BACK TO SCHOOL (Chestnut Station, Dearborn and outlying). Rodney Dangerfield is a self-made millionaire saddled with a son who can`t seem to make anything of himself at college. Solution: Rodney, being a man of action and totally devoted to his son, drops his business activities and enrolls in the same class with his kid. Essentially, Dangerfield is playing a happy vulgarian–a lovable loudmouth who gets away with saying what`s on his mind because he`s very quick with the quip and very, very rich. We should instinctively hate Rodney for playing rich guys, but instead we admire both his brass and his gold. The only explanation: The movie camera, which so often acts as an X-ray, reveals Rodney`s lovable quality under all of his huffing and puffing. PG-13. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
BIG TROUBLE (Three Penny). An insurance man (Alan Arkin) is so desperate to send his three sons to college that he plots with a couple (Beverly D`Angelo and Peter Falk) to challenge the wording of a policy and collect a huge profit. R. (To be reviewed.)
BRAZIL (Fine Arts and outlying). Director Terry Gilliam`s darkly comic vision of a futuristic super state, though reminiscent of ”1984” and other predecessors, is pictorially vivid and inventive, a brilliant cartoon peopled with bold caricatures moving in vast, crumbling spaces. With Jonathan Pryce and Kim Greist as the lovers trapped in the sprawl of bureaucracy, and Ian Holm, Robert DeNiro and Michael Palin in supporting roles. R. (Reviewed by Richard Christiansen.) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
COBRA (United Artists and outlying). Sylvester Stallone plays Lt. Marion
”Cobra” Cobretti, a one-man police force who shoots first, second and third and doesn`t bother to ask questions. ”Cobra” is a nonstop war between one grenade-and-gun-laden man and a not very well-defined paramilitary group led by a musclebound freak who talks about the strong inheriting the world. The more compelling moments in the film occur when Cobra simply squares off against a single person. But then screenwriter Stallone brings in this Nazi-like group of hatchet-wielders and the film loses its focus, turning into a series of dangerous stunts and car chases. The character of Cobra is a match- chewing stud in a leather jacket and dark sunglasses, but we spend very little time with him. So we delight in his all too few comic asides. R. (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
DESERT HEARTS (Fine Arts). The filmmaking and performance of ”Desert Hearts” may have accomplished on film what hasn`t been achieved in society
–the desensationalizing of lesbianism. This period piece is set in the small-town Americana of Reno in 1959, which adds enough local color to romanticize the film`s central affair. It`s easier to praise this film as a love story than as sexual politics. The story is not sensationalistic, although its love scene could not be more emotional. It`s a gentle story of someone being brought in from the cold. R. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
FERRIS BUELLER`S DAY OFF (Water Tower and outlying). Young Ferris
(Matthew Broderick) looks directly into the camera and delivers his philosophy of life, which he uses to explain why he has ditched school nine times this year and is about to go for No. 10. Writer-director John Hughes has said that ”Ferris Bueller” is his tribute to his hometown of Chicago, and maybe that`s why he has Ferris do a sort of tourist`s day off rather than that of an insider. One suspects he and his friends have been to these places before. At the end of the picture we get the message that Ferris may have an altruistic motive for ditching. It may be that he really sees himself as the class Pied Piper, setting an example of free-living spirit for his uptight friends, who have typical rotten parents. If this element of Ferris as teacher had been scattered more frequently throughout the movie, it would be a better film. PG-13. (STAR)(STAR)
THE KARATE KID PART II (Water Tower and outlying). Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and his martial arts master Miyagi (Noriyuki ”Pat” Morita) go to Miyagi`s home village in Okinawa to say goodbye to Miyagi`s ailing father. While they are there, Miyagi runs into both old pleasures and pain as he rekindles a long-lost love affair and a long-smoldering feud. It`s a shame writer Robert Mark Kamen didn`t take the story one step further and give Miyagi his due: the climactic scene. Another, equally serious problem is the film`s cartoonish villain in Okinawa: the town warlord, who owns most of the land as well as most of its material possessions. There are scattered pleasures throughout the film due to its two lead performances, which are the equal of the work done in the original. It`s just that with a few exceptions, the characters Miyagi and Daniel are forced into conflict with aren`t worthy of their time. PG. (STAR)
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KRUSH GROOVE (United Artists). The streetwise president of a small rap record label tries to keep his act together in this silly but harmless excursion into the world of hiphop culture. Featured artists include Kurtis Blow, Run-D.M.C., the Fat Boys and Sheila E., who looks a lot better than she acts or sings. R. (Reviewed by Lynn Van Matre.) (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
LABYRINTH (Chestnut Station and outlying). Teenager Sarah roams a mysterious place in search of her baby brother whom goblins have delivered to their leader named Jareth (David Bowie). PG. (To be reviewed.)
