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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1983)
i— 1 3c I e -a n = ~~ ■-£' - _= 5 ‘S 3 o Shakespeare did it in some of his plays. Aristophanes, the ear ly Greek comic, did it in some of his plays. And the sit-coms have done it since TV was invented. They've all had a man dress up as a woman to get the audience to laugh. How many times can we con tinue to laugh at this ancient comic device? Answer: one more time — in Tootsie. The movie, directed by Syd ney Pollack and starring Dustin Hoffman, is a delightful and hilarious comedy surprise in a year otherwise nearly bereft of clever humor. Hoffman, of course, stars as Michael Dorsey, the starving- artist actor who is too short, too old, too young and too ugly to The comedy succeeds because Pollack downplays the antics of Michael in women's clothing and instead focuses on the se- relationship between nous would-be actress who is rather frightened by modem relation ships. Pollack plays Hoffman's agent and shows that even after years of directing — including films like They Shoot Horses, Don't They, Jeremiah Johnson, and Absence of Malice— he still can act. But Pollack's real calling is di recting. Tootsie, like his earlier films, is tight; there's not a wasted scene. Pollack is a craft sman; he's not always terribly creative, but he's never flashy, cheap or pretentious. find acting work in New York City. But he has one thing going for him — he can act. So, don ning a red wig, a paint-by number face and clothes from the Kathy Whitmire fashion col lection, he lands an acting job as a woman hospital administrator on a soap opera and becomes Dorothy Michaels. Dorothy and Julie, a fellow soap opera actress. Michael is torn between his male attraction towards Julie, played by Jessica Lange, and his genuine — almost truly femi nine — friendship with the ac tress, who believes that Michael is a woman. Lange is wonderful as the down-and-out Julie; she's stuck playing a floozy on a soap opera, she has a relationship with an unfaithful man, she has a young daughter and she's a borderline alcoholic. Lange gives the role a dichotomy — she makes Julie a survivor and a fighter on one side and a soft, vulnerable woman on the other. The other roles are equally well-acted and cast. Bill Murray plays Hoffman's off-the-wall, roommate — a playwright who writes things like “Return to Love Canal." Teri Garr is charm ing as Hoffman's girlfriend, a Kiss Me Goodbye The same can be said of Hoff man. His portrayal of a woman is believable, stunning and even moving. Hoffman is the heart of the film — and he gives the film its message, one that is simple, clear and easily accesible to the average viewer. But it is nonetheless appropriate for to day's audience. The envelope please .... — by Gary Barker Kiss Me Goodbye is a roman tic comedy starring Sally Field, James Caan, and Jeff Bridges that keeps the audience laughing but leaves the bad taste of a made-for-TV movie in your mouth. The plot is very shallow. It is easy to see what the next move will be. The length is extremely short for a movie — one hour and 45 minutes long. But con sidering the plot used, you can understand why. Sally Field portrays a young widow who returns to her for mer home three years after her husband's death to pick up the pieces of her life. Fields is torn between the good memories of her life with her former hus band, Jolly, and a future with her fiance. Jeff Bridges plays Sally Field's fiance, a somewhat musty and clumsy intellectual — a solid but very unexciting man. We were not impressed with the acting or the character portrayed. James Caan shines in the role of Jolly, the ghost of a former tap dancer and deceased husband to the character portrayed by Sally Fields. While alive, Jolly had played around with Field's best friend and other women while on tap dancing tours. Af ter Jolly's death, Field is unable to accept his infidelity and re tains only the good memories. Jolly's ghost returns to continue their relationship and to con vince Fields that he was only hu man, not a saint as she remem bers. Sally Field's facial and body expressions are very entertain ing but especially so when she first meets her former husband, a ghost. ~ James Caan is endearing when he tap dances on the hard wood floors. By the way, he learned to tap dance specifically for this movie. Romance and lots of laughter combine to make Kiss Me Good bye a simply enjoyable movie. But don't look for a message in this film. — by Clara N. Hurter and Scott C. McClure Creepshow 48 HRS. Well, how to describe Creep- show? It's funny, in fact hyster ical. And it's scary. The ads even say something about never laughing as hard or being as scared. And they're right. Creepshow is author Stephen King's attempt to bring his brand of horror to the screen. He does it by copying those horror comics that everyone reads when they are in the seventh grade — the ones with ants eat ing people, animals eating peo ple, and people eating people. Fortunately, King has a little more variety than that. In the first episode of the movie, a man, very much de cayed, comes back to life be cause he died before he could eat his birthday cake. He does finally get his cake. And eats it too. But I won't tell you what the ingredients are. One scene even stars King. He plays a buffoon who finds a meteor in his front yard. The meteor does strange things to the world, including creating a plant the consumes the buf foon's house and body. In the story starring Adrienne Barbeau, her husband plots to kill her by setting a werewolf- type creature on her. But the real question is what to do with the temporarily satisfied werewolf. The final episode is really the most effective. It involves roaches. Lots of roaches. Roaches everywhere, eating things. Roaches. Ughh. So, Creepshow has a zombie eating people, plants eating people, werewolves eating peo ple and roaches eating people. It also has a lot more, but that's the gist of it. It really is worth seeing. — by Diane Yount Can he act? Who knows? But the one thing Eddie Murphy can do — better than anybody else — is play Eddie Murphy. And if you liked him on Saturday Night Live, then you'll like 48 HRS. 48 HRS. is the story of a cop, Nick Nolte, and a con, Eddie Murphy, who set out to trap an escaped con, and a nasty one at that. The catch? (Every movie has a catch.) Murphy is on a spe cial, somewhat irregular, 48- hour parole under the custody of Nolte (hence the title) and they must catch the bad guys before the time is up. Before the movie's premier, there was speculation that Mur phy would steal the show from Nolte, who is the name star of the show. That isn't quite the case. Nolte does an admirable job of portraying a tough, magnum packing cop on a vengence trip. He's no Dirty Harry, but so what? Murphy is just Murphy. He could have just stepped off the SNL stage. Maybe he did. But it doesn't detract from the movie. The way he shouts his lines is a little disconcerting at first, but that wears off. He ends up being hilarious. All in all, though a little rough around the edges, 48 HRS. is a fine movie. — by Robert McGlohon