THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 28, 1995 TAG: 9503280047
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
``TALL TALE,'' subtitled ``The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill,'' is a lavishly produced but relentlessly stodgy drama that may have trouble attracting kids who have seen heroes like Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker. At best, it's a strange hybrid that is not quite like any of the other Disney products churned out lately.
All about a 12-year-old farm boy who solicits legendary heroes Pecos Bill, John Henry and Paul Bunyan to help him save the family farm, it takes itself too seriously for its own good. There may be a problem, too, that modern kids may have no idea who Pecos Bill and John Henry were.
Parents might take the time to read the American folklore tales to children before going. However, even this might become confusing, because the movie seeks to rewrite folklore by getting cute, though never humorous, with the legends.
Nick Stahl, who was so good opposite Mel Gibson in ``The Man Without a Face,'' plays the youngster with appropriate open-eyed wonder. But he acts and talks more like a 1995 kid than one living in the film's 1905 setting. It is a mystery why Patrick Swayze, hidden behind a bushy moustache, would have taken the role of Pecos Bill, even if the character has been overbilled in the title. Swayze's career is in trouble when he takes second leads in Disney flicks. Even so, he does get to lasso a tornado and ride a whirlwind.
Oliver Platt is Paul Bunyan and looks smaller than we imagined. Roger Aaron Brown is the steel-driving man, John Henry, who faces an exciting competition in the film's second half.
Scott Glenn is as evil a villain as you'd find west of the Mississippi. He's scheming to take over all the homesteads and turn them into ecologically threatening mines.
Catherine O'Hara, the mom in ``Home Alone,'' is seen, all too briefly, as a scruffy Calamity Jane.
There are a lot of rather cornball platitudes like, ``If you believe in yourself, anything is possible'' and ``In my day, we didn't kill the land. We just borrowed from it.'' They might have been less obvious, but the messages are still good ones. Still, if the kids get the idea they're being preached to, they'll run off to the popcorn stand.
The sets are spectacular, particularly a gray mining camp that looks like it came from another, much more expensive and ambitious movie.
The music, composed by Randy Edelman, is thundering proof that someone saw this as a big epic. No one seems to have decided, though, whether it should be a comic fantasy or a serious adventure.
The villains are so menacing that small children may be frightened.
The film's rich sets probably won't be appreciated by young audiences who know Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers a good deal better than some guy named Pecos Bill. Still, there is a chugging train, a blue ox and a whirlwind.
If it's raining, this might save a few parents' sanity on weekends. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
MELINDA SUE GORDON /
Walt Disney Co.
Pecos Bill (Patrick Swayze) comes to the aid of a young boy (Nick
Stahl) in ``The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Tall Tale: The Unbelievable Adventures of Pecos Bill''
Cast: Patrick Swayze, Oliver Platt, Roger Aaron Brown, Nick
Stahl, Scott Glenn, Catherine O'Hara
Director: Jeremiah Chechik
Screenplay: Steven L. Bloom and Robert Rodat
Music: Randy Edelman
MPAA rating: PG
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Chesapeake Square and Greenbrier in Chesapeake;
Circle 6 in Norfolk; Columbus, Lynnhaven Mall and Surf-N-Sand in
Virginia Beach
by CNB