FILM
Sadler. 96 mins. Up and coming action type Steven Seagal plays Mason Storm. an LA cop whose apparent invincibility has a plethora of top hit men queuing up to rub him out. But not so fast. our Mason might be heavily underarmed, and at one point he‘s actually in a coma, but even yet he manages to dispatch the baddies. Pointless mayhem, pointless formula plot. pointless violence. Hard To Sit Through is more like it. Central: Regal. I Heather: (15) (Michael Lehman. US, 1989) Winona Ryder. Christian Slater. Lisanne Falk. 102 mins. An ultrablack parody of the high school teenfiick. 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 cliquey Heathers running the joint. Tune in. turn on. drop dead. Glasgow: Grosvenor. I Highlander ( 15) (Russell Mulcahy, UK. 1986) Christopher Lambert. Beatie Edney. Sean Connery. 111 mins. A handful of immortals battle through the centuries to win a mythical prize. A curious mixture of romance in 16th century heather and car chases in present day New York. the film is an inelegant, often ludicrous. but enjoyably daffy adventure. Lambert seems more at home with the contemporary passages and only the ever wonderful Connery has the requisite style for the kitsch Scottish scenes. Edinburgh: Cameo. I High Hopes (15) (Mike Leigh, UK. 1988) Philip Davis. Ruth Sheen. Edna Dore, Heather Tobias. 110 mins. The state of contemporary Britain is summed up in the foibles and divisions of a single family. Davis and Sheen play a wholesome. left-wing, working-class couple, looking after his aging mother (Dore), who has been neglected by her appalling daughter (Tobias). Tensions come to a head at the old lady‘sbirthday party. Caustic and at times excruciatingly painful comedy of embarrassment. which rather unsubtly signposts whose side we are meant to be on. A decidedly patchy return to the big screen for one ofBritain‘s individual talents. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I The Hitcher ( 18) (Robert Mandel. US. 1986) Rutger Hauer. C. Thomas Howell. Jennifer Jason Leigh. 98 mins. Drowsy driver Howell gets more than he bargained for when he picks up psycho-hitcher Hauer in this genuinely edge-of-the-seat suspense thriller. Edinburgh: Cameo. 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 ofan 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 Disnae. Showing with the excellent new Roger Rabbit short, Tummy Trouble. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. I The Hunt For Red Octoberuohn McTiernan. US. 1990) Sean Connery. Alec Baldwin. Scott Glen. Tim Curry. Joss Ackland. 136 mins. The latest all-star offering from the director of Die Hard, set aboard a Soviet submarine and the NATO sub sent to hunt it down. in response tothe plot-spoiling thaw of East-West relations, McTiernan sneakily sets the film a few years back, which can't help but render it anachronistic. Glasgow: Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Strathclyde: UCI Clydebank. I I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle (18) (Dirk Campbell, UK. 1990) Neil Morrissey. Amanda Noar. Michael Elphick. 90mins. Apparently conceived as something ofa joke by the team behind television‘s Boon, it‘s a shame they had to take it as far
INNOCENT MAN
Innocent Man (18) (Peter Yates, US, 1989) Tom Selleck. F. Murray Abraham, Laila Robins. 114 mins. The hugely successful Three Men And A Baby apart, Tom Selleck hasn't had the easiest at times making the transition Irom his long-running telly hit Magnum P.l. to the more demanding vistas of the movie screen. In the past there’s been the dreary actioner Lasslter, mlstiring sci-ti in Runaway, and llabby comedy-romance in the more recent Her Alibi, while the release at Innocent Man sees him moving into harder-hitting material with results that look set to strain the credulity at even his most indulgent admirers.
The Iirst litteen minutes introduce us to Kate and Jimmie Rainwood (Robins and Selleck), a young-ish couple so squeaky clean you know (and perhaps surreptitiously hope) something truly appalling is golng to happen to them. It does. While Tom is in the shower dousing his chest-rug, a couple at narcotics cops burst into the wrong house and shoot him belore planting some drugs to cover up their mistake. Lying to the jury, they manage to put Selleck away tor a three-year stretch at Uncle Sam's maximum security pleasure, during which time he’s helped by wily Iellow convict F. Murray Abraham to adapt to the harsh lifestyle
of a brutal regime. His whole outlook on llle considerany altered by the acts he's Iorced to commit while in the pen, he eventually emerges Irom parole vowing revenge on the bent palr who sent him down.
