FILM REVIEW
BACARDI BLACK
_ FARAWAY, so GLDSE!
Six years on from Wings of Desire and Wenders returns to Berlin for another flit with the angels through the thoughts and hopes of Berliners. Were he a Hollywood director this would be
From Spanish sleaze to Disney purity, it’s a busy start to summer. The List offers a helping hand by reviewing the new films opening
over the next fortnight.
I Fortress ( 18) in a harsh America of the future. a former Black Beret and his wife are thrown into a futuristic maximum security prison for attempting to have a second child. Stuart (Reanimator) Gordon delivers an entertaining prison-break drama with sci-fi trappings. great sets. deliciously overcooked acting and a satisfying array of fire-power. Great fun. and a dead cert on video. See preview.
I Golden Balls ( l8) Benito Gonzales has three passions: fried eggs. building skyscrapers and having sex. When he marries for money. it seems that all his dreams could come true. especially when he‘s able to see his former girlfriend on the side. A sleazy take on lust and Spain‘s nouveau riche from the director of Jamon .lamon. See feature.
I Kika ( 18) A make-up artist is involved with an American writer and his photographer son; she‘s also avoiding the attentions of her lesbian maid. whose ex-porn star brother escapes from prison and ends up at the house. Meanwhile. striding around in outlandish combat gear designed by Gaultier is Andrea Scarface. a predatory 'reality TV‘ reporter who takes a ghoulish delight in other people‘s misfortunes. It all adds up to Pedro Aliiiodovar‘s tenth feature. and his blackest mix to date of sex. death and stylish kitsch. See feature.
I lightning Jack (PG) Well. he's not Jesse James or Billy the Kid. btit Lightning Jack Kane reckons he‘s a top bank robber and the fastest gun iii the West. So. determined to get his
name in the history books.
he teams up with a mute sidekick. teaches the
youngster a thing or two. and sets out iii search of
some pretty lame adventures. The rascally charm that Paul Hogan brought to Crocodile Dundee is about all there is to recommend what is undoubtedly a feeble family comedy masquerading as a
; westeni. See preview.
I Staggered t 15)
Drugged at his stag night and dumped naked on a Scottish island. Neil
(Martin Clunes) has only a couple ofdays to get
back to London for his
wedding. Brit nasty best man and supposed best
‘ friend Gary (Michael
Praed) has put plenty more stumbling blocks in
Neil‘s way. and it soon
becomes clear there's
more to this than just a
laddish prank. Staggered
knocks about from one
I comic set-piece to another. introducing us to
an entire rep company of regional eccentrics. from hammin hard cops to vanipirish pathologists.
; See preview. 3 I Bouiin Z ( 12) The latest
slice of Manga animation to receive a big-screen
outing also happens to be
the latest to be based on a story by ()tomo Katsuhiro. writer of the acclaimed xikira series. l'nder iliroyuki Kitakubo's direction. however. Roujin Z lacks the groundbreaking animation splendour of the Akira movie
The Japanese government has come tip with a project that tackles the problems of an aging population: a bed that will
Cook. feed. wash.
exercise. entertain and
toilet its elderly patient.
Btit a sudden malfunction brings about the
obligatory merging of flesh and technology. and
old M r Takazawa becomes the latest man-
machine to stalk
downtown Tokyo. There‘s definitely something appealing about a film that has as its hero a wrinkly. regenerated grandad.
Wings of Desire II: The Fall. But he’s
an introspective German, so we get
Faraway, So Close! in which angels
again roam Berlin, jumping at will
from one perch to the next, listening
in to a whispering soundtrack of
g secrets.
Cassiel (Sander) is the angel who,
i tired of his role in paradise where
Gorbachev, Peter Falk and tau Reed
3 are among the strangers whom he
i listens in on, wants to experience the
concrete reality of life. By altering the
t course of the real world he is catapulted into existence and comes
i to know tastes and pleasures as well
f as sadness, destitution and
: hopelessness.
