 1567 ]

Chris Menges. Barbara Hershey, David ing family saga covering 100 years as Suchet, Jeroen Krabbe´, Jodhi May, RosaLouisiana family is split, three sons headlie Crutchley, Tim Roth, Adrian Dunbar, ing business operations in England, France, Paul Freeman. Personal story of South Germany, experiencing tremendous changes African apartheid as seen through the eyes from peaceful 19th century through WW1.쩠 of a teenage girl whose mother, a CommuWorld of Abbott and Costello, The (1965) nist activist, is jailed under the notorious 75m. ★★ Narrated by Jack E. Leonard. 90-day detention act in 1963. Both a story Bud Abbott, Lou Costello, Marjorie Main, of government abuse and a look at one Bela Lugosi, Tom Ewell, others. Inept mother’s neglect of her family because of compilation of A&C footage, with curious her involvement with a larger cause . . . but selection of scenes, senseless narration. too diffuse to succeed completely on either Still, there’s ‘‘Who’s on First?’’ and other count. Young May is remarkable as the girl, fine routines.▼쩠 however. Autobiographical script by Shawn World of Apu, The (1959-Indian) 103m. ★★★1 Slovo. Directorial debut for cinematogra⁄2 D: Satyajit Ray. Soumitra Chatterjee, pher Menges. [PG]▼●쩠 Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakravarty, Swapan World Gone Wild (1988) C-95m. ★★ D: Mukherji. Sadly poetic tale of the shy Apu Lee H. Katzin. Bruce Dern, Michael Pare´, (Chatterjee) marrying and fathering a child. Catherine Mary Stewart, Adam Ant, Rick Magnificently acted; last of the director’s Podell, Anthony James. Post-apocalyptic ‘‘Apu’’ trilogy.▼쩠 science-fiction saga set in the 21st century, World of Henry Orient, The (1964) C-106m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Roy Hill. Peter in the desolate village of Lost Wells, which is threatened by evil plunderers (led by Sellers, Tippy Walker, Merrie Spaeth, Paula Adam Ant). Who will come to the villagPrentiss, Angela Lansbury, Phyllis Thaxter, ers’ rescue? THE SEVEN SAMURAI meets Tom Bosley. Marvelous comedy of two MAD MAX in this marginally successful, teenage girls who idolize eccentric pianist futuristic action yarn. [R]▼● (Sellers) and follow him around N.Y.C. World in His Arms, The (1952) C-104m. Bosley and Lansbury are superb as Walk★★★ D: Raoul Walsh. Gregory Peck, Ann er’s parents, with Thaxter appealing as Blyth, John McIntire, Anthony Quinn, AnSpaeth’s understanding mother. Screendrea King, Eugenie Leontovich, Sig Ruman. play by Nunnally and Nora Johnson, from her novel. Panavision.▼●쩠 Unlikely but entertaining tale of skipper Peck romancing Russian Blyth, set in 1850s World of Suzie Wong, The (1960) C129m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Quine. William San Francisco.▼쩠 World Is Full of Married Men, The Holden, Nancy Kwan, Sylvia Syms, Mi(1979-British) C-107m. ★★ D: Robert chael Wilding, Laurence Naismith. HoldYoung. Anthony Franciosa, Carroll Baker, en’s sluggish performance as American Sherrie Cronn, Gareth Hunt, Georgina Hale, artist in love with prostitute Kwan doesn’t Anthony Steel. The sexual escapades—and help this soaper, lavishly filmed in Hong downfall—of advertising executive FranKong. Script by John Patrick from Paul ciosa. Slick and sleazy exploitation meloOsborn’s Broadway play.▼●쩠 drama that ultimately gives feminism a World of Tomorrow, The (1984) C/ bad name, from a novel and screenplay by B&W-83m. ★★★ D: Lance Bird, Tom JohnJackie Collins. [R]▼ son. Lovely documentary about 1939 New World Is Not Enough, The (1999) CYork World’s Fair, a compilation of news125m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Apted. Pierce Brosreels, home movies, promotional films, nan, Sophie Marceau, Robert Carlyle, Denise and various other period graphics . . . much Richards, Robbie Coltrane, Judi Dench, Desof it in color! Occasionally teeters on the mond Llewelyn, John Cleese, Maria Grazia edge of pretentiousness, especially in narCucinotta, Samantha Bond, Goldie, Serena ration spoken by Jason Robards. Cut to Scott Thomas. OK if typically overlong one hour for some showings.▼ James Bond outing has 007 avenging the World’s Fastest Indian, The (2005-U.S.murder of an industrialist who was a close New Zealand) C-126m. ★★★ D: Roger Donfriend of M’s. Brosnan is fine, as are the aldson. Anthony Hopkins, Diane Ladd, Paul action set-pieces, but film allows M (Dench) Rodriguez, Aaron Murphy, Annie Whittle, to look foolish, and absurdly casts Richards Chris Williams, Christopher Lawford, Jessica as a nuclear physicist (in shorts!) with lots Cauffiel, Chris Bruno, Bruce Greenwood, of laughable dialogue. Carlyle is a good vilWilliam Lucking. Hopkins is marvelous as a lain with an underwritten part; Marceau is spirited old man who’s obsessed with his delicious as Elektra. Llewelyn’s final film 1920 Indian Scout motorcycle and determined to take it from his little town in New as Q. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 World Moves On, The (1934) 104m. Zealand to run on the Bonneville Salt Flats ★★1⁄2 D: John Ford. Madeleine Carroll, in Utah. It’s the 1960s, and along the way Franchot Tone, Reginald Denny, Stepin he meets an assortment of characters, some Fetchit, Lumsden Hare, Raul Roulien, Louof them almost as colorful as he. An openise Dresser, Sig Ruman. Long but interesthearted film, not for cynics. Written by the [ 1568 ]

director, who filmed a TV documentary 2001, is vividly dramatized by following about the real Burt Munro in 1972. Super the actions of the Port Authority police 35. [PG-13]쩠 squad that responded to the first tower atWorld’s Greatest Athlete, The (1973) tack. Bulk of the film is devoted to the C-93m. ★★★ D: Robert Scheerer. John plight of two such rescuers trapped in the Amos, Jan-Michael Vincent, Tim Conway, rubble of the collapsed towers, while their Roscoe Lee Browne, Dayle Haddon, Howfamilies agonize over their fate. Superior ard Cosell. Hard-luck coach Amos returns storytelling from start to finish. Screenplay to his roots in Africa and discovers superby Andrea Berloff, based on the stories of athlete Vincent; enjoyable Disney comedy John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno. Super with excellent special effects. Conway par35. [PG-13]쩠 ticularly funny in sequence in which he World Traveler (2002-U.S.-Canadian) Cshrinks to Tom Thumb size. Cosell’s classic 104m. ★★ D: Bart Freundlich. Billy Crudup, line: ‘‘I’ve never seen anything like this in Julianne Moore, Cleavant Derricks, David my entire illustrious career!’’ [G]▼쩠 Keith, James Le Gros, Karen Allen, Mary World’s Greatest Lover, The (1977) McCormack. A man walks out on his wife C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Gene Wilder. Gene Wiland son, takes to the road, and has a variety der, Carol Kane, Dom DeLuise, Fritz Feld, of encounters as he tries to sort out his Carl Ballantine, Michael Huddleston, Matt life—and why he has become so completely Collins, Ronny Graham, Danny DeVito. alienated from it. Interesting in fits and Sporadically funny comedy set in 1920s starts, but unsatisfying; the ultimate revelaHollywood, with Wilder screen-testing as tion about its main character is both obvious new movie sheik and wife Kane deserting and unconvincing. [R]▼쩠 him for real-life Valentino. Wild slapstick World Without End (1956) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 combines unevenly with occasional vulgariD: Edward Bernds. Hugh Marlowe, Nancy ties and moments of poignancy. Inspired by Gates, Nelson Leigh, Rod Taylor. Space Fellini’s THE WHITE SHEIK. [PG]▼쩠 flight headed for Mars breaks the time World’s Greatest Sinner, The (1962) barrier and ends up on post-apocalyptic Earth in the 26th century. Pretty good sci-fi 76m. ★★1⁄2 D: Timothy Carey. Timothy Carey, Gil Baretto, Betty Rowland, James owes more than a little to H. G. Wells’ The Farley, Gail Griffen, Tyde Rule, Grace De Time Machine. CinemaScope.▼쩠 Carolis; narrated by Paul Frees. The great, World Without Sun (1964) C-93m. ★★★★ eccentric character actor Carey gives his D: Jacques Cousteau. Excellent, Oscarcreepiest, most over-the-top performance in winning documentary of Cousteau and his this crazed vanity project, which he wrote, oceanauts, creating an underwater advenproduced, and directed. A disillusioned inture that challenges any fiction. surance salesman declares himself to be Worth Winning (1989) C-102m. ★1⁄2 D: God, becomes an Elvis-like rock ’n’ roll Will Mackenzie. Mark Harmon, Madeevangelist, and is enticed to run for presileine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, Maria dent by a shady power broker. Technically Holvo¨e, Mark Blum, Andrea Martin, Dacrude but weirdly fascinating as a prescient, vid Brenner. Smug Harmon bets that he can primal scream of rage against cults, relihustle a trio of women into agreeing to gious and political opportunism, and celebmarry him. Occasionally obnoxious (and predictable) comedy. [PG-13]▼●쩠 rity worship. A very young Frank Zappa (billed simply as ‘‘Zappa’’) composed the Woyzeck (1978-German) C-82m. ★★1⁄2 D: score and a hilarious title song. Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski, Eva Mattes, World, the Flesh, and the Devil, The Wolfgang Reichmann, Willy Semmelrogge, (1959) 95m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ranald MacDougall. Josef Bierbichler. Minor Herzog features Harry Belafonte, Inger Stevens, Mel Ferrer. the usual wide-eyed performance by Kinski Belafonte and Stevens are only survivors of as an ostensibly normal man who goes inworldwide nuclear accident; their uneasy relasane and becomes a murderer. Based on tionship is jarred by arrival of Ferrer. IntriGeorg Bu¨chner’s drama. Remade in 1994. guing film starts well, bogs down halfway ▼쩠 through, and presents ridiculous conclusion. Wraith, The (1986) C-92m. ★★ D: Mike Best scenes are at beginning, when Belafonte Marvin. Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, is alone in an impressively deserted ManhatRandy Quaid, Sherilyn Fenn, Griffin tan. CinemaScope.▼● O’Neal, David Sherrill, Jamie Bozian, Clint World Trade Center (2006) C-129m. Howard. A Dodge Turbo Interceptor—it’s ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Oliver Stone. Nicolas Cage, Mia car—strangely appears one day and takes chael Pen˜a, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Maria on some auto thieves. For those who favor Bello, Stephen Dorff, Jay Hernandez, Mifast cars and lots of noise. [PG-13]▼●쩠 chael Shannon, Frank Whaley, Donna MurWrath of God, The (1972) C-111m. ★★ phy, Patty D’Arbanville, Dorothy Lyman, D: Ralph Nelson. Robert Mitchum, Rita Nicky Katt, Nicholas Turturro, Danny Hayworth, Frank Langella, John Colicos, Nucci, William Mapother, Jude Ciccolella, Victor Buono, Ken Hutchison, Paula PritViola Davis. The tragedy of September 11, chett, Gregory Sierra. If you take this film— [ 1569 ]

about a defrocked priest in a revolutionridden country south of the border—seriously, it’s an OK action yarn. Accept it as tonguein-cheek, it may yield greater enjoyment. Hayworth’s final film. Panavision. [PG] Wrecking Crew, The (1969) C-105m. ★1⁄2 D: Phil Karlson. Dean Martin, Sharon Tate, Elke Sommer, Nancy Kwan, Tina Louise, Nigel Green. Fourth and final theatrical Matt Helm epic, while hardly a good film, is at least a step up from the last two, thanks to a return by the original director and the re-creation (in Tate) of an engaging klutz a la Stella Stevens in THE SILENCERS. Story has Helm after crime ring that’s hijacked a train carrying a billion in gold. Chuck Norris has one line with Dino in a bar and Bruce Lee is credited as film’s ‘‘karate advisor.’’ A TVM and subsequent series (Matt Helm) followed in 1975. [M/PG]▼쩠 Wreck of the Mary Deare, The (1959-U.S.British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Michael Anderson. Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Michael Redgrave, Emlyn Williams, Cecil Parker, Alexander Knox, Virginia McKenna, Richard Harris. Salvage boat skipper Heston boards an apparently abandoned freighter, finds hostile Captain Cooper aboard. What really happened to the Mary Deare? Stars outshine their material in Eric Ambler’s adaptation of the novel by Hammond Innes. CinemaScope.

Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner (2006) C-102m. ★★★ D: Freida Lee Mock. Engrossing documentary about playwright and social activist Kushner (Angels in America) follows him over three years’ time, covering a broad canvas, from preparations for the opening of the Broadway musical Caroline, or Change to his marriage to life partner Mark Harris. Unabashedly positive portrait includes readings of Kushner’s work (by the likes of Meryl Streep and Marcia Gay Harden) and a great deal of candid footage with family, friends, and coworkers. Wristcutters: A Love Story (2007) C91m. ★★1⁄2 D: Goran Dukic. Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, Shea Whigham, Leslie Bibb, John Hawkes, Mikal P. Lazarev, Mark Boone Junior, Abraham Benrubi, Mary Pat Gleason, Azura Skye, Sarah Roemer, Jake Busey, Tom Waits, Will Arnett. After committing suicide, Fugit finds himself living in a peculiar purgatory that looks just like real life—only more desolate. When he learns that his ex-girlfriend is also ‘‘living’’ in this world, he sets out in search of her. Endearingly odd black comedy has a great premise but doesn’t really go anywhere. [R]쩠 Written on the Wind (1956) C-99m. ★★★ D: Douglas Sirk. Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack, Dorothy Malone, Robert Keith, Grant Williams. Florid melo▼●쩠 Wrestler, The (2008-French-U.S.) C-109m. drama of playboy-millionaire Stack, his ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Darren Aronofsky. Mickey Rourke, nymphomaniac sister Malone, and how Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Mark they destroy themselves and others around Margolis, Todd Barry, Wass Stevens, Judah them. Irresistible kitsch. Malone won Oscar for her performance.▼쩠 Friedlander, Ernest Miller, Ajay Naidu. Professional wrestler who’s past his prime is Wrong Arm of the Law, The (1963-British) forced to take stock of his isolated existence 94m. ★★★ D: Cliff Owen. Peter Sellers, and his estrangement from a teenage daughLionel Jeffries, Bernard Cribbins, Davy ter. Robert Siegel’s no-holds-barred script is Kaye, Nanette Newman, John Le Mesurier, dramatized in documentary-like fashion on Dennis Price, Michael Caine. Wacky coma variety of N.J. locations and populated edy spoof has Australian trio being chased with actual denizens of the low-end wresby police as well as crooks because they’ve tling world, including fighters and fans. been dressing as cops and confiscating loot Rourke’s performance as the pumped-up from apprehended robbers. Some very funny moments.▼쩠 pro who knows no other way of life is a tour de force; Tomei is every bit as good as a Wrong Bet SEE: Lionheart (1991) stripper who tries to separate her working Wrong Box, The (1966-British) C-105m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Bryan Forbes. John Mills, Ralph ‘‘identity’’ from the rest of her life. Super 35. [R]쩠 Richardson, Michael Caine, Peter Cook, Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993) CDudley Moore, Nanette Newman, Wilfred 122m. ★★1⁄2 D: Randa Haines. Robert DuLawson, Tony Hancock, Peter Sellers. vall, Richard Harris, Shirley MacLaine, Scramble for inheritance is basis for wacky Sandra Bullock, Piper Laurie, Nicole Merblack comedy set in Victorian England; curio, Marty Belafsky. A great actor’s showaging Mills attempts to do in brother Richcase, if not a great movie, about two older ardson (with help from family cohorts) in men now living in Florida: a boozy Irish exorder to be sole survivor. Sellers has hilarsea captain (Harris) and a retired Cuban barious cameo as oddball doctor. Based on a ber (Duvall). They have practically nothing in Robert Louis Stevenson story, scripted by Larry Gelbart and Burt Shevelove.▼● common, but their need for companionship and interaction draws them together in this Wrongfully Accused (1998-U.S.-German) C-85m. ★★ D: Pat Proft. Leslie Nielsen, meandering but easy-to-take character study which was (incredibly) written by a 21-yearRichard Crenna, Kelly LeBrock, Sandra old, Steve Conrad. [PG-13] ▼● Bernhard, Michael York, Melinda McGraw. [ 1570 ]

Silly spoof of THE FUGITIVE is yet another vehicle for Nielsen’s deadpan comic shtick. This time, he’s on the run for a crime he didn’t commit. Amidst the relentless barrage of gags are some that—while entirely obvious—are also pretty funny, if you like this sort of thing. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Wrong Guys, The (1988) C-86m. ★1⁄2 D: Danny Bilson. Louie Anderson, Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer, Franklyn Ajaye, Tim Thomerson, Brion James, Biff Maynard, John Goodman, Ernie Hudson, Timothy Van Patten, Rita Rudner. Clumsy and unfunny comedy about a Cub Scout reunion campout that goes awry; cast of stand-up comics do battle with a stupid script. [PG]▼●쩠 Wrong Is Right (1982) C-117m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard Brooks. Sean Connery, George Grizzard, Robert Conrad, Katharine Ross, G. D. Spradlin, John Saxon, Henry Silva, Leslie Nielsen, Robert Webber, Rosalind Cash, Hardy Kruger, Dean Stockwell, Ron Moody, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Broad, bizarre, free-swinging satire of our TVdominated culture, keyed to superstar reporter Connery’s involvement with a terrorist group, and the U.S. government’s possible ties to it. Scattershot script manages to hit a few targets, and benefits from Brooks’ breathless pace. [R]▼●쩠 Wrong Kind of Girl, The SEE: Bus Stop Wrong Man, The (1957) 105m. ★★★ D: Alfred Hitchcock. Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle, Harold J. Stone, Nehemiah Persoff, Peggy Webber. Unusual Hitchcock film done as semi-documentary, using true story of N.Y.C. musician (Fonda) falsely accused of robbery. Miles is excellent as wife who cracks under strain; offbeat and compelling. Written by Maxwell Anderson and Angus MacPhail.▼●쩠 Wrong Move (1975-German) C-103m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Wim Wenders. Rudiger Vogler, Hanna Schygulla, Ivan Desny, Marianne Hoppe, Peter Kern, Hans Christian Blech, Nastassja Kinski. Overly metaphorical (but occasionally worthwhile) tale of disgruntled Vogler attempting to understand himself—and his country’s past—as he rambles through Germany with various companions. Scripted by Peter Handke, loosely based on Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister. Kinski’s film debut. The second (and least successful) in Wenders’ ‘‘road movie’’ trilogy, after ALICE IN THE CITIES and followed by KINGS OF THE ROAD. Original English title: WRONG MOVEMENT.

stalked by cannibalistic, inbred hillbillies. Derivative gorefest for those who’ve never seen DELIVERANCE or THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. Followed by a direct-to-DVD sequel. [R] ▼쩠 WUSA (1970) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Stuart Rosenberg. Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Perkins, Laurence Harvey, Pat Hingle, Cloris Leachman, Don Gordon, Leigh French, Moses Gunn, Bruce Cabot, Lou Gossett, Jr. Newman pet project casts him as cynical drifter who becomes a d.j. for an ultraright-wing New Orleans radio station and struggles with his own apathy as he grows aware of WUSA’s true (and sinister) intentions. Obvious sincerity undercut by simplistic, overwritten script; still, the acting is fine and there are some truly memorable scenes. Panavision. [M/PG] Wuthering Heights (1939) 103m. ★★★★ D: William Wyler. Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Leo G. Carroll, Cecil Kellaway, Miles Mander, Hugh Williams. Stirring adaptation of Emily Bronte¨’s novel stops at chapter 17, but viewers shouldn’t despair: sensitive direction and sweeping performances propel this magnificent story of doomed love in pre-Victorian England. Haunting, a must-see film. Gregg Toland’s moody photography won an Oscar; script by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Remade in 1953, 1970, 1992, and in 2003 for cable TV.

▼●쩠

Wuthering Heights (1953-Mexican) 90m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Luis Bun˜uel. Irasema Dilian, Jorge Mistral, Lilia Prado, Ernesto Alonso, Luis Aceves Castaneda. Strikingly directed but talky, overbaked, ultimately unsuccessful version of the Bronte¨ classic: bitter, coldhearted former servant Mistral, now rich, returns to disrupt the life of true love Dilian, now married to another.▼ Wuthering Heights (1970-British) C105m. ★★★ D: Robert Fuest. Anna CalderMarshall, Timothy Dalton, Harry Andrews, Pamela Browne, Judy Cornwell, Ian Ogilvy, Hugh Griffith, Julian Glover. Good, realistic treatment of Bronte¨’s novel with authentic locations and atmosphere, Dalton and Calder-Marshall believable looking as Heathcliff and Cathy, but film’s point of view indistinct and pace too fast. [G]▼●쩠 Wuthering Heights (1992-U.S.-British) C106m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Kosminsky. Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes, Janet McTeer, Sophie Ward, Simon Shepherd, Jeremy Northam. ▼쩠 Wrong Rut, The SEE: Not Wanted Excruciating remake of the classic Bronte¨ Wrong Turn (2003) C-84m. ★1⁄2 D: Rob novel of doomed love. Binoche plays both Schmidt. Eliza Dushku, Desmond Harrington, Cathy and her daughter exactly the same way, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Jeremy Sisto, Lindy with a different hair color. Fiennes’ torment is Booth, Julian Richings, Kevin Zegers. Wrong so intense, it’s actually a relief when he dies. is right, as a stereotyped group of young moThis was the first film produced by Paratorists become stranded in the backwoods of mount studio’s European production wing but West Virginia and naturally find themselves it made its U.S. debut several years after [ 1571 ]

completion, on cable TV. Sine´ad O’Connor appears unbilled as Emily Bronte¨. Title onscreen is EMILY BRONTE¨’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS. [PG]▼●쩠 W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings (1975) C-91m. ★★1⁄2 D: John G. Avildsen. Burt Reynolds, Art Carney, Conny Van Dyke, Jerry Reed, James Hampton, Ned Beatty. Lightly likable film about a conman who hooks up with struggling country-western group and stops at nothing to promote their success; Carney has oddball role as religious lawman pursuing Burt. Script by Thomas Rickman. [PG] Wyatt Earp (1994) C-190m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lawrence Kasdan. Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, Jeff Fahey, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Pullman, Isabella Rossellini, Tom Sizemore, JoBeth Williams, Mare Winningham, James Gammon, Annabeth Gish, Betty Buckley, Mackenzie Astin, Karen Grassle, Te´a Leoni, Brett Cullen, John Doe, Martin Kove. Epiclength biography shows how fate and circumstance turned the fabled Earp into a hardened and heartless man who killed in the name of law and order. Good storytelling grows ponderous toward the end, as Earp is driven by revenge against his blood enemies from the O.K. Corral. Quaid makes a colorful Doc Holliday, though his equally flashy ladyfriend Big Nosed Kate (Rossellini) disappears just as we get to meet her! Special video edition runs 20m. longer! Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 Wyoming Kid, The SEE: Cheyenne

the experimental space plane of the title, and their romantic and family lives. Unusual role for Bronson, even then. Panavision.쩠 X-Files, The (1998) C-120m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Bowman. David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Martin Landau, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Blythe Danner, William B. Davis, John Neville, Mitch Pileggi, Jeffrey DeMunn, Terry O’Quinn, Glenne Headly, Lucas Black. Feature version of popular TV series serves well enough as a conspiracy yarn for newcomers to the exploits of FBI agents Mulder and Scully. After surviving the bombing of a building in Texas, they defy orders and go in search of a new lead about aliens on Earth and the question of who’s running what. Overlong by at least one climax, this largescale thriller will have additional resonance for X-Files fans. Video version runs 122m. Followed by a sequel a decade later. Super 35. [PG-13]▼●쩠 X Files: I Want to Believe, The (2008U.S.-Canadian) C-104m. ★★ D: Chris Carter. David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Alvin ‘Xzibit’ Joiner, Mitch Pileggi, Callum Keith Rennie, Fagin Woodcock. When she’s approached by the FBI to help investigate several abductions of women, Dana Scully (Anderson) turns for help to retired Fox Mulder (Duchovny). He believes a former priest (Connolly), jailed for pederasty, has real psychic powers; she doesn’t. What follows is similar to an X-Files TV episode—but longer and less involving, centering on bizarre surgery. Devotees will likely enjoy X (1963) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Roger Corman. this more than newcomers. Alternate verRay Milland, Diana Van Der Vlis, Harold J. sion runs 108m. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 Stone, John Hoyt, Don Rickles. Not-bad litXica (1978-Brazilian) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: tle film about scientist Milland developing Carlos Diegues. Zeze Motta, Walmor Chagas, serum that enables him to see through Jose Wilker, Marcus Vinicius, Altair Lima. things. He lives to regret it. Advertised as Saucy, if a bit overspiced, tale of strong-willed X: THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES. black slave Motta who seduces the new Royal Diamond Contractor (Chagas) in corrupt, re▼●쩠 Xanadu (1980) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert pressive colonial Brazil. Nicely directed and Greenwald. Olivia Newton-John, Gene acted—particularly by Motta—but curiously Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan, Dimitra unmemorable. Filmed in 1976; released in the Arliss, Katie Hanley, Sandahl Bergman, U.S. in 1982.▼ Marilyn Tokuda, John ‘‘Fee’’ Waybill, Xiu Xiu the Sent-down Girl (1999-Chinesevoices of Wilfrid Hyde-White and Coral Hong Kong-U.S.) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joan Browne. Flashy but empty-headed remake Chen. Lu Lu, Lopsang, Gao Jie, Li Qianof DOWN TO EARTH, with Olivia as qian, Lu Yue. In 1980s China, a bright city muse who pops in to inspire young rollergirl (16-year-old Lu Lu) is sent to a remote boogie artist. Designed as a showcase for rural area as part of a government cultural the singer, whose screen charisma is nil. program, where she comes under the care Kelly (using his character name from of a kind Tibetan herder and horse trainer. COVER GIRL) tries to perk things up; even Actress Chen’s directorial debut is a wella brief animated sequence by Don Bluth made, richly detailed film with an intriguing doesn’t help. Newton-John’s future husstory, but the resolution is unsatisfying. band, Matt Lattanzi, plays Kelly as a young Banned in China for its critical stance. Chen man. Later a Broadway musical. [PG] also coscripted with Yan Geling, based on the latter’s novella. [R]▼쩠 ▼●쩠 X-15 (1961) C-106m. ★★ D: Richard DonX-Men (2000) C-104m. ★★★ D: Bryan Singer. ner. David McLean, Charles Bronson, Ralph Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Taeger, Brad Dexter, Mary Tyler Moore, PaFamke Janssen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, tricia Owens. Mild narrative of pilots testing Anna Paquin, Tyler Mane, Ray Park, Rebecca [ 1572 ]

Romijn-Stamos, Bruce Davison. Marvel ComX-MEN movies, and focuses instead on Wolics–inspired saga has two disparate misfits, verine and his adversaries beating the living Wolverine (Jackman) and Rogue (Paquin), daylights out of each other. Jackman gives it linking upand finding a safe haven withProfeshis best. Super 35. [PG-13] sor X (Stewart), who hopes to find ways to asX The Unknown (1956-British) 80m. ★★1⁄2 similate all mutants into human society. His D: Leslie Norman. Dean Jagger, Leo brainy counterpart, Magneto(McKellen), howMcKern, William Lucas, Edward Chapman, ever, sees humans as the enemy to be conAnthony Newley. Well-thought-out sci-fi proquered. Long on razzle-dazzle, fun to watch, duction set in Scotland. Radioactive mud though some of the energy is sapped away by from Earth’s center grows and kills anythe climax. Based on characters created for thing in its path. Effective chiller written by Jimmy Sangster. ▼●쩠 Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Followed by three sequels. Panavision. [PGXtro (1983-British) C-82m. ★1⁄2 D: Harry 13] ▼쩠 Bromley Davenport. Philip Sayer, Bernice ★★★ X2 (2003) C-134m. D: Bryan Singer. Stegers, Danny Brainin, Maryam d’Abo, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKelSimon Nash. Father abducted by aliens relen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsturns to Earth three years later to claim his den, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, young son, but he’s not the man he used Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Shawn Ashto be. Crudely directed sci-fi/horror opus is more, Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu, Anna Paguided by gruesomeness, not logic. Overquin. Action-packed sequel to X-MEN turns wrought but dull, with lots of sexual eleStewart and McKellen into temporary allies ments. XTRO II and XTRO: WATCH THE in order to combat power-crazy Cox. That’s SKIES are sequels in title only. [R]▼쩠 just one plot thread in this breathless film, XXX (2002) C-124m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rob Cohen. which doesn’t have enough time to spend Vin Diesel, Samuel L. Jackson, Asia Argento, with all of its colorful characters, including Marton Csokas, Danny Trejo, Michael Roof, Pyro, Colossus, and the colorful Nightcrawler Tom Everett, Richy Mu¨ller, Thomas Ian Grif(well played by Cumming). There’s energy to fith, Eve. A hooligan/extreme-sports showspare in this entertaining yarn based on the off/online entrepreneur is recruited by the Marvel comic book created by Stan Lee and NSA to go underground in Prague and get Jack Kirby. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 the goods on a renegade Russian. Check X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) C-104m. ★★ your brains at the door and you’ll have a D: Brett Ratner. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, good time with this silly, high-energy action Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Famke Jansfilm, with some over-the-top stunt sesen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, James quences and plenty of room for Diesel to Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Shawn Ashmore, strut his stuff. If only it didn’t go on so long, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones, Ben Foster, and try to turn this antihero into a bona fide Michael Murphy, Shohreh Aghdashloo, hero. One nice touch: a musical reference Josef Sommer, Bill Duke, Cameron Bright, to THE THIRD MAN. Diesel coexecutiveR. Lee Ermey, Ellen Page. Development of produced. Unrated version runs 132m. Fola ‘‘cure’’ for genetic mutations—like the Xlowed by a sequel. Panavision. [PG-13]▼쩠 Men—spurs the ultimate showdown bexXx: State of the Union (2005) C-100m. ★★ tween Magneto and Dr. Xavier. Third and D: Lee Tamahori. Ice Cube, Samuel L. weakest in the comic book series shortJackson, Willem Dafoe, Scott Speedman, changes character development in favor of Peter Strauss, Xzibit, Michael Roof, Nona explosions and special effects . . . so there’s Gaye. In a pastoral Virginia horse-country little emotion in spite of all the overheated setting where you half expect to run into goings-on. Was Foster’s part (as Murphy’s Sam Shepard, a group of National Security winged son) really meant to be so brief? Agency employees is slaughtered. To solve Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 the crime, NSA honcho Jackson springs Cube X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) C-107m. from a maximum-security cooler (to replace ★★1⁄2 D: Gavin Hood. Hugh Jackman, Liev Vin Diesel, from the original XXX film). Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will.i.am, Lynn Outlandish premise and execution are worth Collins, Ryan Reynolds, Kevin Durand, Doa few laughs, but when the Secretary of minic Monaghan, Taylor Kitsch, Daniel HenDefense is also a 4-star general played by ney. Proposed backstory of the indestructible Dafoe, you won’t pull many muscles trying Wolverine character from Marvel’s X-Men to determine who’s behind a SEVEN DAYS IN MAY–type coup. Super 35. [PG-13]▼쩠 comics sets up the lifelong sibling relationship (and rivalry) with his bloodthirsty brother Saxx/xy (2003) C-91m. ★★★ D: Austin Chick. bretooth (Schreiber), and, less interestingly, Mark Ruffalo, Kathleen Robertson, Maya shows how they and other mutants were Stange, Petra Wright, David Thornton, Kel exploited by a rogue U.S. military officer O’Neill. Laid-back N.Y.C. artist hooks up (Huston) bent on creating the ultimate huwith two college girls and indulges in a freemanoid weapon. Slick but heavy-handed love, partying haze of sex and drugs. Story and formulaic, this film lacks the sense of then fast-forwards as the three reconnect, wonder and discovery that marks the first two years later, as ‘‘responsible’’ adults. Instead [ 1573 ]

Yank in Viet-Nam, A (1964) 80m. ★★ D: Marshall Thompson. Marshall Thompson, Enrique Magalona, Mario Barri, Urban Drew. Low-budget topical actioner set in Saigon, with marine Thompson attempting to help the South Vietnamese. Retitled: YEAR OF THE TIGER. Yanks (1979) C-139m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Schlesinger. Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Chick Vennera, Wendy Morgan, Rachel Roberts, Joan Hickson, John Ratzenberger, Antony Sher. Lavish production about WW2 romances between U.S. soldiers and British women doesn’t deliver the goods, due to choppy structure and flabby direction. Yakuza, The (1975) C-112m. ★★★ D: Gere’s so-called star power seems to be a caSydney Pollack. Robert Mitchum, Takakura sualty of energy crisis cutbacks. [R]▼●쩠 Ken, Brian Keith, Herb Edelman, Richard Yards, The (2000) C-115m. ★★ D: James Jordan, Kishi Keiko. Mitchum tries to Gray. Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, rescue pal Keith’s kidnapped daughter by Charlize Theron, James Caan, Ellen Burstyn, returning to Japan after several years; he Faye Dunaway, Andrew Davoli, Steve Lawgets more than he bargains for from title rence, Tony Musante, Victor Argo, Tomas organization, a kind of Oriental Mafia. Milian. Somber N.Y.C. mood piece about an Mitchum and Ken are fine in suspenseful aimless young man (Wahlberg), just out of action pic, written by Paul Schrader and prison, who tries to go straight but winds up Robert Towne. Retitled: BROTHERHOOD working with his friend (Phoenix) bending OF THE YAKUZA. Originally shown at and breaking the law on behalf of his uncle, a 123m. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 city contractor (Caan). All the characters are Yank at Eton, A (1942) 88m. ★★ D: Nordoomed in this dark, operatic (but not alman Taurog. Mickey Rooney, Freddie Barways credible) tale of corruption . . . and tholomew, Tina Thayer, Ian Hunter, fate. Panavision. [R]▼쩠 Edmund Gwenn, Alan Mowbray, Peter Yearling, The (1946) C-128m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lawford, Terry Kilburn. Rooney goes to Clarence Brown. Gregory Peck, Jane Wyschool in England and it’s a wonder he’s man, Claude Jarman, Jr., Chill Wills, Marganot ejected immediately. ret Wycherly, Henry Travers, Jeff York, ForYank at Oxford, A (1938-U.S.-British) rest Tucker, June Lockhart. Marjorie Kinnan 100m. ★★★ D: Jack Conway. Robert TayRawling’s sensitive tale of a boy attached to a lor, Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O’Sullivan, young deer was exquisitely filmed in TechniVivien Leigh, Edmund Gwenn. Attractive color on location in Florida, with memorable cast, including young Leigh, in familiar performances. Oscar winner for Cinematograstory of cocky American trying to adjust to phy and Art Direction, and a special Oscar Oxford, and vice versa. Remade in 1984 for newcomer Jarman. Beware 94m. reissue as OXFORD BLUES. print. Remade as a TV movie in 1994. ▼●쩠 Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) 126m. ★★★★ Year My Voice Broke, The (1987-AustraD: Michael Curtiz. James Cagney, Joan lian) C-103m. ★★★ D: John Duigan. Noah Leslie, Walter Huston, Irene Manning, Taylor, Loene Carmen, Ben Mendelsohn, Rosemary DeCamp, Richard Whorf, Jeanne Graeme Blundell, Lynette Curran, MalCagney, S. Z. Sakall, Walter Catlett, Francolm Robertson, Judi Farr. Affecting story ces Langford, Eddie Foy, Jr., George of a teenage boy’s friendship and infatuaTobias. Cagney wraps up film in neat little tion with a troubled girl; set in a small town in package all his own with dynamic recrethe early 1960s. A cut above the usual comation of George M. Cohan’s life and times; ing-of-age film, thanks to director Duigan’s he deservedly won Oscar for rare songtouching script and amazingly natural perforand-dance performance, as did music dimances by his young actors. Followed by a rectors Ray Heindorf and Heinz Roemheld. sequel, FLIRTING. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Also shown in computer-colored version. Year of Living Dangerously, The (1983Australian) C-115m. ★★★ D: Peter Weir. ▼●쩠 Yank in the RAF, A (1941) 98m. ★★★ D: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Henry King. Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Hunt, Michael Murphy, Bill Kerr, Noel John Sutton, Reginald Gardiner, Donald Ferrier. Fascinating political drama set in Stuart, Richard Fraser. Power’s only there strife-ridden Indonesia just before Sukarso he can see London-based chorine Grable; no’s fall in 1965 . . . much more successthey make a nice team. Songs: ‘‘Another ful as a mood-piece than as romance, Little Dream Won’t Do Us Any Harm,’’ however, with Weaver’s flimsy character (and flimsier accent) a detriment. Diminu‘‘Hi-Ya Love.’’▼쩠 [ 1574 ] of just another romantic-triangle picture, this hearkens back to films of the 1960s and ’70s in its examination of relationships. Good showcase for the talented Ruffalo, with strong performances from all the leads. Written by the director. [R]▼쩠 X, Y and Zee (1972-British) C-110m. ★★ D: Brian G. Hutton. Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Caine, Susannah York, Margaret Leighton, John Standing. Contrived, often perverse tale of a woman, her husband, another woman and the way the three are interchangeable in relationships. Original British title: ZEE AND COMPANY. [PG— edited from original R rating]▼

tive Hunt—a woman playing a man—is Glowna, Daniel Webb. Stark, haunting mesmerizing and most deservedly won an drama, set just after WW2, detailing the Academy Award. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 evolving relationship between two lost Year of the Comet (1992) C-89m. ★★ D: souls who don’t even speak the same lanPeter Yates. Penelope Ann Miller, Tim guage: hard-luck Polish widow KomorowDaly, Louis Jourdan, Art Malik, Ian Richska and emotionally hungry American GI ardson, Ian McNeice, Julia McCarthy. ListWilson. A heartfelt film, loaded with raw emotion and deep feeling. [PG]▼●쩠 less, if not especially painful, variation on ROMANCING THE STONE: Wallflower Year of the Tiger SEE: Yank in VietMiller begins to bloom when her discovery of Nam, A a priceless wine bottle lands her in the middle Yella (2008-German) C-86m. ★★★ D: Chrisof some international intrigue. Agreeably pertian Petzold. Nina Hoss, Devid Striesow, Hinformed, but a pretty slight non-event given nerk Scho¨nemann, Burghart Klaußner, William Goldman’s first original script since Barbara Auer, Christian Redl. Cryptic acBUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE count of the title character (Hoss), who has KID. Panavision. [PG-13] ▼● just ended her marriage. A desperate, vioYear of the Dog (2007) C-98m. ★★★ D: lent act on the part of her ex leaves her Mike White. Molly Shannon, Laura Dern, drowned in a river—or does it? Remake of Regina King, Tom McCarthy, Peter SarsCARNIVAL OF SOULS is effective as a gaard, John C. Reilly, Josh Pais. A square psychological study and an acute reflection peg (Shannon) who holds down a mundane of contemporary business practices.쩠 office job is badly shaken when her beloved Yellowbeard (1983-British) C-101m. dog dies. This sets off a chain reaction of BOMB D: Mel Damski. Graham Chapman, funny, sad, and shocking events. White’s Peter Boyle, Richard ‘‘Cheech’’ Marin, fondness for society’s oddballs (see Tommy Chong, Peter Cook, Marty Feldman, CHUCK & BUCK, THE GOOD GIRL) Martin Hewitt, Michael Hordern, Eric Idle, flowers in his directorial debut, a serioMadeline Kahn, James Mason, John Cleese, comedy with Shannon capturing all the nuSusannah York, Stacey Nelkin. Appalling ances of her character, a good-hearted waste of talent in a startlingly inept and unwoman who’s never quite fit in. Evocative funny pirate comedy. Written by costars score by Christophe Beck. [PG-13]쩠 Chapman and Cook with Bernard McKenna. Year of the Dragon (1985) C-136m. ★★1⁄2 They should have walked the plank for this D: Michael Cimino. Mickey Rourke, John one. This was Feldman’s final film. [PG] Lone, Ariane, Leonard Termo, Ray Barry, ▼●쩠 Caroline Kava, Eddie Jones. Highly charged, Yellow Canary, The (1963) 93m. BOMB arresting melodrama scripted by Oliver D: Buzz Kulik. Pat Boone, Barbara Eden, Stone (from Robert Daley’s book) about a Steve Forrest, Jack Klugman, Jesse White, Vietnam vet who’s still fighting his own Milton Selzer, John Banner, Jeff Corey, private war, as a N.Y.C. cop whose curHarold Gould. If you’ve lain awake nights rent target is corruption in Chinatown, and hoping to see Pat Boone as an obnoxious crime czar Lone in particular. Companion pop singer in a movie written by Rod piece to Cimino’s THE DEER HUNTER Serling, your wish has come true. But don’t has same intensity but nearly drowns in a fret; Pat turns into a nice guy when his infant sea of excess and self-importance. Still son is kidnapped and he has to go rescue him. worth watching. Incidentally, virtually all And you thought The Twilight Zone was just New York settings (including Mott Street) a TV show! CinemaScope. were recreated on location in North CaroYellow Earth (1984-Chinese) C-87m. ★★★ lina! J-D-C Scope. [R]▼●쩠 D: Chen Kaige. Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tan ★★ Year of the Gun (1991) C-111m. D: Tuo, Liu Qiang. One of the earliest films of John Frankenheimer. Andrew McCarthy, the Chinese New Wave is an engrossing, poValeria Golino, Sharon Stone, John Pankow, etic account of a wandering communist solMattia Sbragia, George Murcell. Confused dier who arrives in a rural farming village in thriller about a young American novelist in 1939 to learn folk songs that he will teach to Rome who stumbles onto the Red Brihis regiment; he inspires a 14-year-old girl gade’s plot to kidnap then-Premier Aldo who is bound by tradition to a life of bitterMoro. Frankenheimer (who made such great ness and hardship. Photographed by Zhang political thrillers as SEVEN DAYS IN Yimou; it’s interesting to contrast this film’s MAY and THE MANCHURIAN CANDI‘‘communism equals freedom’’ propaganda DATE) struggles to keep a wandering story to the political content of Yimou and Kaige’s later work.▼ in focus. McCarthy is somewhat blank in the lead role, but Stone is good as an Yellow Rolls-Royce, The (1964-British) aggressive photojournalist. [R]▼●쩠 C-122m. ★★★ D: Anthony Asquith. Rex Year of the Quiet Sun, A (1984-PolishHarrison, Shirley MacLaine, Ingrid BergGerman) C-106m. ★★★ D: Krzysztof Zaman, Jeanne Moreau, Edmund Purdom, nussi. Scott Wilson, Maja Komorowska, George C. Scott, Omar Sharif, Art CarHanna Skarzanka, Ewa Dalkowska, Vadim ney, Alain Delon, Roland Culver, Wally [ 1575 ]

