LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 48

4 rfi STUNNING GGzfrffiBzmuQ I2eeb AH WEMRELEASE FTl Pd 7t Top Floor BEVERLY CENTER Bavarly corner of La Cianaga fj FRBE PARKING 652-7760 Doily 12:30 2:30 4:30 6:30 8:30 10:30 PM SSSSa SORRY, NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT SS INIVERML TUOlOa TOUR MCA company 0K Omut KM MK CM1 (313) 77-13)1 EXTRAORDINARY FAST TIMES A RIDGEMONT HIGH "There's only two things 1 want out of life," says the glassy-eyed hero of this movie to his exasperated English teacher: "Some tasty waves, and a righteous buzz." It's a line representative of what's finest and funniest about this film. For here is a portrait of modern high school life that speaks lightly but truly to the fears and trials of post-Watergate teens. While neither as slapstick (in the visual, Mack Sennett sense) as Animal House, nor as apocalyptic and biting as Over The Edge, Fast Times At Ridgemont High is both funny enough and serious enough to hold its own in their company. Cameron Crowe's screenplay (based on his bestselling book) captures the language of its characters as hilariously as Frank Zappa's song, "Valley Girls," does his. Director Amy Heckerling wisely emphasizes character and relationships over bellylaughs, but keeps the laughs coming nonetheless.

The film's main strength issues from two performances: Jennifer Jason Lee's, as the 15-year-old heroine surviving her first (disastrous) sexual experiences; and Sean Penn's as the serene doper-surfer quoted above, surviving little more than his last righteous buzz. Lee is at once so naturally girlish and womanly, so timid and yet matter-of-fact, that she becomes an archetype of earthy teenage femininity. Sean Penn is something else again a skinny John Belushi, a gifted actor creating the archetypal party animal, as comic as Lee's character is serious. Like Belushi, his character isn't a role model (no matter what Daryl Gates might say), but a figure of wish-fulfillment, a creature of pure libido, like Mr. Toad in The Wind In The Willows a figure who, if anything, purges an audience's wishes through laughter, in the act of expressing them.

(FXF) THINGS ARE TOUGH ALL OVER Like everything Cheech and Chong do, Things Are Tough All Over is a sprawly, sloppy and generally hilarious tour of ethnic jokes and bodily functions. You might have to be a fan -I've been one for close to ten years because some of the sprawl and roughness, which had -ARCHER WINSTEN, N.Y. POST CHAN IS MISSING This marvelously natural, implacably odd little feature walks a fine line between drama and documentary. It tells the story of two Chinese-American cab drivers searching for their Taiwanese business partner who has disappeared with all the money. They interview his petit-bourgeois wife, his smart-alecky, Americanized teenage daughter, his mob and political connections.

Everyone gives them a different story each implying a radically new picture of their vanished friend but almost no hard or useable information. It's a mystery in which Mystery, capital is the only answer. Writer-director Wayne Wang is completely equal to the demands of this, though his artistic reach seems strained now and then by what was clearly a shoestring budget. He nevertheless dramatizes with great clarity the complex nest of confused identities and loyalties that exist, not only within the Chinese as a people, but within one individual. Joe and Steve the two cab drivers prove over the long haul to be easily as complex as their missing friend Chan.

Joe older, closer to his Chinese roots keeps up his search out of loyalty more than for the money, smarting over insults (thrown his way by other Chinese) about his resemblance to "Charlie Chan," finding solace in ancient parables he only half-remembers; Steve, younger, has no use for "all that mystical jive," and keeps up a fast patter of street talk, as if to maintain a strict, embarrassed inner distance between himself and his partner. All the anguish of racism is made palpable in this film without showing a single racist, or for that matter, anyone from another race and that miracle of understatement can only be pulled off by grace of sheer talent. Wayne Wang is definitely a young director to watch. (FXF) A STEVEN SPIELBERG FILM J0 the Extra-Terrestrial A STEVEN SPIELBERG FILM ET THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL DEE WALLACE PETER COYOTE HENRY THOMAS AS ELLIOTT MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS WRITTEN BY MEUSSA MATH ISON PRODUCED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG KATHLEEN KENNEDY DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG A UNIVERSAL PICTURE jjPplw ira Paginal Snuwdiraiii tm A Kcrtmfciind Tycn OQJY U-AOTHf BERKLEY BOOK jwiwwuBtiMuwiwc mccr NOW THE NEW YORK TIMES 1 BESTSELLER SPECIAL EARLY LATE SHOWS AT SELECTED THEATRES DOLBY STEREO iia Supremely Playful 3 1L. A 'Ineffably Charming And Diabolically.

