Maybe not quite as good as the title suggestsand the great hype proves to be black as well as whitebut this satire directed by Reginald Hudlin about the corruption of the boxing business (and of show business, for that matter) is lots of fun, thanks to a sharp script (by Tony Hendra and Ron Shelton) and juicy comic acting by Samuel L. Jackson, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Berg, Jon Lovitz, Corbin Bernsen, and Cheech Marin. I suppose one could argue that this movie is guilty of the sort of hoopla it’s lampooning, and I couldn’t share its amusement at the expense of homeless people, but I enjoyed myself most of the time. (JR)
Bill Murray plays a guy who inherits a circus elephant; hoping to sell it, he takes off on a cross-country safari. Not terribly funny, but the intimations of an older, saltier America in the picaresque plot make this watchable. Humorist Roy Blount Jr. wrote the screenplay, based on a story by Pen Densham and Garry Williams, and is perhaps responsible for both the literary undertones and the absence of a unifying visual style. Howard Franklin directed; with Janeane Garofalo, Linda Fiorentino, Anita Gillette, Pat Hingle, and Lois Smith. (JR)
A 1996 SF action replay of Blade Runner, Batman, Tank Girl, True Lies, and (believe it or not) Casablanca; its main source is a comic book, but it might as well be a computer. Mercenary dominatrix Barb Wire (Pamela Anderson) doesn’t look human enough for actual sex, but she’s ready for violence of all kinds, and there’s plenty of rain, rust, and grime to furnish the proper settings. David Hogan directed a scipt by Chuck Pfarrer and Ilene Chaiken, and some of the human furniture is played by Temuera Morrison, Jack Noseworthy, Victoria Rowell, Xander Berkeley, Steve Railsback, and Udo Kier. R, 90 min. (JR)
A college graduate (David Schwimmer) who still lives with his mother (Carol Kane) in Brooklyn comes into contact with the high school girl he used to have a crush on (Gwyneth Paltrow); he’s also asked to be a pallbearer and deliver the eulogy for a classmate he can’t even remember. He winds up having an affair with the deceased’s mother (Barbara Hershey, all but unrecognizable in a blond wig). The parallels with The Graduate are blatant, but this is only a fair-to-middling comedy by first-time director Matt Reeves with little sense of visual or satirical style. The actorly presences are pleasant and a few lines in the script (by Jason Katims and Reeves) are funny, but that’s about it; with Michael Rapaport, Toni Collette, and Bitty Schram. (JR)
A crippled schoolteacher (Dennis Hopper) who’s waiting for his cancer-stricken mother (Julie Harris) to die before he marries his widowed childhood heartthrob (Amy Irving) is seduced by a 17-year-old student (Amy Locane), the daughter of a retired major (Gary Busey) and his alcoholic wife. Adapted by Ed Jones from Jim Harrison’s novel Farmer and directed by Bruno Barreto (Irving’s husband), this drama tries to imitate Badlands by using the same cinematographer (Declan Quinn), but it looks nothing like that masterpiece and is of no particular visual interest. Not only does it not do justice to its rural Texas setting, one can’t even be sure just when it’s supposed to be taking place. But the performances are sufficiently well modulated and sincere to inch this a bit beyond Peyton Place territory, and even if I can’t quite buy this movie’s (or is it Harrison’s?) notion of what teenage girls are like, the actors kept me interested; with Hal Holbrook. (JR)
