Daily News from New York, New York • 169

mm MOVIE REVIEW By JUAN M. MENDEZ Ei Daily News Staff Writer ii lip 7 iQ ten -JO. 5 7 5. V41 4 it it it it CLOCKERS, starring Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo and Mekhi Phifer. Based on a novel by Richard Price.

Script by Richard Price and Spike Lee. Produced by Martin Scorcese, Spike Lee and Jon Ki-lik. Directed by Spike Lee. Duration: 129 minutes. Rated R.

With director Spike Lee achieves his best work so far. The filmmaker, author of "Do The Right Thing" and "Malcolm adapts the novel by Richard Price about the world of crack dealers in Brooklyn while successfully combining the detective genre and his peculiar visual and narrative style. The plot tells the story of two brothers, Victor and Strike Durham. Victor (Isaiah Washington) is an honest, committed, hardworking man who struggles to support his family on a two minimum wage jobs income. Strike (Mehki Phifer) is a drug pusher (or clocker as they are also known) in a Brooklyn housing project While he is younger than Victor he makes more money with his illegal trade.

When Victor turns himself in for the murder of a drug trafficker who was a rival of his brother, detective Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) suspects that there is something fishy and decides to go after the truth. In Lee has merged two excellent films in one: on one level, he offers a detective thriller with its trademark suspense, and parallel to that, a film that denounces the drug crisis in the black community of the Iron Babel. The director and co-star, whose previous films suffered from technical excesses, is able to achieve a perfect balance between style and content with this film. He has also sketched the characters, both cops and civilians, with an ample I 14 Mi A1 i liz Lit' aS i -aji 1 STRIKE DUNHAM (Mekhi Phifer) surrounded by Rocco Klein n(Harvey Keitel) and Larry Mazili (John Torturro), two homicide detectives who are probing the murder of a little known drug pusher or tion to a gun. The characterizations of Keitel as the detective obsessed with the truth and Phifer as the young drug pusher who wants to get out of his no-way-out situation, will be conversation material for the Oscars.

It should not surprise us if Lee gets a statuette also, because this work definitely makes him deserving of an complexity that allows the audience to identify themselves with their tribulations. Cinematographer Malik Sayeed is able to achieve interesting visual textures using several kinds of film stock, depending on the tone of the scene. And Lee wasted no time in showing us a gross reality: the opening scene recreates true police photos. The cinematographer focused his camera on the corpses, as if trying to get into the bloody gun wounds and the slashed necks, forcing the audience to deal with the daily violence found in city housing. Lee also peppers the film with brief, but profound, comments about the influence of TV, rap, video games and alcohol in the juvenile violence culture, in which a 13-year old aspires to have the latest style in in addi ilrds of a feather.

By JUAN M. MENDEZ El Daily News staff writer 4 There are now three films, either starring or about Latinos, among the Top 10 box office hits. "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," starring Colombian John Leguizamo, Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes, took first place on the list in its first weekend of release. It was followed by Disney's drama "Dangerous Minds," in second place with $4 million and New Line's "Mortal Kombat," in third place with $3.8 million. Meanwhile, the Latino presence could also be felt; with the action film, "Desperado," starring Antonio Ban-deras and directed by Mexico's Robert Rodriguez, which continues having a strong box office showing, taking in $2.63 million last week.

"A Walk in the Clouds," directed by Mexican Alfonso Arau, took in $2.48 million and after five weeks is still in the "Top 10." Following are the "Top 10" box office hits, followed by the studio and the total earnings so fan "No Produced and directed by Francisco Lombardi. Script by Augusto Cabada, based on Feodor Dostoyevsky's "Crime and With Diego Bertie, Adriana Davila and Jorge Chiarella. In Spanish with English subtitles. Time: 117 minutes. Not rated.

At Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, Manhattan. Francisco Lombardi, director of such Peruvian film masterpieces as "Maruja en el and "La ciudad los perros" has put on film his version of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and set in the 1980's. In the film titled "No Lombardi weaves a web of characters and situations to illustrate class conflict and to pose philosophical questions about justice and morality in today's Latin American countries. Ramon, played by Diego Bertie, is a university student of philosophy with meager financial resources. He rents a room from an evil, wealthy landlady, who thinks nothing of eviction when rent is not paid.

Gradually, Diego becomes deeply involved in his own moral queries: Does the end justify the means? Does he who has abused others, deserve to die? After witnessing one injustice after another, driven by the misery that surrounds him, Diego commits a crime. The plot unfolds as Diego, tormented by guilt, attempts to conceal his crime by any means, all the while falling apart emotionally. The story is told in flashback by Diego himself, as he is confessing to a priest The director obtains solid performances from Bertie and from Adriana Martinez as Sonia, the innocent young woman who is forced to prosti- tn a MOVIES STUDIO EARNINGS 1. To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! JuMe Newmar Universal 9 2. Dangerous Minds Disney 62.8 3.

Mortal Kombat New Line 60.1 4. The Prophecy Miramax 11.6 5. Desperado Columbia 20.9 6. The Tie That Binds Disney 2.62 7. The Last of the Dogmen Savoy 2.5 8.

A Waft in the Clouds 20th Cent. Fox 42 9. National Lampoon's Senior Trip I New Line 12.18 10. The Usual Suspects Gramercy 8.6 NO MERCY: Soma (Adriana Davila) consoles Ramon (Diego Bertie), the tormented philosophy student of the film "No Mercy." tution to support her ne'er do well father, and whom Ramon tries to save from squalor. Jorge Chiarella also stands out as the detective who investigates the crime and Hernan Romero as a rich dirty old man who futilely chases after Sonia or after any girl under 15.

The plot loses momentum at mid point, but recovers as each character meets their seperate fate. And, although this film is not of the same caliber as his previous ones, "No Mercy" offers an important view of humanity stretched to the edge of desperation. a 2 UJ i-a. UJ CO () Ui ut 3.