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BLACK STALLION
Showing at Hoyts Centre, City, and
suburban cinemas.
A FINE, wild film that grabs you by the
hand and drags you along with it.
More than a children's movie, Black
Stallion has the grace and ease of a cin-
ema classic.
Although the plot's as thin as a hand-
ful of mist, the story is told with such
joyous good humour that you can't help
but like it.
The movie starts aboard a small
steamer off the African coast just after
the Second World War. A boy (Kelly
Reno), bored with the adults, tries to be-
friend a stunning horse penned on the
deck.
A storm shipwrecks boy and animal
on a desert island. There, in images shot
by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel,
the lad earns the horse's trust and learns
how to ride the beast.
Once rescued by fishermen, the pair
are shipped back to a small American
town where jockey-cum-farmer Mickey
Rooney trains them to race.
The film climaxes with, you guessed it,
a race between the stallion and two of
America's top thoroughbreds.
But there's more here than just
Robinson Crusoe Rides National Velvet
Again.
Director Carroll Ballard and execu-
tive producer Francis Ford Coppola have
taken care to get everything, from the
Arab stallion to the soundtrack music,
nearly perfect.
Black Stallion, which could have de-
generated into a clumsy, tear-in-every
frame movie, instead races away to be a
winner.
- BEV MALZARD
CANNONBALL RUN
Showing at Hoyts Centre, City, and
suburban cinemas.
THE SELF-INDULGENCE of Cannon-
ball Run makes this 95-minute heap of
nonsense look suspiciously like some-
body forgot to tell the cast and its direc
tor Hal Needham that the cameras were
rolling at the time.
Burt Reynolds looking dangerously
relaxed in his role of J. J. McClure,
launches yet another "high-speed, high-
ly-illegal cross-country race." He yee
haas, mauls Farrah Fawcett and has a
whale of a time driving an ambulance
across the US with funnyman Dom
Deluise.
Some of Hollywood's biggest stars had
nothing to do for a few weeks and agreed
to join Hal Needham whose previous
credits include Smokey And The Bandit,
Hooper and Smokey And The Bandit
Part II.
Roger Moore plays Seymour Goldfab
Jr, a slightly unhinged heir to a lady's
underwear manufacturing business. In
an embarrassingly funny send-up,
Moore's on-screen character who thinks
he's 007 drives an Aston Martin and ap-
pears to be looking above his head for a
halo.
Unfortunately, Roger seems to have
forgotten it was Simon Templar of The
Saint series who was so angelic.
Farrah Fawcett plays the cutely
named Pamela Glover whose mane of
blonde hair covers most of Burt
Reynold's face in the movie. Farrah plays
a nature lover who giggles and flashes
that great smile. Thankfully there are no
scenes between her and Bianca Jagger
who turns up as a rich sheik's (Jamie
Farr) sister.
There are some funny moments when
veterans Dean Martin and Sammy Davis
Jr hit the screen. Disguised as priests
they make the cross-country dash in a
red Ferrari, always driving past the best
bars.
Adrienne Barbeau is as stunning as
her black Lamborghini, stopping traffic
and adding laughs to the race. Hal
Needham sees Cannonball Run as being
about "a group of slightly off-centre
people who love humour and action. It's
a parody of a car race."
I'm still worried about Nickolas Van
Heising MD (Mad Doctor) who is played
by Jack Elam. He's a physician of dui
ous credentials and a "practitioner i
proctology and other related dis
plines".
- FIONA MANNIE
CAVEMAN
Showing at Hoyts Centre, City, ai
suburban cinemas.
CAVEMAN TURNS back the clock toi
almost-forgotten yesterday.
Not quite as far as the Stone Age, ja
the 1930s, when movies were still lean
ing to talk, special effects were cluw
acting was stylized and everythii
looked generally amateurish.
It's set in the year "One Zillion, BC
on October 9th" (one of the few ra
jokes in the film), when caveman Atod
(played by Ringo Starr) tries to woo tl!
most beautiful woman in the tribe, Lan
(Starr's new wife, Barbara Bach), aw
from the super-macho tribal chieftar
Tonda (former footballer Jot
Matuszak).
Generally, the film is too crude total
young kids to - and too poorly-made
take adults to.
Producers David Foster and Lawre«
Turman set out from the first wanting .
all costs to avoid passé anachronism!
But maybe a few things lifted from!
20th Century into a Stone Age settin
might've saved the film.
Besides, the soundtrack abounds
them.
There's Ravel's Bolero, straights
the movie 10, Elgar's Pomp And Circuc
stance, which Stanley Kubrick used ^
well in A Clockwork Orange, and
travesty of Strauss' Also Sprä:
Zarathustra, which originally ft"11,
movie fame in Kubrick's 2001: A Spa
Odyssey.
The soundtrack is also full of pseu*1
Stone Age dialogue, but it's just an*
cuse to get away with using crude *
pressions. However, there is one rao&
word - a four-letter one, of course.
Some of the animals in the film ^ "
their fair share of interesting dialog

Íjome films being screened over the school holidays may not be suitable for

Children. Those same movies may, indeed, not even be suitable for adults.

4ease check newspaper guides for screening times and censorship ratings.

none Help

i oíoo, like the dinosaur which howls like a
ti::/olf at sunset and crows like a rooster at

d lawn.

Another funny sequence is the ap
LNtearance of a huge mosquito, the size of

i man's face, which refuses to be buzzed
»ff. The joke goes too far, though, when
ityomeone obligingly squashes it, leaving a

ickly-yellow mess all over the victim's

ic-'ace.

Carl Gotlieb, co-writer and director,
\.-.aid: "Caveman's messages, if any, are

-imple: Some things never change ...
ind we are all descended from the same
>r :omedy team."

-IAN HORNER

°e£LASH OF THE TITANS

P Showing at the State Theatre, City.

JLASH OF THE TITANS is a visual mas

ie «rpiece in terms of the combination of
i animation and film known as Dynarama.

It is an excursion into Greek mythol
Dgy and the gods who dominated the
world in which two-headed dogs, enor-
mous sea-monsters and pitiful half-man,
r;half-creatures roamed the earth.

The movie contains some of the most

delightful characters since Stars Wars,
for example Bubo the Brass Owl, a sort
rpf mythological equivalent of R2D2.

Harry Hamlin, the lovely Judi
.Bowker, Maggie Smith, Ursula Andress,
Sian Phillips, Burgess Meredith and
Flora Robson head a powerful cast but
the film really belongs to the magic of
? Ray Harryhausen, producer and creator

of the visual effects.

Laurence Olivier, who seems to take
on any role these days, plays the immor

; tal Zeus.

After 25 years of modest budgets,
Harryhausen's 16th movie stops at
nothing. His epic feature, which took 18
.months of filming, big sets and big
names, involved some of the most intri-
cate special effects he's ever attempted.

Some things, like his penchant for
. working alone and keeping everything a
, secret, never change.

Ray Harryhausen sees this as an ad

vantage: it whets the audiences' appe-
tites. He says, "If I knew how Willis
O'Brien did King Kong I wouldn't have
enjoyed it half as much. What an audi-

ence doesn't know won't hurt them."

- RM.

ENDLESS LOVE

Showing at Village Cinema City, and

suburban cinemas.

"ENDLESS" IS THE WORD. As Endless
Love plods from crisis to twisted bed
sheets and back to a crisis, there's a feel-
ing that the film will never end.

Director Franco Zeffirelli appears in-
fatuated with the not inconsiderable
beauty of Brooke Shields and her male
doppelganger Martin Hewitt. In fact so
alike are Brooke and Martin that at
times there's the impression that one or
other is making love to a mirror.

"Scary isn't it?" Brooke asks in her
opening line, and indeed it is quite hor-
rible to think this Restless-Years-Goes
To-Chicago is going to pack them in at

the cinemas.

