Standard-Speaker from Hazleton, Pennsylvania • Page 30

Hazleton Standard-Speaker, Saturday, December 31, 1988 29 Films in Focus CRYPTOQUIP LDG CQZXU XRPPGG CNQGC- WNH, ZH LDG TRQTKBWC; HGGTGT LR FGKU BF. Yesterday's Cryptoquip: OUR INGENIOUS GRAMMARIAN SEEMS TENSE TO ME. Today's Cryptoquip clue: equals The Cryptoquip is a simple substitution cipher in which each letter used stands for another. If you think that equals it will equal throughout the puzzle. Single letters, short words, and words using an apostrophe can give you clues to locating vowels.

Solution is accomplished by trial and error. WHEN IT'S PARTY TIME! PLACE YOUR ORDER EARLY TODAY FOR BAKERY DELI ITEMS FOR NEW YEAR'S EVE PARTIES! OPEN TODAY 8 A.M. 'TIL 2:30 P.M. "MY STEPMOTHER IS AN ALIEN" (PG-13) Minor but amiable entertainment cocktail, fizzy with good spirit, starring the appealing regular-guy comic Dan Aykroyd as an astrophysicist who meets an alien-beyond even his starry dreams. The thing from another planet comes in the formidable form of Kim Basinger, who has a sporty comical verve you might not have expected (she spoofs her sex-bomb image wonderfully without losing sex appeal).

The charming bud-beauty Allyson Hannigan plays Aykroyd's daughter, and there are fond, funny nods to Jimmy Durante, "To Catch a Thief" and other icons. What the film lacks is style director Dick Benjamin has none, but he doesn't let the lavishly cheapo effect overwhelm the giddy story, and he knows how to pitch across even the dumber gags. It's forgettable but diverting. (Fair) "RAIN MAN" (R) Tom Cruise plays an '80s slickster trying to grab an estate locked in trust for his brother (Dustin Hoffman), an institutionalized "autistic savant" (a wiz with numbers, childish in speech, emotionally frozen). One is chilled, the other iced.

They drive crosscountry and, of course, warm up. Macho-perfecto Cruise is a bit less glazed in self-adoration than usual, and Hoffman gives one of his committed technical performances; the contrast of their styles is a show. But the film is artistic autistic so reticent, tasteful, slow-moving and predictable that it doesn't build. And this is mental affliction treated gingerly, without the messiness and profound burden. Director Barry Levinson lays on beautiful backdrops and glib needlings of junk culture, yet his vaunted "feel" for people goes trite.

The result is not maudlin, just dull. Valeria Golino has some charrning moments as Cruise's loyal lover; she's like the perfect Italian playmate for upwardly mobile yuppie studs. (Fair) 'TEQUILA SUNRISE" (R) This stylish romantic thriller, written and directed by Robert Towne, has some of the gliding, surprising comic rhythms of a '30s social comedy, plus a very '80s sexual charge. It's about friends and lovers simmering in a shady stew of drug crime and police action in L.A.'s South Bay area. Kurt Russell (his best role since Elvis), Mel Gibson and the silvery, feline Michelle Pfeiffer almost purr with pleasure over Towne's smart dialogue, which (apart from one or two speeches) doesn't overload the themes of friendship and erotic love, corruption and loyalty.

We can relish how they and Towne (with great help from Conrad Hall's succulent images) make something adult of the buddy-action genre. The plot payoff gets a little scrambled and rambling Towne clearly doesn't care to give us standard kicks yet there are so many munchies (including Raul Julia as a preening Mexican crime honcho and Budd Boetticher as a smiling judge) that it takes a kind of ingratitude not to welcome this movie's mature, often elegant satisfactions. Not for the "Die Hard" crowd. (Excellent) "TWINS" (PG) Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is like a Greek god's version of a tank, brings a delightful sweetness, a beatific charm, to the role of Julius, the brainy, brawny product of genetic engineering who leaves his lab island after 35 years, goes to L.A., and finds his midget-sized twin (Danny DeVito). While DeVito also has his zippy moments, this film isn't written to do more than throw the stars together for obvious payoffs, and we feel massaged by manipulation.

Ivan Reitman directed with his usual expensive obviousness, though fortunately he doesn't overdo the mayhem or special effects. With Kelly Preston, Chloe Webb. (Fair) Bread Rolls, Party Cakes, Cookie Trays, Pastry Trays, Cookie Baskets, Cold Cut Trays, Hot Cold Deli Items, Including a Variety of Salads, HOLIDAY HOURS: OPEN TODAY NEW YEAR'S EVE MONDAY, JAN. 2, CLOSED SUNDAY NEW YEAR'S DAY By DAVID ELLIOTT Copley News Service OPENINGS "DAKOTA" (PG) After running from a troubled family life in the big city, John Dakota (Lou Diamond Phillips) ends up on a farm in Texas where he falls in love and becomes part of a new world. Fred Holmes directed the romantic drama.

