reviews

RENTAL Plunkett & Macleane (15) 97mins a

Whrle rt rs set rn the mud-1700s, there rs lrttle sweeprng or eprc about thrs perrod flrck Plunkett (Robert Carlyler and Macleane (Jonny Lee Mrller) team up to rnfrltrate the arrstocracy and rob them of all they’re worth It’s all gorng SWImmmgly untrl the bad guy, General Chance, makes rt hrs lrfe’s rnrssron to capture the parr who are fast becomrng legends rn London hrgh socrety. Macleane then falls rn love Wrth Lady Rebecca (Lrv Tyler), and thrngs go a brt pear-shaped (Unrversal) (SB)

An Ideal Husband

(PG) 93 mins

Rupert Everett rn actually OK shockerl Then agarn, rf he coulcln‘t do Oscar erde Justrce then there really would have been no hope for the poor chrselled lad. Cate Blanchett (the good), lulranne Moore (the bad) and Mrnnre Drrver (the kooky) ard hrm rn a less than hysterrcal, but perfectly watchable, cornedy of bad manners, devastatrngly clever repartee and buxom bosorns Rupe plays an arrsto party anrrnal, cletermrnecl to marntarn hrs bachelorhoocl whrle tryrng to keep hrs best frrend's marrrage rntact Srlly but sustarnable. (Fox Pathe) (BD)

Sucker The Vampire (18) 91 mins .~

The qualrty of a Trorna Team frlm rs typrcally rn rnverse proportron to the genrus of rts trtle (Stuff Stephan/e /n The /ncr‘nerator, Rab/d Grann/es etc) Here, however, crap name equals crap movre. The story centres on the rntenser annoyrng Reed, who acts as roadre and body drsposer for rock star varnprre Anthony, Let's jUSi say the gore rs as scarce as good actrng, whrle the comedy and graturtous nudrty content would only satrsfy a one- handed horny teenager, (Drgrtal Entertarnment) (AM)

VIDEOS

Don't Go Breaking My Heart (PG) 90 mins v

Srrnply the worst frlm of the year Thrs rrsrble romantrc comedy has Jenny Seagrove as a young wrdow and Anthony Edwards as a sports psychologrst who wms her heart through motrvatrng her son rnto a wrn at all costs, neO-Na/r phrlosophy, closer to Top Gun than S/rcl/ng Doors Charles Dance rs the wrcked clentrst, who doesn't get up to as much as you’d expect after hypnotrsrng Seaqrcwe Shot lrke a torlet paper commerc ral, abOut people who are too rrc h to be anytbrng but repulswe, Just stay away from rt (Urrrversall (SC)

Orgazmo

(18) 88 mins

You may never watc h South Park agarn after thrs atroc rty of a ‘comedy', a lrve actron effort from the makers of Amerrc as most errtertarnrnqu nauseatrng anrmatron Orqa/mo ( Trey Parker, one half of the South Park creatrve team) r.s a porn rnovre superhero who happens to be played by a Mormon Cue an assortment of unfunny sequences rn whrch Trey attempts to convrnce hrrnself that what he rs dorng rs OK whrle tac klrnq some nasty mobster-types Wlilt hrs orga/mo- ray. A drsgrace. (Columbra TrrStar) (BD)

RETAIL Madonna: The Video

Collection (PG) 65 mins

Of the three major Amerrcan srngrng superstars who defrneu the 80s, Madonna has fared the best rn the subsequent decade. Whrle Jacko went off hrs head and Prrnce up hrs own arse, Maddre has sought to rernvent herself and rernvrqorate the pop landscape Thrs collectron of her musrc promos from the 90s tracks thrs development from S&M queen to earth mother and drsco drva to gothrc. raven. Shame about

The right snuff: Nicolas Cage reels them in with 8mm (Columbia Tristar, 18, 118

mins, tit). Available to rent from Mon 25 Oct

RENTAL

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

(18) 80 mins r

Sometimes you have to wonder what the fuss is all about. After the long awaited release of the daftly tepid Driller Killer comes Tobe Hooper’s ode to DIY. Hyped by the film's pushers as the natural predecessor to The Blair Witch Project as a horror film accentuating the tension over the gore, this delivers on the lack of stomach- churning violence; asides from one meathook encounter and a spot of self-mutilation.

