Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 27

Section 2 Friday, December 19, 1930 7' 1 4' Deck the marquees with new titles Us the season for some of the biggest movie releases of the year, and film critic Gene -Siskel reviews three of them. j-M Charles Grodin. Goldie Hawn. and friend in "Seems Like Old Comedy from a time capsule. Times': Seems like so-so Simon -SsSL ft Robert De Niro as Jake La Motta In "Raging BurT: A venture into the dark side of the human animal.

Staging Bull': A brutal poflK.it AFTER SEEING "Raging Bull" in New York three weeks ago, I wrote that it is one of best American films of the year, a superb creation of the finest acting-directing team in the United States, Robert Da Niro and director Martin Scorsese. Since, friends who have seen the picture came away admiring it but pointing out some flaws. The major objection seems to be that the film, which tells the story of brutish '40s boxer Jake La Motta, doesn't have a clean, straight-forward narrative (It's a problem that has been noted in the other four Scorsese-De Niro films, "Who's' That Knocking at My "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," and "New York, New J. Even granting this objection which I'm not quick to do "Raging Bull" stiU stands as a suoerior AFTER WITNESSING the Hmp eemedy In NeH Simon's "Seems Like Old Times," one wanU to get up on a soap box and make a few pronouncements. Such as: It.

really is difficult to make a good movie comedy. Neil Simon is coasting on his reputation. If Chevy Chase doesn't do another pratfall, it will be OK with me: Charles Grodin has made a career out of playing the same role over and over and over. Goldie Hawn may be cute as a button, but even her saucer-shaped eyes can't carry an entire movie. Neil Simon is really coasting on his "Seems Like Old Times" is an original Simon film script, which more often than not has led to a movie of some quality.

His original screenplays are less talky than his adapted stage plays. Not so, however, with "Seems Like Old Times," a preposterous trifle which Chase, playing a California writer, is kidnaped into committing a bank robbery, which leads to all sorts of problems for' Hawn, bis former wife, and Grodin, Hawn's current husband, -J bubble Nine to Five': achievement of film and acting art. Frankly, in 1980 a Los Angeles district at- a job couia mm most Hollywood turns and throw them in a blender and it wouldn't make that much differ CD CD torney who is about to be appointed Attorney Gen ence how you reassem- "gaf, no spice TRIBUNE MINIREVIEW: TRIBUNE MINIREVIEW: Not the old Simon "SEEMS LIKE OLD DlMctool by oJsy SMitfricfii written by Nell Mfftonj ptMtQSrejptMel by-DavM M. WaMi; HMd by MHcriMl A. Slavanaen; muds by Marvin of en animal i of surprise.

m. oris most pleasant r. RAGING BULL" opucaiance 01 Do P-irtn one urn establishes herself 7 in tms Directed kv Martin ydaoplajr by ftnl Sahfadar and ManjRi Moron baoad on Java La HaaiHaah; proauOM by ffay Slark; a CofcimbS) ralaaaa at Ma Chiania antf eral oi California. Doesn't this sound Ilka the plot of a TV movie? ALL OF THE principal characters have cute-little habits. Hawn's character loves animals, and she and Grodin live with six dogs, including four strays.

Grodin is a desperately aggressive soul who lives to be promoted, and that his slight connection to Chase could stand in the way of his being confirmed as attorney gener- ana a ainaoiooraMy; tnarrad ky MIohMl bh Miara. tmt pq. haafflanj TM CAST lonao oy nam fin trill ChBM MOduoad by Mario VWoMac Rabart Chorion, and Patar Savaaa; a bled them. Safe and boring describes most Hollywood products, with ma-' jor stars selling their art-' istic souls in the name of sequels and big-budget action. WHAT "RAGING Bull" does so well is venture into the dark side of the human animal, in this case, the animal that was La Motta, the onetime middleweight cham- pion who has admitted throwing a championship fight and who, in his pri- vate life, was a bullying louse to his first and second wives.

"Raging Bull" is a portrait of an animal, and it Ma are get their hatWatr Ut t0 RXIS It's not a well-madefum demanng audiences. ass sa. -1 i Parton. 01114 he has sleeping with rTow- I OuMauma arjMid naifhborhood thaatara. TM CAST JakUltottalleatftDMtra VWua La Motta nwHialRv Morlarlv moor warowooiiw Oovamor Qaaraa Orbaard Aurora Vvanna WlWar Crumr TX.

Carlor On i JuddOman Baa Qaa Marc AMrra IC 1 May i Jot Pttd These boasts earn at Tony JtnlfQ KvId MMton Hrfte. Don, workers, IncKgwS miVE TO FIVE" ovrdressed divorcee ex-. Pifettd periencing her ifirst time IWv-tt veteran 'i a aaii'SlS? nM en all the men iMiMSSLwJSTjsor aas trained step over hr al has him in a dither. A sitcom dither. Chase's idiosyncracy is, of course, that he can't stand up.

In a typical moment we hear an off-screen clatter, and the action cuts to show Chase tangled in a garden hose. Laughs like these are supposed to build through the course of a movie. But Chase's pratfalls nearly level "Seems Like Old Times," thanks to some ham-handed editing that regularly tips his slapstick hand. Much of the action is set in a studio-built house that Hawn and Grodin occupy. When Chase chooses to use it as a hideout from the police, you can imagine the hijinks.

