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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 11, 1987)
Page 12 Booze and TRAINS from Page 10 Daily Nebraskan ti on the rails Thursday, June 11, 1987 boredoi "Are you sure we're going big enough for two or three people to Platte." huddle in the wind. Luckily, we found west?") one with a platform over the wheels. It is a calm, peaceful, relaxing, and And so the journey beings. not too darn windy night. Unlike high Now, after safely boarding the train, ways, railroad tracks are virtually free it's time to celebrate. Out of the of all those nuisance signs and bill Backpack of Necessities comes the boards that clutter up highways, so the present at the beginning, only three of bottle of fine champagne. Total ex- scenery is beautiful. After a time, them were actually able to board the penses so far; $3.79. Destination: North perhaps an hour or two, Oust over a Platte, because apparently one of us liter) we come to a city. vVe can roughly At approximately 1:30 a.m., four or five shadowy figures allegedly run up to a slow moving train just west of down town Lincoln. Although possibly as many as four or five sojourners were vehicle. Another of the drawbacks of trains, I guess. This particular train had been pre viously designated as the Do-or-Die Vehicle, because about half a dozen had already been allowed to pass un challenged. This one however, had no open boxcars. At each end of every coal car there is a small crouch area, just knows somebody there who'll actually give us a ride back. Anyway, now the hard part is over it's time to sit back, relax, enjoy the wine, and chat about how easy it is to find rides to North Platte. ("Don't worry, all westbound tracks out of Lincoln have to go through North make out a sign in the distance about Beatrice Waste Disposal Site or some thing like that. Boy, how about that Beatrice. They must own everything. Funny Coincidence, we laugh amongst , ourselves. There's a Beatrice in Ne braska, south of Lincoln. By the Kansas See TRAINS on 13 OOCCOOCOOCOOOOOOOOCQonoonrinnnnnnn Or CO ccoo WW oo o " ZOO o o o Q oooo oo. o oooo June 10-August 1, 1987 LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS THE HAPPY TIME THE FOREIGNER THEATRE BOX OFFICE 109 Temple Bldg. 12 & R Sts. Lincoln, NE 68583-0201 OO in i oo oooo oooo o o o o o o oooo o oo ooooooooooooooocoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo o o o CD University of Nebraska-Lincoln 't , o o o o o o o o o WW Ticket Prices Single Admission Sf.5() Adults $3.00 Children . (under 12) Croup Rale (20 or more) $4.00 (musl attend together) Three-Ticket-Packct $ 1 5 .00 SAVE NEARLY ONETHIRD You can'l boat that! NAME ADDRESS, CITY Day Phone . STATE .ZIP, Evening I have enclosed a check payable to Nebraska Repertory ineatreJ I authorize Nebraska Repertory Theatre to charge Visa or MasterCard (circle onej card expiration date 0 o o o w w w w wwwwwwwwwwwwwww wwww uyuuyyu uuuu Signature Credit card number Box Office Phone: (402) 472-2073; 12 to 5, M-F For Group information, call 472-1619 0 o o o o Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Hoffman and Deatty stranded in movie. Film shame of road pics; 'Ishtar' bites the dust By Chris McCubbin Staff Reporter ,f!flpRA(?P7A 3 H 0 iu Dsdu J m 1b, rod J n .r n p n 48th & Calvert Lincoln, NE 68506 402 489-0800 Toll-Free In Nebraska 800 742-0091 Toll-Free Outside Nebraska 800 443-8091 In the '40s two mismatched but tal ented entertainers, (Bob Hope and Bing Crosby) together with their sexy co-star (Dorothy Lamoure) created, by accident, some of the most delightful low comedy ever. In the '80s two mismatched but tal ented actors (Warren Beatty and Dus tin Hoffman) together with their sexy co-star (Isabelle Adjani) created, on purpose, a mess called "Ishtar." Before I proceed to savage this movie, let me say that "Ishtar" is fre quently very entertaining, and if you do decide to plop down your money to see it, you'll probably leave amused. But there are flaws to this film that simply cannot be excused. First there's its budget. "Ishtar" would have made a very nice $1 million film, even a $5 or $10 million film. But it's more than annoying to think that about $50 million, that could have (and should have!) gone to feed starving third-world child ren, instead went to allow prima-donnas like Hoffman and Beatty to act like dorks. As I mentioned, "Ishtar" is (more or less) a tribute to the HopeCrosby "Road Movies" ("Road to Zanzibar," "Road to Morocco," etc.) These seven films, made mostly in the '40s, were silly, chaotic, micro-budget affairs which worked solely because of the inexpli cable comicWsson which existed be tween the stars. Hoffman and Beatty completely lack this frisson. Hope and Crosby played fools, but they were likeable, charming, clever fools. Hoffman and Beatty come off merely as annoying morons. In "Ishtar" Beatty and Hoffman play Rogers and Clarke, a singingsongwrit ing duo so bad they can only get a gig at the "Chez Casablanca" nightclub in Marakesh. The film's first 20 minutes, recount ing the duo's origins in New York, is pointless and interminable the movie's low point right at the beginning. Rogers' and Clarke's excruciatingly bad songs rapidly go from amusing to buzzsaw annoying. The film's original music was performed by veteran schlockster Paul Williams, together with director Elaine May and Beatty and Hoffman. How much Paul Williams can one movie stand? Not this much. When Hoffman and Beatty are off screen, or separated, May occasionally manages to produce an uncommonly amusing scene. Separately Hoffman's character is quite a bit funnier than Beatty's clumsy Jethro Bodine im personation. May ("The Heartbreak Kid," "Mikey and Nickey") is an undeniably skilled and subtle comic director, but she is relatively inexperienced. When her two mega-stars (and, incidentally, her boss; Beatty produced "Ishtar") are on screen they inevitably whisk the film right out of May's gifted hands and pound it into a shapeless lump of Three Stooges noise. Charles Grodin gives the film's best comic performance as an amiably sin ister CIA agent. Also watch for Matt Frewer (AKA Max Headroom) as another CIA agent in a brief but hilarious scene. I don't know what it costs to rent a couple of helicopters, some vultures, a camel and some desert, but "Ishtar" is definitely not worth $500 million. It might be worth your $4, if you're very, very bored, but you're probably better off waiting for it to hit HBO.