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Show Pesky Pee Wee is a kiddie pleaser AnSAlrSkc by Rick Brough rlllCKlCS and Robin Moench Barrymore) and the neighborhood Schwinn-bike brigade, who help return E.T. to his spaceship. ("Why doesn't he just beam up?" asks one boy. "This is reality," snaps Elliott.) Director Stephen Spielberg has a great feel for kids' innocence and their smart-alecky resilience, the love hate feeling between siblings and the 7-Eleven Uure around them. (Elliott makj fri-nds by offering a handful of iieese's Pieces to the alien.) He melds fantasy with science fiction. (The pint-sized E.T. finds a blissfully comfy hiding place in the kids' closet, surrounded by toys, large dolls, and stuffed clowns.) Most of all, the film appeals to our fantasies of a friendship that reaches across the widest barriers. The alien forms a psychic link with the boy that is both comic (when E.T. drinks beer, Elliott gets swacked) and poignant, when the two are cornered by the adult scientists. (Less sympathetic than "Close Encounters," Encoun-ters," the grown-ups are seen from the alien's point of view big-footed creatures with sinister machines and big, frightening trucks.) "E.T." is rivaled only by "The Wizard of Oz" as one of the screen's best bedtime stories. Pee Wee's Big Adventure On television, Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) is someone who usually makes me change the channel. Watching him is like being trapped in an upstairs bedroom with a loud twerpy kid who insists on showing you every toy he has in minute detail. I wasn't expecting much, therefore, there-fore, in having Pee Wee's shrill, spastic personality around for nearly 90 minutes. Indeed, Pee Wee's laughter, dancing and elaborate kitchen devices soon wear out their welcome. But Pee Wee is part of a larger world, as we see when his bike is stolen and he sets out in search of it. Along the way, the film is best when it highlights other aspects of tacky Toyland Americana such as: ghost stories about truckers; highway cafes with big fake dinosaurs in the parking lot; bad guided tours of the Alamo (the teenage girl guide has a Texas accent like an overbite); and Godzilla movies. Godzilla, especially, shows up in several references through the movie. The supporting cast is led by Mark Holton, playing a whiny, fat rich kid who sets the story in motion by trying to steal Pee Wee's bike. Some of the sequences are as old as Bob Hope Pee Wee has to ride a rodeo bull, is chased by a jealous boyfriend, etc. And a segment showing a movie studio back lot is 30 years back out of date it's pictured as a little village crowded with costumed extras and big props, where now it's more likely to look like a corporate headquarters. Despite some double entendres, "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" is a Now showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: Back to the Future Teen Wolf (not yet rated) Volunteers kids'-eye-view movie, like Sesame Street's "Follow That Bird." Only pesty, cheerful Pee Wee is more like a real kid than Big Bird. Volunteers We know we're in the '60s era because a newsreel montage rolling behind the credits features the Kennedys, Doris Day and the twist. We know we're in New England because Yalie Lawrence Bourne HI (Tom Hanks) has a smug Boston , accent you could hang a chandelier ' from. And then we know we're in Thailand because Peace Corps workers are sent to places that use chickens as currency. Beyond that, we don't know exactly where we are because director Nicholas Meyer jumps around the world of adventure fiction to blend snippets of "Casablanca," "The Bridge on the River Kwai," Lord Jim and Indiana Jones with his own wry comedy. Sound like an intriguing mix? Try adding John Candy as a gung-ho motivation expert named Tom Tuttle from Tacoma and a plot that pits a spoiled rich kid with a gambling debt against do-gooder Peace Corps-men, Corps-men, the Communist "pink menace" and a CIA agent who has a sharp friend named Mike, a bowie knife. That's "Volunteers" and you may want to join Hanks' loony crew if for no other reason than to get some cool relief from a summer of cinematic hot dogs. To escape a hammering from his creditors, Lawrence crashes a party of dippy Peace Corps volunteers flying to Asia. Reluctantly, he settles into a backwater Thai village, teaching the natives to play blackjack while his partners, Tuttle and Beth (Rita Wilson), try to better the place by building a bridge. Enter Chung Me, opium magnate, and a hard-case government man (Tim Thomerson) who have their own reasons for wanting a bridge. George Plimpton has a cameo as Lawrence's Brahmin dad. Candy is reminiscent of the best of Jonathan Winters. And Hanks goes from insufferable he tries to bed Beth after an all-night conversation by . saving, "I think I put in the hours, don't you?" to nice, but not good. . E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial Extra-Terrestrial This is a near-perfect distillation of wonder, love and laughter. E.T. is short for extra-terrestrial, an alien creature separated from his people during an Earth landing, when their spaceship is surprised and scared away by a hunting party of UFOlogists. The frightened alien finds aid and a profound friendship with Elliott (Henry Thomas), a typical, somewhat lonely, suburban adolescent. Eventually he shares the secret with his older brother (Robert McNaughton), sister (Drew k A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer For masochists only |
