Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

There are thrills-a-plenty as Ward R. Streethunts for his film of the month — and finallyfinds it in heaven!Beware! Ward's weather forecast is forpelting rain and icy winds this month_Better shelter in a nice warm cinemathen. with a thriller to startle you outof hibernation.Remember all those heist moviesthat were so popular in the seventies.where some big star would plan a bankraid in minute detail and almost getaway with it? You do! Boring weren'tthey?BELLMAN AND TRUE is a heistmoNie too — but you won't fall asleepon this job! There's no raid on FortKnox, just a bank outside HeathrowAirport. There are no big Americannames but Bernard rYosser) Hillproves yet again what a brilliant actorhe is. Arid superheroics and unlikelystunts are replaced with computersand electronic trickery for this is crimeas business — crime for the eighties!Hiller anivtts at Paddington stationwith his young son, and from themoment he steps off the train he's amarked man. A systems operator for abank, he promised a criminal syndicatedetails of a security system but failedto deliver. To force him to complete thejob, they take the boy hostage. Slowlyhe's drawn into their plot, and when hebecomes invaluable he's forced toaccompany them on the raid.So this ordinary, honest man isdrawn deeper into a world which hehates, but from which he can't escape.Everyday scenery, from London to theSuffolk coast, becomes hostile as thestory unfolds. And as the promise ofwealth tempts him. Hiller tries toremain close to his son.Heilman and Due will hold youhostage because it's not lust about aningenious robbery, it's about people —people you really care for. It cranks upthe tension until it's almostunbearable. ICU be appearing on TVeventualy, but it'd be a crime to missthis great British thriller in the cinema.Corruption of a different sort rearsits ugly head in HOUSE OF GAMES(15). a low -budget American movie setin Seattle which appears to be theStateside equivalent of Manchester, ifthe weather is anything to go by!Margaret Ford is a successfulpsychotherapist who's just published ahest selling book, but is still worriedthat she's not really experiencing life,and that for all the listening, she'sunable to till anything positive to helpher patients.When one of them, a compulsivegambler, claims that a local gangster isgoing to kill him because of a debt, shegoes to 211 Beaumont Street the'House of Games*, to talk to the hood.But instead of the poker players andpetty criminals she expects, she findsherself drawn into the elaborate worldof confidence tricksters.From this point the film is like anonion, and every time she thinks she'sreached the troth there's another skinto be peeled away, more lies to beA House of Games: Okay,hand over my copy ofBarbarianuncovered. By the time Margaretdiscovers the truth it is too late, andshe's been drawn into the dark heart ofthe confidence ring.If BELLMAN mives the heistmovie, HOUSE OF GAMES takes afresh, less sentimental look at theterritory worked by The Sting. It's anintelligent movie aith several smalfaults, but the revelation of trick aftertrick is spellbinding, like watching amaster conjuror at workBut that's not all. The thriller's amighty versatile form, and the thirdvariation on the theme is a guaranteedBest Seller.In 1972 LA COP. Dennis Meechumsunives a raid by masked intruderswhich leaves two of his coleaguesdead. Ilfteen years later he's become abest-seling writer of police proceduralnovels, though he remains on the force.Then, into his life comes Cleve. aweirdo's weirdo who claims to havebeen an assassin for a topbusinessman. He wants Meechum towrite his story, uncover the criminalityin the big corporations and portrayhim in a sympathetic light while hedoes so!Meechum takes a little convincing atfirst. After all. Cleve appears to beV Bellman and True: Lesson three In how to make aSpectrumA Best Seiler: Honest, guv,I never nicked that CI- VGtotally whacked our_ But slowly eventspiece together and an uneasy trustgrows between the two men, until asudden revelation reveals a linkbetween the present and that fatalraid.The film is held together by the twocentral perfommaces of big BrianDennehy as the cop and James Woods,neuroticaly superb as the creepy killerThey play psychological games, circlinglike suspicious dogs, sniffing at eachother. And what is the truth? You'llhave to stay to the last page to findout!After this terrific trio, SLAMDANCE (15) walt2es in and drops witha dull thud_ There are so many twistsand turns to its plot that it ends upV Slam Dance: Tom Hulce isquick on the draw7tied in knots and chokes itself.Tom Hulce is C. C. Drood, anavant-garde cartoonist whose carefreelifestyle is ripped apart like one of hisdrawings when a casual liaison with amysterious blonde catches up on him.With the police on one side and violentcriminals on the other he has everyreason to feel paranoid — everyone inLA appears to be out to get him.Unfortunately director Wayne Wanghas opted for style over content. butinstead of adding to the sense ofconfusion it merely serves to cut-offany real interest in the labyrinthineconspiracy on screen. Still, three out of