LEGAL EAGLES (Esquire and outlying). It`s a shame that ”Legal Eagles”
runs two attractive performers, Debra Winger and Robert Redford, through a tortuous, meaningless stolen-property-and-murder mystery. The firestorms and death threats and double-dealing that occupy this plot make no difference to us. If Redford and Winger had been given more screen time together, ”Legal Eagles” could have been something special. Their romance might seem more credible, rather than being simply the movie convention of ”star loves star.” It`s a close call on ”Legal Eagles.” Why hire two accomplished performers and shackle them with such a stupid story? PG. (STAR)(STAR) 1/2
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT (Water Tower and outlying). Paul Stephens
(Christopher Collet) is a bright young man who stumbles onto a couple of Defense Department secrets near his home. One secret is that a top-security scientist is dating his mother without revealing his occupation; the other secret is that the scientist`s top-secret place of work is a breeding ground for deadly plutonium. But Paul isn`t into causes at first. Initially, he simply sees the plutonium as a way of winning a national science fair. That`s why he steals some . . . to build an atomic bomb! And it is John Lithgow`s utterly convincing portrayal of a tough but genuinely concerned scientist that makes ”The Manhattan Project” work as a thriller. And he, along with a seamless script coauthored by director Marshall Brickman, is why we watch with fascination ”The Manhattan Project.” PG-13. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
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MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (Fine Arts). Omar (Gordon Warnecke) has an uncle
(Saeed Jaffrey) who is fast building a London Pakistani mafia. The uncle gives Omar a seedy laundry for the young man to try and turn into
profitability. For this, he enlists an old school chum, Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis). While walking home from a session with Omar`s uncle, they casually begin what they and the filmmakers regard as an inevitable love affair. Director Stephen Frears and screenwriter Hanif Kureishi are better at depicting a new milieu than in making an important or innovative statement. The style and acting of ”Laundrette” is triumphant, and its substance a true but altogether pedestrian cliche. R. (Reviewed by Sid Smith.) (STAR)(STAR)
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MY LITTLE PONY (outlying). This offshoot of the toy and cartoon program features ponies and other animals in a land of make-believe with voices supplied by Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman and Tony Randall among others. G.
POLTERGEIST II: THE OTHER SIDE (outlying). In this film, strange spirits pay a return visit to the Freeling household. In the last movie, you may recall, their house and young daughter disappeared, with the daughter being pulled back from a stormy vortex by a female dwarf wizard with a Southern accent. Now the Freelings have moved to Mrs. Freeling`s mother`s house in Arizona. The spirits` return means more swirling clouds, even more ugly
”Alien”-style creatures with spiny backs and slithering bodies. Brian Gibson–an English filmmaker of no discernible pride–simply runs the family through a maze of Indian rituals, ghostly vapors and astral projections. To put it simply, there is nothing to like about ”Poltergeist II.” PG-13.
