Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 44

1 I TODAY'S TEMPO Garry Shandling's savagely satiric 'Larry Sanders' reveals the terror behind the show business smiles. See Sec. 5, pg. 1 M1 OPENING TONSGHT "Dr. Faustus," Ivanhoe Theater, 7 p.m.

4F- I 1 Wednesday, July 19, 1995 This is no whale of a tale Tree Willy 2' lacks the heart that made 1st film work Hevrdejs TTI CONKLIN llMVJ. n.n. Mi Movies Gen. Powell may end his retirement one way or another By Michael Wilmington Tribune Movie Critic Perhaps some sequels are doomed to disappoint "Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home" continues the stirring, watery saga of a boy and his orca, which became one of 1993's surprise summer hits. Its intentions are good, its production expensive.

But, though this second movie brings back many of the original actors and technicians (and situations), the magic and wonder are largely gone. So is the occasional grit of the original story which had street kid Jesse (Jason James Richter) rebelling in his foster home until his love of the amusement park whale Willy helped save Willy from disaster. Gone, too, is Lori Petty as whale trainer Rae. So, even more importantly, is the whale itself: the marvelous performing orca Keiko, whose lively interactions with Jesse were the first movie's heart. Here, Keiko is replaced by anonymous whales in long shots and an animatronic or mechanical Willy in close ones.

And though animatronic whales were used Jason James Richter as Jesse greets Willy and his brother in "Free Willy 2." Keiko, who played Willy In the first film, is replaced with unknown, and even fake, whales. (judiciously) in the first film, here, whenever that overly slick and shiny robot sea-beast shows up, flashing his gums, rolling his eyes or offering Jesse a harmonica, the movie turns ridiculous. Would "Free Willy 2's" makers consider an animatronic "Lassie Come Home?" Or a sequel to "The Black Stallion" with two guys in a horse costume? The fact that the real life Keiko has had well-reported health problems in Mexico only makes his absence here more poignant. "Free Willy 2" not only has an animatronic hero, it has an animatronic script. Dastardly oil companies and reckless tanker captains combine to create a burning oil slick, from which Willy and his family have to be rescued by Jesse, and Jesse by Willy.

There's another unruly kid: Jesse's adorably delinquent half-brother Elvis (Francis Capra). And Michael Madsen and Jayne Atkinson as the Greenwoods, Jesse's foster parents, look on, bemused. etired Gen. Colin Powell shed no light on his political ambitions Tuesday morning in Mc-Cormick Place. But if he had, Mayor Richard Daley was on (What else can they do?) Where the first "Willy" was directed by Simon Wincer, whose credits include TV's "Lonesome Dove," the second has been guided by Dwight Little, whose oeu-vre includes "Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers." Another dubious addition: co-writer John Mattson, who concocted the kittenish kiddie sex comedy "Milk Money." To its credit, this movie has lots of at- tractive coastal scenery, beautifully photographed by Laszlo Ko-vacs.

And when the action gets so fast, furious and loony that we can't clearly see robot Willy or hear the dialogue, the movie has a certain Saturday-afternoon-serial kick to it. "Free Willy" was a movie both children and adults could enjoy. (I sure did.) "Free Willy 2," like Trix, is only for kids. Rating MPAA rating: PG. 'Terminal Cafe' piles on the symbolism and serves it too hot hand for Powell's speech at the sporting goods show.

In the brief A he allowed afterward, Powell who got about $30,000 for the gig said he'd make up his mind about the future after a fall tour to hype his book. Besides politics, he said there was a possibility of work with a charitable foundation. At the very least, we got the feeling Powell's anxious to get out of the house. On the first morning of his retirement from the military two years ago, he said there was this dose of reality: An order from his spouse to fix their broken kitchen sink. Hollywood divine: Bored with O.J.? Another must-watch trial may be headed your way.

Stella Marie Thompson (aka Divine Brown), Hugh Grant's late-night passenger, pleaded innocent Tuesday to misdemeanor lewd conduct in a public place. That means she's headed back to court Aug. 18 for a pretrial hearing. (Now think about the exposure she'll get with a jury trial. And think about the entrepreneurs who can join the one merchant outside the courthouse who hawked T-shirts that read "To Err is Hughman To Forgive is Speaking Of trials: Mel Reynolds' defense lawyer Sam Adam, in a post-hearing press conference Tuesday in the Criminal Courts Building, talked of the allegations that the congressman had sex with a 16-year-old.

"This is 1995. They're adults. Some people have overactive libidos. I don't know if that was true with Mel, but so what," Adam said. "As long as it wasn't against the law, it may be true, I don't know.

