From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: THREE SHORT MOVIE NOTICES
Date: 26 Jul 92 17:28:49 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group


The following are not reviews per se, but rather brief notices "for the
record" of three films I have seen recently, none of which appears to
deserve a more extended discussion by this reviewer:

COOL WORLD

COOL WORLD is an animated-live action film directed by Ralph Bakshi and
stars Kim Bassinger, Gabriel Byrne, and Brad Pitt. If cool means
unemotional or uninvolved, then this film is well named. To say that
the most interesting performance by the live actors was by Kim Basinger
ought to be give you some idea of one of the film's problems.
Basinger's Holli Would is a monster of ego and libido, but at least she
wants to do something. Gabriel Byrne, who is quite a creditable actor
normally, has no idea was to do with this part as the ex-con cartoonist
who tunes into the Cool World; he is wooden and silly with his
wide-eyed stares and dropped-jaw expression that tides him over in lieu
of acting. Brad Pitt, who made a mark for himself in THELMA & LOUISE,
makes a mess of his role as the morality cop. It is absolutely the
worst interface I've ever seen between a live actor and a cartoon. A
few of the backgrounds are interesting and the last 10 minutes is
inventive and funny, but it is overall a film to be avoided by all but
the most die-hard followers of animation. For the rest of us, it is
mostly ugly, repetitive, juvenile, and overblown, and if you say it's a
satire of Hollywood I say so what because it doesn't work.

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER

UNIVERSAL SOLDIER is a film directed by Roland Emmerich, from a script
by Richard Rothstein, Christopher Leitch, and Dean Devlin. It stars
Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ally Walker, with Jerry Orbach;
it is rated R, for violence, nudity, and language. This is an
unconvincing and unbelievable kick-ass science fantasy that is relieved
by Van Damme's rather cute imitation Schwarzenegger, by J-C's nude
scene, and most importantly by Ally Walker as the cocky TV reporter who
gets swept up by the deadly and extended contest between J-C and
Lundgren, the maniac who can't be killed; Walker is far and away the
most interesting aspect of this uninteresting movies. The major premise
of the film is obviously bogus that the rest of the film becomes
immediately pointless, unless extreme violence is its own reward.
Walker is funny, J-C is sort of funny, Lundgren is impossible. If you
say that Emmerich the German director achieves an near parody of the
James Cameron rollercoaster style, I say so what; parody needs a point
of view. I turned my face a few times, but otherwise I just was marking
time and getting away for a couple of hours from an especially hot
Sunday in Seattle. Not recommended at any price, except to the most
rabid fans of Van Damme.

HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID

HONEY, I BLEW UP THE KID, directed by Randal Kleiser, from a story by
Garry Goodrow, stars Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman, and Robert Oliveri
and is rated PG. This sequel to the sweet and inventive HONEY, I SHRUNK
THE KIDS still has Rick Moranis, who is always fun to watch, but
otherwise is a pointless and exploitative effort to cash in on the
success of the original. Tell me it's a parody of the 50s obsession
with giant mutants, especially COLOSSAL MAN, and I'll say so what; it
has nothing to say about these films or the period they grew out of.
This film adds nothing to the f/x vocabulary and in fact the special
effects are pretty clumsy and obvious. Part of the problem is that tiny
is fascinating but gigantic is merely dangerous. The best moments are
when Moranis, the gifted ex-tempore comic actor, has to ad-lib around
the undirectable twins that play Adam, the ultimate in the terrible
twos, especially the scene when Moranis proposes a lullaby and the kid
wants another tune; it is obvious (and has been confirmed in a feature
story) that the scene was improvised because the kid didn't want to
hear the song the script called for, and as such it is tender,
charming, direct, and natural. Something most of this terrible sequel
is not.

The film is being shown with a charming Disney short about a discarded
rockinghorse that tries to lure its child away from his video game.
Part computer animation, it is brief but completely winning. Almost
repays the cost of the matinee ticket.

-- 
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
	"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies