Dec. 11. 1991
The Lance • St. Andrews Presbyterian College
Page 5
n Spotlight On
D^ejbcr
Hook
Good lord, can any
one stand the suspense
anymore? With a
budget of over $70
milUon, director
Steven Spielberg is
hoping that we’ll
all be in line for his
version of Peter
Pan’s epilogue.
Robin Williams
stars as the grown
up Peter Pan, Dustin
Hoffman as Captain
Hook, and Julia Roberts
as Tinkerbell (wouldn’t ya
know it?). Spielberg’s mod
ern tale begins with Cap’n
hook who kidnaps Peter’s
children. With the adventures
ofNeverneverland in his dis
tant past, Peter must regain
his youthful imagination and
advenmresome spirit in or
der to rescue them. This could
be the family movie/Christ-
mas release that walks away
with all of the ticket sales.
(TriStar)
sino in the desert, and Las
Vegas is born. Other gang
ster movies have died a the
box office already, remem
ber Mobsters and Billy
Bathgate) Can the Beatty
charm and the extra pub
licity of the Beatty-
Bening baby provide
enough pull in the
theatres? Barry
Levinson {Rainman,
Avalon) directs.
(TriStar)
Father of the
Bride
The 1950 Spencer
Tracy, Bette Davis, and
Elizabeth Taylor clas
sic gets a re-do starring
Steve Martin, Diane
Keaton, and Kimberly
Williams. Putting to
gether a wedding
proves hilarious enter
tainment — as does
Martin Short as the
wedding coordinator.
This feature if rumored
to be tlie sleeper hit of
the Holiday season.
(Touchstone)
JFK
Oliver Stone’s anxiously
anticipated feature on the
murder of John F. Kennedy
has had curiosity brewing
since it began filming. It
chronicles the crusade by
New Orleans District Attor
ney Jim Garrison to uncover
what he expects was an assas
sination conspiracy against
the President. Kevin Cosmer
stars as Jim Garrison, the sup
porting cast includes Sissy
Spacek, Gary Oldman,
Tommy Lee Jones, and Kevin
Bacon. Pay close attention
because the real Jim Garri
son puts in a performance as
Judge Earl Warren. With the
screenplay by Oliver Stone
and Zachary Sklar, it is based
on On the Tail of Assassins by
Jim Garrison, Cnssfire by Jim
Marrs and “public sources.”
(Warner Bros.)
Nick Nolte and
Barbra Streisand
The Prince of
Tides
Warren Beatty and
Annette Bming
Bugsy
Warren Beatty surfaces
from post-Madonna ob
scurity to star as gangster
Benny “Bugsy” Siegel.
Bugs falls in love with the
Hollywood glamour of the
1940’s. Soon after he falls
for Virginia Hill (Annette
Bening), builds her a ca-
Kevin Costner
New York psychiatrist,
Barbara Streisand, tries to
help her depressed, sui
cidal patient "by probing
childhood memories and
horrors through her
client’s twin brother, Nick
Nolte. Based on Pat
Conroy’s best-selling
novel of the same name,
Nolte, a down-on-his-luck
high school football coach
from South CaroUna and
brilliant-but-unhappy-at-
home-shrink, Streisand,
explore each other’s sor
did past and try to make
their present lives worth
living. Streisand
also directs. (Co
lumbia)
Rush
70’s narcotics of
ficers Jennifer Ja
son Leigh and
Jason Patric {The
Lost Boys, you know
— Julia’s new beau)
both become junk
ies in order to make
the big “bust.”
Rock ‘n Roll
great, Gregg
Allman, sans
guitar gets
into that
“acting
thing.”
Fellow
guitar god
E r i c
Clapton
provides the
soundtrack.
(MGM-Pathe)
Screen Demon
Graveside Humor for the
Macabre at Heart
Released in time for the Thanksgiving Holidays,
The Addams Family is definitely one of the most
awaited films of the season. And after I awake from
my deepened state of triptophan sleepyland, I de
cided to invest a little time and check out the
Addamses in their reincarnations for the silver
screen.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one — The Addams
Family had the largest Fall three-day opening in
history. It jumped to the Number One box office
position by bringing in $24.2 million dollars in
ticket sales.
Most of us are only familiar with reruns of the
1960’s television scries, but the kooky characters
that are so familiar to us were originally a comic
strip serial begun in 1932. Cartoonist Charles
Addams introduced his macabre and loving Addams
clan in the magazine, “The New Yorker,” and ran
over 1,300 serials containing the darkly-humorous
adventures of Gomez, Morticia and the rest of the
family. . . .
One thing that stands out in this picture is its
visual emphasis. This film screams of great produc
tion design, effects and direction. Richard
McDonald provided the set design and did an
incredible job creating the Addamses deteriorating
Victorian mansion from scratch. Visual effects,
most notably “Thing,” were coordinated by Alan
{Beetlejuice) Munro and Chuck {Ghostbusters, and
the upcoming Batman Returns) Gaspar. Addams
Family provided Barry Sonnenfeld with his directo
rial debut: but his rich and strong comical style
should be no surprise from his track record as
director of photography on such films as Misery,
Throw Momma From the Train, Big, and the Cohen
Brother’s Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, and
Blood Simple. ,
The casting on this film is incredible. Anjehca
Houston gives a great campy performance as
Morticia — delivering all the great lines; “Cyanide?
Fester — as if we’d run out.” Raul Julia provides
that way-too-passionate flair as Gomez, and I bet
that his wellspring of character development is
centered in that pencil-thin moustache. Take a hard
look at Uncle Fester, because believe it or not —
that Christopher Lloyd, better known as Dr. Emmett
Brown of the Back to the Future trilogy and Jim
Ignatowski from television’s “Taxi series. Lloyd
gained over sixty pounds and shaved his head every
day in order to capture that role.
Scene-stealers Christina Ricci (Wednesday) and
Jimmy Workman (Pugsley) pair up as the malevo
lent, yet, playful Addams siblings. Their fun-filled
game of “Is there a God?” and an unforgettable
scene of Shakespearean drama give way to some
serious laughter.
jf you go to see The jAddi^tns Fft'ffiily^ take not
this film is darkly humorous, or a “black comedy.”
The audiences with which I saw this picture prob
ably didn’t or couldn’t grasp this element of com
edy and only understood and enjoyed the visual
gags Black comedy is meant to have a slyly serious
facade that veils a great deal of self-parody, there
are lots of people who will completely dismiss this
film if, at first, they don’t understand the basic
principles that arc being applied. Pay close atten-
tion to the opening scene of the Christmas carolers
and the boiling cauldron — it pretty much sets the
pace for the rest of the movie.
But after all of that discussion on the black
humor, I must admit that The Addams Family is
primarily a strong visual experience. In this sense,
it seemed to be comparable to Batman, where the
viewer was expected to watch the film as a piece of
“aesthetic hashish” rather than come away with any
sort of emotional or intellectual challenge. I would
have like to have seen more of the dark humor in the
interplay of the characters and a stronger plot
would also have added much more to the overall
itope of the movie.
Despite the minor flaws with The Addams bam-
ily it is still a pretty good film to see during the
Christmas Holiday break. Normally at this point, 1
would give it a thumb’s up — but, it’s more appro
priate to give this clan a rating of “two snaps.”
MPAA Rating: PG-13 Cinema Twin,
Laurinburg