But I can't be responsible for his virility, his reputation in that area. Whatever he said and whatever he did, he did." Jury selection begins Wednesday. Center of attention: Lou Rawis and Aid. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) gave Bill By Richard Christiansen Tribune Chief Critic From my second-row seat in the sweltering studio theater of the Bailiwick Arts Center, I looked up to the tech booth and saw that even the man at the light board had been reduced to desperately fanning himself with a program. One by one, the fans in the small auditorium had gone off, leaving program-swishing as the last resort for the brave hearts who gathered there last week for the premiere of "Terminal Cafe." An overheated drama by Jon Tuttle about the denizens of a New Mexico desert town in World War II, "Terminal Theater WW 1 "if i i .1 -f, 7 1 n'r Jr i- If Portraying Beverly Hills teens are Alicia Silverstone (left) as Cher and Stacey Dash as Dionne in "Clueless." 'Clueless' has an idea Biting dialogue, supporting cast keeps new Heckerling film moving Cosby, here for a Navy Pier show, a tour of the South Side site for the center planned in Rawls' name.

Tillman, who said Cosby has agreed to be on the board, told us tentative plans are for the center at 47th and Kino Hrivo tr Movies Cafe" would be hard to sit through under any circumstance. The production is a presentation of SummerNITE, a Northern Illinois University program that presents new works using student and equity actors. Under the direction of Gene Terruso, the performances here reach a mutual level of hysterical frenzy, as each player slams into the tiny diner. There's an interesting, ironic tale to be told in this account of the boom and bust of an old coal-mining town that's supplying fuel for production of the atomic bomb in nearby Los Alamos. Drawing on such past examples of remote desert diner dramas as "The Petrified Forest," Tuttle also loads his play with colorful characters: a skinflint mine operator, a lady of easy virtue who sets up shop in the town, an ambitious young union organizer, his hell-for-leather girlfriend, a salty old codger, the good-hearted proprietress of the diner and the dumb lug she marries.

But not content with that melodramatic mix, Tuttle adds a mumbo-jumbo prologue by a mythic Native American character and a ludicrous epilogue of ghostly visions. It's an unpalatable mishmash of symbolism and realism. See it at your own risk, and even then, make sure you wear loose clothing. "Terminal Cafe" plays through Aug. 13 at the Bailiwick Arts Center, 1229 W.

Belmont Ave. Phone 312-883-1090. who is now doing infomercials." Like other films with plotlines thrown in as filler 'The Thin Man" sequels come immediately to mind what makes "Clueless" work is its clever dialogue, non-stop cut-ups and put-downs, and not-quite-brilliant voice-over observations that fill Cher's days and nights. As in a movie like "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," there is a whole new vocabulary to memorize. (A virgin is "hymenally challenged" and having your period is "surfing the crimson Silverstone shows a genuine comic flair, though better acting days are ahead for her.

She is helped along by a stellar supporting cast, including Wallace Shawn as her debate teacher, and Dan Hedaya as her lawyer father. (Alas, Cher's mother died during a routine liposuction operation.) "Clueless" is no "Fast Times" when it comes to character development or the merging of comedy and drama, and it might have worked better if it had been more story-oriented and plot-centered. But thanks to Hecker-ling's spirited direction and cutting-edge script, it is, "like majorly and furiously golden." Rating: MPAA rating: PG-13 (some strong language, sexual By John Petrakis Special to the Tribune It's always a pleasure to welcome a talented and inventive filmmaker back from a long and undeserved absence, so it's good to see writerdirector Amy Heckerling reappear with her latest film "Clueless." Heckerling really hasn't been gone from the cinema scene it was worse than that. She's spent the last few years writing andor directing the fetid "Look Who's Talking" trilogy the creative equivalent of working in salt mines or beating the drum on a ship full of galley slaves. Heckerling erupted onto the movie scene in 1982 as director of the high-spirited and influential "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," a film that helped launch the careers of Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Eric Stoltz, and of course, Sean Penn.

Heckerling struck again while the iron was hot, but made an unfortunate decision to direct the dismal "Johnny Dangerously," followed by the dreary "European Vacation," which cooled her off considerably and led to her making movies about cuddly babies who sound a lot like Bruce Willis. The films turned a tidy profit, however, which in Hollywood, earns you another chance at something more challenging, and she has found it in "Clueless," a tongue-in-cheek look at contemporary Beverly Hills teens, which owes as much to Martha Coolidge's "Valley Girl" and Michael Lehmann's "Heathers" as to Keeker-ling's own "Fast Times." The pre-release heat on "Clueless" comes from the fact that it stars Alicia Silverstone, the 18-year-old music-video mega-vixen who went from Aerosmith videos to "The Crush" to burgeoning stardom in the blink of a heavily mascaraed eye. Silverstone plays Cher, a slightly pampered 15-year-old who looks great and dresses even better, but whose arid soul yearns to perform good deeds in order to feel complete. She starts by playing Cupid for a couple of her dowdy high school teachers, followed by a stint as guardian angel for the grungy new girl in school. On these missions of mercy, she is assisted by her best friend, Dionne, who is also "named after a famous singer Steve Nidetz On tvradio Cosby be operating by this time next year.