Cox. Slick Terence Rattigan drama inBorboni, James Hong, Beulah Quo. Opera volving trio of owners of title car, focusing superstar Pavarotti plays . . . an opera superon how romance plays a part in each of star, who pursues an independent-minded lady their lives; contrived but ever-so-smoothly doctor during American tour. So-called rohandled. Panavision.▼●쩠 mantic comedy gives the phrase ‘‘old fash★★★ Yellow Sky (1948) 98m. ioned’’ a bad name; missing ingredient is a D: William A. Wellman. Gregory Peck, Anne Baxter, parade of character actors like Mischa Auer Richard Widmark, Robert Arthur, John and Herman Bing to make it palatable. Only Russell, Henry (Harry) Morgan, James Barsaving grace: Pavarotti sings. [PG]▼●쩠 ton. Exciting Western with Peck heading a Yes Man (2008) C-104m. ★★1⁄2 D: Peyton gang of thieves who come to a ghost town, Reed. Jim Carrey, Zooey Deschanel, Bradwhere they confront tough, mysterious Baxley Cooper, John Michael Higgins, Rhys ter and her grandfather. Similar in atmoDarby, Danny Masterson, Fionnula Flanasphere to Wellman’s classic THE OX-BOW gan, Terence Stamp, Sasha Alexander, Molly INCIDENT. Script by Lamar Trotti from a Sims, Brent Briscoe. A working drone who’s W. R. Burnett story. Remade as THE been miserable since his wife dumped him JACKALS.▼쩠 falls under the influence of a self-help guru Yellow Submarine (1968-British) C-85m. who exhorts him to say nothing but yes for ★★★★ D: George Dunning. Pure delight, a the next year—quite literally—and he finds phantasmagorical animated feature with as that it does in fact open up all sorts of opmuch to hear as there is to see: Beatles’ portunities. Perfect role for Carrey, who songs, puns, non sequitur jokes combined makes the most of it, though the script loses with surreal pop-art visions in story of its initial momentum . . . and the final gag Beatles trying to save Pepperland from the falls flat. Based on a best-selling memoir Blue Meanies. Unique, refreshing. Songs by Danny Wallace. Luis Guzma´n appears unbilled. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠 include ‘‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,’’ ‘‘When I’m Sixty-four,’’ ‘‘All You Need Yes Men, The (2004) C-83m. ★★★ D: Chris Is Love.’’ Alternate version runs 90m. and Smith, Sarah Price, Dan Ollman. Subversively hilarious documentary-satire in which a features ‘‘Hey Bulldog.’’ [G]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Yentl (1983) C-134m. pair of merry pranksters pass themselves off ⁄2 D: Barbra Streisand. Barbra Streisand, Mandy Patinas World Trade Organization hotshots. Their kin, Amy Irving, Nehemiah Persoff, Stepurpose: to infiltrate the culture of corporate ven Hill. A young woman in Eastern Europe executives and expose and lampoon their duat the turn of the century disguises as a boy bious intentions. Watching how far they carry in order to fulfill her dream and get an their hoax proves again that Barnum was education. Isaac Bashevis Singer’s simple right. Michael Moore, sympathetic to The short story is handled with love and care Yes Men’s mission, appears briefly. Released in Canada in 2003. [R] ▼쩠 by first-time director/producer/cowriter Streisand, but goes on far longer than necessary, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963with 12 (count ’em) soliloquy songs by Italian) C-119m. ★★★★ D: Vittorio De Sica. Alan and Marilyn Bergman and Michel LeSophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Tina grand (who also earned Oscars for their Pica, Giovanni Ridolfi. Oscar winner for score) and a finale uncomfortably reminisBest Foreign Film is impeccable trio of comic cent of FUNNY GIRL. A star vehicle if tales, with Loren playing three women who there ever was one; no wonder Streisand use sex in various ways to get what they want. fans love it. Alternate DVD version runs Striptease for Marcello is among the most 137m. [PG]▼●쩠 famous scenes in her career (and remains pretty steamy). Techniscope.▼쩠 Yes (2005-U.S.-British) C-100m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Sally Potter. Joan Allen, Simon Abkarian, Yi Yi (A One and a Two) (2000-TaiwaneseSam Neill, Shirley Henderson, Sheila HanJapanese) C-173m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Edward Yang. cock, Samantha Bond, Stephanie Leonidas. Nien-Jen Wu, Elaine Jin, Issey Ogata, Kelly Challenging, artfully crafted tale (written in Lee, Jonathan Chang, Hsi-Sheng Chen. rhyming verse) about a woman whose marSmart, spare slice-of-life about a middleriage is strained, leaving her ripe for seducclass Taiwanese family and their everyday tion. Enter a suave Lebanese man (Abkarian). problems: a husband-father must contend Potter’s scenario veers in many directions, with business difficulties and the presence with astute philosophical observations about of an old girlfriend; his wife is deeply dethe differences between East and West, relapressed by her mother’s debilitating stroke; tions between the classes, and the importheir adolescent daughter is attempting to tance of seizing the moment. Talky but define herself; their eight-year-old son has never boring, with Potter offering beautitroubles at school. A knowing, beautifully fully composed shots and stunning use of textured portrait of birth and death, and the cycles of life in between. Written by the color. [R]쩠 1 ★ director.▼쩠 Yes, Giorgio (1982) C-110m. ⁄2 D: Franklin J. Schaffner. Luciano Pavarotti, Yojimbo (1961-Japanese) 110m. ★★★★ D: Kathryn Harrold, Eddie Albert, Paola Akira Kurosawa. Toshiro Mifune, Eijiro [ 1576 ]

Tono, Seizaburo Kawazu, Isuzu Yamada, three days. Coscripted by Dalton Trumbo. Hiroshi Tachikawa, Kyu Sazanka, Tatsuya Remade as EMERGENCY WEDDING. Nakadai, Takashi Shimura. Superb tongueYou Better Watch Out (1980) C-100m. ★★★ in-cheek samurai picture, the plot of which D: Lewis Jackson. Brandon Maggart, resembles a Western; Mifune is perfection Dianne Hull, Scott McKay, Joe Jamrog, as samurai up for hire in town with two Peter Friedman, Ray Barry, Bobby Lesser, warring factions, both of whom he teaches Sam Gray. Gripping, well-made little thriller a well-deserved lesson. Beautiful on all about a killer disguised as Santa Claus, with counts; the inspiration for FISTFUL OF Maggart excellent as the psychopathic Kris DOLLARS and many other films. Later reKringle. A sleeper, with cult status possibilmade as LAST MAN STANDING. Sequel: ities. Video titles: CHRISTMAS EVIL and TERROR IN TOYLAND. [R]▼쩠 SANJURO. Tohoscope. ▼●쩠 Yol (1982-Turkish-Swiss) C-111m. ★★★ You Can Count on Me (2000) C-111m. ★★★1 D: Serif Goren. Tarik Akan, Serif Sezer, ⁄2 D: Kenneth Lonergan. Laura Linney, Halil Ergun, Meral Orhonsoy, Necmettin Mark Ruffalo, Matthew Broderick, Rory Cobanoglu. Incisive chronicle of the expeCulkin, Jon Tenney, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy riences of convicts who return home while Ryan. A woman raising an 8-year-old son on ‘‘leave’’ from jail. Screenplay by Yilmaz on her own—in the house she grew up in— Guney, written while he was himself in must simultaneously deal with a priggish prison. [PG]▼ new boss and the arrival of her much-loved Yolanda and the Thief (1945) C-108m. but aimless brother who comes to stay for a ★★1 while. Wonderful comedy-drama about the ⁄2 D: Vincente Minnelli. Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan, Leon Ames, peccadilloes of sibling relationships, the Mildred Natwick, Mary Nash. Opulent musiworkplace, and life in general, sparked by cal fantasy about a con man (Astaire) who great performances and an unusually pertries to convince rich convent-bred girl ceptive script. Directing debut for play(Bremer) that he’s her guardian angel. Unwright/screenwriter Lonergan, who also usual film that you’ll either love or hate. Best appears as Linney’s priest. [R]▼쩠 musical number: ‘‘Coffee Time.’’▼● You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939) 78m. ★★★1⁄2 D: George Marshall. W. C. Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983Italian) C-88m. BOMB D: Anthony M. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Constance Moore, Dawson (Antonio Margheriti). Reb Brown, James Bush, Mary Forbes, Thurston Hall, Corinne Clery, John Steiner, Carole AnEdward Brophy, Grady Sutton, Eddie dre, Alan Collins. Shamelessly idiotic ‘‘Rochester’’ Anderson. Fields (as Larson muscleman movie with a nuclear-age twist. E. Whipsnade) runs circus with interferHumorously tacky at first, then just plain ence from Bergen and Charlie McCarthy boring. [PG]▼● in frantic comedy classic with loads of You and Me (1938) 90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Fritz snappy one-liners and memorable pingLang. Sylvia Sidney, George Raft, Barton pong game. Most of Fields’ scenes were MacLane, Harry Carey, Roscoe Karns, directed by Eddie Cline.▼쩠 George E. Stone, Warren Hymer, Robert You Can’t Get Away With Murder (1939) 78m. ★★ D: Lewis Seiler. Humphrey Cummings. Genuinely odd but likable film about an ex-con (Raft) who falls in love Bogart, Billy Halop, Gale Page, John Litel, with Sidney and marries her, unaware that Henry Travers, Harvey Stephens, Joe Sawshe’s a former jailbird herself. Unusual yer, Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ Anderson. Cocky mix of gangsterism, sentiment, Damon punk Bogart takes angry, impressionable Runyonesque comedy, and music (by Kurt Halop under his wing, leading to plenty of Weill)—with even some rhythmic dialogue! complications. Overbaked melodramatics Story by Norman Krasna, screenplay by do this one in. Virginia Van Upp.▼ You Can’t Hurry Love (1988) C-92m. ★1⁄2 D: Richard Martini. David Packer, You Are What You Eat (1968) C-75m. ★★ D: Barry Feinstein. Tiny Tim, Peter Scott McGinnis, Bridget Fonda, David LeiYarrow, Paul Butterfield, Barry McGuire, sure, Anthony Geary, Frank Bonner, Lu Father Malcom Boyd, The Electric Flag, Leonard, Merete Van Kamp, Sally KellerHarper’s Bizarre, Super Spade. Documenman, Charles Grodin, Kristy McNichol. tary of the mid-’60s does, by the mere Paper-thin, predictable fare about the adappearance of some of the era’s luminarventures of young Packer, who’s lost in the L.A. singles scene. [R]▼●쩠 ies, carry one back; however, film is ill conceived, haphazardly put together.▼ You Can’t Run Away From It (1956) You Belong to Me (1941) 94m. ★★ D: C-95m. ★★ D: Dick Powell. June Allyson, Wesley Ruggles. Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Jack Lemmon, Charles Bickford, Paul GilFonda, Edgar Buchanan, Roger Clark, Ruth bert, Jim Backus, Stubby Kaye, Henny Donnelly, Melville Cooper, Maude Eburne. Youngman. Slight musical remake of IT Weak comedy of doctor Stanwyck and HAPPENED ONE NIGHT with Lemmon hubby Fonda who’s wary of her male the reporter, Allyson the madcap heiress. patients. Looks as though it was made in CinemaScope. [ 1577 ]

★★1 You Can’t Steal Love SEE: Live a Little, ⁄2 D: H. C. Potter. Joan Fontaine, James Steal a Lot Stewart, Eddie Albert, Roland Young, WilYou Can’t Take It With You (1938) lard Parker, Percy Kilbride, Porter Hall. 127m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Frank Capra. Jean ArOK comedy about millionairess who runs thur, Lionel Barrymore, James Stewart, off on wedding night to find new marEdward Arnold, Mischa Auer, Ann Miller, riage. Could have been much better.▼쩠 Spring Byington, Eddie ‘‘Rochester’’ AnYou Kill Me (2007) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: John derson, Donald Meek, Halliwell Hobbes, Dahl. Ben Kingsley, Te´a Leoni, Luke WilDub Taylor, Samuel S. Hinds, Harry Davson, Philip Baker Hall, Dennis Farina, Bill enport, Charles Lane. George S. Kaufman– Pullman, Marcus Thomas. Kingsley is suMoss Hart play about eccentric but blissfully perb as an alcoholic hit man who’s banished happy household becomes prime Capraby his Polish mob family in Buffalo, N.Y., corn, not quite as compelling today as and sent to San Francisco to dry out. He’s MR. DEEDS or MR. SMITH (due to set up with a job in a mortuary and in time Robert Riskin’s extensive rewriting), but he actually starts a new life, joins AA, and still highly entertaining. Oscar winner for meets a smart woman who cares about Best Picture and Director. Followed a halfhim . . . but there’s still some unfinished century later by a TV series.▼●쩠 business to take care of back home. Smart, You Can’t Win ’Em All (1970) C-95m. original, genuinely funny black comedy, ★1 ⁄2 D: Peter Collinson. Tony Curtis, Charles written by Christopher Markus and Stephen Bronson, Michele Mercier, Patrick Magee, McFeely. Super 35. [R]쩠 Gregoire Aslan. Bronson and Curtis are You Light Up My Life (1977) C-90m. friendly rivals caught in war-torn Turkey ★★1 ⁄2 D: Joseph Brooks. Didi Conn, Joe during the early 1920s. Bantering stars Silver, Michael Zaslow, Stephen Nathan, make the most of tired script by Leo GorMelanie Mayron. Oscar-winning title song don (who also has supporting role). Filmed may be best remembered thing about this on location. Original title: THE DUBIOUS film, but Conn and Silver are worth watchPATRIOTS. Video title: SOLDIERS OF ing in loosely structured story of showFORTUNE. Panavision. [PG]▼ business-oriented girl trying to break loose You Don’t Mess With the Zohan (2008) and establish herself while putting her life C-113m. ★★1⁄2 D: Dennis Dugan. Adam in order. Produced, directed, written, and Sandler, John Turturro, Emmanuelle Chrimusically supervised by Brooks. [PG]▼쩠 qui, Nick Swardson, Kevin Nealon, Lainie You’ll Like My Mother (1972) C-92m. Kazan, Rob Schneider, Mariah Carey, Rob★★1⁄2 D: Lamont Johnson. Patty Duke, ert Smigel, Shelley Berman, Charlotte Rae, Rosemary Murphy, Sian Barbara Allen, Chris Rock. Even by Sandler standards this Richard Thomas, Dennis Rucker. Offbeat plot defies description: super-Jew counterthriller with psychological undertones. Duke terrorist Zohan has a potential world of Palplays pregnant widow journeying to visit estinian behinds to kick, in and around mother-in-law she’s never met. Some good home base in Israel, but what he really moments, but doesn’t add up. [PG]▼ wants is to come to America and professionYou’ll Never Get Rich (1941) 88m. ★★★ ally ape the hair-care standards of Paul D: Sidney Lanfield. Fred Astaire, Rita Mitchell (the more dated, the better). So, uh, Hayworth, John Hubbard, Robert Benchhe does. Predictably uneven and crude but ley, Osa Massen, Frieda Inescort, Guinn ticklishly demented much of the time; Williams, Cliff Nazarro. Broadway star Asabove-average Sandler comedy supplies a taire is drafted, so producer Benchley brings romance (with Chriqui, as a New York–the show to training camp, where Fred does based Palestinian salon owner) and plenty his best to win over chorus girl Hayworth. of spirited cameos, including John McWitty banter, a Cole Porter score (including Enroe, who’s become a Sandler regular. ‘‘So Near and Yet So Far’’), and terrific Unrated version runs 117m. [PG-13]쩠 ★★ dancing by the two stars make this breezy D: You Got Served (2004) C-94m. fun. ▼●쩠 Chris Stokes. Marques Houston, Omari You, Me and Dupree (2006) C-110m. Grandberry, Jarell Houston, DeMario Thorn★★1⁄2 D: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo. Owen ton, Dreux Frederic, Jennifer Freeman, Lil’ Wilson, Kate Hudson, Matt Dillon, Michael Kim, Steve Harvey, Michael ‘‘Bear’’ TaliDouglas, Seth Rogen, Amanda Detmer. ferro, Meagan Good. Impressive street dancNewlyweds Hudson and Dillon embark on ing and a likable cast can’t save this married life with an unexpected glitch: his predictable tale of local boys trying to make best friend (Wilson) is crashing on their good, eventually becoming rivals. Simplisliving-room sofa. What’s more, Dillon tic plotting and often unintelligible street works for her father (Douglas), who enjoys jargon make it laughable at times, although throwing his weight around. Wilson elethe leads (known for their work in such vates this fairly obvious comedy, as the groups as B2K and IMX) do a decent job. character of Dupree turns out to be more [PG-13]▼쩠 You Gotta Stay Happy (1948) 100m. human—and likable—than you might ex[ 1578 ]

pect. Harry Dean Stanton appears unbilled. among others. Proving that age is all about Wilson also coproduced. [PG-13]쩠 attitude and a desire for ‘‘Stayin’ Alive’’ You Must Be Joking! (1965-British) (one of the highlighted tunes), this moving C-100m. ★★★ D: Michael Winner. Mifilm captures moments of glory and sorrow chael Callan, Lionel Jeffries, Terry-Thomas, as these lively subjects rehearse their remarkable show. [PG]쩠 Denholm Elliott, Wilfrid Hyde-White, James Robertson Justice, Bernard Cribbins, Young Bess (1953) C-112m. ★★★ D: Gabriella Licudi. Engaging poke at British George Sidney. Jean Simmons, Stewart army as zany psychologist (Jeffries) rounds Granger, Charles Laughton, Deborah Kerr, up five weirdos to establish, via special Cecil Kellaway, Leo G. Carroll, Kay testing, the ‘‘complete, quick thinking’’ Walsh. Splashy costumer with Simmons exemplary British soldier. as Elizabeth I, Laughton repeating role of Young Adam (2003-British-French) C-98m. Henry VIII. Fine cast does quite well in ★★ historical setting.▼ D: David Mackenzie. Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan, Emily MortiYoung Billy Young (1969) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 mer. Murder and sex affect the dynamics on a D: Burt Kennedy. Robert Mitchum, Angie barge where a young drifter (McGregor) has Dickinson, Robert Walker, David Carradine, come to work for a simple man (Mullan) and Jack Kelly, John Anderson, Paul Fix. Sherhis unhappy wife (Swinton). Dreary drama, iff Mitchum, seeking the killer of his son, set in the 1950s, benefits from McGregor’s takes young Walker under his wing as a strong screen presence but sinks under its own surrogate. Peculiar Western, adapted by weight. Even explicit sex scenes can’t liven Kennedy from Will Henry’s Who Rides up this dour tale. Scripted by Mackenzie from With Wyatt, is based on the alleged friendthe novel by Scottish Beat Generation writer ship between Wyatt Earp and Billy Clanton; Alexander Trocchi. Arriscope. [NC-17]▼쩠 interesting, but nothing special. [G]▼ Young Americans (1967) C-104m. ★★ D: Youngblood (1986) C-109m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Alex Grasshoff. Although this slick docuMarkle. Rob Lowe, Cynthia Gibb, Patrick mentary about the ‘‘Young Americans’’ Swayze, Ed Lauter, Eric Nesterenko, singing group won an Oscar (which it was George Finn, Fionnula Flanagan. Boring, forced to relinquish when it was discovered utterly predictable story of Lowe joining that it had played theatrically before the small-time Canadian hockey team, falling year of its contention), these kids sell in love with the daughter of his no-nonsense America like those guys on TV sell macoach. This movie has no energy, on the chines that slice carrots 144 different ways. ice or off! Keanu Reeves’ screen debut; Young and Innocent (1937-British) 80m. that’s him behind the mask, as the team’s ★★★ goalie. [R]▼●쩠 D: Alfred Hitchcock. Derrick de Marney, Nova Pilbeam, Percy Marmont, Youngblood Hawke (1964) 137m. ★★1⁄2 Edward Rigby, Mary Clare, Basil Radford. D: Delmer Daves. James Franciscus, GenA Hitchcock thriller with charm and huevieve Page, Suzanne Pleshette, Eva Gabor, mor; young girl helps runaway man innoMary Astor, Lee Bowman, Edward Ancently accused of murder to find the real drews, Don Porter. Cliche´d but somehow culprit. Pleasant echoes of THE 39 STEPS; compelling trash from Herman Wouk’s nightclub revelation scene is especially novel about a naive Southerner who writes memorable. Based on a novel by Josephine a novel and becomes the toast of N.Y.C. Tey.▼●쩠 literary society—with several women vying Young and the Damned, The SEE: Los for his attention. Olvidados Young Cassidy (1965-British) C-110m. ★★★ Young and the Immoral, The SEE: SinD: Jack Cardiff, John Ford. Rod Tayister Urge, The lor, Julie Christie, Maggie Smith, Flora Young at Heart (1954) C-117m. ★★★ D: Robson, Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, Gordon Douglas. Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Jack MacGowran. Taylor’s best role ever Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Maas the earthy intellectual Sean O’Casey, lone, Alan Hale, Jr. Musical remake of set in 1910 Dublin; filled with rich atmoFannie Hurst’s FOUR DAUGHTERS with sphere and fine supporting players. Sinatra romancing Day amid much tearYoung Dillinger (1965) 102m. ★★1⁄2 D: shedding. Slickly done.▼쩠 Terry O. Morse. Nick Adams, Mary Ann Young@Heart (2008-U.S.-British) C-110m. Mobley, Robert Conrad, John Ashley, Vic★★★ tor Buono, John Hoyt, Reed Hadley. AdD: Stephen Walker. Stirring documentary chronicling the musical journey of a group of ams gives force to chronicle of gangster senior citizens in Northampton, MassachuJohn Dillinger, his rise and seemingly insetts, as they prepare the latest performance evitable fall; sufficient gunplay.▼ of Young At Heart, a concert group origiYoung Doctors, The (1961) 100m. ★★★ nally formed in 1982 that features a revolvD: Phil Karlson. Fredric March, Ben ing group of singers in their 70s, 80s and Gazzara, Dick Clark, Eddie Albert, Ina 90s performing the songs of Jimi Hendrix, Balin, Aline MacMahon, Edward Andrews, The Clash, Sonic Youth, and James Brown, Arthur Hill, George Segal, Rosemary Mur[ 1579 ]

phy, Barnard Hughes, Dick Button, Dolph of old FRANKENSTEIN pictures, scripted Sweet; narrated by Ronald Reagan. Sturdy by Wilder and Brooks, with appropriate cast uplifts soaper set in large city hospital. music (by John Morris), sets, laboratory Based on an Arthur Hailey novel. Segal’s equipment (some of it from the 1930s), and first film. b&w camerawork (by Gerald Hirschfeld). Young Doctors in Love (1982) C-95m. Plus vivid characterizations by mad doctor ★★ D: Garry Marshall. Michael McKean, Wilder, monster Boyle, hunchback assistant Sean Young, Harry Dean Stanton, Patrick Feldman, et al. Spoof of blind-man sequence Macnee, Hector Elizondo, Dabney Colefrom BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN with man, Pamela Reed, Michael Richards, TayGene Hackman is uproarious. Later a lor Negron, Saul Rubinek, Titos Vandis, Broadway musical. [PG]▼●쩠 Ted McGinley, Crystal Bernard. Hospital Young Fury (1965) C-80m. ★★1⁄2 D: Chriscomedy has plenty of scattershot gags, but tian Nyby. Rory Calhoun, Virginia Mayo, not enough laughs—and certainly not Lon Chaney (Jr.), John Agar, Richard enough substance—to maintain a feature Arlen, Linda Foster. Tired gunslinger refilm. Many daytime soap opera stars apturns home to discover son leading gang of pear in cameos (including Demi Moore and young hellions. Standard formula plot highJanine Turner, both then on General Hospilighted by a cast chockfull of old stars. Wiltal). Feature directing debut of TV comedy liam Bendix’s last film. Techniscope. writer-producer Marshall. [R]▼●쩠 Young Girls of Rochefort, The (1967Young Dracula (1974-Italian-French) SEE: French) C-124m. ★★ D: Jacques Demy. Andy Warhol’s Dracula Catherine Deneuve, Franc¸oise Dorle´ac, Young Dracula (1974-British) SEE: Son Gene Kelly, George Chakiris, Danielle of Dracula Darrieux, Grover Dale, Michel Piccoli. Young Einstein (1988-Australian) C-90m. Director Demy’s follow-up to THE UM★★1 ⁄2 D: Yahoo Serious. Yahoo Serious, BRELLAS OF CHERBOURG is a homOdile Le Clezio, John Howard, Pee Wee age to the Hollywood musical, but what it Wilson, Su Cruickshank. Nutty comedy has in style it lacks in substance; contrived from Down Under based on the premise story and repetitive Michel Legrand music that Albert Einstein not only developed the score surely wear thin, and even Gene theory of relativity, but also invented rock Kelly can’t save it. Franscope. [G]▼쩠 ’n’ roll! The silliness continues from there Young Guns (1988) C-107m. ★★1⁄2 D: . . . though any movie with ‘‘cat pies’’ Christopher Cain. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer can’t be all bad. Aptly named Yahoo (born Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Greg Pead) wrote, produced, directed, and Sheen, Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko, stars in this slapstick epic. [PG]▼●쩠 Terence Stamp, Jack Palance, Terry Younger & Younger (1993-GermanO’Quinn, Sharon Thomas, Brian Keith, French-Canadian) C-99m. ★★1⁄2 D: Percy Patrick Wayne. Six young punks, taken Adlon. Donald Sutherland, Lolita Davidounder the wing of a civilized British genvich, Brendan Fraser, Sally Kellerman, Julie tleman (Stamp), find it hard to retain their Delpy, Linda Hunt, Nicholas Gunn, Matt equilibrium when they’re left on their own, Damon. Likably offbeat modern-day fanand whipped into a frenzy of violence by tasy about a self-styled gay blade and bon their newest recruit—William Bonney, soon vivant who owns a self-storage facility in to be known as Billy the Kid (Estevez). Glendale, California, and lives in a rarefied Contemporary-minded Western adopts world of his own, until reality comes crash1980s-style language and sensibilities, and ing down. This may be your only chance to has a plot with as many holes as some of hear Sutherland sing! Never released theatBilly’s victims. Still watchable, with several rically in the U.S. [R]▼ strong performances. Try to spot Tom Younger Generation, The (1929) 88m. 1 Cruise, in disguise as a bad guy who gets ★★ ⁄2 D: Frank Capra. Jean Hersholt, Lina shot. Followed by a sequel. [R] ▼●쩠 Basquette, Ricardo Cortez, Rosa Rosanova, Young Guns II (1990) C-103m. ★★1⁄2 D: Rex Lease. Ethnic heart-tugger by Fannie Geoff Murphy. Emilio Estevez, Kiefer SuthHurst about a Jewish family that suffers erland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Christian because of one son’s determination to abanSlater, William Petersen, Alan Ruck, R.D. don his roots and break into N.Y.C. sociCall, James Coburn, Balthazar Getty, Jack ety. (Cortez played a similar role in Kehoe, Viggo Mortensen. Not-bad sequel SYMPHONY OF SIX MILLION.) Direcfinds Billy Bonney and his gang heading tor Capra pulls out all the stops in this toward the safety of Old Mexico with a silent film with talkie sequences. ★★★1⁄2 band of government men in hot pursuit. Young Frankenstein (1974) 105m. Slater is a standout on the trail. Great phoD: Mel Brooks. Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, tography and a sweeping Alan Silvestri Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn, score almost make you forget the script ain’t Cloris Leachman, Kenneth Mars, Richard so hot. Panavision. [PG-13]▼●쩠 Haydn. One of the funniest (and most quotable) movies of all time, a finely tuned parody Young Hearts SEE: Promised Land [ 1580 ]

