THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
MONKEY SEE. Kids laugh.
That's the attraction and the limitation of ``Dunston Checks In.'' This quickie outing is designed to score briefly before it goes, rather swiftly one suspects, into the video market. In neither sphere is it likely that anyone will go ape over it, but still, it's a nice Saturday matinee movie.
Sam the orangutan, a native of Parrot Jungle in Miami, weighs 60 pounds and wears size 2 Pull-Ups training pants. As Dunston, he creates havoc (not as much as we'd like) in a prissy five-star hotel.
Sam seems over-trained; he never really goes wild. He tries on ladies' garments (including panties, which he wears on his head) but he never acts quite spontaneous.
As long as Sam-Dunston is on camera, the kids will be happy. ``Dunston Checks In,'' though, spends far too much time developing the stiff characters of its adults.
They are, indeed, a strange lot, including one Oscar winner, one TV star and one scandal-ridden kiddie comic making a comeback. The oddity of the casting is enough to prompt a few adult movie fans to take a look.
The primary curiosity is Oscar-winner Faye Dunaway. She is cast as a Leona Helmsley-style hotel owner who is determined to have everything run perfectly.
No one is more adept at suggesting haughtiness than Dunaway but there are signs here that she, at long last, wants to be liked. A bit of ``Mommie Dearest'' (her most notorious role) would have been funny here.
Jason Alexander, wearing a toupee, is the hotel's bewildered manager. He should be right at home, since he's played second banana for seven seasons on TV's ``Seinfeld.'' He's not yet ready for the big screen - at least to the point of carrying a film.
The other oddity is the return of Pee Wee Herman. Of course, it isn't really Pee Wee Herman, but his real-life alter-ego, Paul Reubens. Reubens is cast as a gung-ho animal control agent who is summoned to get rid of the monkey.
The rest of the cast includes Rupert Everett as a phony British lord who is actually a con man. He uses Dunston to steal jewels until the monkey runs off to be adopted by Alexander's two sons.
Eric Lloyd is the resident child, a 9-year-old who co-starred with Tim Allen in ``The Santa Clause.''
Off-color sexual innuendos are trotted out pretty regularly for a movie that is aimed at the wee ones, but no matter. They'll only notice the monkey anyway.
Director Ken Kwapis never does manage to work things up to the expected degree of comic mania. Although we would have preferred wild, we'll take mild. After all a monkey is a monkey, and simians have never failed to get a laugh. ILLUSTRATION: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX photo<
Eric Lloyd stars as Kyle Grant, who befriends the mischievous
Dunston in ``Dunston Checks In.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Dunston Checks In''
Cast: Jason Alexander, Sam, Faye Dunaway, Paul Reubens, Rupert
Everett, Glenn Shadix, Eric Lloyd
Director: Ken Kwapis
Screenplay: John Hopkins, Bruce Graham
MPAA rating: PG (naughty sounds from Sam, but the target
audience is small children)
Mal's rating: two stars
Locations: Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Janaf in Norfolk;
Lynnhaven 8, Pembroke in Virginia Beach
by CNB