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a266 1803 22 Oct 88
BC-WKD--Home Video, ADV 00,1010
For Release Anytime
AP WEEKEND ENTERTAINMENT AND ARTS
Video View: Home Videos News and Reviews
Videos reviewed this week: ''Beetlejuice,'' ''Bright Lights, Big
City,'' ''Jean de Florette'' and ''Manon of the Spring.''
''Beetlejuice'' (Warner Home Video; VHS-Beta, $89.95; Rated PG)
If a newly-deceased yuppie couple finds their Laura Ashley-esque New
England home occupied by a new family with decorating taste so bad it
could awaken the dead, who ya gonna call?
''Beetlejuice!''
And not a bad call at that, with a hilarious Michael Keaton starring
in the title role of this wacky film which pokes fun at life and
death in the 1980s, and leaves you puzzled whether there's any
important difference between those two states.
''Beetlejuice'' opens with Adam and Barbara Maitland perishing when
they drive their standard-issue yuppie Volvo stationwagon off a
wooden bridge. Upon dying, the first thing they learn is that the
crucial difference between life and death is that ghosts seem to
assume pastel tones and dress more flamboyantly.
They then learn that they are to spend the next 125 years haunting
the home they so lovingly decorated. That sounds OK at first. But
that fate turns hellish when an upscale Manhattan couple named Deetz
and their death-obsessed daughter move in and threaten the decor with
the most tacky taste imaginable.
The rest of the film describes how the Maitlands, played in low-key
fashion by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, fail miserably in their
efforts to scare the Deetzes out, and finally enlist the help of the
oversexed, supersleezy poltergeist Beetlejuice.
For all its zaniness, the film isn't as funny as the plot suggests,
especially in the long, dry spells when Keaton isn't on screen.
But see ''Beetlejuice'' for three reasons: Catherine O'Hara (of SCTV
fame), who plays Mrs. Deetz to tacky perfection, film great Sylvia
Sidney who has a terrific cameo as the Maitland's guidance counselor
from ''the other side'' and above all, Keaton.
''Beetlejuice'' is rated PG, for mildly racy language.
- By Lee Mitgang, Associated Press Writer.
---
''Bright Lights, Big City'' (MGM-UA Home Video; VHS-Beta, $89.95;
Rated R)
Poor Jamie Conway. His mother died, his gorgeous model wife left
him, he can't seem to get his fiction writing moving and he's
obviously about to lose his job as a fact-checker for a prestigious
magazine.
To soothe his pain, Jamie (Michael J. Fox) dives into a huge vat of
self-pity and into the cocaine haze of the Manhattan nights in
''Bright Lights, Big City.''
While there are some great details in the movie version of Jay
McInerney's hit novel, ''Bright Lights'' is not very engaging on
screen. The book entertains mostly through a running narrative which
falls short in James Bridges' movie, for which McInerney also gets
screenwriting credit.
Among the winning moments are those on the subway; in a nightclub
where the bartender is a pretty, bald woman and the bathrooms are
co-ed drug dens; and a tender, loving conversation between Jamie and
his mother (Dianne Wiest).
The actors perform well, including Wiest, who makes you feel her
pain as she dies of cancer; Jason Robards as an alcoholic has-been
editor; Swoozie Kurtz as a co-worker who never gives up on Jamie; and
Keifer Sutherland as Jamie's crass best pal.
The talented cast also includes Frances Sternhagen, Tracy Pollan and
Phoebe Cates, who has precious little to do but look precious as
Jamie's model-wife.
- By Mary MacVean, Associated Press Writer.
---
''Jean de Florette'' and ''Manon of the Spring'' (Orion Home Video;
VHS-Beta, $89.98; Rated PG; in French, subtitled)
The Claude Berri films ''Jean de Florette'' and ''Manon of the
Spring'' are halves of a movie in which a good man is undone by
jealous enemies and is avenged by his daughter in the haunted light
and flinty hills of Provence, France.
Set in the 1920s, ''Jean de Florette'' concerns the young farmer,
Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil), who wants to grow carnations and covets a
plot of land with a secret spring. With his scheming uncle, Papet
(Yves Montand), he caps the spring to buy the land at a bargain
price.
He is thwarted by Jean (Gerard Depardieu), a hunchback with Romantic
ideals, who inherits the farm and returns to nature with his wife,
Aimee, and young daughter, Manon.
Ugolin and Papet turn the townspeople against Jean, who remains
ignorant of the spring. His attempts to farm end in disaster. Only
Manon in the last scene learns of the treachery.
It is 10 years later in ''Manon of the Spring,'' and Manon
(Emanuelle Beart) is a wild young shepherdess in the hills who
avenges her father. By the final scene all the raveled threads of the
plot are rewoven.
Berri and Gerard Brach's adaptation of Maurice Pangnol's ''L'eau des
Colines'' evokes the pessimism of Guy de Maupassant in its twisted
plot. The movie's beauty and atmosphere survive translation to the
small screen. So do the sloppy subtitles. Montand and Depardieu
(''The Return of Martin Guerre'' and ''Danton'') are both excellent,
Auteuil superb.
And yet, with all these nice things happening, the thematic richness
of water and secret springs, soil and seasons, these two half-movies
never quite fuse. Ultimately they don't run nearly as deep as the
spring.
- By Scott Williams, Associated Press Writer.
---
Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G - General audiences. All ages admitted.
PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable
for children.
PG-13 - Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children
under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult
guardian.
X - No one under 17 admitted. Some states may have higher age
restrictions.
End Adv for Release Anytime
AP-NY-10-22-88 2040EDT
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