Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 34

0UIQ3 DETROIT FREE PRESSFRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1982 6C Firefox' breaks promise of action 'VBysJACK MATHEWS Press Movie Critic HOLLYWOOD To give you some idea quality of special effects in the aerial dogfight in Clint Eastwood's 'Firefox," imagine a couple of kids chasing -each other around in your backyard, holding model airplanes over their heads and making "i tlolses with their mouths that slightly resem-v machine gun fire. Now, imagine watching those kids build ythei'r models, and you have a pretty good feel Vf-br how fast this film moves. I'Tmiox" is the first major disappoint-y among the summer adventure movies. ill kmfoMIMrnft 1 ItktftfflMiriiiiMiutMiniin niiinmrMiMiJ -At S18 million, it is Eastwood's first big-1 budget project, and the premise of the story lr preposterous as it is held promise for tsome extraordinary action. Somewhere in Russia, there is an experi-l" mental jet fighter that can not only fly at five vj times the speed of sound, but can read and its pilot's mind as long as he's thinking in Russian.

vj-EASTWOOD IS ideally suited to the task. America's best jet pilot and, thanks to 3 Eisrimmigrant parents, he can think in Russian. On the other hand, his Vietnam tour left him with a bad case of Delayed Stress Syndrome. Everytime the pressure's on, he if' -thinks he's in a cage in the Mekong Delta. he does get to Russia and makes i' with the MiG with the code name Firefox.

Will he be able to fly it with the if Soviet's best pilot on his tail? Or will he hallucinate up a storm? Even if the final airborne chase was done it wouldn't be just compensation for rtlw hour-and-a-half of talk and murky cloak- i(d-dagger work leading up to it. It's not rf-Vllwt Eastwood runs off at the mouth any Clint Eastwood, as American fighter pilot Mitchell Fant, discusses the plan to steal a Russian jet with Pavel, played by Warren Clarke. CvL 1 I jJfc sk Atom the story by FELIX SALTEN Lst I -Vj rjV CJr TECHNICOLOR "1 R-rlMd by BUCNA VISTA DISTRIBUTION CO INC ''N NHT "A 1 XCS MCMXLII Diwwy Productions 'G GENERAL AlMNCES mmtl iHELD qvfrwi 1:00. 3:00. 7:00.

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Ml I 05 66 7 35 9 30 ers, occasionally knocking off a KGB agent en route to the big touchdown run. But the military and political leaders in the U.S. and Russian war rooms, who take up about half the movie, are gabby idiots. And the way director Eastwood depicts the Soviet brain trust could lead to a defamation of character suit in the international court. After listening to these Putskys for a while, you get the impression anybody could build a plane that could read their minds.

In their backyards. FIREFOX Area theaters Mitchell Gant Clint Eastwood Kenneth Aubrey Freddie Jones Buckholz David Huffman Pavel Upenskov Clarke Produced and directed by Clint Eastwood; written by Alex Lasker and Wendell Wellman; photography by Bruce Surlees; music bv Maurice Jarre; distributed by Warner running lime, 2 hours, 17 min. ON A 1-10 SCALE: 3 PARENTS' GUIDE: PG, some profanity, violence. 100. 1-45.

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5:10, 7:10. 1:40 I 30 3:10. 7 30. I 00 I totre than usual. He spends most of his time quietly stalking the cities and back roads of Russia with various American sympathiz- -ffr- 9 INIIUJMWMWWII.UlumWWWBWMIqpw 1 i Ann Reinking leads Roger Minami, left, and Geoffrey Holder in celebrat Annie" when the orphan joins the Daddy Warbucks ing "We Got "household.

They share the laughter, the love, the frustration and the bathroom. fAnnie' loses her life way to the big screen Anyone can he a father. But not every father deserves a standing ovation. ANNIE', from Page 1C 'm6re than it is something lifelike and historical, rather than a musical comic stjlp and leaves you detached and It's as if you'd sat in on the dress rehearsal instead of the real show. V'C MAYBE "ANNIE" simply wasn't ANNIE Area theaters Daddy Warbucks Albert Finney Miss Hannigan Carol Burnett Annie Aileen Qulnn Grace Ann Reinking Rooster Tim Curry Lily Bernadette Peters Punlab Geoffrey Holder Produced bv Ray Stark; directed by John Huston; screenplay by Carol Sobieskl; original songs and lyrics by Charles Strouse and Martin Charnln; musical score by Ralph Burns; photography bv Richard Moore; distributed by Columbia Pictures; running time, 2 hours, 8 min.

