40
Page 12-The Michigan Daily -Monday, September 18, 1989
Rise of the fall film
A look at some colorful upcoming movies
1?Y TONY SILBER
S
A FTER a summer of somewhat sleepy sequels and
boisterous Bat-ridden blockbusters, it's time to turn our
movie-going eyes to the fall. Hollywood has been hard
lit work and the result is a plethora of new releases
from the major studios. Fall motion pictures, however,
often have the unpleasant distinction of being sand-
wiched between the summer mega-hits and the early
winter Academy Award eligibles, thus allowing the
$tudios to write off this four month period. But fear
dot, the fall of '89 looks to yield and intriguing harvest
of high quality movies.
September
Al Pacino's back! So are Ally Sheedy, Treat
Williams, Peter Falk, Dianne Wiest, Michael Douglas,
Mickey Rourke, Kate Capshaw, Tom Conti, and Lou
Ferrigno. And that's just in the last half of September.
New films being released in the coming two weeks in-
clude Sea of Love, which marks the return of Al
Pacino to the big screen for the first time since
Revolution (1985), the epic-flop film of the
Revolutionary War from director Hugh Hudson. This
time, Pacino takes to the street, appropriately enough
as a cop (as he has done so many times in his career),
to solve a gruesome serial murder.
Ally Sheedy and Treat Williams take us back in
~time to the racially torn South of the late '50s for the
drama Heart of Dixie. (See today's review.) As for
comedy, the immortal great Peter Falk (Columbo) stars
in Cookie (also reviewed today). For action and sus-
pense buffs, box office star Michael Douglas
(Romancing the Stone, Wall Street) is back as a New
York detective sent to Tokyo to track down a killer in
'Black Rain.
' The celebrated play Shirley Valentine comes to the
silver screen with Pauline Collins recreating her role as
tie disillusioned middle-aged housewife finding herself,
and Tom Conti, in Greece.
Mickey Rourke (9 1/2 Weeks, Barfly) surfaces
again from the motion picture underworld, this time in
Walter Hill's drama, Johnny Handsome, about a not-
so-handsome dude who has an operation and becomes,
well, handsome. Finally, for the Missing in Action,
*T ambo, Bloodsport audience, here's Hollywood's
"newest bad ass, Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk)
starring in Cage, in which Vietnam vets rough each
other up in, you guessed it, a cage!
October
Jeff and Beau Bridges, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer,
Paul Scofield, Mark Harmon, Paul Newman, John
'Cusack, Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck, Kris Kristofferson,
and Bruce Willis - what an assortment of performers
to grace the October screens.
The Bridges brothers combine their talents with
those of Michelle Pfeiffer for The Fabulous Baker
Boys, a story of cocktail lounge piano-playing brothers
who get mixed up with the sultry singer Susie
Diamond - talk about slick. For the sophisticated
among you, legendary British stage and screen actor
Paul Scofield, whose portrayal in the 1966 film A
Man For All Seasons is arguably one of the best per-
formances of the last 25 years, returns to film after a
hiatus of over 20 years for When the Whales Came.
St. Elsewhere fans will be happy to see hunk Mark
Harmon again. He stars in Worth Winning as a TV
weatherman who gets involved with too many women
for his own good. Now a blast from the past, so to
speak, to 1943. Two men involved with the atomic
bomb project at a remote New Mexico laboratory have
their doubts about it. Paul Newman (The Sting, The
Verdict) teams up with John Cusack (Say Anything) in
Roland Joffe's Fat Man and Little Boy.
Who says the epic adventure is dead? All you need
is $40 million and millions of patient, paying people.
Columbia Pictures is hoping for just that with Old
Gringo, a story of the Mexican Revolution starring
two legends, Jane Fonda (On Golden Pond) and
Gregory Peck (To Kill A Mockingbird). And next, a
film with overtones of Coming Home (1978), but this
time it's called Welcome Home and instead of Jon
Voight playing the troubled veteran, it's Kris
Kristofferson.1
He's called the Master of Horror, and this October,
Wes Craven, who gave us the Freddy Krueger, gives us
Horace Pinker in Shocker - he went to the electric
chair, and now he's really mad! And to round out the
month, he walked out of the burning building and intol
a Vietnam film. Bruce Willis (Die Hard) struggles to
unite his family in the wake of the war.
November
It looks to be a month of stories, stars, surprises,,
and a big sequel. Ed Harris and Christopher Lambert
open up November with To Kill A Priest, a story based
on the murder of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a Solidarity
priest who was killed in Poland in 1984. Next, it's off
to Egypt for adventure, mystery, romance, and a cast of
unknowns who will try to dazzle us in Mountains of
the Moon, based on the true story of explorers Sir
Richard Burton (not the actor) and John Henning Speke
as they search for the mythical source of the mighty
Nile River.
What do you get when you combine Sally Field,
Dolly Parton, Shirley Maclaine, Daryl Hannah, and
Olympia Dukakis? I have no idea, but it sounds scary.
It's Steel Magnolias from director Herbert Ross, a
comedy about southern women. Looks like a boom or
This picture may look familiar, like you saw it about three
of Michael J. Fox's jacket. Yep, this time around Marty M
unfashionable mistake of traveling to the future. Marty an
Back to The Future 11 will not be scientifically correct.
bomb to me. Jack Lemmon (Tribute) and Ted Danson
(Cheers) star in our next November feature, Dad, a fa-
ther-son family type of film that just makes everyone
feel really good, pass the kleenex.
