Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 52

Section 4 Page 4 I Fort Worth Star-Telegram I Friday PM October 23 1987 MO I VI Suspect Page 1 1 i i I ti i l'444k 11( 4 3 ir 1 i 'C711 4---1-14 -7- -0 1i At: tt 0 ti 4 1- 1 A tc)Tiot 467 )1 A r( A0 11 iaporpos" 0 Vincent Price toasts the execution of his niece in Offspring Vincent Price toasts the execution of his niece in Offspring I 11: 4 'lt MEW Zi 4 4 1 i 4 I i a 0 Alk or 0 -toe------- 1116 rt-'' 40 1 ii ic 4 stikno otrZ44 1 I A i 11 flIr i' 111 '001101111111 bit stale but it palatable murder and Joe Mantegna is the prosecuting attorney in Suspect Cou Warm grin tc ville-b sincen and The and hi while Indian or 12 going I'm gc throug when Warin Wal Texas Wal sic me he And In I was 11 more discog Girl bum's Billbc "Pe Warir want have want recorc "Pc 2 in tt how fl hit i Wa upbea 'single betwe and just ki recorc 'good "It the pc going highe the wl A Work releas vil Zf mand of thrilling suspense he had exhibited on Bunk Eric Roth a veteran of documentary filmmaking has fashioned a terrifically intricate screen story with a satisfying surprise resolution But it is Cher who emerges as the dominant talent Suspect relies on her every move and she meets the challenge with a performance of stunning confidence 41111141111k '-7 From This top-notch addition to the present year's bumper crop of superior political thrillers echoes both the strong-woman pivots of Black Widow and The Big Easy and the obsession with Washington-after-dark intrigues of No Way Out Suspect is distinctive however and Cher is largely responsible: She makes the driven nature of her character seem more calculated than impulsive she registers genuine magnetism and tend Review: Film Suspect Price's pick 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Peter Yates Featuring: Cher Dennis Quaid Liam Neeson Joe Mantegna Philip Bosco John Mahoney Rated: It (adult situations violence language) Theaters: Las Vegas Trail VA Hu len 10 in Fort Worth Bowen Loews Lincoln Square Lows 20 287 in Arlington UA Cinema 6 in Hurst Medallion Walnut Hill Skillman UA Prestonwood Creek 5 Redbird 5-10 in Dallas emess in the dawning relationship with Quaid (strikingly different from the domineering presence that Ellen Bar-kin imposes on Quaid in The Big Easy) and she charges through a gauntlet of intimidating evidence without the air of disorientation that is essential to Kevin Costner's role in No Way Out For his part Quaid trades on an intensity he has seldom tapped except in a high-pressure turn in the clos I From Page 1 drawn by Anderson who also lends the familiar motivation of revenge for rape a ferocity that is terrifying not in grinding intensity but in playfully creepy subtlety In giving reason for his vivid central character a tormented Fort Worth housewife named Julie Kenner (Stephanie Rascoe) to become somebody else Anderson resists the conventions by which Edward Robinson play-acted a grim avenger in The Man with Two Faces (1934) or by which Mary Steenburgen pivoted between identities in Dead of Winter (1987) And in provoking Julie to seek retribution Anderson resists the pivot of blunt vengeance that was fresh when employed by Lillian Gish in The Wind (1928) but has become overfamiliar in both class-act pictures I 986's Extremities) and sleaze attractions (1977's Spit on Your Grave) Anderson's yarn finds Julie in superficial recovery from a rape She remains suicidally depressed despite the best intentions of her husband Don Kenner (John Davies) Don nevertheless is receptive to the seductive come-ons of a neighbor Dana (Laura Lane) who cannot decide whether to be a helpful presence or a troublemaker Julie lurches through the motions of normalcy in a manner reminiscent of director George A Romero's docile zombie (seen in I 985's Day ot the Dead) who recalls with poignant vagueness the simple functions he had known in life In one bitterly amusing scene Julie attempts feebly to follow a recipe ultimately slamming an ill-prepared dish into the oven Her only zealous activity is to retreat to the shower as if to bathe away a dehumanizing experience Julie chances upon a news account about a man who had established false identities This idea becomes her obsession and she sets out to manufacture a new personality Where early cuts of Positive 112 betrayed Anderson's own obsession with the how-to's of false identity his final construction for this Universal mm From Page 1 towering cliffs This diverting nature frustrates the telling of one fascinating episode dealing with the 1869 