LA Weekly from Los Angeles, California • 70

70 FILM L.A. WEEKL December 30, 1983-January 5, 1984 PG PARfNTAl GUIDANCE SUGGESTED 3C luti.ui or tunAut 10 chkomn' A PARAMOUNT PICTURE VI'-'1 NOW PLAYING VALENCIA Mann 6 (805) 255-3966 VENTURA Mann Ventura Twin (805) 644-7776 WOODLAND HILLS Pacific's Topanga 883-3300 WESTWOOD Mann Bruin 208 8998 Daily: 12:00 2:45 0 30 0 05 10:49 Frl Sal lata Show: 1:00 HOLLYWOOD Mann Chinese 464 8111 bhr: 11:30 2:00 4:45 Frl 0 Sal Lola 3245 nuclear weapons rests with great and equal weight on everyone who can so much as apprehend their own existence, but the sensitive, intelligent Weatherlys are inexplicably excused of any such obligation both before andor after the bombs go off. Littman's direction and Jane Alexander's acting are good, too good to be wasted on this thin, sad, sentimental phantom of a film. (GV) TO BE OR NOT TO BE A remake of the Ernst Lubitsch classic in which a charmingly fifth-rate Polish theatrical company battles the Nazi invaders with wit, soul and greasepaint. In the recent bizarre rash of remakes, this is the one, oddly enough, which retains some of the flavor, even occasionally the magic, of the original but that's due less to the writing or direction, both of which consistently coarsen, broaden or diminish its memory, than to the acting, some of which is admirable.

Mel Brooks, for example, has never been better (on screen) in his entire movie career than he is in the old Jack Benny role of the cuckolded, cowardly, egomaniacal Shakespearean actor, Frederick Bronski. Anne Bancroft, heretical as it might sound, actually betters Carole Lombard as Anna Bronski; she has more lunatic glitter, a cracked "grande dame" quality that works perfectly. And Charles Durning, one of Hollywood's great character actors, all but stops the show in the Sig Ruman part of Col. "Concentration Camp" Erhardt. The rest of the cast is good; but, beyond them, this To Be is just an outwardly gaudy, inwardly threadbare roadshow version of Lubitsch 's great film less silky, less urbane, less intelligent, less trenchant, less humane, and too addicted to cheap one-liners, show biz schtick and recollections of The Producers.

(MW) 7WO OF A KIND I can't possibly make this film sound as bad as it is, but I'll try. First there's the Hallelujah Chorus and a bunch of fast clouds. Then we find ourselves in heaven as God comes back from vacation only to find out that the world has been screwed up by the four angels he left in charge. God decides to destroy the planet and start over, but the angels convince him the human race is worth saving by showing him 3 love story between John revolting as the TERMS OF ENDEARMENT Several decades in the lives of a exas widow and her daughter the widow grittily fighting off middle and old age, the daughter submitting voluptuously to a life that winds up wounding and ravaging her. As adapted and directed by James Brooks, Terms is a wonderful comic tearjerker.

Brooks telescopes the lives of the two women with such skill and beguiling rapidity that, until the end, you never really feel the rush; never realize how much (almost 30 years and dozens of characters) the movie is showing you. Brooks comes from television (he was a co-creator and principal writer on The Mary Tyler Moore Show I and he's brought over one of the few assets of contemporary TV: a relish for character, the same kind of comic-naturalistic detail, adroitly repeated, that enlivened classic sitcoms like Mary Tyler Moore, MASH and AH in the Family and which most of today's movies miss completely. That makes this basically an actor's-writer's movie and maybe just skillful sitcom at that but compared to most of today's big-studio movies, what writing! And what acting Debra Winger does the daughter with a full-bodied, warm-hearted abandon that seduces you completely. And as the widow and the widow's paramour-neighbor (a cheerfully lecherous, drunken ex-astronaut) Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson cook up delicious, electric, funny-erotic rapport; an instantly classic pairing. (MW) TESTAMENT The extent to which you are affected by Lynne Littman's Testament, the story of nuclear holocaust as one family lives and dies with it, will reflect how precisely tuned you are to the people it portrays.