WEST LOS ANGELES Pacific's Picwood 272-8239474-2569 Boxottice Opens 9 00 AM Tickets on sale throughout each day tor that days performances. Daily 10 00 AM 12.30 2 45 5 20 8.00 A 10 20 PM Fn-Sot late Show 12 45 AM HOLLYWOOD Hollywood Pacific 464-4111 Boxottice Opens 1 1 .30 AM Daly 12 30 2 45 5 20 8 00 10 20 PM Fn-Sat Lofe Show 12 45 AM Convenient meatre partung at teat ot meatre $1 75 at all times Direct passageway to meatre COSTA MESA Town Confer Cinema 714751-4184 NEWPORT BEACH Newport Cinema 714644-0760 WESTMINSTER MALL UA Twin 714895-5333 Comic. -The Village, Voice. i Richly Entertaining, Visually Dazzling, Awash With I Is true love just a fairy tale REDONDO BEACH South Bay Cinema 370-8587 SAN GABRIEL San Gabriel Drive-In 288-5502 SHERMAN OAKS Sherman Oaks Cinema 986-9660 SIMI Mann Sycamore 6 805583-0711 THOUSAND OAKS UA Movies 805497-6708 TORRANCE Torrance Drive-In 316-3556 VALENCIA Mann 6 805255-3966 VAN NUYS Van Nuys Drive-In 786-7510 VENTURA Ventura 101 Drive-In 805644-5595 WOODLAND HILLS UA Warner Center 999-2130 SORRY. NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT A Breath Of Fresh Air.

-After Dark CULVER CITY Sfudio Drive-In 398-8250 HIGHLAND Baseline Drive-In 714862-8136 LA HABRA Fashion Square 691-0633 LONG BEACH Los Altos Drive-In 421-8831 -t- LONG BEACH MARINA UA Movies 594-6525 MARINA DEL REY UA Cinema 822-2980 MISSION VIEJO Viejo Mall 714495-6220 ALHAMBRA Alhambra 289-3861 BREA Brea Plaza 714529-5339 BUENA PARK Buena Park Drive-In 714821-4070 CERRITOS UA Twin 924-5514 CHATSWORTH Winnetka Drive-In 349-6806 CITY OF COMMERCE Commerce 726-8022 CITY OF INDUSTRY Vineland Drive-In 961-9262 NORTH HOLLYWOOD UA Movies 766-4317 NORTHRIDGE Fashion Confer Cinema 993-0111 PARAMOUNT Rosecrans Drive-In 634-4151 PASADENA Colorado 796-9704 PC0 RIVERA Fiesfa Drive-In 692-7581 PUENTE HILLS Puenfe Easf 912-8566 PUENTE HILLS Puenfe West 912-5394 test lb.LTUIiWIlKi!f35ESll ORANGE City Center Cinema 714634-9282 L.A. DOWNTOWN State 624-6271 Late Stows Fn-SotSun L.A.-UNIV VILLAGE MALL University Cinema 748-6321 ORANGE Stadium Drive-In 714639-8770 The New Film by William Richert the Director of Winter Kills DOWNEY Showcase Cinema 862-1121 EAGLE ROCK PLAZA Eagle Rock Cinema 254-9101 GOLETA Cinema 805967-9447 I'll 1,1 Kl I'AMI I Ml AIT PALM SPRINGS Plaza 714325-2626 WEST COVINA Eastland 339-7333 Presented in Cine-Fi (Your AM car Radio or Portable Radio is Your Speaker) DOi" 1 JtU BRIDGES DOLBY STEREO BIANCA JAGGER NED BEATTY SUCCESS BELINDA BAUER STEVEN KEATS 1 Ti I' I I I AHh'T i OKI Ml All StHIRICk 1 1 I 1. 1. 1 rViV.f; 1 I I (. PGTKTi6iMUlia SUGSSttOjEfr vol NiiikA tikir fcxu I Ft oirwiS IacIhwc IWnrne Engagement Sturts Friday August 20 a Top Floor BEVERLY CENTER Find it in the Weekly' Classifieds Eeverty corner of La Cienega tiippLF PARK ING 652-7760 r.T..