The Ithaca Journal from Ithaca, New York • 33

Film Arts Leisure, Thursday, January 9, 1997 Ray Liotta, special effects keep 'Turbulence' aloft 'Turbulence' (out of four stars) .1 By JACK GARNER Gannett News Service SO, you've had enough of the high-falutin' end-of-the-year prestige pictures and the sentimental holiday stuff. You think it's time for the movies to get crackin' again. Well, grab your popcorn and check out "Turbulence," the new airliner thriller with Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly. Less than two weeks into 1997, the year's first big action flick is crash-landing at the multiplex. Liotta stars as Ryan Weaver, a convicted killer, being transported by marshals on board a nearly deserted Christmas Eve flight from New York to Los Angeles.

Holly plays Teri Halloran, a spunky stewardess who must eventually do much more than serve peanuts and soft drinks. Ultimately, she becomes the first movie stewardess forced to fly a plane since an hysterical Karen Black took the controls in "Airport 1975." In "Turbulence," veteran director Robert Butler tweaks two tired and predictable Hollywood formulas the airplane disaster flick and the psycho-on-the-loose fright movie. He comes up with a romp that's full of action and energy and, yes, quite a bit of baloney. Leaning heavily on special effects, the film takes you for a very bumpy ride. You'll join Liotta and Holly as the plane twirls and flips through an immense storm.

Jam Details: Movie grid, below There's so much craziness and lack of subtlety in "Turbulence" that it also helps if filmgoers apply a sense of humor. Like most action flicks, it's been constructed like an amusement park ride, with ever-increasing peaks and valjeys, designed to leave you breathless. And laughing. (This is no movie to be taken seriously.) As Ryan Weaver, Liotta blends the same sort of deceptive charm and demonic rage he previously employed as dark characters in "Unlawful Entry" and "Something Wild." He's been down this road before; he knows the territory. More impressive is Lauren Holly as the besieged stewardess, Teri Halloran.

Asked for the first time to help carry a film, Holly responds as an action-movie heroine of surprising resourcefulness. Her Teri is a strong-willed sister to Sandra Bullock's bus driver in "Speed" and Linda Hamilton's tough-as-nails mother in "Terminator 2." So check your brain at the entry-way, climb aboard, fasten your seat-belt, and prepare to gasp and giggle. RALPH NELSONSpecial to The Journal THANKS, BUH-BYE: Convicted serial killer Ryan Weaver (Ray Liotta, right), wants more than free peanuts from flight attendant Teri Halloran (Lauren Holly) in 'Turbulence. At one point, the plane skims the top of a high-rise hotel and also snags a car on its landing gear from the roof of a parking garage. (When was the last time you saw an airplane that may not be able to land because of a car that's stuck on its wheel assembly?) But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Before "Turbulence" and co-pilot all dead. Now free, Ryan locks the remaining crew members and passengers in a crew cabin, and becomes the warped master of his domain. He sings demented songs, pours himself all the free booze he wants, and stalks the one remaining person in his end of the plane stewardess Teri Halloran. becomes an "Airport" clone, it first retreads the psycho-slasher genre. When the shackled Ryan is led on board the airliner, he's accompanied by another prisoner and four marshals.

Once the plane is airborne, the other prisoner briefly escapes, triggering a gun battle that leaves him and the marshals and the pilot HOYTS CINEMAS 10 HOYTS CINEMAS 4 (Continued from Page 8) (Continued from previous column) The Ghosts A compelling and moving retelling of the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers and the eventual trial of his killer, more than 30 years later. Starring Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Whoopi Goldberg. Directed by Rob Reiner. Columbia Pictures. 123 minutes.

See Beth Saulnler's review on Page 10A of today's daily Journal. of Mississippi PG-i3y2 Profanity, violence 12:30, 3:40, 6:30 9:30 p.m. daily Scream RVz Extensive violence, profanity, sexual content 12:10,2:30,7:05 10:05 p.m. daily; Fri. Sat.

late: 12:15 a.m. The teen-age slasher film is such a limited, short-sighted formula that any attempt to expand it has to be considered a plus. And veteran horror meister Wes Craven does just that in this new fright-night bloodbath. It wont win any new converts to the gore-test concept, but it'fl entertain (and maybe even scare) his regular fans. Neve Campbell of Skeet Ulrich and Courteney Cox co-star.

Dimension Films. 116mins. Mars Attacks! PG-13 Profanity, violence 11:15 am. Sat Sun. only Fancy special effects and a few clever jokes don't make up for all the half-baked comic concepts that never pay off, in this spoof of sci-fi films that is never quite as funny as it seems to think it is.

Starring Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short Directed by Tim Burton. Warner Bros. Turbulence Violence, profanity 12:05. 2:20,4:357:15 9:35 p.m. Sat.

late: 11:35 p.m. Ithaca Premiere A high-energy, slam-bang thriller about a psycho killer who's loose on a 747 in flight, and the resourceful stewardess who is forced to confront him and even fly the airliner. Though contrived and silly, it still offers lots of rousing action and good special effects. Think of it as an amusement park ride. Ray Liotta and Lauren Holly co-star for director Robert Butler.

MGM. 103 mins. See review, above. One Fine Day PGV2 1:30, 4:1 0, 7 9:50 p.m. daily Fri.

Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney star in Michael Hoffman's delightful romantic comedy that updates the grand Hollywood tradition to the age of single parenting and cellular phones. 20th Century Fox. 105 mins. MOYTS CINEMAS 4 266-0717 Between Triphammer and Small malls, Cinema Drive, Lansing Evening shows (6 p.m. and later): $7.25 general; $5, seniors (62 and older); $4.75, children 1 1 and under Matinees: $4.75, all ages The People vs.

Larry Flynt Profanity, nudity, sex, violence, drug use 1,3:50, 6:45 9:40 p.m. daily Milos Forman's brilliant and funny new film about the obscenity trials of the outrageously slimy publisher of Hustler magazine. In it, Flynt (Woody Harrelson) responds to a Supreme Court ruling by saying, "If they'll protect a scum bag like me, then they'll protect all of you." Courtney Love co-stars as his lover, a young stripper turned drug addict. Columbia. 130 A mins.

I Khaca Premiere The English Patient Wartime violence, nudity, language 12:45, 4:20 8 p.m. daily Artfully crafted by writer-director Anthony Minghella, this beautiful, impressionistic film tells two love stones that cross paths in an abandoned monastery in war-torn Italy. Ralph Fiermes, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jufiette Binoche, Willem Dafoe and Naveen VrX! Mjramax. ,162. mins.

Love.