VIDEOS
RENTAL
Face (18) 101 mins v: ,+ i
Robert Caryie gives what's prooabry ins career-pest performance in a Eu‘-<e‘.-.'arim :hr ller by Priest’s Anton a B'ro He plays a LondOn gangster whose rife begins to fal‘ apart when the proceeds of an armed robbery go rniss ng More ls:e of Dogs than Reservoir Dogs, the 010‘. s ‘arc ‘ar enouigh, but 't's Car y e who
1‘0 ds rt together, "terna is ng h s character’s pa r“ to create an soiated and complicated figure CIC AM
One Night Stand
(18)97 mins * t r *
After g ft ng N'co'as Cage w: i an Oscar ‘or Leaving Las Vegas, Brit sh. director M ke Figg's proves again that t's possibie to make a genuinely aoult orarna wth Hollywood stars Wesley Snzpes rs the centre of attention this tirre, a high-flying comrnercals directOr who goes into conscience criss when he has a fl:ng With Nastassia Kinsk, rater to discover she's the s ster- n-law 0‘ his dying ‘riend ’an excellent Robert Downey Jr The shooting and editing style gives the ‘ilrn a real buzz, and Only the final frames let rt down “Entertainmenti iAMi
Seven Years In Tibet
(PG) 129 mins t *
Brad Pitt fails to convince us he's Austrian climber Heinnch Harrer, who went to the Himalayas in 1939, got caught up in war-time troubles wrth the Brits, then became a rare European visit0r to the shrOuded enclave of Tibet and ultimately a friend of the yOung Dala= Lama himself Pitt is more wooden than ever, especially in his scenes with fellow mountaineer David Thewlis ’whose heart doesn't seern to be in the material eitheri “Entertainment, (Alt/1i
Suburbia
(15) 116 mins * fr
After the Rohmer-esQue two-hander Before Sunrise, Richard L.nklater slips back closer to the Dazed And Confused territory he made his own W.th Eric Bogosian's play as its sOurce,
Family affairs: Gina Gershon and Billy Zane play film noir games in This World, Then
th s oe .es "to fire .cs o' a bunch o‘ SBCKG’S LN. ater's oebu rhoi e certa n y out that word n the
3 ct onary as t"e/ Out through a s ng e n g'“. n a sma? town The characters are too schematic fOr the
‘ 'm to ‘.'.O.r'-<, hoax/ever, and we're le‘t not reaf y g'ing two hoots about any o‘ them 'Co'umbia Tr star ’Aiv‘i.
RETAIL
Clubbed To Death (18) 88 mins .i A ..
When s"e t' nds herse f :ost a strange part of Paris, Loia Elooie Boocr‘ez, 's befr-enoec: by an enigmatic Arab r.'.rho introouces her to a prev ously hidden wono o‘ techno nigl~tcubs Director Yo ar‘de Zauberrnann captures the iso'ation 0‘ her characters am c; the constant movement of anonymous clubbers with extensive use 0‘ hand- he d carnera This sty e, coped with a driving soundtrack and the presence of provocativefy clad szren Beatrice Da'ie, gives the t ‘rr‘ a strong atrrosohere "A'Zi‘iCia Eye £15 99 ‘Aivl
Meteor
(PG) 103 mins = r
1979's l/leteor sees ex-NASA scientist Sean Connery sing-e-hahdeoly saving the planet's obliteration r'rom a five- mle wide chunk of rock To ado to the oift’icultres, the Americans have to
re uctantfy seek a'd ‘rorn those nasty Soviets, 'eading to all nanner o‘ Co'd War shenanigans The ef‘ects are ‘aintly prepostorous and the script takes the rise out of its star-laden cast A disaster movie in almost every sense The Towering Inferno, Beyond The Poseidon Adventure and Swarm are also released {Warner £5 99, ’BD.
Prisoner Of The
Mountains
(15) 95 mins r tr «r "a
in Serge: Brodov's Oscar-nominated filrn, two soldiers — Sacha and Vanya - are captured by a Chechen rebel chief who 'ntends to exchange them for his son, a prisOner of the Russians In captivity, they get to know each other and their captors, and the film becomes a celebration of common
The Fireworks (18, 100 mins, it). Available to rent from Mon 15 Jun.