But Endless Love will attract the post
puberty movie-goers, crammed as the
film is with young passion, anti-parental
diatribes and easily understood dialogue.

Each time any of the characters looks
to be on the verge of making a reason-
ably profound statement, the script pulls
back lest the audience be enlightened.
Towards the end, Brooke's screen mother
(Shirley Knight) says: "You deserve ...
anything ... and everything."

The story tells of school girl Jade (Ms
Shields) falling in love with the satur-
nine David (Martin Hewitt).

Jade's dad (Don Murray) gives his
tacit approval to the relationship until
the young couple start doing - as they
say in Love In A Cold Climate - "it" in
the girl's bedroom.

Flung from the home, the lad sets fire
to Jade's house. Somewhat annoyed, the
now homeless family have him arrested.

Once in a mental asylum (this film is
just chock-a-block with laughs) David
tries to stay in touch with Jade.

From left: 1. Kelly Reno and the Black
Stallion 2 and 3, Farrah Fawcett and
Burt Reynolds in Cannonball Run. 4 and
5, Ringo Starr the Caveman with
Barbara Bach. 6 and 7, Laurence Olivier
as Zeus with Greek Gods in Clash Of
The Titans. 8. Martin Hewitt and Brook
Shields in Endless Love.

Will they get back together again?
Let's say that if you're surprised by the
ending, I'd be surprised.

- GREG FLYNN

GALLIPOLI

Showing at Village Cinema City and
Village Parramatta.

THE CLOSING IMAGES in Gallipoli are
guaranteed to catch in your throat like

cotton.

If the audience isn't snuffling into its
collective box of tissues during the final
moments then director Peter Weir hasn't
achieved his aim.

Those whose anti-British ire rose with
each scene in Breaker Morant, should be
apoplectic at Gallipoli's claim that the
English sat drinking tea on the beaches
while our lads were chopped up by
Turkish machine-gunners.

With Mark Lee and Mel Gibson as
two likeable heroes, the audience has the
opportunity of actually identifying with
someone on screen - the same could
hardly be said of Breaker Morant.

Lee plays Archy, a teenage running
enthusiast whose approach to life is
shaped by Jack (Bill Kerr) and a handful
of aging adventure novels.

While competing in a Western Austra-
lian bush athletics meeting, Archy comes
up against Frank (Gibson). Their initial
wariness grows into friendship, with
both finally joining the invasion forces
en route to Turkey.

Act Two plants the lads in Egypt
where, while preparing to do battle with
the Empire's enemies, Archy and Frank
sample the pleasures of foreign climes.

Act Three is Gallipoli itself. There the
young men and their friends discover

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that if you want to play with the big boys
you also have to learn how to die with

them.

David Williamson's amusing and oc-
casionally moving screenplay and
Russell Boyd's cinematography are just
two extra pleasures in this film.

- G.F.

THE LEGEND OF THE
LONE RANGER

Screening at Hoyts Centre, City, and

suburban cinemas.

NO WONDER THE baddies in The
Legend Of The Lone Ranger look terri-
fied. How would you like to be chased by
a masked male model who appears to be
groaning under the weight of more silver
than Nelson Bunker Hunt?

For those unschooled in Western folk
waffle, the Lone Ranger was a gent in a
natty outfit complemented by a pierrot
mask and dinky silver bullets.

This elegant figure was nicely
balanced by a buckskin-clad Indian
named Tonto Mounted on two equally
dashing horses, Silver and Scout, the
pair created great confusion among the
Westerners who assumed only bandits
wore masks and that all Injuns were bud-
ding pillagers.

Incongruously backed by a
soundtrack blaring the William Tell
Overture, the domino-coloured hero and
his buddy rode their horses at full pelt
across our early television screens.

A generation later, the Lone Ranger
and Tonto are again travelling left-to
right across a screen, pursuing naughtier

members of the cast.

