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pent-up emotion on screen. little fervour seeps through. and the result is rather cold and calculating. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Darkrnan ( 15) (Sam Raimi. US. 1990) Liam Neeson. Frances McCormand. Colin Friels. Larry Drake. 91 mins. Mr Evil Dead with major studio funding has a ball. harking back to the Hammer Phantom Of The Opera genre. but still exploiting his distinctively fast-moving. schlock-comedy instincts. Neeson is wonderful. even touching. as the genetic scientist who develops a recipe for temporary faces just in time to avenge himselfon the gangsters who removed his own rugged features with acid: and Danny Elfman (who scored Barman and Dick Tracy) provides another great soundtrack. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. UCl. Strathclyde: 1'ClClydebank.[7C1 East Kilbride. I Daughter OlThe Nile ( 15) ( l lsiou 1 lsiao Hsien. 1987. Taiwan) Yang Lin. GaoJie. Yang Fan. 91 mins. Moving from the gentle rural terrain of A .S'unzmerxlr Grandpa 's and [)us! In The Wind to the mean neon-lit streets of'l'aipei. 1 lsiao Hsien's story of a 'l‘aiwanese teen and her family problems still retains the spot-on observation of human foibles and relationships that informed his earlier work and keeps the painstakingly lucid visual style more than intact. Edinburgh University Film Society. I December Bride ( IS) (Thaddeus O'Sullivan. Ireland. 1990) Saskia Reeves. Donal McCann. Ciaran Hinds. 90 mins. 1n strictly Protestant north Ireland at the turn of the century. a woman‘s resolve is tested to the limits in ()‘Sullivan's unusual love story. (European Film Awards) Glasgow: GET. I Dick Tracy (PG) (Warren Beatty. US. 1990) Warren Beatty. Madonna. Al Pacino. Dustn Hoffman. 113 mins. Producer 'director'star Beatty resurrects Chester Gould's vintage cop comic strip
Specialising in: Afghan rugs. kilims and cushions, plus ceramic Ware from Moorish Spain, jewellery and embroidery from around the world
with original primary colours intact and i
engagingly misshapen crew ofrubberized
; villains faithfully preserved. Amidst a sea
of period kitsch backdrops screaming
irony. the well-worn drama oflaw enforcement is played out by a cast of cardboard cliches who remain just that. Madonna‘s brash floozy and Pacino‘s hammy megalomania enliven things from time to time. but the material remains
fossilised. Full marks for all the trappings
. though. Edinburgh: UCl. I Die Hard ( 18) (John McTiernan. US. 1988) Bruce Willis. Alan Rickman. Bonnie Bedelia. 131 mins. Willis plays a cop who attends a tower block party with his estranged spouse. The building is raided by terrorists. so it's left to Willisto
bump off the baddies and save the
hostages while the police and FBI languish
ineptly on the sidelines. Unbearably tense
actioner that gets good mileage out of
yawning lift-shafts and flying bullets.
' while Willis is convincing as anordinary
guy tryingto cope with it all. Watch outfor
Brit Rickman as a villain with a senseof
j humour. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I Die Hard 2: Die Harder ( l8) ( Renny
Harlin. US. 1990) Bruce Willis. Bonnie
Bedelia. William Atherton. 122 mins. ,
Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is
1 spending Christmas in Washington. but as
he waits at the airport for his wife's flight
to get in the whole place is taken over by
terrorists. Needless to say action man .
Bruce jumps in there to sort them out.but
he'd better be quick because the baddies
are refusing to let his missus‘s plane land.
Usual patterned sequel that's like the
original. only more so with much rnoolah
spent on the explosions and superhero
Willis battling a screenplay oftowering
mediocrity. Edinburgh: Cameo.
