Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 5, 1994 TAG: 9403070120
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"Dead On" is the best and most salacious of the lot. It might have been called "Strangers on a Plane" but any resemblance to Hitchcock ends right there. Ted Beaumont (Matt McCoy) is a commercial pilot whose shrewish wife, Marla (Traci Scoggins), owns the airline. Erin Davenport (Shari Shattuck) has an abusive, inconvenient husband. They meet one night in an airport hotel bar. One thing graphically leads to another, and then later she explains her ideas about perfect murders where strangers trade victims.
Three weeks later, Marla disappears.
Though the script contains the necessary red herrings, most experienced mystery fans will be one step ahead of writer April Wayne all the way through. But that's not much of a problem. Her characters work, and director Ralph Hemecker has a good visual sense, making effective use of light, color and abstract shapes. The actors don't embarrass themselves either. They know what the material is and handle it appropriately.
Shattuck plays another femme fatale in "Body Chemistry 3: Point of Seduction." This time out, she's radio psychologist Claire Archer - a sort of sexually explicit Dr. Joy Brown - who has left a trail of dead male conquests behind her on her rise to stardom. It's the perfect material for a made-for- TV movie. So thinks producer Alan Clay (producer Andrew Stevens), and his actress wife Beth (Morgan Fairchild) will do anything to play the part of Claire.
But Claire is reluctant and wants to talk it over with Alan. They meet one dark and stormy night at an out-of-the-way hotel. One thing graphically leads to another, and then later she explains that even though she's a tramp, she doesn't want her life turned into tabloid TV trash.
Stevens is an established video veteran on both sides of the camera. So is low-budget +auteur+ Jim Wynorski. They put every penny they spent on the screen and they got professional support from Robert Forster, Chick Vennera and Stella Stevens, Andrew's mom. For a sequel to a sequel, this one's OK.
Shannon Whirry has carved out an odd little video niche for herself. She has made several movies in which she plays an outwardly respectable woman who takes a walk on the wild side and explains it all to a psychiatrist. I suppose the psychological stuff is meant to give a patina of respectability to the soft core exploitation. She carries on gamely in "Mirror Images II" as Terrie and Carrie, good girl and bad girl twins. There are no surprises here, but she and director Gregory Hippolyte give their fans what they want to see.
We've got more twins in "Woman of Desire," a tepid thriller that was made in South Africa. Steven Bauer is Ted and Jonathan, good and bad millionaires. Christina (Bo Derek) is married to one of them and fooling around with the other. She's also fooling around with yacht captain Jack Lynch (Jeff Fahey). When one of the brothers is bumped off on the boat, she tells the police that Jack did it. His lawyer (Robert Mitchum) smells a rat.
Writer-director Robert Ginty lets everything become much too complicated. The entire cast wisely sleepwalks through the action, but even so, this is the kind of movie you laugh at, not with, which is not altogether bad.
"Love Matters" is an irritating little movie that looks like a filmed play. Though it's attempting to be a serious drama about couples dealing with adultery, it's simply slow and trite. Tom (Griffin Dunne) and Julie (Annette O'Toole) are friends of Jeff (Tony Goldwyn) and Deborah (Kate Burton). Late one night, Deborah calls and says that Jeff has been missing for three days. At interminable length, they reassure her that nothing's wrong. Then Jeff shows up drunk with his new girlfriend (Gina Gershon) in tow and asks if they can stay the night.
Beyond a couple of bizarrely athletic sexual scenes, the rest of writer-director Eb Lottimer's story is talk, talk, talk.
"Married People, Single Sex" tells a similar story in an equally off-putting style. This time there are three couples involved. At first it seems that producer-director Mike Sedan is working on a serious story about troubled relationships. But he tells it so poorly that I couldn't watch. The main flaw is his frantic, claustrophobic camerawork, whipping and forth among several characters in a small room. The technique didn't work when Woody Allen used it in "Husbands and Wives" and it's no better here. It is, however, easily overcome with the fast- forward button.
Next week: Steven Soderbergh and Tennessee Williams.
New releases this week:
Manhattan Murder Mystery: ***
Starring Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Jerry Adler. Directed by Allen. Columbia TriStar. 108 min. Rated PG for subject matter.
This is certainly not Woody Allen's best film, but it's the funniest he has made in years. He and Keaton have a delightful time as amateur sleuths in a comic mystery. It's intelligent entertainment without violence, vulgarity or dazzling visual effects.
Judgment Night: ** 1/2
Starring Emilio Estevez, Stephen Dorff, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Denis Leary. Directed by Stephen Hopkins. MCA Universal. 109 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language.
Here's a fair little suspense film that's alternately effective and obvious. Despite its strict adherence to a formula plot and characters (four guys from the `burbs being hunted by a gang in an urban wasteland), it works. No, this isn't art; it's plain old manipulative Hollywood storytelling.
