The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 982

AT THE MOVIES THE MIAMI HERALD INTERNATIONAL EDITION Courage Mountain: Fun for kids 12B SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18 1990 it '1 -gtoO sv V-v-' A -v MOVIE REVIEW 1 4 4 IMilwPwww -ypr it £'4- -0 I Jt' 1 STEVEN SEAGAL: Martial arts whiz in 2nd starring role Hard to Kill has plenty of thrills (PG) Charlie Sheen Leslie Voyagis Jan Rubes Leitch Ujlaki Weaver Webb from a Mark Brogger Jacques Steyn Levay release Running Some sequences might be children pages of a storybook they are rescued end these girls are are presented as straightforward nonsexist to recommend it Mountain is a movie story line designed film tones of brown and beautiful scenery and glorified in any are the right sentimentality too-obvious symbolism evil of war and the children is upright and ladylike who runs school Jan Rubes is a Sheen is a curiously He is quoted as saying to play a performance is rote adults only Voyagis playing the menacing high melodrama the unlikely plot adults here The young girls four who cross the all young English the show Courage the story of children undaunted in the face unsurmountable obstacles respect really Al Ar a ---1 GOOD TIMES: Heidi (Juliette Caton) romps through the Alps with best friend Peter (Charlie Sheen) in Courage Mountain 0' My Left Foot is the story of intimate crusade By BETH DUNLOP Herald Arts Writer Courage Mountain is an old-fashioned feature film the stuff that Saturday matinees were made of No self-respecting adult could believe the plot no child could help but be caught up in the suspense and the adventure of it all Heidi our old-fashioned Heidi of the dirndls and Clara and Peter and Grandfather has grown up a bit She is 14 and about to be sent off from her innocent Swiss village to a boarding school in Northern Italy at the outbreak of World War I Just as Heidi Guliet Caton) gets settled at school the troops march in and announce they are taking it over as quarters Heidi and several other girls end up in a dreary Dickens-like orphanage run by the evil Signor Bonelli (Yorgo Voyagis) who puts children to hard labor making soap Heidi leads four girls through a battlefield and across the Alps to eventual safety in Switzerland but not without a suspenseful final escape from certain death at the hands erf Signor Bonelli who has been pursuing them and a dramatic rescue by friend Peter (Charlie Sheen) The many improbabilities were all too clear to this adult but then who ever watched say Mary Pop-pins or Treasure Island for realism? And it faze my 6 ear-old son Adam or his cousin of the same age They sat without squirming sometimes even a bit breathless for most of the movie even during boarding-school scenes geared specifically toward older girls The scene in which Peter rescues Heidi and her friends does include some amazing stunt skiing And there are plenty of edge-of-the-seat anxious moments It has a happy if sappy ending and lots of morality about it Caton plays Heidi in a restrained understated disarming fashion and the other girls seem to come Madhouse: Only a child would want to visit 2 stars belong in this embarrassment By JUAN CARLOS COTO Herald Entertainment Writer I rise from my seat at the screening of Madhouse trying to shake off the numbing effects of this obnoxious overwrought comedy when a little boy of about 5 call him Spanky pipes up behind me: That was the best movie ever seen in the whole Spanky says That should give you an idea of what age group will find Madhouse most hilarious The movie which stars John Larroquette of Night Court and Kirstie Alley of Cheers has some moments that will elicit chuckles from adults though not nearly enough Larroquette and Alley belong in this cartoonish embarrassment but they do a good job of fitting in their performances are worthy of Saturday morning television They play Mark and Jessie Bannister a financial planner a TV reporter and they recently mortgaged their guts out on a new home Everything is peachy until the house guests arrive First comes cousin Fred Gohn Diehl formerly Zito on Miami Vice and his New Jersey nightmare of a wife Bernice Qessica Lundy) The follow-up is blue-blooded sister Claudia (Alison La Placa) Then after various plot contrivances the neighbors and son move in leaving Mark and Jessie to camp out in the back yard supposed to be funny and first-time writer-director Tom Ropelewski wastes no time in making this known by banging the audience over the head with gags that range from brainless to crude Claudia for example bellyaches about her rich philandering husband Kaddir by calling him such quaint colloquialisms as Eastern and Spanky like that much He preferred the scene when cat vomits on everyone in the car The one funny sequence involves home movies of Mark as a boy when he must have weighed 300 pounds Dennis Miller the mega-hip comic and host of Saturday Night news also makes a witty appearance as slick buddy Wes but wasted Madhouse is the dime-store equivalent of Luis The Exterminating Angel about dinner guests who bring themselves to leave a house and end up starving have no trouble skipping Madhouse unless Spanky and you think the movie is like really rad COURAGE MOUNTAIN Cast: Juliet Caton Caron Yorgo Laura Betti Director: Christopher Producer: Stephen Screenwriters: Story by Fred and Cinematographer: Music: Sylvester An Epic Productions