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Show by Iliek Brough - . . T-p. " I , AVl "' Caught in an impossible romance, Michael Caine shakes a disapproving finger at his amorous pursuer, Michelle Johnson, in this romantic romp through Rio de Janeiro in "Blame It on Rio." footloose' is brightest of new films ski is unremarkably bubbly, though Zieff captures her in a bewitchingly erotic moment, fresh out of the shower. The picture only comes to life in two sequences. In one a violin duet with Moore and Assante becomes a duel. (A visual pun?) The centerpiece center-piece of the film is also good: While conducting a concert, Moore fantasizes murdering wife and lover with an elaborate scheme involving drugged drinks, tape recorders and a pig-mask pig-mask disguise. Afterward, he tries to carry out the plan, and every step goes meticulously wrong. It's one of the thankfully "right" segments in the movie. awful performance, her brain seems to jiggle with everything else. Bologna acts like a stock hot-tempered gangster. Demi Moore, as Matthew's daughter, is a little off-beat (with a hoarse Debra Winger voice) but is called on to act like a cold fish. Valerie Harper Harp-er is perfunctory as Matthew's Mat-thew's wife of little patience. Only Caine overcomes your instinct to regard "Blame It on Rio" as contemptible. con-temptible. Footloose Herbert Ross' film is a dazzling, athletic musical filmed in Utah about kids who are itching to dance. After Af-ter a while, you begin to feel as restless as they do. You don't want the film's tempo to slow down at all. Ren MacCormack (Kevin Bacon) is a Chicago teen who has moved with his mother to the rural Midwestern Mid-western town of Bomont, where rock music and dancing danc-ing are virtually banned, along with books in the realm of "Slaughterhouse Five." backs the kids' repressed energies have gone in directions direc-tions that are much more dangerous. They stage "chicken runs" with tractors. trac-tors. The most reckless of their number, the minister's daughter (Lori Singer) feels compelled at times to stand in front of moving trains. (Singer gives the film's best performance. Her wild, gutsy gut-sy edge evokes all the teens in town who are on a choke-chain.) choke-chain.) Director Ross, brings a fine hand to all the dance sequences, like Ren unleashing his frustrations with a wild dance around a deserted mill (he caroms around the place like a pin-ball) pin-ball) or the funny, snappy montage of his cowboy buddy bud-dy (Christopher Penn) learning learn-ing to boogie. After this, the picture is sluggish when it shows the misguided but sincere minister undergoing a change of heart. Lithgow is good, but he plays the same confrontation scene about four times with his daughter and three times with his wife (Dianne Wiest). Fortunately, this doesn't slow down the momentum of "Footloose." But the script shovels in atmosphere. at-mosphere. The characters do nothing, but they do it in fancy settings a casino, nightclub, smoke-filled boxing arena, usually with some jazz or Cole Porter tinkling in the background. Even the Selleck charm can't withstand this picture. You can predict the "Sting"-like "Sting"-like plot twists well in advance, ad-vance, and the script doesn't even have enough sense to provide the right climaxes. (After all the emphasis on Hutton, you never do find out how Lassiter handles her in the boudoir.) The action is bland, except for Selleck's fight with a German assassin (Warren Clarke). , Jane Seymour, as Lassiter's lover, and Joe Regalbuto as a wimpy FBI man also deserve better. "Lassiter" is one of the year's limpest entries. en-tries. k Unfaithfully Yours There are only a few reasons to watch "Unfaithfully "Unfaith-fully Yours," like the joke where husky Nastassia Kin-ski Kin-ski carries a drunken Dudley Moore on her shoulder. Director Howard Zieff still gets a little mileage from the joke that Moore's leading ladies are like mountain peaks next to him. He doesn't do as well with the rest of the picture. Moore isn't very interesting as a symphony conductor, or very funny as he gets the impression that his wife (Kinski) is fooling around with a younger musician (Armand Assante). Actually the dalliance was between Assante and the wife (Cassie Yates) of Moore's best friend ( Albert Brooks ) . The story is delivered with the blandness of a sitcom, as Moore builds from twitches of jealousy to neurotic tantrums. tan-trums. You feel Moore doesn't have a character wacky enough, like Arthur, to sink his teeth into it. Kin- t A Classic Recommended Good double-feature double-feature material Time-killer For niasochists L only 2 Blame It on Rio "Rio" reminds you of the 1940s musicals that were like commercials for South America. It shows off beaches, swimsuits, carnivals, car-nivals, marimbas and scrumptious foliage. The new wrinkle is a near-incestuous near-incestuous romance, as two old buddies vacation in Rio de Janeiro with their respective respec-tive daughters. Victor (Joseph Bologna), newly divorced, wants to resow his wild oats, and urges friend Matthew (Michael Caine), whose marriage is waning, to loosen up. But Victor doesn't know that it's his own panting 15-year-old daughter (Michelle Johnson) John-son) who seduces Matthew on the beach. Thereafter, Matthew goes crazy trying to hold down his pubescent lover, who paws him in him in public, almost chirps out their secret on endless occasions, and gives him hotfoots with voodoo candles placed around his door (as a love spell). Matthew seems to deserve this and worse he's doing something loathsome, isn't he? Amazingly, Caine's dry poker-faced desperation is appealing. He plays the script with more respect than it deserves and even has the guts to wear a pair of bedroom briefs that make him look like a beached whale. It helps that Matthew is the only sympathetic character. Michelle Johnson is too dumb even for her immature character. In this (Utahns will be tickled to see the picture show off the local scenery, especially when the climax takes place at theLehi Roller Mills!) The local kids haven't heard of the Police or Men at Work. ("Where do they work?" asks one.) Ren sticks out like a large weed he's always smoothing down his kinky haircut, to absolutely no avail but tries organizing a dance that will dispel the cultural fog. (Bacon plays Ren with alert, unforced likeability . ) The local minister (John Lithgow) had spurred the town to ban rock after a teenage dance led to a fatal auto accident. The adults think they've capped the problem, but behind their V-i Lassiter Tom Selleck, poor guy, tries to look unfazed by this boring adventure about a crack burglar in 1939 London who is strong-armed by the Allies into stealing a hoard of diamonds from the German Embassy. English actor Bob Hoskins snarls a lot, as a police inspector in-spector who plans to double-cross double-cross Lassiter (Selleck). Lauren Hutton purrs wickedly playing a German countess with kinky tastes in sex. If her lovers are lucky, she only draws blood. The audience, mostly, yawns. For most of the film, the plot never moves forward. |