I D.D.A. (18) (Rocky Morton & Annabel
Jankel. US. 1988) Dennis Ouaid. Meg
Ryan. Charlotte Rampling. Rob
Knepper. 97 mins. The people who
recycled the video image ofMux
_ Fl _
Opening hours 10am~5pm. Monday~Friday. 42/43 Royal Park Terrace, Edinburgh Tel. 03l-652 I962
MOP by umngomon
t with I.T.B. presents
GLASGOW BARROWLANDS TUESDAY 11th DECEMBER 7.30 pm Tickets: £7.50
AvailabbfrometflnTldth rocrA mu (Subject to a
and all in feel.
24 The List 23 November — 6 December 1990
Headroom give the 1950 noir classic the same treatment. reverentially restaging the famous. enigmatic opening in black and white. But despite Ouaid's hard work as the boozy academic with a gutful of slow-acting poison and twenty-four hours to solve his own murder. the plot is hashed up and drowns under a welter of over-embellishments. Edinburgh: Filmhouse. I Drowning By Numbers ( 18) (Peter Greenaway. UK. 1988) Joan Plowright. Bernard Hill. Joely Richardson. 1 18mins. in a narrative as straightforward and complicated as the title. three generations of women. all of them called Cissie Colpitts. dispose of their husbands in a series of aquatic murders. whilst the numbers 1 to 100 run through the filmin the backgrounds. Full of Greenaway’s ravishing visual symmetries and with a highly developed sense ofthe incongruous. the movie sports a number of polished. sympathetic performances. Besides the enjoyable pastime ofnumber spotting. this is among his most accessible and pleasurable films. Glasgow: GF'I‘. I Drugstore Cowboy ( l8) (Gus Van Sant Jr.. US. 1989) Matt Dillon. Kelly Lynch. James Rernar. William S. Burroughs. 100 mins. A gangofdope fiends blithely ripoff a series of drugstores headed by our Matt who gives his best performance to date in Gus Van Sant's recreation of 1971 ()regon. Complete with its halucinatory visions of flying cows the film created astir stateside for presenting the theft and use of narcotics as an alluring pastime. It marks a new and more creditable milestone in Hollywood drug movies. Edinburgh: Cameo. I Duck Soup (U) (Leo McCarey. US. 1933) Groucho. Chico. Harpo. Zeppo. Margaret Dumont. Louis Calhern. 70 mins. Classic Marx Bros fare. as the four of them go to war over an insult directed at their President (Groucho). Superb sight gags and a healthy irreverence for all the reasons people fight wars. (Festival Of Jewish Culture) Glasgow: GET. I Duel (PG) (Steven Spielberg. US. 1972) Dennis Weaver. Jacqueline Scott. Eddie Firestone. Lou Frizell. 90mins. Spielberg's debut. made-for-television feature is a startlingly good. tense thriller. set on the open highway. where a travelling salesman gradually discovers he‘s being followed by an unstoppable. lumbering oil tanker with no driver. The suspense builds beautifully. and the climax does not disappoint. Edinburgh University Film Society. I Eureka (Nic Roeg. US. 1982) Gene Hackman. Theresa Russell. Rutger Hauer. Mickey Rourke. 129mins. Hackman‘s prospector finds gold in the Arctic waste and settles down to a life of luxury on his own Caribbean island. But his daughter's relationship with a dashing playboy. and the attentions ofproperty developers combine to disrupt his peace of mind. Impressive story of lust for flesh and material wealth. with metaphysical overtones thrown in. A heady brew all right. though the scenes in the frozen tundra are the most memorable and the climactic trial lets the film down badly. Edinburgh University Film Society. I The Exorcist ( 18) (William Friedkin. 1973) Linda Blair. Ellen Burstyn. Max Von Sydow. 110mins. Earnest priest Von Sydow steps in to save poor little obsessed girl in this hugely effective scarefest. Dead good. dead scarey. dead priest. Strathclyde: ()deon Ayr. I Exorcist 3 ( 18) (William Peter Blatty. US. 1990) George C. Scot. Jason Miller. Ed Flanders. Brad Dourif. Nicol Williamson 109 mins. See review. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Cannon - Sauchiehall Street. Edinburgh: Cannon. UCl. Central: Cannon. Strathclyde: Cannon. UCl Clydebank. UCl East Kilbride. WMR Film Centre. I The Fabulous Baker Boys ( 15) (Steve Kloves. US. 1989) Jeff Bridges. Beau
