The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 29

AT THE MOVIES Reiner-Martin's 'All of Me' production best effort yet directed 1963 vehicle that perfectly synthesized the comic's unwieldy Jekyll-and-Hyde screen persona into an acceptable form even his severest critics had to admit worked. Martin, whose erratic screen behavior has similarly polarized critics and audiences, accomplishes much the same thing here: the wild-and-crazy streak has been given its perfect, most controlled outlet Unfortunately, this showcasing of Martin's skills with his virtuoso incorporation of both extremes of gender behavior into that rubberband physique somewhat shortchanges the contributions of Tomlin, whose corporeal presence vanishes about 15 minutes into the film. Thereafter, her participation is relegated largely to voiceovers and occasional cameo appearances in mirrors and other reflective objects. It was an inspired stroke to place Tomlin's persona inside Martin's body, but it poses some creative problems neither she nor director Reiner are able to entirely overcome. IN ADDITION, the film has some other unavoidable weaknesses, particularly during the final third, when the story veers off down a nonsensical path in which Tomlin's spirit is exorcised from Martin and deposited in a bucket of water, amid other increasingly tedious developments.

(Weak final thirds were also endemic to "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" and With Two Brains" can it be that Reiner just can't sustain a feature-length concept once he has succeeded In getting it started?) While "All of Me" is probably the most restrained and accomplished of the Reiner-Martin collaborations, there are still moments of unrelieved crudity andor juvenilia allowed to protrude with alarming tactlessness (i.e. the men's room scene). Perhaps these are sops to Martin's younger fans; perhaps these are simply errors in judgment; perhaps Reiner and Martin find them genuinely funny. Luckily, though, the sops andor judgmental errors are few and far between, and audiences can content themselves with the knowledge that a large percentage of the laughter in "All of Me" is honorably earned no mean feat these days. By DAN CRAFT PREVIEW film critic SCHIZOPHRENIA COMES Into Its own as a topic for comedy In "All of Me," the fourth and perhaps smoothest of the Steve Martin-Carl Reiner big-screen collaborations.

The cheerfully loony attitude of the film, which ranges from the sublime to the sub-puerile, requires a certain lowering of one's guard to fully appreciate, particularly for those who have yet to fathom the appeal of Martin's largely surreal screen presence. But accepted on its own eminently screwball terms, "All of Me" manages to engage one's comic sympathies, without ever really alienating them, which is what seems to have happened in most of the past Reiner-Martin films, including "The Jerk" and "The Man With Two Brains." Men Don't Wear Plaid" came close, but ended up succeeding far more often than it failed.) In the neatly contrived script by Phil Alden Robinson, Martin plays a variation on his "Man With Two Brains" role as a ne'er-do-well lawyer who becomes Involved with settling the estate of a dying and highly eccentric heiress named Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin). As it turns out, Edwina plans on having her soul transferred from her body to that of a beautiful young blonde (Madolyn Smith) at the moment of death, courtesy the hocus-pocus expertise of a half-baked Eastern guru (Richard Libertini). Of course the soul-transplant scheme goes gleefully awry and Edwina's spirit winds up cc-habitating in the wild-and-crazy body of Martin (the right-hand side, to be precise) and controlling 50 percent of said wild-and-crazy body's net behavior. PRESTO: ONE gifted comedian given the perfect excuse to rend his psyche asunder and engage in one hopelessly goofball situation after another.

It may not be "The Philadelphia but it's certainly funny enough under the circumstances. Scenes worth filing for future reference: Martin's masculine-feminine walk down a public sidewalk, his attempted seduction of the aforementioned beautiful Lily Tomlin loses her soul, in a way, in Carl Reiner and Steve Martin's latest effort, "All of Me." "ALL OF ME" Dlrsctsd by Carl Rslnar. Wrlttan by Phil Aldan Robinson. Stava Martin, Lily Tomlin, Victoria Tonnant, Madolyn Smith, Dana Elcar star. Ratad Pfi for languaga and tiful blonde and a courtroom scene in which the Tomlin half of his self takes the upper hand.

In a way, "All of Me" resembles, in both tone and concept, Jerry Lewis' "The Nutty Professor," a self- Ninjas score big, but viewers are on the losing end out to meet ISU's weekend partygoers.) BUT EVEN NINJAS have their vulnerable spots. After being fired upon by machine guns, rifles and pistols for about five minutes, the ninja whirled around and around and disappeared into the ground, obviously tired of being the object of so much attention. Which brings us back to the telephone linewoman, down the road a bit. The ninja limps out of the underbrush, goes "Gr-rumphhgrrrarghh," squints like Eddie Albert used to do when Eva Gabor was driving him crazy on "Green -Acres," and then transfers his ninja soul into the telephone linewoman's body. We now have one possessed telephone linewoman, which is almost as serious as one ninja on a golf course.

For the rest of the movie, the telephone line-woman has to contend with the ninja spirit popping out of the refrigerator and dishwasher into her body so that she can go out and slice and dice the policemen who shot at the ninja over on the 10th hole. Always after the ninja possesses her and she's killed a small mass gathering of people, the telephone linewoman says, "I think something must be wrong with me. I've felt a little different lately." The moral of this story, then: If you're going to befriend a fatally wounded ninja, make sure you've been to a few recent movies such as "Ninja III: The Domination." Else you're gonna feel a little different lately. THIS IS THE story of a nice young Los Angeles telephone linewoman who teaches aerobics classes after work, decorates her apartment in early "Flashdance" and befriends fatally wounded ninjas who crawl from out of the underbrush near telephone poles, gnashing their teeth and making noises that sound like what happens when you put one of the "Gremlins" in a microwave. The first two pastimes really aren't all that exciting, but this business of befriending wounded ninjas now that's something your average L.A.

telephone linewoman probably doesn't get the opportunity to do on a daily basis. Unfortunately, our telephone linewomanaerobics instructor heroine probably doesn't spend much time at the movies, or why else would she be stupid enough to mess around with a wounded ninja? Didn't she see this movie's two predecessors, "Enter the Ninja" and "Revenge of the Ninja?" Doesn't she know what a ninja is, for goshsakes? (Do you know what a ninja is?) I mean, silly woman. Just 10 minutes before the ninja crawled out of the underbrush near the telephone pole, he was over on the 10th hole of the golf course slicing and dicing away at a group of fat-cat golfers. (I don't know why, for sure maybe ninjas just don't like the game.) Then when about half the L.A. police force came to help the golfers, the ninja took care of them too, along with about four motorcycles, three squad cars and one helicopter.

Those nasty little Ninjas have an incredible flair for violence in "Ninja III: The Domination." "NINJA III: THE DOMINATION" Dlrsctad by Sam Flrstanbarg. Wrlttan by 'Jamas Silks. Luclnda Dlckay, Sho Koaugl, Jordan Bannatt star. Ratad for vlolsncs. You'd be amazed at what one slightly riled ninja can accomplish with a stainless steel sword and several little metal discs with pointy things on the edges.

(Maybe the Normal Police Department ought to consider taking one or two along when they go PREVIEW 3.