The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 92

F14 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1996 Cr LOS ANGELES TIMES 'ENGLISH' mmm imp mnm 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 two is one of great edgy relationships, a tense forbidden love that intensifies as the threat of war increases. Rising to crescendos of emotion usually reached only by tenors and sopranos, these characters are the beneficiaries of the luminous writing of the novel and screenplay as well as the expert performances of the actors, especially Scott Thomas. For while "The English Patient" is hard to imagine without Fiennes restrained hauteur and heartbreaking good looks, it is Scott Thomas who makes the strongest impression. Usually in the position of stealing a picture with her compelling supporting work (as she did in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Richard III" and "Angels and Scott Thomas is finally given the opportunity to star here. With her dyed blond hair creating a softer Dietrich look, she gives a gorgeous and magnetic performance that adds unanticipated new dimensions to an already formidable talent Finally it comes down to writer-director Minghella, whose modest debut film, "Truly.

Madly, Deeply," didn't hint at the command of dreamlike mood and atmosphere on a large scale he demonstrates here. Though it may sound excessive at 2 hours and 42 minutes, "The English Patient" captivates as only the grandest and most consuming passions can. The heart is an organ of fire indeed. NIPAA rating: for sexuality, soma violence anil language. Timet guidelines: several scenes of notable liiiff 0 0 0 0 THE NEW YORK TIMES JtnetMttlin "Passionate.

Sweeping. Entertaining. A robust, roaringly good performance by CBS-TV David Sheehan "Compelling. LiamNeeson is sure to win an Oscar nomination." LOS ANGELES TIMES Kenneth Tunui "Romance, passion and excitement Powerful and provocative" TIME Richard Schickel "Entertaining! Neil Jordan is a masterly craftsman. Visually impressive.

LiamNeeson is near perfect" mass of scar tissue once was and what the life he can barely remember was like. Count Laszlo de Almasy (Fiennes) is a Hungarian explorer, an erudite and aloof old desert hand who's a key participant in an international expedition sent out by Britain's Royal Geographic Society in the 1930s to discover and map the far reaches of the Sahara, including the remarkable Cave of the Swimmers and its wall paintings. Stiff, unbending and rusty at the social graces, Almasy doesn't know how to respond when his group is joined not only by jaunty Englishman Geoffrey Clifton (Colin Firth) but by his confident and beautiful wife, Katharine (Scott Thomas). Her fearlessness sets something off in him, as his self-possession is a challenge to her, and their attraction for each other, especially when she reads a provocative section of Herodotus by firelight, is not in doubt. Alternating with this in Walter Murch's complex editing scheme are increasing complexities at the monastery in Italy, where two men arrive independently.

Caravaggio and Kirpal Singh, known as Kip, are considerably more developed in the novel, but even in their abbreviated movie state they are essential to the story's development. Carravagio (Willem Dafoe) is a thief turned intelligence operative who comes from the same Montreal neighborhood as Hana. Mysterious about his background and the cause of an injury to his hands, he is surprisingly insistent about finding out as much as anyone can about the English patient Kip (Naveen Andrews) is a Sikh serving as a lieutenant in the British Army with a specialty in bomb disposal. Handsome, fanatical about his work, he becomes attracted to Hana, and the course of their relationship is a counterpoint to the increasingly complicated and passionate liaison between Almasy and Katharine. Born of heat, lust and dislocation, the romance between those Continued from Fl Poirit A to B.

Delicately calibrated between the present of Italy in -1944 and the past of North Africa in the late 1930s, the film's John Seale-photographed images create a nonlinear dream-time sensibility, mysterious, exotic, not quite of this world. And, right from the start, "The English Patient" insists on patience where specifics are concerned. The film opens with a ravishing visual prelude, as a Tiger Moth biplane, a man and a woman in its open cockpits, goes down in flames in the trackless desert. Who these people are, what they were attempting and how it relates to the magisterially unfolding plot are questions whose answers are doled out with artful restraint. That restraint is made inevitable by the partial amnesia of the horribly burned pilot, glimpsed being tended to by Arabs just after his crash and in an Allied hospital train in Italy near the end of World War II.