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RAW DEAL (Dearborn). Say what you will about ”Cobra,” save for those mysterious men in suits waving axes, the movie has a coherent plot: Bad guys kill; Stallone strikes back. What`s amazing about Arnold Schwarzenegger`s latest flix is that it contains essentially the same story, but it is told in such a confused manner with so many superfluous characters that we`re never really sure whose side a few key people are on. Arnold stars as another law enforcement officer unfairly cast out for using excessive violence. He`s called back to the FBI for one more assignment, the one that will earn him his long-overdue respect. The assignment is to infiltrate a mob operation that has killed some FBI men while operating a full-scale casino in the basement of the Allerton Hotel. The film was shot in Chicago. R. (STAR)
A ROOM WITH A VIEW (Fine Arts). Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith) takes young, virginal Lucy Honeychurch on a vacation to Florence. Lucy`s eye is drawn to an animated young man, George Emerson, who is vacationing with his feisty father. Mr. Emerson offers Lucy and Mrs. Bartlett his room with a view of the river Arno, pleading with them to take it and not stand on ceremony. The direction in which the love story will turn is far less important than the behavior the film argues for: Have the courage to reach for what you want and to reject that which you don`t. It`s both a lighthearted and deeply impassioned inspirational lesson about life. Not rated. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
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SHORT CIRCUIT (Woods and outlying). One of military scientist Steve Guttenberg`s robots becomes ”alive” after it is hit by a bolt of lightning, an event which apparently rewires its circuits. But the robot, Number Five, after being jolted, turns predictably into a peace-loving hunk of metal with a soul. It soon is adopted by Ally Sheedy, who conveniently runs a shelter for stray and disabled pets. The film has nowhere to go except to give us a predictable initial confrontation between Guttenberg and Sheedy over military weapons. Then Sheedy and Guttenberg join forces to save Number Five, which the army now wants to destroy because it has broken ranks. The way in which
”Short Circuit” gives us an army that is so ignorant it would want to destroy a robot that can think for itself is absurd. PG. (STAR)
SMOOTH TALK (Lake Shore). Connie (Laura Dern) is a high school freshman on summer vacation who is just beginning to connect herself with her developing body. She begins hanging out at the local drive-in, a move toward independence and danger that angers her parents. Now enters the smooth and seedy character of Arnold Friend (Treat Williams), a 30-year-old town lout who spots Connie as ripe for adventure in his convertible or any place she wants. Suffice it to say, ”Smooth Talk” provides an intellectual wallop that more star-studded youth films don`t even bother to contemplate. There is a vaporous, unaware quality to Dern`s work here that rings true. PG-13. (STAR)
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SPACECAMP (Chestnut Station and outlying). A limp children`s film about a summer camp run by NASA for a typical Hollywood assortment of youngsters, which means no minority females. Instead we get the usual preponderance of WASPs, a cute little boy and a token black male. The gimmick here is that a sophisticated robot takes pity on one of the kids and helps launch him and his fellow campers into space, accompanied by an instructor. Their adventures are not special, nor are their personalities. If young people want to experience a genuinely unexciting airborne adventure in a movie theater, then see SpaceCamp. PG. (STAR)(STAR)
SPRING SYMPHONY (Biograph). Clara Wieck (Nastassja Kinski) is a gifted piano player whose romance with pianist Robert Schumann leads to a
confrontation with her father/teacher. PG-13. (To be reviewed.)