ON A 1-10 SCALE: 4. PARENTS' GUIDE: PG, no objectionable content. meant to be made into a movie. Cartoon characters and balloon-over-the-head dialogue can work on the stage, where audiences fill in visual detail from their 1 imaginations. But on the big screen, the detail is filled in for us.

Every character, expression and action are suddenly real 'and should play with a modicum of -plausibility. "Annie" doesn't. u'The sentimental scenes that remain uncomfortable to watch. Shouts of "Leapin' lizards!" and "Oh, my good- ness!" become camp corn. TThe film has two outstanding 'cal numbers: the acrobatic "Hard Knock Life" that ranges throughout the orphanage set, and "Easy Street," which is performed much as it is stage, with Miss Hannigan (Carol Bur-nett), Rooster (Tim Curry) and Lily St.

Regis (Bernadette Peters). Neither one is a showstopper, though "Easy Street" comes closer. It should be noted tor tans 01 tne TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX PRESENTS AN IRWIN WINKLER PRODUCTION AN ARTHUR HILLER FILM tplay that several of the original songs have been dumped and replaced. The I "New York City" number was cut ALPACIN0 "AUTHOR! AUTHOR!" since the Wicked Witch of the West. It's her best film work by far and ought to earn her an Oscar nomination.

Aileen Quinn is a delightful Annie, with good feet, an infectious smile, and a perfectly pitched voice. It's not her fault she is used mainly as a performing prop, as is the spectacularly graceful Ann Reinking, playing Warbucks' secretary. Finney, bald and barrel-chested, makes an imposing presence as the-thundering Oliver Warbucks, and in the beginning it seems he and Burnett are the only ones who understand they are cartoon characters. But his thundering gets very annoying as the movie wears on and on and on. THE OTHER characters are little more than background atmosphere: With the exception of Quinn and cherub-faced Toni Ann Gisondi, who steals the orphans' one big scene as Molly, it is hard to distinguish one of the youngsters from another.

Punjab (Geoffrey Holder), War-bucks' mysterious Indian bodyguard, was resurrected from his comic strip life to save Annie in the film's climactic chase, but has little else to do. And I can't recall another movie in which a dog was so prominently featured to so little emotional avail. Sandy's performance, frankly, isn't worth a bowl of Ken-1 Ration. Whether "Annie" will be the blockbuster it needs to be to earn a profit and assure a sequel would seem to depend on the range of its appeal. Young children are almost sure to love it, and for their parents that will make it worth the experience.

People who just want a good, light-hearted, well-made movie on which to devote a summer evening have much better to choose from. because there was no 1933 New York City to shoot it in. Daddy Warbucks' "Something Was Missing" ballad was deemed too sentimental. The Christmas finale had to go since the movie ends July 4. And most curious among the missing is the Hooverville number, which would have provided the film- an opportunity to depict the gritty reality of the Depression they claimed to be after.

DYAN CANNON TUESDAY WELD BOB DISHY ALAN KING as Krepiich Music by DAVE GRUSIN Produced by IRWIN WINKLER Written by ISRAEL HOROVITZ Directed by ARTHUR HILLER PG PARENTAL GUIDANCE SUGGESTED 0 III SOME MATERIAL MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN 'Comin' Home To You" Sung by Michael Franks Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman Music by Dave Grusin Available on Warner Bros. Records 1982 TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX STARTS TODAY a. ItmiM ILMStofc. I -THE NEW NUMBERS, written by the Martin CharninCharles Strouse team that authored the originals, are 1 not improvements. And one of them, J.

created so the film's main stars Carol Burnett and Albert Finney (as Daddy Warbucks) could play a scene to- gether, is a real sleepwalk. Don't I have anything good to say about Stark's $40 million folly? 1 do- Carol Burnett, who never saw the play and is therefore one of the lew principals not to have expressed i dizain for it, is wonderful. Her boozy, child-hating, man-hungry Miss Hanni- is the most outrageously mean, and voutrageouslysfunny, screen 'llainess I M. I II. 121 715.

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