'The Frighteners'

Rated R

n The Frighteners, Frank Ban-
nister (Michael J. Fox) is a self-
styled investigator of the
paranormal who really can see,
talk to and touch ghosts.
Self-employed as an extermi-
nator, he careens around town in
a battered VW Bug, exorcising
houses that are haunted by his
own cohorts — three semitrans-
parent (to him) ghosts — a '70s
Superfly type, a nerdy doofus and
a senile gunslinging judge. These
ghosts are not like your
friendly Casper uncles, Fat-
so, Stinky and Stretch. Here-
in lies the ambiguity: a psychic
con-man with true ESP in league
with authentic ghosts, earning a
meager existence (if you can call
it that) by bilking homeowners.
The Frighteners sets up its
own little brand of internal logic
and then goes berserk on you.
Frank can interact with ghosts
because of a near-death experi-
ence: He survived a car crash, but
his wife died. The incident left
him with paranormal powers
and a cursed, existential attitude.
Once this is explained, the sto-
ry catapults ahead into a dark-
er, more frightening level.
Add to Frank's torment a ma-
niacal killer ghost. This ghost
doesn't just haunt and go "Boo!"
It relentlessly stalks its pre-
anointed victims (they all have
numerals carved in their fore-
heads), rams its fist into their
chests, grabs their hearts and
squeezes the life out of them.
One of the evil specter's early
victims is Ray (Peter Dobson), the
health-conscious husband of the
lovely Lucy Lynskey (Trina
Alavarado).

'Trainspotting'

In less time than it takes for
rigor mortis to set in, she trans-
fers her affections to Frank. In his
limbo state, ghostly Ray can't be-
lieve that a health nut such as
himself had a heart attack, or
that his wife is attracted to Frank,
or, gasp, there's a ghost who acts
like the Grim Reaper on steroids.
Now Frank, his three ghostly
cronies, plus the newly depart-
ed Ray and his fickle widow Lucy
have a ghastly evil ghost to exor-
cise. How do you kill a ghost? The
special-effects crew has created a
genuinely eerie and
fiercely agile shape-
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shifting black shroud.
The wraith's sudden
movements — leaping across
rooftops, poking out of walls and
stretching up from under carpets
— are the stuff of nightmares.
These scenes are too intense for
some kids.
We eventually learn that the
evil spirit is the manifestation of
a serial killer, inspired by a Char-
lie Starkweather type, and his
deranged girlfriend who terror-
ized the town some 20 years ear-
lier. This homicidally insane duo
have recently reunited and are
determined to set a killing record.
How Frank and his spirit-world
allies combat this immoral, and
possibly immortal, murderous
partnership transcends the
boundaries of earthly imagina-
tion. It's a tribute to the over-the-
top director Peter Jackson (Dead
Alive, Meet the Feebles) that this
story makes any sense at all.
Fans of this genre will forgive
the lapses in logic and lap up this
spookapalooza.

N 4®k 1/2
ck-)

—Dick Rockwell

Rated R

are always half-hearted and his nation of the repetition of our
peers constantly try to lure him daily existence.
Director Danny Boyle (Shal-
ainspotting is a 3-D movie of back. It's not surprising when he
sorts: dark, disturbing and ultimately chooses to fail. After low Grave) constantly strains to
challenge our sensibili-
demented. But for those who all, the film is concerned
ties, contrasting the
like their cinema delivered at with heroin, not heroes.
MOVIES
With its dim themes of
predicament of the drug
"warped" speed, it is also wicked-
desperation and drudgery,
addict to that of the com-
ly entertaining.
In Britain, the term trainspot- one would expect Trainspotting mon citizen. It would seem that
ting refers to a geek pastime of to be a dour rendering of an we all have our own predilections
hanging out at railway stations alienated subculture. Despair and will do what is necessary to
and counting trains as they pass. not, for Trainspotting is actual- indulge them. In the case of Ren-
Metaphorically speaking, then, ly an intensely humorous ren- ton and company, doing what is
trainspotting is a futile activity dering of a subculture that is at necessary isn't very pretty, but it
serving no real purpose. Indeed, times alien, at times alienated. is pretty funny.
there are fewer activities more fu- These losers are neither pitied
ck) ®
tile than the ones depicted in this nor praised for their folly; they
are simply foils for the exami-
— Richard Halprin
film.
Based on Irvine Welsh's
best seller, Trainspotting
follows a band of drug-ad-
dicted Scots as they re-
peatedly forego all
opportunities for redemp-
tion in favor of "one last
fix." Meet Renton, Spud,
Sick Boy, Begbie and
Tommy, a collection of
cretins, cranks and crim-
inals. Every aspect of their
day is dedicated to either
obtaining or injecting their
precious opiate, and no
task is too vile- if the end
result is a score.
Out of this unsavory
group, only Renton (Ewan
McGregor) seems to have
the intelligence and incli-
nation to want to break `I chose not to choose life," says Renton (Ewan McGregor), the drug-addicted anti-hero of
the cycle, but his attempts Miramax's Trainspotting.

T

'Supercop'

Rated PG-13

ots of action, comical dialogue dubbing, and a
wacky sound effect corresponding to every fight-
ng movement. Supercop is your typical kung fu
ovie with an atypical kung fu hero, the inim-
itable Jackie Chan, a masterful stuntman and full-
fledged masochist.
Chan was honored a few years ago with an MTV
Movie Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for
his work in martial-arts films. Quentin Taranti-
no presented the award and showed clips from
many of Chan's movies, most never released in the
United States, except on videotape. Believe me, if
you could screen that montage of stunts at a the-
ater, it would have a more understandable plot than

L i n

Michael J. Fox works the paranormal side of the street with his ghostly cronies.

Supercop.

Coming on the heels of the crowd-pleasing Rum-
ble in the Bronx, this Jackie Chan vehicle is a let-

down. Chan plays an undercover cop on assignment
in China who reaches his self-imposed quota of dan-
gerous stunts, including swinging perilously over
the city of Kuala Lumpur from a dangling ladder
draped out of a helicopter. To international fans of
this genre, there is no equal to Chan — except
maybe his leading lady Maggie Cheung, who proves
to be every bit as lethal with her feet and fists. Her
most hazardous stunt involves leapfrogging onto a
moving train while atop a speeding motorcycle.
What a rush! We know all these stunts are risky
because during the closing credits the film outtakes
are shown, a Chan tradition that warns: "Kids, don't
try this at home."
The rambling plot cuts a sweeping
path from Hong Kong to China,
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takes a jaunt through Malaysia,
treks the border between Thailand
and Cambodia and arrives back in Hong Kong.
Chan's mission is to extricate the imprisoned gang-
ster Panther (Yuen Wah) from a labor camp and
then have him lead Chan to Panther's older broth-
er Chaibot (Ken Tsang), a drug lord in cahoots with