European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 24, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Shok i i i s loud Atam sch ii Nicole Kidman front left and Dustin Hoffman front right with their gang in the 1930s drama Billy Bathgate. Chuck Vlinch staff writer it Mon ii Billy Bathgate rated r a a must see Worth your time passable entertainment coming soon to a video outlet near you and you can wait Dustin Hoffman is not usually associated with films that arc failures but the unusual occurs Here in this plodding adaptation of . Doctorow a novel about a Young boy serving a gangster apprenticeship at the knee of 1930s terror dutch Schultz. Hoffman offers snippets of his fabulous Talent As Schultz especially in the scene that opens the film and recurs in a series of flashbacks. Those scenes focus on dutch As he delightfully draws out the murder of double crossing Henchman to Weinberg Bruce Willis. Hoffman fairly glows with menace As he makes Willis squirm while fitting him with Dement overshoes on a storm tossed boat. But while writer Tom Stoppard and director Robert Benton try to infuse the rest of the film with that same chilling air in the end the Story is so mundane that it becomes curiously dispassionate. Loren Dean shows refreshing panache As the title character who comes to dutch a attention quite by Accident. He s soon running numbers and picking up the finer Points of murder extortion gambling and sundry other vices. Billy idolizes Schultz whom he secs As his ticket out of depression Cra new York City. A a i know whatever happens to my life it la have to do with dutch Schultz Quot he tells a neighbourhood girl. But the dutchman has a problem a the government is coming after him with both barrels loaded on the same kind of tax evasion charges that sent a1 Capone away. To increase his chances of beating the rap Schultz gets his trial moved from the City to a Rural town where he curries favor among his potential jurists by dispensing considerable largess to the hardscrabble Farmers. Billy goes along for the ride but his straightforward relationship with his Mentor becomes threatened by the de ceased Weinberg a former Moll Drew Preston Nicole Kidman whom the dutchman has taken for his own. Billy treads dangerous water when dutch tells him to accompany her to Saratoga while the trial is in Progress and they begin to fall for each other. That a about All that happens except for the obligatory blood spattered ending after More double crosses involving one of dutch a contemporaries Charles a a Lucky Luciano. Except for the few Brief scenes in which Hoffman gets to vent some rage his character is strictly two dimensional and the Story creeps along to an unsatisfying conclusion. Kidman and Dean strike Sparks in the scenes featuring their Mutual attraction but both arc weighed Down by the Leaden script. It seems As though Stoppard and Benton purposely and inexplicably try to make Kidman As wan As possible. Its too they squeeze in More screen time for Willis whose patented Brand of insouciance might have been just the ingredient to liven things up. Having not read Doctorow s novel i can t say How the film compares with the Book but i have a feeling it is better in prose than in celluloid. Hilly Bathgate is much More of a chore to sit through than it should be. It gets a disappointing two stars. Not Lar Vrh riled r. A pathological liar is re leased front a menial Hospital into inc care of a con Man who is fulfilling a Community service sentence in this Madcap comedy Gene Wilder Richard Pryor. Body parts rated r. In an Experiment a researcher grafts limbs of a convicted murderer onto three different Accident victims. Not Only do the new body parts begin to influence their hosts but the original owner is Loose and trying to reassemble himself. Jeff Fahey Lindsay Duncan John Walsh Kim Delaney. Double Impact rated k. Jean Claude Van Damme plays twins in this fast action martial arts film. One brother is u Laid Back Angeles karate teacher and the Oiler is a rough edged smuggler. Also stars Sheldon Luttich. Fx2t the deadly Artel illusion rated poll a sequel to the Tosh thriller. Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy arc Hack As the special effects Whiz and his detective pal. This time they re on a twisted Trail that includes corrupt police and some stolen priceless medallions. Harley Dave teen d the Marlboro Man rated r. A philosophical biker and a Modeo rider team up to my die i tank that is foreclosing on their fas Wile hangout. Mickey Rourke Don Johnson. House deity 3 rated r. This sequel follows the Madcap adventures of rap group kid no play As they Cross the threshold of adulthood. Play Hopes to find fume in the music business while kid is off to College on a scholarship. Kid n play. Martin Lawrence. Mob Storo rated r. A look at famous mobsters Lucky Luciano Meyer Lansky. Bugs Siegel and Frank costello Oil their Way id becoming lege Nils during the period of id 17 through . Christian Slater Patrick Dempsey. Matury Antu rated pm in. All older brother s attempt to set up a Dale his younger brother and a Good looking neighbourhood girl turns into a major misadventure. Brian Mcnamara Allhan Hawke Teri Polo . Wong. Thu in and Oun 2ai thu Sun of four rated pg-13, police it. Frank Drebin is Back to confront some very sneaky villains in the Oil and nuclear Power business tails of slapstick comedy. Leslie Nielsen Robert Goulet Priscilla Presley. Point Broah rated r. A Young i i agent investigating a string of Bank robberies goes undercover among the Maverick fringe who surf the Southern California beaches lie meets a charismatic surfer who leaches him that if you want the ultimate thrill you have to pay the ultimate Picicc. Patrick Swayze Keanu Reeves. Puro Luck rated la i. Private detective Danny Glover is hired to find an Accident prone heiress who disappeared in Mexico. Glover thinks with the help of Marlin Short an equally Klul a person they might be Able to figure Oul Theio she is., provided that old cliche a it takes one to know one is True. A Root my Harlan rated r. A Trun Ful of Gold in a Harlem has the Guys against the really Guys in a mad scramble to get the riches. Forest Whitaker Robin Givens. Danny Glover. Gregory Hines Zakes Moke. Re Tum to Blu Lagoon rated the theme of innocent sex and Youthful discovery in a tropical Paradise is continued with Brian Krause playing the son of the original stranded couple. Also stars Lisa Pelikan and Mulla Jovovich. Now Hood Prince of them rated if 13. The ageless legend of Robin Hood is Given a fresh treatment As the hero of Sherwood Forest and his merry men Battle the evil she till of Nottingham. Kevin Cus Luci Morgan Freeman maty Elizabeth Mastra Toiuo. Alan Rickman. Soap Fth rated pc,-1.1, this Wacky comedy reveals All Ghoul the lives Ami loses of the actors and Crew of a daytime soap Hopcia Sally Field Kevin Kline. Whoops Gohl cig. Ruben Downey Cathy Moriarty terminator 2 judgment Day k an unstoppable cyborg Iron the Ulnic returns to Battle ills Loes Arnold Schwarzenegger Linda Hamilton. Also on to a arcs circuit ratio of 11 it add Nim n no Milo find this he i Illk . The Nev Crl Mutiri my 11,1 a wild hearts l jul broken rated Roi i Hajj and led s lion tis eth Jun v. Home alone. The Kex Aleci in ism cd. Ratio 00-13 a nigh Dot Holty it Kun i it it h. It h shuts a Sims Nti i wit nun my hut. A mucin i Luuri ii. Henry in by Smuts rated a it i n Slu Civ Tilv Stic Sikir a1 Youh it. Hudson Nav to. Jii Rirl i Quot it i Iii Itu irl. pm , Kiu Hiki. The Silum e us 11 it j am v s i is in 24 1991 sunday Page 19
