ASSOCIATE, THE
Whoopi Goldberg plays a savvy investment banker on the fast track
until a male co-worker (Tim Daly) steals her promotion. When she
strikes out on her own, she discovers that the corporate world
won't take a woman seriously, so she invents a white male "senior
partner" and becomes an international sensation. All goes well
until she has to prove to the world that her mythical associate
actually exists. Goldberg goes for the jugular laughs here, but
gets lost in terrain that's been covered better by "Working
Girl," "Baby Boom" and "9 to 5". Dianne Wiest, as Goldberg's
assistant, needed more coffee on the set. For Goldberg fans only.
Director: Donald Petrie. Stars: Whoopi
Goldberg, Dianne Wiest, Tim Daly, Bebe Neuwirth. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG, 114 min.), Comedy, 1996, Box office gross:
$12.772 million, (Hollywood Pictures 9183), No SRP,
Priced for rental Available:
4/15
EMMA
Gwyneth Paltrow stars in this theatrical version of Jane Austen's
classic 1816 novel about a wealthy young woman who has nothing
better to do than to meddle in other people's affairs and play
matchmaker. In particular she tries to match up Harriet, a young
woman not quite up to Emma's social station, with a "suitable"
husband. Unfortunately, Emma makes a tangled mess of everyone's
lives, until she discovers the perfect match for herself. A glib
and wonderfully refreshing romantic comedy.
Director: Douglas McGrath. Stars: Gwyneth
Paltrow, Toni Collette, Alan Cumming. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 121
min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross: $22.229 million,
(Miramax 9677), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 4/15
EXTREME
MEASURES
Hugh Grant plays a top notch Emergency Room doctor at a busy city
hospital who investigates the bizarre, mysterious death of a
homeless man. In an almost Kafka-esque manner, the doctor's
search for the truth is rebuffed by the authorities, putting his
career in jeopardy, until he uncovers unscrupulous medical
experiments conducted by an above-reproach medical figure, played
by Gene Hackman. Now the doctor finds that more than his
credibility is in danger: his life is at stake. This ponderous
thriller, capped by a let-down of an ending, asks that you
believe that Hugh Grant could be a top-notch ER doctor, a
suspension of disbelief that just doesn't work.
Director: Michael Apted. Stars: Hugh Grant,
Gene Hackman, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Morse. CC, (MPAA
rating: R, 118 min.), Thriller, 1996, Box office gross:
$17.369 million, (Columbia TriStar 94923), No SRP,
Priced for rental, Available:
4/8
GHOST AND THE
DARKNESS, THE
In 1896, a crew building a railroad across Africa was terrorized
by a pair of man-eating lions that claimed more than 130 lives,
bringing Britain's plans for an East African railway to a dead
halt. A bridge-building engineer (Val Kilmer) and a wild game
hunter (Michael Douglas) team up to track down and kill the
lions, beasts who seemed mythical and invincible to the African
workers and were named "The Ghost" and "The Darkness." Weak
action melodrama loses its grounding when the action is slowed
down for moralizing. Based on true events.
Director: Stephen Hopkins. Stars: Michael
Douglas, Val Kilmer. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 110 min.), Drama,
1996, Box office gross: $38.353 million, (Paramount Home Video
323503), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 4/15
LONE STAR
Revisionist modern Western by director John Sayles is at once a
murder mystery and an exploration of cultural and political
differences in a small border down that bridges the Rio Grande in
West Texas. Touched off by the discovery of the remains of a
vicious and corrupt Sheriff who disappeared 40 years earlier, the
investigation by the current Sheriff uncovers a tapestry of
entangling relationships, hatreds and histories. As with much of
Sayles' work, this richly layered film requires concentration and
commitment.
Director: John Sayles. Stars: Ron Canada, Chris
Cooper, Clifton James, Kris Kristofferson, Francis McDormand,
Elizabeth Pena, Matthew McConaughey. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 137
min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross: $12.315 million,
(Columbia TriStar 80183), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 4/8
MICHAEL
COLLINS
Exciting biodrama about Irish revolutionary Michael Collins (Liam
Neeson) who rallied his people against the British in the early
20th century. After the failure of the 1916 Easter Uprising in
which most of Ireland's revolutionary leaders were executed,
Collins threw himself into the political and military struggle
against British rule, gathering followers and becoming an
underground hero as he thwarted the English at every turn. He
eventually helped negotiate a free Ireland that partitioned the
country but, unfortunately, set the stage for today's terror in
Northern Ireland. Co-stars Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Julia
Roberts and Alan Rickman.
Director: Neil Jordan. Stars: Liam Neeson,
Aidan Quinn, Stephen Rea, Alan Rickman, Julia Roberts. CC, (MPAA
rating: R, 133 min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross: $10.939
million, (Warner 14205), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 4/8
101 DALMATIANS
This live-action remake of the 1961 animated Disney classic
doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. In cartoon form, 101
dalmatians are cute and funny and steal across the screen; in
live form, they're just so many trained dogs -- and, doggone it,
they don't talk. Still, the film sports Glenn Close as a great
in-the-flesh incarnation of the evil fur-crazy Cruella De Vil.
