Show Bizarre offbeat ‘Ms 45’ misses its target completely By JANET MASLIN NY Times News Service Poor Thana She is raped not once but twice during the first 10 minutes of “Ms 45” and is so distressed that she beans the second rapist with a paperweight She kills him She saws him into small pieces She stashes these in her refrigerator Some people’s snacking habits are not to be believed Actually — and here’s a relief — Thana is not keeping parts of the rapist around in case guests PHOTOUniversal Studios drop by Who visits her? She has no friends partly because she is strange as evidenced by the above Richard Pryor plays Joe Braxton a notoriously unsuccessful thief and con man driving a and partly because she cannot speak bus load of handicapped children from Philadelphia to Washington state in the comedy So she never explains to the audience or anyone 'Bustin' Loose' d Cicely Tyson else why these grisly events turn her into a assassin but they do She spends the rest of the movie shooting men random men any men All she needs to see is a man behaving freshly or flirtatiously and blam! Make a remark around Thana like “So I told her wait a minute no wife of mine is ever going to work” and you’re as good as dead The regrettable thing about “Ms 45” is that it has been freshly and interestingly directed most of the Miss Perry has been teaching the children in Richard Pryor directed by Oz Scott starring way through Abel Ferrera whose other feature "Bustin' Loose" produced by Robert Christian and George Coe Released by Richard Cicely Tyson Pryor a ear has tin for was called “Driller Killer” Philadelphia’s Claremont School which is being Universal Studios Rated closed because of a budget cut To keep the children dialogue and an evident penchant for ludicrous from being sent to a ghetto school with a terrible material By CRAIG HUNTLEY Staff The chicken parts that come regurgitating out of Standard-Examinreputation she decides to take them to her family back in Washington farm Thana has the bathroom drain after performed her to Along the way they face a series of perils toinitial handiwork will of course do nothing gether from bus breakdowns to a visit from a Ku discourage some of the audience for “Ms 45” The Richard Pryor is one of the more versitile crowd is that movie’s trouble for the chicken-part- s around these days who can range from Klux Klan chapter (the group ends up helping to tame turns after an initial bloodbath it very to very tender and touching push the bus out of the mud) to dealing with the spirits good high troubles of the children a Thana is played by Zoe Tamerlis who looks scenes Each child has a special problem: one is blind little like Brooke Shields when she’s made up and a in film to the in addition helped starring Pryor another is a pyromaniac another was a child little like Bianca Jagger when she isn’t his own it had and to it concieve by produced to ’s chance the prostitute in Vietnam etc Thana silence allows Ferrera company When they reach the farm in Washington it demonstrate how skillfully he can communicate a seems that all of their troubles ajre over But they character’s thoughts by purely visual means He Basically it is somewhat similar to the film ' has also paced the film crisply with James classic “African Queen” which paired Humphrey aren’t The local bank wants to foreclose on the farm Momel’s cinematography sharply attuned to the Bogart and Katherine Hepburn many years ago sell it for back taxes and out down Braxton and crook a Joe New York locations Pryor plays So a desperate search begins for $15000 which a Some of the story is set in the fashion world with who is kept out of jail on the promise that he drive which Ferrara seems genuinely familiar He even bus with eight children with a variety of emotional takes Pryor and Tyson through a wild and wooly manages to present the sight of Thana trotting and physical handicaps as passengers across the pyramid scheme called the “Trapezoid” way to wealth They nearly end up being killed but manabout the city looking for a trash bin in which she US from Philadelphia to Washington state of children is their teacher age to get away without the money can leave a hand or a foot with a certain light Running the crew The film has an R rating primarily because of Vivian Perry (Cicely Tyson) who gets Joe as a touch However no amount of stylishness is liable to driver and mechanic as a favor from her boyfriend some raw language but it is an adult comedy in the make this material palatable for the moviegoer played by Robert Christian who is Joe’s parole highest sense of the word thoughtful and with heart one that is truly worth seeing S3 officer who likes his performers all in one piece H co-starri- ng cold-hearte- Pryor demonstrates versatility in his ‘Bustin’ Loose’ film role R er actor-comedia- ns 'Chainsaw' still packing 'em in keep in mind” explains a New Line spokesman “is that it’s a very well made film” Five young folks are out for a pleasant summer afternoon drive in their van — Sally Hardesty and By DAVID HANDLER NEA Film Critic 1 am sitting in a Times Square movie house on a steamy Monday evening determined to find out for myself why a scare film made in 1974 for the astonishingly low sum of $75000 is still packing in paying customers Here as any gore fan could tell you is the horror film granddaddy of today’s craze Yes before there was “Friday the 13th” before “Dawn of the Dead” and “Maniac” and “Happy Birthday to Me” there was this one the big one — “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” written and directed by Tobe Hooper A new distributor New Line Cinema picked up the cult film last November It has grossed $65 million since then with a projection of $10 million by summer’s end Currently “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is playing in 285 theaters across America It carries an R rating “The thing you have to low-budg- et her invalid brother Franklin Jerry Kirk and Dam his girlfriend Just a nice sunny day in rural Texas They’re off to visit Sally and Franklin’s abandoned ancestral home Just an empty ruin of a house Kirk and Dam decide to take a dip in the swimming hole On the way they spot a neighboring farm and hear a tractor Kirk figures maybe they can borrow some gas from the farmer He knocks on the front door Nobody answers but since he hears noises he goes inside where he is immediately murdered by man wielding a sledgehammer and a of dried human skin His name is mask a wearing Leatherface I’ll also tell you that “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is the funniest movie I’ve seen all year I honestly don’t know if it was intended to be a send-u- p or not but perhaps I’ll be able to tell you more after I see it for the second timeU 300-pou- nd m Close-u- p Sunday July 12 1981 1 5 |