Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, August 20, 1997, LAW SCHOOL SPECIAL EDITION, Page 21, Image 37

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    The summer movie season of
sound and fury, as usual signify
ing nothing, has passed, and now Hol
lywood downshifts into Thoughtful,
Serious mode. Less explosions, more
’feeling. Well, at least that’s what’s sup
posed to happen. But we ll see. So
what’s on the celluloid platter this Sep
tember? Lukewarm John Grisham,
wacky gay comedies, DreamWorks’
movie debut, a paranoid Ewan McGre
gor, foreign directors going Hollywood
and a whole lotta Sean Penn.
L.A. Confidential
Warner Bros.
Good-looking guys with fedoras and crew cuts
smoke and wear those greasy T-shirts while chasing
down the bad guys. Yep, another warmed-over ode
to film noir. But beware. “It’s a city of corruption,
double-dealing and dangerous passions.” Straight
from the press release, by the way. If that wildly
original and fiercely creative description doesn’t
make you want to see the film, nothing will.
Fire Down Below
Warner Bros.
You may not have noticed, but Steven Seagal
(Executive Decision) isn’t much of an action star
anymore. He no longer jumps around and kicks
people. Instead, he and his love handles lazily await
the bad guys to come to them, and then he punches
them once and sends them Hying 30 feet. Look for
more of the same here.
Kicked
in the
Head
October Films
Yet another
crime thriller/com
edy with young,
idealistic innocents
being corrupted. Relative unknown Kevin Corrigan
searches for himself while pumping into shady char
acters played by Linda Fiorentino, James Woods,
Lili Taylor and Michael Rapaport. Like Pulp
Fiction'. Hip, taut and scary! Like Pulp Fiction'.
The Gingerbread Man
Polygram
It has to do with lawyers, and most peo
ple who have seen it haven’t liked it. We
must be in John Grisham territory. Indeed,
everybody’s favorite hack author wrote this
original screenplay about a divorced lawyer
(Kenneth Branagh, Hamlet) who gets himself
in way uvti ilia ncdu wncil lie ucip3 1113 1UVCI 3
father leave a psychiatric hospital. Robert Altman
{Short Cuts), who would appear to be above John
Grisham adaptations, directs this odd production.
Hoodlum
MGM/UA
Andy (jar
cia (Night Falls
on Manhattan)
and Tim Roth
(Gridlock’d) are
mean prohibi
tion gangsters,
and Laurence
Fishburne
(Event Horizon)
is the nicer gangster who tries to reel them in. hull of
Tommy guns, big-band music and flappers.
She’s So Lovely
Miramax
Nick Cassavetes directs his father’s script, a com
edy/drama about a man (Sean Penn, Dead Man
Walking) who is thrown in jail for killing a man who
was attempting to hurt his wife (played by the real
life Mrs. Penn, Robin Wright, Moll Flanders). When
Penn is released from jail, he finds his wife has fallen
in love with another man (John Travolta, Face/Ojf)
who’s also a pretty nice guy. Romantic travails
ensue.
In and Out
Paramount
Remember when Tom Hanks outed his high
school English teacher at the Oscars a few years
back? Here’s a whole film based on that premise.
Kevin Kline (Fierce Creatures) is the teacher, Matt
Dillon (Albino Alligator) is the Oscar winner and
Joan Cusack (Grosse Pointe Blank) is the woman
Kline is to marry in three days. Will there be matri
monial bliss for the Indiana couple, or will Kline be
forced to move to Hawaii for such pleasures?
The Edge
20th Century Fox
A billionaire
(Anthony Hopkins,
Nixon) is married to
a supermodel (Elle
Macpherson, Bat
man & Robin) but is
paranoid that she’s
sleeping with her
rashion photographer (Alec Baldwin, Cjhosts of Mississip
pi). Looking at Anthony Hopkins, can you blame him?
Things get oh-so-crazy when the two men are stranded
in the Alaskan wilderness together, battling killer bears
and each other. David Mamet scripted, but will his style
mesh with director Lee Tamahori’s (MuUjolLmd Falls)?
Nightwatch
Miramax
Young Obi-Wan Ewan McGregor (Trainspotting),
whose prolific movie output lately is turning him into
the Michael Caine of the ’90s, makes his big Ameri
can movie debut in this thriller co-starring Nick
Nolte (Mother Night). McGregor is a night watch
man at a morgue who realizes he’s being framed by a
serial killer. He has to solve the case, clear his name
and shoot up by dawn.
