Show Standard-Examine- Friday Novemter 18 1988 r n Out-teko- 90 Movies s Don Porter ! — ! F&icDmrmvy I I Snack fare ih theaters MW Sickening br' i tJVhile vacationing in Southern California last wgek the Porter family strolled through a shop- pmg mall in Santa Ana admiring expensive items we would never be able to afford Suitably de-- ! pressed we took the escalator to the top floor I x where a movie theater was located and wgre amazed at what we found: a snack bar offer- I six-ple- irQEvarious coffees yogurt cheesecake cookies brownies in addition to the standard pop- com candy nachos and soft drinks Uow that’s a snack bar 3fn Utah we’ve had the same old stuff for years — decades probably So this California theater s£ me to thinking about the dismal state of our snacks figuring out why our theaters don’t stock a greater diversity of snack foods is easy — people don’t demand it If half the people in a theater each night asked for frozen yogurt it wouldn’t take long for a theater manager to wise up and be-- I gXTselling it 3£bout the only significant change in local snack The- j bgrj in my memory is the Cineplex Odeon deci-in ! Theaters own Plitt the Utah) atjws’ (they siit to use real butter on their popcorn instead of b£2er flavoring IT appreciated this since I don’t recall ever eat- iiSEpopcorn at a movie with butter flavoring on itJVhat is butter flavoring anyway? I have al- associated it in my mind with nuclear waste ' wgjs I’m sure it’s no worse than drinking Diet Coke — I wJwch I do to excess — but the term “butter fla-- ! isn’t v&nng” appetizing in the least For much the same reason I don’t eat nachos I haven’t quite figured out what the orange stuff is that they’re passing off as cheese but I'm reasonably sure it’s not a “real” daily product It looks more like construction adhesive In fact I’ve always wanted to sneak into a theater lobby after 3oZing to see if it glows in the dark About the only items I trust are individually wrapped candy bars licorice and other chocolate jt$rps Whoppers and Rolos are my weakness One chocolate item I’ve avoided all these years though is Goobers Maybe it's because I can’t bring myself to say the name out loud when I well it was in junior high school Goobers were was a term for things you didn’t want to see in ypur food or hanging from another person’s lips Not exactly the kind of thing you want to eat in the dark — or the light for that matter -- - I know I know They’re probably very good But I’ll pass The last item on my list of snacks to avoid is the hot dog Never ever order a hot dog at a r movie theater It's like drinking the water from a ditch in Tijuana Well maybe not that bad but it’s something to consider Without being too graphic I ate a hot dog at a movie theater once and it stayed with me for 'das But then I haven’t cared for hot dogs since I atertwo of them before going deep-se- a fishing several years ago (Those hot dogs as I recall didn’t stay with me too long) point of all this is that it would be nice to see our snack bars offering new things to eat and drink Brownies cookies cheese cake and other ftems would be a great addition So next time you’re standing at the snack bar and nothing looks good to you ask the person behind the counter why they don’t stock other food items Or better yet ask to speak with the manager It may be beyond their control but they can pass the message along to someone who has authority Maybe it’ll do some good ! ! ! I Cannon Films Inc Michael and Lindy Chamberlain (Sam Neill and Meryl Streep) deal with press in 'A Cry in the Dark’ ! I ! ! ! ! Clue’ r sBen Kingsley and Michael Caine bring the same sort of contrast to an interview that they do to the screen Kingsley is dark quiet Caine has sandy hair is quicker to respond with a Kingsley is reserved in interview situations Caine seems to love them and is always looking for tfiore stories to tell Kingsley is the curiosity however: Hqw does a man who has played Gandhi and Edmund Kean end up as £)r John Watson merely a chronicler of the adventures of the world’s great-T- if detective? “You’re just like a director” he said with a smile “I have been preconceived especially by Americans as a man who plays heroes of the 20th century who are short and bald and wear white sheets” Maybe it’s the fact that Kingsley is considered a “heroic” actor that gives ’him the opportunity to portray Dmi-"tShostakovich Vladimir Ilich Lenin and Simon Wiesenthal over the next few months and all those roles came to him more easily than his current "iTIih “Without a Clue” in which he ahd Caine play comedy " Originally called “Sherlock and Me” it posits a situation wherein Watson is the smart one the real crime-solvPut Watson also has talent for martoo keting and actor he hires an ( er rr er be-Hii- se out-of-wo- rk 4 By