time: 1 1 9 minutes upsetting to very young straight from the And though by a boy in the gutsy and they heroines in a fashion That is enough alone but Courage fairly sophisticated notwithstanding a beautifully done in faded gray the architecture not way The settings backdrop for the and its contrasting the innocence of Leslie Caron as Jane Hillary boarding doting grandfather flat Peter he wanted hero but his In fact of the really shines Signor Bonelli as which is fine given Somehow the even matter Heidi and the Alps with her actresses steal Mountain is standing of virtually and in that quite thrilling MOVIE REVIEW ilVu Vjf By JUAN CARLOS GOTO Herald Entertainment Writer Martial arts whiz Steven Seagal who busted heads while uncovering a CIA drug plot in Above the Law returns to the screen in Hard to Kill which involves the shady dealings of a senator who looks like Dan Quayle The resemblance might be part of the reason Hard to Kill which is even less subtje than its title is all show and no depth The plot of Above theLaw'NAs at least intricate Hard to Kill is a revenge picture and nothing more Seagal plays Mason Storm a straight-shooting neck-chopping LA detective whose family is snuffed out after he gets too close for Sen Vernon (Bill Sadler) comfort goons think killed Storm too but he holds out in a coma for seven years He awakens with a Christ-like mane and beard and a doting nurse (Kelly Le Brock real-life wife) at his side also a hit man on tail Our hero escapes and true to action flick protocol is bent on vengeance But muscles atrophy if in a hospital bed for seven years? In a Karate Aid-style montage Storm treats himself with acupuncture punches some plywood runs up and down a mountain and watch out bad guys! back Then the plot takes a back seat to car chases explosions and fight sequences which thanks to Seagal and director Bruce Malmuth provide some Grade A in-your-face thrills Malmuth who directed the 1981 Sylvester Stallone police thriller Night hawks knows how to play up wise-guy charms which provide an entertaining balance to his blinding aikido moves Malmuth also exploits what was the biggest crowd pleaser in Above the Law when Seagal snapped the forearm with his bare hands Mason Storm breaks at least three arms in Hard to Kill and snaps one wrist twice Though he surpass Mel Gibson in his Lethal Weapon mode Seagal has come a long way in his second film He already has a better delivery and more presence than Chuck Norris has after a string of movies Le acting however produces more crash-and-burn disasters than the stunt drivers It's a performance only a husband could love or pay for She should stick to pitching shampoo on TV Sadler a very compelling villain either and his goons are merely punching bags with a few lines of dialogue Hard to Kill is all Seagal and if pure action thrills are your preference this will do just fine an I The following review is reprinted from Greater Fort Lauderdale Film Festival Last week the film was nominated for five Academy A wards- best picture actor supporting actress director and adapted screenplay By BILL COSFORD Herald Movie Critic Christy Brown was born with cerebral palsy and grew up with the full use of a single limb his left foot He grew up to become a celebrated artist and author anyway His story is now a movie of course But not the TV movie you figure it to be sugarcoated and stuffed with sentiment On the contrary My Left Foot is unflinching and spare it would work as drama if the central character were in every way So you have to go in feeling noble and you need not expect to come out that way either Brown was talented but flawed in ways that had little to do with his disability and his life was tough for other reasons as well My Left Foot is ennobling yes but it never asks for your sympathy Brown was born into a large Dublin family (he was one of 13 children to survive) in 1932 His siblings rallied around him from the start and so did his mother but Father was different The assumption in the pubs and in the work place was that because he was so physically limited and because he could not talk at first Brown must be mentally impaired as well a retard father took some loutish ribbing over his ale But the brothers and sisters wheeled him around in a barrow and Brown showed some spark in his eyes and eventually he became part of the scenery in his working- class neighborhood a kind of village idiot but no big deaL Then in scenes the film makes perfectly wonderful Brown first transmits a sense of his intellectual vigor The family and the town are changed And father takes the boy to the pub introduces him as a MY LEFT FOOT (R) Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis Brenda Flicker Alison Whelan Kirsten Sheridan Declan Croghan Marie Conmee Cyril Cusack Ray McAnally Hugh Director: Jim Sheridan Producer: Noel Pearson Screenwriters: Jim Sheridan Shane Connaughton Based on the book by Christy Brown Cinematographer: Jack Conroy Music: Elmer Bernstein A Miramax Films release Running time: 103 minutes Adult themes genius These moments are highly charged as you might expect But so are others that are less predictable At one point in his adolescence Brown is discovered with a magazine This leads to a period of enforced religious instruction at the hands of a priest who is clearly unnerved Brown is a captive audience without recourse even to the small evasions