Known as the English patient because of the witty asides a bit of toast, my friend-butter me and slip a poached egg on he makes in that language, the man remembers his past only in fragmentary, ambiguous flashbacks. Caring for the English patient on hospital train is Hana (Binoche), a young French Canadian nurse from Montreal. Her essential goodness nearly destroyed by combat's unending cruelty and convinced by a series of deaths that she must be cursed, Hana decides to opt out of the nearly finished war. Taking the patient, her last remaining connection to life, and a large supply of morphine with her, she moves into an abandoned monastery to await his death. The English patient's only possession is a worn copy of the Greek Herodotus.

Reading to him from its pages stirs his memory, and gradually we discover both who the man under that 'JAM' Continued from Fl and his vast number of artists and technicians. The idea has been to bring back the whole Looney Tunes crew, right down to Tweety and Pepe Le Pew, and place them in a contemporary setting. The special effects, created by Cinesite under Ed Jones' direction, are suitably impressive. 1 "Space Jam" has Jordan playing himself, announcing his 1993 retirement from basketball and his switch to baseball, with its less-than-stellar results the source of much good-humored joking. Meanwhile, on another planet the evil promoter Swackhammer (the gleeful voice of Danny DeVito) decides that his Moron Mountain theme park could be perked up by the Looney Tuners and thereby dispatches a five-member alien team to Earth to kidnap Bugs and company.

Thanks to a convenient sense of fair play, the aliens, known as Nerdlucks, agree to a basketball game to decide the Looneys' fate. But there's a hitch: The diminutive AIDAN STEPHEN ALAN QUINN REA RICKMAN LIAM NEESON NODUM www.michaelcollirui.com Soundtrack Album on Atlantic i m1 WESTWOOD Mann Regent 310289 MANN Dally 1:30 4:15 7:15 10:15 PM $2.00 parking alter 5:00 PM in PrMlege Porklng $1.00 refunded wlrh paid admission. 'CENTURY CITY AMC Century 14 310553-8900 Dally 8:00 It 10:55 PM 4 hours tree validated parking with ticket purchase. A ANAHEIM HILLS SoCal's Cinema polls 714970-6700 lAKERSHELD United Artists East Hills Mall 805872-9976 BRU United Artists Marketplace C0LT0N General Cinema Roncho 909370-2085 0LENDALE General Cinema Glendale Central 818549-9950 (PtmmM Hi Sttra) RMtTHtCTBD 3E a it lammm 4t HERM0SA PALM DESERT Metropolitan's Cinema 3 619322-3456 PALM SPRINGS Metropolitan's Courtyard 10 6197322-3456 PASADENA Mann Hastings Ranch 8187351-8939 PASADENA United Artists Marketplace 818795-1386 PUENTE HILLS AMC Plaza 10 8167964-2240 BOSTON GLOBE frcm "Grand, handsome and stirring, as rich and sweeping as 'Lawrence of Arabia SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER William Arnold "The one to beat for the 1996 Best Picture Oscar'." CHICAGO TRIBUNE Michael Wilmington Neil Jordan's epic may well be the movie of the year. Stunning." GOOD MORNING AMERICA )oel Siege! "Terrific, powerful and stirring, Great filmmaking!" "Two thumbs up!" JULIA md ROBERTS Classics RIVERSIDE VALENCIA SoCal's Edwards Valencia Canyon Crest Cinema Town Center 1 0 909682-6900 805287-1740 A SANTA ANA AMC Main Place 714972-8500 SANTA BARBARA Metropolitan's Fiesta 8057963-9503 SHERMAN OAKS General Cinema Sheimon Oaks 8167986-9660 SIMI VALLEY Edwards SlnH Volley Plaza 10 Cinemas 8055204620 A THOUSAND OAKS Mann JHX Jams Marketplace 9 VENTURA Mann Buenaventura 805658-6544 V1CT0RVILLE AMC Victor Valley 10 619241-8400 (PfMMM III Mint) A WOODLAND HILLS General Cinema FallbrookMaH 8187347-6091 UL in 1 1 1 1 605374-9656 PrwwtnOh nHoctaYiTwof I CHECK IMATtf MMCTOMIS Cttti FOt IH0WTMES turn uuvjun iw miv trju rai lt40.4tlO.7KX) 69:30 PM 1 wff SANTA MONICA sad aX 'KD $9 xmm WEST HOLLYWOOD Clneplex Beverly Center 310777 FILM 172 Dally 1:00 4:00 7:00 9:45 PM Ffl-Sof Late Show 12:30 AM SANTA MONICA Clneplex Odeon Broadway Cinemas 31CV777-HLM 176 Dally 1:00 4:00 7:00 10:00 PM IONS BEACH AMC Marino Pacitlca 310493-5521 MARINA DEL REY Clneplex Odeon Marina Marketplace Cinemas 310777-FILM 230 NEWPORT BEACH Edwards Udo 714673-8350 ORANGE Captain Bloods Village Theatre 714538-3545 HUNTINGTON BEACH Edwards Huntington Cinema 714848-0388 IRVINE Edwards Park Place 10 714440-0880 IA0UNA NK3UEL Edwards Rancfio NtgueJ 8 Theatres 714831-0446 LAKEWOOO Pacific's Lakewood Center South 310634-9281 RE DONDO BEACH General Cinema GaHervj at South Bay 310542-4361 ILII I III NOPUMlOCVPOIftCtOW Ji nil 'The English Patient' Ralph Fiennes Almasy Juliette Binoche Hana WMemDafoe Caravaggo Kristin Scott Thomas Katharine Onion Naveen Andrews Kip Colin Firth Geoffrey OWon A Saul ZaenU production, released by Miramax Firms.

