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Show Park Record Thursday, December 21, 1989 Page C3 Rose's war is one funny tragedy 1 Ju m by RON GEO KG Record staff writer It's an idyllic scene; Kathleen 1 Turner jogs through the rain, her wet cotton Oxford shirt clinging sensually as Michael Douglas, hair blowing rakishly in the wind and overcoat flapping, chases her down to give her a kiss that keeps her from the Nantucket ferry. And in the back of your mind, you know that Danny DeVito is howling with laughter. That's because the man is sick. In Throw Mama From the Train he established that he could find rich humor and pathos in the most mundane situations, and The War of the Roses proves that DeVito's first popular success he has made a number of more artistic ar-tistic works was no fluke. DeVito is a black humorist of huge proportions. pro-portions. He has made this film about lost love, divorce, and fat children, and it is funny. As with Throw Mama from the Train, this is no Caddyshack. The characters here aren't hyperbolic, and many of the best laughs are almost nervous. After all, we're not supposed to find it amusing when a man takes up a tire iron against his wife, but it is. In fact, there is very little about this film that looks funny on paper. In quite a few cases, it is the ordinariness of the situation that makes the film so funny; it is the couple's expectation that living liv-ing a cliche means living the see ROSES on C5 Hunks make good films; Paulina also surprises m by BRUCE MARGOLIUS ' Record guest writer Guys don't get to be television sex symbols by being great actors. ac-tors. They get there by being great looking and by paying more for haircuts than most folks do for rent. They get there by appealing to women's basest, most primitive emotions, something the rest of us earnestly wish we could do. They get there by hiring the most relentless, tasteless publicists on earth and then following their advice to the letter, let-ter, no matter how demeaning. It occasionally comes to pass, however, that television hunks acquire ac-quire some acting skills and show up at the movies (which is not to say that everyone in the movies has talent, but that's a different story), and once again on the home screen when the movie becomes videos. Two of the major television sex symbols of the early ear-ly '80s, Tom Selleck of Magnum. P.I., and Miami Vice's Don Johnson are on new home videos and, while neither is in any danger of getting a hernia carrying carry-ing his Oscars home, both act pretty well and both videos are worth renting. Johnson can be seen in Dead Bang, a police shoot-em-up with a slightly better than usual plot. Johnson is a divorced, borderline alcoholic homicide detective with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Depart-ment whose investigation of the killing of a deputy turns into a pursuit of a white supremacist group. This is a pure action picture pic-ture where the bad guys are really, real-ly, really bad, not to mention heavily armed, and too many of the good guys turn out to be wimps. So Johnson has a lot of convincing to do between shootouts. Dead Bang was directed by John Frankenheimer, who's done a pretty good job of choreographing the abundant violence as well as bringing out the paranoia and tension. This isn't up to his best work, which includes in-cludes movies like Manchuran Candidate, but he still gets a lot more out of Johnson than we ever saw on television. Selleck stars with Czech supermodel super-model Paulina Porizkove in Her Alibi, a frothy romantic comedy about an exotic mruder suspect in hopes of finding inspiration. What he finds instead is fear. He begins to worry that she in fact committed commit-ted the first killing and that he may be next. Bruce Beresford's see VIDEO on C8 RATINGS n A snooze Double feature material Recommended A classic Holiday Village Mill 049-6541 Clnemark Entertainment Passbooks Now on Sale ROBERT DE NIRO SEAN PENN 0 0 WE'RE'NO jfl-'ig Angels MON-FRI: 5: IS. 7:30. 9:50 SAT-SUN: 12:45, 3:00, 5:1S, 7:30, 9:50 llf,Of MON-FRI: 5:05. 7:20. 9:40 SAT-SUN: 12:30. 2:50. 5:05. 7:20. 9:40 KHCHAEIJ.FOX CHRISTOPHER LLOYD pc'ii ED. UMVMftAl PtCTUM coiuimia picTum MON-FRI: 5:00. 7:15. 9:30 SAT-SUN: 12:20, 2:45, 5:00. 7:15. 9:30 FOSGATI si into Lotmvi: i4Liii PG135 Nighlly Mon-Sat at 6:30 & 8:30 P.M. MDogSco Tofieaven One Show Mon-Sat at 7:30 P.M. mm DRESSMAKING THE NECESSARY LUXURY DESIGN 6U1D10 OLD TOWN PARK CITY QM DOMINO'S PIZZA" GUARANTEES... Open late Christmas Eve OPEN CHRISTMAS DAY 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. no ESHI Your pizza from Domino's Pizza is always hot and fresh from the oven because it's delivered - like magic- in less than 30 minutes. We guarantee it! So call Domino's Pizza today. 649-7788 DOMINO'S PIZZA am 2 If Delivery to: Deer Valley Park West Silver Springs We reserve the right to cancel 30 min. guarantee during unsafe, inclement weather. Call participating floras lor (Mails. Our drivers carry last than SOOO. Limited Olivary araa. 1987 Domino's Pizia. Inc. |