Young Hellions SEE: High School Conisland, must contend with the presence of fidential! on-the-run black jazz musician Hamilton. Young in Heart, The (1938) 90m. ★★★1⁄2 Turgid, much-too-obvious melodrama is a disappointment from Bun˜uel.▼쩠 D: Richard Wallace. Janet Gaynor, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paulette Goddard, RoYoung People (1940) 78m. ★★ D: Allan land Young, Billie Burke, Minnie Dupree, Dwan. Shirley Temple, Jack Oakie, CharRichard Carlson. Refreshing comedy about lotte Greenwood, Arleen Whelan, George wacky family of con artists going straight Montgomery, Kathleen Howard. Show-biz under influence of unsuspecting Dupree. team Oakie and Greenwood raise orphaned Written by Paul Osborn and Charles BenShirley and try to settle down in this weak nett from an I.A.R. Wylie novel. Also musical, a later and lesser Temple vehicle. shown in computer-colored version.▼쩠 Good dance routine at the finish. Also shown Young Lions, The (1958) 167m. ★★★1⁄2 in computer-colored version. ▼쩠 D: Edward Dmytryk. Marlon Brando, Young Philadelphians, The (1959) 136m. ★★★ Montgomery Clift, Dean Martin, Hope D: Vincent Sherman. Paul Newman, Lange, Barbara Rush, Maximilian Schell, May Barbara Rush, Alexis Smith, Brian Keith, Britt, Lee Van Cleef. One of the all-time best Diane Brewster, Billie Burke, John WilWW2 studies, adapted by Edward Anhalt liams, Robert Vaughn, Otto Kruger, Adam from the Irwin Shaw novel. Martin and Clift West. Newman and Rush have memorable play U.S. soldiers, Brando a confused Nazi roles as poor lawyer who schemes to the officer; effectively photographed by Joe Mactop and society girl he hopes to win; Donald, with Hugo Friedhofer’s fine score. Vaughn is hard-drinking buddy Newman CinemaScope. ▼●쩠 defends on murder charge, Smith quite Young Lovers, The (1950) SEE: Never good as frustrated wife of attorney Kruger. Fear ▼쩠 Young Lovers, The (1964) 109m. ★★ D: Young Poisoner’s Handbook, The (1995Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Peter Fonda, Sharon British-French-German) C-99m. ★★★ D: Hugueny, Nick Adams, Deborah Walley, Ben Ross. Hugh O’Conor, Antony Sher, Beatrice Straight, Joseph Campanella, Kent Ruth Sheen, Roger Lloyd Pack, Charlotte Smith. Amateurish, meandering drama of Coleman. Gleefully gruesome British black college youths involved in romance. comedy about a psychopathic teen (O’CoYoung Man With a Horn (1950) 112m. nor) who decides to become ‘‘the greatest ★★★ D: Michael Curtiz. Kirk Douglas, poisoner the world has ever seen,’’ using his Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Juano Herclueless family as guinea pigs. Deliciously nandez, Hoagy Carmichael, Mary Beth mean-spirited film (based on a true story!) Hughes. Effective drama of trumpet-player is not for the squeamish. Flavored by a Douglas compulsively drawn to music, with soundtrack of ’60s pop oddities.▼●쩠 Bacall the bad girl, Day the wholesome one. Young Racers, The (1963) C-87m. ★★ D: Carl Foreman–Edmund H. North script Roger Corman. Mark Damon, William adapted from Dorothy Baker’s book, and inCampbell, Patrick Magee, Luana Anders, spired by Bix Beiderbecke’s life; Harry James Robert Campbell. Juvenile nonsense about dubbed Douglas’ licks.▼●쩠 sports car racing involving ex-racer turned exYoung Mr. Lincoln (1939) 100m. ★★★1⁄2 pose´ writer, trying to do a book on the sport.쩠 D: John Ford. Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Young Rebel (1967-French-Italian-Spanish) Marjorie Weaver, Donald Meek, Richard C-111m. ★★ D: Vincent Sherman. Horst Cromwell, Eddie Quillan, Milburn Stone, Buchholz, Gina Lollobrigida, Jose Ferrer, Ward Bond, Francis Ford. Fine Ford AmeriLouis Jourdan, Francisco Rabal. Despite cana with Abraham Lincoln (Fonda) facing cast, historical claptrap about Buchholz years of struggle as a beginning lawyer in the being sent to Spain by Pope Pius V to obtain 1800s. Brady lends solid support.▼●쩠 help in fighting the Moors. Also known as Young Nurses, The (1973) C-77m. ★★ D: CERVANTES. Totalscope. [M/PG] Clinton Kimbrough. Jean Manson, Ashley Young Runaways, The (1968) C-91m. ★★ Porter, Angela Gibbs, Zack Taylor, Jack D: Arthur Dreifuss. Brooke Bundy, LaRue, Jr., Dick Miller, Sally Kirkland, Kevin Coughlin, Lloyd Bochner, Patty McAllan Arbus. Fourth of Roger Corman’s Cormack, Lynn Bari, Norman Fell. Silly B‘‘nurse’’ movies is OK, focusing on drug picture about restless teenagers and how they ring working out of the hospital. Neat are swept up into sordid lifestyles. Interesting appearance by director Samuel Fuller as a mainly for early look at Richard Dreyfuss as villain, and a rather sad one by aged Mantan cocky car thief. Panavision. [R] Young Savages, The (1961) 103m. ★★★ Moreland (in his final film). Followed by D: John Frankenheimer. Burt Lancaster, CANDY STRIPE NURSES. [R]▼쩠 Young One, The (1961-Mexican) 96m. Dina Merrill, John Davis Chandler, Shel★1⁄2 D: Luis Bunuel. Zachary Scott, Bernie ley Winters, Telly Savalas, Edward An˜ Hamilton, Key Meersman, Graham Denton, drews, Chris Robinson, Pilar Seurat, Milton Claudio Brook. Racist Scott, who has vioSelzer. Lancaster is idealistic D.A. batlated Lolita-like Meersman on an isolated tling all odds to see justice done in street[ 1581 ]

gang slaying; at times brutal, too often pat. battle scenes. Scripted and produced by Carl Foreman. Panavision. [PG]▼ Adapted by Edward Anhalt and JP Miller You Only Live Once (1937) 86m. ★★★ D: from Evan Hunter’s novel A Matter of Fritz Lang. Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Conviction. Savalas’ film debut.▼●쩠 William Gargan, Barton MacLane, Jean Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) C-109m. ★★ D: Barry Levinson. Nicholas Rowe, Dixon, Jerome Cowan, Margaret Hamilton, Ward Bond, Guinn Williams. Beautifully Alan Cox, Sophie Ward, Anthony Higcrafted drama about ex-convict Fonda trying gins, Susan Fleetwood, Freddie Jones, Nigel to go straight, finding that fate is against him. Stock, Michael Hordern. Promising film Loosely based on the Bonnie and Clyde legspeculates about Conan Doyle’s detective end, but impressive on its own.▼쩠 when he was a boy, introduces him to You Only Live Twice (1967-British) Watson, and involves him in his first great C-116m. ★★1⁄2 D: Lewis Gilbert. Sean case. Knowing references to Holmes’s later Connery, Akiko Wakabayashi, Tetsuro life, perfect Victorian atmosphere all give Tamba, Mie Hama, Karin Dor, Bernard way to jarring 1980s special effects, inapLee, Lois Maxwell, Desmond Llewelyn, propriate INDIANA JONES–type subplot, Donald Pleasence. Big James Bond proand action climax that doesn’t make much duction with first look at arch-nemesis sense. If you do watch it through, be sure Blofeld (Pleasence), Japanese locales, but to stay through the very end. Written by plot (SPECTRE out to cause major powers Chris Columbus. [PG-13]▼●쩠 ★★★ to declare war on each other) and lack of Young Stranger, The (1957) 84m. convincing, clever crisis situations are liaD: John Frankenheimer. James MacArbilities film can’t shake off. Script by thur, James Daly, Kim Hunter, James GregRoald Dahl (!), spectacular sets by Ken ory, Marian Seldes, Whit Bissell. Excellent Adam. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 drama about a teenage boy’s brush with Your Cheatin’ Heart (1964) 99m. ★★★ D: delinquency and strained relationship with Gene Nelson. George Hamilton, Susan his wealthy, neglectful father. Surprisingly Oliver, Red Buttons, Arthur O’Connell, undated, sincere little film; MacArthur’s Rex Ingram. One of Hamilton’s best roles, impressive screen debut (and director as legendary country-western singer Hank Frankenheimer’s, too).● Williams, who couldn’t cope with fame on Young Tom Edison (1940) 82m. ★★★ D: the ole opry circuit; songs dubbed by Hank Norman Taurog. Mickey Rooney, Fay Williams, Jr. Oliver most effective as Bainter, George Bancroft, Virginia Weidler, Hank’s wife. Also shown in computer-colEugene Pallette, Victor Kilian. Inventor’s ored version. Panavision. early life depicted with flair by effective You’re a Big Boy Now (1966) C-96m. Rooney, who could tone down when he ★★★1 ⁄2 D: Francis Ford Coppola. Peter had to; followed by Spencer Tracy’s EDIKastner, Elizabeth Hartman, Geraldine SON, THE MAN.▼●쩠 Page, Julie Harris, Rip Torn, Michael Dunn, Young Warriors, The (1967) C-93m. ★★ Tony Bill, Karen Black. Beguiling, wayD: John Peyser. James Drury, Steve Carlson, out film of young man with overprotective Jonathan Daly, Robert Pine, Michael parents learning about life from callous Stanwood. Cliche´d WW2 yarn loosely deyoung actress Hartman. Will not appeal to rived from Richard Matheson novel. Panaeveryone, but acting is marvelous, with vision. Dolph Sweet hilarious as tough cop. LoYoung Warriors (1983) C-103m. ★1⁄2 D: cation filming in N.Y.C. adds to film, too. Lawrence D. Foldes. Ernest Borgnine, Written by Coppola, from the David BeneRichard Roundtree, Lynda Day George, dictus novel. Title song by The Lovin’ James Van Patten, Anne Lockhart, Mike NorSpoonful.▼● ris, Dick Shawn, Linnea Quigley. Self-righYou’re in the Navy Now (1951) 93m. ★★ teous, violent exploitation film has students D: Henry Hathaway. Gary Cooper, Jane turning vigilantes to put local criminals out of Greer, Millard Mitchell, Eddie Albert, John business. Features several second-generation McIntire, Ray Collins, Harry Von Zell, actors (Van Patten, Lockhart, Norris). SemiLee Marvin, Jack Webb. Flat naval comsequel to MALIBU HIGH. [R]▼ edy set in WW2 with Cooper commanding Young Winston (1972-British) C-145m. a dumb crew on the U.S.S. Teakettle (the ★★★ D: Richard Attenborough. Simon Ward, ship is outfitted with a steam engine). Film Anne Bancroft, Robert Shaw, John Mills, debuts for Marvin and Charles Buchinski Jack Hawkins, Patrick Magee, Ian Holm, (Bronson). Originally screened with the Robert Flemyng, Jane Seymour, Edward title U.S.S TEAKETTLE.쩠 Woodward, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence You’re Never Too Young (1955) C-102m. ★★★ D: Norman Taurog. Dean Martin, Naismith. Entertaining account of Churchill’s early life, from school days, through Jerry Lewis, Diana Lynn, Raymond Burr, journalistic experience in Africa, up to Nina Foch, Veda Ann Borg. Fast, funny first election to Parliament. Handsome proremake of THE MAJOR AND THE MIduction, good performances, and rousing NOR (which also featured Lynn) with Jerry [ 1582 ]

disguised as 12-year-old at a girls’ school, Your Three Minutes Are Up (1973) C-92m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Douglas N. Schwartz. involved in jewel robbery. Script by Sidney Sheldon. VistaVision.쩠 Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, Janet MarYou’re Telling Me! (1934) 67m. ★★★1⁄2 D: golin, Kathleen Freeman, David Ketchum, Erle C. Kenton. W. C. Fields, Joan Marsh, Stu Nisbet. Overlooked comedy with seriLarry ‘‘Buster’’ Crabbe, Louise Carter, ous undertones vividly captures two AmeriKathleen Howard, Adrienne Ames. Hilarican lifestyles in story of ultra-straight ous remake of Fields’ silent film SO’S Bridges hanging out with swinging buddy YOUR OLD MAN, with thin storyline Leibman, who’s out to beat the system. Un(about a friendly foreign princess giving pretentious film says more about our society lowly, browbeaten Fields respectability in than many more ‘‘important’’ movies; solid his home town) a perfect excuse for some performances. Written by James Dixon. [R] of his funniest routines—including classic Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (1979golf game.▼쩠 Canadian) C-91m. BOMB D: George Your Friends & Neighbors (1998) CKaczender. Richard Harris, George Pep99m. ★★ D: Neil LaBute. Amy Brenneman, pard, Jeanne Moreau, Jennifer Dale, AlexJason Patric, Ben Stiller, Aaron Eckhart, andra Stewart, Winston Rekert. Trashy Catherine Keener, Nastassja Kinski. Anadaptation of a Romain Gary novel is an other somewhat smug ‘‘let’s rip the lid off embarrassment for its cast: Harris is strugthe hypocrisy of society’’ tract from writergling to raise cash for his failed, inherited director LaBute about two socially and sexfamily business while suffering from imually dysfunctional couples and their potency and recurring fantasies of a gypsy friends. Some pungent, provocative diastud making love to his girlfriend Dale; Peplogue, but as in LaBute’s IN THE COMpard is a foulmouthed banker who is also imPANY OF MEN, it’s not clear what the potent; and Moreau is a Parisian madam who point of it all is. Patric (who also produced) procures the gypsy boy for Harris’ and Dale’s has an especially potent role as a self-styled eventual amusement. Lurid junk. ▼ stud. Super 35. [R]▼●쩠 You So Crazy (1994) C-85m. ★1⁄2 D: Your Past Is Showing (1957-British) 92m. Thomas Schlamme. Martin Lawrence. Em★★★ D: Mario Zampi. Terry-Thomas, Pebarrassingly crude performance film full of ter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton, off-color jokes, minus any of the wit or obDennis Price, Georgina Cookson, Joan servational insights that made the Richard Sims, Miles Malleson. Scandal-sheet pubPryor films classics of the standup genre. lisher Price is literally blackmailing celebriHard to recall another instance in which a ties to death by threatening to expose their performer labored and sweated so hard for such a minimal payoff. [NC-17]▼●쩠 past and present indiscretions. Several eventually band together and plot to rid themYouth Without Youth (2007-U.S.-GermanItalian-French-Romanian) C-124m. ★★ D: selves of their problem. Sellers (cast as a television star) is a special treat in this Francis Ford Coppola. Tim Roth, Alexandra amusing satire. Original British title: THE Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Andre´ Hennicke, Marcel Iures, Adrian Pintea. A disastrous NAKED TRUTH. ▼쩠 Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) C-111m. event thrusts a mild, elderly professor back ★★★ D: Melville Shavelson. Lucille Ball, into youth on a search for the mysteries of Henry Fonda, Van Johnson, Tom Bosley, life, love, and aging. Self-described venture Tim Matheson. For once, a wholesome ‘‘faminto experimental filmmaking finds Coppola ily’’ picture with some intelligent scripting. adapting Romanian philosopher Mircea EliBased on real situation of widowed mother ade’s novella set in the days preceding of eight marrying widower with ten more WW2. Talky, didactic script never lets the children. Lucy’s drunk scene is a delight in audience in emotionally; all that’s left is a warm, well-made comedy. Among Fonda’s human puzzle few will want to bother solvbrood: Suzanne Cupito (who grew up to be ing. Matt Damon, unbilled, appears briefly. Morgan Brittany) and a very young Tracy HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 Nelson. Remade in 2005. ▼●쩠 You’ve Got Mail (1998) C-119m. ★★★ D: Yours, Mine & Ours (2005) C-88m. ★1⁄2 Nora Ephron. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, ParD: Raja Gosnell. Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo, ker Posey, Greg Kinnear, Jean Stapleton, Rip Torn, Linda Hunt, Jerry O’Connell, Steve Zahn, Dave Chappelle, Dabney ColeDavid Koechner, Katija Pevec, Danielle Paman, John Randolph. Long but entertaining nabaker, Sean Faris. Bland, charmless update remake of THE SHOP AROUND THE of the 1968 family comedy with Quaid and CORNER, with Ryan as the proud proprieRusso replacing Henry Fonda and Lucille tor of a neighborhood bookshop, Hanks as Ball. Here, a widowed, by-the-book Coast the head of a superstore chain poised to put Guard admiral with eight offspring weds her out of business. They should be mortal his old high school flame, a widowed, freeenemies, but they’re already e-mail penspirited handbag designer with ten kids. pals, without knowing each other’s identity. Heavy on slapstick and short on originality. Pleasant enough fluff with two irresistible Super 35. [PG]▼쩠 stars. The use of old songs (which worked [ 1583 ]

so well in Ephron’s SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE) is overbearing and unnecessary here. [PG-13]▼●쩠 You’ve Got to Walk It Like You Talk It or You’ll Lose That Beat (1971) C-85m. ★★1 ⁄2 D: Peter Locke. Zalman King, Richard Pryor, Robert Downey, Sr., Liz Torres, Roz Kelly, Allen Garfield. Uneven, often crude satire focusing on the sorry escapades of a young loser, a product of the ’60s. Filmed in 1968. You Were Never Lovelier (1942) 97m. ★★★1 ⁄2 D: William A. Seiter. Fred Astaire, Rita Hayworth, Adolphe Menjou, Leslie Brooks, Adele Mara, Xavier Cugat, Gus Schilling. Astaire pursuing Hayworth via matchmaking father Menjou becomes lilting musical with such lovely Jerome Kern–Johnny Mercer songs as title tune, ‘‘Dearly Beloved,’’ ‘‘I’m Old-Fashioned.’’ ▼●쩠 Y Tu Mama´ Tambie´n (2001-Mexican) C105m. ★★★ D: Alfonso Cuaro´n. Maribel Verdu´, Diego Luna, Gael Garcı´a Bernal, Diana Bracho, Emilio Echevarria, Ana Lo´pez Mercado, Marı´a Aura. Two oversexed Mexican teenage boys go on a joyride with an older woman—who is married to one of their cousins—and get a lot more than they bargained for. A road movie with a difference, alternately raucous and melancholy, with subtle (and not-so-subtle) ruminations on desire, fate, and politics, sexual and otherwise.▼쩠 Yum-Yum Girls, The (1976) C-93m. ★★ D: Barry Rosen. Judy Landers, Tanya Roberts, Michelle Dawn, Carey Poe, Stan Bernstein. Entertainingly trashy film, made before Landers’ and Roberts’ TV success, about young girls coming to N.Y.C. to become fashion models. OK cook’s tour of the business, marred by unfunny script. [R]▼●

Jones, New York Rock Ensemble, The James Gang, Dick Van Patten. Audacious rock Western with elements of a morality play and moments of sharp satire; coscripted by members of Firesign Theater. Certainly offbeat, but how much you like it is strictly personal taste. [PG]▼쩠 Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) C101m. ★★★ D: Kevin Smith. Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, Traci Lords, Katie Morgan, Ricky Mabe, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes, Brandon Routh, Tom Savini, Justin Long. Rogen and Banks, platonic pals and roommates, can’t pay the rent so they decide to make a quick buck by shooting, marketing (and appearing in) a porn film. Despite its premise and the expected raunchiness, this is a sweet-natured and lightly likable farce. But isn’t Smith getting a wee bit old for this sort of juvenilia? [R]쩠 Zandalee (1991) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Sam Pillsbury. Nicolas Cage, Judge Reinhold, Erika Anderson, Joe Pantoliano, Viveca Lindfors, Aaron Neville, Ian Abercrombie, Marisa Tomei, Zach Galligan. In steamy New Orleans, thrill-seeking Zandalee (Anderson) falls for her now-staid husband’s free-spirited friend; their affair leads to tragedy. Routine plot (with liberal doses of sex) gets sillier as it goes along; hampered, too, by unappealing characters. Released direct to video. [R]▼●쩠 Zandy’s Bride (1974) C-116m. ★1⁄2 D: Jan Troell. Gene Hackman, Liv Ullmann, Eileen Heckart, Harry Dean Stanton, Susan Tyrrell, Sam Bottoms, Joe Santos. Two frequently wasted stars in tepid romance of a mail-order bride and her pioneer husband; no one needs these scenes from a marriage. Aka FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE. Panavision. [PG]▼ Z (1969-French) C-127m. ★★★ D: CostaZapped! (1982) C-96m. ★1⁄2 D: Robert J. Gavras. Yves Montand, Irene Papas, JeanRosenthal. Scott Baio, Willie Aames, FeLouis Trintignant, Charles Denner, Georges lice Schachter, Heather Thomas, Robert Geret, Jacques Perrin, Francois Perier, MarMandan, Greg Bradford, Scatman Crothers, cel Bozzufi. Oscar winner for Best ForSue Ane Langdon. Attractive cast is wasted eign Film and Editing, based on true-life in this stupid spoof of CARRIE, in which incident, concerns political assassination Baio acquires telekinetic powers . . . which of Montand and chilling aftermath. Talky he’s most anxious to use in undressing film praised more for its topicality than Thomas (or rather, her stand-in). Followed cinematics is nonetheless gripping; good by a sequel.▼●쩠 acting. [M/PG]▼●쩠 Zardoz (1974-British) C-105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zabriskie Point (1970) C-112m. ★★1⁄2 D: John Boorman. Sean Connery, Charlotte Michelangelo Antonioni. Mark Frechette, Rampling, Sara Kestelman, Sally Anne Daria Halprin, Rod Taylor, Paul Fix, HarNewton, John Alderton, Niall Buggy. Weird rison Ford. Rambling study by a foreigner sci-fi entry, set in 2293, about technology of the aggressive, materialistic, unflinchgone wild in society run by group of etering American lifestyle. Worth watching nally young intellectuals. Visually striking but difficult to stay with, though there’s a cult film will probably leave most viewers dissatisfied. Panavision. [R]▼●쩠 real eye-opening finale. Sam Shepard was one of the scriptwriters. Panavision. [R] Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) C101m. ★★★ D: Jon Favreau. Jonah Bobo, ▼●쩠 Zachariah (1971) C-93m. ★★1⁄2 D: George Josh Hutcherson, Dax Shepard, Kristen Englund. John Rubinstein, Pat Quinn, Don Stewart, Tim Robbins; voice of Frank Oz. Johnson, Country Joe and The Fish, Elvin Imaginative adaptation of Chris Van Alls[ 1584 ]

burg’s book (a cousin to JUMANJI) about Dorothy Green. Wholesome family fare of two sparring brothers who, by playing a vinyoung North involved with wild pets and tage mechanical board game, are magically the city zoo’s attempt to keep its inmates locked up.▼쩠 transported into outer space, where every move on the game board brings new, often Zed & Two Noughts, A (1985-BritishDutch) C-115m. ★★★ D: Peter Greenaway. frightening, results. Smart, funny family film with a particularly believable relationAndrea Ferreol, Brian Deacon, Eric Deaship between the two brothers, and some con, Frances Barber, Joss Ackland. Excool special effects. Great opening title setremely provocative examination of birth, quence by Kyle Cooper sets the tone for the life, and death, focusing on Ferreol, who film. [PG]▼쩠 has lost a leg in a car crash, and two zoologist Zatoˆichi, the Blind Swordsman (2003brothers (the Deacons) whose wives have been Japanese) C-116m. ★★★ D: Takeshi Kitano. killed in the same accident and who become Beat Takeshi (Takeshi Kitano), Tadanobu obsessed with decay. Difficult to watch but Asano, Michiyo Ogusu, Guadalcanal Taka, well worthwhile for those willing to be chalDaigoro Tachibana, Yuko Daike. Nineteenthlenged. Not so much a film as a visual essay, century blind nomad known as a gambler exquisitely directed and photographed (by Sacha Vierny).▼쩠 and masseur is also a lightning-fast master swordsman who stumbles into a town run Zˇelary (2003-Czech-Slovakian-Austrian) C148m. ★★★ D: Ondrˇej Trojan. Anˇa Geislerova´, by gangs and a powerful samurai. When he meets two geishas who are out to avenge Gyo¨rgy Cserhalmi, Ivan Trojan, Jan Hrusˇ´ıntheir parents’ murder, the fireworks begin. sky´, Miroslav Donutil, Jaroslav Dusˇek, Iva Based on the incredibly popular Japanese Bittova´, Jaroslava Adamova´, Jan Trı´ska. A film series (and later TV program), which young Prague medical student, on the lam started in 1962 and ended in 1989 with the from the Gestapo during WW2, hides out in passing of its star, Shintaro Katsu. Actora provincial village and reluctantly agrees to director Kitano ably fills his legendary marry her protector, a kindly older man. As shoes in this lively, nonstop martial arts fest. they spend time together, much is revealed Great action set pieces make this a lot of about the nature of good and evil. Has its fun. Aka THE BLIND SWORDSMAN: slow spots but becomes more engrossing as ˆ ICHI. [R] 쩠 ZATO their relationship deepens; at its best when Zazie dans le Metro (1960-French) C-88m. contrasting the idyllic rural beauty against ★★1 ⁄2 D: Louis Malle. Catherine Demongeot, the constant threat of violence. [R] 쩠 Philippe Noiret, Vittorio Caprioli, Hubert Zelig (1983) C/B&W-79m. ★★★ D: Woody Deschamps, Carla Marlier. Superficial comAllen. Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Garrett edy, coscripted by Malle, about a bright Brown, Stephanie Farrow, Will Holt, Sol but impish 12-year-old (Demongeot), who Lomita, Mary Louise Wilson, Michael visits her female-impersonator uncle (Noiret) Jeter. Pseudo-documentary using remarkin Paris, and is intent on riding in the city’s able re-creations of old newsreels and resubway.▼ cordings, about a chameleonlike man named Zebra Force (1977) C-100m. ★★ D: Joe Leonard Zelig (Allen), who became a ceTornatore. Mike Lane, Richard X. Slattery, lebrity in the fad-crazy ’20s. A supremely Rockne Tarkington, Glenn Wilder, Anthony well-executed joke, more clever than funny; Caruso. A band of Vietnam vets uses military it might have worked even better in a tactics against the Mob to fatten their own shorter format. Gordon Willis’ cinemapockets and ‘‘rid society of scum.’’ Straighttography and Dick Hyman’s music are forward low-budgeter suffers from Grade Z standouts. [PG]▼●쩠 performances. Todd-AO 35. [PG]▼쩠 Zelly and Me (1988) C-87m. ★★1⁄2 D: Zebrahead (1992) C-100m. ★★★ D: AnTina Rathborne. Isabella Rossellini, Glynis thony Drazan. Michael Rapaport, DeShonn Johns, Alexandra Johnes, Kaiulani Lee, David Castle, N’Bushe Wright, Ron Johnson, Lynch, Joe Morton. Uneven account of the Ray Sharkey, Paul Butler, Candy Ann trials and stresses in the life of wealthy, overBrown, Helen Shaver, Luke Reilly, Marprotected orphan Johnes. Occasionally intin Priest. Refreshing, straightforward drama sightful but far too introspective—with too about a white teen (Rapaport) who attends much left unexplained. [PG]▼● an integrated Detroit high school. His best Zentropa (1992-Danish-Swedish-Frenchfriend (Castle) is black, and problems arise German) C/B&W-114m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Lars when he becomes romantically involved von Trier. Barbara Sukowa, Jean-Marc with his pal’s cousin (Wright). Benefits Barr, Udo Kier, Ernst Hugo, Eddie Confrom realistic dialogue, and a candid take stantine. Narrated by Max von Sydow. Suon the characters’ lives and feelings. Drazan kowa plays a railroad magnate’s daughter also scripted; Oliver Stone was one of the who may be in synch with postwar Nazi sympathizers called ‘‘werewolves.’’ Audaexecutive producers. [R]▼●쩠 1 ★★ Zebra in the Kitchen (1965) C-93m. cious black-comic fantasy utilizes high-tech ⁄2 D: Ivan Tors. Jay North, Martin Milner, mixed media, creative use of rear projection, Andy Devine, Joyce Meadows, Jim Davis, and dramatic shifts in pigment. Though it [ 1585 ]

feels like a stunt, this is a rare contemporary probably cast as a schnook who hooks up movie that makes one feel privy to the reinwith a strident, street-smart 16-year-old vention of cinema. Panavision. ▼● girl who makes her living repossessing Zeppelin (1971-British) C-101m. ★★★ D: cars. Loud, stupid comedy with more carEtienne Perier. Michael York, Elke Somchase thrills than humor. [PG]▼ mer, Peter Carsten, Marius Goring, Anton Zeus and Roxanne (1997) C-98m. ★★ D: Diffring, Andrew Keir. Colorful cast and George Miller. Steve Guttenberg, Kathleen atmosphere (including interesting special Quinlan, Arnold Vosloo, Dawn McMillan, effects) click in entertaining story of Miko Hughes, Jessica Howell. Kids’ picture German-born British aviator emotionally paralleling the up and down relationship betorn by duty and homeland during WW1. tween two single adults, as well as his dog Panavision. [G]▼ and her dolphin (you read that right!). Zero Effect (1998) C-115m. ★★1⁄2 D: Jake Lovely Bahamas locations and exceptional Kasdan. Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan animal work lift this film only slightly O’Neal, Kim Dickens, Angela Featherstone. above an uninspired script. [PG]▼●쩠 Pullman is Daryl Zero, the world’s greatest Ziegfeld Follies (1946) C-110m. ★★★ D: (and most eccentric) private detective, who Vincente Minnelli. William Powell, Judy never meets his clients, but sends emissary Garland, Lucille Ball, Fred Astaire, Fanny Stiller instead. O’Neal hires him to track Brice, Lena Horne, Red Skelton, Victor down a blackmailer, but Pullman finds himMoore, Virginia O’Brien, Cyd Charisse, self becoming emotionally involved with Gene Kelly, Edward Arnold, Esther Wilone of his suspects. Clever, original screenliams. Variable all-star film introduced by play by first-time feature director Kasdan Powell as Ziegfeld in heaven. Highlights (son of Lawrence), but he shoots himself in are Brice-Hume Cronyn sketch, Astairethe foot by deadening the pace and stretchKelly dance, Moore-Arnold comedy rouing things out too long. Rate this a near tine, Skelton’s ‘‘Guzzler’s Gin,’’ Horne’s miss. [R]▼●쩠 solo, Garland’s ‘‘The Interview.’’ Various Zero for Conduct (1933-French) 44m. segments directed by George Sidney, Roy ★★★★ D: Jean Vigo. Jean Daste, Robert le Del Ruth, Norman Taurog, Lemuel Ayers, Flon, Louis Lefebvre, Constantin Kelber, Robert Lewis, Merrill Pye. Filmed mostly Gerard de Bedarieux. Life in a French in 1944.▼●쩠 boarding school, where the authorities atZiegfeld Girl (1941) 131m. ★★★ D: Robtempt to regiment the students—unsucert Z. Leonard. James Stewart, Lana Turner, cessfully. The kids are all wonderfully Judy Garland, Hedy Lamarr, Tony Marspontaneous; one of the best films ever about tin, Jackie Cooper, Ian Hunter, Edward children among children. The inspiration Everett Horton, Al Shean, Eve Arden, for IF. . . . Written by the director.▼ Dan Dailey, Philip Dorn, Charles WinnZero Hour! (1957) 81m. ★★1⁄2 D: Hall inger. Large-scale musical drama opens Bartlett. Dana Andrews, Linda Darnell, brightly, bogs down into melodrama and Sterling Hayden, Elroy ‘‘Crazylegs’’ Hirsch, preposterous subplots, as the lives of three Geoffrey Toone, Jerry Paris, Peggy King, girls (Turner, Garland, Lamarr) are changed John Ashley. Effective suspense story by being recruited as Ziegfeld Follies girls. (based on Arthur Hailey teleplay) of poBusby Berkeley’s ‘‘You Stepped Out of a tential airplane disaster when pilots are Dream’’ is most famous number, but somefelled by ptomaine poisoning. Remade for what overshadowed by Judy’s ‘‘I’m AlTV in 1971 as TERROR IN THE SKY, and ways Chasing Rainbows,’’ ‘‘Minnie from then spoofed in 1980 as AIRPLANE!쩠 Trinidad.’’ The MGM glitter has never been brighter. ▼●쩠 Zero Kelvin (1995-Norwegian-Swedish) C-113m. ★★★ D: Hans Petter Moland. StelZiggy Stardust and The Spiders From lan Skarsga˚rd, Gard B. Eidsvold, Bjørn Mars (1983) C-91m. ★1⁄2 D: D. A. PenneSundquist, Camilla Martens. Potent allegorbaker. David Bowie. Bowie in concert as ical drama set in 1925 about an idealistic Ziggy Stardust, his androgynous alter ego. poet (Eidsvold) who leaves his beloved to Practically unwatchable, and unlistenable: work as a fur trapper in Greenland in the cinema verite´ at its worst. Shot in 1973; of company of two very different coworkers; interest to Bowie fans only. [PG]▼●쩠 he promptly clashes with one of them (SkarsZigzag (1970) 105m. ★★1⁄2 D: Richard A. ga˚rd), a crude, embittered cynic. Quietly Colla. George Kennedy, Anne Jackson, powerful tale mirrors the reality that to survive Eli Wallach, Steve Ihnat, William Marin a harsh and unforgiving world people must shall, Joe Maross. Dying insurance invesstick together. Breathtaking scenery contrasts tigator (Kennedy) plans a complicated with the graphic violence that comes with the scheme to pin a murder on himself and be killing of animals for survival. ▼쩠 executed, so his family will collect a big Zero to Sixty (1978) C-100m. ★1⁄2 D: Don insurance settlement, but his plans go awry. Weis. Darren McGavin, Sylvia Miles, Joan Good performances in moderately interestCollins, Denise Nickerson, The Hudson ing drama. Panavision. [PG] Zina (1985-British) C/B&W-90m. ★★1⁄2 Brothers, Lorraine Gary. McGavin is im[ 1586 ]

D: Ken McMullen. Domiziana Giordano, Link. Virginia Madsen, Richard Cox, James Ian McKellen, Philip Madoc, Ron AnderWilder, Paul Feig, Kay Kuter, Sherilyn son, Micha Bergese. Extremely (and deFenn, Paul Williams. Slight, silly horror liberately) slow exploration of the probfilm is a junior version of THE STEPFORD lems and obsessions of Leon Trotsky’s WIVES. Madsen is newly enrolled at a pridaughter while in psychoanalysis in prewar vate school whose preppie students are all Berlin. Bryan Loftus’ cinematography is suspiciously docile. Aka THE SCHOOL THAT ATE MY BRAIN. [R]▼ exceptional. Not for all tastes. Zita (1968-French) C-91m. ★★★ D: Robert Zombie Island Massacre (1984) C-95m. Enrico. Joanna Shimkus, Katina Paxinou, BOMB D: John N. Carter. David Broadnax, Suzanne Flon, Jose Marie Flotats, Paul Rita Jenrette, Tom Cantrell, Diane Clayre Crauchet. Delicate story of young girl who Holub. Ex-Abscam Congressional spouse learns about life as her beloved aunt is (and Playboy subject) Jenrette has three dying; love blossoms, as she breaks away gratuitous nude scenes in the opening 20 from mother-figure to become an adult minutes—and then they have to ruin evherself. Charming. [M] erything by going to the stupid island. The Zodiac, The (2006) C-97m. ★1⁄2 D: Alexcorpses keep a-comin’ in this cheapo outander Bulkley. Justin Chambers, Robin ing. Rita warbles title tune, ‘‘Di Reggae Tunney, Rory Culkin, William Mapother, Picnic.’’ [R]▼쩠 Rex Linn, Philip Baker Hall; voice of Brian Zontar, the Thing from Venus (1968) Bloom. Earnest but flat examination of the C-80m. BOMB D: Larry Buchanan. John infamous Northern California serial killer Agar, Anthony Houston, Susan Bjurman, ‘‘The Zodiac’’ and the effect the murders Patricia De Laney, Warren Hammack. Tihave on a small-town detective and his famtle alien, resembling a bat, arrives to take ily. Well-defined feel of the late 1960s is over with INVASION OF THE BODY undermined by a bland performance from SNATCHERS-like methods; it’s Agar to Chambers as a cop struggling with a puzthe rescue. Crude, Texas-filmed remake of IT CONQUERED THE WORLD.▼쩠 zling case, made more intense by a panicked community and the ensuing media pressure. Zoolander (2001) C-89m. ★★1⁄2 D: Ben Film is as unsatisfying as the real-life status Stiller. Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Christine of these crimes. Made in 2003. [R]쩠 Taylor, Will Ferrell, Milla Jovovich, Jerry Zodiac (2007) C-156m. ★★★1⁄2 D: David Stiller, David Duchovny, Jon Voight, Judah Fincher. Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, Friedlander. Clever comedy about an emptyRobert Downey, Jr., Anthony Edwards, Brian headed male model who searches for meaning Cox, Chloe¨ Sevigny, Charles Fleischer, Zach in his life—while a nefarious designer (FerGrenier, Philip Baker Hall, Elias Koteas, rell) tries to brainwash him into carrying out Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Dermot the evil plans of an international fashion carMulroney, John Getz, Adam Goldberg, tel. Funny gags, satiric ideas, eye-popping Candy Clark, James Le Gros, Clea DuVall, production design, and celebrity cameos Barry Livingston. Riveting drama based on (Cuba Gooding, Jr., Winona Ryder, David the case of the so-called Zodiac killer who Bowie, to name just a few) make this fun for terrorized the San Francisco Bay area in the a while, but it can’t sustain an entire film. late 1960s (and partly inspired DIRTY Stiller cowrote, based on a skit he perHARRY). Focuses more on the manhunt formed on a VH-1 award show; his father, than the crimes and shows how this frustratJerry, mother, Anne Meara, sister, Amy, ing case consumed the lives of reporters and and wife, Taylor, are featured in the cast. detectives alike, especially San Francisco Super 35. [PG-13] ▼쩠 Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (GylZoom (2006) C-88m. ★1⁄2 D: Peter Hewitt. lenhaal), who spends decades trying to Tim Allen, Courteney Cox, Chevy Chase, crack the case. Superbly made on every Spencer Breslin, Kevin Zegers, Kate Mara, level, with meticulous re-creations of the Michael Cassidy, Ryan Newman, Rip Torn. 1970s, when most of the story takes place. Derivative (to put it kindly) sci-fi adventure Screenplay by James Vanderbilt, based on about a former superhero who’s called out two best-selling books written by Graysmith. of retirement to train a group of kids for a Ione Skye appears unbilled. Director’s cut secret government project. Only problem: runs 162m. HD Widescreen. [R]쩠 he’s lost all his powers. Cheesy and awfully Zoltan, Hound of Dracula SEE: Dracula’s similar to SKY HIGH, although based on Dog Jason Lethcoe’s graphic novel. Allen seems Zombie (1979-Italian) C-91m. BOMB D: to be phoning this one in; a sorry excuse for ‘‘family entertainment.’’ [PG]쩠 Lucio Fulci. Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Annetta Gay. Zoot Suit (1981) C-103m. ★★★ D: Luis A zombie epidemic on a small Caribbean Valdez. Daniel Valdez, Edward James island. A poor imitation of George RomeOlmos, Charles Aidman, Tyne Daly, John ro’s horror films, and pretty repellent. TechAnderson, Tony Plana. Fascinating, powerniscope. ▼●쩠 ful, if too theatrical ‘‘stylized musical’’ Zombie High (1987) C-93m. ★★ D: Ron based on railroading of Chicano gang mem[ 1587 ]

bers to San Quentin for murder in 1942 and efforts to obtain their release; adding commentary is the gang’s leader (Valdez) and his zoot-suited alter ego (Olmos). Filmed on stage, with shots of an audience that is presumably watching the performance—a major distraction. Written by Luis Valdez, with music by Daniel Valdez. [R]▼●쩠 Zorba the Greek (1964) 146m. ★★★1⁄2 D: Michael Cacoyannis. Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova, George Foundas. Brooding, flavorful rendering of Kazantzakis novel. Quinn is zesty in title role of earthy peasant, Bates his intellectual British cohort. Kedrova won an Oscar as a dying prostitute, as did cinematographer Walter Lassally and the art direction-set decoration. Memorable Mikis Theodorakis score. Scripted by the director, from Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel. Later a Broadway musical.▼●쩠 Zorro (1961-Spanish) C-90m. ★★1⁄2 D: Joaquin Luis Romero Marchent. Frank Latimore, Mary Anderson, Ralph Marsch, Howard Vernon. Foreign-made Western with salty flavor of old California; Latimore is appropriately zealous as Zorro. SuperScope.▼ Zorro (1975-Italian-French) C-100m. ★★★ D: Duccio Tessari. Alain Delon, Stanley Baker, Ottavia Piccolo, Moustache, Enzo Cerusico, Adriana Asti. Zesty retelling of saga of legendary masked rider and hero of the oppressed, not as distinctive as earlier versions (and set in South America rather than old California) but fun. [G]▼쩠 Zorro the Avenger SEE: Shadow of Zorro, The Zorro, the Gay Blade (1981) C-93m. ★★ D: Peter Medak. George Hamilton, Lauren Hutton, Brenda Vaccaro, Ron Leibman, Donovan Scott, James Booth. Hamilton is Don Diego Vega, foppish son of the legendary Zorro, and lookalike gay brother Bunny Wigglesworth. So-so, with Leibman overacting outrageously as the villain. Dedicated to Rouben Mamoulian! [PG]▼쩠 Zotz! (1962) 87m. ★★ D: William Castle. Tom Poston, Julia Meade, Jim Backus, Fred Clark, Cecil Kellaway, Margaret Dumont. Goofy attempt at humorous chiller with