DONALD PORTER Movie Review Standard Examiner start In 1980 in a campground in the Australian outback a woman hears her baby cry She dashes toward the family tent arriving in time to see a dingo — a wild dog — thrashing around in the doorway of the tent before running off into the night Frantically she searches the tent for her baby but finds only sleeping bags and an empty cradle Instinctively she screams in horror that her child has been carried off into the night by the dingo A search follows but no remains are found Some people believe her story most think it preposterous Still others believe she murdered blood-splatter- the child “A Cry in the Dark” is the true story of the Chamberlain family Australians subjected — by all accounts — to the most intense media circus and bizarre legal proceedings 'A Cry in the Dark' - in that nation’s history Meryl Streep plays Lindy the mother and only person to see the dingo in the tent Sam Neill plays her husband Michael a pastor in Adventist Church the Seventh-da- y At first it seems clear that the child was indeed taken by the dingo and the Chamberlains are cleared of any wrongdoing at a coroner’s inquest But when the baby girl’s bloodstained clothing is found the case is reopened and the state’s forensic experts conclude the markings on the clothing are not consistent with a dingo attack So murder charges are filed against Lindy and her husband is charged as an accessory after the fact and director Fred Schep-is- i (“Plenty” “Roxanne”) relates the Co-writ- er story in a straightforward manner And as much as this is a film about a murder trial and a family’s ordeal it is an indictment of sensationalists media practices that convicted the Chamberlains before the trial had even begun The “pack” journalism depicted in “A Cry in the Dark” — hordes of reporters scrambling after the Cham- berlains in public “Casual Sex?” A sex comedy starring Lea Thompson (“Howard the Duck”) and Victoria Jackson (“Saturday Night Live”) Basically the movie is a mess — a teen fan0 tasy set in the world of young adults aged the like characters But its endearing qualities breaking down the fourth wall and addressing the audience go a long way toward winning us over Call it a guilty pleasure if you like but it’s a fun movie (Rated R for language nudity and adult situations) “The Cheyenne Social Club” James Stewart and Henry Fonda star in this comic western about a ranch hand who inherits a frontier brothel The two actors — best friends in real life as well as on screen — are great in this movie even though it’s pretty predictable They just don’t make stars like this anymore (Rated PG for language) “Colors” Robert Duvall and Sean Penn star as LA cops Then he teaches him the correct lines and trains him to take the curtain calls deal with the photo oppor- the press conferences thus freeing Watson to do things he considers more important like solving crimes But Watson like his predecessor in the creating business Dr Frankenstein finds himself with only slightly less of a monster Holmes begins believing his press clippings more important so do people like Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard and English government officials When they need help they want Holmes not Watson Kingsley 45 became internationally famous and an Oscar winner with “Gandhi” in T 982 but had been a busy actor and a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for 15 years before that “I still belong to the company” he said proudly “I’m what they call an associate The last thing I did for RSC and maybe was ‘Othello’ in 1985-8- 6 next ear there will be a chance to do something again “But right now I’ve had the opportunity to do some movies I’ve done five of them in 18 months for both theater and television and had the chance to play five extremely dispa one-side- news pleasure period in which City in 1964 and details a a crazed rapist returns from prison to exact vengeance on his intended victim The cast is excellent and the story gripping (Rated R for language and violence) “Stand and Deliver" Edward James Olmos (“Miami Vice”) and Lou Diamond Phillips (“La Bamba”) star in this true story about a high school math teacher in East Los Angeles who inspired his students to do incredibly well A wonderful funny story that’s well told and acted (Rated PG for language) “Three Men and a Baby” Tom Selleck Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg star in this remake of the recent popular French comedy “Three Men and a Cradle” about three inswinging bachelors who are forced to care for an fant A funny but a safely mainstream buddy movie Good performances especially by Selleck (Rated PG for language) 36-ho- ur Video Vignettes Don Porter Standanl Examiner stall assigned to police the gang warfare raging in the streets