For those who can see themselves and their world in the Weatherly's America, the impact will be enormous, a profoundly personal tragedy. But others may not be moved so often nor so deeply as the film's soft outlines suggest are appropriate. And I say "soft" because Testament asks of its audience only what it asks of its characters: that they share the suffering but never that they assume some responsibility for the awesome circumstance which created it. Whatever else the adult Weatherlys and their real-life counterparts may be, they are not the innocent victims that the picture portrays. The threat of DRIVE-INS MANHATTAN BEACH Mann 6 640-1075 MISSION VIEJO Edwards Viejo Twin (714)830-6990 NEWPORT BEACH Edwards Newport Cinema (714)644-0760 0CEANSI0E Mann 8 (619) 439-7008 PASADENA Mann Academy 796-3191 SAN BERNARDINO AMC Central City (714)884-1851 SAN LUIS OBISPO Mann Fremont (805)543-1121 COVINA Mann Fox 332-0050 GLENDALE Mann Alex 241-4194 HUNTINGTON BEACH Edwards Huntington Cinema (714)848-0388 LAKEWOOD Pacific's Lakewood Center 531-9580 LA MIRADA Pacific's La Mirada (714)994-2400 LONG BEACH UA Movies 594-6525 SHERMAN OAKS Mann La Reina 788-8311 SIMI VALLEY Mann Sycamore 6 (805) 583-0711 TARZANA Mann Valley West 996-1300 TEMPLE CITY Edwards Temple theatre 286-3179 THOUSAND OAKS Mann Conejo (805) 495-6760 TORRANCE Mann Old Towne 371-1221 UPLAND Mann 4 (714)982-7551 Shows Sian al Dusk CHATSWORTH Pacific's Winnetka Drive-In 349-6806 TORRANCE Pacifics Torrance Drive-in 316-3556 WESTMINSTER Pacific's Hi-Way 39 Drive-In (714) 891-3693 BAKERSFIELD AMC Stockdarte (805)324 6778 BREA Mann Brea Plaza (714)529-5339 CITY OF INDUSTRY AMC Puente Hills 10 810-5566 ESCONDIDO Vineyard Twin (619)743-1288 HEMET Holiday Theatre (714) 925-6635 LANCASTER Movies (805)945-8686 ORANGE Cinedome (714)634-2553 PALM DESERT Town Center Cinema 7 (619)340-6611 PALM SPRINGS Plaza Theatre (619)325-2626 VICTORVILLE (619) 245-0233 fjryrrnrrn Shs start LiajilsUifil at Dusk Stadium Drive-In (714)639-8770 RIVERSIDE Canyon Crest (714)682-6900 SANTA BARBARA Granada (805) 966-4045 TEMECULA Winchester (714) 676-4464 Movies ORANGE I NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR THIS ENGAGEMENT Literate, adult and quirkily delicious, Reuben, Reuben also contains the brilliant dark-comic performance of Tom ContL.one of the more electrifying performances of the Shell; IV'twin, A flMFS reason enough for a grown-up to go back to the f) movies again.

