Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 146

Friday Section 7 Chicago Tribune, Friday, August 19, 1988 TTTTTTTTTTiTTTTTTT 1 I i i I I i i i i i a i i I 1 i i Continued from page A ultimately, cure himself of his habit. Tod Carroll very wise script was directed by Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of "Moonlighting." Keaton, who really makes his mark as an actor here, is completely credible as a yuppie whose addictions lead him to embezzle money, seek sanctuary from the police in a rehab clinic and come face-to-face with his present and his future. Caron has cast his film with some of our finest, non-star actors, including M. Emmet Walsh, Morgan Freeman and Kathy Baker. There have been so many films recently that have nothing more to say than drugs can be evil; "Clean and Sober" is the first of the current crop to portray addiction as a very real problem with concrete ways of controlling it.

R. Vt COCKTAIL (McCturg Court and outlying). In and so even the one error in "Bull Durham" can be ruled a hit. R. CLEAN AND SOBER (McClurg Court and outlying).

This film is a complete surprise, featuring the normally comic Michael Keaton in a solid performance as a self-centered drug abuser trying to con and, if, i AN" Jb 'Clean Michael Keaton stars in and Sober." i "Cocktail," Tom Cruise does with bartending pretty much what he did with a pool cue in "the Color of Money." In other words, he shows skill at a con game while being less successful with the woman his life. His tutor is a cynical, Upper East Side bartender named Coughkn (Bryan Brown), who sees a saloon simply as a place for making a monetary score with a client. Cruise's character has dreams of making it on his own. His moral test comes when he has to choose between a nch, older woman who wit keep him in chips and a younger, more elusive young woman who demands fidelity. That's an predictable melodrama.

What sells the film are the splashy bar scenes between Cruise and Brown. In fact, the film would have been more compelling If their retabonshp were the whole subject of the film. Cruise is beguiling with his smile and his swagger, but the script doesn't take us anywhere fresh when it leaves the barroom. R. Vi COMINQ TO AMERICA (Chestnut Station.

Woods and outlying). Eddie Murphy proves he Is an actor as we as a comic as he throws away his angry, smart-aleok persona in favor of a more genteel, soui-searchtng funny man. He plays an African prince who rebels against the wishes of his father (James Earl Jones) to enter into a forced marriage, so he Is alowed to spend 40 days in New York City to "sow his royal In America, along with his loyal servant Semmi (Arsenio HaH), Murphy has no intention of being a 'runabout He is a seeker of truth and beauty and finds what he's looking for in the daughter (Shari Headley) of a fast-food entrepreneur (John Amos). The running gag, of course, is that Murphy does not ted his would-be princess that he is of royal blood. It's a sweet, oft-told story, and Murphy and Hal add a number of very sharp supporting roles hidden by makeup to add spice to the general level of gentleness.

R. Vi THE DEAD POOL (outlying). This latest Dirty Harry" movie is easily the second best of the series, beaten only by the 1971 original. Clint Eastwood stars for the fifth time as the San Francisco cop with a twitch a twitch that twitches in the face of both police bureaucracy and criminal behavior. But where the previous sequels have been mostly dour gun blasts, "The Dead Poor is a thriller with wit and humor and tension.

The wit comes through a script that chides TV news and feature film violence as detective Harry Callahan again challenges a serial killer who is fixated on slasher movies. A private romantic interest and public nuisance are provided by an aggressive TV news reporter (Patricia Clarkson). The humor of the film comes in Eastwood's obvious enjoyment of the role and in a hilarious sendup of the famous San Francisco car chase in "Bullitt" This time Harry's car is "chased" by a remote-controlled, miniature car carrying an explosive device. R. Vi DIE HARD (Chestnut Station, Dearborn and outlying).

Easygoing Bruce Willis is quite credible as a veteran cop who stumbles upon a robbery In a Los Angles high-rise office building and Is left to battle the terrorists that have taken hostages, including his estranged wife. He doesn't get much help from the local police department and the movie turns into a mano a mano between Willis and Alan Rickman, playing a terrific villain. The entire film takes place in the tower, giving a subtle, claustrophobic effect that makes up for some repetitive patches. R. A FISH CALLED WANDA (Water Tower, Webstar Place and outlying).

One of the-year's funniest most offbeat films, starring John Cleese and Michael Palin of the Monty Python gang. This film stars Americans Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis as combative thieves who try to double-cross their partners in crime, including stutterer Palin. Along the way they encounter a wacky English banister (Cleese). The comedy makes fun of Palm's stutter and Indudes repeated attempts at tumping off an old lady that result In crushing her pet dogs. It's all quite original, adult and funny as writer Cleese and veteran director Charles Crichton Lavender Hi poke fun at both the English and the Americans in the film.

R. FUNNY FARM (outlying). Chevy Chase plays a newspaper sports reporter who quits his paper and moves with his wife (Madotyn Smith from Urban to a country home where he will write his version of the Great American Novel. If the plot sounds familiar, the movie's jokes visual and verbal are not Writer Jeffrey Boam and director George Roy Hil have created a whole town of wacky yet smartly offbeat characters who provide the backdrop for Chase's battles with writer's block, the telephone company, the local mailman, a runaway dog, and on and on. The film is finely edited and photographed, a classic piece of commercial American moviemaking.

PG. A HANDFUL OF DUST (outlying). A compelling adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel of a femme tatala bent on destroying English tradition. Kristin Scott Thomas stars as the wife of a young lord of a dying manor. His name, appropriately, is Tony Last (James Wilny), and for him maintaining his family home Is everything.

His wife, Brenda, however, cares for adventure more than land and aha la drawn to a lout named John Beaver. That ha Is not much of a man makes Brenda's choice that much more callous and shocking. The title refers to Brenda's attitude toward tha manor. -and-lha Mm jTianac Jabe.a.rareienc piece, wkh.s. -Gary Franklin.

