The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 49

'V. i POOR QUALITY ORIGINAL Owm, Montreal, Saturday, October 3,1987 P-9 FOiLOVa I it Let the kids do the doubting Vampire film minus vampires I REVIEW BSG SHOTS Alexis Nihon, Cineplex, Brossard Oiractad by Robart Mandal; aeraanplay by Joa Eaztarhaa; atarring Ricky Buakar, Oariua MeCrary, Jarzy Skollmowaki. for a well-balanced meal in vam-pireland. Novice director-writer Kathryn Bigelow seems to be trying seriously to make a connection between sadism and sexuality, when she's not playing on the idea of a plasma shortage as an equivalent to panic in Needle Park. And she's darned serious about her cinema-, tography and editing especially as the film moves toward its visually startling climax.

And she's really serious about the music having hired Tangerine Dream for yet another frenet-, ic electronic score that can make any movie sound like it's worth more than it really is. But in the end, this is still unintentionally ludicrous stuff. The best you can say for it is that it will leave you laughing all the way to the blood bank. Parents' Guide: violence; gore; profanity. By BRUCE BAILEY Gazette Film Critic Near Dark is a vampire movie minus the vampires.

Or at least the word "vampire" never comes up, and nobody resorts to pulling anything from the usual arsenal of occult defences the garlic, the crucifixes, the stakes through the heart Nevertheless, there are some obvious comparisons to be made between the subjects of this thriller-Western and the forces of evil in the more conventional Dracula spin-offs. Satan's minions in Near Dark sleep by day and spend their nights in search of human blood. Expose 'em to sunlight, and poof! Otherwise, they're destined to live forever. These ersatz vampires are a gang of hicks who do their prowling in a Winnebago in the Oklaho- Big Shots is just about as implausible as a film set outside an interstellar time warp can get. Here's the framework: Obie, a suburban white kid whose father has just died, hooks up with Scam, a funky black kid whose father has just left him to fend for himself on the streets of Chicago.

To get through this story without getting mighty peeved, you'll have to suspend your disbelief by the neck until dead. Here are just some of the absurdities you're expected to swal-. low. A pre-teen learns to drive a police car in about two seconds and then evades a high-speed chase as if he were a veteran of the Indianapolis 500. Two kids who look barely old enough to take public transport by themselves drive a car between Chicago and Louisiana without anybody noticing.

At a used-car lot, they trade in a Obie manages to withdraw a couple of hundred dollars from his savings account without producing any ID even though neither the teller nor the bank manager has ever seen him before. Ah! It's a wonderful world these boys live in. It's so wonderful that we're left to assume that the people who made this movie are either completely out of touch with civili-' zation as we know it or deliberately set out to make a fantasy that only 3 kids could be expected to buy into. Since those responsible for this in- elude such old reliables as Canadian producer Ivan Reitman Ghostbus-U ters, Legal Eagles) and writer Joe -J Eszterhas (Flashdance), there's i some reason to give the production the benefit of the doubt. But you're better off letting your kids do the'; doubting while you stay home, Parents' Guide: violence; profan-J ity.

Bruce Bailef REVIEW NEAR DARK Palace, Laval, Greenfield Park, Dorval Directed by Kathryn Bigctow; acraanplay by Erie Rad, Bigatow; (tarring Adrian Paa-dar, Janny Wright. ma desert. One of them is a cute little blonde named Mae (Jenny Wright). A handsome local dude (Caleb, played by Adrian Pasdar) happens to pick her up and in the course of a necking session, she gets carried away and takes a bite out of his jugular. To make a long story short, he ends up part of the gang, but under an awful lot of pressure to prove himself by making his first kill.

In the meanwhile, he survives by sucking blood out of Mae's wrist after she's had what passes Mercedes without benefit of matching driver's licence and registration. When Obie disappears for days on end or steals the family station wagon, his mother acts as though he's done nothing more serious than track dirt into the kitchen. Seam's father is clearly out to lose the boy, but when Scam finally locates him outside some factory on the bayou, Dad greets him like he's just won the state lottery. A con man disguised as a divinity student manages to rip off the Mercedes by starting it up without using an ignition key or doing any hot-wiring. UK Si "ABSOLUTELY SENSATIONAL!" TMIATBf fl I 1 TOP TEN 'POP MUSICS PARTY Mfi DfHim LLM UAOAHHt tZlk our 111 .1 LVYi "THE dancing IS MOLIYMNGWALD ROBERTDOWNEY i DELICIOUS t.e-.

-1 -X 1 A ilUpl I 113 It wl touch! mamsmmm i "Vo Lil GREAT AMERICAN FILMS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP mm mt7t i A LINDA GOTTLIEB mmcrm DIRU DANCING finally met his match CHAMPLAIN MALL 466-906 2330 AUT. MS LAUHtNTIDES M8-3SM II i ll ttr rrrm rrv rrrrr on i rrm II: ixymi vw til ii I fi i it ivi wi vivi Hi vii if a i i ili' ii. fV i 4 KirkCameran Dudley Moore Chris and his dad have accidentally changed bodles-but no big deal. Chris gets the Jag and the Cold Card. Dad gets the fake ID and the bio final.

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