FILM LIST
I Faster Pussycat! Kill! Killl( 18) (Russ Meyer, US, 1966) Turana Satana, 83 mins. Three go-go dancers release their tensions by driving sportscars through the desert and behaving aggressively towards men. Classic Meyer cult-trash. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Field of Dreams (PG) (Phil Alden Robinson, US. 1989) Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, Burt Lancaster, James Earl Jones. 106 mins. An unlikely winner from writer/director Robinson has Costner as a hard-working, hard-pressed farmer who risks financial ruin and builds the baseball diamond of his dreams in one of his fields in an attempt to recapture the innocence of his boyhood. And 10. out of the corn fields come his childhood heroes ready to toss the old ball around. Gee , it sorta gets you right here - the baseball equivalent of soft porn. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. Strathclyde: UCI East Kilbride. I Flight 0t The Navigator (PG) (Randal Kleiser. US, 1986) Joey Cramer. Veronica Cartwright, Cliff De Young. 89 mins. A young boy who has been in contact with aliens finds himself the subject of scientific enquiry before being enlisted by some more extraterrestrials to help them repair their damaged craft. Watchablc Disney effort in the E. T. stakes. Central: Allanpark. I Gentlemen Preter Blondes (PG) (Howard Hawks. US, 1953) Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell , Charles Coburn. 91 mins. Two girls from Little Rock make it big in Paris. lnconsequential comedy musical from the Anita Loos novel, made watchable by the ebullient stars and the production number ‘Diamonds Are A Girl‘s Best Friend‘. Glasgow: GFT. I Chostousters 2 (PG) (lvan Reitman. US, 1989) Bill Murray. Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver. 108 mins. Need a sequel? Who you gonna call? The down-at-heel and discredited slimefighters are back in business, after mayhem once more breaks out on the streets of New York. The effects look less cheap this time. and if you liked it first time round you are on a winner here; if you were less than convinced, stay at home - you‘ve seen this one already. Strathclyde: UCl Clydebank. I Gleaming The Cube (PG) (Graeme Clifford, US, 1989) Christian Slater, Steven Bauer, Richard Herd. 105 mins. Set in Orange County, California, the seemingly cryptic title coming from skateboarders‘ slang. Slater plays the archetypal teen skate rebel convinced that his brother‘s death was not, as the police believe, suicide. While the youngster conducts his own investigation , detective Bauer advises him to leave matters tothe proper authorities. From the director of Frances, this gritty look at death, youth and authority has been shorn of its violence to become a somewhat sanitised skateboard adventure for the mid-term crowds. Edinburgh: Odeon. I Glory (15) (Edward Zwick. US, 1989) Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington. Cary Elwes. Morgan Freeman. 122 mins. The film charts the progress of the fightin‘ 54th, the first all-black regiment (formed during the American civil war), as they gradually emerge as disciplined combat unit under their young. inexperienced and white Colnel (Broderick). It is the palpable assumption of dignity by the black troopers, rather than the somewhat hackneyed plot, that sticks in the mind. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. I Heathers ( 15) (Michael Lehman. US. 1989) Winona Ryder, Christian Slater. Lisanne Falk. 102 mins. An ultrablack parody of the high school teenflick . Lehman‘s first feature film managesto combine box office success with artistic merit. This cult hip hit of the year has Slater and Ryder starting a suicide craze to muscle in on the cliqucy Heathers running the joint. Tune in. turn on. dropdead. Glasgow: OFT. I Henry V (PG) (Kenneth Branagh. U K.
1989) Kenneth Branagh. Derek Jacobi, Paul Scofield, Judi Dench. 137 mins. There are inevitable associations with Olivier in K.B.’s choice of first feature, but he emerges with some credit as both director and performer. This is a much muddier version than its predecessor, both in the scrappy turmoil of the battle scenes and in the tempering of zesty jingoism with an appreciation of the human cost of conflict. Portraying the young king as a careworn, rather sullen warrior. the film seems to offer a more complex reading of the text, even if Branagh’s budgetary resources stint somewhat on the grandeur of Olivier‘s charging horses. Glasgow: GFT.
I Honey I Shrunk The Kids (U) (Joe Johnston, US, 1989) Rick Moranis, Matt Frewer. Thomas Brown. Amy O‘Neill, Robert Oliveri, Jared Rushton. 92 mins. Hapless father and would-be inventor (Moranis) does just what the title suggests. The kids find themselves cut down to size (a quarter of an inch) and swept out with the trash. Their mission: to escape from the garbage bag and somehow attract their father‘s attention to their height problem. Well, we might think it‘s old hat but Walt Disnac. Showing with the excellent new Roger Rabbit short, Tummy Trouble. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Strathclyde: Odeon Hamilton, UCI Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride.