ABC-TV, LOS ANGELES "EMILIO ESTEVEZ GIVES A REMARKABLE PERFORMANCE." -Michael Wilmington, LOS ANGELES TIMES "KIEFER SUTHERLAND IS CHARISMATIC IN A SINUOUS, SUBTLE WAY." -Bruce Kirkland, TORONTO SUN "LOU DIAMOND PHILLIPS IS A COMPELLING PRESENCE." -Lynn Darling, NEWSDAV 'YOU'LL GET A BANG OUT OF YOUNG GUNS'! -Donna Britt, USA TODAY sharp point of view. PG. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST (BiographL This is probably the most taked about yet little seen movie of the year. AH of the uninformed protest will only serve to fuel attendance for what turns out to be a very fine, thoughtful and beautifully performed rumination on Jesus and the difficulty of living according to His principles. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis' novel, which was similarly protested more than 30 years ago, "The Last Temptation of Christ" portrays Jesus questioning His divinity and, finally, fantasizing while on the cross what His life might be like if He were an ordinary man.

The film was directed by Martin Scorsese ('Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull whose films have mostly been concerned about the possibility of flawed humans becoming saved. The film argues quietly but passionately that it is more difficult to be a good man than God. That message should be of solace to any sinner and helps make this movie one of the very finest, most accessible religious films ever made. WiHem Dafoe is credible as this film's all-too-human Jesus. Speaking in his natural American accent Dafoe manages to draw us into the mystery, anguish and joy of the holy life.

This is anything but another one of those boring biblical costume epics. There is genuine challenge and hope in this movie. R. 'A LICENSE TO DRIVE (outlying). A dim-witted, formula teen comedy about the misadventures of a teenage boy (Corey Haim) who fails his driver's test but manages to get hold of his grandfather's Cadillac.

And, oh, the damage he does! And won't Grandpa be angry! And what about his parentsl There is a romantic subplot involving Haim and the prettiest girt in class, but that is not developed in any meaningful way. This is at best a mediocre made-tor-TV movie. PG-13 (because of one needless four-letter word). kVt MAC AND ME (Water Tower and outlying). This is what happens when someone doesn't make a sequel to a hit movie fast enough.

Someone else, with a lot of brass, makes a npoff that is even less satisfying. "Mac and Me" is a pale carbon copy of "EX," with an alien creature who looks like a cross between E.T. and Yoda. hiding out at a suburban California house where only the kids and the government believe the creature really exists. Can the kids save the creature and get him reunited with his family? This may sound benign, but there are two problems: dozens of brazen commercial plugs and a couple of truly frightening scenes with a child in a wheelchair going over a cliff and nearly drowning and, later, being pronounced dead after a fire.

PG. Vi MARRIED TO THE MOB (Water Tower and outlying). This week's Flick of the Week. See above. Rated R.

MR. NORTH (Fine Arts). The film version of Thorton Wilder short story about a mysterious young man who comes to fashionable Newport Ft.l., in 1926 and charms the townspeople with his apparent healing powers. He claims his powers are due sotofy to his ability to conduct static electricity through his fingers. The young man interacts with an assortment of crusty characters, played by the Ikes of Robert Mitchum, Anjeiica Huston and Lauren BacaH, and the result is a fairy tale that we would like to believe In, too.

Anthony Edwards stars as Mr. North. PG. MIDNIGHT RUN (Dearborn, Water Tower and outlying). A beautifully acted, comic thhUer duet Robert De Niro, widely acknowledged as one of our finest actors, and Charles Grodin, widely underestimated as a deadpan talem, star in the story of a disaffected bail bounty hunter (Da Niro) chasing a runaway accountant (Grodin) also wanted by the mob for embezzlement.

De Niro has only five days to find and to haul Grodin back from New York to Los Angeles. The FBI Is also in on the chase and De Niro is forced to change modes of transportation while Gro-- din tries to get under the emotional skin of the hardened De Niro In an effort to gam his freedom. Director Martin Brest HUs nicely juggles Ns scenes from hard acton to quiet conversation as his two stare give an extended acting lesson in the See FUcks. tick vpg. 6 fa) if Wfiiin II III.

ga JAMES G. ROIIdOE ROIHnJORl lOdniDfAiB CAIN MA MUM mam-VA DIAMOND PHILLIPS-CHARLIE ieheioi mulrdney-casi EYSIEMASZXO JACK HOFSTRA Wit ft raws wow Btlil mow JAMES G. HiOniN HBBSJDE ROTH and CHRISTOPHER TffllSf HER EM7 ,35. RELEASED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION COLOR BY DELUXE HIIIItSViMl lUOItMatM till I UWI (tulWU jr ran HARLEM-CERMAK Riverside 442-7373 0AKBR00K Oakbrook 654-1160 WATER TOWER BOUNGBROOK Chicago 649-5790 Bollngbrook 739-3901 RIDGE PLAZA Gary. IN 219923-9100 PLAZA CHICAGO RIDGE MALL GROVE ORLANDSQ.

STRATFORD SQ. Chicago 539-3100 Chicago Rldga 423-3301 Downers Grv 852-4440 Orland Park 349-6000 Bloomlngdale 351 -9610 NORRIDGE RIVER RUN TOWN COUNTRY Norrldg 452-9000 lantlna 695-2091 Arlington Heights 255-4000 Call theatre or directory ad lor showtlmss. Sorry no potest for (hit engagement. WEBSTER PLACE DEERBROOK Chicago 327-3100 DMrfWd 272-0212 GOLF MILL Nik 296-4500 Watch for David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS. Coming September 23rd..