Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 4, 1995 TAG: 9503090038
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Why does Goldblum make such lousy choices in films? Could it be - as this movie and "Jurassic Park" seem to indicate - that the script must offer him ample opportunities to lounge around bare-chested?
Certainly he wasn't attracted to "Hideaway" by its originality: It has none. In fact, it ought to offer apologies to "The Dead Zone," a much better movie about a man whose near-death experience gives him psychic powers and some terrifying connections. And then there's that heavy-handed "Frankenstein" subtext ...
No, we are not foolish enough to expect brand new plots and brand new stories. An original conception would do, some new way of looking at an old idea.
Maybe director Brett Leonard (``Lawnmower Man") hoped the special effects - which the press package calls "photo surrealism" - would make up for the utter lack of interest in the story and characters, who seem two-dimensional when they're not actually behaving idiotically. Those special effects, however, are unintentionally funny - a heavy-metal album cover conception of heaven and hell.
Oh, yeah. That reminds me. This movie is also about good versus evil, God versus Satan, darkness versus light.
Am I going too fast?
Here's the story: Hatch Harrison (Goldblum) and his wife, Lindsey (long-suffering Christine Lahti), are returning from their mountain cabin with their daughter, Regina (Alicia Silverstone), when they are nearly struck head-on by a runaway semi. As their car hangs from a cliff, Regina manages to crawl out, but Mom and Dad fall into the ocean.
They float for a while, then Lindsey drags unconscious Hatch to shore. He's dead.
But at the hospital, Dr. Jonas "Frankenstein" Nyebern resuscitates him (big old needles being plunged into hearts are big in the movies these days) and drags Hatch back from a weird near-death experience, in which he encounters his recently deceased youngest daughter.
Unfortunately, a truly evil spirit also gets attached to Hatch in Heavy Metal Heaven/Hell, and Hatch begins to have visions of a psychotic killer AND HE'S COMING AFTER REGINA!!!!
There is some strange hostility in this movie - toward "Generation X," toward doctors, even toward the chaotic nature of life. If this movie is saying what it seems to be saying, then young people ought to stay out of bars and avoid alternative music, and if you're old - well, better hunt down a copy of a "Living Will."
Better yet, stay away from "Hideaway" and let it die a quick, merciful death.
Hideaway
* (for cool sunglasses)
A TriStar Pictures release, showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 8. Rated R for bad language and extremely graphic violence. 112 mins.
by CNB