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Show Splendidly dressed cowboys Tom Berenger ( left) and Patrick Wayne wonder if the West is big enough for both of them in the comedy "Rustlers' Rhapsody." New heroes are Tletch' and 'Goonies' by Rick Brough A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer For masochists only VaFletch Chevy Chase wisecracks his way through the entire plot of "Fletch," but basically he's believable as a detective hero. He gives you the impression the clues are clicking together in his head like jigsaw pieces. Fletch is an investigative reporter working undercover on a California beach to look for evidence of a drug network, but he is sidetracked by a more intriguing story. A young executive (Tim Matheson) hires Fletch to kill him; he says he's got a painfylj terniinailnessan vhi,(1 insurance doesn' t pay off for suicide. Even the popcorn-munchers in the audience can smell something rotten here, and you will probably unravel the mystery before Fletch explains it. The fun lies in watching Chase slip in and out of disguises in pursuing the case. He infiltrates a hospital noticing the heavily Jewish staff, he calls himself Dr. Rosenrosen and is dragged into an autopsy. Fleeing the cops, he hijacks a young kid's car. (It turns out the kid stole the car himself.) And he even extracts information from Matheson's rural parents, posing as an obnoxious insurance investigator ("You and your wife are presently alive?"). Chase is best when he laces the comedy with a serious undertone. When a crooked cop (Joe Don Baker) shoves a gun to his face in one scene, Fletch's wisecracks keep coming, but you can see his sudden scared recognition that he could get blown away. "Fletch"'s main trouble is repetition. Fletch's best trick is to pose as a lawyer, federal inspector, etc. just long enough to wheedle information out of someone. This is fun, but less so after you see the bit seven times. The other characters are all blandly intriguing on a television level. The heroine, played by Dana Wheeler-Nicholson is a good example nice, but unremarkable. Chase needs some tne right crazy vitality. Berenger plays his Boy Scout hero stiffly and glumly and G.W. Bailey (who was good in Wilson's "Police Academy") acts like he's just visiting. V-i Mask One has vast admiration for the hero of "Mask" teenager Rocky Dennis, who struggled through life 'with a rare disease that distorted and enlarged his facial structure. (He died at 16 from the ailment.) One is also affected by the performances of Eric Stoltz and as Rocky and Cher as his mother, Rusty Dennis, whose rebel streak leads her to the outlaw life and drugs. But you come away from the picture with the nagging feeling that its a little superficial, from trying to tackle too much. Stoltz plays Rocky with a quiet, firm voice that suggests his i underlying vulnerability. And ..Cher's commanding , presence should have quieted questions about her acting ability long ago. After a while, you aren't repulsed by Rocky's face. What's painful is to see the frequent incidents when strangers see Rocky for the first time and wince. Every time he goes out in public, you dread the next wound struck at his emotions. The film gives the feeling it covered its story quickly. In one scene, we see the students at Rocky's school repulsed by his face. A few scenes later, they're won over by his kindness, intelligence and wit. What happened in between? In similar fashion, Rusty's addiction to drugs isn't shown in much depth, except we see it's partly because she can't get along with her parents. Weakest of all, her outlaw friends, a motorcycle gang, are presented as a cuddly extended family that wouldn't worry the meekest motorcycle cop. I don't want to over-emphasize my reservations too much. Rocky Dennis' story may look a bit too much like formula, but it is still a well-done film. Now Showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas : 'a Fletch Goonies Rambo: First Blood, Part II (Net yet rated) colorful characters to play against. "Fletch" is attractive enough to make you wish for a good sequel. Note: Since Fletch does some investigating around Provo, this film easily wins the award for most Utah jokes in a recent movie. ("Utah isn't exactly a place you go to visit to escape boredom," says a character.) k Goonies "Goonies" is the first Steven Spielberg Spiel-berg picture in a long time that lays back in a comfortable mold. It's like one of those kids' adventures Disney made in the late '50s. The Goonies are five kids in a a seaside . Northwest community . which is about to be bulldozed for a country club. Their only chance, figures one asthmatic Goonie (Sean Astin), is to find a long-lost pirate treasure in the area. He mobilizes the other kids, including his older brother (Josh Brolin), the local chowhound (Jeff Cohen), the smart-alec smart-alec (Corey Feldman), the James Bond fan (Ke Huy Quon) who wears spy devices under his coat and two older girls (Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton) who become honorary Goonies. A treasure map leads them into a cave filled with booby traps, skeletons and waterfalls. On top of everything else, they're pursued for the loot by a Ma Barker type (Anne Ramsey) and her two criminal sons. A third son, a huge geek played by football star John Matuszak, joins the good guys. Speilberg is the producer, and the director is Richard Donner, but in tone this Is clearly a Spielberg flick. He wrote the story, and the screenplay is by Chris (Gremlins) Columbus. The plot is ordinary, but it moves fast, and the acting is pitched at a hyperkinetic level. This has mixed results. Jeff Cohen's fat kid starts out as a little whelp you'd like to drown, but soon he starts to develop a little style. He's a child version of the crass, fat character that John Candy plays. The film also has innumerable nice touches. (When the fat kid talks with his mouth full, you get a subtitled translation.) Unfortunately Unfortunate-ly "Goonies" just can't overcome the familiar story. Rustlers' Rhapsody "Rhapsody" suffers a fatal flaw. It's too self-consciously spoofy. The plot concerns noble cowboy Rex O'Herlihan (Tom Berenger) who rides into town to help the sheep herders fight the villainous cattle ranchers. It's a dusty old plot, and, in fact, writer-director Hugh Wilson means to spotlight the old B Westerns, where the same repertory of actors repeated the same story in five movies a year. In "Rhapsody" everyone knows he's gone through t these motions ,, before., It's like mass deja vu. In i; particular the town drunk sidekick (G.W. Bailey) goes around saying things like, "There's the sheep herders. They're the good guys.. .the bad guy always lives on a ranch with a 1000 head of cattle that you hear but never see." The picture doesn't spoof Western cliches so much as announce them. This is cute for a while but gets tired real quick. The best spoofs simply display the absurdity of the old cliches. "Rhapsody" constantly jabs you in the ribs, as if to say, "There's the old bit. Isn't it silly?" What's worse, the jokes in the movie are often cliches themselves. The humor is concerned a lot with the excessive prettiness of the hero, his fancy outfits, and the way his horse Wildfire steps with the gait of a show horse. There are a few good gags (the villains position themselves themselv-es so that they shoot each other) and Wilson answers a few questions you always had about B movies. How does the hero make a living? We see Rex at the campfire, writing to his mommy for money!. But in the best takeoffs, the characters are in touch both with the spoofness and hammy reality of the original old movies. In "Blazing Saddles,'! villain Harvey Korman wanted to wipe out the good guys and get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In "Rhapsody" the actors look as if they're tired of Westerns, and tired of Western spoofs. No one has |