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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