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Show The Newspaper Thursday, October 23, 1982 Page B7 WEE! by Rick Brough t A Classic Recommended Good double-feature double-feature material Time-killer For masochists . only Amityville II: The Possession The second "Amityville" movie looks back to the earlier tenants of the house a family shot to death one night by the possessed elder son. This emotionally troubled clan is ripe for exploitation by some evil spirit. It's headed by a brute father (Burt Young, doing his standard proletarian character) and a high-strung, religious mother (Rutanya Aida). The son looks so disturbed that he might turn violent even without the sinister voice that comes over his radio earplugs, telling him to wipe out his family! (Jack Magner is good as the son, though he doesn't differentiate differen-tiate himself from the young actors like Michael O'Keefe and Tim Hutton who currently current-ly set the fashion for playing wayward adolescents.) The doomed family doesn't take the hint from the flying dishes, chilly winds out of nowhere, and Holy Water that turns red. Director Damiano Damiani hypes the plot by showing us what the victims don't see the camera often takes a demon's-eye-view, flying and floating around the house. The script, however, is a hodge-podge of elements. After the bloodless haunted-house antics early on, we see the family killed in crisp Capote style. And the last segment apes the "Exorcist" with a neighborhood neigh-borhood priest (earnestly played by James Olsen) who tries to save the son's soul because he feels guilty about not preventing the mass slayings. "Amityville II" is not true to itself or to details from the first movie. The house is the same, with the same attic-windows-like-eyes effect, but in the first film, news accounts ac-counts showed the son was a bearded shaggy type, and here he's clean-shaven! Amityville II is designed for those with little taste and short memories. Halloween III: Season of the Witch We know most television commercials can drive you bugs, but this is ridiculous! Dan O'Herlihy is an evil Halloween-novelty manufacturer manufac-turer with saturation TV ads that have every kid in America wearing one of his masks. Little do they know ... His special Halloween commercial is designed to trigger a hideous transformation transfor-mation in the masked kiddies kid-dies that will unleash a stream of vermin, snakes and spiders upon the world. Don't ask us to explain it, but it's all related to the villain's perverted sense of humor ("He's the guy who invented sticky toilet paper," says an admirer); a wad of high-technology; high-technology; a column of rock swiped from Stonehenge; and the witchcraft ritual of Samhain, which was last mentioned by the doctor, Donald Pleasance, when he saved baby-sitter Jamie Lee Curtis. (Bet you were wondering won-dering why they called this "Halloween III".) Tom Atkins and Stacey Nelkin play the two ordinary folk who sniff out the plot and travel to the Irish fiend's mask factory in Santa Mira, California. (Twenty-five years ago, the town was the setting for "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." In "Season of the Witch," it's a company town, and about as Gaelic as a theme park.) The heroes encounter mysterious bloody deaths, killer robots, Kimball Art Guild elects new officers The Kimball Art Guild installed its new officers at a coffee held at Nancy Nip-kow's Nip-kow's home Oct. 13. The new officers will serve a one-year term. They are: Nancy Nipkow, president; Katie Coontz, vice president in charge of programming; Cindy Huseth, vice president in charge of membership; Ute Ruzicka, historian; and Julie Manwaring, treasurer. The guild is involved in numerous center programs, including arranging docent tours of the center, sponsor and more phony scares than you'll find at a political debate this fall. The "Halloween" cycle should end with this non-sequitur sequel. First Blood Whenever you see a movie tough guy (Eastwood, Branson) Bran-son) stand there quietly and get manhandled you know that's code language for "Watch out! This guy is a powderkeg ready to go off!" Sylvester Stallone gets the treatment here as John Rambo, a disheveled vet who is arrested for his looks, and is beaten by the redneck cops in a small Northwestern North-western town. In return, he pummels them and escapes to the woods, but even then the cops don't understand what they've started. Rambo, Ram-bo, you see, is the Green Berets' deadliest graduate in the art of guerrilla warfare. "First Blood" is a gripping but relentlessly manipulative revenge fantasy fan-tasy on behalf of the Vietnam Viet-nam veterans who were stigmatized for a war they had little control over. The film plays up to the audience, audi-ence, encourages us to snicker snick-er knowingly while the sheriff (Brian Dennehy) vows he'll have Stallone back in jail within hours. He's the butt of the movie's joke It seems appropriate that when the Green Beret Colonel (Richard Crenna) shows up to say "you'll be sor-ry," Crenna has the look and intonations in-tonations of Johnny Carson setting up a punch line. Obviousness aside, director direc-tor Ted Kotcheff uses an effective ef-fective clean-limbed action style that makes good use of locations like a precipitous cliff, and a winding, rat-filled rat-filled cave and packs a great windup in Stallone's guerrilla assault on the town. The script allows good two-dimensional performances. perfor-mances. Stallone is just animalistic enough to make you understand why he's written off as a brute. This may be his first non-Rocky acting to gain popularity with audiences. Dennehy's sheriff is wrong-headed, but he's neither villainous nor an oaf. "First Blood" has its faults (including a "big. speech'" for Stallone tacked on at the climax) but the gritty style makes them easier to swallow. y2 The Pirate Movie "This is a beach party movie," says the Pirate King, "and I'm Frankie Avalon." Actually, he's not far off, since the "Pirate Movie" has the jokey, adolescent spirit of the "Beach" movies the kind that made 60s kids in high school think, "I could do that." The pirates act like Eric Von Zipper and his motorcycle gang. Annette Funicello is played by Kristy McNichol, a