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r. .. . . . . - i on Your M arks Get Set R acommended DVD rereases : A Clockwork Orange D.oh
(18) 137 mins it Hi it *
Madonna - Music
(PG) 88 mins is fi- x- at “ ~: - r -- -- If your impression of Homer Simpson is as a thuggish drunkard and dollar- worshipping numbskull, as quick With his hands as he is with his lunch, then this latest compilation should cement The PV'SOIIE' - Box Set that View. Themed around athletic " " ' ' ‘ endeavour, two of the episodes see him taking on world heavyweight champion Drederick Tatum (a very thinly disguised Mike Tyson) and Cookie's Fortune upping the family out of Springfield Flam-t and on to Capitol City to pursue a “ baseball career as pre-match dancmg entertainment. Still very funny after all these years. (Fox £14.99)
. (Br'an Donaldson) Stereophonlcs - Performance & Cocktails (12) 93mins r: x x ‘f. i... ' Billed as two former megastars making -
Who'd ever have thought it: ultraviolence available through legal video outlets a return to form, Bow/finger has a lot riding on it, and very nearly succeeds.
Droogs, Beethoven, Burgess, ultraviolence, Nadsat, pop homages, law suits Steve Martin plays Bobby Bowfinger, a , _ and of course Kubrick - you've heard it all before. What you have to ask floundering filmmaker who casts Jerky ' ' ' ' yourself, though is why has so much been written about this cantankerous Jiff (Eddie Murphy) to ’body double’ for director’s only truly British movie? The answer is simple: whichever way you his identical twin brother Kit Ramsey, look at it, A Clockwork Orange is iconic, a glittering diamond from the who is a real megastar This is a sweet treasure trove of 705 British cinema. tale which harks back occasionally to
For the uninitiated: Alex is a Droog, a member of an ultraviolent gang, The Jerk, thOugh it does not guite have "gum?"
: who is captured by the authorities and forced into aversion therapy as part the same comic staying power. A " "
of a government-led initiative to curb youth violence. return to form, if not a return to
This is a film that is as prophetic as it is silly, as disturbing as it is former glories. (Universal '2 for {20’ entertaining. Kubrick had already proved that he was a filmmaker of With Me) iMark Robertson) considerable emotional and stylistic complexity with Dr Strangelove. This is LrEnnui not Burgess' A Clockwork Orange, but Kubrick's, and as such is part Carry _ House 0" flaunt“. Hm On, part 1984, part Lindsay Anderson (it has been suggested that Malcolm (18) 117 mms * 3" 1" is” ' " " ' " »= ' " McDowell's Alex is an extension of his public school revolutionary in Experiencing a mid-life criSis of colossal If. . .). Kubrick uses the text as a forum to question the class values of a proportions, philosophy professor country that was spiralling into economic decline; he knew the MacMillan Martin (Charles Berling) embarks on an years were behind us, but it was almost as if he knew punk, binmen strikes affair with seventeen-year-old Cecilia Wand At war - vommes 1 a 2 and two appalling governments (Callaghan's and Thatcher's) lay ahead. This (Sophie Guillemin). Unopinionated and - : a - - -' .- - - i - - - is a wonderful movie that deserves to be cherished, not vilified. A national carefree, she is a mystery to him, and inheritance that was worth fighting for through Kubrick's self-imposed 25 his need to possess her mind as well as year ban. (Paul Dale) her body drives him into a dangerous I Released on Mon 28 Aug on video rental through Warner. obsession which threatens to
overwhelm him. Guillemin is . .- __ - . - . . ' compelling and convmcing in her acting debut, and Berling turns Out a
- Gershwm and Berlin sOngs and some brilliant performance in this darkly The Green Mlle hefty text abridgements? HaVing a Iarf erotic exploration of lust and Jealousy. (18) 188 mins * t t is the answer. And you will too, (ArtifiCial Eye £15.99) (Kirsty Knaggs) j.' I i. - ‘ ' _ .. again Kings magic realist prison watching Ken and co sing and dance L'fe E I I v I F StESt‘ .vf i, gets respectable treatment from thr0ugh the tale of four young lads . mmfi'mwsfi . Frank Darabont, who also made the who succumb to the power of love. (15) 104 "W15 ’7 * “’~ ~ ‘ ' . , -' very fine Shawshank Redemption. Tom (Fox Pathe) (Miles Fielder) Back in the day, in the 30s, deep in Hanks is an OAP looking back on a America’s SOuth, during the remarkable period in his life - the 30s — _ _ Depression, round Prohibition time, ‘ when he served as Death Row warden A Midsummer nght's Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence phenomenon, the seizing of the to Michael Clark Duncan's giant black Dream land themselves in some deep 'ole shit moment was what they were alI about. (man due to be fried in [the chair I (PG) 116 mins fir * i S}! Murphys suave small-time hustler picks Director Julian Temple outlines the OV'PQ'Y l€i9rl€d IO 83 Old Sparky ) fOr the pocket of Lawrences straight-laced context, the rise and the eventual the rape and murder of two yOung This lavish adaptation of Shakespeare's bank clerk. Thereafter, the pair are implosion of the Pistols Hitherto white girls Great melodrama, even at romantic COmedy is almost Disney-like embrOiled in a spot of bootlegging that unseen footage and frenzied editing an arse-Smarting three hours plus. in its realisation, With magic sparkling lands them in the clinker for life give this a hyperactive feel, rentin'scent (Universal) (Miles Fielder) Out of every frame. An all-star cast, Beginning as Bonn/e And Clyde, Life of the initial energy of the punk 1 : including Michelle Pfeiffer, Calista turns into Cool Hand Luke before attitude. More than anything, this Love S_ Labour 5 LOSt Flockhart, KeVin Kline and Rupert becoming Grumpy Old Men And it's skilfully captures a moment in British (U) 95 mm?) * * * Everett, bring the tale of mischief and surprisingly good. (Universal '2 fOr EZO' culture like few ever have before From the sublime to the ridicuIOus? magic to life perfectly, although with Bowf/nger) (Miles Fielder) rFilmFour £14.99, £19 99 on DVD) Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Flockhart, it has to be said, comes - (Mark Robertson) Hamlet clocked in at four hours — one aCross as Ally McBeal in period The And The Fury for the Shakespeare purists. So, what costume, The detail of the sets and (18) 103 mins " ‘ T” "‘ STAR RATINGS in the name of Yorick's knackers is Ken costumes lS faultless, and the The hyperbole that surrounds the Sex : * Sé‘r”":::)t::e domg turning his beloved Bard's Love’s production is completely enchanting Pistols has been over-played K a mini a shot Labour's Lost into a 30s Hollywood- from beginning to end. (Fox £12.99) throughout the years, as musically they *- ~ Below average style musical, complete With Porter, (Kirsty Knaggs) were really pretty terrible, but the “ YOUW boo” "‘"i'l’wd
2~1Aug 7 Sep 2000 THE lIST 61