Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 88

ta 0 1 Bronson role steals the show in 'Kinjite' bk 1- 0 0 00 r-1 ti 'I li: 1 I mi'4 i -0 1 04" t-1- 5 4 4 -'-'2 1 i 7-- IRIEVIZIPS KinjiteForbiciden Subjects Price's on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Lee-Thompson Featuring: Charles Bronson Juan Fernandez James Fax Rated: sexual subject matter violence language) old foe Duke The girl happens to be the daughter of Hiroshi the businessman-turned-molester Reveling unapologetically in Nebenzal's film noir contrivances the naturalistic actor-turned-director Lee-Thompson has at age 74 delivered a picture worth mentioning in the same breath with such gems from his earlier days as Murder without Crime (1950) and the classic The Guns of Navarone which gave Lee-Thompson a Best Director shot in the 1961 Oscar nominations Lee-Thompson of course retains the harshness that has become a trademark in eight prior tearaings with Bronson but here he enobles that narrowly appealing value with a psychosexual quality on a par with what one expects from David Lynch Look past the gunplay and shock value like the bit where Bronson forces Fernandez to wolf down a Rolex and you'll find an argument that racism rape and even the violence that sells movie tickets are not natural elements of day-to-day life but instead symptoms of a society gone to rot Kinfite sticks with this potent fare in the main although it is annoying to watch the film lose track of the Pax and Hathaway characters Charles Bronson left squares off Ivith Juan Fernandez in Kinfite BY NIICHAEL IL PRICE Fort Worth Star-Telegram Charles Bronson has seldom failed to deliver the goods for the fans of hard-charging action but in LeeThompson's Kinfite he ups the ante with a rare performance of real intelligence tough moral fiber and emotional depth That vast improvement doesn't exactly make a mass-audience movie of Kinfite (KEN-juh-tay a Japanese term for forbidden topic) which bears comparison with the likes of John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up David Lynch's Blue Velvet or Norman Mailer's Tough Guys Don't Dance on a common level of gut-punch unpleasantness Unpleasantness however does not automatically render a movie worthless the condition here is simply that customers of mild appetites need not apply Viewers with short memories may find it unimaginable that a Bronson picture should place muscle at the service of brains But that was the case with Gene Fowler Jr's Showdown at Boot Hill (1958) and Nicolas Gessner's Someone Behind the Door (France 1971) those two proved as well that Bronson could hold his own dramatically In Kinfite there is no more polished actor than Bronson unless the degenerate sliminess that Juan Fernandez impersonates so brilliantly can pass for polish This lurid violent and oddly sensitive movie pitches a trio of intriguing and parallel yarns: Los Angeles vice cop Crowe (Bronson) is obsessed with putting Duke (Fernandez) a jail bait coincidence clean out of its socket While riding a municipal bus in downtown LA Hiroshi attempts to grope a young girl who proves to be Lt Crowe's daughter Crowe whose reaction to the crime is intensified by his conflicted feelings on youthful sexuality adopts a racist attitude toward Asians This prejudice in turn blinds Crowe to the urgency of a case concerning a missing Japanese teen-ager named Futniko (Kumiko Hayakawa) who has been kidnapped raped and conscripted into service by Bronson's pimp out of commission Hiroshi Hada (James Fax) a sexually frustrated Japanese business executive who has witnessed an incident of public fondling lands an extended assignment in LA And off the job Lt Crowe is tormented by concerns about what a wicked world awaits his teen-age daughter Rita (I 4-year-old newcomer Amy Hathaway who does just fine with an emotionally demanding assignment) From here Harold Nebenzal's screenplay takes a fascinating turn hard enough to rip the long arm of MOVIE ROUNDUP 'Skin Deep' appears simply as Part 4 of a Blake Edwards' trilogy values are nowhere near as good as the acting But all concerned play the story with conviction and zest and Lithgow's smarter-than-he-seems performance is reminiscent of an in-his-prime James Stewart Price's pick: 4 on a scale of I to 10 Director Malcolm Mowbray 'Peatudng: Ten Garr John Lithgow Randy Quaid Bruce McGill Rated: (language violence sexual involving enough vengeance for a couple of Rambo movies is overlong and a bit superfluous in the violence department but stunningly well-acted Nolte's energetic presence invites regard as an opposite number to Marlon Brando's leaden portrayal in Apocalyptce Now another story of a wartime hermit written in part by Mi I i us Price's pick: 6 on a scale of Ito 10 Writer-director John Milius Featuring: Nick Nolte Nigel Havers Choy Chang Wing Aid Meong Frank McRae Gerry Lopez Rated: PG-13 (violence) seriocomic actor he can be in this almost-sequel to Blake Edwards' "0" Edwards' central