Skull and Ebert review, teen queen Alicia Silverstone discovering that she's really clueless.
A stage-struck teen is drawn to Hugh Grant in an awfully big adventure.
And an oil spill threatens a friendly whale in free willy 2, the adventure home.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, but thy eternal summer shall not fade.
Fat!
Did you write that?
That's like a famous quote.
From where?
Cliff Snopes.
A spoiled but enterprising rich girl tries to make her way through high school and through
life in Beverly Hills in the romantic comedy Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone.
It's one of five new films we'll be reviewing this week on Siskel and Ebert along with the
sequel to the smash hit Free Willy and also a drama starring the actor of the moment,
yes, Hugh Grant.
I'm Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune.
And I'm Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Our first movie is Clueless and this is one of the funniest comedies of the year, a social
satire about the little world of rich Beverly Hills teenagers with a terrific performance
by Alicia Silverstone as Cher, the like totally self-centered 16-year-old daughter of a tough
lawyer.
Here she is with her best friend played by Stacey Dash.
Dionne and I were both named after great singers of the past who now do infomercials.
So?
The shopping with Dr. Seuss?
Well, at least I wouldn't skin a collie to make my backpack.
It's faux.
Hello?
That was a stop sign?
I totally paused.
Cher doesn't have a steady boyfriend and devotes herself to manipulating the lives of others
until one day a cute kid turns up in class.
He's played by Justin Walker and she uses all of her wiles to win him.
During the next few days I did what any normal girl would do.
I sent myself love letters and flowers and candy just so he'd see how desired I was in
case he didn't already know.
Cher lives in a mansion with her father and his stepson by another marriage.
They don't go along with their teenage supermodel fantasies.
You're not letting her go out like that, are you?
Cher, get in here.
What's up, Daddy?
What the hell is that?
A dress.
It says who?
Calvin Klein.
It looks like underwear.
Go upstairs and put something over it.
The movie is merciless in this portrait of the lifestyles of Los Angeles kids with too
much money and way too much vanity.
Miss Stoker, that machine is just a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Thanks for the legal advice.
Dion, you're up.
Oh no, Miss Stoker, I have a note from my tennis instructor and he would prefer it if
I didn't expose myself to any training that might derail his teachings.
Fine.
Amber.
Miss Stoker, my plastic surgeon doesn't want me doing any activity where balls fly at my
nose.
Well, there goes your social life.
Clueless is one of those movies that starts fast and never looks back.
It has total confidence in its material, it knows the world it's putting on the screen
and putting on, and it combines sharp satire with a good heart and a sweet story.
In its own way, it dissects its culture as memorably as Wayne's World portrayed a completely
different universe, except that the characters in both movies are like totally fascinated
by themselves.
The movie was written and directed by Amy Heckerling who made Fast Times at Ridgemont
High and now has chalked up another high school generation.
It's a pretty smart picture and I think it gets smarter as it goes along.
For example, you think the father character who's a litigator and he looks, he's played
by Dan Hedaya in a wonderful performance in a beautifully written part, he looks like
Robert Shapiro, tough, tough lawyer.
And at first you're going to think, oh this is easy satire, and then he turns out to be
the smartest guy in the whole picture.
In other words, writing comedy, you don't have to make the people dumb.
That's right.
This lawyer is on top of his kids all the time.
Even this teenage girl is not dumb.
She's very smart.
The movie starts out, and my heart was sinking, me too, by the images right at the beginning
and then her voice comes on and says, so like what is this, like a Noxema commercial?
And then she goes on and tells you about her life and you realize she has an angle on it
too.
A very smart comedy.
Okay, next movie and it's called An Awfully Big Adventure and it stars the actor everyone's
talking about, Hugh Grant, in a surprisingly sad drama set in the theater world.
It's from director Mike Newell with whom Grant last worked on the smash comedy hit Four Weddings
and a Funeral.
In An Awfully Big Adventure, Grant plays a regional theater director who has a controlling
nature and a real mean streak.
So the thing is, it's a very heavy season.
And you're all going to have to work very, very hard.
Make sure all the very best people we could find, the length and breadth of the profession,
for the money.
Into his theater company comes an innocent young girl played by Georgina Cates.
She will mature quickly as she encounters an assortment of war-torn souls.
The film is set in Liverpool, England in the late 40s, but the war that most of the characters
are fighting in this story is the battle for self-respect and most of them, sadly, are
casualties.
You're ruining my life.
You can't force him to give you better parts.
You mind your own business.
You know nothing about it.
Would you like to dance?
I'm no good at this.
Hugh Grant shows signs of leaving his recent notoriety in the past by convincingly playing
a more serious character here, a manipulator of men and women who is unlike his typical
bashful self.
An awfully big adventure devolves into some melodrama, but I like its bittersweet mood
of working-class life and the unvarnished peak in the world of the theater.
It suggests a special breed of person joins the theater, people with particular gifts
and maybe particular problems.
I like an awfully big adventure.
I've seen it twice now, and both times I have the same problem, which is the characters
are not really delineated in terms of the issues that the movie is trying to develop
about them.
And there were some secrets laid in the film that are revealed and they don't really pay
off.
That was the least interesting part of the film.
Find something out and it doesn't mean anything.
The relationships within the company are not clearly established in the first hour.
In other words, I think this movie needed another rewrite to really figure out what
it was about and make that clearer to the audience.
Here's what it's about.
I do think that theater people, because of the odd profession, have a special talent,
but at the same time, there is this cutting edge to the work and there is this insecurity
and people who are in charge manipulate people.
I don't think this is just cliches.
Well, I agree with you about theater people, but it doesn't have anything to do with this
movie, which doesn't really demonstrate that in a way that fits with the story and carries
us along and involves us.
