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Show bv Iliek H rou jili Midsummer doldrums bring routine films i I 0 ( I I t ; fir v -Mm , . 7 An injured Cameron Dye (left) gets advice from his cool classmate Charles Van Eman on how to score with the girls in Paramount Pictures "Joy of Sex." kit-kick A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer For masochists only y2Cloak and Dagger In this Disneyesque adventure, Henry Thomas plays Davey Osborne who dotes on the video game Cloak and Dagger and gets to play it for real. He obtains a C&D cassette from a murdered man and soon three spies are scampering after him with knives and guns to retrieve the top secret information hidden there. The only help Davey has is really no help at all he's a fantasy spy figure named Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman) who advises Davey much like Woody Allen's Bogart. Jack is an impish, broad-shouldered version of the kid's plodding father. (Coleman plays both parts well.) The best part of "Cloak and Dagger" shows Davey learning to grow beyond kids' games and his father proving he can be a hero. Despite a good performance from Henry Thomas, he's stuck in a picture that is routine or ridiculous. Davey has incredible luck in getting rid of the villains. There's a surprise about halfway through the picture you can predict. And the grisly overtone to the picture almost doesn't fit with the boy's-adventure plot. The worst thug, Michael Murphy, has a hair-raising speech about what he's going to do to Davey. He's so vicious, no fate would be too cruel for him. y2 The Joy of Sex Director Martha Coolodge showed potential with her last film, "Valley Girl," but her latest looks distressingly like just another teen-sex teen-sex comedy. Two nice but horny kids (Cameron Dye and Michelle Meyerink) try to find love along separate paths. Meanwhile we watch their equally horny friends, a naive but adaptable Arabian exchange student, and the uptight adults, including Christopher Lloyd as a fascist gym coach. Occasionally, there are some nice, humorous touches going on in the background. But you're bored by the foreground action, except for a few bits. (There's an absurd sexual tension in a segment where the well-developed well-developed hypochondriac heroine goes to her childhood doctor. She ends up stripping herself in a room still decorated with toy giraffes and elephants. The doctor is completely sober, but you know is hormones are churning!) The Karate Kid The movie looks like "Rocky" material, especially since it's helmed by John Avildsen, who did "Rocky I." But the good script direction and acting emphasize character. Ralph Macchio plays a New Jersey kid transplanted to California, who becomes a human punching bag for the local bullies. (His new girlfriend just broke up with a mean-tempered guy who happens to be the karate champ of the area.) A gruff Japanese handyman (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita) heals the kid's wounds, offers him friendship and teaches him karate not just as a fighting skill but a way of life. Morita may seem an odd choice for the role, since he is chiefly known as a comic actor (he was Arnold on "Happy Days"). But he matches well with the character, which goes beyond the wide, inscrutable stereotype he has shadings of grumpiness, humor and private grief. Macchio is a perfect partner, with an unforced, appealing performance. You ' can tell the material is familiar, but it's all done well enough to be enjoyable, even the ethicalpolictical opposition set up between Good and Bad Karate. Morita, who fights only to defend, served in World War II while his family was interned. The bullies (not bad kids at heart) are formed by a ruthless karate coach who served in Vietnam and preaches a go-for-the-kill philosophy. "Karate Kid" does more than just build up to the big fight, and it's an enjoyable variation on the formula. Now Showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: Red Dawn (not rated) Cloak and Dagger TheKarate Kid |
