This week, Siskel and Ebert review reluctant partner Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage breaking into Alcatraz in The Rock.
A lonely pizza cook dreams of happiness with a beautiful waitress in heavy.
And Billy Zane stars as the legendary jungle crime fighter, The Phantom.
The elegant string of pearls configuration, unfortunately incredibly unstable.
And what exactly does this stuff do?
If the rocket renders it aerosol, it can take out the entire city of people.
Sean Connery and Nicholas Cage race against time to defuse deadly gas missiles hidden inside Alcatraz in The Rock.
One of five new movies we'll be reviewing this week on Siskel and Ebert.
We'll also take a look at the screen debut of the comic strip superhero known as The Phantom.
Plus a new drama featuring the radiant Catherine Deneuve.
I'm Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Time.
And I'm Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune.
Our first film is The Rock.
And here's a film that wore me out in the first hour and entertained me in the second hour for completely different reasons.
Worn out early?
This action picture has been edited like speed on speed.
There's never a moment's rest as the FBI chemical weapons expert Nicholas Cage joins forces with a former British spy played by Sean Connery
as they try to defeat a much decorated American soldier, Ed Harris, who is trying to bring attention to the plight of American soldiers involved in covert operations who are killed and then ignored by our government.
Are you still with me?
Anyway, Ed Harris and his crew lock up tourists as hostages on Alcatraz and aim highly toxic weapons missiles at San Francisco itself.
You alert the media.
I launch the gas.
You refuse payment.
I launch the gas.
You've got 40 hours till noon day after tomorrow to arrange transfer of the money.
I am aware of your countermeasure.
You know and I know it doesn't stand a chance.
Hummel from Alcatraz, out.
More furious action ensues as Nicholas Cage is joined by Sean Connery and government troops in trying to reclaim Alcatraz and get those hostages free and defuse the bombs.
And Connery is particularly helpful because, according to the story, he's the only person ever to escape from Alcatraz, the rock, and survive.
You catch one of those flame bursts, you're a corpse.
Thank you.
Commander, you sit and never leave his sight, but uh...
Stand fast, Lieutenant.
Have a nice day.
Now at last, here's where the movie starts to get enjoyable.
It's not because of the action or the visual pyrotechnics.
No, it's because of Nicholas Cage, who brings his usual hang loose, wild acting style to a traditional action picture.
Suddenly, suddenly, this movie has a human component.
Listen, I'm just a biochemist.
Most of the time I work in a glass jar and lead a very uneventful life.
I drive a Volvo, a beige one.
But what I'm dealing with here is one of the most deadly substances the earth has ever known.
So what do you say you cut me some friggin' flack?
Obviously I'm giving a mixed review to the rock.
If there had been more of Cage early on, talking quietly, being funny in some way, I'd give it a positive review.
There's a little of that, but not enough.
But the pacing and the premise were really agitating to me.
For long stretches of time I simply wanted to escape from the rock.
So a mixed review, thumbs down from me.
We're not even close on this because I really liked it a whole lot.
And I liked it even though it's really cobbled together from pieces of other pictures.
You know, I wonder, it was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and the late Don Simpson.
Now Quentin Tarantino attacked their Top Gun in a famous movie monologue saying it was a homosexual code.
And in this movie they have both the hypodermic needle to the heart and the ending, which is a Mexican standoff.
Now those are both Tarantino trademarks, so I think they're getting their revenge.
And they borrow from a bunch of other pictures too, including Escape from Alcatraz and Bullet and even The Fugitive.
But nevertheless, it's all put together very well and what I like about it in particular is the same thing you do,
the chemistry between Cage and Connery. That really works.
But Roger, weren't you worn out by this?
No, no, I wasn't.
You don't even know what I'm referring to?
I was stimulated by it. I was excited by it. I enjoyed it. It moved. It was efficient.
It was entertaining.
Not the first hour for me. I was sort of laughing.
What about the premise? What about Ed Harris's character?
Didn't you think it was totally absurd?
Well, I mean, if you're going to start in on premises, you can start in with every premise, starting with die-hard lethal weapon.
I mean, all of these.
The moment June the 1st comes around, premises go out the window in Hollywood and anything goes.
This one is laughable. Die-hard seems like a rational documentary compared to this goofball plot.
Okay. Well, and we know you like documentaries.
Next movie. It was Thoreau, to change the subject.
A lot.
Who said that most men lead lives of quiet desperation.
And our next movie is about one of those men and his desperation.
The name of the movie is Heavy and it's about a lonely short-order cook who lives under the thumb of his domineering mother
and dreams of the beautiful young waitress who has come to work in the restaurant.
The waitress is played by Liv Tyler, a relative newcomer to the movies.
The cook is Pruitt Taylor Vince and the mother is Shelley Winters.
Very good.
I hate making pizza.
Oh, but he loves making breakfast.
This young man takes very good care of his mother.
The cook's name is Victor and he's a person of very few words.
It's like the desire to speak has been crushed out of him.
The other waitress in the restaurant is played, well played, by the singer Deborah Harry.
She's jealous of the newcomer and this emotional crisis in the kitchen inspires Victor to make one of the longest speeches of his entire life.
Can't you be nicer to her?
Nice? Did you hear what she said to me?
You don't have to be nice. Just be nicer.
Heavy is a wonderfully acted movie that finds exactly what it wants to say about these people,
about how the young waitress is sweet and not very aware of the sadness in the world,
and about how the older waitress played by Debbie Harry has reached the point in her life where her choices are limited to a drunk and a mama's boy,
and about how poor Victor is like a dog who has been chained up so long that even when he's free he still stays in his cage.
