THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
THE CRY IN ``Race the Sun'' is, ``Let's build a solar car and get some self-respect.''
It's a built-in crowd pleaser because we always love to see the misfits win over the snooty preppies but, after all, we've seen this dozens of times in recent movie years. While in marked contrast to real life, this formula has been repeated so often that it is a wonder that the lowlifes in plot still manage to be underdogs at all. By now, they seem to be emerging as the automatic favorites.
Seemingly, every sport known to man and womankind is eventually going to get the ``treatment.'' Already, we've had movies like ``Cool Runnings,'' ``Little Giants,'' ``The Big Green,'' ``The Sandlot,'' ``Heavyweights'' and a half-dozen others. In all of them, the outcasts win against the odds.
The only difference with ``Race the Sun'' is that the sport is solar car racing - an attraction that, at best, would have been a mere footnote for ABC's ``Wide World of Sports.''
A class of unruly underachievers in Hawaii get their act together and build a solar car. Halle Berry is more their cheerleader than their teacher. After all, her character, Sandra Beecher (whom the students call ``Beecher the Teacher'') is a specialist in English, not science. Nonetheless, she urges the students to get it all together and get across the finish line.
A school system that assigns an English teacher to teach science must be pretty ill-equipped at the outset. Berry's character, nonetheless, is fond of mouthing lines like ``If only someone would take a little time with these kids, things would be different.''
James Belushi, still getting employment in spite of a steady line of movie flops, plays the reluctant shop teacher who goes along for the ride.
There is something fiendishly comforting to learn that there are unruly classrooms even in Hawaii. It seems that paradise is not immune to underachieving teens who feel left out from the mainstream.
After the movies have created a veritable blackboard jungle in American-urban flicks, it seems the aim, now, is toward more varied scenery. These kids, though, are sweet, wholesome types when compared to the urban horrors pictured in most stateside classrooms.
They call themselves ``lolos,'' translated as ``lowly locals,'' which, one supposes is a reference to the snooty tourists that abound.
First, they win over the preppies. Then, they go to Australia where the over-the-top villain is a European champion and his well-equipped team.
But who would have thought a solar car race would be quite this slow? The movie hardly convinces us to throw away our gas coupons. There is a dust storm and a few sidetracks, but nothing that really approaches excitement.
``Race the Sun'' is ``nice'' and perhaps harmless - except to the brain. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Race the Sun''
Cast: Halle Berry, James Belushi, Casey Affleck, Eliza Dushku,
Kevin Tighe
Director: Charles T. Kanganis
Screenplay: Barry Morrow
Music: Graeme Revell
MPAA rating: PG (mild language, otherwise thoroughly
inoffensive)
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Greenbrier in Chesapeake; Circle 4 in Norfolk;
Columbus, Lynnhaven Mall, Surf-N-Sand in Virginia Beach
by CNB