Word: roles
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Earl Beale, a salesman at a Boston used-car lot, is a former college basketball player who did time in Leavenworth for his role in a point-shaving scandal. The fact that he is an ex-con has somehow been erased from official records. For this dispensation, Earl knows that he owes someone a favor, and when the call comes, it looks simple. All he has to do is steal a car in Rhode Island...
...down. The government promptly ordered an investigation, hinting that the rebels were responsible. But the brutal massacre was widely believed, as was Romero's slaying, to be the handiwork of right-wing death squads, and it will be difficult to convince outraged citizens that the military played no role...
...doing only tactical planning, concentrating on getting through the summit without a major substantive mistake or public relations flop. The President and his briefers seem to have invested far more time in considering how to counter a surprise Gorbachev proposal than in pondering what Europe -- and the U.S. role in it -- will be like ten years from now. Says one foreign policy official: "We've got plenty of philosophy and vision for 'a Europe whole and free' ((one of Bush's standard phrases)). What we don't have is practical ideas for building this new Europe. Do we use wood...
...character, and the defending attorneys are pure stereotype: a brittle bundle of nerves who pines to be with his family (Mark Nelson), a gifted but ineffectual idealist (Megan Gallagher, in the only unconvincing performance) and the outwardly casual, inwardly intimidated son of a famous father (Hulce). Much the juiciest role, however, is the Ollie North-style commander, played with an infectious grin and a jaguar stalk by Stephen Lang. Even in these optimistic times, he makes the dark dangers facing any "defender" scarily real. W.A.H...
...that Murphy's worst idea is his own character. His box-office power having brought Paramount groveling to its knees, offering him any indulgence he wants, Murphy has come to fancy himself a killer, and that is the role he tries to play here: a psychopathic hit man. He is not a good enough actor for this particular assignment, nor has he the skill as writer and director to use cold-blooded murder (three times) as the topper for gag sequences. Once or twice his former sweet hipness glimmers through, and he has written a funny...