Bridges. Michelle Pfeiffer. 113 mins. Writer/director Kloves makes an auspicious debut with this evocative tale of broken dreams. fraternal jealousy and slowly awakening passion among three very ordinary cabaret performers. Veteran piano duo Jeff and Beau draft in Ms Pfeiffer's smokey chanteuse to save their act‘s declining fortunes. but as the trio go on the road together. romantic and professional relationships are soon in turmoil. Crackling with some ofthe sharpest dialogue in years. this is a moody. mature picture. beautifully shot and scored. Strathclyde: ()deon Ayr. I Felix The Cat: The Movie (U) (Tibor Hernadi. US. 1990) 90 mins. From his 1919 debut onwards. Felix the Cat became a cartoon superstar before Mickey Mouse had even been thought of. Now at the age of over seventy. but still in peak condition. Felix limbers up for his first feature length adventure when he‘s called in to help the Princess of the happy kingdom ofOriana l fend offa malevolent attack from the
unscrupulous Duke of Zill. Strathclyde: UCl East Kilbride.
I La Femme Secrete (15) (Sebastien Grall. France. 1987) Philippe Noiret. Clementine Celarie. 95 mins. The impoverished Antoine (Noiret) is working abroad as a dishwasher when he learns of his wife‘s suspicious death. ()n returning to Paris. he begins an obsessive quest for the truth. which begins to reveal a whole new perspective on her life. Glasgow: French Cine-Club.
I Flatllners (15) (Joel Schumaker. US.
199) Keifer Sutherland. Julia Roberts. Kevin Bacon. William Baldwin. 112 mins. ; Rather silly plunge into AlleredSIates territory. as med student (Sutherland) sets about researching near-death experiences by encouraging his chums tostoptheir hearts (at which point the cardiograph records a flat line — geddit'?). then reviving them to tell the others all about it. After building up a dossier of bizarre brainscapes. they then set about righting the past. All a bit overblown. really. Glasgow: Cannon The Forge. Grosvenor. ()deon. Edinburgh: Dominion. ()deon. UCl. Central: Allanpark. Cannon. Regal. Strathclyde: ()deon Ayr. ()deon Hamilton. UCl Clydebank. UCI East Kilbride.
I Fort Apache (L') (John Ford. US. 1948) Henry Fonda. John Wayne. Shirley Temple. Pedro Armendariz. 127 mins. 1n the first of Ford‘s cavalry films. Fonda‘s unswerving officer follows his instinctive belief in duty towards disastrous
bloodshed in the wilds of Arizona. Told with characteristic ambivalence about the authenticity of legend. this is an attractive but finally unsatisfying Western epic. Edinburgh: Film Guild.
I 42nd Street (PG) (Lloyd Bacon. US. 1933) Warner Baxter. Ruby Keeler. Bebe Daniels. Dick Powell. Guy Kibbec.
Ginger Rogers. 89 mins. Chance-of—a-lifetime musical comedy as chorus-girl understudy Keeler gets to play leading lady and save the show. Sizzling Berkeley production numbers and solo routines are the lifeblood ofthis monochrome extravaganza. which still shines despite the wealth ofhammy
cliches. Edinburgh University Film Society.
I Ghost ( 12) (Gerry Zucker. US. 1990) Patrick Swayze. Demi Moore. Whoopi Goldberg.TonyGoldwyn. 126mins. An 1 ersthwile happy couple are split up when 1 Patrick Swayze falls victim to a late night ' mugging. Not content merely to pass-on however. he returns to try and get back in touch with Demi Moore. via medium Whoopi Goldberg in order to warn her about some financial shenanigans. Jerry Zucker's amiable supernatural. comedy-drama has been the surprise box-office success of the year and is charming audiences here. Glasgow: Cannon Clarkston Road. Cannon The Forge. Cannon Sauchiehall Street.
J