I found myself empathizing with all of the characters in Heavy who in a way need the strong will of the Shelley Winters character and don't know how to behave without it.
I'm glad you, I like the picture too, and I'm glad you focused on the Deborah Harry character because we know,
we can anticipate the fact of this overweight guy who is alone, never had a date and all that.
That's obvious, it's well done, but obvious.
But to have the sophistication to put in another character, the Deborah Harry character, who is also cut off in her own way,
that to me enriched the picture and I watched all the triangulations that are possible and that's a combination of four characters.
There's a real key line right in the early part of the movie, there's a guy who always sits at the bar, he's always drunk.
Played by Joe Grafazzi who's an actor who doesn't get a lot of attention, he's very good.
He's a very good performer, yes, yes it is.
And she says to him about the owner of the restaurant, Shelley Winters, she's trying to get even with me, that's why she's hired Liv Tyler,
and of course she thinks maybe her son will marry Liv Tyler, she's a dreamer.
But what the Deborah Harry character is thinking is, you know, she doesn't have any options at all except maybe to marry either this guy or the drunk.
Hey, she's the prettiest woman in the bar and along comes somebody who replaces her.
Yeah.
Okay, coming up next, who wears a purple bodysuit in the jungle?
The Phantom does and he's out to save the world.
At a height of 19 feet, the awkward looking giraffe would appear to be at a disadvantage in the jungle.
But in fact, his height is his greatest asset, allowing him to graze where others can't, easily survey the land,
and take gigantic strides when threatened by predators.
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NBA from Harvard, very impressive.
Thank you.
And your qualification is Mr...
Mr. Plotz?
Here you go.
Very impressive.
My resume?
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So you guys have to feed the cows first thing in the morning?
Yeah, most of the time.
They get their breakfast, right?
Yeah.
Do you always get your breakfast in the morning?
Not always.
Would you ever have breakfast for lunch or for dinner, maybe?
That sounds good.
What about pancakes for dinner?
Like IHOP's 299 Truly Special Breakfast Special.
You get three fruit-topped pancakes, eggs, bacon or sausage, and lots of hash browns. Just 299.
Breakfast is a pretty important meal, don't you think?
As my mom says it, breakfast feeds the brain.
It might be smart to have it for lunch or dinner.
Yeah, get all A's.
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You better have a look.
Well, somebody say something.
You're all mixed up with the same brotherhood, Diane.
That's Billy Zane playing the title role in The Phantom, the new movie based on the popular comic strip that apparently has been going strong for 60 years.
But on screen, the sight of a guy wearing a purple bodysuit in the middle of a jungle
or even on the outskirts of the jungle does stretch credibility.
And credibility isn't helped by Billy Zane's performance and manner.
Hold on to my car.
Oh, God.
Take my money, but don't hurt me.
Al, take it easy. I'm a friend of Kit Walker's.
I need your help.
No.
Hey! Hey, you!
Come back here!
His assignment in The Phantom is to prevent an assortment of bad guys from collecting a set of three magical skulls,
one of silver, one of gold, and one of jade, and thereby harnessing power to rule the world.
Phantom!
Get him!
No!
He's fighting!
And here's another power-hungry bad guy, a guy named Drax, played very well by Treet Williams.
In fact, the villains in The Phantom are far more enjoyable than The Phantom himself.
Show me the power! Show me the power!
Yes!
The Phantom is another action picture I'm giving a mixed review to, and I've already outlined my split opinion.
Hated The Phantom, laughed at The Phantom, but I like Treet Williams in some of the action scenes.
The direction of my thumb is down because of the bottom line.
I'm not interested in seeing the further adventures of The Phantom.
Oh, Gene, I really love this movie, and I like the way The Phantom looks.
The Phantom was created in 1936. He is the first of the comic book superheroes.
Right.
And I think it was very brave of them to keep the look of that 1930 strip instead of trying to modernize like they did with Batman.
I mean, Batman's a uniform. It looks like he's living inside a tire, you know.
The whole clutziness of the fact that The Phantom, when he lands on a truck, he really lands.
He doesn't have cat-like grace. It's part of the charm of this movie and the look of the film.
I mean, I would recommend to people that if they want to completely forget everything about the plot and everything about the story...
Which wouldn't be a bad idea.
...this movie is worth seeing for the production design by Paul Peters.
This is one of the greatest-looking movies I've ever seen.
The interior?
The colors, the interior.
The interior of the skull cave is very well done.
And what about Drax's office in New York? Fabulous. It's a good-looking movie.
Did you find The Phantom someone that you cared about the least?
I found The Phantom very amusing. I liked the way what Billy Zane did with that.
Instead of standing around like some kind of a stick to give the guy...
Oh, I think he's very stiff.
No, to give the guy a personality, a wry humor, an edge, a little quality of kidding himself a little bit.
There's a lot going on there.
I think he's quite stiff, Roger, and that's where my problem was. Every time I saw him...
Well, okay, Gene, I just want to get the bottom line out. It's PG-rated. I think it's terrific.
They didn't load it up with a lot of extra violence. It's a great family picture, and I just loved looking at it.
Well, I liked looking at parts of it, the parts when he wasn't on the screen, The Phantom.
When we come back, a TV star feels trapped by an adoring fan who works for her mother, Frank Whaley, and Blythe Danner, starring homage.
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Do you have a cellular phone?
I don't have a cell phone right now, but I probably will get one sometime in the future.
So what are you waiting for?
I just, I never really pursued it. I guess because of the expense.
What if AT&T had an offer that made cellular service simple and affordable?
I think that that's what people are really looking for.
Like to hear more?
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