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So where's our new apartment this time?
We're staying in Beverly Hills.
Just too early to show up, is all.
The Abramowitz family cruises through town in that clip from Slums of Beverly Hills
and the father, played by Alan Arkin, doesn't make much money as a car salesman
but he wants his kids to live in Beverly Hills because of the good schools.
So, they move from one dumpy apartment building to another, sometimes skipping out on the rent.
The family includes a 15-year-old daughter, Vivian, whose generous development causes nightmares for her dad.
Get your bag and put on your vizier.
I can't wear a bra with it, Dad. It doesn't work.
Well, you're hanging out of it.
It's supposed to look like this. Everybody wears these. It's modern.
Then there's a new arrival in the family, a cousin with a wild reputation.
She's just out of rehab, played by Marissa Tomei.
If you have anything for my nerves, second-all, demoral, two-in-all, valium, freedom.
The family's new neighbor is a brash know-it-all named Elliot, played by Kevin Corrigan.
I'm in for your neighbor. I'm Jewish.
I like the rapish survival tactics of the family in Slums of Beverly Hills
and I like the spunky performance by Natasha Lyonne as the teenage daughter who has a funny way
of saying exactly what she thinks and being quietly exasperated by her family's unpredictable lifestyle.
But it's really Alan Arkin's picture and he brings spirit and a certain poignancy
to this single father who's trying to make ends meet.
The picture's major flaw is a scene between Arkin and Tomei which sticks out like a sore thumb.
He makes a pass at her and I didn't believe it and it doesn't fit the tone of the rest of the film,
which is really very sweet and funny.
I agree down the line to the letter with you because it is Arkin's movie
and what I liked about his character prior to that scene, which is a mistake, is he's a sweet guy.
You also know the territory that this film is describing.
There's a quirk in the real estate scheme out in L.A. where you can live technically outside the city limits,
but you still get your mail, your address is still Beverly Hills. It's all for show.
It's a classic Hollywood situation and he wants to stay on that, skirt that edge
because he needs to feel better about himself because he hasn't been able to put a career together.
I think Arkin, who was 65, his character was 65 in the movie, probably thinks,
gee, you know, as long as I decided to have this family so late in life,
I'm going to do the best I can to get them into these good schools.
Good picture. Okay, next film.
And our next film is called Digging to China,
an emotional character study that has some similarities to Simon Birch
and that involves a friendship between outcasts.
The central character is a 10-year-old girl who retreats into a fantasy life
as a way of coping with an alcoholic mother and an overbearing, blatantly sexual older sister.
The time is the 1960s and the girl's name is Harriet.
In her schoolyard away from her family's rural motel,
Harriet awaits the arrival of a UFO that she hopes will take her away, far away.
Up here!
Of people?
Massachusetts.
Down here!
That's Evan Rachel Wood, quite memorable as Harriet.
Her mother is played by Cathy Moriarty of Raging Bull fame some 18 years ago,
and she is more combative than caring with Harriet.
Harriet, where are you going today?
On a vacation.
I thought we agreed that you wouldn't run away anymore.
I wasn't running away, I was just taking a vacation.
Honey, children don't go on vacations without their mothers.
Harriet's life takes a radical turn, not when a UFO shows up,
but with the arrival of a mentally handicapped man who winds up staying at Harriet's family motel.
Kevin Bacon, using all manner of facial tics, plays Ricky,
a character we don't get to know that well in this picture,
but he and Harriet do share a tender, well-written moment
revolving around whether their relationship has hit a dead end.
No!
And that is merely one of many misunderstandings and shocking revelations
that just lay throughout the script of Digging to China, a sincere film
that ultimately felt like a series of exercises for the actors.
On that basis, maybe it's not a surprise that it was directed by an actor, Timothy Hutton.
He can't be faulted, it's the script of Digging to China
that is so consistently offbeat that it loses any beat.
I totally agree with you.
Here are some really interesting characters potentially,
especially those played by Cathy Moriarty and Mary Stuart Masterson,
and I really found those performances to be convincing and true and deep,
and I wanted it to be developed along a more human level.
Instead you get screenwriters punching it up.
We don't need the UFO.
We don't really need that kind of a Kevin Bacon character.
We don't need the scene where she ties the helium balloons to a chair in order to fly,
while the guy at the circus apparently doesn't notice that all of his balloons have been stolen.
I mean, these false notes keep undermining the real relationships here,
and at the end, for me, they sank the picture.