plain-jane who dreams her way back to the days of the Jolly Roger. And Christopher Atkins is Frankie Avalon a young orphan raised by the Pirate King (Ted Hamilton), who defends Kristy against the buccaneers The film begins as a bracing swashbuckler, but it's clear the old Hollywood-style Hollywood-style pirate movies, with their studio tanks, could do more than director Ken An-nakin An-nakin achieves here with some clunky battle scenes, a full-scale ship, and miles of Pacific. The Australian scenery is treated like the background for a TV special. The script soon begins to joke things up. Characters comment, a la Groucho, on the picture, or run around in silent-movie style. There are gag references to "Star Wars" and "Raiders"-even an animated sequence with deep-sea disco fish! McNichol Mc-Nichol helps you to have fun ing the summer Art Guild Auction, and helping with openings of new exhibits at the center. Outgoing guild officers are: Linda Myers, president; presi-dent; Connie Marolt, vice president in charge of programming; pro-gramming; and Nancy Witt, vice president in charge of volunteers. Ute Ruzicka and Julie Manwaring were also historian and treasurer respectively re-spectively in 1982. Nancy Nipkow served as vice president presi-dent and chairman of membership. with this piffle, and she's helped by Bill Kerr as the modern major general, and Garry MacDonald as a oowaraiv cop. What makes the movie insulting, in-sulting, instead of just fun, is that it's a rip-off adaptation of "Pirates of Penzance", meant to pre-empt the forthcoming forth-coming movie version of the rediscovered operetta. The Gilbert and Sullivan tunes have had modern lyrics added, ad-ded, and are thrown in with the new teen-dream songs written for McNichol and Atkins. Nothing in this film gets raped and pillaged more than the music! y2 Split Image Ted Kotcheff directed this unevenly thoughtful study of a young man dropping out of the vacuous middle class, turning into the drone in a religious cult, being kidnapped kid-napped and purged by a deprogrammer, and then left, by himself, to find a new honest direction. Young Danny looks like a level-headed kid, but as played by Michael O'Keefe, he has a desperate, off-center off-center intensity, as if he's trying to escape from something. When he visits Homeland, we see the process of cult indoctrination indoc-trination "love bombing," constant communal cheer-leading, cheer-leading, and lack of privacy. Even so, you're not convinced convinc-ed the openly skeptical Danny is won over by this unctuous group, especially given Peter Fonda's thin performance as the preening, pious cult leader Kirklander. The movie is better at exploring ex-ploring the crazy, frustrating paradoxes of the world outside the commune. Danny's parents (intelligently (intelligent-ly portrayed by Brian Dennehy Den-nehy and Elizabeth Ashley) are glibly attractive, indulgent in-dulgent (the family dog has more toys than the average kid), but still loving enough to be hurt by their son's desertion. As the deprogrammer, James Woods is a man cheerfully afloat in a scummy scum-my world. He has insight without integrity. He understands under-stands yearning of the cult kids for an ideal, but isn't above selling salvation to the parents like a vegie slicer, or using their endorsements later to enhance his rep. (He also seems motivated by some personal animus toward Fonda.) Karen Allen has warmth and candor as O'Keefe's girlfriend in the cult. (When these two reflect on their old lives, they sound like aliens inhabiting the bodies of humans.) This leads to the movie's moral that "young love" will provide a new direction for them. With such lapses into simple-mindedness, "Split Image" slips away from being a truly gripping picture. l2 Sorceress This movie has monstrous gods, mighty warriors, c New SUMMIT SUPER CHECKING 1 HIGH YIELD r$ COMPLETE LIQUIDITY Write SAFETY HASSLE-FREE Effective October 21, - Rate can change daily, interest earned is reinvested. The first $1,500 is held m an interest bearing checking account, earning 5' the currcnr maximum allowable by law, and is fully FSLIC luscious maidens, reincarnated reincar-nated sorcerors and acting performances with all the fervor of an English-French language record. Leigh and Lynnette Harris play twin warriors who are psychically linked, like Bumas' Corsican brothers. When one is making love, the other is uh distracted. They are threatened by their villainous father, Traigon, who wants to sacrifice them to the god Calgara, but they are rescued and guided by the good wizard Chrona. The plot may sound like a war between competing detergents, but it's standard sword-and-sorcery action. The film is only worth sitting through for the spoofy touches at the end of the film. (The earth opens up and dozens of undead warriors pour out. But instead in-stead of attacking the heroes, they lunge straight for the sacrificial virgins. Explains one good guy, "They've been buried for two thousand years.") Now showing: At the Holiday Village Cinemas: Annie Author, Author '20n Golden Pond '2 The Pirate Movie Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan Yes Giorgio (not rated) XT Pays 1 Open Your SUMMIT SUPER CHECKING Today m m m k HHHI Hi lllll 9nl DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOE SUMMIT COUNTY TREASURER v?o SUMMIT SUPER CHECKING pays more than money market funds. checks at any time for Your funds will be protected by a combination of FSLIC insurance and Government Agency securities. All transactions handled automatically each business day for you. No fees, charges or paperwork. paper-work. (If your balance falls below $300, the monthly service charge is only $3.00.) insured by the FSLIC. All funds over $1,500 are held in a repurchase agreement. A repurchase agreement is neither a savings account nor a certificate and is not insured by the FSLIC; rather, it is fully backed by U.S. government agency securities. Summit Savings AND LOAN ASSOCIATION 1 750 Park Avenue. PO Box 2519 Park City. Utah 84060 Telephone 801-649-9335 any amount. EQUAL HOUSSS LENDER mm Gwen is well qualified for this job and would like to work for you. She is a native of Summit County, knows the people and will work hard for their interests. |