Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 43

Aug. 1. -1986 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Page 43 1 nn Iff LIWU 11 (1 TO CALL TIE! POULTRY POLICE know-one thing: I don't want to meet them. 5 Lucky for me, I suppose, such mov- "iegoers dontt read movie reviews. If they did, they'd surely be miffed to find out that I think "Howard the wDuck" is uninterrupted twaddle, a vegged-out extraterrestrial romp that begs, borrows and openly steals from such movies as "EX." "Star- "Howard the A comedy fantasy starring Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones and Tim Robbins.

Directed by Willard Huyck from a screenplay by Gloria Katz Huyck. Bated on the Marvel Comics character created by-Steve Gerber. Photographed by Richard H. Kline. Edited by Michael Chan-.

dler and Sidney Music by John Barry, Running time: min-' utes. A Universal release. In area theaters. 1 By JOE BALTAKE Daily News Film Critic don't know what kind of person would go to see a movie titled the but I do man" and Brother from An- c. other Planet" (not to -mention and even substituting for logic the kind of obvi-, ous jokes duck jokes that a even first-year screenwriting student would, know should be edited out The movie based on Steve Gerber's comics character opens promisingly on Duck World, a planet -that mirrors arth in just about every way but one: Its chief inhabit" ant.

its higher form of. life, is the. duck. The. opening scene cleverly -surveys the apartment of the title character and we discover' maga- zines (Playduck), movie posters of the Lost Ark), a telephone answering machine (playing back its messages) and a refrigerator full of brews.

We get an immediate sketch of He's a duck, but he's also a regular CUV. Mavbe a little ton rpcmlar 5::" Howard the Duck is arrested I r. (4 v) i fife 'of "hairless apes" who he's either a kid or a midget in a duck suit (which in is exactly what he is) or some kind of feathery thingamajig that should be swatted. -v'- Howard (who is played by no fewer than eight little people) is befriended by a rock singer named Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson) who eventually takes him home and is stroking his chest feathers and getting ready for bigger and better things just love your animal magnetism," she confesses) when she's interrupted by a would-be scientist friend, Phil (Tim Robbins), and his friend. Dr.

Jenning, a feal scientist (Jeffrey ning and send Howard back home. It ain't easy: Alien-like monsters become Invovlved. But I'm sure you really don't want to hear anymore of this. Suffice it to -say that Lea Thompson is a charmer, Jeffrey Jones (the principal in "Ferris is laff-riot (he should be working with Blake' Edwards), while Tim Robbins is like a young nn Avkrovd. They're good, but not everything about "Howard the Duck is ducky In duck talk, it's a quacker noisy and shrill.

Parental guide: Rated PC for some references to sex (bestiality specifically) and some light violence. Jones). They want to test Howard's feathers, as they think the bird is somehow connected with the aforementioned sonic boom which, in turn, had something to do with some experiments being overseen by Jenning. Jenning's testing, in fact, has reduced him to an aberration. While Beverly and Howard and Phil and Jenning are dining out at Joe Roma's Cajun Sishi Bar, Jenning is transmuted right there into something called the Dark Overlord.

i The George Lucas-style special effects that follow are all anchored to the quartet's attempts to cure Jen-t Chomping on his cigar, Howard is a -walking anachronism, a to the '50s. He has the personality of a small-time agent working Tin Pan Alley. Anyway, some kind of sonic boom catapults Howards off of Duck World -(he lives in Marshington specifical- ly) and zooms him to the planet Earth (Cleveland specifically) There, he encounters an assortment Lea Thompson; duck charmer gangs and drugs a pressure-relief valve and major form of expression for youth. Art Garfunkel (of Simon and Garfunkel fame) plays a burned-out reporter who accidentally falls into the environment and learns to love it. Duped by a racist cop (Harris Yulin), Garfun-kel's character unfairly connects go-go to "angel dust" and a gang-rapemurder in a newspa per story, ana in tne I -A process almost ruins the scene for the local music mogul (Robert Doqui) and his bands.

But just in the nick, a young musician (Reginald Daughtry) befriends Garfunkel and shows him the ror of his ways. The autobiographical acting and script ring truer than in most music exploitation pictures, but the attempted glorifica "Good to Go," a drama with music starring Art Garfunkel, Robert. Doqui and Harris Yulin, with music by Trouble Funk, Chuck Redds and the Boys, E.U. and others. Written and directed by Blaine Novak.

At the Regency and other area theaters. 3 By JONATHAN TARIFF Daily News Staff Writer ontrary to popular opinion, go-go mull 'l sic is not performed by bubbly blondes in white knee-high boots. In Washington, D.C., where go-go is king, the music is considered the epitome of black funk marrying the brassy blasts of a James Brown soul revue to the politicized and bombastic testifying style of rap. Practiced by groups such as Trouble Funk (of "Drop the Bomb" fame) and veteran Chuck Jackson and performed in marathon concerts at local high schools, recreation centers and armories go-go is enjoyed almost exclusively by Washington's black community. true culturalregional phenomenon, the music has spawned a special go-go language, go-go dance steps (a variation on the punk scene's pogo) and go-go ambitions: eventually to rule -the pop music world.

Which brings. us to "Good to a film project by Island Visual Arts intended to spread the interest in go-go discs now being Garfunkel Reginald Oaughtry (left) and Richard Brooks in "Good to Go" tion of go-go doesn't pan out as well. Even with excellent sound effects, this gut-basic music cant achieve on film the physical connection with the viewer that it makes in person where one number can riff on for an hour, putting everybody into a dancing trance. Parental guide: Rated for language, violence, scenes of drug use. released by (who else?) Island Records.

A introduced the world to Jamaican reggae music. In dramatically exploring the ghetto environ- Cinematographer Peter Sinclair makes close-ment in which the music is made, "Good to Go" ups of high top sneakers and broken glass look is a lot like "The Harder They Come," an Island- positively beautiful, while Blaine Novak's script allied film venture of the early 1970s that' paints go-go music as a healthy alternative to.