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Show i r (J)i!iiiiBMe by Rick Brough Page B8 Thursday, January 13, 1983 Park City News rtw sfcft nfiH nil Kit tlW KM fcfJ A Classic Recommended Good double-feature double-feature material Time-killer For masochists . only The Quiet Worldof n$3 . ISC VI Where the Little Things Are the Big Things ... Little things like - Bubbling Streams Architectural Control Wooded Lots Underground Utilities Breathtaking Views 20 Minutes from Salt Lake Reasonable Prices 10 Minutes from Park City Estate lots lA acre plus, good financing available. Prices start at $30,000. Look for the signs and log sales office. V) Open Seven Days a Week. Pi IRTHLIN 649-7930 521-5386 Honky Tonk Man Clint Eastwood plays Red Stovall, an Oklahoma country coun-try singer in Depression times, who could become a star if he can only get to an audition at the Grand Ole Opry before his tubercular lungs give out on him. Unfortunately, Unfor-tunately, he sings like a guy dying of tuberculosis. His vocals are like his old cynical action heroes tight and emotionally shriveled and with it, the picture's creditibility sinks like a stone. You can't believe the climax, where a record company gives Red studio time for him to gasp out an album of songs. "Honky Tonk Man" is Eastwood's second attempt to play a dreamer (the first was "Bronco Billy") but he can't open up enough to show the vainglorious side of the character. In the early scenes, Eastwood has promise his face looks cocky, but undermined by inner fear. But as the disease closes in, his performance tightens up again. The picture also fails as a reprise of "Paper Moon." Eastwood's son Kyle plays the canny nephew who drives Red to Nashville, gets him out of scrapes, and even contributes song lyrics. But young Eastwood plays the whole picture with a look of glassy-eyed awe which is only effective for the scenes where he's initiated into sex and drugs. Along the road, Red and his nephew run into hick sheriffs, con men, hookers and plug-chewing mechanics. Eastwood's direction and the script allows room for several scene-stealing performances here. Alexa Kenin nearly swipes the picture as a small-town gal who trails after af-ter Red like a puppy-dog to be taken to Nashville. She almost makes the picture worth sitting through. 2 Best Friends What us this movie about? Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn teaming their schticks together? Is it a comedy about two amiable lovers who freak out as a married couple? Or is it a bittersweet story about how parents shape their grown-up children and lurk over them? In the autobiographical story by Valerie Curtin and Barry Levinson, two live-in Hollywood 'writers decide to take the plunge and get married, but they're immediately im-mediately unnerved about married life when they visit each other's parents. Her folks are Jessica Tandy Tan-dy and Barnard Hughes, a couple of well-bred eccentrics eccen-trics with a petered-out sex life. In meeting them, Reynolds becomes more impatient im-patient with Goldie's insecurities. in-securities. She, on the other hand, has trouble keeping up with Burt's rowdy parents. Audra, Lindley, as his mom, records everything with her AUTHENTIC MEXICAN CUISINE Montis v-Fririav 11 -3n-?-3n 5:00-10:00 Weekends 12:00-10:00 330 MAIN STREET 619-6900 SE n I h -A asons m - v. -. 5?" V.. ETHICS ,n A 1 i J 11 it 1 lis, 11 II k i ti it Park City Resort Lodging would like to offer property managers and all owners of rental units in Park City A CENTRALIZED CHECK-IN LOCATION that is easy to find ( 1 5 1 5 Park Avenue) and will be staffed from 8:00 a.m. - 1 0:00 p.m., 7 days a week. Arrivals later than 1 0:00 p.m. by prior arrangement. We can handle groups and individuals. Remember how busy we get? No more waiting for guests to arrive after normal business hours. Contact us now if you are interested. For information, call Enola Dangerf ield. 80 1 -649-8082. 649-872 1 . 649-6368. camera, like someone touring her own life. But the premise is too neat and it doesn't hold up. Reynolds and Hawn start debating items like whether to keep the bedroom window up or down, and we're supposed sup-posed to believe the return visits to home and hearth have aggravated their basic differences in temperament. (In five years of living together, the problem never came up?) The stars seem stifled against this serious-sweet story, and they fall back on familiar routines Reynolds with his Oliver Hardy "takes;" Hawn with a dizzy bit about doping herself up on Valium to get through a day with Reynolds' rowdy mother. The movie has some explosive funny moments (Burt's friendly punch at father Keenan Wynn nearly knocks the old boy down). But they make a loud "plop" against the picture's pic-ture's lifelessness. The Verdict Sidney Lumet's courtroom drama is focused utterly around Paul Newman, which is both good and bad. Newman gives a gripping, out-of-type performance, but the rest of the picture around him is fuzzy and contrived. He plays broken-down Boston attorney Frank Galvin, who must drum up business by passing his card out at mortuary viewings. An old legal associate throws him a bone, a simple out-of-court settlement for a medical malpractice suit. (A woman was left a vegetable after two doctors gave her the wrong anesthetic on the operating table.) Galvin decides de-cides to take the case to trial, moved by capricious idealism against the wishes of his colleagues, opponents, and impoverished clients. Newman pulls off a minor miracle by bringing life to his improbable, weak hero. He makes you believe the early scene where Galvin, sitting by the victim's hospital bed, is suddenly struck by a vagrant spark of idealism that pushes him into in-to a long, grueling ordeal. (Lumet's direction and David Mamet's script are at their best here.) Somehow Newman gives the character staying power, even while he's inept. Galvin has shaky nerves (maybe a first for a Paul Newman character) and his intention to do good doesn't make him eloquent in court, or very intelligent in-telligent in his legal tactics. (Though he clumsily exposes the truth, he's constantly out-maneuvered by opposing attorney James Mason.) In the end, Galvin has nothing to rely on but a simple sim-ple appeal to the jury for justice. (All the legal points of evidence are on Mason's side, but the rather reactionary reac-tionary message which sinks in your head afterwards is that our complex legal machinery is only used to help criminals, and juries should ignore it.) In addition, the world of the movie seems to exist solely to put Frank Galvin through his crucible. The other characters are chiefly designed for their ability to bounce him around and berate him. They include his befuddled associate (Jack Warden); the ambiguous, taunting lover (Charlotte Ramplin); Mason, with his well-oiled legal machine; and Milo O'Shea, as the peevishly biased judge. Only Lindsay Crouse, as the proverbial surprise witness, suggests any emotional life of her own. "The Verdict" is a fine vehicle for Newman, but carries little else. Now showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: Vit Best Friends The Dark Crystal The Toy Cast announced for The Apple Tree' "The Apple Tree," composed of three one-act musicals, musi-cals, will be presented in February at the Egyptian Theatre. Salt Lake Director Richard Jewkes, who did th summer's successful production of "The Night of the Iguana," this week announced his cast for the show. Well-known local actor Richard Scott will portray Adam, and Shari Summers will play Eve in the first one act, "The Diary of Adam and Eve." The second one act, "The Lady or the Tiger," will feature Dave Sturges as Sanjar and Maggie Reno as Barbara. Also in "Tiger" will be Amy Finegan as Najira and Dick Mitchell as the King. 1 The final one act, entitled "Passionella," will see Susan Jarman as Ella and Larry Sheldon as Flip. Others involved in the ensemble will include Jossie Sheya, Steve Chin, Curt Graf, Bob Richer, Teresa Williams, Connie Boyle and Tami Wrice. "The Apple Tree" will be performed at the Egyptian Theatre on Feb. 25 and 26 and on March 4, 5 and 6. It is part of the regular season of community theatre presented pre-sented at the Egyptian. For reservations call 649-9371. park city resort lodging I' u. ixk iri4li Park City. Utah 84060 Greetings from Dr. Bop! Well, Bop-heads, the time has finally come for Dr. Bop to put up or shut up. Dr. Bop is going to have to show his goods or forever hold his peace. (Dr. Bop would rather hold her piece, but that's another story.) Anyway, after weeks of mouthing off his Bop theory of rock 'n' roll in these pages and elsewhere, the time has come for Dr. Bop to drag his gnarly carcass out in the open and attempt to prove that Dr. Bop knows of what he speaks. In other words, Dr. Bop is going to play a little rock 'n' roll for any takers willing to cough up a buck to get through the door of the Alamo this Thursday and Friday. Boppin' begins at 8 p.m. sharp. The music will be loud, fast and ferocious (as well as sloppy and silly). No weak hearts need attend. Be there or be forever banished from the magical realm of Bop-land. Speaking of those forever banished from the magical realm of Bop-land, topping the list surely has to be one Mike Silver (that name's gotta be a pseudonym ) . In his letter to the editor this week (see first section) he sarcastically (yes, Mike, even Dr. Bop recognizes poorly written