Unfortunately a wide theatre screen,
and 90 minutes of plot time, prove too
much strain for the one called Kemo

Sabe.

Director William Fraker, rather than
jab his spurs in and give the film a touch
of pace, has opted instead for a plodding

start to the movie.

Like a child's book it begins with a

once-upon-a-time angle to the tale of a

.lila

youngster orphaned by outlaws. The boy,
John Reid, is brought up by Indians after
befriending a lad named Tonto.

Finally claimed by his brother, the
white boy is taken away and becomes a
lawyer.

Back in the West as a grown man,
Reid discovers that only by hiding his
face can he bring justice and other good-

ies to the frontier.

In The Legend Of The Lone Ranger,
Reid/L.R. is played by Klinten Spilsbury
with Michael Horse as Tonto. It's a
shame the producers didn't hire actors

instead.

- G.F.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST
ARK

Showing at the Paramount, City.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK is de-
lightfully warm, funny entertainment
that will leave you feeling good for days.
Women will fall in love with Harrison
Ford while boys of all ages will revel in
the action of this epic adventure.

Harrison Ford plays Indiana Jones
who though outrageously larger than life
still has the right human qualities that
make the audience not only identify with
him but wish they could jump right
through the screen and laugh and battle
along with him.

You see, he's afraid of snakes and
there are some impossibly funny scenes

when he has to rescue the treasured Ark

from Egypt and ends up in a crypt slither-
ing with snakes.

Director Steven Spielberg (he also di-
rected Jaws, Close Encounters Of The
Third Kind) and producer George Lucas
(the brains behind Star Wars, The Em-
pire Strikes Back and currently busy
with Revenge Of The Jedi) have joined
forces to fulfill childhood ambitions.

They have always wanted a natural
yet effective hero on the screen and plan

other Indiana Jones adventures.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark is a wonder-
ful spoof on those old '40s movies about
the good guys versus the bad and ensures
that everyone from the actors on the
screen to the people in the cinema seats
has a good time. And that as they say, is
entertainment. - F.M.

ROLLER BOOGIE

Showing at Hoyts Centre, City, an

suburban cinemas.

THERE IS ONLY one word to descrih

Roller Boogie: Loud. It is like a %4
nute Coca-Cola commercial but eva
the music isn't as listenable as that ol'
a TV ad.

Linda Blair - the actress publicist

will never let us forget starred in The El1
orcist - shows that her tastes haven! -'
improved with maturity. She plays Teni
Barkley, a musical prodigy and daughtr
of a Beverly Hills lawyer who'd love ti:
little girl to study the flute.

Terry's clichéd parents (played by;:
Roger Perry and Beverly Garland) haven
"nice" young man picked out for her.

Our heroine meets young, poor I?
course), Bobby James (Jim Bray) and be-
comes involved with his fight to save i s
skating rink in the neighbourhood.Hi-:
ambition is to skate for the US in the
Olympic Games and he teams up will
Terry to become terrors on wheels.

Linda Blair looks uncomfortable i |

most of her brief skating dresses and ha'
hair is done in an awkward fashion fe
sport.

Jim Bray is the only good thing goiiT
for an otherwise tacky exercise ii "'
cashing in on the current America
roller skating craze. He is the Unit]

States amateur rollerskating champs 1
a title he's held for three years.

_FJi:1

ii

STIR CRAZY

Showing at Hoyts Centre, City, ari'-:

suburban cinemas.

ANY MOVIE THAT stars Richard ft^i
and Gene Wilder, and is directed ll *i
Sidney Poitier, would have to be s^1'

madness.

Stir Crazy is a delightfully inspiré
comedy starring two of America's m« ^
talented funnymen. Since his near-fa" ^
accident in his home last year, Richie
Pryor has been laying off the drugs a»

keeping a very low profile - but he letsi [
all hang out in this zany movie.

