OW DO YOU TOP A SEXY SQUAW
(step aside, Jessica Rabbit) and a
benippled bat (holy codpiece)
for the fall lineup? You don't
even try. You just roll out the
latest round of action, romance, come-
dy, mystery and Brad Pitt movies. And
thank God that Kato Kaelin isn't in
any of them.
Canadian
Bacon
Gramercy
Roger ' Me's
Michael Moore lays off
GM and goes after the,
White House with his
scenario of what would happen if we declared war
on Canada. And if Hawkeye Pierce were president.
Not really, but Alan Alda does play the man with
the plan. Rhea Perlman (Cheers) and the late John
Candy also star.
HackersT
united Artists
This is a blood-and-
gu ts h or r or flick
that.... No, it's about
computers. But you
knew that. In it, a
bunch of Gets Xers
(that means they're cool, not geeky - get it?)
become cybersuspects in some technological
treachery. They're looking for an exit off this
superhighway to hell.
Seven ;. -
The seves deadly
sins. Let's see: anger,
avarice, envy, gluttony,
pride, sloth.... What's
the seventh? O lwell.
Morgan Freeman (The Shawsha le'Redeuption) and
Brad Pitt -Lust! That's it! star as two cops
after a serial killer who's serious about those sins
being deadly.
The Run of -
the Country
Castle Reck
Think your transi-
tion from high school to
college was rough?
Danny (Matt Keeslar,
Safe Passage) goes
through ahot every
emotionally scarring
event an 18-year-old Irishman can encounter, from
death to pregnancy to more death and near death.
But at least his country's peaceful.
Beyond
Rangoon
Castle Rock
While her sister was
piercing every body part
for Pulp Fiction, Patricia
Arquette (T rue Ro-
mance) was slogging 1
through the jungles of ,
Malaysia, which passed
for war-torn Burma, circa 1988. She plays a woman
who, by immersing herself in a nation's tragedies, is
able to get past her own.
National
Lampoon's
Senior Trip
New Line
Those crazy high
school kids. The "slackers y-
get detention and have to s
write to the president with
suggestions for improving
the educational system. So
IThe Prez invites thesi all
to D.C. With Tommy Chong (as in Cheech and) at the
bus wheel, what a strange trip it'll be.
On the
Set
A special-effects artist
painstakingly arranges yak hair
on a giant rat creature. "Take
note ot this," says actor Tom
Savini (Creepshowl1 and II).
"Everybody else turns into a
bat. I turn into a rat."
Savini plays Sex Machine, a
customer at the Titty Twister
bar in From Dusk Till Dawn, the
upcoming Robert Rodriguez
(Desperado) vampire horror
film. Scriptwriter Quentin
Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and
George Clooney (TV's ER) play
gangster brothers who seek
refuge at the Titty Twister.
Greg Nicotero, the "N" of
the KNB special-effects com-
pany, demonstrates another of
his creations, a twitching bat
that attacks Clooney in the
movie."George was upset
because the bat out-acted
him," Nicotero says.
Nicotero also points out a
decapitated head, which is
modeled after Robert Kurtzman
("K" of KNB). "This is human
hair," he says. "You can't style
synthetic. See, Bob has kind of
the Ohio high school hairdo."
Everybody in the special-effects
room gets killed at some point
in the movie, Nicotero says.
Production designer Cecilia
Montiel explains her vision of a
new design for vampirism in
Mexico: "Don't expect any
Gothic here. It's naco. Border
style - tacky and decadent."
Nadja
October Films
Just your average black-and-white, vampire
lesbian horror/comedy/love story. Did we men-
tion that David Lynch executive produced?
Elina Liwensohn (the Romanian gymnast on
' that one Seinf'ld) stars as the vampire Nadja.
Peter Fonda plays Dr. Van Helsing as well as
Dracula.
Jeffrey
Orion
A romantic comedy
about the search for Mr.
Right. Nice, fluffy -
common film fodder.
Unless the one search-
ing is named Jeffrey
(played by Steven
Weber, TV's Wings).
Desperado Philadelphia got serious
Columbia Pictures about gay love in the
Robert Rodriguez started the indie fire burning age of AIDS. Now Jeffrey wants to get silly with it.
with his $7,000 E1 Mariachi. Now, with big-studio
backing and big-name talent (Antonio Banderas The
plays the musician with the loaded guitar) for its Brothers
sequel, he puts his tricks aside - or at least polishes McMullen
them - and does some serious filmmaking. Fox Searchlight
To Di ForThe McMullen
To Die For brothers are Catholic
Columbia Pictures and Irish in New York.
Here's another from- ' Which can be hell on
tabloids-to-celluloid pic- relationships. One's
ture, but with less blood single and playing;
than Natural Born one's married and
Killers and less-offensive straying; one's commit-
language than S.F.W. Nicole Kidman stars as an red but delaying. Ed
attention-crazed weather girl. Matt Dillon plays her Burns, who produced,
murdered husband. Gus Van Sant directs, so yes, wrote and directed this Sundance winner, also
it'll be quirky. plays the player.
A Reasonto Believe is a thorough explo-
S cree n S aver rationof thesubject,hut idoesn'tfeellike
an after-schoolspecial or one of those good-
A Reason to Believe for-you moviesyou were forced to watch in
A movie on date rape? Ugh. No thanks. healthclasso--movies that are OKbuttthat
But wait, there's A Reason to Believe. in no way relate to your life. These scenarios
Higher Learning was disappointing are believable, and the movie's actually still
because it tried to tackle too many issues fun to watch. Music includessongsfrom
and couldn't give anythe treatment they REM, Blind Melon and10,000Maniacs.
deserved -particularly the rape plot line, A Reason to Believe stars Allison
which got further convoluted with the sex- Smith (TV's Kate & Allie). It opens nation-
ual-orientation-questioning plot line. ally in September.
August/September 1995 ' U. Magazine 35