OCR Text |
Show 0 " ' f by Rick Drouth v . v TT" Jimmy Lynch (Timothy Hutton, right) tries to console his older brother Terry (Robert Urich, left) in the rousing adventure-drama "Turk 182." Graffiti, farming, spies and sweat are ingredients in latest movie releases A Classic Recommended Good double feature material Time-killer it For masochists only "2 Heavenly Bodies If you want a movie that gives you endearing views of shapely female pelvises, this is definitely one of the most important pictures of the year. The heroine (Cynthia Dale) opens an aerobics business called "Heavenly Bodies" in an old warehouse and overcomes the slicker competition to i become the bubbly hostess of a,TV exercise ' program. - She - also fiftds time to take care of a little son and romance a football player. (Richard Rebiere) who shows he's in a romantic daze by rear-ending cars. So far, she seems to be a tribute to Geritol. (She has two other partners at the aerobics studio, but they never do anything except hand around.) Naturally problems turn up. The jock wants her to make a commitment to him. And she may be run out of business by the high-powered gym in town, since she's resisted the advances of the handsome but slimy owner (Walter George Alton) and aroused the jealousy of his spoiled blonde girlfriend (Laura Henry.) The picture is equipped with a collection of easy-to-swallow rock songs and occasionally, a number that has lively choreography and fluid camera work from director Lawrence Dane. The stars don' t have much acting ability to speak of. They've been cast for their ability to dance well on screen (or exercise well -sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two. ) To provide a climax, the two gyms settle their feud with a work-out marathon two teams will exercise until one of them completely drops from exhaustion. "Heavenly Bodies" Bod-ies" is highly recommended for those who love sweaty female physiques. The River This is the last of the current "farm movie" cycle and the least of them. "The River" doesn't have the heartfelt emotion of "Places in the Heart" or the subtle naturalism of "Country." Furthermore, the early scenes are dogged by unfortunate coincidence, because they duplicate incidents that were better done in "Country" (the natural disaster shown early in the film, the auction scene with farmers yelling "No Sale"). After that, the story tries to show something original in the struggles of farm couple Mel Gibson and Sissy Spacek. With the farm doing badly, Gibson signs onto a city factory job, only to find he's been brought in as a scab in a labor dispute. (The temporary workers have to live in the plant, held at siege by the hostile strikers. Meanwhile, Spacek struggles along at home, at one point almost getting fatally mangled by farm machinery. The two stars do their best to play modestly heroic, appealing characters but they're buffeted by events in the script. They react to things. f '""h The best performance comes from y villain Scott Glenn, in part because he's got the only role with any dimension. He's the big businessman business-man trying to push out the . river-bottom farmers so he can use their land for a dam. Glenn has a clear, cold eye that indicates both avarice and a ruthless belief in "progress." He also believably nurses an old love for Spacek. "The River" is muddled. It touches on several ideas the farm family trying to stay together against the odds; fighting the villainous Glenn; or coping with recession America, where workers are turned against each other. But the movie doesn't really deal with any of them. A Soldier's Story . "Soldier's Story" isn't a great picture, but it has some complexity and a batch of good performances. Howard Rollins plays an Army officer who arrives at a predominantly predom-inantly black military base in the late days of World War II to find out who shot a tough black sergeant. As Rollins interviews the soldiers, a portrait emerges of the Sarge as a man with a pathological hatred toward "bad niggers" that disgrace the race disguised self-disgust for his own inability to get ahead as a career army man. What emerges here is a complicated compli-cated examination about the struggle to define oneself and one's race. Rollins manages to stay interesting interest-ing in a role that requires him to be mainly a sounding board for the other characters. Other notable actors are Art Evans, as the sergeant's toady, Denzel Washington's Washing-ton's rebellious black, and Larry Riley as a simple wise country boy whose affability is interpreted as Uncle Tomming. The spine of the picture, though, is Adolph Caesar as the tough-as-nails Sgt. Waters, who looks like a black Jack Webb and finally collapses in emotional tatters of despair and bitterness. Turk 182 The story is about "the little guy against City Hall," and it's familiar to a 10-year-old, but the freshness of several elements in the picture make it appealing. Timothy Hutton is the younger brother of a New York firefighter (Robert Urich) who was badly injured when he rushed out, during an off-duty hour, to rescue a little girl from a 'burning building. Since " he was drinking in a bar beforehand, the city bureaucrats dub him a "drunk" and refuse him a disability pension. Hutton follows all the legal channels and hits a dead end on every one. (He's even personally repudiated by the mayor). Then he decides on a renegade tactic. He decorates the city with graffiti that refers to the mayor's corrupt administration and signs them "Turk 182." So far, it's a fairly routine premise. The appealing elements here are the "graffiti war" theme, plus the fact the mayor is the one who cuts his own throat. He likes to go in for big media events election propaganda splashed on a football-stadium football-stadium scoreboard, for instance-that instance-that are ideal opportunities for sabotage. He works overtime to provide large canvases on which Turk 182 can publicly embarass him! It also helps that Robert Culp plays the mayor with a bristly charm, instead of the usual pompous approach. (For a more conventional villain, Peter Boyle is thuggish and dumb as the mayor's security man. ) Timothy Hutton has a pattern now of portraying rebellious rectitude ("Taps," "Falcon and the Snowman") Snow-man") but here he's got a street-comer looseness to go along with his sincerity. He's a little like a shrimpy Stallone. Robert Urich, the former TV star, shows promise of becoming a good character actor, as the brash guy stewing in impotence. Leading lady Kim Cattrall doesn't have a chance to be more than decoration. In particular, people who like this kind of "fighting back" story w enjoy "Turk" and can overlook tl absurdities. (Hutton supposed can't land a job, but shows enouj expertise in his graffiti stunts Qualify as a technical Renaissan Man.) k The Falcon and th Snowman Christopher Boyce and Dault Lee may have been an unlikely tei for espionage, but dramatically th ; were right for each other. As played by Timothy Hutti Boyce is an idealist but a waveri one. As the movie begins, abruptly adandons the priesthood the '70s and drifts into a job witl firm that makes satellites for the C and processes minor information. When he stumbles across C cables about their manipulation Australian politics he decides protest by selling information toi f KGB. Boyce seems not to be aw of the dubious record of the CIA t was known by any alert lib college student of the era. appropriate that Boyce is t . falconry. He's both noble f flighty. While Boyce is appealing for ideals, the amoral, irresponsi Daulton Lee is attractive for his n spirit. Sean Penn steals the movk the weaselly Lee, who beca Boyce's courier to the So' embassy in Mexico City. Penn makes him a funny, tn character who is enterprising enc that he tries to interest the Soviet a drug-smuggling operation. But also goes so far off the deep end he exasperates everyone involve Against this, Hutton tends to 1 into the background, but he com a few interesting moments a character whose dreams are drag down to earth. After a while the movie begin look like an overlong docudrama TV. The families of the two spies shadowy characters and the ; friend of Boyce (played by Singer) is a token love interest, ultimately director John Schlesii gives us something sad in this ta a romantic and a hot-dogging r crushed by circumstance and t own mistakes. Now Showing At the Holiday Village Cinema Beverly Hills Cop The Falcon and the Snowman A Soldier's Story . |