Fort Worth Star-Telegram from Fort Worth, Texas • 83

FrifJtyMayiie 1960f STMIiTltCaPoHiWfertli StoTelefarrfA Pageff GUN SHOW NATIONAL CRAFT FAIR May 19 20 Dallas Convention Center 650 SGriffin St Can't be called original but fun to watch Show Info -(81 7) 535-1968 TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTYYT CIITTTTTTTTT1 XJJ32 m- -1a s' 'm 1 f( i vv fvmmtfin 1 TEXAS SCOTTISH FESTIVAL The Fourth Annual Arlington Highland Games By MICHAEL PRICE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM The last reel or so of the action comedy Bird on a Wire takes place in an indoor zoo complete with jungle and exotic beasts that was constructed especially for the movie inside a six-story studio on Canada's West Coast The John Badham film is richly choreographed for stunt action and features imperishable villain portrayals by those great character actors David Carradine and Bill Duke And the picture makes a vivid showcase for Mel Gibson's "playful cutup-of-the-sixth-grade aspect" as producer Rob Cohen has described a neglected facet of the 33-year-old actor Clearly there is nothing cheap or cheesy about Bird on a Wire and yet the film feels significantly less than the sum of its parts Goldie Hawn is much of the problem her overfam-iliar tough-kittenish approach feels more forced with every movie and so are recycled story elements Ten years ago Hawn was just right for the Neil Simon-Jay Sandrich movie Seems Like Old Times where she proved herself one of our abler funny-sexy actresses But Hawn has performance Gibson plays man-on-the-run Rick' Jarmin a deceptively lighthearted sort who once made some big mistakes but who at length turned state's witness against the sort of people who do not hesitate to kill Carradine in his first major-studio turn in quite some time leaves a chilling impression as a criminal mastermind Duke as a sadistic killer makes memorable fodder for nightmares They raise Bird on a Wire beyond the ordinary Every time Jarmin selects a new name and a new life his enemies close in The newest alias collapses when he encounters a former girlfriend Marianne Graves (Hawn) now a hotshot lawyer who thought Jarmin long dead Together again the couple flee the bad guys in a cross-country chase Debits aside the movie plays convincingly as an American travelogue even though principal photography took place in British Columbia The movie takes its name by the way from the Leonard Cohen song whose lyric begins: "Like a bird on a wire like a drunk in a midnight choir I've tried in my way to be free June 2-3 Maverick Stadium UTA 1200 Mitchell Arlington Adults $600 per day with coupon Children (6-12) $200 per day with coupon (One ticket per coupon No photocopies Please) Presented By: 3- Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn REVIEW Bird on a Wire Michael Price's rating: 4 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director John Badham Featuring: Mel Gibson Goldie Hawn David Carradine Bill Duke Rated: (sexual situations language violence) Fort Worth Star-Telegram EHHHHHBHHHHHHHBHHHHHHHHHHHHH AMF BOWLING CENTERS 3 seemed merely to photocopy herself since then and for Bird on a Wire's knockoff of Seems Like Old Times she might as well have faxed in her Welcome Back To Old Fashioned Prices! Film loses way switching lanes I EN play i i OP I 1 I Plus Tax Per Game With This Coupon Good Thru Sunday May 20th 1 I mmm mmm mmm mmm 7 i A Robin Williams leh and Tim Robbins in Cadillac Man Grab Your Family! By MICHAEL PRICE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM One good siege deserves another and when the first one is the work of Robin Williams it helps to have a comparably intense actor to bring on the second wave In Cadillac Man Tim Robbins matches the quick-thinking maestro Williams at almost every turn Williams is the compulsive womanizer of the title an automobile salesman who has complicated his life with too many romances and Robbins is the maybe-or-maybe-not cuckold who shows up at the showroom with a gun With its ironically flip title and thumbs-up advertising of a smiling Robin Williams Cadillac Man clearly is pitched for the comedy audience It probably will find its audience among the middle-class trendies who embraced last winter's The War of the Roses as a funny picture and thus made it a hit But mentally replay the domestic violence of The War of the Roses without the laughs and it proves to work better as a grim piece The hipper-than-thou chucklers in the audience spoiled that film for a thoughtful minority of viewers and those same chucklers will probably keep quite a few people from getting as much out of Cadillac Man as ought to be gotten Director Roger Donaldson doesn't seem to know whether to make Cadillac Man a comedy or a nail-biter and he ends up with a film that doesn't work entirely on either level At the film's heart is desperation and Williams plays that anguished emotion for all his formidable worth Joey O'Brien (Williams) is a high roller with a former wife (Pamela Reed) a demanding mistress (Fran Dresch-er) a wild-spirited teen-age daughter (Tristine Skyler) a widowed mother (Mimi Cecchini) and any number of lesser worries Joey's sales record is slipping at the absolutely worst time with staff cutbacks imminent and he has one day in which to re-establish himself as the Cadillac Man This is the day on which gun-toting Larry (Robbins) shows up crazed with the belief that his wife (Annabella Sciorra) has been conducting an illicit affair with a salesman Unless someone confesses everybody will die Joey Fetch Your Friends! Head For The Fun! REVIEW Cadillac Man Mrchael Price's rating: 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 Director: Roger Donaldson Featuring: Robin Williams Tim Robbins Pamela Reed Annabella Sciorra Rated: (language violence adult situations) 1 3 a i i a a a a i a a i i a a i Forest Park Lanes 1507 University Cowtown Bowling Palace 4333 Riveroaks Blvd Fort Worth 624-2151 Fort Worth 335-4979 3 Hurst Bowl 720 Pipeline Rd Hurst 282-6754 Wedgwood Bowl 5251 Wonder Dr Fort Worth 292-1821 must prove himself something more than a supersalcs-man Robust portrayals help immeasurably and at least Williams is not obliged to fight the script as was his lot in 1989's Dead Poets Society where he struggled to make more of the character than written (And yes Williams always does more than a script calls for but he usually doesn't have to resort to grappling) When Cadillac Man is tough-minded it is excellent when trying to be funny it tends to miss But a film that aims this high to say something of substance about the human condition cannot be expected to hit the mark If You've Got The Time We've Got The Fun! i i a a EUUuuuyuugggguuuyuuuQuuguuua.