South Florida Sun Sentinel from Fort Lauderdale, Florida • Page 231

Showtime, Friday, March 13, 1987 7 A IP" A Supernatural thriller avoids familiar traps 1 Win review v. Mr WITCHBOARD An evil spirit, contacted through a Ouija board, haunts a young couple. Credits: With Todd Allen, Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols. Directed and written by Kevin S. Tenney.

I Coarse language, violence, nudity. Poor Fair Good Exc.IN.nl By CANDICE RUSSELL Film Writer How fitting that the spooky Witchboard opens on Friday the 13th. This intense, atmospheric chiller breeds suspicion of things unseen and misunderstood. Partly, the film works because of its refreshing failure to fall prey to tricks and plots we've seen too often. No cats are thrown abruptly into the frame.

No hands appear from graves. No maniac hacks up the limbs of hot-blooded teenagers. With a small tip of the hat to Poltergeist and Rosemary's Baby, writer-director Kevin S. Tenney relies upon the evil summoned by playing with a Ouija board, a game that supposedly allows people to contact spirits in the other world. Witchboard turns on the rivalry between two young men, the working-class Jim (Todd Allen) and the rich Brandon (Stephen Nichols).

Best friends in childhood, they have parted ways over a beautiful young woman, Linda (Tawny Kitaen from Bachelor Party), who now lives iniii 1 A Ouija board is the doorway to contact with the spirit of a dead child in the suspense film Witchboard. with Jim. At a party, she and Brandon move their hands on a Ouija board. They contact David, the spirit of a dead child looking for a body to haunt. As Linda's fascination with this otherworldly communication grows, Brandon warns of "progressive entrapment." Jim replies, "So what you're telling me is, I'm living with Linda Blair." Setting Witchboard apart from more conventional films about the occult are character development, sense of humor and solid performances.

Jim's skepticism rescues the scenario from wallowing in mumbo jumbo and predictions of to create a pulse-quickening con- The filmmaker also knows that disaster. Even the psychic Zara- frontation when Jim and Brandon the story has nowhere to go when beth (Kathleen Wilhoite, who is bi- meet the ectoplasmic villain in evil is all-encompassing and the zarrely funny), the medium hired to broad daylight at a lake. And with mortals don't stand a chance, exorcise David's spirit, lampoons its doors slamming shut and the The payoff for the mayhem isn't her business. shower not turning off, the now- much, but the events leading up to The special effects and suspense pregnant Linda is imperiled in her it more than suffice, are effective, too. Tenney manages own house.

Witchboard scares, as intended. Overlooking Gleason as Oscar nominee terrible March 30, the envelopes will be opened at the 59th annual Academy Awards. No matter who the winners are, the absence of Jackie Gleason as a nominee for Candice Easily confused titles For the past few weeks, The Bedroom Window and Black Widow were hard enough to keep separate in some people's minds. Now along come two more similarly titled movies, Summer Heat with Lori Singer, and Heat with Burt Reynolds. In content, the films are very different.

Summer Heat, which will open soon, is a three-sided love affair set in the FilmTheater South. In Heat, opening in area theaters today, Reynolds plays a former mercenary who squashes big city criminals like so many pesky palmetto bugs. Currently, Reynolds is directing a play called Wrestlers at his Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre. Starring Judd (From the Hip) Nelson and Sarah Jessica Parker, the show will play March 24 through April 19 (call 1-746-5566 for reservations). RpvnnlHc unll honrl nr III ah nr i horo.

Best Actor in Nothing in Common is one of the greatest oversights of this or any other year. What a performance he gave as Max Basner, a sad sack of a man whose wife, played by Eva Marie Saint, leaves him. He also is misunderstood by his son, played by Tom Hanks. How Gleason manages to make Max a sympathetic character, despite his thorny, woe-is-me personality, is an achievement that the academy should have recognized. This neglect ranks right up there with the academy's ignorance of Richard Dreyfuss for Whose Life Is It, Anyway? a few years ago.

loreign film bounty Speaking of the Academy Awards, the Art Towne in Plantation has snared three of the five films nominated for Best Foreign Film. The Decline of the American Empire, the French-Canadian film about talkative and sexually free academic types, was perceptively written and directed by Denys Arcand. From Czechoslovakia comes My Sweet Little Village, director Jiri Mendel's comedy about likable small-town types. The Assault, from the Netherlands, a drama about a man's attempts to make sense of a childhood wartime trauma, opens today at the Art Towne. What are the odds that any of these will win? The past holds the key.

France has the most foreign-film Oscars (9), followed by Italy (7), U.S.S.R. (3), Sweden (2), and Czechoslovakia (2). Looks like The Assault is a long shot. By the way, USA Today said that the first foreign-language film winner was Federico Fellini's La Strada in 1956. Changing times The Carefree Theatre, 2000 South Dixie Highway, Wst Palm Beach, is changing its policy of movies beginning today.

The Decline of the American Empire will inaugurate its new theme of art and foreign films. Under consideration for the future are other culture-related events, such as lectures, concerts and small stage shows. Speaking out In conjunction with women's history month, artist and film teacher Arch Augelus Sturaitis will give a speech titled "Feminist Film: Theory, Practice and Criticism" at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Bass Museum of Art, 2121 Park Miami Beach. Topics of discussion will be how women are finding a voice in film, in roles and as directors.

Sturaitis is perhaps best known in Broward as the creator of the Film Forum, a film discussion series at the Art Towne and Manor Art cinemas. For more information call 1-673-7530. Special event Shown here for a short time a few years ago, the epic silent film Napoleon, directed by Abel Gance, will be screened at 1:30 and 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the auditorium of the Intercontinental Hotel, 100 Chopin Plaza, Miami. Tickets are $6 for this landmark film, only recently reconstructed with help from the British Film Institute.

abouts this summer to star in and direct Ruby Jean and Joe, about a former rodeo star's protective, platonic relationship with a black teen-age girl. Snooze cinema Alan Caruba, the always-inspired founder of the Boring Institute in Maplewood, N. has just announced The Most Boring Films of 1986. Taking top honors was The Clan of the Cave Bear, which Caruba calls "an incredible one hour and 40 minutes of Neanderthal cavemen grunting with English subtitles." For most boring comedy, he names Howard the Duck. Most boring monster film? None other than King Kong Lives.

There wasn't much competition in the most boring epic film category, but Tai-Pan took it. Caruba 's enjoys spoofing popular media. He has even written a book on the subject, Boring Stuff: How to Spot It How to Avoid It, which includes a chapter on saving yourself from boring films. It's available for $7.45 from the Boring Institute, P.O. Box 40, Maplewood, N.J.

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