The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 393

ENTERTAINMENTTHE ARTS TV LISTINGS CALENDAR SAN DIEGO COUNTY Cos Angeles Slimes FRIDAY 1992 HIGHLIGHTS HOWARD ROSENBERG A House Full of Stand-Up I Comics FRANK CONNOR Daniel Day-Lewis in "The Last of the The whole panoply of Saturday matinee emotions is given a new lease on life. MOVIE REVIEW Hair-Raising 'Mohicans' cinematographer Dante Spinotti, Mann has given this film the look of an old-fashioned big -screen epic, grandly taking in everything from thunderous waterfalls to silent leafy glades. The look is not the only thing old-fashioned on the screen. For Mann's "Mohicans" is awash with such tried and true frontier moments as savvy scouts staring intently at footprints and wily American Indians leaping out of ambush with literally hair-raising intentions. Honor and treachery, savagery and self-sacrifice, in fact the whole panoply of Saturday matinee emotions, has been remarkably adrenalized and given a new and vigorous lease on life.

Also pumped up to new heights are the battle scenes no self-respecting epic can do without. Fluidly shot and crisply edited (by Please see F17 SAN DIEGO COUNTY to squeeze out of thematically familiar material. Starring a lean and steely-eyed Daniel Day-Lewis, "The Last of the Mohicans" is unashamedly based more on the Randolph Scott-starring 1936 version than the original James Fenimore Cooper novel (to which it bears no more than a fondly distant relationship). It takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian Wars, when those two sides united in an attempt to drive the British, who had tribal allies of their own, out of the North American continent. Set on what was then the frontier of Upstate New York (and filmed in the old -growth forests of North Carolina), "Mohicans" (throughout San Diego County) is filled from the opening shot with spectacular natural vistas.

Working with San Diego County OLD-FASHIONED VALUES: "The Last of the Mohicans" is a fast and brutal look at romance and savagery during the French and Indian wars. Reviewed by Kenneth TuraO- Fl OVEBREACHER: Billy Crystal not only stars in "Mr. Saturday Night," he debuts in it as a director. His aims are much more ambitious than just pulling in smiles, but it is in trying to attain those aims that he overreaches himself. Reviewed by Kenneth Turan.

Fl The South African musical "Sarafina!" now expanded into a vibrant and memorable film by its inspiring writer-composer, Mbongeni Ngema is a joyous response to a desperate and deadly situation: apartheid, martial law and riots in Soweto in the mid-'70s. Reviewed by Michael Wilmington. F6 BIDE: Since saxo- list Dave Koz first played iDhrey's Concerts by the last year he has enjoyed a i career ride. Koz returns to for two shows to-nifht and plays Culbertson Winery in Temecula on Sunday. Fl DEfflCIOUS: "Innocent Blood," a vamjjre comedy as funny as it is gns is sparked by delicious performances by Anne Parillaud as a gorgtSous, sultry vampire; by Anthony La Paglia as a decent, courageous undercover cop, and above all By Robert Loggia as a Pittsburgh Mafioso.

Reviewed by Kevin ThoMas. F18 JD' RESTORATION: Yves bet's 1953 "The Proud Ones," iifully restored and revived by Scorcese, retains its power fcmantic yet gritty depiction of utiful Frenchwoman awak- eninjf while quarantined in a Mexi can coastal village. Reviewed by Kevin Thomas. F16 DEALMAKERS: "Mistress," starring Robert Wuhl and Martin Landau, is a pokey, occasionally hilarious satire of low-budget Hollywood deal-making. Reviewed by Peter Rainer.

F6 WHAT'S DOING: The San Diego County weekend guide includes listings for theater, classical and pop music, comedy and film. F29A An arts galleries listing appears on F29B Elsewhere GETTING SERIOUS: About 700 Hollywood players gathered to eat andtoarty at the second annual Environmental Media Awards cer- emqlw and to demonstrate mat, on andMf screen, the visual media are takA seriously the crises affecting the Bvironment. F22 REDEWS OVERDONE: Tonight oversold, oveSooked premiere of NBC's "WJt reviews the deaB of Rick Nelson in a 19Ho plan crash. Reviewed by Howard Rosflberg. F3Z INX aM um wad Take my one-liner.

I Please. NBC devoted an hour Thursday night to celebrating the 20th birthday of the Comedy Store. Hollywood's famed night club on the Sunset Strip featuring stand-up comics. The timing was perfect, for television has become its own Comedy Store, a place where i former or present stand-up co medians now have starring roles in at least 11 prime-time sitcoms. To sav nothing of the prolifera Hon of comics as talk-show hosts (Jay Leno.

Arsenio Hall, David Letterman. Jenny Jones and! Whoopi Goldberg are some) and! weathercasters (Fritz Coleman! and Christopher Nance on KNBC-TV Channel 4). And don forget the comics who headline HBO and Showtime specials or appear on the Arts Entertainment network series "An Evening at the Improv," the Fox series "Comedy Strip Live" and MTV's "Half-Hour Comedy Hour." Stand-up comedy has been a sitcom prep school for years. Bill Cosby whose present hosting of the syndicated game show "You Bet Your Life" follows his long run on "The Cosby Show" got his start as a stand-up come dian, for example. So did Don Adams Redd i Foxx and Freddie Prinze and the Gabe Kaplan Back, Jimmie Walker and other TV golden oldies.