Director Anthony Minghella. Producer Saul ZaenU. Executive producers Bob Weinstein, Harvey Wetnstein, Scott Greenstem. Screenplay Anthony Minghella, based on the novel by Michael Ondaaye. Onematographer John Seale.

Editor Walter Much. Costumes Ann Roth. Music Gabriel Yared. Production design Stuart Craig. Art director AureNo Crugnola.

Set decorators AureJk) Crugnola, Stephanie McMillan. Running time: 2 hours, 42 minutes. mAt selected theaters throughout Southern California. Bird and an uncredited Bill Murray add to the laughs as Jordan's golf partners, and Billy West heads the fine cast of the cartoon voices, playing Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. "Space Jam" is no "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," but it works well enough.

MPAA rating: P6, for some mild cartoon language. Times guidelines: The film Is suitable tor all ages. 'Space Jam' WaynelMfM StMPodou nwewRento Jnstta My V.V.V.V.V.Vke'( bigs finer Fa Dn Bradley Voice of DttfyOMnu Devi, DamyDeVrto VefceefSwirlilminiif A Warner Bros, presentation of an Ivan Reit-manDavid FaUt-Ken Ross production. Director Joe Pytka. Producers Joe Medjuck and Daniel Goldberg.

Executive producers Oavid Falk and Ken Ross. Screenplay by Leo BenvenutJ A Steve Rudmck and Timothy Harris A Herschel Weingrod. Onematographer Michael Chapman. Animation producer Ron Tlppe. Animation directors Bruce Smith and Tony Cervone.

Animation art director BUI Perkins. Special Irve-actlonant-mation visual effects created by Cinesite under the direction of Ed Jones. Editor Sheldon Kahn. Costumes Manene Stewart. Music James Newton Howard.

