Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 66

4 9 9 cr so 4D Wednesday Morning July 2 1986 '1986 Fort Worth StarTelegram Imr etr7mma51 I b)'' LabiloodfilitighbealibaliellifbalitbilliK Mid 4A61121N1 wagtbratolibmkakegitokoadtk Kurt Russell second from left in Big Trouble in Little China MATTHEW BRODERICK Kurt Russell in to' gear battling Chinese mystic FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF CattitIGOtt 0110 St tiMitit0010 tiCtuttit CMPOOMOOld au tiltstt 1111001170 titia Review: Film irFt 4774cs I A A LITTLE ROAD AT 1-20 Dolby 3016 2461552 vsmwum 116111tri IA 'tomato HWY 360 IL 303 ARL 640-1303 11 It10111 et Cf NTRAI 011 57158S8 1 vs-it 246-155 1000 Dolby 1000 AIRPOIT CHITRAL 001 SMS8S8 HWY 360 303 AK 6401303 Dolby No TRX Dolby UNIRASINUM ENTRAL PARK antiNEmtel KUM EM 0511 61160111 et MOM DI 5715658 1870 1 tothiontivIon la 7843494 18120 1 1418410esi Id 2843494 20 GIEFH OAKS 11013 483-0008 1245-3 15-5 45400-1015 1215-235-5 00-730-1000 THZ Dolby 105-115-530-1 50-1005 70rom THX Dolby Big Trouble in Little China (20th Century-Fox) WITH: Kurt Russell James Hong Dennis Dun Kim Cattrall Kate Burton Victor Wong OPENING DATE: Wednesday AT THESE THEATERS: North Hills in North Richland Hills Ridgmar and UA Hu len Mall in Fort Worth Forum and Lincoln in Arlington RATED: PG-I3 violent action scary monsters ON A 1-10 SCALE: El stomiuttlita UMMOCittga 1-20 BOWEN 468-0833 Otani 2935 Somina Dr 5364645 hrtiCiti4 COLLINS (F 110 1-820 8 Mu Ion St 294-2621 Dolby COLLINS OA 157) IL 1-30 1003 I 5-5 30-7 4510 00 70mm OA! Stereo Opens 830 Starts 930 00-1015 70ffon THX Dolby Jack Burton's in for some serious trouble and you're in for some serious fun By MICHAEL PRICE Star-Telegram Film Writer Jack Burton a blowhard with a courageous streak as formidable as the semitrailer rig he drives is a fine addition to actor Kurt Russell's gallery of vividly realized unlikely heroes Burton is the point man of Big Trouble in Little China a slaughterhouse trucker whose good-or-boy view of reality is turned inside-out and upside-down when he crosses paths with a 2258-yearold Chinese sorcerer named Lo Pan (James Hong) Big Trouble in Little China marks the most unabashedly fantastic entry yet from director John Carpenter whose best earlier works have drawn from the stoic Russell an astonishing range of understated emotional resonance In league with Carpenter Russell has transformed himself into Elvis Presley bringing to that 1979 role far more than mere physical resemblance and he has created the memorable tough guys of Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) and The Thing (1982) A Carpenter-Russell reunion is by nature a big deal and they make of this fourth shared venture a triumph of bizarre imaginative power bolstered by a generous measure of credible humanity The Gary Goldman-David Weinstein story originated as a Western with a cowboy hero battling refugees from Chinese mythology Screenwriter WD Richter who directed 1984's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension transplanted the tale to the Chinatown of present-day San Francisco The result suspenseaction comedykung fusupernatural defies categorization Let's just call it a rousing good movie and proceed Jack Burton's big trouble begins when he joins a chum named Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) at the Frisco airport where Wang Chi has gone to pick up his bride Before they can reach her she is abducted by a gang Burton and Wang Chi learn that Lo Pan has engineered the kidnapping: He needs the bride in order to appease his gods so that they will allow him to regain a lasting human form Twenty centuries ago Lo Pan had been condemned to a fleshless existence Having mastered the ability to inhabit bodies he musters an army of astonishing creatures All this business might seem as silly as a 6-year-old's nightmare if not for the air of conviction with which Carpenter has rallied his cast or for the painstaking attention to detail with which production designer John Lloyd has created both a real Chinatown end its fantasy counterpart (The accurate Chinatown settings were built on indoor locations in order to accommodate some crucial atmospheric effects) En route to do battle Burton and Wang Chi acquire their own army: an attorney named Gracie Law (Kim Cattral) a tour bus driver (Victor Wong) with a practical knowledge of Chinese wizardry and an eager news reporter (Kate Burton) Apparently outclassed at every turn the rescuers plunge into a world where the border between reality and fantasy vanishes All the confrontations lead to a showdown with Lo Pan whose enactment by James Hong (in elaborate makeups ranging from the absurd to the