FILM LIST
0 Big Trouble In Little China (PG) a (John Carpenter. US, 1986) Kurt Russell. Kim Cattrall, Denis Dun. 100 mins. The long-awaited megabudget John Carpenter entry in the comic strip genre has Kurt Russell as an inept hunk of brawn backed up by his martial arts expert buddy in a battle beneath the streets of San Francisco to rescue his girlfriend from the clutches of a 2000 year-old Chinese evil spirit. An engaging idea - trying to marry
a wacky Indiana Jones-ish superhero movie with a wacky Kung Fu extravaganza - turns out to be far too frenetic and frantically wacky for its onw good. Some smart dialogue. but uncertainly handled by a director much more at home with nastier fare. and despite the hugely expensive special effects memories ofCharlie Chan are not erased. Disappointing. Glasgow; Cinema. Odeon. Salon. Edinburgh; Odeon. Lothian; ABC. Regal. Strathclyde; ABC Greenock. ABC Kilmarnock. Kelburne. La Scala. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. Rialto
O Drazil(15) (Terry Gilliam. UK. 1985) Jonathan Pryce. Robert De Niro. Michael Palin. 142 mins. Ambitious. dazzling Orwellian fantasy with Pryce as a cog in the bureaucratic wheel finally stirred to oppose the system by the power of love. Edinburgh; EUFS
o Brigadoon (U) (Vincente Minnelli. US. 1954) Gene Kelly. Cyd Charisse. Van Johnson. 102 mins. Hang on to your kilts as Hollywood goes roamin‘ in the gloamin‘ with this kitsch. studio-bound version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Kelly and Johnson are the two Yanks who stumble upon a magical wee village that comes alive just once a century. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Cal (15) (Pat O’Connor. UK. 1984) Helen Mirren. John Lynch. 102 mins. Impossible love in sectarian Ireland with an award-winning performance by Mirren. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Choose Me (15) (Alan Rudolph. US. 1984) Keith Carradine. Genevieve Bujold. Lesley Ann Warren. 106 mins. A stranger arrives in Eve‘s bar and before long is embroiled in a shifting relationship with the proprietress and another ~ woman. a radio agony aunt. Former
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Extremities (18) (Robert M. Young, US, 1986) Farah Fawcett, James Russo, Diana Scarwid. 89 mins. Bless my cotton socks it it’s not the ol’ jiggler Farah Fawcett (sans Majors) in a ‘serious’ lilmed-play ot the oft-Broadway persuasion. It’s certainly a surprise to see the ex-Charlie’s Angel and tormer Queen 01 the Tits 'n’ Teeth scene in a heavy Method role where she is called upon to ACT; even more unexpected that she emerges with some credit; but almost entirely predictable that this would-be controversial psychodrama is pruriently exploitative ot those sell-same charms that used to plaster a million walls, and which provide this current ottering’s sole commercial viability.
Farah plays a young woman who suffers an attempted sexual assault from which she bravely manages to escape— only to have the police intorm her that in such cases they can do very little as it boils down to the word of the alleged victim against the world of the alleged attacker. Nervoust Ms Fawcett makes her way home, as the assailant has stolen her ID. A tew days later he turns up in the slimily repulsive torm otJames Russo and proceeds to attack and humiliate her all over again. However, she turns out to be made 01
Altman collaborator Alan Rudolph‘s film. with its studio sets and deliciously improbany narrative. seems to linger between fantasy and reality as it teases and surprises the viewer. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
pretty stern stuff, and using a variety of domestic implements batters and blinds the rapist, then constructs a makeshift cage in the hope 01 extracting a ‘contession’.
Playwright-screenwriter William Mastrosimine would no doubt like to think that his lilm’s repellent action and tiresomer overwrought dialogue add up to a penetrating examination ol sexual politics, but the result is reminscentol third-rate Tennessee Williams grossly mated with brutish revenge melodrama ot the Bronson/Winner school. The two principals emerge with credit. but director Young completely ludges matters by utlising a slickly objective thriller-style presentation which makes the viewer an unwitting and unwilling voyeur on the sensationalist proceedings and resorting to crude metaphor in a shot at a cat watching a bird in a cage.
One is left with the impression of the same old Barbie-DoIl-in-peril rubbish masquerading as rather contused and schematic ‘art', but it’s still a case of male writerand male director presenting rape as cheap entertainment and providing sickeningly glib answers. Not recommended.
(TrevorJohnston)
o A Chorus Line (PG) (Richard Attenborough. US. 1985) Michael Douglas. Ayson Reed. Terrence Mann. 118 mins. Sixteen dancers reveal their innermost secrets and fears to dhector-choreographer Douglas in a bid to secure one of
eight coveted roles in a Broadway musical. Lavish, splashy. showbizzy drama-musical; 42nd Street meets Freud as played by the Kids from Fame. Competent entertainment. no more. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
o The Color Purple (15) (Steven Spielberg, US. 1986) Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery, Danny Glover. 152 mins. Spielberg goes serious, turning Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic of Black American feminism into a Davide-Lean-style epic with all the emotional stops out. Whoopi Goldberg is wonderful.
Lothian; ABC
0 Dance with a Stranger ( 15) (Mike Newell. UK. 1985) Miranda Richardson. Rupert Everett. Ian Holm. 102 mins. The true story of Ruth Ellis. the last woman in Britain to be hanged for murder.
A brilliantly acted. atmospheric production that captures a snapshot of 1955 and a society wrought by social and sexual hypocrisies. Glasgow; Grosvenor 0 Day at the Dead ( 18) (George A. Romero. US. 1985) Lori Cardille. Terry Alexander. Joseph Pilato. 100 mins. The third in Romero‘s zombie trilogy has the last people not infected by the virus holding out underground in a Florida government bunker while the undead on the surface outnumber them by 400.000 to one.
At once an ultrablack gross-out comedy and a very dark satire on the American public‘s ignorance of the nuclear threat. the film is sabotaged by shaky pacing and overheated performances. but benefits from some truly gut-wrenching effects. Glasgow; Odeon. Lothian; Regal o The Decline of the American Empire ( 18) fir (Denys Arcand. Canada, 1986) Dominique Michel. Dorothée Berryman. Louise Portal. 101 mins. See Caption Review. Glasgow; GET 0 Desperately Seeking Susan (15) (Susan Seidelman. US.1985) Rosanna Arquette. Madonna. Aidan Quinn. 103 mins. Delightful feminist fantasy concerning mistaken identity in the Big Apple. Edinburgh: Filmhouse 0 ET. (U) (Stephen Spielberg. US.
1982) Henry Thomas. Drew Barrymore. Dee Wallace. 117 mins. A lonely suburban youngster befriends a loveable alien creature
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The List 14— 27 November!)