Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 10, 1993 TAG: 9302100360
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
TOO BAD THESE GEMS CAN'T BE SEEN ON TAPE
Heretical as it may be for a video columnist to admit, this week, the best movie around is in theaters. Joe Dante's "Matinee" is an affectionate tribute to horror movies of the 1950s and early '60s, specifically the wonderful excesses of producer/director William Castle.Normally, this would be the point where the column would turn into an equally affectionate tribute to the works of Castle that are available on home video. But, unfortunately, the best of them aren't.
Why? It could be that Castle, who often worked as an independent producer, held onto the tape rights himself, and now they're part of his estate. (He died in 1977.) Whatever the reason, for now you'll have to search the broadcast listings and program the VCR to catch Castle's work on late-shows.
Look for the tongue-in-cheek mystery "Let's Kill Uncle" (1966) starring the terrific British character actor Nigel Green. Castle's best may have been the atmospheric psychological horror movie "The Night Walker" (1964) with Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor. But my favorite is "The Tingler" (1959) with Vincent Price. It's vintage Castle, right down to his most famous gimmicks - theater seats that were wired to give certain viewers a slight shock at key moments, and one sequence in the film where the title critter gets loose in a theater.
It's a shame those titles aren't on tape. Castle's work is largely unknown to younger viewers. The kids who will love "Matinee" will also like Castle's horror movies. His films and the others of that era have stood up remarkably well. Despite the advances that have been made in special effects they had a wit and imagination that's often lacking in today's low-budget entertainment.
Take another look, for example, at "The Incredible Shrinking Man," perhaps the archetypal 1950s exploitation movie. By today's standards, the special effects would hardly rate a raised eyebrow, and the idea of shrinking humans, or enlarging their surroundings, had been used often enough before. But Richard Matheson's intelligent, serious script raised the material far above the B-level. Add to it veteran Jack Arnold's sure-handed direction and a surprisingly effective performance by Grant Williams in the lead and you've got a film that's worth watching more than once.
The same can't be said of two new video originals aimed at younger audiences.
\ "Adventures in Spying" is an easy-going little action-comedy that updates the basic Hardy Boys formula. Typical teen-ager Brian McNichols (Bernie Coulson) is reluctantly working on his younger brother's paper route when he spots Al Dorn (G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame, or infamy). Dorn is a drug kingpin with a $50,000 price on his head, but everyone thinks that Dorn is dead, blown up in a car bomb.
If he's alive, what's he doing in the little Washington coastal town of Rockwater? And why is he staying with a college chemistry professor (Michael Emil)? Brian can't get the cops to believe that he's seen Dorn, and so with the help of Julie (Jill Schoelen), the new girl in town, he sets out to take Dorn's picture.
Writer-director Hil Covington relies on too many coincidences and contrived bits of business to keep the story moving, but this is not the kind of movie that you make too many demands of. Kids who like contemporary adventures with a light touch will probably enjoy it.
\ "Spy Trap" takes an even lighter approach to a similar story that's meant for a younger audience. Set in Washington, D.C., it's about five middle school kids who decide to raise $100,000 to help their music teacher get an operation. But how? A car wash being out of the question, they decide to trick the Soviets - the movie was made in 1988 when there were Soviets - into thinking they're spies.
Using a computer, they make blueprints of model kits for the Stealth fighter and pass them off as Pentagon originals. Of course, the KGB and the FBI act like Keystone Cops. The whole thing would be nothing more than an after-school special if writer Robert Littell, a veteran espionage novelist, hadn't decided to try to make two of the kids real.
Denver (Danielle DuClos) and Erskine (Jason Kristofer) engage in lengthy and candid conversations about the pubescent changes they're going through. At first, these seem awkwardly funny, but as they progress, they become simply awkward, and they really don't fit comfortably with the slapstick approach that the rest of the story takes. "Spy Trap" could have been better.
Even if the current crop of videos aimed at younger audiences is somewhat lacking, kids and their parents can take heart. Producers and distributors seem to have realized that there is a market between kidvid and adult programming, viewers who have outgrown Barney the Dinosaur but aren't interested in "Patriot Games."
Over the past two or three months, more ads have been appearing in the trade magazines for video originals that are made for adolescent and teen-age viewers. Who knows? If "Matinee" becomes the box-office hit it deserves to be, maybe the Castle films will show up on tape, too.
When it happens, you'll read about it here.
New releases
Mom and Dad Save the World: **
Stars Teri Garr, Jeffrey Jones, Jon Lovitz. Directed by Greg Beeman. Warner. 80 min. Rated PG for a little mild bathroom humor.
Here's a kid's movie that could have been a Saturday morning cartoon. It's based on the same kind of silly humor, sight gags and slapstick that tend to be more effective with young audiences. The one-joke fantasy wears thin quickly, but, taken on its own terms, this is acceptable fluff.
The Waterdance: ***
Stars Eric Stoltz, Wesley Snipes and Helen Hunt. Directed by Neal Jimenez and Michael Steinberg. (Columbia Tristar). Rated R for language, nudity and sexual content; 106 minutes.
Unlike many movies about the disabled, this one approaches the subject with both a toughness and a whimsicality to offset the inherent heart-tugging elements of the subject. Stoltz plays a young novelist who finds himself the newest patient on a rehabilitation ward. The story focuses on the difficulties of rehabilitation and adjustment and also the conflicts among the patients.
THE ESSENTIALS:\ The Incredible Shrinking Man: *** MCA Universal. 81 min. Unrated, contains some violence.\ \ Adventures in Spying: ** New Line Home Video. 91 min. Rated PG-13 for mild violence, strong language.\ \ Spy Trap: ** Hemdale Home Video. 96 min. Unrated, contains some strong language.