From: L-Bueno@cup.portal.com (Louis Alberto Bueno)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: CAPSULE REVIEWS OF RECENT RELEASES
Date: Wed,  4 Nov 92 23:09:41 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world


MOVIE GUIDE: CAPSULE REVIEWS OF RECENT RELEASES
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(c) 1992, Los Angeles Times 11/04

           Ratings are by the Motion Picture Association of America and the
Los Angeles Times. Opinions are by Los Angeles Times reviewers.

           BLADE RUNNER (R). One of the great '80s movies, ``Blade Runner''
is set in a dystopian Los Angeles, enveloped in high-tech shimmer,
blanketed in darkness, rain and gadgetry, a mix of gaudy Wonderland and
City of Night. Based on Philip K. Dick's ``Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep?,'' it's film noir cubed, with a moody cop (Harrison Ford) pursuing a
gang of four androids (led by Rutger Hauer), whose crime is aspiring to
humanity. The dazzling futuristic detail and visual splendor were always
apparent; this version, Ridley Scott's cut, removes the tacked-on narration
and adds texture and melancholy. It's a masterpiece.

           BOB ROBERTS (R). As writer, director and star, Tim Robbins has
turned out the most pointed of political satires, shrewd, audacious and
quite funny. Made in the form of a mock documentary a la ``This Is Spinal
Tap,'' ``Roberts' '' depiction of a senatorial candidate who glories in the
me-first politics of greed is close enough to reality for us to shake our
heads as the film's acid observations on the corruptness of current
electoral politics sink in. And Bob's rousing campaign songs are worth the
price of admission alone.

           BREAKING THE RULES (PG-13). Relentlessly contrived and
manipulative comedy-tearjerker about a dying young man (Jason Bateman) who
urges his boyhood pals (C. Thomas Howell, Jonathan Silverman) to accompany
him on a trip to California. With Annie Potts as a free-spirited waitress
they meet along the way.

           A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME. Errol Morris, director of ``A Thin Blue
Line,'' does an equally groundbreaking job on this documentary version of
Stephen Hawking's best-selling book on the nature and origin of the
universe. Intertwining talking heads with clever visualizations as he mixes
Hawkings' theories with the remarkable story of his personal battle with a
paralyzing disease, Morris has made a difficult subject palatable and
offered up a brief glimpse of eternity.

           CANDYMAN (R). The latest Clive Barker horror shocker is the
worst: An ambitious would-be allegory involving racism and mythology that
merely seems pretentious and preposterous as it drowns in gallons of blood
and guts. Virginia Madsen manages to be impressive as a Chicago grad
student whose research into urban legends takes her to the dangerous
Cabrini-Green project. With Tony Todd, Kasi Lemmons and Vanessa Williams.

           CONSENTING ADULTS (R). Kevin Kline and Mary Elizabeth
Mastrantonio star but Kevin Spacey (as the devil in white buck shoes)
steals the show in a cautionary tale of the nasty things that can happen
when adults are tempted to stray from the marital straight and narrow.
Better than most of the recent spate of half-baked thrillers, but fatally
weakened by its very predictable turn of events.

           DR. GIGGLES (R). Lively horror comedy starring ``L.A. Law's''
Larry Drake as an exceptionally witty mad doctor. Gory but in the amusing
Grand Guignol tradition. Exciting feature debut for director Manny Coto.
With Holly Marie Combs, Cliff De Young and Glenn Quinn.

           1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE (PG-13). Despite the presence of
Gerard Depardieu as the great navigator, director Ridley Scott's version of
Christopher Columbus' travels and tribulations is dramatically inert.
Visually the film is remarkable, filled with ravishing sequences from the
old world and the new, but story-wise, despite all the historical research
that went into it, the result sounds like it was writen after too much time
spent watching old Hollywood movies. And Depardieu's uncertain English is
no help.

           GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (R). Though its high-powered cast includes
Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin and Ed Harris, the real star of this
tale of slick real estate salesmen desperate for civilians to fleece is
David Mamet's electric script. A writer of dialogue scalding enough to suck
all the air out of the screen, Mamet has created a group of compelling
characters, and director James Foley has helped the actors to find just the
right notes without overdoing it.

