Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 8, 1995 TAG: 9507110023
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Far and away the best of the bunch is "The Crew." It's an unusual and constantly changing story that somehow slipped past the conformity police, those guardians of popular entertainment who demand that all feature films fit into a recognizable genre or form.
After a static, discomforting introduction, the film's focus abruptly shifts to Miami, where five people are about to head out on a cruise to Bimini. Philip (Viggo Mortensen), a wealthy, aggressive lawyer, is the boat's owner and captain. His younger "trophy" wife (Sam Jenkins) and his friend Alex (John Philbin) are also aboard, along with Philip's sister Jennifer (Pamela Gidley) and her troubled husband, Bill (Donal Logue). Before long, they acquire two more passengers, Timothy (Jeremy Sisto) and Camilla (Laura del Sol), who may be up to something illegal, though that's not clear.
At first, it appears that director Carl-Jan Colpaert is going to tell a story of sexual intrigue in the Caribbean. Then the tone shifts when weapons are drawn and the film becomes, for a time, a hostage drama. But then that changes too, and it wouldn't be fair to say more.
The ensemble cast does excellent work with remarkably good and surprising material. The best of them is Sisto, who makes Tim a complex, androgynous character. He has a letter-perfect soft Southern drawl and claims to have "smooth, silky skin just like Catherine Deneuve."
From beginning to end, "The Crew" is a deliberately unconventional and often humorous film that knocks down expectations as soon as they've been established. It's so offbeat that it will probably anger as many videophiles as it delights, but nobody's going to be neutral about it.
"Arizona Dream" deals with several of the same themes, but with a blinding lack of success. It's one of those tales that begins in obscurity - in this case, an extended dream sequence involving Eskimos, sled dogs and snow - and descends into virtual chaos. Our narrator, Axel Blackmar (Johnny Depp), is persuaded to leave a job tagging fish in New York (don't ask) to return to Arizona for his uncle Leo Sweetie's (Jerry Lewis) marriage to Millie (swimsuit mannequin Paulina Porizkova).
(Stop for a moment here to imagine the Nutty Professor in conjugal bliss with the Sports Illustrated supermodel.)
No sooner has Axel arrived than he falls in love with an older woman (Faye Dunaway), who's even more eccentric than he is. What follows involves several threatened suicides, the construction of a flying machine and lots of rambling pointless monologues meant to pass for philosophical musings. Bosnian director Emir Kusturica seems to have been aiming for a romantic comedy along the lines of "Like Water for Chocolate," but any humor in the piece eluded me, and the characters were uniformly distasteful. A waste of time and effort for all concerned.
The scene moves farther west and south to Las Vegas and Mexico with "Running Wild." It's one of those maddening movies that's alternately delightful and atrocious. As soon as it does one thing right, it does something else wrong. Some potentially interesting characters in a possibly comic situation are undone by a director, Phillippe Blot, who may not have seen a motion picture camera before he began this project. He certainly doesn't know where to put it. The characters often wander out of the frame.
It all begins with the free-spirited Carlotta (Jennifer Barker) contemplating suicide, possibly as an alternative to marrying Vince (Mike Kirten). Then his obnoxious son Frankie (Dan Spector) and Frankie's pal Miller (Daniel Dupont) show up. On the eve of the wedding, Carlotta winds up stealing Vince's vintage Impala convertible and running off, with Frankie and Miller in tow, to find her brother, a priest in Mexico.
Vince gives chase, and before it's all over, a trio of hookers, an ominous stranger and a severed head in a plastic grocery bag are also involved. Now, in other hands, those motley elements might have been molded into a grand exploitation flick, a south-of-the-border road movie or a feminist adventure/comedy. And, at various times, "Running Wild" makes passing attempts to be each of them.
But Blot, who also co-wrote the script, couldn't settle on a uniform tone. For my money, the film's saving grace is Jennifer Barker. She seems to have identified with Carlotta's willful impulsiveness and makes the most of it. While the rest of the film is disintegrating around her ears, Carlotta rings true despite a few embarrassingly bad scenes. Even at her worst, she makes Thelma and Louise look like Betty and Wilma.
Jennifer Barker's performance alone is worth the price of a rental, and I'm ready to see whatever she does next.
New Releases this week:
Nell ** 1/2
Starring Jodie Foster, Liam Neeson, Nastasha Richardson. Directed by Michael Apted. FoxVideo. 110 min. Rated PG-13 for nudity, language, subject matter.
This noble failure aims high and almost hits the mark. Co-producer and star Jodie Foster does convincing work with a difficult part as a woman raised in isolation in the North Carolina mountains. She gets able support from both sides of the camera, but her best efforts are undercut by a plot that gets consistently weaker as it goes along. Curiously, on the small screen the intimacy of the story may well be more compelling.
The Walking Dead *
Starring Joe Morton, Allen Payne, Vonte Sweet, Eddie Griffin. Directed by Preston A. Whitmore II. HBO/Savoy. 90 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, sexual material.
This ambitious and long-overdue film doesn't do justice to its subject - the experience of black soldiers in Vietnam. In his feature debut, writer-director Whitmore has taken a handful of war movie cliches and hashed them together into a sloppy story. Unconvincing Florida locations, cheap sets and a poor script are fatal flaws that star Joe Morton cannot overcome.
I.Q. ***
Starring Meg Ryan, Tim Robbins, Walter Matthau. Directed by Fred Schepisi. Paramount. 92 min. Rated PG for a little innuendo.
This sweet-natured romantic comedy doesn't have a single weighty moment. Instead, it's got an attractive cast led by Matthau as Albert Einstein; a serviceable and none-too-challenging script; and a comfortable sense of place. The Princeton, N.J., locations have never looked this good on screen.
THE ESSENTIALS:
The Crew *** 1/2 LIVE. 99 min. Rated R for strong language, subject matter.
Arizona Dream H Warner. 119 min. Rated R for strong language, subject matter, sexual material, brief nudity.
Running Wild ** 1/2 A-Pix. 92 min. Rated R for strong language, subject matter, sexual material, brief nudity.
Albert Einstein (Walter Matthau) takes it upon himself to find his niece, Catherine (Meg Ryan), a new object of affection in ``I.Q.,'' which is new on video shelves this week.
by CNB