Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990 TAG: 9005040091
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chris Gladden
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
By June, the kind of human drama represented by "My Left Foot" and "Driving Miss Daisy" will only be a distant memory.
The guns of June, July and August will be smoking on thousands of screens, interrupted from time to time by car crashes, cowboy comedy, comic book characters and Catholic priests possessed by demons.
Not surprisingly, sequels will lead the pack. The latest edition of Variety, the entertainment trade journal, reports that the big movies will likely be the ones with big budgets. Some sequels are estimated to have budgets bigger than the box office take of the originals. Not so long ago $50 million seemed a staggering price tag for making a movie. By fall it will look routine.
Here are some of the sequels of summer:
"Robocop 2:" Peter Weller returns as the part-man, part machine crime fighter who wipes up the streets of a futuristic Detroit with scores of miscreants.
"Die Hard 2:" This time, Bruce Willis gets to destroy an airport instead of a skyscraper. The lone lawman takes on a crack military unit that hijacks not an airplane but a whole airport.
"Terminator 2:" Action master James Cameron again directs Arnold Schwarzenneger in the sequel to the hard-hitting futuristic yarn.
"Back to the Future, Part III:" This time, Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd travel in time back to the Old West where they teach gunslingers a thing or two about shooting irons.
"Young Guns II:" More brat packers in Stetsons. And more odd and violent exploits of Billy the Kid played again by Emilio Estevez.
"The Exorcist III - Legion:" Writer William Peter Blatty directs this second follow-up to the classic horror original about demonic possession.
"Gremlins 2:" The malicious critters who proliferate like kudzu are scheduled to cause more human headaches in this sequel to the Joe Dante original.
"Predator 2:" The first onewas excessively bloody and its story was thin, but it had some nifty special effects. The chameleon-like creature that thrives on human carnage will return.
"Another 48 hrs.:" Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy again team with director Walter Hill in an odd-couple cop movie about a law officer and a criminal who become partners.
"The Two Jakes:" The long-awaited sequel to "Chinatown" is still on the menu but long delays make us wonder if it will ever make it to the table.
Summer, of course, will not be all sequels. Disney, the makers of "Dick Tracy" starring Warren Beatty and Madonna, no doubt hopes the film will follow in "Batman's" big-hype, big-bucks footsteps. The Coen brothers ("Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona") will bring out "Miller's Crossing," a movie about 1920s urban politics that involves a shattered friendship, romance and gang wars and 1920s.
Arnold Schwarzenneger will keep a high profile with "Total Recall," a futuristic fantasy. The movie version of "Presumed Innocent," Scott Turow's page-turner of a mystery,is scheduled for release.
Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall star in"Days of Thunder," a big-budget stack-car racing opus filmed in Daytona, Fla., and Charlotte.
"Air America," starring Mel Gibson, looks at the exploits of air-freight pilots during the Vietnam War. And there will be much more. Like other recent summers, this one will see an avalanche of films competing for screen space and movie-goer's dollars.
by CNB