Poston a teacher who finds strange coin that gives him mystical power over others.▼쩠 Z.P.G. (1972-British) C-95m. ★★ D: Michael Campus. Oliver Reed, Geraldine Chaplin, Don Gordon, Diane Cilento. Sci-fi tale with style but no class. Reproduction becomes crime punishable by death in the future, but some people try to defy the law. Title, of course, stands for Zero Population Growth. [PG]▼쩠 Zulu (1964-British) C-138m. ★★★ D: Cy Endfield. Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, Michael Caine, Nigel Green, James Booth; narrated by Richard Burton. True story about undermanned British forces trying to defend their African mission from attack by hordes of Zulu warriors. Dramatic elements tend toward cliche´, but virtually half the film is taken up by massive battle, which is truly spectacular and exciting. Followed 15 years later by prequel, ZULU DAWN. Technirama.▼●쩠 Zulu Dawn (1979-U.S.-Dutch) C-121m. ★★★ D: Douglas Hickox. Burt Lancaster, Peter O’Toole, Simon Ward, John Mills, Nigel Davenport, Michael Jayston, Denholm Elliott, Ronald Lacey, Freddie Jones, Christopher Cazenove, Anna Calder-Marshall, Bob Hoskins, Nicholas Clay. A prequel to 1964’s ZULU (cowritten by that film’s writer-director, Cy Endfield), showing the British command’s bull-headed and ineffectual handling of the Zulu nation—first in diplomacy, then in battle. Solid war drama of the period, outstanding locations, though there’s nothing new here. Released theatrically in U.S. at 98m. Panavision. [PG]▼●쩠 Zu Warriors (2001-Hong Kong-Chinese) C-104m. ★★ D: Tsui Hark. Erik Cheng, Cecilia Cheung, Louis Koo, Patrick Tam, Kelly Lin, Wu Jing, Sammo Hung, Zhang Ziyi. Digital effects are the star of this visually sumptuous but dramatically muddled account of a band of flying superheroes in an ancient kingdom who unite to do battle against a ferocious demon. Beautiful to behold, but the plot is hopelessly confusing and the characters seem like automatons. Hark originally filmed this story in 1983 (as SUK SAN: SUN SUK SAN GEEN HAP). Aka THE LEGEND OF ZU. Released direct to DVD in the U.S. Super 35. [PG-13]쩠

[ 1588 ]

Index of Stars Many older titles that no longer appear in this volume (or the index) can now be found in Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide. That book also features a more extensive roster of actors whose main body of work was done before 1960. This index includes only the films that appear in this book; therefore what follows doesn’t feature a complete list of Ronald Colman’s silent films, or John Wayne’s B Westerns, or all the films of Ge´rard Depardieu. The titles in each entry are in chronological order. Years are indicated in the reviews, and are included here to distinguish between two films of the same title, whether they are remakes (the two Thomas Crown Affairs, for example), or have nothing to do with each other (for instance, the two movies named Where the Heart Is). When an actor directs but doesn’t act in a movie, this is indicated by ‘‘(dir)’’ after the title; if the actor does appear, the designation is ‘‘(also dir).’’ The prefix ‘‘co-’’ means a collaboration. ‘‘Cameo’’ indicates a wellknown actor taking a small role, sometimes as a joke; their names almost never appear in the opening credits of a film, though in recent years, they are often listed in the end credits. adapt app dir mus narr scr set dec sty uncred

= screenplay adaptation = appearance, not a performance (as in a documentary) = director = composer = narrator = screenplay = set decorator = story = uncredited performance

bott and Costello in the Foreign Legion; AbAbbott and Costello: One Night in the bott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man; Tropics; Buck Privates; In the Navy; Hold Comin’ Round the Mountain; Jack and the That Ghost; Keep ’Em Flying; Ride ’Em Beanstalk; Lost in Alaska; Abbott and CosCowboy; Rio Rita; Pardon My Sarong; Who Done It? (1942); It Ain’t Hay; Hit the tello Meet Captain Kidd; Abbott and Costello Ice; Lost in a Harem; In Society; Here Go to Mars; Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Come the Co-Eds; The Naughty Nineties; Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Abbott and Costello Abbott and Costello in Hollywood; Little Meet the Keystone Kops; Abbott and Costello Giant; The Time of Their Lives; Buck PriMeet the Mummy; Dance With Me Henry; vates Come Home; The Wistful Widow of Lou Costello alone: The 30 Foot Bride of Wagon Gap; The Noose Hangs High; AbCandy Rock bott and Costello Meet Frankenstein; MexiAffleck, Ben: The Dark End of the Street; can Hayride; Africa Screams; Abbott and School Ties; Buffy the Vampire Slayer (unCostello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff; Abcred); Dazed and Confused; Mallrats; Chasing [ 1589 ]

Amy; Going All the Way; Good Will Hunting Cassandra’s Dream (dir, scr); Vicky Cristina Barcelona (dir, scr) (also coscr); Phantoms; Armageddon; ShakeAndrews, Julie: Mary Poppins; The Amerspeare in Love; 200 Cigarettes; Forces of icanization of Emily; The Sound of Music; Nature; Dogma; Reindeer Games; Boiler Torn Curtain; Hawaii; Thoroughly Modern Room; Bounce; Pearl Harbor; Jay and SiMillie; Star!; Darling Lili; The Tamarind lent Bob Strike Back; Daddy and Them; Seed; 10; Little Miss Marker (1980); S.O.B.; Changing Lanes; The Sum of All Fears; Victor/Victoria; The Man Who Loved Daredevil; Gigli; Paycheck; Jersey Girl; Women (1983); That’s Life!; Duet for One; Surviving Christmas; Clerks II; HollyA Fine Romance; Relative Values; The Prinwoodland; Smokin’ Aces; Gone Baby Gone cess Diaries; Unconditional Love; Shrek 2; (dir, coadapt); He’s Just Not That Into You; The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement; State of Play Shrek the Third; Enchanted (narr) Alda, Alan: Gone Are the Days!; Paper Arthur, Jean: Seven Chances; The Whole Lion; The Extraordinary Seaman; The Town’s Talking; Diamond Jim; If You Could Moonshine War; Jenny; The Mephisto Only Cook; Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; The Waltz; To Kill a Clown; California Suite; Ex-Mrs. Bradford; The Plainsman (1936); Same Time, Next Year; The Seduction of History Is Made at Night; Easy Living Joe Tynan (also scr); The Four Seasons (1937); You Can’t Take It With You; Only (also dir, scr); Sweet Liberty (also dir, scr); Angels Have Wings; Mr. Smith Goes to A New Life (also dir, scr); Crimes and MisWashington; Too Many Husbands; Aridemeanors; Betsy’s Wedding (also dir, scr); zona; The Devil and Miss Jones; The Talk Whispers in the Dark; Manhattan Murder of the Town; The More the Merrier; A Lady Mystery; Canadian Bacon; Flirting With Takes a Chance; A Foreign Affair; Shane Disaster; Everyone Says I Love You; MurAstaire, Fred: Dancing Lady; Flying der at 1600; Mad City; The Object of My Down to Rio; The Gay Divorcee; Roberta; Affection; What Women Want; The AviaTop Hat; Follow the Fleet; Swing Time; tor (2004); Resurrecting the Champ; DiminShall We Dance (1937); A Damsel in Disished Capacity; Flash of Genius; Nothing tress; Carefree; The Story of Vernon & But the Truth Irene Castle; Broadway Melody of 1940; Allen, Woody: What’s New Pussycat? Second Chorus; You’ll Never Get Rich; (also scr); What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (also dir, Holiday Inn; You Were Never Lovelier; scr); Casino Royale (1967); Take the The Sky’s the Limit; Yolanda and the Thief; Money and Run (also dir, coscr); Bananas Ziegfeld Follies; Blue Skies; Easter Parade; (also dir, coscr); Play It Again, Sam (also The Barkleys of Broadway; Three Little adapt); Everything You Always Wanted to Words; Let’s Dance; Royal Wedding; The Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) Belle of New York; The Band Wagon; (also dir, scr); Sleeper (also dir, coscr); Daddy Long Legs; Funny Face; Silk StockLove and Death (also dir, scr); The Front; ings; On the Beach; The Pleasure of His Annie Hall (also dir, coscr); Interiors (dir, Company; The Notorious Landlady; Finiscr); Manhattan (also dir, coscr); Stardust an’s Rainbow; Midas Run; The Towering Memories (also dir, scr); A Midsummer Inferno; That’s Entertainment! (app); That’s Night’s Sex Comedy (also dir, scr); Zelig Entertainment, Part 2 (app); The Purple (also dir, scr); Broadway Danny Rose (also Taxi; The Amazing Dobermans; Ghost dir, scr); The Purple Rose of Cairo (dir, Story (1981); George Stevens: A Filmscr); Hannah and Her Sisters (also dir, scr); maker’s Journey (app) Radio Days (dir, scr, narr); September (dir, Bacall, Lauren: To Have and Have Not; scr); King Lear (1987); Another Woman Confidential Agent; The Big Sleep (1946); (dir, scr); New York Stories (seq dir); Dark Passage; Key Largo; Young Man Crimes and Misdemeanors (also dir, scr); With a Horn; Bright Leaf; How to Marry a Alice (dir, scr); Scenes From a Mall; ShadMillionaire; Woman’s World; The Cobweb; ows and Fog (also dir, scr); Husbands and Blood Alley; Written on the Wind; DesignWives (also dir, scr); Manhattan Murder ing Woman; The Gift of Love; Flame Over Mystery (also dir, coscr); Bullets Over India; Shock Treatment (1964); Sex and the Broadway (dir, coscr); Mighty Aphrodite Single Girl; Harper; Murder on the Orient (also dir, scr); Everyone Says I Love You Express; The Shootist; Perfect Gentlemen; (also dir, scr); Deconstructing Harry (also H.E.A.L.T.H.; The Fan (1981); Appointdir, scr); Wild Man Blues (app); The Imposment With Death; Mr. North; Innocent Victors (cameo); Antz; Celebrity (dir, scr); tim; Misery; All I Want for Christmas; Sweet and Lowdown (also dir, scr); Small Ready to Wear (Preˆt-a`-Porter); The Line Time Crooks (also dir, scr); Picking Up the King (app); The Mirror Has Two Faces Pieces; Company Man; The Curse of the (1996); My Fellow Americans; Diamonds Jade Scorpion (also dir, scr); Hollywood (1999); Dogville; Birth; Howl’s Moving Ending (also dir, scr); Anything Else (also Castle; Manderlay; The Walker (2007) dir, scr); Melinda and Melinda (dir, scr); Baldwin, Alec: Forever, Lulu; She’s HavMatch Point (dir, scr); Scoop (also dir, scr); ing a Baby; Beetle Juice; Married to the [ 1590 ]

Mob; Talk Radio; Working Girl; Great Alien; Batman (1989); The Marrying Man; Balls of Fire!; The Hunt for Red October; Final Analysis; Cool World; The Real Miami Blues; Alice; The Marrying Man; McCoy; Wayne’s World 2 (cameo); The Prelude to a Kiss; Glengarry Glen Ross; Getaway (1994); Ready to Wear (Preˆt-a`Malice; The Getaway (1994); The Shadow; Porter); L.A. Confidential; I Dreamed of Two Bits; The Juror; Heaven’s Prisoners; Africa; Bless the Child; 8 Mile; People I Ghosts of Mississippi; Looking for Richard Know; The Door in the Floor; Cellular; The (app); The Edge; Mercury Rising; Notting Sentinel (2006); Even Money; While She Hill (cameo); Outside Providence; Thomas Was Out; The Informers (2009) and the Magic Railroad; State and Main; Pearl Beatty, Warren: Splendor in the Grass; Harbor; Cats & Dogs; Final Fantasy: The The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone; All Fall Spirits Within; The Royal Tenenbaums (narr); Down; Lilith; Mickey One; Promise Her The Adventures of Pluto Nash; The Cooler; Anything; Kaleidoscope; Bonnie and Clyde; The Cat in the Hat; Along Came Polly; The Only Game in Town; McCabe & Mrs. Broadway: The Golden Age (app); The Last Miller; $ (Dollars); The Parallax View; The Shot; The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie; Fortune; Shampoo (also coscr); Heaven Can The Aviator (2004); Elizabethtown; Fun Wait (1978; also codir, coadapt); Reds (also With Dick and Jane (2005); Mini’s First dir, coscr); George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Time; The Departed; Running with ScisJourney (app); Ishtar; Dick Tracy (also dir); sors; The Good Shepherd; Brooklyn Rules; Truth or Dare (app); Bugsy; Love Affair My Best Friend’s Girl; Madagascar: Escape (1994; also coadapt); Bulworth (also dir, 2 Africa; Lymelife coscr); Town & Country Bale, Christian: Empire of the Sun; Henry Bening, Annette: The Great Outdoors; ValV (1989); Newsies; Swing Kids; Little mont; Postcards From the Edge; The GriftWomen (1994); Pocahontas; The Secret ers; Guilty by Suspicion; Regarding Henry; Agent (1996); The Portrait of a Lady; MetBugsy; Love Affair (1994); The American roland; Velvet Goldmine; A Midsummer President; Richard III (1995); Mars AtNight’s Dream (1999); American Psycho; tacks!; The Siege; In Dreams; American Shaft (2000); Captain Corelli’s Mandolin; Beauty; What Planet Are You From?; Open Laurel Canyon; Reign of Fire; Equilibrium; Range; Being Julia; Running with Scissors; The Machinist; Howl’s Moving Castle; BatThe Women (2008) man Begins; Harsh Times; The New World; Bergman, Ingrid: Intermezzo; Rage in The Prestige; Rescue Dawn; 3:10 to Yuma Heaven; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941); (2007); I’m Not There; The Dark Knight; Casablanca; For Whom the Bell Tolls; GasTerminator Salvation light (1944); The Bells of St. Mary’s; SpellBardem, Javier: High Heels; Jamo´n bound (1945); Saratoga Trunk; Notorious Jamo´n; Mouth to Mouth (1995); Live Flesh; (1946); Arch of Triumph; Joan of Arc; Under Before Night Falls; The Dancer Upstairs; Capricorn; Stromboli; The Greatest Love; Mondays in the Sun; Collateral; The Sea Voyage in Italy; Elena and Her Men; Anastasia Inside; Goya’s Ghosts; No Country for Old (1956); Indiscreet; The Inn of the Sixth HappiMen; Love in the Time of Cholera; Vicky ness; Goodbye Again; The Yellow RollsCristina Barcelona Royce; The Visit (1964); Cactus Flower; Barrymore, Drew: Altered States; E.T. Walk in the Spring Rain; From the Mixed-Up The Extra-Terrestrial; Firestarter; IrreconFiles of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; Murder cilable Differences; Cat’s Eye; Far from on the Orient Express; A Matter of Time; Home (1989); See You in the Morning; Autumn Sonata Doppelganger: The Evil Within; Guncrazy Berry, Halle: Jungle Fever; Strictly Busi(1992); Poison Ivy (1992); Wayne’s World ness; The Last Boy Scout; Boomerang 2; Bad Girls; Batman Forever; Boys on the (1992); Father Hood; The Program; The Side; Mad Love (1995); Scream; Wishful Flintstones; Losing Isaiah; Executive DeciThinking; Everyone Says I Love You; The sion; Race the Sun; The Rich Man’s Wife; Wedding Singer; Ever After; Home Fries; B*A*P*S; Bulworth; Why Do Fools Fall in Never Been Kissed; Titan A.E.; Charlie’s Love; X-Men; Swordfish; Monster’s Ball; Angels; Freddy Got Fingered; Skipped Die Another Day; X2; Gothika; Catwoman; Parts; Donnie Darko; Riding in Cars With Robots; X-Men: The Last Stand; Perfect Boys; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind; Stranger; Things We Lost in the Fire Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle; Duplex; 50 Black, Jack: Bob Roberts; Airborne; DeFirst Dates; Fever Pitch (2005); Curious molition Man; Bye Bye Love; Waterworld; George; Music and Lyrics; Lucky You; Dead Man Walking; Bio-Dome; The Cable Beverly Hills Chihuahua; He’s Just Not Guy; The Fan (1996); Mars Attacks!; The That Into You Jackal; I Still Know What You Did Last Basinger, Kim: Hard Country; Mother Summer (uncred); Enemy of the State; CraLode; The Man Who Loved Women (1983); dle Will Rock; The Love Letter (uncred); Never Say Never Again; The Natural; Fool Jesus’ Son; High Fidelity; Saving Silverman; Shallow Hal; Orange County; Ice for Love; 91⁄2 Weeks; No Mercy; Blind Date (1987); Nadine; My Stepmother Is an Age; The School of Rock; Envy; An[ 1591 ]

chorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy; First Legion; Thunder in the East; The 13th Shark Tale; King Kong (2005); Nacho Letter; The Happy Time; The Earrings of Libre; Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny Madame de . . .; The Cobweb; Around the (also coscr); The Holiday (2006); Margot at World in Eighty Days (1956; cameo); La the Wedding; Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Parisienne; Lucky to Be a Woman; The Story (uncred); Be Kind Rewind; Kung Fu Buccaneer (1958); Fanny (1961); Four Panda; Tropic Thunder Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962); AdorBlanchett, Cate: Paradise Road; Oscar and able Julia; Love Is a Ball; A Very Special Lucinda; Elizabeth; An Ideal Husband Favor; Is Paris Burning?; How to Steal a (1999); Pushing Tin; The Talented Mr. RipMillion; Casino Royale; Barefoot in the ley; The Man Who Cried; The Gift; Bandits Park; The April Fools; The Madwoman of (2001); The Lord of the Rings: The FellowChaillot; The Day the Hot Line Got Hot; Lost ship of the Ring; Charlotte Gray; The ShipHorizon (1973); Stavisky . . . ; A Matter ping News; Heaven (2002); The Lord of the of Time Rings: The Two Towers; Veronica Guerin; Branagh, Kenneth: Coming Through; Coffee and Cigarettes; The Missing; The High Season; A Month in the Country; Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; Henry V (1989; also dir, adapt); Dead The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou; The Again (also dir); Peter’s Friends (also dir); Aviator (2004); Little Fish; Babel; The Swing Kids; Much Ado About Nothing (also Good German; Notes on a Scandal; Hot dir, adapt); Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (also Fuzz (cameo); Elizabeth: The Golden Age; dir); Othello (1995); A Midwinter’s Tale (dir, I’m Not There; Indiana Jones and the Kingscr); Anne Frank Remembered (narr); Lookdom of the Crystal Skull; The Curious Case ing for Richard (app); Hamlet (1996; also of Benjamin Button dir, adapt); The Gingerbread Man; The Bogart, Humphrey: Up the River; Three Proposition (1998); Celebrity; The Theory on a Match; The Petrified Forest; Bullets or of Flight; Wild Wild West; The Road to Ballots; Isle of Fury; Black Legion; The El Dorado; Love’s Labour’s Lost (also dir, Great O’Malley; Marked Woman; Kid Galadapt); How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog; ahad (1937); San Quentin; Dead End; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Stand-In; Crime School; Racket Busters; Rabbit-Proof Fence; Sleuth (2007; dir); The Amazing Doctor Clitterhouse; Angels Valkyrie with Dirty Faces; King of the Underworld; Brando, Marlon: The Men; A Streetcar The Oklahoma Kid; Dark Victory; You Named Desire; Viva Zapata!; Julius Caesar Can’t Get Away With Murder; The Roaring (1953); The Wild One; On the Waterfront; Twenties; The Return of Dr. X; Invisible Desiree; Guys and Dolls; The Teahouse of Stripes; Virginia City; It All Came True; the August Moon; Sayonara; The Young Brother Orchid; They Drive By Night; High Lions; The Fugitive Kind; One-Eyed Jacks Sierra; The Wagons Roll at Night; The Mal(also dir); Mutiny on the Bounty (1962); tese Falcon (1941); Across the Pacific; All The Ugly American; Bedtime Story (1964); Through the Night; The Big Shot; CasaThe Saboteur, Code Name Morituri; The blanca; Action in the North Atlantic; Thank Chase (1966); The Appaloosa; A Countess Your Lucky Stars (cameo); Sahara (1943); From Hong Kong; Reflections in a Golden Passage to Marseille; To Have and Have Eye; Candy; The Night of the Following Not; Conflict (1945); The Big Sleep (1946); Day; Burn!; The Nightcomers; The GodfaDead Reckoning; The Two Mrs. Carrolls; ther; Last Tango in Paris; The Missouri Dark Passage; The Treasure of the Sierra Breaks; Superman; Superman II (Richard Madre; Key Largo; Knock on Any Door; Donner cut); Apocalypse Now; The ForTokyo Joe; Chain Lightning; In a Lonely mula; A Dry White Season; The Freshman Place; The Enforcer (1951); Sirocco; The Af(1990); Christopher Columbus: The Disrican Queen; Deadline U.S.A.; Battle Circus; covery; Don Juan DeMarco; The Island of Beat the Devil; The Caine Mutiny; Sabrina Dr. Moreau (1996); Free Money; The Score (1954); The Barefoot Contessa; We’re No Bridges, Jeff: The Company She Keeps; Angels (1955); The Left Hand of God; The Halls of Anger; The Last Picture Show; Fat Desperate Hours (1955); The Harder They City; Bad Company (1972); The Last Fall American Hero; The Iceman Cometh; Lolly Boyer, Charles: Red-Headed Woman; PriMadonna XXX; Thunderbolt and Lightfoot; vate Worlds; Break of Hearts; Mayerling Rancho Deluxe; Hearts of the West; Stay (1936); The Garden of Allah; Tovarich; Hungry; King Kong (1976); Somebody Conquest; History Is Made at Night; AlKilled Her Husband; Winter Kills; The giers; Love Affair (1939); All This, and American Success Company; Heaven’s Heaven Too; Back Street (1941); Hold Back Gate; Cutter’s Way; Kiss Me Goodbye; The the Dawn; Appointment for Love; Tales of Last Unicorn; Tron; Against All Odds Manhattan; The Constant Nymph; Flesh and (1984); Starman; Jagged Edge; 8 Million Fantasy; Gaslight (1944); Together Again; Ways to Die; The Morning After; Nadine; Confidential Agent; Cluny Brown; A WomTucker: The Man and His Dream; Cold Feet an’s Vengeance; Arch of Triumph; The (1989; cameo); The Fabulous Baker Boys; [ 1592 ]

See You in the Morning; Texasville; The Net; Two If by Sea; Fire on the Amazon; A Fisher King; The Vanishing (1993); AmeriTime to Kill; In Love and War (1996); can Heart; Fearless; Blown Away; Wild Speed 2: Cruise Control; Hope Floats; PracBill; White Squall; The Mirror Has Two tical Magic; The Prince of Egypt; Forces of Faces (1996); The Big Lebowski; Arlington Nature; Gun Shy; 28 Days; Miss CongenialRoad; The Muse; Simpatico; The Conity; Lisa Picard is Famous (cameo); Murder tender; K-PAX; Lost in La Mancha (narr); By Numbers; Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Seabiscuit; Masked and Anonymous; The Sisterhood; Two Weeks Notice; Miss ConDoor in the Floor; Stick It; The Amateurs; geniality 2: Armed and Fabulous; Crash Tideland; Surf’s Up; Iron Man; How to (2005); Loverboy; The Lake House; InfaLose Friends & Alienate People mous; Premonition (2007) Bronson, Charles (billed as Charles Burton, Richard: Green Grow the Rushes; Buchinski or Buchinsky until Drum My Cousin Rachel; The Desert Rats; The Beat): You’re in the Navy Now; The PeoRobe; Demetrius and the Gladiators ple Against O’Hara; The Mob; Red Skies of (cameo); Prince of Players; The Rains of Montana; My Six Convicts; The Marrying Ranchipur; Alexander the Great; Sea Wife; Kind (bit); Pat and Mike; Diplomatic Courier; Bitter Victory; Look Back in Anger; The Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952); House of Bramble Bush; Ice Palace; The Longest Wax (1953); The Clown; Miss Sadie Day; Cleopatra (1963); The V.I.P.s; Zulu Thompson; Crime Wave; Riding Shotgun; (narr); Becket; The Night of the Iguana; The Apache; Vera Cruz; Drum Beat; Jubal; Run Spy Who Came In From the Cold; The of the Arrow; Machine-Gun Kelly; Ten Sandpiper; What’s New, Pussycat? (cameo); North Frederick (bit); Never So Few; The Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The Magnificent Seven; Master of the World; Taming of the Shrew; Doctor Faustus; The A Thunder of Drums; X-15; Kid Galahad Comedians; Boom!; Candy; Where Eagles (1962); The Great Escape; 4 for Texas; The Dare; Anne of the Thousand Days; Staircase; Sandpiper; Battle of the Bulge; This PropVillain; Raid on Rommel; The Assassinaerty Is Condemned; The Dirty Dozen; Guns tion of Trotsky; Hammersmith Is Out; Bluefor San Sebastian; Farewell, Friend; Villa beard (1972); Under Milk Wood (narr); Rides!; Once Upon a Time in the West; Massacre in Rome; The Voyage; The Lola (1969); Rider on the Rain; You Can’t Klansman; Exorcist II: The Heretic; Equus; Win ’Em All; The Family (1970); Cold The Medusa Touch; The Wild Geese; LoveSweat; Someone Behind the Door; Red Sun; spell; Breakthrough (1978); Circle of Two; The Mechanic; The Valachi Papers; Chato’s Absolution; Wagner; Nineteen Eighty-Four Land; The Stone Killer; Chino; Mr. Majestyk; (1984) Death Wish; Breakout (1975); Hard Times; Caan, James: Irma la Douce (bit); Lady in From Noon Till Three; Breakheart Pass; St. a Cage; The Glory Guys; Red Line 7000; Ives; Telefon; The White Buffalo; Love and El Dorado; Games; Countdown; Journey to Bullets; Caboblanco; Borderline (1980); Shiloh; Submarine X-1; The Rain People; Death Hunt; Death Wish II; Ten to Midnight; Rabbit, Run; T.R. Baskin; The Godfather; The Evil That Men Do; Death Wish 3; MurSlither; Cinderella Liberty; The Gambler; phy’s Law; Assassination; Death Wish 4: The Freebie and the Bean; The Godfather Part Crackdown; Messenger of Death; Kinjite: II (cameo); Funny Lady; Rollerball (1975); Forbidden Subjects; The Indian Runner; The Killer Elite; Harry and Walter Go to Death Wish V: The Face of Death New York; Silent Movie (cameo); Another Brooks, Albert: Taxi Driver; Real Life Man, Another Chance; A Bridge Too Far; (also dir, coscr); Private Benjamin; Modern Comes a Horseman; Chapter Two; Hide in Romance (also dir, coscr); Twilight Zone— Plain Sight (also dir); Thief; Bolero (1981); The Movie; Unfaithfully Yours (1984); Kiss Me Goodbye; Gardens of Stone; Alien Lost in America (also dir, coscr); Broadcast Nation; Dick Tracy (cameo); Misery; The News; Defending Your Life (also dir, scr); Dark Backward (cameo); For the Boys; HonI’ll Do Anything; The Scout (also coscr); eymoon in Vegas; The Program; Flesh and Mother (1996; also dir, coscr); Critical Bone; Bottle Rocket; Eraser; Bulletproof Care; Out of Sight (1998); Doctor Dolittle (1996); This is my Father; Mickey Blue Eyes; (1998); The Muse (also dir, coscr); My First The Way of the Gun; The Yards; Night at the Mister; The In-Laws (2003); Finding Golden Eagle (cameo); City of Ghosts; Elf; Nemo; Looking for Comedy in the Muslim Dogville; Get Smart World (also dir, scr); The Simpsons Movie Cage, Nicolas: Fast Times at Ridgemont Brooks, Louise: Pandora’s Box; Diary of a High; Valley Girl; Rumble Fish; Racing Lost Girl; Prix de Beaute´ With the Moon; The Cotton Club; Birdy; Bullock, Sandra: A Fool and His Money; The Boy in Blue; Peggy Sue Got Married; Who Shot Patakango?; Love Potion No. 9; Raising Arizona; Moonstruck; Vampire’s When the Party’s Over; The Vanishing Kiss; Fire Birds; Wild at Heart; Zandalee; (1993); Demolition Man; The Thing Called Honeymoon in Vegas; Amos & Andrew; Love; Wrestling Ernest Hemingway; Speed Red Rock West; Deadfall (1993); Guarding (1994); While You Were Sleeping; The Tess; It Could Happen to You; Trapped in [ 1593 ]

Paradise; Kiss of Death (1995); Leaving Liberty; Mona Lisa; Half Moon Street; The Las Vegas; The Rock; Con Air; Face/Off; Whistle Blower; Jaws the Revenge; The City of Angels; Snake Eyes; 8MM; Bringing Fourth Protocol; Surrender (1987); Without Out the Dead; Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000); a Clue; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Bullseye!; The Family Man; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin; A Shock to the System; Mr. Destiny; Noises Windtalkers; Adaptation.; Sonny (also dir, Off; Blue Ice; The Muppet Christmas Carol; cameo); Matchstick Men; National Treasure; On Deadly Ground; Blood and Wine; CurLord of War; The Weather Man; The Ant tain Call; Little Voice; The Cider House Bully; World Trade Center; The Wicker Rules; Get Carter (2000); Miss CongenialMan (2006); Ghost Rider; Grindhouse ity; Quills; Last Orders; Shiner; Quicksand (cameo); Next; National Treasure: Book of (2001); Austin Powers in Goldmember; The Secrets; Bangkok Dangerous; Knowing Quiet American (2002); Secondhand Lions; Cagney, James: The Public Enemy; Smart The Statement; Around the Bend; Batman Money; Blonde Crazy; Taxi! (1932); The Begins; Bewitched (2005); The Weather Crowd Roars; Winner Take All; Hard to Man; The Prestige; Children of Men; Sleuth Handle; Lady Killer; Picture Snatcher; The (2007); Flawless (2008); The Dark Knight; Mayor of Hell; Footlight Parade; Jimmy the Is Anybody There? Gent; He Was Her Man; Here Comes the Carrey, Jim: Finders Keepers (1984); Navy; St. Louis Kid; Devil Dogs of the Air; Once Bitten; Peggy Sue Got Married; The ‘‘G’’ Men; The Irish in Us; Frisco Kid Dead Pool; High Strung (cameo); Earth (1935); A Midsummer Night’s Dream Girls Are Easy; Pink Cadillac; Ace Ventura, (1935); Ceiling Zero; Great Guy; SomePet Detective (also coscr); The Mask thing to Sing About; Boy Meets Girl; (1994); Dumb and Dumber; Batman ForAngels With Dirty Faces; The Oklahoma ever; Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls; The Kid; Each Dawn I Die; The Roaring TwentCable Guy; Liar Liar; The Truman Show; ies; The Fighting 69th; Torrid Zone; City Simon Birch; Man on the Moon; Me, Myfor Conquest; The Strawberry Blonde; The self & Irene; How the Grinch Stole ChristBride Came C.O.D.; Captains of the mas; The Majestic; Bruce Almighty; Eternal Clouds; Yankee Doodle Dandy; Johnny Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Lemony Come Lately; Blood on the Sun; 13 Rue Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events; Madeleine; The Time of Your Life; White Fun With Dick and Jane (2005); The NumHeat; Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye; West Point ber 23; Horton Hears a Who!; Yes Man Story; Come Fill the Cup; Starlift (cameo); Chan, Jackie: The Chinese Connection (bit); What Price Glory (1952); A Lion Is in the Enter the Dragon (bit); Drunken Master; The Streets; Run for Cover; The Seven Little Big Brawl; The Cannonball Run; Project A Foys; Love Me or Leave Me; Mister Roberts; (also dir, coscr); Cannonball Run II; The ProTribute to a Bad Man; These Wilder Years; tector; Police Story (also dir); Armour of God Man of a Thousand Faces; Shake Hands With (also dir); Project A, Part II (also dir, coscr); the Devil; Never Steal Anything Small; The Dragons Forever; Police Story Part 2 (also Gallant Hours; One, Two, Three; Arizona dir, coscr); Miracles (also dir, scr); Armour of Bushwhackers (narr); Ragtime God 2: Operation Condor (also dir, scr); Caine, Michael: The Key (1958); The Twin Dragons; Police Story III; Supercop; Two-Headed Spy; Carve Her Name With Drunken Master II; Rumble in the Bronx Pride; Breakout (1959); The Day the Earth (also coscr); Jackie Chan’s First Strike; Mr. Caught Fire; The Wrong Arm of the Law; Nice Guy; Jackie Chan’s Who Am I? (also Zulu; The Ipcress File; Gambit; Alfie dir, coscr); Rush Hour; Shanghai Noon; Rush (1966); The Wrong Box; Funeral in Berlin; Hour 2; The Tuxedo; Shanghai Knights; The Hurry Sundown; Billion Dollar Brain; Medallion; Around the World in 80 Days Woman Times Seven; Deadfall (1968); (2004); Rush Hour 3; The Forbidden KingPlay Dirty; The Magus; The Italian Job dom; Kung Fu Panda (1969); Battle of Britain; Too Late the Chaplin, Charles: (features only) Tillie’s Hero; Get Carter (1970); The Last Valley; Punctured Romance; The Kid (also dir, scr); Kidnapped (1971); X, Y and Zee; Pulp; A Woman of Paris (dir, scr, cameo); The Sleuth (1972); The Destructors (1974); The Gold Rush (also dir, scr); The Circus (also Black Windmill; The Wilby Conspiracy; dir, scr); Show People (cameo); City Lights The Man Who Would Be King; The Ro(also dir, scr); Modern Times (also dir, scr); mantic Englishwoman; Peeper; Harry and The Great Dictator (also dir, scr); Monsieur Walter Go to New York; The Eagle Has Verdoux (also dir, scr, mus); Limelight Landed; A Bridge Too Far; Silver Bears; (also dir, scr, mus); A King in New York The Swarm; California Suite; Ashanti; Be(also dir, scr, mus); A Countess From Hong yond the Poseidon Adventure; The Island Kong (dir, scr, mus, cameo) (1980); Dressed to Kill (1980); The Hand Cheadle, Don: Moving Violations; Ham(1981); Victory (1981); Deathtrap; Educatburger Hill; Colors; Roadside Prophets; The ing Rita; Beyond the Limit; Blame It on Meteor Man; Things to Do in Denver When Rio; The Jigsaw Man; Water; The Holcroft You’re Dead; Devil in a Blue Dress; RoseCovenant; Hannah and Her Sisters; Sweet wood; Volcano; Boogie Nights; Bulworth; [ 1594 ]

Out of Sight (1998); Mission to Mars; The lyst; Duffy; Candy; Hard Contract; Last of Family Man; Traffic (2000); Manic; Swordthe Mobile Hot-Shots; Duck, You Sucker; fish; Rush Hour 2 (uncred); Ocean’s Eleven The Honkers; The Carey Treatment; Pat (2001); The United States of Leland; The AsGarrett & Billy the Kid; The Last of Sheila; sassination of Richard Nixon; Hotel Rwanda; Harry in Your Pocket; A Reason to Live, a After the Sunset; Ocean’s Twelve; Crash Reason to Die; The Internecine Project; (2005); Reign Over Me; Talk to Me; Ocean’s Hard Times; Bite the Bullet; Sky Riders; Thirteen; Darfur Now (app); Traitor; Hotel The Last Hard Men; Midway; Cross of for Dogs Iron; California Suite (cameo); The Muppet Cher: Wild on the Beach; Alfie (1966; Movie (cameo); Circle of Iron (costy); sings title song); Good Times; Chastity; Goldengirl; Firepower; The Baltimore BulCome Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, let; Mr. Patman; Loving Couples; Looker; Jimmy Dean; Silkwood; Mask (1985); MoonHigh Risk; Martin’s Day; Death of a Solstruck; Suspect; The Witches of Eastwick; dier; Young Guns II; Hudson Hawk; The Mermaids; The Player (cameo); Ready to Player (cameo); Sister Act 2: Back in the Wear (Preˆt-a`-Porter); Faithful; Tea with MusHabit; Deadfall (1993); Maverick; Eraser; solini; Stuck on You The Nutty Professor (1996); Keys to Tulsa; Clift, Montgomery: The Search; Red River; Affliction; Payback (uncred); Monsters, The Heiress; The Big Lift; A Place in the Inc.; Texas Rangers (2001; narr); Snow Sun; I Confess; From Here to Eternity; InDogs; The Man from Elysian Fields discretion of an American Wife; Raintree Colbert, Claudette: The Smiling LieutenCounty; The Young Lions; Lonelyhearts; ant; The Sign of the Cross; It Happened Suddenly Last Summer (1959); Wild River; One Night; Cleopatra (1934); Imitation of The Misfits; Judgment at Nuremberg; Freud; Life (1934); The Gilded Lily; The Bride The Defector Comes Home; Under Two Flags; Tovarich; Clooney, George: Return of the Killer ToBluebeard’s Eighth Wife; Midnight (1939); matoes!; Unbecoming Age; From Dusk Till Drums Along the Mohawk; It’s a WonderDawn; One Fine Day; The Peacemaker; ful World; Boom Town; Arise, My Love; Batman & Robin; Out of Sight (1998); The Skylark (1941); Remember the Day; The Thin Red Line (1998); South Park: Bigger, Palm Beach Story; So Proudly We Hail!; Longer & Uncut; Three Kings; The Perfect No Time for Love; Since You Went Away; Storm; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Spy Tomorrow Is Forever; Without ReservaKids (cameo); Ocean’s Eleven (2001); Weltions; The Secret Heart; The Egg and I; come to Collinwood; Solaris (2002); ConBride for Sale; Three Came Home; The Sefessions of a Dangerous Mind (also dir); cret Fury; Thunder on the Hill; Let’s Make Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (cameo); IntolerIt Legal; Outpost in Malaya; Royal Affairs able Cruelty; Ocean’s Twelve; Syriana; in Versailles; Texas Lady; Parrish Good Night, And Good Luck. (also dir, Colman, Ronald: Bulldog Drummond; coscr); The Good German; Ocean’s ThirArrowsmith; Cynara; A Tale of Two Cities teen; Michael Clayton; Darfur Now (app); (1935); Under Two Flags; Lost Horizon Leatherheads (also dir); Burn After Reading (1937); The Prisoner of Zenda (1937); If I Close, Glenn: The World According to Garp; Were King; The Light That Failed; Lucky PartThe Big Chill; The Stone Boy; The Natural; ners; My Life With Caroline; The Talk of the Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Town; Random Harvest; Kismet (1944); The Apes; Maxie; Jagged Edge; Fatal Attraction Late George Apley; A Double Life; Cham(1987); Dangerous Liaisons; Light Years; Impagne for Caesar; Around the World in Eighty mediate Family; Reversal of Fortune; Hamlet Days (1956; cameo); The Story of Mankind (1990); Meeting Venus; Hook; The House of Connery, Sean: Let’s Make Up; No Road the Spirits; The Paper; Anne Frank RememBack; Hell Drivers; Another Time, Another bered (narr); Mary Reilly; Mars Attacks!; 101 Place; Darby O’Gill and the Little People; Dalmatians; Paradise Road; Air Force One; Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure; The FrightIn & Out (cameo); Cookie’s Fortune; Tarzan; ened City; The Longest Day; Dr. No; From 102 Dalmatians; Things You Can Tell Just Russia With Love; Marnie; Woman of by Looking at Her; Pinocchio (2002); The Straw; Goldfinger; The Hill; Thunderball; Safety of Objects; Le Divorce; The Stepford A Fine Madness; You Only Live Twice; Wives (2004); Heights; Hoodwinked; Nine Shalako; The Molly Maguires; The Red Lives; The Chumscrubber; Evening Tent; The Anderson Tapes; Diamonds Are Coburn, James: Ride Lonesome; The Forever; The Offence; Zardoz; Murder on Magnificent Seven; Hell Is for Heroes; The the Orient Express; The Terrorists; The Man From Galveston; The Great Escape; Wind and the Lion; The Man Who Would Charade; The Americanization of Emily; Be King; Robin and Marian; The Next Man; Major Dundee; A High Wind in Jamaica; A Bridge Too Far; The Great Train RobThe Loved One (cameo); Our Man Flint; bery; Meteor; Cuba; Time Bandits; Outland; What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?; Wrong Is Right; Five Days One Summer; Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round; In Like Never Say Never Again; Sword of the ValFlint; Waterhole #3; The President’s Anaiant; Highlander; The Name of the Rose; [ 1595 ]