Unfortunately, after a promising opening sequence which shows us the gruesome aftermath and the moody build-up to the first on- screen slayings, it fails to deliver on

reviews VIDEOS

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Hell for Leather: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

the fear factor. Instead Hooper opts for a female-in-peril central character (Marilyn Burns) who is not paralysed by terror but hell-bent on challenging Fay King Kong Wray for number of screams per second.

A group of youths go on a sentimental journey to visit some old graves but stumble on a cannibal holocaust; an early warning of the impending doom coming from the inbred hitch-hiker they pick up. Eventually, they meet one of his country cousins Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), who is as handy with a polo mallet as he is with buzzing tools.

Once the victims have been whittled down to Burns, the only question is whether she escapes skull central with her body, if not her mind, intact. The answer comes in an ending where Leatherface does an excellent Johnny Vegas take-off and a hit-and-run which shows up the paucity of production values. Your sleeping hours are safe. (Brian Donaldson)

Available to rent on Universal from Mon 7 Nov.

the br/arre cjensorrng of the odd semr- sweary word but a must for both the

mad collector and the merely currous. (Warner Vrsron £13.99) (BD)

Gary Larson's Tales From The Far Side

(U) 60 mins

Devotees of Larson’s surreal, perspectrve-alterrng r||ustratrons wrll not be drsappornted by thrs attempt to brrng hrrn to frlm. Imagrne, rf you wrll, an arrlrne for rnsec ts whrch hrts some rn-flrght drffrcultres, a holrclay camp for xombres, the Brady Bunch as a group of grrm and rll-fated prgs, or a slasher rnovre for eggs, and you've got the prc:ture Larson's rmagrnatron turns both the exotrc and the fantastrcal rnto somethrng everyday and relentlessly suburban. A baSrc trrck but rt works beautrfully. (BBC Vrdeo £12 99) (SC)

Aprile (15) 75 mins A it 73-

Aprrl 1996 was a drffrcult trme for Italran frlm-maker, Nannr Morettr. Markrng the brrth of hrs son and the moment when he captured the country’s general electrons on frlm, rt all proves too much to deal wrth. The re3ult rs an effectrvely frlmed documentary about not frlmrng a documentary effectrvely. Self-reflectrve and anxrety drrven, rt rs not Surprrsrng that Morettr rs often touted as the Italran Woody Allen, He rs as obsesSrve and neurotrc as hrs New York counterpart and hrs trrbulatrons are equally entertarnrng, (Tartan £15.99) (C 8)

Four Little Girls (15) 112 mins at w r

Sprke Lee’s frrst foray rnto documentary

headlrnes the new batch of Amerrcan Independence releases, whrch also rncludes Steven Soderbergh's frankly brzarre essay/satrre on late 20th century anxrety, SCh/ZOpO/rs. Four L/tt/e Gr’r/s documents the bombrng of a black church rn Brrmrngham, Alabama rn the 603 that resulted rn the deaths of four chrldren, but also hrghlrghted the problem of racrsm rn Amerrca and defrned the emergrng crvrl rrghts movement. Lee's powerful frlm, lrke many of hrs movres, closes wrth the depressrng concIUSron that Irttle has changed. (Amerrcan lndepenclence Vrdeo £9.99) (ME)

The Mike Tyson Story (E) 55 mins t v‘r

'The most brutal man ever to step rnto a boxrng rrng‘, rs here grven a ‘story’ told too often before to be totally new. All the detarls are pretty accurately rendered, there’s the tragrc death of mentor and substrtute father Cus D'Amato before Tyson wrns hrs trtle, the rll-advrsed marrrage to Robrn Grvens and the awful wrangle between a rogue's gallery of potentral promoters Cbref among those, of c0urse, rs Don Krng, but Irttle new ground rs broken, and there's very Irttle frght footage for afrcronados. (IMC Vr5ron £10 99) (SC)

REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE: Srmone Barrd, Catherrne Bromley, Steve Cramer, Brran Donaldson, Mrles Frelder, Hannah McGrll, Alan Morrrson

"'P’STARRTATI—tiésm I)

t it t 1r * unmissable

* t t it Very good

i 1: it Worth a Shot ;

t r Below average * You've been warned l

21 Oct—4 Nov 1999 THE LIST 119