The Missoulian from Missoula, Montana • 36

A MI3 A Division E-8 Missoulian, Friday, March 3, 1995 Simba roars into the video stores By MIKE McINALLY of the Missoulian at as arch video "The comes Lion stores in like this King" a week lion arrives. "The Lion King" makes a smooth transition from big screen to video. Entertainment Weekly magazine argues that the movie seems sadder on video than it did in theaters, and after a viewing at my home this week, the argument seems valid. The movie still looks magnificent, even if that spectacular opening sequence doesn't quite have the grandeur that it did on the big screen. Two final observations: On home video, you tend to pay more attention to Hans Zimmer's superb and emotional score.

And Matthew Broderick is miscast as the voice of the older Simba. James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jonathan Taylor Thomas provide the other key voices. suitable for all ages, although the scene where Simba's father dies (don't try to pretend you didn't know about that) might disturb very young viewers. Otherwise, it's a quiet week for new video releases: A lot of titles have been moved so that they're not trampled in the wake of "The Lion King." But a handful of titles are daring to challenge Simba, and here's the rundown: THE WEEK'S ODDBALL TITLE "Princess Caraboo," a mix of fairy tale, satire and sentimental drama, stars Phoebe Cates, John Lithgow, Kevin Kline and Stephen Rea in a story about a woman who arrives in 1817 England claiming that she's Japanese royalty. An enterprising reporter (Rea) decides to ferret out the truth, and the stakes are high: If she's an impostor, she's likely to be executed.

Cates and Kline are married in real life. PG, parental guidance suggested, for sexual innuendo. ART FLICKS "Kika" is the latest effort from Spanish bad boy Pedro Almodovar. It's a black sex comedy (but of course) about the insanely tangled affairs of a Madrid cosmetician. Peter Coyote joins a cast loaded with familiar Almodovar faces, including Victoria Abril.

In Spanish with English subtitles. No MPAA rating, but if it's Almodovar, you know to expect sex, nudity, violence, profanity, etc. In theaters, "Kika" was rated NC17, and you can bet that Almodovar expected no less. battle the dinos. It plays out exactly as it sounds, but it benefits from an enjoyably odd performance from John Savage, who comes across here like Billy Crystal's hyper-aggressive cousin.

And give "Carnosaur 2" credit for one other important point: The Barney joke is placed exactly where it should be. BBB Now that Harry Hamlin's found his niche in tedious erotic thrillers, it looks as if other "L.A. Law" veterans are following suit. Sheila Kelly and A Martinez star in "Deconstructing Sarah," a slow-moving and hopelessly predictable thriller about Sarah (Kelly), an ad executive who assumes another identity at night so that she can go to a seedy tavern, pick up rough-looking guys and have dull sex with them. When Sarah turns up dead, a friend (Rachel Ticotin) tries to piece together the details of Sarah's other life.

The pieces lead to Kenny (Martinez), a goodlooking goon from the seedy tavern who had discovered Sarah's real identity. The problem with "Deconstructing" is that only Martinez seems to demonstrate the zeal for sleaze that's essential for the movie to work. Another problem is that, despite the great title, the movie is as dull as its deadly sex scenes. Problem three: After a half-hour or so, any idiot can figure out the movie's surprise ending; at least, I did, and I certainly qualify as any idiot. Walt Disney Co.

"The Lion King" comes to home video this week. I "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould" is the eccentric Canadian movie about the famed pianist, whose 1950s recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations remains an essential classical recording. No rating available. MOVIES "Ballistic" is an action flick about an undercover cop who must clear her name when a witness under her protection is killed. Cory Everson and Sam Jones star.

R. "Teresa's Tattoo" is a comedy about a pair of bumbling hoods who kidnap a college woman to replace a hostage who died accidentally. The cast includes Adrienne Shelly. R. MADE FOR TELEVISION "Witness to the Execution" stars Tim Daly and Sean Young in a drama set in the near future about an attempt to execute a convict on live television.

No rating available. VIDEO FLASHES Coming up next week: Money." "The River Wild," as reported earlier, i is due March 14. The next video technology may be just two years away, according to a recent report from Knight-Ridder Newspapers. The new product is known as digital video disc, or DVD; it's essentially a compact disc for movies and would offer digital-quality video and sound. The product is being developed by rival camps, one a combination of Time Warner and Toshiba, the other a combination of Sony and Philips Electronics.

Both camps are aiming to create discs that can store a 135-minute movie on one side. The discs may be priced in the $20 range; players at first may cost about $500. If it takes off and that's still a big if it could knock off videocassettes with the same ease that CDs knocked vinyl records out of stores. Watch this space. THE REPORT Give the man his due: producer Roger Corman knows how to make them cheap and fast.

"Carnosaur 2," a sequel to his cheap and fast knockoff of Park," basically rips off "Jurassic" and in equal measure. But it's done with energy and a bit of style and a tiny bit of wit, and that helps to pad out a special-effects budget that must stretch into the four figures if you count the decimal point. In 2," the vicious dinosaurs of the first movie are on the loose in the bowels of some sort of military nuclear base. Military guy Cliff De Young assembles what appears to be a power company SWAT team (don't ask), and together, they COM COMPREHENSIVE, COMPETITIVE CONVENIENT WE'VE GOT A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE. Unfortunately, some people have the impression that we provide care only for extremely serious eye diseases and injuries.

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