The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 46

The Miami Herald Friday November 7 1986 a winner Eric ROBERTS Rosanna ARQUETTE NOBODY'S FOOL EVERYBODY LOVES SOMEBODY SOMEHOW' By BILL COSFORD Herald Movie Critic Of all the writers of hard-boiled fiction Elmore Leonard is the most celebrated He has had his moment in the news magazines and his style gristle and bone has been much discussed So what has Leonard done for us lately? It's not a small question hard-boiled fiction itself being a form nearly as endangered as the westerns Leonard used to write So the timing for 52 Pick-Up the latest of stories to come to the screen is perfect For once Hollywood ruin a Leonard story That too is no small deal Remember Stick? Leonard is a stylist deceptively uncomplicated the only real device you can see at work in his writing is the odd truncating of his dialogue (his villains talk in run-ons and collapse their clauses) best at the interior business how the villains think Leonard gives them a logic of their own and because a logic there 1 the tingle becomes a chill The books are good and crying each of them to be good movies John 52 Pick-Up (adapted for the screen by Leonard and John Steppling) is a straight-ahead thriller No tricks no goofy stuff Frankenheimer a Hollywood yeoman who has had his hits (The French Connection II) and his flops (Prophecy) takes the material seriously He knows a good B-movie when he sees it and he has a slam-bang style In 52 Pick-Up Frankenheimer has Roy Scheider and Ann-Mar-gret as the good-but-not-innocent folk which is nice casting Schei- der is the owner of a small steel company wealthy but not yet rich Ann-Margret is his wife candidate for Los Angeles County commissioner Scheider has been having an affair with a 22-year-old and he hasn't been very smart A small gang of thugs operating on the fringes of porn industry has it all on video It starts as blackmail Scheider and Ann-Margret are good choices because they interfere everyman and everywoman here Good villains too One look at John Glover as the leader a borderline psycho not quite smart enough to do this thing cleanly and you know trouble His accomplices include Clarence Williams III once a member of The Mod Squad and now the very picture of an ex-con soul-deadened and sociopathic They all come together when Scheider decides not to pay and Millr RdrCtiiemdj Mil MllUtM-SThimJ ttMnna rjufutfle fuc lj 7 I Ww If miry 10 13 raatari itmmm caeTWMao- Ar r'Ka'' amd flon (J enttU STARTS TODAY roczznn I CHECK TIME CLOCK FOR SHOW TIMES I 3QGSd3uHfl)i blockbustefVthatSsinfully entertaining Richard Freedman NEWHOUSE NEWSPAPERS ROYSCHEIDER ANN-MARGRET vi 7 ON STAGE AND SCREEN FOR ADULTS ONLY Ah Ke Shows Honda) Cofitmoa IntertwmCTl I 0PM AU HITE iQ ljn t0 2 jm Meet a Great Dane with personality Marmaduke daily on the comics page of The Miami Herald 99199l ran IT MUM H7W i RUNNING SCARED 4 OUT OF BOUNDS a II THE FIT a 4 ALIENS 9t0tlLLMlRM232 RUNNING SCARED 4 AVENGING FORCE muuf sitmi siiv in inns musts THE FIT ALIENS snnixF ram atiTimi vm muiii I STAND BY ME ABOUT LAST NIGHT II TOD GUN DG I PG13 "KINKY RAUNCHY ANYTHING-GOES SEX COMEDY" WII 1 1AM WOl GANNETT NEWS SERVICE BERTRAND BUER GERARD MICHEL MIOU- DEFARDIEU BLANC MIOU I Parental discretion advised CinecOfTl O) Now thru Sunday Alfred NORTH BY NORTHWEST I A Cinematheque Theatre Arcadia 4 aoua St Coral Gables 447-0323 CHECK TIME CLOCKS FOR TIMES 5Kr77 fti- Ann-Margret: In good but not innocent Movie Review 52 Pick-Up (R) CAST Roy Scheider Ann-Margret Vanity John Glover Robert Trebor Lonny Chapman Kelly Preston Doug McClure Clarence Williams III CREDITS Director- John Frankenheimer Producers: Men ahem Golan Yoram