I How To Get Ahead In Advertising ( 15) (Bruce Robinson. UK, 1989) Richard E. Grant, Rachel Ward, Richard Wilson. 94 mins. The Withnail team of writer/director Robinson and goggle-eyed actor Grant return with an even blacker exercise in comedic frenzy. Though the early scenes provide a vicious parody of the adman‘s world there soon begins a slide into screaming incredulity as Grant‘s boil metamorphoses into a yuppie bastard second head. But the film‘s inarticulate anger does tackle the immediate problems of today‘s society: precisely what‘s lacking in any number of white-suited efforts decorously fretting about our colonial past. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade (PG) (Steven Spielberg, US, 1989) Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Alison Doody, Denholm Elliot. 127 mins. The third and supposedly final instalment of Spielberg’s blockbuster series, in which the archaeological adventurer is joined by his father (Connery) for a romp through the Middle East in search of the Holy Grail. hotly pursued (as ever) by the Nazis. A rather dodgy quasi-Christian morality and a more-of-the-same-ish plot are offset by strong performances from Ford and Connery and technical bravura. Edinburgh: Broughton Film Theatre. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr.
I Jesus 01 Montreal (18) (Denys Arcand, Canada, 1989) Lothaire Bluteau. Catherine Wilkening. Johanne-Marie Tremblay. 120 mins. Hired to revamp a Catholic passion play, M. Bluteau enlists four actors from diverse sources, casts himself as Jesus, and sets to work on a stunningly radical version of his own. Naturally, life begins to imitate art. but don‘t expect anything else predictable. because Arcand‘s follow-up to Decline Of The American Empire is chockful of twists. surprises and incisive satire. Finely acted. elegantly filmed and always intriguing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I The Kill-Oil ( 18) it} (Maggie Greenwald, US. 1989) Loretta Gross. Jackson Sims. Steve Monroe. 92 mins. Maggie Greenwald‘s second feature stays relatively faithful to Jim Thompson‘s typically downbeat novel. In a dying beach resort. life is made hell by the bed-ridden demon Luane Dcvorc. whose control over people‘s lives turns her into a telephone torturer. Influenced by Scorsese and the C oen Brothers‘ Blood Simple. the film‘s unconventional storytelling is emphasised by stark photography and makes for
hypnotic viewing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Killing (PG) (Stanley Kubrick, US, 1956) Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards. 83 mins. Kubrick‘s partially abstract vision of Jim Thompson‘s novel creates classic film noir with its perfectly cast and rawly vivid depiction of greed and corruption. An ex-con recruits the help of small time crooks to rob two million from a race track , and the tightly structured narrative follows the ensuing chaos as the plan falls apart. A harsh, clinical piece that didthe director‘s growing reputation no harm at all. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Krull (PG) (Peter Yates, UK, 1983) Ken Marshall, Lysette Anthony, Freddie Jones. 121 mins. Amiable sci-fi would-be blockbuster has Marshall‘s Prince Colwyn encountering sundry fangers, trial and tribulation , as he treks across the planet Krull in search of his missing betrothed, Lysette Anthony‘s Princess Lyssa.
Saturday morning stuff basically, though the main interest is in the production design where Excalibur meets Mad Max2. Central: Caledonian.
I Lav: 0i Desire (l8) (Pedro Almodovar, Spain, 101 mins) Eusebio Poncela, Carmen Maura, Antonio Baderas. 101 mins. Notorious film-maker Pablo moves through a decadent lifestyle of sensual pleasure , his only real concern for his transsexual brother-turned-sister. However. when he falls for government minister‘s son Antonio, a nightmare of manipulation and deceit is to follow. Flamboyant Spanish iconoclast Almodovar‘s exaggerated sexual farrago is interesting as a sort of overheated melodrama. though the lack of narrative control near the end does let the film down. Glasgow: GFT.
I Lawrence 01 Arabia (PG) (David Lean, UK, 1962) Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Omar Sharif. 222 mins. Lean’s mammoth desert epic, restored to its director‘s original cut and the big screen , where film-making on this scale belongs. O‘Toole‘s debut as the enigmatic adventurer still impresses, but apart from the majestic action sequences, it‘s the disturbing sense of clinical and cold-blooded violence hanging over the highly literate characterisation that today seems especially striking. Edinburgh: Film Guild.
I Love And Death (PG) (Wody Allen, US. 1975) Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Olga Georges-Picot. 85 mins. Pitched somewhere between The Funny Years (Bananas, Sleeper) and The Serio-Comic Years (Annie Hall, Manhattan) this is one part of Woody‘s continuing neurotic romancing of Diane Keaton, only it‘s set in Russia at the time of the Napoleonic wars. This means lots of referential gags about great Russian literature and a set-piece Eisenstein paradoy, which is fun if you know what to laugh at. Glasgow: Grosvenor.
