FILM LIST
_ RITA, SUE AND BOB T00
Rita, Sue And Bob T00 (18) (Alan Clarke, UK, 1987) Michelle Homes, Siobhan Finnernan, George Costigan. 95 mins. Rita and Sue are two likely teenage Iasses who ward off the boredom of lite on a run-down Bradlord estate with a spot of well-paid baby-sitting at atlluent nouveau-riche Bob and Michelle's snazzy semi. Driving the girls home one night in his flash motor Bob bluntly suggests that he has sex with each at them on the reclining passenger seat. The two readily agree. so initiating a vigorous relationship with Bob‘s ‘trozen sausage’ that eventually parts them from their families and splits Bob‘s marriage asunder.
Based on writer Angela Dumbar‘s own early experiences and adapted from her stage work, Rita Sue And Bob T00 is the most provocative British film to have appeared for a long while. For one thing, the drab and deprived Northern setting. all its racism and alcolhol abuse is portrayed in a trankly honest mannerthat will probably stick in the craw of those raised on more easily digested middle-class home counties fictions. Even more controversial is the girls' hale and hearty attitude towards what they call ‘having a jump' and the almost jokey
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treatment ottheirtrequent, bouncy interludes with Bob. Here, the film has been alternately attacked as dangerously exploitative male-fantasy fodder and patronising with it, and lauded for its courageously down-to-earth exploration of adolescent rites of passage.
Classic social drama or crudely sexist soap? Rarely has any recent movie created such debate — simply because it refuses to adhere to bourgeois notions of decorum or to shy
Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 Jaws: The Revenge (PG) (Joseph Sargent. USf. 1987) Lorraine Garuy. Mario Van Peebles. Michael Caine. 90mins. Ludicrous and unnecessary addition to the series with a great white shark developing a personal grudge against the Brody family Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Cinema. Grosvenor. Strathclyde: Kelburne. Rialto O Kwaidan(l8)(:\1asakai Kobay'ashi. Japan. 196-1) Rentaro Miluni. Michiyo Aratatna. 164 mins. Four elegant ghost stories by l.afcadio Hearn are the components of this stylish but overlong Japanese portmanteau piece. which features a sumptuous colour scheme and extravagant use of the wide screen. Glasgow: GFI‘ 0 Lethal Weapon ( 18) (Richard Donner. US. 1987) Mel Gibson. Danny Glover. Gary Busey. Darlene Love. 109 mins. Gibson is a young widower whose grief has turned him virtually psychotic. Now intent on cleaning the streets ofscum regardless of the cost he is almost as dangerous as the bad guys. Glover. middle-aged.middle-c1ass and a father of three. treads a mite more conservatively.
Slick. violent formulaic buddy cop adventure With a touch of humanity
and sound performances.
Glasgow; Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Cinema. Grosvenor. Edinburgh; Cannon. Lothian: Cannon. Strathclyde; Cannon Greenock. Cannon Kilmarnock. Kelburne. La Scala. Odeon Hamilton. Odeon Ayr. Rialto
o The Living Daylights (PG) (John Glen. UK. 1987) Timothy Dalton. Jeoren Krabbé. Maryam d‘Abo. 130
mins. I-Iighlycreditable007 with Dalton‘s slightly humourless presence serving to reinvigorate the series and bring Bond back to basics. Glasgow; ()deon. Grosvenor. Edinburgh; Dominion. ()deon. Strathclyde; ()deon Ayr. ()deon Hamilton 0 The Magic Toyshop ( 15) (David Wheatley. UK. 1986) Tom Bell. Caroline Milmoe. Kilian McKenna. 107 mins. A timeless adult fairytale about the disturbing aspects of growing up in an emotional environment of repression. fear. loathing and patriarchal dominance. The Magic Toyshop tells of a young girl whose passage into adulthood comes under the tyrannical auspices of her wicked uncle. a toyshop ownder with an obsessive interest in marionettes and the manipulation of real lives. Edinburgh; Cameo O MasqueS( 15) '1: (Claude Chabrol. France. 1987) Philippe .\'oiret. Robin Renucci. Bernadette [.afont. 100 mins. A young novelist summoned to the country mansion of famous game-show host Noiret for the purposes of intensive interviewing before writing the latter's biography finds a shocking skeleton in the closet.
Characteristic latterday Chabrolian detection revealing that all islnot well in paradise.(iléngOWZ
o Mona Lisa (18) (NeilJordan. UK. 1986) Bob Hoskins. Michael Caine. Cathy Tyson. 104 mins. Hoskins gives a heart-rending performance as the ex-con with battered emotions in this brilliant film noir from the exceptionally talented Jordan. Glasgow: Grosvenor o The Money Pit (PG) (Richard Benjamin. US. 1985) Shelley Long. Tom Hanks. 91 mins. Rickety.
