The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • 190

Encor 26 Th $acrmftto Bee Sunday August 7 1994 rnmmm Class struggle Paolo Villaggio finds plenty of challenges as a primary school teacher in a poor village outside Naples in The kids from left are Luigi Lastorini Carmela Pecoraro Francesco Borruto and Adriano Pantaleo The movie opens Friday man (James Gamer) UA Sunrise (PG) North (no stan) An achingly bad movie in which adult filmmakers project their own cynicism psychological problems and twisted values onto children Rob Reiner's flat self-consciously stylized film revolves around Elijah Wood who plays a kid who feels unappreciated by his parents (Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander) and so sets off to find the mom and dad Bruce Willis helps him out UA Market Square UA Sunrise (PG) Red Rock West V2) -John hell-raising pulp film is a scruffy corn-pone mixture of blood greed and noir hyperbole whose characters strand ed in a Wyoming wasteland go at each other in just about every way possible For money of course The plot is vintage James Cain in which one spouse (smarmy JT Walsh) wants the other (Lara Glynn Boyle) offed and is willing to pay for it A drifter (Nicolas Cage) stumbles into all of this Sac Inn (R) The Shodow V2) -Alec Baldwir stars as Lamont Cranston and his better-known alter ego from the 1 930s radio serial John Lone is arch villain Shiwan Khan and Penelope Ann Miller is Margo Lane Cranston's friend and more Although a winning attractive cast and a literate senpt what's missing is the kind of vision that marked Tim Burton's onginal "Batman" and made it seem so fresh and substantial Capitol Sacramento and 49er drive-ins (PG-13) Speed (W V2) -Keanu Reeves plays a SWAT cop who must remedy a deadly situation when a crowded bus is let loose on the freeways of LA The tricky part is that the vehicle has been rigged with an explosive set to blow the bus to bits once it slows to under 50 mph directed by Jan De Bont is the kind of skillful violent film that makes audiences wince on cue UA Downtown Plaza UA Market Square UA Sunrise Sacramento and 49er drive-ins (R) True Lies (no stars) Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a man leading a double life His Harry Trasker is a seemingly boring guy who works in computer sales or so told Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis in a truly demeaning role) his wife of 17 years But in reality been a top secret agent fighting nuclear terrorism Like the male action heroes in most movies today is something of a grinning bully It grabs us by our collars and roughs us up demanding we comply and enjoy it Century State UA Greenback Sacramento and 49er drive-ins Cinema 2 (Davis) Auburn Cinema Cinema 4 (Placerville) (R) Widows' Peak () Joan Plowright Mia Farrow and Natasha Richardson star in this sharp funny film -set in a small Irish lakeside town in the mid-1920s populated almost exclusively by widows which starts out as a comedy of manners about a feud and then twists itself into a curious disarming mystery Tower (PG) WoH( -Jack Nicholson plays a Manhattan book editor who is bitten by a wolf and begins to be transformed into a hairy beast more than preparing him to deal with office sharks This resonant symbolic movie really a horror film about werewolves but a haunting drama about the of the in the Capitol Theatre UA Sunrise 49er Drive-in (R) The Wonderful Horrible Life of lent Riefenstahl ()- This is essentially a three-hour analytical portrait of the woman now 92 who made Hitler a Superstar via her photographic images The movie works on two distinctly different levels examining the life and times of a proud and irritable old movie pioneer but also questioning the morality of an artist who gets so lost in that she politely forgets about the content Spoken in German with English subtitles Sac Inn for one week only (not rated) Movi key: Four start aiceltent three start good two start fair one star poor start" offensiv The absenco at start Indicates that the movie has not been seen by press time All opinions are those of The Bee's movie critic Joe Baltake (except where noted) As film openings vary and closings often come without notice please check the advertising movie guide on page IS OPENING FRIDAY Got Profeoco! The new Lina Wert-muiler him onginally titled Let's Hope I Make It' Spenamo Che Me La is about an Italian