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PACE 20 SWANSON'S HOME LEISURE PRODUCTS HOT TUBS • DECKS FIBERGLASS SPAS SAUNAS • STEAM BATHS PELLA SOLAR ROOMS AND REPLACEMENT WINDOWS SPECIALIZING IN COMPLETE LEISURE ENVIRONMENTS 1077 S. RAND RD.. (AT OLD RAND RD.) LAKE ZURICH, ILL. (312) 438-4582 CALL FOR BROCHURES & FREE ESTIMATES I ft pfp Viele-o By James Smethurst In Terry Gilliam's (Monty Python's Flying Circus) "Time Bandits," which will appear Jan. 2 on the Movie Channel. a boy is led from his suburban home by a group of dwarves on the run from the Supreme Being, for whom they do gardening. <s The boy and dwarves travel through time and space in ,search of treasure to steal. During their trip they visit Napoleon, Agamemnon and Robin Hood. Eventually they are tricked by Evil into coming to the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness where the cataclys­ mic finale occurs. As fantasies go, "Time Bandits" is one of the better attempts. Unlike most films of this genre, "Time Bandits" has an immediacy, unlike, say. "Cohan ihe Barbarian," that allows you to accept the most fantastic things. As you might expect of a movie directed by a member of Monty Python, much of the movie is funny, especially the Napoleon sequence. The film's main problem is that the differ­ ent episodes don't hold together well. The film stars John Cleese as Robin Hood, Sean Connery as Agamem­ non, lah Holm as Napoleon and Ralph Richardson as the Supreme Being. Also on Jan. 2, MTV will present "News That Rocked '82." a review of the year's major events in pop music -- major record releases, band tours, band breakups, songs of the year. The featured artists will include Joan Jett, John Cougar, Robert Plant, Asia, the Clash and Pink Floyd. Still more orf\Jan 2: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Los Angeles Lakers will meet the formidable Detroit Pistons in Los Angeles as part of an Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ESPN basketball doublehead- er. The'first game is an uneven match between Houston and Milwaukee. FRIDAY, JAN. 7 CD m Noal Frifby QD MOVIE: Mean Streots' flil Playmate Playoffs © @) Mis Huospodot © ld«a Shop © ESPN Spocial: NCAA Football - 1983 Ro«o Bowl from Pasadena, CA €D<§3> Jimmy Swaggart © Uvowiro tB (TP Bowling I nnno 48 HOURS, from Paramount Pictures. Directed by Walter Hill, screenplay by Roger Spottiswoode, Walter Hill, Larry Gross and Steven E. DeSouza. Starring Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O'Toole. Rated 'R.' * * By J.T. YURKO The First All-Children's The­ ater of New York City will stage Clever Jack," a Broadway musical for, about and starring children 6-17, Jan. 2 on Nickelodeon's "Special Delivery."» This streetwise, musical comedy version of "Jack and the Beanstalk" will be hosted by Lucie Arnaz. "Clever Jack" was selected to represent the children of the United States for the Interna­ tional Year of the Child. On Jan. 3, the Movie Chan­ nel will show the Australian film "Gallipoli." "Galiipoli" is the story of two young men from Australia who participat­ ed in the British assault (which included thousands of Australi­ ans and New Zealanders) on the Gallipoli peninsula in Tur­ key during World War I. In the course of this attack, a half million died in one of the great slaughters of human history. If you know anyone who thinks war would be a lot of fun, have him tune into this. @1983 Compulog "48 Hours," a curious police drama/comedy, doesn't quite know what it wants to be when it grows up. A better name for this film -- if it hadn't been previously used -- might be "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Nick Nolte is "The Good." He's a hard-boiled, salty street cop who throws out the rule book the way his .45 dispenses bullets. He's "Dirty Harry" with a gravel voice, who drives a car taken from Peter Falk's "Columbo" collection. Nolte is on the4rail of "The Ugly." an escaped prisoner whose sadistic demeanor causes him to laugh merrily as he guns down his favorite tar­ get -- policemen. There's nothing socially redeemable about this guy. He's a psy­ chotic with a gun the size of a cannon and he uses it to put big holes in people. What he's doing in a film that's even par­ tially a comedy is hard to figure out. Then there's "The Bad." not "bad" as in "wrong" or "unpleasant." "bad" as in black slang meaning "cool" or "good He's Reggie Hammond, a convict with six months to go on a sentence for armed robbery, played by "Saturday Night Live's" Eddie Murphy. Nolte needs him to track down "The Ugly," and so the two become a salt-and-pepper pair of streetwise sleuths. Murphy definitely steals the film. He's a wisecracking cool cat who's almost a copy of Murphy's Tyrone Greene char­ acter from "SNL." but with supreme confidence and a wit as sharp as his switchblade. The rest of the film is like "I Spy" out of control. Incessant­ ly vulgar and frequently bloo­ dy, this realism is followed by comic book fistfights and out­ rageously unrealistic police action. The two styles don't blend well, yet director Hill pushes each in his usual heavy-handed manner Whenever four writers are given credit on a film one wonders why there had to : so many. Were they there fc rewrites or was this a screen­ play club? That lack of unity makes "48 Hours" into police pulp, a pistache of good, bad and ugly that in the end is just not too good. ©1983 Compulog