I Mac and Me (U) (Stewart Raffill, US, 1988) Christine Ebersole, Jonathan Ward, Tina Caspary. 100 mins. Mac is in fact an acronym for Mysterious A lien Creature in this kiddies‘ adventure that follows the cute little extraterrestrial‘s earthbound adventures with a gang of four young chums. And yes, it does sound a lot like Spielberg‘s ET. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr, WMR Film Centre.
I Metropolis (PG) (Fritz Lang adapted by Giorgio Moroder, Germany/US, 1926/1984) Gustav Frolich, Brigitte Helm. 93 mins. A re-edited and tinted version of Lang’s early futuristic political parable with a new electro-mulch soundtrack by Moroder. The original still retains a sense of Teutonic grandeur. with the love story now given greater emphasis than the theme of class struggle. but it‘s a tough battle against the crushineg banal songs insistently warbling away in the background. Edinburgh: Filmhouse.
I Modesty Blaise (PG) (Joseph Losey. UK. 1966) Monica Vitti. Dirk Bogarde,
Terence Stamp. 119 mins. Amidst a welter of silly Sixties comic strip capers. this typically outre Losey effort still seems a weirdie. Starring glacial Antonioni regular Vitti as the eponymous heroine trying to stop Dirk Bogarde‘s camper than camp criminal mastermind from taking over the world, its the wonderful Op-art sets and delightfully dated costume rie (dig that silver wig. Dirk baby) that still hold the attention because the parodic gags and deliberately stoopid plotting never were as funny as the film-makers seemed to pretend. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I The Naked Gun (15) (David Zucker. US. 1988) Leslie Nielsen. Priscilla Presley. Ricardo Montalban. 85 mins. Nielsen plays a disaster-prone LA cop assigned to find the men who shot his colleague in a drugs bust, and protect our dear Queen at the same time, while also finding time for romance with secretary Presley. The makers of Airplane here operate on a similar principle: keep it fast , keep it marvellously dumb, and the comic dividends will eventually flow. Watch out for a great beaver gag and comedy cameos from Arafat, Gaddafi and Gorbachev. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I ltevt York, New York ( 15) (Martin Scorsese, US, 1977) Liza Minelli. Robert De Niro, Lionel Stander. 153 mins. Winning combination of satirical parody and heartfelt tribute, as Scorsese tries his hand at big-budget musical comedy. The two stars are outstanding as a warring couple, De Niro‘s downbeat jazz saxophinist perfectly counterpoising Minnelli‘s struggling singer in an affecting rags-to-riches yarn. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I flight OtThe Living Dead (18) (George A. Romero, US, 1968) Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Russell Streiner. 96 mins. Seminal black comedy shocker which spawned two increasingly nasty sequels and countless unauthorised imitations. A group of people barricade themselves into a farmhouse to seek refuge from the hordes of flesh-crazy undead. created by misfiring military experiments. Filmed on a shoestring in Pittsburgh, with real gore supplied by a local butcher. Though it now seems dated, the rough and grainy qualities of the film only serve to make it more horribly convincing. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Oliver And Company (U) (George Scribner, US, 1989) With the voices of Joey Lawrence, Billy Joel. Dom DeLuise. Bette Midler. 74 mins. Disney studios‘ free adaptation of Dickens‘ Oliver Twist is set in modern New York, with Oliver asa cute kitten hanging out with a bunch of Streetwise dogs. The Artful Dodger is played by pop-singer Joel , while La Midler turns in a pampered poodle. The usual Disney charm prevails. though Dickens’ cutting edge is blunted somewhat. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride. I Parenthood (15) (Ron Howard, US, 1989) Steve Martin, Diane Wiest. Jason Robards, Rick Moranis. 124 mins. A film apparently derived from the experiences of Ron ‘Mr Nice Film’ Howard, the ex-Happy Days star. Our Steve. ex-Happy Feet star, is in his element as a lovable jerk trying hard to be a good dad. However. the climactic montage where every member of the cast is either giving birth or cuddling some cute wee baby in glutinous slow-motion had our critic reaching for his Sten gun. Strathclyde: Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton, La Scala. UCl Clydebank. I Plefll (PG) fl (Juan Carlos Tabio, Cuba, 1988) Daisy Granados, Thais Valdes, Luis Alberto Garcia. 110 mins. The title refers to the noise made by eggs hitting walls and there‘s a subheading Too Afraid OfLife, so the omens are good for this Cuban portrait of racial. sexual and class struggles within a paranoid and gossip-ridden community. A lightly comical treat that parodies any number of
20 The List 23 March - 5 April 1990