           HELLRAISER III: HELL ON EARTH (R). Like its predecessors, No. 3
possesses a powerful, original vision of the eternal struggle between good
and evil, yet there is just so much violence and cruelty a film can sustain
before it becomes merely numbing, which is the case here. Once again that
super-evil Rubik's Cube unleashes the Cenobites, monstrously mutilated
demons from hell. Joey Summerskill and Doug Bradley star.

           HERO (PG-13). What kind of people are heroes? Could they
actually resemble a curmudgeonly weasel (Dustin Hoffman) or must they be of
the soft-spoken variety (Andy Garcia)? TV newswomen Geena Davis tries to
figure it out in this gleefully cynical tale about the cult of celebrity,
directed by Stephen Frears, who unfortunately has a considerable amount of
trouble with the film's sentimental moments. Its teeth could have been more
effective, but we're happy to see a film with any kind of bite at all.

           HONEYMOON IN VEGAS (PG-13). Writer-director Andrew Bergman (``So
Fine,'' ``The Freshman'') is funny the way other people think they're
funny. He stars Sarah Jessica Parker as the prize between a reluctant
boyfriend (Nicolas Cage) and a big-time gambler with a killer instinct
(James Caan) who thinks she looks just like his dead wife. Giddily
anarchic, daringly absurd and featuring a hoard of Elvis impersonators and
twenty of the songs that made the King famous.

           HUSBANDS AND WIVES (R). Woody Allen's much-anticipated latest
turns out to be not an homage to May-December romances but rather a
painful, deeply pessimistic yet somehow funny look at how caring
relationships wind up as destructive emotional deadends. An assured,
penetrating film that is something of a reverse mirror-image to the happier
``Hannah and Her Sisters,'' this film benefits from an extraordinary
performance from Judy Davis, a surprisingly strong one from director Sydney
Pollack, and Allen's lacerating script. No one but he could find laughs in
all this misery; no one but he would even try.

           INNOCENT BLOOD (R). John Landis' vampire comedy is as funny as
it is grisly, a nifty companion film to his ``American Werewolf in
London.'' It is sparked by delicious comic performances, notably by ``La
Femme Nikita's'' Anne Parillaud as a gorgeous vampire, Anthony LaPaglia as
a decent, courageous undercover cop and, above all, by Robert Loggia,
hilarious as a Pittsburgh Mafioso who discovers that being a vampire has
its advantages. Written by Michael Wolk.

           THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (R). Hard, fast and brutal, directed by
Michael Mann and starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeline Stowe, this
retelling of the James Fenimore Cooper tale of romance and savagery during
the French and Indian War comes at you like a tomahawk and just about
leaves you for dead. Undeniably exciting, filled with spectacular vistas
and heart-stopping battle scenes, it would nevertheless be much improved if
as much attention had been paid to the lackluster script as to historical
accuracy.

           MR. BASEBALL (PG-13). More good-natured cultural clash comedy
than baseball picture, this lively, perceptive Fred Schepisi-directed
entertainment stars Tom Selleck, who is delightful as an irascible, spoiled
but essentially decent veteran hitter on the decline who is traded to a
Japanese team.

           MR. SATURDAY NIGHT (R). As all comics must, Billy Crystal has
reached the point in his career where being funny is not enough. And while
the project he has chosen for his directorial debut (half a century in the
life of a bittersweet stand-up who ``fights and claws his way to the
middle'') does not stint on the laughter, it tends to fall too easily into
obvious sentimentality. And all that aging makeup Crystal and the other
principles wear certainly doesn't help.

           THE MIGHTY DUCKS (PG). Talk about mixed messages: This
Minneapolis pee-wee hockey version of ``The Bad News Bears'' first tells us
that the pressure to win can pervert your life _ then sends us out of the
theater in a victory march, with the song ``Winning It All'' booming in our
ears. Emilio Estevez is the reclaimed coach, Stephen Herek directs _ and
though the climactic hockey championship is a rouser, it's a programmed
rouser, a marketing hook epiphany full of prefabricated uplift.

