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Show The Park Record D Section B Thursday, April 1, 1993 Page B3 Whaddya think, we were born yesterday? Born Yesterday by Rick Brough Billie Dawn is the original ditzy blonde, who turns out to be not so ditzy. It seems like an obvious role for Melanie Griffith with her bee-stung bee-stung lips and tinny voice. Maybe it was too obvious. Griffith gives a bored, listless performance (in the role that won Judy Holliday an Oscar in 1950). Perhaps Griffith has played so many updated variations of Billie over the years, that she found she had nothing to give to the archetypal "Dumb Blonde" part. Garson Kanin's original play dates from the late Forties, but hardly anything's been changed in the story's Washington D.C. setting, except that the reporters now work for NPR. billie is the mistress of crooked blowhard, Harry Brock (John Goodman), a junkman turned developer who blows into Washington to bribe a gaggle of Senators so a military base (near his planned Brock Village) will stay open. Billie's major chore in life is to sign papers (as the figurehead president of Harry's companies) and to acclimate herself to the TV schedule when she's in a new city. Billie's gaffes at parties and press interviews embarrass Harry, so he hires reporter Paul Verrone (Don Johnson) to "smarten her up." There's a fairly amusing sequence where Verrone uses baseball signals to cue Billie on the right Washington cliches to use at a social. GROUND HOG DAY m AllnllS U U Hl Xlllh II li Mi St. It. l vrl O , lillil M l " s ! lr v i."g v i m i i i w ' ii i.-..-.L- i i -m, a . m. . J-'-'" r" I I ' ., , t : J . , t g- 1 J 7i I ' h 1 "Tin in - I .nin.ii.iiriS 1 1 n Iimp t crt w iJ I M Si). HOlll. Ht'lMir N INJ A TURTLES III B COME MtET A NINJA TURTLE mo 7:t & sm SATURDAY, APRIL) "tfy Sil- r:?ir'P05'e,St Photos Available! III MIDI Mtllll. ICIM-I Dally: 3:11. 7:70 & (Ml Siit. Ai.it. i:ii AN MH S IMHIO 1:1 D I H .' M1 IM-IMH I Im i mil lb hrt I 'in imiM-in i m .' M'i priMn Unfortunately, Johnson (Griffith's real-life hubby) is miscast, coming off as a smug, blow-dried smart alec. (His only redeeming quality is that he's balky in the ways of romance, and Billie has to teach him.) The movie is standard schmaltz (half lame humor, half pathos) as Billie learns about the Constitution and crooked Washington politics, and eventually acquires the nerve to stand up to Harry. The film's most strained Capraesque moment comes when Billie teaches a roomful of Senators how to memorize the Constitutional amendments by setting them to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The movie maintains some interest due to two actors. Goodman's Harry (in contrast to the 1950 version with Broderick Crawford as a barking broad-shouldered operator) is more like a big, petulant baby. He can hurt his underlings badly when he lashes out, but he's rather shame-faced about it later. Another nice note is struck by Edward Herrmann as Harry's fallen, blue-blood attorney, a former state's attorney general who is ashamed, behind his wisecracks, at his present status. Bridget Fonda tries to balance her career and personal life PARK CITY HOME VIDEO 1821 SIDEWINDER DRIVE PROSPECTOR SQUARE RESERVATION HOTLINE 649-2572 Movies Camcorders TV's Video Players Games Sun-Thursll-9 Fri-Sat 11-10 NOW PLAYING Under Seige The Player Mr. Baseball Singles Last Of The Mohicans Sneakers Of Mice And Men Whispers In The Dark Waterdance Cool World A league Of Their Own Lodz Ghetto Rapid Fire Death Becomes Her Mo' Money Diggstown Candyman Unlawful Entry Interceptor Boomerang Love Kills Raising Cain Honeymoon In Vegas Little Nemo Man Trouble A Stranger Among Us Poison Ivy Buffy The Vampire Slayer Prelude To A Kiss Leaving Normal 3 Ninjas Single White Female Patriot Games Thunderheart Lethal Weapon 3 Falling From Grace Stay Tuned K2 Far And Away Housesitter O Pioneers! Schorchers COMING APRIL 7 Consenting Adults Point of No Return .12 by Rick Brough Bridget Fonda plays a government killer, code-named "Nina," the deadliest woman ever trained to assassinate a person in her underwear. Fonda and a few of her cottars lend dramatic "weight to what is basically a nasty, somewhat ludicrous re-make of the French film Nikita. The story begins with Fonda, a sociopathic junkie in Washington D.C, hauled in as the only survivor in a gun battle with police. Even though she's plugged a cop, the desk sergeant thinks nothing of it when she asks, "Can I have a pencil?" Bad judgment call, since she impales