Ruhard lrli, TIME MAGAZINE A movie of rare enjoyable, and as stylishly acted as any American film of the year. ViiHint (mhv, NE YORK TIMES beautifully acted, intelligently written Kia RivJ, NLVI YORK PlST Reuben, lovely, lovely! The thinking mans sex comedy. Conti is s.im.ian.vi ins radio, nk yorr A PARAMOUNT FtCTUFlE NOW PLAYING NORTH HOLLYWOOD TARZANA UA Movies Mann Valley West 766-4317 996-1300 loev WESTWOOD Mann National 208 4366 5IW15 Fit I Sat LW Stww: 12 IS HOLLYWOOD Mann Hollywood 463-9371 Dally: VIS 3 3D SSSM1S1S Fn I Sal lata Shnr 13 IS TORRANCE Mann Old Towne 371-1221 VALENCIA Mann 10 (805) 255-3966 WESTMINSTER Edwards Cinema West (714)891-3935 WOODLAND HILLS UA Warner Center 999 2130 HAWTHORNE AMC Hawthorne 644 9761 LAGUNA HILLS EdwardsSanbom Laguna Hills Mall (714)768 6611 LAKEWOOD Pacific's Lakewood Center 531 9580 LA MIRADA Pacific's La Mirada (714) 994-2400 LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN Pacific 's Tower 6229100 MONTCLAIR SRO Montclair (714)624 9696 MONTEREY PARK Edwards Monterey Mall 570-1026 NEWPORT BEACH Edwards Newport Cinema (714)644 0760 EL MONTE Pacific's Starlite Drive-In 448-7631 GARDENA Pacific's Vermont Dnve-ln 323-4055 LA HABRA Pacific's La Habra Dnve-ln (714) 871-1862 LONG BEACH Pacific's Los Altos Drive In 421 8831 ORANGE Pacific's Orange Drive In (714)634 9361 PARAMOUNT Pacific's Paramount Dnve-ln 630-1165 VENTURA Pacific's 101 Drive-In (805)644-5595 ORANGE AMC Orange Mall (714)637-0340 ORANGE UA City Cinema (714)634 3911 OXNARD Mann Esplanade (805) 485 2707 PANORAMA CITY Pacific 's Arne ncana 893 6441 PASADENA SRO Colorado 796-9704 ROSEMEAD AMC Rosemead 573 9480 SANTA MARIA UA Movies (805)922 0361 SIMI VALLEY Mann I Show Stan I at Dus omve-ms BAKERSFIELD AMC Stockdaie (805)324 6778 BREA Mann Brea Plaza (714)529 5339 CITY OF INDUSTRY AMC Puente Hills 10 810 5566 COSTA MESA Edwards Town Center (714)7514184 BAKERSFIELD Mann Crest Drive In (805) 832 0001 BUENA PARK Pacific's Lincoln Drive In (714)821 4070 CHATSWORTH Pacific's Winnetka Dnve-ln 349 6806 Sycamore 6 (805)583 0711 GARDEN GROVE Edwards Westbrook (714) 5304401 THE TAFT ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY A WAITER SHENSON PRODUCTION TDM CONTI REUBEN, REUBEN -ROBFRTS BLOSSOM KELLY McGILLIS PETEROpVRIFS GHERMAN SHUMLIN STEIN EPSTIN -DAN AIL INGHAM --JULIUS EPSTEIN Sx BILLY GOLDE NBERG CJULIUSJ EPSTEIN MtTmCTlP. MNIII 0 IRui' "WALTER SHENSON ROBERT ELLIS MILLER (A OCEANSIDE Valley Dnve In (619)757 5556 PALM SPRINGS Sun Air Drive-In (619)3283111 SANTA BARBARA Airport Drive In (805)964-8377 PHF-SKNTKtl IN ITT a rcT) GLENDALE Sands 2466363 LANCASTER Movies (805) 945-8686 LONG BEACH Palace 436 4429 NORTHRIDGE Pepperlree 993 0211 PALM SPRINGS Palms to Pines (619)346 3821 ANAHEIM Brookhurst Loge (714)772 6446 BANNING Fo (714)849-3277 BARSTOW Barstow Theatre (619) 256 9687 BELL liberty 773 6661 DOWNEY Showcase 862-1122 FULLERTON fo (714) 625 4747 UA Coronet Westwood 475-9441 MM I HOOI) HI IK. I HUH A MM III III II SIIIHt- Scieen Doily 12 30 2 30 4 30 6 30 8 30 ft 10 30 PM Screen 4 Daily I 30 3 30 5 30 7 30 ft 9 30 PM Exclusive Engagement NOW PLAYING SORRY, NO PASSES ACCEPTED FOR INIS ENGAGEMENT AcadeJmembers NO PASSES ACCCPTEO FO THIS ENGAGEMENT;.