LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 53

LA.WEEKLY August 13-19. 1982 FILM 53 mm Ill IMPUI II MJ 1 A World of Movie Entertainment i i ifmiT 'The "E.T." Of Animation' THE SECRET OF NIMH (G) 12 45 2 30 4 15 6 00 7 45 9 30 PM Academy Award Winner! CHARIOTS OF FIRE (PG) 1 15 3 30 5 5 8 00 10 1 5 PM 5 0 2 1 Academy Award Winner1 FROM MAO TO MOZART 12 30 2 15 4 00 5 45 7 30 9 15 PM Comedy Smash of the Year! SECRET POLICEMAN'S OTHER BALL 1 00 2 45 4 30 6 30 8 30 (R) 10 30 PM Bertrand Tavernier's A WEEK'S VACATION 1 30 3 30 5 30 7 30 9 45 PM This Summer's Delicious Comedy Hit! DINER (R)' 12 45 3 00 5 15 7 45 10 00 PM "Superb" Times GARDE A VUE 1 2 30 2 30 4 30 6 30 8 30 10 30 PM Woody Allen's MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S SEX COMEDY (PG) 12 30 2 30 4 30 6 30 8 30 10 30 PM 5 UJ 5 2 I with wonder, thanks to a camera that loves what it's looking at and thanks very much to the lovely subtlety of the acting of JoBeth i Williams, as the girl's mother. And there's the humor of people'in great danger something most films miss entirely, but this movie's actually funny, very funny, when you're not ducking under the seat. So Poltergeist has a humanity, a care for genuine human feeling, mrely found in scare-movies I left not so much afraid of nightmares, as I often am, but hoping to find a ghost of my own to rness with. 'MV) ROCKY III Give Sylvester Stallone credit: this picture so totally recycles the first two Ftockys that in a just universe it would be practically non-.

existent; but the finished product is nonetheless a huge crowd pleaser. The audience I saw it with (a packed house at midnight) cheered lustily the whole way, and usually with legitimate reason. Talia Shire, Burgess Meredith, Carl Weathers, Me. T. and Stallone all turn in worthy performances; as a director Stallone proves himself to be a gifted showman.

Every passage in this movie on the strength of the acting, cutting and fchoreography has a punchy life of its own. The problem is the damned script. A friend of mine rightly describes the plot as boy-meets-title, boy-loses-title, boy-fights-to-woo-title-back-again. The story's inner workings are transparently silly. The film's only conflicts are inside the ring; outside, people either argue about the coming fight or stand around being "all heart." I can't imagine what they're going to do in Rocky IV, when they actually have to deal with each other.

But who knows? Stallone's gotten the saga this far. For my money that's far enough, even though his gifts have actually grown more intricate and he remains a talent worth watching. (FXF) THE SECRET OF NIMH The disaffected Disney staffers who broke ranks to make this animated feature on their own have managed two things better than their mentors: motion and melodrama. There is more of both in The Secret of NIMH than in recent Disney productions like The Fox and The Hound. But as for magic and mystery there is little of either.

Basically, Don Bluth and his associates aim for the same kind of appeal Disney always does which means the mother mouse and her babies, in or out of danger, are endowed with an overpowering and patronizing charm. To its credit the movie never entirely omits suffering and dying, and it even attempts to illuminate some measure of what a hazard men are to the natural world. But these efforts are modest enough to be almost shamefully safe, as if anything other than a mere melodramatic fierceness might have, complicated an otherwise happy sales talk. The aim of all the talk, of course, is to sell the audiencfe on what a rare and wonderful return the movie is to the classic values of animation, without offeiing much more than a sweetly self-interested sense of ingratiation. (GV) THE SECRET POLICEMANS OTHER BALL I didn't see the first Secret Policeman's Ball when it showed at Filmex, but I thought this one was terrific.

