Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990 TAG: 9005180612
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MALCOLM L. JOHNSON THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
At least two-thirds of the major summer releases involve cops, crooks, detectives or military types.
The most-hyped picture of the summer, "Dick Tracy," takes the cop-gangster genre back to its roots in the comic strips of the early '30s (the strip began in October 1931). Even "Back to the Future Part III" - one of eight sequels - features gunplay, Old West-style.
Relatively few adult pictures are set for mass release, and even some of those include gunplay. "Cadillac Man," the Robin Williams comedy that arrives today, centers on a madly jealous, gun-toting husband played by Tim Robbins. Alan J. Pakula is directing Harrison Ford as a lawyer accused of murdering his former mistress in the film version of Scott Turow's "Presumed Innocent."
One of the most eagerly awaited pictures is "Mo' Better Blues," Spike Lee's follow-up to "Do the Right Thing," in which the formidable young black filmmaker digs into his jazz heritage.
Family pictures are in short supply. Hanna-Barbera has cooked up the feature-length "Jetsons: The Movie" from its beloved space-age spinoff on "The Flintstones." Walt Disney Pictures is expanding its new Scrooge McDuck-Huey, Dewey and Louie TV series into "Ducktales: The Movie" and is also re-releasing "The Jungle Book."
Many of the sequels center on cops: "Another 48 HRS.," "Die Harder," "RoboCop 2," even "The Exorcist: 1990" with George C. Scott as a police lieutenant. Jack Nicholson also reprises his detective role of Jake Gittes in the "Chinatown" sequel, "The Two Jakes."
As always, the schedule is subject to change - and films don't always open in Roanoke on their national release dates. But here's a preview of highlights of the summer movie season:
\ OPENING TODAY\
\ "Cadillac Man" - Robin Williams, hot from his Oscar-nominated successes in "Dead Poets Society" and "Good Morning, Vietnam," takes on the role of a slick, amorous luxury-car salesman out to keep his job with a super day on the lot in this dark comedy directed by Roger Donaldson. Tim Robbins co-stars as the husband who holds the entire dealership hostage, convinced that someone is carrying 3 1 SUMMER Summer on with his wife.
\ "Bird on a Wire" - Mel Gibson plays a relocated federal witness with a new name, and Goldie Hawn is his old college girlfriend, now a lawyer, who rediscovers the man she thought was dead in this comedy thriller directed by John Badham ("Saturday Night Fever," "War Games"). Soon they are on the run, living with car chases explosions and a climax in a zoo.\ MAY 25
\ "Back to the Future III" - The Old West, the favorite era of the nutty professor, is the environment for the third and probably final chapter in the saga that began in 1985. Filmed simultaneously with Part II, the new time-travel adventure again features Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Elisabeth Shue and Thomas J. Wilson as Biff's ancestor Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. Mary Steenburgen makes her first appearance in the series.
\ "Fire Birds" - Nicolas Cage and Sean Young pilot Apache helicopters in this tale of America's war against the drug cartels; Tommy Lee Jones is also featured.\ JUNE 1
\ "Total Recall" - Dutch director Paul Verhoeven ("RoboCop") teams up with Arnold Schwarzenegger in a future-shock thriller set in 2075. The big guy plays a confused Earthling, haunted by visions of the Red Planet, who voyages to Mars to find that his memories have been implanted and that his forgotten life is caught up in a battle for control of mining interests on the Planet of War. Violence and special effects abound.\ JUNE 8
\ "Another 48 HRS." - Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte and director Walter Hill are together again for this sequel, which picks up when Reggie Hammond (Murphy) is released from prison and comes looking for the money owed him by Cates (Nolte). The new San Francisco cop saga pits the unorthodox team against a vicious gang of bikers.\ JUNE 15
\ "Dick Tracy" - Warren Beatty directs and stars in this big-budget version of the Chester Gould comic strip, which also stars Madonna as the wicked Breathless Mahoney. Glenne Headley is Tess Trueheart, Charles Durning is Police Chief Brandon, and Seymour Cassell is Pat Patton, Tracy's sidekick. Paul Sorvino, Mandy Patinkin, James Tolkan, Dick Van Dyke, Henry Silva, Michael J. Pollard and Estelle Parsons have cameos, and Stephen Sondheim has written songs for Madonna.
\ "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" - Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates are back, older and more urban, having taken jobs in the high-tech Clamp Centre office complex. There they encounter their old friend, the adorable Gizmo. But something goes wrong, and soon the Clamp is crawling with a new generation of dragonlike creatures. The cast includes John Glover, Christopher Lee and Robert Prosky.\ JUNE 22
\ "RoboCop 2" - Peter Weller returns in the sequel to the picture that made him an almost unrecognizable star, again with Nancy Allen as his woman cop partner. In the decaying Detroit of the future, Murphy struggles to regather his lost humanity while battling a drug-crazed gang and resisting a mind-control rehabilitation. Meanwhile, a murderous robot is being built to replace him. Irvin Kershner, who directed "The Empire Strikes Back," replaces Paul Verhoeven as director.
