The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 273

nilflllllllllMIHIItHIIMIIIIintlllJIIiWM w.m' i at nrfev'j-ji San Francisco Arts end Entertainment Listings for the Week of August 1 to 7, 1982 ANNIE (At the Cinema 21) On ambiguous final moment As the husband who goes berserk and tha wife who becomes icily Irrational, Bruno Lawrence and Anna Jenmon are first-rate. The little girl (Greer tiobson) is unforgettable. J. Stone THE STATION (At tha Kokusal) A stage, -Ann" nao ebullience every step of the way. N't more like flatulence In this overblown, mechanical, big-bucks production with- out any trace or charm In its musical numbers.

As Annie, Aileen Qumn Is allowed to mug shame-: lessly and Interminably, adults at-' lergic to saccharine wiH find her Indigestible. But Carol Burnett wiH work her way into dyspeptic hearts with her sex-starved, boozy floozy, the ultra-mean mistress of the orphanage And Albert Finney man- ages to be funny as the curmudg-eon billionaire, Caddy Warbucks. They are the only nourishing nuggets in this fallen souffle. John Huston directed. Alas.

Stone THE BEST UTTLE WHOREHOUSE TEXAS (At the Northpoint) This unabashedly synthetic and Quite lifeless production Is the film version of the Broadway show. Some songs have been eliminated and the plot, simplified. Dotty Parton is Miss Mori Burt Reynolds plays Sheriff Ed Earl. This Is enter tatnment catered to the mysterious mainstream; fun at bmes, draggy at times, nothing to write horn about P. Stack BLADE RUNNER (At the Balboa.

stonestown Twin and Electric) A disjointed. Implausible scHt Mm (based on Philip K. thek's moving story. Do Androids Dream of Electric so trapped In i fancy photographic maneuver that I it's lifeless. Harrison Ford is caricature of the hardboUed detec-; live, assigned to run down and gun down rebellious "replicants" ge-; neticatty engineered people who i resent their slave status and short I lifespans.

It all leads up, very very slowly, to a violent showdown be tween Ford and Butger Hauer. who. as a replicant with a flash of nobility, has the orriy good mo-." ments In tha Mm. Artist Douglas Trumbutrs ascthating vision of Los Life Goes On Annie Girardot plays a woman suddenly alone after 20 years of marriage, and Jean-Pierre Cassel, a recently divorced merchant, In "La Vie Continue," opening Friday at the Four Star Theater. wardhess of adolescence.

The film Is a touching, humorous story of first love in which a gangly boy dbcovers girls, and most particularly, the only girl on his soccer team. A real gem made on a budget of J4CKWK0. J. Stone I LOVt YOU (EU TE AMD) (At tha Angeles ca. 200 a more lively than any of tha characters.

P. Stack THE CHALLENGE' At the St- Francis and serra-monte) Not very challenging material here. An American adventurer gets Involved in a terrible spat between champion. Tha champ has married and mellowed, and fife is an easy chair until an angry black contender, dubtwr Lang, hungry for tha crown, forces him Into the ring again. ApoHo Creed is nearby to help shore up Rocky.

This is tha stuff of comic books and corny American moviest crechtse, colorful entertainment, seemingly meat-headed but maybe mnatwr than we thought Viotenca abounds. P. Stack sentimental, over-extended story about a sharpshootmg cop ki Hokkaido, Japan, who can't get his life together. It depicts three epi sodes showing the effect of three women on his bfe, but only the last has any emotional impact However, Ken Takakura as the policeman remains one of the great actors of the Japanese, or any, screen, Stone SUMMER LOVERS (At the Serra-monte) Vacationing 0 youths flock to a Greek YM island, there to cavort 1 4 nude on the beaches, LJ dance to disco and find romance(s). A menaga a bois develops when an American girl discovers her boyfriend is bedding with a French archeoiogist, but decides there's enough of him to share.

Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannan and Valerie Quenessen star In this dud, brought to us by the guy who made "The Blue Lagoon," A sexless sex flick with a dismal storyline and stunning scenery. P. Stack TRON (At the Alexandria. Alham- bra and Plaza) Tha spa- ciai enecis mm iswr fshmg tnts landmark work which really ushers in the aae of computer simulation in film. People and plot take second place in writer director Steven Lisder-gar's fantasy.