"HELLBOUND II" (R) Gory sequel to the 1986 horror hit written and directed by Clive Barker, about creatures who live to dismember. Not for the kiddies. "SALAAM BOMBAY!" Mira Nair's first feature after four documentaries is a lightly fictionalized view of the street urchins of Bombay. We follow the castoff boy Krishna (Shafiq Syed, an actual street orphan) into a colorful, jammingly alive (and deadly) maze of pickpockets, prostitutes and drug addicts. He Jias pluck and decency, and various hard-bitten adults take an interest in him (including the drug dealer Chillum, played with scorching realism by Raghubir Yadav).

He scrambles for small change and develops a puppy-love crush on a new prostitute, a gorgeous Nepali virgin who is bait for the rich. Nair films them without editorial pity or Third World rhetoric; the film's pure, observing intensity (along with the kids' scrappy energy, and Sandi Sissel's great images) makes it heartbreakingly vivid, a classic closer in fineness to "The 400 Blows" than "Pixote." Aneet Kanwar as a dignified prostitute and guilty mother, and Nana Patekar as her pompous but self -doubting pimp, do powerful acting. (Excellent) "TORCH SONG TRILOGY" (R) Harvey Fierstein stars in his adaptation of his hit play, itself an adaptation of his struggling drag-queen life as a New York entertainer. With Anne Bancroft as his mother, Brian Kerwin and Matt Broderick as his lovers, Karen Young as Kerwin's naive wife. Paul Bogart directed.

"WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN" (R) -A pure, delectable style show from the breezy Spanish wizard Pedro Almodvar about a woman (Carmen Maura) scorned by the vain lover she met when they dubbed films into Spanish. She goes haywire with jealous anger, pulling the man's new lover and wife and son and the son's lover into her soapy tantrum. Soon, there's a bed on fire, and things flying through the air, and policemen zonked on spiked gazpacho, all filmed with the color-drunk "chic" of '50s fashion layouts and old Hollywood musicals. Go with the flirty, fabulous surface, and you won't yearn for absent depth. The film's points about Latin passion have been made before; what interests Almodvar is how to give them a fresh spin, with pure dash of pleasure in decorative details and comical coincidences.

It's a party. In Spanish, with English subtitles. (Excellent) "WORKING GIRL" (R) With his silkiest smarts since "The Graduate," Mike Nichols directed Kevin Wade's contrived but classy comedy about a secretary (Melanie Griffith) who has the brains and drive to move upscale as a big-biz deal maker in New York. Griffith, with her plush, wholesome aura and sweet-baby-bird voice, makes us accept Tess' yearnings and choices; she blithely spikes fears that the movie co-opts '80s feminism for Wall St. values.

And she gets great support, from Joan Cusack as her New Yawky chum, Harrison Ford as the deal-hustling partner whose sexual needs are humorously romantic, and whippet-thin Sigourney Weaver as a state-of-the-art boss who is also a wormy conniver. One or two scenes have the thud of plot stones shifting into place, but mostly the film is a breezy delight, so finely crafted and acted that we can relish each turn and tick of story. And it should make Griffith a star, the new Judy Holliday. With Olympia Dukakis, whose brief work is like an ironic asterisk on the Reagan-Bush yup-scale attitudes. (Excellent) RECENT RELEASES "DIRTY, ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS" (PG) Michael Caine has preening smoothie moves as a suave gigolo exploiting rich women on the Riviera, and Steve Martin has broad comic payoffs as the pushy American who tries to horn in on his act.

But Martin is too broad, too pushy, to be a credible seducer of women, and director Frank Oz favors him with slamming close-ups that are battering rams aimed at our eyes. Next to Caine's oily subtlety, he seems gross, a star on a star trip. Still, the Riviera locations are lush with sun and plush with expense, and there's a wonderfully airy, bird-pert performance as a "victim" who has games of her own by the funny Chicago stage performer Glenne Headly. Too bad the movie (based on the 1964 David Niven-Marlon Brando flop "Bedtime lacks the breezy rhythm of true farce. (Fair) Bakery Delif, 455-3700 o( 37 E.

Broad Street, Hazleton Jsmti a mi fea a ta vx la fcs a la ta i la 3 ta a ta la a 4X1 A a OPEN HOUSE For NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER rADiriv uattcc NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER at Carmen's )tSX r-T tffflZ- CONTINENTAL LOUNGE AndT Closetd Monday 455-5955 Man eats bad check FREEBURG, 111. (AP) Fast cash turned into fast food for a man who tried to pass a bogus check at a supermarket, police said. Police Chief George Price said Roger Thomas Wilson put the crumpled check in his mouth and swallowed it while he was being searched by police Wednesday. Wilson and Linda Brello-Wilson of Summerfield were arrested as they left the store, about 25 miles from St. Louis, after trying to cash the check, Price said.