\ "Die Harder" - Bruce Willis returns as New York cop John McClane in a sequel centering on an elite special-forces unit that has seized a major U.S. airport. Bonnie Bedelia returns as McClane's wife, and William Atherton is back as the smarmy newscaster. Reggy Harlin, best known for "Nightmare on Elm Street 4," directs.\ JUNE 27\
\ "Days of Thunder" - Tom Cruise and Tony Scott, both of whom soared into the stratosphere with the super hit "Top Gun," re-team for this roaring tale of Daytona, in which the kid and his improvised pit crew race against huge odds. Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall and Randy Quaid are featured.\ JUNE 29
\ "Ghost Dad" - Bill Cosby tries again after the abject failure of his last comedy, "Leonard Part 6," this time with Sidney Poitier, who directs. Cosby plays a single parent whose encounter with the supernatural teaches him it's not too late to get in touch with his kids.\ JULY 6
\ "Ford Fairlane" - Naughty comic Andrew Dice Clay makes his feature-film debut as a hip detective whose turf is the Los Angeles music community. Priscilla Presley is the investigator's Girl Friday, and David Bowie and Billy Idol are featured.
\ "Jetsons: The Movie" - The ever-popular Hanna-Barbera TV family jets up to the big screen as the veteran animation team makes its bid to capitalize on the lucrative movie-to-video scenario.\ JULY 8\
\ "Flatliners" - Five medical students risk a life-after-death experiment in this thriller directed by Joel Schulmaker ("St. Elmo's Fire," "The Lost Boys"). Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt star.\ JULY 13\
\ "Exorcist III: 1990" - George C. Scott heads the effort to resurrect the hugely popular first "Exorcist" from its super-flop sequel. The setting is Georgetown, 17 years after the original, and Scott plays a police detective investigating a string of grisly ritual murders of priests. William Peter Blatty, the director and the author of the first film, wrote the screenplay; Linda Blair is nowhere in sight.
\ "Quick Change" - Bill Murray co-directs and stars in this caper comedy of a bank robber who does the job, then poses as a hostage to escape, only to land in a dangerous neighborhood. The ensemble includes Geena Davis, Jason Robards and Randy Quaid.\ JULY 27
\ "Presumed Innocent" - Harrison Ford heads the cast of Alan J. Pakula's version of the best-seller by Scott Turow about a prosecuting attorney investigating the murder of a colleague, his former mistress, until he is accused of the crime. English beauty Greta Scacchi plays the victim, Bonnie Bedelia plays the distraught wife, and Brian Denehy is cast as his boss.
\ "Ghosts" - Patrick Swayze plays a ghost who calls a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg for help in contacting the love of his former life. Demi Moore is also featured.
\ "Young Guns II" - Luckily, Emilio Estevez, Lou Diamond Phillips and Kiefer Sutherland made it through the first "brat pack" Western alive.
\ "Air America" - Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. are renegade pilots for a secret airline in a war that doesn't exist in this comedy directed by Roger Spottiswoode. With their motto, "Anything, anywhere, anytime," the flyboys find themselves in Laos running drugs for both the CIA and rival drug lords. \ AUG. 3
\ "Mo' Better Blues" - Fresh from his Oscar win, Denzel Washington joins with writer-director Spike Lee in this saga of horn player Bleek Gilliam. The director of "Do the Right Thing" casts himself as the trumpeter's degenerate manager, and John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Ossie Davis and Bill Nunn also appear.\ AUG. 10
\ "Two Jakes" - In this sequel to "Chinatown," directed by and starring Jack Nicholson, the action takes place 11 years later, after World War II. Jake Gittes has changed; he even belongs to a golf club. Then he begins to investigate a killing when some puzzling events connected to his past cross his path. Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Ruben Blades and Frederic Forrest are featured.
\ "Graffiti Bridge" - Back from his ignominious directing debut in "Under the Cherry Moon," Prince tries his hand at something more like "Purple Rain." Featuring his former Time mates Morris Day and Jerome Benton, this new Prince opus chronicles the rivalry between two club owners.\ AUG. 17
\ "The Freshman" - Marlon Brando, who returns to his "Godfather" persona, opined that this was not so good a picture but then apologized. Matthew Broderick plays a freshman film student whose life changes radically when the organized-crime father figure takes an interest in him.
After mid-August, the movie-release charts become cloudy. Among the undated films that may arrive in July, August or even June are:
\ "My Blue Heaven" - Steve Martin plays a relocated FBI informant, and Rick Moranis is an FBI agent trying to protect him, in this comedy that also features Joan Cusack as an assistant district attorney.
by CNB