ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090093
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 10 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: It Came From the Video Store
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO
Home video's newest crop of mysteries is not bad with some neat unpredictability belying relatively modest budgets.
"Black Day Blue Night" is a perfect example.
When Hallie (Mia Sara) catches her no-good husband with Rinda (Michelle Forbes) in a Utah desert motel, she pulls out a revolver. Curious circumstance forces the two women onto the road together in Rinda's red Caddie ragtop where they run across hitchhiker Dodge (Gil Bellows) who has a heavy suitcase and the ugliest sideburns you've ever seen. Meanwhile, police detective Quinn (J.T. Walsh) is on the trail of armored truck robbers who killed his old partner and made off with a million in cash.
Veteran writer/director J.S. Cardone turns that premise into a lyrical Western noir, with a slow pace and lots of sultry come-hither looks. The capable cast members are reworking familiar typecast roles. Though the action would be more effective if it had been cranked up about two stops on the weirdness scale, it is surprising all the way through.
"Man With a Gun" is a crime film with such a well-developed sense of humor that it's almost a comedy. But moody atmosphere is really more important. This one's got enough of that for a dozen thrillers. It's all about a hitman (Michael Madsen) who's caught up with scheming mobsters (Robert Loggia and Gary Busey) and a runaway wife (Jennifer Tilly) who's got blackmail on her mind.
Before it's over, multiple betrayals, twins and lots of gunfire have come into play. Director David Wyles gets the expected professional work from his ensemble cast, complemented by George Blondheim's smoky score and Freddy Hubbard's trumpet.
"Tunnel Vision" is a first-rate Aussie mystery, a tricky tale filled with crosscurrents of conflicting stories, jealousies and hidden motives. Detectives Wheatstone (Patsy Kensit) and Yankovitch (Robert Reynolds) are hunting for a killer who's into the s&m club scene. But Yankovitch is consumed with suspicion that his new wife Helena (Rebecca Rigg) is having an affair. Writer/director Clive Fleury isn't completely successful in juggling the two plotlines, but he manages to keep viewers guessing all the way through. For fans, this one is better than nine out of ten suspense films that show up in theaters.
"Separate Lives" is almost very good. It's a well-acted thriller with an intriguing premise.
Teaching psychologist Lauren Porter (Linda Hamilton) has a problem - nightly blackouts. She wakes up the next morning with dried blood on her hands and no idea how it got there. That's why she asks a student, ex-cop Tom Beckwith (James Belushi) to follow her when she goes out. Yes, Robert Heinlein chose that situation for his terrific short story "The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag." Unfortunately, writer Stephen Pressfield and director David Madden aren't as successful or as imaginative with it.
For a time, their mystery is engaging and tricky, but at key moments the filmmakers don't get close enough to their characters for the audience to become fully sympathetic. That's a criticism that could be made of many films, both theatrical and video. A more serious flaw is the overreliance on cheap scares that undercut the stars' usual good work.
"Dillinger and Capone" is a strange little cross-pollination of B-movie and experimental film. The key is a trio of tongue-in-cheek bravura performances by Martin Sheen and F. Murray Abraham in the title roles and Stephen Davies in support. In this version of the story, Dillinger wasn't killed in front of the Biograph Theatre in Chicago. It was somebody else; Public Enemy No. 1 retired to a farm in Bakersfield, Calif., and got married. Years later, Capone, syphilitic and more than half mad, forces Dillinger back into action for one last job. Director Jon Purdy (``Reflections in the Dark") makes the most of a limited budget and gets his stars fully into the spirit of the piece. And, he uses lots of Tommyguns.
Next week: Non-fiction!
Got a question about home video or film? Contact your favorite video columnist at P.O. Box 2491; Roanoke, Va. 24010-2491, or by e-mail at 75331.2603@compuserve.com.
New releases this week:
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers: BOMB
Starring Donald Pleasance. Buena Vista (Hollywood). 95 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, brief nudity.
This putrid little stinker opens with shots of pseudo-Satanic ritual involving a black-robed figure threatening a naked infant with a large knife. But after that repugnant beginning, it quickly self-destructs into a virtually plotless series of predictable murders.
- Mike Mayo
Sgt. Bilko ***
Starring Steve Martin, Phil Hartman and Dan Aykroyd. MCA/Universal. 105 min. Rated PG.
Remember when Steve Martin was funny? Well, welcome him back in this movie - inspired by the old TV series. He's the con artist behind the profiteering of Company B; Hartman plays his nemesis, Major Thorne, and Aykroyd is the wonderful dunderhead that Bilko calls Boss. The script isn't great, but Martin is in certain scenes.
Katherine Reed
The Truth About Cats and Dogs ***
Starring Janeane Garofalo, Uma Thurman and Ben Chaplin. FoxVideo. 93 minutes. Rated PG-13.
This is absolutely NOT a kids movie, nor a movie for pre-teens. But it is a sexy, funny story of deliberately confused identity between a veterinarian radio personality (Garofalo) and her gorgeous neighbor Noelle (Thurman). Both fall in like with a hubba-hubba with an English accent named Brian (Chaplin), and the issue seems to be: How important are appearances?
Wire service review
Up Close and Personal ***1/2
Starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Directed by John Avnet. Touchstone Pictures. 2 hours. Rated PG-13 for profanity and adult situations.
The chemistry between Redford and Pfeiffer is about 14 on a scale of 1 to 10, and that translates into a simple Holy Moley.
Pfeiffer plays a craps dealer from Reno named Sally Atwater who makes a demo tape, lies on her resume and lands an assistant's job in Miami. She dresses badly, wears too much makeup, but she is willing to learn everything she needs to know to become a television news "star." And Warren Justice (Redford) is just the guy to teach her.
K.R.
THE ESSENTIALS
Black Day Blue Night **1/2 Republic. 99 min. Rated R for violence, nudity, sexual material, strong language.
Man With a Gun *** Evergreen Entertainment. 95 min. Rated R for violence, strong language, sexual content.
Tunnel Vision ***1/2 Triboro. 100 min. Unrated. Contains violence, strong language, sexual material, brief nudity.
Separate Lives ** Vidmark. 102 min. Rated R for subject matter, strong language, violence, sexual content, brief nudity.
Dillinger and Capone *** Concorde-New Horizons. 100 min. Rated R for violence, language.
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: James Belushi and Linda Hamilton star in the thrillerby CNB``Separate Lives.''