Cinema: Feb. 24, 1986

• Share

RUSHES F/X NEAT IDEA: HIRE A MOVIE SPECIAL-EFFECTS MAN TO FAKE A MAFIA HIT. THEN WHEN EVERYONE THINKS THE DON IS DEAD, YOU CAN TAKE A LITTLE TRIP WITH HIM TO HIS SWISS BANK VAULT AND SHARE THE ILL-GOT GAINS HE HAS SEQUESTERED THERE. THE SWINDLERS MASTERMINDING THIS GAME ARE A PAIR OF JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS WORKING ON THE WITNESS SECURITY PROGRAM. THE MAGICMAKER THEY DUPE INTO HELPING THEM IS WELL PLAYED BY BRYAN BROWN, WHO HAS BEEN HANDSOMELY SUPPLIED WITH

ENTERTAININGLY VENGEFUL "GAGS" TO PLAY ON THEM WHEN HE DISCOVERS how he has been used. But the riotous imaginations of Writers Robert T. Megginson and Gregory Fleeman don't stop there. They overplot to the point of incomprehensibility, and Director Robert Mandel's staging is often implausible. F/X is a fast-food movie: easy to grab, fun to consume, but loaded with empty calories and soon expelled from memory.

LADY JANE

In 1553 Lady Jane Grey, age 15, was crowned Queen of England. Her reign lasted an inglorious nine days. She and her adolescent consort Guildford Dudley were beheaded, martyrs to a failed conspiracy by Protestants to prevent restoration of a Catholic monarchy. The story of Jane and Guildford, as told by Screenwriter David Edgar and Director Trevor Nunn (the Nicholas Nickleby team), has the superficial air of the standard movie history lesson: courtiers elegantly whispering in drafty castle corridors. But they have not forgotten that their central figures, nicely played by Helena Bonham Carter and Cary Elwes, are adolescents, full of hot passion for each other and idealistic schemes for reforming a kingdom the grownups have muddled. The result is a portrait of a teen queen that is lively, ironic and affectionate, and a movie that is not so much stodgy as it is subtle.

9 1/2 WEEKS

In for a penny, in for a pound. If for some reason you feel compelled to make a movie about a sadomasochistic relationship, and you show an attractive young couple shopping for a riding crop, then somebody better get to use it before the end. As it happens, somebody did before they started editing this picture for an R rating. But all that is now playing is the decadent decor, some menacing portents and a pair of actors (Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger) looking for their motivations in various chic Manhattan locales. Adrian Lyne, late of Flashdance, directed this silliness, and three writers watched their script fall victim to the death of a thousand cuts. Maybe they should have photographed that.