Mar-cus Miller. Production designer Geoffrey Kkkland. Art director David Klassen. Set designer Marco Rubeo. Set decorator Jennifer Williams.

Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes. mln general release throughout Southern California. SANTA MONICA C1NEPLEX ODEON BROADWAY CINEMAS (310) 777-flLM 176 DoHy 1:15 3:30 5:45 8:00 10:15 PM (213) 664-2169 a'" mmmmmmm Nerdlucks have magically siphoned off the talent of NBA stars Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson and Shawn Bradley and morph them into the Monstars, a team of giants that loom like a stand of redwoods. You've guessed it: Bugs figures that only Michael Jordan can save their day. Adults will know where "Space Jam" is heading, although they may need to guide younger kids through plot convolutions along the way.

Still, the filmmakers make the getting there pretty entertaining, though scarcely subtle, taking care to send the message to youngsters that it takes heart as much as skill to win. Pytka, whose first feature was the hilarious but neglected 1989 horse -racing comedy "Let It Ride," has enabled Jordan to relax and play himself without a trace of self-consciousness. His warmth and unpretentiousness set off his formidable physical presence and grace. Wayne Knight plays an unctuous baseball team publicist and Theresa Randle is seen briefly as Jordan's wife. Former basketball star Larry "Gena Rowlands delivers a wonderful detailed portrait.

She effuses a tenderness, humor and joy that are utterly winning." Stephen Holden, THE NEW YORK TIMES "MARVELOUS! Gena Rowlands is spectacular." John Anderson, NEWSDAY wingers' scores! Ifs a terrific new comedy! the vast thicket of rules and rituals a guy has to observe to achieve romantic success in the '90s. He's got to approach a girl at just the right moment. He can't be too tentative or too aggressive. And when he's won the key to the kingdom her phone number! he can't call too soon. The beauty of 'Swingers' lies in the irony of its title: Despite their lounge-lizard bjjt EACH AMC 714529-9036 IUR1ANK AMC Medio Center 8 818953-9800 Hermosa 6 Theatres 310318-8000 mm- SOUTH PASADENA landmark's Riatto (818) 799-9567 WOODLAND HILLS AMC Promenade 16 (818)883-2AMC UNHOOK posing, these guys will never really live up to their Rat Pack dreams.

They're looking for action in an era when talk is what counts. A Vorking from Favreau's exuberantly witty script, director Doug Liman snakes his camera through parties and back-alley lounges, staging sly STARS Nick Cassavetes MoiraKeily JJCI LANDMARK'S SAMUEL GOLDWYN PAVILION CINEMAS ntLL-U WEST LOS ANGELES (310) 475-0202 mm mmmnmi rn, non-inn mm mm Sat Sun visual satirical allusions to Reservoir Dogs 'GoodFellas', and 'Saturday Night Fever'. He captures something hilarious and touching a new attitude of wistful modesty on the part of young macho cruisers, a recognition that what works today is raw testosterone in a velvet so exhilarating you want to applaud. Score: A from by owen gleiberman Own OteiWrntw, tHTmumtHT WttKtY A sci-fi zooscape designed by Dr. Seuss.

cose EETWiSTWCOOBX UNITED ARTISTS WESTWOOD (310)4754444 Do9y 12:30 3:00 5:30 7:45 10:10 PM sk BURBANK AMC Media Center 8 (818)9534800 WESTHOLLYW00O LAEMMLES SUNSET 5 (213) 84835CO DoHy 12:45 3:05 5:30 8:00 1 10:15 PM Ftlt Sot Lote Show 12:30 AM Free Periling m. mT Glt fiwerj "'as n-s ENCIN0 Loemmte's Town Center 5 COSTA MESA Edwards Town Center (714)751-4184 (818)981-9811 NOW PLAYING! LANDMARK'S NUWILSHIRE (310) 394-8099 Dllv 6:15 7:15 ft PM Pflggaigr 4'll?.