Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993 TAG: 9311220274
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The pick of the litter - for those with strong stomachs - is ``Carnosaur.''
As you might guess from the title, it's a dinosaur flick that's attempting to cash in on the success of ``Jurassic Park.'' But it's also a sharply barbed satire of mega- budget blockbuster movies. More importantly, it's a fast moving sci-fi story told with the energy and style of the great B-movies of the 1950s and '60s. That shouldn't be a surprise. It comes from producer Roger Corman's New Horizons outfit.
The film opens with a really disgusting title sequence that appears to have been shot in an actual chicken processing plant. It sets the tone for your basic mad-scientist plot with several environmental twists.
Dr. Jane Tiptree (Diane Ladd) is the mad scientist in question. After a long and successful career designing nasty weapons for the Pentagon, she has moved into the business world. No one knows exactly what she's been doing out in the Nevada desert. Even her bosses at the Eunice Corporation (imagine a corporate combination of Coke and Time-Warner) have been kept in the dark.
We know that it has something to do with nasty, but unseen critters who attack chickens. Ominous subtitles used to designate time and place also tell us that her work has something to do with ``infected cells per million.'' The critters, of course, are dinosaurs who start small but grow quickly. The main characters are Doc (Raphael Sbarge), a drunken nightwatchman; Thrush (Jennifer Runyon), a naive environmentalist; and Fowler (Harrison Page), a brave sheriff.
If the dinosaur effects created by John Buechler and Magical Media Industries aren't as realistic and convincing as Spielberg's monsters, they're not bad at all. In fact, they're much more believable than you'd normally find in more expensive productions. But they're not the only point to the film.
Writer/director Adam Simon has a wicked sense of humor that gets consistently stronger and more crazed as the movie goes along. Toward the end, it becomes downright Strangelovian. ``Carnosaur'' is such a treat that it's probably worth a trip to the back of the rack to find Simon's earlier work, ``Brain Dead'' and ``Body Chemistry 2.''
``Sweet Killing''o is a Canadian crime story that also has a strong streak of black humor.
Adam Cross (Anthony Higgins) is an outwardly normal bank executive who's planning to murder his wife. And why not? Louise (Andrea Fereol) calls him at the office, gets drunk on her birthday, talks too loud and spills cake in his lap. Those might be forgiveable sins, but one night at dinner, she says that the red wine Adam has chosen, an expensive Bordeaux, is too strong, so she thins it with half a glass of milk!
Inventing an imaginary character named Zargo to cover his tracks, Adam concocts a Rube Goldberg scheme to do her in. Right in the middle of it, he in meets Eva (Leslie Hope), a fetching young woman who becomes an unwitting part of his plan. None of it fools detective Garcia (Michael Ironside) for a minute, but then, in his own way, he's almost as nutty as Adam. Fairly late in the game, Zargo appears in the person of F. Murray Abraham.
This one could have been a run-of-the-mill exercise in formula suspense, but writer/director Eddy Matalon saves it with a dry, understated humor that's hard to describe. Be warned, whenever you think this one is going to settle into the conventions of the genre, it surprises you - particularly in the last reel. Recommended.
``A Case for Murder''o also saves its best moments for the end. This one's another sex, lawyers and murder combination in the ``Presumed Innocent'' mode.
The setting is Chicago where Jack Hammet (Peter Berg) has just been made a partner in his law firm. He has developed a reputation for winning ``Hail Mary'' criminal cases. In his personal life, however, his ethics are questionable. When one of his colleagues is killed and the man's widow (Belinda Bauer) is accused of the murder, Jack takes on her defense. Assisting him is the new girl in town, Kate Weldon (Jennifer Grey), whose career contains a few question marks, too.
That's a good, ambiguous premise for the script by Pablo Fenjves and director Duncan Gibbins. Though the pace drags a bit in some scenes, the film works through the characters. They're a complex, unconventional bunch, particularly Jack. Viewers are never completely sure who and what he is. Is he an ambitious and ruthless flawed hero? Is he a womanizing jerk or something much worse?
That calculated uncertainty raises ``A Case for Murder'' above the normal level of the genre.
Next week: Gratuitous nudity, rock 'n' roll and a blast from the past and movies for the visually impaired. (Is home video great, or what?)
\ New releases
The Adventures of Huck Finn **
Stars Elijah Woods, Courtney B. Vance, Jason Robards, Robbie Coltrane. Directed by Stephen Sommers. Buena Vista (Walt Disney) 107 min. Rated PG for mild violence and some cussing.
Judged as a Disney adventure, this Huck Finn is entertaining enough for kids. Judged as a screen adaptation of a brilliant, timeless novel, the film is typical Hollywood hash. It recreates some of the plot details, but misses the heart of Mark Twain's fiction. In the title role, Elijah Wood is far too cute.
\ Life With Mikey: **
Stars Michael J. Fox, Christina Vidal. Directed by James Lapine. Buena Vista (Touchstone) 90 min. Rated PG for some strong language.
There are no surprises in this formulaic kid's picture from the Disney studio, but the film's grubby look is unusual. Most Disney productions have a slicker surface. This one is grainy and rough, though perhaps that's intentional. Fox plays a child performer turned agent who discovers a child commercial star on the streets of New York.
THE ESSENTIALS
Carnosaur: ***
New Horizons. 83 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language.
\ Sweet Killing: **
Paramount. 87 min. Rated R for brief nudity, sexual content, mild violence.
\ A Case for Murder: **
MCA/Universal. 94 min. Rated R for strong language, sexual content, violence.
by CNB