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 Courage Under Fire. Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington star
in this Roshomon-style tale of a fighter pilot being investigated
to see if she deserves the Medal of Honor for her performance
in Operation Desert Storm. Not only is the pilot a girl,
but the stories of her surviving squad-mates don't match very
well and Washington must work overtime to try to sort the mess
out. What's more, the investigator has some skeletons to clean
out of his own closet before he can bask in the hard, clear light
of The Truth. The structure of this movie is interesting, but
the content is sort of revolting. Washington is consumed with
remorse for killing some of his men with friendly fire, but feels
nothing but lasting jingoistic triumph over blowing away scads
of faceless Iraqis, whom he also refers to as "fuckers."
If the thought of the strongest army in the world crushing a much
weaker force in order to protect its economic interests strikes
you as heroic, buy a ticket and have your patriotic chain yanked.
Independence Day. Good guys from Earth battle bad guys
from outer space in this latest incarnation of War of the Worlds.
The good guys are flawed but determined; the bad guys are tentacled
and covered in slime: What could be simpler? The special effects
are cool, the characters are likable, and there's never a dull
moment. A thoroughly fun, mindless little vacation, Independence
Day is sort of like an enema: eventful, and then you feel
empty.
Lone Star. Director John Sayles delivers an offbeat, thoughtful
examination of border life and love in this winding tale of one
lawman searching for his roots. Chris Cooper plays a divorced
Texas sheriff trying to sort out fact from legend, particularly
in regard to his father, who may or may not have been a bad kind
of a guy. His search leads him across the big, dusty state and
into a half-dozen different recollections of a puzzling past.
Though the characters have an annoying propensity for explaining
their motivations in gruesome psychological detail, and though
Sayles (as always) can't resist an opportunity to preach the liberal
cause; and though the production values of this movie are so shoddy
that nearly 20 annoying minutes of it are out of sync, Lone
Star still somehow manages to be an engaging, surprising film.
Phenomenon. It's hard to spell and even harder to watch:
Phenomenon, a corny, cloying, life-is-a-gift type of flick
that tries its darnedest to recreate the optimism of Frank Capra
movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a
Wonderful Life. The marvel of Capra's movies though, is that
they're actually incredibly bleak stories with a burst of light
at the end, while Phenomenon keeps to a steady level of
saccharine drivel throughout. John Travolta stars as a dimwitted
mechanic who sees a light in the sky and then becomes breathtakingly
intelligent, except that he can't figure out how to do practical
things, like consult with the faculty at Stanford when the guys
at Berkeley refuse to see him. Sentimental music and hazy, gold-filtered
shots sabotage any chance at dignity this project may have ever
had. This is one of those movies that might have been kind of
good if it wasn't so idiotic.
Stealing Beauty. Bernardo Bertolucci splashes around with
both the MTV and the Masterpiece Theater generations in this coming-of-age
movie set in the Italian country side. Beautiful shots, sets,
and actors, hallmarks of any Bertolucci film, make Stealing
Beauty easy on the eyes--and Liv Tyler, the gorgeous 17-year-old
star, doesn't hurt either. Tyler handles herself with ease and
dignity as she plays the role of an American virgin aiming to
get herself deflowered while a bored group of cosmopolitan grown-ups
egg her on. Sometimes though, it seems like the camera lingers
a little too obsessively on the upper region of the inner seam
of her tight jeans, and it's hard to escape the sensation that
perhaps this is just a classy way for Bertolucci to act like a
dirty old man. The screenplay, by author Susan Minot, is disappointingly
flat; but Tyler is so entrancing it hardly matters.
Striptease. Demi Moore peels it off in this plodding, predictable
comedy about a mother who takes up stripping in the hopes of earning
enough money to finance a custody battle for her daughter. Moore's
routines seem forced and overstaged, and in fact she keeps most
of her clothing on most of the time even as the supporting cast
frolics about topless in the background. Burt Reynolds plays to
the balcony in his role as a lecherous senator with a "thing"
for tittie bars; in fact, everyone seems to be trying just a little
too hard in this movie for it to ever seem engaging or believable.
This is a poor bet for comedy; and if it's naked ladies you want,
try going down the street to Curves Cabaret and stuffing your
seven-fifty into the g-strings of some real single mothers, instead
of giving it to filthy rich Moore.
A Time to Kill. An overblown but entertaining courtroom
drama, based on a John Grisham novel, about racial strife in the
deep South. Samuel L. Jackson plays a humble working man driven
to take the law into his own hands when a pair of good ol' boys
rape his young daughter; Matthew McConaughey plays the white-bread
attorney who decides to defend him. (Chris Cooper is also in this
movie, in a strange reprise of his role in Lone Star.)
Somewhere in there is Sandra Bullock, playing an eager young law
student who both helps and distracts the white guy from his lawyerin'.
Yes, morality is laid out on a nice flat grid, but the fact that
there even is a moral battle here gives this movie a heavy,
heavy dose of tension and drama, despite the fact that its view
of the South and the people in it are so stereotyped they're practically
cartoons. If only director Joel Schumacher (of Batman Forever
fame) would leave out the swelling music, this movie might have
some real power.
Special Screenings
CHRISTMAS IN JULY. GKC Cinemas, 4690 N. Oracle Road, is
always a good bet for a cheap flick. But on Saturday, July 27,
the house presents Christmas in July. The Salvation Army benefit
features a special screening of National Lampoon's Christmas
Vacation (1989), third in the John Hughes slapstick hall of
fame, in which the Griswold family has a disaster-filled holiday
season. Starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid and
a bunch of other famous people. For this film only, you can pocket
your $1.50 in favor of a non-perishable food item donation. Call
292-2430 for information and show times.
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