Bette and Woody can’t
save Mazursky’s Mall

Scenes from a Mall *% (Touchstone) Rated Mature (at the
Esplanade, Capitol, Richmond Centre, Guildford and Eagie Ridge
cinemas)

HAT COULD be more fun than spending a day at

the mall? Just about anything, you say? Well, how

about watching a yuppie couple break up and
make up? And what if the New Age Bickersons were played

by Woody Allen and Bette Midler?

Woody and Bette ... mmmmm
— you can almost smell the com-
edy potential.

But what you smell isn’t comedy
or potential. It must be something
from Maison de Caviar, one of
many trendy bars Nick and
Deborah (Woody and Bette) fre-
quent (I guess they don’t have
Food Fairs in L.A.).

They are out making last-minute
Christmas buys and preparing for
their 16th anniversary party. On
the surface, they are a happy cou-
ple. He is a successful lawyer,
wheeling and dealing sports con-
tracts, while she has a bestseller
out, / Do, | Do, |! Do: Recommit-
ting Yourself to Marriage in an Age
of Divorce.

Then, over frozen yogurt, Nick
confesses he has had an affair and
Deborah demands a divorce.

For the next hour they fight,
spend lavishly, answer their
beepers, make love and slug a
mime. As their marriage falters, so
do the laughs.

Allen and Midler both deliver
some patented quips. (Woody
discounts the first year they iived
together as an anniversary year ~
because she refused to split the
rent.} But the characters are net
convincing as a couple since it’s
impossible to see anyone but Bette
and Woody up there.

Paul Mazursky’s idea that North
American society can be reflected
in a shopping mall is dubious.
Gearge Romero said it better in
Dawn of the Dead, with the zom-
bies returning to the malls, the in-
stinct to browse surviving even
death. Now, that’s funny.

Last Exit to Brooklyn ***
(RCA/Columbia Home Video)
Rated R

There’s nothing funny in this
well-acted but incredibly brutal
look at ghetto life from Hubert
Selby, Jr.’s novel. Violence in all

TiM
BELL

film review

shapes and sizes strikes out at the
wildly colorful characters. Some-
how, despite some unlikable
behavior, they engage our sym-
pathies. Jennifer Jason Leigh is ter-
rific as Tralala, a self-destructive
prostitute. But be warned, it's fist-
in-your-face stuff.

The Blob ** (Criterion Laser-
disc/various tape companies)
Unrated

A title song by Burt Bacharach,
Steve McQueen’s debut, and An-
dy Griffith’s Helen Krump (Aneta
Corseaut) as a Jove interest ...
now, how can you hate a sci-fi
classic like that?

Although he spends most of his
time trying to convince the town
that a big, human-eating glob
(sure, Steve) from outer space is
on the loose, McQueen does flash
some of his trademark cool.

NORTH SHORE VIEWS

Park Royal: White Fang,
Neverending Story II, Meet the
Applegates

Park & Tilford: Silence of the
Lambs, Dances With Wolves, King
Ralph, Sleeping with the Enemy,
Warlock, The Grifters

Esplanade 6: L.A. Story,
Neverending Story 11, He Said, She
Said, Scenes from a Mall, The
Doors, Shipwrecked

Showtime Hotlines: Famous
Players 681-4255, Cineplex Odeon
687-1515

\. om a " Kixity ants

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