sarcasm) sar-casm) attacks Dr. Bop's anti-New Wave theory. Shame on you, Mike. If you'd been reading your Dr. Bop columns col-umns closely each week, you would have realized that Dr. Bop is right about everything. There's no room for dissension in Bop-land. Bop-land. Dr. Bop banishes you forever. But before you go, Mike, just consider one thing. The Rolling Stones may be cultural rip-off artists, but at least they're willing to help out those they steal from. Consider this assessment from the eminently black musician Taj Mahal (who, incidentally, will be performing at the Cowboy Bar a few days from now a show no Bop-head should miss under any circumstances). Taj says of the Stones: "In terms of getting my career started, I got a great deal of help in the late '60s from Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, who liked my harmonica style a lot. "They came to Los Angeles one time when my band and I were playing this big dance concert and I looked out on the dance floor and there was Mick Jagger dancing," Taj recalls. "Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Eric Burdon were out there, too, and I was just charmed that those guys were enjoying it. You know, they were looking up at me, saying 'Yeah, this is the stuff! ' "So I talked to Mick later and he turned out to be a very intelligent guy and a really sharp businessman. I asked if there was anything he could do to help us get into the scene over in Europe. He said he's give it some thought and a few months later we got word that we were going to be invited over to England. "When we got over there, the Stones were doing a movie and we participated in that. They also helped us with our tour got us around in England and helped us get set up over in France. "The Rolling Stones were exceptionally friendly and helpful to us," Taj concludes. Dr. Bop rests his case. Moving on to more serious matters, like KPCW's air band contests, in case you hadn't noticed, the finals of that competition have been" postponed from the original date of mid-January. According to station director Blair Feulner, the finals will still be held at the Egyptian Theatre, just a couple of weeks late, probably in early February. The problem? Well, at least part of the blame is due to a bit of a split between KPCW and the Black Pearl, the bar where the preliminaries have been held each Wednesday for the last few weeks. No more. Amid rumors of money squabbles and ill will between the station and the bar, the ever calm and collected Feulner brushes it all off as a minor dispute that will blow over. In his reassuring basso profundo voice (Blair, is that voice real or has your throat been surgically altered?) Feulner told Dr. Bop that the air band contest was simply the victim vic-tim of a management change at the Black Pearl, with the incoming leadership not sympathetic to the cause. Dr. Bop hopes so. Dr. Bop can't live without his air band contests. con-tests. Dr. Bop also can't live without the awesome array of music presented each month at the Cowboy Bar. Hopefully, the Cowboy as we know it will be around for awhile. But nothing's certain in rock 'n' roll (a lesson the good Dr. learned years ago). Anyway, according to the Dr. Bop's impeccably im-peccably reliable sources, the Cowboy Bar is in dire financial straits. Only last month, they took a big loss on the Ozark Mountain Daredevil shows, which only added to the establishment's longstanding financial woes. Changes in personnel are in the air. Hopefully, the bar's booking policy won't be drastically altered. If so,.where are all the legions of Bop-heads going to go to see topflight top-flight entertainers like Taj Mahal, the Dynatones, the Ventures, the Fabulous Thuncterbirds or John Bayley. Save the Cowboy Bar, urges Dr. Bop! Finally, Dr. Bop must admit that it warmed warm-ed the cockles of his Bop-heart to hear about the legions of fans who flocked to Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis last week to mark the birthday of that late great singer. For true boppin' rockers, the great rock V rollers never die, they just live on in the hearts and imaginations of the faithful. So it is with Elvis. Keep on rockin' Elvis (but watch out for the junk food binges and fistf uls of pills) . Which reminds Dr. Bop of perhaps the one truism remaining in today's twisted world. That is, of course rock 'n' roll is for the young. Or at least the young at heart. So don't get too grown up. And if you need emergency help in fighting off adulthood, always tune in to the Dr. Bop show on KPCW 91.9 FM every Friday from 3 to 5 p.m. Or if that's inconvenient, come to the Alamo Thursday or Friday night for some live, in person Dr. Bop. Either way, DON'T GET TOO GROWN UP. |