The End of
Violence
MGM/UA
Wim Wenders goes
Hollywood, literally. The
Wings of Desire director
:rafts this satire/drama
aDout tnose people who bounce in and out or the
movie business, every day coming oh-so-close to star
dom, then losing sight. Bill Pullman (Independence
Day) and Andie MacDowell {Michael) are a producer
and his actress wife so caught up in their own worlds
that they barely notice when he’s kidnapped.
The Peacemaker
Dream Works SKG
The first big movie from DreamWorks, this
thriller stars George Clooney (Batman & Robin) as a
nuclear bomb expert (would you ever want to actu
ally meet a nuclear bomb expert?). Nicole Kidman
(no accent this time) is his willful helper and
inevitable love interest. Clooney is trying to stop
terrorists from blowing up half the country. Isn't
this the plot of every movie these days?
The Myth of Fingerprints
Sony Classics
Well, George Clooney has found his fair share of
success on the big screen, so why shouldn’t fellow ER
hunk Noah Wyle give it a shot? He goes the art house
route in this ensem
ble drama concern
ing a dysfunctional
extended family that
tries to survive a get
together. It remains
to be seen if Wyle’s
starring debut will
succeed or whether
it will need 30 cc’s of lidocane and a CLEAR! sharp
shock to the heart. Stat!
The Game
Polygram
Nick (Michael Douglas, The Ghost and the Dark
ness) is a successful businessman who’s invited by his
less successful brother (Sean Penn again, this time as
a bad guy) to join in an adventure game. Turns out,
the game is anything but fun, and Nick realizes his
bro’s out to get him. Seven director David Fincher,
who's now working with George Lucas on the new
Star Wats films, helms this one.
You’ll find everything but the Raisinets on U.'s
movie page: http://www.umagazine.com
Gravesend
Manga Entertainment
Millions of film nerds across
the country probably want Sal
Stabile dead.
Not because he's a bad guy
(he’s not), but because he's
what they all wish to be. He’s 22
years old. He pals around with
Oliver Stone and Steven Spiel
berg. He signed a two-picture
deal with DreamWorks SKG. And
he's preparing his debut film,
Gravesend, for its nationwide
release this September.
Pure luck? Don't count on it.
Stabile worked damn hard to be
this lucky.
“I’ve been to hell and back
with this [movie]," Stabile says.
“This wasn't luck. I worked 24
hours a day, every single day, for
three years to make this movie. I
lost friends, my social life, my
girlfriend and lots of money on
this. Very few people realize it’s
all about stamina. This movie
was my dream.”
Gravesend, a dark crime and
morality tale about four white
kids growing up in a rough part
of Brooklyn, made its debut as a
work in progress at the Hamp
tons Film Festival. A trio of pro
ducers dug the film and gave
him some cash for reshooting
and post-production work.
Once the film was complet
ed, Stabile and his agents were
able to exhibit it for a few high
profile directors, including
Stone, who then agreed to serve
as the film's presenter. Spiel
berg offered the two-picture
deal, Stabile took it and another
Hollywood legend was bom.
“Millions of people want to
have what I have, to be doing
what I’m doing,” says Stabile,
who's in preproduction for his
next film, Dancing with Angels.
“I'm not going to take this for
granted.”
The Reel Deal
Dark Empire
New Line Cinema
Richard O’Brien is ready to do the Time Warp again.
The British actor/writer/musician/cult icon, famous in the States for writing
aiiu Stan my as nui-nan in uic msaueiy pupuidi udinp mi me nueny nurrur
Picture Show, returns to U.S. screens in October with the futuristic Dark Empire.
Although the film stars William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly and Kiefer Sutherland, it's O'Brien who
shines. As Mr. Hand, O’Brien is a gothic alien conducting mind experiments on unwitting earthlings,
and he's evil, coldly cunning and — because O'Brien plays him — really weird.
Weird pretty much describes O’Brien's career. His peak was, of course, Rocky Horror in 1975,
which continues to inspire crazed fans across the country. Is its success entirely owed to the fact
that it combines Susan Sarandon, Meat Loaf and Tim Curry in dominatrix wear. “I think the film
works on two levels: on the immediate, ephemeral kind of toe-tapping camp kind of level and on a
subliminal, mythic, fairy tale level," O’Brien says. “I think that’s really why it’s gone on so long.”
As if his career wasn't odd enough, his next film part is a small role in Spice, the Spice Girls
movie. “They say if you’re not working these days, you're dead," O'Brien says. “Well, I’m not dead.”