STN Entertainment

'Breakdown'

Rated R

and heads for the bar where
they'd agreed to meet. But nei-
! n the paranoid thriller Break- ther Quinlan nor Walsh ever
down, Kurt Russell matches make it.
wits with a gang of South-
Russell eventually finds
western baddies. But Russell Walsh, who claims never to have
and the rest of the cast are
seen the couple. Russell
let down by a creaky
tries to convince the po-
MOVIES
script that borrows from
lice to investigate, but
diverse sources and is infe-
they're convinced his
rior to all of them.
wife just left him after a fight.
The film opens with Russell Soon Russell wonders if Walsh
and his wife (Kathleen Quinlan) and the police — and maybe the
en route from Boston to San bar as well — are in cahoots.
Diego to begin new jobs. When
A similar disappearance in
their car breaks down, Quinlan The Vanishing was genuinely
accepts a lift from helpful truck- mysterious and unsettling, and
er J.T. Walsh, while Russell the audience had to wait for the
waits for a tow.
ending to find out what hap-
Before help can arrive, Rus- pened. In Breakdown, we learn
sell fixes the problem himself what happened and why before
the movie's half over and spend
Stephen Bitsoli is former
the rest of the film just waiting
entertainment editor of Detroit
for the other generic sneaker to
Monthly.
drop.

The film pass- Kurt Russell
es time with can't pull it
ridiculous car- together in
and-truck chases, Breakdown.
reminiscent of
Steven Spiel-
berg's TV movie "Duel" and
equally silly Die Hard-esque
stunts.
Finally, Breakdown degener-
ates into a Death Wish scenario,
with the audience rooting for
Russell to blow away the bad
guys in some spectacular fash-
ion. And he does. Ho-hum.
What a waste of a talented
cast. Russell and Quinlan try
their best, but the script defeats
them. Walsh always plays vil-
lains well and manages a few
nice touches, but he won't win
any awards for this picture.
The blame for this fiasco rests
entirely with director Jonathan
Mostow, since he also originat-

ed the story and co-wrote the
screenplay. The fact that dreck-
meister Dino De Laurentiis pro-
duced the movie can't have
helped either.
Skip Breakdown. It's neither

good nor bad enough to merit
your attention.

1.12 ®

— Stephen Bitsoli

'Warriors Of Virtue'

Upon his arrival in
Tao, Ryan Jeffers
(Mario Yedidia) is
regarded suspiciously
by the "Roo-Warrior"
Yee (Doug Jones).

Rated PG

A

young boy helps save the
otherworldly land of Tao
from the forces of an evil
warlord in the above-aver-
age children's fantasy Warriors
of Virtue.
And despite the presence of
five "teenage mutant ninja kan-
garoos," it's not just another
lame rip-off.
Mario Yedidia stars as Ryan
Jeffers, a smart kid with a vivid
imagination and a bad leg. Since
his father's always away on
business, and his mom's a lousy
cook, he hangs out at a Chinese
restaurant where chef and mar-
tial arts expert Ming — who, in
one scene, combines the two dis-
ciplines — tells him stories of
five virtuous warriors who fight
evil with "no guns, no lasers, no
morphing."
Soon a manuscript of "ancient
Chinese secrets" catapults Ryan
into the warriors' world, where
he's sought by both the army of
the evil Komodo (Angus Mac-
Fadyen) and the peaceful fol-
lowers of Master Chung.
Chung's allies include titular
heroes: five kung fu kangaroos
(or Rooz) who embody "forces of
nature" (water, metal, wood,

Stephen Bitsoli is former
entertainment editor at
Monthly Detroit.

fire, earth) and their corre-
sponding virtues (benevolence,
righteousness, order, wisdom,
loyalty).
This movie has got its attrib-
utes: There's action (the Rooz
are almost killed in what looks
like a giant garbage disposal);

and there's more of it going on Fadyen (Braveheart's Robert the
than in a Turtles or Power Bruce) and Marley Shelton as
Rangers flick. The char-
the beautiful Elysia, who
acterizations are more
first befriends Ryan, but
MOVIES
complex than in many
later joins Komodo. And
grown-up action films, and
even the Rooz are more
the acting's pretty good also.
than just rubber suits. The
Two standouts are Mac- heads are animatronic and ca-

pable of fairly sub-
tle facial expres-
sions (although
they look a little
too much like the
similarly mutated
kangaroos in Tank
Girl).
Warriors isn't
perfect. It never
explains why there
are kangaroos in a
setting that looks
like Sherwood For-
est, or why so
many of the names
and costumes
seem Asian, but
the people mostly
look like Western
Europeans. It is
even suggested
that perhaps it
was all a dream.
But it's good to
see they still make kids movies
that are about something be-
sides merchandising.

— Stephen Bitsoli