Gene Wilder, as Skip Donahue, is. ;r
unproduced Broadway playwright

instinctively trusts all people. Skip ;
naive and charming, believing there*!''

none Help

>nly two types of people in the world:
ty, hose who are good and those who need a

ittle encouragement to be good,

les Richard Pryor plays his best friend
|nd out-of-work actor Harry Munroe. A
idealist, he's street-wise and has learned
rrTom bitter experience it's best to expect
he worst, and he's seldom disappointed.
L] They decide to drive their battered
Lan to California, and that's where the
Loin - and trouble - begin. One of the
funniest scenes is where the two friends,
:r#ho are both as mad as each other, take
r jn any sort of work, in this case dressing

is huge, fluffy, yellow chickens to do a
Vi3ong-and-dance routine for a bank open-

ing

3e: This is Gene Wilder and Richard
)(Pryor's second movie together. After the
3:pairing up of the crazy duo and the suc-
cess of the hit Silver Streak, one wonders
rwhy it took so long to pair them again on

.the screen.

j - F.M.
SUPERSNOOPER

* Showing at Hoyts Centre, city, and

suburban cinemas.

, A SURPRISINGLY entertaining film and
j^one the kids will love.

It has it all - a superhero, the Mafia,
i a dash of love and tremendous fight
; scenes. Mind you, it's all good, clean,
wholesome fun; the Mafia deal in coun-
terfeit bills, not drugs, and even the
punch-ups are humorous, lacking any
tomato sauce garnishing.

David Speed (played by Terence
, "Trinity" Hill) is a rookie cop based in

the sun-drenched tourist resort of Mi-
ami. During his first solo mission he is
.¿caught in a storm of nuclear fallout. He
survives, boasting superhuman powers.

He can levitate, practise telekinesis
/ead minds, catch bullets in his teeth
; and swim like a fish. He's Astro Boy anc
rUn Geller rolled into one. There is E

catch, of course - a glimpse of the col
. our red renders him powerless.

His confused partner in the wai
against crime is Sergeant Willy Dunloi
lernest Borgnine). Borgnine is wei
.Known to TV viewers from his McHale'i

^avy days and has a string of film role:

, to his credit.

Hill and Borgnine work well together
but, unfortunately, the script doesn't al-
low them their full scope for comedy.

Although the cinema seat did begin to
seem a little hard towards the end of the
film, Supersnooper was really quite en-
joyable escapism. Remember, when you
go to see it, don't wear red.

- PENELOPE WOLF

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER

THE SEA

Showing at the Lyceum, City.

EVERY SCHOOL HOLS Disney's dust
off one or two of the flicks on their
shelves and trot them out for another
run. This year's pacer is a real thorough-

bred.

I mean, how could you miss? Once you
had decided to make a screen version of
Jules Verne's classic proto-sci-fi, which
combines dark mysteries, apparent evil
intent, giant squalls and squid, and a stu-
pendous submarine that makes the in-
teriors of the old Orient Express look
like the cheap section of a Salvation
Army hostel, you've got a winner.

It's 1868. Strange things are happen-
ing in all the oceans of the world - ships
disappearing, weird monsters apparently
bobbing up. The US Government sends a
gunboat to investigate.

This puny tub is overwhelmed by the
dark forces it encounters and, by various
means, our three heroes, Ned Land (Kirk
Douglas), Professor Aronnax (Paul
Lukas) and Conseil (the incomparable
Peter Lorre) - who represent, respect-
ively, brawn, brains and comic relief -
fall into the clutches of the awesome
Captain Nemo (James Mason, as a kind
of underwater Desert Fox).

Nemo is the classic Disney (and
Verne) villain who, at first, appears evil
and powerful and turns out to be really
good and wise. The four principals have
numerous adventures aboard the sub-
marine Nautilus, being chased by ersatz
South Sea head-hunters, or merely gad-
ding about in the depths. The encounter
with a giant squid, obsessively man-
ufactured by Disney special-effects
boffins, has become a classic and may
frighten the tots.