expedition by Maj John Wesley Powell (played with rough dignity by Daniel Majetick) to chart 21 7 miles of unexplored canyon The swooping camera movements (with Reed Smoot as director of photography) also approach the fiercely manipulative intensity of a roller-coaster ride imparting just once too often an illusion of veering dangerously near outcroppings of rock Too an overindulgence in soft focus at the screen's direct center leaves the impression of inadvertently lapsed focus True focus snaps back in just as the slightly blurred image threaten to induce ocular pain It would have been interesting to see the cavernous image shrink to a center-screen pinpoint once in a while if only to strike a contrast with the general bigness There's enough understated 1 I i IF 'eL4) 'Offspring' a Price makes BY MICIIAEL IL PRICE Fort Worth You may have heard tantalizing hints of Vincent Price's fine new movie The Offspring isnot Price's contribution to this throwaway is grand per se and his many friends and admirers in this territory may want to set aside misgivings about The Offspring's seamy subject matter just to catch his act The good new Price film incidentally is The Whales of August which finds him in the distinguished company of Lillian Gish and Bette Davis Whales' Texas play dates have yet to be announced Meanwhile here's a batch of new openers: The Offspring UCLA-trained novice director Jeff Burr might have been better off making his feeble debut with a comparably inept cast But that would have deprived us of an opportunity to see such neglected champ players as Vincent Price Angelo Rossito Clu Gulager Martine Beswick and Cameron Mitchell make stale baloney seem palatable Here is the picture that was announced early this year as From a Whisper to a Scream a title that at least would have put viewers in a more receptive mood for a scare The Offspring's able cast fends strictly for itself with no remarkable evidence of good or bad directorial style in this anthology of often mean-spirited horror tales Screenwriters Burr and Courtney Joiner bind the schlock together with a narrator (Price) who regales a persistent news reporter (Susan Tyrrell) with grisly anecdotes Of greatest historical interest among The Offspring's yarns is a turn by the veteran dwarf actor Angelo Rossito in a silly carny episode ripped off from Tod Browning's 1932 classic Freaks Rossito of course was a principal of Freaks Price's pick: 3 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Jeff Burr Featuring: Vincent Price Angelo Rossito Martine Beswick Cameron Mitchell Clu Gulager Susan Tyrrell 6 Rated: (as in Repulsion heavy on the yucks) Theaters: Ridgmar Town Square Seminary South AMC Hulen 10 in Fort Worth Green Oaks Arlington Park in Arlington Central Park in Bedford Red Bird 1-4 in Dallas Man on Fire Here's an Italian import that wants to have it both ways: an action-adventure story line framed as though it were an elegant art film High ambition low accomplish ment Gaunt-looking Scott Glenn plays this Death Wish knockoff as though auditioning for a Chuck Norris reject-role director Elie Chouraqui strikes a pace that is frankly boring Glenn is no great shakes as a CIA ex retired to bodyguard duty Flashbacks are supposed to depict him as a war veteran with a core ofteep heroic sensitivity but Glenn plays the role with such a macabre outlook that it's hard to think of him as anything but dull One thing in the pic's favor: The scenic values are terrific if you can stay awake to admire them Price's pick: 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director: Elie Chouraqui Featuring: Scott Glenn Jade Malle Danny Aiello Brooke Adams Rated (violence adult situations language) Theaters: Las Vegas Trail UA Hulen 10 in Fort Worth Bowen 20 287 Six Flags in Arlington Bedford 10 in Bedford South 8 in Dallas No Man Ps Land A fascination with exotic automobiles may seem a keen pivot for a melodramatic thriller but writerco-producer Dick Wolf (whose involvement with television's gloss-over-substance Miami Vice reflects annoyingly on No Man's Land has not the narrative skills to make much of the concept What saves this crime plc is its socko lead performances: a strong show of arrogance from Charlie Sheen a refreshingly naive approach to heroic Cher represents a man accused of ing reels of The Big Easy Striking a bold contrast with his devil-may-care attitude of this past summer's Inneispace Quaid conveys a flawed heroic presence who values excitement over ethics Irish-born Liam Neeson whose research for the derelict