The Untouchables; The Presidio; Memories Hussy; Love on the Run (1936); The Last of Me (cameo); Indiana Jones and the Last of Mrs. Cheyney; The Bride Wore Red; Crusade; Family Business (1989); The Hunt Mannequin (1937); The Shining Hour; Ice for Red October; The Russia House; Robin Follies of 1939; The Women (1939); Hood: Prince of Thieves (cameo); HighStrange Cargo; Susan and God; A Woman’s lander II: The Quickening; Medicine Man; Face; They All Kissed the Bride; Reunion Rising Sun; A Good Man in Africa; Just in France; Above Suspicion; Hollywood Cause; First Knight; Dragonheart; The Rock; Canteen; Mildred Pierce; Humoresque; PosThe Avengers; Playing by Heart; Entrapment; sessed (1947); Daisy Kenyon; Flamingo Finding Forrester; The League of ExtraordiRoad; It’s a Great Feeling (cameo); The nary Gentlemen Damned Don’t Cry; Harriet Craig; GoodCooper, Gary: Wings; It (1927); The Virginbye, My Fancy; This Woman Is Dangerous; ian (1929); Morocco; If I Had a Million; A Sudden Fear; Torch Song; Johnny Guitar; Farewell to Arms (1932); Today We Live; Female on the Beach; Queen Bee; Autumn Design for Living; Alice in Wonderland Leaves; The Story of Esther Costello; The (1933); Now and Forever (1934); The WedBest of Everything; What Ever Happened to ding Night; The Lives of a Bengal Lancer; Baby Jane?; The Caretakers; Strait-Jacket; I Desire; Mr. Deeds Goes to Town; The GenSaw What You Did; Berserk; Trog eral Died at Dawn; The Plainsman (1936); Crosby, Bing: Reaching for the Moon; The Souls at Sea; The Adventures of Marco Polo; Big Broadcast; Going Hollywood; We’re Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife; The Cowboy and Not Dressing; Mississippi; Anything Goes the Lady; Beau Geste (1939); The Real Glory; (1936); Rhythm on the Range; Pennies The Westerner; North West Mounted Police; From Heaven (1936); Double or Nothing; Meet John Doe; Sergeant York; Ball of Fire; Sing, You Sinners; Doctor Rhythm; East The Pride of the Yankees; For Whom the Bell Side of Heaven; Rhythm on the River Tolls; The Story of Dr. Wassell; Casanova (1940); Road to Singapore; If I Had My Brown; Along Came Jones; Saratoga Trunk; Way; Birth of the Blues; Road to Zanzibar; Cloak and Dagger; Variety Girl (cameo); UnMy Favorite Blonde (cameo); Holiday Inn; conquered; Good Sam; The Fountainhead; Road to Morocco; Star Spangled Rhythm; It’s a Great Feeling (cameo); Task Force; Dixie; The Princess and the Pirate (cameo); Bright Leaf; Dallas; You’re in the Navy Now; Going My Way; Here Come the Waves; Starlift (cameo); It’s a Big Country; Distant Road to Utopia; Duffy’s Tavern; The Bells Drums; High Noon; Springfield Rifle; Return of St. Mary’s; Blue Skies; Welcome to Paradise; Blowing Wild; Vera Cruz; GarStranger; My Favorite Brunette (cameo); den of Evil; The Court-Martial of Billy MitchRoad to Rio; Variety Girl (cameo); The Emell; Friendly Persuasion; Love in the peror Waltz; A Connecticut Yankee in King Afternoon; Ten North Frederick; Man of the Arthur’s Court; The Adventures of Ichabod West; The Hanging Tree; Alias Jesse James and Mr. Toad (voice only); Top o’ the (cameo); They Came to Cordura; The Wreck Morning; Riding High; Mr. Music; Here of the Mary Deare; The Naked Edge Comes the Groom; Angels in the Outfield Costner, Kevin: Shadows Run Black; (1951; cameo); The Greatest Show on Earth Night Shift; Chasing Dreams; Frances; (cameo); Son of Paleface (cameo); Just for Stacy’s Knights; Table for Five; Testament; You; Road to Bali; Little Boy Lost; Scared The Big Chill; The Gunrunner; American Stiff (1953; cameo); White Christmas; The Flyers; Fandango; Silverado; Sizzle Beach; Country Girl; Anything Goes (1956); High U.S.A.; The Untouchables; No Way Out Society (1956); Man on Fire (1957); Alias (1987); Bull Durham; Field of Dreams; ReJesse James (cameo); Say One for Me; Let’s venge (1990); Dances With Wolves (also Make Love (cameo); High Time; Pepe dir); Truth or Dare (app); Robin Hood: (cameo); The Road to Hong Kong; Robin and Prince of Thieves; JFK; The Bodyguard; the 7 Hoods; Stagecoach (1966); Cancel My A Perfect World; Wyatt Earp; The War; Reservation (cameo); That’s Entertainment! Crowe, Russell: Prisoners of the Sun; Waterworld; Tin Cup; The Postman (1997; also dir); Message in a Bottle; For Love Proof; Romper Stomper; Hammers Over of the Game; Play It to the Bone (cameo); the Anvil; The Sum of Us; The Quick and Thirteen Days; 3000 Miles to Graceland; the Dead; Rough Magic; Virtuosity; BreakDragonfly (2002); Open Range (also dir); ing Up; L.A. Confidential; The Insider; The Upside of Anger; Rumor has it . . .; The Mystery, Alaska; Gladiator (2000); Proof of Guardian; Mr. Brooks; Swing Vote Life; A Beautiful Mind; Master and ComCrawford, Joan: Tramp, Tramp, Tramp mander: The Far Side of the World; Cinder(1926); Our Dancing Daughters; Our Modella Man; A Good Year; 3:10 to Yuma ern Maidens; Hollywood Revue of 1929; (2007); American Gangster; Body of Lies; Dance, Fools, Dance; Laughing Sinners; State of Play Possessed (1931); Grand Hotel; Rain; Cruise, Tom: Endless Love; Taps; All the Today We Live; Dancing Lady; Sadie Right Moves; Risky Business; Losin’ It; The McKee; Forsaking All Others; Chained; No Outsiders; Legend; Top Gun (1986); The More Ladies; I Live My Life; The Gorgeous Color of Money; Cocktail; Young Guns [ 1596 ]

(cameo); Rain Man; Born on the Fourth of Anything . . . ; The Grifters; True Colors; July; Days of Thunder (also costy); Far and Shadows and Fog; The Player (cameo); RoadAway; A Few Good Men; The Firm; Interside Prophets; Bob Roberts (cameo); Map of view With the Vampire; Mission: Impossible; the Human Heart; Money for Nothing; The Jerry Maguire; Eyes Wide Shut; Magnolia; Road to Wellville; Bullets Over Broadway; Mission: Impossible II; Vanilla Sky; MinorFloundering; City Hall; Grosse Pointe Blank ity Report; Austin Powers in Goldmember (also coscr); Con Air; Midnight in the Garden (cameo); The Last Samurai; Collateral; War of Good and Evil; Anastasia (1997); The Thin of the Worlds (2005); Mission: Impossible Red Line (1998); Pushing Tin; This is my III; Lions for Lambs; Tropic Thunder; Father; Being John Malkovich; Cradle Will Valkyrie Rock; High Fidelity; America’s Sweethearts; Cruz, Pene´lope: Jamo´n Jamo´n; Belle Serendipity; Adaptation. (cameo); Max; Epoque; Live Flesh; Open Your Eyes; Identity; Runaway Jury; Must Love Dogs; Twice Upon a Yesterday; Talk of Angels; The Ice Harvest; 1408; Martian Child; Joe The Hi-Lo Country; All About My Mother; Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (app); Woman on Top; All the Pretty Horses; The Contract (2006); Grace Is Gone; War, Blow; Captain Corelli’s Mandolin; Don’t Inc. (also coscr); Igor Tempt Me; Vanilla Sky; Waking Up in Cushing, Peter: The Man in the Iron Mask Reno; Masked and Anonymous (cameo); (1939; bit); A Chump at Oxford; Vigil in Gothika; Don’t Move; Head in the Clouds; the Night; The Howards of Virginia (bit); Noel; Sahara (2005); Bandidas; Volver; The Hamlet (1948); Moulin Rouge (1952); The Good Night; Elegy; Vicky Cristina BarEnd of the Affair (1955); Alexander the celona Great; Time Without Pity; Curse of FranCurtis, Tony: Criss Cross; City Across the kenstein; Horror of Dracula; Revenge of River; The Lady Gambles; Winchester ’73; Frankenstein; Mania; The Hound of the Kansas Raiders; The Prince Who Was a Baskervilles (1959); John Paul Jones; The Thief; Flesh and Fury; No Room for the Mummy (1959); The Risk; The Brides of Groom; Meet Danny Wilson (cameo); HouDracula; Fury at Smugglers’ Bay; The Helldini; All American; Forbidden (1953); fire Club; The Naked Edge; Night CreaBeachhead; The Black Shield of Falworth; tures; The Man Who Finally Died; The Evil Six Bridges to Cross; The Square Jungle; of Frankenstein; The Gorgon; Dr. Terror’s Trapeze; The Rawhide Years; Mister Cory; House of Horrors; She (1965); Dr. Who and Sweet Smell of Success; The Midnight the Daleks; The Skull; Island of Terror; DaStory; The Vikings; Kings Go Forth; The leks—Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.; FrankenDefiant Ones; The Perfect Furlough; Some stein Created Woman; Island of the Burning Like It Hot (1959); Operation Petticoat; Doomed; Torture Garden; Some May Live; Pepe (cameo); Who Was That Lady?; The Corruption; Frankenstein Must Be DeRat Race (1960); Spartacus; The Great Imstroyed; Scream and Scream Again (cameo); postor; The Outsider (1961); Taras Bulba; The Vampire Lovers; The House That 40 Pounds of Trouble; The List of Adrian Dripped Blood; One More Time (cameo); Messenger (cameo); Captain Newman, Bloodsuckers; I, Monster; Twins of Evil; M.D.; Wild and Wonderful; Paris—When It Fear in the Night (1972); Asylum; Dr. Sizzles (cameo); Goodbye Charlie; Sex and Phibes Rises Again!; Dracula A.D. 1972; the Single Girl; The Great Race; Boeing Nothing but the Night; Tales From the Boeing; Chamber of Horrors (cameo); Not Crypt; Horror Express; The Creeping Flesh; With My Wife You Don’t!; Arrivederci, Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride; And Baby!; Don’t Make Waves; On My Way to Now the Screaming Starts; From Beyond the Crusades I Met a Girl Who . . . ; Rosethe Grave; Frankenstein and the Monster mary’s Baby (voice only); The Boston StranFrom Hell; The Beast Must Die; Legend gler; Those Daring Young Men in Their of the Seven Golden Vampires; Madhouse Jaunty Jalopies; You Can’t Win ’Em All; (1974); Call Him Mr. Shatter; Legend of the Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Werewolf; The Ghoul (1975); Shock Came?; Lepke; The Last Tycoon; CasaWaves; Land of the Minotaur; At the nova & Co.; The Manitou; Sextette; The Bad Earth’s Core; Dirty Knight’s Work; The News Bears Go to Japan; Little Miss Marker Uncanny; Star Wars; An Arabian Adven(1980); The Mirror Crack’d; Brainwaves; Inture; Monster Island; House of the Long significance; Club Life; Midnight (1989); Shadows; Top Secret!; Sword of The ValThanksgiving Day; Center of the Web; Naked iant; Biggles: Adventures in Time in New York; The Celluloid Closet (app); Damon, Matt: The Good Mother (extra); Play It to the Bone (cameo) Mystic Pizza; Rising Son; School Ties; GeCusack, John: Class; Grandview, U.S.A.; ronimo: An American Legend; Younger and Sixteen Candles; Better Off Dead (1985); Younger; Courage Under Fire; Chasing Amy; The Journey of Natty Gann; The Sure Thing; The Rainmaker (1997); Good Will Hunting One Crazy Summer; Stand By Me; Hot Pur(also coscr); Rounders (1998); Saving Private suit; Broadcast News (cameo); Eight Men Ryan; Dogma; The Talented Mr. Ripley; Titan Out; Tapeheads; Fat Man and Little Boy; Say A.E.; The Legend of Bagger Vance; Finding [ 1597 ]

Forrester (uncred cameo); All the Pretty Jumbo; The Thrill of It All; Move Over, Horses; Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; The Darling; Send Me No Flowers; Do Not DisMajestic (voice only); Ocean’s Eleven (2001); turb; The Glass Bottom Boat; Caprice; The Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron; The Bourne Ballad of Josie; Where Were You When Identity; Confessions of a Dangerous Mind the Lights Went Out?; With Six You Get (cameo); Gerry (also coscr); Stuck on You; Egg Roll Eurotrip; Jersey Girl; The Bourne Supremacy; Day-Lewis, Daniel: Sunday, Bloody SunOcean’s Twelve; The Brothers Grimm; Syriday; Gandhi; The Bounty; The Insurance ana; The Departed; The Good Shepherd; Man; My Beautiful Laundrette; A Room Ocean’s Thirteen; The Bourne Ultimatum; with a View; Stars and Bars; The UnbearYouth Without Youth (uncred cameo); Che able Lightness of Being; Eversmile, New (2008; cameo) Jersey; My Left Foot; The Last of the MohiDavis, Bette: Waterloo Bridge (1931); cans (1992); The Age of Innocence (1993); Hell’s House; The Dark Horse; The Man In the Name of the Father; The Crucible Who Played God; The Cabin in the Cotton; (1996); The Boxer (1997); Gangs of New Three on a Match; 20,000 Years in Sing York; The Ballad of Jack and Rose; There Sing; Ex-Lady; Bureau of Missing Persons; Will Be Blood Fashions; The Big Shakedown; Jimmy the Dean, James: Fixed Bayonets! (bit); Sailor Gent; Fog Over Frisco; Housewife; Of Beware (bit); Deadline U.S.A. (bit); Has Human Bondage (1934); Bordertown; Front Anybody Seen My Gal? (bit); East of Eden; Page Woman; Special Agent; Dangerous; Rebel Without a Cause; Giant The Girl From 10th Avenue; The Golden de Havilland, Olivia: A Midsummer Night’s Arrow; The Petrified Forest; Satan Met a Dream (1935); Alibi Ike; The Irish in Us; Lady; Kid Galahad (1937); Marked Captain Blood (1935); Anthony Adverse; The Woman; That Certain Woman; It’s Love Charge of the Light Brigade (1936); The I’m After; Jezebel; The Sisters; The Private Great Garrick; It’s Love I’m After; Gold Is Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; Dark Victory; Where You Find It; The Adventures of Juarez; The Old Maid; All This, and Heaven Robin Hood; Four’s a Crowd; Hard to Get; Too; The Letter; The Little Foxes; The Dodge City; The Private Lives of Elizabeth Great Lie; Shining Victory (cameo); The and Essex; Gone With the Wind; Santa Fe Bride Came C.O.D.; The Man Who Came Trail; The Strawberry Blonde; Hold Back the to Dinner; In This Our Life; Now, Voyager; Dawn; They Died With Their Boots On; The Watch on the Rhine; Thank Your Lucky Male Animal; In This Our Life; Thank Your Stars; Old Acquaintance; Mr. Skeffington; Lucky Stars (cameo); Princess O’Rourke; DeHollywood Canteen; The Corn Is Green votion; To Each His Own; The Dark Mirror; (1945); Deception (1946); A Stolen Life; The Snake Pit; The Heiress; My Cousin RaWinter Meeting; June Bride; Beyond the chel; That Lady; Not As a Stranger; The Forest; All About Eve; Another Man’s PoiAmbassador’s Daughter; The Proud Rebel; son; Payment on Demand; Phone Call From Libel; The Light in the Piazza; Lady in a a Stranger; The Star; The Virgin Queen; The Cage; Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte; The Catered Affair; Storm Center; The ScapeAdventurers (1970); Pope Joan; Airport ’77; goat; John Paul Jones; Pocketful of MiraThe Swarm; The Fifth Musketeer cles; What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?; Dench, Judi: The Third Secret; He Who The Empty Canvas; Dead Ringer; Hush . . . Rides a Tiger; A Study in Terror; A MidHush, Sweet Charlotte; Where Love Has summer Night’s Dream (1968); Luther Gone; The Nanny; The Anniversary; Con(1973); Langrishe, Go Down; Dead Cert; A necting Rooms; Bunny O’Hare; Burnt OfRoom with a View; 84 Charing Cross Road; ferings; Return From Witch Mountain; A Handful of Dust; Henry V (1989); Jack & Death on the Nile; The Watcher in the Sarah; GoldenEye; Hamlet (1996); Mrs. Woods; The Whales of August; Wicked Brown; Tomorrow Never Dies; ShakeStepmother speare in Love; Tea with Mussolini; The Day, Doris: Romance on the High Seas; World Is Not Enough; Chocolat; Iris; The My Dream Is Yours; It’s a Great Feeling; Shipping News; The Importance of Being Young Man With a Horn; West Point Story; Earnest (2002); Die Another Day; Home Tea for Two; Storm Warning; Lullaby of on the Range; The Chronicles of Riddick; Broadway; Starlift; On Moonlight Bay; I’ll Ladies in Lavender; Pride & Prejudice See You in My Dreams; The Winning (2005); Mrs. Henderson Presents; Doogal; Team; April in Paris; By the Light of the Casino Royale (2006); Notes on a Scandal; Silvery Moon; Calamity Jane; Lucky Me; Quantum of Solace Young at Heart; Love Me or Leave Me; Deneuve, Catherine: The Umbrellas of Julie; The Man Who Knew Too Much Cherbourg; Male Hunt; Repulsion; A Mat(1956); The Pajama Game; Teacher’s Pet ter of Resistance; The Young Girls of (1958); The Tunnel of Love; It Happened to Rochefort; Belle de Jour; Benjamin; MayerJane; Pillow Talk; Midnight Lace; Please ling (1968); The April Fools; Mississippi Don’t Eat the Daisies; Lover Come Back Mermaid; Tristana; Donkey Skin; It Only (1961); That Touch of Mink; Billy Rose’s Happens to Others; Dirty Money; La Grande [ 1598 ]

Bourgeoise; Lovers Like Us; Hustle; March The Bridge (1999; also codir); Vatel; 102 Dalor Die; The Last Metro; Je Vous Aime; matians; The Closet; CQ; Between Strangers; Choice of Arms; The Hunger; Fort SaCity of Ghosts; Crime Spree; Bon Voyage; ganne; Let’s Hope It’s a Girl; Love Songs; Nathalie . . .; Ruby & Quentin; Changing Scene of the Crime (1986); Indochine; Ma Times; Last Holiday (2006); Paris, je t’aime Saison Pre´fe´re´e; One Hundred and One (also seq codir); La Vie en Rose; Babylon Nights; The Convent; Les Voleurs; GenealA.D. ogies of a Crime; East-West; Place VenDepp, Johnny: A Nightmare on Elm doˆme; Pola X; Dancer in the Dark; Time Street; Private Resort; Platoon; Edward Regained; The Musketeer; I’m Going Home; Scissorhands; Cry-Baby; Freddy’s Dead: 8 Women; A Talking Picture; Changing The Final Nightmare (cameo); Benny & Times; Persepolis; A Christmas Tale Joon; What’s Eating Gilbert Grape; Arizona De Niro, Robert: Greetings; The Wedding Dream; Ed Wood; Don Juan DeMarco; Party; Sam’s Song; Hi, Mom!; Bloody Nick of Time; Dead Man; Donnie Brasco; Mama; Jennifer on My Mind; Born to Win; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; The AstroThe Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight; naut’s Wife; The Ninth Gate; Sleepy HolBang the Drum Slowly; Mean Streets; The low; The Source (app); Before Night Falls; Godfather Part II; The Last Tycoon; Taxi Chocolat; Blow; The Man Who Cried; From Driver; 1900; New York New York; The Hell; Lost in La Mancha; Pirates of the CaDeer Hunter; Raging Bull; True Confesribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Once sions; The King of Comedy; Once Upon a Upon a Time in Mexico; Secret Window; Time in America; Falling in Love; Brazil; Finding Neverland; The Libertine; Charlie The Mission; Angel Heart; The Untouchand the Chocolate Factory; Tim Burton’s ables; Midnight Run; Jacknife; We’re No Corpse Bride; Pirates of the Caribbean: Angels (1989); Stanley & Iris; GoodFellas; Dead Man’s Chest; Pirates of the CaribAwakenings; Guilty by Suspicion; Backbean: At World’s End; Joe Strummer: The draft; Cape Fear (1991); Mistress; Night Future Is Unwritten (app); Sweeney Todd: and the City (1992); Mad Dog and Glory; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007); This Boy’s Life; A Bronx Tale (also dir); Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; One Hundred Thompson (narr) and One Nights; Casino; Heat (1995); The Diaz, Cameron: The Mask (1994); The Fan (1996); Sleepers; Marvin’s Room; Cop Last Supper; She’s the One; Feeling MinneLand; Jackie Brown; Wag the Dog; Great sota; Head Above Water; My Best Friend’s Expectations (1998); Ronin; Analyze This; Wedding; Keys to Tulsa; A Life Less OrdiFlawless (1999); The Adventures of Rocky nary; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (cameo); and Bullwinkle; Meet the Parents; Men of There’s Something About Mary; Very Bad Honor; 15 Minutes; The Score; Showtime; Things; Being John Malkovich; Any Given City by the Sea; Analyze That; Godsend Sunday; Charlie’s Angels; The Invisible Cir(2004); Shark Tale; Meet the Fockers; The cus; Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004); Hide and Her; Shrek; Vanilla Sky; Slackers (cameo); Seek; The Good Shepherd (also dir); Arthur The Sweetest Thing; Gangs of New York; and the Invisibles; Stardust (2007); What Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle; Shrek 2; In Just Happened; Righteous Kill Her Shoes; The Holiday (2006); Shrek the Depardieu, Ge´rard: Going Places (1974); Third; What Happens in Vegas Stavisky . . .; Vincent, Franc¸ois, Paul, and DiCaprio, Leonardo: Poison Ivy (1992); What’s Eating Gilbert Grape; This Boy’s the Others; Maitresse; The Last Woman; 1900; The Left-Handed Woman; Get Out Life; Total Eclipse; The Quick and the Your Handkerchiefs; Bye Bye Monkey; Dead; One Hundred and One Nights; The Buffet Froid; Loulou; Mon Oncle d’AmerBasketball Diaries; Romeo & Juliet; Marique; The Last Metro; Je Vous Aime; vin’s Room; Titanic (1997); The Man in the Choice of Arms; The Woman Next Door; Iron Mask (1998); Celebrity; The Beach; The Return of Martin Guerre; Danton; The Catch Me If You Can; Gangs of New York; Moon in the Gutter; Les Compe`res; Police; The Aviator (2004); The Departed; Blood Fort Saganne; One Woman or Two; Me´Diamond; The 11th Hour (narr); Body of nage; Jean de Florette; I Hate Actors Lies; Revolutionary Road (cameo); Under Satan’s Sun; Camille Dietrich, Marlene: The Joyless Street Claudel; Too Beautiful for You; I Want to (extra); The Blue Angel (1930); Morocco; Go Home; Cyrano de Bergerac (1990); Dishonored; Shanghai Express; Blonde Green Card; Uranus; Tous les Matins du Venus; Song of Songs; The Scarlet EmMonde; 1492: Conquest of Paradise; He´las press; The Devil Is a Woman (1935); DePour Moi; Germinal; My Father, the Hero; sire; The Garden of Allah; Knight Without The Machine; Colonel Chabert; One HunArmour; Angel (1937); Destry Rides Again; dred and One Nights; A Pure Formality; Seven Sinners; The Flame of New Orleans; Horseman on the Roof; Bogus; Unhook the Manpower; The Lady Is Willing; The SpoilStars; The Secret Agent (1996); Hamlet ers (1942); Pittsburgh; Follow the Boys (1996); The Man in the Iron Mask (1998); (1944); Kismet (1944); Golden Earrings; A [ 1599 ]

Foreign Affair; Stage Fright; No Highway Too Much Sun; Soapdish; Chaplin; Heart in the Sky; Rancho Notorious; Around the and Souls; The Last Party (app); Short Cuts; World in Eighty Days (1956; cameo); The Hail Caesar; Natural Born Killers; Only Monte Carlo Story; Witness for the ProseYou; Richard III (1995); Home for the Holicution; Touch of Evil (cameo); Judgment at days; Restoration; One Night Stand; Two Nuremberg; The Black Fox; Paris—When Girls and a Guy; Hugo Pool; The GingerIt Sizzles (cameo); Just a Gigolo; Marlene bread Man; U.S. Marshals; In Dreams; Douglas, Kirk: The Strange Love of MarFriends and Lovers; Bowfinger; Black and tha Ivers; I Walk Alone; Out of the Past; White; Wonder Boys; The Singing DetecMourning Becomes Electra; My Dear Sective; Gothika; Eros; Game 6; Kiss Kiss, retary; A Letter to Three Wives; Champion; Bang Bang; Good Night, and Good Luck; Young Man With a Horn; The Glass MeA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints; The nagerie (1950); Along the Great Divide; Shaggy Dog (2006); A Scanner Darkly; The Big Carnival; Detective Story; The Big Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Sky; The Big Trees; The Bad and the BeauZodiac; Lucky You; Charlie Bartlett; Iron tiful; The Story of Three Loves; The JugMan; The Incredible Hulk (cameo); Tropic gler; Act of Love; 20,000 Leagues Under Thunder; The Soloist the Sea; Ulysses (1955); The Racers; Man Dreyfuss, Richard: Valley of the Dolls; Without a Star; The Indian Fighter; Lust for The Graduate (bit); The Young Runaways; Life; Top Secret Affair; Gunfight at the Hello Down There; Dillinger (1973); AmerO.K. Corral; Paths of Glory; The Vikings; ican Graffiti; The Apprenticeship of Duddy Last Train From Gun Hill; The Devil’s DisKravitz; The Second Coming of Suzanne; ciple; Strangers When We Meet; Spartacus; Jaws; Inserts; Close Encounters of the Third The Last Sunset; Town Without Pity; Kind; The Goodbye Girl; The Big Fix; The Lonely Are the Brave; Two Weeks in AnCompetition; Whose Life Is It Anyway?; other Town; The Hook (1963); The List of The Buddy System; Down and Out in BevAdrian Messenger; For Love or Money erly Hills; Stand By Me; Tin Men; Stake(1963); Seven Days in May; In Harm’s out; Nuts; Moon Over Parador; Let It Ride; Way; The Heroes of Telemark; Cast a Giant Always (1989); Postcards From the Edge; Shadow; Is Paris Burning?; The Way West; Once Around; Rosencrantz and GuildenThe War Wagon; A Lovely Way to Die; stern Are Dead; What About Bob?; Lost in The Brotherhood; The Arrangement; There Yonkers; Another Stakeout; Silent Fall; The Was a Crooked Man; The Light at the Edge American President; Mr. Holland’s Opus; of the World; A Gunfight; To Catch a Spy; James and the Giant Peach; Mad Dog Time; The Master Touch; Scalawag (also dir); JacNight Falls on Manhattan; Krippendorf’s queline Susann’s Once Is Not Enough; Posse Tribe; The Crew; Who Is Cletis Tout?; Sil(1975; also dir); The Chosen (1978); The ver City (2004); Poseidon; W. (2008) Fury; The Villain; Home Movies; Saturn 3; Dunaway, Faye: Hurry Sundown; The The Final Countdown; The Man from Snowy Happening (1967); Bonnie and Clyde; The River; Eddie Macon’s Run; Tough Guys; Thomas Crown Affair (1968); The ExtraordiOscar (cameo); Greedy; Diamonds (1999); It nary Seaman; A Place for Lovers; The ArRuns in the Family rangement; Little Big Man; Puzzle of a Douglas, Michael: Hail, Hero!; Adam at 6 Downfall Child; Doc; The Deadly Trap; A.M.; Summertree; Napoleon and SamanOklahoma Crude; The Three Musketeers tha; Coma; The China Syndrome; Running; (1974); Chinatown; The Towering Inferno; It’s My Turn; The Star Chamber; RoThe Four Musketeers; Three Days of the Conmancing the Stone; A Chorus Line; The dor; Voyage of the Damned; Network; Eyes Jewel of the Nile; Fatal Attraction; Wall of Laura Mars; The Champ (1979); The First Street; Black Rain (1989); The War of the Deadly Sin; Mommie Dearest; The Wicked Roses; Shining Through; Basic Instinct; Lady (1983); Ordeal by Innocence; Supergirl; Falling Down; Disclosure; The American Barfly; Burning Secret; The Gamble; MidPresident; The Ghost and the Darkness; The night Crossing; Wait Until Spring, Bandini; Game; A Perfect Murder; One Day in SepThe Handmaid’s Tale; The Two Jakes; Doutember (narr); Wonder Boys; Traffic (2000); ble Edge; Arizona Dream; The Temp; Don One Night at McCool’s; Don’t Say a Word; Juan DeMarco; Dunston Checks In; The It Runs in the Family; The In-Laws (2003); Chamber; Drunks; Albino Alligator; Twilight The Sentinel (2006); You, Me and Dupree; of the Golds; The Thomas Crown Affair King of California; Ghosts of Girlfriends (1999); The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Past Arc; The Yards; Festival in Cannes; The Rules of Attraction Downey, Robert Jr., or Downey Jr., Robert: Greaser’s Palace (uncred); Up the Duvall, Robert: To Kill a Mockingbird; Academy; Baby It’s You; Firstborn; Tuff Captain Newman, M.D.; The Chase (1966); Turf; Weird Science; Back to School; Countdown; The Detective (1968); Bullitt; America; The Pick-up Artist; Less Than True Grit; The Rain People; MASH; The Zero; Johnny Be Good; Rented Lips; 1969; Revolutionary; THX 1138; Lawman; The True Believer; Chances Are; Air America; Godfather; Tomorrow; The Great North[ 1600 ]

field, Minnesota Raid; Joe Kidd; Badge laws; Hart’s War; Minority Report; Phone 373; Lady Ice; The Conversation; The OutBooth; The Recruit; Daredevil; Veronica fit; The Godfather Part II; Breakout (1975); Guerin; S.W.A.T.; Intermission; A Home at The Killer Elite; Network; The Seven-Perthe End of the World; Alexander; The New Cent Solution; The Eagle Has Landed; The World; Ask the Dust; Miami Vice; CassanGreatest; The Betsy; Invasion of the Body dra’s Dream; In Bruges; Pride and Glory Snatchers (1978; cameo); Apocalypse Now; Faye, Alice: Poor Little Rich Girl; Sing, The Great Santini; True Confessions; The Baby, Sing; Stowaway; On the Avenue; In Pursuit of D. B. Cooper; Angelo, My Love Old Chicago; Alexander’s Ragtime Band; (dir, scr); Tender Mercies; Hotel Colonial; Hollywood Cavalcade; Rose of Washington The Stone Boy; The Natural; Belizaire the Square; Lillian Russell; Little Old New Cajun; The Lightship; Let’s Get Harry; ColYork; Tin Pan Alley; That Night in Rio; ors; The Handmaid’s Tale; Days of Thunder; The Great American Broadcast; Weekend A Show of Force; Convicts; Rambling Rose; in Havana; Hello Frisco, Hello; The Gang’s The Plague; Newsies; Falling Down; GeronAll Here; Four Jills in a Jeep; Fallen Angel imo: An American Legend; Wrestling Er(1945); State Fair (1962); Won Ton Ton, nest Hemingway; The Paper; The Stars Fell the Dog Who Saved Hollywood; The Magic on Henrietta; Something to Talk About; The of Lassie Scarlet Letter (1995); A Family Thing; PheFerrell, Will: Austin Powers: International nomenon; Sling Blade; The Apostle (also Man of Mystery; A Night at the Roxbury dir, scr); The Gingerbread Man; Deep Im(also coscr); The Suburbans; Austin Powpact; A Civil Action; Gone in Sixty Seconds ers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Dick; Su(2000); The 6th Day; A Shot at Glory; John perstar; Drowning Mona; The Ladies Man Q; Gods and Generals; Assassination Tango (2000); Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back; (also dir, scr); Open Range; Secondhand Zoolander; Boat Trip; Old School; Elf; Lions; Kicking & Screaming (2005); Thank Starsky & Hutch (cameo); Anchorman: The You for Smoking; Lucky You; We Own the Legend of Ron Burgundy (also coscr); MeNight; Four Christmases linda and Melinda; Kicking & Screaming Eastwood, Clint: Revenge of the Creature; (2005); Bewitched (2005); Wedding CrashLady Godiva; Tarantula; Away All Boats; ers (cameo); The Producers (2005); Curious Never Say Goodbye (1956); Star in the George; Winter Passing; Talladega Nights: Dust; The First Traveling Saleslady; EscaThe Ballad of Ricky Bobby (also coscr); pade in Japan; Lafayette Escadrille; Fistful Stranger Than Fiction; Blades of Glory; The of Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; The Wendell Baker Story (cameo); Semi-Pro; Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Hang ’Em Step Brothers High; Coogan’s Bluff; Where Eagles Dare; Field, Sally: The Way West; Stay Hungry; Paint Your Wagon; Two Mules for Sister Smokey and the Bandit; Heroes; Hooper; The Sara; Kelly’s Heroes; The Beguiled; Dirty End; Norma Rae; Beyond the Poseidon AdHarry; Play Misty for Me (also dir); Joe venture; Smokey and the Bandit II; Back Kidd; High Plains Drifter (also dir); MagRoads; Absence of Malice; Kiss Me Goodnum Force; Breezy (dir); Thunderbolt and bye; Places in the Heart; Murphy’s Romance; Lightfoot; The Eiger Sanction (also dir); Surrender (1987); Punchline; Steel MagnoThe Outlaw—Josey Wales (also dir); The lias; Not Without My Daughter; Soapdish; Enforcer (1976); The Gauntlet (also dir); Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey; Every Which Way But Loose; Escape From Mrs. Doubtfire; Forrest Gump; Eye for an Alcatraz; Bronco Billy (also dir); Any Eye; Homeward Bound II: Lost in San FranWhich Way You Can; Firefox (1982; also cisco; Where the Heart Is (2000); Beautiful dir); Honkytonk Man (also dir); Sudden Im(dir); Say It Isn’t So; Legally Blonde 2: Red, pact (also dir); City Heat; Tightrope; Pale White and Blonde; Two Weeks Rider (also dir); Heartbreak Ridge (also Fields, W. C.: Sally of the Sawdust; Rundir); Bird (dir); The Dead Pool; Pink Cadilning Wild (1927); If I Had a Million; Millac; White Hunter, Black Heart (also dir); lion Dollar Legs; International House; Tillie The Rookie (1990; also dir); Unforgiven and Gus; Alice in Wonderland (1933); Six (1992; also dir); In the Line of Fire; A Perof a Kind; You’re Telling Me! (1934); The fect World (also dir); Casper (cameo); The Old Fashioned Way (also sty, as Charles Bridges of Madison County (also dir); AbBogle); It’s a Gift (also sty, as Charles solute Power (also dir); Midnight in the Bogle); Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch; Garden of Good and Evil (dir); True Crime David Copperfield (1935); Mississippi; The (also dir); Space Cowboys (also dir); Blood Man on the Flying Trapeze (also costy, as Work (also dir); Mystic River (dir, mus); Charles Bogle); Poppy; The Big Broadcast Million Dollar Baby (also dir, mus); Flags of 1938; You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man of Our Fathers (dir, mus); Letters From Iwo (also sty, as Charles Bogle); My Little Jima (dir); Grace Is Gone (mus); ChangeChickadee (also coscr); The Bank Dick ling (2008; dir); Gran Torino (also dir) (also scr, as Mahatma Kane Jeeves); Never Farrell, Colin: The War Zone; Ordinary Give a Sucker an Even Break (also sty, as Decent Criminal; Tigerland; American OutOtis Criblecoblis); Tales of Manhattan; Fol[ 1601 ]

