'I
Page 8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 10, 1986-
'Playing
for
keeps'
plays down
to audience
By John Shea
There is a small gem to be found
in Universal's new release Playing
for Keeps and it comes
4pproximently 47 minutes into the
movie. A young man is looking
4p at a run down hotel that he and
his friends have just purchased for
eight thousand dollars. "What will
it take to fix it?" he asks the old
man next to him who had been
living there previously., "An act of
God," the man replies. The
emphasis here is on 'small,' but it
was the only time I cracked a smile,
so I thought it was worth
mentioning.
Playing for Keeps is a
comedy centered around a dreamer,
Danny (Daniel Jordano), who is
hopoing to to someday Be
Somebody. He and his friends,
Spikes and Silk (Matthew Penn and
Leon W. Grant), have just graduated
from a New York City high school
and their lives are going Nowhere.
Danny convinces them to raise the
money needed to pay off back taxes
on a hotel he's inherited from his
grandmother. Danny's idea of
Something Big: rebuild the hotel
and open it as a resort for teens
only. You get the picture. But
wait. It's not that easy. It seems
that this hotel is out in the country
somewhere and the townfolks don't
want a whorehouse in their
community. And there's mean Mr.
Cromwell (Robert Milli) who
wants the land the hotel is on so he
can sell it to a Chemical
Detoxification Plant. And
Cromwell has got the town Sheriff
on his side; a corrupt town Sheriff,
no less. Things get bleak when the
town gangs up against the the kids
and the town Sheriff arrests Danny
for jaywalking but with the help of
an eccentric ex-con (Harold Gould),
a farm girl (Mary B. Ward), and
some of Danny's pals from the
City, the Dream becomes a Reality.
There are a lot of problems here,
starting with the script from Bob
and Harvey Weinstein. Nothing in
Playing for Keeps is fresh; it is
Rocky, The Money Pit and
Porky's recycled. The Rocky
motif has been buried into the
ground by Hollywood and I haven't
the slightest idea why any movie
would model itself after the latter
two movies. But it seems the
Weinsteins want more than that.
Along with Danny's dream of
opening a whorehou, er, 'dream
hotel' is the dream of Danny's
sister, who one day wants world
peace and every hungry mouth fed.
A nice intention, and when Danny
echos this sentiment to the
beautiful farm girl while they're
sitting under the stars, it almost
makes for a touching moment. But
a minute later, the farm girl is
taking her clothes off to go skinny-
dipping and it is this inconsistency
in the script which is disturbing.
The direction of Bob and Harvey
Weinstein is just plain sloppy. It
is their first feature film and it
shows. The running time of the
movie is 102 minutes but the pace
was so slow it felt like over two
hours long. The acting is sub-par,
if that comes as a surprise. Jordano
overplays his role as Danny,
yelling and screaming what
amounted to be nonsense. And
Grant and Penn come off as looking
like cardboard sidekicks.
Although there are many sexual
innuendos and opportunities to
throw in obscenities, the
Weinsteins never cross that line
between PG-13 and R ; and this is
done so because Playing for
Keeps is too junvenile to attract
anyone over 13. When I saw this
movie, I was literally only one of
three people in the theatre. The
other two were 10-year old friends
who had gone for a good time. It
sounded as if they did, because they
were laughing all the time. As I
rushed out of the theatre, the two
I
A
Oktoberfets
4 0
WIR LADEN SIE HERZLICHST EIN
vom 13. Okt. bis 17. Okt. 1986
Oktoberfest first began in 1810 as a 16-day festival, which ran from late September
to early Oktober, to celebrate the up-coming wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig
of Bavaria.
- Oktoberfestivities... begin at 7:00 p.m. through 10:00 p.m.
BOOT EATING - CHOCOLATE CAKE EATING - SUPER
SLURPER SUCKER CONTEST - CREATIVE CARVING CONTEST -
GERMAN TRIVIA CONTEST.
Be our Oktoberfest guest and join our Oktoberfeast.
German music, German food ... Und eine wunderbare Zeit
FOOD - BEER - PRIZES
LIMITED EDITION T-SHIRTS - OKTOBERFEST STEINS
FRANKENMUTH DINNERS - GIFT CERTIFICATES
St. Pauli Girl & Hacker Pschorr
Mosel and Rhine Wines All Schnapps on special
Knackwurst mit Sauerkraut - Hot German Potato Saled -
Warm Bavarian Pumpernickel Bread w/Butter - Bratwurst
Thueringer Sausage - Open Face Branuschweiger Sandwich
Chicken Noodle Suppe
Dinners are available all day Apple Strudel
TWELVE OAKS MALL FAIRLANE TOWN CENTER
-LIVONIA MALL OAKLAND MALL BRIARWOOD MALL
Air
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boys whizzed right past me and
laughing about the movie and how
stupid it was and how they wanted
to see a 'real' movie, like
Hardbodies. So much for my
thought.
'Worksong'
dep icts story
of struggl.e6
By Karin Edelson
The Common Gound Theatre
Ensemble of Ann Arbor will
present Worksong, a musical
about the lives of Michigan
workers, this weekend and next at
the Performance Network.
The play consists of a series of,
vignettes revolving around the -
implementation of Fredrick
Winslow Taylor's Time in Motion
study which revolutionized the
assembly line and apparently made
workers more effective.,
Workson.g shows how this
invention effected the lives of the
common workers who then became
"mechanized" on the assembly line.
The various skits juxtapose scenes
from the actions of the
Rockefeller's corporate management
with the lives of Michigan workers
who are most affected by their
actions.
The six member cast is of mixed
ethnic backgrounds and is,
comprised of actual workers, as
opposed to professional actors, who
each add their own valuable
experiences to the performance.
Director Elise Bryant describes
the play as a reminiscence designed
to "awaken memories and stories of
our parents and grandparents and
what work meant to them."
Worksong was written by
Marc Kaminsky and the New York
group, the Talking Band. However,
musical director, Lisa Wolf of Ann
Arbor, adapted the play to relfect I
the present work situation in
Michigan, including plant closings
and the plight of the auto assembly
line workers. Various Michigan
working artists also contributed to
the adaptation of the play.
Common Ground was founded in
'71 as an alternative to Michigan
theatre. Its plays are politically
oriented and deal with issues of
social change.. Common Ground
often uses non-play material such
as poetry and adaptations from
books in their productions. Work -
song, will be performed Friday
through Saturday, Oct. 10, 11, 17
& 18 at 8 p.m., and Sunday Oct.
12 & 19 at 3 p.m. The Performance
Network is located at 408 W.
Washington. For more information
call: 663-0681.
$2.5o All Shows Beore
STAND BY ME (R)
Sat &Sun 1:00300 500 70 900
Fri. & Mon.-Thurs. 5:00, 7:00,9:00
SEND PARTOF YOUR NEW WORLD
BACK TO YOUR OLD WORLD.
N CGEORGE KERASOT(S COPOAMTKON
3020 WASHTENAW AVE. 434.1630
MANHUNTER (R)
Sat. & Sun, 1:00, 3:00, 5:00, 7:00, 9:00
Fri. & Mon. Thurs. 5:00, 7:00, 9:00
PLAYING FOR KEEPS (PG-13)
Sat. &Sun.7:15, 9:15only
Fri. &Mon Thurs. 5:15, 7:15, 9:15
THE TRANSFORMERS (PG)
Sat. &Sun. 1:15,3:15,5:15
4
FOR JU5T $23 you can send a 1 pound package to your loved ones in any one of 48
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