Can Captain Nemo send his three cap

From left: 9 and 10, Mark Lee and Mel
Gibson in Egypt before leaving for Gal-
lipoli. 11. Klinton Spilsbury as the Lone
Ranger. 12. Harrison Ford ready to at-
tack in Raiders Of The Lost Ark. 13. Jim
Bray and Linda Blair in Roller Boogie. 14
and 15. Richard Pryor with Gene Wilder
going Stir Crazy. 16. Ernest Borgnine
Supersnooping.

tives as ambassadors for peace to the
whole world? Can he survive? Or will he
be blasted out of existence by the world's
fury? You can be the last kid on your

block to find out.

- PETER BROWNLEE

WATERSHIP DOWN

Showing at Dendy Cinema, Martin
Place, City.

THREE COTTON-TAILED musketeers,
always ready to fight for truth, justice
and a dry burrow, star in the captivating
cartoon Watership Down.

The three rabbits are the crusty
Bigwig, the heroic Hazel and the pro-
phetic Fiver.

Adapted from Richard Adams' cult
best-seller, Watership Down follows the
trio of bunnies who, with their buddies,
quit their soon-to-be-destroyed burrows
on the Berkshire Downs and hop off in
search of safe, high ground.

Eventually, of course, they reach
Watership Down.

Our heroes' greatest enemy is the evil
rabbit, General Woundwort, whose battle
tactics involve tearing out his opponent's

throat.

Woundwort is no Bugs Bunny, and
blood, albeit animated, flows freely in
Watership Down.

Director Martin Rosen handles the
film with the touch of a man who has
fallen in love with the characters and
their lives.

It is the voices rather than the anima-
tion that capture the imagination in this
full-length feature. The voices create a
world where rabbits have human
qualities.

Sir Ralph Richardson, Richard
Briers, John Hurt and Zero Mostel have
lent their considerable vocal talents to
humanizing the rabbits.

Mostel is particularly amusing as the

none Help

From left: 17 and 18. Kirk Douglas in
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. 19.
Watership Down. 20. Bryan Brown and
Judy Davis In Winter Of Our Dreams.

middle-European seagull Kehaar. Hurts
heard as Hazel, the born leader rep
tably modelled on writer Adams' warta
commander, while Briers is Fiver.

Rosen, who also wrote the screenplay,
said: "It was not made for children, k
it's a film children can go and see."

-GI

WINTER OF OUR DREAMS
Showing at State Theatre 2, City.

WINTER OF OUR DREAMS is onei
only two newly-released Australian fik
being offered for the school holidays.

It stars arguably the best actor as
actress in this country at the momer,
Bryan Brown and Judy Davis.

Their names alone warrant giving thi
film a chance. It tells the story of bool
store owner Rob McGregor (Bryan
Brown), who attempts to solve the mys
tery behind the suicide death of a forma
friend, Lisa.

In doing so he meets, and befriends,

prostitute, Lou (Judy Davis). The tn
form an unusual bond despite his bein
married - he enjoys a frank and op«
relationship with wife, Gretel (Cati
Downes).

It becomes a bond which doesn't wc*
and there are close ties between Loua»
her now-dead friend Lisa, and their as
sociation with McGregor.

Winter Of Our Dreams is difficult'
categorize, unable to be labelled a nfl
tery, murder, thriller, emotional romain

or whatever.

But it is an excellent piece of Austt
lian film-making. Davis is brilliant, fe
performance as Lou comparable to h
role as Sybilla in My Brilliant Care«

which earned her a British Acade«'

Award.

Brown is also good, although no'1'
convincing. The role as a former univ'
sity radical appears strange to him *
Brown may be falling into the trap ww

threatened fellow-Oz actor Jack TM *
son - the actor playing himself inste*

of the character.

Winter Of Our Dreams certainly »J

a film for grandparents to take !"
youngsters to, but if you appreciate <

cellent movies you should see it. And J1'
member, it is Australian. j

- CLAY ADA*1

$