low the Boys (1944); Song of the Open Mountain; The Best Man; Fail-Safe; Sex Road; Sensations of 1945 and the Single Girl; The Rounders; In Finney, Albert: The Entertainer; Saturday Harm’s Way; Battle of the Bulge; The Dirty Night and Sunday Morning; Tom Jones; Game; A Big Hand for the Little Lady; The Victors; Night Must Fall (1964); Two Welcome to Hard Times; Firecreek; Madifor the Road; Charlie Bubbles (also dir); gan; Once Upon a Time in the West; Yours, The Picasso Summer; Scrooge (1970); Mine and Ours (1968); The Boston Strangler; Gumshoe; Murder on the Orient Express; Too Late the Hero; There Was a Crooked Man; The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter The Cheyenne Social Club; Sometimes a Great Brother (cameo); The Duellists; Loophole Notion; Ash Wednesday (1973); Night Flight (1980); Looker; Wolfen; Shoot the Moon; From Moscow; My Name Is Nobody; MidAnnie; The Dresser; Under the Volcano; Orway; The Great Smokey Roadblock; Tentaphans; Miller’s Crossing; The Playboys; Rich cles; Rollercoaster; The Great Battle; The in Love; The Browning Version (1994); A Swarm; Fedora (cameo); Wanda Nevada Man of No Importance; The Run of the Coun(cameo); City on Fire; Meteor; On Golden try; Washington Square; Breakfast of ChamPond pions; Simpatico; Erin Brockovich; Traffic Fonda, Jane: Tall Story; The Chapman Re(2000); Big Fish; Ocean’s Twelve (cameo); port; A Walk on the Wild Side; Period of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride; A Good Year; Adjustment; In the Cool of the Day; Sunday Amazing Grace (2007); The Bourne Ultiin New York; Joy House; Circle of Love; matum; Before the Devil Knows You’re Cat Ballou; The Chase (1966); The Game Dead Is Over; Any Wednesday; Hurry Sundown; Flynn, Errol: Captain Blood (1935); The Barefoot in the Park; Spirits of the Dead; Charge of the Light Brigade (1936); The Barbarella; They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?; Green Light; The Prince and the Pauper Klute; F.T.A.; Steelyard Blues; A Doll’s (1937); Another Dawn; The Perfect SpeciHouse (1973); The Blue Bird (1976); Fun men; The Adventures of Robin Hood; The With Dick and Jane (1977); Julia (1977); Sisters; Four’s a Crowd; The Dawn Patrol Coming Home; Comes a Horseman; Califor(1938); Dodge City; The Private Lives of nia Suite; The China Syndrome; The Electric Elizabeth and Essex; Virginia City; The Sea Horseman; 9 to 5; No Nukes; On Golden Hawk (1940); Santa Fe Trail; Footsteps in Pond; Rollover; Agnes of God; The Morning the Dark; Dive Bomber; They Died With After; Old Gringo; Stanley & Iris; MonsterTheir Boots On; Desperate Journey; Gentlein-Law; Georgia Rule man Jim; Edge of Darkness; Thank Your Fontaine, Joan: No More Ladies (as Joan Lucky Stars (cameo); Northern Pursuit; UnBurfield); Quality Street; A Damsel in Discertain Glory; Objective, Burma!; San Antotress; Gunga Din; The Women (1939); Rebenio; Never Say Goodbye (1946); Cry Wolf; cca; Suspicion; This Above All; The Constant Escape Me Never; Silver River; Adventures Nymph; Jane Eyre (1944); Frenchman’s of Don Juan; It’s a Great Feeling (cameo); Creek; The Affairs of Susan; Letter From an That Forsyte Woman; Rocky Mountain; Kim; Unknown Woman; Kiss the Blood Off My Mara Maru; Against All Flags; The Master Hands; The Emperor Waltz; You Gotta Stay of Ballantrae; Crossed Swords (1954); Let’s Happy; Born to Be Bad; September Affair; Make Up; The Warriors (1955); Istanbul Darling, How Could You!; Othello (1952; (1957); The Big Boodle; The Sun Also Rises; cameo); Something to Live For; Ivanhoe; DeToo Much, Too Soon; The Roots of Heaven; cameron Nights; The Bigamist; Casanova’s Cuban Rebel Girls Big Night; Serenade; Beyond a Reasonable Fonda, Henry: The Trail of the Lonesome Doubt; Island in the Sun; Until They Sail; A Pine; That Certain Woman; You Only Live Certain Smile; Voyage to the Bottom of the Once; Blockade; The Mad Miss Manton; Sea; Tender Is the Night; The Devil’s Own Jezebel; Spawn of the North; Jesse James; (1966) The Story of Alexander Graham Bell; Let Ford, Glenn: Texas; So Ends Our Night; Us Live; Drums Along the Mohawk; Young Destroyer; Gilda; A Stolen Life; Framed Mr. Lincoln; The Grapes of Wrath; The Re(1947); The Loves of Carmen; The Return turn of Frank James; Lillian Russell; Chad of October; The Man From Colorado; The Hanna; The Lady Eve; You Belong to Me; Undercover Man; The Flying Missile; The The Male Animal; The Magnificent Dope; Redhead and the Cowboy; Follow the Sun; The Big Street; Tales of Manhattan; The Affair in Trinidad; The Man From the Ox-Bow Incident; Immortal Sergeant; My Alamo; The Big Heat; Appointment in HonDarling Clementine; The Fugitive (1947); duras; Human Desire; The Americano; The Daisy Kenyon; The Long Night; Fort Apache; Violent Men; Interrupted Melody; BlackOn Our Merry Way; Mister Roberts; War board Jungle; Trial; Ransom (1956); Jubal; and Peace (1956); The Wrong Man; 12 The Fastest Gun Alive; The Teahouse of the Angry Men; The Tin Star; Stage Struck; August Moon; 3:10 to Yuma (1957); The Warlock (1959); The Man Who Understood Sheepman; Cowboy; Imitation General; It Women; Advise & Consent; The Longest Started With a Kiss; The Gazebo; Cimarron Day; How the West Was Won; Spencer’s (1960); Cry for Happy; Pocketful of Mira[ 1602 ]

cles; Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Se7en; Moll Flanders; Chain Reaction (1996); (1962); Experiment in Terror; The Courtship Kiss the Girls; The Long Way Home (narr); of Eddie’s Father; Love Is a Ball; Advance to Amistad; Hard Rain; Deep Impact; Nurse the Rear; Fate Is the Hunter; Dear Heart; The Betty; Under Suspicion (2000); Along Came Rounders; The Money Trap; Is Paris Burna Spider; High Crimes; The Sum of All Fears; ing?; Rage (1966); A Time for Killing; The Levity; Dreamcatcher; Bruce Almighty; Last Challenge; Day of the Evil Gun; Heaven The Big Bounce (2004); Million Dollar With a Gun; Smith!; Santee; Midway; SuperBaby; Unleashed; Batman Begins; March man; The Visitor (1979); Virus (1980); of the Penguins (narr); War of the Worlds Happy Birthday to Me; Border Shootout (2005; narr); An Unfinished Life; Edison Ford, Harrison: Dead Heat on a Merry-GoForce; Lucky Number Slevin; 10 Items or Round; Luv; A Time for Killing; Journey to Less; Feast of Love; Evan Almighty; The Shiloh; Zabriskie Point; Getting Straight; Contract (2006); Gone Baby Gone; The American Graffiti; The Conversation; Star Bucket List; Wanted; The Dark Knight Wars; Heroes; Force 10 From Navarone; HanGable, Clark: The Easiest Way; Dance, over Street; Apocalypse Now (cameo); More Fools, Dance; The Finger Points; Laughing American Graffiti (cameo); The Frisco Kid; Sinners; The Secret Six; Night Nurse; A The Empire Strikes Back; Raiders of the Lost Free Soul; Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise; Ark; Blade Runner; Return of the Jedi; Indiana Possessed (1931); Hell Divers (1932); Jones and the Temple of Doom; Witness; The Strange Interlude; Red Dust (1932); No Man Mosquito Coast; Frantic (1988); Working Girl; of Her Own (1932); Hold Your Man; DancIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Presumed ing Lady; Men in White; It Happened One Innocent; Regarding Henry; Patriot Games; Night; Manhattan Melodrama; Chained; ForThe Fugitive (1993); Jimmy Hollywood saking All Others; After Office Hours; The (cameo); Clear and Present Danger; One HunCall of the Wild (1935); China Seas; Mutiny dred and One Nights; Sabrina (1995);TheDevon the Bounty (1935); Wife vs. Secretary; San il’s Own (1997); Air Force One; Six Days Francisco; Cain and Mabel; Love on the Run Seven Nights; Random Hearts; What Lies Be(1936); Parnell; Saratoga; Too Hot to Handle neath; K-19 The Widowmaker; Hollywood (1938); Test Pilot; Idiot’s Delight; Gone Homicide; Firewall; Indiana Jones and the With the Wind; Strange Cargo; Boom Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; Crossing Town; Comrade X; They Met in Bombay; Over Honky Tonk; Somewhere I’ll Find You; Foster, Jodie: Napoleon and Samantha; Adventure; The Hucksters; Command DeciKansas City Bomber; Tom Sawyer (1973); sion; Homecoming; Any Number Can Play; One Little Indian; Alice Doesn’t Live Here Key to the City; To Please a Lady; Across Anymore; Echoes of a Summer; Taxi Driver; the Wide Missouri; Callaway Went ThataBugsy Malone; The Little Girl Who Lives way (cameo); Lone Star (1952); Never Let Down the Lane; Freaky Friday (1977); CanMe Go; Mogambo; Betrayed (1954); Soldier dleshoe; Carny; Foxes; O’Hara’s Wife; The of Fortune; The Tall Men; The King and Four Hotel New Hampshire; Mesmerized; Siesta; Queens; Band of Angels; Teacher’s Pet Five Corners; Stealing Home; The Accused (1958); Run Silent, Run Deep; But Not for (1988); Backtrack (1989); The Silence of the Me; It Started in Naples; The Misfits Lambs; Little Man Tate (also dir); Shadows Garbo, Greta: The Atonement of Gosta Berand Fog; Sommersby; Maverick; Nell; Home ling; Torrent; The Temptress; Flesh and the for the Holidays (dir); Contact; Anna and the Devil; Love; The Mysterious Lady; The Kiss King; Panic Room; The Dangerous Lives of (1929);Wild Orchids; The Single Standard; Altar Boys; A Very Long Engagement; Anna Christie; Romance; Susan Lenox: Her Flightplan; Inside Man; The Brave One Fall and Rise; Inspiration; Mata Hari (1932); (2007); Nim’s Island Grand Hotel; As You Desire Me; Queen Foxx, Jamie: Toys; The Truth About Christina; The Painted Veil (1934); Anna Cats & Dogs; The Great White Hype; Karenina (1935); Camille; Conquest; NiBooty Call; The Players Club; Held Up; notchka; Two-Faced Woman Any Given Sunday; Bait; Ali; Breakin’ All Gardner, Ava: Shadow of the Thin Man; the Rules; Collateral; Ray; Stealth; Jarhead; H. M. Pulham, Esq.; Babes on Broadway; Miami Vice; Dreamgirls; The Kingdom; Kid Glove Killer; Reunion in France; Pilot The Soloist #5; Lost Angel; Hitler’s Madman; Music Freeman, Morgan: Who Says I Can’t Ride a for Millions; The Killers (1946); The HuckRainbow?; Blade (1973); Brubaker; Eyewitsters; Singapore; One Touch of Venus; The ness (1981); Death of a Prophet; Harry and Bribe; East Side, West Side; The Great SinSon; Teachers; Marie; That Was Then, This ner; My Forbidden Past; Pandora and the Is Now; Resting Place; Street Smart; Clean Flying Dutchman; Show Boat (1951); Lone and Sober; Lean on Me; Driving Miss Daisy; Star (1952); The Snows of Kilimanjaro; The Glory (1989); Johnny Handsome; Bonfire of Band Wagon (cameo); Mogambo; Knights the Vanities; Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; of the Round Table; The Barefoot Contessa; The Power of One; Unforgiven; Bopha! (dir); Bhowani Junction; The Little Hut; The Sun The Shawshank Redemption; Outbreak; Also Rises; The Naked Maja; On the Beach; [ 1603 ]

The Angel Wore Red; 55 Days at Peking; Me; Julia Misbehaves; That Forsyte Woman; Seven Days in May; The Night of the Iguana; The Miniver Story; Julius Caesar (1953); The Bible; Mayerling (1968); The Ballad of Scandal at Scourie; Strange Lady in Town; Tam Lin; The Life and Times of Judge Roy Pepe (cameo); Sunrise at Campobello; The Bean; Earthquake; Permission to Kill; The Singing Nun; The Happiest Millionaire Blue Bird (1976); The Cassandra Crossing; Gere, Richard: Report to the CommisThe Sentinel (1977); City on Fire; The Kidsioner; Baby Blue Marine; Looking for Mr. napping of the President; Priest of Love Goodbar; Bloodbrothers; Days of Heaven; Garfield, John: Four Daughters; Juarez; Yanks; American Gigolo; An Officer and a They Made Me a Criminal; Daughters CouGentleman; Beyond the Limit; Breathless rageous; Dust Be My Destiny; Saturday’s (1983); The Cotton Club; King David; No Children; Castle on the Hudson; The Sea Mercy; Power; Miles From Home; Internal Wolf (1941); Out of the Fog; Tortilla Flat; Affairs; Pretty Woman; Monster in a Box; Air Force; Destination Tokyo; Thank Your Rhapsody in August; Final Analysis; SomLucky Stars; The Fallen Sparrow; Between mersby; Mr. Jones; Intersection; First Two Worlds; Hollywood Canteen; Pride of the Knight; Primal Fear; Red Corner; The Marines; The Postman Always Rings Twice Jackal; Runaway Bride; Autumn in New (1946); Nobody Lives Forever; Humoresque; York; Dr. T & the Women; The Mothman Daisy Kenyon (cameo); Body and Soul (1947); Prophecies; Unfaithful; Chicago; Shall We Gentleman’s Agreement; Force of Evil; We Dance (2004); Bee Season; The Hoax; The Were Strangers; Under My Skin; The BreakHunting Party (2007); I’m Not There; ing Point; He Ran All the Way Nights in Rodanthe Garland, Judy: Pigskin Parade; ThoroughGiamatti, Paul: Past Midnight; Singles; breds Don’t Cry; Broadway Melody of Mighty Aphrodite; Sabrina (1995); Before 1938; Everybody Sing; Listen, Darling; and After (uncred); Breathing Room; DonLove Finds Andy Hardy; Babes in Arms; nie Brasco; Private Parts; My Best Friend’s The Wizard of Oz; Little Nellie Kelly; Wedding; Deconstructing Harry; The Break; Strike Up the Band; Babes on Broadway; The Truman Show; Doctor Dolittle (1998; Life Begins for Andy Hardy; Ziegfeld Girl; uncred); Saving Private Ryan; The NegotiaFor Me and My Gal; Girl Crazy; Presenting tor; Safe Men; Cradle Will Rock; Man on Lily Mars; Thousands Cheer; Meet Me in the Moon; Big Momma’s House; Duets; St. Louis; The Clock; The Harvey Girls; Storytelling; Planet of the Apes (2001); Big Till the Clouds Roll By; Ziegfeld Follies; Fat Liar; American Splendor; Confidence Easter Parade; The Pirate; Words and (2003); Paycheck; Sideways; Robots; CindMusic; In the Good Old Summertime; Sumerella Man; Lady in the Water; The Illusionmer Stock; A Star Is Born (1954); Pepe ist; The Ant Bully; The Hawk Is Dying; (cameo); Judgment at Nuremberg; Gay Shoot ’Em Up; The Nanny Diaries; Fred Purr-ee; A Child Is Waiting; I Could Go Claus; Duplicity on Singing Gibson, Mel: Summer City; Tim; Mad Garner, James: The Girl He Left Behind; Max; Chain Reaction (1980); Attack Force Z; Toward the Unknown; Sayonara; Darby’s Gallipoli; The Road Warrior; The Year of Rangers; Cash McCall; Up Periscope; The Living Dangerously; The Bounty; Mrs. Soffel; Children’s Hour; Boys’ Night Out; The The River (1984); Mad Max Beyond ThunGreat Escape; Move Over, Darling; The derdome; Lethal Weapon; Tequila Sunrise; Thrill of It All; The Wheeler Dealers; 36 Lethal Weapon 2; Bird on a Wire; Air Hours; The Americanization of Emily; The America; Hamlet (1990); Lethal Weapon 3; Art of Love; Mister Buddwing; Duel at DiaForever Young; The Man Without a Face blo; Grand Prix; A Man Could Get Killed; (also dir); Maverick; Casper (cameo); BraveHour of the Gun; How Sweet It Is!; The heart (also dir); Pocahontas; Ransom (1996); Pink Jungle; Marlowe; Support Your Local Fathers’ Day (cameo); Conspiracy Theory; Sheriff!; A Man Called Sledge; Skin Game; Fairy Tale: A True Story (cameo); Lethal Support Your Local Gunfighter; They Only Weapon 4; Payback; Chicken Run; The PaKill Their Masters; One Little Indian; The triot; What Women Want; The Million Dollar Castaway Cowboy; H.E.A.L.T.H.; The Fan Hotel; We Were Soldiers; Signs; The Sing(1981); Victor/Victoria; Tank; Murphy’s ing Detective; The Passion of the Christ Romance; Sunset; The Distinguished Gentle(dir, coscr); Paparazzi (cameo); Apocalypto man; Fire in the Sky; Maverick; My Fellow (dir, coscr) Americans; Twilight (1998); Space Cowboys; Glover, Danny: Escape From Alcatraz; Atlantis: The Lost Empire; Divine Secrets of Chu Chu and the Philly Flash; Iceman; the Ya-Ya Sisterhood; The Notebook; The Places in the Heart; The Color Purple; SilUltimate Gift; Battle for Terra verado; Witness; Lethal Weapon; Bat*21; Garson, Greer: Goodbye, Mr. Chips Lethal Weapon 2; Predator 2; To Sleep (1939); Pride and Prejudice (1940); BlosWith Anger; Flight of the Intruder; A Rage soms in the Dust; Mrs. Miniver; Random in Harlem; Pure Luck; Grand Canyon; LeHarvest; Madame Curie; Mrs. Parkington; thal Weapon 3; Bopha!; The Saint of Fort Adventure; The Valley of Decision; Desire Washington; Maverick (cameo); Angels in [ 1604 ]

the Outfield (1994); Operation Dumbo The Philadelphia Story; Penny Serenade; Drop; Switchback; Wild America (cameo); Suspicion; The Talk of the Town; Once Gone Fishin’; The Rainmaker (1997; unUpon a Honeymoon; Mr. Lucky; Destinabilled); Lethal Weapon 4; Antz; Beloved; tion Tokyo; Once Upon a Time; None But The Prince of Egypt; Boesman & Lena; The the Lonely Heart; Arsenic and Old Lace; Royal Tenenbaums; Saw; The Cookout; Without Reservations (cameo); Night and The Shaggy Dog (2006); Manderlay; BarnDay; Notorious (1946); The Bachelor and yard; Dreamgirls; Shooter; Honeydripper; the Bobby-Soxer; The Bishop’s Wife; Mr. Be Kind Rewind; Blindness; Saw V; Battle Blandings Builds His Dream House; Every for Terra Girl Should Be Married; I Was a Male War Goldberg, Whoopi: The Color Purple; Bride; Crisis; People Will Talk (1951); Room Jumpin’ Jack Flash; Burglar; Fatal Beauty; for One More; Monkey Business (1952); The Telephone; Clara’s Heart; Beverly Hills Dream Wife; To Catch a Thief; The Pride and Brats (cameo); Ghost; Homer and Eddie; the Passion; An Affair to Remember; Kiss The Long Walk Home; House Party 2 Them for Me; Indiscreet; Houseboat; North (cameo); Soapdish; The Player; Sister Act; by Northwest; Operation Petticoat; The Grass Sarafina!; Made in America; National LamIs Greener; That Touch of Mink; Charade; poon’s Loaded Weapon I (cameo); Sister Father Goose; Walk, Don’t Run; George SteAct 2: Back in the Habit; Naked in New vens: A Filmmaker’s Journey (app) York; The Lion King; The Little Rascals Grant, Hugh: Maurice; White Mischief; (cameo); Corrina, Corrina; Star Trek: GenThe Lair of the White Worm; The Dawnerations; The Pagemaster; Boys on the Side; ing; Crossing the Line; Impromptu; Bitter Moonlight and Valentino; The Celluloid Moon; The Remains of the Day; Night Closet (app); Eddie; Theodore Rex; BorTrain to Venice; Sirens; Four Weddings and dello of Blood (cameo); Bogus; The Assoa Funeral; An Awfully Big Adventure; The ciate; Ghosts of Mississippi; In & Out Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came (cameo); An Alan Smithee Film: Burn HolDown a Mountain; Sense and Sensibility; lywood Burn; How Stella Got Her Groove Nine Months; Restoration; Extreme MeaBack; Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: sures; Notting Hill; Mickey Blue Eyes; The Movie; The Deep End of the Ocean; Girl, Small Time Crooks; Bridget Jones’s Diary; Interrupted; Get Bruce! (app); The AdvenAbout a Boy; Two Weeks Notice; Love Actures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (cameo); Montually; Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; keyBone; Kingdom Come; Rat Race (2001); American Dreamz; Music and Lyrics Star Trek: Nemesis (cameo); Superbabies: Guinness, Alec: Great Expectations (1946); Baby Geniuses 2; Racing Stripes; Jiminy Oliver Twist (1948); Kind Hearts and CoroGlick in La La Wood (cameo); The Aristonets; Last Holiday (1950); The Mudlark; crats (app); Doogal; Everyone’s Hero The Lavender Hill Mob; The Man in the Grable, Betty: The Greeks Had a Word for White Suit; The Promoter; The Captain’s Them (bit); Hold ’Em Jail; The Kid From Paradise; The Detective (1954); The PrisSpain; Cavalcade; The Gay Divorcee; Hips, oner; The Ladykillers (1955); The Swan; Hips, Hooray! (bit); The Nitwits; Pigskin All at Sea; The Bridge on the River Kwai; Parade; Follow the Fleet; College Swing; The Horse’s Mouth (also adapt); The Give Me a Sailor; Down Argentine Way; Scapegoat; Our Man in Havana; Tunes of Tin Pan Alley; A Yank in the RAF; I Wake Glory; A Majority of One; Damn the DefiUp Screaming; Moon Over Miami; Footant!; Lawrence of Arabia; The Fall of the light Serenade; Song of the Islands; SpringRoman Empire; Situation Hopeless—But time in the Rockies; Coney Island; Sweet Not Serious; Doctor Zhivago; Hotel Paradiso; Rosie O’Grady; Four Jills in a Jeep; Pin The Quiller Memorandum; The Comedians; Up Girl; Diamond Horseshoe; The Dolly Cromwell; Scrooge (1970); Brother Sun, SisSisters; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim; Mother ter Moon; Hitler: The Last Ten Days; MurWore Tights; That Lady in Ermine; The der by Death; Star Wars; The Empire Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend; WaStrikes Back; Raise the Titanic!; Lovesick; bash Avenue; My Blue Heaven (1950); Call Return of the Jedi; A Passage to India; Me Mister; Meet Me After the Show; The Monsignor Quixote; Little Dorrit; A HandFarmer Takes a Wife (1953); How to Marry ful of Dust; Kafka; Mute Witness (cameo) a Millionaire; Three for the Show; How to Gyllenhaal, Maggie: Waterland; A DanBe Very, Very Popular gerous Woman; Homegrown; Cecil B. DeGrant, Cary: Blonde Venus; She Done mented; Donnie Darko; Riding in Cars with Him Wrong; The Eagle and the Hawk Boys; Secretary (2002); 40 Days and 40 (1933); I’m No Angel; Alice in Wonderland Nights; Adaptation.; Confessions of a Dan(1933); Sylvia Scarlett; Big Brown Eyes; gerous Mind; Casa de los Babys; Mona Lisa Suzy; Topper; The Toast of New York; The Smile; Criminal (2004); Happy Endings; Awful Truth; Bringing Up Baby; Holiday The Great New Wonderful; Paris, je t’aime; (1938); Gunga Din; Only Angels Have Monster House; Trust the Man; SherWings; In Name Only; His Girl Friday; My ryBaby; World Trade Center; Stranger Than Favorite Wife; The Howards of Virginia; Fiction; The Dark Knight [ 1605 ]

Hackman, Gene: Lilith; Hawaii; Banning; Trout; Glengarry Glen Ross; Running First To Fight; Bonnie and Clyde; The Split; Mates; The Firm; Needful Things; China Riot; Downhill Racer; The Gypsy Moths; Moon; Milk Money; Just Cause; Apollo 13; Marooned; I Never Sang for My Father; Nixon; Eye for an Eye; The Rock; Absolute Doctors’ Wives; The Hunting Party; The Power; The Truman Show; Stepmom; The French Connection; Cisco Pike; Prime Cut; Third Miracle; Waking the Dead; The The Poseidon Adventure; Scarecrow; The Prime Gig; Pollock (also dir); Enemy at the Conversation; Zandy’s Bride; Young FranGates; Buffalo Soldiers; A Beautiful Mind; kenstein (cameo); French Connection II; The Hours; Masked and Anonymous Bite the Bullet; Night Moves; Lucky Lady; (cameo); The Human Stain; Radio; A HisThe Domino Principle; March or Die; A tory of Violence; Winter Passing; Copying Bridge Too Far; Superman; Superman II; Beethoven; Gone Baby Gone; Cleaner; NaAll Night Long (1981); Reds; Eureka; tional Treasure: Book of Secrets; Appaloosa Under Fire (1983); Uncommon Valor; Two (2008; also dir, coadapt) of a Kind (1983); Misunderstood; Twice in Hathaway, Anne: The Princess Diaries; a Lifetime; Target (1985); Power; Hoosiers; The Other Side of Heaven; Nicholas NickNo Way Out (1987); Superman IV: The leby (2002); Ella Enchanted; The Princess Quest for Peace; Another Woman; Bat*21; Diaries 2: Royal Engagement; HoodFull Moon in Blue Water; Split Decisions; winked; Havoc; Brokeback Mountain; The Mississippi Burning; The Package; Loose Devil Wears Prada; Becoming Jane; Get Cannons; Narrow Margin; Postcards From Smart; Rachel Getting Married; Passengers; the Edge; Class Action; Company Business; Bride Wars Unforgiven; The Firm; Geronimo: An Hawn, Goldie: The One and Only, GenuAmerican Legend; Wyatt Earp; The Quick ine, Original Family Band; Cactus Flower; and the Dead; Crimson Tide; Get Shorty; There’s a Girl in My Soup; $ (Dollars); ButThe birdcage; The Chamber; Extreme Meaterflies Are Free; The Sugarland Express; sures; Absolute Power; Twilight; Antz; The Girl From Petrovka; Shampoo; The Enemy of the State; Under Suspicion (2000); Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox; Foul Play; The Replacements; The Mexican (cameo); Lovers and Liars; Private Benjamin; Seems Heartbreakers (2001); Heist; The Royal TenLike Old Times; Best Friends; Swing Shift; enbaums; Behind Enemy Lines (2001); Protocol; Wildcats; Overboard; Bird on a Runaway Jury; Welcome to Mooseport Wire; Deceived; CrissCross; HouseSitter; Hanks, Tom: He Knows You’re Alone; Death Becomes Her; The First Wives Club; Bachelor Party; Splash; The Man With One Everyone Says I Love You; The Out-ofRed Shoe; Volunteers; Every Time We Say Towners (1999); Town & Country; The Goodbye; The Money Pit; Nothing in ComBanger Sisters mon; Dragnet (1987); Big; Punchline; The Hayek, Salma: Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy ’burbs; Turner and Hooch; Joe Versus the VolLife); Midaq Alley; Desperado; Four cano; Bonfire of the Vanities; Radio Flyer; A Rooms; Fair Game; From Dusk Till Dawn; League of Their Own; Sleepless in Seattle; Fled; Fools Rush In; Breaking Up; 54; The Philadelphia; Forrest Gump; Apollo 13; The Velocity of Gary; The Faculty; Dogma; Celluloid Closet (app); Toy Story; that thing Wild Wild West; Timecode; Chain of you do! (also dir, scr); Saving Private Ryan; Fools; Traffic (2000; uncred); Hotel (2002); You’ve Got Mail; Toy Story 2; The Green Frida (2002); Spy Kids 3: Game Over; Once Mile; Cast Away (2000); Road to Perdition; Upon a Time in Mexico; After the Sunset; Catch Me If You Can; The Ladykillers Bandidas; Ask the Dust; Lonely Hearts (2004); The Terminal; The Polar Express; (2007); Across the Universe (cameo) The Da Vinci Code; Cars (voice cameo); Hayward, Susan: Hollywood Hotel (bit); The Simpsons Movie (voice cameo); CharThe Sisters (bit); The Amazing Doctor Clitlie Wilson’s War; The Great Buck Howard; terhouse (bit); Beau Geste (1939); Reap the Angels & Demons Wild Wind; The Forest Rangers; I Married Harlow, Jean: The Love Parade (bit); a Witch; Star Spangled Rhythm; Jack LonHell’s Angels; City Lights (bit); The Public don; The Fighting Seabees; Deadline at Dawn; Canyon Passage; Smash-up, the Story Enemy; Platinum Blonde; The Secret Six; The Beast of the City; Red-Headed Woman; of a Woman; They Won’t Believe Me; The Red Dust (1932); Hold Your Man; Dinner Saxon Charm; Tulsa; House of Strangers; at Eight; Bombshell; The Girl from MisMy Foolish Heart; I’d Climb the Highest souri; Reckless (1935); China Seas; Riffraff Mountain; Rawhide; I Can Get It for You (1935); Wife vs. Secretary; Suzy; Libeled Wholesale; David and Bathsheba; With a Lady; Personal Property; Saratoga Song in My Heart; The Snows of KilimanHarris, Ed: Coma (bit); Borderline (1980); jaro; The Lusty Men; The President’s Lady; Knightriders; Creepshow; The Right Stuff; White Witch Doctor; Demetrius and the Under Fire; Swing Shift; Places in the Gladiators; Garden of Evil; Soldier of ForHeart; A Flash of Green; Alamo Bay; Code tune; I’ll Cry Tomorrow; The Conqueror; Name: Emerald; Sweet Dreams; Walker; Top Secret Affair; I Want to Live!; Woman Jacknife; The Abyss; State of Grace; Paris Obsessed; Thunder in the Sun; The Mar[ 1606 ]

riage-Go-Round; Ada; Back Street (1961); stasy; The War Lord; Khartoum; CounterI Thank a Fool; The Stolen Hours; Where point; Planet of the Apes (1968); Will Penny; Love Has Gone; The Honey Pot; Valley of Number One; Julius Caesar (1970); Beneath the Dolls; The Revengers the Planet of the Apes; King: A Filmed Hayworth, Rita: Dante’s Inferno; Only Record . . . Montgomery to Memphis (narr); Angels Have Wings; Music in My Heart; The Hawaiians; The Omega Man; Call of the Susan and God; Angels Over Broadway; Wild (1972); Skyjacked; Antony and CleopaThe Strawberry Blonde; Blood and Sand tra (also dir); Soylent Green; Airport 1975; (1941); You’ll Never Get Rich; My Gal Sal; The Three Musketeers (1974); Earthquake; Tales of Manhattan; You Were Never LoveThe Four Musketeers; The Last Hard Men; lier; Cover Girl; Tonight and Every Night; Midway; Two Minute Warning; Crossed Gilda; Down to Earth (1947); The Lady Swords (1978); Gray Lady Down; The From Shanghai; The Loves of Carmen; AfMountain Men; The Awakening; Mother fair in Trinidad; Salome; Miss Sadie Lode (also dir); Almost an Angel (cameo); Thompson; Fire Down Below (1957); Pal Solar Crisis; Wayne’s World 2 (cameo); Joey; Separate Tables; They Came to CordTombstone; True Lies (cameo); In the Mouth ura; The Story on Page One; The Happy of Madness; Alaska; Hamlet (1996); Hercules Thieves; Circus World; The Money Trap; (1997; narr); Armageddon (narr); Any Given The Poppy Is Also a Flower; The Rover; Sunday; Town & Country; Cats & Dogs; The Road to Salina; The Wrath of God Planet of the Apes (2001; uncred); Bowling Hepburn, Audrey: Laughter in Paradise for Columbine (app) (bit); The Lavender Hill Mob; Roman HoliHoffman, Dustin: The Tiger Makes Out; The day; Sabrina (1954); War and Peace (1956); Graduate; Madigan’s Million; Midnight CowFunny Face; Love in the Afternoon; Green boy; John and Mary; Little Big Man; The Mansions; The Nun’s Story; The UnforPoint; Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He given (1960); Breakfast at Tiffany’s; The Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?; Children’s Hour; Charade; Paris—When It Straw Dogs; Alfredo, Alfredo; Papillon; Sizzles; My Fair Lady; How to Steal a MilLenny; All the President’s Men; Marathon lion; Two for the Road; Wait Until Dark; Man; Straight Time; Agatha; Kramer vs. Robin and Marian; Bloodline; They All Kramer; Tootsie; Ishtar; Rain Man; Family Laughed; Always (1989) Business (1989); Common Threads: Stories Hepburn, Katharine: A Bill of DivorceFrom the Quilt (narr); Dick Tracy; Billy Bathment (1932); Christopher Strong; Morning gate; Hook (1991); Hero (1992); Outbreak; Glory; Little Women (1933); Spitfire (1934); Sleepers; American Buffalo; Mad City; Wag The Little Minister; Break of Hearts; Alice the Dog; Sphere; The Messenger: The Story Adams; Sylvia Scarlett; Mary of Scotland; A of Joan of Arc; The Kid Stays in the Picture Woman Rebels; Quality Street; Stage Door; (app); Moonlight Mile; Confidence; RunBringing Up Baby; Holiday (1938); The away Jury; i ♥ Huckabees; Finding NevPhiladelphia Story; Woman of the Year; erland; Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Keeper of the Flame; Stage Door Canteen; Unfortunate Events (cameo); Meet the Dragon Seed; Without Love; Undercurrent; Fockers; Racing Stripes; The Lost City; The Sea of Grass; Song of Love; State of the Perfume: The Story of a Murderer; Stranger Union; Adam’s Rib; The African Queen; Pat Than Fiction; The Holiday (2006; cameo); and Mike; Summertime; The Rainmaker Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium; Kung (1956); The Iron Petticoat; Desk Set; SudFu Panda; The Tale of Despereaux; Last denly, Last Summer; Long Day’s Journey Chance Harvey Into Night; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?; Hoffman, Philip Seymour: My New Gun; The Lion in Winter; The Madwoman of Leap of Faith; Scent of a Woman; Joey Chaillot; The Trojan Women; A Delicate BalBreaker; My Boyfriend’s Back; Money for ance; Rooster Cogburn; Olly, Olly, Oxen Nothing; The Getaway (1994); When a Free; On Golden Pond; George Stevens: A Man Loves a Woman; Nobody’s Fool; Filmmaker’s Journey (app); Grace Quigley; Twister; Hard Eight; Boogie Nights; Next Love Affair (1994) Stop Wonderland; The Big Lebowski; HapHeston, Charlton: Dark City (1950); The piness; Patch Adams; Flawless (1999); Greatest Show on Earth; The Savage; Ruby Magnolia; The Talented Mr. Ripley; State Gentry; The President’s Lady; Pony Exand Main; Almost Famous; Love Liza; press; Arrowhead; Bad for Each Other; The Punch-Drunk Love; Red Dragon; 25th Hour Naked Jungle; The Far Horizons; The Pri(2002); Owning Mahowny; Cold Mountain; vate War of Major Benson; Lucy Gallant; Along Came Polly; Capote; Mission: ImThe Ten Commandments (1956); Three Vipossible III; Strangers With Candy (cameo); olent People; Touch of Evil; The Big CounThe Savages (2007); Before the Devil try; The Buccaneer (1958); The Wreck of the Knows You’re Dead; Charlie Wilson’s Mary Deare; Ben Hur (1959); El Cid; The War; Synecdoche, New York; Doubt Pigeon That Took Rome; Diamond Head; 55 Holden, William: Golden Boy; Invisible Days at Peking; The Greatest Story Ever Stripes; Our Town; Arizona; I Wanted Told; Major Dundee; The Agony and the EcWings; Texas; The Fleet’s In; Variety Girl [ 1607 ]

