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Show Seniors face aliens in well-acted 'Cocoon' I f 1 VS..:. -, - - ' " ... vi.. 'i r"i ' ' ".' i 1 Herta Ware and Jack Gilford as Rose and Bernie are challenged by a Fountain of Youth in the outer-space yarn, "Cocoon." Quickies by Rick Krough I V-i Cocoon At a key moment in "Cocoon," one of the characters reflects "It's been a long time since I took a real risk." Ron Howard's comedy-drama is clearly focused on a group of people who have to decide whether they're ready to stop living and risking. The outer-space story is just a catalyst to help answer the question. Four human-looking aliens from the planet Antarea arrive in St. Petersburg, Florida to retrieve their colleagues, who have been resting as cocoons on the ocean floor since they had to stay behind after an Earth visit 10,000 years ago. Renting a house, the aliens "energize" a pool to use as an incubator. They don't realize that three old men (Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn) have been trespassing into the pool for daily dips it's a dose of danger in their lives which are otherwise plagued by failing eyesight and the death rattles of their friends. When they dive into the "energized" pool, it's like finding the Fountain of Youth. Their reactions funny, poignant and tragic form the core of the movie and allow four fine actors to shine. Don Ameche's rejuvenated gay blade is a good follow-up to his "Trading Places" performance; Hume Cronym is fine as the oldster, saved from cancer, who falls back into the bad habits of his youth; and Jack Gilford is heart-wrenching as the rest home resident frightened by the Fountain of Youth. Best of all is Wilford Brimley's down-to-earth hero who discloses his irritation with and fear of mortality to his grandson (Barret Oliver). Regrettably, there is less of interest given to the four women in the story (Gwen Verdon, Jessica Tandy, Herta Ware, Maureen Stapleton), but they have their moments. Burly Brian Dennehy, cast against type as the alien leader, brings off the challenge of making his character warm, unearthly and a tad mischievous. A romance between the girl alien (Tahnee Welch, daughter of Racquel) and the captain of a fishing boat (Steve Guttenberg) is charming, and kept in its proper place as a subplot. And Ron Howard's nimble, empathetic direction doesn't even falter when it handles familiar Spielberg elements (glowing spaceships, the law chasing the aliens.) "Cocoon" is simply the best summer film to come along thus far. " Mad Max: Beyond.' J Thunderdome With "Beyond Thunderdome," director George Miller now has created one of the few consistently good, distinctive film trilogies an Now Showing At the Holiday Village Cinemas : '2Back to the Future National Lampoon's European Vacation Vz Weird Science Summer Rental (nbt yet rated) . action-filled fable about the remnants rem-nants of civilization fighting for territory in a post-nuclear junkyard. Max (Mel Gibson) happens across a seedy trading post, Bartertown, run by Aunt Entity (Tina Turner). Aunty needs a strong-arm because she has a OPEC problem in miniature. The town depends for fuel on underground methane works fueled by pig manure. And the foreman there is a tyrant named Master Blaster. (Actually, it's two men the dwarf, Master, rides the hulking Blaster, who can "beat most men with his breath.") Max is hired on to fight Blaster in the town arena, Thunderdome, but Aunty then exiles him to the desert to keep him quiet. There he finds a child's tribe in an oasis stranded, as in "Lord of the Flies," by a plane crash, but not cursed with ferocity. The plot almost seems like two movies. Max is content to stay at the oasis, but the youngsters yearn to return "home." And Max is finally forced to help them abscond with Master, who is valuable to everybody for his technical know-how. know-how. "Thunderdome" has a few elements ele-ments from "Road Warrior" a climactic wild road chase, and Max's friendship with wild children. But most of the movie is like nothing you've seen before. And director George Miller packs the screen with details of a world where cars, houses, clothes and people all are made of scrap parts. He also throws in Biblical vistas; views of nature that are both tranquil and scary (the desert here is more vivid than all of "Dune"); and humorous leftovers of the world that was. At the entrance to Aunty's barbaric village a sign proclaims "Bartertown. Building a Better Tomorrow," with the stuffy assurance assur-ance of a Reddy Kilowatt. At least three faces will be familiar. Mel Gibson's Max is as clear, strong and memorable as Superman. Turner is authoritative and wickedly likable as Aunty. Angelo Rossito (Master) has been in movies for 50 years. In addition, the unfamiliar Australian Aus-tralian actors supply a great gallery of characters. Frank Thring as the Collector is hulking and bald, with a voice like Hitchcock's. Helen Buday as the child's leader has a delicate girl's face stuck on a body that is lean and hard as an aborigine's. And the lead heavy, Ironbar, is played by an actor named (really!) Angry Anderson. Rambo: First Blood Part II Sylvester Stallone's second outing as Vietnam vet John Rambo is another well-made revenge fantasy. He isn't seductive enough to conceal the jingoism of the plot, but you're still caught up in his story which resurrects the bogeyman of the Vietnam experience and squelches them with zest. Rambo is released from prison to go into Vietnam to shoot photos of Americans still held in POW camps. But the weasely bureaucrat in charge of the mission (Charles Napier) has set Rambo up to find no one, so the U.S. government has an excuse to forget the POW issue. When Rambo confounds him and actually finds prisoners, he's abandoned to be captured by the Vietnamese and their Russian masters. Anyone else would be doomed, but as his commanding officer (Richard Crenna) reminds us, we're dealing with Rambo! Stallone is tortured with leeches and electrical shocks, but he comes through to blow away the enemy, upends the treacherous Napier (who actually draws more audience hatred than the Communists) and in his longest speech, grunts out that the war isn't over until the last veteran gets the respect due him. It sounds hokey, but Stallone stirs your blood into a whirlpool, and director George Cosmatos whips the story along in a hard-hitting fashion . (as opposed to the roller-coaster style of Spielberg.) The quieter moments are highlighted by the sympathetic presence of Julia Nickson, who plays Rambo's Vietnamese Viet-namese confederate. Inadvertently, the picture gives a hint of what went wrong with the real Vietnam War, when the bad guys chase Rambo through an occupied Vietnamese hamlet full of women, , old people and children. Rambo blows up the village and the Communist troops. We never see what happened to the civilians, and the movie apparently doesn't care! However, "Rambo" rarely makes such missteps and maintains an iron grip on the audience's emotions. k A Classic -i Recommended . Good double f feature material Time-killer For masochists only |
