The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 86

THE RECORD. FRIDAY. OCTOBER 5. 1984 18 Mvoe -Body Rock' hard to take By Lou Lumenick Movie Critic JilpLtp pjh Ti VV iii! A The cycle of break-dancing musicals that began with "Wild Style" a year ago and progressed through "Breakin' and "Beat Street" this summer, reaches an enervated climax with "Body Rock." "Body Rock," like "Wild Style," is a slight tale about a break-dancing graffiti artist who learns to value his buddies on the street after a brush with decadent downtown types. It's merely an excuse for MTV-style dance numbers, staged with considerable panache by video director Marcelo Ed- REVIEW stein, who unfortunately exhibits no talent whatsoever for storytelling.

A major debit is the casting of Lorenzo Lamas of "Falcon fcest" as Chilly, the graffiti artist The rather preppy son of Arlene Dahl and the late Fernando Lamas is no street kid, even if he makes a stab at break dancing. Not that the film captures any sort of urban grit, though much of it was filmed in New York City. Things get incredibly soporific between numbers, brightened only by the charm of leading ladies Vicki Frederick (as Chilly's bad girlfriend) and Michelle Nicastro (Chilly's good girlfriend). Even a scene in a gay bar and Chilly's introduction to bisexual chic seems impossibly decorous. In the movie's silliest scene, one character keeps telling another to "screw" h'irself on the soundtrack, while her hps indicate the use of an epithet more indigenous to a ghetto milieu.

"Body Rock," which opened recently, is rated PG-13, with mild sexual suggestiveness. From left: Nick Nolte, Judd Hirsch, and Jobeth Williams in "Teachers. A high school gone awry By Lou Lumenick Movie Critic 'Streets': no curb on sex, violence member who literally has his desk stolen from behind his back; Richard Mulligan as an escaped mental patient who juices up his classes by impersonating historical characters; William Schallert as a principal with a conveniently nonfunctional memory, and Lee Grant, as a public-relations minded superintendent of schools. None of the four leads are anywhere near as well-cast. Hirsch works hard to overcome his basic sincerity to play a heavy, but his effort shows.

Skinny little Macchio, who was so appealing in "The Karate Kid," seems terribly mannered, playing Eddie as a junior-grade gangster, replete with method mannerisms. REVIEW By Lou Lumenick Movie Critic Poor Brenda (Linda Blair). Her sister Heather (Linnea Quigley) has been raped by a bunch of thugs called the Scars. For good measure, they've also tossed her pregnant best friend Francine (Lisa Freeman) off a bridge, thus depriving Brenda of the opportunity to be maid of honor at Francine's wedding. What's a girl to do? You guessed it Brenda zips herself into a black leather jumpsuit and teaches the Scars a few fatal lessons in this latest "Death Wish" clone.

Her weapon of choice is a crossbow, which she uses to particularly nasty effect on the head Scar, Jake (Robert Dryer). REVIEW According to the press notes for 'Teachers," the movie is loosely inspired by executive producer Irwin Russo's experiences at a Long bland high school No wonder he left teaching for Hollywood. A manic black comedy with the format and director (Arthur Hiller) of "The Hospital" but without its finesse or discipline, 'Teachers" depicts an urban high school whose denizens are barely distinguishable from those of a mental ward. Faculty members are lazy, incompetent intimidated, or, at least in one case, certifiably insane Students are functionally illiterate hooligans. The school's administrators spend most of their time trying to cover up their incompetence.

There are few idealists left at John F. Kennedy High. Alex Jurel (Nick Nolte), 1974's teacher of the year, has gone to seed. He saunters in late for class, nursing a hangover and dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses in the middle of a northern winter. Alex eventually starts to shape up under the influence of Lisa Hammond (Jobeth Williams), a former student of his who's now an activist attorney.

Lisa is representing a youngster who's suing JFK High for allowing him to graduate without being able to read or write. She wants Alex to testify in the suit something that Alex's best friend Roger Reubel (Judd Hirsch), a sleazy assistant principal, tries to prevent with every means at his disposal. As the divorced Alex begins falling in love with Lisa, she finds a way to rekindle his dedication: encouraging him to help a tough but bright nonreader named Eddie (Ralph Mac-chio). "You'll probably reach him," she tells Alex. You did with me." It's a measure of the movie's unevenness that Alex, Lisa, Roger, and Eddie are far less interesting than the subsidiary characters played by a host of terrific character actors.

The hatchet-faced Royal Dano all but steals the show as a dictatorial teacher who hands out mimeographed material at the beginning of each class, then dozes off. (The film opens with Dano being attacked with ditto fluid by the school who's promptly packed off on a medical leave). Also particularly good are Allen Garfield, a timid faculty Nolte's approach to Alex seems a slight variation on his "48 Hrs." shtick as a boozing, womanizing wreck who's galvanized into action by his conscience. His laid-back demeanor seems incongruous even in as bizarre a place as JFK High. (The film was shot at a vacant school in Columbus, Ohio.) Jobeth Williams is an even odder choice for Lisa? She simpiy looks too old to be a student of Alex's from 10 years ago.

She's not much more convincing as an attorney, particularly when she's required dressed in a leather miniskirt, yet to corner Alex with a subpoena in the boy's room. This is what they call "meeting cute" in Hollywood. Perhaps what was needed were, a few more rewrites of the script, a more-than-respectable first effort by W.R. McKinney. While there are solid, funny scenes and some good dialogue, the effect is too often undercut by speechifying that unnecessarily tells the audience bow to respond to what they've already seen.

Though director Hiller gets some-first rate supporting performances, he's much less successful than with his two previous excursions into black comedy, "The Americanization of Emily" and The Hospital" On those two, he was lucky to have scripts by the late Paddy Chayevsky, one of the few screenwriters ever to master this particularly difficult form of humor. "Teachers" opens locally today. It's rated with violence and sexual situations. Amidst a great deal of sex and violence, "Savage Streets" is more often funny than exciting. It's set at an incredibly sleazy Los Angeles high school where not even the principal (John Vernon) can go for more than 30 seconds at a stretch without beating somebody up or shouting obscenities.

"Brenda, you give me nothing but grief," the principal complains. i don't understand it You're a bright girL You've got a pretty face. A good figure." Based on the evidence in the movie which includes a totally gratituous nude bathtub scene with Blair, who has put on quite a few pounds since "The Exorcist" he appears to about one-third correct "Savage Streets," which opens locally today, is rated Expect the worst.