(cameo); Blaze of Noon; Apartment for ciency Expert; Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Peggy; The Man From Colorado; Rachel and Chaplin; The Innocent (1993); The Remains the Stranger; The Dark Past; Miss Grant of the Day; Shadowlands (1993); The Road to Takes Richmond; Streets of Laredo; Born Wellville; Legends of the Fall; Nixon; August Yesterday (1950); Sunset Blvd.; Union Sta(also dir, mus); Surviving Picasso; The Edge; tion; Submarine Command; Force of Arms; Amistad; The Mask of Zorro; Meet Joe Boots Malone; The Turning Point (1952); The Black; Instinct; Titus; Mission: Impossible II; Moon Is Blue; Stalag 17; Forever Female; How the Grinch Stole Christmas (narr); HanEscape From Fort Bravo; Executive Suite; nibal (2001); Hearts in Atlantis; Bad ComThe Bridges at Toko-Ri; Sabrina (1954); The pany (2002); Red Dragon; The Human Country Girl; Love Is a Many-Splendored Stain; Alexander; Proof (2005); The Thing; Picnic; Toward the Unknown; The World’s Fastest Indian; All the King’s Men Proud and Profane; The Bridge on the River (2006); Bobby; Fracture; Slipstream (2007; Kwai; The Key; The Horse Soldiers; The also dir, scr, mus); Beowulf World of Suzie Wong; The Counterfeit TraiHopper, Dennis: I Died a Thousand Times; tor; Satan Never Sleeps; The Lion; Paris— Rebel Without a Cause; Giant; Gunfight at When It Sizzles; The 7th Dawn; Alvarez the O.K. Corral; The Story of Mankind; Kelly; Casino Royale (1967; cameo); The Night Tide; The Sons of Katie Elder; Planet Devil’s Brigade; The Christmas Tree; The of Blood; Cool Hand Luke; The Trip; The Wild Bunch; Wild Rovers; The Revengers; Glory Stompers; Panic in the City; Hang Breezy; The Towering Inferno; Open Season ’Em High; Easy Rider (also dir, coscr); True (1974); Network; Damien—Omen II; Fedora; Grit; The Last Movie (also dir); Kid Blue; Escape to Athena; Ashanti; When Time Ran Mad Dog Morgan; Tracks; The American Out . . .; The Earthling; S.O.B. Friend; Apocalypse Now; Out of the Blue Hope, Bob: The Big Broadcast of 1938; (1980; also dir); King of the Mountain; Give Me a Sailor; Never Say Die; Some Human Highway; The Osterman Weekend; Like It Hot (1939); The Cat and the Canary Rumble Fish; My Science Project; Riders of (1939); Road to Singapore; The Ghost the Storm; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; Breakers; Road to Zanzibar; Caught in the Blue Velvet; Hoosiers; Black Widow (1986); Draft; Louisiana Purchase; My Favorite River’s Edge; Straight to Hell; O.C. and Blonde; Road to Morocco; Star Spangled Stiggs; The Pick-up Artist; Colors (1988; dir); Rhythm; They Got Me Covered; Let’s Face Blood Red; Backtrack (1989; also dir); FlashIt; The Princess and the Pirate; Road to Utoback; Chattahoochee; The Hot Spot (dir); Supia; Monsieur Beaucaire; My Favorite Bruperstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol; nette; Where There’s Life; Variety Girl Paris Trout; The Indian Runner; Eye of the (cameo); Road to Rio; The Paleface; SorStorm; Nails; Boiling Point; Super Mario rowful Jones; The Great Lover; Fancy Bros.; Red Rock West; True Romance; ChasPants; The Lemon Drop Kid; My Favorite ers (also dir); Speed; Search and Destroy Spy (1951); The Greatest Show on Earth (1995); Waterworld; Carried Away; Basquiat; (cameo); Son of Paleface; Road to Bali; Off The Last Days of Frankie the Fly; Meet the Limits (1953); Scared Stiff (1953; cameo); Deedles; Ed TV; Jesus’ Son; The Source Here Come the Girls; Casanova’s Big (app); Inside Deep Throat (narr); Land of the Night; The Seven Little Foys; That Certain Dead; Sketches of Frank Gehry (app); SleepFeeling; The Iron Petticoat; Beau James; walking; Hell Ride; Elegy; Swing Vote; An Paris Holiday; The Five Pennies (cameo); American Carol Alias Jesse James; The Facts of Life; BachHudson, Rock: Winchester ’73; Double elor in Paradise; The Road to Hong Kong; Crossbones; Tomahawk; Bright Victory; Critic’s Choice; Call Me Bwana; A Global The Fat Man; Has Anybody Seen My Gal?; Affair; I’ll Take Sweden; The Oscar Bend of the River; Here Come the Nelsons; (cameo); Not With My Wife You Don’t! Horizons West; The Lawless Breed; Gun (cameo); Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!; Fury; Seminole; The Golden Blade; Back to Eight on the Lam; The Private Navy of Sgt. God’s Country; Sea Devils (1953); Taza, O’Farrell; How to Commit Marriage; CanSon of Cochise; Bengal Brigade; Magnificel My Reservation; The Muppet Movie cent Obsession (1954); Captain Lightfoot; (cameo); Spies Like Us (cameo) All That Heaven Allows; One Desire; Hopkins, Anthony: The Lion in Winter; Never Say Goodbye (1956); Written on the Hamlet (1969); The Looking Glass War; Wind; Four Girls in Town (cameo); Giant; When Eight Bells Toll; Young Winston; A Battle Hymn; A Farewell to Arms (1957); Doll’s House (1973); The Girl From PeSomething of Value; The Tarnished Angels; trovka; Juggernaut; Audrey Rose; A Bridge Twilight for the Gods; This Earth Is Mine; Too Far; International Velvet; Magic; A Pillow Talk; The Last Sunset; Lover Come Change of Seasons; The Elephant Man; The Back (1961); Come September; The Spiral Bounty; The Good Father; 84 Charing Cross Road; A Gathering of Eagles; Send Me No Road; The Dawning; A Chorus of DisapFlowers; Man’s Favorite Sport?; Strange Bedproval; Desperate Hours; The Silence of the fellows; A Very Special Favor; Blindfold; Lambs; Freejack; Howards End; The EffiSeconds; Tobruk; Ice Station Zebra; A Fine [ 1608 ]

Pair; The Undefeated; Darling Lili; Hornets’ The Horse Whisperer; The Man Who Wasn’t Nest; Pretty Maids All in a Row; Showdown There; Ghost World; An American Rhap(1973); Embryo; Avalanche (1978); The Mirsody; Eight Legged Freaks; Lost in Translaror Crack’d; The Ambassador tion; Girl With a Pearl Earring; The Perfect Irons, Jeremy: Langrishe, Go Down; NijinScore; A Love Song for Bobby Long; A sky; The French Lieutenant’s Woman; MoonGood Woman; The SpongeBob Squarelighting; Betrayal; The Wild Duck; Swann in Pants Movie; In Good Company; The IsLove; The Mission; Dead Ringers; A Chorus land (2005); Match Point; Scoop; The Black of Disapproval; Reversal of Fortune; Kafka; Dahlia; The Prestige; The Nanny Diaries; Damage; Waterland; M. Butterfly; The House The Other Boleyn Girl; Vicky Cristina Barof the Spirits; The Lion King; Die Hard With celona; The Spirit; He’s Just Not That Into a Vengeance; Stealing Beauty; Chinese Box; You Lolita (1997); The Man in the Iron Mask Jolie, Angelina: Lookin’ to Get Out; Hack(1998); Dungeons & Dragons; The Time Maers; Love Is All There Is; Foxfire (1996); chine (2002); And Now . . . Ladies and Playing God; Playing by Heart; Pushing Gentlemen . . .; Broadway: The Golden Age Tin; The Bone Collector; Girl, Interrupted; (app); Callas Forever; The Merchant of Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000); Lara Croft Venice; Being Julia; Kingdom of Heaven; Tomb Raider; Original Sin; Life or SomeCasanova; Inland Empire; Eragon; Appathing Like It; Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The loosa (2008); Hamlet 2 (uncred narr); The Cradle of Life; Beyond Borders; Taking Pink Panther 2 Lives; Shark Tale; Sky Captain and the Jackman, Hugh: X-Men; Someone Like World of Tomorrow; Alexander; Mr. & You; Swordfish; Kate & Leopold; X2; Van Mrs. Smith (2005); The Good Shepherd; Helsing; X-Men: The Last Stand; Scoop; Beowulf; A Mighty Heart; Kung Fu Panda; The Fountain; The Prestige; Flushed Away; Wanted; Changeling (2008) Happy Feet; Deception (2008); Australia; Jones, Tommy Lee: Love Story (1970); X-Men Origins: Wolverine Jackson County Jail; Rolling Thunder; The Jackson, Samuel L. (formerly billed as Betsy; Eyes of Laura Mars; Coal Miner’s Sam): Ragtime; Eddie Murphy Raw (bit); Daughter; Back Roads; Nate and Hayes; The School Daze; Coming to America; Sea of River Rat; Black Moon Rising; The Big Love; Do the Right Thing; A Shock to the Town; Stormy Monday; The Package; Fire System; The Return of Superfly (cameo); Birds (1990); JFK; Under Siege; House of Mo’ Better Blues; GoodFellas; The Exorcist Cards (1993); The Fugitive (1993); Heaven & III (bit); Def by Temptation; Betsy’s WedEarth; Blown Away; Natural Born Killers; ding (bit); Strictly Business; Jungle Fever; The Client; Blue Sky; Cobb; Batman Forever; Johnny Suede; Jumpin at the Boneyard; PaVolcano (1997); Men in Black; U.S. Martriot Games; Juice; White Sands; National shals; Small Soldiers; Double Jeopardy; Rules Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon I; True Roof Engagement; Space Cowboys; Men in mance; The Meteor Man (cameo); Menace II Black II; The Hunted (2003); The Missing Society; Jurassic Park; Amos & Andrew; (2003); Man of the House (2005); The Three Pulp Fiction; The New Age; Fresh; Losing Burials of Melquiades Estrada (also dir); A Isaiah; Kiss of Death (1995); Die Hard With Prairie Home Companion; In the Valley of a Vengeance; Fluke; The Great White Elah; No Country for Old Men; In the ElecHype; A Time to Kill; The Long Kiss tric Mist Goodnight; The Search for One-Eyed Karloff, Boris: The Criminal Code; Smart Jimmy; Trees Lounge; Hard Eight; one Money (bit); Five Star Final; Frankenstein; eight seven; Eve’s Bayou; Jackie Brown; Scarface (1932); The Old Dark House Sphere; The Negotiator; Out of Sight (1998; (1932); The Mask of Fu Manchu; The cameo); Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Mummy; The Ghoul (1933); The Lost PaMenace; The Red Violin; Deep Blue Sea; trol; House of Rothschild; The Black Cat Rules of Engagement; Shaft (2000); Un(1934); Bride of Frankenstein; The Black breakable; The Caveman’s Valentine; Room; The Raven (1935); The Invisible Changing Lanes; Star Wars Episode II: AtRay; The Man Who Lived Again; Son of Frankenstein; The Man They Could Not tack of the Clones; Formula 51; No Good Deed; XXX; Basic; S.W.A.T.; Twisted Hang; Tower of London (1939); Black Fri(2004); Kill Bill Vol. 2; The Incredibles; day; The Man With Nine Lives; Devil’s IsCoach Carter; In My Country; XXX: State of land; Before I Hang; The Ape; The Devil the Union; Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Commands; The Boogie Man Will Get of the Sith; The Man (2005); Freedomland; You; The Climax; House of Frankenstein Snakes on a Plane; Home of the Brave (1944); The Body Snatcher; Isle of the (2006); Black Snake Moan; Resurrecting the Dead; Bedlam (1946); The Secret Life of Champ; 1408; Cleaner; Jumper; Iron Man Walter Mitty; Lured; Unconquered; Abbott (cameo); Lakeview Terrace; The Clone and Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff; Wars; Soul Men; The Spirit The Strange Door; The Black Castle; AbJohansson, Scarlett: North; Just Cause; If bott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Lucy Fell; Manny & Lo; Home Alone 3; Hyde; Voodoo Island; The Haunted Stran[ 1609 ]

Index of Directors Many older titles that no longer appear in this volume (or the index) can now be found in Leonard Maltin’s Classic Movie Guide. That book also features a more extensive roster of directors whose main body of work was done before 1960. This selective index of directors includes only the films that appear in this book; therefore, what follows doesn’t pretend to offer a complete list of John Ford’s silent films, the early work of Pedro Almodo´var, or the television films made by Mike Leigh. The titles in each entry are in chronological order. Years are indicated in the reviews and are included here only to distinguish between two films of the same title, whether they are remakes (The Manchurian Candidate, Great Expectations) or have nothing to do with each other (The Enforcer, The Chase, Bad Company, to cite three examples of names used more than once). The prefix ‘‘co-’’ means a collaboration. ‘‘Seq’’ means a director was responsible for one sequence in a feature film. This index is meant to be a convenient, quick-reference guide and only deals with the individuals’ work as directors. It does not indicate the other functions they may have performed on a given film, whether as actor, writer, producer, composer, cinematographer, or editor.

fornia Split; Nashville; Buffalo Bill and the Aldrich, Robert: Big Leaguer; Apache; Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson; Vera Cruz; Kiss Me Deadly; The Big Knife; 3 Women; A Wedding (1978); A Perfect Autumn Leaves; Attack; Ten Seconds to Couple; Quintet; H.E.A.L.T.H.; Popeye; Hell; The Angry Hills; The Last Sunset; Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Sodom and Gomorrah; What Ever HapJimmy Dean; Streamers; Secret Honor; pened to Baby Jane?; 4 for Texas; Hush . . . Fool for Love; O.C. & Stiggs; Beyond Hush, Sweet Charlotte; The Flight of the Therapy; Aria (seq dir); Vincent and Theo; Phoenix (1965); The Dirty Dozen; The LegThe Player; Short Cuts; Ready to Wear end of Lylah Clare; The Killing of Sister (Preˆt-a`-Porter); Kansas City; The GingerGeorge; Too Late the Hero; The Grissom bread Man; Cookie’s Fortune; Dr. T & the Gang; Ulzana’s Raid; Emperor of the North Women; Gosford Park; The Company; A Pole; The Longest Yard (1974); Hustle; Prairie Home Companion Twilight’s Last Gleaming; The Choirboys; Anderson, Paul Thomas: Hard Eight; Boogie The Frisco Kid; All the Marbles Nights; Magnolia; Punch-Drunk Love; There Allen, Woody: see Index of Stars Will Be Blood Almodo´var, Pedro: Pepi, Luci, Bom; Anderson, Wes: Bottle Rocket; Rushmore; Labyrinth of Passion; Dark Habits; What The Royal Tenenbaums; The Life Aquatic Have I Done to Deserve This?; Matador; with Steve Zissou; The Darjeeling Limited Law of Desire; Women on the Verge of a Antonioni, Michelangelo: Love in the City Nervous Breakdown; Tie Me Up! Tie Me (seq dir); Il Grido; L’Avventura; La Notte; Down!; High Heels; Kika; The Flower of Eclipse; Red Desert; Blow-Up; Zabriskie My Secret; Live Flesh; All About My Point; The Passenger; The Mystery of OberMother; Talk to Her; Bad Education; wald; Identification of a Woman; Eros (seq Volver dir) Altman, Robert: The Delinquents; The Beatty, Warren: see Index of Stars James Dean Story (codir); Countdown; That Cold Day in the Park; MASH; Brewster Beresford, Bruce: The Adventures of McCloud; McCabe & Mrs. Miller; Images; Barry McKenzie; Barry McKenzie Holds The Long Goodbye; Thieves Like Us; CaliHis Own; Don’s Party; The Getting of Wis[ 1634 ]

dom; ‘Breaker’ Morant; The Club; Puberty Door Canteen; I’ve Always Loved You; Blues; Tender Mercies; King David; The Magnificent Doll; Moonrise; China Doll; Fringe Dwellers; Crimes of the Heart; Aria The Big Fisherman (seq dir); Her Alibi; Driving Miss Daisy; Boyle, Danny: Shallow Grave; TrainspotMister Johnson; Black Robe; Rich in Love; ting; A Life Less Ordinary; The Beach; 28 A Good Man in Africa; Silent Fall; Last Days Later; Millions; Sunshine; Slumdog Dance; Paradise Road; Double Jeopardy; Millionaire Bride of the Wind; Evelyn; The Contract Branagh, Kenneth: see Index of Stars (2006) Brooks, Albert: see Index of Stars Bergman, Ingmar: Night Is My Future; Brooks, Mel: The Producers (1968); The Port of Call; The Devil’s Wanton; Three Twelve Chairs; Blazing Saddles; Young Strange Loves; To Joy; Illicit Interlude; SeFrankenstein; Silent Movie; High Anxiety; crets of Women; Summer with Monika; History of the World—Part 1; Spaceballs; Sawdust and Tinsel; A Lesson in Love; Life Stinks!; Robin Hood: Men in Tights; Dreams (1955); Smiles of a Summer Night; Dracula: Dead and Loving It The Seventh Seal; Wild Strawberries; Brink Brooks, Richard: Crisis; Deadline U.S.A.; of Life; The Magician; The Virgin Spring; Battle Circus; Take the High Ground!; The The Devil’s Eye; Through a Glass, Darkly; Flame and the Flesh; The Last Time I Saw Winter Light; The Silence; All These Paris; Blackboard Jungle; The Last Hunt; Women; Persona; Hour of the Wolf; Shame The Catered Affair; Something of Value; (1968); The Rite (also act); The Passion of The Brothers Karamazov; Cat on a Hot Tin Anna; The Touch; Cries and Whispers; Roof; Elmer Gantry; Sweet Bird of Youth; Scenes from a Marriage; The Magic Flute; Lord Jim; The Professionals; In Cold Face to Face (1976); The Serpent’s Egg; Blood; The Happy Ending; $ (Dollars); Bite Autumn Sonata; From the Life of the Marithe Bullet; Looking for Mr. Goodbar; onettes; Fanny and Alexander; After the ReWrong Is Right; Fever Pitch (1985) hearsal; Saraband (2003) Brown, Clarence: Flesh and the Devil; A Bertolucci, Bernardo: Before the RevoluWoman of Affairs; Anna Christie (1930); tion; The Spider’s Stratagem; The ConRomance (1930; uncred); Inspiration; A formist; Last Tango in Paris; 1900; Luna; Free Soul; Possessed (1931); Emma (1932); Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man; The Last EmSadie McKee; Chained; Anna Karenina peror; The Sheltering Sky; Little Buddha; (1935); Ah, Wilderness!; Wife vs. SecreStealing Beauty; Besieged; The Dreamers tary; The Gorgeous Hussy; Conquest; Of Boetticher, Budd (first billed as Oscar Human Hearts; Idiot’s Delight; The Rains Boetticher, Jr., then Oscar Boetticher): BeCame; Edison, the Man; Come Live with hind Locked Doors; Bullfighter and the Me; They Met in Bombay; The Human Lady; The Cimarron Kid; Bronco Buster; Comedy; The White Cliffs of Dover; NaRed Ball Express; Seminole; The Man from tional Velvet; The Yearling; Song of Love; the Alamo; The Magnificent Matador; The Intruder in the Dust; To Please a Lady; Killer Is Loose; Seven Men from Now; The Angels in the Outfield (1951); It’s a Big Tall T; Decision at Sundown; Buchanan Country (seq dir); Plymouth Adventure Rides Alone; Ride Lonesome; The Rise and Bun˜uel, Luis: L’Age d’Or; Los Olvidados; Fall of Legs Diamond; Comanche Station; Susana; Illusion Travels by Streetcar; El Arruza Bruto; Wuthering Heights (1953); AdvenBogdanovich, Peter: Voyage to the Planet tures of Robinson Crusoe; The Criminal of Prehistoric Women (as ‘‘Derek Thomas’’); Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz; Death in the Targets; The Last Picture Show; What’s Up, Garden; Nazarin; The Young One; ViridiDoc?; Paper Moon; Daisy Miller; At Long ana; The Exterminating Angel; Diary of a Last Love; Nickelodeon; Saint Jack; They Chambermaid (1964); Simon of the Desert; All Laughed; Mask; Illegally Yours; TexBelle de Jour; The Milky Way (1969); Trisasville; Noises Off; The Thing Called Love; tana; The Discreet Charm of the BourgeoiThe Cat’s Meow sie; The Phantom of Liberty; That Obscure Boorman, John: Having a Wild Weekend; Object of Desire Burton, Tim: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure; Point Blank; Hell in the Pacific; Leo the Last; Deliverance; Zardoz; Exorcist II: The Beetle Juice; Batman (1989); Edward ScisHeretic; Excalibur; The Emerald Forest; sorhands; Batman Returns; Ed Wood; Mars Hope and Glory; Where the Heart Is (1990); Attacks!; Sleepy Hollow; Planet of the Apes Beyond Rangoon; The General (1998); The (2001); Big Fish; Charlie and the Chocolate Tailor of Panama; In My Country Factory; Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride Borzage, Frank: 7th Heaven; A Farewell (codir); Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber to Arms (1932); Man’s Castle; Little Man, of Fleet Street (2007) What Now?; Flirtation Walk; Desire; HisCameron, James: Piranha II: The Spawntory Is Made at Night; Big City; Manneing; The Terminator; Aliens; The Abyss; quin; Three Comrades; The Shining Hour; Terminator 2: Judgment Day; True Lies; TiStrange Cargo; The Mortal Storm; Flight tanic (1997) Command; Smilin’ Through (1941); Stage Capra, Frank: The Strong Man; Long [ 1635 ]

Pants; The Matinee Idol; The Younger GenThis Earth (1957); Attack of the Crab Moneration; Ladies of Leisure; Dirigible; The sters; The Undead; Rock All Night; TeenMiracle Woman; Platinum Blonde; Forbidage Doll; The Saga of the Viking Women den (1932); American Madness; The Bitter and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Tea of General Yen; Lady for a Day; It Sea Serpent; War of the Satellites; Happened One Night; Broadway Bill; Mr. Machine-Gun Kelly; Teenage Cave Man; I, Deeds Goes to Town; Lost Horizon (1937); Mobster; Bucket of Blood; The Wasp You Can’t Take It with You; Mr. Smith Woman; Ski Troop Attack; House of Usher; Goes to Washington; Meet John Doe; ArseThe Little Shop of Horrors (1960); The Last nic and Old Lace; It’s a Wonderful Life; Woman on Earth; Creature From the State of the Union; Riding High; Here Haunted Sea; Atlas; Pit and the Pendulum Comes the Groom; A Hole in the Head; (1961); The Intruder (1962); The Premature Pocketful of Miracles Burial; Tales of Terror; Tower of London Carpenter, John: Dark Star; Assault on (1962); The Raven (1963); The Terror; X— Precinct 13 (1976); Halloween; The Fog the Man with X-Ray Eyes; The Haunted (1980); Escape From New York; The Thing; Palace; The Young Racers; The Secret InChristine; Starman; Big Trouble in Little vasion; Masque of the Red Death; Tomb of China; Prince of Darkness; They Live; MemLigeia; The Wild Angels; The St. Valenoirs of an Invisible Man; In the Mouth of tine’s Day Massacre; The Trip; Target: Madness; Village of the Damned (1995); EsHarry; Bloody Mama; Gas-s-s-s; Von Richcape From L.A.; Vampires; Ghosts of Mars tofen and Brown; Frankenstein Unbound Cassavetes, John: Shadows; Too Late Cronenberg, David: They Came From Blues; A Child Is Waiting; Faces; HusWithin; Rabid; The Brood; Scanners; Vibands; Minnie and Moskowitz; A Woman deodrome; The Dead Zone; The Fly (1986); Under the Influence; The Killing of a ChiDead Ringers; Naked Lunch; M. Butterfly; nese Bookie; Opening Night; Gloria (1980); Crash (1996); eXistenZ; Spider; A History Love Streams; Big Trouble of Violence; Eastern Promises Chabrol, Claude: Le Beau Serge; The Crowe, Cameron: Say Anything .. .; Singles; Cousins; Web of Passion; Les Bonnes Jerry Maguire; Almost Famous; Vanilla Sky; Femmes; 7 Capital Sins (seq dir); BlueElizabethtown beard; The Champagne Murders; The Road Cuaro´n, Alfonso: So´lo Con Tu Pareja; A to Corinthe; Les Biches; La Femme InfiLittle Princess; Great Expectations (1998); de`le; This Man Must Die; Le Boucher; Ten Y Tu Mama´ Tambie´n; Harry Potter and the Days Wonder; High Heels (1972); Wedding Prisoner of Azkaban; Paris, je t’aime (seq in Blood; Nada; Dirty Hands; The Twist dir); Children of Men (1976); Blood Relatives; Violette; The HatCukor, George: One Hour With You ter’s Ghost; Cop au Vin; Inspecteur Lavardin; (codir); What Price Hollywood?; A Bill of Betty; The Story of Women; Club ExtincDivorcement (1932); Dinner at Eight; Little tion; Madame Bovary (1991); L’Enfer; La Women (1933); David Copperfield (1935); Ce´re´monie; The Swindle (1997); Merci Sylvia Scarlett; Romeo and Juliet (1936); Pour le Chocolat; The Flower of Evil; ComCamille; Holiday (1938); The Women; The edy of Power; The Bridesmaid Philadelphia Story; Susan and God; A Chaplin, Charles: see Index of Stars Woman’s Face; Two-Faced Woman; Coen, Joel & Ethan: Blood Simple; RaisKeeper of the Flame; Gaslight (1944); A ing Arizona; Miller’s Crossing; Barton Double Life; Edward, My Son; Adam’s Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Rib; Born Yesterday (1950); A Life of Her Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; Own; The Model and the Marriage Broker; The Man Who Wasn’t There; Intolerable The Marrying Kind; Pat and Mike; The AcCruelty; The Ladykillers (2004); Paris, je tress; It Should Happen to You; A Star Is t’aime (seq dir); No Country for Old Men; Born (1954); Bhowani Junction; Les Girls; Burn After Reading Wild Is the Wind; Heller in Pink Tights; Let’s Coppola, Francis Ford: Battle Beyond the Make Love; The Chapman Report; My Fair Sun (dir of U.S. inserts as Thomas ColLady; Justine; Travels With My Aunt; The chart); Dementia 13; You’re a Big Boy Blue Bird (1976); Rich and Famous Now; Finian’s Rainbow; The Rain People; Curtiz, Michael: Doctor X; The Cabin in The Godfather; The Conversation; The the Cotton; 20,000 Years in Sing Sing; Godfather Part II; Apocalypse Now; One Mystery of the Wax Museum; The Kennel From the Heart; The Outsiders; Rumble Murder Case; Female; Jimmy the Gent; Fish; The Cotton Club; Peggy Sue Got MarBlack Fury; Front Page Woman; Captain ried; Gardens of Stone; Tucker: The Man Blood; The Charge of the Light Brigade and His Dream; New York Stories (seq dir); (1936); Kid Galahad (1937); The Perfect The Godfather Part III; Bram Stoker’s DraSpecimen; Gold Is Where You Find It; The cula; Jack; The Rainmaker (1997); Youth Adventures of Robin Hood (codir); Four’s a Without Youth Crowd; Four Daughters; Angels with Dirty Corman, Roger: Five Guns West; GunFaces; Dodge City; Daughters Courageous; slinger; It Conquered the World; Not of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; [ 1636 ]

Virginia City; The Sea Hawk; Santa Fe Love Is Better Than Ever; Give a Girl a Trail; The Sea Wolf; Dive Bomber; Captains Break; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; of the Clouds; Yankee Doodle Dandy; CaDeep in My Heart; It’s Always Fair sablanca; This Is the Army; Passage to MarWeather (codir); Funny Face; The Pajama seille; Roughly Speaking; Mildred Pierce; Game (codir); Kiss Them for Me; IndisNight and Day; Life With Father; The Uncreet; Damn Yankees (codir); Once More, suspected; Romance on the High Seas; My With Feeling; Surprise Package; The Grass Dream Is Yours; Flamingo Road; Bright Is Greener; Charade; Arabesque; Two for Leaf; Young Man with a Horn; The Breakthe Road; Bedazzled; Staircase; The Little ing Point; Force of Arms; Jim Thorpe—All Prince; Lucky Lady; Movie Movie; Saturn American; I’ll See You in My Dreams; The 3; Blame It on Rio Story of Will Rogers; The Jazz Singer Donner, Richard: X-15; Salt and Pepper; (1953); Trouble Along the Way; The EgypLola; The Omen (1976); Superman; Superman tian; White Christmas; We’re No Angels II (Richard Donner cut); Inside Moves; The (1955); The Vagabond King (1956); The Toy; Ladyhawke; The Goonies; Lethal Best Things in Life Are Free; The Helen Weapon; Scrooged; Lethal Weapon 2; Radio Morgan Story; King Creole; The Proud Flyer; Lethal Weapon 3; Maverick; AssasRebel; The Hangman; Man in the Net; The sins; Conspiracy Theory; Lethal Weapon 4; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; A Breath Timeline; 16 Blocks of Scandal; Francis of Assisi; The ComanEastwood, Clint: see Index of Stars cheros Edwards, Blake: Mister Cory; This Happy Dante, Joe: Hollywood Boulevard (1976; Feeling; The Perfect Furlough; Operation codir); Piranha; The Howling; Twilight Petticoat; High Time; Breakfast at TiffaZone—The Movie (seq dir); Gremlins; Exny’s; Experiment in Terror; Days of Wine plorers; Amazon Women on the Moon (seq and Roses; The Pink Panther (1964); A Shot dir); Innerspace; The ’burbs; Gremlins 2 in the Dark; The Great Race; What Did You The New Batch; Matinee; Small Soldiers; Do in the War, Daddy?; Gunn; The Party; Looney Tunes: Back in Action; Trapped Darling Lili; Wild Rovers; The Carey TreatAshes (seq dir) ment; The Tamarind Seed; The Return of del Toro, Guillermo: Cronos; Mimic; The the Pink Panther; The Pink Panther Strikes Devil’s Backbone; Blade II; Hellboy; Pan’s Again; Revenge of the Pink Panther; 10; Labyrinth; Hellboy II: The Golden Army S.O.B.; Victor/Victoria; Trail of the Pink DeMille, Cecil B.: The Ten CommandPanther; Curse of the Pink Panther; The ments (1923); The King of Kings (1927); Man Who Loved Women (1983); Micki + Dynamite (1929); The Sign of the Cross; Maude; A Fine Mess; That’s Life!; Blind Cleopatra (1934); The Crusades; The Date (1987); Sunset; Skin Deep (1989); Plainsman (1936); The Buccaneer (1938); Switch; Son of the Pink Panther Union Pacific; North West Mounted Police; Eisenstein, Sergei M.: Strike; Potemkin; Reap the Wild Wind; The Story of Dr. WasOctober; Alexander Nevsky; Ivan the Terrisell; Unconquered; Samson and Delilah; The ble, Part One; Ivan the Terrible, Part Two Greatest Show on Earth; The Ten CommandEphron, Nora: This Is My Life; Sleepless ments (1956) in Seattle; Mixed Nuts; Michael; You’ve Demme, Jonathan: Caged Heat; Crazy Got Mail; Lucky Numbers; Bewitched Mama; Fighting Mad; Handle With Care; (2005) Last Embrace; Melvin and Howard; Swing Fassbinder, Rainer Werner: KatzelShift; Stop Making Sense; Something Wild; macher; Gods of the Plague; The American Swimming to Cambodia; Married to the Soldier; Whity; Beware of a Holy Whore; Mob; The Silence of the Lambs; Cousin The Merchant of Four Seasons; The Bitter Bobby; Philadelphia; Beloved; The Truth Tears of Petra von Kant; Jail Bait (1972); About Charlie; The Agronomist; The ManAli—Fear Eats the Soul; Martha; Effi Briest; churian Candidate (2004); Neil Young: Fox and His Friends; Mother Kusters Goes to Heart of Gold; Jimmy Carter: Man from Heaven; I Only Want You to Love Me; ChiPlains; Rachel Getting Married nese Roulette; The Stationmaster’s Wife; DeDe Palma, Brian: Greetings; The Wedding spair; In a Year of Thirteen Moons; The Party (codir); Hi, Mom!; Get to Know Your Marriage of Maria Braun; The Third GeneraRabbit; Sisters (1973); Phantom of the Paration; Berlin Alexanderplatz; Lili Marleen; dise; Carrie (1976); Obsession (1976); The Lola (1982); Veronika Voss; Querelle Fury; Home Movies; Dressed to Kill Fellini, Federico: Variety Lights (codir); (1980); Blow Out; Scarface (1983); Body The White Sheik; Love in the City (seq dir); Double; Wise Guys; The Untouchables; I Vitelloni; La Strada; The Swindle; Nights Casualties of War; Bonfire of the Vanities; of Cabiria; La Dolce Vita; Boccaccio ’70 Raising Cain; Carlito’s Way; Mission: Im(seq dir); 81⁄2; Juliet of the Spirits; Spirits of possible; Snake Eyes; Mission to Mars; the Dead (seq dir); Fellini Satyricon; The Femme Fatale; The Black Dahlia; Redacted Clowns; Fellini’s Roma; Amarcord; FelDonen, Stanley: On the Town (codir); Royal Wedding; Singin’ in the Rain (codir); lini’s Casanova; Orchestra Rehearsal; City [ 1637 ]

of Women; And the Ship Sails On; Ginger Hell and High Water; House of Bamboo; and Fred; Intervista Run of the Arrow; Forty Guns; China Gate; Fincher, David: Alien 3; Se7en; The Game; Verboten!; The Crimson Kimono; UnderFight Club; Panic Room; Zodiac (2007); world U.S.A.; Merrill’s Marauders; Shock The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Corridor; The Naked Kiss; Shark!; Dead PiFord, John: The Iron Horse; 3 Bad Men; geon on Beethoven Street; The Big Red Hangman’s House; Up the River; One; White Dog Arrowsmith; Airmail; Flesh; Dr. Bull; The Gilliam, Terry: Monty Python and the Lost Patrol; The World Moves On; Judge Holy Grail (codir); Jabberwocky; Time Priest; The Whole Town’s Talking; The InBandits; Brazil; The Adventures of Baron former (1935); Steamboat ’Round the Bend; Munchausen; The Fisher King; Twelve The Prisoner of Shark Island; Mary of ScotMonkeys; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; land; The Plough and the Stars; Wee Willie Lost in La Mancha (app); The Brothers Winkie; The Hurricane (1937); Four Men Grimm; Tideland and a Prayer; Submarine Patrol; Stagecoach Godard, Jean-Luc: Breathless (1959); A (1939); Young Mr. Lincoln; Drums Along Woman Is a Woman; 7 Capital Sins (seq the Mohawk; The Grapes of Wrath; The Long dir); My Life to Live; Le Petit Soldat; Les Voyage Home; Tobacco Road; How Green Carabiniers; Contempt; Band of Outsiders; Was My Valley; They Were Expendable; My A Married Woman; Alphaville; Pierrot le Darling Clementine; The Fugitive (1947); Fou; Masculine-Feminine; Made in U.S.A; Fort Apache; 3 Godfathers; She Wore a YelTwo or Three Things I Know About Her; low Ribbon; When Willie Comes Marching The Oldest Profession (seq dir); La Chinoise; Home; Wagon Master; Rio Grande; The Quiet Weekend; Sympathy for the Devil; Nume´ro Man; What Price Glory (1952); The Sun Deux; Every Man for Himself; Passion Shines Bright; Mogambo; The Long Gray (1982); First Name: Carmen; Hail Mary; DeLine; Mister Roberts (codir); The Searchers; tective (1985); King Lear (1987); Aria (seq The Rising of the Moon; The Wings of Eadir); Nouvelle Vague; He´las Pour Moi; For gles; Gideon of Scotland Yard; The Last Ever Mozart; In Praise of Love; Notre Hurrah; The Horse Soldiers; Sergeant RutMusique ledge; Two Rode Together; The Man Who Griffith, D. W.: The Birth of a Nation; InShot Liberty Valance; How the West Was tolerance; Broken Blossoms; Way Down Won (seq dir); Donovan’s Reef; Cheyenne East; Orphans of the Storm; Abraham Autumn; Young Cassidy (codir); 7 Women Lincoln Forman, Milos: Loves of a Blonde; The Guest, Christopher: The Big Picture; Fireman’s Ball; Taking Off; Visions of Waiting for Guffman; Almost Heroes; Best Eight (seq dir); One Flew Over the Cuckin Show; A Mighty Wind; For Your oo’s Nest; Hair; Ragtime; Amadeus; ValConsideration mont; The People Vs. Larry Flynt; Man on Hawks, Howard: The Dawn Patrol (1930); the Moon; Goya’s Ghosts The Criminal Code; The Crowd Roars; Fosse, Bob: Sweet Charity; Cabaret; Lenny; Scarface (1932); Tiger Shark; Today We All That Jazz; Star 80 Live; Twentieth Century; Barbary Coast; Frankenheimer, John: The Young Stranger; Ceiling Zero; The Road to Glory; Come The Young Savages; All Fall Down; Birdman and Get It (codir); Bringing Up Baby; Only of Alcatraz; The Manchurian Candidate Angels Have Wings; His Girl Friday; Ser(1962); Seven Days in May; The Train; Secgeant York; Ball of Fire; Air Force; The onds; Grand Prix; The Fixer (1968); The Outlaw (uncred codir); To Have and Have Extraordinary Seaman; The Gypsy Moths; I Not; The Big Sleep (1946); Red River; A Walk the Line; The Horsemen (1971); The Song Is Born; I Was a Male War Bride; The Iceman Cometh; Story of a Love Story; 99 Thing From Another World (uncred dir); and 44/100% Dead; French Connection II; The Big Sky; O. Henry’s Full House (seq Black Sunday (1977); Prophecy (1979); dir); Monkey Business; Gentlemen Prefer The Challenge; The Holcroft Covenant; 52 Blondes; Land of the Pharaohs; Rio Bravo; Pick-Up; Dead-Bang; The Fourth War; Hatari!; Man’s Favorite Sport?; Red Line Year of the Gun; The Island of Dr. Moreau 7000; El Dorado; Rio Lobo (1996); Ronin; Reindeer Games Haynes, Todd: Poison; Safe; Velvet GoldFrears, Stephen: Gumshoe; The Hit; My mine; Far From Heaven; I’m Not There Beautiful Laundrette; Prick Up Your Ears; Herzog, Werner: Even Dwarfs Started Sammy and Rosie Get Laid; Dangerous LiSmall; Aguirre: The Wrath of God; Every aisons; The Grifters; Hero (1992); The Man for Himself and God Against All; Snapper; Mary Reilly; The Van (1996); The Heart of Glass; Stroszek; Nosferatu the Hi-Lo Country; High Fidelity; Liam; Dirty Vampyre; Woyzek; Fitzcarraldo; Where the Pretty Things; Mrs. Henderson Presents; Green Ants Dream; My Best Fiend; InvinciThe Queen ble; Grizzly Man; Rescue Dawn; EncounFuller, Sam: I Shot Jesse James; The Baron ters at the End of the World of Arizona; The Steel Helmet; Fixed BayoHitchcock, Alfred: The Pleasure Garden; nets!; Park Row; Pickup on South Street; The Lodger (1926); Downhill; Easy Virtue [ 1638 ]