Globus Screenwriters: Elmore Leonard John Steppltng Based on the novel by Elmore Leonard Cinematographer: Jost Vacano Music: Gary Chang A Cannon Group release Running time: 114 minutes Vulgar language nudity sexual situations violence the stakes are raised Frankenheimer is a whiz at pacing and at working the expository stuff in over the music the movie is worrisome fretful even when nothing is happening Some alterations that seem gratuitous: character has undergone a career-splice and is now a politician which complicates decision to pay or to fight unnecessarily And the ending the final 20 minutes or so is contrived to the threshold of Mission Impossible Perhaps Frankenheimer has lost faith in his audience sees us as too jaded Perhaps right The film is a nice piece of work anyway The bad guys are genuinely creepy the victims likable enough to engage sympathy and the conflict among the the crooks a kind of wild-card element If they still made the brooding crime fiction of Hollywood in the and it would look something like this You have to feel good for Elmore rmawiVura STiftWnrtti smtiw 1 1 im nRitm i cmimv aimui mi UMU ADULT FILMS ooitimiocs shows uiu CALI THEATRES FCH TITLES LATE SHOWS FHI SAT TILL 1 30 A VS'T OUR VIDEO DEPARTMENT GENERAL CINEMA RIVIERA SaUS 1457th AVENUE CORAL GABLES 666-8513 DOUBLE FEATURE Opan 12 Noon Dya A TUI rURE I I 1:30 A Find Peanuts and the gang on tha comics page of The Miami Herald A DIVINE COMEDY FOR THE '80s IT'S HARD NOT TO HAVE A LOT OF FUN WATCHING THIS MOVIE IT'S GORGEOUS TO LOOK AT A TRIUMPH OF CRAFT AND AUDACITY'' TIME Richard Corliss William Wolf GANNETT NEWS SERVICE COLAN-GLOBUS PftOOUChQb JOHN FRANKENHEIMER ISIAHD vt PKIIIIIl IN BROWARD RIDGE PLAZA OAVIE LAKES6 LAUDERDALE LAKES MOVIES AT MARGATE MERCEOE 4 PLANTATION vV A Deadly Trap ANN-MARGRET 4F B068TSHY PHILIP HARRISON JOHN STEPPLING irR BttTBKTtP -Zl kuom ua awcymcatbcs MOVIES AT THE FALLS SOUTH OAOE PLAZA 8 US 4 SWIM ST iFSSuSl 251-1044 PCMBAORC PfNCS MOVIES AT PEMBROKE PINES 435-3700 W- "The year's most original movie! An ambitious film 'True Stories' is David Byrne's funny worried loving celebration of a disoriented America" Jack Kroll His Wife His Mistress His Career ''Hilarious One of the wildest weirdest pick-me-ups of the year PEOPLE Peter Travers "A pure and jubilant extension of David Byrne's distinctive world view His presence goes a way toward giving the film its breezy accessible tone" NEW YORK TIMES Janet Maslin IP K-HJ IP ELMORE LEONARD THE CANNON CROUP INC ROY SCHEIDER COLAN-GLOBUS! JOHN FRANKENHEIMER 52 PICK-UP CLARENCE WILLIAMS III STARRING VANITY' JOHN GLOVER wrrrwseo A F'LJA Klf photography GARY CHANG Hill IE1-1 AhOPERfQRVtOBY 7J0ST VACANO ELMORE LEONARD ELMORE LEONARD I YORAM GLOBUS JOHN FRANKENHEIMER BlslSUMRBr mmK MEN AHEM GOLAN 0 CANNON -HOMESTEAD WOWC'CO CAMPBELL SQUARE CAtaPBCkl ON 4 JS I 245-4800 HATiOHM MM UKTHtHn AMERICA BAKERY CINEMAS 1 AT MO AO f4sT 662-4841 CW WfttttVMAhOSIRMS AL) VS fhiTf 8 STARTS TODAY -SOUTH OAOE PMC THErt KENDALL TOWN 8 COUNTRY 10 FLA TPO AT NO MI DA 271-8198 MOTn oaoc arOAKTCO owco MILLER SQUARE MUND0 4 387-3494 HOLLY WOWFTCO CENTRE 7 1ST Art I 262-2260 PG CUOMCf SlKWSTTD 9-4 -or f'--- -1 IMR HRIV -W a EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT WOOO- AMCYCATfS SHERIDAN 7 NNlnfliOAklT 9874680 OCWN-CWH MIAMI BEACH MC TATRES OMN1 10 oaBWKTTi arr to fun a oukS 3582304 GCNCRAL CnfHA 170TH ST CINEMA 9451791 SURF 7COLLtNSAVE 866-1700 MIAMI LAKES 4 AT HAfNSLxFOLAIt 558-3810 iWBOWA0 COAL RfOGC OVCCtTVlO FT LAUOfOOAlE CFWTfB CCAL SMriGS 106CLAZAt OAVtC FOIPC4APANO CMUAi BEACH INPALMBEACH DElBAY SQUARE MOvES AT BOYNTON CROSSCOUHTV WlLLIWGTOW TWB I CHECK TIME CLOCK FOR SHOWTiVESl 1 i i i I.