SIN Entertainment

'Hercules'

question for Disney: If Her-
cules is supposed to be a mu-
sical, shouldn't it have some
ood songs? A toe tapper or

Ag

kicks, Pain and Panic, Bobcat
Goldthwait and Matt Frewer
(TV's Max Headroom) are hilari-
ous.
Susan Egan (Broadway's Beau-
ty and the Beast) is spunky as
Meg, Hercules' obligatory love in-

two?
A musical's weakest compo-
nent should not be its, well, mu-
sic, as is the case with Disney's
latest feature. An otherwise en-
tertaining and funny family film,
Hercules lacks even one strong,
whistle-on-your-way-out tune
— there's not a "Hakunamata-
ta" within earshot. But there is
James Woods singing. Yech.
Music aside, though, if you're
looking for a fun, harmless af-
ternoon out with the kids, Dis-
ney, as always, comes through.
Hercules tells the tale of a young
son of Zeus who is kidnapped
from his palatial home on Mount
Olympus and made mortal by
Hades, the malevolent god of the
underworld.
Hades, as all good villains
should, has an evil plan in mind. Disney's incarnation of Hercules.
He will reclaim Mount Olympus
for himself with the help of the un- terest who, unfortunately, is
ruly Titans, who wield wind, lava, drawn like every other female Dis-
rock and ice as their weapons of ney character since The Little Mer-
destruction.
maid. Variety, aside from
The only thing standing
changing hair color,
in Hades' way? Hercules, of
MOVIES
would be nice someday.
course; who has problems of
As Hercules' confi-
his own as he tries to become a dant and mentor Philoctetes, Dan-
hero worthy of being reunited ny DeVito seems to be revisiting
with Zeus and allowed back onto his 'Taxi" days, giving us Louis de
Mount Olympus.
Palma•as the ultimate coach of
James Woods as Hades stands Greek heroes. Tate Donovan does
out from a uniformly good cast, a nice job as the title character,
providing- his character with great imbuing Hercules with just the
humor and a sharkish, used-car right mix of youthful arrogance
salesman attitude. As Hades' side- and timidity. A special round of
applause must go to "Late Show"
Liz Lent is a local freelance
band leader Paul Schaffer as mes-
writer.

senger god Hermes, the coolest
and funniest hep-cat Mount
Olympus has ever seen.
The movie's jokes seem geared
almost entirely to the adults in the
audience, save for the antics of the
surly yet loyal horse Pegasus, who

Rated R

F

ace I Off is going to take a lot
of people by surprise.
Since immigrating to the
U.S. from Hong Kong, direc-
tor John Woo has
Lu made two high-
octane, ho-hum
films which were
big on explosions
cc and light on sub-
stance — Hard
Target and Bro-
ken Arrow. With
Face I Off, howev-
er, Woo returns
Z to the territory fa-
miliar to long-
6- time fans of his
previous work,
8 giving American
C-' audiences some-
thing they're
quite unaccus-
tomed to: an ac-
tion-packed
melodrama.
Ever since hit-
ting it big with Hong Kong's
1986 A Better Tomorrow, Woo

LU

glares at the bad guys, high-fives
Hercules and generally endears
himself to kids.
Hercules even pokes gentle fun
at Disney's penchant for mer-
chandising, humor which parents
will appreciate when faced with
an endless stream of action fig-
ures and collectors plates in the
coming months.
Parents and children, though,
will enjoy Hercules, an amiable,
funny and well-intentioned film.
Unless, of course, they're going for
the music ...

channeling his newfound love
of Al Pacino-style over-acting
into a proper role as an insect
with an inferiority complex
and desire to create universal
strife.
From there, it's one shoot-
em-up after another as J and
K try to put a stop to the plans
of the intergalactic bug.
This film is so slick that
there isn't even an obligatory
love interest. And special effects
aren't used just for the sake of
special effects. Instead, they are
integral to the story and to the
creation of a comic-book version
of New York — one in which
our heroes might actually ex- Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are Men in Black.
ist.
Men in Black is a fast-paced bagels it earned were made with
film with a tight narrative and all wheat and no chaff, for low-
no unnecessary subplots. The calorie, high-protein summer fun.

get sticky, however, when Troy
unexpectedly awakens from his
coma, sans face, and decides that
two can play at the exchange of
identities game.
What follows is a twisted ver-
sion of Freaky Friday, with Tra-
volta gleefully playing Castor
Troy and Cage doomed to be
Sean Archer.
Despite a script by shlock-
meisters Mike Werb and
Michael Colleary (Darkman 3:
Die Darkman, Die!), Face I Offis
more of an art film than a mul-
timillion dollar exploitation flick.
This is due, iri part, to John
Woo's direction.
Aside from his revolutionary
directorial style — which has
heavily influenced American ac-
tion films with thin-tied gang-
sters and use of slow motion —
Woo explores some of his more
familiar motifs such as mirror
images and shootouts at church-
es. With Woo behind the camera
there is a brain behind the bul-
lets and a poetry to the excessive
amount of on-screen violence.
However, most of the credit
for Face / Offs success is due to

PHOTO BY STEPHEN VAUGHAN

Rated G

'Face/Off'

—Liz Lent

John Travolta and Nicolas Cage in John Woo's Face/Off.

Qt.) .1/2

— Mike White

has been mixing pulse-pounding the fantastic acting jobs by both
sequences with tear-jerking pas- John Travolta and Nicolas Cage.
sion to create unusual, and While Travolta gets to have all
sometimes unsettling, cross- the fun of playing a sociopath in
genre films. Face/Off
sheep's clothing, Cage
marks the first time Woo
should get kudos for
has done so successfully
MOVIES
playing a tortured soul
in America.
trapped in the body of his
In Face Off, John Travolta mortal enemy. Both actors cap-
plays Sean Archer, the leader of ture the nuances of the other,
an elite anti-terrorist organiza- but Cage is noteworthy for his
tion whose one goal in life is the introverted performance.
capture of an insane uber-crim-
Face Off is an action film
inal, Castor Troy (Nicolas Cage), with a heart, a wry grin and an
who is responsible for the death itchy trigger finger.
of Travolta's son.
After a freak accident involv-
ing a jet engine, Archer takes on
,00
the face of Troy in an attempt to
foil Troy's last scheme. Things •
— Mike White

77