Had this been done twenty years ago by Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel it might have worked. The central dilemmas are strong material: how would you cope it you ended up in prison despite being lnnocent?; could you kIll to save yoursell lrom degradation at the hands at psychotic convicted telons7, Selleck however, just doesn’t have the steely resolve to carry it. We can believe him as a nice, ordinary guy, but when he struts in his shades across the exercise yard as the supercool, supertough king ol the joint, disbelieving (and entirely unintended) laughter is one’s immediate response. Director Peter Yates has made line tilms like Bullitt and The Friends at Eddie Coyle in his time, but here his judgement appears to have sadly deserted him. (Trevor Johnston)
From Fri 29. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannnon, Odeon Ayr, Odeon Hamilton, UCI Clydebank, UCI East Kllbride.
as actually filming (never mind releasing) the misbegotten thing. Morrisscy buys a second-hand bike at a knock-down price only to discover it‘s a killer and runson blood. As the splatter level rises. detective Elphick looks increasingly embarrassed by the amateurish mayhem erupting around him. The action highlight has a talking turd leaping out of a toilet on the attack. Dear. oh dear. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge.
I Innocent Man ( 18) (Peter Yates. US. 1989) Tom Selleck. Laila Robins. F. Murray Abraham. 113 mins. See review.
Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Odeon. Edinburgh: Odeon. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon, Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. UClClydebank.UC1 East Kilbridc.
I Jacknile (15) (David Jones. US.1989) Robert de Niro. Ed Harris. Kathy Baker. A familiar scenario has de Niro and Harris as 'Nam vets. trying to re-adjust to society. put the gory flashbacks behind them. and relax on a therapeutic fishing trip. Bandwagon-hopping aside. this is an intelligent and original movie (based on the stage play Strange Snow). looking at
the twenty-years-on effects of war, arm offers a further dimension when de Niro falls for Harris' sister (Baker). The emotional battle which ensues is tense, well acted and pacy enough to overcome any idea of a re-hashed Deerhunter. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Joe Versus The Volcano (PG) (John Patrick Shanley. US. 1990) Tom Hanks. Meg Ryan. Lloyd Bridges. 102 mins. See review. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge, Cannon Sauchiehall Street, Grosvenor. Salon. Edinburgh: Cannon. Central: Allanpark. Caledonian. Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. Kelburne. Odeon Ayr. Odeon Hamilton. La Scala,UC1 Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride. I Kentucky Fried Movie (18) (John Landis. US 1977) David Zucker. George Lazenby. Donald Sutherland. 90 mins. A profession of over twenty different parodies of American media — culture trailers, ads and the like. Simple and undemanding stuff featuring a typically mid-70s mixture of sex and grossness. And this is the director who is featured in this year‘s Film Festival. Strathclyde: UCI East Kilbride. I The tiny: (18) (Peter Medak. UK. 1990) Billie Whitelaw. Gary Kemp. Martin Kemp. 119 mins. The long planned biopic of the terrible twins: Ronnie and Reggie. comes crashing onto the screen. Director Medak opts to imbue their lives with the mythic qualities ofa fairytale and thereby ignores most of the grisly details of their reign of fear. Whether or not you believe that their sordid tale deserves such treatment, the Spandau siblings do turn in a passable impersonation, despite their love of gazing moodin at the camera. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. I The Lacemaker (15) (Claude Goretta, France, 1977) Isabelle Huppert. Yves Beneyton,Florence Giorgetti. 107 mins. Huppert‘s quiet and reserved young hairdresser falls in love for the first time when she meets university student Beneyton while holidaying in Normandy. Back in Paris, incompatibility in terms of class and education soon sees them drifting apart, leaving her life in ruins. A moving study of a doomed relationship, with Huppert at her vulnerable best and director Goretta‘s unfailing eye for domestic detail bringing even the most familiar situations to life. Glasgow: GF'T. I Last Tango in Paris (18) (Bernardo Bertolucei,France/1taly. 1973) Marlon Brando. Maria Schneider. 130 mins. A young Parisienne meets a middle-aged man with whom she develops an increasingly violent and purely sexual relationship. One of the key films ofits decade. Bertolucci‘s powerful drama is a meditation on the expression and communication of personal identity through intense sexual contact. Glasgow; GF'T. 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: Filmhouse. I Let's Get L081 (15) (Bruce Weber, US. 1989) Chet Baker, Jack Sheldon, William Claxton. 119 mins. Photographer turned director Weber‘s account of the harrowing life of the great trumpeter Chet Baker. Shortly after filming was completed Baker. 58, was dead. The miracle was that he lived so long. Glasgow: GFT. I Listen To Me (PG) (Douglas Day Stewart. US, 1990) Kirk Cameron.Jami Gertz, Tim Quill, Roy Scheider. l 10mins. Cameron. Gertz and Quill are students at prestigious Kenmont College, each with
28The List29June—121uly1990