THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 27, 1994 TAG: 9410280796
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
``RADIOLAND MURDERS,'' a pet project of producer-director George Lucas' for years, is so bad one wonders if it could possibly have come from the same man who created ``Stars Wars'' and ``Indiana Jones.'' Then you remember that Lucas also made ``Howard the Duck.''
On the night a new radio network goes coast to coast, a series of murders are committed. As with everything in this film, things are rushed. The murders generate no suspense, or even interest. Someone we hardly know is electrocuted. Someone else falls down an elevator shaft. Michael Lerner is the tough detective on the case. Brian Benben (HBO's ``Dream On'') is the prime suspect.
Director Mel Smith makes the mistake of thinking fast is funny. He has a big cast of nobodies (mostly out-of-work stand-up comics) run about, knock over furniture and crash into doors. The pace is frantic - and all to no point. Before long, it comes down to who will have the nervous breakdown first, the cast or the audience?
Benben is teamed with Mary Stuart Masterson, who can't seem to find a good picture since scoring with ``Fried Green Tomatoes.'' They are an estranged couple who bicker a great deal before making up.
The performers actually on stage look as if they could have entertained us, if given a chance. The camera, though, keeps giving them the short shrift. There should be a law against cutting away from Rosemary Clooney singing one of her ballads, or George Burns telling about how he has outlived all his doctors. There are spoofs of Spike Jones, big-band sounds and radio dramas.
In the huge cast, only the late Anita Morris, the delightfully overwrought sex mimic from Durham, N.C., has the flair for this kind of comedy. The cast also includes Harvey Korman, Bobcat Goldthwait, Billy Barty, Candy Clark, Anne De Salvo, Robert Klein, Joey Lawrence and Christopher Lloyd.
This is one of the major clinkers of the year. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
UNIVERSAL
Brian Benben and Mary Stuart Masterson star in the mystery-comedy
``Radioland Murders.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Radioland Murders''
Cast: Mary Stuart Masterson, Brian Benben, Ned Beatty, George
Burns, Michael Lerner, Christopher Lloyd, Rosemary Clooney, Anita
Morris, Bobcat Goldthwait, Harvey Korman
MPAA rating: PG (cartoonish murders)
Mal's rating: One star
Locations: Chesapeake Square in Chesapeake, Military Circle, R/C
Main Gate in Norfolk, Lynnhaven Mall in Virginia Beach.
by CNB