Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 5, 1994 TAG: 9411180051
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Back in 1978, John Carpenter made a "little" movie about three teen-age girls and a madman, and he changed the motion picture business. In terms of return on investment, "Halloween" quickly became the most profitable independent film ever made. Though at first it was either ignored or dismissed by most critics, it has now been given one of the industry's real honors - a new laserdisc release in Voyager's Criterion Collection.
The film gets the full two-disc treatment - careful transfer in original wide-screen ratio, footage that was added later for the network television release, background material, trailer - but no one is trying to turn "Halloween" into something that it isn't. That's made clear on a separate audio track where John Carpenter, Debra Hill (who produced, co-wrote and even directed some scenes) and star Jamie Lee Curtis talk about their work.
They make no bones about the fact that this is a horror movie, not high art.
For fans who know it well, their comments are illuminating. Carpenter points out flaws, shortcuts that worked and those that didn't. Jamie Lee Curtis is a little nostalgic and sounds completely relaxed and open about her first job (at age 19). Debra Hill has some of the best stories, but she is unusually thin-skinned and defensive about the film's sexual side.
Despite Hill's repeated protestations, in this movie, girls who display any sexuality are killed. Whether the filmmakers intended it or not, that was the chord that touched something in a teen-age male audience. It is, however, only one part of the film.
We can see now that "Halloween" is simply an involving and well-crafted work. It does what any horror movie is supposed to do: It brings you into its world and into the lives of its characters and then it scares your socks off. Despite its reputation and the "slasher" genre that it spawned, it does so with virtually no on-screen violence. And, unlike its imitators, it still stands up to another viewing.
"Phantasm III" is director Don Coscarelli's third foray into the goofy horror-comedy he first visited back in 1979. For those who might have missed "Phantasm" or "II," these movies revolve around an ominous Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), evil grave-robbing alien midgets who run around in monk's robes, flying chrome softballs, and a hapless hero named Reg (Reggie Bannister).
The films actually predate the "Friday the 13th" and "Elm St." series, and, like them, they don't follow any internal logic. A character who's killed in one scene, reappears in the next without explanation; dream and reality are constantly confused - you know the drill. The events on screen are nothing more than Coscarelli's excuse to trot out special effects of amputations, decapitations, lobotomies and the like.
For better or worse, the gory stuff is played strictly for laughs. Even though the effects have become much more polished, that's not necessarily an improvement. There's nothing in this one to match the memorable moment in the first when a character has a long fight with a hand puppet.
If the overall level of violence had been toned down just a little, and if the same had been done with one dream-sex scene, then the mix of laughs, attitude and effects might have been recommended for kids. It's not.
Neither are some of the animated horror films that are being imported from Japan.
"Judge," for example, is an imaginative piece of work about divine retribution for human crimes. And if supernatural forces are going to go into the courtroom, then there have to be metaphysical lawyers. The key players are a treacherous corporate executive, an unassuming office worker who can transform himself into a magical creature, and the New-Age ambulance chaser who represents the former before the latter. The animation is on a par with the rest of the genre, and beyond the quirky premise, so is the telling of the story.
The first volume of "Urotsukidoji III" actually makes more sense than most parts of this crazed comic-book epic. It continues the bizarre combination of a supernatural Saturday-morning cartoon with politics, sex, post-apocalyptic destruction, Christianity and the Faust legend.
But it's relatively tame compared to the full-length "Urotsukidoji Perfect Collection." These five tapes are even more violent, excessive and explicit in their grand guignol horrors than the individual volumes. This is very strong stuff that goes so far beyond the limits of most American movies, live-action or animated, that it's in an indescribable class by itself.
New releases
The Flintstones **
(*** for kids)
Starring John Goodman, Elizabeth Perkins, Rick Moranis, Rosie O'Donnell, Halle Berry, Elizabeth Taylor, Kyle MacLachlan. Directed by Brian Levant. MCA/Universal. 92 min. Rated PG for mild comic violence.
Adults will groan at the dumb jokes and simple visual gags, but kids will love them. For better and for worse, the film is faithful to the TV series in its look and story. It's a simple live-action cartoon that's never too demanding. No strong language or serious violence. Sure to be as big a hit on video as it was on the big screen.
City Slickers II: * 1/2
Starring Billy Crystal, Jack Palance, Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz. Directed by Paul Weiland. Columbia TriStar. 112 min. Rated PG-13 for strong language, smutty humor.
Judged as a sequel, this one is a pale, uninspired take on the original. But seen as a career-massage for producer/co-writer/star Crystal, it's a resounding triumph. Seldom, if ever in the history of Hollywood has one man given himself so many close-ups, so many extended soliloquies, so many tidbits of comic business. Jack Palance returns as Curly's twin brother Duke. The plot has to do with a hidden treasure.
Martin Lawrence: You So Crazy **
Starring Martin Lawrence. Directed by Thomas Schlamme. HBO Video. 83 min. Unrated, contains strong language.
Martin Lawrence's stand-up comedy concert film is certainly not titillating or "obscene" by most definitions of the word. He does discuss sexual practices and bodily functions in graphic detail that will embarrass some viewers. He means to. His constant use of more common profanity is less imaginative. In the end, there's not much to this one.
With Honors: **
Starring Joe Pesci. Directed by Alek Keshishian. Warner Home Video. 107 min. Rated PG-13.
A simplistic, sentimental film that seems to want to tell us something about the dignity of the homeless, while flatly stereotyping them. When it's not preaching, the movie is trying - in vain - to make us laugh. But when it ventures into serious, dramatic territory, it is leaden.
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues: ***
Starring Uma Thurman, John Hurt. Directed by Gus Van Sant. Columbia TriStar. 105 min. Rated R.
The film adaptation of the popular 1970s novel by Tom Robbins is quirky and fun if you don't expect much more than that. Starring Uma Thurman as big-thumbed Sissy Hankshaw and John Hurt as the Countess - with countless cameos by folks like William S. Burroughs and Edward James Olmos - the movie isn't Van Sant's best effort, but it has its charms.
Little Big League:
Columbia TriStar. Rated PG.
The Minnesota Twins are in a slump when 12-year-old Billy Heywood (Luke Edwards) becomes the teams' new owner-manager. At first the Twins resist the chirpy youngster's tutelage, but eventually they give into his philosophy - baseball is supposed to be fun - and put together a winning season. The ballplayers themselves are a well-drawn, enjoyably kooky bunch, but Edwards shows the least presence of all the child actors in the film. This one goes to the bottom of the standings.
THE ESSENTIALS
Halloween ***
Voyager. 98 min. Rated R for subject matter, violence, strong language, brief nudity.
Phantasm III * 1/2
MCA/Universal. 91 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, brief nudity, sexual content.
Judge **
Central Park Media. 50 min. Unrated, contains violence, strong language, some sexual material.
Urotsukidoji III **1/2
Central Park Media. 60 min. Unrated, contains violence, strong language, nudity, sexual material.
Urotsukidoji Perfect Collection ***
250 min. Unrated and unratable for graphic violence, horror, nudity and sexual content.
by CNB