role included several nights in a shelter for drifters contributes a knockout job of purely physical expressiveness Also impressive are John Mahoney as an ambitious Review: Film Positive Price's pick: 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director: Andy Anderson Featuring: Stephanie Rascoe SteVe Fromholz John Davies Laura Lane Rated: (sexual situations language scattered violence) Theater AMC Hu len 10 in Fort Worth Galleria in Dallas Pictures release demonstrates merely that the process can work never mind exactly how The tale was plausible enough in original form but Anderson has replaced a ritual of connect-thedots with a compelling flow that turns bedraggled Julie Kenner into good-timer Bobbie King with alarming efficiency The process is wondrously simple involving manipulation of official uments the film requires a modest suspension of disbelief in regard to Bobbie's trick of securing a grubstake from Julie's household budget Popular fictioneerJohn Jessel had envisioned such a character in his short story TheAdap(lye Ultimate (filmed in 1957 as She-Devil but Anderson brings the shape-changer to life without invoking science fiction Bobbie establishes a separate residence in Dallas and becomes a habitue of a neighborhood bistro She finds friendship and more in common with the bartender Roy (Austin-based songwriteractor Steve Fromholz) who proves to be harboring dire secrets of his own For purposes of review Anderson's story cannot be recapped in greater detail without shorting out the jolt to which the events lead Much like John Huston's one-joke gallows comedy Prizzi's Honor (1985) Positive throws out narrative elements in a deliberately befuddling manner then finally snaps them together with a climactic event The process is a study in fascination dramatic staging with welcome comedy relief to maintain the momentum without a perpetually sweeping vista Grand Canyon opens in prehistory as a peaceful crag-dweller tribe comes under assault by a band of marauders A graceful segue leads to the I 6th-century "discovery" of the Grand Canyon by a faction of Coronado's conquistadores The seriousness of this "sense of wonder" segment gives way to such lighter moments as an unexpected plunge down the canyon's rapids by a pair of hardtack prospectors (J Neal Wheeler and Chris Anderson): a bit of playful mud-wallowing by a group of modern-day visitors and some nifty wildlife cameos (including a spider blown up to the dimensions of the auditorium) reminiscent of Irwin Allen's The Animal World I 956) The strongest element (scenic overkill aside) is that of the Powell explort Lion A contemplative narration echo- business by DB Sweeney and a tough-cop portrayal from Houston-born Randy Quaid No Man's Lmd suffers from an uneven pace and from juvenile plotting and dialogue that never quite measure up to the players abilities Sheen is excellent however as a wealthy creep who makes it his pastime to rip off high-performance cars Sweeney radiates easy-going charm as the rookie patrolman who must infiltrate Sheen's racket and Quaid is dependably apoplectic as an enforcer who takes guff off no one Price's pick: 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Peter Werner Featuring: Charlie Sheen Randy Quaid DRSweeney Lara Harris Emmet Walsh Rated: (violence language adult situations) Theaters: UA Hulen 10 Ridgmar Town Square in Fort Worth Loews 20 287 Arlington Park Six Flags in Arlington Bedford 10 in Bedford North Hills in Richland Hills Irving 4-7 in Irving Caruth Plaza Red Bird 1-4 GC Prestonwood in Dallas Prince of Darkness The fickle mass audience had embraced John Carpenter's Starman but a year later cold-shouldered his delightful Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Whatever Carpenter's reasons for retracing his roots in more earnest horror cinema with Prince of Darkness the abiding loyalty of that core audience must count for something Prince ofDarkness offering a timely reminder of the true meaning of Halloween is a modestly financed but expensive-looking clash between the forces of God and Satan Its ferocity is noticeably less than Carpenter's most accomplished film 1982's true-to-source revision of The Thing but Prince compensates with a wealth of intriguing characters and an amplification of the mordant wit that has been the director's hallmark since his promising debut on the parodic Dark Star (1974) Reliable Donald Pleasance serves Prince delightfully as a priest determined to rally a bunch of brainy types against the resurgence of an ancient evil