; Up to this point the film is an
1 elegant, witty and poignant look at
g post-Wall Berlin in which Wenders’
ability to wield great elliptical slices
( of celluloid in search of philosophical
; truth is never in doubt. But he changes
Q gear and takes the film into pseudo-
Faraway, So Diesel: ‘mornents of pure genius' thriller mode with a stupid gun- running plot, which attempts to give the film a stronger narrative drift but merely clouds the issue.
Recipient of both a Grand Jury Prize and a loud booing from the press at Cannes last year, Faraway, So Close! is let down shockingly by Wenders’ inability to create clear narrative. There are moments of pure genius, some excellent performances and jaw- droppineg beautiful cinematography, but for overall brilliance, it’s not close, its faraway. (Thorn Dibdin) Faraway, So Close! (15) (Wim Wenders, Ger, 1993) Otto Sander, llastassja tliinslri, Bruno Ganz.145 mins. From Fri 3 1. Edinburgh: Cameo.
"THE GETWAY
is .\
Kim Basinger beats Ali McGraw into the ground as a sexy screen heroine
' but, in a square-go, I reckon Alec Baldwin’s Doc McCoy wouldn’t last five minutes with Steve McDueen’s. Inevitable comparisons will be made between The Getaway (1994) and The Getaway (1972, just released on sell-
' through by Warner Home Video), with the tough and moody original coming out on top; but the main question to ask is, who in Hollywood thought that
,- Walter llill’s reworking of his script (based on Jim Thompson’s novel)
’ would work better in the hands of
g director Roger Donaldson than hard-
bitten action maestro Sam Peckinpah?
1 Granted, this story about a bank-
I robbing couple, who keep one step ahead of a revenge-fuelled
? accomplice and a double-crossed
; gang boss, always had an edge because the McCoys are a married couple, not just a boy and a girl and a
The Getaway: ‘competent enough star vehicle' gun on the run. Add to this the fact that Basinger and Baldwin are 5 themselves Tinseltown stellar 7 spouses, and there’s a neatness to the ? package that will grab studio execs ; but probably not their audiences.
Basinger manages to shrug off the , dead weight of a couple of recent 5 stifts, but each time she and hubby
are on screen, you’re crying out for the attention to shift to the fascinating sub-plot following arcth seductive baddie Michael Madsen and T his batty but willing hostage Jennifer ’ Tilly, as the quartet head for a ‘ showdown. A competent enough star . vehicle, but there’s nothing here to i threaten the original’s classic status. (Alan Morrison) J The Getaway (18) (linger Donaldson, E US, 1994) Kim Basinger, Alec Baldwin, Micheal Madsen. 115 mins. From Fri 1. i General release.
NEEDFUI. TINGS
lleedtul Things: “exceptional cast’
One approaches each new Stephen King adaptation with trepidation, hoping for another Misery but fearing a repeat of Maximum Overdrive. This is better than most. mainly because an exceptional cast adds weight to its simple storyline about a mysterious stranger. Leland Gaunt (Max Von Sydow), who opens an antiques shop in Castle Rock and. by tapping into the inhabitants‘ acquisitive desires. sets them at each other's throats.
ln Gaunt’s shop, Needful Things are not only curios. but also special items coveted by individuals: a rare baseball card, a beautiful necklace. a children's race-track game. No cash payment is required. but in exchange for each coveted object, Gaunt demands a small service. usually a malicious prank. However. as the victims of these pranks suspect not the actual perpetrator
but another person against
whom they already have a private vendetta. a spiral
; of revenge ensues.
As director Fraser C.
Heston has observed.
= there are no supernatural
beings here, the only
monster is avarice. The
script by W.C. Richter (Buckaroo Banzai) is all the more effective for this. although the climactic pyrotechnics don‘t hurt any. ln plot terms. this is simply one of those old
EC Comics morality tales
in which greedy people
j finally get their
comeuppance; but Heston has a strong eye for visual
detail and wide-screen
composition, elements
that will only be seen to their best advantage on
the big screen. (Nigel Floyd)
Needful Things ( [5) (Fraser C. Heston, US. [993) Ed Harris, Mar Von
Svdoii; Bonnie Bede/in.
120 mins. Possible Fri 8
opening.
Sponsored by BACARDI BLACK
26 The List l—l4July I994