LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 50

T' L. A. WEEKLY August 13-19, 1982 SO FILM embalmed kind of perfectionist's poor at that Then there's director Collin Higgins This guy's inability to creatqa rhythm, in scenes as well as between them, could leach the life out of any script. But the biggest disappointments are Burt and Dolly. Individually, theyre just fine for their parts, even a joy to watch so long as theyre another, some of it is written and played as if the relationship between a small town sheriff and the whore he loves were worth an occasional honest observation, which indeed it is But why in the world would they want to make the subject into a musical comedy? The music and the dancing are poor at best, and an not together No chemistry, none at all.

Her sincerity and his light wryness never seem part of the same planet, much less the same picture Frustrating, that's what it is And more than a bit boring (GV) blade runner Ridley Scott's new movie, Blade Runner, opens with a series of soaring shots, which show a city at night, and which speak of spectacle and extraordinary sensation. A great adventure, set in a future still rooted in the past, is either ending or beginning and Blade Runner will bring us the details of its disasters and triumphs But if you take care to hurry for the nearest exit after the opening is over, you will save yourself the frustration of sitting through one of the more imaginative and less realized movies of this or any year Scott directs as if he were a doctor about to deliver some giant conception, and never once notices that this mountain of a movie is giving birth to little more than a mouse The story is simplicity, itself see Harrison Ford gun down four rebellious replicants, machines who are more human than the humans who made them and perhaps that was the films undoing At any rate, despite some superb special effects which must amount to more mass and motion per film frame than anything ever done in Hollywood, the only message communicated is the fact that the whole unwieldly thing was made to work (GV) THE BOAT A German boat, skippered by a sea captain of the Old School and manned by adolescents, sets sail on a long patrol That's the whole story, but through sheer force of film craft and good acting, that's all one needs The boat becomes the alpha and omega of the sailors' shared ex'Stences ard in distance from Hitler and the -ew, sudaen intimacy with the heli of war, they cease to be Nazis or even Germans fm a mafer and become instead 3 jisMia'1''' ae a metaon'or or the fates a --v so ers a' x.r,-'- es al Ad n- pc-ersen wfmr rfr r' rt- ly "3kpr Of es tCuii. jt-r 0 IPS -l more even than the story, to convey. Their portrayal of what value these film characters put on their values, is both precise and passionate. Tavernier is one of the rare filmmakers who has visions! (MV) f.r (THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL) Steven Spielberg joined the pantheon of the greatest filmmakers when he made Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

He is in their company again with ET (The Extra-Terrestrial) Has there been a movie as exciting as this that was ever as tender? I can't think of one. Beautiful, hair-raising, and very gently, very touchingly funny, E.T is a children's movie in that it is about the children around us and speaks to what is freshest inside us. An extraterrestrial is stranded on earth and befriended by children who try to protect him from the rest of us. As in Close Encounters, Spielberg's vision is that however Well-intentioned The Powers That Be may be, there is something chilling and killing in their methods, and that's no way to handle visitations from whatever world. Intuition, faith, and a sense of humor are what matters when the unknown calls that, and the courage to stand your ground So, after doing not much more in Raiders than flexing his muscles, Spielberg has come through again -he's the Fellini of our electronic games culture (MV) FIREFOX When Clint Eastwood became a director he showed himself a consummate craftsman, and the director Eastwood softened the star Eastwood by supporting him with character actors that gave uniqueness and sympathy even to the most fleeting roles Eastwood is one of the best directors-oT-actors we have.

Unfortunately, that's the only one of his virtues really evident in Firefox. Even people on-camera just once for a few moments make an impression here And, with his usual challenges to himself, hes given the hero scenes where h-breaks down crying in fear. But nothing I coheres The basic plot the attempt of the American military to steal a supersonic jet hgter from the Soviets is the mistake -on fantastical ever to grip the attention The sm if aH the best roles and most comp actives to supporting characters too soon jcre Tr.e Fvefrx jet is too obviously a plyw up pinned silver And weve seen all c'T'putrr games before It feels as though Eastwcoa the ,1 -ector and producer was try n-m stretch mmself here, technically, and got cauaht up in the exercise, forgetting the mov GARDE A VUE hard enough to make a movie like this v. a fi.m which the problems between two pe.p'e are so fierce that one of them is all modern' and the other is an out and out artyr But it's impossible if you choose to go at i the way this writer did, using the strucu" a detective mystery There are all the duns df.d the many efforts to make us look at the wn. ng things and not look at the right things me long winded assemblance of minute with their accomjoanying set of suspect explanations, and, finally, the solution, but not to the problem which was originally presented I like a mystery story as much as anybody, especially one which has Lino Ventura and Romy Schneider in the leads.

