Boxoffice-July.1995

REVIEWS
exits bachelorhood when he meets airhne
executive Ellen Andrews (Debra Winger),
an American living in Paris. Using a fullcourt-press
of his charms, Mickey woos
her and wins her— and then their troubles
begin. Ellen gives up her beloved Paris
and position and moves into Mickey's
L.A. apartment [a sort of shrine to ESPN)
while he continues his itinerant life working
the NBA games. Left alone, her discontent
and resentment build. When he
agrees to take a year off from refereeing,
the crisis is only delayed, because now it's
his turn to burn.
Some of the best shots and funniest
exchanges occur on-court between
Mickey and NBA stars doing cameo
turns, including Charles Barkley,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Isiah Thomas.
Crystal and fellow scribers Lowell Ganz
and Babaloo Mandel capture the strife
and compromise of married life with a
blend of realism and humor. Their storytelling
is aided by the fine supporting cast
(Joe Mantegna, Cynthia Stevenson, Ilichard
Masur, Julie Kavner, John Spencer
and Cathy Moriarty) who, as Mickey and
Ellen's mutual friends, tell the story in
flashback while sitting in a restaurant
awaiting the duo's arrival. The film has
the ingredients (laughs aplenty, good storytelling,
fine direction— and Billy Crystal)
to make it a water-cooler movie, with
weekend attendees spreading the word
to their office mates. —Paula Hess
DIE HARD WITH A
VENGEANCE ^^^1/2
starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson
and Jeremy Irons.
Directed by John McTicman. Written
by Jonathan Hensleigh. Produced by
John McTicman and Michael Tadross.
A Fox release. Action. Rated R for
strong violence and pervasive strong
language. Running time: 128 niin.
'Tort Knox— it's for tourists!" sniffs the
newest "Die Hard" Germanic bad guy,
Simon (Jeremy Irons, doing a human
Scar). He's after the $140 billion in the
New York Federal Reserve, the repository
of the gold holdings of many European
nations, and he doesn't care how
many Big Apple department stores, subway
stations, water dams and cargo ships
he has to blow up to acquire it. One thing
he should worry about, though, is Detective
John McClane (Bruce Willis), who
Simon has racing around New York in a
particularly dangerous variant of the
children's pastime Simon Says. The
game is all a feint to draw the police
forces of New York away from the real
action, but McClane— now partnered
with a white-hating Harlem store owner
named Zeus (Samuel L. Jackson)— sees
through the ruse, and the real game is on.
In audience terms, this Fox/Cinergi
co-production is a sequel's sequel by both
definitions: This III sets at least a silver
standard for other sequels to go by, and
summer audiences— already roused by
the likes of "Bad Boys" and "Crimson
Tide" — can be expected to start
Hollywood'ssummer off with abigbang.
In artistic terms, though, it's less successful,
as Jonathan Hensleigh's script
bounces between a right-on reality that's
truly frightening and stretches of believability
for which there's only more frenetic
action to attempt damage control.
In terms of that action, the film's first
half is far more successful than its second,
in which one bomb turns out to be
a fake and another, which seems large
enough to flatten Manhattan, proves just
potent enough to toss McClane and Zeus
from a boat into the water. The denouement
is over too quickly; unlike the satisfying
length of the slow-motion fall and
jetfuel-fuse bad-guy death dramatics of
parts one and two, "Die Hard With a
Vengeance" ends so swiftly it doesn't fulfill
its title's promise.— Ki'in Williamson
CRIMSON TIDE ••1/2
Starring Dcnzcl Washington and
Gene Hacknian.
Directed by Tony Scott. Written by
Michael Schiffer. Produced by Don
Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer.
A Bucna Vista release. Action/thriller.
Rated R for strong language.
Running time: 115 min.