Co-stars Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson as Perdita and
Pongo's human friends.
Director: Stephen Herek. Stars: Glenn Close.
CC, (MPAA rating: G, 103 min.), Family, 1996, Box office
gross: $132.686 million, (Walt Disney), $26.99 SRP,
Available: 4/15
PREACHER'S WIFE,
THE
Whitney Houston plays the gospel-singing wife of a Reverend who
begins to doubt his ability to make a difference in his troubled
community and in his home. Along comes an angel, played by Denzel
Washington, sent to make things better but who, inadvertently,
falls for the Preacher's wife. This vehicle for Houston's singing
of gospel and Christmas songs is a remake of the 1947 "The
Bishop's Wife." Directed by Penny Marshall.
Director: Penny Marshall. Stars: Denzel
Washington, Whitney Houston. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 125 min.),
Fantasy, 1996, Box office gross: $45.596 million, (Touchstone
10038), No SRP, Priced for rental,
Available: 4/29
SECRETS & LIES
This Academy-Award nominated film stars Golden Globe Best Actress
winner Brenda Blethyn as Cynthia, a 44-year-old unmarried woman
who toils away in a cardboard-box factory and lives in emotional
pain and loneliness (although she co-exists with her
uncommunicative 21-year-old daughter) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste
as Hortense, a 27-year-old black optometrist who discovers when
her adoptive mother dies that her natural mother is, in fact
white Cynthia. What follows is a reunion that transforms and
renews the pair. Great ensemble work and equally fine direction
by Mike Leigh.
Director: Mike Leigh. Stars: Brenda Blethyn,
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall. CC, (MPAA rating: NR, 142
min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross: $9.0 million, (FoxVideo
4102052), No SRP, Priced for rental
Available: 4/29
SET IT OFF
Four women (Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly
Elise) turn to bankrobbing when their lives seem to crumble
around them. Scammed by sleazy employers, slammed by heartless
boy friends, slapped around by the cops, forced to watch their
kids either murdered or taken away from them, the women decide to
get even with a cruel society in the hopes that power and money
can straighten out their lives. But they get more than they
bargained for in this "Thelma & Louise" with heavy firepower. Pat
situations and stereotypical characterizations pull down what
could have been an interesting look at sexual, ethnic and
cultural exploitation.
Director: F. Gary Gray. Stars: Jada Pinkett,
Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise. CC, (MPAA rating:
R, 123 min.), Action, 1996, Box office gross: $34.236
million, (New Line 4445), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 4/22
 SLEEPERS
This Barry Levinson-directed drama is the story of a friendship
"that runs deeper than blood," about four men who grew up in New
York's Hell's Kitchen and were sent to a reform school for a
prank that misfired. It's there that their childhood ended, at
the hands of a brutal prison guard. A decade and a half later
they rejoin to exact revenge against the man. Based on a true
story and made memorable with a fine-tuned ensemble cast: Kevin
Bacon, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Jason Patric,
Minnie Driver and Bruno Kirby.
Director: Barry Levinson. Stars: Kevin Bacon,
Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt. CC,
(MPAA rating: R, 148 min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross:
$53.300 million, (Warner 14482), No SRP, Priced for
rental, Available: 4/1
SPITFIRE GRILL,
THE
Percy, a young woman (Alison Elliott) with a criminal past comes
to
live in a small Maine town and is befriended by Hannah, (Ellen
Burstyn) the indomitable owner of the Spitfire Grill. In exchange
for a room, the girl takes a waitressing job there, and soon ends
up developing a strong relationship with Hannah as well as with
the
downtrodden wife of Hannah's nephew. In short order the three
women
have forged a bond that changes their lives, and the lives of the
townspeople, forever. A hot item from last year's Sundance Film
festival, mainly for the art-house crowd.
Director: Lee David Zlotoff. Stars: Alison
Elliott, Ellen Burstyn, Will Patton, Marcia Gay Harden. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG-13, 117 min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross:
$12.592 million, (Columbia TriStar 89053), No SRP,
Priced for rental, Available:
4/1
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO +
JULIET
This rambunctious, sexy, and violently stylized version of
Shakespeare's masterful tragedy of young love takes the
Elizabethan cadence and sets it in a decidedly modern atmosphere
where Verona becomes Verona Beach and the feuding Montaques and
Capulets families are now gangs. The fresh look at this
passionate love story, with a hot alternative soundtrack, brings
the bard home to the younger set. Leonardo DiCaprio is Romeo and
Claire Danes is Juliet. Need we say more?
Director: Baz Luhrmann. Stars: Leonardo
DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Paul Sorvino. CC, (MPAA
rating: PG-13, 120 min.), Drama, 1996, Box office gross:
$45.962 million, (FoxVideo 4102053), No SRP, Priced
for rental, Available: 4/8
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