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Show by Hick Drough ( , b .. . ' ). ; -7-.-" YA i ' 1 'ft : YV I I 1 i : : - ' V . II, - - - - :- " I - I, : L - -J f Jennifer Beals dances in a local nightclub during her off-hours from her regular job as a welder in fFIashdance.y ' r .... A Classic Recommended i- Good double-! double-! - '(.feature material Time-killer s , Z For masochists ' vt only j Va Flashdance Lady welder Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) dreams of training in ballet, but damned damn-ed if you can figure out why. This dance musical puts all its dazzle and excitement ex-citement into the setting of a neighborhood tavern, where she performs psychedelic "flash dances" in her off hours. Luckily for her, the little lit-tle teer joint just happens to have enough costumes, sets and fancy lights to outfit a whole season of "Solid Gold." The picture's energy doesn't disguise the dumb plot, and Beals' skill as a dancer doesn't make up for her thin appeal as an ac- "Global Thermonuclear War," the machine begins feeding out information to the military about an impending im-pending Russian attack. The young hero is only prevented from starting World War III because his parents drag him away to take out the garbage. Director John Badham uses the creaky premise to attempt an uneasy combination com-bination of themes. The picture pic-ture begins as a blackish fantasy on the uses of kid-tech. kid-tech. Then it becomes a North-by-Northwest suspenser as Broderick, pursued by the government for espionage, tries to find the reclusive scientist (John Wood) who can tell the computer to stop fooling around. And finally, it boils to a climactic moral about the futility of nuclear war that is moving on its own merits, not the picture's. "War Games" is effectively packaged (especially with Matthew Broderick's engaging performance) but too thin. Leia (Carrie Fisher) ties up a few plot threads from "Empire." He even condescends condes-cends to say, "I love you" to which Leia replies, naturally, natural-ly, "I know."!) George Lucas, aided by co-scripter Laurence Kas-dan Kas-dan and director Richard Marquand hasn't lost his zest for bizarre outer-space creatures, wild locales, and breathless pace. To his menagerie, he's added Jab-ba Jab-ba the Hut, a villainous alien who looks like a slug imitating the Goodyear Blimp. The heroes also meet the Ewoks, a tough but cutesy tribe of teddy-bear creatures. Best of all, the movie brings in a new villain. The Galactic Emperor(splen-didly Emperor(splen-didly played by Ian McDiar-mid) McDiar-mid) dresses like a charnel house monk. And with his rancid smile, he's a more hissable villain than even Darth Vader. Despite flaws, the bright side of the Force is with George Lucas for "Jedi." plode an atomic bomb in Europe. (He's working with a crazy Russian general, played by Stephen Berkoff) scripted to appear to all political tastes. While the Commie villain plans to frighten Western peaceniks into submission with his bomb, the story is also careful to point out that he's a renegade hawk plotting against the more peaceable I types in the Kremlin. But politics and plot don't matter in a Bond adventure. (And here they're more boring than usual.) More to the point, Roger Moore as Bond has ample opportunity to get into car chases, scamper over trains, dangle from planes, and battle assassins. The well-stunted . action is directed at a ripsaw pace by John Glen; Moore is unflappingly likable as always; al-ways; and Jourdan makes the best stab at Bond villainy since "Jaws." Among the women, Maud .Adams is scenic, and Kirs- tress. You can't blame her too much, since the movie is a collection of rock-music set-pieces connected by a tjhn ploi'.he. , story, , deals .with (AJex'edgy, love affair with her boss (Michael Nouri); her poker-faced dog; and the other dreamers around the bar, like the aspiring comic (Kyle Heff-ner) Heff-ner) and an amateur skater (Sunny Johnson). Under the direction by Adrian Lyne, none of the characters is as interesting as the backgrounds the wet glisten and neon of the bar, and even the sparks and smoke of the welding yard. We're expected to applaud 1 Return of the Jedi Yes, the "Star Wars" trilogy is ended in fine form, as it hyperdrives along to a three-ring action-filled climax. cli-max. And yes, we get answers to all our questions about Luke, Darth Vader, and the mysterious Other person with the Force. Unfortunately, the personal per-sonal drama of the movie's heroes ends rather flatly. The conclusion is poignant, but it tastes more of simple sentiment than the mythic profundity hinted at in "Empire Strikes Back." You should watch for a character '2 Octopussy Is there anyone left who still worries that James Bond is in some danger in his wild adventures? "Octopussy" "Octo-pussy" should remove all doubt. At its most absurd, Bond runs head-on into a Bengal tiger in the jungle, and tames the big cat by simply hissing "Sit!" The other pussy is the title character, the sexy leader (Maud Adams) of a band of lady smugglers who dress in Arabian Nights negligees or fighting gymnastic outfits. Unknown to Octopussy, her tina Wayborn is inept. Indeed, In-deed, it's getting to the point where the most interesting character in a Bond movie is turn to cellulite, but when it comes to action, it lives up to the reliably muscular Bond tradition. Now showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas: The Survivors Superman III 2 Twilight Zone: The Movie Alex when she makes it into the refined ballet academy. But it looks like she's headed for boredom ! Vi War Games Matthew Broderick plays an incorrigible home-computer home-computer whiz who uses his equipment to illicitly link up with other computer systems. For his latest project, he has tapped (he thinks) into the games computer com-puter for a video company. Actually, the machine is the monitoring system for NORAD, the U.S. nuclear center deep in the Colorado mountains. And when Broderick starts playing change that hasn't been forecast very well in the other two films. George Lucas is still concerned with the good-evil sides of the Force battling for Luke's soul. But his resolution is only fine, not superb. Besides, he is hard put to find an ending that will outdo three years of speculation by "Star Wars" fans. Mark Hamill (a consistent virtue throughout the trilogy) tri-logy) is convincing as a rapidly maturing Luke Sky-walker. Sky-walker. Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is unfrozen from his carbonite slab and his rascally ras-cally romance with Princess |