Page 10 Friday, November 29, 1984 The Capitol Times
`Comet' brings a lifeless year
By Don Strausburger
"It was the last thing on
earth they ever expected."
From this promotional catch
phrase, the spectator should be
on the edge of his seat before
the opening credits of "Night
of the Comet." This may be the
case, until the credits end. Then
it is time to sit back, relax, and
struggle to enjoy the rest of the
movie.
"Night of the Comet"
chronicles the events im
mediately before and after a
catastrophe not seen in a mass
media outlet since "The Day
After." Instead of nuclear
holocaust, though, a comet
passes through the earth's at
mosphere and vaporizes the en
tire world's population except
for several hopelessly boring
characters. After about 15
minutes of pre-comet activities,
the plot carries the viewer im
mediately to the next morning,
as if he knows what happened
in the few eliminated hours.
Eventually, the screenwriter
lets the audience in on what has
happened and, because of the
film's occasional attempts at
gruesome effects, disappoint
ment grows over the potential
ly great special effects that were
probably left on the cutting
room floor. Instead of seeing
the people vaporizing (could
have been fun to watch!) and
fantastic car crashes, we only
see the final result: streets and
yards filled with vacated clothes
and small piles of red dust
presumed to have been humans
the previous night but no cars.
We find out what happened
through the eyes of Reggie, an
18-year-old girl who is more in
terested in a video game at the
theater in which she works than
the family members who are
nothing more than dust.
Other than vaporization, the
comet's devastation yields two
possible results -- either no
physical change or deteriora
tion of the skin and a villianous
disorientationof the mental
capacity. The people, exposed
to the comet, are comparable to
some of the less influential
monsters and villians of earlier
teen horror films. This sets up
the classic teen horror scenario
-- the few survivors trying, at
first, to avoid and, eventually,
destroy the inhuman beings.
The three main characters:
Reggie; her younger sister,
Samantha, a stereotypical
cheerleader who lives in the
shadow of her sister's good
looks; and Hector, a young
truck driver whose only roles in
the movie are to give Reggie
and Samantha a man over
whom they can fight and even
tually save the two sisters from
a group of scientists who have
been exposed. The three must
not only escape from the scien-
tists' underground experiment
facility but also destroy the
scientists. After successfully do
ing this and, in the meantime,
saving two young children, the
group makes the stereotypical
matinee-idol exit walking off
into the sunset.
"Night of the Comet"
spends approximately 90
minutes trying to be a good
science fiction film, but also
tries to be a good teen thriller,
an adventure epic, and even a
romance. Unfortunately, there
are not enough hours to be
good at every type of story
unless meals and sleeping ac
comodations are provided with
the ticket. As a result, the film
ends up being a mediocre
science-fiction thriller most of
the time with the remaining
moments being entirely
meaningless.
One of the interesting things
about this movie is its ability to
stockpile many of the problems
of modern movies throughout
its 90 minutes. Among the
leading problems are the
characters. Several portions of
the dialogue give the impression
that the characters may be wor
thy of the viewer's emotional
support; however, they always
revert to being transparent,
stereotypical Los Angeles teens
wllo could care less about the
entire situation. The two sisters
never even show any emotional
dismay after their whole fami
ly is eliminated. Only Hector
shows a feeble attempt at emo
tion when he goes to his
parent's house to see if anyone
survived.
Another of the evident pro
blems is a lack of any continui
ty in scenes. There is no logical
progression of action through
out the entire film, although the
plot is so obvious that continui
ty is probably not necessary.
For example, the film shows the
two girls blissfully shopping in
an exclusive department store.
Then, it cuts to Hector's arrival
at his parent's house and his be
ing chased by one of the expos
ed victims. The transition
brings one of the few light, en
joyable moments to a
screeching halt.
The key to building excite
ment and suspense in movies is
a task of the director but most
ly of the editor. In movies like
"Psycho" and "Vertigo,"
Alfred Hitchcock and his
editors build colossal suspense
very effectively by showing only
the victim or the weapon about
to be used instead of the killer
which has become popular with
the "Friday the 13th" genre.
However, "Night of the Corn
et" builds suspense with
uninteresting music and
uninspired editing. You sit and
anxiously await a scary scene
which is so over- or under
played that it never quite hits its
full potential. After two or
three occurances, these scenes
become predictably boring like
the rest of the film and the con
cept of fear is entirely lost.
