THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120037
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Craig Shapiro
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
EVEN IF YOU haven't seen ``Toy Story,'' you must've heard how cool it is. Videomatic can second that.
Disney's holiday flick was the high point of our annual Father-Sons Fun Day. Not only is the computer animation way out of this world but the story that drives it also is warm and funny.
(Pathetic, huh? If we're not holed up in a dark room with new videos, we're holed up at the movies. What the hey. Fresh air and sunshine can keep until our next lives, when we'll all come back as Euell Gibbons.)
Back to the point. ``Toy Story'' reminded us of a couple of tapes, ``The Mind's Eye'' and ``Beyond the Mind's Eye'' ($14.98 each), that arrived in the mail awhile ago. Miramar, the Seattle company that sent them, bills 'em as ``a computer animation odyssey.''
That's what they are, too, though one old hippie on staff put it another way: ``Groovy. They're a head trip, only without the 'shrooms.''
Neither tape uses dialogue; instead, the eight or so segments on each - some with easily defined titles like ``Creation,'' ``Seeds of Life'' and ``Brave New World'' and others going by the more ambiguous ``Technodance,'' ``Post Modern'' and ``Windows'' - are accompanied by specially composed music. Even without words, nothing is lost in the translation.
Besides, the common denominator is the animation, in every sense a mind-boggling flight of fancy. Birds and fish defy the laws of nature. Robotic dinosaurs roam barren plains. Unicyclists navi gate a tricky maze. There are high-tech nods to M.C. Escher and ``2001: A Space Odyssey.''
Which means there's plenty here to hold young and old attention spans. One 6-year-old who sneaked into our offices kept saying stuff like this:
``Cool!''
``Whoa!''
``I've never seen anything like this.''
``What are those?''
``What are they doing?''
``What is that thing?''
When we told him we had no idea, he said:
``You don't know anything.''
Maybe not, kid, but we know what we like.
TOP VIDEOS (in Billboard):
Sales: ``Batman Forever,'' ``Apollo 13,'' ``The Santa Clause,'' ``Star Wars Trilogy,'' ``Casper''
Rentals: ``Crimson Tide,'' ``Batman Forever,'' ``While You Were Sleeping,'' ``Apollo 13,'' ``Bad Boys''
The Couch Report
``The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain'' (Miramax, 1995). He stammers, he blushes, he chews his nails. Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant in a quirky comedy about a cartographer who arrives in a Welsh village in 1917 to measure its landmark: the country's first mountain. Pride is at stake, but the mix includes romance and a pinch of pathos. The cinematography, detail and colorful supporting cast add to the charm. Videomatic says: B
(CAST: Hugh Grant, Colm Meaney, Tara Fitzgerald, Ian McNeice. RATED: PG for mild adult situations; 96 mins.)
``Judge Dredd'' (Hollywood, 1995). This spin on the British comic book cost $70 million and earned half that. Sly pocketed $20 mil to boot. Get over that and it's . . . not awful. The sets and FX are top-rate, and Stallone, though it's no stretch, taps into the stone-faced hero's 2-D appeal. Cop, jury and executioner in one, Dredd kicks butt when he's framed for murder. Given the cost of a rental, it delivers enough of a bang. Videomatic says: C-
(CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Jurgen Prochnow. RATED: R for graphic violence, language; 96 mins.)
``First Knight'' (Columbia TriStar, 1995). Jerry Zucker's bungling of the Camelot legend proves that spectacle and sweep do not an epic make. Sean Connery is a regal Arthur, but he and Julia Ormond, whose feisty Guenevere is all '90s, create no sparks. The BIG blunder is Richard Gere as Lancedude. Uh, Lancelot. With his smug delivery, surfer hair and J. Crew wardrobe, he's a bigger stiff than Kevin Costner's Robin Hood. Videomatic says: D
(CAST: Sean Connery, Richard Gere, Julia Ormond, Ben Cross. RATED: PG-13 for violence; 134 tedious mins.)
Also: Powers Boothe in the sci-fi thriller ``Mutant Species'' (R); Craig T. Nelson in the suspense thriller ``Probable Cause'' (R); Noah Taylor in the romantic comedy ``The Nostradamus Kid,'' (R); ``Twin Sitters,'' family fare with rasslin's Barbarian Brothers (PG-13); and ``The Land Before Time III,'' the continuing saga of those little dinosaurs (unrated, due Friday)
Next Tuesday: ``Die Hard With a Vengeance,'' ``Clueless,'' ``Belle du Jour,'' ``Rent-a-Kid,'' ``Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron,'' ``Magic Island,'' ``Men of War'' by CNB