Price's picic 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director: John Carpenter Featuring Donald Pleasance Jameson Parker Victor Wong Lisa Blount Alice Cooper Rated: (violence disturbing religious imagery) Theaters: Cinema Ridgmar Mall Seminary South AMC Hulen 10 in Fort Worth Green Oaks Arlington Park Six Flags in Arlington Central Park in Bedford North Hills in Richland Hills Irving 1-3 in Irving NorthPark Red Bird 5-10 GC Prestonwood in Dallas Nightflyers Unavailable for preview this spatial-delivery shockeroo is based on a novelette by Santa Fe author George RR Martin whose brilliant (and natural-for-the-screen) works also include Fevre Dream a sort of Mark Twain-meets-Dracula situation and the apocalypse here-and-now page-turner Armageddon Rag Set in deep space Nightflyers concerns a group of scientists who are stalked by a force they cannot see Before you peg this one as a latecomer Alien knockoff and give it a 'bye consider: The cast is headed by the excellent Catherine Mary Stewart (Dudes Night of the Comet and the effects-and-design crew includes such able hands as Gene Warren Jr and Leslie Huntley (The Terminator Gremlins) Robert Short (Cocoon) Roger George (Logan's Run and Texas-bred Douglas Turner (Chopping Mall) Director: TC Blake Featuring: Catherine Mary Stewart Michael Praed John Standing James Avery Michael des Barres Rated: (violence) Theaters: Cinema Ridgmar Mall Seminary South AMC Hulen 10 in Fort Worth Loews Lincoln Square Loews 20 287 Arlington Park in Arlington Cinema 6 in Hurst Bedford 10 in Bedford Irving 1-3 in Irving South 8 Skillman GC Prestonwood in Dallas I judge Joe Mantegna as Cher's ruthless courtroom adversary and Philip Bosco (fondly remembered as the superintendent of the school for the deaf in last year's Children of a Lesser God) as a stern assistant attorney general Suspect is director Yates' I 8th feature easily his most vivid handling of characters since the Oscar-nominated The Dresser (England 1983) but more remarkable for its return to the corn John Davies and Stephanie Rascoe Rascoe becomes a sultry mystery The husband-and-wife scenes are unnervingly true-to-life rendered touching by John Davies' walking-on-eggshells performance and Stephanie Rascoe's brittle portrayal of a soul in torment Rascoe's utterly different reading of the manufactured personality is a distinct pleasure especially in shared moments with scene-stealer Fromholz Fromholz's haunted eyes suggest that if he hasn't seen it it probably hasn't Review: Film Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets Price's on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Kieth Merrill Featuring: Armando Leon Diaz Daniel Majetick Neal Wheeler Chris Anderson Unrated: (scattered elements of natural and manufactured violence brief National Geographic-type nudity no objectionableelements) Theater Omni Theater Fort Worth Museum of Science and History 1501 Montgomery Fort Worth ing the on-the-spot observations of Maj Powell tells of the difficulties of blazing those trails with an awe that canyon habitues of the present can only guess at Bill Conti's musical score propels the narrative in an unobtrusive way 4- 1 'A 4 '4--- 'air 1 1 1 i -r i ot' I (1) his be portray a struggling couple woman after changing identities happened and the deep resonance of voice is by turns intimidating and reassuring Apart from the astonishing construction and avoidance of cliches Positive 11) is memorable chiefly for Rascoe a stage veteran who bowed on film in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (1985) Her surge from a state of cowering to a commanding presence propels the film inexorably to a shatter- ing climax Lemmon receives achievement award Associated Press Los ANGELES Actor Jack Lemmon whose roles have ranged from the slapstick of Some Like It Hot to the drama of Save The Tiger was named Wednesday as the recipient of the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award "I don't think anyone on earth could happier" Lemmon said at a news conference at the institute "I can't think of any time in the future of receiving an award that would please me more than this" The actor quipped that he was so excited about getting the award he even called his answering service to tell the operators "I thought they should know" he said Lemmon has won two Academy Awards as best supporting actor for his portrayal of Ensign Pulver in the 1955 film version of Mr Roberts and as best actor for a businessman coming to grips with hiniself in the 1973 film' Save The Tiger I.