'Operation Condor'
Rated R
/-
ueen Victoria of England embodied
the Victorian era. Sensitive and
emotional, she was also strong-
willed with a harsh sense of moral
righteousness and self discipline. And she
was very much in love with her husband.
In 1861, the 42-year-old Queen Victo-
ria lost her beloved husband, Prince Al-
bert, to typhoid fever.
Descending into a period of incon-
solable mourning, 'Victoria retreated from
public scrutiny, and thus, politics and
duty.
Eventually, John Brown was sum-
moned. A native of the Scottish High- Billy Connolly as John Brown and Judi Dench as Queen Victoria in John
lands, Brown had served as a royal Madden's Mrs. Brown.
hunting servant at Balmoral, the royal
ning veteran of dozens of Royal Shakespeare Com-
family's holiday home in Scotland.
Bearded, brusque and informally aggressive, pany productions, as well as of the screen (A Room
Brown's tendencies to speak his mind to the queen with a View). Starring as Queen Victoria, Dench
and anyone else was scorned upon in the royal imbues, by turns, a steely, imperious queen and
household by all but the queen. Intensely devot- a lonely heartbroken woman.
Billy Connolly as John Brown is the biggest sur-
ed to the service and protection of Victoria, Brown's
straightforward manner breathed new life into the prise of the film. With a career ranging from a mu-
shell-shocked queen; the two developed an intense sician with Gerry Rafferty to standup comedy to
"Billy," a television series spinoff of "Head of the
friendship of which not a lot is known.
The scandal of the friendship was inherent: He Class," Connolly in Mrs. Brown proves he is a jack-
was a whisky-drinking servant from the bottom of of-all-trades. His ruddy passion as John Brown
the lower class; she was the queen of the British truly sets him apart from all other men.
Also, mention should be made of Antony
Empire, who instilled upon her times a
Sher (The Young Poisoner's Handbook) as
sense of social repression and class divi-
MOVIES
Benjamin Disraeli. Sher's portrayal of the
sion. She came to be dubbed, by some, "Mrs.
two-times prime minister of England (whose
Brown."
Although set against this backdrop of public and father converted to Christianity from Judaism in
private turmoil, angst and dread, Mrs. Brown some- order to afford his sons opportunities otherwise de-
how does not make adequate use of its intrinsic nied) depicts Disraeli as a smarmy yet under-
tools. Be it lack of sufficient background material standing and eloquent intellectual.
Although very enjoyable and absolutely worth
or personal information, there is a quality that is
lacking, and leaves the viewer yearning for some- seeing, Mrs. Brown unfortunately skimps on the
details. Intriguing for starters, but if you're really
thing more complete.
What Mrs. Brown makes wonderfully adequate interested in this period of history, head for the
use of is its actors. Judi Dench is- an award-win- library.
Lynne Konstantin is our Out and About
columnist.
■ 1
1
' - )
PHOTO BY MARK TI LLIE
'Mrs. Brown'
1/2
— Lynne Konstantin
'Good Burger'
To earn money, Dexter gets a job at Mondo Burg-
er, the king of the burger chains. But after falling
ormally, any fan featuring the talents of both
out of favor with the boss, he's fired and forced to
Abe Vigoda (Fish on "Barney Miller") and
take a job at Good Burger, the small yet plucky
George Clinton, the grandmaster of funk,
greasy spoon across the street. There he meets Ed
would earn a rave review from me.
(Kel Mitchell), a character who lives, eats and
Any film, that is, except Good Burger. Adapted
breathes
Good Burger and seems to have been
from Nickelodeon's all-kids sketch "All That," Good
spawned from the last Bill and Ted's Excellent Ad-
Burger is a lame after-school special trying des-
venture movie.
perately to pass itself off as a genuine cine-
When Mondo Burger threatens to put
matic enterprise.
Good Burger out of existence, Dexter and
MOVIES
The plot, such as it is, revolves around Dex-
Ed join forces to try and stop the evil-do-
ter (Kenan Thompson), a high-school student
ers.
whose summer vacation is ruined when he gets
There's nothing terribly wrong with the film,
into a car accident with one of his teachers (Sin-
aside from the fact that it's stupid, but there's noth-
bad) while driving his mother's car.
ing entertaining about it either.
To make things even worse, he doesn't have a
Nickelodeon has taken a concept which might
driver's license. When his teacher threatens to have
be kind of cute and silly as a half-hour TV show
him arrested, Dexter makes a bargain with him:
and extended it to a painful two hours.
He'll pay off the cost of the car's damages if his
NO BAGELS
teacher doesn't tell the police.
Rated PG-13
N
Liz Lent is a local freelance writer.
— Liz Lent
ly named Jackie to lessen any con-
fusion to audiences, is placed in
est release by Dimension one incredible situation after an-
Pictures in its continuing ef- other — including a chase scene
fort to bring kung-fu action so fast-paced and over-the-top
superstar Jackie Chan to the at- that it left this reviewer gasping
for breath when it was over.
tention of American audiences.
Sure, the dubbing is terrible
Originally released in the
and distracting at first,
Orient in 1990, Operation
but the only problems
MOVIES
Condor is the sequel to
that detracted from the
1986's Armour of God and
entertainment value of Op-
the first opportunity for Ameri-
can audiences to see a film di- eration Condor were the weak
women's roles and buffoonish por-
rected by Jackie Chan.
trayal of Arabs.
Jackie's compan-
ions on his quest
include three
shrieking females
who constantly
seek his protec-
tion.
It's difficult to
see such stereo-
typical characters,
especially after
watching Michelle
Khan match Chan
kick-for-kick and
stunt-for-stunt in
last fall's Super-
cop. And the por-
trayal of Arabs as
goofy, bloodthirsty
savages in Opera-
tion Condor falls
somewhere be-
tween Disney's Al-
addin and James
Cameron's True
Lies on the Offen-
sive Scale.
Putting the film
Kung-fu action superstar Jackie Chan
in context of when it was made,
directed and stars in Operation Condor.
the far less politically correct early
Until now, all of Chan's recent '90s, one might be able to cut it
U.S. releases have been directed a little slack and just enjoy it for
by fellow stuntman-turned-di- what it is: an incredible adven-
rector Stanley Tong, whose work, ture that American audiences are
while better than any American fortunate to finally have the op-
action director, pales in compar- portunity to see.
ison to that of Chan. Taking his
inspiration from Buster Keaton,
— Mike White
Chan creates wondrous scenarios
which place himself into such per-
il as to make one question his san-
ity.
Operation Condor is being mar-
keted as a James Bond-ish ad-
venture and its score harkens to
John Barry's familiar theme.
However, the film closely resem-
®Q)
Very Good
bles Steven Spielberg's Raiders
of the Lost Ark, as Chan plays an
adventurer out to find a cache of
gold hidden by the Nazis in the
Good
(k)
Sahara Desert during World War
. II.
Chan's character, convenient-
Fair
Rated R
peration Condor is the lat-
O
(?)
Bagel Barometer
....Outstanding
Mike White is the editor of
Cashiers du Cinemart, a
Detroit-based film magazine.
No Bagels
Awful
ti
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