STOP MAKING SENSE (Fine Arts). One of those rare rock concert films that works, featuring innovative pop band the Talking Heads in a memorable composite of four 1983 performances. Not rated. (Reviewed by Lynn Van Matre.) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
3 MEN AND A CRADLE (Biograph). This film is exactly what you`d expect it to be. Three swinging bachelors find a baby girl in their apartment and try to cope with her. Dirty diapers and a soiled couch are two of the big jokes. And, yes, the men are tenderized by their experience. So it`s just what you`d expect–no surprises. The three lugs who inherit her in a coincidence involving a drug deal are generic mopes, distinguishable only by the size of their libidos, which come in three sizes: big, bigger and biggest. At first, the baby is a thorn in the side of their lovemaking. Eventually, of course, the baby becomes the queen of t he household, especially when . . . that`s right, she might be taken away. PG-13. (STAR)(STAR)
TOP GUN (Carnegie and outlying). The aerial sequences in ”Top Gun” are as thrilling–while remaining coherent–as any ever put on film. ”Top Gun”
makes us idolize jet pilots, and surely that`s one of its goals. Where ”Top Gun” falls apart to the point of being offensive is in its pedestrian, silly, sexist love story in which a Navy cadet pilot (Tom Cruise) seduces his senior female flight instructor (Kelly McGillis). But the plot of ”Top Gun”
literally flies out the window when the daring young men get inside their $36- million F-14 Tomcat flying machines and zoom off into the sky and, later, onto aircraft carriers. PG. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (outlying). Geraldine Page is Mrs. Watts, the harried mother-in-law of a young quarreling couple. Mrs. Watts takes off from the embattled homestead, riding a bus to a town, called Bountiful, from her past. Along the way she meets a sweet character named Thelma, played by Rebecca De Mornay. What happens on the bus and afterward is played out in such a special, gentle way that you will want to anticipate and savor it for yourself. PG. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
TROUBLE IN MIND (Biograph). The setting for the unpredictable ”Trouble in Mind” is, appropriately, a cafe full of drifters, thieves, artists and lost souls. The proprietor of Wanda`s Cafe is played by Genevieve Bujold, who has assembled a most impressive middle career. Kris Kristofferson in his most enthusiastic performance in quite a while plays Hawk, an ex-cop just out of jail where he served time for killing a mobster out of frustration. Other interesting characters include a couple from the country and a fey character played by Divine. Crime runs throughout ”Trouble in Mind,” with Wanda`s cafe turning out to be a hangout. The cast of characters is vintage; most everyone has a price, but a few souls stand up for what`s right when the crunch comes. The film is sexy and violent and funny and great to look at. If your taste runs slightly to the dark side, you`ll have a very good time with ”Trouble in Mind.” Not rated. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR) 1/2
YEAR OF THE DRAGON (Dearborn). The latest film from director Michael Cimino (”The Deer Hunter,” ”Heaven`s Gate”) will be much talked about because it so often is a joy to look at and so often a pain to listen to. It tells the elaborate story of a young Chinatown godfather (John Lone) pursued by a Serpico-like detective (Mickey Rourke). Caught between them is an aggressive young Chinese woman (Ariane) who works the Chinatown beat as a local TV news reporter. Cimino places big dreams on the screen, and in this era when pinhead mentalities govern most of the films we see, the size and scale of ”Year of the Dragon” is most welcome. R. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Special presentations
BROKEN RAINBOW (Facets Multimedia). This year`s Academy Award winner for best documentary concerns a government-mandated removal of 10,000 Navahos from their Arizona grazing lands to tract housing on the outskirts of the reservation. Whatever the callous opinion of such men as Rep. Morris K. Udall (D., Ariz.), who expresses himself about this event with all the sensitivity of a tow-truck driver, this evacuation–known as Public Law 93-531 –ranks high on the list of national shame. The filmmakers craftily connect this current tragedy with the sad history of the white man`s mistreatment of the native Americans, using old photos, archival footage and other materials. Their view is very one-sided, but they leave little doubt that they are on the right side. ”In our language,” says one Navaho sadly, ”there is no word for relocation. To move away means to disappear and never be seen again.” That is the story. And that is the horror. Not rated. (Reviewed by Rick Kogan.) (STAR) (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO (Music Box). The most famous artist of the 20th Century draws and paints as Claude Renoir`s camera watches. A special set-up
–porous paper set in a frame and filmed from the opposite side–allows us to watch only the results of Picasso`s pen and brush, as 20 works take shape before our eyes. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (”Wages of Fear,”
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”Diabolique”), the 75-minute film was a commercial failure when released in the United States in 1957. Two years ago it was declared a French national treasure. An extraordinary document. PG. (Reviewed by Alan G. Artner.) (STAR) (STAR)(STAR) 1/2