![]() "The River Wild," Streep and family ride rapids, foil villains occasional profanity, upsetting violence intense for under-10s. "Princess Caraboo" (PG), rich 19th-century Brits believe mute girl is exotic royalty cute social satire. "Only You" (PG), clumsy clone of '50s Hollywood romances some wit scenic Italy one passionate kiss. ![]() "Corrina, Corrina" (PG), housekeeper brings laughs, romance into sad family touches on racial issues. "The Little Rascals" (PG), sweet 'n' fun.įine for Slightly Older Kids (Say, 8 and Up) He's made this movie look just like the films the real Ed Wood made in the '50 - with bad lighting, cheap sets and weird camera angles. FOR TEENS: "Ed Wood" was directed by Tim Burton, who did the "Batman" films (1989, '92, both PG-13), "Edward Scissorhands" (1990, PG-13) and "Beetlejuice" (1988, PG), so you know he's got great visual style. Older teens who see both "Ed Wood" and "Quiz Show" will get a bracing dose of '50s pop culture. He just keeps shooting his cheapie sci-fi flicks with flying saucers hung from strings and incredibly stilted dialogue, wearing his girlfriend's angora sweaters and giving work to a washed-up Lugosi (Martin Landau, in a tremendous performance). (Johnny Depp) never acknowledges his failures. You don't have to remember seeing Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959) as a kid to appreciate a terrific story about a guy who loves his work even though he's not good at it. "Ed Wood" contains scenes of drug use (the aging Bela Lugosi mainlining morphine) and transvestism, as well as strong profanity, but it's a film about love and loyalty. Visually brilliant, funny and touching, this oddball black-and-white opus about the man who made the tackiest films of the '50s is just the sort of cutting-edge work that appeals to a hip segment of the teen audience. The only dubious artistic pleasures come from watching Rod Steiger, Eric Roberts and Woods ham it up as the head gangster, his idiotic son and their smooth major-domo. He spies on her first, presumably to determine whether her sensuality is a match for his machismo. A former CIA explosives expert, Stallone now sells his skills to private citizens such as Stone, who enlists him to blow up the three Miami mobsters who murdered her parents. As for the violence, it's not as intense as in "Timecop," for example, but bad guy James Woods gets to slap Stone around. The love scene will send them to the concession stand. Younger kids, if they're admitted to this silly bit of exploitation, may find some entertainment in the spectacular explosions, but they'll get lost in the convoluted plot and pretentious dialogue. Profane, violent and with a hilariously explicit nude scene (Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone in "My Personal Trainer's Better Than Your Personal Trainer - Ripple Ripple, Flex Flex"), this gobbler may lure older teens to the theater, but they're likely to hoot it off the screen. In "Summertime" (1955), Katharine Hepburn (no relation) played a lonely schoolteacher who found romance in Venice. In "Roman Holiday," Audrey Hepburn played a European princess who nearly gave up her crown for the love of an American newspaperman. FOR KIDS: Two much better movies about falling in love in Italy were made in the 1950s you can rent them and see why. A bit of fluff with little or no profanity, and one passionate, extended kissing scene that ends fully clothed on a bed, this one is harmless, but. as a cuddly, Jack Lemmonesque shoe importer) all right, but it's not her Ouija board Romeo. Wild-goose-chasing through Italy, she finds her true love (Robert Downey Jr. ![]() Marisa Tomei plays a teacher from Pittsburgh who follows a man she's never met to Venice because he bears the name of her supposedly predestined mate, spelled out on a Ouija board when she was a kid. (Frankly, most young males are likely to gag at this flick.) "Only You" falls way short of brilliant - silly plot, one-dimensional characters - yet it has spasms of charm, glimmers of wit and gorgeous views of Italy. This awkward attempt to blend the sunny pleasures of "Roman Holiday" (1953) with the yuppie sentimentality of "Sleepless in Seattle" (PG, 1993) should pique the romantic imagination of many a female of 10 and up.
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