(1927); The Ring (1927); The Farmer’s Towers; The Lord of the Rings: The Return Wife; Champagne; The Manxman; Blackof the King; King Kong (2005) mail (1929); Juno and the Paycock; MurJarmusch, Jim: Stranger Than Paradise; der!; The Skin Game (1931); Rich and Down by Law; Mystery Train; Night on Strange; Number Seventeen; The Man Who Earth; Dead Man; Ghost Dog: The Way of Knew Too Much (1934); The 39 Steps the Samurai; Coffee and Cigarettes; Broken (1935); The Secret Agent (1936); Sabotage; Flowers; The Limits of Control Young and Innocent; The Lady Vanishes Jewison, Norman: 40 Pounds of Trouble; (1938); Jamaica Inn; Rebecca; Foreign CorreThe Thrill of It All; Send Me No Flowers; spondent; Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941); SuspiThe Art of Love; The Cincinnati Kid; The cion; Saboteur; Shadow of a Doubt; Lifeboat; Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Spellbound (1945); Notorious (1946); The Coming; In the Heat of the Night; The Paradine Case; Rope; Under Capricorn; Thomas Crown Affair (1968); Gaily, Gaily; Stage Fright; Strangers on a Train; I ConFiddler on the Roof; Jesus Christ Superstar; fess; Dial M for Murder; Rear Window; To Rollerball (1975); F.I.S.T.; . . . And Justice Catch a Thief; The Trouble with Harry; The for All; Best Friends; A Soldier’s Story; Man Who Knew Too Much (1956); The Agnes of God; Moonstruck; In Country; Wrong Man; Vertigo; North by Northwest; Other People’s Money; Only You (1994); Psycho (1960); The Birds; Marnie; Torn Bogus; The Hurricane (1999); The Statement Curtain; Topaz; Frenzy (1972); Family Plot Kasdan, Lawrence: Body Heat; The Big Hopper, Dennis: see Index of Stars Chill; Silverado; The Accidental Tourist; I Howard, Ron: Grand Theft Auto; Night Love You to Death; Grand Canyon; Wyatt Shift; Splash; Cocoon; Gung Ho; Willow; Earp; French Kiss; Mumford; Dreamcatcher Parenthood; Backdraft; Far and Away; The Kazan, Elia: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Paper; Apollo 13; Ransom (1996); Ed TV; The Sea of Grass; Boomerang!; GentleHow the Grinch Stole Christmas; A Beautiman’s Agreement; Pinky; Panic in the ful Mind; The Missing (2003); Cinderella Streets; A Streetcar Named Desire; Viva Man; The Da Vinci Code; Frost/Nixon; Zapata!; Man on a Tightrope; On the WaterAngels & Demons front; East of Eden; Baby Doll; A Face in Huston, John: The Maltese Falcon (1941); the Crowd; Wild River; Splendor in the In This Our Life; Across the Pacific; The Grass; America, America; The ArrangeTreasure of the Sierra Madre; Key Largo; ment; The Visitors (1972); The Last Tycoon We Were Strangers; The Asphalt Jungle; Keaton, Buster: see Index of Stars The Red Badge of Courage; The African Kelly, Gene: see Index of Stars Queen; Moulin Rouge (1952); Beat the Kramer, Stanley: Not as a Stranger; The Devil; Moby Dick (1956); Heaven Knows, Pride and the Passion; The Defiant Ones; Mr. Allison; The Barbarian and the Geisha; On the Beach; Inherit the Wind; Judgment The Roots of Heaven; The Unforgiven at Nuremberg; It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad (1960); The Misfits; Freud; The List of World; Ship of Fools; Guess Who’s ComAdrian Messenger; The Night of the Iguana; ing to Dinner; The Secret of Santa Vittoria; The Bible; Casino Royale (1967; codir); R.P.M.; Bless the Beasts & Children; OklaReflections in a Golden Eye; Sinful Davey; homa Crude; The Domino Principle; The A Walk With Love and Death; The Kremlin Runner Stumbles Letter; Fat City; The Life and Times of Kubrick, Stanley: Fear and Desire; Killer’s Judge Roy Bean; The Mackintosh Man; Kiss; The Killing; Paths of Glory; SpartaThe Man Who Would Be King; Wise cus; Lolita (1962); Dr. Strangelove or: How Blood; Phobia; Victory (1981); Annie; I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Under the Volcano; Prizzi’s Honor; The Bomb; 2001: A Space Odyssey; A ClockDead work Orange; Barry Lyndon; The Shining; Ivory, James: The Householder; ShakeFull Metal Jacket; Eyes Wide Shut speare Wallah; The Guru (1969); Bombay Kurosawa, Akira: The Men Who Tread on Talkie; The Wild Party (1975); Autobiograthe Tiger’s Tail; The Most Beautiful; Stray phy of a Princess; Roseland; Hullabaloo Dog; Rashomon; The Idiot; Ikiru; Seven over Georgia and Bonnie’s Pictures; The Samurai; Throne of Blood; The Lower Europeans; Jane Austen in Manhattan; Depths (1957); The Hidden Fortress; The Quartet (1981); Heat and Dust; The BostoBad Sleep Well; Yojimbo; Sanjuro; High nians; A Room with a View; Maurice; and Low; Red Beard; Dodes’ka-den; Dersu Slaves of New York; Mr. & Mrs. Bridge; Uzala; Kagemusha; Ran; Akira Kurosawa’s Howards End; The Remains of the Day; Dreams; Rhapsody in August; Madadayo Jefferson in Paris; Surviving Picasso; A SolLandis, John: Schlock; The Kentucky Fried dier’s Daughter Never Cries; The Golden Movie; National Lampoon’s Animal House; Bowl; Le Divorce; The White Countess The Blues Brothers; An American WereJackson, Peter: Bad Taste; Dead Alive; wolf in London; Trading Places; Twilight Heavenly Creatures; The Frighteners; The Zone—The Movie (seq dir); Into the Night; Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Spies Like Us; ¡Three Amigos!; Amazon Ring; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Women on the Moon (seq dir); Coming to [ 1639 ]

America; Oscar; Innocent Blood; Beverly Vietnam; Rain Man; Avalon (1990); Bugsy; Hills Cop III; The Stupids; Blues Brothers Toys; Jimmy Hollywood; Disclosure; Sleep2000 ers; Wag the Dog; Sphere; Liberty Heights; Lang, Fritz: The Spiders; Dr. Mabuse, the An Everlasting Piece; Bandits (2001); Gambler; Metropolis; Spies; Woman in the Envy; Man of the Year; What Just HapMoon; M (1931); The Testament of Dr. Mapened buse; Fury; You Only Live Once; You and Lewis, Jerry: see Index of Stars Me; The Return of Frank James; Western Linklater, Richard: Slacker; Dazed and Union; Man Hunt (1941); Hangmen Also Confused; Before Sunrise; subUrbia; The Die; The Woman in the Window; Ministry Newton Boys; Waking Life; Tape; The of Fear; Scarlet Street; Cloak and Dagger School of Rock; Before Sunset; Bad News (1946); Secret Beyond the Door; The House Bears (2005); Fast Food Nation; A Scanner by the River; American Guerilla in the PhilDarkly ippines; Rancho Notorious; Clash by Night; Losey, Joseph: The Boy with Green Hair; The Blue Gardenia; The Big Heat; Human M (1951); The Prowler; The Big Night Desire; Moonfleet; While the City Sleeps; (1951); Stranger on the Prowl (as Andrea Beyond a Reasonable Doubt; The Tiger of Forzano); The Sleeping Tiger (as Victor Eschnapur; The Indian Tomb; The 1,000 Hanbury); Finger of Guilt (as Joseph WalEyes of Dr. Mabuse ton); Time Without Pity; The Concrete JunLean, David: In Which We Serve (codir); gle (1960); Eva; These Are the Damned; This Happy Breed; Blithe Spirit; Brief EnThe Servant; King & Country; Modesty counter; Great Expectations (1946); Oliver Blaise; Accident; Boom!; Secret Ceremony; Twist (1948); The Passionate Friends; MadFigures in a Landscape; The Go-Between; eleine; Breaking the Sound Barrier; HobThe Assassination of Trotsky; A Doll’s son’s Choice; Summertime; The Bridge on House (1973); Galileo; The Romantic the River Kwai; Lawrence of Arabia; DocEnglishwoman; Mr. Klein; The Trout; tor Zhivago; Ryan’s Daughter; A Passage Steaming to India Lubitsch, Ernst: The Student Prince in Old Lee, Ang: Pushing Hands; The Wedding Heidelberg; The Love Parade; Paramount Banquet; Eat Drink Man Woman; Sense on Parade (codir); Monte Carlo; Broken and Sensibility; The Ice Storm; Ride with Lullaby; The Smiling Lieutenant; One Hour the Devil; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; With You (codir); Trouble in Paradise; If I Hulk; Brokeback Mountain; Lust, Caution Had a Million (seq dir); Design for Living; Lee, Spike: She’s Gotta Have It; School The Merry Widow (1934); Angel (1937); Daze; Do the Right Thing; Mo’ Better Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife; Ninotchka; The Blues; Jungle Fever; Malcolm X (1992); Shop Around the Corner; That Uncertain Crooklyn; Clockers; Girl 6; Get on the Bus; Feeling; To Be or Not To Be (1942); 4 Little Girls; He Got Game; Summer of Heaven Can Wait (1943); A Royal Scandal; Sam; The Original Kings of Comedy; BamCluny Brown; That Lady in Ermine boozled; 25th Hour (2002); She Hate Me; Lucas, George: THX 1138; American Inside Man; Miracle at St. Anna Graffiti; Star Wars; Star Wars Episode I: Leigh, Mike: Bleak Moments; Meantime; The Phantom Menace; Star Wars Episode High Hopes; Life Is Sweet; Naked; SeII: Attack of the Clones; Star Wars Episode crets & Lies; Career Girls; Topsy-Turvy; III: Revenge of the Sith All or Nothing; Vera Drake; Happy-GoLuhrmann, Baz: Strictly Ballroom; Lucky Romeo & Juliet (1996); Moulin Rouge! Leone, Sergio: The Colossus of Rhodes; (2001); Australia Sodom and Gomorrah (codir); Fistful of Lumet, Sidney: 12 Angry Men; Stage Dollars; For a Few Dollars More; The Struck; That Kind of Woman; The Fugitive Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Once Upon a Kind; A View From the Bridge; Long Day’s Time in the West; Duck, You Sucker; Once Journey Into Night; Fail Safe; The PawnbroUpon a Time in America ker; The Hill; The Group; The Deadly Affair; Lester, Richard: Ring-a-Ding Rhythm; The Bye Bye Braverman; The Sea Gull; The Appointment; Last of the Mobile Hot-Shots; Mouse on the Moon; A Hard Day’s Night; The Knack—And How to Get It; Help!; A King: A Film Record . . . Montgomery to Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Memphis (uncred); The Anderson Tapes; Forum; How I Won the War; Petulia; The Child’s Play (1972); The Offence; Serpico; Bed Sitting Room; The Three Musketeers Lovin’ Molly; Murder on the Orient Ex(1974); Juggernaut; The Four Musketeers; press; Dog Day Afternoon; Network; Royal Flash; Robin and Marian; The Ritz; Equus; The Wiz; Just Tell Me What You Butch and Sundance: The Early Days; Want; Prince of the City; Deathtrap; The Cuba; Superman II; Superman III; Finders Verdict (1982); Daniel; Garbo Talks; Keepers (1984); The Return of the MuskePower; The Morning After; Running on teers; Get Back Empty; Family Business; Q & A; A Levinson, Barry: Diner; The Natural; Young Stranger Among Us; Guilty as Sin; Night Sherlock Holmes; Tin Men; Good Morning, Falls on Manhattan; Critical Care; Gloria [ 1640 ]

(1999); Find Me Guilty; Before the Devil Parador; Enemies, A Love Story; Scenes Knows You’re Dead From a Mall; The Pickle; Faithful Lupino, Ida: Not Wanted (uncred); Never Mendes, Sam: American Beauty; Road to Fear; Outrage (1950); Hard, Fast and BeauPerdition; Jarhead; Revolutionary Road tiful; The Hitch-Hiker (1953); The BigaMeyers, Nancy: The Parent Trap (1998); mist; The Trouble With Angels What Women Want; Something’s Gotta Lynch, David: Eraserhead; The Elephant Give; The Holiday (2006) Man; Dune; Blue Velvet; Wild at Heart; Minghella, Anthony: Truly, Madly, Deeply; Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me; Lost Mr. Wonderful; The English Patient; The Highway; The Straight Story; Mulholland Talented Mr. Ripley; Cold Mountain; Dr.; Inland Empire Breaking and Entering Malle, Louis: The Silent World (codir); Minnelli, Vincente: Cabin in the Sky; I Frantic (1957); The Lovers; Zazie Dans le Dood It; Meet Me in St. Louis; The Clock; Me´tro; A Very Private Affair; The Fire Yolanda and the Thief; Ziegfeld Follies; Within; Viva Maria!; The Thief of Paris; Undercurrent; The Pirate; Madame Bovary Spirits of the Dead (seq dir); Murmur of (1949); Father of the Bride (1950); Father’s the Heart; Lacombe, Lucien; Pretty Baby; Little Dividend; An American in Paris; The Atlantic City (1980); My Dinner With Bad and the Beautiful; The Story of Three Andre; Crackers; Alamo Bay; God’s CounLoves (seq dir); The Band Wagon; The try; Au Revoir, Les Enfants; May Fools; Long, Long Trailer; Brigadoon; The CobDamage; Vanya on 42nd Street web; Kismet (1955); Lust for Life; Tea and Mamoulian, Rouben: Applause; City Sympathy; Designing Woman; Gigi (1958); Streets; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931); The Reluctant Debutante; Some Came RunLove Me Tonight; The Song of Songs; ning; Home From the Hill; Bells Are RingQueen Christina; Becky Sharp; High, Wide ing; Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Handsome; Golden Boy; The Mark of (1962); Two Weeks in Another Town; The Zorro (1940); Blood and Sand (1941); SumCourtship of Eddie’s Father; Goodbye mer Holiday (1948); Silk Stockings Charlie; The Sandpiper; On a Clear Day Mankiewicz, Joseph L.: Dragonwyck; You Can See Forever; A Matter of Time Somewhere in the Night; The Late George Moore, Michael: Roger & Me; Canadian Apley; The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; Escape Bacon; The Big One; Bowling for Colum(1948); A Letter to Three Wives; House of bine; Fahrenheit 9/11; Sicko Strangers; No Way Out (1950); All About Nichols, Mike: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Eve; People Will Talk (1951); 5 Fingers; Woolf?; The Graduate; Catch-22; Carnal Julius Caesar (1953); The Barefoot Knowledge; The Day of the Dolphin; The Contessa; Guys and Dolls; The Quiet AmerFortune; Gilda Live; Silkwood; Heartburn; ican (1958); Suddenly, Last Summer; CleoBiloxi Blues; Working Girl; Postcards From patra (1963); The Honey Pot; There Was a the Edge; Regarding Henry; Wolf; The birdCrooked Man . . . ; King: A Filmed cage; Primary Colors; What Planet Are You Record . . . Montgomery to Memphis (unFrom?; Closer; Charlie Wilson’s War cred); Sleuth (1972) Nolan, Christopher: Following; Memento; Mann, Anthony: Strangers in the Night; Insomnia; Batman Begins; The Prestige; The Great Flamarion; Strange ImpersonThe Dark Knight ation; Desperate; Railroaded!; T-Men; Raw Noyce, Phillip: Backroads (1977); NewsDeal (1948); Reign of Terror; Border Incifront; Heatwave; Echoes of Paradise; Dead dent; Side Street; Winchester ’73; The FurCalm; Blind Fury; Patriot Games; Sliver; ies; Devil’s Doorway; The Tall Target; Clear and Present Danger; The Saint; The Bend of the River; The Naked Spur; ThunBone Collector; Rabbit-Proof Fence; The der Bay; The Glenn Miller Story; The Far Quiet American (2002); Catch a Fire Country; Strategic Air Command; The Man Parker, Alan: Bugsy Malone; Midnight From Laramie; Serenade; Men in War; The Express; Fame; Shoot the Moon; Pink Tin Star; God’s Little Acre; Man of the Floyd—The Wall; Birdy; Angel Heart; MisWest; Cimarron (1960); El Cid; The Fall of sissippi Burning; Come See The Paradise; the Roman Empire; The Heroes of TeleThe Commitments; The Road to Wellville; mark; A Dandy in Aspic Evita; Angela’s Ashes; The Life of David Mann, Michael: Thief (1981); The Keep; Gale Manhunter; The Last of the Mohicans Payne, Alexander: Citizen Ruth; Election; (1992); Heat (1995); The Insider; Ali; ColAbout Schmidt; Sideways; Paris, je t’aime lateral; Miami Vice (seq dir) Mazursky, Paul: Bob & Carol & Ted & Peckinpah, Sam: The Deadly CompanAlice; Alex in Wonderland; Blume in Love; ions; Ride the High Country; Major DunHarry and Tonto; Next Stop, Greenwich dee; The Wild Bunch; The Ballad of Cable Village; An Unmarried Woman; Willie and Hogue; Straw Dogs; Junior Bonner; The Phil; Tempest; Moscow on the Hudson; Getaway (1972); Pat Garrett & Billy the Down and Out in Beverly Hills; Moon Over Kid; Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia; [ 1641 ]

The Killer Elite; Cross of Iron; Convoy; Plan; For Love of the Game; The Gift The Osterman Weekend (2000); Spider-Man; Spider-Man 2; SpiderPenn, Arthur: The Left-Handed Gun; The Man 3 Miracle Worker; Mickey One; The Chase Ray, Nicholas: They Live by Night; A (1966); Bonnie and Clyde; Alice’s RestauWoman’s Secret; Knock on Any Door; In rant; Little Big Man; Visions of Eight (seq a Lonely Place; Born to Be Bad; Flying dir); Night Moves; The Missouri Breaks; Leathernecks; On Dangerous Ground; The Four Friends; Target (1985); Dead of WinLusty Men; Johnny Guitar; Run for Cover; ter; Penn & Teller Get Killed; Inside Rebel Without a Cause; Hot Blood; Bigger Petersen, Wolfgang: For Your Love Only; Than Life; The True Story of Jesse James; Das Boot; The NeverEnding Story; Enemy Bitter Victory; Wind Across the EverMine; Shattered (1991); In the Line of Fire; glades; Party Girl (1958); The Savage InnoOutbreak; Air Force One; The Perfect cents; King of Kings (1961); 55 Days at Storm; Troy; Poseidon Peking Poitier, Sidney: see Index of Stars Ray, Satyajit: Pather Panchali; Aparajito; Polanski, Roman: Knife in the Water; ReThe World of Apu; Two Daughters; The pulsion; Cul-De-Sac; The Fearless Vampire Big City (1963); Distant Thunder (1973); Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are The Home and the World; An Enemy of the in My Neck; Rosemary’s Baby; Macbeth People (1989) (1971); What?; Chinatown; The Tenant; Redford, Robert: see Index of Stars Tess; Pirates; Frantic (1988); Bitter Moon; Reiner, Rob: This Is Spinal Tap; The Sure Death and the Maiden; The Ninth Gate; The Thing; Stand by Me; The Princess Bride; Pianist; Oliver Twist (2005) When Harry Met Sally; Misery; A Few Pollack, Sydney: The Slender Thread; This Good Men; North; The American President; Property Is Condemned; The Scalphunters; Ghosts of Mississippi; The Story of Us; Castle Keep; They Shoot Horses, Don’t Alex & Emma; Rumor has it . . .; The They?; Jeremiah Johnson; The Way We Bucket List Were; The Yakuza; Three Days of the ConRenoir, Jean: La Chienne; Boudu Saved dor; Bobby Deerfield; The Electric HorseFrom Drowning; Madame Bovary (1934); man; Absence of Malice; Tootsie; Out of Toni; The Crime of Monsieur Lange; The Africa; Havana; The Firm; Sabrina (1995); Lower Depths (1936); Grand Illusion; La Random Hearts; The Interpreter; Sketches Marseillaise; La Bete Humaine; Rules of of Frank Gehry the Game; Swamp Water; This Land Is Powell, Michael: The Edge of the World; Mine; The Southerner; A Day in the CounThe Spy in Black; The Thief of Bagdad try; Diary of a Chambermaid (1946); The (1940; codir); Contraband; 49th Parallel; Woman on the Beach; The River (1951); One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (codir); [all The Golden Coach; French Can-Can; Elena of Powell’s films from here through 1957 and Her Men; The Elusive Corporal; The were cowritten & codirected with Emeric Little Theatre of Jean Renoir Pressburger] The Life and Death of ColoRitt, Martin: Edge of the City; No Down nel Blimp; A Canterbury Tale; I Know Payment; The Long Hot Summer; The Where I’m Going!; Stairway to Heaven; Black Orchid; The Sound and the Fury; Black Narcissus; The Red Shoes; The Small Paris Blues; Hemingway’s Adventures of a Back Room; The Wild Heart; The Elusive Young Man; Hud; The Outrage; The Spy Pimpernel; Tales of Hoffman; Oh . . . RosaWho Came In From the Cold; Hombre; The linda!; Pursuit of the Graf Spee; Night AmBrotherhood; The Molly Maguires; The bush; Peeping Tom; The Queen’s Guards; Great White Hope; Sounder; Pete ’n’ Tillie; Age of Consent Conrack; The Front; Casey’s Shadow; Norma Preminger, Otto: Margin for Error; Laura; Rae; Back Roads; Cross Creek; Murphy’s A Royal Scandal; Fallen Angel; Centennial Romance; Nuts; Stanley & Iris Summer; Forever Amber; Daisy Kenyon; Rodriguez, Robert: El Mariachi; DesperThe Fan (1949); Whirlpool (1949); Where ado; Four Rooms (seq dir); From Dusk Till the Sidewalk Ends; The 13th Letter; Angel Dawn; The Faculty; Spy Kids; Spy Kids 2: Face; The Moon Is Blue; River of No ReIsland of the Lost; Spy Kids 3-D: Game turn; Carmen Jones; The Man With the Over; Once Upon a Time in Mexico; Sin Golden Arm; The Court-Martial of Billy City (codir); The Adventures of Shark Boy Mitchell; Saint Joan; Bonjour Tristesse; and Lava Girl 3-D; Grindhouse (codir) Porgy and Bess; Anatomy of a Murder; ExRomero, George A.: Night of the Living odus; Advise & Consent; The Cardinal; In Dead (1968); The Crazies; Martin; Dawn of Harm’s Way; Bunny Lake Is Missing; the Dead (1978); Knightriders; Creepshow; Hurry Sundown; Skidoo; Tell Me That You Day of the Dead; Monkey Shines: An ExLove Me, Junie Moon; Such Good Friends; periment in Fear; Two Evil Eyes (seq dir); Rosebud; The Human Factor (1979) The Dark Half; Land of the Dead; Diary of Raimi, Sam: The Evil Dead; Crimewave; the Dead Evil Dead II; Darkman; Army of Darkness; Rossellini, Roberto: Open City; Paisan; The Quick and the Dead (1995); A Simple Stromboli; The Greatest Love; Voyage in [ 1642 ]

Italy; General Della Rovere; The Rise of Face Nelson; The Lineup; The Gun Runners; Louis XIV Hound Dog Man; Edge of Eternity; Flaming Rudolph, Alan: Welcome to L.A.; ReStar; Hell Is for Heroes; The Killers (1964); member My Name; Roadie; Endangered Madigan; Coogan’s Bluff; Death of a GunSpecies; Choose Me; Songwriter; Trouble fighter (codir); Two Mules for Sister Sara; in Mind; Made in Heaven; The Moderns; The Beguiled; Dirty Harry; Charley Varrick; Love at Large; Mortal Thoughts; Equinox The Black Windmill; The Shootist; Telefon; (1993); Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle; Escape from Alcatraz; Rough Cut; Jinxed! Afterglow; Breakfast of Champions; Trixie; Singer, Bryan: Public Access; The Usual Investigating Sex; The Secret Lives of Suspects; Apt Pupil; X-Men; X2; Superman Dentists Returns; Valkyrie Russell, Ken: Billion Dollar Brain; Women Sirk, Douglas: Hitler’s Madman; Summer in Love; The Music Lovers; The Devils; Storm; Thieves’ Holiday; Lured; Sleep, My The Boy Friend; Savage Messiah; Mahler; Love; Shockproof; The First Legion; Thunder Tommy; Lisztomania; Valentino (1977); on the Hill; No Room for the Groom; Has Altered States; Crimes of Passion; Gothic; Anybody Seen My Gal?; Meet Me at the Fair; Salome’s Last Dance; The Lair of the White Take Me to Town; All I Desire; Taza, Son of Worm; The Rainbow; Whore; Trapped Cochise; Magnificent Obsession (1954); Sign Ashes (seq dir) of the Pagan; Captain Lightfoot; All That Sayles, John: Return of the Secaucus Heaven Allows; There’s Always Tomorrow; Seven; Lianna; Baby It’s You; The Brother Written on the Wind; Battle Hymn; The Tarfrom Another Planet; Matewan; Eight Men nished Angels; A Time to Love and a Time to Out; City of Hope; Passion Fish; The Secret Die; Imitation of Life (1959) of Roan Inish; Lone Star (1996); Men With Smithee, Alan (aka Allen Smithee): FadeGuns; Limbo; Sunshine State; Casa de los In; Death of a Gunfighter; Stitches; Let’s Get Babys; Silver City (2004); Honeydripper Harry; Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home; Schlesinger, John: A Kind of Loving; Ghost Fever; The Shrimp on the Barbie; Solar Billy Liar; Darling; Far From the Madding Crisis; Hellraiser: Bloodline; An Alan Crowd; Midnight Cowboy; Sunday Bloody Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn Sunday; Visions of Eight (seq dir); The Day Soderbergh, Steven: sex, lies, and videoof the Locust; Marathon Man; Yanks; Honky tape; Kafka; King of the Hill; Underneath; Tonk Freeway; The Falcon and the SnowGray’s Anatomy; Schizopolis; Out of Sight man; The Believers; Madame Sousatzka; Pa(1998); The Limey; Erin Brockovich; Trafcific Heights; The Innocent (1993); Cold fic (2000); Ocean’s Eleven (2001); Full Comfort Farm; Eye for an Eye; The Next Frontal; Solaris (2002); Ocean’s Twelve; Best Thing Eros (seq dir); Bubble (2006); The Good Scorsese, Martin: Who’s That Knocking German; Ocean’s Thirteen; Che (2008) at My Door; Boxcar Bertha; Mean Streets; Solondz, Todd: Welcome to the Dollhouse; Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Taxi Happiness; Storytelling; Palindromes Driver; New York New York; The Last Spielberg, Steven: The Sugarland Express; Waltz; Raging Bull; The King of Comedy; Jaws; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; After Hours; The Color of Money; The Last 1941; Raiders of the Lost Ark; E.T. The Temptation of Christ; New York Stories Extra-Terrestrial; Twilight Zone—The Movie (seq dir); GoodFellas; Cape Fear (1991); (seq dir); Indiana Jones and the Temple of The Age of Innocence (1993); Casino; KunDoom; The Color Purple; Empire of the dun; Bringing Out the Dead; Gangs of New Sun; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; York; The Aviator (2004); The Departed; Always (1989); Hook (1991); Jurassic Park; Shine a Light Schindler’s List; The Lost World: Jurassic Scott, Ridley: The Duellists; Alien; Blade Park; Amistad; Saving Private Ryan; AI ArRunner; Legend; Someone to Watch Over tificial Intelligence; Minority Report; Catch Me; Black Rain (1989); Thelma & Louise; Me If You Can; The Terminal; War of the 1492: Conquest of Paradise; White Squall; Worlds (2005); Munich; Indiana Jones and G.I. Jane; Gladiator (2000); Hannibal (2001); the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Black Hawk Down; Matchstick Men; KingStevens, George: Kentucky Kernels; The dom of Heaven; A Good Year; American Nitwits; Alice Adams; Annie Oakley; Swing Gangster; Body of Lies Time; Quality Street; A Damsel in Distress; Shyamalan, M. Night: Wide Awake; The Vivacious Lady; Gunga Din; Vigil in the Sixth Sense; Unbreakable; Signs; The VilNight; Penny Serenade; Woman of the lage; Lady in the Water; The Happening Year; The Talk of the Town; The More the (2008) Merrier; I Remember Mama; A Place in the Siegel, Don (sometimes billed as Donald Sun; Something to Live For; Shane; Giant; Siegel): The Verdict (1946); Night Unto The Diary of Anne Frank; The Greatest Night; The Big Steal; The Duel at Silver Story Ever Told; The Only Game in Town Creek; Riot in Cell Block 11; Private Hell Stone, Oliver: Seizure; The Hand (1981); 36; An Annapolis Story; Invasion of the Body Salvador; Platoon; Wall Street; Talk Radio; Snatchers (1956); Crime in the Streets; Baby Born on the Fourth of July; The Doors; JFK; [ 1643 ]

Heaven & Earth; Natural Born Killers; H. M. Pulham, Esq.; An American RoNixon; U Turn; Any Given Sunday; Alexmance; Duel in the Sun; On Our Merry ander; World Trade Center; W. (2008) Way; The Fountainhead; Beyond the ForStreisand, Barbra: see Index of Stars est; Ruby Gentry; Man Without a Star; War Sturges, Preston: The Great McGinty; and Peace (1956); Solomon and Sheba Christmas in July; The Lady Eve; Sullivan’s Visconti, Luchino: Osessione; La Terra Travels; The Palm Beach Story; Hail the Trema; Bellissima; Senso; White Nights Conquering Hero; The Miracle of Morgan’s (1957); Of Life and Love (seq dir); Rocco and Creek; The Great Moment; The Sin of HarHis Brothers; Boccaccio ’70 (seq dir); The old Diddlebock; Unfaithfully Yours (1948); Leopard; Sandra; The Stranger (1967); The The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend; Damned (1969); Death in Venice; Ludwig; The French, They Are a Funny Race Conversation Piece; The Innocent (1976) Tarantino, Quentin: Reservoir Dogs; Pulp von Sternberg, Josef: The Last Command Fiction; Four Rooms (seq dir); Jackie (1928); The Docks of New York; The Blue Brown; Kill Bill Vol. 1; Kill Bill Vol. 2; Sin Angel (1930); Morocco; Dishonored; An City (seq dir); Grindhouse (codir) American Tragedy; Shanghai Express; Tashlin, Frank: Son of Paleface; Marry Blonde Venus; The Scarlet Empress; The Me Again; Susan Slept Here; Artists and Devil Is a Woman; Crime and Punishment Models; The Lieutenant Wore Skirts; The (1935); The Shanghai Gesture; Macao; Jet Girl Can’t Help It; Hollywood or Bust; Will Pilot Success Spoil Rock Hunter?; Rock-a-Bye von Stroheim, Erich: Foolish Wives; Baby; The Geisha Boy; Say One for Me; Greed; The Wedding March Cinderfella; Bachelor Flat; It’s Only von Trier, Lars: The Element of Crime; Money; The Man from the Diner’s Club; Zentropa; The Kingdom; Breaking the Who’s Minding the Store?; The Disorderly Waves; The Idiots; Dancer in the Dark; DogOrderly; The Alphabet Murders; The Glass ville; The Five Obstructions; Manderlay; The Bottom Boat; Caprice; The Private Navy of Boss of It All Sgt. O’Farrell Waters, John: Polyester; Hairspray (1988); Tati, Jacques: Jour de Fete; Mr. Hulot’s Cry-Baby; Serial Mom; Pecker; Cecil B. Holiday; Mon Oncle; Play Time; Traffic Demented; A Dirty Shame (1972); Parade Weir, Peter: The Cars That Ate Paris; PicTavernier, Bertrand: The Clockmaker; nic at Hanging Rock; The Last Wave; The The Judge and the Assassin; Spoiled ChilPlumber; Gallipoli; The Year of Living dren; Death Watch; A Week’s Vacation; Dangerously; Witness; The Mosquito Coast; Coup de Torchon; Mississippi Blues; A Dead Poets Society; Green Card; Fearless; Sunday in the Country; Round Midnight; The Truman Show; Master and Commander: Beatrice; Life and Nothing But; Daddy The Far Side of the World Nostalgia; L. 627; Capitaine Conan; It All Welles, Orson: see Index of Stars Starts Today; Safe Conduct; Holy Lola; In Wellman, William A.: Wings; The Public the Electric Mist Enemy; Night Nurse; The Hatchet Man; Truffaut, Franc¸ois: The Four Hundred The Purchase Price; Midnight Mary; Heroes Blows; Shoot the Piano Player; Jules and for Sale; The Call of the Wild; Small Town Jim; Love at Twenty (seq dir); The Soft Girl (1936); A Star Is Born (1937); Nothing Skin; Fahrenheit 451; The Bride Wore Sacred; Beau Geste (1939); The Light That Black; Stolen Kisses; Mississippi Mermaid; Failed; Roxie Hart; The Great Man’s Lady; The Wild Child; Bed and Board; Two EnThunder Birds (1942); The Ox-Bow Incident; glish Girls; Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me; Lady of Burlesque; Buffalo Bill; The Story Day for Night; The Story of Adele H; Small of G.I. Joe; Magic Town; The Iron Curtain; Change; The Man Who Loved Women Yellow Sky; Battleground; The Happy Years; (1977); The Green Room; Love on the Run The Next Voice You Hear; Across the Wide (1979); The Last Metro; The Woman Next Missouri; It’s a Big Country (codir); WestDoor; Confidentially Yours ward the Women; Island in the Sky; The High Van Sant, Gus: Drugstore Cowboy; My and the Mighty; Track of the Cat; Blood Own Private Idaho; Even Cowgirls Get the Alley; Goodbye, My Lady; Darby’s Rangers; Blues; To Die For; Good Will Hunting; Lafayette Escadrille Psycho (1998); Finding Forrester; Gerry; Whale, James: Waterloo Bridge (1931); Elephant; Last Days (2005); Paris, je t’aime Frankenstein; The Old Dark House; The In(seq dir); Paranoid Park; Milk visible Man; Bride of Frankenstein; Show Vidor, King: The Big Parade; The Crowd; Boat (1936); The Man in the Iron Mask Show People; Hallelujah; Billy the Kid (1939) (1930); Street Scene; The Champ; Bird of Wilder, Billy: The Major and the Minor; Paradise (1932); Cynara; The Stranger’s Five Graves to Cairo; Double Indemnity; Return; Our Daily Bread; The Wedding The Lost Weekend; The Emperor Waltz; Night; The Texas Rangers (1936); Stella A Foreign Affair; Sunset Blvd.; The Big Dallas; The Citadel; Northwest Passage— Carnival; Stalag 17; Sabrina (1954); The Book I—Rogers’ Rangers; Comrade X; Seven Year Itch; The Spirit of St. Louis; Love [ 1644 ]

in the Afternoon; Witness for the Prosecution; Some Like It Hot (1959); The Apartment; One, Two, Three; Irma la Douce; Kiss Me, Stupid; The Fortune Cookie; The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes; Avanti!; The Front Page (1974); Fedora; Buddy Buddy Wise, Robert: The Curse of the Cat People (codir); Mademoiselle Fifi; The Body Snatcher; A Game of Death; Born to Kill (1947); Blood on the Moon; The Set-Up; Two Flags West; Three Secrets; House on Telegraph Hill; The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); The Captive City; Something for the Birds; The Desert Rats; Destination Gobi; So Big; Executive Suite; Tribute to a Bad Man; Somebody Up There Likes Me; This Could Be the Night; Until They Sail; Run Silent, Run Deep; I Want to Live!; Odds Against Tomorrow; West Side Story (codir); Two for the Seesaw; The Haunting (1963); The Sound of Music; The Sand Pebbles; Star!; The Andromeda Strain; Two People; The Hindenburg; Audrey Rose; Star Trek—The Motion Picture; Rooftops Woo, John: A Better Tomorrow; The Killer (1989); Bullet in the Head; Hard-Boiled; Hard Target; Broken Arrow (1996); Face/Off; Mission: Impossible II; Windtalkers; Paycheck Wood, Edward D., Jr.: Glen or Glenda; Jail Bait; Bride of the Monster; Plan 9 from Outer Space; Revenge of the Dead; The Sinister Urge Wyler, William: Counsellor at Law; The Good Fairy; These Three; Dodsworth;

Come and Get It (codir); Dead End; Jezebel; Wuthering Heights (1939); The Westerner; The Letter; The Little Foxes; Mrs. Miniver; The Best Years of Our Lives; The Heiress; Detective Story; Carrie (1952); Roman Holiday; The Desperate Hours (1955); Friendly Persuasion; The Big Country; Ben-Hur (1959); The Children’s Hour; The Collector; How to Steal a Million; Funny Girl; The Liberation of L.B. Jones Zemeckis, Robert: I Wanna Hold Your Hand; Used Cars; Romancing the Stone; Back to the Future; Who Framed Roger Rabbit; Back to the Future Part II; Back to the Future Part III; Death Becomes Her; Forrest Gump; Contact; What Lies Beneath; Cast Away; The Polar Express; Beowulf Zhang, Yimou: Red Sorghum; Ju Dou; Raise the Red Lantern; The Story of Qiu Ju; To Live; Shanghai Triad; The Road Home; Not One Less; Happy Times; Hero (2002); House of Flying Daggers; Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles; The Curse of the Golden Flower Zinnemann, Fred: Kid Glove Killer; Eyes in the Night; The Seventh Cross; My Brother Talks to Horses; The Search; Act of Violence; The Men; Teresa; High Noon; The Member of the Wedding; From Here to Eternity; Oklahoma!; A Hatful of Rain; The Nun’s Story; The Sundowners (1960); Behold a Pale Horse; A Man for All Seasons; The Day of the Jackal; Julia (1977); Five Days One Summer

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