Open Today and Sunday New Year's Day Your Fuii Service Restaurant Join Us Tonight For Hnr Now Year's Fva rarrocij's rdiiiiiy ncoiauiaiii and Continental Lounge And Dining Room 44 E. Broad Downtown Hazleton Phone 455-5521 BUFFET OPEN HOUSE Served 4-9 PM New Year's Eve Specials All Specials prepared for Takeouts Too! Stage Coach Stop Rt. 309 1-80 Open 7 Days A Week! USOA CHOp prime Rid of Beef, Au 3US FULL 10 O-6- LOBDTAL is--; Drums, Pa. Just Behind The Orloskl's Texaco "Formerly Stuckys" OPEN 7 DAYS A A.M.-9 P.M. It FREE COFFEE WITH BREAKFAST SPECIALS MON.

to FIB. CLOSED NEW YEAR'S EVE AT 11 A.M. OPEN NEW YEAR'S DAY NEW YEAR'S DAY SPECIAL yegeiau- 50 fin ni.) porks $95 NEW YEAR'S EVE PACKAGE Call Early Today Some Reservations Still Available OVERNIGHT KINGQUEEN PACKAGE Enjoy Breakfast With Us NEW YEAR'S DAY OPEN 6:30 A.M. lu a choice i.TC I r- IS nil dAucnivnAui eg (Potato Vegetable) tf etabie oi Continental breakfast at 1:30 AM Full Breakfost Buffet AM; Jan. 1 Televised Parades and Bowl Games Jan.

1 King or Queen size bed Drinks included Entertainment TWO BANDS John ChapmanClassic Act Full Dinner Buffet Champagne toast at 12 Midnight Hats, Horns i Noisemakers One Bloody Mary late check out at 6:00 pm All taxes and gratuities JUST A FEW OF OUR HOME COOKED DAILY SPECIALS STUFFED CHICKEN FETTUCINI FILET OF BROILED BREAST ALFREDO LVrLccou HADDOCK -475 std25 $5 Vegetables Salad viyobh. 0 Viable SUNDAY, JAN. 1st I NEW YEAR'S DAY UPCCUUS Our famous Roast Fresh Ham with stuffing LIVE ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK FEATURING "CLASS, ACT" RT. 93 KIWANIS WEST HAZLETON 455-9300 Freshly Roasted USDA Choice (io oz.) Prime Rib of Beef, Au Jus or 1 Lb. T-Bone or 1 Lb.

Porterhouse Served with a potato 4 5 oice of and cho vegetable or salad i salad. I I I I I I I I STEAK USDA CHOICE Baked Virginia Ham with fruit sauce Includes Served with Potato Your Choke Rock Choice of Vegetable or $Q95 Split 9 Soup or salad AE aaiaa. Darnrf l4f; Potato or vegetable Coffee or teo CMP Sundae complete In the Poconos ZJf: Carmen's Homemade Baked Lasagna, Ravioli or Manicoti with choice of our famous sausage or meatballs A TTTD'CTT'n' AL 1 HKH 1 1 JD ounge 554 Alter Hazleton, Ph. 455-507 1 i $trvmn Gmirmct lulun dminc Open For Lunch Daily 11 am 3 pm Dinner Served 4 pm -10 pm fT? CkMed tor Dinner Monday Sunday Dinner-3 pm-10 fC Z- i Hid U'fufr H'rm EE" a 'S" SHRIMP Or CHICKEN SCAMPI Over CAPPELINI Or RICE Served with Soup or $050 Salad Served with a $C95 crisp garden salad. your choice1 New Year's Day Super Special! FULL 10 OZ.

AAA Quality LOBSTER TAIL Best served with drawn butter, French 4 "595 fries homemade cole slaw 1 value in the Region! All Entrees Include An Appetizing Salad Bar with a variety of Pasta Salads featuring Peel 'n' Eat Shrimp and homemade soups. ft SATURDAY EVE. CHEF'S SPECIALS OPEN MONDAY, JAN. 2nd-6 a.m.-9 p.m. 95 $17 SEAFOOD ROYALE 2 clams, 3 shrimp scallops, flounder, V4 lb.

crab leg and lobster claw broiled to perfection Serving Carmen's FAMOUS EXPRESS LUNCHEON BUFFET -2 '2 15 It's Nutritious, It's Delicious, Eat Healthy Affordable Choose from a delectable array nt lino Hnt 'W Tnlrl Crock Fruit Salads. Snuns. LONDON BROIL 1 2 oz. tender flank )4 A95 steak sauteed with mushroom demi-glaze sauce I CHICKEN IMPERIAL 8 oz. chicken breast stuffed witn crabmeat and 095 baked to perfection I LOBSTER MEDITERRANEAN -1 oz.

lobster tail sauteed wwhite wine, lemon, capers, $4 C95 topped wMaryland Lump Crab Iw VEAL COQ AU VIN Medallions of veal sauteed with mushrooms, $4 4 95 onions and red wine sauce II and Breads 25 $4 os. ONLY STUFFED BAKED PORK CHOPS $6.50 95 $8 Carman's SEAFOOD $495J SEAFOOD MARINARA Served Over HOMEMADE LINGUINI With Soup or Salad Join Us This Evening For A Relaxed NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER Served Until 10 PM OPEN NEW YEAR'S DAY-1 2 Noon 'til Closing NEW YORK SIRLOIN STRIP STEAK 795 i la la ks a ta a a ts a a a la la in ta ta MMniaft.