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Page THE HERALD Wednesday July 19 1989 a Cold feet is a really oddball western movie FILMETER in Movie Theaters COLD FEET This oddball com edy written by novelists Tom McGuane and Jim Harrison rework the myths of the American West in the randiest and most unbridled of terms It s the tale of three ne played by Keith Tom Waits and Sally Kirkland who smug emeralds into the United States from Mexico putting the stones in the foot of a horse When Carradine runs off with the errieralds Waits and head after him Kirkland s interest is twofold She wants the jew els but she also wants Carradine who embodies her image of the perfect that is most dishonest cowboy husband machine Directed by Robert who helmed that other low budget oddity Echo Park the movie never quite comes together There something insubstantial about it it seems like a weirdo doodle But some of it has a tickling rangy appeal W MAJOR LEAGUE R One of the surprise hits of the spring season this baseball movie is an enjoyable sports comedy less forced than many such commercial efforts Like so many sports films this one written and directed by David Ward centers on an underdog team that mately triumphs This time the derdogs are the Cleveland Indians a collection of aging players and all around goofs brought together by the new owner Margaret Whitton She hopes theyll lose every game so she can move the team To her chagrin they end up winning like crazy Except lor the glorious Whitton this is a male dominated film Corbin Bernsen actually mocks his tanned playboy image Charlie Sheen is lively as a surly excon with a partially shaved head and Wesley Snipes mugs up a storm Tom Berenger SALLY KIRKLAND right an Oscar in stars in Cold Feet an offbeat Western also featuring Tom Waits left and Keith Carradine dingo one night while she and her hus band Sam were on vacation in the outback This bizarre explanation failed to convince people especially since struck many as cold and abrupt and since she seemed to be ex plotting the case through interviews with the press Eventually was put on trial for murder an event that the movie chronicles Streep hard edged performance as is one of her very and the movie has some well placed jabs at the sensationaiisttc tendencies of the press But it has its frustrating side It sort of shows us what hap to the baby Early in the film an elliptically presented version of the event suggests that story is true This means there s very little chance for ambiguity or suspense to build as sit through the remaining hour and a half But see it for Streep DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS Orion This revamping of the comedy Bedtime Story got lost in the shuffle of other Christ mas releases though it offers some very elegant indeed sumptuous still ness As a crass American confidence man who dupes people by seeming a dupe himself Steve Martin continues to prove that he is the most gracefully inventive physical comedian in Playing a slick haired Continen talcon Michael Caine is no slouch ei ther DEAD POETS SOCIETY This portrait of a 5ps poetry teachers at tempt to instill passion In his students strikes many of the expected chords of inspirational pedagogy but its un deniably effective Playing a prep- school teacher Whose message is carpe diem seize the day Robin Williams gives a performance that holds the movie together and in the end even transcends It A resolutely unsentimental per former Williams dries out any tionmovie cliches that have crept into Tom Schulmans script And they are there Meanwhile Peter Weir has directed with a lyrical flair reminis cent of his work on Witness and The picture eventually takes a turn toward tragedy as this most compassionate teachers mes sage is misapplied by one of his stu dents So bring a hankie GRADE HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS PG This Disney movie recalls In- and that fantasy of miniaturization Fantastic Voyage Its somewhat better than one might have predicted a giddy easygoing escapist entertainment to which par ents can safely take their young children Rick Moranis stars as a bumbling scientist given to devising Rube Gold berg contraptions Through an acci dent the scientists newest invention inadvertently reduces his kids and those of his nextdoor neighbors to teenyweeny size Thrown out with the garbage the kids must fend for themselves in the backyard now be come a jungle where grass is skyhigh and even the ants can seem Intimidating The movie directed by Joe John has a goodnatured dumbness The special effects are unpretentious and fun and theres some irresistibly silly slapstick involving Moranis and his rival neighbor Matt Frewer for merly known as Max Headroom is having quite a summer Between his work here and In Ghost- busters hes making the most of his talent for nerdiness In a canny way this movie plays on the general condition of its smallest audience members After all little kids often feel like everything around them is just too big for words Playing with the movie is a lively and amusing Roger RabbitBaby Herman animat ed short Tummy Trouble The short continues the pellmell fun of the cartoon that opened Who Framed Roger Rabbit GRADE New Home Video TORCH SONG TRILOGY Harvey Fiersteins Tony Awardwinning play was a rich por trait of a New York drag queen a mixture of Broadway shrewd and off- Broadway bold with terrific onelin ers and moving monologues The movie version is more pared- down and it suffers the way most plays do on the screen The camera moves in too close on some key per formers and the material grows talky In the lead Fierstein takes getting used to The big clownish actor has a raspy voice that is sometimes painful to listen to You want to rush him to a throat doctor But he grows on you Viewers may be surprised to realize how endearing he and the movie have become Anne Bancroft costars as wellmeaning busybody of a mother a role originated on stage and played to perfection by Golden Girl Getty GRADE Film grading excellent good fair poor l ENTERPRISE GEORGETOWN CUSTOM CAR SOUND Sprinkled with offthewall and of ten off color dialogue Cold Feet is best appreciated for its sneaky sense of humor Playing a gruff hit man singer Tom Waits is surprisingly rousing turning his dis plays of murderous rage into jazzlike riffs Rip Torn appears to good effect too portraying a local lawman who poses as a preacher to marry Carra- dme and so that he can arrest them The two leads are less satisfying seems more morose than usual and Sally an Oscar nominee for Anna plays her bimbo role with what might be described as an excess of Methodacting flair Wearing skintight spandex dresses Kirkland cavorts like a veritable jig- GEORGETOWN SPA FITNESS CENTRE seems a little hemmed in by a role that is more serious than the rest though hes still very appealing New Home Video A CRY IN THE DARK PG13 Warner In Fred Schepisis fact drama Meryl Streep stars as Chamberlain an Australian woman who claimed that her sleeping baby was earned out of a tent by a RECORDS TAPES SAVE SAVE SAVE