BACARDI BLACK
BLANK CHEOUE
As wish fulfilment goes, finding yourself in possession of a million dollars is not a bad start, but as in all the best fables, this is only the first step in learning an important lesson in life. Eleven-year-old Preston Waters cannot believe his luck when a blank cheque is hurriedly thrust into his hand by some guy who has just run over his bike. Desperate to get away from his irritating brothers and permanently distracted parents, Preston makes the cheque out to cash for the nice round sum of a million . dollars and sets up home for himself. What he does not realise is that the donor of the cheque is thief Carl Duigley (Miguel Ferrer), who is busy laundering his loot through the bank, with the aid of a crooked manager (Michael Lerner) and a wisecracking accomplice (Tone Loc).
Preston’s spending spree is every kid’s dream, and he buys just about everything his heart desires, but - here comes the moral — he cannot buy happiness. Aaaaaaah. It’s a lesson that is hard learned, but he has little time to digest its consequences, as Duigley finally catches up with him at the lavish mansion he now calls home. Cue the extended slapstick chase.
Blank Cheque: 'Brewster's Millions i ' meets Home Alone’ ! features an impressive lead performance by Brian Bonsall and, while the pratfalls and breathless pursuits which take up much of the g last third of the film are familiar Blank Cheque may not be the most 3 enough, they are still quite enjoyable subtle or the most original film you for all that. (Anwar Brett)
irrelevance, there can’t be any doubt
f actress instrumental in Almodévar’s
will see this year, but it still exudes a Blank Cheque (PC) (Rupert Wainwright, lot more charm and invention than 3 us, 1993) Brian Bonsall, Karen Duffy, most in the sub-genre from which it j Miguel Ferrer. 94 mins. From Fri 5. springs. Coming across like Brewster's 9 Glasgow: MGM Parkhead. Ddeons: Millions meets Home Alone, the film Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ayr. All UCls.
GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH ' EVENTS GUIDE
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THE LIST IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE CAMEO CINEMA INVITES YOU TO AN EXCLUSIVE SCREENING OF
' 3 THE LAST SEDUCTIONm)
ON SATURDAY SO JULY AT 11.30am
Tickets can be picked up from the Cameo Box Office from 11 .1Sam‘with a copy of this issue of The List on Saturday 30 June.
CAM EOvas
HOW TO BE AWDMAN . . .
REVIEW film _—i
Even though his latest movie, Kika, shows the once-inspiring Almodévar plumbing new depths of boredom and
that without his domestic perv-fests blazing the trail, there wouldn’t have been the slightest scrap of UK interest in Ana Belen’s debut feature — let alone nationwide distribution. But that isn’t to detract from any of How To Be A Woman And Not Die In The Attempt’s considerable virtues, rather it’s a reminder of how the cinema audience over here has undergone a re- education to make one country’s perennial symbol become another’s movie icon.
Carmen Maura - the lantern-jawed
How To Be A Woman: 'message-Iaden script' ; typical Spanish macho and won’t even think of helping out. Written by journalist Carmen Rico-Godoy, it‘s a movie with points to put across and. as its episodic structure unfolds, it does so with grace and skill.
What Maura brings to the role. though, is a crucial sense of versimilitude that prevents a message-laden script from becoming heavy-handed. Her success has always been based on combining a forthright sensuality with a knocked-about, seen-it-all toughness, and here she ladles it on with a trowel. But beneath it all is a trademark vulnerability that is probably the most predictable aspect of this character-driven drama. (Andrew Pulver)
own breakthrough — plays the kind of
How To Be A Woman And Not Die ln
role she seems born for: a woman who, i The Attempt (15) (Ana Belen, Spain,
in the parlance of a glossy mag, juggles work and home-making to frequently frustrating effect. She’s married too, but the husband is a
A ys
1991) Carmen Maura, Antonio Resines. (Juanjo Puigcorve. 89 mins. From Sun 7. Glasgow Film Theatre.
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The List 2‘) July—ll August 1994 27