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trom handing the ideologies of the left a hard-nosed lesson in the realites of sexual politics. Certainly not without its flaws, the characterisation at times seems incredulously impulsive for instance. but punchy performances all round and the impressively combative nature of the entire enterprise make it a film that is bound to shake things up and one that ought to be widely seen. Love it or hate it, you‘ll certainly be arguing about it for quite a while afterwards. (TrevorJohnston)
slapstick farce about a young couple‘s travails when they move into a suspiciously inexpensive house in need ofonly a few improvements and a lick of paint. Dumb nonsense. Edinburgh: Cameo o Mutiny on the Bounty (PG) (Frank Lloyd. US. 1935) Clark Gable. Charles Laughton. Franchot Tone. 133 mins. Vivid. enduring Hollywood classic that launched a thousand imitators as Laughton‘s Captain Bligh and Gable‘s mister Christian sail into conflict aboard the ill-fated Bounty. Oscar winner as the Best Film of its year this is streets ahead ofrecent remakes. Glasgow; GET 0 The Name of the Rose ( 18) (Jean-Jacques Annaud. W. Germany/France/ltaly. 1986) Sean Connery. F. Murray Abraham. 131 mins. Marvellous medieval mystery with the masterful Sean on the trail ofa monastic monk's murderer. Strathclyde; Cannon Kilmarnock O Nobody's Fool (15) (Evelyn Purcell. US. 1986) Rosanna Arquette. Eric Robert. Mare Winningham. 105 mins. The fictional smalltown of Buckeye Basin is the setting for this offbeat romantic drama. Arquette is a cocktail waitress who has become a social outcast among the local community ever since she attacked her boyfriend with a fork in a Chinese restaurant. Anyway. along comes a touring company of thespians with a production of The Tempest and Arquette tumbles for the eccentric charms ofstagehand and lighting manager Eric Roberts. Folksy Americana with some good performers. Edinburgh; Filmhouse
0 Once Upon a Time in America (18) (Sergio Leone. US. 1983) Robert De
Niro. James Woods. Tuesday Weld. 228 mins. The story of two childhood friends and their early entrepreneurial activities which blossom into careers in organised crime and politics. Leone‘s epic gangster chronicle scrutinisess the emergent American society of the early part of the century through the aspirations ofthe mob. Mammoth. vicious. lyrical and telling. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 Out 01 Africa (PG) (Sydney Pollack. US. 1985) Robert Redford. Meryl Streetp. Klaus Maria Brandauer. 161 mins. Tragic romance between Karen Blixen and English big game hunter in this measured. evocative Oscar winner. Glasgow: Grosvenor o Outrageous Fortune ( 15) rfr (Arthur Hiller. US. 1987) Bette Midler. Shelley Long. Peter Coyote. Robert Prosky. 99mins. See panel. Glasgow: ()deon. Edinburgh: Odeon 0 Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (U) (Tim Burton. US. 1985) Pee Wee Herman. Morgan Fairchild. James Brolin. Tony Bill. 92 mins. Enjoyable puerile comic capers as cult comedian Pee Wee crosses America in search of his stolen bicycle. Somehow more appealing to knowing adults than the kids though. Edinburgh: Cannon 0 Peggy Sue Got Married (PG) (Francis Coppola. US. 1986) Kathleen Turner. Nicolas Cage. John Carradine. 103 mins. Light and likable Coppola confection in which the always magnificent 'I'urner collapses at her high school class reunion and regains consciousness in 1959. Glas row; GFI’ 0 Personal erviceS(18)(’I‘erry' Jones. UK. 1986) Julie Walters. Shirley Stelfox. Alec McCowcn. 105 mins. Suggested by the life. times and social calendar of Cynthia Payne. this ribald and engaging commentary on the British way of sex features a top notch performance by Julie Walters as the knowing yet somehow naive Madam. Edinburgh; Filmhouse 0 Police SlOfV( 18) (Jackie Chan. llong Kong. l985).lackie(‘han. Brigette Liu. 100 mins. Narcotics cop Jackie Chan sets about rounding tip a ring of drugs traffickers and ends up getting framed by their unscrupulous leader. Bree/y action comic strip . Glasgow: (il-"I' 0 Providence ( ls) (Alain Rcsriais. France Switzerland. l‘)7-r'l.l1)llll (iielguid. Dirk Bogarde. lillcn Burstyn. David Warner. 107 mins. .»\ dying writer entertains unpleasant fantasies about his sons and their women. but the reality when they come to lunch the next day is somewhat different.
Resnais’ only linglish language production isa stunningly cast and well-performed study of the vagaries oftime and memorv. Worth seeing. (ilasgow; ( il'vl‘
0 Raising Arizona ( 15) (Joel Coen. US. 1987) Nicolas Cage. Holly Hunter. 'l‘rey l lunter. 9-1 mins. Married ex-con Cage settles down to a life ofcrirne once more and remedies his wife‘s childless state by stealing a millionaire‘s recently whelped quintuplets. Exhilarating
The List 21 Aug— 3 Sept 11