character this time is Zach (Ritter) a stalled writer and compulsive womanizer whose failed marriage comes as a surprise to no one but himself The comical elements here are descended from classic Edwards slapstick like The Party and several Panther pictures but this one has more in common thematically with Edwards' dark view of the (his own) creative process in such films as SOB That's Life! of course "JO" and even the underappreciated Old Hollywood period piece Sunset Price's pick: 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 Writer-director: Blake Edwards Featuring: John Ritter Vincent Gardenia Chelsea Field Julianne Phillips Rated: (language sexual subject matter scattered violence) BY MICHAEL PRICE Fort Worth Star-Tclegram There's a weird old saying about "Part No 4 of the So-and-So Trilogy" usually associated with Hollywood's master of the malaprop Samuel Goldwyn but it's wise not to resurrect the line too often lest people look at you funny The absurdity is irresistible however as a description of Blake Edwards' Skin Deep a new arrival that looks for all the world like a fourth installment in the acknowledged Edwards trilogy of "JO" (1979) SOB (1981) and That's Life! (1986) Edwards at 66 is no longer the automatic audience draw he was during the 1960s an era whose moviegoers lionized him for the Pink Panther comedies and prized his adherence to the film noir manner in such ugly-side-of-life dramas as Experiment in Terror and Days ot Wine and Roses His brilliance seems undiminished however and Skin Deep offers the reward of an acerbic look at the creative process to anyone who bothers to check it out Elsewhere among the weekend's openers we find John Milius' Farewell to the King in which Nick Nolte suggests how he might have handled the leading roles in Conan the Barbarian and Apocalypse Now an interesting teens-withstrange-problems misfire called Dream a Little Dream Out Cold a grisly gallows comedy that is difficult to watch precisely because its acting is so very good: and a couple of no-preview items Matthew Chapman's Heart of Midnight and Bob Yari's Mindgames both madness-andmurder chillers Review notes follow: Dream a Little Dream Here's an intriguing failure an attempt at stating a case against age discrimination in a teen-movie context Veterans Jason Robards and Piper Laurie inadvertently switch bodies with youngsters Corey Feldman and Meredith Salenger a derivative plot that elaborates not only all those mind-swap comedies of last year (Big 18 Again! and so forth) but also that grim Boris Karloff vehicle of 1967 The Sorcerers Mark Rocco's job of directing is pretty pedestrian for the metaphysical subject matter and he lays it on a bit thick with the irresponsible behavior But what a cast: In supf)ort we find frequent Feldman collaborator Corey Haim the director's father Alex Rocco Harry Dean Stanton Victoria Jackson enough top-shelf talent to have made a really good movie Price's pick: 3 on a scale of Ito 10 Director Mark Rocco Featuring Jason Robards Corey Feldman Piper Laurie Meredith Salenger Corey Haim Harry Dean Stanton Alex Rocco Victoria Jackson Rated: PG-13 (adult situations language violent behavior and alcohol abuse) Out Cold British director Malcolm Mowbray's long-delayed gallows comedy was originally known as Stiffs on account of its murder-by-freezing plot pivot a device that Chester Gould used to similarly creepy effect for a Dick Tracy adventure of the '50s Here we have the best turn in years by the underappreciated John Lithgow put largely to waste on a story whose telling could provoke customers of mild appetites to walk out on the picture Lithgow is a mild-mannered butcher with a violent creep for a partner (played by Bruce McGill best known as the mobster who holds Martin Short captive in Three Fugitives The partner gets his just desserts when his abused wife (Ten Gaff) traps him in the shop's walk-in freezer but then Lithgow imagines himself responsible and spends much of the film attempting to dispose of the McGill-side Texas boy Randy Quaid does his patented vulgarian schtik as a seedy private eye Out Cold is pretty unpleasant unless you're predisposed to such fare and the production Farewell to the King John Milius is the director who delivered Conan the Barbarian in 1982 He was at the time an earnest stylist capable of discerning the dignity in such a pulp-thriller source as the Conan yarns as well as in the then-unrefined talent (Arnold Schwarzenegger) handling the title role Now Milius has developed this markedly similar new movie from a less overwrought source-novel (by France's Pierre Schoendoerffer) and built it around a robust and feeling lead performance by that soulful tough-guy actor Nick Nolte Nolte a peaceable ex-Yank soldier (having deserted at Corregidor) in the waning days of World has found a tropical paradise that is violently invaded by the Japanese His ordeal 1T Skin Deep John Ritter reminds us of just how strong a 11 1.