I think that's the whole story in a nutshell.
Okay, when we return, a young boy reunites with his buddy, a whale, in Free Willy 2,
the adventure home.
Look at the size of that one!
That's Cat Spa!
Willy's mother!
Willy's mom.
Found her.
For $30,000, you could get a Mercedes C220 and finish the quarter mile in a time of
17 seconds.
For $43,000, you could get a Lexus GS300 and finish with a slightly better time.
Or for $15,000, you could get a Nissan Altima, save a great deal of money, and have the best
time of all.
Now lease the Altima GXE for zero down and $249 a month for 36 months.
Can you figure out the cost of a long-distance call?
Who knows?
It's confusing.
Do I look like a mathematician?
Whoa!
I said to calculus, but I can't understand any of these long-distance deals.
Well, it's perfectly easy if you have Sprint cents, $0.10 a minute every evening and all
weekend long.
It's as simple as that.
Repeat that, please.
One thin dime.
Thin cents a minute?
Dime a minute.
No super duper discount fabulous promotion deals?
Do you want something complicated?
See the other guys.
Call now for $0.10 a minute and get up to $100 and it's free.
McAdams & Boulder sells family cars from the top of the line of the GM family at low
everyday prices for your family, all under one roof.
For Buick, see the new stylish Riviera.
Take a test drive in America's favorite family cars, the Regal, LaSaber or Park Avenue.
Buy or lease your next family car from the McAdams family of quality GM cars and GMZ
trucks.
For 36 years, it's McAdams.
McAdams & Boulder.
It's Arby's $1.49 big taste showdown.
You decide if Arby's new Western barbecue melt is the best $1.49 taste around.
Here's what you get.
Arby's authentic barbecue sauce and our zesty Western sauce plus melted Swiss covering Arby's
slow roasted beef, all for under a buck and a half.
You decide.
See if Arby's new Western barbecue melt isn't the best $1.49 taste anywhere.
When we say it's better out here, this is what we mean.
Come on, boy, come on, boy, come on, whoa, hey, boy, yeah.
The lovable whale is back in Free Willy 2, the adventure home and right away let me risk
offending some of the nation's children by reminding them that I did not like the original
Free Willy.
I didn't think the whale was so lovable in that picture, basically because of an insight
Steven Spielberg gave me into movie creatures.
You relate to their eyes, he told me, and I could barely see Willy the whale's eyes,
so dark against his gray black skin, so big a head that I could only see one eye at a
time.
Yes, Willy, you're a big blob to me.
And since Willy did not go on a diet for the sequel, my criticism remains the same.
Here's Willy once again in a would be tender scene with Jason James Richter as the boy
who loves him.
You've grown.
Haven't you?
I guess you've been eating pretty well, huh?
The boy has now grown up in the sequel.
At 14, he's old enough to use his friendship with Willy to help him pick up a girlfriend.
Come on in, the water's great.
Jesse, get a grip, this is the killer whale.
Oh, come on, he's my friend.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Jesse.
Yeah, Willy.
Way to go, boy.
The other kid in the movie is the boy's half-brother from New York City.
That means he's obnoxious, right?
Kind of a rotten city kid who would dare to spray a whale with a squirt gun.
Ooh, he's frightening.
He's so tough now, huh?
Oh, man.
Eventually, all three kids are placed in peril and it's going to be you-know-who to the rescue.
They made it.
They made it under the fire.
Well, Jesse, what about us?
We have to get out of here.
They called.
Hey, look, you guys, we're going to head into that cove right now.
Hurry, Jesse, go.
I thought Free Willy 2 was lame all around.
We get pretty nature shots from time to time, a few shots of whales jumping about.
But by coincidence, just this week, I saw the IMAX movie, The Living Sea, and it has
more entertainment value and it's five minutes devoted to whales than both Free Willy pictures
put together.
Check out The Living Sea before you waste your money on trying to experience whales
in Free Willy 2.
Well, I liked the original Free Willy.
I thought it was a very cute picture, but I didn't like this one.
And I'll tell you, one problem I had that you didn't touch on, Willy apparently has
learned to speak English.
How so?
Because when the kid talks to him, Willy understands and even nods his head.
And believe me, when Willy nods his head, that takes some doing.
You know where that's from?
Where?
Flipper.
I mean, that's where they just...
Well, yeah, but you see, Willy is a whale and whales aren't supposed to be.
Well, they swim in the same water and Flipper's been giving them lessons.
Well, maybe that.
Now, that would be a movie.
You know, that would be a great send-up of a kids movie.
Here's a hundred million idea, a hundred million dollar box office idea.
Do a send-up of a kids film with these cute little scenes and really make it wild.
Willy Meets Flipper.
Okay, coming up next, a satire about the trials and tribulations of making an independent
movie.
Living in Oblivion is next.
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If the idea of a night at the opera leaves you feeling, well, a bit anxious and overwrought,
relax.
We've prepared an easy synopsis of our next performance.
Leaves you breathless for more, doesn't it?
Mozart's The Magic Flute at Central City Opera.
Call 292-6700 for tickets.
In 1995, Honda offered its biggest selection of models ever.
You bided your time.
In 1995, Honda won even more praise for quality and reliability.
You paced yourself.
Then came the Honda 95 Clearance.
How clever of you.
Dreaming is everything at your Honda dealer.
Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it?
Do you know anyone who's had a dream with a dwarf in it?
No!
I don't even have dreams with dwarves in them.
The only place I've seen dwarves in dreams is in stupid movies like this.
Anyone who has ever wondered what it's really like on the set of a low budget independent
movie such as the one in that scene will find our next movie of interest.