So I Married An Axe Murderer: ***
Starring Mike Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Brenda Fricker. Directed by Thomas Schlamme. Columbia TriStar. 90 min. Rated PG-13 for language, subject matter.
Mike Myers' comedy was a relative flop last summer, but it may well develop its own cult following on video. The reasons: evocative use of San Francisco locations; a quirky sensibility combining elements of beat poetry and the 60s; and a supporting cast that fills the slower moments with surprises.
The Fugitive: ***
Starring Harrison Ford, Tommy Lee Jones. Directed by Andrew Davis. Warner. 132 min. Rated PG-13 for violence, strong language.
Last summer's hit is a longshot to win its best-picture Oscar nomination, but the studio executives still decided to hurry it into video stores next Monday before the awards are handed out. They were right to do it. This film adaptation takes the premise of the '60s TV series and molds it into a satisfying chase adventure. Director Andrew Davis and the people working behind the cameras are old hands at this kind of escapism. What could have been a standard genre picture is instead a well crafted thriller.
Much Ado About Nothing: ***
Starring Kenneth Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Robert Sean Leonard, Michael Keaton, Keanu Reeves. Directed by Branagh. Columbia Tristar. 109 min. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, brief nudity.
For Shakespeare fans, Kenneth Branagh's new "Much Ado" is a sunny, sexy delight. But the Bard's comedies don't lend themselves to the screen as easily as recent adaptations of histories (Branagh's own "Henry V") or tragedies (Zeffirelli's "Hamlet"). Despite some moments of real brilliance, and the presence of the ever-wonderful Emma Thompson, this one's filled with talk and verbal sparring unfamiliar to contemporary ears. Don't miss the long, complicated closing shot.
Striking Distance: BOMB
Starring Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker. Directed by Rowdy Harrington. Columbia TriStar. 98 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, some sexual content. For Bruce Willis this action flick is such an incredible blunder that it almost makes "Hudson Hawk" and "The Last Boy Scout" look good by comparison. It's a ridiculously contrived and predictable formula mystery about a serial killer. The "surprise" ending is a crowning insult.
Son of the Pink Panther: *
Starring Roberto Benigni. Directed by Blake Edwards. MGM/UA. 88 min. Rated PG for comic violence and mild sexual references.
This seventh entry in the comedy series is weak. The animated credit sequence, featuring the cartoon character and a nice Bobby McFerrin interpretation of Henry Mancini's familiar theme, is by far the most enjoyable part of the film. Once the alleged story begins, with Benigni as the title character, it goes straight downhill.
Son-In-Law: **
Starring Pauly Shore, Carla Gugino, Cindy Pickett, Lane Smith. Directed by Steve Rash. Buena Vista. 93 min. Rated PG-13 for sexual humor, strong language.
This is a mid-budget vehicle for Pauly Shore's flaky on-screen personna: the fey, guileless free spirit who speaks in strange jargon. Here, he's a professional college student from L.A. who finds himself spending Thanksgiving vacation with a farm family in South Dakota. A sloppy little movie with some fine moments and adolescent sexual humor.
The Good Son: ** 1/2
Starring Macaulay Culkin, Elijah Wood. Directed by Joseph Ruben. FoxVideo. 85 min. Rated R for violence, subject matter, a little strong language.
In essence, this one's a remake of "Sleeping With the Enemy." Director Ruben has taken another formula suspense plot, cast a hugely popular star in the lead and placed the story in a picturesque setting. Macaulay Culkin does an effective job as a sinister child. Overall the film is slow and predictable, though the ending is scary.
Fortress: ***
Starring Christopher Lambert, Loryn Locklin, Kurtwood Smith. Directed by Stuart Gordon. LIVE. 90 min. Rated R for graphic violence, strong language, brief nudity, sexual content.
Combine the bleak future of "Robocop" with a prison movie and add in a strong pro-choice attitude. While it really doesn't measure up as science-fiction or political progaganda, this is a satisfying, though extremely violent, guilty pleasure. Director Gordon doesn't equal the heights of bad taste that he scaled in "Re-Animator" but this is still a hard "R" for violence.
THE ESSENTIALS:
(All these guilty pleasures contain sexual material, nudity, some strong language and violence.)
Dead On *** Orion. 90 min. Unrated and R-rated.
Body Chemistry 3 *** New Horizons. 90 min. Rated R.
Mirror Images II ** Academy. 92 min. Unrated and R-rated.
Woman of Desire * 1/2 Vidmark. 97 min. Unrated and R-rated.
Love Matters BOMB Republic. 103 min. and 97 min. Unrated and R-rated.
Married People Single Sex BOMB Triboro. 110 min. Unrated and R-rated.
by CNB