THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010486
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
FILMGOERS WANDERING into ``Big Bully'' expecting to see the slapstick comedy being pushed in ads are in for a blunt surprise. With its seriously bent psychology, it's actually closer to a disturbing, psychotic drama.
In the first place, there is nothing remotely funny about a bully, adolescent or adult.
Mark Steven Johnson's screenplay goes to great lengths to suggest that everyone has had a bully in their lives, that forking over lunch money for ``protection'' in grammar-school hallways is a part of growing up.
This markedly unfunny premise becomes starkly dark when it is suggested that childhood bullies only get their identities back when they become aggressive grownups.
Since the film stars two comics, Rick Moranis and Tom Arnold, one can only suspect it was meant to be a comedy. When do we start laughing?
It begins with a homey narration of life in the 1970s in Smalltown, U.S.A. Skinny, bespectacled David Leary regularly gets beaten up by Rosco Bigger, commonly known as ``Fang.'' The little guy gets his revenge when he reports the bully for stealing a moon rock.
Years pass and the two grow up to be Moranis, a writer who is invited back to town to teach, and Arnold, a meek, henpecked shop teacher who was sent to reform school after the moon rock bust.
This is when the movie gets psychotic in its misguided ``message.'' Fang sees his former victim and gets that old bullying urge again. He goes after the smaller Leary, chasing him through dark woods as the two end up battling atop dangerous waterfalls.
Moranis, who has never been able to build his ``Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' hit into a permanent career, merely runs. Arnold, perhaps as shocked as the rest of us by the darkness of it all, seems to be playing Fang for realism rather than satire.
The supporting cast includes several curiosities. Virginia native Faith Prince has a lackluster bit as a wacky next-door neighbor. She was often mentioned for TV and movies after winning Broadway's Tony Award for ``Guys and Dolls.'' Judging by this, her film career doesn't look good.
Don Knotts, the six-time Emmy winner for ``The Andy Griffith Show,'' is almost unrecognizable as the school's stuffy principal. Carol Kane, looking less kooky as she grows older, is Arnold's TV-obsessed wife.
``Big Bully'' is much more interesting as a drama about mental disturbance than anything approaching comedy. The movie itself suffers from an identity crisis. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``The Big Bully''
Cast: Rick Moranis, Tom Arnold, Julianne Phillips, Faith Prince,
Don Knotts
Director: Steve Minor
MPAA rating: PG (threatening violence)-
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Cinemark, Greenbrier 13, Chesapeake; Circle 4, Main
Gate, Norfolk; Columbus, Kemps River Crossing, Lynnhaven Mall,
Virginia Beach
by CNB