What I don like is having to figure out which story is the mystery That's the writer's job (GV) GREGORY'S GIRL An amiable, unremarkable movie about coming of age in Scotland Gregory (Gordon John Sinclair), once nimble on the soccer field, gets dumped from first string and replaced by a gm named Dorothy, on whom he develops a fierce crush What unfolds from there is the story ol his gentle (and rather amazingly painless) let down Dorothy (played by a leggy beauty named Dee Hepburn) had a fair dose of that totemic force "the ideal woman" should always have when seen through the eyes of a teenager Writerdirector Bill Forsyth also has a nice touch for bringing out the natural gifts of fns performers Nevertheless the movie is incredibly light weigh! Scottish accents are wonderful to listen to, and Gregory's Girl is generous with them, but had it been made America it well, it wouldn't have been made it ail, except for TV, and it probably would 1 uvi been made an afterschool special aMUnJ. TxH I LOVE YOU xr ovs, smx between consenting adults a oi' a it-diijus business at times, but 5 TP li As XJ-i iW I Nv 3 GEORGE ROY HILL rdm ROBIN WILLIAMS THE UORLI) ACCORDING TO GRP MARY BETH HIRT GLENN CLOSE JOHN UTHGOU Exeiudw Producn PATRICK KELLE Vrtrnpln In STE TES1CH fUvd or the mnel hi JOHN IRVING Prodmed in GEORGE R( HILL and ROBERT CRWTORD dimmUr GEORGE RON HILL MnMcro 9ROS A MV S'. M- fhrad the ny iron H1) NOW WESTWOOD Mann Bruin 208 8998 Doily 1 1 45 AM 2 30 1 0 8 00 4 10 3b PM Fri bo late Snow 12 4b AM HOLLYWOOD Mann Chinese 464-8111 Doily 11 lb AM 2 00 4 4b 7 30 4 10 lb PM Fn Sol late Sbov 12 4SrAM VALIDATED FREE PARKING SAT SUN AND AFTER 00 PM AwKdays multi pod geneiai odmtision oniy dock south SANTA ANA Bristol Cinema 714540-7444 Ei Sun 3 30 4 8 05 PM Mjn Ihurs 8 05 PM SHERMAN OAKS Pacific 4 990-4140 Do'ly 115415715 4 10 15 PM TORRANCE UA Del Amo 542-7383 Daily 12 30 5 15 4 10 00 PM WESTMINSTER MALL UA Cinema 714893-0546 Doiiy 1 1 50 AM 2 30 5 15 8 00 4 10 30 pm WOODLAND HILLS UA Warner Center 999 2130 Col Iriea'ie Fr 3r LOS CERRITOS MALL UA Cinema 924-7726 Doily 10 3b AM I 20 4 0b 7 00 4 9 45 PM MANHATTAN BEACH Mann 6 213640-1075 Doily 12 00 2 30 5 00 7 45 4 10 15 PM MONTCLAIR UA Movies 714621-5027 Daily 1 00 3 50 6 45 4 9 35 PM NORTH HOLLYWOOD UA Movies 766-4317 Douy I 15 4 05 7 00 4 9 50 PM PASADENA Hastings 796 71 1 1 Coin 2 30 5 1 5 8 00 4 10 30 PM 'echniq n(ir tip nij r- Hprog and -Je m. tp( an(i uhi I anquaqe 'J' i 1 i i AdS Han Dca I F( A' 1 1 c.r COSTA MESA Cinema Center 714979-4141 Doiiy 4 oB 4 8 lb PM COVINA Fox Covina 332-0050 Doiiy 12 15 2 4S 5 15 7 45 4 10 15 PM El TORO Saddleback Cinema 714581 5880 Dony 2 00 6 30 4 10 50 PM IRVINE Woodbridge Cinema 714 '551 0655 Doiv 3 4b 6 0C PM LONG BEACH MARINA UA Movies 594 525 41- AM 1 jl 4 4 i 41 FM ORANGf S'ao'jm Or ve lr 714 3-1 H7 i a a i i a i art i VtU-. n'y yS if BREA 8rea Plaza 714-529 5339 Doiiy I 30 4 lb 7 4 40 PM CARSON Soufh Bay Dnve In 532 8311 ORANGE I ii pj 'nt 7 I o3' SANTA BARBARA Fa'rvipw 80 967 0744 PALM DESERT Paims To Pines 714346 3821 Am, ildo Jaboi his earned the fonen Jxtremrs Not ihal this was npi tlM S0-R NO PAbSLS ACCFPfEO FCR THib ENGAGEMENT WATIKUS DAILY AT MOST THEATR1S I 4.