Computer programmers wage Irfe-and-death video games in an electronic work) to determine whether tha programmers control the computers or wee-versa. Jeff Bridges, a genius at devising video games, goat tnie the electronic dimension to do battle with Daw) Warner, the viMain of the piece, ft's a fascinating introduction to the arbstc potential of computer simulation. Judy Stone THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CARP (At the Coronet) Robm WHkams is won-t', derful as Garp. the ami-I to at bastard son of Jen-Liajvv ny Fields, a practical nurse who knew what she wanted and inadvertently inspired the feminist movement Tha first three-quarters of the film, as Garp grows up, marries and becomes a natural-born father and writer, is a total delight, but the comedy grows blacker in Steve Tesich's skillfully honed script, based on John kvmg's best-seliing novel. Mary Beth Hurt turns in a beautifully shaded performance as the book-lover who marries Garp, but precipitates the crisis their toves.

A remarkably offbeat work, directed by George Roy Hill. Stone YOUNG O0CTORS IN LOVE (At the Metro. Tanforan Park and Geneva Drive In) Another episode from the Swill School of film entertainment. This lame spoof of doc tors, nurses, hospitals, soap operas and the like, offers an overdose of adolescent comedy that stagnates fast. Michael McKean and Sean Young tend to star in this mess, directed by Garry Marshall, who's been responsible for Such Cultural gems as TV's "Laverne and Shir-toy" and "Mork and Mindy." Vulgarity is to be found almost everywhere herein.

P. Stack Cpcissngs HEARTACHES Friday at the Gateway. LA VIE CONTINUE Friday at tha Four Star. THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER Friday at the Alhambra and Serra-monte Sunday Examiner Chronicle two brothers, each of whom wants a matched pair of Samurai swordsi Scott Glenn and Toshire Mifune star. A few lively action scenes do little to help out this uninspired affair, directed by John Frankenhei- mer and shot in Japan.

P. Stack 4 CHAN IS MISSING (At the Can fanciful, tt'l )ust muddled. Julia Hagerty provides the oniv genuine) sparkle in this duU-witted menaga. J. Stone MGHT SHIFT (At the Coliseum and Geneva Drive In) A t--, comedy starring Henry TOOtATI Winkler outra-a geous entrepreneur (IvtJW who turns tha city.

morgue Into tha headV of a dubious business AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (At the Regency H) A f-rf fresh, honest and 'vin' ftoproacn has I '1dd Den rount to what taV could teen hackneyed theme: how boys become men in the Naval Aviation Officers Candidate program and deal with the romances they've had with the town "debs." Louts Gossett, Jr, dominates with hrs dynamic performance as the tough drill instructor. Richard Gere forgoes his usual mannerisms to suggest his conflicting Impulses as he fights both the 0.1. and his self-pity. Debra Winger is his independent girlfriend. They prove that all the world can stiH love lovers as vividly real as these.

Stone POLTERGEIST (At the Regency III and Tanforan Park) This hokev. but enter- Iff taining, scare movie by Steven Spielberg (with a few contributions from director Tobe Hooper) will probably ring box office cash registers and keep us up all night An average suburban white family is visited by extraordinary forces. Tha movie shakes, rattles and rolls with special effects, to the point of resembling a video game on occasion which is undoubtedly part of the point. Fortunately, Spielberg has maintained a wry sense of humor throughout, and that makes most of this affair rather fun. Could be quite scary for very smaH kids.

P. Stack ROCKY (At the Alexandria) Focky Bjiooa, me nai-ian Stallion (also known as Sylvester Stallone) returns to our neighborhood theaters to al iMttti ttMB nrnkWim fame and fortune as a world has been sold Into prostitution. That actress, Kaori Momoi, Is very funny and apologetic about her Incorrigibly lusty nature. It's a rich film fitted with double-crossing, treachery, violence and the boisterous efforts of street carnival pecsto to rise above It atl. J.

Stone E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. (At the Regency and Spruce Drive In) it's a Vf magically wonderful I movie. Children and LaY adults wiH love Steven Spielberg's turn about a Creature from outer space, strand-ad on earth. It's humorous and marvelous aH the way as a 10-year-old boy assumes responsibility for safety while searching for a way to reunite the creature with his own kind.

Judy Stone SARDS A VUE (Under Suspicion) (At the Cento Cedar) Michel Serrault, star of "La Cage Aux Fotles," displays a mora sober tide of his talent as the wealthy lawyer brought In for questioning about the rapemurders of two tittle girls. His verbal duel with pohce inspector Lino Ventura and tha mysterious role of his wife (Romy Schneider) hive a degree of psychological suspense, but director Claude Miller ultimately fails to come to grips with the couple's lives and motivations. J. Stone CREASE 1 (At the Serramome) A rather awful sequel to the mostly awful original. This one returns us to Rydell High School, area 19(1, to witness witless students war bling or wiggling to a welter of musically whimsical wonderments, while a wispy young woman (Stephanie Pteiffer) woefully wows a would-be wotf (Maxwell Caulneld), who winds up wooing her wmningiy by whizzing around on a motorcycle, wildly.