Masterminded and hosted by the great John Cleese, and featuring players from Beyond the Fringe and The Goodies as well-as Monty Python, the show alternates bright comical sketches with first rate musical numbers, all done for the benefit of Amnesty International. In many cases (and this is surprising), the musical numbers steal the show. The lead singer of The Police performs "Message In a Bottle" solo, which given the historical context of Amnesty International not only gives the song a lovely melancholy, but makes this quality unforgettable. Another fellow whose name I didn't catch, a singer of "whaling songs" with a gorgeously thick Scottish burr, tells several elaborate and hilarious drinking stories. John Cleese rnanages to keep the purpose of Amnesty International -completely in focus while he keeps the laughs coming, and that's the living definition of gallows humor: the laugh that ennobles compassion in the act of extending it.

(FXF) STAR TREK II Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is every inch the film that Star Trek should've been but wasn't. Far more intricate than the first picture, faster paced by a couple of light years, it ranks Al Pacino in AUTHOR! AUTHOR! (PG) 1 15 3 30 5 45 8 15 10 30 PM Carol Burnett Albert Finney ANNIE (PG) 12 30 3 00 5 30 8 00 10 00 PM Steven Spielberg's POLTERGEIST (PG) 12 30 2 45 5 00 7 15 9 30 PM Bruce Beresford's DON'S PARTY 1 2 30 2 30 4 30 6 30 8 30 10 30 PM Harrison Ford in BLADE RUNNER (R) 12.30 2 45 5 15 7 45 10 15 PM One Summer They'll Never Forget SUMMER LOVERS (R) 12 30 2 30 4 30 6 30 8 30 10 30 PM Cene Shaht, NBC-TV Today' Show Ui 2 2 w. ACADEMY AWARD WINNER 2 0 5 1 MA M0ZART: ISAAC STERNIN CHINA A presentation of the HARMONY FILM GROUP 12:30 2:15 4:00 5:45 7:30 9:15 CAROL BURNETT IS A HOLLERIN HOOT AS MISS HANNIGAN. GENE SHAUT, NBC-TV "ENGROSSING, PROVOCATIVE Kevin Thomas, L.A. Times hV I 2 I NATHALIE BAVE BERTRAND TAVERNIERS 0 2 1 A WEEKS VACATION UNE SEMAINE DE VACANCES ANVIN PHIl if'F't .1 S.

.41. fr ENG SuflTlTtfS 'Cp from nasraan 'Pfw nn DOLBY ITIREO Coteariria hNTiTttTiTRTXWr 1982 COLUMBIA PICTURES INDUSTRIES. INC. Ptctana 1:30 3:30 5:30 7:30 9.45 NOW PLAYING WESTMINSTER UA Mall (714) 893-0546 WHITTIER Pacifics Whittier 692-0077 WOODLAND HILLS GCC Woodland Hills 703-7571 BEACH Cinema Mall PASADENA Mann 3 351-9641 RIVERSIDE UA Tyler Mall (714) 689-8022 SHERMAN OAKS GCC Sherman Oaks Cinema 981-2437 TORRANCE Mann Old Towne 371-1221 BAKERSFIELD GCC Valley Plaza (805) 832-3441 BEVERLY HILLS Beverly Center Cineplex -652-7760 CERRITOS AMC Alondra 924-5232 COSTA MESA Edwards Mesa Theatre (714) 646-5025 MANHATTAN Mann 6 (213) 640-1075 MONTCLAIR GCC Montclair (714) 624-8006 ORANGE AMC Orange (714) 637-0340 1IIE Slit lMHiCOIANSBAIT 1.00 2 45 4.30 6.30 8:30 10.30 IT KNOWS WHAT SCARES YOU. (EO! MGMUA POLTERGEIST, 12 30 2 45 5.00 7:15 9:30 The Movie of Tomorrow A COLUMBIA P'CTuRf vf'LV' 5 12.30 3 00 5:30 8.00 10.00 A World of Movie Entertainment A World I Movie Entertainment A Wi mmm.