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University Daily Kansan, January 15, 1981
Neil Simon's latest film wins with Hawn, Chase
By CINDY CAMPBELL Kansan Reviewer
★★★
"Seems Like Old Times" is Nell Simon's latest comedy release. The movie stars Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase as her ex-husband who was involved in a bank robbery. It is showing at the Hillcrest Theaters, Ninth and Iowa, and is rated PG.
Unlike most movies today, Neil Simon's "Seems Like Old Times" is well worth the $7 or $8 for tickets and the $5 or $4 for a babysitter. He tickets at dinner and you couldn't ask for a nicer evening.
"Seems Like Old Times" is an above average example of the Christmas season movie
Goldie Hawn
Review
releases. It is a fast-paced, light-hearted hour
and 50 minutes of sheer fun.
In "Seems Like Old Times," both Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase turn in prince photos, and the film breaks break.
Hawn still wears that 'just got out of bed' look, but now she does it with style. It adds the appeal of being married. She also flips the district attorney's wife who single-handedly tries to end unemployment and crime.
THE DISTRICT—attorney-husband played by Charles Groldin, last seen in Warren Beetty's "Heaven Can Walk," is exceedingly patient with his wife's crap antics. He successfully portrays what many women might consider a perfect husband.
After a stint with "Laugh-In" in the late 1960s and several ensuing years of near obscurity, Hawn has re-emerged as one of the most talented actresses of the year. She appeals to everyone She's innocent, yet tough. She's liberal, yet tough. She's sensitive. She's bold. But most of all she's delighted beautiful
Hawn has the uncanny ability to add a refreshing spark of vitality to everything she does. She makes her character and an otherwise umbrellable plot very real.
HAWN PLAYS a tough, liberated lawyer who also has a big soft spot. She is constantly torn between her present and former spouse, and her sense of duty and responsibility. She unfailingly thires the juveniles she defends in court, and invites stray dogs home to taste her chicken
peppercorn. She is tough, but she often has more heart than common sense.
Fresh from a starring role in "Private Benjamin," which was one of the biggest comedy hits last year, Hawn has come back with a new maturity. Gone are the days of strutting hikiniclad across a stage sporting "puppy dog power" on her stomach.
With Chevy Chase as the catalyst, "Seems Like Old Times" already has grossed more than $10 million at the box office. Chase adds his usual brand of humor and the ex-husband of Mrs. Irpa Parks (Hawn).
ALTHOUGH HE maintains his innocence throughout the film, he is unrelentingly in love with the dealings with four Mexicans and five kilos of cocaine that landed him in a Mexican tail for two years.
The bank robbery scene, which starts the抢劫 role, is supercooperative, funny, but has scenes unrelated to that.
These scenes overshadow the film's one possible weakness, the ending. It seems Simon felt that one ending was not enough so he shot another. But then he did little more than delay the ending five minutes.
But, on the whole, "Seems Like Old Times"
evening of entertainment
and should not be missed.
Star ratings of popular movies:
One Shir-I-Poor, probably not worth seeing.
The Tears—Fair, with a few worthwhile years.
Three Stars—Good, most viewers will find it enjoyable.
Four Stars—Excellent, should not be missed.
Brad Haugen
Editor's Note: A new section has been added to the University Daily Kansan. The Friday entertainment page has been expanded into a daily feature and christened "The Genre Page." Along with the new name comes a new effort to expand Kansan coverage of trends in art, theater and music.
MONDAY—WEEKDAY EN-
TERTAINMENT. Topics will include
movie reviews, book reviews and other
entertainment during the week.
covered along with reviews of local acs and popular records.
TUESDAY—MUSIC GENRE.Both popular and classical music will be
WEDNESDAY-ART GENRE. Student art exhibits and reviews of shows at the Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art and other area galleries will appear.
THURSDAY—THEATRE GENRE.
Love, laughter and dance productions will be reviewed.
FRIDAY- WEEKEND EN-
TERTAINMENT. Movie reviews,
concerts and weekend entertainment will be the focus.
On Campus
TODAY
Seminar on VASILY AKSYONOV on his works in the context of contemporary and classical Russian literature (in Russian) at 2:30 p.m. in 4075 Wescow
"VENICE OBSERVED" exhibit, today through Feb. 7 in the White Gallery of the Helen Foster Museum.
TOMORROW
"CONTEMPOARY RUSSIAN LITERATURE; CROSSING THE BORDER" talk (in English) by Vasily Akyonov at 7:30 p.m. in the Room Forum in the Kansas Union at 7:30 p.m.
*Medical and Behavioral Aspects of Spasticotic and Congestive Presentation presented at the Medical Center.
'Stir Crazy' comedy team wastes energy
By PENNICRABTREE Kansan Reviewer
★★
"SitKrazy" stars Gene Wilder as an unemployed playwright and Richard Pryor as an unemployed actor who head West for adventure. The comedy contains profanity and is rated R. The movie is showing at the Hillcrest Theaters, Ninth and Town.
The movie flows from one slapstick situation to the next. In the course of two hours, one witnesses a bank robber, a rodeo, a prison escape, speeding, crashing cars and a parade of characters named either Slade or Chico mummeling other characters named Slade or Chico.
"Stir Crazy" is, if nothing else, energetic.
Amidst all this pointless and undirected energy are the considerable talents of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. As Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe, Wilder and Pryor manage to give a tired, cliche-riddled script some semblance of life.
WILDER AND Prory play two New Yorkers who find themselves, after a series of misadventures, in a Western prison right out of "Cool Hand Luke."
In prison, the two New Yorkers meet and eventually win over an assortment of prisoners; a Mexican bank robber, a homicidal homosexual and a 400-pound wall of flesh named Rosenburger. Together the inmates plan an improbable but successful jail break.
Most of the cast in "Stir Crazy" is likeable, but are so stereotyped that they soon grow old. Once it would be refreshing to see a nice, potbelled figure of authority.
WILDER'S COMEDY teeters between wild and friezed. he is the arch bleeding heart liberal, whether he is making out demands or taming mulking, inarticulate mass murderers.
Pryor's character is more cautious than conscientious, a perfect foil for Wilder. It is Pryor, with his eloquent obscenesc and barely repressed hysteria, who wins the most laughs from the audience. Unfortunately, he does not get as much time on the screen as Wilder.
Director Sidney Poitier should be applauded for letting Wilder and Pryor have a free hand. Another director who had been neither an actor nor a dancer would be the right pair tightly bound to their script roles.
Undoubtedly, this movie also will bring in huge profits. Wilder and Pryor are one of those rare, winning combinations that excite an audience's interest, despite a poor script.
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