terrifying) bearscomparison with Robert Englund's slimy spectre of A Nightmare on Elm Street films Throughout we get the impression that both Lo Pan and Burton mean business their conflict propels the picture to an unsettling climax that may disorient many viewers' perception of what's real and what's not i '11 :1 4 'Last Night' role proves Rob Lowe a good actor Review: Film PAr' About Last Night (Tri-Star) WITH: Rob Lowe Demi Moore Jim Belushi OPENING DATE: Wednesday AT THESE THEATERS: UA Hu len Mall 10 in Fort Worth Northeast Mall in Hurst Lincoln Square and Bowen in Arlington RATED: coarse language nudity adult situations ON A 1-10 SCALE: 13 Mt' By SHIRLEY JINKINS Star-Telegram Writer About Last Night will be the film that dispenses with the notion that Rob Lowe can't act That sizzling sound in the theater will be Lowe's "Brat Pack" image vaporizing in the heat of a soulful empathetic performance in this complex character study It's all in keeping with the actor's move to diversify: his next role in the forthcoming made-in-Texas Square Dance is that of a retarded youth Such jobs mark a 180-degree turn from Lowe's Oxford Blues days of only two years ago Lowe's About Last Night character Danny grapples with personal change He dreams of getting his own diner and gradually his girlfriend Debbie (Demi Moore) becomes part of that working-class dream The two meet at a bar a one-night stand quickly leads to a live-in relationship despite Danny's grappling with fear of commitment About Last Night works best as a dissection of a relationship in the vein of Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage (1973) Seemingly insignificant sequences build toward an explosive but anticipated climax made no less poignant by each small remembered twist of the affair Moore's Debbie is a stable personality sure of her feelings and motives Moore handles her assignment capably though lacking in intensity and vulnerability The couple's respective best friends add a more interesting texture of contrast The old friendnew lover conflict all too common in real life is seldom explored on the screen About Last Night plays out the inherent possessiveness and jealousies and deals with the sense of loss and loneliness experienced by the friends as their ties with Danny and Debbie begin to udavel TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Presents ATAFTIOARISHIMONASH Production "BIG 1110111111 Ii tIThE CHINA" KNIT RUSSELL KIM CAIRN" DENNIS BON Music by JOHN CARPENTER in association with ALAN HOINAILTH Visual Effects by RICHARD EfilliND Executive Producers PAR MONASH and KEITH BARISH Written by CARY GOLDMAN ft DAVID WEINSTEIN Adaptation by RD RICHTER Produced by LARRY FRANC Directed by JOHN CARPENTER PG -13IPARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED eIEDI I1IcIxBYsTUEoI Color haul Soundtrack Availall on Noma Remit and Tann AIR "Ittk rrn: PP1111 I Color by Mum thigital Sounduack Available oa Enigma Records and Taps LEI 11Ar got LLCIEUTItATALS Material May Se Inappropriate tor Children Under 131 Mt liE1)4 (AN 1 uM Elizabeth Perkins is Joan Debbie's roommate and best friend Joan is a caustic possessive teacher whose only real commitment is to Debbie Perkins is superb at making us understand why she inwardly mourns Debbie's good fortune She's a little too sympathetic when Debbie and Danny separate a little too ready to ease Debbie back into social life She flaunts Danny's faults before Debbie at every opportunity Less effective though more humorous is Jim Belushi as Bernie Danny's pal Bernie has no use for bonds with women He tries to get along with Debbie for Danny's sake He even attempts to flirt with Joan but it's plain that he'd rather be out playing softball and having a beer Be lushi does deliver some hysterical lines but many are gutter-level snipings and cheap shots The Tim Kazurinsky-Denise De-Clue screenplay is based on David Mamet's acclaimed stage work Sexual Perversity in Chicago Kazurinsky turns a cameo as a horror of a blind date into a highlight Quickly dispensing with a too-cute beginning About Last Night surveys its familiar territory with more detail than any movie of recent memory Lowe's dazzling performance is reminiscent of Robert Redford's aching hero in The Way We Were (1973) Po Pm 59 ItYJO gi or INIEPIAL CRUM MINA II ii14A MI EL ININALCINEM INEMAi 7 -f tt0t401 ORU -1 Z0V1 360 1 303 AMMON 1140-1X13 SHOPPING CENTER 921-0211 182088edlordtulessRd 2843494 WIST OP IIIDOMAI MALL 246-5564 1-30 of CHERRY LANG (Dolby) (Ukk 1-20 BOWEN 468-083 LJA 19 111 -ail co Tialmum 4-2 1 datailiLto2Li COLLINS (FM 157) 6 1-30 COLLINS FM 157 6 1-30 -STARTS FRIDAY (Dolby) (Stereo) somm 1 411-411111mk 4141t464WINo-01A411LAIL Lbh16 4116 AS a.