Let it flow. Let the actors do their thing.
Let them do it.
When we come back, a tribute to the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, who died this week.
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Siskel and Ebert's Video Pick of the Week is brought to you by Nestle Raisinettes.
At the movies or at home, Raisinettes.
The world of film lost one of its grandmasters last Sunday
when the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa died in Tokyo at the age of 88.
Along with Ingmar Bergman, he was one of the surviving giants from the post-war Golden Age of filmmaking
and his body of work includes an astonishing number of titles
that should be seen by anyone who is serious about the movies.
Consider, for example, Rashomon, his 1950 Oscar winner,
the cuts between four different accounts of a brutal crime.
Who is telling the truth? For example, was the wife brutally raped
or did she go with the bandit willingly?
In 1952, Kurosawa made one of the greatest of all films, Okuru,
which starred Takashi Shimura as a dying bureaucrat
who has spent his life in meaningless paper pushing
and now vows to achieve one meaningful thing before he dies.
Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai in 1954
starred Toshiro Mufuni in the story of some penniless samurai
who agreed to defend a village against bandits.
This movie inspired a famous Hollywood remake, The Magnificent Seven.
The Hidden Fortress in 1958 also inspired Hollywood.
George Lucas says it gave him ideas for Star Wars
and these two characters inspired R2-D2 and C-3PO.
Kurosawa made two great epics near the end of his career
that are astonishingly beautiful.
One was Kagamusha in 1980 about a thief who was asked to impersonate
a great warlord and the other is Ron from 1985,
a medieval retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear.
All of those titles are available on tape and laserdisc
and Ron is on DVD and a lot of his other films are on tape too.
To look at Kurosawa's work is to understand how widely
and deeply the cinema can reach.
Kurosawa once said, take myself, subtract movies,
and the remainder is zero.
In that case, he'll live forever.
Oh well, he certainly will.
Roger, I think in his career he was often thought of,
and maybe the public thinks of him as a master of staging spectacle.
And I'm so glad that you emphasized the strength of Ikiru
because this man could direct the human story, the individual story,
as well as he could do the epic.
He could do both or he could do it all.
He could do just about anything.
We'll be back in a moment.
How's Max doing?
He's doing okay.
So how long before Max can play again?
Well, the vet said Max will be back to his old self in a couple of days.
Even the interior of the Chevy Blazer was designed to make you feel at ease.
Chevy Blazer, a little security in an insecure world.
Dad, aren't you forgetting something?
Oh, right, 10-10-3-2-1.
You're the one who told me we save over 18-T on every call
if we dial 10-10-3-2-1, then 1, and then the number.
I love when you listen to me.
We even save 50% on calls over 20 minutes.
That's right.
Last month, you were on the phone with your grandmother for a half an hour,
and it cost less than two bucks.
So I guess the only thing you have to do is remember to dial 10-10-3-2-1 first.
So remember.
10-10-3-2-1.
I got it.
An American.
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Yeah!
The fan-crafted chestnut bedroom set features a queen-size bed
with recessed panels and fluted legs for just $8.99.
The mirror and dresser are just $12.98.
The armor is decorated end panels with dovetail solid chestnut top
and is pre-wired for electrical and cable, just $10.97.
Truly a beautiful collection with nature's signature on every piece.
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Take another look at the movies we reviewed on this week's show.
Two thumbs up for Rounders starring Matt Damon and Edward Norton
as gamblers who quickly get in over their heads.
Two thumbs up for Kiki's Delivery Service,
a delightful animated feature new in video stores.
Two thumbs up way up for Simon Burch
starring newcomer Ian Michael Smith as a boy with unshakable faith.
Two thumbs up for Slums of Beverly Hills
with Alan Arkin in a terrific performance.
And finally, two thumbs down for Digging to China
and one more comment about Akira Kurosawa.
We were both privileged writers to see his last film made in 1993,
Matadayo, which means not yet.
And this movie has never been picked up for distribution in the United States.
I think it would be a great gift to everyone who loves Kurosawa
if somebody were to pick that up and show it in this country.
Matadayo.
It's a gift to all filmgoers.
It's a terrific picture.
Remember, you can hear our reviews on the web at Cisco-Ebert.com
and that same website also lists all of the TV stations that carry our show.
Next week we'll be back with reviews of more new movies
including One True Thing
starring Meryl Streep, Renee Zelliger and William Hurt
and also Rush Hour with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
Which one of y'all kicked me?
That's next week and until then, the balcony is closed.