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