BACARDI BLACK
REVIEW FILM
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Double Take - stand-up comics Des Mangan and Sally Patience - wowed the Edinburgh Fringe a few years back with their hilarious live dubbing of completely dire old movies, mostly with natural Australian allusion and reference to bodily parts and functions. One of those old corkers, Hercules, Samson, Maciste And llrsus Are Invincible (Dapitani, Italy, 1963) - a truly dire swords and sandals ‘epic’ with plenty of cardboard scenery, scantily-clad hunks and pouting babes - now gets a more permanent adaptation.
Topping and tailing Hercules is the perfunctory story of film buff McBain, who gets fired by lient, the owner of a powerful cinema chain, but starts up a run-down cinema of his own with a gala performance of the last film the
place showed. The framing sequences use 02 comics David Argue, Mary Doustas and Bruce Spence (the helicopter pilot in Mad Max) to reasonable effect as they frantically
has swapped the sub-titled print for the original Italian language version. These framing sequences are almost Hercules Heturns’ undoing. You can’t help remembering throughout that the three are supposed to be improvising, which they patently are not. However, Double Take’s script does win through,
improvise the voice-over because Kent
BEVERLY HILLS COP 3
This is a sad procession of dog-tired talents: Eddie’s lost his dangerous edge, Landis can’t get us remotely interested in the action, writer Steven (Die Hard) De Souza insults our intelligence by cutting narrative comers and unconvincingly inserting wordy explanations for unbelievable developments.
Axel Foley returns to LA in order to track down the killer of his Detroit police hm, and finds him as head of security at the Wonder World theme park. Due lots of unnecessary and unstyllsh shooting, explosions and plot. Even as a sequel, this is worse than could be imagined. If there is a more inept, less enjoyable, more homophobic film made this year, I really don’t want to see it. (Alan Morrison)
Beverly Hills Dop 3 (15) (John Landis, US, 1994) Eddie Murphy, Judge Heinhold, Hector Elizondo. 107 mins. From Fri 24. General release.
’ up , ,{v Q} {it A 4/;
Angie: ‘irustrating glimpses of a better fil
just as the lovely Labia eventually gets her lips round Testiculi at the Pink Parthenon nightclub. Which is about as sophisticated as the humour gets. Destined for late-night cultdom. (Thom Dibdin)
Hercules Returns (15) (David Parker, Aus, 1993) David Argue, Bruce Spence, Mary Doustas. 80 mins. From Fri 10. Edinburgh: Dameo, UDI. Glasgow: GFT.
Q popular actresses, and her appeal
drawing audiences into this
with her friends when they were kids
cynicism she meets, but when she
m'l
ANGIE
in the last five years, Geena Davis has ? emerged, seemingly from nowhere, as one of Hollywood’s most bankable and i
should be one of the main factors in
bittersweet tale. She plays the
eponymous heroine, born and bred in the New York district of Bensonhurst, ; a woman who shared common dreams §
but — unlike the others - still cherishes them now that she is grown up. The ideals of self-discovery and self-bettennent drive Angie on, in spite of the put-downs and consistent
unexpectedly falls pregnant by her boyfriend Vinnie, her life suddenly changes forever as all those dreams are forgotten.
Taken from Avra Wing’s acclaimed novel Angie I Says, the film works reasonably well, for much of the time
Hercules Returns: ‘late-night cultdom'
the humour and drama are neatly
balanced by screenwriter Todd Graff
and director Martha Coolidge. Towards the end, however, it suffers an almost
fatal switch in pace and tone. Davis is
excellent, once again, in the lead - maybe a little old for the role, but always a watchable performer - while the men in her life are flawed yet
3 believable.
Following a similar theme to the more obviously commercial Working Girl, Angie is altogether more honest and real, which is perhaps the problem with its climactic scenes, yet this overall honesty and poignancy is also its greatest strength. lending quality and depth to an otherwise hackneyed tale, the emotional power this generates gives frustrating glimpses of a better film, but is still enough to ensure that audiences will not be too disappointed. (Anwar Brett)
Angie (15) (Martha Coolidge, US, 1994) Deena Davis, James Gandolfini, Stephen flea. 108 mins. From Fri 17. Glasgow: Ddeon. Edinburgh: Ddeon, llDl. Strathclyde: llDl Dlydebank.
i
Beverly Hills Gap 3: ‘insults or: intelligence’
sponsored by BACARDI BLACK
V IN PRINT
The contradictions and paradoxes that filled the
life of Peter Sellers form the basis of Roger Lewis’s portrait of the actor in The 14/2» Aml Deal/i ()fl’eter Sellers (Century £20).
Attempting to find ‘the
man in Peter Pan'. Lewis painstakingly details
. ellers's ancestry. from an 18th century boxer through the music hall revue lifestyle of his parents. before moving onto his unique career.
A master of mimicry is by nature a difficult subject for biography. but Lewis's meticulous research is his greatest ally. expertly capturing the sadness and desperation of a figure who was forever
compelled to pour comic
invention into the voids in and around his life. as he
’ swerved from entertaining friend to spiteful
; persecutor to less-than-
; handsome playboy
surrounded by beautiful
The perfect companion to the biography is Peter
‘ Sellers: A Film History
(Robert Hale £7.99) by
; Michael Starr. A film-by— film analysis of Sellers‘s
career. it also includes a
revealing interview with director Blake Edwards.
Miles away from anything Sellers ever did comes Killing For Culture (Creation £10.95) by David Kerekes and David Slater. a history of snuff and mondo movies. and a catalogue of real death captured on film. At times a queasy read. illustrated by some dubious photographs. this is by no means the sensationalist publication it might have been. The authors highlight the disturbing trend away from exploitative mondo documentary footage to the camcorder-frenzy of Reality TV and the death- lust that is pandered to and perpetrated by the tabloid media. The book treads a fine line. alternately providing detailed synopses of underground videos and deflating the hype that surrounds this macabre phenomenon. A fascinating read. worryingly so. (Alan Momson)
The List l7—30 June l99419