Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 104

i I Only a fan could love Pletch' 9 vs tl 67 1 00 tC TIS E- 0 i oc -4 7 REVIEW Retch Lives Price's pick 4 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Michael Ritchie Featuring: Chevy Chase Hal Holbrook Cleavon Little Julianne Phillips Lee Ermey Randall "Tex" Cobb Dennis Burkley Pa tricia Kalember Rated: PG (vulgar wit) I 1 a i I i I 1 vit 4 i 1 '-Ah If 4 -4 4 41f' I -NriffY or I 4 14 1 rt el st 1:::" I Chase the of in Retch Lives BY MICHAEL IL PRICE Fort oral Star-Telegram Fletch may live on if we accept the title of the character's new outing as evidence of fact but his new exploits can't begin to measure up to those of the debut film Too the relentless smart-mouthing of Michael Ritchie's Retch (1984) was enough Watching Chevy Chase lay it on thick and silly with the wisecracks all over again in Ritchie's Retch Lives you may wish the actor would practice a little more of what he preaches about tempering genial humor with "a little hate" Even a smidgen of anger or indignation would make Chase's impersonation of undercover journalist IM "Retch" Fletcher more palatable The enactment is as chanting as ever and that's largely the problem Chase has played essentially this same unflappable wise guy as far back as the Neil Simon farce Seems like Old Times (1980) while making deeper characterizations like the memorable tantrum scene of National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) or his Fred MacMurray-like frustrated nice itance is a dump Leon Capetanos' screenplay hangs on menacing intrigues that have caused the rundown plantation to become a property in hot demand Retch provoked to a state of investigative zeal by the situation ignores warnings that he should clear out The character's frequent changes of appearance are a must for Retch fans and Chase wears the disguises convincingly In one bit with a mustache he could pass for a young Don Ameche Ritchie's style of directing on this episodic romp displays little of the coherence that he brought to bear on such vignette-based narratives as Smile (1975) and The Bad Net Bears (1976) There are enough crude transitional cuts to make you wonder whether a rough-cut of the film wasn't inadvertently released Even if this follow-through goes over only with the Chase fans perhaps at least it will gain some admirers for other fine players who appear in support Lee Ermey best known for heavy fare like the brutal drill instructor in Full Metal Jacket multiple disguises Cheap plot brings down 'Rooftops' i li 1 i i- I i ow 1 1 1- It At'''V I 1 4 -I 7114 fo i -1 J- 14: 141141 i'-'4-1f1 11 1 I I' Ai 4 4 01-- i 4 i i 41-Ir 1 1 lie'-' '-t NA it I guy of Funny Farm (1988) the exception to the rule All of which makes Retch Lives like Retch largely an attraction for Chase fans not all of whom demand excellence in a movie The star drowns the material in glib remarks Though hardly a match for the first film's fascinating mystery the story is pretty decent material that would get along nicely without all the superficial jokery Eletch imagines a life of luxury upon learning he has inherited an 80- acre Southern plantation after a dandy dream sequence that promises a more pleasing movie Fletch wakes up in the real world to learn his inher glavizrt Rooftops Michael Pellecchia's pick 2 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director Robert Wise Featuring: Jason Gedrick Tisha Campbell Troy Beyer Eddie Velez Alexis Cruz Rated (language violence sexual subject matter) who don't do drugs see no use in opposing the menacing Lobo But Squeak (Alexis Cruz) the motor-mouth kid of the group doesn't have the sense of his elders and goes up against Lobo singlehandedly are above the world in Rooftops Chu) returns as master (1987) and the self-loathing mayor in Mississippi Burning is seen to strong comic effect as an ambitious evangelist Cleavon Little has some good A combat dance is used to gets the impression this project was budgeted to be filmed at abandoned locations But that's not the worst of it We're supposed to believe that three goofy thugs operating independently under a leader who snorts his own product can successfully terrorize a neighborhood This premise is reinforced by plenty of scenes in which you can practically hear Wise shouting through a megaphone to the extras "Now look the other way everybody! That's it!" The biggest letdown is the paucity of dance sequences that could have vaulted Rooftops into memorability Apart from cynically exploiting urban problems by presenting them in a glossy unrealistic fashion the producers have wasted their chance to make a new Dirty Dancing Drawing from a tradition brought 11 '--k i "efy'' 4: --i- 1-'' i ti Je? r- 1 -i 7 I A1 moments as the live-in caretaker on Fletch's inherited property And watch for Texas Christian University alumnus Dennis Burldey as an imposing fellow known as Joe Jack settle differences in Rooftops to Brazil by African slaves and brought to New York by Brazilian immigrants the filmmakers commissioned choreography from both a Brazilian capoeira expert and an American who handled the idiom's street equivalent called "combat dancing" This form of dancing combines gymnastics and martial arts and features one-on-one competition where the winner moves his opponent out of a designated area without actually making physical contact It's completely engaging to watch and as a variation of breakdancing could capture the imagination of dancers everywhere It still might do so but Rooftops gives it short shrift In fact because Rooftops never really indulges its high points it cheats viewers By MICHAEL PELLECCHIA Special to the Star-Tdegram Rooftops starring Jason Gedrick Troy Beyer Eddie Velez and Tisha Campbell is essentially a 95-minute commercial for a movie that wasn't made And it's a shame because it would have been a good one The hero (Gedrick) who has made a comfy home for himself in a water tower atop an abandoned building on New York's Lower East Side His neighbors are other homeless kids who live on adjoining rooftops But a crack dealer named Lobo (Velez) and two henchmen move in The neighborhood wants to look the other way even the streetwise kids Troy Beyer left and Jason Gedrick 4 I 'k 1- Squeak's sacrifice galvanizes "T' into action and he accomplishes for the neighborhood what New York's finest cannot The complication to this simple plot begins with a few ridiculously long looks exchanged between and Elana (Troy Beyer) that blossom into teen lust Elana finds herself with divided loyalties because she works for her cousin Lobo who in turn is helping to support her family while her father recuperates from a heart attack Yes it's tough up there on the rooftops so occasionally the kids meet in a vacant lot to dance the night away Actually they meet once at the beginning of the film and once at the end Rooftops is directed by Robert Wise who should know better He co-directed West Side Story (1961) directed Susan Hayward to a best actress Oscar in I Want To Live! (1958) and served The Sound of Music (1965) as producer and director Wise is one of the gray eminences of Hollywood and perhaps therein lies the tale that wags this dog called Rooftops Rooftops probably started out as a worthy project that the accountants got the better of There's no shelter from the cheapness of this picture Amazingly almost zero mood is set by either the rooftop scenes shot with available light (plenty of that) or the equivalent night shots with the Manhattan skyline shimmering in the background A few minutes into the film one 40 4 31 1 1 4 1 ANIMIIMMnMMMIMOd').