his hand on it In one of the movie's many dim displays of logic, various male cops, government operatives, etc., are constantly letting their guard down, around a woman who would arm-wrestle Hannibal Lecter.) Her peculiar talents are spotted by a "talent scout" (Gabriel Byrne) and after a fake death by lethal injection, Fonda wakes up in a government school for assassins. In this school, a failing grade means you get buried for real; a demerit means you get shot in the thigh. On the bright side, she learns a trade. Byrne is her Control agent, teaching her discipline, martial arts and firearms. There's even a finishing-school teacher (Anne Bancroft) who teaches her how to mix in at VIP occasions and how to use the right fork (presumably, before stabbing someone with it). the picture means to present us with an irony. While Fonda has been trained as a killer, she's also been civilized, and, at her first undercover posting in California, she's attracted to the prospect of a ' life with a mellow boyfriend r ' (Dermot Mulroney). You've seen this plot beforethe criminal who wants to pull one more job and then quit Fonda has to fight her thuggish bosses at the Agency, including a partly-sympathetic partly-sympathetic Byrne, but it would be more interesting if she also had to fight her own latent homicidal impulses, too. Fonda, a good actress, has to deal with campy moments in the plot, like her "underwear kill," where she leaves Mulroney in a hotel room bed, sneaks into the bathroom, and pokes a high-powered high-powered rifle out the window. While she's trying to concentrate on her target, Mulroney insists, at that very moment, on proposing to her through the door. See, it is hard for a woman to balance a career and a personal life! Point of No Return tries to tell a story about a world full of secrets, 1 deceit and double-crosses, but if can't be very convincing when you can predict the plot twists. The other stars, especially Byrne and Bancroft, do their best It's almost an in-joke when Harvey Keitel 1 (star of many a savage crime movie), turns up as the agency's Roto-Rooter man. When a hit goes wrong, he cleans up the blood, eliminates witnesses (even his own colleagues) and maims the bodies to make them untraceable. (If that means pouring sulfuric acid on a casualty that's not quite dead yet-what's yet-what's a little boo-boo among friends?) County news. Every week. The Park Record i Our ratings system: A classic Recommended Double-feature material Time-killer For masochists only . 1 . , i mam From Italian ' ' A-' dining. yT dancing & good times... J Dried Flower Designs a cottage industry CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO THEIR SPRING GIFT SHOW To Be on Exhibit AtBark City's Newest Hot Spot THE 651 PARK AVENUE APRIL 3rd & 4th FROM 11 :00 'TIL 6:00 FEATURING: SPRING CENTERPIECES, WREATHS & SPRAYSPOTPOURRI EASTER BASKETS & BONNETS GALORE & LOTS MORE!!! Come, experience "THE COFFEE COTTAGE" sip their gourmet coffees as you make your selections and prepare to come down with a severe case of spring fever! Gail Marie Walton 649-2882 ' RIstorante BAR More than pasta! Specializing In freah seafood, pasta, chicken. Teal, steaks, ciopplno & traditional Italian tare Swing ilnntr tlilly from 5:30 pm Spiclils Hlihllyl A private club I nr tha banaflt ol mmbr. Sports on Big Screen TV 0pm till it 11:30 im Sinlat toot ill iif iff mm 1 14M1 1 ...to the wUdeat flSt CHOW and FIRE SAUCE Opiiudilly it 11:00 mi limit tram 5:30pm In mm& otter Opiiulilly it 11:30 im - i Holiday Village Mall 649-6541 Bill Murray 5gg Groundhog Day Q 4:457:30 MON-FRI 2:15 4:45 7:30 SAT -SUN the Crying . GAME 9:30 MON-FRI 9:30 SAT-SUN A fiopN Yesterday V - 1 MFI AW1F .lOHN J DON Griffith Goodman Johnson 1551 4:30 7:15 9:30 MON-FRI 200 430 7:15 9:30 SAT -SUN .... )..j.,L,.. l,..l..,,.l.M.-.U JUUU..J mi..M. ..j.l mii..i,H.i.J....,),.f TO.i. j.,.M..J ' WINNER OF 2 ACADEMY AWARDS "Best Picture" "Best Director" UNFORG I VEN CLINT EASTWOOD sr. El 4:15 '7:00 '9:45 MON-FRI 1 :00'4:15 7:00 '9:45 SAT-SUN -SB- .;y;y "Tired of Running Around" Trying To Find The Right Air Fares? Let Aristocrat Travel Do the Running for YOU!!! DESTINATION: HOUD TOIP FACE: Boston $550.00 ChicAqo $275.00 MiiNNEApolis $265.00 NEwYoRk $555.00 Houston $255.00 OnlANdo $555.00 Miami $599.00 BANqkok $780.00 Hawah fROM LAX $229.00 HawaH fROM SLC $555.00 HAWAiiLANd PAckAqE $555.00 LoNdoN $550.00 ParIs $550.00 Rome $550.00 FRANkfURT $550.00 Call: (801) 645-9770 Park City, Utah (Located in the Gables Hotel) |