P.S.: Missed Cosby last week at Navy Pier? No prob. He returns to the Chicago area Aug. 19 when the Hollywood Casino-Aurora presents him in two performances at the Paramount Arts Centre. Polpourri: Nearly 20 Russian professors who teach American politics are coming to Chicago next week at the invite of Chicago Election Commissioner Arnette Hubbard to learn more about the city's electoral process State Sen. Emil Jones, fresh from a White House conference call in which he got an advance reading of President Clinton's affirmative action speech planned for Wednesday, said he was "pleased with the message." On the beat: Luke Cresswell, co-founder of the hot percussion troupe Stomp, may be the only person who sees a double-decker bus as a musical instrument To prove it, he'll join members of the troupe that's headed to the Shubert Theatre this fall in front of the theater at noon Monday to tap out rhythms on a double decker for a new performance piece.

Feeling the heat: In the midst of all the stories from the morgue, Chicago newsies couldn't help noticing that one of the workers there and pictured in The Tribunewas Lucius Robinson, a man used to heat of a different kind. Robinson was a bailiff convicted as one of the key figures in the "Greylord" scandal that rocked the city's judicial system in the '80s. INCHngS: American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall chairs Little City's NBA dinner Sept. 16 in the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Wednesday birthdays: Vikki Carr, 54; Ille Nastase, 49 Looks like Damon Wayans may team with Adam Sandler to do an action comedy for Universal called "Bulletproof." HitSVille: ABC has ordered 13 episodes of a new Muppets TV show as a midseason replacement.

Like the original "The Mup-pet Show," there will be "guest stars, exploding penguins and dancing mice." No timeslot or name yet, though Gonzo's suggested "Roseanne's Home Improvements She Wrote." Steve Nidetz is taking the day off. John Prine brings his Chicago sense of humor home By Greg Kot Tribune Rock Critic You've met him countless times at the corner tap. John Prine is the guy at the end of the bar, cigarette smoldering in the ashtray and a half-empty glass of beer in front of him, trying to make sense of the world with a wry grin and a dash of homespun wisdom. In concert he sings of ordinary people in extraordinary times. "Just go on out and do the best you can," he advises.

He ferrets out laughter in tragedy, zings darts at the Achilles' heels of the pompous, and plays two or three chords really well. Old folks, beatup survivors and hapless lovers are his heroes, and Prine's nicotine-stained Maywood drawl is their moments at the Skyline while crystallizing the allure of Prine's art. "Perfectly crafted popular hit songs npver use the wrong rhymeYou'd think that waitress could get my order right the first time," Prine deadpanned on "Ain't Hurtin' Nobody." On "Lake Marie," which got a bombastic rock workout, complete with extended Larry Crane guitar solo, Prine sang, "Many years later we found ourselves in CanadaTrying to' save our marriageAnd perhaps catch a few fishWhatever came first" Poignant, yet comical that's an elusive combination to master. But it's at the heart of Prine's appeal, and the reason his best songs still will matter years from now. Unlike Bob Dylan, whose phrasing he can't match, Prine isn't always necessarily the best interpreter of his songs.

One missed the bluesy inflections of Bonnie Raitt on "Angel," and the dark, lonesome beauty of Steve Goodman's voice on "Donald and Lydia." And he occasionally offers too-close-for-comfort hints of Jimmy Buffett's party music for aging yuppies on such tunes as "New Train." Yet there's no substitute for Prine's deeply Chicago sense of humor, right down to the mischievous little guitar lick at the heart of "The Sins of Memphisto." And while it's no match for his 1991 near-masterpiece, "The Missing Years," Prine's new album, "Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings," provided two of the finest voice. Out of such modest gifts Prine fashioned another casually resonant evening of music Tuesday at the Skyline Stage on Navy Pier. Backed by a five-piece band, Prine rocked harder than at any time since the neo-rockabilly days of his "Storm Windows" tour 15 years ago. But there was also a jaunty string-band version of "Fish and Whistle," and he wound things down for an extended solo acoustic set that revisited the Earl of Old Town days, with "Sam Stone" and "Angel From Montgomery," among others. 1 9S jflSSftiKS -flS-pSSfe.