primary school instructor who's transferred to northern Italy to teach but inadvertently ends up in a very poor village just outside of Naples He does the best he can there Spoken in Italian with English subtitles la the Army Now Pauly Shore continues to work for Disney following Man" and with this comedy that follows Shore from boot camp into actual battle Spanking the Monkey A supposedly comic movie about incest Mom just fractured her leg and sonny returns home from college only to learn he must now look after her CONTINUING Airheads Michael Lehmann directed this wacky comedy concerning three metal heads (Brendan Fraser Steve Bus-cemi and Adam Sandler) who take a radio station hostage in order to get their record on the air Lehmann has come up with a new set of slow characters who are funny in fits but don't come with the kind of skewered history that would have made more special than it is Right now it's just pleasant Cinedome UA Downtown Plaza UA Market Square Sacramento and 49er drive-ins (PG-13) Angels in the Outfield -k Vi) Another movie about baseball and a kid who takes over a team But what distinguishes this one from the others is a device that was used in another baseball movie of Dreams" heavenly intervention A little boy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) prays for some help for the California Angels managed by Danny Glover This is a remake of a 1951 B-movie of the same name It's fine irresistible schmaltz Century Cinedome (PG) Barcelona Director Whit Stillman follows up his with this comedy centering on a young American executive working in Spain during the early 1980s just as the Cold War and the sexual revolution are both dying down and what happens when his Navy-lifer cousin shows up Add women to the mix and the fun and friction begins Stillman's rude comedy is mellow and smooth and alter--nately discombobulating and trying is all subtext and no text to speak of a high-brow Out-of-Towners Tower (PG-13) Bhaji on the Beach () Three generations of East Indian women head to England for a holiday in Gurinder Chada's new comedy This is another all-woman intergenerational cross-cul-" (Ural comedy-drama cut from the same bolt of cloth as Herbert Magnolias" (1989) and Wayne Joy Luck Club" (1993) only one that's less exacting and silky than its predecessors but much more casual almost slovenly a ragtag movie Tower (not rated) Block Beauty Roger Ebert says this is one soppy version of the Victorian children's classic about the life of a beautiful horse The horse narrates the movie with new age sentiments such as dreamed of what was and I dreamed of what might have been" Century Cinedome 49er Orive-in (G) Blow Away k) Not all mad-bomber films are created equal Compar- isons between and this movie are inevitable both being about mad bombers and the fearless men trying to stop them Here Boston bomb expert Jeff Bridges with a murky past matches wits with big-city bomber Tommy Lee Jones is all action while which is annoyingly pretentious is nearly all talk UA Downtown Plaza UA Sunrise (R) floor and Present Danger Harrison latest turn as the Jack Ryan finds him battling the powerful and remorseless drug cartels of Colombia Chris Hewitt of the Knight-Ridder Newspapers syndicate calls it taut smartly paced thriller better than but not quite as sharp as Hunt for Red October' Willem Dafoe and Anne Archer also star Century Cinedome State Sacramento and 49er drive-ins Cinema 4 (Placerville) Holiday (Davis) (PG-13) The Client Vi) Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones hit all the right notes as rival attorneys in Joel adaptation of John Grisham's novel The conventionally effective plot is about a young boy who witnesses a suicide and last-minute confession that puts him in mortal danger Sarandon and Jones are brave enough to let us see their characters at their worst -physically messed up and not always nice and because of that they take their film into deeper fascinating areas locating subtexts in Grisham's work that in the other two adaptations Firm" and Pelican Century State UA Greenback Sacramento Drive-in Holiday (Davis) Cinema 4 (Placerville) (PG-13) The Flintstones V2) Brian Levant has made a surprisingly satisfying live-action film version of the beloved Hanna-Barbera animated caveman series from the '60s John Goodman makes a perfect Fred UA Sunrise (PG) Foreign Student (k Vi) In