Poughkeepsie Journal from Poughkeepsie, New York • Page 3D

A 1 Willis wpyvs 'era in the action packed, exciting 'Die Hard' ByMlkeCldonl 'Cuaett Newt Service With the intensity of ''Aliens" and the wit of "RoboCop," "Die Hard" emerges the surprise action movie smash of the summer, Who could have expected balding and scrawny Bruce Willis smirking star of TVs "Moonlighting" and a big screen alumnus of such tepid (are as "Blind Date" and to pull this off? "Die Hard" Is fast, furious and incredible fun. On the surface, it's a slnglecell action flick that seems tailor made for Arnold Schwarzenegger. But hold on. This has a brainy, complicated script with dialogue that Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Chuck Norris could not have wrapped their muscular mouths around. As contemporary action films go, "Die Hard" makes "Predator," "Rambo" and "Missing in Action" look like Tupperware parties.

In to the action, "Die Hard' recharges thaflong dead ultimate guilty pleasurerthe disaster flick. "Die Hard" is, itself, a guilty pleasure an update of such films as 1974's "The Towering Inferno." And you can draw a number of disaster film parallels: there's a savethe day hero, complete with a personal dilemma; there's the catas; trophr, the hold onto your seat rescue, and a barrelful of one dimensionaldimensional supporting characters. John McClane (Willis) is a New York City detective who's in Los Angeles to visit his kids and estranged corporate hotshot wife (Bonnie Bede lia). It's Christmastime, there's an office party in the new corporate Film review skyscraper. And knock, knock party crashers! It's those darned terrorists, armed with more than mistletoe.

They've got an intricate plan to hold the party goers hostage for some $600 million ransom. What the bad gays don't know will hurt them. McClanVnas sneaked off to the top of the building. Now, he's planning to foil the terrorists' practically foolproof plot "Die Hard" gives us point blank terrorized victims, foul language and more fireworks than the Fourth of July. Equally explosive is Willis, who acts as if his life depends on it.

This is the film that proves that he's more than moonlighting in the movies. The twist is that McClane is isolated throughout most of the movie; forced to create relationships between himself, the terrorist leader (Alan Rickman) and a sympathetic 'LA. cop (Reginald Vel Johnson) all over a walkie talkie. For Willis, the acting challenge is akin to what Bob Hoskins had in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" that is, doing monologues that appear to be dialogues. "Die Hard" triumphs because Willis, Rickman and Veljohnson pull it off.

Of course, they'd all be sunk without a script an often sly, always engaging mix of banter and action from first timer Jeb Stuart and Steven E. De Souza Running "Die Hard" leaves no loose ends, even if it. does leave BedeUa and a few lesser 'supportingictdnT with too little to do. Combine cast, script and ever re LaaLLIHR vg "(rJaaaaaaaaaLLILILIB aaaaaaaaaaaaaeak 4 jV nwlakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaM AK laW8BaaaaaaaaaaaaaaLiB BII ilia Iffll HP' Vl Bruce Willis, above, stars as NYPD detective John McLane, who is the only hope for" a groupjqf hostages trapped in a Los Angeles office building when it Is seized by terrorists on Christmas Eve, in the new, action packed thriller "Die Hard." '1 Friday. July 22, 1988 Poughkeepsle Journal 3D 4.

Film review ady direction from John McTiernan with action flick technicals like we haven't seen since "Aliens." It's clear that audiences will get a big charge out of this "Die Hard." "DIE HARD" Is playing at Cinema' 6 in Kingston and Galleria Cinema 8 in Poughkeepsle. 'High Season is a winner By Kevin Thomas Lot Alleles Timet "High.Season" is a. summer for sophisticates, a contemporary British variation on "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" set down in an irresistibly sun baked and ancient Greek village on the bland of Rhodes. No wonder everyone gets carried away in a highly sensual atmosphere of heat and beauty: those quaint chalk white buildings, that'blue, blue sea and all Ural ouzo and retsina overflowing. Visitors and inhabitants alike may get woozy, but writer directordirector Clare Peploe never loses her focus or her light touch even when she is being serious.

"High Season" exudes spontaneity even though a sizable cast had to be orchestrated through a thicket of complications. At the' center of much swirling, heady activity is a true charmer, Jacqueline Bisset, never more ravishing or relaxed. She is leathering, a photographer whose coffee table book on Greek ruins has proved to be a success and who now worries about how she is going to hold on to her airy mountain top villa. She has a pretty, sweet teen age daughter named Chloe (Ruby Baker) and a nearby ex husband, Patrick (James Fox), a womanizer and a' sculptor with whom she clashes over matters of art as with everything else. Katherine is visited by a cherished old friend and mentor, Basil (Sebas tianShaw), a distinguished art historian, 'Who may have a solution to her problem.

Also newly arrived are a young married couple, Rick (Kenneth Branagh) and Carol (Lesley in a knockout film debut), who have thick British working class accents and are ostensibly on a sec ond honeymoon. They are given shelter reluctantly by Katherine's friend and neighbor Penelope (Irene Papas), a fiery Greek widow who worships her, dead husband and is dismayed by her son's (Paris Tselios)deterrnination to cash in on the tourist tradcj Showing up later on is Robert Stephens as a hila riouslyoily Fifth Avenue art dealer. Almost no one except the straight forward Katherine is quite what he or she seems, and even Katherine is prepared to bend her principles in order to survive. The point, of course, is not the plot that Peploe and her co writer brother Mark have such fun with, but how its machinations allow them to reveal to us so much amusing'and sometimes touching behavior. i If Katherine and BjisiLareJjgures of gallantry and class of immense hkability (no matter what they do or have done), Rick and Carol are laughably innocent.

Yet there is no con descension toward them or toward the severe Penelope, who is too hearty and self knowing to be a stereotypical black clad peasant. Even Patrick is so essentially good naturednatured and unpretentious that Katherine still loves him. Peploe touches upon the evils of" commercialism in art and of tourism in Greece, but only on the run; she is not about to belabor anything in such sly and delectable circumstances. It is no wonder "High Season" works so well, for it has been made by people of distinction and accom plishment, starting with Bisset and with Peploe, whose witty, Oscar nominated 30 minute" "Couples and Robbers" served as a most jTrom ising warm up for her feature direc torial debut HIGH SEASON is playing at Upstate Films in Rhinebeclc. Show times are to nia.ht Sat.1 7, 9i30 p.m.j Sun.

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