Eddie Murphy (Raw, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading
Places, 48 Hours), Richard Pryor (Blazing Saddles,
Stir Crazy, Brewster's Millions, Silver Streak) and
Redd Foxx (Sanford and Son) - together at last in
Harlem Nights - a film that looks a lot like another
Cotton Club. And for the child in you, Walt Disney
Studios gives us The Little Mermaid, their first ani-
mated feature film since last fall's Oliver and
Company.
Thansgiving weekend, what you've all been waiting
for: they're back - Michael J. Fox, Christopher
Lloyd, and Lea Thompson starring in Back to the
Future Part II, as sequel madness continues.
December
The annual Christmas Film extravaganza looks to
be just that this year. Big stars, big directors, big
films... big bucks. Something for everyone this holi-
day season as the decade closes out with a savorable
cinematic supply of entertainment.
The sequel to Chinatown? Apparently. Jack
Nicholson returns to the screen as Jake Gittes, the
gritty 1940s L.A. detective he made so famous in the
original 1974 hit, in The Two Jakes. With plenty of
4l
and a half years ago, but note the avant-garde design
OcFly, that intrepid time-warper, has made the
d the Doc are sans oxygen masks, a clear sign that
Chinatown alumni on hand, it's easy to expect nothing
short of greatness. Robert DeNiro (The Godfather,
Part II, The Deer Hunter) teams up with Sean Penn
(Colors, Casualties of War, jail) for the adventure- .
drama We're No Angels. They just broke out of
prison,-sort of appropriate for Penn, and now they
make their way through New England to the Canadian
Border where safety and Demi Moore await them.
A family movie with everybody's favorite cutie,
Fred Savage (The Wonder Years) is on tap for
December. In The Wizard, Fred and his little brother
set off across the country to become video game cham-
pions of the world. Director Oliver Stone (Platoon,
Wall Street, Talk Radio) gives us his fourth film,.
Born on the Fourth of July. Tom Cruise and Willem.
Dafoe star in the story of a man trying to overcome the
injuries he sustained in Vietnam.
The world's richest director, Steven Spielberg, re-
turns with, believe it or not, a down to earth romantic-
adventure story? Yes, it's called Always, starring
Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, and Audrey Hepburn,
a film about folks who fight forest fires. What's going
on, Steve? The mortgage must be paid off. Another
rich director, Sidney Lumet, gives us a film with rich
stars Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, and Matthew
Broderick, who star as a family trying to get richer in
Family Business. Looks to be an enriching film, and a
very enriching season of motion pictures.
*b*"
ALL YOU CAN EAT PIZZA $4.00
(Every Tuesday & Wednesday)
6:00 - 9:00pm
ALL YOU CAN EAT SPAGHETTI! $4.50
(Every Sunday)
5:00 - 9:00pm
WE DELIVER!!
CORNER OF STATE AND HILL 994-4040
JOSTENS
GOLD RING SALE
IS COMING!
JACKSON
Continued from page 11
out for sure will be to read Joe's face
onstage. But you might have a hard
time singling him out from his
mates tonight - he's bringing along
with him 10 members the ensemble
which performed on Blaze of Glory.
Within an acclaimed two-and-a-half
hour set, they'll play the album in
its start-to-finish entirety, plus new
arrangements of old favorites like "Is
She Really Going Out With Him,"
the song Jackson included in three
different versions on the Live 1980-
86 double album.
The man sure knows how to re-
ignite his past ideas - as Blaze of
Glory proves. But now that he's
covered every style from punk to
salsa to soundtracks, Broadway, and
guitar rock-and-roll, who knows what
tomorrow's Joe Jackson might be up
to next - the world's first album
recorded direct-digital-to-earth-satel-
lite-station from lunar orbit?
Tonight, at least, I'll stave off these
anticipations in favor of some great
songsand primo musicianship in the
Hill's friendlier confines.
The JOE JACKSON BAND performs
in the Hill Auditorium tonight at 8
p.m. Reserved seating tickets are
$18.50 at Ticketmaster outlets.
Let Them Know
How You Feel! I
DAILY PERSONALS 764-0557
RESTAURANT
"24 YEARS EXPERIENCE"
CHEF JAN
TOP GOLD MEDAL WINNER
OF DETROIT COBO HALL NATIONAL CONTEST
Sponsored by Michigan Restaurant Association
Michigan Chefs De Cuisine Association
Read Jim Poniewozik Every
U U
I
BLUE RIBBON BEST CHEF AWARD
IN WASHINGTON D.C.
I
0
zM
wU
wj
Soph
Show
p presents
ye Bye
Birdie
- - --t - - - -p- ,
. fl0f OFF with couponI
I
/..
S/0Dinner only
expires 10/31/89
~~~~~---------
--
I N
THE
'
'
'
Order your college ring NOW.
Stop by and see a Jostens representative,
Szechuan-Hunan-Peking
UNION
E
.m
.I
I xl*.:Inl .1 , l;-, *, -1:1, ; .*kYI