           NIGHT AND THE CITY (R). Call this film noir lite. Not the
presence of Robert De Niro and Jessica Lange, not a script by Richard
Price, not even a memorable performance by Jack Warden can totally salvage
this New York tale of a nobody who wants to be somebody and uses the sport
of boxing to try and make his dreams come true. Directed by Irwin Winkler,
this film wants to be hard-hitting and gritty but lacks the stomach for the
job.

           OF MICE AND MEN (PG-13). Director Gary Sinise and screenwriter
Horton Foote combine to create a film version of John Steinbeck's novel,
with Sinise as George and John Malkovich as Lennie. It's a straightforward
adaptation without any real excitement or drive. The Steinbeck material
still has its power, but there's no compelling reason to have remade it.

           PURE COUNTRY (PG). George Strait is mild-mannered to a fault in
this mild-mannered country-Western weepie romance about a country singer
who wants to ditch the glitz and get back to good 'ol family values. Lesley
Ann Warren, as his manager, provides a few sparks.

           A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (PG). Despite luminous cinematography
and a career-making performance from Brad Pitt, Robert Redford's version of
Norman Maclean's celebrated memoir about fly fishing and families suffers
from an excess of idealized, worshipful attention. Though finely made and
not without its moments of quiet satisfaction, the main emotion ``River''
arouses is a curiosity about what all the fuss was about in the first
place.

           SARAFINA! (PG-13). Mbongeni Ngema's exuberant South African
musical, set during the 1976 Soweto student riots, gains such raw immediacy
in its transfer to film that it's almost a different work. Leleti Khumalo's
winning lead performance is there, the infectious mbaqanga songs, the
vibrant dances, but so are some strong new cast members _ Whoopi Goldberg,
Miriam Makeba, John Kali and Ngema himself _ and a vivid new visualization
of Soweto itself, a city gripped by volcanic convulsions. The play was an
ebullient delight but the movie has something more: the capacity to shatter
you.

           SINGLE WHITE FEMALE (R). Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh
deserve better than this roomie-from-hell scenario. Fonda plays a suddenly
single career woman who takes in a roommate, played by Leigh, only to
discover the roommate is a grade A loony. There are stray moments early on
that show off the talents of the two actresses but it all devolves into a
slash and gore fest.

           SINGLES (PG-13). Cameron Crowe's second feature (his first was
the terrific ``Say Anything'') is a genial, bright piffle about
twentysomethings in Seattle. It captures the approach-avoidance mating
dances of the first safe-sex generation and boasts of a slew of crackerjack
performances, from Campbell Scott, Bridget Fonda, Matt Dillon and Kyra
Sedgwick.

           SNEAKERS (PG-13). Though its Mission: Impossible plot is awfully
familiar, this good-spirited caper film succeeds on the basis of the
playfulness of its script and the casual charm of its star performances.
Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix and David
Strathairn play renegade masters of high-tech deering-do who have to outwit
the bad guys and get the golden gizmo. Clever, likeable, and savvy enough
not to take itself too seriously.

           UNDER SIEGE (R). Andy Davis directs the best of the Steven
Seagal films: a punishingly good-looking high-tech thriller that takes its
simple hook_``Die Hard'' on a battleship, with Seagal as a karate cook_and
keeps ramming home the blood and glitz. Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey are
the ace heavies: a pair of shaggy-dog killer-clowns. And, though it's
pretty crazy stuff, at least, unlike Tom Clancy and his techno-clones,
these moviemakers know its crazy; they play for both shocks and yocks.

           UNFORGIVEN (R). Working at the top of his form as both an actor
and a director, Clint Eastwood has turned out a Western for the ages.
Simultaneously heroic and nihilistic, reeking of myth but modern as they
come, it resonates with the spirit of films past while staking out a
territory quite its own. In addition to Eastwood's work, it features
splendid acting from Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris, as
well as an exceptional revisionist script from David Webb Peoples. Saddle
up or get out of the way.
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