■CINEMA
now
showing
NEW TO TOWN
The Assault: Beginning at the end of World War
II, and finishing at an anti-nuke demonstration,
this film traces the life of a man with a tragic
childhood. Made in the Netherlands. Opens Friday
at the Bijou (686-2458).
The Chipmunk Adventure: Alvin and friends
plus The Chipettes sail around the world.
Animated. Starts Friday at Springfield Quad
(726-9073).
Ernest Goes To Camp: Jim Varney has his
hands full as counselor at a rowdy summer camp.
Comedy by John Cherry. Starts Friday at
Springfield Quad (726-9073) and Cinema World
(342-6536).
The Gate: Demons wait behind a gate to take
back what once was theirs. With gremlin-like
creatures and special effects, it’s rated PG-13 and
opens Friday at Springfield Quad (726-9073) and
West 11th (342-4142).
Rumpelstiltskin: A new, live-action version of
the fairy tale, in which an ugly dwarf takes a child
in exchange for spinning straw into gold. Opens
Friday at West 11th (342-4142).
CONTINUING
Beverly Hills Cop II: As off-beat cop Axel Foley.
Eddie Murphy laughs again. Brigitte Nielsen plays
villainess. Springfield Quad (726-9073) and West
11th (342-4142).
Children of a Lesser God: Mariee Matlin won
the 1986 Academy Award for best actress in her
role as a strong, defiant deaf woman. William Hurt
(Kiss of the Spider Woman) plays her teacher and
lover. Double feature with Room With a View.
Valley River Twin (686-8633).
Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn: Sam Raimi’s se
quel to his cult classic. With comical F/X. and ab
surd gimmicks, it's a spoof on the horror movie
genre that has its own share of screams. Cinema
World (342-6536).
Gardens of Stone drama by Francis Coppola has
Anjelica Huston. D.B. Sweeney. and Marv Stuart
Masterson in a story set at Arlington Cemetery
during the Vietnam War. Double feature with Hanoi
Hilton at Cinema World (342-6536).
Hanoi Hilton is based on true grit stories of
American fliers who were RO.W.'s in Nam. With
Michael Moriarty, it's a double feature with
Gardens of Stone at Cinema World (342-6536).
Hot Pursuit: Comedy. A young suitor goes
through multiple labors to catch up with his kid
napped date. John Cusack, Robert Loggia, Wendy
Gazelle work it out. Valley River Twin (686-8633).
Ishtar: Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman appear
in their first film roles in five years. As an unsuc
cessful comic duo lounge act, the two are joined
by Isabelle Adjani. Music by Paul Williams.
Springfield Quad (726-9073) and West 11th
(342-4142).
Lethal Weapon action picture with Mel Gibson
and Danny Glover is at Springfield Fine Arts
(747-2201).
Lily Tomlin: Documentary in form, this film
centers around the Broadway show The Search tor
Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. Including
early footage from Tomlin's career, Ernestine,
Edith Ann, Agnus Angst, and Lupe put in special
appearances. Cinema 7 (687-0733).
Platoon: Best picture and director of 1986, accor
ding to the Oscar-namers. A no-holds barred view
of life as a foot soldier, during the Vietnam War.
starring Charlie Sheen, Tom Berrenger, and
Willem Dafoe. Writer-director Oliver Stone was
there. Cinema World (342-6536).
Project X: Matthew Broderick (Ferris Dueller's
Day Off) plays an air farce pilot with a chimpanzee
as partner in a top-secret project. West 11th
(342-4142).
Raising Arizona: Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter
play a childless cop and robber who kidnap the
fifth quintuplet of a wealthy family. It's all in fun,
with jokes, chases and crazy characters. National
(344-3431.)
Room With a View: Lushly filmed in Florence,
Italy. A young British woman with a proper up
bringing
style. Mi
is tempted by a less conventional life
style. Maggie Smith plays her governess. Winner
of three Oscars, it's part of a double feature with
Children of a Lessor God at Valley River Twin
(686-8633).
