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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1986)
allegories in favor of the liberal causes of the day — many, and popular. Moreover, the show has always offered something for every one; many payoffs, every show. Not just a g o o d story with good performances, but the featuring o f humanitarian points o f view, with a clearly “correct” side you could easily em brace. Add to that clever double entendres and sly references that give the ones who "g e t” them a feeling of accomplishment Not only that, but the kind o f humor that requires extra knowledge and gives added dimension to the story, is incredibly fun to share with others. Star Trek IV is a thoroughly successful sendup o f the whole Star Trek anthology. Bones has never been crabbier. Chekov has never been more Russian than when he asks a policeman where he can find some “ nuclear wessels.” It’s a political commentary — most o f the people in the world can feel superior to the nasty whale hunters. You can really feel go o d about liking this movie. What we have here is an ensemble of good actors who have been working together, literally for decades, to produce a quality product and we have them doing everything they do best in the best way it can be done. You just can’t do it any better than this. Sly humor, much o f it directed at the very hippies who enjoyed the original and subse quent runs o f Star Trek and the time in which they first enjoyed it Good special effects. Strong ensembles, good-humored approach strengthen two current films STAR TREK IV,The Voyage Hom e Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Company, Catherine Hicks Directed by: Leonard Nimoy N ow playing at: KOIN Center Cinema, Theaters 3 and 4 • CÀM,**** — Traveling back in time via a dangerous slingshot flight around the sun, Star Trek IV truly is a trip home and a sentimental journey back in time. In the ’60s, hippies everywhere congregat ed to watch Star Trek. It was a good series to get ripped to, and created multitudes of fans for this quality (and contemporary) sci-fi series. Our collective memory bank bulges with stories that were thinly-disguised THE NUM BER YOU C A N 'T FORGET Vans fisa and Mastercard accepted, too. 2 2 7 -1254 VCAd> PROMPT courteous SAFE 50 YEARS • Parcel Pick-up & Delivery • Jumper Cable Service • Station W agons Available • W h e e lc h a ir/H a n d ic a p p e d Transportation • Sightseeing Tours by Taxi or 15-Person Luxury Van METROPOLITAN P O R T L A N D ’S OLDEST & Heroic heroes, saving Earth; Captain Kirk personally saving the whales who are the only ones who can save Earth. We watch this film and are entertained, humbled, warmed, humanized, and most of all, socialized. We went opening night The joint was jumpin’ — a very long line and both theaters full. People laughed and looked around to see who else "g o t” som e of the subtler jokes; exclaimed "Oh, yeah!" When it was over, applause. Watching this film is a pleasant and rewarding group event Kirk, Spock, et al have been around long enough to have a strong sense of their place in history, and have used that knowledge to carve out yet more hand- and footholds into our hearts and memories. D O W N BY LAW Starring: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni Directed by: Jim Jarmusch M usic by: John Lurie S ongs by: Tom Waits N ow playing at: KOIN Center D ow n By Law is playing with another movie, 7-minutes long, called Precious Im ages, which is a film com posed of very short, very famous film scenes from most of the most famous films to date. Invigorating, challenging, the thing that most impressed m e was how much better black and white films work. Th ey’re just more exciting and infinitely m ore romantic, and I was remembering how the most evocative scenes in Kiss o f the Spider Woman were the black and white ones. Thus it was a pleasant perception to see D ow n By Law so nicely done in black and white. As Tom Waits is rasping out som e thing about “ sixteen men on a dead man’s chest” the credits unfold over the camera’s eye panning a /oa;-downscale residential area in New Orleans. Moves to Zack having a fight done to him by his crabby girlfriend. She kicks him out He’s a good D J. but just lost another job for not playing the game. He gets framed for a serious crime and gets remanded to a depressing New Orleans jail. John Lurie, as Jack, the pimp, is framed for another seri ous crime. After a time in jail together, Roberto (B ob) joins them. Bob is Italian, can barely speak English. Much o f the humor in this film involves double entendres, the language barrier, and Bob’s ebullient spirit wrestling with his miniscule vocabulary. “ His lips,” turns out to mean, "He sleeps.” It’s fragile humor, but the more effective for the type o f risks it takes. And it works because of the strong ensemble. The three actors are ensem ble perfection. I had no idea Tom Waits could act so competently. He is very, very good; so is Lurie, so is Benigni. Bob actually has, if not committed a crime, at least done something. He has, by far, the most personality, the most energy, and is the most likeable. The three men form a closer bond because of Bob, and he gets them out o f prison. Though they are in a swamp and Bob can’t swim, he manages to get them out o f a couple of scrapes, and eventually gets the three of them another chance at life on the outside. You don’t have an easy time figuring out what the point is here. A couple o f losers transformed, grudingly, for a short time, into something else by a guy with schmalz. Joi de uiure from Bob, who has read Valt Veetman and Bob a-Frost, but only in Italian. At the m ovie’s end, Zack and Jack are heading off in directions they can only identify as "left" or "right,” and Bob has effervesced himself into the heart and hom e of a lonely Italian bomb- • shell. You figure it out. 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