Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 10, 1995 TAG: 9506130034
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In the ever curious world of home video, however, "family values" take on their own meaning. I doubt that Newt or Bob or Bill or either of the Jesses (Helms and Jackson) would approve of this quartet of new releases.
"Jack Be Nimble" is the most intriguing and eerie of the bunch. It's a gothic horror tale from New Zealand that's been properly compared to Stephen King's work. It's also similar in some ways to the recent theatrical release "Heavenly Creatures," though it's much darker and more frightening.
For reasons best left unstated, Jack (Alexis Arquette) and his sister Dora (Sarah Smuts-Kennedy) are taken from their biological parents as children and raised in separate homes. She goes to middle-class suburbia; he winds up in a rural hellhole more intense and vividly realized than anything that's come out of Hollywood recently.
His tortured upbringing there turns him into a rebellious, unstable young man who's driven to find his lost sister. By then she has begun an affair with Teddy (Bruno Lawrence), who understands her on an unusually sympathetic level. And that is all anyone should know about the plot.
Writer-director Garth Maxwell tells his story through grim, grainy images. Though the film is violent, it's not particularly explicit. It doesn't need to be. For my money, a single scene of believable domestic violence can be much more disturbing and powerful than all the pyrotechnics in a big summer blockbuster.
Maxwell is an imaginative filmmaker who really knows what he's doing. Despite its obviously limited budget, the film is strong stuff, building to an unpredictable finish that's not for everyone. In the end, you may not like "Jack Be Nimble," but you won't forget it.
"Till the End of the Night" is essentially "Cape Fear Lite." Young architect John Davenport (Scott Valentine) and his wife, Diana (Katherine Kelly Lange), are on the verge of financial and personal success when evil parolee Drew Darcy (John Enos) shows up to stalk the couple and their two young children. He's the ex- that Diana has neglected to mention, and his years in the pen have made him a tad jealous.
To their credit, the cast handles the material with more professionalism than it sometimes deserves. Writer-director Larry Brand's script is weak. In key scenes the dialogue is tediously repetitive, with characters explaining over and over what the audience already knows. And a major subplot involving David Keith is too transparent. Solid production values and performances, particularly from John Enos, are the main attractions.
In another example of imitation as the most sincere form of flattery, there's "Dead Air," a fair reworking of "Play Misty for Me." Jim Shepard (Gregory Hines) is a soulful late-night DJ with a female fan who may be killing any woman who gets close to him. She calls to hint at what she's doing. Though Shepard tries to persuade the police that he wants to help them, they're suspicious of a similar incident that occurred years before involving the death of another woman in Shepard's life.
Writer David Amann and director Fred Walton do have to negotiate some difficult straits where credulity is stretched beyond conventional limits. But it's by no means a fatal flaw. As always, Gregory Hines is excellent, and that's enough to keep most videophiles interested and guessing.
"Don't Talk to Strangers" may twist the "family values" theme into more unexpected contortions than any of these. The conflicts here involve Jane Bonner (Shanna Reed), a divorced mom, and her son Eric (Keegan MacIntosh). His dad (Terry O'Quinn) is a cop who's possibly psychotic, probably alcoholic and certainly jealous of Patrick (Pierce Brosnan), the new mystery man in Jane's life.
For the first half or so, the film is fairly predictable, but still involving. Then in the middle, the plot takes the wildest turn imaginable. Some major logical lapses follow, but by then the story has wandered so far afield it hardly matters. Acceptable diversion for the dedicated mystery fan.
New releases this week:
Disclosure ***
Starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland, Roma Maffia. Directed by Barry Levinson. Warner Home Video. 127 min. Rated R for strong sexual material, language.
Sexual harassment is almost a secondary issue in this deliberately paced thriller. It works best as a story of intrigue revolving around a small group of mostly believable characters. In that regard it's engrossing enough that many viewers may choose to ignore some major gaps in logic, several dangling loose ends and the fact that there's nothing much at stake.
Drop Zone ** 1/2
Starring Wesley Snipes, Gary Busey, Yancy Butler. Directed by John Badham. Paramount. 100 min. Rated R for violence, strong language.
Anyone who expects the slightest bit of logic or plausibility from this skydiving adventure will hate it. The story makes no sense but the pace is quick; the cast is attractive; and because the physical action is so unrealistic, the violence isn't offensive. It isn't particularly original, either. As usual, star Wesley Snipes is terrific.
Ready-to-Wear ***
Starring Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Kim Basinger and Stephen Rea. Directed by Robert Altman. 132 min. Rated R.
Altman's latest effort is about the presentation of the '94 fall fashion collections in Paris. With the usual heavyweight Altman cast and lots of real-life fashion ``players,'' ``Ready-to-Wear'' is fun and frivolous. Altman's wry eye keeps things interesting, but one wishes he had dispensed with a couple of the less-interesting sub-stories. Basinger and Rea are standouts as a dim-witted TV journalist and a smarmy fashion photographer, respectively.
THE ESSENTIALS
Jack Be Nimble ***1/2 Triboro. 93 min. Rated R for subject matter, some violence, brief nudity, sexual material.
Till the End of the Night ** Columbia TriStar. 90 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, sexual material, brief nudity.
Dead Air *** MCA Universal. 91 min. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, some violence, sexual material.
Don't Talk to Strangers ** 1/2 94 min. Rated R for no reason I could see; subject matter, probably.
by CNB