But the trend has now greatly accelerated. Thus, it was no accident that Fox's recent Emmy telecast gratingly sounded at times like a Battle of the Network Comics, Please see COMICS, F34 MOVIE REVIEW New Crystal Film Funny but Flawed Comedy: Added wrinkles detract from 'Mr. Saturday a story of an aging comic. Bv KENNETH TURAN 1 i'mes film critic There comes a time in every comic's--, life when being funny is not when the desire to show the world that a sensitive soul beats under the savvy one-liners becomes overpowering. That SAN DIEGO COUNTY time has come to Billy Crystal in the form of "Mr.

Saturday Night," and one reluctantly wishes that it hadn't. In putting together this look at half a century in the life and times of battling comic Buddy Young a man who, as the publicity nicely puts it, "fights and claws his way to the middle," Crystal has been i shrewd enough not to neglect his roots, and "Mr. Saturday Night" (throughout Sam Diego County) never shortchanges thei humor. Quite the contrary. Written by the very hot team of Lowells Ganz and Babaloo Mandel League off Their Own," "City Slickers," "Parent -J Please see CRYSTAL, F20 is free.

POP MUSIC: I'nrci if ved Jackhammer Albeit self-consciously, rock fans nurtured on pre-punk rock 'n' roll might be inclined to parrot their parents' admonitions to "turn down that noise" when they hear bands like Sonic Youth. The efforts of so-called "alternative" rock groups of this ilk seem predicated on the belief that unrelieved surges of over-the-edge, wall-of-squall guitar distortion, when accompanied by atonal Please see BEST BETS, F19 By KENNETH TURAN TIMES FILM CRITIC 'he Last of the Mohicans" comes at you like a tomahawk. Hard, fast and brutal, it slashes at your throat and just about leaves you for dead. Undeniably exciting as this definitely is, however, its impact comes at the expense of some of the gentler virtues, qualities that even top-drawer barn -burners really shouldn't ignore. Director Michael Mann, executive producer of "Miami Vice" and responsible for such excellent but little-seen features as "Thief" and "Manhunter," is a filmmaker of considerable gifts.

His movies are so supercharged with intensity and feeling they just about quiver with excitement, leaving us to wonder at how much juice he has been able Busy and Loving It Music: Saxophonist Dave Koz, who will play at Humphrey's and in Temecula, isn't stressed by his budding stardom. By DIRK SUTRO SPECIAL TO THE TIMES SAN DIEGO Saxophonist Dave Koz's self-titled debut recording has sold 300,000 copies in two years, but Koz says he isn't freaked by the fantastic arc of SAN DIEGO COUNTY his career. Instead of becoming stressed by his relentless schedule, Koz, who plays Humphrey's Concerts by the Bay tonight and Culbertson Winery in Temecula on Sunday afternoon, says he enjoys the perks of budding stardom. Such as his standing weekly Thursday night guest spot on "The Arsenio Hall Show," which has helped keep sales of Koz's only album humming along at 1,500 copies a week. Or the name talent he has been able to lure to work on his second release, due out early next year.

Among the heavies are producer Dennis Lambert (Commodores, Natalie Cole, Smokey Robinson), guitarist Robben Ford and Santana organist Chester Thompson. Please see KOZ, F18 A selective guide to what's happening in art, dance, film, jazz, music, pop and stage. COMEDY: Love, Lite and Laughs Confused about the differences between men and women and how they communicate? You say an old flame means nothing anymore but your significant other hears you're still in love? Comic Ritch Shydner knows the feeling. And, during his one-man, Capitol Records "The Making of Sgt. Pepper," a fitting tribute to the Beatles' hallmark of pop music.

TV REVIEW A Fab Foray Into 'Sgt. Pepper' tie-in as rationale for reconstructing just what genius and madness went into the recording of the Beatles' 1967 landmark album. But no special occasion is necessary. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" stands today as one of the hallmarks of pop music in virtually every regard, from concept to engineering still the best rock Please see BEATLES, F20 thrusts himself into a lead role, playing parts that normally would be played by horns or other traditional lead instruments.

He hasn't had a new release since the 1991 "Journey to You" but still gets heavy play on KIFM 98. 1 A favorite among San Diegans is "It Doesn't Get Any Better," a light, sunny cut that won't revolutionize the history of music but might be just the thing for a warm afternoon at Belmont Park by the roller coaster. Cameron appears there Saturday afternoon from 3 to 5, as part of the park's second annual fall jazz series. The music By CHRIS WILLMAN SPECIAL TO THE TIMES I 1 was twenty-five years ago today-plus four months or so that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.

So it's not quite an anniversary. And "The Making of Sgt. Pepper," a TV documentary premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Disney Channel, can't claim any topical THE BEST OF SAH 90-minute show at the Improv, he generously offers tips he has learned throughout his dating and married life. This advice is not always helpful, but it is generally entertaining.

Shydner performs through Oct. 1 1 at the club, 832 Garnet Pacific Beach. For times and other information, call 483-452. JAZZ: Light-Jazz Violin Doug Cameron wants to do for the violin in light-jazz circles what Papa John Creach has accomplished for the instrument in blues, and jazz. Cameron Art! F26 HorgTech F28, 29 Jazjpotes F23 Liz faith F21 Morjhg Report F2 Sanjtego movie guide F2 StajfBeat F20 Tvlfonight's schedule F33 San Diego Radio Log F24.