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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1987)
A montage of summer comedies FREE BIRTHDAy DINNER IN PARIS? ALMOST. . . SI This summer s comedies include something for every taste, quality workmanship, good humor, and, dare we say it, some intelligent thoughts. Dine free at the Pettygrove House on your birthday when accompanied by 5 or more guests. Relax outside on Port land’s most glorious patio or dine inside in air conditioned comfort. B Y EL E A N O R M A L I N ROBOCOP ake a very high-toned film director like Paul Verhoeven. Cast Peter Weller as the 10-year police veteran who’s shot beyond saving and is put back together with all the most expensive com puter parts and titanium armor you can manufacture. Add a well-written story line and you can even get by with Nancy Allen as the female cop who helps Robocop (for merly “ Murphy” ), in his search for justice against those who messed him up so badly, and one who would profit shamelessly from it. T Open for lunch and dinner Tues.-Sat., Sunday and Monday private parties only. Full Course Dinners priced between $5.95 & $12.95 221-4254 The PETTYGROVE HOUSE, corner of NW 23rd and Pettygrove. THE RESTAURANT DESIGNED WITH DESERT HEARTS IN MIND! RUBYFRUIT CAFE 1616 N.W. MARSHALL 222-7067 OPEN EVERY NIGHT FROM 5 PM ON & LIGHT MEALS TO COMPLETE DINNERS • DESSERTS • FULL BAR RELAX ING • INTI MATE SLOW DANCING ALL EVENING fi; ■ - Cascades NEW IN PORTLAND 333 N.W. 23rd at Flanders. Portland. 274-2305 Atmosphere: Attractive and pleasant. On the cutting edge of restaurant design. Service: Staff is friendls and cheerful and seems unusually well scrubbed. Recommended Dishes: Hardwood smoked salmon, pepper and onion shortcake, spinach mushroom tart, rock fish in parchment, gnocchi in fresh tomato sauce, duck breast in blueberry sauce, creams orange cheese cake, fudgy chocolate torte. Price Range: Refreshingly inexpensive. Entrees: S6.75-SI3.50 Hours: Breakfast: 7-11 A M.; Lunch: 11:30-2:30 PM.; Brunch-Sat and Sun: 7 A M -3 PM.; Dinner: 5:30-10:30 PM.; Open Daily Reservations: Appreciated Oregonian: May 1^87 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ “ C ascades... is one of th e... tastiest new places in the city. ...Presentations are striking. Squash enchiladas. ...th e city dosen’t possess a better Mexican dish. ...a succulent roast chicken with 40 garlic cloves; a lasagna stuffed with duck and wild mushrooms is a rich new treatment o f an old favorite. The scallops in orange sauce and duck breast in blueberry sauce speak for themselves. ... A small, carefully selected dessert tray keeps the quality high throughout...” Pacific Northwest Magazine: June 1^87 Cascades 333 N W 23rd Portland • 274-2305 Daily breakfast • lunch • dinner Just Out. 22. August. ll>X7 ’ •• The action is fabulous. In a future Detroit even meaner than the present one, a massive conglomerate buys out the police department. They experiment with expen sive and stupid technological nightmares to do the dangerous work. A hilarious scene, widely shown in ads and reviews, shows ED-II, a massive chicken-like structure, go berserk and shoot an execu tive. There’s so much irony at times it’s almost like a ‘‘Rocky and Bullwinkle” cartoon, with silly stuff for the kids and super silly stuff for the even more appre ciative adults. In one of the funniest comic asides, inanely cheerful TV news readers inform us the new satellite station test run has killed 138 people in Santa Barbara — including two ex-presidents who had re tired there. Star Wars eats its maker. As for Weller, he is perfect as Robocop. After reconstruction only two inches of face remains visible, and it’s not the eyes, but the mouth. I’m here to tell you Weller did more with that two inches than you would dream possible. His facial planes are so constructed as to resemble the sculp ted, high-set Teutonic hero cheeks and taut but sensuous lips (the only flesh that usu ally shows in those plastic man toys). He moves well in the armor and his voice sounds wistfully heroic and resonantly lonely through the electronic reverberation. In one very funny scene. Robocop Mirandizes the head thug. A take off on old cop shows, it was supreme spoof in a stylish vein. Verhoeven is one of my favorite direct ors. and he’s done a wonderful job with this material. It’s funny, it’s fast, it’s dis arming. Most of all. it’s intelligent. One can whiff a sequel in the offing. With Weller and Allen resplendent in titanium as the Ken and Barbie of law enforcement, and Verhoeven as chief of the comic book mayhem. I’d say I can’t wait. WHAT HAVE YOU LATELY TO STO SPREAD OF ROXANNE faithful modem adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, this film is funny with decidedly literary, but strang relevant, overtones. Steve Martin plays ‘ ‘Charlie” or ‘ ‘C. D.” The film opens with a modem swordfighting scene wherein Martin vanquishes two ski-pole brandish ing fellows with an aluminum tennis racket. Cyrano’s “ company” of men becomes the Nelson fire department, wherein all the members know enough not to mention C .D .’s nose. When the verbal repartee of the original play is called for, Martin sub stitutes 20 “ better than” jokes for a simple “ big nose” comment. One example, “ Keep that man away from my cocaine.” Then he surgically punches out his antagonist. Darryl Hannah is good, or at least fair, as the fair Roxanne, the astrono mer who falls for C D. ’s rhetoric and another guy’s body. As this silliness proceeds apace, Martin displays both his excellent skill with phys ical humor, and an ear for a well-turned phrase. Both extremely romantic and funny, but tender, Roxanne isn’t a spoof at all, but a loving and literate modernization of a dur able and engaging comedy, even funnier this time around. A THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK ack Nicholson is already being touted for Best Actor for his role in this pretty well-made fantasy comedy. He plays Dar rell Van Horn, thought by some filmgoers to be The Devil. He refers to himself as the “ average homy little devil,” and I think that’s what he is supposed to be. He shows up at the unknow ing behest of three single Eastwick women They meet every Thurs day night to drink martinis and fantasize about what they would really like out of life. One such Thursday night, their thoughts run on so closely attuned, and their collective angst is so stimulated that they cause to happen that Van Horn rushes to their town, rents the local haunted man sion. and seduces them summarily. The women are Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher, and Susan Sarandon — a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. Cher plays a bad porno graphic sculptress; Sarandon plays a mediocre cellist. Pfeiffer plays a good breeder. (Or, put them all together, you spell w-o-m-a-n.) The town suspects the scandalous goings-on at the mansion, and there is channeling through Vemonica Cartwright, as a hilariously disapproving environmentalist and upholder of the public decency, in a gem of a small part. During a later power play between the women and Van Horn, the ladies consult his book and use his occult knowledge against him. Atone point he is humiliated in front of a hypnotically shocked church congregation. The subject matter is played strictly for laughs, and succeeds. No one, truly no one. can communicate the idea of lust gone nuts like Jack Nicholson. I loved his en thusiasm and effusive abandon. All in all, this best selling novel makes it to the screen as a charming, lightweight, suc- cessful comedy. • J