Oh, look, he's under the bed, and Grodin standing right in front -of the bed, and he doesn't realize that Chase is under the bed, and oh, no don't sit down, Chuck! "SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES" Is a comedy that belongs in a time capsule. One from the '50s starring Doris Day. Particularly offensive is the film's racial stereotyping in its supporting roles, including a bebopping black chauffeur and a-lazy Mexican maid. Of course, Simon writes for the American middle class, but does that mean he has to use cruel racial humor? Characters such as the chauffeur and the maid may sell on "Archie Bunker's Place," but there at least the price is right. With a tip of its hat to feminism, "Seems Like Old Times'! casts Hawn as a public defender.

Too bad the film chickens out and ends up concentrating on her traditional domestic desires rather than giving -us a plot twist that has her appointed attorney general. As for Neil Simon, mavbe it'a tim tnnir Saj" has you 6 ineaier ex- 11 A r. wu-noicn enter. Zt touirh.miir ZDlem tne.scriDt. whih 8 Five" we get the idea th.i.

hour of "Nine to stem pool are vwed hv mo th womn a typical. i than low-gSid EX, as as typewriters they pound human extension of the I v' w.ood, because th.t mu T. wnn. am i new nmh.ui. t.j',' undoubtedly Will be too violent, too dark, too ugly for many moviegoers, who can take refuge into the Tighter side of human nature in "Nine to Five" and "Seems Like Old Times;" But if you like a movie down-and-dirty, "Raging Bull" is it.

Filmed in black-and-white, and shockingly well acted by De Niro, "Raging Bull" suggests that if you are looking for the source of evil in the world, you don't have to look any further than yourself. It's inside you or it isn't. And it comes out or it doesn't. With Jake La Motta, according to Scorsese and his screenwriters, it came out a lot. De Niro's La Motta is i a paranoid bully, who drops his first wife like a hot rock after spotting a blond teen-age vision in a white bathing suit (newcomer Cathy Moriarty in a sizzling screen debut) at.

a neighborhood Bronx swimming DE NIRO'S SEXY pickup scene with Moriarty one of the most supercharged scenes in the movie Is filled with the same kind of focused energy that De Niro exhibited when he picked up another young blond woman-in-white (Cybill Shepherd) in "Taxi Driver." After the pickup scene, "Raging Bull" moves along two tracks, as De Niro battles his opponents and: mobsters in the ring and his new young wife at home. 5 Occasionally the two worlds come together. Paranoid about his wife flirting with other men, De Niro punishes her after she makes a chance remark about one of his opponents as having a pretty face. That remark results in a freeze on the homefron( and De Niro's crushing his pretty-face opponent in the ring. Much of what is on the screen is true.

La Motta himself has admitted that, saying that he was a louse then. (Of course, he has a financial interest in praising the movie 3 per cent of the net profits.) While watching De Niro exploding at his wife and managerbrother (Joe Pesci), your thoughts may wander to the large number of home disturbances and family gunshot victims that regularly occur during the year and teem to increase during the holiday season. v'E2 NIRO is La Motta regularly explodes Into the kind of fit that nowadays typically results in someone getting shot, At one point in the film he bashes his head against a wall, crying out, "I'm not that bad. I'm not that bad." But, frankly, we cant agree. De Niro as La Motta is an animal.

'Raging Bull" has been beautifully filmed by Scorsese, again working with his "Taxi Driver" cameraman Michael Chapman. The film's ''boxing scenes are striking dramatizations of La Motta's '40s and the impact is greater than documentary footage would have been. The savage ferocity of boxing never has been better depicted in a fight film. Afona point, Chapman's OaatfaMwd ea following page His jokes here would be reiected bv anv 0 standuo comic. Thev all hava tha rhythm.

Some samples: Grodin to Hawn. After Aiimra truir mwi filrAn the day off to have her feet scraped. It's the very day that the governor of California is coming over for dinner: 'HpW long does it take to make chicken pepperoni?" Hawn to Grnrfin- "fXnbor fhon if iv entertaining rmanoer to it uT'an cleavage as shri ThJ-S? and tnen stares at wS of Tomlln ufferm'i the m-f- to Pick up) Sfi1 boss' chief apyTanJof pmchlneHke talk of fcA J'-h i But then, at aboutthe -HrW three women havemtteS 2 ute mark after the I mutual frustratfonfSS" er and exPsseti the uts andnbecom TZSr to Fe'' Tomlin, Parton ami ZS 'sade farce. U- how they would each lUcP A i Ss as a country ind Coeman- V' -Nival 3E- mJT (1 iwrody of a Disney cartoon5 is a this is the isSSi1. I.

1 'o-" wnvo M1 nuiuia have her feet scraped." Har de har har. Grodin to Hawn, after their six dogs have jumped in bed with her vrhils tu ia hmahina hi. foatk. '1VU -w wM.M.g) uio vw flHJ Mill A ararav tha last Mia in tha naiahkArluuwl r. Kl with please, my sides are splitting.

Frankly, you can tell how often "Seems Like Oia is in, trouble the number of times TV director Jav Sandrich ruts to nf rhnoa ntmiulv cute dogSi I stopped counting after six. -aeems uxe uia Times" is particularly disappoint- tfiar'. kjWB11M it. Vl-O hA lUmnjuiBn). nt mm MhMttUf Suecaatflll filmai Ham and! Phae nn ImiumI tn "goooj advantage in "Foul Play," a similarly screwball wmcay ui comauiea a ioi oi surprises.

Ana itawn 1. .1 1 1 a. A i i 1 ikihu is, uuunw, urn aiar tn rrivaie oenjamin, which for the last nine weeks has been the No. 1 hit in the country. But "Beniamin" had a clever nremise a princess goes to war.

"Seems Like Old times," by comparison, baa only gag lines and no characters. 1 'i PA.