The Secret of My Success: Michael J. Fox is
Brantley Foster, who uses his charm to get ahead
in a large corporation, only to have it backfire on
him In comic ways. Helen Slater plays a female ex
ecutive. McDonald (344-4343).
Tin Men: Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito
battle each other in this comedy by Barry Levinson
(Diner). Set in Baltimore in the early ‘60s, it also
stars Barbara Hershey—and a fleet of vintage
Cadillacs. Late-night feature at the Bijou
(686-2458).
Ishtar
Review by
Lois Wadsworth
Elaine May directs Dustin
Hoffman and Warren Beatty in
the daffy adventures of a pair of
bad songwriters no longer willing
to live lives of quiet desperation.
Lyle Rogers (Warren Beatty)
and Chuck Clarke (Dustin Hoff
man) write banal, awful songs.
“Saturday morning, the sound
of a lawnmower touches my
heart...” and “Telling the truth
is a bad idea” are a couple of
the worst. They can’t sing, and
their stage routine is flaccid, em
barassing. As their agent (Jack
Weston) tell them, “Frankly,
you’re old, you’re white, and
you don’t have any gimmicks.”
That’s certainly true, but it isn’t
the whole picture. Driven by pas
sion, these two inept fools write
lyrics which come, uncensored,
straight from their mundane un
consciousness. This long-running
joke provides Ishtar with a
slender thread of delight from
beginning to end.
Lyle and Chuck relentlessly
pursue their muse, but she is
always just out of reach. Their
women leave them. Brokenheart
ed, they decide to take the show
on the road. “On the road” is
the operative phrase here, since
this show was touted as a road
picture in the grand tradition of
the Bing Crosby, Bob Hope,
Dorothy Lamour flicks of the
40s and 50s. But this ain’t The
Road to Ishtar despite the Mar
rakest and Moroccan desert set
ting.
Lyle and Chuck arrive in a
North African emirate that is
hair-trigger ripe for revolution.
As Shirra Assel (Isabel Adjani),
a Shiite guerilla leader explains it
to the hapless Americans, the
Emir’s palace has a roof of gold,
but the people have never seen a
refrigerator. The other side is
tied down by a CIA agent
(Charles Grodin) who hires
Chuck for $150 a week, saying,
“It’s not much, but you can’t
really put a price on
Democracy.”
The plot is over complicated,
and silly to boot, but the picture
is not without its funny mom
ents. The heroes find themselves
in the Sahara on a blind camel
walking circles and out cf water.
Vultures looking for dinner land
near the recumbent Chuck while
Lyle crawls across the sand
toward him, shooing them away
with, “No, no, no—not dead,
just resting!” Hoffman speaking
gibberish to a group of tribesmen
who are buying arms from a fly
by-night outfit operating out of a
land rover is a very funny variant
on a classic comedy routine.
Writer-director Elaine May has
been noted for her crisp, neuro
tic one-liners since college days
when she and Mike Nichols
teamed up. They perfected their
improvisational comedy routines
on television and took Broadway
by storm with An Evening With
Mike Nichols and Elaine May in
the early 60s. She wrote the
screenplay for Heaven Can Wait
for Beatty, and directed Heart
break Kid and Mikey and Nicky.
Her prodigious talents are docu
mented in numerous scripts she’s
worked on, including Tootsie.
So, why cast blue-eyed, curly
haired, fair-skinned Isabelle Ad
jani as a North African woman .
warrior? Why have Hoffman tell
Beatty to “act like an Arab” or
Beatty comment that he’d like to
see Adjani in “girl clothes”? A
writer of May’s stature doesn’t
have to rely on racism or sexism
to get a laugh.
Since Ishtar cost about $40
million to make, it needs to rake
in $100 million to be considered
a hit—big bucks, even by today’s
standards—but there seems to be
an audience out there for it.
They laughed at all the right
spots the night I saw it. They
laughed at all the dumb stuff,
too.
P
anda
NEPAAA‘7 Arrumpldg.
MEPWe • 667-0733
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Danny DeVito and Richard Dreyfuss
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"No fictional film of recent year*
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Next: WATTING FOR THE MOON -
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