segregated 1956 Virginia a young exchange student (Marco Hofschneider of from Paris arrives at an elite Southern college wanting nothing more than to fit in But trouble brews when he falls in love with an African American woman (Robin Givens a real movie star) The two stars have no chemistry whatsoever Curiously what make Lassie( -Daniel Petrie directs this family film starring an eighth-generation descendant of the original collie When the Turner family moves from Baltimore to Shenandoah Valley they make a home for the lost dog that will soon save them from some nasty neighbors Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the movie is but also sweet wholesome It sorta grows on you" Century UA Sunrise (PG) The lion King V2) has come up with something of a first in its ambitious animated psychodrama with an ecological bent and feel for human development but with claws dealing with the birth and life of a forest prince Simba Century Cinedome State Holiday (Davis) Sacramento Drive-in (G) The Little Rascals V2) Spheeris directs the brand-new exploits of Sparky Alfalfa Buckwheat Daria and the rest of Our Gang Michael Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says that although a patch on the original comedies of Old Hollywood" it is merriest most upbeat new movie in many a year" and also most gratuitously vulgar picture seen in quite some time toilet humor thrown in at every opportunity easy laughs that often obscure the subtler wit of a scene" Century Cinedome Empire (Placerville) State (Auburn) (PG) The Mask (k k) Jim Carrey stars as a mild-mannered bank clerk who finds an ancient mask When he puts it on transformed into a manic zoot-suited superhero who finds himself in the middle of an intrigue involving the evil owner of the Coco Bongo nightclub and his slinky chanteuse (Cameron Diaz an authentic sex bomb in her movie debut) Roger Ebert says the movie realizes promise in Ventura" but is smarter and funnier Cinedome UA Market Square State UA Downtown Plaza Holiday (Davis) Empire (Placerville) State (Auburn) Sacramento and 49er drive-ins (PG-13) Maverick V2) -A silly affable movie that wastes a lot of time money and talent to achieve that rather modest description This TV-inspired Western comedy centers on a con man (Mel Gibson) who gets entangled with a spirited woman (Foster) and an enigmatic law eign into a reasonably interest: ing offbeat little film are two of its supporting players Rick Johnson as a jock and Charlotte Ross who plays a prim Southern belle Sac Inn (R) Forrest Gump the incredible team of Tom Hanks as the grown Forrest and Sally Field as Robert Zemeckis' film is a lovely demonstration of the power of love approval and positive thinking Spanning three decades in the life of a man with a lower-than-average IQ (only 75) this is a biography of a life fully lived and closely examined presented in a quasi-mythological way Century Cinedome State Cinema 2 (Davis) Holiday (Davis) 49er and Sacramento drive-ins Cinema 4 (Placerville) Auburn Cinema (PG-13) Four Weddings and a Funeral V2) Mike Newell directs this romantic comedy of a young bachelor (Hugh Grant) who flits about the British social circuit attending just about every wedding in town but his own And then Yank Andie MacDowell comes along Capitol Birdcage (R) Go Fish (no stars) A slice-of-life comedy about the interactions of five lesbian friends about self-absorption a quality that transcends sexual preference The single-minded obsession with sex borders on the adolescent and the sleazy Sac Inn (R) I love Trouble (no stars) Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte star as two rival Chicago news hounds working for competing newspapers who continually strive to one-up each other and who fall in love They add up to two hours of embarrassment in this wildly uneven messed-up movie a retro comedy-mystery Capitol UA Sunrise (PG-13) It Could Happen to You k) -Nicolas Cage is a nice-guy cop and Bridget Fonda the broke waitress promised a lottery ticket by the admiring man in blue Rosie Perez plays Cage's materialistic wife Andrew winning film as its title implies is an attempt to recreate George Cukor's Should Happen to You" and its witty ruminations on the ordinary person and the notion of celebrity for a '90s audience decidedly old-fashioned and a spunky movie Century UA Greenback Sacramento and 49er drive-ins Holiday (Davis) (PG) 4-.