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 ABSOLUTE POWER. Clint Eastwood stars and directs this thriller
about an aging, master thief hoping to pull off one last, spectacular
heist before retiring for good. His plans are botched, however,
when he discovers the wife of the wealthy businessman he hopes
to rob is having an affair with none other than the President
of the United States himself. Murder, intrigue, and conflicts
of interest ensue. With Ed Harris, Melora Hardin, E.G. Marshall
and Gene Hackman as The President. --Richter
DANTE'S PEAK. It's man versus nature in this disaster movie
about a small town nestled beneath a rumbling volcano in the Northern
Cascades. The interests of developers clash with the predictions
of seismologists as the townspeople waste time, debating the dangers
of the percolating peak. Liquefied rock, steam, and clouds of
pumice and ash are the real stars in this inferno of special effects,
though Pierce Brosnan also stars as the scientist who tries to
warn the townspeople of impending doom and Linda Hamilton plays
the Mayor who falls in love with him. --Richter
EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU. This is it, folks. The long-awaited
Woody Allen musical. By long-awaited, we mean only that it seemed
to open everywhere between here and Hoboken before reaching our
humble, B-market burg. Clearly, the world would be a better place
without anymore Woody Allen musical cinema extravaganzas. Allen,
predictably, stars as a neurotic, love-troubled divorcé;
and Goldie Hawn (Allen's ex-wife) and Alan Alda (we'll call him
Allen's husband-in-law) fill in as the parents of the upper-crust
Jewish family at the heart of the action. Devining a plot summary
encompassing all the twisted relationships, cheesy special effects
and Broadway tunes escapes me: Weird stuff happens, and then the
characters begin to sing and dance. Some laughed uproariously,
others writhed in discomfort. That's Woody Allen for ya. --Wadsworth
FIERCE CREATURES. John Cleese and Michael Palin, refugees
from the Monty Python comedy troupe, try to reprise the success
of A Fish Called Wanda with mediocre results. Boob displays,
bedroom farces and jokes that are visible from miles away dominate
this fanciful plot about a zoo that must become profitable or
be closed. Too much of this movie seems to have been transported
from old Benny Hill re-runs--Jamie Lee Curtis does nothing but
stand around, looking stacked, while Kevin Kline seems to be in
another movie, one where everyone yells. The animals are cute
and there are some funny moments, but we expect more from the
people who once brought us the Confuse-a-Cat sketch. --Richter
GRIDLOCK'D. Actor Vondie Curtis-Hall directs an action/art
film hybrid about a pair of junkies desperately trying to score
drugs and get into rehab. The late Tupac Shakur is probably
the main draw for this film. He does a decent job playing Spoon,
a smooth, likable drug addict, but this film is a lost cause from
the start. Curtis-Hall can't decide if he wants to make an action
flick, complete with car chases and shoot outs, or an art film
that mocks the Kafka-esque workings of the bureaucratic welfare
system. He ends up combining the two in a schizophrenic, uneven
effort that left one viewer commenting: "That was weird."
--Richter
MOTHER. Albert Brook's latest film about a second-rate
writer suffering a midlife crisis leaves the impression of being...well...sadly
autobiographical. Following his second divorce, John (Brooks)
leaves L.A. to move back in with his hypercritical mother in order
to figure out why his relationships with women always end in disaster.
Equal parts amusing and excruciating to watch, this self-indulgent
sojourn in suburbia is certainly no Defending Your Life.
Although he strikes certain aspects of the mother-child relationship
with hilarious accuracy, the movie's attempts to take itself seriously
invariably end with dramatic scenes that are at best sophomoric
and at worst--like the last 10 minutes--flat-out embarrassing.
Debbie Reynolds is wonderful as Mother; but brothers Brooks and
Rob Morrow, and their annoying characters, should seek professional
help. Mother is an odd movie. My companion summed it up
best: You'll spend the better part of two hours laughing, then
leave the theater saying, "That sucked." --Wadsworth
SLING BLADE. A movie that's both grim and oddly feel-good,
this low-key, independent production has a terrific script and
an even better cast. Billy Bob Thorton plays Karl, a man who,
as a child, murdered two people with a big knife; 17 years later
he's "well," according to the state institution where
he's been warehoused, and is summarily ejected into the big, wide
world. He meets up with kind strangers, including a little boy
(Lucas Black), who adopts him like a lost puppy and takes him
home to live in his mother's garage. The mother's boyfriend (Dwight
Yoakam) is a prick, though, and soon Karl finds himself in the
middle of a domestic drama that seems to remind him of his own
twisted childhood. Sharp, understated performances from J.T. Walsh
(who's really terrifying as a sex offender), John Ritter, and
Robert Duvall round out the movie, but it's really Thorton's performance
as the practical, slow-witted, vaguely monstrous Karl that helps
make this one of the best movies of 1996. --Richter
THAT DARN CAT. An update of the 1965 Disney family comedy,
this version stars Christina Ricci as a black-clad, angst-ridden
version of Hayley Mills. Her teen boredom is relieved by her precocious
tomcat, who delivers an important clue in a mysterious kidnapping.
Ricci and F.B.I. agent Kelso ( Doug E. Doug), along with that
Darn Cat, band together to form an unstoppable, cross-species
crime-fighting team. --Richter
VEGAS VACATION. Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo make the
perennial mistake of going on vacation, this time to Las Vegas,
where their family is seduced by the sex, greed and glitz of Sin
City. Wayne Newton, Shae D'Lyn and Wallace Shawn all play various
aspects of devilish temptation as the family succumbs to vice
and disintegrates, only to find redemption at the hands of Cousin
Eddie (Randy Quaid), a trailer-dwelling good guy. --Richter
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