In its attempt to be occa
sionally realistic, the film raises
too many questions about the
attempt. For example, the mor
ning after the comet's destruc
tive pass, Reggie drives home
`Teachers' pleasing but
too predictable
By Tony Perry
It seems that quite a few of
the people who attend movies
on a regular basis are teenagers.
Or, at least it would seem
that way from the way many re
cent movies are written, per
formed, filmed and sound
tracked. Take for example
"Teachers," the latest
MGM/UA release.
An attempt at "Welcome
Back Kotter" with an "R"
rating, the classic battle bet
ween idealism and surrender to
an unfair bureaucratic system
becomes surprisingly charming
in the guise of a formerly
radical teacher forced to face
his lost idealism by a former
student who refuses to give up
her own. It is the search for a
balance between principles and
pragmatism that is the thrust of
this moralistic script.
But don't be misled by the
seriousness of the theme.
"Teachers" may be firmly
planted atop a soap box, but
the teacher in question, Alex
Jury (played by the ever un
shaven Nick Nolte), is set in a
chaotic farce of a high school
that comes complete with stu
dent stabbings, drug raids,
students who bite teachers, a
school psychologist that flips
out and attacks a teacher... you
get the picture.
Nolte and Judd Hirsch, the
unspecified school ad
ministrator, are disillusioned
with the public school system,
and have slipped into playing
on her deceased boyfriend's
motorcycle. The streets are
strangely void of wrecked cars.
If everyone was killed
simultaneously, why were there
no piles of wrecked cars in the
streets or cars that crashed in
tpo buildings? And if the heat
generated as the comet passed
was great enough to vaporize
the people, why were none of
the material things of society
the bureaucrat game more and
listening to their ideals less.
Enter Joßeth Williams, a
young lawyer and former stu
dent of Nolte's who is represen
ting another former student
who somehow graduated with
out the ability to read and
write.
As the film subtly beats in the
message of strength through
idealism (not unlike a sledge
hammer), the audience is in
troduced to an assortment of
charaters. Among these is a
stereotypical callous school
superintendent (played by Lee
Grant, who has apparently lost
the ability to play nice
characters), a stereotypical gym
teacher with an overactive
libido, a stereotypical principal
with no guts, a stereotypical
hoolum (Ralph Macchio) with
a reading problem, and other
assorted predictable people
designed to bring comic relief to
the film.
Surprisingly, the stereotypes
serve to increase the humor in
the film and several of the per
formers, most notably Mac
chio, create endearing per
sonas, in spite of the obvious
conclusion.
Nolte's performance, though
an extension of the character he
has been perfecting since "Rich
Man, Poor Man," is surpris
ingly effective, and viewers ac
tually become concerned with
his, internal conflict. His sar
castic nature and casual ap
pearance help create the image
melted? There are too many
discrepencies throughout the
movie to make it even slightly
plausible.
"Night of the Comet" is by
far one of the most inferior
projects which I have seen this
year. The film had a great deal
of potential which was never
reached in acting as well as
directing and editing.
The Reel
World
of a youth who is aging in spite
of himself, and is very easily ac
cepted by those still too young
to understand his intentions.
Not everything in the film
works as well, however. Be
cause of the generally con-
descending nature of the script,
too much time is spent explain
ing the basic premise, as if
teenagers in an urban school
would not know there was a
problem with the public educa
tion system in this country. The
heavily-promoted rock sound
track worked well in several
transitional scenes, but was ob
trusive far too often to con
tribute to the movie.
Neither of these are as dissa
pointing as the weak climax,
during which Williams disrobes
in the school hallway. Stock
climaxes like this only work in
movies with no socially redeem
ing value, and Williams is much
too good of an actor to bare her
breasts in every movie she
makes. (Why does she do this?)
Although the cinematogra
phy fluctuates between good
and mediocre, "Teachers" is a
pleasant little filni that makes
the most of some very old
cliches. But in spite of its "R"
rating, the movie contains
relatively little of the gore and
explicit sexuality that brings
teenagers into theaters these
days. This is a mixed blessing,
because "Teachers" is blatant
enough to get its message across
to those adolescents who will
ignore it because of its tact.