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Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 268

Publication:
Arizona Republici
Location:
Phoenix, Arizona
Issue Date:
Page:
268
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

Yomnie Daps HBO's original film 'Apology' shows pay service at its worst Commentary HBO's production of Apology features an unsympathetic heroine (Lesley Ann Warren) and a grim police detective (Peter Weller). By TOM SHALES Washington Post WASHINGTON Time Inc. has its own little corner of the sky, literally. and woe unto trespassers. "Captain Midnight," the running and indignant video engineer who broke into the Home Box Office satellite signal last April, has been identified and captured.

His sky pirate days are over. As a subscriber to both HBO and Cinemax, its sister service, one might say that it would help if the signal were interrupted more often, not less. What HBO pumps out is closer to an embarrassment than an embarrassment of riches. At least ABC, CBS and NBC let you have their junk for free. Dreary though its recycled theatrical movies may be.

HBO's original programming tends to be drearier. Currently HBO is featuring two originals that show it at its best and at its worst. You do wonder if HBO programmers know the difference. Apology, which premiered recently on the service, is a miserably nasty and vapid thriller about a ditzy New Yorker who is pursued by one of film history's most boring homicidal maniacs. HBO has changed the umbrella title of its original movies from "HBO Premiere Films" to "HBO Pictures," but it looks as though whatever they're called, they're still going to be mostly motley clunkers.

Apology beseeches our concern on behalf of a patently unsympathetic heroine, a smug and foolhardy artist played by Lesley Ann Warren, who obstructs justice and then shrieks at the consequences. She is constructing an art piece built around taped, anonymous phone "confessions" solicited by posters. One night a caller confesses to mass murder. She couldn't care less until she herself is threatened. The murders, in the pointlessly perverse script by playwright Mark Medoff.

are particularly gross. A deranged psychotic is killing and castrating homosexuals. This detail, and lots of blood, are included for purely lurid purposes. They have no real bearing on the plot. A grim and emaciated Peter Weller plays a police detective who tolerates insuft'erahle indifference on the part of the artist and then, naturally, beds her.

Foul language, violence and miscellaneous kinks fill up the film's running time. Toronto, where it's much cheaper to film, plays New York City, but not very convincingly. HBO may owe its subscribers an apology, but it owes nobody an Apology. There have been some good HBO movies. Sakharov was a little ponderous, but it also seemed provocative.

Finnegan. Begin Again was a delightful romantic comedy. By and large, though, the batting average is very low. even lower than Hollywood's record when it comes to making films. When it comes to recording live concerts by pop stars.

HBO's On Location specials are the other side of the coin. They give viewers the chance to see extended performances by such diverse entertainers as Tina Turner. Bette Midler, Robin Williams and George Carlin. The latest of the On Location shows, Robert Klein on ViGUi'-T3 l08f- Broadway, delighted the heck out of me. But I am an unabashed, or is it abashed or just Robert Klein fan.

Like Apology, the Robert Klein show will play through August, and unlike Apology, it's an hour well spent. Klein whirls rapid-fire through a haystack of comical topics that range from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (yes, a nuclear disaster can be made comical) to pubescent fantasies regarding Annette Funicello knew who she and though some of his material dates to prehistoric times, most of it is severely funny. Yideocassette piracy is a federal crime, Klein notes, one "appoximately equal in severity to tearing the tag off your mattress." Wonder what Klein would think of Captain Midnight and his unlawful penetration of private air space? The Federal Communications Commission tracked down Captain Midnight and found him to be John R. MacDougall, an engineer with a home satellite-dish business in Ocala, Fla. MacDougall was fined S5.000 and given one year unsupervised probation, both far short of the $100,000 fine and year in jail that are the maximum penalties for "broadcasting without a license." Little real harm appears to have been done by Captain Midnight, but HBO chairman Michael Fuchs was happy to see him apprehended.

"Yes. we're glad he got caught." Fuchs said. "That was not a very funny evening for us. What got lost in all this was the enormous danger of what was going on up there. These are enormouslv expensive pieces of real estate." Communications satellites are expensive pieces of real estate.

But they could be something more. They could he delivering us from television banality and mediocrity. Instead, for the most part, they just deliver more. Ui VWON Tuf api7Ca RtP-jPliC PAC-F 3.

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Pages Available:
5,580,395
Years Available:
1890-2024