P. Stack GREGORY'S GIRL (At the Gateway) Bill Forsyth's first maior release from Scotland, starring a de- pole named cordon 1 charming study In the sweet awk- ridge) raztkan director ArnaWta JatW talis Vfi tus work a "Brechtian erotic comedy," but it seems neither Brechtian, funny nor very erotic despite an the publicity about fSoma Braga's being a "true sex goddesv" Here she is involved on a dreary voyage of sexualromantic discovery with one Paulo, who describes himself as a "bourgeois creep," and picks up Braga. believing her to be an expensive whore. In his fancy apartment, they are supposed to be jolting each other into a sense of new life, but Jabor has failed to turn on the electricity. Stone MARIANNE AND JULIANS (At the York) Marianne grows up to be a terrorist; her yrjT sister, Juiiane, works I otf of 'eniinist maga-nne.

The love, family ties and conflicts, that bind them are brittiantiy explored In Margarethe vonsTrotta's powerful new film, which marks her steady growth and emergence as a major director. The film was inspired by the history of Germany's Ensslin sisters. Von Trotta dares to show something most West German filmmakers have ignored: how German history affected the post-Hitler generation. A tour-tie-force in every way. J.

Stone A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS SEX COME- DV (At the Vogue) Woody Allen's anemic little roundelay, set during a wedding weekend houseparty in the country at the turn of the century, is tired and belabored, lacking any of the wild sense and nonsense of the best of his films. Jose Ferrer is an aging pedant about to marry Mia Farrow, who acts like Diane Keaton at her most dim-witted. Their post-honeymoon sojourn with Woody, an unlikely Walt Street broker married to Mary Steenburgen, isn't lighthearted or THE SECRET OF KIMH (At tha Stonestown) me first futHengm feature by Don Btuth and his cohorts, who left Disney Stuoios hopmg to revitalize the classic ani mation style made famous by Walt Disney in "Bambi," "Pinoccrno" and other films. The result Is a first-class production, an excellent old-fashioned enter tatnment Loosely based on Robert Br ten's book -Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." it's the story of a widowed mouse's struggle to save her children from destruction.

The fiim carries us to a wonderful, sometimes scary, underworld of colorful animal characters. rating; cynics need not apply. P. Stack SIX PACK (At the Alexandria, Serra, Tanforan Park i- 1 and Spruce Drive In) Kenny Roaers makes his film debut as a ttVIW stockar racer who gets involved with six lovable but larcenous youngsters. SMASH PALACE (At the Four-Star) The owner of -Smash Palace." an auto repair shop in no-I 'rtV where, New Zealand, is mad for cars, racing n4 hie hofanhJ.

seven- year-old tomboy daughter who tfvmiA wrfanch from a knows a spark plug gapper. With masculine obtuseness, he has failed to communicate that he also stiH toves his French wife. Writer director Roger Donaldson traces the disintegration of their marriage with tense, compelling realism at least until the Jr. nery) Director Wayne Wong's droH comedy, in the guise of a gumshoe detective story, which exposes and explodes Oriental myths and stereotypes while uncovering a Chinatown no tourist ever sees. Filmed in San Francisco's China-' town, where cultures clash and sometimes blend In a number of funny, unexpected ways.

Stone DIVA (At the Clay) A black Amert-' can opera singer, a young Parisian mailman who's bonkers1' about her voice, a saucy little Vietnamese girl who's keen on the mail man, two Asians in shades and lots more become entangled in this devilishly off -toeat murder mys--tery revolving around an interna-: tional ring of drug smugglers and J. prostitutes, hi his first feature- length film, director Jean-Jacques Beineix shows a fanciful, tongue-tn-, cheek talent for spoofing old mysteries, creating incongruously beau-' tiful photographic images and mix-; ing it aH up with a touch of Zen. Delightfully original. J. Stone EUANAIKA (At the Surf) A gar-eous-laokina movie with a smashing finale, filled with vitality, im- K.

puoiniLV, mom iv- tiousness ana passion, n. hi Ctviu. mura has a quirky human quality that's Irresistible even if the history circa the 1160s is remote from our knowledge The hero, a poor farmer, returns from six years In the United States to find that his wif I 1 FACI 4.