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Show Thursday, June $, 1997 CONAR Director: Simon West Rating: R O f .':;-7xf- 7 .frinfHRiUAHHiurn 4 r; For all of its explosions, plot twists, murders, chases and general breathlessness, there is nothing tricky about Con Air. It never pretends to be anything but an invasion of the senses, an exercise in stretch- i . 1 ' Kit ing everything beyond its natural can't navigate limits! Even when you the Buick-size- d holes in the plot and (MflEB you can't figure out who is killing who, you have the underlying satisfaction of knowing that you are getting exactly what you paid for. Gin uiwd(hd WW ''" In making Con Air, producer Jerry Here s To You, Mrs. Robinson by 'Gordon Hvolka Bruckheimer (Crimson Tide, Top Gun), virgin director Simon West and writer Scott Rosenberg (Beautiful Girls," Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead) are unabashedly going after the summer know the story The protagonist must have a conflicted past, but he (always he) must be a patriot and a decent fellow at heart In Con Nicolas Air, Academy Award-winnis U.S. a kills a who Cage Ranger drunk while defending his wife. He is hit with manslaughter three months before his daughter is bom. As the action unfolds, Cage is dollar. You er being transported to freedom by make plane but his the fat guy in the middle seat next to you in coach look like a supermodel. The Marshals' Service is transporting two dozen infamous living criminals to a maximum-securit- y facility in Alabama. Cage is just along for the ride. Needless to say, the baddies get ULEE'S GOLD nn hirty years ago, one film American cine-- I ''changed forever. Director Mike background. In Benjamin's time of transition, the oversexed and alco- I Nichols, after achieving holic Mrs. Robinson (Anne A success on Broadway, Bancroft) sets her sights on decided to try his hand at Ben. Who can forget the clasfilmmaking. On his second sic scene, in which Mrs. attempt (Who's Afraid of Robinson "presents herself" in Virginia Woolft, a play adaptafront of Ben's virgin eyes1? tion, was his first) he created "Mrs. Robinson, you're trying a legend called The Graduate. to seduce me ... aren't you?" The Graduate survived 30 Ben's desires overwhelm years and the video boom of him, and he loses himself. the '80s. Now the film returns to the big screen at the Tower Theater. As much a part of American culture as apple pie, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or the atom bomb, The Graduate is a rts Second-in-Comma- nd few lines); and the Stupid Troublemaker, the Scary Indian, the Funny Black Guy, the Crazy Hispanic and even the Effeminate are all here. Con Air is surprising for both its exciting predictability (I mean, you know everybody is gonna die, but it's the way they die) and its Cross-Dress- er FnnkMasi incredible capacity for overkill. The audience is hit with delights ranging from a drawn-ou- t shootout in which it is literally impossible to tell who is killing whom to an incredibly drawn-ou- t ending that defies geography and logic simultaneously. Through it all stands Cage, sport- ing a ridiculous Southern accent and looking a bit sheepish, especialthe standard ly when he is force-fe- d lines. John Cusack, slumming as a federal marshal involved in the periphery of the action, gets a surprising amount of screen time considering he has nothing to do but duck bullets and butch-action-he- ro yell at Colm Meaney. Yes, you will get what you pay for when you fly Con Air. If you like this sort of trip, sit back and enjoy a flight into new realms of hyperbole. Greg Beacham Ulee's Sold" Mines Bittersweet Simplicity ii ma loose and charter the flight, and here is another Summer Movie cliche: The villians must be many and must encompass all racial, intellectual and multicultural boundaries so as not to offend any group too much. The Rainbow Coalition of felons ; breaks down as follows: The Evil Genius With an IQ and a Complete Lack of Conscience is played by John Malkovich (who is probably an evil genius in real life as well); the Angry Black Man is portrayed by Ving Rhames (all glower and very '' coming-of-ag- e film, not only of the characters, but of the nation. It was made in a time of confusion, where the direction of the United States could change with the push of a button; a time when many viewed Vietnam as a meaningless slaughter of youth. The strug- gle for racial equality was nearly boiling over. The inno- Here the love story kicks in. Elaine (Katharine Ross), Mrs. Robinson's beautiful daughter, comes to town. Mrs. Robinson forbids Ben to date Elaine. Circumstances, however, evolve in a. complicated fashion. The Graduate was the springboard for many careers, as well as the inspiration for the infamous Simon and Garfunkel hit "Mrs. Robinson." It's a great film, and its charm and intelligent humor have endured. The recent trend of film (Star Wars, The Godfather, etc.) may seem cence of the '50s was long limp in the eyes of many, but gone. the opportunity to see these In came Dustin Hoffman films on the big screen is a playing 21 year-old college great one for those too young graduate Benjamin Braddock. to have seen them during Unsure of his future, he original screen runs. returns to his parents' home, Whether for the first time, an innocent d lost in or the first time in a theater, an undiscovered world. The the Tower presents a rare size of his parents' bank opportunity to view this das- account and the cushiness of sic film as it was meant to be e their class life seen. "r; shield Ben from a harsh and The Graduate starts tomorcruel reality. Ben only wants row at the Tower Theater. to float around in his parents' Discount tickets are available at pool while Simon and the Union Main Desk. Call Garfunkel tunes play in the 4 0 for showtimes. Jt -- man-chil- upper-middl- . Z97-40- plain, focusing on characters Casey Jessica Biel), a teenager not much older than her mother Helen was when she had her, treats her parents and Ulee with emotional outwardly only the same outward disdain and toward the son and daughter-in-lainward familial loyalty as Ulee. whom he feels betrayed him Penny's curiosity and innocent, by destroying their lives and unconditional love is real, not abandoning their children. His cute or melodramatic hardness and solemnity are parSometimes telling a simple tially lightened by Connie Hope story is tougher than telling a (Patricia Richardson), a friendly hard one, especially in film. nurse who rents the hooce across Nunez doesn't have this probthe street lem. He tells Ulee's Gold simply Fonda's methodical and emoand touchingry. tionally spent performance holds Ulee's Gold opens tomorrow the film together. His dry compo- in an exclusive engagement at sure and the Broadway Theater, 300 S. Director: Victor Nunez Rating: PG-1- instead of action, which in turn keeps Ulee's Gold unpredictable. Ulee sticks to routines and is 3 8x? Sometimes the simplest stories are the most powerful. Director, writer and producer Victor Nunez, who is the only director to win two Grand Jury Frizes at the Sundance Film Festival, doesn't make a big deal out of the Jackson family's problems in Ulee's Gold, but he doesn't underscore the power of the problems, either. Ulee Jackson (Peter Fonda) is a beekeeper, w . grandfather and Vietnam veteran living near the Tupelo marshes of the Florida panhandle. His son Jimmy (Tom Wood) is in jail for armed rob- stature are startling of his father Henry. HI bery and his daughter-in-laHelen (Christine Dunford) is in Orlando strung out on drugs, which has left Ulee with guardianship of his two grandw children. . Ulee is a simple man. He tends his bees. He picks up his youngest granddaughter, Penny. (Vanessa Zima), from school every day. He tries not to think about the problems that envelnn his family. But a call from his estranged son in jail, asking Ulee to find Helen because she's in trouble, forces Ulee into facing skeletons in the family closet Most filmmakers would turn Ulee's Gold into a dark portrait of lite on the fringes, hitting the audience with the stark realities of the family. Nunez trades darkness for a sparse yet moving depiction of how life goes on, even through the most troubling of times. The story isn't unique; however, Nunez's way of telling it is endearing. Nunez keeps scenes not-so-nucle- ar . . : S i reminiscent State St. Shan Fowler ' , |