The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 19, 1996 Page: 6 of 12
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TH^'^.C^ THRESHER
AINMENT
6 FRIDAY, JANUARY 19. 1996
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Dan McDermon
S luff Writer
"111en- are those who think Ca-
sino was 1995's best crini?- movie,
and there are those who've seen
Heat, a st unning, Sprawling epic from
writer/director Michael Mann.
Mann is typically identified as
the executive producer of "Miami
Vice," but his film work transcends
the ultra slick formula of that pro*
gram.
Heal is a magnificent picture
which blends multiple genre ele-
ments and provides lavishly detailed
characterization.
FIIM: Hiat
Rating: ★*★*#
(out Of five)
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro
star as cop and robber, respectively.
It's a powerful pairing; their dispar
ale acting styles mirror the film's
central dichotomy between the male
dominated world ol crooks and cop-
pers and the family-dominated world
(•I husbands, children and wives,
While the criminal code is cen-
tered around fear, veugeaflce and
icv prolessioualism, the family is fo-
i used on love It's a familiar the
malic i"lenient ol Western films, and
Mann broadens it wisely.
k'ailu i than lot using exclusively
on the inhuman acts committed in
the name ol the criminal code, he
ccntei n iiiii attention on the shreds
ol humanity to which these ravaged
men cling.
I)e Niro plays the leader of a
tightly knit crew of ex-cons who take
down a series of lucrative scores in
Los Angeles. The robbery which
opens the film with Peckinpah inten-
sity is simple, quick and successful.
This attracts the attention of
Pacino, the head ftf a similar group
of tough guys on the other side of
t he la w. Both of these men are d riven
by the same primitive sensibilities,
but only Pacino can embrace the
warmth of a family life or deal com-
passionately with the victims of De
Niro's crimes.
Every character is full-
bodied and vibrant,
without the
disembodied
simplifications of your
. average Die Hard
clone.
A busload of terrific supporting
performances bolster the film, with
Val Kilmer, Ashley Judd, Tom
Si/.emore and Jon Voight leading
the. pack. Tone I.oc and Henry
Rollins show up, too, and they don't
even get in the way,
There's a tremendous depth to
this film which I can't recall seeing
in many other movies; Heat serves
as definite proof that a film can be as
,« § ii,;
" \ ~*
Al Pacino as Vincent Hanna in Michael Mann's groundbreaking crime movie
Hc.it delivers a brilliant performance.
resonant and grand in scale as any
novel. Hveiy ehai acter is lull bodied
and vibrant, without the disembod-
ied simplifications of your average
Die Hard clone.
Shot at over 50 Los Angeles loca-
tions and costing a well-spent $60
million, this three-hour tour de force
never lets you get bored. Mann
placed much more emphasis on the
drama than he did over the bullets*
though there's still enough shoot-
ing for a Rarnbo wjth a Reservoir
Dogs leftover.
While the criminal
code is centered
around fear,
vengeance and icy
professionalism, the
family is focused on
love.
Mann's best previous works —
Thief, Manhunter, The iMst of the
Mohicans — were thoroughly de-
tailed, stylish and thoughtful. These
works proved before Heat that he's
an auteur awaiting some study. And
he manages Heat with considerable
skill.weaving people in and out of
events seamlessly, probing human
nature with deliberate care.
A meticulously crafted cop opera
which entertains consistently, Heat
raises my expectations for Mann as
well as this genre. I've seen this
movie three times, and I'll see it
again. It's one of the movies which
reinforces our faith in cinema's ca-
pabilities, and these days that's noth-
ing short of a miracle.
Barrel of Monkeys
Sci-fi '12 Monkeys'
sparks frantic fears
Marty Beard
Atftfi Editor
If the predictions made in
Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys are
correct, then humanity doesn't
. have much time left Ir>-the last
months of 1996, according to
James Kohl (Bruce Willis), a le-
thal virus will wipe out 5 billion
people.
Film; 12 Monkeys
Hating; * * * i/a
(out of five)
• Qf course, no one in the film
believes what a mental patient
like James Kohl has to say about
himself and the future, But would
ww believe it if a man claimed to
be from the future and kept mak-
ing dire predictions about the fate
of mankind and insisted that no,
he is not insane? Such a man
would be locked away in a pad-
ded cell with the key thrown away.
This is an example of the
"Cassandra syndrome" theme
that prevails throughout the film:
a curse of being able to predict
the future, but always being dis-
believed.
While the not-so-farfetched
premise in these days of HfV and
EbUla may sound just like an*
other take on The Andromeda
Strain or The Stand, its plot has
different elements to it and pro-
ceeds flt a pace that sets thistmovie
apart from "deadly disease" flicks.
But this movie is certainly not
unprecedented: 12 Monkeys is
loosely based on a 1963 French
film called 1m Jftee. „
Not only does the film con-
front apocalyptic issues, it also
deals with that timeless science-
fiction movie dilemma: time
imel. Can time travelchange
the future? Are there parallel re-
alities? Cam someone from the fu-
ture start an apocalypse by telling
its instigator — in the past —
about how the coming pestilence
was unleashed?
Willis excellently expresses
the confusion Kohl feels as a man
struggling with the bleak, subter-
ranean future he came from and
the beautiful and (comparatively)
fresh air of America in the mid-
1990s. Naturally, Kohl favors and
savors terrafirma.
