THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070035
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 59 lines
ANGRY WOMEN - daughters of Thelma and Louise!
Women are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore - at least not in the movies.
In two new movies, ``Bound'' and ``Set it Off,'' two widely varying brands of strong women, played by Jennifer Tilly and Queen Latifah, come on like gangbusters and, ultimately, prove that they are definitely not members of the weaker sex.
For the personal and intimate reflections of actresses Tilly and Latifah on their new roles, see the profiles on this page.
``Thelma and Louise'' was the ground-breaking movie in 1991. Although it ostensibly covered no more than ordinary road-movie territory, it unexpectedly became a national issue. The movie's main characters, women, became fugitives from the law when they fought back at oppressive males in general - and one in particular.
Rarely had two women been such action figures - and both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis received Oscar nominations. Men enjoyed the film too, perhaps because they could see it as an action flick without seeing it as a threat.
Other threats have developed, though. For years, the old song has been declaring that a good man is hard to find. Today, a decent man is all but impossible to find in most romantic films. It seems that screen actresses always get the other kind.
In 1987 Glenn Close fought back in ``Fatal Attraction.'' Michael Douglas might have thought she was just a one-night stand but this woman, as she so forcefully put it, was ``not going to be ignored.'' Men everywhere squirmed in their theater seats.
More recently, in ``Waiting to Exhale,'' the female audience cheered when Angela Bassett burned her wandering husband's sports car. Men in the audience squirmed again.
Decent men were likewise scarce in ``How to Make an American Quilt'' and ``The First Wives Club.''
Women have turned out in force to see ``The First Wives Club,'' responding to a revenge-against-unfaithful-men plot and ads promising that scorned women should ``Not get even, But Get Everything.''
The theme continues in ``Bound,'' in which Jennifer Tilly, seemingly a bimbo, and her girlfriend take on the Mafia. And in ``Set it Off'' in which Queen Latifah and her three girlfriends rob banks. They are TUFF with a capital T, and they don't need a man to help them.
If this war of the sexes continues, we may have to call off Valentine's Day this year. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Pathe Entertainment
Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon...
Color photo by Gramercy Pictures
Gina Gershon...
Color photo by New Line Cinema
From left: Oueen Latifah, Kimberly Elise, Vivica Fox and Jada
Pinkett... by CNB