108 THE lIST 71—25 in '998
RETAIL
The Shining (15) 259 mins ar * v.
Thinner (18) 89 mins 1* t
No Jack Nicholson, no axe, no maze or icy death. Instead, this TV mini- series version of The Shining is adapted and produced by author Stephen King himself. Naturally, it's more faithful to the book, but it also lacks the grandeur of Stanley Kubrick's vision.
Jack Torrance (Steven Weber) becomes winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, bringing with him his wife Wendy (Rebecca De Mornay) and young son Danny (Courtland Mead). When heavy snow isolates them, the hotel's ghostly inhabitants use Danny's special psychic gifts and his father's unstable mind to give them a stronger, deadlier foothold in this world.
The extended length and TV format mean that ad-break climaxes
Crash diet: Robert Burke in Thinner
disrupt the narrative flow, with repetition as a by-product. However, the acting by the three leads is excellent, and there's more time to examine this
family unit, scarred by alcoholism.
King, under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, wrote the novel Thinner which, in its screen translation, becomes an over-the-top morality tale in the style of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone. Robert Burke plays a physically bloated and morally compromised lawyer who falls under a gypsy curse and suffers dangerous weight loss. The humour, horror and acting are as broad as Burke's prosthetic butt, but it’s fun if you’re in the
right frame of mind. (Alan Morrison)
I The Shining and Thinner are available to buy now, priced £75. 99 and [9. 99
respectively.
humanity, not to mention breathtaking mountain vistas, which never gets boggec down in sentzmentalrty “Tartan £15 99 r’PR,
Anna Karenina
(12) 104 mins fir
Rarely has an adaptatiOn o‘ a literary classic been rendered on screen Wit" such little passion The costumes are detailed, the locations are spiend:d, but director Bernard Rose realiy doesn't nave a clue how to breathe life into the ToltsOy classic Atfred Molina .s great, but everything he does right IS ruined by Sean Bean and Sophie Marceau To be avoided at all costs “Warner £9 99 ’Ai/l
Saint-Ex
(PG) 90 mins * t * fir 1*
Based loosely on the ‘ife of The Little Prince author Antoine De Saint- Exupery, Anand Tucker’s film has Bruno Ganz playing the aviatoraliy-obsessed writer whose wife Consuelo rMiranda Richardson, fears and ioathes his flying UililSlTig all the colours in and Out of the rainbow, and complemented by a Benjamin Pheloung scOre Which puts the iush back into luscious, this is a ravishng experience frorr start to ‘inish. ’Fox World Cinema £14 99 (80/
Winstanley
(PG)141mins* ii *
ln 1649, Gerrard Winstanley fOunoed Tne Diggers, a cOmnnunity baseo 0n eguality where common land COUld be cultivated to suppOrt the workers Of course the landed gentry didn’t agree, and The Diggers' dreams were short-
iived, oart'crularly in a turn 0‘ polrt (a unrest Kevrn Brou'xn‘ov.’ and Andrew Mollo’s film was patched together an amateur cast over a ser es 0‘ weekends h the rnip-70s, but the performances have credib'i ty and the costumes were cooied frorn museum originals However, the f Ann's ODSC‘SSlO" with historical detail g'ves tan educatzor‘ial fee ‘i’l'nstanley's cer‘tra arguments are .70“ rnaoe, and particle-s rnust be drawn In!“ the New Age Travellers 0‘ today This tape also includes a shOrt behrnd-the-scenes documentary 'BFI Video £15 99 ‘Ali'.
Godzilla Movies
U/PG it *
Before the new ‘eature film gobbies up the Summer's box office takings, there's time to catch an altogether more endearing set of Ciodz 31a Out'ngs o" video Seven of the Orig'r‘al Japanese movies from the mid-60s to FTC-705 are being re-reieased to brzng back haoby chem-Ones of men in rubber mOnster S'JiiS and the sheer horror o‘ bad dubbing A Cu't co’lection .v-tt camp overtones, each ‘ifm rs unremittingl‘y repetitr/e, ensuring that my one purchase '3 really necessary 4 Front £5 99 each, AM,-
REVIEWERS THIS ISSUE: Brian Donaldson, Alan Morrison, Peter Ross
STAR RATINGS
t t it ~ * Unmissable
t t w it Very good
ir t it Worth a shot
i t Below average
it You’ve been warned