This movie's biggest arid most
pleasant surprise Was undoubt-
edly Brad Pitt as the psychotic
Jeffrey Goines. the. son of a
wealthy, eminent virologist. The
6?r-stud , having camouflaged his
famous baby blues with brown
contact lenses, proves that he can
act, in a role that is a far cry from
Tristan Ludlow in legends of the
Fall Eyen Pitt's hands turn in a
remarkable performance... they
twist in obscene, Jerky anger as if
they have their own case of
Tourette's syndrome, as if con-
ducting an orchestra of 12 speed-
freak monkeys.
The Army of the 12 Monkeys
itself figures prominently in the
plot, too. The array," led by Goines,
is a group of vegetarian, animal-
activist commandos with an
agenda. Much of the film's plot
. centera ground Kohl's pursuit of
the army, and his trying to dis-
cover where the virufforiginated.
Madeleine StoWe, as sympa-
thetic, insightful psychiatrist and
writer Katherine Railly, delivers
an inipasaioned performance,
making the best of her role as a
kidnapped woman who falls for
her abdudor. w
If you haven't seen 12 Monkeys
yet, you're missing out. Science
fiction it is, hut it's effective pre-
cisely because it is chillingly al-
" Moifpossible.
WMMMBm
Too-trendy6
short of directors' credentials
Chris McKenzie
Staff Writer
Four Rooms came out during the
Christmas break, so if you were go-
ing to see it, you probably already
have. If you haven't, don't consider
yourself deprived: For all its poten-
tial, the movie turns out to be a big
disappointment.
If you think about it, the idea of
Four Rooms isn't really all that origi-
nal. Minis like" Plaza Suite and Mys-
tery Train have already set Several
independent vignettes in the same
hotel. What makes Four Rooms dif-
ferent is that each story is given to a
different director: Allison Anders,
Alexandre Rockwell, Robert
Rodriguez and Quentin Tararitino,
each of which are young, trendy and,
above all, good.
So it's a sure formula for success?
Nope, just a formula for high expec-
tations. Expectations that get shat-
tered by stories that just don't enter-
tain as much as we'd like.
All four of the
directors suffer from
an. overzealousness
to show off their
trendy styles.' '
around a coven of witches (among
whom are Madonna, Valerie Golina
and lone Skye) who have assembled'
in the Mon Signor ty resurrect their
goddess, Diana. To complete their
magic stew, they only need one more,
little ingredient, one tliat only a man
like Ted can provide.
In 'The Wrong Man," directed
by Alexandre Rockwell {In the Soup),
Ted delivers champagne to the
wrong room, where a jealous hus-
band lies in wait for another
Theodore who's been sleeping with
his wife, whom he has tied up. Ted
fights for his life while trying to con-
vince the drunken, psychotic hus-
band that lie's the wrong guy,
Film: Four Rooms
Ratino: ★★
(out or five)
The movie takes place on New
Year's Eve at the Mon Signor Hotel
The film's four sttfties have one char-
acter in common: Ted (Tim Roth),
the bellboy who's stuck running the
entireTfuwl by himself all night. Four
different times'he gets called into
four different rooms to participate in
four very different dark comedies. .
The first story. "The Missing In-
gredient is dkeeled by Allison.
Anders (Mi Vida fjt>ca) anff centers
Both of these stories have a lot of
potential for huipor, but they just fall
flat. "The Missing Ingredient" ends
abruptly and unsatisfactorily while
"The Wrong Man" just gets confus-
ing and weird,
The third story, " The Misbehav-
ers." directed by Robert Rodriguez
(Desperado), is the best of the four
segments. Ted is enlisted to baby-sit
the kids of a smooth-talking, slick
haired character (Antonio Banderas)
and his wife while they go out for
New Year's Eve. As the title sug-
gests, Ted's trustees get in
trouble when he's out.
What makes 'The Mis-
behavers" funny is the
cartoonish comedy in
, both its action and
its dialogue. It
plays like some
d e m e p t e d
Tex Avery
cartoon,
traps
formed into live-action.
Hie last story. "The Man from
Hollywood," is directed by Quentin
Tararitino (Pulp Fiction), He stars in
it, too, as a big movie producer who
wants Ted to help him and his friends
play out a bet they saw on an old
"Alfred H itchcock Presents." If Ted
accepts the offer, and the Si,000, his
task would be to perform an amputa-
tion on the loser with a well-sharp-
ened hatchet,
The last 10 minutes of this story
are fantastic, but the first 20 drag.
Tarantino wastes so much time on
pointless dialogue arid focusing the
camera on himself that you just want
it to end by. the time it gets to the
good part.
The last 10minu1.es redeem "The
Man from Hollywood" somewhat,
and the denouement is mercifully
short, [^anything, this final vignette
and its ending provide a satisfying
end to the entire movie, but at great
expense to our attention span.
All four of the directors suffer
from an overzealousness to showoff
their trendy styles. With Rockwell,
throwing the camera in every which
angle makes the views messy and
confusing; with Tarantino, trying to
get some cool dialogue and unique
shots in just makes things contrived.
Hie damning quality of the movie
is that the directors tried too hard to
make it cool. But Four Rooms does
have redeeming qualities: Tim
Roth's acting,
and^the seg-
ment directed
by Robert
Rodriguez.
If you're a
fan of any of
these direc-
tors, wait for
the video. If
you're not a fan
of these direc-
tors, just forget
it; trust me,you
won't lik<* it «
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Klein, Charles & Rao, Vivek. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, January 19, 1996, newspaper, January 19, 1996; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246528/m1/6/?rotate=90: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.