of the bored but able-bodied preteen This poor twitching creature gets a lecture on purgatory vs hell can get out of the priest tells him apparently oblivious to the fact that Brown who is already in it knows no escape at all Christy Brown went on to become a lion of arts and letters wielding his foot with more eloquence than most men to their whole beings and My Left Foot makes the story into an intimate crusade Brown who battled alcoholism and a mean streak with varying degrees of success was a real hero not a Spielberg creation Daniel Day-Lewis who plays Brown as an adult (Hugh is excellent as the young Christy as well) invests the character with the full range of human foibles No pandering here and the performance is extraordinary for its subtleties over the obvious physical manifestations The direction by Jim Sheridan is tough-edged 5 SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME: Kirstie Alley and John Larroquette are wasted in Madhouse MOVIE REVIEW MADHOUSE (PG-13) MOVIE REVIEW HARD TO KILL (R) Cast: Steven Seagal Kelly Le Brock Bill Sadler Director: Bruce Malmuth Screenwriter: Steven McKay Cinematographer: Matthew Leonetti Producers: Gary Adelson Joel Simon Bill Todman Jr Music: David Michael Frank A Warner Bros release Running time: 97 minutes Violence vulgar language brief nudity Cast: John Larroquette Kirstie Alley Alison La Placa John Diehl Jessica Lundy Writer-director: Tom Ropelewski Producer: Leslie Dixon Cinematographer: Denis Lewiston Music: David Newman An Orion Pictures release Running time: 88 minutes Vulgar language comic violence What wins Oscar? In view great acting has to look like acting By HAL BOEDEKER Herald Television Critic The Academy Award nominations have been announced for another year There is always speculation about why actors are included or overlooked But what do the nominations throughout the 62-year history say about great movie-acting? In the view great acting has to look like acting And the role has to be a challenge George Patton and Ben Gandhi are classic examples A bravura turn usually beats a subtle one Maybe that explains why Joseph Cotten and Myrna Loy were never nominated To take the prize it helps to be sick (Elizabeth Taylor for Butterfield 8 old (George Burns for The Sunshine Boys a veteran who has never won before (Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful) or a combination of them all (Henry Fonda for On Golden Pond) In some cases the academy simply admires certain performers Here is a survey of the most nominated actors and most of the performances are available on video: Katharine Hepburn (12 nominations four victories): The regal independent actress leads all performers in nominations and victories The academy likes her class She was nominated for Morning Glory Alice Adams The Philadelphia Story Woman of the Year The African Queen Summertime The Rainmaker Suddenly Last Summer Long Journey intoNight Guess Coming to Dinner? TheLion in Winter and On Golden Pond Unfortunately with the exception of The Lion in Winter the academy has honored her lesser performances: Morning Glory Guess Coming to Dinner and On Golden Pond Her performances in Little Women Alice Adams and Long Journey were more deserving Bette Davis (10 nominations two victories): A furor arose when the academy failed to nominate star-making performance in Of Human Bondage Vivid and versatile she went on to command the attention through the late and early Her nominations came for Dangerous Jezebel Dark Victory The Letter The Little Foxes Now Voyager Mr Skeffington All About Eve The Star and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? She won for Dangerous and Jezebel Like Hepburn Davis went unrewarded for her greatest work: The Letter The Little Foxes and All About Eve Laurence Olivier (10 nominations one victory): Acknowledged as the greatest actor at his death Olivier won over the Oscar nominators with material that ranged from classical to junk His nominations: Wuthering Heights Rebecca Henry Hamlet Richard III The Entertainer Othello Sleuth Marathon Man (supporting category) and The Boys from Brazil Surprisingly he won only once for Hamlet His performances in Henry and Richard III were just as deserving Spencer Tracy (nine nominations two victories): He was an exception to the penchant for showy acting Tracy made it look effortless natural His nominations: San Francisco Captains Courageous Boys Town Father of the Bride Bad Day at Black Rock The Old Man and the Sea Inherit the Wind Judgment at Nuremberg and Guess Coming to Dinner? He won for Captains Courageous (a wonderful performance) and Boys Town (an unbearably sentimental movie) Jack Nicholson (nine nominations two victories): The killer smile really gets to the Oscar voters Best actor nominations for Five Easy Pieces The Last Detail Chinatown One Flew Over the Nest (he won) Honor and Ironweed supporting nods for Easy Rider Reds and Terms of Endearment (he won again) Marlon Brando (eight nominations two victories): The academy likes his Method even when he refuses the Oscar He was up for A Streetcar Named Desire Kiiio Zapata! Julius Caesar On the Waterfront (win No 1) Sayonara The Godfather (win No 2) Last Tango in Paris and A Dry White Season (supporting category) Jack Lammon (eight nominations two victories): A beloved figure in Hollywood Lemmon dazzles the academy with his versatility in comedy and drama.