Dennis Hopper (“Easy Rider") directed this movie which relies on the tried and true formula of an old cop confronted with a young inexperienced new partner The film is gritty the plot routine but Duvall and Penn deliver tremendous performances And the lack of resolution between their characters is a gutsy move on Hopper’s part A very good film Seven minutes have been added for the video version that weren’t in the theatrical release (Rated R for violence language adult situations and nudity) “Five Comers” John Patrick Shanley (“Moonstruck”) wrote the screenplay for this film which is set in New York contrast on off screen cap and handle seemingly cold uncaring bluntness Her honesty and demeanor were misinterpreted by both the public and the media as indicative of her guilt The performances by Streep and Neill are remarkable (They also starred together in “Plenty”) Streep totalis her usual chameleon-likesel- f ly submerging herself in the character complete with a seamless Aussie accent As someone else recently said Streep is presenting a problem to film critics because we’re running out of adjectives to describe her astonishing abilities “A Cry in the Dark” although a fine film is not particularly pleasant to watch it's difficult to see these strong people endure this much pain resentment and ridicule But it’s also educational to a certain degree — if only to glimpse another perspective on a case that seems so in print and on the nightly d it guilty 25-3- in jabbing microphones and cameras in their faces — is shown as the ugly monster it is invading the privacy of individuals and failing to understand or convey the uniqueness and subtleties of the case to the public The Chamberlains’ firm belief in Christ’s second coming at which time their family would be reunited with their lost daughter helped them confront the crisis with relative calm During the initial interviews with television reporters Lindy explained the child’s abduction with ‘Casual Sex?’ a mess so call named Reginald Kincaid gives him the name of Sherlock Holmes a pipe an Inverness cape and a deerstalker tunities pleasure to view Cry’ fine film but no stars studies By JOE POLLACK §t touts Post Dispatch one-lin- 6 rate characters A single role might cover 18 months on stage That’s not necessarily bad or wrong but that’s the way things have been” Kingsley and Caine work beautifully together even though it’s the first time they’ve done so “We had an easy rapport” Caine said “I knew I wasn’t going to meet Gandhi He’s an actor and a brilliant actor and he makes me better I was a Holmes fan but I never thought I’d get the chance to play him” Caine was hired first and a number of actors were discussed for the part of Watson Industry gossip has it that John Candy Danny De Vito and Robin Williams were among them Both Caine and Kingsley decried the idea of matching a comic with a straight actor “To me” Caine said “you can’t be a comic and just do shticlL The comedy comes from the script and from the director You need faith in him to hope he’s real and that it will be funny when it’s on the screen” Kingsley felt similarly “We worked to please the director” he said “That’s all actors do They want to please It’s in our psychology We want applause because it shows we pleased someone” He paused then continued: “Come- dy involves amazing faith in the director You do a gag in rehearsal and the crew laughs You rehearse it apin They don’t laugh You do it for the master shot No laughs Then a close-up- s remidshot a two-shtime takes By the you’re finished you may have done a gag 20 times without hearing a single laugh “That’s very difficult because by then you have no idea what will happen when it finally come out on the screen And then you go to the theater and see this painful experience and people laugh" Caine also has been doing more comedy and has another one “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” with Steve Martin ready for release soon “I guess I have done more comedy as I’ve gotten older” he said “I like the instant reaction from the crew when you do comedy and even though the acting is sometimes harder the result is happier” Kingsley hasn’t done many comedies but he didn’t feel this was a problem “Even in a serious piece” he said “I always look for the wit in the character You need the wit to present the tragic side even in ‘Hamlet There was humor in ‘Turtle Diary even though it was rather subdued and Basil Pascali in ‘Pascali’s Island’ is sometimes funny even though he himself doesn’t realize it” Kingsley stopped and his eyes twinkled “The other thing I haven’t done much of” he said “is to play love scenes Great heroes don’t have love scenes I guess and of course neither does Dr Watson” ot Orion Pictures Coro Michael Caine (top) and Ben Kingsley I 1 i |