Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990 TAG: 9007170112
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Writer/director Katt Shea Ruben has reworked the standard stuff of "B" movies to create an effective thriller with a serious side. Roger Corman was executive producer and the film has the pared down look of a low-budget exercise in questionable taste. While "Streets" provides all the action the genre demands, it's really about believable, unusual characters. They are the point.
Sy (David Mendenhall) is a teen-ager who's having a small adventure while his parents are out of town. With vague dreams of rock stardom, he has taken off for Los Angeles on his bicycle with an electronic keyboard strapped to the handlebars. On his first morning out, he is sleeping under a pier at the beach where a young prostitute, Dawn (Christina Applegate), shows up with a client, Lumley (Eb Lottimer), who turns vicious.
Sy and Dawn manage to escape, but we soon learn that Lumley is an insane sado-masochistic motorcycle cop. He arms himself with an exotic sawed-off shotgun and begins to stalk the couple. At the same time, Sy is learning who and what Dawn is, and that's where the film is at its best. She's a throwaway (distinct from a runaway) who lives on the street and follows her own rules.
She and the other kids who live on the streets of Venice Beach are tough, doomed survivors. Their conversations and monologues have a strong poetic streak, a free-flowing stream of consciousness that cuts against the grain of their grimy reality. That side of the story may or may not be realistic, but it certainly seems believable enough. The film neither condemns nor excuses these kids - it tries to show them as individuals, not stereotypes.
Lumley isn't a stereotypical psycho, either. He's a strange, driven figure who's so implacable in his pursuit that he's really frightening. Ruben and co-writer Andy Ruben (who also produced the film) balance the action well, shifting the focus between life on the streets and Lumley's insane determination. The action is seldom predictable. It builds to a tense confrontation that's filled with visual quotes from "Blade Runner."
The acting is excellent throughout. Applegate, from television's "Married . . . With Children" shows remarkable depth in a demanding role. Mendenhall is properly uncertain as an inexperienced hero who's faced with a situation that's far too complicated for him to handle.
"Streets" lacks star power and big-budget special effects. It's easily overlooked on the crowded shelves of the video store. But this taut little thriller is worth some extra effort. It's much more engrossing and entertaining than a lot of the theatrical hits and semi-hits that are more heavily promoted.
If "Streets" is a "B" movie that overcomes the limits of the form,\ "Fatal Skies" wallows in its badness. In fact, this flick is so gloriously inept and silly that it's an instant alternative classic. A few years ago, it would have played as the third or fourth feature at the drive-in; today we can savor its delights on home video.
The only recognizable name in the production is Timothy Leary - yes, that Timothy Leary - who leads an acting-impaired cast in a nutty story of environmental destruction and political corruption. It begins with this message:
"The story you are about to see is a work of fiction, but it is based on true events. The names and places have been changed to protect the innocent and to make the story more tragic."
This tragedy is all about a bunch of teen-aged parachutists who drop in on a toxic waste dump where 55-gallon barrels routinely blow up. Leary and his two henchmen drive them away, but the plucky kids (whose average age looks to be about 30) persevere. They learn that Leary is poisoning the water and the sleazy local sheriff is covering up for him.
Even though it's "based on true events," the plot wanders along illogically as if writer/director Thomas Dugan were making it up as he went along. But that's all right. This kind of movie soars on its own silliness. Among the highpoints:
Leary's "Southern" accent that comes and goes
The most anemic chase scene ever committed to film
A long section toward the end of the film filled with the gentle sounds of lowing cows
The moment when one bad guy tells another to be quiet by saying, "Shut your yuck."
And who could forget the concluding plea, "Please send Tax Deductible Contributions to: Your Favorite Toxic Cleanup Fund."
New releases
Men Don't Leave: Starring Jessica Lange, Joan Cusack, Arliss Howard. Directed by Marshall Brickman. Warner. 110 min. Rated PG-13 for profanity and mature content. This is not the touchy-feely, tear-stained "women's" picture it appears to be, though a plot synopsis makes it sound like a collection of cliches. Director Brickman tells this story of a wounded family with the same sharp stylistic touches that made "Risky Business" so good.
Jessica Lange is excellent as a widow trying to raise two uncooperative sons in Baltimore as the three of them try to come to terms with their new reality. The story is filled with surprises, and it's built on deftly drawn, complex characters. The film is so unusual that it may not appeal to all tastes, but it should find an enthusiastic audience on home video. Not flawless, but highly recommended.
We're No Angels:
Starring Sean Penn, Robert De Niro. Directed by Neil Jordan. RCA/Columbia. 115 min. Rated PG-13. "We're No Angels" is a movie that can't decide exactly what it wants to be. By the time it decides to quit being a quirky buddy story and settles down to the business of being an uplifting and affirmative yarn, it's too late.
Playwright and screenwriter David Mamet and movie director Neil Jordan take a big sentimental cream puff, but it doesn't turn these guys into weeping slobs.
It has two good-hearted ex-cons, a little deaf girl in need of a miracle, her impoverished mother whose faith is long gone and a whole flock of kindly priests.
But what you also get in the bargain are a couple of shootings worthy of Sam Peckinpah, terse dialogue, an unrelentingly bleak locale, dizzying stunts and a dead deer before the movie is 30 minutes old.
Robert De Niro and Sean play Jim and Ned, two convicts who are caught up in a prison break somewhere near the Canadian border in 1935. They stumble into a monastery and are mistaken for two missing priests. Neither Jim or Ned is bright or articulate but both have a kernel of goodness that eventually takes on heroic proportions.
`Internal Affairs:' 1/2 Starring Richard Gere and Andy Garcia. Directed by Mike Figgis. Rated R. Two hours.
The title of "Internal Affairs," the stylishly sharp but routinely plotted police thriller from director Mike Figgis, refers to the division of some departments that investigates misconduct among the other cops.
Garcia plays Raymond Avilla, a new Internal Affairs investigator with the Los Angeles Police Department. He's assigned to be the junior partner of Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf), a more seasoned investigator.
They investigate Dennis Peck (Gere), who at first appears to be a seasoned street cop who breaks the rules mainly to protect his fellow officers. But Peck is a Machiavellian string-puller who rules an invisible empire within the force and seduces every woman who strikes his fancy and then uses them to get back at their husbands. Gere, cast against type, makes a first-rate villain as a smiling, handsome but relentlessly evil sociopath.
Like Sea of Love, this police movie is not short on either sex or violence. However, as compelling as it is visually, it doesn't do as much as it could with either the plot or the characters.
What the ratings mean:
Wonderful; one of the best of its kind. See it right away.
Very good; definitely worth renting.
Average. You've seen better; you've seen worse.
Poor. Make sure the fast-forward button on your VCR is in good working order.
\ Dud An insult to intelligence and taste. This category is as much a warning as a rating.
The Essentials:\ `Streets' 1/2 MGM/UA. 86 min. Rated R for profanity, violence, sexual content.
\ `Fatal Skies' (minus) A.I.P. 88 min. Rated R for laughable violence, unpersuasive special effects, profanity, fleeting nudity. 6 1 VIDEO Video
by CNB