Better than run-of-the-mill but not
nearly as good as it might have been, the
cliche-ridden "Crimson Tide" is destined to
do some prettj' brisk business around the
globe, largely because the films it draws so
heavily on (some of which are granted a
fast oral homage when crewmen entertain
themselves by reeling off submarine
movie titles) are so distant as to make
"Crimson Tide" seem new. Viewers will no
doubt be reminded of Tom Clancy novels
tlianks to this film's popcorn political milieu
and its emphasis on military hardware,
but the real inspirations behind this Hollywood
Pictures production are the platoon
movies of the WWII era and Cold War
sea-hunt fodder like "The Bedford Incident"
and "Ice Station Zebra."
Denzel Washington is the idealistic
young XO sent to sea with a Queeg/Blighiike
egomaniacal captain (Gene Hackman)
on the U.S. nuclear submarine
Alabama. Renegade Russian right-'s\'ingers
have seized control of some of Russia's
nuclear weapons and submarines, and
the U.S. military is on its highest state of
alert since the Cuban missile crisis. A
renegade Akula-class Russian sub attacks
our heroes, damaging their ability to receive
radio messages and sending their
craft plummeting toward a depth of 1 ,850
feet, where water pressure would crush
their ship like an egg— but at the last possible
minute the ship rights itself. That's a
good thing, because Washington has relieved
Hackman of command owing to a
disagreement over whether or not
they've been ordered to launch their nuclear
missiles against Russia. Hackman
counters by leading a mutiny in an attempt
to fire his missiles from a location
in the lower decks. He's just about to
launch four nukes but at the last possible
minute Washington retakes control on
the bridge. This makes both men furious,
so Hackman, Washington and
their respective loyalists square off at
gunpoint, ready to shoot each other
rather than risk opposing courses of
action that each man believes may result
in global nuclear annihilation. But
at the last possible minute...
And so it goes, in a plot that, despite
some surface cleverness, repeats itself
endlessly (there are two scenes of commanding
officers being arrested, and two
armed mutinies) and never delves into
the subterranean depths of possibility
that its underwritten script guesses at but
fails to sound. The "war of wits" between
Hackman and Washington has more
than a bit of untapped potential; both are
fine actors in top form, but after a promising
start (with Hackman needling
Washington, Ahab-like, in ways that suggest
ulterior and dark desires) "Crimson
Tide" givesboth men little to do but shout
orders and sweat profusely.
Director Tony Scott is among the most
enjoyable of the new generation of stylish
movie hacks, and his work here
(aided by wonderful underwater effects
footage) is tidy and brisk. He lights a
submarine the way he lights just about
everything— like a blue jeans commercial,
all long lenses and gritty diffusion.
But it's an attractive enough look, and
Scott knows how to move his plot along
quickly, a necessary talent when there's
this much political mumbo jumbo and
military technobabble to get through.
Given its intriguing premise ("under
what circumstances can an executive officer
relieve his captain of command?")
and high level of craft, a better movie
than "Crimson Tide" could undoubtedly
have been made with these raw materials.
But that won't keep Disney (and resurgent
producers Don Simpson and
Jerry Bruckheimer) from laughing all the
way to the bank.— Ray Greene
•••
FRENCH KISS
Staning Meg Ryan, Kevin Kline and
Timothy Hiitton.
Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Written
by Adam Brooks. Produced by Tim
Sevan, Eric Fellner, Meg Ryan and
Katliryn F. Galan.
A Fox release. Romantic comedy.
Rated PG-13 for some sexuality, language
and drug references. Running
time: 111 min.
As in "When Harry Met Sally..." and
"I.Q.," Meg Ryan here portrays another
spunky charmer, the kind of role that's
made her the dominant romantic comedienne
of the '90s. (Make that the "early
'90s," now that Sandra Bullock has arrived.)
As Kate, Ryan plays a fiancee
who, learning that her betrothed (Timothy
Hutton) has dumped her for a young
French lass, jets to Paris to woo him back.
Her transatlantic seatmate is Luc (Kevin
Kline), a Frenchman of questionable in-
July, 1995 R-61